These are a few of my favorite things...

Apparently today is Oprah's final show.  I actually don't really watch Oprah, but I thought I'd give a nod to the Queen of Daytime and steal one of her themes. :-)  I know I'm not Oprah, but I have favorites too!  Since I'm always looking for new products/recipes/tips, please feel free to share some of your faves!

1.  Barnes and Noble's online storytime.  This is great entertainment for when I'm folding laundry or cleaning and need Andrew to do something quietly on his own.  His favorites are "Smash Crash" and "Charlie the Ranch Dog."  You can also create a playlist so you don't have to keep restarting them!

2.  JoJo Electronic Easter Egg Hunt toy.  My mom got one for Andrew for Easter and it may just be my favorite toy ever... and it probably one of Andrew's favorites too!  This is also great entertainment because I can get things accomplished while still playing with Andrew.  You just turn the egg on and hide it and it calls out things like "Yooo hooo!" until Andrew finally finds it!  It's really cute hearing Andrew say "JoJo" too.  :-)

3. BeFunky.com.  Don't have photoshop?  No problem!  You can upload a photo and have fun editing it on this website and end up with beautiful creations like this...

and this...

4.  Strawberry muffins.  We're trying to get Andrew to try eating fruits and vegetables (he doesn't eat them... ever.) so I've been getting things like strawberries and putting a few pieces on his plate at each meal so hopefully at some point he'll decide to try it.  Anyway, when I did strawberry week a few months ago, we had a ton of leftover strawberries so I found this recipe to make sure they didn't get wasted.  They're delicious and that's how I eventually got my kid to try strawberries!  The only tweak I made was adding 1/2 tsp of cinnamon.

5.  Restaurant.com.  If you don't use this site, you need to start.  Now.  Local restaurants use Restaurant.com to for promotion purposes so they'll offer a $25 gift certificate for $10-15.  Steal, right?  Well it gets better.  If you sign up for emails from them, they'll send you (regularly) coupon codes for an additional 50-80% off!  That means that you get a $25 gift certificate for $2-3!  They also offer gift certificates in other increments like $10 or $50.  Just be sure to check the fine print for restrictions.  We use this sight a lot when trying new restaurants and are even planning to download a few gift certificates for our trip to Charleston nexy week.  I'll even help you out for your first purchase.  They are currently running an 80% off promotion through Memorial Day.  Enter code: FLAG.

6.  Coffee + Ellen Degenerous + Oreos (or Chris Shafer's 'I've-Died-And-Gone-To-Heaven' brownies - that's what I've named them anyway - if you have some on hand) + silence coming from the monitors.

7.  Mr. Clean Magic Erasers.  This product completely lives up to its name!  I used it on the wall behind the high chair that has been splattered with pureed prunes, peas, etc. for the past few years.  Despite all my best efforts, the dried up splatter has stayed on the wall - until now.  After about 30 seconds of using my Magic Eraser, I can testify that this product is indeed magic.  I immediately went out and bought a box to have on hand. 

8.  Garden-to-table cooking.  Although we've been slacking so far this year, we usually have a pretty good garden in the summer.   (Correction:  Jim has a good garden.  He's the one with the green thumb.)  This year, we are even growing plumbs and peaches!  Anyway, I recently discovered something called Outstanding in the Field.  They travel to local farms, hire a local chef, set out an impressive display and serve up locally grown food.  I would have bought my tickets to the one in Perkasie, PA by now if I had $200/plate to drop on it!  Anyway, I love the philosophy of eating fresh, homegrown food so I've been looking into trying new garden-to-table or farm-to-table recipes.  If you're into that sort of thing, here are a few links: AllRecipes.com Garden-to-Table Page, Garden to Table Blogs

From healthy food to comfort food...

9.  The Happy Waitress.  This was a Jersey Diner favorite of mine that is my ultimate comfort food.  Bacon, tomato, bacon, melted cheese, bacon, all grilled together on the bread of your choice (I like rye) ... did I mention the bacon?  Everything is better with bacon.  If only I could have it with a side of Disco fries.  Try not to drool on your computer.

10.  The Library.  There is a whole world of entertainment and education available to you and guess what... it's FREE!  I don't know why I never took advantage of everything it had to offer before.  We did 'Toddler Tales' (story/play time) when Andrew was younger and he loved it.  Lately we like to go play in the children's section and read books on rainy days.  Yesterday I stocked up on kids DVD's for our upcoming 12-hour road trip.  Score!

the [play]dating game

I scored some digits at the park yesterday.  I have to admit, it made me pretty happy.  Unfortunately, she gave me her number because she didn't have her phone so who knows if I'll ever work up the nerve to give her a call to schedule a playdate.  And how would that conversation even go, anyway?  

'Hi Colleen, this is Julie.  You know, the girl from the park.  My kid had a tantrum because your kid took the open swing...  Well, ummm, I ummm... was wondering if you'd maybe want to get together for a ummm... playdate sometime?  If you don't have anything better to do.  No pressure...'

Since when did being a Mom start to so closely resemble awkward teenage dating life?  Or that notoriously painful scene from the movie 'Swingers' when Mikey's calling the girl he just met?

Being a say-at-home-mom, I feel that it's absolutely necessary to have relationships with other women who are in a similar situation, which means let the play-dating games begin!.  The benefits are endless.  Some that come to mind:

~ It's good for my kids.  I don't want my kids to be isolated at home with me all day every day.  Being social with other kids is essential.  I can tell that Andrew takes after me and can be pretty inhibited so it's good for him to be around other kids and learn to play and interact. 

~ It gives me someone over the age of 2 to converse with.  Don't get me wrong, Andrew and I have some pretty stimulating conversations, but mostly about colors or trucks.  By the time Jim gets home from work and we get through dinner and bedtime, my brain has pretty much shut down so I don't have a lot of daily adult conversation.

~ It keeps us busy.  We try to get out of the house at least once everyday... even if it's just time in the backyard, or a trip to Chik-fil-A for lunch.  It's so important for us to get out.  Otherwise, cabin fever starts to threaten us.  Playdates are a great way to break up the day!

~ It allows me to commiserate/relate with someone else.  Aside from my husband, who else can I talk to about sleeping habits (or lack there of), feeding schedules, what to make for dinner and mom jeans?

~ If we're being honest here, it allows me to avoid house work for another day.  :-) Dusting can wait.  The laundry can wait.  The dishes can wait.  Fun for me and the kids can't wait.  Priorities.

~ It preserves my identity aside from just being 'Mommy.' It can be easy to get lost in the identity of Mom and forget about 'Julie' who likes chocolate, shoes, cooking and the beach.  It's nice to talk about me and learn about someone else sometimes and not focus solely on the kids.  Any opportunity to be around other women is an opportunity to build a friendship.

Fortunately, all of these reasons make the whole play-dating game completely worth it... which may just inspire me to 'make the next move.'  I've been hesitating publishing this post for fear of looking silly or sharing too much, but then I remembered the reason I started this ridiculous blog in the first place - to share some of those 'only a Mom can relate to this' moments and hope that other women are reading this and nodding their heads and maybe even giving me an 'Amen!'  I suppose that eventually you just have to put yourself out there. 

Conversations with Andrew - Boo boo

Andrew got a boo boo on his knee yesterday when we was pushing the laundry basket up and down the hallway.  I was trying to figure out how it happened.  The conversation went like this...

Me: How did you get that boo boo on your knee?

Andrew: [blank stare]

Me: What did you hit it on?

Andrew: My knee.

Me: Yes, but where did you hit your knee?

Andrew: Right there.

Me: Where?

Andrew: On my knee.

Me: Where did you bang your knee?

Andrew: On my leg!

Me: Yes, I know you got a boo boo on your leg.  Did you hit it on the floor?  Or on the door?

Andrew: On our house.

Me: Oh yeah?  You banged your knee on our house?

Andrew: Yes.  We live here.

I felt like I was in a weird version of 'Who's on First.'  I still don't know how he hurt himself.

You know you're a mommy when... (5.19.11)

on the off-chance you leave the house without children, a diaper bag, snacks and sippy cups, extra toys and the monstrosity also know as a double-stroller, you feel a little bit lost and maybe even kinda miss the extra baggage.

Conversations with Andrew - Surprise

Me: Andrew, are you a boy or a girl?

Andrew: Boy?

Me: Yes, you're a boy!  What's Daddy - a boy or a girl?

Andrew: Boy!

Me: That's right!  What's Mommy?

Andrew: It's a surprise!

I guess that's one way of putting it.

I love my babies.

10 of my favorite things about my kids:

1. They look like this when they smile:

2. They go to bed at 7:30 pm and sleep till 7:30 am.

3. They don't care what I look like when I get up in the morning, smell like after a hot day outside or sound like when I sing.

4. Now that Ainsley can crawl, she follows me around.  Everywhere.

5. Andrew loves to 'help' Mommy cook.

6. They both love to cuddle.

7. I asked Andrew what he was getting me for Mother's Day and he said 'chocolate.' He knows me so well.

8. When I sneeze, Ainsley laughs and Andrew says 'bless you.'

9. They always save their biggest poops for when Jim is around. :-)

10. I can tell they love me too.

Happy Mother's Day to all my fellow Mommies!  I hope you have a fun day celebrating your favorite things about being a Mom!

Kids are weird.

They are awesome, but weird.  I remember when Andrew was really young, like 8/9 months, Jim and I started to question if maybe there was something 'wrong' (for lack of a better word) with our son.  He just did things that didn't make sense, or as my Grammie would have said 'O-D-D Odd!'  He still does.  More and more every day.  He's weird.  But weird for kids is almost normal because all kids are weird.

Recently, Andrew had the privilege of riding in one of those nifty shopping carts that has a car attached to the front.  He was so excited to sit in there like a big boy and for about 5 minutes he did what you'd expect him to do: steer the steering wheel, honk the horn, try to grab things off of shelves, check things out from his new perspective... then at one point we looked at him and he was curled up in a ball on the seat with his back to us.  Ooooooo kaaaaaay.... Then by the time we got to the check out, he was having little bursts of a shrieking noise that made everyone within 30 feet stop and stare.  All we could do is roll our eyes and laugh.  O-D-D Odd.

This morning, I asked him what he wanted for breakfast.  He didn't answer.  So I asked him if he wanted oatmeal or hot cereal.  Blank stare.  So I made oatmeal.  He ate about 4 bites, then didn't touch it for about half and hour.  I asked him if he was finished and he said, and I quote "All done."  So I dumped it.  2 seconds later he told me he wanted more oatmeal.  Andrew doesn't eat, especially fruits and veggies and we recently discovered that we can puree fruit, add it to his breakfast and he doesn't even notice.  In fact a few times I think I actually heard an "Mmmmm" out of him!  So anyway, because he doesn't usually ask for food, I clarified with him asking him if he was sure he wanted more oatmeal.  "Yes, more oatmeal," he said.  So I made him more oatmeal, adding the fruit, and as soon as I set it down (about a minute after he initially asked), he told me he didn't want anymore oatmeal.  Grrr!  So it sat on his little table untouched.  Mid-morning, I asked him what he wanted for a snack.  He told me he wanted toast so I made him some toast.  I few minutes later, I was putting laundry away and he came running back to me with his toast ripped up into a thousand teeny tiny pieces in a bucket.  That's what he wanted toast for??

There are also certain words that he uses that suddenly sound British, like boat, Daddy and remote.  You have to hear it to get the full effect, but it's pretty weird. 

Ainsley loves her pacifiers.  She's had the ability to find her paci and put it her mouth basically since she entered the world.  It's pretty impressive.  So when we put her in her crib, she has a paci in her mouth and a couple more near her so when she loses one, chances are she'll find another and pop it back in her little mouth.  This strategy has really come in handy.  Well the other day, I put her down for her nap when she was almost asleep and was thoroughly entertained watching her in our video monitor (one of the greatest inventions ever!).  For about 5 minutes, my daughter did this routine of sucking on one pacifier, while holding another in her hand.  After a few seconds, she would spit the one in her mouth out and replace it with the one she was holding.  Then she would grab the one she just spit out, spit out the one she just put in, and replace it with the new one... And this went on and on until she lost one.  Wow.  I was laughing out load. 

More recently, now that Ainsley can sit up, stand and move around in her crib, she wiggles over to the side, pulls back the bumper and throws all of her pacifiers overboard one by one.  Then sits there, crying and reaching for them.  Poor baby.  I can't feel that sorry for her because she's doing it to herself!  I go in there, give her back all of her paci's and 3 minutes later they are all on the floor again!

It seems I have these moments every day... when all I can do is just blink my eyes at my kiddos and think 'are they for real?' but I appreciate those moments because of the joy and entertainment they provide me, even if it's not intentional!  I just have to love my weird kids. 

For all the Daddy's

I just looked at my calendar this morning and realized that Mother's Day is only 1 week away!  I am usually quite a planner, but somehow missed the day that's sole purpose is to celebrate Moms!  Hopefully you're on top of things and have been planning something for the mother of your beloved children for some time now, but if not may I offer a gift idea?

I got a necklace like this for my sister, Heather, for her birthday a few months ago.  She loves it and yes, of course she has to say that, but I really think she does and I love it too.  And because I love it so much, my wonderful hubby got one for me for Valentine's Day!   This artist personalizes them and will pretty much do anything you ask.  The necklace I linked to (and the one pictured above) is actually the one Jim got me.  The one I gave my sister is a little different. You can change the stones according to your kids' birthdays too.  My necklace has July and December birthstones and initial stamp for each child!  Very thoughtful and personal, right?  And doesn't make much of a dent on the wallet... not that your wife isn't worth gold and diamonds.  I love everything in this woman's store so check out all that she has to offer.  She can also ship them fast so if you've waited till the last minute, you should probably start moving!  Here's the link again http://www.etsy.com/listing/66443034/original-version2-leaf-initials-and-1

Good luck!