March 31, 2008
wow, it’s amazing how a 2-week break in the school routine can throw a kid off. After 2 full weeks of spring break, Mason was none-too-pleased to be returning to school this morning.
his biggest struggle with school is paying attention, so I can only imagine how long it will take for him to get back into the swing of things… yikes!
March 27, 2008
anyone shop at Trader Joe’s? anyone? Bueller? It’s one of my favorite places to shop… not just because the staff is always SUPER nice to me (maybe they’re being fake, but I can’t tell!) but because they sell small packages of food that can still feed a family of 4… unlike Costco where the package sizes are SO big you could eat the same thing for a month and still have to throw some away…
so, a friend of mine recommended that I try Trader Joe’s turkey meatballs… they are sooooooo yummy! (especially for those of us who don’t eat much beef). They obviously look a little different than (brown) beef meatballs… they are almost white in color. They come pre-cooked so you just have to warm them up right in the sauce or in a pan with a little olive oil… super easy.
I made them for my boys a couple of nights ago and they loved them… and if they pass that test, they get my stamp of approval, for sure. Mason said: “Mommy, these are really yummy! I didn’t even know turkeys had balls!” I laughed so hard I almost choked.
March 26, 2008
so, it’s easter sunday… and the boys and I have made our rounds to several ‘egg-hunts’. and each and every egg they collected contianed, you guessed it… CANDY! Now, I’m not knockin’ a little easter chocolate and a few jelly beans, but come on, people! Some originality here would be nice.
I try to switch it up a little each year and do something different… something that requires kids to use their brains a little… I’ll admit this year I went a little overboard, but all in the name of a lower dental-bill in a month or 2…
my son collects LEGOs (probably because I happen to love them… so, okay I collect LEGOs in my kid’s name… but that’s not my point). He’s got a bunch of Lego Knights which the pieces fit quite nicely inside those small plastic eggs. So, before the egg-hunt, I give him a picture of the character he has to build and he has to collect all of the eggs with the pieces he’s looking for and build the knight in order to get his easter basket (which I fill with other non-candy items) his little brother (who’s only 4) has to build something less complicated with his pieces.
one thing I’ve noticed that is fascinating is that these 2 boys who would normally STRANGLE each other for touching the other’s toys, actually team up and help each other find the missing pieces and build their toy… it’s a beautiful thing, really. I have friends that do a ‘treasure-hunt’ style egg-hunt, where they hide clues in each egg to find the next one… which is pretty cool too. Everyone gets their treat at the end and they have to work as a team to get it. just some good ideas I thought were worth sharing if you’re tired of all the candy.
March 18, 2008
now I know how CRAZY kids are about this Pokemon thing… I’ve seen it first hand! My six-year old couldn’t get enough of these cards a couple months back… so as a reward for everything from good grades to good behavior, I would shell out a couple bucks so he could add to his collection.
now that Easter is coming, I always like to get the boys something that isn’t made of pure sugar (considering it is ME who will probably end up eating it), so I stocked up weeks ago on these little Pokemon ‘gems’ to put in his basket.
you know what’s coming next… surprise! “Pokemon isn’t cool anymore, Mom… duh! Well, they’re not dumb enough to let my little brother within 10 feet of them, but I don’t want any more of them… now I want Bakugan.”
what the heck is a Bakugan? I swear sometimes he’s making this stuff up 
March 17, 2008
i realize that in my last couple posts, I have really painted a ‘not-so-pretty’ picture of my littlest blessing… I’ll call him Isaac. fitting, since that is his name… Hebrew for laughter. and I have to say, that name fits him like a glove.
he makes me laugh… a LOT. sure, the laughs are sprinkled between the panic, the wincing, the mild and not-so-mild heart palputations and all the rest, but he is mostly a joy. and sometimes I forget that…
so, my neighbor’s daughter, Elaine, who is about my age, lost her 7-year-old son in a car accident a few months back. I had never met her before, but have been close with her mom since she moved in across the street last year…
well, yesterday Elaine knocked on my door, just as I was finishing cleaning up Isaac’s latest mess, and he was about to destroy something else… I was about to lose it. She and I only talked for a few minutes but I was floored by her strength. I can’t even imagine this woman’s grief, yet just a few words with her put things in perspective for me so fast…
while I can’t promise I’ll never complain about the ‘messes’ of motherhood… I will say that today I’m grateful to have them…. and Isaac is more than happy to oblige
March 15, 2008
okay, so I survived the second week of my little ‘experiment’ to keep my little guy home 2 days a week… make that, BARELY survived. I won’t get into all of the reasons I felt compelled to try this in the first place, but most of it had to do with guilt…
GUILT that someone else was spending more waking hours with my kid on a given day…
GUILT that my husband (who I’m currently separated from, mind you) thought I should WANT to be with my child more than working
GUILT that I was spending more money than was absolutely necessary, being that I work from home, why couldn’t he just ‘hang out’ with me and I’d save a couple bucks?
well, let me tell you, I’ve come to my senses! True, someone else does “clock” more hours with him during the week, but it’s worth every penny! No, not because I would rather be working, dear, but because I can be more efficient when he’s not up my rear-end, thus allowing me to be more ‘present’ when he and his big bro are around.
more on working thru guilt later…
March 10, 2008
trouble has a face… and it looks like this!
If ever there was a child destined to be a trouble-maker… this is the one! I may as well just face facts… this boy was put on the planet to give me gray hairs!
he’s a handful, but I think that’s why god makes kids so darn adorable… they might not survive if they weren’t! I snapped this photo as he was climbing out of my koi pond this morning… we buried the last fish months ago (he wanted to grow a fish tree)… I suppose it’s early demise was inevitable with this kid around.
March 9, 2008
children have such amazing clarity it absolutely stuns me sometimes.
So, my little guy (he’s 4) likes to put his hand down his pants… I know, surprise, surprise. And lately I’ve really been trying to drill it into his head that it is “inappropriate to touch your ‘privates’ when other people are around…” So, today, when that uncoltrollable urge to play with himself struck, I said, “… if you’re going to touch your penis, you really should go in your room… mommy doesn’t want to see you doing that.”
“what’s a ‘penis’, mommy?”, he replied. (I hadn’t realized that this was the first time I had actually called it by it’s “proper name” with him).
Trying to wipe the smirk off of my face, I answered: “… it’s what YOU call your ‘pee pee’, babe… it’s where the pee comes out of your body when you use the potty.” (I love it when I come up with the perfect answer… but I have to admit, his reply ‘trumps’ mine… by far)
“Oh, okay… so if this is my ‘penis’,” he said, pointing to his crotch… “then (turning his back to me and pointing at his bum) THIS must be my ‘poonis’, right?”
hey, who can argue with that kind of logic?
March 8, 2008
ever get the feeling your children are deaf ONLY to the sound of your voice? it’s like they tune out your frequency completely… even sign language and the threat of bodily harm doesn’t seem to ‘bat and eye’. it happens to me all the time lately. as much as I hope they’re just having an “off” day… my boys just don’t seem to want to listen to their mother anymore! I know, I know… this is normal behavior, blah, blah, blah. somehow knowing this doesn’t make it any easier.
my oldest, who is 6, is bright, energetic and very social… he’ll talk to anyone… trouble is, he doesn’t know when to stop talking, especially in school. nor can he keep his hands to himself… I’ve taken just about everything away from this poor kid that brings him joy… trips to the park after school, his Pokemon cards, his Gameboy… yes, he still plays Gameboy… I refuse to pony up 130 bucks for this Nintendo DS all the other “cool” kids have until he can behave in school for a whole week… and THAT has yet to happen. By the way… when did 6 year-olds start being “cool” anyway?
I feel like I’ve exhausted all options except maybe duct tape and shock therapy… and I’m pretty sure both are frowned upon in the public school system.
February 26, 2008
So, today I kept the little guy home for the first day of my little “keep-Isaac-home-2-days-a-week-and-see-if-I-can-get-anything-accomplished” experiment… let’s just say it’s not really working out.
for starters, he found a bag of uncooked alphabet pasta and “sprinkled” them all over the house… I wouldn’t be surprised if I could spell out BABAGANOUSH (not to mention a few other choice words) with the letters I found in the couch cushions alone!
Moving on… lunchtime was a real treat… he peed in a bucket outside and poured it in the dog’s bowl… which, of course, the dog immediately drank from (Note To Self: Don’t EVER let the dog lick your face… EVER!)
Then we went to pick up “the other one” at school… that was a mistake 2 boys are exponentially crazier than 1. I put them in their room for fighting with bats in the front yard and they promptly emptied an entire container of baby powder all over everything… the only reason I even checked on them was because I thought I saw smoke coming out from underneath the door. I’m still choking on the dust. (and the house smells like a baby’s bottom)
To top it all off, Isaac found a pair of scissors and proceeded to give himself a haircut… which I had to finish for him… let’s just say his new look fits him perfectly. (see photo). Yes, those are skull-and-crossbone underwear… and if you look real close, you’ll notice that the tattoo on his belly reads: “Crash And Burn”. ya just can’t make this shit up.
All this and it’s only Monday… and for those of you who were undecided about becoming parents… I’m glad I could help 
