A blog entry from our kids...

Hi.  We are Sam and Ari.  We are 8 1/2.  Our brother Dov is 3 - and he is super cute. Dov is too young to write so we are writing for all of us.  We want to tell you about our cousin Andy.  She is 6 and she is really cute and lovable and really a nice girl.  If you met her you would like her a lot.

She is very playful and has a dog named Betty.  She is so happy whenever we come over. 

This is a picture of Andy with us.  This man is not in our family – he is an airplane flyer.

Our cousin Andy just got diagnosed with diabetes.  She was in the hospital.  She can't eat any sugar.  We don't even know how she got diabetes because she doesn't even eat a lot of sugar.  We feel really bad because she has to get finger pricked and get a shot every

2 1/2 hours.  It is really painful.  We have had shots before and we really don't like them.  We are really sad when we think about that happening to Andy.  She must really not like that. But our mom and dad said she is really good about it. We are reeaaallllly proud of her - really.

Our family is doing a walk with Andy, our Uncle Peter and Aunt Dana in North Carolina next weekend to raise money to help cure diabetes for Andy and other children that have it.

We had an idea to raffle a whole entire apple seeds playground membership for one dollar and raise money to donate to the walk.  Please come to apple seeds and donate one dollar and put your name in the box.  Then the three of us will close our eyes and pick a winner.  If you win the three of us will call you to tell you - YOU WON!

If you can't come to apple seeds you can still donate to the walk http://www2.jdrf.org/site/TR?team_id=135632&pg=team&fr_id=2469. 

Our team is called Andy's Warrior Princesses.  We have been donating under Uncle Peter's, Aunt Dana's or Andy's names but you can donate under anyone's name.  If you donate we will put your name in the box so you will get a chance to win a free membership to apple seeds too.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you for donating.

Thank you for helping Andy and all the other kids with diabetes.

Love,

Sam, Ari and Dov

book fair EXTENDED

Don't miss out!  Up to 30% off books, puzzles and art supplies ends TODAY!

book fair at apple seeds Chelsea: TODAY ONLY!

TODAY ONLY: SAVE up to 30% on books, puzzles and art supplies at apple seeds Chelsea!

Support Cookies for Kids' Cancer this Sunday, October 20th!

Come out and support Cookies for Kids' Cancer this Sunday at Kids Day for a Cause, presented by Little Swappies! FREE classes & activities for the kids and a Pop-Up Marketplace for parents from 11am-5pm at Pier 57! 100% of your donations will go directly to Cookies for Kids' Cancer!

employee of the month: Will Rose!

Congratulations Will – you are the October employee of the month!  Your dedication, hard work, and overall fearless leadership has not gone unnoticed over the past month.  You were thrown into the role as front desk manager and took the position with great enthusiasm. You have shown superior organization and management skills already and within a few weeks, the front desk already feels back to normal.  We can’t image apple seeds without you. Thanks for being such a great role model to your fellow co-workers. Today you set a record being the first employee to receive the Employee of the Month award for a second time!

 

Wednesdays with Wendy: I Don't Sit on Your Toilet, So Please Don't Poop on My Sofa

Welcome to this week's Wednesdays with Wendy!

Wednesdays with Wendy: I Don't Sit on Your Toilet, So Please Don't Poop on My Sofa
by Wendy Bradford

Technically, I do actually sit on your toilet. So scratch that. But the rest of that still applies.

Sometimes, with kids, one has to be very explicit. Don't play on the stairs. Don't put your feet on the table. Don't leave the water running. And yes: Don't poop on the sofa.

I try to get too much done at once. Often I get nothing done for months at a time. So there's a lot of catching up to do. And when I am in catch-up mode, common sense escapes me, and I do crazy things. Like leaving the kids on their own while I type away in another room.
And this is what I heard as I tried to work on my laptop in the kitchen this afternoon:
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I'm giving you a shot! You're the patient!

I want to be the doctor! You're always the doctor. No fair...

I smell poop!

There's poop! There's poop!

What's going on here? Why is everyone naked?

We're playing doctor and we had to take our pants off.

WHAT?

And he has poop on his butt.

WHAT??

Ewwww! Poop! There's poop!

WHAT?? What happened? Why is there poop--oh my god, what the--there is poop everywhere!

I went to the bathroom and pooped.

WHY didn't you tell me when you were finished? I would have wiped you!

I didn't know I was done. And mommy, I wanted to play. Can I watch TV?

Mommy, look at his underwear!

How could you not know, oh my god--what is this? You have to know. From now on, okay, TELL me when you have to go. AND TELL ME WHEN YOU ARE DONE. Okay? And YOU TWO put on your pants!
__

There are moments when I am yelling at the kids for behaviors that are entirely my fault. Like when I leave things out. Any things. Keys, pens, brushes, lipsticks, checkbooks. And they take them and write on them, hide them, use them on their dolls. Or put them in the toilet.

This is an interesting age. I see my friends with toddlers in diapers and I think "Whoa, thank goodness we are done with that." And I see my friends with babies and think, "How nice it is to put your kid in one place. And he's there when you return."

But my kids are four and one-half and six. They can turn the television on, the cable box on, find their channel. They take the step-stool from its hook and get themselves crackers from the cabinet. They pick out their clothes. They tell me about their day, and they help clean up after dinner. Yet they cannot open the cheese stick packaging. A new box of printer paper is an invitation to use their surprisingly efficient kids' scissors to make confetti. A lot of really small pieces of confetti. Everything they find has a really awesome and fun purpose other than for what it was intended. Dishwashers are a great place to hide legos. The world is open for exploration and the rules don't apply until after the fact. They cannot be trusted with big decisions. And "big" is relative to the moment, clearly.

So I got my cleaners out. Cleaned the kid. Threw another pair of size 4 robot underwear in the garbage. Scrubbed the couch cushion. For the second time today, I thought that having a dog really does prepare you for kids.