Monday, October 28, 2013

Do YOU have a hidden talent?

My dad does. Honestly. 

We learned this weekend that my dad is actually quite proficient at creating balloon animals! And swords! And hats! And other unnamed objects that are the coolest things on the planet, if you ask his favorite four year old.

See for yourself!






Monday, October 21, 2013

He's Hungry!

This evening, I took Bennett to a special event at the Children's Museum. We were there for two hours and had a blast. While we were there, we each had a piece of pizza for dinner. Bennett ate the inside of an apple after I'd peeled it with my teeth (crazy things we do for our kids, right?) and had a juice box. It's about the same volume he usually eats for dinner. He'd had a regular amount of food throughout the afternoon as well. This is important because of what he said when we were about halfway home and he was drowsy with sleep.

Me: How ya doin' back there, buddy?
Him: Okay, mama. I'm hungry. Can we have second dinner when we get home?

Clearly, he's sneak-watching The Office when I'm not looking.

Monday, October 14, 2013

And now he's FOUR!!

We hosted our first "friend" birthday party this weekend. I scoured Pinterest for weeks looking for ideas to fit our Superhero Training theme. I found some great things and worked for the two weeks before the party putting them all together. 

Bennett picked four friends to invite and they were all able to come! I wish I'd had a chance to take a photo of the five of them together, but honestly, they just didn't stand still long enough. Other than when they were all eating cake.

So, to start with: food. We had the party from 11 - 1, so served lite snacks as the kids arrived, and then a small lunch before cake and ice cream. I had seen these comic book page cones on Pinterest but decided that the ones they had used were a little mature. We have so many extra comic books around here from Free Comic Book days that I figured we could sacrifice one to make these. Aren't they so cute! Both kids and parents used them. I will most certainly use this idea again!

Another super cute Pinterest idea were these individual servings of carrots and celery in tiny cups with ranch dressing in the bottom of each cup. Because Bennett's favorite color is red, you can imagine how thrilled I was to find itty bitty Solo-style cups at our grocery store! Technically, they're shot glasses, but they served our needs perfectly.

Most importantly - the cake! Again, thanks to Pinterest, I found this super-cool tri-colored cake that gave a subtle homage to the super hero theme without the fondant characters on the top that I would have NO hope of creating. My version didn't turn out quite so vibrantly, but the cake itself was delicious! I used a recipe that called for buttermilk. Although I was a little worried about how that would taste, it was so wonderful. Everyone commented on how moist it was. I chose a simple frosting with primary colored sprinkles on top. 

I had some grand plans for games and activities, but really, these boys just wanted to play and enjoy the absolutely fantastic weather.
These villain balloons were supposed to be "gotten" by the good guy superheroes with their silly string as the last stage of their training. However, these guys had other ideas! Light sabres and pool noodles did the job just fine, thankyouverymuch! 

Obstacle course training had several stations: ladder walking, tunnel crawling, climber navigation, balance beam walking, tall building leaping and using freezing breath to knock over towers. They just wanted to re-navigate the obstacle course over and over. What fun! 

Our party favors were a Certificate of Completion and a Super Hero cape.
As a side bar, I'm not a huge fan of the goodie bags because they're often just filled with trinkets that Bennett loses or tosses by the way side shortly after the event. Saturday afternoon, Bennett attended a birthday party for a girl in his class at school. Their favor? A small box of Smarties with this note attached, "In lieu of goody bags, a donation is being made to Children's Hospital Foundation." How awesome is that? Certainly a trend that I hope catches on.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Trains

I think I've written about trains before. I believe that I have lived in close proximity to a train track and/or crossing nearly every place I've lived. 

Growing up I remember falling asleep to the sound of the trains. Actually, what stands out the most is the absence of that sound. The clanging bells, the wheels on the tracks, and the whistle as it approached a crossing. If the trains were off schedule I noticed, even though I didn't consciously know the schedule. 

We don't live close enough to tracks now to hear the trains, but we visit a park each afternoon that is bordered by a double track. In the hour that we are in that park, at least two trains pass by. 

Bennett seems to have the same fascination with the sound and size of the trains that I did. The second he notices the clang of the crossing arms lowering, he is running off at full speed to the park's fence so that he can watch the train go by. 

You know? I think I remember my mom planning trips around town to coordinate with the train schedule so that my brother and she could "count cars". 

Saturday, October 5, 2013

A "hand-made" Swiss Army knife

Bennett loves weekends because he gets to spend a LOT of time with his favorite person, Brian. Most Saturday mornings begin at 7:30 am (the latest minute that I'm able to keep Bennett from bothering Brian!) and sound something like this:

"Daddy! Daddy? DAAA-DY! It's morning time, Daddy." (said with increasing volume as he clambers up the stairs)

"Good morning, Buddy."

"Are you ready to make something? I wanna make a SWORD! I wanna make a CATAPULT! I wanna make a bicycle! I wanna make a bicycle JUMP! I wanna . . ."

Seriously, that little brain starts spinning the second he wakes up. He loves to build things with Brian and they usually come up with some pretty awesome creations. This morning was no different. Of course, there's a back story.

Earlier this week, Bennett found a small Swiss Army Knife in the basement and asked to see all the parts. Together, they looked at the blades, screw drivers, grippers (yeah, that's the official name, right?) and this one has a flashlight which is pretty cool. We put it on the counter afterward, thinking that would be high enough to be out of Bennett's reach. 

I found out on Wednesday that it was not. He had slipped outside after gymnastics while I was working on dinner, as he usually does. I did not realize that he had grabbed the Swiss Army knife on his way out the door. Not five minutes later, he came walking inside and went straight up to the bathroom without saying anything to me as he walked past. I should have been suspicious!

When he came downstairs (mom, you may want to stop reading now!) he came to me calmly and said, "Mama! I didn't even CRY!" Confused, I turned to look at his face and asked, "What do you mean, buddy? You didn't cry when?" He proceeded to tell me that he had just cut his finger on the knife because he had pulled out this blade even though he knew that he wasn't supposed to and it slipped and knicked his finger. But, "I went up and got a bandaid and I didn't even cry, Mama! I'm so proud of me." For the record - he's totally fine. It didn't even bleed all that much and it's already mostly healed.

So - this morning's project was to be a kid-friendly Swiss Army knife. When I left to get groceries, the two of them were huddled on the floor of the basement working with the Dremel and paint sticks, nuts and bolts, and colorful craft sticks. When I came home an hour and a half later, this was the finished product:

From left to right, the components of his knife are: saw, bottle opener, screw driver and blade. It is AWESOME! He kept it clipped to his tool belt all day. 

Friday, October 4, 2013

Make Believe

This afternoon, Bennett decided he wanted to play dress up. He went searching for his doctor clothes after he discovered a pile of manilla file folders. 

After he got dressed, he came down to find me with the folders in his hand. In the other hand he was holding an old cheese knife: "for surgery, Dr. Allman." He asked me to find some pencils to take notes. "You'll have to write down the information about my patients, Dr. Allman. You know, the sickness." 

Two beats later, as he's walking back up the stairs, he turns to me and says over his shoulder, "Cancer would be the worst."

I'm off to find some pencils and take some notes for Baby Dr. Allman!

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Why I "Quit" Facebook

I decided to take a month-long break from Facebook the other day. The biggest reason is that I realized that I was starting to be really hard on myself and more importantly, REALLY hard on other people in the way that I judged them, simply based on posts they'd made. 

The one that sent me over the edge was about GMOs in Halloween candy. There was/is an infographic floating around letting the general public know which candy is "safe" for handing out at Halloween and which candy will cause you to look like you don't give a shit about the welfare of our CHILDREN!!! Seriously, if you are caught giving out Hershey's kisses, or Skittles or anything else other than what is sold at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods - SHAME. ON. YOU! (For the record, I don't believe this. I'm simply regurgitating the infographic.)

After reading that entry, I had some seriously unpleasant thoughts toward the original poster, who is not a friend of mine. The poster is not someone I know. I only saw the post because a friend "liked" the post. Facebook thought it was important that I know what my friend "likes". I don't like the way it made me think about my friend. In all honesty, I wouldn't have known my friend felt this way if s/he and I weren't friends on Facebook. We don't see each other in real life other than at very infrequent high school reunions. The likelihood that GMOs would have come up in a conversation around a beer keg is quite low, right?

I have those same sorts of thoughts about political posts. Recently, the US government went into shut down mode. The last time this happened, I was a sophomore at Randolph-Macon Woman's College. One of my roommates' had a father who was (maybe still is) a Federal Judge. Not a Supreme Court Judge (that would be WAY cool and scary all at once), but I think he sat/sits on a Federal Appeals Bench in Arkansas. Anyway - the last time the government shut down, she wasn't sure she would be able to stay at RMWC due to the fact that her father wasn't getting paid because he wasn't working. Because RMWC was so close to DC, I'm quite certain that she wasn't the only one who was worried about this issue that year. The point is, all I knew about the government shut down then was that it directly affected a good friend of mine in a potentially life-altering way. However, it didn't come up in every day conversation with other folks, and she didn't really let it filter into her life beyond our circle of friends. Facebook has changed how large that circle of friends is.

I have friends on Facebook who are terribly opinionated about this shut down from all sides. Reading all of their posts got my head spinning. The military families will suffer (I have several friends who are either IN the military or are married to the military), those who are being "forced" to go on Obamacare will suffer, those who are thrilled to take advantage of the Affordable Care Act are celebrating its promise, and the list goes on and on.

And then there are the pray-ers. Oh for the love of the pray-ers! And the Crossfitt-ers. And the runners. And the bakers. And the crafters. And the list goes on and on about ways Facebook was making me feel insufficient.

You know what I've done in the last two days since I quit Facebook? I read an entire book from front to back in a few sittings. (Yes, I realize that's a luxury that I'm afforded because I'm a stay-at-home-mom with a child in morning preschool.) I also worked on making favors for Bennett's birthday party next weekend. I planned menus for the week. Bennett and I went for a bike ride. I worked on cleaning our house. I exercised more than once. I watched the season premier of Grey's Anatomy a week late. I watched my son enjoy gymnastics class. 

And not once did I doubt my choices as a mother, as a wife, as a homemaker, as a person. I really don't think I'll miss Facebook.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

More Home Work

This afternoon, Bennett was feeling a little remorseful about some earlier behaviour and he offered to help me out with some jobs after his quiet time (read: forced alone time in his room behind a closed door so mama could regain some sanity time). 

He said that he was really good at folding towels. Lucky for him, I had a stack waiting for just this moment. 


That, my friends, is how a kid earns his first responsibility. And quite possibly a quarter if I see a repeat performance. 

I'm quite pleased to share this task with little hands now!