Tuesday, August 24, 2010

48 inches is a wonderful thing


Day One: Notice anything?


Day One: See it yet?


Day Two: How about now?


Day Two: I'll give you a hint...


Everyone is over 48 inches so there are no pictures of Mom and Dad crammed on the rides! 
Bittersweet.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Can it be any louder?

We listen to music with our kids.  In the car. On the radio in the kitchen. At night on their radios in their bedrooms. But nothing "musically" seemed to stick with them.

Alex gets excited over Lady Ga Ga's Alejandro because we told him it was his name in Spanish.

Abby used to like a Fergie song when she was younger but never really latched on to any one artist.

Today, however, we may have turned a page.

When told to clean her room, my daughter lovingly started pouting, slamming doors and probably used the word "hate" when referring to cleaning her room....gotta love that...so I walked down stairs to leave her to herself. I explained she could clean her room quickly and get back outside to play, or spend the day up there, it really didn't matter to me. I had no plans except to clean out the refrigerator - big goings-on in our house on a Saturday.

About 10 minutes later it happened.  Kiss108 (the station I grew up on) was BLARING from her room. All crackly and staticky because it was too loud.  Appropriately it was Kelly Clarkson's My Life Would Suck Without You - exactly the word I want my 7 yo daughter singing at the top of her lungs.

I let it go.  I remember being that age and performing karaoke in my room to the Bee Gees, Pat Benator, Aerosmith and Kiss.  It was a release.  It was a distraction.  I loved my loud music.

And wouldn't you know it - about 6 songs later she came downstairs with a smile and pretty clean room!  Thanks Kiss108. Looks like we'll be resurrecting our love for each other again in the next generation.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

TV sitter

I've been struggling all summer with the amount of time I let my kids sit in front of the TV.

Trying to find a job requires me to spend some time in front of the computer searching the job sites  - uninterrupted - and not when I'm exhausted at 9:00 at night after the little ones are tucked in bed.

So, I will admit that during this incredibly HOT, SUNNY summer (with no rain days to fall back on), I have placed my children in front of 824 for an hour - or two - or maybe three - on a day or two or three.

(824 happens to be the HD channel of Disney - they feel cool calling it 824)

Making this confession makes me feel a little better - I've been hiding this secret for a few weeks and now that I've come clean, I bet a few of you can relate? Right?!