When you live with a budding artist, you live with piles and piles of artwork. And ALL of it is special. And NONE of it can be thrown away. At least, that’s what my 5 year old tells me constantly. And as gung-ho as she is about recycling, I still can’t manage to convince her that we can recycle some of her artwork, too.
So, instead of living with the masses of piles everywhere, I started looking for ideas of what to do with it all to help contain it and keep it from taking over my entire house. I came across several great suggestions like these:
This is a photo that Kate took on Shawn’s iPhone recently. She obviously blurred whatever she was looking at, but the resulting image was just too pretty to delete. What’s amazing to me is that Kate’s a better artist on accident than her mommy ever is on purpose!! :)
(Many thanks to my friends for the below exchange. This is why we ALL need a support group of other moms to rely on!)
Q: Any tips for handling a 3yo boy who likes to call everybody silly names? (pumpkinhead, pottyhead, poopoohead, boogerhead. I could go on… LOL) We’ve spanked, we’ve done timeouts, we’ve taken away toys, we’ve ignored it, we’ve laughed at it, and we’re all out of ideas. We even resorted to calling him the same name he calls us, (that was short lived as he thought it was the funniest thing he ever heard) and nothing seems to work.
A: We’ve set the rule of no name calling at all, just in case you hurt someone’s feelings when you are just trying to be funny.
AND we’re only allowed to use bathroom words IN the bathroom (which has stopped the embarassingly loud announcements of “I have to poo!” in restaurants, but has also spawned numerous toot and tee tee bathtime songs). To me, this was a safe way for them to get to enjoy those funny things about their bodies which all little ones find so hilarious without shaming our family in public.
But you know, since my girls aren’t allowed to say, “I gotta go poo!” in public any more, we’ve had to come up with acceptable alternatives. Wouldn’t Ethan look so sweet and precious with, “Excuse me, I need to go freshen up.” Priceless.
At one of our last Moms’ Night Out gatherings, we were all discussing babies (duh! We ARE a bunch of moms!) and their cries. Several of us had heard of the ‘baby whisperer’, Priscilla Dunstan, who was on Oprah, but only a couple of us had ever tried it. My sister-in-law has tried it with her baby, Grayson, and is swearing by it! She said she’s been able to figure out his cries pretty easily and is having a much easier time with him than with her other 2 kiddos. Just thought I’d pass it on…
Yes. You read that title right. And yes. That’s an actual statement that’s been used in my house recently. sigh.
I’m constantly amazed at our children and the things that they choose NOT to eat. Like finishing their cheetos so that they can be done with lunch and get dessert. It’s not like I’m asking them to eat asparagus or brussel sprouts or even broccoli (they LIKE brocolli). But when they choose to wage war at the dinner table, somehow they always wind up the victors. Because either way it goes, the parentals wind up frustrated and losing their cool. And then it’s just amazing that a 3 year old can have more persistence than a 35 year old. So many questions I have for God…
So, if you’ve ever made the mistake of engaging in this war, too, then you’ll LOVE this recent post from one of my favorite bloggers, dooce. This post made me laugh so hard that I was crying. And when Kate came in to ask for Fritos an hour before dinner time, it just made me laugh even more. So enjoy. And be sure to tell me your favorite part, cuz I’m still laughing at the comment about the iPhone and other first world conversations…
At our last visit to the library Kate was disappointed to discover that they didn’t have any ‘Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?’ DVDs on the shelf. (Do you remember that geography-sleuth kids’ gameshow on TV in the late 80s with the catchy intro song by the group, Rockapella? These are the cartoons along the same story lines.) So, I told her that when we got home we would get online and request them via intralibrary loan. While I was online looking for her DVDs, I ran across this book that I thought sounded really promising. (I’m not really sure why I felt the need to tell you all that, unless I really just wanted to share with the world what a geek I was in the late 80s and still am, apparently, since I can still sing some of that theme song to this day…)
Where in the World? Around the Globe in 13 Works of Art, by Bob Raczka, has turned out to be my newest favorite book for Kate. It’s a collection of 13 works of art from around the world (duh, you probably got all that from the title) with a page describing the geographical location of the piece as well as the artist and the time he/she lived in. It’s written for kids, so the language isn’t a stumbling block but, thankfully, it’s not sing-songy either. Continue reading…
The one where you gasp, your heart completely melts, and you’re filled with more joy than you ever thought a human could feel…
The moment when your baby first smiles at you.
Well, apparently, some super-smart people at Baylor College of Medicine decided to find out exactly what that smile does to a mom.
Here’s what they say:
They found that when the mothers saw their own infants’ faces, key areas of the brain associated with reward lit up during the scans.
“These are areas that have been activated in other experiments associated with drug addiction,” said Strathearn. “It may be that seeing your own baby’s smiling face is like a ‘natural high’”.
Ethan was lying on the couch next to me watching tv when Shawn came over to tickle him. Ethan was giggling uncontrollably when Karis marched over and pushed Shawn’s arm away from Ethan with a very stern look on her face. Apparently she was trying to ‘protect’ her big brother from the big, mean Daddy. :)
Shawn saw her look of concern and said, “Oh, baby. I’m not hurting him, I’m just tickling him. Besides, he’s Daddy’s boy.” and he ruffled Ethan’s hair.
Karis looked at him, shook her head and said, “Un-uh” (her version of ‘no’.), then pointed at me and said, “Mama.”
Shawn and I looked at each other and started to laugh. ”You think Ethan is Mama’s boy, not Daddy’s?”
When I was skimming through all the indoor Houston activites for kiddos on NinaLoca, I ran across some information that just really excited me. There is a mansion in the River Oaks area that has been donated to the Museum of Fine Arts, complete with all of the artwork and collectibles that the Masterson family had acquired over the years. It houses other collections from time to time and you can regularly tour it. But, during the summer time, they offer Rienzi Storytime Tours, every Wednesday in June and July at 10am, for kids ages 4-8, as well as other family activities.
I emailed a friend of mine and we decided to take our kiddos today to check it out. We loved it! They gave us a tour of some of the larger rooms in the home and would stop in each one and have all the kiddos sit down on the floor. The docent then gave a brief piece of information about the room or something specific in the room and then read a children’s book that somehow fit. In the Dining Room, she read “Bear Wants More” about a bear that wakes up from hibernation and wants to eat more and more. In the Drawing Room, the docent read a book about 3 mice who painted (Get it? We were in the Drawing Room?! hee hee ). In the Ball Room, she pointed out some of the Masterson’s collection of Chinese porcelain from the 1700’s and then read a book called “The Empty Pot” about a little boy who was trying to become the new emporer of China.
They have several different docents that rotate each week, and they each have different books that they like to bring and read to the kids. My 5yo absolutely loved getting to hear stories in such a new and exciting place. My 3yo actually paid attention and enjoyed kicking off his flip flops to listen. While my 21mo didn’t exactly listen to the stories, she absolutely loved pointing at all the paintings and statues throughout the house. Obviously the age range of 4-8 is best suited to the tour, but they don’t limit it to that age group.
After the tour was over and all the kiddos hugged our docent, “Ms. Mary”, we went out into the back yard to see the beautiful pool and grounds. We wound up playing hide-n-seek in the shrubs of the side yard until we were too hot and sticky to stay any longer.
All in all, a wonderful experience, and one that Kate is anxious to repeat!
When you live with a budding artist, you live with piles and piles of artwork. And ALL of it is special. And NONE of it can be thrown away. At least, that’s what my 5 year old tells me constantly. And as gung-ho as she is about recycling, I still can’t manage to convince her that we can recycle some of her artwork, too.
Yes. You read that title right. And yes. That’s an actual statement that’s been used in my house recently. sigh.
When I was skimming through all the indoor Houston activites for kiddos on 
By Kay on Fri, Aug 29, 2008
3 Comments