The Chart, The Bank, and That Stupid Snow Globe

Having spent almost 5 years doing juvenile probation, I've seen a lot of teenagers with a deeply ingrained sense of entitlement.  So as I encounter the typical 3 year old egocentrism, I'm always carefully thinking about things I can do to help Pierce realize a healthy respect for money, without resorting to saying lame things like "Money doesn't grow on trees".

Showing instead of just saying.

So a couple of weeks ago, a perfect teaching opportunity arose when we went to the Transportation Museum.  Now let it be noted that I avoid the gift shop at all costs everytime we go there.  Why?  Because I have experience.  And now I know better.

Seriously, why step into the fire if you can just walk around it?

But Pierce was begging and Paul was all, "Oh, we'll just walk through it on our way out".

Famous last words before being burned to a crisp.

Because there, in the piles of junk, a little train snow globe (OF ALL THINGS!) called out to Pierce and said, "YOU MUST BUY ME"

Furthermore, it also spoke to him and said, "YOU MUST THROW THE WORLD'S BIGGEST TANTRUM.  LET NOTHING STOP YOU.  THEY WILL RELENT".

Relent we did not.  But we got lots of looks as we toted our screaming, flailing 3 year old out to the car.

It's been a long, long while since he's thrown a tantrum of such epic proportions.

I swear I think it aged me 2 years.

And so, we now have this on the fridge:

Pierce can now earn check marks on a daily basis.  Things like picking up toys, putting shoes in the drawers, bringing mom diapers - all of these things earn check marks.

And at the end of the week, those check marks convert to coins.

Which then go into the ATM:

So that Pierce can save up to buy things.  The ATM actually keeps track of how much he has. And now, whenever we encounter situations where Pierce says "I want, I want, I want" we say, "Okay, it costs $8.99 and you will need to do your chores and save your money". 

And you know what?

Although he doesn't seem that interested in doing 'extra' chores to get 'extra' money, he does seem to be grasping the idea that he needs to save to buy.

As for the snow globe, well, Pierce did earn his $3.50 and we finally got to stop hearing about it forty times a day.  Now he just HAS TO HAVE the orange Zhu Zhu named Nugget.  Yup...save your money, kid!

Old Snake Face

On Sunday we had a marvelous break in the weather.  Pierce and I had tickets for Family Fun Day at the Jefferson Center, and I was almost sorry because I wanted to be outside.  Because you know, it's not often it's not 20* and snowing lately.  But off to the Jefferson Center we went, and I'm glad we did.  Well, mostly glad we did (I'll elaborate on that shortly).

The first thing Pierce did was climb up into the firetruck.

He had to 'drive' the firetruck before we could go inside.

Once we got inside, he was all about getting his face painted.  Wouldn't even look at anything else until he got his face painted.  So there was ONE lady doing face painting.  And this big line of kids.  I wish I could say that Pierce was not like the usual toddler and didn't mind waiting in lines.  But that would be a BIG FAT LIE.  You know those velvet divider ropes to portion off a line of people?  Yeah, he knocked those down TWICE.  And tried to run off several times.  And then.  Are you ready for this?  Pierce grabbed the BUTT of the lady in front of us and said in a rather loud voice, "WHAT'S THAT?"

I wanted to die.  Right then and there.

While I tried to tell Pierce that wasn't nice and apologize to the lady, she was busy giving me the evil eye.  You know...that evil eye that translates to, "You don't deserve to be a parent"

Somehow, I survived this embarrasment without leaving and going to hide in the bathroom stall.

And Pierce got his face painted.

He had gone on and on and on for 30 Loooooonnnng line minutes about how he was going to be a bengal tiger.

But of course, once he got in the chair, he refused to close his eyes to get painted as a tiger.

So he had to settle for a snake.

The paints:

The process:

The Snake:

After I survived face painting, we headed off to listen to some folk music, jump in an inflatable bouncer, watch a puppet show, make our own buttons, pet a hedgehog, and have our names written in Chinese calligraphy.

Not a bad day.  Overall. 

I'm done with waiting in lines with a toddler though for the next 5 months or so.  I'm thinking that's how long it'll take me to recover.

Gone Trolleying

Boys like things that go.  Pierce is all about trains and buses.  And trolleys.  For at least a month now Pierce has been begging to go ride the trolley downtown.  He talks about it all the time.  The weather has been lousy though, and I needed backup to help me manage the twins during our trolley ride.  So finally, yesterday everything came together and we were able to do our trolley excursion.

Pierce could barely stand the wait for the trolley.  He was so excited.

Finally it rounded the curb.

A few passengers got on and off, but we mostly had the place to ourselves.

A boy in his element:

Now what am I supposed to do when he starts saying he wants to ride in an airplane?

Cabin in the Woods

Step One:  Get your glue sticks and foam stickers and tongue depressors.

Step two:  add some paint.

Step three:  Add a roof.  And a foamy stickered mom and foamy dad and foamy self and foamy pets.

Make sure foamy dog is up in the foamy tree.

Because that's how foamy dogs roll.

The Science Museum

After being housebound due to snow and sickies for so long, we decided to escape yesterday.  It was free day at the downtown museums, so off we went. 

Let me tell you...after being stuck in the house for so long getting out was absolutely divine.  It was like THE MOST FUN EVER.  Just because we were so stir crazy.  Even the twins were angelic for the entire TWO HOURS we spent at the science museum (including a MOVIE!)

Pierce liked the snakes.  The black one came right up to the glass to say hi.  And Pierce said, "I WANT IT!" and looked around for a place to open the glass.

We played in a tidal pool and touched horseshoe crabs and urchins.

And even picked up a hermit crab.

We played with a spinning disk

and went in a tunnel to see glowing minerals

We made some music

and some handprints (one of Pierce's favorite parts)

touched some fossils

and made the cyclist go

There were a ton of kids running around, because a school was there on field trip.  As a result, they did an unscheduled movie in the planetarium.  Pierce and the twins and I sat in.  It was quite possibly the LAMEST movie I've ever seen in my life. 

And Pierce was a little scared when the lights went off.  So we didn't quite make it through the whole film.

The science museum is on the 4th floor.  Looking out over downtown:

Before heading home we met Paul for lunch.  It was a very fun day, indeed.  And thank goodness we got out.  Because we woke up to more snow this morning.  Sigh.

Everybody Have Fun Tonight

I've been selling a few odds and ends on Ebay lately and using the money to buy fun family stuff (a year long family zoo membership, Thomas the train track, etc.).  Yesterday I got two packages in the mail that I was very excited to see. 

Yes, yes, I continue to dream of having my own chickens.  One day, I tell ya, one day!  The Shrinky Dinks were for Pierce.  Incidentally, they came with a very cute pic of two girls who are selling things on Ebay to raise money for activities like Space Camp.  Seller name is childrenfundraising if you want to get some Shrinky Dinks of your own (they have several different packages to choose from).

I just knew when I chose this package that Pierce would go for the dinosaurs!

He also picked a teddy bear, since we've been reading Paddington.  Incidentally, he seems to be ambidextrous.

The fun part was watching them in the oven.  This brought back all sorts of childhood flashbacks for me.  Mostly the memory of the cloying nasty smell of the shrinky dinks cooking.  Smurf shrinky dinks if my memory is working correctly.  But guess what?  Modern shrinky dinks don't reek!

Please please please don't look at how dirty my oven is! 

 You looked, didn't you?

This kit came with the tools to turn your shrinkies into key chains, necklaces, magnets, and little stand up pieces. 

And I decided to embrace my 80s childhood. 

I never was very good at big hair.

In case you couldn't tell, YES, that is blue eyeshadow I'm wearing!

This Swatch jacket was my most prized possession in 6th grade.  I still have it (obviously) but hadn't looked at it in years.  Hey, still fits.  Maybe I should start wearing it around (not).

Still got my old Swatch too.  It originally had clear purple bands.

Now excuse me while I go break out my 80s music.  Paul is going to be oh sooooo thrilled.

What do you have sitting around in storage from your childhood?

Paddington Bear or Friday the 13th? You decide.

Well, you all voted, and picked Paddington for our next reading adventure.  We haven't had a lot of reading time this week, but we're into the third chapter. 
Pierce loves maps.  One of our placemats is a United States map, and he loves to learn about the different states during meals.  He already knows about Texas, California, Nebraska, Virginia, South Carolina and Florida.  So to get started with Paddington, we had to break out our globe.  This globe is actually the one I had as a kid, so it isn't quite up to date but it serves its purpose.
Paddington is originally from Lima, Peru:

 But when his dear aunt moved into a retirement home Paddington set off on his journey to England.

Pierce especially likes it when Paddington gets dirty or gets into trouble.  He seems to be drawn to troublemakers.  I suspect this is going to be a very.bad.thing come kindergarten. 

Speaking of very.bad.things.  Does this not look like it belongs in some horror movie or something?  Most disturbing bear mask I ever saw...

My, what creepy eyes you have Mr. Bear...

The Colors!

Pierce and I got our Family Fun magazine this week.  If you have kids, I highly recommend it.  Really fun creative ideas.  Pierce and I decided to make their winter sun catcher.  I like this craft because it costs nothing and was easy for Pierce.
First, you fill up an ice cube tray with water.  Then put a drop of food coloring in each cube.

Oh, did I say Pierce?  I meant SUPERMAN.

Freeze the cubes until solid.

Superman was so excited to see the colors when these came out.  He went on and on about it.  Toddlers just love colors.

Meanwhile, take a round cake pan and fill it 2/3 with water.  Place a small juice cup filled with water in the middle to make a hole to hang your suncatcher from.  Freeze for an hour.

Take it out and arrange the ice cubes in the pan.

Superman really liked this part.

We let this sit overnight, but really you could just leave it a few hours.  We ran warm water across it before popping it out and then tied a ribbon on.

Pretty, huh?  Here it is hanging off our deck:

In fact, we liked this so much we decided to do a similar craft that wouldn't melt away.  So we got some cookie cutters and traced their shapes on wax paper.  I helped Pierce cut out the shapes (in duplicate).  Then we took some crayons and Pierce made crayon shavings.  Would you believe we did not have a single pencil sharpener in the house?  Not a one.  So I sacrificed my eyeliner sharpener.  Eyeliner is overrated anyhow ;-)

Once again, he was fascinated by the colors.

We put the shavings in between the wax paper (we did one of his traced hand) and then I used the iron to melt them together.  Finished products: