When I grow up

"I want to be a flying car."

Summer vacation, 2014

This summer we headed up to Ruffit for a few days. Last year was such an epic adventure, with several legs of the trip and long, LONG car-rides in between each leg ... this year seemed easy in comparison.

I did a lot of prep work for this one. I was worried Ro would be bored, and therefore bug me every second of every day to entertain him. Which would mean that I wouldn't be so much "on vacation" as I would be doing the same shit I do every day just in a less convenient location. So we made play-dough, we looked up some fun activities on pinterist (like making slime, which was a total Pinstrocity, let me tell you), and I even made him a list with all the activities he could choose from, with pictures so he could read it himself.

Oh, note to self. When you're making cookies and home-made play-dough at the same time, for love of god don't mix them up during the taste-test.

On the trip up we drove up in the evening, and Ro was asleep as soon as the sun went down. Of course that meant he was up and excited to see everyone at 11pm.



Do you think that meant he slept in? I don't think so.

Day 1 had some beautiful weather, and everyone ended up in the water. Ro even put his face in the water and swam by himself with a tube.









He also drove the boat all by himself.




The 4th was pretty wet from some Hurricane Arthur, but we kept busy making cake and ice cream for Daddy's birthday.












July 5th was still pretty wet, so we did a lot of coloring and reading, and Grampy and Daddy worked on Mummy's bike.




Um ... where are my wheels?

That night cleared up so we went "fishing" and had our first sparkler!




Ro wasn't so sure.

Next day we went to the local playground. I realized that so many of my planned activities were "sit and do something mildly calm" things, like bubbles and side-walk chalk. I had forgotten how much of our day is spent running and biking and going outside to go crazy. And you can't run or bike at Ruffit. So we took an hour of just running and climbing and getting worn out.





That night we played with light sticks and sparklers again (and mommy looked up how to take a good picture of them!)









And then we had a rave, apparently.




Next day Mummy and Gramma went shopping and had lunch, while the boys had a picnic on the boat.



We drove home on Tuesday, and Ro slept the WHOLE way!!!




As is tradition, we spent the next day doing laundry and getting groceries.



... and nursing our mosquito bites.

3 going on 15

I was trying to explain to Ro yesterday why it wasn't ok to be rough with daddy, asking "how do you think that made daddy feel" and "what should you do when you're mad?" And he was ignoring me, and daddy said "Ro, mummy is talking to you" and he ROLLED HIS EYES and said "{sigh} What's your NEXT question, mummy?"

Reflected

People are always saying that kids are great "mirrors". That they reflect back at your exactly who you truly are. Yeah, I get that. But then sometimes all you have to do is watch The Office. And then I realize some days I parent just like Jan.

Like sometimes, I'm mildly annoyed at my kid.

And sometimes I find good coping mechanisms for dealing with it.

But sometimes he really starts to get on my nerves.

And it's hard to keep my cool, especially in public. It takes quite a lot of effort.

Because really I just want to yell or break things or sell him for yarn money.

But of course, even thinking that, I end up feeling like a completely terrible mother.

Because I should be proud of my little goober. He tries so hard.

But then I remember ... he's three. ... though, in that respect, not completely dissimilar to Michael G. Scott.

Good Old Fashioned Hunger Strike

Last night we had a wonderful demonstration of non-violent resistance at our house. 

Chris decided that it was time for underpants. He's sick of diapers. I'm ambivalent about it. But he's sick of diapers. ... I would dare you to ask who actually changes the majority of diapers in this house, but we're not supposed to keep score.**

Anyway, they bought a set of Pixar big boy underwear yesterday. He was super excited about it until Dad told him they were meant to replace his diaper. Then he freaked. He was afraid he was going to pee in them, and he HATES getting pee on himself

So there was some crying. And there was some refusal to get off the potty. Sometimes when we're hanging out at home, we've just been taking away his diaper and telling him to use the potty if he "gets the feeling", which was great for a while. Then he realized he doesn't have to think about it if he just sits on the potty the whole time. Just in case. So last night, after about an hour of just sitting and refusing to get up, I told him it was time to eat dinner, and he wasn't allowed to 1) eat naked or 2) eat on the potty. He had to put on underpants.

And he said no. And he refused to eat dinner. And at bedtime we put him to bed. Without dinner. And he seemed perfectly at peace with his decision.


He almost refused to eat breakfast the next morning, because we told him he had to put on underpants. But I really really loves Frosted Mini Wheats.

And now Daddy is back at work, so I've been promoted to Underpants Police. It didn't come with a pay raise, or an office.

Also, I dare you to Google Image search "Underpants Police".




I still let him have snack time sitting on the potty. I'm not a monster.




**Just kidding. It's me.

Three ... Three is a magic number.

The child is three. Whoever came up with "terrible twos" must have given away their child at 2 years 11 months, because two doesn't hold a candle to three. Three is its own form of torture. Its own personal circle of hell. Its own wing of the psych ward.

But at the same time, he's so freaking cute.

It's like he's got free will now, and he knows it. He can say no, and argue his point. He can give a reason why he doesn't wat to do something, or why he did something wrong. He can say he doesn't want what's for dinner, or that he doesn't want to go somewhere. He talks about how he "wishes" daddy was home or "wishes" mummy would stay in his room during nap time. He can change his mind, which he himself finds fascinating and hilarious. He realizes his mistakes, like when he thought one thing but it turned out to be wrong, or if he forgot something or didn't notice something. "I didn't NOTICE them!!!" he yells and laughs, when he sees someone at the playground he hadn't previously acknowledged. 

And all that is fine. Really, it's the whining. [note to the OED: I propose an alternate spelling for "whining": "whiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiining". It's more onomatopoetic.] Apparently the correct response to any question, request, or general statement is "but WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY????????!"

Typing it actually raises my blood pressure slightly.

And it's not just the question. In the morning, when he asks Why, I can answer "because blah blah blah". But by 5:00pm, the only answer I have patience for is "because I effing said so!!!" It's a patience thing. And the sound. I read once that whining in a toddler is like crying in a pre-verbal baby. It's just a way of communicating. But I have to ask: why would a child make a noise that drives a parent close to homicide? That doesn't seem evolutionary beneficial. 

The funny part is that an hour or so away from him, I have trouble remembering why it's so terrible. Even now -- he's been playing adorably with a neighbor kid for nearly an hour, leaving me free to write this whole post, and I can't remember why I wanted to throttle him this morning. But I know when we get home, he's going to say something that me want to sell him on craigslist.

Things I'll forget

May 21, 2014

Took my glasses off

Ro: "Mummy, you don't look like Mummy anymore."

Me: "Who do I look like?"

Ro: "I don't know. Just not mummy."

Rowan's Third Birthday!!!

(Cross-posted to Tough Love Knitters)

Rowan is 3 years old. Can we just take a moment to marvel at that?

We couldn't celebrate his birthday on the 11th (more on that later), so we did a party with the grandparents the weekend before. We decided to have a Pigeon Party, since he totally love the Pigeon Books, and so do I.

It was very cute and laid back. I realized (today) that I had ideas for games, but I didn't actually do anything for them. We had only invited one other kiddo, and she and her parents couldn't come because SOMEONE decided to show up in their family a few weeks early. So it was only adults, so I guess we didn't need games.

I made pigeon cake pops ...

Beth gave me a cake-pop pan to try. This makes the balls with just cake, not cake mixed with frosting. So it makes them healthy, right?!

The only problem(s) with this method is:
1) when the balls get stuck in the pan. After a few batches, I found that COPIOUS amounts of Pam/cooking spray does the trick. I mean COPIOUS amounts, on both pans. Crisco/grease didn't work.
2) I only had one pan, so I could only do 12 at a time. It took about 4 batches to get through all the batter I had, which was about an hour of baking, plus about 10 minutes in between each for cooling. It took A LONG time.
3) the wrong amount of batter means to balls are not quite round. Too much leaves a little seam around the ball, and too little leaves the ball a little flat on top.

But in the end, they were pretty good.

Beaks. The cake pop book called for candy-covered sunflower seeds. You can buy these online or at baking supply stores, but only in big huge bags. I needed approximately 20. So I just took some of my candy melts, made them yellow, and covered a few seeds from my tin of trail mix.

It was ok, Probably needed to thin out the candy more (as I noticed later while dipping the pops), but not too bad.

Cake. I used this recipe, and it was AMAZING. Cut it in half, and it was STILL a lot of cake.

Dipping. Colored the candy melts blue, and thinned it out with vegetable oil. I needed to thin it A LOT more than I remember doing in the past, but it was so thick. I had just enough for 24 pops.

Eyes. Wilton makes candy eyes, but again, I didn't need 100 of them. And I was trying to do this a inexpensively as possible. I colored the eyes with gel color, white/sparking and black. It worked pretty well, though some of them "dropped" a little.

But they were yummy!!!

Decorations. God, I love Pinterest. So many Free ideas for Free decorations.

I chose the pigeon balloons ...

and pigeon toilet paper rolls (printable template here) ...

... and the classic streamers and balloons and my mom's birthday banner.

Food. Well, it was a Hot Dog party, right!!!

Hot dogs and mac & cheese (with french fried onions like at Eatery). 

And then presents. We decided on a play Coffee Maker and a balance bike. However, he's still too short for the bike. With the seat ALL the way down, he can JUST touch the ground with his toes. So I guess we'll stick with the tricycle for a few months.

Happy Birthday, kiddo!!!