Jan 8, 2018 | Uncategorized
I’ll be the first to admit that some of the movies that are produced can have more of an effect on children than I ever imagined. I have watched my fair share of children’s movies because the girls will watch them not just once….but like 1000 times (or more). The newer movies seem to have some underlying messages that I believed were more for the parents benefit and chuckles and would pass over such young developing minds.
Interestingly, I found that children actually can and do grasp some of the ideas that are brought up in these movies. Concepts that I would think they would not be aware of in the first place. The ability for young children to pick up on these ideas can be pretty impressive as I saw with Milana just the other day.
I was kind of bummed that Milana’s birthday is two weeks beyond the date set by the school board of Sept 1. This means that she will be held back a year from where I believe where she belongs. She turned 5 in 2017 but was held in preschool. If she was born August 31, she would have been in kindergarten. To get her prepped for next year, me and Mary have been working with her on reading. The books that I use are from Mia’s kindergarten class. She is doing a great job on them and more impressive is that she is able to comprehend what is being talked about in the book based upon questions at the end of each one.
How does this relate back to Zootopia you might ask? It’s all about her ability to perceive what is occurring in the story. More importantly, she understands one of the underlying messages about bias to the different animals within the Zootopia universe. Interestingly, her understanding and questioning of bias occurred prior to the movie. She saw the firefighting profession as one dominated by men. I told her that she could do anything that she wanted to do. I encourage all my girls to do this. I think it is important for them to pave their own ways and what makes them happy.
In Zootopia, the main character a bunny named Judy Hopps, is in the law enforcement field. She is treated differently due to her sex. The other animals talk to her differently almost as if she is inferior and cannot handle the job as a law enforcement officer. The girls watch this over and over because they enjoy the different animals. What’s more important is that we have lightly discussed the issue with the girls to see their level of understanding. They see Mary and are proud that she is in Judy Hopps spot but Mary has provided a strong foundation for the girls to understand that the girls can be whatever they want to be. What it takes is practice and hard work. Those two things will be repeated to them regularly so that they make the choice to best suit them.
On a lighter note, as of right now, Mia wants to be a “hair cutter”, a brain doctor, a police officer and a firefighter. Milana wants to be a brain doctor. Bella has decided that she wants to be a priest. Each of these makes me proud as i know that whatever occupation they choose, it will be the perfect fit for them.
Jan 6, 2018 | Uncategorized
Milana with Great Teeth
I am always excited to see how the girls do with out in public when we go places. Too see their reactions can be quite priceless although I sometimes dread what might come out of their innocent little mouths at the wrong times. Needless to say, we were planning a family excursion to the dentist’s office. WE LOVE OUR DENTIST!
I might be biased because our dentist Bryan Cichon from Randall Ridge Dental in St. Charles is my cousin. I have been going to him for years now and would never thinking of changing for a variety of reasons beyond any family relationship. Interestingly, it is a 40 min drive to get there but time is definitely not a deciding factor when you get quality for the kids!
Reasons for the Dentist Love
First, he is a great person outside of being our dentist. He is very kind and caring towards the whole family. He makes it a pleasant experience even when you have three different personalities that are battling for attention. Second, he makes the girls feel comfortable in the chair. They joke with him and he has a great time with them. This might be because he also has kids and knows how to interact with my girls. It just makes it easier when they are excited to go and see him because of the experience he provides them. They always will ask when they are going to see Cousin Bryan the Dentist. Last, he makes me comfortable which is not an easy feat. I stopped going to the dentist for about 13 years because I HATED every single one that I went too. I never had a good experience with them and swore I would just stay away. My plan was to have all my teeth ripped out out when they rotted and replace them with some bad ass implants that get screwed in…Welcome awesome white fake teeth. Dr. Bryan made sure that I did not have to go through the physical torture or expense of doing this. He has made me a believer in dentists once more.
Mia Getting Her Teeth Checked
Dr. Bryan has two dental hygienists that were working that day. Unfortunately, with three girls the math did not make sense. All I heard for the 40 min trip was a battle of who was going to go first. I tried to explain to the girls that I was not going to make the decision. We would go in the order called. This seemed to appease them as trying to get on my good side would not do them any benefit. Mia was the first in the chair. I snuck in to get her picture in the chair which she was more than willing to stop her chatter and do an “action pose” for me. I just felt bad for Dr. Bryan who had to listen to her chatting up a storm.
I thought it would go in order of age…and so did Milana. Well talk about monkey wrench – Bella was called second. Immediately, I saw Milana’s face drop and she started to cry. She was crying because she was not going into the dentist’s chair. I flashed back to the moment that I DREADED my moment in the chair. I would have happily traded spots with the other kids within the room. I would have been happy to say to the dentist, “Yeah, take the other kid there….I’ll just wait”. Obviously, Milana did not get that gene of dentist dislike….more likely because Dr. Bryan is awesome with the girls. Thankfully, Maureen (dental hygienist) promised Milana that it would change next time. I again went into the room with Bella to get a picture. Stubborn little monster would not even give me a smile.
Bella – Pre Puke!
Just too cool for an action shot at the dentist.
Jan 4, 2018 | Uncategorized
Art has always been something that the girls want to do. While art seems to be disappearing from the classrooms as schools find it not important, I think it is important an element of expression for the girls. I want to see what they are picturing in their heads. They enjoy spending time doing different techniques that they have seen or done in other places.
It seems every place that I go with them, art plays a role. For instance, I took them to Moretti’s restaurant. The host provides them with a menu and 3-4 crayons. It keeps them busy for about 10 minutes before they are ready to move on to something else. I try and go to the gym as much as I can. When the girls come along, they are surely doing art for a period of time there as well. We go to the Discovery Center….a ton of art projects are made during our short time there. This past time, I took the girls and a couple of their friends only to find that my hoodie pocket was filled with their “art”.
While I like giving the girls the opportunity to express their art, I am finding that with every outing I have at least 3-4 pieces of art per person. To make matters worse, I converted one of the rooms downstairs into an “art room”. All the kids stuff is now downstairs “contained” to one room. The markers, the crayons, the pom poms, pipe cleaners and everything else known to man. While this was a great idea, I now have tripled the output of my young picassos. What was once done only outside the house is not being done inside the art laboratory. Don’t get me wrong I do love the work that they do but I am finding it to be burdensome of what to do with it.
My knee jerk reaction was to initially save all of it. The girls made it for a reason and it was important. Two words: NOT POSSIBLE! It started becoming ridiculous to try and keep the lid on all the new things that were being produced. Okay it was time for a change so I went to the opposite direction. I started throwing it all out! I can see that look of disgust on your faces of how bad I am for doing this to their art. Well the bottom line is that they are mega producers and even the recycling bin was feeling overworked and underpaid. I explained to the girls that the garbage man was a connoisseur of fine art and he loved keeping all of their stuff.
Okay…Okay….So I felt bad about having only the garbage man being excited about his weekly “haul” of fine art. I came up with a new plan which appears to be working okay for the last couple of days: computer program. While I realize that they are not getting glue and glitter and all the other junk all over….Wait a minute not such a bad thing so far! There is a learning curve with the program but they are doing basic art by using it right now which is nice. I then let them save it to their own folders so they can “enjoy” it as many times as they want. I have also imposed a new rule that they can keep 10 pieces of art which I will plaster on the walls of the art room. If they want to keep a piece of art, they have to remove one of the 10 that exists on the wall. PURE GENIUS!
I have found something that might fix the load of guilt that I feel throwing their art work away. We will see what happens. This all could implode and my house may again become a disaster of artwork at every turn. Only time will tell.
Any thoughts on what the best way to deal with the mountain of art that you have in your house? Let me know below!
Jan 1, 2018 | Uncategorized
So how did this fire dad live it up on the introduction to 2018? I worked at the police department! My thoughts as I signed up for it were to have a quiet night as most people have heard of a thing called a taxi or a service like Lyft or Uber. For the most part, I was spot on. It was relatively quiet until we got reports of a accident with injuries on Route 59. Thankfully, no one was seriously injured in the three car accident with seven (7) occupants. That pretty much made up my night including going beyond the dropping of the ball in Times Square. Finally got home and went to bed about 0245. It didn’t take long until I was out.
Thankfully, the kids kept the noise down to a low roar until I fully woke up about 0900. For some reason, I thought what a good idea it would be to make some food for the week. Well considering, I seem to only make big batches (thanks fire service), I started with the vegetarian enchiladas found here:
Just full disclosure, I do modify (add/delete) things from recipes but this is the base. Needless to say, the standard recipe will definitely be a great but adding things sure can make it even that much better. For starters, I dice up sweet potato as one of the ingredients that is not listed. I add more spices based upon how it is tasting. One of these days I might just measure it to make a recipe of my own that you might enjoy. After it was said and done, I had three huge trays of enchiladas for the family. It was Milana approved, so you know I got it right this time!
I could have stopped there but I had a helper that wanted to give me an assist in the kitchen. I saw that we have about 7 green peppers that looked like they were a little overripe so I figured that they need to be cooked. Mary had sent me a recipe for vegetarian stuffed peppers that morning so I figured we would give it a go.
Mia helped pouring two cups of quinoa into boiling water. While that was cooking, she started “painting” all the green peppers with sunflower oil. After she was done with that she helped pour the black beans and corn into a bowl and put a cup or two of Costco salsa to the mix. She mixed it all up for me. Might have mushed the black beans a little but it will all be good. After the quinoa was done, Mia helped by mixing all the items together. She wanted to stuff the peppers but it was time for her nap. Needless to say, I wanted to get them cooking as the enchiladas were done. I filled and cooked them while the girls slept. It was probably better that I did as there was a big mess from me “carefully” spooning the stuff into the peppers. We had 12 halves since the girls wanted to eat some green peppers as a treat before bed.
What I was most proud of is that all three girls tried all the food at dinner time. The enchiladas were a hit! I would give them a 10 out of 10 for taste. The girls agreed and ate all of those. The stuff peppers were about a 6 or a 7 out of 10. They seemed kind of bland. I should have known better based upon the ingredients. I will try them again but I will give them the fire dads extra ounce of love next time. The bottom line is that it was a fun experience working with the girls on New Years to make some family food!
