Warning Labels

With a 4 and a 6 year old I had long past the stage of worrying about finding soft, age appropriate toy or trying to latch a baby into a 16 point harness seat, swing, highchair or concerning myself with newborn warning labels.  Well, those days are back.  And with being a third child myself I feel completely fine saying that Vivienne will survive with whatever I do for her.  Don't worry she sleeps on her back and I strap her into her bucket car seat correctly and keep the 4,000 legos off the floor around her. But sometimes  you have to throw caution to the wind. 

Warning labels sometimes take it to the max. I love the "at all times", what about when they are in the car and you cant see them, or you leave them on the floor to go to the bathroom or if they are screaming bloody murder because they are so tired and need to soothe themselves. I don't smother Vivienne with blankets and stuffed animals but when you have a snuggle item that soothes her you keep it with her. 

I mean are you going to try and take this from her! I sure as hell am not.  Watch out world, she's got her eyes on you.

My New Love

So I've been absent for awhile.  I've been busy with the holidays and having a baby.  Yes, all good things with great stories and pictures to tell.  But that will come another day.

 Last week I finally got out to do a little retail therapy.  Here in the fabulous Upper Valley that means hitting up a handful of stores.  Seeing that I've only bought maternity clothes over the last 9 months I was excited at the idea of finding some cute clothes for myself. As I maneuvered the stroller up and down the isles I figured I would grab what I liked and return what didn't work out.  (I've had to adapt with a newborn, don't push my luck on time) I started finding some cute things and then on one of the clearance racks I saw a pair of black sweat pants.  I've got tons of yoga and running pants (because I do so much of that) but no real pair of sweatpants.  I mean, does anyone purposefully buy sweatpants.  I feel they are something that come into your life from different avenues, stolen from the husbands drawer,  mysteriously acquired in dorm room in college and you have had them for years (or decades) or your favorite sports team gear that everyone has to have. What I don't need is more comfy clothes but, alas, I found myself grabbing them, purchasing them and bringing them home. Later in the day when I was trying on my new finds I had almost forgot about the sweatpants.  As I proceeded to go through the bags and being satisfied with my haul I came across the pants in the bottom of one of the bags.  I had tried everything else on so I slipped into the pants and I immediately ripped off the tags. I tell you, I hit the jackpot.  I now understand why some people wear sweatpants in public.  It was like coming home, but to a home that was more comfortable than I had remembered. I admit, unapologetically, that I have worn these pants everyday since their purchase.  I have taken them off and put on other clothes when I go out (the bus stop doesn't count, they stay on then) but I come back to them everyday.

Why do I share this story of my new favorite pair of heavenly black sweatpants? The reason is simple, the happiness that it gives me and the smile that it brings to my face. No really, I found myself laughing at my pure joy and thought that I should write about it.  I'm hoping to be back at the blog again and I figured I would start with some humor before I smother you with stories of newborns. Thanks for coming back.

Today's Lesson

Living in the upper valley provides some great opportunities for Colby's school to take advantage of. Tom and I are fortunate with our time to be able to learn and then teach a science lesson to Colby's class once a month.  (Yes, me teaching science! I realize this is hilarious seeing that the only science I took in college was oceanography which consisted of a lot of hanging out at the beach.) Nevertheless, it's a great opportunity to get in the classroom and see the mind of 5 and 6 year olds working.  Clearly, coming to class and teaching has shown us in a new light to Colby.  The last time we taught he came home that afternoon and set up his own presentation for us.

 

He took his lesson very seriously and explained how a castle works and how you protect yourself when under attack. (very important life lessons, much more interesting then the lesson we taught on ecosystems) 

 

He even asked questions that we needed to raise our hands for to answer.  In the above photo Colby is calling on Tom to get his answer after I failed to provide the right number of ladders needed to escape off the top of the castle. (the answer is 2)

I love how his mind works and how he translates it into his play.  I also like that he sees me as more then the person that cooks, cleans and drives him everywhere.

Introducing Cal Kitty

It's been some time since we said goodbye to our beloved cat Isis.  (Stupid terrorist group had to name themselves after the best cat ever) We have missed having a pet around but the break has been good....not having to make arrangements when we go out of town, worrying about shutting the door before the cat tries to get outside and cleaning the litter box.

The timing was right for a cat but not a permanent one.  Enter Cal Kitty....

 

 

 

This pretty little guy is my parents cat.  He originally was my sister's cat when she lived in California (hence the name) and then made his way to Maine where he resides with them.  My parents have a big trip coming up and we have a pet free house; this was a no brainer.  He has been with us for almost 2 weeks and will stay about another month.  He has settled in very nicely and everyone is happy to have him around, especially Colby.  He loves animals but has a soft spot for cats.  They already knew each other but Colby has taken this time with Cal to get more familiar with him. Colby decided to start with drawing Cal's portrait.  He took his time and Cal was a very good model.   

 









 

I think they will both enjoy their time together.   It will be a fun month. 



Starting Lists...

It's only October but thoughts of Christmas have started to creep into this house. I'm certainly not complaining, I love Christmas and don't mind it sneaking into our lives early. One big bold clear way this is happening is through the number of catalogs that have come in the mail.  I often recycle them before they make it in the house but a few have snuck in under the radar.  Colby and Lincoln love looking through them over and over again.  Colby has started to circle some items he thinks he may want.  At one point Tom saw him circle a princess dress-up collection and he asked if he really wanted it.  Colby just laughed at him and informed him he had circled it for his friend Harper.  He then wrote her name down beside it so as not to confuse anyone else.  I loved that he wasn't just thinking about himself as he looked through the catalogs.  He even picked out some items that he thought his brother might like too. 

 

 

 

The lists will change as the catalogs get recycled over the next couple of months but the ideas they give me will help me give the big man in red some hints! 

 



The Fall Bucket List (thanks to pinterest)

Living in New England in the fall provides you with endless activities and seasonal rites of passage. Combine this with the time sucking vortex of Pinterest and you have yourself a fall bucket list you can complete.  I've printed the damn thing off and hung it on my fridge to encourage myself to think about all the great fall things we can do as a family. 

As I've said before, leaves are my favorite toy in the fall.  You rake them up, jump in them, throw them in the air and then dispose of them.  Also, we don't go to the apple orchard once, we go several times! You go once to get apples to bake pies and the rest of the times you go to wander aimlessly to kill an hour and to enjoy the weather.  (I also volunteered on both boys school visits to apple orchards so we really got our fix this year.)

 Another two fabulous fall things and two more checks off the damn fall bucket list was visiting a pumpkin patch and finding our way through a corn maze.  Well the good old Upper Valley region rocks because this could be done at a wonderful farm just a few miles away.  Even in a soggy drizzle  we survived an amazing corn maze that the boys lead us through and picked our weight in pumpkins.  It is neat to show the boys a pumpkin patch instead of just picking pumpkins out from a pile.





pumpkin patch selfie

 

The bucket list also had some less than adventurous activities on it that could make you feel better about checking more things off the list. For example, drinking pumpkin coffee, drinking apple cider, making a fall mantel and getting cozy all are pretty lame activities but nonetheless got checked off our family fall bucket list. 

Back to real items! Going for a hike and making s'mores are some other pretty easy things to do during this time of year.  Hiking in the fall provides such a different point of view from any other time of year and you don't sweat to death because it is so chilly out.

The fall bucket list continues and we still have plenty of time in the season to check more things off. Up next carving pumpkins....

Sometimes it's expensive to be right...

Katie R.

Saturday night a few weeks ago the adults were watching 2 tvs, yes 2 tvs in the living room so we could watch Ohio State and Notre Dame.  

A suggestion was made that the kids watch a movie but with having 2 of the tvs already in the living room, I suggested they take a computer downstairs. My husband was worried they would break the computer, our 6 year old computer that only works 1/2 of the time.  Instead he suggests the kids watch tv in our room because it's a bigger tv (another time I will explain why we had a 50 inch television in our tiny bedroom).

I told my husband I didn't think it was a great idea but in an attempt to not be the nagging wife and uncool mom I said ok.  

So it started cute like this:

Then Wes found this:

And then this happened:

We will never know the true story of how it happened, meaning whether Wes acted on his own or with the support of his cohorts, but we do know that Wes was able to break the inside of the television.

I was right and we are now minus one television.  Sometimes it's expensive being right.