Mammogram Monday & Morning Mischief

It is almost exactly one year since my breast cancer surgery and the beginning of my path to becoming a "pink warrior" - and survivor.  So it is time for a number of checkups and tests.  Today was my mammogram.  It was negative.  Relief! Promise more posts on the whole cancer story soon - whoop whoop...

Today is also Monday (a Monday after a weekend filled with parties, family and lots of celebrating.)  Today is a Monday that screams "more sleep" but alas-not with two kids who are raring to go!

So here is a glimpse of some Monday Morning Mischief in our kaleidoscopey house.  Always something fun going on-no matter how tired mommy is!  Today it was breakfast with the left over balloons...

Too Many Trains? NEVER!

A quickie - because we are really "getting ready to garden party" tonight. 

By now you might have noticed, we are a celebration kind of family.  This weekend we had three parties scheduled: two today and ours tomorrow!

Both parties today were awesome and completely different.  All four of us got our funk on this morning at a super cool sock monkey brunch 2nd birthday party.  And both kids were really well behaved!

This evening, Jonah and I went to a place that has been on my "to do" list forever!  Today's party was for Jonah's good buddy who is turning 3.  They had it at the Cabin John Regional Park Train Station.  SCORE!!!!  After our day with Thomas yesterday, Jonah was super excited to see his good buddy, go to a birthday party and ride a train!  Despite the chill and rain, the kids got to ride the train.  The party room was fun, filled with balloons and good food & people.  The coolest thing is that the party room is in the station so you can see the train ride up right through the window!  Jonah loved loved loved this!  He got a train whistle, train, ball, and train stickers in his goody bag as soon as he got there-and he was completely happy.  And then as if he couldn't be any more happier-there was cake!  Whoop Whoop!

The park is gorgeous and there is an awesome playground.  It isn't that far from Washington, DC and I expect we will be hanging out there with the trains a lot this summer. 

On the way back home (after a little jaunt in the rain because I parked in the completely wrong parking lot) I asked Jonah, "Have you had enough trains for now?" and he just looked and my puzzled, and said, "no mom, we need more trains, I am going to tell Thomas to come here, and Percy, and Toby too, we always need more trains mom..."

So there you have it... you always need more trains...

There will never be too many trains... until there are - and he is on to something else.  A very Toy Story 4 thought...

BTW: weather forecast for tomorrow's garden party: high 68 degrees and partly sunny!

ready to go!

on the train, with my mom, and I got a train!  whoop whoop!

Choo Choo!

looking down the tracks!

Getting Ready to Garden Party #2

Weeks ago, when I planned Vera's party for this Sunday in our new "garden," the farmer's almanac said it was going to be partly sunny and 70 degrees.   So much for the almanac...

C'est la vie!  We are still having a garden party - whether it is in the garden or not.  That's our theme and we are sticking to it.  Jonah is very excited for the party and we have been making decorations for it.  What else for a garden party - FLOWERS!  In the spirit of Earth Day, we took our food colored coffee filter earths (see previous post here) and turned them into flower garland.  Jonah announced that they were very pretty and we should make more for Vera's party.  So we did.

Everyone in this house loves "food coloring painting" the coffee filters, so we have been making more.  Even Vera likes watching Jonah and playing with the paint brushes. Jonah also thought we could have white flowers-good thought, so we made some without paint too!

Basically you paint the filters, let dry, twist them into flowers and tie ribbon on the end and hang!  Instant flowers for a garden party!

For those who are curious, the current weather prediction for Sunday: high of 61, low of 42 and partly cloudy...

Vera needs flowers for her party mom!

I am working on it!

I got a paint brush too!

Buy hey?  Where is my paint?

Hard at work!

good job kids!

Four Letter Words

Some words initiate extreme anxiety and stress when I say them out loud next to each other:

give
bath
wash
comb
hair
with
soap

I am hyperventilating just writing them down.

These words are really neutral until I add Jonah's name to them as in...

Give Jonah a Bath and Wash his Hair with Soap and use a Comb...

Ooops, I think I just broke into a cold sweat.

You might think I am being a bit hyperbolic... but really I am not, well, not exactly.

Jonah actually loves his bath.  He also loves taking a bath with Vera.  I enjoy giving them both baths, reading bath books and playing with all the bath toys with them.  It is not the bath that is the problem.  It is the HAIR.

Jonah has a lot of hair.  It is amazing hair.  I LOVE his hair.  I just do not enjoy having to wash it.  We only wash it once a week.  Even then, I have to muster the energy and focus to do it.  And I often try different "distractions" to make it bearable.  The actual washing of his hair isn't the problem-it is the combing out of his hair. 

I have done a ton of research on Jonah's hair and how to care for it.  Seriously.  The correct term for his hair is "mixed race" hair.  I have talked to friends and family.  I have facebooked about it.  And I have done intensive Internet googling.  I have come up with a "protocol" for our hair washing and combing out session.  It goes like this:

1. saturate hair with water using a hand held shower head... (this is a must)
2. use California Baby shampoo, lather and rinse - do this 2X
3. saturate hair again
4. use about 1/3 bottle (seriously 1/3 of the bottle) of "Mixed Chicks" Leave-in Conditioner for Kids  -- smoosh it all over (see here)
5. section hair and comb it out, very very carefully!!!
6. if I am doing right, the screaming only happens once or twice...
7. towel dry
8. then put three products on his wet hair
1. mousse
2. gel
3. spray
9. In between washing, NO COMBING.  Spray his hair every morning and use fingers to work it through.

That is our protocol.  And it works for now. 

As with everything in life, it is never just about the hair, there is something emotional too.  I haven't cut Jonah's hair since he was born.  Jocelyn thinks I am crazy, but I can't cut it.  There are so many reasons why I just don't want to cut it (insert crazy mommy list of not wanting her baby to grow up here...), but the one that I cling to closely is a the Jewish tradition, upsherin, that most Jews don't follow.  The tradition requires that the child's hair not be cut until after the child's 3rd birthday (see a Jewish mom's story here).  The reason the child's hair is not cut is because a child is compared to a tree.  In the Torah, we are commanded that we can not pick the fruit of tree until after the tree is at least three years old. So too, we must not cut the hair of the child until the child is three years old.

For now, Jonah's hair has not been cut.  He turns three this June and it will be time to cut it.  How that is going to work I have not yet figured out.

What I have figured out is that if I kaleidoscope up some fun "project" for Jonah while he is in the bath and I am conducting the aforementioned protocol, the whole thing works out much better.  Thus, I am always searching for such bath time projects.  I have found many on Pinterest and one of my favorite blogs, Not-so-SAHM (see examples here and here) A big favorite of ours is bath paint.  I have tried it a few ways, but the easiest and one that seems to work the best for us is simple: 

food coloring + shaving cream + cool paint brushes = FUN!

Tonight we had painting party in tub and there was no crying!  None!  Score for mommy and Jonah! 

His hair is really long now.  He told me I did a good job tonight.  He gave me a thumbs up on the comb out... and when I asked him if he wanted to get a hair cut, he asked me if I would be there too?  I said yes and then he said, "OK Mom..."

Yes, his hair is long.  But he is also talking about everything and thinking about everything all the time.  He is growing up.  I can almost see the wheels turning in his head sometimes.  He is just this little guy with so much to say and so many thoughts.  He is very excited to "get bigger, like you mom..."  I am excited (and a bit tearful) to watch him do so.

I think three is just the right time to get a hair cut.  For the next 7 weeks, we will still do our protocol and projects.  Then he'll get a hair cut.  After that, we will still need do a protocol and a project in the bath, but it won't be the same.  The first fruits will have been picked, the baby tree will be just a bit wiser and older... and yes "bigger..."

colorful and creamy bath paints!

our shampoo and conditioner!  to say we buy it in bulk, is an understatement

a request for some more white "paint" 



it isn't that long mommy!?!?!



I am cold mommy!



getting dried up with my towel and my blankey!



our three post-wash products and the spray we also use every morning!

all clean!  my guy! curls and all!

Mother Earth was thirsty...

...and she got a great big drink of water on her celebration day!

Yes, it rained all day today, Sunday, April 22, 2012 - Earth Day.  We had big plans!  We were supposed to be off "Mobilizing Mother Earth" with throngs of other activists on the National Mall... but that just did not happen. 

This morning I woke up and I was tired.  Vera woke up at 6:30am and she seemed tired.  Jonah woke up at 8:00am and he could barely keep his eyes open.  And it was raining, hard.  Much like Mother Earth, we all needed a rest.  

I was totally unprepared to be inside with the kids all day by myself.  I had some fleeting thoughts about going to museum, but I just could not get myself to rally.  We were staying inside at home-it was just that sort of day.  I looked through the little kaleidoscope in my back pocket... and thought "Earth Day Cupcakes" - we could do that!  I always have some food coloring on hand and I had seen them all over Pinterest (one example here).  That would be our afternoon plan.  We'd try to "chill" until then and I'd make sure we had all the ingredients.

For lunch we had "earth" bagels and "sun" eggs... and I realized I didn't have anything to actually make the cupcakes except for the food coloring.  INITIAL FAIL.

But then the "mommy goddess" helped us out.  Some good friends texted they wanted to stop by to see the new house-I texted back "sure if you bring me one box of white cake mix..."  SCORE!

After a day of absolutely no "chilling" - more like running around the house, screaming, make believing, feeding, eating, lack of naps for both children and mommy, drop by guests, and a host of other extremely labor intensive inside activities, we were all ready to make the "Earth" cupcakes. 

We did them ALL wrong.  I mean we did not even follow the box directions right.  We used the entire egg and not just the egg whites... we used two different cupcake pans and not the correct size pan... and it turns out I baked them on the wrong temperature for the incorrect amount of time.  One tray of regular sized cupcakes failed.  The tray of mini cupcakes came out pretty "earthy" and Jonah & Vera loved them.  Well I think they did, they did gobble them up after dinner (which was delivery pizza...)

Mama got back in the middle of cupcake baking and complete chaos ensued... and remained for the rest of the evening.  The kids were giddy to see her (or just giddy not have to see me-not sure which one...)  My kaleidoscope was too tired to do anything but stare at the mayhem and sort of watch.

I remember when I used to get up and go to an office during the day.  Sunday nights were the worst.  The dreaded Sunday Night Blues, anxiously awaiting the new work week... now I get the Sunday Night Snooze - as in the desperate voice in your head screaming, "when are you kids going to go to bed, so that I can go to bed...."

In the spirit of Earth Day, I re-learned a few good lessons today (unfortunately none of them have anything to do with saving the earth):

(1) always have box cake mix in your pantry
(2) food coloring is super awesome
(3) rainy days will never be the same after you have kids (kinda like those lazy Sunday mornings...)
(4) absence DEFINITELY makes the heart grow fonder
(5) sometimes it is really OK to watch TV and order pizza with your kids-especially if it is the original version of the Lorax and your son tells you, "Mom I speak for the trees!  Be nice to the trees!" - at least that is what I am telling myself...
(6) I get why they call the Earth, Mother Earth, even when she is tired (or thirsty, or hungry,...) she has to take care of business...

HAPPY EARTH DAY MOTHER EARTH! 
Hope you aren't thirsty anymore and you get good night's sleep!

PS:  We did manage to finish our "Recycled Earths" on Friday.  We hung them up with our Earth lanterns (see here) and Coffee Filter Earths.  It looked really nice. 

rainy Sunday

earth day bagels- cream cheese and sprinkles..

making some Earth cupcakes...

Vera's baking in the kitchen too!

happy earth day!

recycled earth:  brown paper bag, blue and green paint, glue, cut out blue pieces from magazines and old paint swatches, make green hand and foot prints on packing paper, paint and glue...

earth garland!  coffee filter earths, recycled earths, earth poster, and earth lanterns!