Grocery Store Tour

As part of our preschool field trip series, I scheduled a "behind the scenes" tour of our local grocery store. Apparently this is something they do regularly. We skimmed the fresh produce, went to the loading dock and receiving area, walked through an enormous cooler, met a few managers here and there, visited the deli, and spent a significant amount of time watching a bakery employee make one of these:

Then everyone was treated to milk and cookies from said bakery. Alice had a tough life lesson in hyperpalatability. After hearing that she would get to enjoy only one cookie, she burst into tears, "Why do they make these taste so good?! *sob*sob*sniff* I want a hundred of them!"All I could say was, "Yeah, I want a hundred of them, too. They make them that way on purpose." :(

I couldn't tell that any of the kids were particularly fascinated with any aspect of the tour, but when Bobby asked Alice about it later, she enthusiastically described the enormous fridge and the Barbie cake as her favorite parts. No mention of the cookie fiasco.

Robert was well-behaved and interested in the tour. He was MOST interested in the balloon display in the floral section, but reasonably comfortable and obedient the whole time. He's mellowed out a lot the last few days. Hitting less, snuggling more, and using words before freaking out are all good signs that juggling two will get easier someday :) Maybe.

Little House Inspiration

We've been reading Alice Little House in the Big Woods as part of her bedtime routine. This is her second time, actually. The night we finished it for the first time, Alice declared that she couldn't remember the beginning anymore so we should start over :) She's excited to hear the adventures of two little girls about her age. We had just finished the part of the story where the girls get to drive into town for the first time in their lives. Their Ma wraps their hair with rags the night before and then the girls have long, silky curls the next day. Alice couldn't resist the notion of shiny, curly hair and asked for a few curls of her own.

Why not?

The instructions in the book were very clear. How could I miss? Alice was so jumpy and excited that I couldn't put in more than 7 or 8 rolls. Here she is jumping for joy that they're in:

 

Half of them came out of her hair while she slept :( but two stayed in where she could see the curls for herself the next morning.

I'm lucky she's easy to please :) and that she didn't ask to shoot a bear or make maple sugar instead.

Co-op Preschool Field Trip

 

This week, our little preschool group visited the Anita Purves Nature Center in Urbana. This is the same place Alice has enjoyed Nature Day Camp for the last two summers. She gave me the grand tour. I was especially excited about the living bee hive. I just love that stuff. Here is Alice in her formal-picture-smile pose by the beehive door.

 

It was a self-guided tour through all of their educational displays. I was honestly impressed with the variety and depth of the topics covered in such a small space, but most of it was beyond the scope of a preschooler's comprehension. We'll have to come back in a couple years. Still, there were moments I caught the kids surprised...

mesmerized...

and thoroughly enjoying themselves.

After a brisk jog through Busey woods, we picnicked at Crystal Lake Park. Bob worked on his solo forward-slide routine. Nice form, extra points for stylistic flair.

Alice concentrated on friendships. Here she's rocking out with Spencer B. in a small portion of some firefighting, bad-guy-chasing, car racing adventure. They also collected a few pounds of acorns that we had to dump out of the stroller before heading home. I'm thinking I will miss adventures like these when Alice starts kindergarten next year. Maybe I'll have to start a toddler playgroup for Robert ;)

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week we are all sick and staying home from church.  Most of us are not super sick just coughing and sneezing. Robert, however, has croup and a fever so he is sick.  Yesterday Alice was wishing that she would get sick so that Susan would pay more attention to her, and so he could sit around all day and watch Sesame Street.    Today she woke up with a stuffy nose and was kind of happy about it.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week has been very odd.  It started out mostly normal with work and all, but ended up very different.  On Thursday at about 2 p.m. I flew out to LA.  There were some recruiters that had contacted me through linked-in, which is not uncommon usually about twice a month, but the fact that they didn't really give up even when I said that I am happy where I am at is uncommon.  I figured at the very least I can practice my interviewing skills and be ready for the next thing that happens.

The trip out was not bad.  I flew into LAX just about an hour late, but was able to take a taxi to the hotel and go to bed fairly quickly.  The next day was the interview.  It went fairly well, except for lunch somehow what I think is wasabi got on my french dip sandwich.  I hate the taste of wasabi, spice is OK but the flavor is disgusting.  Anyways the interview went well, they told me that they will make me a job offer and I left.  Don't worry, Susan has already decided that she does not want to live in LA right now and barring them giving me mounds and mounds of money we are going to stay here.

The trip home, however, was not too fun, but I did not realize it was not fun until about midnight last night when I realized that I probably got food poisoning at O'Hare on my way back.  So my gut has not been happy, but I am doing a bit better now.  At least good enough to write this.  Also the burrito I suspect in this incident also ate one of my fillings.  When I was done with dinner I got up to take a drink and found a large hole in one of my teeth that I thought had been filled previously.  So on Monday I get to have that refilled.

One of the best parts about the trip is that I decided to bring back real presents for the kids, not just the left over granola bars I had to snack on, but something real.  So I stopped at a store on the way home from the airport, don't tell Alice, and got a stuffed cat for Robert and a little Rapunzel doll for Alice.  Robert loves cats for some reason.  Every time he sees a picture of one in a book he signs cat and says meow.  He loves the cat and snuggles it all the time.  Alice also loves the doll, she is listening to her CD of Rapunzel music right now giving her a hairdo, and make-believe play with the doll.  It is nice to see that I can make both of the kids very happy.

Banned from Sacrament Meeting

It was a rough Sacrament Meeting today. One of the roughest I've had. Robert was noisily unhappy, Alice was clingy whiny, and Bobby was pale-faced and sick up on the stand. I just didn't want to be there anymore. I was one screaming fit away from banning Robert from all future sacrament meetings. Every week, he's bored, bored, bored! Whatever I bring to engage him, he chucks it or whacks it against the bench in front of us. He doesn't want me to hold him, but freaks out if I attempt to hold anyone or anything else. Snacks are a disaster (throw, pour, chew and spit out, hoard jealously until other kids are crying...get the picture?). Books are so-so, though very short-lived. He doesn't color. For those 70 minutes a week, he has zero interest in cars, dolls, toys, or even other kids! What DOES he want to play with? I'm open to any suggestions you might have.


When he gets loud, I take him out into the foyer and keep him on my lap. He freaks out screaming and crying. After a couple minutes, I ask if he would rather play quietly in the chapel or be loud out here in the foyer. He chooses the chapel, but half the time he's screaming and crying again just as I sit down. The boy just doesn't want to be there. (On second thought, the "leave Sac. Mtng. with Mom" is a mixed message. He wants my attention and he wants escape, so leaving the chapel gets him a fun little field trip in my arms with frustrated snuggling and whispered choices...maybe I should arrange for someone else to take him out :)  Mwah ha ha haaaaa!)


By the way, he's his charming self once he gets out of the pew at the end of the meeting. Sunday School is free-range with an abundance of new toys and shared snacks to engage him (suddenly he's starving?!). We take him to Nursery play time the third hour. He's totally fine in both of those situations.


Argh. Anyone out there have experience with this?

So THAT'S shaving cream painting!

(Can you tell Bobby's out of town and I have more time to ponder/blog?)

Alice does quite a bit at preschool that she doesn't tell me about. I usually hear about what was for snack and who broke which rules when. Sometimes she lets something slip like "shaving cream painting" and "Cinderelly" games. Now that her amazing teacher has started sending out weekly photos, I see so much more of her experience! Love it.

This, dear friends, is shaving cream painting:

 

Surprisingly less messy than I had envisioned.

The adult in the picture is Alice's new aide this year, Miss Sarah. She's bubbly and excited, enthusiastically responsive to everything the kids share with her...see her gasping in the second photo? Yeah, she's the "fun aunt" in the classroom. She's a perfect counterpoint to Mrs. Strom's steady and firm methods. I've always admired Mrs. Strom for her even-tempered, well-disciplined leadership in the class room. Now I find myself admiring Miss Sarah for her engaging, full-volume exuberance. I want to parent my kids the way both of these ladies teach. I am very, very happy for different kinds of folks who inspire me in that way...and love my kids so honestly :)

Alice has latched on to Miss Sarah this year as thoroughly as she latched on to Mrs. Strom last year. One day, Alice and a new friend "E" were pretending that they were little mice and Miss Sarah was Cinderella. The little mice would write notes and draw pictures on scraps of paper which they then delivered to a busy "Cinderelly" somewhere else in the classroom. Details are sketchy, at best, but I get the sense that the best part of the game is yelling "Cinderelly!" and getting a shocked/surprised gasp from the delightful Miss Sarah who then gushes over the notes/drawings and tucks them away in a special place. The mice then run away and do it all over again. This game is so fun that Alice has literally burst into tears every preschool day for the last week because her friend E has been out of town and unavailable to play "Cinderelly" again. Alice refuses to teach anyone else the game. 

This is a good year for us :)

Is this my future home?

Neither house is stunningly beautiful at first glance. That's okay. I like the idea of living undercover (that's a blog post for another day). They both get our kids into better elementary schools and they both have more than one bathroom. Both also happen to be on larger plots of land with good potential for garden and orchard. That's just about where the similarities end. Those are the most important qualifications for our new home...for the moment. It's almost a coincidence that they both happen to be within our current ward boundaries.

 

I'm not madly in love with either one. I think about them. I obsess over how our family would fit into each one. I envision family meals, hours of homework, out-of-town guests, late nights, and sullen teenagers rattling around inside. I see my kids playing in the yard, reading in the front room, and snuggling with me by the fireplace. Yes, both houses fit within my desired range of suitability. I like one house's layout better and the other house's location better. If I had to choose this moment between layout and location, I would pick location. I might have a different answer for you tomorrow :)

I'll spare you the house-to-house feature comparison. I've mulled it over ad nauseum. No, my purpose in blogging about this is to make sense of the nebulous feeling that it's just not adding up somewhere.

My Dream:

Modest home that's easy to maintain inside

Private space for everyone

Public space large enough for entertaining periodically

Large, private backyard with ample sun and space for garden, orchard, and a few laying hens

Excellent schools within walking/biking distance

Weekly shopping within walking/biking distance

Good friends within walking/biking distance

Church building and Bobby's work within a few minutes drive

Bobby's Dream (as far as I can decipher, if he even has an ideal house in mind):

Close to work

Yard for playing

Easy to maintain landscaping

Walking distance to elementary school

Low maintenance home (newer roof, appliances, windows, etc.)

At least one bedroom and bathroom on ground level

Alice's Dream:

Basement to hide in during tornados

Chimney

Sunroom for her craft table and supplies

Robert's Dream:

Dog/Squirrel/Rabbit/Bird/Cat to chase

Train/Truck/Car to climb all over

Ugh. Both houses seem to meet all my expectations on paper! It should add up into "this one is right for us", but it simply doesn't. I just can't figure it out. I can't choose one. Does that mean they're both wrong? Does that mean anything at all?  If I had to choose right now, I would choose one and just make it work. Yet somehow, choosing one of these homes at this point feels more like a "Charlotte and Mr. Collins" match than an "Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy" match. Either one would make a practical and comfortable home, but I really want to LOVE my next home...sigh. 

Or is this whole selection process more like "Choose your love. Love your choice"?

3 miles more

Alice took her bike on another adventure. I was on foot this time, pushing an impatient and wiggly Robert in the stroller. She covered another 3 miles around a park and through some neighborhoods (she does normally wear her helmet, just not when I had the camera out).

 

Buddy fell in love with the windmill instantly. It was a gusty morning and the windmill would spin intermittently. Robert kept blowing at it...maybe thinking he was making it spin? They had a long, teary goodbye as we headed back to the playground. We'll have to come back another time.

Just walking/jogging behind her (that girl can zoom!), seeing her play and ride, I was filled with a moment of peaceful satisfaction. This place in my life is a good place. I'm coming to the point where my visions of family and motherhood have always seemed to start: preschooler and toddler, out and about, figuring out the world and being together, enjoying our time right where we are. Whenever I tried to envision my future family in the past, the scene would invariably be moments like that one. When I envision my future family even now, it's a cluster of us having fun together somewhere outdoors where each one of us is engaged in the activity and honestly happy.

Those moments of peaceful satisfaction don't come often, and this is the first time one has tapped into something so familiar and resonating as my maternal undercurrents. Heck, I didn't even know I had maternal undercurrents until today :) It's a good place to be.

Bike Ride

Holy cow! This girl's a rock star!

We were going to meet some friends at the park this afternoon and Alice decided she would like to ride her bike instead of taking the car. I suppose it had something to do with getting out of "quiet time" earlier...or something ;) Anyway, I was delighted she chose to bike and excitedly curious to see what this girl could do.

Alice hopped on her balance bike, Robert climbed into the trailer, and away we went. We rode and rode and rode. Alice took the lead. We only stopped a couple times for a few seconds to check out "cool" stuff like brightly colored fungus, candy bar wrappers, and broken nut shells. I kid you not, she rode 2 miles to the park. 2 miles! She stopped at every intersection, slowed/paused at every driveway to make sure no cars were coming, and literally made that trip one of the most enjoyable bike rides I've had in a long time. I credit the balance bike for this trip (it's so easy to ride! so easy to control! I heard they make smaller ones for kids as young as 18 months and I'm seriously considering it for Robert's Christmas gift. Seriously.)

Then we played with our friends at the park. I could tell she was tired because she opted for the swing and merry-go-round instead of the climbing features :) Robert had no problem climbing as high and fast as he could. They enjoyed the teeter-totter together quite a bit, too.

(Side note: As Robert gets more capable, more gentle, and more familiar with Alice's play preferences, they're turning into quite the playmates. I can tell that Alice actually wants to play with Robert. It's been a long, hard road figuring out activities and boundaries/rules they can agree on, but it's starting to work better. I love this.)

When our time was done, she got back on her bike and led us all the way home again. The ride home was much longer, punctuated with water and snack breaks every couple of minutes. Strands of hair tickled and stuck to her sweaty face, so she stopped pretty often to scratch, too. I didn't mind the frequent stops, considering what she was accomplishing. I just couldn't believe it. She rode 4 miles round trip...happily. On a good stretch of gradual downgrade, she could balance/coast up to 15 seconds. Well on her way to free riding with pedals. Oh, the places we'll go!

Let's see how sore she is tomorrow.
Let's see how long it is before she asks to ride her bike again.
Let's see how long I can keep up with this girl :)

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week was mostly uneventful.  Alice has started preschool two weeks ago, but this week Susan and I went to her preschool orientation.  It was not really that different then what one would expect at tis type of thing.  Lots of rules and explanation about what will happen.

Susan took the kids alone with 5 other parents on a transportation field trip.   6 adults and 16 kids drove up to a town just north of us.  Took a train to our town and then rode the bus back to our house.  It was quite the adventure, and no one died, which is a big plus.

Robert has started copying words this week.  So any two syllable word that he hears he tries to repeat back.  I think his vocabulary is going to explode very soon.

Cars

 I once heard an experienced parent and friend say, "All boys need the outdoors. They literally need it. It's where they belong." This parent was making an argument for the value of scouting in a boy's life, and I didn't exactly buy it at the time, but I'm beginning to reconsider. My boy needs to be outside. It's my go-to activity when kids are melting down and my energy is evaporating. We sit on the front step and look at dirt. He plays with sticks, chases wildlife, and beckons me with his grunty hand gestures to join him.

 

Outside is also where our car lives at the moment. When he's outside, Robert usually wants to spend some time in the car. He climbs over the seats, pushes the radio buttons, and manipulates cup holders. 

  

Most of the time he's just climbing around, climbing around, and breaking into a heavy-breathing sweat climbing around some more. He's developed a habit of pushing every recognizable button. Some are more rewarding than others:

Did I do that?

All this extra time in the car has been good for me. Alice finds it profitable, too. I have ample opportunity to keep the car clean, and Alice earns big bucks vacuuming the back seat and floor (huzzah! money CAN conquer some fears). Now I have a handful of activities to help me endure that crazy time between naps and dinner: kid bath, go outside, and/or clean the car.

Train Ride Field Trip

Today we got together with a few preschool-aged friends and their families to explore public transportation in a big way. A friend shuttled 12 of us in her 15-passenger van to the Rantoul Amtrak station where we met up with 10 more friends. We hopped on the train and rode back to Champaign in luxury (a whole train car to ourselves!). Then we took the bus home. It went remarkably smoothly considering how many ways it could have gone terribly, terribly wrong (6 adults and 16 kids?! Holy cow). I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Thanks, guys, for a great morning!

In the van:

The whole group together:

Waiting for the bus:

Ballet

Froofy ballet costume worn in 1984
(can you spot the 5-year-old Susan?)

Froofy ballet costume rediscovered in 2011

She took to it like a fish to water. You go, Girlie.

Vocab-splosion

Robert is trying new words. He makes up his own signs for a few of them, too.

cat/kitty = mmmmaaaoh (flicking his right ear)
dog/puppy = arh arh (high pitched squeal) or goggie
keys/cheese = tcheeeesh
Alice = a-ligch, a-yughsh, agsh
Buddy = Bubby
outside = tshide (right arm motioning down repeatedly)
hello/phone = huh-wo (hand to ear)
bubbles = buh-boh


He makes Mommy, Daddy, baby, I-zhee, hi, and bye all sound like they're spelled.

When he wants you to come, he grunts to get your attention, reaches out his hand, and moves his fingers like he's signing for "milk." It's a sweet little beckoning. I prefer it a million times over the ol' scream-and-shout.

When you say something he likes, he nods enthusiastically. When his answer is no, you'll either get a hesitant head shake or a bowed chin + pouty bottom lip + puppy dog eyes response.

Photo courtesy of Random Alice Productions

From the back seat...

"Mommy, here's the sound of a flower trying to open in winter: "Nnnnnnghuh!""

(explosion of giggles)

Where does she come up with this stuff?

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week was fairly normal.  The one thing out of the ordinary was that we went to the Cheese Festival in Arthur IL.  It was fun.  Alice was on three separate cheese curling teams, and one of those teams (not ours) came in third place over all.  They were tied for first until the sudden death tie breaker round.  After that we went to the park and had a picnic.  It was a lot of fun, except for the heat.  It was 95+ degrees.  Sorry no pictures in this post,  Susan is downloading the pictures from our camera to the computer, so hopefully the will show up in a post soon.