The Consumer in Me is the Consumer in You

Have I told you how much I really really like stuff? It must be contagious because Patrick seems to love consuming as much as I do (if not more).
I am definitely convinced by all of the research about how susceptible kids are to media messages.

• "Mom, I can't sleep. Maybe we should get some of that AMIEN (read: Ambien) stuff they sell on tv."
  
• One of his favorite things to say: IS IT ALL NATURAL?
• "Mom, Martha Stewart says...." He slept with his October Martha Stewart catalog for a week. It isn't Martha he loves so much as it is the idea of Martha and her love of Halloween. And he also loves to school me, hence the quote.

Okay, so none of those things are remotely age-appropriate. How about this.... Did I tell you that he has been scrapbooking his Christmas list since September? I got sick of trying to keep track of his WANTS and hatched a brilliant idea. Cut out all of the things you want from the catalogs and scrapbook them. It has gotten a little out of control. He has pages and pages of lists. He has everyone scrapbooking their own lists for Santa... The perfect Sunday activity for my little consumer.

Right now he is convinced that he needs cowboy boots AND spurs (as he says, the circle things with the spikes). Just what I need, a four-year old with spurs.

He also becomes oddly attached to things. I say odd and realize that I admitted to kissing my shoes goodbye (read the title again. oh, now I get it. you are me. heh.) After the first round of Halloween decorating, Keith,by a miscalculation on my part, managed to break one of my ghost votives (it was a pair, he only got his mitts on one). I wasn't home, Kevin was putting laundry away upstairs. Patrick came in sobbing, "Keith broke Mom's ghost! It was her favorite ghost! She is going to be so sad!" When Kevin told me about it I laughed and went about my business. Patrick repeated the story to me as well. The next day when I looked at my lone ghost I WAS really sad. I'm still not really over it and I still think about the shoes.

Mom and Patrick's Favorite Stores:
HomeGoods
Sur La Table
Michaels
Target

We have an awesome new project that we are going to start very soon. It isn't even a holiday project! Although I am sure we will have a few of those in the coming weeks too.

Happy shopping, my holiday shopping is almost finished! But by all means keep scrapbooking for Santa.

Oh So Different...

Our boys are very different, you know that already. But that nature vs. nurture thing is coming into play. Case in point C-A-N-D-Y. I suspect that Patrick had candy before he was two but I am not certain. And we definately did not give him sticky chewy candy that would rot his teeth.

In fact, last year Patrick freaked out because his preschool teacher was eating an Airhead. "Your teeth will fall out! Your head will explode!" Perfectly healthy relationship with candy?

Keith on the other hand was allowed to partake in the Halloween candy vat reserved for trick-or-treaters. Patrick didn't even know it was there until Halloween. So here it is, the first Halloween candy for my baby. Hot Tamales!!!


But what really got me thinking of this post was Sunday morning when I gave Keith a quarter of my Snickers after breakfast. Kevin sat there shaking his head, laughing, and mumbling under his breath, "oh so different."

Growing up my mom always had bowls of candy everywhere. You kind of start to ignore it when it is readily available. And yes, we often ate candy, cookies, or some sort of dessert after a big breakfast. Kevin, on the other hand, is a kid in the candy store at my mom's. He often strategically picks a seat near the candy dish to ensure easy access.

I'm sure both of my boys will grow up to be big strapping young men (candy or not). One of them may not have his original teeth but you can't win them all folks.

By the way, Patrick does enjoy candy. He got to eat candy after breakfast on Sunday too. He also gave his dad at least three pieces (which were not consumed but frozen for later).

A Spooky Confession

Don't tell anyone.... I am not Halloween's Number One Fan. (or number two). I have a kind of take it or leave it attitude about Halloween. I stopped enjoying Halloween when I experienced my first apple bobbing contest. Dry Creek circa 1984. Lots of saliva in the water, Halloween never was the same.

Halloween is really one of those things that the idea is better than the execution. The apple bobbing of course. Eating lots of candy sounds good until you are puking Skittles. The clown costume is a good idea until you are dripping white makeup at recess. Transforming your house to a haunted mansion is great until you realize that you take it down as soon as you put it up. Keeping your porch light on sounds good until the teenagers in jeans and t-shirts come by. Scary music and such is great until the four year-olds come by your house. Oh and don't get me started on the price of candy and the moldy pumpkins.....

Then came Patrick. Really 98% of our Halloween accoutrements were Patrick selections over the last 3 Halloweens. I was of the attitude that a pumpkin always trumps a jack-o-lantern because a pumpkin can stay out through Thanksgiving. So we have been doing some Halloween decorating. It is hard to say no when your kid has passion and imagination. It is kind of contagious. I'm still not one of those parents who dresses up to take their kids trick-or-treating but I did throw a pretty fun Halloween party.

We watched The Sword in the Stone a few months ago and Patrick decided that he was going to be a knight. Then he decided that he would be a Dragon Slayer Knight and Keith would be a Dragon. Cool.



Here are the big boys. Ian, Patrick and Chase


Here are the babies (not really anymore) Ryder, Keith and Ava (our lone girl). How cute are they?!!? This is the best part of Halloween! Keith barked at Ryder the whole time we were trick or treating.



Keith has a serious silky problem. He was convinced that Ryder's costume was a silky. He also thought that since Ryder had his clothes off well....


I bought a lot of candy (three or four hundred pieces of the good stuff). The boys were in charge of the door (Plain White T's) and it was all gone by the time we left to trick or treat. They were generous and there were TONS of kids.


The little kids caught on quickly. Keith tried to run into our neighbors' house (first stop) but after that he got it. He then proceeded to chat with everyone along the way.



By the end of the trek Patrick had divided all of his excess weight among the 5 adults. He was walking up to the door and putting his hands out. We all needed a break before the final stretch.


And that is when we met up with Chewbacca. I guess I always imagined Chewbacca as a Heineken kind of a Wookiee. Turns out he goes for the Nati Light. This is the kind of culture you can only get on Halloween (see why I love it so much?).


We had a really great time. I love that Halloween is over and we can relish the idea of next year. Woohoo! I wonder what Patrick will come up with next year.....

How "Eat This Not That" changed our lives

A new series: How (fill-in the blank) changed our lives. Aren't you excited?!?! Some bloggers have passion lists, I have life change lists. Thrill a minute.

This morning as the Today Show ran a story about something relevant to a blog post I was thinking about, I was struck by the fact that so many of my blog posts either coincide or are "inspired" by what I see on the morning news (Really people it is a stretch. Let's agree to something closer to "Morning Fluff") shows. This post is no different.

Over the summer I was watching the Today Show or Regis and Kelly or The View (whatever) and they were featuring "Eat This, Not That" Summer Style. I was immediately hooked. The concept started with Men's Health Editor-in-Chief David Zinczenko and Men's Health food and nutrition editor Matt Goulding. Men's Health....Who knew? I thought it was all protein shakes and push-ups. Anyway, they wrote the books as a sort of expose and public information resource. There is also this "Diet" concept that I am going to completely ignore.

The main book features an analysis of chain-restaurant menus with recommendations of what to eat and what not to eat. I don't know what else the book features because I don't own it. I do however frequent the website that features a lot of information including nutritional breakdowns for select items and usually at least three Eat This and three Not That items. This is the first reason I like Eat This, Not That, I can get most of what I need to know off the website.

The second reason this changed my life is that it really does change the way I eat at restaurants. At McDonalds you are better off ordering a Quarter Pounder without cheese than the Grilled Chicken Club Sandwich. A Chipotle Chicken Burrito has over 1,000 calories! The list goes on and on. Sometimes I will sit and read some of the more surprising comparisons to Kevin (our entertainment for the evening).

If you eat fast food you have to read this book and/or visit the website. If you eat at sit-down chains you are now morally obligated to read the book. These restaurants (that I don't visit because I have a 18-month old) have horrible nutritional offerings. Some of it is worse (yes worse) than McDonalds! Calories for the whole day in one sitting!

Since I have to be on the road so much I sometimes don't have a choice but to eat fast food. I like to think of my day trips as an excuse to eat fast food. Eat This, Not That has completely changed the way I eat out. I love the tray of In-N-Out fries but do I really want to eat 400 calories in fries? No, but I'll eat a couple and toss the rest. Or I can just order the fries and a light lemonade. An informed choice can still be a crazy choice. As long as I'm enjoying it, who can argue?

Sometimes UPs out number the DOWNs

That is from "Not in Nottingham". We are kicking it Robin Hood style.

So Keith seems to have a formula. For every shot of naughty action, he has an adorable chaser. He is the perfect blend of bad boy and sweet baby. UH-OH is one of the most important words in his world.

How about this? He dumped Mr. Bubbles on the floor in the bathroom and then made sure that all of the closet doors were closed.

Or this? He made himself cough so hard he threw up in bed. When I took him out of bed, telling him we had to change the sheets he went directly to the sheet drawer in his room to pull out a new sheet.

Or how about this one. First he breaks a jar of pickles all over the kitchen floor and then he wears Patrick's underwear as a hat!

He keeps us laughing and groaning all at the same time.

Halloween Projects... 4-year old Style

If you haven't read my post about Blog Stalking/Imitating please do and this will make a lot more sense. Last Halloween I never got around to even buying pumpkins, let alone carving them. This year the Halloween enthusiasm is punctuated by several simple crafts that have Patrick really excited.

I have fully realized my decorating style. I start basic and build the idea gradually. All of these are projects that started small last year and we added to the idea. I don't have pictures of this stuff from last year (remember I didn't even buy pumpkins). Just know that this is an improvement and I think we will do even more next year!








Now for the new projects. The black pumpkins are pure imitation (I would have never thought of that). Everyone has their own idea about what more to do with the black pumpkins, we'll have to wait until next year.





The pumpkin votives were a little too messy for Patrick. But we had fun while he tolerated the Mod Podge on his hands.




I know everyone has one of these with flowers but my fake pumpkins sat useless until Patrick came along with his Martha Stewart ideas. I wasn't sure what tool we would use, he produced a dry wall cutting thing from his dad's toolbox without hesitation.

The Dorks and the Popular Girls

This blogging thing has become a surprisingly integral part of my life. I enjoy writing about our life but I also love all of the blogs I stalk on a regular basis. There are the Mommy Blogs (stories, rants and laughs about raising kids), Fashion Blogs (pictures of the latest handbags), Foodie Blogs (recipes and beautiful pictures of food), TV Blogs (running commentary on tv shows) and Decorating Blogs (beautiful homes with decorating tips).

The part of all of this that I find most fascinating is the peer culture that develops within these blogging communities. It is quite a bit like high school. Most of the bloggers stick to their own and you can see the influence they have on one another. I would call it peer pressure but I think it is actually peer influence. We gravitate to those that are like us or are the way we want to be.

Here is why I know that blogging has changed my perspective in so many ways. I discovered this blog Thrifty Chick several weeks ago. My sister also checked it out and we simultaneously committed to the same window covering project (this isn't unheard of, my sister and I tend to do a lot of things simultaneously). Here is where the dorkiness comes in. Somehow, Thrifty Chick found my sister's blog and actually commented on one of her posts. My sister immediately texted me. I immediately went to read the comment and texted back "Wow! Why do I feel like you just met a celebrity and not some mom with a blog? And why am I jealous."

I haven't jumped into the blogging social scene, I'm still lurking. I feel like the kid at school who watches the popular kids and imitates them. I suddenly want to paint everything black! I want to take my kids outside to explore the Fall colors (except it is still 88 degrees here and most of the trees are still green). I want to live life.

This type of imitation isn't the crazy pegged pants, high bangs imitation. This is the good for your soul imitation that challenges you to be a better human, wife, mother, sister, daughter, friend.

Since starting my own blog and reading a lot of Mommy Blogs I have slowed it down a lot. I know that I still work way too much and I forget to take time for myself but my baby steps have made a HUGE difference in my overall disposition. I will never have the kind of time required to take the blogging world by storm (or bake bread everyday), but I will keep blogging as long as it makes my husband laugh out loud.

And I am going to decorate my laundry room.... (Even the dorks need to have inside jokes)