I’ve been watching Pippi Longstocking from 1973 with my little guys. It’s cheesy and dubbed and my husband says the music reminds him of old 70′s porn. But the kids are mystified.
And did you know you can find the Pippi cartoon on a station called Qubo? It popped up one day when I was DVR searching for Flash Forward. How random is that? But, really it was meant to be because my kids can’t get enough Pippi.
Anyone else’s kids into her?
Meanwhile, I love the name, Astrid.
We were watching YO GABBA GABBA and they inquired as to why Muno has only one eye…
I think his mommy only gave him one eye
We’ve been hitting the beach this week and one of them shouted…
The ocean made a big splash on me!
Then we got ready to go out and my daughter took of her bathing suit, put on a sun dress and said,
Do I really need to put underwear on before we go out?
I thought it was cute when, while looking out the window, the little one said…
That’s a tall dog
And now that she is doing #2 on the potty, she has a lot to say to her movements (with her face right in the toilet), but I will kindly spare you from that dialogue!
Have a great weekend!
Let me start by saying Jesus is not mentioned a ton in my house, other than the occasional reference to Jesus Christ Super Star. God is mentioned in the abstract to answer things like “who made us”, etc. My little guy, however, bombards us with questions:
Does God speak spanish? Does he have a mustache? Does he eat dinner at night with his family?
Does Jesus have a convertible? What color is it?
Where do you go when you die?
Where is heaven? Can you show me a picture of it? What street is it on? Do they have beds? Do they have tables and ovens?
Where do you go after heaven?
Now given that I am a trained professional, a social worker, and that I specifically work with kids and their parents at a bereavement program, one might think these conversations would be a breeze.
But hell no!
They are tough loaded questions that I don’t (though I do) want to address.
As a society, death is one of the most difficult subjects to talk about.
And there’s the fact the neither my husband nor I really embrace religion, and we are different religions, so there isn’t yet a clear framework of our beliefs. Some friends and family have a hard time with this aspect of us but we figure things will fall into place. In the meantime we try to instill good morals and values, or as my husband says, we’re teaching the kids The Ten Commandments.
How do you, as a parent, address the heavy questions?
So go!
That is how I answer that declaration each of the roughly 20 times a day it is announced. Along with that is a reminder that permission is not needed to go to the bathroom.
Aw but here are the twins when they were potty training.
But in other news……my little one did #2 on the potty after announcing that her hiney “felt funny”. I am close to the end of diapers…I can feel it!
Isn’t potty training one of the biggest drags of motherhood?
3 years ago on a unusally warm 95 degree spring day my little 7 lb 6 oz Bean was born. She looked like a little rooster with bright red hair.
Actually, she looked a lot like Conan O’Brian.
When I learned I was pregnant with her my twins were only 9 months old. I remember reading the double lines on the pregnancy test as I felt my face flush and heard my heart pounding loudly in my ears.
I was filled with anxiety overjoyed….twins plus another! 3 babies in diapers! 3 under 2 years old!
Luckily, she’s an easy kid who rolls with the chaos and does her own thing. She’s so awesome so I thought I would list a few specific things I adore about her:
Okay I’ll stop now. Happy Birthday Baby!
There’s nothing like an old-fashioned kid’s party. I’m convinced.
We had a beautiful backyard BBQ birthday party over the weekend. I wanted to keep it simple.
I had no magicians, no balloons guys, nothing fancy. Really, just a pinata…mostly based upon fond memories of my childhood birthday parties, swatting blindfolded at a pinata hanging from my basement rafters with a baton.
But would the thrill I experienced in the 70′s be applicable to children today?
The answer is yes!
It was a great success. I had 30 children swarm me when I brought it outside. They loved it.
But man, I have not recovered!
Anyone have any fun tips for the backyard kid party?
Any good weekend plans?
Here is what my kid’s were saying this week….
My SOON to be 3-year-old…
There’s a baby in my tummy.
ME: How did the baby get in there?
HE just crawled in.
ME: What are you doing with your dress?
I’m trying to shake the wet off!
My little guy likes to put his face in my neck. He says,
You smell nice like lipstick.
And then while talking about the life cycle of a butterfly,
After the caterpillar comes out he eats his egg crack.
And finally while talking about the police station,
Is jail next to heaven? Where do you go after heaven?
Hey all have a great weekend!
Seriously I have had to look at my Blackberry 23 times today, not to find out the date, but to figure out the DAY. I’m deliriously exhausted and all drugged out on allergy pills. I get manically tired where I am over tired but buzzing around with nervous energy (party on Sat = why I am buzzing).
And then, the kids were wickedly bad today. Like awful. All day.
While there are many benefits, having kids so close in age presents challenges.
They fight.
All. the. time.
We’re going through a hitting, biting and calling each other stupid phase.
But today was special as we had to go to kindergarten orientation at the twins’ school.
There was a parent one last month and today the kids got to see a classroom. At both orientations, the lovely principal, at one point in her talk, said “we’ll take your kids just as they are and love them for who they are” or something like that. Both times, I got choked up and if I even talk about it I still get choked up!
I was delighted when the twins walked off, with no problem, with a teacher and other kids to investigate a classroom. There was another set of twins wailing and refusing to go. Every parent in that room was thinking how glad they were that it wasn’t her kids.
But then we went to the park and little one had a tantrum. She took off her shoes and her diaper and proceeded to run around lifting up her dress. Then she went down the slide with legs spread wide open so I figured that was a good time for me to intervene.
I was trying to restrain her on my lap and I knew I was getting the ‘looks’. You know what I mean. When the other moms look over at you and your bratty kid and you feel like you’re an abuser and an all around crap mom. I put her in the car for a time out and luckily she chilled so we spent almost 3 hours in the park enjoying the beautiful weather.
I threw them all in bed just a little while ago at 7:30. The little one is yelling out her usual nightly declaration from her bed,
I’m tired!
You know I am too!
How do you manage public tantrums?
My twins go to school every morning so I get to spend some quality time with my littlest.
Our Barnes & Noble has a storytime every Wednesday morning so we’ve been going pretty regularly. Basically a bored worker sits in front of the kids, reads 3 stories, then hands out coloring sheets and stickers.
I like it because it’s an opportunity for me to grab a chai tea latte at the cafe. As if those beverages aren’t overpriced enough, the downside of bringing the kid with me is that I end up getting something for her and spending like 7 bucks total for nothing!
Today she chose a biscotti.
It was great because it took many concentrated minutes of effort to consume.
I started to space out and then feel bad about it but when I tried to engage her in a little chat she was literally too consumed by this cookie to focus on anything else. I couldn’t help but notice that most of the kids were munching on healthy snacks….apple chips, carrots, goldfish…….while my daughter was getting chocolate everywhere within a 3 foot radius.
After the storytime she played at the Thomas the Train table. I ran into a mom I know. I was telling her how we had just been shopping. When my girl asked me to identify some items in the store I said, that’s some craft stuff. To which she kept repeating,
Oh, it’s crap.
And I see more crap!
So at some point she announced she was done with trains and ready to go home. She wanted to be carried but I asked her to walk to the door.
She dropped to the floor, assumed tantrum position, and contemplated her next move.
Then she shouted that she was going to leave me at the store and opted for the tantrum.
It didn’t last long though.
I picked her up and she declared that she likes hugging me.
But the best part is when she pointed to this book,
and said,
That’s you Mommy!
The greatest gift anyone can give any of my children is a one dollar bill. It is their ticket to the magical kingdom that is the dollar store. How many stores can a preschooler enter with permission to choose almost anything to buy? They are beyond excited. It’s raining pretty hard so hopefully we’ll waste some time ‘shopping’.
How do you entertain your children on rainy days?
My little one’s big birthday party is this weekend. We’ll be having BBQ and pinata and games for the kids. Please, please pray for good weather for us! We’re having about 30 adults and 25 children. When my husband reads that he is going flip out be so excited to have so many friends and family members coming over to celebrate our daughter’s birthday with us!
Anyone have any great party suggestions?
