Winters Kids

Just a little update about what in the world we're doing these days…

Who’s The Sucker Now?

March 17th, 2010 by karli

Mylie is a thumbsucker. It’s in her blood. Her father was a long-term thumb sucker as well. It is so highly ingrained in her DNA that when she was born, she had a blister on her hand from sucking in utero.

When she was born, she couldn’t quite get the thumb into her mouth successfully, so a pacifier sufficed for the short term. But she was merely weeks old when she was able to find the appropriate digit consistently, and after that the pacifiers were generally worthless.

I’ll be honest… we knew we were judged. Friends and family alike would make comments like, “Oh, I would never want my kid to suck her thumb. You can throw away a pacifier, but what do you do with a finger?” And we would merely look at them and smile sweetly. Because the truth is… as an itty bitty baby she was so cute sucking away on her little thumb. PLUS, we had a baby who knew how to self-soothe, and we never had to make midnight trips into the nursery to pop the paci back in. Nope, our kid slept 12 hours by 12 weeks and took two 2-hour naps a day, credited partially to the fact that if it fell out, she could stick it right back in without having to regain complete consciousness. It was lovely.

Really Truly - Thumb Sucking Babies Are Sweet

Buuutttt…. then she grew up. She turned two. Then three. Then four. The dentist started commenting about how we needed to get her to stop. Her teeth started to protrude out a bit. And we started itching for her to quit the habit. It just wasn’t that cute anymore, and it was border-lining on gross.

Thumbsucking at Two... kinda cute

Thumbsucking at Three... Not so cute anymore

For those of you who know us well, you’ll remember some of the difficulties we faced continue to face with potty training. Through all the suggestions we’ve been given and tactics we’ve tried, it continues to be a power struggle (though much better now than it used to be). So, as we’re just barely over that fight, I’ve been in no hurry to start a new one that I was sure would have similarly frustrating outcomes.

Luckily, even though we can’t remove or cut off her thumbs, I did believe I had a secret weapon up my sleeve. Her thumb sucking was almost completely tied to her blankies, and only happened when one was in hand. So over the course of the last couple years I’ve tried to discourage the blankies. First, they were no longer allowed in the car or out of the house. Then, we had her leave them in her bed except when watching movies or TV. I’ve been prepping her for the last couple years that at age 5, the blankies will be banished to bed only. She’s been prepared for that momentous day for quite some time.

To up the ante on quitting the thumb as well, I, being the stupid mother I am who never learns her lesson, decided I would throw a trip to Disneyland in the mix. I know, I know, I can hear the gasps now. But, since I wanted to take her to the Happiest Place on Earth about the time she was five, and because she had specifically said she wasn’t going to quit sucking her thumb until she was five, I figured the timing would work out swimmingly. Plus, after the potty training hell, I figured 5 would turn more into 6 or even later. I was sure I was safe.

Yes, famous last words. Turns out, the kid has more gumption than I knew. A few weeks ago, she was looking at her teeth next to Nolan’s in the mirror. She asked why hers had such a big gap and stuck out and why Nolan’s didn’t. While we’re not for making girls all self-conscious at an early age, Nick was honest with her. He told her it was because she sucked her thumb, and that if she continued to suck her thumb, it would get worse (okay, he was only partially honest… she would have a gap regardless… she and Nolan got COMPLETELY different sets of teeth out of the gene pool). So she, of course, said, “I’m not going to suck my thumb anymore.” And we smiled and nodded and then rolled our eyes at each other. I’m pretty sure, “Yeah right,” was what I muttered under my breath.

Um, yeah. Guess who hasn’t sucked her thumb since that very moment? That’s right, it’s been almost a month with no wet thumbs in sight. The girl up and quit cold turkey. We haven’t gone so far as to video tape her sleeping, and she did admit that one time she woke up in the middle of the night and found herself sucking, but stopped immediately. Still. Cold turkey? Really?

And now, of course, I’m the sucker who has to try to figure out a way to make good on the Disney promise before she starts calling me a liar. But really, couldn’t she have decided to do this a little before we booked the vacation to EUROPE?! How are we supposed to budget in Disneyland for a four year old who all the sudden decided she wanted to grow up, and with straight teeth to boot? Ah well, I guess what we fork over for Disneyland will just come out of the pot we were saving up for braces for her, right? Right.

Move Over Mickey, cuz here comes Mylie!

Move Over Mickey, cuz here comes Mylie!



Posted in Mylie, Parenthood, The Kids | 4 Comments »

A Magic World

March 17th, 2010 by karli

I posted recently about how Mylie’s reading skills have taken off (through no help of ours, I might add). I give full credit to Starfall.com and PBS’s WordWorld. But truly, as our good friend and children’s librarian said, we are entering a whole new world. And I am having so much fun!

We’ve been making many more library trips lately, as Mylie is devouring books. We’ve found the 1st-2nd grade readers to be just about perfect, and she has really been enjoying reading those to Nolan. Some of her favorites include the Poppleton books, Amelia Bedelia books and The Gingerbread Man by Jim Aylesworth. I’ve also been noticing so many more businesses in our community now, as I’m having their signs being read to me as we drive pass.

And then I found them. Some friends clued me in to The Magic Tree House Series, which is an adventure series of short chapter books in which a brother and sister pair are magically transported through their tree house to various places and time in history. There they learn all about what happens in that time period and have fun adventures. Yeah, it’s awesome. And though I know they’ve been around for awhile and are probably old news to all y’all with older kids, I’m totally loving this new magic world. Because, not only are the books educational, but many of them come with separate educational non-fiction guides about the historical period. AND, I can go online and print a plethora of worksheets and other activities to go along with them. I’m giddy. I’m in love. Oh, and Mylie likes them too. And, though she couldn’t sit down and read them to herself quite yet, once I’ve read them to her, I’ve caught her going back and reading the chapters out loud again. And I’m all the more excited because until she was well over two, we couldn’t get her to sit still to read a book to save our lives. But we may make a bookworm out of her yet!



The Magic Tree House - A Magic New World



P.S. Nick was bummed that no one ever comments on his posts. Have some pity… share the love below.

Posted in Mylie, The Kids | 1 Comment »

The crayon is mightier…

March 13th, 2010 by nick

Both Karli and I have wondered when this day would come for our little boy. Possibly it has already but I saw it quite obviously today. Somehow all boys know how to make anything turn into a gun. Mylie was eating her dinner while Nolan was playing in the living room (he was already done with dinner). All of a sudden I heard “pquew, pquew” (how would you spell it?) coming from both of them and they each had a crayon and were shooting each other. It is amazing how kids learn from their surroundings but I am not sure from where this one came. I don’t even know which one started it first. I tried prodding to find out where they learned it but Mylie did not confess to anything.

Now, I was one of those kids who could turn anything into a gun. I also remember playing toy guns with other boys in our neighborhoods and had quite the fun time. One day we even had a shoot out where we got to choose the toy gun and what part of the body we get shot at. The one who “died” the best got to take his turn and choose the next toy gun and body part. I even made a wooden toy gun in my wood shop class. Imagine the public schools allowing that now.

My point is I am not an overly concerned parent but it’s just another step in our kids’ development. Even though I don’t want to encourage the behavior, I find it fun to see how their imagination works and reminds me of myself as a kid.

Posted in Mylie, Nolan, The Kids | 4 Comments »

A Working Dad

March 9th, 2010 by karli

Preschool was at our house again today, and our topic was Community and Occupations. At the beginning of each session, the kids are supposed to answer a question of the day. Today’s question was: “What Does Your Dad Do For Work?”

Here are the responses:

D – He works at Blue Stations and has a bubble machine and a picture from Chuck E Cheese. (Where do I sign up for THAT job?)

Mylie – He works for people who don’t have any money. He sits down at a computer. (That’s too bad – I was hoping he was working for people WITH money. I like the people who pay us to have money. She must have been paying attention when we were discussing the passage of measures 66 & 67).

C – He eats his lunch. (Always a good thing to do for work. Perhaps a professional taste tester?)

J – [shrug] (Our most common first response)

S – [another shrug]

L – He fixes wood if they broke. Then they put tool things on, then screws them. (Good description! Sounds like she’s been to work with dad before…except…he’s an accountant).

M – He’s done with work. (Aren’t we all, kid, aren’t we all?)

Posted in Mylie | 2 Comments »

Looking for a Great New Game?

February 27th, 2010 by karli

This morning, while I lay in blissful sleep, my funny four-year old bounded into my room, announcing, “Mom! Mom! I’ve got a great new game! You’ve got to try it!”

I think I may have uttered a slightly coherent, “Oh?”

“Yes, it’s called The Eater and the Cookie.”

“Mhmmm. Ah ha dya plaths gme?” (That’s, And how do you play game, in still-asleep-speak).

I was then given step-by-step directions on how we were going to play this game. Right now. In the loft. I managed to slip in 90 seconds of extra sleep by making her use the bathroom first before we proceeded to the loft for further instructions. In case any of you want to play, here’s how it goes. I made her come in and dictate it to me, lest I mess up any instructions.

“First the eater saw a cookie and packed it up and bringed it on the vacation.

“Then the eater ate it. All of his cookies.

“Then the eater had a tummy ache.

“Then he came home and rested.

“And then he got better.

“And then he ate some more.

“The gray big blanket is the tummy and when you eat me, I get under the blanket. First you have to pick me up and eat me from  your mouth and then put me under the blanket. Then I get out and you see another one. That’s it. That’s the story.”

So there you have it. I played. I ate. I got a tummy ache. I ate again. And then I had to carry my ginormous cookie downstairs for more “vacation.” Then we made the cookie eat her own breakfast.

Trust me… I don’t get it any more than you do. It was funny to watch how adamant she was that we act out this incredible new scenario she just dreamed up, as if it were the greatest idea anyone had ever had. I am pretty convinced the girl never shuts off her brain, though. Otherwise, how would you come up with such a game in your sleep? I see sleep disorders in her future.

"The Cookie"... She does look rather delicious.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

The Show Goes On…

February 26th, 2010 by karli

After Nick created my most wonderful Blog Book for me for Christmas, I came to treasure my blog a little more. And I have a renewed and deeper desire to keep the goings on of the Winters Family a little more up to date. So imagine my surprise when I realized that the thing that’s been occupying most of my time of late has yet to be included in any postings on Winters Kids! Thusly:

Last summer I had a dream.

Okay, that is completely and totally inaccurate. Let’s start over.

Me as a Townskid in "The Music Man", age 7

When I was growing up, I was heavily involved in our local community theatre. In addition to participating – from age seven on – in their annual musicals, I would spend most of my summers in theatre camps there. And each summer, there would be a variety of teenagers that would assist the camp directors as apprentices.

I idolized those teenagers, and thought they pretty much had the coolest job in the world. And it turns out… they did. Because at some point, I got to be that teenager, and I got their job. And it just so happens that when I did, it was with a brand new director that had rolled into town.

Lois, the new Youth Theatre director had begun her own non-profit youth theatre in Portland just a couple years before she started coming down to Klamath Falls in the summers for theatre camps. Eventually (insert long story here), the whole operation moved down full time. So summer after summer (and occasionally during the school year) I worked for her through high school and into college.

To make a long story short… eventually I had to grow up and move on. You know, get a college degree… do that whole “get married, have a baby thing,” and I stopped going back in the summers to help. For her part, Lois grew her theatre program substantially, but eventually had to close it down when she moved back to the Portland area. She sadly hung up her hat and thought she had closed that chapter in her life, as I had a few years earlier.

But the show must go on!!

It turns out that both she and I (and our families, of course) moved back to the Portland area at about the same time. Of course, we’re on opposite ends of the city, so we didn’t get to see each other a lot. But at one fateful dinner party last spring, what started out at the beginning of the evening as “Man, wouldn’t it be fun….” turned into “Well, why the heck not!?” by the time everyone went home.

One thing led to another and, Northwest Youth Theatre is back in business baby!!

From our website: The mission of Northwest Youth Theatre is to educate and enrich the lives of young people by providing meaningful opportunities for them to explore the performing arts. Our purpose is to provide education and experience in the performing arts to children regardless of their past experience or training. We offer youth a variety of performing opportunities, through after school and summer day camp programs, and NYT classes are filled without requiring students to audition — we believe that by working on performance skills and team-building activities in the rehearsal process, every group of young people can produce an excellent program.

We’ve put in lots of hours getting it up and running again, but boy is it fun. We’ve enlisted the help of our loving, patient, tireless and wonderful husbands to assist us in such duties as website development and marketing. We have found incredible generosity from the Hillsboro School District, and especially Brown Middle School. And most importantly, we’re quickly finding the kids!

Photos by Steve Lents Photography

We started out in the first rehearsal of our Fall ’09 term with about 7 kids. It was disappointing, but we were hopeful. By our performance in December, we were up to 21. And a few weeks later when we started our Winter ’10 Term, we hit 40 students, and at this point, we’re a little worried about having to cap our Spring ’10 enrollment because in the 3 days that registration has been open, they’re already steadily rolling in. We’re excited, to say the least. Not to mention that the students we have are just about the greatest EVER. They are so much fun to teach, and are so full of energy.

Rehearsals for "A Place in the Christmas Choir", Fall 2009

The best part about this job, is it’s something I love. I feel at home here, and always have. And now as a grown-up, it’s even more wonderful because I get to share it with my own kids. Mylie has loved being in both productions we’ve done so far, and is already jazzed about the next one. We feel truly blessed that the doors have continued to open for us on this latest adventure, and look forward to all that is in store for us down the road!

Mylie as a Dog in "A Place in the Christmas Choir"

And P.S. Don’t forget to check out our super-cool website on which Nick has labored intensively as my slave.

And P.P.S. If you’re in the area, please join us for our Spring Performance of “It’s A Jungle Out There” and “At the Hop” on Thursday, March 18th at 7:00pm at Brown Middle School.

Posted in Karli, The Parents | 2 Comments »

Creepy Careers

February 20th, 2010 by karli

When we were dating, Nick loved to take me to cemeteries. Okay, not really. But there were a couple times when, on a date, we went to a cemetery to see such sites and Bruce Lee’s grave. Exciting? Barely. Creepy? A little. But, I was in love and would have done just about anything that fell under the heading of legal and virtuous. But still… cemeteries creep me out a little. I do try to be more mature than that, but I usually fail.

So, yesterday the kids and I were driving by a cemetery when Mylie commented, “That’s where the people died!” Not sure if she fully understood the concept of cemeteries, I corrected her. “Yes, that’s where they put the people who have died.”

We passed the cemetery, but her curiosity did not wane.

“How do the people get in the grass?”

I was concerned about disseminating truth without scaring her, but I simply said, “They dig a hole in the ground, and then they put the people in there,” in the most cheery voice I could muster.

Apparently, I didn’t need to worry about the creep factor because she said, “Maybe when I get bigger… when I’m a teenager girl… I can dig the holes!” Not wanting to discourage her career opportunities, I said, “Oh, it’s called a grave digger. You want to be a grave digger when you grow up?”

“Yeah! I want to be a grave digger!”

“Oh, that’s neat. Why do you want to be a grave digger?”

“Because I like to dig.”

Simple enough. I tried to leave it at that until she asked, “Are grave diggers usually girls?”

The women’s libber in me responded “Well, a lot of times they’re boys, because it can be kind of hard to dig big holes like that, but if it’s what you want to do, you can do anything you want!” Of course, now I feel like I’m encouraging her to dig graves for a living.

The conversation more or less ended there, when she got distracted by reading the street signs to me, but it was a salient enough experience for her to tell her dad that night that she was going to be a grave digger when she grows up. Of course, I know that all kids have ideas about what they want to do that simply disappear over time. Nick, for instance, wanted to be a smoker when he grew up. And I’m not saying that being a grave digger isn’t a respectable and necessary job. All I’m saying is, it’s not exactly what you dream for your little girl. So, hopefully this is one career dream that will rest in peace. :)

Posted in Mylie, The Kids | 5 Comments »

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