Tea party time

Eirena organized a tea party for all the important individuals around here. She made a list of all who were invited, a menu (popcorn and tea), dress requirements and even requested music (specifically that I play guitar, but since that wasn't going to happen she settled with a c.d.)

Obviously Fuzzy Bear was invited

And Pippin couldn't be left out of anything. Eskil either, for that matter. 

We had Dollie (recently renamed Cinderella), Panda, Adisu, Eirena, Fuzzy Bear, Eskil, Pippin, Charlie and  me.

Fuzzy Bear likes popcorn, but not tea. He shared his tea with Adisu. 

Parenting Fail

In our house we don't "do" Santa Claus. We do celebrate St. Nicholas' Day, but that is on  December 6th, and after that our stockings hang empty. We have read stories, told the history of St. Nicholas and done crafts involving a bishop and avoided Santa Claus as best is possible in our culture. We thought we were doing pretty well. Sure, Eirena noticed Santa Claus last year, but we explained how that is fake and based off of the real St. Nicholas. We thought it was all clear.
Until this year.
As we talked about Advent, Christmas and St. Nicholas' Day, Eirena ponderously said that she still didn't understand something. She didn't understand how St. Nicholas got all the way from Asia Minor to the United States of America to put things in our stockings.

Sotto voce, I answered, "reindeer".

Nurturing

 Adisu isn't much for snuggling. Close interactions with us are a challenge for him. But apparently I stumbled onto something that is bonding for him and I: hair wraps.
He had expressed desire for his hair to be dyed pink and orange. But that would take a lot of work and hair bleach. So I tried to see if he liked this and as it turns out, he will sit patiently while I work on the hair wraps (high school was useful for something after all!) and then proudly show them off to everyone else in the family. Score one for nurturing hair wraps.

Of course, little brother wanted to get in on the fun too. I only have the patience for his wiggles to do one on him.

September

 

Where did our September go?

 

 

It moved...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had some excellent help to pack up our 15ft of space

Back in the land of mountains!

Three bumps on a log

Once we found a place to live we got to hike around and enjoy gorgeous vistas...

and then our stuff arrived and we had work to do.

But we have a lot of mountain-missing and hiking to make up for so we headed back out to the trails,

this time the two year got the ride (so we wouldn't have to walk at a two-yr old's pace).

Looking down on part of the city

Just beautiful

Our Summer

playing in boxes

making thrones (and crazy hair)

watching crazy thunder storms flood the yard

Matryoshka measuring cups are fun

crafts

swim lessons

and more swim lessons and splash parks

visit from friends

making ice cream

getting a little fixated on the Olympics

Finally!

We had complained about it for quite a while, but doing something about it takes momentum.  We knew what needed to be done, but it always was pushed to the "not-quite-urgent" to-do list. And so we remained frustrated. We used stop gap measures to compensate. That worked for a time, but wasn't really a solution. It was getting so bad we would go through 2 or 3 choices before making a selection for the task at hand.

And finally... yesterday, we just went and did it.



We got our knives sharpened.

Chop, chop! *happy sigh*

Mud baths

Nothing like a cooling mud bath...

Just another Wednesday

It just a typical Wednesday. Someone has an issue about getting into the van, but settle down once we're on our way to the grocery store. We march through the parking lot making a Rover, Red Rover line. Eirena and I get our samples of coffee (hers is ALWAYS decaf) and then my three eager helpers and I gather groceries. They launch the apples into the bag, pull the more interesting stuff out and grab produce bags, dodging other shoppers.
They have a little radar for when we're about to be done and immediately start asking for a little treat (a honey stick or lollipop). While we wait in line, elderly shoppers remark on how they are precious and well-behaved. (Sometimes I tell them it is the bribe of the honey stick.)
We go to our next store, we have less to get here so I let Eskil ride in the main compartment of the cart. While we're walking down the aisle Eirena dives in, not bothering to wait for me to stop. I've seen the look of panic on onlookers' faces while they watch my kids climb into the cart. No, they don't need help- they're experienced cart climbers.
We get eggs. I caution the E's about not stepping on the eggs. Eskil Realizes there are eggs. He starts examining the dinosaur eggs. I hurriedly put them back in the carton. They are distracted by the marketing on packages temporarily, waxing eloquently on whether some picture is a race car or a really fast sports car.
We're nearly done... but wait, there are plastic storage bins on sale. We need some, so I get one and dump it on top of two children and the groceries. Storage bin? Did I say it was a storage bin? Clearly I am delusional. It is a percussion instrument, as demonstrated by the E's all the way to the check out line.
Just another Wednesday.
 

Bluebonnet season

It is wildflower season here, not to be confused with the next season, wildfire. Thanks to Lady Bird Johnson, the highways and byways are blooming with bluebonnets. It is really quite pretty to have brilliant yellows, reds, corals, and purplish blues on embankments as you zip (or creep) along the road.
Part of the fun of having bluebonnets in bloom is watching all the parents take their children to a field of blueness and pose their children for pictures among the flowers. I admit, the thought has crossed my mind too, but the thought of corralling 3 children, getting them to sit still, not pick the flowers, and not sit, step or play with fire ants while trying to get pictures of them looking posed and pretty just makes me want to curl up in a ball. So I leave the camera at home and let them pick the flower, wander around and watch hawkishly for fire ants.
But yesterday we were at a park (an off leash dog park no less) and I saw a mighty amusing sight. An individual, with the help of a friend, was posing her dogs --just the dogs-- amongst the bluebonnets, while the friend took fancy pictures with a fancy camera. But it was an off leash dog park, and the dogs wanted to visit with the other dogs and run free, frisk and frolic. And really? It looked a little silly posing a dog in the middle of a bunch of flowers. (I thought about offering the services of my children's faces just so the picture would look a little less odd, but thought better of it.)

thoughts on travellng with children

Here are some random thoughts on traveling with small children, based on our recent road trip to Denver:
1) Driving through the night so the kids will sleep is a great theory. The reality is they are awake at 2am, 3:30am and 5am and then again at 7am.
2) They REALLY need to advertise coffee shops better on highways and byways. They are losing way too much business because no one (at least not the outsiders) knows it is there.
3) Even when you mandate 'nap time' to recuperate from driving through the night, you won't be able to sleep. And the small children won't sleep either.

4) Books on cd are a wonderful, wonderful thing.
5) Public restrooms are scary for newly potty trained 2 year olds. But then again, so is the mini potty you thoughtfully packed in the back of the minivan; semi trailers are fun to look at while you sit there meditating life.
6) It is when you are about 20 minutes from your final destination and you're dramatically sleep deprived and JUST WANT TO GET THERE ALREADY that you will a) hit traffic and b) have the newly potty trained 2 year old tell you that he needs to poop- stat! (But we didn't have an accident!)
7) Texas is entirely too large and should divide up into at least 4 smaller states, if only to give you the sense of getting somewhere.
8) Taking kids on a "hike" helps when you arrive at your destination helps get the wiggles out so eventually they crash.
 9) Seeing friends again is fun and makes it worth it.
10) Mountains are so much more interesting to look at than flat, flat plains.
11) Texas has some nasty smelling towns- the kind that wake you out of your sleep smell that is a cross between a nasty dog fart and hitting a skunk. (TMI? sorry)

Castles

What does one do on a drizzly day when you can't dig your underground castle outside?

Build one out of cardboard and paint it, of course!

The maestros at work

Tell me that you have seen a more colorful castle somewhere...

Or more silly children?

 

Awkward Grocery Store Moments

I go grocery shopping every Wednesday, three kids in tow. Another lady also frequents the same store with the same regularity as me, with one (consistently) vocal toddler in tow. Although we have never actually spoken to each other, we both have families with unique characteristics that make us -stand out- memorable.

Today we happened to be in the same aisle and she paused and greeted me and then mentioned that she sees me every week. And then she went on to say that she doesn't know how I manage to shop with three kids and how well behaved they are in the store and how is that possible?

That left me feeling very awkward because I'm not about to dispense parenting advice to someone I don't know at all, but I also don't feel like my kids are naturally well behaved. Scratch that... I know my kids aren't naturally well behaved. They have their good days and their bad days (and their lollipop bribes to encourage good behavior during our routine grocery shopping time). We also have a routine and they know it and are used to it. And we try to practice good behavior and discipline at home so that it carries forth outside the home. But I didn't think she really wanted to hear all that. In fact, I wasn't really sure what she wanted to hear...

So I smiled at her and told her they were used to it and they do get used to it and pointed out her purse that her son had flung on the ground for her while we were talking. And wished her a good day.

The sad story of our plants

We have been trying to keep our basil plants alive over the winter. The few, the brave are struggling on. We sprouted some kidney beans for a science experiment. They grew and like Jonah, we were happy. We even planted a couple and they grew even more. They grew more leaves and we were excited to see their development.
And then.... the basil plant in whose pot they resided inexplicably lost all of its leaves. The bean plants looked like something had nibbled at its leaves but I saw no caterpillar.
And then yesterday, it all became clear- I saw Efendim chewing our bean leaves not once, but twice. And then, in the morning all the leaves of all the 3 plants in that pot were stripped bare of their leaves. Not a single leaf remained. Except for the ones he quickly puked out onto the floor.

Thus ends the sad story of our bean and basil plants.

Dessert

How often do you have dessert?
We used to have it only once a week or so. But slowly, and in a large part due to Thanksgiving-St. Nicholas Day- my birthday- Eirena's birthday- Christmas celebrations, the kids are kind of expecting/ hoping that there will be dessert every night. While we often suggest fruit if they want dessert, there are times when they are looking for something a little more... dessert-ish. We do a fair amount of fruit based desserts (if I making something) like crisps or cobblers or pies. But those all still contain more sugar and butter than I need to consume on a regular basis. :)
Oh, and since we're all out of our Pound Plus dark chocolate from Trader Joe's, we can't get that "I'm in the mood for a smackeral of something" fix from a square of the Good Stuff.

So often do you have dessert, and of what sort?

The Itchy and Scratchy house

The day after Dr. Daddy and I celebrated our tenth anniversary he broke out in a rash. I told him he must be allergic to being married to me for that long. He didn't think it was funny. We discovered all our allergy medication was a few years out of date, so over the course of last week we restocked our medicine bag with fresh allergy meds.
And he was still itchy.
It looked like poison ivy which he is allergic to, but we couldn't think of how he would have come in contact with any. He also had some other rash that didn't quite look the same, but similarly itched like mad.
On Saturday we took the kids to a park. Eirena asked me to go "hunting for wild animals" with her. So we traipsed through the thicket. Sunday I broke out in bites. Chiggers, we think, and they look quite a lot like the second rash Dr. Daddy has. So we are both fighting the urge to scrape our skin off a la Eustace Clarence Scrubb. Thankfully the kids seem to have been spared this misery.
So here are some fun pictures we took of the kids on Sunday in their new get-ups from Tayta:

Fashionista

I received a gift card to a particular store in my stocking this year. I decided to make use of Dr. Daddy taking a day off so that I could leave 2 out of 3 children behind, thus making the prospect of finding something and trying it on much more pleasant. So I took Eirena with me. I made it quite clear that we would not be shopping for her, but rather for me. She was still excited. This should have been my warning.
Upon entering the store we headed to the racks and racks of shirts and blouses. Eirena apparently was under the misconception that she was my fashion expert and would be selecting a shirt for me. I should have taken this as a cue to exit quickly.
Her first choice for me was a gold sequined blouse that someone-definitely not I- might choose to wear to a flashy New Year's Eve party sans children. I told her I wasn't interested in gold sequins. She took it well but then quickly chose a silver little blouse that reminded me of chain mail. I told her so. So she went on to some other shirt and explained that if I were to choose this one, I would look like a queen, like the queeniest queen of all. I had to break it to her gently that I was ok with not being a queen. At some point I reminded her that my favorite color was green- perhaps it was after the bright pink shirt she dragged out. So, taking this information to heart, she selected a green shirt for me: hot lime neon green! We moved on to the shoes aisle.
While I browsed the practical shoes Eirena was incredibly excited to see silver, gold, 4 inch heels and HOT PINK shoes. (All for me to try on, of course.) I did humor her in trying on a few of the shoes, but I drew the line at hot pink. Unfortunately none of the shoes fit quite perfectly so we had to move on. I took this opportunity to stay away from clothes and shoes.
In the end we left the store without having bought anything, which to the little 5 year old mind was just unfathomable. And I think she is seriously doubting my qualifications to dress myself as I clearly have no taste in style.

Holiday Cheer

"Berji.... happy face!
"C'mon Berji, show us your happy face, oh you look so pretty!"

"What? You think I'm going to smile with this ridiculous jingly collar and sweater. Ha! Humans, no way am I going to smile for some stupid picture just so you can put it on the internet for everyone to mock me. No, I'm going to put my nose in the corner and hope no one sees me. Uc, stop laughing. Next thing you know they'll be dressing you up too. In fact, I even heard you're going to have to wear the collar for when Dr. Daddy gets home. You think I'm joking?

Do I look like I'm joking? Does this look like a face of mirth?

No, I thought not. "

gross

Inspired by Mel's Kitchen Cafe I decided to make gelatin caterpillars for the kids' amusement. I only had a very stale box of lemon flavored jello so I went with that. I am not a fan of jello so I really don't waste my calories that way. [Un]fortunately my children have never seen a caterpillar or worm in a piece of fruit so they don't really understand the gross factor.

Friday Afternoon

What are we doing this windy Friday afternoon?

Adisu works on his Perler beads- he has both the small muscle coordination and the patience to make things out of these beads.

Tweedledum and Tweedledee (sorry, Eirena and Eskil) color at the school table.

Me? In the kitchen creating an "oops meal".

What is an "oops meal" you ask? It is when you say "oops, the meal I had planned to make needs to be baking for 3 hours and it is now 5pm so we're doing plan C (because plan B involved making bread that needs to rise)".