The Toby Show

Big Boy Things

In the span of one week Huck got his first watch and his first wallet.  He thinks he's hot stuff.  

Of course, he can't tell time but he's now fond of looking at his watch and yelling, "Hurry! It's ten four hundred!  We're going to be late."

And he doesn't have a pants pocket big enough to put that wallet in but that's a minor detail.  What he was really concerned about was what kinds of things he should put inside the wallet.  

I gave him a little change and some photos (of him) and his Great Aunt gave him a dollar.  He was thrilled with all these treasures.  But he needed more.  We dug through my purse and scavanged an out-of-date Sam's card, and a Curious George bandaid.  Big winners.  I also suggested he keep his library card in it. He's still on the lookout for good wallet swag and I can see him sizing up everything he touches. 

Hmmm.  Might this fit in my new froggy wallet?  Let's just find out, shall we?

Yesterday, I was checking out what all he had in there--and I swear this wasn't set up!--and I found this...

Because, well...you never know.  

Hey, at least it wasn't a condom.

Kids Room Tour

Another item I was able to tick off my to do list during the blogcation was to make some changes in the kids room. Huck and Jemima share a room and a closet but things just hadn't been jiving in there. 

I like to dabble in many different educational philosophies--Montessori with a side of Waldorf, a dash of Reggio and a little Enki for dessert.  One change I knew I wanted to make was to add a little Montessori-ish dressing area.  Huck had been battling getting dressed for a while and I've found that a lot of times with him, if I back off and find a way to let him take the lead, our struggles dissipate.  It worked like a charm.

I painted and hung shaker pegs so he has a place to hang his pajamas, got a little chair for him to sit on or to lay out the next days clothes, and a small lined basket for a dirty clothes hamper. The other change that has helped was to take the big dresser out of his closet and put in long low shelves. There are baskets for socks and underwear. Except for the hanging clothes, he can access everything himself.

Screw those swanky California Closets, this is an Idaho Closet, baby!

3 pine planks and a fir beam cut into 10x10x4 blocks.  We go for a looser form of organization 'round here.

Huck loves the responsibility and the order and has been a breeze to get dressed since we set up the shelves and dressing area.  I hope it lasts.  

I like their room a lot now.  It's playful.  I still have plans to do some Wall Pockets from Handmade Home but everything's a work in progress, isn't it?

Motorboat

This post is likely to freak some people out. 

Huck has been very into my boobs lately.  Not surprising really considering they are on permanent exhibit  these days with a nursing baby in the house.  And they are huge.  So he's enthralled and I'm trying to walk the line between being cool about it because I think it's perfectly normal, but not letting things get too Oedipal.  I'm sure that line is in a very different place for everyone. 

The other morning we were all piled into the bed together being silly.   Huck is always squirrely and excited in the morning.  I had just finished nursing the baby and before I knew it Huck hopped up, squished my boobs together, buried his face in the warm middle and blew what we call a flubbadub.  Then he sat up and yelled, "I love your big, squishy boobs!" 

Needless to say I was a bit surprised.  And amused.  I looked over at Stephen who just shrugged and said, "You can't go wrong with the classics."

Sometimes you don't know where the line is until you cross it.

Verbing

"I verb every day."
Huck, age 3

He overheard me and Stephen talking about his rather large vocabulary and chimed in with that little gem.  It's so perfectly Huck.  Of course, he has no idea what a verb is but he's right.  He does verb every day.

I wish I verbed half as much as he does.  I don't verb enough! 

I mean yes, read and blog are verbs too but I'm just feeling like they aren't the right verbs.  In fact, I feel like they are keeping me from other verbs that are more important to me at the moment.  Verbs like walk, run, create, dance, make, play, visit, sew, explore, clean, laugh, connect, rejuvenate, snuggle.

So, I'm taking a little time off from my blog, and yours.  Not long.  One, maybe two weeks.  Don't go anywhere, while I'm off exploring other verbs I'll be keeping up with the Sheriff's Log every Wednesday and may even pepper in a few odds and ends, here and there.  But for the next little bit I'm giving myself permission to NOT blog every day.  A wee little blogcation where I come back to my blog all carefree and tan (okay, okaay, so I'm a pasty red-head and I've never had a tan in my life but you get the metaphor, right?)

I'll be back full-time soon but right now the weather is gorgeous and I've just got too much verbing to do!

Cooking with Huck

If only I had taken video of this.  It might have been the thing that actually got me to figure out how to post video.  You'll just have to settle for the production stills.  This is Huck on the set of his wildly popular cooking show.

Today he made pancakes with strawberry jam.  He used entirely too much butter--3 cups.  But he did it with such confidence and panache you could hardly question him.

Barber Shop

Huck just had his first ever trip to the Barber Shop.  I'd been getting lots of flak about his long hair being in his eyes.  Honestly, I could care less if people think his hair is too long but it really was in his eyes badly and he was beginning to work on a few little dreads in the back.  Without the willpower to tackle the rats and give him an at home job like I normally do, I decided to let Stephen take him to the Barber Shop.

I wasn't even going to go at first.  I didn't want to see.  Plus, you know, let it be a bonding guy thing.  But I  really did want pictures, so I promised not to micro-manage and just told Stephen to do whatever he wanted with his boy's hair.  It was nail-biter.

Huck did a great job.  Sat still, chit-chatted, acted just like the big fellas.  The only problem was...THEY CUT ALL HIS HAIR OFF!!!!

Here's my short-haired big boy.

It's like he became a 1st grader in an instant.  Though he's goofing off in this picture, it's very handsome and the change is fun.  But I must say, I prefer the longer, mussy, surfer boy hair on him.  Just goes more with his personality in my opinion.  But we really did need to get rid of those nasty tangles in back and short of hog-tying him and taking after them with mayonnaise and a comb, this was the best solution.

And hey, it's hair.  It will grow back. 

My Son Can Write!

In the last month Huck's skill with a crayon has just exploded off the chart. He's started drawing enclosed figures with faces and body parts and he's started writing letters. 

 

This is a picture Huck drew today of his Aunt Gretchen running a race. Though the letters are jumbled up and some are backwards or on their sides, they're all in there. 

We're thinking of you Gretch and sending all our love your way.

Green Birthday Party!

This was the birthday party that almost wasn't!  The festivities were scheduled from 2-4pm, which turned out to be a few hours after a big snowstorm hit.  Huck was incredibly excited about having friends over for a party, but at 2:30...nobody was here.  As I watched my poor little guy checking and re-checking the window, I started to think about how I would keep from crying in front of him if it was a total bust.  Fortunately, 2 guests finally arrived (his 2 closest buddies) and we had a wonderful time despite the smaller gathering.  He couldn't have cared less.

We went the old-school, no-pressure, frugal, laid-back, green route.  For anyone else wanting to take some of the pressure, expense and waste out of a birthday party, here's what we did to keep things simple, sustainable and fun.

• Location.  There's this great place for parties in my town that is comfortable, has a kitchen, lots of toys and games to play with and is FREE.  It's called my house!  I'm sure we'll get to the age of wanting ski hill and art center parties but you can't beat the cheap of doing it at home.

• Guest List.  We don't have family up here so this was just a kids party.  I originally invited 7 kids.  Totally manageable.  2 were out of town so I invited 2 more kids on the fly when I ran into their Mom's in town--a Mom I just met and am wanting to get to know better and a friend with an older kid. 

• Invites.  Didn't do 'em.  Evites are all the rage, totally green and usually free, but I didn't even do that.  I have a phone and internet service.  I called everyone about 10 days before and sent an email reminder the Wednesday before the party on Saturday.  **Warning--This laid back approach felt great when I did it, but not so great when it was 2:30 and I was wondering if anyone would show.  When you are laid back about invites, your guests are laid back about letting you know they won't be there.  That might be fine with you--just be aware.

• Timing.  We scheduled the party for 2-4pm so I didn't have to worry about serving a meal.  No picky eaters to contend with and I didn't have to feed the parents too.  Less expense, preparation and stress for me.  Before lunch could be good as well if lots of your guests are still napping.

• Gifts.  We have just come off of Christmas and Huck has lots of family who sent him even more gifts for his birthday.  Instead of getting another load of toys from friends, we asked guests to bring a bag of pet food or pet treats for the local animal shelter.  Tomorrow we'll be taking Huck to the shelter to visit the animals and take them all the food and treats he collected.  This can be done for any charity, but as a first step in learning about giving the animal shelter seemed like a more fun choice for this age group.  August/September birthdays could collect school supplies for kids.  November/December birthdays could do toys for angel trees or homeless shelters.  Collecting for care packages for soldiers overseas would be great, too.

• Decorations.  I made the fabric Birthday Bunting.  It was the most outlay of time but we will use it for the whole family for years to come.  I made some child-sized cloth napkins in a fun print and we used Huck's regular Fiestaware plates and old Bama Jam Jar glasses--all durable, reusable and festive.  Even if you choose to buy party plates, you can get inexpensive ceramic ones or even melamine in fun colors and designs and use them every year.  You can even make or buy a coordinating cloth or vinyl tablecloth to keep with your "party stash."  We used oilcloth off the bolt which I've been using under our regular tablecloth for arts and craft.  Besides the mountain of leftover cupcakes (in unbleached baking cups) that ended up as garbage, we didn't have any other paper trash!  We did also have some balloons.  I couldn't help myself.

• Activities.  The main activity was playing with Play Dough.  I made up a large homemade batch using my recipe (doubled) but Beth's idea of mixing the food coloring in afterward (duh!).  I made a lot of colors and formed them into lots of 2-3 inch balls.  Months ago, I bought a bag of dough cookie cutters, some dough presses from Discount School Supply and put together with some wooden rollers and hammers I had to make a nice Play Dough set for Huck.  They were all on the table with the little dough balls when the kids arrived.  Huck also received a 130 pc set of Mr. Potato Head pieces from my parents (who clearly must hate me to give us such a "gift").  I put those out as well and bought a bag of russet potatoes so we could show the kids how they played Mr. Potato Head back in the olden days.  They all had a blast sticking noses and feet on the spuds and in the dough and generally pounding and pressing and making a royal mess.  I must say, the adults enjoyed the play dough as much as the 3 kids did.  I also had supplies on hand for cereal necklaces and, though we didn't end up playing it, we had a homemade "Pin the Nose on the Clown" game for good measure.

• Food.  The food was actually another activity--decorate your own cupcake.  Huge hit!  I baked up a bunch of cupcakes but left them naked.  I made up one batch of vanilla frosting, used food coloring to make several different colors, and put out a variety of sprinkles and decorations in little finger bowls.  No one had to wait to eat theirs, but when Huck was finished making his, we stuck a candle in it and sang the song. 

• Gift bags.  If you've ever purchased anything from Discount School Supplies you know that you always get more than you need.  We sent everyone home with 2 dough cookie cutters, a dough press, 2 balls of homemade dough and the recipe on an index card.  My Mom picked the gift bags up off a dollar table somewhere in Texas and brought them up here when they visited saying, "Surely you'll be able to do something with these."  Why, yes, I can.

So that's it.  No pressure, low cost, sustainable and fun.

EnviroMom has a great collection of posts on green birthdays that I used as a resource for planning ours.  I highly recommend checking them out if you're interested in forgoing the paper decoration, hire a pony & a clown, gift orgy route. 

He's my Huckleberry

And he's 3 years old today!

He doesn't actually know today is his birthday though.  Stephen had to go to New York on very important business--yes, I'm ALL ALONE for 3 days with a one month old and a three year old!!!   So we're just letting Huck think Saturday, when we're having a little birthday party, is the big day.  We did it for Christmas so why not birthday, too?  Next year we won't be able to get away with this sort of thing.  

It will be a low-key, sustainable, old-school, frugal sort of affair with about 6 kids.  We'll be doing decorate-your-own-cupcake and playing with play dough.  You'll get all the fun details on Monday.  Suggestions for old school party games for the 2-4 year old set are welcome.

My Babies

This great shot made me decide to toss out a random Saturday Photo for you.

They look so peaceful.  This picture is actually a great example of how blogs skew the truth.

The truth behind this photo is that Huck crashed hard on my bed after a 10 minute crying jag.   The tantrum started because, after a long session of tickling and rough-housing on the bed, I had the audacity to get tired and stop playing.  A monster fit ensued, which ended in me holding him and rubbing his back while he did that uncontrollable (but adorable) snuffling thing kids (and sometimes mommies) do when they've been crying too long.  He was exhausted from the fit, finally konked out and I put Jemma there for a second so I could pee, which I had been dying to do from the moment I picked up my snuffling, quivering mess of a child. 

Peaceful, indeed.  Happy weekend.