Another Week Gone...

This week Mark tried to overschedule us again... I guess he's practicing for when he gets his MBA and has to schedule and attend meetings all the time.

Alright, let's get this party started!

Hello? Um, yes, can I speak to your biggest
head honcho muckity-muck?

Yes, that's right. Meetings at 10, 2 and 4 on
Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Hey! He hung up on me! Hmph. Maybe I should have
wiped the drool off my chin before calling.

Since we didn't have to worry about meetings, Gracie helped me mop:

First we mopped the dining room.
(Ignore the fact that her pants are
wet up to the knees...I did.)

Then she helped with the kitchen floor.
(The water is rising on those pants.)

And lastly, she mopped the dishwasher.
She's very thorough. And wet to her bottom.

We also had fun playing with ordinary objects around the house. For some reason, they are much more entertaining than the myriad of toys strewn about:

Mark is enjoying learning to stack things.

Shhh... he's concentrating very intently here...

By jove, I think he's done it!

Grace also found some sorting tasks to do:

First we separate all of the plates and put
post-it notes in them. Then we step on them.

After that, each section gets a paper
cup, lovingly stolen from Mark...

And then a ball gets dropped into each one.
Remind me again why we spend money on toys?

Grace also colored and played with stickers. When she ran out of her first page of stickers, she asked for more. Apparently I wasn't quick enough in retrieving the stickers, because she ended up finding her own:

In this instance, I will choose to label my child
"resourceful" instead of "stinker".

We also had our first "real" babysitter this week. Mommy and Daddy went out and left the kids with a sitter from church - someone who was actually not related to us, and happily took our money at the end of the night. And you know what? We were happy to give it to her. We had a great time. The kids had a great time too. Can't wait to do that again!

Auntie Kim and the cousins also came to visit for a short time, and they dropped off a dress for Gracie to use when she grows into it. It's a 6x. It took about three seconds for my two year old to request to wear the dress that should be four sizes too big. To me it looks perfect.

She looks like a princess!
(Well, minus the shirt sticking out from underneath.)

I hope you all had a wonderful week filled with chores getting accomplished, meetings getting  canceled and resourceful people making your life a little more interesting. At the end of it all, I hope you found time to snuggle up to someone and just relax a little too.

T.V. time, blankies and milk. Life is good.

Another Week Gone...

We didn't have anything planned this week, and didn't go anywhere or visit anyone. Well, we took a walk to the grocery store, but we only bought eggs... does that still count? I was afraid this lack of activity would make for a very mundane post. Obviously I haven't been doing this SAHM thing very long...

Our Monday started out with this:

It was after taking these pictures that I realized Grace not only filled up her potty....

...but the big potty too!

After fishing these out of the toilet (a great start to any Monday), we went to the living room to watch Elmo. Apparently the lack of her blankie did not deter Gracie from finding something to cover her lap...

What other kind of trouble can I think up for today?

Finally, while I was feeding Mark, Gracie went into the dining room and disappeared around the corner. It got very, very quiet. Never a good sign.

Gracie had unlocked the sliding glass door, opened it, gone outside and turned the sprinklers on! Oh boy.

And this was only Monday?

Thankfully the rest of the week proved fairly uneventful. We had lots of fun just playing here at the house. Here are the highlights of Another Week Gone...

We played Starfall. This is a great program for anyone who has pre-schoolers learning their ABC's or learning to read. We find ourselves spending about a half hour a day playing "Cees!".

Gracie also played with her brother on his play mat. He found this to be great fun, and she enjoyed trying to get his toys to him:

Blogger won't let me rotate this picture,
but mommy thinks it's too cute not to include!

We played with our puzzles. Gracie demonstrated the best way to hold the pieces, and made sure we each got a chance to try it out:

Just like this!

Great job Mark!

Here you go mommy!

Daddy got to come home from work early on Wednesday, so we played with him, and then took a walk to the grocery store, where they give out cookies to the kids for free. Gracie just started saying "Please" for the first time this week (previously she would only sign the word please, but not say it outloud) and was so cute asking for her "co-kee, peas"!

Fun with daddy, a.k.a. Jungle Gym

Evidence of her chocolate chip cookie
remained after our walk

Gracie also loves to help empty the dishwasher, and this week she helped me load it for the first time. Not too bad sweetie!

We really need to work on putting the plates a little farther apart...

Finally, I asked Grace to get into her high chair for lunch. This was the result:

As always, it was a very fun week. And despite not going lots of places, we still managed to tire our little ones out...

Hope you enjoy the little ones in your life this week!

MoMo's World

Below is Kevin Clash. This man is at my house every day.

Sometimes twice a day, when I really need his help.

What? Oh yes, you know him. In fact, anyone with a child born after 1985 has probably had him at their house too. It's just you've never seen him all dressed up... and holding the Emmy that's peeking out from the corner of the picture above. The Emmy is for his work as a puppeteer on Sesame Street.

Sesame Street is in it's 41st season this year.  (You'd think they'd have learned their ABC's by now.) There was a time though, when Sesame Street wasn't sure they'd make it to forty seasons. In 1999, after thirty years of progamming, the producers found viewership declining. So, they did a study to find out why after all these years Sesame Street was no longer a top kids choice. You know what they found?

A child will start watching television the moment they can lift their heads to view the screen - parents already know this. They also know that it will keep their child occupied long enough for them to go to the bathroom in peace. And if it's a really great program, you can even blog on the computer and drink a cup of coffee.

Not that I do that.

The original Sesame Street episode was designed for children age three to five. But television viewers were often much younger, and finding their entertainment elsewhere. So, Sesame Street added a new segment at the end of each episode, aimed at their youngest viewers. And they chose the monster that appealed most to that age group.

That's right. Elmo. Kevin Clash is the man behind the Muppet, and has won multiple awards for his work. The job was originally offered to another puppeteer, who turned it down because "it was too cutesy." Bad for him, good for Kevin.

My daughter LOVES Elmo. Or rather, "MoMo". (Apparently they are chummy enough to use informal names.) Elmo is three and a half and has stolen my daughter's heart.

Grace didn't watch television until she was nineteen months old. I wanted to wait until she was two to introduce television, but quickly realized that t.v. was invented solely to help nursing mothers occupy their toddlers while feeding their infants. So, I got three DVDs from the library and showed them to Grace. Clifford was too old/complicated. Baby Einstein was too young/boring. But the Elmo video?

The Elmo video was like giving her a dose of chocolate flavored Benadryl. She sat there with a huge smile posted on her face and didn't move for 45 minutes. We were both hooked.

Why do kids love Elmo so much? Well, after a lot of Elmo observation, I have come to the conclusion that Elmo is the ultimate optimist. No matter what happens, he seems to be able to just chuckle and shrug it off. He slips on a pile of apples at the grocery store? He just stands up and chuckles. Computer won't co-operate? He just says "Please?" until Computer works. I think the worst thing I've ever heard Elmo say is, "Drawer is not being very nice today."

Now who wouldn't love a guy like that? Elmo doesn't yell, throw tantrums, steal toys, hit, bite, or do any of the other things toddlers are prone to do. He doesn't get upset when things don't go perfectly. It's no wonder Gracie loves Elmo. He's the most well behaved three year old she's ever met!

So, once a day (okay, sometimes twice) Gracie gets to watch her beloved "MoMo", and mommy gets 45 minutes of uninterrupted time to do whatever needs to be done. Because Gracie loves Elmo. And you know what? I love Kevin Clash.