I need to remember to...

• Listen to music more often.  Something about hearing a great song can turn even the lousiest day around, and yet I don't do it often enough.  I'm trying to get better about putting on Pandora and playing music.  The boys enjoy it too and adds some good ambiance with having the TV on.
• Shower.  I'm not even going to admit to myself how long I'm willing to go without one, but let's just say it's a major luxury.  But it's not just about hygiene- a shower gives me a chance to decompress, relax, and have some very important alone quiet time which I need so desperately.  I feel so much better after a shower.  And since it's such a rarity, I can take a long one without feeling guilty about wasting water.
• Make phone dates with friends.  This is something else that too often falls into the "I don't have time for it" category, but it's so important to stay in touch with friends, and I always really enjoy talking with them, even if it's just to listen to each other's kids screaming in the background.
• Take some me time.  I am horrible at doing this.  I never take time to myself.  But I've started making a weekly date with myself.  We don't get an channels on our TV, but I'm a big fan of the show A Big Bang Theory, which unfortunately is not available to watch online.  So every Thursday at 8pm I'm leaving my husband to fend for himself and going over to my parent's house to watch the show, sit, and do nothing.  I'm sure there are more exciting things I could be doing, but this is a first step and it feels good.

What do you (or wish you did more) to help you feel more like you?

Music time for kids

Music is very big in our house, and while neither my husband or I have any real musical talent, we are trying to instill a love of music in our boys. Over the past few months, The Tiger and I have been taking a toddler music class, and I've learned a lot of great ideas for sharing music with children.

• Encourage free play with instruments- lay out a bunch of instruments (shakers, rhythm sticks, bells, drums, etc) and encourage them to play and experiment. Even if gets loud and annoying, they are learning about music and sound
• Play music and encourage them to dance to it. Play both fast and slow songs and ask them to dance along with the music- this will teach them about tempo.
• Give your child a simple instrument like a shaker and have them keep time with a piece of music.
• Encourage interactivity by playing songs that they can participate in- for example, "Ha, Ha, This-a-Way" which goes like this: "Ha ha, this-a-way, ha, ha that-a-way, ha, ha, this-a-way, all day long. Walking walking, up the street, walking walking, to the beat." You can change the verses to "crawling crawling oh so slow" or "dancing dancing away we go" and engage your child to follow along.
• Vary the music you play to include upbeat dancing songs and more mellow "listening" songs.

No matter what you do, just giving your child time to explore music will be fun and enriching!

(Side note: the classes we take are the Musikgarten curriculium and we love them!)

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. (via SouleMama)

Growing Up

My little guy is growing up. He came into the world at barely 6 lbs, a tiny helpless thing, and now, sitting next to him on our front porch, looking at his feet next to mine, it makes me both sad and happy to be struck with how grown-up he already is.

Me

This is me. Ok, so I’ve introduced you to my boys, but I haven’t really told you about me. Probably because I’m not very good at it. I’m Wendy. Hi. Nice to meet you! I’m a brown-haired, blue-eyed, 30-ish gal who is still trying to figure herself out. I’m a bit shy, I think too much, I’m emotional, intensely loyal, creative, very un-conventional in some ways and rather normal in others. I’m a bit boring, sometimes impulsive, very loving, slightly crunchy, and a bit of a plain Jane. I like Indie Rock and rap music, love goofy buddy comedies and visually stunning romantic foreign films. I’m a wife, mother, friend and dreamer. Thanks for reading!

What I Want

When my boys look back on their childhood, I want them to remember days filled with music, color, laughter, fun, love, understanding. I want them to have happy memories of happy days. I know they probably won’t even remember anything that we do right now, for they are too young, but I want to make wonderful memories that build on top of more wonderful memories, creating a wall of happiness and joy that sustains them through life. I want them to be well-adjusted, free-spirited, confident boys who grow up knowing that they are important, that they are loved. I don’t want them to ever question who they are. I want them to love life and see the joy in every day.


But… how do I do that? How do we manage that amongst the struggles of daily life, the piles of laundry that never gets folded, bills that need paid, doctors’ visits, stress, arguments, temper tantrums, dirty refrigerators, sibling rivalry, breakfast, bath time, naps, vitamins, broken toilets, cooking and cleaning?
Each day is a journey, and my goal is to give them everything, but the reality is that I often fall short. Every day I’m learning, trying, working harder to get where I want us to be. I’ve recently been reading Pam Leo’s “Connection Parenting” a life-changing book, and in it she talks about the gap between what we learn and what we are capable of doing. We have the awareness, but it takes us time to actually get into the practice. I feel like I am forever living in that gap; I’m forever thinking and learning, and always ahead of me, like a dangling carrot, is this image of what I want for, but I can never seem to get there. The picture changes, more layers are added, pushing it further ahead of me.

Still, this picture, of the future, of my boys grown up, of a home full of love and laughter and life, is what sustains me, is what keeps me focused on trying to be the best I can- more patient, more attached, more connected, more compassionate, more creative, more organized, more open, and more comfortable with who I am and who I want to be.

House of Cards part 2

We’ve added to our house of cards. I stumbled upon this a few days ago, so when L mentioned he was bored yesterday afternoon, I got out some scrap card stock (you’ll recognize our Dolch sight words on the one house- left over from the scrap pile) and helped The Owl cut the shapes and assemble the houses. The first one (with the words) was pretty basic, but The Owl pulled out all the stops with the second. I recently designed some dividers for The Owl’s book collection, which are housed in pull-out bins. The idea was to use them as dividers between the different categories, and on each, such as “Little Bear” there is a corresponding picture, to help with word identification, etc. For some reason they printed much smaller on the page, so I had a stack of useless dividers waiting for a use. They proved to be perfect walls, b/c they were all the same size and easy to cut out and assemble. Plus, they make the house look really cool. The Owl crafted a 2-story home plus attic space and included cut-outs in the floors between the levels, which he’s pretending are elevators. We made some stick people cut-outs, and then he added a train track through the middle of the town, which he dubbed “Modern Town.” He also added a plastic ladder and made a “rope” for the roof so that Diego can visit. He has plans to expand the town in the near future.

Silly Day

Here are scenes from our recent "Silly Day." Unfortunately, my camera is broken and I had to take these photos with my phone, which is why they are blurry. The kids wouldn't stand still long enough for me to get a decent photo!

We started the day by dressing in silly outfits. For The Owl, we put one of Daddy's dress shirts and tie over his PJ's, along with some of my winter socks pulled up to his knees. I put on a skirt, knee socks, sweater, tie, and a handkerchief in my hair. We dressed The Tiger in knee socks, a bandanna and diaper. After running around and engaging in some general silliness and posing for silly pictures, we sat down and watched one of the silliest films of all time- The Adventures of Pippi Longstocking.

To be honest, after that we sort of petered out. Tiger needed an early nap and The Owl got engrossed in track-building, so we didn't do much else that we silly for the day. But I gathered up some ideas for another silly day in the future.

- Make silly food for breakfast, or eat meals in reverse (dinner for break)
- Make homemade silly putty
- Make silly sculptures
- Read Winnie the Pooh's Silly Day

What ideas do you have?

House of Cards

Influenced by this post here (and found via The Crafty Crow) we made our own House of Cards. Working with what we had on hand, I cut cardstock into rectangles with six slits and let The Owl and The Tiger decorate them. Tiger scribbled on a few, but The Owl had a good time drawing on the cards. He wanted me to draw to, so I made silly drawings on some of the cards. It was actually a lot of fun, and reminded me of the quick 1-minute drawings I used to do in art school. Rather than working on one masterpiece, we were able to just have fun with silly quick doodles. My drawings are a bit embarrassing, and it made it clear how rusty my drawing is, but we had a good time. Process over product, right?


The Owl and I put it together- he need a little help from me. If I did it again, I'd use larger pieces of a heavier material, like in the inspiration post, and then maybe he'd have an easier time putting it together himself. He really loves to build, but gets frustrated easily if things fall apart.

A Wonderful Day

Some days just work out better than others. How this happens exactly I don’t know. Maybe we got more rest. Maybe I got a little me time that made me more patient. Maybe the boys ate their breakfast better and their blood sugar was more stable. Who really knows. Some days are a struggle just to get through without any injuries, other days, everyone seems magically happy and connected. Yesterday was one such day.

I woke up around 6 am from a dream about my oldest starting kindergarten. In reality he has another year, but I’m already having kindergarten anxiety. In the dream, we got lost on the way to school, and when we got there, he had been assigned to another classroom, with a fairly lackluster teacher and a very tiny classroom only big enough for the desks. I was unhappy, ready to pull him out and take him home with me, but he was happy and excited… then I woke up. Lying in bed listening for the sounds of my boys waking up (they are really early risers!), I got the idea to play school for the day. Why not turn my anxiety into a positive, right?

Together The Owl and I made a schedule for the day’s lessons:

Welcome/Circle Time
(we sang a good morning song and did nursery rhymes with The Tiger)

Sentence Writing
(with Dolch flash cards)

Morning Project
(we colored and built a house of cards)

Snack Time
(Tiger got to be snack helper, we had Trader Joe’s cheese crackers)

Recess
(We made a chalk bike track in the driveway inspired by this post)

Field Trip to Water Park
(Played in the slip n’ slide in the backyard)

Lunch

Quiet Time/ Naptime
(took a break b/c The Tiger needed a nap)

Story Time

Music Class
(free play with instruments and a Baby Einstein CD)

Art Class
(painting)

Having a schedule and following it really kept the boys interested through the day, and we didn’t fall into the usual afternoon slump of “What do we do now?” I find most of the times when the boys are difficult, they are simply bored and in need of some activity.

All in all, a great day, and something I should try again sometime. It requires some planning, but is totally worth it.

Water Fun

The other day we decided to make the most of the insane heat and have some fun water play. The day before I had filled up a milk carton and four plastic cups with water and froze them overnight. The milk carton I filled with plain water, and in the three of the four plastic cups I put water with red, yellow and blue food coloring, respectively, along with another of plain water.

The first one we took out was the milk carton. I tore the carton off, revealing a large glistening block of ice. The Owl thought this was really cool. We played around with it and he used a plastic cake server to try to chip away at it, but it remained fairly intact.

The ice blocks in the cups came out really cool- when I added the drops of food coloring to the water, I did not stir it, just swirled it around a bit, and it ended up making it really cool, with areas that were more saturated than others. We filled up the baby pool and added the ice to the water. We found that they began to melt very quickly in the pool, so The Owl took out the blocks and left them in the grass where they melted much more slowly. The large block had been left on the picnic table, and when we went back to it, we found it hadn’t melted much. We carried it over and dropped it into the pool, where it proceeded to melt very very quickly.

All in all, it was a fun and colorful way to observe “reversible change.”

Our Daily Rhythm

I thought I would do a post on how we structure our days. I think it's important to have some sort of daily structure, but at the same time, I try not to become to heavily scheduled. I've been very influenced by the idea of creating a daily rhythm and this has worked really well for us. I've come up with a "schedule" that is the same every day, with mapped out areas of time for specific types of activities. There's enough structure and repetition to create a nice rhythm that makes it easy for the boys to fall into a routine, but it's open-ended enough that there is still room for choice in our activities.

Please note that the times are merely guides, and I try not to be too rigid about sticking to the exactly. Flow from one block to the next is more important.

7:00-7:15 Wake Up
Lately the boys have been waking up earlier than this. We have some quiet playtime in their rooms for a short time before heading downstairs to begin breakfast.

7:30 Breakfast
Once downstairs, I begin fixing breakfast. I ask L for help with this task. Some days he helps pick out food or set the table, other days he chooses to play. I give him the choice.

8:00-9:30 Free Play
After breakfast, I ask Lucas to help put his dishes in the sink, then we begin free play. This is just open time, but by calling it "free play", L seems so much more excited about it. I ask him what he wants to play with- some days it's something very specific, other days he just floats from toy to toy. I try to interact with them during this time, but I also allow myself some free time in this block, to do some light cleaning, check email, etc.

9:30-11:00 Project or Outing
After free play, we pick up our toys and then we have a dedicated project or an outing. I try to look at this as special time with them, and I try really hard during this time not to get on the computer or clean so as to give them my undivided attention. Sometimes I'll have an idea for a project, but usually I'll let L pick from a few options or leave it completely open-ended. I try to let L make choices as much as possible. J is too little at this point to pick, but he is starting to show interest in doing what we do, and most projects he can do with a little help.

11:00 - 12:00 Lunch

12:00 - 2:00 Quiet Time
This time fluctuates a bit depending on J's napping needs, sometimes he needs to go down sooner and so we cut lunch short or have a big snack or something to allow us to get upstairs sooner, but slowly we're getting closer to a noon-ish naptime. I get J to sleep and L gets quiet time. I would like for him to read in his room, but right now he's taking his quiet time playing on the computer. He does very well, but some days J will take a 2 hour nap and so L will spend 2 hours on the computer, which is a bit longer than I'd like. This is an area I need to work on. I either do my work on the computer during this time or close my eyes and take a little nap with J.

2:00 - 4:00 Free Play
More free play, same as above. When the weather cools off, I'd like this to be our regular out-of-doors time, but for now it's more time spent inside.

4:00 Begin dinner
This may seem early, but in order for me to keep it together, I usually start dinner around this time, while the boys continue to play.

5:00 Dinner
Boys eat, I usually eat with them, sometimes I wait and eat when M gets home from work.

6:00 Bath

6:30 Stories, Off to Bed
Both boys are usually asleep by 7.

This is how it's been going for us. Some days it works, some days we have a doctor's appointment or errand and it gets thrown off. I think we'd hit a good rhythm if we could just stay home for a few weeks, but the boys get bored and I get stir-crazy, so we have to keep resetting every few days. Still, having this as the goal means that most of the time we're fairly consistent, and that's what matters most. Also, for us it's really helped to emphasize the transitions- such as, "ok, let's clean up our breakfast dishes and then we can start free play!" It also allows me to have designated time for email/Facebook, designated offline time, etc.

We try to maintain this on the weekends as well. L goes back to school in a few weeks, so I'm not sure what our days will look like that. I'll have to alter the rhythm somewhat, but hopefully I can maintain the general idea.

Tomorrow I'll talk about our bedtime routine and sleeping arrangements.

Bedtime Stories

Tonight we read....

Blue's Clues My Pet Turtle (Ready-to-Read) by Deborah Reber

If You Find a Rock by Peggy Christian

Honey... Honey... Lion! by Jan Brett

The Honey Cake Mix-Up by Ann Braybrooks

Diary of a Spider by Doreen Cronin

Bad Cat by Tracy-Lee McGuinness-Kelly

Bedtime Stories

Tonight we read:

Tiny Dinosaurs by Steve Lindblom

Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss


Hand Rhymes by March Brown

Magical let-down

Some days I find it hard to get through the long, meandering days of summer. I want to spend every moment of it engaged in play and exploration with the boys, but the reality of it is I end up spending most of my time cleaning, cooking, doing laundry, or simply vegging online to get some much-needed mental space. I have these great visions of exciting times, of making the most of the days of summer, and then what happens?

Today I had great intentions, as always. After knocking out some weekend projects, I took the boys outside. L and I gathered up some pots and pans from the play kitchen and we ventured out to make dirt and mud cakes and pies. After a few minutes, L declared that it wasn't working, got frustrated with the consistency of the mud, and gave up. So we got out the hose and tackled play equipment, which was covered in spider webs. Then the mosquitoes starting biting with a vengeance, and so we headed back inside, defeated. I know this is the reality for most moms, but lately I'm feeling pretty inadaquate in the "creating magical moments" category.

Summer Fun

We have just about 5 weeks before L returns to school 4 mornings a week. Last summer, I went all super-Mom and made theme weeks, with fun and educational activities planned to fill the summer. I made it about halfway before running out of steam, but at least I gave it a hearty try. This summer got off to a rough start. My Grandmother was sick and we spent an unexpected 2 weeks away from home, dealing with the stresses of her illness, and ultimately her death. It was stressful on me, stressful on the boys, and very tiring. I feel like it took me a couple weeks to recover from the time away from home, and I don't think our summer really got started until after the July 4th holiday.

In an attempt to make a fun and memorable summer for the boys, and to enjoy my time with L before he goes back to preschool, I began a list of ideas and inspiration for activities, with the notion that together we would choose 1 or 2 each day. So far, we haven't gotten through much on the list, but I'm trying to look ahead rather than behind. The list is full of ideas, and hopefully I can add to the list over time, making it my go-to resource for great ideas for fun, in any season.

Here is the list, should you be interested:

Summer Activities & Ideas

*CLICK FOR LINKS TO TUTORIALS*

OUTDOOR FUN

Nature walk / scavenger hunt

Garden

Make a raft & sail it in the pool

Make bark boats or paper boats

Build a fort

Water balloon fight

Outdoor play “cooking”

Compost

Go on a bug hunt

Make a wormery

Make an aqua scope

Make nature crowns & cuffs

Make summer pod & bud prints

Start a fairy garden

Backyard picnic

Watermelon seed spitting contest

Start a bug collection (dead)

Obstacle course

Make leaf crowns

Bury treasures in the sandbox

Ice play

Make walking sticks

Build train track outside

Water play

Make a terrarium

Make & fly a kite (or here)

Outdoor painting w/ tabletop easel

Nature words

ARTS & CRAFTS

Make glue batik shirts

Paper plate weaving

Finger painting

Recycled rocket

Hand-drawn dolls

Garden wish flags

Paint garden rocks

String painting

Make paper cloth

Yarn embroidery

Flower still lifes

Flying fish windsock

Make peg people

Favorite things collage

Make nature pendants

Make pinwheels

“Hole” paintings

Garden art

Jello paintings

Marble painting

Melted crayon art

Make watercolors

Tye Dye

Disc sculptures

Puff paint pictures

Resist paintings

MUSIC

Make a banging wall

Make drums & shakers

BUILDING / DADDY PROJECTS

Make tree blocks

Giant bubble wands

Toddler stilts

Build a summer pavilion

Build a rope swing

Make homemade hoops

Giant homemade chalkboards

Make a bean teepee

COOKING / IN THE KITCHEN

Lots of cooking ideas here

Giant cookies

PB Banana Cups

Mini berry pies

Homemade ice cream

Frozen ice jewels

Homemade bread & butter

Homemade popsicles

Rainbow jello

Rainbow cookies

Colorful pancakes

INDOOR / RAINY DAY IDEAS

Make balancing butterflies

Cardboard box shadow theater

Beginning sewing

Treasure hunt/mapping

Tin can telephones

Dress-up/pretend play

Themed movie marathon

Puppet show

Cereal box marble run

Super spy day

Make a paper city

Make a bed board

Make animals masks

Roll-a-Die monsters

Put on a play or puppet show

Write a story

Fun with colored water

Make pop-pom sheep

Have a costume party picnic

Start a collaborative journal

Invent a silly holiday

Make an indoor racetrack for matchbox cars

Construct a catapult and target

Dr. Seuss day

Build with straws

Make special pictures for loved ones

OTHER RESOURCES FOR IDEAS

Make and Takes

The Crafty Crow

What do we do all day?

A Magical Childhood

The boys

I'm lucky to spend my days with two fantastic little boys. Would you like to meet them?



The Owl is currently 4 1/2 years old. He is wise beyond his years, intense, intensely sweet and loving, inquisitive, imaginative, animal lover, nature lover, button pusher, fiercely independent, spirited, huggable, animated, thoughtful.


The Tiger is 20 months old. He is wild, determined, full of energy, all boy, lover of anything with wheels, kissy and snuggly only when sleepy, big brother's shadow, animated, curious, climby, and free spirited.