XiaolinMama

A fun way for the whole family to give back and have fun

Much like many of you, I struggle to find ways to teach my kids about the values of generosity, compassion and conscience.   In the minds of my 7 year old and 4 year old - well, Christmas is about presents right? They of course can tell you about baby Jesus, but let's face it, presents are always in the back of their minds. Many other moms today have come up with some great strategies. I submit another very easy idea that the whole family can take part in - downtown San Jose's Children's Lantern parade.  It's free and all participants get hot chocolate/churros and free carnival rides for the rest of the evening.

The event was inspired by the German tradition of the St. Martin’s Day parade, where children honored a good samaritan, who gave his money and literally the clothes off his back to help others in need.

Participants will carry lanterns and sing traditional holiday songs as they process from St. James Park to the Tech Museum.   In addition, children's choirs will inspire and lead singing along the procession. The procession ends with participants enjoying complimentary hot chocolate and churros. Doesn't that sound yummy?

In exchange for either canned food or a wrapped toy, children will receive passes to enjoy the rides at Winter Wonderland for the remainder of the evening. Lanterns may be purchased for $5.00 each with all proceeds benefiting the JW House. Food will be donated to the Second Harvest Food Bank.  Children can also make their own lanterns and bring with them.   

When: Wednesday, December 5, festivities start at 5:15
Short Program begin at 6:00 p.m.
Processsion begins at 6:20 and should be done by 6:50 p.m.

Come out and enjoy the night, watch the lanterns walk by or take part and sing along.  I know my kids and I will be there! Hope you'll join us. Come find us on the carousel afterwards!

Wordless Wednesday: Cheese

The Holidays are comin'

Okay it's late and I'm stretching for a post, damn you NaBloPoMo!  I'm looking at my calendar and low and behold Thanksgiving is on Thursday.  That would be the day after THIS wednesday - HOLY CRAP!  I'm so not ready. 
But that is not the annoying part - the annoying part is the tv commercial talking about holiday decorations at Lowes.  Hello, what happened to waiting till after Turkey day???  I love Christmas and the season, really!  But I have enough to stress out about with daily life.  Please STOP reminding me that Christmas is right around the corner and I don't have any presents yet.  Geez!

Soccer season over - whew!

Today was the LAST soccer game of the season for both kids - yee haw!  I love soccer and this season has been a doozy.  The parents and kids on both of our children's teams are wonderful and we have really enjoyed ourselves.  I will miss our Saturday morning ritual of dropping off kds and then racing to Starbuck's hoping to get back in time for the start of the game.  But I am stoked that it is over, even for just a week. 

Indoor soccer starts after Thanksgiving - aargh! I'm sure the kids and I will be ready and excited then, but for tonight it is a huge relief to have another season under our belt.  Oh Yeah!

Ladies who lunch

The 4 year old ballerina princess and I had a hot date this afternoon.  Lunch at our new neighborhood breakfast place, Bill's.  She was sick with one of those "fevers" yesterday that they get over once you pick them up from day care and was feelin' fine, so we headed to the newly opened joint to have be "Ladies who lunch". 

Much like in her favorite book, Fancy Nancy; we had a "fancy" grown up lunch.  Kiley wore a cute dress and I wore the necklace she picked out for me. We did without the tiaras and boas (thank goodness!)

She said, "I like it when it is just girls, mama. The boys (dad and brother) stink sometimes."  It was such fun. We colored the menu in peace.  We had french toast and juice.  We had deep conversations, like who is the best, "Little Einstein"  (June, of course) and "What we should buy big brother for Christmas" (something Pokemon, of course).  She is so smart. 

Sometimes playing hookey is a good thing!

Dorks rule!

Like millions of others, Grey's Anatomy is one of my favorite shows.  I love their psychotic characters; they are all deliciously messed up.  They make me feel better about myself. Some weeks, they make me feel self conscious about not gettin' enough sex in on-call rooms, but hey, I'm not even a doctor.  Oh, I digress.

I loved tonight's episode because Miranda's (Dr. Bailey, my personal favorite character) story line revolved gettin' tripped up on her past; specifically, her adolescence.  Miranda, this amazing strong character who keeps the hospital running smoothly got tripped by up a patient who was someone she had a crush on in high school. She was his tutor and got him through school.  She realized that regardless of all that she had done for him, he never really saw her.  The show made fun of the prom queens and emphasized that we were dorky in high school.  Many of us still are.

It made me think about what it was like for me in high school.   I was the dorky school president. I also ditched school occasionally, but knew the girl's dean well enough to get out of detention. I went to a Catholic high school, with a uniform; so pined over what to wear on free dress days.  I wanted to win ""best dressed" so bad. But really didn't have alot of money to buy the Calvin Klein's everyone had.    I distinctly remember one particular Valentine's day when I wore red leggings, a red long shirt and pink socks all scrunched up and my hair in a side ponytail.  Cute!   Wow, was I a fashion plate.  But of course, one of the "Cool girls" won the coveted title of "Best Dressed"  I was always intimidated by and steered clear of the "cool girls".  I felt out of place a lot of the time.  I was always looking for the right clique. 

Dr. Bailey's character is accomplished, smart, feared and loved.  Nothing like she was in high school.  Thank goodness that we grow out of adolescence and become semi-adults.  I don't pine over what to wear anymore, though I have had a few occasions lately where I did have to call girl friends for clothing tips. I am still the dork and am proud of it.  I try to ditch things that bore me, and heck yeah, I try to get out of detention, aka "meetings" whenever possible.  I still catch myself trying to steer clear of the "cool people" and "awkward situations", seems to me that life is short and no need to waste your time worrying about silly things. 

No what ever happened to the cute boy in my English class that I drooled over daily??  What was his name?  I wonder if he is reading this blog...

   

Wordless Wednesday

My nephew is all smiles:)

Bedtime Stories

Reading at bedtime used to be sacred time at our household when we only had one child.  With the advent of child #2, well bed time reading has shrunken from an hour long production to hey, we're lucky when we get more than one book in.  I have been working on bringing it back and pushing laundry off.

Kiley and I read books tonight for a rare 30 minutes.  We read three of her favorites,  Arthur's Chicken Pox, Oh David! and Mo Willlems' The Pigeon Finds a Hotdog.  She has them memorized and can pretty much recite them.  I forgot that the conversations that happen make bedtime reading the best part of the day. 

Here is how our conversation went tonight:

Kiley:  Mom did you know that MIchael B. got in trouble today because he didn't listen to Miss Becky? 

Me:  Really, what happened?

Kiley: Well he told her that he didn't have to clean up because he was an adult.

Me: Whoa, what happened next?

Kiley:  Well, he is silly.  He is a child, mom.  I think he forgot, just like Grandpa forgets sometimes.

Me:  That happens sometimes.  We all forget sometimes.

Kiley: Not me, I like being a child.   You are a cutie mom! (Lays a big wet kiss on me.)

What a brilliant girl I have!  These are the conversations I hope to never forget. You know the kinds you bring up when the are teenagers and "know everything".  Laundry can wait.

Graco Sweet Peace for mommy please!

As I posted yesterday, at the SV Moms meet up yesterday I had the opportunity to check out Graco's newest addition to their line of baby products the Sweet Peace, an infant soothing center.  The Graco reps, Lindsey et all, were on hand to show us all the new features and I have to say I AM impressed. 

My kids are older 4 and 7 and do I wish I had something cool like this to put the little bambino in - heck yeah!  Designed around the premise of keepin your newborn as warm and cozy as possible just like they were in the womb.  This soother encourages a more calm, rested and less stressed baby.  Hey, gotta love it, seems to me that equals a more calm, rested and less stressed mommy! 

First some of the features, super plush fabric, that is not only soft and luxurious, it  also holds your scent in well.  Thus your child smells you and feels safe.  I remember being low budget and throwing in my t-shirt into the crib when I left for work or my pillow case was something I always left with my babysitter to comfort my little ones.

It also rocks - not like the swings (with all that dreaded creakin') for the older kids but simulates you and the "football hold" and bouncing back and forth.  I love this!  The Graco site was great videos to show you how it works.

It has a million other features that you can check out here, but the one I found especially exciting was the ipod attachment with speakers.  You can plug in your mp3 player and you and the baby can rock out on your favorite lullaby, classical music or even Alicia Keyes.  When is it too early to introduce your child the finer points of Reggae Music???  Hmmm...

One thing on the downside is the sheer size of the contraption.  Like most of the baby accoutrements these days, it is quick to take apart, but it does take up some vital real estate at home.  Here is a picture of Bongga Mom, Techmama and me checking out the removable car seat.  When we had our first child,  hubby and I had a 2 bed room apartment and we astounded by the amount of stuff our 9 lb. addition came with.   The car seat, stroller, crib, changing table, vibrating chair, giant giraffe blah, blah blah.    So this adds to the list, but I do think it is a must have for the first year.   My husband disagrees, but then again, I did most of the baby holding and all of the feeding - so there!

I think it is well worth checking out. As someone who is done having babies, it almost makes me want to have another - ALMOST.  The gear is so much cooler than just 4 years ago.   It 's on my list to give to my sister, who is about to have her third boy.  Her arms could use a little rest and her family could use a little "Sweet Peace" anytime of the day.

Now if Graco could only make this mommy sized... I could use more "Sweet Peace" in my day, though instead of a bottle holder, I may need a wine bottle chiller.

Bloggers on the Loose

The fine women of SV Moms Blog had a meet up this afternoon at the Four Seasons hosted by Graco.  As busy bloggers and mommies, getting us together is a true gift . The shear amount of rearranging required to get 20 women to show up for two hours sans kids was impressive.  I even wore something besides khakis:)  Oh yeah!

The folks from Graco were gracious hosts who showed off their newest addition to the Graco line - the Sweet Peace.  I'll write more about it tomorrow with a more full review, but let me tell you - this contraption is COOL.  It "Almost" makes me think having another baby won't be so bad - ALMOST!

For this post, I just want to reflect on how much fun it was to connect in real time with my bloggin' sistahs.  I picked up Go Go Mommy and off we went, just like the pair of footloose and fancy free gals that we are.  Robyn and I chatted about how we catch ourselves saying, "My friend Nicole says this" or "My friend Glennia says that", but funny that we don't spend that much time together or are "friends" in the most typical sense.  (We're such dorks I know!) Though, I have to say some of my blog readers know more about me that some of my other "friends" because I don't have time to catch them up. Robyn and I committed to gettin' together for reals!

BonggaMom and I chatted about Filipinamoms.com, a collaborative blog we both contribute to.  We also commiserated over fund raising at schools and parents who don't respect unspoken play date rules.  I am a such fan of her writing, so it was fun to connect with her in person.  We all talked about each other's posts and elaborated and gave follow ups. It was just like what real friends do.  It affirmed to me that blogging really does create a community virtually.

Now for some juicy details, we found out that one of our fellow bloggers went to school with one of the Dancin' with Stars judges and another was in Sports Illustrated!  There was a mosh pit dancing veteran and one was arrested for streaking in high school.  I am SO boring:(

It was a great way to spend the afternoon!  Thanks Graco and SV Moms Blog.