Amazing Things Do Happen

Eight months ago we were a household with two cats. Peanut was mine from before we got married and Cleo was my husband's cat from before we got married. Cleo was a one-man cat. It took me years, I kid you not, to get her to let me pet her. But she adored my husband and the feeling was mutual. He had brought her home from a local animal shelter when she was tiny.

Over six months ago Cleo slipped out of the door and was lost. We searched the neighborhood, let the neighbors know she was missing, posted a few signs, and brought a flyer to the local vet's office to join a sadly crowded bulletin board of similar flyers. We knew the fact that she was people shy was not going to help a lost kitty.

The date on the flyer is the date the vet's office intended to pull it down. They will typically only leave the flyers up for six weeks or so. They called us and asked if we had found her and we asked them to please leave it up.

As days, then weeks, then months passed by we gave up hope. When Michael asked what had happened to Cleo we told him that she had accidentally slipped out the door and got lost. She couldn't find her way home, but another family found her and was taking good care of her for us. We didn't really believe it though.

Several months later we decided to get kittens. Peanut was lonely and too old to want to be involved with the kids much. The kids were starting to get interested in pets. We got the kittens from the same animal shelter my husband had brought Cleo home from all those years ago. When I took the kittens to the vet I saw the flyer and almost told them to take it down, but I didn't.

A few days ago Michael said, "I love our kittens! I hope they never, never slip out the door Mama." He hadn't forgotten Cleo.

Yesterday, out of the blue, we got a call. Someone had Cleo. Apparently she had found her way two subdivisions over. A man who we are told looks something like my husband, saw a stray kitty and slowly began to win her over. They fed her and took care of her as best they could, but they traveled a lot and weren't interested in adopting an indoor cat. They began to think that she had been an indoor pet and after several months found a home for her with a neighbor of theirs. That woman took her cat to our local vet for her annual checkup yesterday and saw our flyer. She called us and Cleo came home that day.

She's so happy to be home. We are happy to have her. Right now she's sequestered in our bedroom just getting used to being home again before we introduce her to two preschoolers who are 6 months older than she remembers and two kittens that weren't here before.

We got her back. After being missing for more than six months, we got her back. It is absolutely amazing.

Movie Night

We have recently started movie night in our household. Once a week or so, we pick a small-child friendly movie. We sit in the dark with a special treat (last night: Necco wafers) and watch the movie - all four of us together. The children are pretty sensitive and during any tense moments we often end up cuddling both children and reassuring them that it will be all right. We tell them that we do not, in fact, have to "quit" the movie.

Our first movie night a couple of weeks ago was the Curious George movie. I thought it was wonderful. It was relatively conflict free and the only part that devastated the children involved animal control briefly taking George away. Last night we watched Ponyo. While the plot was not perfect, it enchanted the children and was interesting for the adults. Definitely a success.

One of the best parts of movie nights has been watching how magical it is for the children. You can just see the wonder of the storytelling in their exclamations and the way they sit on the edge of their seats. I adore watching Ava hop up during the credits and dance to the final song.

Does anyone have any other suggestions for low conflict movies? Traditional Disney movies haven't worked well. My kids are still too little/sensitive for traditional Disney villains. I even unsuccessfully tried Finding Nemo the other day. I could really use some fresh ideas.

The Things I Struggle to Resist

Everyone has their thing. Some people are into cars. Other people are into their houses and decorating or cleaning them. Some people are into clothes or accessories. Some people love crafts. Some people enjoy hobbies and tools. That thing... your thing... is difficult to resist even when buying another item is an indulgence you really should resist. All of the other things are easy to resist, because you just aren't that into them.

For me, cars are just a way to get around. I don't much care what kind of car it is or how it is decorated or cleaned. I love our home, but home decorating and cleaning isn't really my strong point (just being honest here). Clothes are just something to wear. I want to be warm and to feel marginally attractive, but as long as I have two decent pairs of jeans and enough t-shirts, socks, and underwear to make it until the next wash day that's enough for me. Occasionally I will get into a craft of some kind (crosstitch, cricut, many educationally related craft projects), but those are usually relatively short lived.

My weaknesses are books (for myself and for the children). When I am going through a book phase I do the bare minimum on the blog and eat, breathe, and sleep books every moment I am not engaged in child care. The instant download of a new kindle book to my iPhone is dangerous and I will absorb one or two series (3-8 books) in a week. Fortunately, at that point, sanity returns and I put books aside for a while.

The library gets me through the summer months, but Scholastic book orders are dangerous to me during the school year. I have to struggle to get my monthly wish list for the kids down from $60 to a slightly more reasonable $20-$30.

And so that is why it surprised me that I fell in love with a jacket of all things at the mall this weekend. My parents had both children overnight (happiness and joy and much thanks). My husband and I went out for dinner and then headed to the mall to sit in a bookstore and enjoy some leisurely quiet time in public. I got distracted from our main goal (of some peaceful time) by a need to replace the jeans I had literally worn until they had holes in them. While shopping for jeans I discovered this amazing jacket. It was light and compact and fit me beautifully. The cuffs fell right at my wrist and the neck fit perfectly without being too long or short when zipped all the way up. And it was so warm. It was stuffed with goose down.

And I had been wanting a jacket. I only have a winter coat, but no jacket. For the past several years during a fall trip to a park, the rest of the family would pull on jackets and I'd struggle into a bulky long winter coat. Of course, this beautiful, warm, lightweight, perfectly fitting jacket was prohibitively expensive and so I reluctantly put it back on the rack. I went and found some jeans. I insisted that we pop back in and drool on the jacket some more on the way to the bookstore but then I put it out of mind.

As I sat in the bookstore browsing books on homeschooling (a story for another day) I vaguely noticed that my husband disappeared for a while and then came back. On our way out I asked him to grab my sweater from the bag the new jeans were in because the night was chilly. He reached in and pulled out the jacket. He has gone back and bought it for me while I was completely distracted at the bookstore.

And so, for once, I find myself in the odd position of being incredibly excited about having some new clothes. (And very thankful to both my parents for watching our children and my husband for being so thoughtful.)

So what is it that you struggle to resist? :-)

Scholastic Teacher Express eBook Dollar Sale - Code for $10 free

Scholastic has a Teacher Express store where you can buy teacher's resource books in eBook format. The books usually range from $5 to $25 dollars each. They have books targeted to preschool all the way to books targeting high school. They cover a wide variety of subject areas as well.

Through September 20, 2011 they have 849 of their eBooks on sale for $1 each. I think it will combine with the coupon code 10THANKS for $10 off your order. You can actually choose $10 books for free without entering any payment information at all and immediately download the books in pdf format. You do need to create an account with them.

I haven't actually placed my order yet, but I have 45 books in my cart so far. I may need to narrow that list down a bit before actually placing my order. They seem to do this sale once a year. Last year I bought 20 or so books and have enjoyed them.

It Was An Innocent Idea - Honest

I decided to recreate the success of the shaving cream in the water table day. Except this time I thought it would be fun to bring the water table up to the increasingly complete deck. I just thought the kids would enjoy the change of scenery and I knew I would love to sit on my swing while watching them instead of perched in a lawn chair in the yard down below batting away gnats. Also, for another change of pace, I decided to try cool whip (or some generic brand that was cheaper) instead of shaving cream.

First, let me say that the children did have a wonderful time. From their perspective, an hour flew by in absolute bliss as they flung first cool whip, and then water all over most of the deck. However... I don't think I completely understood how difficult it would be to remove cool whip from the wood after it had been sitting there a while. I innocently assumed that it would spray away easily with the hose. It took a bit more effort than that. Let's just say that my husband wasn't delighted with the experiment when he heard about it that evening.

As much fun as the children had with the activity, I found it interesting that they were much less bold without a friend over to model playing in it with her hands. They mostly used spoons and other various kitchen implements to play in the cool whip. They also ran over to the hose to rinse their hands and bodies off frequently. Baby steps I suppose. I need to invite friends over for these sensory activities more often.

Who wins?

She wins
I knew it was too quiet...

I win
Finally, I get something in the girl's hair! And she's happy about it. And she wears it to school!

My Favorite Toddler Jeans

I have favorite winter toddler jeans (for the children). We've been using them for Michael two years in a row now. They are usually $25, but they are on sale at Old Navy's website this weekend for $15. They also have a coupon code that stacks that brings the price down to $12.75 if you're spending less than $100 or to $12 if you're spending over $100.

They have adjustable waistbands and wear incredibly well. They're cozy and warm. They have three colors for boys and three for girls. We picked up 4 pairs for each child. Two for this winter and two a size up for the winter after that. The deal was just too good to pass up.

They also have lots of other baby/toddler items on sale too and most of those stack with the discount code as well (ONSAVEBIG).

I know this is a departure from my usual type of post, but I wanted to make a public service announcement in case any of you are looking to pick up some fall/winter clothes at a good price.

Itsy Bitsy Butterfly

I asked Ava to sing to me the other day. We were sitting on the mostly finished deck in our swing. Using the front facing camera on my iPhone I managed to capture quite the concert. First I got her version of the ABC song twice. Then I asked for the Itsy Bitsy Spider, then Row, Row, Row Your Boat, and finally Hush Little Baby. It was so adorable.

Here is a small audio clip from the concert. (Yea! I finally figured out how to post audio!) She decided to sing the Itsy Bitsy Spider as the Itsy Bitsy Butterfly instead as she explains at the end.

Outdoor Sensory Table Ideas?

We have both a sand table and a water table. The sand table is useful year round, but the water table is pretty much a hot weather only attraction. I would like to use it during the fall/winter as an outdoor sensory table on the deck.

I'm just not sure what to fill it with. We don't need two sand tables. It needs to be something dry so that they can play in it with winter coats/gloves on if that's necessary. It also needs to be able to withstand some humidity without getting icky given that I'd like to leave it outside. Also, it needs to be something that is either big enough to easily retrieve and put back in the bin or environmentally friendly so that when it falls off the deck into the grass it won't mess with the grass or lawnmower in the summer (so no rocks or gravel).

I've considered rice, feed corn, dried beans, uncooked pasta, etc., but I'm worried that they wouldn't stand up well outdoors. I've searched a bit online, and the only idea that looks even vaguely workable is those decorative glass gems. If I can find them bulk and reasonably priced, they would be fun to dig in and pour, and large enough to just pick the ones that fall out back off the deck and dump them back in. On the other hand, the ones that escape will simply be glass hanging out in the back yard and that doesn't seem wise. I also don't know if they'll get chipped if played with roughly and then be sharp and dangerous to little fingers.

Does anyone have thoughts about the glass gem idea or any other suggestions?

A Deck Takes Shape

So the deck is not finished yet. See the following photographic evidence.

Note strategically placed bin to prevent accidental 8 foot plummet.

Stepping into and out of the dining room is a bit interesting.

Getting to the stairs requires bravery and acrobatics.

The stair rails are currently non-existent.




And yet, huge finished sections are breathtakingly beautiful.

My husband is amazing.

A Flurry of Activities

We had a friend over for a playdate Wednesday and I decided to fill our water table with shaving cream (outdoors). The children had a blast. The modeling of a typically developing peer is so powerful. They had their hands in it and were covering the glass of the french doors with it. When our guest began painting her arms and legs with it we decided to strip them down to their underwear. Before all was done, our guest looked like a snowman front and back and Ava had covered her entire belly and most of her legs. It was wonderful. Two weeks ago we had to persuade her to touch the shaving cream with a fingertip. All the credit goes to the great modeling of her friend.

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They came back for a bonus visit yesterday and my bright idea this time was to redo the pudding activity, but this time in an empty bathtub for more exposure and easier cleanup. We put the two girls in the bathtub with a bowl full of pudding I had colored with green paint and told them to have fun painting. I gave them paintbrushes because I was hoping that there would be no way Ava could avoid getting covered in at least a little of the pudding even with the paintbrushes to help get her started. Well, they quickly ran out of pudding and I grabbed some washable fingerpaint and we just continued the fun. Every time the walls filled with paint I would simply shower them off and the girls would begin again. They were in there at least an hour. It was great.

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We had an old baby gate. It was the huge kind you can use to make a play yard. Or, in our case, to protect the little ones from a huge brick fireplace. We're no longer using the gate. I set the gate up in play yard formation and used some old blanket and baby wraps to make a tent, or cave. The kids loved it until they destroyed it. Here's a picture I managed to take before the destruction.

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One last fun activity we did this week was to take some bowls of water, paintbrushes, and ice out on the deck. The children had fun "painting" the wood with the water and just exploring pouring water and playing with ice cubes. We were out there for at least an hour two separate times this week. We went through three huge bowls of ice cubes each time, but it was completely worth it.

I Concur

Last week when my cousin was in town we were taking the children to meet my husband at work for lunch. We were all going out to Chick-fil-a. I overheard a conversation between my cousin and Michael that cracked me up.

Michael: We're going to Chick-fil-a!
My cousin: I love Chick-fil-a! What do you like to eat there?
Michael: The chicken.
My cousin: I concur.
Michael: (long pause) They don't have concur at Chick-fil-a.

After much laughter we explained that concur is just a fancy word for agree. Later, as we told Daddy the story, Michael was able to explain to Daddy just what concur really means with no reminder from us. We all used the word concur instead of agree for the rest of the visit.

Ebooks, Kindle, and Lendle

I don't remember when exactly, but let's guess around a decade ago, someone gave me a palm pilot as a gift. I honestly didn't know what to do with it. I wasn't super impressed with the address book or calendar functions and so it was a rather expensive but unimpressive toy. Then I discovered ebooks.

I was always an avid reader. I would go on vacations with half my suitcase filled with paperbacks. I carried one to every doctor's appointment. I read in the car until the sunlight faded and then continued on with a flashlight until my batteries died. The ebook was an amazing upgrade for me. Suddenly I could carry dozens of books in less space than one paperback. Also, it was backlit and so I could read in the dark. It was wonderful. I never struggled with eye strain, so other than the occasional low battery issue, I never looked back.

Due to issues I won't go into now, I switched from my old ebook format to the Kindle format a couple of years ago. I don't actually own a Kindle. I use a Kindle app on my iPhone. I'm perfectly happy with that. It is smaller than the Kindle device, has backlight capability, and is always with me. I love ebooks. It is by far my preferred format for reading.

I recently stumbled upon a new website that is really great. It is called Lendle. Some Kindle books are lending enabled. The publisher determines if that function is enabled, not Amazon. If the book is lending enabled, you can loan the book to someone else with a Kindle account one time for two weeks. Or, they could loan a book to you for two weeks. The problem is, I don't know anyone else using a Kindle. That's where Lendle comes in.

You set up an account with Lendle and tell it what Kindle books you own. They automatically figure out which of those are lending enabled. (I own 81 Kindle books. Only 16 are lending enabled.) You get a few free borrowing credits just for signing up and entering your book list. Your available loans are entered into a database along with everyone else's. Then you can browse available books and spend a borrowing credit to request a loan. You earn another borrowing credit for every book you loan out. As an added bonus, Lendle gives you a small credit (5-49 cents so far for the five books I have currently loaned out) for each book you loan out. When your account reaches $10 they send you an Amazon gift certificate.

Their catalog is pretty slim because so few books are lending enabled. However, I found one I wanted and requested the loan. It came through within half an hour and then I was reading the book on my phone. It was great. I requested the sequel. Now, that one is taking longer. The lender has two days to actually send you the book and this person is a bit slower. Still, I'm getting to read free books in exchange for loans that were sitting around unused in my Kindle account.

If you have a Kindle account, I highly recommend checking out Lendle.

Preparing Early

I've been slow to hop on board the Halloween excitement train. The very first year Michael was about to turn one and I was pregnant with Ava. My parents did Halloween with Michael and I stayed home and rested.

The second year my children were old enough to really participate. Michael was about to turn two and Ava was not yet one. We bought costumes at the last minute at Old Navy choosing from the few costumes that were still available in the appropriate sizes. Michael was a tiger and Ava was a kitty. It was fine, but they wore the costumes for about 45 minutes total.

Last year they were a little more excited. We waited too long again (about a month before Halloween) and chose from limited options at Old Navy a second time. Michael was a dragon and Ava was a bee. They were baby costumes. The ones that are sort of like sticking your children into a stuffed animal.

This year Michael is old enough to remember the last Halloween and to be excited about the coming Halloween. I actually remembered that waiting until the end of September was going to result in poor selection. Last night we made an outing of going to look at costumes. We went to Cracker Barrel which often has cute costumes. We found a couple of cute costumes in appropriate sizes. Then we went next door and treated the children to half of a chocolate Krispy Creme doughnut with sprinkles each. They were so excited. All in all a successful night.

Michael's fireman costume will need some sort of pants and a warm shirt underneath the jacket. Ava's costume will need some method of keeping her warm. Perhaps a long-sleeve leotard and heavy tights? So, we're not completely done preparing yet. But it is nice to be a little ahead of schedule this year.

Arbitrary Dictates vs. Negotiation

As much as possible, I try to avoid making completely arbitrary decisions with my children. You know the ones. I'm talking about when you tell them "no" simply because that was the first response that came to mind. Or just because it is more convenient to tell them no than to let them make a mess pulling out yet another toy. Often, when I catch myself having made a completely arbitrary decision, I will change my mind. I'll say, "You know, I thought about it and actually I've decided that that is okay after all."

And then I read How to Land Your Kid in Therapy. The article talks about a lot of things that made me think. One small section talks about parents that don't actually say "no" and stick with it.

I started paying attention. My children negotiate a lot. Here's an example.

Me: When we get home it will be naptime. We'll have to go straight upstairs.
Them: Can we play a little first?
Me: No.
Them: Just one minute?
Me: Ok. Just one minute.

And then we really do play for only a short time. I usually feel like compromise and being flexible are good things to model, but as I started to pay attention I began to realize that my children seem to thing absolutely everything is up for negotiation.

I want to dress Ava. She wants to debate every single item of clothing and who gets to put it on how quickly. I want to get the children in the car and they want to choose a toy first. I say this is the last television show and they want just one more.

Now, I don't want to give the impression that my children are out of control. They are usually very well behaved and their requests are often fairly reasonable and not particularly disruptive to routine. However, I'm not sure that I want the take home message to be that I can always be negotiated with and I never really mean what I say.

I feel like one end of the spectrum is the "I expect you do do what I say when I say it." school of parenting while the other end of the spectrum is the "My child is a person and should do whatever they want." end of the spectrum. I'd like to fall somewhere in the middle, where I respect them and take their wants and feelings into consideration, but they respect me as the parent and ultimate decision maker. I'm just not sure that I'm achieving that at the moment.

Anyway, it was an interesting train of thought and I'm trying to be a bit less negotiable for a while. Where do all of you fall on the spectrum?

Playing with the Alphabet

I bought some of the clear glass gems that lots of people use in flower vases or fish tanks and tried to recreate a project I found in a magazine. I believe the magazine was Family Fun, but I couldn't swear to it. I searched through some old magazines and cut out letters of appropriate size and glued them onto the backs of the gems using regular school glue. As soon as I buy them, I'll glue circle magnets onto the backs of the alphabet gems.

The kids are very much enjoying playing with them already even though they don't have magnets yet.

I had some extra glass gems leftover after I had finished my alphabet, so I found some suffixes and blends and made those as well.

If the children were a little older, they would have enjoyed helping to find and cut out the letters. My little ones just played with cutting up the pages of the magazines I didn't need.

And to give credit where credit is due, my cousin participated cheerfully in much of the project helping to create at least a third of the alphabet.

Resistance

Today we went to the Botanical Gardens and spent all morning in the Children's Garden. We climbed rope ladders, went over rope bridges, played on a splash pad, dug in a sand pit, built huge towers from wooden blocks, and generally had a great time.

The very last thing we did was visit the gift shop. My children think gift shops are places you go to play (gently) with the store's toys and then leave those toys behind for the most part. We only purchase something on "special occasions". Ava found an adorable hat. It fit her perfectly. She loved it. I loved it. It was incredibly cute. However, the hat cost $20 and we already have a hat for her. So when it was time to go, I resisted. I told her we needed to put the store's hat back and we left.

But I'm still thinking about that hat. Darn being a grown up and resisting things we don't need.

Isn't it adorable though?

Celebrating a Change in Routine

Our guests are here. Because they are very generous and wonderful people, my mom and her sisters volunteered to watch the children yesterday so that my husband and I could take my cousin somewhere without taking two small children along and needing to stop for a nap midday. We decided to go to Six Flags (which is only 20 minutes away). We hadn't been to Six Flags this season. On top of that, we hadn't been to Six Flags without young children in years. We all had a blast and came home exhausted, but happy. The children spent the night at my parents' house, and so we were able to stay at the park until it closed and then come home and stay up late watching television and playing games because we knew we could sleep in the next day. It was a wonderful change of routine and a great way to kick off the week.

What Can You Do With Stale Froot Loops? Part 2

Yesterday we finally found time for experimenting with the leftover crushed Froot Loops. The children loved it. They told me what to make with the glue and then chose the color they wanted to work with and spooned the crushed Froot Loops onto the glue pattern. I shook the extra back into the bowl and voila: pretty vibrant shapes and letters that the children loved and were proud of. We can definitely do this again several more times. Next time I'd like to do simple pictures like flowers or a house. The time after that I'll try something more abstract with lots and lots of glue. The time after that maybe I'll risk the mess and just hand them the glue bottle to use themselves. It really was great fun.

A Completely Unexpected Gift

My cousin (also a parent of an adorable preschooler) sent my children a completely unexpected gift. I had no idea it was on the way so when we found the package in the mailbox it was a surprise for all of us. The package was addressed to Michael and Ava so they watched me open it. Inside were some dvds of their favorite television shows (New Handy Manny, yea!) We don't usually watch tv in the evening, but I made a special exception and the children watched their gift while I had some time to myself. It was a wonderful surprise for everyone. All thanks to the thoughtfulness of my cousin. Thanks!

It reminded me of how powerful a random act of kindness can be. I'll need to pass it on.