Spring Break (part two)

Our Spring Break finished up with a bang. Maybe more of a ping than a bang. We were all pretty worn out by Sunday night. Brother Brig and fiance left early Sunday morning. #1 and #2 lamented their departure all day, complaining of boredom and the injustices of not living nearer to family.

Brother Brig was really good at engaging the kids and entertaining them. #1 kept begging for more "russlehousing."

Brig's fiance indulged #1 nearly everyday by participating in some 6-year-old pastime; paper dolls, American Girl dolls, wii games.

The zoo! We tried something new and brought the kid's bikes. I learned that #2 doesn't know how to use his brakes. Every hill was the same thing. He would get going really fast and steer himself into something, like a bush or a fence or the pavement, to stop himself.

Walking on a spiderweb. Leave a message and I'll call you back. And it's all your fault, I screeyeeyeen my phone calls..... honk if you're a 90's girl! (or guy)

After getting hot and sweaty at the zoo we stopped at an old ice-cream parlor for a cool treat.

Estrella Mountain Park. This hike was perfect for my little ones, .06 miles. Any temptation we had to extend the hike was tempered by warning signs of an Africanized Bee colony.

Saturday morning soccer game. Brother Brig and his photographer of a fiance. I wish I'd had some of her pictures for this post.

This is how we keep our kids corralled during the soccer game. #1 had to get in on this picture. She is such a poser lately.

Saturday night #1 lost her 2nd tooth. She says she wants to keep the tooth and isn't willing to risk putting it under her pillow. I guess she wasn't too impressed with the tooth fairy's first gift of a mere 4 quarters.

So long Spring Break..... until next year.

Spring Break (part one)

Since we couldn't go to Mexico, like we had planned, due to all the violence along the border and because we never really had planned to go to Mexico, we've been having a whole bunch of local fun for our family's first spring break. My brother and his fiance, enjoying their own spring break, are here helping to take some of the entertaining pressure off of me. Anything is fun with Brother Brig around.

Monday: AZ Science Center

Here is #1 bummed that she lost a mind game to me. Check this out: so these electrodes are supposed to pick up a certain brain wave that indicates stress. The person who is the most relaxed during the game wins. And I won. What the?


I want to borrow this bed of nails for time outs. But I'll make my kids sit on it instead of comfortably distributing the weight around by lying down.


Brother Brig testing his strength because it's soooooooo hard to lift #3 off the ground. Sheesh, what a wimp.


Tuesday: Downtown Excursion with fun on the Metro Light Rail, and Museum of Art (free on Tuesdays!)

#2 practicing his spiffy new "smile for the camera" face. Check out that dimple!

At the train stop.

#1 with fresh excitement. 15 minutes later she was asking how much longer we had before we could get off. The answer was, "way too long."

#1 and #2 in the miniatures room. I didn't get many pictures at the museum because #1 injured herself in a fun-house like nightmare. Ooops! I mean in one of those abstract light instillation pieces. The room was completely blacked out with little fiber optic lights fading in and out. All the walls were mirrored and angled so it was pretty much impossible to find our way out. After what seemed like an eternity I started to call for help. From the blackness I hear the usher say, "The exist is over there." Super helpful. If I could see the exit I wouldn't be asking for help out! But just then, poor #1, fooled by the illusions in the mirrors, thinking she has found our way out yells, "Here it is Mom!" and runs full speed into one of the walls. Her nose exploded like a bloody grenade. We were quickly escorted out and sadly the museum was much more concerned about their bloodied exhibit than they were about helping me push my stroller or carry my screaming 6 year old, while dragging my four year old to the nearest bathroom.


Stay tuned for Spring Break (part two).


What are you doing for Spring Break?

A Perfect Saturday

Growing up my family went backpacking and hiking for family vacations. Spouse would have written that "vacations" because his idea of a vacation is doing as little as possible.

Sitting here tonight I feel like I might have experienced The Perfect Saturday. For me The Perfect Saturday includes a long run, hours in the sun at #1's fist soccer game, children playing freely while Spouse weeds the yard and I detail the house. The perfect Saturday must include the satisfaction of a well stocked pantry and a full (clean) frig. It also includes #1 and me in the kitchen making strawberry jam while Spouse mows the lawn and #2 rides his bike on the back patio. The Perfect Saturday winds down with the kids eating cereal for dinner because I don't HAVE to cook every night, right? It's only perfect if I still haven't showered as I write this post and if my legs are so exhausted they feel like jelly under me. The Perfect Saturday will end with me falling into bed, very soon; scriptures sliding off my chest before I finish one verse. This is satisfaction to me.

Spouse, if you ever read this, I know you are rolling your eyes right now. My Perfect Saturday = Spouse's Saturday From Hell. Spouse's perfect Saturday would go something like this: sleep in. Sleep in so late it's time for lunch. Go out to lunch. Lay on the couch watching an old western or some boring science show, with me snuggled under his arm only getting restless when it's time to refill our popcorn and Diet Cokes. Doze. Rouse in time to get dressed for dinner which would of course be Mexican take out. Stay up late eating treats and watching movies. Don't ask what the kids have been doing all this time. In Spouse's fantasy the children disappear on Saturdays.

What is your Perfect Saturday?

Whew!

What kind of friend am I? I drop an opinionated hot-topic bomb on you and then leave for two weeks? There are good excuses my friends. Good excuses.

Excuse #1 Visitors!

Excuse #2 More Visitors!

My brother and his family from New Mexico came to spend Valentines/President's Day weekend. The cousins were thrilled to be with each other; so thrilled they couldn't sleep at night. Spouse and my brother stayed up to the wee hours of the morning discussing important things like guns and freedoms and stuff. My SIL pulled through for me and helped out at our primary activity on Saturday morning. Spouse and I did our best to convince them to move closer to us. After a morning at the zoo, they left for home around noon on Monday.

#1 and cousin - static heads

It wasn't like this all the time. #2 and his cousin were great playmates.

My good brother and my good Spouse still solving the world's problems.

Lunch break at the zoo.

SIL, brother and their little baby, outside the monkey village - at the zoo, people, not my house.

Quick change of bedding, bathroom cleaning and a trip to the grocery store and we were ready for our next guests, Spouse's parents, who arrived Tuesday afternoon. As usual they came bearing gifts, hugs and happy times for us. Grandma J tirelessly read to, played with and indulged my children with grandmotherly attention. Grandpa J treated us to movies, boat-rides, and many meals out (something we don't do much of anymore). They left us with full hearts, an extra 5 pounds for me, and a closet full of pressed shirts for Spouse.

#3 and her Grandpa at the Tempe Beach Park

#2, #3 and patient Grandma playing Sequence For Kids.

Spouse's dad is a real guitar player, so he caught onto Guitar Hero quite naturally. Spouse's mom is trying not to get sick from the rolling notes on the screen. I can relate.

#3 rockin' out on the drums

#1, with her Grandma at Mimi's for breakfast.

Now it's back to reality and the responsibilities I seemed to forget while our visitors were here. That is unless I can entice any more visitors our way...... (hint. hint).

An all boys party

Several months ago Spouse informed me that #2's 4th birthday party was going to be with all boys. Spouse made baseball card invitations with #2's face superimposed over Kurt Wariner's body. He painted lines on our grass and set up a football goal standard. There was going to be nothing girly about this party.

And so 8 little boys came to our house yesterday to play soccer, baseball, football; break open a baseball pinata; and wrestle each other WWF style in our bounce house. I naively had planned fun little games involving the sports equipment. But 4 year old boys have no attention span, and resist being directed when they're interested in other things. After a while I just gave up and let them play. If I hadn't already been convinced, yesterday proved again how different girls and boys are.

For example, at a little girl's party the girls socialize and pretty much stick together as a group. They say please and thank you. They like organized games and can sit still for a number of minutes. However, little girls are fixated on order and fairness and who gets to sit where and by whom. And ultimately, someone's feelings get hurt and there are tears.

Compare that to a little boys party where the boys are happy to play by themselves and aren't very interested in what the others are doing. When there is a disagreement, the stronger one just rips whatever he wants from the little one and it's over. They aren't interested in rules and winning games. They just want to do what they want to do. Cleaniless and good manners are just things someone tells them to do and which they usually ignore.

You mothers of all girls may be smugly relieved you don't have to deal with the unknown - the masculine side of life - things like your almost four year old son exiting the bathroom in just his briefs with half of his privates squished out of one side saying "hey mom, look at this!" But little do you know how much you are missing of a boy's uncomplicated affection and easiness to please.

I think we could have thrown rocks at a wall for an hour and #2 would have been equally pleased with his party - providing there was cake and balloons of course. Next year I'll be wiser. Happy Birthday #2!

$$$ lessons

A few weeks before Christmas #1 got her ears pierced and yesterday marked the 6th week.  And as all girls know, that is an important week.  No more cleaning and twisting the earrings three times a day.  Six weeks means that you can safely remove the studs and finally wear the earrings you've been waiting to wear. 

In celebration of the 6th week, #1 took the contents of her big and small piggy banks to the Coinstar machine at the grocery to see if she had enough money to buy a new pair of earrings.  I warned her not to expect much, maybe only $6 or $7.

We were both surprised that the machine counted up $25.46!  #1's eyes glossed over with all the possibilities.  At Target she picked out a nice set of earrings and proudly removed her twenty dollar bill from her little wallet to pay for them.  

Do you remember how confusing money used to seem?  How could one bill (say, a twenty) be better than four bills (like, four ones)?  #1 experienced a bit of that confusion when the cashier gave her $4 back in change.  #1 reacted like she had just hit the jackpot!  

"Four hundred!" she exclaimed!   

I told her, "Actually, those are four one dollar bills."

"And each one is a hundred!"

"Well. Each one is one hundred cents. One hundred pennies."

"I know!  Four Hundred cents!"

We walked around Target a little bit longer, to see if there was anything else she wanted to buy with her money. She wanted to buy #2 a birthday present and kept choosing things way out of her price range.  When I would say, "That costs $42 and you only have $9."  She would briefly look deterred then she would say, "Then you buy it!" After a while she started to understand things like:

Once your money is gone, you don't have anymore.

You can only buy something if you have enough money.

You should only get things you really want.

You know, things most adults haven't figured out yet.  She finally decided on getting him a $0.98 Bottle Pop.

On our way home she opened her wallet and spread the remains of her wealth across her lap.  Maybe feeling little sad that she didn't have $25 anymore, she asked, "Mom, how can I get more money?"

Before I had a chance to answer she added, "And I don't want any of your money. You're low on money. I want new money."

Yes. I am low on money.  So I pose the question to you readers: How can my 6 year old get more money?  Any simple money raising ideas?

PS This really is for #1 and not for me.  

#4

You are familiar with my children, #1, #2, and #3. But have I ever mentioned #4? #4 does not live with us on a permanent basis. But once or twice a year we get to enjoy him for a 7-10 day stay. The symptoms started early in the week and by the weekend we said goodbye to Spouse and hello to #4. The culprit this time: strep throat.

Here are the differences between Spouse and #4:

Spouse is helpful. #4 lays in bed all day.

Spouse is independent. #4 needs me to bring him water and tuck blankets around his neck.

Spouse is fun and playful. #4 needs peace and quiet.

Spouse listens to me complain and wants to solve my problems. #4 can't hear problems and in fact is a problem.

Spouse takes care of me. I take care of #4.

Spouse is a MAN. #4 is a CHILD.



Fortunately I think #4 has one foot out the door and I see glimpses of my man returning to life.

Here are some gross and disturbing pictures. Faint of heart: look away. I say, look away.



What you see here is a picture of normal mouth structure and color. Notice the size and color of a normal uvula (that little piece that hangs down at the back of the throat). And isn't that a lovely tongue?


Compare that to this uvula. Gross huh? Apparently sometimes the infection will spread to the uvula causing this freakish appendage. What made me notice? Spouse complained that he felt like he couldn't breath. I had a hard time getting a great picture. You know, to really do the thing justice. But you can see the thickness of the base.




It was about the size of a pinkie hanging down the back of his throat.


It's almost the size of his nostrils.



I love you Spouse.