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Bonding

It’s a Games and Tea Kind of Winter

January 13, 2012 by sue campbell

Our second winter in Portland, I taught Ben to play cribbage. This was WBN (Way Before Nora). We lived in a little apartment in a funky little neighborhood. We’d make a few cups of tea and sit at our tiny table (which Ben found in a parking lot) with a deck of cards and a small wooden board.

Ben was such a quick study, he proceeded to beat me eight games in a row and then retired as undefeated. He took the modified tooth picks he’d been using as pegs and taped them to the wall along with a little sticky note of victory. We had to create an alter-ego for him before he’d play again. We played many rounds of cribbage that winter, and we both look back on it fondly.

Nora is old enough to play games now. She plays Candyland and Hi Ho Cherry-O and Uno. She kicks butt in Uno. She may still be a bit young for cribbage.

It’s going to be a winter full of cups of tea and board games on the living room floor in front of the fire. It makes me all relaxed and happy just thinking about it.

Any good games to recommend?

Filed Under: Bonding Tagged With: board games, cribbage, I don't remember the name of his alter ego, sorry

How We Celebrate

January 4, 2012 by sue campbell

I did an article for Metro Parent magazine’s December issue on how local families make holidays special and meaningful.  And I almost bit through my bottom lip that I couldn’t share personal anecdotes for the piece. Good thing I have my own blog.

On the Campbell side, there is a tradition to exchange “table gifts.” On labor day, every family member draws a name, then each person makes a gift for whoever they drew.  We open the gifts at the table during Christmas dinner.

This year, I drew Debbie, my mother-in-law.

I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned it here, but my in-laws are locked in an epic battle with the squirrels in their yard.  They call them “diablo” squirrels. Apparently squirrels dig holes in the lawn and ruin it. I never noticed, probably because my lawn is never nice enough to ruin.  Or maybe the dog is pooping in the holes, thereby covering them up. Anyhoo, Larry and Debbie set live traps for those cute little critters (L & D are vegetarians, so killing them is not an option) and relocate them across the river. Ben and I think this battle is sort of funny and, um, futile.  So, for Debbie’s table gift, I was able to do something really nice and yet mock her at the same time.  I made her these:

 

Fair Isle Mittens with Squirrel and Snowflake Motifs

Ben drew my name. While I was inside by the fire knitting squirrel mittens, Ben was out in his shop with the oxyacetylene torch making me this:

A Stained Glass Lantern

My mind was thoroughly blown. Ben has never worked with stained glass before, much less with braising brass fittings to create a screw top and bottom to insert the candle. And, he knows me well enough to use the lead-free sauter — one wouldn’t want to poison oneself or family, now would one?

Nora made a vintage inspired Christmas ornament for her great-grandpa (she calls him Great Papa), and got a perfectly girly hand painted jewelry case from her Aunt.

Then we ate a scrumptious dinner cooked by Debbie and my sister-in-law Elizabeth. That’s right, I didn’t have to cook. And I even remembered to help clean up afterwards instead of just rushing for the gift pile.

On the Burdick side,  I was a little worried about my nephews being able to warm up to me in a hurry since they only see me twice a year.  So I bought a face painting kit complete with a book of how-to diagrams for the artistically impaired (me) and pulled it out of my bag as soon as we got there. My nephew, Sameer, who’s Nora’s age, got to choose whatever he wanted from the book and I got to hold his sweet face in my hands while he held still.

My Nephew's Adorable Cheek
And His Other Adorable Cheek
My Sister as a Super Villain
My Other Nephew as, um, a Train Robber?
Nora Picked the Hardest Thing in the Whole Book

I also painted a monkey with its tail curled around my mom’s arm, but forgot to snap a picture of it. Eventually, the kids seized the paint tray and started painting one another’s legs. Then the grown kids got down to playing some Beatles Rockband on the Xbox. This is the only thing we have that resembles a tradition as we’ve done it three years in a row. This year, however, someone was smart enough to hide the microphone from me.  And we made a whole mess of tamales for Christmas dinner.

All-in-all, I couldn’t have asked for a better or more memorable holiday.

Happy New Year!

Link Up!

 

 

 

Filed Under: Bonding, Crafts Tagged With: face painting, fair isle knitting, holidays, squirrel mittens, tamales

What Condition My Condition Was In

May 4, 2011 by sue campbell

Ben and I were together for nine years before we had Nora. We spent much of that time watching The Big Lebowski.

Right now, you’re either thinking “Cool! I love that movie,” or “Huh?  Why?”  It’s the kind of movie you either love or couldn’t care less about.

If you’ve never seen the movie, the only thing you know to read this post and make any sense of it is that the main character, played by Jeff Bridges, calls himself “Dude,” and is a complete lazy ass who gets sucked into a complicated kidnapping scenario.  Through much of the movie, he looks like this:

See that sweater?  Let’s take a closer look:

Well, this year is our 10th wedding anniversary*.  I told Ben I’d make him a sweater for the occasion.  I set him down with his laptop at the Ravelry website and made him look through hundreds of sweaters to find the one he wanted.  He literally gasped when he found this one. The search was over.   I would be making the Dude’s sweater.  It’s a reproduction of the Pendleton Cowichan Cardigan that was made in the 60s and 70s.  These things sell on Ebay for hundreds of dollars, thanks to the popularity of the film.

Thankfully, some crazy beautiful knitter named Andrea Rangel wrote a pattern and offered it for free.

So, that’s how I’ll be spending my weekends until the big day on July 14th.  And this is the song that will be going through my head….

*For those of you doing the realtionship math, we’ve been together 13 years, but married for 10.  Thus 13-4=9 years before we had Nora.

Filed Under: Bonding Tagged With: anniversaries, Dude sweater, knitting, The Big Lebowski, Vintage Pendleton Cardigan

Flocking Together

January 3, 2011 by sue campbell

When I got my first two chickens, one of the first things that struck me was how closely they stuck to one another.  They drank at the same time, ate at the same time, scratched around within inches of each other.  It was like they thought they were the same bird.

Ginger and Estelle as Pullets

 One day I was watching their inter-dependence with fascination and suddenly realized the parallel.  There was a little blond child lacing herself with my legs while I stood there.  She never lets me get too far away, her security is dependent on my proximity.  

Unlike chickens, which are flock animals, there will come a time when Nora will not want to be by my side every second, and that is as it should be.  But for now, we’re acting like one bird — and it’s beautiful.

Filed Under: Bonding Tagged With: attachment parenting, Bonding, chickens, flocking

Cirque de Campbell

August 3, 2010 by sue campbell

“I want Cirque de Soleil,” Nora said.  

She meant she wanted me to lay on my back and lift her by the hips with my feet.  Then link arms at the elbows, her back against my back and her feet held in air while I walk around hunched over.  Then catch her as she jumps off the bed.  She’d been awake for forty-five seconds and wanted to launch into our circus act.

All I wanted to do was snuggle up next to her and have Ben bring me a cup of coffee.   If we had to do anything, I’d vote for her getting dressed, brushing her teeth and getting in the car with a minimum of cajoling.   

But, I’m a good sport, so we did airplanes for a few minutes before I lured her into the kitchen for a frozen whole grain waffle.

It’s a good life — the circus.

Filed Under: Bonding Tagged With: cirque de soleil, gymnastics, tumbling

Long Distance Grandparents

June 10, 2010 by sue campbell

My husband’s parents are in town. (Hi Larry & Deb!) They live in Minnesota, we live in Oregon.  If chewing off their own feet would mean they could see Nora more often, they would do it.

So far this week, they have read books, built towers, petted chickens, listened to every song in Nora’s repetoire, gone to the children’s museum and the swimming pool and snapped hundreds of photos — wearing blissed out expressions the entire time.

The extreme admiration is mutual.  Nora keeps running up and grabbing Deb’s legs, then looking up and saying, “I like you, Grandma.”  She climbs all over her Papa.

I can almost imagination what they must suffer being so far away from their only grandchild.  My beautiful nephew lives very far from me, but it’s not really comparable, because I have Nora to snuggle and tend to — it doesn’t leave much time for longing. 

As of this month, both my in-laws are now retired.  That will leave a lot of time for longing.  Perhaps I should get them a puppy?

Filed Under: Bonding Tagged With: family, grandparents, Minnesota, Oregon

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What kind of blog is this?

This is a blog for PARENTS. True, the writer, Sue Campbell, writes books for kids. But this blog is for grown-ups. It has some swearing and would be super boring for kids. Except for the swearing.

The PODCAST is for KIDS and PARENTS. In fact, my twelve-year-old daughter is my co-host.

If your kids like Sue's books, send them over to suecampbellbooks.com where there's some kid-friendly content. EVEN BETTER, join the mailing list. You get stuff for grown-ups and printable stuff for kids. And sometimes there will be super ill-advised giveaways or coloring contests for free books.

MORE ABOUT SUE: She makes an ACTUAL LIVING from writing words and marketing books and lives with her husband, two daughters, six chickens and one messy house rabbit in Portland, Oregon. And yes, Portland IS that weird. She really couldn't be any luckier.

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