Gecko House!

I say no to Tboy way too often. Why? Why not? I have a variety of reasons that range from not enough patience on my part to my constant state of exhaustion to my great disdain for messes. However, after the infamous 'Now it is time for the sprinkles' glitter incident this past Christmas, I feel as though I can clean up anything.

Last week, I resolved to think about why I am saying no - BEFORE I say it - and see if I can't say yes instead. I wouldn't say I have mastered this skill yet, but Tboy did have a nice 10 minutes playing with Lite Brite before school one day. Ordinarily, I would have said - no, we are leaving in 10 minutes. But really - why not? So, he played and I cleaned up. Not that I am gloating over one success; we've had more than that this week and at least we are on our way.

This morning, Tboy came along with boxes of his play geckos and one chameleon. Here are the geckos. Do not ask why they are resting on a bed of underwear - I know not. It must be comfortable if you are a gecko.

Here is the chameleon. Obviously, the red one is the chameleon, because it has taken on the color of the shirt it is using for it's nest.

Now, in case there was any doubt what is in this box, Tboy made a handy label.

I know it is hard to read - it says "comenleon". I love little boy spelling.

Apparently, while these nests were good, they weren't good enough. "Let's make gecko houses Mom!! I need water and food and pools!" Yes, these little geckos need their exercise, and so must have pools. Here is where I got to practice not saying no. Water? Tboy? Playing? BIG MESS BREWING! But, then I caught myself, it is just water, it will dry. I did however, limit the amount of water he could have and the size of the dishes.

Here is Gecko House, bit by bit.

First, we got the food ready. See that small cup - that is the drinking water - ha!

Tgirl only messed this up once - she had to stick her hand in the bread and grab and through. There weren't *too* many tears and screams.

Then, everything went in just so. The orange tire is the playground.

The finished product - ready for the big moving in. You can't really see it, but the drinking water cup is tucked behind the food dish. And I did relent and let the poor thing have a swimming pool.

First, we eat

Then, we swim!

While Tboy was busying finding things for the house, he came across this little guy. He was left to languish on the kitchen counter because "he is too old Mom".

Now that the chameleon is all settled in the Gecko house, he had to attend to the other mess of amphibians. I guess this is a resort. Can you believe all of the water bowls that are in there??!!!??!! At least they are on a bed of towels.

Tboy and Tgirl went upstairs, where they promptly started fighting and screaming. No good time ends well, it seems. Off they went, banished to their rooms. While I would give anything to have an interlude that did not degenerate into screaming and crying, at least we a bit of fun first.

Where are the Gecko Houses now? Why living in the cat house, of course. I guess it is a Gecko Condo.

"Mom - geckos are my favorite amphibeans. Well, except for frogs."

Pretzels and Penguins

I got a bread machine for Christmas. Well, actually, I bought myself one while shopping during the Christmas season. I count it as a present.

Today I used it to make pretzels. I set the dough to start in the machine and did a few chores. While the dough started, Tboy got busy with play dough. (By the way - a fresh supply of play dough makes it under our tree every year. We don't play with it often, but when we want it, it is nice to have.).

First, he made a giant tortilla. It actually was like a burrito, but he kept calling it a tortilla. In his mind, he was having some contest and he was going to win with the biggest one.

This was snapped right before Tgirl smashed it and caused a big to-do. She was promptly sent to the naughty chair.

Here is my pretzel dough after it came out of the machine:

Shaping took a bit of time. The directions said to roll them into long strips. In my mind, I pictured this just like making a long play dough snake. It didn't work like that; I had to really manipulate and stretch the dough to get long strips and had better success with some pieces than others. Here they are resting.

 

While I was doing these, Tboy made this incredible snowman. I wish my picture did it justice, because the snowman has both a broomstick and a cute red bird, eyes and beak included, in its hand.

Next the pretzels were boiled. That was pretty cool I think. It inspired me to try bagels, although I have no idea when I will get to that.

Now, for the penguins! It started out as Penguinsaur. This creature, I can only assume, is based on Humongosaur, an very popular creature in our house at the moment.

My pretzels were dipped in a water and baking soda mixture, placed on the baking sheet, and sprinkled with kosher salt. After about 15 or minutes in the oven out they came.

While the pretzels finished up, Tboy finished his penguin, morphing it into a much gentler looking being, with an open mouth - "I added some more details Mom".

 

So you did, my little Goo, so you did.