family time Archives - Page 15 of 16

Nov 1, 2007

Halloween House of Horrors

Halloween was a lot of fun – Cordy made a cute pirate/goth vampire (she still wouldn’t wear the hat), and lots of candy filled her bucket. I went with her for trick or treat, and we were done in under an hour.

But the real fun of the night was at our house, where Aaron scared the bejeebus out of kids with his costume and our child-eating pumpkin was a big hit.

Here was Aaron’s costume:

Pretty simple, but the faceless mask really creeped out many kids coming up for trick or treat. At one point, I was outside when three children approached the house. Aaron was inside the darkened house. As I reached out to give the first girl candy, the three of them suddenly screamed and ran away as fast as they could.

I turned around to see what spooked them and saw Aaron coming out the door. They saw him approaching the glass door, and in the darkness, they only saw a featureless white face coming at them. These weren’t little kids, either – I’d guess they were six, eight and nine years old. I couldn’t help but laugh – Aaron wasn’t even trying to scare them!

The youngest of the three kids ran so fast to get away he lost a shoe in our yard. And he refused to come back for the shoe, or for any candy. The two girls came back, although they armed themselves with plastic swords to make sure they’d be OK. Finally, Aaron had to take the mask off and return the shoe to the scared boy’s mom in their car.

Of course, their fear level started out high when they had to walk past our Jack O’ Lantern:

I tried to tell them they had nothing to worry about, since he had clearly eaten. Ah well.

Filed Under: Aaron, Cordy, family time ·

Oct 30, 2007

The Future Songwriter

By Christina ·

We were watching Backyardigans last night while eating dinner. (Yes, we’re lazy and have dinner in front of the TV on occasion.) As usual, I’m never allowed to eat my own meal – Cordy will gobble every last bite of her food, then rush over to demand half of whatever I’m eating. There’s something about mommy’s food that makes it sooooo delicious.

On this occasion, it was my Lean Cuisine Margherita pizza, and I really didn’t feel like sharing. I only get 300 or so calories from this meal, and I’d like to enjoy every last one, thank you very much.

Cordy started with her normal begging for food. “Pizza for Cordy?” she asked. “No, you had your dinner. This is mommy’s dinner,” I countered with my standard response.

This exchange continued for a few minutes, and then she was quiet. The Backyardigans episode we were watching was the Secret of the Nile, and the song “Please and Thank You” was being sung at this moment. (For those who watch, it’s the song that Tasha and Uniqua sing at the end.) Suddenly, out of nowhere, Cordy comes up to my chair and starts singing along with the song, only with different lyrics:

Peeeez an fank you are da seeee-cwets of da pizza!
Iiii waaaan some of da red pizzaaaa, it’s weally yummy!

She continued on from there, but Aaron and I were laughing too hard, tears in our eyes, to hear the rest of her original song.

I had no idea she was a songwriting talent.

And yes, she got some of my pizza.

Filed Under: Cordy, daily life, family time ·

Oct 30, 2007

I’m Crazy, How Are You?

By Christina ·

Wow, I haven’t updated since Friday? Where did my weekend go?

Oh yeah. That’s right. I have two girls who won’t give me a moment’s peace.

Seriously, how do you convince a five month old that she does not need to scream loud enough to alert social services because I had the nerve to put her down on a fluffy soft blanket on the floor, surrounded by a bunch of developmentally stimulating and appropriate toys, for just five minutes so I can make myself a frikkin’ sandwich? The crying and fussing is hard to endure, especially when you’re trying to enjoy lunch, or go to the bathroom, or give her big sister a little attention.

I remember that Cordy was a high-needs baby, too – at least I thought so at the time. Someone forgot to give Mira the message that she’s the second child, so it isn’t all about her. Putting her in her swing, in her bouncy seat, on the couch, in her crib, or any other surface (Bumbo on a countertop edge?) that isn’t my lap or my hip is a serious offense.

No problem, you might say, just get your rest during her naps. That would be fine, if she took real naps. Her naps consist of 3 catnaps lasting 15-20 minutes during the day.

Believe me, I’m not trying to play the “who has to endure the worst baby?” game, because I know there is someone out there who has a baby with some sort of aversion to sleeping all night long or a baby with a shriek that can break glass. Mira has a smile that would make your heart grow three times its size, and she is so cute when she sleeps. And Mira does sleep well at night. It’s just the other 13 hours of the day that are the problem.

But enough of that rant. It wasn’t our entire weekend, and we did actually have some fun! Aaron and I took the girls to Boo at the Zoo for some trick or treat practice. Kids are encouraged to come in costume, and community sponsors have treat stations set up throughout the zoo. Fierce animals and a candy high…woo-hoo!

It went really well, and for the first time in ages, we had a pleasant day out with no meltdowns from Cordy. She loved getting candy put in her pumpkin, even if she doesn’t know what it is. (Totally serious – she has no idea what candy is. Chocolate brownies are another story, though.)

Cordy’s costume was cute, although she refused to wear the hat. And without the pirate hat, she didn’t look much like a pirate. More like an Anne Rice vampire, thanks to the lace frills and her pale skin. Maybe we should have added a little fake blood and dressed her as Claudia from Interview with the Vampire?

Mira wore her Princess Leia outfit, including her hat. Several people did double takes as they walked past the stroller and saw her. It was cold on Saturday, but Mira’s costume is made of felt so she didn’t mind at all.

Pictures of the day, thanks to Aunt Katie:

Frilly pirate (or vampire) Cordy

Spidey was suffering from VPL (visible panty line)

Tiger. Big tiger. Up close.

Bear on a log

Princess Mira

***************

Speaking of princesses, check out my review of Cordy’s new personalized book from Printakid over at Mommy’s Must Haves.

Filed Under: Cordy, family time, Mira ·

Sep 4, 2007

Labor Day Wrap-Up

By Christina ·

It felt good to be mostly unplugged this weekend. I still checked my e-mail and Twitter, but didn’t write anything until last night, and didn’t read many blogs. Of course, I checked my Bloglines today and nearly choked when I saw the number of new posts. Don’t you people ever take a break?

Yesterday was spent cooking out at the house I grew up in. The usual gang of relatives were there, and everyone enjoyed seeing Cordy and Mira. Cordy did pretty well, with only a few minor meltdowns. The cause of those meltdowns was immediately traced back to Aunt Dot, of course.

Long time readers know Aunt Dot well. She’s the mistress of bad gifts, and taunter (tauntress? is that a word?) of small children. And when I say bad gifts, I mean bad gifts. My birthday this year? I got a pack of generic post-it notes. Opened. My mother’s birthday gift? The other half of the pack of post-it notes. She was also the giver of the candy pooping cow.

Her Labor Day antics included bringing Cordy a box of Teddy Grahams (which we can’t be sure are cinnamon-free, so she can’t eat them) and a package of Goldfish. When it was announced that we’d all be eating lunch in about ten minutes, Aunt Dot chose that time to bring out the snacks and give them to Cordy.

Cordy came up to me, holding her box of Teddy Grahams, asking, “Eat bears now? Open da box? Bears pweese?” I scanned the ingredients, cursing the FDA for allowing companies to list “natural and artificial flavoring” as ingredients instead of everything they actually used. I had to tell her no, then watch as she ran into the other room and threw herself on the floor in frustration.

The other incident was with Aunt Dot’s Polaroid camera. It makes a loud noise as it spits out the picture. One of Cordy’s triggers is mechanical noises, so it immediately set her off after the first picture was taken. We told Aunt Dot that Cordy was bothered by the noise of her camera, and asked her not to use it around Cordy. But she thought it was funny to torture Cordy, going so far as to quickly put the camera up to Cordy’s face as she walked past and take an extreme closeup. Cordy screeched and ran to me, clearly upset by the noise, while Aunt Dot laughed.

Other than Aunt Dot, it was a lovely day. Cordy played ring toss, she kicked her soccer ball all over the yard, and she got to dig in the dirt in a flower pot, “making a plant” as she called it.

She was pretty good with that soccer ball. The next Mia Hamm, perhaps?

(At this point, I would show you a great video of Cordy kicking the ball, including her amusing run in with a tree. But I can’t work this video camera – it’s a DVD disc camcorder, without a USB connection port, and I don’t know how to convert DVD to a suitable web format. I thought advances in technology are supposed to make things easier?)

Oh, and tomorrow is Cordy’s big evaluation. I’m nervous, hoping that Cordy will show them her full self. I do hope they see the meltdowns, but I also want them to see her sweet, smart side as well. A part of me worries she’ll act perfectly normal and average and tell me she is fine.

Edited to add: Finally found a way to convert the DVD. It’s not a long-term solution, but it’ll work for now. Here’s Cordy versus the tree in a one-on-one soccer match-up.

Filed Under: Cordy, family time · Tagged: Aunt Dot

Aug 7, 2007

Can’t Take The Heat Anymore

By Christina ·

Summer in Ohio is much like winter in Ohio: the weather is so unbearable that you only go outside if you have to.

It seems that while I was away in Chicago for BlogHer, a heatwave snuck into Ohio and sat its big hot ass down on the state (and most of the Midwest) for a long stay. Highs in the mid-90’s, with a heat index well over 100. Sure, those of you from the West might remind me that 90’s are nothing, but unlike you, we don’t have dry heat. We have soupy thick, air quality alert, hurts to breathe, humid air – a sauna that can only be escaped by finding air conditioning.

So just like those cold days of winter, I’ve been biding my time indoors for over a week. And much like those dark January days, I’m slowly going insane trapped in my own little summer version of the Overlook Hotel.

Enter my mother and grandmother – ever the outdoors-women – who swooped in today, told me “oh please, it’s not that bad in the shade,” and insisted we use the water toys sitting in our backyard.

So Cordy put on her “babee-suit” and took Mira’s “sun-gun-asses” and outside we went. And you know what?

It was fun.