Field trip Fallout

Yesterday Big Bro came home from a birthday party feeling under the weather. That night he fell asleep unusually quickly at bedtime and had a fever and cough. Unsurprisingly, the next morning he wasn't feeling that much better. Regretfully and reluctantly I told him he better stay home from preschool today.

 It was a bad day for missing preschool because his class was going to the Flynn Theater to see "Harold and the Purple Crayon." Around the time that his class would be getting on the bus to the Flynn Big Bro started to perk up and I seriously questioned my decision. He was aware of what he was missing and feeling quite sad about it.

So if he couldn't go to Harold, I decided I would bring Harold to him. We started by reading the book, twice. Then I taped white paper to the wall so he could draw Harold's adventure himself. He happily told me the story as he explained his picture, even getting some of the book phrases perfectly. 

Lil Sis and I made our own version called "Harriet and the Brown Crayon" in which Harriet and her puppy go on an adventure. They are following the sun when they come upon a big scary dog. Harriet's hand starts to shake with fear and creates water. She quickly draws a canoe for her and her puppy to get in and paddle to land. Then she discovers she is hungry so draws a peach tree and peach pie. She and her puppy eat their fill, then she draws a bear to finish the rest. Next she draws a mountain to climb but falls off when she is looking at the bright sun. Similar to Harold's balloon, she draws herself a hang glider for her and her puppy to get safely back to the ground. Then they decide they want to go home so they draw their house and then play with another dog named Peppy.

The next activity was to make a pie like Harold's 9 pies and Harriet's peach pie. I had an old piecrust in the freezer from Thanksgiving. We had the ingredients to make a chocolate cream pie, a first for us. 

Then Nini graciously went out to get heavy cream so we can make whipped cream to serve with it. It's now cooling in the in the fridge and I haven't heard any more sad remarks about missing the field trip. Parenting win.

We sampled it with fresh whipped cream after lunch. It was still a bit warm, so not as pudding like as it should have been, but it was still delicious.

Master & Legend

Just like his dad, Big Bro loves Legos. For his 5th birthday we got him two Lego sets that he had been begging for since Christmas.

Big Bro started building right away in the 20 or so minutes he had between opening the gifts and having to get out the door to preschool. When he got home he went right back to building. Occasionally he would ask questions about the directions but he really built them himself. He is becoming a Lego Master.

Here is the "SUV with watercraft trailer" after he finished it:

And here is the tow truck after completion with minimal help from me (I tied the string and answered questions):

He was so happy and busy working on his Legos all day, it was a beautiful thing!

So last night we all started playing Legos after dinner. Big Bro and my husband were trying to find all the pieces to one of his old spaceship Lego kits. It occurred to me that if we sorted the giant bin of Legos from my husband's childhood collection we could actually put most, if not all, of the sets back together. Then Big Bro would have lots of sets to keep him busy and happy.

It was no small feat to go from this:

To this:

But the whole family was involved and having fun sorting. Lil Sis sorted the Lego horses once she tired of the colors. Big Bro even declared it more fun than building because he got to move around a lot. And he did move around a lot scoping out Legos and running to the kitchen to find more Tupperware to put the colors in.

After the kids were in bed, my husband and I started the laborious task of finding the specific pieces that went with old instruction booklets. The gray and black bins were by far the biggest and the hardest to sift through to find the exact piece we needed. At times it made our eyes swim. We both looked for 20 minutes or more looking for one black door hinge piece.

By the end of our night we had 4 kits reassembled and then broken apart again to be neatly stored in plastic baggies.

Here's one that I put together:

Here's a big, fancy one my husband (Lego Legend) put together.

This sorting task will keep us busy for many evenings to come since husband estimates he has about 40 old kits. But we had fun doing it, and I can't wait for Big Bro to see each kit. Big Bro and I have also been talking/working on being organized so Legos don't get lost. Maybe, just maybe, our hard work will be (at least somewhat) preserved.

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3/28/15: Well it took 2.5 hours including searching for pieces and improvising for pieces lost or dog chewed but here it is folks: rescue plane. I also made the medic female because both the pilot and medic don't have to be male! #positivefemalerolemodels

Winter Tradition

Technically spring started a few days ago but no one told the Northeast. In our attempt to both reduce our heating bill and our contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, we keep our heat really low. Especially at night. The result is that we wake up in the morning and it is very cold. The kids come downstairs for breakfast and shiver away as we offer them sweaters and hats while we wait for the heat to catch up. This was particularly unpleasant before daylight savings time started and the mornings were dark.

Pretty quickly, our solution was to crank up the pellet stove and have a breakfast picnic directly in front of it. It has turned into a nice little tradition. Cozy, quaint, and easier than having me remember to turn up the heat well before everyone else comes downstairs. I imagine this tradition will continue and I think it will be one of those things that stand out for my kids when they think back to their child. At least I hope so.

Winter Tradition

Technically spring started a few days ago but no one told the Northeast. In our attempt to both reduce our heating bill and our contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, we keep our heat really low. Especially at night. The result is that we wake up in the morning and it is very cold. The kids come downstairs for breakfast and shiver away as we offer them sweaters and hats while we wait for the heat to catch up. This was particularly unpleasant before daylight savings time started and the mornings where dark.

Pretty quickly, our solution was to crank up the pellet stove and have a breakfast picnic directly in front of it. It has turned into a nice little tradition. Cozy, quaint, and easier than having me remember to turn up the heat well before everyone else comes downstairs. I imagine this tradition will continue and I think it will be one of those things that stand out for my kids when they think back to their child. At least I hope so.

Sub-Optimus Prime

For Big Bro's second birthday he got a play kitchen with a ton of accessories. I bought it off of Craigslist for $70. Parenting win: saving money and not taxing resources by always buying new.

The kitchen got a lot of play over the last 3 years, however recently it had turned into a dangerously tippy climbing structure. I decided I wanted it gone. They weren't playing with the right way anymore, why keep it? So I sold the whole kaboodle for $40 since the kids had decorated the backside of it with plenty of crayon scribbles.

To lessen their anxiety over separating with something familiar, I told them that we could use the money to buy something new. That made it an easy sell and they were happy to let go of the kitchen. Parenting win: sell old toys to get new ones. New toys do not just appear out of thin air.

We went to the giant toy store and Big Bro picked out Optimus Prime complete with the trailer that carries the rest of the Rescue Bots. Lil Sis wanted to buy Blades the helicopter Rescue Bot but he was not available that day. She settled on some Dora DVDs that she spotted all by herself instead. 

Once we were back in the car Big Bro asked "why do they put all the toys in boxes?" He was trying hard to get at his new toy to transform it. "I don't know." I responded. "It's not very good for the planet, is it?"

Just yesterday he had asked out of the blue "where does all the trash after the truck picks it up?" I told him what a great question it was then I explained how in a place called Coventry Vermont there is a giant hole in the ground where everyone puts their trash and buries it.

"It must be as big as the Grand Canyon then," he said, "because there is a lot of trash!"

It was an easy segue to explain to him that's why it is so important to recycle and compost.

But this darn toy packaging. It's so excessive. It's all designed so that only adults can open it. I was happy that at least with this Optimus Prime trailer toy the twisty ties that hold the toy in place were made out string made from paper tied in a simple knot. It didn't have those dreaded plastic twist ties that you need kitchen scissors to cut, nor was it encased in form-fitted, clear plastic.

All this packaging:

For this. Yes, the packaging is recyclable but that is not the point. Reduce is the first instruction in the phrase "reduce, reuse, recycle!"

It is a quandary buying children's toys. On the one hand I want my child to have toys that are current and fun. Yet I think of the unfair labor that goes into them, the plastics, the shipping, the excessive packaging, the greenhouse gas emissions...!. If only they sold Rescue Bots used on Craigslist. I suppose they will someday when Rescue Bots fall out of fashion. The cycle continues.

I don't want to teach my kids to be greedy consumers. Part of me is regretting this Rescue Bots purchase. Another part of me is happy that he has a fun, current, popular toy that all the kids talk about and is the subject of his favorite new show. Many of my kids' toys are hand-me-downs and garage sale finds, surely new toys can be ok sometimes.

A couple months ago we went to a little girl's birthday party where she had kids bring books to swap and cans of food to donate to the food shelf in lieu of presents. Perhaps Big Bro will be willing to do something similar for his next birthday. 

The gist: buy used when possible; forgo material goods entirely at least sometimes; a new toy on rare/special occasions is ok.

Want to learn more about 7 trashy items to avoid? http://www.takepart.com/photos/wasteful-packaging?cmpid=ait-fb

OMG, you guys...

Lil Sis is potty trained! and it happened in one day.

It's been a while coming... we've been talking about the potty plenty and she even used it on a handful of occasions. She also also peed on the floor plenty of times though and didn't really care. 

So why now, at age 2 years and 10 months, on a snowy February Sunday did she decide that this was the day? I have no idea, but I can't tell you how happy I am that she did!

I suppose it started last week in Florida. We were swimming in the pool and she told us twice that she had to pee. As soon as she was out of the pool she peed on the concrete (shhh, don't tell the association). I joked that we would have to use the pool as her potty training tool, which would mean waiting until summer. Once we were back home in Vermont she told me twice while in the tub that she needed to get out and sit on the potty (though nothing happened). She was showing definite signs of readiness.

I recently bought a bulk pack of diapers and silently wished that this would be my last diaper purchase. I didn't actually believe it would be.

Yet this morning she decided to wear underwear. I think it was actually Big Bro who suggested she wear them on this particular morning. He brought a pair of cowboy Woody (from Toy Story) boys' undies downstairs for her to put on. They were size 2T/3T with lots of different character designs that I bought for him years ago. He never wore them because they were too small by the time he trained for real. Lil Sis loves them and picks all the boy undies over the "Tangled" princess undies I bought for her months ago.

All morning Lil Sis told me she had to go to the potty and I would whisk her to the potty and help her pull down her undies. I had her sit on the potty while reading stories and drinking milk and water like I did with Big Bro when he potty trained. After several false alarms I suggested she go bare bum so it was easy to sit on the potty whenever she wanted. The potty was in the same room as her all day long. She would often go sit, realize there was nothing, then try again later all on her own.  All day long she continued and each time she succeeded she got tons of praise from me, Big Bro, and Daddy, plus a sticker and a chocolate. For #2 she also got to pick from a selection of toys that I had when I was little. 

She was so proud! Not one accident all day. It's done! I don't want to jinx it, but WE ARE A NEARLY DIAPER FREE HOUSEHOLD! 

(except for the nighttime, but that's a whole other ballgame)

Winter stinks

If you know me personally on Facebook, you know that I was very unhappy to be flying back to the snowy north when our vacation in Florida ended. To go, in less than 24 hours, from this:

To this:

Just seemed cruel.

We literally flew home during a winter storm. Upon arrival, schools were closed due to 5-8 inches of expected snow and the temperature was 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Hey, at least it wasn't negative temperatures.

Couple that with cranky, whiney kids who are stuck inside. The air is dry and my house seems out to get me with static electricity on everything I touch. It's just a general feeling of "Ugh. Two more months of winter, really?"

Typically by mid February we begin our maple sugaring season. Sometimes this bolsters my spirits that spring is just around the corner. So far, the forecast doesn't look anywhere near friendly for sugaring.

So I will keep waiting, and trying to entertain ourselves inside. I also may or may not be scheming ways to be a Snowbird even when I'm not retired. Spring can't come fast enough!