A RealFamilies RealFun Blog

Jul 1 2008

I love you, too

Category: At Home

Once the spare room became Lucie's bedroom, I no longer had a place to dump all the projects I was working on. So now my bedroom is the staging area for laundry that needs to be folded, presents that need to be wrapped, and objects that need to be fixed.

At the moment, there is a large mirrored shadow box leaning against the wall that needs a chain attached. It's currently the only mirror in the house that Lucie can see herself in without standing on a chair. When she gets dressed, she runs to my room to check herself out.

One evening I observed Lucie talking to herself in the mirror. Divided into several sections, she kissed her image on one side and said, "I love you." Then she kissed her reflection on the other side and said, "I love you, too."

I'm not sure why she was giving the two Lucies kisses, but it was a delightful moment I cherish.

 

Jun 30 2008

A visit to the theater

Category: Family Fun

Every Tuesday at 10 a.m. a local theater runs "Billion Dollar Babies," a mom and tot movie showing. Nathan, Lucie, and I attended a showing of "Ice Age: The Meltdown" with my moms club. All our kids had the day off from school, so there was a big crowd of kids ranging from infants to middle schoolers.

Usually I take my kids to regular G/PG rated movie showings and to IMAX at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. They're usually well behaved, and quietly stay in their seats, eating popcorn, and watching the flick. So I had not taken advantage of special mom and kid showings before. I'm glad I did because it was wonderfully family friendly and easy to do with both kids. There's nothing like being surrounded by families, too. I knew they didn't think l was a crazed, maniac mom when I kept yelling at the kids to stop messing with the video games in the lobby and get a move on. The other moms were all doing it, too!

Being the first showing of the day meant the theater was fairly clean. Also, they kept the sound turned down to a normal level, which I'd appreciate even if I didn't have my kids with me. The lights were kept on a little, which came in handy when Lucie dropped her "buddies" (her stuffed animals) and I had to retrieve them -- several times -- off the floor. Instead of blindly reaching around and touching goodness knows what, I could see what I was trying to pick up.

I had thought keeping the lights on was going to bother me. However, I really liked that I could see my kids as they moved to the front row, and then got up 15 minutes later to sit in the back row with the older kids. Instead of chasing them down, I calmly sat there enjoying the movie and eating all of my friend's popcorn while I kept an eye on them.

Like at any movie outing, some of the moms spent a small fortune on popcorn and candy. I planned ahead and stopped off at the grocery store for a box of fruit snacks, which quickly disappeared. I still bought a $4 soda, which I shared with the kids. Not a smart idea, because Nathan got up three times to go to the bathroom. For once this wasn't an issue since everyone else's kids were doing that, too. I let Nathan go to the bathroom by himself since one of my friends was usually out there with one of their preschoolers. Nothing like feeling safe in a theater filled with families and helpful staff members.

Knowing that this is stress relieving haven for me, my family, and several of our friends, I'm planning on going back during school vacations. Hollywood, are you listening?

 

Jun 27 2008

She's the crafty one, not me

Category: At Home

Having fond memories of my mom teaching me to watercolor, as a new parent I looked forward to doing arts and crafts with my children. I envisioned hours spent quietly drawing, or wearing artist's smocks and painting at easels. I even created a crafts drawer in my dining room hutch, filled with coloring books, crayons, stickers, and markers. Then Nathan ruined my mommy art fantasy. To him, crafts are like chores, best to be avoided or done half-heartedly. He has as much patience coloring as he does making his bed.

Paul's had a much better time getting Nathan to do crafts. They've made elaborate homemade Valentine's Day cards for me and Nathan's teachers. Granted, he's starved for male attention and would do just about anything for his dad, including using glitter paint and gluing lace on to paper hearts.

Lucie's the family artist. Being a self-starter, she gets paper and crayons out on her own and raids the hutch drawer, making sure to restock her backpack with stickers and markers. I try to encourage her as much as possible, keeping the diaper bag filled with crayons and paper, so we can doodle together at all the meetings I drag her to.

Even so, my heart's not into doing crafts. Maybe it's my failed attempts with Nathan. More likely it's because I'm still burnt out from my four years of art school -- back in the '80s. There's a reason I'm a writer and not a graphic designer -- doing art is just not my thing any more, no matter how much I wish it were.

However, I'm not worried about Lucie suffering from crafts deprivation. My friend Julie puts together a craft project for the kids at our mom's club monthly meeting. She's the one who forces me to sit down with Lucie and patiently do art projects with her. Today, we created a flower out of a Popsicle stick, markers, glue, and foam cutouts. Then we stuck it in a plastic cup filled with dirt and flower seeds.

The dirt's been shaken and stirred so often, that I'll be shocked if the snapdragons bloom. Although I happily put in my monthly craft duty, I'm looking forward to when preschool begins and I can turn over the craft duties to Lucie's teachers. Boy, if my art teachers could see me now.