I’m a minivan mom. Last night I traded in my super cool Subaru B9 Tribeca (cars just don’t come any cooler than that) for a white Toyota Sienna. That makes one more white minivan in suburbia. Just what the world needs. The funny thing will be when I show up at a playdate next week where I’ll be the 4th mom driving a white Toyota Sienna. (Surely the other 3 of them will come over to our side soon…)
In other news, Bean’s painting skills have improved immensely. Mama’s proud. No longer are the days of abstract blobs. Last week she learned circles and smiley faces (rudimentary, but recognizable), and today she graduated to stick people! Such talent! Smithsonian, here we come!
And Little Man’s verbal skills are coming along too, which eases some of my worries about his hearing. Yesterday he say “I did it” and he said to hubby this morning “I see you!” Baby genius.
Could you possibly be ready for more good news? Tomorrow someone’s coming to put in our hardwood flooring in the mold room living room! And we’re putting it through into the playroom dining room too. This is after 8 months of having that part of the house under construction. This is the last step, and then we can start using the room again! Bonus!
My very good friend, D., has recently started her own blog. Head over and read her latest post, and rejoice with her!
Her son (one of the cutest kids ever, and just a few months past a year) has seen a whole battery of doctors for a slew of different things, and some of them had some pretty gloomy things to say. But her little one is proving them wrong! Go share her joy and leave her a comment. I know she’d appreciate it.
I’m pretty lazy when it comes to entertaining. I have this crazy idea that people don’t expect gourmet - just enjoyable. And casual is usually more enjoyable than formal.
My family does oven baked pizza every Sunday night. Virtually no planning, little clean-up, and the cooking is easy and fun - perfect for the Sabbath. Being that it’s so predictable on Sundays, it’s the perfect night for dinner guests. When I’m feeling industrious I’ll make my own sauce and crust (but I always buy the cheese already grated). Otherwise, I just buy a refrigerated cheese pizza from Kroger or Costco and stock up on all sorts of toppings.
Everyone has fun topping their own pizza, and it makes for a fun evening with friends. Kids love it, and it keeps us grown-ups from getting too stuffy. That’s what works for me. For more Works for Me Wednesday tips, head over to Shannon’s place.
Woo hoo! Good news! As it turns out, my babies can get married now (if we go to Arkansas). Yes, in the state of Arkansas the legislature has decided not to fix a little glitch in the law that allows anyone of any age to get married (with parental consent).
I can just hear the wedding bells… Now if only I could get them each engaged…
Our family is expanding. Quickly. In a few weeks my in-laws will be moving in with us, and in the spring baby #3 is due. So it looks like we’re about to switch from the cool-mom-crossover-SUV to minivan days. We were at a an unnamed dealership looking at an unnamed minivan when the sales guy tried to ‘woo’ me with chrome wheels - because apparently those will make any minivan look sexy. Something like lipstick on a pig.
So in terms of the feel of the car (remember, I drive the coolest SUV on the road), I think I’m leaning toward a Toyota Sienna. I like the way it drives, and I want all those cool features like dual sliding doors and power liftgate. I was thinking about a Quest, but do you know that Nissan is one of those evil companies that makes you pay more for safety features? It just makes me angry. It tells the consumer that the privileged deserve to be safer than the disadvantaged. All safety features available should come standard. All the time.
Okay, getting off my soapbox now, any minivan owners out there have stellar advice to give me? We’ll probably be looking at a 2006-ish with as many bells and whistles as we can afford. Motherproof is my favorie car review source, but even that has left me confused.
There have been some thought provoking posts of late about Christian consumerism at Inspired by a True Story, and I highly recommend reading that. The YouTube video below points out what happens on the other side of the world, where the problem is quite the opposite. The video is about a minute and half. It’ll get you thinking.
Trade as One Story (short version)
After you’ve seen it, head over to Trade as One to see what it’s all about. (Yes, this is a shameless plug for a friend’s business. But it’s also something I firmly believe in. Check out the awesome stuff they have there.)
Hubbs is out of town. I did bath night on my own tonight, which wouldn’t be big deal if Bean didn’t turn it into the Trauma of the Century - every time. It’s the hair washing and hair rinsing that kills her. And the accidental splashing. And getting wet. And having soap on her skin (which apparently makes her messy).
We have every gadget ever conceived to make it easier for her, but tonight I decided that all the trauma is just my brilliant girl manipulating me. So when she refused to co-operate with the washing and rinsing of the hair, I rinsed anyway. And the water went into her face (no worries - it’s tear-free, I wasn’t being overly cruel). But somewhere in there she opened her mouth and inhaled. And of course that means she got some water in her windpipe and started choking.
I drowned my first born child tonight. Okay, that’s a gross exaggeration. But she sure did act like that’s what I’d just done. So I picked her up, dried her off, and made her stand there wrapped in a plush, warm towel while I combed the bird’s nest of tangles from the back of her head, as she screamed, fully traumatized by the night’s events.
While Bean screamed as though I were pulling her hair out one chunk at a time, Little Man (still sitting in the bath tub) realized that he was missing out on the drama, so for no reason whatsoever (other than empathy or jealousy) he started crying.
It’s been a fun night. Thankfully, the episode wore them both out and they’re sleeping soundly now. I think I need a big bowl of ice cream.
Little Man’s EEG came back normal! He has a brain! It works!
We saw the neurologist this morning, and he was happy with the EEG, but not happy enough to write off the seizures as a weird one-time (two-time) freak thing.
He’ll have to have an MRI, and then an ambulatory EEG (which is where he wears a mini-EEG machine for 24 hours), and then back to the neurologist. And we have a prescription for seizure meds in case it happens again. But for now we wait.
More on food today. My kids start preschool the week after next and I’m gearing up to be more creative with lunches than I was last year (PB&J sandwich + fruit + pre-packaged snack). The most recent edition of Wondertime Magazine had some good recipes for ham and cheese scones and veggie wraps. So I’m looking for more things like that now.
I just came across some resources from the UC Davis department of Agriculture and Natural Resources. They have some handy PDFs about packing preschool lunches. Here are the links (clicking on them will open PDFs).
I was thinking I could do batches of zucchini bread and carrot bread and freeze in small portions. And maybe some days I can do a homemade Lunchable-style thing… I’m weak on creativity in this department (but if I blog about it I have to follow through, at least for the first week) Hope those links are helpful to some of you - I’m hoping some of you have wisdom to share with me!
Updated: I just found this great link at Parenting Magazine’s site, complete with grocery lists and recipes.
Go early - like 5:30-ish, before the real dinner crowd starts. And before your kids get into the night time crankies.
Order the kids’ food immediately - as in, when the server comes to take drink orders. Go ahead and order their food first, it’ll come to the table first, and they can start eating while you wait on yours. They take longer to eat anyway, and they’re less likely to fuss if they’re busy filling their tummies.
There are other things to keep in mind, like the type of restaurant you’re going to. We’ve found that white linen tablecloth restaurants typically cater less to kids than paper tablecloth or no tablecloth establishments. If the restaurant doesn’t have a kids’ menu, there’s probably a reason for that. You might want to go elsewhere if you have a choice. If you don’t have a choice, order off the menu for them. Any decent restaurant can whip up some mashed potatoes and something suitable for your kids (pasta with a creamy sauce at an Italian restaurant, fried chicken tenders at a Continental Cuisine, or a simple ham and cheese panini at a French bistro).
Crayons come in handy, and a cloth napkin makes a great bib. Variety is the spice of life, and giving the kids a couple options (say, ordering chicken fingers with a side of mashed potatoes and an added side of fresh fruit) keeps them happy a lot longer. Also giving them a special drink they don’t usually get makes the whole thing more interesting for them. We get lemonade for the kids whenever we eat out, and that’s the only time they ever get lemonade. (Note to any restaurant owners who might be reading this: If you don’t have lemonade, my kids just may drive away all your clients with their shrill, piercing protests.)
That’s what works for me. Head over to Shannon’s place for more great tips.
Hope those links are helpful to some of you - I’m hoping some of you have wisdom to share with me!
