Frozen, Inc

We are totally late to the fandom. On purpose. Only introduced the kids (3 & 4 yo now) to Frozen maybe 6 weeks ago.

Of course, they are now Anna and Elsa.

Last weekend, they got a fantastic treat -- they acually got to MEET Anna and Elsa :)

Then we introduced them to Monsters, Inc because, well, let's not keep watching Frozen, right??

So now they are *also* Kitty and Boo. Today Nova built a "door" (more like doorWAY), for Kitty and Boo to go through.

Gotta love their imaginations!

TUOEMITimeout

Really having a tough time with time outs.

Totally subscribe to its use as a "behavior interrupter" as opposed to punishment. But often times, the behavior being interrupted has a huge emotional charge too. And when "that's three: go to (your room / the [thinking chair] / etc)" gets met with "No!", there's a whole 'nother battle fought to just get the kid to where he/she is to go, and by that time the No Talking (when you're angry) and No Emotion rules for parents are totally out the window and it takes a lot not to let things spiral out of control.

Here's Nev "in her room" just a few minutes ago, doing a great job pushing boundaries, and Mommy's buttons.

There are many more aspects and nuances to these situations, of course. Just want to get this morning's incidentS out here so they are not hamster wheel fodder.

Is it Monday yet?

Oops?

You know you've had to do the pick-up/drive-through stop gap dinner solution too often recently when, as you arrive home and park the car, Nev pipes up "But, I want us to pick up food. I want you to get food through a window!"

Getting big, aren't they?

Wake up, fish!

Miss Carole was in town! A church/preschool had a MacaroniFest fundraiser that featured Carole Petersen/Stevens. I found out about it that morning, and resolved to get the kids there. We made it, but wow was it stressful.

At first, there were crafts for the kids -- I think it was Nev's first time wielding a bottle of glue -- she did it with such glee Miss Carole herself came up to me and commented laughingly on Nev's enthusiasm :)

Dinner was a frantic affair, the kids barely ate any of the pasta even the usual guaranteed mac n cheese (of course, they'd never had it from Noodles & Co, might have been to salty?). They were probably over stimulated too.

Then the concert started ... Nev and I spent most of the time watching/participating. Nova, on the other hand, kept running in and out of the room and earned himself a whole bunch of time-outs (administered by Kosh, who happened to get out of work early enough to come with -- without him I have no idea how I would have coped!).

Bottom left: their first taste of ice cream, can you tell if they liked it? ;)

Purchased Stinky Cake to complement the already-known-by-heart Sticky Bubble Gum CD we already have. It hasn't taken long for these new songs to also embed themselves into our hearts / minds / dreams.

<3 A friend's kid made a comment about being in a castle (it's a church, which can certainly seem like a castle to young'uns, definitely) -- Nova and Nev have since embraced that concept, and enthusiastically look for the castle we were at whenever we drive around town ... and are also convinced we shared that castle with Rapunzel that evening :) <3

And now for why I'm fnally prompted to blog about Miss Carole... First, watch this video:

http://youtu.be/uCF3vBuxXS8

(It's not Miss Carole nor her version in the video, but it's one of the songs that was immediately a favorite of the kids)

Then check this one out:

http://youtu.be/VF787Ijtlfk

And finally, this one:

http://youtu.be/9dCXzgdTwXU

(I apologize for not properly embedding the videos -- I'll try to do that when I'm at a laptop/computer and not squinting at my phone!).

Enjoy!