Category: Parenting

Reunions, Cute Shoes, and No Pants

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Style means something different to everyone in our family.

My shoes were awesome but they killed my feet by the end of the evening. Did I mention I think I have gout? Yes I am old.

Joe’s look is always effortless and obviously his feet never hurt.

Aaron was in no mood for clothing and instead donned his new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle underwear for this photograph.

We were dolled up and headed to my 25th high school reunion when my mother-in-law snapped this photo.  Vodka tonics and laughs with the fine folks who made high school bearable on Saturday night; a tour of the new school on Sunday afternoon. People hung around with the same folks they did in 1989, men had less hair, and nearly everyone had bigger waistlines. You know how those things go.

I hope you all had a great weekend and wore pants as little as possible!

Aaron squealing over bug

Parenting Journey Number 1

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Is your kid hooked on Unboxing Videos? Perhaps they are. Perhaps you didn’t even know that they had a name. Perhaps you are lucky and you have no idea who Disney Collector is.  NPR ran a story on this phenomena; and our son loves them so much that when he heard the voice of his beloved Disney Collector during the story he raced towards the iPAD we were playing it on.

For those of you who don’t know what I am talking about, unboxing videos are simple videos that consist of people  opening toys and games and talking about them that are ALL OVER YOUTUBE!!! They are targeted towards toddlers and our kid is hooked. In addition to Disney Collector there are other “hosts” who open all types of action figures, play-doh sets, and dolls. Surprisingly enough this rarely makes my kid ask for the toys he sees. If anything it shows him that most of the toys on the shelves these days are a huge letdown once you get them out of the box. Even though these videos are harmless they still constitute the dreaded SCREEN TIME!!!!!

The topic of screen time came up while I was having lunch with a colleague whose husband travels for work. While I might go a few days without the hubs; her singlemom-dom can be as long as two weeks!!! Say a prayer for her. We both agreed that while we are happy that our boys love the outdoors and free-play, it is always good to be able to rely on Netflix, Hulu or YouTube when we need a seated break. She recalled a few months back when it rained, and rained, and rained. I love a rainy day as much as the next person; but once the weekend began and we were stuck indoors all bets were off. We jumped in puddles, pulled the small sliding board into the house, built forts, played superheroes…..we also watched Walking with the Dinosaurs four times in one day. Yup. This Mother-of-the-Year has her limits and caffeine can only take this body so far.

If you are able to keep your house television and screen free most of the time I applaud you. We listen to a lot of music, do a lot of tower/fort/race car building, use pounds of glitter and paper. And if I could keep up that type of activity and be able to pee in peace I would; but we all know that will not happen.

Because of this need to expel waste, to sleep past 7:00am on the weekends and to write this blogpost; the kid knows how to spell the word FOOD. He knows how to spell it because it is the password for my iPAD. He also knows which profile is his on Netflix and how to press the microphone icon on YouTube and say out loud what videos he is looking for. While we are happy with his abilities we are careful to maintain the balance. He likes the Justice League but he loves building Superman and Batman out of Lego. He thinks Kipper is funny; but going for walks and finding treasures trumps cartoons every time. If we are sitting in bad traffic sometimes plays with his busy book; but sometimes he wants to watch something on my phone. Balance.

I heard the story of a child who was unable to turn pages in a real live book. Because they were so used to swiping the screen they had no idea how to turn and actual page.  I don’t know if this is an urban legend or not; but our kid has an extensive collection of actual books that he loves turning the pages of.

Recently the kid has fallen in love with these activity blocks and has integrated them into all types of play. When we build cars and spaceships out of pillows and blankets he arranges them into the form of dashboard dials and buttons. On the ride to school one morning he insisted on taking his phone (one of the rectangular blocks) with him. Instead of asking to watch a play-doh unboxing video on my phone he said that he was going to watch a movie on his own phone. Make-believe technology? I’ll take it.

Tricks of the Trade – Painting While Parenting

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While the hubs was away this weekend I made a small to-do list for myself. It included painting our main stairway walls and ceiling. Actually one wall and the ceiling as I only had small amount left in the gallon from a previous painting jaunt.

Tapestry Beige! Doesn’t that sound thrilling? It was the color of most of our walls when we bought the place. It is basically Builder’s Beige with a kick but it had that snazzy title on the color swatch card and was the closest match to what was already on the walls. The walls that have seen better days and had quite a few hand marks on them.

The boy is still reluctant to nap at home (sleeps like a champ at school) and I dared to think he could assist me in my home improvement task. Learning an actual skill always trumps sitting in front of the iPad any day, so I figured I would give him a shot as my assistant. As he played in the family room I got out two tarps, a paint tray, paint roller with extension arm, wet wipes for spills, and one of the boy’s small paint brushes.

The tarps went on the floor and up the stairs. I poured most of paint into the tray, blue taped off the trim, and called the boy. He was excited at the idea of helping out and so I laid out the rules. They were simple:

  • He had to paint the “base coat” on the lower half of the wall with the small brush
  • I was the only one who could use the roller until we got the the top of the stairs
  • His paint was what was left in the can while mine was in the tray
  • He could paint above and on the blue tape; but not below it
  • I had to remember that he is only 3 1/2 and paint might get spilled

Up the stairs we went. He stayed on the tarp, above the blue tape and on task the entire time. When I needed to move the tarp or get more paint I gave instructions to him one step at a time which kept confusion to a minimum.

Once we made it to the top of the stairs and were on the flat landing I let him finish the job with the paint roller. He was proud to have helped out with such a “big kid” job and notes how nice the wall looks each time he walks down the stairs. Maybe this will keep him from writing on the walls.

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A shot of the finished wall

Maybe this will make him enjoy doing other decorating projects. Maybe I need to look at my list of rules again and remember the boy is just a kid.

Have you successfully involved your kids in any household improvements or decorating?