A Proud Mommy

Last fall we signed up for the early childhood science discovery classes at the City of Minnetonka Community Ed.  We went to our first class last month (in March) and to be honest I wasn't too impressed.  When I signed up for the classes  (4 of them) I was excited and hoped that Marcus would get a lot out of the sessions, so I was disappointed that last months was kind of a bust.

 

We went back for class this month with lower expectations and we were happily surprised with the change.  We learned that the previous month the teacher was a sub and she did not do the lesson plan.  This week we had the main teacher back and she was on top of her game.

 

We started the night with some group activities and I was so proud of Marcus.  He participated in almost everything and answered the teachers questions.  I never really get to see Marcus in this setting, since at daycare drop off and pick up there is a lot going on and it is not a time focused on teaching.  He made me so happy and proud to see my little boy listening and learning.  The topic of this session was growing things. He even told his teacher all about the plants he started growing with Grandma Jackie.

After the group activities were over we all visited 6 different stations she had set up with activities focused on growing plants.  They included some art (which Marcus loved), planting a few things, playing in the dirt, and looking at different types of seeds.  Once again Marcus was engaged and full of ideas.  He was having a lot of fun.

When we finished all of the stations the entire class went out for hike around the school and looked to see what items have started growing.  Marcus was very good at finding the new buds.  He really like the hike. 

When it was almost time for class to end we all sat together and sand the "Needs of a Plant" song.  Marcus watched but at this point decided not to sing and dance along (my little non-participator) but he still had a good time.

The teacher ended the class by letting all of the kids (did I mention they were ALL boys) play with the cards and that was a hit.  Overall the night was a success and I left as a proud mommy.  Marcus was great with all of the kids and behaved wonderfully!

 

Art Work!





Marcus is growing beans here.
 

 

My little non-participator

Marcus is a very cautious little boy, when he gets started at a new things it takes him a while to warm up and that can make things extremely difficult.  I have never been like that in my life (and my parents verified this) and at times I struggle to do the right thing and not force him into action.  I work hard to respect his wishes while still working hard to make sure that he is moving towards participating.

This is something we also see at daycare, there are some things he just refuses to participate in (yoga, karate) and other items where he participates some days and takes other days off (music is an example of this one).  This behavior kind of worries me and I will admit that I have spent some time reading website to hear how common it is and how out parents deal with it.  I am happy to say I am not alone and it appears the most common way kids get out of this behavior it by growing up.  So I guess I need to be patient.

Swimming lessons have been falling right into this but unlike Karate and Yoga they really matter.  We love to spend a lot of time at the lake in the summer and I want to make sure Marcus is a swimmer.  This is extremely important to me, partially because I remember when my uncle Mark drowned as a adult, he had never learned to swim.  The first week of swimming lessons went OK but things really went down hill from there and last week Marcus and I just ended up sitting on the side of the pool watching the other kids take the swimming lesson.  This week I had a plan to at least get him in the water.

First, we got to the pool super early (like 20 minutes), this gave him enough time to warm up to the idea of the water.  He actually walked around the children's area for about 5 minutes before getting his feet wet. After his he got in I could tell he was getting really comfortable.  We talked about the swimming lesson that was coming and agreed that he only had to do what made him comfortable.  If he didn't like something he could sit and watch, as long as he was in the water.  Woo.... I was feeling pretty good now.  Last week was really hard and I felt totally discouraged so tonight was much better.

 Eventually it was time to for the swimming lesson to start and we walked over and Marcus got right in!  Success!

 Things did go downhill a bit when the teacher brought out the swimming arm things and Marcus really doesn't like those.  We did get him to hold it but he was not even willing to consider trying it on.  The funny part was that Marcus kept moving it a little bit further away from himself- every couple of minutes.  He just wanted to make sure we were going to make him use it (which we didn't), maybe next week.

 He did sit nicely while the only kids swam around in their life jackets.  But at the end of lessons the teach asked Marcus if he wanted to jump in the with the rest of the class.

And he said yes!

 After all of this I call tonight a success.  We still have plenty to work on but it was good.  After we were done I left him play in the children's pool for about 10 more minutes and he loved it.

There were a few more steps I did in prep for tonight.  First we have talked about his swimming lessons since last week.  That helps him mentally prepare for the swimming lesson.  The other thing I did was bribery- sometimes a mom just has to do what a mom has to do. Before we went to swimming lessons tonight Marcus and I stopped by Trader Joe's and I let him pick whatever he wanted as a post swimming lessons treat.  The bribe was that he only got them if he did good at swimming lessons.  As soon as we finished tonight Marcus asked if he was good and got his treat, and I said yes.  He was super excited. 

The University of Minnesota Museums

Today was a wonderful day for our family.  We just had a blast hanging out together.  After Marcus and I went to church this morning we decided to go a visit the Bell Museum at the University of Minnesota, which is free on Sundays.  When we were at campus we made a game time decision to park across campus from the museum and to also visit the Weisman Museum

The Weisman is a modern art museum and isn't a place that we have visited too often, both Luke and I think we haven't been in about 10 years.  I was so much more impressed that I expected to be and the museum was so much better than I remembered.  Just one FYI, this is a not a huge museum and it only took us about 25 minutes to look at all of the exhibits (especially since we go at a toddler's pace). 

Marcus loved the trains in this picture.

Sometimes I don't think of taking Marcus to see art museums (although we did go to the MIA a few weeks ago) because it is art but when we got I quickly remember how important art is and how much he appreciated it.  He walks around tells us which "art projects" he likes the most.  I think he imagines they are just like the art projects he makes at daycare.  He also tells us the pieces he doesn't like by dragging us forward and not dallying in front of the ones he is not a fan of.  I think there were about 6 pieces at the Weisman today that he just couldn't get enough of.  I didn't get pictures of all of them but I got most.





Marcus loved the tree picture below.  It was huge and made of beads.  Because of the way it was constructed you could blow on it and simulate the image of blowing leaves.

The next exhibit he really liked was the cloud made of light bulbs and strings.  A person could actually turn them on and off again.  It was pretty neat.

 The last thing he liked was a projection wall full of clouds.  In the picture Luke and Marcus are busy making shadows on the clouds.  It was pretty neat.

 We all had so much fun.  It made me wish I was a bit more creative.  I could really see Marcus thinking of all of the similar art projects he wanted to make when we got home.

A good day of Mommying

Today started early.  Marcus was up and at it at about 5 am, which means, I was up too.  I was tired.  I begged him to climb in bed to snuggle with me but although he wanted to climb into Mommy and Daddy's bed- all he wanted to do was PLAY!!!  So we got up!

I was pretty low energy for the first few hours of the day.  Marcus and I sat by his play kitchen and I just pretty much hung out with him.  By the time 9:00 am rolled around I was ready for a nap.  Around that time we moved our play into his bedroom and I started to pick a few things up.... within a few minutes Marcus was helping and the day got a whole lot better.

I know it sounds odd to say but Marcus and I ended up having an awesome day together and the fun began when started working together on cleaning him room.  A little bit of teamwork created a new attitude for Mommy and lots of smiles for Marcus.

We spent over an hour cleaning his room.  The highlight was finding some toys that were missing.  The low point was realizing what a mess it truly was, we filled up most of a garbage bag and I think I vacuumed it for at least 10 minutes.  But we had fun.  At one point Marcus said, "Mommy I need a break" (he was in the middle of putting all of his Lincoln logs away) so I gave him a few moments to play before we started again.  It took a while but when we were done Marcus was so proud and happy!

 Another fun part of the day was lunch.  I made Marcus the red tower a few years ago.  It is one of the items that I built that gets used all of the time. We have made a few small modifications to it, first we added the steering wheel (bought at a garage sale) which is just zip tied on.  Marcus put his red chair on top of it.  He loves to pretend that he is flying a plane (just like Snoopy and his Sopworth Camel).  Today he decided to eat lunch in it!

 

After lunch, since his bedroom floor was so clean, we did puzzles.  He is really getting good at figuring them out!

 

 

It turns out that I wasn't the only one was popped out.  Marcus took a long nap today!

 And when he woke up he was rearing to go again.  We spent the afternoon playing in his kitchen, where he cooked up lots of pretend food, and his bedroom where we played with lots of John Deere Tractors. 

 

Overall the day was a success.  We ended it by reading the world longest train book (at least that is what I think it sould be named) that G & G Zachman gave to Marcus last year.  He loves that book and I admit that I occasionally misplace it (it really is a long read) but he found it while cleaning today so it is now back in the line up.

 

This was a really fun day, with a  really difficult start but I want to call this day a success.  Despite the fact that we didn't really go and do anything, we had a ton of fun together.  We worked together as a team and got things done-  which I normally really struggle to be productive with Marcus.  I can't say right now if it was just a fluke or if maybe since he is getting bigger it is all a little easier.  I managed to be a good mommy all day long (I could have been a bit better about IPhone usage) and I think that counts a success.

Marcus and the yard

When Luke and I were searching for a new home before Marcus was born (we moved when I was 7.5 months pregnant) we toured a LOT of homes, looking for the right mix of what we wanted, in the right area, with the right feel.  It was gross, we saw a ton of houses and only a few were close.

When we found our house, we had gone out for a long day of open houses, and almost didn't go to the last one because I was tired and a bit whiny (in my defense I was pretty pregnant).  We drove up and we were both pretty enamored right away, by the yard!  We went inside and saw the house, it was NOT perfect and was missing many of the things we had talked about wanting.  But the yard and the location were so amazing, and although the house wasn't perfect, it would work.  That was the last day we looked at houses.

Both Luke and I grew up in homes where we had big yards and substantial access to nature.  Our parents let us run outside, build forts, and as a result we both still love the outdoors to this day.  This is something that we both wanted for our baby. So I am not kidding when I say, that we basically picked our house for the yard.

Now that Marcus is almost four, that dream is becoming a reality.  He LOVES to play outside.  I love how is independent and brave.  Last weekend I did some yard work while he played and ran around.  I LOVE that he is now old enough to do that without me hovering right over him.  I never let him out of my sight or allow him to wonder but the good news is that we have a big yard so he has some room to roam.

He has even started helping with the yard work.  Last week, all on his own, he grabbed his wagon and started loading it with sticks from the yard.  Once he had a bunch in there he dragged it back to the wood pile and emptied it out.  He was so proud of his work (I was too).  Now he is excited to have a campfire to burn the wood he collected.

Picking up sticks in our yard is pretty endless job and I think we have enough to keep him busy for a very long time.

I love that Marcus wants to run and play outside.  He asks me all of the time when we are going to build him a tree house in the back yard. 

The good news is that this isn't just a one time thing.  This was another day last weekend when Marcus asked if he could run around the front yard while I was cleaning the car.  Of course I said YES.  He spent about 10-15 minutes just running in circles and around the trees and up and down the yard.  He just loves to play there!



I feel like we made the right decision in picking the imperfect house with the almost perfect yard!

A little bit of dreaming

Similar too but not actually my bike.

Many years ago (around 2006) I bought my first adult bike.  It was a beautiful Specialized Allez. I can't find any easy to find picture of it but it was pretty and red and I loved it.
I rode a lot of miles on that bike, I occasionally bike commuted from our MPLS house to my job at ActivStyle, I did some triathlons and I just did a lot of riding.

When we moved to Minnetonka, and I had Marcus I took a pretty long break from riding and last summer when I went to start again, I realized that my beautiful bike was gone.  Some one had stolen it!  I was and still am really upset about it.  It was bad enough when I had bikes stolen in MPLS (where I expected it) but the bike theft continued when we moved to Minnetonka.  To make matters even more disturbing, in my mind, is the fact that the person who stole the bike had to walk all the way back to our house from the road (and this is not close), so they had to specifically be up to no good and that makes me sad.

So last summer I didn't have a road bike (I have a mom bike but that is a completely different story and a much different ride) and I was really sad about it. I really felt limited, no more triathlons, no more long bike rides, and it made me crabby. 

I started watching craigslist for a used bike (a new road bike is a bit out of my budget right now) and I was amazed how expensive people were selling used biked for.  If I found a decent priced bike it was pretty much instantly gone.  Last week I found one that looked very promising and over the weekend I got my "new" bike.  Here are some pictures of my new baby (ignore the messy house in the background).

I have to tell you that I feel so happy about this bike.  I took it out for a few rides over the weekend (haven't been out this week because of some issues beyond my control) and loved it.  I need to get used to riding again (road bikes are very different) and that is going to take some time.  I am not over the fact that some one stole my last bike but I don't feel the loss quite as acutely now.  Instead I now feel joy and adventure----- I was to ride again, I was to be fast (but not to fast because I am a wuss), and this makes me so happy.  I feel like options are available again, I may be slow and out shape but I have a bike, so I can, if I really want to do a triathlon this year.  I can just feel the potential!


 

I did learn a few things along the way and this bike will be well protected and always locked up.  The first thing I did was register it everywhere I could (online, specialized, city of MPLS) so that if could potentially be returned to me if it is ever stolen.  I am so excited to ride this summer.