5 Minutes

Most of you already know that 5 Minutes for Mom does lots of good contests. This time, they’re giving away a 37″ flat panel tv from Best Buy. I almost didn’t enter, because my one holdout against having to save up for a Wii and its related gadgets and games is that we use a teeny 13″ tv that lives in our closet, and the Wii just wouldn’t be playable on that screen. So I know that if, in JediBoy’s wildest dreams, we do win the tv, I’m doomed to a life with the Wii! But it was too good to pass up.

You can also enter to win $300 in Horizon Organic dairy products. Or a Sesame Street DVD. Or a collection of stories about Quinceaneras. Did I mention they have lots of contests?

Getting Better

It was pointed out to me this weekend that it’s pretty easy to gauge my mood by my blog… if I’m not here posting, I’m probably hiding out in misery. I didn’t mean to be so transparent!

I’ve had a very rough time, emotionally, since getting the news of our delay. But I’m pulling through it now and back to mostly-normal.

JediBoy and I had a great day up until about 3:30. Before that, we read (a book of folktales called Crow & Fox and Magic Tree House #32), listened to music (Goin’ to the Zoo by Tom Paxton), played a game (Listening Lotto) and had lots and lots of imaginary play together.

We listened to an audio version of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt (Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury) and acted it out using our playsilks as the swishy swashy grass, river, mud, forest, snowstorm, etc. We had a delightful time acting/dancing and I loved the way JediBoy’s eyes flashed with delight as we played. That evolved into pretending we were bears, using the playsilks as a river, a fire, a blueberry bush, and making a cave from pillows and blankets. We did this for hours, and JediBoy thought my complete attention in his favorite play was marvelous. We spent half an hour walking/biking a mile on our Rail Trail and time after that playing at the attached playground. We watched a bunny, butterflies and a female cardinal and picked sumac.

We came home and were drawing Going on a Bear Hunt pictures when JediBoy hit emotional overload. He looked at his drawing, then mine, and sadly said, “I’m not a good drawer. I’m not as good as you.”

I don’t have words to describe the emotional turmoil that followed. He was in turns telling me he was embarrassed, screaming (no words, just raw emotion), telling me it was no fair, walking away from me, coming back, kicking the crayons, hitting the pillows, crumpling the papers. At first, I tried my usual reaction to his perfectionism, which is to matter-of-factly remind him of how much fun we were having, and that he does just fine for a five-year-old, and that I will always love him no matter what he can or cannot do. As his emotions escalated, I tried empathy. I really and truly felt where he was coming from on this one - PisecoSis has incredible artistic talent and I have, er, not. It bothered me a lot, growing up. So I tried to tell him about that, and how it made me feel, and how I worked through it. But the empathic talk wasn’t helping, it wasn’t slowing the escalation. I switched gears and tried working with him to just be calm, to take deep breaths, to look out the window and think of something else. The calming techniques came too late, and did too little. Eventually he was so frustrated he started taking his anger out on me, and that’s when I walked him up to his bed, told him he needed to find a way to calm down, and walked away.

The screaming and crying continued for about five minutes, and then stopped.

He was asleep.

So. Was all this because he was overtired and not processing? Last week he did have a 14 hour night, a 12 hour night and at least one 11 hour night, all long for him. He’s been eating extra as well, so he’s probably gearing up for growth, which can also be hard on coping skills. If so, how do I manage our lives through this growing time so that he doesn’t meltdown like this?

Did I say I was getting better? I am, even with this. Here’s the darling “girl bear” JediBoy drew first. Her name is Sweetie, and she’s in his current favorite drawing style - multicolored lines. She’s in a cave, and that’s a blueberry bush outside it.

KO

I had been very on-edge and emotional for about a week, expecting to hear some adoption news. As each day went by, I grew more worried and fearful.

Today we got the news that we had a KO - our file had been kicked out of the Solicitor General’s Office (PGN) for some small detail on the foreign paperwork.

The slightly good news - or the less-bad news - is that our attorney already received the fixed paperwork and resubmitted us into PGN on July 6.

But that means we’re looking at the end of August for our “out” and late September or - I can’t believe I’m typing this - early October to travel.

October.

Blueberry Cobbler for Breakfast, or, What’s a Mom to Do?

Yesterday morning I was just starting in on another section of living room carpet to steam (it’s nearly impossible to do it all at one go, with all the furniture we have, and with a five-year-old running through, so we do it a section per day for a week) when Heather called to ask if we wanted to go berry picking.

Goodbye carpet steamer, hello berries…

We had a lovely hour picking (and eating) blueberries with the four kids. JediBoy loved eating them straight from the bush and feeding them to baby Jamie. He and I picked about 2 quarts together. The weather was cool and delightful for berry picking, and it just started to sprinkle as we left. We spent the rest of the afternoon at Heather’s house, playing and baking cookies.

At about 4:30, JediBoy asked to leave because he was sleepy. So we packed up and headed out, and in less than 10 minutes he was sound asleep. The Big Sleep. He slept until we got home twenty minutes later, and wouldn’t wake up when I tried to rouse him. He wouldn’t wake up when PisecoDad tried to get him up when he got home, and he wouldn’t wake up when we rolled him over and poked him and told him dinner was ready. He just wouldn’t wake up.

He wasn’t kidding about being sleepy! He slept until 1:30 am, when he got up to pee, strip off his t-shirt, get a drink of water and join us in the big bed. We had a restless half-hour when he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to be waking up or going back to sleep, but some back-rubbing and cd-playing on my part convinced him to go back to sleep. He slept on until the alarm went off at 7:15, giving him something like 14 hours of sleep.

Where’s the downside to this?

Two quarts of delicious, fresh-off-the-bush berries. I’m not a huge pie person, not crazy about pancakes, but cobbler gets me every time, so I had it in my head to use our first-of-the-season blueberries to make a yummy cobbler. Which is, of course, best eaten warm. But JediBoy slept through dinner last night. And we’re going to the park at lunchtime today. And we’re going out to eat with friends tonight. I couldn’t possibly save the fresh berries a whole extra day!

So… what’s a mom to do? I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. We made breakfast together…

Yesterday’s Fun & Today’s Breakfast

We had a very full day yesterday. In the morning, we ran errands for a couple of hours, including picking up some baby items from a LLL mom who was passing them on, choosing some new posters for the playroom, and grabbing a few groceries.

In the afternoon, we went with L. and her kids to an animal show at the local library. We saw an African millipede, a red-kneed tarantula and a scorpion; a tree frog and a toad; two tortoises, a skink and a tegu; two baby ball pythons, a king snake and an albino python; and a coatimundi. I don’t think I’ve left anyone out… The presenter was good - full of energy and interaction. He had lots of interesting information and shared it in an entertaining way. Several kids got chances to hold and pet the animals and they were all very excited. L. and I talked later about having this presenter come to her house to do a presentation for our homeschool group.

We took the kids out to eat and then back to L.’s house for climbing (JediBoy made it all the way to the top of the fort for the first time), woods-exploring, dirt-shoveling, cat-chasing, Wii-playing fun.

Naturally, JediBoy melted down as we were leaving, because of course 7 1/2 hours with his friends wasn’t enough. He fell asleep on the way home but unfortunately woke up as we were getting him out of the van, and then he was wide awake and fighting sleep until 10.

This morning, we’ve already been out collecting breakfast…

Park Day

The rains held off, and we had a wonderful day at the park. We have some local family resource centers, and one had to close this spring - technically, it merged with another center. Two of the other centers are inside schools and so aren’t open in the summer, so this summer only two centers are open. They decided to meet at a park near the old, closed center today as a “reunion.”

We went with four of the families from our original playgroup, moms I met at LLL when our babies were little. There were also families there we know from seeing at the centers, and two of the staff in particular feel like good friends and so we had lots of time to chat.

The park has one big pavillion which is surrounded at a distance by a paved trail, so while we sat and talked the kids biked, triked and scooted around us. There’s a longer trail that runs down by the river so we took one big group excursion along that. The centers provided free lunches for the kids and we played on the playground and got out soccer balls and nets.

It was actually perfect conditions for me - I am very strongly affected by direct sun, it triggers my migraines - today it was overcast and cooler, lovely for walking and biking. We had such a good time. Only towards the end did JediBoy’s play deteriorate into play-fighting, but even that was short-lived and no one was hurt (this time!).

JediBoy and I spent the rest of our day curled up in the playroom. We read a couple of books, played with toys together, and did some drawings. I gave JediBoy a bag of stencils I’d brought from my dad’s house and he made about two dozen half-sheet drawings using the stencils - mostly he made spaceships from ovals, with stars in the background, and then decorated with stripes and bursts of flame and connecting hoses and such. Then he worked with Legos for a while and I happily dozed on the couch.

click to see it bigger

Another Afternoon’s Reading

More Koosh ball painting today, a light lunch, more cleaning in the playroom. Then an hour and a quarter break to cuddle and read.

The Wind Blew by Pat Hutchins - the words are few but the illustrations - of wind picking up an umbrella, a balloon, a hat, a shirt, a kite… and so on, then dropping them back all mixed up - get JediBoy to laugh out loud every time.

Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney - what a sweet tale of the Lupine Lady: “You must do something to make the world more beautiful,” Alice’s artist grandfather tells her.

Turtle Tale by Frank Asch - a silly tale of a turtle who first decides “a wise turtle” would keep his head inside all the time, then changes his mind and tries to keep his head outside all the time, and finally realizes “a wise turtle” will keep it in sometimes, and sometimes out.

DK Reader: Lego Castle Under Attack - it’s illustrated with Lego knights. It needs nothing else to place it at the top of JediBoy’s must-read list.

“Let’s Get a PUP!” Said Kate by Bob Graham - when we first got this book, I fell in love with the honest illustrations of a comfortably messy family, where Mom, Dad and Kate all sport similar hairstyles and sit unashamedly on the toilet. The story is a nice one too - the family goes to the Rescue Shelter to get a dog, and winds up going back for a second dog who also won their hearts.

A Week of Raccoons by Gloria Whelan - this is a longer book of the build-it-up and take-it-back variety. An older couple is bothered by raccoons and traps them one at a time, to drive them “up the hill to the old apple tree and down the hill to the bridge that crossed the stream and past the little white schoolhouse and the Busby’s farm and into the piny woods.” The same words and similar map-like picture are repeated for each raccoon. Once five raccoons are in the piny woods, they pool their memories to reconstruct how to get back to the original house - only, in a twist, each raccoon finds a reason to stay at one of the landmarks along the way.

The Big Orange Splot by Daniel Pinkwater - JediBoy now calls this book just “Plumbean” - the main character.

Peter’s Chair by Ezra Jack Keats - this book is very timely, as we’re looking ahead to JediBoy’s little sister. In the book, Peter is upset that all his old things are being painted pink and handed over to his new little sister. He tries to keep his chair for his own - only to discover that it’s too small and he’s ready for a grown-up chair.

Sand Cake by Frank Asch - another Bear book. This time, the Bear family is at the beach and the father shows how he can make a cake “from eggs, flour and milk” at the beach by drawing a chicken, wheat and a cow in the sand. Baby Bear “eats” it by drawing himself around the final cake, showing it’s in his stomach.

The Magic School Bus: Butterfly and the Bog Beast - JediBoy loves the MSB. This one is about different defenses that butterflies have, including camouflage and eyespots.

Fisher-Price: Good Morning, Farm - this is a very simple book showing the Little People farm and animals. JediBoy has liked it since he was quite young.

My Sports Bag Book by Kathleen Daly - this is an older Golden shape book, shaped like a sports bag with a handle. Two kids are given a magic sports bag, which provides them with skateboards, fishing equipment, fins and snorkels, a frisbee, baseball equipment, ice skates, marbles and a jump rope.

Once my voice gave out, JediBoy realized he hadn’t watched a movie in a few days, so he put in the dvd that the Fourth of July Firecracker brought him - Liberty’s Kids: The First Fourth of July. We’re watching together while I type and read online.

Inventions

We’ve had a poky morning. I’m still sorting and sifting through stacks of stuff - we came home with our van literally full-to-bursting with things from my dad’s house, including a big bin of Legos, two of K’nex, two small chairs, and about six boxes of books. We were staring at the enormous mound in our living room on Saturday (I really should have taken a picture) and despairing, when I realized if we replaced the small, three-shelf kit bookcase in the playroom with a custom-built, seven-foot-tall one, we would create just about enough instant shelf space to take care of the new books.

So I spent Sunday decluttering and dusting, moving the things out of that corner, while PisecoDad made a trip to Lowe’s and came back with enough bits to build a bookcase 7 feet high and 3 1/2 feet wide. It’s big.

I couldn’t get myself to just cram it full of random books, so I’m now on my third day of sifting through books and homeschool materials to decide what goes where. I think it will be great - if I ever finish! I may even be inspired by those of you who post organizational helps, and try to post a picture and description of what went where. Maybe the public pressure of a blog goal will get me to finish this job before, say, Christmas?

JediBoy has been poky along with me. Sometimes he helps, sometimes he plays. He looked through an issue of Hidden Pictures Playground, played with pattern blocks, asked to “do” a folder full of old flashcards from when I worked at the Unit (three-part sequence, signs, emotions, sorting by category, shapes), and played his new Ratatouille Leapster game. Then he found a small bin of miscellaneous objects - I’m sure they were together for some purpose originally: a brown shoelace, a thimble, scraps of fleece, a foam disc, a round eraser, a paper clip, rubber band, several toothpicks, a Lego wheel, pom-poms, buttons, string. He put these together to make some “inventions” while I worked.

I like the thimble in the foam disc on toothpick legs.

Flying Koosh Painting

JediBoy wanted company outside. For a while, he was content to water his plants, swing a baseball bat, and run around the driveway while I sat and read. But then he was searching for something to Do.

First, I brought out my chalk compass and staff marker (makes 5 chalk lines at once, for making a music staff) and we played with those for a while. He made a long, 4-track raceway up and down the driveway.

Then, I brought out three Koosh balls and some paper plates with paint on them, set up the easel in the lawn, and we…

…threw paint-covered Koosh balls at the easel. This was so satisfying, and actually a little challenging for JediBoy to learn to consistently aim at the paper. But the splotch sound we got for every hit was the best part. We did two big paintings - the first one took a long time because he only got one hit for every five or six throws. The second one went much faster, when he was connecting on at least two out of three. Here’s the second painting, which he says looks like…

…a man watching fireworks.

Afternoon Reading

We spent the late morning / early afternoon at the mall with friends - it’s B’s 3rd birthday today and he was getting portraits done. We stayed in the studio with them chatting and playing - a little Go Fish and a lot of impromptu sports. H and I have gotten to be very friendly with the two permanent photographers there and so the four of us were talking and having a very nice time. Then H and I took the 4 kids out to lunch where I thought I could try having ice cream after - that turned out to not be a great idea, for after one stop at a kids’ clothing store I could tell I needed to get home. Sigh!

JediBoy spent a good hour outside just playing his own imaginary games - wandering around the house and porch, swinging bats, moving chairs, and drawing triangles and writing his name on the scrap wood left over from yesterday’s bookshelf-making. When he came in from that I was feeling better enough to curl up with him on the pillows in the living room and read for an hour. We took turns pulling books off the shelf, and here’s what we read:

The Big Orange Splot by Daniel Pinkwater - this copy was mine when I was little. It’s a fun story with a serious message about being confident in your individuality in our cookie cutter world. “My house is me and I am it. My house is where I like to be and it looks like all my dreams.”

Go Away, Bad Dreams! by Susan Hill. Originally we read this book at the library. To me, the illustrations seem dated and the story of a little boy overcoming his nighttime fears didn’t seem comforting enough. But it really resonated with JediBoy and he wanted to hear it all the time. We found our copy at a garage sale a few months later. He sought this book out today because listening to the Junie B. Jones book on CD (from Wendy’s Kids’ Meal) about monsters under the bed has him a little frightened.

Swimmy by Leo Lionni - I’ve always loved Lionni’s illustrations, and JediBoy has always loved the simple stories about friendship and bravery. This is the story of one little black fish who teaches his brothers and sisters to swim together in the shape of a bigger fish so they won’t be eaten and can swim about admiring the sea.

Mickey Mouse and the Treasure Hunt is a very simple pop-up book JediBoy chose at a garage sale earlier this summer. Seeing that he was looking for a little more interaction, I chose…

The Jolly Postman by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. We love this book full of fairy tale characters and letters in envelopes to pull out and read. It takes me back to the early days of Griffin & Sabine! JediBoy loves taking the letters out and putting them back.

Randy’s Dandy Lions by Bill Peet is another longtime favorite that started out as a much-requested library book. Randy is a good lion trainer, but his lions are too shy, so he’s replaced by a mean trainer (”He was armed with a chair and a pistol and whip / A long snaky whip with a sting on the tip.”) But the cruelty only makes the lions sob all night long, keeping the rest of the circus awake, so Randy is brought back for a happy (and cruelty-free!) ending.

Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes - this fiesty book about a little mouse who is teased (in a public school, wouldn’t you know) because her name is too long and unusual. Both JediBoy & I have unusual names, so we have a place in our hearts for this story.

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse by Lorinda Bryan Cauley. This is a fair retelling of the fable, with nothing particularly remarkable about it - our copy still carries the 10 cent garage sale sticker!

Big Bird and Little Bird’s Big & Little Book - JediBoy jumped in with a second choice here! He has always been fond of the Sesame Street books. This one is simple enough, with Big Bird saying he likes mountains, whales and Great Danes (JediBoy’s current wishful-thinking pet-of-choice) and Little Bird saying he likes molehills, goldfish and Chihuahuas.

Moongame - we love all the Bear books by Frank Asch. JediBoy likes knowing what’s “really” going on when Bear thinks he’s talking to, dancing with, or, in this book, playing hide-and-seek with the moon.

He headed outside to play some more (I hear the words “Sir Bedivere” and “Lancelot” floating in the window, along with his own version of “All Star” from the Shrek soundtrack) leaving me a dollop of time to read and write in the blogosphere.