Taking the Scenic Route

Zane and Zora have been at odds lately. Zora is suddenly very interested in the computer, so I hook her up with Noggin or Disney online. Zane kept trying to shut it off, which of course caused Zora to scream like crazy. Every time I would step away (my computer is near the kitchen so I can watch her play while I am doing dishes or working in there), and Zane kept shutting it off. I started realizing after a while that it he wasn’t trying to be mean, it seemed almost driven, from an uncontrollable place inside him, to close up her windows.

I could not for the life of me figure out what was going on, until later in the day when I was opening up a window for her on Zach’s computer. Suddenly, a seemingly unrelated outburst came to mind. Zane had yelled, in the middle of doing something totally unrelated, something that sounded like “FOX” several times. I couldn’t figure out what he wanted until hours later when I was looking at Zach’s desktop and realized that I tend to automatically open everything in IE (because one of my message boards doesn’t come up on any other browser), and Zach tends to open everything in Mozilla Firefox, which has a fox as the desktop icon.

So, I tested my new theory. I closed all the windows in IE and opened up her Noggin or Disney in Firefox and walked away. Low and behold, when he went and looked over her shoulder this time, he just watched a bit and went back to what he was doing.

Our 6 year old hates Internet Explorer and loves Mozilla Firefox. I think he is now an official nerd.

Zane wanted to play with the camera. We first tried to give him the old camera, but he kept putting his fingers over the lense, so we let him use the good camera.

Please ignore the lawn. Before Zach mowed it like a normal person, he mowed a spiral path/maze into the lawn. Our landlord would be mortified, but Zane adores mazes and will spend a while out there navigating it.

behind the scenes:

We’ve been poor for a long time, so all the tips floating around on how to cut the budget have me amused, to say the least. (because we don’t have most of the luxuries they advise cutting anyway). However, I do have a pretty good list of links to help you discover your inner cheapness frugalness.

For a lot of cheap recipes and other advice, the Hillbilly Housewife is one of the best links out there.

Another good article from Zen Habits. I actually browse this blog every so often because it just has some neat ideas.

And, no frugal list would be complete with a link to Tightwad Gazette. You could buy the books, but that would sort of miss the point, wouldn’t it. (if you are one of those organized people that actually are able to remember to return the books on time and not incur embarrassing fines, they usually have the books at the library too)

I just reconnected with an online friend. We already had one coincidence going…our dd’s were born a day apart from each other, both almost the exact same amount early (I am thinking we even had the same due date, but don’t trust my memory on that one). She is due with her second, a boy, and he is due the the same day as Zane. (but Zane was born a day early) Sort of neat.

If you are part of a listserv (or yahoo group, or meetup.com, etc), on subjects like homeschooling and autism and local meet-at-the-park type groups, please leave your nasty, bigoted, racist smear campaigns OFF THE LIST.

Usually this isn’t too much of an issue, but today almost EVERY. SINGLE. ONE of my groups had some sort of propaganda on it. If I want to see a bunch of frenzied, lying spin doctors, I have my own tv and I am pretty sure it has the Fox channel on it already. I also have a computer and can access that kind of information myself if I feel like doing damage to my blood pressure. However, I am really, REALLY trying not to get to wound up in politics this season and it is very hard when I have it blasted in my face on my nice little homeschool and autism groups.

And seriously, if you honestly think your party is being reasonable, don’t you think a reasonable argument or statement is going to go a lot farther than a bunch of screaming dittoheads?

Stop the madness! I prefer that you use some critical thinking skills when you look at the candidates, and I can understand and respect that for some people every election is a one issue election (like serious anti-choice people), but if you are going to criticize a candidate at least do so truthfully and in an appropriate forum.

Having a different opinion is fine. Using hate, xenophobia, racial slurs, and blatent lies because you think the end justifies the means is not okay.

Today the number of days Zach and I have been parents is equal to the the amount of time we spent dealing with infertility. (if you only count the amount of time we were actively trying to have kids and not all of the years before where I was working just to maintain fertility…but our kids will almost be out of the house before I hit that date, so let’s ignore that for now. lol)

I am so thankful to finally hit this turning point. I feel so fortunate to be blessed with my great kiddos.

Since the TV I like is generally not kid friendly (big fan of shows like Law & Order, CSI & NCIS), we have had to look elsewhere for TV we can watch with the kids around.

I really am not a fan of most “reality” TV. I never got into Survivor, and didn’t even bother with Big Brother because it just seemed annoying to watch. I enjoy the talent shows enough to tune in when I think about it, especially the dance oriented shows, but it has been a while since there was a well written show that was family friendly, until now.

I have discovered a sitcom worth watching. It is called “Big Bang Theory“, and is sort of like a nerdy version of Friends. (Even the theme song is pretty neat) Zach and I both laugh through the whole show. It is smart, funny, and makes so many geeky references it has you astonished at the writer’s breadth of geeky knowledge. One of the main guys on the show is the actor who played “David” on Rosanne. Sarah Gilbert, who played “Darlene” on Rosanne, is also a reaccuring character…except in this show, they both have PhDs in Physics. Our favorite character on the show is “Sheldon”, although all of the characters are good. Sheldon, however, is a work of genius and exemplifies every wonderfully nerdy characterstic out there.

Right after that show is “How I Met Your Mother”, which is also pretty decent, but doesn’t hit our funny bone as much. It is sort of cool to see Neil Patrick Harris all grown up in another role though, especially one so different from Doogie.

For those of you that enjoy Star Wars, there is a new series on the Cartoon Network that is an all-animation version of Star Wars, and takes place during the Clone Wars. (between movies 2 & 3). It seems pretty cool so far, but they are just getting started.

This Saturday’s theme was “Trucks”. Both kids had fun. They painted pictures using little trucks as “paintbrushes” (the pictures were the tire marks in paint), they built little trucks, they had a snack, they played with moon sand, and there were a bunch of trucks and vehicles to play with. Zora lost it when circle time came, but Zane did well. He participated in a version of “The Wheels on the Trucks go round and round” and sat nicely while she talked about trucks and read a story.

The class ended up with the same thing they did last week, which I think might be how they always end the class…they go to another part of the building that has a historic carved carousel with all sorts of different animals to ride a round. Last week Zane wanted to be on the one unmoving animal (the Lion), but this week he ran to the horse. Zora wanted the giant turkey, and throughout the ride pet the turkey and said “nice tuw-kee”.

Here is the little trucks that they made (with Daddy’s help, one at a time). Zane’s has the windows drawn on, Zora’s had the bed colored in.

After the class, we planned on spending the afternoon in the rest of the museum messing around. It ended up only being for an hour because Zora just could not handle it. But, for a while we had a good time.

This water table shows how impediments alter water currents. Zane has liked this before, but playing with a bunch of other kids kept him far more interested in it because everybody had a hand in changing the way the balls flowed down the maze.

Zach showed Zora how to do a leaf rubbing. She didn’t really “get” it, but she had fun coloring for a minute.

They had a new exhibit on poop. It was pretty cool. Zane actually was able to match the various poop with the animals successfully.

Here he is playing the funniest educational game I think I have seen. It is a dung beetle derby. You roll the giant ball of “dung” and it moves your beetle up the hill, trying to shove the ball of dung up to the top. He was very impressed. lol.

Zora liked the frogs in the cave. As she was getting ready to leave the area, she declared the frogs “cute”, and then proceeded to kiss the window right where the frog was *shudder*

This was a part of the Jane Goodall exhibit. Zane thought the chimp nest was pretty cool.

I wish the shot I took right before this came out. Zane was riding the horse so hard I was scared he was going to knock himself out as the head of the horse came back. Zora saw him riding and ran, both arms up in the air, yelling “horsey” with glee as she clammored on her steed.

Through the entire museum, Zora had increasingly bad meltdowns at each stop. We decided to cut the trip short, skip the trip to the “Touch a Truck” kid’s event at the stadium, and just go home. It turned out to be a good thing because about 20 minutes after we got home an intestinal thing hit me full force.

I was so dissapointed. I had a wedding I really wanted to go to tonight, but there was no way I was going with Zora having such a hard time (not sure if she is getting sick, but she does sound like she has some sinus thing going on) and me not sure if I could be that far away from a bathroom. Not the way I wanted to end the day, I tell ya.

From the blog Elvis Sightings (a blog I added to my blogroll after discovering), there is another review written by the dad of the blogger who also saw the performance I did.

From the local paper, the Wichita Eagle from September 18 & September 19