You are here: Home / Archives for Les Enfants

Drowning is a Silent Killer

2011
1 Comment

You can also find this post on my other blogs, Sensible Cents and Kitchen Conundrum, but because I feel that it is so incredibly important, I am posting it everywhere.

Summer is here and it’s time to head to the pool and to the beach. It’s common that before you go, you check to make sure you have enough liquids, and enough sunscreen. But are you prepared for an emergency?  Sure, you have band-aids, and bug repellant, but are you prepared for a drowning, or a near-drowning incident?

I actually learned this a few years ago, and it really has stuck with me and I remind myself of it every year. Drowning doesn’t look like drowning. If you think that drowning involves wildly flailing arms and loud screams for help, you should think again. Because you are dead wrong. Drowning doesn’t look like you think it would look. It doesn’t look at all like it does in the movies or on TV. There are very few warning signs. In fact, most drownings occur when people are no further away than 20 feet.

According to the CDC, the statistics are staggering. More than one in five people who die from drowning are children 14 and younger and for every child who dies from drowning, another four received emergency department care for nonfatal submersion injuries. Drowning is the second leading cause of death among children in this age range.  And, worse still, drownings are the leading cause of injury death for young children ages 1 to 4, and three children die every day as a result of drowning! The sad part? Drowning is preventable.

I’m going to share here part of an excellent article entitled “It Doesn’t Look Like They’re Drowning” featured in the Coast Guard’s On Scene Magazine (Fall 06, Page 14) written by Aviation Survival Technician First Class Mario Vittone and Francesco A. Pia, Ph.D. There is a lot of bold here, because it’s really that important to pay attention to.

In the article, they describe the typical Instinctive Drowning Response as follows:

(The “Instinctive Drowning Response” are actions that represent a person’s attempts to avoid the actual or perceived suffocation in the water. The suffocation in water triggers a constellation of autonomic nervous system responses that result in external, unlearned, instinctive drowning movements. Commit these to memory!)

1. Except in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. The respiratory system was designed for breathing. Speech is the secondary or overlaid function. Breathing must be fulfilled before speech occurs.

2. Drowning people’s mouths alternately sink below and reappear above the surface of the water. The mouth of a drowning person is not above the surface of the water long enough to exhale, inhale, and call out for help. When the drowning person’s mouth is above the surface, they exhale and inhale quickly as their mouth starts to sink below the surface of the water.

3. Drowning people cannot wave for help. Nature instinctively forces them to extend their arms laterally and press down on the water’s surface. Pressing down on the surface of the water permits drowning people to leverage their bodies so they can lift their mouths out of the water to breathe.

4. Throughout the Instinctive Drowning Response drowning people cannot voluntarily control their arm movements. Physiologically, drowning people who are struggling on the surface of the water cannot stop drowning and perform voluntary movements such as waving for help, moving toward a rescuer, or reaching out for a piece of rescue equipment.

5. From beginning to end of the Instinctive Drowning Response people’s bodies remain upright in the water, with no evidence of a supporting kick. Unless rescued by a trained lifeguard, these drowning people can only struggle on the surface of the water from 20 to 60 seconds before submersion occurs.”

Here are some Signs of Drowning to watch for the next time you’re swimming with your kids or others:

  • Head low in the water, mouth at water level
  • Head tilted back with open mouth
  • Hair over forehead or eyes
  • Eyes glassy, empty and unable to focus
  • Eyes closed
  • Hyperventilating or gasping
  • Not using legs or not kicking
  • Body is vertical and upright
  • Trying to swim in a certain direction but not making any progress
  • Trying to roll over on the back

Here are some Prevent Drowning Measures you can take:

Be Aware

Keep your eyes open and watch your children! Do not leave them for a second unattended around water. This is the most important thing you can do to save your child’s life. Even when things seem ok, they may not be. A good way to make sure is to ask your kid or the person you’re swimming with if he or she is all right. If they are rather still, do not answer or have a blank stare, then you may have less than 30 seconds to get to them! As any parent knows, kids make noise in the water. If they are not making noise, find out why and get them out of the water ASAP. One thing I do with my girls, that I actually learned as a SCUBA Rescue Diver is to make a “BIG OKAY” sign with my hand on my head and my arm outstretched like the letter “O”.  They can see me and my “BIG OKAY” from wherever they are in a pool and do it back to me. When they do that, I know that they are okay. If they don’t do it, I then hop in the water and go get them. Every time we go to the pool or the beach, I remind them to make the sign, so I don’t have to drag them out of the water.

Learn CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation)

Are you up to date with your CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) accreditation? If you aren’t, go and learn and get recertified every two years. CPR can help a child stay alive with little or no brain damage.

Life Jackets are a “MUST!”

You wouldn’t let your child go un-seatbelted  (hopefully!) in the car so don’t let them go unprotected in the water either. Make sure kids wear life jackets every single time they are in and around natural bodies of water, such as lakes, rivers or the ocean, even if they know how to swim.

Fence the Pool and Cover It

If you have a home pool or are at another person’s home that has a pool, be sure that it is fenced in. Every pool should have a four–sided fence, with self–closing and self–latching gates around the entire pool.  And make sure the pool is covered when not in use. If it’s an above ground pool, make sure the ladder/steps are inaccessible to children.

Teach Your Children How To Swim!

The American Red Cross gives very cost efficient swimming lessons at a pool near you. Take advantage of their classes.

I hope that you and your family and your friends have an awesome, safe Summer filled with laughter and joy and good food!

Filed Under: Family, Les Enfants, Life Tagged With: , , , ,

Fall is Officially Here

2010
Leave a Comment

With Falls arrival, I yearn for the crisp outdoors and all the activites you can do now that the summer heat has been banished from the land. The vibrant colors of  trees and the nip in the air reminds me to pull out my favorite sweaters and some warm fleeces. The open toed shoes get tucked away and the hiking boots come out.

One of my most favorite Fall activities is going apple picking. I love taking a bite of that first apple freshly plucked from the tree, the crunch and the tart juice on your hands as you wander the orchards in search of the perfect apples to pick. It is wonderful that they let you eat as many apples as you want while you pick.  But don’t eat too many- you should save room for the Cider donughts.

 This year, we headed up to Warwick, NY, about a two hour drive from our home.  There were several places to choose from, but we found ourselves arriving at Maskers Orchards. We had heard that going early was best as every orchard gets packed with the NYers escaping the city. They were right! We arrived at 10am and there was plenty of parking and it was rather empty. But not for long! By 1pm when we were finished, it was a mob scene and we were happy to leave.

We picked from a variety of Jonagolds, Red Delicious and Empire apples. For just $24.95 per 1/2 bushel bag you can pick anywhere from 20-25lbs of apples in just one bag. Which, by the way, is a TON of apples. Certainly enough to make several pies, crisps and tarte tartins with enough left over for apple butter or apple sauce. You may still have enough to give away to family and friends after all of that. Yes, it’s that many apples!

Maskers has many activites for families such as pony rides, a haunted house, a small petting zoo, face painting, a small corn maze, live music and pumpkin picking (not in a field). They also have a quaint country store where you can purchase containers of jellies, salsa, honey, and maple syrup.

You can purchase their cider donuts from the food stand, but hold off, because they don’t make them fresh every morning, but rather the night before. They are more like heavy, cakey, sugar donuts than cider donuts. For real cider donuts, you should head over to Soons Orchards in New Hampton, NY. Their doughnuts are golden brown and dusted with a combination of sugar and cinnamon and are extremely light and airy. The pale, golden-apple-colored interior is incredibly moist and packed with apple flavor. Exactly what you want a cider doughnut to be! We had purchased our doughnuts at Maskers, but sadly disappointed, we went in search of a better doughnut and found Soon’s at a farmers market in downtown Warwick. How lucky we were! So we bought another half dozen and those became the grown up’s doughnuts and the Maskers became the kid’s doughnuts. I am mean like that.

After the farmers market, we ate lunch in downtown Warwick. It’s a very cute  town with lots of little shops and places to grab a bite. It’s also very close to the Sugarloaf Art & Craft Village, a crafts community with artistic items like paintings, stained glass, photography, pottery, antiques, jewelry and woodworks, candles, soap, sculpture and much much more! That’s a trip for another day. Today, we also had hiking on our minds.

Satiated from all the apples and doughnuts and a bit of real food, we headed over to Bear Mountain State Park to hike around the lake. For the month of October, the park celebrates Oktoberfest every weekend with vendor booths and a lot of food and beer. While this does seem to draw a rather young and boisterous crowd, they are pretty well behaved and once you are on the trails, you can’t even hear the music anymore.  So, you still get that outdoorsy feel in a beautiful setting (that is far better than any backyard!)

We had a lot of fun just going around the lake and the kids climbed up all the rocks and rolled down the hills. It exhausted them thouroughly! Some day soon we hope to go back and take some marked trails like we did long before children were born, but we think we have to find some milder ones without too much danger and butt sliding. We’ll save the hard trails for when the little guy is older! Of course, by then, who knows if we will be able to handle them anymore ourselves!

So, if you have a day free, head outside and enjoy the cool air and some leaves crunching beneath your shoes, before it gets too cold and the snow begins to fall. Because that’s when I head inside and under the covers to hibernate for the winter!

Filed Under: Family, Les Enfants, Life Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Back to School- Sort of

2010
1 Comment

The kids go back to school on Tuesday. It’s only for one day though and then they are off for Rosh Hashanah. The next week there are a mere three days of school and the next week,  just three more days. That’s a total of 7 days for the entire month of September. Clearly there will be no actual school work done with all these breaks. And, it really won’t feel like school has begun since there are so many holidays and breaks in between.

But, some things need attending to. Like school lunch. 

The way that my children’s school lunch program works is that every three months you have to choose their lunch by day and send in a check for all of their lunches up front. Each day, the packaged food that you choose is given to your child to eat. It’s a very tedious thing to go through the menu for three months out and picking and choosing what they will have to eat on any given Thursday. It’s also very expensive running about $200 per child every three months. Obviously, the more children you have at the school, the more it costs. There are no discounts. So with two children in school, it costs nearly $1200 a year just for lunch! And, the school lunch is rarely healthy.  There is nary a fresh fruit or vegetables in sight.

So this year, we decided to send lunch everyday and to just order  the desserts that were offered and the “special”  holiday (Thanksgiving turkey sandwich with a side of jello)  lunches. It cost just $64 for both kids for the first three months.  I highly doubt that I will spend the extra $336 to make homemade, healthy lunches versus what I would have spent had I ordered food this trimester.

Everyday, the kids will take a small salad or fresh cut up veggies and they will always have a  fresh fruit. The main course will be a bit more challenging as each child has specific likes and dislikes and of course they are complete opposites. Only one likes eggs and only one like tuna. (As an aside, I don’t like them to eat too much tuna because of the heavy metals, so I limit their intake to only one can per month.  Here is a great website that calculates how much your tuna is safe to consume by your child’s weight.)  I will make hard boiled eggs, egg salads, chicken salads, vegetable sushi and homemade pizzas. There will also be hummus, yogurts and cottage cheese. I prefer to use grilled chicken breasts or make my own nuggets over letting them consume too much processed lunch meats. Wraps are very popular around our house and you can cut them into bite size pieces. I created a full menu for the first seven days, aka, the first month here.  I think actually planning out a menu and making ahead makes life so much easierand greatly reduces the stress of the morning rush. Especially in the winter when you need all the extra time you can get. Plus, I am doing carpool this year with two other moms. Carpool. Yes. Carpooooool. There I said it out loud. It is really official. I am a suburbanite. In a mini van even. And I can’t wear my pjs under my coat anymore lest I embarrass the little people.

We also just got our supply list today. Can you say, doesn’t school start on Tuesday?  Why yes, it does! And yes, today is Friday!  Thanks for making me run around this weekend with the “last minute” masses to buy the leftover binders. So appreciate spending my long weekend running errands. (Pardon my snarky tone!) 

I guess it wont matter if I don’t have everything by the first day of school. Or maybe it will. 

But one thing is for certain, I am ready for summer to be over and will be grateful for the few moments of solitude and for the short reprieve from the sibling fighting I will have once they are all back in school. And especially grateful for when I come back home in the morning and change right back into my pjs.

Looking forward to October!

Filed Under: Les Enfants, Life Tagged With: , , ,

A Day Out- The South Street Seaport With Kids

2010
3 Comments

Thursday, me and two of my littlest people spent the day downtown in the South Street Seaport. We were invited to explore a brand new playground, Imagination Playground, located at Burling Slip just across the street from Pier 17 by the awesome Role Mommy and the fantastic Mom in the City.  Designed by architect, David Rockwell of the Rockwell Group, to encourage child-directed, unstructured free play, which is critical to all aspects of child development, this play area allows Imagination Playground kids to constantly reconfigure their environment  and create their own course of play. From using giant foam blocks, mats, wagons, fabric, crates and more, it allows kids to play, dream, build and explore.

The park has many different play areas within its gates. Throughout, you can see the distinctive blocks,  large vibrant blue foam block shapes that encouraged open ended free play.  Several kids used these blocks in the fountain/splash pad as a personal rafts, or they could be seen building a slide for the many balls around the sand pit.

Speaking of sand, there was plenty of sand and water to go around on the hot day and there were many Imagination Playground “Loose Parts” that the kids could use to build and dig. There were shovels and sand rakes, pvc elbows and even wooden wagons to fill and haul sand and supplies. There were endless, exciting items they could use.

I know my own children were having a great time and it was very hard to get them to leave when it was time to go. I think we will most certainly have to go back there again. But I recommend water shoes and a change of clothes! The splash pad was a huge hit and we came home full of sand in our shoes.

Imagination Playground’s  location at the South Street Seaport helped shape the playground’s design.  The historic shipping industry that took took place at Burling Slip is reflected in the parks shape, it’s mock masts, the ropes and pulleys, the sand and water features, and it’s just out the back door of another hidden NYC gem, The South Street Seaport Museum.

The South Street Seaport Museum lies beyond a quiet, unassuming storefront at 12 Fulton Street. We must have walked past hundreds of times over the years but have never ventured inside. I am so glad we did!

The South Street Seaport Museumtells the story of the Seaport, Lower Manhattan, and the piers and harbor. The museum’s focus begins in the 16th century, the time of the first European interactions with the Native Americans to the first Dutch settlement and through the present time.  It utilizes the area’s historic restored Schermerhorn Row, the tall ship Wavertree and other vessels, it’s collection of art and artifacts to capture and tell the story of the port’s role in the development of the City, the State and the Nation as an economic, cultural and political power. 

The museum has many family activities, including Free Fridays, miniMates, a toddler playgroup, and several walking tours. You can even enjoy sailing on the Schooner Pioneer or aboard the Tugboat, W.O. Decker.  They also have many school programs available. (You can call for more information, 212-748-8753 or email  familyprograms@seany.org)

During our visit, we really enjoyed looking at the beautiful furniture and artifacts from the exhibit, DecoDence: Legendary Interiors and Illustrious Travelers Aboard the SS Normandie.  This may not be of great interest to small children, but my 7 year old thought the dining table and children’s menu and toys were “cool”.

I, personally, enjoyed seeing several items depicting the Andrea Doria and other ocean liners in the lobby of the museum. Having known several people who scuba dove on some of the shipwrecks, it was exciting to see up close, without ever leaving land.

To finish the day, we boarded the tall ship Peking. We discovered what it was like to walk in the footsteps of the sailors, hauling the lines and raising a sail. The older kids hoisted the sail and the smaller kids were treated to holding the line while the sail came down. They then got a look into the ship’s “wet lab” and viewed several small sea creatures including a horseshoe crab and a starfish. It was the highlight of the ship’s tour.

During the day we also enjoyed lunch catered by Tom Colicchio’s  ‘wichcraft and Stew Leonard’s, which served very yummy ice cream sandwiches for dessert!  The kids were very excited to each receive a gift bag full of loot from the museum, including a cardboard telescope, crayons, a small boat foam project, a ball and a garden spade, perfect for digging in the sand.

We really had a great day downtown!

Filed Under: Family, Les Enfants, Memes and Bloggy Things Tagged With: , , , , ,

Letting Go

2010
3 Comments

Anyone who knows me, knows how neurotic I am about safety. Especially when it comes to my children. I actually see the bad things that can befall them.

I have issues with people who let their kids wear their seat belts behind them, or who don’t even care if they wear them at all. I hate fast drivers who weave in and out of traffic. And those motorcycles who fly past you in between cars without any regard to life and limb, forget it. I don’t let my kids go on roller coasters or see movies that I deem too scary. I also don’t like when they dive into the pool headfirst or when they climb too high on the monkey bars. I actually get a pain in my stomach when I witness such bravado.

So, it was only by a really a rash decision that I decided to let my oldest go away to sleep away camp for an entire month. She is leaving this Wednesday. I decided just this past Thursday. We have never been apart for so long before. She was only supposed to go for five days, but at the last minute,  we decided to try and send her for the entire month. And I am terrified to let her go. Ter-rrr -ri-fied!!!

The camp is about 5 hours away too. Granted, we know a lot of people going there for a preview week this week, and we know several people who actually work at the camp, but it doesn’t make letting her go any easier. My mind reels with all the “what ifs”.

I am trying my best to be brave, and telling her constantly how much fun she will have. But in the back of my mind I keep thinking she is 5 hours away and that’s a really, really long drive. But I am smiling and hoping I will somehow convince myself with the repetitive mantra.

She is getting older, and I do need to let her spread her wings and experience new things, even if they are far away from home. I also hope I have put enough of the fear of G-D into her with all my safety instructions and the consequences of what can happen. I just have to hope it all stuck in her mind without crushing too much of her adventurous spirit.

I am also going to try and hold back the tears until after the bus pulls away. Wish me luck. Because I am not so sure I will be able to do that.

Filed Under: Les Enfants Tagged With:

We Interrupt This Project for a Trip to Hershey Park

2010
2 Comments

We interrupted the painting project for a long weekend away with Les Enfants at Hershey Park. Leaving early Friday morning we drove straight with only two pit stops along the way.  The entire trip was only 4.5 hours. We arrived in Harrisburg, PA, which according to Forbes Magazine, is one of the best cities to live and have a family.  We beg to differ after driving around the downtown area and the suburb we drove through to get there from our hotel.

I am a big fan of Starwood hotels and having my SPG points account at the ready at all times, we were happy to book our hotel using cash for one night and points for the second night.  This made for a rather inexpensive stay, which was great. We choose The Four Points Sheraton in Harrisburg this time. It was the first time we had ever stayed in a Four Points hotel, Sheraton’s lower tier version and we were pleasantly surprised.  While the hotel rooms were decorated in circa 1988 fashion and the bathrooms were extremely worn, the hotel does have an improvement plan in place and they are proudly showing their new design scheme on a board in the lobby. The sooner the better would ideal for this hotel.  But on the plus side was the incredibly warm indoor pool, a very welcome relief at the end of a long, hot day and a lot of fun for the kids. Also, the free continental breakfast was one of the better ones I have seen. Urns of coffee, milk, juices, individual boxes of cereals, yogurts, toasts and bagels, danishes and donuts.  They even had some whole fruits to take. Very impressive for a free breakfast.

We spent Friday afternoon in the hotel pool and ventured out to check out Harrisburg. There are about four nice blocks that we saw and that was all. The neighborhood on the way to the downtown area seemed very sketchy and very run down. You can see it was once a nice place, but it certainly isn’t any longer. I am guessing that Forbes writer was in a very different location.Needless to say, it was a very early evening. We grabbed dinner at the local grocery store, Giant, and purchased our Hershey Park tickets there as well. This is the cheapest place to buy the tickets unless you have a really good coupon to the park (+$15 or more off).

We ate dinner, swam, and headed to bed.

We awoke early and got a good head start making it to the park just as it was opening. Heeding some good advice, we headed directly to the back of the park and started there with rides working our way back towards the front entrance. This was great advice as we never had to wait very long on lines. People have a tendency to work amusement parks the other way, starting in the front, becoming caught in the lines and allure of the rides surrounding them.  We just put blinders on the kids and went to the back of the park, promising rides soon to those who kept pace.

There are quite a lot of rides for the very little kids, like Le Petit, who is now 2.5yrs old. He had a blast on the mini Scambler, the mini train, the mini swings. There must have been at least 15 different rides just for kids his size. The big girls got to go on a lot of rides that were suited to the older kids.  However, La Moyen had the best of both worlds, she got to accompany her little brother on his rides while also riding the big kid rides, thus going on twice as many rides as anyone else. This argument proved to assuage any anger on having to chaperon her little brother.

One thing we highly recommend for the day is to buy the souvenir cup. It comes filled with a soda and costs just over $8 with tax, but it is so worth it. You can get $.99 refills all day long. We refilled it with mostly water, which was free, but we did drink four sodas too. Bottled water throughout the park is $3.  We would have exhausted all our funds considering how much water we drank between the five of us. It was a sweltering, hot day.

We did not bring our bathing suits, but have made note to definitely bring them the next time we go as there is a large section of the park that is strictly a waterpark.

Hershey has everything! From Chocolate World, where you can create your own candy bar and see a movie about the history of the chocolate company to the amusement park which hosts a zoo, a seal show, waterpark, mini and full sized rides and some serious rollercoasters.  It really has something for everyone.

We are not a family of coaster goers (although the big girl is dying to go on one) so we finished the park in about seven hours. We then spent another two hours in Chocolate World, seeing the film and the kids perused the gift shop. They were very good though only buying one candy item each.

An exhausted, hot and wilted family headed back to the hotel where we went swimming again and sent dad out for a $5 pizza.

Sunday morning we awoke, had breakfast and checked out.

We decided to take a leisurely drive back to NYC through the local roads of PA and Amish country. The landscape is beautiful. There are horse and dairy farms everywhere, with more corn growing that I have ever seen in my life. I think the entire state of Pennsylvania is planted with corn.

First we stopped in Lancaster, which is an stunning little city. So beautiful with the old  row houses and carriage houses preserved in pristine condition. There are outdoor cafes and every shop you can imagine. It’s has that quintessential small town feel. We just stopped long enough to take a few pictures but we certainly will go back there to check out the town more.

We also stopped at President James Buchanan’s mansion, Wheatland. The lovely mansion’s grounds feature the Wheatland’s Gardens and the  Tanger Arboretum, which has more than 100 species of trees from all around the world. It  was closed for the day but we managed to snap a few pictures there too.

As we continued on, making our way through the farmland of Amish counrty, we wanted to stop and sightsee a bit, but the Amish consider Sunday their holy day and everything is closed. Even their farmside stands. Which it too bad because I would have loved to try some homemade root beer! Guess we have to try again on another day.  So we just enjoyed seeing them and waving to them in their buggies along the route. They are really friendly to outsiders.

We did see some interesting things though with them. Like the kids were mostly barefooted walking on the highway. With the temperatures in the 90′s, that had to have hurt their feet on the scorching pavement.  And these boys, with their rollerblades being towed behind their families carriage. And the carriage parking area at the local Wal-Mart.

We passed through the towns of Bird-In-Hand and Intercourse, giggling about how much money they must make on signs sold to the tourists.

On a corner of one of the many small towns we ventured through, there was a farmer selling fresh produce, so we stopped to buy a dozen ears of corn. We paid $4.50 for the dozen and this is no small price, because at our local Stop & Shop, it’s only $2 a dozen. Hope it is good! But I do feel better supporting locally grown vegetables and he didn’t look like someone I would argue with, wearing all his camouflage and all.

We made a pit stop for a late lunch at a diner and decided since it was nearing three in the afternoon, that we had best find the highway and head home. We finally pulled into the driveway a little after 8pm and collapsed into bed. Tired, and weary from driving for so long but happy to have gone and to have had a very relaxing day trip home.

Filed Under: Family, Les Enfants, Life Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

My Little Dancers

2010
4 Comments

 

My girls love to dance. One did Ballet, one did Hip Hop this year. So twice a week I would drive a town away to take them to dance class. They each had dance one hour a week on different days which meant it was not long enough to actually leave, go anywhere and come back, so one would go in and the other would stay in the car with me and the little guy and we would do homework, listen to music or just hang out and talk. I also often used that time to return emails, phone calls and to tweet.  It was a nice routine.

This summer they only offer classes one night a week, but since they both want to expand their repertoire, they are taking both tap and ballet. But of course they are in different levels, which means one child’s classes are from 5-7 back to back while the other’s is 6-8 back to back.  I don’t know what I was thinking because now I am either stuck in the car from 5-8 or I have to find someplace close to there to be able to hold one kid until 6 and be back at 7 for the other. Drop one off at 5, drop off the other at 6, come back at 7 for the first and come back again at 8 for the last.  I am worn out just thinking about it already! And the worst part, it’s prime dinner time. So when the heck will anyone eat?  I think there will be lots of baggies of cold pasta, veggies and cheese sandwiches.  I can’t even begin to imagine the meltdowns from the little guy being trapped in his seat all that time. We really need to find someplace nearby to hang out.

I really hope for the Fall session that we have a better schedule or I will have to get a dvd player and a fold out couch for the minivan.

Filed Under: Family, Les Enfants, Life

I’m Not Ready For Summer!

2010
3 Comments

There is exactly three more days left of school and I am in complete denial. Soon, there will be three little (two, not so little) people running wild through my house. I already signed the big two up for swimming lessons at our local pool but that’s only two mornings a week. I also signed them both up for dance classes on Wednesday evenings. But, that leaves a lot of hours with nothing to do.  And no structure at all for the little guy. He’s just going to be dragged around everywhere we go. That’s what happens when you can’t really voice your opinion yet, I guess.

I hope “Camp Mom” won’t be a total disaster! I will have some arts and craft projects at the ready and I would love to take them into the city some days to go exploring in different neighborhoods. Of course, there is always a museum or two, but other than that, that’s all I’ve got. I don’t think it’s enough.

So if you have any ideas, please share them with me.

I am counting down the hours until D-Day. What are your plans for the summer? How will you survive the long days with your kids?

Filed Under: Family, Les Enfants, Life Tagged With: ,

Life with a 2.5 Year Old

2010
5 Comments

It’s always an adventure. They can not be trusted for a second by themselves. There isn’t even time for potty breaks. Heaven help you if you are having tummy troubles and really need to go! Because while you are gone, they will take the Windex that you left unattended in your rush to the bathroom and their mini cleaning OCD (from your genes) will take over.

While I sincerely appreciate the little boy’s need for cleaning and order, he used that time, all of three minutes, maybe even less, to clean his toys, the sofa cushions, his blanket and my laptop. When I arrived back into the den, it smelled like Windex. The entire room was permeated with that scent. At first I was like, ok, he sprayed his fire truck and helmet. We wiped that down. He sprayed the sofa cushions. That’s okay, it’s an old Ikea one. He sprayed his blanket. We popped it into the wash. It was all ok.

Then I saw my laptop. It was dripping. From everywhere. The battery, the fan underneath, the keyboard, a puddle. The screen was black. There was no light coming from behind. I unplugged it and cried. Calling my dh, he said I had to let it dry out and see what happens. I called my friend who Googled what to to and stayed on the phone with me while I cried and cursed and took it apart. I patted all the parts down with a paper towel. Then I blow dryed it. For an hour and a few minutes. I left it open, and lay it sideways to drain with all it’s extra parts on the kitchen counter to dry for the day.

Thankfully, it’s up and running now. I put it back together and didnt have pieces left over. The screen is ruined but I can still use it. I didn’t loose my files or anything. Which is a blessing.

Important lessons learned. I am usually so very good about not leaving cleaning chemicals where he can get into them. I have child locks and I bolt the linen/medicine cabinet closed. But it’s that one time!

Today? He plunged the toilet and while I was cleaning that up, he decided that he needed a glass of water from the automatic water dispenser from the fridge. I think I am going to need some more paper towels.

Filed Under: Les Enfants Tagged With: , ,

Is It Dead?

2010
3 Comments

(Warning- Slightly Graphic Picture Inside)
I took a picture with my phone:

Here is how the text conversation went:

Me- Definitively Dead
My DH- Very Dead
Me- Very
Me- I am horrified.
My DH- Do we have to bury it and all????
Me- No. I think he can just go in the trash. It’s fine.
Me- I’m gonna puke.
Me- I feel so sick now.
My DH- I hope the other one doesn’t eat it.
My DH- Cover the cage.
Me- No, then they will know.
Me-OMG!
My DH- Why couldn’t this happen over the weekend?

Seriously, why couldn’t it happen over the weekend? Then my dh would have been around to remove it from the cage in a timely fashion. But no! Had to happen on a Monday morning. Well, let me tell you, I didn’t touch the thing. It stayed right where it was until 9pm last night. At first I was not sure if it was really dead. I couldn’t see if it was breathing or not, but that little paw was stiff and his eyes were closed. We had two of these Robo hamsters and they were fighting Sunday night like crazy. We tapped their cage several times hoping it would stop. Clearly it didn’t. Murdered in cold blood that one. He was the smaller of the two. Very upsetting.

Luckily the girls don’t know yet. The cage is no longer in their room, and it’s on top of the computer cabinet in a place that they don’t pay much attention to. So it’s now mom and dad’s job to feed and clean the cage out as they have become their forgotten pets. Until something like this happens.

So the debate is, do we tell them? Do we not tell them because the only time they will notice is when we clean out the cage next week? Do we feign ignorance and say it must have escaped? Or do we replace it before any of the tears come? How much to we really want to deal with?

What would you do?

Filed Under: Family, Les Enfants, Life
« Older Posts