As Seen on TV

So we recently got a new tivo that allows us to get the digital channels. We still don't have cable, but we've doubled the amount of channels we received. An added bonus is that one UHF channel has a digital version that is all kids shows. Qubo. It shows very odd stuff, but good wholesome stuff Lea loves. It seems to be a lot of Canadian public broadcasting shows. It does show commercials, however, unlike PBS. But they don't have a lot of advertising. Just "as-seen-on-tv" commercials. So we knew that Lea was watching them, but better that than the newest Barbie ever 5 minutes. Or so we thought.

I knew Lea's favorite was the "Touch-N-Brush." She's talked at length about how great the Touch-N-Brush would be when we are brushing our teeth. But it all hit home one night while she was expounding on the virtues of the Touch-N-Brush. It was a conversation we'd had a couple times until she ended with a random "Gold Paq."

"What, Lea?"

"Gold Paq!"

"Lea, is that something to do with Touch-N-Brush?" (Because I do know it comes in a chrome plated version.)

"NO MOMMY!" And with hand motions and demonstrating with the tube of tooth paste my little spokes model explained, "The Touch-N-Brush is a stick on the wall that holds the tooth paste like this and I put my tooth brush in like this and I would have tooth paste. Gold Paq!"

Laughing, I asked again, "Lea, what is gold pack?"

In great exasperation "Mommy, you put your gold in it!"

"OH... You mean we put our gold in and send it to them and they send us a check?"

"YES MOMMY, Gold paq."

"Well, that's sweet Lea that you want that for the family, but its not for us."

"Ok, Mommy.... Mommy?"

"Yes, Lea."

"Do you want Bumpits?"

Hmmm... maybe its time to limit tv watching.

Easter - just pictures and comments

Is Lea spoiled, hmmm... maybe. Lea's (overflowing) Easter basket.

The Easter Bunny left something for daddy too.

What? I can't hear you some little girl ate my ears.

Mmm... chocolate bunny before 8am.

This was his nose.


Look mommy had a basket too.


Finding eggs the bunny hid.

Easter loot.

Our Sunday best. On our way to church. Even Dan went.

After church Aunt Teresa and Grandpa came for Easter dinner.

Dan and his dad making deviled eggs.

PrEaster Bunny Party

Our PrEaster party, what I named the Funny Bunny Easter Tea party was loads of fun with Anna & Molly. The girls who ran Lea's birthday party puppet show (Mia & Lucy) brought a pet Lucy's Pet Bunny named Rex.
Lea and Rex the bunny, supervised by Mia and Rex's mommy Lucy.

Lea really liked the bunny. We added Rex to our 5 things we talk about each night for a while. "Rex the bunny poops, but not when strangers are around." Its good she learned important bunny facts, don't you know.

We had a few cups of tea while we made sure all our guests had arrived.

We had bunny fun time, made bunny faces out of paper plates and construction paper
Lea was so clever... she told Grandma later this was her "Bugs Bunny." Get it... bug stickers.


Some bunny faces done by the girls.


We wore bunny hats (well ok, really only mommy wore the bunny hat — Daddy had awesome stripy ears). 



Then we had an Easter Egg Hunt. I made little "baskets" for the girls out of small paper bags and construction paper handles. We had A LOT of eggs for the girls and they dove into them. Even Mia and Lucy had some fun hunting up some eggs.
Lea hunts up an egg


The aftermath of the easter haul


Dye stained hands and a longing look at a plate of jelly beans that she knows she is about to eat with no one telling "no." It was a childhood bacchanalia, a candy feast! Look at that tummy full of candy!


And as the kiddos went through their haul of prizes and candy we set up the egg dyes. Here are some of the eggs the girls decorated. Decorating went so well this year. I think everyone had so much fun. We had little paint spounges on clothes pins. Lea, Anna and Molly loved painting the eggs. And dying went so well. Last year all Lea's eggs just turned out black because she put each egg in every color... this year she stuck to pretty much one color per egg.

Mia helping Lea and Molly die eggs. This is one of my favorite photos.

Lea dying a blue egg. Lea's hands may have ended up black, but her eggs ended up rainbow colored. Last year Lea just liked to put the eggs in each and every color so all the eggs ended up black. This year her eggs ended up with some artistic value. She seems to be learning restraint. All the little girls had big t-shirts as art smocks with clothes pins to help them fit. 

Easter dyed kid

The party then turned into a backyard BBQ when Ann, Able and Leo joined us. Leo and Lea dyed some more eggs and played and played in the back yard.  We did some confetti eggs with just the three kids, Mia, Leo and Lea. It was over so quick there was not time for pictures. A blur of confetti and paper. They were harder to break than I imagined so it was good I saved them for the bigger kids to help Lea out. They also went much faster than I imagined.

Lea and Leo playing around in the back yard. You can see the bits of confetti on the ground... there is still some in our backyard I think.

Able in the bunny spirit in his jaunty ears.


The next day Grandma joined us and we added even more decorations to our eyes. We had stickers, google eyes and pipe cleaners.
Grandma in the party spirit (see the hat sticker?) as Lea and Grandma craft together.

I put the hat on and asked Lea how many eyes it should have and so we ended up with what Lea called the 10 eyed party goer.

Lea's bug egg

Lea's eye ball egg

Grandma and Lea decorating eggs. Putting the finishing touches on the eggs.

dad interview

This is a thing from facebook to see what Lea thinks about Mommy and Daddy. These were the instructions:
Ask your child(ren) to answer the questions and type their answers in.
(My comments are in parentheses.)  

Well Dan asked the questions to Lea about me, so I thought I'd see what Lea answered for Daddy. Here is the video and questions.

Video has the whole conversation, but answers are below if you can't understand some stuff. Lea got a little distracted at the end and started playing with everything on the desk instead of answering questions, despite me trying to keep it exciting using the microphone.

1. What is something dad always says to you?
He always gets mad. (not always, just right before we did the interview, unfortunate timing.)

2. What makes dad happy?
Me doing what he says

3. What makes dad  sad?
When I poop in my pants

4. How does your dad  make you laugh?
He tickles me.

5. What was your dad  like as a child?
A little boy.

6. How old is your dad ?
I think he is 15 (I am 7... so I'm younger than daddy).

7. How tall is your dad ?
Really tall

8. What is his favorite thing to do?
Play on the computer

9. What does your dad do when you're not around?
He spends time with Mommy.

10.If your dad becomes famous, what will it be for?
Because he was a prince and he would marry me the Princess.

11.What is your dad really good at?
Asking

12.What is your dad not very good at?
Juggling

13.What does your dad do for her job?
Cleaning the house

14.What is your dad's favorite food?
Cupcakes (coincidentally also Lea's fav. food)

15.What makes you proud of your dad?
That he cleans the house

16.If your dad were a cartoon character, who would she be?
a monster

17.What do you and your dad do together?
We go to playgroup

18.How are you and your dad the same?
We have one nose

19.How are you and your dad different?
we have different hair

20.How do you know your dad loves you?
Because he just does

Dealey Update

We got a letter on Friday saying we are on a waiting list for Dealey, so its more wait and see. But whatever happens we're all fine with it. Perhaps Lea will just get to be 4 this year and that's ok with me.

Sports Class

For about 3 weeks now, Lea has been taking a class called "Sports basics for Tots." It covers the basics in soccer, basketball and T-ball. Also in the class is our friend Wilder. Dan has been escorting Lea to class and they seem to be enjoying themselves. Dan took pictures at the first class which (along with the second week) focused on soccer. They stretched before class.
Stretching before class with Coach Chris (left) and Coach Liz (right)

After stretching the kids do laps.
Lea and Wilder do laps. Dan and the moms agreed that they would sign up for a class that just had the kids just doing laps around the gym. Anything to wear them out... not that anything does!


Wilder and the coaches work on passing

Lea gives the ball a mighty kick.
Lea stops the ball with the "airplane" move. A move she told Mommy all about after class.

Lea gets a sticker at the end of class.

St. Pat's 09

We had a wonderful St. Patrick's day this year. We were involved in the parade through a friend who needed a trust worthy sober driver for the float. Who comes to mind? Dan of course. 

We met up at Michael's at 8am to be at check in at 8:45. It was a bit cold and threatened to rain, but none fell. 

The float was for the ABC drinking club, named because they bar hop (on a monthly basis) alphabetically, as in a bar that starts with A, then a bar that starts with a B. We joined them at the Tipperary on T month. Lea went and had a blast with the Irish music so she is an honorary member of ABC so she fit right in.

So we joined the party. We got to sit safely (and warmly) in the truck and threw beads out the window. The waiting to get going was the hardest part (for Lea at least). But she made some grown up friends and I brought some distractions (like cartoons on the ipod). We did have one near disaster. Lea had to go potty (did I mention she's been diaper free during the day for 2 weeks... that deserves it own post but this will have to do for now.) We ran down the street looking for a potty and the nearest place was a strip club. Well, I think due to the "Let me in. My 3 year old has to pee" frantic look on my face, the strippers (and bouncers) with hearts of gold (and probably each with 2.1 children of their own) let us in to pee. So yes, Lea was in her first strip club. There were no dancers on stage. They were all milling about out front fully clothed and bundled up trying to stay warm. This was the same place we parked for free last year so I  went around extolling the virtues of the strip club with a heart of gold.

When we finally got going, the parade sped along pretty quickly. It is much shorter to be in the parade than to stand on the sidelines. It was fun to throw beads and watch the crowds. It was very powerful. It is always amazing how valuable those silly plastic beads seem in the moment. I used to call it liquid greed in the streets of New Orleans. The need for beads was almost tangible. It was no where NEAR that, but it was powerful to wave at the masses and toss the beads. Although we did get things thrown at us. We got a little rubber duck, beads and (just missed catching) a football. Some people just have to shake up the order of power!

So that's a pretty good summary. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

St. Pat's Video of the parade

Art, the dude behind it all.

Lea & Mommy's bead stash to throw.
Mommy and Daddy ready for the ride.

Michael and his girlfriends (including Lea).

Lea blowing bubbles in Raney's hat. Note the shirt that Daddy helped make the night before!

Lea and her new best friend Raney. She was awesome. She played with Lea and Wilder ALL day long. She even carried cheese stick snacks with her. She was a 3 year old's (and a mom's!) best friend! And she doesn't have kids. She was just that prepared. Also explains why she had the energy to play with Lea all day.

King of the parade, Art.

Mommy and Lea ready to start throwing beads to the awaiting crowd.

Daddy, doing his scary leprechaun impression.

On the parade route

Throwing beads from the float.

Lea on the parade route. We were stopped waiting for the authorities to check out a woman on the float 3 floats in front of us that fell off her float. I'm pretty sure she passed out drunk because I watched her fall like a bag of rocks to the ground. So we made sure the police knew it had happened and hung out in one spot for about 15 minutes. I heard the crowd cheer so I assume she got up on her own power, but by that time there was such a crowd I couldn't see anything from the truck.

After the parade we dropped off the float and truck and headed to Lisa (and Art)'s house where we met up with the Scotts and Becky. Lisa always throws an excellent party. Its a fine way to spend St. Pat's. We had burgers and hot dogs and the kids ate their weight in chips and cookies! And perhaps we drank a beer or two. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the bottle Kris was toting. With the kid strapped to her back she had both hand free for drinking, hee hee. Actually the day was so long we probably drank alot, it was just over such a long period that I never even felt tipsy. It was also cold so that seemed to hinder slamming a cold frosty one. I will take this opportunity to confess/admit/boast that I started the day with cranberry and bourbon. I had drank three or four minis of Makers Mark before the parade was over. And still... no silly rowdiness... that I remember...

Anyway... here are pictures of Art & Lisa's.

It was a pretty big crowd at Lisa's this year. Perhaps a combination of the float excitement, the additon of Art's friends and the fact that we were making up for missing it last year. 

Despite the crowd of 30-something drunks, the kids had a lot of fun. It was a little bit cold and damp. No rain, but it had poured the day or two before making everything soggy.
Lea amused herself much of the day by leaping from stone to stone throughout the yard. She had Raney and Mommy and Wilder following her on her meandering path through the yard at different points through the day.


The kids played on their own for a quite a while (oh and with Raney for about 2 hours) and then it was time for the parents (and Becky) to entertain them. Some how Kris and Becky found the energy to play 3 year old tackle.

Here Kris awaits a big tackle from one of the kids. Lea enjoyed the tackle game as much as Wilder. I love this photo. Kris always points out Creepy McSips-his-beer in the background. No, no not Chapman... the lurking one. tee hee.

Daddy kisses!

And finally, as a last ditch effort to amuse Lea I gave her my camera and told her to go take a picture of Lisa. This is what I got. Lisa's feet. Oh well.



I say "last ditch effort" as though I was trying to get Lea to stay. I was SO ready for the day to be over when we went home at 6pm. We had been up and about since 6:30 am and I was tired. I tried desperately not to be the first of our group to say "I gotta go home," and I succeeded, but I certainly didn't argue when talk of going home arose! It was a long tiring day, but lots of fun.