Pops and Susan took the boys to see a production of Mary Poppins at the playhouse. The boys were not familiar with the story and were whining before about going to what sounded to them like a long, boring event at which they would have to not talk and sit still for hours. Before they left, David whined "I don't want to see Harry Poppins!" I think he had a mashup of Harry Potter and Mary Poppins in his head.
But off they went, and sure enough they came home three hours later loving the play and singing the Supercalifrangilisticexpialidocious song and talking about how much fun they had. I think it helped that they got to take their allowance and treat Pops and Susan to a lemonade and a snack at intermission. And on top of that, after they got to go to the Drake Diner, too. Kinda wish I was 5 and 7 again.
Saturday, December 20, 2014
Friday, December 19, 2014
Top (Sh)elf
So this guy comes to our house. The Elf on the Shelf. If you haven't heard of him, a family invented him to come at the holidays to watch their children and report to Santa each night if they are good or bad. Then they turned him into a book and a thing and made millions. The internet has exploded with clever and funny reports of what Elf on the Shelf does in other homes. You have to name your elf. The kids named ours Albert L. Except I thought they meant Albert Elle and wrote it in the book that way. I really can't remember where the Albert came from. Albert is a bit lazy. He makes an annual appearance in the sink with a bunch of mini marshmallows as he takes a bath. And he always likes to put the kids' underwear on the Christmas tree. Other than that, he is pretty tame.
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
The Epic Story About Two Teeth
Oh, these boys and their teeth. They have been losing them faster than they lose gloves, and I can't keep those in stock. This winter someone always has a loose tooth, and one night they both had the same tooth that was very loose. AJ was anxious that David would lose the tooth before AJ did. I put them to bed and heard some shouts twenty minutes later that had me running to their room thinking they were fighting. Turns out they were playing "dog" and using their teeth to play tug-of-war with a pillow and David's tooth popped out. Lots of excitement, no one was sleeping and AJ started very determinedly wiggling his tooth to the point that it was bleeding. I finally got them both tucked back in and then five minutes later heard shouts again. This time AJ had convinced David to pull on the pillow while AJ bit it so that he could lose his tooth as well.
You might think all ends there. But not in this household. In the drama of rinsing mouths and teeth, AJ dropped his tooth in the toilet. And then said--"Mom! Get it out!!" I told him that if he wanted it back, he was going to have to fish it out himself. His eyes got very wide as he thought about this, and I guess the tooth fairy loot outweighed the gross out factor because he plunged his hand right in and grabbed it. Once he had the tooth out he said to me "I can't believe you made me do that!" I laughed and told him I didn't make him do anything.
And no, it was 9:00 at this point but it was not over yet. AJ set the tooth on the counter to wash his hands and promptly managed to knock that same tooth into the sink where it slid down the drain with a tiny clink as it hit the metal rim. AJ and David were both beside themselves. Many tears later, dad came to the rescue and took apart the sink. Sure enough, he managed to find that darn tooth in the drain catch.
The end, you think? Of course not. The boys decided they wanted to keep their teeth for a day and leave them for the tooth fairy the next day. So we very carefully put them in a special spot on their dresser and they finally went to sleep at 10:00 on a Sunday, a school night no less.
The next night when we went to put the teeth under the pillows, we couldn't find them. Upon inquiry, David admitted that he had sneaked out of bed the night before and taken both teeth into his bed to play with them (it must make sense to a six year-old) before he fell asleep. And then forgot all about them when he woke up. We looked around their very clean room in horror. The cleaning ladies had come that day, made the beds and vacuumed. The boys were certain the teeth were gone, and AJ was mad at David for losing his tooth. But we moved the beds, took the sheets apart and crawled around on the floor until we found one tooth on the rug. Only one. And the boys were able to identify it as David's. Much tears and anger because David's had been found but not AJ's. AJ felt David should give him the tooth as compensation for playing with and losing AJ's. David was not willing to do that but offered AJ one of the three gold dollars he was anticipating from the fairy. AJ was unwilling to compromise. Drama, drama, drama. No one was sleeping for the second night in a row. I finally had the idea to go through the laundry basket where the dirty sheets were, and what do you know...we found that second wily tooth. What a saga.
You might think all ends there. But not in this household. In the drama of rinsing mouths and teeth, AJ dropped his tooth in the toilet. And then said--"Mom! Get it out!!" I told him that if he wanted it back, he was going to have to fish it out himself. His eyes got very wide as he thought about this, and I guess the tooth fairy loot outweighed the gross out factor because he plunged his hand right in and grabbed it. Once he had the tooth out he said to me "I can't believe you made me do that!" I laughed and told him I didn't make him do anything.
And no, it was 9:00 at this point but it was not over yet. AJ set the tooth on the counter to wash his hands and promptly managed to knock that same tooth into the sink where it slid down the drain with a tiny clink as it hit the metal rim. AJ and David were both beside themselves. Many tears later, dad came to the rescue and took apart the sink. Sure enough, he managed to find that darn tooth in the drain catch.
The end, you think? Of course not. The boys decided they wanted to keep their teeth for a day and leave them for the tooth fairy the next day. So we very carefully put them in a special spot on their dresser and they finally went to sleep at 10:00 on a Sunday, a school night no less.
The next night when we went to put the teeth under the pillows, we couldn't find them. Upon inquiry, David admitted that he had sneaked out of bed the night before and taken both teeth into his bed to play with them (it must make sense to a six year-old) before he fell asleep. And then forgot all about them when he woke up. We looked around their very clean room in horror. The cleaning ladies had come that day, made the beds and vacuumed. The boys were certain the teeth were gone, and AJ was mad at David for losing his tooth. But we moved the beds, took the sheets apart and crawled around on the floor until we found one tooth on the rug. Only one. And the boys were able to identify it as David's. Much tears and anger because David's had been found but not AJ's. AJ felt David should give him the tooth as compensation for playing with and losing AJ's. David was not willing to do that but offered AJ one of the three gold dollars he was anticipating from the fairy. AJ was unwilling to compromise. Drama, drama, drama. No one was sleeping for the second night in a row. I finally had the idea to go through the laundry basket where the dirty sheets were, and what do you know...we found that second wily tooth. What a saga.
Monday, December 15, 2014
I Mustache You a Question...
but I'll shave it for later.
All credit for this post, including the mustaches and the silly joke, go to our wonderful nanny, Ashley.
Sunday, December 14, 2014
Hut, two, three, four...or the choosing of the annual Christmas tree
One of my other favorite holiday traditions! We headed out to the local tree farm for the fourth year to choose our tree. This is our second year in this house, so I really don't have a good explanation for how we misjudged the height of the tree we needed by so much. We thought well, we have 10 foot ceilings, so we'll take a 10 foot tree and just have them trim six inches off the base and we'll be set. Right. I believe Joe had to take the tree back out to the garage at least two and maybe three times to trim it some more. Once we got it in the stand we thought we had it just right until we realized we forgot to leave room for the star. So note to self for next year---an eight foot tree will do just fine.
Families always have funny recurring disagreements on some mundane topic. Ours is about when it is time to get the tree. I am an advocate that the right time is the Saturday after Christmas. Joe believes it is two weeks before the big day, or some years the Saturday before Christmas. Growing up, my mom always loved to decorate a live tree and arranged the lights so that the tree looked like it was lit from within. (Her tip is to poke the lights way in by the base instead of just stringing them on the outside branches.). My sister and I would turn out the lights in the house but leave the tree lights on and sleep on the couches next to the tree watching it glow as we fell asleep.
Joe's family waits much longer. His birthday is in mid-December, and his mom used to wait until after his birthday to get ready for Christmas so that he wouldn't feel shorted on the birthday celebration. That and Joe is pretty convinced a live Christmas tree only has a 10 day shelf life before it becomes a Major Fire Hazard.
So this year I let Joe pick the date and we went two weeks prior to Christmas...only to find there were very, very few trees left to cut down. We walked over an acre of stumps in fact, passing only three or four stragglers that were left for obvious reasons. A huge bald spot on one, an odd, deep ring of brown needles on another. We asked two guys who worked there for tips on where to go to find a good tree, and they sheepishly and politely said, "well, you really gotta come the Saturday after Thanksgiving to get a good one..." It was as if I had written the script and paid them a tip to say it. But so much more convincing when it comes from The Tree Guys than your spouse.
So we were pretty dejected and about to leave for a pre-cut tree when the kids found this one at the back of the lot. A bald patch on one side and some brown needles, but I thought maybe we could make it work. Joe was skeptical, but the kids were so excited and quickly started marching in a circle around it chanting "hut, two, three, four!" Trying to guard their tree from the two or three other straggler families out there with us. We lugged it home, trimmed off the brown, hid the bald patch behind a chair and all thought it turned out better than we had hoped. Oh, and I poked the lights way in toward the base, just like mom taught me. Because part of holidays are traditions, right?
Families always have funny recurring disagreements on some mundane topic. Ours is about when it is time to get the tree. I am an advocate that the right time is the Saturday after Christmas. Joe believes it is two weeks before the big day, or some years the Saturday before Christmas. Growing up, my mom always loved to decorate a live tree and arranged the lights so that the tree looked like it was lit from within. (Her tip is to poke the lights way in by the base instead of just stringing them on the outside branches.). My sister and I would turn out the lights in the house but leave the tree lights on and sleep on the couches next to the tree watching it glow as we fell asleep.
Joe's family waits much longer. His birthday is in mid-December, and his mom used to wait until after his birthday to get ready for Christmas so that he wouldn't feel shorted on the birthday celebration. That and Joe is pretty convinced a live Christmas tree only has a 10 day shelf life before it becomes a Major Fire Hazard.
So this year I let Joe pick the date and we went two weeks prior to Christmas...only to find there were very, very few trees left to cut down. We walked over an acre of stumps in fact, passing only three or four stragglers that were left for obvious reasons. A huge bald spot on one, an odd, deep ring of brown needles on another. We asked two guys who worked there for tips on where to go to find a good tree, and they sheepishly and politely said, "well, you really gotta come the Saturday after Thanksgiving to get a good one..." It was as if I had written the script and paid them a tip to say it. But so much more convincing when it comes from The Tree Guys than your spouse.
So we were pretty dejected and about to leave for a pre-cut tree when the kids found this one at the back of the lot. A bald patch on one side and some brown needles, but I thought maybe we could make it work. Joe was skeptical, but the kids were so excited and quickly started marching in a circle around it chanting "hut, two, three, four!" Trying to guard their tree from the two or three other straggler families out there with us. We lugged it home, trimmed off the brown, hid the bald patch behind a chair and all thought it turned out better than we had hoped. Oh, and I poked the lights way in toward the base, just like mom taught me. Because part of holidays are traditions, right?
Saturday, December 13, 2014
Gingerly
We continued the tradition of making gingerbread houses for the holidays. It is one of my favorite things to do every year, and as I read more about the current simplicity movement that says to do less and be happier, I think this is one of the things on my short list that I would keep about the holidays. I only wish I could add an extra pair of hands or two on this day, because someone always needs help with squeezing the frosting bag, unwrapping candies or (my favorite this year) getting the frosting off the dog's fur. From top to bottom the houses are Julia's, David's and AJ's.
Monday, December 8, 2014
Wired
Sunday, November 30, 2014
The Thanksgiving with the Dinosaurs and the Pool
We made a trip to St. Louis for Thanksgiving this year to visit Uncle Dave and Aunt Kim who are residents at a hospital there. He works in the ED and she is a pediatric gastroenterologist. Very cool to know you are covered if your kids get any mystery illnesses while out of town, but unlike pretty much every other trip we have taken with the kids, there wasn't even an ear infection in sight, much less the trip to the ED we had when Davey visited Chicago last year. Not that I am complaining.
Thanksgiving morning was odd because the kids were in the pool and there was zero food prep to do. We all had dinner at a local restaurant, so our only job that day was to show up on time. It was fun to try something different, but I have to admit I kinda missed the whole cooking thing (just didn't miss the dishes at all!) We all decided that next year we would cook at home again. We did get to watch the annual surgeons versus ED docs football game, which was played in the snow this year, complete with a doc in shorts on a cold and snowy day.
St. Louis was so much fun. We saw the holiday lights at the botanic gardens, the zoo lights at the St. Louis Zoo and spent a day at the amazing children's museum which connected to a space museum. I even got to sneak away to see the St. Louis art museum, which had some gems, especially two works by Van Gogh I had never seen before. And there was a special exhibit on Polynesian art that was fascinating. My favorite part may have been seeing Forest Park where the World's Fair was held. Meet Me in St. Louis is a family favorite movie.
The most memorable moment, though, by far was seeing the black mamba snake at the zoo. My brother used to talk about that snake when we were little, and something about it terrified me. Maybe it is the fact that it can jump through the air and, according to my kids, is the only snake that can rise up high enough to bite a human in the face. It did not help that Uncle Dave told us before we went about how the ED docs go to the zoo to do drills on administering the anti-venom to zookeepers because they have to clean the enclosure where it is kept once or twice a year. That snake was mesmerizing and horrifying, like my worst nightmare. It rose up to eye level behind the glass and just looked so evil. I still shudder when I think about it. The kids were fascinated and delighted, so I tried to hide my fear.
In a little bit of serendipity, I saw a post of one of my dear childhood friends on Facebook saying she was headed to St. Louis for Thanksgiving, too, and we were able to meet up at the zoo to see the zoo lights together. I had never met her youngest son, and it was fun after seeing so many pictures on Facebook to see her boys in action.
Thanksgiving morning was odd because the kids were in the pool and there was zero food prep to do. We all had dinner at a local restaurant, so our only job that day was to show up on time. It was fun to try something different, but I have to admit I kinda missed the whole cooking thing (just didn't miss the dishes at all!) We all decided that next year we would cook at home again. We did get to watch the annual surgeons versus ED docs football game, which was played in the snow this year, complete with a doc in shorts on a cold and snowy day.
St. Louis was so much fun. We saw the holiday lights at the botanic gardens, the zoo lights at the St. Louis Zoo and spent a day at the amazing children's museum which connected to a space museum. I even got to sneak away to see the St. Louis art museum, which had some gems, especially two works by Van Gogh I had never seen before. And there was a special exhibit on Polynesian art that was fascinating. My favorite part may have been seeing Forest Park where the World's Fair was held. Meet Me in St. Louis is a family favorite movie.
The most memorable moment, though, by far was seeing the black mamba snake at the zoo. My brother used to talk about that snake when we were little, and something about it terrified me. Maybe it is the fact that it can jump through the air and, according to my kids, is the only snake that can rise up high enough to bite a human in the face. It did not help that Uncle Dave told us before we went about how the ED docs go to the zoo to do drills on administering the anti-venom to zookeepers because they have to clean the enclosure where it is kept once or twice a year. That snake was mesmerizing and horrifying, like my worst nightmare. It rose up to eye level behind the glass and just looked so evil. I still shudder when I think about it. The kids were fascinated and delighted, so I tried to hide my fear.
In a little bit of serendipity, I saw a post of one of my dear childhood friends on Facebook saying she was headed to St. Louis for Thanksgiving, too, and we were able to meet up at the zoo to see the zoo lights together. I had never met her youngest son, and it was fun after seeing so many pictures on Facebook to see her boys in action.
Saturday, November 8, 2014
For a Song and Dance
Julia had her friend birthday party this weekend. We had a little bit more of the shenanigans that we had when David's friend party was a few weeks after his actual birthday. Julia excitedly said to her brothers this morning that she got to choose her balloon first because it was HER birthday and David (remember Mr. Dramatic?) said, "Julia, it. is. NOT. your. birthday!" Julia sobbed and said "mom, David says this is NOT my birthday party, that it is someone else's birthday party...waaaaah!" So I explained that while it is not her actual birthday, it is her birthday party and so we will pretend it is her birthday today. To which Julia said, "then I am turning five today and I get to chew gum whenever I want!" Very reminiscent of this conversation...It's like groundhog's day around here.
I think I have coordinated around 15 birthday parties now and this was one of my favorites. My criteria is that it is easy for the parents (I don't want to be the one entertaining all of the kids for 1.5 hours) and fun for the kids. Added bonus points if it is at a place we haven't been to 15 times already, but then again, we have had some fun parties at very popular places when the kids simply insisted they really, really wanted it there. (Pump It Up, I'm talking about you, here.) This party was at the Pied Piper Music Studio, which offers KinderMusik classes and piano lessons on a piano purchased for $75, painted yellow and affectionately known as Goldie (wish I had a picture to share here, because it was awesome.) Julia was super excited about this party and seemed to love every minute of it. She got to play a drum, strum a guitar, string a necklace and (my favorite) pretend she was cleaning (see those pink dusting mitts in the picture below?...I think we will be getting some for our house.) Here's to four, in all of its glory.
I think I have coordinated around 15 birthday parties now and this was one of my favorites. My criteria is that it is easy for the parents (I don't want to be the one entertaining all of the kids for 1.5 hours) and fun for the kids. Added bonus points if it is at a place we haven't been to 15 times already, but then again, we have had some fun parties at very popular places when the kids simply insisted they really, really wanted it there. (Pump It Up, I'm talking about you, here.) This party was at the Pied Piper Music Studio, which offers KinderMusik classes and piano lessons on a piano purchased for $75, painted yellow and affectionately known as Goldie (wish I had a picture to share here, because it was awesome.) Julia was super excited about this party and seemed to love every minute of it. She got to play a drum, strum a guitar, string a necklace and (my favorite) pretend she was cleaning (see those pink dusting mitts in the picture below?...I think we will be getting some for our house.) Here's to four, in all of its glory.
Look Who's Four!
The dress Julia is wearing is one of her two birthday dresses that Grandma Francie chose for Julia from one of our favorite stores in Park Ridge, Camp Willow. It is fun to see Grandma Francie and Julia share a love of dresses. This one has been worn to church, to school and all around town already. The blue fingernail polish was picked up by Papa specially for Julia from Walgreen's when Julia was invited to a princess birthday party and just HAD to have blue fingernails to match the blue Elsa the princess dress she had borrowed for the party.
The things I want to remember about Julia at age four include the way she loves to color and draw and will sit at the table for an hour at a time, her adoration for her best friend and excitement at seeing her each day at school, the way she marches into her preschool classroom without looking back to wave good-bye as she is so excited to start her day, the way she throws her arms in the air and shakes her head when she is feeling silly, her love of all animals, especially the cats, her independent (if slightly sassy at times) personality, the way her eyes light up when her brothers pay attention to her or use one of her ideas, the way she holds my hand and still wants to be picked up and cuddled when she is tired or not feeling well.
A Visit from Grandma and Papa
My favorite part of the visit was watching the kids with Grandpa and Papa. The relationships between grandparents and grandchildren is one of my favorite things in life. We are lucky that we have another date to see them on the calendar already soon.
Thursday, October 30, 2014
The Singing Birthdaygram
Pops and Susan have a neat tradition of sending each of the grandchildren singing birthday cards in the mail. They even have found special stamps with characters on them from time to time. My kids always love getting something in the mail, and I am amazed how much they love these singing cards. Last year Julia's card had a crab that sang a Reggae version of I Wanna Wish You a Happy Birthday that went like this:
I wanna-wanna wish you a haaaappy biiiirthday...
I wanna help you cel-e-braaaaaate...
I hope you get lots of preeeeeseeeeeents...
I wanna help you eeeeeeat your caaaaaake.
I know this by heart now because it played so many times in our house, including up until the day before her birthday. It would disappear for months or even weeks at a time and then I would hear the music again floating out of Julia's room. I don't know how that thing even still has batteries.
This year she got the card pictured here that plays Kokomo by The Beach Boys. So here is what we will be singing at our house at least until David's birthday in December...Aruba, Jamaica, ooooh I wanna take ya...
I wanna-wanna wish you a haaaappy biiiirthday...
I wanna help you cel-e-braaaaaate...
I hope you get lots of preeeeeseeeeeents...
I wanna help you eeeeeeat your caaaaaake.
I know this by heart now because it played so many times in our house, including up until the day before her birthday. It would disappear for months or even weeks at a time and then I would hear the music again floating out of Julia's room. I don't know how that thing even still has batteries.
This year she got the card pictured here that plays Kokomo by The Beach Boys. So here is what we will be singing at our house at least until David's birthday in December...Aruba, Jamaica, ooooh I wanna take ya...
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Can I Plese Cepe My Tooth?
AJ lost tooth #3 at school on Friday. He was thrilled that it came out at school because that meant he got to have a special trip to the nurse's office for the tiny treasure chest that she gives to kids who lose a tooth at school. I don't remember a treasure chest when we were young. What did we do if our tooth fell out at school? Go to the bathroom and wrap it in a brown industrial paper towel? He decided he wanted to write this note to the tooth fairy asking to keep his tooth and still get the money. The tooth fairy didn't appear the first night. We speculated about her failure to show. Perhaps she was sick? Maybe AJ should have been more specific in his note about wanting to keep the tooth AND still get the money? Or maybe it was just that he stayed up too late that night and the tooth fairy had made her rounds while he was still awake. She appeared the next night and left the $3 and all was well again.
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