How to keep a toddler occupied at a restaurant, after she’s finished her meal and before dessert arrives: put a napkin on your head.
It’s a hat, a peek-a-boo device, a laugh producer.
You may look a little goofy, but it’s no stranger than singing Jingle Bells, Happy Birthday, the ABC’s and Itsy Bitsy Spider aloud in a crowded restaurant (this technique also works).
Most importantly, putting a napkin on your head makes little girls smile.
Original post by piseco
Yes, I caved. I went shopping on Black Friday. Early.
Yesterday, I was telling PisecoDad how a few of the Black Friday deals were tempting - nothing huge, but some good bargains on kids’ dvds and a few games. All the same, I didn’t want to deal with driving in that traffic, or parking in the hinterlands and hiking in. I flashed PisecoDad with the fluttering Bambi eyes ™ and said, “I suppose I can’t convince you to drive me, huh?”
To my utter amazement, he was not only willing, but also seemed pretty jovial about the whole adventure.
I took him up on it, and at 4:45 the whole family woke up and bundled into the van. PisecoDad gave me door-to-door service, while he took the kids to the Dunkin’ Donuts drive-through, read to them and played with JediBoy on his DS. I spent about 35 minutes in one big box store, […]
Original post by piseco
Seven hours at Heather’s today, and at least six of those hours looked like this:
and like this:
BabyGirl and Jamie just love that baby Jillian oodles. They squeal her name and want to hold her, pet her, feed her, bathe her, change her diaper. Of course I was in the center of most of that, because of course I wanted to be holding, petting, feeding, bathing and changing the beautiful baby too.
JediBoy and Ethan spent hours upon hours playing Spore, which JediBoy hadn’t played before. We heard barely a peep from them (they did surface for lunch eventually and a short Lego break) and they were completely entranced.
Poor Ben bounced back and forth between playing with the girls and the baby and wanting to play Spore with the boys. It’s somehow my fault that I don’t have a child his age! That Heather is always trying […]
Original post by piseco
As the door banged behind PisecoDad on his way out to work, JediBoy roused from his cozy sleep. His head poked out from the covers. He squinted in the bright, sun-on-snow morning, and he peered around the room to take stock of the situation. Two quietly mumbled words escaped his lips… Buenos dias! …and he promptly fell back asleep.
More Muzzy in action?
Original post by piseco
Uncle M. was bored. He said we should all come over.
We did!
We descended on their formerly quiet, clean & peaceful home and made it our own: loud, messy and rambunctious. The kids played and fought and wrestled and sang and danced and ate. The grown-ups mostly just played and ate. We had two rousing games of Hex Hex mixed with the Hex Hex Next set, and then a play of the CSI: Senses game (reminiscent of Cranium).
It was a wonderful night. JediBoy enjoyed watching movies, pretending to be the character in a video game while we all called out what buttons we were pushing, and helping Uncle J. and me do some charades as part of the CSI game. (He acted out “answering the phone” by himself, then helped us act out “sketching the crime scene” by being in the crime scene, and “putting […]
Original post by piseco
I live in a house full of bibliophibians.
This week, the local branch of a large publishing company is holding its annual warehouse sale. It turns out that our community is full of bibliophibians.
Yes, I need more practice on adjusting-one’s-camera-settings-in-the-dark. But the photo above shows a small portion of the line of traffic waiting to get in to the warehouse.
Once we got in, we were greeted by piles and piles of empty boxes waiting to be filled, and rows and rows of remaindered, overstocked and returned books piled on pallets.
Books with a cover price of $9.99 or less are $1 after tax. From $10-$14.99, the books are $2, up to $24.99 are $3, and so on. Nearly half the sale is kids’ books - paperbacks, hardbacks and board books, DK readers, DK Eyewitness, Caldecotts and Newberrys and more. We restrained ourselves greatly and only bought two […]
Original post by piseco
…so have you, you, you. You came too, too, too. You’ve been to the zoo, zoo, zoo.
At least you can imagine you were there!
Today was BabyGirl’s second birthday, and we celebrated by meeting friends at a zoo between our homes - about an hour’s drive for each of us.
We did the entire zoo twice, had lunch, watched all kinds of animals, ran and played and wore ourselves out. We were at the zoo for almost 6 hours. It was a great treat, and the kids loved seeing all the “elimals” (it sounds like a cross between Elmo and animal). Especially the monkeys, the “elimunts” (you can figure that one out!) and the penguins. Oh, the penguins.
JediBoy was the first to figure out, by accident, that if he walked along the glass holding a graham cracker, one particular penguin would follow him, trying to get […]
Original post by piseco
We had a late start today after staying up to watch and celebrate the election results. I spent the morning singing Si, Se Puede and then Everybody Rejoice (thanks to PisecoSis - this is the one that is now lodged firmly in my brain!). I’m tingly with hope.
Things felt smooth and happy - coincidence, or because of my good mood? Whatever the reason, we found a good balance today between together and alone, noisy and quiet, clean and messy, studious and fluff.
We danced to Laurie Berkner songs on BabyGirl’s new rough-and-tumble cd player. We finished the last lesson of Math U See Beta. We read a pile of books, some aloud, some silently, in a tangle on the floor. We sorted through boxes my Dad brought last weekend, including trying to put together a dozen wooden dinosaur models. We did some worksheets from […]
Original post by piseco
I don’t know where he gets it, really!
This afternoon, JediBoy and BabyGirl were cuddling on the couch. He loves to build forts, or caves, or hideouts from couch cushions and pillows and draw her into them. Today, he was using our big pillows as a blanket and cuddling up with her.
Then he said, “Aren’t we cute?” And when I agreed, he followed that with, “Why don’t you get your camera?”
After I’d taken a picture or two, he proclaimed, “You can put this on your blog, and everyone can see.”
So here they are.
(Nancy H, recognize the little pillow? It’s their favorite and they both fight over who gets it! You can see it has been well, well loved.)
In addition to sitting around exuding cuteness, JediBoy has whipped through a few math lessons, read a huge pile of books, made purple dye from cabbage (not Phoenician snails, […]
Original post by piseco
We couldn’t bring our Chesso friends to the lake, so we brought the lake - or at least the lake bottom - to them.
Before we left camp last week, we filled up six quart-size freezer bags with sand and rocks from the lake. Today, we brought the bags over to Leigh’s house and let the kids dump them out into foil pans, swish them around with water, poke at them with brushes and sieves and basters. It was fun in the way that the pricey “pan for gems” tourist traps are - the kids were delighted to find “crystals” and “coal” and “gems” in their pans.
Paula and Emily look for treasures:
Nate concentrates on using his baster:
Anna can’t help but smile:
JediBoy delights in a fabulous find:
Ben and BabyGirl bond over rocks:
It was great fun, and kept the kids occupied for a long time. Emily even went back out […]
Original post by piseco
In between everything else that’s going on this week, we have gone to two very fun birthday parties. When JediBoy was born, I started going to La Leche League meetings here in town, and I met a group of moms who remain very dear friends. All of our first babies were born in that summer or fall. JediBoy was the oldest on June 19, and Ethan was the youngest on October 2. All the others came in between, including B. on July 24 and A. on July 31. Here they are the summer they turned one.
Now they’re all turning six! If you want to see how big they are, I have lots of pictures after the cut.
Original post by piseco
What a good knight we had today…
Our local library brought in a man who is something of a medieval expert (though he says it makes him feel old to be called An Expert) with his arms & armor.
JediBoy was in heaven.
The knight started out dressed simply, something like this.
Then he had one of the older boys come up from the audience to be his squire, and help him get dressed. The knight told lively stories and demonstrated things as he added each piece to his outfit. He explained all about how chain mail is made, and why they made it that way, and demonstrated how swords don’t cut or pierce it and regular arrows can’t pierce it either. As he brought out each piece of armor, helmet or weapon, he described it, explained how it came to be developed, and what it was good for. By […]
Original post by piseco
JediBoy woke up this morning about 4:30 and was up for two hours. Then he crashed again, and slept until after 11:00. This is unusual for him, to say the least, and we spent a slow and lazy day at home. We did play a whole bunch of board games, and between each game I’d flash him some addition and subtraction flashcards - if they’re in small enough bunches, say 10-15 at a time, he doesn’t lose his concentration and he can answer them very quickly (almost all under that “3 second” benchmark I keep reading about). Then we’d play… Sum Swamp, Scrutineyes Jr., Bumparena, Disney Trivial Pursuit.
I’m still smiling because two nights ago he stayed up after we were all asleep, saying “I love being the only one awake.” He proceeded to read all of Stuart Little in one sitting and then fall sweetly […]
Original post by piseco
We’ve had a very nice weekend, in spite of the heat and humidity. We were able to take the time to be with several of our good friends and family this weekend, and that time was cherished.
Yesterday morning started with soccer… here is 40% of Team USA! We’re lucky to have three of JediBoy’s friends on his soccer team.
JediBoy was thrilled to have his Grandma & Grandpa come down to watch him play. After the game, we went with them to lunch out and then for a hot but yummy trip to the pick-your-own farm for fresh raspberries. The kids liked seeing the animals and eating berries right off the bush.
When Grandma & Grandpa had to leave (which put JediBoy in a bit of a snit), we drove home and relaxed for a couple of hours.
In the evening, we went over to Aunt R & Uncle J’s […]
Original post by piseco
Today’s the day… JediBoy is finally SIX!
We had a fantastic day from start to finish. JediBoy woke up to a living room decorated with streamers and the birthday banners we’ve bought over the years, personalized with his name. He opened a few birthday cards and a pair of Real Binoculars from PisecoSis. We gave him a few fake-out Pokemon presents (just a few cards and figures) before scratching our heads and asking, “Wasn’t there another present here somewhere?” He peeked behind a chair and found the Lego Star Wars Imperial Star Destroyer that he’s been drooling over at lego.com for months! He was so excited. (He didn’t like it when I said… “Wait, wait! We have to take it back to the store. It says on the box ages 9 and up. Can you just wait 3 years?”)
JediBoy worked on those […]
Original post by piseco
We had a wonderful trip to Cleveland!
I know I won’t have time to post about it all at once, so I’m starting with Friday.
We were, miraculously, packed and ready on Friday morning and left the driveway at 9:04 (we were shooting for 9 am, that’s close enough!).
The kids rode okay in the van. It took us about six hours to drive. BabyGirl took a couple of gigantic naps, and JediBoy was thrilled to find a new-to-him Pokemon Ruby cartridge in the bag I packed for him.
We stopped a little more than halfway to have lunch, and got to our hotel about 4:30. JediBoy was especially tickled to be staying in a hotel for only the third time in his life, and BabyGirl had made a GuateTot friend before we even left the lobby. Both kids liked the elevators and the luggage carts.
We brought our luggage in, […]
Original post by piseco
Sometimes I get slow with posting because we’re all sick, or I’m blue, or something. Yesterday and today, though, we just haven’t done much! I’ve been researching things for our trip to Cleveland (okay, plotting routes to the best-looking game stores!) and doing laundry that I can pack away, and other pre-trip things. The kids have been playing with blocks, construction paper, real watercolors, swords, knights, a basket of balls, noisy toys, quiet toys, and reading a mess full of books. We’ve just been hanging out at home - the kids did seem to be coming down with something last night and this morning but seem better tonight, after lots of rest and orange juice. I want us all to be healthy for the trip. You’d be amazed at how excited JediBoy is to “GO TO CLEVELAND!” It’s only the 3rd time he’s stayed in a hotel, so it’s pretty […]
Original post by piseco
Why can’t I get “Walk Like An Egyptian” out of my head? We had an Egyptian/Mid-Eastern themed game night last night!
Leigh asked to play Cleopatra and the Society of Architects, so we built a theme around that. Leigh cooked up some seriously yummy dolmas, hummus and spanikopita (and why didn’t I remember to take a picture of the food?) and PisecoDad insisted on stopping by his favorite diner for a tray of baklava.
I rummaged through our game collection and was amazed to find so many titles that fit the theme!
We had: Alhambra, Tutankhamen, Babel, Old Mummy, Cleopatra and the Society of Architects, Settlers of Catan Historical Scenarios I (Cheops and Alexander the Great), Source of the Nile, The Arab-Israeli Wars, The Last Straw, Aladdin’s Dragons, Egyptians and A Line in the Sand. Jer brought Civilization to add to the mix.
The group of seven adults split easily to […]
Original post by piseco
Even though JediBoy is still not feeling himself, and coughs terribly, the doctors assured us that he’s not contagious and so we felt okay about taking the kids to the zoo this afternoon. After being a bit down yesterday because I’ve been letting our illnesses slow us down, I was determined to enjoy life at our own pace today.
We had gorgeous sunshine and a wonderful time at the zoo. It was the first time we’d taken BabyGirl, and she loved all the animals. We spent almost an hour in the lower zoo watching the goats and lemurs. And then the goats again. And some lemurs. And back to the goats. And, hey! There are the lemurs! Watching BabyGirl explore the zoo on foot was priceless. She didn’t want to head up the hill to the upper zoo, and kept running […]
Original post by piseco
It’s always hard for JediBoy when people come and go… today he’s recovering from a cold and recovering from the loss of his precious Pappy. We spent the day moving from one activity to another and trying to bring our lives back to center. We watched the squirrels and chipmunks climbing the bird feeders, read books, watched movies and played Disney Trivial Pursuit. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll feel more ourselves.
Original post by piseco
We are enjoying another glorious day here, weather-wise. We got up this morning and headed out to our favorite park, for the third time in less than a week! On the way there, I spotted something quite unusual in one of the yards we were passing.
It was a sharp-shinned hawk (correct, birding PisecoSis?) with a very recent kill. For some reason that we could not figure out, the hawk was sitting in the yard, only a few feet from the curb and rush of traffic, for several long minutes. We turned the van around and came back to look, and of course I took pictures. We had a very long and up-close chance to observe the hawk before he finally took off, carrying his prey with him.
We continued on to the park, where we spent nearly two hours exploring the stream, and a rocky outcropping […]
Original post by piseco
We celebrated JediBoy’s birthday today… just two months early. Today he is five and five-sixths, which we thought would be a cool day to celebrate with Pappy and Nita, who will be in South Africa for JediBoy’s actual sixth birthday in June. We spent the whole morning playing at our house. JediBoy talked Pappy into two board games - Monopoly Jr. Digging Dinos and Pokemon Monopoly - and they played Legos and built a marble run too. Nita kept BabyGirl happily occupied with toys and books.
Pappy, Nita and JediBoy counted birds again for Celebrate Urban Birds. Pappy and JediBoy washed a chalkboard in the driveway - this chalkboard moved with my parents from Virginia to North Dakota in 1976 (moving tag on the back) and from North Dakota to Pennsylvania in 1986 (moving tag on the front) and now it’s here in our home. It’s […]
Original post by piseco
Tonight we’re exhausted, but in a good way.
We spent the whole day with Leigh and her kids, cleaning out the toys in her basement. The kids played inside, outside, upside down and had a blast together, while Leigh and I sorted our way through bins and bins of toys.
We left from there and went over to Annick’s for dinner and play - comfort food of macaroni and cheese, with chocolate pudding pie for dessert. The four boys played well together and the two little girls were cute too.
It’s time for bed, and the kids are crashing around me. We’re all so ready for bed, because it has been a long day, but one spent in the company of friends, so we’re going to bed smiling.
Original post by piseco
First, the picture I took from my porch a few moments ago. This is for Em, who swears she’s never really seen one… I hope you saw this one from your side of the river too.
Second, I did have a slight change of heart from this morning, and decided to continue homeschooling, being that it’s APRIL FOOL’S DAY and all. Gotcha!
We had a nice day, though it wasn’t at all what I thought it would be when I got out of bed this morning! I got a call early this morning from Heather suggesting an impromptu trip to CEC, so we were there from 11-12:45. Then the kids and I went to Leigh’s to watch her kids while she had a root canal. Paula was there too so we split the kids and I kept the three boys and BabyGirl at Leigh’s house […]
Original post by piseco
Even when it’s raining (and raining, and raining), my silly girl keeps me laughing. She’s learned the sign for “music” and asks me to sing constantly through the day. Her favorites are “Wheels on the Bus” and “Itsy Bitsy Spider” but I can sneak other songs in there sometimes. JediBoy tries to sing “Johnny Cope” to her. She makes a ratchet noise when she wants to be tickled, and presents her belly brightly. When I’m chewing gum, she sticks her tongue out at me to get me to blow a bubble that she can touch with her lips. Tonight a circle of plastic was a window…
Original post by piseco