Sunday Fun

A couple of Sunday's ago, I found myself entertaining the troops by myself.  Though tomorrow starts March, we received another snow storm and it seems as if winter has started afresh, mentally, I don't anticipate it to go away any time soon.

Since the outdoors being battered by snow and wind, we headed downstairs and I played with the kids.  I really did- it doesn't come naturally to me.  First, Max lined up all the dinosaurs - T-Rex to Pterodactyl (Max lines up everything that he plays with from cars, to trains to dinosaurs).  We took turns being different dinosaurs and basically wrestling.  Next, we played Pokemon-  Ella and Max gathered all the balls they could find, and Max told me which Pokemon I was- we threw our balls to release our Pokemon, and then we fought Pokemon battles (looks very similar to Wrestling).  

Madeline build a wonderful town with couch cushions and blankets, and hosted us all.  

It was fun to sit beside and across from my children and to be part of their play.   Ella and Max are either playing together or fighting about whose toy it is.  

No front teeth to be found. Madeline is so patient with Max and Sam, I know she would prefer playing games, or doing crafts.  The boys love to play with her.  She's almost always going around the house on all fours- as a horse.  Somehow, she figured out the loudest way to bring her legs down with each gallop, and I keep telling her we need to get felt hooves on that horse.

Sam loves to undo anything- games that we are playing, laundry detergent, Max's lines of toys, and so forth. He talks quite a bit, he said his first sentence a few weeks ago:  I hiding from you.  We do not have a safe choice for him at the table, as he always manages to get on top of the table.   He loves for everyone to come home, I will often distract him momentarily from climbing or taking apart to look out the window for Ella, Madeline, or Dad.

How could I forget....

That these two boys cannot be left alone?  I thought 5 minutes could be spared to change my clothes, but I could sense as I pulled on my pants that I'd made a mistake.

Need I say more?

Max can barely contain his glee

In the hair and ears.  

Of course it was right as I was walking out the door to my tennis lessons.  Getting the camera to take pictures helped me keep it in perspective.  I dusted Max off, changed Sam's clothes, put them in the car, and off we went.  "Where we going Mom, to tennis lessons"?  Max asked, in complete innocence.  I told the sitter not to mind the dirt in Sam's ears and hair.  I have been thinking about what a natural consequence of this would be.  The only natural consequences are for me, because I left them unattended.

Below are a few of Ella and Madeline:

Boy's haircuts

Last week, we gave the boys haircuts.  Also, Sam has started going to nursery.  Maybe it's the combination of these two factors, but lot's of people have been mixing them up and telling me they look very similar.  

FYI- The haircuts worked fine as long as the one who wasn't cutting hair fed a steady stream of M & M's to whichever boy was getting the cut.

Car conversations and so forth

When dealing with two rambunctious boys ages 17 months and 34 months, I use a technique called Separate and Diffuse to combat their technique called "Separate and Disseminate".  A classic example of this is when it's "Time to Leave".  During a Minnesota winter, this entails, socks, boots, coat, hat, and scarf.  The need to separate the boys became clear early on.  I would wrestle one boy into his accessories, and start on the other boy, only to have the first boy run away and distribute his articles, included socks and shoes, all through the house.  If it was Max, he would be laughing hysterically, "I hide from you mommy", which meant I'd find him in the living room, under all the couch cushions, which would also be all over the floor.

Now, I've wised up.  I grab one boy, suit him up and take him out to the car (this only works if I buckle the boy securely in his car seat).  Then I return inside and find the other boy, suit him up and keep him inside with me while I do a 5 minute pick up.  

Sam riding his rocking horse

Sam getting ready to pull the "stand up with no hands while rocking" stunt

Yesterday, I followed protocol as usual, and when I went outside to buckle Max in his car-seat (he was second this time), I saw that Sam had been crying.  "Sammy, why are you crying buddy", I asked.  Max, from the back, replied for him, "He miss his Daddy, You miss Daddy, Sammy? I miss Daddy, too".  In reality, Sam was crying because he had been by himself in the car for 3 minutes, but Max's interpretation was instructive to me.  I had a conversation with Max about how he missed his daddy.  

There really is not another scene that's quite like when Ryan get's home from work.  The moment the kids here the garage opening, there's hiding, and schemes, and excitement.  Sam, who is usually restrained by his high chair, resorts to yelling, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy".  You can tell Ryan is well-loved by all around here.

This week has found us busy selling Girl Scout cookies.  Madeline, Ella and I went out early Saturday morning and sold in our neighborhood.  Ella was so intent on helping her sister sell the cookies, that she purchased the first box from Madeline.  She also asked her teachers at school if they wanted to buy some cookies (something that Madeline hasn't worked up the courage to do yet), and sold a package to her teacher.  

How does he manage to create a sense that he is utterly disengaged?

The boys play group was canceled last week, and I was excited to have a little extra time to catch up on the endless tasks, but decided to make play dough, which then required me to play play dough with the boys.  It took up more of my time, but was worth it.  Sam tasted every color of play dough, just in case one of them would turn out to taste as good as it looked.  Max had me do a stegosaurus mold with every color we had because he like created a dinosaur out of a blob.  

I had to remind myself that my main job was growing children and not the other odd tasks that tend to consume life.  Once I ok'ed that with my task oriented personality it was very fun.

 

Resolutions, resolutions

Last year, I can only remember one goal we had for the whole year.  It was a family goal.  We were going to build a garden.  And build one we did.  

We build four 12x4 ft gardens and hauled in a truckload of compost and a truckload of topsoil (which we then shoveled into the beds.  I must acknowledge that I took 4 kids into Home Depot ages 6, 4, barely 2, and 6 months and ordered all the wood, and then got it loaded and tied onto the roof of my van by myself.  The attendant recommended that I use cedar wood as opposed to pine, but that meant going to a different store, so we stuck with pine.

Then we rented a hole digger, which is a two person task.  We dug the wholes about 2 feet deep and put in our posts, and then wrapped around the fence.

You can just barely see the tiny tomato and pepper plants we started from seed (we planted in February and put under them grow lights).  This was taken in late May. Madeline is quite proud of the visible growth.

Here's late summer.  My parents came and my dad helped build this awesome fence and he and my mom gave us some great tips and advice.  You can see how large the tomato plants are.  It was amazing.  We were so proud of our garden, and w\hen people saw it and we told them we had never gardened before, they would tell us things like, "Yeah, they say it's not really fair to compare gardening in MN because all you need to do it plant a seed and it grows like crazy.  

That's not how it used to be, I read a book about the first homesteaders in MN, called Giants in the Earth, and it was recorded that initially there weren't even birds in MN, it was so barren and desolate. 

While you can't tell because of the comparison to the tomato on steroids, these peaches are quite large, directly from the Amish.  This tomato was from a plant that our friends were throwing away.  It was our most plentiful plant.  It produced incredible amounts of magnificent tomatoes.

And just because I was so proud of the tomatoes, here they are again.

As we were planting our garden, I got the hankering to do some Raspberry plants, and drove over to WI with the girls to get 25 starters each of Golden Harvest and traditional Red raspberry plants.  Here's a picture of the donor's patch.  The girls have so loved the raspberry patch at both their grandparents homes that we wanted one here.

It was a wonderful experience, though many times we complained about the commitment we were making, both of time and effort.  The girls were thrilled to see the process of life take place over a season.  It amazed me as much as it did them.  

I started noticing so many things connecting our garden to our earth;  that the bees would often visit the pumpkins early in the morning, that even though my broccoli looked like it didn't have green worms, a soak in salt water proved otherwise, and so forth.  Ryan would often get home from work and we would all be in the garden checking out the new growth.  This would lead to us laying out watching the sky, or playing on the swing-set, or kicking the soccer ball around.  

 The boys loved sitting in the compost pile and making mud.  I think choosing one family goal is the way we'll head in terms of NY's resolutions.  

For 2011, we talked about implementing a second language in our home.  It wasn't something we were really ready to move on. I suggested that we identify some of our child-rearing goals and values, and that we work on establishing a culture in our family that meets our desires.

So, it's something that we are working on and exploring this year.  

(any other goals that we made for this year, we went ahead and scheduled them on our calendar.  We think this way we'll be more likely to achieve them).

Sam's Island

Yesterday I was still an innocent mother.  Only I didn't know.  I was cooking dinner for a friend who has just had a baby.  Ella, Max and Sam were all playing together in the surrounding vicinity. I was listening to NPR, mulling over how nice it was that Sam was playing with Ella instead of taking every item from my cabinets.  In the far distance, I heard Ella yelling something.  I assumed it was for me, and promptly tuned it out.  I heard something about Sam needing my help.  This is common (Sam needing my help and Ella yelling about that).  I'm of the belief that you should first let kids try to figure it out themselves, and frankly I was tired.  I had just had a silent negotiation on the couch with God about how I couldn't handle anymore poop from the kids and to please figure something else out.

A few minutes later Ella came into the kitchen.  "Mom", Ella has the perfect indignant tone and face (imagine hands on hips), "I yelled for you because Sam needed your help."  I acquired a serious expression.  "You left Sam stranded on a island".  Accusatory tone was strong here.  My serious expression faded for a hint of a smile (oh yes, Ella's imagination is above and beyond, I thought).  Ella saw it and looked stunned, confused. "Mom", more intent this time, "You left Sam stranded on an island of poop water".  Smile leaves my face quickly and I start running to assess the damage, thinking all the while that I had just had a conversation, apparently one-sided, with God concerning this very topic.  Ooh dear.  Yes, I did see the island, and Sam was definitely stranded on it.  It was his favorite blanket that he carries around everywhere, and it was quickly disappearing as an island, but Sam wasn't willing to give it up.  He was pulling and dragging it, through the poop water.  The poop water had overflowed from the toilet that Ella had filled to overflowing with toilet paper, and then flushed, and watched the rising waters without warning me.  The "water" had now spread from the bathroom, and was spilling down the hall way, headed towards the carpet.

I rescued Sam, washed him from head to toe, and sent him downstairs with Ella and Max while I cleaned.

All my bathroom reading material, my clothes, and several toys became collateral damage, as well as the numerous towels and wash clothes it took to clean up the mess.  I unplugged the toilet with a "snake".  It wasn't pretty, I felt violated, and had to leave the bathroom several times to recover from convulsive gags.  I repeated a mantra from one of the kids' books, "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can", until I finished cleaning it.  Then I changed clothes, washed myself off, and finished dinner for my friend.  

Are You Crazy about Cookies?

Madeline has been wanting to try her hand at selling something for several years now.  She finally has her chance with her girl scout troop.  She will be selling cookies to raise money for the girl scouts and for her troop in particular.  She is very excited and a little bit nervous.