Fifteen Birds

I think "The Hobbit" is a great work of fiction. Really, I do. But for a three or four-year-old? Not so much. But thanks to my DH (an acronym I've never used and always disliked - so somehow it works in this case. Let's just say it's got sarcasm dripping all over it when used in this story. Love ya babe!) Bilbo Baggins is now a constant companion in our lives in both animated and book form.

It all started with a simple Monkey and daddy outing. DH enjoys taking Monkey on jaunts to 1/2 Price Books to see what treasures are to be found - whereas, I'm more of the pre-read, pre-screen, put-it-on-hold-at-the-library sort of gal (mostly). Frankly, one of the scariest phrases my DH utters is, "Monkey and I picked out some movies today!" So after one such jaunt, in walks Monkey clutching an old videotape of the 1977 animated Hobbit movie. I look over at DH (and my dislike of this acronym and overuse of it in this post might give you a hint of the look upon my face). But that look of horrified incredulity had to be quickly masked since there was no taking the movie away now as Monkey was positively glowing at the prospect of a new movie that daddy liked. It was movie night and Monkey planned to be front and center communing with Bilbo.

Now, my husband loved this book in his youth (so did I) and has read the entire series recently as well. So really, there's no excuse not to remember that the story is filled with violence and packed with "scary stuff" like goblins, goblins that ride on wolves, war, dragons, huge dwarf-eating spiders, trolls, Gollum and much, much more. Granted, it has a great anti-war/sharing message - but that mostly goes over the head of my four-year-old as he focuses on the battles and bad guys.

Before the show was to begin I took Monkey's dad aside and told him in no uncertain terms that he'd be watching the entire movie at Monkey's side (no escaping to check email or read a book or pee) and dealing with all night terrors for the next week.

Flash forward many months and Monkey's nightmares are gone and his favorite part of the movie is when the 13 dwarves, Gandalf the wizard and Bilbo are set upon by Goblins riding on wolves. The heroes climb the trees to escape and the goblins set fire to the trees while singing the following truly horrific song (video clip at the end for your viewing & ear worm pleasure):

(©music by Maury Laws, lyrics adapted by Jules Bass 1977)

Fifteen birds in five fir trees,
their feathers were fanned in a fiery breeze!
But, funny little birds, they had no wings!
O what shall we do with the funny little things?
O what shall we do with the funny little things?

Roast 'em alive, or stew them in a pot;
fry them, boil them, eat them hot?
Bake and toast 'em,
fry and roast 'em!
till beards blaze, and eyes glaze;
hair smells and skins crack
fat melts, and bones in cinders lie
beneath the sky! So the dwarves shall...

Fifteen birds in five fir trees,
their feathers were fanned in a fiery breeze!
But, funny little birds, they had no wings!
O what shall we do with the funny little things?
O what shall we do with the funny little things?

Luckily all the words aren't understood (yet) by Monkey because what a great song to teach your friends at preschool!

Although, I have to say the fifteen birds part is very catchy - and my DH and I sing it under our breath all the time . . .

I just hope Monkey identifies more with Bilbo and not the "bad guys" in this case. We do try to discuss why war is bad and why the dwarves should have offered to share their gold in the first place - and how selfish the dragon is and blah blah blah. But still - fifteen birds . . . is what you walk away with in your head.

Surprisingly, after all that, Monkey still refuses certain Disney-type movies at the rental store because a bad queen or monster looks "too scary" (I don't blame him - Disney scares me too) so he's not completely jaded. I hold onto the hope that on later viewings we can start to discuss the major themes more and more and not just focus on the goblins on their wolves.

Fifteen birds . . . in five fir trees . . .

Reminiscing

I thought I'd take a little time to reflect today - so I read through my old blog posts. I started this blog on July 12th, 2008 and we've had a rocky relationship ever since. Blog, I promise I will try to spend more time on you this year - really. But in the meantime here's a look back:

Keeping Mine Small - I still feel exactly the same way I felt on this day in 2008 - but he's changing every day.

DIY for Dummies (like me!) - My adventure in making wedding bouquets.

Happy Birthday to Me - I realize it will never be "all about me" ever again.

Big Boy Bed - Monkey once again hits another stop on the milestone train.

Monsters Monsters Everywhere - I finally learn to roll with it.

A Day at the Races - More exploitation to bend Monkey to my will.

Preschool Humor - Beloved Billy Bear.

Fun Stealer - Grappling with guilt and judgement.

Santa Spider - Honoring Monkey's art.

Happy New Year

Well, it's time for new beginnings and all that - and time to reflect on the old. It's been a crazy year - full of fun, challenges and craziness. Frankly, I can't believe it's already 2010. I think this last year was the first year I came to terms that I'm very much closer to 40 than ever before - and . . . I'm aging. I truly am. I'd like to be above all that - but I'm not. I have to admit I'm not loving the crows feet and the neck wrinkles and the slower healing - and the creeping of the weight (the wrong way). I remember after I quit nursing I was the skinniest I've been in a long time - and it was nice! Unfortunately, those days are well behind me and all the size 6 jeans have been given to those luckier, smaller friends. I'm not saying I'm fat - but if I don't do something soon I could get there.

So on to the new year's resolutions:

1) Get more SLEEP! I hope to be in bed by 11:00 unless I'm doing something really fun or productive! No more vegging in front of the t.v. or computer past 11:00.

2) Write more - whether it's on the blog or elsewhere.

3) Organize my life. Get a better routine going so this house doesn't look like a hurricane hit all the time. Tackle the office.

4) Spend more quality time with the hub.

5) Better meal planning and try more new recipes.

6) and what almost everyone says right after the holidays - get in better shape. I know I won't ever be a gym rat - but I need to get more exercise!!

7) Start a team for the LiveStrong Challenge this June (and train for the bike ride - that would help #5 too)

What are YOUR resolutions? Yeah, I'm talking to you!

P.S. If you want to join our LiveStrong Team - let me know and I'll hook you up. You can run or ride and they had a few distances last year so there's something for everyone!

Baby Steps

Months ago I blogged about a clock that we purchased in hopes of getting Monkey to let us SLEEP! It's a handy little invention that has a built-in night light that you set to turn green at a specific time. This is supposed to let the kiddos who can't tell time when it's okay for them to start jumping on your bed - and when it's not. Well, it stayed in the box for a lot longer than I'd like to admit but a while back I finally got it out (after Monkey spied it) and set it up. He was pretty excited about it and helped choose the color to personalize it. It comes with rings you pop onto the clock face (blue, pink and yellow) and he chose pink - just like Santa spider.

It is also a learning clock - it has a mode where it asks questions and you can set it to show digital or analog or both. If you push a button it will tell you what time it is too. All in all a pretty cool product. But the green light - that's the ticket (or so we hoped) for sweet, sweet sleep.

You see, Monkey has never been one of those fab sleepers (that many of my friends are lucky enough to have birthed). He didn't really sleep through the night until he was two. He's pretty decent now but does like to wake up at the crack of dawn (or pre-dawn) and come in for snuggle time. For a while that was fine - he'd usually go back to sleep and it was really hard to muster the strength to get up and put him back to bed. But interrupted sleep adds up after a while - and the end result is a very cranky mommy. Thus the need for adhering to the green light!

I'm happy to report that this morning - green light nirvana was achieved! He must have been up and waiting because he came in at 7:01. After the requisite snuggle he said, "Mommy, I have to show you something - come see!" and on the shelf/headboard of his bed were all his sea creatures spread out. He had woken up, seen his light was yellow and played quietly until it turned green. (Something we have talked about ad nauseum when brainstorming on what he could do before his light turns green). I can only hope that this will continue (and I am prepared for the worst) - but what a great morning!!!

This picture was taken during "quiet time" at our cabin on Vashon.

Update 12/19: 3 days in a row he's waited for the green light! I shouldn't even type this as I might jinx it!

Santa Spider

We stood in the living room, surrounded by boxes scrawled with chicken scratches: "Tree", "Lights", "Garland", "Misc". I looked around the living room and the last vestiges of Monkey's Halloween crafts were still up. We agreed to take the jack'o'lantern pictures off of the window but decided to keep up the leaf collage (he made an excellent point that it was still Fall). We were almost cleared out and ready to bring out the holiday bling but then I reached up to take down the spider (made at preschool out of an egg carton, pipe cleaners and some googly eyes). That's when I heard the screech, "Noooooo! I want it to stay forever!" At first, I just couldn't understand (and I was tired and not really wanting to understand a crazed four-year-old). It could have easily become a power struggle (I mean I was REALLY tired) and then I realized - why can't it be there "forever"? In the big scheme of things I think a little spider (did I mention it's pink?) isn't a big thing. So we decided to make it a Santa spider. So I made a little hat, Monkey decorated it with his favorite thing in the world (glitter) and we glued a puff ball on the top. Santa spider now lives on the garland on the mantel - forever.

Photo credit goes to Monkey.

Oldies But Goodies

Thank You Cards (or Christmas Cards)

Easy Santa Photo Display

Advent Mania

So I haven't been as organized with the advent calendar this year (thus the cups in the first place). Last year I typed out cute little activities for almost every day ahead of time. This week I was lucky if I stuffed the cup before he woke up. This morning I had to distract him during breakfast and do a little surreptitious slam dunk with the loot. I caved and stuffed it with dinosaur tattoos as I didn't have any activity inspiration (or time) today. But yesterday was inspired (or so I thought).

On the first day we took out all the holiday books. We had a lot of fun reading all of them. Monkey will sit for hours listening to books. We read "If You Take a Mouse to the Movies" over and over and over and over. Monkey is enamored with the mouse since we saw the theatre version of "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" a few weeks ago. In the book, the mouse strings a popcorn garland so I thought it would be fun to make one too (there's also one with popcorn and cranberries in "The Littlest Christmas Tree" so he wanted to make that). I didn't have any cranberries and Monkey didn't have any interest in going to the store so we kept it simple with just popcorn. We also don't have a popcorn popper so we went old school on the stove top. Well, let me tell you - stringing popcorn that's cooked on a stove ain't as easy as you'd think. The kernels are still stuck to most of the popcorn so it makes it really hard to get a needle through - and they're dry so there's a lot of breakage. Luckily, as with

any project, it's not about the end result to Monkey (and I had to remind myself of that when I was wanting to swear at all the broken popcorn). He thought it was really cool and enjoyed eating the popcorn just as much as making the garland. We finished a little over a foot and he decided (hallelujah) that it was long enough for the birds. So we donned our coats and hung the sad little thing on the tree out front. We plan to watch and see how long it lasts with birds, critters and weather. Tomorrow the activity is "go to Grammy and Grandpa's for the weekend and watch the Santa parade". That will be a big hit - and give me some time to come up with some stuff for the next few weeks (or maybe I'll put that off and nap) . . .

Update: This morning we watched as the crows devoured the last of the garland.

P.S. thanks to Kids Craft Weekly for linking to my little advent idea. I got 500+ hits the other day - craziness! If you haven't checked out her stuff out you should.