Monthly Archives: February 2012

Valentine’s Day prep

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We are in full swing for Valentine’s Day around here. The kids are busily making cards (though Lex still has many to do tomorrow!) and today we made treats. Tomorrow we are going to package them up in cute little bags and attach them to the cards. We went to a Valentine’s Day craft event at the library on Friday. The kids made cards with cool supplies that we don’t normally have at home, like glitter and tissue paper squares. One mother taught us all how to make tissue paper flowers. They also decorated sugar cookies with pink frosting and sprinkles. Good times!

envelopes

In another Martha moment (via Pinterest) I learned a cool way to fold hearts into envelopes. Lex LOVED the idea and it remotivated him to make a few more cards. :)

yellow card

I love little kid handwriting.

4ever

Best friends 4 ever. :)

little notes

Sometimes I like to leave little notes for my kids to find in the morning.

at the library

Glitter, string, doilies... I looked and looked for these at the store. Turns out you have to buy them at Staples online!

cookies

Looks appetizing, eh? Eve ate both of her's but Lex hardly made it through one.

pretzel treats

Remember these from Christmas?

pretzel treats -p2

This time with red and pink and white, and Peanut M&Ms!

3 trays

Like a drug, they are. So delicious that once you start you just can't stop!! Think we made enough? I need to get them packaged up ASAP before they all end up in my belly!

Tomorrow afternoon Eve and I are going to make Dried Cranberry Shortbread Hearts for her class party. (getting my Martha on!) Then, finally then, I can put away all the paper and stickers and hearts and scissors and glue that have been dominating my table for three weeks now!! Do you feel the love?!? :) I may have gotten the supplies out a little early this year, in the hopes that cards would be done quickly.

Why I love Eve

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We have been very crafty around here lately and there are so many things I want to blog about but I am totally stressed out and over my head… mostly in volunteer work commitments. I need to untangle myself from that sticky web, somehow. However, I am going to take a quick minute to write an important post.

Eve and I had a good morning today. I have been trying to slow down our schedules (see above paragraph) so the past few mornings we have spent at home. Today we made peanut butter and jelly muffins (I hope to do a blog post about that as well!) and played and read. Then, as I was making her lunch, I got a phone call regarding this volunteer work. I didn’t want to answer it, but I did because otherwise I would have had to return the call and I had no time to do that today and so it would have become one more thing on my to-do list. So I answered it, and somehow ended up committing myself to a 9am meeting on Saturday morning! Ugh! When I hung up the phone I headed straight for the fresh baked muffins and proceeded to spiral for the next half hour. Getting out the door to school wasn’t too hard, but I was short with Eve and clearly cranky. I explained why in the car and ranted a bit, as we drove, about how I had not enough time and just couldn’t manage to get things done. I’m sure unloading on a 4yr old is a parenting no-no. In my head I was thinking of the phone calls and deadlines and semi-regretting that I was to volunteer at Lex’s library this afternoon. Then I felt bad for that because I LOVE Wednesday afternoons when I get to be at the library with his class! Like I said, spiraling.

Are you wondering yet how this relates to why I love Eve? The whole way there she was so sweet and patient with me. When we got into her classroom she gave me a hug and wouldn’t let go. Seriously! She is strong! Her hug became a vice grip and when I forced her off of me (gently, by this point all thoughts of volunteering had left my head, replaced by concern for this unusual behavior) her calmness became raging tears. She pleaded with me not to leave her. She begged. She clung to me for dear life. She would not be swayed. She would not be distracted. She told me she was too tired (a popular excuse in this house) and hated school and would miss me too much. I tried to talk with her, her teacher tried to talk to her, her classmates all looked concerned, but she was unswayed. After about 15 minutes I decided to give up and took her home. I told her that if she’s really that tired then she needs to have quiet time when we get home. She happily agreed.

eveI love Eve because she takes care of me. Knowingly or not I think she sensed that I was very stressed and she did what she needed to do to stop me, if only for a few hours. I don’t know exactly what was going on in that curly head of hers, but something told her we needed more down time and she forced the issue. Now she is happily laying in bed listening to an audio book and I am able to make those phone calls that were roiling in my head and check a few time-sensitive things off my list that would have otherwise had me up too late, again.

I don’t even have any good pictures of her these days because she hides from the camera, but this one shows her really having fun this morning, laughing with me.

Hopefully soon I’ll fill you in on the fun craft projects we’re doing, Lex’s airport, my latest Pinterest obsessions, and why I love baking with kids. For now, it’s back to work for me.

Eve’s first blog post

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eve blogging

Eve wrote her first blog post this afternoon!! Lex was making a sweeper robot out of kinex and wanted to take some pictures, so of course Eve wanted to take pictures too. Once she had a few pics she decided she wanted to write a blog post. I had been ignoring them for awhile so I decided to sit down with her and update the blog. I helped with the interface, but she did all the typing and much of the spelling. She was so proud! (I forgot how long it takes kids to type….) Lex says he wants to blog about his robot as well, but he’s too busy playing with it now.

Quickie

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I feel like I’ve been neglecting this poor blog lately. It ebbs and flows, I suppose. We have lots going on, as usual, but I guess nothing super blog worthy (and we all know that’s a low bar!) This weekend was busy. Friday night we went to the 100th Day of School celebration at Lex’s school. Both kids are counting the days of school in their classrooms yet neither of them can tell me if they have actually reached the 100th day yet! I guess neither of them really care enough to pay attention to that particular activity each morning. The party was pure chaos. It started at 5:30 Friday night. Pizza and desserts in the cafeteria, silent auction in the lobby, and what was supposed to be organized games in the gym. Instead it was hordes of young children running, in waves, around the gym, jumping over the cones and hula hoops and other game-specific items. I left with a headache, a strong craving for a strong drink, and screaming four year old insisting she wanted to stay, despite the lack of people and nearly empty parking lot. Good times!

Saturday was fairly quiet. Eve went to a birthday party at the gymnastics place and has officially decided she wants to have her party there too. I think I’m going to push back. I’m a birthday scrooge these days. I find fault with all of the popular birthday party locations. We still have some time so I’ll see if I can negotiate with her for a better party locations. :)

Yesterday Alan took the kids to a birthday party at a local historical farm. It was one of three parties we were invited too this weekend! I declined one because I can’t handle more than one birthday party per day. So he took the kids to this one and I went with a friend to a parenting workshop. I was interested in the subject matter, of course, and also wanted to evaluate the speaker as a possible speaker for our Good Beginnings Fall Lecture. It was a bit of a let down on both counts, however the hour drive each way was enjoyable as I carpooled with two other moms and we had lots of time to chat.

I came home to an empty house, but soon after Alan walked in with pizza, then Lex walked in with a pint of Ben & Jerry’s and Eve followed behind with her own pint of Ben & Jerry’s! Let the Super Bowl chow-fest begin! We had a fancy three course meal: pizza & wings (for Alan), followed by potato chips and cut veggies, and topped off with two different flavors of ice cream. Whee!! The kids stayed up through the half-time show and then I put them to bed. Then I had a lovely, fizzy mixed drink to finish off my night. Alan and I made it to the end of the game, though I’ll confess we folded some laundry and I did some computer work at the same time. Football only requires half my attention (ok, that actually applies to TV in general).

Now it’s Monday and another week has begun.

Exciting post, huh? I bet you missed me and my exciting life! :) I have a few pictures to add but the other computer with the photos on it isn’t working at the moment and I have to pick up the kids in 15 minutes so I think I’m outta here. I’ll leave you with this final thought.

It is currently 44.6° and sunny outside. Should I force my tired children to play outside after school (which means me too!) or should I let them lounge around inside while I get some much-needed kitchen cleaning done. Decisions, decisions! :)

Hop On Pop, by Dr. Seuss

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After Eve’s bath I settled on the floor with a comb and asked her to join me. She hasn’t had a bath in a few days (don’t get me started!) and therefore hasn’t had her hair combed in awhile. I grabbed Hop On Pop and she settled in. Much to my surprise a) she didn’t whine about getting her hair combed and b) she READ the book! She started as mumbles under her breath and slowly got louder and louder until she was reading a regular volume. I didn’t say a word. She sounded out the words when she got stuck, stopped and started again when necessary, and really worked on it! It’s so hard to judge (for lack of a better word, not that I’m judging) her reading skills because she always gets coy or obstinate when you ask her to read out loud. Apparently she reads for Alan sometimes, but never for me. Tonight I didn’t say a word she just settled in, picked up the book I had chosen, and started reading! I loved hearing her read and seeing her really trying to read. She got about half way through the book and by that time I was done combing her hair and Lex was out of the bath and bouncing around nearby, so she gave up and asked me to finish. I think she was too distracted and to “on the spot” since Lex and I were both paying attention to her. I’m so proud of her!

And then the sun came out

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I think I used today’s daily allotment of yelling yesterday. Maybe I used up my weekly allotment of yelling yesterday! Today was a much better day!

Lex woke up this morning and said it was going to be a good day (hallelujah!) and it was. He didn’t fuss or fight with me once. He was cooperative at home and apparently at school as well. His teacher emailed me this evening to say that he had an excellent day.

Eve and I kept our senses of humor while grocery shopping and running errands this morning, despite the 34°s and rainy weather. She fussed a little bit about being too tired for school, but she went anyway without trouble.

After I dropped her off I went back to Lex’s school to volunteer in the library. I do that every Wednesday and I really enjoy it. Shelving books is my secondary job, but primarily I’m there to check books in and out and read to the kids. One of the kindergarten classes comes while I’m there, and then Lex’s class comes in after that. I like getting to know both classes and I think they really like having a grownup who will just sit and talk to them. I need to remember that more often at home as well. It seems like there is always too much to do (dishes, laundry, meal prep, tidying, etc.) but kids really like it when you pay them undivided attention. News flash, huh?! :)

When Lex and I left school it was 46° and sunny! We picked up Eve and came home, rode bikes for a bit, had snack, and worked on Valentine’s Day cards. Lex spent a good deal of time on his belly on the living room floor playing with his toys. Everyone was happy, everyone was calm. I even managed to make a delicious dinner (for me, the kids still eat breakfast foods for dinner) and make it through the bath/bedtime routine with no fussing from anyone, myself included.

Ahhh…. thanks for all of your words of encouragement and support. The sun always comes back eventually.