Find Bruce – iPhone App for Kids

Fwww.findbruce.com

Find Bruce: $0.99*

*price at time of this writing.

FrootDrop – iPhone App

FGooseRhymes Designs.

FrootDrop: $0.99*

*price at time of this writing.

The Fuzzy Fierce Peach – iPhone App Story

TGooseRhymes Designs. You can see a video about the storybook here.

The Fuzzy Fierce Peach: $1.99*

*price at time of this writing.

Are we there yet?

I have to start by saying that I absolutely adore my son. I love him with every fiber in me. But… (you knew it was coming, right?) I feel like we’ve been in a phase with him that has been never-ending. I know he’s not the worst behaved kid in the world, but he is far from one of the better behaved kids. It’s like we’re walking on egg-shells – anything can set him off, and once that happens he will range from either just being generally whiney to on-the-floor tantrum. Keeping him happy is really hard work and he’s extremely high maintenance.

After the presents were opened on Christmas, we spent the rest of the day trying to prevent the kids from killing each other. I read tweets from other people who were “spending a quiet afternoon with their family”… how exactly does one do that? If the kids are home, especially if Zach is home – there is no such thing as a quiet afternoon.

This weekend I took the kids to see The Princess and The Frog (which I LOVED by the way. Great movie! Yes, scary in parts, but not as bad as some other Disney movies I’ve seen!) Long story short – Zach basically had a total screaming meltdown after the movie that lasted a good two hours and ended up making me sick with a migraine.

We are trying to figure out how to restrict his access to the house overnight – otherwise he will literally ransack the place. He gets into and empties out cabinets he knows he’s not allowed to get into (this includes breaking through “childproof” locks), he gets things out of the fridge and leaves them all over the house. I don’t know if it’s a sleep-walking thing, but because he seems so proud of himself when we wake up and discover what he’s done, I’m not sure.

I joked on Twitter the other day that I wondered if there really was a Nanny911. I’d love for them to come in and help me out. I’m not talking about going to one of those “Love and Logic” seminars – or following the advice of a book (I’ve read a bunch). I’m talking about someone coming in and seeing our specific problems and coaching me on how to deal with it. The things that happen in my house never seem to follow the examples in the books or seminars. I need a Nanny911!

There’s so many cute things that go along with a child who is 4 years old, but there is so much going on with him that makes me can’t wait until this phase is over. (Please let this all just be a phase). I read about other moms who get so upset watching their kids get older – meanwhile, I’m the complete opposite. And at the same time I feel like I’m missing out on something. Why is this all so difficult? Why can’t it all be just games and fun and snuggling. I mean there is that too, but it’s overshadowed with so much whining and tantrums and bothering his sister for no reason at all…

I know it’ll get better. But sometimes I’d like someone to tell me how much longer. Are we there yet?

Added after: Ironically, I was talking with my mother about my nephew who is just a month older than Zach, and his behavior recently is apparently just about the same as Zach’s. So hopefully that’s some proof that it’s not just ME/MY FAULT he’s acting this way and it’s more to do with his age and he’ll grow out of it. Eventually. Heh.

Post Holiday Catch Up

I hope everyone had a good Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice or other holiday of your choice 😉 The last few weeks have been insanely busy with work projects, and various holiday projects.

I was able to do the Hanukkah presentation for Rachel’s class with minimal problems. My plan to talk “off-the-cuff” as little as possible worked. I read a book. We sang a few songs (many of them the students already knew from previous years of my coming in there), I had the kids play dreidel, and then I brought in latkes. That was probably the biggest challenge. Due to health laws – I’m not allowed to bring in homemade food, so the latkes had to be store-bought. So the first challenge was finding a store that would make them. I convinced the local Harmon’s grocery store to make them for me in their deli department, but then at the last minute they decided they were too busy to actually do it. (I can’t even tell you how pissed I still am at them for pulling that stunt). The one good thing that came out of it was that they told me that they thought that Whole Foods might make them. Which was true – and I didn’t even have to twist their arm and beg. In fact, when I explained what I needed the latkes for, they offered to make up a special batch for me of “smaller” latkes for the kids (their “normal” size was HUGE – their “smaller” size is closer to what I would have considered “normal”). But the the problem was that they refused to give them to me heated up. And I wasn’t given access to the school’s cafeteria, so I had to heat them up on warming platters in the class. They were still on the “cooler” side, but they still tasted good. All the kids seemed really excited to try them.

Christmas went well too. The kids were spoiled rotten, although there were a fair share of present fails – I think Santa is beginning to look like an idiot. (Well, at least he’ll take the blame for a few more years until the kids figure it out). Rachel got a “designer nail” kit – which apparently was only an “add on” to a larger (more expensive) kit – which she doesn’t have. Oops. Zachary got a Wii game which is totally too difficult for him to play. He also got a computer game which doesn’t work on his computer. Oops. There were other presents that didn’t suck, thankfully – Rachel got a few Harumika sets, a Miley Cyrus CD (which she has been playing over and over and over and over again. Ugh.) Zachary got a few Bakugans and a marble tower building thing.

And me? Between Hanukkah and Christmas (and Thanksgiving) – basically a month+ of holidays and food… I am sitting at a good 5lbs heavier than when the holidays started. I know I’ve been “bad” – but the holidays are difficult on a diet. I wanted to enjoy them without worrying so much about every calorie. I knew I would gain, but the deal I made with myself was that as quickly as I could afterwards I would get it back together again. So here I am. Again. For the millionth time. But that’s what it’s all about.

I tried the LoseIt! iPhone app before – but I do like being able to enter stuff into the computer as well as the iPhone. Sometimes, if I have A LOT of stuff to enter, the iPhone’s interface becomes a real hurdle. So I end up skipping an entry… and one thing leads to another… and you get the idea. So I’ve signed up again with MyFoodDiary. It’s still a little overkill for what I want, and some things I still find annoying and wish I could turn off, but it has the main important features I want – iphone accessible (they have a mobile version of their site) and the ability to enter via computer as well. It’s too bad I don’t get a “referral kick-back” for the number of times I mention them on this site, but I don’t. I just like their service.

Our New Year’s is always quiet, so I shouldn’t have too much to worry about there – so today is my first day back on track.

Chicks on Sticks: Adventures in Skiing

So I had my first ski lesson on Sunday. An adventure from beginning to end. The day begin with a massive snow storm. That would have ended the trip right then and there if it wasn’t for the fact that my friend who was taking the lesson with me had 4-wheel drive. (My little mini-van doesn’t do so well in snow). So we made it up the mountain, although it did take quite a bit longer than we had planned for. We got checked in, and fitted for the rental equipment.

Lesson 1 for the day: Even if the high school student working behind the counter says you don’t need to, and that it will be fine – make sure the boots fit into the skis they give you.

After getting checked in and getting our equipment we had just enough time for a quick bite for lunch before meeting up with the instructor. We set our skis outside the restaurant – I even made the comment “You mean, people just leave the ski equipment out here?? Nothing gets stolen??” My friend made the comment that we had rental equipment… True – if someone was going to walk off with equipment, I’m sure there was a better selection of items to chose from.

We then go to meet up with the instructor. First lesson… how to clear off snow from your ski boot – and get it into the ski. Ah yes, that’s when we realize my boot does not actually FIT into the ski!! At first we thought maybe someone had switched equipment on me, but no… after some back and forth – we finally got the skis fitting. Lots of wasted time there.

Then it was time to ski… sort of. I thought with skis on you were supposed to… I don’t know… move? I had to do a lot of pushing with my poles to move. The only time I would really start to go was if the hill got significantly steep. There were several points to the day that I just could not get moving, I was holding the class up, and the instructor literally had to tow me down the hill. Seriously? Tow me DOWN a HILL when I’m wearing SKIS??

Lesson 2 for the day: Going forward – I’m going to make the rental place wax the skis right then and there. I’m not wasting this much time again on equipment FAILS.

Where the lesson was – there was no “magic carpet” (I still have no idea what that is), so we took the chair lift up. That’s probably the biggest thing I took away from the lesson: getting over my intense fear of the chair lift. I mean, aside from the height issue – which isn’t really like a “phobia of heights” or anything – just like, I’d rather be somewhere else kind of feeling… but the getting off, I was having a huge panic attack about how to get off the chair lift without it killing me. After about 3 times through, I got the basic idea. You’re supposed to just go straight off the chair lift – you will stop eventually because it’s really flat just after the lift, but if you try to wedge and stop too soon or use your poles, you’re going to screw up the people next to you – which is what the others in the class were doing to me! LOL! But the instructor saw what I was doing and said I did it the right way and would have gotten off cleanly otherwise.

I feel like I really only got a very limited amount of real SKI time – so I’m only slightly more comfortable with the idea than I was before going into it. It’s going to take a lot of practice I think before I feel even vaguely ok just going down the beginner slope. The other factor that doesn’t help is other skiers. The ones zooming past me. Granted, I know they probably have more control than I do – but I’m not going to bet money on it. So there’s a lingering fear of someone screaming up behind me and crashing into me – with my being able to do little or nothing at all to stop it or get out of the way.

On a positive note, however, I really liked the instructor. With the deal I got for this ski package – I can go up another 4 times this season with my rentals, lift tickets and group ski lesson all costing only $25 each time I go. Or I can opt to just use the lift ticket and rental, and buy a private lesson – which is what I might do, if I can swing it. If so, I’ll be requesting THAT particular instructor because she was awesome.

I’m frustrated that I didn’t end the day feeling more confident on skis. But I also accept the fact that will probably take a long time, and I wasn’t given a fair advantage with my equipment. But as frustrating as it was, I’m willing to give it a few more tries before I concede and say “This is NOT FOR ME.”

If little boys are made of frogs and snails and puppy dog tails, what are *squirrels* made of?

T
he other morning, before dropping Zach off at daycare, he asked me “what squirrels were made of.”

The things is – he sometimes asks me questions like this when he already has an answer in his head. When I mentioned Zach’s question to my Facebook friends, my friend Jamie replied that when she asked her son the same question to see what he would say, he said “Skin and Fur” – but I know that wasn’t what was in Zach’s mind. I explained it was as if he expecting me to say that squirrels were made of chicken or something…

To which Jamie gave me this reply:

Speaking of chicken, Alex was eating a chicken nugget the other day and asked me what chicken nuggets were made of. I told him chicken of course and I guess it was the first time he ever realized he was eating an animal, his eyes got huge and said, “a bock bagock chicken?” “Yep” “The kind with feathers?” “Yep” “So there’s a chicken in my belly?”…. at which point the conversation got really weird and uncomfortable trying to explain how it’s ok to eat animals that are raised for food, but not ok to bite his brother…

ROFL!!! I’m still cracking up over that.

Later that night, I asked Zach to tell me what he thought squirrels were made of. His answer? “nuts“

I guess you are what you eat…