Away!

So right now I am writing this from Times Square. I had the chance to get away with Aaron for a few days while he is here on a business trip.

Today I went down to Central Park, then we both went down to Ground Zero, Battery Park and Wall Street. Tonight we went to see the Broadway Show, Wicked. Its the story of the witches from the Wizard of Oz. We both enjoyed the story and the music. If you have a chance to see this show it is a good one!

Tomorrow I hope to see Rockefeller Center,Fifth Avenue and the Empire State Building. We'll see how long that all takes.

Reading

So, question for those of you with more education/experience in this area than me.



Yesterday at farm class, some moms were talking about preschool/kindergarten. One mom was distressed because her 3 1/2 year old was not doing his piano homework from piano lessons. Let me repeat that, her 3 year old has piano "homework". Apparently she started him on lessons at age 2. She also says that he is reading. The other mom said her 4 year old is reading. Wow. Am I behind the curve, or what?



Micah can sound some words out, but I would definitely NOT classify him as "reading". Micah is in a piano class, but if he wants to play at home, great, if he doesn't then that's great too. I want him to like music and frequently he makes up his own songs on the piano, ukulele or the tamborine. I see this as more beneficial than piano "homework".



So I asked these moms, "Does it really matter if a kid learns to read at age 2 or at age 6, as long as they eventually learn to read and they like to read?" They didn't really have an answer for me. What say you? Is there an advantage to someone reading early, say age 2 1/2??

Co-Op

Friday was the start of our new-to-us homeschool co-op which meets at a church nearby. Micah is taking a 2 hour kindergarten class and I am teaching a Hands-On Equations class to 3rd-6th graders. I loved it! It was so much fun to be teaching again! I have 5 students; including one 2nd grader, two 3rd graders and two 6th graders. Quite a difference between the 2nd and 6th grader, but it will be fine since there are only 5 kids. I've never taught students that young, so it will be a transition for me to remember how many instructions to give at one time.

(Not my student, but here you can see what the hands on equations looks like--there are game pieces you use to solve problems. Very fun!)

Micah liked his teacher and had fun in class. We are continuing the curriculum at home, hopefully daily. Today we did patterns with unifix cubes. Boy did he eat that up. He is very good at it too, making and figuring out some complex patterns.

Joel is taking a "mom and me" farm class through the city. (We actually have a working farm in the middle of our city!) Its been fun for him because Micah's taken programs at the farm (by himself, not with me) and Joel always wanted to stay and participate. Now he has a chance and we've had fun learning about cows and goats, so far. At bedtime he talked about feeding cowboy the cow and the goat parade.

Today Joel heard me talking about his birthday party and he was all over that one.

Joel: "I want to go to my potty"

Me: "What?" You want to go potty??"

Joel: " No, my potty"

Me: I don't know how, but I figured out he was saying party, not potty.

"OHHH, your party, well its not until next week. It hasn't started yet"

Joel: "My potty not open yet."

So several times throughout the day I heard him say "I have a birthday potty. My potty not open yet."

So I asked him about his party to find out if he really knew what a "birthday potty" was. I asked him what will be at his party.

Joel: "Toys"

Yup, he has the idea!

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Daphne and Dave!!

Remember this?

Well, they are here! A little early at 34 weeks, so they will be in the NICU for at least a few weeks. Please pray that they will be out soon with no complications.

Twin A is 4 lbs, 4 oz.

Twin B is 5 lbs, 2 oz

So that makes 9 lbs, 6 oz of baby that was in Daphne. Wow, no wonder they came early. There couldn't have been much room left!

Would you Rather?

Would you rather clean up a kid's potty accident (not in a diaper) or throw-up mess??

Does your answer change if this is done at 2 am??

Happy Birthday! ***edited***

Happy Birthday to my baby brother!

************
Edited:
So I guess I would be remiss to say happy birthday to Rich and not tell any funny stories about him. His comment about the motorcycle got me thinking about this. =)

My brother and I had problems (Aaron would say I HAVE, present tense) with accidentally dropping food on our shirts during meals. We inherited this from our mom. Well, back in 1980-something there was this story in Japan about some earthquake where people were trapped for days. This guy survived by eating his shirt because he had spilled food on it. Okay, maybe it wasn't an earthquake, but somehow a guy was trapped. ANYWAY, anytime my mom saw my brother with food on his shirt, she had to ask him "are you saving that for when you get trapped under a building?" This was funny hmm, about maybe the first time, but it was EVERY TIME for the past 20 years! My mom had a way of running a joke into the ground like that.

Well, I hope that made you laugh Richard.

I have no idea where that motorcycle picture went!

The Fair

Friday was the first day of The Fair. Micah, Joel, my Dad, Betty and I went for the day. Very fun. Except I forgot the camera and had to use my phone which I don't know how to get the pictures off of and onto the blog.

Since it was opening day it was free admission, yay! This gave me the chance to use all the money I saved on admission on rides. Wow, I have not ridden rides at the fair, since...hmmm, can't remember. Put it this way, all the kiddie rides were 4 tickets each, 1 ticket=85 cents. So, for $15, both kids got to go on a whopping 2 rides. Fortunately, we found the John Deere tent where they had all the construction and tractor vehicles on display. They had just as much fun climbing around on those. I'm so glad we can get away with that for now.

We saw the petting zoo, horses, chickens, sheep and goats. Steered clear of the cats. Yikes, no way in heck was I going in there with my allergies! 2 barns full of cats spells disaster for me. I can't think of anything worse. Even the smell of the cow barn is better to me than the thought of being around 200 cats. (Can you tell I'm not a cat-lover???)

Micah loved the vegetables, bees and the pumpkins. Advil had a contest where you could throw the ball into the hole and win a prize. Cool! Free midway game! We lost, but got free samples! (and I needed it!)

The best discovery of the day is that Micah can eat the Elephant Ears as long as you tell them not to put the butter on it at the end. Yay! Too bad I didn't ask until AFTER the butter was on it. That was nice because all he saw was aisle after aisle of things he couldn't eat--we'll know for next time. Betty bought him and Joel one of those giant fair lollipops, and all was made better!

The Krusty Pup (ie corn dog) stand that I worked at is still there, moved down the aisle somewhat. I got to tell Micah "back in the day..mommy worked here" . Wow, makes me feel my age!

A post about nothing...

Wow where does the time go? In my head I think that I just posted, then I look at the date of the last post and it says last Wednesday! What? Could it already be Saturday? Next thing I know Micah will be in college.

Yikes!

Brand loyalty? **edited**

There is a blog I read called Rocks in My Dryer. It is a very amusing mommy blog. This week she posted "what brands are you loyal to?"

I thought that would be an interesting discussion.

Those of you who know me now I am a cheapster when it comes to grocery shopping. I really could care less for brands. Its what's on sale or cheapest that I usually buy. Over the years I have changed my tune. Usually its driven by my husband and Consumer Reports. I go between loving and hating that magazine.

Aaron: "But you have to buy xyz product brand because CONSUMER REPORTS says it is the best performer." Yes, and this is how we ended up with a power flush toilet that scares the beejeesus out of every preschooler that sets foot in our house. (and it requires double flushing most of the time!)

*This is how we started on our Tide habit. Now I don't really mind because I think it does work better, and Jodi has used it for as long as I've known about her laundry habits. We have a front load washer which requires about 1/8th of the regular detergent, so the box lasts a LONG time.

*Crest toothpaste is a favorite, but I don't HAVE to have it.
*Aaron likes KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce the best. I can't tell the difference.
*Le Soeur peas are the BEST canned peas. Unfortunately they are hard to find around here .
*Aloha Shoyu is the best soy sauce. I used to bring it back from Hawaii, but now I can find it here.
*Peet's has the best coffee, hands down.
*In n Out has the only burger and fries worth its calories.

Some brands we are loyal too b/c that is what they sell at Costco. I used to be a Pampers mom, but I have since become a big fan of Costco diapers.

Another reason is because of Micah's allergy, some brands are default. Orowheat bread and Nukoa margarine are two examples. Not to mention tofutti "better than cream cheese" and tofutti "sour cream" and the ever popular tofutti "cuties" (its a soy ice cream sandwich).

Kid's products: I really think Stride Rite shoes are worth the money... at least at the outlet store prices. Especially since they will be going through at least two kids.

Anyway...that's enough of my buying habits. How about yours?

Edited:
**How could I forget? Consumer Reports also told us to use Electrosol Powerball tabs***
and oxyclean is my best friend.**

Culture

We have recently met some neighbors on the next street over with kids near the same age. It has been very fun to have friends in the neighborhood for the boys to play with.

So this leads me to whenever I meet someone new inevitably a question is "so, where are you from?". Understandable question and one that I ask as well when I meet someone new. Its just a hard one for me to answer as I don't feel like I'm "from" anywhere. I'm "from" my family, not a place. I don't have a strong identity as to where I lived. I guess the strongest attachment would be to Hawaii, but I don't really feel like I'm "from" there, so to speak. I don't feel like I'm from Puyallup, although my Dad still lives there and I went to high school there. I only lived there for 3 years. So an innocent question gives me inner turmoil when the asker was just asking a simple thing! Geesh!

Susan just did a great post about Third Culture Kids. Although I wouldn't consider Hawaii to be a totally different culture, it is different living there as opposed to the mainland. (Just ask Jodi, she has lived both places as well!) Here are two funny stories to illustrate:

1. We moved to Puyallup when I was 15 and entering 10th grade. All growing up, all I heard about from my mom was how Washington was "home" and how much she wanted to go there and how great it was here. Both my parents grew up here. We visited family every few years, but I didn't have the attachment that they did. So in my brain I felt like I should have this affinity, but I didn't.

Anyway, back to high school. If you don't know anything about Puyallup, well at that time it was very, well, hmm.... white. We had just moved from Hawaii where I lived since I was 7. If you are haole, you are a minority. I don't think I had any haole friends. (Jodi would remember) Maybe 1 or 2. I also had attended a small Christian school. Now I was going to a very large public high school. I remember clearly walking into school the first day in a sea of people. I looked around and panic overtook me because everyone around me was white. I felt more comfortable around people that were Japanese, Chinese or even American Indian. It was a strange feeling because I knew that I was white, and that I should feel like I fit in, but I didn't. Its a very strange disconnected feeling.

2. I remember meeting some people during college and being astounded that they had lived their ENTIRE LIFE in the same house. My mind just could not get around this statement at all. Growing up, no one I knew lived longer that a few years in a house. It was like telling me that you have a pet pig that flies. It was that mind-boggling!

3. During college I lived in England for one semester. Even after that short of a time coming back was an adjustment. I remember standing at the Atlanta airport trying to buy frozen yogurt. I stared at the American coins in my hand thinking I should know which ones to give her, but my brain just couldn't figure it out. I think I finally gave her some bills that would take care of it. I'm sure she thought I was a complete idiot.

Sharing a room: Update!

A couple of you asked for an update on how the room sharing is going, and now Karen is comtemplating it as well.

The first 4-5 days it took about an hour for them to settle down and go to sleep. Since then it's been about 15 minutes of giggling and talking and then quiet. Micah is a pretty heavy sleeper, so that helps alot if Joel makes some noise during the night. (like when he ran a 105 fever for 3 days while getting his molars!) In the morning Micah always wakes first. Sometimes Micah wakes him up, sometimes not.

The giggling and talking at night doesn't bother me as long as they are settled. Sharing a room has actually solved some other bedtime problems we would have. Micah is very social, so he would get out of bed 2-3 times to "get a drink" or "go potty" just because he didn't want to be alone. Or Micah's imagination would go into over-time and monsters would be under his bed. All of that has completely stopped. I think it reassures him to have his brother in his room with him.

Before the switch Joel would complain/fuss/whine/cry if he heard Micah because he was sure that he was missing something. We would have to take him out of his room and show him that Micah was in bed too. Now that has stopped too.

They still nap in separate rooms because Micah doesn't nap everyday, but has "rest time".

Overall I think it has been easier than I thought.

I talked with my aunt about sharing rooms because her and my mom shared a room until college. She said she thought it made them close because when you are older you share things you wouldn't during the day. She said the main thing they fought about was sharing clothes. I remember my mom also said they drew a line down the middle of the room. But I know in the end they were very close friends.

It the next baby is a boy, then I think we might rotate who gets their own room. Every few years switch up who is sharing. We'll see. Immature because if its a girl, then its all mute, right?

If you're contemplating putting your kids together someone told me its best to wait until the baby is 8 months old. That way if big sister/brother wants to "help" put a blanket on baby (or baby's face!) then its not much of a risk as when the baby is 2 months old.

Mom lets out frustration on ebay listing

Have you heard about the infamous pokemon cards yet? A mom of 6 hit her limit when one of her kids snuck a pack of pokemon cards into the grocery basket. She listed them on ebay with a diatribe about how in the world this happened. Very entertaining. The ebay listing is gone now, but here it is in a news article.

Here is her blog. She went from 5-10 hits a day to 94,000!! Crazy! Her writing is very funny, reminds me of Jodi's stories. If you still haven't read this post of Jodi's you are missing out on some serious laughter.

Thanks to Erin who posted the original ebay listing.