A Boy's Rite of Passage

Our house has been a (toy) weapon-free house for 5 years. Sure the boys have fashioned swords and guns from Tinkertoys, Legos, sticks and peanut-butter sandwiches...but we had not allowed a store-bought toy weapon to enter our house. (We had often joked that our make-your-own toy weapon policy was helping to shape future Unibombers.)

Well, we finally caved. We let the boys pick out lightsabers (as bribery for getting haircuts). (I had also wanted to wait several more years before they saw Star Wars but I lost that battle a couple of months ago.)

Taking Jack to the store to pick get his new most prized possession truly felt like a rite of passage. This was a huge monumental moment in his young life...not only his first toy weapon but also...a lightsaber! He was the envy of every guy under 45 in the store. They all looked at him with a goofy grin seemingly fondly remembering when they were bought their first lightsaber and wishing they were young enough to make it acceptable to still play with it.

While in the store, Jack kept sneaking glances at me hardly believing that I was actually going to purchase a weapon for him. In between anxious glances at me, he looked lovingly at his new blue lightsaber.

Low Expectations = A Perfectly Great Day

In past years, the boys have had a joint birthday party. They are only 15 months apart so they have the same friends and are used to sharing everything anyway. As a family we celebrate their individual birthdays on their actual birth date. But for the big party, we pick a day half way between.

I actually like planning parties (but since our wedding I never plan anything but kid's parties). But due to some circumstances at the boys' school, I gave them the option of having a party with their friends or going to Disneyland with the family (knowing full well what they'd choose). They had never been to Disneyland before but several of their friends have season passes so they were very curious.

I am not a Disney fan. And the last couple of times I've gone to Disneyland I've left feeling so depleted. So this was a big deal for me to go. But seeing it through their first-time eyes, was so worth it.



Here's the lowdown:
62: number of times Logan kicked Jack out of shear boredom while waiting in lines

138: dollars spent just to get into the Magical Kingdom (and that was only paying for half the family!)

4: maximum number of hours I thought we'd stay

9+: number of hours we actually stayed (from before opening to after closing!)

2: number of ridiculously long strands of red licorice required to bribe the boys

12: dollars to park the car (how else would we have gotten there?)

2: number of ridiculously long lollipops to bribe the boys

276: number of times Jack asked if we could leave (because we promised him a birthday present at the end of the day)

276: number of times I kicked myself for promising said present

0: number of presents actually bought at the end of the day (Jack had so much fun he decided he really didn't need anything)

82: number of times Logan tried to sneak on a ride with another family at the head of the line instead of waiting with us

unquantifiable: the smiles on Jack and Logan's faces throughout the day


I'm still amazed at how many people were there. (Even on a non-holiday weekday, there was a line to get in to the parking lot a full hour before the park opened!)

I'm still amazed at how expensive it was. As a money-saver we snuck in our own lunches and snacks. (Though we did get some odd looks while chowing down on pb&j sandwiches in line for Peter Pan. We got even odder looks while snacking on broccoli and carrots in line for another ride.)

I was very pleasantly surprised to find out that "the happiest place on earth" was actually a happy place for us. Of course, the bar has been set. Expectations have risen. We are screwed if we ever go again!

In the meantime, I'm going to remember Jack sitting on my lap watching Fantasmic (the night show) and whispering to me, "Mama, this was the best birthday ever!"

Not So Happy Meals

Jack asks for McDonald's frequently. Which is odd because he doesn't like their burgers, barely touches the fries and is usually disappointed with the toy in the Happy Meals. I guess it's about the hope of something good...maybe, just maybe, he'll find the world's largest lollipop and a kid-sized motorcycle in his next Happy Meal.

In our house, we talk about green light, yellow light and red light food. (When you have 2 boys, it seems that everything comes down to a car/driving analogy.)

Fast food is red light food which is supposed to mean that you never eat it but really, who lives this way? For us, this means that we rarely eat it. But why is it that kids get a prize for eating red light food? It just doesn't seem right...

So my husband and I recently invented the Makes-Mama-Happy Meal.

There is a restuarant with healthy-ish (is that a word?) food that we like to go to. And the boys always eat well there. But for some reason, if we mention this restaurant Jack instantly starts whining.

So I now keep a stash of $1 toys in the back of my car. Whenever, Scott and I want to go to this restaurant we tell the boys they can get the Makes-Mama-Happy Meal. They eat their veggies, get a prize for it and make me happy in the process!

_______________________________

So step on up to the counter and order your Makes-Mama-Happy Meal.
We have the Banzai Veggie Bowl:
Or the red pepper and flank steak salad:

We also have the chopped veggie salad (not pictured). More menu items to come!

_______________________________

And for the record, no, I don't believe in bribing kids to eat well. But I really don't believe in bribing them to eat unhealthy (AKA the Happy Meal).

So what is in your Makes-Mama-Happy Meal?

Note: The green/yellow/red light food idea comes from Eat Healthy, Feel Great.

_______________________________

This wasn't a Makes-Mama-Happy Meal but I was pretty happy when after eating a 3rd helping of my veggie pasta I asked Logan if he just wanted to eat the rest out of the pot and he said "yes!"

Barely a "bog-wothy" day...

Weekends are funny for us. Usually the best laid and most exciting plans lead to disaster. But if we try to be mellow and stay around the house...bigger disaster.

Today we made it out of the house but kept it simple.

Our first stop was Best Buy. I've been thinking about getting a netbook but haven't seen one in person so I wanted to try one out. Best Buy had a couple but they won't be getting my business. They had them spread throughout the computer department so you couldn't easily comparison shop. How stupid is that?

However, I will be spending our upcoming school vacations and maybe all of summer there. Our Best Buy recently started selling musical instruments and they have a whole room dedicated to... DRUMS! Our boys were in heaven! I figure that I can lug in a mini-fridge and microwave from the appliance department and never need to leave the drum room. The boys should be easily entertained for several weeks.


Note to self: Buy earplugs before next school break

Upon leaving the store, I said, "That was great. That might even have been blog-worthy!" To which Jack (not yet 4 years old) said, "Mama, what's bog-wothy mean?" "Uh...nothing dear." I'm figuring it's too soon in his young life to let him know that I'm just keeping him around as fodder for my blog, right?

From there we headed to a park for a picnic and some much needed active and outdoor time on the playground. Jack's new favorite activity is to jump from high things. Luckily he only does this at the park where he can land in soft sand. Today he asked me to climb the rock wall and jump off with him. "Uh...no thanks, dear." To which he pointed to the airplane overhead and said, "That's higher and you jumped from one of those." Touche.


I should have jumped with him. I'm kind of regretting that I didn't. Instead he got a "Uh...no thanks, dear." Maybe next week...

So what's a guilty mama to do? Buy the kiddos a popsicle of course!

Deja Vu

A mere 15 months ago I was potty training Jack. It was the worst month of my life. 2 and 1/2 years old is young for a boy to start potty training but because he was scheduled to start nursery school we had to do it then. To make things more complicated Logan was 15 months old and couldn't figure out what all the fuss was about. He would frequently hang on me while I tried to peel Jack's wet clothes off of him or, worse yet, Logan would walk through Jack's pee puddles. Then I'd have 2 kids to clean up!
So you can imagine how excited I was when I realized that I would need to start potty training Logan after the holidays (as he is scheduled to start school in January). Logan is much less interested in potty training than Jack was. And he could care less if he's soaking wet. So far we are not doing well.

Here are all the essentials that a young boy needs while potty training:

Chart to show progress (or lack thereof):

Stickers for bribery:

M & M's for bribery:

Picture of the play kitchen he'll earn at the completion of his mission:
Small potty:

Family toilet seat and stool:

Fruit loops for target practice:

Bucket to act as a urinal:

Portable DVD player with Herbie Fully Loaded:

Books, pull-back toys and a flashlight to keep him entertained:

Extra underwear:





Here are all the essentials that a mama needs while potty training a young boy: