Something I said I would NEVER do as a parent

Okay, well, it's not that big of a deal.  My title may have been a little dramatic, but it is one of the few  parenting opinions I had before becoming a parent.

I swore to myself that I would NEVER take my child into one of those play place things at the mall.  I walked past them in disgust: the yelling, the crying, the screaming, the kids wiping their noses with their hands and then touching everything. in. sight.  Nothing about the play place seemed like a good idea.  

Then, just a few short years later, I became the parent of a toddler.   Now I know why parents love these things - because kids love these things.  I'm over the yelling, crying, and screaming; that just comes with raising a toddler.  They will do that at the play place in the mall or at home or wherever they are.  The noise distributes better at the mall. :)

As far as the germs, I'm kind of over that too.  Toddlers are kind of gross sometimes.  I clean her up as best as I can, and always wash/sanitize hands when leaving the play place.

Climbing on some giant dominoes.

Am I letting my former self down??  Maybe, but I don't really care.  Evie loves the opportunity to run around, climb on things, and play with other kids.  She is so excited about it that I get excited too.  Plus, it's so much fun to see her interacting with the other kids. 

Crawling through a tunnel to greet my sister on the other side.

The weather is turning spring-like, even here in Wisconsin, and we'll be going to the park a lot more in the coming months, but the mall playland helped us through the winter when the park wasn't an option.  I have learned my lesson, and I'll never say never again.

What have you said you'd NEVER do as a parent??

Top 5 Laughs of the week

It was the least busy week we've had in a while...thank God!!!  I didn't have parent teacher conferences or meetings or fundraisers or anything of that extraordinary stuff that goes along with being a teacher keeping me at school until 7 or 8 at night.  Luckily, this coincided with a week that M didn't have any late promotional meetings either.  Woot woot to quality family time!!!

So, we managed to have a few laughs.  In no particular order:

• We have been trying to teach Evie the words for the parts of her body for some time now, and she has had a real problem with "nose."  Whenever you ask her where her nose is, she points to her ear, eyebrow, or chin.  I always laugh when she does this...it probably only encourages her to point to the wrong spot.  :(
• Related to the "nose issue,"  I recently started pushing her nose and saying beep, and then saying, "nose."  (I don't know if I thought this might help her figure it out...I'm not really worried that she'll never figure out where her nose it or anything...but it was just something goofy to do.)  Anyway, so the other day, I was holding her and she pushed my nose and said, "beep."  I cracked up.  Now she pushes everyone else's noses and says beep, but she still doesn't know where her own nose is.
• We keep Evie's toys in an old laundry basket in our living room.  Lately she has been into emptying the basket and then climbing into it herself.  I just think it's cute.
 

Please ignore the gray part at the bottom of the picture...still figuring out how to edit pics from my new phone. :(

• She has also figured out how to climb into her princess chair that she received for her birthday last summer.  I think she just likes to have a place of her own to sit!  She pulls herself onto the chair, and then she yells for one of us to give her a book.  She will load herself up with 5 or 6 books, and just sit in the chair and look at them.  

Again, ignore the gray thing...uuuugggghhh!!!

• M and I refuse to let the other one do the grocery shopping.  I know he'll miss some of my food, or I'll miss some of his and it causes a monster fight.  (We're protective of our food around here!), so the solution is to go grocery shopping together.  We went shopping last night and Evie was being a major crab.  She wanted to walk with us, not stay in the cart.  So, we let her try it in an aisle without too many other people.  She was in heaven, and then she heard the piped in grocery store music.  She started dancing in the middle of the frozen food section.  HILARIOUS!!!! 

What I've been reading

I have done book "reviews" in the past, but I hesitate to call them that.  More than anything, I love to read, and I like to share what I believe are good, interesting books with others. 

Recently, I finished The Hunger Games (Scholastic, 2008) by Suzanne Collins.  With all of the Hunger Games "hysteria" about the movie coming out later this month, I had to read the book before the movie came out.  The book is written for young adults, so many of my students have read it too. 

 My students had been bugging me to read the book for a while.  They told me the plot, and I hardly believe that this could be a book written for young people.  Basically, a group of twenty four 12 - 18 year olds are chosen to compete to the death for the entertainment of the "Capitol."  The Capitol controls the whole country and they use the Hunger Games as a way to exhibit their dominance over the lesser "districts."  The storyline seemed too gruesome for a young adult novel, but that's what it is.

While it was gruesome, this book was also incredibly addictive!!!  I couldn't put it down, and when I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it.  I'm really curious as to how they are going to make a movie from this book.  It's very futuristic, and I think that seeing the movie would ruin the vision that I have of the District 12 (where, Katniss, the main character is from), the Capitol, and the arena in which the Games take place. 

I really enjoyed this book, and I made M go buy me the 2nd book in the trilogy the day after I finished The Hunger Games.  I am about 50 pages into that right now, and I'm excited to see how everything turns out.  It's been fun to chat with my students about the book too.  Every day they come into class and ask me what part I read the night before. 

Have you read The Hunger Games?  What did you think of it?  Are you planning to see the movie?

Resolutions - Month 2

I can't believe that February came and went so quickly.  I feel like I just wrote my first resolution update yesterday, but it was over a month ago.  And it hardly seems like two months have past since I first wrote my New Year's resolutions. 

February was a crazy month for me.  I was at school 12+ hours a day on many occasions.  That's what parent/teacher conferences, working on a teacher leadership group presentation for the school board, and planning a trip abroad for students will do to you...oh yeah, and just trying to keep up with my kids on a daily basis!!  ;)  However, even with all of the time I spent away from home, I don't think I did all too badly.  I'm sure you'll see where I slacked...

• Weight loss - Still down 4 pounds, but that's all.  The first thing to go when I got busy was my gym routine that I've had since November.  At least I didn't gain anything back...Gotta look at the bright side, right?!?!?!
• Being a better organizer/housekeeper - This has been pretty easy actually.  I'm in a great routine, and M is helping me out a lot.  I feel so much more together now!!
• Spending more quality time with M - I was embarrassed that I did so poorly at this in January, especially when I found out that M read my update on February 1 where I admitted that I did a terrible job at keeping this resolution.  I am HAPPY to say that I think I made up for it in February.  We were home a lot more this month, which made it much easier.  We also hired a babysitter on TWO separate occasions so that we could get out together: once for a Badger Hockey game that M won tickets to, and once for a friend's birthday party.  It was so nice to hang out together more again.  I think it's just what we needed!
• Making more quality time for myself - I feel like I put myself on the back burner a little more this month, but partially because of all of my work obligations.  When I'm not getting home until 7:00 or 8:00, then frantically trying to spend a minute or two with Evie before bed, then picking up around the house, saying hi to M, and thinking about maybe working out (see weight loss goal, I only thought about working out...), sleep became my "me" time.  March is a lot less busy, and the first week of April is spring break.  It will be easier to take care of myself this month.  

I feel like I can keep 3 of my 4 resolutions without really trying, but there is always something that doesn't seem to fit.  Even though I'm not reaching the level I'd like to each month, I really do feel better about myself.  I just have to keep working at it.  I know that simply by trying, I'm better for my family, my job, and myself!!  

Favorite toys

For Christmas, Evie received several new toys.  These have come out as some of the favorites over the past couple of months.

First, the Jingle Interactive Book. It is a regular children's book, but it came with a stuff dog.  When you are going to read the story, you turn the dog on, and it responds when you read certain lines.  For instance, you read the line, "And Jingle loved to sing," and then the plush dog howls like it is singing.  I'm not sure how this thing works, but it works well and Evie loves it.  We had to take it out of her bedroom because she became too wound up if we read it before bedtime...lol!!

Evie and Jingle

The other toy that she really loves is the LeapFrog Xylophone Zoo.  You press the animals and it will play a song so that you can follow along with the mallet.  It's a little bit beyond Evie's ability to completely follow the song, but she tries, and she likes to dance to the songs too.  

I like that the mallet is attached to the xylophone so you can't lose it. 

Evie with the xylophone

She also received a tent that she really likes, which I've posted about before.  I feel like our house has turned into a play land, but I guess that's what happens when you have a baby!