Interview with Ian

I found this interview on Danielle's blog today and thought I would ask Ian some of the questions. He seemed to think it was fun so we did the whole thing. Here are his answers, quoted directly, at age 5.

1. What is something your mom always says to you?
You're cute

2. What makes your mom happy?
Me kissing you

3. What makes your mom sad?
When I'm not around

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
When you say, "Blah blah, mwaa, wa, wa!" (said in silly voice)

5. What did your mom like to do when she was a child?
Play

6. How old is your mom?
716

7. How tall is your mom?
Tall as a tiger

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
Kiss me

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
Write in your journal

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
A race (???)

11. What is your mom really good at?
Loving me

12. What is your mom not very good at?
Gluing toys back together

13. What does your mom do for her job?
Doula

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
Hamburgers

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
Kissing me (I'm sensing a theme...)

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Arcee

17. What do you and your mom do together?
Cute stuff

18. How are you and your mom the same?
We love each other

19. How are you and your mom different?
We don't look the same

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
Because you are always telling me!

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
That he loves you

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
Kissing World (????)

On the theme of kissing- I thought I would mention that the picture he drew in the picture above was me looking sad, and the large globular thing heading towards me is a kiss he blew to cheer me up! :)

Snapshot Sunday

Treasures from the sea

Clean floor! I can see the carpet again.
Art man and books

Great moments with Mr. Lincoln (bookends)

Friends.

See Sarah to play!

Snapshot Sunday

How could it be spring in the South without azaleas?

Littlest Pet Shops get an ice bath

"Watch out, Mama! I am squirting water!"

Croton

My kingdom for a Lion Bar...mmm...

See Sarah to play!

Blech.....

I found this posted on a freecycle list today :

My oldest son lost his privileges for having a tv in his room. Forever, unless he earns the money to buy a new one. Don't ask.

It just made me really sad for the boy. His mom actually gave his TV to someone on Freecycle against his wishes. And then wrote about it! That seems like such a cruel, petty thing to do. Whenever I hear stories like this I always think about how I would feel if my hubby (or even a friend) did the same thing to me. I would be furious if he gave away our TV without asking me. I would lose trust in him and in our relationship. I would feel more possessive of my stuff, for fear that he might take something else away from me without notice. I certainly wouldn't feel inclined to share my possessions, time or emotions with him.

I am so glad that in our house this wouldn't really happen. It just struck me because it is so far removed from something that would happen here. Blech.....

Snapshot Sunday--Easter edition

Easter basket in the morning


Tulips


A friend in the garden



After the Hunt
Eating the spoils

See Sarah to play

Snapshot Sunday

Here is a glimpse of our day.

A little around the house and a visit to the Renaissance Faire to see my hubby.
flutterby
Stars Wars and super heroes
Ian's getting taller!
Ian got to do the Tin Man dance with the knights...
and was thrilled with himself afterward.

See Sarah to play!

Snapshot Sunday

Thanks to Sarah for the idea!

Five people contest thingy from Mama P!

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me. I will try to make these tailored to those five people. The restrictions and limitations:
*I will make no guarantees that you will like what I make.
*What I create will be just for you.
*You will have no clue what it will be
*The catch is that you have to post this as well, if you expect me to do something for you.
*I have to be able to afford the postage, if you live out of country. :)

Please link to your blog, if I don't know you, in case we are new friends.

Science Fair!

Okay, so first off I have to admit that I was really excited about coming up with a project and participating in the science fair.

Ian and I (well, mostly me really) got our idea from reading through a Usborne book about Ecology. I found this sidebar: The sidebar talked about the presence of lichen and how it indicated the air quality in a given area. I got to thinking about it and wondered how much lichen we had at our house in the Raleigh area compared to my in-laws' house in Murphy (in the NC mountains). It also happened to be an extremely convenient project since I spent the last 10 days at their house!

First, I took pictures of lichen in Murphy: I noted that I really didn't find much lichen on live trees. The really leafy colorful lichen that indicates good air quality was exclusively on dead tree material. In fact, most of the pictures that I took were from the fence posts in the horse corral. We breathed easy in Murphy knowing that we had clean air.

When we got back home we surveyed the trees in our backyard. The only tree that had any lichen on it was alive. It was a silver maple that is probably 50 years old. I checked some dead limbs from the yard but they had no lichen. This leads me think that we have fairly polluted air here in Raleigh. We had a bit of the leafy stuff but almost no lichen at all on the newer trees and bushes. Yikes!

It was fun to take a small blurb in a book and really run with it and think about how it applies to our everyday life. Thanks for the great idea, Iain and Evie!!

Happy Birthday Ian!

Tap, tap, is this thing on?

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, I have just been really busy and crappy about writing.

In Februaury I scrambled to get all my doula reading done before my training at the end of the month. I also made it through my first Jensen D-Day fairly unscathed.

In March I spent a week with Ian and my father-in-law while my MIL was in NYC. I spent another week without internet service since we just ported our home phone number to one of our cell phones and so we had no line for DSL until AT&T could come out and fix it.

Today is a special day though because Ian is 4!

I can't believe my son is already four. He has so many wonderful ideas about life and the world. He likes "mushroom kisses" (a term he coined...I am still not 100% sure what it means) but he doesn't want me to kiss hurts anymore. He likes to be the leader but he still likes to hold my hand and stick by my side in new situations. He adores his dad but he still calls his room "Mama and my room."

I am so lucky to have him in my life. He keeps me on my toes and helps me want to be a better person. He melts my heart when he says, "Mom, we're best friends for-EVER!"

His Spiderman birthday party is on Saturday. This is the first year he has wanted to have a party with friends. We bought a bounce house. I think it will be fun.

I'm a DIT!

No, not a ditz, a dit! That's a doula-in-training. I just mailed off my registration today for my doula training which will take place in February. I just lined up the childbirth class that I need to audit before I take my training. I just checked out all the books on my reading list that I don't already own. I feel like things are falling into place.

I have been toying with the idea of becoming a doula (and maybe eventually a midwife) for a little while now. It has been in the back of my mind-something I didn't even want to consider seriously since I lacked the confidence to go ahead with it. Right around Christmas I started thinking about it again and it just seemed like the right time to go for it.

I have always been the type of person who let myself get bogged down by the what-ifs and doubts in my head. I really thought about this and tried to keep my head out of the decision to go ahead and get certified. I love babies and moms and this is a way for me to help new moms and babies get a good start together. It can be really part-time and it is something I can stop doing for a while if I need to, and then I can pick it up and easily get re-certified.

I'm pretty excited (and also a tiny bit anxious) about this new venture. Everyone I have told has been super-supportive. My mom told me that I seemed born for this kind of work! Having a lot of folks backing me up feels really good.

These guys will always be my first priority. I feel so lucky every day to have them in my life.

According to Ian

You don't really think these sweet little animals would hop in a Transformers spaceship and try to take over the world, do you? Nah, me neither.

Holiday stress and photo play

There's not too much going on at Chez I Candy besides the hustle and bustle of getting ready for Christmas! I have all my out of town packages shipped, the presents are wrapped, Christmas cards are sent, and most of the laundry (but none of the packing) is done. I always manage to get pretty stressed before Christmas but I am relived when it is almost here and most of the work is done for better or for worse.

So I didn't make handmade cards this year, that's okay. The extra time was another moment that I could spend connecting with my family. I didn't make those cookies that I wanted to try this year, oh well, that's something to look forward to next year.

Buck turned 38 on Monday. He requested a yellow cake with vanilla frosting. I didn't realize until right before we sang and did candles that we are missing an "8" candle so I had to do 35 and add 3 single candles. It looked pretty sad....

One thing I have been doing lately is playing with my camera. Jensen had a DSLR and since we talked photography a lot I knew he would want me to have it. I don't have the manual or the software that goes with it but I am slowly learning how to use it. Ian has been a patient model for me while I play around.

Merry Christmas!

Holy crap! I saw Rachael Ray!

Last night we went to a book signing for Rachael Ray's new book (Just in Time). Buck's cousin (CC) is crazy about her and so she and her mom drove seven hours to see her.

The signing started at 7:30ish and the line-up started at 6, so by the time we got our stuff signed and we were on the way home it was 8:20. We were put into 3 groups to wait for a signature, and we were lucky enough to be in the first group. I felt sorry for everyone waiting when I saw how the line snaked all over the store!

Rachael was really chatty and nice and she told CC that she was beautiful which made her day. Rachael is really cute and looked just the same in person as on TV. I only managed to get crappy pictures because I had to stand about 20' away and behind a stanchion to take pictures. The fluorescent lights didn't help matters.

Rachael shook CC's hand as we left the signing. On the way to the car CC said, "I have Rachael Ray on my hand. I am never going to stop sniffing it!" She always makes me laugh my ass off....