Compromise

I am really having a battle with Bro in the morning when it is time to get out of his pajamas; he doesn't want to take them off.  The battle has escalated over the past few months (some days are better than others - i.e., the days he gets to wear his Iron Man or pirate shirts).  But lately, these battles end in taking away his morning TV and/or a time out... along with his whining, crying, and/or yelling, depending on the day.

This morning, he was sent to time out.  After he calmed down, I went into his room and sat down on the floor next to him and explained, in preschool terms, that we must get dressed for our day in the morning.

He explained that he likes to keep his pajamas on because they are warm and comfortable.  {{We can all understand and appreciate wanting to stay in our jammies all day long, right?}}

I offered up this compromise:

Every evening, in lieu of wearing jammies, I'll send him to bed dressed in the clothes that he is going to wear the next day.  Then, when he wakes up in the morning, he will already be dressed, warm, cozy, and ready for the day.

How do I really feel about this compromise?

I tend to think that this is a bad idea.  Educators are telling parents that constant negotiating at home is why teachers are having such a hard time with kids in school... because these kids think that everything can be negotiated.  When the teachers set boundaries and limits, the kids try to negotiate for different terms, which is maddening. 

I once had a friend who warmed his daughter's clothes in the oven every morning.  {{I'm not kidding.}}

Want to read another opinion on negotiating with children?  Check out How to Negotiate with Children from growingupwell.org.  Their main point is:  "How do you allow children to negotiate with adults, without allowing them to become obnoxious little princes and princesses who feel the kingdom is entitled to them?"

Either way, the morning battle is draining {{welcome to parenthood, I know}} and I might be taking the easy way out but I'm desperate. 

I am open to any other suggestions that you might have.

Bring it on!

In other news, unbeknownst to me, that pretty flowering tree in my backyard is a lilac bush/tree.  You can clip the blooms and bring them inside and they look great almost anywhere.  Of course, I have to put them up high to keep them away from Godzilla Baby Bee.  Maybe I can buy a proper vase with my birthday money.  Ya think? 

Oh goodness...

As promised, here is the update on the chicken situation.

Unbeknownst to me, the farm got a visit from animal control the night before we were supposed to pick up our chickens.  The farm sent a late-night email to families letting us know that the chick program was cancelled because State law dictates that they are not permitted to release any animals under 3 weeks old (despite the fact that he farm gets all of their chickens when they are under 3 weeks old) to anyone for any reason.

They apologized to the families and offered 3-week-old chickens to families who are still interested.

Dear Husband, Bro, Bri, and I arrived to the farm on a gorgeous Saturday morning.

The staff was polite and gracious and humble and totally wonderful as they explained the situation to those of us who had not read their email.

I was heart broken and not about to take home a half-grown chicken.  Nope!  Not happening!

We hung out for a little bit and checked out the farm.

I watched my son drool over the livestock on the other side of the fence.  I think he could have stared over that fence for hours.  I have no doubt that he is a future farmer. 

Even baby Bee seemed to really enjoy the sights.

The farmers brought out the baby chicks and I was shocked and amazed at how gentle baby Bee was with them... I mean totally shocked... as "gentle" is not in her vocabulary. 

When it came time to leave (without a chicken - wink, wink) I gave a cheerful, "Okay guys.  Wasn't that fun?  Let's go!"  {{yippee}}

And, Brody replied, "But Mom, what about our chicken?  We are supposed to babysit a chicken."

"No, no, no.  They said that we can't take the baby chickens.  We only get to take the big chickens.  So, we aren't going to take on home with us.  Okay buddy?"

"No - I want a chicken.  I want to babysit her."

So, we took her home....

... we gave her a name... ahem... "Nugget"... and showed her how to play with the LeapPad.

We had to lift up the flaps on the box (to make the sides taller) because she was perched on the side of the box within minutes of her arrival.

We also took her outside to play.

The kids just love her.  Even my teen wants to keep her.

Here is a great video from CNN on urban chicken farming.  Have you ever heard of a chicken diaper?  You have now - watch the video.  Oh my goodness.

Oh the things we do for our kids... Oh!

Sanity Update: Week 1 of 4

My moms group met on Wednesday for our last get together of the year. 
boo hoo hoo.  {{please pass the tissues}}

I skipped the mom's group, for the first time ever, because there was a last minute email sent out (well, it came through on Monday) saying that the plans had been changed and the next meeting would include (1) a white elephant gift exchange and (2) snack to share.  Since I got the email after the weekend had passed and I worked late on Wednesday, I was not appropriately prepared for the moms group meeting.

What did we do instead?  We sat at the couch with a big ol' bag of popcorn and watched Survivor - one of our favorite shows.  Some of us (ahem... me) have watched all 23 seasons.  Yes indeed!

Are you keeping track of my week?
So far, we took out the moms group meeting but added in a tv night with the family.  Sanity is still in tact.

Here's a list of other things that were working against me this week (don't worry - I will get to some good stuff):

Driving:  This past week was especially packed because my oldest daughter (who spends two weeks with me and then two weeks with her dad) was with me this week.  Cheerleading practice started up as well.  I estimate that I spend an extra 560 minutes driving her to and from school and practices on the weeks that she is with me.  I am not complaining.  I am just stating where my time goes.

Volunteering:  Each parent at church volunteers in Sunday School twice a year.  This week was my week to volunteer.  They needed help... in the baby room of all places.  Um... I not real keen on holding my own babies much less someone else's baby.  Babies are a lot of w-o-r-k.  This experience was as pleasant as it could be.  The facility is more than equipped to handle these babies... plenty of bouncy seats and swings and such to keep the babies happy.  But, babies still eat and cry and poop and stuff.  So, it was a very busy morning.  Since Sunday School takes place during church service, I did not get to go to church.  Yes, I could have stayed for the late service, but there was no time for that.  No time.

So, we added in 560 minutes on the road and took out church and added in babysitting.  You with me?  Sounds like a recipe for disaster if you ask me.

School party:  My youngest two had their school party last week.  For 13 years, I have been making creative, fun, and special treats for school parties.  I RACE to the sign-up sheet so I can sign up for something fun (cupcakes) and don't get stuck with something totally boring (juiceboxes).  This year I looked at the list of things to bring and called Bro over to the list to see what he wanted for his party.  Guess what?  He picked CHIPS - Doritos in fact! SCORE!!!!!

So, we took out spending hours of time detailing cupcakes for preschoolers and added in one-bag-of Doritos!  He was totally proud and excited about his chips!  Chips = happy child with no effort.

Reading:  I am reading a book for my book club, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, by Laura Hillenbrand, but NOT a parenting book that I had hoped to read.  Either way, I enjoy reading and I am enjoying the book very much. 

The highlight of the week was when we added in gingerbread house decorating at my mom's house.  She totally did all of the work.  There was candy everywhere when we left.  The kids had a fabulous time!  This is an annual tradition and the first time that Bro participated.

I love looking at the pictures of Bro squeezing out the icing...

... compared to the pics of Lulu squirting out the icing.  Clearly, there is a difference.

Then we have Lulu's roof...

... compared to bro's roof.  It just cracks me up!

One of my favorite parts might be the before shot and after shot of Bro's front door.

Here is the "before."

And, here is the after.  He kept insisting that Santa belonged in the house.  Since none of the adults would help him get Santa in the house, he did it himself. 

I adore Lulu's sweet cottage of pink and green in her winter wonderland.

These houses are so festive and I know that Christmas is almost here when I see gingerbread houses displayed at home.

Sanity Week 2 Schedule:

Moms group:  Nope.

Family event:  Lights on the Bay on Wednesday

Reading:  Still in my book club book – need to move to a parenting book.

Cheerleading has been cancelled for the week.  DOUBLE YAY!

I need to wrap the teacher gifts.  Easy enough.

There are a few things purposely missing here because I don't want to stress myself out. 

make nativity ornaments for each child

make a stocking for Bro and Bri

set up Bro's leappad so it is ready to play with when he opens it

Our gingerbread houses are so sweet.

What holiday event in your life

signals that Christmas is nearly here?

Best Buy Ever

Wow!  I ordered this preschool busy bag a few weeks ago.  It was on some crazy sale and I had been wanting to create something like this for Bro, but the time and expense to make it would probably not be worth it.  So, I ordered it.

The busy bag includes 20 preschool-friendly activities to keep your preschooler busy.  I imagined that we would use the bag: on a rainy day, to keep Bro quiet during church, on a long car ride, and so on.

Soon after I ordered the bag, I had buyer's remorse.  I envisioned this ratty bag showing up at my door with lackluster appeal and mediocre artistry.  I could not have been more wrong.

Note:  If you have a preschooler in your house then this is the busy bag for you.

Each of the 20 activities is perfect for little Bro: counting activities, letter activities, color activities, lacing activities, sorting activities, pretend activities... and more and more.  Each activity comes in its own ziploc bag with easy instructions for mom and dad.  Every bag contains all of the items needed for the activity.  The lady who put them together even took the time to round of the edges of the papers and laminate the cards that would clearly get lots of use.  This is such a sweet set.  It is clearly handcrafted and I love that part too. 

I went so far as to order a Christmas bag from the same lady because it not only includes Christmas activities but has some "winter" activities as well.  I am hoping that this will help get us through some tough days that we are stuck inside the house, hiding from Old Man Winter. 

We took our busy bag with us to an evening doctor's appointment. 

We were sorting...

and lacing... as we waitied.  We had great fun!

The lady who makes these bags also holds a busy-bag swap each year.  The idea is that each mom makes 30 sets of one bag and mails them in.  When the lady gets all of the sets, then she divides them up and sends them out to the families.  Cool huh?

How do you keep your kids occupied at the doctor's office,

while you make dinner, or on a rainy day?

JUICE!

My little Bro-man is rather inflexible at times.

For example, he gets a sippy cup of juice each morning.  There is hell to pay if he does not get his juice immediately when he arrives to the living room.  I'm not kidding here folks.

Recently, we were out of juice.  I was giving Bri her bottle and Bro was still sleeping.

While I feeding Bri her bottle, Bro walked out into the living room.  I could feel the hairs on my neck stand up.  I knew what was coming.

"I want my juice Mommy."

I was in a predicament.  Bro was gonna have a fit if he did not get his juice, but Brielle was going to have a fit if I sat her down in the middle of the only bit of cuddle time we get each day.

I know I can multitask but I cannot make juice and feed a baby a bottle at the same time.

So, I took a gamble and asked, "Bro, Mommy needs to make new juice.  Can you give Bri her bottle while I make juice."

He replied, "Yes" and he did.. and Brielle didn't fuss. Oh my gosh - he even let me TAKE HIS PICTURE!!!

This is his I-just-woke-up face, not a grumpy face.

He really is mommy's little helper.

Don't the kids just surprise you sometimes?



Pumpkin and the Power of Stickers

Oh gee!  I promised that pumpkin was ONLY for October.  Then, my mom gave me some pumpkin butter from Trader Joes. 

I had no idea what to do with pumpkin butter until I found Tis the Season for Pumpkin Butter on a Trader Joe's cooking blog. 

I made both the Harvest Glaze Carrots and the Pumpkin Turnovers. The carrots could not have been more of a hit.  It's no secret that I prepare vegetables for every meal. In return, no one eats the vegetables.  They rot as leftovers in the refrigerator.  Then, I throw them in the compost pile.  Repeat.

Not this time.  My whole family inhaled the harvest carrots.  Bonus: they are crazy easy to prepare.

Run to Trader Joe's and grab a jar of Pumpkin Butter.  They are running low and will not restock again until next year.

Speaking of Trader Joes... it's amazing what kids will do for a sticker.  Teachers use stickers as rewards.  The doctor hands out stickers after the visit.  Even Trader Joe's offers a sticker station for the kids to visit on the way out the door. My kids never complain about going to Trader Joe's with me because they know they will get a sticker before they leave.

Why are stickers so powerful?

Bounce Zone

Wow!  I asked a friend of mine for suggestions of activities for my two youngest kids on a State Holiday when the daycaare was closed.

I am finding it hard to keep the two of them occupied as the weather gets colder.

My friend suggested a local indoor bounce place specifically for little kids.  I have been to the bounce places for older kids and I knew that would not work for us.

We met some friends at the bounce place and both of my little ones had a great time.

You know what happens when you try to get the kids to pose for a picture at a place like this?

You get the backs of their heads!

Someone with a winter birthday (poor guy) wants to have a Bounce Zone party this year.

Do you have any suggestions for a winter birthday party?

Not Here

This Napmom is not posting today because she is at her mom's club.

However, I leave you with this snapshot from my evening.

This is Brody, running an errand to the grocery store, with me, to get milk.

He says that he is Spiderman and Spiderman can carry heavy things.  However, he informs me that Spiderman does NOT smile for the camera.  So, this is the best I can do.

Nighty-Night.

Someone we know is learning to ice skate.  Daddy bought him a pair of hockey skates.  We have since learned that it would be easier if he learned to skate while wearing figure skates because they have the toe pick for stabilization, stopping, and pushing off.  Either way, he's still doing very well.  Below is a portion of a clip that Dear Husband filmed when he and Bro recently went ice skating.    

Note:  I hope this video loads correctly.  If it does not, I will try again and repost later.

One of Bro's classmates (now age 4) had an ice skate birthday party.  It has been my experience, after 13 years of being a parent, that ice skate parties are not successful because there are typically several kids who can't skate and just aren't going to get it.  The party is a real bummer for these kids.  However, in the most recent case, the skating portion of the party was a lesson from the rink instructor.  FABULOUS idea!!!  Bro and his classmates did sooooo well with the instructor.  After seeing how well Bro did with the instructor, Dear Husband decided that maybe Bro would learn better in a class setting. 

We hope to have more ice skating info for you in the months to come.  Bro is eager to learn so that he can be on a hockey team.  Hockey??? Really???

Fall Activities

Interesting story about my life.  Everyone in the family has decided what they want to be for Halloween.  Most of the costumes are ready.

Lulu = Taylor Swift (complete with blonde wig and guitar)
Bro = Spiderman (Remember:  you must refer to him as Spiderman - not Bro - when he is in costume)
Bri  = a bumble bee

Dear Husband has suggested costumes for us as well.  It goes something like this:

Dear Husband = party... covered with balloons and holding a fun drink
Me = all brown.  Thus, he is the "party" and I am the "party pooper." 

Are you laughing?  I fail to see the humor in this. {{smirk}}

Speaking of Fall, we have been outside enjoying the wonderful weather.

Someone has decided that she can climb up the ladder to the slide all by herself. 

We also utilized Fairy Grandmother's apple slicer.  Bro thoroughly enjoyed using his big boy dull kid knife to cut the apples. 

He even shared some slices with his sister which I just thought was precious.

We are going to a pumpkin patch this weekend. 

How 'bout you?

Mr. Fix It

We all know that my Dear Husband and is also known as "helper man."  I love love love that Bro is a helper too.  He calls himself a "helper man" actually.

Our neighbor gave us a hand-me-down pedal tractor for kids.  It didn't work so Bro and Daddy set off to fix it.

I had the best time watching these two guys hard at work.

What do you see?

Someone sent me a message on facebook, it said, "Napmom? Where are you?"

I'm here! I promise. I. am. here.

Lookie Lookie!

So, my mom kinda got me to dip my toe in the water of the crazy couponing world. Seriously, not to offend any crazy couponers out there, but the women on those tv shows are not people I would be friends with. I see them as pushy and abrasive... and even sometimes rude and snooty. Disclaimer: This is only my opinion and I haven't watched that many shows, to be honest. I am sure that some of them are sweet, demure, and... ahem... humble.

Nonetheless, I am following a couple of coupon blogs and I made my first run to Target (coupons in hand) and came out with some FREE or almost free back-to-school stuff.  My loot?  10 papermate pens for 2 cents, 3 free rolls of scotch tape, and a free sharpie.  Plus, I saved half off of some facial products that I needed and earned a $5 Target gift card towards my next purchase.  Admittedly, it was time consuming to chase down the coupons and I had to work with the cashier because everything didn't ring up correctly at the register, but in the end, it was a great trip.

Also, I found this 20 Page Photo Flipbook for $5.00 Shipped deal.  I get great information spam mail about similar deals all of the time.  So, this is not a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.  However, I have been thinking about doing a book for one of the kids and since (1) I had all of the pictures I needed and (2) the price is right (only $5 including shipping -- wowser!), I ordered a flip book. 

Where have I been?  I could have been blogging, but I created a flip book instead.

Brody is so so so super excited about his book, The Carrot Seed and gardening in general.  He is the proudest gardener you could ever meet.

So, I made a gardening book based on the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?"  Most of you are familiar with the book.  Here is my version.

Note:  All of the pages have the same border, text size, and text font.  I included the cover as an example.

Brody, Brody, what do you see?

I see a shovel looking at me.

Shovel , shovel what do you see?

I see a wheelbarrow looking at me.

Wheelbarrow, wheelbarrow, what do you see?

I see dirt looking at me.

Dirt, dirt, what do you see?

I see a tiny seed looking at me.

Tiny seed, tiny seed, what do you see?

I see the sun looking at me.

Sun, sun, what do you see?

I see a sister looking at me.

Sister, sister, what do you see?

I see a sprinkler looking at me.

Sprinkler, sprinkler, what do you see?

I see bug poison a watering can looking at me.

Watering can, watering can, what do you see?

{okay, I left out the part about the bug poison mixture}

I see weeds looking at me.

Weed, weed, what do you see?

I see a little tomato looking at me.

Little tomato, little tomato, what do you see?

I see a big tomato looking at me.

Big tomato, big tomato, what do you see?

I see a green pepper looking at me.

Green pepper, green pepper, what do you see?

I see cabbage looking at me.

Cabbage, cabbage, what do you see?



I see a carrot looking at me.

Carrot, carrot, what do you see?

I see a sunflower looking at me.

Sunflower, sunflower, what do you see?

I see a great vegetable gardener looking at me.

The end.

I can't wait to get the book. 

It's small -- only 4 x 6. 

But, I'll take it for only five bucks.  Right?

Gather up 20 pictures and

head on over and make your own little book.

Won't ya?

This post is part of the KinderGARDENS series.

Click here to join or for more information.

HUGE

 We are still gardening.

Everyday as soon as we arrive home from daycare, my big boy runs around to check his garden.

First stop?  The sunflowers.

Today he said I could take his picture with the flowers.  This picture just makes me laugh.  Look at this feet... sitting so very carefully in the middle of the garden so that he doesn't smash any surrounding flowers.

These are the mammoth sunflowers that could grow 18-20 feet.

Next, he runs over to the vegetable garden and announces, "Mom - these are so HUGE!"

Why do my cabbages have holes in them?

This is such a learning process.

This post is part of the KinderGARDENS series.

Click the here to join or for more information.