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Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Why Having a Toddler is Like Being At a Frat Party

Cross posting this here cause it's too funny not to share:

http://www.suburbansnapshots.com/2010/06/10-reasons-having-toddler-is-like-being.html

OMIGOSH!  Soooooo true!  Keep reading the comments as well, they include more gems people have added to the original list.

I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH THAT YOU SHOULD READ THE COMMENTS, soooo many are true!


Tuesday, May 03, 2011

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Re-posting

Leanna's been looking through old posts again........the ending for this one made me laugh!  So I thought I'd post it again:
Monday, February 13, 2006



comic relief


I sit, rocking the baby to sleep. Justin slumbers quietly on the couch. Tom watches tv. Leanna breaks the peace and relative silence, running over to me and yelling excitedly, "Mommy guess what! I was counting my toes....."


At this point I begin laughing hysterically and Tom begins grinning. I can't stop laughing, it just strikes me funny that she was sitting there, counting her toes. And she's so excited about it! She goes on to show me that she has seven toes-Tom prods for more information and she shows him how she counts them. (One, two three, four, seven!) and then she counts the other foot(one, two three, four, five!), the first foot just mysteriously has seven toes, I guess. This kid's been counting since 18 months, but the practical application still eludes her sometimes. Then Tom asks her what comes after two million. She gives him one of those, Oh Daddy! looks and says, "I don't know. You guess."

Friday, April 29, 2011

Sweetness, peace, and ELO

Sitting here, Lorelei's sleeping in my arms......I'm just a puddle of mush-she's smiling in her sleep.  So sweet and warm, all cuddled & curled up in my arms.  She smiles a  lot.  I'm on an ELO kick right now, they have a lot of mellow stuff that can help put a baby to sleep. (They also do the opposite, with stuff like Don't Bring me Down, Do Ya, Blue Sky, etc. that are very upbeat so that's good for when she's awake)  I figure the music can help drown out the background noise here. 


We're at a point now where she very clearly knows me and her Dad.  Not sure if she recognizes the kids yet, maybe Leanna.  The amount of love and adoration she was just born into-she's so lucky in that respect.  I can't buy her the latest toys or clothes, take her on great vacations, and yeah it makes life hard-but good lord, is she surrounded by love.  That has to count for something too.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Everything will be more expensive!

Just what we need!!
Food, gas, coffee, chocolate.......now diapers & wipes!    The price of everything is going up!

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Men's Undies, etc.

First, a 2009 article:
Guys, if you want to know where the economy is headed next, look in your underwear drawer.


"By extension, pent-up demand means underwear sales should be among the early risers when growth returns and consumers feel confident enough to shrug off "frugal fatigue," says Marshal Cohen, the chief industry analyst with NPD Group, which tracks consumer behavior.....While economists now track sales, hemlines served as an oddball indicator for much of the previous century. In tough times, the experts muse, hemlines drop as an expression of conservatism, only to rise again as the markets hit go-go mode. During the late-1990s boom, the hemline indicator was supplanted by a midriff meter, as more women bared their stomachs as the popularity of tech stocks (and Britney Spears) peaked.. "

Now:

Shares of Hanesbrands, Warnaco, Limited and Maidenform are thriving, and two analysts see higher underwear sales as a sign the economy is recovering.

Although I heard somewhere that you should buy underwear now because the price of cotton is going up. 

Also, I just like this sentence:

Even during the 2008 downturn, "the underwear area was very strong," Eric Beder, retail analyst at Brean Murray Carret, told CNBC Thursday."
:  )

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Comparison

Justin

Leanna and Justin

Timothy

Timothy

Jacob

Jacob

Me

Lorelei
Missing is Leanna's baby pictures-I don't have one on this computer.  I took Justin, Timothy, and Jacob's pictures off the blog (I wasn't blogging when Leanna was born). 

The Best Easter Egg Ever!!

Superman!

Superman class prank

Easter Eats

Very short list of tradditional Easter foods and why we eat them.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

a few links....

A few links:

An article on Mythbusters being the best science show on tv precisely because it doesn't claim to be one. 

One on web photos revealing where you live, work, etc.....and there's an app for it too

One on the gov't asking why iphones are tracking you since June 2010.
"Apple's iOS 4 operating system is secretly compiling its customers' location data in a file stored on iPhones, 3G iPads and every computer that users use to "sync" their devices. According to the researchers, this file contains consumers' latitude and longitude for every day they used an iPhone or 3G iPad running the iOS 4 operating system — sometimes logging their precise geo-location up to 100 times a day. The researchers who discovered this file found that it contained up to a year's worth of data, starting from the day they installed the iOS4 operating system. What is even more worrisome is that this file is stored in an unencrypted format on customers' iPads, iPhones and every computer a customer has used to back up his or her information.".........Of course, all smartphones track users — anyone who's ever approved an app request to use his or her current location should have that figured out. The big reveal here is that Apple stores that information on devices, unencrypted and for an entire year."

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Monday-beautiful weather

They planted some seeds with Grammy since it was so nice outside.

Jacob enjoyed the feel of the dirt, he buried some cars and trucks in the backyard.


My Mom made some healthy soup-so I'll have something more nutrious to eat that I don't have to make myself.
I made 2 batches of lemon bars-gone as of yesterday!
Monday was such a nice day, perfect for being outside.  Today too really, but I'm behind on posting.  The kids ran around, I got some baking done, and it was just nice to feel warm!
Tonight was chocolate chip cookies, at Tom's request.

Drilling, reading, slinging!

Helping Daddy make a workbench


I couldn't resist a picture of this-she's got the baby, the dog, two stuffed animals and a book all snuggled together in the chair!

One of his favorite topics ever-garbage trucks! 


All curled up in the sling!  It's actually starting to fade now-we've had it since Leanna was nine months old.


Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Turkish Delight

For anyone familiar with C.S. Lewis' works, I found this:

Turkish Delight

Why not make your own Turkish delight this Christmas, maybe as an extra present from you to you!

Ingredients:
1 lb. (450g) granulated sugar
quarter pint (150ml) water
juice of one lemon
half an ounce (13g) powdered gelatine
1 level tbsp. cornflour
2 tbsps. icing sugar, sifted
pink food colouring
few drops of rose water
Cooking Instructions:

Soak the gelatine in half the water
Pour the remaining water into a saucepan, add the sugar and heat gently while stirring until the sugar is dissolved
Add softened gelatine and stir into the syrup
Simmer gently for 20 minutes then add the lemon juice
Pour half the mixture into one of 2 wetted, small square tins, tins should be small enough for Turkish delight to be one inch thick
Add 2 drops of pink colouring and a few drops of rose water to the remaining mixture, stir well and pour into the remaining tin
Leave for 24 hours in the fridge to set
Mix the icing sugar and cornflour together in a polythene bag
Dust hands with this mixture and pull Turkish delight from the tins
Cut into 1 inch (2.5cm) strips and then into cubes
Toss the cubes in icing sugar mixture

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Just more recent pics.....



LOL

A new book How to Crack an Egg with One Hand by Francesca Beauman collects some unorthodox words of wisdom for parents.


In 1861, Mrs Beeton issued instructions that breastfeeding mums should knock back two pints of stout a day.

William Cobbette suggested that parents should sing loudly while they give their infants an ice cold bath for an hour every day.

Others might prefer the approach of the renowned philosopher John Locke. He said it was possible to increase the strength of a newborn by holding slices of steak next to its bottom and pouring wine over its head.

Saturday, April 09, 2011

Bath


Before and after bath, just another cute baby moment.  She loves the water. 
Jacob's fascinated with his sister's big belly.  It's a normal newborn thing, but he's just amazed. 

What to do with dried cherries?

We were given two bags of dried cherries-I didn't find a whole lot of recipies, but I did try this one for Cherry muffins.  Jacob's been picking out the cherries, and I think the older boys do also about half the time.  But I do like the base recipie for muffins, so I've been using that one instead of the recipie from Joy of Cooking. 

Length of Gestation

Today I found anthropologist, scientist, & humanist Ashley Montague's theory which makes a lot of sense to me.  He said that Humans have an 18 month gestational period-9 months inside and 9 months outside.  This theory fits in with what I've read on human infant development and research on things like skin to skin contact.  I don't think it should be used as yet another way for Moms to feel guilty (if you have to work or have outside commitments the baby won't be held as much by the Mother) I hate when people do that.  It's not productive and it keeps people from even trying to use the information.  I think we should take from this the idea that humans need to gradually adjust to life outside the womb-and this adjustment period is meant to include as much touching and holding by (primarily) Mom and hopefully the father and other family/friends as is possible.  This is normal, and ideal.

Excerpt from the article:
"Us human moms also don't have nearly as many natural instincts as other mammals -- we kiss our newborns which is similar in instinct to grooming, but much of the stimulation to the nerves that animal grooming provides is actually done with our labor process. So the skin-on-skin bonding time, and breastfeeding, and closeness between the human mommy and the newborn is our way of mimicking a lot of mammalian reactions.

We're hardwired to instantly want to comfort our babies and our breasts even tell us right away when a baby cries that WE need to go to them and feed them and comfort them. We're not designed to be separated from our babies, ladies! In fact, there are some cultures where babies are literally never allowed to touch the ground until they're 8 months old, which is around the time babies can crawl around independently, and also become aware that they are a unique entity and not an extension of you.
That time, 9 months old or so, is when Montagu says human babies are considered full-term by all physiological standards. By the end of the first year, the baby's brain has more than doubled in size and is approximately 60 percent of it's full adult size, and baby humans are finally about as capable as newborns of other species. About the only other animals that have such "premature" babies are kangaroos and other primates, who if you remember, carry their infants non-stop for long periods of time. Many monkeys continue to breastfeed, even without solids, into their second year, some into 4-5 years."