Go Fish

Day 22 of 31

J and I enjoy playing cards together.  We're pretty limited in our repertoire right now, but I'm hoping it will grow in time.  Playing cards with a 4 year old is funny, the rules are not exactly right and the he usually lays his cards face up.

It's been a long, exhausting week (even more so than usual), so I took a cue from Stacey and made a podcast of 2 minutes of our game.

State Museum

Day 16 of 31

Oh spring, will you please come already?  We've been waiting patiently all winter, it's time already.

It's a cold, wet, snowy/rainy day in PA today.  I didn't want to waste an entire Saturday, so I headed with the kids to the State Museum.  This museum has a great little children's play area on the ground floor, a plantetarium on the 3rd floor and a whole lot of strange exhibits in between. 

I don't know when the museum was built, but it was clearly in a different era because it has this enormous lobby with a grand ceiling and all I can think is how much energy is being used just to keep the museum open.  Some of the exhibits are pretty timeless (duh, it's a museum) but the floor with the stuffed animals makes me feel as if I went through a time machine to the 1970's. 

As we were leaving the museum (in the snow), the St. Patrick's Day parade was just getting ready to start.  Somehow the combination of cold/wet weather and a typical St.Patrick's Day crowd was entirely unappaeling to me, so we hit the road. 

So, spring is not here today and the forecast does not look good for tomorrow either, but hopefully soon. 

Story Time

Day 13 of 31

When I grew up, I lived 2 houses away from the children's librarian of our town's local library.  So among other reasons, I was a regular attendee of library story time.  I actually have memories of going, I all I remember were the carpet squares that we would grab from the big stack.

I used to love going to the library, so it seemed natural to me to make it part of my routine when my son was born.  I went to the library when he was about 2 weeks old, in hindsight, it might have been a bit early, but it gave me something to do in the middle of winter.

Story time has been a part of my Tuesday routine for the last 2 years or so.  I enjoy talking to the librarian.  It gives us a chance to get new books, which is really just changing the rotation of construction vehicle books.  The local library is not especially fancy, but they have a great selection of puzzles, blocks and cars that J likes to play with.

Last night, the librarian was unexpectedly absent.  Turns out, she broke a bone in her foot within the last week and is still in a lot of pain.  Of course, my first thought is that I hope the librarian makes a full recovery.  Story time just wasn't the same without her, we missed the routine she always does and we missed her! 

A perfect 30 minutes

I guess I'm getting old.  Between the 3 (count 'em 3) drinks that I had at the wedding on Sunday afternoon, a short night's sleep and perhaps the switch to daylight savings time, I was exhausted on Monday.  Throw in lunch duty, ISS duty, after school parking lot duty and a union meeting, I was utterly delirious.  By the time I drove to daycare, I had a splitting headache, I was getting dizzy and my stomach felt upset.

Luckily, when I got home, my husband was already home from work and volunteered to do dinner duty with the kids.  I took an hour off, retreated to the basement and watched last week's Project Runway which involved crafting dresses from duck tape.

After the hour and when I could hear that the kids were done with dinner, I went back upstairs and offered to put the baby to bed.  I thought she was tired but she only drank a small amount from her bottle and was ready to play.  I guess she was able to read the situation and knew just what I needed.  We had the most extraordinary 30 minutes of playtime.  We were playing a version of peek-a-boo with her play house, she would hide and when I found her she giggled.  She is almost walking and did a whole lot of walking right into my arms.  I don't usually get undivided time with her since I have 2 children and this evening was just precious.  Finally, she put on a little fuss so I gave her the rest of her bottle and she went right to sleep.  After those 30 minutes I felt refreshed, my head was a little better and I felt ready to cope with the rest of the night.  I put the 4 year old to bed and he also seemed to sense what I needed because we read our 3 books with ease. 

Not my child, but wanted to show the house.  This is a fantastic toy, even though it takes up a bit of room.

The evolution of Super Tractor Man

Day 8 of 31

5:50 am - Oh crap, it's super hero day at J's school.

5:51 am
Me: "J, do you have any super hero clothing?"
J:  "No"
Me:  "Shoot"
Me: "Ok, how about a cape?  We can use the tractor window curtains that Daddy bought at the yard sale last year. It's not like they're EVER going to get hung on your windows."

5:52 am - Look in the basement for safety pins

5:54 am - Look in the kitchen cabinets for safety pins

5:56 am - Look in the upstairs closets for safety pins

5:58 am - Crap.  No safety pins.

6:00 am - Velcro, I think I have velcro.  Find velcro in the garage.

6:03 am - Using very fancy scissors, construct the cape by trimming curtains straight across to an  appropriate length.  Adhere one strip of velcro to J's shirt, the other to the cape.  Attach cape to shirt.

6:05 am - Super Tractor Man is born.

I've got this Mommy thing down to a T.

11 months

Day 5 of 31

Today is your 11 month birthday and I couldn't be happier about it.

In 11 months, you have already showed us what a happy, spunky and fun girl you are.  I can't wait to see what the rest of your childhood will bring.

A, you are a very happy baby and it doesn't take much to please you.  But you let us know when you're not happy, oh, you really let us know.  Recently, you've started taking a big breathe in and screaming out with all your might.  It's pretty annoying and I hope that you get some words soon!

You are an active baby.  You were rolling over long before you should have and at 11 months you are already taking your first, second and third steps.  I resisted putting gates up on our staircase, but you've made that impossible.  When the gate is left open, you crawl up the staircase with a mischievous grin because you know you're not supposed to.

You love your brother, I can see it in your eyes.  He does his best, but like all big brothers he is reluctant to share his things with you.  Keep playing with him, he loves you too. 

A, I love you more than I can ever express in words. 

I can do it myself...or not

Day 4 of 31

Thank G-d, my 4 year old son has the ability to do almost everything by himself.  However, when he is around me, he does almost nothing by himself.  He loves for me to do almost everything him.

Mommy, put on my socks.

Mommy, put on my shoes.

Mommy, wipe me.

 Mommy, carry me.

It never ends.


My theory is that boys love having their mothers do things for them.  I overhear the boys in high school talk about how their mothers still pack their lunch, do laundry, wake them up in the morning.  Really?  And I am leading my son in this direction.

I'm sure at some point he will grow out of his Mommy dependency, but when seems to be the pertinent question.

I also have an 11 month old daughter, she seems to be more independent already, but time will tell.

55,000 Snow Geese

I have a confession to make, I don't really like learning about things in nature.  I appreciate and respect nature, but it has never been my thing to learn the names of plants, animals, flowers, etc.  I just like being outside and enjoying fresh air.  So yesterday's activity may come as a bit of a surprise.

On Friday, a coworker told me about a place called Middle Creek Wildlife Area in Lancaster County.  I don't quite understand how this works year after year, but it's a known "pit stop" for migratory birds.  Now migratory birds are interesting.  How do they know where to go?  When do they decide to stop for a break?  Why do they all fly together? 

So, how did it go to go bird watching with a 4 year old and a baby?  I think that bird watching requires a little too much patience for us at this time.   You stand and you watch and then you stand and watch some more.  For a 4 year old boy who is very used to "watching something" on tv, this was not exactly high flying excitement.  That is, until we arrived at the meadow where the birds were sitting for the day. 

55,000 snow geese in one place is a lot of geese!  Mostly they were just sitting, but some were honking and some were flying.  We tried to visualize what it would be like when they all took off to fly at one time.   I had noticed that there was a goose fight on the other side of the road and J kept telling me which geese were having a fight.  He wasn't correct, but once he started to use his imagination, the day got much better. Of course at that point, we were sitting in our warm car and watching the geese out the window! 

My migratory bird questions are still unanswered and will probably remain unanswered but I'm happy for the adventure a flock of geese to remember.

This picture was probably about 20% of the field.  It was a lot of geese!

Little Shop of Horros

I went to see my school's production of Little Shop of Horrors last night, I hadn't seen the school show in a few years and this one was excellent.  The boy who played Seymour was excellent, he reminded me of Matthew Broderick with red hair.  He is a relatively shy kid and I had no idea that he could sing and act, it was a wonderful surprise.  Audrey was beautiful and had a great voice, but I have not had her as a student so I don't know her personality outside of the musical.  Our school has an abundance of talented girls, so Mr. Mushnik became Mrs. Mushnik and she was was hysterical!

I also decided to bring my 4 year old son, J, with me to see the show.  I knew it would be a little bit of a push since he did not nap at daycare, but I thought he would be up for it.  This was the first time he saw a live production and it was fascinating watching him.  We sat in the very first row, so that he could see well, but he still preferred to sit on my lap.  As soon as the show started, he was mesmerized.  Between scenes, he was concerned that the lights were out and that he couldn't see what was going on.  Occaisonally, he asked me questions about why something was happening.  At the end of the musical, Audrey gets half eaten by the plant and is covered in fake blood.  When she eventually got eaten, J had tears in his eyes "why does Audrey have to die?" he said in concern.  At the final curtain call, the boy who was the puppeteer for the Audrey II jumped out of the plant and J's eyes almost popped out of his head, he had no idea that someone was inside the plant!

It was a great night and J was fast asleep about 10 minutes into the car ride home.