Lots of fire!

 I already posted about Allison's birthday party.  On her birthday - we took cookies to school.  She wanted cookies, not the "healthy snack" options that the school recommends.  "Everybody else brings cookies, mom!" so cookies it was.  And then we made a ton of them because they were small (pillsbury take-n-bake being the only cookies I could find, other than oreos, that aren't processed on equipment that also processes nuts) and there are 34 kids in her class.  Ack.

For her birthday dinner, she shockingly chose the Japanese hibachi grill.  Onion volcano:

 She ate very well!!  Grandpa Jim and Grandma Darleen were visiting, so they enjoyed the meal along with us (and this odd group of three people who shared our hibachi table).  I spent most of the night trying to figure out their exact relationship and several minutes near the end convincing their 3-yr old that stabbing at the koi in the little tank with a fork (borrowed and then replaced from the adjoining table) wasn't a good plan.

Then it was home for cake and presents!  Allison enjoyed all her birthday gifts - dresses, caramel apples, a suitcase, a puzzle, and a button factory.

Happy birthday to the girl who is now in double digits!  That's a lot of candles!

How to bring your child to tears...

Jacob has a loose tooth (actually, several).  At Thansgiving, he lost one of his front teeth, and the loss of that tooth caused the other front tooth to migrate into the smack center of his mouth - like some crazy cyclops tooth.  Also, it hangs at kindof a goofy angle, thus giving it a very snaggle-toothed appearance.  Once the tooth found it's new home - it seemed to grow roots again and for two weeks or so got considerably LESS loose.  Totally weird.

Well, it's now getting wiggly again, and I've been trying to encourage Jacob to loosen it up and lose it - if only so that I can force him to sing the "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" song.  So, last night we decided to show Dad how wiggly the tooth was, which prompted this exchange (not the exact wording - but close):

Brian: Did you know the tooth fairy is paying double for teeth lost tonight?
Jacob: No, you're kidding
Brian: Yes, it was in the newpaper.
Jacob: Mom, is that true?
Me: (feeling at this point that this had the potential to go south - I think I nodded in agreement anyway)
Jacob: I want to see it.
Brian: No
Jacob: I want to see the newspaper where it says the toothfairy will bring double tonight!!
Brian: No
Jacob (now in tears/meltdown mode): But Daddy!!!! I want to see where it says that!!!

I settled it by telling Jacob that if he lost the tooth and the toothfairy DIDN'T leave double - that Dad would pay him instead.  Ha.

The tooth did not come out - though Jacob did allow us two chances to try and yank it.  He likes them to fall out on their own - this is probably why he's swallowed two already.

Basketball

After the birthday party yesterday, we were off to basketball.  The rules are slightly different from last year (for example, last year had no stealing at all, but this year they can intercept a pass).  However, there is still quite a bit of structure: they are assigned their "man" at the start of the quarter, and any change in possession sortof stops play for a minute while they reconfigure.... all probably typical of a developmental basketball league.  The boys are surprisingly accurate if they get a shot off.

A birthday party - Age 10!

 So - what do you do for a 10-yr old's birthday party that's NOT a sleepover??  This year - it was makeovers.  We started at the salon.

 They did hair and nails - then we went to a cafe for lunch (an inadvertently got in the middle of a piano recital - totally not our fault).

 All the girls after brunch:

 Then back to our house for presents, cupcakes, and some play time.

Allison had a blast.  Ten years.... a decade.  Wow.

Oh what a (Thursday) night!

(no, our schedules aren't all in Excel..... I'm not THAT big of a nerd.)

Know what happens tonight?

Guess what happens tonight - St. Nick comes.  Yeah - all you suckers who thought that St. Nick came on Christmas Eve were SO WRONG.  And if you miss it - your kids will come home from school tomorrow crying wanting to know why St. Nick didn't visit their house.

Oh wait, no one else lives in Wisconsin?  Well, then you're safe.  No worries.  You must not rock it old school - where the visit from Saint Nicholas is actually separated from the visit from Santa.  If you're true followers, you skip Santa all-together - put your stockings out on St. Nick's day and then simply celebrate the birth of Jesus on Christmas.  Yeah - you read that right.

Fortunately for Allison and Jacob - they are Wisconsin-raised, non-Lutheran's - which means they get to stick their shoes out on St. Nick Day AND get a visit from his jollier relative on Christmas Eve.  Lucky them. 

Another post about Christmas presents

So I'm reading this article that some parents organization or something or another (much of the article clearing sinking in) finds Lego friends Beauty Shop to be the most offensive toy of the year because it is "reinforcing sexual stereotypes with its pink blocks, gendered minifigures, and explicitly girly themes." 

Ok, you got me.  I was totally sitting around last year saying "wow, Lego is such a cool toy... we would totally buy it for our girl if it only came in pink.  Too bad she'll have to live her life without building things.  It's just not girlie enough."

Perhaps I've taken issue with gender stereotyped toys before (it's totally possible, my views on things change frequently).  None-the-less - we are raising a girlie girl.  A pink and purple, lace and jewels, dress-up in feathers girl.  And there isn't anything we can do about it.  If we only ever bought gender neutral toys for her - we'd soon have a bin of toys "glammed up" with pink and purple marker, coated in stickers, or anything else to make it "pinker."  She once tried to color Astro pink!  She would wear Sunday dresses to school everyday if she were able!

So, if a Beauty Shop is what it takes to get our daughter to take an interest in the building and creating that is Lego - So. Be. It. 

And if anyone wants to raise their kids in a gender-neutral bubble of androgynous playthings... I say have at it.  But don't throw your buckets of cold water on my girlie girl's toys. 

I'd like to add - as well - that have they considered all the boys who might also play with Lego Friends?  The inherent assumption in their argument is that Lego Friends is only for girls and we can't have our girls getting too stereotypically "girlie".  Are we reinforcing stereotypes more by forcing our girls to put down the Beauty Shop in favor of Lego Firefighters - rather than admitting that Lego Friends may have appeal to more than just the girls?