Scenes From a Snow Day

Storytime

Greyson decided he wanted to read Quinn a bedtime story tonight.


Listen to what a great job he is doing reading (you may have to turn up the volume a little).

Oh Just Charge It....

Probably about a year ago I bought the kids a cute little cash register as a gift along with some little wooden coins. It hasn't been played with a lot (not my best purchase apparently) so I was somewhat surprised when Quinn brought it out yesterday and informed me that she wanted to play "Payer". She got out her purse and I gave her some coins and off she went through the house searching for things to buy. After she came back she handed me the items, which I carefully rang up and declared that the total came to $8. I told her to take out her coins and was about to embark on a wonderful math lesson when she told me "Mommy you don't use those. You use this..." And out she pulled a Starbucks gift card that Raif had let them play with several days earlier. She promptly slid the card through the side of the register and proceeded to gather her things and walk away.

It was then that it hit me that I don't think that the kids have ever seen either Raif or I pay for something with anything else but a credit card. The concept of paper and coin money completely escapes them because they have never experienced it. As Quinn trotted off with her purchases in hand I started to think about what she must think of buying things - that everything can be yours with just a swipe of a little plastic card.

What have we, as a society, burdened ourselves with by becoming a community that works on plastic from a child rearing perspective? The obvious math lessons of the cashier says $8 dollars you give him $10 how much do you get back is obsolete. But more abstract than that - by using a credit card you never show them that purchases 'cost something.' When you give that $10 and get back $2 you show kids that you are getting back less than what you gave and thus what you purchased has value. Unless you show the kids your checkbook and your credit card statement every month they are never going to get that lesson.

I don't know why this moment has stirred all these thoughts in me, perhaps it is the CPA in me rearing its ugly head. Now is this going to change how I purchase things (i.e. I NEVER have any cash on me)? I don't know but it has now planted the seed in my mind that when my kids are old enough and have allowances and are given the autonomy to make purchasing decisions that I really need to implant on them the value of money and that the little plastic card is not a magic giveaway.

Look Mommy, No Hands....

Isn't It Ironic....

Don't you think??

Irony, fate, whatever spirits out there that are at work sometimes have a wicked since of humor....

Yesterday, as I posted, was the 10th anniversary of our first date. After sending Raif off with a bigger than normal kiss and shuttling the kids off to school, I came home and spent the majority of the day doing odds and ends around the house - cleaning, riding my bike, taking a shower, making stuff for dinner. At my usual time I got into the car and was halfway to school when I looked down and saw this....

Yes that would be my engagement ring, bent prong, NO diamond. My heart sank into my toes, I almost swerved off the road and got violently nauseous all at the same time. Admittedly I have lost a lot of things but I have never lost anything like this in my life. The rest of the ride to school was done in mass hysteria.

I got to school stood up very carefully hoping to find that it nicely fell into my lap - no luck. Once I realized that it hadn't fallen out of the car at school I rushed in and grabbed my children and rushed back out the door - the teachers must have thought I had had some sort of nervous breakdown (which wasn't far from the truth). I drove home and tried to think of everything I did step by step the whole day to figure out where to look. Once I got to the house, I locked the dogs in the bedroom and tried ever so politely to explain to the kids why as much as I am sure they would have been a valuable help this really was something that I needed to do by myself. I sat them at the table with a ream of paper and their watercolors to keep them out of the way and went to find my needle in a haystack. I tried to systematically fan out from the corner of the house on my hands and knees with flashlight in hand. I meticulously searched every dog hair tumbleweed, every crack and every crevice. Once I had finished an area I moved the furniture there and began somewhere else. Through this the irony of losing my engagement diamond on my 10th anniversary did not escape me. Nor did I forget the ticking clock on the wall signaling Raif's imminent arrival. I had called him from the car and told him so he knew but actually having to face him was something I was dreading.

However after an hour and a half of getting very familiar with the floors of my house, believe it or not I actually found the sucker right next to the basement door. After another good sobbing session of relief I picked myself up, dusted myself off (literally) and put the ring and the diamond in a very large tupperware container.

What a way to spend my anniversary.....

3,653 Days

Ten years ago today I met Raif. Wow - a decade. A lot has changed since these goofy, wide eyed young 'uns fell in love...
Happy Anniversary babe - I love you! Here's to another 10 years....

Les Bon Temps

Raif had a business trip down in Louisiana this week and brought the kids back these beautiful Mardi Gras masks. Now that I have them I think we need to do some fun things around here for Mardi Gras. Any suggestions on Mardi Gras activities for the kids that don't involve Quinn showing her breasts or either kid drinking massive amounts of Hurricanes then throwing up in a gutter???

Show Not Tell

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to do more showing and less telling with the kids. I have a habit of just explaining things rather than showing concrete examples which obviously make a lot more of an impact.

So this last week when it was bitterly cold out I put my resolution into action and while I have told them a million times how ice is frozen water we set up our own science station to prove it.

They each got their own cup of water which we put on the porch and every couple of hours we examined it and watched it get colder and colder. They were so excited when it formed the first layer of ice on the top (which they gleefully broke through with their fingers). But the true excitement came when it finally (after 3 days) formed a solid block of ice. Once that happened we brought it in for the second part of the science experiment. We got out some salt and found out that salt can melt ice and finally we brought out the hot water and melted a hole right through the center.

Who knew science could be so fun?

Torture

Everyone's definition of torture is a bit different, for some it is NASCAR and some it is opera (and I won't even get into whether waterboarding is torture). For me exercise is torture. I hate to exercise. Hate it, hate it, hate it. I know that some of y'all out there feel great after running and get the runner's high. All I get is a miserable feeling that I am going to throw up and die. And before you go and say that I just haven't done enough of it when I was in high school I ran track and practice after practice for months and months I ran and lifted weights and all that and it always made me feel blah.

Because of my 'love affair' with exercise I have avoided it like the plague for most of my adult life. Pre-kids I didn't have time with a full time accounting job. Post kids I didn't have time because, well, I had kids to run after all day. Then after the kids went to school my excuse was I couldn't afford it.

About two months ago Raif went to the doctor and found out he had high cholesterol and his doctor ordered him start exercising since his form of exercise is his bike and since he really can't ride in the winter he bought this.....


A torture device that comes in a nice lime green. In case you don't recognize this contraption it is actually a bike trainer. Sit your bike's back well up on it and voila you have a stationary bike. Since all bikes work on the trainer I now have run out of excuses and with some gentle prodding from my husband I have started riding my bike.

Honestly so far it has been pretty miserable but I know it is good for me and perhaps it will get me back in those jeans.....

Meaning of Things....

Mommy what is a jury??

Mommy what is a hookah *??

Mommy what is bulbous??

When I was in school I did pretty well in literature and English - those were my strengths (science and math - ugh). But within English I never liked nor did I do well in defining things. I always knew what things meant I just had a hard time telling others. Not to mention the whole 'you can't use the word in the definition' just killed me. I frankly thought it was a ridiculous exercise - writing definitions of things you already knew. Now I realize that it was an attempt to prepare you for having a preschooler (or two in my case).

Hmmm well a jury is....well...ahhh... OK so when people do bad things they get sentenced.... yeah...OK you probably don't know what sentenced means. OK, so let's say that Mr. Mickey steals Daddy's car then he would have to go to court and there is a group of people there that tell him he was bad and make him go to jail. Understand?? No, well, hmmmm let's move on.

Hookah - OK this is a special type of pipe. Well you probably don't know what that sort of pipe is. OK it's like a vase with a tube in it and then you put tobacco in it and set it on fire and breathe in the smoke..... Wow that sounds pretty stupid when you say it out loud doesn't it??? OK next...

Bulbous - That is sort of something that is fat and round in this case the man's nose is bulbous or fat and round..sort of like a light bulb hence bulbous though in our case we don't use round light bulbs we use compact fluorescent which are more twisty rather than round or bulbous......

Anybody have a dictionary handy???


*Before you go and call child services on me we are reading an abridged version of Alice In Wonderland** where the caterpillar smokes the hookah.

**And just for the record I so didn't add the link to EBay so you could buy the Disney version on DVD. Apparently, Blogger, not I thinks you need this. I unfortunately don't know how to get rid of it.

Dancing Queen

For Christmas Quinn received ballet lessons and today was her first class. After a few tears after I left the room she did a great job. The class is a ballet/tumbling/tap class and so Quinn did all sorts of things - though I think by far her favorite part was the tap part (even though she didn't have any tap shoes) as she ran out of class telling me we needed to buy her tap shoes right now.

Frankly, I don't know who had a better time - Quinn or me watching a room full of 3 year olds trying to dance on their toes and tap their shoes. Unfortunately this high tech dance studio only lets you watch the classes via closed circuit TV so I didn't get any video but just a picture of her at the barre.

Readers....

There are a lot of things that we are responsible for as parents but I think that one of the most important things that we can give to our children is a love of learning. To that end I think that we also need to instill in our children a love of reading. I love to read, though definitely do not have the time I want to enjoy it but it seems that reading today, especially for the young, has become a chore like homework. In conversations I have had with our neighbors older children they all seem to dislike reading only doing it because they are required to, never reading for the joy of reading. Reading is such an essential part of learning that you can't have someone who is excited to learn if they hate to read. Also in all the studies I have read a child's success in school and in life is directly tied to their reading ability.

So I always try to incorporate lots of reading into our daily lives - not just at bedtime but whenever we can, especially during these cold miserable days when going outside is just not possible.

In the past couple of months, Greyson has started reading on his own and I am so proud of him. He is so excited when he starts a new book (we are currently working through the Bob Book Series). Every night he sits down with Daddy and Daddy reads a book or two then it is Greyson's turn to read to Daddy. On the rare occasions when Quinn gets in bed before Greyson I sneak over and listen to father and son read to each other and it just melts my heart. I think he loves to read so much because we have made reading his special one-on-one time with Daddy. Then after they finish he always comes over and reads a few pages to me. He is so proud of himself and insists on giving me a hug after every page he reads.

As for Quinn, well we don't call her the 'parrot' for nothing. She insists on doing everything her brother does so it comes as no surprise that last week she came up to me and said "Mommy, I want to learn to read too." She already knew all her letters and their sounds so we have started off at the first words. We have gone through all the AT words (cat, rat, sat, etc) and all the IT words. She is also so excited and wants to do her 'letters' each and every evening.

So to Greyson and Quinn - I hope this is the beginning of a life long love affair with reading and with learning. May you enjoy reading as much as I enjoy reading to you.

Dinner is Served

As you followers of this blog know, my son LOVES to cook and so it should come as no shock that yesterday morning the Japanese Steakhouse was open for business however what was surprising was that they had a new employee. We were greeted, taken to our table and had our order taken by Ms. Syrup. When I asked her where her name came from she told me her name was Ms. Syrup because she is so sweet. (Well sometimes.....)

(the chef's hat was one of my favorite gifts to Greyson this Christmas...I hope he loves it as much as I do).

All Aboard

For Christmas stocking stuffers I got these little wooden trains (and the race cars too) and so this last cold and generally blah Sunday afternoon we busted them out. For $4/piece you can't beat them. The kids spent an afternoon painting them and then assembling them themselves. They were both so proud of what they made and insisted on taking them to school to show everyone what they made all by themselves.....

Motion

The snow came. For me, the mere dusting was immaterial. For children who see snow but once or twice a year it was magical. We donned our winter gear and headed out both this morning and this afternoon. I stood; I watched; I froze. They jumped; they rolled; they ran; they laughed. They never sat still or noticed the icy wind biting at their nose, hands or feet. Probably because they were always in motion.....

PJ Magic

We learned today at school that if you wear your pajamas inside out it will snow. So here's hoping for a snow day tomorrow...


btw - Grandma and Grandpa must be wearing theirs inside out day and night to be getting the snow they are getting!!

Feminist Pirate

OK, we all know that the kids are obsessed with piracy these days so it shouldn't surprise you that last night the kids were once again on the pirate ship, listening to their pirate songs. As they were gleefully throwing their animals off the ship and yelling man overboard Quinn stopped mid-mutiny and with a very serious face informed me of the following....

Mommy, why do we always say man overboard? Some of my animals are girls and I don't think we should say man overboard for girls shouldn't we say girl overboard? I don't think it is right.

Gloria Steinam watch out - there may be a new sheriff in town.

Sometimes It Is The Simplest Things.....

That are the most fun....

Year In Pictures - 2009

Hey if Time can do it - so can I.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from 2009.....

Van Gogh Moment

I always know which one is my son's art project at school. It isn't because I know his favorite colors or that I can instantly detect his crayon stroke. I always know which one is his because it is always the one with the least amount of effort. Most of the other kids enthusiastically color within the lines with many bright, beautiful colors. My sons inevitably will take two or three passes across the piece of paper with a crayon/marker (usually a black or brown) and declares himself done. He is the same way at home with any sort of craft project we do. He figures out the minimum amount of effort it takes to please me and then is off like a shot. He has just never been that boy - while Quinn can happily sit at the table and color, paint or string beads for a necklace; Greyson's interest lie in the active arena. He has to be doing something physical- hockey, football, riding his bike or sometimes just running in circles around the house like a chicken with his head cut off. He is always in constant motion. Which is why the events of last week have left me baffled.

As you may recall from my last post the kids took time off the pirate ship to make a Jolly Roger flag - which in and of itself was surprising that Greyson would volunteer to color. I chalked it up to his current dogged devotion to piracy. But the next day when I asked them what they wanted to do Greyson said "Color another flag". OK, like before he must love pirates and so I printed off another flag. But then he finished that page and asked for another "I want to color a pirate ship" then "I want to color a pirate hat" Wow - he must really love pirates, I thought but then he started asking for other things "I want to color a train" "I want to color a castle" and so it went. And long after Quinn had lost interest in coloring and wandered away to do her own thing my son sat alone, quietly at the table and colored.......for hours.



I think he colored more that day than he has in his entire life. He attempted to stay in the lines and even used a palette that extended past the earth tones. I don't know how long this phase will last but I am enjoying the burst of creativity (and the quiet).