week ending jan 25, 2009:

Week ending January 25, 2009: This week our fashion faux pas continue. Alex continues to wear shorts over his pants and short sleeves over his long shirts every day thus wearing 4 articles of non-coordinating clothing at one time. My policy has been to allow them to wear whatever they want as long as their legs and arms are covered (since it is cold). Chloe’s been picking strange color and pattern combinations for a long time and I’ve taken to offering my opinion, but leaving the final decision to her. One day she responded in what I thought was a very clever way. She picked a color combination like a pumpkin orange shirt with a pink and purple patterned skirt and I said “most people don’t wear bright orange with pink and purple”. She retorted “I don’t think the other kids in my class know that”. Of course she is absolutely right, and I am quite proud of her for rising above the opinion of the least common denominator (and a little ashamed of myself for sinking below it).
In the last few weeks the kids have been doing non-stop crafts. Almost every day they’ll ask for glue or scissors or just pick up some paper and crayons and start making things. I think their teacher at preschool has been having a positive influence in this regard. The kids are very proud of the projects they bring home from school. Santa brought Chloe a “Trace and Draw Projector” with slides of 100 different kid-friendly things to draw like butterflies and angels, and she uses it all the time. On Saturday Chloe sat down in less than an hour and created drawings of a Llama, lion, giraffe, alligator, and sting ray all free-hand and asked me put them together in a book and annotate them. I was very impressed with her effort.

aquarium jan 2009

Here are some pictures from out latest Aquarium visit: http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/AquariumJan2009#

week ending jan 18, 2009:

Week ending January 18, 2008: Chloe decided to grow her bangs out. I told her that it was time to cut her bangs and she didn’t want to so I said we could buy some barrettes to hold her bangs out of her face while she grew them out. She picked out a multi-pack of heart barrettes and a multi-pack of butterfly barrettes and has worn them every day for over a week. Meanwhile Alex decided that if Chloe didn’t have bangs, he didn’t want bangs either. I told him we could give him a crew cut, but he didn’t want that. I said we could cut his hair short and he’d have short bangs like Daddy’s. He didn’t want that. So we’ve been experimenting with mousse-ing or gel-ing his hair back. He loves it. I think he looks like Alfalfa. Hopefully that phase will pass quickly.

This week we were at the Sams Club, which is not a favorite stop for the kids, but as we walked past the florist area, Chloe decided she wanted to smell the flowers. They sell flowers by the dozen and have them displayed in buckets, the lowest of which are on the floor, so Chloe walked from bucket to bucket, sticking her face in each one. An elderly couple stopped and observed what she was doing and they both broke into grins. I quoted the cliché “take time to smell the roses” and they laughed. Such a simple moment, but it made me stop and think about the way that kids enjoy their days so much more that grownups because they do live in-the-moment which leads them to finding the pleasure in the little things. At Christmas time as I was practically frantic with all the items on my to-do list and trying to figure out how I was going to get it all done, and then the kids would oh and ah at the pretty Christmas lights, or take such delight in a homemade cookie that I’d have to check myself and realize that they were enjoying Christmas in the way in which it is meant to be enjoyed.

A final note about Alex’s paper airplane collection. It started with two airplanes made at the First Flight museum in NC, then we started looking up directions on the computer to make different kinds, then Santa brought Alex a book about how to make paper airplanes, and then our house was completely over run with paper projectiles. We started putting them into the drawers of his desk in his bedroom and I now nearly all the drawers are full! He’s learned quite a bit about making them and can do a few simple designs by himself, but he’s also satisfied to just sit and watch Casey or I make one for him. He’s quite the aeronautical nut!

week ending jan 11, 2009:

Week ending January 11, 2009: The picture is of Casey and kids resplendent in their Eagles victory.

I heard a rumor that Blade says Casey and I are strict. This got me to thinking about when I was a kid and watched those movies in which the poor misunderstood kid was the hero and the overbearing ridiculously-rigid caricature of a parent seems determined to wring all the fun out of life in the obviously vain attempt to get the kid to conform to some outdated ideals. Have I become that parent? Of course not, but I do think about the balancing act between encouraging the kids to express themselves and setting limits so they will be disciplined enough to achieve the goals they set for themselves. Shortly after I got thinking about our level of “strictness”, Chloe said something that, at first, had me worried I’d ventured to far. It went something like this:
Chloe - “Mom, did you ever get tired of being who you are?”.
Me - “probably a long time ago, but I’m happy with my life now. Do you ever get tired of being who you are?”
Chloe - “Yeah.”
Me - “What would it be like if you were someone different?”
Chloe - “I wouldn’t have to do what you told me to when you told me to.”
I got to worrying that she was feeling under-empowered and was frustrated by the amount of rules we have, that my strictness was wearing on her. It turns out what she was really wishing for was a trip to Disney World and gummy fruit snacks for breakfast. She claims that Skye’s mother lets her eat gummy fruit snacks for breakfast. I don’t know whether this is true, but either way, a candy with added vitamin C is still candy and not a nutritionally complete food. As for Disney World, since she is 5 years old and has been to Disney World 3 times already, I find it hard to believe that there are too many other kids who get to go to Disney more than she does except for locals with season passes. Again, something I’m not feeling sorry for her about. We do have a lot of rules, so I thought as a matter of preserving historical fact, I’d record them. You probably will not find it interesting reading. 1) Children may not hit or hurt people or property 2) Children are not allowed to say “no” to their parents. If I say do something, it must be done. Asking for more time or presenting a reasonable case against said task is allowed in a reasonable voice one time, and then said argument is done. 3) Meals are eaten at the table, sitting down until excused. 4) Children put away their own toys, dress themselves, brush their own teeth, and carry their own plates to the kitchen. Other than that, Mommy does just about everything else. 5) Children eat 3 meals a day and do not get dessert unless they eat a reasonable amount of meal 6) Bedtime is at 8p at which time they may not get out of bed again except to pee until it is light out again 7) seat belts, helmets and other safety regulations are followed at all times

week ending jan 5, 2009:

I tried to edit our video from Christmas morning down to just a few minutes so you could get to see the best parts without spending a lot of time, but I found that SO many parts were my favorite parts! So I ended up with 6 min 30 seconds. If you click on the triangle in the middle of the picture, the video will play. The video looked much brighter on my camera and I don't have proper software to brighten it up on the computer, but if you turn the volume up what the kids say and their body language still makes for some great laughs (in my humble opinion)! I love that the first words out of Alex's mouth were "where's my cool-sounding guitar?", and that Chloe was surprised that Santa knew how to spell her name, and Alex's saying "AWESOME!" over and over. These kids really love presents. Sorry I didn't make a proper entry this week. Casey and I went on a date on Sunday, Chloe threw up all day Monday and I had a dentist appointment and had to go to the doctor for pink eye. Then the rest of the week wasn't much better. It's looking up now though.