Life With Three

Michael’s current school project is to be a “Young Author” and write a book. He has chosen (okay, with some suggestion from me) to write on the houses he’s lived in during his 6 years on earth. It’s been a fun process, as he looks back on homes he doesn’t remember and we look over old photos and tell stories. This photo collage is the last page of his book (and will help readers who don’t quite understand thehand-drawn  illustrations), and shows the 8 places he’s lived over the years:

Top left above - Farm of the Child, Trujillo, Honduras (Oct. 2004-Dec 2006); Top left below - South Bend, IN (Sept-Dec 2008); Top right - New Lenox, IL (Dec 2008- present); Center left - Medford, MA (Dec 2006-May 2008); Center - Chicago, IL (Jan 2003-May 2004); Center right - Mokena, IL (June-July 2004 and Sept-dec 2005); Bottom left - Tegucigalpa, Honduras (July-Sept 2008); Quetzaltenango (Xela), Guatemala (Aug-Sept 2004).

   They certainly are their daddy’s boys - I see that in their choices of acvities, way of interacting with each other (and with Maggie), and in their manner of speech.

   This evening they showed that further with their seamless transition from making cookies for Michael to take to school for his birthday (if we ever go back - we’ve had Wednesday-Friday off for extreme cold weather, plus Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. and Tuesday for teacher institute) to scouring the house for big bags to take to ultimate frisbee.

   Here are a few more photos of the boys, since we’re highlighting them in this post anyway… We went bowling at Thunderbowl in Mokena (where we went with the gang for YFooK+1+1, for those of you who were there) and Jacob got 43 and Michael got 36 (bumper bowling, of course).

   This, in case you can’t tell from the big E, is the University of England. Not sure why we’re infatuated with it, but we are…

I’m not talking about Halloween, or Valentine’s Day, or any of those other holidays on which kids get candy. I actually don’t have a problem with those, as I feel those are a normal part of American childhood.

No, I’m talking about candy from school, candy from school-type activities, candy that is used to elicit good behavior from my kids.

We know that our kids are less active and more obese now than ever before in American history. We know that their activity levels and eating habits are an important part of their general health and well-being. We’ve re-learned (we already knew this once upon a time) that they should play outside more, eat more fruits and vegetables, and not eat fast food or drink pop (soda, coke).

There are movements to ban from schools the vending machines supplying pop and candy to our kids. There are programs to get kids to excercise more, weeks dedicated to turning off the TV, Happy Meals with apples and milk instead of fries and a Coke. We’ve come a long way, and it makes me super happy.

So why, then, the rant about candy? Because surprisingly, the teachers in my sons’ lives haven’t heard these messages. Two years ago, on my son’s first day at a new preschool, I was informed that Friday was “candy day” and that each Friday would bring my son a treat upon leaving school. The teachers thought they were being helpful telling the kids they couldn’t eat the candy until they got home and/or had permission, but really, it just gave me one more battle about candy that I didn’t want my son to have. It also pitted against each other two people (both important in my young son’s life) who should have been on the same page.

No sooner did we leave that situation in May then we moved overseas to an American pre-K through 12 school whose cafeteria was full of treats my son could by at snack or lunch, treats that included 20 oz. bottles of Coke, pop-tarts (for breakfast, of course), and all sorts of candy and junk food. Luckily, my 5 year old doesn’t have an allowance or carry cash, so we avoided that one. I chalked that one up to different standards of nutrition in different countries (even though I felt an American accredited school should have better nutrition standards).

So here we are, back in the States, and I’ve enrolled my just 3 year old in a one day a week park district program designed to get him excited and prepared for preschool. He loved the balance beam, the balls, the paint with water, and the singing. We hit the end and to congratulate them all on a good first day with good listening, a sticker and….Smarties.

Really??!!

The only reason my child should like coming to school is because he gets candy??

I want to inculcate in my children a love of learning for learning’s sake - not for candy’s sake. When will this end?? Can’t we just be excited for good behavior and listening and reward it with hugs and praise? Do we really need more candy?

To top it off, she also offered a pack of smarties for my 13 month old, and when I said, No thanks, she agreed that the baby probably didn’t need any candy. No, I said, we didn’t really do candy at our house. She didn’t have anything to say to that. Dare I hope we won’t get any next week?

!Feliz Navidad!

I’m desperately out of date in my posting and trying to catch up a bit…so here’s a montage of our Christmas holidays with our families. Hopefully this collage photo will work better than a long line of photos.

We had a wonderful holiday season in our new house, doing a bit of work, buying cabinets and rugs and a couch and such, and enjoying being settled for once with no thoughts of moving in the near (or far) future. We celebrated with the Fuehrmeyers and Kirschenbaums on the 20th, with just ourselves for a quiet Christmas (as quiet as 3 kids are) on the 25th, and with my grandparents, parents and Katie on the 27th. We sprinted home to celebrate Michael-John’s 31st birthday with Laura and Adam and ready ourselves for a New Year’s trip to South Bend to celebrate with our Notre Dame friends. All in all, we had a great end of 2008 and are enjoying the beginning of 2009!

Jacob got the best birthday gift of all - a new house! We left South Bend the morning of December 13th, with as much stuff as we could pack in the back of our minivan and my dad’s SUV to get us through our first night in the new house. (Michael-John brought the packed moving truck later that day, but it wasn’t unloaded until Sunday.) We unloaded mattresses, baskets of clothes and jammies, some toys and stuffed animals, claening and cooking supplies, and Jacob’s birthday cake and presents. Then we set of in search of a restaurant where we could have birthday dinner (since we weren’t really prepared to do all that yet in the house).

(Maggie delivered the birthday presents, of course. She’s super helpful these days. We did presents the night before the move in South Bend.)

   We found a cute Italian restaurant nearby, secured permission to bring in a homemade birthday cake, and began the festivities. Everyone around us sang “Happy Birthday” with us, and the servers got a bit of cake, too. 

  The Diego cake was tasty and we enjoyed the end of our first day in our new house!

Can you spare a minute to help the world’s poorest people?

It helps me to remember that some of the world’s poor were my neighbors, my seatmates at church, visitors to my porch, children in my son Michael’s preschool class. They were my neighbors in Honduras; they are my friends’ neighbors in Bosnia, Gaza and the West Bank, and Rwanda. They have also been my neighboors on the south side of Chicago, in Medford, MA, and in South Bend.

It helps me to remember that “the poor” aren’t a nameless, faceless group of people, but rather my friends, neighbors, and people whom I love. We are called to act justly and to live in solidarity with the poor, to make decisions that bear in mind how the fruits of that decision will affect the least among us. We are called to support those in positions of power who have an even greater ability to help the poor - and we are asked to hold them accountable to their responsibility to the poor. 

President-elect Obama will have historic opportunities to bring hope and dignity to millions currently suffering from poverty and preventable diseases, such as malaria and HIV/AIDS.

We can make a difference by showing our support for an inaugural affirmation of Obama’s pledge to fight poverty and preventable diseases worldwide, and for an FY2010 Presidential budget request that puts the U.S. on track to meet Obama’s historic commitments to the world’s poorest people.

I just took action with ONE and you can too, here:

http://www.one.org/inauguration/

As an active, concerned mom, I subscribe to various organizations’ newsletters on topics related to healthy parenting. I just wanted to share some of the holiday-related tips and information I’ve received. Just think of it as my monthly (or periodically) PSA.

• Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) issued their annual CCFC Guide to Commercial-Free Holidays with “tips for resisting holiday hype.” CCFC is a great organization that strives to have children of all ages grow up without so much commercial influence. 
• Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children’s Entertainment (TRUCE) is a national group of educators deeply concerned about how children’s entertainment and toys are affecting the play and behavior of children in our classrooms. They have an annual toy action guide that “help adults promote children’s creative and constructive play by making informed choices about toys, and by working with others at home, school, and in the community to promote positive play and toys.”
• Healthytoys.org tests and rates toys for the presence of dangerous chemicals such as cadmium, chlorine, lead, arsenic, bromine and mercury. They have a search engine so you can search for your child’s toys and see how healthy they are (or aren’t). 
• Finally, KIDS in Danger issues, among other things, handy lists of recalled children’s products. You can subscribe to their monthly email, as well as learn about pending/passed legislation to help keep our children safe and healthy.

We celebrated Maggie’s 1st birthday with some of our friends from the Finca - Erin H, Claire H and her brother Mark H, Naomi C and Laura T. We had tasty brunch and of course, a delicious cake. 

Maggie thought the cake was a funny texture but worth trying - she sat with Emma (Erika’s mom) who was patient and enjoyed the whole process - not even that messy!

We have a house! Michael-John did a great description of our new house in New Lenox, so I’ll just direct you there.  If you haven’t seen the post and pictures, check them out!

I think Michael-John may have beat me to the punch in putting up some of these photos, but I’m going to put them up anyway. 

Hanging out in the built-in bookcases in Papa’s new study…

Outdoor snowy fun

Maggie has become quite a fan of sitting on Michael’s lap, either to read a story or to watch a show.