Halloween wrap-up

Here's a closing to an eventful Halloween season. For a 'date afternoon' with SchmoopyBoy, we went for a hayride. I like to call this picture "SchmoopyBoy and a couple of asses" because I'm a dork like that, although his head is conveniently hiding one of the asses.

Of course the hayride would not be complete without a goofy overexposed self portrait, in which SchmoopyBoy makes one of his characteristic poses for the camera. 

Later that week we carved a pumpkin. A cute happy pumpkin, not a scary one.

On Halloween night both kids got dressed up. Lil' Cowboy Schmoo kept me company while I handed out treats at home. Batman chose to see a movie over Trick or Treating, so the husband took him to see Hotel Transylvania. But, because we are super cool parents, he still came home to a bucket of treats.

Why do you keep walking to the door?
Don't you know my reading my stories is serious biznis?

The caped crusader. Shh, don't tell anyone his true identity.

Weekend Wrap Up

It was a full weekend here at chez Schoopy. I had a 3 day weekend for Columbus Day, which was nice. On Saturday I took the schmoos to a local fall festival. SchmoopyBoy was hoping to get his face painted like Batman, but was pretty happy with the spider theme.

Bounce houses, a farmers market where we bought and snacked on the best, most sweet and delicious strawberries I've had all season, and a playground with a huge play train made for a great day. Of course I forgot the good camera at home, and Lil' Schmoo wouldn't stay still long enough for me to get a half decent picture on my crappy cell phone camera, so no pics of him with pumpkins or trains. boo.

On Sunday, I had a special date with SchmoopyBoy. Just the two of us. We went to see the Batman Live show. In case I haven't mentioned previously, SchmoopyBoy is somewhat Batman obsessed these days. He has discovered the magical world of super heros and villains. Batman is his favorite. I thought the show was great! SchmoopyBoy thought it was a little too long and complained that the villains were "boring." (WTF?!?!?!?) At two hours including an intermission, it probably was a bit long for a 4 year old. And perhaps watching the villains stand around and plot against Batman wasn't the most exciting part of the show. But... Acrobats! The Batmobile! Batman and Robin! Cool stuff!!

I was chatting with him at bedtime, and I realized that the main thing that was so special for him was that I spent the day with him. I don't need to spend a lot of money on tickets to shows to make him happy. The fact that he got to spend time alone with me and get my full attention made him feel special. The fact that he got to dress up like his favorite superhero, and see him in action was just icing on the cake.

My superdude strikes a pose

Even superheros need some time to just chill on the couch

I was able to squeeze in some one-on-one time with Lil' Schmoo on Monday too. I'm going to try to make sure both kids get some decent one-on-one time with me this year. That was my Rosh Hashanah new year's resolution.

On Monday SchmoopyBoy got sick.  It's just a cold, but still no fun. Hopefully no one else will catch it this time around.

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Introducing the Scorpion Longtongue

SchmoopyBoy first told me about the Scorpion Longtongue a few days ago. He had made a sculpture of it at preschool. Since I was unfamiliar with such a beast, I asked him about it. Here are a few details:

• The scorpion longtongue is a big bug that eats scorpions.
• It has no teeth.
• It gets the scorpions with its long, sticky tongue.
• Its tongue is as big as an elephant.
• It makes a sound effect when it eats a scorpion that I cannot reproduce on this blog.

I finally got to see a model Scorpion Longtongue today when I picked SchmoopyBoy up from preschool. Exhibit:

You might be wondering, how does he know about scorpions? Well, we've found two of the little suckers in our yard over the past month or so. (Eeek!!! Those things freak me out more than the black widow spiders that like to take up residence in these parts!) Pest control has been called. Unfortunately, their arsenal does not include any natural predators such as the dread Scorpion Longtongue.

It's planting season

So far we've planted carrots and chard. We've still got several more planters, and I think we'll be putting in some spinach, broccoli, and cauliflower. Hopefully our crop will turn out a little better than last year's. Probably the soil we had was not quite right - everything sprouted, but then it just stopped growing after a while.

And now he is four

Homemade dinosaur cake, by request, with volcano. We also had a dino-safari. Paper dinosaur footprints were taped to the ground, and the young nature trackers followed the prints to a 'nest' filled with dinosaur eggs to collect (Easter eggs containing a tiny baby dinosaur), and then followed more prints to collect 'fully grown' (6-8 inch) dinosaurs. It got quite hot by the end of the party (you can see the buttercream frosting starting to melt) but thankfully we had plenty of water and shaded areas at the park.

Happy birthday to my SchmoopyBoy!

Scene at the Park

Picnic in the shade

Self portrait with Lil' Schmoo

Oy Vey! You call that a Passover?

It was quite a weekend here at chez Schmoopy. Passover and Easter in one big hodge-podge of festivity. On Friday evening, the traditional night of the first Seder, I got home late from work and so made matzah pizza for dinner. Vegan "cheese" for the husband, and dairy for me and SchmoopyBoy. Ancestors, I apologize. Please don't strain something as you turn over in your graves.

Vegetarian matzah pizza

Vegan matzah pizza

I haven't really done Passover for a few years. Putting together a full Seder is a lot of work. I don't have grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins around, and quite frankly it's not worth all the work involved for basically, me. Before SchoopyBoy was born I always found a community Seder to attend with the husband. The thought of dragging a small child to a 3-hour community seder with a bunch of strangers sounds like about as much fun as a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, so I've basically been doing not much more than a Passover themed dinner. This year, however, I wanted to do something more, since SchmoopyBoy is at an age where the things we do in the home will become "his".

Covered matzah, parsley, eggs and salt water appear
on traditional seder tables

So I put together a short child-friendly Seder for Saturday. With the help of Uncle Eli (think of a Jewish Dr. Seuss after drinking 4 cups of wine) and a few other online sources like this and this, I put together a mish-mash children's Haggadah. I made fresh vegetable stock and matzaball soup. Parsley and hard boiled eggs for dipping into salt water, charoset, matza in the cover I bought at a Jewish cultural fair a number of years ago, and grape juice in wine glasses and one plastic cup adorned my table. We got through everything in about an hour, including the main course, a Moroccan style eggplant and garbanzo bean dish (garbanzos are kosher for Passover aren't they?).

Then on Sunday we first went to visit our next door neighbors for an egg hunt in the morning. Another egg hunt at my in-law's followed in the afternoon. More toys and candy than any human should be exposed to. But fun, fun, fun for SchmoopyBoy!

Why I need to carry a tape recorder at all times

It's because the things that come out of 3 year old SchmoopyBoy's mouth are priceless.

Example 1.
We were listing colors. I have no recollection why we were listing colors, but nonetheless we were.

SchmoopyBoy: Clear.
Me: (mostly to myself) Is clear really a color?
SchmoopyBoy: Clear is a shiny color that lives in the circus!

Well, there you have it.

Example 2.
I am sitting on the floor with SchmoopyBoy and Lil' Schmoo.

Me: Are you my SchmoopyBoy?
SchmoopyBoy: I am a Schmoopy Boy. He is a Slobber Boy. And you are a Mom-er Boy.

I am one of the club, apparently. How flattering. And yes, as a matter of fact, Lil' Schmoo is indeed a slobber boy these days.

Example 3:
A bit of background information - We have been talking a bit about meat and vegetarianism because he has become interested in the show Dinosaur Train, which talks about carnivores and herbivores. He knows that our family doesn't eat meat, but doesn't fully understand it all yet.

Also, one of the imaginative games SchmoopyBoy likes to play is to pretend that he is Abby Cadaby and I am Mommy Cookie Monster and he is "poofing" me a cookie of my choice. After poofing me an imaginary chocolate chip cookie, peanut butter cookie, and oatmeal raisin cookie, he makes an announcement about the next cookie.

SchmoopyBoy: This one has people meat!
Me: (surprised, disturbed, beside myself, almost afriad to ask) What is people meat?
SchmoopyBoy: People meat is a special kind of food that is in this cookie!

Okay, then. I guess I'll just dig in to that cookie now. Mmm, people meat.

Preschool Crafts - Bugs!

"I am an artist" SchmoopyBoy tells me. Indeed. We literally have bags full of sheets of paper and posterboard with his drawings, paintings, and miscellaneous crafts that he has brought home from preschool. I finally figured out what to do with all of this artwork - recycle it into craft supplies for home crafts! Here are a couple things SchmoopyBoy has made recently.

Butterfly Valentine

This is what we made to give to Daddy for Valentine's Day. I got the idea here, and just adapted it to the supplies I had on hand. SchmoopyBoy picked out the color of tissue paper he wanted for the body, as well as which of his paintings from school he wanted to use for the wings. I created a heart shaped template from an empty cereal box. At first I had him draw the face with a sharpie, but then I remembered we had googly eyes and offered those. What 3 year old can resist googly eyes? I think they add a fun touch. I wrote a valentine message ("You make my heart flutter", in case you can't read it) and SchmoopyBoy added his own message (on the right it says "I love my butterfly" and on the left it says "Happy Valentines Day" in case you were wondering). It was a big hit.

"Three-Eye'd Butterfly-Bee" Box

This does not look the way I had originally envisioned it. I found this craft here (scroll down to the Cereal Box Valentine Card Holder Craft). I had intended it to look more like the original pictured. But SchmoopyBoy is "an artist" and far be it for me to stand between an artist and his vision. I picked out a smaller box and figured he could put toys or knick knacks in it. At first SchmoopyBoy said he wanted it to be a bee. He found a school craft that was a piece of orange construction paper covered in glitter and chose that as the body and head. When we were looking for another sheet to use for wings we found another piece of orange construction paper, this time covered with stickers. He insisted the wings be square and I commented on how the wings make it look kind of like a butterfly. He agreed and declared his creation a Butterfly-Bee. Eyes - there had to be three. Had to. Then, two arms and two legs. Of course.

I love how he took ownership of this craft and made it his own true creation. I tell you, I wish I had a fraction of the imagination of this kid. I was the kid who always was trying to make my stuff look "right". SchmoopyBoy currently doesn't have such boundaries on his creativity. I hope I can nurture this as he gets older.

Fun, easy to do, easy to clean up - my kind of crafts.

An interfaith household experience

There's a Christmas tree in my house. This is actually the second year we've had it. The husband bought it the week after Christmas on sale two years ago.

It's weird.

Not the tree itself. The tree is lovely, even being fake. It's just weird that I have a Christmas tree in my house at all.

Oh, pardon me, it's actually a winter solstice tree. Decorating pine trees at this time of year is, after all, a Pagan tradition. Nonetheless, it is a very stark symbol of... (dun dun dun) ... assimilation. As in, I have assimilated into the dominant (Christmas celebrating) culture. I have sold out, so to speak.

But, not completely, my family will be happy to know. Today I went to SchmoopyBoy's school where I lit my menorah, and talked to the children about how we celebrate Hanukkah at our house. I told them that we celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah in our home, because SchmoopyBoy's daddy grew up celebrating Christmas and I grew up celebrating Hanukkah. SchmoopyBoy helped by handing me the candles and warning the other children to stay away from the fire because fire might kill them. I sang the prayers for the children and, although I didn't translate them into English, I told them what each was about (for example, "This one is about being thankful that we get to light these beautiful candles", etc).

We don't talk about being Jewish at my house very much. In fact, we tend to not talk about religion, period. Nonetheless, SchmoopyBoy is now at an age where he will remember what we do and what we don't do. He will start to feel ownership, so to speak, of the traditions we do in our home. Despite our household being by and large non-religous, I do want him to feel ownership of the practices I grew up with. I want him to understand that this is his heritage, and there is value to it.

So, I suppose the time will soon come when start having talks about what people believe and that different people believe different things. For now, I am content to say that some people celebrate only Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, or the Winter Solstice; and that we celebrate more than one holiday.

Halloween

Just a few pictures of the kiddos in their outfits.

First, my happy fire fighter:



He went trick or treating with his cousins and was done after about 15 minutes. hehehe

Second, my little pumpkin baby:


And because I am a goofball, here is a closeup of OMG-cute-pumpkin-feet!!!

Recent Events

First, SchmoopyBoy's first attempt at independent spelling. This spells "mommy":


Also, a few pictures of our 3rd annual visit to the fall festival at the local farm house. We had to wait in a ridiculously long line for the horse ride. Thankfully there was no wait for the hayride, which I think he actually enjoyed more.



Sadly, SchmoopyBoy got sick (again!) and even sadder, this time Lil' Schmoo was not so lucky to avoid catching it. This afternoon we're going to the doctor to make sure it's nothing serious. I really hope everyone is better by the weekend. My sister is coming out to meet her newest nephew and play with her oldest nephew. Hopefully sickness won't prevent anyone from having a nice visit.

Hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween! Hopefully I'll get pictures of the kiddos in their costumes posted before Thanksgiving. ;)

Wordless Wednesday - Homemade Fathers' Day Card

Plus bonus birthday card for his cousin.

The fluff you were probably hoping to see on M-Day

Mothers Day cards I helped SchmoopyBoy make for his grandmothers. He picked out the colors of the construction paper, tissue paper and pipe cleaners. I helped with the cutting and folding. He selected glitter glue to stick the butterflies on the cards and the stickers. He went to town on the stickers. I wrote "Grandma" and "Oma" (grandma in German) on the cards using the glitter glue stick of his choice.

He really enjoyed making the butterflies and wanted to make more last night. He was feeling a little more confident with the scissors so he cut out a few "squares".

Glitter glue is another big hit. In addition to decorating his new butterflies with glitter glue he's been decorating construction paper with glitter glue a couple times a day for the past couple of days.

Picture Thursday - I have a tail!

OK, this may be the most ridiculous thing you'll see all day, but I couldn't resist sharing. He'll hate me for this when he's a teenager, I'm sure. He immediately pulled this gem out of the latest bag of hand-me-downs from my sister-in-law and hasn't gotten sick of it yet.




BTW, in case you're interested, the little cow face on the tummy of the costume - it "moo"s when you press it. For real, people.

Date night with Schmoopy

On Monday nights, the JMan takes a photography class at the local community college. So I have the evening alone with SchmoopyBoy. Usually I scramble to make a quick and easy dinner and just play at home with him. Last night, the moment I came home he wanted to just sit and watch fishies on the computer. (Thanks, YouTube). Given that he skipped his afternoon nap, I was pretty sure he had plenty of screen time already during the day. So, thinking quickly, I suggested we go to see real live fishies. He found that idea agreeable so I took SchmoopyBoy out for a date night with Mommy.

Destination, PetSmart. Just a few miles away and free admission. Perfect. We started in the fish section. Rows upon rows of real live fishies. Then he spotted one of the employees working with a bin and had to find out what she was doing. In the bin were crickets. Hundreds, if not thousands of crickets. OMG! Bugs! More bugs in one place than he had ever seen before! We ventured around the store and saw some birds and mice. Then he wanted to see more bugs. So, we returned to our kindly bug lady and asked if she had any more bugs to see. Sadly, she did not. She did, however, have worms. OMG! Worms! Live worms! She took one out and placed it in her hand so SchmoopyBoy could watch its squirm around.

We walked around a little more. SchmoopyBoy enjoyed the lizards and snakes. He to to see some cats up for adoption that were sleeping in their crates. Then back around the birds and mice before returning for more worms.

Oh, how I wish I had a camera with me. I had no idea the smile a slithering worm could bring to his face.

We then thanked the kind bug lady and departed for dinner. Good heavens, where to go for dinner with no plan, little time, and a 2.75 year old who had skipped his nap. Across the parking lot was some fast food Chinese. Not great, but it would do. We loaded up our tray with noodles and veggies, and as we paid the cashier placed a couple of fortune cookies on the tray. Oh dear. Oh course SchmoopyBoy fastened his eyes on those cookies and wanted nothing else.

I must say, I've never seen him gobble up broccoli so quickly as when I told him he could have a cookie if he first ate 4 pieces of vegetable. In nothing flat, 2 pieces of broccoli and 2 slices of carrot were gone, as were a few noodles. Having his cookie craving satisfied, he then settled down to slowly consume the rest of his noodles as he watched the other people come and go.

We got home a few minutes later than I had hoped. So I just gave him a few minutes to play before heading upstairs for his bath. At bedtime, he uncharacteristically wanted to go straight to bed and turn the lights off, without any bedtime stories or lullabies. Of course, as soon as the lights were off and he was tucked in, he then asked for a story. So, I made a story up. I told him a story about a little boy that made friends with a frog at the park. It was quite a success, which amazed me since I had absolutely no idea where the story was going from start to finish. Nonetheless, he liked it so much he request it again. So, I tried to remember what I had just pulled from the air and repeated the story. After a few minutes of rolling around, he settled down to sleep.

I think he had a great time last night. Honestly, despite the creepy crawlies and greasy food, I had a great time with him too. I have to highly recommend an occasional date night with your toddler. It might surprise you.

Wordless Wednesday: Red Rock

Lion Dance = Greatest Thing Ever

This past weekend I took SchmoopyBoy to the Chinese New Year Festival at our local Chinatown Plaza. I wasn't sure if we would be able to make it, as he had been sick for a couple of days and I wasn't sure if he would be up for it. Of course, all I had to do was mention that there would be dragons and drums and he was ready to go!

We got in the gate just in time for the lion dancing to start. SchmoopyBoy was enraptured. I knew I would be hearing about "dragons" (I suppose they do look more like dragons than lions, especially to a 2 year old) for a while, I had no idea the extent to which he is totally obsessed. He wants to see pictures of lion dancing, he wants to see videos of lion dancing, he wants to see Real! Live! Lion! Dancing! all day every day.

His cold took a turn for the worse today. His temperature got up to 104 a couple of times during the day so I left work early to meet the husband and kiddo at the doctor's office. He thoroughly enjoyed all the gadgets the doctor broke out. He was an awesome little patient, if I do say so myself. And on the way home, he made it abundantly clear that he wanted....

MORE LION DANCING!


I did not take this picture. I was kicking myself for leaving my camera at home. This is a picture from the Lohan School of Shaolin, which performed the lion dances as well as some Kung Fu demonstrations.

Wordless Wednesday: "Cat" by SchmoopyBoy, age 2

Last Weekend at the Pumpkin Patch

Last week I took SchmoopyBoy to the "Farm House!" to see the pumpkin patch and the animals. He had a blast. Loved Loved Loved the animals.

How old does this kid look? Two and a half? I think not.

He got to feed a pig a carrot.

OMG a horsie!!

The horsie ride was the highlight of the morning.


Although, riding the mechanical cow was pretty fun too. He got to see a couple of real cows as well as a llama on the hay ride. No pictures of the hay ride unfortunately.