All Things Pooh

A short while ago, we had an 'All Things Pooh' Thursday. Pooh, as in Winnie the Pooh. Mostly, I thought the girls would enjoy seeing the new Winnie the Pooh movie. Given that I like theme days (see Froot Loop Friday in the previous post), I figured we'd make a day of it.

We started with Pooh-shaped pancakes for breakfast. They didn't really look like Pooh; but, the girls used their imaginations. Rather than using syrup, we sweetened our pancakes with honey - a Pooh favorite. Later that morning, I broke out the flavored honey sticks that I had purchased from a honey vendor earlier in the week at a local farmers market. We also enjoyed the honey sticks at the movie, which was brief (65 minutes) but entertaining. We ended the day with Zelda wearing her piglet costume (thank you, Cormiers!).

I get a big kick out of planning events, if you could call this that. Some theme days are more involved or interesting than others. But, what I like most is the way it stays with the kids. It wasn't just a day that we saw a movie or ate honey sticks. It was a day that had significance. I know this because Zelda was talking about something this morning and said, " ...remember when we had the 'All Things Pooh' day..." That's when I knew I had succeeded. I had created a memory for my daughters.

ADDENDUM: Since Becky asked for it, I have located a picture of 'Piglet' from a few months ago. Zelda actually fills out the costume a little better now, but I didn't whip out the camera during All Things Pooh day. Actually, I'm not sure the costume will be big enough for her to wear for Halloween. (Hallelujah to growing!)

A Really Good, Really Full Day

Around 4 o'clock today, I had the wonderful realization that I was having a really good day. A good mom day, a good me day and even a good kitchen-construction-getting-done day. But, I was most happy about the mom day.

Of course, when your day starts out with these two looking so hip and happy, what other type of day could I have had?






What really made the day for me was that I felt like I had been present for my girls. And, it has been a long time since I have felt truly present, without thoughts of which merchants I had to track down or contractors to contact about kitchen stuff not getting done. (Day 72 and counting, but today was a day when we saw tremendous activity and progress!) We played with Legos and Play Doh and in the sand box. I even snuck in some education with Zelda, working on patterns and colors and numbers with those Legos.

I couldn't help but remember something I wanted to carry with me this year: do less, be more. I've worked at it, and even been successful at it in the past nine months. But, during the past two months, those efforts have been scarce. So, woo hoo for me!

I even labeled my dill pickles - the first things I canned last week after the cooktop went in - and put them 'up.' I just love doing that!


As I kept patting myself on the back through the late afternoon and evening, the good mom day almost went south as our evening wound down and I was reading with the girls. Here we were reading Little House in the Big Woods with Laura and the family making cheese when Annalee starts asking me about my watch and electricity and the microwave. Hello? Are you even listening to me read? When I called her on it, she refocused enough for me to get to the end of the chapter, at which time I called it quits for the night. Then, Annalee remembered she needed to read a book to me for school. I found myself happily going into Annalee's room, snuggled up with her and let her read to me. Wow, I was so present, still.

And, it was so worth my energy. 'Cause Annalee and I shared a belly laugh when she came up with a new word: pork-cup-pin-ease. Don't you think that's so much more fun to say than porcupine?

Skills Revisited

Remember my being so proud of the new skills I taught my daughters? Well, apparently, I failed to teach Zelda how to show discretion in utilizing that skill.

When we came home yesterday after the Wednesday morning movie, the girls went next door to play with our neighbors while I fixed lunch. When I went to get them to come in, I see Zelda with her pants pulled down doing a half-squat - in the middle of the neighbors side yard! Then, the girls all tell me that this was the second time she was doing that (why Annalee didn't bring her home after the first time I'll never know).

So, I picked Zelda up - wet pants and all 'cause she didn't squat over far enough - and brought her in. That's when I began the discussion about when we 'pee in the woods' and when we use indoor plumbing. Let's hope today is a better day...

Skill to Have

A couple weeks ago, I took the girls strawberry and cherry picking at a local orchard - whose name shall remain anonymous for reasons obvious once you read this.


This was Zelda's first time berry picking. I'm not sure she quite got the hang of it. She seemed to enjoy picking a few strawberries - and not even nice ones - throwing them into her container, dumping them on the ground and then stepping on them. Yep, actually, I'm positive she didn't get the hang of it.

Annalee, on the other hand, did really well picking beauties - both strawberries and cherries. She did like to bounce around a bit. While I would stay in one section of a row, Annalee bounced around from section to section, row to row. I'm sure the orchard growers love ADD pickers like her.

Besides fruit picking, I had the opportunity to teach my girls some very basic skills that will carry them through life: how to pee in the bush. Yes, indeedy, I helped them squat and pee. When Annalee said she had to go, I knew it would have taken us too long to get back to the farm entrance where the port-a-potties were. So, I told her she'd need to do it right where we were, amongst the cherry trees. Strangely, I had even thought to pack tissue with me. So, they had the luxury of being able to wipe with the real deal. And, since we have the 'monkey see, monkey do' syndrome in our family, Zelda had to follow suit.

I won't go into the details here, 'cause I'm sure one day the girls would be mortified to know I'm sharing this. But, I'll just say that I was very proud of them.

Then, yesterday, I found out that this lesson had been successful. I was at a park with Zelda when she told me she had to pee. This particular park didn't have a portable john anywhere. While I stood there trying to figure out what to do, Zelda told me she was just going to go on the ground. I stopped her long enough to get her in a secluded spot near a tree. She just laughed and laughed. And, she peed.

Mommy Mojo

I totally impressed myself last week getting Zelda to eat. This may seem simpleton to some of you. But, you have to understand that I have no experience with getting a child to eat. Annalee has always been a phenomenal eater. Put something in front of her and she eats it. And, she eats a lot. I can think of only a couple entrees that I cook that she doesn't like.

Along comes petite Zelda who eats so little, and I'm at a loss. The three different pediatricians I've seen at our local practice all say the same thing: she's petite, doesn't need a lot of calories to sustain herself and won't eat a lot because her stomach's tiny. So, I figure that when I do get her to eat, I need to make every mouthful count.

Last week, I was trying to feed Zelda a chicken vegetable soup. She should have been hungry, because she hadn't eaten in a while (and what she ate before that was minimal). I was trying to get this soup into her and she just wasn't interested.

Suddenly, I came up with this idea for the individual items in the soup to talk. To Zelda. These items wanted in. They wanted in to the belly. The chicken, the carrots, the green beans. I peaked her interest. She took a couple spoonfuls. Then, the remaining food in the bowl wanted to get to their pals in the belly. They were begging to get in. To the belly. So, she ate more.

Pretty soon, I had fed Zelda that whole bowl of soup - and she even asked for another one! I was so impressed with myself. See, I'm not one to get creative in this way. Give me a craft and I can work it. Getting clever with kids? Not really my thing. But, maybe that's changing.

The next day, Ron wasn't having luck with Zelda eating. He was easily willing to chalk it up to her just not being hungry. But, I knew that couldn't be the case. That food needed to get into the belly, wanted to get into the belly. So, it started talking, begging Zelda to get into the belly.

And, what do ya know? She started sucking that food down. Forkful after forkful. I almost hurt my arm patting myself on the back.