Introducing....

Hi! He's new here! Isn't he cute? Four months.

I'm still trying to decide what his blog name should be. I'm thinking maybe Simba because of his fabulous lion's mane of hair, but I'm not sure. Any other suggestions?

Marketing

So I pose this question:

If you couldn't read, which of these would you assume is the strawberry cereal?


Why do they insist on putting pictures of strawberries on the spoon when it's a "healthier" kind of cereal? Is it supposed to illustrate that you'll need to add something to make it taste better, or what? I had the hardest time trying to explain to Snow White and Ariel that the OTHER one was strawberry flavored, and that the corn bran doesn't actually have any strawberries in the box. They didn't believe me at all, of course, and why would they? I mean, look at the box. People trying to sell you things are always telling the truth, right?

Music

The kids are having their dance class right now. It's always fun to see what kind of music she brought and what she has them do with it. I love music but the kind of stuff she does never occurs to me. So glad I have her come in and do this on Tuesdays.

They were listening to "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Grieg a few minutes ago and Belle commented that OH! this is the Little Einsteins music! And yes. This is the downside of the whole Julie Clark phenomenon. The kids can all recognize lots of different classical pieces now, but they have no idea that music wasn't created for the episodes. They just know that this is the music that plays while Rocket zooms through the forest or whatever. That makes me sad. I know Julie Clark always used to wax rhapsodical about how her stuff was such a fabulous introduction to learning and appreciating music. I think it's turned into just one more soundtrack.

My mom did a fabulous musical thing with me when I was about four- we listened to the whole Peer Gynt suite and she told me the whole story behind the music. When I hear the Mountain King song, I can hear her voice in my head saying, "so, you wanna be a troll?" I'd much rather know the real stuff than have it sugared down with cartoon characters, I think. Maybe I'll see if I can do that with the kids sometime soon.

Sunshine S'mores

One of the extra ideas in our sunshine unit was to make s'mores. It pains me to realize that it's hot enough to do that. We probably could have fried eggs too. Anyway, this morning we set out to test melting points and make tasty snacks.

We got them assembled inside and set them out on the picnic table. It didn't take very long at all before the chocolate was VERY melted. The marshmallows got a little softer but they didn't actually melt. We talked a little bit about heat and melting and why the chocolate was messier, but they didn't much care. I can't blame them. Those things were good!

I can't believe Sebastian actually ate it. It's the first time I've seen him do something really messy without complaining about needing to wipe up.


Our friend who used to come here a couple years ago dropped in to visit this morning. He was highly pleased to find that there were treats.

Snow White was quite perplexed to find all this chocolate running down her arm. I didn't get pictures of her licking it all off, but it was really funny to watch her try to make her tongue reach that far.

We ate them outside and wiped up as best we could, and then came inside and had spaghetti for lunch. There was a large ongoing conversation regarding all the laundry everybody's mommy would have to do tonight. Sorry 'bout that.

Daycare Nightmare

I don't know why I had a nightmare about the job last night- I almost never do. Nothing like waking up in a cold sweat afraid for other people's kids. It's almost more terrifying than thinking about something happening to my own. The sense of responsibility and knowing how parents would feel- yuck. Makes me want to throw up.

So in the dream, it was a normal morning, kids were showing up, and I was making breakfast. My sister came to visit with her four kids, it was the first day for the new baby who actually is starting next week, pretty much every drop-in or part-time I've ever taken was here.... BUSY. I looked up and counted heads and realized I had 15 kids running around. How did that happen? Way too many, over ratio, how will I feed them, etc...

Then the doorbell rang. And I just knew it was the state coming for my surprise inspection and I would get in trouble for having so many extra kids. So I told my mom, who was also here, and my sister to take her kids away, quickly. I answered the door and it was somebody trying to sell me curriculum, but she'd set it all up in my front yard with big colorful backdrops and wouldn't take no for an answer and it took forever to deal with her.

I got back inside to find that ALL the kids were gone, not just my niece and nephews, and I didn't know where they'd taken them. My mom called after awhile and said they went to vacation bible school and would be back soon. Turns out it was three hours away and nobody got home until 8pm. I was sitting there all day freaking out about where the kids were and if they were safe and how angry all the parents were going to be that I just let them go off someplace. The family of my new baby came to pick up and fired me on the spot. People were yelling at me right and left.

Luckily, all the kids actually were safe and made it home okay at the end of the dream. But still. What is up with that?

Say What You Mean

O'Malley: Mo kah-kah!
Me: You need some more crackers, O'Malley?
O: (shaking his head no firmly with a big smile) NO!
Me: Okay. You mean yes.
(I pour him more. He starts to eat.)
Snow White: He say no. Why you give him more?
Me: Well, he doesn't understand sometimes which word to use. He means yes.
Snow: But he say no. He shake his head like THIS. NO!
Me: I know. He's confused.
Snow: He not need crackers! He say NO!

Meanwhile, O'Malley's chomping away happily on the second helping, which he definitely did want. Poor Snow. Confusion is no fun.

But We Miss Her!

We haven't seen much of Tinkerbell lately. She's part-time and between my closings, their vacations, and whatever other summery things that have been happening, she just hasn't been around as often as she was in the spring. The kids are really missing her. Ariel, Snow White, Duchess and I had a big discussion last week about where she might be.

Where is Tinkerbell today?
I don't know- her mama didn't call me. Maybe she'll be here a little later.
But where is she?
Well, maybe she's at home. Where else do you think she might be?
She could go to work with her mommy.
Yes, that's true, she could have done that. Or maybe they went away for Independence Day a little early and they're on vacation today.
Yes. Maybe she is throwing up a lot a lot!
Oh, I hope not.
Yes. Maybe her mommy and her daddy is throwing up a lot a lot!

I don't think anybody's had a tummy bug lately, but clearly it is a memorable concept.

We miss you Tink! Hope to see you this week!

Winner!

Random.org chose commenter #6, which was geegee. Congratulations! Fabulous prizes will be coming your way soon.

And I hope the emails will begin flooding my way, to tell me I won some of the other contests too. :) I wait with bated breath....

Gibberish? Or Not?

I've had a one year old dropping in this week. His family lives in China and they're back for the summer. Most kids this age jabber and make unintelligible noises. However, with this one, I can't stop thinking that he's probably just speaking Mandarin, and that if I only knew how to speak that, I'd know exactly what he wants. I keep listening to every little sound he makes to see if any of them are repeated or could possibly be Chinese words. Not that I would know if they really were, but still. It's interesting.

Greasy, Greasy Babies

I have referred to babies several times in the past as being greasy. I realize that needs explanation.

My sister read somewhere about a study they did on newborns to determine the reasons why some moms never feel like they're finished and always want another baby. Apparently babies emit some sort of pheromone- it's actually kind of like a grease, and it's addictive to adult females of all sorts, but most especially to their moms. It makes you NEED to hug and snuggle and kiss the baby because you need its grease. It's some sort of innate thing to make you want to bond with your baby and hopefully ensure it doesn't have failure to thrive, or I think that was one of the conclusions of the study. The effects of said grease taper off as the baby gets older, and disappear around age three. So, as your child hits age three, the grease wears off, you realize the terrible threes are SO MUCH WORSE than the terrible twos and why did nobody warn you, and you want another baby. Because you are going through grease withdrawals. Crazy, huh? I have no idea who "they" are or where she read about the study, but we have latched onto it because we like the concept, whether it's true or not.

So. When a baby is especially cute and delicious and we want to kiss it, we always talk about how greasy it looks. Nothing to do with hygiene or cooking oil or anything like that. :)