mama and son hike

Mama and Son Night is the BEST. Last week, my son and I decided to go for a hike on our evening together. We had a blast. After a quick and early dinner, we drove to a nearby trailhead. We hiked for about 45 minutes, and my son didn't need to be carried - he happily led the way, jumped over rocks, inspected everything, and shot "ghosts" with his stick (how do they learn this??). Here are some photos.
 

 

what's inside the tent

For the past couple of weeks, my son has had a tent made out of blankets in our living room. Today we decided it was time to clean it up, so I took the blankets off for the first time.

It was interesting to see what he had collected in there. And when I say "interesting," I mean that I had that kind of sick-scared feeling I get when I watch "Hoarders," and the therapist enters the house for the first time, and it's piled 5 feet high with junk and trash, and you're just praying that they don't find anything alive in there. Or anything that used to be alive.

Thankfully (!), I didn't find anything of organic origin in my son's tent. It was an eclectic mix of items, though, so I'll share it with you:

• 1 plastic teacup
• Several coins and paper money, both play and real
• 1 umbrella, red and slightly broken
• 4 magnets
• 1 bottle opener
• 1 wooden Frankenstein decoration
• 9 Lego pieces
• 1 flashlight
• 1 telescope
• 1 photo of himself at school
• 1 Twister spinner (correction: he says it's a clock)
• 1 card from a friend
• 1 headband with bouncy balls on springs (see photo below)
• 1 measuring tape
• 1 strip of 1-inch elastic, 3 feet long
• 1 partial set of alphabet flashcards
• 1 three-hole punch

i love this book: James Herriot's Treasury for Children

My son recently began reading chapter books. I'm so excited! I still love picture books, but chapter books feel like a whole new exciting world.

Over the weekend, we read James Herriot's Treasury for Children. I loved it. So did my son.

I read all of James Herriot's books when I was growing up.  The stories about the British country veterinarian were fascinating to me. Herriot described his world in a vivid, uplifting way.

This collection of stories is no different: full of love and life, and a glimpse into a different world. The full-page, color illustrations are amazing and really capture the feel of the stories.

One thing I like about this book is that, although all the stories have happy endings, there are some difficult things that happen, just like in real life: a favorite cow gets sent away to be sold. A mother cat dies, leaving behind a tiny kitten. A tiny lamb wanders away from his mother and almost dies in a snowstorm. These events are not presented in a way to scare young readers, but for the purpose of telling a realistic story and showing how these hardships were overcome. It's easy to gloss over and shelter children from difficult topics. It's harder to present them in a gentle, age-appropriate way that promotes discussion, and this book does it well.

Suggested age range: 4-8 years per Amazon (my son is 3)

Author's Note: The opinions in this book review are solely my own. I received no incentive or compensation for writing this review.

it's beginning to look a lot like Fall...

...but not outside, of course! This is Arizona, after all, and it's only September. It's still in the 90's, humid and hot, with no sign of cooler weather ahead.

Inside is a whole other story, though.

Last Friday, my son decided to skip his nap, so I decided a craft was in order. We started with this cute cow one, given to us by a friend. I love these pre-packaged crafts! Just grab and go.

That was only the beginning. Next, we decided to make stained glass Fall leaves using tissue paper and contact paper. And glitter, of course. I really love making stained glass art projects. The colors look amazing when the light shines through them.

I started taping the leaves up on the window, but they looked kind of funny. Did we need to put the leaves on a tree? Yes, we did!

I grabbed some brown packing paper I had saved from an Amazon order, and my son cut some branches for our tree. I taped on the leaves.

 

 

We found some vinyl clings in our Halloween decorations box, so my son added them to the window.

 

 My son had big plans. Trees in every window in the house! Starting with a tree with spiders in the living room. He cut out more branches, and I pieced them together into a tree-like shape.

The next order of business was to make spiders. We used felt, googly eyes, and pipe cleaners.

We hung them in the tree and added spider webs.

 

Spooky, huh? We're ready for Fall!

motorcycle ride

While visiting friends recently, my son had the opportunity to ride a couple of battery-powered vehicles for the first time. There were some close calls at first (picture people running for their lives), but he quickly got quite good at steering and stopping. And, of course, he loved it.

Even though his friend on the tricycle won their races by a very large margin ("the motorcycle has flames on it, but it goes slow," he explained to us. "Isn't that funny?"), the two were still able to enjoy several hours riding together on the sidewalk. And spending time with these two sweet boys was one of the many highlights of our trip for me.

the breakdown of civilization

There are people who are convinced that today's society is in a downward spiral, and they can cite the societal and moral reasons for this. I'm here to tell you that the real breakdown of society occurs in a crowded airport, where thousands of people are being held captive due to a weather delay.

While returning from a trip last weekend, we got stuck in the "Lost de Bagelus" airport, as my son called it, for about three hours. It struck me that under no other circumstances would most people accept the conditions imposed on us during that time: the uncomfortable crowding, with no way to avoid people entering your personal space. All seating already taken, so you have no choice but to sit (or sleep) on the floor. The lack of access to fresh air and the outdoors. The terrible, terrible food. And absolutely no control over your circumstances. It's enough to make children cry (not mine) and wives turn against their husbands (not me. Well...ok, it was me.).

Luckily, some things never change. While I was sitting on the floor next to the tram, my son came over, mussed my hair, kissed the top of my head, gave me a double-eye poke, and asked sweetly, "Mama, does that hurt?" Eye poke notwithstanding, he behaved admirably through our entire trip. He listened to us and stayed close as we walked through the throngs of people. He happily "drove" the tram between terminals with me for 45 minutes. He loved the food (chicken nuggets and fries again? Yes, please!). I think he loved all the hubbub and excitement of all the people around us. And the slot machines. And my tablet, of course. Thank goodness for tablets.

ms. smartypants

Instead of riding bikes on Saturday, we recently rode on a Sunday morning, before church. I was very proud of myself for planning ahead and dressing my son in his church clothes before we left for our ride, because getting him dressed is always a bit of a battle, and this would save me one outfit change. Anyway, he rides on the back of my husband's bike; how dirty could he get?

I bet you can guess how this turned out.

Especially after the post-ride popsicle.

Lesson learned.