Wired For Noise

It’s been quiet around here lately. Well, quiet on the blog at least. The house has been filled with the ear spliting sounds of two little boys plotting to drive their mother to the mad house. Another day in paradise.

We honestly haven’t been doing much around here lately. We did some water painting yesterday, colored today. There are plans to go play with the cousins later this evening, maybe make a fireman puppet tomorrow.

I’ve got Halloween costumes ready to go. E will be a scarecrow while A will be a pumpkin. Yes, I have no sense of originality. Just wait, when they’re older I’ll dress them up as poison tree frogs and Q-tips. For now I’ll play it safe with easy to find and easy to wear costumes.

It’s been quiet around here lately. Well, quiet on the blog at least. The house has been filled with the ear spliting sounds of two little boys plotting to drive their mother to the mad house. Another day in paradise.

We honestly haven’t been doing much around here lately. We did some water painting yesterday, colored today. There are plans to go play with the cousins later this evening, maybe make a fireman puppet tomorrow.

I’ve got Halloween costumes ready to go. E will be a scarecrow while A will be a pumpkin. Yes, I have no sense of originality. Just wait, when they’re older I’ll dress them up as poison tree frogs and Q-tips. For now I’ll play it safe with easy to find and easy to wear costumes.

I’m blessed that the training for the counselor job is done by a woman with 5 kids. Her exact words were “I’m a mom too, just load them up and bring ‘em.” So the boys have had the privledge of joining me at the training courses. Tomorrow is the last day then I’ll be back to the at home business. I’m sure E’s future wife will be screened on her opinion of breastfeeding as he’s been soaking in all the info we’re going over.

Today, after we learned ways to help a new mom feed with a doll E carted the doll off and preceedes to nurse said doll on the couch. He only returned the doll when it was apparently crying and needed to burp. Quite the imaginatioin that kid has. Good thing I love him so. *grins*

We were going to make a collage with real leaves but it was cloudy and cold all day so I dared not take the boys out in it. No paints for apple painting like I had hoped, maybe later this week I can sweett alk Dearest into getting us some. But E was happy doing this, watching as I drew and cut out the leaves was quite entertaining to him. He knealed next to the table and watched with such concentration, squaling with glee when he could recognise each as a leaf.

I found a cute poem on the web that I copied onto the paper, but of course my mommy brain forgot to write down who the author is. Still it’s cute and was a fun project to do on a cold, windy day. I think tomorrow we’ll take it over to my in-law’s house to hang on the fridge with all the various projects of the other grandchild. So what if it wasn’t done in a classroom with a teacher, he still put his heart into it.

The poem reads:

Red leaves, gold leaves
Dancing, swaying
Happily playing
Brightly, lightly,
Kissed by the Autumn breeze

Winds blow, leaves go
Spinning and swirling
Twisting and twirling
Flitter, flutter
Down to the ground they float.

Technorati tags: preschool, homeschool, Autumn, leaves

8:30 AM: get up, eat breakfast, get dressed, watch Scamper the Penguin by request

9:45 AM: go out, drop books off at library, go collect pine cones, get questioned by a cop wanting to know what I’m doing in the trees with two little kids (Umm, ritual sacrifice? No wait, nevermind), pack up and head to park

10 AM: take a small hike through trails, talk about leaves changing colors, collect some pretty leaves, throw rocks, hug trees, watch frogs, play on park equipment

11:15 AM: head home, start lunch, make Police Officer finger puppet, eat lunch, do dishes while E plays with new puppet and toy police car

12:45 PM: set up leaves and pine cones on table with some tree bark and a candle, take pictures, curl up at computer to nurse A while E trots off to watch Animal Planet

1 PM: Read Where The Wild Things Are, got E down for a nap, start load of diapers to wash, clean out left overs from fridge, settle in to read some of my books for a bit

5:30 PM: go to store for cat food and litter, come home, play in yard and watch neighbor’s kids try to kill each other

7 PM: start dinner (beans and rice), pick up train set

7:30 PM: eat dinner, talk about season changing, light candle and talk about food coming from earth, run bath water, get bed clothes laid out

9 PM: E in bed, wash dinner dishes, put up laundry, get packages ready to mail, think of way to convince Dearest that we need tempra paints for apple painting tomorrow

10 PM: go to bed!

Technorati tags: day in the life, preschool, Autumn, Nature

After applying, waiting, interviewing, and waiting some more I finally heard back today.

I got the job as a Breastfeeding Counselor. Yay!

Now before anyone gets worried, it’s only 10 hours a week, mostly done out of the home, and there’s onsite daycare for the boys when I have to go in for the training and monthly staff meetings.

I’ll be getting paid to talk to other moms about breastfeeding from my own living room, and to talk to other counselors while E plays and A , well A will probably be in the sling nursing and flirting with evryone he sees.

And they’ll pay me for this. Score!

Technorati tags: breastfeeding, WIC

E is in love with motorcycles; deeply, passionately in love. So tonight when we went back to the fair with my mom and saw the Bikers Against Child Abuse booth I knew he had to go. There stood two of the most glorious bikes you could imagine, decked out to the nines and guarded by two of the biggest, most stereotypical bikers you could imagine. E quickly lost all courage. My outgoing, fearless, unstoppable boy was hiding behind my legs and begging me not to go. After a few moments of attempting to find out what he was afraid of I left it at his simply being afraid and we left.

Off we went to the small petting zoo where E made friends with a calf, a goat, a pony, and two very hyper puppies. I watched as he slowly went from timid and holding my hand to bravely walking around on his own and petting the animals. When his courage was at its peak I asked him if he wanted to ride the motorcycles. He nearly drug me over to them.

But one look at the two men guarding the bikes had him ducking behind my legs again. He’s never had issues with strangers before, or men. Even big, hairy, tattooed men he’s talked to before. I think the crowds, the noise, and the sights were just too much stimulation for him. He was getting lost in all the excitement and needed to be brought back. I kneeled down and talked to him eye to eye, asking if I could ride the motorcycles. He agreed to that. Then I asked him to help me and he “helped” me get on the bike. Once I was up there I told him that I didn’t know how to ride a motorcycle, would he teach me how. That was it. He climbed up and began giving me a lesson on everything he knew about bikes. It wasn’t us in a crowd anymore, it was just him and mommy on a real life motorcycle. The bikers took a picture of us (I’ll scan it later). Once he had filled his courage cup I got off the bike and he happily at there by himself chatting with the bikers and making “vroom vroom” noises. For the entire time he sat up there he was his normal happy, bubbling, fearless self. Off the bike, however, and he returned to my shy little man walking between my legs and hugging on to me for dear life.

We only stayed a bit longer after that. We split a basket of fries and my mom got him a slice of chocolate pie. A nursed and coo-ed at me while E ate. Then we headed back home and my mom back to her house. I think this was one of those outings where mama learns more than E does.

Technorati tags: motorcycles, county fair, children, parenting