New iPad App love

I have once again found something that seems to really catch the spirit of what we bought the iPad for, a game that also teaches. The game is called Casey's Contraptions, it is a game that asks the player to create Rube Goldberg contraptions to achieve a task.  This game is definitely more for a trouble shooter kid who is willing to sit and mess around with something for awhile before he achieves it.  An additional tip is make sure the player is at least able to read the basics of the board or you will need to help them as they achieve a new screen, the hints on the screen are important to read at the beginning.

At yet another time where Thing Two was bored out of his mind waiting for his sister to finish something I came across a post about this game and immediately downloaded it.  Thing Two took to the game very quickly, but has run into some issues. Like a true little techie in the making he is not one for reading directions, so frequently misses the hints at the beginning that would help him achieve the goal.  Eventually he will cave and ask for help, we always go back, read the little beginning blurb and he is on his way in no time to figuring the 'puzzle' out.  Right now he is really into the scissors on the game and will totally forget what he is trying to achieve because he is distracted by making the scissors do what he wants them to do.  I have to say though for a game that can be as tough as this is proving for him, he is really sticking to it and it is holding his interest. I am more than willing to spend 3 dollars for a number of hours of entertainment that has a good teaching backbone.

I know a some point the love I feel for this iPad and all it's cute convenient Appiness will fade, but until then I will keep letting you know when I find something I really like.

PACKING...and knee issues

There is nothing like trying to get ready for a short vacation when you have a crazy busy week looking you straight in the face. In an attempt to get organized and not be a crazy lady on Tuesday night, when the bags have to be packed, we are working on packing this weekend.

The huge positive is my parents are driving so we get to have more flexibility in what we take and how we take it. The negative is, we have to be packed a head of the trip so we have to plan to not have favored clothes or other items for a few days if they are going in the luggage.

I don't know about your house but for as many times as we try and get the Things to pack everything, things get left behind or forgotten. There was the weekend Thing Two didn't pack any underwear, and the trip where is was 100 degrees and all Thing One brought were jeans.  This time I wrote a list, somehow I imaged a list would help, it didn't.  As I started reviewing bags, Thing One had no socks and Thing Two forgot swim trunks.  I am a big believer in, if all else fails we can buy it on the trip, but we are trying to do this trip a bit on the cheap.  Along with the basic packing we need some nice clothes and getting either Thing to even consider dress clothes yet alone wear them can be difficult.  It was no surprise that the dress pants got forgotten and, somehow a belt couldn't come because of airport security.  There was also a discussion of how we pack the dogs.  Eventually enough laundry got done and enough clothes made it into a bag that I can say we are mostly packed. 

Those are some seriously cute knees

The thing about packing is you can get a pretty good idea of where the kids are at and what they like based on what they pack.  Both Things are opting to leave their long time lovies at home, they are growing up so quickly.  Thing Two is only taking Star Wars t-shirts, I think it is safe to say he is developing a passion for Star Wars.  The thing I found of particular interest was Thing Ones desire to only take pants. We have been fighting her all summer to wear shorts when it was hot, it has gotten so bad we took all the pants out of her room because it was getting so bad. When I reviewed her luggage it was all pants, so I took them all out and made her restart, after a talk. Turns out Thing One doesn't like her knees and has spent much of the summer trying to hide them?!  She is 8, almost 9, and I can't imagine the idea she is already starting to struggle with body stuff. Now I am not worried this will spawn something worse, but it does make me think. Turns out they are constantly bruised, and have freckles. Ends up freckles on the face are ok and the knees aren't, oh well.  Eventually, we talked enough that leggings and long shorts are ok, for now and we will have to see how it all goes.

Now back to packing talk.  The Things have to plan their carry on luggage to and this has again proved interesting.  Thing One selected next to nothing and Thing Two picked scissors. Thankfully I went through both bags and we have a pretty good plan for what to take with us. 

How do get your kids to pack and take everything? Have you ever had a travel oops based on your kids packing?  Happy traveling..

Expanding our food choices

Trying Edamane

We have two distinctive camps in this house in regards to food, the try it once Thing and the no way you can't make me Thing. Thing One will try anything once and the stranger the better, she has tried live squid and claims she liked it. The issue with this is once she tries it she will never try it again if she doesn't like it that first time.  This is tough because there are lots of ways to prepare things and maybe one way won't work but another will. The good side of the try it once is she has ended up liking some things I never would have expected and at least she is putting herself out there and trying it once. Over in the, no way you can't make me camp, Thing Two is firmly a believer in; if it smells funny, looks funny, I'm cranky, you are trying to slip something by me, or someone else says anything about it being healthy it is not going to get past my little lips.  I have presented it 20 times, tried it 8 different ways; pleaded, prodded and threatened to sing, but to no avail, this kid will not try it. On top of that if he eats something begrudgingly and then finds out he likes it prepared in a different way by someone else (daycare's green beans, for example) he will never again eat it at home. ARRGGGH


This general craziness to get vegetables into the Things diet more prompted me to do something I never thought I would do. We started pureeing veg and slipping it into sauces. Yep, I became that mom.  I could not have another dinner with complaints and ewws and resorted to letting them live on broccoli and carrots and slipping the rest in.  This was not ideal in my mind, but something surprising has occurred.  A few months break from the constant  'try it' push has actually created a little flexibility in the Things; and a desperation for other veg has created more persistence in me.  Onions, peppers and celery have always been much complained about in this house. For some reason they are the root of the evil vegetable insurgence that is being fought in this house. 

I use these three vegetables in almost everything and had finally hit the point where the Things could starve, once a week I was eating something I wanted to eat. This was not to say I wouldn't make a meal that they liked already, it just means I would be adding a few extras.  I started with a great cookbook, No Whine with Dinner by Liz Weiss and Janice Newell Bissex. Through this cookbook the Things and I have found some recipes we can both agree one. A favorite of the Things is Hot Diggity Dog Cornbread Casserole, page 129. I make this recipe gluten free and leave out the corn, what I do add is shredded carrots and the broccoli shred from the store, along with onion, pepper and celery.  i also substitute the chicken sausage for the hot dogs. This makes the recipe a little chunkier as there is more veg and I add extra cheese to offset that.  What is used for garnish varies, hubs likes ketchup and mustard, Thing One likes sour cream, I like sour cream and salsa, and Thing Two likes it plain.  I really like this recipe because it is so flexible and somehow the vegetable part gets accepted with no complaints. 

In an extreme hurry one night with next to nothing in the fridge I made a really ugly version of a scramble that has become a vegetable infused meal of at least acceptable proportions.  I take onions, peppers, celery, and anything else that I can find and dice finely and get it going with a bit of olive oil in a skillet.  I then add in salt, pepper, dill, and usually oregano and let the onions get translucent.  Then I throw in whatever precooked meat I can find; this is usually turkey sandwich meat or ham diced.  After the meat gets a little warmed up I add in a mixed bag of whole eggs and fake eggs to make 5 eggs total. I let the eggs start to set up on the bottom scramble it all up and add a handful of cheese.  That with sour cream and salsa to garnish and a fruit drink(ton of fruit, applesauce, apple juice, Greek yogurt) and dinner is served

I know the food fights aren't over by a long shot, but somehow two times a month I dont' have to hear complaints or eww noises from the peanut gallery and it makes me happy. I am going to take on school lunch next.  I am thinking of having a school lunch sample pot luck to get some ideas and learn what other are up to.

What are you doing to get your eaters more adventurous? How are you expanding their palate and their veggie happiness?

Monday Inspiration

Waking from my Benadryl haze this morning to realize it was once again a Monday and I had to go to work wasn’t exactly top on my bucket list. It is particularly disappointing to think that over a 30 year work career, taking into account vacations and the like, we will all experience 1440 Mondays. That is a lot of Mondays. A lot of days where we wake up none to enthused and drag our butts to our cubes to stare out at the sky and dream of other places. It isn’t that I don’t like my job at all, for a job it isn’t bad really, it is just that it isn’t a weekend playing around.


So on Mondays like these, where I begrudgingly go to work to stare at a screen for 9 hours I look for inspiration in my daily grind. What do I find….

I love watching the sun rise on the drive into work, watching the sky turn pinky on the edges of the mountains, seeing the yellow streaks of the sun rise above the grey mountain skyline. In those moments driving in I feel at piece and centered.

Someone telling me ‘good morning’, ‘how was your weekend’; it is nice to see people at work you enjoy talking too. I like a lot of the people I work with and I think I am really lucky that most of the people I deal with are good people who enjoy what they do. I try hard to focus on those people that are positive, make me think and really are invested in what they do. On tough Mondays, I work hard to stay away from the haters; it can be tough but really worth it on days like these.

Lotion and Lunch smells. I know this is a weird one, but I am a smell person and the smell of a citrus lotion or someone’s lunch can totally cheer me up. Smelling some amazing lunch and then hearing about their weekend making that lunch just give me a smile. Allergies are prevalent in our house so there aren’t a lot of smelly things and smelling my eucalyptus work lotion or the girl a few cubes over citrus lotion is just a treat. It seems like a lot, work smells are a lot better than the odder unknown stinky home smells.

My walks, I take walks most days at work. I do this to get a break, refocus, clear my head and generally just get outside. On the weekends I can find it difficult to get out and just enjoy a wander on my own that doesn’t feel like work. This is something I truly enjoy doing and it is a nice break in my day. I am lucky enough to work downtown and have walking loops through the North End, a great funky downtown neighborhood, or I can wander downtown with cute shops and good people watching.

A break into adulthood, sometimes after a trying or very kid busy weekend I crave a little adult interaction. At work, no one will tug on my sleeve, interrupt me constantly, or hug me while dripping wet. I love my crazy Things, but we all need a break and there are times that I am excited by the opportunity for that break at work.

I frequently try and find the silver lining, or the learning opportunity; but Mondays can be a struggle. What are your inspirations to pull on your big girl panties and get through it all? How do you manage those manic Mondays?

Teaching Community

A discussion I so often seem to have with people is how to teach your kids a sense of community, how do you teach a sense of belonging and responsibility for the world and people around you. I have no answers here but am on the constant look out for ideas. . Somehow the experiment of parenthood has lead me to constantly just throw stuff out there and hope that therapy will be a lot cheaper in the future and the Things don't become total prats.

There are a lot of things I think about when I think about community and teaching community. I think about service, 4-H drilled into me service to others in your community and beyond and that is something I still strongly believe in.  Besides service what else? Community is the people and places around you, you need to know where you live, who you live around and where your place is in the larger world.  I want to raise compassionate, empathetic adults who want to be a part of things and make things better, without feeling like they need something in return. 

How to TEACH these things stumps me sometimes..ok all the time.  We continue to throw things out there, remind the Things of what is done for them and what they do for others, and make sure they feel a place in the world is theirs and they have the ability to improve it.

There are some things other people do that I think make a huge impact on the Things life and have for years. After a lot of churm the Things ended up at a daycare that throughout the off school times of year do community service projects.  This summer they have been making blankets for the Women's and Children's Association and had the chance to drop off the blankets and see what their good work has done. In the past they have made blocks for the Ronald McDonald house, had a St. Jude Trike a thon, and cleaned up a nature walk. These things that daycare does make me so proud that the kids go there, these people that are already managing the chaos of a daycare center, make the time and the effort to do something to give back and teach their students the same.  Our extended family of friends is another way the things are learning community. The Things know when someone is sick or a baby is born, mom will cook and we have babysat friends kids, or made get well cards and done other things for this community we have developed. It is not just doing things for these people that in my mind is developing a community, through BBQs, football games, birthday parties we all intermingle and the Things get to see that. They get to see people of all ages and types, who may have different views, talk and interact, put aside differences and pass the plate. These moments are not necessarily times when anyone acknowledges teaching is occurring, but when 10 kids get together of varying ages and have to figure out something to do a community develops and the Things only learn and gain positive insights from that. 

What is happening at home to develop community you ask?  I am pretty seriously involved at the Things school, which for them is an important community, and we remind them without the addition of volunteers their school would not be what it is.  As part of the larger school community to we talk about the roles people have and the Things placement in that school community. We also do some other volunteer work here and there, this year I got the chance to volunteer at the local children's hospital fundraiser, this is the hospital Thing One spent 3 weeks in the NICU at.  Beyond that we are really working to teach the things about their community and all that goes on in it.  We are doing our summer park tour, learning about all the parks and art in the area.  We go to the local farmers market and at least look at what is grown and made where we live, even if Thing Two refuses to try it. The Things know most of the neighbors in our court and are encouraged to play at the park or with the kids around the corner.  In trying to teach the things to feel ownership and some control in their community we have tried a number of ideas at home with varied success. We have encouraged new ideas regarding punishments and rewards, we have had 'you' pick the activities day, when we get stuck on a project we ask the Things what they might do to fix it.  There is a limit to all this though and there are times when they tell me what they think and I don't do it, and that needs to be ok, but again that is learning your place in the community.  I hope by grounding them in their surroundings and showing the investment their community is making in them, they in turn will make the investment in the community and people around them for the rest of their lives.

Dogs Lessons to be Learned

I loved the book, Everything I ever learned about life I learned in kindergarten, though right now I think in our house it is everything I ever learned about life I learned from my dog.  Be a good dog and treats and attention will come to you. It is fine to get excited, but don’t go crazy with the pushing and shoving and jumping or the fun will end. When you do something you aren’t suppose to, show you’re sorry, tucking tail and showing the big eyes can lessen the punishment.  Though complaining can sometimes work, there is always a time to stop barking and live with the situation you are in. If you don’t behave you will be in the kennel.   Life is cyclical there will be young and hyper dogs needing to learn the rules and old dogs that teach the rules, young dogs listen to the old ones.  Share your treats or all you will get is harassed by the other dogs.  It is fine if you found the stick, but don’t think it is only your stick and that you alone can keep and play with the stick.  Love and attention are plentiful, but everyone needs a break from giving constant belly loves.  We all need to run around and play, but when in the house that is not the time, go outside.

Book Review: Free-Range Kids by Lenore Skenazy

I just finished reading Lenore Skenazy's book Free-Range Kids and it gave me a lot to think about.  I may not consider myself a worrier,  but I don't know if I would say I am totally free range either. After reading this book though I think I want to work at being a little more free range and at encouraging that independence in the Things.

The book is laid out really well and makes you think alot about your own fears and how they are transferring on to your kids.  The commandments at the beginning of the book are a great start to the ideas and huge positives to kids. I really like that the information is backed up by facts and figures. It makes me realize how the media is making us more over scared parents than we really need to be.  The end of each chapter has great real life notes from individuals and steps to encourage you to be a little more free range, which I really like. The safe or not chapter was really funny to me as most of the things mentioned I thought at the time they were in the media were a bit cookoo, but I was disappointed she didn't cover kids getting hit my cars. The kids and cars thing is a HUGE fear of mine and I could have used some statistics to peel me off the wall on that one.  Generally I think this is a great read for any parent and is a nice, lighten up and enjoy your kids sort of thing.

Reading a book like this makes you feel silly about a few fears, and made me think how generally unprepared we have made the Things.  Though I have picked them up from school and we walked home, I don't think they have done it enough to not get lost.  I don't know that they could get themselves to the grocery store. I do let them go to the park and to a friends house in the neighborhood so I don't think they would get lost, but I am not sure. I am thinking I might start taking them around on their bikes more and actually leave out little neighborhood.  We live in bubble, about a long country block, surrounded by very busy streets and this is part of my concern about letting the kids go beyond our bubble.  I think I need to let them go a little more free range though, because even though my fear is about them and cars, once we teach them the skills of crossing the street it is the same on a busy as a quiet street.  The other thing I think after reading this is I need to let them roam the neighborhood more, usually I say you can go to the park or a friends, but don't mess about in the neighborhood. I wonder if more messing about in the neighborhood would give them more confidence to explore the world in general more.

The other thing I took to hear was that you are the person that knows your child best and their abilities.  What I struggle with in this statement is that the older one is a little less prepared and aware of the world around her than the younger. When crossing the street in the neighborhood, I no longer tell the Things, stop wait look both ways,  Thing Two naturally does it, Thing Ones just wanders out there. I need to work more with Thing One on developing that independent spirit and awareness and I think because Two picked it up so easily, I haven't focused on really teaching the skill assuming it would just occur.  Also, I don't know what they are like when I am not there, maybe Thing One does fine and I just need to take a deep breath and let life occur.  As a parent sometimes our kids amaze us with their abilities when they are not with us and I guess I just need to have the faith to let that happen.

How Free Range or your kids and how much do you trust their preparedness and responsibility?