Then and Now

Jake has always been a sensitive boy and several things have happened recently that have reminded me just how tender hearted he really is. A few weekends ago Miss Wendy's dog had to be put to sleep. When I dropped the kids at daycare she took me aside (Jake was with me) and let me know that their 13 year old dog had several seizures over the weekend and her fiance, Travis, had decided that it was time. This was a much loved pet and they were both really sad and she wanted to know if it was OK for her to tell Tanner and Faith the truth. Yes, I said, they could tell the kids that Lexie had died- we are not big believers in the "Lexie went to live on a farm" method. Jake and I got back in the car and his eyes were filled with tears. He said, "Mom, isn't Milo 13 years old?". Uh-oh. Thus began the conversation about the likelihood of Milo passing on in the next few years. Even though he knew Milo was old, he was so sad to hear it confirmed, and I swear, since that time, has been paying more attention to Milo than ever before. He has asked to see pictures of Milo with him as a baby and is really protective of him. If, heaven forbid, I raise my voice at Milo (say when he follows me into my small closet and I trip over him trying to reach my sock drawer) Jake rises to his defense immediately.

Here is a recent picture of the two of them together, next to one of the first pictures of them together. Another reminder that time goes too fast....

Bob

One of the greatest inventions of the modern age perhaps: Bob. It is a device you plug into the TV or video game console that you can program for a certain amount of time per day for each of your children. Each child has a code that they have to use before the device will turn on (we plugged it into the Wii) and Bob automatically shuts down the system after the alloted time is over. No negotiating, no whining.... It is truly a great invention. We just got it this week because even with best intentions of limiting "screen time" we are not so good at monitoring it. We tell them a half hour, but then get busy doing something else (usually work in the AM and dinner prep in the PM) and the half hour quickly turns into 40 minutes or 45 minutes or 60 minutes. Or we are talked into "just let me finish this game of football, Mom". So now Jake gets 30 min/day, Tanner gets 15 minutes. If they choose to use it first thing in the AM or after school, it doesn't matter. Once the time is up, it's up. It's great. Wish I'd thought of that.... Welcome to our family, Bob.

Our Kids and Their Media - Jake

Jake:

I think all our regular readers know that Jake has become a football obsessed crazy person. He loves it. Pro Football, College, High School, cartoon football, you name it. He is officially better than me at Madden now and knows all of the plays and formations by heart. He memorizes the rosters and recognizes the players in the real games from his video teams. I refused to let him get into fantasy football this year, but only by promising we'd join a league together next season (I wanted him to root for the team and the game, before he learned to root for stats). He starts flag league this year and can't wait. He plays with his friends in the yard and struts like an NFL receiver when he makes a catch (I'm really hoping that his 1st coach screams at him for it or one of the other players pops him one, because I can't seem to get him to stop - and NO, I'M NOT COACHING).

Theory of a Deadman - Okay, maybe not my best parenting move, but I don't feel that a little loud, sexist rock music filled with bad language and drug/drinking references ever hurt anyone....what? Hey, I like it, he rides around with me in the car, sorry, he's gonna hear it. I have explained what it's about and what the language means, that's it's said for effect etc. Truthfully, I'm a little proud...

We just finished this Mike Lupica book which Jake just loved. It's really the first good sized chapter book he's ever sat thru. 30 something chapters and 250 ish pages are a major accomplishment for us and I'm really proud of the way he stayed into it and followed along. Now the kid in the story is a huge Patriots fan, the QB for his youth football team and get's to meet Tom Brady, so it's not like we were reading Tolstoy, but still you've got to start somewhere. The best thing is Lupica has about 100 other kids books that all revolve around sports, so I don't have to read SpongeBob anymore at bedtime (at least for Jake, Tanner is still a SB devotee).

Our Kids and Their Media - Tanner

Tanner:

So the kids are kind of into the Winter Olympics, in as much as they'll watch them if I have them on. It's not that that are unpatriotic, but they would be much more into them if Mario and Sonic were involved, because they love this game. They play everyday, and have "unlocked" all of the secret games, which they tell us with the relish that one would imagine would be reserved for curing cancer or some other such noble feat, but no we get, "Dad, guess what, we just unlocked Dream Snowboard Cross" at which point I'm supposed to congratulate them like they just graduated college or something...

Tanner loves "Family Huddle" the Manning family book. Now I'm a big football fan, and I like the Mannings, and they seem brighter than your average pro-football player, but writers they are not. Tanner loves the Mannings (see the Christmas post) and saw this book on his pre-school book order form. My advice, if you can keep it out of your house do. It's not actively bad, but it doesn't survive multiple parental readings like some other kids books can. My rule is I'll only read it once a week, and even then it's painful.

I don't know how Tanner came to develop a taste for neo-soul, but he loves "If You're Out There" by John Legend. I downloaded it after the Obama election as he wrote it specifically for that time and I loved the song, but Tanner takes it to a whole new level. He asks for it all of the time in the car and sings along with it very quietly, but very intently when it comes on. You can see that the song truly means something to him. It has better staying power than the Manning book, but I will admit that sometimes when it comes up on the display in the car I fast forward and hope he doesn't recognize the first few notes.....

Shut Up and Drive

That's the title of a Chely Wright song that we were listening to in the car a few weeks ago. Of course the kids all loved that they were allowed to sing along and therefore were allowed to say the words "Shut up" over and over again since that is the chorus. They were all eating crackers in the backseat and Brian and I were trying to have an actual conversation, so midway though the song Brian jokingly changed the words to "Shut up and Eat your Crackers" and started singing loudly with several ensuing lines of silliness. Although Jake and Tanner both thought it was funny and understood the joke, Faith didn't quite get it. She sang along with the revised lyrics and yesterday in the car asked me if I could please put "Shut up and Eat Your Crackers" on my iPod so we could hear it again.

Also on the singing front, as she and I were driving to Miss Wendy's the other day the song "Have a Little Faith" by John Hiatt came on. As always, she asked me who was singing and what the title was, then, after a brief pause, yelled from the backseat excitedly, "That's just like me..... I'm a 'little Faith' ".

One more Faith story.... yesterday as I was pushing her on the swing outside she said, apropos of nothing, "Mommy, I'm going to be too big for you to carry soon because I am a big girl now, but don't worry because I won't be too big to hug, or kiss, or talk to!". I vividly remember Jake holding my hand on the way into Miss Julie's house (his daycare up until we moved) and how he used to tell me he would "hold my hand until he was 70 and I was 100 ". I can tell the days of unabashed hand holding are coming to a close for my little man. Hard to imagine there will be a day when my little girl will not only NOT want to hold my hand, kiss me, hug me, or talk to me.... but will probably dislike me most days! Can I keep her this age forever, please???

Our Kids and Their Media - Faith

Marisa is out of town tonight so I handled bedtime. Over the course of picking up kids from school, watching them after school, driving them around and reading bedtime books, it occurred to me that our kids have some specific tastes in media right now that say a lot about where they're at in life (come to think of it, we all do). But I thought I would make a note here so I don't forget.

Faith:

She loves anything Dora the Explorer (sheets, pillows, nighties, her Dora stuffed doll that's almost as big as she is...) so it's no suprise that when she "inherited" Tanner's old Leapster, the Dora game instantly became her favorite.

If you haven't heard big ol' IZ sing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/It's a Wonderful World" then your life is not as bright as it could be. Download it from somewhere, burn it for a lullabye CD for your daughter and then listen to it every night as you put her to bed.

The Bob Dylan book was a gift from Auntie Sue and the book quickly became a family sing along that all of the kids love, but Faithy picked it tonight for her bedtime book.

Steelheads, Slam Dunks, and Tea Parties

We took Faith to her first hockey game on Friday night. We went with another family in our neighborhood and everyone had a blast. Fridays are "4 for 44" days with 4 tix, 4 hotdogs, and 4 drinks for just 44 dollars. How can you beat that for an evening out with the family? For those of you thinking that we are 5, not 4, you are right, but Faith is still under three so she was free.

The game was exciting and actually ended in a shootout. Unfortunately the Steelheads lost in the end, but that didn't lessen the enthusiasm. The kids didn't get to bed until after 11, and we definitely paid for it the next day with CRANKY CRANKY CRANKY children, but they were ASLEEP at 6:45 and slept past 7AM so today should be a bit easier.

We recorded the Slam Dunk Contest and are watching it this morning. I am sure there will be two boys trying to copy the moves up in their bedroom later today! They are both rooting for Nate Robinson again.

Faith and I are going to a tea party (no, not that kind....an actual tea party) this afternoon- the 1st b'day party for the daughter of a friend of mine. Should be fun. She is really excited to be going to a "girls only" party and since cupcakes are the main offering, she will be thrilled!

Activism 101

We got a notice in the mail 10 days ago that a developer had bought the land behind our house and was planning on putting a self storage facility on it, complete with RV parking (basically in our back yard). We were invited to an "informational meeting" by the developer and this is where the fun begins.

To make a long story short, Brian and I are spearheading a group of people against this storage facility and have been going door-to-door getting a petition signed, made a poster with information for residents to read, met with the Town Council, sent emails to all community members, etc... in order to show this developer that this storage facility was not wanted or needed in the community. Long, long story short: after getting over 300 signatures, the developer called Brian directly on Friday to ask him if they could meet and discuss this face-to-face. He said that he now realizes that the storage facility is a bad idea and wants our input on what would be a good use for the land behind our house. Since the land is zoned commercial there will probably be something up there, but we have lots of ideas that would be far less dangerous and ugly and much more useful for our community than a storage facility. Our top four ideas so far:

1. Turn it into a gym with space for yoga, pilates, bootcamp, indoor swimming pool, etc....

2. Turn it into a solar power farm.

3. Sell is back to community members so we can turn it into a big playground and dog park.

4. Daycare facility

Only #3 is really desirable (but unfortunately unlikely...), but the others are far safer than self storage and something we could live with.

So, this week has been very busy! Brian has amazed me with his dedication to the cause. He has been standing outside the Merc any free moment and getting signatures on the petition, has spoken to more neighbors than I think we have ever spoken to combined in our almost 4 years of life here, and has gone through the CCNR's with a fine tooth comb. For a man that truly does not like chatting it up with strangers, he has been a trooper. It has been a really good lesson for Jake- to see us work together with neighbors to "fight the powers that be". His "give back" for baseball (machine pitch this year!) was going door to door with Brian.

The meeting with the developer is this Wednesday. Wish us luck...