The other day--watching Oscar steal yet another apple and crawl off with in held tightly in his teeth--I realized it was time to resurrect my long neglected blog Toddler Fixation.
It was such fun to look back on old photos and Biscuit was loving the videos of herself. I only remembered a handful of the things pictured which made me extra glad for that little piece of dusty, abandoned internet.
Now it's all Oscar content (as often as I remember to post).
This week has been a busy one. All good stuff but I'm really not cut out for having activities every night of the week plus both days of the weekend.
Tonight's big event was Biscuit's very exciting Writer's Showcase. Her teacher submitted her story "Daisy Goes to New Zealand" so she was among about 50 kids from all the schools in our district who were invited to this event to be honored as young authors.
The speaker was real. live. author. Patricia Newman who kindly gave each young author a signed copy of her book. Nugget on the Flight Deck is all about an aircraft carrier. (Nugget is a boy with a really unfortunate name; I had assumed this was a book about a dog). If you have a kid who's into military stuff/airplanes/ships it'd be perfect. I read it to Biscuit and was impressed with her curious questions about pilots "punching out" of a plane and other elements of the book but had to laugh when 3/4 of the way through she said, "wait, this is a BOAT? It's not a BOAT! It's an AIRPORT." And I said, "uh, ya. That's sort of the point of this book," and then we spent a really long time trying to figure out how big an aircraft carrier is relative to things she is familar with. I decided it was approximately the size of one of the big fields at school. I have no idea. We need to plan a trip to tour the Hornet.
The whole evening was completely adorable and fun marred only by the fact that Oscar smelled quite strongly of puke. After months without spitting up he broke that trend right before pickup tonight when he puked all over himself. Puke, not spit up. Of course I didn't bring spare clothes so he spent the evening in a smelly onesie sans cute overalls.
We got home and I put him in the very last diaper in the entire house and was grateful we've still got the cloth diaper thing going. I could procure more diapers while wearing my jammies by just washing the laundry. I'll still need to get some disposables at the store tomorrow--Mr. H hasn't quite come over to the world of cloth diapering. Oh well.
It's absolutely pouring rain outside--so fun to listen to, especially after this winter where it barely rained at all. The rain is thwarting day 2 of my "get back into running" plan (I'm not that hardcore for an after dark rain run). Oooohhhh, now it's a thunder and lightening storm. Fun!
Since I'm not running I thought I'd sit down and write the post I've been meaning to write for a month--a kid update. Of course in that month Oscar is a completely different child (a month ago he was a child that slept. Now? Not so much.) A month from now he'll be a different child again (one that sleeps? I certainly hope so!). I best capture the right now, right now. His baby book is a bit sparse.
Biscuit:
I'm not sure Oscar could have a better big sister. She loves to play with him and is so good about keeping an eye on him when we ask. Currently it's all about hide and seek. She hides, he's confused, she pokes her head out, he spots her and crawls over, she hides again, he's confused. I can't imagine how it's fun for either of them but it seems to work.
Easter: She was pretty excited about the Easter bunny and provided him (her?) a detailed note about where she'd be sleeping (on the couch with Aunt Laura) and where the egg hunt should be held (at Grammy's house). The funniest thing was Mr. H's idea to color the chicken eggs and return them to the coop. Boy was she impressed/surprised when she went to collect eggs Easter morning and they were fully decorated. Her theory was that the Easter bunny "had paints or markers or something" and decorated them and put them back in the coop. ;)
Moods: Maybe it's a six-year-old girl thing but wow is she moody and whiny lately. It seems like everything is an overreaction (to me). Tears, angst, oh. my. gosh. We're working on the whining piece. Last night we had a deal going (she agreed to it, not sure why) but she got a big piece of candy before her bath under the agreement that if she whined at all during the bedtime routine I would throw away all the rest of her Easter candy. She made it for quite a while but ended in tears with a whine over wanting to go running with me. I told her I threw the candy away but it's actually in the cupboard for my personal enjoyment. Now I'm thinking about letting her earn it back with whine free evenings. It was so incredibly pleasant last night to do the routine sans whine.
Writer: Tonight she was so, so cute and so, so excited. Her teacher called to let her know she was getting some sort of award for a story she wrote. The little event is next week and she's going to get to meet a real author. I don't think she could have been more excited if she was going to get to meet the Easter bunny himself. I'll have to post about her adorable book factory project. According to the marketing materials she developed the website is PaigesBookFactory.com. Smart girl :)
All in all, things are good with kid #1.
Oscar:
It's a blurry photo but that's our little cutie. All tilty head "hugs" and grins and teeth. Oh, and fingernails. The pinching/biting/scratching is a bit old. As I tell him several times a day it's lucky he's cute 'cause he's been kind of a butthead lately. Of course that's in comparison to his first 9 months where he was pretty much the easiest baby ever. These days he's getting up 2-3 times/night and is tough to get down for a nap or bed. He has such a strong need to pull up to standing and such an inability to get down from standing that he has to be put into his crib fully asleep. If he's even a little bit awake he pulls up to stand and gets stuck. I swear I've watched him in the morning about 95% still asleep but blindly grasping for the crib bars and hauling himself upward. Crazy boy.
Let's not talk about the sleep anymore, shall we?
Eating. He's trying to feed himself. You can be glad I didn't have a camera around tonight when he fed himself refried beans. That doesn't look good smeared across the face! He is a very fickle eater. On Monday he loved, loved, loved curried tofu (!) but on Tuesday he wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole. He pretty much always loves applesauce, noodles, Cheerios, citrus and bananas and consistently hates broccoli but for the rest your guess is as good as mine.
Adorableness. He's playing peek-a-boo and it is SO CUTE I can't even tell you. He pulls a blanket over his own head and pulls it down with a giant grin. If you cover your face with your hands he yanks them off, smiles, and then slaps them back onto your face. He's a total mimic and likes to shake his head side to side, stick out his tongue, puff up his cheeks, blow on your face and, sometimes, give high fives. He's soooo big and soooo ticklish as soon as he puts up his arms.
As I tell anyone who asks, we totally scored some awesome kids. I'm feeling very lucky these days.
Thanks for the love on the reading pillow. It must have made it's way around the internets somehow because I glanced at my traffic stats as a I logged in tonight and a few days ago I had 12 times my (normally meager) traffic. Facebook, I'm guessing.
And this is where I wish I had something totally spectacular to follow up with but, no. I do have a project [this close] to done but give me a few more days to get done, done. Instead, it's more of what you may have come to expect here at Under Construction consistently inconsistent quality.
Art
Biscuit and I made this collage from pages we tore from an old book and then painted with acrylic. It started out as an abstract concept but somehow turned into a city.
We actually worked on it at an open studio type class at a local art store. Going there together was nice. Seems like lately we've been a sort of stereotypical mother/daughter pair:
Her: I don't want to!
Me: Nag, nag, nag
Her: Eye roll
Me: What's with the attitude?!
Her: Stomp, stomp
Me: Gaahhhh!
For some reason I thought this was something to look forward to when she turned 12 but maybe she's precocious? I'm trying to mellow out and adjust my own attitude. I know I've been extra grumpy/tired lately and that never helps. After much arguing about art projects lately (which basically boiled down to both of us working on our own projects and then her liking mine better and wanting to "finish" it for me and me saying no) it was nice to team up on this giant piece. No idea what we're going to do with a 3 foot by 3 foot cityscape with a giant yellow carwash.
Funny note: the carwash was a church with a giant "sign of God" (a cross) on the top but I asked her not to include the cross since she is hoping Mr. H will hang it up at his work (a school). Biscuit is very interested in crosses lately. She asked me a few weeks ago why that shape was always on the side of churches we drove past. I decided to just go for it and explained that Jesus was killed when some bad people hung him on a cross. Our conversation, paraphrased:
Her: Whoa! Did it hurt?
Me: I'm sure it did!
Her: Who killed him?
Me: Some people who really didn't like Jesus.
Her: Some mean people said they were going to kill Martin Luther King but then after he was dead they decided they actually really liked him.
Me: Yes, it's sad that somebody killed Martin Luther King. He was a good man.
Her: But I don't think he has a symbol.
So now every time we see a cross she shouts out, "look, it's the symbol of GOD!" and I try to imagine a symbol for Martin Luther King.
Maybe it's time for some sort of cultural/religious education? The Easter holiday should be just perfect for that. Forget chocolate and bunnies, let's talk about dead people coming back to life! (with apologies to any religious readers out there)
Sheesh, didn't this start out as a post about art? I think I better go to bed. Oscar isn't sleeping for shit lately. That sewing project I'm so excited about can wait another day (or more).
Thirty minutes before we had to leave for dinner at my sister-in-law's house Biscuit decided she wanted to make them a pillow "case." I'd spent the afternoon making samples for my next sewing class (Patchwork Pillows, April 22 at Beverly's in Carmichael. Don't miss it ;) and she wanted to get in on the fun.
She drew the design, chose the fabric and stitched it up with very minimal help! She actually sews pretty straight.
I tried to convince her to gift the pillow to me (it looks so nice on our chair!) but, no, it was for her aunt and uncle. Seems like they liked it.
Yesterday Biscuit and I "wallpapered" the computer nook area.
From this (ignore the mess):
To this (I just moved the pile to the couch):
100% inspired by this real wall paper.
All we did was use two strips of my endless roll of white paper.
We drew "frames" with a Sharpie large enough for the art we have lying around. I drew the rectangles and Biscuit and I shared responsibility for decorating the frame borders.
The whole thing is hung with tacks and scotch tape.
All art is by Biscuit from age 2ish to nowish. It was fun to go through my "Biscuit's Art" file and see what she's done over the years.
So far I'm really liking this.
Last weekend we collected rocks at the river.
Biscuit painted hearts
Then added initials to the back and we sprayed them with a clear acrylic.
And, in typical Biscuit fashion, she wrote notes on envelopes and enclosed a stone and a package of smarties. All set for Tuesday.
Unrelated to giving folks rocks for Valentine's Day but related to love, we got this Knock Knock brand note pad from a friend for Christmas.
It's really perfect for lunchbox notes. If you like to put notes in lunchboxes I'd recommend it.
This was really fun.
That awesome cookie cutter set cuts out the parts of a house. It's genius! It's Wilton's brand and I know some Michael's carry it but, if you're local, I got it at Castle Cake Shop on Fair Oaks.
Arranging the candy may be Biscuit's favorite part.
The masterpieces:
Mine, with my traditional Necco roof (modified due to Necco shortage)
Biscuit's with a cool Chex roof and a super awesome outdoor fire made of Dots and pretzels.
And my mom's.
Yay for tradition
Here's 2010 with links for every year (all the way back to 2007 when Biscuit was wee)
Thanksgiving break is over. But wow has it been nice while it lasted.
Today Biscuit participated in projects galore! She and I painted tree branch pieces. Anyone who's been around here for a while will know that I've got a lot of tree branch pieces around.
We hot glued magnets on the back to make....wait for it.....magnets!
Before our painting adventure, Mr. H and Biscuit were busy in the woodshop making something for Oscar (photos to come) and then they ran to the hardware store and before I could turn around they'd made a soccer goal!
Biscuit is suddenly very interested in learning about/playing soccer. She says that "once she knows all about it" she might be interested in playing on a team with uniforms.
In the meantime she's working on my signature move from my soccer playing days. The preparatory cringe ;)
And Oscar was busy turning 6 months old.
Following my family tradition we made him half a cake. A delicious carrot cake which we enjoyed without him. Sorry kid, maybe when you turn 1. Happy Half Birthday to Oscar!
All in all, a good day and I've got the messes all over the house to prove it.
That right there is the best Thanksgiving photo. You can see Biscuit's proud face after she's taken a soup and salad order from my mom. She was so proud of her work and justifiably so. After two full days of cooking Thanksgiving dinner was a hit.
Ok, it wasn't the prettiest bird but it tasted alright.
The side dishes were delicious!
The pies were delicious too except the crusts which, honestly, were awful. Can't win 'em all!
That leaf rubbing table runner was our thing for "making something every day in November." Biscuit and I made it a few weeks ago with leaves we collected. It made for a colorful table! You can sort of see it under all the dishes.
So, in the end Biscuit learned to use the peeler, learned that it is a LOT of work to cook such a big meal and got paid her $4. Plus nearly everyone at the table tipped her so she probably made out with $10 or so. Not much of an hourly wage but pretty good for a six-year-old.
And Oscar practiced eating solids and added butternut squash to his menu along with applesauce and pumpkin. He's getting really good at solids. We're proud of him too ;)
What a wonderful Thanksgiving!
