Friday, October 31, 2008

Happy Halloween!


I hope that everyone has a safe and happy halloween. I am looking forward to it. My oldest is finally old enough to know what is going on and it should be a lot of fun. I have been looking forward to it for a while now. She is going to be the sweetest little fairy around and my youngest will be the cutest little kitty cat in town. Have fun everyone!

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Reflection in a Mirror

My sweet baby girl. You are getting so big and growing up so very fast. When I look at you I see so much of other people. I see your daddy's beautiful blue eyes and his cute ears. I see your auntie's nose and some of her facial expressions. You have so many wonderful qualities and are so absolutely beautiful. I have often thought and said that if I had not given birth to you I would swear you are not mine. Then I step back and I see your firey spirit. You have so much spunk and independence it is wonderful to watch. You are strong, tough, sweet and tender all rolled up into one little package with a big bow on top. When I really look at your spirit it is like looking at a reflection in a mirror. I am so very happy you chose me to be your mommy. I will love you always.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Izzy's First Lesson - Baby Sign Language

I am a huge fan of baby sign language. I taught this to Victoria and it was a huge success. It made communicating with her so much easier before she could actually talk. I started with Victoria when she was about 7 months old and she picked it up at about 9-10 months. It is time for Izzy to learn too. I start with the basics and once she picks it up I will move on from there. Basicially what I am doing is constantly showing her the signs for eat, milk, drink, and more when we are doing each of those activities. I am eager to see at what age she will pick it up. I remember the first time Victoria did it. When she woke up in the morning I always took her into the bed to play with me and daddy for a bit. One morning I set her on the bed and she started tapping her fingers against her mouth just like the sign for eat. I was so excited. I scooped her up and took her for breakfast. From that point on it was so easy. She did stop using them once she started talking. I told her the other day we needed to start teaching Izzy. The cool thing is she was right there with me at the highchair the other day showing her sister how it is done. If you have a little one and are not sure if it is worth it let me tell you it definitely is. There is a lot of frustrations that comes with not being able to fully communicate what your child needs. This is such a great tool to alleviate a lot of that frustration. I will post my updates along the way and even any tips I can find.

I actually purchased a DVD that we used to watch. It was okay but I know there are better ones out there than the one I have. I have heard really good things about "Signing Time" but I have not used it myself. My mother gave me an awesome little stand up guide titled "Baby Signing". When I lived out west there was even a program that came on PBS every Saturday that was dedicated to kid sign language. It was awesome but not available where I am now. If you are looking for a place to get started and do not want to buy a DVD or book you can go to http://www.lifeprint.com/. It is basically a dictionary of American Sign Language (ASL). You click on the word and it will show you the sign. I used it a lot with Victoria and will use it with Izzy too.
More to come on this.

Hilarious

I was browsing the mommy sites this morning and I came across a link to http://www.mouthygirl.com. The link caught my eye because some may say I am a mouthy girl. I checked it out and came across this hilarious story posted there. I had to share it.

"Baked Beans

(Grab a tissue; I thinkyou’ll be laughing so hard you’ll cry!)

One day I met a sweet gentleman and fell in love. When it became apparent that we wouldmarry, I made the supreme sacrifice and gave up beans.

Some months later, on my birthday, my car broke down on the way from work. Since I lived in the countryside I called my husband and told him that I would be late because I had to walk home. On my way, I passed by a small diner and the odor of baked beans was more than Icould stand.

With miles to walk, I figured that I would walk off any ill effects by the time I reached home, soI stopped at the diner and before I knew it, I had consumed three large orders of baked beans. All the way home, I made sure that I released all the gas. Upon my arrival, my husband seemed excited to see! me and exclaimed delightedly: “Darling I have a surprise for dinner tonight.” He then blindfolded me and led me to my chair at the dinner table. I took a seat and just as hewas about to remove my blindfold, the telephone rang. He made me promise not to touch the blindfold until he returned and went to answer the call. The baked beans I had consumed were still affecting me and the pressure was becoming most unbearable, so while my husband was out of the room I seized the opportunity, shifted my weight to one leg and let one go. It was not onlyloud, but it smelled like a fertilizer truck running over a skunk in front of a pulpwood mill. I took my napkin from my lap and fanned the air around me vigorously. Then, shifting to the othercheek, I ripped off three more. The stink was worse than cooked cabbage. Keeping my ears carefully tuned to the conversation in the other room, I went on like this for another few minutes.The pleasure was indescribable. When eventually the telephone farewells signaled the end of my freedom, I quickly fanned the air a few more times with my napkin, placed it on my lap and folded hands back on it feeling very relieved and pleased with myself.

My face must have been the picture of innocence when my husband returned, apologizing for taking so long. He asked me if I had peeked through the blindfold, and I assured him I had not.At this point, he removed the blindfold, and twelve dinner guests seated around the table chorused: “Happy Birthday!”

I fainted!!!!!!!!!!!


ROFL

Adventures in Meltdown Mini's

It is 3am and I woke up to Victoria in her room crying. I quickly grabbed her and put her into bed with me so that she would not wake her sister. This then led to at least another hour of battling with her to go back to sleep. The battle was finally won and morning was coming. Izzy woke before Victoria so I got her up and downstairs for breakfast. I went back upstairs to wake up Victoria and the meltdown began.

"Mama, no you need to get back and your bed to snuggle with me"

"No sweetie, Daddy is home and he needs to go to bed and we need to go eat breakfast"

"No, Daddy needs to take a shower"

"But Olivia needs to eat breakfast"

"No, we need to snuggle"

The whole time this is going on there is plenty of whining and tears. The arguing went on for a short bit and I finally got her downstairs by telling her I would carry her. By the time we landed she was in full meltdown mode. Then I told her I needed her help with her sister. She stopped and looked at me and snapped into helper mode. I was getting ready to change Izzy's diaper and . . .

"Mama, Olivia has poo poo. I can help you"

*grabs wipe*

Tells wipe, "Are you ready wipe? We're going in and it is yucky"

Meltdown over. :)

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Girl Power!

Okay maybe the title should be Pixie Power. What girl does not like Tinkerbell? The title actually reminded me of a funny story. I used to have a couple of cute lanyards that I would wear to work. One said, "It's all about me" and the other "Boys are smelly". If you can believe it I was actually told not to wear the "Boys are smelly" one anymore. I still think it was completely absurd. It does make me giggle a little though at the thought of the guys I worked with tattling on me saying, "She said we were smelly. Make her stop". Apparently that week no one had anything better to focus on.

Anyways, back to the topic at hand. The Tinkerbell movie comes out on Tuesday and Vickster and I are so excited. It is no secret that I am a huge Tinkerbell fan. It really looks like a cute movie and I hope I will not be disappointed. I am still trying to convince Vic to be Tinkerbell for Halloween. To me she is Tinkerbell. You put her hair in a ponytail with that blonde hair and she could totally play the part. Maybe after we watch the movie she will change her mind. *crosses fingers*

I will give a review of the movie after I watch it on Tuesday.

Friday, October 24, 2008

The Great Pumpkin Adventure

This last weekend we went out on a family adventure to pick out the perfect pumpkins for carving. Victoria was so excited and had been looking forward to this all week long. It was really all she talked about each day.

It turns out there is this great little pumpkin patch just down the road from us. They even have a spooky corn maze event each night. It was a lot of fun and very cool that it was just around the corner. The experience we got from this was by far better than just heading to the local grocery store.

Victoria ran around with her daddy to look at all the pumpkins. She really seemed to want them all. They literally had pumpkins of all shapes and sizes. Of course the little ones were her favorite. Eventually we had to cut her off at 4 little ones. It really was a lot of fun. I have these girls with me all day every day. To sit back and watch Dad getting some quality time was awesome. I knew she was having fun and into the spirit because there was a playground set not far from her and she never made an attempt to go play on it.


Once we had the perfect ones picked out we took them home for carving. Daddy bought a kit to carve them that had some pretty cool designs. The first one he did had a spider on it which turned out really great. Then he decided that since she loved Dora so much he would free hand one with Boots the monkey on it. It turned out perfect! He is so darn good at all of this. I roasted the pumpkin seeds and I think they are good. He has not tried them yet so we will see what he thinks.
This is definitely something we will be doing every year. It is great that Victoria is finally old enough to know what is going on and have fun with it. Soon Olivia will be able to join in on all this fun. This go around all she did was try and steal the camera from me.

A Morning Banana Diet?

This morning I went through my normal routine. I am feeding the kids breakfast and listening to the Early show on CBS. This morning they were talking about a new diet that is all the rage in Japan. It is called the morning Banana diet. I have heard of some good ones but this one takes the cake for me. They were saying it is so popular it has resulted in a shortage of banana! So, I am certainly not an expert on dieting because I have a real sweet tooth that just gets in my way. It just does not seem logical to me that simply eating a banana in the morning will cause you to lose weight. So, the details of the diet are as follows:


  • You start with a banana, as many as you want, for breakfast, with warm water.

  • You don't have anything until lunch.

  • You have a basic lunch, which can be anything you want, even pizza and fries.

  • Then (in mid-afternoon), you can have a snack, which can even be a sweet.

  • Then dinner, which can be anything you want. It has to be before 8 p.m.

  • Nothing after dinner, including sweets.

  • Then, you have to go to bed before midnight.


Okay so call me silly but this does not sound healthy to me at all. I hope people realize that they seriously need to add some whole grains in here to help with eating all those bananas. I know that bananas are good for you and all but they do have some side affects if you eat too many. :) If you want more details on this diet you can check out The Early Show site for the article.
Personally, I would recommend heading over to My Pyramid for some healthier options. You can develop a healthy eating plan for yourself right there on their site for free. It should always be about eating healthy and changing what you eat for life. No one is going to be able to follow this diet for the rest of their life. What happens when you stop this diet? How about we all just eat healthier and incorporate bananas into our diet as we go along.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Work at Home Opportunity - Weegy

I am always looking for work at home opportunities these days to bring in some extra spending money. I had a bit of free time tonight so I sat down and took the recommendation from The Work From Home Mother and signed up at Weegy. I checked it out and was curious to see what it was all about. It is the first one that I have really signed up for. I was excited and eager to see how it all worked. I created my account, logged in and waited . . . and waited. Basically you wait until a conversation comes in and then you get to decide if you want to accept it or not. After several minutes of nothing I noticed I had email. Apparently they are currently only running their CPC advertising program between 10:00am and 4:00pm eastern time. That said, I logged out but I do plan to return at a later time to check it out. Hopefully I will have more to report soon!

Halloween is upon us!

With Halloween just around the corner it has been a lot of fun around here trying to figure out what Victoria wants to dress us as. This is really the first year where she actually understands what it is all about and has had a voice. I am a huge Tinkerbell fan and I was thrilled when I asked her what she wanted to be and she said "Tinkerbell!" A few weeks later though she threw me a curve ball and said she wanted to be a Purple Barbie Fiary. I thought to myself, "how the heck and I am going to pull this off?" I searched so many places and I finally found this cute little purple fiary costume.

We all know the power of television marketing for kids. Well I saw it first hand this morning. Over breakfast she looks up at me with those big beautiful eyes and tells me that she wants to be a Snow Princess for Halloween. I know I did not just hear what I thought I heard. I guess all the Dora saves the Snow Princess commercials had finally gotten her! Needless to say, we are still on track for the Purple Barbie Fairy. That is unless the Tinkerbell movie commercials convince her to be Tink! ;)

Olivia will be easy. I have a couple of Victoria's old costumes to choose from if they fit. If not, I have a cute little onesie that a friend gave Victoria that says "Little Terror".

Kids! You gotta love them!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Work at Home Opportunities

I am a work at home mother of two. I love being able to be at home with my kids every day. I have my own online store but I am always looking for additional opportunities to keep me at home. This is especially the case with the economy the way it is right now and business for me is a bit slower. There are so many different web sites out there that claim to have work at home opportunities for stay at home mothers. Some are legitimate and some are not. I visit a lot of the mommy sites and read lots of mommy blogs. So many other mothers are asking for help finding legitimate opportunities. One day I was surfing and came across an interesting post. The blog site that was posted was The Work From Home Mother. There is so much great information there I just had to mention it. I found this to be a great resource and one that I check out all the time to see what is available. I check back all the time to see what new opportunities are posted. I will keep things here updated as I find interesting ones.

Awwww! Just too sweet.

Victoria is such a little sweetheart. She is really at the stage now where she picks up on the things you say and applies them throughout her day. I always thought it was very sweet when her daddy would come home from work and she would greet him by saying "Hello handsome". I always say that to him and it puts a huge smile on his face every time she says it.

Well, it was my turn now. The other day I woke up in a cranky mood because I was not feeling well. I opened her bedroom door and the first thing out of her mouth was "Mommy, I missed you while I was sleeping". How could you possibily remain in a bad mood with a greeting like that to start your day. I love her so much and I want to keep a record of all the funny, cute and sweet things she says. I cannot wait until Olivia is old enough to start chiming in.

Looking for a unique gift?

I have a friend of mine that is difficult to buy gifts for. One year I just could not figure out what to buy him for his birthday. He is very into the environment and doing his part to make this world a better place. I admire him for it because he certainly does more than I do on any given day. So, I started searching online for a unique gift. I came across the perfect idea. The Arbor Day Foundation has a great gift program. You can order trees in celebration of any number of events. Each dollar donated plants a tree in one of America's national forests. They will send out a certificate to the recipient of your gift. My friend loved the gift and I did too. I try to do my best to help make our world a better place to live and this gift made me feel good about that.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Too much junk mail?

All the time we hear about going "Green". There are so many things we can do now to help protect our environment. I am not a super environmentalist but I really try to do my part as best I can.

A long time ago a friend of mine told me about http://www.greendimes.com/. I signed up for this service and it was awesome! When I signed up there was a simple monthly fee. They have since changed the service and have several options available including a FREE option. The Basic (free) option allows you to do a lot of the work yourself with some help from them. The Premium option is for those that want to save time. They do most of the work for you. The best bonuses I found with the Premium service is that you can add other household members and they plant 5 trees on your behalf.
I had to sign up again once I changed my address but I love this site. I used to get literally a ton of junk mail every day. Once I signed up for this there were days when I would not get any mail at all. I recommend definitely recommend it to everyone.

Bisphenol-A (BPA) Free Baby Bottles

So, like most other mothers out there I have heard a lot of stuff on the news lately about Bisphenol-A (BPA). It is actually in so many common items including several baby items. The first item that got my attention really was baby bottles. At the time I was using Dr. Brown's because of the anti-colic venting system. I was a fan until I discovered the ones I was using did in fact contain BPA. All of this came about when my oldest was about 6 months old. I started looking into alternative items and found that the Nuby brand had several items that were BPA free.

My second child actually did not care much for the Nuby bottles. She just never seemed to be able to figure out how to get them to flow. It would be 45 minutes and she had only gotten an ounce of food in. So, I started looking around again. I found that some of the BPA bottles were quite expensive for my taste. I found the Sassy Mam Ultivent bottles. They were within my price range so I decided to give them a try. They have a lot of parts to clean like the Dr. Brown's but I do like them a lot. Along the way I found several sites with great information. The two I found to be my favorites are http://www.safemama.com/ and http://thesoftlanding.com/. The cheat sheets at Safemama are a great resource.

Victoria's Love

I am so very lucky to have the love of two beautiful little girls. Victoria was my first and I think she is a very special little girl. She loves to make others laugh and she keeps me going all day with the funny and sweet things she says and does. I always make sure she knows how much I love her and how happy she makes me. Last night I put her to bed and tucked her in. I read her a book and we have our special little songs and routine that I know she looks forward to and so do I. Last night after I had already tucked her in I heard her crying. I went to check on her and she wanted to sleep with me. I told her she could not but I laid down next to her to snuggle for a bit. She told me to close my eyes and so I did. She rolled over towards me and put her arm on me. I opened my eyes and she had this wonderful grin on her face. Then she says to me, "Mommy you make me so happy". What more could a mommy ask for. I am so very lucky that she chose me.

Izzy's 6 month Checkup

So, Olivia went late last week for her 6 month checkup. Both girls got the flu shot which was a fun time for mom for sure. Olivia actually got 5 shots which really was not cool. She was so upset. Apparently though my little chubby girl is as big as most 12 month olds. haha I asked the doctor if that was okay and he was fine with it. He said she is proportioned just fine and growing nicely. She has her two bottom teeth and working on some top ones now. She can roll over both ways now. Just today she started pushing herself up so I think she will be crawling soon. We go back to the doctor in a month to get her ears pierced. I am nervous about it because they are doing it with a needle instead of the gun. We shall see how it goes!
 
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