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| How to make a small child happy the frugal way: 1) If you spot cheap stickers in a bargain bin, get them. Cheap is at least 100 per dollar or better. 2) If the stickers are on a strip, keep the strip when empty. 3) When child requests purchase of expensive ribbon-on-a-stick, or in the case of Peo yesterday, just complains about having nothing she wants to do in the backyard, tie the empty sticker strip on a stick. 4) Enjoy as child runs around the backyard like a crazy person, absolutely thrilled with her own ribbon-on-a-stick, which makes way better noises than the expensive kind anyway (the paper-plastic sticker strip goes THBBBTTTPPP when waved quickly). Plus who cares if the child is too rough with it? No sensible parent would let a child experimentally stick a silk or cloth ribbon into a thorny bush repeatedly, but with re-used waste materials, let 'em experiment! Woot! | ||||||
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Blatherings
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July 5th, 2009
July 2nd, 2009
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| Wanna know an awesome thing about having used prefold cloth diapers? Now, when I've got an iodine-soaked dressing on my foot and some of the iodine wicks out along the bandage, all I have to do is put a diaper down under my foot and voila, potential staining mess contained. And who cares if the diaper gets stained...iodine is the cleanest brown stuff it ever had on it! | ||||||
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June 13th, 2009
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| Peo has learned how to stealthily open her door, then our door, then sneak around to one side of our bed or the other and then startle us awake with either soft chatter or giggles. And of course, she does this at an obscenely early hour on days when we could otherwise sleep in, but on days where we need to go somewhere, she oversleeps and needs to be woken up. Such is the law of the universe, I know. Oh well...I enjoyed being serenaded by kazoo when I was in the loo...that was funny and cute. | ||||||
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June 1st, 2009
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| I AM SUPER MUM. Peo was in tantrum-tears because she doesn't want to nap and she's overtired since she's been resisting nap for hours. I'm stuck on the couch so Corran was upstairs with her trying all of the very sensible tactics. But she was just getting wound up, so I shouted up there the suggestion that maybe if she got TEN GIANT KISSIES from Daddy that maybe then she could go to sleep. Instant calm as she contemplated this and then agreed to it. Heh heh heh, Mummy cast Distraction By Snuggle Summoning for the win! Corran agreed as he came downstairs that I get a badge for that one. :D | ||||||
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May 27th, 2009
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| Gender, as summarized by a three and a half year old: Peo: "When I'm a lady, then I'll get my hair cut and I'll be a boy." Me: "But if you're a boy, you wouldn't also be a lady. Ladies are kinds of girls, boys turn into men." Peo: "So when I turn into a lady, I'll cut my hair and pretend to be a boy." Me: "Do you wish you were a boy?" Peo: "Yeah." Me: "Why?" Peo: "Because then I could have short hair." To be clear, we've told her she can get her hair cut, that both girls and boys have both long and short hair, and Corran has long hair, and we've never told her that being a boy or girl is better than the other, and we've even avoided language pertaining to permanency of gender. We're about as hippie-liberal-liberated-inclusive as the English language allows, but society has still gotten the message through to her that girls have long hair and boys have short hair. Really, there's no way for a parent to shield a child from negative societal norms. And if we, as such gender-liberals, can't combat it on that front, I can't imagine how we could have any hope against racial issues, where we try not to be racist but in all honesty are as bound by our white privilege as anyone else. There's no way any individual family can eliminate bigotry on their own. Nor will muppets all colours of the rainbow help. The best we can hope for is for enough of us to give it our best that maybe, over a few more generations, it might fade to a less permeating level. | ||||||
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May 20th, 2009
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| Listening to poor corran trying to put overtired screamie mccranky down for bed makes it pretty clear that I'm not the one with the shortest end of the stick in all of this. Yes, AngstPeoWrangling is more exhausting and unpleasant than recovering from foot surgery. The difference is that SweetPeo is awesome and of course there's no equivalent upside to foot surgery. But I get to participate in a lot of the SweetPeo moments, while most AngstPeo is corrans alone right now. Poor guy! | ||||||
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May 6th, 2009
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| So I was making the cantaloupe I was chopping up talk to Peo, saying stuff about wanting to be eaten up yum yum yum, that sort of thing. Then Peo said, "But first Mummy has to cut all the compost off of you!" Awesome. :D | ||||||
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| Hazards: Injuries From Falling Furniture Are Rising Mostly with little kids, mostly preventable. Short article, so everyone with a kid should read and then check your house. We're actually concerned with the new TV we got, and might get a wall-mounted angle stand for it because it was looking pretty wobbly the other day when Corran let Peo see herself on it with a webcam and she was jumping around like an insane person. eta Yes, there's a webcam on the TV now, so those relatives interested in being able to do video chat with Peo over the 'net should talk to Corran about setting that up. It could be fun and adorable with the Aussie/Kiwi cousins, and I bet Peo would explode with joy to see Grandma and Granddad on the TV talking to her. We need to send a belated Xmas/etc gift box to Oz anyway so if cameras should be purchased here and sent over, that can be arranged, just email Corran about it. | ||||||
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April 30th, 2009
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| Infodump time again. I know that some of this stuff is probably already old news. Oh well, I share what I can when I can... Consumer Info/Activism Stop the Cap! Fight Back Against Usage Caps for Cable, DSL, and Fiber Optic Broadband - A blog tracking protesting activity against Time Warner and other cable companies who want to impose pay-by-the-byte style Internet access. If you live in North Carolina, PAY ATTENTION TO THIS (and anybody else interested in broadband access rights should as well): Save NC Broadband.com - A city in NC has a government-run broadband service (it still costs money (as opposed to being taxpayer-funded_, but is run more like a regulated utility) that's working quite nicely for subscribers, but Time Warner Cable is claiming they can't compete against it and is trying to force the state legislature to ban such services. There's a bill up for vote on May 6, so residents should be calling their elected representatives for support. Costco offer would fix hot fuel - If you didn't already know, temperature affects how much gas you get for your dollar. Fuel pumps are averaged, so if you buy gas when it's hot out, you get less than if you bought it when it was cold. Costco is going to change its pumps and its purchasing habits to stop this so consumers no longer bear the brunt of this. They're breaking away from other retailers and the oil industry to do this. Yay Costco! Going Against the Trend, Nevada Lawmakers Consider Easing the State’s Ban on Smoking - Soooooooo glad we moved out. This is just stupid. Of course revenues are down, you morons...it's a frickin' recession/depression out there! DUH! Here's What A Card Skimmer Looks Like On An ATM - Keep an eye out for these kinds of devices! Art/Craft/Entertainment Thanks to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} kbpenguin for sending me this amusing link:Periodic Table of Knitting A clever YouTube video showing how Disney has reused templates over the years. Some people seem to be offended by this, but I think it's actually quite smart re-usage of old stuff in order to save time and production costs. Unless you've been living under a rock, this one's probably old news, but I'm posting it anyway because I actually cried when I first saw it: Susan Boyle - Singer - Britains Got Talent 2009 - I don't watch these kinds of shows because I loathe their revelation in misery and mockery. And sure enough, this woman - a perfectly lovely woman but not the kind of beauty the media wants us to love - gets mocked when she comes on stage, especially when she gives a little sexy hip-shake that would have been considered hot if she was underweight and younger. But when she sings, everyone who mocked her is rightfully put in their places. That's by far the best version of that song I've ever heard. I actually skip the version on my Broadway Les Miz album because I find the professional singer's voice irritating on some of the notes. I'd gladly buy a copy of Susan Boyle's version and insert it into my Les Miz playlist instead! Better still: I've read that she's been inundated with offers from cosmetic companies to do a makeover and she keeps saying no, as well she should, because there's nothing wrong with how she looks! Go Susan go! Science/Technology/Environment Zoombak Tracks Your Dog, Your Car, Even Your Children - I'm personally a little too antsy about the potential abuses of GPS tracking of individuals to ever want any kind of device on me or my loved ones all the time, but as a geek I'm interested in the technological aspects of this product, not to mention the fictional posibilities (let's just say that more than two years ago I had already planned political issues with this kind of technology about halfway through the Colony books). This is Your Brain on Facebook - interesting article about scientific examinations of brain plasticity related to Internet usage. How Green Is My Bottle? - Interesting article that lays out just how eco-friendly or not a reusable bottle can be. I do find it funny how people will jump on any eco-bandwagon these days without considering overall impact, and those type of people will frequently keep consuming anything with an eco-label well beyond their needs, thereby actually making things worse. As in, if you're buying a new metal water cup every few months to suit style changes or just because you love to shop, you are NOT saving the planet! Why Isn’t the Brain Green? - Examining why people rank environmental concerns so low on their lists of important issues. A reeeeeeeeeally long article. I haven't finished it myself yet, mostly because it's been hard to focus on it while on cold/flu medication. Study: Spammers scourge to inbox and environment - Guess that eliminates the argument that spam is eco-friendly because it doesn't waste paper. The Promise of a Better Light Bulb? - I'd consider buying one, if I could see it on in person to check it out. Astronomers Find Planet Closer to Size of Earth - Nifty. G.E.’s Breakthrough Can Put 100 DVDs on a Disc - So this means I can keep taking huge gobs of pics/vids of Peo, right? Parenting/Home Life/Food Scratch That: How cost-effective is it to make homemade pantry staples? - A really cool article about one woman's explorations of whether it's better to make or buy some foods. I love this. I don't generally read blogs out of lack of time but I'm bookmarking her blog in case she does any more experiments. Another Awkward Sex Talk: Respect and Violence - interesting article about raising kids in terms of gender-manners. Dark Sugar: The decline and fall of high-fructose corn syrup. - One can only hope. And it's not the same for anyone with diabetes or PCOS or any other health problem that super-stores fructose. Misc/Fun/Weird This Discount Store Enjoys Messing With Its Customers' Minds - warning: disengage mental logic circuits before looking. Bacon: the Other White Heat: You know bacon is delicious, but did you know it contains enough energy to melt metal? - Awesome. :D Ten Mistakes Writers Don’t See (But Can Easily Fix When They Do) - This is a good list. I'm guilty of a couple of them but I know I'm very good about most of the rest (I'm talking about my professional writing...no fair critiquing my informal blog posts, dig?). More writer-wannabes should read this. Most of the painful amateur prose I've had the misfortune to read suffered from all of these problems. | ||||||
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April 18th, 2009
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| With Peo's up and down angstiness, we don't often feel like genius parents. However, there is something we frequently do that can sometimes avoid angst ramping up in the first place, and it takes hardly any time/materials/cost over and above what would be done otherwise: we add faces or other silly designs to things. Here are some recent examples of how taking a few seconds to do something silly can really help with a 2-4 year old child: 1) In any kind of food preparation, especially one where the child might otherwise be a fussy eater, make some or all of the food into a smiley face shape. If the child is old enough and willing to help, bonus points, since kids are more inclined to eat things they help "cook". Some examples:
Notes: - Faces don't have to be perfect; kids can figure it out. Sillier is sometimes better. - Sometimes the kid will eat the face off first. Fine. Let them. Then plop more of the dinner into a new face and they will eat it. Keep up a good mood about it and you can trick them into eating all of their dinner quickly. It's like frickin' magic, I swear. - Do try to avoid mixing foods that will get soggy if your kid hates this (as Peo does), so no crackers with the wet fruit salad. - Making the face say "hi" or "eat me" or "don't eat me" or whatever in a silly voice does wonders as well. - Give in to whatever gory violence your kid does to the face. If they squeal about eating the eyes, squeal back about how gross it is. This ramps up the fun BIG TIME. If you're artistic, you can go beyond faces for other shapes, but there's a caveat: the more detailed you get, the more detailed you'll continually be expected to be, so don't over-commit yourself. I made the mistake of trying to carve an Ernie-head out of a piece of cantaloupe when Peo was 2-ish and she wanted a damned Ernie head on every piece of melon for ages after that. Keep it simple for daily stuff, and if you feel the urge to push your limits, save it for obviously special times. Unless, of course, you're some kind of insane-martyr-super-parent-chef-knifewie 2) Faces don't have to be limited to food. You can pretty-up plain stuff that's cheap instead of buying pre-decorated stuff for more money. Bandaids are our recent discovery for this example. Peo recently cut her big toe and I couldn't find the one and only package of licensed-character bandaids we bought (which we only got because it was the only source of teeeeeeeeeny tiny infant-finger-size bandaids we could find), so I drew a stick figure on a regular bandaid in about five seconds and made a big deal about how special it was. Soon it turned into a big thing where Peo was much happier about her wound simply because of the potential for other exciting drawings on the bandaid. She confuses "plain" with "plane" all the time so Corran has been drawing planes on the plain bandaids, which delights her (actually lately we think she's punning it more than being confused, but same difference). Caveat: ensure the child does not start wasting things to get more new designs. Peo has to be stopped from ripping off perfectly good bandaids to try to get new ones. Or as she phrases it, "It's not special anymore!" No. Not allowed. Don't ever give in or you are HOSED. If they rip off the bandaid, either they don't get another one until the next time you'd put on a fresh one anyway (like when Peo took hers off during dinner and she was going to bed in an hour anyway), or if you need to put another one on, that one stays plain until it'd be time for a fresh one. They will cry. Be strong...the delight will return on the next drawn-on one and they'll be more inclined to treasure it and not waste it. Other things we've put smiley faces on over the years: - Reused food tubs have been turned into Angry and Happy faces for bath-time play (Sharpie on a semi-clear deli tub seems to last for years). - Rocks, with paint, markers, more dirt, whatever...or just draw 'em in the sand/mud...or any nature-based face is good when you're outside - During any art or craft time, show your wee one how to make a smiley face out of stickers, paint (be it brush or finger or full-smacking hand in glorious splashy colour-puddles), googly eyes (don't for one second limit them to eyes alone!), glitter glue, regular white glue (seriously, buy it in bulk and let 'em squirt it and study fluid dynamics and don't fret about the excess), stamps (the rubber kind...DO NOT LET CHILD SEE YOU USING POSTAGE STAMPS UNLESS YOU CAN KEEP THEM OUT OF REACH or unless you reeeeeaaaallly like supporting the post office), crayons/pencils, pre-cut paper/wood/foam shapes, whatever. You'd be amazed at how much delight a little kid gets out of seeing or making faces. This is when I cue dididdlyi to say how much she likes spotting face patterns in things, as do I (I had a whole army of them marked out on my cubicle wall when I was a staff writer for a tech mag), and of course the whole face thing is deeply rooted in our brains and that's no doubt why kids seek them out, etc etc etc. The psychological imperative is interesting but not necessary to know or understand: the point is, put faces on everything for your kids and make a big deal out of it and it can go a long way to mitigating a lot of behavioural issues. It doesn't generally stop a tantrum in full swing, but it can avoid some tantrums in the first place. Or at least, it doesn't seem to hurt. | ||||||
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April 9th, 2009
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| Infodump time! Gacked from nightxade: My Little Darth Vader and the other pony toys bizarrely transformed by movie fan - These are AWESOME, and be sure to check out the artist's gallery too.Of 'Greenwash' and Image Management - interesting article about varying levels of truth in eco-marketing. Rocket Fuel Ingredient Found in Powder - as in, infant formula powder. Yum. This is so wrong. A few weeks ago I was listening to a science podcast and they were talking about how anti-evolutionists like to name ten or a dozen scientists who don't believe in evolution, citing that as reason enough to doubt the theory. Well, the science community's response is to be able to list 1000 scientists that do believe in evolution...all of whom are named Steve (or some variant thereof, including feminine and non-Anglo). I laughed out loud when I heard that! See Project Steve for more info. PBX Hell: 50-Plus Hacks and Tips to Get to a Real Person at Any Corporation in 10 Seconds or Less - Some are more potentially useful than others, but a good list if you hate waiting on hold. A FLEET of UFOs in formation has been photographed - on Google. - Hahahaha, it's a tabloid, don't get too excited. It alleges that Google's street view in London shows some UFOs. Well, really, after the Daleks and then the Cybermen and then the Daleks vs Cybermen and all of the other alien-trashing of London that I've seen on that documentary about that time-travelling fellow, I suppose some flying saucers is probably just routine to Londoners now, eh? Here's something potentially useful to other cooks out there: What To Do With Egg Whites Left Over Egg Yolks In each case, what can be done in terms of storage and recipes with the leftover portions of egg after you've used the other bit. I actually find that I avoid recipes that want me to use only part of an egg unless the other part comes in later, but now that I know I can freeze them...hmm... | ||||||
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March 28th, 2009
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| I decided I hadn't been spending enough quality home time with Peo lately. I don't mean that I don't do things with her - I take her out to parks, playdates, music class, the library (for storytime and for our own reading time), etc. all the time. But home time has been so busy or so ill for so long that it just seemed like a long time since she and I did anything calm and quiet together. So since Corran's out of town on a conference, I decided to set this morning aside for us to do some crafts. I brought out a bunch of the craft supplies I've been stockpiling (soon to be organized in the corner of the kitchen, we bought the shelves last weekend but need to clear out the corner and assemble the shelves), most of which were open-ended general supplies, but there was also a foam Easter egg craft kit I picked up on steep discount on my last Oriental Trading order. I asked Peo what she wanted to make. She picked the eggs. I was soon glad the kit was discounted, because it was of mediocre quality. There was DIRT in the bag. Yuck. And it all smelled funny, although that happens a lot with the foam (which is why I usually go for wood/paper/plastic instead). Many of the foam sticker sheets had been mashed together so much that the backings had slipped and there were some tangled messes. And some of them weren't perforated well and were relatively delicate. But I kept a positive attitude and that helped Peo do the same, and we had a good time making eggs together. Peo started naming each egg to be a character or object from the Jack and Jill up the hill story. I made a video of her explaining it, which you might all get to see someday when I catch up on videos and photos, since I'm a year behind. Anyway, we finished that and she asked if we could do another craft. She saw the big box of popsicle sticks and asked to do something with those. So I decided to try to teach her how to make God's eyes (is there a non-religious name for those, btw?). Mistake! Peo isn't anywhere close to having the manual dexterity to wind yarn consistently around a single stick, let alone two together, even with me pre-tying them. She doesn't have the spatial ability to remember to turn the whole thing as she wraps around the sticks. She doesn't have a sense of tension enough to wind the yarn consistently in a way that holds up. I guess I hadn't realized just how complicated this craft is until I saw a 3.5 year old try it. I know I made them in Brownies, but I guess that was more like 5 or 6 years old, wasn't it? I redirected her quickly before she got frustrated. I gave her a pile of feathers, pom poms, sequins/spangles, wood shapes, googly eyes, and popsicle sticks, plus a paper plate and some glue. At first, she had fun gluing the sequin/spangles to the plate, making up a narrative about them as she went. Then I started making random stuff myself. I was being careful not to do anything horribly elaborate or complicated, knowing that Peo might want to replicate what I was doing. At first she was content to do her thing and let me do mine, but then when I had to continually remind her to only glue on the plate, not the table, she got frustrated. She also got glue on her fingers and I'm afraid she's inherited my dislike for sticky/dirty hands. I made a little wacky bunny with the wood shapes, googly eyes, and pom poms and stuck it all on a popsicle stick. She asked to make one. I said sure and started helping her find similar wood shapes, but she yelled at me that she wanted to do it, so I totally backed off. But then she was mad that she couldn't make something exactly like mine, which is the only reason I was going to help her find the shapes in the first place. She announced that she's no good at crafts. I indicated several examples to the contrary, including the very cool "knives" she made out of popsicle sticks and googly eyes. She got relatively happy again and told me about how she was going to use the knives to cut up some of the spangles. I said okay. I decided to do something more basic that I knew she could replicate, if she wanted. I glued a line of pom poms on a popsicle stick and declared it a caterpillar. She wanted to make one too so I made sure she had a pile of supplies. She made one. I put eyes on mine and asked if she wanted eyes on hers. She shouted, "NO THAT WILL BE TOO HARD!" so I just said okay. But of course when mine had eyes, she demanded eyes for hers. This is really when I should have stopped, but she begged to keep going, so I foolishly allowed it. None of the eyes were good enough. While I don't help her make things, I do try to offer lessons/advice (obviously we all have to learn techniques or we can't do anything), so I tried to explain to her how to get the eyes on (and really, I think she knew but was just pissy), but she barked at me some more. So I sat back quietly and started fiddling with other stuff, leaving her to her thing. A short time later she had a full meltdown because there wasn't enough glue in her bottle (there sooooo was). She almost flipped her chair over. I suggested stopping again, and this time she agreed. But it was too late and she was already in pre-tantrum. She demanded to go play outside (which she currently can't do unsupervised because we need locks for the side gates, which she opens and then runs into the front yard and the street without checking for cars) and I said no because it's a bit cold out and because I had to tidy up the craft supplies. She punched the wall. That initiated a time-out. But when I left her in time-out to go clean up the crafts, she got up, went into the living room, grabbed the stack of books on the coffee table and threw them. End result: I had to put her in her room to chill out while I cleaned up the supplies. She eventually calmed down and picked up the books, but I learned some valuable lessons: 1) As much as open-ended crafts are great and something I want to foster in this house, Peo is currently having difficulty with that kind of thing. I think she gets overwhelmed by too much cool stuff, and she isn't long happy to just randomly make things (which she was a year ago). She clearly can keep her emotions in check much better on more specific crafts, and it's not like she is being limited to by-the-book instructions or anything (the Easter eggs she made were varied in style, she made faces on some and patterns on others, etc.). I think for now, I should keep her in the specific stuff and let her creativity flourish that way rather than overstimulating her with too much random stuff at one time. So maybe next time, it'll be gluing sequins/spangles on the plate, or making pom pom caterpillars on sticks, but not all of the supplies out so open-ended. Not for now, anyway. I know that works well for some kids, but Peo can't handle it on an emotional/visceral level. Which means I need to look up more projects, but that's tricky because most of the ones I've found in kiddie craft books from the library conflict with number 2... 2) I need to stop overestimating her dexterity. It's tough, because she's so advanced on intellectual stuff. You'd think someone who can do basic fraction math could wind yarn, but no, I need to remember that she's got 3-year-old hands even if she's got 6-year-old math skills. God's eyes need to wait at least a year or more. Same goes for my assumptions about getting her a spool knitter thing anytime soon, or loom loops, etc. I do not want her getting into a situation where she constantly feels like she can't do stuff and tries to get me to do it for her, nor do I want to turn her off crafts because of giving her stuff outside of her skill range. There's challenge, and then there's too much. 3) Craft time needs to have a more specific end time. We should do one type of thing and then stop and go do something else, so she can have fun and it be ended before she gets tired and frustrated. I don't mean to set a timer and when it goes BING take everything away (I'd go nuts if someone did that to me), but no more multiple types of project in one sitting. This has a downside: every time we do crafts, she never wants it to end. Really, I can't ever win with this. Any end to craft time will come with upset. But I think I need to be better at managing her so that the upset will be minimized by redirection, instead of letting her get wound up to the point that she'll melt down afterwards. That will sometimes mean putting aside my desire to complete something, which is tough for me to do. Peo's not the only one who can go OCD about getting a craft done and just right. She got it from somewhere, didn't she? But I need to work harder to be the adult and put my stuff aside when it's time to end and set a good example for her. Oi, that's hard...and I know some of you reading won't get why, but I also know there are a few hardcore crafters reading who TOTALLY get why this is hard. 4) We need locks for the side gates so I can release her to the wild when she wants without me having to guard her every second. She's still too little and prone to leaping off of heights and uprooting my plants to be completely unsupervised, but I need to be able to set her free, go tidy crafts, and then come out to keep an eye on her without having to worry that she's running into traffic. 5) I actually don't think it's a problem for me to make stuff alongside her, even if my results are more refined (notice I did not say better, because I do not for one second believe that there's anything lesser about anyone's craft of any age...as long as people are being creative, having fun, and building their skills, what they make is awesome even if it doesn't match what someone who has been doing it longer has made). She seems happy to have me making stuff with her and for the most part, watches what I do and learns to do things herself. The only problem comes in when she's already frustrated/tired and I've made something close to her skill set but a bit too far above. She loved her cake show cake as much as mine and I was so happy that she wasn't comparing them in any competitive way. But I think if I made a cake that she could ALMOST make, but not quite, that would frustrate her to be unable to replicate it. So the little bunny was a bad idea because it was using supplies and techniques she could use, but a bit too complicated for her. The caterpillar was better and I think she would have been fine with the eyes if not already frustrated. I need to either make fancy stuff way outside of her skill range - because she's always been cool with that - or make things she can make with just enough challenge to be interesting without frustrating. So there you have it. Parenting lessons learned from crafts today. Now I'm bloody exhausted, which is why she's totally being babysat by Sesame Street Old School videos right now... | ||||||
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March 16th, 2009
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| Sucky Day Part 3 I get Peo out of her room. The floor is a sea of Lego because she's dumped it all out. Yay, caltrops. She is cranky about lunch options and insists that it must be called a snack before she will eat. During eating she demands, "GET ME APPLE JUICE NOW!" Me: "Is that how you ask?" Usually now she'll add a petulant please. But instead... Peo: "GET ME JUICE NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" Me: "No. Not until you ask properly." Peo: "YOU ask properly! I don't have to!" Me: "Uh, yeah, you do." I sit down and drink water in front of her. 10 minutes of sulking later she quietly says, "Mummy, may I please have some apple juice now?" So at least that worked. In fact for the rest of the meal she was very contrite and there were pleases and thank yous on everything without prompting. Now she's down for nap, by which I mean, wading through Lego in her room instead of napping. I told her that if she had a nap she could help me water the new plants this evening (I've already watered them once but it's going to get hot and dry this week so I want to give them extra). She wants to do that. I doubt, however, that she'll nap enough to earn it. Oi. Is it my bedtime yet? | ||||||
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| Sucky Day Part 2 So Peo played in her room for a bit so I went back to bed without even bothering with breakfast. I dozed for about an hour and then she banged on the door and wanted out. I was still groggy so I let her come into our bed and read some stories. Okay, I figured she had chilled out and since I felt a bit better, we could do as planned and plant the bulbs I bought at Costco a couple of weeks ago in the back garden. I eat a quick breakfast and we go outside. For the first ten minutes, Peo is excited and wants to help. But as soon as she determines that it's more what tossing dirt around, and that in fact Mum does NOT enjoy having dirt flipped into her face, Peo loses interest and plays in the backyard. Okay, I plant two bulbs and she doesn't want in on it. Fine...I offered but I won't force her into gardening (one of the reasons I will never enjoy gardening was having to pull weeds as a chore as a kid...I liked the part where I occasionally got to pick actual vegetables, but that was at a much later age and by then I'd developed a loathing of gardening as all work and little fun, so I don't want Peo to get the same early impression). About that point, she decides to go back to flipping dirt into my face. I patiently attempt to show her how to dig properly so dirt isn't being flipped around. No, that doesn't help, because she actually WANTS to put dirt on me. I growl at her, she goes to play in the sandbox. Two minutes later she's throwing heavy rocks into the lid of the sandbox, a big no-no and she's known that forever. Then she's jumping in it. I put a stop to all this and she hits me. I pick her up and plop her down elsewhere in the yard and make her have a time out. She calms down for a bit, but then starts whipping rocks at me. I bark at her to stop and she runs for the door. She goes inside and as I approach to tell her to come back out, she locks the door and glares at me. I tell her to open the door please. She hits the glass. I tell her to open the door and this time do not say please. She bangs the glass again. I count to three. She crosses her arms at me and glares again. She thinks she's won. Duh. I go around to the side door that I'd already unlocked in anticipation of this possibility, since I may be tired and a bit daft from time to time but not completely stupid. Oh, the look on her face when I came into the living room from the other side... I totally tell her off, saying she should NEVER lock Mummy and Daddy out of the house, and I pick her up. She attempts to hit me, but again, I have a clue or three, and have picked her up facing downwards so her flailing limbs can't really get at me much. She starts hitting herself in the head instead and screaming that she doesn't want to go outside. I tell her she's not going to, I pull off her shoes and carry her up to her room, deposit her on the floor, and leave her there. She's been having off-and-on tantrums and play sessions since. I finished planting the bulbs. Cut my thumb open on a rock. Fun. I think this has gone far enough. I'm going to shower and then bring her down for lunch, but the punishment of losing bedtime songs and stories isn't cutting it anymore. This time I'm taking TV and Wii away for the rest of the day and if she hits again, both will be gone for tomorrow too. I may extend it to a week but she doesn't really get a week very well yet so that may not be effective. Plus it is a self-punishment to an extent because if I can't deposit her in front of the TV, I can't get much done around the house. *sigh* Did I mention it's Spring Break so there's no school? I don't get a break this week... | ||||||
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March 15th, 2009
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| 1) Took Peo to a birthday party at a park this morning. She had a lot of fun at times, but because she refused to let us dress her appropriately (it was fairly cold for the area), she got cold and cranky. I think at least one of the other parents there thinks I'm not dressing her right because I got more than one tsk-tsk look and some veiled lectures. I tried to defend myself insofar as Peo's hardline personality, talking about how it took Corran and I half an hour this morning, including opening the back door for her to feel the cold, just to talk her into tights (she wanted to go bare-legged with a dress). I also mentioned that part of the problem was Pi Day, and Peo wanted her Pi shirt showing, so although we'd talked her into a sweater under the Pi t-shirt, she was refusing any kind of jacket over it. Some understood that some kids just need to figure things out themselves because you can't really duct tape the clothes to them. But there were still a couple who kept shaking their heads at me. I did eventually talk Peo into her knitted poncho (I got lightly scolded for that by a parent, saying that that kind of yarn isn't warm enough), and after that, it was easier to talk her into the emergency jacket I keep in the back of the car (which is why I started with the poncho but hey, it's not like I know my own kid best or anything). Plus the more other parents gave her pity, the more she played up being cold because she likes attention from other parents. I mean, she did get cold, but I can tell it's played up when her attention is distracted and she forgets to maintain the dramatic level of shivering. But her acting made me look even more negligent, I'm sure. *sigh* I know I shouldn't care what other people think of me as a parent and mostly I don't, but it does bug me when Peo won't let me help her and then I end up looking like I don't take care of her. At a park playdate last month, she kept going up to other moms to ask for help getting on the swing when I was standing RIGHT BEHIND HER saying, "Peo, I'll help you! Come on!" At least then it was more apparent that it wasn't my fault. Today just looked like I didn't care if my kid was cold. On the upside, the awesome mom of the birthday boy (who wasn't judging me at all, for the record, and was one of the first people to be super-nice in welcoming us to Austin before we even moved here) had tons of great stuff for the kids to do, mostly stuff she made herself out of found objects or inexpensive stuff, like parachutes made out of old bags and bits of yarn with foil-covered cups as weights (the kids tossed them off of the playground equipment and had a blast, pure genius!). She also had pvc pipes linked up with one end stuck on an empty 2L pop bottle, and then the kids could slide little tube rockets on the other end, squeeze the bottle (with adult help to get a good puff), and the rockets would go flying. Totally awesome! There was also some amusing drama when Peo went to the park's horizontal tire swing and another kid ran up at the same time. It's horizontal so three kids can sit on it at the same time (and not really a tire, btw, but tire-like). Well, Peo wanted none of that, despite having run around singing about how great she was at sharing five minutes previously with the rockets. I and the other girl's mum sat the kids on the swing and tried to convince Peo that it was more fun with friends. She cried, cried, cried and the other kid was looking at her with a total, "What's your problem?" expression. Then another boy comes over and his mom helped him on. Oh, NOW it was awesome, as far as Peo was concerned. All three kids giggling, singing, so happy. Yay! Half hour later, Peo decides she wants to use this swing again. You see where this is going, right? Despite her protests of wanting to use it alone before, now she CANNOT POSSIBLY use it alone. Well, the boy has gone home and the girl is busy with the rockets. So I told Peo she could ask if others wanted to swing with her, but all she would do is wander past the kids whining, and guhhh, none of them stopped what they were doing to follow her to the swing. *headdesk* Someone please tell me that they figure this sharing-social thing out soon... Oh well, a big thanks to the birthday boy's mom for the great goodie bags, though, because Peo was quiet and happy the whole drive home with those outer space stickers! 2) Freaky tangential thing...so on Friday I was volunteering for post-cake-show stuff, sorting the judging comments from the tasting competition and matching their numbers with the contestant forms (for fair judging, contestant names aren't on the forms that go with their cakes) so they could be mailed out to the contestants. Well I got to one address and it was...well obviously I can't put it on a blog so I'll fake it... 1234 WEIRDSTREETNAME Rd. But WEIRDSTREETNAME, the actual name, is the exact same weird street name that one of Corran's sisters lives on in Australia. Let me be clear: this is a weird street name. It's not like one that every town would have. I just googled it and it's a geographical place in Europe, but not one I'd heard of. And freakier still, this was the one and only form I saw where the check-in person had accidentally put the number sticker over part of the address. So I pick it up from the pile and see something like: 1234 WEIRDSTREETNAME Rd. AU And for a second I thought, "Holy crap, not only did someone come all the way from Australia with a cake, but they live on the same street as my sister in law!" Then I realized no, AU was the start of AUSTIN, and the sticker was covering up the rest. Okay, I got a chuckle, moved on. But on the way back from the party today, I missed my turn onto the road that went back to the highway, so I had to go to the next street and turn onto it to pull a u-turn and go back. Just as I go onto this street, I notice that it is, in fact, WEIRDSTREETNAME Rd! And this is the opposite end of town from where we live, somewhere we never would have gone if not for this party, and it's just a little residential street, not one I ever should have had reason to be on. Freaky, huh? (PS Icon chosen to illustrate that in the past, I have successfully dressed my child for cold weather. Back before she learned to resist.) | ||||||
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March 5th, 2009
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| This is my first day with Peo in school that I don't need to be working on cake show stuff. So it's time to clean out the browser (so here comes an infodump), run updates, get rid of Norton and install Avast, etc. Maybe I'll even get time to deal with the mountain of unanswered email. Hahahahaha...nnnrgh. Let's begin the infodump! High Fructose Corn Syrup ATTN: HFCS Haters. Get Ready For Sugar-Sweetened "Pepsi Throwback" Snapple To Switch To Real Sugar Instead Of HFCS And another bit of info: some of you may recall that I've posted multiple times about trying different cereals to make rice krispies treats without the HFCS-laden actual Rice Krispies. Well, there's a new version of Rice Krispies called "Jumbo" which are allegedly "multi-grain", but more importantly, do NOT have HFCS! I have already found a box at my local store and acquired it for treat-making to come. Will report on results at the time. Consumer Stuff Best Buy Sells Busted Cam As New, Blames You. Oops! Employee Pix! - Yet another reason we no longer shop at Best Buy, and haven't for years. Going To The Doc? Be Sure You Don't Sign A Gag Order - putting this one under Consumer because it's less about medical and more about not being dumb enough to sign away your rights. Seriously, people, don't ever sign NDAs or gag orders unless you really do agree with them and are 100% sure you're okay with never changing your mind on that. Signing away your right to speak is almost never in your interest. Science Pen Mightier Than Passion - 60-Second Science - I actually haven't listened to this yet, but the blurb was interesting enough for me to go start downloading the entire podcast series for later listening. And while I'm linking that, let me also mention that I made a lot of that cake show cake while listening to old podcasts of Radio Lab. I'm only up to March 2008, but it's been fascinating. It's the kind of show with so much information that after a few of them, I need to take a break because my brain gets too full. I'm sure my fellow nerds will enjoy it. Natural Explanation Found for UFOs - "Mysterious UFO sightings may go hand in hand with a puzzling natural phenomenon known as sprites - flashes high in the atmosphere triggered by thunderstorms." Groovy. FIRST PHOTOS: Weird Fish With Transparent Head - Coooooooooooooooooooooooooool! Snow Flakes and Snow Crystals - some pretty spiffy piccies. Gorgeous stuff. Dry cleaning without solvents - Please note that this is a PRESS RELEASE, not an article, so it is heavily biased. However, I find it very interesting and do hope that the claims they're making are true and if they are, that they have great success in spreading the technology. Although I don't buy dry-clean-only clothes, so it doesn't affect me personally much. Parenting 3 Ways To Cut Baby Costs Without Feeling Like A Terrible Parent - Plus they've missed some obvious ones like breastfeeding if you can, using cloth diapers if you can afford the initial cost, and only buying infant clothes on resale. Police cite breast-feeding driver for endangering - Mmmkay I'm all for breastfeeding, but this is just stoooopid. Sheesh. If your kid needs boob NOW NOW NOW, frickin' pull over, idiot. Crafts/Art/Theatre What happens when you get married and most of your friends are into musical theatre gacked from bnwrenTHE ARTFULL BRAS PROJECT - fancy bras made for fundraising. Definite works of art in there. I guess this might not be considered work safe if you work with prudes. Knitters turn to graffiti artists with 'yarnbombing' - I love it, especially because unlike paint, it's relatively easy to remove if it offends the property owner. With a Knitting Needle Piercing Her Heart, Keeping Cool Saved Ellin Klor’s Life - Twice - Double meep. I've been extra-paranoid about how I carry and store my needles since reading this. Misc Supreme Court Rules For Injured Consumer In Big Pharma Case - this is an update on a story I've linked to before about a musician whose arm was amputated after the wrong application of a drug in a hospital. Short version: she won the case. Man Living in Cave Faces Foreclosure - but what really interested me were the photos of this incredible house they built into the cave. That'd be awesome for energy efficiency since caves take the median temperature of the area. It'd be warm in the winter and cool in the summer. And quiet too. Ooo I want one. :) 25 Years of Growth in Las Vegas as seen from space - from indomitability. Not surprising, since Vegas is one of those places where if you drive by an empty bit of desert one month, it's likely to be a suburb or strip mall the next. We've only been gone for about 9 months but I guarantee you if we went back right now, there'd be stuff built we don't even recognize. It can make the slow-to-update Google satellite maps useless for finding a friend's house. Hell, even the street maps aren't updated fast enough for Vegas. Oh, and that's just a small view of the area, probably showing Vegas proper. Even though our address was listed as being in Las Vegas, we weren't actually in the city, and our house isn't even on those photos. There's so much more sprawl beyond what this shows."My iPhone Is Missing, And Some Guy Is Taking Pics Of Himself With It!" - I'm posting this not really because of the actual story, although that is interesting, but primarily because of this line of advice: "Before losing the phone, his dad set up a rule where any email sent from the phone blind-cc'ed his personal email address, which we think is a pretty brilliant low-tech security solution for tracking down a lost/stolen phone or laptop." Those with portable devices such as these might want to consider such a setup. A Colorado school district does away with grade levels - An interesting approach, especially since this is what I've learned a lot of gifted private schools do. I'm curious to see how it works out long-term. Arbitrary regulations on age and groupings are convenient but almost never great for all the kids involved. The Crisis of Credit Visualized - an interesting little movie that sums up how the credit crisis came to be. Forget the G-string - can ANYONE wear the new C-string? - Meep. | ||||||
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February 20th, 2009
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| 1) Peo had her second day of school today. When Corran got her home, she was in tears...apparently she didn't want to leave. Guess that means she loves school! I offered her some snuggles on the couch to make her feel better, and having been apart for the longest time of our lives, I actually wanted to snuggle for my own sake. But Peo said no, that if I snuggled her, she'd get angry and have to kick her toy (the castle carriage from the vintage FPLP set), which would then go up and hit the ceiling fan, and that would make the fan break and fall down, which would bring down part of the roof as well and leave a big hole, and then someone really big might be able to step into our house that way. I congratulated Peo on using creative words instead of actually kicking the toy. Never did get a snuggle all evening, but man, that was a totally awesome trade-off as far as I'm concerned! 2) Peo also refused to leave the library after story time this week, saying she wanted to live at the library. She did, however, later grudgingly admit that home was a better place to live. Man, she has it SO HARD. 3) This evening while I cooked dinner, Corran showed Peo what I'd worked on all day for the cake for the cake show. I count it as a major success when she correctly identifies half-done pieces, like the little instruments. However, she said something interesting when he showed her this one: ( Read more... ) She thought it looked like a guitar case...and you know, it sort of does, especially to someone who has no context of what a piano with no keys and no insides looks like. I thought that was very cool. 4) Want another teaser? This dude still needs his silver paint and his hair, as do his buddies: ( Read more... ) You'll have to come to the show to see them all...or wait for me to get around to a website update, and I haven't even done the Fraggle cake yet! | ||||||
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February 19th, 2009
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| We just dropped Peo off for her first day at preschool. I thought I'd get misty-eyed because I had been all week while I got her stuff ready, but nah, actually, I'm good. :) The weirdest thing is now being in the house alone, I have this constant urge to turn on the monitor because usually if I'm alone downstairs, it means Peo's upstairs "napping" and I turn on the monitor. I think noiseinmyhead said something recently about the quiet...it is quiet right now, but once I get to work on the cake again in a few minutes, I'll have the TV on and I can put it on as loud as my deaf ears want without worrying that it will prevent Peo from sleeping. Yayyyyyy! Or I can listen to podcasts on my ipod in the kitchen. Yayyyyyy! | ||||||
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February 16th, 2009
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| The descriptions of garbage/recycling bins below are specific to Austin, but almost certainly could be applied elsewhere as well. Anyone with a small child or who cares about small children in their neighborhoods should pay attention. Last week during the rain storm, the lid on our recycling bin flew open and since the bin is beside the house, rain from the roof filled it with water pretty quickly. It was so heavy that it took Corran some amount of effort to get it tipped to empty. We realized that a curious child could very easily climb up into it, not tip it, and end up head-first into a drowning situation. We realized this probably also applies to the garbage bin, although it has a smaller, heavier lid (we've got the small green one) which doesn't blow open nearly as often. I contacted the City about this and asked if we could drill a small hole in the bottom to allow water out, should this happen in the future (it's not like we can latch the lid down in any effective way). They've said they'd forward the concern to the Director but that no, it's City property and we can't alter or damage it in any way. I said okay, but that I was going to warn other parents, and that the City might hear similar concerns from some of them too. This link sends email to Solid Waste Services: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/sws/sws_ | ||||||
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January 23rd, 2009
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| Forwarded by request from a parenting list (I signed the petition but didn't donate, I'll leave that up to others to decide...the "I" in this is not me, I'm just copying the post): ************* From the Texas Freedom Network: Just hours ago, the State Board of Education (SBOE) voted 8-7 to reject efforts by creationists to reinsert into draft curriculum standards sweeping language -- "strengths and weaknesses" -- used to undermine sound science education. If this vote stands, a key weapon creationists have used to attack evolution will be swept from the standards. But creationists on the board managed to sneak through other changes that complicate important parts of the standards. One change would have students question a core concept of evolutionary biology, common descent. It was a stunning display of arrogance, with the board's far- right faction pretending to know more about science than the teachers and scientists who crafted the standards draft. Clearly, then, this is not a time to be complacent. The Texas Freedom Network is redoubling our critical efforts. In fact, we're working around the clock to fight off the radical right's dangerous attempts to undermine our children's science education and their chances to succeed in college and the jobs of the future. The final vote on the science curriculum standards is slated for March -- only a few weeks away! So the battle is not over and we can not succeed without your urgently needed help. Today, I urge you to take 2 actions: Make a special donation to TFN in honor of educators, innovators, researchers and all those committed to teaching sound science over political ideology. Sign the Stand Up for Science petition and forward this message to friends and family so that they can lend their names to this important cause. https://secure2.convio.net/txfree/s Thank you for all you do for TFN. You are a critical partner in our work, and together we can Stand Up for Science! | ||||||
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Blatherings
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