To the Children of the TV Generation

I pity you. For your brains have turned to mush and your childhood imaginations buried underneath the Sponge Bob, That's So Raven, Yu-Gi-O, Pokemon collections. I feel sorry for you. Your parents took the lazy way out and instead of trying to expand your horizons and challenge your information hungry brains, they parked you in front of the TV. I wasn't one of those kids. My mother fought and fought to keep us away from the 'electronic babysitter'. And I swore when I had kids that I would let them watch whatever they wanted - within reason of course. But to my surprise, I have turned out just like my mother. When Jake was born, we had the television on all the time. That was until I noticed, when he was about 9 months of age, that he was actually watching and paying attention. I would go to pick him up and he would want to be put down to watch. It must be ingrained in kids or something. And that was it. I pressed that "off" button and in 9 years, it hasn't come back on. The kids do watch about 30 minutes of a video before bed and now that they are in school, we have chosen certain educational shows off The Discovery Channel or the History Channel pertaining to whatever they are learning. But for the most part, there is no TV on at my house. The same goes for video games and the computer. They are each allowed 30 min. on the computer. But I don't own the latest and greatest video system or have the largest TV on the block. Those things don't rate high on my priority list. What does rate high is their ability to use their brains and their imagination. Jake even knows why he has such a great imagination. He will tell me, "See what happens when kids don't sit in front of the TV, they use their imaginations."

This is their latest and greatest building toy that was a gift from their Pop Pop for Christmas. This video was made specifically for him.

The World According to Foo

Setting: In the car on the way to one of my many destination spots during the week.

What was happening at the time: Jacob was asking Gabi questions from his "Brain Quest - 5th Grade Edition".

The Narrative is as follows:

Jacob: Gabi, what is the longest river in the United States?

Gabi: Texas.

The craziest things come out of my daughters mouth.

Ode to The Crazy Bow Lady

Our family received some late Christmas gifts from my sister, of whom my daughter has now coined "The Crazy Bow Lady". She put an enormous amount of work into her homemade gifts and I must post about them. I must post about them because I am proud of them and to hopefully spread some more business to The Crazy Bow Lady. I also have a couple of points to make that I can only make in pictures.

So, first, we start with Jake. He really loves his plaque and has been begging me to get it up in his room.

Now, we go to Little Foo Foo. I will be returning this item to the manufacturer for longer ribbons. As you can see why!

And last is Princy. She received an adorable name plaque . .

And, as you can tell, she is in desperate need of a bow holder. HINT, HINT!

So, Crazy Bow Lady, that's my plug for your business. I will be needing a new bow for the new Tokyo Tea Garden line. I'd like my order filled by the time we go to Florida, so, can you handle it before mid February?? I also put Valentine's outfits on the girls this week and wore the adorable bows you made. Livvy kept telling everybody that The Crazy Bow Lady made them. Sorry, I didn't get any orders from that.

Long live The Crazy Bow Lady!!

DISCLAIMER: My other sister also sent homemade gifts to the girls this Christmas and she put just as much work into her gifts as my middle sister. They too have been hung up in each of the girls rooms.

Random Thoughts

What a holiday it has been. Loud. Crazy. Hectic. Enjoyable. Heart warming.

My 89 yr old grandmother walks into the kitchen where we are all standing around chatting, looks at all of us, says, "MEOW!", and walks off.

I am glad the holiday is over. It is enjoyable when I am in it and I enjoy all of it but once it's over, it's over and it's time to move onto January.

My mom and granny spent this Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with us. It was definitely a treat and a new tradition. I thoroughly enjoyed the time we spent together. It's been a very long time since I woke up Christmas morning with my mommy in my house.

My little niece turned one year 2 days after Christmas. We were able to spend Christmas evening with her and then run up to New York to celebrate her first birthday. What fun that was. She is definitely a joy to watch. I made a very special cake for her which took hours of work (thank goodness my mom was here to help).

Is it okay for me to discipline my children when on errands my 89 yr old grandmother, sitting in the back seat of our van with the kids, is poking them, blowing in their faces and growling at them, just to incite a riot??

I chose not to and just laughed inside.

Did I say that I'm glad the holiday is over?

Steph, I need a new theme for my blog, something snowy and white with snowmen would be nice?

We spent our New Year's Eve at First Night in Bethlehem where instead of watching a glass ball fall like in the big city, you get to watch a giant yellow PEEP fall to the ground. Bethlehem is the home of the Just Born company that makes those lovely marshmallow treats you get at Easter. We didn't stay for the demise of the PEEP but we enjoyed the festivities that the town provided. One of them was trying out the kids new ice skates that they got from Great Uncle Jim.

Gabi gained a new friend for Christmas. It is a purple, plastic ride on toy called a Roddy. This is how I found her and her Roddy this evening -

Notice the headphones and the blanket that is pushed into the dollhouse window to keep the poor animal leashed.

So, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May your 2007 be a new, fresh start!