Slow Down, Gym Shoe!

A Visit To The Farm

2010-09-01T21:24:00.001-05:00

Pufferfish and I went to this free "living history" farm the other day. I'm trying to ease her back into Tot School now that the big kids are in school, so this week we were learning a little about farms. Does she look like a farm girl here? (Scroll down for some funny Pufferfish-isms!)

Pufferfish-isms...

Me: "Look, Pufferfish, there's a sheep!"
Pufferfish: "Hi, sheep! You're not coming home with me!"

One of the sheep had a green line painted on his wool, for some reason.
Me: "Why do you think he has that green line on him?"
Pufferfish: "I think somebody thought he was a piece of paper, and painted on him!"

Me: "Did you hear that cow?
Pufferfish: "Yep!"
Me: "What did the cow say?"
Pufferfish: "She said, I love you!"

Sorry, False Alarm... And Other News!

2010-08-25T12:17:00.000-05:00

So. Last time I wrote, I was in a panic because I thought I was going to be homeless, and separated from the kids, in less than a week. But, as always seems to happen around here, things went back to normal.
The day after I wrote, I was still being told that we were losing the house and that I'd need to find somewhere else to live.
But then, suddenly, nobody was talking about it anymore!
I was afraid to bring it up or ask. Finallny, after a few days, I dared to ask Jimmy, "So, are we still leaving in a few days?"
He said, "No, we're staying here for now... for at least a month."
What have we learned here, kids?
1. Don't panic or get worried until you actually experience something bad happen! No need to go crazy and lose sleep over something that may or may not happen.
2. On the other hand, be prepared for the worst. I am going to start at least organizing my stuff and getting my car ready, so I can live in it if need be!

Anyways.... here we all are, right?
Today is the first day of school for Little Bear and Rafael. Yesterday Little Bear went with her grandma to her school for Meet The Teacher Day. Meanwhile, I took Rafael to his Meet The Teacher Day!
Rafael and Little Bear are both in first grade, and both very similar in personality, but they experience school very differently. Little Bear did great in school last year. She started out behind the class because we moved here from a ghetto town with a crappy school system, but she quickly caught up. Her teacher loved her, and she enjoyed school.
Rafael, on the other hand, had a teacher who was older, and more old-school in her ways. Rafael is a hyperactive little dude who has trouble sitting still and focusing, and will often yell out in class, including sometimes saying "inappropriate" things. His teacher had a gripe against him all school year. She didn't really believe in working with a child, using positive reinforcement and what not. She was more into just punishing. As a result, Rafael lost his snack privileges at least once a week (because apparently snacking is a privilege, not a right), lost a lot of recesses, got yelled at a lot, and got multiple angry notes sent home. He hated school! So this year, he was really nervous about starting second grade, and didn't want to even visit the school for Meet The Teacher. I had to promise him that we were only going to stop in so he'd know where his classroom was and who was in his class, and that I wasn't leaving him there. I also had to promise to let him bring the stuffed pig that he'd won from Enchanted Castle the day before. I guess he hoped the pig would protect him from the forces of evil!
I was really hoping he'd have a better teacher this year!
And it seems like we were in luck! Rafael's new teacher is young, new to the school, and very friendly. She let the kids pick out their own desks, telling them to find one that "feels like the right desk for you." It was very sweet! I mentioned to her that Rafael had had a hard year last year, and that he sometimes had trouble with sitting and listening and focusing, but that he was a really good kid. She tussled his hair and said, "Well, thats just something we can work on, right?" As we left the school, Rafael was ecstatic! He said he loved his new teacher, and he was excited that some of his friends were in his class!

Rafael sitting in the desk that feels right.

When we got home, I asked Little Bear about her Meet The Teacher Day. She seemed sort of quiet and less than enthusiastic. I asked her who her new teacher was, and she said an unfamiliar name.
When I asked if that was good or bad, Little Bear looked pointedly at me and said somberly, "Last year, she was down the hall from my class, and we could always hear her yelling! We would all look at each other and say, `I hope I'm never in her class!'"
Poor Little Bear. But I tried to explain to her that, since she doesn't usually get in trouble at school, she probably won't be one of the kids getting yelled at.
She seemed a little happier today when she got ready for school! Last night Diana took her for a mani-pedi at Sweet And Sassy, and also dyed bright pink highlights into her hair. Doesn't she look like a little rock star?

So now its just me and Pufferfish.
Pufferfish really wanted to go to school! As soon as she got home from helping drop off the big kids, she ran to me and said, "Can I do my school work?" We really didn't do any Tot School things all summer, because the focus was mostly on keeping Little Bear and Rafael busy so they didn't climb the walls and kill each other! So today I pulled out my basket of Pufferfish's "school work," and we spent an hour just doing file folder games and workbooks! She cranked through the things that were too hard for her back in May.
We're working on getting her into actual preschool, but its expensive! Even the park district costs about $120 per month. It doesn't sound like much, but it is money nobody here has. In the mean time, I'm gonna have to start getting new Tot School stuff together. I'm gonna sign her up for the drop-off story and craft program at the library, too, and I can at least tell her thats preschool!
Anyway... thats whats up with me... so how about you?

Is This The End Of The Road?

2010-08-19T20:37:00.000-05:00

OK guys.
This may be the end of Slow Down, Gym Shoe.
Lets review the facts.
1. Jimmy's unemployment got cut.
2. Jimmy and Diana can't afford the rent here,
3. They say we're all moving out by the end of the month.
4. Diana will be going one place, Jimmy will go another place, the kids may or may not go with one of them or the older kids may go with their dad, etc.
5. I've been told that I'm on my own.

So... no more Little Bear. No more Pufferfish. No more family.
Just me. Homeless. Again.

Here's To The Kids Who Are Different...

2010-08-16T20:04:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone! I thought I'd post this because I know that many of my readers have kids with special needs or uniquenesses of some sort.
Most of you know I have Aspergers and ADHD, but when I was a little kid, nobody really knew that. In the eighties people weren't big on diagnosing kids unless they had pretty extreme disabilities and disrupted others, If you were just quietly suffering by yourself, they mostly left you alone.
I had a miserable time in school! I was a good-hearted kid who tried hard to follow the rules. But I just didn't fit in. I had odd habits and mannerisms, lacked social skills, was horribly disorganized, couldn't pay attention for the life of me, and got teased and tormented by the other kids. My mom was usually angry with me for not trying harder. She was convinced that I just didn't care enough to fit in. Kids were supposed to watch each other, and try to act like each other. Since I didn't, obviously was just stubborn.
At some point, though, a clipping of this poem appeared on the side of the refrigerator at our house. I don't remember how old I was... Old enough that I understood that I didn't fit in, and that my mom had kept the clipping because it described me. It was one of the rare reminders that maybe my mom did understand that I wasn't just trying to go against the grain.
I went to visit my parents yesterday, and I noticed the clipping, wrinkled and yellowed, still taped to the side of the refrigerator. I wanted to share it with you all. Maybe you can print it out and tape it to your own refrigerators, for your own kids to see.
Here it is...

Here's To The Kids Who Are Different

Here's to the kids who are different,

The kids who don't always get A's,

The kids who have ears twice the size of their peers,

And noses that go on for days...

Here's to the kids who are different,

The kids they call crazy or dumb,

The kids who don't fit, with the guts and the grit,

Who dance to a different drum...

Here's to the kids who are different,

The kids with the mischievous streak,

For when they have grown, as history's shown,

It's their difference that makes them unique.

Memorable Moments Of Summer!

2010-08-09T20:19:00.000-05:00

I've barely had time to write in this blog lately... not a lot of free time in the summer, with all of the wild ones around! But I thought I'd update you with t havea few memorable moments from the last few weeks. Lets see, what have we been up to?

Little Bear trying to teach Lily to swim!

Playdate with friends...

Communing with nature...

Getting a new pet guinea pig (which, added to the three turtles and three dogs, brings us to an amazing total of seven pets!)

The backyard got flooded twice!

Just hanging around...

And enjoying each other's company!

I wish this summer could lasf forever!

Look What I've Been Doing?

2010-07-30T19:24:00.000-05:00

Jimmy's parents have a store at this flea markety thing in the city. It is totally cool. It is mostly Hispanic people who own stores there and who shop there, so going there you sort of feel like you've walked into Mexico. There's always Spanish music blasting in the different booths, and the smell of Mexican food from the food court. You can also buy a lot of very inexpensive, Made-In-Mexico products that you won't find in normal stores.
A few years ago Monkeyboy saw this video game system there, called Superjoy. It was the kind that doesn't have a box and cartridges. It just consists of two controllers. You plug them into the TV, and wala, up comes a list of about 7,500 video games that are pre-loaded into the system. (I'm not exactly exaggerating here. The game lists 7,500 games. But most of them seem to be different versions of about 50 games.) The games are old, classic, arcade-style.
Including... the original Super Mario Brothers! I'm talking about the 1986 version that came packaged with the Nintendo system! My brother and I got that for Christmas when I was about eight. Before that, we had ColecoVision, and also played a lot of Atari with our teenaged uncle. But all of our friends were getting Nintendos... and when we got it, we played it nonstop! We only had the two games that came with the system, so we played Super Mario over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over...
So, anyway, Monkeyboy got SuperJoy from the flea market several years ago. He played it a few times, and forgot about it.
Then, just recently, he found it packed away in the attic, and plugged it in downstairs. In the room I sleep in! Now, everyone is addicted to it, including me! I play it with Little Bear just about every morning as soon as we wake up. She is amazed that I already know all of the "secrets" of the game, like how to get the invisible "one up" mushrooms that give you extra lives, and where to find the secret warp zones that let you skip levels. I've never been able to play any of the newer 3-D games. They confuse me! But this one is great!
SuperJoy has other old Nintendo games like Excite Bike, and Tetris. And it even has even older games that I used to play on ColecoVision, like Popeye and Donkey Kong! I could play those 7,500 games all day long!
So... thats one of the places you can find me these days...

Through the eyes of Little Bear and Pufferfish...

2010-07-21T23:17:00.000-05:00

This is what happens when almost-7-year-old Little Bear and 3-year-old Pufferfish get ahold of my camera!

A piece of our newest dog, Kodiak

Rafael, deep in thought

Monkeyboy and his friend in the basement

Some random kid

Weird picture of Kody

I have no clue what Jimmy is doing in this picture!

THE END!!!

Letter Writing Wednesday

2010-07-08T11:09:00.000-05:00

Here in the exciting world of our house, I've been trying to enrich the children's brains over the summer as much as I can. For instance, we've entered the summer reading program at the library, and we read for half an hour each day. We also frequent the area nature centers and local museums, attending educational kiddy programs and stuff.
One cool idea I read about in a book about homeschooling was Letter Writing Thursday. (I changed it to Letter Writing Wednesday because it just sounds better to me!) On this day each week, all the kids pick someone to write a letter to. Then you mail it out, and hope for a response back!
Little Bear and Rafael both chose to write to fire fighters. Their letters:

Dear Firefighters,
When I was little I was in a fire. The scariest part was seeing the fire. What is the scariest part about being a firefighter? Please send me a letter.
Love, Little Bear.

Dear Firefighters,
What is the funnest part of your job? Please write back with the funnest part.
Love, Rafael.

Pufferfish originally wanted to write to the mailman, but then she chose to write to her Daddy instead!

Dear Daddy, .
I love Daddy. Daddy always plays with me. My dad always says what I say. He always says"I love you!" I say, "I love Daddy." I always play with you. I'm never gonna kill you.
Love,
Pufferfish,

Hmm... what a sweet letter... I think???

Anyone want to join in on Letter Writing Wednesday next week?

Is This An Example Of My Aspie-ness?

2010-06-29T21:18:00.001-05:00

Since Little Bear still pees the bed, she has to wear diapers, and Pull-ups don't work because she pees a lot. So she has to wear the largest size of regular diapers, and since they don't stay on her, Jimmy duct tapes them shut! (Not on her skin of coure... its like a belt, around the diaper, keeping it tight.)

So the duct tape was out last night, and Little Bear didn't feel good, and to make her laugh I ripped off a piece of duct tape and put it over my mouth. She ran and got the white board and a dry erase marker, and we were communicating through it. I told her to inform everyone I had taken a vow of silence.
I took a picture of myself with the duct tape over my mouth, and I thought it looked pretty cool! I thought it would make a great picture for my Facebook profile!
So I doctored it a little on Lunapic, and I made it my profile pic.
Within about twenty minutes, my mom, stepmom, aunt and sister had commented, "Please take this picture down, it is creepy!" Some of them were actually irritated and alarmed that I would put up a picture like that.
I just can't see why, though! The picture is meant to be funny! I don't know why people find it so deeply disturbing,
Here is the pic... What do you think?

Making Banana Bread

2010-06-24T22:30:00.000-05:00

What do we do in our house when we have a bunch of bananas that are going bad? Usually I'd probably throw them away. But the other day, I decided to take some inspiration from my own mom, and bake banana bread!

I premeasured most of the ingredients to avoid having flour and baking soda everywhere, but I made it educational enough by having Little Bear read the recipe out loud. The girls took turns pouring ingredients into the bowl and stirring it up.

We knew things were going well when the batter tasted delicious!

The most important part of baking is cleaning up afterwards! Being three years old will not get you out of dish duty!

The banana bread is out of the oven! Well, it looks good, so far, but how does it taste?

Pufferfish and Clover say its delicious!

In case you want to try it, I found this quick and easy recipe here!

Fire Safety Webquest!

2010-06-24T21:55:00.002-05:00

The kids and I are doing a fire safety theme next week, which will include a trip to the regional fire museum, a trip to FireZone, and a special event where firefighters bring a truck to a local park. I've recently discovered webquests and am trying to use them with the older kids this summer. I couldn't find a fire safety webquest I really liked, so I decided to create my own! I've tried to make it simple, because some of the kids in my house have very low interest and motivation levels (aka Rafael!) Feel free to use this! (You'll have to help kids find some of the correct parts of sites, since for some of them I couldn't create links to the specific parts I wanted.)

INTRODUCTION
Fire can be lots of fun! It is fun to have a campfire, and roast marshmallows and hot dogs.

It is fun to blow out candles on a birthday cake.

It is fun to watch a fireworks show.

But fire can also be very dangerous!

There are important rules to follow that help keep us safe when we're around fire.

TASK
We are going to use the Internet to learn some important rules about fire safety. Later, we will make a poster about fire safety, to show our friends and family members everything we've learned! Click on each link to do an activity about fire safety.

PROCESS

1. Watch "Get Low And Go" and and answer the question at the end.

2. Read about Stop Drop And Roll, and watch the demonstration.

3. Complete a lesson and a quiz about fire safety! Click on "Home Safety," "Smoke Alarms," "Escaping From A Fire," and "Hazard House." Finally, click on "Become a Jr. Fire Marshall" to print out your award certificate! (You can also play the other games while you're there, if you want.)

EVALUATION
Now its time to show everyone what you've learned. Make your own fire safety poster! You could make a poster about smoke alarms, Stop Drop and Roll, Get Low And Go, the importance of never touching matches or lighters when you're a kid, or all of the above! If you'd like, you can take a picture of your poster and send it here, and I'll post it on this site!

BONUS FIRE SAFETY ACTIVITIES
Check out Sparky The Fire Dog and play some games.
Make a fire escape plan for your home.
Learn about how and when to call 911.

RESOURCES
Firepals

Home Safety Council

Maine 911 For Kids

Smoke Detectives

Sparky The Fire Dog

US Fire Administration For Kids

I Suck As A Blogger, And SO Much Has Happened!

2010-06-13T12:01:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone! Haven't had much time to blog lately, as you can see. I signed up for two different evening classes for the summer semester. One meets on Monday and Wedensday evenings, adn one meets on Tuesday and Thursday evenings! So now, whatever time I used to spend blogging and doing other liesurely things, is spent in school!
Plus, this past week I had an additional, "intensive class" at school, which means instead of running twice a week for a whole semester, the class runs every day, all day, for just a week. I thought this would be a quick way to get a class done. What I didn't realize is that you also have just a week to do a semester's worth of homework and projects! I had to do three different presentations, complete with Power Point shows and brochures to pass otu to the class, within that week. Plus, study for tests and work on major projects for other classes. Mainly, my day went like this: Get up at six, get to school by seven-thirty, spend half an hour trying to finish homework and do last-minute studying, attend intensive class from eight am to three-thirty pm, spend two hours in the computer lab trying to work on research for three different projects and an essay for the intensive class, plus a major project and two take home tests for another class, plus studying for a major test for the third class. Then go to my evening classes from six pm to nine-fifteen pm. Usually make it home by nine-forty-five pm. Make my lunches for the next day, and try to fall asleep.
On Friday evening I also had to go to an orientation to volunteer at a local organization for kids with special needs, which I have to do as part of one of my classes. (I need to get twenty-five volunteer hours done there by the end of the summer!) By that time I was a wreck! I felt like I was having an anxiety attack. I had been having trouble sleeping, probably because of being wound up and working hard all day long... whenever I came home, I had so much pressure to try to sleep when I had the chance, that I just couldn't sleep! Diana gave me a sleeping pill so I could pass out on Friday night.

Then on Saturday morning I had to go do my volunteer work at Almost Home Foundation, which is the animal rescue organization where my mom got our dog Trixie. My mom's boss and several of her co-workers volunteer there. That is something fun I do for myself, because I love dogs. Its actually sort of relaxing. I just go to the store and hang out with whatever dog that is assigned to me, and introduce the dog to interested people. Yesterday I was with a sweet, adorable beagle named Dove, who ended up getting adopted by a family whose other beagle had been hit by a car! Sad for that beagle and the family, but happy for Dove, who is just the sweetest little pup, despite having come from a high kill shelter where she almost was euthanized!
I also was asked to transport a puppy to her new home. At Almost Home, you can't just show up and adopt a puppy and take it home. Someone else from the organization has to go to your house and check it out, to make sure you live where you say you live, and to make sure it is an okay place for a puppy. This was my first time getting to do the home visit! I had to take this adorable, furry, cuddly puppy to her new home. She slept in my lap the whole way! It was actually sort of sad to part with her, even though I had only known her for the half hour it took to drive to her new home. We had also sort of bonded at the Petsmart, when I had to hold her while she got her Microchip put in. It is like a shot, but because the puppy kept squirming so much, the Microchip kept going in one way and out the other! This happened three times, and she yelped every time! By the fourth time, they finally managed to make it stick. Puppies are very forgiving!
So finally, after all that, I came to my mom's house. My parents weren't even home, so I was going to chill and watch some TV... but I found myself sort of hallucinating! Trixie would walk up to me, and I would suddenly realize I had been dreaming... and I kept forgetting where I was! I kept expecting to be at my room at Diana's, or upstairs at my mom's house, or in my car, and I would be confused, like, "Why am I here?" and then remember. It was sort of freaky! I think the exhaustion just caught up with me.
Another very scary thing happened a week ago! Diana's 16-year-old sister Megan and her boyfriend were at our house, but they got in an arguement, and the boyfriend decided to walk back to Megan's house. (They only live a few blocks from us.) Then Megan, who just got her driver's license, decided to drive home. Monkeyboy is friends with Megan's boyfriends and they had been playing video games together, so he was upset that they were fighting, and he wanted to follow them back to his grandma's house.
The older kids go back and forth between the two houses constantly, even at night. It is really less than two blocks away, and they are always doing it... Monkeyboy and Marcus going to their grandma's house to see Megan and Sarah, and Megan and Sarah and their friends coming to our house, at all hours. So although it was about ten-thirty at night, I told MOnkeyboy he could run over to his grandma's to see what was up with Megan and her boyfriend. Megan was supposed to be coming back in ten or fifteen minutes, so I expected that Monkeyboy would ride back with her.
The next thing I knew, Megan called me, hysterically freaking out. Apparently Monkeyboy had gotten to the house and sat down on the curb next to the driveway, without saying hello to Megan or her boyfriend, who were still arguing. Megan got back into her car, upset with her boyfriend, and quickly backed out of the driveway. And she ran over Monkeyboy!
Monkeyboy said, when he realized the car was going to run him over, he completely relaxed all of his muscles and tried to roll out of the way. The car still ran over his legs. I guess she felt something bump and stopped the car, and Monkeyboy yelled, "Megan, drive forward!" because he wanted her to get the car off of him. So she drove forward, running him over again!
The kids called 9-1-1 and then called me and Diana and Jimmy, separately. I was the first to get there, because Diana and Jimmy had gone out with Diana's mom to watch the hockey game. But by the time I got there, the street was filled with cop cars, fire engines, and ambulances, and the front yard was filled with hysterical teenagers! And inside, Monkeyboy was lying on the couch, with the paramedics doing stuff to him.
But he was fine. He was completely conscious the whole time, and nothing was broken at all. He had "deep bruising" on his legs and he sprained his ankle, but all of his bones, his head, internal organs, neck, etc, were fine!

So Monkeyboy has spent the last week chilling on the couch and getting lots of attention. In a way, it worked out very well for him! He wasn't seriously hurt, and he got to be somewhat of a hero and a celebrity among his friends!

A lot of other things have happened, too, but I need a break from typing before my fingers fall off. More later... I hope!

I THOUGHT I Was Doing Good!

2010-05-19T19:00:00.000-05:00

Lately my mood and energy have been pretty low. I've been slacking off on a lot of things, including things involving the kids. I haven't done Tot School or any type of themed activities in weeks... Its lucky if I can muster up the attention span to do an art project with them or take them to the park! There's been a lot of Dora and Diego filled mornings for Pufferfish lately!
But today, for some reason, I rallied! I woke up feeling good! I made Pufferfish breakfast, took a shower and changed clothes (no small victory, for me!), did Pufferfish's hair and got her dressed, took her to Petsmart to look at supplies for our new turtles and then to Cici's Pizza for lunch. I came home and let Pufferfish watch just half an hour of TV (I set a timer so she would know when her time was up, because I was being such an awesome parental figure), and then brought up her baby dolls from the basement so she could play on the floor on her own (she really needs to practice entertaining herself! For her, her only choices seem to be to watch TV or have an adult amuse her!) During that time, I washed the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen and straightened the rest of the house. Then I thought that a fun activity for Pufferfish would be to go outside and "paint" the side of the house with a big paint brush and a cup of water!
So we went outside and started painting the house. Pufferfish was so excited!
But seconds later, Jimmy came home and shouted, "You didn't get Little Bear and Rafael from school?"
Oops.
I had forgotten that the kids had Early Dismissal from school and got out forty-five minutes earlier than usual. By then it was two o'clock and I was already fifteen minutes late, and I had to drive to two different schools!
I tossed Pufferfish in the car, sped to get Little Bear from her school a few blocks away, and then sped to get a very disgruntled Rafael from his school ten minutes away!
To make matters worse... after we'd been at the park for about half an hour, I noticed I had my T-shirt on inside out!
Oh well... I tried!

What I Did Today...

2010-05-18T17:58:00.000-05:00

Today I did all my laundry, renewed my driver's license, cleaned up the house, took the kids to the playground, did some blogging on my review blog, and donated 250 grains of rice to starving children.
Pretty productive day, don't you think?
If you're wondering about the rice thing, all I did was go to this website, Free Rice. You play a simple game where you have to guess what obscure words mean. (You can also change the subject to math, geography, chemistry, art, or another language.) Whenever you get one right, they donate 10 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program! Plus, when you get one wrong, they tell you the answer, and then offer you the same question again later. So you're not only playing an amusing game, and helping give food to hungry people, but you're improving your vocabulary as well!
I saw this on a blog called Fat Lazy Soccer Mom Gets Healthy, and I thought some of you might be interested!
Alright, thats all for now! Go back to what you were doing!

A Story About How I Tried To Volunteer And It Didn't Go So Well!

2010-05-16T20:42:00.000-05:00

We got my dog Trixie (the dog at my mom's house, not to be confused with Clover and Lily at Diana's house) from this place called Almost Home Foundation. They go to different high kill shelters, mostly in Illinois but also all across the USA, and rescue dogs and cats who are about to be put to sleep. Then they put them in "foster homes" where people work at getting them readapted to living in a household, and they try to find new homes for the animals.
Every weekend you'll find them at Petsmart stores, letting people interact with the animals and sharing information about them, in hopes that someone will want to take them home.
My school has this day called New Deal Day where everyone is supposed to do volunteer work. One of the options this year was to go volunteer with Almost Home for an afternoon. So I did, along with about ten other people from my school, and it went pretty well... so well that I signed up to volunteer on a regular basis! I got an email from someone telling me to go to the Petsmart near where I live.
So the next weekend, I showed up at Petsmart, ready to volunteer. When I told somebody that I was there to volunteer, he said, "Great! Stick with this girl!" and paired me with a girl who was about twelve years old. She was a pesky little girl who liked pretending that she was in charge, although she pretty much was getting in the way a lot. It was kind of odd, because the girl was supposed to be showing me the ropes, but she didn't really have anything to do, you know? That day I ended up helping one of the regular volunteers with a dog named Evan, and it turned out well.The young girl disappeared somewhere, although she'd occasionally reappear to tell me things like, "Thanks, I'll take over now!" and "Don't take any dogs outside. You're new, so I'll have to go with to supervise you." It was kind of strange.
That was last weekend.
This weekend I showed up there again. This time the little girl wasn't around, and the lady I had helped the week before wasn't there either. Everyone seemed to know what they were supposed to be doing, taking dogs and finding places to sit. I went up to the guy who was in charge and tried to get his attention, but he ignored me, talking to other people. I walked around a little bit, trying to figure out what to do, and then went back to the guy in charge. He was done talking to the one person, but as I walked up to him, someone else came up and loudly got his attention. I stood there for a long time. I started to feel so anxious, I felt dizzy and thought I might faint!
Someone came up to him and handed him the leash of a little dog, saying he (the person, not the dog) had to leave for a minute. I bent down and petted the little dog. The guy in charge yelled to someone, "Sharon! (Not the person's actual name... I just made that up...) Find me a handler to take this dog!"
I stood up and said, "I can take him!" and reached out for the leash.
The guy ignored me, and continued to yell for Shannon, until she came to take the dog.
Crestfallen, I went outside and sat down on a bench. I was thinking of just going home. I would go home and find Diana and tell her the story, and she would make me feel better. But I really wanted to volunteer!
Then I heard someone say that the van full of dogs being transported had arrived. This is when the van that picks up dogs from high-kill shelters drives to no-kill shelters in the area and delivers the dogs to safety. Some of the dogs on the van were going to be getting off here, to get picked up by new foster families.
I walked over to the van, approached the first lady I saw, and said, "I'm a volunteer! I can help, but I don't know what to do!"
"Great," said the lady, "you can help unload the van!" So I helped a few people unload dogs, in crates, onto a grassy area. The dogs were all barking and crying, so I tried to calm a few down, by putting my hand near the bars of the crate and talking to them.
Then another lady walked by and said, "Honey, please don't touch the dogs, okay?" She joked with another woman, "I'm like, don't contaminate my animals!"
Crestfallen again, I stood up and backed away.
Other people from Almost Home were coming over and getting dogs out of the crates, to bring them in. I stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to do. Everyone knew exactly what was going on, and nobody looked at me or spoke to me.
Finally a lady who had to go in and use the bathroom asked if I'd hold the leash of a dog named Nash. Nash made it all worth while! As soon as he saw that someone new was holding his leash, he jumped up to lick me, then flopped on the ground for a belly rub, wagging all of his big paws in the air. I spent about twenty minutes playing with Nash, until the lady came and took him back.
Then I stood there awkwardly for a while, until someone told me, "We're all done!"
I went back into the store, and just walked around petting the dogs for a while, and was mostly ignored by everyone.
This happens to me a lot... I tend to be invisible, or I appear so nervous and so awkward that people try to avoid me. It also doesn't help that I look so young for my age. Sometimes people mistake me for a kid.
Anyways, I always have an odd way of tackling problems. I still want to go back and volunteer, but I don't want to be ignored, and I know I will again have trouble knowing what to do. So I decided to make some T-shirts on Cafe Press that I can wear to call attention to the fact that there is a reason why I appear to be acting strangely.
I'm hoping that when I wear these T-shirts, people will maybe recognize that I've been there every Saturday, and they'll realize that I might need a little help getting started, and maybe they'll actually, like, give me a specific job to do, or let me handle a dog.
You can view, or even order, the T-shirts I made, if you want! Here are the links to them!
The first T-shirt is the one I made first and the one I'm going to order for myself first.

This one is a nod to all of my awkward moments.

I also made a couple ADHD T-shirts.... This one and this one.

Let me know how you like them!
I'm going to order the first one this week, after I put some money on my debit card, and I'll wear it proudly!

Monday Minute

2010-05-10T20:40:00.001-05:00

While reading blogs I found this meme, Monday Minute, which has been changed to Mission Monkey Minute for mysterious reasons I don't fully understand yet. So here are my answers for Mission Monkey Minute!

1 - How old do you act?

Most people say I act about thirteen, sometimes younger. On the other hand, I have a lot of family responsibilities, so sometimes I act much older! Having ADHD and Aspergers contributes to my being immature a lot of the time.

2 - As far back as you can remember, what did you want to be when you grew up?
An author! My mom says I started "writing" as soon as I could talk! I would scribble on sheets of paper and "read" my stories to her. I still want to be an author... and I have self-published a few books on Lulu.com.

3 - If you were to write a book based on your life, what would the title be?
Crazy Eyes!

4 - What's something that you do that's considered "childish" by most?
Cry easily, I get very emotional. Also I love to color with Crayolas.

5 - The last question isn't a question. Write a story of a time of when you or someone you know overcame great adversity.
I suppose I have overcome great adversity, although not as well as I wish I have! I was homeless when I was a teenager. I have lived on the streets, in shelters, in motels, in crashpads, in cars, in crackhouses, and more. I was generally always surrounded by people who used lots of drugs, drank a lot, were violent. One of my problems was that I was always able to see the good in people, and I trusted people a lot. Most of the people I knew who did bad things were not, at heart, bad people... They just didn't make very good choices. They had a lot of anger inside them. But even though I was around ex-convicts and gang bangers, most people were very kind to me... with only a few exceptions! My major triumph, although it isn't much, is that I have managed to survive, without hurting myself or anyone else. Although I was always around people who did drugs, and I even lived in two crackhouses, I never did drugs. I saw what they did to people, how they robbed people of their souls, and I never wanted to do that to myself. I took care of the children of drug addicts, and raised a couple of them for a few years. When I was homeless as a teenager, I kept my wits about me. A lot of homeless teens turn to drugs to cope, and turn to prostitution or crime to survive, but I refused to do these things. I preferred to go to soup kitchens or ask for food in restaurants. I kept myself reasonably safe, and once even tricked a near-rapist into letting me go, by telling him I was very thirsty and needed to go to the store to buy a Seven-Up and that I'd be right back. Another huge triumph for me is that, although I have been hurt a lot, physically and emotionally, by people, I have kept love in my heart. I still see the good in people. Because of that, I still often get hurt by people who make poor choices. But I would rather love than hate.

Your turn! If you'd like to join this meme (although I guess Monday is already over) visit Dose Of Reality.

Happy Mother's Day Weekend!

2010-05-07T17:45:00.000-05:00

I hope all you mamas have great weekends planned! I am writing now because I don't know if I'll be anywhere near a computer before Sunday... I've got another crazy weekend ahead of me! My weekend will include celebrating Mother's Day/my little cousin's birthday with my birth (aka not Diana, Jimmy, the kids, etc) family.
I made this as a present for my mom.

Its a flower pot, which I painted, but the flowers are actually pens! You've probably seen those in st ores and stuff. I learned how to make them in my social club for crazy people, and I thought it would be cool to make! So I did one for my mom, and one for my Nona. (I didn't take a picture of the one for Nona.) The problem is, now that I think about it, I'm afraid they're going to think, "What a stupid gift!" I keep imagining my Nona telling someone that her granddaughter made it for her, and the other person saying, "Which granddaughter? The eight year old?"

Oh well, wish me luck!
Little Bear is driving me completely crazy right now! I took the kids to the library after school for a Mother's Day gift making event, and apparently I completely used up their capacity for good behavior! Little Bear and Rafael darted out into the parking lot and nearly got hit by a car afs we left the library, and then when they got home they immediately started jumping on the couch! (Thats what happens on rainy days when they can't get on the trampoline or play at the playground.) Now Little Bear and Pufferfish won't stop arguing. Ugh! Calgon, take me away!

How Many Little Kids Can You Squeeze Into One House?

2010-05-06T21:13:00.000-05:00

You probably know that I take care of Rafael every day before and after school, giving me a total of three kids under seven in my care. You may also know that I do extra babysitting in the community, for other families, to make money. One of the families I babysit for, the Joneses, have two little girls named Miranda and Eloise who are five and two. Miranda has ADHD and Aspergers Syndrome. I usually watch the girls every other Saturday night.
However, the Joneses had to go to an IEP meeting for Miranda today. They wanted to be able to go together, for moral support, because their daughter is entering kindergarten and this was their first IEP meeting for her. So, they asked if they could drop Miranda and Eloise off at my house after school today!
I was a little nervous, because that would bring me to a total of five kids under seven years old to keep track of... including three with ADHD, one with Aspergers, and two with the Terrible Two's! Talk about a wild bunch!
But the trampoline saved the day! Every family with sensory seekers needs one of these!

I also orchestrated an art project, I had the kids decorate fun foam picture frames. Tomorrow I'm going to print out photos of each of them, paste them into the frames, and let the kids give them to their moms for Mother's Day! Look at the little art class I have here!

After art, we went inside for a snack, and then down to the playroom for some dress-up fun. The afternoon was a total success! When Mrs. Jones came to pick up the girls, Miranda and Eloise were both chattering about all the fun they had had!

One somewhat related thing that is frustrating me right now is something about Little Bear's upcoming birthday party. Her birthday is in July, but she's having a party for the kids in her class at the end of May, at a lazer tag place. She's invited every kid in her class... except for three.
The three she didn't give invitations to were the kids who come to her class from the special education class for parts of the day.
When Diana asked Little Bear why she had crossed out the names of these three kids, Little Bear explained that they didn't have "mailboxes" in her classroom so they hadn't been able to get invitations. Diana offered to call the teacher and ask the teacher to make sure these three kids got invitations. Little Bear balked! She protested that the three kids "don't know how to play" and "can't even really talk." Diana persisted, saying Little Bear should invite them, and that even if they didn't play lazer tag, they might enjoy just coming and eating pizza with us, and they'd probably feel good about being invited. Little Bear still protested, saying she didn't want to invite them. Then Diana got distracted by Pufferfish getting out of the bathtub, so the conversation never finished.
I am frustrated because I definitely don't want Little Bear to be one of those kids who excludes others because of their special needs. I try very hard to get her to accept everyone. That was one reason why I was glad to have her play with Miranda today, and why I encourage her to play with Billy at the park. I want her to get used to seeing and playing with kids who act in ways that are different from what she is used to.
One day at the park a girl was pushing Billy on the swing, and Billy fell off. The girl and Rafael laughted and exchanged high fives. I was about ready to strangle Rafael! I dragged him and Little Bear aside and lectured them that, first of all, it is never okay to laugh when someone else is hurt or being made fun of, and second of all, that since they knew Billy, they should stick up for him against other kids. They seemed to understand, and Little Bear was adnamant that she had not laughed when Billy fell off the swing.
But she doesn't want to include the kids from the special ed class in her birthday party.
If it was my choice, I would make her invite them, and then if they came to the party I would make sure they were included as much as possible. But its not my choice, its up to Diana, so I'm sort of nervous to see how that turns out!
What would you do, how would you feel, if you were on either side of this story? (Either the parent of the child having the birthday, or the parent of the child from the special education class?)

Where You'll Find Us Any Given Day...

2010-05-04T20:44:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite things about the warm weather (when it finally does come, which seems to take forever here in Chicago) is that I can keep the kids out of the house. During the winter I had them on a strict routineof getting home, eating snack at the table, doing homework and reading, and then getting to play for a while before dinner. This was partly just to keep some structure to things, to keep the very wild Little Bear and Rafael from destroying the house!
But now that it is spring, I have a new theory... I try to let them play as much as possible!
At around 2:30 Pufferfish and I go to pick Rafael up at his school, and then we all drive to Little Bear's school. I park the car behind the school and let Little Bear, Pufferfish and Rafael play for as long as they want... usually about an hour until all of the other kids are gone. This has worked out very well for me because, at the beginning of the year, it seemed like Little Bear didn't really have any friends at school. But being able to watch her play at her school playground everyday after school gave me a chance to see that she really does have a lot of friends and play well with other kids! One week I helped her exchange phone numbers with some of the other kids she played with the most. She even had an afterschool play date at another kid's house once!
Its also been good for Rafael, I think. He doesn't really have many friends at his school, but at Little Bear's school everyone wants to be his friend because he's new and exciting there!
Anyway, after the school playground has been abandoned, we all get into the car and head over to a large park that is about two blocks away from the school and two blocks away from the house. That park is kind of a gathering place for the neighborhood. Little Bear and Rafael often run into kids from Little Bear's school there, and they've also made friends from other schools who go to that park. We often even see Sarah and her friends there, or Monkeyboy! The ice cream truck usually goes there, and every Monday I let them buy an ice cream. (The other days they have to suffer without it!)
When we're at that park, I check the kids' backpacks to see how much homework they have, and that helps me determine how long we stay at the park. If they have little or no homework, we can stay until five, which is right around the time that Rafael's mom comes to get him. If they have some homework, we leave about twenty minutes early to go get that done, and then they have a little bit of play time and relaxation time at home before dinner.
I think it works out a lot better for them! The sunshine, fresh air, socialization and exercise is much better for them than sitting in the house playing with toys in the playroom, or even sitting at the table doing homework. Don't you think?
My plan for this summer is going to be similar... keep them out as much as possible! I'm thinking we can even have lunch, read, and do our art projects outside a lot of the time!
Here are some pics we took on a recent day at the park.
Rafael swinging...

This was on a Monday, I guess, because we had ice cream! Look how gross it made his mouth!

You can see that Pufferfish had some ice cream too! She looks like a vampire baby with her black lips!

Sarah taking a picture of me taking a picture of her taking a picture of me taking a picture of her...

This is our little friend Billy who also frequents the park. He knows everyone who has ever set foot in the park, and possibly everyone in our town! He's a very friendly little dude!

Billy took this picture of Sarah, right before she disappeared into a ball of bright light! ;)

Pufferfish is proud that she finished all of her icecream! (Usually most of it ends up falling on the ground.)

Another photo taken by Billy!

Sarah pushing Billy on the swings. He loves underdogs!

Rafael and Billy, on the swings, obviously!

Maybe Rafael just stayed on the swing that whole day?

Little Bear going wild on the swing! (This is a swing for kids who have trouble holding themselves upright in a regular swing, but Little Bear, Rafael, and the others like to twist the chains up and then spin around like crazy in it!)

What about you? What do you do after school to keep your little ones from driving you nuts?

Exhausting NIght!

2010-05-01T14:23:00.000-05:00

This has been an exhausting couple of days! I'm not going to write exactly why, because I may or may not still have stalker issues. But its just a matter of trying to juggle a bunch of things. Last night I slept at my mom's house, then went at about two to pick up all of the little kids in DuPage, and brought them back to my mom's house. I kept them there until about eight, and then brought them back to DuPage, where I will stay with them until about midnight, and then I will go back to my mom's house for the night. Does that sound complicated?
Its even more complicated because of the fact that Little Bear and Pufferfish were sort of sick.
We stopped at this little chocolate festival near my mom's house, which I thought would be fun for them. I envisioned it involving free samples of chocolate at every booth. No such luck! It was booth after booth of expensive food, nothing free, and a few rinky dink kiddie rides that were also expensive! I spent about twelve bucks on tickets so Rafael and Pufferfish could go on three rides each. Little Bear was saying she wasn't feeling good and didn't want to go on any rides. By the time the other kids got done riding their three rides and getting their faces painted, Little Bear was hollering up a storm! So I told them we would start heading for my mom's.
By the time we were almost to the car, Little Bear broke the news to me that she had to pee... bad! Of course she waited to tell me about it until it was nearly dribbling down her legs... and the only porta potty was way back on the other side of the fest, where we had just spent ten minutes walking from!
I told Little Bear to just hold it a few minutes until we got to my mom's. Little Bear started hollering even more, and then she bumped her head trying to get into the car, and it was a disaster for all involved! She gets like that when she's overtired... she's just one big blob of misfortune!
Finally we got to my mom's, and I left the others in the car so I could rush Little Bear into the bathroom. I showed her where it was, then went back for Rafael and Pufferfish, who had asked me about a bajillion times, "Why do we gotta wait in the car?" ("Because I gotta take Little Bear to the bathroom, I don't have time to get Pufferfish outta the car seat, and I don't want to leave her alone, so just STAY HERE FOR ONE MINUTE PLEASE!")
Unfortunately Little Bear had made it not quite on time to the potty and was hollering that she was cold, so I rifled around my mom's house for some little kid clothes. All I could find was a pair of Sarah -Jo's undies from when she was about six. (Back when they used to spend weekends with me, their dad never remembered to pack them clean clothes, so I started buying underwear and socks and stuff to keep at my house for when they were there.) I gave Little Bear the undies and one of my jammie T-shirts. Problem solved! Little Bear sort of looked like a ghost in the T-shirt that went down to her ankles, but what can ya do?
The rest of the night actually went better. The kids played with my doggie Trixie and visited with my less than enthusiastic kitty Sammy-Joe, and they played with the toys that my mom keeps there for my little cousins. Then they watched some cartoons. I fed them PBJ sandwiches.
You know your parents' lives have changed a lot when you have to scrounge around in their house for things to make PBJ! It was like, "Hmmm, here is some organic peanut butter! Here is some red strawberry marmalade! Here is some Country White Bread! Close enough, I guess!"
Anyway, I finally told them to clean up and we headed for home. Miraculously, all three stayed awake in the car! I got them inside, gave the girls some Motrin, let them lay down, etc. I took their temperatures and found out Pufferfish was 105.8 and Little Bear was 104.7! The rest of the night was spent just trying to cool them down and get them to sleep peacefully!
Its weird because they never had any other symptoms... no sore throats, stuffy noses, nothing!
Anyway, now I am just waiting for Rafael's mom to come get him so I can go back to my mom's for the night! Rafael, by the way, is still up and going strong, watching the old Chipmunks movie (the cartoon version from back in the day) for the second time tonight!
Ugh! I wish I never had to wake up again!

(UPDATE: Rafael's mom ended up coming to get him at about 1:00 in the morning! She was a little tipsy from the party she had been at, so me and Jimmy ended up driving her home, and I didn't get back to my mom's until 2:30! At least I got to sleep in late!)

Can You Make A Kid Become Autistic?

2010-04-22T18:41:00.001-05:00

Seriously, this is something I worry about sometimes. I know I can't literally give Pufferfish an autism spectrum disorder...unless you believe in the old refrigerator mother theories! But consider this scene...
Pufferfish and I are on a playdate at an acquaintance's home, with three other adults and three other two-year-olds (two boys and a girl, all who are turning three this summer, just like Pufferfish!) Pufferfish has met them all a bunch of times, at different group outings, but she's rarely tried to play with them. I assumed she was just shy or overwhelmed because of the large groups, and thought that a smaller playdate, with just a few other kids, would go better. But while the other kids run and play together, squabbling over toys and squeezing into a cardboard box house together, Pufferfish won't leave my side or look at the other kids. If anything, she focuses on me, trying to get me to play with her or to watch her play.
"Why don't you play with Bella? Bella, are you going to have a birthday soon? So is Pufferfish! Look, Bella is wearing Dora shoes, and you have Dora on your jacket," I say, using tricks I learned while working in day cares to try to get preschoolers to bond with eachother. "Jonah and Elijah are playing tag! Try to get them!"
Pufferfish won't go. She clings to my legs and shakes her head.
"Go play, Pufferfish! Look at all of the toys! The other mamas are sitting down and talking while the kids play," I plead with her. "Nini will go sit with the grown ups, and you can play with the kids!"
She rocks back and forth nervously, and my heart sinks. Thats something I do, one of my Aspie traits. When I am nervous, tired, upset, bored, or whatever, I rock. Its a stimming behavior. I know Pufferfish has seen me do it many times.
I've also seen her flap her hands nervously, another one of my stims.
I am socially awkward and always have been. I care deeply about people in general, and I like being around people, but I have a horrible time connecting with others. When Little Bear was a preschooler, I joined a play group so she would have the chance to socialize with kids her own age, since she wasn't actually in preschool. (We couldn't afford it at the time.) Now that Pufferfish is almost three, I'm doing the same thing, taking her on outings with other kids, hoping she'll make connections. I try hard to "pass for normal" at these outings, something I bet a lot of people with invisible disabilities understand. I concentrate hard on not rocking or flapping or blinking frantically, not interrupting, putting an interested expression on my face and participating in the conversations about breastfeeding and organic foods and molding toddlers into college material. (These are the types of things people talk about in playgroups, by the way!) But I have a feeling the other adults still think I'm a little odd, by the way they exchange glances sometimes or frown at me in confusion. I often find myself scolding myself under my breath, "Shut up! Just don't talk! Don't talk, don't talk, don't talk!"
Of all of the kids in the family, Pufferfish is the one who has spent the largest portion of her life being one on one with me. When she was tiny she was often alone with me because she just needed more supervision than the others, and as she got older she was alone with me while the others are at school.
Its a big responsibility, raising someone else's kid. I know I give her a lot of pieces of myself. I love to read and do crafts. I have read to her since she was an infant, and before she was old enough to sit upright in her highchair alone I was putting paint on her fingers and teaching her to fingerpaint! And now she loves arts and crafts and she loves to read. I adore the dogs, and have always encouraged her to be gentle and sweet with them, and she has always been gentle to them, not scooping them up and dragging them around against their will like Monkeyboy, Little Bear and Tigerlily always did when they were little (and sometimes still do!) Pufferfish pets them, cuddles with them, throws their toys for them, and gives them treats like I've taught her to do.
But I worry that I am also inadvertently teaching her the wrong things. I rock and flap when I am nervous, and she is starting to do those things. I am anxious around people, and now so is she. If she grows up to be a social outcast, it is my fault!
Is it possible? Can an adult caregiver who is an aspie pass it along to the child in her care? Or is Pufferfish just shy? And how can a socially awkward adult help a shy child get over that? What are your thoughts?

Memories...

2010-04-18T16:31:00.000-05:00

Before I even started my Typepad blog, I had a short-lived blog called "Adventures Of A Stay-At-Home Auntie." It was short-lived because BlogChex was hard to work with, and at the time it was always shutting down.
Anyway, although my Blogchex blog has disappeared, I just found some archives on my Google Reader! I want to post a few of them here, for my own memories.

March 12, 2008
Little Bear has been very curious and interested in dinosaurs lately, partly because she likes watching the Land Before Time movies! So yesterday we had a dinosaur theme for the day! I had gone to the library by my house to get some dinosaur books, and found that the library actually offers entire bags of themed books, called "Take Home A Storytime." So I checked out a bag of books about dinosaurs, and when Little Bear saw it, she thought it was the coolest thing ever! She said, "Whoa! Look at all these books!" and wanted to start reading them right away. There was one that was in sort of a Q&A format about dinosaurs, so I would read her the list of questions, and she would pick the one she wanted to find out about, and then we would go to that page and read it. Little Bear actually knows the names of a lot of the dinosaurs, although I'm not sure where she learned them! I know that in the Land Before Time movies they refer to the dinosaurs with different names, like "long necks," not their scientific names. Somewhere or another Little Bear must have learned about dinosaurs, though, and she has a memory like a steel trap!

We also hatched a baby dinosaur from an egg, dug for dinosaurs in "quicksand", played with dinosaur shaped foamy stickers, and made dinosaur skeletons by gluing pasta on paper. And for a snack, we had "dinosaurs in mud", which is actually chocolate pudding with dinosaur fruit snacks in it. Little Bear loved making the dinosaurs in mud, but she didn't like eating it... the fruit snacks in the pudding grossed her out. I thought it was good, personally, and Little Bear's Uncle John, who is visiting for a while, loved it! But Little Bear didn't like it, so I ended up having to go through her pudding and try to fish out all of the dinosaurs. Then Uncle John ate all the dinosaurs for her! He sure did love that dinosaurs in mud!

Since their Uncle John is visiting, Monkeyboy got to stay home from school yesterday, but he didn't really do anything with us... He is eleven, and way too cool for me and the little kids most of the time. It is so weird to me, because I used to take him places all the time, and now I am taking the little girls places and he is asking to stay home! He is more interested in playing on the Internet and with his wrestling video games. Uncle John is also into wrestling and video games, so at least Monkeyboy had someone to hang with for the day! Sometimes Monkeyboy tries to talk to me about wrestling, but its just so totally something I have absolutely no interest in, so its kinda hard to bond with him over that!

I think everyone is just a little off their schedule and routine, between their uncle having showed up unexpectedly, and daylight savings time getting everyone's bodily clocks messed up! Yesterday Pufferfish barely slept a wink! She is a weird baby because even when she is dead tired, she never acts very crabby... just a little weepy. You know how, when some babies get too tired, they're inconsolable? Pufferfish just gets a little weepy, but can still be cheered up very quickly by being held or played with. Anyway, yesterday we went to the library in the morning, and Pufferfish fell asleep in the car on the way home from the library, literally only about two minutes before we pulled into the driveway... so I just carried her in and put her down to bed in her crib. Usually when I do that she'll sleep for several hours. But this time she woke up after only an hour and a half, and she was up for good, wanting to party! A few times when she started getting clingy and weepy and rubbing her eyes, I went and laid her back down, hoping she'd get another nap in... but when I went to check on her, she'd be sitting up, talking to herself and laughing! (One of the times when I went in, she was sitting up in her crib and trying to chew on her mobile! )Then I'd take her out of her crib and bring her back out to the livingroom, and she'd be fine! I guess maybe sometimes she just gets overstimulated being around the other kids and everyone, and just wants a few minutes of peace in her crib? Maybe? Either way, she is definitely an awesome baby!

And last night, she fell asleep in my arms! Little Bear and Monkeyboy were all hyper and were wrestling around, and Pufferfish was starting to get weepy, and I myself was a little overtired, so I decided me and Pufferfish would have some nice quiet meditation time together. I sat in the rocking chair and rocked her and cuddled her. She fell asleep in my arms, almost right away! If you have never rocked a baby to sleep in your arms, you are definitely missing one of the better things in life!

March 13, 2008
Yesterday Little Bear and Pufferfish and I had a lot of fun! In the morning we went to an Easter party hosted by a playgroup I found. It was very cool because the people brought all sorts of toys and musical instruments and stuff, and crafts, and snacks, and most of the kids were right around Little Bear's age. She had lots of fun! Even Pufferfish had fun! She gets to have a lot more fun on outings now that she can crawl, because she can sort of move around and look at stuff! She loved playing with the instruments and looking at all the toys. There was a little boy there who was a little older than her, and Pufferfish kept sitting near him and smiling at him and trying to touch him! She loves being around other babies!

Later, Little Bear and I played a post office game. We made mailboxes for everyone in the house, and then wrote everyone letters, which Little Bear delivered! We even delivered some letters to two little neighborhood friends of Little Bear's! Little Bear loved doing it, and she was very, very excited when everyone got home and she got to tell them, "Go check your mail!"

Last week Monkeyboy had gotten a package in the mail, and Little Bear had been so excited about it, that I'd thought it would be fun for her to get a package in the mail too! We'd gone on Amazon.com and I'd let her pick out a stuffed animal, and she picked a stuffed Webkinz elephant. And coincidentally, today, on the day when we played post office, Little Bear got her package in the real mail! She had actually forgotten that we'd ordered it, and when she opened the envelope and found the elephant, she was overjoyed! She was also very excited about the fact that she could go online and actually see her elephant there. It was so awesome to see how magical the whole thing was to Little Bear! Man, I wish I could be four years old again, and have little things just make me so happy!

It was so nice out that we also got to spend some time outside. Only one thing went a little awry.

The kids have a small dog named Fluffy, and I had brought over my medium-sized dog named Jules, and all day Little Bear had been asking if we could take the dogs for a walk. But in the morning Monkeyboy had said that he wanted to go with to walk the dogs, so we waited for him! However, when Monkeyboy came home from school, he said he didn't want to go for a walk after all. Unfortunately, Little Bear still wanted to go!

So I bundled up children and animals, put Pufferfish in the stroller, and let Little Bear walk Fluffy while I walked Jules.

It didn't go well! Little Bear couldn't really handle walking Fluffy on her own. She kept dropping the leash, getting the leash tangled around her legs or the dog's legs, getting the leash tangled in the wheels of the stroller, etc.

Meanwhile, I wasn't having much luck trying to walk Jules, while pushing the stroller, either! Jules kept running forward too quickly and choking herself, zigzagging in front of the stroller and nearly decapitating the baby, etc.

Finally I said, "Lets go back and get Monkeyboy. I need help here!"

We went back, but Monkeyboy didn't want to come! He wanted to stay home and watch wrestling on TV. Finally I basically begged/pleaded/insisted he come, and he agreed. But his idea of helping was to get on his skateboard and ride along beside us, watching Little Bear and I go through the same troubles, once again!

Little Bear had wanted to walk the dogs to the park, but just as we crossed in front of the park Monkeyboy tried to jump the curb with his skateboard. Suddenly, all hell broke loose! Monkeyboy ended up on his back in a big pile of mud, Little Bear slipped on some ice and fell in the mud herself, dropping the leash, Fluffy started to run away, and as I let go of the stroller to try to sort out all of the fallen soldiers, the stroller started to roll backwards down the hill!

With both children screaming that the mud was actually dog poop, I said, "Lets turn back. Lets go home and forget this ever happened! This time, though, Monkeyboy, put your skateboard in the stroller, and you can either push the stroller or walk Jules, cause I can't do both."

Monkeyboy balked because he didn't want to do either one of these things... in fact, he was hoping I would take everyone home by myself, return to the park in my car, and pick him up so he wouldn't have to walk home all full of mud! Meanwhile, Little Bear was crying because she'd been excited to go to the park!

Somehow I got everyone home alive, and agreed to take Little Bear and Pufferfish back to the park for just a few minutes to play. By that time it was getting chilly out, and we really only stayed at the park for about ten minutes, but Little Bear was completely satisfied with that! I gave her a wild stroller ride home, taking her through the grass and over bumps and running. She was yelling at me, "Run! Faster! Faster! Faster!" By the time we got home, I was nearly having an asthma attack! But we sure did have fun!
***
Little Bear: "Pretend that my doggie was about to slide down the side of this mountain, and I was yelling for you to come save him."

Nicki: "Okay!"

Little Bear: "Oh no, my doggie is sliding down the mountain! Ayudame! Ayudame!"

March 14, 2008
Saint Patrick's Day is this Monday, so I thought I'd post some ideas early!

When I was a little kid in kindergarten, I learned about the leprechauns from my teacher, who let us draw pictures of leprechauns. (Most of the kids drew pictures of little men with green hats. I had never heard of leprechauns before, and probably had been daydreaming or goofing off when the teacher told us about them (typical ADHD kid!) so my drawing looked more like a naked green space alien with big, pointy ears! Anyway, the teacher then led us on a leprechaun hunt through the school. When we got back to our classroom, there were green leprechaun footprints everywhere! From that day on, I was in love with the idea of leprechauns, and started a tradition in my house of making a leprechaun house each Saint Patrick's Day so the leprechauns could come and visit during the night!

This is the first year I'm going to try to carry the tradition on with Little Bear and Pufferfish! Today I told Little Bear about leprechauns, and she started dancing around singing, "I'm gonna get some treasure! I'm gonna get some treasure!"

March 18, 2008
You'll never believe what happened to Little Bear and Pufferfish and I yesterday! The leprechauns came to visit!
In the morning, we went to a St. Patrick's Day storytime at one of the libraries in the area. When we came back, we saw that there were sparkly shamrocks scattered all over the living room!
Little Bear knew right away that we'd been visited by leprechauns. We tried to hunt for them, but we couldn't find them! They're very sneaky. Little Bear started to get worried... She didn't know much about those little creatures, and wondered if they might steal all of our things, if they bit, and if they killed dogs. I reassured her that the leprechauns are always nice, they never steal, and they definitely never hurt people or animals!

You'll never believe what happened to Little Bear and Pufferfish and I yesterday! The leprechauns came to visit!

In the morning, we went to a St. Patrick's Day storytime at one of the libraries in the area. When we came back, we saw that there were sparkly shamrocks scattered all over the living room!

Little Bear knew right away that we'd been visited by leprechauns. We tried to hunt for them, but we couldn't find them! They're very sneaky. Little Bear started to get worried... She didn't know much about those little creatures, and wondered if they might steal all of our things, if they bit, and if they killed dogs. I reassured her that the leprechauns are always nice, they never steal, and they definitely never hurt people or animals!
We decided to make the leprechauns a house, so that they'd feel more welcome. We cut windows and doors in a cardboard box, and decorated it with stickers.
Then we went and played in the bedroom for a while. When we came back to the living room we noticed that the dog, Fluffy, was sniffing suspiciously at the leprechaun house! Little Bear lifted it up, and guess what she found! All sorts of treasures! There were shiny green coins, leprechaun hats, St. Patrick's Day snowglobes for Little Bear and Monkeyboy... and a light-up squeezy pufferfish for Pufferfish!
We also made shamrock shakes with chocolate mint ice cream, which Little Bear thought was the coolest thing on Earth. By the way, if you don't have a blender handy (We did have a blender, but I'm afraid to use it ever since the Whipped Snow Incident) you can still make milkshakes with the kids in your life. Just put a few scoops of ice cream in a large cup, add a little bit of milk, and then stir it up until its thin enough to sip through a straw! Little Bear actually liked it better this way because she got to actually make the milkshake herself, and she felt like a chef.
Then Pufferfish's dad let her have two more bowls of chocolate mint ice cream on top of that! It was a great day for Little Bear!

March 19, 2008
What a busy day Little Bear and Pufferfish had today! This morning we went to the mall to go to Storytime With The Easter Bunny! The bunny didn't actually read a story, some sort of assistant did, and the bunny just sat there and listened with the kids. But it was still cool, and afterwards all the kids did the Bunny Hop around the room with the Easter Bunny! They got free goody bags too, with coloring books and stuffed bunnies and toys!
We were going to hang out in the mall for a while after that, since the story time only took up half an hour! The mall had these awesome strollers that were like double decker fire engines, and Little Bear really wanted one, and I saw a sign that I thought said the strollers were only a dollar to rent, so I promised Little Bear we could get one. But then the strollers turned out to be SEVEN dollars, and you could get a dollar back if you returned it later! I had already promised Little Bear, so I went along with it and fished out seven dollars. But then something great happened... Little Bear was putting money into the machine, and when she had put in only three dollars, a stroller popped out!
Both Little Bear and Pufferfish loved the giant stroller... even though I wasn't very good at pushing the giant vehicle, and crashed it into walls about ten times! I used the money I had leftover to buy a Dr. Pepper for me, and an Icee for Little Bear!
We played in the mall's play area for a while, checked out the toy store, went for a ride on the merry-go-round thing, and then left and went to McDonalds for lunch so Little Bear could play at the PlayPlace there for a while!
So Little Bear had a really great morning of running around and playing with other kids and having fun!
Afterwards we went home and did some quiter things. We made "stained glass" eggs, played a counting game with eggs, and did some educational Easter worksheets I found online! We were very very very busy! I think by the time everyone else got home, both Little Bear and Pufferfish were exhausted!
Have I ever mentioned how much fun I've been having, with my new life of watching the girls? Its definitely way better than any actual job I've ever had!

Little Bear: "You know whats weird? How come when you see characters on TV, like Mickey Mouse, they can talk, but when you see them in real life, they never talk?"
Nicki: "I don't know! Maybe when they go into the real world, they lose some of their magic?"
Little Bear: "The Easter Bunny, too! How come Santa Claus can talk, but the Easter Bunny never does?"
Nicki: "Hmm, I don't know!"
Little Bear: "Does the Easter Bunny hop to all the houses to deliver the eggs, or does he get driven?"
Nicki: "I have no clue, sugar! Maybe you should ask the Easter Bunny when we see him, today!"
Little Bear: "Uh, Nicki? He can't talk, remember?"
Nicki: "Oh, yeah."

March 23, 2008
Hi everyone! Happy (slightly belated) Easter! Monkeyboy and Little Bear and their parents and I dyed Easter eggs the other day. (Pufferfish is still a little too small for that particular activity!) Monkeyboy has always had the soul of an artist, and spent a lot of time and attention making his eggs into little oval-shaped masterpieces, so it seemed a shame to just eat them or throw them away!
On Easter Eve, shortly after Little Bear went to bed, she woke up and came out into the living room, telling me she'd had a bad dream! I comforted her, and tried to convince her that she couldn't sleep out in the living room, she had to go back and sleep in the bedroom because the Easter Bunny would be coming.
Nicki: "He won't be able to come in if he sees that there are any kids sleeping in the living room!"
Little Bear: "Why not?"
Nicki: "Well, kids are never supposed to see him! Its the rule!"
Little Bear: (rolling her eyes) "Uh, Nicki? Hello? We already saw him at the mall!"
Nicki: "Uhhhhhhh..."

March 25, 2008

Hi everyone! I hope you're having a good week! We are, so far! Yesterday, Little Bear and Pufferfish and I went to a local botanical garden for an outing. It had an awesome children's garden, with all sorts of woodsy things for Little Bear to climb on and explore. I would love to go back there in the summer, because they also have a lot of fountains and things, and even a secret river that kids can splash around in! This time we only went for an hour or two, because it was so chilly out. We played around in the Children's Garden, and then enjoyed some hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies in the cafe! (Yeah I never said I was the best influence, healthy-eating wise!)

I'd also love to go back there myself, to explore the other gardens they have, like the Reading Garden and the Fragrance Garden!

Anyway, the real reason we had gone there in the first place was because there were supposed to be bird-related activities like games and crafts and things, and we had sort of had a bird-themed day. But unfortunately, the bird-themed activities were really of no interest to Little Bear... just a few puzzles made out of laminated paper, and some informational packets, and stuff like that. We were sort of hoping there were going to be real birds there, but there weren't! Little Bear had to be satisfied with seeing a crow land on the roof of the cafe. Oh well...
We did some feather-painting in the morning, before going to the children's garden, and we did some bird-related worksheets and stuff. I also had some other crafts to do, like a flying bird and a bird feeder, but we never got around to doing them. It wasn't my best-planned day. Luckily Little Bear is easily pleased!
*****
Nicki: "Little Bear, tell me about your painting!"
Little Bear: "This is the ocean, and this is the sun."
Nicki: "Very nice!"
Little Bear: "And this is a dead guy floating in the ocean because some bad guys shot him, and here's all his blood!"
Nicki: "Oh..."

March 27, 2008
What a great day we had yesterday! Little Bear and Pufferfish and I learned about the five senses, and we did some cool projects that involved using all of our senses! We did Scratch-n-sniff Painting and Pudding Painting!
The girls' 12-year-old auntie Sarah was with us for the day, too, since she's on spring break, and Little Bear and Pufferfish definitely loved the extra attention! Made my day easier too... Sarah was happy to tote Pufferfish around all day long. In the morning we went to the Kids Club at the mall, where Little Bear got to listen to stories and dance to music and have a snack. Then we played in the play area at the mall for a while, grabbed some lunch in the food court, and threw some pennies into the fountain! After we went home, Pufferfish took a little nap, while Little Bear and Pufferfish and I did our art projects.
And since it was such a beautiful day out, we also took a walk up to the park after Pufferfish woke up. Little Bear just got a new Barbie Jeep for Easter, and she wanted to drive it all the way up to the park, which was a good idea. Sarah and Little Bear played happily on the playground. I took Pufferfish on the swing... they didn't have a baby swing so I just held her on my lap and swung... and she loved it! She was laughing and waving her arms! Pufferfish loves to be in action. Someday she's going to be a rollercoaster enthusiast, I just know it!
Things started to go sort of badly when Little Bear decided she wanted to drive it all the way around the very large pond at the park! I told her I didn't think we'd better do that, since I wasn't sure the jeep would hold a charge for that long, and I wasn't even sure Little Bear would have the energy to drive the jeep that far. I envisioned myself somehow having to carry that cumbersome thing all the way home!
Of course Little Bear threw a full-out tantrum, screaming and crying and refusing to drive her jeep home. She even yelled, "I don't want you to be my babysitter anymore! I hate you!'" Sarah and I somehow got the angry little kid to drive her jeep home anyway, although she cried and yelled the whole way! We must have made a strange sight for anyone who had the misfortune of looking out their windows right then.
All in all, it was a pretty good day, and I really enjoyed spending time with Sarah! Next week Monkeyboy is going to be on his spring break, so hopefully he'll be able to spend some time with us too!

March 28, 2008
Little Bear and Pufferfish and I belong to the Kids Club at the local mall, where there are storytimes and sing-alongs twice a month. But about fifteen minutes north of here is Woodfield Mall, one of the biggest malls in the country! They have a Kids Club too, once a month... only theirs are huge events, featuring real performers! We went there today and saw the Bubble Wonders Show. It was really cool! The guy does all sorts of tricks with bubbles!
I had bought a bunch of bubbles paraphanalia at the Dollar Store the other day, so when we got home Little Bear and Pufferfish and I played with bubbles! I had bought several kinds of scented bubbles and all sorts of differently shaped wands! Little Bear ended up mixing all of the different bubble solutions together, adding some dish detergent, and making her own "formula" which we will keep forever in a cottage cheese container!
We also did bubble painting, which turned out very cool!
This afternoon was the best! The girls' 12 and 13-year-old aunties Megan and Sarah, and their friend Emily, came over, and Monkeyboy was home, and his cross-the-street friend was here, It was sunny out, not exactly warm, but in March in Chicago we take what we can get! All the big kids went outside to play basketball, and I brought Pufferfish's bouncy seat out. Pufferfish was just so happy sitting there, watching the big kids play! We stayed out as long as we could, until Pufferfish's little nose started to run!
I can't wait for spring to really be here!

April 1, 2008
Yesterday was Teddy Bear Day for me and Little Bear and Pufferfish! I ove teddy bears, don't you? We went to this place in the mall that was a little bit like Build-A-Bear, but a generic version, and the little girls made their own stuffed animals. Although, to save money, we didn't get any accessories or clothes or anything... I told Little Bear we could come back another day for clothes... so the process really only took about five minutes. The kids just pick out the stuffed animal they want, and then the lady in the store puts the animal on a machine that shoots fluff into it! Little Bear picked a big blue bear for herself, and a penguin for Hayden. The stuffed animals from there are so soft, and the kids get a carrier and a birth certificate too! Hayden loved her penguin... When I handed it to her, her eyes lit up! She loves soft things! Plus its almost as big as her! When I put it on the floor later on, she kept crawling over to it and sitting by it, like it was her friend!
We also made teddy bear biscuits, painted teddy bears with coffee grounds, and read the story "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Turn Around." Actually its just the old jump rope rhyme, turned into an illustrated book!
I love Teddy Bear Day! Maybe this summer we'll have a Teddy Bear Picnic! Even better!

I overheard this pretend phone conversation the girls' 12-year-old aunt was having on Pufferfish's toy phone.
Sarah: "Hello? Oh, hi, Bob. Yes, we can! Bye." (Turns to Little Bear) "That was Bob The Builder. He wanted to know if we can fix it!"

April 3, 2008
Hi everyone! What a great day Little Bear, Pufferfish, Monkeyboy and I had yesterday! It was a sunny day, warmer than it usually is in Chicago, so we went to this little zoon run by a neighboring park district. They take in local wild animals who have been injured and will probably never be in the wild again, and they also have farm animals in the petting zoo part. Monkeyboy is on spring break still, so he came with us, which was really nice for us all! We brought a picnic lunch (Little Bear and I made baloney and cheese sandwiches and used cookie cutters to make them into interesting shapes!) and we stayed for several hours!

Afterwards, at home, Little Bear and I made some driveway paint and decorated the driveway! One thing I've noticed about Little Bear is that she enjoys the process of making things for activities more than she enjoys the actual activities! For instance, she loved mixing up the ingredients for the driveway paints, but didn't stay long doing the actual painting. And when we cook things, she loves mixing up ingredients and following steps to make things, but rarely wants to eat the finished product. I need to find more activities that just involve mixing stuff up, I guess!
Little Bear's birthday is in July (she'll be five) and we were talking about having a surprise party for her. The reason is because a few weeks ago Little Bear was spending a weekend at her dad's house. While she was gone, Little Bear's uncle John, who lived in Michigan at the time, showed up unexpectedly for a visit. So Little Bear's grandma and several of her aunts and uncles came right over to visit with John! When Little Bear's dad brought her home, all of her favorite people were over at her house! Little Bear was realy excited about that, and has been talking about it ever since.
Yesterday she asked me, "Could you please ask my mama to do something? Tell her, one day when I'm at my dad's house, she could invite Grandma and my aunties and my cousin Mari and a whole lot of people over to my house."
It would be so funny to just not mention any birthday party at all to her, and then have her come home to a big surprise party with everyone there!
She's a really smart kid, Little Bear is. It freaks me out sometimes!
*****
While we were at the zoo, Little Bear was playing and hurt her hand. It was just a tiny little cut, but for some reason there was lots of blood involved, and it really freaked Little Bear out! I carried her to the bathroom to try to wash her hand off, and she was screaming and hollering the whole time.
As I got her hand washed off and put the band-aid on, Little Bear kept telling me, "I hate this place! I hate this place! I never want to come here again!"
Nicki: "I know, Little Bear. As soon as we get you all cleaned up, we'll get Monkeyboy and Pufferfish and go home."
Little Bear: "No! I don't want to go home!"
Nicki: "You don't?"
Little Bear: "No! I'm not done playing yet!"

April 8, 2008
Every so often it is nice to have an ordinary day without a lot of things to do. I didn't really plan anything for Little Bear and Pufferfish yesterday, because I figured we'd just take it easy. We ended up having a really good day, anyway! We went to our playgroup, which was meeting at a different mall than we usually go to. The new mall had a tree house and a train ride, which Little Bear loved!
While we were there, Little Bear suddenly and without warning had to go to the bathroom, and as we were rushing to find one, an employee from The Picture People said we could come in and use her bathroom! She also said that they were offering free sittings and one free print. So after Little Bear went to the bathroom, she and Pufferfish got their professional pictures taken! The shots came out so cute! It was really hard to pick just one for the free one. I'm probably going to end up buying a few more of them.
Little Bear loves going to the playgroup because she gets to make new friends. But as for me, I just feel a little awkward at these things! I tend to talk to the kids, even other people's kids, way more than I talk to the adults. I'm just shy, I guess. Plus, when I do try to talk to other adults, they just look at me like I'm nuts! Maybe because I'm not the sort of trendy, organic-eating, smiling, sparkly-clean "mom" that they all seem to be. I'm just a tad white-trashy! Okay, quite white-trashy... but in a good way, I think!
For instance, on Saturday Little Bear and Monkeyboy went on an outting with their dad. He took them to the zoo in the city, which is across the street from the beach. Apparently, after the zoo, their dad took them to walk along the beach and look for rocks and seashells.Little Bear was begging to go into the water, even though we live in Chicago and the water is absolutely freezing in April! Their dad relented, saying Little Bear could take off her socks and shoes and get her feet wet, but that was all.
Well, as it is whenever Little Bear is involved, Little Bear fell down in the water and got completely wet! Then of course Monkeyboy had to jump in too! They splashed around
in the water for a few minutes, before they rushed back to the car to change into some of their dad's spare sweatshirts and stuff to get warm.
I thought it was hilarious that Little Bear went swimming in Lake Michigan in April, and she loved talking about it, so at the playgroup while talking to one of the moms, I said to her, "Little Bear, tell them what you did yesterday!"
Little Bear giggled and said, "I went swimming in Lake Michigan!"
The other mom gave me an alarmed look and said, "Well, I don't think its warm enough out for that yet."
Uh, okay, thanks for the info!
*****
Pufferfish's dad rented the Chipmunks movie from the RedBox about fifty years ago (In fact, he might as well just own it now!) and Little Bear and Monkeyboy have been watching it a lot. It really is a cute movie! I nver did like the cartoon, but I think the movie is adorable. The other day as I was watching it with them, I commented, "Aww! I want a pet chipmunk!"
Little Bear: (looking at me like I'm crazy) "Nicki! Third, you have to feed them all the time. Third, they bite. And third, they're not even real!"
Nicki: "True, true..."
*****
Yesterday when I stopped for gas, I bought a Dr. Pepper for me, and a bottle of Bug Juice for Little Bear.
Little Bear: "Can I bring my Bug Juice into the mall?"
Nicki: "Sure, Little Bear!"
Little Bear: "Good... cause, you know, I gotta get my drink on!"

aPRIL 11, 2008
I've been so busy with homework and other school junk that I haven't had a lot of time to think of things to do for Little Bear and Pufferfish! Today I thought we could do things having to do with clouds, and I had four ideas for projects and activities, but I only had the materials to do one of the projects, and didn't have enough money to get things to do any of the other projects! I felt so bad when Little bear asked me, "What do you have for us to do today?" and I really only had one thing, which was cloud dough. But we had a good time anyway! We went to Jumps N Jiggles in the morning, then watched the Chipmunks movie again during lunch, and made the cloud dough after lunch. Little Bear enjoyed the cloud dough. She was annoyed when I kept eating it though! (What!!! I impulsively tasted it, and it was really sort of good, and I was hungry!)

Little Bear is such a smart kid. She soaks in everything you say and do. I often catch her repeating things that I've said, or parroting phrases I or other people have used. For instance, today while playing with the cloud dough, we were pretending to have a birthday cake, and when we sang the Happy Birthday song, I added, "And many more, on channel four," at the end, which was something kids used to sing at the end of the Birthday Song when I was a kid. Little Bear didn't seem to notice it. About ten minutes later, Little Bear was singing the song to herself, and I heard her add, :"And many more, on channel four!" Very funny!
She also remembers the scripts of every TV commercial, and the lines to many movies she watches. Its an everyday occurance for her to say things like, "Yay! Mama bought a specially marked box of Lucky Charms!" or pass a Subway restaurant and blurt out, "Subway! Eat Fresh!" And she loves to mutter the lines to the Chipmunk movie under her breath while we ride in the car. Today as we drove to Jumps N Jiggles, she kept on saying, "Nicki, lets try and stay focused here!"
Sometimes her sponge-like memory backfires... like the time she spent an hour of a roadtrip giggling and saying, over and over, 'I'll give you a nickel if you tickle my pickle!" God knows where she heard that, but of course she had no idea what it meant and just thought it was a funny phrase! None of us grown-ups had the nerve to tell her to stop, because then we'd have to explain why she shouldn't say that, and who wants to get into that conversation?
You gotta love the kid, though, you really do. I can't wait until she gets into kindergarten... she's going to blow those teachers away!

April 15, 2008
Hi everyone! Yesterday Little Bear and Pufferfish and I ventured out into the world, and the results were disasterous!
We belong to a playgroup that was supposed to meet at a park that day to have a picnic and play, but because it was supposed to be cold out that day, the playgroup got rescheduled to an open gym session at a near by park district. That sort of screwed up our schedule because the open gym was at noon. Usually I try to arrange our outings so that Pufferfish gets a nap in somewhere. We generally go somewhere in the morning, then come home at lunch time, and right after lunch Pufferfish goes down for a nap and Little Bear rests her body for a while. Once in a while we go somewhere in the afternoon, and Pufferfish takes her nap mid-morning, but that rarely works out because Pufferfish's naps tend to stretch on for hours!
Anyway, with the open gym at noon, that was sort of an awkward time to be leaving the house, but we adjusted well! We left the house at about 10:30 and got some errands done (went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things, then to the mall to pick up the picture the kids got taken last week.) The mall and Wal-Mart were right on the same street as the open gym, so I figured we'd make it to the open gym at noon, leave right at one, and be somewhat on our normal lunch/nap routine.
Things started to go awry, though, when I smelled a foul smell from tha back seat! Pufferfish had made a poo-poo for the second time of the morning! This was after we'd already left Wal-Mart, and we were on our way to the mall, so I figured, I'd just change her diaper in the mall bathroom. But once we got to the mall, I discovered that, unbeknownst to me, someone had taken all of the wipes out of the diaper bag and colored on them! So we had no wipes.
Next it became clear that, although there were many stores in the mall that sold baby toys and baby clothes, none sold baby wipes!
We went to another store down the street to get the baby wipes, then made it to the Open Gym a little late. I went to change Pufferfish and discovered that she'd pooped right through her diaper and through her clothes... and there weren't any extra clothes in the diaper bag!

So I just took off her clothes and figured Pufferfish could crawl around in her diaper. She's only ten months old, after all!
So Pufferfish was all naked, crawling around the gym blissfully, when a mom from the playgroup offered to borrow me her daughter's extra outfit so Pufferfish wouldn't be cold! I took her up on her offer, and Pufferfish spent the rest of the time crawling around in a toddler's shirt and sweatpants!
Other than that, the day went great! Both Little Bear and Pufferfish had fun playing at the open gym. Pufferfish fell asleep in the car on the way home, but once we got home I just made her a bottle and put her in her crib, and thankfully, she actually finished her entire nap, instead of deciding that twenty minutes of sleep in her car seat was enough for one day! (Which she does do sometimes!)
The moral of this story is, I now have a big boc of wipes which I'm just going to keep in my car, to use for the next poopy emergency! Plus, we can use them to clean up messes in the car! How handy!
*****
At home, Little Bear did some fingerpainting, and then she did a bunch of "hyomework." I had gotten her one of those Basic Kindergarten Skills workbooks like you can buy in the coloring book section at Walgreens. Its filled with worksheets where kids can practice the alphabet, shapes, colors, matching, thinking skills, etc. I had bought it thinking that I'd keep it in the house and maybe Little Bear and I could do a page or two a day, during moments of boredom or when we play "school." Little did I know, Little Bear would become obsessed with homework, and plow through half of the book in two days! In fact, last night she cried at bedtime because she wanted to stay up and do homework! She's really good at it too. I have to read her the directions, of course, and she does the work.
So today at the DollarTree I picked up two more books like that, only these ones have a Care Bears theme!
Maybe by the end of summer, Little Bear will be completely ready for kindergarten!
****
I was letting Little Bear play alphabet games on Starfall.com. Kids can click on different letters of the alphabet to hear the name and sound of the letter, and see a story and pictures that go with it. Little Bear loved the letter A and kept on going back to it, clicking through the story and picture and game over and over. I was letting Little Bear play alphabet games on Starfall.com. Kids can click on different letters of the alphabet to hear the name and sound of the letter, and see a story and pictures that go with it. Little Bear loved the letter A and kept on going back to it, clicking through the story and picture and game over and over.
Little Bear: "This is my Myspace page! See the movies I put on it? And sometimes, if cute boys like me, they send me pictures. Look, someone sent me this picture of an astronaut, and someone sent me this picture of an alligator!"

April 17, 2008
Scene in living room while eating lunch.
Little Bear: "I wish we could go to the movie theater and see a movie."
Nicki: "I'm sure we will, one of these days. Besides, in the summer, the movie theater has free movies for kids every week, so we can go to the movies all the time!"
Little Bear: (falls off couch) "Okay, I did not see that coming!"

AND THATS ALL SHE WROTE!

!!

Hi Again!

2010-04-18T15:34:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone! I'm glad you found your way to my new blog, Slow Down, Gym Shoe! I couldn't afford the Typepad subscription any more, so I decided to move back to Blogger. (I already have two more blogs at Blogger! I don't know what made me originally start Slow Down, Gym Shoe! on Typepad!
Anyway, in case you are a new reader, I thought I'd repost one of my favorite posts from the original blog, which pretty much sums up what a day in my life is like!:

The scene... a typical suburban food court in a busy mall just before Thanksgiving. Enter a Crazy, Abusive,Evil Auntie Who Is Obviously A Crackhead (CAEAWIOAC), and three children between the ages of two and six.

CAEAWIOAC: "Okay, kids, I only have enough money for everyone to spend two or three dollars on a snack. What do you want?"

Kids: "dfjlsjTacobellsdlfsljSubwayslfjsdkfjBurgerKingjsf;lsjletsgosomewhereelseasdlkjas;dlicecream!"

CAEAWIOAC: "Everyone stop talking at once! You can each pick a place to get something. Rafael, what do you want?"

Kids: "dfjlsjTacobellsdlfsljSubwayslfjsdkfjBurgerKingjsf;lsjletsgosomewhereelseasdlkjas;dlicecream!"

CAEAWIOAC: "Quiet! Okay, Rafael, do you want Taco Bell? Lets go over to Taco Bell. Here are the things you could get... soft taco, crunchy taco, potato taco, bean burrito, three layer nachos..."

Kid 1: "Three layer nachos! Yeah! Thats what I want! Those are my favorite! And I want a large Coke!"

CAEAWIOAC: "You're not getting a large Coke. You can have a small Sprite." (Orders the food and pays for it with a Paypal debit card.) "Okay, lets go sit down, and then I'll get the rest of the food."

Kid 1: "No! Thats not what I wanted! Not that kind of nachos! Not with this stuff on it!"

CAEAWIOAC: "But these are three layer nachos! This is what you wanted!"

Kid 1: "Noooooooooo! I wanted plain nachos!"

CAEAWIOAC: "I'm sorry, Rafael. I'll try to scrape all the beans and junk off, right after I get the food for the other two."

Kid 2: "I'd like a tunafish sandwich from Subway, chips, and a drink!"

CAEAWIOAC: "No, Subway doesn't have a dollar menu. How about something from Burger King?"

Kids: "SkldjsfWhopperasdfjasCokesfsdjsdfjFrenchfrifkjsdChickenNuggetsslkdjf;sfjMilkshakelfkkkMustard!"

CAEAWIOAC: "Aaaaaaah! What? First of all, Rafael, you already have a snack, so you can't get Burger King! Second of all..."

Kid 1: (Puts head down on table.)

kid 2: "What a cry baby! Cry baby!"

Kid 3: "Cwy baby!"

Kid 1: "I am not crying! Shut up, you stupid heads!"

Kid 2: "I'll eat the nachos, and Rafael can get Burger King, then."

CAEAWIOAC: "Good idea, Little Bear! Here you go!"

Kid 2: "Aaaaah! Yuck! These are disgusting! I'm not eating these! I want Subway!"

Kid 1: "Thats not fair!"

CAEAWIOAC: "Everyone stop it! Ugh! I was trying to do something nice and let you have a snack, but this is not working. We're done. Nobody gets a snack. We're done." (Throws nachoes away. Starts to throw Kid 1's drink away, but stops, thinking of the dollar and twenty cents she spent on it,)

Kid 1: "Hey, I'm still drinking that!"

CAEAWIOAC: "Fine, drink it, here!"

Kid 2: "Hey, why does he get a drink and we don't!"

CAEAWIOAC: "You can share it!"

Kids: "Nowayimnotsharingwithhimherthatsgrossyuckiwantmyownnofairwhy!"

CAEAWIOAC: (who is starving herself and really wants a snack) "We'll try this one more time. We're all going to Burger King, and you can each get one thing off the dollar menu and one drink. Got it?"

Kid 2: "I want a kids meal!"

Kid 1: "I want a Whopper, fries and a Coke!"

CAEAWIOAC: (speaking slowly) "No. Listen, We're gonna get one thing off the dollar menu, and one small drink. Okay? You can get a Whopper Jr, french fries, or chicken nuggets."

Kid 2: "Can I get a Whopper Jr and french fries?"

CAEAWIOAC:: "NO! WE'RE EACH GETTING ONE THING FROM THE DOLLAR MENU, AND ONE DRINK! What do you want?"

Kid 1: "Just a Whopper then!"

kid 2: "I want a Whopper too!"

Kid 3: "I want chicken nuggets!"

CAEAWIOAC: "Okay, can I please get two Whopper Juniors, one chicken nuggets...."

Kid 1: "No, I want french fries!"

CAEAWIOAC: "Okay, give me one Whopper Junior, one french fries, one chicken nuggets..."

Kid 2: "Can I have chicken nuggets instead?"

CAEAWIOAC: "Fine. Then, I guess, two chicken nuggets, one French fries, and I'll have a Whopper Junior, and four small drinks."

Cashier: "What kind of drinks, please?"

CAEAWIOAC: "Um... Little Bear, please stop talking while I'm talking! You have to wait! Rafael, pick up all of those crowns you just knocked down. Pufferfish, I can't pick you up right now, I'm trying to... Rafael, I said quit touching the Burger King crowns! Now pick them up off the floor! Little Bear! Quit tapping my arm! Please wait just one minute! Pufferfish, where are you going? Wait... what was your question?"

Cashier: "Uh, what type of drinks do you want?"

CAEAWIOAC: "One Coke and three Sprites, please."

Kid 2: "No, I want rootbeer!"

CAEAWIOAC: "Rafael, Pufferfish, do you want rootbeer too? Okay, one Coke and three rootbeers..."

Kid 2: "Why does he get another drink? He already has a drink!"

CAEAWIOAC: "Ugh, thats right! Okay, two rootbeers and one Coke... LITTLE BEAR FOR PETE'S SAKE STOP TAPPING MY ARM AND TALKING WHILE I'M TALKING! STEP AWAY FROM ME RIGHT NOW!"

Kid 2: "But its an emergency! I need BBQ sauce!"

CAEAWIOAC: "BBQ SAUCE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN EMERGENCY, LITTLE BEAR! PUFFERFISH, WHY ARE YOUR SHOES OFF? RAFAEL, GET YOUR HANDS OUT OF THE KETCHUP! WHAT ARE YOU THINKING? LETS ALL GO SIT DOWN RIGHT NOW!"

KID 2: "Hey, how come he got fries and I didn't?"

(Five minutes later... the three children are running in and out of a near by photo booth, screaming, as CAEAWIOAC curls up in the fetal position underneath a table and mutters to herself.)

THE END!