Kid Talk

Daily Dose of Cool and Confusion

Kid Talk /

Prince J brought down a new lego creation, which was sort of cool in the typical way. I suggested he make something BIG with his legos rather than something small, like he usually does. TW suggested making something round with those other “block thingies” up there and then we both suggested he make a PC Case Mod. He thought that was interesting and headed up to give it a try. Half hour later, he says he’s done it.

p1010001_1.jpgWell, ummm, not quite. As you can see, it’s cool but it’s not a case mod. The boy, didn’t quite understand “case mod”. Still cool. And now that he knows what we meant, maybe we’ll see another creation up there again soon.

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Daily Dose of Hair – Boring

1 Comment / Kid Talk /

Michelle has colored her hair, again.  I have been expecting it for awhile – there were only a couple of small little streaks of black left, in the front.  And, it’s back to school time.  I thought for sure we’d see a blue or a green, but no.  Alas.  Boring just a shade or two darker than her "normal" color.  A color that’s not quite blonde but close enough to blonde.

  Here I sit wondering what happened to me along the way to make me sigh over "blonde" and wish for the days when I had colorful haired kids.

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Daily Dose of Political Videos

Kid Talk, News and Politics /

I’ve been trying to get the big kids to do something interesting and useful with the video cameras they HAD to have.  So far, I haven’t had much luck.  I’m wondering if they would be interested in doing something like this: TAKE BACK THE CAPITOL.  It seems to be right up their alley, ya know?  They have strong ideas and feelings, maybe this is a good way for them to put them to use.

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Daily Dose of Buttons

Kid Talk /

Michelle has wanted her own personal Button Maker for a million years.  Her brother and sister had one when she was 3 or 4 and she loved it more than they did.  During some move or another, I trashed it because I couldn’t seem to find the button replacement thingies for it.  I don’t think her Christmas or birthday wishlist have ever NOT contained the buttonmaker.

Last Christmas she almost conned me into buying one because she wanted to use it to make buttons for the youth con at church.  In fact I had fully intended to buy her one and somehow forgot about it til it was too late for Christmas.  Then, it was too late to get it for the youth con so we still don’t own one.

Today, I wish I had bought it just so I could use it.  I could make Blogher buttons!  I could make mommybloggers rock buttons.  I could make a button that said "Don’t ask, just read my blog!" buttons. Darn, I should have bought that thing.

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Daily Dose of Kids, Noise and Cats

3 Comments / Animal Issues, Day to Day, Friends & Family, Kid Talk /

Did I tell you the big boy moved back home?  He did.  He’s been here two nights.  The first night he slept on the couch because it was short notice and we didn’t have time to clean his new room, the Florida Room, and get a bed in there.  And his sister, who has missed him a lot, told him the little kids wet their beds so he was afraid to sleep in one of those.  Ah siblings, such kindness.  Sort of amusing after the fact, though.

The next night, he dragged half of the mattress into the Florida Room, turned on the ceiling fan and then dug around in the closet for the box fan.  He said it was comfortable enough at night, during the day it’s a wee bit warm but not too bad.  With his big fan, that’s still at his old place, it should be fine.  He dug some sheets out to hang over the sliding glass door not because he is modest or to block out some daylight but because he brought his darn cat with him on day two and the other animals in the house stood at the door and whined to get in there to "visit".  Instead of being down to 3 cats we are back up to 5! 

Chris is a vegetarian.  Not in the flexitarian way that TW and I are vegetarians.  He really is a vegetarian.  He has this whole animal compassion thing.  He apparently has developed a fondness for organic junk food and those healthy chips that TW and I buy when we visit real grocery stores, like Wild Oats and Whole Foods and stuff.  Ha.  We’ve determined that he NEEDS his green vegetables and he does eat tofu and he does eat all Boca products.  (I hope he eats Publix fake meat products since I buy those more often now.)  He also eats fruit and he still drinks an awful lot of soda.  At least I’ve only had to lecture him once about TW’s cokes – he’s been gone a whole year and he’s forgotten the TW coke rules. 

The most interesting thing I’ve noticed since the boy has been back has been the noise.  You can almost always hear a guitar playing in the house if Michelle and/or the half child are here.  But now, with Chris home, you hear ELECTRIC guitar with AMPS instead of soft acoustic sounds.  I’m having just a little bit of trouble adjusting.  Thank goodness he is in the Florida room and not over my head anymore. 

So, the boy is back and we are glad.  We’ve missed him.  Even if he is loud and did bring a cat and has special food needs.

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Daily Dose of Education – Field Trips

4 Comments / Kid Talk, Memories, Travel Log /

TW is not at work today.  Instead, she  is sitting on a bus with a bunch of second graders watching her most favorite movie of all time, (ha), Madagascar!  The bus is on its way to the Florida Aquarium.  Don’t you just love field trips?  Or not?  I was trying to come up with some fun field trip memories and coming up a little bit empty which seemed odd,  but upon reflection it’s not so odd. 

When Jenn was in pre-school, Kinder and First Grade we lived in the Philippines.  No field trips, except for mini trips to various squadrons to see what the daddies (and the very rare mommy) did at work.  We were there during the time of Cori Aquino and there were constant shootings outside of the base, military members kidnapped, lots of security threats.  We traveled as a family while in the Philippines but buses full of school kids roaming the country was not something the DoD or the DoDDS wanted to deal with. 

Then we moved onto northern California and Jenn and Chris did manage to go on some field trips.  I attended very few which again seems odd until I think about it.  First issue – I had an infant and a husband who was gone all of the time and I didn’t then nor do I now do the daycare thing.  Second issue – I was really not all that into field trips at school because I was constantly taking a Girl Scout troop on some trip, somewhere. 

Then it was onto Panama (think Canal not Florida) where again the field trips were few and far between for both Chris and Jenn, which seems odd and upon reflection still seems odd.  There were some – to the canal, to Panama Viejo, to Summit Gardens but it seems like there weren’t too many.  Michelle was in pre-school, Kinder and First Grade and I did attend quite a few field trips with her class.  But again, I avoided field trips if I could because I was always taking a Girl Scout troop or a Cub Scout troop on some trip, somewhere. 

After that, New Jersey.  Ack.  More field trips for the kids in this location; Liberty Bell, Statue of Liberty, etc… I attended one trip to the Statue of Liberty and another to a farm and that’s about it.  Again the Girl Scout trip thing.

In SC and here in FL I avoided field trips completely, yea me!  My pre-teen/teen wasn’t all that hot for field trips in either location.  She has crowd issues and noise issues and by the time she hit 12, field trips held no fascination or fun – just anxiety.  I can understand that.  Being surrounded by noisy, over-excited kids can make it difficult to relax, to have fun, or to learn.

I’m betting TW comes home with lots of fun stories about the trip and I know E will.  And I’ll be almost jealous that I didn’t get to go.  Almost.

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Daily Dose of TV – Turn It Off, Gilmore Girls?

3 Comments / Kid Talk, Sights & Sounds /

Yippeee! It’s TV Turnoff Week! A holiday I won’t be celebrating but have no guilt over not celebrating.   It’s not that I don’t believe television has played a role in obesity, it has.  I’m not willing to make television the scapegoat though.  And, I just don’t watch enough TV to worry about it.  Nor do our kids.  I’m in the "everything is good in moderation" camp and that includes mindless fluffy TV.

Speaking of mindless fluffy TV – I’m tempted to celebrate that news that the Palladinos didn’t come to an agreement with WB/UPN and will be leaving Gilmore Girls after this season.  On second thought, that idea feels a wee bit hollow.  For the first few years I think the Palladinos made some really good television with Gilmore Girls.  It’s a pity they’ve turned the show into mindless fluff that doesn’t even make sense based on the history and character of the characters they worked so hard to create in the first place.  (though that scene last week with Lauren Graham giving the drunk "toast" was fantastic, Lorelai should not have been in that position in the first place)

I don’t watch much TV and it’s a shame that one of the two hours a week that I do watch has become a lot less enjoyable.  Maybe next year, without the Palladinos, will be a better one for Stars Hollow fans.  If it isn’t, I won’t feel at all sad about watching just one hour of TV a week.

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Daily Dose of Dogs, Cats, Candy & Questions

7 Comments / Foodie, Holidays, Kid Talk, Pets, Questions and Answers /

They say dogs should not eat chocolate.  They say it’s not good for them.  They even sometimes say it will kill them.  Those dog lover fanatic people get all hysterical if you talk about dogs eating chocolate.  I think its bull.

I think chocolate is only unhealthy for dogs in the same way it is unhealthy for people.  I think it will only kill them in the same way it kills people.  I think those dog lover fanatic people who get all hysterical are like the food nazis who get all upset about kids eating chocolate. 

The reason I think this is I have dogs eating chocolate experience.  Tons of it.  Every single holiday – from Halloween to Christmas to Valentine’s Day to Easter the darn black dog eats an abundance of candy – generally chocolate candy.  And he’s not dead.  Yet.  In fact, he has not even indicated he has a stomach ache after eating almost a full basket of Easter candy yesterday on top of eating a half dozen chocolate covered peanut butter eggs TW and the kids made the day before on top of eating a 1/4 of a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips that fell onto the floor the day before that.

So – if dogs do, in fact, die from eating chocolate – why hasn’t this one died?  Or why hasn’t his much older, much more fragile, mother who has also indulged in a good bit of chocolate every holiday since she came to live with us fallen ill?  And why didn’t the black lab who lived with us before these two cockers die from eating chocolate?  And what about the white spitz we had before that?  Or the mutt we had before that?  What kind of dogs get sick from eating chocolate? What kind die?  Is it a certain kind of chocolate and chocolate eaten on holidays doesn’t cause illness or death?

And while I’m questioning the truth vs myth factor of dogs eating chocolate – do cats get sick from eating chocolate? Do they die?  Because I’ve got one who is working on eating her weight in chocolate… and she’s showing no ill effects.  Sigh.

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