Here is the latest installment of creativity from my sister and her crazy family! They entered this video in a contest about the 80's. Check it out!
...and yes. Most all of that stuff is original from the 80's. From the Apple IIC computer I used to make dot-matrix banners on to my old Swatch phone and sticker book ( I heart John Cougar)!
The song is an original written and performed by Matt's brother Paul. I think it's too good!
There is a big difference between the home movies that the O'Quinns make and the home movies that the Dufilhos make. I am always thrilled to see them and even more delighted to be a part of the process. Whenever we get all of the cousins together, I can see Robin's creative wheels start turning and she comes up with the neatest, most memorable projects for the kids to particiate in. This one may just be my favorite one to date.
Thank you to my talented BIL, Matt for making Robin's creative genius a reality :) You're a great team!
Among his other many newly discovered talents (I'll post a walking video soon), Sully has discovered rhythm. If there's music on....that boy is bopping to it! It's so funny to watch him listen and then start tapping his foot, swinging his arm or bouncing to the beat. He's partial to funk (ie Stevie Wonder) but even the most random commercials will get him in the groove. I love it.
It's been a week of firsts in our house. First steps, first day of school and now the first tooth lost. Maggie has had a wiggly tooth since Christmas as was determined that it would fall out of natural causes and not because she yanked it out. We told her that if she didn't pull it out, her dentist would on Monday at her check-up. She was giddy with anticipation when it popped and ran to the mirror so she could see it.
This was not far from the typical chaos in our house at around 6:30/7 every night. Maggie's loosing a tooth, Sully's screeching because he wants to take a bath and go to bed, and Rory has a sudden burst of energy in spite of the fact that he hasn't actually eaten a morsel since breakfast!
Show me the money, Tooth Fairy! ***The tooth pillow was made by a sweet friend of my mother-in-laws who does a fabulous job of personalizing any and everything I can think of!...thanks again, Devonne ;) ***
I've been wanting to share these since we did them but had to wait as a matter of secrecy. This past summer, my brother-in-law emailed the family to say that he was putting together a surprise "Happy Birthday" video for Ginny (Casey's sister). He wanted videos of people wishing her 'happy birthday' without the standard- looking in the camera and saying it. These are the ones our family created (with the help of my other very talented brother-in-law's video skills). They were fun to make and are still funny for us to watch!
This is the kid's contribution. I explained to them that we were going to pretend that they were getting in trouble and that they needed to act like they were upset. They giggled the whole way through :o)
Sully has rolled over a couple of times now but then he won't do it for a week, and so on. He's finally, officially rolling over and here is my documentation of how mad he got that we were making him do it multiple times in a row...
Today I received a very special invitation to be a part of an elite audience to observe a once in a lifetime performance by an extremely prominent ballerina.
Among the VIP guest list was: Snow White, Jasmine, Prince Phillip, Island Princess Barbie, Ariel and Belle. Rory got an invitation too but didn't quite understand why he was there nor did he understand what it meant to be silent in the presence of such greatness!
Five years ago today, I was in a hospital bed anxiously awaiting the birth of my first baby. I knew she was a girl, I knew her name would be Maggie but I had no idea how much I would love her! I had no idea that when I looked at her...I would see Casey. I wasn't prepared for how much she would change my life! She was 8 pounds 3 ounces and had the biggest cheeks. She was and still is so gorgeous to me! She had big blue eyes that everyone kept telling me would eventually change to brown because Casey has such dark eyes. She is my blue eyed beauty. She did everything before it was time: roll over, walk, talk. People were always amazed by how well she could speak at such a young age. It was of no credit to me, though. If she was determined to do something...she got it done. She also, however, posses my stubborn nature and doesn't do anything she doesn't want to do. She has her moments of shyness in public but for the most part is so energetic and outspoken! I love to hear the things that she comes up with. She is sweet and kind. Loving and very nurturing. Giving and forgiving. Witty and talented. She loves it when she can get us laughing at something she has done. She has also loved singing since she was a baby. I used to hum to her when I was putting her to sleep and she would hum the same thing back to me. I love to listen to her when she doesn't think anyone else is around because she's either belting out songs we've been listening to in the car or making up songs as if her life were an opera! Why isn't a camera ever handy in those moments? She certainly is convinced that she is Daddy's little princess and likes to act as if Rory is one of her loyal subjects. She changes clothes about 9 times a day and is always taking fashion risks with her blend of colors and patterns! She is so helpful and giving. There is no activity that she doesn't want to take an active part of around the house and is always quick with a "I'll do it for you" if a diaper needs to be retrieved for her brother or the laundry needs folding or the cookie dough spatula needs licking!!! She has blossomed into such a beautiful and gracious young lady and I can't believe that 5 years has already gone by. It makes me so sad to see the baby in her completely gone and yet so proud at the girl she has become. I pray that she will always have her compassion, her spirit and her eagerness to learn new things.
We love you so much, Maggie Britt and are so proud of you! We had our traditional birthday pancake breakfast and she got to open family presents. Her party was on Saturday (I will blog about that later). Rory was a little bit upset about the fact that it was not his birthday...
Rory has been hard at work with his ABCs. He almost has the song down and wouldn't stop singing it yesterday so I pulled out the camera for posterity.
Maggie couldn't let him steal the singing spotlight from her!
She has been all over some of the oldies songs from the 50's show that I did not too long ago and it gets me tickled to hear her singing songs like, "Lollipop" and "Mr. Postman". One that she loves to belt out is the 40s/50s classic "Sincerely". So here she is with all of the feeling and timing (& key change, I might add) that she can muster.
Why do the incredible moments always take place when you're home by yourself in 'single parent' mode just trying to keep your sanity?
We'll start with Maggie...
She was having so much fun playing dress-up and came down in some very interesting outfits. First, she was a doctor and gave me a full work-up complete with shots and blood pressure check.
She then told me that she needed to check on the baby. She listened to mine and the baby's heart and then said that I needed a "rescription". The paper had a heart drawn on it!
Then there was this...
Not sure what she was going for with this one!
Now for Rory... I have cabinet locks on all of my cabinets except for the one that has tupperware and miscellaneous plastic stuff in it. My kids always rummage through there especially when I'm cooking. I saw Rory go and get something out, take it into the living room and then returned after a few minutes. This is what he said...
That's a boy for you, I guess. I'm just glad it wasn't a cup that someone was actually drinking out of!!!
Neuschwanstein, cacophonies and other 4-year-old chatter
Say what you will about kids and tv but I have some proof that it's not all bad. Now, don't get me wrong, I do know that there are limits and boundaries that need to be set when it comes to what and how much our kids are exposed to and to borrow a couple of classic cliches that I heard growing-up:
Garbage in, garbage out (GIGO was big in the Stone house when I was little)
All things in moderation
Just because a little is good doesn't mean a lot is better
See Dad, and you didn't think that I was listening.
But I must tell you that there are some kids tv shows that have truly helped me to mold my children into creative and intelligent little human beings! I'll touch on two that we really like at our house (yes, you can include Casey and I in that WE because we've been known to plop down and watch or whistle the theme songs around the house!).
The first is Little Einsteins. Maggie really liked Baby Einsteins and I've read some studies recently about how those videos can actually stunt a child's development but with Maggie it was quite the opposite. When she was out-growing them...along came Little Einsteins for toddlers. I remember watching episodes with her snuggled up in bed in the morning and being so impressed that they were teaching important geographical locations, art, and of course (being a music major) classical music. Before long, she was going around the house humming Dvorak's, Symphony No. 9, and Bizet's Les Toreadors from Carmen. I put a couple of classical pieces on my iPod and she requests them now and we pretend to conduct while we're driving places. Her all-time favorite is Edvard Grieg's In the Hall of the Mountain King. She sees art and can recognize it and wants to know more about Monet and Van Gogh. Once, when she was about 3, she told me that she wished she had a castle like the "Noosh-vine-stein" (Neuschwanstein) one in Little Einsteins. When I was taking a trip to New York, she wanted to know if I was going to see the Statue of Liberty or the United Nations. She saw an ad in a magazine once and told me that the building in the picture was the Leaning Tower of "Pizza". She was right!
I'm not exaggerating folks! These are not bad things to know at 3 years old and I would have never thought to introduce them to my kids.
Maggie and Rory's new favorite show is Pinky Dinky Doo. A very cute show about a little girl with a little brother who likes to make up stories, teach valuable lessons and uses a big word of the day. Why else would Maggie have started incorporating words like: exasperated, calamity, apprehensive, engrossed and cacophony into her vocabulary? I remember watching the one with cacophony and thinking, "I've never heard that word!". We used to read 2 or 3 books at night before bed but now she wants to make up stories on her own. I love the creativity that this show encourages her to have!
I swore when I was pregnant with Maggie that I wouldn't be one of those moms who parked her kids in front of the tv and allowed it to babysit them. I do still feel like there should be a limit to the time spent on the couch, just vegging out. But I will admit to those busy days when I've said..."Can you guys please just sit and watch tv for a little bit while I get fill in the blank done." If this is what they're learning while watching...I guess I'm okay with it.
Let me start this post with an apology if I'm coming across as a 'stage mother'...but then again, it is my blog and isn't that what it's for? To share and brag a little bit?
The back story on this video is as follows- One of my favorite movies when I was growing up was (ok, still is) Beaches. I can remember watching the scene where Hilary aka Barbara Hershey is about to have a baby and CeCe aka Bette Midler is helping to get ready for the baby and singing the song "Baby Mine" (originally from "Dumbo"). I thought, "What a pretty song...I'm totally going to sing that to my babies". And I have sung this song to Maggie and Rory since the day they were born. They request it when they're sick or sleepy and Maggie has started singing it to her baby dolls or to us when she wants us to go to sleep! I have been trying for a while to get it on camera and after bribing her with a big bowl of ice cream, she did it for me today.
Notice that half way through, she gets a little sleepy from her own lullaby! :o)
