Anna's Owl

I went to pick Anna up at preschool on Monday and her teacher pulled me aside as soon as I walked in the door. Of course, my first instinct was, "Crap! Did she do something?", but of course that was unfair to Anna's place of supreme honor in her teacher's heart.

"You have to see something! Anna, go get it, where did you put it! Go get it! Oh, Megan, you won't believe this, the other teacher's and I just about cracked when we saw it."

Then Anna came running up, a coloring page in her hand. Turns out, they had been going over the letter 'O' that day. The assignment was to draw an owl in the designated spot. Shannon, Anna's teacher, had not yet put out a picture of an owl for them to reference. All the other kids scribbled different versions of smiley faces with legs when she noticed Anna hunched over in concentration at her seat. This is what she drew:

Clearly, she is destined to be the next Monet, Rembrandt and Lisa (my talented friend) wrapped up into one. Plus, how cool that she didn't need a picture to copy? Kurt and I have begun to use it as a truism for life.

"If Anna can draw an owl from just her imagination, then we can do XYZ, too." Just goes to show you, there's more to life than scribbles if you give it a little effort.

The Windy City and Uncle Val

Schwartz Roadtrip 2009

Last week we hit the road to drive out to Iowa to visit my brother John. The girls went nuts-- from running through the fields, checking out the ENORMOUS corn spiders and baby pigs to Uncle John "teaching" them the ceramic basics (aka, letting them play with clay in his living room), the farm was the best place they'd ever seen.

So when it came time to stuff ourselves back in the car and turn back to the mountains, we were understandably reluctant. Here's when the wild wind hit us, or more like the wild hair. With the adrenaline rush of a last minute change of plans, we turned the car towards Illinois and spent the rest of the week crashing at a friend's house and visiting my brother Val in Chicago. SO MUCH FUN.

To say we felt free doesn't describe it. Somehow cutting lose, dropping all obligations, deadlines and responsibilities just to do something FUN enervated the whole family in a way nothing else could. We got back yesterday after two days of marathon driving (and a million pit stops along the way, but more on that later) and home felt so nice. I personally am excited to get things back in order, do laundry, tidy up all our travel stuff and get groceries and meals planned for the week. I'm ready to take it all back up and that's saying a lot. I'm certain the laundry fervor will wear off in approximately 12 minutes, but in general real life just seems a lot nicer than in did 10 days ago.

As much as I feared our first family road trip and the potential for disaster, I am happy to say we'll be making this an annual event.

Uncle John's Farm

Uncle John's Farm. Uncle John's corn, house, field, clay, pigs and windchimes. Uncle John's school. As far as the girls are concerned, everything about Scattergood Friends School is all thanks to Uncle John. And for that... we send him our heartfelt and loving thanks.

"No TV? Are you kidding me, Mom?"

Selective amnesia and a reluctant experiment

I've been going back over all the old entries from when Anna was Silvia's age, looking both for references to potty training and terrible two's. Guess what? Anna potty-trained with nary a hitch from about 2 and half. By the time she was 3 it was an afterthought.

I'm looking forward to the afterthought part, but I have to admit that Silvia is doing really, really well. She's still having accidents, but it's been about two months now and the dry and clean days are totally outnumbering the drippy days. We can go out, run errands, see friends and generally live our lives. I carry a bag with a travel potty seat and a change of clothes everywhere, but I've only had to use the clean clothes a handful of times.

As for Terrible Two's, well. Silvia has it bad. The other night, Kurt and I talked about how she is SO much whinier than Anna was at this age, SO much more infuriating. But then I thought, really? Is she really? Or possibly are our memories decaying from child-induced-amnesia? Thus the blog re-hash.

And here's what I found. Anna WAS whiny, super whiny, oh so so so whiny. It drove me crazy, I yelled and had to put myself in time-outs. Then, as I absorbed all this revelation (that I experienced first-hand and have not a shred of memory to show for it), I came across two very interesting posts. Here and here.

As the girls got older and things got busier and hazier and generally just sucked into the vortex of time and space, Anna got back her shows. It only follows that Silvia is right along side her on the couch. When I need to make dinner or fold laundry (which somehow quadrupled in our lives upon Silvia's birth), or let's face it, just get them out of my face for a little bit, they watch TV. It's still not very much, just as with Anna in that first post from back in the day-- maybe 3 half-hour shows a day, tops, with the odd movie or two thrown in after dinner during the week.

I'm sitting here going, "Hmmm...". I know, I remember NOW, what a big difference it made when Anna got cut off from her drug of choice. I know she played more, and danced more and whined and cried LESS. Considering Silvia's behavior right now is almost a complete mirror to how Anna was then (screaming for her shows, telling what she wants to watch as we come down the stairs in the morning, freaking out every time I say no), the solution should be pretty clear.

Oh, but I hesitate. Because no TV helper with a 2-year-old and a baby is not the same as no TV helper with a 2 and almost 5-year-old. They are busy little people and demanding and loud and fill the house with their consciousness alone. As much as I love my kids, I really hate doing crafts and Candyland all day. Shows give me a break from that. I don't want to say that I NEED those breaks, but... maybe possibly I do?

So this experiment begins with a few qualms and disclaimers. I am not taking away Saturday Morning Cartoons. That's coffee time for Kurt and I and we look forward to it all week. I'm also going to leave open a Classical Baby option in the evenings (that's sort of like telling a kid they can have a nice bowl of applesauce instead of the gooey ice cream sundae to which they have become accustomed). Movie nights are fun family time and totally safe from the chopping block.

But the rest, I am sad to say, needs to go. Silvia is driving me wacko with her constant whining, crying and demanding. If there is even the smallest possibility unplugging her will help, I'd be a moron not to give it a try.

Wish me luck, I'm gonna need it. This time it's harder. This time, God help me... I'm going to have to do crafts.