Bella sings the ABC's to get you prepped for our next blogger project...stay tuned!
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Overheard.1
So, this begins a new series chronicling the crazy stuff that comes out of my child's mouth (and other crazy stuff I overhear too perhaps)
We begin with today's hilarity. Bella was in the bathroom while I was in the living room. I heard her turn on the water, so she must have gotten out the stool. I heard the water turn off. Then there was a loud CRASH, a hideous THUNK and the wails of my child. So I ran into the bathroom and scooped her up, searching for the blood or broken bones. And I'm saying, "Bella, are you ok? Where did you hit, tell Mommy what you hit..."
Through tear soaked face she sobbed, "The floooooooor!"
I started laughing, despite the situation, and a few seconds later she joined me.
(No toddlers were damaged permanently in the making of this hilarious moment)
We begin with today's hilarity. Bella was in the bathroom while I was in the living room. I heard her turn on the water, so she must have gotten out the stool. I heard the water turn off. Then there was a loud CRASH, a hideous THUNK and the wails of my child. So I ran into the bathroom and scooped her up, searching for the blood or broken bones. And I'm saying, "Bella, are you ok? Where did you hit, tell Mommy what you hit..."
Through tear soaked face she sobbed, "The floooooooor!"
I started laughing, despite the situation, and a few seconds later she joined me.
(No toddlers were damaged permanently in the making of this hilarious moment)
Shaping the way we eat
Of late, Bella has become quite the picky eater. The doctor says our job is to just keep offering a wide variety of things and not to worry too much if she doesn't eat them. I need to be reminded of that every few days though. We've done the sneaky vegetables, carrots and sweet potatoes usually get past, or spinach pasta, things like that. I was in the grocery store this week though and saw that goldfish (of the goldfish crackers brand) is now making goldfish shaped sandwich bread. I wanted to get some flat wheat bread anyway, so it seemed like icing on top that it was fishy shaped. This morning we had fishy shaped fruit pizza for breakfast, cream cheese and bananas on top. Went over pretty well. Thank you to the food companies for playing to my toddler!
I've seen trying themes of food to make meals fun (like all round food or food of all one color) as well as methods of presenting the food (like feeding in a muffin tray or eating on a picnic blanket instead of at the table). Any tricks you have tried to get your picky eater to eat?
I've seen trying themes of food to make meals fun (like all round food or food of all one color) as well as methods of presenting the food (like feeding in a muffin tray or eating on a picnic blanket instead of at the table). Any tricks you have tried to get your picky eater to eat?
The Origins of Pippen and Josie
aka: how we went from a 2 dachshund house to a no pet house, to a 1 cat, 1 dog and 2 fish house
So I promised this story, if nothing more than for posterity's sake. In about August, we finally heard from the dachshund rescue group we got Logan from that they had found a foster home for Caidie and Logan. We loved Caidie and Logan. Still do. But Bella was really hard on two little dogs under 25lbs who had arthritis and couldn't get away from her. So we realized that it was the best thing to do for their sake. About a month later we heard that they were placed with a retired family in upstate New York and they are being pampered to their hearts' content.
It was the best possible outcome we could have come up with for them. So for about 4 months we got to experience what it would be like to be pet-free.
With the advent of this whole 'me staying home and doing the Montessori thing,' I realized that we would have to allow pets in our lives again. One of the activities in the curriculum is a discussion about what it means to be a plant vs. an animal. The little sheets give you a run down of what materials you'll need. Most of them are things like, '3 cups, a pouring container, and some dry grain' or something like that. This one, however, says that we will need several animals and plants. HURRR? Excuse me? "Several?" Really? So I thought I'd get Bella several fish and a live plant in the fishtank. Problem solved. Christmas brought her an aquarium with 2 goldfish and a real live plant. Of course, the gold fish did nothing but hide behind the plant the best they could, but there we have it...several.
Over the course of the holiday break though, it crept into my head that perhaps fish alone were not 'animal' enough to really drive the point home, so I started looking into cats. I read perhaps a bit too much on I Can Has Cheezburger and had gotten quite enamored with both scottish folds and munchkin cats. After some research I found that Scottish folds also have some other genetic anomalies besides the cute ears that can cost a ton of money in the long run, so I ruled that one out. Munchkins seemed to get a pretty decent bill of health. Sowe I found a great breeder in Pennsylvania who bred munchkins that had point patterning (like siamese cats).
In the meantime, Vinny was trying to convince me that we should get a cat from a shelter. I agreed to look, but I was set on the point pattern. So he sends me a chat message one day and says he's on craig's list and they have the cutest Jack Russell terrier on there and can he have him. I told him to bite me. A few minutes later he sends me a link and says...'oh oh oh...there is a siberian husky, free to good home and I really want her.' Thinking he is just totally messing with me I snap back some snarky message. About 30 minutes later he asks if I ever looked at the link and I told him no, because he was crazy. After going ON and ON about this dog and how perfect she was, he ends with, "And I LOVE her!" Now, those of you who know Vinny know that this is just not something that he says for anything. And he rarely asks for anything. So I felt obligated to email the people and at least meet this dog. I got an email back saying they already had a bunch of interest in her but they would let us know if it didn't work out.
Now, when I tell you Vinny was upset about this...it's a huge understatement. He was downright distraught. To the point where I started looking into Siberian Husky breeders. (BTW, we found an amazing Husky breeder in case anyone is ever looking) I was to the point where I was ready to put down a deposit on a future litter, but of course wanted to make sure that the craig's list Husky (We didn't know her name at the time) was truly gone first. So I shot the folks a quick email and got back a reply saying that they hadn't found her a home yet and giving me their number to call them. The next thing I know, we've arranged for them to come by and bring Jo-C to meet us. You should have seen the look on Vinny's face when I told him that this dog was coming over in 30 minutes. You could have run cities off the solar power that grin was giving off. I even managed to get in a super quick house cleaning courtesy of his adrenalin rush. They brought her in and it was all over from there. She never left. She just fit in too perfectly.
A slight spelling change of her name made her our Josie. A few days later we went and picked up Pippen, and now here we are! Things aren't always perfect. Exhibit A:
But they're still pretty great. We got rid of the crate and Josie isn't destructive at all around the house. She's crazy excited to see us if we leave her longer than an hour, but no damage. And we worked really hard with her and have her comfortable enough with the crate that we can put her in it if we have to, like when we have a house showing and aren't around to be able to take her for a ride with us to get her out of the way. She's great with Bella (can't wait to show you roller-sledding) and sleeps with us at night.
Pippen is a total doll. He loves to play, loves to snuggle. He's very gentle and is basically my dream cat, not to mention a total cutie pie. He's battling a respiratory infection, so he sneezes a lot, hoping he'll be over that soon.
We're trying to keep Bella from over-snuggling him and stressing him out, and we're maybe 50% effective. I think if he'd just give her a good wallop one time, she'd be more cautious about grabbing him, but he refuses to defend himself around her. So, we just keep trying. I guess that's why the lesson said several, because each one provides it's own set of challenges, and kids need to learn about them all.
How about you? How did you decide on and/or end up with the pets you have?
So I promised this story, if nothing more than for posterity's sake. In about August, we finally heard from the dachshund rescue group we got Logan from that they had found a foster home for Caidie and Logan. We loved Caidie and Logan. Still do. But Bella was really hard on two little dogs under 25lbs who had arthritis and couldn't get away from her. So we realized that it was the best thing to do for their sake. About a month later we heard that they were placed with a retired family in upstate New York and they are being pampered to their hearts' content.
It was the best possible outcome we could have come up with for them. So for about 4 months we got to experience what it would be like to be pet-free.
With the advent of this whole 'me staying home and doing the Montessori thing,' I realized that we would have to allow pets in our lives again. One of the activities in the curriculum is a discussion about what it means to be a plant vs. an animal. The little sheets give you a run down of what materials you'll need. Most of them are things like, '3 cups, a pouring container, and some dry grain' or something like that. This one, however, says that we will need several animals and plants. HURRR? Excuse me? "Several?" Really? So I thought I'd get Bella several fish and a live plant in the fishtank. Problem solved. Christmas brought her an aquarium with 2 goldfish and a real live plant. Of course, the gold fish did nothing but hide behind the plant the best they could, but there we have it...several.
Over the course of the holiday break though, it crept into my head that perhaps fish alone were not 'animal' enough to really drive the point home, so I started looking into cats. I read perhaps a bit too much on I Can Has Cheezburger and had gotten quite enamored with both scottish folds and munchkin cats. After some research I found that Scottish folds also have some other genetic anomalies besides the cute ears that can cost a ton of money in the long run, so I ruled that one out. Munchkins seemed to get a pretty decent bill of health. So
In the meantime, Vinny was trying to convince me that we should get a cat from a shelter. I agreed to look, but I was set on the point pattern. So he sends me a chat message one day and says he's on craig's list and they have the cutest Jack Russell terrier on there and can he have him. I told him to bite me. A few minutes later he sends me a link and says...'oh oh oh...there is a siberian husky, free to good home and I really want her.' Thinking he is just totally messing with me I snap back some snarky message. About 30 minutes later he asks if I ever looked at the link and I told him no, because he was crazy. After going ON and ON about this dog and how perfect she was, he ends with, "And I LOVE her!" Now, those of you who know Vinny know that this is just not something that he says for anything. And he rarely asks for anything. So I felt obligated to email the people and at least meet this dog. I got an email back saying they already had a bunch of interest in her but they would let us know if it didn't work out.
Now, when I tell you Vinny was upset about this...it's a huge understatement. He was downright distraught. To the point where I started looking into Siberian Husky breeders. (BTW, we found an amazing Husky breeder in case anyone is ever looking) I was to the point where I was ready to put down a deposit on a future litter, but of course wanted to make sure that the craig's list Husky (We didn't know her name at the time) was truly gone first. So I shot the folks a quick email and got back a reply saying that they hadn't found her a home yet and giving me their number to call them. The next thing I know, we've arranged for them to come by and bring Jo-C to meet us. You should have seen the look on Vinny's face when I told him that this dog was coming over in 30 minutes. You could have run cities off the solar power that grin was giving off. I even managed to get in a super quick house cleaning courtesy of his adrenalin rush. They brought her in and it was all over from there. She never left. She just fit in too perfectly.
A slight spelling change of her name made her our Josie. A few days later we went and picked up Pippen, and now here we are! Things aren't always perfect. Exhibit A:
Pippen is a total doll. He loves to play, loves to snuggle. He's very gentle and is basically my dream cat, not to mention a total cutie pie. He's battling a respiratory infection, so he sneezes a lot, hoping he'll be over that soon.
We're trying to keep Bella from over-snuggling him and stressing him out, and we're maybe 50% effective. I think if he'd just give her a good wallop one time, she'd be more cautious about grabbing him, but he refuses to defend himself around her. So, we just keep trying. I guess that's why the lesson said several, because each one provides it's own set of challenges, and kids need to learn about them all.
How about you? How did you decide on and/or end up with the pets you have?
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Mardi Gras 2011
Happy Mardi Gras! We had a doctors appointment tonight with Bella (30.2 lbs, 3 ft .25 inches in case you were curious) so we couldn't celebrate Mardi Gras properly this evening, so we celebrated Lundi Gras instead. Given that in New Orleans, Mardi Gras is more like a month long celebration and I've only been out on actual Mardi Gras day once, I think that it was sort of fitting.
So, Bella invited her BFF Xander and his family over so they could laissez le bon temps roulez! (let the good time's roll) Requisite menu, particularly for a Monday evening, was red beans and rice. I even broke my usual vegetarianism to eat a piece of anduille sausage, which I think isn't properly done unless sliced on an angle and seared before it goes into the beans.
And we also had the necessary accoutrement of cornbread, though it gave me a run for my money. I've never had cornbread so dead set against being done.This was pretty last minute, so I had no king cake specially shipped in or anything cool like that. In a moment of mommy genius, I realized that king cake was basically just cinnamon bread and icing, and instead got some canned cinnamon rolls and put them in a circle in a cake pan to cook. I popped some green M&Ms in the bottom of one as a stand in for the baby (I wasn't really comfortable cooking plastic in my cinnamon rolls) and threw some icing on it when it came out. Then the kids helped decorate the 'king cake' and the kitchen rug. I wish I had just purple green and gold sugar...but again...we're working with what's in the cabinet here. I can't tell you how much I love this picture with Zoe getting in on the action. You'll notice she was adorned with some beads as well. Smart girl, that one!
The resulting cake was quite reminiscent of actual king cake, so that made me happy.
 |
| Happy Mardi Gras! |
After the adults chose their pieces at random, I admit I cheated and checked and the special piece was still there, so I put that one on a plate for them and explained to them about how one piece was special. We went with the froo froo version where the person who gets the special piece gets to be king or queen (or in our case king and queen) for the day since, if we leave it to these guys to buy the next cake, we won't be having cake for quite some time. Then we cut it in half and sat back and watched the excitement when they realized they had the special piece.All in all, a very successful night. Now I just need to go do something about those sprinkles on the kitchen floor :)
What do you think? Have you ever thrown together a holiday celebration in a pinch?
Monday, March 7, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Stay at home mom
Back in December I made a pretty big decision, to start staying home with Bella. I almost went cold turkey, but somehow managed to regain some sanity. Or maybe I gained a little in-sanity, because now I'm going to school one day a week, and I'm home with Bella the other 4 days a week. The one upside to doing both is that I have a good excuse anytime I fail at one or the other.
Vinny's car finally kicked the bucket (or rather...became so decrepit it wasn't worth fixing), so we also have a new car, which Vinny is immensely pleased about. It's a 2011 Acura MDX. He had it all of about 2 weeks before he knocked the side mirror off backing out of the garage. But it is back in mint condition again, and hubby is happy...what can I say about that, other than 'life is bella.' :)
The Navy finally got back to us about where we'll be moving in July. They tell us they won't know anything official until congress approves a budget (so needless to say we aren't holding our breath for the official letter), but we are told that their plan is to send us to Camp Lejeune, in North Carolina. We're thrilled to be moving closer to our NC family, but sad to be leaving our RI friends and our MA family and friends. I'm nervous about the whole thing. I've logged a pretty ridiculous number of hours looking at houses in the Camp Lejeune area. We're using spring break in a few weeks to go down and look at houses and hopefully relax a bit. I'm hoping for a bit of warm weather too. Very tired of the snow we've been under up in Rhode Island this winter.
An upcoming move also mean our house is on the market. We're going to attempt to sell it, but may end up renting it if necessary. What that really means, is that until further notice, the house has to be able to be clean and presentable in an hour or less. So the elves have been put on high alert and we're actually attempting to clean up after ourselves.
And last but not least, a snapshot from our life.
(And for those of you who notice that she's shirtless...I said I got clothes on her today, I never promised that they all stayed on for the whole day)
But, as with most things, I dove in head first. (That explains a lot doesn't it!?) We chose to get a 3 year curriculum program from North American Montessori Center that will take us through age 6. We converted the back sunroom into a classroom, and cordoned her usual toys that don't fit the Montessori model into the playroom. I'm hoping to blog more about this homeschooling journey soon. For now, here is a photo of Bella, very proud of herself, after successfully completing a clothes pinning activity.
And because I dove in head first, I got a bit of a concussion (like how I stuck with the whole pool diving metaphor?). I was grumpy, the house was a mess, I found myself still in pjs at dinner time, and realized that I hadn't left the house in 4 days. Oops.
So I'm getting my feet back under me. Trying to take smaller steps and feeling better about the whole thing. Hopefully keep you posted on that front, but I'm proud to report that I managed to put on actual clothes today and got some on Bella too, YAY!
We also got a new cat, and a new dog. Post to be done soon with the full story (can you tell my new resolution is to blog more?). But suffice it to say that our new additions are providing much entertainment, a lot of laughs, and a lot of frustrations. Here they are, Pippen and Josie (cat and dog respectively), who will likely get a few posts of their own here and there.
Vinny's car finally kicked the bucket (or rather...became so decrepit it wasn't worth fixing), so we also have a new car, which Vinny is immensely pleased about. It's a 2011 Acura MDX. He had it all of about 2 weeks before he knocked the side mirror off backing out of the garage. But it is back in mint condition again, and hubby is happy...what can I say about that, other than 'life is bella.' :)
The Navy finally got back to us about where we'll be moving in July. They tell us they won't know anything official until congress approves a budget (so needless to say we aren't holding our breath for the official letter), but we are told that their plan is to send us to Camp Lejeune, in North Carolina. We're thrilled to be moving closer to our NC family, but sad to be leaving our RI friends and our MA family and friends. I'm nervous about the whole thing. I've logged a pretty ridiculous number of hours looking at houses in the Camp Lejeune area. We're using spring break in a few weeks to go down and look at houses and hopefully relax a bit. I'm hoping for a bit of warm weather too. Very tired of the snow we've been under up in Rhode Island this winter.
An upcoming move also mean our house is on the market. We're going to attempt to sell it, but may end up renting it if necessary. What that really means, is that until further notice, the house has to be able to be clean and presentable in an hour or less. So the elves have been put on high alert and we're actually attempting to clean up after ourselves.
And last but not least, a snapshot from our life.
(And for those of you who notice that she's shirtless...I said I got clothes on her today, I never promised that they all stayed on for the whole day)
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