Slow Down, Gym Shoe!

Surfer Girls

Today was a fun day for Little Bear, Pufferfish and me! We live about twenty minutes away from Woodfield Mall, one of the largest malls in the USA. On the last Friday of every month, they have Club Kidfield, with activities for kids. Most of the local malls have this type of club, with little activities, but at Woodfield they go all out and hire professional entertainers! So today was a beach party , with a guy who played beach music on his guitar and let the kids dance, play with hula hoops and bubbles, do the limbo, etc.
I've been trying to do theme days with Little Bear, and every day we learn about something new, so I figured we'd make today "Hawaii Day" in accordance with the beach party at the mall!
I got some hella cool Hawaiian decorations at the Dollar Store (my very favorite place!) and this morning we decked the house out. We also made hula skirts! Check out these pics!






<------- She sells seashells by the seashore!





















<---------------Pufferfish chillin' by the beach!






















<------------------Little Bear all decked out in her new Hawaiian garb! (For instructions on how to make a hula skirt like this, see the end of this post!)










So right now Little Bear is having some "quiet sensory time". I'm in the middle of reading this book called "Raising Your Spirited Child," which I will definitely blog more about once I finish it. Anyway, one of the suggestions in this book is making sure the Spirited Child (which Little Bear definitely is!) get some relaxation time each day, outside of just watching TV. Since they have trouble relaxing on their own and are always on the go, the book suggests helping them to relax by giving them sensory activities to do, turning off the lights and the TV, and playing relaxing music. So today I filled a little tub with water, added bubbles and blue food coloring, and let Little Bear play with it along with some sponges and toy boats and stuff. Its been keeping her busy and happy for about an hour! And it gives me some quiet relaxation time, too! (Since Pufferfish is conveniently napping!)

Little Bear and Monkeyboy are going with their dad tonight, and me and Diana are probably going to take Pufferfish to get her One Year pictures. I'll post those later, if I can!
*******
Want to make a hula skirt like Little Bear made?
You'll need: A paper grocery bag
                  Scissors
                  Paints and paint brushes
                  Yarn
                  Glitter (optional)

      1. Cut off the bottom of the grocery bag.
      2. Let your little shorty paint the entire outside of the bag, adding glitter if you want.
      3. Once the paint dries, fold one edge of the bag over, all around the opening.
      4. Cut slots from the bottom edge to the folded part, making it look like grass.
      5  Tape a long piece of yarn under the fold.

Your child can now put on the grocery bag like a skirt, with the folded part around her waist. You can tie the yarn to make it fit like a real skirt!

HAVE FUN!!!

Half Asleep...

I'm a little sleepy today... the whole house is getting sick again with a cold of some sort.,,, so this post will be short.  Why do we always get sick? Its constant! I am thinking of getting some sort of hand sanitizer and just constantly sanitizing the kids' hands when we're out, to prevent any germs from getting into their systems.
Except I've heard that using hand sanitizer can actually make you get more sick, because your body forgets how to fight off germs, so if one germ gets through to you it wipes you out!
I've also heard that hand sanitizer is bad for little kids because they lick their hands and get drunk from the alcohol in it.
Oh well, I guess we're just doomed.
The shorties and I were supposed to have a playdate at a bakery yesterday, but nobody showed up! That particular playgroup is starting to suck because nobody comes to it. The Monday one is much better. Anyway it turned out okay because Little Bear and I ate our cookies anyway, and Little Bear played with some random kids who were there with their parents, and then we went to a near by park and played for the rest of the morning.
***
The other day I was reading in some magazine a list of phrases parents have said that they never imagined they would say. And now I have a new one to add to the list:
"Please don't put acorns in the baby's ears!"

When The Cat Is Away...

Jimmy, the self-proclaimed boss of the household, is going away on a nine-day-long business trip to New Orleans.

Here is a little preview of things that will be going on in the next nine days...

Shhh... don't tell!

Win an "Around The Table" game!

In our large, bustling family, it is pretty hard to get everyone to eat dinner at the same place, at the same time. When we do, its sometimes hard to even fit everyone around the table! But we try our best... and we have this little thing we do, "Best Thing and Worst Thing," where we go around the table and tell everyone what our best and worst parts of the day were. It is a very cool thing, and everyone has to participate, including the kids' friends who are visitng, etc.

Sometimes though its hard to think of a best thing or worst thing... especially if you're trying to play it at breakfsst time or another early part of the day! So I thought the idea of "Around The Table" games was a pretty cool thing. Its basically a bunch of cards, either in a jar or on a clip, with thought-provoking questions on them. You can use them at the dinner table, or you can bring them with you on a trip!

The clip with the cards on them would be especially cool when you want to take everyone out to dinner. When you have kids, especially of different ages, it can be hard to get everyone to act in a civilized way while waiting to order and waiting for the food to come. But what better way to get kids to practice restaurant etiquette, than to keep them all engaged with this game!

You can actually try to win this game by going to a blog called Sassy Frazz. All you have to do is leave a comment about which of the Around The Table games you'd like to win. Check it out!

Snakes In the Grass!

There I was, peacefully reading blogs and minding my own business, secure in the knowledge that the baby was napping and the older kids were playing outside, when...
"Nicki! Come outside! Come outside quick!" screamed Little Bear and her cross-the-street friend J through the front screen door.
I dashed out, expecting to find someone dead or bleeding.
Instead I found Monkeyboy and his friend D marching towards us up the sidewalk. Dangling from his hand was... this!














Now, watch how I masterfully teach this group of youngsters about respecting animals... (Click on it to see it in full size)
 
My Montage 5/25/08

Afterwards Little Bear cried when we let the snake go. She said it was the best snake in the world!

Going With the Flow?

Today I had big plans in life to do Memorial Day stuff with Little Bear. Little Bear has been wanting to take a walk in a cemetery lately(I have no clue why) so I was thinking we would go to Woodlawn Cemetery. They have these elephant grave markers from when a circus train crashed in Forest Park. The urban legend is that elephants are buried in those plots, but I've heard that its actually human circus performers who died in the wreck and were buried there. I thought Little Bear would like seeing the elephant statues, and whie we were there we could go to the veteran's section and see the decorations.
However, this morning the weather forecast said it would be cold and rainy, and pushing a stroller while dragging a preschooler through a muddy cemetery in the rain didn't sound like a good idea. So instead we went to the one place that we can always depend on for last minute entertainment... the play center in the mall!
Little Bear rode on the train and played in the play center, and Pufferfish toddled around in the play center too. We had lunch in the food court, and then I let Little Bear pick out a toy from the TooCool store. She earns "tokens" from me for good behavior. Whenever she gets through an activity or a few hours without any whining, backtalking, or general misbehavior, she gets to spin the spinner for tokens, and she can spend them on our outings. The spinner has a 100 Token space on it, and Little Bear must have good luck because she lands on that space a lot! As of this morning she had 263 tokens! Anyway, today she picked a Hello Kitty school supply set with pens, pencils, an eraser, a ruler, paper, and a little pencil box, and she's busy playing uietly with it right now! We got a little Cookie Monster stuffed toy for Pufferfish. Pufferfish doesn't earn tokens yet, obviously, but I hate to make her leave empty-handed when her sister gets something! I mean, she is a very good baby!
So check out these pictures...




<---Little Bear trying to keep Pufferfish from running off before I could take their picture!



















<---------Little Bear in the food court eating cinnamon twists from Taco Bell!


















<----------Pufferfish getting sort of cranky cause its almost nap time!










In other news, I mentioned the other day that I was going to get my hair cut. Yesterday I did get a whole twelve inches cut off, and I donated it to Locks Of Love.

When they first cut it, they straightened it too, so last night it looked like this...

































But of course as soon as I took a shower this morning, it got all curly again!




















Contrary to popular belief, both Little Bear and Pufferfish did recognize me after my hair cut, even when I was wearing different clothes!
So, what do ya think?










And one last pic of Little Bear, who took one of these pictures of me and wanted one of herself...








 








I guess thats all for now! TTYL!

Pump It Up!

Little Bear and Pufferfish and I went to this place with our playgroup called Pump It Up Party. Its a birthday party place with a whole bunch of those big inflated jumpy things like you sometimes see at carnivals and stuff. Every Wednesday morning they have open jump for preschoolers.
We went there one other time, back in February I think, but we didn't have such a great time then. Pufferfish couldn't even crawl, and so she was too little to go on any of the things, and spent most of the time in a sling with me, just watching everything. And Little Bear got upset and wanted to leave early because she said nobody would play with her... mostly because Little Bear's idea of making friends was to dominate what all the other kids did, and the other kids didn't necessarily want to do what she wanted, when she wanted!
This time was much better, though. Pufferfish can walk now, and I took her with me on the jumpy things. She absolutely loved it! She couldn't really jump, but she could bounce on her bottom, and she could try to walk in there and fall down, and she could climb around, and she could watch all the big kids! She just kept smiling and saying, "Hi! Hi! Hi!" I even took her on one of those huge slides with me a few times! She liked it so much, she kept trying to climb back up, even when I was tired!
As for Little Bear, she made friends right away with a 5-year-old girl in the playgroup, and they spent most of the time playing. She also has a younger friend, a 2-year-old boy named Andrew who comes to a lot of the playgroup events! Andrew loves Little Bear, and Little Bear is very nice to him. Andrew's mom actually came up to me and said that she was happy that Andrew was playing with Little Bear. She said, "Little Bear is such a leader, but in a good way! I worry a lot because Andrew is a follower and sometimes older kids teach him to do bad things, but Little Bear gets him to do good things!"
Thats my Little Bear!
Anyway, a great time was had by all. I don't know what we'd do without our playgroup! Check out these pics! They're not of the best quality, because I took them with my phone again... I figured my digital camera was too bulky to be jumping around with! Remember to click on them to see them in all their full-sized glory!





























 














































*****
QUOTABLE MOMENT

Nicki: "Little Bear, today I'm going to get a hair cut! Next time you see me, I'll have short hair. Maybe you won't even recognize me!"

Little Bear: "Yes I will! I'll recognize you by your clothes!"

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War Games

This morning during the rush of getting the kids dressed, ready, and off to wherever they had to be, Monkeyboy and I found ourselves home alone for an extra half hour or so after Diana and the little girls had left. Monkeyboy begged me to watch him play a video game. He's always done this... he loves to play video games, but he hates to play alone! On the other hand, he knows that I (and some other members of the family) suck at video games. So his solution is for us to be entertained by watching him play!
So I went into Monkeyboy's bedroom and watched him play this game called Call Of Duty. And it freaked me out!
Basically its a game where you're in a war. But the freaky thing is that the graphics are so realistic, its like you're watching a movie or something, instead of playing a game! Its almost like virtual reality. Check out this screenshot... Remember to click on it to see it in full-size!

During the part I watched, my nephew was a sniper hiding out in some sort of hotel. He had to get a good shot at some dude in a black leather jacket, who was talking to some guys in camouflage and everything. Apparently the black leather jacket dude was selling some sort of goods to the camo dudes, and he wasn't supposed to. I didn't really understand the reason why we were supposed to kill him, and I doubt Monkeyboy did either! The whole time, an unseen companion with a Scottish accent whispered instructions to my nephew, about paying attention to the wind levels and some other factors. "Remember what I've taught you, lad!" he'd say, and if my nephew missed the shot, the guy would snap, "Are you daft?"
Monkeyboy missed his shot several times, before he finally managed to blow off the black leather jacket dude's arm. His Scottish companion whispered, "You took off his arm! Blood loss and shock will do the rest. Now lets get out of here!"
Monkeyboy and his invisible friend then had to jump out of the hotel window and scale down the wall before the hotel was blown up. He had to run to some sort of place where he would be picked up in a helicopter and whisked away. However, he didn't make it! "Aw, I just died," he said, as he shut off the game.
As I drove Monkeyboy to school, he told me more about the game. He described a part of it where ordinary citizens were kidnapped and tortured by the bad guys, and he had to try to kill the bad guys. In one scene, citizens were hung. In another, according to Monkeyboy, they were eaten alive by dogs. Even children were killed in these scenes, Monkeyboy said. "But you gotta admit, its cool to watch, right?" he prodded me.
Yeah, I do have to admit, it was kind of cool to watch... the way watching a war movie is interesting. Just seeing how realistic the graphics on the game are was interesting!
On the other hand, in the past I've heard some claims that games like these are actually funded by the government, as a way of making war seem exciting to kids, and teaching them some early combat skills, so that by the time they're old enough to join the army, they'll make perfect recruits! I used to scoff at these ideas. But after seeing this game, I have to wonder. I mean, I know Monkeyboy understands that its just a game. But somewhere in the world, its not a game anymore. Somewhere in the world, a young boy  who grew up playing war games on his Nintendo is now standing in a strange country with a machine gun in his hand.
Scary, huh?

*****

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Dud Of A Day!

Do you ever have a day that just seems to fall flat on it's face? Today is that kind of day for me. Not that anything went badly... It's just that usually I try to be really interactive with the kids, and we go on outtings in the mornings and do activities at home and stuff like that. And today I just didn't really have anything. We went to our usual park playgroup in the morning, but none of our usual friends came, it was all new people, and they all went home early. (The usual Monday crew stays at the park for lunch and then we go on a long walk with the kids!) So by 12:15, we were back at home. Then the baby had a doctor's appointment at 2:20, and I wanted to have some quiet time before that, so while the baby was napping I let Little Bear watch a couple episodes of Bindi The Jungle Girl. We went to the doctor's appointment (Pufferfish is going to need another round of antibiotics for her stubborn ear infection!) and then, on the way home, we stopped at Oberweis for some ice cream as a treat.
Now Little Bear is outside playing with her little nextdoor friend, and Pufferfish is laying down finishing her nap. (I had to wake her up from her first nap to take her to the doctor, so she's been in a foul mood since then!) Little Bear is supposed to also clean up her bedroom and the mess in the backyard before everyone else comes home, so I told her she could do that at five o'clock, and by then everyone else will start shuffling home. I just feel like we didn't do much today... and I guess thats fine, right?

What Am I?

Our family is unusual in many ways. One way is that the three children each have different birth fathers. (We never call them half-siblings though! They're brothers and sisters, and thats that!) Also, each of the three fathers is from a different ethnic background.
The kids' mom, Diana, was still a teenager when she met Monkeyboy's father. He was a few years older than her, was from a very impoverished part of Mexico, and was in the USA on some type of work permit. He and Diana worked together at a fast food restaurant, and began dating. Diana was 16 when Monkeyboy was conceived, and 17 when he was born. Monkeyboy's father's work permit had expired by then, but he stayed illegally in the USA for a few extra months until Monkeyboy was born. He then had to go back to Mexico. He wanted Monkeyboy and Diana to go back to Mexico with him, but Diana did not want to move so far away from her mother, sisters, and friends. So they parted ways, and never saw each other again.
Years later, Diana married Tony, and eventually Little Bear was born. Tony legally adopted Monkeyboy, making him the father of both of the children. Unfortunately, that marriage did not work out, as Tony had a lot of serious, serious problems that made it unsafe for him to keep on living with Diana and the children. So, they got divorced.
Shortly after separating from Tony, Diana met Jimmy, and Pufferfish was born. Jimmy is half Korean, and Pufferfish definitely  has his Korean features.
So, we have a very multicultural household! And we try our hardest to help the kids learn about and have pride in their cultures as much as possible.
With Monkeyboy it is sort of hard, because his birth father is not in his life at all. We do talk about the fact that he is Mexican, point out the physical features he got from his birth father, show him pictures of his birth father, and things like that. We also try to learn a little about Mexican culture... even if eating in Mexican restaurants and celebrating Cinco De Mayo is the best we can do!
It is much easier to celebrate Pufferfish's Korean culture, because her father and his family are in her life. We are going to celebrate her first birthday following a Korean tradition next month, we are all learning a little bit of Korean words, etc.
Little Bear is the only one who doesn't have a specific culture to identify with, except "caucasion." Her birth father was adopted, and he's never been able to find out much about his birth family, so he himself is not aware of what his specific ethnic background is. Often Little Bear gets confused and says she is Mexican, or says she is Korean. Other times she demands, "What am I?"
One day, I had an idea. I looked at Little Bear, with her pale skin, blond hair, and bright blue eyes, and said, "I know what you can be! You can be Irish! And you know who else is Irish? Leprechauns!"
"Leprechauns?" Little Bear got all excited, because she remembers back in March when the leprechauns snuck into our house and left her lots of treasures! "Yay! I'm a leprechaun!"
Tony could be Irish by descent... he does look sort of Irish. But it doesn't really matter. What matters is that Little Bear can call herself Irish, and have a culture of her own to identify with.
I think thats a cool thing. I, myself, am half Italian, but I don't know much at all about my own culture. After immigrating to the USA as a kid, my Nona was made fun of in school because she was Italian and didn't speak English, so she worked very hard to become Americanized, and raised her children as American as possible. I'm proud of being Italian, but I really don't know much about it, except for the facts that Italians east the best food on Earth, talk loudly and use their hands a lot, and have Mafia connections! So I hope the kids will be able to learn more about their own cultures, because I think thats something pretty important. What do you think?

GOT  A LITTLE TRAVELER IN YOUR LIFE? GIVE THEM A UNIQUE GIFT THAT THEY CAN BRING WITH THEM ANYWHERE... A TREASURE JAR!