Chaotic Tea

Left for Wordpress

Tried this blogging platform several times. I've been on and off typepad since '06. Time for a change. Who knows, I might be back if things change around here.

Static Love

Lana experienced static electricity for the first time yesterday. She noticed it, I should say. So today I spent a good hour blowing up 250 water balloons to static cling to the wall. I had only dozen done when she took them and made some wall art.

A happy kid makes for a happy mom.

He Dreams BIG

I have a friend. He's a turtle. The day he became more than just a roommate is a day I'll never (let my sister) forget. My sister had him since he was the size of a quarter. I don't know where she got him from or where his story with her began. I only know his story with me :-) The day my sister moved out - she packed his turtle tank, his supplies, his toys and she moved far, far away but she forgot to load this little guy into her car and only realized it when she reached her destination.

His name? Ninja. (I'm not even sure he is a "he")

A couple of nights ago, I check on him to see if he still hadn't touched his dinner. I found him sleeping and realized that when he dreams, he dreams BIG. Superman BIG.

Being Superman isn't easy. He must have been flying around all night in his dream because he stayed in this position all night. Ninja wasn't touching the glass walls, he was flying.

He also hadn't touched his dinner that day. The feeder fish are ever so grateful for family movie nights and Finding Nemo. Fish are friends, not food.

They are very aware of their surroundings.

This little guy watches me every time I walk by. I've had to buy fish flakes for them  because Ninja hasn't touched his dinner since I brought them home two weeks ago.

-____________-

He ate a couple but didn't touch the rest afterwards.

This week we...

This week we played with clay. Foam, polymer and air dry clay.

The foam clay T-Rex didn't last long after it air dried. 3 days later it was completely dry but any small bump made it break. It fell from the table to the chair and the head rolled off. The smell of the clay seemed toxic but the box said it was non toxic. Pfft, it also said "No Crumbling" but it did that, too. We will be trying it again, there's plenty of it left.



We also played with polymer clay. It wasn't at all soft but the results were so much better. Lana got a mushroom for her faeries and a cake for her Photojojo T-Rex.

No photos of the air dry all natural clay, yet. It dries hard and I've dropped it a few times with no breakage. Need to paint it and then we'll see how it looks.

This week we also painted our nails. I pulled out my secret weapon:






Nail decor :-)




We went out to Texas Roadhouse and dressed to the mood we were in.




We studied our reflection.




And after a long day, we tried to watch a movie but we were a little too tired to do anything but sleep.

Dinofour

So my daughters 4th birthday is coming up. Well, in December really, and I decided to make some dinosaurs for her since she lives for them. Never made dino's but I think I did alright for my first time.

I will try to make two a week, if not, at least 1. Since I school her myself and I'm officially doing everything and keeping records of it all, I find myself quite busy and spending my free time planning more educational fun.

So about the brontosaurus: he's made with scrap clay my daughter mixed up one mischievous morning. I will be painting him a more brontosaurus-like color.

Next up: Tyrannosaurus Rex

..or a turtle

And she designs

 

Lana asked if she could Netflix a movie before bed. We told her it was too late for a movie. Ten minutes later… She brings me a stand she made for my husbands itouch saying “If I don’t hold daddy’s itouch, I can fall asleep faster AND still watch a movie” - Mini designer wins tonight.

Kyrlana's first tweet. Seriously, this kid, who pretends to be 3, by the way, gets into everything.

 

She was supposed to be watching Phineas and Ferb and I guess she wanted to tweet about it. Someone should tell her about spell check.. 

Not yet 4 but no longer a baby

She will be 4 at the end of this year and I'm saying 'Bye' to the great first 3 years and 'Bring It' to the next!

We've accomplished a lot this year (and it isn't even over, yet!). I began teaching her from the moment she was born.



First thing I did was play classical music but almost as immediately as I did that, Phil changed it to rock and she seemed to enjoy that more. Turned out great in the long run. She can sleep with or without noise in the house (which is great when your husband is a gamer) and when we have company.

She knew a dozen ASL signs by the time she was 6 months old because I wanted her to tell me when she was hungry, thirsty, tired or dirty rather than cry and fuss until I figured it out. We still practice ASL but not as often as we used to.

Before she turned two, I started preparing her for school and teaching her whatever she found to be fun. ABC's, 123's and colors and shapes were about it. Pretty basic stuff. I think this was the funnest part of being a new mom.

When she turned 3, I started looking into the schools in our area. I was excited about her beginning a new chapter in her life and excited for myself and going back to work. Until I realized that the school we were supposed to send her to was not a school I would send my own kids to. Yeah, you get what I mean. I also am not a fan of the Texas school system, which happened when I started researching the schools here. I started running out of time to figure out what we were going to do but the answer came to us one night when my husband said "Why don't we home school her?" and it made sense. 

Researching what it takes to homeschool and doing it right, took longer than trying to find a better school for her. I started officially homeschooling her this summer and now that school has started, I know we made the right decision. Boy, does it take a lot of work and she isn't always interested in doing her studies but the best part is that we do what we can everyday, Monday through Sunday. If one day she isn't feeling well or is taking her time on a project, (avoiding writing, which she isn't too fond of), then that's fine because we work on something everyday. It's just how things fell into place and it works for us.

That's where we are now. Homeschooling and liking where it's taking us. She's on her way to being a 4 year old and I'm already missing the little toddler she used to be.


I know there are great adventures ahead of us and I'm excited for the next chapter of our lives.

The countdown to age 4 begins now..

-Wendy

Ugh..

Everyone gets sick. Unfortunately, last night was my turn. Not fun if you were in my company. Dinner went down the drain and the headache that came when I was minutes from passing out (really, germs? really?) really made for a terrible sleep.





Guess how old that bottle is. I have no idea, either. I don't even remember buying it. When you have a pounding headache, you stop caring about expiration dates. Luckily for me, it worked on my headache and I was sound asleep 30 minutes later. Sweetness :-)

Then Lana woke up and "helped" by laying on my chest. Her love heals, she said. It does :-) After she fell asleep and moved to a more comfortable location, I was able to breath again. Then, all was well.

Lesson: Keep meds up to date. (but don't toss out any old ones until you do)

-Wendy

Lollipop is the answer. What's the question?

We pulled into the parking lot in time to see some kittens playing around a fence post. We’ve never seen them before so we stopped to say hi. What I wasn’t expecting were all the questions my kiddo asked about the cats. Before I ever got married, I knew that I would do my best to answer all the “why’s” my future kids would throw at me. However, I was stumped when she asked why there were so many kittens. It seemed like a simple question but I knew that explaining that to her would eventually lead to neutering/spaying and I was tired and ready to pass out.

So.. I gave her a lollipop and practiced my speech for tonight. We’ll head back outside and wait for the kittens to come out of hiding and I’ll answer all of her questions. Of course, I’ll have a couple of lollipops with me just in case.