It's quite exhausting for me to keep up with two kids and two blogs.
So I'm combining them, finally. The new blog is on Wordpress, and you can find it here.
I hope you will all keep reading and commenting. I know I haven't blogged much at all lately, but I'm hoping to start blogging daily/semi-daily again. So for regular updates about my adventures in the worlds of Craft and Unschooling, as well as any future patterns, please update links and/or bookmarks. I have already exported all the files from both blogs to the new blog. If you are interested in the knitting but don't care about the unschooling-- or vice versa-- I've categorized everything accordingly.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Bubbly
I've been wanting to blog. Truly. Just haven't gotten in the mindset much. Oh, I do have tons to say. I probably won't say it all today. But I think this must end the unscheduled blogging hiatus I've been on here in the last couple of weeks.
Last week we all got sick one at a time. The kids got sick and got over it in about 3 days. I, however, was sick for a week and a half. Some sort of evil cold/flu thing got me and then moved into my lungs for a few days. But we're all better now, thankfully.
This week has been good.
Sunday my dad got a dog, and told Rowan it was her dog. He's a brown husky named Buster, and I think I was hit the hardest by the puppy love. I hope to get pictures soon! Oh, the puppy love.. the fuzziness of it.
Monday... was the perfect unschooling day. Everything flowed and was beautiful. Dairbhre did some pegboard puzzles while Rowan did some bigger puzzles, and I helped them back and forth so they wouldn't get frustrated. Ro looked up a bunch of pictures of fawns on the computer and we talked about them a lot. Then she went to Etsy and we looked up items made with pictures of fawns on them there. We spent about an hour on National Geographic Kids, looking at pictures of animals and watching the videos, but her favorite thing was reading the facts. At one point I was afraid I was boring her by reading the facts (they're pretty lengthy and thorough) and went right to the video, and she said, "I don't want to see the video, I want to read about it!" She seemed to like to read about the ferocious animals the most. We had a simple conversation involving addition while I was cooking, using bottle caps for illustration. We made pictures by drawing with glue on a piece of paper, then putting coffee beans in the glue. In the evening we doodled together, and I wrote the descriptions of what I was drawing under the picture. I was so amazed at my patience all day!+
Tuesday, we went to the park. We were there for over three hours! Rowan stole a bunch of little girls away at the top of the slide tower and they made up games. Dairbhre got really interested in the creek. He was about to just walk into it. So I gave him some rocks, and he stood there throwing one rock after the other into the creek, completely hypnotized, for an hour. Ro joined us and even after my warning about not getting too close to the creek, she fell in. Which was really really funny (since she wasn't hurt of course).
Yesterday, well... wasn't so great. I got a lot done. I scrubbed the kitchen floor on my hands and knees. That's how exactly insane I was. But I was sort of in a pissy mood and wasn't the best mom....
But today, we had a great great day. I just got back from our homeschool group. We were there about 4 hours. I love those people. Guys, if you're reading this, I LOVE ALL OF YOU!!!!! *Imma get mushy* Our group means so much to me, and to my kids, and I'm so grateful for it. When I got there I was all feeling a bit down on my abilities. Lately I've been trying to give Rowan reading lessons due to homeschool split personality disorder, and she's been so NOT INTO IT. She sighs and pulls her hair and just slumps over and makes wild guesses without thinking (in fact, absolutely refusing to think) just so it will be over. And I was all worried about that, and after talking to you all, I feel so much better. Thank You. I really think she isn't ready. There is a lot of research to support me when I say that a LOT of kids are not ready at age 3 like I was... that age 7 is much, much better... and that pushing it on her NOW, when she isn't ready, is not going to do anything but make her dislike reading. I feel like I'm being hounded by family members to sit down and give her lessons, but hey, I know her learning style best. And that's the beauty of homeschooling. For those of us who unschool or school-at-home or whatever, the beauty is that we know how our kids learn best! I'm not going to put my little one in a box any longer. The reason I've been so attracted to unschooling is because of how Rowan learns, which is amazingly similar to how I learn.
Re-reading over this post, I see it's full of run on sentences and possibly makes no sense in places... but I'm excited to be blogging! I think I'll be posting regularly again!
Last week we all got sick one at a time. The kids got sick and got over it in about 3 days. I, however, was sick for a week and a half. Some sort of evil cold/flu thing got me and then moved into my lungs for a few days. But we're all better now, thankfully.
This week has been good.
Sunday my dad got a dog, and told Rowan it was her dog. He's a brown husky named Buster, and I think I was hit the hardest by the puppy love. I hope to get pictures soon! Oh, the puppy love.. the fuzziness of it.
Monday... was the perfect unschooling day. Everything flowed and was beautiful. Dairbhre did some pegboard puzzles while Rowan did some bigger puzzles, and I helped them back and forth so they wouldn't get frustrated. Ro looked up a bunch of pictures of fawns on the computer and we talked about them a lot. Then she went to Etsy and we looked up items made with pictures of fawns on them there. We spent about an hour on National Geographic Kids, looking at pictures of animals and watching the videos, but her favorite thing was reading the facts. At one point I was afraid I was boring her by reading the facts (they're pretty lengthy and thorough) and went right to the video, and she said, "I don't want to see the video, I want to read about it!" She seemed to like to read about the ferocious animals the most. We had a simple conversation involving addition while I was cooking, using bottle caps for illustration. We made pictures by drawing with glue on a piece of paper, then putting coffee beans in the glue. In the evening we doodled together, and I wrote the descriptions of what I was drawing under the picture. I was so amazed at my patience all day!+
Tuesday, we went to the park. We were there for over three hours! Rowan stole a bunch of little girls away at the top of the slide tower and they made up games. Dairbhre got really interested in the creek. He was about to just walk into it. So I gave him some rocks, and he stood there throwing one rock after the other into the creek, completely hypnotized, for an hour. Ro joined us and even after my warning about not getting too close to the creek, she fell in. Which was really really funny (since she wasn't hurt of course).
Yesterday, well... wasn't so great. I got a lot done. I scrubbed the kitchen floor on my hands and knees. That's how exactly insane I was. But I was sort of in a pissy mood and wasn't the best mom....
But today, we had a great great day. I just got back from our homeschool group. We were there about 4 hours. I love those people. Guys, if you're reading this, I LOVE ALL OF YOU!!!!! *Imma get mushy* Our group means so much to me, and to my kids, and I'm so grateful for it. When I got there I was all feeling a bit down on my abilities. Lately I've been trying to give Rowan reading lessons due to homeschool split personality disorder, and she's been so NOT INTO IT. She sighs and pulls her hair and just slumps over and makes wild guesses without thinking (in fact, absolutely refusing to think) just so it will be over. And I was all worried about that, and after talking to you all, I feel so much better. Thank You. I really think she isn't ready. There is a lot of research to support me when I say that a LOT of kids are not ready at age 3 like I was... that age 7 is much, much better... and that pushing it on her NOW, when she isn't ready, is not going to do anything but make her dislike reading. I feel like I'm being hounded by family members to sit down and give her lessons, but hey, I know her learning style best. And that's the beauty of homeschooling. For those of us who unschool or school-at-home or whatever, the beauty is that we know how our kids learn best! I'm not going to put my little one in a box any longer. The reason I've been so attracted to unschooling is because of how Rowan learns, which is amazingly similar to how I learn.
Re-reading over this post, I see it's full of run on sentences and possibly makes no sense in places... but I'm excited to be blogging! I think I'll be posting regularly again!
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
My boy turns 2 today
I have a quick minute and I wanted to share...
I made pancakes with blackberry syrup, and my little man is pretty happy about it :D
Dairbhre was an afternoon baby, just like I was.
Last night in the dark I told him the story of his birth:
It was a week past my due date. I kept having contractions every night but they stopped when I went to bed. So I decided to stay up all night. I watched episode after episode of Northern Exposure, sitting cross-legged on the floor, rocking back and forth. About 9 o'clock in the morning, my water broke.
It was an easy birth, to a delightfully healthy 8 pound 7 ounce boy. The doctor handed him to me and he laid on my belly, so tiny!
And the way his hair lay all dark auburn against his ivory skin was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. The most perfect and unusual of color combinations.
I made pancakes with blackberry syrup, and my little man is pretty happy about it :D
Dairbhre was an afternoon baby, just like I was.
Last night in the dark I told him the story of his birth:
It was a week past my due date. I kept having contractions every night but they stopped when I went to bed. So I decided to stay up all night. I watched episode after episode of Northern Exposure, sitting cross-legged on the floor, rocking back and forth. About 9 o'clock in the morning, my water broke.
It was an easy birth, to a delightfully healthy 8 pound 7 ounce boy. The doctor handed him to me and he laid on my belly, so tiny!
And the way his hair lay all dark auburn against his ivory skin was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. The most perfect and unusual of color combinations.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Back and Feeling Lighter
I'm posting this to Mombot Companion too. I want some encouragement. Also, I'm thinking more and more about building a homepage, putting my patterns on there as both html and pdf downloads, and combining my blogs. I want to post daily but can't do it with both blogs, you know?
I've gotten really inspired by this flickr set, by a girl who downsized from a 3 bedroom, large house to a one bedroom apartment with her husband and little one. Her name is Sara, her blog is interesting too. I found all this through this thread on MDC.
It's gotten me to think a lot... about all my stuff. How I just purged a shit ton a few months ago, and how I've been working on it, filling my previously bare closet with boxes of the kids' toys and clothes that they'll never play with/wear-- and how I still have all this crap everywhere! I can't even sweep or vacuum! It's complete insanity.
So today, I've worked on purging. I have about 6 garbage bags full so far, of just TRASH. I'm talking about pizza boxes and juice bottles and trampled artwork and random papers that were just laying in the middle of our living spaces. Insanity, I tell you. I cleared off the kitchen counter, mostly, just by throwing stuff away. While Boo Bear was splashing in the bath, I was getting THREE garbage bags full of stuff out of the bathroom. No shit! Three. I went through all my makeup and products. I don't use that shit. Ever. I kept enough makeup to halfway fill up a tiny box. I now do not even own any foundation. I kept some makeup because occasionally I like to pretend I'm not a granola muncher, and wear some. Just sometimes, you know.
I have a plan. A glorious plan, to radically downsize.
--throw out most of my magazines. Except the craft ones.
--make a giant thick bag out of all my crappy scratchy acrylic yarn, slightly smaller than the giant tupperware I have my yarn in now, and store the rest of my yarn in there.
--trade in a lot of my books for fewer ones of better quality.
--I have a lot of old empty ripped up photo albums, for some reason. I'm tossing them.
--I'm throwing out the old journals I've kept that are mind numbingly boring.
--Clothing: purge even more, radically reduce all our clothing, especially shoes, and blankets.
--Donate D's old stroller and carseat.
--Kitchen: clean out cabinets and toss old food and random junk that's in there now. Get rid of extra plates, utensils, and gadgets.
--Bathroom: Already downsized that shit, but do it some more. Am I really going to use a hair iron?
I also have some space saving/decorating projects in mind that don't involve throwing shit away all willy nilly. I've decided that if I'm going to keep my yarn and fabric I'm going to have to start using it like crazy.
--Sew up some hanging shelves for the closet.
--Make a needle roll case.
--Make colorful wall hangings with pockets, and some without.
--Make archive boxes out of paper covered cereal boxes for the few magazines I'm keeping.
--Go through the giant bags from my old car that I have had around for MONTHS.
--Put books I'm keeping on shelves. They're mostly in boxes now.
--USE MY DRAWER SPACE. Clothes everywhere and empty drawers. WTF.
--Make some aprons. I made one last week that I really love and hope to get pictures of it soon. It makes me feel like a homemaking goddess. I'm wearing it now and I feel so strong and awesome.
Becca sent me a big box of yarn the other day and I've got plans for that. I'm making Boo Bear a sweater already. She sent me a lot of Caron Simply Soft, which I adore. Enough to make me and the kids a couple/few sweaters, and stuff. Also some really soft and fuzzy white acrylic which I may make bears or something out of. And some yellow sport weight that I'm thinking of knitting into lacy curtains with big needles. I have always wanted yellow curtains in my kitchen. There's some cotton-like stuff, that I'm thinking of making into baskets. She even tucked in some homemade soap and a little Martha Stewart craft mag for kids (which Rowan is going to spaz over!) So thanks again, Becca! It made me so happy to get that package.
I shall update on my purging/downsizing progress. This week is my Major Purge Week. Anyone want to do it along with me? I figure actually taking stuff to the dump and to be donated all week, and then doing at least 15 mins a day after this week, should get my stuff as radically simplified as I'd like.
Who's with me? It's quite freeing.
I've gotten really inspired by this flickr set, by a girl who downsized from a 3 bedroom, large house to a one bedroom apartment with her husband and little one. Her name is Sara, her blog is interesting too. I found all this through this thread on MDC.
It's gotten me to think a lot... about all my stuff. How I just purged a shit ton a few months ago, and how I've been working on it, filling my previously bare closet with boxes of the kids' toys and clothes that they'll never play with/wear-- and how I still have all this crap everywhere! I can't even sweep or vacuum! It's complete insanity.
So today, I've worked on purging. I have about 6 garbage bags full so far, of just TRASH. I'm talking about pizza boxes and juice bottles and trampled artwork and random papers that were just laying in the middle of our living spaces. Insanity, I tell you. I cleared off the kitchen counter, mostly, just by throwing stuff away. While Boo Bear was splashing in the bath, I was getting THREE garbage bags full of stuff out of the bathroom. No shit! Three. I went through all my makeup and products. I don't use that shit. Ever. I kept enough makeup to halfway fill up a tiny box. I now do not even own any foundation. I kept some makeup because occasionally I like to pretend I'm not a granola muncher, and wear some. Just sometimes, you know.
I have a plan. A glorious plan, to radically downsize.
--throw out most of my magazines. Except the craft ones.
--make a giant thick bag out of all my crappy scratchy acrylic yarn, slightly smaller than the giant tupperware I have my yarn in now, and store the rest of my yarn in there.
--trade in a lot of my books for fewer ones of better quality.
--I have a lot of old empty ripped up photo albums, for some reason. I'm tossing them.
--I'm throwing out the old journals I've kept that are mind numbingly boring.
--Clothing: purge even more, radically reduce all our clothing, especially shoes, and blankets.
--Donate D's old stroller and carseat.
--Kitchen: clean out cabinets and toss old food and random junk that's in there now. Get rid of extra plates, utensils, and gadgets.
--Bathroom: Already downsized that shit, but do it some more. Am I really going to use a hair iron?
I also have some space saving/decorating projects in mind that don't involve throwing shit away all willy nilly. I've decided that if I'm going to keep my yarn and fabric I'm going to have to start using it like crazy.
--Sew up some hanging shelves for the closet.
--Make a needle roll case.
--Make colorful wall hangings with pockets, and some without.
--Make archive boxes out of paper covered cereal boxes for the few magazines I'm keeping.
--Go through the giant bags from my old car that I have had around for MONTHS.
--Put books I'm keeping on shelves. They're mostly in boxes now.
--USE MY DRAWER SPACE. Clothes everywhere and empty drawers. WTF.
--Make some aprons. I made one last week that I really love and hope to get pictures of it soon. It makes me feel like a homemaking goddess. I'm wearing it now and I feel so strong and awesome.
Becca sent me a big box of yarn the other day and I've got plans for that. I'm making Boo Bear a sweater already. She sent me a lot of Caron Simply Soft, which I adore. Enough to make me and the kids a couple/few sweaters, and stuff. Also some really soft and fuzzy white acrylic which I may make bears or something out of. And some yellow sport weight that I'm thinking of knitting into lacy curtains with big needles. I have always wanted yellow curtains in my kitchen. There's some cotton-like stuff, that I'm thinking of making into baskets. She even tucked in some homemade soap and a little Martha Stewart craft mag for kids (which Rowan is going to spaz over!) So thanks again, Becca! It made me so happy to get that package.
I shall update on my purging/downsizing progress. This week is my Major Purge Week. Anyone want to do it along with me? I figure actually taking stuff to the dump and to be donated all week, and then doing at least 15 mins a day after this week, should get my stuff as radically simplified as I'd like.
Who's with me? It's quite freeing.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Happy morning
This morning Dairbhre got me up at 6:18. I actually woke up rather cheerful, as I have been lately. We found we were out of milk so we ran to the store. Such a novelty, to run to the store at 6:30 in the morning, just me and my little man. After not having a car for so long it's so weird to have that option. Good weird.
I got a lot accomplished before I turned on the computer at about 11:00. I wanted to share a couple of really great articles I read this morning:
From Scott Noelle: What is 'Unconditionality?' -- The writer of the Daily Groove talks about the mindset we must stay in to offer unconditional love not only to our children, but first, to ourselves.
And from Ned Vare (I love this guy!!!!): Dumbing Us Down In Seven Lessons. Ned's blog is called School is Hell and it makes me happy and angry and charged up all at once.
It seems like half the peoples on my Bloglines list have the flu or have this week or know someone who does. Bless y'all's hearts. Feel better soon!!!
I got a lot accomplished before I turned on the computer at about 11:00. I wanted to share a couple of really great articles I read this morning:
From Scott Noelle: What is 'Unconditionality?' -- The writer of the Daily Groove talks about the mindset we must stay in to offer unconditional love not only to our children, but first, to ourselves.
And from Ned Vare (I love this guy!!!!): Dumbing Us Down In Seven Lessons. Ned's blog is called School is Hell and it makes me happy and angry and charged up all at once.
It seems like half the peoples on my Bloglines list have the flu or have this week or know someone who does. Bless y'all's hearts. Feel better soon!!!
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Little Photographer
Rowan learned how to use the webcam today, and took over 250 pictures. All the pictures in this post were taken by her, today.
We have been running around like crazy free birds lately-- mostly due to getting a car. We've been a lot happier lately instead of feeling completely trapped, but I have neglected the house (as I haven't been home a lot) and indeed, this blog.
"Momma, get over here and let's do our demented faces!" Ro said. All I have to do is make this face and my kids squeal and run far, far away. It's endlessly amusing. But hey, she didn't do it with me!
I've had a couple of family members challenge me on my unstructured ways lately. I don't want to go into the details and the peeves I have with it, but I will say that having people be so distrusting of my judgment is making it really hard for me to trust myself.
So, I am starting a journal. I'm not sure how long I will need to keep it, but I am mainly starting it to help my family see what natural learning looks like. I'll be writing down what the kids are learning, what we've done for the day, and any amusing things that come out of their tiny mouths. I may be posting semi-nightly to this blog, listing what I've written down through the day, maybe some pictures, etc. (Or, once a week. Who am I kidding?)
Today:
It's snowing today. I pulled out the kids' snowsuits and snow boots and we went out after breakfast. Dairbhre really liked stomping around and crunching the snow under his feet but seemed nervous when I was a few steps away. Rowan buried her hat. She spent so much time making sure it was totally covered, piling armfuls of snow on top of it and patting them down.
We came inside and used the Eyeclops (AKA Best Toy Ever), pictured above. This is a microscope that plugs into the TV. It magnifies everything way more than I thought it would. You can spend ages exploring every little cavern in a piece of popcorn. The fibers on your t-shirt look like they were knit with needles the size of broom handles. And the fibers in anything hand knit just looks like a very hairy beast. Anyway, today we looked at snow, which was really pretty, but melty. I squeezed the water out of my green tea bag, and looked at that, and Rowan says, "Oh stop, you're going to make me throw up!" There were little tiny water bubbles gurgling around under the surface of the paper. It ruled.
As I mentioned, Rowan learned to use the webcam today, and took pictures for about 45 minutes. It was amazing how focused she was. She got into setting up scenes, taking pictures of the almost creepy gnomes on top of my monitor:
And a Littlest Pet Shop seal in a bowl of popcorn:
And my eyeballs.
And baby brother.
It's only 5:30pm but we've already had a really full, enriching day. I've had so much fun today being snowed in.
Last night: Rowan brought me a book of nursery rhymes to read to her. I remembered that when she was about 2 1/2 she had all the nursery rhymes in this collection of books memorized, and would sit on my dad's lap and correct him when he pronounced something wrong. So when I sat down I showed her how she already knew the rhymes, and showed her how to point her finger at the words as she said them. We talked about rhyming and how mitten and kitten both end with itten. I asked her if she could point out certain words to me and she found them easily.
She's been doing a lot of stuff at Starfall lately-- she's moved past the ABC's and onto the Learn To Read section. I let her click around a lot, and I sit beside her and gently guide her so she doesn't get frustrated. She normally finishes each little lesson thingy even though she knows how to close them out and go back. She's learning her way around the computer really well. She likes to go to Etsy and look at the handmade dolls and ask me if I'll make whatever she likes for her.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Some solitude... and meltdown lessons
Firstly, big cheesy virtual hugs to Laura and Ren for the comments on my last post. You guys are the best support net a gal could have. Ren admitting that she is sometimes an asshole (even if I do find that hard to believe :D) helps me start to forgive myself. And yes, Laura, being able to apologize and just say, "Hey, you know what? I'm being a total control freak. Thanks for that. You go on, I'm sorry." is so healing!
Today, the kids were with their assorted grandparents for a whopping 6 hours. I spent about half that time knitting and listening to this talk on archive.org with Sandra Dodd and Richard Prystowsky, on peaceful parenting. Wow. I would recommend this to any parent. It's about having a peaceful relationship with your child and the importance of meditation practice-- the planting of peaceful seeds, internally. It deals a lot with anger-- how troubled times WILL come, and how to deal with them. Just the sound of Sandra Dodd's voice makes me question what I'm doing.
So... after listening to that talk, I had a few more hours to kill. It was quite insane how much I missed my wee beasties. I started thinking, Dammit! I want to practice peaceful parenting right NOW! Right now I say! (Typical me, that.)
I managed to get the toys in the living room straightened out. They had so much stuff in here that they couldn't get to the cool toys for all the junk-- you know the kind, all the stuffed animals they got for Easter last year, etc. I got two boxes to give away, a big plastic box to put away (so I'll have something to pull out for crazy days), and a trashbag of stuff that is, in fact, trash. It's a lot better and more open now. Rowan squealed with delight, no joke. I won't try to pretend that it wasn't all mixed with laundry and Pringles cans. It won't take nearly as long to pick up now.
By the time the kids got back, I was so glad to have them. Dairbhre's grandparents had given Rowan a Valentine's Day present, which turned out to be Milo and Otis on DVD! I feigned falling to the floor in amazement-- that was my favorite movie as a kid. I watched it after school every single day for at least 2 years. I ran to the DVD player and said, "Oh yeah, we're watching this RIGHT NOW!" (I get like that, have you noticed???)
So, at first Ro was like, "I don't like how they keep talking." (The movie is just footage of cats and dogs and animals-- it took four years to make-- with a narrator telling the story and doing the voices of the characters.) Then she got really freaked out over chairs-- she wanted both of the kid chairs beside each other and Boo Bear kept knocking one over and they were both screaming over it, so Chad went and put it up. It wasn't really my place to argue, and I honestly could not figure out what they even wanted. Rowan became completely incoherent with crying and screaming over this chair, that she wanted to sit in THAT chair (it was identical to the one she was sitting in). Normally both kids having meltdowns at once causes me to melt down. But I kept my cool. I didn't even get frustrated. I took Rowan into her room and got her pj's on. She was still freaking out by the time they were on, she thought I was going to make her to to bed. She kept yelling, "Answer me! Do I have to go to bed now? Yes or NO?!" but she was screaming so loud she wouldn't have heard me. I just sat down with her and told her to breathe with me. After two deep breaths she started giggling. We went back into the living room and she got really into the movie. She very calmly asked where the chair was, so I fetched it for her. No more worries.
I think I learned something from that peaceful parenting talk.
Today, the kids were with their assorted grandparents for a whopping 6 hours. I spent about half that time knitting and listening to this talk on archive.org with Sandra Dodd and Richard Prystowsky, on peaceful parenting. Wow. I would recommend this to any parent. It's about having a peaceful relationship with your child and the importance of meditation practice-- the planting of peaceful seeds, internally. It deals a lot with anger-- how troubled times WILL come, and how to deal with them. Just the sound of Sandra Dodd's voice makes me question what I'm doing.
So... after listening to that talk, I had a few more hours to kill. It was quite insane how much I missed my wee beasties. I started thinking, Dammit! I want to practice peaceful parenting right NOW! Right now I say! (Typical me, that.)
I managed to get the toys in the living room straightened out. They had so much stuff in here that they couldn't get to the cool toys for all the junk-- you know the kind, all the stuffed animals they got for Easter last year, etc. I got two boxes to give away, a big plastic box to put away (so I'll have something to pull out for crazy days), and a trashbag of stuff that is, in fact, trash. It's a lot better and more open now. Rowan squealed with delight, no joke. I won't try to pretend that it wasn't all mixed with laundry and Pringles cans. It won't take nearly as long to pick up now.
By the time the kids got back, I was so glad to have them. Dairbhre's grandparents had given Rowan a Valentine's Day present, which turned out to be Milo and Otis on DVD! I feigned falling to the floor in amazement-- that was my favorite movie as a kid. I watched it after school every single day for at least 2 years. I ran to the DVD player and said, "Oh yeah, we're watching this RIGHT NOW!" (I get like that, have you noticed???)
So, at first Ro was like, "I don't like how they keep talking." (The movie is just footage of cats and dogs and animals-- it took four years to make-- with a narrator telling the story and doing the voices of the characters.) Then she got really freaked out over chairs-- she wanted both of the kid chairs beside each other and Boo Bear kept knocking one over and they were both screaming over it, so Chad went and put it up. It wasn't really my place to argue, and I honestly could not figure out what they even wanted. Rowan became completely incoherent with crying and screaming over this chair, that she wanted to sit in THAT chair (it was identical to the one she was sitting in). Normally both kids having meltdowns at once causes me to melt down. But I kept my cool. I didn't even get frustrated. I took Rowan into her room and got her pj's on. She was still freaking out by the time they were on, she thought I was going to make her to to bed. She kept yelling, "Answer me! Do I have to go to bed now? Yes or NO?!" but she was screaming so loud she wouldn't have heard me. I just sat down with her and told her to breathe with me. After two deep breaths she started giggling. We went back into the living room and she got really into the movie. She very calmly asked where the chair was, so I fetched it for her. No more worries.
I think I learned something from that peaceful parenting talk.
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