Here they come

The catalogs have started to descend upon us.
Since the first one arrived on Saturday, the boys have fought over it back and forth. Now the second one is here. If you don't count Nova's catalog that comes earlier in the year. I'm sure its the beginning of the flood.
I hear chants of "an' I wan' ______". Or, "Mom, come look at this!" Yes, I already looked at the catalog dear. And no, I don't need to look at every item 15 more times just to verify that it is a wonder of a toy. Yes, I'm sure it would be lots of fun and entertainment. But, in concert with the 15 million toys we already own, and the complete inventory of that catalog that you also want, I sincerely doubt it would ever get touched. Much less remembered.
I have contemplated for weeks now dumping all they toys that get scattered and ignored, or even the ones which reside quietly in the closet upstairs. So quiet in fact I'm not sure the boys remember they own them. What if I just had one very teeny box of toys in the whole house? I imagine they would really and truly play with those toys. Or continue to play with the cushions and blankets and pots and pans and boxes they find lying around. Well, lying around because they played with them this morning and no one picked them up.
I do have a kitchen toy ban. Meaning no toys in the kitchen. I consider it a hazard to have small toys underfoot when I'm carrying hot dishes and knives! And every evening after dinner all the living room toys have to be back in their bins. We do pretty well all things considered. But I wonder what our living room would look like if I could spend that evening time folding the laundry that has taken up permanent residence on the black chair instead of hovering over the toy and kitchen cleanup. And would there be fewer squabbles if the living room and bedroom and stairs and hallway and closets were not littered with toys. One thing I learned in my degree program was that, in setting up an environment for early childhood, less is more. Children get overwhelmed by too many choices. Leaving open space and just a few toy selections leads to children playing more actively and with more focus.
So why can't I just bite the bullet and do it? One big box (or 5) and one big shove out the door. Really, that's it, right? And I know that with Christmas coming, it's not likely people will give the gift of cleaning out the toy stash. I'm guessing it's going to be more of an add-to-it proposition.
In fact, I'm getting ready to make up the boys' wish lists. Because I'm crazy. And I'm their mom. And Christmas is for fun, right?
I am trying to not be too bad though. I am going to ask that they boys receive the minimum number of toys. Yes, it's fun to open lots of packages, but I'd rather they associate Christmas with being with family and feeling that good feeling than think it's all about the loot. That way, too, I can feel good about buying one quality toy that will last rather than lots of cheaper toys that will wind up in a land fill before next Christmas is even considered.
The other thing we plan to do is Christmas for a family. We have done this in years past and it's so much fun! We find out about a family that may need a little extra help this year and gather up a box full of things we think they would enjoy. Our energy of buying and wrapping and doing gets thrown outside of ourselves. We then drop off the box at the house, knock and run. No one ever knows it was us. We never got around to doing it last year. The difference we noticed was pronounced. The years we have done a secret Christmas there has been a lot more joy in giving. Last year there was just a whole lot more "gimme's" and "I didn't get's". It was sad. So, this year, definitely going back to that tradition!
So, if you get less from us this year, know that our resources probably went to a family that needed it. And it went to teaching our children that Christmas is about service and doing and giving to others. We will still have lots of love left for you when we get together. Maybe even more because of the small stack of brightly wrapped gifts. 'K?

Happy Birthday to Aunt J!

Having a baby brother is like having the best doll, pet, action figure and prop all rolled into one. Here he does double duty as a doll and excuse not to help fold laundry.For the last couple of months, I have been offering solids to E. For the last couple of months, he has been refusing them as outright disgusting. I offer spoon. He grabs spoon. Some food gets in mouth. Baby ponders. Baby makes gross face. Baby coughs out food.
This weekend, G found some PerkyO's and was eating them. E reached out and grabbed one. I decided to let him decide what to do with it. He stuck it in his mouth, started to make the face. And stopped. He chomped on it awhile. He swallowed. He reached for another!
So we gave up on the carefully mashed fresh food, and have gone for the steamed chunks instead. My baby is happy. He struggled a bit with the slippery-ness of the sweet potatoes. Last night we tried green beans since I was using them in our soup. Oh happy baby! He devoured green beans. See? Happy baby!
I have mentioned the awesomeness of Aunt J before, I'm sure. But she really is so tremendously awesome. She watches my boys, she comes over to our house to do things like dishes, laundry and cooking. She tells us to go on dates. She does yard work. She drops everything to help when there is crisis. There is no way I could ever repay what she does for me. I couldn't do it without her. Thanks J! And Happy Birthday!!
But just for fun, we made her a cake for her birthday today. It was lots of fun and hopefully she enjoys it and shares it with her friends.
The boys adore their aunt. Here they are absorbed in card making. I'm not all that sure G is actually making a card. He's probably playing with the scissors.

Crafting for L

For some reason, I've been on a bit of a craft binge for my niece, L. Actually, it's because of Christmas and her birthday. I wanted to post pictures of what I've been working on. The first is doll clothes for her baby. They took almost no time at all and were lots of fun. I don't generally get to sew doll clothes. :)The second set is play food made out of felt and a bag to carry it all in. There are 3 oranges, 2 each of tomatoes, strawberries, lettuce, pancakes, bread, eggs and 4 slices of cheese and 1 slice of bacon. I had lots more planned out, but I ran out of time and my family ran out of patience with me sitting and blanket stitching tiny pieces of felt for hours at a time. LOL
I had fun anyway. And yes, I could make felt food for my boys. I even asked them if they wanted any because I really wanted to make some after I saw the stuff some of my fellow crafty moms were making. But they scoffed and turned up their noses. No surprise that when I finished the first egg I had a hard time keeping track of it. And every. Single. Piece. After. That. So it's good to be putting them in the mail. I hope she likes them as much as her cousins.

Updated gift lists

With Birthdays over and Christmas coming, I've update the gift lists. Enjoy!

Gift ideas for the boys

I can either make a list or link list but can't seem to do both. So, I'm making this post so I can link to it from the boys' lists. Make sense? OK
For M-
He is a scientist and loves science books. Lately he has really enjoyed the Usborne science books (history too) that are internet linked.
Letterboxing is something that we have done, but not as much as we would like. A letterboxing kit could include a compass, a small notebook, a small stamp and fun stamp pad, a pencil and maybe an orienteering book.
Books on CD are fabulous gifts. He would also enjoy an MP3 player (doesn't have to be top of the line) with audiobooks or a subscription to audible.com
He also wants a watch. A cool one that lights up when you push a button, cuz all my friends have watches." What was I thinking?! Almost 9 and no watch? What kinda mom am I?
M could also really use new hiking and camping gear. He grew himself right out of his sleeping bag, and pretty much trashed it in the process. There goes that hand-me-down idea.
Rain gear--I almost forgot about that. He's grown out of all the rain gear.

For G-
We really need more books for kids his age which depict kids in normal situations with skin colors other than pale pink. He loves pointing out kids in the books we have that have darker skins and saying, "like me!"
A sheet set that has fun things on it like fish, trains, race cars etc. NOT DISNEY I really don't want my kids sleeping in an advertisement.
One of those small bikes with the training wheels that come off. I can totally see him going 2 wheeler by next summer.
Also, rain gear. We don't have much rain gear in his size (3-4T). Probably because M didn't enjoy sitting in puddles as much as G seems to.

For baby-
Really mostly what I need are a cosleeper or other small bedside bassinet thing, and diapers. Most of my diapers have not made it though to a 3rd child very well. Granted they've done well considering many of them were slapped together or hand-me-downs to begin with. So prefolds, fitteds, pockets--whatever. In fact, I've got lots of fabric and notions and patterns. If someone wants to sew for me, knock yourself out!

I will add to these later, the kids are fighting over the computer...