Things you say

"Mommy, I swallowed a skunk before. But, it was just in a dream."

Desk space

Marcelo has a new desk space in his room. I decided to make him a little desk in his closet. I didn't want to spend very much because he will probably outgrow it in a couple of years. This bottom side of the closet was used for toy storage as well as a laundry basket full of odds and ends including an unused crib bumper. I guess it's time I clean that stuff out and figure out what to do with it. I opted for this closet desk because Marcelo's room has such a serene vibe, I didn't want to clutter it all up. Having it in the closet means he can have what ever he's working on in there and then we can shut the doors on it and still have a clean room. Another reason for the closet desk was to give Marcelo more options during Quiet Time. Lately, he's been wanting to color, draw, and build things, and the expensive(to me), wool zebra rug is not a great place to do that.

We only had to buy the desk platform, and got everything else from the house so this project only cost about $10.00! Now he has a workspace, a basket of plain paper for drawing, bins with scissors (those might have to go at the first sign of mischief), coloring pencils, flashlight, story cubes, magnifying glass, Woody, etc. He also has a magnet board where he can display and admire his own art. Right now, it's holding up a treasure map and pirate eye patch. He also has geometric magnet shapes to play with on there. Below, we can still store the less attractive toys in a green bin and the "little pieces" toys in clear stackable bins with lids for easy access and storage.



Before.  Not really because this is after I took out all the toys and miscellaneous itmes off the floor including the stuff in front of the closet door.



Before closer.



Rails, brackets, and desk surface in place.  Easy Peasy.

Above the desk is an array of winter coats and hideous hand-me down jackets and things that were way too big for him anyway. More useless things being stored. I was about to give them to charity or something but then decided that he could use them for dress up. This whole top side of the closet could be the dress-up section. So I put Sofia's old cowboy boots in there too and his newly found batman mask.
I opted to support the desk platform on rails with brackets because he's not going to be at this height forever and eventually, it will need to be moved up or re-purposed as shelves for toys again or clothes. So this was an economical way to do it and it didn't require screwing a ledger board onto the wall. We slapped a little push/sensor light on the bottom of the top shelf which turns off when you close the closet door.  I also managed to find a little surprised when I pulled down the two orange memorabilia boxes, the last little monsters wall decal.  I didn't put this one up because the firey red devlish monster didn't fit in for me in his baby nursery.  Now, after he ripped off all the other monsters with the exception of the one over the closet doors, this one fits in great.  Hopefully it will still be there tomorrow.

He loves his new little space. Of course the first thing he and Sofia decided to do with it was put his Lalaloopsy doll to sleep on the desk.

PreK Writing

When the job of sounding out letters, blending letters, and reading seems a bit too daunting, Marcelo takes a break from Rusty & Rosie to come in the study for some hands-on PreK activities.  Today he decided, the previously daunting task of forming letters was pretty appealing.  He had me write his name and ALL of the letters.  He actually did quite well compared to the last time I saw him form his letters.  Apparently he thought so too because he went ahead and checked each one off after completing his work.

Little chef helper

I decided to make an enormous batch of spinach puree. Why, because Sofia and Marcelo have gone from being great eaters to horribly picky eaters and I need to inject them with spinach puree at night while they're sleeping.  Normally, I get the organic baby spinach, but Ray likes to make my life harder so he got the regular spinach which requires that you take off the stems.  I started the painstaking process and Marcelo was jumping at the bit to help me out.  Since no one else was offering, I obliged him.  He was SO excited to be allowed to do this job. You can tell by how far back his lips are sucked into his mouth with that crazy smile. I didn't think his enthusiasm would last long but we kept making "one more batch", I think just so we could enjoy each other's company.  Of course when the spinach was steamed and pureed, my enormous batch was more like a couple of little cupfuls.  I hate how that happens.  Thanks for helping me Marcelo.

What is going on here?

Lately, I have given Sofia and Marcelo some heightened expectations with respect to their daily routines.  After waking up, they are to get dressed and make their beds independently before coming down for breakfast.  They've been quite good at doing so thanks to Accountable Kids, a program I'll have to talk about a little bit later.  It is a well know fact that I was born loathing the morning. After rolling out of bed and brushing my teeth, I then meet them downstairs as I try to pry my unwilling eyes open without causing myself an ocular migraine.  That was very unpleasant back in 2008.

So... on this fine day, after all our morning routine activities (homeschool, online preschool, lunch, playing) where completed in the downstairs of the house, I came up to the second floor with Marcelo and Peter for Quiet Time.  I love Quiet Time.  It's really quiet.  Well, most of the time.  Upon reaching Marcelo's bedroom door, I was greeted with this happy scene. It kind of made my day, for some reason. Immediately, I wondered -what the hell have these stuffed animals been up to?  And, how did they get this way?  They are always in baskets on the floor with the exception of Bear & Blanky which are usually the only ones allowed on Marcelo's bed.

Apparently, there was a big party going in Marcelo's bedroom this morning, and I didn't even know about it.  God help me when Sofia and Marcelo are teenagers.

Ice skating

Lately, I'm all about finding fun, free or cheap activities to do with the kids. On Christmas Eve day, I found out about free ice skating with Santa. Naturally, it was a must. Nevermind, I'm not much of an ice skater or adept at any activity with special shoes, and that unbeknownst to me, Ray has only been ice skating once in his life and it ended poorly, AND that we are two adults (sort of) to three small children. What exactly were we going to do with the fifth wheel? Well, the truth is, if I let my natural logical and practical mind stop to think about any of these things, we would not be going anywhere. So I've learned to dumb myself down a bit and just leave it all to chance for the sake of new experiences and fun-having.

It took us a very long time to get there because Ray's automatic pilot failed him when he spontaneously decided to get off the freeway for no apparent reason. But, it was all good, we got there still well within the free window of time. There were a lot of people there, but many were already turning in their skates after a half hour of free skating so we were able to get our skates very quickly with the help of the very nice people there who apparently are aliens because I don't think they can be from Utah. Sofia had to get skates about ten sizes too big, but again, my positive-don't-use-your-logic attitude was working. We got everyone skated up with the exception of fifth-wheel. We'd figure out what to do with him when we got to the ice.

As we step on the ice, we spontaneously (ooh, I like that word) decided I would take Marcelo who would probably require more help, and Ray being the manly man he is, would take fifth-wheel on his hip and help Sofia. Although, Ray and Sofia were moving at a snails pace, they quickly left us in the dust. For once, in my life, I wasn't too worried about falling or even looking stupid. Is that what motherhood does to you? Marcelo was such a noodle on the ice, I couldn't stop laughing hysterically for the next five or 10 minutes straight. I then realized, that even if this wasn't a fun, new experience about ice skating, it was all worth it for the way he made me laugh. It was like no one else was there, just the two of us struggling to stay upright. Marcelo's legs were ALL OVER the place. I expected him to be able to gain some kind of composure or slight muscle tone but it never happened. I resorted to holding on to his vest by the shoulders instead to keep him straighter but it was to no avail. I think it took us fifteen minutes just to make it a quarter of the way around the rink. Was it worth it? Totally. That laugh alone helped to loosen some of the cobwebs inn my soul. And I think, the kids are not too scarred that they will probably try ice skating again.

Christmas dance recital '11

Yeah baby!