When life (or a coworker) hands you lemons...

Niall recently asked me one day while we were strolling around the neighborhood and passing a house with a lemon tree, "Can we make lemonade?"  I had told him about a recent neighborhood walk (probably over lunch) with Pepper when I saw some local kids with a lemonade standing selling their homemade product. As, at the time, I was just doing a quick dog walk, I didn't have any money on me, which I told the kids. Then they offered to give lemonade to me for free, which I declined; obviously, it was a somewhat questionable business decision for them but I appreciated the spirit of their generosity! 

In any case, as you probably know if you read this blog, I am not a mom that is keen on major art or cooking “projects"  (either with my kids or without)-- we are not really a lemonade-making, cookie-baking family.

However, I mentioned Niall's request one day at work and my friend and co-worker, Molly, said "I have a ton of lemons right now!" and she showed up on Friday bearing a bunch of her fruits as gifts. 

Niall was sooooo excited to make the lemonade with me (he’s dressed in pjs for school pajama and party day). We used a recipe from Allrecipes, pasted below for future reference.  He (and I, too!) got a bit tired with the "twisting" of the lemons on our tiny juice squeezer thingie (I suppose I could have gotten out the giant juicer which eliminates pulp, etc. but did not), but he loved mixing the "simple syrup" and water, and it came out pretty well. It's often the "process" of making things, rather than the final product, that interests my kids the most (this is definitely the case for smoothies for Iver) but I'm generally willing to oblige when they make specific or repeated requests, just so they can have the experience. 

"Cheers!" (drinking out of K's special cup

for Moscow mules)

• Best Lemonade Ever
• 1 ¾ cups white sugar
• 1 cup water
• 9 medium lemons, or more as needed
• 7 cups ice-cold water
• ice as needed

Directions

Instructions Checklist

• Step 1

  Combine sugar and 1 cup water in a small saucepan. Stir to dissolve sugar while mixture comes to a boil. Set aside to cool slightly.

• Step 2

  Meanwhile, roll lemons around on your counter to soften. Cut in half lengthwise, and squeeze into a liquid measuring cup. Add pulp to the juice, but discard any seeds. Continue juicing until you have 1 1/2 cups fresh juice and pulp. 

• Step 3

  Pour 7 cups ice-cold water into a pitcher. Stir in lemon juice and pulp, then add simple syrup to taste. Add ice.

 

Glor-ious (but quick) visit

We have had so few visitors in the last two years that having guests to our house is so exciting for the kids.  Our friend and former colleague Gloria, who has moved to the Bay Area (but who was one of Iver's favorite people when she was living here), returned "home" to visit Humboldt this past week and joined us for dinner on Tuesday. She stayed with her former (elderly) landlord (who made her get regular COVID testing) which reassured us even further (but was not a concern of ours!). 

What a sweet relief it is for kids to have other (even adult) playmates for even a short time which offloads us mostly emotionally. After dinner, Iver showed off his garage fort, which features some tiny lights that were a Christmas gift from Gloria (which he remembered).

They also had fun in our backyard playing "fetch" with Gloria's dog, Luna (who also came to visit) and having races. Luna would occasionally growl at Pepper when she got too close to her precious ball, but elderly Pep appears to now be deaf and therefore oblivious; thankfully, there were no doggie conflicts.

Gloria even got to participate in bedtime story reading, and the kids missed her the next day. Niall, who was only one the last time we saw Gloria (thank goodness for this blog for me to look up past dates!), remarked, "When is she coming back? I didn't even get to play my legos with her!"

Hooray for friends visiting again and more playmates for our kids! We gave Gloria the gift of an Open Door fanny pack and maybe we'll lure her back here one day! 

A Cozy Outhouse

Since being back from Jamaica, Iver has been spending lots of time in the garage, rearranging his "fort" out there.  He has a whole sleeping nook with lots of comfy pillows and even a "Snack Shak [sic]" for yummy goodies. He recently made an elaborate "flame" and cardboard "wood" for a cozy fire... right next to the outdoor bathroom (which he told me later was actually a “sauna"). 

I love seeing him use his imagination and artistic talent to build such creations!  And in my opinion, every outhouse deserves a warm campfire! 

 

Kingavore!

Niall (4) has started to adore the Magic Treehouse books which are chapter books A bit advanced for his age (in my opinion). However, he is extremely attentive and retains a lot of what we read. I am generally open to kids reading anything of interest, so this is what we bring home from the library for him. We recently read their "Dinosaur Fact Tracker" book and he's been learning more things about dinosaurs at school.

 

He came home from preschool yesterday with a "matching" sheet where he had to put the meat-eating dinosaurs in that column and the plant-eating dinosaurs in a different one. Our car conversation went like this:

Niall: Mama, do you know what carnivores are?
Me: I sure do! Animals that eat meat, right?
Niall: Yup! Like T. Rexes. And tigers.
Me: What's the name of the group of animals that you have in that second column (that eat plants)?

Niall: Hmm.

Me: Did you learn about herbivores?
Niall: Oh yeah!  Like Stegosaurus or Diplodocus.   And you're an omnivore, right?
Me: Yup! I eat both plants and animals products. What about you?  Do you think you're an omnivore?  (Niall is what we call a vegetarian that doesn't eat many vegetables).

Niall: [silence].... No.... I think I'm a "kingavore!"

(King Niall)

Happy Earth Day!

 

Iver made the above drawing by looking at a globe and the rest "from his imagination." How cool is this?!   He also made a card for his first grade teacher whose birthday it was today. I happened to catch one in the wee hours of this morning and thought it was really cool for this little one to grow up with an "Earth Day" Birthday!

When your four-year-old knows too many words...

 

My sister-in-law, Katherine, texted me these cute twitter memes yesterday, which reminded us of our precocious Niall who has always been a chatty kid with a great vocabulary.  Both of my kids complain so much about the dinners I prepare which is super frustrating to me; however, Niall is a bit more picky, and I'd welcome some new adjectives besides "gross" and "yucky."

However, advanced words can sometimes be tricky. For better or worse, my kids are very perceptive, have amazing memories, and as children of healthcare workers, they also know an awful lot about anatomy and physiology (as well as words) from discussions and library books. We feel strongly about them learning the actual words for anatomic parts and about how bodies work in (mostly?) age-appropriate ways.

A few weeks ago, I tried to go to the bathroom by myself (all moms know this can sometimes be a struggle). I asked Niall for some privacy and he came right back with, "But I saw your vagina last week!"

And this was our real dinner conversation at dinner on Thursday:

Niall: Papa, do you have sperm?
Kelvin: What? Do I have a spoon?
Niall: NO, I said, "SPERM!” 
Kelvin: Sperm?! How do you know about sperm?
Niall:  We read it in a book. About how babies are made. I have a good memory. Don’t you remember this?!  Isn't sperm in your belly, Papa?
Me: Uh, not quite, son, but you may be remembering ovaries (and eggs) that live in women's abdominal/pelvic cavities...

I wonder what he'll be saying at five (and hope that he keeps this information to himself, out of the ears of other preschoolers, for now)...

Ridiculous, Resilient

Yesterday, Iver told me it was the first day since being in school he's been allowed to "touch" (masks were allowed to come off inside about a month ago). This is how our conversation went:

Me (frozen a bit after hearing his alarming statement): Touch?
Iver: Yeah, like touch. You know because of COVID?
Me: So like you are now able to hug your friends or high-five when you were previously discouraged from doing so?
Iver: I guess. Yeah. But I was most excited because we could touch eachother while playing "tag."
Me: What?! How did you play before?
Iver: We had to tag each other with a noodle.  Also, we can now push eachother on the swings.
Me: How did you swing before? Just have to pump your legs really hard?
Iver: No, there was like this stick with a pillow on it that you could use to push your friends with (but we often times just snuck in a regular old push [he said with a sly look]).
Me: Wow, I had no idea.
Iver: AND we can now hug our teacher!
Me: What did you have to do before?
Iver: We had to just hug a stuffie (stuffed animal) with her picture on it when we needed to. Or air hug. We weren't allowed to actually hug her.
Me: Hmm. That's really sad to me that kids have missed out on so much "normal kid stuff," but that you seem like you've adjusted as well as one could be expected to.
Iver: Yeah, I guess.

I've wondered often (see my previous posts about Niall and masked cartoon characters and Niall and the Playground) how this pandemic/responses to it will affect children psychologically for years to come (mostly fearing that they will have harmed them in negative ways. I also feel that many "safety" measures, including school closures and not allowing kids to hug, went way too far). However, the "matter of fact" way Iver explained these routine (and positive) changes to me made me feel a bit better-- that now he's just excited to have things go back to "normal."  Kids are so much more resilient than adults. I hope and pray they'll be all right. 

Just in time for Easter!

We returned home from our Caribbean trip late afternoon on Resurrection Sunday.  Iver, who has been attending Catholic Sunday School, remembered that it was Holy Week during our beach trip, calling our last family meal on Friday night "The Last Supper."

The kids were shocked that the Easter Bunny had made a delivery in our absence!

They really wanted to do an egg hunt and so Kelvin staged another backyard hunt for the munchkins. 

Iver had the "more challenging" half of the lawn

Pepper, who had been in great hands with our friend, Kelly, was thrilled by our return, and helped sniff out the special, golden egg!

Enjoy this very good Easter art (with the secular bunny also making an appearance) by Iver!

He is Risen! Hallelujah!

Splashin', Slidin' & Sand: Yeah, man! (Jamaica, Part 3)

As I mentioned before, with the exception of some afternoon clouds and rain our first day, we had lovely (hot!) beach weather during our stay in Jamaica.  The water has to be very warm for me to enjoy being near it or in it, but the sparkling green Caribbean Sea was perfect this time of year.

We alternated with swimming in the Sugar Mill pool and playing at the beach, which were in very close proximity. 

Chasing Niall

The kids roped Vanessa and Marco into building a lot of sand castles, which resulted in some sunburns (for the adults!). 

(Grandma watched and joined in on photos).

Tiny crab!

You had to be over age six to do any of the resort's "water sports," which included sea kayaking, paddle-boarding, and sailing.  Kelvin finally talked Iver into sailing with us, and it was lovely (but windy).

The main attraction of the resort and where we spent most of our time was near the Sugar Mill Falls and pool. 

You had to get there early to nab poolside chaise lounges (especially with shade) and a tube on which to float the "Lazy River" (we did bring one of our own inflatable floating rings as well as the vest for Niall).

Iver must have circled this river about 8,000 times during our time (spending up to eight hours a day there!).

Vanessa would join us around 11:00 a.m., after the kid-less adults' breakfast time. 

Grandma jumped in, too!

This pool also featured two water slides-- one, a series of three chutes, which was more "gentle," and another 280-foot one down which you had to go in an inner tube.

At first, Iver needed an adult (or two) to go with him.

Having fun! 

(eventually going by himself)

(The adults had fun, too!)

The Sugar Mill Falls slide was much higher, longer, and faster.  Towards the end of our trip and after spending so many hours in the pool (and the gentler slide) Iver, who is a bit nervous by nature, finally worked up the courage to ride the tube down the long slide. However, when he got to the top (with me), the attendant told him he was just shy of the height requirement (bummer).  I ended up going down alone, and Kelvin caught a picture and I explained that Iver was not allowed to go down as he was too small.

Then, from the bottom, I saw Iver come flying down in his tube but we didn't get a chance to snap a picture as we weren't expecting him.   "What happened?!" we asked.  He said with a sneaky grin, "the attendant let me go down... just this once!"  "Really?!" we asked. 

"Yeah, man!"

As we learned often in Jamaica, people are pretty laid back and often let small things slide (literally!).

"No problem!"

Did we enjoy our time in Jamaica?