The Pretzel

Emma loves soft pretzels. LOVES them. We gave her one during our vacation in San Diego last summer to keep her awake on the drive back to the condo and since then she has a soft pretzel radar that can hone in as soon as we walk in a store. She knows Target sells them and she knows Sam's Club has them. As an occasional treat, I let her have half of one, mostly when I'm low on patience because it will get us through the shopping trip drama free. It's a huge deal for me to actually get her one, especially since she asks each and every time we walk into either store.

Now that you know how much Emma cherishes the pretzel, let me tell you what happened today at Sam's Club.

I got her a pretzel, which we decided to split. She and Grant were both riding in the front of the cart, so I ripped off my half and gave her the other half. I gave Grant a little bit of mine and we all happily munched away on our pretzel. All of sudden, Grant is done with his and pushes back the pretzel paper to see if Emma is done with hers. She's outraged and yells no. I laugh and tell her he wants a little bit more and was looking to see if she had any left. She smiles and says "Oh, I'll rip a little off for him" and rips off a piece and hands it to him. Grant smiles and munches away. This replays over and over until the pretzel is gone. Emma probably ended up with about half of her half, the rest she willingly offered to Grant. Awwwwwww.

Catching Up

So I apologize to my three loyal readers for my utter lameness at blogging lately. I had every intention of blogging all about the gratitude I was feeling after a wonderful Thanksgiving last week. Next thing I know, a week has gone by. Oy!

Anyway, all is finally healthy on the redhead front. Two trips to the after hours med clinic in two days produced two short redheads with ear infections. But the meds have kicked in and most everyone is back to sleeping. So now I'm playing catchup with the house and my business and life in general. And I'm back to blogging. Promise.

Here's the news from the week, in no particular order:
1. Thanksgiving rocked. I've decided I love a crowd at Thanksgiving, and this year we had 13 people stuffed into our dining room. It was awesome, the food was great, the company was great, and I really just felt blessed and loved the whole day. I truly live a charmed life, with no real problems to complain about. I need to take the time to remind myself of that daily.

2. Emma is obsessed with how to spell things. She's starting to practice writing letters, although they are just scribbles right now except for the letter E of course. She'll ask you how to spell something and then write little scribbles as you spell it. Thanks to Dr. Seuss she can now recognize the word CAT, and noticed that HAT is spelled similarly. What a smartie!

3. Both kids love Christmas carols as much as I do! A radio station in town start playing them the day after Christmas and you better believe my car radio was tuned right in. On the way to preschool yesterday we had the carols cranked and Grant was singing (BA BA BA BA and he'd get louder if I started singing) and Emma was singing silly words along with the tune at the top of her voice, and if I could hear the music over all of that I was singing the "right" words. I caught Emma humming "Let it Snow" when we got home!

4. I've been sort of sad while driving around town lately because I realized there are no less than 4 houses for sale in a 5 mile radius that have Bank Owned signs on them. What a loss for those family's, and a sad commentary on owning a home these days. Ugh. I feel so grateful that we aren't struggling to make our mortgage every month.

I was planning on having a garage sale this weekend, but with all the sickness that got put on hold. Hubs is doing the dance of joy. Little does he know it's short lived, I'm just planning to have it next weekend! So if you know where I live, come on over and browse. You just might find something you can't live without.

Hold the Phone!

I completely forgot to share the biggest news of the weekend!

Hubs put Grant down for a nap Sunday with no drama at all! For those of you who know the sleep drama we've had with that kid, I know you'll appreciate the gravity of this event!

Leaves leaves leaves

Emma and I spent the afternoon on Saturday raking up the endless leaves in the front yard. Emma loves to rake leaves, and she's actually a really good worker, for a three year old. I'm milking it for all it's worth since I'm under no illusions that this isn't going to last. When we moved into the house, hubs and I had a good laugh at the wee rake in the shed and wondered who on earth raked with one that size. Emma, that's who! I showed it to her and she was thrilled to have an Emma sized rake!

So we head out to the yard, Emma helping me drag the trash can out and laughing at our "teamwork". She heads over to one side of the yard and starts raking and raking. I'm raking on the other side, making lots of big piles for us to pick up. I look over and she has a pretty nice sized pile so I go to grab the trash can so we can start filling it up. As I'm walking away from the piles, I hear lots of crunching and Emma giggling. Yep, she's running through all the piles. It was hilarious watching this little three foot kid run wildly all around the yard. The first time. Then it got real old to re-rake the leaves. Again.

I got a little stool for her so she helped me get the leaves in the trash can, she even used her wee rake to mash down the leaves into the can! She lost interest half way through and started throwing pine cones and climbing up on the porch chairs to take a break. But it was still as fun as one can have raking leaves. I wouldn't want any other yard buddy.


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Did I ever report back on the pumpkin spice pancakes? We made some Saturday. Delish! Well, Emma ate about half of hers and declared she didn't like them because they were different. But Grant and I loved them. Hubs lost out, he slept in. Thanks to Martha Stewart for this one - here's the recipe.

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Things heard from Emma today:

"twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, twenty twenty!!"

"Here Granty, here's your water....sign water....water....I'll hold it, here Granty." (I hear Grant choke in the background) "Ooops, too much water Granty. Drink slllllllowly Granty."

"God is in my heart Mama"

"I want regular pancakes, cut like Granddad cuts them, not different pancakes because I don't like different pancakes, I just like regular pancakes. With honey. Spread all over like Granddad does it. Spread all over mommy, like Granddad does it."

Is it tax time yet?

My auto ship Turbo Tax arrived today.....I'm ready to get going on my taxes and get my return back! I have BIG plans for our return. Our 10 year anniversary is in 2008 and we're going on a kid free vacation. Our first one, and let me tell you, I'm counting down the days. We haven't decided where yet, the amount of our tax return will probably help to decide that.

Second, we are painting the house! Goodbye bright blue, hello something tasteful. I'm kicking around the idea of not telling our friends and family when we get it done, and see how many people drive on by. Mean? Maybe. Hilarious? Yes.

Conversations with Grant

While these entries are much more likely to be fewer than Conversations with Emma, we had a new "word" (re: sign) yesterday!

We're walking into the kitchen first thing in the morning

G: points to nose with all his fingers in a bunch
Me: That's your nose!
G: points to nose again
M: Yep, that's your nose.
As we walk past his high chair, he points to his nose several times.
M: Nose nose nose, there's your nose.

A few minutes later, we're in my room and I pick him up and ask him if he wants to eat. He vigorously points to his nose. It dawns on me he's signing "eat" which is signed by tapping your lips with your closed fingertips.

Me: You want to eat? (as I sign it also)
G: points to nose with a big smile

Got it. Pointing to his nose now means "eat" "water" and him pointing out his nose if we've been talking about it. Not confusing at all.

Conversations with Emma

This will be an ongoing feature in my blog seeing as 3 year olds are hilarious.


In Rite Aid yesterday, standing in the light bulb aisle.
E: What's that mama? (points to a camping lantern)
Me: It's a lantern, it makes light, sort of like a lamp. (I turn to get some light bulbs off the shelf)
E: (loading the lantern into the cart) I'll just get this and use it instead of my nightlight.



Today during "nap" time. She comes rushing out of her room yelling
E: I'm going to barf I'm going to barf.
M: Well run to the bathroom then.
E: (runs to bathroom and spits out orange unidentifiable object into toilet) Uck.
M: Are you done? Did you barf in your room?
E: No I didn't barf in my room. I just barfed now because I stuck my hand all the way down my throat like this (sticks hand down throat, gags, then moves hand). Why Grant no barf when he does that?
M: Well, Grant stops before he barfs, he just coughs.
E: (fake cough) I just cough too.

Millenial Generation

Have you all heard about this? I first read about it in The Crescent (sorority mag) last week. The generation of people who are in college and finishing up high school are considered the Millenial Generation. The article I read was very interesting, and it really got me thinking. One point the article mentioned was how different this generation is from Generation X, which I think I'm at the tail end of. While Gen Xers are defined as slackers, grungers, defined by bands like Nirvana or Kurt Cobain, Millenials are defined as multitaskers, hard workers, good at working in groups. In fact, this article mentioned that Millenials are redefining the work world because of these things. Employers are loving them as employees, and many Millenials are wildly successful in college as well. They are committed to public service, often involved in philanthropic clubs as well as achieving high grades, working, and, in the case of the article, holding leadership roles in Greek organizations. The point that sticks with me most is that many think Millenials are such great multitaskers and so good at working in groups because of their childhood experiences. This generation is the generation that was defined as "overprogrammed" when they were growing up. They were the generation that had an activity everyday after school, and the "experts" lamented that they were missing their childhood. Millenials also had "helicopter" parents - parents who hover over their children and their every move. The kind of parent I think I'm probably going to end up struggling not to be!!

I think this sticks with me so much because I am already struggling with giving Emma, and soon Grant, a well rounded childhood experience that supports their interests and strengths without "overprogramming" them. Thanks to my abundance of over-education in the department of child development, I know that various activities can help my kids become well rounded children and then adults. I know that the brain is so elastic when they are younger and their learning is so abundant during this young time. So this makes me want to enroll them in all sorts of things - gymnastics, preschool, music class, playgroups, library story time, etc. But at the same time, my strongest beliefs about childhood are based in learning through play, which speaks to being home, with toys, or in a play based preschool. It's such a struggle to stay balanced - to provide them with experiences that will shape their learning foundation, while being aware of how busy we are.

So anyway, I guess what it really comes down to is that I was relieved (for lack of a better word) to see that adults who were overprogrammed as children using those skills (multitasking, working in groups) to become wonderful adults. I still don't think I'm going to run out and enroll Emma in a Spanish class though (go ahead and laugh, but I have a friend whose 3 year old is taking Spanish). I guess it goes back to what I've always said - it's really hard to mess up a child!


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On a much lighter and significantly less thought provoking note, Emma and I made the best muffins this morning for her classroom Family Feast tomorrow. Pumpkin spice yumminess. Click here for the recipe. I did what several of the reviews suggested and I did 1 cup of pumpkin. I'd suggest increasing the cinnamon a tad. I have a bunch of leftover pumpkin so Grant had some mixed with cream cheese on a sandwich, and I'm on the hunt for a pumpkin pancake recipe. Yum.

Not Missing the Teen Years

Show of hands - who is thankful they aren't a teenager anymore?....Me too. I work in the nursery at church most Sundays. And most Sundays there is a wonderful teenage girl who helps out. She's great with the babies, knows lots of the parents, and loves loves loves to chat. Along with this teenage girl, there is a rotation of people who help out monthly, so we always have at least three people. Once a month, a different teenage girl joins us. Last week was such a week. I guess I had forgotten the silent drama that can ensue when two teenage girls, who don't seem to be friends, are forced to hang out in a small space for an hour.

It was hilarious. They managed to exist in this space and not address each other once the entire hour. Neither of them spoke unless they were playing with a child or I asked them something. They avoided eye contact with each other. They were both obsessed with how their shirts fit. And they both blushed a bright shade of red when their parents came to either check in to make sure they were there, or stopped by to tell them where they were going to be after church.

Let's say it all together now: Thank goodness I am no longer a teenager.

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On a non teen related note, it's been three days so I can say it out loud. I started this rule when Emma was a baby and she'd be doing something new. In order to avoid jinxing it, I'd avoid say anything until it had been three days. Sleeping for 5 hours at a time - wait three days to say it out loud. Sleeping through the night? Staying in her own bed for naps? No potty accidents? Wait three days.

Well, it's been three days so I can say it. Grant is sleeping through the night! It's a like a little bundle of bliss, left on my pillow. When I lay down at night, I don't get up until morning. Ahhhhhh.

Welcome!

So. My first blog entry. Welcome, and thanks for riding along. What can you expect from my blog? Well some stories about the kids. And some witty commentary about life. Maybe some funny stories about the husband. No pictures of us though, hubs isn't cool with pictures. Our family picture to the left is pretty accurate, although I'd say Emma's hair looks redder in person. I can't say I'll blog everyday, but come back regularly and check in. Leave some comments. Let's make this interactive, shall we?


I learned a new word the other day, and I'm trying it on to see how it fits. I've already embraced crunchy as a term to describe my earth friendly ways, now I'm trying on flexitarianism. Here is wikipedia's definition:

Flexitarianism is a term used in the United States to describe the practice of eating mainly vegetarian food, but making occasional exceptions for social, pragmatic, cultural, or nutritional reasons. Flexitarians may eat meat and/or other animal products sometimes. For example, a flexitarian might make only vegetarian dishes at home, but eat dishes including meat or fish at the home of family or friends. There is a wide range in the circumstances and outer boundaries of their dietary practices, which resist easy classification. The term semi-vegetarianism is sometimes also used to convey roughly the same meaning as flexitarianism.


I'd probably be completely vegetarian if not for my meat loving husband. He did the dance of joy when the midwife told me to eat red meat twice a week to get my iron up when I was preggo with Emma. Must be a boy thing - Emma's doesn't eat much meat, but Grant can't shovel it into his mouth fast enough. Maybe it dates back to the caveman days? Girls daintly nibbled on berries while they were out gathering, men hungrily gnashed their teeth and devoured meat after the hunt. Anyway, I think I'm liking the way flexitarianism is fitting, definitely my color, no?