playgroupsarenoplaceforchildren

My family loves to be outside.  Actually, that sentence only tells part of the story, I should have said, my children love to be outside, even when it’s cold. I, on the other hand, do not really care for going outside with them when it’s cloudy and below fifty degrees.   The words, “do not really care,” aren’t 100% accurate either.  What I really meant was, I truly dislike (bordering on hate) going outside with them when it’s cloudy and below fifty degrees.

At school, Carson had made a construction paper kite that he was dying to fly.  All day I’d felt chilled, despite continuously adding layers and rubbing my hands together and announcing, “BRR!  It’s COLD!”  The outside thermometer read forty-four degrees, it was cloudy and windy, and my internal good parenting meter was running low on two (out of ten.)  I mustered up my resolve and finally agreed to go outside, but only after I tried and tried to convince Carson that it was too cold and that watching TV under a warm and cozy blanket would be way more fun than flying a kite.  Since I’m telling the whole story, I only agreed to go outside because it was an excuse to take a few shots for my 365 project.  Had I already taken THE shot of the day, I would have adamantly refused to face the cold weather and commenced a Nick Jr. marathon.

As soon as we went outside, the wind hit us in the face like a sucker punch.  Both Carson and I gasped, then held our breath as we battled our way to the yard.  “See Mommy?  It’s not that cold,” he managed to say through chattering teeth.  He began to run, his construction paper kite pretending to fly behind him.  I snapped a few shots, but hadn’t even had a chance to decide on the proper exposure when Carson stopped running.  His shoulders were hunched in an attempt to form into a tightly wound ball of warmth.

“Why don’t you run, Carson?  You’ll get warm if you run,”  I suggested.

“Uh, Mom?  I think I need to go to the bathroom.”

We made our way back into the house.  “Carson,” I said, “when you finish, we can go back outside.”  (Who AM I??)

“We’ll see,” he said, repeating my go-to phrase that really means, “no we won’t.”

There are a few things I feel like I say on repeat every day.

“GET DRESSED, Carson!”

“Please don’t eat your boogers.”

“Did you remember to wash your hands?”

“No you may not have anymore snacks, it’s almost dinnertime.”

“Carson, stop picking on your sister. One day she’s going to get you back.”

The funniest part was the screeching for help coming from the basket. Ella truly enjoyed her sweet, sweet revenge.

I didn’t get a chance to get on the computer yesterday. CRAZY TALK, I KNOW! So today you are lucky, lucky, lucky. Two posts in one! Such a value!

My favorite photo of the week was a complete accident. It’s also one that I look at and sometimes think, “I ADORE this picture SO MUCH,” while other times I look at it and think, “I miss Photshop so much, it is physically painful to look at the mess I made of this photo.”

Ella has only recently started to get attached to a doll/stuffed animal/lovie. Up until a few weeks ago, she had no favorites, but now she can’t do anything without Fuzzy Bunny. This is a picture of snack time with Fuzzy Bunny. (Please pray that we can keep Fuzzy Bunny from getting lost because THE WORLD WILL END if she somehow gets misplaced. Amen.)

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Post #2

Have you all seen Team UmiZoomi? Well we in the Playgroupie household are BIG FANS. It’s probably because we’ve got mighty math powers.

Ella sings and dances along to the song at the end at the end of the show. For your viewing pleasure, please enjoy this 27 second video. If you don’t think it’s cute, then I suspect that you have you likely “have a dead fish for a heart. Good luck with that.” (Direct quote from Lotus, I am Lotus/Sarcastic Mom.)

**If you’re reading from Facebook or from a feed reader, you may have to click through to see the video.**

We all love Umi Zoomi from Playgroupie on Vimeo.

Whenever we go out to eat with the kids, I usually check out the kids menu and offer them two of the choices.   I purposely don’t tell them if there is peanut butter and jelly on the menu because 1) they can eat that at home and do nearly everyday, 2) I know that if I mention peanut butter and jelly, the kids will not want ANYTHING ELSE offered and 3) restaurant peanut butter and jelly is 450 times messier* than what I serve at home. (*in a non-clinical study, 3 out of 4 parents agree!)

I guess I’ve slacked in this area of husband training because somehow Tate didn’t realize that I had such strong feelings against restaurant peanut butter and jelly.  As he was reading the menu choices to the kids, I was trying to get his attention with lots of throat clearing, adamantly nodding my head “NOOOOO!”, and I was shooting lasers out of my eyes into his forehead.

Sadly, the children had peanut butter and jelly for dinner and I went home covered with little jelly handprints.

I did not wake up this morning to a little boy standing at the edge of my bed staring and giggling at me.

I had time to take my shower and get completely ready before the kids woke up.

Both children sat right down to breakfast without whining or yelling.

Breakfast was SpongeBob free.

Ella tenderly hand-fed me imaginary blue stars.  I assume they were delicious.

Carson and Ella’s version of the game peek-a-boo, didn’t end with someone in tears.

I didn’t clean up any bowls of cereal off the floor.

The kids helped me load and start the dishwasher without fighting or making a huge mess.

Carson got himself dressed without me ever having to say, “GET DRESSED, NOW!”

As I pulled Ella’s shirt over her head, she proudly proclaimed, “I have two arms!!”

Carson helped Ella put on her socks.

Excuse me while I bask in the glory of a rare good start to the day.

(Please ignore the poor quality of the pictures, I wasn’t going for perfection, I just wanted to capture the moments!)

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I made a serendipitous discovery!  Emily at Chatting the Sky hosts a little thing called “gifts on a tuesday.” I think my precious moment was a perfect gift on a Tuesday.

For Christmas a year ago, her Nanny (my mom) gave her make-up that I stealthily hid in my closet for when she was older.

I guess she was finally “older” last week when after day after day after day after day of being stuck inside due to frigid and wet weather I had run out of ways to entertain her.  What I really needed was a peaceful shower, so I gave her the make-up with instructions to “have fun!”

She LOVED it.  In her true fashion, the messiest child on the planet had purple make-up covering most every inch of visible skin (not shown in the above picture.)

I loved that I was able to capture her joy.

You can see my entire set of photos for my project 365 {2010} on Flickr.

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Remember how we got a new computer last week?  Temporarily insane, Tate bought it much to my delight.  There’s been a bit of a problem, though.  Tate has to regularly log onto work at home.  Imagine our frustration (read:  not OUR frustration, but Tate’s CURSING and YELLING) when he found out that Mac is not supported by his work.

Uh oh.

We are now ALSO the proud new owners of a brand new PC netbook.

I foresee a lot of rice and beans and beans and rice on our menu for the next few months.

Carson and I have been butting heads for the past few…well, actually forever. We go through stages where all’s well, but those times seem to be few and far between. The past few weeks have been particularly trying, to say the least. I keep not so jokingly telling people that I don’t know if Carson ever truly had colic as a newborn or if he was just born difficult for the sake of being difficult. Everyone reminds me that he’s only four, but sometimes his behavior is so disrespectful and shocking that I think, “Only four? No wonder I’m exhausted, I’ve been dealing with this for FOUR years.”

Today when I picked Carson up from school, his teacher told me that he had worked very carefully on their art project.   He handed it to me, as proud as I’ve ever seen him, beaming from ear to ear.

“I made it for you, Mommy.”

I wonder if he knew that it was exactly what I needed?