Medicine is not fun.
Sometimes you put it off so long you fall asleep...
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
Birthday Party
This year's birthday party was a big change from last year.
Last year we couldn't even have it at our house!
Henry got to help me - I decorated the cake and he decorated a piece of wax paper. If only the camera could have captured how hard he was working to squeeze out the icing, because his little arms would start shaking as he tried to squirt it out.
Thank you to our wonderful families who love to come celebrate with us! (And those who celebrated with us even though you couldn't be there)
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Monsters and Snow
We burned off some energy and ended up burying each other in the snow. Although it took quite a while to bury my legs as Henry made progress fistful-by-fistful. I tried to show him how to scoop up a bunch with his arms, but he stuck to the fistfuls, even though his progress was as slow as shoveling out a driveway with an ice cream scoop.
But we had fun. And our walk to the school's soup supper was a warm one for maybe the first time since we moved here.
I even had all the Dum Dums and Peach-Os in the cupboard. But as I was putting the frosting on (which was quite fun, and probably faster than actually frosting a cupcake, even though Doug told me I was an over-achiever), I was second guessing the "eyeballs."
First, that was a lot of suckers to unwrap. Second, that was a lot of sugar, and what three-year-old is going to let you throw away candy, let alone a sucker? I really didn't want to get the kids on a major sugar high because I'm not the one that has to deal with a room-full of them!
I opened the cupboard, and there were mini marshmallows and mini chocolate chips. Perfect.
Extra perfect that Henry had picked blue.
Because they looked like Cookie Monster without me setting out to create him. I love happy accidents!
Because I don't do things like this to try and out-do other moms. I have fun doing this with hopes that the kids get to have a little extra fun (and sugar).
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Silly Boy
We've enjoyed the warmer weather this week, and even got to build a not-so-big snowman. Henry walked around with a little stick saying "my carrot nose" while I rolled the snowballs around. And once we got it built? He admired it for half a second and then asked if he could kick it over.
It hasn't taken me long to learn with Henry that most of the joy in building something is the destruction of it seconds later.
Friday I took Henry out for a treat.
Ice Cream!
So we took the rest home and stuck it in the freezer.
This morning, while I was mopping upstairs, Henry went down to get the ice pack (after walking into the door frame of his room), and came back up quite a while later. "I ate ice cream. I was hungry."
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Final Christmas Countdown Update
I know this is a little after the fact, but even though our last week was hit or miss with the activities, I'm still happy with how the project turned out.
Day 17: Watch a Christmas Movie
This almost didn't happen because I needed to get a movie from the library, and good Christmas movies were always checked out from our public library and the local college library. That morning I looked online and the Muppet's Christmas Carol was in, so I left work at 8:59 to go get it. We had our movie night, ate homemade pizza on the couch, and later had hot chocolate but skipped the popcorn since none of us were hungry. The downside - it's not "Cars" and barely held Henry's attention. He kept asking where Kermit was, which was almost constant since Kermit does NOT have a leading role. How the Grinch stole Christmas may have been better, but we own it on VHS and no longer have a VCR connected to our TV. Oh well.
Day 18: Go Sledding
This was fun. We went on a tiny little hill behind the school just down the block from us, which was perfect because Henry could climb back up all by himself even carrying the sled. He had a blast, and Mom and Dad were there just to push him down the hill. He even tipped back in the sled and went down the hill with his head bouncing off the ground and came up laughing. Crazy kid. And then he and Dad tried to sled down the road home. That didn't work so well.
Day 19: Bake Surprise Meringues
This went pretty much the same as our other baking days: I did it by myself with him popping in every once in a while, mostly to snoop chocolate chips.
Day 20: Bring Treats to Neighbors
We actually brought a few plates of treats to a few local businesses we deal with instead, and Henry came home with a pocket full of suckers and tootsie rolls I'm not sure who came out ahead on that deal!
Day 21: Look at Christmas Lights
Henry had in his mind he wanted to be doing something else and kept asking to go home, the chauffeur began the trip by saying there's nothing real impressive to look at in town, and Mom was getting frustrated because apparently she's the only one who wants to have fun. Not the most successful night. :)
Day 22: Wrap Presents and Stuff Stockings
Actually, our stockings never got hung, again. I started by wrapping Henry's presents when he was supposed to be having some quiet time, and barely got done before he showed up in the office. He helped some, mostly putting on tape, but then he got sent out of the room when he started using the wrapped presents as step stools.
Day 23: Sleep by the Christmas Tree
This was one of the most successful things, even though none of us got a great night's sleep. But we didn't have to go to work in the morning so it wasn't a big deal.
Day 24: Make Christingle Candles for Tomorrow's Breakfast
(Chrstingle Candles are the oranges with the cloves and cranberries with a hole for a candle) Didn't happen. Not only that but my "special" Christmas breakfast never happened either. But we left early afternoon for our Christmas party with Doug's side of the family and had lots of fun sledding and eating and sharing gifts.
Day 25: Read Luke 2 After Breakfast
We did have a good breakfast, although I forget what we had. Probably waffles since that's what Doug usually requests and I rarely make. We read Luke 2 and then the rest of the day flew by.
We got ready for church then packed up food, presents, snow clothes, games, toys, extra clothes. We opened our presents as a family, went to church, came home, changed clothes, piled in the car, went to an extended family Christmas dinner, went straight to Christmas with my side of the family and went sledding again, ate, exchanged gifts, and got home late and exhausted.
Which pretty much sums up my reasons for wanting to do this countdown calendar. So much emphasis (and pressure) is put on a single day and for parents of young children, this day can often be less than enjoyable with the busyness it brings before it comes to a screeching halt. It's supposed to be a season of joy celebrating the fact that our Savior came to earth to save us, and doing this helped us slow down a little and enjoy doing some things together and do a little more giving.
What I would change?
Having the grandparents over and sleeping by the tree were definitely the most talked about (therefore most enjoyed) by our 2 year old.
I had a lot of activities, partly because I wanted to do a lot, and partly because the only alternative seemed to be treats. Next year I'm going to cut back a little - this year I easily got away with skipping activities if it was getting too busy, but I may not always be that lucky.
With the right activities, this can be a great teaching tool as Henry grows.
We will definitely be making this a tradition!
Day 17: Watch a Christmas Movie
This almost didn't happen because I needed to get a movie from the library, and good Christmas movies were always checked out from our public library and the local college library. That morning I looked online and the Muppet's Christmas Carol was in, so I left work at 8:59 to go get it. We had our movie night, ate homemade pizza on the couch, and later had hot chocolate but skipped the popcorn since none of us were hungry. The downside - it's not "Cars" and barely held Henry's attention. He kept asking where Kermit was, which was almost constant since Kermit does NOT have a leading role. How the Grinch stole Christmas may have been better, but we own it on VHS and no longer have a VCR connected to our TV. Oh well.
Day 18: Go Sledding
Day 19: Bake Surprise Meringues
This went pretty much the same as our other baking days: I did it by myself with him popping in every once in a while, mostly to snoop chocolate chips.
Day 20: Bring Treats to Neighbors
We actually brought a few plates of treats to a few local businesses we deal with instead, and Henry came home with a pocket full of suckers and tootsie rolls I'm not sure who came out ahead on that deal!
Day 21: Look at Christmas Lights
Henry had in his mind he wanted to be doing something else and kept asking to go home, the chauffeur began the trip by saying there's nothing real impressive to look at in town, and Mom was getting frustrated because apparently she's the only one who wants to have fun. Not the most successful night. :)
Day 22: Wrap Presents and Stuff Stockings
Actually, our stockings never got hung, again. I started by wrapping Henry's presents when he was supposed to be having some quiet time, and barely got done before he showed up in the office. He helped some, mostly putting on tape, but then he got sent out of the room when he started using the wrapped presents as step stools.
Day 23: Sleep by the Christmas Tree
Day 24: Make Christingle Candles for Tomorrow's Breakfast
(Chrstingle Candles are the oranges with the cloves and cranberries with a hole for a candle) Didn't happen. Not only that but my "special" Christmas breakfast never happened either. But we left early afternoon for our Christmas party with Doug's side of the family and had lots of fun sledding and eating and sharing gifts.
Day 25: Read Luke 2 After Breakfast
We did have a good breakfast, although I forget what we had. Probably waffles since that's what Doug usually requests and I rarely make. We read Luke 2 and then the rest of the day flew by.
We got ready for church then packed up food, presents, snow clothes, games, toys, extra clothes. We opened our presents as a family, went to church, came home, changed clothes, piled in the car, went to an extended family Christmas dinner, went straight to Christmas with my side of the family and went sledding again, ate, exchanged gifts, and got home late and exhausted.
Which pretty much sums up my reasons for wanting to do this countdown calendar. So much emphasis (and pressure) is put on a single day and for parents of young children, this day can often be less than enjoyable with the busyness it brings before it comes to a screeching halt. It's supposed to be a season of joy celebrating the fact that our Savior came to earth to save us, and doing this helped us slow down a little and enjoy doing some things together and do a little more giving.
What I would change?
Having the grandparents over and sleeping by the tree were definitely the most talked about (therefore most enjoyed) by our 2 year old.
I had a lot of activities, partly because I wanted to do a lot, and partly because the only alternative seemed to be treats. Next year I'm going to cut back a little - this year I easily got away with skipping activities if it was getting too busy, but I may not always be that lucky.
With the right activities, this can be a great teaching tool as Henry grows.
We will definitely be making this a tradition!
Friday, December 17, 2010
Christmas Countdown Continued
I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked, but that's how things seem to go around here. One week I'll have 50 pictures, and the next I'll have 2. Here's our projects so far:
Day 6: Make Christmas Trees for Great-Grandparents
This was somewhat successful - I had gotten everything ready ahead of time, and Henry just needed to decorate. I forget what came up, but we did this a day late and had to hurry after his nap to have them ready to go for the Great-Grandpas. We got the two done that we needed to, but nowhere near as many as I planned. Before we glued the tree on the tube, I put some waxed paper around the bottom with a rubberband and we filled the trunks with pieces of candy.
Day 7: Visit Great-Grandpas
This went okay, considering that active little boys go haywire as soon as they're in a small confined room. But the great-grandpas enjoyed seeing him (and us) and I know they don't mind the sudden goofiness as much as his mom does. ;)
Day 8: Buy a Gift to Give Away
I happened to be going shopping with my mom and Rachel on this day, so I thought it was perfect timing. But I picked out the stuff for our Angel Tree gift (clothes for a girl), and I don't enjoy shopping and forgot (and then didn't put in the extra effort when I remembered) to have him pick something out to drop off at ATLAS.
Day 9: Have Grandparents Over for Supper
This was a huge hit, and I meant to take a picture of everyone together but forgot once we were all sitting by the table. Henry thought it was just awesome to have ALL of his grandparents together and to himself. We all had a good time.
Day 10: Make Salt-Dough Ornaments
Basically we played with play dough. Sticky play dough. It would have been better if it weren't so sticky, because playing with play dough is fun. We rolled the dough into balls and then squished them to make snowmen. Mine was 3 high with the circles getting smaller. Henry's was 6 high with random sizes. I liked his better, because no rules = more fun. No pictures because my hands were too sticky. :)
Day 11: Visit Great-Grandma H
We were snowed in and definitely not driving out of town. We played outside in the snow and then trekked up the street in the wagon to our cookie exchange. I had finally bought a saucer this year, but a sled meant for pulling would have been better since the wagon doesn't work that great in the snow.
Day 12: Make and Decorate Cut-out Cookies
This was fun because Dad did it with us, but all we did was cut-out and bake the cookies. I got out all the Christmas cookie cutter, and then the "boys" came. Both thought the truck should be a Christmas shape, and I think we had more trucks than anything, and I had to work on both of them to share. ;)
The dough was sticky which I could handle, but the cookies didn't even taste that good. So I need a new recipe. And even if I had everything ready to go, Henry wouldn't have had the attention to cut-out the cookies and decorate them in one afternoon/evening anyway.
Day 13: Visit the Nursing Home and Hand out Extra Trees
This hasn't happened yet. His Christmas party at daycare was that afternoon, and we brought away some cookie platters before that. Plus we didn't have any extra Christmas trees.
Day 14: Make a Gingerbread House
We did this for family night this week, and it was fun but will hopefully get better over the years! I had tried to get the house cut out and baked and assembled so it was ready to be decorated without falling apart. I made the royal icing and put it together right before we had supper, and one of my support cans tipped a little too far and dented our roof.
When we sat down to decorate, Henry sat there with the bowl of Mike & Ikes in front of him eating for about 5 minutes. Dad decorated his side of the roof perfectly, and Henry & I just did whatever. It was hard enough convincing him to put the candy on the roof instead of in his mouth! And we had to vacuum up the sprinkles that I kept hearing fall on the floor anytime Henry moved.
As I was finishing cleaning up, I could hear pieces falling off, and when we got up the next morning Henry saw the totally collapsed house and said, "Uh oh! I broke it!" He still claims he broke it even though I told him it fell apart while we were sleeping.
Day 15: Visit Great-Grandma VM
Henry had fun looking at her toolbox she got out to show him, and got to play with some of his (2nd?) cousins that Grandma was watching and lots of fun toys.
Day 16: Make Treats for Friends
My plans for the treats for his friends changed from candy trains to monster magnets. He helped me "write" his friends names on the tags, but other than that there wasn't much he could do. Thankfully I have a cool glue gun, or my fingers would be blistered!
More to come next week!
Day 6: Make Christmas Trees for Great-Grandparents
Day 7: Visit Great-Grandpas
This went okay, considering that active little boys go haywire as soon as they're in a small confined room. But the great-grandpas enjoyed seeing him (and us) and I know they don't mind the sudden goofiness as much as his mom does. ;)
Day 8: Buy a Gift to Give Away
I happened to be going shopping with my mom and Rachel on this day, so I thought it was perfect timing. But I picked out the stuff for our Angel Tree gift (clothes for a girl), and I don't enjoy shopping and forgot (and then didn't put in the extra effort when I remembered) to have him pick something out to drop off at ATLAS.
Day 9: Have Grandparents Over for Supper
This was a huge hit, and I meant to take a picture of everyone together but forgot once we were all sitting by the table. Henry thought it was just awesome to have ALL of his grandparents together and to himself. We all had a good time.
Day 10: Make Salt-Dough Ornaments
Day 11: Visit Great-Grandma H
We were snowed in and definitely not driving out of town. We played outside in the snow and then trekked up the street in the wagon to our cookie exchange. I had finally bought a saucer this year, but a sled meant for pulling would have been better since the wagon doesn't work that great in the snow.
Day 12: Make and Decorate Cut-out Cookies
The dough was sticky which I could handle, but the cookies didn't even taste that good. So I need a new recipe. And even if I had everything ready to go, Henry wouldn't have had the attention to cut-out the cookies and decorate them in one afternoon/evening anyway.
Day 13: Visit the Nursing Home and Hand out Extra Trees
This hasn't happened yet. His Christmas party at daycare was that afternoon, and we brought away some cookie platters before that. Plus we didn't have any extra Christmas trees.
Day 14: Make a Gingerbread House
When we sat down to decorate, Henry sat there with the bowl of Mike & Ikes in front of him eating for about 5 minutes. Dad decorated his side of the roof perfectly, and Henry & I just did whatever. It was hard enough convincing him to put the candy on the roof instead of in his mouth! And we had to vacuum up the sprinkles that I kept hearing fall on the floor anytime Henry moved.
As I was finishing cleaning up, I could hear pieces falling off, and when we got up the next morning Henry saw the totally collapsed house and said, "Uh oh! I broke it!" He still claims he broke it even though I told him it fell apart while we were sleeping.
Day 15: Visit Great-Grandma VM
Henry had fun looking at her toolbox she got out to show him, and got to play with some of his (2nd?) cousins that Grandma was watching and lots of fun toys.
Day 16: Make Treats for Friends
More to come next week!
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Christmas Activities, December 1-5
December 1: Put up the Christmas Tree and Decorations
We had fun putting up the tree, listening to Mannheim Steamroller and drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows. Henry had about 6 ornaments hanging from the one branch, so I did have to a little re-arranging. :) I had a church supper to help at on Wednesday, so rather than make Henry miss his nap to get the tree up, we did this on Thursday. Dad ended up taking the afternoon off and got to hang out with us too.
Both fell asleep on the couch afterward.
December 2: Decorate Wrapping Paper
December 3: Make Christmas Finger Jello
Because of the delay in putting the tree up, we did both of these activities on Friday. We made red and green finger jello and cut it into Christmas shapes, although Henry kept calling the cross was a "plus." We also decorated kraft paper with paint, glue, and glitter. There was less than half the jar of white glitter left, a little more than half of blue, and there wasn't that much surface area to cover!
December 4: Make Supper and Bring Some Away
I had supper made, all ready to go, and Henry refused to go for a car ride. Since these would be surprise drop-offs, I had planned chili soup and cinnamon rolls - something that could easily be froze or saved for the next day, so I didn't push it. I wasn't going to bring it away by myself just to get it done, and I wasn't going to force Henry to go and turn it into a miserable activity. Instead, we brought them away as a family after church today and left the surprises by back doors for them to come home to.
December 5: Make Star Cookies with Mom
Sometimes Henry just gets excited about taking off the numbers, acts excited about the activity I tell him, and then goes off to play trucks again. At least today he knew what was involved and went straight to the kitchen table to push the chair across the kitchen.
He always has fun mixing, but he also has a short attention span and got in trouble for opening the oven door (even though it wasn't on yet), and disappeared right before what I thought was the fun stuff. He did show back up to roll a few cookies in sugar, tried to take over my job of scooping balls and started to treat it like play dough, pushed a few stars in the hot cookies and then disappeared again.
Along with a few stars.
I know I can't expect "perfect" activities if I want to have fun, so I remind myself: flexibility is key!
We had fun putting up the tree, listening to Mannheim Steamroller and drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows. Henry had about 6 ornaments hanging from the one branch, so I did have to a little re-arranging. :) I had a church supper to help at on Wednesday, so rather than make Henry miss his nap to get the tree up, we did this on Thursday. Dad ended up taking the afternoon off and got to hang out with us too.
Both fell asleep on the couch afterward.
December 2: Decorate Wrapping Paper
December 3: Make Christmas Finger Jello
December 4: Make Supper and Bring Some Away
I had supper made, all ready to go, and Henry refused to go for a car ride. Since these would be surprise drop-offs, I had planned chili soup and cinnamon rolls - something that could easily be froze or saved for the next day, so I didn't push it. I wasn't going to bring it away by myself just to get it done, and I wasn't going to force Henry to go and turn it into a miserable activity. Instead, we brought them away as a family after church today and left the surprises by back doors for them to come home to.
December 5: Make Star Cookies with Mom
He always has fun mixing, but he also has a short attention span and got in trouble for opening the oven door (even though it wasn't on yet), and disappeared right before what I thought was the fun stuff. He did show back up to roll a few cookies in sugar, tried to take over my job of scooping balls and started to treat it like play dough, pushed a few stars in the hot cookies and then disappeared again.
Along with a few stars.
I know I can't expect "perfect" activities if I want to have fun, so I remind myself: flexibility is key!
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