iPhone, uPhone, we all Phone...

Last night as we were watching television a commercial for the iphone came on. It was advertising the apps that you can download - apps for anything you need. Want to read a book on the go - got it, want to get the lyrics to your favorite song, done, want to know your blood pressure and current LDL/HDL levels - could probably swing that too. 

In any event my child, who is totally unaffected and uninfluenced by advertising (yeah right), looks at me and asks: 

M: "Mama, do you want to get one of those?"  

S: "No, I'm good I don't really need one of those phones" (plus I have an anti-AT&T thing that I will reserve for another day and another blog) 

M: "But mama, it has an app for EVERYTHING you need"

It is these moments that make you think SO many things. I could not help but laugh - not a big laugh, she gets super mad at those because she thinks you're laughing at her, but a kids say the darn-dest things kind of laugh.  

Next step - go forth and school her on the corruption and wickedness that is the mass marketing machine of product advertising. I wonder if they have a book in the children's library collection on that!

 

No Magnets Necessary

I feel a blog is like a pseudo scrapbook / refrigerator, etc. so why not post some artwork. Here are some pieces of the week - I'll keep posting new art each week...  (this will also make her teacher's happy because I will clean out her art folder more often - as I should be doing currently)

Say Cheese!

Below is Morgan's 2008 school picture. They came late this year (literally right before Christmas) because the photo people had some life circumstances that caused a delay in production (a 2 month delay to be exact)... anyhow, they finally arrived. 

Soup, Scarf, Pajamas.... Oh my!

Morgan's school has theme days every so often and this month there are four of them. Who doesn't love a theme day?

Up first, scarf day! Scarf day is exactly how it sounded - a day for wearing scarves. I have to say that my quick visual inventory of the school showed a much larger excitement and participation level of the girls rather than boys. Morgan borrowed my somewhat shiny purple scarf for the occasion. A day built around accessorizing is not one she would ever miss. :-)

Second was soup day. Soup day was built around a reading of the book "Stone Soup" followed by the creation of a class soup. Each child was asked to sign up for and bring one vegetable for the soup. Now, she was excited when we saw the list and then she was informed that we had to pick.... a VEGETABLE... this caused a moment of pause for her. She thought about it and chose stick corn (corn on the cob) which is not the best soup friend (or maybe it might have been, crud one moment of creative thinking stifled) anyhow I recommended loose corn and that was a no. carrots, no. broccoli, heck no. until finally it was decided that we should contribute peas. I found this interesting as she has not eaten a pea since it was served on a toddler spoon, but okay then we will bring peas. She proudly delivered her peas to class on soup day and got to add them to the soup. After school I inquired about soup day, how was it? did you have fun? AND, did you eat the soup (or at least try)? Unfortunately no soup was eaten on this soup day. The vegetables were too many.... at least she held a vegetable - osmosis vitamins??? :-)

 Third came pajama day. Pajama day is a day not only adored by the kids but also the parents, this parent in particular. Any day that involves staying in pajamas and skipping the outfit coordination and dressing process is a winner in my book, as well as a giant time saver. She chose her Tinkerbell pajamas (thanks to Auntie Nedra and Great Grandma for those) and her Hannah Montana slippers. In addition she brought a book with her, a collection of books by Mercer Mayer with stories like "There's a Nightmare in my Closet", "There's an Alligator Under my Bed" , etc.   No, I was not  trying to scare the crap out of small children - they are all very nice tales of kids tackling fears and learning that the monsters are not scary. Her class was in circle time when we arrived, so she brought the book over to share as an offering for story time. 

The final day of the month is still to come, Teddy Bear day. We'll keep you posted on which bear makes the cut. There is some tough competition in her collection.   

Viva la Task Chart!

So, for anyone that knows Morgan, you know that she is strong-willed and opinion-filled! For her many things (if not all) are open for negotiation. I can say - "Morgan, bed time in 5 minutes" and she will respond with 10 - it continues from there as if we are negotiating at a table passing offers back and forth. This scenario has occurred many times, and so I found my way back to our own personal saving grace (okay my personal saving grace)..... the task chart!

The task chart hangs on our fridge and lists each of the things she needs to do for the day and or week (yep,  included swimming lessons - things are better but she still protests now and again). Each week we pick new and fabulous stickers for the chart and every night we place stickers on the tasks that were successfully completed. 

She LOVES choosing the stickers and putting them on the chart and it really does work. It reminds her of the  things she needs to do each day, and well, prods me to keep a routine - I am guilty of running a slightly bohemian ship at times. It is true that children appreciate structure, order, consistency, etc. - and Morgan certainly follows suit! I suppose it offers a bit of control in an otherwise dictatorship sort of relationship :-), oh yes - we live in a mom-ocracy, not a democracy. ha ha ha 

The task chart - one small step for man, one giant step for our family. 

Waiting on Christmas...

So, just as a child has to wait for Christmas, so do you have to wait for the Christmas blog. :-)

We have been spending some time refueling from the Christmas / New Years weeks. Had some days off which was lovely and still leaves me wondering how can I still be tired. We have been tackling the germs of the season, and I think are now winning (hopefully).

Without further adu... Christmas (in a nutshell).

* Ate a meal fit for a four-year-old. Christmas Eve menu consisted of:

Ham (better known as Turkey Ham)

Mac and Cheese (homemade of course, props to Patti Labelle and my arteries)

Green Beans and Carrots (neither made it to her plate)

Jello with Whipped Cream 

Bread 

She was happy and I have never seen her plate so full after exiting a buffet style line. 

* Piled up the presents... (I use to love piling the presents to see how many I had and it was a great distraction through dinner clean up) And opened with great speed and excitement!

* Made the quick switch from opening of wrapping paper, to opening of toy packaging. Incidentally, there is a song by Sarah Groves that talks about toy packaging. Check it out - never has a song captured my feelings in such detail. ha ha 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1t90Bg9wAw&feature=related

* Attempted a family photo. (there won't be one coming in the mail, project Xmas fam. photo was a failed mission). 

* Baked Santa some super yummy chocolate cupcakes, ate some ourselves (to test for quality of course), and placed as an offering of thanks - complete with a glass of milk. Woke up to find cupcakes eaten and stockings filled!

Took a ride on the new bike!

And then... thought - only 365 more days until next Christmas! :-)

Hope everyone had fantastic holidays!!!

867-5309... or something like that!

This year Morgan spent Christmas Eve and much of Christmas morning with me and family. I had to log some work hours on Christmas Eve morning so Morgan spent that morning, and the night before (yay for mommy getting to work early) with grandma, grandpa, and uncle John. 

One of the big things she learned during this time (starting the night before) was how to dial my phone number. I had thought about how important it is for her to know my phone number, just in case she is ever lost or without me she knows my full name, phone number, etc. Well, because she is still a tad attached to the mommy she wanted to know that she could reach me should she need. Before I left she wanted to test the phone to see if it dialed and it did.  No more than 20 minutes after my departure the phone rings, bet you can't guess who called? Yes, my darling child, however being her oh so cooperative and accommodating self, the call had to be cancelled because grandma dialed the numbers for her  and she should be the one to dial (which I must admit is good practice).  Sure enough the phone rang again and it was her ready to converse. I thought it certain that my entire trip through Walmart (had to stop for the last minute items) would be paired with a phone conversation but she was pretty quick to finish. 

Small person conversations always make me laugh. There is a whole bunch of the same question, what are you doing? followed by an oh! and then what are you doing now? where are you? what are you doing there? and so on and so forth. I guess we all have to start somewhere. 

She now knows and dials my number. She actually left it to that one phone call for the evening and only called once the next morning.  No calls from school yet; I bet she wishes she knew how to make that happen. :-)