Face Painting Fun

August 25-August 31, 2008
We went for a quick morning run to the Please Touch Museum and then we headed over to Carrie’s for playgroup. After James finished classes we met him on campus for a big barbeque for all of the first year students. There was a balloon guy and a lady doing face painting. Isaac had a big red butterfly painted on his face and I couldn’t believe that he was patient enough to let the painting happen. The balloon guy made pirate swords for all of the kids and they had a blast having sword fights. Levi kept popping his sword and asking for more—luckily the balloon guy was really cool. There was also a karaoke machine there and James and I sang Love Shack with Lori Mortenson—it was pretty amazing. At bedtime Isaac said to me, “momma, I like your eyes because they’re sparkly”—very sweet.
More Please Touch Muesum Tuesday morning plus a trip to the library. I had asked the head librarian about doing a Spanish storytime a couple weeks ago and when I tried to find her today they told me she was on vacation. Oh well, I’d really like to be able to start a Spanish storytime here like I did in San Diego. We found some great Curious George and Anthony Browne books at the library. Right now Isaac is obsessed with the story about Curious George calling the fire fighters and going to jail. I put all of the Accountable Kids cards out on a posterboard for Isaac to visualize the routines and it works much better than the peg board. Plus he can put magnets on the cards he’s finished and he likes that. Levi took a power four hour nap today. I hope he keeps up this napping thing for a while.
We discovered the giant treehouse at the zoo for members only and I was pretty impressed. The boys loved playing in there and it was nice to sit and let them run around in a contained space. At the end of the day today I was talking to the kids in Spanish and I asked Isaac, “Cual fue tu parte favorito del dia?” He said, “ir en la casa del arbol” and then just for kicks I asked Levi the same question in Spanish and he said, “el parque!”—we had just gotten back from an afternoon park trip. That kid amazes me with how much he is able to understand and say in both languages.
Isaac can now make his bed (mas o menos) and he is pretty proud of himself. The accountable kids program his worked a lot better with the magnetic board set up where he can see all of the pictures at once. It’s still hard to get him to stay in quiet time for a decent amount of time, but at least he’s doing it. We checked out a Charlie and Lola dvd from the library and Isaac watched it this afternoon on the computer with the “ticket” he earned from doing his chores. They are really cute stories and I love the British accents. I with there was a Spanish track on the dvd.
Wednesday we hit the Please Touch Museum again since this is the last week that they’re open a block away from our apartment. I’m so bummed that they’re moving! I got interviewed by a public radio about the museum changing locations so we’ll see if I make it on the piece they’ll air next Monday.
Levi has now started the Isaac habit of freaking out if we have to park in the middle of a song that’s playing in the car. He usually insists on sitting and listening to the entire song in his car seat. Isaac went through that exact same phase when he was Levi’s age.
We got to go up in the hot air balloon again at the zoo on Friday. Very cool, but I am afraid of heights so I’m very grateful for the netting around the lookout area. We came with Carrie and her two boys and there wasn’t room for my jogger in her car but I definitely should have brought the umbrella stroller because Levi turned into mr. sack of potatoes at the end of the morning and just wanted to be carried.
Isaac—pee pee and resorting to grumpy old troll methods. . .Sometimes he still refuses to use the potty when I can tell that he obviously has to go so I tell him that I’m the grumpy old troll and that he can’t leave the bathroom until he solves the riddle by going pee pee. I’ve only had to do it once and it worked—its amazing the crazy things you come up with as a mom.
James took the boys out to the Please Touch this morning and I finally went and got myself a library card and some books on cd.
After reading the Juan and Tolola books Isaac is now harder to get to bed because he is convinced that there are crocodiles and alligators and hippos in his room.
Levi loves finding pics of any veggie tales characters and running up to us and saying “Who’s dat?!” For a treat we let the boys watch new “Lord of the Beans” Veggie Tales movie that we found on sale at Aldis. They loved it and we enjoyed a nice romantic Saturday dinner while they were distracted.
So I discovered that I can blend pears into pancake batter in the vitamix and the boys can’t taste the difference. Heck—I can’t taste the difference. I love the vitamix. I also made some fresh fruit popsicles for the boys this week with the vitamix. I need to start vitamixing a bunch of veggies into their spaghetti and pizza sauce too. Levi is actually really good about eating his veggies but Isaac is a total disaster so I’m always trying to sneak in veggies where I can.
I helped out in Isaac’s sunbeam class today and the lesson was on I’m thankful for food and clothing. The teacher asked, “where does milk come from?” and Isaac said, “a cow” then she said where do our clothes come from and he said “a bureau,” and then she asked where does meat come from and he said “a grill” and “where do eggs come from?” and he said, “a pan.” Priceless.