Spin art and jello before a snowday

On the eve of one of the biggest predicted snowstorms for the winter season, Gi and I tackled spin art and jello jigglers. What? Were you expecting me to tell you we had fun trying to find all our old candles and flashlights or making a trip to the store for ice and other necessities? Nah! We have to have FUN before the lights go out, right?

Oh, also all four of us have had a nasty cold for the past three days and lack of sleep, lack of preschool and lack of energy had me feeling like a zombie. I figured I could put a smile on at least one kids' face with paint, glitter and some good old fashioned jello. And, I was right!

Opening the bottle herself.
  
 

Gi is getting rather good at taking pictures too!
  
   

Get ready for fun!!

Gi had a blast using our (very expensive...so I cringed a little on the inside while I let her do this) salad spinner, some paper plates and LOTS of tempera paint. Some of the paint was washable, some wasn't but it all came off the salad spinner in the end. Breathe a secret sigh of relief here. Anyway, being three years old is all about making choices and doing it "all by myself" so this was a great activity for her. She chose the paper plates, the color paint, squeezed them "all by myself" which in most cases emptied the bottles of their contents entirely, put the top on the spinner, pressed the lever, pressed the stop button, repeat again and again and then dusted her final oeuvres with sparkly silver "princess" glitter--by the way, did you know the word princess is actually an adjective? Not many sentences are void of that special 8-letter word in our house these days. Thank God we're going to Disneyland Paris soon!

Press handle down, stop, repeat, FUN!

These will make a cool mobile
for her playroom ceiling!

So, after our dizzying array of spin art plates were finished we took a break for lunch and then my foresight really paid off. Earlier this morning I managed to get Gi to make jello with me, poured it into a shallow pan and let it set up in the fridge knowing we would be able to use our cool cookie cutters and make jello jigglers later today. Later was much sooner than I thought because Gi doesn't miss a beat. Right after finishing her pretzels and cheese she asked, "Mommy, can I see the jello now please?" But we all know what she really wanted to do was dig her fingers into that jiggly mess and cut out shapes she could eat while she was at it. Thankfully, it doesn't actually take the 3 hours recommended on the package to set up and we were digging into it for dessert after lunch. Yum!



 

 

 

Want to know the best part of all this? When we were finished she helped me clean up and then told me she was TIRED! Well, that's all it took for me to whisk her off to read a book and lay her down in bed and now here I am, one load of laundry done, dishes put away, kitchen cleaned and two kids napping leaving me to update you on my blog. Aaaah...sweet motherhood success!  I heart jello and tempera paint and also my husband who doesn't care if I don't make dinner tonight because of all the fun we had this morning instead. Now I really can relax and enjoy the snow storm.

First tastes

We had Noa's 4-month doctor's appointment yesterday and she's growing well at 14lbs. 14oz. and 26.5 inches. But she has slowed down putting on the pounds and is about a pound smaller than Gi was at the same appointment. I attribute the slow month of growth to my diminished milk supply. It's not terrible and she's not starving but there are times she would definitely eat more and days when she doesn't get enough to eat. Unfortunately, she will not accept a bottle of formula so the doctor gave us the green light to begin giving her tastes of solids if she seems to want them. The first night, I gave her a tiny taste of sweet potato mash and that was quickly rejected. Last night Ben was eating a banana and she grabbed for it (well, she grabs for anything that is in her reach) and here's what happened next:




Of course all this happened the day after a medical study made the news linking the early introduction of solid food to infant obesity! Thankfully the correlation seems to only be positive for babies who are formula-fed. Take a gander at the article:http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/peds.2010-0740v1

Can you pack light with kids?

This question, though I've googled it extensively, keeps me awake at night searching for the answer. My worst travel nightmare is to have a large bag packed, teetering on the scale at the check-in counter and two more to be weighed while we juggle a drooling baby and tantruming toddler--or maybe the sight of us all trying to squeeze into a Parisian taxi. Yes, definitely making it my mission to pair down the luggage this time around.

So, I've set out to find the most space-saving, kid-conscious way of packing for our upcoming trip. Wouldn't you know the internet has some pretty wonderful ideas to help out. The one that caught my eye and that I think I'm going to try this time is "bundle packing". Yes, like the stereotypical image of a woman with a cloth bundle carried upon her head. Who knew it would also be the most favored approach to eliminating wrinkles and creases from over-packed, heavy suitcases of clothing? Check out the description of it here: http://www.onebag.com/pack.html

I know one thing for sure, with our last three nights in France spent in a 4th floor Parisian walk-up apartment, my husband at least, will be thankful for a reduced load! Now, maybe I can persuade him that if I really want to pack light I'll be needing to buy a new Victorinox bag...hmmm...honey? That electric blue one would really bring out the color of his eyes.

And if any of you frequent travelers with children have some tips for us on how to pack everything we need but use basically only one checked bag, please leave me your ideas in a comment here.