Mother’s Day. Blerg.

First of all, let me say that I have lost the USB cord to my camera.  I ordered a new one and it shipped on Monday, but the estimated arrival date… June 6th.  Did the mix up my address with one of their customers on Mars?!!  Come on!  In the age of Amazon Prime and Zappos, how does ANYTHING take three weeks to ship?

All that to say that we’re just going to have to go with iPhone pics.  Hopefully, with the help of some snazzy iPhone apps, it won’t be too much of a train wreck.

Now.  Let’s talk a little about Mother’s Day.  It’s a day that I’m conflicted about.  Don’t get me wrong– I love a day that brings all sorts of kid-crafted, construction paper goodness.  And with a three year-old and five year-old, I was BLESSED this year.

Can we just agree, though, that most of these little projects, crafted with love by little hands are designed to rip us to shreds humble us?

Take this little piece of goodness by the three year-old:

Sweet, huh?  I can make out a head, some arms, even a set of earrings.  Some might even call this a masterpiece.  But see that green?  On my face?  That would be boogers.  My sweet baby girl has entitled this “Mommy, Picking Her Nose”.

Presh.

Check out this sweet little book made by my kindergartener:

Harmless enough.  And it is shaped like a handbag, forcryingoutloud!  It even starts out so innocent and sweet.

I mean, 26. That’s what I’m talking about!  Don’t be deceived though.  It contains truth.  The ugly kind.

Now, this wasn’t a set up.  It was a perfect opportunity to for a sweet little boy to let his mommy know that he notices what’s important to her– reading books, singing silly songs to her children, dancing all crazy in the living room.  Or, you know, taking a nap.  Yep, Mommy is lazy.

And, how does this perfectly packaged self-esteem shredder end:

Dial up your nearest social worker, y’all, because Mommy forgets to buckle his seat belt.  With this prompt, is there any way for the to end on a high note?  I think not.

(Before you actually call DHR, please know that I do forget to buckle his seat belt about fifty percent of the time.  However, being the fine, upstanding citizen and obeyer of the law that he is– THAT I AM RAISING HIM TO BE– he alerts me and it’s buckled before we even pull out of the drive way.)

But there is no time to lick my wounds and nurse my delicate ego from the slaughter that we call Mother’s Day.  For I have need to hurry up and spend these beauties:

… I’m expecting a home inspection any day now.

Brick Building Bryants

Did you know that the LEGO store, at the Galleria Mall, hosts a Monthly Mini Model Build event where kids get to come in, build something alongside a LEGO employee and then take it home? For FREE? How cool is that?

Last month’s model was a hockey player. Last night we went and walked out with a Spring-time garden scene complete with a LEGO snake. These Monthly Model Mini Builds get pretty crowded and you have to line up around the corner where an employee will hand you a card when it’s your kids’ turn. So take a friend like we did. The line wait is much better when your 5-year-old has someone to cut up with.

People start lining up at 5 p.m. and it goes until the shop runs out of kits. You can download the Hoover store’s complete calendar for upcoming Monthly Mini Model Builds from their site (pdf download).

Allowance

Confession:  We’ve been putting it off.

It’s a large undertaking as far as parenting goes.  You want to do it right.  You need to do it right.  There are some pretty serious implications and some not-so-great habits and attitudes about money that can ruin your child’s adulthood.  And there are as many different ways to do it as there are parental units.

Allowance.

**shudder**

We recently took the plunge and implemented a chore chart system.  We know it’s probably way past time to start it with our five year-old, but my need to pick   Just. The. Right. Chart. System.  kind of held us up.  You see, I’m a bit of a rule follower.  And if I start a system, then I stick to that system.  Failure to do so results in complete failure.  And if I fail, well, there may be some self-loathing involved.

Needless to say, the pressure has been on.

Thanks to a well-timed post from Mary at Giving Up On Perfect, I found a system that piqued my interest over at Simple Mom.  It’s a basic chart that you can customize with your own chore list.  The child gets a sticker for each task completed.  At the end of each week, he/she is paid a nickel per sticker.

We are a few days into the system and it seems to be working well.  C  loves getting to fill in the chart with stickers and is taking pride in some of the new ways he is able to be helpful around the house.

While he is eager to earn some dough for spending, T and I are eager to teach him about saving and giving.  We will be using a jar system much like this one, but since C doesn’t understand percentages at this point, I’m not sure how to direct him as far as how much to save and how much to give.  I don’t really want to mandate amounts or percentages, since I really want to him to develop a heart for giving, not an auto-response to a mandate.  However, I fear that this will yield a couple of scant jars.

Dude loves him a Lego block.

And at this point, he loves it more than he loves the warm fuzzy feeling he gets from helping others or from securing his future with a financial cushion.

So, how do you handle allowance at your house?  Do you require your child to save or give a certain amount?  Is is merely a suggestion?

A Little More of Us

It’s probably time that you know a little more about us here at Bryants of Bham.  And what better way to know us than to first see us.

In the spirit of true transparency, there are a few things you should know about this picture:
1.  It was taken over a year ago.
2.  I chose it because my arms look thin.
3.  We don’t typically coordinate our attire.
4.  We don’t typically wear pink. (Ok, the little one does.  Like, a lot.)
5.  We are suckers for a themed birthday party.

Now you’ve seen us.

Or you’ve seen us back in August of 2010.  Trust me, though, my arms really are still that thin, they’re just not very photogenic.

Ahem.

Now for a little bit about us, though I won’t name names in order to protect each member’s privacy/dignity:
1.  At least two of us prefer not to wear pants every chance he/she/we get.
2.  At least two of us, maybe three, are a little too preoccupied with superheroes.  And Legos.  And Lego superheroes.
3.  At least one of us stocks the pantry shelves with labels facing out.
4.  At least four of us like books.  Like, really really like.
5.  At least three of us never put a new roll of toilet paper on the holder when we’ve used up the previous roll.
6.  At least two of us have moves like Jagger.
7.  At least one of us currently has her socks on her hands and is performing some sort of burping puppet show from behind my laptop.

So, you’ve seen more of us.

Feel free to say “hi” in the comments.  And let us know what you’d like to see more of here at Bryants of Bham.

Happy Thanksgiving and Safe Travels!

I guess the holiday season has officially started. I have not been in the stores yet, but there are a few homes I pass, on my way home from work each day, that already have Christmas trees up! We also spent last evening flitting between stores and CostCo, gatherting what we need for visiting family this weekend.

It is kind of a relief that we don’t have to be on the road this week. Of course, the down side is that everyone else has to. So if you are having to travel. . . be careful!

And have a Happy Thanksgiving!