Time as length

Speaking of abstract concepts like time...

A couple of years ago, the kids and I invented a way for them to better understand time which worked surprisingly well for them. I thought I'd pass it along in case any if y'all have younger kids. (Actually, I'm lying. This is less about me wanting to be helpful and more about me not wanting to be perceived as loony if you see me do it!)

Time is one of those kind of abstract concepts that my kids had a tough time grasping. And I think it is even harder now that we are not always surrounded by analog clocks. JJ especially needs ways for ideas to become concrete (just imagine our conversations about God!)

I started showing them time as a measurement of length. I arbitrarily picked 1 foot as the measurement of an hour because it is easy to estimate. Then it followed that a half-hour is 6 inches, and ten minutes is 2 inches.

When they ask how long something is, I just show them the distance between my fingers. I was surprised at how quickly they caught on to it!

Now that KK is able to tell time on a clock, she doesn't need the system anymore, but JJ still uses it quite frequently.

Oh, and a side note: don't teach them how to tell time until you have to. (Spoiler alert: it happens in grade 1, sigh ;). When mama's having a bad day and just! needs! bedtime! it's a lot harder to sneak the kids into bed early once they can read the clock. Just sayin'.

Through their eyes... and fingers

Several weeks ago, I was playing bejeweled on my iPod while KK and Daddy were drawing at the table.

First of all, KK brought over a few of her creations to show me.

I'm told, by my bloggy friends whose kids are slightly older than mine, that very soon I will be more than a head with legs and arms, so I wanted to record these while they last.

Why are we so sad in the picture? Because Daddy is not with us. (Both kids are especially attached to daddy right now).

Here, Daddy is with us, but for some reason, it appears that I am picking him up by his, um, chin and throwing him. I'm going to choose to believe that means she believes I have hidden strength. I love how JJ and KK are hugging. Or maybe they are scared because Mommy is throwing Daddy?

Once KK was done drawing, she asked her daddy to draw for her. And here's where the giggles started.

First, she wanted a picture of her on her bike, with Daddy helping her. So daddy drew for awhile. Then KK said, "Daddy, why you not wearing a shirt? Is that family talk?" (Family talk is code for stuff we only talk about in the privacy of our home.)

Wouldn't it be nice to have that kind of confidence about your own body?

And then, "Daddy, why are you wearing a skirt? Is that my skirt?"

(snicker)

Next, KK had daddy draw a picture of Mommy and JJ out for a walk. A few minutes in, I hear, "Daddy, what is mommy wearing?" "Those are big girl shorts," replied Daddy.
For the record. I don't wear short shirts like that, but I may be known to wear big girl shorts on rare occasions.

Finally, Daddy worked on a portrait of our whole family. When the snickering got out of control, I knew I had to see this one:

'Nuff said, right?

And there you have it. The latest art from the Weenut household.

Managing the toys

Kids toys.

They could take over our world. Of our 900 square feet in this apartment, currently 637 sq. ft. are occupied by dolls, doll clothes and equipment, puzzles, blocks, trucks, balls, lego, books, crayons, preschool workbooks, and other miscellaneous other toys.

I have been very strict with certain family members (you know who you are*) about the quantity and size of toys that enter our home, yet these toys still seem to multiply and fill every available space.

I have discovered that more toys does not necessarily equal less bored children. It is actually the opposite. If there are so many toys that they are just piled in a jumbled mess in the corner, the kids don't know what to play with or how to play with them. They actually play better with less choices and more organization of their toys.

Our little world could be chaos, but I have a system.*

I have separated the toys into 3 rotations, doing my best to separate those naughty toys that have the highest propensity for reproducing together from each other. (Dolls seem to be the most likely to reproduce for some reason).

At the beginning of each month (or whenever I finally get to it), I go through all the toys that are in circulation. I keep the ones that are getting high amounts of playtime, remove those with moderate to little interest, and throw away or fix those toys that are broken (goodbye McDonald's toys). I donate toys that have been outgrown, or store toys that KK has outgrown, but JJ is not quite ready for yet. I also donate any toys that have had a high reproductive rate recently. (Anyone know of some birth control options for dolls?)

It takes me about an hour or two each month to manage the toys this way, but it is so worth it. The next few mornings, the kids run around like it's Christmas, checking out all their "new" toys. It's good for mommy too because, let me tell you, playing with the same toy over and over and over and over could seriously drive me over the edge.

It works really well in our home, but could still use some tweaking. What do you do to manage the toy chaos in your home?

*I can't take credit for my system. The same Grandma person who keeps buying my kids too many toys is the same person who taught me about toy rotation. (Thanks mom).

Bloggy Updates

It's been overdue a LONG time, but, I finally updated my favourite post lists (thanks to my BFF Harmony for all the hours she put in going back over all my posts!). If you're not sure what I'm talking about, scroll down and on my sidebar you'll see two lists of My Faves.

Now, I realize that the lists are too long. I always have trouble editing these kinds of things, so I'm just going to leave them up there for a little while and see where people go. And then hopefully shorten them up a little.

I've also changed the pictures of the kids and I'm dreaming up an idea for a new header (but lack the drawing skills to make it happen). I'm also toying with the idea of a complete makeover. Maybe even polka dots.

Watch for it!

Not me! Monday

It's been a whirlwind week in our household. Last weekend, we took a trip up north to visit my brother and his family. Then, after a quick stop-over at home, we headed down to Seattle to visit with my dad and stepmom and to attend a marriage conference.

I have just finished unpacking the essentials and have finally settled my three loved ones to bed. As full of stories and thoughts and ideas as I am, this momma has a busy day getting back to life tomorrow... so I'll leave the stories/thoughts/ideas for later and instead give you a little taste of our past week in the form of a Not Me! Monday, a carnival which is hosted by MckMama over at My Charming Kids. MckMama is Stellan's mommy, the little guy who we've been praying for over the past 5 weeks. I'm not sure if MckMama is hosting the carnival while Stellan is hospitalized, but I'm going to write my list anyways!

I did not forget JJ's blankie on the way to the airport. And I definitely did not realize my mistake right outside the airport. And I most certainly did not make the taxi driver turn around and run us back home to get JJ's precious blankie so that I would survive the weekend.

Nope, not me!

I did not consume my entire caloric requirements in chocolate-covered toffee and balsamic & black pepper flavoured chips last weekend. And, after promising myself to reform, I certainly did not then consume 3/4 of a large bag of chocolates this past weekend.

Nope, not me!

I did not obsessively take pictures up north, at the park, or at the zoo. And I didn't manage to edit them down to 332 pictures that I want to keep to remember our past week.

Nope, not me!

Peanut-lover and I most certainly did not have a fight leaving the first session of our weekend marriage conference.

Nope! Not us!

I did not choose which bathroom stall to use at the conference based on my ability to access free wireless internet. Nope! And I certainly did not use every pee break to check facebook, check on Stellan's status, or check to see if Heather's new blog makeover was complete.

Nope, not me!

They only call me Mrs when I buy a pregnancy test

Just to clarify: I'm not pregnant. No, seriously mom. NOT PREGNANT.

Now that we have that out of the way...


Tonight, we needed some milk, so we decided to pack up the kids and go for a quick outing to the grocery store, instead of one of us just going out alone. Because we are super fun like that. Woohoo! Trip to the grocery store!!


Usually it's me doing the grocery shopping alone. And the cashier always calls me "Miss Peanut". But tonight, the cashier paused before handing me my receipt, looked my family over, and then said, "Thank you Mrs. Peanut."


Being called "Mrs" reminded me of an observation I made back when I was more readily fertile. Really the only time that the cashiers have called me "Mrs" is whenever I have bought a pregnancy test. Seriously. Every single time. And I bought a lot of pregnancy tests when I thought I was pregnant with KK (I did a pregnancy test every 2nd day until I finally got a positive one). Each time, the cashier would look at the pregnancy test, then their gaze would shift directly to my wedding rings, and then they would finish with the "Thank you Mrs Peanut."


It is observations like these that fill up my brain, taking up WAY too much useful space. What random observations are filling up your brain these days?

Bloggy news

A couple of things I want to let you know about.

See those pretty pink buttons below my header, just above my posts? I broke into the html and figured out how to add those (ok, by "figured out", I mean read up on it at Blogger Buster, copied and pasted code, then adapted it to what I wanted).

Anywho, I finally got the "about" section finished. Go check it out.

I also added a contact email. For those of you that I know in my "real" life, please keep contacting me through my other email. This one is just for my blog.

I'll be tweaking a little at a time as I get more confident about what I want in my blog and how to get it. Please let me know if you start having any difficulty viewing my blog, or if you start finding it takes too long to load.

Any ideas about how I could tweak it up a notch? Feel free to give me suggestions!

The News Walk

Something has been bothering me lately, and it gets me really annoyed when I watch the news.

Does anyone else out there get bothered by the news walk? You know, when they are going to interview someone and first they show them walking? What is that?

What is the conversation that gets that going? "Ok. You walk along this wall and I'll tape it. It will make everyone think you're really busy and important."

I know if it was me (which it wouldn't be because I'm not newsworthy, and that's ok with me), it would be the most uncomfortable walk ever. It would probably consist of me tripping over nothing and then awkwardly catching myself, only to walk right into a pole.

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On a completely unrelated note, I've been changing things around a little here in bloggyland. I'm not sure I like it though. What do you think?