I don’t have a Title for this one…

I’ve been kind of quiet on this blog lately, due to many reasons, some of which I’d rather not write about as I’m trying to keep this a happy upbeat kinda place. But mainly, I’ve been super busy with actual camp, not camp mom. I’ve been working mornings at my district’s art camp, which is always an adventure though this year seemed to entail a whole lot more running around after camp each day than usual! Next year I am hoping things will be a bit calmer, and that I can enjoy my afternoons instead of running around with the poor kid trying to replace the terrible paper mache sent to me that didn’t remotely work…oy!

At any rate, as my darling little kid is snoozing on the couch next to me, I am relaxing and trying to come up with some fun stuff for next week when camp is over! I can’t wait to get us to the beach and pool nice and early and get home before its too hot and just in time for naps and lunch. I also think we are going to try to make our own playdough either on Friday or some time next week. If we succeed, or even if we don’t, I’ll definitely post about it!

Lately the kid is all about a few things:

1) Building towers and stuff out of anything she can find. Blocks, mega blocs, cups, her dinner dishes. I think its so awesome. She sticks her tongue out in concentration and builds things pretty high!

2) Trying to really talk! SO exciting! She now has some new words to add to her repertoire including Choo Choo, NO (She used to say DA and I’m sad she stopped to be honest!), cracker, and other parrot-like responses that she says once but then not again for awhile. I’m wondering if real talking is on it’s way?!

3) Coloring. Omg, I set up a little bin at the kitchen table, which we always cover with butcher paper as its super nice and we are trying to preserve it through the kid years (HA!), and lately she crawls up on a chair and will sit for a really long time picking out different markers, crayons and chalk and just coloring every inch of the paper on the table! I love it! I’d love it more if I felt that I could trust her to sit and color while I did something exciting like, Oh, make dinner or empty the dishwasher, but for now I’m happy to sit and watch her and maybe enjoy a mostly quiet cup of coffee while we sit!

So that’s about it for now! Oh! I forgot all about our recent trip to the Stepping Stones Children’s Museum in CT! I’ll have to post about that later. So much fun! In the meantime, I can’t believe this kid is still asleep. I’m going to lay around and watch cooking instead of doing anything at all cuz long naps are pretty rare in this house and I consider them a gift!!

 

s’mores indoors!

Sometimes you just want to have a gooey and delicious snack and you don’t want to go to the trouble of lighting up a fire pit. In these times, toaster oven s’mores are perfect and cozy.
How do you do such a thing?! You ask? Simple!

1. lay out the graham and slice the marshmallows in half and lay flat on a toaster sheet lined with foil (for easy clean up of course)

2. Cook on the BROIL setting for about 2-5 mins. VERY IMPORTANT: Do not walk away! If you are not staring the mallows down watching them melt they will almost definitely go too far and next thing you know there is a small fire in your kitchen. So watch them!

3. Just before they look super done, throw on the chocolate and let that melt a smidge as well.

4. Smoosh together, and enjoy!

 

Share Share That’s Fair

So okay, I have often said that I try not to judge other parents. I mean, parenthood is a very difficult thing and no two people do it the same way, and no way is really the wrong way. Well, unless you like lock your kids in a closet and spoonfeed them mold or something horrible and evil. But in general, how you parent is up to you. I don’t care if you breastfeed or bottlefeed, so long as the kid is fed. I don’t care if you jump out of bed every time they wimper or let them wail for 20 minutes to be sure it’s a real distress call, that’s totally up to you. I don’t care if you let them wear 14 pairs of socks and no shirt to Mother’s Day Brunch or make them wear a frilly dress. But I draw the line at manners and not intervening when your kid is being a dick.

 

We went to the town pool today. We have a family pass, and the kid LOVES going there. Usually it isn’t too crowded and the kids are all pretty nice, and everyone brings toys that float around the pool and everyone sort of shares them and you just collect them when you leave. Everything is lovely and delightful and I was looking forward to today because it was the first pool day of the season!

However, today there  were a bunch of jerky little kids at the pool. And of course their parents seemed to be the real reason they were acting that way. Allow me to explain:

First off, my Kid is 19 months old. She clearly looks like a baby. She does not look like she is going to swipe some four year old’s toys and run away with them for forever. She is going to look at your toy, wave at it, and set it on it’s merry way. We are hopping around in the giant kiddie pool and she picks up a football, which says Dylan on it. I go into my usual speech parents give in such a situation in case the owner is nearbye:

“Oh no that isn’t our toy, see, it says Dylan on it. He might want to play with it, we should leave it here.”
I put it down, kid picks it back up cuz she doesn’t get it. I look around, and the kids are all playing and no one seems to care we are playing with a football so I figure, okay, when Dylan comes back, we’ll give it to him. So I say so to the kid. No sooner are the words out of my mouth than a big 4 year old comes RACING UP and SNATCHES it out of her hand. Like violently. I look around and see no one who might be his mom or dad. Great.

“Sorry, she was just looking at it, she was looking for you to give it back!” I say. He looks at me and walks away without a word. Lovely.

Moments later she picks up a truck. I am about to make her put it down as it also says Dylan on it and guess who shows up out of thin air and snatches that away too!? “She just wanted to share, maybe you could share with her since you weren’t playing with it?” I say. Again, beastly boy just WALKS AWAY.

Then my kid sees a pink watering can. No name on it so I figure, okay, this one can’t be that kid’s, so we can use it for a minute. Again, the brat comes storming over and I go, “Oh, is this yours? It doesn’t have your name on it.” To which he goes, “No it’s not mine. But its my friends.” “Oh, where is your friend?” He gestures into outer space. “Over there!” and grabs it again. At this point I loudly say to my kid, “Let’s go to the other side of the pool where the children are nicer and look like they might share with you! Next time we will bring our own toys since no one seems to like to share here, how sad!” She agrees and we move on. I finally hear a very halfhearted, “Oh give the baby that watering can….. you aren’t using it….” from some lady sitting in the shadows talking on her phone. He ignores her and she doesn’t push it, so apparently Dylan is always going to be a jerk who doesn’t share and who snatches toys from babies.

 

A little later we are playing with nicer kids and another older boy is playing with a water gun with his friend. My kid drags me in between them and the kid SHOOTS ME RIGHT IN THE FACE WITH WATER! I was like, holy crap! Again, HIS mom is on HER phone and actually says NOTHING at first. I say to the boy, “Wow, you kind of missed and hit me right in the face!  YIkes!” in a teacherly way and HE says nothing! His mother tells him not to play with the guns but does she remind him to say he was sorry?! Nope!

I just don’t get it. Being polite and treating others with respect is like the first and most important aspect of being a human being! The fact that neither parent even CARED that their kids were rude and nasty makes it even worse! I know that many parents are not like that, but when you encounter two in one afternoon, it makes you kind of doubt humanity and worry about your own kid’s future in school. I for once, will never stop reminding her to be sweet and kind and polite,and always treat others the way you want to be treated. One day my kid will be doing something amazing with her life and stinky old Dylan is going to be sitting around working as a lifeguard at age 45 telling kids not to touch his toys!!!

Crazy Toddler!

So school let out last week and I promptly traveled up to Rochester NY to surprise one of my dearest friends from college for her birthday, along with our other roommates/friends  from college. There is really nothing better than the kind of friends that always pick up right where you left off. We’ve all been through a lot, have gone long periods without seeing one another, but stick us in a room together even if its after a year or more or not seeing each other, and we are still 18 and being dorks. Its so awesome!

Anyway, that was the first time I’ve been away from the kid all by myself. Sure, the husband and I go away from time to time and she has sleepovers at her grandparents, but I’d never left her without having my husband for moral support. I was very nervous: would she be okay? Would she freak out and realize after awhile I wasn’t at the store or something? Would the husband remember to brush her teeth?! Would I be able to have fun away from them?

Well, I’m pleased that everything went fine. She and her dad had a blast together and did so much stuff I think they were both passed out by 7:30 each night, ha! I had a great time myself and while I certainly missed the kid, I knew she was having fun and doing great, so that helped a lot. Besides, it was so nice to see my friends and not be running after a kid or trying to make sure she isn’t stuffing apples in the ottoman while I chat!  My husband says that twice she sort of looked for me, but he told her they’d get me at the airport the next day or whatever and she was cool with that. So yay!

Anyway, now summer is upon us and I’m working mornings at art camp. Its actually a big adjustment for me which is silly. I only worked two days a week this past school year, so working every day, even if it is only til noon is still very different. I also have to get the kid moving and to whoever is watching her, and that’s hard. She is not fond of moving quickly in the morning (like me!) and we are still finding the best way to meet up/arrange care for her. Also the past two days she’s fallen asleep in my mom’s car, transferred to mine at camp but then woken up once I get home. So 45 min nap all day! It’s not terrible except she’s getting kind of shrill after awhile and overtired/crazy. She’s also going through a big independence phase: she thinks she should run away from me, run outside without me, charge off into the night and not look back, climb all over the couch and laugh when she gets in trouble for it. (Okay she hasn’t charged into the night–yet!) So me having to be extra vigilant and worrying she’s going to become a horribly behaved child coupled with little naps is making life a tad stressful!

Anyway, I’m hoping this phase passes quickly and she’s back to her normal levels of mischief. Or that she starts to actually care if I put her in time out or something. Sigh. Toddlers are crazy. Good thing they are cute!

Let’s Take the Train!

This morning the sun was shining after a week of rain. The horrible humidity was gone! I was ready for adventure!

We had talked with some of the moms at Storytime the other day about taking the train from our town to the one next door, which has a playground. It sounded like fun! A ride on the train and a park and fun! I was mildly hesitant only because as you know the Kid is a nut, but I decided the fun would outweigh her crazies.

I am pleased to report that mostly it did! The one giant snag was upon entering the train parking lot, I opened the trunk to get out her stroller…and it wasn’t there. Ugh. How many times does that happen? The Husband took her to the mall this weekend and took the stroller out of my car, and we both totally forgot about that til I needed it today. Well, oh well! There was no turning back as I saw our friends waiting on the platform. So, the kid and I walked to the train and she had to alternately stand by me and I held her. It was mostly okay though I was petrified she’d get away and plummet to her death over the side of the platform, but we made it through. She kept wanting to leave after awhile though..we were early and the train is supposedly usually waiting..but today it wasn’t! OH well.

We got on and she was sort of scared at first! I find that to be so funny. She will throw herself headfirst off the couch and try to run into traffic, but put her on a carousel or a train and she’s suddenly hugging me in a death grip and whimpering! She got over it though and enjoyed the ride…only from my lap of course. ha!

Luckily the park was really a two second walk across the parking lot and we had a great time! Coming back we had to run for the train and that was rather terrible hurtling to a train holding a 23 lb weight on my hip. I sort of couldn’t breath for most of the trip home but the kids had fun so that’s what counts!

I am so happy we’ve made friends through Storytime. Meetup just never worked out and every where else I’ve tried the Moms are strangely mean and rude! My Storytime moms though are awesome and so are their kids!

Camp Mom: Week 2

So this week I actually did a lot of sidewalk painting with the Kid again. She LOVES it! We had to make a new batch after a few days though because the original grew some really repulsive black mold on it. EW! Anyway, Lots of things on my list aren’t all that crazy, but I did decide to do stamp pads and ink on Wednesday!

 

HA!

 

I have no photographs of it because this is how it went down:
(I spread out large sheets of paper, used large foam stampers and a giant kid stamp pad…fool proof, no?)
Me: Look! This is ink! This is a stamp! Watch how to do it!

(I take the stamper and dunk it into the ink and stamp with it.)

Me: Cool, right?!
Kid: WOW WOW WOW!

She then tries to stamp but uses the flat side so it doesn’t work. So I try to help her and she just gives it to me, takes a new stamp and proceeds to do the exact same thing. I am in the process of trying to re-show her how to do it on the side with engravings when she abandons the stamps and just goes for it with both hands!
Result: Lots of crazy rainbow baby hand prints. I try to take a picture of it and she runs away and I have to wrestle her to the ground before she puts little rainbow baby handprints all over my kitchen!

END SCENE!

 

Sooo there you have it. It would appear 19 months old (almost), is a TAD on the young side for for stamps and ink! I’ll store those away in an undisclosed location until she’s closer to 2 or 3 I guess!

 

Summer Fun at Camp Mom!

Okay so it isn’t quite Summer yet, but close enough in my house! Remember how I posted all about my new ambitious ambitions?! Well, I have done exactly zero in the landscaping department, but I DID do one of my Toddler fun ideas from Pinterest!

Today we made sidewalk paint or liquid chalk, whatever you want to call it, it was fun and easy to do!

I got the recipe from this post on Pinterest, but I did change it slightly.

The recipe calls for 1 cup of water and 1 cup of corn starch, plus food coloring. I took three small plastic take out containers (the clear kind with lids) and added 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup of corn starch to each one and mixed, then I added food coloring. If you plan on making it, add the water first and then the starch, it will be much easier to combine! I felt like such a genius for doing it this way because the containers were sturdy for a toddler and also the lids meant easy cleanup and we can use them a few more times before dumping everything!

The kid totally loved it! She painted on and off most of the day! We’d paint a bit, do something else, and then she’d come back and paint some more! She also liked helping me put the lids on and putting the paints away and bringing the brushes inside to rinse. Of course, moments later she’d be all, LET’S PAINT AGAIN!!!! So whatever! She also was pretty good about painting the sidewalk only, she only painted me once and her shoes twice!

She was so happy that she stopped mid paint and gave me a giant hug! Oh so totally worth it for that hug and her little happy singing as she painted!

 

By the way, in case you care, here’s my list of other stuff to do soon!:

Paint with water books (find and then do them)

buy match box cars and make a track to play with them on

macaroni in a box with cups and stuff (did rice, will not do very often, toooooo many pieces to clean!)

make a felt board and do felty sticking on of stuff

clothesline and hang up clothes with clothespins

ziploc bag painting

stamps and ink pads

put dish soap in the water table so its a foam table!

shaving cream fingerpaint

colored rice – but uh maybe we’ll play with that outside 😉

big paper on the floor and color color color!

make our own play dough

sidewalk paint

 

That’s it for now! Next week maybe we will make some play dough!

 

 

Getting Ambitious!

This weekend was the stuff Summer is made of: Sun, warm weather, bbq and lots of running around outside! This gorgeous weather coupled with my darn obsession with Pinterest, has me suddenly super ambitious about some projects that I want to do this Summer. I’ve decided if I really want to get stuff done, then I ought to publicly tell the internet about it so my five readers can hold me accountable, ha!

So anyway, first on my list: DO LOTS OF COOL TODDLER STUFF

That is to say, I’ve pinned like a zillion lists that have lovely titles like, “20 ways to entertain your toddler” or “Tips to keep your Toddler happy” and then I forget most of the ideas. I have used two that are amazing: pipe cleaners and a collander, and pom poms and bowls…these two items keep the Kid busy for a really long time! I only give them to her when she’s getting wingy or seems bored, or I REALLY want a second cup of coffee in peace, and she gets SO excited by them! We put the pom poms through the opening of an empty wipes container and then she takes them all out and puts them in a bowl and stirs with a spoon and repeats. So great. But anyway, I digress….I finally made a list on paper of the different ideas from the websites so I’ve decided to try at least one each week!

This week I think we will make sidewalk paint, so stay tuned! I have work tomorrow so we’ll do it either Wednesday or Friday, whoo hoo!

Next on my list of ambitious things is to create a rock garden/stepping stone path in the yard. The husband and I have been super busy this weekend catching up on all the landscaping we’ve forsaken for the past two years while I was pregnant with the Kid and then when the Kid was too little and didn’t do much outside but hated sitting still in a stroller. So we planted tons of flowers, weeded, mulched, you name it! There’s still a few spots that need more flowers, and I have decided that I’m going to take the really gross muddy plot of land near our deck and turn it into a zen space of different kinds of rocks and make mosaic stones to set in the midst of it! This will probably take me forever, but dammit, I’m going to get it done!

Um, I can’t remember if I had any sudden fits of ambition today, so I would say that’s it for now, but stay tuned! I’m making paint in the next few days and will be researching how the heck you make a rock garden into the evening!

 

When did my baby become a Kid?!

So it would appear that all of a sudden, I don’t have a little baby anymore. I’ve got a KID! I know of course that all of this development stuff is slow and evolving and whatever, but I really feel like all of a sudden, she just became a kid overnight!

One day I was watching her try to eat a yogurt by herself rather unsuccessfully, and suddenly she’s using a fork like its her job! She’s grown like 4 inches in like a day and is this tall, skinny ball of energy and its really pretty awesome!

Yesterday for example, she helped me plant flowers. Now, usually I use the term “help” quite loosely. Like you know, she “helps” me clean up after a meal by throwing her washcloth across the room and throwing her arms up in the air triumphantly. But yesterday, she seriously stood at the trunk of the car, carried each flower pot I gave her solemnly and carefully to the steps, put it down, and came back for another! Then she watched me dig the hole, I gave her a flower and she’d put it in and help me bury it. I was amazed! I mean, in between this she insisted on burying the cilantro I’d just planted and took a giant hunk of dirt out of the strawberry pot and walked around the backyard with it, but still! She’s growing up so fast!

 

This weekend is also a bunch of firsts for her: first ice pop, first chocolate pudding and first slice of ice cream cake. Let me tell you, she may not always be the best eater, but I’ve never seen such focus on eating til she encountered each of these foods!

 

Anyway, all this growing up has me very misty eyed; thinking of the little baby she was last summer who was kind of afraid of grass, but pretty excited about the spunky little girl I now have who will run circles in the grass and then do a nose dive after a bouncy ball!

Gearing up for Summer, but first the last week of STRESS!

I’m sure at least one of my 10 readers is dying to know how my first Jewelry class went last week. Right? Right?!

Anyway, it went really well! I am very pleased with the whole thing. I got there super early as I was anxious I would be late due to traffic and rush hour, but that was sort of silly as it seriously takes like 4 minutes to unload all of my jewelry supplies and left me with about 40 minutes to anxiously await the start of the program.

I had 7 girls show up, grades 4 and 5. At first they were a little bit quiet, but soon enough we were cracking jokes, talking about color combinations and making really pretty stuff! I really do enjoy these kinds of programs because its mainly all about the beads you use and the supplies. The concepts are not that difficult, its all about design. Kids LOVE having a large variety of beads to use and sifting through them to find the perfect ones. It’s really fun for me to be a part of it. I have my next program at the end of June and I’m excited! That one will be a celestial charm bracelet for the YA program a few towns over. I think I’m going to see if I can find some colorful star and moons to go with the metallic stuff I already purchased for the program.

Now I just have to get through this week, which is Art Show week. Set up is tomorrow, which I will be doing all by myself since anyone who could help is taking care of the kid while I set up, and then the show is Tuesday and I take it all down Wednesday night. I think everything is under control but I always worry that I’ve forgotten something important. Hopefully I haven’t and its the best show yet! I am actually really proud of the work my kids did this year, I really pushed them to learn more and really apply the skills I taught them. I hope everyone else agrees! I also hope I didn’t somehow tell a kid they are in the show and then somehow lose their project. This is a fear I have every year, once I thought it happened but it turns out the parent just couldn’t seriously see the picture right in front of  her face! But still, I’d feel awful if I ever really did that! It’s hard to keep track of it all!

So really, once Friday hits, I will be SO RELIEVED. All the crazy stuff should be winding down and summer will be fastly approaching! Tonight we pulled the high chair on the deck and bbq-ed and the kid LOVED it. I am starting to envision coffee on the deck while she eats her breakfast out there, and then just running around playing in her pjs in the yard on warm summer mornings. Ah, doesn’t that just sound fabulous?!

So anyway, only like 5 days to go and then I can really get into the summer spirit!