Chalk and Cheese Chronicles

Vacuuming My Way to Nirvana

I am one of those weird moms whose car is uncluttered and clean. I'm almost embarrassed about it. I hesitate to open the door to my mini van within sight of normal moms. As soon as the door to my mini-van slides open to reveal a crumb free, clutter free interior, I can see Normal Mom's jaw start to drop. My car is freak show clean most of the time, but as it's mostly a vehicle for transporting 3-year-old twin boys, it's not been easy to keep it this way. As soon as the crumbs start to blanket the carpet of my car, I'm on it, vacuuming the interior like a madwoman until I can get to the car wash.

Today, it rained just enough to keep the car wash closed for business. Cracker crumbs were everywhere, on the floor, in the car seats - it was driving me nuts. My boys were at Grandma's for the day, so when I spied one of those coin operated car washes while driving around this afternoon, I prayed to the loose change God that I'd have enough quarters to use the beautiful industrial vacuum cleaner. In my OCD mind, I could see all those crumbs being sucked up like tiny magnets. Vroooosh! Ah, nirvana.

Easter Bunnies on the Delta Queen

However cute real bunnies may be, I opted instead to give my boys these very adorable, lifelike impostors. These bunnies were all my boys got for Easter at our house (well, grandma's house is another story...) but it was more than enough. My rough and tumble boys turn into the most sweet and loving children at the sight of small furry animals. There's no better cure for a bad mood in this household than a quick trip over to Cute Overload.

Where exactly did I find these adorable bunnies? Although I bet they had them at Michaels, the bunnies came to me by way of the Delta Queen (the Delta Queen car wash, that is) a couple of weeks ago. Yes, I got suckered into a marketing plan and I so hate that. You know the drill, I'm sure. Many a museum or factory tour inevitably deposits its tour group into a gift shop and the Delta Queen car wash is no different. In fact, in order to pay for a car wash, customers must locate the cash register at the far end of its gift shop, the Queen's Chest. While by no means a world famous landmark, many a Campbell resident has watched as his or her car made its way through this Delta Queen replica, complete with a river and a churning paddlewheel . Still, it doesn't exactly succeed in evoking an earlier era with an endless line of driver-less SUVs and mini-vans slowly snaking its way through the middle of the steamboat. 

Graduating to a More Challenging Playground

It all started with the junior play slide, a Craigslist find. My then 1-year-old twin boys had already been toddling for two months and I could see our future and it looked like this. Though they were still a little too young to be set loose at the playground, I thought I'd let them practice climbing and sliding in the comfort of our own carpeted living room. But that tiny 2 foot slide seemed to loom over my tiny tots like a giant tower. We hovered over our boys as they played on that slide, fearing the inevitable tumbles.

Around the time my boys turned two-and-a-half, they had long since learned how to slide down that first slide. In fact, they began using that slide for everything but sliding down properly; they climbed backwards up the slide, vied for the highest perch, jumped endlessly off the top and toppled the whole thing over so they could use it as a balance beam of sorts. That's when we we decided to move the slide into the garage for storage.

To the Playground We Go! (List of SV playgrounds/parks)

Original Chalk and Cheese Chronicles blog post.

I have spent a huge amount of time hanging out with my kids at playgrounds, trying to tire them out. In the beginning, it was easy. The main purpose of a trip to the playground was to mingle with other moms in my twins play group. We all had blanket babies back then, so watching them was easy (though we didn't think so at the time). Then, once all the kids became mobile, we headed to enclosed, gated playgrounds. That worked for a while, and will still suffice from time to time, but now my 3-year-old twin boys want more. They want to ROAM. They want to RUN. They want to CLIMB. The 3 foot plastic slides (oh, please!) don't do it anymore. They want a playground with a little bit of an edge.

Do you know of an awesome Silicon Valley area playground, something a little outside the usual? Do share!

Anyhow, here's a partial list (actually, more like notes, with input from my friend Rena) of San Jose area playgrounds that you might want to check out. Whether you have blanket babies, toddlers, or preschoolers, somewhere out there, there's a playground for you.

C.S.I. The Case of Broken Camera

Yesterday, my camera stopped working. Oh, it turned on and turned off, but that's about it. The telescoping lens had jammed at full extension as if it had somehow been pulled on or something. I almost cried thinking about the many precious digital camera moments I'd miss if forced to go days or - gasp - weeks without my beloved pocket camera.

Luckily, after a few minutes of fiddling with it, my husband was able to get the camera back in working order. Whew. We turned the camera on and there in photo after photo, the whole crime scene unfolded. The culprit had taken his own picture as well as a photo of his toes. There was a photo of the Easter eggs we were planning to bring to preschool this week and a couple of random shots of furniture and toys. Then, in what has to have been the camera's final moment, a blurry, closeup shot of the vandal's pudgy hand, index finger headed right for the center of the lens.

Caught ya!

Original Chalk and Cheese Chronicles blog post.

Gemini Crickets POM of Silicon Valley Auction Fundraiser

The only thing I ever won, I won at a Gemini Crickets auction fundraiser. There were the silent auctions, the live auctions, and of course, my fave, the good old fashioned raffle drawings. I love the excitement of plunking my tickets into the bags, rubbing each one between my fingers for good luck.

But I almost never win. I used to plop my business card into those fish bowls at various local eateries, hoping to win a complimentary burrito or something, but it never happened. I just don't win things. I leave comments on mommy blogs, describing my ill-fitting wardrobe, or the bags under my eyes, in hopes that the blog owner will pick my name and give me a free t-shirt or a makeover, or something. But I've yet to win anything. No free t-shirts, no makeover, zilch. Nada.

Let's Go Fly a Kite!

Today was one of those blustery, pre-springtime days, perfect for a day of kite flying at our local park. We'd been given two Batman kites yesterday as part of a birthday party goodie bag. The birthday boy's mom had warned me that the kites were "cheap dollar store stuff that won't last but 5 minutes!" Yet from that moment on, my boys begged to go kite flying so today, after breakfast, we set out on our first kite flying adventure.

It was super easy. The boys were thrilled to see their kites soaring high overhead - it was one of those magical childhood moments (that is, until a kite gets away which I vividly remember happening to me when I was a girl). I and my husband were thrilled to see our boys running themselves ragged back and forth across the expansive park lawn, their kites trailing behind them in the sky. With a 4pm birthday party on the agenda today, I was hoping that my non-napping boys might agree to a nap (and they did, which is why I had a moment to post, hehe).

So thanks to those super cheap, plastic dollar store Batman kites, today was a win-win for our entire family. I have to tell my friend that it was two dollars well spent.

Original Chalk and Cheese Chronicles blog post.

Ratatouille, Glitter Glue and the Booming Thing

A few Saturdays ago, I bought the G-rated Disney/Pixar film Ratatouille. I was in the checkout line at Target, next to the display of popular DVDs when I spied it. "Ratatouille" said the cover, a tiny Eiffel Tower gleaming in the background. "Buy me!" screamed the merchandise. My thoughts turned to Paris and I snatched up the DVD, tossing my impulse buy into my shopping cart while cursing my lack of will power. So here's the deal: I don't get out much and the thought of indulging in a little armchair travel with my children was heavily appealing.

Yes, it's pathetic that my trip to Paris would be by way of a cartoon rat with a bad accent but I was desperate. Besides this was no ordinary sewer rat, this was Remy, a rat of considerable culinary talent and he was French, oooh la la! I had not researched this film on-line, but I had checked with friends and they'd all said it had gone over well with their preschool age children. When I got home, I slid the Ratatouille DVD into the player and waited for my 3-year-old twin boys to wake up from their naps.