A Little Spring Break

We didn't do quite as much this spring break as last year but we tried to do at least a few fun family things. I already mentioned a few posts ago that we went to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. We got a membership to the Dallas Nature and Science Museum last year for spring break so this year we opted to try Fort Worth. This is it's second year open. It ended up being smaller then Dallas but has some really neat stuff for Isa's age. The one thing i found kind of annoying/weird is that there are separate lines for each exhibit area that you have to wait in. luckily the lines moved pretty fast.

they had the huge lite brite like Discovery Place. Isa was really into matching up all the colors.


Em even got the hang of the pegs. she didn't appreciate being interrupted though.


They had an exhibit on loan from Boston about China. Emmeline really enjoyed learning to write Chinese.


i was pretty disappointed when we found the water area. we asked about this specifically when we got our membership. em can barely reach over the side.


Isabella is like a little monkey whenever she gets the chance.


we were trying to explain to her that little sisters want to do everything their big sisters do so she should probably stop being so adventurous in front of em.


Isa though it was pretty cool how loud they were.


This is the entrance to the children's area. in my opinion it was the coolest part.


The BIG news of the day was...EMMELINE PLAYED IN THE SANDBOX!!!!!
this was a huge deal to me. she has some sensory issues, especially with her right hand. we have been trying to get her to play in sand forever and she really, really didn't like it. for some reason today was the day.




helping isa dig up dinosaur bones


not really sure what she is doing other then her never ending goal to get as dirty as possible whenever we are out.


funny face


more digging


other then the fact that emmeline completely refused to eat her lunch later, surprise surprise it was a pretty good day. we even got to go to mellow mushroom in fort worth while we were there.

Gone

i spend most of my time either cleaning or thinking about cleaning. i think most moms of young children do. we are either working our tails off trying to keep up or taking a break realizing how long it will take to catch up after we are done eating our well earned cookies.
well, i was actually trying the "keeping up with things" today. being cleaning day and all.
as i got to the living room i found the stethoscope.
i felt like i had been hit by a ton of bricks. i sat. there in the middle of the living room i felt more then my 30 years. 30 is a pivotal year for me. my own life crisis. in my mind this is the year to either do things or give them up forever. i know that isn't exactly logical but it doesn't change what my internal clock is feeling.
in reality i probably gave up my dream of being a doctor many, many years ago. but the reality of that situation brought me to my butt today. my lungs felt tight and the tears came, as they often do lately.
it's just gone. it's not that it slipped through my fingers. it's that i put it in the back like so many other things. it just seems to have grown mold and become unsalvageable. i know some people have gone to medical school at an older age but lets be real. I can't. for so many reasons. i can't because it would cost my family to much. not just money but everything. it's just gone.
so, i made a choice. i decided to leave it. i couldn't put it away. it was to symbolic. so there it lays in the middle of my living room floor. until one of the girls carries it away. like they so often do.

Long Ago in a Kingdom Far Far Away...

There lived a slightly butch brunette princess with a sparkle in her eye and a spring in her step. she got to do lots of things she loved. running, sleeping, scrapbooking, sewing, going to the park, playing in the yard, reading, going to school, and cooking.
then one day a new queen came to her kingdom. She was an evil queen. the princess tired to make her happy but nothing would please the queen. nothing except the princess's tears. she would smile in pleasure as the tears streamed down the poor princess's face. soon, she banished the princess to the kitchen. the princess would make all kinds of treats for the queen in an effort to please her, but nothing was good enough. enraged by the awful food the queen would eat it just to throw it up so she could smile as the princess washed the floors with her tears.
This went on for years. the queen came up with new ways to torment the poor princess who wanted nothing but the queen's approval. eventually the princess had a new list of things she did, though she did not love them. they were more of a list of things she DID NOT do before. before the queen.
she did not beg for someone to eat
she did not forget the last time she showered
she did not run out of food because she forgot to buy any
she did not cry in the shower
she did not cry in public
she did not cry in her closet while eating the candy she hid there
she did not have candy hidden in her closet
she did not own a throw up cleaning machine (carpet cleaner)
she did not stay inside for days or weeks at a time
The queen delighted in adding to her "did not" list. each item brought more sadness to the princess while the queen felt greater satisfaction in her success. as time wore on the princess's sparkle began to fade. her spring became a limp. yet the torment continued. nothing would satisfy the queen. she needed more tears.
readers love happy stories. well, this is the wrong fairytale for you. the queen wins. always . you might think you see the light at the end of the tunnel. it's just her. coming to laugh at your tears.

More Later

so...we went to the fort worth children's museum today. It was pretty fun. We got some cute pictures that i will be trying to post tomorrow. I just had to post this annoying tidbit though. Right after we got there and bought out tickets and Isa got into an activity, the fire alarm went off. At first i thought it was a sound effect for one of the exhibits. it was that quiet. anyway that isn't the annoying part. after they started evacuating everyone i got Isa and calmly (seriously) told her there would be alot of people trying to get out so to stay very close to me and we followed josh and em to the door.
at this point the women behind me apparently thought she was either going to die or thought she was the only one trying to leave the building. she ran into the back of my leg. i let it go, there were alot of people. she immediately did it again. i turned around, not only did she not apologize, she ran into me again while i was looking at her. i figured evacuating for a fire wasn't the time to start something. i moved to the other side of the hallway as quickly as i could. i kept my eyes on her to make sure i stayed away from her. i thought maybe she didn't know she was running into me since i hadn't said anything to her. while watching i noticed her hit 4 more people. pretty much EVERYONE she was behind. several people turned and said something to her. she would give them a blank slightly annoyed look and as they would move away she would hit the next person in front of her!
the thing is she wasn't really in a hurry. it's not like she was freaking out about trying to get out. as far as i could tell, she was just rude, self centered and inconsiderate. for some reason she really got under my skin. i even heard several more people outside talking about the "lady" who hit them with her stroller and it just got my angrier and angrier. It is people like this i just want to beat repeatedly while yelling "there are other people in the world! you are not THAT important!"

You're Doing It Wrong

Yes that too, but that is another post. Hehe.

Anyway, kids shows now suck. What are Tv executives thinking. Are their choices for writers and creators that bad? i feel like i am getting dumber and dumber the more kids shows i watch. no wonder more kids have speech delays now then when we were kids. These shows are killing their brain cells. there are a few exceptions. most of the shows on pbs are passable. i love some Word Girl and Martha Speaks, not to mention The Electric Company. Disney has a few that are OK. The Mickey Mouse clubhouse keeps my super villain happy so it keeps me happy.
If I could slowly torture pretty much everyone at Nick Jr i would do it. they deserve it. Here are my issues with Nick Jr shows.

1) THEY YELL EVERYTHING!!!! annoying huh?
i think they all probably failed their infant hearing screening but rather then get a hearing aid they just decided to make everyone else yell.

2) their characters have HUGE heads.
i mean come on, the world isn't run by bobble heads.

3) There is a complete lack of parental involvement
Where are the parents!!??
every baby animal the wonder pets save ends up running home to their parents who always say "oh, i was so worried about you" really?! then were the heck were you while these 3 school house pets saved your kid!? let alone supervising them so they didn't do something like say play on a dangerous roof?
in Kai-lan (HUGE head!) her grandfather makes token appearances but never corrects that stupid tiger rintoo when he is being to rough or just plain mean. Those animals are throwing temper tantrums left and right. get it together gramps. i think you are a little to old to be left alone with the "kids" anymore.
hey, if my kid yelled all the time i would probably wander off and let someone else bail them out too.

4) Everything works out the second time around.
if at first you don't succeed try, try again. if you fail again, just quit, you're no good at it. every time there is something a character can't do, if they just do it a second time it works. what exactly are we teaching kids here? no wonder isa wants to quite things left and right. i guess when she can do it perfect the second time we will know we found the money maker.

5) (this is more of a side note) They are culturally insensitive.
there is a wonder pets episode that really gets under my skin. they save the fiddler crab on the roof. that's right. an implied JEWISH crab. he even had an accent! (please no Jewish jokes). i am incredibly sensitive about Judaism. i know, i know, i'm not Jewish. it just bothers me. why would you have a non-kosher animal portray a Jew? seriously.

cartoons from when i was a kid might not have been "educational" but at least they weren't teaching me bad life skills.

i didn't think i could really bounce out of trouble like the gummi bears or make someone be nice to me with a care bear stare (another post entirely). I knew that i couldn't access a magical door and play with the fluppys. i did however manage to learn my numbers, colors, letters, reading, writing, etc without those being part of my TV line up. granted i did yell a lot but who wouldn't when you are the youngest of 5 kids?

so, come on tv people, do your kids watch this stuff? if so, spend more time with them and you'll see how annoying it is and how annoying they will become without a little parental interference.

Super Cute's Nemisis

When Isabella was little we called her super cute. Well, on her first birthday my super cool sister Katie Drew a picture of Isabella dressed as a super hero, cape and all. She aptly named her Super Cute, the super hero who dazzles the world with her cuteness. She also made her a little super hero outfit with a cape and everything. very cool.

In the movie Megamind there is a cool quote. "Where ever there is evil, good will rise up against it". I think this also holds true for good and evil. This means that since Isa is my super hero, Emmeline is, you guesses it, my super villain. She is very good at torture, ignoring the minion/minions, incredible endurance and waiting until you show happiness and the squishing it. Isa will come swooping in when em is being exceptionally mean and try to help the situation, in true super hero fashion.

I mentioned to Katie that maybe we should do a picture for Em as a super villain. The problem we are facing is that we need a cool super villain name. it seems like it should have something to do with puke but it's hard to come up with a scary/cool name with puke in it so...
Ideas?

Zero

When I was in college I took and educational psychology class during my very brief stint as an education major. In this class we took a creativity test. I got a zero. That's right I have absolutely zero creativity. When I tell people about it they usually say the same thing. "Of course you have some creativity, everyone does!".
Today Josh and I watched a TED speaker who talked about how modern education is killing creativity. He said he judges creativity on the usefulness of an original idea. I am pretty sure in those parameters I am a zero. I have a super hard time coming up with original ideas. Well, as long as I am given no examples I might be able to come up with something passable, maybe.
I love pottery. Well, as long as I can keep my hands wet. It always amazed me all the tings you can do with clay. It can be made to look like pretty much anything. Even though it is something I feel inspires me I still can't come up with original stuff. I guess in a sense what I make is original because even though I love it, I am still terrible at copying so it doesn't really end up looking very much like what i am trying to replicate. not for lack of trying though.
i wish i had creativity. when I try to be creative I usually enjoy it. It relaxes me. That is until I sit back and look at what I have been working so hard on. Then I get kind of depressed at what looks like a pre-K art project. It would be nice if my enjoyment were better reflected in my finished piece.
Either way, I don't really think any of my attempts could be called useful.

Cuddle Time

We had almost a week off of school a few weeks ago because we got hit with quite the ice then snow storm. in Texas. i guess this stuff follows us. either way it was great. we had elephant ears, watched movies, and most importantly cuddled. Isabella and Emmeline were very cute. Isa LOVES being a big sister and Emmeline loves letting her.


Isabella made a little bed for her in this laundry basket.


she stayed in it for a LONG time. she was a little annoyed that i made Isa move so i could get a picture of just her.


this was the souvenir Emmeline picked at disneyworld. josh held up several to choose from and she jumped out of the stroller to try and get it. she wouldn't let him go. now she sleeps with him every night.


a closer look at the cuteness.