Bodily Issues

Yes, I know it's been a while. I fell out of the habit of writing, I now have to get back into it. The good news is I am also trying to start the habit of jogging. My friend Katie swears that when you have a running partner it's really fun. I have yet to see the fun, but I am going to give it a try. Of course I have to train on my own in order to be able to keep up with her. We will see how that goes.

Nothing really to report, as if my other posts are full of exciting news :) The boys have rediscovered the blocks that you can run a marble through so we have been building with that. It's been fun, except now there are always blocks all over the floor. We are planning a trip to Disney land, I think they will really like that ... and, the fish is still alive. Who knew it would survive this long?

So, I bet you are wondering why I am calling this "bodily issues". Lately the boys seemed to be obsessed with bodies, mine, theirs, eachothers. I don't know if it's coincidence or they are feeding off of each other.

ok, Yes I am scarring my child for life. But this is so disturbing in so many way's I couldn't resist posting it. Clearly he is exploring sexuality. The problem is, I am not sure which one he thinks is sexier.

Quote from Bug:

Just so you can have to much information about me; I don't like to sleep with my clothes on. It's been years, and I can not change the habit. So yesterday Iwas going to take a nap with Bug. I did my usual of starting to undress (yes I can't even nap with anything on), Bug asks me if I am going to take my clothes off. I reply yes, to which he responds "mommy, put your clothes back on." Hmmpf, my 3 year old is more modest than I am.

Story of Papageno:
So, a day later I am in bed with Papageno (fully dressed, he is too big for me to sleep with). We are snuggling up. He is getting ready to go to sleep and he notices my breasts. We then proceed to have a conversation about breasts, what they are for, who has them etc. I know this is normal but really, leave my body alone please.

Wii Wars

Well, not much to blog about today. As a matter of fact I was quite lazy today. I didn't mop the floors. I didn't do the fab dinner I had planned. I didnt walk the dog, or even take him to the dog park. I didn't go to the market, and I didn't return some stuff I told Dan I would return today.

I did eat a delicious lunch, watch The Mentalist and pick up the kids. Yea for me :)

So what did I do today. Well, yesterday I promised Papageno I would help him get to a new level with the Wii Star Wars Lego game. Now, for you gamers, this might not be a problem, but for me, well ...

The way I am expected to help him get to the next level is to look up a website that tells you how to navigate the scene that you are in. I duly do this. Not being a gamer myself I miss some of things you need to do, hence, I need the website. Although I am getting better. So I am on the computer yelling at him "go left", "kill the droids, kill them all", "go right", "blast it","go there, hurry up, go faster", etc., you get the picture. Of course he doesn't listen to me, then I try to grab the remote and he refuses to give it to me. Eventually I wrestle the remote from him, and he spends the next few minutes wrestling it back. And so it goes. I find it all very frustrating. I don't know why I bother.

Oh wait. it's because eventually we do get to the next level and he gets extremely excited and says "thanks mom, I love you, your the best". Yes, I am a soft touch.

Being Dark

Ok, some of you might have noticed that we have been dark for the last few days. No, it's not because my vow to blog daily has already gone to the wayside ... well it did, but for good reason.

Carol, had a major asthma attack and I went to the desert where she lives to be with her. Those of you "in the know" know how it went. To the rest, she was there thursday night to sunday afternoon. It was a stressful and upsetting weekend (even with a break of wine, tv and a hot tub). She is now at home, and I am back blogging.

Let's see, my funny story for the day: Papageno

The other day we went to the park. Right away Papageno found a little girl to play with, she was very cute. I sat next to the dad and we started to chat. You know, about mindless things, just passing the time. He seemed nice enough. The kids run up to us, I had a bunch of snacks, and papageno yells "I showed her my butt". My response: "Never say that in front of a girls father.", of course I then come up with the appropriate response "Don't do that", but a little late and a little meekly I'm afriad.

ps: the fish are still alive

Problems resolved

Where to begin, today had so much going on. We started with Bug being thrilled because he is now doing the puzzle all by himself ... over and over and over again. But hey, he's happy.

Papgeno got his report card today, oh, so did I. We both did well :). The teacher said he was doing very well in math and getting complex idea's like" estimating numbers of items". She also said he was a wonderful writer and was looking forward to him being able to develop sentence structure and more sophisticated words. So that was good to hear. We got the expected "lack of focus" and also apparently we need to work on neatness. So there we have it. Doing well in school. I'm happy.

Just to clarify the part about my report card. The parents get marked on things like; absentee's and tardiness, conforming to school uniform, homework support, and behavior support. And I thought I was done with school.

I was also able to resolve the fish problem. I bought a tank. It's a small 1.5 gallon tank that fits on a shelf in their room. The boys are pretty excited about it. When I put the fish in, Bug said "Look the fish is smiling". Papageno of course wants another fish to replace the one that died. I told him that if this fish survives the week I will buy another one. And so begins the cycle of goldfish. Just so you know, it's one I had told myself I would never be involved in. Oh well, best laid plans.

Quote for the day: Dan
Ok, I was not happy when Dan presented me with the goldfish. I have pretty much complained about them since Sunday. Dan finally said to me "it's about time I get to introduce new life forms into the house." I laughed, I always joke about my continual introduction of new life forms into the house, so yes, he was due.

Fatigue has set in

Well, it's late, almost nine. We just got the kids to bed and Dan is making dinner. I am posting this because I am determined to post something every day. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures today, so I have to write something. Warning, I am tired so don't expect something terribly witty.

Bug had his 3 year check up. He is 30lbs, and I can't remember how tall. I know, bad mommy. I have always been bad with numbers. Everything is healthy and on schedule. The doctor said his height and weight are between the 25th and 50th percentile. This surprised me. I don't think of Bug as a small kid. The doctor kept saying he is not small, he is average. But that feels small to me. I guess I am used to Papageno, who has always been over the 75th percentile in height and weight. I keep telling Papageno he is going to have to be careful, one day Bug could be bigger than him. Now I am not so sure.

We also had a play-date with Simon and his kids Aviva and Louie. Aviva is Papageno's age, Louie is 2. It went well. Papageno was a bit crazy. Actually, he had a bad day at school, not only did he get a "red" (It's actually a big deal -- it's the first time it's happened and we are really upset about it.) I was approached at car-line and told that his behavior was not acceptable, and if it happened again he wouldn't be able to do car-line. Apparently he has been playing "Star Wars" non stop and has been disruptive to everyone around him. Something we need to deal with.

Here is a favorite photo, its of Papageno, Aviva and Zoi. They were all in transitional kindergarten together last year at the JCC, Rachel's class.

Aviva is the one one the right.

Quote of the day: Papageno
"I don't want to get up" Guess what dear, neither do we (that was me). I do feel bad for him. We have to leave the house by 7:30. Today we got up late, 7:00, so everything was a huge rush. Unfortunately, I don't expect tomorrow to be any better.

One thing I would like explained to me. Why is it that during the week I have to drag Papageno out of bed at 7:00 but on the weekends we are lucky if he sleeps till 6:30!

really ... answers anyone?

ps: The last goldfish is still alive.

One Down

Story of the day: Bug

So as you know we are the proud owners of 2 new goldfish. Last night I stuck them in a juice container because I don't have a large clear bowl. In the morning we showed the boys; they had insisted on having the fish in their room. Bug's response was:

"There is no lid, the fish are going to walk away" When I pointed out they had no feet to walk away he said "They will get feet on Saturday and then they will walk away"

The goldfish bowl

Later today: Well we lost a goldfish. One down and one to go. The worst part is I had gotten used to the idea and had already selected this cute 1 gallon tank to go in the boys room. I was going to get it tomorrow. Now I don't know what to do. Will the other fish make it? Should I keep him in the jar for a few days to find out? These are the burning questions I must now deal with.

Tu B'Shevat

Today was Tu B'shevat. The Jewish festival for the tree's. It's our preschools largest annual fundraiser so it's a big deal.

I was in charge of the PR. I am also a room parent so I had to help put together our booth. We got stuck with a game. It was kind of like musical chairs, but more complicated. Loren, the other room parent did a great job making it look nice. Essentially, she made a tree and put carpet tiles around the tree. The idea was that kids run around the tiles and when the music stops they jump to marked tiles. Then we pull a winner out of a hat. ... the kids didn't get it either. I provided live plants for the winners (because its a festival for tree's we had to do something nature oriented). Actually, our gardener donated the plants :).

Today wasn't a good day for me. I haven't been able to sleep well the last few nights and this morning I woke up feeling sick and with a headache. (I am sure it had nothing to do with girls night out at Kim's house last night). This morning I took the dog for a long walk, cleaned the house and went to work at the festival. When I came back I fed the kids, Dan then took them to the festival and I had a nice quiet nap. Aaaah, heaven.

Of course now they are back and fighting again, happy days.

Here are the photo's of the face painting they got:


We also acquired two goldfish ... yea!

Quote for the day: Bug
"passies are for babies, I'm a baby."

Ugh, What a morning

Ok, today, so far not so great. The kids were up at 4:30am. First Bug came into the bedroom, Dan, was actually awake as well, so I asked him to take Bug back to his room. In the process Papageno woke up, so they both decided it was a good time to play. Of course we told them to go back to bed. All we heard we yakkity yakkity yak from the bedroom. I had hoped that after a while they would stop talking and go to sleep. In stead what happened was after about 40 minutes, Bug came into our room crying that he wanted to "cuddle" then of course Papageno wanted to "cuddle" as well. We sent Papageno back to bed in his room (he grumbled a lot about the unfairness of it all, but went), and pulled Bug into our bed.

After that I couldnt get back to sleep. Dan of course slept like a baby. Then at 6:30 we heard the pitter patter of big feet, the light went on, and Papageno was at play. These activities didn't escape Bug, who had to join in the fun. So Dan and I spent the next hour and a half hour telling the kids to leave us alone and go play by themselves. Good times!

At about 9:30 we finally deigned to make the kids breakfast. Dan churned out some delicous chocolate chip pancakes for the kids and eggs for me. We then did some stuff for our Amazon biz and then Papageno and Dan were off. They went to pick up a new dresser for the kids bedroom and play laser tag. Something Dan had promised Papageno a long time back. I hope he (Papageno not Dan) is not to tired for it.

So, the picture for the day. For those of you who never got to see, I decided to upload a photo of Papageno at his first soccer game. He was very excited to play. Next on the circuit, t-ball, in March.


I have decided to add a quote or story for the day. Something funny the kids say. I am sure they will hate me later, but hopefully it will make for better reading today.

Story for the day: Papageno
Kellen and I were discussing babies, he wants one. So during bed time we were discussing this. I told him I couldn't have a baby without talking it over with Daddy. Just so you know, last week we had the "where babies come from" talk. Somewhat vague, but I thought with enough information. This information included babies coming from a seed that daddy put in mommy and so on and so forth. So back to our story. When I told him I couldn't have a baby without Daddy he said "so he (meaning Daddy) can put a seed in you?" At this point I am actually relieved because I think, "well, end of conversation." NO! He says "I can put the seed in you" cough cough, "um, no you can't" I reply. Anyway, we continue on this way for a while. Him pleading to put the seed in me, saying that all he will do is "plant the seed, Daddy can take care of everything else". All the while I am feeling more and more uncomfortable. Anyway, he finally gave up, and now I have a funny story that I am sure he will never want to hear.

Out of pain; mostly

Today, I am finally feeling better, but I think I am going through painkiller withdrawal. Can that happens after 2 days of lots of Advil?

I got through the last few days by bribing the kids with TV and fast food. It really only worked for the first day. By day number 2 they were sick of it. Oh well. Tonight I will make something disgustingly healthy, I am thinking lentils or black beans. I know they will be thrilled :)

Well, I am trying to move forward on my charter school podcasts, but school administrators are hard to nail down. I just had one cancel this mornings interview. It's frustrating. It's also why I say the project is developing slowly. Hopefully by this time next year we will be up and running.

Here is a picture of Bug. I took it yesterday while we were watching Madagascar 2, it made me laugh. I don't know exactly what he was thinking, but it entertained him. For those of you who can't tell, he is wearing swim goggles while playing a set of bronze symbols.

sleepless again

Last night Bug fell out of his bed, he is only about 1 foot off the ground, so no big deal except that he was scared ... and traumatized. Poor guy. Of course he then climbed into bed with us for the remainder of the night. another sleepless night for me. As usual Dan, and Papageno, slept right through it. Nice to see Papageno is following in his fathers footsteps. Nothing wakes either of them up.

Something about last night made me sleep funny. This morning my upper back went into spasm and now I can hardly move (luckily sitting up is the most comfortable position so I can still be on the computer). So much for my big day of cleaning :) When Papageno asked "what happened?" the only response I could think of was "it sucks to get old". Not very helpful I'm afraid.

Papageno is currently reading "The Little Match Girl" by Hans Christian Anderson, who remembers what a depressing book that is. Both Dan and I read it thinking "when will this end" I guess its an exploration into the darker side of life. We are also reading a book called "Yuck". It is all about the gross bugs that are in our world, dust mites, ticks, bacteria ... you get the idea. The first night we read it Papageno asked "are those things for real". I had to say "yes, now enjoy your sleep" He was a little .... trepidatious, isn't learning fun?

Let's see, what photo can I post today ...

This is a "Leafy Dragon Fish", it's our favorite fish at the aquarium.

Our Art

Above, a picture Papageno made in school: pencil, oil and pastel.

Below, Papageno's Kindergarten school photo
(yes, next time I will scan it in).

The morning after ... Super Bowl Sunday

Today is Monday, the day after the super bowl. Being the laemo that I am I didn't even know it was Superbowl Sunday until I heard it on the radio, and of course made the mistake of going to trader joe's. It was a packed. In the end though we partook in the festivities. We went to B & J's house. The kids played great together. It was a slice of heaven. Papageno and Bug, who had been at each others throats all weekend finally had some distractions. Lucy, the cutest thing is always, "Papageno", this and "Papageno" that, you get the idea. They played with the stomp rocket for a while then ate mac and cheese, a big "no no" for Papageno, but oh well, he enjoyed it. Jeri made a corn chowder that was delish, and I am afraid we might have had a bit to much to drink ... oops :)

Today, back to school for Papageno, the weekend seem to last forever. We actually got there early so I was able to walk in with him. Something I don't generally enjoy because he makes me stay as long as possible and tells me how much he wants to stay with me at home. Then we get the crying, holding and begging. I kills me. Fortunatley today, we only had the big silent begging eyes. Since then I have been doing puzzles with Bug. We are on number 4 with a short break for a nap. This is a photo of him being very excited for completing his fire engine puzzle.

Here at the Frankel household we are overloaded with stuff! Post b'day and xmas season is always overwhelming. I am frustrated because I need some more storage items. I have been trying to buy a shelving unit on craigs list, but everything I want, I never get to on time, grrrrr.