the good stuff

halloweening

a quick post for tonight, though I am LONG overdue for a big fat juicy post.  More will come, but I am getting ready for my big girls weekend in NYC with the Hot Buttered Mamas (that would be Kelly, Steph and Julie, for those of you not privy to our nicknames).

Halloween 2008 was a raving success, not in any small part because I had the two cutest kids alive walking the streets of Providence.  Sam was a shark, once he saw the pottery barn kids catalog, he was sold.  Jane was determined to be a mermaid, and in my effort not to buy a disney little mermaid costume, I set to making her getup, hair and all.  I will say that other people walking with their kids LITERALLY stopped in their tracks to tell me how adorable she was...it's tough having such awesome kids sometimes....really tough.

It was so fun, especially being home, though we missed our annual trick-or-treats with the McGraths.  We did get to spend the evening with friends--the Millers and Cantys, old friends from the cape, were here, and 2-year old Hannah and Janie are good friends.  We had a little dinner before hitting the streets and getting the good stuff (that's Hannah in the poodle skirt below....)

Jane only cried a few times, once really good when some big kids didn't see her and knocked her down--the remorse that wolfman felt was sweet, though, so it was all good.  She wanted to be carried a bit at the end.  When I put her down at one point I realized the bottom of her costume was pretty messed up, one fin falling off.  She started to get upset, but I quickly told her that I would fix it for her.  She settled right down and said, "You'll fix it mom? Because you're a fixing machine?"  Yes, dear, I am a fixing machine.

I would also like to point out that up  until today the plan--according to the kids--was that Jane was going to share her candy with me, and Sam was going to share with Dad. That is, until the candy was in their hands.  When I asked Sam how many pieces he was going to share, he said, "ummmmm, zero."  I knew it, dirty rotten kids.  But it's okay, I'll steal it from them while they are sleeping. 

Enjoy these few pics of my little sea creatures, I'll report back once I return from the big apple and all of the wine is out of my system...

holiday cards 2008

Finished all of my holiday card offerings for this year!  (Good thing I had plenty of Christmas music to listen to, getting me into the moooood.)

They can be seen in the featured galleries section on the sweet jane website  and in an album over on  the sweet jane photo blog.

Thanks to all of the families whose photos are used in the samples!  How wonderful that I have such photogenic clients!

 

waiting for the tooth fairy

That's our boy, the toothless wonder. 

On Sunday night, as we were talking before bed, I noticed something looked a little off with his mouth.  A closer look revealed one very loose tooth.  I was caught SO off guard, when I asked if he knew he had a wiggly tooth, he got very panicky and said yes. I quickly shifted into "OHMYGODYOUARE SUCHABIGBOY!!!" mode, and he quickly got on board the tooth-fairy express.  We talked about what would happen next, no, it woldn't hurt when it came out, yes, there would be an exchange of money for the tooth, and my thoughts on where exactly the tooth fairy lived. (In the sky, on a tooth-shaped cloud.  I was on the spot, people, it was the best I could do.)

This morning the tooth was still intact, and by the time I picked him up from school, the thing was hanging on by a thread, evidence that he didn't pay attention to anything in school except for that darn tooth.  At home I gave him apple slices, assured him that yes, crunching hard would help that tooth along.  One misplaced crunch, though, and his top front tooth hit that loose one hard, and knocked it back,causing his mouth to bleed.  I stole that opportunity, grabbed a wet washcloth, and while cleaning up his bleeding mouth I happened to pull that little tooth right out. 

All tears about the bloody mouth evaporated with the elation of the lost tooth, so teeny in my hand.  He ran upstairs with TK, and his sister close behind, to examine his new smile in the mirror.  He was completely thrilled with the result.  Put that tooth right into the pocket of the little tooth fairy pillow that I whipped up yesterday (Seriously. I did. Grabbed some fabric scraps, a little embroidery thread and viola.  Tooth fairy pillow.) and he's ready for the pay-off.

Speaking of the payoff, I had a conference with the Tooth Fairy herself, and though she tried to tell me about inflation and all that, we agreed upon a silver dollar and a new spiderman electric toothbrush.

I am sure some of you (Mike) are wondering...Yes.  I cried.  As soon as I realized my BABY, barely out of the womb, was about to hit a bona fide KID milestone, I shed more than a few tears.  I noticed that loose tooth, and walked into the room where TK was and he looked up at my face and said, "uh-oh, are you okay?"  Nope.  Not even remotely. A loose tooth???  What's next?  A drivers license and a girlfriend??  What the @%*$#?? 

Today, though, I am better, and when Sam came to me this afternoon, bearing that new toothless smile, and said, "Are you so proud of me mom?  That I lost my tooth and am a big kid?" I could honestly answer, "You bet I am, kid."

dino-differences

Sam and Jane are VERY different kids.  In so many important ways.  Like how Jane would have cold cereal every day for breakfast, while Sam wants french toast.  How Sam is happy "because I love my mom, my dad, and my sister!!" and Jane can look at me (after telling her I can't understand her while she talks with a binkie in her mouth) and say, "what are you, stupid?"  (Oh YES, she did.)  Jane wants us to watch every little dance and show she puts on, while Sam is content to play quietly by himself.  Her verbal skills are through the roof, while we struggled so hard and for so long with Sam.  The list goes on and on.  And on.

But.  We are blessed with two very different kids who LOVE to play with each other.  Believe me, I know that we are very lucky in this case.  For a little while, they were going in different directions, Jane wanting to play with her baby dolls, and Sam with his beloved dinosaurs, but in the last few weeks, she has come around to prehistoric playthings, much to the delight of her brother.  They can be found at any given time, a pair of dinos in their hands, deep in pretend play.  It's true that Sam is guiding most of the dialogue, ("Jane, say, oh no, don't eat me!") but she is getting better at keeping up and he is getting better at letting her say what she wants.  (maybe because we're always shouting, "SAM!  Stop telling her what to say!!") 

Once Sam is off to school, Jane continues to play with dinosaurs, which I love, and today I paid attention.  The first thing I noticed was how Sam left his dinosaurs when he went off to school:

Poor, poor velociraptor, in the jaws of the T-Rex, as Sammy calls him, "the apex predator".  (Would I kid you on that one??  That's a prime example of the influence of the history channel on my boy.)

Then, down on the floor, I see Jane and her circle of dinosaurs:

I hung back and eavesdropped for a bit and this is the gist of what's going down here:

Big dinosaur is the daddy.  There are several mommies, and many babies.  There is one little baby dino in the middle, who goes around the circle asking the names of all of the dinos in the circle:

Hi. My name is soo-saa.
Hi. My name is see-see.
Hi. My name is say-soo.

(All of them have some variation of this name.  Cracks me up, especially with the little whistling-lisp that she has.)

Every so often, the baby dino says,

Are you still a bad guy?
No, I'm not a bad guy anymore. Sorry 'bout that.
Oh, that's okay.

(That is possibly my favorite little encounter.)

I finally get the whole story about the little polygamous dinosaur  family, and realize that even in the ways Sam and Jane are the same, the things they have in common, they are still unique little people, happy to play together, but content in keeping their own real interests and identities.

Now that we have instilled a sense of self-reliance, independence, and compromise, how do I get them to eat their vegetables??

and just like that, he's reading.

Sam gets homework every night.  And if I haven't said it before, the boy LOVES homework. (cough-cough-nerd-cough-cough) Almost every sheet is writing practice, and learning to recognize "sight words", the idea being that he will recognize small words by sight before they begin sounding them out.  He has taken to pointing out these sight words when we are out and about, which, naturally, thrills me.  Active learning is fun!! (I guess I know where he gets the nerd thing from, huh?) 

One of his sight words last month was "all".  In yesterday's homework, it was practice writing the word "down" and it was about the leaves in autumn;  red leaves fall down, yellow leaves fall down, and so on.  He recognized the -all in the word fall, so as soon as he finished his sheet, I tried a little something.  I wrote the word "all" four times on a piece of paper.  We then went all by all and added a consonant first--f, t, b, m.  Knowing the consonant sounds and recognizing the word "all", he was immediately able to sound out the words.

And it was like a lightbulb going off in his head.  Suddenly, and obviously, he made the connection between the letters and the words, how they work together, and was so excited.  He brought his homework sheet back out and proceeded to sound out the words red, green, brown, and yellow.  And he managed it with only a little help from me! I'm sure you can picture me, the nutcase mother that I am, whooping and hollering "You're READING, Sam!!  READING!!!"

The boy spent the rest of the afternoon going through various books, trying his hand at a little more reading. He was a bit discouraged, even though I tried to explain that scientific books about dinosaurs do not make easy first reading books.  I managed to find a Buzz and Woody first level reading book (that we have had forever and love) and by page three he was back up on his high horse, sounding out the words, beaming at his accomplishment.

I know that there are milestones that we come to and pass without much pomp and circumstance, but this one was HUGE for me.  The idea of having a child who is actually reading makes me so very happy.  I hope more than anything that he develops a real love of the written word, and you can bet that I am going to do everything to encourage that.

Today, though, I am proud as can be of my Sam, the reader.

wednesday in the park

Fall is in the air, (SWEET!) and yesterday we took advantage of no school, having Auntie Becky here, and a nice day to head down to the park behind the big high school. Jane was determined to play soccer, so we brought along the "kicker ball" as she calls it.  I thoroughly enjoyed the lesson part, how Jane COMPLETELY did not understand the "no hands" concept...and Sam thought that was hysterical...

The field was full of the white dandelions, or as sam so adorably calls them, "wishing flowers", so we made lots of wishes, and Miss Abigail sat and watched like the perfect little spectator she is...

This is the face I get these days when I ask him to look at the camera...So lovely.

He is laughing his head off, after watching Jane pick up the ball and throw it..."JAAaaaaAAANE! Inly your FEEEEEET!!!"

She might be getting the hang of this after all...

A little post-soccer stretching

get your mammies grammed

It's October first, so that means it's time again to talk about boobs.  October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so here's what I am going to say:

DO YOUR SELF EXAMS, LADIES.  Early detection is key to treatment and remission!!!

GET YOUR MAMMOGRAMS, if your doc says it is time. 

Over the last two years as an Avon Walk participant, one of the things that strikes me as so incredible is the fact that every three minutes there is a new breast cancer diagnosis in this country.  Every three minutes.  Pretty crazy.

Here is what I plan to do about it:

Getting myself ready for the next walk with a brand spankin new pair of pink shoes.  I am gearing up for another walk, getting myself signed up and recruiting the team....

So, who's with me?