Another photo book completed

Lately I have been plowing through paperwork for taxes and the photobooks.  I am a bit over a year behind on publication and I am trying madly to catch back up.  I love the end results of the books I create with the combination of these blog ramblings and all of our photos...However, it is a bit time consuming (ok, a ton of time consuming) to get them completed.  And I'm not even a perfectionist!
Well, I just uploaded and ordered the next installment from January to August 2012, all 280 pages of it.  (See I told you I was a bit behind).  My goal is to try to get the next one finished over the next month, but we will see. 

The mini-historian in me loves documenting our family, our growth, and our past...so I want to keep these going as much as I can!

Memory Monday - Story Time

I remember my love of books beginning at a very early age.
I remember having my mom hold us in bed and read a book or two or three before we were shuttled off to go to sleep.  I remember reading books or trying to read books and falling asleep on top of them.  Well, I still do that :-)

I remember "reading" this book often.  I would imagine myself in the story and pick our my favorite things on each page or I would imagine myself waling through the setting on the page and talking with the other characters.
 Luckily, this book held up reasonably well and the kids now read it too. Richard Scarry was an awesome author.

I remember going to the library back in my hometown...down the steps into the basement, which housed all the children's books.  Even now, I recall exactly where some of my favorite books were located in the stacks.  The downside is that I don't really remember who the authors were to find these books now. 

Brian remembers visiting the bookmobile in Forest Hills instead of the library.  He says that he remembers there being tons of books in his house growing up, so there was never a shortage of finding something to read.

Our library here is awesome.  I love our two children's librarians.  They are both awesome with the boy and are really good at suggesting and finding books they think they will like.  The weekly story time is fun and they are very patient with the squirrelly kids.  Just lately, I asked one of librarians if she could find a book about piggies where the youngest refused to take a bath and said "icky-picky nope."   Yeah...that's all I gave her to go on.  Amazingly she found the book!  It wasn't in our library, but she could get it on loan from another library and better yet, she found the Reading Rainbow show that featured it for me.  Awesome. 

Both of our boys love books to and love our trips to the library.  We read two or three bedtime stories while all snuggled together.  Lately, I soon as I finish a book, Jude grabs it and states "I read it!"  He then attempts to flip through the book and repeat the story back that he has just heard.  Tamlin waits until both stories are done and then grabs extra books to take to read in bed on his own.  I've caught him imagining that he is in the story too, like I use to.  They now want the light to stay on a bit longer in their room so that they can look at their books.

Tamlin's current favorites are:
Story books / Fairy tale books
Stephen Kellogg's Boa Constrictor books
Superhero and Ninja books
Bernstein Bears books
Books with mazes in them
Magic School Bus books


Jude's favorites
Books about stars...This one has been checked out several times from the library.
Books about cars, trucks, and trains
I spy books
Books about shapes or colors


Brian and I just can't wait until we can get them into older fiction and science-fiction books so that we can share our favorites with them...like Lord of the Rings and comic books!

I know I still favor holding and reading an actual book, even in this digital age.  I have discovered that there is a virtual loaning library on Amazon.  I borrow a book at a time to read on the Kindle for no fee.  I have found a few interesting books... and some badly written romances so far.  On the flip side, the interactive ebooks for kids are pretty cool.  I try to score free ones when I can for the boys to play with and listen to.  The downside is that it is confined to the tiny screen rather than a big book that they can hold and share.  Who knows where the next technology will take us...

A whole week of sick Jude

Last week it was me...
And this week has been Jude.
The poor little mite has been coughing and coughing and coughing.
Sometimes he has coughed so much, he throws up.  
He had to miss school and his room's Valentine party this past week.  Poor Brian has had to stay home with him and was driven a little stir crazy.  I wondered why they don't make a cough drop on a stick (like a sucker) for little ones.  However, we fired up the humidifier and loaded it with Vic's vapor rub.  We also lathered Jude down with the rub too. 
Man oh man, did our house smell like camphor oil!
But it helped.
Jude is much better now and Tamlin doesn't show any signs of catching it.

Is it summertime yet?

Movie Time

Another nice thing about living in a small town is the mom-and-pop shops.  In Amherst, there is a one screen movie theater that only shows family (PG) movies...for fairly cheap.  The theater isn't high-tech or in 3D, but it is a perfect place to go with the boys.  I like that they cater to families by providing a ton of booster seats and kiddie size candy.  Other families like this venue too since it is often quite crowded.  

Well, we decided to hit the theater and see The Lego Movie.  I didn't know much about the movie's plot or actors or anything other than it had lego animation. I figured it would be cute and the boys would really enjoy seeing these common toys come to life.  We went to the early afternoon showing, securing some of the last seats available.  Sold out.  So I sat with Tamlin and Brian sat with Jude a few rows in front of us.

Oh my.

This movie ROCKED.

I haven't laughed that hard and that loud in a movie theater in a long time.  The jokes were great and clean.  There was both humor for the little ones and for adults.  Batman was involved and even Han Solo in the Millennium Falcon put in an appearance.    It was a great show and both boys watched it with interest right through to the end.  Tamlin even got up and danced a few times during the dance party scenes.

 "Everything is Awesome" was the catchy song that my boys are now singing repeatedly.

Eight thumbs up from our family :-)

Sled Riding

I had the day off, there was a ton of snow still outside, it was cold but not frigid, and it was sunny out.   This was a recipe for...Sled Riding!
A few weeks ago I scouted the local stores for cheap plastic sleds...similar to the ones I grew up riding back in 'Bula.  After, I kid you not, FOUR local big box stores, I found these awesome tie-dye sleds for cheap.  We bought one long two person sled and one little one with a slanted front.  Tam has been itching to try these out for weeks...he even attempted riding the small one down the piles of snow on the side of our driveway. 

Well, on Saturday, Brian and I decided to have a go at sledding...but how to find a good hill when you are new in town?  Thankful the Internet provides...man, you can google search just about anything! Yes, there is a website dedicated to the best sled riding hills in North East Ohio (Link).  This led me to a local park that we had visited at the end of summer to hike along the river.  It was only a few miles south of town and the hill did not end in any bodies of water (like the beach parks around our home).

Of course, it took a good twenty minutes or so to get the two boys pottied and geared up to play outside.  It was cold enough that even Brian and I donned long underwear underneath to stay warm.  Since we are already mid-winter, our supply of gloves and mittens is running low.  I am sad to say that both boys sport hand gear that mismatched, though it doesn't seem to bother them.  Jude's boots are also too big because he refuses to wear the ones that are his own size (he curls his foot so it is impossible to put the smaller boots on). 

Once in the car, Jude wails for most of the short car ride because "I can't move, momma!"  though this comes out muffled because his hood ties are covering his mouth.  He really does look like a huge stuffed animal in his gear. 

At the park, the hill is a good size and has a slope to it, so that one portion is smaller than the other.  We roll out of the car, gather the sleds and trudge up the hill.  Jude wants to be pulled after about 10 feet.   Poor mite, the snow is nearly to his knees in the drifts. 

The flights down the hill were AWESOME.  Brian and I took turns at first riding down with the boys.  The big sled was great, but a little cumbersome to steer.  The little sled flew over the snow and went quite a bit further out.  Tamlin quickly wanted to slide down on his own, and by the fourth try he wanted to ride down on his belly...and then backwards!  Jude loved flying down the hill and his squeals of delight were precious to hear.  However, Jude hated walking in the deep snow and would wail his discomfort unless someone came down to pull him back up the hill while he rode in the sled.  What a nugget head. 

I think Jude's favorite time was sliding down on his belly face first.  Tamlin's favorite time was riding with Brian and the sled flipping around 180 and the ended up going downhill backwards.

 There were certainly some spills and faceplants.  Tamlin took most of these in strides, though we were there to help quickly wipe off the snow.  Jude is still little enough to HATE getting snow on him and getting cold.  His little hands got cold rather quickly and we had to swap his mittens a couple times with dry ones (all still miss-matched). 

 

Well, after about 15 minutes or so, both boys declared that they were cold.  This park is open year round, so the visitor center provided a warm haven for us to stumble into.  We thawed out and warmed up our hands for awhile.  However, the boys spied the playground and they insisted on going down the snow covered slide before we went home.  Overall, the time spent as a family was great, even if it was bit chilly.

Let's add it up...20 minutes to get ready...8 minute car ride...15 minutes of sled riding...15 minutes warming back up in the visitor center...10 minutes on the cold playground...and they were done.

(And then they took a TWO HOUR nap when we got home :-)

Memory Monday - Baby dolls

I remember that some of my first dollies were cloth dolls sewn my Aunt Rosilyn, my mother's eldest sister. These babies included a Raggedy Ann and Andy set, complete with striped stockings and red hair.  There was also a yellow yarn hair doll with long arms and legs. She was very originally named "yellow-hair doll." Finally, there was a little baby with a yellow terry pajama sleeper named baby or dolly. I still have all these dolls today, having saved them in various doll beds and cedar chests throughout my post-doll baby stages.  All of these dolls were great for numerous reasons...
I remember chewing on their cloth legs
I remember trying to trim yellow-hair doll's hair with kiddie scissors (I was mostly unsuccessful).
I remember using Raggedy Ann and Andy as puppets in "plays"
I remember learning how to snap and unsnap their clothes

Mom says she loved the dolls because they are completely washable in the washing machine.

When Tamlin was small, I dug these babies back out of storage along with my a couple of my other soft vinyl dolls.   A side note: the vinyl dolls were useful in teaching both boys about drinking and going potty.  Tamlin did take a shine to yellow-hair doll.  Even now, she resides in his bed and occasionally goes on adventures with him.  And we are a liberal family...neither Brian nor I give a hoot what toys the boys decide to play with and we really try not to enforce any gender bias.

Well, when I went to pick up Jude last week from preschool, I found him playing with a doll baby.  He had her wrapped up in a blanket cradled in his arms.  Several of the other girls in his class were playing with babies too.  I had a bugger of a time trying to convince him to place the baby in the crib so she could sleep at school.  He kept on insisting that it was "Mine!  JuJu's baby!  Baby com home!"  I knew I didn't want to set the precedent of it being okay to bring daycare toys home, so I had to be the mean momma and force him to leave the baby behind.  Oh the tears!  Oh the wails of unhappiness!  My little Jude is such a drama-king.  His teachers all said that lately he has been into playing with the doll...mostly having a good time wrapping it up in a blanket and rocking it.  I had no idea!  He has taken zero interest in the dolls at home.


To bring this entry full circle... I let Jude have the little cloth baby doll.  And I found a flannel baby blanket that used to be his to wrap the baby in.  Jude was thrilled.  "I so happy, mom!"  Yellow baby (as he sometimes calls her) has been a companion this week and has found a spot in his bed while he sleeps.
What a sweetie.  And I love that my old dollies are getting some love again.


Thanks Aunt Rosilyn...
I bet you never ever dreamed that those little dolls sewn so many years ago would find love in a little grand-nephew's hands.