problem solved

I was driving the boys to school today and Alex started asking me about our cars.  Which one cost more money?  (Andy's)  Why? (Because mine was used, Andy's is new and is a different kind of car).  This led to a discussion of the differences in the cars.  Which one had more seating, which one was noisier, which one had the adapter to play Alex's iPod, etc.  Alex finally concluded that he likes Andy's car more than mine.  His reasoning was that Andy's car is cleaner.  I asked him who he thought made the mess in my car, and he completely fessed up that it was him and his siblings. 

Problem solved.

Among the Chaos

It was a crazy day.  It started with a particularly loud carpool of five kids and lots of drama and attitude and requests for different music, turn it up, put on a show. "He won't give my book back.  It's mine!".  There were items forgotten at school.  There were tears.  We got home and there were kids who needed a snack, who couldn't find their soccer socks, who needed help with homework, who couldn't unzip their coats.  All of it, right now!! Right Now!! 
After a brief forty-five minutes at home, we had to leave.  "Let's move!  We are going to be late for Devin's last soccer game of the indoor season!"  Find the socks, fill the water bottles, zip the coat, bring the homework for the car trip...  Then the team lost, and Devin was done playing with the team that he played with since August.  He was a little sad. 
On the way home, I decided that we all needed to mellow out a bit, and switched the radio to the Grateful Dead station.  As we were pulling into the neighborhood, China - Rider came on (a two song combo that happens to be one of my favorites).  I pulled into the garage and just sat there for a minute to listen. 
Andy came out of the house and got the kids.  He brought them and the noise and chaos into the house with him and closed the door.  He started dinner and brought me a glass of wine, handing it to me through the open car window. 
I love this man.  He gets me.

Shades of Beauty

Isabel and I were at the mall yesterday and after she "helped" me shop (where "help" means that she selects a every article of pink clothing for me before trying to sit in the mannequins lap), we went to the makeup counter so she could look at lip gloss.  Yes, I did use the lip gloss as incentive for Isabel to behave.  This is not bribery, but merely insurance.  We went to the makeup counter where the nice lady lip gloss on Isabel while I checked out the free bonus gift with purchase.  Isabel's lips looked like this.

Fantastic, right?  I mean, not for a three year old, but the lip color is great.  Then I remembered that I am running low on mascara.  The mascara didn't cost enough to get the bonus, but with that gorgeous lip gloss, I can get the bonus.  This is what I call a win-win.  We made our purchase and headed to the car, where I tried out my new lip gloss.  It looked like this.

Yes, that is the same lip gloss in both pictures.  Clearly Isabel and I have different coloring.  I guess this just goes to show that the lip gloss is not what makes Isabel beautiful.  What a lucky little girl!

Things you shouldn't have to say...

As a parent, we all find ourselves saying things that we never really thought we would have to say.   Like when Alex was having "tummy time" as a baby and I had to tell Devin not to roll him around the room.  Or when Isabel got into my makeup bag, in the car, and decided to put the 'black lipstick' on her lips.  But the black lipstick was mascara and suddenly my goth daughter and my back seat were one huge slimy black mess.  I told her that little girls never wear black makeup and she shouldn't put anything black on her lips.
This morning Alex was packing up for school and I told him he probably needed a sweatshirt because it was cold.  He grabbed one and immediately used it to wipe his nose.  He was standing next to the desk where the tissue box sits.  I said, "Do you want to wear your boogers to school today?"  The answer was no.  So I suggested that he put that sweatshirt in the hamper and find a clean one. 

What to do...

We have been a little ill around here lately.  The boys have avoided the yucky cold, but the rest have fallen prey, and Isabel went down the hardest. 

So, what do you do when you are home with a little girl whose nose is a faucet?  One who wants to cuddle on the couch constantly, except when she is demanding more tissue, "and some lotion please for my red nose".  Well, you cuddle.  A lot.  And you read books and sing songs.  If she's really ambitious, you may make it to the table for some crafts (preferably painting or play doh - the messier the better).  Finally, when she is tired and just wants to zone out you put on a movie ("Annie" being the latest favorite) and hop on the bike trainer to sneak a little exercise in while she is occupied.  aaah - the life of a Mommy. 
The cuddles are great though.

Big day

I cleaned out my sock drawer today.  Whoop!  Do I know how to have fun or what?!

Just Label It

When is comes to food, I've been a label reader for the last fifteen years.  It started when I decided to make a change for my health and primarily focus on losing weight.  I had always been athletic and active, but was never thin and my weight crept up through high school and college.  So I was learning about eating better and watching fat and calorie intake and reading labels.  When I started buying food for my kids, I would look at ingredients to ensure that I wasn't buying things like bread and apple sauce with high fructose corn syrup.  My thought was that my kids didn't need the extra sugar in the things that they eat every day (the bread) and the things that they like without the extra sugar (since I never add sugar when I make applesauce from scratch). 
Some of my friends have made pretty extreme changes to the foods that their families eat.  One cut out gluten because potential links with their child's ADHD.  Another removed casein and gluten because of the impact on Aspergers.  One went vegan because of possible links between animal proteins and her autoimmune disease, and noticed a positive affect on her husband's Chrone's disease. 
While my family has been lucky enough not to have any health issues that are tied to foods, we are also concerned about all that we have been hearing about high fructose corn syrup and genetically modified foods.  We live in a rich country that has more food than ever, and yet there are more food issues and allergies than ever.  The more Andy and I learned about food processing (thanks to movies like Food Inc and countless websites) the more we are concerned about what we are feeding our families.  Food manufacturing and processing has changed exponentially over the last 20 years and I firmly believe that the methods used are a huge contributor to the rise in obesity and food allergies that we see today.  The food that we ate as kids may have the same name, but it is not made the same way as the food we used to eat. 

Andy and I are still label readers, but now our focus is more on buying food that is natural rather than low fat. If my kids can't pronounce the ingredients then we probably shouldn't be eating them. 

Just Label It