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| Friday, March 14, 2008 |
Pride, Pet Rocks, and Alex Elliot: Annoying Parent |
Before I became a parent, I vowed that I would never be one of those obnoxious parents that would boast about their kids left and right. You know what that's like...you politely ask a mom (or dad) how her kid is doing and she gives you a list of the kid's top 50 achievements...in the four months that have passed since his birth. I would never ever do that!
Who am I kidding? I have yet to find a pre-parent declaration that I've kept. There may, and I stress may, possibly have been some blatant subtle bragging during the past five years. I do know one thing for sure though, I just have to take a moment here to talk about how impressed I am with my older son (OS). Yes, I know I am just like am one of those annoying parents. Come on though and cut me some slack! My most recent post was about how both my kids were playing in the toilet yesterday, not how they were finding the cure for cancer.
OS is really into ocean life. Some kids are really into trains, dinosaurs or pirates for example, and they can tell you every little detail about them. That's how OS is about marine life, in particular dolphins and whales. He can recognize many sea creatures, and even explain the differences between various types of dolphins and whales.
This morning when I dropped OS off at preschool, his teacher handed me a pet rock that he made in class. She told me that most of the kids chose to do bunnies, kittens, or puppies for their pet rocks. Not OS. He made a whale pet rock. It was the only whale pet rock in the class. After school I asked OS to tell me about his whale pet rock. First he specified that it was not just any pet rock, but was specifically a blue whale pet rock. I noticed two cotton balls on the rock. OS matter of factly told me that the two cotton balls were for the two flukes of the whale's tail. Six months ago, I didn't even know what a fluke was! OS actually ensured that his whale had them.
Yes, I know I know. I'm totally bragging here, but I was just so proud that he took an interest and carried it over into a school craft. Alright now I'm off to slink away. Did I mention that my kids bathed a cloth doll in the toilet yesterday?
 
I still can't find my camera and had to rely on my cell phone.
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: It is no fluke that I am proud of my children.Labels: Crafts, From the Mouths of Babes, Preschool |
posted by Alex Elliot @ 6:50 PM   |
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| Sunday, December 23, 2007 |
Missing My Calling |
When I was in third grade, we got to make "gingerbread houses." This involved each child bringing in a box of graham crackers, a can of frosting, and a bunch of different candies to decorate our houses. My dad was in charge of buying the candy for me, and I remember my decorations consisted of a giant bag of Good N' Plenty. We spent a couple of afternoons working on it. By the time we were finished, I had lost interest in the house, but I did enjoy eating construction materials throughout the process.
At some point, I learned that gingerbread houses were made out of gingerbread and not graham crackers. No, Big Giraffe, that wasn't today. However, I never attempted to build a real gingerbread house. It just seemed like too much effort. A couple of years ago, my aunt was participating in her yearly tradition of baking gingerbread for gingerbread houses. She gets really into it and has the special pans, makes the dough from scratch and carefully decorates each house with a theme. She mentioned that she also uses wrapped candy, so that people can pick out what they want when they want it without creating any worry about dirt or germs. I asked the obvious question: well, what about the gingerbread? My aunt explained to me that actual gingerbread houses don't taste very good. First of all, they have to be fairly sturdy, requiring a distasteful amount of molasses in them. Second, after sitting out for a couple days they get stale; a baked item that looks good but that no one actually samples to find out that it tastes terrible.
That's when I realized that I had missed my calling. Really, it's the ideal dessert I could bake. Can you imagine how relieved I would have been if I showed up at the cookie exchange carrying gingerbread houses with wrapped candy on them for everyone and told people that these baked goods were for display and candy grazing only? I might not have been less stressed out about the process, because let's face facts - making 8 gingerbread houses is a lot worse than making 16 dozen cookies!
So you would think then that this year I would make my own gingerbread. That would be a fairly reasonable assumption, except that it just seems like a lot of work when I could just buy a kit at the grocery store. I actually think that buying was the right choice. My older son (OS) loved decorating his house, and he was so proud of the finished product. What he didn't love was waiting the fifteen minutes for the roof to set. In fact, he found the delay torturous. That's when I realized that he couldn't care less that the house wasn't constructed out of real gingerbread. In fact, he was better off with a kit. There's no way he would have patiently waited for the gingerbread to bake.
Of course that's not to say that I won't some day make gingerbread. It's just going to be when we can make it together and more importantly when it's something that he wants to do. And if it just so happens that he never wants to do it, well I won't lose any sleep over it. Like I said, when I was little I loved the graham crackers and the canned frosting.
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: Many times the easy way out works out the best.Labels: Crafts, Food (Solid), Holidays |
| posted by Alex Elliot @ 10:22 PM |
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| Saturday, March 17, 2007 |
Happy St. Patrick's Day |
Today we celebrated St. Patrick's day by hanging out home. After receiving a large amount of snow, we would have been pretty limited even if we had wanted to do something. We of course had corned beef for dinner. Despite the fact that our sons look Irish and have Irish names, we are actually not Irish. I was an exchange student in Northern Ireland a number of years ago, and I really like Irish names. Plus when I was in Catholic school I always had a secret desire to be Irish and to be able to wear the Shamrock stickers that read "Kiss me, I'm Irish" on St. Patrick's day like the majority of the class did. Actually it's kind of funny because the family I stayed with was really surprised by how Americans celebrate St. Patrick's day. Apparently over there it is a religious day.
My husband, The Big Giraffe spent a long time outside with our older son (OS) who has really begun to appreciate the snow for the first time this winter. He's 3.5. Both of them made snow angels and snowballs. The Big Giraffe pulled OS around the back yard in his sled. They also did a St. Patrick's Day craft. You'll have to check out Crafts for the Clueless to be able to see what it was. I know I'm shameless.Labels: Crafts, Outings and Playgroups |
| posted by Alex Elliot @ 10:28 PM |
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| Tuesday, February 20, 2007 |
The Rules About Valentine's Day: Follow-up |
I realized that in all the excitment of going to the wrong house for a playdate and hanging out in a complete stranger's living room (much to her surprise), I never followed up on my older son's (OS) valentines. All of the kids decorated brown lunch bags at preschool and then exchanged valentines. Feeling pretty good that I had followed the directions and thus minimized the chance of majorly screwing up and subjecting OS to years of therapy, I dumped OS's valentines on the table so that we could go through them together.
The first one he opened up was exactly like the ones we...I mean he...had sent out: Cars valentine with tattoo. To: (blank) From: Johnny. Then we opened up the next one. To: My Acme Preschool Valentine From: Your friend Jane. What was this?? Nowhere in the instructions did it say anything about cutesy messages. All it said was not to address valentines to specific children and to write your child's name on them. When my younger son (YS) is in preschool, I will know to put cutesy messages on his valentines. How would Jane (or more likely her parents) have known that there was a loophole in the instructions? I thought about it and came to the logical conclusion: Jane was a second born. (Either that or her parents had major connections.) Either way, someone had clearly given their family advance information. And had also given advance information to a few other special folk as well.
As we continued reading the valentines, we (I should really say I because OS was way more interested in consuming the lollipop his teacher had given him to eat at home)opened up the motherload of valentines. It initially seemed just like Jane's. To: My Acme Preschool Special Friend From: Your Friend Matthew. Then I turned over the card. It was attached to an envelope with a few pieces of candy in it! The instructions really said absolutely nothing about candy! Poor OS did not give anyone candy. How was I supposed to know to do that? I will know when YS goes to preschool to include candy. Are all older children known by their peers for failing to personalize valentines or give kids candy? That's when I realized a lesson I had first learned when I was a little girl with a younger brother.
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: Older children are screwedLabels: Crafts, Preschool |
| posted by Alex Elliot @ 6:19 PM |
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| Tuesday, February 13, 2007 |
Valentine's Day Craft |
I know this make come as a huge shock, but I'm not that into crafts. You might find this hard to believe, but I don't think anyone has described me as being "into crafts". Easily frustrated at moms group board meetings, yes, but Carrie Craft, no. To be honest, my favorite crafts are the ones that are done at my older son's OS) preschool. To clarify, they're my favorite because I'm not involved with the setup, cleanup or the possible temper tantrum when OS decides he's finished with the craft and doesn't want anything to do with it ever again. As such, I'm very particular about what crafts we do. Crayons, markers, and waterpaints are all okay on a daily basis. Anything more is for a special occassion or because I have a wave a mom guilt because I'm not doing enough crafts with my kids. This guilt is usually caused by other moms talking about crafts that they have been doing with their kids. The following is a craft that I really enjoyed doing with OS when he was about 18 months. Warning: there is a bit of preparation.
You need to cut a "vase" out of construction paper. (For the craft challenged you can just cut out a rectangle.) You will also need 6 green pipe cleaners, an ink pad (make sure it's washable) and scotch tape. Finally, you will also need to cut, let me give you a minute to sit down and take a deep breath while keeping in mind that this craft is worth it, large flower heads out of construction paper. You can make them plain circles or you can cut out circles with funky wavy scissors.
Take your child's hand and press it on the ink pad. Then press his hand on one of the "flower heads". Repeat until all 6 flower heads have a handprint on them (I did 3 with one hand and 3 with the other, but symmetry is not actually required). Next make sure you quickly wipe off the child's hands before he wipes them on the dog or a very angry cat. Wiping hands on a sibling may also be a possibility. Babywipes work well.
After the flower heads have dried, attach a pipe cleaner to the back of each with a piece of tape. Attach the other end of the pipe cleaner to the vase. Repeat until you have a vase of flowers. I also glued on a ribbon tied in a bow around the neck of the vase along with a heart doily (don't ask why I have that). I wrote "Happy Valentine's Day" and the year along with OS's name.
Although this project was a bit of a pain (OS was okay with his hands being stamped but some of the other kids who were over our house and did this as part of a, gasp, craft day I hosted didn't like it)and OS had stained hands for a couple of days, it is a really cute idea and I love looking at his little hand prints. A lot of kids gave them to their other parent or grandparent. I selfishly kept it for myself. Actually, what shouldn't I have a cute momento of my son's babyhood?
A. Elliot's Ratings:
Ease of setup/cleanup (1-10 with 1 being most difficult): 7
Attention Getting (1-10 with 1 generating least interest; this excludes dogs): 3
Liklihood that child will wipe hands on family pet: 6
Ability to became a great keepsake: 10
This was in response to the CHBM topic: Nifty Valentine's ideas to make with your kids.Labels: Crafts, Crazy Hip Blog Mama Questions |
| posted by Alex Elliot @ 12:14 AM |
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| Tuesday, December 05, 2006 |
New Craft on Crafts for the Clueless |
| Colored Salt and Potching have just been reviewed and given good marks. Labels: Crafts |
| posted by Alex Elliot @ 12:35 AM |
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From One Grain Of Rice Comes Many Grains of Rice |
A couple of years ago when my older son (OS) was about 15 months old, a friend of mine told me about a cooking class she took with her daughter. I did a double take. Her daughter was only 18 months. A cooking class for babies? You’ve got to be kidding? But then again what did I know.
“What do you mean she’s in a cooking class?” I asked. I was picturing the girl making soufflés and filet mignon. Those images were quickly shattered as I envisioned a more realistic scenario: she and her fellow classmates spilling flour everywhere and eating butter. I once again consulted my hospital manual and once again found it deficient in information. Don’t the authors of the manual know critical information like this? Then a few moms in my child’s music class were talking about how much their kids enjoyed cooking class. I immediately tried to enroll OS in my friend’s class, but alas the class was already filled. Determined that OS would not be behind because of my ignorance, I asked my friend what “skills” they were working on. Apparently one of them was scooping. “No, biggie,” I thought. OS could surely do that. Or could he? That question led me to enjoy one of my finer moments as a parent.
I decided that I would set up my own scooping station for OS. But I was one step ahead of the game! I would not use flour because flour is way too messy. It was sure to get all over the floor and all over OS. I congratulated myself for my insightfulness. Instead I would use uncooked rice! I had heard from many parents that rice provides a nice sensory experience for children. Based on my experience, those parents were right, and I would highly recommend conducting future rice experiments at said parents’ or experts’ houses instead of your own.
I swear I only put about the tiniest amount of rice in a bowl for OS. Then I put an empty bowl next to it and gave him a scoop. OS reached over and scooped the rice from the “full” bowl into the empty bowl. I was quite excited and relieved that he was not behind in developmental skills based on my ignorance of the importance of cooking classes for babies. Then OS moved on to demonstrating more advanced skills like eating out of the dog’s food dish and playing in his water bowl. While tending to this new mess, I forgot about the rice and subsequently the dog, two cats, all the members of the ant farm ..oh wait we didn’t have the ant farm then, but it looked like they had been there…knocked over the rice and spread it everywhere. Did I mention that my floor was white linoleum? I tried as hard as I could to sweep up that miniscule portion of rice, but it was like it had multiplied. Plus, it was hard to see on our terrible floor.
My husband came home and yelped in pain as he stepped on the rice. When I described the day’s experiment to him and bragged about OS’s brilliance in being able to scoop rice, he told me “It’s an old proverb: From one grain of rice comes many grains of rice.” I was very impressed. Clearly the ancient woman who had drafted this fine saying had also spilled a bowl of rice that her child had been scooping. In fact, the more I thought about it the more convinced I was that this wise women and I were actually kindred spirits. She too had wondered if her child knew how to scoop….My daydreaming was shattered when my husband laughed and admitted that he had made the proverb up.
A. Elliot’s Lesson Learned: Rice makes a mess. Play with it at someone else’s home.
Check out my rice craft on Crafts for the Clueless.Labels: Crafts, Humor (at least Attempted) |
| posted by Alex Elliot @ 10:58 PM |
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| Monday, October 02, 2006 |
The Cool Whip Craft |
I'm very excited to introduce a "sub-blog" to Formula Fed and Flexible Parenting called Flexible Parenting: Crafts for the Clueless. This will be an erratically maintained write-up of crafts that I try, see or hear others trying, or read about in a magazine. I will rate each craft based on a complex algorithm that will graph ease of setup and cleanup against its ability to hold the attention of a child (specifically AT LEAST one of my children). If you like to make your children's Halloween costumes, cakes from scratch, and other elaborate crafts this is not the blog for you. I'm posting the first post on both blogs. After that I will only post the crafts on the Crafts for the Clueless blog, but I will let you know when it is updated.
When my older son (OS) was 18 months old, an occupational therapist told me about this "amazing" craft. Toddlers really like different textures as well as different sensations like warm and cold. Her idea was to take cool whip (this can also be done with shaving cream) and to spread it on a table or high chair tray (presumably while the child is in the high chair) and let the child play with the cool whip. Alternately, (environmentally friendly people skip this sentence) you can cover a section of your table with saran wrap to make for an easy clean up. As an extra bonus, dye the cool whip using food coloring. To hit the ultimate level of excitment, she suggested that you then let your child smear the cool whip on the front of the dishwasher door. Yes, you did read that right! She also suggested filling the bathtub with jello, but I nixed that one as soon as she finished telling me about it.
I was okay with parts 1 and 2: buying cool whip and adding blue coloring. This was the very first craft that I had ever done with OS and I was quite excited about it. I carefully prepared it and put it on a low table so that he could have hours, or at least 15 minutes, of fun while exploring the neat texture of the cool whip, the cold sensation, the blue color and the sweet taste. OS had no interest in it whatsoever(although he loved doing it using shaving cream at community playgroup where it was a big hit with the kids). Not wanting to pressure him, I quickly backed off, but left the craft out for him to enjoy at his convience. Then I left to run errands. When I came back my husband informed me that one member of the family had really enjoyed my craft. I was beaming from ear to ear. I had achieved motherhood perfection by choosing the absolute best first craft for OS. My husband quickly burst my bubble when he said "Gandalf loved it!" Apparently our DOG had eaten it.
In terms of crafts, this one was relatively easy to setup. As a concern with using shaving cream, if your child gets it in his eyes, it will sting. Obviously you don't want him to eat it either. I have heard of people doing this craft with pudding as well. Particularly with chocolate pudding, this sounds like a nightmare with possible laundry treatment. The two parts that really made me the least interested in repeating it were the need to stock foodstuffs that I don't ususually have, and having a sticky child and table. My only tip would be to do it right before bathtime.
A. Elliot's Ratings:
Ease of setup/cleanup (1-10 with 1 being most difficult): 4
Attention Getting (1-10 with 1 generating least interest; this excludes dogs): 1 Labels: Blogging Flexibly, Crafts, Food (Solid) |
| posted by Alex Elliot @ 12:31 AM |
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| Tuesday, September 26, 2006 |
The Magic of Baking |
Last year I had the brilliant idea to have my mother-in-law (MIL) make cookies with my older son (OS). I got all nostalgic thinking about how OS would be making cookies with my MIL just like my husband had done when he was OS’s age. OS got all excited about making cookies. Unfortunately he translated “make cookies” into EAT COOKIES NOW” and did not understand that the cookies had to be baked. Individual ingredients and cookie dough fit poorly into his master plan. The cookie making was a complete disaster and culminated with me giving OS store bought cookies while the homemade cookies were baking. My MIL suggested pre-made dough in the future.
Today I decided to buy those Toll House pre-made cookies at the grocery store. I figured it’s been about a year, and maybe this time cookie-making will go better. Plus the Toll House freezer, decorated for Halloween, called to me (or at least cackled at me) when I walked by it. Ahh…marketing.
All day long OS was very excited to make cookies. He would frequently bring it up and remind me that after dinner we were going to make the cookies. Finally it was the appointed time. OS was beside himself with excitement, and I was feeling all warm and motherly. I gave myself a pat on the back for being even more brilliant than the year before in thinking of this idea. I started tearing up at the nice memory OS and I were sure to create. Then something happened. I opened the package.
OS insisted that cookies could not come from the squares of glob that was the cookie dough. No matter how I tried to reassure him that these square blocks of glob were really going to turn into nice round tasty chocolate chip cookies, he wouldn’t believe me. I realized that because I so rarely bake (1) because I’m lazy and 2) I know I would eat whatever I baked) my saying that the cookie dough was going to form cookies was like saying the dining room table was going to turn into an elephant or that I was going to sprout wings and fly. So as you could probably guess, a temper tantrum ensued. After calming down, he agreed to put the cookies on the cookie sheet. Then we watched them bake together (okay really I sat there and stared at the oven while trying to convince OS that the cookies were indeed baking. OS’s contribution to the baking process involved chasing the dog around the living room.) Finally the timer went off and I brought the cookies out of the oven. OS looked like he had witnessed a miracle. And he had: it will probably be another year until I attempt to bake cookies again.
A. Elliot’s Lesson Learned: Moms can perform magic
Labels: Crafts, Food (Solid), From the Mouths of Babes |
| posted by Alex Elliot @ 5:30 PM |
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| Name: | Alex Elliot |
| Home: | MA, United States |
| About Me: | Professional Mom of two cats, a dog, an ant farm, and oh yeah...two boys: a 4 year old and a 1 year old. Also found in my house is my husband who is known on this blog as The Big Giraffe. |
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| The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet, Fox TV, August 3, 2007
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I think it is spectacular that he has a subject abotu which he is so interested that he wants to share it with not only his family but his class as well.
You totally get bragging rights on that. :)