A Chalkboard in the Hall

This simple project  has been on my to-do list for years.

And then, moments after I hung it on the wall, Ruben wrote his first sentence.

I bought a piece of decorative molding that had a ledge big enough for holding chalk and catching dust.  I rubbed some mineral oil on it, let it dry, and screwed it directly into the wall studs.

I painted a thin sheet of MDF with chalkboard paint (three coats with a smooth foam roller, and light sanding after each coat with 250 grit sandpaper).  I waited three days and then "seasoned" it by rubbing it all over with the side of a piece of chalk and then washing it.  I mounted it on the wall with drywall screws and finishing washers.

It has seen a lot of action all week.  Julio has become an expert at drawing 7 and 8-pointed stars.  What?  Your two-year-old can't draw an 8-pointed star?

I'm kidding, of course!  He just loves scribbling on everyone else's drawings.  And we all love this new chalkboard.

Evidence

Things you would never see on my sideboard before I had kids:

A.  Monsters, bats and superheroes
B.  Broken glass
C.  Collectible figurines
D.  Jigsaw puzzles
E.  Piles of bills

Front Tooth

It was a happy day when, after weeks and weeks of wiggling, it finally came out.

Diego would like to add:  "When I lose a tooth, I feel surprised, happy and glad.  It feels like an upside-down crevice when I put my tongue in the gap if it's one of the top teeth that's in the middle."

Quesadilla of the Woods

After the first rains of October, these enormous brilliant yellow Laetiporus fungi popped up here and there around Los Angeles.  I remember seeing one growing on this same tree last fall, and there were dozens of them on a block near our house last year.

Apparently, they are edible, and according to this, they taste like chicken.  (Note to my mother: I am NOT going to eat this.)  It may be delicious, but in addition to "Chicken Fungus" and "Sulfur Shelf," another of its thoroughly unappetizing common names is "Quesadilla of the Woods." 

Is Halloween Tomorrow?

As we went outside to carve our pumpkin back in 2008, a then four-year-old Diego said, "I've been wanting to do this ever since last Halloween, and as soon as we're done I'm going to want to do it again next year!"

What is it about Halloween?  It seems like it has constantly been Halloween around here for years... the daily costumes, the obsessions with monsters, skeletons and candy.  But it's October now, and the rest of the city has finally caught up with us.  The boys want to decorate our front yard.

This guy's been on our front window for a month already, but he'll have some spooky company soon!

A Rabbit, A Lion, A Man with a Beard...

Fighting!

The other day, I stopped a very angry Julio from pinching Ruben by asking him to draw a picture of what he was feeling.  He looked at the paper and crayons and then asked me to draw it for him.  Before I could answer, Ruben eagerly offered to help, and the two of them sat down on the floor to make this:

Of course, I love this drawing.  Isn't it expressive?  Julio drew the little dark cloud on the left, and Ruben made all of the faces.  That is Julio on the left with his arm out trying to pinch.  Ruben is at the top, and Diego on the lower right.  Julio sure looks mad, and it was a pleasure watching Ruben draw him, as Ruben kept looking up at Julio's face to get the details right.  It's on an 18"x 24" paper, and was done with those wonderful beeswax block crayons.

I love the actual fighting a bit less.  Over the past few months, they've had a lot of time to practice getting along with each other (including learning some shockingly colorful insults and hand gestures).  I think they resolve their frequent conflicts more quickly now than they did in the beginning of the summer, and they don't always need my help to work things out, but my boys are LOUD and physical and expressive, and right now I'm ready for some quiet. 

Summer vacation is almost over, and very soon we will not be spending all day together.  In spite of the fighting, I think I'll miss it.

Locks and Keys and Canada

Many years ago, I gave a presentation about a children's book to a class of second graders in northern California.  At the end of my talk, I asked the kids, "Do you have any questions?"  Half a dozen eager hands shot up, and the girl that I called on breathlessly asked, "Have you ever been to CANADA?"

I had asked a bunch of seven-year-olds if they had any questions.  Of course, they had questions!  As clever as those kids were, they hardly knew anything.  It didn't matter that Canada had absolutely nothing to do with my book and that I had only spent two hours once upon a time in the airport in Calgary, they were amazed.  We talked about Canada for twenty minutes!

I'm telling you this story because sometimes I need to remind myself that the most mundane things are often completely new to kids.  If your house is like ours, you probably even have lots of boring things in your closet or garage that would be fascinating and special to kids.

These locks were perfect for Ruben.  How on earth did we have so many kinds of locks in our hall closet?  There was a combination, a u-lock, padlocks in many sizes, and an old deadbolt with two cylinders.

 
I will look around for more accidental collections like this in our house.  Maybe we'll clean out the tool box or take apart some obsolete gadgets.  I'd love to give them an old typewriter or sewing machine to dismantle.

What else can you think of that is probably lying around the house and might be fun to examine?

Playing with Magnets

My kids almost never say, "I'm bored."  I think the reason may be that if they do, I always look at them like they just said the coolest thing ever and tell them, "Great!  That probably means you're about to have a good idea.  People often think of interesting things to do when they are bored!"

This doesn't mean that my kids don't get bored.  Sometimes I see it coming, and then I try to quickly bring out something new for them to explore.

Lately, the magnets on our refrigerator have been seeing a lot of action, so yesterday I put out some trays on the dining table with as many magnets as I could round up.  We had lots.  I put out several kinds of metal objects like cans and containers, cookie cutters, and whatever I could grab in a few minutes.  I even brought out a box of pins (but only left them out when I was standing by).

They were occupied with these for over an hour, testing them, building things, trying to make them stick to different things, and gathering more magnets from their toy collection.  Before long, they came up with some fun games to play using little rubber guys that had magnets in their hands and feet, controlling them with other strong magnets under the tray.

Sometimes they called it "Little Guy Dance Party" and sometimes, "Little Guy Fight!"

Speaking of little guys fighting, did you see that scratch on Diego's cheek?  Little guys fighting seems like one of the "interesting things to do" that my boys come up with when they are bored.  That is why I scurry around trying to conjure up something else for them to do if I happen to see it coming!

I do it MYSELF.

This particular toddler phase is a lot easier for me the third time around.  I'm a little better at knowing when to help and when to wait, and a lot better at budgeting some extra minutes for getting dressed.  Pretty soon he will be able to do it all by himself, right?  Didn't we all suffer this pain when we were two, this wanting to take care of ourselves without needing help?  Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure I still make these same faces when I look at our laundry pile.

Pint-Sized and Off-Beat

What's making you laugh, these days?

Magic Wands for Wizards

We made some magic wands for our little wizards!

Some old apple sticks that we gleaned from an orchard last fall had all the right magical qualities, and my violin bow was willing to spare a couple of unicorn hairs.

Our resident wizardry expert had certain ideas about how his wand was to be assembled.  (It needed to have a phoenix feather inside the wood.)  We drilled a tiny, deep hole into the handle end of the stick like this:

And then he stuffed the feather inside:

We trimmed off the last little bit of feather that was left sticking out, and I wrapped the handle with a fine gold wire.

It looks very magical, and has been used almost non-stop for the past week.  Diego has finally managed to produce a jet of green light.  (We had some fun this morning doing slow exposures with a flashlight, and coloring the image in Photoshop.  Is it too heavy on the green?  My art director had some very specific demands.)

Now, if I could only get that "SILENCIO" charm to work!

Julio's Birthday Tea

Yesterday, my baby turned TWO!

We had a very simple celebration with just the immediate family, and it was so relaxed and fun.  While Papa and Diego entertained Julio in the other room, Ruben and I made a birthday tea with all of his favorites.

Along with cucumber sandwiches, he enjoyed the little cups of raisins and dried cranberries and an extra lemon wedge.  He picked up each little treat and asked, "Is this for ME?"  He blew out his candles six times.  His cake was one of my July favorites, a pound cake with a layer of fresh strawberries that have been mashed with a little confectioners sugar.

In spite of the fine china, some of the guests were wearing pajamas.

The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History

It was magical to take my kids to this place that I remember so vividly from my own childhood.  It is now better than ever, with many living and interactive exhibits.

You may click on any of the pictures to see them larger.

A Red-tailed Hawk:

An enclosed garden full of butterflies (some of them sharing a picnic):

A creek to play in:

My childhood favorite, a tiny hummingbird nest:

A Peregrine Falcon:

These birds were rescued and are being cared for by the Audubon Society.  

Belly, Baby, Boy.

I just had to update this post from one year ago.

June 2009:

June 2010:

June 2011:

Crib Conversion

I have never been thrilled with the way our crib was supposed to turn into a toddler bed.  It was too big and too high off of the ground.  So, the other day I rebuilt it.  Even though it has the same footprint as our old crib, it now looks like an inviting kid-sized couch and is so much lower than the crib that it gives the feeling of a lot more space in the room.

It cost $15 (for the wood) and was very simple.

He loves it.  Now, shhh... it's naptime!