We’ve been struggling at meal times with him for a long time. He doesn’t want to eat what’s served. At our house, you eat what the rest of us are eating or you don’t eat at all. So far, every child has eventually eaten something. Until last night. I think I tempted fate when I talked to a friend about the same problem with her little boy. Last night the children helped me pick green beans from the garden. They helped me cook up the rice and chicken and other veggies. The logic was that if they helped make dinner, they’d eat it. And that’s been a pretty good tactic for a while now. My six and eight year olds have gotten to the point where they help me meal plan some weeks and can do a decent amount of simple cooking on their own. But no parenting plan is fail-proof. He didn’t want to eat. He didn’t even try the food but it was deemed ‘gross’. (No amount of logic will persuade a 4 year old, so I didn’t even try to reason through that).

But after everyone else was finished eating I made banana “ice cream” with mixed berries. Everyone was welcome to have some once they’d eaten enough. The big two got two scoops each. The baby quickly finished her dinner when she saw the bigs eating ice cream and she got two scoops. And Asa just sat there staring at his bowl, whimpering like a puppy. I know that some people don’t like some foods. I’m okay with that fact. I don’t like seafood. I’ll very likely gag if I’m made to eat it, so I get that. But you can’t not like every food except sugar. And if I know that a particular child really hates a certain food, I won’t make them eat it. I think that’s fairly reasonable. But Asa had gotten to the point that every meal was an endless stream of reminders to take another bite and him gagging and sometimes even throwing up because he didn’t ‘like it’. But last night we hit a whole new level. The other kids ate up their two scoops and wanted more. Asa wasn’t anywhere near being done (read: he hadn’t taken a single bite). So I gave the others the last scoops. All. Gone. Cue crazy screaming and weeping and gnashing of teeth. Also cue bedtime. I gave him the opportunity to stop flipping out and eat or go to bed. He slinked away from the table and crawled into bed. (I didn’t really expect that to happen, for the record).

After we’d done the dishes, I went to his room and cuddled up next to him. We talked about the situation and there were big, hiccuping sobs from him and maybe a few tears welling up in my eyes. His prayers were sprinkled with those after-sob sniffs. I’ll admit it. I was feeling pretty guilty at this point. I gave him one last chance to eat his dinner still sitting on the dining room table. He said no and rolled over, ready for sleep.

This could easily be a post about why kids sometimes don’t eat and about how I don’t get overly picky about what they eat meal-to-meal (as long as we get in a decent amount of fruits and veggies within the week or two). I could talk about making sure you do what you said you were going to do, which is harder than it seems sometimes. I could talk about Mommy guilt from sending your child to bed without dinner (because OH, BOY was there some). But what I really want to talk about is this: One of the hardest parts of parenting is watching your child ignore your advice and make a choice that you know will lead to heartache and/or tears. The older they get, the harder and more complicated it gets. And that stinks. It really does. It stinks when they are at the playground and ignore your warnings that they shouldn’t go any higher and then they fall. It stinks when they go to bed without dinner. It stinks when they don’t turn in the assignment that you reminded them to get done. Or when they fall in love with the wrong kind of person and you see what’s coming but they don’t. But in all that stink, there are lots of lessons. I hope that I’m teaching them natural consequences of their choices. I hope I’m giving them enough freedom to explore cause and effect without getting really hurt. That’s a really hard line to balance on.

That boy….he may very well be the one who pushes my buttons the most and runs me all the way out to my wit’s end. But he also has the biggest heart and the sweetest smile and the most perfect eyes ever, so there’s that. I mean just look at this kid!

You begin by getting plain foam sheets (these were 5.5 x 8.5, but any size would do) and foam sticky-back letters. The chunkier the letters, the better. Now 4 simple steps:

1. Peel and stick the words onto the foam sheet.
2. Spray paint the whole thing black (or whatever color you’d like) and then hide those spray paint cans (or else)!
(Also I was making a bunch of them, as you can see. You probably won’t need as many).
3. Use silk flowers (we used carnations for some and bulrushes left over from a baby Moses project for others) to dab paint onto the spray painted sheet.
4. Let it dry and then get ready to peel those letters off!

Done! See? Super easy…as long as you don’t have to add the time and effort of cleaning spray paint off of your van.

I’m not here right now because we are soaking up every ounce of summer.
I have some really exciting things planned in next few weeks, so keep an eye out!

We finished school less than a month ago but it seems like it’s been ages. Summer is now in full swing. Lydia is doing a camp this week and it’s weird without her here. It’s good for her. She’s having a great time, but I always feel off when one of my little ducks is away.

So far we’ve been lazy and busy. I’m not really sure how that’s possible but we’ve spent plenty of down time with friends and just having good old-fashion fun, but we’ve also picked strawberries and made syrup and run in the rain (it’s rained a lot!) and learned to cook (them, not me) and had special tooth fairy deliveries and gone through the car wash and gone to a sleepover. We’ve played baseball and board games and painted and been swimming and laughed a lot and watched a few movies here and there.
And we’ve read. And read. And read.

It’s been a good summer so far. I’ve tried to balance giving them things to do and giving them time to be bored. I’m a big believer in the idea that boredom leads to creativity. But I still feel like we’ve been on the go-go-go.

Yesterday was probably my favorite thing we’ve done so far. Through our school, the Georgia Cyber Academy, we had a chance to go to the Braves game and walk in the pre-game parade. That means we got to walk on the field! The actual field! The game was fun. It was almost a shutout for the pitcher, but the coolest thing was still standing on the field. 

We still have a lot of things to check off of our summer bucket list, but there’s plenty of time. We’re headed now to go bowling…if my burned little legs will let me!

Do you have a summer bucket list? What are you hoping to do?

You can’t deny that there’s something satisfying about a good stand-alone book.  By the time you’ve finished reading it you (usually) have a sense of closure for the characters and for yourself. That being said, I’m still a sucker for a good book series and apparently I’ve passed that on to my children. Here are a few of our favorites along with a brief description written by my older children (ages 6 & 8):

Magic Tree House (Grade Level 1-3) – A brother and a sister named Jack and Annie found a magic treehouse. When every book starts they go to the treehouse and they wish to go somewhere. Then the treehouse starts spinning and spinning and then when they get wherever they are going the spinning stops. Sometimes they go to Egypt, a castle, the Amazon, dinosaur times, or Hawaii. While they are there they learn new things.

Ivy + Bean (Grade Level 2-3) – These are stories about two girls who go on adventures. Bean is funny and sometimes doesn’t pay attention. Ivy is smart and quiet. They are best friends.

Nancy Clancy (Grade Level 3) – Nancy Clancy is Fancy Nancy but she grew up. She is a detective with her best friend Bree. I like these books because they have fancy words.

Flat Stanley (Grade Level 3) – Stanley got flat when a big board fell on him. Then he was flat and could go under doors. He could also get in an envelope and then he could go on fun adventures.

Roscoe Riley Rules (Grade Level 3) – This boy Roscoe doesn’t mean to break the rules, but he forgets.

Humphrey books (Grade Level 3-4) – It’s about a classroom hamster in Room 26 at Longfellow School. Humphrey stays in his cage during the day but when nobody is there he has some freedom. When he gets out he solves classroom problems and sometimes he goes on missions.

Ramona books (Grade Level 3-5) – These books are about a girl named Ramona. She has a sister named Beezus. Ramona is wild and gets in trouble a lot.

Little House books (Grade Level 3-5) – I love reading about Mary and Laura living in different places a long time ago. They lived in the woods, on the prairie, and a dugout.

Pippi Longstocking (Grade Level 4-5) – Silly Pippi lives by herself. She has a monkey and a horse. She tells stories that I don’t know if they are true or not true but they are funny!

American Girl historical fiction books (Grade Level 4-5) – There are a lot of American Girl doll books. Every American Girl doll has some books about her and the books tell all about how she lived.

Narnia books (Grade Level 5-6) – All about 4 brothers and sisters who discovered a magic world called Narnia. There was a witch who turned things to stone. There was a lion. A lot of stuff happened there that couldn’t happen for real like animals talking.

We’re looking for some new series to start as well! We have a few on hand already: The 39 Clues, Boxcar Children, Nancy Drew, Encyclopedia Brown, Series of Unfortunate Events, How to Train Your Dragon, Anne of Green Gables. What other book series do your tiny humans love?

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Before bed they watched a little bit of one of the TinkerBell movies – the one where the dad studies butterflies and gives the girl a journal to record facts. She fills the book with pictures of fairies, which are real but her dad doesn’t believe her. So at the last second, Lydia scrambled for a pencil and paper and wrote this:
In case you can’t see it, it says:

Dear Toothfairy,
Hope you are getting pretty teeth! Could I please have another golden doller? I’v alwaz wished to have a jornol of my own that I cold draw all the fairies in. I bet your pixedust will glitter as you fly around the room. 

She tucked the tooth box and note under her pillow and went to sleep. I tiptoed into the room with the golden dollar and a stack of towels that I could claim to be putting away if I got caught in action. I thought I made a smooth transition but as I was leaving I heard a cough and when I closed the door I heard movement. Drats! A little while later I came back in with the same towels to put them away (read: check and see who was moving around) and I found her big brother (who is 8) with eyes squeezed tight.

“Hey. Whatcha doin, buddy? It’s late.”
“I was just checking to see if the tooth fairy had come.”
“Well?”
“She did.”
“Good.”
“Did you see her?”
“Nope. I thought Daddy came in the room, but I guess I was dreaming.”

I know he’s at the point where he’s figured it out, but he also hasn’t quite let go of believing. I’m okay with that. I tucked him back in and said goodnight. I couldn’t resist taking one more look in on them before I went to bed. And since he was asleep, I couldn’t stop myself from tossing around a little pixie dust (gold glitter that I had in my craft supplies) to hopefully help him keep the magic alive a little longer.

She squealed with delight over the gold dollar and the pixie dust – some even stuck to her very own cheek! – and rushed into my bedroom the next morning but wondered where the journal could be. We decided that journals were too heavy for such a tiny fairy to lug around.

Then today I opened the front door and on my doorstep was a box addressed to my girl. It rattled a bit and I read the return address: Opal the Fairy. Opal the Fairy happens to live in the same city – the same house actually – as one of my friends I met online several years ago. She has the kindest spirit and the most beautiful family.

There were journals, pens, and a note…as well as a giant smile in my girl’s face. She read the note aloud to us.
It said:

Dear Lydia, 
My Name is Opal.

I am a fairy. I live next door to the Tooth Fairy (she is my best friend)!

This morning we were having tea and cookies together. She told me about the letter you left her with you tooth.

Guess what? I collect journals!
I knew that I had to send you one in the mail! I don’t fly very well right now because I have a sore wing. (I wasn’t watching where I was flying! Oops!)

Keep the fairies in your heart forever. You will always been in mine!

And then I had to blink away the tears.

As I was leaving the room I heard her say to Carter, “See? I told you fairies were real!”

I hope they always will be for her, because they are for me. But now instead of little flying pixies, it’s internet fairies who send gifts to my children and angels who hold the door when I’m struggling to get all the kids inside or who stop and smile at me when I have multiple children melting down in the grocery store check out line.

“Do you believe in fairies? Say quick that you believe. If you believe, clap your hands!”
~Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

It didn’t take long for me to get Marshall’s toes tapping along to the album, and we’ve been big fans since. This past Christmas we DVRed the Bublé Christmas special on TV and all six of us sat down and watched it together. A few weeks later we were on vacation in a mountain chalet. They had a handful of CDs available and one of them was Bublé’s 2009 album. While we were cooking dinner one night, Marshall started dancing with the baby and singing along. (If you know Marsh, that’s not his usual style). Marshall’s a good singer, but I didn’t expect him to hit that high note in “You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You”. And then a few weeks ago I shared this video on Facebook and all my Bublé-fan friends fell even more in love with Michael Bublé than they already were. I mean, how could you not? (Okay, so his good looks don’t hurt either).

So when the opportunity came to review his new album, I was the first to sign up! I downloaded it immediately and we hopped in the car on the way to the beach. Here’s the thing. I’m a car singer. Like a really loud and active car singer. And listening to a new CD is usually hard for me because I’m loving it, but I don’t know the words yet! But this album? It’s got some really great songs you probably already know sprinkled throughout: “You Make Me Feel So Young”, “To Love Somebody”, “Come Dance With Me”, “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You” (which is different, but good), and even the title track “To Be Loved”.

I loved all the songs, but the overwhelming favorite from the 8 & under crowd was “You’ve Got A Friend In Me”. I think we can attribute that to Toy Story!  The song that surprised me the most is the duet with Reece Witherspoon. She’s adorable and her sweet voice complements Michael’s so well! It quickly became one of my personal favorites. But I think my absolute favorite is “Close Your Eyes” (because I’m a giant cheeseball).

You just can’t go wrong with this album.
I dare you to listen to it and not smile and maybe even dance a little.
You can download Michael’s album “To Be Loved” on iTunes or Amazon.
  

Disclaimer: I participated in this campaign for One2One Network.
I received a free copy of the album to review.
By posting, I am eligible for incentives.
All opinions are, as always, 100% my very own.  

I have been doing a good bit of introspection lately, though, and it may sound conceited to say this but I’m going to say it anyway: I really like the person I am right now, this person I’ve worked pretty darn hard to cultivate. I’m amazed at how much I’ve grown and changed over the past few years. Somewhere along the way I managed to move from pretending to be an adult to actually being one. It’s weird, that. (Or maybe it’s just me. I don’t know.) 

But even though I really like NowBridget, I sometimes still struggle. Being an adult is hard. And it’s nothing like you expect it to be, is it? I can eat cake for dinner if I want to (which is awesome, I assure you) but I also have to wrap my still tiny little brain around some great big issues, ones that I never could have dreamed of as a child. I wrestle with my wants, beliefs, morals. Things that were once seemingly concrete simply aren’t anymore. I feel nudges in my heart that can only be divine. Yet as I stand on the edge of doing what my heart calls me to do, I never fail to get nervous. My heart starts racing. My voice wobbles. Tears puddle on my lashes. My body tells me to cut and run, but my heart says, “Stay! Stay! Stay!  It won’t be easy, but stay!” Sometimes staying is harder than going, but it’s worth it in the end. Because staying means facing my demons. Staying means asking the hard questions. Staying means looking for answers, even if I don’t always like what I discover. And it’s in these moments – these moments when I feel stuck – that I strain to sift through wrong and right, good and bad. And those moments? The ones that send me searching, grasping for truth? Are the moments that truly define who I am, who I will be.

And as much as I like NowBridget, I hope she doesn’t stay around for too long. Because if there is no change, there is also no growth, no learning, nothing new. I hope that BridgetToBe will look back at NowBridget and be proud of her for stepping out when it would have been easier to stay in line. I hope BridgetToBe will be proud of NowBridget for pushing herself to dig deep and ask why and actually be open to responses, even those she might have a hard time swallowing. But mostly I hope BridgetToBe will look back and say: You tried hard. And even though you stumbled a time or two, you didn’t trip anybody else up. You held hands and wiped tears. You listened more than you talked. And you gave more than you took. You didn’t look down at some and up at others. You just saw what needed to be done, and you did it. You loved when it was hard to love, and forgave when it was hard to forgive. You opened your heart and your head to different ideas, beliefs, and standards and rejected a one-size-fits-all faith. You got hurt a little along the way, but you handled it with grace. You fought the good fight, and you kept your faith – even if it didn’t look like what you thought it would.

Shape Builder Lite (Free) or Shape Builder ($0.99)- A fun puzzle app. After you assemble the whole picture, it both writes and speaks the word. If I can’t find the two year old, she’s probably hiding in a corner of my bedroom with her sister’s ipod and playing this game. We have the free version.

Shape Puzzle (Free) – Another puzzle app with animal shapes. 

Mickey’s Road Rally (Free)- We love Disney at our house and got the Mickey’s Road Rally a while back and it’s still a favorite. While I was writing this, I discovered that you can now only get it as part of the Disney Junior Appisodes Package, which is FREE! 

Endless Alphabet* (Free) – This is the overall favorite app for all of my kids. And, admittedly, I kinda sorta like it as well. You move the letters around into the correct spot and as you move each one it makes it’s own sound. Once you have all of the letters in place, it acts out the word. Not only do you have letter recognition and letter sounds, but also vocabulary. And these aren’t words like CAT or DOG, but words like BELCH (the one I hear most often) and GARGANTUAN. When they hear the music start up, they all flock to the ipad. 

Rocket Speller* (Free) – This app is similar to Endless Alphabet, but with a completely different word set. There are levels and as you complete stages, you get to build rockets. 

Toca Doctor ($2.99)- This app is far from scientifically accurate, but still a lot of fun! Clean up a scraped knee and put on a bandage, help a bloody nose stop bleeding, put cogs in the brain to make it work. I originally got this app when I was free for a limited time, but my kids love it enough that I would pay $2.99. 

*I also mentioned this for the big kids, but wanted to list them again because all of my kids really love them and have learned a lot!

Previous App Posts: Apps for English Language Arts, Apps for Math, Science, and Social Studies, Spacial Thinking Apps, Just For Fun Apps

Angry Birds Star Wars ($2.99) – Pure family fun. Every single person in our family has played this game. The kids will take turns trying to beat a level. I’m a little bit of a meanie because I won’t let them play it on my phone. That’s my game!

LEGO Friends (Free) – My 6 year old daughter loves this game. It seems simple and boring to me, but she loves it. It was also a great marketing tool because she learned the names of all the LEGO girls. Well played, LEGO. Well played. (I honestly don’t mind. LEGOs are my favorite toys and I don’t mind buying more. )

Temple Run: BRAVE ($0.99) – Temple Run plus Disney’s Merida? Win-win! Run, jump, catch coins. It’s just your basic video game, but with Merida!

Tap the Frog (Free with paid upgrade available) – I admit it. This one is addictive. The little kids can’t do this one very well at all, but the big kids do enjoy it. I probably like it the most though.

Talking Ben (Free) – We started with Talking Tom. When Asa was a baby he would laugh and laugh and laugh at Talking Tom. He accidentally got erased from the ipod and was replaced with this funny pup. He copies you and will do several silly things if you poke or tickle him. You can also help him mix up some potions.

Jake & the Neverland Pirate School (Free) – The little kids really like this one, but the big kids like it some as well. You complete tasks in your pirate training school taught by Jake, Izzy, and Cubby!

Previous App Posts: Apps for English Language Arts, Apps for Math, Science, and Social Studies, Spacial Thinking Apps
Coming Up Tomorrow: Apps for Toddlers