Lighten Up, People!

The boys and I went to a ceramics make & take Friday night with their cousins. Lots of fun and the woman who owns the business seems very nice. But I don't think she understands kids very well, even though she works with them a lot. She took one look at P. and announced that he could paint the cat because it was all one color and didn't have small details since he would not be able to handle them. I told her nicely that he was capable of picking the piece he wanted to paint and I was cool with imperfection. He picked a lizard. She insisted on giving him the green paint because lizards are green. He didn't want green, he asked for orange and red. I got him orange and red and she seemed surprised. M. also picked the same lizard but he wanted his to be red, black and yellow stripes with a turquoise underside. "No, " she said again, "lizards are green." I said he can do it however he likes, it's his lizard. After a few more similar exchanges, she gave up on us and started insisting that cousin's reindeer must be brown all over. Now really, what kid is going to want to paint with only brown?

Today we took the boys to a free movie at the big theatre/playhouse downtown. It was Wizard of Oz so I knew P. would sit still for it, that's his favorite movie. Come to think of it, it's one of my favorite movies. As we waited for the show to start, the man in front of us was annoyed because M. kept kicking his chair. M. insisted he wasn't, he was just swinging his legs. No matter, I said, sit cross-legged and try really hard not to swing. Throughout the movie the man kept turning around to check that M.'s feet were not near his seat. They weren't, because by this time he'd made me paranoid about it. But really. It's a free movie for kids. There are, like, 10,000 kids here. The man had 2 kids of his own, who were no doubt kicking the seats of the people in front of them. It's a free movie for kids. It's not a $200 ticket to the opera. There are kids involved. You gotta expect a little excitement, noise and dancing & singing. And yes, maybe even some leg swinging.

You Just Can't See This Stuff Coming

Last night after the boys got out of the bath I went to get their pajamas. When I got back, there they were: stark naked, movin' and groovin' to the music from their Tooth Tunes toothbrushes (the themes from Transformers & Star Wars). D. and I were practically in tears we were laughing so hard.

Before you have kids you picture all the big stuff, like learning to walk, birthday parties and going off to college. You could never imagine the little everyday moments like these, which makes them even more precious. Right now I can't think of any greater blessing than being a parent.

This is What Saturdays Look Like Here

I just joined a scrap challenge entitled "Twelve of Twelve" started by Susan. I found out about it from reading Cathy's blog. The premise is simple. On the 12th of each month, take 12 pictures of your everyday life and scrap them. Sounds fun, yes?

This is the first one I've done and I'll admit I didn't remember to take any photos until around 1:00. We're pretty laid back here on Saturdays and I've been wanting to do a layout about that for awhile, so it all worked out. Here's the layout:



And the explanation: Saturdays are all about relaxing in our house. The boys are worn out from school and I'm just plain worn out. So we spend the day (from left top to right bottom) making art, playing on the computer, going to playgrounds, having ice cream treats at our favorite local place, dog piling with Dad, reading (Quilter's Homecoming by J. Chiaverini), watching tv (Finding Nemo), logging into SparkPeople (yikes, I've used more than half my daily calories before lunch!), getting dressed at 2:21 (usually when D. gets home from work and says "you're STILL in your pajamas?!") going to dinner for spaghetti at another favorite local place, drinking a lot of tea, and reading Simple Scrapbooks before bed.


Sounds like a pretty good Saturday to me.

Stop Global Warming

This past weekend we participated in Earth Hour and turned off our lights from 8 to 9 pm. When I told the kids about it M. was all for it. "We have to stop Global Warming, Mom! Where is he? Why don't they just put him in jail?" It's funny how kids interpret things sometimes, isn't it? But now I can't get these two guys out of my head. Picturing them helps me turn off the lights and keep recycling!
(If you want to create your own superhero, go here)

Mystery Baby

We just got the most adorable birth announcement in the mail. The problem is we have nooooo idea who the baby is. The announcement just lists her name and stats, no parents or siblings. We have some friends with that last name, but they're in their 50's and haven't adopted, so it's not them. The postmark is from Virginia. We have 2 sets of friends who live thereabouts, but it's not either of them. We run through the list of people we know who are expecting. Nope, nope, and nope. We scan the Christmas card address list. No bells ringing there. We scrutinize the handwriting. No clues there either. So proud parents, while you may know us well enough to send us notice of this happy occasion, we have no clue who you are. I'm sure when we find out, it'll be one of those "Duh!" moments. In the meantime, we'll just say that the baby is adorable and we're so happy for all of you! Edit: We found out today (4/2) who the baby is: D's cousin's granddaughter, so I guess that makes her a third cousin? And it seems a lot of the family was asking "whose baby is this?" too. Made us feel better.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter how is your wife Mister Easter Bunny how are you doing do you have any children

What's Your House Rating?

We had a family dinner last weekend. The kids were all playing so nicely. And so quietly. Yeah, you're right, that should have been my first clue.

They had asked if they could do art projects in the family room, which was fine with me so long as it didn't involve paint or playdoh and they cleaned up the mess afterward. They asked if they could make a "cave" which was also fine. I assumed they were doing something with the couch cushions since those items almost never actually reside on the couch. It turns out that they were taping the art work to the walls to make the room look creepy and cave-like. Also ok as I have been known to tape artwork to the walls myself, particularly in the kitchen to hide all the holes and the stripes of potential paint colors.

But I have to draw the line on using a glue stick to put stuff on the wall. How the heck am I going to get that and its bonded orange construction paper off my pale blue wall? Honestly, if they had done it in the kitchen or the playroom (aka what most people use as a living/dining room) or the hallway I would have laughed and moved on. But they picked the family room. The room that we redid last year after removing the ugly 1960's paneling. The room that looks better than the whole rest of the house put together. The room that looks like grownups live here.

That last statement kept repeating in my head all night long. What does it mean to have a house that looks like kids live there? What does it mean to have a house that looks like grownups live there? Can the two exist in the same house at the same time or will that bend the space-time continuum?

I thought of all the houses I've been in lately. There are the houses where you know the instant you get inside, maybe even before, that kids live there. There are pictures on the refrigerator, little shoes littering the hallway, legos strewn around. There are the houses that look a bit neater but kid-evidence is still around in the form of bigger shoes, game systems and the like. There are the houses where you can guess that teens live because there are still bigger shoes, electronic devices, a chest freezer in an obvious place and lots of cars in the driveway.

Then there are the houses that have me totally stumped. I know kids live there because I've met them, spoken to them, maybe even followed them inside. But there is absolutely no evidence of them anywhere. It's like entering an alternate house universe. A house black hole. And the whole time I'm there I'm discreetly searching for the evidence. I'm looking for a fingerprint on the light switch. A cheerio under the couch cushion. A stray sock peeking out from somewhere. Something! Anything! I become this guy. ---> We've got ice creams and lollipops and candies, allllll free today! Where do they keep the kids and all their associated flotsam in these houses? I imagine a set of graduated nesting boxes marked "baby" "toddler" "little boy/girl" "bigger boy/girl" and "teenager". Are the kids just more well behaved and trained in these houses? Are they all neat freaks with touches of OCD? Maybe they have a full-time nanny and a separate wing for her and everyone under 18. And a housekeeper. What? Where? How?

And then I started thinking what if there were a house rating system? How would kids rate houses?

***** totally kid friendly. No holds barred, messes allowed, junk food all the time.

**** kid friendly. Some rules, some messes allowed, good snacks

*** kid acquainted. More rules, few messes allowed, ok snacks

** kids might have lived here once a long time ago. Lots of rules, very few messes allowed, snacks are of the disgustingly healthy variety

* Danger! Danger! Danger, Will Robinson!

I think our house would rate 4 stars. Possibly 5 stars on some occasions. For the most part I don't mind being the kid friendly house in the family and possibly the neighborhood later on. You've got to be a grownup for an awfully long time so why not let the kids enjoy being kids for as long as possible? This is not to say that I'm going to abandon attempts to make my boys eat veggies, make sure they say please and thank you (even to the brother who's sitting on their head), tidy up and all that other good stuff. But I'm not going to let a spill or some paper scraps on the floor ruin our day. I'll figure out a way to get glue stick off the grownup wall. Because when all is said and done, I'd rather have a 4 star house than a 1 star house.

I'll just have to wait to have totally grownup house until the boys leave home. I'll be around 65 by then. I can live with that. I can enjoy it until whenever grandkids hopefully arrive and then I'm sure we'll be back to paper scraps and spills.

But I'm definitely going to hide all the glue sticks.