First Friday Fables

This morning I was explaining the concept of main characters and conflict to the boys. We used their favorite story The Gruffalo as a model and then had them test their knowledge by telling me some stories while I wrote them down. Maybe I'll make Friday Fables a weekly event.

A Hungry Parachute
by Calvin

Once upon a time there was a girl lion named Facestamp and her husband lion named Booky. They had a baby named Pocho. They lived in a big forest. One day a parachute that looked like a balloon fell from the sky into the grass so they could see the whole thing. The parachute tried to eat the lion family so they tried to find a way out of the forest. They went down the long forest slide all the way out of the forest and they ran as fast as a motorcycle so the parachute didn't eat them. The baby lion Pocho found a little tree to eat. The parachute ate balloons. The end.

Golf Course
by Clark

Once upon a time a squirrel named Alth lived in the jungle. His family was Daddy Squirrel,  Mommy Squirrel, and Baby Bok. It was a really big jungle- gigantic as a Earth. The problem was that a lot of animals wanted to eat them. A fox, an owl, a snake, and a jungle lion all wanted to eat them. The squirrel family was scared and they screamed in their tree. Do you know what happened next? The squirrel Alth realized that a sea lion ran all over the place. A monster came and tried to eat them and the jungle. The squirrel family saw a way out of the jungle. They put on monster costumes and sneaked out of the jungle and into the feline jungle. Then a house came and roared with claws so they moved to a golf course. The end.



Do you want to know what happened next?

Thursday Thesicle

Find your inner Founding Father... and let yourself go crazy. *

  

 

*This was at The Playseum the other day...enter the giveaway now for free passes!

Epilepsy Awareness Month

November is International Epilepsy Awarness Month, and since my life is affected because of having epilepsy, I thought I'd spend some time this month reading other people's stories and other articles I find, and sharing some of them here. On the Epilepsy Foundation of America's Facebook page I found links to blogs with stories that just make my heart ache. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to have a child who has seizures at all, let alone one who has multiple seizures each day for years and years. But there are so many cases like this.

While reading them, one blog stood out to me. It's called Calvin's Story. Of course it stood out to me initially because I have a son named Calvin who also wears glasses. This Calvin's case is so extreme, and his mom is so honest and strong in her writing and so active in trying to rally support and raise awareness to someday find a cure for this mysterious condition called epilepsy. She has a page called Calvin's Cure with a link for epilepsy research donations to be made in Calvin's name.

Click on the link above to read some of her blog, and get a sense of her story.

A couple other things I've come across this week and shared on Facebook are this article about the keto diet being effective, especially in children, and this short interview with the University of Minnesota's coach who had a seizure during a game in front of thousands.

I am thankful that I am able to live such a normal life, even with epilepsy. I pray that someday soon there will be a breakthrough in research that can help these people whose lives are so painful and limited.

November Playseum Giveaway!

I am happy to announce that my newest blog sponsor is The Playseum! My boys and I have been there twice and both times we've had a blast. Their themed play rooms, called CityShops, provide scenerios and material for creative and imaginative play. There is a Bethesday location, but the place we've been is the DC site. It is located a few blocks from the Eastern Market metro station, making it a fun outing if your kids love riding the metro like mine do. Here is the review I wrote about it.

This week I'm going a giveaway for four tickets to The Playseum. Just leave a comment below and give the Whispers & Shouts Facebook page a like. I'll have the boys pick a name on Friday and you can have your tickets in plenty of time to take the kids while school is out around Thanksgiving. Good luck!

Claim them before Cal eats them.

Thursday Thesicle

There's nothing wrong with a boy in a hair clip.

 

How I Will Kick National Novel Writing Month in the Teeth

When I write things down on my blog they seem more real to me because I get people asking me about them. This is sometimes a good thing, other times awkward, but it's the way things are. Therefore, I begin this month, National Novel Writing Month, telling you readers that I am resurrecting my half-written novel and going to work on it again, beginning this morning.

Actually, I've already put in some time on it today. I'm not entering the NaNoWriMo contest, since my novel is already partially written, but I'm using the month to motivate me. The people who sign up attempt to write with literary abandon for thirty days and finish an entire novel. I tried it once before when I had no children and I couldn't even do it then. With it halfway written I actually might have a chance.

Just wanted to tell you. If you see me, ask me how it's coming. Email me. Comment here about it. I want to feel the peer pressure. Help me kick National Novel Writing Month in the teeth. Thank you.

The end.

Ms. Sandra

Our area was prepared to be hit by Hurricane Sandy, and we were. There were some power outages and some flooding, but overall, from where I’m sitting, we weren’t affected as much as many thought we would be. Schools and a lot of businesses shut down. Public transportation shut down. The government shut down. Everyone hunkered. (I found it comforting to hear the word hunkered so often yesterday.)

Compared to all the coastal towns and New York City, we have very minor damage. I can only imagine what it would be like to live in one of the washed-away towns. It was an odd day. A bit of a boring day for me (thankfully). I was anxious and couldn't focus on the million productive things I could be doing with my time. We were trapped inside with the TV on, flashing images and speculations and measurements and important people jabbering on prettily.

We had moved everything from our balcony inside, including the Jack O’ Lantern, painted pumpkins, the slimy bubble toys still lingering from summer, and to my chagrin, several stink bugs. Outside the wind chime sang. Inside, our fridge and freezer sat full of ice and water. Our bread and non-perishables waited at attention outside the fridge. Brian worked on his latest computer project and I considered folding the laundry. The boys raced and tumbled, too often on my feet. I tried a craft with them that occupied them for awhile. I did a reading lesson with them, which, thinking back on it, was the best thing I did all day. We looked at their trick or treat candy and they both picked out identical lollipops to eat. I think I saw a white shoe fly past the dining room window.

When all was said and done, the boys went to bed and Brian and I lay on the couch watching, you guessed it, more pictures of the hurricane as the trees scratched and the wind yelled outside. One time the lights flickered. I woke up on the couch at 2am after having a dream about a large squirrel, and scuttled to bed to do some more hunkering down.

Today we went out a bit—for a walk to survey our surroundings and sip hot chocolate, and then to run some errands. Turns out the best time to go to Costco is the day after a hurricane. Not only were the customers few, but Costco employees had food samples out! Good ones too, not the diet energy drinks or cardboard chocolate bars. Of course there was still That Guy who ate like 47 pizza samples while mumbling about getting some for his daughter.

So, not much new to report.

Painting egg carton caterpillars

Made some carameled apples

Assessing damage

Hot chocolate sippin'



Cup lickin'

How to Make Space Shuttle and Astronaut Costumes

My grandma used to make Halloween costumes for me and all my cousins when I was little. I’m talking homemade, beautifully sewn, clever costumes that most of us probably still own. When she and my grandpa were out here this spring we took them to the Air and Space Museum where she bought Cal and Clark little astronaut flight suits. They were in heaven.

I thought it would be special to use those costumes that Grandma Bev bought for the boys this year. I used some balloons to make paper mache helmets and wrapped their rain boots in gauze. They also used the cereal box astronaut backpacks from their birthday party to complete the ensemble. Aunt Bean then went all out and made herself into a space shuttle! That’s right. So I responded in a less dramatic and simpler costume as space. She and I decorated a wagon as a moon rover for when we took them trick or treating yesterday at a super cool event that Reston Town Center does. It was safe, it was fun, and it didn't involve big kids in scary costumes competing for candy.

Here’s what we did for the costumes.

The boys ripped newspaper into strips for paper mache helmets.

 

We stirred water into a pile of flour until it was a good, gloppy consistency.

I wrapped the gloppy strips around the balloons and tried to
fight them out of the goop.

They hardened for a few days, and then we popped the balloons.

 

I cut them to fit their heads and painted them with white latex interior paint.

I poked holes for faces with a Dremmel tool and then stuck scissors
in to cut them out. (You could use anything sharp to start the holes.)

The edges were kind of jagged so I put athletic tape around them.

 

I wrapped rain boots in gauze and packing tape. This picture was
taken after their travels...the boots looked better before.

 

Printed two NASA symbols and a flag from the internet for the sides and back.
Hot glued them on.

Ready for blastoff!

Our first costumed experience was Gammy's office party. 

Aunt Bean used styrofoam cups with streamers taped inside for the
bottoms of the rocket boosters on her space shuttle.

 

Styrofoam cones for the tops of the rolled-up posterboard rockets.

The fuel tank is also rolled up posterboard, with a balloon on top.
The body of the shuttle is posterboard outlined in electrical tape.

She also printed out symbols and put sticky velcro to attach it to her white shirt.

 

I glued yellow construction paper on a black shirt in the shape of the
Big Dipper, Little Dipper, and Orion to complete the scene.

The satellite on the wagon is folded posterboard covered in foil with pipe cleaners.
The solar panel (on the far side) is folded foam board.
I put squares of foil on the wheels and on the side.

Ready to find some candy!

The crew

We had to pose by the constellation sculpture.

Trick or treating in a wine shop? I think yes!



Met up with twin friends Christian and Luke, aka. Dinosaur and Shark



Jackpot vendor of the day: Red Velvet Cupcakery with warm chocolate cupcakes.
Best. Idea. Ever.

 

Thursday Thesicle

Leaves make an excellent home plate.

 

 

(safe!)

I Made Cookies

Every now and then I have to remind myself to be happy about the little things and not sweat the bigger things. Seems counterintuitive sometimes, but with two, sometimes three kids, there is not a whole lot of what a normal person would deem productivity that goes on in our house.

For example, the other day I got up early, even though I didn’t have Alex coming. I did some reading, had my coffee, wrote a blog entry, and in general woke up deliciously slowly. It was lovely and I knew the day would be a great one. As Brian left for work he mentioned that he would be stopping by the store for some cookies before his meeting in the evening because it was his turn to bring refreshments. Oh! I was all over this. "I’ll make some cookies for you!" Easy, thought Delusional Me. The nice morning was going to my head. We had to skip swim class because Cal can’t be in a pool after eye surgery, so the whole glorious day loomed ahead, full of promise and unscheduled bliss.

My only two goals for the day beyond getting the blog written were to clean the bathrooms and give the boys a reading lesson. Easy, right? Wrong. They woke up a little earlier than usual and I got them their milk and finished writing and posting the blog entry while they watched The Gruffalo, their second of two current obsessions, and snuggled in a blankie together on the couch. Then all the other morning things started rolling in. The oatmeal (with new sprinkles! So exciting that it takes longer than normal to pick the colors), the getting dressed, the sessions on the toilet, the reciting and acting out of The Gruffalo (complete with the boys’ British accents), the dishes from breakfast. Finally I told the boys we were going to make cookies for Dad to take to work. That may have been my first mistake. It lead down a slippery slope.

I got all the ingredients out, put the boys’s aprons on, my apron on, positioned the chair and stool for the boys to stand on. Sugar cookies don’t have a lot of ingredients so I let them each help with everything except for the eggs. As I held on to the mixer with a squirming little hand under mine, I wondered about when I would get to the bathrooms. Finally, after a bathroom break which involved quickly ripping off Clark’s apron, reapplying it, and some vigorous hand-washing, we were set to start again.

We finished the dough and put it in the fridge to chill. Apron break, bathroom break, I attempted damage control in the kitchen. I rolled and cut out most of the cookies, but I did let them help a little with their little rolling pins. It turned into more of a play-doh fest that kind of made me want to scream. All of the sudden it was something like 1:30 and I hadn’t given them lunch yet. So in between baking batches of Halloween-y shaped cookies, I got the boys lunch. Clark gagged because he didn’t like the consistency of his sausage and made himself puke all over the table, himself, and the floor. Time to clean up everything, put all affected fabrics in the laundry, put new clothes on crying boy. Groan at a morning that slipped away.

Now it was a race against the clock to get the stupid (and “easy”) cookies frosted and sprinkled before Brian came home to take them to his meeting. And what about the bathrooms? Grr. We ended up getting the cookies decorated in time to dry a little before they had to be packed up. I say we but it was mostly me because I put the boys in their room for a nap. I saved some cookies and they decorated them later that night. Brian came home and we spent half an hour with him. Clark ate some sausage with no more gagging problems. Brian packed up some cookies and headed out for his obligatory once-a-month evening meeting.

After sort of cleaning up the kitchen while the boys watched whatever was on PBS Kids, we headed outside for awhile. We took Gammy some Halloween cookies at her office and the boys and I reenacted The Gruffalo in the “deep dark woods” by Town Center. Then it was dinner and then cleanup. Clean the bathrooms? Do a reading lesson? Ha. I was disgruntled. The boys, in their jammies, took cookies to the neighbors, two young teachers, and flirted endlessly with them. They cleaned up their toys quickly and well because I narrated their actions and pretended they were Teddy and George, of the Nationals’ presidents. (this is the other of their current obsessions) So weird, but it worked so I love it.

My day hadn’t gone anything like what it was supposed to in my head. But. I had to readjust. Easy for me to say here, from two days out, right? I actually didn't feel to defeated at the end of the day.

Actually, I felt an odd sense of pride. I had made cookies. And damn it, they were cute and they were tasty. And the boys loved it.

Make cookies with these two? I dare you.