Solar System

I've been challenging Ben to build "awesome tracks" daily to occupy his mind so he isn't asking for bad piggies or angry birds. It works for about 39 seconds then he is back to the birds. I listed the train table (tracks and bridges not included) on craigslist two weeks ago and have gotten absolutely no response. I miss the days of Craigslist LA when I would list something and see it purchased within hours and taken away!

Fine, I built a cool track. Now can I play with the iPad?

Em has been flip flopping her numbers and letters for a while now. I wasn't at all concerned until she made the following card for her friend's birthday. Daddy told her she flip flopped the letters AND sentences and suggested she make another card. She happily did... And wrote it the EXACT same way. I again wasn't concerned until she asked me, "Did I do it right this time?" The fact that she had to ask concerns me, but I'm not making a big deal of it in front of her yet. Most parents with older children I ask say it is a perfectly normal stage to go through... I just may pass this pic to her teacher though and see what she says.

Bouncy party with her pal, Anna.

We made it to Rocketship park on Sunday afternoon for an hour. It was an awesome afternoon of sunshine. I even went so far as to bring a book - which I did not crack open because there were a lot of bigger kids there and I needed to make sure they were playing fair with the littler ones - they did - but had they not been there I think I could have ACTUALLY read a page or two. These kids have absolutely no fear of any of the apparatuses anymore and don't "need" me every 6 seconds to help them on a ladder. Ben was sporting his new buzz cut a la barber daddy...

Sit down and relax, Ma!

The Kindergarten class went to the planetarium for their field trip today. I was lucky enough to chaperone the trip and was cracking up at the noisy kids on the bus. It was an hour ride each way for a 45 minute show! but they had a blast and that is what matters. (The show was great, by the way...) I once again had my socks knocked off at the knowledge level of the kids. They knew so many details about the solar system - once again proving that our little village's school district was awarded #2 in all of Suffolk and 96th in the country for a reason. The teachers make it fun and the kids LEARN, learn, learn.

She stayed awake, I may have dozed for 3 or 4 minutes. Ssshhhh, don't tell anyone!

This picture is a hoot. I wish I could zoom in and sharpen it!

Em is to the right of the kid with the dark glasses.

April showers...

I love our blue bathroom. It is a soothing place to shower and ...poop. Ben and I continue to have my most favorite conversations when he is taking care of business. Sometimes I leave him be to finish up something - but then I remind myself that these conversations will go away someday soon so whatever I need to "get done" can wait so I can chat with my little wingman.

No need for privacy in our house!

Did I ever tell you about the time Daddy bought Emma her first ever kitkat at a PTA event. She ate it just like pictured below (I was cracking up when I saw this on FB) and had chocolate all over her face and hands. All my adult friends were like, "What's wrong with your kid?" and I was all, "It's her first time! She simply doesn't know!" Then afterwards when I told showed her how to eat it "properly" she was all, "but it's more fun this way." Don't ever change, kiddo! Defy Mediocrity! Go against the status quo! I will support you in any way I can.

Yes, it is! according to Emsadoodle...

April showers bring.... Spring haircuts! Em looks great! Everyone adores it. I was once again the talented stylist who cut it. Too bad I am a one style wonder! and good thing she never asks for anything different. When I asked her about bangs, she said, "Absolutely not!" Who knew she was so anti-bang?

Our little big girl...

Dare I say it? Has Ben moved on from trains? His day is dominated with Ang*y B*rd conversations, app play, and toy play as if he is playing the app for real. He wakes at 6am every day, runs into my room and whispers, "Can I play with the iPad?" We hand it over and get another hour of sleep until the alarm clock goes off at 7. I call that stellar parenting!

play-doh AB - stud!

Every day awesomeness

Every single day our kids do something AWESOME.

I wish I could capture that awesomeness and share it with you. I need to wire up the Penthouse with 24/7 video cam so you can spy on them from time to time.

Today's awesomeness is brought to you via me from Daddy. I was in Brooklyn for another fab Women and Wealth event so Daddy got to fly solo. At one point he texted me that the kids were dancing (moshing) on my old giant cutting board and having a blast. An 18 x 32 space and they made the funniest - heart warmingest game out of it...

Which leads me to my next topic: my kids now need to "purchase" technology time! I borrowed the checkers from the Connect Four game. Every time a kid does something kind or completes a request (clean up your toys, eat your freakin' food, brush your teeth, etc) they get a checker. Each checker "buys" 5 minutes of technology - iPad or wii or whatever.

Ben totally "gets" it - today I picked him up from preschool and he immediately asked me if he could play Angry B*rds when we got home. I said, "No!" to which he replied, "But what if I earn it?"

Easter fun

Happy Easter! The bunny actually came by at about 8pm on Saturday after the kids passed out. He filled their baskets and left some extra chocolate for Daddy and me to nibble on. Such a nice bunny!

Most of the contents are compliments of Abudiba and Gramma Lou...

We signed Em up for t-ball starting in a few weeks, so the bunny brought her a glove. Gramma got her hair bands to decorate and Abuelita supplied the Chocolate and the Easter dress.

Bak! Bak!

Ben received his beloved Angry B*rds Star W*rs set and the app downloaded on the iPad. Can you say happy boy? Gramma got his zoo trains to add to his collection. They were ignored for a portion of the day but now they have made it into the daily play.

I can't believe I got him to sit for 2 whole seconds...

We went down to main street for the annual parade. It was the saddest parade I have ever been to! Just this banner and a bunch of families walking down the street towards the harbor where the egg hunt was going to happen after the sad parade.

Where are the fire trucks??

We headed to our pal's parent's home for Easter dinner. It was a fun afternoon of egg hunts and friends. Too bad the clouds rolled in and it was chilly willy outside!

Found another!

The fearless five.

Madelyn, Em, Anna, Ben, and Sammy

There's nothing you can't do when you're in...

New York City! We took a much needed family day and headed into the city for some fun in the kinda-sorta sun. We dropped Dodo off at the doggy hotel at 9:30 and headed straight to Roosevelt Island just across the river from Manhattan. We parked the car there (less than half the price of a city garage), hopped the shuttle bus to the "Flying Train Car" and away we went!

We could spend a half day exploring here, too! Who knew?

25 cents for adults, kids free. My kind of city bus!

The tram was $2.75 for adults (kids free) and took about 4 minutes to fly up into the air and across the river. It was awesome (and slightly frightening to this mama so I just clicked a bunch of pictures and tried not to look down!) and the kids loved it.

Look, Mom, a river! a boat! a bridge! a building! a pigeon! etc.

The tram let us off about 6 blocks from the southeast corner of Central park. Knowing that public bathrooms are a scarcity in the city, we made a pit stop here for a pee!

Thanks for the potty break, Bloomingdales!

The sun kept peeking in and out of the clouds, so it was a bit chilly for our picnic and wander through the park, but we toughed it out!

Ben would take a bite of his bagel, chew, count the bite marks, repeat. Took forever to finish it!

As "Balto" is one of our oldie but goodie animated film favorites, the kids were excited to find the Balto statue in Central Park!

I'll be a Musher!

The walk from the southeast corner of the park to the National History Museum is technically about 35 city blocks. The kids did an AMAZING job of walking, with a few of these rides thrown in.

Super daddy to the rescue.

As it is Spring Break, the museum was busy busy busy! But luckily our pals gave us their museum pass and we did not have to wait in long lines to purchase tickets. *Grateful!*

We made it!

We hit the underwater exhibit first to check out the GIANT whale and all the ocean creatures. It was like the zoo, but closer up views of the taxidermy animals. The exhibits are very well done. Ben would look into a window for 8 seconds, then tug on my arm pulling me to the next one, "Come on! Let's see the next one!" From there we headed to the 4th floor to see the dinosaurs. We weren't sure how much "time" we had before exhaustion hit so we wanted to see what we considered the cool stuff first! Good thing, we pretty much lost Ben near the end of the dinosaurs, "I wanna go home. Let's get out of here and go home..."

Silliness = tiredness.

We decided to grab a cab back to the tram station as we had some tired kids. We thought Ben would be happy to ride in yet another kind of public transportation. He was NOT! When the door of the taxi opened he turned into a hysterical mess. I literally dragged him across the back of the cab and squeezed him tight to quiet him down. "I don't wanna ride in a taxi! I wanna walk! I wanna go back to the museum!" It was a nightmare. He must have been an abused cab driver in a previous life...

Or maybe he was just tired? His beloved "Flying Train Car" return ride to Roosevelt Island was just as bad - a crying tantrummy mess. We were "that" family on the tram. We then boarded the red shuttle bus - more of the same. Then, *snap* that switch in his brain went back on and he was our delightful little happy man once again. I just don't get it...

All in all, it was a great day. Now that the kids are bigger I can see more trips to explore the city in our future. Hooray!!!

Countdown

Our countdown to "Angry Birds Set" - I mean Easter continues. Seriously, whoever downloaded the Angry Birds app on our iPad (...daddy...) is responsible for this current obsession. I'm surprised Ben hasn't painted Thomas red and attached wings to him and sling shot him across our room to kill the bad piggies... He kept asking us 50 times a day if it was Easter yet so the Easter Bunny could bring him an Angry Birds set. Jesus, who? Resurrection, what? So, we made him a chart to count down the days. Every morning he is more than excited to X off the days... (See also Emma's kindness chart - her good behavior has markedly increased - love me a kindness chart.)

Me-oh-my

It is Spring break. And we are enjoying Spring like weather! Yahoooooo!

So many awesome pics to post, but they will have to wait. I must get tonight's conversation recorded for history...

Emsadoodle's training wheels were taken off her bike this weekend. We did not ask her. We just did it nonchalant and casually mentioned she was a big girl now and she needed to learn to ride her bike properly. Guess what, she did it! After about 20 minutes of running with her on Sunday (and by running, I mean daddy and I tag team trading off because this mamacita is in no shape to be solo running next to a 5 year old on a bike learning to keep her balance...), another 20 min yesterday (could have been more but my shin splints were raging! - goodness gracious, I'm in need of exercise!) and then today I gave her a giant push off and she got it. She rode and rode and rode, correcting her wobbles and having a blast. She needs work stopping - still using her feet as brakes but gaining confidence with the actual bike brakes, and she has yet to master the take off - I have to get her balanced and give a push, but I have no doubt that with another day of riding she will accomplish this, too!

This new found bike balance confidence has surely fed her "life's questions" fact finding mission confidence, too, as tonight on our ride home from the sitter's house (I teach a class on Wed nights), she randomly asked, "How do people get to Heaven, Mom?"

"Well, bugs, if people are kind and good and treat people right and live their life in a good way, after they die they go to heaven."

"But how to they GET there?" (As if she is looking for an elevator...)

Because I am "technical" I answered, "Feel this." I reached my arm back and she grabbed it. "What do you feel?" "Your body." "That's right. And inside our bodies is an energy called our spirit. When we die, our bodies become motionless, but our spirit comes out and goes up into the sky," and she interrupts me and says, "and goes up into heaven and we become angels?" ..."That's right, kiddo." (That's right for now - but, gosh I have a lot to expand / expend upon this subject when you get older...) "So, Cassidy is an angel doggy?""Yes, she sure is." "And Rascal and King are angel dogs?" "Yep!" "And Abuelita's mom and Gramma Lou's mom are angels?" "You got it, kiddo!"

She contemplated that for about 7 seconds and then asked, "How do babies get into Mommy's bellys?"

CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP! I thought I had a few more years til this one came about. Sheesh!

(Funny backstory, just today a mom and I were chatting about how happy we were that our kids felt confident enough to confide in us what they were thinking and not be afraid to ask questions... YIKES! What you think about you bring about!)

My Nobel prize winning answer?

"Well, moms and dads have a special cuddle, and an egg inside the mom's body gets fertilized. That egg slowly grows into a baby in the moms tummy for 9 months."

"But how do the babies get out of the Mom's tummys?"

CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP! Okay, I cannot lie. I cannot lie. I cannot lie.

"Well, there are two ways. With you and Ben, the doctor took a special gentle knife and cut across the bottom of my tummy and pulled you out through the hole."

"But how did the doctor fix the hole?"

"Great question! He actually took a needle and a thread and sewed me up just like I sew a hole in your clothes."

"What's the other way babies get out?"

CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP! Why did I have to say there were two ways??????

Deep breath.... "Well, you know how when you pee it comes out one hole in your privates? and when you poop it comes out a different hole?"

"Yeah."

(in my most casual nonchalant I am talking to a five year old voice ever) "Well, there is one more spot where between those holes where when you are a grown up, that you can push a baby out."

"Like when you push out a poop?"

"Yep, just like when you push out a poop..."

"Cool."

And then we transitioned to other less thought provoking topics - thank goodness - because this mama was EXHAUSTED after that conversation...

For the moms...

Saw this on facebook, had to share. So very glad I blog and print yearly books of my musings...

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151482814282720

Let's talk about Ben

Because Ben is a January baby (and partly due to genetics) he will be the oldest biggest kid in his class. That also means I get an extra 9 months at home with him until he goes to school full time. Today I was looking at these pictures and enjoying my one on one time with my little man and I realized how blessed I am that I have gotten to "stay at home" with my kids for their 1st 5 years. Not a whole lot of mamas in our society are able to do that... (except for the the 7 regular followers of this diary! Giggle.)

Last week I was the lucky classroom parent at Ben's preschool co-op. That meant it was his "special day" - he got to ring the bell, choose the playtime activity (trains!), be the "teacher", and have show and tell.

He shined!

I'm ringing the bell, people! Zip it and have a seat!

He properly answered the "what's the weather?" question and very cutely used the pointer to point out the days of the week and what day of the month it was.

It's TUESDAY! Come on, friends, repeat after me, "Sunday, Monday, Tuesday..."

Here he is at snack time enjoying his Cheerios, I mean Trader Joe - Os!

Why you gotta snap all these pics??

The teachers asked us to write why our children are "good eggs" - click to enlarge - ALL ARE TRUE!

Ben for emperor!

Yesterday, (not my class parent day) the Easter Bunny made a surprise visit to the preschool. We parents were forewarned this may happen and told to bring cameras. IT WAS AWESOME. The class came out of the school and onto the playground. The kids were oblivious. Ben was at the back of the line doing his usual "hop hop hop" (the kid does not know how to walk normal) and when he spotted the Easter Bunny he stopped dead and mouthed in all amazement, "The Easter Bunny." He then raced past all the kids who were deathly afraid and ran up to the bunny and stated, "Hi, Easter Bunny! Can I please have an Angry Birds Space set for Easter?"

Sure, Ben, whatever you want!!

Needless to say I have been scouring Amazon for this request... Don't believe me that Ben is the biggest kid in the class? Have a looksie!

Where's Ben-do?

Looky here!

This morning I sent the following email to Emma's Kindergarten teacher:

"Good morning, Marissa

I would be remiss if I didn't share with you the experience I had with Emma this morning.

We had some extra time before the bus so we snuggled on the couch to read the library book she brought home yesterday, "Therapy Dogs". I had every intention to read it to her, but she started in first and I let her go with it.

Marissa, EMMA CAN READ! (I'm all Helen Keller emotional here...) Of course I know she knows sight words and we read the "easy" readers that you send home and that we have in the house, but "Therapy dogs" is NOT an easy reader! There are words like "nursing homes, hospitals, elderly, adults..." in this book and she was able to confidently sound them out and comprehend the story. Brian and I were looking at each other overwhelmed with emotions - is she really reading this? A Kindergartener? We were so proud! And grateful.

Grateful to you for all you do! Grateful to everyone at the school for making her day fun and fostering her love of learning (to steal a line from our beloved PBSkids).

Keep up the extraordinary work!

With the greatest of appreciation and the warmest regards, Brenda"

 She replied with this goodness:

"Thank you for this email.  You always make me feel so blessed to have such supportive parents! 

 

Emma is, indeed, reading. She is taking home a G reader as we press forward with her fluency, comprehension and word base!  Keep in mind that we want K students to try to be on a D level when the leave kindergarten. So, imagine, Emma is on G and we have three months to go! 

 

In addition, her writing follows suit! Today she wrote independently, "Today is the first day of spring."  Just great work! I am so proud of her. She is just the whole package - smart, beautiful, fun and loving, loving, loving! You should be proud beyond her reading abilities, too.  Is there a line or two from PBS Kids for all of that?!  :)

 

Have a wonderful day!"

 

That's all I have to say for today. We do love us this school district almost as much as we love our children!

Is the tooth fairy nocturnal?

All day with the dangling tooth. All. Freaking. Day.

After 90 minutes of full scale DRAMA, we finally convinced our Oscar nominee to let me pluck the dangling tooth. It was all "Daddy do it" for 88 minutes, then finally, "I changed my mind, I want Mommy," and I reached in there at 7:46pm on March 17th 2013, got my nails around the based and PLUCK. It was out. As if I were picking a blackberry. Sheesh.

She wrote the Tooth Fairy a note requesting she be able to keep the tooth (why???), then asked, "Is the tooth fairy nocturnal?"

Happy Saint Patrick's day, y'all! It is 8:01pm. I am exhausted. Nite nite. (Sorry we did not talk, Aunt Miki, tomorrow after work?)

I'm so advanced my adult tooth is already half way in and I JUST lost my tooth. Emma for Emperor!

Ben, king of 4 foods only tonight requested a BANANA and actually ATE IT! What will tomorrow bring?? Luck 'o the Irish, I tell ya. Tooth out, super food consumed. Phew.

banana nana fo fana...

March Madness

As Ben is so particular about what he eats, sometimes I am desperate just to get him to eat anything so we have to get creative here in the Penthouse. The other day he absolutely flat our refused to eat his dinosaur chicken nuggets, so I created a "tree house" for him to eat in using the box I grabbed from the recycling area at BJs to carry my bulk items in. I flipped the box upside down, he crawled under it and ate with no complaints. Madness.

Then yesterday for lunch I made him dino chix and tossed a few extra on the oven tray for myself as well as a chipotle black bean burger for me. I served them up and Ben looks at my plate and says, "Mom, dinosaur chickens are for little boys not for big mamas!" He then proceeded to remove my chic from my plate and ate his portion and most of mine (he took a pit stop to pee and I snuck two of mine into my belly!).

Whatever it takes...

Daddy's birthday was last Friday. Ben and I made him a cake while Em was at school. Don't show her this pic, okay, because she will be angry she didn't get to lick the bowl clean, too!

choc-o-la-te!

Gramma Lou came to the island to help us celebrate. The kids did an awesome job singing happy birthday, Ben was so animated and jumping to the beat the entire time.

Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and peanut butter letter writing - oh yeah!

We had beautiful Spring-like weather on Sunday. We spent the afternoon outside sporting it up! Well, Daddy, Em and I played soccer and lacrosse, Ben played with his trains in the last of the snow... No surprise there.

Fashionista soccer star

I'm ready for my scholarship.

A few weeks ago Daddy decided it would be fun to download the Angry Birds app onto the iPad. Ben was immediately addicted and conquered all the levels within a day. Seriously the kid is a genius. As we limit his time on the iPad and he is an obsession kind of guy, he translated his desire to play the electronic game into building the bad piggy castles with blocks and legos. He then gets his pretend "slingshot" and shoots a block into his creations to blow up the pigs.

Won't let me play the real thing? I'll show you, Mom. I'll use my imagination! Ha, take that!

dramatica on steroids

I have just spent the last 60 minutes battling Emma. It has been fascinating. She is overtired from a late night last night and a long day at school. I know this. I know she is overtired and that is why she is acting absolutely impossible. Tantrumming, screaming at me, telling me it's all my fault. As a matter of fact, she is going to move away and I am going to be sad and it's all my fault.

Guess how I handled it? I kept my cool. I spoke to her in a monotone voice. I did not cave.

How did she react to this? It made it worse!!!!! hahahahaha. Then Daddy walked in the door and rescued me. He is now dealing with hysterical Emma in the shower as I blog.

Is it bedtime yet?

It's Daddy's birthday tomorrow. Gramma Lou is coming for the weekend so we can sneak out for a date tomorrow night. Hoo...ray...

Is it tomorrow night yet?

Da Bulls

Every once in a while (usually when she is very tired), Em tells me about something that is happening in school that sends her over a cliff in tears. There is a classmate who was also in her class last year that has this weird "hold" on Em. (I don't know how else to describe it.) They are friends, they have playdates, her Mommy and I have coffee while the kids are in school about once a month. I love the mom, I'm just not so sure about her kid anymore...

Today Em told me this girl was teasing her and calling her "naughty" and the girl also told another of our good pals that she shouldn't play with Em. It has happened before - one time in particular after soccer she was hanging out with this girl and the girl told her she was bad at soccer because she missed a few passes... Blah blah blah - the stuff kids say. It's not horrible - but it is enough to make Emma sad. I try to encourage her and praise her and recognize her achievements and the size of her heart, but I am honestly at a loss about what to do. Do I say something to the Mom? Teacher? The girl? Do I just encourage Em to stand up for herself if she gets 'bullied' again? Do I send Ben in with some kung fu?

It's Kindergarten, people! Why can't we all just get along...?