Snow day

The kids finally experienced their first sled ride. We went to the park with a neighbor who has a sled. I pulled the kids the whole way in the sled since a stroller wouldn't have worked. It was a lot of work and a lot of fun. I forgot my camera, but our neighbor took these shots.

Illegal in Most States

Illegal in Most States from shookfoil on Vimeo.

Manhattan Children's Museum

We had a special first visit to this great museum with Aunt Sherron from Brazil and Uncle Marshall. Every other child in the city was also there with us to celebrate MLK day, but the crowds did not stop the kids from having a great time. We also were privileged to see the Harlem Gospel Choir to further the celebration. Pictured are Adaline and Arthur sort-of dancing with the choir.

Happy New Year!

Up and Down

Our camera has been eating batteries for the last few months, so we've only caught a few pictures here and there. Now it is officially dead, so I'm forced to post old pics.

The kids have been promoted to "up and down" beds, as they call them. (Although whenever they misbehave, they are promptly demoted to a portable crib as punishment.) They have really enjoyed their new sleeping arrangements, mainly because it gives them the opportunity to find all sorts of new ways to avoid sleep. Dismantling (and recently breaking) the tent on the top is the most popular. Actually, they are doing relatively well with sleep and we are really happy with the new bed.


I finally found some pictures that I took a long time ago of our Brooklyn Target store. For a long time I have wanted to share this beautiful contraption to non-New Yorkers! Our Target is two stories, so how, one might ask, do you transport your shopping cart from floor to floor?? Why, the cart escalator, of course! I still smile when I get to push my fully loaded cart onto this...

Up...

and Down!

Halloween

Jamison already blogged some pictures, but I'm going to repeat them in case some of you don't check his blog... We took the opposite approach for costumes this year. Last year I tried out some adult humor at my kids' expense. I forced my sweet son to be a devil so that he could complete the angel/devil combo. He refused to carry his pitchfork or wear his horns so he only had on a tight red jumpsuit with scary face paint and a silly tail. This year I spread out all of our potential dress-up clothes and let the kids try on and pick whatever made them happy. We had a lot of fun the hour before trying out our options.

After going through a fairy phase, Arthur became fixated on being a "super why." (This is some sort of superhero character on PBS that saves the day by spelling words.) If you know Arthur, you know that once he's fixed on something, you either give it to him or endure a long painful tantrum that makes you wish you'd given in. So I came up with a pretty cool superhero ensemble on the spot (if underwear on top of Adaline's tights, pants for a cape, and goggles for a mask is cool). He spontaneously came up with superhero poses, of which I thankfully caught a few on camera.

I happened upon the pirate idea during this process. It was just too cute to pass up so we convinced Adaline to be a pirate by telling her that we'd make her a sword which would make people give her more candy. She's very candy-motivated, so we avoided the usual princess/fairy that we assumed she'd be. Her "Argh!" was quite convincing and cute, although the construction paper eye patch was never on her eye.

Here is the final product, followed by the test runs:






Oh, and they had a blast all night!

Country Livin'

We spent a few days in rural New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. We had a church retreat during the weekend and tagged on a one-night camping trip while we were away. The kids had so much fun. Their frame of reference for the whole experience was Curious George who lives in Manhattan and periodically visits his country house. They didn't seem disappointed that our "country house" was a motel-style room in a conference center, and they made sure to imitate everything that George did on his camping trip. They were very upset when we took down the tent, and Arthur had a major meltdown when we drove up to our Brooklyn apartment. He wants to pick apples and roast marshmallows and count the stars and do our light show dance (ha! family secret). We had one of our favorite family moments when we laid together in the grass looking at the stars while the kids made up stories about the stars and angels and pigs and whatever came to mind...Although they loved country living, they are adjusting easily to life back in the city. Sorry Arthur, we're here to stay!

New book idea...

How NOT to Potty Train Your Children.

I have come up with so many good (terrible) ideas with this whole potty training thing, and my children are nowhere near being trained. They are boycotting the whole thing at this moment--they are over the praise, over the candy, over the run-fast/jump-high no-diaper feeling. They are utterly content in their nasty tail-flopping diapers. I finally caved and bought another $50 worth of diapers.

I failed to mention that my first potty progress with Arthur was facilitated by the fact that I set his potty in front of the TV and allowed him to watch it as long as he sat on the potty. He was so overdosed with cartoons that he relaxed enough to have some success. (And he refuses to go unless I approximate this same scenario most of the time.) Now I find myself continually rattling a jar of mixed candies in front of my children's faces, begging them to just stop long enough to sit on the potty. I'm so desperate, it's embarrassing. My lastest tactic is to just eat the candy out of their reward jar and scold them for not even attempting to be diaper-independent. "Well, if you're not going to go potty, then I'll just eat all of your candy for you." Now I'm so hooked on the sugar high that I can't stop eating the stuff. At night I finish the jar and we have to make another trip to the bodega to get more goodies. My bodega store owner is getting suspicious of my parenting techniques as I buy more and more sugar goodies.

Ugh! Will this ever end? I'm tired of changing poos as big and more numerous than mine. I'm tired of spending tons of money on diapers for two...not because they are incapable but because they inherited my stubborn willful tendencies. Is this payback time for all I put my parents through? Well, at least I'll get a book deal out of it...to save parents from failing as miserably as I have. I could call it, Potty Train Your Kids Before College or worse What to Expect When Your Kids Go to College in Diapers.

Maine Pictures

Maine was absolutely beautiful! We had a wonderful time exploring the area with Gigi and Marshall. Arthur preferred the beach and could spend hours in the same spot near the water--throwing rocks, discovering sea life, splashing... Adaline, on the other hand, never stopped moving. She especially appreciated the natural rock climbing on every shore. She and Arthur were so fast at climbing that they sometimes asked the adults if we needed help. It was a perfect natural playground full of new things to explore and discover. They were so happy!

This picture of Arthur shows #1 how excited he was anytime we were near water and #2 the effect of the frigid water on one's facial expression. Looking for crabs and sea urchins in the tidal pool.

Marshall point lighthouse.
Climbing rocks with Marshall.
Resting after a mile rock walk out to a lighthouse.

How to eat a beignet...

Arthur demonstrates how to eat beignets at Cafe du Monde in New Orleans...




He couldn't let all of that powdered sugar go to waste! He said, "I have a good idea!" and began licking the plate clean. He only did what all of the adults were thinking.

Other news: We finally have potty progress. We literally ran out of diapers, forcing Arthur to work out his fears. Now he has surpassed his sister, who has almost totally lost interest. (She says that she wants to have an accident and then pees all over herself. Nice.) One problem with Arthur is that he gets frustrated that he can't go more often so that he can receive his gummy bear treat. About 30 seconds after success, he tries to go again saying, "I want to go all of the time and I don't want to drink more water!" Sometimes this leads to a full-blown tantrem.

Adaline has recently begun offering parenting advice during these tantrems. She says in a very adult-like tone, "Mom, just let him cry. He's frustrated." When I try to reason with him and calm him, she insists, "Leave him alone. Just let him cry. He's very frustrated." Not bad advice, sis.

Beach Pictures

We just returned from a vacation in New Orleans, Florida, and Mississippi. We went to the beach with our good friends from NOLA. We had so much fun that we hardly took any pictures. These are a few ...


Arthur and Adison are watching Adaline swim all by herself (with floatie). She was very brave and insisted on not being touched by the adult with her. You might notice that there are no other swimmers in the ocean. This is partly because we stayed in our friends' house in a gated community with a private beach and partly because we didn't get the memo that there were many shark sightings. We didn't notice the shark alert flag until our last day...oops. Adaline spent the last two days screaming at the shore because she wanted to swim in the ocean. She seemed more afraid of the crab we found in the pool than the sharks and stingrays in the ocean. Arthur loved the pool and ended up floating by himself too. We had a wonderful time!
This was our wonderful boardwalk from the beach to our house.

Birthday Party

We had a birthday party with 9 of the kids' closest friends their age. They all had a lot of fun. I didn't think to get a group shot of all of the kids, but here are a few pictures...