Re-Purpose, Re-Use, Re-Cycle

In our house Bob the Builder rules. Well, Fireman Sam and Frankly are rather popular, but Bob has all the catchy phrases; "Can we dig/build it? Yes, we can!" And in the last year it seems that Bob has really jumped on the "re-use, re-cycle, re-purpose" bandwagon.

So, we now recycle all sorts of stuff. But the big boy came home from school with a new idea, borrowed from a classmate, to gather junk on a walk and then create a robot. I'm game, sounded fun. But then it got dicey. What am I willing to let him pick up off the street of NYC and bring into the house? What is too "icky" to touch? Which led to the question, "Mom, if its that icky, shouldn't it be in the garbage?" Which meant all the really gross stuff was picked up and held by me until we got to the garbage can. YUCK!

We also recycled stuff from around the house, which makes me question where is all the clutter coming from? I really thought I was getting ahead in this battle! But I guess the Chinese New Year clean up was a couple months ago! Finally, to assembly of the robot which required more tape then I ever could have imagined (or read waste), as well as cleaning and drying the not too icky stuff (or read as messy sink).

In the end we have a homemade robot that adds to our clutter, created from inside and outside trash, which is not a great toy as it is held together by tape and will eventually disappear one evening, by the "Bad Santa (see 3/16/09 entry)". It called for a great walk outside, touching disgusting stuff, while cleaning up the neighborhood and an hour of arts and craft at home together. Yeah, we'll be making more.

Hello Cupcake!

As I squatted, with both hand holding dumbbells, looking into the mirror, I thought, "Fuck you, cupcake!" Maybe I ate just one too many this weekend?

The spaghetti and meatball cupcakes were for my family birthday celebration. The boys loved the concept and told daddy we were having "dinner". The butterflies were for a friend's birthday party on Sunday morning. DS1 helped me with the wings, although for sake of my sanity, the actual assembly was after he was in bed.

Trying to make designer cupcakes is interesting. Like so many things in life (including the gym), I loose my rhythm/skill when I don't practice regularly. For instance, the green bodies on the butterflies. Yeah, that was supposed to be brown, but my food coloring skills were off; way, way off.

I'm back at the gym for the first time since November. Yeah, I'm sore, four months off is plenty of time for the muscles to lose their tone. But it feels good to get back, and mentally/emotionally, it needs to happen. I missed it.

However, I forgot, when you walk in the class and everyone looks awesome = you are in for a wicked work out! There is a pregnant lady in the first row that I find motivating. She is due in May, and she's still doing more than me. To defend myself, I'm not totally terrible, its just the people in this class are clearly in their groove!

Today in the midst of 30 knee lifts for each leg, I started hyperventilating. At first I thought maybe the lights are dimming. Then I realized it was me. I sat on my bench and kept up with the arm work for a few minutes. I felt pathetic, I looked red. The teacher smiled at me, but didn't come over or say anything. After a song, that is how I measure the torture of working out - can I make it through one more song? - I felt better and got back to my feet. Tell you what, it was worth it. I'm feeling motivated. I want to run with the boys on the playground this summer.

P.S. The cupcake designs are from a book, "Hello, Cupcake!" but also just search for ideas on the internet and you'll find thousands.

Bad Santa

Unexpectedly, I've made Santa into the fall guy. You know the person who gets the blame. Ouch! Yeah, I felt that way at first, but now I think it has advantages.

As I've noted before, with the cold weather, with me starting up a new business, I've been re-purposing boxes in our house. They are transformed from useful for shipping into 30 minutes of creative time with no fighting, followed by 30-45 minutes of focused play with the new creation. Really, I have discovered the miracle of boxes for bigger kids and something fun for all of us to do together before bath time.

Typically, the first day is assemble; sticking our new shape together with tape and cutting windows, doors peep holes. The second day is color; paint, markers, crayons, what ever mess I'm up for. The third day is collage, or various stuff stuck on; tissue paper, stickers, cut out shapes of paper, or tissues. Then two days of free play. Then the house, rocket ship, boat, or our current creation - rolling cotton candy cart - disappears in the middle of the night.

A year ago, with only one child, and a three year old at that, the middle of the night disappearance would sometimes go unnoticed for a few days. Then when it came up I'd just say, "oh, that's been gone for ages, we played with it until it fell apart." No major questions, generally no fights.

Well, now with two kids, and the oldest four years old, the middle of the night disappearance leads to questions in the morning. The household is in unison on answers, "Gosh, I don't know where it went?" One day I said out loud "the Boogie Man got it," and I immediately regretted introducing any such terrifying idea. Luckily my eldest didn't quit catch it, so when he said "what?" I just replied I had no idea where it went. Sometimes the little guy in the morning will show me a small piece of paper/box that was left behind from the latest creation and look at me suspiciously.

So here's how the mind of a four year old works. Two days ago he asked me when does Santa come? In the middle of the night. No, when? Oh, in December, not for several more months. nothing further was forthcoming, so I didn't ask what he was thinking about. The next day he had a chat with daddy; "I've asked everyone, you, mommie, the sitter, Mira (our cleaning lady), and Anthony (the doorman/porter he loves) where the boxes are going, and nobody knows." This morning he was showing our newest box creation to the play therapist for the little guy when I heard him explaining, "We have a Bad Santa that comes and takes my boxes in the middle of the night, no one sees him. I'm trying to stay up to catch him, but I haven't. It is not the Good Santa that comes in December."

Okay, this is going to bite me in the butt someday, but for now, I'm letting Bad Santa take the blame.

The Reward Chart

Ok. I wrote about our "calendar" which is basically a reward chart; stickers for good behavior in certain categories. Tonight, part two; either I psycho or are the industry is.

Let me explain, I have ran out of stickers for like the hundredth time, so I started accepting the idea that maybe I should move from our home made version to one of the prefab ones available. There is a nice one by Melissa & Doug, and then one by Kenson Parenting. I happen to be visiting a toy store that carried one and not the other, so that is why I picked the one I did.

First, the boys couldn't have been more excited to see the new "calendar". It has magnets on the back which means instead of sitting as a book on the book shelf, it is now out in the hall stuck to our one door that is metal in the house. This means the boys see it all day, and show it to everyone who comes; to explain how fabulous they are for earning stars - a plus.

This is where I wonder, am I nuts or are the manufactures a bit off. The main hanger has room for 6 behaviours, I had been using 10. Yeah, I expect more. The kit came with 20 behaviours, and yet I was stretching to find six to use! I am psycho!

We are using:

• Brush your teeth
• Good manners at the table
• Share your toys, which I changed to "sharing"
  
• Good manners when Mommy is on the phone, which I have changed to "let Mommy work"
• Clean your mess, which I changed to "Clean your room"
• No mean words, which I changed to "talk nicely"
  

The others are:

• Get dressed
• Make bed
• Go Potty
• No whining
• Get along with others
• Eat your veggies
• No harming others
• Feed pets
• Water the plants
• Set the table
• Help with dishes
• Go to bed and stay in bed
• Say please and thank you
• No yelling

Seems like a good and exhaustive list, right? Not for my household. Here is what is missing;

• Use a tissue vs. your clothes
• Wipe your butt or call for help
• Waiting Nicely
• Follow instructions
• no toys in the kitchen
• no sticks in the house
• no toys in your mouth
• keep your tongue to yourself
• hand out of pants

And these are just the ones missing for the boys! Think of all the ones missing for my lovely husband!