Consumerism finally strikes

I don't know how we did it, but N-man and B-man have never been big into the "I want it"'s. Besides the occasional whine of "MOOOOOOOOM!!!! I want a LOLLIPOP!" they rarely get the gimmies.

If I knew how we did it, I'm sure I could patent it. But I'm pretty sure we just got lucky with two kids who just don't have a big yen for material possessions.

Until now.

We got one of those catalogs filled with crazy junk. As an aside, one of the worst things about moving is getting back on the mailing lists for every catalog in existence. And this catalog was extra annoying because you can only call during the day to cancel it. So, I left it open sitting on the kitchen table to call the next day during business hours.

On the facing page was apparently the most enticing product ever. Here is the conversation that ensued when B-man saw it:

B-man: Mom! Look! There's a piggy bank shaped like pants!

Me: Oh yeah.

B-man: With a BUM hanging out!

Me: Oh yeah.

B-man: That is SO funny. You put money in the BUM!

[By now N-man has come over, too, and I realize that I'm not getting out of this conversation about a crazy plastic piggy bank that looks like someone's butt]

Me: Isn't that silly? And do you know what it does when you put the money in?

B-man and N-man: What?

Me: It TOOTS! Look, it say here "Drop some loot and hear me toot"

B-man and N-man: [dissolve into gales of laughter, punctuated by occasional exclamations of "It TOOTS!"]

B-man, with much seriousness: Mom, we *HAVE* to get this.

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For the record, I'm not getting them a farting piggy bank. I'm pretty sure we already got all the possible amusement out of this. But how funny is it that one of the first times B-man asks for a toy, this is what he chooses? I suspect there will be many fart jokes in our future!

An interview with N-man and B-man

I grabbed this from a friend on Facebook. It would have been fun if I'd asked the kids the questions separately, but we were all hanging out while I was feeding Z-man, so I asked them together. Here are their answers to a variety of questions about me!

1. What is something Mommy always says to you?
I love you (N-man) I can't think of anything (B-man)

2. What makes mommy happy?
Clean up (B-man) Not clean up! (N-man, with lots of giggles)

3. What makes mommy sad?
Not cleaning up (said in tandem!)

4. How does mommy make you laugh?
Saying silly words (B-man) Eating your thumb (??? N-man)

5. What was mommy like as a child?
I do NOT know! (B-man) My yellow blanket (N-man...he's talking about a blanket that was mine when I was little that is now his)

6. How old is mommy?
I do NOT know! (B-man) Me, either. You have to tell us (N-man) We still have to learn that (B-man). I'm 34 (Me) Wow, that's a lot (B-man). That's bigger than a giant (N-man)

7. How tall is mommy?
I do NOT know. We still have to learn that, Mommy! (B-man) 100 (N-man)

8. What is mommy's favorite thing to do?
Ooo! Play with us! (B-man) Getting hugs (N-man)

9. What does mommy do when you're not around?
Work and go to places (N-man) You are with Z-man (B-man)

10. If mommy becomes famous, what would it be for?
I don't know. (B-man) Kisses (N-man)

11. What is mommy really good at?
Playing Bejeweled Blitz (B-man) Feeding Baby Z-man (N-man)

12. What is mommy not very good at?
Reading books (N-man, with a laugh) You are good at that, mom! (B-man) Setting a movie up (N-man) Picking flowers (N-man...wow, who knew he had such a long list of things I can't do!) Raking the leaves (B-man) Daddy's MUCH better at raking the leaves! He doesn't have to stop to feed Z-man. (B-man)

13. What does mommy do for a job?
Go to a book club (B-man). Go to the library (N-man) (Wow...I'd love to get paid for either of those :)

14. What is mommy's favorite food?
A lot of stuff (B-man) Everything! (N-man) Not everything! Mommy doesn't like mustard! (B-man)

15. What makes you proud of mommy?
Because you make food, the stuff we like and that's good for us (B-man) When you do the stuff I want (N-man)

16. If mommy was a cartoon character, who would she be?
What's a cartoon character? (B-man) (I explained) I would not know. Would you? (B-man)

17. What do you and mommy do together?
Play games (B-man) Play (N-man)

18. How are you and your mommy the same?
You cook and I cook (N-man). I think N-man's talking about PLAY food! (B-man) Because we both like cuddling! (B-man)

19. How are you and your mommy different?
You cook and I DON'T cook (N-man). Well....because...you cook and I do not. (B-man)

20. How do you know your mommy loves you?
Because you say "I love you" (B-man). Because you do good stuff (N-man)

21. What does mommy like most about daddy?
I do NOT know. Why? (B-man) Me either (N-man)

22. Where is your mommy's favorite place to go?
Uhhhhhh....where ever her legs can go (B-man) Everywhere! (N-man)

Almost...

Big kids at school.
Little guy asleep.
A nice cup of coffee,
and a cookie.

And a big pile of bills to pay.

So close to perfection...
and yet so far away.

Telling me the hard truths

I was running around with B-man and N-man outside the other day, and they kept hiding behind trees and bushes. So I jokingly hid behind a lamp post and said, "You can't see me!"

B-man answered, "Mommy, you have to hide behind something MUCH bigger and wider!"

Thanks.

It must be morning!

Okay, sleep experts. I appreciate your years of schooling and experience. However, you can't just randomly define "sleeping through the night" as 6 continuous hours of sleep*. I am happy Z-man is sleeping from 8:30 to 2:30 most nights. However, I don't think any rational person would call that "sleeping through the night". It's not morning now. It's nighttime still. I'm not sleeping through the night. I'm up in the middle of the night.

Which is fine. I mean, Z-man is only 6 weeks old. This is a-okay with me. Just don't patronize me and try to convince me that I'm now officially sleeping through the night.

*Note for non-parents or non-obsessive readers of sleep related books: I think I should clarify this. Every time you read something by one of these supposed infant sleep experts, you'll see all over the place something along the lines of "sleeping through the night is defined as 6 continuous hours of sleep". Which, I must admit, makes me sorely doubt the sanity of said authors, let alone the validity of their advice. Did you really think you could pass this off? Did you really think sleep deprived parents would somehow be convinced they were magically sleeping through the night just because you said so? I mean, I can make definitive statements, too. That doesn't make them true. Here, let me try:

A "good blog entry" is defined as this one.

Did I fool anyone into thinking this wasn't rambling and obviously the byproduct of someone who is not particularly well-rested since she is NOT, no matter what anyone says, sleeping through the night?

A Matter of Perspective

N-man was moving very slowly, so I jokingly said to him, "You're being a gigantic slowpoke!"

He answered, "only when I'm close to you. When I'm far away, I'm a tiny slowpoke. But really, I'm always my own size."

For the record, we were talking about perspective when drawing recently. He just chose to expand it to slowpoke-ness.

Zero-Waste lunches

Have you checked out the Reduce Footprints blog? Every Wednesday is "Change the World Wednesday". Though I don't often participate, I love the idea of it as I'm big into making small changes. It's too much to try to be "perfect" or to change everything about the way I live. It's too overwhelming to expect that, and then it's too easy to give up entirely. So I've been trying to make small changes to the way we live our lives, in the hopes that over time, it will add up to big changes.

Anyway, enough about why I love the idea of "Change the World Wednesday". Let's get on to this week's challenge:

This week we're all about kids ... after all, they will take the "green torch" and become environmental "Olympians". So this week, your challenge is to do an environmentally friendly activity with your kids (or grand kids or neighbor kids or nieces/nephews, cousins, etc). Get them involved. Need some ideas? Here you go:


Awesome Activities

Kaboose

Kids Links (Teaching Green)

Gardening for Kids

Once you've done the activity, we want to know about it ... so come back here and leave a comment (either with the activity or a link to a post) ... or if they did something fun during the summer like an Eco-Camp, tell us about that. We'd also be interested in little Eco-Stars ... kids who have taken it upon themselves to come up with green living ideas.

Or ...

If you don't have any accessible kids to have "green" fun with, then write an article about ways that we can get kids involved in an Eco-friendly lifestyle.

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So that's the challenge for the week, and it dovetailed perfectly to something I was already working on with N-man and B-man: zero-waste lunches. Friday was their very first day that they were eating lunch at school. Working in schools in the past, it was kind of appalling to see the vast amount of garbage generated at lunch time. And I'm not talking about the food thrown out (that's a separate topic, though I did briefly sub at a school that had the kids compost all their compost-able food so it is possible!). I'm talking about the juice boxes, single-serve packets, water bottles, ziplock baggies, paper bags, aluminum foil, disposable silverware and napkins, etc, etc, etc. Kids' lunches just seem to generate huge amounts of trash, and most of it can't be recycled, or just plain doesn't get to a recycling bin.

That's where a zero-waste lunch comes in. The idea is to pack the lunch in reusable containers, with reusable silverware and napkins. If all goes well, the child shouldn't have anything to throw away after lunch (besides those pesky sandwich crusts!).

The boys and I brainstormed some ideas of things that would be good to include in the lunch, and things that wouldn't be good. That was a bigger hit for the boys...they were very good at listing things that come in single-serve packaging (i.e., nutrigrain bars, yogurt tubes, etc...things I get for treats but have been trying to wean myself off even in our own house!)

You can get official bento boxes, but I just used a regular lunch box with tupperware I had around the house. And the Rubbermaid Litterless Juice Boxes that some readers recommended last year are still going strong (love these!).

Here's what the boys had for their first school lunch:



Apple cider for a drink

Cream cheese and jelly sandwiches (cut into the shape of dinosaurs! I have a cool sandwich cutter that cuts one sandwich into two dinosaurs with only a little crust waste.)

Cut up strawberries and kiwi

A scoop of hummus and some bagel chips

And for dessert, a soybean butter and honey oatmeal ball. I (kind of) followed this recipe, but with some changes to make it nut-safe:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup soybean butter
1/2 cup honey
1 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup chocolate chips (if you're not dealing with allergies, I'd use mini-chips. I just can't find any nut-safe mini-chips. Though heck, if you're not dealing with allergies, I'd go to the original recipe and use peanut butter and nuts in these!)
1/2 cup raisins

Directions:

Mix soybean butter and honey until blended. Add all the other ingredients and stir until mixed and thoroughly coated.

Roll into balls (I made them from about 1 heaping tablespoon each). Freeze or refrigerate until firm.

N-man ate almost everything in his lunch! B-man didn't do quite as well, but said he liked everything.

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So here's why I like the idea of zero-waste lunches:

• The obvious, of no trash for the kids at school
• More economical in that I can buy large containers and apportion them into smaller servings.
• The packaging from the products can be recycled at home, while there might not be recycling available at school (or the kids may forget to use it).
• Buying large containers means less packaging than the single-serving packets.
  
• Any leftover lunch comes home, and if appropriate, can become an afternoon snack so there's less food waste. B-man ate his leftover bagel chips and hummus yesterday after school!
• Gets kids involved in reducing the amount of garbage they generate.
• Opportunity to make healthier lunches by not relying on prepackaged individual serving (and often highly processed) "convenience" foods.
  

And as I said, this is a small step. There's always room for improvement...here are some future "small steps" I may try to take to make this idea even more effective.

• I'm not sure what kind of non-plastic options there are for containers, but as the tupperware becomes lost or worn out, I'd prefer to replace it with something that isn't made of plastic.
• Okay, my zero-waste lunch wasn't ZERO-waste, because I had to include a disposable napkin. I have fabric to make into cloth napkins...I just need to do it!
• I could do a much better job making local choices for their lunches. For example, I got them strawberries and kiwi, their favorite fruits, as a special treat for their first school lunch. But come on! It's apple (and peach) season here. That would be a much better choice for future lunches this fall.
• What other ideas do you have for me?

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Overall, a very fun, and easy activity. As I said, this was my boys' first school lunch, so we're not in the habit of relying on convenience packaging. Hopefully it will remain just as easy to continue with zero (or very little) waste lunches!