High Maintenance Mom

One of our favorite shows, WordWorld, is celebrating its birthday and offering downloadable birthday items including invitations, name tags, and thank you notes. We think LeapFrog videos (Letter Factory / Talking Words Factory / Talking Words Factory II / Learn to Read at the Storybook Factory /Math Circus) helped B learn to read and WordWorld is helping N learn to read. See our earlier post, WordWorld for more information about the show.

I hope you are having a great Mother's Day. My special alone time this morning included an exercise class at the gym where I heard the following comments from friends. "This class is the highlight of my day. The rest of the day will include the usual errands, cleaning, and cooking." "My child made me a flower pot in Kinder but on Friday all I received was a note from her friend apologizing for breaking it." "My children like to tell me I can clean tomorrow instead." I hope you have the opportunity to do something you really enjoy today!

The first night of Passover is this Saturday night and we are once again thinking about how our celebration will change each year as the kids get older. We often start reading the stories to the kids the week before. Our kids love the (Sammy Spider Passover books (story, fun book, and haggadah). I also make copies of items from the fun book for the kids to do during the seder. We try to have them help us clean the house and we talk a lot about the food. Both kids really like matzah so it's an exciting time for them. Last year we used the My Very Own Haggadah, which is basically a coloring book, for our seder. Because it was a school night, we skipped some of the story so we could eat earlier. Then when the kids had finished eating, they watched The Seder on Planet Matzah Ball while we finished eating. It was a huge success...

B, now five, is excited about the new year, which we thought was because of kindergarten but we now believe to be based on an online game that should be available in Jan. 2008. We haven't done much with the kids in the past but this year in addition to explaining how software releases work (his Dad missed Halloween because of one so we should have a story he can relate to), we will also have a special New Years dinner at home. During our celebratory dinner we will talk about our yearly highlights - what was fun, what we learned, what made us laugh. I'm not a big fan of resolutions but I hope to talk about what we want to learn or do differently in the new year. If all goes as planned... I will write down parts of our conversation and seal it in an envelope for next year's celebration. Hope you have a Happy New Year!

Teaching the kids to say thank you is an important part of the holidays for me. We try to break down the process to fit our kids abilities - saying thank you on the phone, "signing" their name on a card, drawing a picture, telling me what to write, writing a few words themselves, to finally writing complete sentences. Of course we have to make the time to do it but once we do, we can often write one thank you note every night or every other night. Having cute stationery and fun stamps really helps the process. As always, there are cute holiday stamps available but if you look online there are also more kid oriented super hero stamps (from Marvel and from DC Comics) and Disney (with the little mermaid and with Aladdin).

This week is a great time to take holiday pictures if you haven't already. We like using the Shutterfly collage option, as I mentioned last year (along with including kids' stories in holiday letters). It's great for those of us who can't get everyone to look remotely happy for a family picture. You can also choose to make cards out of your kids' artwork (my parents made our moving card out of a picture I drew when I was five and it's in my baby book). Another great gift is a family photo / artwork book. They take a little time to make and only cover the things you've photographed throughout the year but they are really fun to look at and last longer than calendars. My kids also each have their own ABC book with pictures I've taken of them or things they like...

Happy Halloween. Here are a few tips we use to make the evening enjoyable. We always plan a very simple dinner for Halloween night since the kids are usually too excited to sit and eat for very long. Tonight we are having peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with cut carrots. It's something we can also eat in the car on the way home from school (at 5:45 pm). I usually find one of my children wants to trick or treat longer than the other so I do small circles around the neighborhood. That way I can drop off a child to help hand out candy with his dad while the other continues to run around...

I have fond memories of trick-or-treating in my neighborhood as a child. The neighbors who left their lights on were always so nice as my brother, friends (East Coast Mom), and I would rush around trying to get as much candy as possible. Now I get to share that excitement with my kids. They get rewarded with treats for ringing doorbells while I get rewarded by a sense of community and a glimpse at the latest remodels. Plus I offer to buy my kids' candy back from them so I'm happy to spend a few hours collecting treats that will later turn into Legos and firetrucks...

It's Fire Prevention Week and the National Fire Protection Association is scheduling the Great American Fire Drill (check out their pdf fire plan checklist and grid). Pick a day in October, make a plan, then practice. Afterwards, record your drill on sparky.com (a fun site for kids who love fire trucks). Lego City and NFPA are also running a trivia sweepstakes.

Tomorrow is B's last day of preschool. I've been excited about him moving on to kindergarten but I've had to temper my enthusiasm. About two or three months ago, B started to revert to behavior we hadn't seen in a while. There was loud roaring, hitting, and lots of crying. The teachers said it was due to anxiety about the upcoming change in their lives, something that hadn't occurred to me. Of course, now that B is fine, I'm beginning to see how much of our lives are going to change...