We weren’t sure what we’d be doing this year for New Year’s Eve initially but now that the evening is here, we’ve got plans and they’re looking up to be fun. Neighbors who have a fun fire pit area in their back yard have invited the street to their house, children included. We’ll start the night there and then head back about bedtime for the children.
We have a friend, one of our children’s teachers, who is getting married about now. The ceremony at their home is a small one, but the after party is for all their friends. Once the children are with our sitter, we’re going to wish Miss Kica and David congratulations and celebrate with them.
The Big Boy Update: I came over to kiss my son good morning today. I came up behind him, kissed his neck and then sniffed him, saying, “you smell great!” He told me, “if you sniff too much you’ll turn into a dog.”
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter and took care of our friend’s cats while they were out of town for several days. We would wash our hands after cleaning the litter boxes out. She told me, “you need to wash your hands or you might turn into a cat.”
Saturday, December 31, 2016
Friday, December 30, 2016
Can I have Carrots?
Sometimes it’s hard to know when a child is old enough mentally to understand what’s happening to them. Sure, they don’t have control of their lives, meaning they don’t get to eat candy every meal. But do they understand the reason we want them to eat more healthful foods? Are they able to connect feeling badly later because they ate too many marshmallows and gummy worms when you weren’t looking?
As parents we say, “No” an awful lot. We sat, “not right now” almost as much. And then there are the, “no, because you made a choice” answers. Those are the best. Let me give you an example from tonight: my daughter didn’t want to eat her piece of pizza for dinner. She decided taking all the cheese off the top would make it better, but she was wrong. I told her she had to eat the piece of pizza AND the cheese she’d torn off the top because that’s not how we ate pizza. If she did this, she would be eligible for dessert.
We don’t ever make our children finish meals because we don’t want them to be required to eat food when they’re full, building bad habits. What does happen though is by not finishing their meal, there are consequences. “If you choose to not finish your dinner, that’s fine, but there will be no more food at all tonight.” This almost always is met with an, “okay” answer and commonly is followed up with complaining, whining and terrible suffering on the part of the child when they realize they’re hungry an hour later. For some reason, telling them they can have as big a breakfast as they want in the morning rarely mollifies them. But it does make for a good lesson.
Today my daughter didn’t want to finish the pizza, or the cheese she’d pulled off the top. She said, “I don’t want dessert. I don’t want the cookies I baked with Morgan this afternoon. I’m not hungry.” You know what happened next, right? She was ravenous—for cookies—only cookies. I told her her dinner was in the trash because she walked away from the table and told me she was full. I explained how I was sad to throw away the pizza, but she said she didn’t want it.
She cried. She wailed. She told me how her tummy was hungry, but only hungry for cookie. My husband came into the room and told her if she was that hungry, she could have carrots. That brought on another round of crying with her bemoaning, “I only like carrots if they’re in carrot cake.” I looked around the corner to where Edna was vacuuming and told her this was one of the best parts of parenting in action. She and I tried not to laugh out loud for the next twenty minutes while my daughter came up with reason after reason she needed food (not carrots but definitely cookies).
Then, suddenly, I think she finally got it. My daughter changed her tone and said to me, “Mommy, I’m so sorry I didn’t eat my dinner. Can I have carrots?”
The Big Boy Update: Yesterday I mentioned how my husband and son went to launch his birthday rocket in a gravel field. My son was thrilled for the entire three launches. He figured out how the rocket was traveling downward with the parachute and ran across the gravel, catching it neatly when it returned to Earth.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter and I were doing water painting yesterday. We wanted to help the water dry faster and my daughter suggested we make a paper fan. I told her I’d get a piece of paper for us to accordion fold into a fan. She told me, “get an orange piece of paper. All fans are suppose to be orange.”
As parents we say, “No” an awful lot. We sat, “not right now” almost as much. And then there are the, “no, because you made a choice” answers. Those are the best. Let me give you an example from tonight: my daughter didn’t want to eat her piece of pizza for dinner. She decided taking all the cheese off the top would make it better, but she was wrong. I told her she had to eat the piece of pizza AND the cheese she’d torn off the top because that’s not how we ate pizza. If she did this, she would be eligible for dessert.
We don’t ever make our children finish meals because we don’t want them to be required to eat food when they’re full, building bad habits. What does happen though is by not finishing their meal, there are consequences. “If you choose to not finish your dinner, that’s fine, but there will be no more food at all tonight.” This almost always is met with an, “okay” answer and commonly is followed up with complaining, whining and terrible suffering on the part of the child when they realize they’re hungry an hour later. For some reason, telling them they can have as big a breakfast as they want in the morning rarely mollifies them. But it does make for a good lesson.
Today my daughter didn’t want to finish the pizza, or the cheese she’d pulled off the top. She said, “I don’t want dessert. I don’t want the cookies I baked with Morgan this afternoon. I’m not hungry.” You know what happened next, right? She was ravenous—for cookies—only cookies. I told her her dinner was in the trash because she walked away from the table and told me she was full. I explained how I was sad to throw away the pizza, but she said she didn’t want it.
She cried. She wailed. She told me how her tummy was hungry, but only hungry for cookie. My husband came into the room and told her if she was that hungry, she could have carrots. That brought on another round of crying with her bemoaning, “I only like carrots if they’re in carrot cake.” I looked around the corner to where Edna was vacuuming and told her this was one of the best parts of parenting in action. She and I tried not to laugh out loud for the next twenty minutes while my daughter came up with reason after reason she needed food (not carrots but definitely cookies).
Then, suddenly, I think she finally got it. My daughter changed her tone and said to me, “Mommy, I’m so sorry I didn’t eat my dinner. Can I have carrots?”
The Big Boy Update: Yesterday I mentioned how my husband and son went to launch his birthday rocket in a gravel field. My son was thrilled for the entire three launches. He figured out how the rocket was traveling downward with the parachute and ran across the gravel, catching it neatly when it returned to Earth.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter and I were doing water painting yesterday. We wanted to help the water dry faster and my daughter suggested we make a paper fan. I told her I’d get a piece of paper for us to accordion fold into a fan. She told me, “get an orange piece of paper. All fans are suppose to be orange.”
Thursday, December 29, 2016
T6 & T10
My daughter has been complaining about her back for a while now. She’s not much of a complainer, so I didn’t think much of it, except it’s been going on for well over a month. Initially she started doing this strange thing where she’d lie on her back and flip her legs and body up and over to one side or the other. It looked like a contortionist move and she does all kinds of staggering flexibility feats, but this was new.
Her teachers noticed it too, saying she did it at circle time and spent a lot of time doing it at rest time in after school. Couple that with my daughter mentioning on and off that her back hurt. I asked where and she always pointed to the same exact spot in her middle back. Interesting. What was more interesting was she could tell me exactly when it happened—when she was jumping off the five foot brick wall into the meager pile of leaves the children had raked together.
That was some time ago though and her back had been consistently bothering her. I took her in for a workup at the chiropractor’s office today and found out—because she answered every one of their questions in detail about how and when it hurt—that it was more than I’d realized. I was a little scared.
She’s five, so they don’t do x-rays, but they didn’t really need to. She has no signs of scoliosis or other spinal issues, but she did have T6 and T10 subluxated. The doctor said he could fix it and once might do it completely because children hold corrections a lot better than adults do. He said we could do three days in a row to make sure it was staying in place.
Then, he did two little things on my daughter’s back while she lay face down. It took about thirty seconds total. She says it feels better now. Not gone, but better. We’ll go back tomorrow and see if that helps even more.
I’m glad to have a non-intrusive, non-surgical, non-medicine option to try and help her. From what she said, she was having pain all day, every day, which is why she was doing the constant rolling over, which helped it feel, “a little better”.
The Big Boy Update: My son and husband went to launch his birthday rocket they’d built over the holiday. There was a no trespassing sign at the field they went to. My son was worried about trespassing. He said, “maybe we shouldn’t go in. Do you think they’ll come and chase us?” My husband told him it was a government gravel field and they should be okay.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter and I were listening to a Brittney Spears song in the car on the way to the chiropractor’s office today. She asked me, “mom, why is Brittney Spears so naughty?” I really didn’t know what to say…
Her teachers noticed it too, saying she did it at circle time and spent a lot of time doing it at rest time in after school. Couple that with my daughter mentioning on and off that her back hurt. I asked where and she always pointed to the same exact spot in her middle back. Interesting. What was more interesting was she could tell me exactly when it happened—when she was jumping off the five foot brick wall into the meager pile of leaves the children had raked together.
That was some time ago though and her back had been consistently bothering her. I took her in for a workup at the chiropractor’s office today and found out—because she answered every one of their questions in detail about how and when it hurt—that it was more than I’d realized. I was a little scared.
She’s five, so they don’t do x-rays, but they didn’t really need to. She has no signs of scoliosis or other spinal issues, but she did have T6 and T10 subluxated. The doctor said he could fix it and once might do it completely because children hold corrections a lot better than adults do. He said we could do three days in a row to make sure it was staying in place.
Then, he did two little things on my daughter’s back while she lay face down. It took about thirty seconds total. She says it feels better now. Not gone, but better. We’ll go back tomorrow and see if that helps even more.
I’m glad to have a non-intrusive, non-surgical, non-medicine option to try and help her. From what she said, she was having pain all day, every day, which is why she was doing the constant rolling over, which helped it feel, “a little better”.
The Big Boy Update: My son and husband went to launch his birthday rocket they’d built over the holiday. There was a no trespassing sign at the field they went to. My son was worried about trespassing. He said, “maybe we shouldn’t go in. Do you think they’ll come and chase us?” My husband told him it was a government gravel field and they should be okay.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter and I were listening to a Brittney Spears song in the car on the way to the chiropractor’s office today. She asked me, “mom, why is Brittney Spears so naughty?” I really didn’t know what to say…
Wednesday, December 28, 2016
And I Ran Across The House…
It’s the end of the night. My husband is helping with the laundry before going downstairs to his man cave (the basement) and I’m finishing up with things before I get into the tub (the woman non-cave?) We had several things in the children’s laundry basket that needed to be washed tonight so I’d dumped my day’s clothes into the basket, and gone across the house to start the load.
I had been wearing my new, favorite pants. These new pants are camoflage, with cargo-like pockets on the sides. Also, they’re fairly form-fitting, which is in these days, even though I protested several years ago with my “spray-on pants” post. So came, lots of big pockets and form fitting. Winner all around.
I like these new pants so much after wearing them several times I informed my husband yesterday I was going to the store right then to see if they had another pair in my size before they sold out, because I was fairly sure I could wear the heck out of two pair of cargo camo pants. He nodded and I dashed off to the store, coming home triumphant with the only remaining pair in my size.
So tonight I wasn’t overly worried about putting the one pair in the laundry when there was a second pair waiting for me in the chair by the bed. I had come back from starting the laundry and was working on helping fold when I noticed my phone wasn’t in the charging spot. I said something to my husband and then jumped up and sprinted out of the room.
My husband had made it half-way across the house before he realized I was stopping the laundry to see if I’d just dumped my pants, including phone in pocket, into the laundry. We were both relieved to find the pants soaked but phone-less. Where had the phone gone?
I got back to the bedroom and realized I’d put it in my shirt (well, bra). My husband said, “how did you not notice that when you were running across the house?
The Big Boy Update: My son has been given a new privilege today. We moved the lego colored-sorted drawers into the bonus room and set up a new table with two chairs for him and anyone who wants to work there. He knows he can’t hit, yell at or force people to clean up if they’re making a mess of the Lego’s, but he also knows it’s his responsibility to let us know if people aren’t respecting the rules for keeping the Legos organized. He liked the upgrade.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter has been complaining about one particular spot on her back for several weeks now. She says she hurt it when she was jumping off the brick wall into the leaf pile. Her complaint is always the same spot and she says it bothers her a lot. Tomorrow I’m going to have it looked at by the chiropractor. If they think there’s something more to check out, we will. It could also be nothing, so hard to tell with children.
I had been wearing my new, favorite pants. These new pants are camoflage, with cargo-like pockets on the sides. Also, they’re fairly form-fitting, which is in these days, even though I protested several years ago with my “spray-on pants” post. So came, lots of big pockets and form fitting. Winner all around.
I like these new pants so much after wearing them several times I informed my husband yesterday I was going to the store right then to see if they had another pair in my size before they sold out, because I was fairly sure I could wear the heck out of two pair of cargo camo pants. He nodded and I dashed off to the store, coming home triumphant with the only remaining pair in my size.
So tonight I wasn’t overly worried about putting the one pair in the laundry when there was a second pair waiting for me in the chair by the bed. I had come back from starting the laundry and was working on helping fold when I noticed my phone wasn’t in the charging spot. I said something to my husband and then jumped up and sprinted out of the room.
My husband had made it half-way across the house before he realized I was stopping the laundry to see if I’d just dumped my pants, including phone in pocket, into the laundry. We were both relieved to find the pants soaked but phone-less. Where had the phone gone?
I got back to the bedroom and realized I’d put it in my shirt (well, bra). My husband said, “how did you not notice that when you were running across the house?
The Big Boy Update: My son has been given a new privilege today. We moved the lego colored-sorted drawers into the bonus room and set up a new table with two chairs for him and anyone who wants to work there. He knows he can’t hit, yell at or force people to clean up if they’re making a mess of the Lego’s, but he also knows it’s his responsibility to let us know if people aren’t respecting the rules for keeping the Legos organized. He liked the upgrade.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter has been complaining about one particular spot on her back for several weeks now. She says she hurt it when she was jumping off the brick wall into the leaf pile. Her complaint is always the same spot and she says it bothers her a lot. Tomorrow I’m going to have it looked at by the chiropractor. If they think there’s something more to check out, we will. It could also be nothing, so hard to tell with children.
Tuesday, December 27, 2016
The Thank You Stick That’s Not a Stick
Some time ago I helped my best friend by driving her to her colonoscopy. In order to thank me for this small task in time, you may remember she gave me an orchid which over time, has taken up more time than the original driving favor.
This might be a great gift to most people—who aren’t afraid of killing a plant, who know what to do with a plant or have any qualifications at all for taking care of a particular and delicate plant. That person is not me. But I watered it, it did okay, the flowers fell off and I wrote a blog post about how I now had a stick to water every two weeks.
When I found out later that the blooms fell off any way and I didn’t do anything wrong, I was relieved. But when would it have flowers again? This was more confusing because most people I talked to (non-orchid people, otherwise known as my friends) said it was hard to say, the plants were unpredictable.
There were two flowers once, but there were more difficulties than successes and most of the time there was just a stick with two little leaves. Recently, I went to a friend’s house who had orchids with no sticks. I asked her about them and she told me about cutting the stick off once the flowers dropped, putting cinnamon paste on the cut section and that the plant would come around faster because it wasn’t dedicating nutrients to the old stalk.
I wasn’t sure. I’d been complaining about that stick for so long now I would feel bad just cutting it off. But my mother-in-law checked into it as well and found out all sorts of things to help the plant, including cutting off the old stalk, removing all the bad surface roots, cutting off damaged pieces of the leaves and sealing the edges of anything cut with a antibacterial spray, or when you didn’t have that, cinnamon paste would do.
So we did all that and she further went and cleaned off all the leaves with a homemade spray to make sure there was no bacteria growing on the leaves, something orchids are susceptible to. Then we watered it and now I’m waiting. It may take months for it to become, “un-shocked” but when it does, I hope there will be a new stick and flowers to go with it.
My best friend saw it the other day and said, “oh no, you cut off the stick!” I was about to launch into the story of our research when somewhere between one to five children interrupted us. I need to let her know I only maimed the Colonoscopy Thank You Plant in the hope of future good.
The Big Boy Tiny Girl Zoo Adoption Story: My children were asked by their Aunt A what their favorite animal was. My daughter said a Hedgehog and my son said a Tiger. For Christmas they got a stuffed animal to match. Then, today, we got in the mail from the Palm Beach Zoo adoption papers to go with their stuffed animals. My son has now helped adopt a tiger at the zoo named Beropi and my daughter has an adopted hedgehog named Faso. Suffice it to say, they are both very excited and looking forward to going to Florida to visit their new friends at the zoo.
This might be a great gift to most people—who aren’t afraid of killing a plant, who know what to do with a plant or have any qualifications at all for taking care of a particular and delicate plant. That person is not me. But I watered it, it did okay, the flowers fell off and I wrote a blog post about how I now had a stick to water every two weeks.
When I found out later that the blooms fell off any way and I didn’t do anything wrong, I was relieved. But when would it have flowers again? This was more confusing because most people I talked to (non-orchid people, otherwise known as my friends) said it was hard to say, the plants were unpredictable.
There were two flowers once, but there were more difficulties than successes and most of the time there was just a stick with two little leaves. Recently, I went to a friend’s house who had orchids with no sticks. I asked her about them and she told me about cutting the stick off once the flowers dropped, putting cinnamon paste on the cut section and that the plant would come around faster because it wasn’t dedicating nutrients to the old stalk.
I wasn’t sure. I’d been complaining about that stick for so long now I would feel bad just cutting it off. But my mother-in-law checked into it as well and found out all sorts of things to help the plant, including cutting off the old stalk, removing all the bad surface roots, cutting off damaged pieces of the leaves and sealing the edges of anything cut with a antibacterial spray, or when you didn’t have that, cinnamon paste would do.
So we did all that and she further went and cleaned off all the leaves with a homemade spray to make sure there was no bacteria growing on the leaves, something orchids are susceptible to. Then we watered it and now I’m waiting. It may take months for it to become, “un-shocked” but when it does, I hope there will be a new stick and flowers to go with it.
My best friend saw it the other day and said, “oh no, you cut off the stick!” I was about to launch into the story of our research when somewhere between one to five children interrupted us. I need to let her know I only maimed the Colonoscopy Thank You Plant in the hope of future good.
The Big Boy Tiny Girl Zoo Adoption Story: My children were asked by their Aunt A what their favorite animal was. My daughter said a Hedgehog and my son said a Tiger. For Christmas they got a stuffed animal to match. Then, today, we got in the mail from the Palm Beach Zoo adoption papers to go with their stuffed animals. My son has now helped adopt a tiger at the zoo named Beropi and my daughter has an adopted hedgehog named Faso. Suffice it to say, they are both very excited and looking forward to going to Florida to visit their new friends at the zoo.
Monday, December 26, 2016
Not Un-helpful
Today I did some of the first real estate work I’ve done. I’ve been in classes, taken tests, paid membership fees, been trained on software, signed up with a firm, attended meetings, configured online sites for access and shadowed someone for office phone duty. But so far, I don’t think I’ve done anything other than prepare for work I’ll be actually doing once I’m working. Until today.
We had a request from one of our team members to help show a house to prospective buyers and prepare another customer for listing his mother’s estate house. Since my mother- and father-in-law were in town for the day and could stay, I went with my husband on both calls.
Both locations were fairly far away from our house at over thirty minutes drive. This gave us time to talk about what typically happened at showings, what information we needed to know in advance, what questions potential buyers would ask and what we could do to help them. There was a lot of iPad data looking beforehand and discussion between my husband and me.
Both meetings went well today. I was not un-helpful and possibly even a little bit helpful. And although, my husband didn’t need me, it was nice working with him and seeing what process he went through with customers.
The Big Boy Update: My son was “looking through his head” this evening when I got home. He was peering into the now-darkened window, looking rather intently at himself. I’m not sure what he saw, but he was looking serious about seeing into his brain.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My children went out to our play structure to swing, slide and play while we were out with a customer this afternoon. They decided they were in a boat or a plane or vehicle, I’m not sure which, but the important thing to know was we were in good hands because my daughter said she was, “the Coach Pilot”.
We had a request from one of our team members to help show a house to prospective buyers and prepare another customer for listing his mother’s estate house. Since my mother- and father-in-law were in town for the day and could stay, I went with my husband on both calls.
Both locations were fairly far away from our house at over thirty minutes drive. This gave us time to talk about what typically happened at showings, what information we needed to know in advance, what questions potential buyers would ask and what we could do to help them. There was a lot of iPad data looking beforehand and discussion between my husband and me.
Both meetings went well today. I was not un-helpful and possibly even a little bit helpful. And although, my husband didn’t need me, it was nice working with him and seeing what process he went through with customers.
The Big Boy Update: My son was “looking through his head” this evening when I got home. He was peering into the now-darkened window, looking rather intently at himself. I’m not sure what he saw, but he was looking serious about seeing into his brain.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My children went out to our play structure to swing, slide and play while we were out with a customer this afternoon. They decided they were in a boat or a plane or vehicle, I’m not sure which, but the important thing to know was we were in good hands because my daughter said she was, “the Coach Pilot”.
Sunday, December 25, 2016
Corning Ware Casserole
It’s Christmas day, well, Christmas night. We’ve been through the morning of presents, the afternoon of cats and the evening of dinner. Now we’re into the post-dinner entertainment and I’m sneaking off to write this post. Overall, it’s been a capital good day.
To start the day off, my son came into our bedroom happy and glad to wish us a happy Christmas morning. He had tried to wake his sister up but she didn’t want to come downstairs until eight-thirty. In the meantime, we had breakfast of bacon, square potatoes (potato hash dad makes), eggs and fruit. At nine o’clock we went to the basement to see what Santa had brought the children (one present each) and open family gifts.
Our children had a discussion on being grateful and not demanding more presents. They were very polite, being more interested in passing out presents than opening their own presents some of the time. When the morning of present was over, my daughter and I went to take care of the seven cats. She fed them all treats while I scooped lots of litter.
For our family dinner, my mother was wanting to bring over a roast she’d made the day before. She wanted to borrow a casserole dish. I looked through our cabinets, not finding what she was looking for. We realized we were talking about something she though we would of course have, because everyone has them, and I wasn’t sure what she meant but we didn’t have any of those things because we didn’t use them.
I do know what a Corning Ware Casserole is (especially after looking them up online), but we don’t have any. We don’t use them. I’m not sure how our kitchen and cooking routine/needs are different, but it’s just never presented itself as a need. I need to look into this more, because it would seem like a nice thing to have from time to time, if only I knew when I might use a casserole dish.
The Big Boy Update: My son was approaching the “adult” table for dinner tonight on his hands and knees, making a growling sound. We told him only adults allowed in the room, not animals. He left and went back to the other room. We poured more wine for dinner.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: “Ready. Set, Go!” My niece was trying to get into character to do lines from MacBeth tonight. Just about the time she was ready to be severe and serious my daughter yelled out in a sing-song voice, “Ready, set, go!”
To start the day off, my son came into our bedroom happy and glad to wish us a happy Christmas morning. He had tried to wake his sister up but she didn’t want to come downstairs until eight-thirty. In the meantime, we had breakfast of bacon, square potatoes (potato hash dad makes), eggs and fruit. At nine o’clock we went to the basement to see what Santa had brought the children (one present each) and open family gifts.
Our children had a discussion on being grateful and not demanding more presents. They were very polite, being more interested in passing out presents than opening their own presents some of the time. When the morning of present was over, my daughter and I went to take care of the seven cats. She fed them all treats while I scooped lots of litter.
For our family dinner, my mother was wanting to bring over a roast she’d made the day before. She wanted to borrow a casserole dish. I looked through our cabinets, not finding what she was looking for. We realized we were talking about something she though we would of course have, because everyone has them, and I wasn’t sure what she meant but we didn’t have any of those things because we didn’t use them.
I do know what a Corning Ware Casserole is (especially after looking them up online), but we don’t have any. We don’t use them. I’m not sure how our kitchen and cooking routine/needs are different, but it’s just never presented itself as a need. I need to look into this more, because it would seem like a nice thing to have from time to time, if only I knew when I might use a casserole dish.
The Big Boy Update: My son was approaching the “adult” table for dinner tonight on his hands and knees, making a growling sound. We told him only adults allowed in the room, not animals. He left and went back to the other room. We poured more wine for dinner.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: “Ready. Set, Go!” My niece was trying to get into character to do lines from MacBeth tonight. Just about the time she was ready to be severe and serious my daughter yelled out in a sing-song voice, “Ready, set, go!”
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