1-2-3, We’re on TV!

Carina doing her interview

The kids and I have been using a discipline method called 1-2-3 Magic, which was recommended to me by my friend Janet.  It’s been a great tool in our house to keep everyone calm and sane.  My friend Monika, who works at the local  THV Channel 11 station, recently started using 1-2-3 Magic with her son, and was so impressed that she decided to do a news segment on it.  Well, guess who got to be in the b-roll footage?  Carina even got to do her first TV interview with a mic pack and everything!  Here’s a link to the story with video and pictures:

http://www.todaysthv.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=98001&catid=2

Creek’s Up!

Because of Callen’s penicillin reaction, we left a day late to go to Grandma and Papa’s house.  As we were packing up to head out on Thursday morning, there was something in the back yard that was making me a little nervous…A rapidly rising river!

This is what our creek normally looks like:

Luckily the water didn’t rise much higher than what you see in the first picture.  It had a lot further to go before it made it to our house, but that was a lot of water!  When we got to Branson, we were watching the weather channel and they said that Little Rock had received a record 81 inches of rain in 2009.  As our neighbor, Diane, said, “That’s why we know we’ll never have neighbors behind us!”

Oh Penicillin, How Itchy are Thy Blotches

Today we learned that Callen is allergic to Penicillin.  Poor guy.

Spotty Callen

We learned this through a series of unfortunate events.  First, Callen had an ear infection in his left ear that perforated his ear drum and caused a lot of drainage.  Otherwise, I would never have known he had the infection.  After 10 days of antibiotic, we went back to the doctor for a follow-up and learned that he had an infection in both ears.  7 days into that antibiotic, he woke up looking like this.

So, now he’s on a new antibiotic for his ear infection (sans penicillin), plus a steroid to reduce the rash, plus an antihistamine to help with the itching.  The rash could take 5-6 days to go away, so we’re going to have interesting Christmas pictures this year!

An Early Christmas

Because we traveled East for Thanksgiving this year, we spent Christmas with Grandma and Papa in Branson.  We still wanted to do Christmas at our house, though, so we did a few nights early.  Carina was convinced she must have been extra good this year to have had Santa visit her both at home AND at Grandma’s house.

So, the night Santa was going to visit us, Daddy helped Carina put out milk and cookies for santa, and carrot for the reindeer, of course.  (She doesn’t normally wear her brother’s pajamas to bed, but she was just in the mood…)

In the morning it was exciting to watch the kids inventory their stockings…

Eat the candy canes that Santa left on the tree…

And open those exciting presents that Santa left under the tree!

Fun at the Skatium

For the past two months, the kids and I have taken advantage of the “Moms and Tots: Everything on Wheels” session at the local skating rink, called the Skatium.  This session takes place every third friday from 10am to 12, and kids are allowed to bring bikes, scooters, skates, and push toys to ride around the rink.  It’s a great way to get the wiggles out when it’s cold, and it’s easy for me to watch both kids in the wide open, yet walled-in space.

Here are a couple videos of two of their favorite things at the Skatium:

First, chasing the chase light:

Second, chasing Mommy!

Winter at the Zoo

One of the things that I love about living in Little Rock is the (relatively) mild winter weather.  We’ve had plenty of 50 and 60 degree days to provide salvation between the days when it is too cold to get outside.  On these nicer days, we’ve taken advantage of our zoo membership to visit our animal friends at the Little Rock Zoo.  In addition to getting out of the house, there are other advantages to visiting the zoo in the winter.  First, you practically have the place to yourself.  Last time we were there, we only saw two other families (not counting the silverbacks, who put on quite a show for us).  This means that I can let the kids out of the stroller to wander a bit without worrying about them getting lost in the crowd or tripping up other visitors.  Second, on Mondays and Tuesdays during the winter, the carousel, train, and concession stands are not open.  Although we still go and see the train, I get far less argument and begging about riding the train, because it’s fairly obvious that it is not running.  And third, it seems that we get a lot more up-close and personal interactions with the animals – especially the lorikeets, who have always loved Carina.

Carina having a chat with a lorikeet

Not so happy about sharing the gorilla

The zoo also has a great little playground that the kids love to visit (right next to the train and the kids’ “farm” zoo), especially when they have it all to themselves.

For those of you who live in the Central Arkansas area, the Little Rock Zoo has their memberships on sale half price (about $45 for a family) this month!  Definitely a great investment with a great savings!

Valuable Art

Carina’s Art is always priceless in my eyes.  Recently, she finished an art piece that’s actually worth $$.  She colored and glued away on her Boxtops for Education worksheet, and with the 26 boxtop coupons that are now glued to it, it is worth a cool $2.60.  I posted about the Boxtops program over on my other blog if you want to know more. I know she’ll be really proud when we turn it in at the local elementary.

Callen likes to make priceless and expensive art too.  He paints himself (priceless) with lotion (expensive).

A Visit to Santa’s Workshop

On December 12th Santa set up his workshop in our neighborhood!  Carina and Callen were very happy to see him, but were a little tentative about sitting on his lap.

Carina had fun making crafts while Callen zeroed in on some chocolate covered pretzel sticks and the marshmallows that were intended for hot chocolate.  Carina was also very excited about reading stories with Santa’s elf, but not so thrilled when Callen came to join her.

Making Mommy’s Heart Sing

October and November Art

Some of the art has been through rough times this month.  Callen managed to get his hot little hands on a step stool, and stepped right up to an art-ripping escapade!  You also might notice that our wall in the hall is in need of a paint job.  Here are the favorites:

Carina's Farm Animals

Craig asked her to draw a farm, and this is what she came up with.  Immediately after showing it to me, she wadded it up and stuffed it in her art backpack.  Yikes!

Scribbles on Torn Plate

I believe this is the first appearance of Callen art on the Wall in the Hall.  As you can see, he’s a big fan of tearing art.  He’s been scribbling for a while, but this was his true art piece, done at the last library storytime we attended before I decided that Callen was too wild and crazy for a 45 minute storytime.

Smelly Art

This one cracks me up.  Apparently the kids at PDO were coloring with smelly markers, and then the teachers would label each color with what it smelled like, according to the child.  So, orange smells, well, orange.