Lunch Spot

Will decided this was where he wanted to finish his lunch. I guess it's good for containing the mess. I know, he has clothes on, I'm as surprised as you.

Shelves

My quest has been completed. I have finally found a set of shelves to go in Will's room that will allow him to put away his big vehicles in something other than a bin that gets dumped out anytime he wants to play with one of the toys in it.

Costco.com came though with these:


The best part, less than 10 minutes to assemble. The only thing I wish was different is that they were about a foot longer. And they were just a little too expensive for me to want to buy two sets. But I just couldn't find shelves that were wider that met all my other requirements, so they will do. They would have gone perfect with Will's red crib. Hopefully the project of rearranging his room will be done this weekend and I will post pictures of the newly organized area.

Funny Bunny

I recently realized that I have been drifting through life. Just blindly floating through years and years of holidays and holiday mascots. Readily accepting gifts from these mystical creatures without ever asking questions. It's not till you have an inquisitive 3 yr old that you realize how easily you accept how things are. I wonder, was I like my son when I was 3? Did I have all these questions and concerns and just grew out of it? Did my parents give me the answers to such questions, or did I ever ask them? Lately when we go to bed and I tell Will we need to lay down and be quite, I get the following statement. "But mom, I need to tell you a few questions."

I think someone needs to create a Holidays for Dummies book. This book would include all of those background stories that just never seem to be told about our holidays and traditions. Sure some things vary from family to family and kid to kid, but someone needs to help me out. I think Christmas is taken care of. I can give the explanation on Santa. You’re good you get toys. Santa lives in the North Pole, somewhere you will never go so I don’t need to worry about you ever seeing him except at the mall. And Will is too shy to ever go near Santa, so I don't really need to go to deep on that one. The rest of the year he is busy making toys with the elves. Magic reindeer, loves cookies and milk, got it.

What I need to know is what the hell is up with the Easter Bunny? Will and I were in the car and he asked what the next holiday was. He was asking because he wanted to know the next time he was going to get a present, cause I bought him one for Valentines Day. I decided to skip the holiday of his Irish heritage and move onto Easter. Yeah, you will get a present on Easter. From who? The Easter Bunny. Who’s the Easter Bunny? Ummm…a bunny that comes and gives us presents. How come? Cause it’s Easter. What kind of presents? Well, eggs, candy, stuff like that. Eggs? Why does the bunny bring me eggs? Anyone? Where does the bunny live? Ummm…in the mountains. Where is he right now? Hibernating? What’s hibernating? How does he get in our house to leave us presents? He is magic like Santa.

And you can’t ever go into the religious significance, cause that really doesn’t help explain the bunny. I think I’ve heard the egg part has something to do with birth and rebirth, so I get the Easter connection. Just not sure how it ended up being a large fuzzy bunny that delivers those eggs to us. Even if there was a Charlie Brown Easter Special it might be helpful. Is there a Charlie Brown Easter Special that I missed?

My father-in-law used to go make white flour bunny footprints on the lawn Easter morning so the kids could see that the Easter Bunny had been there. I hear stories like that and see all the fun things people did for their kids just for Valentines Day and think, wow, I really am lazy. I love the idea of really getting involved in holidays and enjoying this time when Will is little and still believes what ever I tell him. (unless I tell him it's bedtime) But when it comes down to getting up 30 minutes early to get something ready before he gets up, or sleeping for another 30 minutes, my pillow usually wins. I guess that's another benefit to those people that have bedtimes for their kids.

I am going to publicly (to the 10 people that read my blog) commit to making the rest of this year a holiday palooza! I'm not exactly sure what that means, but I figure it gives me a little wiggle room. So here's to a year full of fun and exciting times that Will will probably never remember. Maybe I should hold off a few more years to get creative.

And because a blog is always more exciting with pictures, here is a picture of the Easter Bunny from Provo's Easter Egg Hunt last year.

The girl in the black coat doesn't seem that excited. Now compare that picture with Zippy (our departments mascot) who also made an appearance.

Can you feel the love? This year Zippy is going to be the main attraction decked out with custom made bunny ears.

And here is a picture of Will's first Easter. The only time that kid ever had a fat roll. I remember this photo session with Will and Lucia. Will just sat there smiling right at the camera the whole time. Long gone are those days.

Pounds ahead

I was very, very happy when I came home to this package last week

My new Pampered Chef pan to replace the one the dish drainer broke. It was kind of a torn moment. One of excited glee and one of sadness by looking at that brand new, unseasoned pan. For those who are unfamiliar with these wonderful kitchen implements, the more you use it the better it becomes. I wish I had taken a picture of the pieces of my old one. You would not believe they were the same pan. The bottom was completely black and there was a great amount of joy from that blackness.

I'm excited to have my favorite pan replaced, but I know if will be years before it is in it's ideal state. So I need to get started on that process. Enter dilemma. The best things to season the pan are things with lots of fat in them. Something I am trying my hardest to limit. And my all time favorite thing to use this pan for? Cookies. But I have some sort of brain disorder that prevents me from eating a reasonable amount of cookie dough. And I honestly wouldn't care if the cookies are never cooked, it's the dough that has it's grip on me. Especially if it has oatmeal in it.

I was feeling a little blue this weekend and couldn't resist the pan calling to me, begging me to make some cookies on it. So I gave in. Luckily I gave almost all the cookies to Pat to take to his apartment, and took the rest to my parents for Monday night dinner. Of course not before making myself sick on cookie dough.


Healthy things just aren't as fun to bake. Maybe I need someone to bake cookies for. Any takers?

Oh, and be jealous of my built-in 70's puke yellow stove. It's pretty awesome.

Battleground

I'm sure every parent with a child has or will soon have many, many fights over picking up toys. In our house it's (drum roll, this is a big shocker) ...cars. Will has a box that has about 80 of the cars he plays with the most. Of course he can't just pull out the six cars he is actually going to play with. No, the entire box has to be dumped out, on the living room floor, on a daily basis. And pretty much on a daily basis we have a discussion as soon as that box passes from the kitchen linoleum to the living room carpet, about how if he dumps out that box, he will have to pick them up before he goes to bed.

The problem is bed time comes around and you have to pick your battles. And since bed time is usually a battle, I usually let the picking up the cars thing go. Well I'm pretty much tired of picking up the same cars on a daily basis. I have started weeding out a few when he isn't looking that I know he hasn't played with in a few days, and sneaking them into a box in his closet. I don't have any plans of getting rid of them, I just don't want to pick them up every day.

Today I thought I would try something new. When the daily box push was happening, I stopped him, made him look me in the eye and promise that all of those cars were going to be picked up before we went to bed. And if the cars weren't picked up, I was taking them away for one day. About 20 minutes before bed time I started the reminders. He might want to start picking up the cars. Of course he was more interested in the, it's not bed time right now part, then bothering with the cars.

So when his show was done and it was time to go to bed I told him he needed to be picking up the cars now. After about five minutes and three cars being picked up I told him we were going to play a game. I was going to set the timer for three minutes and any car that wasn't picked up, was going into a bag and he would not get to play with those cars for one day. I'm not sure he knew what I was saying, or didn't think I would really do anything because he didn't get much faster. When the timer went off about half the cars were still on the floor. So I grabbed a bag and started picking them up.

Wow! His finger being smashed in a drawer several hours earlier didn't get that big of a reaction. You would have thought I just told him that I was taking away all of his toys, forever, and never getting him a toy again. Unfortunately for him one of the closest toys to me, so first to be picked up, was a new one he had just got that night. He feel to his knees and sobbed that it was his favorite car, and he loved that car, and he needed that car. I didn't cave. I picked up the rest of the cars, put them in a bag, and put the bag on top of a cupboard.

Will decided that he was going to stay in the living room while he screamed and I went to bed. A few minutes later Will came and climbed into bed his arms folded defiantly across his chest.

Mom, I don't want there to be any more timers in my house. They are not nice. And you are not my best friend, any more. (pause) But there is one problem. I need my pants off.

I helped him get undressed and into bed. He ended up crying himself to sleep repeating how much he loved those cars and how much he loved his daddy and his daddy wouldn't want me to take away his cars. Normally I am a softy, but I was secretly smiling laying next to him. I'm pretty sure next time I ask for his cars to be picked up, they will be.