Birthday Party - Lego Style

About a year ago, Chipmunk informed me that for his 5th birthday he wanted to have a lego-themed birthday party. Many moons passed, and periodically he would ask, "When am I going to have my lego party, Mommy?" Persistence must pay off, because he got exactly what he wanted.



A banner for the birthday boy...



The party-goers participated in lego crafts, even built their own cars...



...then raced them down the ramp we created...



There was a lego cake...and lego-shaped candles...



...and each kid received their party favors...lego head prize balls filled with little goodies...

Chipmunk? He was a happy camper. Despite being exhausted from partying, he continued to wear his contented smile for the rest of the day.

Like mother like daughter

My daughter was a bit upset tonight. We caught her using her Kindle when she was supposed to be sleeping, and thus the Kindle was confiscated.

She felt so guilty, she wouldn't stop crying. Matt and I tried to tell her it was okay, but she still felt sad. So I sat on her bed and began to tell her a story...

"Way back when your mom was a little girl, she used to like to read. She liked to read so much that she would hide under her blankets at night with a flashlight and book. Sometimes my mom or dad would catch me and tell me to go back to sleep, but you know what would happen only five minutes later? I would get that book and flashlight and continue reading. Sometimes I would get caught again, and sometimes I wouldn't, so I would end up reading for a long time."

Bear giggled at the thought of her mother reading books by flashlight under her bedding. She giggled again at the thought of her mother getting in trouble with her parents.

Then Bear made a confession.

"I actually use my kindle every night before bed, but I put it down when you walk by my room."

This confession made me laugh out loud.

So I hugged my daughter, kissed her on the forehead and said, "You are more like me than I realize sometimes."

The Right Reaction

Just before Christmas I remember telling the kids about showing proper appreciation for the gifts that they receive.

"It's important to be grateful for everything..."

I grilled them endlessly about how to express their thanks properly.

Then Chipmunk received a birthday present.



Looking at this picture made me realize that perhaps the kids are doing fine in expressing their thanks without my help.

What a ham.

Favorite Toys

A couple days after the Christmas frenzy...

Me: What's your favorite thing to play with, Bear?

Bear: (without hesitation) My Kindle!

Chipmunk: Not me!

Me: Why what's your favorite thing to play with?

Chipmunk: (with a big smile) My sister!

Scapegoat

Chipmunk has his own personal scapegoat...or should I say scape "bear." This 8-inch brown teddy bear has been getting into a lot of mischief lately.

Me: Where did this mess come from!? (Seeing toys spread across the floor I just cleaned up a few minutes ago)
Chipmunk: I told Bear not to make a mess, but he wouldn't listen to me and dumped the toys onto the floor. He's a naughty bear.

Chipmunk: Mommy! Help! My bear fell into the potty!
Me: How in the world did your teddy bear fall into the potty!
Chipmunk: He just jumped in there! I told him not to go in there, but he wanted to go swimming and jumped in there even though I said not to!

Chipmunk: Ow! Mommy help! (Crying follows)
Me: What happened!? (I find Chipmunk with his hand stuck at the wrist in between the door and the frame where the door hinges are)
Chipmunk: I can't get my hand out!
Me: How did you get your hand stuck in there? (I asked while running to grab a screwdriver in order to take the door off its hinges)
Chipmunk: My bear scared me and so I stuck my hand through the door! Waaaah!

I think perhaps I need to teach my son about personal responsibility...

Preschool

Here's little chipmunk peeking out from behind the door. He's excited. It's his first day of preschool. He's been talking about going to school since we moved here. Nine months later, he's finally beginning...and boy, is he excited.

He entered class, hugged his teacher, and ran off without saying goodbye to me. After a while he came back, space helmet atop his head, and gave me a big hug and a loud goodbye.

Of course, I couldn't wait to see him again at noon. I wanted to hear all about his first day of preschool.

"What did you do in preschool today, Chipmunk?" I asked eagerly.

"Nothing," he said.

"Nothing?" I said, a bit disappointed with the answer.

"I just played."

"What did you play with? Did you make new friends? Did you sing songs? Did you color? Did you like it?" I asked again trying to get more input out of him.

Chipmunk looked out the car window thoughtfully and then responded, "I'm hungry, mommy."

Sigh.

First Day of First Grade

Bear was so excited to start 1st grade today. Even though she set out her clothes last night, she still went through a couple outfit changes this morning...everything had to be just so.



She was excited to see some familiar faces in her class this year and ran to join them in line. See, she's grinning from ear to ear.

Of course, someone else was absolutely ecstatic that Bear was off to school for over 6 hours.



As soon as Bear was safely inside her class, Chipmunk pulled my arm and made sure to get out of the school grounds as fast as possible. He wouldn't even let me stop by the parents get-together in the cafeteria.

It's been two and a half hours since we dropped her off and he's still in the best mood. Coincidence? I think not.

Update: My son just admitted that he's going to play with his sister's toys while she's gone and then he said, "shhh, don't tell her!"

The Zombie Lemur

Kids are known for having wild imaginations. I'm sure if you're a parent, your child has at one time or another pretended to be a dog, a cat, or maybe even a farm animal. Perhaps they take it further than you hope, attempting to eat their meals under the table, or spending half their day on hands and knees barking and yipping away, lapping up their milk instead of drinking, or asking to be pet behind the ears.

Of course, then there's my kid.

He started making these odd noises one day, that the rest of us can't even replicate. It's kind of like an obnoxious purring.

"What are you doing?" I asked Chipmunk.

"I'm a lemur, mommy!"

"A lemur? Really? How do you know what a lemur sounds like?"

"I just do."

The following week the noises continued, and he happily ran around pretending to be a lemur, leaping from couch to couch. Then one day, during his "lemur play" he started attacking his sister.

"Help! My brother is trying to bite me!" Bear said running towards me.

"Chipmunk! What are you doing!?!" I sternly asked.

"I'm a zombie lemur, mommy!" Chipmunk said with a smile.

Sigh.

Learning by Face Plant

I wasn't a very good college student. I read my textbooks, only to find that the info wouldn't stick. I took notes through lectures, only to find I couldn't remember what my notes were about later. During crunch time, I instead had to go back to textbooks with pen in hand, take more notes, and try to figure out what it was all about. It was a slow process and I envied my friends who could recall information after one reading or lecture. I envied even more my friends who avoided lectures, sat through the review session with borrowed notes, and still managed a decent grade. I felt less intelligent.

It wasn't until I became a teacher I realized that I just learned "differently." If I had to use a qualifier, I would be a "kinesthetic" learner. I learn by "doing." I process my world using my fingers and hands. I accomplish things and learn but mostly through trial and error. I use my mistakes to backtrack and then try again.

Problem being: I have to make a lot of mistakes before getting a good result. That being said, you should ask Matt about my cooking...and my driving.

My kids? I think I'm beginning to figure them out, too. Bear doesn't learn like me.

"Bear! Please don't stick your tongue out at people. It's actually very disrespectful and not the nicest way to show how you feel."

"Okay, mommy."

That was three years ago, and she never did it again after I told her once or twice.

On the other hand...

"Chipmunk! Don't stick your tongue out at people. It's not nice! How many times do I have to tell you not to do that!"

"Chipmunk! For the last time, STOP spitting at your sister!"

"Chipmunk! How many times have I told you not to scream when you're upset. You need to talk instead of scream at the top of your lungs."

It just escalates. Most recently I've been explaining to him how unkind it is to bend over and shake his tushy at us...and no, I have no idea where he picked that up.

So yesterday at The Container Store, my little boy decided to show his sister just how he felt, by putting his hands in his pockets, bending over and shaking his little behind at her. Of course, being a bit top-heavy you can imagine what happened next...Chipmunk is sitting on the floor, holding his bleeding nose and crying.

So now I know...he's one of those kids...like me. He learns by face-plant and not by scolding. Let's just hope that this will be one of the few mistakes in his lifetime that involve injury.

Storyteller

"I love the stories that you tell about your kids..."

I get that comment a lot. I have a lot of stories. Not fables, myths, or fairy tales, but true stories. Stories of my daily life with Bear and Chipmunk and the crazy things they do each day.

"Your kids always do such great things..."

It often makes me stop and wonder whether it's just my kids that get in trouble like this...or all kids, and their parents just aren't willing to 'fess up.

I always hope it's the latter, but I'm beginning to feel like it's not.

Like the day I found water flooding out under the bathroom door, only to find an inch of water covering the bathroom floor because my kids were purposely pouring water onto the floor to make a big puddle to splash in...

Or the time I found dried spit all over and around our room fan because (as the kids admitted later) they thought it was funny to see the spit fly everywhere...

Or the time I woke up to: (1) find my daughter trying to eat a breakfast of sprinkles in a bowl, (2) the empty bag of Cheetos on the floor, or (3)the chocolate advent calendars that only lasted ONE day.

Or the day I realized our Brita pitcher was actually depositing things into our water instead of filtering out, because apparently some kids thought it would be interesting to filter their orange juice...

And today, as I was standing on a ladder ten feet off the ground in the middle of our high-ceilinged living room unwinding a toy from our ceiling fan, I thought to myself, "Don't all kids do these kinds of things or is it just mine?"

Recently at our local moms group, a speaker was emphasizing finding the humor in the crazy situations that arise because of our kids...I admit though I'm having a tough time finding the humor in each situation as each day I'm fixing something else that my kids' curiosity tampered with.

But I'm trying, and as I tell these stories I hope that my listeners will at least find the humor in them, so that perhaps one day I can laugh along with them.

In the Backyard

Bear told me today how much she liked living where we are now because there are so many more "fun" things to see even just in our little backyard.

The kids love going outside. It means something completely different now that we actually have a backyard. Before, "outside" meant sitting on the concrete stoop in front of the door and looking out at the shared apartment driveway. Occasionally we saw ants or stray cats.

It makes me smile how now they're always bursting with excitement and curiosity to show me something new that they found scurrying across or growing in the backyard...



There are lizards with bright blue bellies warming themselves in the sun each day.



Chipmunk was so excited to see a "real" grasshopper...I even heard Bear mumble one day as something flew by, "Oh! So that's what a dragonfly looks like!"



And yes...the frogs. Each time it rains, the frogs appear...I'm not sure where they go when it's not raining, though.



The kids were excited to grow plants "outside in the dirt" rather than in a pot on the windowsill.



Plus we have mystery fruit growing...my guess is apricots...



...and peaches?



...and numerous flowers.

So we often find ourselves in the backyard...myself parked on the bench watching the clouds creep above the rolling hills...listening to the turkeys calling or watching the hawks fly their lazy circles over the deer that saunter by...



...and glowing inside as I watch the overwhelmingly happy kids enjoying their everyday discoveries in the backyard.

Love

Tonight before bed, Chipmunk said this to me:

"Mommy, I love you because you're my mommy. I love my sister because she's more fun than my toys. I love daddy because he can pick me up and throw me in the air."

Love according to Chipmunk. So simple. So precious.

Alice and Pablo

This is Alice and Pablo.



No, those aren't their real names. They've just been calling each other by these names. It all started one day when Chipmunk informed me, "My name is Pablo, and this is my bear, Teddy."

Pablo made sure to tell his sister of his decided name change. She smiled and replied, "Then you can call me Alice."

Pablo and Alice. Of course, I asked them what made them decide on those names.

Pablo answered, "Well, Alice is from Alice in Wonderland, and Pablo is from the Backyardigans."

I don't know if it's because of the name change, but Alice and Pablo have been getting into a lot of mischief lately. They've been coloring on their faces (See above picture).



They've been playing with their food.



They've been hiding my purse and leaving strange messages (that make me laugh, of course).

They have been a lot of fun...

Getting Settled

"How's your new place?" "Do you like it?" "How are you/the family adjusting?" My most common response to these questions is, "It's quiet here." I can't seem to find other words to describe our current situation beyond the lack of noise for some reason. Perhaps it's having lived in a more urban area for seven years, and being used to hearing traffic at all times, but this place is just so eerily quiet. At night I hear owls hooting in our backyard. Owls. Hooting. Yah. Last night a car alarm went off in the middle of the night. Matt and I hopped to the windows to see what was going on, because...well, that was the most exciting thing that has happened in our neighborhood since we've been here.


This little guy (with a few others) meandered past our yard and quietly grazed. Meanwhile, my kids were hopping up and down inside the house yelling, "It's a DEER! It's a DEER!" Running errands is a kick, too, because along the way we pass fields where we often see cows, horses, and deer scattered about and
ruminating.



See...horses. And this picture was actually taken from my backyard.
But all kidding aside, it is nice here. It's green, there's ample room to run around (Chipmunk has been loving it!), and slowly we're adjusting to the quiet life. I still miss our old stomping grounds and more the people who live near those stomping grounds, but slowly, surely, it'll become more comfortable here.

Seven Years Ago

This post was written about a month and a half ago. It's been about 3 weeks since we moved. These were my thoughts then.

It was about seven years ago when we moved in, our quaint 2-bedroom apartment that we figured would be temporary. When we first moved in, our wonderful friends helped us move things in. A couple weeks later, we were married and our humble abode was starting to take shape.

Being newlyweds and both starting new careers as well, we had few things furnishing our home. Our coffee table was a cardboard television box. Matt's work area was a folding table. There didn't seem to be a need to unpack too much either, so many of our belongings remained boxed up in the second bedroom.

Even when Bear was born about 14 months later, the boxes remained, just push aside a bit in order to fit her bassinet. We figured, "how much space could a newborn take up?" We soon learned the answer to that question as I was forced to go through the unpacked boxes and weed out items for donation or trash. The boxes were soon replaced with a crib & a changing table.

As the next year passed we soon learned that the nice coffee table we purchased to replace the cardboard television box wasn't kid-friendly. Instead, it got pushed to the side to make space for little Bear to roam around and play without fear of bumping her noggin.

Matt and I soon noticed that Bear's things were starting to become rather prolific. Not only did she outgrow clothes every couple of months, but every time we saw the relatives they always had something new for her. Sometimes it was small like a snack, but sometimes it was large like a five-foot pink stuffed pony.

Then my local family slowly started moving away and leaving behind things for Matt, Bear and me to keep...just the remainder of my items from my childhood that hadn't been moved, although one of those items happened to be a piano.

As I was nesting once again, I attacked our closets and corners and purged our home of more unnecessary items, hoping once again for simplicity in our home. I sadly tossed out many of my old memories, but I kept telling myself that it was all for the better and those old memories should remain in my head and not in my closets.

Simplicity remained an ideal once again as chaos erupted from the moment Chipmunk graced us with his presence. All of our furniture was soon pushed to the sides as he grew to be a climber, a runner, a curious destroyer. And he seemed to grow even faster than Bear had, leaving behind piles of outgrown clothes and shoes. Now with two kids, there were twice as many items coming into our home. Twice as many snacks...twice as many five-foot pink ponies (well, metaphorical pink ponies).

Our quaint two-bedroom apartment that started with a cardboard coffee table was now being invaded by Thomas the Tank Engine and ballerina outfits. A midnight run to the kitchen for a glass of water was an obstacle course of blocks, cars and toys that would wail out eerily happy songs upon sensing motion.

All the nice things were put away. Glassware was put away to make room for plasticware. Nice books were put on higher shelves and lower shelves were stocked with coloring books and toy boxes. Organized rows of DVDs were soon disorganized after Chipmunk made sure to toss them around each day. Our once new apartment with clean carpets and white walls became a place that I looked at everyday wondering how in the world I was ever going to clean it up.

And now as I'm slowly packing up all of our things into moving boxes, I can't help but feel sad, because despite the chaos, it's been a good seven years here. Our rent was never raised and despite the many problems here and there, it's hard to let go of all the memories that we have had here. As I walk around and see the marks on the walls and the traces of stickers still stuck to the doors, I can still remember the little hands coloring the walls or placing those beloved stickers ever so carefully.

In our next home, we'll be starting all over again... while the old marks will get left behind and have to stay here 400 miles away, only to be erased with a new carpet and fresh coat of paint, as if we were never there to begin with.

In a word, it's...bittersweet. It'll be nice to be in a place where we can create new adventures and memories, but it'll be sad to leave a place where we feel so invested, embedded rather deeply in a community of friends.

Change? I've never dealt well with it. In my mind and heart I know that change can be a good thing, but it takes me so long to allow the change to become an accepted part of my life. I keep crying when I think about how my kids are going to feel once the reality hits them. Right now, Bear is excited about moving, and doesn't even seem to mind that she'll have to start at a new school, but every once in a while, she'll ask me things that clue me to the fact that she doesn't quite get what it entails. Chipmunk, is like me, and I know he will show some adverse effects to change when it actually happens, perhaps not so much beforehand.

"Are you excited about the move, Carina?"

I'll get there. Trust me, I'll get there, although right now I'm just a bit saddened by it and need some time to let it all sink in.

Tricky Vowels

I thought my daughter was getting oddly theological in her drawings...and then it dawned upon me. It wasn't "son" and "hell" she was depicting, but rather "sun" and "hill."

Those vowels sure are tricky.

Chipmunk's Art

Here's our happy little artist. Sometimes I wonder what is going on in his little head. Okay, so I often wonder what is going on in his little head. After seeing some of his artwork and hearing his explanations, I'm scratching my head even more at what kinds of thoughts are firing across his little neurons.

"Is this a spider?" I asked.

"No! It's a octopus that walks on its legs!"

"Okay, then what's this?" I pointed to the next picture.



"I drawed a ghost and a sign that says 'No Ghosts Allowed' on it..."

"No ghosts?" I asked.

"Yeah...the ghosts can't go because I drawed a sign with a circle and a line in it."

"Ah, well too bad for that ghost," I responded.

Kindergarten Begins...

So it's begun...my little girl has now entered compulsory education. She's a kindergartener. Sigh.

It's been three days in, but each day I've been asking her the same questions:

How was your day?
What did you do today?
Did you make any new friends?

Today while walking home we chatted again.

"Mommy, I did make a new friend today! But he spends everyday sitting in the 'thinking chair' for a long time."

"The thinking chair?" I asked.

"Yeah, it's the chair you sit in when you do bad things and you have to think about what you did wrong."

"Oh really?"

"Uh huh...my friend sits there everyday."

"Oh really..." I say rather hesitantly. "Have you ever sat in the thinking chair?"

"No," she giggles. "I don't do anything bad...just my friend."

Heh heh...perhaps I need to meet this "friend."

Aquarium Summer

We've been visiting a lot of aquariums recently. We really have...

Our summer started with a trip to the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium.



The kids hatched grunion and are still talking about it to this day. Mommy, remember those eggs that we shook and little fish came out?





Can you see the baby grunion?

Then it was off to the Aquarium of the Pacific.



One time with grandma...



And another time with friends...

Then after a wedding in Carmel, we made our way to the Monterey Bay Aquarium



Chipmunk declared the penguins as his favorite.



I preferred the sea dragons myself...



Bear?



She liked the gift shop.

Four aquarium trips in one summer? Perhaps we should visit one more for an even five before school starts. More pics here.

Sorry!

While the kids are playing in their room, I hear a lot of interesting conversations between them..."

*Crash!*

Bear: HEY! You knocked it over on purpose! Say sorry a lot!

Chipmunk: (while laughing) Sorry!

Bear: More!

Chipmunk: Sorry!

Bear: More!

Chipmunk: Sorry!

Bear: More!

Chipmunk: Sorry! Sorry! Sooooorrry!

Bear: Okay. Now FIX IT!