Wenatchee Mom Blog - August 2016

August 2016

Back To School SURVIVING YOUR PARTNER’S

PREGNANCY

PLAY WITH

PURPOSE

PUBLIC

TANTRUMS

SHOWS FOR KIDS

EXERCISE

FOR MAMAS

Supplement to

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Thursday, August 11, 2016

Wenatchee Mom Blog

INSIDE It’s That Time Again.................04 Play With A Purpose................05 Surviving Your Partner’s Pregnancy...............................06

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Public Tantrums......................07 Exercise For Mamas................08 Confession Of A Sports Mom...09 The Injured List.......................10 TV Shows For Children.............11 From Bed To Bench..................12

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Wenatchee Mom Blog is published online at wenatcheemomblog.com Questions about blog content? Contact Digital Manager, Kelli Scott, at kscott@wenatcheeworld.com or 509-661-5205.

Questions about advertising? Contact Advertising Director, Andrea Andrus, at andrus@wenatcheeworld.com or 509-664-7136.

Wenatchee Mom Blog

Thursday, August 11, 2016

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Thursday, August 11, 2016

Wenatchee Mom Blog

It’s That Time Again

By Kelli Scott Wenatchee Mom Blog

T hank You to our Sponsors!

I

t may still be summer out there right now, but in just a few more weeks, the weather will turn, the leaves will fall and our children will once again pile into that big yellow bus and head back to school.

How are all of you parents out there feeling about this? Are your kids signed up for music and dance yet? Ready for all that homework? The after-school activities? The BFF drama?

The women and men who write for Wenatchee Mom Blog are right there with you, parenting kids of all ages and writing about their experiences every day on the blog.

Andrea Andrus’ daughter is heading into middle school. Cal FitzSimmons’ youngest is starting high school. A few bloggers are navigating the elementary school years. And Dominick and Kathryn Bonny are about to welcome a new baby.

So whatever age your kids are, wherever they are in school, Wenatchee Mom Blog has the stories that will make you laugh and keep you informed this school year.

facebook.com/wenmomblog instagram.com/wenmomblog wenatcheemomblog.com #wenmomblog

On Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, our bloggers share their stories and pass along local resources they love. On Thursdays, we post a list of events, so you always know what’s happening around town before it happens. On Fridays, we round up some fun links from around the web — videos, stories and more — to start your weekend right.

We’re here for you all year long, at wenatcheemomblog.com and Wenatchee Mom Blog on Facebook. Welcome back to the school year, moms and dads. It’s going to be a great one!

Kelli is a newspaper writer living in Wenatchee with her husband, children and a good dog named Barkley. She checks Facebook from work to see what crafty things her stay-at-home friends are doing. Kelli blogs about balancing career and family life for wenatcheemomblog.com

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Wenatchee Mom Blog

Thursday, August 11, 2016

BLOG FEATURE

Play With A Purpose

By Kelli Scott

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got a text from a friend: “Have you heard of this place called TEAMS? It’s a drop-in child care center and it’s $20 for three hours. That’s less than I pay a babysitter!”

Um, what? I knew right away that I needed this place in my life. And I needed to learn more. So the next week I walked over and chatted with the founder of TEAMS Learning Center, Joy Robertson.

“Teacher Joy” is someone who is clearly passionate about early childhood education. This is her life’s work — she ran The Learning Curve on Maiden Lane and Western Avenue for many years.

Now she has returned to the field and opened this non-profit center for children ages 0-5.

TEAMS offers three three-hour sessions Monday through Friday — from 9 a.m. to noon, from 1-4 p.m. and from 5-8 p.m. It costs $20 per child per session, and siblings are welcome during the evening session. It’s the perfect amount of time for busy parents to run errands, clean the house, or maybe even go out for a kid-free dinner. And there’s no commitment — no daycare applications or contracts. This is just a fun place for the kids to play for a few hours when you need some time to do other things.

And when your kids are playing at TEAMS, they are learning — making noise, dancing around,

being silly and getting messy. Don’t really want your 3-year-old to experiment with paint at your kitchen table? Take him to see Teacher Joy and let him go crazy with the paint! The bright, open room is broken into learning centers, areas to play dress up, read quietly, build with blocks, dance and sing.

There’s a sensory table. There’s a garden outside.

There are daily activities. On the day I visited, the children were painting with lemons (and making lemonade). It’s all very intentional stuff, activities chosen to support a child’s interests and brain development. Joy calls it “learning through play.”

Our mission is to enhance the lives of young children by supporting families in our community through Training Educating And Mentoring Services.

On May 16th we opened a new non-profit learning center with a focus on adult and child education.

We offer part-time early learning sessions and drop-in care for 0-5 year old children as well as respite care for families in crisis. We will host parent and teacher support groups and trainings in addition to providing observation opportunities for local professional use and parent observations.

Our desire is to fill in areas where support is needed for families and teachers of young children and bring them together with the great programs already available in our community.

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Joy says: “We teach them how to learn so they can be successful when they get into elementary school and can become lifelong learners.”

All that AND three free hours for you to get stuff done. Sounds like a win-win to me!

TEAMS Learning Center is located behind the Woods House Conservatory of Music at 21 North Buchanan Street in Wenatchee. For more information, go to teamslearningcenter.org

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Listen to Connor on KW3 each weekday morning at 7:50 a.m. as he chats about the Wenatchee Mom Blog. wenatcheemomblog.com #wenmomblog

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Thursday, August 11, 2016

Wenatchee Mom Blog

BLOG FEATURE

7 Tips For Surviving Your Partner’s Pregnancy, Should You Be Allowed To Mate L

et’s face it: if some lovely lady is kind enough to put up with your shenanigans and decides to make another person with you, you are very lucky.

Not everyone GETS to be a parent, and not everyone SHOULD be a parent, but if your wife is pregnant you ARE going to be a parent.

Period. So it’s best to be prepared, and part of being prepared is knowing what pitfalls to avoid. Here are few tips for staying sane and more importantly, helping her stay sane during pregnancy: Wenatchee 1. Don’t say “we’re Mom Blog pregnant” – it’s weird.

Contributor Only one of you is literally assembling a human being,

Dominick Bonny

“Whatever she wants to eat, get it, and quickly.” and it’s not you, brah. She’s in the driver’s seat.

You’re along for the ride. She’s the star of the show, you’re not even in the show. You’re the personal assistant to the star of the show.

2. Whatever she wants to eat, get it, and quickly.

3. The phrase “I need to pee” should be met with the same sense of urgency one approaches a structure fire. It’s a situation that needs to be dealt with post haste.

4. Don’t look at your phone (or any device for that matter) during doctor appointments. Don’t even take your phone to doctor’s appointments. Be in the moment, be present, listen, ask questions.

Otherwise you’ll miss out on important memories.

But more immediate and terrifying — you’ll find your mate has turned into an angry badger once you reach the privacy of your car.

5. Tell her she is beautiful every day. Motherhood

is a lovely thing. Something within us at a very basic level understands and appreciates that. But she might not feel that way about it while she’s going through it. So make sure to remind her.

6. Plan, but don’t over-prepare. One thing I’ve learned from spending massive amounts of time with children is that the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, as the saying goes. Be prepared to receive a new life, but don’t spend your partner’s pregnancy engaged in one long study hall, trying to pack all the baby knowledge in the known universe into your head.

7. Take time to experience your partner’s pregnancy with her. Take time off work to go to appointments, to prepare your home, or even to take a walk with her. Feel her belly every day.

These nine months are fleeting, and you can never go back and make the memories that come from just being there.

Wenatchee Mom Blog

Thursday, August 11, 2016

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BLOG FEATURE

Public Tantrums

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drop my 3-year old son off at Playland at Fred Meyer pretty regularly. Regularly enough that he knows all the attendants and has his favorite toys in there. Sometimes I go grocery shopping. Sometimes I peruse the book section. And sometimes I sit at Starbucks and space out for an hour, the maximum time allotted at Playland. I used to bring my laptop and write, but those days were short-lived, as my infant daughter is no longer content to just fall asleep in the front pack.

Wenatchee Two weeks ago we were Mom Blog there, entering the store on Contributor the Starbucks side. That was my downfall. My precocious boy said “I want a chocolate” as we walked by the basket displaying chocolate wafers at the Star-

Lorna Rose

bucks counter. I told him he couldn’t have one, but if he was good he’d get a treat when we got back to the car (the treat was dried fruit, but that’s just as exciting as chocolate, right?!). I dropped him off at Playland and my daughter (peering out from the front pack) and I went about our business.

I returned an hour later to collect him and, knowing he has a stubborn combination of tenacity and good memory (yup, my genes), did my best to lead him out the non-Starbucks side. It didn’t happen.

Immediately he made a run for those chocolates. It was terrifying.

Ten seconds later, after I told him no, he was on the floor in full-blown tantrum mode in front of Starbucks. The red face. The tears. The kicking and yelling for chocolate. Never had I seen him like this.

(Sure, we have tantrums at home, but they are mild and don’t last long; he’s a pretty easygoing kid).

I had complete tunnel vision. My only goal in the world was to get him off the floor and out the door as quickly as possible. I felt the weight of hundreds

of eyes on me. The entire store was watching to see what I’d do. I heard a man’s voice tell me there were wooden spoons sold in the kitchen department. Thanks, dude. Interesting what we joke about when uncomfortable.

As best I could with my daughter in the front pack, I squatted down next to my son, my voice growing in volume and firmness as I talk to him.

But he is in the throes of his throws and not responding. After what seemed like an hour, a woman offered me her cart (thank you woman!). I loaded him, still kicking and screaming, and we got the heck out of there. At the car I wrestled him into the car seat and listened to his cries and screams all the way home. By the time we got home he had calmed down, so we talked. I explained why he couldn’t have that chocolate, and why his behavior was not acceptable. Being an analyzer and a processor, I think he got it. After that we were able to carry on and have a good rest of the day, but man, it was rough for a little bit.

What I learned that day: it doesn’t matter what others say or think, do what you have to do to survive the moment. And I’m glad I didn’t give in to the tantrum. We’ve been to Fred Meyer since, and in my mind I announce “yes, it’s us!” as we walk in, but I don’t think anyone remembers.

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Thursday, August 11, 2016

Wenatchee Mom Blog

BLOG FEATURE

Exercise For Mamas

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i Wenatchee moms! Are you all getting enough exercise? It’s tough for moms, isn’t it? It’s really important to move our bodies every day and we often do that for our children — taking them to practice, gymnastics, the pool — but it’s hard to fit in enough exercise for ourselves either on these outings while we’re watching our children, or by ourselves later. And we don’t often have extra time.

There are a lot of challenges, really: money, time and opportunities. But we are Wenatchee super lucky to live in the Mom Blog Wenatchee Valley where we Contributor have such good weather and access to many hiking trails and the beautiful riverfront trail, as well as an inexpensive city pool. Here are a few fun, quick ideas to get you started.

I find its helpful to embrace the season of life you’re in and match your exercise to it. Often that means multitasking as well! If you have a newborn, put her in a backpack or wrap and get some close one-on-one time while you walk.

Load up toddlers in a wagon and take them on an adventure around your neighborhood. Start small, maybe 10 minutes, and then build up to 30 or 45 minutes every day. My 1 1/2-year-old son does really well in a stroller for about 40 minutes, and then he starts to fuss. If there’s

Clara Field

construction going on or a lot of dogs to look at, then that buys me a few more minutes. If you have bigger kids in sports or in gymnastics, try moving while they are busy moving. Take a

couple laps around the field while your kids are having soccer practice, go for a run the hour that your pre-schooler is in gymnastics, or swim laps while they’re in swimming lessons.

You can work out for an hour all at once, or an hour spread out throughout your day. If you are one of those people who has no extra time anywhere, think about how you can make over a few aspects of your day. We all do some amount of cleaning and tidying, so make it fun and turn on music and do it quickly to get your heart rate up. Think of mowing the lawn and gardening as exercise, not just a chore. If you spend time reading, download your books on your device and take an hour walk while listening to your book. If you read for an hour a couple times a week, this way you would be getting exercise as well. If you work full time and have a good amount of time for lunch, spend the first half walking near your work. Then do a couple of stretches, eat lunch, drink a bottle of water and you will feel more ready to get back to work.

Think about things that are nearby your home but you always drive to. Try walking instead and put a couple kids in a stroller or a backpack.

It will be hard and a lot of effort but that effort actually translates to you getting healthier and stronger. Think, the library, one or two items at the grocery store, walking instead of driving your kids to school or their friends’ house…sure it takes a bit longer, but your body will thank you for it.

Every little bit of movement adds up to better health for your body. Think about where you live, where you are in life, what your responsibilities are and what kind of time you have, and do what works for you to move!

Wenatchee Mom Blog

Thursday, August 11, 2016

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BLOG FEATURE

Confessions Of A Sports Mom I

t’s late on a Wednesday afternoon and as I head home after a full day of work, I’m mentally psyching myself out for what is coming next. My sons have baseball and soccer practice — on fields about a mile apart — at the same exact time. My husband has youth group on Wednesday afternoons, so sports practices and games are all me, along with watching our rambunctious 5-year-old daughter.

Game on!

I take a shortened lunch Wenatchee break to get off early, and as I Mom Blog Contributor drive to church for the handoff from their dad, I’m running through the steps in my head. I’ll drop Calum off about 10 minutes early to soccer practice.

His coaches are always there early. He’s 9, so he doesn’t mind that his mom isn’t on the sidelines.

Then I’ll zip over the baseball complex for Patrick’s practice. In the scenario in my head, there is never traffic. The kids are always cooperative. We have plenty of snacks and warm clothes in the car.

Sometimes, I hear the “Mission Impossible” theme song playing in my head. I am Super Mom.

Michelle McNiel

But on this particular Wednesday, the song quickly fades and the cape flutters away in the breeze as I arrive at church to get the kids. Baseball mitt, baseball bat and soccer socks have all been forgotten at home. It’s a 20-minute round-trip drive home — and practice starts in 10 minutes.

Grumpily, I race home to get forgotten sports equipment. I can still do this. But halfway back to town, I realize we also don’t have water bottles.

(Deep breath). So I get to the soccer field, wrestle shin guards and socks into place, lace up shoes and send the first boy off to practice. Then we head to baseball, where my middle child is now very late.

We sprint to the right field and apologize profusely to the coach. Then I drag my now-disgruntled

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5-year-old, who wants to stay and play with all the other little sisters, to the store to buy water bottles. We drop one off at soccer and then back to baseball. But by then it was time to go right back and pick my oldest up from soccer. I’ll admit that by now, I’m cursing my husband, spring sports in general, and have lost my temper with my daughter more times than I should say.

Once practices are done, I’m too tired to worry about dinner. So we grab fast food and I promise myself that it’ll be better next time. But with two kids in sports at the same time, it’s really never easy. Most weeks we have more than a half dozen practices and/or games. Often times overlapping.

That in additional to work, school, church,

homework, chores, drum lesson, and everything else.

My son asked his little sister this week when she was going to start playing a spring sport. I cringed.

I have no idea what I’m going to do if she wants to play something next year. We made her take a break from ice skating lessons until soccer and baseball are finished this year.

What I’d really like to know is how other parents with three-plus kids or single parents with multiple kids do this. I’m a pretty good multi-tasker, but spring sports season makes me feel like a complete failure.

I’ve read a few other mom bloggers writing about sports with big families. Some employ the all-in-one approach, where all kids play the same sport. We’ll be doing that with hockey this winter.

Unfortunately, they’re all at different levels, so it will mean some long days at the ice rink. Some families limit the number of kids in sports at the same time.

Our boys are pretty passionate about baseball and soccer, so I couldn’t make one sit out a season.

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Thursday, August 11, 2016

Wenatchee Mom Blog

BLOG FEATURE

The Injured List How To Occupy Your Hurt Kids

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his time last year, as school was winding down for the year and we were gearing up for summer vacation, we had our best-laid plans rearranged by back-toback medical emergencies involving two of our otherwise healthy kids.

Four surgeries in less than a month, two kids laid up at the same time, and mounting medical bills are challenging, to say the least. But through it I discovered that I am stronger than I thought and Wenatchee that my kids are braver and Mom Blog more resilient than I ever Contributor imagined.

Here’s how it went down.

Two days after my daughter’s preschool class let out for the summer, she was swinging on our

Michelle McNiel

backyard swing set. She had recently learned how to pump her legs to get higher and she had mastered the skill very quickly. After watching her older brothers jump off their swings and make funny poses mid-air before hitting the ground rolling, she decided to give it a try herself. We had no idea, of course. She hadn’t fully grasped the concept yet. So instead of letting go of the swing chain on the forward swing, she let go on the backswing and promptly fell out.

It was obvious right away that her left wrist was broken. So off to the emergency room we went.

There were surprisingly few tears.

An effort to surgically set her arm under conscious sedation that night was unsuccessful.

So we were back at the hospital the next day for a more involved surgery and installation of a pin. She was excited about bringing her beloved pink puppy, Paris, into the operating room. I was humbled by her fearlessness. Her only tears through the whole

broken-arm ordeal came when they put in an IV in the emergency room the day of the accident.

As fate would have it, about a week and a half later our 8-year-old son had to undergo surgery for an internal defect that was discovered during his annual Well Child checkup. Apparently he’d had it since birth, but it required immediate surgery because there was a threat of irreparable damage .

Now we had two kids laid up. That meant the swimming pool wasn’t going up yet. No swinging, running, bike-riding, and many of their normal summer activities either.

But we also didn’t want our kids sitting around watching TV or playing their handheld devices all day.

Here’s a few of our ideas for convalescing kids: Stock up on library books.

Legos. Big foam blocks. Army guys. Toy cars and anything that can be used as track.

We bought our daughter little princess dolls

with clip-on dresses that were easy to use with her casted arm. (We have a collection of them that we’re ready to pass on if anyone has a young child with a broken arm right now).

Drawing. Coloring. We had a collection of coloring books, drawing pads, crayons and pens at the ready.

We also allowed more than their usual 30 minutes of screen time a day. After all, they had to lay low for a few weeks. But once they were well enough, we cut back and started resuming our normal summer fun.

We had one more operation at the end of our broken-arm ordeal when the cast came off and it was discovered that the pin had shifted and retreated into her arm somewhere. But once that incision healed, the bikes, pool and slip-and-slide came out and summer began in earnest.

We’re hoping for a less dramatic start to summer this year.

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Wenatchee Mom Blog

Thursday, August 11, 2016

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BLOG FEATURE

TV Shows For Children Aren’t So Bad Anymore Or Are They?

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y the time I had kids, programming for children had become more meaningful and educational.

My childhood TV viewing taught me what an anvil was (oddly shaped metal object) and what it was used for (dropping on a head). My math lessons came from counting the sticks of lit dynamite being shoved into a cartoon character’s mouth.

At some point, commercial children’s television grew the sort of social conscience Wenatchee that had previously been Mom Blog relegated to PBS. Contributor One of my kids loved “Dora the Explorer,” a tale of a 7-year-old Latina allowed to roam the countryside unsupervised on mostly pointless adventures. (Unsupervised unless you consider a monkey a suitable guardian.)

There was a fox named Swiper who stalked the girl throughout the show. Oddly, Swiper wore a mask. Why? Without it, he’s just another fox, indistinguishable from all the other foxes. With it, he was Swiper. Was he trying to disguise or identify himself?

Cal FitzSimmons

Either way, he was a lousy thief who was easily dissuaded from his felonious ways by a threeword mantra. In the rare cases he was successful, he’d simply throw the stolen item, leading Dora on a miniadventure to find it, though it was always in plain sight.

One of my other kids was a big fan of “Blue’s Clues,” a show that each episode had a not-quite-creepy man being ordered around by his dog via ridiculously easy clues. Each clue was treated like the holy grail, with the goofy, and apparently memory-stunted adult drawing it in a “handydandy notebook.” Much like “Dora the Explorer,” the end of the journey was ultimately unsatisfying, other than over-exuberant celebrations.

But these shows and many more like them were a new breed of children’s programming that was designed to be instructional, many tidily concluding with subtle moral lessons. While discouraging children from watching TV has always seemed like a good idea, kid programs are not entirely without value.

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Dora, in the course of her mind-numbing quests, taught kids Spanish words and phrases while “Blues Clues” taught them, uh, how to draw things? Both were gentle, kind and respectful, unlike the days of giant wooden mallets crashing down on heads, raising a hilarious ring of dancing stars or birds.

(I intentionally avoided talking about Barney, because nobody ever, anywhere should talk about Barney.)

My oldest son was 3 years old when the first “Spider-Man” movie came out in 2002, too young to actually see something with so much violence. But somehow he was a huge fan anyway.

Marketing experts had found a back door into his brain. Thus, he had to have every promotional product. There were Spider-man sheets for his bed, posters lining his bedroom walls, a Spiderman backpack, shirts, pajamas, shoes (Velcro!) , hats and all the food and drink products, good and bad, with tie-ins to the character and movie.

Frankly, it was exhausting keeping up with his Spider-man obsession.

One morning I saw a newspaper advertisement for the opening of a new shoe store that said “Special Guest Appearance by The Amazing Spider-Man!” It was going on at that very moment, so I quickly advised Son No. 1, who seemed stunned that something so miraculously wonderful could be happening.

We quickly jumped into action and took along his older sister, who did not care a smidgen about Spider-man but was always cheerfully up for an adventure, much like Dora.

Unfortunately, my son cracked under the pressure. He did not put on his Spider-man shoes, nor any of his many Spider-man shirts. He did not wear his Spider-man ball cap. In fact, for some bizarre reason he put on a Winnie the Pooh hat.

Oh bother.

When it came time to actually meet the webslinger, he froze. All he could do was stare blankly and silently the whole time while Spider-man tried with no avail to coax some reaction out of him.

Other than learning about my child’s inability to handle pressure, Spider-man taught me how easily influenced young children can be by clever marketers. How did they reach him?

More than likely, through the commercials that come with the suddenly not-so-bad children’s TV shows.

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Thursday, August 11, 2016

Wenatchee Mom Blog

BLOG FEATURE

From Bed To Bench: A $5 Flip I

picked up a twin headboard and footboard at a yard sale awhile ago for five dollars. I knew I could find a use for it! I love a good flip, so I started getting ideas for headboard benches. Adorable and affordable… plus plus!!

When I asked my husband to cut the footboard in half, I kinda got the crazy eye, but I told him it would be great! Next step was attaching the two pieces of the footboard on the sides of the headboard, making Wenatchee the arm rest. Yes! Mom Blog Contributor I painted the bed-turnedbench frame white and that’s where my creativity stopped. I had several thoughts on how I would incorporate the bench seat, but I had crafter’s block. For two months that bench sadly sat in the shop half done. Hello spring! Hello new, fresh ideas! OK, I decided I wanted this bench done now, and it would fit perfectly on my front porch. So, my handyman husband cut the wood I needed and I stained it.

I love the contrast between the bright white and the dark stain. And if course, I distressed it a

Tara Tupling

bit with sandpaper and it was complete. It looks great on my front porch and I might even add a pillow or two. Just like writers, crafters go through times when they suffer a lack of creativity, but all it takes to break out of is a little sunshine, change of season and inspiration. Seriously, this project cost me five dollars. That’s it! I had the wood for the seat, the stain and paint. What a flip! So if you see something that catches your eye, at a price you can’t refuse, purchase! Sooner or later you will find the perfect project for that flip. You don’t have to spend a fortune to get those flipped results, just a little time. Happy Flipping!

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Fall Registration Now Open Online View our website for forms and class info.

www.nextstepdance08.com Fall classes begin September 19th

Have you taken the NEXT STEP?

Owner/Director Rebecca Allen 509-662-8987 108 First Street in Downtown Wenatchee

nextstepdance08@gmail.com

Mr. Francois Serre Y Berga will be returning for another year as our ballet head master!