Tending the Eclectic Kinder-Garden

I’ve spent my stay-at-home-mommy-year blogging, crafting, reading, crocheting, baking, and reading some more, discovering fun new things to try, and searching out necessary materials and supplies at craft stores, yard sales, etc. Yesterday I thought I’d sort through all of the pretty ribbons I had found or bought this year so I could show and share them for my usual Thursday post.

I underestimated the widespread appeal of the ribbon however. I also underestimated my toddler’s determination to satiate his interest in “helping Mommy” with the ribbons. And I committed the ultimate faux pas: I turned my back on the toddler while he was in my crafting area. With…the…ribbon. ALL…of…the…ribbon.

Did I get a photo of the resulting tangled-ribbon-noodle-like-mess on my floor? Uh, no~I couldn’t take a picture because I was too busy putting myself in a much-needed Time Out. Just superimpose ribbons over the toys in this bedroom shot in your mind to get a feel for the mess I enabled the boy to create:

While I was rolling my ribbon back onto their spools, a miracle occurred! I got an email from Michael’s Craft Store with a fifty-percent-off coupon in it. I took a break from the grosgrain and satin, and searched the store online when lo and behold, a link for Martha Stewart Crafts took me to a page featuring ribbon storage boxes. Michael’s and Martha~ how did they know?

Here’s the midpoint:

(Did you notice there’s no sign of the toddler? I learned my lesson, and had Sister take him out to play in the water while I rolled, sorted, and organized!)

Muuuuuuucccccchhhhhhhhhhhh better:

Earthy browns, blacks, and black/white:

Golds, cream, white, and an extra roll of patriotic red/white/blue:

Purples, greens, yellow and orange:

Blues…

Solid pinks:

Patterned pinks and reds:

And look! With the lids closed, you can still see a little peek of what’s inside. Once we’re in our new home and my craft area is established, little tails of ribbon will stick out of the slots… just so my toddler can yank on them and unspool them onto the floor…AGAIN!

*****

*Don’t forget, Sunday is Father’s Day!

*The Pioneer Woman Cooks Cowboy Nachos

*GoodyBlog posted about Velcro’s Birthday (and shared a photo of a much-desired-by-me Velcro WALL…here toddler-toddler-toddler, here toddler-toddler-toddler)

*And how about a blog written by a dad? Perfect for this Father’s Day weekend!
*****

Tags: crafts, humor, links, toddler

Spring has sprung here in the Bordertown, so the toddler and I decided to take a walk today, enjoying the foliage, flowers, colors, and textures:

*****
* Here are some details of our local desert foliage, thanks to El Paso Water Utilities.
* A Plant Hardiness Zone Map for those of you with greener thumbs than mine…
* Martha provides how-to’s for making pressed plant cards…

* Casa Sugar suggests making your own aphid spray to keep the pests at bay and your plants thriving…

* Paper-and-String made “disguises” for her Happy Trees!

* Crayola has a cute craft idea for spring or May Day bouquets (kindergartners LOVE to dress up and sneak through the school to leave these on classroom doors- and the dress-up factor helps me in some sneakiness of my own: May 1 is the day I photograph my students for their end-of-the-year certificates!)

*****

Where flowers bloom so does hope.
- Lady Bird Johnson, Public Roads: Where Flowers Bloom

Tags: crafts, links, Show and Share, toddler

Remember when I told you that I had won a 500$ giveaway from Childish Clothing via Hostess With the Mostess?

Guess what arrived today:

I’ll post a slideshow at the end of this blog so you can see my toddler sorting through all of his cool, new, funky fashions, but here are some close-ups for you:

It was like Christmas (or a fashion-filled birthday!) in April when we unwrapped all of the goodies, and the timing couldn’t have been better, considering the toddler just went through a huge growth spurt:

“Big boy” underwear…

Some of the coolest tee’s out there (they say “My Dad is My Hero” and “My Dad is Cooler than Your Dad”…

The softest shorts and pants (t-shirt soft!), swim trunks too:

And big boy flip flops (we’re still working on keeping these on our feet):

Go, go, go check out Childish Clothing (we ordered for our son, but yes, they have girl and mommy-to-be items…great gift items too!)-

…and see if you can tell which shirt ended up being our toddler’s favorite:

THANK YOU Childish Clothing and Hostess With the Mostess!

Tags: fashion, giveaway, links, toddler

Scene: Sunday morning. At home. Sister still asleep, Daddy working in the garage. Toddler gasps after entering the living room, looking toward the window.

Me: (following his gaze) Oh! Look! A visitor! It looks like a grasshopper!

Toddler: No Mommy. No hopper. Ucky Bug.

Me: Honey, that’s a grasshopper. What’s he doing on our screen?

Toddler: Mommy! NO HOPPER! UCKY BUG!

Me: Sigh. Okay, you can call the grasshopper “ucky bug” if you want. Do you want to see it?

Toddler: (nods) Aunt (”want”) ucky bug. Yook (”look”)!

Apparently it’s easier to get closer to the “ucky bug” if you’re inside the house, on the other side of the glass. If, however, you choose to go outside and join the ucky bug in the fresh air, your bravery will be greatly increased if your ducky blankie accompanies you.

Thanks to ZoomSchool.com for the following image (I enlarged it and turned it into a coloring page for the boy):

Tags: bugs/insects, family, humor, toddler

Here are your choices for this post:

1) Hansel, the Early Years

2) Trails (or Trials) of Toddlerhood

3) My Mommy Loves Her Dyson Vacuum

4) Parents, Fear the Silence

(I’ll tell you the toddler’s caption after you get a chuckle from the photos):

To quote our can-do boy, “Mommy, no pa-pates (pancakes). See-do. (Cereal).”

And yes, I *do* love my Dyson!

Tags: family, humor, toddler

(back in the “good ol’ days”), rabbit ears were essential to cartoon-viewing?

They still are:

Tags: family, humor, toddler

I have three “babies,” the eldest now seventeen years old. Dear Daughter fills the middle child slot, while the toddler is at present, quite commanding in his role as the Center of the Universe. It’s no surprise to me that he’s an individual, that he is different, that he has his own personality. What has caught me off-guard is *how* different he is from his older brother and sister.

While Daddy was deployed, I dealt with Toddler, then age 1-2. He went through what was wrongly diagnosed as a milk allergy for several months, using all of my sick days plus enough regular days in the first quarter of school that for the rest of the year my paycheck was docked each time I had to stay home. No, no milk allergy- he’d simply been subjected to three rounds of antibiotics that killed off all of the good stuff in his gut (gotta love military doctors sometimes) so that milk/dairy couldn’t do its job. Yogurt is a good thing!

He did well in day care, not throttling the biters like I feared he would (and sometimes wished he could!). He would often wake up in the middle of the night, hungry again, or soaked through, never settling into a routine of sleeping through the night. Not a good situation for me as I’m one of those people who *must* have at least seven hours of uninterrupted sleep each night in order to function the next day. No drama, no indulgence, just the truth.

Older Brother and Sister both slept through the night at (you’re going to want to smack me) two weeks of age. They both had a regular, predictable routine, only thrown for a loop when a sneaky ear infection came home to cause problems. They were both healthy, neither requiring hospital visits until they started getting sprains or broken bones from too-rough play. Toddler was hospitalized a few weeks after birth after catching a respiratory infection. Older Brother liked most foods, as did Sister. Not so with the Toddler. Milk is good as long as it’s “bunny milk,” and the world is a happy place as long as our kitchen is full of pancakes, yogurt, fruit snacks, or crackers and cheese.

The older siblings enjoyed music, and relatively peaceful play activities and games. For the toddler, louder is better! Crashing, bashing, thrashing no matter the time (today he was up at two-thirty, three-forty, and finally “UP-up” at four-thirty) is what he enjoys in his morning routine. Brother and Sister liked cartoons, but watched PBS most of the time when the television was on. For Toddler, there’s nothing better than Dexter’s Lab, Samurai Jack, and Duck Dodgers. Nothing.

Toddler growls. He growls in play with Daddy all the time, but growls at strangers, male and female, in the post office, at the commissary, in the mall or bookstore. Brother and Sister would wave, or smile, or hide behind me when greeted. Toddler talks when he wants to, not when he’s engaged to do so by others. Independent and assertive. And growly. While Brother and Sister never needed a leash, Toddler has one, yes he does. Despite some of the disapproving looks I’ve received from strangers, I know my child, and I know myself. He’s faster than I am, especially when I’m carrying packages in my arms at the post office. He’s an explorer and wants to touch, grab, and manipulate everything, unaware of the differences between plastic and porcelain. He bolts, runs, jumps, and climbs, and often does a pretty good bull-in-a-china-shop impression. I love him so much I don’t want to lose him to strangers or some dangerous situation, but I also know I can’t swaddle him or stuff him into a baby backpack everywhere we go, restraining his movement. With this child, leashes are a good thing.

Brother and Sister routinely demolished their bedrooms. Toys, games, books everywhere, but the mess was always contained, corralled by some unseen force. Toddler’s messes spread. Bedroom, hallway, living room, kitchen, under the dining room table, out onto the back porch, under our bed, under Sister’s bed, no place is spared. Robots, books, blocks, Harley toys, stuffed animals and any snacks he decides to swipe from the pantry are all mixed together on just about every surface in our house. I dread the day he realizes he can reach the countertops.

We have to lock all of the doors to bedrooms and bathrooms to keep Toddler out of things he shouldn’t be in. He has learned how to pick the locks. He’ll be three in May, but he already does the divide-and-conquer routine when it comes to trying to get what he wants: ask Mommy, and if that doesn’t work, sneak out to the garage and ask Daddy. This week he’s experimenting with dramatic sounds, crying louder or even forcing a cry when he gets a little bump, all of it extremely fakey fakey. If a piece of furniture is involved in an injury, he unleashes wrath upon it, “no no table! No owie! No boo boo!” Who do these rogue tables think they’re dealing with?

I caught part of the Oprah episode where she interviewed Jon and Kate of “Jon and Kate Plus Eight.” Oprah asked if things were getting easier now that the children were older. Kate’s response is ringing true for us: “Didn’t you know, three is the new two?”

Tags: family, toddler

Tick, tock, the toddler’s clock…

doesn’t match my own…

(Wall art found here)

Awake at three-thirty, thirsty. Awake again at four-thirty, wet. Five-thirty he snuck into our bedroom while I was preparing coffee (I thought I had locked the door so husband could sleep in) flipped the lights on and shouted “Daddy, wake UP!” Sigh. I turned off the light, LOCKED the door, and escorted Mr. Assertive-Way-Too-Early back to the living room. “Dodgers, Mommy!” Duck Dodgers. The t.v. goes on, I make “bunny milk,” and the toddler is happy, and more importantly, quiet again.

Ohhhhhh, Daddy and Sister are going to have an interesting time when I’m out of town next weekend.

Yes, I’m traveling back to Oz to see friends and to wander through some of my favorite antique mall/stores. Without the family. A little break for me provided by my wonderful Valentine.

Remembering Times Past

Abilene’s Downtown Antique Mall

Broadway Antique Mall

The Texan

Yesterday’s Rose Antique Mall

Little Apple Antiques

…and whatever places are open on Sunday in Paxico...

WB Antiques

Paxico Antiques

Mill Creek Antiques

I’ll be on the lookout for game pieces (Scrabble, etc., for crafting), copper pots, watering cans, or other containers, Russian lacquer, salt cellars, Mar-Crest (though it’s heavy and weighs a TON), old books, and whatever other treasures strike my fancy or bring back good memories.

As a person who doesn’t travel on her own too often, I’ll just say that now, at age thirty-eight, it is certainly nice to know that feeling alone and being independent are *not* one and the same.

Tags: family, Oz, toddler

Potato soup this morning for breakfast. Thick, hearty, peppery (added by me) with a toasted onion bagel and my sore throat is feeling soothed. I have some water on to boil for the preparation of green tea and honey, suggested by a friend after my ever-persistent cough forced me into pleading for a remedy, any remedy. No, it’s not a “productive” cough, merely a dry, barely-there-but-there-enough-to-not-be-able-to-ignore-it annoyance. Sleep brought me relief until last night, when the dreaded hacking decided to come out in full force for my daughter and husband. No cough syrup or cough drop could provide relief for them. You can probably tell from my complaints that we’re typically a very healthy family. A week or two (please not more!) of being inconvenienced by germs really throws us off-kilter.

I’ve done some sewing,

and the toddler has had fun stickering (probably not a word, but an incredibly accurate description) one of his coloring books, the coffee table, the carpet, and himself.

After school today I’ll be taking Daughter up to the university campus so she can set up her science fair project for judging. The campus happens to be my old stomping grounds from pre-kindegarten age. I still have vivid memories of safari animals on display, a huge train engine encased in glass, rolling down green hills, wearing red shoes, and being the one who broke open the pinata during a kindergarten Halloween party. I’m guessing if the safari, train and hills still inhabit the university, they’ll appear much smaller now. I’ll take my camera, to document Daughter, her project, and to what extent time has changed things.

Inspired by Daughter’s science project, this weekend we’ll be enjoying “That’s Not in My Science Book,” by Kate Kelly (and I’ll read part two, chapter six, “How They Learned Why We Get Sick: The Origin of Germ Theory” with great interest!).

Some suggested web reading:

Cakespy adds….. BACON and Sour Patch Kids to brownies!

Paper-and-String has made very cute felt iron-on patches…

Doug reminds us as teachers, administrators, and parents that there really *is* an art to teaching, and that our inherent nature that provides us and our students “multiple ways of knowing” shouldn’t be set aside or ignored just because someone else wants teachers and students to spend hours, weeks, or months filling in little bubbles on ineffective and inaccurate assessments.

Don’t think you can get fired up about your child’s education? What if someone told you that your child’s school funding was going to be cut, oh, say, $9000-$400,000, while the *consulting agency* hired to crunch the numbers off of the students’ failing assessments didn’t lose any funding at all? Taking money away from schools, and giving it to testing corporations…all while making sure no child is “left behind.” Uh huh.

And while some of my wool and polar-fleece-lovin’ friends in Alaska will try to tell me “fashion things” don’t really matter to them, we’ll see this spring and next fall, or even in their annual Christmas card photos, whether or not they’re hip with the forecasted color palette (thank you Decor8) that we’re to be seeing in clothing and home decor lines everywhere. I’m having flashbacks of The Devil Wears Prada (movie)…

Miranda Priestly: [Miranda and some assistants are deciding between two similar belts for an outfit. Andy sniggers because she thinks they look exactly the same] Something funny?
Andy Sachs: No, no, nothing. Y’know, it’s just that both those belts look exactly the same to me. Y’know, I’m still learning about all this stuff.
Miranda Priestly: This… ’stuff’? Oh… ok. I see, you think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select out, oh I don’t know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you’re trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don’t know is that that sweater is not just blue, it’s not turquoise, it’s not lapis, it’s actually cerulean. You’re also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar De La Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves St Laurent, wasn’t it, who showed cerulean military jackets? And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of 8 different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic casual corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and so it’s sort of comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you’re wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of stuff.

(Quote found here.)

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, sans germs! I’m off to sip some more soothing tea…

Tags: family, links, sewing, toddler

We have a toddler after an eleven year hiatus, which means I get to be “Mommy” for a bit longer instead of just “Ma” or “Mom” or the dreaded “Yes, *sigh*, THAT’S my mother…” A few more Octobers of contemplating whether or not to make trick-or-treating costumes by hand, or to give in to the aisles and aisles of alter-ego personalities available at Walmart (I’ve discovered Old Navy’s costumes are cute, cute, cute!). More years of watching Halloween-themed videos (now dvd’s), reading Halloween books to someone other than my students, and using pumpkins for more than just decor.

Our toddler’s favorites this month? Pumpkin Pie and
of course! Decorating with many of Shannon’s handcrafted holiday items has given the boy more than one pumpkin vignette to enjoy as well:

I think we have MORE than Five Little Pumpkins!

Tags: Halloween, home decor, toddler