A follow up to the Birthday Party post

One thing that is toy-like and still good for us is LeapPad books/cartridges.  Academically stimulating, using the pen helps with fine motor skills, popular characters that kids love (Thomas, Pooh, Superman, Nemo, etc) AND a great distraction while travelling or sitting at home “bored”.  Now that we have Leapster, too, that gives another avenue.  Feels like a video game, has some learning involved.

Zander and Zevan actually like getting clothes with their favorite characters on them.  They love their superhero / dinosaur / bug pjs at night. 

And books!  They *love* the books!

Sometimes a picture of what the money/gift certificate is for can be a fun thing to give.  Or a related item.  Like a gift certificate towards vacation with sand toys or one for tuition with a backpack or towards martial arts classes, with a gi – etc.

I also don’t mind at all hand me down gifts.  If it still works fine and your child outgrew it, it’s just as good as a brand new something.

That being said, I think we’re getting a trampoline for Zevan’s birthday this year …     Something I’m actually looking forward to using myself!

1. Nervous habits?
I don’t know.  You guys tell me…  I’m sure there’s something

2. Are you double jointed?
Nope

3. Can you roll your tongue?
Yes

4. Can you raise one eyebrow at a time?
Yes

5. Can you blow spit bubbles?
Yes, but I don’t like to

6. Can you cross your eyes?
Not without putting my finger on my nose and focusing on it

7. Tattoos?
One, and I want to do a different one over it representing the ZBoys, but I don’t know what/how yet.  I’d like one on the small of my back as well.

8. Piercings?
Both ears double pierced and right ear cartilage

9. Do you make your bed daily?
Hell, no.

CLOTHES

10. Which shoe goes on first?
Left

11. Speaking of shoes, have you ever thrown one at someone?
Yes

12. On average, how much money do you carry?
Never more than $60.  Usually around $10-20 if I have any.

13. What jewelry do you wear 24/7?
Wedding ring and my ear cartilage ring

14. Favorite piece of clothing?
My black/white running outfit.
My skinny leg jeans

FOOD

15. Do you cut your spaghetti or twirl it?
Twirl

16. Have you ever eaten Spam?
Yes.

17. Do you use extra salt on your food?
On my fruit, but not much else

18. How many cereals are in your cabinet?
Frosted Flakes for me.  Fruit Loops/Apple Jacks for the boys.  Rice krispies for making treats

19. What’s your favorite beverage?
Maidarita, Margarita, Diet Coke

20. What’s your favorite fast food restaurant?
Chick Fil A

21. Do you cook?
If I have to

GROOMING

22. How often do you brush your teeth?
Once a day

23. Hair drying method?
Air dry or a quick & dirty blow dry if I have 5-10 extra minutes.

24. Have you ever colored/highlighted your hair?
Yes.  Variations on a theme. Blue/black, red/black, maroon/black, purple/black

MANNERS

25. Do you swear?
A lot less than I used to before kids.  I like to say FRAK – a lot.  Serves its purpose well.

26. Do you ever spit?
Yes, sometimes when running.

FAVORITE

27. Animal?
Tiger or wolf

28. Food?
Dark Chocolate

29. Month?
May – warm, but not hot

30. Day of the week?
Saturday, no school for Zander so we can sleep in!

31. Cartoon?
Teen Titans

32. Shoe brand?
Asics for running, Aerosoles for every day comfort, and whatever’s cute for dressing up

33. Subject in school?
Math

34. Color?
Purple

35. Sport?
Martial Arts for me.  NFL to watch

36. TV show?
Grey’s Anatomy, Heroes, Lost, 24

37. Thing to do in the spring?
Spring purging/cleaning, hiking

38. Thing to do in the summer?
Hiking, summer vacation at the beach

39. Thing to do in the fall?
My favorite time of year for clothing!  I love boots and jeans and layers.  Hiking

40. Thing to do in the winter?
Sledding!

IN AND AROUND

41. In the CD player?
I have no idea.  I have a good playlist on my iPod, though.

42. Person you talk most on the phone with?
I don’t like the phone.

43. Reading?
Currently nothing but magazines – In Style, and various home improvement rags

44. Do you regularly check yourself out in store windows/mirrors?
Only if I’m feeling particularly confident.  Which is not often.

45. What color is your bedroom?
White walls, rustic pine furniture, black wrought iron bed, hints of purple

46. Do you use an alarm clock?
Yes, his name is Zander

47. Window seat or aisle?
I like the window, but the aisle is more convenient with the kiddos   Me too!

DUMB

48. What’s your sleeping position?
Side – supported or stomach

49. Even in hot weather, do you use a blanket?
I like a sheet when it’s hot.

50. Do you snore?
Not usually.

51. Do you sleepwalk?
When I was younger I did, but not anymore.

52. Do you talk in your sleep?
Sometimes.  If I get in a deep enough sleep to dream.

53. Do you sleep with stuffed animals?
Nope, but I do like to curl myself around Zevan.

54. How about with the light on?
I can’t stand any light when I’m sleeping.   Unless I watched a scary movie or show.  Then will definitely sleep with the light on.

55. Do you fall asleep with the radio or TV on?
Sometimes the TV – but it’s not intentional

DONE!

Hillary is too polarizing, and Barack isn’t black enough.

So…  I’m currently backing John Edwards – for his stance on environmental issues AND universal health care.  And he’s the most electable of the candidates. 

Here are his current platform issues: http://johnedwards.com/about/issues/

You can find other local supporters at One Corp.  Currently there is a CARE package project going on for the troops: http://blog.johnedwards.com/event/491

This is from www.johnedwards.com

Get excited!! You’re invited to join John Edwards this Thursday, in downtown Denver, Colorado.

WHAT: A campus rally with John Edwards.

WHEN: This Thursday, March 1, 2007 at 3:30 PM

WHERE: Tivoli Student Union, Turnhalle.
Auraria Campus – Metropolitan State College of Denver
900 Auraria Parkway
Denver, CO 80204.
This event is free and open to the public.
Please let us know if you plan to attend by clicking here.
No RSVP or tickets required.
For more information please call 720-221-9211.

http://birthdayswithoutpressure.org/

Take the quiz: http://birthdayswithoutpressure.org/quiz/Pressure.asp

My results:
7-10 – High pressure. You have come to the right place. Get support for making changes, one child and one birthday party at a time.

I do find them stressful.  Mostly because I worry about not hurting someone’s feelings by not inviting them. 

From Ages 1-4, the parties seem to be really for the family, not specifically for the child.  So it’s hard not to invite everyone.

I don’t like the gift bags either.  It’s kind of like getting toys from fast food places.  We keep a select few, but most go in the trash.  I try to put stuff in our giftbags that are a little more usable, like stickers, necklace beads, bracelets, gliders and wooden train whistles.  As they get older, I’d like for the guests (since there will be less) to do a craft type thing to take home.

I don’t mind the boys receiving gifts, but I’d rather they be things like donations towards school tuition/zoo membership/special classes, educational materials like books, crafting materials or consumables like clothing.  Zander got a pair of PJs from Diego that he loves wearing all the time.  We simply don’t need anymore TOYS. 

I’ve like it more recently when we have had a birthday celebration with the group on playdate day the week of the birthday, then have a smaller family and very close friends party on the weekend.  Well, it’s not always smaller, now that we have both sets of grandparents and 4 sets of aunts/uncles in town.  I love what they do at Buena Vista for birthdays. I made a special poster board with pictures of Zander, and brought cupcakes to school.  They had a special birthday circle time that morning.  Zander really enjoyed it.

Zevan’s birthday is April 18.  I think we’ll have a playdate birthday party at Mr. Biggs for WSMs (his birthday actually falls on a Wed), and a smaller family party that weekend.

This past year, Zander was only in school a few weeks before his birthday, so we didn’t really know his classmates very well. Starting next year (when he turns 5!), I’ll let him decide what kids to invite.  They say a good rule of thumb is as many friends as his age.  So 5 years old = 5 friends.  Then we can do something special and more personal for that day.  Plus a playdate party, and a family party.     It’s a week of birthday celebrations!

One thing we always do before birthdays and Christmas is clean out the toys.  I tell them that they have to give up things so that there is room for new toys.  They are both pretty good about it.  I usually do a first pass myself to get rid of toys they have outgrown or fast food toy junk.  Then they can pick 2-3 toys to give away (or for me to sell).  Zander is really good about it.  If I mention it once, he reminds me we have to get it done before his birthday/Christmas.   

I could probably make some money on eBay if I made the time to get out and sell some of the toys we put away in the crawl space.  An entire Bob the Builder talking playset and a set of Land Before Time rubber puppets…  oh and a set of planes with a rug from Jay Jay… 

For every thing I have control of in my life in a week, there are two other things that have fallen by the wayside.

My husband, each child, my weight, my work, our home, my parents, my chores, my running, my climbing, this group, my friends, myself…

I can only do so much at once.  If I try to succeed everywhere, I succeed nowhere.  Jack of all trades, master of none, as it were.

But I can just let myself acknowledge, even celebrate, the little things, and try and add things to my routine that give me a little structure and habit to do things that I want to do (like scheduled time for playdates, climbing, running and nookie ) 

If I spend just 15 minutes cuddling with Zevan on the couch reading him books, then he is okay to play on his own for an hour afterwards.  If I stop to really listen to one of Zander’s diatribes about his creature of the day, he will go off and find something to do after he knows I heard what he had to say and really paid attention.

So now I am struggling with the weight loss thing.  I was SO gung ho with 8 lbs in 8 weeks, and now I’ll be lucky to lose anything at all by March 1. 

Oh, I hate SPAM. And I get LOTS of it.

I had to change my long time (since 1995) email address of maida AT maida.net because it got so much SPAM.

I use JunkSweep in Outlook, and that gets the bulk of it. I still have to skim through it, though – just in case. I also still have to grab it all and delete it. Hundreds of messages a day.

So, my web hosting company, WestHost finally offered a partial solution to it. Using Real-Time Blackhole List (RBL). I installed that last night!

And, I finally fixed the biggest culprit of all today. We had a contact form on our family website that used the well know MSA formmail script. And some – I think many – SPAMmers were using it to send SPAM through our website. And we would get hundreds of these emails, all day, everyday with the “WWW Form Submission” subject line.

SO… I replaced that form with Tectite’s Formmail PHP script.

Since I did that, I haven’t had an email with the dreaded “WWW Form Submission” subject line. Imagine that. Yahoo!

Things are always better the next day.  After some food, some chocolate and some sleep. 

I’m okay today.  Still irritated but less so.  I got lots of kisses and sweetness this morning.

And I probed things a bit further with Zander.  Yesterday, I asked Zander about the balloon incident *right* after the birthday boy started crying.  He said that he “popped him” which I took to mean that he punched him.  He has hit with his fists before (usually Zevan), and gotten severely reprimanded for it.  He never does it without some kind of provocation, and he did say that the birthday boy tried to hit him with the balloon, but Zander got hit with his elbow instead.  So Zander “popped” him.  We had a talk about how we never hit friends and that the boy didn’t hit him on purpose – an accident.  He had a time out. 

Zander had to apologize 3 times (because the first time the boy was crying so hard, I think he didn’t hear it.  The second time he was clinging on to his dad, so the final time was because he was finally standing on his own.

This morning, I asked Zander what happened.   He said again, “I popped him.” 

“With what,?” I asked.

 ”With the pop balloon.   In the chest.” 

So it wasn’t as bad as I thought.  And the dad later mentioned to me that his son is very sensitive. 

Here’s my biggest advice about parenting two children: You will lose your patience and your temper.  As long as this happens less frequently than patient, loving discipline, your kids will be okay.  I *always* apologize for losing my temper, but explain exactly why I did.  I never let them off the hook for their behavior, but I will take responsibility for my own. 

Zander and Zevan still tell me that they love me, and come to me when they need comfort, so I must be doing *SOMETHING* right.