Go Fetch!

Last night, out of the blue Dimples made a request.

'I want a pet', she said.

'A pet.' I repeated.

'Yes. We can go to the Zoo, and get a pet for me. Like a Lion or a Monkey. I will bring it home and when Giggles is sleeping I can play Fetch with my pet.'

I wonder if this has anything to do with me stopping her from playing Go Fetch with her little sister.

And who gets a pet from the Zoo? Not sure about Monkeys, but I have a feeling Lions will be offended.

Hand-made Party game-Pin the Hat on the Cat

I know I'm obsessing over Dimples' non-pink Birthday party, but if I blog about it, somehow I convince myself that its part of the planning and working for the party. So, it takes the guilt away. Kind of.

Okay so I will make this a short one.

One of the games I am having at the party is:

Pin the Hat on the Cat

What you will need:

1/2 blue poster board

1 white poster board

1 foam board

pencil

red crayon

black crayon

glue

scissors

some thumb pins

How to make it:

Look up a picture of the Cat in the Hat on the internet, or on your child's book. Sketch it out on the white poster board with a pencil. Color in with red crayon/pencil.

Then cut it out.

Paste it onto blue poster board, to one side like on the book cover.

Outline with black crayon. (Don't forget the whiskers)

Cut out the letters for PIN THE HAT ON THE CAT and paste them onto the blue poster board. (You could buy a stencil to do this, so your letters won't look as crooked as mine. But I think the crookedness looks Dr. Seussy. Or I comfort myself.)

Pin up the blue poster board onto the foam board.

Make a hat just like the one your Cat is wearing, and have the kids pin it up on the Cat.

Sit back, and watch your kid have fun.



You might also be interested in the party invitations. Happy planning!

Stop teasing me, Google. And, stop stalking me.

I just noticed the ads Google is putting up on my blog about having birthday parties at those indoor rental bouncy places. Also about hiring someone to plan your party.

Did you somehow miss the part about me deciding to do it at home partly because of financial reasons? And you think you can convince me now that I am half-way through my planning?

Don't you tempt me, Google! Don't you tempt me.

Dimples' Mama is going to throw her a great non-pink, Dr.Seuss themed party at home. You'll see.

Because you see everything, don't you? You scare me sometimes, with maps.googles.com, and that world Google where I can see even the car standing outside a home in Australia- you see everything.

It was scary when I started getting ads on my Gmail account about the things I discussed in private emails to my friends. You read all my emails don't you?

Now you read my blogs.

You know where I live.

You are one big stalker, Google.

Need to kick some Black-Belted Butts

Its like I am speaking in a foreign language that Dimples does not understand, when I say 'Hurry.' Or, any other words that fall in the synonym category or close-to-being-a-synonym category for that matter.

Quick.

Fast.

Speed it up.

I might as well be saying limpora, brinka, or fibikoon. Yeah, they don't mean anything, but for Dimples they are all the same. Meaningless.

It is a constant struggle to get her to do anything.

Breakfast lasts until lunch time.

When asked to go pee, she tells me that her pee pee won't work. I ask her to try anyways, and after spending (read wasting) a loooooong time convincing, when she finally does try, sometimes she tells me, 'It doesn't work. Maybe it needs new batteries!'

Bedtime is a torturous routine.

Finish milk. I want apple juice. No, finish your milk. (takes 15 mins on good days)

Go upstairs. I need to play some games on the computer. No, its bedtime. You have to wake up early. Just for a little while. No, you will be tired in the morning if you don't go to bed now. Just one game, Mama. Please. Dimples, Please. Mama is tired and sleepy. Giggles is tired. Please Mama, pretty pretty please. *sigh* Okay, I'm going to put Giggles to sleep. When I come back, you have to go up with me.

Then, finally when she comes up, its the pee pee wars. Takes forever getting into her jammies. Wants me to tell her 3 stories every night, and long ones. Then she wants a facial, pretend one. Then a song while I scratch her back. And then a foot massage. Sometimes the requests for the foot rub and back scratching come together, so I am singing, scratching and rubbing at the same time- dozing off from time to time. Me, not her.

And then leaving home, to go anywhere takes forever. She does not grasp the concept of 'running late'. She moves at the same turtle pace no matter what.

Hurry up please. We are running late.



Can you please go wear your shoes? I want my party shoes. Look around they must be somewhere. No, I don't see them. Wear the pink ones. No, I don't want to. Go wear your sneakers, please. No. Party shoes. Look for them then! No. You! You look for them.

I find the party shoes right where she had taken them off.

Take your jacket. I can wear it by myself! Okay, do it quickly. We are running late. This is how my friends wear their jackets. (placing it on the carpet, and trying to show me some damn trick.) We don't have time for this. I am putting Giggles in the car. You have 1 minute to come.



I put Giggles in the car, and come back in to get her. She is still standing there without her jacket. I grab her jacket, and tell her to move. I had to open the door. Well, I just opened it. Hurry up. I had to be in the front. *sigh* Go ahead. Oh. I had to get my baby (her doll). We don't have time. Please lets just leave. I'll be right back.



Anyway. So we finally get wherever it is that we were going, but we are obviously late. Its okay to be a little late to the doctor's office, or a playdate. (or, maybe not, but moving on) This time, we were late to her Tae-Kwondo class.

As frustrated as I was with the struggle to get there, I was pretty impressed by her during the class. She listens to the instructor, tries to do as told, and mostly succeeds. Unlike some other brats who think its bedtime, or playtime. One kid is lying on the mat, oblivious of whatever is going on around him. The instructor has to pull him up a number of times. And then he starts running and giggling. My kid needs to learn to manage time better, but otherwise she is a gem.

Try doing all this at home. Its not easy.



When the time comes to get a sticker after class, Dimples in her white Karate suit goes to the instructor. The giggling, running, lying-on-the-floor kid is behind her in line. With a smile she looks up to the instructor, eagerly awaiting her sticker, and she is told, she cannot get one because she was late. I see the smile vanish from her face. I feel bad for her, but in my heart I understand that she needs this to make her understand.

But then, its the giggling, running kid's turn to get the sticker. And he did. Oh no you didn't. You black-belted son-of-a-*bleep* instructor. You break my daughter's heart, and give that freaking kid a sticker, who was distracting everyone in class?

Its about time I get a black belt myself, and kick some black-belted butts.

Dimples' non-pink Birthday Party- the Theme

Dimples will turn 4 in a few weeks, and like any about-to-be-4-year-old little girl, she wants a pretty party in pink.

Its not that I don't hear her, I do. But in our close family we have kids her age that are boys, and I cannot not invite them to her birthday party. I would love to throw a tea party for her, with tiaras, wands, and even wings, but I don't know how excited the parents of those boys will be to see their little men in pink.

For her first birthday the theme was butterflies. The boys got books about bugs, to tie it to the theme. It worked out well.

I still haven't figured out how to make a pretty pink birthday party work with boys, though. So, Dimples will have to wait for that. And no need to feel sorry for her, because she will have fun in any party thrown for her, and she would complain about something no matter how great that party is. That's just how little girls are, or is it just my little girl?

After spending hours trying to decide on a theme for her 4th birthday bash, being the Seuss-loving Mom I am, I am throwing her a Dr. Seuss themed Party. (You would think, considering my obvious love for Dr. Seuss, this should have been the first theme to come to my mind. But trust me, it was not.)

The Cat in the Hat, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish and Green Eggs and Ham are some of the very first books I read to Dimples. She could not understand, let alone read those colorful books, but she loved them.

So, when I told her she would be having a party with Thing 1 and Thing 2, The Cat, Red Fish Blue Fish and Horton; that her party would be blue, green, yellow, white and red but not pink, Dimples smiled with a twinkle in her eyes and said, 'I love red!'