Tippy Toes and Tantrums

5 Things to Know About Despicable Me 2

Before I get started, this ad nearly made me fall out of my chair laughing because about three times a month, I have to yell to Kevin that the wifi is out. 

Will we like it?

Yes! My kids (10, 7) loved it, and so did I. After we left the theater, Kevin said it was nice to see a movie that wasn't a let down from the hype. The minions are hilarious and used throughout the movie, more than in the first film. The kids are never in danger, and the oldest daughter Margo is at the age of texting and finding an interest in boys, which spoke to my daughter. It's funny, especially when picking out English words in the minion's vocabulary, like poop (my son's favorite), tomato or lasagna.

Is it scary?

No. My seven year old is sensitive to conflict. He's the kid who tried to bolt out of the theater during Monsters University and he is know to ask to use the bathroom whenever conflict appears at the theater. He never once covered his eyes, ears, or tried to leave. While the story has conflict, it is done in such a gentle way that it is not scary. Even the bad guy is more comical than threatening. There were kids of all ages in the theater and not one kid made a scared peep, nor left the theater. It seemed safe for any age kid ready to sit through a movie. 

Is it worth seeing in the theater?

This film really showed the advancements in 3D animation. There is a part of the post-film short featuring bubbles that was incredible. It had even the two 50 year old women in front of us reaching out to try to touch the bubbles. If you're not going to see it in 3D and don't mind waiting, then wait for the DVD. Otherwise, it was worth the extra money to see in now in 3D. 

When should we leave the theater?

I never understand why some people have not figured out that for many movies, especially animated films, it's worth staying seated for a few minutes after the credits begin. In this case, the minions return for a little short including some music and bubbles (mentioned above). After their bit is finished, it's safe to leave. 

Things to know:

Russell Brand is the voice of Dr. Nefario. Somehow I missed this the last time around, and really this time around until the credits. His voice change for the character is amazing. 

This may be schmaltzy, but the best part was watching how hard my kids laughed. Also, I still want a minion. Or three.

FYI - This post is not sponsored. 

 

Happy Birthday to My Seven Year Old Baby

Thank you for letting me call you Baby, for letting me call you Bear, and sometimes even Baby Bear. Thank you for holding my hand. You hold the door, carry heavy things up the stairs, and are quick with a laugh, And, damn, you are good looking.

One of the funniest things you've said to me is that you are shy. Kid, you are nothing close to shy. Feeling hesitant in a new situation is different from shy. You easily walk up to people you don't know, you chat up moms, you leave any new room or group with a new friend. You may not remember their name, but you've added to your growing posse

You do get upset, although not often and not for long, but when it happens you do the full Charlie Brown. Your head hangs, your shoulders drop, and you shuffle out of a room looking sorrowful and pathetic. Most predictably, the times you get upset are when you've been busted for stealing candy. Your sweet tooth gets the better of you time and time again. There was the early morning when you woke up covered in something awful and I thought you may have had a horrible accident in your bed, only to quickly realize you fell asleep while eating chocolate.

You're a vegetarian - except for bacon - and after months of ignoring it or picking the meat out of your food, I realized I was disrespecting a pretty important wish. You would live off milk, fruit, and bread if we let you, plus the occasional side of bacon. You want to open a cheese shop when you are older, only to be open hours that do not interfere with your MLB career, you've explained. If you have a night game, the shop will only be open early. If a day game, only open at night. And you refuse to sell stinky cheeses. 

This year you played soccer, basketball, baseball, and now lacrosse. The sad thing is that it's not enough for you.You keep asking to add more. I wish I could bottle your enthusiasm. You asked my age this week, then soon after picked something up off the ground for me, explaining, "It's hard for old people to bend down." 

Your greatest accomplishment this year was probably growing tall enough to ride California Screamin' - just barely. You rode it again, and again, and again, and again. Thankfully you weren't too big to ride the less upside down rides with mom, letting me clench your hand for courage (including on Dumbo, which will be one of the great memories of my life).

You love Lego, our WiiU, Cartoon Network shows, comic books, talking, rearranging my robots (even though I have told you a million times not to touch them), riding your bike, all the PG-13 movies I won't let you see despite your begging, any weapon, any imaginary weapon, and imaginary play where you're a sniper or soldier.

Happy seventh birthday, Baby Bear. Your mama loves you. 

Please stop touching my robots.

Lessons from Lacrosse Camp: Everything is in a Name

Driving home from lacrosse camp, Rocket told me about their mixed (boys and girls) game of capture the flag. With boys and girls on the same team, they had to compromise on a team name.

Him: You know how in stories when people make fun of something, then that team, the team they made fun of, wins? Like they get mad about being teased and they just win or something? That's what happened.

Me: Was the other team making fun of your team?

Him? The bigger kids kinda laughed at our name. Then we won. Because of it, I think.

Me: What was your name?

Him: The Fiery Unicorn Balls.

It would make the best team banner ever. 

Disney Desserts and Why Caramel Apples are the Best

My sister and I have an unspoken rule that whenever one of us goes to Disneyland or Disney World (although neither of us have been to Disney World in years), we bring back the other a caramel apple. Last week we were at Disneyland for the 24-hour Monstrous Summer event, and I brought back my sister a Sully caramel apple. 

He reminds me of the line from Where the Wild Things Are: "We'll eat you up—we love you so!"

Sully led to a conversation about why Disney caramel apples are the best. My sister said it's good caramel, and I agree, but think the fact that they are freshly made helps, too. (You can watch the caramel apple making in the windows of Marceline's Confectionery and other Disneyland candy shops.) Fresh + good caramel + a dash of cute = the best caramel apples ever. Disney will put the apples in a little plastic container that allows for safe transport. They are the yummiest souvenir. We spied the new Sorcerer Mickey caramel apples, too, but the hat made him too tall to fit into the to-go containers. Sully was the perfect size. 

Here are some of the noteworthy treats that made it into our bellies:

Our first Dole Whips! This one was the float.

A design-your-own ice cream bar at Clarabelle's Hand-Scooped Ice Cream in California Adventure. 

A late night snack of churros bites from Cozy Cone Motel in Radiator Springs at California Adventure. 

Mint Juleps with (unpictured) Mickey-shaped beignets, enjoyed while listening to live jazz music at the Mint Julep Bar in Disneyland's French Quarter. It's the perfect afternoon break.

Finally, after a few mentions that Kevin and Rocket did not look happy in the last post, here's a happier picture taken with my iPhone. The less happy photo was photo number 19, using two cameras, that I'd taken at one location, not including the accidental video when I pressed the wrong button. They weren't tired of Disneyland, but tired of me 

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Remodel: Ready to Recap From Start to Finish

I'm finally ready to talk about the remodel. People ask me questions frequently and want to talk about it, but I don't. Part is been-there, done-that, part is that is the wound is still a teensy bit open. We love the house, it's incredible, and it will work well for our family, but there is the part where I still remember the downsides of construction. Every day was a confrontation, from tiny things to huge, potential deal breakers, and it wasn't fun. Not to mention, we lived here among the dust heaps, construction tools and debris with little escape. 

I could not have done this remodel 10 years ago. I don't think at age 30 - ahem - I could have stood so strong for so long. A friend told me last year that her mother always says, "If you don't open your mouth, you open your wallet." I said that to myself many times during the remodel, that if I didn't speak up, I'd end up paying for something I didn't want, didn't work, or was flat out wrong. Here is a simple fact of construction, and really life: you are your own advocate. No one was going to speak up for us. Many times I'd point something out to our builder, only to have the response be, "yeah, I noticed that, too." What I wanted to scream each time was, "THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT?" 

See, the wound hasn't healed. 

Then there are the moments, when I am sitting at the kitchen island on the family room side, working at my laptop, while dinner cooks a few feet in front of me, the kids are just behind me watching a baseball game, and golden light comes through the slats of of the kitchen shutters and I can see the pink roses outside in the sunlight. 

Or there is the morning, when I reach my office early, it's peaceful, and look out at Rocket coloring at the art table, awash in soft light. 

Those moments are perfect and it was all worth it to take our okay house and make it something that will work for us long term through the many stages of our family, with young kids, to teens, to someday an empty nest. 

This week I'll put a Band-Aid over the wound and begin to talk about what went well, what we'd do differently, and of course, show pictures, beginning with our master bathroom, simply because it is the cleanest room in the house. 

Where to Find Poutine at AT&T Park

Let's pause for a brief public service announcement. The Giants announced they would be selling poutine this year, but at the start of the season, it was impossible to find. We came across it by accident, not on one of our many trips around the park searching for it, so here is the location for other search parties:

Main level, near the left field line, at the Derby Grill, next to the Ghirardelli stand. If you are standing behind the bleachers, you've gone too far. 

We had looked at the Derby Grill closer to home plate, but didn't see poutine. Maybe it wasn't on the menu at the time, maybe we missed it, maybe it still isn't on the menu. The point is, it's not easy to find.

Unfortunately we were on our way to get ice cream when the discovery was made, so we still haven't tried the poutine. Next time.

Need Help Meeting Goals for 2013? Make a Vision Board

Creating a vision board makes your goals 96% more likely to be realized. I just made that up, but it feels true, like of form of self-visualization. See it happening, and it will happen. Vision boards are easy to make, even for the highly distracted, like me, and they work as a reminder for your goals and dreams without leaving Post-It reminders around the house. 

When I visited Coca-Cola headquarters a few months back*, we made vision boards, which I'll admit, at first sounded like we were asked to do awkward ice breakers. Trust fall! Then I realized I had been doing a vision board, just less focused, called Pinterest. Pinterest is like a giant, varied vision board, but Coca-Cola was inviting us to determine the most important things in our lives, our goals, our interests, our dreams, and focus on them, then make it visual. When I saw tables of every type of magazine, plus chilled Diet Coke, I was in. 

It was a vision board that look me through the rough parts of the remodel. Now I can see things happening, but months ago, when things were still very rough, and times were even more stressful, I really needed the pictures to help keep me focused on the outcome. Eyes on the prize. I say that all the time to my kids, and while they routinely ignore me, it works. 

Below is my vision board, but I have to say that I got a case of the ADDs during the project and started reading the magazines instead of hunting for items to represent my life. White space as a design tool, was how I explained the gaps to others. Diet Coke, magazines, and no kids was the real reason. 

Every vision board should include a unicorn, in my opinion. Even more than now, life was focused on the house's construction and design process, and the struggle to balance work, life, maintaining traditions (this was just before Halloween), and having fun with the kids. (The blurred out part in the top included personal information about the house.)

Here it is, on display in the laundry room, amidst the construction:

Get some magazines, a glue stick, and a poster board and start visualizing your year. When you look back at the end of 2013, where do you want to be? What do you want to accomplish? Find a visual representation of those goals and dreams, put them on paper, and keep it up where it will catch your eye. Diet Coke is optional, but recommended. Unicorns are highly encouraged. 

* I'd written a long post about the trip that was eaten by Typepad, back in October. Because it's gone forever, let's assume it was the best piece of prose ever written and moved all readers to laughter, then tears. Once I get over the loss, I will re-write it. Or part of it. I mean, it's January now, after all. 

How - and Why - We Ended Up with a Furby

The crazy eyes will get you.

No way, we thought when Clover made a very late addition to her Christmas list. No way are we getting a toy that will only hold her interest briefly, while annoying us for a very long time. That it was too close to Christmas would have been a solid final response, but really, there was a set of grandparents who still needed a gift idea because all of the other art supplies, books, and trinkets had been taken by other relatives who don't wait until the last minute to shop.

Please, no Furby, we continued. 

Suddenly, it was the eve before Christmas Eve, and the grandparents still had no gift. I started having second thoughts. It wasn't because my parents still needed a gift, but if they hadn't, the issue would have been moot. As we thought about what they could buy her, the Furby was the only thing left that Clover really wanted. There were two small reasons why I was weakening: one, I worried her friends would get one, and she'd be hurt, especially because her best friend already owned one and they wanted to play with them together; and two, a gift needed to be purchased. It was the third thought that was major, and won Clover a Furby: she's 10. She's on the cusp of growing out of toys, and into the realm of teen-dom. Shouldn't we hold on to childhood for one more Christmas? Next Christmas it could be electronics, and clothes, but for now, it was still a toy. 

That thought was how Kevin and I found ourselves late at night at a Toys R Us that appeared to have been looted. We waded through the mess to find there were no Furbys left. Of course, once we decide to let her get a Furby, it's too late. I drove through the rain to Target, while he looked on his phone to see if Amazon could still overnight (nope). Thankfully, pushed back on a low shelf, were six yellow and teal Furbys, ready for a home. 

We didn't tell Clover our opinion had changed, which meant when she ripped open the gift from my parents, she was both surprised and excited. One of the first things she said was to me, "HA! I GOT IT! HAHA!" Her moment of excitement was worth it, not only because it was the toy we'd rejected, but because how often in life do you get a present wrapped so that it cannot be guessed by size, sound, or shape, only to have it be the one thing you really wanted, but never thought you'd get. Even if we've learned more about Furbish than we'd ever wanted to know (and we'd wanted to know nothing), it was worth it.

As long as no one wakes him up. Please, do not wake him up.

Spotivate: Where the Local Families Go for Fun

This year, I'm optimistic our remodel will eventually finish. Not as optimistic as I was in November when I wrote on our Christmas cards that it would be complete in early January. I was so naive that I shocked myself when I reread our finished holiday card last week. So naive! But it will end, someday. I think. With a brand new house that sucked up all of our money, we're not going far this coming year, which puts more emphasis on local activities to add fun and excitement to our schedule. My goal is to create memorable experiences with my family that are memorable in a good way. Not memorable because we are all sharing one bathroom without a sink or because we sleep among dry wall dust. Those memories can be forgotten, I hope, without tons of therapy for post traumatic stress disorder. 

Enter Spotivate. This is good stuff that is happening now nearby. No hearing about what we missed over the weekend at school on Monday morning. I remember the depressed embarrassment I felt when I first learned about the May Fete parade in Palo Alto a few years ago. I was surprised I hadn't known about it when everyone else did. Spotivate's like an assistant who scouts out activities based on my interests that would have let me in on the May Fete secret. 

Spotivate comes to me, which is perfect for my new scatterbrained status (I blame the remodel). I follow Spotivate on Twitter and Facebook, which means that even when I am not at their site wondering what to do this weekend, tips come to me. Last night it was a tweet about how kids eat free at a local restaurant, which couldn't have been targeted better. Being kitchen-less, we eat out all the time and are thrilled anytime we stumble across family deals. 

I know what my friends are up to, not when it's too late after they check in on Facebook, but before, when plans are being made. The activity recommendations can be highly personalized. Spotivate knows which areas I like exploring best, and what we like to do, and highlights appropriate recommendations. It's not scrolling through a general calendar, looking for a golden nugget hidden among toddler activities. There's nothing wrong with toddler activities if you have a toddler. I don't. 

Find me on Spotivate as Silicon Valley Mamas to see what we've up to. I'd love to find out what you're got planned, too. Even if your friends haven't tried Spotivate yet, you can highlight great ideas on Facebook with the click of a button, rallying friends for an activity you discovered on the site. Maybe we'll run into each other at a place that isn't the zoo.

This post is sponsored by Spotivate. Want to learn more? Check out the Spotivate Video

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ESRB and How Video Game Ratings Help Parents

It's prime video game buying and giving time, which means it's time to get educated about the ratings. I'm in this video of bloggers talking about how we use the Entertainment Software Ratings Board ratings, and while it's an honor to be among this crowd of bloggers, it's almost embarrassing to share as I'm the one in the construction zone with bad lighting and giants bags attacking my eyes. The upside is that our house has progressed far from this time.