Spooky Shadow Puppets

This has been Calvin's favorite Halloween-themed play so far! It was inspired by our #spookyplayeveryday photo round-up on Instagram. 

It was the same day as my online Jamberry party on Facebook and I kept forgetting about the spooky play thing. It was one of those mom-brain things where I'd remember for a sec and think, "Oh! I'm supposed to make shadow puppets because the word of the day is shadow!" And within seconds I'd get distracted by something else and I'd forget about the shadow puppets.

I finally remembered again after dinner, and by that time it was so late I aaaalmost decided to just forget it and skip that day. But I had dreamed up these shadow puppets and I knew they were going to be cool... and my inner perfectionist cringed at the idea of skipping a day. So like the stellar procrastinator that I am, I pulled it together at the last minute! Seriously, I started making the puppets at like 6:45pm and my online Jamberry party was starting at 7. James had just gotten home from work, and I, like, threw the puppets and flashlights at him and said, "Here! Shadow puppets. Go!" 

Before long, I could hear Calvin laughing so hard that I had to go see what fun those silly boys were having!

Calvin thought this cat and pumpkin game was HILARIOUS. And he has played with the shadow puppets several times since then, including trying to play with them during the day in the bedroom when it is not dark enough! Hey, I'm glad they were a hit! 

Here's how I made them:

I used cardstock and wooden BBQ skewers. The cardstock I used was some scrapbook paper from an old Mat Stack, and it was paper I was never going to use for anything else because I, um, think it's ugly. 

I have a bunch of Halloween cookie cutters, which, lets be real, are obviously for play-dough and not for actual cookies because I hate baking. And here I found yet another non-baking use for them! I used them as tracers for the shadow puppets! 

If I hadn't had these cookie cutters, I might have freehanded some shapes (easy ones like a moon, a bat, a pumpkin....), but if drawing sounds scary to you, you could always print some Halloween clip art and use it as tracers. Or, better yet, print it right on the cardstock. 

I cut out my shapes and taped them to skewers, and Voila! Shadow puppets!

Spooky, shadowy fun!



BOO!

Hot Yoga... More Like Snot Yoga

I spent the summer (sorta) training for the Giant Race 10k. Now that the race is over, I'm trying to get back into my yoga practice and I'm trying to balance it with keeping up my running. 

In the spring, I was doing Bikram yoga and this month I switched to a heated vinyasa studio. I like hot yoga because I feel like it helps me really get a good stretch through my muscles and it feels relaxing. And challenging. Don't get me wrong, heated vinyasa is no joke. 

One small hitch in my fitness game is that the entire family came down with a cold. It started with the boys and their runny noses. Then James got the worst of it and had to take a sick day. I also had a terrible runny nose, but I was in denial about it so while James was home on his sick day I decided to take advantage of that and go to an afternoon yoga class. Because moms don't get sick, right? Right, guys??

Anyway, I didn't bring my mat towel, and I don't bring a face towel because I'm used to Bikram where they teach you not to wipe away your sweat. So basically I had nothing to save me when my nose started running halfway through class. Fun fact: hot yoga will open up not only your pores, but also your sinuses! And I knew this, but I was in such denial about having a cold that I forgot to grab something to wipe my nose with during class. (I can't be sick. Moms don't get sick. I feel fine. *Sniff*)

So not only am I sweating and stretching, I'm also sniffling and trying to keep breathing through my nose without snot-rocketing onto my mat which is already getting slippery with sweat - should've brought that darn mat towel! By the end of class I'm a hot yoga mess. Snot is mixing with the sweat on my face, and I'm trying to discreetly transfer some of the slime to my bare arm because my stretchy yoga top is too tight to reach my face. So gross, y'all. I probably should have just sucked it up and left my mat in the middle of class to blow my nose. But I kept thinking, it'll be fine! I'm sure it'll stop any second now... 'Cause I'm not even sick! 

So stubborn. 

And the moral of this cautionary tale is... always bring your mat towel to hot yoga! #facepalm

Or, if you have a cold, go ahead and admit that you're sick and stay home with a cup of tea instead! While your toddlers wipe their snotty noses on your pants. If you're as lucky as me, anyway. #butmomsdontgetsick

What do Sharks Eat?

Happy New Year again! :)

I hope your year is off to a great start. I feel like we have hit the ground running around here. This week James is back to work and the boys are back to their therapy schedule. I am still working on getting our apartment back in order after the holidays, and, of course, I'm back to taking care of scheduling the boys' medical appointments and various meetings involving their therapy services.

We had a great Christmas and New Year's eve/day and we got to spend time with lots of family whom we love and don't see often enough. We were sad to say goodbye to Danpa and Granny when they headed back to Georgia.

But Hartley, our cousin who lives upstairs and who usually spends lots of time with us, was out of town for Christmas and New Year's. So we were all very glad to see him on Monday when he came home from his travels!

Hartley came down to our apartment in the early evening and was playing with Calvin while I was cooking dinner. Henry was busy playing by himself on the mat in the living room (our living room and kitchen are just one big room). I was busy at the stove and Calvin was chasing Hartley around the living room and kitchen with his shiny shark stuffed animal.

It's a pretty rad iridescent pink shark that another one of our cousins gave Calvin for Christmas a year ago. At the time, Calvin was afraid of it so the shark spent all of 2014 hidden on a high shelf until this past weekend when I took something else down from that shelf and revealed the shark's hiding place to Calvin. Apparently he's not scared of it anymore! He asked me to get it down and he's been playing with it ever since.

So Calvin and Hartley were running in circles around the apartment with Hartley slowing down enough for Calvin and the shark to catch him every now and then and they're carrying on with roaring shark noises and fake cries of fear from Hartley and I was standing at the stove sauteeing onions and feeling so, so thankful for having someone to entertain Calvin so I could cook dinner! I turned around and said, "Hartley, I'm so glad you're home!"

Hartley smiled and said he was glad to be back and kept letting Calvin chase him around in circles and pretended to be scared and hurt when Calvin let the shiny stuffed shark bite him. Then Hartley stopped for a moment.

Hartley: Does Calvin know that sharks eat fish?

Me: ...Um, I think he knows. Calvin, what do sharks eat?

Calvin: HARTLEY!!  

And then we all cracked up and Calvin resumed his chase :)

Snowflake Pinstrosity

"Pinstrosity" = Pinterest monstrosity... Usually a handmade item that was inspired by something that looked awesome on Pinterest, but turns out much less than awesome in real life.

Like this snowflake artwork.

#nailedit

I'm not blaming the kids here. I am responsible for those poor torn and tattered snowflakes.

It's called "tape-resist painting." I got the idea from a "pin" I saw from the website Play, Create, Explore. And not only did I think "Hey, I can totally do that with Calvin," I actually thought "Hey, I can totally do that even more awesom-er!" 

Mmm hmmm. 

My brilliant plan for a more awesom-er tape-resist snowflake was to use my favorite skinny washi tape to make beautiful and delicate snowflakes. Washi tape, in my experience, doesn't have very strong adhesive and I've always appreciated that it's pretty easy to peel off. So I thought it would be great for tape-resist painting. 

I only had one piece of nice, shiny fingerpaint paper left so I made Calvin a beautiful and delicate snowflake with my skinny washi tape on our last piece of shiny fingerpaint paper, and then I made Henry a slightly less beautiful snowflake on printer paper. I wasn't optimistic about peeling the washi tape off of the printer paper. I expected it to be problematic, but I also knew that Henry was probably going to do his share of destroying the paper in his artistic process so I wasn't too worried about it. And I was completely certain that my favorite skinny washi tape would peel off beautifully from Calvin's shiny fingerpaint paper. 

Mmm hmmm. 

After Calvin finished with his big snowflake, he wanted to do more, so I made him another snowflake picture on printer paper. 

So at that point we had 3 snowflake pictures drying. I decided to start peeling the tape off while the paint was still wet because I thought that the longer the tape stayed on the paper the harder it would be to peel off. I didn't think the wet paint would be a problem. 

I started with Henry's, which (as predicted) he had crushed and crunched with his little hands and teeth - yes, teeth. That's just how Henry does art, ok? Next time we'll do yogurt again, or something else that's more edible than fingerpaint ;) Anyway, as I tried to peel the tape off of the printer paper, chunks of the paper were peeling off with the tape (as predicted). Kind of a bummer, and it looked like a pretty bad mess, but I was still looking forward to doing Calvin's because I was still sure that it was going to work out beautifully thanks to my favorite washi tape and the shiny paper.

Henry's masterpiece

As I started peeling the tape off of his big snowflake picture, Calvin came over to watch me. And as chunks of that shiny, fancy fingerprint paper started peeling off along with the washi tape and his beautiful blue, sparkly paint... Calvin saw exactly what was happening and in his precious tiny voice he exclaimed, "Oh no!" 

I felt like a monster. 

I was destroying his snowflake picture. And I didn't stop, either. I went for it and peeled all the tape off and, well, you can see the result.

I mean, you can still tell it's a snowflake...

Only then did I get on the interweb to look for advice on tape-resist art. And only then did I read that it's better to wait for the paint to dry before peeling off the tape. Um, hee hee. Oops. 

So, ok. There was still one more picture that I hadn't yet destroyed at that point, so I left it to dry. Meanwhile, Calvin and I had a conversation about how Mama was sorry she messed up his picture and how sometimes we try things and they don't work out and we can try again. To which Calvin responded with an enthusiastic "Uh-huh!" (meaning yes, let's try again). 

So I racked my brain for another brilliant idea. I didn't have any more fingerpaint paper and I just didn't trust that darn printer paper to work well with the tape. I knew canvas or wood would work, but I didn't have those lying around to use for a little Christmas Countdown art project. I do have a lot of scrapbook paper, though, especially cardstock. And I figured, cardstock is a little hardier than regular paper, and the kind I have is a little bit glossy, so I thought maybe it would do the trick if I followed the advice to let the paint dry. 

I made another beautiful and delicate snowflake for Calvin, this time on a big sheet of white cardstock. Calvin did his thing with the paint and the glitter. (He loved getting to use glitter!) And this time, I hung it up to dry and left it alone until the next day. 

So the following morning, I peeled the tape off of the last printer paper picture, and the one on the cardstock. 

printer paper

cardstock

Ta-da! Not perfect, but much better, I think. Calvin didn't say "Oh no!" this time :) And now I know, if I ever decide to do tape-resist paintint again... Wait until the paint is dry to peel off the tape, and it's probably best to stick with painter's tape or masking tape. 

Not my first "Pinstrosity" and won't be my last, I'm sure! Poor Calvin! The things he has to put up with from me trying to be all crafty and artsy! #smh

Calvin vs. Collage

Did a quick art project with Calvin yesterday. I thought of another way to make a pretty fall tree with orange, yellow, and red leaves... torn paper collage! Torn paper collage is a technique where you use torn bits of different papers to create or fill in shapes. My idea was to use the torn paper to fill in the leaves of a fall tree and the feathers of a turkey.

I thought this was a brilliant idea. As it turned out, Calvin felt otherwise. But I figured it was worth sharing anyway. I mean, I like torn paper collage. Surely some other kid out there would be into this even if mine wasn't!

For a simple torn paper collage, you really just need paper and glue. If you want to get fancy, you can use fancy paper or even paint the paper first, which is a whole other art project. You could also embellish your picture with glitter or stickers or whatever else you can glue down. We kept it really simple.

Just like I had done for our fall fingerpaint trees, I drew a tree trunk and branches ahead of time. I also drew a turkey head on another sheet. I cut our construction paper into strips so that we could tear off little pieces easily - or at least, I thought it would be easy. Turns out Calvin can't tear pieces off of a strip of paper just yet. I gave him a strip and showed him how I was ripping little pieces off. He proceeded to squeeze it and pull it until it was pretty well mangled but still in one piece. 

Hmm...

In an attempt to salvage this project I tore little notches all along another strip and with some teamwork, he was able to rip pieces off. I held the big strip, and he would pinch the end and tear it. He got the hang of pinching the paper and twisting his hand while pulling. He just couldn't do that while also steadying the paper with his other hand. That's ok. We can work on part of a skill at a time. I even made sure to have him switch hands halfway through so he got practice with his right and left. 

We did one strip together like this and I tore the other two strips for him. Once our paper was in little torn pieces, I set out a small dish of glue and showed Calvin how to touch a piece of paper to the glue, then stick it to the picture.

He had no problem gluing on the pieces of paper. But I feel compelled to confess that I glued at least half of those feathers and leaves on myself because truth be told, Calvin was much more entertained by running around in circles than he was by this collage project!

When I found myself begging him to come glue a feather on the turkey I was like, ya know what? If he's not into it, let's move on! Honestly, I think I lost him when ripping the paper turned out to be hard for him. Ripping paper is a really good task for little hands. It takes some coordination and it works those little hand muscles which is important for other fine motor tasks and especially for writing. So, Calvin, this is not the last you'll see of torn paper collage! We shall meet again! 

Ever started a project that your kids weren't into? This is not the first time it's happened to me - nor will it be the last I'm sure! 

How to Fail at Flying with Babies (and Live to Tell)

We're back from vacation! And I would love to share some pics from our trip... but we haven't even looked through them yet! So that will have to wait until next week. In the meantime, I feel compelled to confess write about our flight home to California - in which James and I mostly failed at preparing for a flight with two babies.

It had already been a long travel day. We had to drive from the lake house in Alabama where we had been staying with James' family to my parents' house north of Atlanta (3.5ish hours) to return some things, and then south to the airport (45ish minutes) before even braving Hartsfield-Jackson International itself.

Everything was actually going well as we arrived at the ariport and boarded the plane. The airport wasn't too crowded, we got to go through an expedited security line (didn't even have to take our shoes off!), made it to the gate right on time and boarded early with the other baby-toting families like us.

As we got settled into our seats it started to dawn on me...

Where are Calvin's headphones? 

Wait, these movies aren't free? They were free on our last flight! 

Henry has a poopy diaper. Wait, how many diapers do we even have?

Um. Oops.

Well, learn from our mistakes, friends! Here's where we went wrong!

1. Make sure you, the parents, are totally exhausted to begin with. 
Like I said, we had already been traveling that day. By the time we were seated on the plane, James and I seriously just wanted to sleep. But not our kids! Oh no! They were well-napped and bright eyed! Ready to play!

Starting your flight already tired ensures that any disturbances or mishaps will feel worse than they are and that you, the parents, will have limited reserves to draw from while entertaining your small children for 4+ hours. Good luck.

2. Don't count the diapers in your bag.
You probably have enough. I think. Otherwise you could end up like us, debating which of your two children will get the last diaper when they have both already peed in the ones they are wearing and you've got like 2 hours of flight left. (Yes, Calvin is potty trained... mostly... but we put him in a diaper on the flight since we couldn't guarantee we'd be able to get him to the bathroom at the necessary moment.) (Also, in case you were waiting in suspense, Calvin got it because his was about to asplode with pee. We figured if Henry had a blow out, we'd take that last diaper back from Calvin and give it to Henry. You're welcome.) Then again, I guess this wouldn't happen to families with only 1 kid in diapers!

3. Count on the plane to provide electronic entertainment.
When the babies and I flew out to GA with my mom, she was totally prepared to entertain Calvin with episodes of Sesame Street and Mickey Mouse on her Kindle. She even bought him little toddler headphones.

James and I, on the other hand, did not prioritize entertainment in our packing plan. I had packed a few toys and books, but I totally forgot about Calvin's headphones (so they got left at Granny's house) and I didn't bother downloading any shows. On our flight out, we had been lucky and all the in-flight movies and tv shows were complimentary so I just hoped/assumed that they would be again. How cute. I thought they'd be free. Bless my heart.

4. Don't charge your cell phones.
Both my phone and James' phone were near death when we boarded the plane. I turned mine on a couple of times to take photos, but I didn't want it to completely shut down (ya know, in case of emergency and all that) so I had to leave it off the rest of the flight. And James' phone is a piece of junk that will barely send a text message let alone run a video. So we couldn't even entertain the boys with charming home movies of themselves or with the array of children's books on my Kindle app! #technologyfail #usererror

5. Don't worry about the time difference when you book your flight.
Landing at 8:30 CA time is past baby bed time, but not soooo late, right? Except that they've adjusted to central time while staying in Alabama, so it's actually like landing at 10:30. Which is waaay past baby bed time. Didn't think about that two months ago when I booked this flight. Oh well, they'll be fine right? Right guys??



Ok, so let's say you've taken this sage advice to heart and there you are, like James and I were, staring down 4.5 hours of what-do-I-do-with-these-babies-in-this-confined-space???

Here are some survival tips.

Work with what you've got. 

Calvin was not immediately impressed with my airplane menu - turned - Mickey Mouse boat...

Toys are getting boring? Play with a airplane menu! Not enough snacks? Buy expensive airline snacks or nom some Biscoff cookies care of Delta. Didn't download kid movies? Well, you might get lucky and have free movies, or you might let your kid watch a little Adventure Time with no sound. Get creative.

Channel your inner Raffi.

...but I won him over with my singing!

Or Wiggles. Or Barney. Or Sharon, Lois, and Bram. Whatever. Sing some songs. Do some puppetry. Muster whatever energy you have and play with your kid. I mean, this is what we do as parents anyway right? We were so tired. And 4 hours in a limited space with limited toys takes a little lot more effort than the usual playing-with-our-kids that happens at home. But we made it work. 

Let it go... Let it goooo.... 

At first I was stressed and mad at myself - feeling tired, of course, made these feelings worse. But then I got the idea to write this blog post and suddenly it was all kind of funny. Seriously, who forgets to count the diapers?! James and I actually kind of pride ourselves on being able to figure things out as we go along. Maybe preparedness is not our strong suit. But flexibility is! So I let that mommy-guilt go and went to work entertaining Calvin instead. And everything pretty much went fine. Nothing like the Crying Kid Episode of 2013! The kids still have no idea what slackers their parents are. ;)

Fellow slacker parents - any tips for problem solving in a pinch while traveling??

Chirpy and Grumpy (Barely) Make Their Flight

We usually do our annual trip to Georgia at Christmas with extra trips occasionally for weddings and such. But this year, knowing that we'd have two "infants in arms," we decided to save ourselves the headache of travelling with the holiday rush and make a trip out in the Fall instead.

We booked a super early flight, leaving at 7:45 AM. I wanted to get there in time to have dinner with friends and I wanted to have plenty of time to get through the airport on the ATL end and pick up our rental car and everything. 

From our house we can get to the airport in 15 minutes with no traffic, and we needed to leave our car in the airport parking lot so we decided to shoot for leaving the house at 5:30. We felt that this would give us plenty of time to park the car and make it to our gate in time to board at 7:15. And it probably would have if we had actually left the house at 5:30. 

For whatever completely idiotic reason (probably because parenting and lack of sleep has melted our brains), we set our alarms for 5 AM. As if half an hour was enough time to accomplish the following:

1. mom shower/brush teeth/dress/blow dry

2. dad brush teeth/dress

3. dress both babies and change diapers

4. give Henry a bottle

5. make coffee

6. cook breakfast of bacon and eggs because otherwise the bacon would go bad

7. eat bacon and eggs for breakfast

8. clean up from breakfast 

9. pack last minute items 

10. check the apartment to make sure important things are unplugged/turned off

11. load the car

12. put babies in car seats

Half an hour. Guess how long it actually took us. An hour and a half. 

So we leave the house a full hour later than planned. Give or take a few minutes. We pull into SFO and we're looking for signs for long-term parking. We see no such signs. Then it hits me like a palm to a forehead: long term parking is off a different exit!

Back on the freeway we go, and I'm going, "Um, ok, it's been a long time... but I'm pretty sure we need this exit... off this freeway... no... no, yeah... go that way!" And James is very dubious and doubtful about my directions, but somehow I convince him to follow them and we did, in fact, make it to the correct lot. At 6:45. So we now have half an hour 'til our expected boarding time. Half an hour to accomplish the following:

1. Lug our stuff and babies to the shuttle stop

2. Lug our stuff and babies onto a shuttle bus

3. Ride the bus to the terminal

4. Wait in line for check in

5. Check our bag and car seats

6. Get through security - this is the big one. Airport security can take for. ev. er. 

7. Walk to our gate - which thankfully at SFO is not far. 

At this point, I was no longer Chirpy. I was feeling nauseated at the idea of missing our flight and having to fly standby with these babes. To make matters worse, there were no luggage cart thingies in the long-term parking lot because you can't roll those luggage cart thingies onto the shuttle. So, Thank God I bought these awesome car seat covers that come with shoulder straps. We each slung a car seat over a shoulder and James dragged the suitcase while I pushed the stroller. Henry was in the Ergo carrier strapped to me. Sure enough we made it onto the bus, to the terminal, checked in, and then arrived at the long, depressing security line. If I'd developed any hope of catching the flight, the sight of that line squashed it. 

James came to the rescue. He told the TSA agent manning the entrance to the line our sob story about having 15 minutes till departure (that was an exaggeration), and having "all these babies." Luckily, she took pity on us (though I think she rolled her eyes a little) and let us cut to the front of the line! We stumbled through the security checks and managed to roll up to the gate while the herd of passengers was still boarding. Then, we cut the line again (I felt like kind of a jerk, but James insisted that the babies ensured us line-cutting privileges) and boarded. 

Whew!

The flight itself went pretty well. Henry's first airplane trip! Wish I could say the same about our return trip, but that is another story for another post.

Baby Henry on his first flight! He is just about to turn 3 months old. 

There were no changing tables on this plane, so I had to change Henry's diaper in my lap!

We learned when booking this flight that you can't have two "infants in arms" in the same group of seats because there is always only one extra oxygen mask. So James and I sat across the aisle from each other and each of us held a baby. I don't have pictures of Calvin on this flight! It was hard to take pictures at all with our arms full of babies, but luckily we got these precious few of Henry on his first flight. And really, we were lucky to make the flight at all!

Don't Bite Your Brother's Face

What Are You Doing To My Hair?!

So... we gave Calvin his first haircut! This actually happened before my birthday so I am blogging out of order. It went... ok. Calvin obviously thinks we did an awesome job.

But let's start at the beginning.

Calvin was born with a head full of thin, brown hair. A lighter shade than mine or James'.

Over the first few months of his life that newborn hair all but completely fell out and around 4 months he was nearly bald except for a mullet-like patch at the back. One friend asked if we cut his hair like that on purpose. Um, no we did not.

Slowly his hair grew back, though not evenly. By his first birthday, he had a section of long hair right on top of his head, still the long mullet patch in the back now complete with a little curl of a rat-tail, but short hair on the sides of his head. We could have easily styled it into a mullet-mohawk.

We had considered cutting his hair before his first birthday, but my parents talked us out of it. By the time we finally did cut it I think it was overdue. These beach pics are from the day before the haircut. He is looking pretty rad. 

The plan was to even it out: trim those long hairs on top and in back to make it match the short parts around the sides. We were pretty confident that it wouldn't be that hard to cut it ourselves and we bought special hair scissors and clippers that came with a little kid-size salon smock. When we finally got set up to make the cut, James said he'd better do it because I was starting to freak out. In the end, all of us freaked out.

Poor kid!

Here are the videos I took... Sorry about the technical difficulties you will see. I still do not really know how to use our fancy camera, which is problematic for this blog!

Part 1: Running with Scissors



Part 2: Um... Maybe if we use the clippers...



Part 3: Damage Control



After Part 3 ends, we didn't film any more because things were getting really tense between James and me. Yeah, we should have taken him to a barber shop and learned from a pro before going rogue on our son's hair. But James did the best he could and in the end it really looked ok.

The video Calvin is watching on James' phone is a cartoon called Bloop and Loop. It's just a little 3 minute long show with two funny creatures that babble and laugh and blow bubbles. He LOVES it.  We don't generally let him watch TV (unless we are watching a Giants game), but in moments of desperation I am not above letting him see a little Bloop and Loop via YouTube. I came across this gem in one such moment of desperation when I turned on the Baby First channel to pacify Calvin while I was trying to get his dinner together.

Here are some "after" photos of Calvin the next day. I couldn't get any that night because he was too fussy and needed to have his dinner and bath and go to bed right away. Ok, we were all too fussy.

The flash photos make it look a little more severe than it does in real life, so here are a couple more in natural light.

It's a little patchy, but not nearly as uneven as it started out! That night I couldn't shake the feeling that I didn't recognize my own baby. I kept thinking, "Who are you?? And where is my Calvin??" But by the next day I was over it. He's a cutie no matter what mama and daddy did to his hair. And it will grow. And maybe next time we'll take him to a barber shop!