Growing Up, Life Changes, and Starting School

I think everyone in our family is entering into a new stage of life. It's not even September, but 2014 has been such a big time of change. Obviously, we moved hundreds of miles away to a new city and state. We got a new house in an urban area. Andrew obviously got a new job with new responsibilities. Everything is so different, and there are more changes to come!

I'll start with the youngest family member: Jo. Joanna has been out of diapers for about two months now, thankfully! She continues to get more and more independent and will even go upstairs and play in her room with her toys by herself. She enjoys playing with Oliver, too, and enjoys spending time with the family, but her independence is remarkable. As the youngest, her growing up sometimes hits me hard.

Oliver has big, big change this year. He's starting preschool! Preschool is fully paid by the city here, so he will go to the four day a week program at no cost to us. He has a friend down the block who is going to class with him. Unlike Jo, Oliver wasn't a very independent toddler at all, so I wasn't sure how he'd do with going to school. I think it would have been a disaster if we took him last year, but he's really been maturing lately. We took him to preschool open house, and he happily wandered off from us to explore his class and play with his soon-to-be classmates. I feel so absolutely proud of him and how hard he works do figure things out and do things by himself. I read him a little list of things he'll be expected to do every day when he gets to class (like wash his hands), and he went straight to the sink in his class to practice and make sure he could do it all by himself.

Knowing Oliver is going to preschool has really affected me more than I'd thought. I'm sometimes dealing with feelings of extreme anxiety and sometimes sadness (and sometimes pride and excitement, too). I've been a stay-at-home mom for almost five years now, and my kids' entire lives have pretty much been with me. We spend our days together, garden together, snuggle together, sit together for meals. And now he's going off to preschool four days a week! I'm dealing some some practical potential problems in my mind, like will he do a good job listening to his teachers? Will he do a good job asking them for help if he can't do something, or will he just get mad? Will he do a good job taking turns with other kids and working with them? I completely, 100% want him to succeed and love school, but there's also this little voice in the back of my head wondering if he's going to miss me. I know I'll still be there! We will have our afternoons together and weekends together and everything else. There's no doubting, though, that this is a bit of a milestone, and he's going to start to have his own life separate from mine. That's a very good thing, of course, but it still makes me feel so sad.

I guess I've started to see this change as a big change for me, too. As I said, I've been home with the kids for five years. That's five years of no work experience! In just two short years, it'll be Jo going off to preschool. What am I going to do? The plan has always been for me to go back to work. It's definitely what I want to do, but I didn't expect the prospect of going back to work to be so terrifying. So, I've decided to try out a couple of classes to see about pursuing a master's degree. I think going back to school will help me get a job again once Jo starts full time school. It seems like such a good plan, but now that it's time to start classes, I'm starting to panic! I find myself worrying about so many stupid things, like do all students bring laptops to class now? Will I be the weird one with a notepad and pen? I'm also thinking about how crazy it's going to be that I'm going to have to somewhere to be at a specific time, and I'm going to have to drive there even if there's a total downpour or snow on the ground. I mean, I have had the luxury of choosing not to drive on days that are too hot or wet or snowy.

It took me a long time to adjust to life as a stay-at-home mom. It's not easy being home so much and not having people to talk to during the day. But now, that is my normal. Now that I'm used to always being at home with the kids and always deciding what to do on what day and not having to talk very much, the idea of spending more time out of the house is a bit scary. I think it's going to take me a long time to adjust back into a life outside of the home.

From 2009 to 2014, my life was about my babies. I was pregnant or breastfeeding for nearly four years. I was home caring for babies and toddlers and wiping butts and potty training, too. I was a mom of babies. This year is marking a distinct change in our roles in life. It's going to be weird doing things for myself and working on my future now, and it's going to be weird taking Oliver to school and saying goodbye for *hours* during the day. I know his growing independence is a good thing, and I definitely wouldn't want to keep him from growing as a person, but the upcoming changes are going to be hard. My plan is to do my best and put one foot in front of the other until these changes become our new normal.

As for everyone else, if your babies aren't in school yet, enjoy this time as much as you can (poop and all) because it really is over before you know it. If your kids have already been to school, I hope it's a fun and easy back-to-school year. For moms in my shoes with little ones going off to school for the first time--good luck, and I hope school is a wonderful experience!

Rainy Day Painting!

I discovered this fun idea from Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/pin/216383957068769139/. 
It comes from the Little Page Turners blog.

I've been waiting for a rainy day to give the project a chance because it looks promising. Today, once the hail stopped, I jumped on the chance to get outside to "paint." It was going to be a toddler activity until the last minute when I realized Jo is too little to do drops of food coloring.

Oliver was very excited to do the drops. I have all of our craft supplies packed up, so I improvised and used sandpaper instead of card stock. Oliver made a few drops of yellow and blue on the sandpaper.

He was a little reluctant to go outside, so he held his out to catch the rain drops. It wasn't really getting wet, so I coaxed him outside to lay it down on the porch (It's cluttered out there because we're cleaning out the storage shed! The worst of the mess isn't even in the photo...).

A few drops hit the paper, and then the rain stopped.

It was too slow of a transformation to keep Oliver interested. He definitely wanted to do more drops, though. He went outside and added a little red. We didn't get any more rain, but the colors slowly leaked from the paper getting a little damp.

I guess we had the opposite problem from Little Page Turners. She said their paintings only took 1-2 seconds to run together. She wished it had been longer! Here in the dry West, I guess it takes more like 20 minutes. Ha!

It didn't end up being the fun activity I'd hoped for, but I want to try it again one day. We usually get a week of good rain at the end of July, so we'll attempt this activity again then!

Birdhouses for 54 Cents!

Last week, I found some little, wooden birdhouses at Joann Fabrics. They were $1.09, but they had 50% off coupons online and on their flyer in the store. So, I snagged a birdhouse for 54 cents! We were so busy last week, but we finally found time on Thursday to paint. Oliver usually isn't very interested in art, but he really got into painting the birdhouse.

Oliver was really proud of his birdhouse and kept asking to "show Dad!" We let it dry overnight, and then I filled it with some birdseed that I had leftover from the birdseed biscuits we'd made.

Oliver hung it up outside, but I had to rehang it a little higher off the ground. Then, we went back inside to watch for the birds! They never came...

I'm still waiting to do a toddler rainy day project with Jo! We've had some snow, but no rain yet. I was really hoping to get it done in April, which I know is when everyone else seems to have rain in the US. Poor Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois; they're really getting more than their share! Brookfield Zoo closed for the 3rd time in its history because they were completely flooded. Anyway, if you don't see a rainy day project from us until July, then you know why!

Oliver's Cooking Show: Chocolate Strawberry Pops

Oliver's back with his fourth cooking episode! We recorded the footage for this episode last month but didn't get to the editing until this past weekend.

In this episode, Oliver is going to show you how to dip strawberries into melted chocolate. Check out my passionate chef on "Oliver's Cooking Show" here:

                       

You can find his previous shows at the links below:

Episode 1: Peanut Butter

Episode 2: Chocolate Brownies

Episode 3: Fruit Smoothies

Jumping in Indoor Puddles

I was so excited for rain today! I had a rainy day activity planned for the kids. This morning, I checked online and confirmed the forecast: rain starting at 2pm and continuing all afternoon.

I put Oliver and Jo down for nap time/quiet time at 11am, and I gathered up supplies for my planned activity. Then, I poured myself a mug of coffee, sat down on the computer, and went back to weather.com to confirm the rain would still start on schedule.

Nope.

The updated forecast calls for an hour or two of rain starting at 6pm. Six! I am disappoint.

So, I changed our fun plan for the day. It's not exactly an activity for young toddlers, but it looked promising for Oliver and preschool-aged kids. I got the idea from a pin from Melissa & Doug on Pinterest. The pin, which you can view here, shows some little girls jumping on construction paper puddles indoors. There's no information about that activity that I can find, but it looked simple enough to figure out.

I taped some paper "puddles" to the floor and waited for Oliver and Jo to get up for the afternoon.

The puddles fascinated Oliver. I showed him how to jump from puddle to puddle. He started jumping and bouncing and counting puddles.

This is a solid rainy day activity for preschool kids, even though it wasn't exactly a rainy day. Keep this activity in mind the next time you're stuck inside all day. It's a good way to burn some energy indoors!

Birdseed Biscuits

Spring has sprung in Denver, and we need some activities to get us out of the house!

At the grocery store today, I passed by a display of bird seed. Years ago, when I was pregnant with Oliver, I flipped through a Parenting magazine at my OB-GYN's office. I saw an article on how to make a cute, little, heart-shaped birdseed biscuit. I tore it out and saved it in my recipe box. When I started on Pinterest over a year ago, I went through a bunch of things I'd saved, pinned them, and then tossed out the random articles and how-to's that I'd saved. Let Pinterest save them for me! So, anyway, I found the birdseed biscuit online and pinned it here. When I saw the birdseed at the grocery store, it reminded me of the project. I decided Oliver is finally old enough! I picked up a 7-pound, reclosable bag of wild bird feed for $6. Warning to parents of kids with severe allergies: the bag of bird feed I picked up said it contains peanuts.

When we got home, I asked Oliver if he wanted to help me make some food for the birds. You guys, he got so excited!

Here's what you need to make your own bird seed biscuits:

*Bird seed (approximately 1 cup)
*Flour (approximately 2 Tablespoons)
*Water (as needed, but approximately 2-4 Tablespoons)
*Cookie Cutter (Or use a cup to cut out circles)
*A straw
*Ribbon or string

Here's how we made our biscuits:

I handed Oliver a 1/4 cup measuring cup and asked him to pour 5 scoops of the bird feed into a bowl. Not all of his scoops were full scoops, so we probably ended up with about a cup of bird seed in the mixing bowl. I asked him to add one small scoop of flour. He filled up the same measuring cup about halfway with flour and dumped it in, so we had about 2 Tablespoons of flour to our mix. This isn't an exact science, so go with it! I filled a small pitcher with just a splash of water. Oliver poured it in and mixed everything together. It looked a little dry, so I got a bit more water. The water and flour basically make a paste to hold the birdseed together.

While he mixed, I preheated the oven to 170 degrees F. I sprayed my cookie cutter with Pam. I lined a baking sheet with a silicone liner I have, but you can just put foil or parchment paper on your baking sheet. When Oliver was done mixing, I pressed the mixture into the cookie cutter. I poked a hole with a straw-like instrument I had on hand. Make sure the hole goes all the way through to the bottom of the biscuit, so you can string a ribbon through when they're done baking. The directions I read said to leave the straw in while it bakes, but I actually pulled mine out. It wasn't a problem for us. I gently lifted the cookie cutter away from the biscuit and then got to work on the rest. We got 6 small biscuits out of our mixture. I popped the biscuits in the oven for an hour for them to dry and set.

As they were baking, I put Jo to bed for nap time. As I tucked Oliver in for his quiet time, he looked up at me and said, "OK, so after quiet time, we can go outside and give the birds the food." He is so excited! That made me really happy. The biscuits finished up as they rested, so I finished the project by threading ribbon through the hole in each biscuit, and I tied it with a bow.

As soon as Jo was up, Oliver announced, "OK! We get to go outside and give the birds their food!" He hung each biscuit from the tree. Then, we sat on the porch and blew bubbles, watching for the birds to come.

 

The birds didn't come. When we ran out of bubbles, I told Oliver we were probably scaring the birds away. So, we went inside, and he watched from the back door.

Finally, a little critter came and ate two of the biscuits. No, it wasn't a bird. It was a squirrel! I captured this photo of the guilty party:

Pre-School Cooking Class: Sticky Fingers!

The rec center where Oliver takes his cooking class doesn't offer the class in the spring or summer due to so many athletics and day camps going on. I've scoured the Denver area for a cooking class for his age group and finally found a public one through Sticky Fingers Cooking.

They need a minimum of 8 kids (ages 3-5) to run the class, and it's an 8 week course on Monday afternoons. If you're in the Denver area and are interested in a cooking class for your pre-schooler, check out this class offered through JCC. If you're interested, contact Jill from JCC at JKatchen@jccdenver.org to register.

These are the recipes they used for their winter session:

• Zucchini Oatmeal sandwich Cookies + Apple Pie Smoothies
• Cauliflower tater tots + Egg-cellent Veggie Quiche
• Peach Shortcake Kabobs + Lemon Yogurt Cream
• Quinoa Avocado Sushi + Quick Asian Pickles
• Caribbean Twice-"Fried" Plantains + Tropical Punch
• Japanese Tofu Yakitori + Asian Slaw
• Cranberry Far Breton (pudding cake) + Nutmeg Whipped Cream
• Butternut Squash Pot Stickers + Sweet Soy
• Broccoli Calzones + Gelato Milkshakes
• Pumpkin Tapioca Pudding + Pumpkin Cornbread Muffins
• Sunflower Pesto Mac' n Cheese Cupcakes + Thyme Lemonade
• Black Bean Taco Cups + Super Kid Salsa
• Japanese Tofu Yakitori + Sweet Sesame Slaw
• Warm Indian Kid Curry Cups + Easy Tomato Chutney

Pre-School Science: Non-Newtonian Fluid

The title sounds more complicated than it is.  Read on to learn how to keep your pre-schooler entertained with science.  You'll undoubtedly find yourself entertained as well.

It all started with our vinegar and baking soda experiment.  Oliver begged to do it over and over again. We did it three times. At one point, we actually ran out of baking soda and made a run to the store to play some more. Andrew came home and was over the moon about performing simple science with Oliver. He then announced he was going to make some "Non-Newtonian Fluid."

What.

Apparently, there are some fluids that don't behave the way we expect. You can easily make a liquid at home that doesn't splash when you tap its surface. Instead, it gets hard. Unlike "normal" liquids which flow more readily when you push on them (think about when you squeeze water out of a bottle), non-Newtonian fluids get harder when you push on them.

No, I'm not kidding.

Andrew whipped some up, and it kept Oliver happily entertained for over an hour.  When we finally took it away to clean the mess, he was in tears pleading to play some more.

Here's how to make your own non-Newtonian fluid: