Loving Love & Logic

I've been reading this book




and reminiscing about a favorite old tv sitcom: The Cosby Show. I loved it as a kid, but I seriously LOVE it as a parent! And now I know why! The Love & Logic philosophy really appeals to me. The idea that we are not here to swoop in and rescue our children from their poor decisions. We are here to support them and love them right through their not-so-great choices and the consequences that follow. Can't you just see that wise, knowing smile on Mrs. Huxtable's face as she discussed with her children the choices they had made or were making? Remember the humor that never failed to shine through? I want to be like that as a mom!

Our Listening Station is "Ripped!"

Can you believe I still have most of my books on tape from my own childhood? Our kids love having a box full of books on tape to sit and "read" all by themselves. Granted, some are quite dated (remember the "Wuzzles"...or how about the "Little People" series by Fisher Price?), while others are classic. Goldilocks, the Wild Things, the Gingerbread Boy, and Little Red are all in the box.

Finding a cd player with a tape deck wasn't easy, but we have a good one that will hopefully last a long time. I've instructed the kids on how to use it properly, so they can listen to their books independently (KID 2 struggles with getting the tapes into the deck, but she's getting better).

We've been slowly adding to our listening library as the kids' birthdays roll around, and sometimes new books come with a "bonus" CD recording. Our large board book copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar came with a CD recording of the book read by Eric Carle himself. That one is pretty cool! Gwyneth Paltrow did the recording of Brown Bear, Brown Bear; and James Earl Jones recorded the most recent addition to our library, The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey.

But with the advent of the CD, books on tape are not as easy to find. Most are on CD, which is great for listening in the car, but when you let your kids handle their own audio books, CD's get damaged VERY easily. So, I don't know how legal it is, but I've just finished ripping our entire CD audio book collection onto the computer. This way we can burn a new copy if (WHEN) their CDs get scratched and won't play anymore. I feel much better about letting them handle their own books on CD now that we have a way to replace them without having to repurchase the recordings.

The listening library in no way replaces our reading time together, but in a house with no TV, it's nice to have things they can fill their time with independently and still have the benefit of reading!

Folk Tale Fun for Halloween

Little Red Riding Hood, The Wolf, Woodcutter, and Grandmother

The kids loved that we dressed up with them. They were fascinated by the way my powdered hair and drawn-on wrinkle lines made me look really old!

We had everything we needed for our costumes except the red cape and hood. I used the leftover gray fur from KID 1's Max costume (Where the Wild Things Are) to make ears and stapled them to his hat.

The cape and hood reverse to a green, scaly dragon...why just make a boring red cape and hood, right? ;)

Hope you had a fun Halloween (or Fall Fest) with your kiddos!

Summer Fun: Build a Teepee!

We're spending some time in the woods this summer, looking for some good, clean fun. Remember the days when your mama sent you outside and told you not to come back 'til dinner? And you just had to make your own fun. Video games, DVDs, and iPods had nothing to do with our childhoods, and I'm thinking that was probably a good thing. This summer we're going back to basics. I'm finding ways to share the fun and imagination I developed as a kid with our kids, without sending them off to fend for themselves...you just can't do that nowadays, unfortunately.

Here's the teepee they made with their Daddy this weekend and what a joyous time they had dragging all those branches out of the woods and into the back yard! KID 1 had the idea to cover the basic tripod with leafy branches to enclose it. Next summer, the base will be ready to support pole beans as a cover.

We made some old fashioned string phones for the new hideout. Remember those? I just needed to raid the recycling bin for tin cans and we were all set!

Hope you're having some good old fashioned fun with your kids this summer!

Sleepy in Seattle

We recently took a kid-free vacation to Seattle, our first-ever time away from the kids! It was exhausting, but totally worth it! Check out "Seattle on a Shoestring" over at Motley Moms!

Lounging Lettuce Licker

Toby surveys his territory while posing for a picture in the garden

Then he gets distracted by luscious, leafy lettuce...see the pink tongue peeking out?

As a pup, he would come trotting across the yard with an entire head of rotted garlic clenched proudly in his teeth. I should have known that if he'll eat from the compost pile, he'll eat from the pan of fresh baby lettuces! Yum! Remind me to triple wash before serving salad!!!

Time to Get a Timer?

Check out my list of great uses for timers with preschoolers over at MotleyMoms:

Tick-Tick-Tick-Tick...Brrrrrrrrring!

The EXTREMELY Hungry, On the Brink of Starvation, Shriveled Up Little Caterpillar Saga

Remember all my great ideas for the Very Hungry Caterpillar party for KID 2's 2nd birthday bash? And this cute little concoction for the birthday girl to wear? I would love to say the party was a hit and my brilliant visions of caterpillars and butterflies became a reality in my backyard. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

TWICE we have had to postpone this party due to illness. And TWICE I have had to deal with our older son's wrath upon learning the party was cancelled. On Friday night, as I made the cancellation phone calls, several friends heard screaming and crying in the background of my home. That was not the 2-year-old girl whose party was cancelled AGAIN...no, no...it was her older, bitterly disappointed, social butterfly brother. First he screamed, then he cried, then he subjected us to stony silence (that part was kinda nice after the first two rounds).

The bright side: Saturday ended up being a rainy day, so we couldn't have had the party outside anyway.

We're pretty much all sick right now. Ugh! Maybe we should just put the starving little caterpillar out of its misery...