ShannonAlbert.com - June 2009

I'm an unapologetic feminist. Not the kind that hates men but the kind that thinks women should have equal treatment as men. When we got married, I didn't want to be introduced as "Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Albert" but instead we were introduced as "Andy and Shannon Albert." I wasn't trying to make a statement; I just wanted to retain my own first name (at least!) and not be identified by my husband. I also took a year to get used to having a new name. In fact, my legal name is Shannon Rae Barnes Albert. I feel like getting married added on to who I already am vs. changing myself to be identified by my husband.

It is surprising, then, that I never questioned my salutation changing due to being married - especially since men don't change theirs. I'm about 30 years behind on this topic but it makes so much more sense to just call all women Ms. rather than changing from Miss to Mrs. due to marriage. Why do we identify women according to this anyway? It makes no sense. I will address Christmas cards to other women without the Miss or Mrs. from now on and would request that letters written to me do the same.

Hat tip to Blake for asking me about this. Same boy who asked me "can men be doctors or just women?" If male Republican feminists exist (surely they do), he's well on is way to joining them.

In 14 years, I've never been a fan of chore charts or paying for chores but recently, the kids just weren't doing what they should be so I've done what I said I'd never do: create a chore chart and even more, there's money involved.



The kids have the same tasks to complete everyday and at 8:30, I check the list and sign if it's complete. They each get an amount for each day complete and if they complete every day of the week, their weekly amount doubles.

We are just getting started on this system but they are very excited about it. I'm surprised since we've never done it but apparently they were craving something more structured. We'll see how it goes.

Both kids recently have developed new smiles for different reasons.

Payton got her braces off and now has big, perfect teeth. Feels weird to her but she'll get used to it.


Blake, on the other hand, loses teeth constantly. He's lost one per month for the past 5 or 6 months. The last one, he didn't even bother to let us know about. Decided if the tooth fairy was real, she'd figure it out. That kid and his tests.

He's lost another one since this (crazy) pic was taken.


Obviously braces are in his future too.

But most kids do.

- white rice
- sports
- mayo
- sandwiches
- "wet" cereal (cereal in milk)
- Cool Whip
- IMAX theaters
- coats
- roller coasters
- scrambled eggs
- salsa
- blowing their nose

There are things they like that most kids don't but that will be a separate post.

These are my favorites from the link I posted recently.

I'm not a fan of textured backgrounds but this one is pretty cute. Probably because it was one of the first ones taken so he was in a better mood.


I like this one but can't decide if he looks like a midget with a regular-sized torso and small legs?


My mom can't believe I'm going to order this picture. Not only do I like it, it might be my favorite. I don't really like studio pictures in general but this actually kind of captures him (I'm not trying to be funny even though it sounds snarky saying that). This is Blake. Full of attitude and cute while doing it. Can you see his eyelashes?


I like how Payton's red sweater pops against the white background and Blake's neutral colored shirt. She's very photogenic I think but my mom reminds me that she wouldn't take photos for the first few years of her life. Photographer actually told me once "I've never seen a child like this!" Yeah, I've heard that a lot in the past 14 years for different reasons about both kids.

The picture of Blake with the gold coins was just 1 of the many pics taken by Misty. Payton joined Blake in a few of them as well. Plenty to choose from!

Slideshow (Password is my last name with the first letter capitalized)

As you may recall, Blake asked for a blog for Christmas and he now has one. Check it out at http://potofgold7.spaces.live.com and be sure to leave COMMENTS because he loves those.

And he insisted on taking pictures with gold coins.



Let's have a contest - whose child is the weirdest? Oh, it's mine. I win! That was over before it started.

So everybody's commented on how different Payton looks lately but she's not the only one making changes...

On my birthday, Blake had a dentist appointment and I told the dentist his two front teeth were super jiggly and it would be super stupendous if they might possibly jiggle them out. They agreed they were so jiggly that they could easily pull them. To make it easier, they applied a little bit of gel to numb it and they just easily got BOTH front teeth out. He sat up in the chair and had no idea the teeth were gone. Best birthday present ever - mommy was tired of seeing two dangling-at-45-degree-angle teeth for the past several weeks!

I would call him cute but I'm officially banned from that word. My options are: awesome, cool or handsome. Not sure any of those three apply in this case. He looks so cute.



In less dramatic news, I went to get my hair trimmed tonight and ended up getting the back stacked instead of just layered like usual. I think I like it.

So my friend Amanda gets me fabulous gifts from places like Williams-Sonoma and Brookstone. I get her fabulous gifts like a chef's hat for her dog (monogrammed with his name!).

She just received my Christmas gifts for this year in the mail which include these gems:

Shot glasses made of ice!


A kitchen scrubber that you can blow bubbles with (see my previous post regarding my love of bubbles)...


A mini tape gun just like the big ones - in purple!


Ice cubes shaped like the Titanic. Titanic/Titonic...get it?


And the pièce de résistance.....

A stamp for bread to make it Holy Toast!


For my birthday, Amanda got me a gift card to Brookstone which she knows I love. I hadn't been there in a while but quickly knew what I'd be spending it on: The Grocery List Assistant.



This little guy can either stick magnetically or be mounted to the wall. You tell it what you'd like to add to your grocery list and it uses voice recognition software to add it to its memory. When you're ready to go to the store, you hit the print button and it prints it out organized by category on a paper that looks like a receipt.

This is a demo of how it works: Demo

Here's Blake demonstrating it:
Preface: He's 7 and had a hard time working the video camera while demonstrating plus narrating. Also, the device doesn't seem to recognize the sing-songy tone of kids voices so it never knows what he's saying. For Payton, Andy and I, it understands us and prints fine. Blake happens to love this little gadget (shock!) so I had him do the demo.



So thankful to have Amanda to exchange gifts with - who else would pretend to love such odd things and give me fabulous gifts in return?

Not an elf voice or elevator listed...whew!

Me: Blake, I like this music, is it Cirque du Soleil?
Blake: Yeah, Payton hates it.
Me: Is that why you put it in?
Blake: Yeah, I'm serious, she REALLY hates it.

Blake has started to question the existence of Santa recently. He says some kids on the bus are saying that Santa isn't real and that parents actually put out the presents. Who are these kids and how do I mute them?!

To test it, Blake decided that he wouldn't tell us what he wanted for Christmas but said Santa would know. Yeah, good experiment kid. A little too good.

Payton vowed to get the information out of him so we have a list:
- his own blog
- a voice for his elf
- an elevator

Ok, maybe Santa isn't real.

One of the weird/quirky/random/adorable things that Andy likes is those trashy court shows on TV like Judge Cristina or People's Court or whatever. Can't figure out why he likes them but he does. Tonight in our living room, the kids decided to have their own court case that was about as absurd as those TV shows but that's what we do best here. It was a divorce case in which each child argued why they should be granted a divorce from the other. My children are sweet.

So they both had their arguments and called their witnesses and when Payton was questioning Blake she said "do you or do you not scream for some weird reason while I am talking?" to which Blake said "no, I don't have a reason."

She followed up with "do you or do you not throw out random things and interrupt me while I'm talking" to which Blake said "Poop. I'm just demonstrating." Not sure he understood that he wasn't supposed to be helping her, he was supposed to be against her.

The judge (Andy) decided to grant them the divorce so they are officially each only children which we already knew anyway. Glad we got that solved.

Assignment for the kids: sign 100 Christmas cards.

They did that...and then built a structure out of them.

Today, Nicki and I took our kids (all except Payton) to Santa's Workshop which allows them to shop for gifts for people for Christmas.

Mia and Blake shared a shopping helper who happened to be Miss Junior Miss Kansas.



The twins each had their own shopper which was understandable given that they are 2.99 years old and prone to running away and not totally clear on the concept of shopping for other people.


After shopping, it was off to the wrapping area.





Then a final stop to see Santa. Blake just told me yesterday that Santa was just a man in a suit but he thought this one looked pretty real.

Micah's evil look...



Blake immediately rushed home and asked if we wanted to open our gifts. Waiting is so hard....especially when you're 7.

Today, Andy and I went to Blake's school to take treats to celebrate his birthday.

While we were waiting for it to be time to go in, we spotted his clip in the hallway with his most recent work including a picture of himself from Halloween.


Always enthusiastic about getting his picture taken...


Passing out brownies to his classmates...


Everybody sings to him...



The kids seemed very grownup, probably due to Mrs. Taton insisting they all chip in to help and always use proper manners. They are also impossibly cute with their missing teeth and funny senses of humor. Such a great age.

Blake's birthday is today but on Friday he kept saying "nobody is even thinking about my birthday!" He was very worried that we didn't have plans but we definitely did!

Starting Saturday morning, Blake had requested that I make bacon and Mickey-shaped pancakes. Easy enough.


Then we told him he could pick where we ate lunch. He chose Freddy's Custard because it's his favorite, especially because of the fries. When we were wrapping up our lunch, I gave Blake a card signed by the three of us. The card had flaps in it with jokes written on them which Blake methodically read through. He loooves jokes.


The card also said that we'd be going on a GPS scavenger hunt and his first clue was enclosed. The clue said to go to specific coordinates and look under the big metal sunflower for the next item.

He programmed the GPS very quickly (none of the rest of us know how to do it with the coordinates) and we were on our way.

The coordinates led us to a parking lot at Sedgwick County Park and after searching for a bit, Blake spotted the windmill (sunflower) and his gift under it.



It was windy and cold so we headed back to the van quickly for Blake to open his gifts and read his next clue. The gifts were a couple of books - one of them a Klutz book about building contraptions and the other a book w/laces to help learn to tie shoelaces. The clue gave some coordinates for the next stop and said to look under a sign when you get there.

Payton thinks she's a gift.


These coordinates led us to a spot in a rural kind of area and then Blake walked to the sign for his next gift and clue.


This gift was a Rainbow in my Room that Blake's been wanting forever. He shrieked with excitement at getting it. The clue indicated that we should go to a specific address and then ask for an envelope with Blake's name on it.

That address led us to Imagine That toy store - my favorite toy store in Wichita but not one the kids had ever been to.


They had his envelope behind the counter and were expecting him today!


The envelope contained a clue for the next stop as well as a gift certificate for the store. The clue indicated that Blake should shop and then proceed to the next stop which would be the last.

He loved the toy store and enjoyed looking for things to buy. He spent exactly the amount of the gift certificate and then Payton bought him one other thing he wanted with her own money.


The clue that Blake got here said to go to a specific address and said that address would be the last stop. It also said to ask for a bag at the desk.

The address led us to a hotel.


The man at the desk was expecting Blake and knew right where to find his bag.


The tag on the bag said to get your room key because we'd be spending the night! Blake LOVES hotels so this was especially exciting. He still hadn't opened the bag to see what was inside. He waited until we got to our room to do that. The kids were SO excited about the room because it was so nice. It was a suite that included a kitchenette and had a total of 3 beds. It's the #1 best rated hotel in Kansas on Tripadvisor.com and affordable as well. Loved it, highly recommend it, stay there if you are ever in town.

His favorite snack - Fudge Brownies with nuts. I never buy them so this was a special treat.


More treats and finally, the Zero Gravity Racer he wanted most of all! He was so happy because he had planned to spend his own money and a gift card on it.


Andy and I got our luggage and Blake's gifts from the car. We explored the hotel, checked out some free DVDs from the front desk and then Blake wanted time to play with his new things and Payton wanted to watch a movie. I took the opportunity to take a nap since I was still feeling the effects of the meds I came off of.

Once I got up, it was dinner time and we headed to Red Robin for dinner. Fun time and good food. We came back to the hotel and swam for a while and then came back for showers and ended the night with a movie. It had been a GREAT time and Blake was so happy about his "totally awesome" day. His happiness was apparent:


Sunday we woke up and had the free breakfast buffet at the hotel and Blake was concerned that we weren't going to have cake or balloons for his "real" birthday. After we got back home, I headed to the grocery store like I always do on Sunday and made sure to get things to celebrate his birthday at home.

Dinner was Blake's favorite meal, Indonesian Chicken (chicken with fresh green beans and a peanut sauce) and a cookie cake for dessert.



Fantastic weekend for a fantastic boy. Happy 7th birthday Blake!