The Family Book

On our recent trip to the library, we picked up The Family Book, by Todd Parr.  It a great little book that looks at all the different kinds of families out there.  It has simple and colorful graphics, and a straightforward message: familes come in all shapes and sizes and they love and take care of each other.  The babe has fallen hard for this book and wants to read it at nap time AND bed time.  She makes the same comments on the same pages at every reading.

I have tried to explain what stepbrothers and stepsisters are and have had to explain that she has one Mama and one Papa, and will never have two Mamas and/or two Papas (as discussed in The Family Book).  But she really seems to want two Mamas and/or two Papas.  I have tried to reassure her that her Grandparents are also like parents because they are her parents, parents.  Apparently that doesn't do it for her. 

I'm glad she thinks it's cool and I am happy to expose her to all the wonderful variations of family we see in this world. She is learning that it takes all kinds and that there's no right or wrong way to be a family.  It's all about the love! 

The New Tradition

Over the years, when I have wanted a special treat, I have always made Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (based on the recipe for Quaker Oats Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies).  They are shared with my husband on Friday and Saturday nights as we chill out and watch TV.  It has become a special tradition.

Today I decided I wanted some of those cookies.  I figured with all the vegetables we've been eating from our awesome garden, we were due for a sweet treat.  But I wanted the babe and her brother to be able to enjoy this special tradition with us.  I can't believe it took me so long to try this, but this afternoon the babe and I put on our aprons and altered my recipe into a non-dairy, non-egg version, and it worked out really well (although it was hard to shape the cookies as the batter wasn't really sticky).

I wanted to share my new version of an old favorite with you:

1 cup (2 sticks) of softened non-dairy Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks
1 cup of firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup of granulated sugar
1 mushed up banana
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
Dash of salt
3 cups of old fashioned uncooked oats
1 cup of Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips

1. Heat oven to 350 F
2. Beat together melted buttery sticks and sugars until creamy
3. Add mashed up banana and vanilla; beat well
4. Add COMBINED flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well
5. Stir in oats and chocolate chips; mix well
6. Drop rounded tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased cookies sheet
7. Bake for 11 minutes
8. Cool 1 minute and move to plate or wire rack

The great thing about this recipe is you can load up 12 cookies for immediate use, and divide the rest of the batter into 2 separate bags for the freezer for future indulgence.  It's reassuring knowing you've got another 24 cookies just waiting for you.  When the last bag is done, time to start all over again.

After years of buying allergy friendly Cherrybrook Kitchen chocolate chip cookies (which are great), I think I'll be making more of an effort to make the kids cookies from scratch.  It just feels (and tastes) right.

Nana

It is the sweetest sound when my son learns a new word.  This week it was "Nana."  My Mom decided to call herself Nana when the babe was born.  She didn't like the sound of Grandma.

We were speaking to her on speakerphone the other day when I asked the kids to say hi to her.  The little guy was really excited and kept yelling "Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii" into the phone.  I asked him to say "Nana" expecting him to keep saying "Hi," but he surprised us all and actually did it.  We were all so psyched to hear his proper pronunciation of this very important name.  He kept repeating "Nana" to prove he had this word down pat. 

I wish I could have seen my Mom's face.  I'm assuming her smile was as big as mine, if not bigger.

We're Going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo

I wanted to share some photos from our trip to the zoo today, but the computer is giving me grief.

On top of the zoo, we made it to the library after nap time.

It was another successful non-school day.

I think the trick to having both kids at home all day every day is to plan activities and get out of the house.  It makes the time fly by and tires us all out.   

As such, I'm off to bed.  Good night!

Just Driving Home Minding Our Own Business

*****WARNING: This is a rather disturbing post which discusses Anti-Choice Activists*****

Despite the fact I have a graduate degree in political science, I am not one to get into political arguments.  I figure people will believe what they believe and there's no point in me wasting my time trying to convince them that I am right and they are wrong.  Too each their own unless it hurts me or my family.

That is part of the reason I was SO DISGUSTED today as we drove by a large truck with HUGE photos of aborted fetuses all over it.  It was obviously carrying the anti-abortion message, but in an excruciatingly graphic manner.  I just don't think this kind of thing is necessary and I found it very offensive.

The reason I got so upset is because the babe pointed at the truck as I tried to speed by it and started asking questions about it.  "Mama, did you see that truck?" she said.  "What was that?"  As she was talking, I realized the truck was only the beginning.  There were about 15 people on the side of the road with very large posters of aborted fetuses at various stages of development.  The light ahead turned red and I was stuck.

I was panicking.  Somehow, the babe was managing to look at me and not at all these crazy people on her side of the car (I had switched to the furthest lane possible at this point).  I tried to keep her attention on my side of the car so she wouldn't clue into what was going on outside our windows. 

I wimped out and told her I hadn't noticed the truck and asked her what she had seen (I was trying to assess the damage that had been done in her little brain).  She told me she thought is was pictures of a toy bug or something.  I made the "hmmmmm" sound and said that perhaps she was right.  The light turned green and I sped off as fast as I could.

I felt like my children and I had somehow been abused.  It was just not right to have such large and disturbing images out in the open like that.  I almost rolled down my window to yell something like "I have children in the car, you freaks," but held myself back.  I didn't want to make matters worse for my innocent little babes.

I suppose this is all part of living in a free society, but this subject matter is not something I want my children exposed to right now.  I'm just grateful the situation turned out as well as it did.  The babe could have noticed a lot more and could have had a lot more questions running through her very active mind.

Buckling In

When it's time to go for a car ride, I usually open the back door by our side walk so the babe can climb into her seat while I walk around to the other side of the car with the little guy to buckle him in.  I'll admit there have been a few times when I've lost concentration and started to go to the drivers seat instead of walking back around to the babe's side to get her settled.  Don't worry, she never let's me get away with it.

As we were leaving for the park today, I was going about our routine and getting the little guy buckled in when the babe announced that I had better come back to put her in her seat properly or the police would come and put me in jail.

It's a good thing someone is paying attention.

More Words

Another Sunday.  Another Sunday brunch.  The kids were already climbing the walls by the time I was making our pancakes this morning.  At one point, both kids and my husband were in the kitchen and there was a lot going on. 

The little guy was loudly babbling nonsensically when my husband told him he needs to start using words.  "You're almost 2 years old; you need to start using words, dude," said my husband.  My son walked out of the kitchen to his high chair.  He started pointing at his high chair while yelling "Eat.  Eat.  Eat."  I was shocked and drew everyone's attention to the little guy's valiant efforts at communication.  How awesome!  We were all thrilled and had him repeat his new word throughout our meal.

After dinner, and after a huge storm had lifted some of the oppressive humidity, we went for a little walk around the block.  We heard some birds and the little guy started to try and do the sign for bird (he was putting his hands by his mouth...which is close enough).  He was so excited and kept repeating the sign every time he heard another bird.  Further into our walk we heard a plane going by and the little guy stopped and pointed at the sky yelling something close to "PLAAA, PLAAAA."

In my humble opinion, I think we witnessed another language explosion.  There is hope after all.

Second Hand

Why didn't I think of this before?

If you have kids, you know how quickly they grow out of their clothes.  It is so annoying to have to spend good money on clothes that you know will not last (especially as there is only so much unisex stuff I can buy the babe).  I pretty much buy the kids stuff at Target, Costco, and the occasional outlet mall, but I still find I spend more than I'd like to.  Honestly, I'd prefer to spend it on clothes for me that will last for years to come (because, as I've admitted before, I can be selfish at times).

So, when I stumbled upon a second hand store having a 50% off sale, I quickly realized how much I could be saving if I made this part of my regular shopping pattern.  The little guy and I were stranded in the way out suburbs of Northern Virginia having the oil changed and tires rotated on our car yesterday.  After grabbing an iced coffee (for me, not my son), we made our way over to a depressing and run down mini mall.  I didn't have very high expectations.  Boy, was I wrong.

We made our way into this second hand store with trepidation.  But once I got into the kids clothing section, I started grabbing stuff and piling it on top of the stroller.  I was getting brand name clothes which had barely been used for ridiculous prices like $1.25 for LL Bean snow pants, $4.00 for a fall jacket, $2.00 for Polo dress shirts.  It was crazy!  I ended up spending $27 and getting 15 items.

Second hand shopping certainly worked out for me this time.  The fact that the store benefits a shelter for victims of domestic violence made the experience even more worthwhile.  If they had a website, I'd include it.

Not sure if I can make the ridiculously long drive out to this store with any frequency, but I'll certainly be looking into what is going on closer to home.

Let the Games Begin

Today was the babe's last day of school.  It is now officially summer vacation.  I'll admit it, I'm scared.  I am not good at dealing with 2 kids all day, every day.  That is part of the reason the babe has been in school 5 days a week.  But I am going to try and have a positive attitude going into this.

I remember loving summer vacation as a kid.  The feeling of freedom was awesome.  Playing outside was awesome.  Not going to school was awesome.  But when it comes down to it, I think the babe loves school.  She gets to play with her friends, play outside, and learn all these cool things.  My task is to make home as cool as school.

I don't have much of a plan other than to write a list of activities that we can do every day.  I am thinking a "schedule" of sorts will be helpful.  If we can get out of the house every day by 9am, there's a good chance we will still be sane by lunch time.  I am going to stick to a daily nap time for both of them, and think of arts/crafts related activities to get us from nap time to dinner.

As tempting as it is, I MUST NOT let them watch an insane amount of TV every day.  To do this, I am going to have to let a few things around the house slide, but it's only for about 5 weeks.

This is my time to test my Mama skills.  This is my time to shine.  Can you hear me psyching myself up?  I can do this.   

The Joys of a Good Read

A few times this past week, I have caught the little guy sitting on the floor with a book in hand.  He has been turning the pages and doing his usual baby babble thing.  I try to be very quiet so he isn't interrupted.  He is so concentrated and you can tell that he really believes he is "reading" the book.  I am going to take it as a good sign.  Regardless, it really is the cutest thing ever.