We're Going To the Zoo

My favorite time to be at the zoo is in the morning. No one is ever there. The one exception happened this last week. To help bring home the science lesson for the day, we went to the kid part of the zoo where they have various interactive habitats so the kids could see why certain animals need different structures to help them survive. As fascinating as science is, it was no match for the play ground and goat petting part. I wasn't really into the play ground and was relieved when a friend called. While I chatted the kids asked if they could go into the goat petting area. Strollers aren't allowed in so I stayed out with Joaquin and "watched" my kiddos brush lethargic goats. After a few minutes, some lady came out and asked me if I was the mother to the kids in the petting zoo. I promptly got off the phone to discover the local news station wanted to interview me.

I confess, I was more than a little embarrassed to be on the phone, but agreed to do the interview. It turns out (surprise surprise) that Sponge Bob is bad for kids! I won't get into the monologue I had with the news guy, but I think that he was disappointed that he interviewed a mom who didn't find Sponge Bob charming and therefore wasn't shocked by the recent discovery. Poor news guy. I think he wanted a good ole' stand up for my bad habits even when someone tells me I am wrong speech and all he got was a sweaty mom of four standing on the soapbox for higher learning and giving something to your kids to watch that isn't spastic. In the end, they didn't even get a good interaction shot. They asked me to interact with the kids as they videoed. Weird. Didn't they remember I wasn't in there interacting in the first place. In fact, if he hadn't cut the interview, I was about to go into my theories on child obesity and the lack of non-hovering parenting in the wild.

Too bad the mens US open match was going on forever which made my interview nonexistent (or at least that is what I am telling myself).

Just a Walk in the Park

Houston has fantastic parks everywhere which is kind of funny since the weather isn't very pleasant for the whole summer and even into the fall. I am going to miss the one mile drive from our home to many outdoor activities.

Getting Creative with Face paints

After our daily grind of school work (usually a total of 4 hours broken up over the morning and early afternoon), we head out to the museum district for a little fun. Knowing that the Children's Museum is my personal favorite (oh and the kids like it too), I priced out memberships that offered reciprocity so as to get unlimited access for the least amount of money. Unfortunately, since we visited last year, the city put in metered parking where we usually parked for free. The cheapest parking is now $5 for 3 hours. That would be fine if I only wanted to come once or twice, but we have planned to visit it at least 4 times a week. At that rate, we will have paid more for parking than for our yearly family membership.

SOLUTION: I found "free" parking at the nearby city park (which is an understatement to its size and contents) with the only caveat being that we have only 3 hours to park between 7am-5pm. Since we don't get there until 2:30 usually, we are good to go. We just strap on our helmets and razor the 4 blocks over to the museum of choice!



Mia wanted to be a leopard with claws. I love how she drew little white marks on her knuckles to represent her ferocious feline claws.

Talia was so intense in her painting, I had to try not to giggle. I missed taking a picture of Tiago's face after he wanted me to draw Yoshi, Toad, and a square ? box on his face. It was kind of hideous, but the kids thought I was amazing. In fact, that night I walked in on them discussing my artistic prowess. Tiago burst out "Mom you are the most amazing artist in the world." Good thing we haven't visited the art museums yet. I'll let him keep on diggin' my mad skills with face paint.

Game Day

We kind of have a creepy love of BYU! I feel like it is slightly unhealthy, but who can help but love it (don't answer. . .really I know many who find BYU resistible). We love visiting it, encouraging it, and spending money to support it. This time of year, we even enjoy watching it:


Yesterday's victory over Ole' Miss was beautiful. The kids even enjoyed that we were watching the game which is a first. I think it helped that there was an egregious amount of junk food to be had.

Bully Alert Aisle 16!

Our homeschooling experience has been a mixed bag. Overall I am loving it and have learned and grown a lot myself. The other day, we completed a section of her technology class that looked at the reality of bullying in some of its online forms. Having been a human development major, I knew a lot about the newer ideas of emotional bullying that is often far more damaging than even being physically bullied (especially since a black eye is far easier to explain the hurt than a dirty look or lack of communication).

After we finished the lessons for the day, I promised the kids a trip to the number one children's museum in america (at least so says the ads about it). We all needed tennis shoes to participate in the athletic area of the museum. So, off to target we went to find cheap tennis shoes. Just in luck, we found some $12 wonders that fit the bill and the kids earned themselves the free cookie at the bakery for making the shoe experience not a headache. The two youngest (that walk) were reliving the exciting new exercise we learned about in PE with their own rendition of ladders. Their unique twist was adding a squeal and using my moving stroller and the dairy case as the borders of the ladders.

Their first leg almost knocked over an elderly gentleman who happened to walk by at the wrong time. He was on his phone and seemed more focused on his grocery task and phone conversation to pay the kids much attention. Unfortunately, the older woman in the yogurt section wasn't so focused and glared at my children. My first instinct was to scold the children and apologize until I remembered the words I told my kids just a few minutes before in the Bully lesson. I told them in essence that allowing a bully to treat you poorly without pointing out their rudeness isn't being kind to you or the bully. You should always stand up for yourself. Now, I don't think I need to stand up for my kids' screaming or playground behavior in a grocery store, but I don't think it is appropriate to use your adult stature to intimidate 3 and 5 year olds.

From another, more bold, part of myself, asked "Are you bothered with my kids?" To be fair, her look was in between bothered and enamored/nostalgic. No verbal reply was made, but the eye roll and the cold shoulder was a point well made. Again, I asked, "Are my kids bothering you?" This got me a fire breathing glare and finally "This isn't a playground lady". I responded in a cool and collected way, "I never said it was." She then stated "Well, I did!" I finally add, "I wished you could have told me that you were bothered so I could have apologized to you. That's all." She ended the conversation. I walked off with a feeling of satisfaction for some strange reason, but then, in the privacy of an empty aisle, quickly reminded the kids that playgrounds and grocery stores are two different places and we need to act certain ways in each place.

Then, from out of nowhere, the first elderly man approached me. He adamantly apologize "on behalf of all elderly people" that "we aren't all like that" and that "she gives elderly people a bad name." He tried to convince me that "something obviously went wrong with her in her life" and that my kids "didn't need to be apologized for." I explained that I felt bad that my kids bothered her and that even if she didn't handle herself well, doesn't mean that I am any less responsible to be polite. I just want to have my kids see that standing up and being polite can coexist.

Homeschooling

We have embarked on something unfathomable to myself, but hopefully remarkable in results. We are homeschooling. I feel a little out of the norm with both pro-school and the pro-homeschool groups. Needless to say, after much deliberation and agonizing the effects of this decision, we are taking the year away from the brick and mortar school house to travel around hooked into online school via Connections Academy. Who knows, if we can figure out how to make it work, we can become well rounded scholars and produce such greatness as seen below ;).




(funny sidenote: the first day was met with shock and horror when the kids realized that homeschool didn't mean playing all the time. In fact, several requests to return to normal school were made by my kinder/first grader after he had to sit in a chair for more than 5 minutes without games or food or book of choice in front of him. Little does he know that our day of sitting dwarfs in comparison to normal classrooms. Oh well, he'll find out next year)

Because Who Doesn't Love the ER

Busy boys means many opportunities for injuries. My busy boy has been stitched (by his father) a few times for jumping wildly around the room, lost layers of skin via gnarly bike/razor accidents, and has had bruises aplenty from his very active life style. SInce he could walk, I was convinced a broken bone was in our future.

So the other day, when he tripped over a box in the kitchen while pretending to be a launching rocket (just to go wash his hands in the bathroom), thought I might have seen a prophecy fulfilled. I continued to worry about his foot especially when he woke up in pain in the middle of the night and wouldn't put pressure on it. I had hoped to just see a physician or just get a quick x-ray to confirm breakage, but I guess the rule is "if you think it's broken, go to the ER".

The four kids and I geared up for what I was sure to be a day long adventure in the ER. (mainly because there was no real emergency like large sharp objects protruding from him or dangerously high fever so our triage would be low) With camel bak loaded with snacks, lunch, books, and of course water, we braved the ER as best we could.

Thank heavens for the interesting factor ER's have and that the bed could fit the three mobile kids. I am sure they loved all the mixed emotions coming from behind our curtains since the bed sharing switched rapidly from fun to frustrating and back again.




In the end, his foot wasn't broken which I still am a bit skeptical about and he had the chance to get a pseudo cast. Avoiding a broken bone for now only makes me more anxious for the future. May be it has something to do with the tight rope he jimmy rigged on our wooden play structure that he climbs to get on top of the roof of the play fort!