Animal Farm

For the past year, I've had the strange feeling that I was living in a ZOO but I am convinced now that I do live surrounded by animals, at least farm animals that is! Recently, the kids have been pretending to make different animal sounds to communicate with each other (????) and after fun "trials and errors," each one of them has developed their own "alternate ego." I am not sure how this happened but I have been informed that Rebecca is the parrot, Victor is the horse and Frankie is the chicken. I have also been told that I must refer to them as parrot, horsey and chicken, just like the do when talking to each other. I am not sure if I am just too tired to fight the three of them on this one, since they ARE ganging up on me, or if I just find the whole thing too cute to make it go away by a mom's decree. I am so happy that my kids are finding common ground regardless of their age difference (especially with Ms. Rebecca) and that Frankie can join in participating on an extended "pretend" game with his siblings. As for Victor, it makes him so happy to lead Frankie on the game and count on the big sister's approval, that he is glowing with pride. I am sure that they will all get tired of the game after a while and it will go away in due time so I will just enjoy it while it lasts and pretend I am not so happy with the farm noises in the house... Here is where I draw the line: as long as they don't make me go to the feed store to get our groceries, they can cackle, neigh and cluck all they want!

Meowing for Milk

Raci has been out on a business trip for the past five days (and we still have four more to go!) and our bed has been invaded by three little creatures...the most interesting one of these creatures is a smiley cat named Frankie. He meows for milk in the morning and asks with a smile if he can have milk "pleeeeeease....meaowwwwww." It's so cute I can't say no! He reminds me of that sneaky cat from Alice in wonderland...I don't think I ever learned his name but I couldn't forget the "grin" - it was unique! Well, my cute little cat Frankie is pretending to be a kitty cat with purrs and all asking for milk at all times, including crazy times before my alarm goes off but who can't say NO to a smiling kitty? Not me! specially when the lovable feline goes right back to sleep after his warm milk is gone. I have no problem with that....One milk coming right up!

Rocking Monkies

It's official, my kids (and me too) have become groupies of the local band going by the name of "Recess Monkeys." I am not much of a follower of bands and definitely NOT a follower of the run of the mill bands for kids that seem to require loud color outfits, bright make up and big hair (aka doodlebops) to get kids interest. Also, I am really scared of the creepy-looking, middle-aged men (aka, the wiggles) who wear a uniform and do choreography while they sing. No, I don't think I've ever taken my kids to any "live" performances of such groups or bought any kids music CD's that were not Barney, classical kids stuff or those prepacked collections of kids songs. Well, all that has changed after we met Recess Monkey. This band is made our of normal-looking people (arguable but at least they "look" normal enough!!!). They are fun, energetic and their music is actually good...really, really good! They are teachers, so they have a "day job," although they are probably going to quit soon based on how well they seem to be doing, but most of all they are refreshing. They have great appeal to all ages, from birth to probably 99. I was mostly surprised at how much Frankie liked their songs, which by the way we had NEVER heard and now, after pretty much 72 hours, we are starting to know by heart. During the concert, Victor and Rebecca seemed to be enjoying the experience but Frankie was "static," dancing, singing and going all the way to the front to cheer them up after each song. He also followed directions as the band asked the kids to jump, dance, do a "conga" line around the library and ultimately, asked them to climb onto imaginary monkey bars. Frankie followed each and every one of the instructions and enjoyed himself to the max! It's hard to believe that less than one year ago, Frankie wouldn't even answer to his own name...Today, he is a rock-concert-going fan who is able to participate and join in the fun with other music-lovers of all ages. It's amazing that all the hard work is paying off so soon and that Frankie might just be able to kick autism in the butt!

Rock on Recess Monkey and THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC!

http://www.recessmonkeytown.com/

Frankie with Recess Monkey posing after the concert. He couldn't get over his band cool button!

The Fart Portraits - Christmas 2008

OK - Let's be honest: We all giggle when we hear the word "fart." Adults (read: Parents) don't talk about it in front of the kids but we have a million jokes we can tell each other related to the issue. Loud farts are hilarious but yet we try not to laugh - kids do laugh at them and they laugh LOUD so I guess "fart noises" could be considered the secret-mega-weapon for photographers dealing with difficult kids. We experienced this super-duper kid-magnet technique recently when we went to take family pictures for our Christmas cards. When the photographer at the studio resorted to this "technique" it really worked like a charm! Although she didn't actually farted on demand, her "fart noises" won the kids over in a flash. This woman got Victor to stop twitching and cooperate with her and she got Frankie to look at the camera with a smile. They both followed her every instruction and they posed for her, sat down, knelt down, took a gift from Santa's hand, opened an empty box pretending to be in awe and would have probably stood on their heads if she requested it...All because she made nonstop fart noises! The entire situation was so crazy that Raci, Rebecca and I had to smile too...the result: TOTALLY AWESOME family pictures that we'll treasure for years to come. Nonetheless, we will probably always remember her loud fart noises and will never-ever, stop making the connection between "farts" and the "smiles" we sport in our pictures. Hey, the way I look at it, if our kids look like a million bucks in all the pictures we ever take of them, I don't care if the photographer actually farts for real!!!!


The End.



Our AWESOME Fart-Portraits for this Christmas. We had a good time thanks to some very loud fart noises. Chill out, it was only gas!