The Castañeda Clan Best Day Ever: Little Bits of Awesomeness...

This might surprise you (NOT!) but I can get pumped up about the smallest things. Anything that can make my life a little easier can put a smile on my face and make my heart do a little dance. I'm so excited because finally I took myself into the Home Depot (would have preferred Lowes but they didn't carry any in-store) and got myself a retractable clothesline. Fernando installed it yesterday evening. All weekend I had decided I couldn't stand the slow clothes dryer any longer. Oh my gosh I just can not get laundry done. That thing drives me batty. Anyway, this weekend because it's been so hot and I've had a TON of "big" laundry items like fabric, blankets, sheets, and towels, I'd been draping them off of chairs and anything else that's clean in the garage so that they can get dry from the summer heat. I could not believe how fast things were drying! They do not even have to be in direct sunlight and they dry a little faster than the washer. Whoop whoop! Once Fernando had it hung into place, I just couldn't wait to get my latest wet load of laundry together and downstairs. I even did a little experiment to see which approach was the most time efficient. Certain items do, in fact, dry more quickly hanging to dry than they do wadded up in the dryer. After some trials I've realized that to maximize my success in the laundry experience I divide the wet load of clothes in half (whether it's a large load or small) and put the half that consists mostly of small items like socks, bibs, baby clothes, etc. into the dryer. The other items like towels, blankets, jeans, etc. are going to be hung on the line. I had to promise not to hang unmentionables out there. I think it embarrasses Fernando enough as it is that I'm hanging clothes out there. There is no need to completely torture the poor guy. Hey, it's going to save $$$ on electricity I'm sure. And if not, I'm hoping it saves me a little time so that I can get more loads accomplished in a shorter period of time. I feel like my life is taking care of my kids and husband...and doing laundry. I'm sure it will continue to be that way since I'll just be adding another little extra laundry chore, but at least I won't be waiting 100 years for a load to dry in that dag nab machine.

I discovered something that is pure awesomeness today. I found a way that my kids will do chores with little to NO complaining. You ask what this miracle approach might be? I'll tell you! First of all I'd like to say that I am doubtful this will work on every kid, but perhaps just possibly it will work for another one??? My 5 year old is obsessed...seriously OBSESSED with Super Mario Bros. It's not like he plays it all the time or watches someone play all the time or even reads stories about it. And I'm not really certain why he has such a fascination with it. Maybe it is all of the different scenarios that get played out on Mario, Luigi, and their friends' adventures? Not sure, but every day we have to discuss these guys. So today I attempted to swing it towards my advantage. I WAS SUCCESSFUL!!! Max makes me choose a character to be EVERY SINGLE DAY! My choices are always the same: Mario, Luigi, Blue Toad, or Yellow Toad. And it never fails that when I choose one, he already has which one I should be in his mind, so he changes my decision. Hmmm...reminds me of someone else I know *Cough *Fer*Cough*. Today I was told I was going to be Mario. This just happens to mean that I'm in charge of how the "game" is played. Excellent.....So I tell Max that we have different levels that we have to play and we have to complete each level before we can get to the next. Level One: collect all laundry around the house and deposit into the laundry room. When it was complete we hummed a little song that the game uses to signify a completed level. Max would shout, "MARIO TIME!" (or use the name of whatever character he was in the moment) and throw his little arm in the air. See, it's awesomeness. Level Two: sort the laundry. And a repeat of the previous hum and arm action. Level Three: put the laundry in the wash....and so forth and so forth. My very favorite level was when we had to collect "keys" to "unlock" the special door to a haunted castle (garage) where we would need to successfully hang the clothes to free the princess. We loaded up all our gadgets (clothespins that we clipped to our shirts) before heading down the green pipe (stairs). Luigi (Nico) was in charge of taking care of the bad guys for us. I think that's always Nico's job. If he's not Luigi doing it, he's blue toad, Gutsy Smurf, Batman, etc. He does a great job! And Max does a great job being the mastermind behind all of the play most times. I feel as if I gave him a run for his money today! I don't just use this approach on laundry. I've used it to get assistance with his sister. For example, "Yellow Toad, Blue Toad (Belle) needs her pacifier to help her get the powers she needs to defeat Koopa Troopa!" He will immediately make a run for it, defending himself against the bad guys along the way. Very rarely does Belle get to just be the Princess held up in a castle. She has to actively be involved in these scenarios which gets exhausting!!!! I've been trying to play it with him while she's asleep. That way we get a LOT of chores done and he's satisfied with his play time. Oh and I can't forget to mention the most used level in our home, the one where we have to clean up our room as fast as we can to beat our last time. Of course I am very lax on the exact timing of it, and no matter how long it takes he makes his best time every time.

Now during all of this, Nico is usually just tagging along, doing whatever it is that Max tells him to do, but every now and then he breaks off from us to do his own quiet play. His imagination is enormous too, but he's so different in his play from his brother. Max uses things that he's seen or heard stories about, latches on to them, and won't let them go to create the perfect playtime adventures. He elaborates on them and creates his own special circumstances for them, but he needs those already created things to get him going. Nico, however, dances to the beat of his own drum. He just makes up things right on the spot and goes with it. Today he had a combination of a race car, bug catching net handle (minus the net because it had been torn off), mini ninja, and many more objects that he used so deep in play that I couldn't get his attention. I really have no clue what was going on with them, but I do know that one of those items was missing its Grandma. I heard him say with his toy, "I miss you Grandma." When I asked him about it he just shushed me and said his toy was on the phone. AWESOMENESS. At one point Max must have tired of the Super Mario Bros. theme and switched for a very brief period to Smurfs. I suggested that we make up our own Smurf names based on the things we like to do instead of always using the Smurf characters from the movie or cartoon. That did not fly with Max, but I guess Nico thought it was a brilliant idea. Max, like usual, had assigned us all a character, and also, like usual, he kept switching it up on us. I couldn't keep my character or theirs straight. Finally I just heard Nico call me "Fabric Smurf". This made me laugh. I had been working on cutting out some fabric for a blanket I'm making while the boys and I played out a Smurf adventure. Nico couldn't remember who I was so he just called me by something he could remember.

Also today I finally took the time to clean out Belle's closet. There are so many things that she's outgrown and also so many things we don't need in there anymore as she is getting older. The closet was a complete disaster, but I pushed through and got a task completed in one day! I'm afraid that I'm a little scatter brained and I usually get what I think is a good idea, and then it takes me a couple of days to complete some tasks. I was so proud! And Belle really enjoyed seeing all of the crazy things that I had to pull out of the closet. We found some fun things for her to play with, too, that I had been holding onto from the boys for when she got a little older. I just can not even believe that it's that time now! She turns 7 months old today. I told Max that in 5 months, Belle would be one and he was sincerely shocked. I don't think he really believed that she could already be growing that quickly. He looked at me with big eyes and said, "ALREADY?!"

My baby Max is now a little man. My baby Nico is now a little kid. And my baby, Belle, is not even close to being my little newborn anymore. She'll be a toddler before we know it! She's already showing interest in wanting to make a move for it! Watching my children grow has been the greatest adventure of my life this far. It is amazing and awesome and beautiful and I'm so thankful for these three miracles. We had a wonderful day together today, and I'm praying for another day like today, tomorrow! We were so busy that I did not get a single picture today. So I'm taking the day to post some super cute pics of baby girl from this past weekend.

My gorgeous princess, Belle, excited to have the new toy
that I purchased for an amazing price at the JBF (Just Between Friends) sale
on Saturday. The BFF and I went on a whim and I found some great stuff for her.
I got this Fitness Care Bear for less than $10! The cost I found on Amazon goes up to $89 for a new one!
The boys even enjoy it. I caught Max doing the little exercise routine along with it!