midnight haiku

Saturday

Children play all day
Parents watch and play at night
Pain by morning light

The Royal Family

I blame her father for this, or maybe her grandmother, or anyone else that has called her "princess" in the last 2 1/2 years. She insists that we call her Snow White, and this morning, while enjoying her sippy cup of milk stretched out on MY bed, started asking where her "charm prince" was. Maybe it's her brother's fault, for pulling out a pirate shirt and cowboy pants and calling himself the prince. Either way, this certainly can't be my fault. It's not like I helped her put the dress on, did her hair, or painted her toenails...oh wait, yes I did.

Ignaz Semmelweis: not the name of a monster - the guy who figured out that handwashing helps stop disease spread.

We started off today with big plans, until Pink came out of her bedroom with a fever, and the entire day was turned upside down. We spent way, way too much time in the family room today reading books and watching Sid the Science Kid (hey, Blue picked it, leave me alone). Sid was talking about the germ theory of disease and how we can help not spread viruses around. Apparently, Pink was paying attention, because she put herself in quarantine.

To her credit, she thought ahead and brought a snack with her.

I had to pat myself on the back a little, because half a day inside gives me horrible cabin fever, even though there are rooms in my house I go into on a less than monthly basis; and cabin fever stifles my ability to patiently deal with requests. "Mom, can I have a drink", "Mom, I need to wear my princess dress", "Mom, bring me a snack" - I handled them all. When I was confronted with, "Mom, I want to turn my room into a monster", I calmly came up with the following for Blue:

Here's hoping that her fever breaks unmedicated tomorrow so we can be back to our regular schedule of nonsense by Friday.

Art imitates life

I had to share this video - I laughed, I cried, I groaned a little, and then I thought, "I have friends who would like this". Hope you like it.

In the end, it's worth it to me, too.

Parenting Pirouette

I hope I'm not one of those crazy mothers - the kind that push their kids so hard to perform at sports/music/dance/whatever that the kids hate their activity and don't feel too kindly toward their mother either. I think I might be, though, since I'm sad that we only have one more rec center ballet class with Pink (who went to class all by herself on Saturday - hooray!). I am so sad that I started looking for a local studio that teaches ballet to 2 year olds - and was a little put out that I haven't been able to find one that focuses on ballet rather than "creative movement". Yeah, I might be a little crazy.

Hey, good lookin', whatcha got cookin?

I love that Pink is at the age where she loves to cook - not only in her play kitchen, but with actual ingredients. Blue has lost his love of helping in the kitchen (except when chocolate chips are involved), but Pink is my little helper. She loves to stir and knead and taste ingredients; including baking powder...yuck. I know that this age is going to pass, and she'll be too busy for things like this soon, but hopefully in a few years, she'll be back - maybe with her own recipes and ideas!

Christmas - it's not just for Winter anymore.

When I see Christmas stuff in the stores before Halloween, I twitch a little, but figure, hey, some people like to get an early start with their consumerism. But today is 6 days past the 4th of July, not the middle of October, and this was the scene OUTSIDE my neighborhood Hallmark (outside and through the front store windows, not in some back corner somewhere):

Back by popular demand? Really? Is there an army of screaming grandparents out there trying to finish Timmy's Christmas list before Labor Day?