Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Wonder Woman

Apparently there are plenty of people that think she needed a change of outfit... and so she was given one. I'm not sure on either count, though if it were me I suppose I would feel quite a bit more comfortable with my legs covered. All I know is I have fond memories of watching some of the tv episodes with my dad.

it's a bird?

yet another reason for a three car garage...

Sunday, June 27, 2010

super sized Disney Land


I read this article a couple days ago and for some reason it is sticking around in my head, probably because I feel a little guilty for my unsympathetic less then pc reaction... so I thought I would share it and see what you folks think.

I personally think that there is a lot more effort put into making everything sized for everybody then there needs to be. I've read articles about how it's unfair that extremely obese people have to buy two plane seats because they take up that much room... well if you take up two, then you pay for two *shrug*

So, if you don't safely fit in a ride why does a company HAVE to create a seat that's big enough for you? Isn't it above and beyond when they do? Of course looking at the weights they're listing I'm having trouble visualizing just how big big, or small big that actually is...

Friday, June 25, 2010

Secret Information



"Shhh, here's your secret information. Don't tell anybody this news... when cows laugh... milk comes out of their noses!!"

Thursday, June 24, 2010

drink more coffee

Awhile back I did a post on coffee.. it was a long while back and I am to lazy to find the post. Needless to say it had something to do with a daily cup of coffee helping with weight loss. To that end lately I have been drinking my coffee black, which I don't think I like so much. It's palatable, but it's so much more enjoyable with a little bit of creamer. And how much can that extra 30 calories or so really hurt? At least I'm not a creamer AND sugar person...

Today I find yet another article on how drinking Coffee has good health benefits. Works for me!! The more excuses I can find to continue with my morning 10oz cup the better. Though if you read carefully the article tells you to have four cups, I'm not sure if I can drink four cups a day... not black anyway. Add back in the creamer though and I could do morning coffee and afternoon coffee with no heartache what-so-ever.

My personal favorite part of the article:

Your brain on coffee

Coffee may be good for the brain, too. A study earlier this year by neuroscientists at the University of Lisbon showed that drinking coffee can help to prevent the neural degeneration associated with brain disorders and aging. The scientists found that drinking up to four cups of coffee a day over a long period of time actually prevented the deterioration of memory.

Follow the link within the quote to see a fancy little slideshow with tips to keep your brain sharp.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

creativity

It seems like an awful lot of my posts lately have something to do with the Kiddo and his drawing. But at the risk of boring you I'm going to do another one...

The story on this first picture is this: On Sunday The Kiddo was given a book (several sheets of paper with pictures drawn on them stapled together) by his cousin. He loves it, I don't think before that day he had realized that he could write his own books.

Yesterday he told me that the book wasn't quite right though. He said "it's a book about the tooth fairy but it has no words! It can't be a book without words. I have to write words in it so that her book can be right, I can finish it for her." He asked me to help but (I am sheepish to admit) I was a little busy at the moment so told him to see what he could do on his own. He sat down at the table with her book and some crayons and I went back to what I was doing.

He got bored fairly quickly and he told me on his way from the table "I can't write the word tooth fairy, I don't know HOW and I need help... so I am going to go play instead." I told him we'd work on it after lunch if he wanted and when I went to clean up the crayons. I found this...
It's the cover to his own book, he drew a car and the title spelled to the best of his phonic ability "Lightning McQueen" I photo shopped it a bit to help you see it, the crayon doesn't show up very well on construction paper.

The next picture is something he drew that I really think Uncle T will appreciate. He watched One Hundred and One Dalmatians this morning with breakfast and when he sat down to color this afternoon he felt the need to "write music" to go with the dogs.
I AM biased but I don't hesitate to say that I think, for a 5 year old, he's got some amazing creativity going on. I'm so glad he finally decided that coloring and drawing is worth his time.
(playing his music)

Monday, June 21, 2010

Butterfingers

The Kiddo has a new friend. A fly! Ick. He has named the fly Butterfingers. It was let into the apartment yesterday sometime and I have yet to be able to get rid it out.

The Kiddo says that he is a good bug not a bad bug because he fights frogs. And that he is a good friend. He is currently carrying on a conversation with said fly (who is perched on the blinds). He is telling him how he has strong eyes, a big nose, strong legs and he can fly. That he is the perfect friend and that he should play with him.
Then he put his little hand out and tried to talk the fly into sitting in his palm.

I am a little disturbed, and highly entertained all at the same time. I got a picture of the kiddo talking to the fly, but didn't think to get a video until after *sigh*

sugah...

I made a cheese cake on Friday. I'm really the only one who eats cheesecake around here so I hardly ever make it... I just can't seem to justify eating an entire cake all by myself. I made this one with the intention of throwing away half of it, that way I only have half to eat and don't gain ten pounds. When it came time to chuck that half though I balked... how can I throw away perfectly good food??!!

Anyway when I got to the part of the recipe where you mix the sugar into the cream cheese I realized I didn't have enough sugar. Very silly on my part, I'd checked all the other ingredients but sugar is a staple (if a rarely used one) so I assumed I had enough. Fortunately for me there is a grocery store two minutes down the road. When I hit the baking isle I found all the regular sugars and, oddly, one in a carton. I looked closer; did you guys know they make a fine grain sugar? I had NO idea.
It was about the same price as the medium bag of sugar so I went ahead and purchased it. I didn't think I'd actually notice a difference in taste but I was curious if it would mix quicker and easier then normal sugar. I looked at the sugars and the "fine" was noticeably finer then the regular grain, about 1/3 of the size. In fact it puffed sugar smoke into the air when I poured it somewhat like powdered sugar does. I tried taking a picture for you of the two sugars next to each other. If you click the picture it will make it bigger and hopefully you can see the difference.
It did seem to mix in more quickly and smoothly then regular sugar does. But to really test it I'd have to make a recipe where you mix the sugar into the butter till smooth (chocolate chip perhaps?) or possibly better forgotten cookies, where you mix sugar into egg whites.

And btw, the cheese cake was very good!

Friday, June 18, 2010

Dental Confessions

I'm not a very good mom. I admit it. I try to get off my butt and remember to make sure the Kiddo brushes his teeth every night, but I think he really only gets em done every second or third one. It's a goal to get better at that...

It's especially important because some of the medications he's on tend to cause calcium deficiencies (we make sure he gets his vitamins and milk). That sort of thing really doesn't bode well for strong teeth. But I think the Kiddo was fortunate enough to get my families dental genetics because the last bunch of dentist appointments went extremely smoothly. Yesterdays was no different:
He made the girl cleaning his teeth fall in love with him (as usual) and he chilled very patiently waiting for the dentist to come over and check him out. After a grand total of five whole minutes chatting and looking into the Kiddo's mouth the dentist let us know he was very pleased. He said the kiddo had amazing teeth, and no cavities.

After the dentist we swung past the Library. Kiddo returned his books and picked 5 new ones (he can only check out five at a time until he's had his card for a certain amount of time). We spent 30 minutes or so in the kids section with him reading other books at one of the tables. He loves the library.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Wind, Robots, and the Alphabet

Today the Kiddo's snuffly nose cold turned into a cold with cough. Which is actually a little easier to medicate and a lot easier on him (he can breath). It's 77 degrees outside but we skipped out outdoor playtime due to 20mph wind gusts.

To entertain ourselves we read. His reading goal for the program via the library is 20 minutes a day so we sat together and read for 40 minutes (two books). I am mean, I make him read the words (I figure it doesn't count if I'm reading TO him, he must be reading WITH me). He made it through both books and as a reward I gave him a chocolate kiss.

Then he asked if he could draw robots so I dug up some paper and let him go.
When he was done with his picture he signed it. He writes his name by himself now days, no help and no prompting. There's a man on the far right, a big robot (his favorite) and a smaller one. He hung the picture on the fridge so that the Man would see it when he got home. Then he scribbled random shapes on several pieces of paper, I wandered off... I came back to this:
It figures that just as I get over the excitement of having him able to write his name by himself he has to top it and write the whole dang alphabet*!! I think he has his grannies brains *grin*

*note the backwards J and N...

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

A random day in June

Today we are waiting for the Kiddo's growth hormone refill delivery. I set up the delivery for today last week so I know it's coming, not only that but at 8:30 this morning I received an automated phone call from UPS confirming that the delivery was set for this afternoon at 2:15. It's 2:20 so I'm expecting a knock on the door any second now...

I thought it was very cool that UPS called in that way. It reminds me to be home (in case I had forgotten) and it lets me know the approximate time they'll be here so I can make sure I'm not in the shower or out with the kiddo playing. I hope they do that every time!!










In other news the Kiddo has a cold. Which isn't really a great thing, it 'could' be allergies I suppose (he insists that it is) but it didn't seem to respond to the claritin so I'm leaning towards cold. The bad news with that (besides the yucky runny nose and chapped lip from all the snot and wiping of said snot) is that this Thursday the Kiddo has a dentist appointment. I guess I'll be hitting the pharmacy to see what sort of medication I can find to fix him up, otherwise he wont be able to breath while they look into his mouth!

The Kiddo and I are doing a little reading every day. I think perhaps on Thursday after his dentist appointment we will go to the library to return his books and check out some new ones. He really is loving having access to new books, he loves every one of the ones he owns (and reads them often) but the excitement of having access to new books and getting to borrow them has not worn off.

Speaking of the libraries. I have, finally, successfully checked out my first e-book. I was being lazy about it because I have plenty of things to read on my Nook so wasn't "needing" to be able to do it. My mother in law however was running out of things to read and really wanted to know how to do library books. So we figured it out, it's incredibly easy to do and a little exciting to be able to sit down and check out 10 books, load em onto the Nook and voila lotsa stuff to read with absolutely no out of pocket expense. Have I mentioned how much I love my Nook??

And last, in a completely random tangent sort of way... I realized this morning (as I weighed myself and did the happy dance at seeing a number that was lower then 130) the more weight I lose the lower number of calories I can eat each day in order to maintain it!! humph.

Friday, June 11, 2010

First id card...

A couple of days ago my sister in law set her daughter up to get a library card, and signed her up for the libraries summer reading program. I thought that was a great idea, Jessie is seven and she really loves to read! I hadn't realized you could get kids that young their own cards, and when I found out you could it got me to thinking...

The Kiddo really loves to read too, even though all the solo reading he does isn't "real" reading he still really enjoys sitting down with a book and telling stories to go with the pictures. He loves sitting with me trying to read the easier words while I read the rest, and he loves being read too. So today we decided to follow my sister in laws lead and get him his own library card. He was ecstatic!
We signed him up, got his card and then went to look at the kids books section. He didn't know where to start, he knew he got to check them out with his card and take them home with him and that small little detail made all the difference. He grabbed books at random, to see the cover picture and have me read the title to him. Then he settled on five books.
We set his daily reading goal for 20 minutes. He does that already, nearly every day so it really isn't that much of a challenge. But if I sit with him and make it a "read to mom" session it will be. I'm looking forward to watching his skills grow.

Door knobs

Yesterday I was sitting in my bedroom reading while the Kiddo played in his room. All of the sudden he came running into the room and over to the closet door.

Him: (pointing at the door frame part of the latch -I have no idea what the proper name for that is) "mom why did you put that there?"

Me: what? put what where?

Him: this, this thing on the wall with the hole and stuff...

Me: OH, that's to help the door close baby. See the latch part on the door (and I walked over and pushed it in so he could see how it moves) that goes into the hole when the door is closed and helps keep it closed. Then when you turn the doorknob (I had him turn it while the door was open) the latch thing goes into the door and lets the door open. It's like that on all of our doors.

Him: OH!!

Then he spent the next 30 minutes or so playing with different doors around the apartment seeing how they worked.

I realized as I watched him that his 'sudden' new growth must have gotten him tall enough to see the metal plate more easily, and since he's very much in the question phase of childhood he just HAD to ask about it.

I suppose if you think about it that way the question is a lot less random then the one he asked the other day about what flowers eat (since we have no flowers in the apartment).

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Breakfast..

Nearly every morning the Kiddo has a bowl of cereal for breakfast. Usually it's cheerios, or frosted mini wheats, this week it's trix (I felt nice so let HIM pick). And on the rare occasion he will ask if he can have a "mommie" breakfast, and get some cottage cheese with fruit.

I have always had a slightly glowly happy feeling that at least for breakfast I was feeding him something healthy and good for him.

Then the other day I was browsing a forum and came across a thread of people ranting against cereal as a good thing to eat for breakfast. How in the commercials you MUST notice it says "as part of a complete breakfast" NOT "eat it by itself and be healthy". They were very adamant about how you'd be better off eating toast and ham and eggs and orange juice.

I thought what? I mean obviously cereal doesn't give you all the nutrients you need in a day but jeez people get a grip! If you google it there really are quite a few articles that say cereal is GOOD for breakfast, of course probably not if you eat coco pebbles every day...

I eat either cheerios with milk, or cottage cheese (sometimes with pineapple, or a banana, or apple).

It's not like I'm throwing a handful of cookies down with a big glass of sugary chocolate milk and some icecream yeesh
Speaking of cookies... did you know they make Heath Toffee chocolate chips??!! I did NOT know that until my last grocery store trip when my eyes tripped over them in the baking isle. I may just have to buy a bag and see how they do in a chocolate chip cookie recipe *drool*

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Food for ...

The Man's birthday is the end of this month. If a gathering to celebrate it is going to be held outdoors and I am uh required to feed a whole bunch of people during it... AND if I don't know how to grill with a charcoal grill.. what would you suggest be the best/cheapest food to serve? I'd love some ideas!!

And for a completely random thought, yesterday I read an article about how in China there is a "new" (how new it is I really don't know) fad where owners dye their dogs coats to look like wild animals. My first thought was 'holy crap talk about a stellar waste of money!" and my second one was a memory of a dog we had when I was a kid, who ended up dyed purple (or part of him did) I think it happened because he had spots but my memory of the why isn't as clear as the memory that it happened *chuckle*

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Shirts and Gadgets

For my birthday my sis sent me a Kohls gift card, she did it that way so I couldn't use the money to help buy food or pay bills (sneaky sis that she is). So I got to have a shopping trip whether I wanted one or not... I'll admit it, I really did want one (even if it did take me a few minutes to get past wishing she was here before I could enjoy it).

I bought myself a few new shirts (my favorite being a dark gray one with wings on the back)
The wings are almost identical to the ones on my wrist. Which I think is fantastic. I absolutely love the shirt... to the point where I am almost scared to wear it because then I'd have to wash it and the wings might come off.
I also bought myself a pizza wheel. I've been wanting one for EVER! This one has the plastic "non stick pan safe" blade. I used it yesterday and it was so much easier then a knife. I showed it off to the Kiddo (who laughed) and the Man (who finally had to admit that it really is so much better then a knife that it was worth the money).

And speaking of gadgets for the kitchen. I have decided that my next gadget related "want" is a cherry chomper:

Friday, June 4, 2010

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

sisters and brothers

I settled the Kiddo into his carseat this afternoon, we were on our way to the grocery store. I buckled him in and gave him a quick kiss on the nose. I closed his door, walked around the car and got into the drivers seat. As I started up car we had this funny/sad conversation:

Him: Mom, did grandma and grandpa make you?

Me: Did they make me? No honey, Grandma and Grandpa made daddy, Grannie and Grampie in Arizona made mommie!

Him: Oh, okay so grandma and grandpa made daddy, and grannie and grampie made you, and you and daddy made me... is that right?

Me: um (thinking WHAT??!!) yep, that's how it all worked out.

Him: So, then you and me and daddy can make lots of kids huh!!

Me: (trying not to laugh) welllll, you don't get to help but yes, most mommies and daddies can make as many kids as they want.

Him: So if you made more kids then I'd have a brother and a sister!! That's a GREAT idea!!

That's about where I had to start explaining that it's hard for mommie and daddy to make kids, and we were really lucky when we made him which is why he is so special. Meanwhile I'm wracking my brain trying to figure out what show or movie he watched that make him think about this sort of stuff.

Silly Sleepies

11pm last night (give or take)... the Man is snoring (softly heh) beside me and I'm just getting ready to close up my Nook and turn the light off. All of the sudden I hear giggles. I pause and wait, in case I'm hearing things from outside vs the next room. About a minute goes by and then more giggles. What the.....???

As I get up, put on my robe, and grab my glasses I hear another burst of giggles. As I walk into the Kiddo's room he busts out into yet more giggles and I can see laughter tears in his eyes.

Me: WHAT is so funny in the middle of the night when you are SUPPOSED to be sleeping??!!

Him: I was dreaming and thinking about the other day, and Grandpa's party, and the card... pee his pants!!! (and he goes off into a fit of laughter that almost knocks him off his bed).

Ah, got it. For the Mans dads birthday card we got one that said "we decided not to get you a funny card because at your age we know how hard it is not to pee your pants" or something like that. The Kiddo loved it (of course, I mean he's FIVE). I finally got him to stop laughing, and told him to think about it tomorrow and go to sleep already yet.

kids!!

Thoughts...

Thoughts Become Things; Choose The Good Ones.