Jana's Radical Weblog 3

The softie

I am out of practice with blog writing! I forgot to mention Karsten's love for animals in my last post. This is a theme with him I've been taking notice of a lot lately.

Here he is in what appears to be a make out session with the neighbor's dog Skipper:

Britta didn't want anything to do with that:

Here's a friend he met during our visit to Joshua Tree:

They were instant friends

Now my parent's cat, Milo is staying with us for awhile and Karsten is taking great care of him. He was very concerned for Milo's well being. Makes me proud to be raising a compassionate little dude! Sorry folks, I couldn't find any Milo photos but I'm sure with Milo in our lives right now he'll be in some photos soon enough.

Good night!

Look who is 9!

Hello sadly neglected blog. We've had some birthdays around here that I'd like to commemorate, the first being this cutie pie's:

I've been really proud of my big guy this year. For the sake of preservation I am archiving the voice mail message still on my machine from the music teacher for when he taught the first grade music class (I won this at the school auction as he knew he'd love it).

"Hi, I'm the music teacher at the school and I wanted to say that when Karsten came in to the 1st grade class to teach it yesterday he did an outstanding job. It was absolutely delightful and the class really enjoyed him. I'm sure you heard that he and I talked last Friday about what he would do and he just carried it through so smoothly. I would say he's going to be a natural leader, even a teacher. He just did so well and I'm so happy. I just wanted you to know that. You can be really proud of your son. I'm glad for the opportunity for him to do that. Bye!"

He was also asked to co-MC the pinewood derby contest with his dad:

His car didn't fair so well and either did his bad jokes, but he didn't care as long as he had time on the mic.

The PTSA asked him to help MC the Family Bingo night as well (no photos as I was sick that night). I'd say for a second grader he's off to a great start as a spokesperson for something... say for Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Nintendo DS, Calvin and Hobbes or LEGOS. I'm inserting this photo

just to show he's more concerned with looking like Tony Hawk than being like Tony Hawk. To him, life is a stage. I told him I will always be his biggest fan. I love you Karsten!

Grass fed

Andy and I watched Food Inc a few nights ago so my next trip to the grocery store netted some new food products. Instead of wheat or corn tortillas I founds some gluten free rice tortillas. Karsten had recently had bean and cheese burritos at school so he was excited for burritos at home too.

But not Mom's burritos. "Why aren't these the same as the school burritos?"

I launched into a spiel about the craziness of government corn subsidies and the manufacturing of American food and let him know we're going to eat differently now.

"I just want to eat the food like they serve at school!" (In my opinion, the nastiest stuff ever.)

"I can't eat the food I want because of the government? Is this the president's fault?!"

Uh oh, what have I done? Raising an anti-government raving child is not what I had intended. I am going to try to keep him grass fed. It will be interesting to see how this goes down.

The Santa Chronoicles

photo.jpg, originally uploaded by B-TownMom.

"Mommy, that Santa has the wrong beard!" Well kids, mommy screwed up and took you out of school (thinking she was so organized) to see the black santa this year. That's right! There is a black Santa! "Why is there a black Santa?" Me, "Well, some of Santas, um, brothers, are black."

We all loved this Santa. He was wonderfully kind and looked awesome, aside from his fake-not-white beard.

Karsten asked for games for his Nintendo and everything Bakugan. Britta, darn her, asked Santa for a pink Nintendo DS, Littlest Pet Shop game and a doll.

To date we've gotten off cheap with Britta in comparison to her brother. That Thomas the Tank Engine phase set us back mucho dinero. And the video game phase is equally, if not more expensive. All of Britta's Webkinz and dolls that talk and pee don't add up to much.

So the big question is, do I buck up for the pink Nintendo DS? First of all, I don't think she really wants a Nintendo DS other than to impress her brother. And frankly, I am sick of all the electronics in this house (aside from my really super awesome electronics) so I'd rather not fork over the bucks for a pink DS.

Off I go to shopping. We'll see if I come back with that pink DS ...or just a shitload of Webkinz.

Almost two weeks of school down

I've been carrying my camera around with me everywhere. Everywhere. Everywhere except on Karsten's first day of school. Argh. Anyhoo, iphone camera to the rescue. Here he is finding his cubby. I think school is going well. Here's how I know: Me: How was school today? (I ask this every day.) K: Good! Me: Who'd you play with at recess? K: Everybody. Me: What'd you do at school? K: Stuff. By the end of last week I was too curious so Britta and I hit the cafeteria for lunch at the school for Field Observation. I discovered he did indeed play with everyone at recess. When Britta and I hit the play ground a girl was chasing Karsten. Oy. Tonight was the open house in which case I confirmed with the teacher that yes, Karsten is doing just fine at school. All is a go. (Although we do need to work out the kinks of getting him on the right bus on the right day. So far he's missed the bus twice.)

Whoa, it's magic

If I had know the wii has magic powers we may have gotten one sooner. Spell #1: I was making dinner tonight and Karsten wanted to play the wii. I told him if he put away all the toys he and his friend PJ got out he could play the wii. For the first time ever I didn't have to stand over him or set the timer. He even cleaned up his room without help from me. Spell #2: I put a sweet potato fry on Karsten's plate. "You have to eat at least one bite." There was a "no way, no how" moment that got turned around once I said, "no wii." "Ooooookaaaaaaaaaaaay." Really? Really? Magic.

Hello, my name is Mom and I think my child is an addict...

...a video game addict. Karsten will wake up early to boot up a computer to fire up video games. The first thing he says when he comes home from school is "can I play on the computer?" As someone who never got past level 1 on Donkey Kong, I don't get it. One thing I have learned is to use it to my advantage. Homework not done? Can't play on the computer. See those toys on the floor? Sorry, no computer. I found the best parenting carrot in the world. We still don't have any video game consoles besides the Leapster (which I can highly recommend BTW). But I think we'll be caving in the next few years... Wii tennis anyone?

Fall of 6 and 3

I was so flippin' cold today it seems like it's gotta be winter already.
This fall I realized my life had suddenly gotten easier. The kids both started school which means for the first time in six years of motherhood I could have a bit of time for myself. Britta now has friends and even has had two play dates with her preschool friends. So far no one has invited her over yet but I'm waiting for that very special moment. I'm wondering if I would need to stay and wait before I leave before she feels comfortable with me gone. Karsten never even glanced behind him when I'd drop him off at a new house. With Britta it may be a different story but that's okay. As a mom it is nice to feel needed on occasion. The $15 or so I spent on Karsten's Halloween costume has been worth every penny. Spidey makes an appearance almost daily at our house. I should have bought every super hero costume I could find. Also Karsten has started drawing his own comics. He has created Spider Cat, theme song and all. Today he told Andy, "I'm going to stay in all of my recesses at school so I can draw comics. I want to be famous!" Andy said, "Wanting to be famous is nice and all but I think it is a good idea for you to run around too." I'll have to upload one of the Spidey Cat comics for oogling.

pizza politics

Tonight at the pizza parlor Karsten suddenly shouts out, "George W. Bush!" Me: "What?" Karsten: "He is the worst president EVER!" He shouts this very loudly in the restaurant. I look around, don't see any glaring Republicans so I prod. Me: "Why?" K: "He spent all our money! He started a war and the soliders haven't eaten for days." This is some of the rhetoric I decided was worth teaching Karsten (although I don't recall mentioning soliders not eating for days but I do like the drama it conjures). I started planting these ideas in his head during a car ride a few weeks ago and am giddy they are sticking with my 6-year-old. Tonight I tried adding more to his spiel, using words like "unconstitutional" and "preemptive" but he just looked at me. Andy: "Don't you want the grandparents to keep babysitting? You'd better not teach him these things." I'll consider it. That would suck if the grandparents didn't want to babysit their liberal six-year old grandson. I wonder had my dad preached more trickle-down economics while I was a wee one would he have turned me right-winged? I mean seriously, I did grow up during The Royal Reagan Administration and look how I still turned out. I see missed opportunity on his part for sure. There's no hope for me now, but I do see bright and liberal futures for my kids... or will my liberal brainwashing turn them into rebel republicans? Update: I just saw this in the NYTimes and I want to cry. The kids are our future. (via Andrej)

The Spanish Restaurant

The fridge was nearing empty so it was a good night for Spanish tapas -- my euphemism for any random thing I can find in our fridge cutely displayed on non-breakable platters. I tried teaching Karsten some Spanish words and showing him where Spain is on the map. We found some spanish easy listening music on Pandora. Next thing I knew Karsten had transformed our couch/his fort into a Spanish restaurant. He created this sign so we could find our way to the "restaurant"



He put a towel over his arm and took our dinner orders. It was a fun family night.