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With the sun shining on our backs, my children and I were trying to grab a little bit of shade in the picnic table area of Lake Fairfax’s Water Mine as JavaDad stood in line to grab us an early dinner. We were trying to squeeze in a little bit of summer fun — after [...]
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As a mom, there are some things that come naturally, and there are some things that definitely do NOT. Teaching my kids to ride a bike is one of those things. I wasn’t even aware I was supposed to be teaching my kids to ride a bike yet. For whatever reason, my parents didn’t teach [...]
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… but he spells everything correctly and even uses a hyphen appropriately? And it makes you laugh every time you see it?
I’m still not clear on the details, but apparently JavaBoy (almost 6) was a bit overly tired and wanted popcorn while JavaDad was also overly tired and getting ready to make dinner. JavaBoy asked for popcorn, JavaDad said no because he was about to make dinner, and I guess in a fit of frustration, JavaBoy whipped up this sign that says, “Go and get pop-corn! Got popcorn?” (Hyphenated pop-corn because he ran out of room –I’m quite impressed!) He then found masking tape in his secret stash of masking tape and put this on our bedroom door.
While the sign is inappropriately sassy, I am quite proud of his spelling and use of punctuation. Would it be wrong to send it in to school as a writing sample for his teacher?
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These are the kind of photos my husband bring home that make my heart stop.
“Look at the AIR he got under him!”
Oh. My. Goodness.
He’s supposed to be sliding down a smooth school hill, no one said anything about AIR! Apparently some teenagers decided to add some moguls or whatever they are called (I’m from Miami, remember?) to the “gentle” sledding slope.
“Look, see that shadow, see, he’s lifting off from the snow there.”
Great, honey.
“And then he got very, very far away…”
Uh-huh….
“And he said the cutest thing… He said, ‘Daddy, can you see me?’ And I said, ‘Yes!’ And he said, ‘Am I really, really small?’ And I said ‘Yes!’ And then he said, ‘Is my voice small like an ant’s?’
So what did you say?
“I said ‘Yes!’ because I didn’t want him to go any further away.”
At last, sanity prevails.
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Look what I the kids got for Christmas! I’ve waited a long time to get for the kids to be old enough to get an Easy Bake Oven! I remember how much I loved mine as a little girl, foisting impossibly tiny cakes on my parents.
Now that I’m the Mommy, I realize just how awful those little cakes really taste when you aren’t bursting with that I-made-it-myself pride.
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I burst into laughter when I walked into the Beauty Salon room of Bethesda’s Playseum and saw this scene. It immediately brought back memories of endless hours of playing with my Salon Barbie as a little girl (although mine did not come with creepy hands to manicure) and seeing this tableau sent my imagination spinning off in a million directions.
Were these two friends who came to the faux salon hoping to get matching hair-dos and something went horribly, horribly awry?
Was the doll on the left the victim of some awful Mean Girl scenario? “Sure, come to the salon with me… I’ll make sure you get an AWESOME blow-out just like mine! Ken, and all the football players will be sure to notice you at the big game!”
Or perhaps the doll on the right (let’s just call her Muffy) brought the doll on the left (let’s just call her Agnes) into the doll salon as an intervention after finding her locked in her dorm room, downing Red Bull and Vodka, hair hanging in her face, listening to her I HATE HIM playlist of top 25 breakup songs on her iPhone. Muffy became concerned when Agnes kept tweeting nothing but a nonsensical stream of letters and numbers every 4 minutes and sending TwitPics of her poorly manicured toes. Why yes, this salon appointment is just what Agnes needs.
On the other hand, perhaps Agnes, is merely the mother of a newborn, and Muffy is merely her very annoying friend who still has time for things like sleep, meals, and… personal hygiene.
Maybe it’s a photo shoot? Agnes is the “Before” model. Muffy is the “After” model. But for some edgy magazines, MUFFY may be the “Before” model and Agnes is the “After” model, sporting the new, hot, 2010 look, “Windblow, Mystery Woman look!” “Straight and groomed is sooooo out,” says the Beauty Editor. “Women today want to look mysterious, unpredictable. This hair says, ‘Hey, I may be a CEO, or I may be have just escaped from an asylum — you are just going to have to take your chances. When I walk into your company’s boardroom, I may be about to make you a million, or you should call security — 2010 is all about taking risks!’ That’s what this look is all about!” And then the Beauty Editor cackled and smeared more lipstick on her forehead.
I came back to reality when my little girl asked for a bottle of nail polish so she, too, could add a layer of polish to the creepy hands, which delighted her endlessly.
What scenarios come to your mind when you look at poor Agnes?
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Usually he’s busy asserting his independence. Although he’s 5, he reads at a second-grade level and his father and I can no longer use spelling as a secret code. And yet, today, as he languished in bed with a high fever, JavaBoy seemed more like my baby boy again than the boy who has been losing teeth and growing legs longer than his pants.
He needed his Mommy today.
I hated watching how pathetic he looked, at times complaining about how hot he was and other times feeling chilled. Too sick to be interested in food — much different from the child who says, “I’m hungry” practically every 10 minutes including yesterday.
As I snuggled up next to him in bed, and scratched his head and buried my nose in his hair, I almost felt like I caught a whiff of that scent babies have — a scent JavaBoy lost long ago now that he’s a Big Boy. But I remembered all those nights that I held him in my arms, rocking him or just snuggling him at night, worrying about the things new moms worry about, while taking in that baby smell.
We play a game, where I sometimes try to scoop him up, long legs and all, and I say, “Ohhh, where did my baby JavaBoy go? Where did he go? Can I smoosh you all up back into a baby and stick you back in my tummy?” He finds this quite hysterical because of course this is quite ridiculous — the thought of him ever being that small seems so very silly. And yet he knows he’ll always be my baby boy.
I look at him tonight, fever temporarily quashed with Tylenol, but fitful in his sleep, and I realize that Moms still worry, even when they aren’t new moms anymore.
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You’d really have to be hiding under a rock not to know that Sesame Street has hit the big 4-0. The media blitz has been quite impressive, with the Muppets taking over game shows, talk shows (did you see them on The Doctors?), even being honored with their own Google logo. Naturally this required the release of a 2-DVD set Sesame Street: 40 Years of Sunny Days
When the PR folks behind the blitz asked if I’d like to review the DVD set, it took me half a second to give a resounding YES, and I apologize that it has taken me this long to write to tell you about it, because it is terrific. In fact, it is going to become my favorite gift to give in 2010 for children and adults alike.
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The Floridian in me never ceases to be amazed when it snows enough to actually stick to the ground. I just love looking at the whole world being draped with a nice, white blanket of snow. And of course, the JavaKids and I have to find a way to turn it into a way to make something in the kitchen!
I’m linking you to a post from earlier this year for snow cream and snow candy — both delicious and easy to make! I was going to add photos, but to be honest, unless you a professional food photographer, snow candy while still in the snow does not look much different than — uh– yellow snow from a dog — and once you lift if out of the snow, it is in a child’s (or Mommy’s) mouth so fast, you can’t get a photo of it! Snow cream doesn’t look like much more than white mush in a photo!
You can also mix up a little food coloring and water and get out there and do a little snow painting. Or just go out and roll around in the white, fluffy stuff! Just have FUN!
When you come in, mix up a huge batch of my favorite hot chocolate, read a good book, indulge in a bit of Robert Frost, and relax! (Until it’s time to deal with those sopping wet jackets, snow pants, boots, mittens and so on….)
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It’s been a little rough in the JavaFamily household this week… JavaDad has had the flu and a kidney infection and when JavaDad is sick, no one is happy! It is clear how much we function as an entire unit — when one of us is out of commission, it throws the household out of whack.
So pardon the absence of posts of late, but I thought some of my readers might enjoy a couple from this time last year:
Happy Thanksgiving to you, and among my many blessings are YOU — the readers of Caffeine and a Prayer, which is now ONE YEAR OLD!
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