It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Snow is on the way and the Christmas decorations are all over the stores already. I love Christmas, but it kind of made me sick to see Christmas trees up at Walmart the other day. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. However, I have started using the "we aren't buying that today. Maybe you'll get it for Christmas" speech already. I'm sure it won't be long before I start threatening the kids with the "Santa is watching" speech. The kids are already on the lookout for what they want for Christmas and lists are being made. Rion has wanted a Pillow Pet since he saw the penguin one on TV ages ago and now they are available at Walmart. I thought Pillow Pets were kind of lame, but when we looked at them at Walmart I was sold. They are so soft! Pillow Pets must be on many kids' lists because they are really selling at Walmart. They usually only have two different kinds, but when Cordelia and I were there the other day we spotted a penguin so I picked it up for Rion for Christmas. Cordelia wants the unicorn, but it was out and I wasn't going to buy it for her with her there anyway. So I put the penguin in the cart and made Cordelia very angry that she wasn't going to get one too. But I plowed on with my angry child, I'm sure to the delight of every other customer there that day. Hey, she eventually calmed down. As we were getting ready to checkout, another family came into our lane. There was a young boy in their cart and he practically jumped out of the cart when he saw the Pillow Pet on the conveyor belt. He would have made it, if mom wouldn't have intervened. The kid was not pleased that we were getting a Pillow Pet and he was not. I guess if it was my kid I would have started the "maybe for Christmas" speech.

First crushes and imaginary friends

Cordelia has a "crush". After school the kids usually spend some time at the playground. There is a boy in Rion's grade that is usually out there too. Cordelia talks about him all the time and thinks he is really funny. Last week I picked the kids up from school since they had conferences shortly after class got out. The whole time we were outside Cordelia was on the lookout for this boy. Finally he came out and she preceded to follow him everywhere. When he had to leave he made Cordelia's day by giving her a hug.

Our little Cordelia is also becoming really great at playing pretend. She has tea parties, plays with her Barbies and her Little Pet Shops. It's so fun to watch her when she doesn't know we are watching. Since her brothers aren't big on the tea parties, she often has tea with Max. Max just happens to be Max from Max and Ruby. Dear goodness, my daughter is seeing an imaginary rabbit! Anyway, Max hangs out with her a lot and they have a lot of good times.

Man cave for a geek

One of my favorite shows is CBS's "Sunday Morning". It's like NPR on TV. A couple of weeks ago there was a story about Legos. Watch the video here:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6923277n&tag=mncol;lst;6

I told Rion to watch it with me since he loves Legos so much. Now he keeps telling me how he is going to have a Lego cave when he grows up.

"Kid friendly" dinners

In my new issue of Cooking Light there was a very good letter to the editor about labeling certain recipes as "kid friendly". The writer of the letter, a mom, said that the labeling should be eliminated because then some foods are deemed for grown-ups only. Like her, I've always served my kids exactly what Fred and I eat for dinner. And like her, my kids eat a wide variety of foods. Foods that some people are surprised a child will eat willingly. Not that they like everything, but at least they try it. I've made it a point to serve healthy food and as a result my kids have pretty good eating habits. I think it's good that my kids don't expect chicken nuggets or mac and cheese every night for dinner. My hope in serving healthy meals is that they continue eating healthy into adulthood. While we do eat healthy most nights, we also have our fair share of greasy, fatty food. And dessert is a must every night. (I think that's the real incentive in eating well every night). Still, I'm proud of our family's eating habits. And our meals aren't all "kid friendly". It's just good food.

We all scream for ice cream

Loyal blog readers, you will be happy to know that my kids have finally experienced the ice cream truck! My parents had the kids on Monday and as they dropped them off they noticed the ice cream truck coming up the street, but then turning up the block in the exact opposite direction of our house. So my parents got in the car, tracked her down and sent her to our house. Talk about excited kids! (And an excited mommy too). The wait was awful as we heard the ice cream truck music weaving through the neighborhood, waiting for it to get closer and then finally in our view. Of course the timing wasn't good as it was right before dinner, but who cares? It's the ice cream truck! The kids picked out their treats and we enjoyed the beautiful autumn evening, eating our ice cream on the front porch.

A little more summer fun

Well, we finally got to Raging Rivers Labor Day weekend. We had been trying to get there the past three weekends, but between sick kids and rainy days, it just didn't happen. I find it somewhat funny that we have been to the Wisconsin Dells twice, but this was our first visit to Raging Rivers. It wasn't the hottest of days (it did get to 77 degrees), but the kids didn't mind. They had a lot of fun and I'm sure we will be going back next year. Even though I would have liked it a little hotter, it turned out to be a great day. The water park was only open until 4pm as opposed to the normal 8pm closing. I didn't mind telling the kids we had to pack up and leave at 4:00 instead of enduring 4 more hours there. And since they had reduced hours, the price was reduced as well. A win-win for me! Torii was a little bummed that he wasn't quite tall enough for the water slides, but he took it well. Next year he'll be tall enough for sure. Rion loved going down the tube slides. I made him go with me the first time I went with him. He had already been down with Fred a few times. When we got to the bottom he told me, "Now I'm going down by myself. And so are you." We also enjoyed the lazy river. It was fun because a section of it has waves at different times. That was a lot of fun. It turned out to be a great day and a nice ending to summer.

Back in the swing of things

The boys are now into their first full week of school. Torii is already complaining about not wanting to go to school each morning. He said he liked kindergarten better. Rion is doing great getting ready for school in the morning, but we have fought with him over homework already. Personally, I don't think a second grader should have homework, but that's me. It's not much, but it's enough to complain about. And Cordelia hates that she can't go to school with her brothers and then fights me about going to Grandma's house. Thank goodness we have a long weekend coming up is all I can say.

The boys have said they are liking school. Torii is happy he can order a salad at lunch now. Kindergartners weren't allowed to order a salad. So far he's had salads twice for lunch. Rion doesn't talk much about school, but I think he likes it. He's just bummed that they don't start multiplication until third grade. Sheesh, by then he might be into long division.

The kids also started gymnastics again on Monday. I'm really liking the Monday class. I haven't run out of steam yet on Monday. They previously had class on Thursday and by that point in the week I was ready to do nothing but veg out in front of the TV. Cordelia gets to be in the preschool class now which is super awesome for me. I don't have to supervise her in class anymore so that means a free hour for me. I was worried how she would do, but she did great. I thought that maybe she would listen to the teachers better than she listens to me and I was right. She still ran around a little bit, but not like she did with me around. She would run around and never want to do the task the class was doing. She did great listening to the teachers on Monday. She even sat down on the line when she was told too! I was impressed.