Best Ever Potty Training Tool

A local department store has a 'family' bathroom, the one with the diaper changing table and infant holding seat. And right next to the adult toilet is a miniature toddler-sized toilet. Pequita's eyes grew round as her jaw dropped and she squealed "MY potty, Mommy!" And so it is, two or three times a month when I answer her pleas to visit it with a yes. Bliss like this is impossible on a small plastic throne that has no flusher of its own.

St. Patrick's Day

I took the kids to the local collegetown bagel shop in honor of the day. They make little effort to understand any holiday that doesn't involve candy, but not surprisingly green bagels were a hit.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Auntie

My sister gave birth to a baby girl on March 14, her son's 3rd birthday. 9 lbs and all systems are go. It is hard to be far away from the action. I am filled with a myriad emotions which I stew over daily and will certainly blog about soon as I crest 40 and continue to pay to store several 5-day blasts and 100 million sperm or so.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Overheard in Tubbie

I am on the computer in the dining room and Homestead Mama is in the bathroom bathing the children.  I just overheard the following conversation.

Pequita: Mama, dis?

H-Mama: Uh, that is your, uh, clito.ris.  Kind of like Bubba's peni.s but smaller.

Both kids: [Mad cackling]

There has been so much interest in naked time in our house, a.k.a. exploring your own goods, that we let both kids see Grandpa pee when he last visited.  We aren't sure how to expose them to the male anatomy in a Natural! Relaxed! Lighthearted! way; with two moms, we don't want to make anything a mystery.  They clearly know all about the female anatomy.  The kids regularly hear that Monito and our dog Cosmo are the only boys in the house.  So after they saw Grandpa pee - STANDING UP!  AND AIMING! - they seem to have fewer questions and more comfort about their differences.  Phew. 

Day Made

The woman who sold us our yummy burritos said that she had watched us cross the street and liked my outfit. It made her smile. Red Keen shoes, fairly bright orange cords, red polartec top, saffron and red Tibetan scarf wrapped many times around my neck. The orange stroller and kids adorned in fuschia, green, purple and both with red wellies probably didn't hurt. On such a grey day it all happened instinctively. And to think I spent my 20s and 30s in shades of black.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

What Lives in YOUR Car?

DST bites. My kids went to sleep an hour later than usual and woke up an hour earlier, even accounting for daylight savings time. Holy crap but it bodes poorly for the day when I am up and dressed before I smell my coffee brewing, which it set to do automatically at 7:01 am.

We got out of the house early and headed for the library to find out if we can re check-out the Pippi dvd since we only returned it 3 days ago. Pequita seems to NEED it to exist. On the way downtown, Monito asked to hold my hand while I drove. Uh oh; this means sleepy. And then the unthinkable happened - both kids dropped off to sleep as I pulled into the library parking lot. At 9:45 am. My kids usually go to nap between noon - 1 pm. I have no idea how the day will play out now, but pigs are flying overhead in a V-formation.

Because I forgot my knitting and am up-to-date on my bloglines feeds, I present for you the contents of my dashboard that have become full time decor.

- a Playmobil visor from a tiny plastic head
- a water lily pod that H-Mama picked for me this summer
- a beloved ring and earrings that I can't wear whilst parenting as they get bent or yanked every time I try to wear them
- a ring from the carousel we ride on Martha's Vineyard every summer on a scrap of rainbow ribbon. I did get the brass ring once but chose to turn it in for a free ride instead of stealing it
- an Eeyore key, a sure-fire happy-making toy
- a half-eaten sticky lolly deemed a choking hazard and confiscated from a sleeping babe's mouth some time in December (grape, come to find out. Of COURSE I ate it.)
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Pequita or Pinocchio?

Me: "Pequita! Who tore the DVD cover from the library's copy of Pippi Longstocking? We have to be gentle with paper!"

My sweet innocent daughter: "Um, Maggie, Mommy." [point point point] [blink blink blink]

And so the fibbing begins.

In Like A Lion

Lots going on. I'm trying to breathe through it and be present. While I've been breathing, my parents came for a nice visit, we set up a fish tank, H-Mama and I went on a date while my parents babysat, my daughter told her first fib, we lost a fish, my kids have manifested the ability to count and recite large chunks of the alphabet, we've fully embraced brollies here and played in the mud a lot. Also, I found some great crafts to pass on to you all for toddlers which I'll do soon.



This afternoon Monito fell down the cement stairs at a friends house while I was trying to get Pequita to come along. He moved fast, and it is like herding cats to get her to do anything these days. Bloody nose, blood streaming from his mouth, scraped and cuts on his nose, lips and chin. In the pouring rain, long minutes from home. The little trooper only cried for about three minutes, nursed for two and then let me put him in the car and take him home. It is awful, and I feel awful about it. I could see it happening in slow motion, and any parent knows how long the milliseconds seem as you wait to hear how loud and long the screams are, indicating the magnitude of the injury. I don't think this one is terrible [I haven't been able to get a good look inside his mouth at his teeth yet. I'll do that tomorrow when it is less uncomfortable for him] but the crying was heartbreaking.

He's going strong, but sheesh. I held it together but am still upset about it. The bruising is going to be impressive.

The Beast That Ate My Living Room

I have been redecorating our upstairs landing/ foyer/ office for many months. The redecorating takes only a few minutes; the getting rid of years of paperwork and crap takes long hours of sorting, shredding and sneaking things out of the house to the thrift store after H-Mama has left for work. The shredding my kids warmed right up to. Monito is afraid of the little shredder, but is happy to collect scraps of any paper to hand to his braver sister who sends it on through the machine with glee.

In the original space design, only now beginning to be realized, there is a desk with my computer on it, a gas stove that looks like a wood stove but is on a thermostat, a book shelf for kids books and some comfortable seating for kids to snuggle into as they hunker down and read for hours like I used to. Lets set aside the fact that my kids are, at this age, so very uninclined to sit and read to themselves that it is a folly to design around the future book addictions that I want them to have.

So I posted on Freecycle that I wanted a bean bag or two for my kids to snuggle into because they cost twenty dollars or more at Target and I'm cheap. What I received has me crying for mercy. I fetched one today from a lovely woman a couple miles from my house; she was so ecstatic to see me arrive that I should have known something was up. She pulled from underneath her ping pong table one of the two bean bags that I agreed to take off her hands, and I stopped short. "Um, I'm going to have to return tomorrow for the other one" I said one I caught my breath. It is massive, and according to the Interwebs it is around $257 per bag. I was barely able to fit it into my Volvo wagon back end; note the stroller mashed against the side of the car in the picture below.I'm sure Sandy got them on sale, but still. The one in my living room is so big that it will make 4 or 5 kid-sized chairs when I make attractive covers out of a nice neutral linen I've selected. The other one? I've committed to go fetch it tomorrow. I'm looking for a home for it. Speak up if you want it. I can't sell it, since I got it for free, but I'm not sure I know anyone who has room for it.

It took the kids a few minutes to figure out how to get on it, but Pequita decided that launching off the full-sized wing back chair already in our living room would work. She then figured out that getting out wasn't an option, and asked me to bring her the babies so she could play with them in the chair.

Groundhog Alternative

Who needs Groundhog day when I have snowfall for the last few days to let me know that spring is pretty far away? Even my hyacinth is taking pity on me and sending out a whole new shoot to keep us entertained and my kitchen smelling good. See it peeking through?


The birds are also flocking to the feeders. We have greedy blue jays, hungry cardinals, huge crows, and many squirrel scavenging at our kitchen window. I highly recommend getting feeders if your kids are at the right age. They love love love to fill the feeders and then watch the birds eat. We will be making craft projects with pipe cleaners and cheerios to hang out there for the squirrels as well. I think they'll like to see something they actually created helping feed their creatures.

Goldfish

$1 per 8 pack. I got several.

Brolly/ Tushy

It isn't clear to me which is the star of this picture, Monito's new umbrella or the adorable tushy peeking out underneath it.

Sick, Homestead Style

I was assuming we brought our colds back from Canada [and the trip would still have been well worth it] but everyone in our town is sick, too, and it can't ALL have been from my Typhoid-Homestead family.

When our family falls sick at the same time, it is actually pretty enjoyable. There is lots of quieter playing on the new rug in front of the fire. Pequita is perfecting her tower building technique, and her brother is working on the restraint required to let her.

There is lots of rolling around in blankets, hiding underneath them and zoning out in a pile of warm coziness. Monito asked to have the tunnel and playhouse built. He then curled up inside it with his blanket and relaxed to the Teletubbies. There is also lots of laundry folding, as evidenced by the pile on the couch, because the kids are quiet enough for me to actually get it done in daylight hours.

There is lots of napping, woozy waking, and being nursed back down to sleep for an extra half hour.

There is lots of comfort food. The kids got sherbet cones for breakfast the last two days to soothe their throats. I found tiny kid cones that are about 2.5" tall; difficult to fill with frozen ice cream, but perfect for a special treat medicinal-sized serving. Popsicles and macaroni and cheese have figured more prominently in our diets than usual, alongside homemade chicken soup and kale with brown rice to balance it all out. After the kids went weepily, clingily down to bed last night, Homestead Mama and I had a battle of the breads. She started a batch of Bittman's "no-knead bread", a sure-fire recipe I've written about before. It is a chewy, crusty french peasant bread style loaf. To complement that, I made a loaf of sandwich bread in the bread machine. My favorite recipe is called Anadama bread, and it is in the recipe book that came with the machine. It has oatmeal, cornmeal, and molasses in it, and wheat gluten is added so it is chewy and soft. It is perfect. If anyone wants the recipe, comment and let me know.

This morning I woke up and punched down the no-knead dough and set it up on the top shelf in the warm living room to finish rising in the green milk-glass bowl. This bowl is over fifty years old and brings me joy every time I use it and think of how many other women have baked bread with it. I put away most of my Fire King dishes when the kids were born, but kept a few most used pieces out to keep me happy in the kitchen.Then I served us all slices of my bread with butter and honey. Hot coffee for me, and water with a splash of juice in it for the kids in baby bottles, their cup of choice when sick. Homestead living at its best.

Kiddie Motorcycle Gang

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Canadian Trip

We had a delightful time up on the edge of Canada. I love wintery beach, and our friends live a few short blocks from a lovely one. We spent a long cold time exploring and playing on the beach and nearby playground. You can see Toronto across the lake.
Canadian geese, possessing home court advantage, are bolder up North. Monito, a veteran fowl-chaser, got a little surprise when the tables were turned and the hungry geese came looking for food. He broke into a run right after this shot was taken.

We were visiting a house inhabited by a 2.5 year old, and much of the time she seemed equal parts amazed, delighted and horrified at how Pequita and Monito interacted in her previously peaceful, tidy space. The marauding! The screaming! The fighting, hitting, biting! The time outs! The humanity! There was a truly remarkable amount of sharing on all fronts, given the ages of all three kids.

There was a lot of parallel play, and a good amount of cooperative play as well. Ball rolling in a circle had to be set up and monitored by adults, but was fun for a couple minutes.

As always, I wish we lived closer to our loved ones with kids our children's age.

And I made a mental note of an item for the "3rd Baby: CONS" column. Travelling to other people's houses with 3 toddlers? Near-impossible. I think the only place we could visit without staying in a hotel is to Grandma's house. Although my kids would be at least a year older, more mature and more independent by the time of birth...