Great idea… silly putty in bed. All that I have to say is olive oil works well to get it out of hair, nothing helps to get it out of bedding, and Kade is very lucky that Ted survived the incident. His HULK jams were not as fortunate.
Next Sunday, November 23, is another installment of Rock-n-Tot. This one will be held at MOCA, mixing in Arts and Culture. The kids are excited to go back. We attended one of the events last Spring and had a great time.
At a Rock-n-Tot event, you will find a dance floor, kid-friendly music, art exhibits and coordinating educational activities, crafts, products that encourage learning and safety. We also provide spa services for parents/adults (because caregivers need to know that they are appreciated) as well as storytelling, facepainting, and more.
Naomi was very generous and provided a discount for Kade’s Preschool. Hopefully we can pack the house and the kids can rock it out with all of their friends.
I think the difficult part about throwing a Rock-n-tot event would be finding kid-friendly adult music. You know, good dance beats, clean lyrics. One parents’s clean lyrics are another parents devil music. I tried to offer up some suggestions for some tracks:
Mike Doughty – I Just Want The Girl In The Blue Dress To Keep On Dancing
Mike Doughty – 27 Jennifers
Black Kids – I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You
MGMT – Electric Feel
Paolo Nutini – New Shoes
Peter Bjorn and John – Young Folks
Port O’Brien – I woke up today
The Ting Tings – Great DJ.
I also thought some kids songs that are parent friendly could be good.
Peter Himmelman – My Green Kite
anything from They Might Be Giants
JJ Grey and Mofro – Orange Blossoms
I am personally pretty excited about next weekend’s event and the kids are already practicing their moves. Hopefully they don’t get stage fright and can show their moves to all of their friends. See you at the show! Get your tickets online!
Today is Kade’s first day of pre-Kindergarten preschool. He will be going everyday for a half-day. I think he needs it, but Erika is still a little sad he will be at school everyday. He has been becoming more social and hopefully this will help him get over the hump. I think he started getting excited for school to start after meeting some of his classmates at Chuck-E-Cheese last week.
Erika is the parent helper at school today too, so that should help Kade’s transition. Although last year, Kade behaved worse when she was there than when she wasn’t. We shall see how this goes.
Happy start of the school year!
After a long Sunday of setting up the new playset, here is the results of our hard work.
It was a crazy day that started with Andy and I unpacking the swingset that they had purchased for Kade and Liv. Once we opened it all up, we could not find the hardware nor the instructions for assembly. After further inspection there were even more parts missing which made us throw in the towel. Erika and her Mother immediately got on the computer and phone trying to find out how to resolve the issue(s). It turns out the store that they bought it at in Sandusky told them to bring it back in for a full refund and they found a better set on sale up here in Cleveland. Andy, Kade and I were sent out to pick up the new set.
This new set was a lot heavier, but we loaded it up into Andy’s truck and brought it back to begin our assembly. Once unloaded, we carefully labeled parts and made sure that we had everything, which we did. It was about 11 a.m. at this point.
We took a break for lunch but other than that, we worked to complete the construction of this swingset. By 9:00 p.m. we were finished. Long day. Even though he still was not feeling 100%, Kade begged to stay up until we were finished so that he could swing and slide a couple times and he got his chance to do so even though it was almost too dark to see the smile on his face.
Since Sunday was all work and no play and the kids are feeling better after a week of being sick, I took the day off of work. Once they woke up, the kids wanted to get outside and play on their new toy, so that is just what we did.
Since our weekend was shot to hell we figured that we might as well make the most of it and be productive. Erika’s parents and grandparents had purchased a swingset/playset for the kids so this weekend would be as good as any.
Since her mother was up her already, Erika’s father loaded up his truck with the swingset and drove up to our house. We are going to get started pretty early in the morning… after Erika and her dad go out for a 5 mile run. Can’t wait to set up the swingset, the lord knows how I love physical labor.
It has been a long day for Erika and the kids. Liv has been sick all week and now it is Kade’s turn. He woke us up early this morning, about 5:00 am getting sick in his bed. He did not stop getting sick until about 2:30 this afternoon. Erika decided it was time to take him into the doc and it was a good thing she did. He said that if she waited another couple hours she would have had to take him into the ER.
He finally was able to keep water down and after she gave him the Zofran he acted a lot more like himself. Liv, on the otherhand, is still not over her sickness. So we are thinking that Kade will be out for a few days.
We have been pretty concerned about the kids, and in turn, have canceled our reservations for the Cincinnati trip. There is still a chance that we may go, but it is slim. Erika’s mother is up to stay with the kids so we may get to go out for the evening tomorrow night, but we will see.
Tonight, we went to Kade’s preschool, the South Euclid Co-op Preschool, for a Spring Fling ice cream social. I’ll admit I was in it more for the ice cream than the social, but the kids had a lot of fun. Kade and his schoolmates put on a performance and then Jungle Bob entertained the crowd. The part they loved the most was running around and dancing on the stage after Bob was finished. Fun times.
It is strange how you remember certain things from your own childhood from things that happen with your children. Kade has been intrigued with the song “Feel Good Inc.” by Gorillaz ever since I played the video for him long ago. He always got this sheepish look on his face like he was a little frightened of the characters and can describe a lot of the video based on memory.
Usually at dinner time we play WJCU, 88.7, but tonight I put on some of my music. As we were sitting there, the song came on and Kade all of the sudden jumps out of his seat… “I’m tired… I wanna go to bed”, that is what he says when he is embarrassed or acting shy.
Insert dreamy, going-back-to-my-childhood, music here.
It was the early 80′s, my father had a cassette tape of the J. Geils Band, Love Stinks. There was a track on that album that frightened me to death. It was… “No Anchovies, Please“. Every time he would get that tape out, I would beg not to hear it. The tape itself had a bad smell to it, I think it was some sort of marketing scheme. But the line at the end of the song, “Oh my God! That bowling ball, it’s my wife”, was enough to have me crying and telling my father to turn it off. (View the full lyrics here)
So while I think about Kade and his strange behavior with a certain song, I can look back to my own childhood and totally understand.
Today was a rare day with nothing on the itinerary. Since it was a beautiful day (over 50 degrees with the sun shining) we decided to get outside for a little bit. We went to lunch, Kade would not have anything other than McDonald’s, oh well, sometimes it is not worth the fight. After lunch we decided to take a drive over to Beachwood and go to Preston’s H.O.P.E.. If you have children in or around Cleveland, this is a great place to go. It is free and open to the public and has so many things for the kids to enjoy.
The Inspiration for Preston’s H.O.P.E. came from very special friends and family of a little boy born with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). They believed that if his dreams were to play in a park with all other kids, then there must be many, many other children with the same dream as well… they found out that there were over 26,000 kids in Cuyahoga County alone with some type of disability. Kids that wanted the opportunity to play with their brothers and sisters and their best friends… a place that was boundless. Many of these kids met one day and dreamed together the way Preston’s H.O.P.E. should be. A place where you could get up high, feel movement, play things you’ve never been able to, or just be quiet if you want. And that is how it all started.
View more photos from Preston’s Hope.
After Preston’s H.O.P.E. we headed back to South Euclid to see if our local ice creamery was open, The Dairy King. Well, we had no such luck. In fact, it does not look to promising to open anytime soon. So we drove down a little further to Baskin Robbins/Dunkin Donuts. We got our ice cream and sat outside on the patio to eat it.
The kids, especially Kade, were very good. I think sunshine does effect people’s mood. Thank goodness the sun has come back out and it is starting to feel like Spring.
The Kalahari, originally uploaded by kyleroth.
We were fortunate enough to get to stay a night at the Kalahari Resort in Sandusky this past week and the place is pretty amazing. I could not imagine being a kid and staying in that place.
Kade and Liv had a good time, but really weren’t able to experience much of the indoor water park because they are just too young. Regardless, they played in all of the children’s areas, rode along the lazy river and Kade ventured up enough nerve to go down one of the water slides.
When we got to the top of the slide, the lifeguard said we could not go down together. So I slid down first and waited at the bottom. He rode down the blue slide which pretty much the same as the big orange one in the picture above. As he came sliding down I saw him flip and spin around the bend to the end of the slide. I picked him up and he tells me, “I don’t like that one”, as he fought back tears and cleared his face of the water that splashed in his face all the way down.
Beyond being traumatized by the slide, we had fun in the Arcade with Grandma and Grandpa Kraus, sampled some of the ice-cream, played some pool-basketball and relaxed a little in the hot-tub. Liv loved the hot-tub.
Only staying one-night is tough, but for our two children being 1 1/2 and 4 years old, one night is plenty. Now we can’t wait for this summer and take full advantage of the Cedar Point and Soak City season passes that Nana and Papa gave us for Christmas.
