Now You Are Three

I can't believe it's gone by so fast! My dear little first child is three today!

Em - You are one of the best things that has ever happened to me.

You are joyful, funny, fun, conniving in a totally obvious way, precocious, a little rambunctious and the light of my life. You make me smile every single day, and you take great pictures!

Today, you like baseball (SO MUCH), dinosaurs, trains, dressing up in costumes (but only for a little while).

Your favorite foods are PB&J, tofu, BBQ chicken wings, french fries, cherry tomatoes (which you call "gwapes"), bananas and yogurt. You steal my toast every morning.

You don't understand pictures that don't move (it's like you grew up in a magical Harry Potter world) and when we FaceTime with Grandma, you always take her on a tour of the house. You introduce me to my parents every time they come to visit.

You want to play with friends but you haven't quite figured out how to do it well all the time, so you spend a lot of time playing chase and taking direction from older kids.

You are so inquisitive! You question everything, which is wonderful and frustrating. And you set me up with your questions all the time:

"Mama, where do rockets come from?"
"They come from NASA, Em"
"No they don't mama. They come from owta space."

"Mama, what's that?"
"It's a tractor, Em"
"No it isn't mama, it's a Bawbcat"

You are so good at riding your strider bike, you can throw a ball better than any other 3 year old I've seen (with your left hand, no less!), and you think you can cartwheel but really, you can't.

You know the letters E, H and O, and you call the letter A a triangle. You have long conversations in the bathtub on your foam letter "W."

When you get in trouble, you often say "honnnnnnnnnk" like the dump truck in "Little Blue Truck" and then you happily sit in the rocking chair in your room until time out is over.

When you count, it usually goes like this: "one, two sree, sore, sive, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, leven, twelve, firteen, fourteen, fourteen, fourteen, fourteen, THREE TWO ONE blastoff!"

You are a big cousin and a big brother now, and you're so good at it. You help all the time, and give big hugs and kisses, and you transitioned so well to having to share all the adults in your life with two babies.

Happy birthday darling boy. I love you so much!!!!!

Story Time

I love when my niece visits...she and Em play so well together. Just look at this adorableness!

Visiting

We've had a whirlwind of visitors the past few weeks!

First my brother, his girlfriend, and their daughter came for a quick trip to meet the baby.

Just a little while after that, we got Gertie, the St. Bernard pup, which made it feel like we had a visitor at first, though now it's almost like she's always been here.

Then Ross's dad and his lovely lady came to visit - lots of fun! We took the ferry to SF for dim sum at Yank Sing, grabbed a drink at Forbidden Island, and just had some good family time.

And 3 days after they left, mom came to see us! This was probably the longest time we've gone without seeing her since the first kiddo was born - almost 2 months! I really can't wait until she and dad have a place up here, and can split their time between Alameda and Orange County - less than a year left til Dad retires and the party is on!

It's been lovely, but it'll be nice to have a few weeks of downtime, a chance to settle in to a normal routine as a little family of 4 + dog, before the holidays get going!

Dad will be here for the big kid's birthday in a few weeks, and then it's Thanksgiving, and before we know it, we'll all be piling into the car for a trip down south for Christmas!

New Additions

So, we had a baby, which has been pretty exciting, and he's awfully cute! Looks so much like Ross, even down to his frequent grumpy faces.

almost smiling...almost!

And then, because things were just too calm around here (ha!), we got a puppy!

5 months old and already a giant!

Gertrude will probably grow up to be more than 100 lbs, maybe even bigger! E#2 will probably get that big too, eventually, but it's gonna take him a lot longer!

List #12 - Random Things

1. I've discovered that Unsweetened Silk Soy Milk, with just a tiny bit of honey, a good dash of vanilla, and lots of cinnamon is a good replacement for Horchata...one of the things I've been missing most on this carbs-forbidden diet. (Or at least, it's good enough considering I haven't been allowed to have a real honest to goodness tall cup of deliciousness like Horchata in over a month. No juice or chocolate milk either.) It's awfully nice to have something a little sweet that's also good for me!

2. We bought the kiddo a used toy kitchen and he is mad in love with it. It's really adorable. Today he made me "soup" with eggs, oranges, mushrooms, tomatoes and milk. Mmmmm.

3. Looks like my sub is all lined up for my maternity leave! Hooray! It was a little nerve wracking there waiting for months for the District to get stuff together, but I think (fingers crossed) it's handled now. I've got a huge Google Drive folder full of things for her to use, and we're probably getting together on Friday to go over lessons and procedures and things.

4. I saw an article that said there were going to be a whole bunch of new emojis, but they still don't have a "fingers crossed" emoji. That's silly...I'd use it all the time if they had one. Maybe with the next update...fingers crossed.

5. I really want French Onion Soup for dinner tonight...but we have no onions. We also don't have giant croutons.

6. Ross's artwork is really amazing me lately. I'll do a post soon about what he's been up to at the old Naval Air Station on the island...or maybe I'll get him to write it!

7. We're also, hopefully, fairly close to being able to launch his artist website! I've got an Instagram account set up for him, we've bought the domain RossBecht.com, claimed RossBecht.wordpress.com, and have worked out how to link it all together. So it's mostly just a matter of getting all the right photos together and putting them on pages on the site!

8. I've joined a really great group called Alameda Family Collective - a bunch of families on the island with young kids who plan fun outings and get-togethers and are just awesome. The kiddo is really enjoying playing with other kids his age, and I'm really enjoying time to talk to other moms about mom things...I don't get to do a ton of that, aside from with my sister and mom, and so (I never thought I'd say this but it's totally true) I'm really appreciating sitting around talking about potty training and pregnancy and husbands and all that stuff.

9. Some good stuff has happened with regard to the diabetes and Kaiser and that whole mess. I put a little update at the end of the post where I wrote about it. And I think I'm finally ready to share that one with the larger crowd, not just the couple of you awesome people who subscribe to my blog or have my page bookmarked on your phone  :-)

Camping!

Feeling very ambitious today - we're heading off to the Redwoods for camping! We've got a tent cabin reserved at Big Basin (cause you know there's no way I'm gonna be able to get myself up off an air mattress on the ground!)

The kiddo has been counting down the "sleeps" left til camping, and Ross is so in need of nature time - I'm looking forward to it myself. Big trees and good friends are two of my favorite things.

Ross is planning to wander off and do a bunch of paintings. He's been working on a series of the buildings on the old Naval Air Station, very technical and architectural, and very cool. The en plein air stuff he'll be doing in the Redwoods will be a nice contrast, I think. I'm excited to see them, anyways!

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Thankful today for the health of both my kiddos, my nephew's giant drooly smiles, low-sugar jam, long walks in pretty places, and distractingly silly tv shows (Sons of Anarchy and True Blood, I'm talking to you).

List #11 - Priorities of the now

#1 - National Boards - I've got about 3 weeks left to finish this project, and I'm only about halfway done. Maybe. I'm spending all afternoon and evening on Mondays and Thursdays writing, then two more evenings at home, and a good chunk of my weekends.

#2 - Health - trying to fit in yoga, naps, non-microwaved food, time to talk about feelings n shit. I get each of those things maybe once or twice a week right now...not the best case, but once I'm done with National Boards and school for the year, I'll get to yoga and nap lots!

#3 - Work - it's insane at the moment. Not in any horrible awful "I hate this" kind of way, but in the way of Prom is next Saturday and I'm organizing it, and we're trying to sell tshirts and hoodies but people aren't buying so we may lose money, so I need to figure out another fundraiser, and also AP tests start May 5th so that's a lot of work, and also I'm one of the main graduation planners this year, plus I have to do student gov interviews and find a sub for my maternity leave....and that whole teaching thing too.

#4 - Time with my little family - they just keep losing out right now. The kiddo has been staying up a little later, so I'm seeing him for at least 30 mins most nights, and I've gotten a couple evenings with the big compound fam which has been lovely. But I don't feel like I see any of them often enough. E is clearly agreeing with me, because he's glued to my side whenever we're both home together, and demanding attention if I step away for even a moment...bathroom doors shoved open, climbing up to kiss my face piles of times while I'm researching, throwing things, shouting...I get it kiddo, I really do...I wish I had more time. Soon.

#5 - Housekeeping and other chores - I've so been dumping all of this on Ross. And he's been great about it. Clean clothes show up in my drawers at least once a week, and the house gets picked up, dishes get done. Our little family gets taken care of, and I'm so thankful.

#6 - Friends - I think I've still got some! Hopefully seeing one or two tomorrow for a going-away party for a great friend who's moving to Baltimore to attend Johns Hopkins. The time away from writing makes me feel anxious, but she's worth it.

#7 - Blogging - clearly. Oh well. It's not like I'm not writing ALL THE TIME anyways.

Baseball!

It's been a baseball couple of days around here! Yesterday we went to the A's game: $2 Wednesdays are awesome! Nachos and hot dogs and lots of cheering. The kiddo brought his glove and kept trying to go down to the field to help them "throwin an hittin daball!"

And today, inspired by the baseball game he had so much fun at, the kiddo worked on his throw in the backyard with his dad. Too cute!

These guys are just too cute.

Letter to Target

I like Target. It might be a bit of a guilty pleasure in the super hippie, buy-local, boycott-corporations part of society that I tend to hang out in, but all the same, I like it. The clothes are comfortable (if a bit limited in color palate), the people are really nice, the stores are clean, and they usually have whatever it is I'm looking for.

But today, I really noticed for the first time just how gendered their toy aisles are. I've seen it before, but usually while rushing the kiddo past so he doesn't notice that there are piles of things he might want, like a princess outfit or a drum or a bike or cars or a doll or a new ball or any of the other fun looking stuff that's there. Today I was on my own, and perusing to see if they had a kid-proof digital camera. We're planning to give the kiddo one when his new baby cousin arrives to help him feel involved. "Take pictures, E!"

Anyways, the aisles with the "girl" stuff in them are not only filled solely with toys marketed to girls, but the shelves themselves were painted hot pink. Same thing for the boy aisles, but replace pink with blue. No dolls to be found in any gender-neutral way, no lego sets that aren't "girly" in the girl section...just a message of "These are the toys boys can like and these are the toys girls can like. The end." The only non-gendered stuff was the sports and swimming stuff, but even that has clearly been influenced - lots of black and blue and tan baseball gloves, but no pink ones. Swim stuff was available in all sorts of gender neutral colors, which means blue is an option for everyone, but pink is not. Ugh. I'm so sick of it.

So I wrote to Target Corporate. And I'm gonna Tweet them and Facebook them and hopefully, maybe, if they as cool of a company as I hope they are, they'll make some easy changes to their store setup, and not contribute anymore to making kids feel like they have to be a certain way. Cause kids definitely don't. I should have taken a picture today...I will next time I'm there.

Here's my letter. Fingers crossed.

Hello,

I'm a regular Target customer, and I really like your stores a lot. But I hate the way your toys section is set up. It's awful. The "girl" toys are in shelves that are painted pink and the "boy" toys in shelves painted blue and the things that are supposedly gendered don't have to be that way. Why are all the Legos for boys? Why is all the dress up stuff only for girls? I get that you have to market things to a target (ha!) audience, but you don't have to play into it THAT much. I would be so much happier as a supporter of your stores if you sent down a directive to remove a significant amount of the pink/blue gendering of toys. Girls like legos, and cars. My son likes horses and crowns. And bikes, and sports stuff, and basically all the toys. But soon, he'll learn from society that some of those things aren't "for him." And it would be so easy for you, as a corporation, to not be part of that stupid message that makes kids feel awkward and inferior for liking things they aren't supposed to. Thanks for your time, and I hope to hear back from you, and see some changes soon.

Lynds

List #10 - Some good things

1. It's Friday - and not just any Friday! It's Spring Break! One whole glorious week when I don't have to talk to a single teenager if I don't want to!
1b. Dammit, it's like they have radar. The second I hit that exclamation point, my FaceBook dinged with a message from a student. Not that it wasn't for a good reason. But still, it's like he knew!

2. I've been hungry and not-sick enough to eat dinner for 5 nights in a row! Hooray! I've missed food...I think I'm officially back up to my pre-pregnancy weight, finally. This one took a little longer than the last one, but I'm finally definitely feeling better!

 3. I think I felt the baby kick last night. It might've been a dream. But it might've been real. And I feel a little less torqued about the whole thing, so either way, it was a good thing.

 4. This person, Arian Foster, hates Caillou probably even more than I do. Solidarity! Also this is an awesome reason to link to one of my more favorite posts. I'm still pretty proud of that one.

5. Mom's coming up for a long visit starting on Monday!
5b. Which means it's almost time for my nephew to arrive! I can't wait to see my sister be a mother, and can't wait to meet that little boy!
5c. Which means I gotta get my hairs did now before that kiddo gets here!

6. We're gonna watch Scandal tonight, which will mean that I can look at Twitter again in about 2 hours.

7. We're almost through Season 1 of Veronica Mars, and I still don't remember who killed Lilly Kane, so I'm excited to watch the rest. Also Ross had never watched the show before and he's really enjoying it.

8. Someone tried to steal my new OtterBox phone cover today. Which doesn't sound like a good thing, but it is, because that someone was a teenaged boy, who was spotted by my neighbor as he tossed the flowery phone case cover down in disgust on her lawn. She left us a note on our door, then called the cops, who actually came out to take a report, but also didn't seem inclined to do much more about it, because it's not like anything was actually stolen. Best of both worlds. I love this small town island.

9. I have chocolate peanut butter swirl ice cream in my freezer.

10. I won at 2048! It took about a week, but I did it! And now I don't have to play anymore! Wooo!

Fears

One of my biggest inner demons, the thing that keeps me awake lots of nights, (and the thing that's gotten me banned from WebMD), is a tendency to think the worst whenever something just "doesn't feel right." I don't know if I would call it hypochondria exactly (although I think my husband and sister might!) because I don't make up symptoms or use illnesses to seek out attention or get out of doing things, and I'm not constantly obsessing over my health. And it's not just related to health stuff. It's more that I just have trouble shaking off the "what ifs."

My brain keeps running this awful soundtrack in the back of my mind whenever something like this comes up: "He hasn't called because he was mugged while walking home from work and now is lying in a ditch without his phone and with a terrible headache" or "you might have left the stove on when you left for work and now your whole house is filling up with gas and when you get home tonight it will explode." There's a scene from the movie "Amelie" that gets this pretty right on:



And this kind of stuff happens often enough that I have trouble trusting my instincts. I don't want to be a worrier, or a whiner, or a totally irrational hypochondriac. Rationally, I know that most of the awful things I think of aren't true. I can usually talk myself out of a lot of the worry rather quickly, and most of the time, there's a quick fix, like calling my husband or waiting a day (and then the random intense finger pain that just maybe might be cancer is gone and I don't have to worry anymore about what my husband would do for a social life if I were dead). So when something really does scare me, I can't tell anymore if it scares me because I scare easily (and I scare really easy - it's actually pretty ridiculous how easily startled I am), or if it scares me because it's actually scary.

For the past week or so, I've been battling this kind of "disaster thinking" about my pregnancy. I was pretty certain that I felt the baby moving around fairly regularly starting around 14 or 15 weeks in. I'm almost 19 weeks now. And for the past week, I haven't really felt the baby moving. At least, not like I was before. There have been a couple of little things here and there that might be baby, but I haven't been certain. And I know that there are about 700 rational explanations for this. Moms don't usually feel their babies move on a regular basis until about 20 weeks. The baby might've shifted position. The baby just might be doing other things. I may not have been feeling the baby before and only thought I was. Etc, etc, etc. Tons of totally rational explanations for what, in itself, isn't something Drs worry about at this point in a pregnancy (I know this because I called the Advice Nurse. Ross and I agreed that it's probably better that the Advice Nurses get to know me by name than that I spend any time googling things about my pregnancy worries).

And yet, I can't shake this worry. I'm scared there's something wrong. I'm scared to admit that I'm actually scared something's wrong. I'm scared that if I'm wrong about something being wrong that it'll make me seem crazy. I'm scared of sharing this fear and never being taken seriously again when I'm right to be scared. I'm scared of being right and sitting with the fear for another 6 days until my scheduled ultrasound, and scared of being right and demanding to be seen sooner and then finding out that I'm right and having to cancel the ultrasound appointment. I'm scared that I'll be scared for this whole pregnancy and then scared for the rest of my kid's life or the rest of my life and that I'll never manage to just be and to not worry.

Ross says I'm not crazy, or at least this whole thing doesn't make me crazy...I'm not so sure. But then again, I don't trust my own judgment right now anyways, so I think I should probably listen to him.

Muppets Most Wanted Review

Just got home from taking the kiddo to see Muppets Most Wanted. We try as much as we can to see movies at the Alameda Theatre & Cineplex because it's a grand old theater that's really involved in local events, hosts Friday Night "Alameda's Most Talented" competitions, and also it's the only movie theater on the island! Win-win.

The movie was fun. The plot is pretty simple - a Kermit look-alike with an evil mole and an even eviler (is that a word?) Russian inspired accent takes over the Muppets, and with the help of his Number 2 (Ricky Gervais), tries to pull off the stereotypical heist - steal the Crown Jewels of England. In between, there are lots of Muppet Show Acts, a bunch of sight gags and celebrity cameos, and tons of family-friendly corny jokes.

Like any good Muppet movie, there were fun and silly original songs, and a couple of references to pop hits too. My favorite was the bit where Celine Dion sings along with Miss Piggy as her Fairy Godmother. Kelle liked the play on "Workin' in a Coal Mine," staged in a gulag and led by Ray Liotta, Danny Trejo and Jermain Clement. The kiddo liked the Muppet Show theme song best, because he almost always likes best what he already knows. 2-year-olds, man.

Overall, while it wasn't as amazing as the last Muppet movie, it was way better than a lot of the crap that movie studios put out for kids. And to be fair, they acknowledge straight away that sequels are never as good (In a song: "We’re doing a sequel/ That’s what we do in Hollywood/ And everybody knows/ That the sequel’s never quite as good").



We're Doing a Sequel - Muppets Most Wanted Music Video on Disney Video
 
I laughed plenty of times, the kiddo enjoyed asking "Whas Kewmit dooin?" a lot (and eating the popcorn), and I'd be totally down to watch it again, or listen to it in the background on a long car ride.

Just a nice little Sunday

E had his last day of soccer yesterday. He really loved going, but also, he was not at all interested in following directions any more. So I think starting next week, we'll get him signed up for swimming. At least in swim class he can't run off and try to play with the big kids - not yet, anyways! I tried to get pictures of E getting his certificate, but one of the dads picked that moment to lean over to talk to his kid, so I just got  a picture of a Russian man butt instead.

After his nap, the kiddo was super chatty. So much so that I was having trouble dealing with it. He likes to repeat himself, waiting for me to confirm or repeat the same thing. Often an absentminded "uh huh" isn't enough...he'll repeat my name until I look up and say "yes, what can I do for you?" (or sometimes, if it's the 5th time in 3 minutes, "WHAT?")

To help keep myself from yelling (I had a major headache bordering on migraine and Ross was doing our taxes - there was no escape) I kept a count. Between 3:30 and 5:00, the kiddo said:

"Mama" - 75 times"I know" - 5 times
"Not at all" - 6 times
"Me either" - 3 times
"This is works" - 2 times
"I fold waundry" (said only while unfolding laundry that I had just folded, of course)- 11 times
"Play twains" - 4 times
"Honk honk honk" (said while honking either my nose or his) - 22 times
"Oof" (the kid loves pratfalls) - 12  times
"Mama awake?" (usually accompanied by a poke in the ear) - 7 times
"What's dat called?" - 15 times
"dis is miiiines" - 22 times
"Mama help me" - 16 times
"Hi mama, whatsa matter?" - 1 times
"I's aksin qweshuns" - 1 times

Around 5, Ross finished the taxes and we headed off to Target (to get me some clothes that are actually comfortable - I can still wear a bunch of my pre-pregnancy stuff, but it just doesn't feel as nice as long cotton jersey dresses do!) and then to a toy store called Toy Safari, so E could give his binkies to the Binky Fairy's Elves (aka the toy store employees) in exchange for a toy. Kiddo has chewed through all his pacifiers in the last two weeks, and it seemed silly to buy him new ones, cause we knew he'd just do it again. So we talked to him for a couple of days about how he could give his binkies to the Binky Fairy, and she would take them to the babies who need them, and he would get to pick out a toy for being a good generous big boy. He really took to the idea, and walked out of the store (after a LOT of indecision) with a play-doh firetruck, which he's super excited about ) and he doesn't even realize it came with play-doh!)

Finished the night off with dinner at Burma Superstar (I think I could eat Tea Leaf Salad every night. Seriously, that stuff is like crack, if crack were delicious and healthy and made of 20 something different tasty ingredients) and then ice cream at Tucker's. They have the cutest little baby sized cones...E had his very first "dis is miiiines" cone all to himself, and it took about 5 seconds for him to get it all over his face. Adorable, but sticky.

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I'm thankful today for the absolute lack of traffic on the Bay Bridge tonight, the fancy feeling of drinking juice out of a wine glass, pulling off a good thought-provoking lesson, and my new comfy dress. If society didn't require us to change our outfits on the daily, I'd wear it again tomorrow.

Dangit, Thomas

My kid loves Thomas the Tank Engine. So do lots of others. But it turns out even this show, which I usually tolerate just fine for my kid (aside from the incessant theme song) has a problem with pink.

A conversation I just had with my mother:

I really hope all these conversations about kids' toys, and the messages we send our children about what parts of them are valuable, and which parts are shameful, gets us somewhere, but I'm not feeling too encouraged. Amazon, a pretty good indicator of how shopping looks across America, looks like this:

"Toys" section preview - only dolls and art have any pink in them at all, even though nothing is technically gendered

"Girls" toys - all pink, all the time, except for the one thing that's white with a rainbow. The rest of the page was just as pink

"Boys" toys. No pink to be found. Boys get to have all the other colors, though, including purple.

On the upside, there are Goldiblox, which are pretty awesome. I plan to buy a bunch of sets for the kiddo when he's old enough to understand how to not chew on them. And if I ever have a daughter, I'll get even more of them for her.




Goldieblox gets it - pink isn't what makes girl's toys frustrating! These girls do all sorts of great things, and they still get to like pink! They still get to be proud of being girls, who like girly things! I love it.

PS - here's the original Goldieblox commercial, featuring a version of The Beastie Boys "Girls," which they've since had to take down from most places. I like it with both songs, but it's nice to have the lyrics, too.

Business Trip, Woah

Tomorrow I'm going on my very first, all grown up, overnight business trip! I'm actually ridiculously excited. I get to stay in a hotel, and visit artsy places, and talk to other professionals about teaching and schools and all sorts of stuff! I get to "expense" things! How neat is that?

Granted, most people my age, who have been in their careers for as long as I have (in education since age 19 - probably about 10 years total in the field, since I took that little break to have hot orange hair and work at Urban Outfitters) have done this kind of thing already. But it doesn't happen nearly so often for classroom teachers.

I'm totally panicking about what to bring - should I wear dresses? I don't have any suits...I usually wear very casual clothes at work, 'cause that's the kind of school I'm at. But these other schools - who knows what they all wear? I think I'm gonna go all Ms. Frizzle, but with less crazy hair. I've got a couple of very teacher-y dresses, and even though it's gimmicky, they've gotta be a better option than jeans, right?

I'm gonna try to take a ton of pictures of cool stuff I see, and I may have to do a total education dork-out post after, because I'm pretty sure I'll be all amped up on best practices and stuff!

And then, after the business trip, it's Kelle's baby shower! It's gonna be so great. Almost all of her boyfriend's family will be there, I think, including his grandmother who just arrived from Vietnam, maybe even planning her trip to be in California for the shower. And all our Liggett aunts! They're the best group of strong sisters ever, and I can't wait for all the hugs and chats and wonderful love they'll be bringing.

I'm super happy for Kel, too, that they're all doing this - I know I loved having my family there for my wedding, and this celebration of a new life is so important too. We really just have the best family - there for each other, so much!

Magic Snow, or how to make a giant mess

I really truly cannot figure out how all these pristine mommy-bloggers do it! They craft gorgeous educational activities, photograph them every step of the way, engage their kids in them (neatly, of course!), put up stunning pictures and still seem to have time to do things like cook dinner afterwards! It's amazing.

 That is so not how crafty fun time goes at my house. I had been wanting to try this "magic snow" recipe and activity for ages (since before Christmas) but I always had a feeling it wasn't going to go as smoothly as it looked here, where I found it first (lovely photos of this activity happening indoors are about 1/3 of the way down the page).

I was so right. The kiddo had a great time, don't get me wrong. But neat and pretty this was not. My back porch is still recovering, and I'm pretty sure there's cornstarch in all the crevices of my phone.

We did two "scienspeewments:"  magic snow and oobleck. Of course, I didn't take the proper ingredients picture until after the hurricane of kid fun had ended.

Hopefully your kitchen ingredients don't look like this! 

To make snow, mix together baking soda and shaving cream until it's the consistency you want. It's actually cool stuff...smells like clean soap, feels a bit cool to the touch, and is kinda squishy but moldable. I'm sure there are actual amounts you're supposed to use, but we kept adding more shaving cream about every 5 minutes. Mostly because E would get ahold of the shaving cream and put more in there. He's way too good at reaching things. It did seem to dry out fairly quickly, though, so I think he was on the right track.

Squish

 We made a snowman. I used parts of the plants I have growing on the porch for the eyes and nose.

It looks like he's stoned and vomiting.

 Oobleck was next. I was excited about this, because I used to love teaching about this stuff when I worked at a preschool. Simple stuff - just corn starch and water, mixed well. I have no idea about amounts, but you've probably made this before, because I think most everyone has, so you should be ok. Just mix til it does that weird thing where it looks like it's a liquid but when you press on it, it's not.

About 3 seconds after I got this picture, he dumped the bowl on my pants

We had a good time with the Oobleck for a bit, but he kept finding the darn shaving cream and trying to add it to stuff.

All proper back porches should have an unusable desk chair

 Finally, we decided to mix the snow and oobleck together. It turned out just about how you'd expect. Half snowy play-dough, half gooey fake liquid stuff. Totally fun to play with.

Mixing, very messily

 And then, the kiddo realized the hose was right there. So he added water. Then sprayed me.

See, if I hadn't been trying to take pictures, I would've been able to get out of the way of this!

 After that, I realized any semblance of neatness was totally lost, and just let him go for it. And it was adorable! He splashed and giggled and got this stuff all over the place.

A seriously happy kid

 So to all you parents who can do this kind of stuff inside - I commend you. You must be incredibly good at multi-tasking! Or you have 8 arms. Or maybe you're cyborgs who can just take photos by blinking. And have children who actually stop spraying you with a hose when you shout "No no no stop please hey kiddo you're getting water in the house!" Mine just giggles. But then again, I did too.

How can you not smile at that happy mess of a child?

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Today, I'm thankful for Pinterest, cause I wouldn't have found this fun project without it. Also for gummy bears, Diana Krall albums, ginger ale, and most definitely our washer and dryer.