Tag: children

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Awesome Children Dreams Drew Holidays Humor Love Memoir Nonfiction Sentiment

2 Years Old: A Parenting Retrospective

Well, we made it to two years. As with every milestone so far, and I’m sure every milestone yet to come, Drew and I are baffled at where the last two years have gone. What happened to that bitty newborn? To the baby we used to have to prop up against things? To the toddler who had to trick or treat holding on to Drew’s hands because he couldn’t quite walk all by himself?

Instead of a baby, we now have this little roommate. He may be only three feet tall, but he’s powerful. He’s incessantly curious, constantly demanding, smiley, stubborn, energetic, pushy, inquisitive. In the course of minutes I can go from being out of my mind frustrated to out of my mind in love. Parenting is by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, and also the weirdest thing. If any of my friends treated me the way he sometimes treats me, I would definitely tell them off or get rid of them. But with him it usually just makes me laugh.

I’ve learned a lot about myself over the last couple years. Some things are just the things that probably any parent of a toddler learns: a reserve of patience, strength of will previously uncovered, a tolerance for someone else’s bodily fluids. Other things are interesting and more specific: Like, although I love my own, I don’t think I’m a “kid person” in general. I’ve also realized what a beautiful word “normal” is – who needs extraordinary? And this whole experience has made me love Drew more than ever every single day.

I know I will look back at this some day and shake my head. Silly me, I’ll think, two years was just the tip of the iceberg. Back then I could barely fathom the fact that B could climb into his own car seat, and now he’s driving (or off to college, or getting married, or having his own babies). But come on, future me, cut me a break. The last two years have been the longest and shortest years of my life. I know you understand.

One more thing: when we found out I was pregnant, almost 3 years ago, Drew started reading the Harry Potter books to me (and eventually to B). As B got older, the going got slower…because while I would definitely sit still for a chapter a night, a toddler doesn’t always have the same interests. We’ve been chipping away at the seventh book for over a year now, and three months ago we made the pledge to ourselves that we would finish by his birthday. Drew has been a total trouper about reading at night no matter how tired he is, and this weekend he really ramped it up. Yesterday he started reading over dinner, and then for the rest of the evening we sort of followed B around from bedroom to living room to bath, reading to him. YOU GUYS. WE FINISHED THE ENTIRE HARRY POTTER SERIES LAST NIGHT, Sunday, September 28, 2014. (And that epilogue is still just as bad as I remember it.)

So today we celebrate B’s second birthday, with balloons and a family dinner and a homemade ice cream cake (a la Frozen, of course). Since every day brings a new lesson, a new joke, a new challenge, I can’t wait to see what this one has in store! Happy second birthday, my love! May you have many, many more!

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Children Movies

Disney Project: Fantasia 2000

Movie: Fantasia 2000

Release year: 1999

Well, my prediction came true. I watched about 3 minutes of this – 2 minutes of the first piece, and then about a minute of the “Rhapsody in Blue” piece. This is (sort of) the second time I’ve watched this – the first time was when we first got it, as part of a 2-disc set with Fantasia, but that was years ago, and while I like the pieces, it doesn’t have the same classic feel as original Fantasia. But then, nothing does, especially not when it was made in 1999.

B did sit down and watch some with us, so maybe it’s just a matter of making it clear that we’re going to be in the living room watching this, not chasing him around the apartment. But that only worked for so long.

If you’ve seen Fantasia 2000, let me know how it was. Did you like it? What was your favorite piece?

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Children Drew Movies

Disney Project 2014: Tarzan

Movie: Tarzan

Release year: 1999

I actually really like Tarzan. I like the Phil Collins music. I like the way the animators based Tarzan on a teenager with a skateboard. (It’s true!) I like the Tarzan/Jane relationship. I like the ending. I just really like this movie.

…From what I remember. Because I did not really watch it when it was playing at our house this weekend.

B just doesn’t want to have anything to do with any Disney movie that isn’t Frozen. It’s going to make the rest of this project difficult. Because we’re going to get into the movies that neither Drew nor I have seen (Home on the Range, Meet the Robinsons, etc), and I’m just not even going to be able to talk about them, because out of a 90-minute movie, I will have seen 8 minutes. Oh well.

I might have to rewatch this one, because I do really like it. Also, if you haven’t seen it, or haven’t seen it lately, Clayton has one of the creepier Disney villain deaths. Very well done, Disney animators.

Also, the less he’ll sit still for a movie, the blurrier our pictures are. This is literally the best picture we got.

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Children Memoir Nonfiction

Playground antics

We’ve been to the playground every day this weekend (I’m counting Friday as part of the weekend). B is starting to really into climbing on play structures and going down slides, although I still prefer it if no one else is around. Too many wild and crazy five-year-olds running around make me nervous. And you know what’s weird? There’s often no one else around this particular playground.

Friday was a pretty nice day, though, so it got a little crowded. Among the other kids playing there was a little girl with a large ziplock bag full of little plastic trucks. B ran up to her and she handed him one. Her dad started interfering.

“Can you SHARE that TRUCK?” he asked, and I thought he was asking her, but then he said, “Did you say PLEASE? Say PLEASE.” Um, are you talking to my kid? She forced it on him – he doesn’t even want your cheap truck. Except apparently he does, because I had to chase him around the playground and then trick him to get it back. I wanted to give it back to the little girl, because this unfinished transaction was making me supremely uncomfortable.

The dad asked me how old B was. “He’s 22 months,” I said. The dad told me that “Maddy just turned one in May.” Holy cow, I was thinking, she is a huge and much advanced 15-month-old. I stole a glance at Beau. “Oh, two, I mean two,” he corrected. Whew.

I couldn’t handle being around them anymore, with their pressure to have nice manners and their kids with trendy names (their son’s name was like Aerys or something), so I pretended like we had to go home and start dinner (true) immediately (less true) and we left. Luckily we were there before them so they didn’t know we had only been there for about 25 minutes.

On Saturday, there was only one other little girl there, a 4-year-old who said, “Hi, what’s your name?” and when B said something incomprehensible back to her, she just looked at me with a confused look on her face. Adorable. Later, she asked me if she could play with him. Also adorable. Her mom said, “You have to ask him first if he wants a hug.” Then to us, “She’s a hugger.” Later, B went up to her and hugged her from behind. Everyone seemed chill about it.

Today, we met a mom with a 20-month-old girl. The two kids didn’t actually interact as much as I would have expected. But maybe we’ll run into them again. Today was a pretty wet day, and the slides had little pools at the bottom. We decided to go for it anyway, and put B down a slide. I’m glad I was ready for him at the bottom because he shot down that thing like he was greased up. He seemed to like it.

I remember long lazy weekends of sleeping in, reading, watching Law & Order: SVU, and doing not much else. But this is fun too. (Actually yesterday I spent all of naptime ignoring toys on the floor and dishes in the sink, and I lay in bed and read The Clan of the Cave Bear. That was nice.)

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Children Drew Movies

Disney Project 2014: The Rescuers Down Under

Movie: The Rescuers Down Under

Release year: 1990

My reaction: This is, I believe, the only sequel on the list. And I think it deserves to be there. I would say Down Under is better than the original Rescuers. Even though the perspective is all over the place, and it’s hard to keep track of how big these mice actually are. One second they’re riding fireflies, the next second they’re like opening cage doors. And when Cody gets free of McLeach, the first place he goes is to check on the eagle eggs…even though HIS MOM THINKS HE’S DEAD. I’m like GO HOME IMMEDIATELY. His poor mom. =(

Drew says: “I don’t think Bianca likes Bernard the way he likes her.” I agree.

Also, this is the first Disney movie we’ve gotten to that we don’t already own. Luckily…streaming on Netflix!

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Being a girl Children Drew Love Movies Sentiment

Disney Project 2014: The Little Mermaid

FINALLY!

Movie: The Little Mermaid

Release year: 1989

My reaction: I probably don’t need to explain myself to any girls born from 1980-1985. This is one of the best. Movies. Ever. I love every frame, every weird facial expression, every little quirk in this movie. It’s so good.

We were in Tahoe last weekend with two of my best girlfriends – fun fact, the three of us went to see a sing-along version of The Little Mermaid for a bachelorette party a couple years ago. So this was actually a pretty special coincidence, that it was the next movie in our line-up.

We ended up watching it twice last weekend: once on Saturday night, and then again on Sunday morning. I loved it each time. I would love it every time. I’m just saying.

To everyone who has little “But why don’t they just? But why doesn’t she? But she should just?” I say HUSH. This is the epitome of princess movies, to me. Ariel’s voice is THE Disney princess voice. It’s all wonderful. I’ve been waiting a long time to get to this one. =D

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Children Drew Movies

Disney Project 2014: Oliver & Company

Movie: Oliver & Company

Release year: 1988

My reaction: This is the second time I’ve ever seen this movie. And I’ll be honest with you, I watched maybe 10 minutes of it. I mean, it was playing and everything but we spent a lot of time chasing B around the house.

I think I got the gist though. It’s based on Dickens’ Oliver Twist, with music by Billy Joel. Very 1988. I’m not sure where Jenny’s parents are – maybe they went into that backstory but I missed it. It’s a decent Disney movie, but I get why this is the second time I’ve seen it.

We missed a couple weeks, due to some travel. But we’re ready to jump back into the second half of the year and watch some of the best Disney movies there are.

Seriously though, B was in time out like five times during this one. I guess he just wasn’t in a movie mood.

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Children Drew Movies

Disney Project 2014: The Aristocats

Movie: The Aristocats

Release year: 1970

My reaction: There are a handful of lines from this movie I know REALLY well, because they were part of a preview on a tape I had of another Disney movie. Lines like, “You’re not a lady, you’re nothing but a sister,” “Scandalous,” “QUIET!!” and others. But I never had this movie growing up so it’s not one I’m super familiar with. This was probably the third time I’ve ever watched it. I think I vaguely remember watching it at the Ruffcorns’ house while babysitting their kids…

It’s cute, but I can see why it didn’t catch on. It just doesn’t have the spark that so many of the other movies do. I wonder if they were just trying out cats because 101 Dalmatians went well? It’s fun to see some of the repeated animation sequences – where they use the same molds but put the new characters in. An all-around pleasant morning.

Aaaaand as usual, this is the least blurry photo we could get. =)

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Baby Children Holidays Love Nonfiction Sentiment Typography

Happy Mother’s Day 2014!

mother's day 2014 typo

I rejected a lot of quotes before selecting this one. Because I think it sums up my experience over the last 19 months.

(Now if only there was a PS about appreciating your own mother, it would be perfect!)

Happy Mother’s Day!

Categories
Children Drew Movies

Disney Project 2014: Ichabod and Mr. Toad

Movie: The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad

Release year: 1949

My reaction: Drew was surprised that I have never seen this before – either of these. I liked them a lot, but then, I like the source material. I now understand the Mr. Toad ride at Disneyland a little bit more (although I definitely thought there was a part of the ride where he went to hell – I guess it was just prison). I was very surprised at the ending of Ichabod. I like that they didn’t hold back, even though this is for kids.

B’s reaction: I think he actually watched some of it this week!

For those of you keeping track, we are still a week behind in movies. But I’m not worried!

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