Posted: March 23, 2011 | Author: egghead23 | Filed under: family, parenting | Tags: cleaning |
The Princess called me upstairs this morning to see something in her bathroom.
“Ta-da!” she said proudly, waving her hand like a game show hostess to indicate the sink.
The room smelled like some kind of cleaner, so I wondered how she might have gotten her hands on that. I peeked over the rim of her sink, and the hardened disks of yesterday’s toothpaste were still there, so I asked “What?”
Frustrated, she said that she had cleaned the handles and faucet, which were gleaming.
“What did you clean it with?” I asked.
She had scrubbed it with her toothbrush.
Okay, then.
Posted: March 21, 2011 | Author: egghead23 | Filed under: family, parenting | Tags: kids' fighting, sibling rivalry |
Yesterday, I overheard the boys yelling at each other outside, which is a pet peeve of mine because I don’t want our new neighbors to think we have a lot of dirty laundry that we tend to air outside, so I called them over. Immediately, they both started talking at me, so I told them to go upstairs to their rooms and write their own versions of the story. I pledged to read them and render a judgement. Here’s what I got:
Edison (delivered six minutes after the assignment was given):
Here is my order of events. NOT Clooney’s, MINE.
1) Clooney hits the hula hoop farther onto the basketball hoop with the baseball bat, when I tell him to just throw the basketball to get it down.
2) He says, “I’ll get it down!” just after I get the hoola hoop closer to me, and of course he uses the bat and pushes it right back to its original position.
3) I finally pull the hoop down, with great effort, and start yelling at Clooney for ruining EVERYTHING.
4) I say that he lies all the time and I tell him that he even lied when he was 4, because he pushed The Princess over and then said she just fell. I remember like an elephant.
5) He asks when he cried, and if I remember that well, and he used February for me to tell him. I say, “The 17th.” And he says, “NO! The 2nd, the 14th, and the 30th!” But there is no 30th of February, and that is my PROOF that Clooney is a liar.
And then I got Clooney’s (reluctantly, somberly, 20 minutes later):
Mom, if you ask me, Edison always starts it.
Classic.
Posted: February 21, 2011 | Author: egghead23 | Filed under: awkward moments, Day-to-Day, family, friends, parenting | Tags: bidet, decluttering, fabric softener |
The other day a friend invited me to meet with her group for coffee. The conversation was animated, mostly mom stuff, comparing notes on housekeeping, parenting and shopping. One particularly interesting part was on the dangers of fabric softener, which I have since stopped using.
Anyway, I finished a side conversation with the lady on my left, and caught some of what the girl on the right was saying. I heard, “I don’t think I could live without bathroom wipes. They’ve changed my life.”
So, I interjected, “Yeah, I think without them, I’d need to install a bidet.”
She kind of paused, and nodded politely, but then turned to the woman to her right and clarified…They’d actually been talking about bathroom cleaner.
The moment reminded me of another about 15 years ago, when I was laughing over lunch with some girls I was working with then. One of the girls had recently gotten a UTI, and so we were talking about ways to avoid them, like going before and after and such, and we were laughing, getting a little bawdy in the lunch room there, and then one of the girls, who was obviously a bit more experienced than we were shared (with a wide smile on her face) that “you can’t be putting it one place and then the other, either.” And the whole room went silent. Sharing is always a good thing…to a certain point, at least.
On Another Note:
The decluttering continues. Have gotten rid of:
10 and 11) two trashbags full of toy garage parts that were never going back together to form actual toys
12) non-germ-free vaporizer
13) one pair of clip-on sunglasses that fit spectacles I haven’t worn for five years
14) stack of old papers from the back of the counter in the kitchen.
1,997 items to go.
Posted: December 16, 2010 | Author: egghead23 | Filed under: family, kids, parenting | Tags: Letters to Santa, Santa |
See if you can tell the differences between my two sons based on their letters to Santa. Incidentally, both were typed as Word documents.
Clooney’s:
Dear Santa,
I will like
Hot Wheels mega garage. Hot Wheels super jump race way. Hot wheels shark bite bay. Toy Story pop up open play World. Hot Wheels twenty pack of Cars. Hot Wheels ten pack of cars.
And it has over 2,000 pieces!
Lego Grand Emporium Lego Green Grocer Lego Medieval Market Ville Lego white house red inflatable guitar Lego winter village bakery Lego fire brigade Lego public transport Lego city house Lego city airport Hot wheels crash course Hot wheels super service center Lego manta warrior Lego squidman Escape Nintendo blue dsi Lego winter toy shop Lego beach house Hot wheels custom motors auto shop Lego the bikini bottom express Lego rocket ride Lego Krusty Krab Aventures Lego good neighbors at bikini bottom Love , Clooney
I really wish that I could buy some LEGO stock. I think most of the LEGO things he wants are about $150 each.
And Edison’s:
Dear Santa Claus,
I know that you’re busy and all, but I haven’t got a chance to give you my Christmas list! I’m sorry, but fifth graders are busy with all of the projects that we do. And also, if you can’t read my brother’s list, it’s OK, I can’t really read it either. He needs some work on grammar.
OK, so now that that’s over, I want to tell you what I want. No problem, right? Good. Now, ever since I’ve seen Super Mario All-Stars, I’ve wanted it. It comes with a Mario CD, with soundtracks from the Super Mario games, a Super Mario history book, and four Super Mario Games: all in one pack! Amazing, right?
Um, well, my brother, my sister and I all want to play Wii Party at the same time, so I saw a Nintendo Week episode and saw the new Wii Remote Plus, which has the Wii Motion Plus function built right in! Now, if I get it, we can all play at the same time without loosing the Wii Motion Plus!
Now, this might be a big task but, could I PLEASE have the Lego Harry Potter Hogwarts castle? It looks amazing, and when I read the book, I had no idea that it looks like it does! It has staircases, ten minifigures, knights, and it’s the best school of wizardry and witchcraft, thank you very much. The book’s the BEST!
The Lego Mindstorms NXT Robot is pretty cool, too. I have ALWAYS wanted to engineer, so I want to get that. I really like robotics, bridge making, and the way to use your brain. It will also help me wit my next science unit project.
The Lego Quidditch Harry Potter set is pretty cool, too. It contains minifigures, the Snitch, the Bludgers, and all of that other good stuff. I would LOVE to compete against my brother looking for the Snitch!
Sonic Colors for the Nintendo DS or for the Wii would be fun to play, too! It has amazing power-ups, and enemies that are fun to defeat with them. Sonic returns again! I played a demo of the DS version on mine, myself.
Harry Potter, years 1-4 for the DS and Wii is also fun. As I have mentioned, I read the book. I can probably be on the Quidditch team! The magic begins when you stay at the Dursleys’ home, going through the reptile house to Hogwarts school. It looks like I’ll become a wizard! Both my brother and I want games, Wii and DS.
Maybe Harry Potter, Year 4 would be a good book for the holidays, don’t you think? Books are VERY fun to read, and this one is so long, it might take me all winter! Harry Potter is very nice, exciting, and adventurous. I hope you’ll give it to me for Christmas!
Harry Potter on DVD would be fun to watch, even seventeen times if I want to. But, that would give me a headache. Still, it’s a good movie. I like the first two, but have only watched a little of the third. Could you get me the first three, please? I haven’t read the full third book yet, but I’ll watch it when I’m finished.
The Lego game Magma Monster would be fun, and so would Creationary. I could play them with my family on Christmas morning. Anyhow, I would really like them, so could you please get them please?
Love,
Edison
P.S. My friends say you’re not real. If you are real, send me a letter with my gifts to prove them wrong!
Posted: October 5, 2010 | Author: egghead23 | Filed under: Day-to-Day, family, kids, parenting, Relationships, school, teaching moments | Tags: kids, LEGO mini-figures, morality, school, silly bandz, stealing, teaching moments |
Clooney began collecting Silly Bandz this summer. I cannot say when these things first put their rubbery feet through our door, but it built and built until he amassed a gallon-sized Ziploc bag full of them. I don’t buy them; he gets them at parties or at camp, and he’s been known to spend his allowance on them, at least until the Series 2 LEGO mini-figures were released a few weeks ago. But his 
eyes still get all glassy when he sees them in a store. The combinations of shapes, colors and other features (i.e. glow in the dark, tie-dyed, or sparkly) continue to mesmerize him whenever we pass a rack of them. And they are EVERYWHERE.
I have allowed it without encouraging it, because he’s into it, and because ultimately they are no more harmful than collecting baseball cards (though not as intellectually appealing), but I was a little disturbed yesterday when he came home and showed me two new ones on his wrist.
“Guess where I got these,” he began proudly. “Lucy and Gina dropped their Silly Bandz on the floor at lunch, and a bunch of people picked them up and I got these two!”
“What do you mean??” I asked, highly concerned.
It happened, just as I had thought. Six kids swooped in and stole the girls’ Silly Bandz off the floor. You always imagine that your child will be Superman, or the hero, the one who steps in and tells the others that what they are doing, if what they are doing, is not the right thing. So, I was more than a little shocked when not only didn’t my son do that, but he was also an eager participant in the crime. He and I had a long talk about what it meant, and how I saw the situation, and I hoped that he understood that what he had done was wrong and why. I tried to make him feel empathy for Lucy and Gina, and he promised to return the bracelets, but I wonder what he really learned. Did he learn that it’s wrong to do what he did, or did he just learn that it’s wrong to share stuff like that with Mom?
It’s a fine line. How do you teach kindness and morality, right and wrong, without choking the open line of communication between parent and child? Obviously, he’s never seen Manfrengensen or me take something that doesn’t belong to us, so it’s not a learn-by-example situation. I can only imagine that it will get tougher as he gets older and the pressure to really fit in plays a factor.
Have you had any experience with this kind of thing? Please share below if you have. Thanks.
Posted: July 2, 2010 | Author: egghead23 | Filed under: family, kids, parenting, television, Travel | Tags: Curious George, Nicolette Sheridan, roller coaster, Simpsons, Universal Studios |
First of all, I want to say that it was a GREAT vacation. I don’t mean to focus on the negative in my blog posts. We had a lot of laughs, took some great family photos and just had the best time. Clooney says he wants to move to California some day. It 
was just that great.
But I would like to tell you about the backlot studio tour that we took at Universal Studios. It was fun, but I was struck by the blatant sexism of the tour guide. I don’t know why this surprises me, especially since our whole objectifying culture comes from Hollywood, but I don’t know. I just figured on a personal level, in California, sexism wouldn’t be so out in the open.
First of all, the tram took us through a make-believe version of a NY City street, and there was the famous front of Macy’s there. The tour guide said something to the effect that the “ladies” on the tram should control themselves, as there was no actual shopping to be had through the doors. What now?
Then, we took a trip down “the famous” Wisteria Lane, home of those housewives 
who are supposed to be so desperate. Yawn…until the tour guide showed us a video that just “happened” to jam during a scene where Nicolette Sheridan is bent over her soapy sports car in a skimpy bathing suit. It stayed “stuck” for a few minutes. He “appologized” of course, claiming he didn’t know why it kept getting stuck on that scene, even joked that some guy in the third row was going to get in trouble with his wife for staring at the video too long, which got him a few chuckles from the crowd.
I’m sure Nicollette doesn’t care. She knows what she’s got going on, and she’s used it to “empower” herself, so whatever. Overall, the tour was fine, but those two moments kind of clouded the whole picture for me. I am not what I would call a big-time feminist, but I am kind of sensitive about the objectification of women, and I wish Universal would take those aspects out of their tour so that those of us who don’t want to be “amused” or titillated don’t have to be.
The best parts of Universal Studios, I have to say, were the Simpsons virtual roller coaster ride and the Curious George area. The Simpsons coaster was funny and fast, worth the wait even a second time. The Curious George area had a huge indoor ball area that we had the hard time getting the kids out of. In addition, there was also a water play area outside that strayed and splashed the kids at various intervals. We spent a good part of our day there. If you go, be sure to bring bathing suits and water shoes for the kids.
Hangin' with Homer and Marge
Posted: March 31, 2009 | Author: egghead23 | Filed under: family, kids, parenting | Tags: mom-meme |
I’m stealing this meme from Betty and Boo’s Mom, who admits she stole it from someone else. I guess it’s okay to borrow, as long as we are honest about our sources, right? Anyway, the object of this game was to ask the kids these questions. Their answers (in italics) were pretty fun.1. What is something mom always says to you?
I love you. – Edison
Knock it off. – Clooney
2. What makes mom happy?
When I hug her every day. – Edison
When I eat my dinner. – Clooney
3. What makes mom sad?
When I yell at my brother. – Edison
When you don’t eat your dinner. – Clooney
4. How does your mom make you laugh?
By tickling me. – Edison
Tickles me. – Clooney
5. What was your mom like as a child?
Friendly and kind. – Edison
Me. – Clooney
6. How old is your mom?
37 – Edison.
44. – Clooney
7. How tall is your mom?
Five feet, one inch. – Edison
Sixty feet — no, sixty inches. – Clooney
(Close.)
8. What is her favorite thing to do?
Read – Edison
Go to the park. – Clooney
9. What does your mom do when you’re not around?
Read – Edison
She gets scared. – Clooney
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
Being President – Edison
Fashion – Clooney
(I did a “spit take” for at least one of those answers.)
11. What is your mom really good at?
Helping me feel better when I cry. – Edison
Making mac and cheese. – Clooney
12. What is your mom not very good at?
Spanking me, because she never does it. – Edison
Making a fire. – Clooney
13. What does your mom do for her job?
Make us lunch for school. – Edison
She eats diet food. – Clooney
14. What is your mom’s favorite food?
Diet Mac and Cheese – Edison
Ice cream sundae – Clooney
15. What makes you proud of your mom?
She always helps me do my homework. – Edison
She tickles me. – Clooney
16. If your mom were a character in a book, who would she be?
Simba’s Mom in The Lion King. – Edison
Minnie Mouse – Clooney
17. What do you and your mom do together?
Play min-golf sometimes. – Edison
Go to the burger place. – Clooney
18. How are you and your mom the same?
We both look like each other when we were young. – Edison
We are both talking animals. – Clooney
19. How are you and your mom different?
She’s older than I am. – Edison
We are not the same height. – Clooney
20. How do you know your mom loves you?
She gives me hugs every day. – Edison
Because she hugs and kisses me. – Clooney
21. Where is your mom’s favorite place to go?
The Mexican Restaurant. – Edison
The park. – Clooney
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