it is negative 7 degrees with the wind chill. without the wind it is a balmy 9 degrees. ferenheit.
I HATE YOU, OLD MAN WINTER!

Busy little bees are we...

So I missed posting last week. Could have been that every time I went to sit at the computer I had 2 kids at my side with a whole list of "Mom can I...", could have been that I needed a week to recover from a VERY LONG 4 day weekend. Could just have been that I forgot.
I honestly don't remember much these days....
But I do know that our time has been filled with dress-up, art projects, books, and as much silliness as a body can handle. Because if you are going to get a little cabin fever, it's best to get the silly kind. The best-loved silliness here goes like this:
Me: (sneeze!)
(look around until I catch eye contact from one of the kids)
Was that you?!

That is the funniest thing EVER, according to our resident 5 year old.

Anywho, I'm off to do my 1 hour of art for the day. Enjoy the pics.

This was 2 weeks ago. Today we hit 43 degrees and are currently enjoying a light drizzle. I am considering breaking out the short sleeves & having a hula party.

Turning a corner

Maybe it was just openly admitting a case of the blahs, or maybe it's that Adrian craves to know EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING but I have gone and decided to make the best of the next 10 weeks of winter. (10 weeks--gag!)
Thus far we have

1. Created a question box. In it, we put questions he has that I don't have answers to. (Currently I need someone who knows about porcupines and someone who knows about bees--Nessa I'm looking at you)

2. Caught snowflakes on black paper & examined them w/a magnifying glass. (EVERY household should have a magnifying glass)

3. Tonight we are timing how long it takes for ice to form outside (it's 22 degrees). We also put animal-shaped cookie cutters into the tray of water--I'll let you know how that pans out.

4. Looked up craft projects for later. I reeeeally need to restock the kids craft bin. We are all out of pipe cleaners, pom poms, and googly eyes. I learned that with wax paperas a non-stick surface you can make a whole mess of stuff out of stuff from your kitchen.

5. This coming weekend is a 4 day weekend for Adrian. I thought we could get crafty, get cozy, and learn a little bit about Martin Luther King, Jr. And if I can get Fiona into snowpants (or newspaper bags) we can go out into the yard and make some snow sculptures. Our current accumulation is about 6 inches (measuring will come later)

Fried polenta cakes for breakfast. Heaven!

Unh hunh unh hunh

I have been busy trying not to be "ogre mom". It is tough work, let me tell you. I think its just the season...I've said it before, I'll say it every year until I shuffle off this mortal coil: I HATE WINTER.
I feel no joy in a snowy landscape. I don't look forward to first frosts, wool sweaters, thermal underwear, and all that heavily layered stuff.

So, I am trying to overcome the tiny black cloud that follows me like a balloon & not take it out on the kids. (After all, they can't even tie their shoes--it would be highly unlikely they could build a weather-changing device out of legos & shiny gum wrappers for me)
And as winter draaaags on, I have less patience, less time for fun & frolic. Today, it was pretty sunny out so I made a point to sit in a sunbeam for as long as I could.

And its becoming harder to live up to the goal for 2010: don't forget to have a good time.
Blah!
Winter is a roller coaster of blah!
I'm going to drink some hot chocolate and read something funny. All this stewing is no good.
More later.

Happy New Year!
My resolution is as follows: Don't Forget To Have A Good Time.
What's yours?

Fiscal responsibility, lesson 1

This morning Adrian woke up at 6:30, turned on the TV to PBS (now that the remote is lost, we set it and he CANT change it--haha!) and played with Fiona's Animal Hospital (what she got for Christmas) until I rolled out of bed at 8. (I KNOW)
I stumbled towards the bathroom & he called out to me: wait! I have something important to ask you!
(I am squinting at him with one good eye and standing on one leg b/c I REALLY have to pee) yes? (raspy morning voice)
Can we get a kitten? An orange one? Please? I love cats!
My response: I'm going to the bathroom. Then we'll talk.

The short answer: no.
The long answer: We have 2 cats & a dog already. And having a pet is also a financial responsibility and right now we just don't have the money for extra vet bills.

This evolved into a talk about our current animals' vet schedules (cats in the spring, dog in the fall) and eventually led to him asking "when will we have the money to get another cat?"

Maybe he should be saving for THAT instead of a computer.
What do you think?

Last night Fiona slept in her toddler bed ALL NIGHT and woke up sunny at 8:30. At which point she came downstairs and said "goodmorning, mama!"
I just love that girl.

So...it's winter

I know that I havent really said hi in a while b/c I was looking for pictures to post and the most recent ones are from November. Ah-ha-ha, yeees. I have been busy & distracted. Busy with work, busy with the kids, busy trying to keep myself from hibernating like I feel I should do every winter. The good news is that all my hard work at work has paid off and I am now a money-making tattooist, the bad news is our mortgage company misfigured our taxes by $5,000 and now wants to raise our monthly payment to half of Aaron's take-home pay. We joke that it's a good thing our kids like white rice & ramen so much.
Thanksgiving was super good--my parents & brother flew out to us and we ate all the traditional stuff, plus a few things that I have made my own: wild rice w/cranberries & pears and a corn casserole. We were all glad to be together, and once again Uncle Jono was the hit of the party. I remember my uncles being fun-in-human-form, and I think that's how the kids see Jono.

And I made Nana's Tea Biscuits for Papa D. He and Adrian frosted and sprinkled them, and had a jolly good time at it. Mom and Dad drove up from VA, and brought a car load of boxes that they had packed away when I left home. Toys, books, and my very first pair of doc marten boots. I have asked Aaron to give them a polish for me for Christmas, because nobody shines shoes quite like a military man.

adrian has declared that he is saving his money to buy his OWN computer. as i can figure, he's 10% of the way there.
you have to admire his ambition.

6:15 AM is too early for the harmonica. I'm just saying.

In review

Adrian & Aaron are looking at Good Guys magazine. It's a magazine completely devoted to classic cars. They are really into it. It sounds like this:
Aaron: whoa! check that out.
Adrian: Awesome.
(page turns)
Adrian: Awesome! Awesome! Awesome!
(page turns)
Adrian: Not awesome. Awesome! Awesome!
(page turns)
Adrian: Awesome!
Aaron: You don't have to say awesome after every car.
(page turns)
Adrian: hot-cha-cha!

fiona & i looked through the grocery store's sale flyer this afternoon. when we were done, she told me 'that was a good story'.

adrian: can we go to the north pole so i can give my letter to santa?
me: no, you have a birthday party to go to after school.

As predicted by my highschool biology teacher...

I am delinquent in nearly everything i do. Here are some photos from the Pirate birthday party...

Pirates demand cake!

Pirates get cake!

And my mom was here! For 4 days, which is not nearly enough time but we'll take what we can get. We cooked, we carved pumpkins, we partied, we trick-or-treated, we crammed in as much as we could AND I remembered to take pictures.

Things that are teh awesome.

1. throwing a Pirate Party for your kid's 5th birthday party, because that's what he wanted. (how awesome is it to have a kid that requests, nay demands! his friends talk & dress like pirates?)

2. having other adult-type friends who dress as pirates for the party so I am not dorky costumed mom...I am dorky costumed mom with friends! also, having adult-type friends who are handy with tools build a pirate game to occupy tiny ones.*

3. in the spirit of the season, rewatching old horror films. Bela Lugosi as Dracula is awesome, in a cheese-in-the-can kind of a way. Tonight's feature is Night of The Living Dead!

4. my mom comes for a visit tomorrow. I will be showing her off like a space-age robot.

5. Every time we mention trick-or-treat, Fiona interprets it to: chocolate milk. This has led to a number of improvisations--Fiona as an elephant, drinking chocolate milk. Fiona as a dinosaur, drinking chocolate milk. The action is always the same, but the narrative is what really makes it worthwhile.

6. K and Fuz move into their new house (woo! and congrats!)


*I am not sure if I failed to explain it properly or if they were just more interested in yanking each other around by a length of rope, but the game didn't happen as it was described to me.

New new new!

My oh my! It's always exciting to get things done around the house. Aaron thinks I'm overly ambitious, but the truth of the matter is that I am proactive and he is reactive. I'm also really good at getting him to see things my way. Aaaaah, the power of persistence. (It only took me 5 years to get a dog, after all). To that end, we got a new roof. When we bought the house, there were 3 layers of shingles up there--and the inspector said we could probably squeeze 4 years out of the existing roof. But then some guys came by and gave us an estimate, and I figured lets just do it. (DO IT NOW, screamed the little voice in my head)

We did a complete tear-off, and you know what they found under those 3 layers of shingles? Three holes in our roof. Right over Adrian's bedroom. Which may explain why his room was SO MUCH COLDER than the rest of the house last winter. One of the holes was big enough to put a basketball in. And I took pictures. So here they are, for your viewing pleasure.

Hole number one. AKA the really big one. And if you look up towards the crest of the roof, you can see hole number two.

Hole number 3. The slightly smaller one.

Thankfully, all have been repaired and we have a new roof on top of them.

It just goes to show: you never know what's under there!

Product review, 4-year-old style.

Me: Here, Adrian I got you some more tape.

Adrian: A whole roll? Can I keep it?

Me: Yes, a whole roll just for you. I know how you love the tape.

Adrian: Yes. Because it is SO handy.

Right quick...

I am about to fall asleep where I stand, but I thought I should check in first. Hello! All is well! Children are giant! Adrian will be 5 in 13 days. He is vibrating with excitement.
And a funny: I have this Aunt, she's one of my favorite people EVER, and whenever I am having a grumpy day I know that I can call her and she'll say the exact right thing to cheer me up. One of these things has evolved into a long-standing joke. If the kids are being too much of a handful, she tells me to put them in a box & send them to her via the UPS man.
So this week, Fion climbed into an empty cardboard box and I said to her: What do you think? Should we send you to Aunt Carmela?
And she thought for a moment and replied: Yes. To Aunt Gorilla, please.

Noodles one and two, signing off.

Yesterday Adrian's scout group had their ceremonial wherein the kids received the badges they had earned over the year. Adrian got 8! The ceremonial was held at Kankakee River State Park, which is about an hour from our house. On the way home, Adrian asked to get dinner from the drive-thru.
Usually I avoid the drive-thru. I don't like the culture, I don't think the food is healthy, I don't like all the trash that is a result of a meal-in-a-bag. But I was exhausted from corraling 2 kids out in the woods all day, and he had been really good so we pulled up to a McDonalds. I don't really like McDonalds either--they are like the WalMart of the food industry and I find them distasteful. I placed the order for 2 happy meals, and the voice-from-a-box asked if they were for boys or girls. (a small alarm went off, but I ignored it) I said one of each. We drive to the first window and pay, then we drive to the second window and get our bags.

Once home, I get a good look at the toys. Adrian got a hot wheels car--cool. He loves those things and 1 car can keep him busy for HOURS.
Fiona got a Barbie compact with lip gloss.
I lost my shit.

Make up is not a toy. Children don't need it (they don't need hot wheels cars either, but that's not the point I'm trying to make).
In one seemingly innocent package, McDonalds manages to deliver a load of social conditioning and a message about gender roles.
Again, I lost my shit.
And I know some of you are probably thinking "Relax, it's just a toy. It's just about having fun".
Go and ask any grown woman you know WHY she puts on make up. I will guarantee you it's not because she needs a dose of fun before she heads out the door in the morning.
Halloween make up is fun. Clown make up is fun (creepy, but fun).

But a mirrored compact with lip gloss is just setting girls up for disappointment. There are only a limited number of play scenarios that you can use that particular item in. And none of them seem to encourage girls to be proud of their bodies and their brains.
I was hoping that we had moved past the idea that girls are to be concerned with how they look, whereas boys are to be concerned with how things work.

So, that's my soapbox.
Thanks for visiting.

And now I'm back!

I went away for 4 days, to Connecticut/Maine/Connecticut to visit my brother/go to a wedding of a dear friend. It was wonderful and strange to be travelling alone. I got a lot of guff for leaving the kids behind, but I needed 4 days of not being a mom to put my head back on straight.

And then tonight, further evidence of Adrian's precociousness:

AD: Mom, is Santa real?

ME: oh god oh god think quick, don't ruin the magic yet, he'll be that kid on the playground, what am I going to--What do you think?

AD: I think he's imaginary.

ME: he can NOT have figured this out already, he's only 4 for crying out loud What does that mean?

AD: That he's like a dream.

ME: AHA! But he brings real presents.

AD: Sometimes dreams really do come true, Mom.

ME: (trying not to laugh) I guess so buddy.


Not really a lie, not really the truth. Is Santa real? I don't know. I know I perpetuate the myth because I like the idea of a jolly guy in a red suit who hands out toys to the good kids and coal to the bad ones. I'm fairly certain that's the first little step in teaching our kids the ideal of Justice. Plus it comes with the added puzzler of how does he see me all the time? And not just me, but every kid, all over the world?
So it's a lesson on justice and espionage. And who doesn't want that for Christmas?