AP Moment of the day ~ what to do when your son makes you wish you'd only had one child and it wasn't necessarily him?...

...You take a few moments and gaze at a picture of him that you love and you watch as the little bugger "Hewlps cween" the table and the kitchen with those sparkly eyes that get him out of so much trouble....!! I swear today I just wished I'd never had him. I know that it's almost a hanging offence to say that sort of thing out loud, but facts are facts. He is VERY difficult almost daily. He seems to be able to muck up the simplest of tasks and I don't mean accidentally, making every outing or activity a trial... but then he will look at you with his loving eyes and a big grin and your heart melts for him. It's lucky he's cute..... that's all I can say!!!

This is the pic I gaze at.... how can you not love this face!?!?!

AP Moment of the day ~ the things you do for love!

Today we had to go for a walk to the post office in the snow. We didn't just walk... we had to take the sled!! Jackster and Jessie both wanted to ride but that's one heck of a load for a little plastic sled never mind the fact that the dear city folk had cleared the streets for all our sakes ... and now there was no snow or ice to pull the thing on!! LOL!!! I managed to find enough ice in the middle of the road to ease us along but Jessie had to walk most of the way! We also had the dog and a bag of mail .... what a sight!!! I could quite happily have just driven down, but that's not where you make the memories is it?!?! "oh, I remember the days when Mum would drive us to the post office...!! " nooo.. the memories come from when Mum is tugging her arms off trying to find the snowiest path and falling on her beeeehind in the snow to the great joy and amusement of the kids!! I had snow in the most unlikely places!!! But the memories, they are in my heart! :D

AP Moment of the day~ Keeping traditions alive!

Every year I host a Gingerbread House Day and we have done this for 8 years now! I really enjoy doing it and find it SUCH fun. As the years go on though and the children get bigger and into more stuff more and more folks started going the old "Kit" way! I always Poo Pooed the kits preferring our traditional labor of love method, but this year.... this year I nearly succumbed. I saw some kits in Target and I gave it serious thought. I suddenly realised how easy this could be!! I could buy TWO kits, each child would have one of his and her own... I would have to do NOTHING!!! Yeeahhyy!!! Well given that all children want to do is glue candy onto gingerbread what could be better....!!?? I went home and asked Jessie what she thought..... "How about we just buy KITS this year?!?!?! " "No!!" she said! "No, I want us to make the dough and design our own houses....!!"

I was stunned!!! and secretly thrilled I suppose! All those years and all that effort was not for nought at least!!! so home made gingerbread houses it is!!! until next year maybe!?!? :D

Today was Gingerbread House Making Day!! This is no small task people!! :D I have no intention of eating our houses, so I use really cheap flour, eggs and such... the ingredients just have to be the right consistency as far as I am concerned! :D We make a double batch of dough so we have enough for a huge house. We have to make the dough a few days in advance and let it get really cold. After we've let the dough sit a few days in the fridge, we then have to decide what we are going to make then we design templates for it and cut it out. Baking is pretty easy but in order to make the walls etc really hard and strong we bake it longer (much longer) than usually required. Again the walls and such need to sit for at least another 24 hours, preferably longer, to make sure they are really firm. I've tried making gingerbread houses with soft roofs and walls to disastrous results!!!! Today was the day of assembly so we use a "glue" of powdered sugar and egg whites to build the walls and then we glue candies and what have you to decorate it up!! :D Today's was a castle and we strove for some realism so didn't use much in the way of candies apart from my concession to the gummi sharks swimming in the moat of blue sugar!!! It was quite successful really and the children really did enjoy putting it all together! What do you think?!

AP Moment of the day~ If ever oh ever a Whizz there was...

Jessie Beans is one.....because, because because because because beCAUSE....!! Because of the wonderful things she does, of course!! :D

Today Jessie wants to be a ... Wizard. Well technically she wants to be a Wizard~ess. I'm not sure that there is such a thing, but, as a good AP Momma, I don't tell her that!! :D She wanders around in her Wizard~ess garb and does Wizardess things like point her "wand" at people and wave it manically in their eye region causing my Mummy brain to come close to exploding point trying to restrain myself from blurting out "YOU'LL HAVE SOMEONE'S EYE OUT WITH THAT!!!!" She writes spells in her spell book and reads stories about Wizards and the like!!! Goofball. The best magic she performs, however, has to be the morning cuppa she brings me every day!!

Today we also tested her kitchen magic as she and Jackster "helped" me make the Gingerbread ready for our Gingerbread house party on Thursday! They had a super time cooking and the dough looks great!! We'll see how it works out tomorrow! :D

AP Moment of the day~When helping really isn't quite as helpful as perhaps it could be!

Today I've been a tad busy tidying the house so that I can clean it!! It took hours just to get it picked up enough to clean!!! Admittedly I get a bit nutso when the house is a mess and I had let it get a little out of hand lately. The kids were super and they know to keep out the way when I'm tidying up. Beans took good care of Jackster and they spent the majority of the day in the basement where Beans schooled Jackster on his alphabet and had him counting and such! The cute part is where she has him raise his hand to answer a question!!! Poor boy!!! Anyway, they were pretty good kiddoes all day..... until... the dreaded..... "I hewlp?"....." I hewlp a Mummy?".... "Mummy.... Mummy I hewlp a you??!!" LOL!!!!! I have very little patience with children who want to help. I don't mind when I plan on them helping me and I am all filled up with patience and time.....but when I'm really busily trying to get stuff done and they want to help, well, I'm not at my best!! :D Jackster loves to do windows!! He sprays our vinegar spray all over the windows and wipes away to his hearts content! Of course the windows only get clean about half way up, but hey, they're cleaner than they were, right!!?!? I was busy cleaning the floor and he wanted to help spray the floor! I asked him to sit by me and he could spray ONLY WHEN I SAID!! He did such a good job and was so careful to spray just where I pointed and only when I said so!!! Later I was vacuuming... he really hates the noise so he and Beans had gone upstairs to hide. I busied myself cleaning and suddenly Beans came back down... "Jackster's in the sprayers... he's spraying EVERYTHING!!!!" I go upstairs to see and he is in the bathroom with another vinegar spray bottle.... there is vinegar spray EVERYWHERE. It's up to the ceiling, it's all over the giant mirror, it's on the cupboards, on the carpet... his shirt is drenched with it!!!! "NoooooOOOOooooo!!!!!!" I shout "Jackster....N....." then I catch sight of his devastated little face......"oohhhh..... you were helping weren't you?!!" "yes" he quietly says. <<>> as my heart breaks for him!!! I give him a huge hug and tell him what a super helper he is!!! He did such a thorough job!!! :D Bless his little heart!!! I take care to hide the spray bottle out of sight and we go downstairs for dinner. As we are setting the table he starts to haul everything out of the pantry and sets them on the table!! Boxes of soup, mustard from the fridge, jars of pickle... I hear him whisper to himself as he scurries past me with his booty...."I'm VERY hewlping"....!!!!!!!!!!

Yes he is. He's also very trying!! :D

AP Moment of the day~Attached kids grow up to be very independent!

Today we started off the season with a visit to our cousin's place for a Holiday Open House. Their home is perfect for the occasion, beautiful, warm and FILLED with holiday knick knacks, pictures, treats and good cheer. We missed last year's open house and I do believe it has been two years since we saw them, but they are the sort of family that you see and are instantly at home with. Anyway, we walked in and initially didn't see anyone we recognized despite the house being filled with guests. We wandered around a bit looking for our hosts and finally tracked them down. Beans wanted to see their daughter and was told she was down in the basement with all the other kids... did she want to go down and look for her?!? Well.... I wondered what would happen. She barely knows their daughter and hasn't a clue about the other kids ... I expected that she would want me to go down with her, to hold her hand or take care of her..... HAH!!! I should have known better!!! She said "OK"!! And with nary a backward glance she went down to the basement and visited with all the kids!! Next thing I knew I saw her and a line of girls parading out into the snow to play snowballs together!! I hardly set eyes on her the entire time we were visiting!!! She had a marvellous time, and so did I !!!

I remembered as I was writing this that this past May she surprised the heck out of me too... We met some new friends locally and their daughter was having a camp out for her birthday party. A bunch of her friends had a tent pitched in the yard and the girls were going to have a slumber party out there. They had a small camp fire ( and a Dad who was supervising the marshmallow melt !) and were telling ghost stories!!! I dropped Beans off at about 6:30 and said I'd swing back about 10pm pretty darn sure I'd need to take her home as she wouldn't know anyone and would be scared to sleep out in the dark with strangers....! At 10 pm I went "to fetch her" !!! She was sitting around the fireside swapping ghost stories !! ( MY KID!!! GHOST STORIES!!!) and having a blast! I asked her if she was alright and would she like to come home and I was met with an indignant "MOM!!!" ....o.....k.......!!! I went back home with my tail between my legs!! I couldn't decide if I was delighted or terrified!!! I settled for delighted! :D I'd left my phone with her and anticipated the phone ringing any moment all night long.. but ..nooooo!! When I was finally allowed to collect her at NOON the next day I might add, she'd had a WONDERFUL time and made a bunch of new friends!!

I know that people who don't really understand Attachment Parenting can think that it creates children who cling to their parents and who are afraid to leave their sides... in fact quite the opposite actually. It turns out that if you give your child confidence in your love and affection, you make your child certain that you are there for him or her whenever they need you, then they feel much safer pulling away as they are programmed to do, knowing that when they look back, you are right there every time.

AP Moment of the day ~ Communication is a two way street OR I love a parade!

Today should have been the Star City Parade which we have been going to for years. Sadly and for the first time in it's history, it was cancelled due to an ice storm. We'd been watching the weather forecast for the last few days and it was looking ominous to say the least. I had begun to prepare the children that perhaps, sadly, we may not be going to the parade this year. I knew they would be HEARTBROKEN. I was prepared for perhaps some tears, maybe even weeping and pounding on a pillow.... I know the kids LOVE the parade.

We always get ready to go in a calm and peaceful manner, there's NEVER any shouting or anything like "Comeoncomeoncomeon we're going to miss the start, we won't get anywhere to park, we won't be able to see anything.. all the good spots will be taken comeoncomeoncomeon......" or anything else approaching that insanity.... weeellllll... I say never.... I mean, not often.... not every time.... ok, every time, but I don't MEAN to do it like that...something just takes over me!!....

Anyway, I know they love the yummy treats I make to take with us, like that one time I made some delicious brownies..... what??!?!... they WERE delicious. Ok, they were a liiiittle dry. And sure, we didn't have anything to drink with us that time..... oh come on... we only gagged a little bit.....what a fuss...!! The chocolate dipped pretzels were delicious though!! They were GOOD!! and only a little messy. I mean everything came out in the wash after only two rinses!!! The hot chocolate made it though!! THAT was really nice... and only burned the first couple of sips and after that your tongue and lips were numbed to the pain...!!

But the best part was standing on the sidewalk and watching the folks walking by!!.. it wasn't THAT cold...! Oh you could SO feel your feet!!!! Ok, so you lost sensation in both your big toes. Who needs big toes when you can watch yet another small town marching band go by?!!? :D And as for being able to feel your nose, ....eh, it's over rated!! So yeah, it's cold but then isn't it so much nicer when you get back inside and start to thaw out!!!!

What about the marching bands though?!!?!? and the DRUMMERS?!?! And the FIRETRUCKS!!! WOW EEEE!!! THE FIRE TRUCKS?!!!? With the sirens...and the horns... and the drums...... and the very noise sensitive son... who screams and cries with his hands pressed to his little ears!!!!

Hmmmmm.......

So I very delicately approached the subject of perhaps skipping the parade this year, due to the storm....... I got down to their level, looked them in the eyes and very gently said..

"honey....Beans, Jackster, listen, the weather is going to be really terrible for the parade today and it has been cancelled....... I'm sorry but we won't be able to go this year......"

I waited, ready for the storm. .....

"OK!" said Beans!! Unphased! Jackster was equally nonplussed.

"WAIT!!" I called out as they ran off to get on with playing or what ever else they thought they were going to do... "aren't you going to miss the parade? I thought you loved going? It's a tradition!!!!!!!......"

"Nah!!!" said Beans. "It's too cold and noisy. We only go because you tell us we have to!"

Oh. I guess it's just me who loves a parade.

It's funny what you go through and what you put others through because all the time you think it's what they want, and in the end it turns out to be what you wanted and sometimes, even worse, it turns out no body wanted it at all!!!

I suppose the lesson here is listen to your family, your children, and make sure that what you are hearing is what they are saying!!!

" .... Seventy six trombones led the big parade.....one hundred and four cornets close behind...."