Surviving Summer

I believe that there is a special place in heaven reserved for parents who stay at home with kids during the Summer.    So for all you out there who have survived /are surviving / or are planning to survive  Summer Vacation with your kids -- God Bless You.

The jury is still out on whether I am actually going to make it.

I feel like my workload has quadrupled since the beginning of June.  Not only am I STILL cleaning the house, preparing meals, doing laundry, tending the garden, managing household finances, looking for a job AND helping to launch a Marketing Consulting firm -- I'm also refereeing battles between siblings, taxiing children to numerous activities, planning social calendars and stopping every 32 seconds to get a child something to drink or eat; wipe a bum or nose; clean up a spill OR fulfilling one million other tasks that are requested of me.

I'm exhausted.

In May I was ACTUALLY looking forward to Summer Vacation.  I thought having 7 year old Little Zo Peep at home would be a big help.  In fact, I even joked to someone that after June 5th, I was going to have my own Personal Assistant.

HA!!!

I guess it all comes down to expectations versus reality.  I was expecting Miss Peep to become my Personal Assistant.  She was expecting me to become her own Personal Concierge.  

My gosh -- when did Moms become social secretaries?  My mom pushed us outside after breakfast and expected us to amuse ourselves all day long.   I'm not sure I agree that these extra duties should be part of a mommy's job description in the 21st century.

Plus, I've never experienced being at home with kiddies for the summer.  Last July when I learned about my job loss, I had already pre-paid for daycare for Libby Doodle Doo and summer day camp for Little Zo Peep.  So they were both occupied 5 days a week until school started.  Once school started, Miss Peep was off in first grade and the Doodle scaled back to 15 hours of daycare each week.   

Long story short --  last summer  I didn't have anyone staring at me every morning   and demanding, "What are we going to do today?  I'm SOOOO Bored."

It could be worse.  I still have Libby Doodle Doo in daycare for 15 hours a week.  That's 15 hours when I don't have both kids demanding constant attention and intervention.  Does anyone know how many days until school resumes?

OH, SHAME ON ME.  Did you see what I just wrote.    I swore I'd never be one of those moms who dread summer vacations with their kids.  SHAME ON ME.

OK  I'm totally exaggerating here.  It's not as bad as I'm making it sound.  So to provide some fair balance, I must admit that the summer-so-far has had some sweet moments and that I am seeing that the girls are finding more and more ways to entertain themselves:

1.  Berry picking --



Two weeks ago on an early Saturday morning, Little Zo Peep went out to the backyard (still in her jammies) and picked black raspberries from shrubs that have infiltrated our yard from our next door neighbors.  She gathered about a pint of berries.  When she came in, she announced that she wanted to make a pie.  

I knew that there were not enough berries for a pie, but I went online and found a recipe for a lemon/raspberry tart.   We stopped by the store for some ingredients (including some red raspberries to supplement the fresh ones she picked) and spent the rest of the afternoon making the tart.

I gotta say -- it looked beautiful and tasted delicious (Here's the Doodle waiting for a bite).  


Miss Peep made the crust and assembled the lemon filling (only giving up when her arm got too tired from constant stirring).  

Zo Peep has always said that she wanted to be a chef.  Maybe she can also consider becoming a pastry chef.

2.  Boxes and Peanuts -- 

 

I got a shipment a few weeks ago.  The items came in one large and one medium sized boxes both filled with packing peanuts.  The girls dumped all the peanuts into the larger box and spent about a week and one-half playing in the box.   Amazing how much fun diving into a box of packing peanuts can be.  They loved hiding in the box with the lid flaps down and jumping out to frighten me.  Of course, I knew that they were there every time they did it ( their giggles gave them away), but I acted really surprised every time and they loved scaring mommy over and over again.

3.  Shipping boxes redux  -  When the packing peanuts started to disintegrate from too much jumping and playing, the girls looked for other ways to continue their pretend play.   Last week the larger of the boxes was turned upside down and became a clubhouse -- complete with a working door and window.  Little Zo Peep cut out the openings with scissors and then pulled out her paint set so that she and her little sister could paint some decorations and signs on the outside.  For a few days, the girls wanted to eat in their clubhouse, watch TV through the window and sleep in there too.

The clubhouse is still sitting in the corner of our family room and has become a favorite sleeping place for Egghead the cat.

Today Zo Peep took the smaller packing box and fashioned a robot body using filament tape, rope markers, ipod earbuds, and a piece of tupperware.  She played in this robot suit all morning long.

4.  Mountain of Pillows --  The girls really missed jumping into the peanuts, too.  So last Friday Zo Peep had a great idea and convinced Libby Doodle Doo to help her gather EVERY pillow and cushion in the house (from chairs, sofas, beds, etc)  and stack them in the middle of the family room. 

I discovered the project when I caught them each pulling bed pillows behind them and giggling non-stop.  Zo Peep begged me to let them finish their mountain, so I acquiesced.    About 30 minutes later she led me into the family room with my eyes closed.  

The pillow mountain was 12 ft across and 4 feet high.  I made sure that the perimeter of the mountain was away from any object that could cause harm if hit and then let the girls jump into the pillow for the next hour or so.  

About 30 minutes before dinner I told them that they needed to put away all the pillows and if they completed the task in a half hour I would give them a special treat.  Twenty two minutes later the last pillow had been put away and the three of us started dinner with dessert -- a mint chocolate ice cream cone. 

Now we've done lots this summer -- 2 trips to an Amusement Park, a week of semi-private dance lessons, a week of vacation bible school, a visit to an observatory, 2 picnic dinners at a local park, a couple outdoor concerts, 4  movies, trips to the swimming pool, and a couple trips to various museums.  

But so far, it's these little moments are the ones that I'll  remember most from my time home with the girls and I hope we have more of these experiences before the Summer ends.

(P.S.  The only way I found time to write this post is because I got a babysitter to watch the girls this afternoon while I caught up on a million chores.  Don't know when I'll get another breather to post again -- hope soon.)

Update on Contest Submission

Once again, thanks to everyone who voted.

I have submitted the 6 photos of Libby Doodle Doo to the Parents Magazine Cover contest.  You can see the ones I selected by clicking here (and feel free to rate them and/or leave a comment if you'd like).  

http://www.parents.com/photos/photo-contests-1/cover-kid-1/892500125/?photoId=892200466&galleryIdx=0&fromSearch=true

I was most surprised by how many of you liked the far-away look in the blue dress. I liked that photo, too -- but wouldn't have picked it as one of the final 6 without your input. Looks like others agree with y'all because it's already gotten some good ratings and comments from folks who have looked at my photos. I did decide to only submit one of the "Looking Away From the Camera" shots -- since almost everyone else was submitting photos in which their kids were looking straight to the camera.

I did a quickee tour through the competition and think that my photos may not be as good as some, but are much better than many other entries.

The contest closed last evening and there are more than 40 thousand kids entered -- so the odds don't look good for our Libby Doodle Doo. I'll find out if she's a semifinalist around July 15th.  

If she makes it to that round, I have to take 5 NEW photos of her and submit those back to the magazine in less than a week. Those are the photos that will be used to determine who will become finalist (seems like a strange step to me, but I guess they use it to make sure that the photos are current and are being taken by the parents (not professional). I'm guessing in that round they will tell you PRECISELY what to photograph (e.g. "Photo of child blowing bubbles," etc). Helen K from the UK has been giving me a lot of photographic tutorials over the last 4 weeks, so I feel confident I can apply all her lessons if we are lucky enough to get that far.

But -- as I said before -- whether she wins, moves on to become a semifinalist, or never makes it past this round -- I have some great photos of the Doodle and -- more importantly -- I have learned a lot about how to use my camera so that I can capture better photos of her (and Miss Peep) in the future.

Thanks again.

Final Photo Contest -- Ends Wed Morning

So this is the week. -- The week to submit 6 photos of Libby Doodle Doo to the Parents magazine cover contest. Actually the deadline is this Wednesday June 24th -- so vote now.

I've spent some time during the last week looking at covers of Parents and photos of past winners (that's last year's winner at the beginning of this post) to get a feel for what the judges may be looking for. And I've looked through the photos that you folks liked best to determine which ones should be submitted in this final judging.  I only included photos that got at least 33% of the votes -- even if it was one of the top 6 that week.  So once I applied that criteria , I had less than 18 to post here .  To give you some variety in this last vote,  I rounded out the list with some photos that I thought showed a range of facial expressions and poses (a few of which are ones that I haven't posted yet).

The criteria that the judges are using to pick the semi-finalists (and therefore I'm suggesting the ones we should use here too) include:

34% Appearance of the child
33% How well the photo captures the child's personality 
33% Quality of photo (this one has been tough since I'm not that great at photography)

What they don't say in the rules (but was clear after I looked at past years winners) is that they want photos where the child is looking directly into the camera and that they want the child to look happy, joyful, playful, sweet, silly, etc. (not serious, pensive, etc)

I'm allowed to submit 6 photos. I figure I'll include 4 to 5 in which the Doodle is looking directly into camera (showing a variety of facial expressions -- most happy) and 1 to 2 in which she is not looking into the camera. I want to show variety in my submission -- different hairstyles, different clothes, different poses.

So I've divided this final vote into 2 separate contest -- one in which you'll pick the best of the "Looking straight into the camera" shots and one in which you'll pick the best of the "Looking away from the camera" photos.

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PHOTOS LOOKING STRAIGHT TO CAMERA (choose 5)




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PHOTOS LOOKING AWAY FROM CAMERA (choose 2)

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Finally, I want to thank all of you who have helped me narrow down the photos for this contest. I appreciate your input. And whether Libby Doodle Doo gets to be a finalist, wins, or doesn't get any further than the first round -- I now have about 20 lovely photographs capturing her at a little over 2 years old.

So we're a winner -- no matter what happens.

Monday Photo Contest -- Round #3

(As a reminder, I'm entering a photo contest at the end of June where I can submit 6 photos of Libby Doodle Doo. Every Monday in June I will post 18 photos from the previous week and let everyone vote on which ones are best.)

Thanks to everyone who voted last week. This past week there were more photos receiving at least 33% of the vote -- so a bigger selection from which to select the finalists. Once again, thanks to all who voted and gave me your input.

We hit the wall with photographs this week and I'm surprised I even found 18 shots to post here.  It seems that whenever I pick up the camera, Libby Doodle Doo turns around and hides her face from me.    I don't think this child is destined for a career as a supermodel -- which is AOK by me.    Here are the next 18. You can vote for up to 6 in the poll on the right:

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