Tuesday, May 24, 2005
About two months ago, upon learning that Hailey had colored on the wall AGAIN I told Nate and Devanie rather proudly that none of my kids had EVER colored on the wall. Within two days Denver had colored our entire toy room bench with blue marker, our hardwood floors with marker and our living room wall with pink crayon. I had a great big bite of Humble Pie and then journeyed out to Walmart to find the infamous Mr. Clean Magic Eraser I had heard about on the news. It sat in my cleaning closet for a few weeks until I finally decided to give it a try. Amazingly, the pink crayon disappeared from the wall, along with all the other smudge marks that were there. "Cool," I thought! "I wonder if it will work on the crayon from the twins two summers ago." Yup! The entire wall looked as if I had just painted it. It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. I spent the entire rest of the morning scrubbing walls and giggling to myself in pure delight. My walls didn't have to look grimy anymore. I didn't have to wait for Mark to paint. And should Denver get another blue marker in his chubby little fist again, I didn't have to "freak out." Within minutes I had fallen in love with another man. Of course, Mark will always come first but Mr. Clean will forever be hidden away in my closet, just in case! If you've never tried it, I strongly suggest you do. But be prepared to fall in love (and spend the morning running around your house in a mad frenzy scrubbing at every smudge mark you never thought you'd see disappear.)
Now onto a completely different subject. . . Family Home Evening Games. Last night for FHE we played a Henrichsen favorite called "Pretty Bird Pretty Bird What's My Color." Now, if you have kids that love to squirt other people in the face with water they'll love this game. I think the Henrichsen Family used a thimble of water, but for simplicity's sake, we use a spray bottle. One person is "it." They stand in the center of the room with the spray bottle, while everyone else sits around them in a circle (sort of like if you were to play "Fruit Basket.") The person who is it thinks of one color and then begins asking the people in the circle, "Pretty bird, Pretty bird, what's my color?" One by one, the family members try and guess what color the "it" person is thinking of. If someone guesses right, they get squirt in the face with the spray bottle and then it's their turn to be "it." Even Denver, who didn't like the idea of being squirt in the face joined in when we promised only his toes would get squirt. Sounds ridiculous and crazy but I guarantee, your kids will love it. How often do they get to squirt you in the face and get away with it? Denver loved it so much by the end that his bedtime prayer went something like this, ". . . and thank ye that we played Pretty Bird Pretty Bird and thank ye that we squirt water on everyone. . . . amen." You don't even have to wait until FHE. Try it tonight. They'll love it. Another favorite at our house is "Don't Eat Pete." Noah loves it and begs me to play it with him on a regular basis, so it's definitely worth mentioning. You'll have to go back to my June 2004 blog to find the directions but it's very simple to make and play.
A few other random things: We got Denver potty trained. That was almost as easy as Noah. Maybe I really will only have one bottom to look after, come October. Wouldn't that be nice?
There's a great site on Diney's website for little kids. Denver just recently figured out how to use the mouse and there's a simple art activity that he loves to do. Select the "Create" crayon on the left and then select "Squisher Studio." All the kids have to do is drag the ball of clay up to the picture and drop it wherever they want it to go. The clay spreads out and fills up the space to make a 3D looking sort of picture. Even I have fun playing it with it. There are little do-dads they can add to the picture like stars and eyeballs and stuff. Noah prefers the "Clay doodler." Either way, it's free, it's fun, it's safe and it's simple. Check it out sometime with your two year old.
And to wrap things up, a little snipet about Noah. This weekend Noah assembled a treasure chest with a few of the things he loves best. It's the cutest thing I've seen in awhile and it's definitely worth blogging about. Here's what lies within Noah's Treasure Chest: a plastic pink and green flower lamp from my fisher price dollhouse, an old blue bandaid, an ID lanyard from Kak-Kak, a button that fell off his bedroom curtains, a green game piece from Grandma Henrichsen's Sequence game, a penny, a fake penny from Daddy, a British pound and a coin from Hong Kong from Grandma Stout. And I think, if it would fit in the box, he'd put a wad of Gold Silly Putty and a shiny rock. Noah isn't into trucks like Denver or Transformers like Hunter or GIJoes like Mark. He seems to treasure little tiny things he can hold in his fist--like pencil erasers and coins and rocks. That's where Noah finds his joy--in the little things (and in the Gamecube, of course.)
posted by Shana # 9:20 AM 
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