Tuesday Food for Thought

This is an "op-ed" piece from the New York Times, but it full of statistics and figures. A lot of the points reminded me of a book I read over Christmas, which was Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-1910, by Charles Murray. The article argues that the "differences in educational success between high- and lower-income students have grown substantially" over the past few decades and presents a lot of data.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/27/no-rich-child-left-behind/

To me, this is a huge reason why instead of just saying that the first five years of life are the most important, we actually need to DO something about it and support high-quality childcare for ALL families. But that is my soapbox. :) What are your thoughts?

A sign that you are a little too stressed

It is 1:28 pm and I just now noticed that I have been wearing this all day:

No Shampoo Challenge

So one trend in the past decade has been the No Shampoo Challenge:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-394226/Could-survive-shampoo.html

Essentially, you go for 6 weeks without shampoo. Your hair is supposed to acclimate after about 2 weeks. Will did this starting a couple of months ago and has noticed a huge improvement in his hair and scalp, and I think is set on the no shampoo bandwagon for life. (You still wash your hair with water, just not with shampoo.)

Since I love bandwagons, I decided to go in and give it a go.

Here is Day 2. Before beginning this challenge, I typically washed my hair every 2-3 days. This was normal. I felt normal.

Day 13. This is last night. I did NOT feel normal. Instead, I felt soooooo oily, like a greased-up pig. I could feel the oil dripping from my hair onto my forehead and all over the bed. I was convinced that we could have changed the oil in the car AND the van from what was in my hair.

Day 0. This is this morning. I gave in and decided that I couldn't take it anymore.

On paper, it seems like I would have been a good candidate because I have very poofy hair and the no shampoo time definitely de-poofed my hair. But I think it is better for people who naturally have a dry scalp. I am not sure how I would have survived as a pioneer in the 1800s before the days of shampoo.

Tuesday Food for Thought

http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/04/22/177455764/What-Does-Modern-Prejudice-Look-Like?utm_source=NPR&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=20130423

The ER story (near the end of this article) is chilling.

Brownie Journey - Love Water Award

Clearly there was not enough chaos with Annika's slumber party, because I scheduled a Brownie Journey workshop at the Sunset Zoo right after her party. As in, her party ended at 10 a.m. on Saturday and the workshop started at 10:30 a.m. And we were supposed to be early. Four of the five Brownies could make it, and Annika's friend Rachael was an honorary Brownie for the day. 

The workshop was really neat - it was all organized by the zoo and was designed for the girls to earn their "Love Water" award. They started by learning about birds and oil spills, complete with trying different techniques to get oil out of birds' feathers. 

The girls then enjoyed a fun tour around the zoo, with special attention to how different animals used water.

Next project - the girls worked on making clay habitats and clay animals. The zoo staff then sprayed the clay habitats with water to see what happened (nothing, only that it got wet). The then sprayed with oil to see what happened (BAD!!! DESTROYED!!!). Moral of the story - oil is bad!

The girls then synthesized all that they had learned. And petted a ferret.

When we got back to the house, Will had to rush off to work at K-State's Open House. The kids and I decided to come tour too and had a wonderful time!

Annika's 9th Birthday Celebration

Because we are gluttons for punishment, we decided to have another sleepover party to celebrate Annika's 9th birthday. It was quite fortuitous that her birthday this year was on a Friday, so she could have the party on her actual birthday. Annika wanted a small party and had six friends come over, although it did not exactly feel "small" at the time. :)

The kids arrived around 6 p.m. and spent the first part running around chaotically. This included going outside to shoot off silly string cans (you can see some of the damage below) and doing the PINATA. 

The cake! Annika spent a good deal of time talking with the baker at Dillion's about the colors and decorations that she wanted on her cake so that she could put all of her little plastic cat animals around it.

We had pizza for dinner...this was actually served before the cake, but I think that in many cases, cake was eaten first. ;)

The whole crew!

Opening presents from her super sweet friends! All of the kids were super excited by the blue bean bag chair below from her good friend Rachael.

The kids then watched movies until about 11:30 p.m. I managed to fall asleep in Daniel's bed somewhere in there, so Will was left to the task of making sure everyone actually got to sleep. This year everyone was down by 1:30 a.m., instead of 2:30 a.m., so we are going to call that a success!

A Celebration of Annika Grace

Our baby, Annika Grace, is nine years old today. Nine! This is halfway to going to college and leaving home, which I am afraid will happen in a blink of an eye. It is almost to 10, which is a double-digit, and just a few years from 13, a certified teenager. Nine feels like Childhood's Last Stand.

I had so much fun reflecting on Daniel's birthdays throughout the years that I wanted to do the same for Annika.

Zero-ith Birthday: April 19, 2004

Annika was born at 12:10 p.m. on April 19, 2004, which I only recognized in hindsight as the anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombings AND the Waco Shootout. She was 7 pounds, 7 ounces and was exactly 20 inches long. She was absolutely beautiful. Annika was born at St. Luke's South Hospital in Overland Park, Kansas, which is somewhat confusing when Annika tries to remember where she was born because we actually lived in Olathe at the time. My mom, Will's mom, and our great friend Karen were all there when Annika was born, which was just the most awesome feeling in the world - to give birth to a baby surrounded by so much love. My birth with her was decidedly NOT natural, having just about every intervention in the book short of a c-section, but I can now throw in a good word for how forceps really aren't that bad. 

1st Birthday

Annika's first birthday was celebrated at Will's parents' house in DeSoto, since Will and I were putting our house on the market in two days in preparation for our Florida move . This was the last birthday that Annika celebrated in Kansas until she turned 7. We had fried chicken and a Winnie the Pooh cake, which was Annika's first taste of sugar and she loved it. Our parents were all there along with our great friend Karen.

2nd Birthday 

We celebrated Annika's actual 2nd birthday during Nonnie's visit to us in Florida! We gave her a crab-shaped sandbox and a tricycle for the celebration (the sandbox is long gone, but Daniel is still riding the tricycle with gusto). The joy of being 2 years old is that time is very fluid; thus, we had a cookout in the park 3 weeks later to celebrate with our PhD school friends (aka, After the Semester Was Over). Here, Annika requested TWO different cakes, which Will made with our trusty cake-decorating book - a Sun Cake and a Butterfly Cake.

Third Birthday

Another birthday celebrated during a visit from Nonnie, only by this time our collective stress levels had abated enough that we had another cookout park celebration with our own school friends only ONE week after Annika's real birthday. Will had made pink-frosted cupcakes to take to Annika's daycare, only to find out that you could only bring store-bought items (more sugar for us!). For her cookout party, Annika very specifically requested a "midnight sky" BLACK cake, which we made by adding copious amounts of icing that dyed everyone's teeth blue.

4th Birthday

Annika's fourth birthday was momentous in several ways, not the least of which the fact that it was two days after Daniel was born, and in a fit to try to keep things as normal as possible since we didn't know when Daniel would make his appearance, we scheduled her party ON her birthday, too. This was Annika's first "friend party" where she invited her preschool class. Will and our mothers all ran the party since I was still in the hospital with Daniel, which Annika still likes to bring up at least once a week. :)

5th Birthday

Since we don't like to spoil a good thing, Annika's 5th birthday was AGAIN held in a park, only this time the infamous "Wooden Park" in Winter Park. A lot of friends from her preschool class came, which was fun since the whole class was off to kindergarten in a couple of months. Daniel's celebration had been the night before and Annika's was at 10:00 a.m. the next day, so I remember being kind of stressed and more irritated than I should have been that another group was also using the pavilion that we had reserved. Notice Annika's two "rainbow cakes."

6th Birthday

This was the same time as Daniel's 2nd birthday, and as with Daniel, life was a blur. Annika had her party as "Sliderz" in Oviedo, which is an indoor bounce house/inflatable/sliding place, with the thought that it would be less work than organizing something at the park. I am honestly not sure if I took any pictures. But! Here are some pictures from our professional photo shoot very soon after. 

7th Birthday

For this birthday, Annika had a "pretend sleepover." Her friends came dressed in pajamas, and enjoyed activities such as making a "nightshirt" (aka decorating a larger t-shirt with fabric markers) and watching a movie with popcorn. And the best part - at the end of the night, everyone went home to sleep!

8th Birthday

Due to all the fun had previously, we decided to be brave for Annika's 8th birthday and attempt a "real" sleepover. Annika had five other friends over and by all accounts, everyone had fun. However, my mortifying moment as a parent was waking up at 2:30 a.m. and finding that not only was everyone still awake, but they were jumping up and down screaming, "WE'RE SO HYPER!!!' Mother of the Year here. 

9th Birthday

Whew! And today, Annika is NINE YEARS OLD. There will be much celebrating, including lunch with Dad at school (who is bringing McDonald's) and sharing cupcakes with her class. 

Happy Birthday, Annika Grace. It is a joy and an honor to be your mother. You have changed my life in more ways than I thought possible, challenged me to grow in areas that I didn't know I was capable of, and most of all, showed me that I could just trust myself.  I love you, kiddo.