Tag Archives: Parenting

23
May
2013

Crazy Hair Day because somedays there doesn’t seem like there is a lot to smile about.

By: Megan

This week has been one major disaster after another, and with the Boston Bombings and Newport shooting still fresh in our minds, two natural disasters back to back makes me feel helpless. The tornadoes in Oklahoma were horrific. I ache for those families and I cry every time I think about how terrified those children must have been in those schools and for their teachers who tried to calm fears while keeping their students safe. Teachers are not paid enough money. And then yesterday fourth graders on a class field trip in St. Paul were searching for fossils at a park when the gravel gave way and land slide took the lives of one child, two more were swept away but were rescued and one is still missing (news story here).

Tim kept asking me, “Why are you watching that?” while I cried at the most recent new coverage on the screen. I was angry at first, but then I thought about it and then I slept on it, and this morning the first thing I did after getting Michael on the bus was log onto the computer and check the news stories for updates. It is one thing to ache for the families and mourn the losses but another to let it consume you. My family is healthy and happy. I should be celebrating that. If I spend my days wrapped up in other people’s tragedy I am undoubtedly missing out on the good that is in my life. I can’t control a natural disaster or an act of terror, but I can control living in the moment and enjoying what I got right now.

I will still check for updates on the still missing child and I will watch coverage on the families in Oklahoma for information on how I can help and where I can donate but I will not let it consume my every thought, because even now as I am writing this post a beautiful little girl has crawled into my lap asking me to play with her. I am sure the moms who lost their children would want me to walk away from the keyboard and play dollhouse and princess until my baby girl surrenders to exhaustion and curls up in my lap to cuddle.

So on that note. I am choosing to focus on the good, and today was Crazy Hair Day. For those who can’t play dollhouse or build a complicated monster dispenser in Minecraft with my children today, here are some photos to smile at:

the following two photos are snap shots of his “victory dance moves” from when he beats a level in Mario Brothers

Why do silly faces always consist of a tongues sticking out?

profile and done:

22
May
2013

Patrick’s Last Day of Preschool- Ever!

By: Megan

First Day of Preschool this year

 

And today:

 

Per suggestion from friends on facebook, I kept the end of year teacher gifts simple; a sincere thank you note, a gift card and then I printed out comic that Tim found.

I think the comic perfectly illustrates what Patrick’s teachers must have felt like on a daily basis. Nice Find Tim.

comic by Jim Benton

Here are the teachers that spent their days trying to shove a glowing ball of knowledge into Patrick’s head.

We started a tradition after Michael’s last day of preschool to go to Barnes and Noble after school and choose a book. This will be our 3rd year repeating this tradition and it is fast becoming one of my favorites.

 

And this year because I was craving it, we added a trip to Dairy Queen to the tradition. Patrick and Elise didn’t mind. There are no photos of this though because I was too busy consuming 670 calories (I checked the nutrition label on the DQ website after I ate the whole thing) of peanut butter chocolate ice cream goodness. (Mental note: must remember for Michael’s last day of school – it was not worth the calories)

I feel like I said what I needed to say last week on your graduation post so instead of droning on about how the challenge of parenting you is a blessing I think I will go read you a story from your book while doing the plank.

I love you PJ. Happy Summer Vacation!

more photos here

21
May
2013

Mini Gardener

By: Megan

In just a few months Elise will start preschool. I will miss my constant companion. She rarely misbehaves when we are out running errands. In fact, I think she enjoys a trip to Target almost as much as I do. Maybe she loves errands because when she is sitting in the cart facing me she has my full attention. She jabbers on about this and that and I talk to her about the virtues of Greek yogurt over the ones with the cartoon packaging. We give and take, her and I. I will miss her but I am also so excited for her to start school. She loves to be around people even though she can be quite shy. She is always asking to go to drop in care at the Y, “Play with friends at Kids Stuff?!”

Bittersweet is this whole raising children thing.

Yesterday Michael chose a career path and Patrick was invited to a birthday party. They grow up so quick. All three of them pissed me off to the point of giving me a stress migraine at swim lessons last night but after dinner (which they didn’t like so they went to bed with only a few cherries in their bellies) Michael helped clean up toys without a complaint. Patrick scrubbed the kitchen table and chairs clean, which is helpful for me and fun for him because he gets to use the coveted squirt bottle. He was even kind and generous enough to let Elise work alongside him. Although at one point he said, “I know! How about I squirt and Elise scrubs!” Tim and I both replied “No.” in unison from the kitchen sink where we were finishing up the dishes.

They grow up so quickly.

So today, while looking over the following photos, I am making a pledge to myself. I will do my best to keep perspective about how fleeting this time with them is. Yes they can be little shits but they are our little shits and I want to soak up as much time with them as I can before they realize that I am just a Mom who blogs instead of doing laundry and I am not the all-knowing, Super Woman they think I am. Also… I am going to make myself take even more photos because I seriously  don’t want to forget the day that Elise and I bought flowers for the front yard while wearing a hand-me-down sweatshirt from her brothers.

I also don’t want to forget that she chose a $2 watering can that was pink with purple stars on it as a reward for being such a patient helper while I loaded bags and bags of rock onto a flat-bed. Or how clever she thought she was when she learned how to use the rain barrel I installed.

And boy was she mad when she tried to carry the over flowing watering can over to her newly potted flowers and all the water kept spilling out.

She was concentrating so hard, and was so frustrated that she gave me the stink eye when she saw that I was documenting her trials and tribulations.

In the end there was enough water in the can to get this shot.

But by the time I moved around to the other side of her, the watering can was empty.

She filled her can, frustratingly carried it the 5 feet from the rain barrel to the flower-pot a dozen more times before she was content that her flowers were sufficiently hydrated before she would come inside for lunch.

Yeah. More photo taking, more time with kids because they grow so quick.

20
May
2013

Career Day

By: Megan

Friday I do my weekly, get what I need to make through to big grocery shopping day shopping at Target. While we are in Target I tend to wander the isles with Elise because… Target is awesome and I love everything there. Plus, this past Friday, we had time to kill between Elise’s swim lessons and PJ’s Preschool Graduation. I got what I needed and then we swung through the kids clothes sections and hit up the clearance racks for play clothes because the sandbox, while awesome, lends itself to the kids needing at least one extra set of clothes a day and I didn’t want to spend big money on clothes that would be the go-to sand and summer fun clothes.

While weaving through the racks with the world’s biggest shopping cart that Elise insists on riding in, I saw something that I had never seen at Target before, Minecraft tees. This is huge people. My kids LOVE Minecraft. All three of them. Elise likes to have someone build her pink houses and then fill the pink houses with pigs and sheep. Michael has built condos and explored caves while battling creepers. Patrick… well he likes to build sculptures and blow them up with TNT.

For those who haven’t heard of MInecraft…. Minecraft is like Legos but with a never-ending world to explore. The game is made of blocks and each block can be moved and placed. You have to mine for resources and plant wheat and raise cows for food. It is like pioneering but with zombies. Michael’s school is even offering a few different Minecraft classes this summer for varying age levels. (click and down load the summer Youth program to see classes on everything from video game design to robotics to music and sports classes) It really is a great game.

Of course, I bought shirts for everyone. Even Elise got a boys size XS shirt that she wore with leggings all Saturday. The boys wore their shirts to bed on Friday and then all day Saturday. They only took them off because I promised them that I would wash them and they could wear them on Monday to school.

Fast forward to this morning. Shirts were clean and laid out the night before. Michael already had his on along with his Minecraft sweatshirt I made him for Christmas 2 years ago when I came down stairs. He was PUMPED to show his friends his shirt.

Then as I was loading lunch boxes into backpacks I remembered…. It is  spirit week at both the boys’ schools….Today at Michael’s school it is “Career Day-Dress like what you want to be when you grow up”

SH!T! DOUBLE SH!T!

This lightbulb moment happened at 8:35am and the bus comes at 9am. Awesome. So I braced for the worse and started into a spiel about Spirit Week and started to work some Mom spin/hype magic. If advertising or publishing companies ever wanted to learn from masters they need look no farther than a time crunched Mom trying to sell her kid an idea she knows they will resist. We are spin magicians. Halfway through my impromptu spin campaign I could already see that he was starting to recognise that he would have to change out of his Minecraft shirt but I could also tell that he was coming around to the idea of “wearing a costume all day at school and pretending to be a grown up! How cool is that. You are so lucky!!!”

I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up as soon as I saw him start to get interested in “wearing a costume.” He didn’t answer. I thought I blew my timing and I would have to deal with sad sad tears that were my fault because I promised him something and now I was taking it away. The seconds turned to minutes and let me tell you what…. I had to resist every temptation to start giving him options of careers I knew I could throw together quick. If he said Weather Man (like he did on his first day of Kindergarten) I would be fine. I knew he had a button up shirt and tie hanging in his closet. Done and Done. I began praying- Please say Weather Man. Please God let him say Weather Man. Anything beyond that… well lets just say the creative genius side of me isn’t an early riser… I would have been up shit creek.

He looked around, furrowed his brows, pursed his lips and stood quietly. I was just about to ask him again so I could start the mad dash to dig for some random clothing item when he said, “Can I just play video games when I am grown up?”

I told him no that wasn’t a job and he had to choose a job. Quickly.

It was now 8:39 and I was ready to turn him into a weather man whether he liked it or not and then he said in a hopefull voice, “What if I make the video games? Is that a job?”

I looked at him in his Minecraft t-shirt and his Minecraft sweatshirt and said, “Yes Michael it is. Get your shoes on and I will tell you all about a guy named Notch.”

PARENTING WIN! We were out the door in minutes, on the front lawn talking about Notch and  we had time to spare. TIME TO SPARE. By the time the bus pulled up he had his future all planned out. He will work at Nintendo for a bit because he really likes Super Mario Brothers but when he wants a break from Mario he will go work for Notch at Minecraft.

He is awesome. Tim and I made that kid.