MOPS

Yesterday we started another year of MOPS (Mothers of PreSchoolers). I recommend MOPS to any mom who has young children. We get together to listen to speakers, do craft projects, and socialize. The best thing about MOPS is that there is food and someone watches our children for two hours. It's a really great place to meet other moms. Of course we often talk about our children and it's so nice to hear someone say "I know exactly how you feel". Really it's just a good time to get together with other moms and have two children free hours.

Saturday mornings

Saturday mornings used to be so special. I remember waking up early, even though it was the only day during the school year that I could sleep in, just to watch cartoons. The Smurfs were one of my favorites and one of the first ones to run on Saturday morning. If I slept in and missed The Smurfs I had to wait another week for a chance to watch it. My kids will never know what that is like. They can watch cartoons whenever they want. There's entire channels devoted to playing cartoons. And if they missed the last episode of Spongebob, don't worry, wait a couple of hours and it will be on again. Can't wait that long? There's video on demand. We'll watch it right now.

These days I still wake up early on Saturday morning, although it isn't by choice. I grab a pillow and a blanket, turn on the kids' cartoons and snuggle with them until I feel like getting up. So Saturday mornings are still special, just in a completely different way.

Now for a commercial break

When Rion was younger, he would stop dead in his tracks when certain commercials came on the TV. He really liked the grape juice commercial, was it Welches? The one with the little blonde girl talking about how much she liked the juice.

Another commercial he really liked was from a cell phone company. He would run around saying, "Hello Johnny boy," but no one could figure out exactly what he was saying. Finally, after hearing this for weeks, my mom finally saw the commercial. Something about a guy talking to his father-in-law and the guy was saying all these nicknames for the father-in-law. I'm not sure exactly, I think I only saw the commercial once myself.

Now of course, he's already into the "I want" stage. He wants everything advertised on TV. He really wants Floam, which is advertised on every commercial break during the day. There is no way he will be getting any Floam. Floam is too close to coloring. He will not sit and play with his Floam, dutifully making all kinds of creations from his Floam. The Floam would end up being like Easter grass. I would find it in all corners of the house for months after he got it. Plus I'm not sure how well it comes out of carpet (they don't say on the commericals), so no he's not getting any Floam.

Toddler catchphrases

TV and movies are always putting new catchphrases into our language. The Simpsons gave us d'oh!, Seinfield gave us yada, yada, yada, and tons more, and Austin Powers gave us yeah, baby!. Everybody knows these, but unless you have toddlers you probably don't know about the whole toddler subculture. The other day the phone rang and I broke into song courtesy of the Wonder Pets. "The phone. The phone is ringing. The phone. We'll be right there." We've also sang the mail song from Blues Clues when we've seen the mailman coming. "Here's the mail it never fails. It makes me want to wag my tail. When it comes I want to wail MAIL!"

We also watch Finding Nemo a lot. One day my demanding Torii wanted something and I told him, "Ok Mr. Bossy." Which I regret saying because the boys have said it to me in return.

Shortly after Cars came out on DVD the boys were riding their bikes outside. Rion wanted to "change" the tires on Torii's trike, but Torii took off before he could. Rion yelled at him "You need tires you idiot!" Really not a good phrase to pull from a movie, but he did. Rion quotes Cars a lot saying things like, "I am Speed" and "Fast as a Cadillac. Sting like a Beemer."

I know there are a lot more, but these are the ones that come to mind now. I'll post more the next time I break out into song from some Nick Jr. cartoon.