How do you say 'snow' in French?

Snowy days are FINALLY here and we're loving it. Well, we all are except Sloane who doesn't have a waterproof snow suit (really, we'd only wear it two days before it was outgrown so it doesn't seem worth the shopping and purchasing effort): see photo below of her looking longingly out from her glass prison. We've all been knitting and crocheting up a storm as the snow falls into maybe 5 inches outside. Perfect, powdery, not too cold, not windy, just right for packing snow! Of course, that hasn't stopped us from our usual museum trips, the President's Day Parade, and other exciting events. We were all into George Washington (in addition to book 3 of Harry Potter) for a while. Now we've moved on to pracitcing our "Bonjour", "Sil vous plait", "Merci Beaucoup", and "crepe" (because Bille wants to know how to order pancakes in French). We're talking about the Euro and studying the map. At least we're doing something to get ready for France because it's not like I've started packing or made plans for anyone to watch Minerva...that would be practical.
Can you tell i'm strictly in 'fun' mode with this trip...in denial that it will require any actual planning or work? We're the lightest packers on the planet so packing should be quick and then we'll be on a plane the day after tomorrow! Au revoir for now!


 

part 2 (above part 1)

 

We've got art!

Aunt Elizabeth gave us a painting and I LOVE having it in the house...a sleeping kid is my most favorite thing. It's just a little glimpse of a 3 year old napping, or after dark, you can see every bit of sweetness in their soft skin and relaxed body. Like, i don't feel like i'm that relaxed...even when i'm sleeping. now i get that little dose of relaxed perfection- wild babies at rest, each time i look at it. Ahh...yoga at a glance. Thank you Aunt Elizabeth!
Here's Billie's drama class (some of them) doing a performance. Billie was the vulture...and had the best loud, clear voice of the bunch (maybe there is a reason for her un-reasonable volume). If only she were on stage all day everyday...it would make sense.


Nannou sent the kids silly lollipops that look like fat kissing lips when you eat them. Thanks Nannou (the kids liked that as much as I like our painting). 

goggle heads

this morning Jackson brought his ski-goggled-self into our room (he's the one who wakes up first in our family and usually comes in to read quietly until I or Sloane roust ourselves from slumber) and billie did the same thing (except came downstairs, because we were awake by then) two hours later (she's a late sleeper). a note here: ski goggles AND bed head are not such a good combo... but i think we're finally seeing interest in a subject area that is not of the wizard world (phew!).
We're off to Massachusetts tomorrow mostly to see family but we're all excited about getting in a ski day, too. (when i say 'all' i mean Bill and the kids because I'm staying home with Sloane).
Here are some non-goggle shots to keep within our standard of randomness.
Jackson pictured with Mr. Rizzo.
Billie at the computer in one of her 'creative' ensembles - "I like to be colorful!"
Our best attempt (weak!) at a snowman...consists only of a head and then spending the remainder of the day propping umbrellas about and other unsuccessful ventures in an effort to 'save him' from the sun. Sloane joins the kids for 'reading time'.

quick shots

Sloane learning songs from Jackson, focused on reading, giving eskimo kisses to Dad and looking like the center of the universe that she is. She LOVES my Grandpa's rocking chair!

Created a Monster!

Or, a ghoul, goblin, wizard? It's Harry Potter craziness here at our house. And before I talk about that can I just say that you are the best bunch of people ever?! With all that great feedback on chopsticks with cheerios mornings I'm tempted to confess more of my mothering blunders! That had me smiling all day...perhaps even better than a package from Etsy! (but those have given me happy days too- thanks!) You guys are the superest! Thank you!
So...as much as I would like to digress...i simply can't escape the Harry Potter frenzy we've been whipped into. I'll admit it's MUCH better than reading ameilia bedilia crap and that predictable curious george...don't even get me started on the bunny with the pink nose! Billie says it in a taunting voice with such glee "I get to choose the story...and it's going to be a LAME one!!!" Bill and I both roll our eyes and give in to ONE lame story but refuse to re-read in one sitting...it's just beyond our parenting patience limit.
So..we've usually got some pretty good reads going on around here. I throw all my un-used acting skills (Best Actress award- 1993, Annandale High School thankyouverymuch) into personalizing the characters with accents of their country of origin (or a made up accent...if it suits me), using facial expressions, and introducing otherwise forbidden phrases to my children like "shut up you idiot!" I know the bad language isn't much of a learning 'ideal' but the rest really get the kids riled up. Jackson will be shaking his fists back and forth while jumping on the couch next to me as I read an especially frightening, hanging-on-by-the-skin-of-your-teeth scene from the book. He's nearly acting things out as they happen...it's kinesthetic.
Billie can't stop herself from interrupting with 'useful' (?!) bits of information ("he should have listened to Hermione...he's going to get into trouble!") but also gets caught up in the plot and perils. And then...THEN...after finishing the first book in a grande 2 hour reading finale...they were bouncing off the walls with the thrill of the ending (I nearly had myself in tears I was reading it with such feeling) and THEN...we let them watch the movie (which they didn't know we had). I must say, there is all SORTS of creepy stuff in here...but it was already in their heads via the book, so, we thought...what the heck? And it was SO funny to hear them comment on the movie. "I thought Fluffy was white" "I thought Uncle Vernon was skinny but he's fat" "That's not really what happened to Norbert!" "But Dudley doesn't have his smelting stick" They noticed EVERY difference. I can NOT believe all the details the kids got out of that book...i just could never name them all. But it's SO cute to think of them having these ideas in their heads- clearly Billie had pictured Fluffy the 3 headed dog with white fur. I LOVE seeing how their brains work with these little insights. Geez, people are worried about kids learning enough ..but what are they NOT learning? That's what i'd like to know...they notice EVERYTHING and then they think about it.
Of course, we had to start book two that night...and both children crawled into our bedroom sometime during the night because they "had bad dreams...not just about Harry Potter!" (yeah, right! this following at least 2 years of no bad dreams) And i'm reading during breakfast, i use it as an incentive to get them to do a quick playroom pick-up, it's Harry Potter all day and all night. I think we're on Chapter 6...and this is day 2...so, it's officially an obsession. Just thought I'd share that with you...since it's what's happening with us. Tomorrow i'm taking them to Mt. Vernon because Jackson LOVES George Washington and anything to do with him...hoping to get them on another topic for a couple hours at least.
Haven't gotten pictures of the kids up in a while...here's what's up: still-walk-with-a-peg-leg-even-though-i'm-cast-less-Sloane, drama class, and home puppet shows...it's better than looking at shirts and kitchens, right?

Get out of the kitchen

So, i hear a lot of comments that seem to indicate i have a perfect life, it's true my life is pretty awesome but i have problems too, i just don't usually dump them on you blog readers (the 4 of you might stop reading if i do) but here's a dose of reality...i hate my kitchen. i've tried to adjust...but i can't...it's just awful. how can a room with 40% of it's wall space taken up by windows be dark and creepy? i don't know but my kitchen is. there are 4 drawers. that's right 4 and they are all VERY small, so utensils like whisks and spatulas (see...i know kitchen lingo) are forced up on the counter tops in ugly display next to the appliances which have no room in the 4 cabinets (because plates, cups and food have to go somewhere). And that's my kitchen...which was not a roaring success but somehow tolerable until the dishwasher broke and now...well, it's beyond hope. I don't even want to go IN there! So, i dare you to compliment me now....do you like the way that there's one clean dish in the dish rack? Or the way I've posted vacation type postcard art up so that I can imagine myself somewhere else? How about the big bag of rice, which can't fit anywhere and so has a place between the dishwasher and the back door? Or how about that the microwave blew up with sparks and freaky-ness after we were NOT able to fix the darn dishwasher with the new parts we bought and waited for them to come in last night? Is that fun? And then, it's not really mine...it's my Mother-in-laws (who I think has seen the light now that she has a big Paris place) but handled this teensy room with such grace that she actually believed it when she said "It works really well for me!" and came up with all kinds of responses for the inevitable look of shock and "My GOD! How can you DO anything in this kitchen?!" remark that comes from each new house visitor. My responses are things like..."well, we eat a lot of 3 minute ramen noodles" and "i know...it's really hard because Sloane can reach the stove from any point in the room, so I can hardly hold her and get a glass of water." I don't know how Pat did it- but she's a chef, and possibly just much more optimistic or determined to make it work than me. In any respect, she's a better person than me. And there's your answer to the question I always get: "how do you find time to sew? /read all those books? /order 26 things from Etsy in one day?" I have nothing but time...because i avoid the kitchen, eat P,B &J, ignore the dishes, eat with disposable wooden chopsticks when all utensils are dirty (i suppose some Moms will clean some spoons before breakfast but billie and jackson have totally had cheerios with chopsticks...because i had to finish this really great chapter in the book i'm reading RIGHT NOW...for Sloane? frozen peas- no utensils required!). So, that's my world...not perfect at all, as you can see. And i hope in proving that i'm not the perfect Mom i won't have offended you all into not being my friends. There's worse things than wearing a pair of jeans out of the laundry hamper and eating breakfast with chopsticks? right? By the way, these pictures are taken on two different days of dirty dishes and 2 seconds after this picture was taken Jackson broke this fake drawer off the cabinet! perhaps the kitchen senses my hatred and that's why it's rebelling against me so?!

I can't stop!

Look at this cuteness- so, while everyone is frolicking in the snow- I'm downstairs turning out a shirt every 15 minutes. It's so cute and too easy...if we had a cute shirt that has a stained bit on it...i can just cut that bit out and replace it with another shirt transplant! I've made like 4 shirts from that original stock that i bought (at the thrift store) so the total for 4 shirts is like $4!! AND nothing is going to waste or to the trash pile...it's recycling for everything. i'm never buying anything new again. (though, i still have to convince jackson to let me cut up some of his clothes...he's sure he likes them the way they are).

Just for you

So, I've got a new addiction. Perhaps it comes from moving and having no friends (I have made one friend now...hi, Maria!). Maybe it's cuz I don't have a "J-O-B" where I accomplish things and put them in the 'completed' file. Or it could be a desperate desire to be original in this land of manufactured-in-China-by-the-3-millions. Perhaps Japan was such a good source of funky oddities that now I hate to walk into Target and Ikea and see a trash can that's nice, red and shiny and if I buy it I'm sure to see it in the next 30 stores and homes I walk into. So, I've recently developed this craving for hand made things. Like, I've always liked them...but now I want to own them all, and pass them on to my children and create things from nothing (or from old things) and turn them into something new with my own two little hands. I want to have things that no one has ever seen before and I need to have NOT the same picture frame as you. Then I want to go to everyone else's house and be treated to looking at all the incredible 'i've-never-see-anything-like-it' s that they've collected! So, that's all good but just how many children's artwork inspired embroidery pillows can i make? And, how can i take the kids to those arts and craft shows when there's all that glass around? So...my poor little craving gets denied. UNTIL NOW.
It's ebay for handmadeness. And it's inspiration for me. After last night when I saw this but didn't buy it because i had already bought this and this.
I had to run to the thrift shop this morning and get a bunch of old kids T-shirts with cute prints to cut up and turn them into THIS: Pretty cute for $3.50- huh? AND I have enough left to make a match (mismatchy) for Sloane!
Now- here's for my cool plan. (It's more than just a way for me to get all the things on my wishlist...i swear!). How about I send something cute and handmade to everyone I know? You'll get a cute little package in the mail, you'll smile for the rest of the day (at least until one of your animals or children throws up on it): happiness. AND THEN- this bit is important because you've got to pay it forward- you go onto Etsy. Check out my list (because i'm the one who just made your day) and order something for me...or something off my list and suprise me with a toothfairy pillow or a robot monster. There's heaps of things for like $3, so that's totally reasonable...and how fun will it be for us to be getting packages of loveliness?
Plus we're supporting these folks who are using their creative genius to make things! So, it's a good cause. And these are independent people so they're all willing to make something to your color specification and ship them to the address you say (even if it's in France). Nothing expensive, just like a barrette, headband or little necklace pendant.
ooh, goody...this will be so fun!
Send me your address if you're not sure that I have it (I have lost a thing or two in my life...if you got a Christmas letter...that's a good sign I have it!)

Maebel gets on my nerves

Here's a happy little Sloane with one of her favorite Christmas gifts- it was to Billie. A teddy bear named 'Maebel' who sings at a MOST annoying pitch repeatedly and Sloane instantly starts in with the head-banging each time she hears it. She LOVES her.
This week we had an animal field trip and another class at the Corcoran, then it was to the zoo where Jackson attended 'Sneaks & Cheats' with his buddy Nolan to learn about the ways animals are 'sneaky' and Billie went to 'Animal Folktales' taught by a wonderful storyteller and she's been telling stories ever since; in an even MORE dramatic fashion so that each 'story' is a performance. She instructs: "Jackson, each time I do this I need you to play a pretend flute for audience participation" I'll write something interesting later- just thought I'd keep up with our events...it's almost like having a real life. In the pictures: Sloane hugging Maebel. Kids pretending to be Vets at the Zoo. Kids at the Zoo with Nolan, aside from this last picture we have no other reason to assume that Jackson will turn out to be gay.



 

She thrives!

So, the big question...how's Sloane doing with her cast? Answer: She's great. She's happy, it doesn't seem to bother her at all. She's even started walking with it (she'd been crawling in it for the first week). She's SOOO high-strung overall that I thought she'd be pulling at and bothered by her cast, making baby sign language up to say "get this purple crap off me!!!" but she's not. Not at all; she's happy, she dances, walks around like a gimp, eats, sleeps, goes on trips in the backpack, smiles, waves and does 20 more tricks than she started the year off with. Kids are SO resilient. And now it's less than 2 weeks to go until the cast will be off and she can get back in the bathtub. Yay!

My Left Foot

I titled this blog my left foot because 'Sloane broke her leg' sounds so sad. want to hear something worse? "My one-year old has a broken foot" or what about "I fell down the stairs when I was carrying my baby and now her ankle is broken." At least I don't have to say that last one...Bill does. I HAVE fallen down the stairs while carrying her, but no injuries resulted. Bill and I were both wearing an evil pair of slippers at the time...those slippers are in the dumpster now. and poor little sweet Sloane's ankle is in a big purple cast. I don't have to say anything really, ...just be the mom walking around with a baby who she somehow let fall into a disaster that required a huge purple cast!!!
more bad stuff? okay...we didn't notice (because she didn't cry or fuss, really) so we took her to a baptism and party all day on Saturday. I noticed she didn't want to walk, but just thought she was feeling clingy and we carried and held her all day. We did little foot bending, knee moving experiments to make sure nothing was wrong and she acted fine, like she didn't mind us wiggling her limbs about...no cries, not a sign...just didn't want to walk. can't be broken then, right?
so, at the doc office i was all ready for them to say she must have a sprain or bruise after looking at the x-ray. when the doc said 'fracture' i burst into tears. she's JUST ONE!!! i have never broken a bone, been to the ER twice in my life, once with Jackson, once when the train dumped Billie off at the fair in Minonk...that's it. that's the full extent of serious illness or injury and little Sloane only stayed intact for one year!! oh. thankfully, i'm CLEARLY more upset and bothered by this whole thing than she is.
pictures: does this foot look broken to you? i took a picture because i won't be seeing it again for 3 weeks, in the rocking chair with billie, billie and jackson work on lincoln logs...unaffected and whole.
i hope 2007 gets better.

Merriness

Christmas- joyus! Thank all of you for your lovely, wonderful gifts. Thank you so much for listening and for a fun, not too overwhelming Christmas morning. We didn't unwrap even one busty/lusty, gun packing 'hero'. We have gotten much use (already) out of candyland, story time, lincoln logs, fuzzy coats, sword & shield, ball gowns and the #1 wanted "robot that shoots green discs from his chest". So, we've made it through Christmas and Sloane's innocence is still intact. Right now she's all "let's get dirty" but not in a Christina Aguleria way and that's very nice...because she's one. And Billie is digging for earthworms right along with her.
Just WAIT until you see Billie in her Princess Leia outfit!!! The kids have some insane obsession with star wars and check out every book at the library for ages 10 + (or for 30 year old sci-fi geeks like Bill) to study star wars. They play star wars all the time and have carefully memorized odd names of life forms and space craft. So, going against all our normal 'rules' (see? see, we're indulgent sometimes! totally!) we let them watch the actual star wars video the other day. the original not the one with young Anniken being burnt and maimed, screaming out in pain at the loss of his love and all that was good in him. just the original. With scary monstery- type images and all, which it really just seems better NOT to have in your head...but they'd seen them all in the books already...so, we just let them. and how did this turn from a christmas blog to a star wars blog? who knows? here's some pictures. How cute is Billie's drawing of Santa in Sleigh? Worthy of me embroidering it into a pillow? Yes! I think SO!
And seriously, Thank you! Thanksgiving pictures

un-school

So, for the last two weeks we haven't done 'school' as we usually do. No Pledge of Allegiance and no 'assignments' in the morning. (Of course, I think 'school' for a 4 and 5 year old is living a day- finding out how a Christmas tree slowly dies, making up a story or learning how to pour your own milk.) But we haven't done any 'technical' school. (I reassure myself by saying "Neither have the PS kids, though!" You know you just watched movies the last few days before winter break).
But the point is that an interesting thing has happened. Billie has become a teacher. Each day she creates something new; Like a drum, by taking a mug and putting a piece of paper of the top, secured by a rubber hair band; or, a robot from a toy construction set. And then she teaches us about it. This is funny because she sets out pillows for all of us to sit on (very assigned) and assumes this whole 'teachery' posture (do i do that?) and points out things and shows us them and passes them around for us all to examine "see, his esophagus and intestines are in there." (That was for a lesson on aliens.) And she thinks about answers to all our questions. Jackson, Bill and I raise our hands and then we wait to be called on (???!!!). me: "Professor, do aliens have babies from an egg or from their Mommies belly?" Billie: "um....some are born from eggs and others are born from their Mommies tummy and others are c-section babies like me."
"Professor, What planet did this alien come from?"
"from Pluto. no, no, no...aliens don't live on Pluto (she corrects herself) from Saturn!"
so, we've been learning something new every day.
Jackson sometimes will follow up her lesson with one of his own
"These are two aliens. This one is named Crack and this one is named Crack too."
"Professor, if crack was under you would one say that you were on crack?"
Jackson's class is mostly silly but sometimes contains information.
Sloane toddles after her big brother and sister, so not at their level and so not included in their games that it's a little sad.
But sometimes if we have the big white-board out she will point to it and say "BA!" to the kids with an expectant look , as I am clearly teaching them. "Cat" "Hat" "See" "The" "Van" That's pretty cute.
Mom and Bob are here so we went to Chuck E Cheese this afternoon, which can also be found under the nomenclature "parental hell" or "grandparental heaven"
It's certainly fun for Billie, Jackson and Sloane anyway.