Blue Rockin' It

This weekend, our neighbor gave us some free tickets to see the Wilmington Blue Rocks play ball!

We jumped on that like a family that loves to sit in 50 degree weather with a little drizzle.

You could say we were hard core and desperate for something fun to do that was different!

Anyways!  We showed up at 4:15 for a 6:05 game.  We were THAT excited OR really poor planners at our day and did not have enough time to do something different.

SO - we explored the Wilmington Water Front, which as the parking attendant so positively endorsed with a shrug of his shoulders and said, "It's a waterfront."

Yes, he was correct.  But we were almost 2 hours early for the game, so we enjoyed their mini waterfront with 3 restaurants on it.

Then, we waited to get let in by the gates.

Once inside, it was the most lucrative ball park experience we have had to date.  For $2, we got a Blue Rocks backpack, a kids club hat for Michael, and THREE stadium plush seats.

AWwwww Yeaaaahhh....

The Blue Rocks Kids Club hat was already awesome - Michael wanted it.  But then when we turned it around, it said, "TEXAS ROADHOUSE" on the back.

DOUBLE Awwwww.....yeahhhhhhh....

So we sat in the very very cold weather and ate chicken strips and hotdogs. I took Michael over to the bouncy houses where we spent $12 on bouncing time and this cool wiffle bat ball thingy that MIchael REALLY loved.

After the 3rd inning and some drizzle with a 70% chance of rain in the forecast, we left and called it a successful day!

What A Rainy Sunday Looks LIke

It's Rainy and Nasty out today - so Brian was an angel and watched Michael for me so I could go through all our buckets of clothes to sort clothes out for the resale:

The 2nd couch length full of clothes I need to tag.

Sad thing about this is that I was still able to save one full bin of Gap/Gymboree/Janie and Jack clothes for each age:  2 yrs, 3 yrs, and 4 yrs old clothes.  Michael was well cared for!

0-12 months filled one bin and 12-24 months filled another bin.  ALL brand name clothes!  I could have sold them in the resale and made more money, but I just can't bear to part with our "nice" clothes at rock bottom prices.  I'd rather share them with friends and family to use.

Plus, many of the items of clothing spark very real memories for me of our vacations in Europe, etc.  I just couldn't sell it.  After they've been used 2-3 times by our nephews, I think I'll be ok to sell them!  :)  If they are not threadbare.

Little League Opening Day Parade

 Well, to be blessed to be the wife of the head coach of a little league team means to be privileged to work on the parade banner!

Here are the little guys getting ready to get going:

This picture is worth enlarging to see Brian's face.  He knew those letters might not make it through the parade and we knew the kids weren't going to help those letters stay there:

Playing keepaway with the banner and using your height to your advantage:

The gaggle of kids begins to form:

 Michael before he realized I had coerced my way onto the field to get the closest angle on the action.

And this is what he does when he sees me:

We got some lemonade afterwards at the lemonade stand and walked the half a mile back to the car through the town proper.

Last weekend was BUSY.  And a glimpse to what life is going to be like later.  To give you an idea:

Saturday -
7:30am-10:30am:  Parade, home at 11:00am about.
2:00pm - Brian leaves for fundraising poker tournament at Sacred Heart
4:30pm - Brian back home after not doing terribly hot at the poker tournament.
4:45pm - Abbey appears and the kids play.  Brian is working in the yard.
5:45 pm - Order pizza for the sitter and Michael to eat for dinner
6:45 pm - sitter arrives.  Parents out to Night at the Races
11:15pm - we return home.  I take sitter home.
12:05am - Collapse in bed.

Sunday -
9:00am - Church
10:15am - Pancake breakfast for fundraiser for little league and then team pictures
I left early in my own car to prepare for my pre-session consultation

1:30pm - I leave for my pre-session consultation.  the boys napped at home.

3:00pm - Back home to find the boys still asleep.

4:00pm - WEEKEND BEGINS.

We did NOT win the banner contest because apparently the kids are supposed to make it themselves.  RIDICULOUS.  :)

I hate to say it, but I'm a fan of this egg layin' hen from Hallmark this year:

Not only is she sassy in her little outfit, she says, "Whoop, there it is!"

Who here remembers THAT little diddy?!?!  :)

On Easter, we went to church, and while we were away, the Easter bunny came. Michael was on to his little hiding places though:

As you can see in the 2nd picture, gardening is not our forte.

Peeking into the loot.  Brian did not get the memo about changing your close promptly after returning from church:

Then there was the egg dying:

Michael is a fan of egg dying.

After that, we hung out around the house.  It was nice and relaxing.  I made an herb crusted rack of lamb that Brian and Michael liked a lot at medium rare.

I had just come off of being vegetarian for 40 days, and I was a bit grossed out by the whole thing and happily ate my sweet potato casserole and green bean casserole.

SPeaking of which:  While I have returned to eating meat, I find I don't crave it as much anymore.  IN fact, I don't even care for it much anymore.  I'd much rather order the seafood dish or the vegetable dish.

That was Easter.  Short, sweet, and simple.

P.S.  ANOTHER reason I love the new blogger platform:  It is super easy to select pictures AND they upload in order (no more backwards picture selecting for me!) AND if I need a picture added in the middle of the post, it adds it where the cursor is!  Before, it would add the picture at the top of the post, no matter where my cursor was!

A sneak peak of Easter

Yea, I'm a little late with Easter!  Downloading pics tonight!

Found some on one camera, a little anti-climactic but oh well!

I set the table:

And my awesome volunteers for Liturgy of the Word with Children sent me these!  LOVE!

They must have known about my flower corner!

More to come!

P.S.  Anybody else's blogger platform change?  As much as I like change (uh huh) - I do not like the time you have to spend learning where all the buttons are!

However, now, the blogging platform for my personal blog matches that of La Lume.  So I AM a fan of that!

Bringing in the pros

So I had a couple of minutes alone with michaels preschool teacher today so I decided to ask her what would be the best way to deal with the attitude that comes with frustration (and a little bit of fatigue too) that I have been getting from Michael.

I have not talked about it a lot because for a while I felt like I should sort of shy away from the subject because my son is supposed to be perfect. Or at least to the world at large.

However, in the last few months, I have been witnessing a Jekyll and Hyde personality in our boy. One minute, he is great, cooperative, respectful and kind. The next minute, he is throwing dice at my face and yelling at me. Sometimes in public. Sometimes at home.

Definitely-tiger-mom-losing-face behavior.

It is a result of his frustrations and his lack of knowledge on how to communicate that in a respectful manner. And from conversations with my friends with children of the same ages, it seems to be a recurrent theme of this age development.

I bet you want me to get to what the teacher said.

She told me that when Michael is being disrespectful and rude, to calmly say:

Michael, that is not a very polite way to say that. When you can speak to me nicely, I will talk to you.

Then proceed to go about whatever you are doing while ignoring his negative behavior.

She said this gives him the opportunity to make a decision on how he will behave and allows him a chance to correct himself.

If he chooses correctly, he will ask you in a more polite manner.

If he chooses incorrectly and continues to give attitude, then you introduce the consequence - whatever it may be. For Michael, it is removal of ALL screen time. For every child, whatever works for them will be different. And you follow through. And oh yes, be consistent.

Follow through and be consistent - yes yes yes.

I tried that today while we were out and about. I was calm and stated what i was supposed to state, ignoring the attitude. And it worked! Michael calmed down and redirected himself. A minute later, he explained to me why he was upset. Calmy and rationally with respect.

Neat. Just got to keep doing that. However, I find it very challenging when the steam is starting to come out of my ears because the ghetto fabulous phuong would start snapping her fingers and say, "I KNoW you didn't boy! Don't make me get in yo face boy!"

But that is not godly and not the example I want to set for him.

Sigh - I miss the days of discipline where time out worked just fine. I could still use time out and do from time to time. But I feel that as Michael grows older, my parenting paradigm has to shift from "yes, I am the boss and you must obey" to "you are free to make your own choices and each choice as its own consequence. Just as god gives us freedom to make our own decisions and reap the consequences of them, so must you learn to do the same."

And I can only hope that I am setting a good framework for the years to come where he views his parents not as a totalitarian dictatorship, but people who will love him no matter what his decisions may be, who are forever hopeful and prayerful that he makes decisions which will safeguard his heart, his future, and his relationship with us and the Lord.

That's it for one night.

After swim lessons today, Michael played in the pool as usual.

But today! He has been proud of himself and showing me how he can kind of doggie paddle about 2-3 feet.

Today, he was showing me the same and his swim teacher said, "you have to put your eyes in the water too!"

So he did it! And he swam! Like for real swam! His head under water, his feet kicking, his arms moving - for more than 2-3 feet. More like 3-4 feet but still!

We will be continuing swim lessons with this teacher!

P

Peaks and Valleys

I probably had the absolutely worst day as a mother to date. I don't want to talk about it. It did not involve any physical abuse, so don't worry about that.

I just had to write it down so I remember.

For the record, five years old has been the hardest age for me to date. Well, at least until adolescence. A friend of mine told me that her pediatrician told her that 5 yrs old was similar to adolescence.

If so, I am in for trouble and am going to enjoy age 6-12 for as long as possible.

We were having a great day - he had school and then we went to an awesome playdate at a school mate's home where he had this huge blowup water slide with a climbing wall and everything. We had so much fun.

And then from 4:30pm on - I had the worst day as a mother.

DONE.

Advancement

Last Tuesday, Michael got moved up to the next level in his swim class! Sweet! So proud of our little guy!

2 weeks ago, they handed us our pre-registration slips for the next swim session and I was handed a slip for the same class. AGAIN.

SIGH.

I did not make a big deal out of it but just realized it is a process to learn a life skill. So I continued to encourage Michael because I didn't want to DIScourage him from trying his best.

He is having so much fun in the water and has gotten so comfortable in it. He is getting braver and braver and his teacher is good about challenging him and encouraging him!

Yea!

What to do in the country

Michael loves making tents out of our dining room chairs:

Apparently, one blanket wasn't enough.

Watching a flashlight going around in a circle:
We don't get out much around here. :)

Here he is pretty pleased in there:
It was a bit dark inside. SO I moved his little lamp from his room into the tent. THAT made things a LOT more cozy! :)

After about a week of not having dining room chairs and having to walk around it, the tent has been moved to a corner in our living room using only 3 chairs. The inside square footage is still the same, but it is much more liveable.

Now, we have 2 dining room chairs and a piano bench instead of a piano bench and 1 person standing to eat.

A day in the life. A day in the life!

3/30: Easter Par-tay School Style

On Friday, 3/30, I got to volunteer at Michael's school for their Easter party! I love being a SAHM!

Here are the kids, all lined up and ready. Michael wanted to use his own Easter basket and not the one he made in class:

And they are off!
Michael's pretty competitive when it comes to Easter Egg Hunts:
Peeking at loot:
Michael was the first kid to get his 8 eggs. Here are the first 3 winners inspecting each other's baskets:
Then, it was snack time:
The teachers came up with a super cute idea to put green dyed coconut flakes on top of the brownie and a peep on top - like a little nest. Michael (and some of the other kids) were not terribly impressed:
After that, it was my turn to read books for storytime! Talk about 2 birds with one stone!

Love this little guy's school! He loves it too, so I am glad it was such a good fit for him. After our first experience in Paris, we are so thankful for his current school arrangements!

Check - Philadelphia Independence Hall, et al

Good Friday - April 6, Brian took a day off, just for the fun of it. Miracle of all miracles!

So we reserved tickets to tour Independence Hall and took the day to explore Philly. I think Michael had the best seat in the house:

We arrived 45 minutes early as recommended by their website to get through security.

If Rick Steves had a book for Philadelphia, he would have told us to just get tickets for free at the booth and show up about 10 minutes prior to the tour time.

So in our waiting time, we took a picture:
Michael terrorized his father, and Brian did his best to defend himself:
When we got in, we sat through a short history lesson. Then, we saw the first (of two) room on the tour. Michael got the best spot, and I resigned myself to take some pictures from my back row seat for a 5'1" person:
I ran into the hall and took some pictures of this blue room. I loved this light powdery grey blue, but now I'm sick of it:
And it's all over my house. AAK.

Next up, the room in which the Constitution was signed:
Michael enjoyed most of the talk on this windowsill:
There he is being a putz for the camera.

After this, gift shop time:
He didn't buy these, but it was fun anyways:
Instead, he convinced us to buy him a mini liberty bell that works. Something about Michael - he is a knick-knack collector. He's started himself a little collection in his room.

After purchasing said knick knack, he finally stopped whining and was excited to visit the Liberty Bell.

AFTER Mommy said, "Photo OP!"



We waited in the long, but fast moving line to see our famed liberty bell:

Michael thought the liberty bell was the BEST because it was bigger than his DAD.

After this, we had lunch at La Scala's Italian restaurant because it was recommended in my "Walks of Philadelphia" card. The best thing they had was pizza, which isn't too much of a compliment.

Then, we decided we needed to walk 19 more blocks EACH WAY to see Rittenhouse Square. People had said it was cool and my little "Walks of Philadelphia" card said the flagship store of Philly based Anthropologie was there at that Rittenhouse Square.

Say no more, my friends. Say no more.

So we went and Rittenhouse Square is just that - a square with a diagonal through it. Just one. Nothing pretty. No playground. Just some park benches and a protest.

I'll pass on that next time.

I bet you are reading in anxious anticipation for my account of the flagship Anthropologie store.

It.Was.A.Letdown.

5 floors, each with about 1200 sq ft each and only about 30 different items on each floor. It was A LOT of work for not much payout.

I won't be back. And that was the case for most of the shopping in this "fancy" area of Philly. They even had a Zara, but the store had about 100 things in it TOTAL. RIDICULOUS.

I realize this post has a bit of a negative tone to it (imagine that). We did enjoy our day "in the city!" It was nice to get out and do something different for a change instead of just lounging around in the country and working on the house. It reminded us of how much we do enjoy to travel and see things!

I'm just thinking Philly just wasn't what we had in mind as far as "travel" is concerned! :)

The lean-to

Michael has told us he wants to be an engineer like Daddy when he grows up, which is fine.

However, we don't push it because it's hard to know what you want to do in life, and the last thing we want to do is pressure him one way or another. We don't want a Lifetime movie on our hands here.

Seeing that Michael is decent at math and interested in science-y stuff, I do want to encourage an engineering-minded thought process because learning how to think as an engineer is one of the harder things to learn. If you learn it inherently growing up, it might help one day if he really does decide to be an engineer. I think it helps in normal life to begin with!

SO - what does that mean?

Lately, when Michael has a problem, I try my best not to solve it for him. I ask him:

What is your problem?

What do you know about your situation?

What do you have to work with?

How can using what you have to work with help you towards a solution?

Well, when our little cardboard constructed taped house started falling over (big surprise - a chemical engineer could not build a structurally sound house), Michael fixed it by doing this:

I didn't ask him the questions up there this time, but I did encourage him to "find a solution" to his problem.

So when he said to me, "Come see Mommy!!! I found a solution!!"

I was pretty pleased to see our lean-to.

Faux-Homeschooling

I am not disciplined enough to homeschool. I am barely disciplined enough to take a shower regularly.

However, with the summer months approaching, I am trying to come up with some flexible "lesson plans" covering reading, math, science, language, and arts.

Gosh - that sounds crazy. Honestly, it's very lax and kind of built around play. So don't worry about me over-achieving. I'm not super good at that anymore!

Anyways - I brought in our easel that has been sitting in the garage. It has a blackboard, which seemed appropriate...for...roadkill hangman!

I don't call it that in real life. Michael came up with putting the letters on that road for hangman.

But we have been having fun with it and I wish I had started when he was 3. I am using the Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. It's slow going, but it's going!

Back soon!

I am awfully behind behind behind in my blogging!

I volunteered at Michael's class for his Easter party - that was super fun! Definitely want to blog about how neat it was to see Michael at school! And also - document Easter Egg Hunt #1

Michael's tent that has overtaken my entryway. Finally couldn't take it anymore and moved the tent into the corner of the living room to reclaim my entry way and take back 2 of the chairs to our dining set. And now, I'm onto pinterest and going to attempt making a teepee for michael. Maybe this weekend.

Egg Hunt #2 at Nilda's this past Monday.

Egg dying at Katiey's yesterday.

First t-ball practice today. Brian did GREAT as head coach/manager!!

We haven't even made it to Easter yet! We've got all sorts of exciting things happening like a trip to philly to see the independence center/liberty bell, first t-ball game, delivery of dirt, church, and all the Easter traditions we want to start (egg dying, sugar cookie frosting, easter egg hunt).

AND dinner - Easter dinner. I have never really done an "easter dinner" before - so any suggestions are WELCOME!

Love to all -