Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

In the wee hours this morning, Shawn woke up and joined Raj and me in bed. Luckily, he went right back to sleep and there was minimal tossing, turning, or kicking involved (at least that I’m aware of)! Recently, Shawn’s been waking up and wanting to come into our bed or not wanting to go to sleep in his bed at all. We haven’t made a big deal about it, but we don’t exactly welcome him in either. Since this didn’t used to be an issue and, in the last week or so, it’s been a frequent request, I wanted to talk to Shawn about what was going on.

So, later in the morning, when Shawn was fully awake, I asked him why he didn’t want to sleep in his own bed ‘last night’ (since it was still dark out). “Because my bed’s too small!” he explained, “I need a bigger bed!” Huh – well, then! That sounds simple enough! I’ll make sure he tells Raj himself tonight! Meanwhile, I have no idea how he got this idea or even knew a bigger bed was a possibility. We’ve never talked about it. There really is still plenty of room in the toddler bed for him – it’s not like he’s bumping his head and feet on the ends. As far as he knows, all kids have beds like his (cribs converted with a toddler railing)! Weird. When I told the teachers at Gymboree this afternoon, Ms. Mary Beth suggested maybe tying a ‘big boy’ bed to potty training… hmmmm...

We attended Art Class this afternoon and I felt like we got a little more ‘bang for our buck’ today. After a few minutes of free paint, the kids colored a cut-out heart with chunky shaped red crayons, glued it to a larger piece of construction paper, and then added glittery foam hearts to it. Shawn was engrossed with the new crayons that were about the size of his whole hand and shaped as hearts, bowls, and simply over-sized crayons. On the other hand, after a few seconds of scratching them across his paper, he lost interest in the actual project. I got him to glue the large heart to his construction paper when I showed him that he could pour the glue from his dixie cup and then spread it around, rather than neatly apply the glue with Q-tips, like the rest of the class. The foam hearts were lost on him entirely. In contrast, Abby went to town! She colored all over her heart cut-out, used her Q-tip to carefully cover the back with glue, and then did the same to add the foam hearts. All. Completely. Independently.

Abby's

Shawn's (sort of)

Once the Valentines were made, we returned to the ‘Circus’ theme that we’ve been doing for a few weeks. The next project was more fun (even to me). The kids covered the back of a paper plate with yellow, brown, and orange paint using a sponge brush. Then, they glued on eyes, a nose, a mouth (a piece of foam that looked like a packing peanut - ??), and a yarn mane to create a lion. Shawn didn’t care for the painting (so I did that part), but he really got into it when we started added the other features. Again, Abby needed little to no help. She did a great job thoroughly covering the plate with paint, leaving barely any white showing even around the edges. She added facial features on her own, but needed a little help with the mane because the yarn stuck more to her fingers than it did to the plate! I think the final products are among my favorites of all their art projects so far!

Abby's

Shawn's

Then, Ms. LouAnn gave the grownups a choice of either doing a third art project, which she explained may be more challenging than our typical projects, or having more time to play with the toys in the sand/water table. Almost unanimously, we opted for the third project. (I’ve never really understood why there’s so much time at the end of class for play time – we could easily do more projects, or better projects, with that time!) The kids were to use colored foam peanuts to make an elephant on black construction paper. (What? How?) Ms. LouAnn handed out sea sponges and explained that if the peanuts got a little damp, they’d get sticky. (Ooookay…? Still, not understanding what we’re supposed to do.) She also gave us glue. (Alrighty, not sure about this one, but he we go!) Shawn was completely lost, so while he played with the peanuts, I worked with Abby. We arranged the peanuts on her paper trying to shape the body of an elephant, but we weren’t being very successful. Instead, we started over and focused on just an elephant head. We made a long trunk (highlighted with a strip of aluminum foil), big ears, and hopefully, the rest of the head would just emerge as we went. As Ms. LouAnn explained, “The important thing is that the children know it’s an elephant and can tell you about it.” Then, it’s perfect! She knew exactly what it was and could tell me where the ears, nose, eyes, mouth, etc. were. Great job, Kiddo – better than what I would’ve done on my own! It turned out that Ms. LouAnn took the opportunity to help Shawn make his elephant… though the few times I glanced over, it looked like she was doing most of the work. (That made me feel better, since sometimes I wonder if I’m doing too much of the project for him, leading to his disinterest. But, it looked like he was already aloof about it and she just didn’t want him to go home empty handed!)

Abby's

Shawn's

There was still time for Ms. LouAnn to read See the Circus, by M. A. Rey, while the kids had a snack. Rather than our typical Winnie the Pooh cookies, one of the other children brought in Valentine’s Day cookies for everyone. The kids even still had time to play in the toys in the sand/water table, which just turned out to be red air bean bags that they pretended were “Valentines” to exchange with each other…  Glad we did the third project!

Raj and I agreed that we weren’t going to exchange Valentine’s gifts this year. However, I knew he’d still bring something, so I made a present for him – without spending a penny. I took a verse from ‘our’ song (Wonderful Tonight, by Eric Clapton), printed it on velum, layered with some fancy scrapbooking papers, and framed it. I’m glad I did it – it was fun to watch him realize what the verse was.

Raj brought me a lovely bouquet of roses and a very sweet card. He also had a Mylar heart balloon and a box of chocolate turtles, but Shawn claimed them for himself right away. I gave Shawn new toys for the bath tub: a basketball hoop with squirting balls, a motorboat, and a waterproof bath book about opposites. Then, we went out to an incredible dinner at Redstone American Grill (courtesy of a gift card from the team at Artistic Smiles). YUM!  However, as cliche as it may sound, the best part was spending the evening with two of my favorite men.  Cupid's arrows have struck me hard!  (Wish I had captured my two incredibly handsome Valentines on camera, but it didn't occur to me until it was too late!)

I did have Shawn tell Raj what he thought about his bed and why he didn’t want to sleep in it lately. Though a little surprised, Raj agreed that if it’s something Shawn thought he was ready for, then we may as well go for it! Looks like we have a project for this weekend…

Gymboree: Our Home Away from Home?

When we got into the car to go to music, Abby surprised me by climbing all the way into her car seat this morning!  Normally, she gets in and plays with the buckles on her seat until I get Shawn strapped in and come around to her side.  Not this time!  She jumped right in her chair without even thinking about it.  Once it had sunk in that she had actually done it, she had a huge smile on her face.  It wasn’t a one-time stroke of luck either – each time we got in the car today, she climbed right into her chair as if she’d been doing it for months.  What a big girl! 

For the past few weeks, Fridays have been extremely busy, perhaps a little too much for one day.  We’d start with music, have a break for lunch and maybe naps, and then go back to Gymboree for Family Gym (and Open Gym depending on the nap situation).  However, today is our last day in this particular music class at Gymboree.  Next week we’re moving music to Wednesdays so we can spread things out a bit.  It should help Fridays seem a little less hectic!

Still, for today, I think we were at Gymboree as much as some of the teachers were!  We had Music, Family Gym, Open Gym, and this evening was the Sweetheart party in honor of Valentine’s Day.  (Abby wasn’t feeling up to joining us at the party this evening, I think she had had enough!)  Shawn and I did a lot of driving back and forth, but we had lots of fun.  Raj met us there after work and Shawn’s eyes absolutely lit up when he saw Dadda walk through the door.  We made a Valentine with his painted hands, ate red velvet cupcakes, “mailed” pretend Valentine’s cards, and, of course, a variety of games and activities.  The Halloween and Christmas parties were a lot of fun, but this one was led by two teachers that Shawn didn’t know.  I think it inhibited him a little.  The teachers were very nice, but it seemed to me that they may have even been trying a little too hard!  There were a few activities Shawn didn’t want to participate in and simply watched the other kids instead.  With the action packed day we’ve had, though, a little people-watching offered some well-deserved downtime!

Oma sent me a web link with someone’s home video of Chicago’s blizzard and asked if we had experienced what was shown in the movie.  The time lapse shows 17 hours of snow in 41 seconds.  Pretty cool to watch, especially if you didn’t have to actually live it!  Anyway, I'd say that's pretty much what we saw from our windows, too.  I took pictures, though didn't have the forethought to do any time-lapse type stuff.  I wish I had done something like that with our grill in the back yard!  Even with street lights on, it got a little hard to see after the sun went down, though that's when the really impressive winds picked up and the streets completely disappeared - even the dips of the curbs vanished.  The land really took on a barren, other-world appearance.  Very eerie. 

I think all of the streets are back to normal now, though parking lots are about half their normal sizes because of the snow mounds that take up the parking spaces.  There were a few special dump trucks that had heaters in them to melt the snow that the plows would load into their backs, but they were really just used on major roads and at the airports where they needed the snow gone quickly and didn't have anywhere to push it out of the way.  We've gotten a few more snow flurries since "the big one," but just enough to make people grumble and get nervous about getting any more - not really anything we would've gotten excited about before. 

Gotta love Chicago weather!

I’m not sure why the library chose this week’s theme so soon, since there’s still over a week before the actual day, which includes one more story-time session… regardless, today’s theme was Valentines.  Ms. Nancy read lots of books about love, family, and making Valentines and hearts:

Valentine Cats by Jean Marzollo:  “The cats enjoy Valentine’s Day.  Cards are written, drawn, and delivered with the help of the entire group of cats.”

Sweet Hearts by Jan Carr:  “Valentines are hidden throughout the house.  It doesn’t take long before every card is discovered.”

Be Mine, Be Mine, Sweet Valentine by Sarah Weeks:  “Everyone gets their own Valentine.  Each one is different and specially selected.”

Never Too Little to Love by Jeanne Willis:  “Tin Too-Little wants to give a kiss to someone who is very tall.  He uses something to help him reach up high.”  (This one was my favorite pick of the day.)

We also danced to and acted out the song Skinnamarink.  Abby liked trying to follow Ms. Nancy’s miming.  Shawn stood and watched for most of the song.  We also did some finger play:

How Many Valentines?

Valentines, Valentines, how many do you see?

Valentines, Valentines, can you count them with me?

One for father (hold up one finger)

One for mother (hold up another finger)

One for grandparents, too (hold up another finger)

One for sister (hold up another finger)

One for brother (hold up another finger)

And here is one for you! (make a heart shape with thumbs and pointer fingers)

Five Little Valentines

One little Valentine colored pink and blue (hold up one finger)

A second one came and then there were two (hold up two fingers)

Two little Valentines clapping with glee (clap hands)

A third one came and then there were three (hold up three fingers)

Three little Valentines tapping at the door (knock three times)

A fourth one came and then there were four (hold up four fingers)

[I think I’m missing a line here – oops!]

A fifth one came and then there were five (hold up five fingers)

Five little valentines wanted to say

Have a very happy Valentine’s Day! (wiggle five fingers)

And of course, a variation of the classic:

Roses are Red

Roses are red.

Violets are blue.

Honey is sweet,

And so are you!

So, with all of that Valentine’s talk, we should be well primed for the big day… in a little over a week from now!  Hmmm...

Back to a closer holiday… I never did hear what Punxsutawney Phil decided to do yesterday, but if he was living in Chi-town, he'd be nuts not to scurry back inside!  Our streets are looking pretty good, but I know there are still many that haven't been plowed yet or only have one lane open.  Many schools and businesses are still closed.  Part of the problem is getting the plows around to all of the areas, but the other problem is where to put the snow once it's plowed.  We'll be lucky if it's all gone by Spring!

Still, I think the storm's moved on.  We were expecting more snow last night, but it never came - though it's a little hard to tell with all the snow we do have!  There's a drift at the back door that's between 5-6 feet high; meanwhile, my car in the driveway hardly had any snow on it at all.  Amazing micro-meteorology at work!  I think the final total around here was in the vicinity of 20".  With all of the variability in the drifting, I couldn't even guess what we have in our own yard.  Last night's news forecasted today's wind chill to be between -20F to -30F, though the actual temp is 12F right now. brrrrrrr......  I'm just glad we're not among the thousands who lost power!