Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Really, we never should have gone to the mall playground

That should go without saying. But dude. You guys. We were so farking bored by 3:30.

Yep. He's wearing underpants on his head. Watcha going to do about it?

Still wearing them. Told ya we were bored.

The mall playground, though? NOT A GOOD IDEA. There were tons of big kids there-- kids way bigger than the height limit that is clearly posted outside the germ-infested playground area. Which? My bad for not getting there until 4-- Jack couldn't wake his lazy little self up from nap before then. My heart stopped for a moment when I couldn't find Harry, but I discovered him behind this truck/slide thing and pulled him away back to the big plastic flower (WTF??) that Jack and I were playing on. I was like, "Harry, why didn't you answer me?" and he was all, "Sorry. I was watching that little girl throw up." I did a double take and then slipped behind the truck to check it out-- yep. Puke.

We left.

And told a mall security officer about the --er-- spill. He seemed waaaaaay bummed. Probably because he had to clean it up.

But seriously, it was cold and yucky out today, and I am so sick of getting everybody all bundled up and then playing outside for like 4 minutes before someone craps himself or someone else has to pee. Before we decided to put our swine flu vaccines to the test at the mall, we exhausted our favorite activities.

Play Doh for a long time.

Harry took a call on the gross brown squishy phone

Jack put his sock in his spaghetti maker

Harry played Star Wars Legos

and Operation

I asked his teachers how I could help him learn to write, and they said not to push writing per se but to instead focus on his fine motor skills. Hence the Legos and the Operation. We are thinking the Easter Bunny will bring him a Lite Brite, but can you guys think of other fine motor games/activites we could try?

Ooh! I also made my favorite Asian chicken salad for dinner, and it was so pretty I took some pictures, and in the vein of Misty and Virginia, I'll show you how I make it.

Okay, first, blanch some snow peas and throw them in a bowl

Next wash and assemble the other veggies: pepper, cucumber (which I usually don't peel, but this is a-- gasp-- non-organic cucumber because the organic ones were $3.69 each and MUSHY, which was the real deal-breaker, so I peeled my poison one, hoping that the pesticides went down my kitchen drain), green onions, clementines, a few carrots to shred on top, and tomatoes.

And lettuce. I like red leaf.

Oh yeah. The chicken. These are some flavored breasts from the butcher-- parmesan, I think-- the flavor doesn't matter to me, just something subtle. This chicken is not organic, but it is local. I baked them in a covered dish for an hour and twenty-ish on 375

Isn't it pretty when it's all done?

I put a few dried chow mein noodles and some almond slivers on mine. We like TJ's spicy peanut dressing, too. To keep it low cal, though, we use these things in moderation, and we never dress the whole salad; we just add our dressing at the table, and I measure mine because I hate diet dressings, so I just use a teeny bit of the real thing.

I have no conclusion for this rambling. I'd like to tie it all together, but I am about to enjoy a Tanqueray and tonic and the rest of NBC's awful Olympic coverage. Oh-- the fine motor skills? Any suggestions for fun activities to strengthen them?

12 comments:

  1. Still laughing at "Sorry. I was watching that little girl throw up."

    No idea for the motor skills but I hear you on the boredom.

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  2. I was hella scared of Operation when I was little. I remember sobbing at the noise it made. Life-scarring, I tell you.

    You're kicking it old school with Lite Brite?! That is awesome.

    Jack's classroom has a little activity where they pick mini fuzzy pompons up with a tweezer and put then in a cup. Great for the fine motor.

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  3. We had a game called Pick Up Sticks when I was a kid. Which, now that I think about it, was horribly unsafe... Maybe Barrel of Monkeys? Your guys might be old enough.

    Totally with Amy here - Operation traumatized me.

    The chicken salad looks de-LISH, and what luck! I've got some snap peas in the fridge I need to eat soon.

    Thank you for the link! :)

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  4. that salad looks fabulous!

    Lite Brite is awesome!! definitely the tweezers and little pom-poms. We've done that before and its hilarious.

    I cannot get over the fact that YOU had to tell the security guard about the puke. Where the eff was the kid's mother?!

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  5. Yum. I am remembering your salad for later. Mmm...

    My suggestions for fine motor activities:
    Scissors
    Anything using his pincer grasp (tweezers, chopsticks, etc.) to pick things up.
    Coloring and painting.
    Lite Brite sounds awesome!

    I won't lie, I kind of puked a little about that girl puking in the corner. Sad.

    thanks for the link!!!

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  6. You eat way to healthy for me. That isn't to say we eat junk foot, but I am jsut not good at keeping fresh vegetables int eh fridge!

    And the puke - yeah, I would have puked right along with the girl probably. Hopefully it didn't traumatized you too much!

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  7. I have no idea what it means to blanch pea pods.

    Explain? Because that salad looks yummy and I want to eat it. Do you get your chicken in an actual butcher shop or like, at the store? I gotta do that.

    I HATED Operation too. Scared the poo outta me and my brother would hit my arm so I'd mess up and that made it even worse. Sucker.

    Oh, I've got one that often wears underwear on his head. Just wait till he discovers one of your bras laying around.

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  8. Beans. And various things to pick them up with and put them in...like tweezers, measuring cups/spoons, giant cups, regular spoons, bowls. Throw in some rice and have him separate them. Then go BONKERS because of all the rice and beans on the floor. That's what I do. :)

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  10. **sorry I had to remove the previous comment. I had a pretty embarassing typo in it :)

    OMG....our kids are exactly the same. The girls busted out a playdoh cell phone the other day. They also made little laptops and Bella e-mailed me something. What are we doing to our kids? On a sidenote, there is an AWESOME application for the iphone called iwritewords. And it's a fun little tracing game and I swear it has helped Bella write better. Check it out...or actually I can show you this weekend.

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  11. Somehow the word farking seems even more dirty than the actual curse word. Fine motor skills: I know all about this, since my son, 5 now, STILL holds his pencil with a hamhand. We have totally given up and he seems ok but we did things like: sewing, lacing cards, peg games, zippers, and even got these teeny tiny short markers on ebay that you cannot POSSIBLY hold with your fist (unless you are my son, who finds a way).

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  12. The underwear on the head thing is classic. Somehow I don't think it would be quite as cute if I were to talk around with underwear on my head!

    Nell

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