Zac in his boat

Bye-bye bib...

...hello stain remover.

How old is too old to wear a bib?

Since Benji will be 4 in 2 weeks, Shearn Yoong and I decided that perhaps it's time to take the bib off Benji at meals. So yesterday was his first bib-free day. And here's the problem. I am the one who does laundry. And my job has been really easy up until now. Neither boy hardly ever stains their clothing ... because I am OCD about using bibs. Bibs are really great inventions. We adults should use them too!

So if you see me at the supermarket stocking up on stainer remover, you'll understand why.

New Bathroom!

After about a month living on just one tiny bathroom, all of us are glad that we finally have our other bathroom back! It's by far my biggest DIY project, and we absolutely love how it looks now. Everything except the bath tub and fixtures was replaced. Looking at it now, we sorta want the bath tub replaced..... Oh well, we'll survive.

There goes the old sink and most of the vinyl floor.

New floor being installed

Through the project, Benji has shown a keen interest in helping. It's actually quite amusing watching him imitate me. I would normally have a hurried pace as I move in and out between the bathroom and the garage. Benji would follow right behind me and imitated my hurried pace. He enjoyed doing the little tasks I gave him, although he would typically declare needing a break after about 5 minutes on the job! He does come back to work some more, but it's peppered with breaks constantly. Here he is with Grandpa and me putting the cement board down; prepping the wall for painting. He also got to do some mudding, hammering, sweeping and painting. So helpful. Best of all, he kept me company.

Here are some pics of the new bathroom. I've yet to finish caulking and reinstalling the door, but otherwise is usable at this time. We'll possibly need a new vanity mirror. The boys took their first bath in the new bathroom last night.

So what are some of the lesson learned from this project? For one, IKEA products assume you have a perfectly flat and 90-degree angled walls. Yeah, like that's gonna happen. So we have a bit of a gap along the right side of the counter. Second, I'm glad that Grandpa has tools. Boy, I can't imagine how much money I would have to sink into this project if I had to get all the tools myself. Thank you Grandpa for the tools and the help. Third, save yourself some trouble and rent a wet saw to cut porcelain tiles! It's worth it.

We also want to thank all the playgroup ladies for giving their valuable input and ideas toward this project.... and others to come I'm sure.

County Fair

Anticipation - Benji has been waiting for the return of the county fair ever since last August. He asks when the county fair will arrive about once a month all year long. Here he is waiting for the train to arrive so he can get started on his first ride of the evening.

At first Zac is not so sure about this train ride thing. This is a little scary.

Wait a minute! This is actually really fun. He did the "more" sign lots tonight.

When Zac saw the carousel, he kept saying, "Neigh, Neigh" (his word for horse). Both boys enjoyed this ride as well.

Once the tickets were gone, we went to see the animals. You can tell the real cowboys from the city folk in a second - and we are definite city folk. If you can't tell from the picture, that's a rabbit they're petting up there.

Conclusion: the fair was a hit.

To push or not to push

The definition of attachment parenting (AP) is a parenting philosophy based on the concept of allowing the child to 'separate' from the parent at its own pace. Shearn Yoong and I basically subscribe to this idea of parenting, though I'm sure our version looks different than the next AP parent. However, what this means at age 2 vs. age 4 is what I'm currently struggling with.

Benji attended his first gymnastics class a few weeks ago and loved it. This was his first class where I wasn't right next to him at all times, though I was in the bleachers watching. I was pleasantly surprised how well he did. Then when it was time to go again the following week, he said, "I want to wait longer before starting gymnastics." A complete reversal. I tried to probe why he had changed his mind but couldn't get to the root of it. I have a pretty good idea though. I think he had a great time (as evidenced by his huge smile and enthusiasm following the class). But then he got thinking, "Hey, wait a minute. Neither my mom nor my dad were right there with me. That wasn't actually fun after all." I gave him a few more weeks and then said we'd start again this week - our class was supposed to be this afternoon. Every time I mentioned it, he said he wanted to start "later."

The question is, to push or not to push. Shearn Yoong and I have decided not to push and will not be going this afternoon. I confess, I'm really disappointed. And I know that it's not just in regards to him but projecting myself in him. I was a shy girl growing up. I still am shy but force myself out of my shell. I finally realized in college that people who talk with strangers, even if they don't feel like it, seem to have a lot more fun in life. I HATED junior high and high school - not for academic reasons but social ones. I hope both of my children can spare some of that, and I wonder if I push them some now, maybe they won't suffer so much as I did.

This issue for Benji comes up a lot. He would prefer to avoid any large group of people who he doesn't know, but guess what? This is difficult to do. And it makes life a lot more boring for the rest of the family. So it's not an option. I took the two boys to an ice cream social on Saturday afternoon, thinking it would be lots of fun. Wrong. I take that back, Zac had a great time, but Benji definitely did not. A bowl full of sugar didn't even make the crowd bearable.

Anybody with experience on this issue - any advice? Just be patient? Push? Don't push? This parenting stuff - it's a tricky business!

Word of warning

If you need to put a clean sheet on the top bed on a bunk bed, you should first turn off the fan. It would be funny, except my head still hurts today.

Homemade bread

For the last few months (thanks to the mixer Shearn Yoong bought me for my birthday in April), I have been making all our bread. I am too lazy to figure out if it's cheaper (though I assume it is), but I know that it definitely tastes better. Which is the problem. I might need to STOP making it from scratch because I'm justing eating too much of it! My favorite way to eat it is with lots of butter and honey on top - yummy! Here's the simple recipe I use. I'm sure there are lots of other good ones but this one works for me. However, beware that you might become addicted and then gain 5 lbs.

Ingredients

* 7 C. whole wheat flour
* 2/3 C gluten
* 2 1/2 T. Yeast
* 5 C hot water
* 2 Tbls salt
* 2/3 C. oil
* 2/3 C honey
* 2 1/2 T. bottled lemon juice
* 4 C. more wheat flour


Directions

Mix together the whole wheat flour, gluten flour, yeast and hot water. Hint: the hot water in this recipe will not kill your yeast
Mix for 1-2 min. Cover and let stand for 10 min.
Add salt, oil, honey, and bottled lemon juice.
Mix 1 min.
Then add 4 c more flour
Knead for 10 min
Let rise for 1 hour
Divide into 3 or 4 loaf pans
Bake at 350 for approx. 45 min.

Paper hats

This morning Benji wanted to make paper hats (out of the blue). Thank God for Google - you can find out how to make absolutely anything! Here are the results:

Miss Spider's tea party at the library

Benji attended his first tea party yesterday. Though it was mainly girls in princess dresses, there were several other boys there (they were all put together at one table with a older boy being the host for that table). After reading some books about manners and singing "I'm a little teapot," they sat down at tables with real linen table cloths to eat mini quiche, grapes, teddy grahams, beautifully decorated petits fours, and tea of course. Benji had impeccable manners, which makes me think perhaps we should dress up, bring back the table cloths, and play music during dinner to encourage a better eating atmosphere... a thought.

There's a nightmare in my closet

My mom read the book "There's a nightmare in my closet" (by Mercer Mayer) to Benji yesterday and did the following craft with him. I am posting this because the nightmare monster really looks like a monster!! Most of Benji's artwork up until now has been highly abstract in nature.

This is the closed closet door, if it'd hard to tell in the picture.

The one thing my mom drew were the teeth, but the rest was all Benji.