She wanted to sit and watch them!
I told you Claire carried that pumpkin around all day!
Claire's first time throwing money into water:
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Olbrich Botanical Gardens
Claire LOVED these fish!
She wanted to sit and watch them!
I told you Claire carried that pumpkin around all day!
Claire's first time throwing money into water:
She wanted to sit and watch them! I told you Claire carried that pumpkin around all day!Claire's first time throwing money into water:
Monday, September 7, 2009
Parasites in Food
I usually post articles related to breastfeeding and parenting for anyone interested in reading them. But here is one about nasty, germy food: http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/Features/Lists/?article=MenuParasites>1=27004 Avoid those menu items if possible!
Farmer's Market in Madison
Last Tuesday, I drove to Madison, WI. I visited my cousin Kami. Here we are at a local Farmer's Market.
Claire fell in love with this mini-pumpkin and it became her lovey for the rest of the day!
I love having a stroller. It comes in great as a shopping cart sometimes. :)
This was a very big farmer's market! The local ones here are super tiny!
They had flowers, meat, cheeses, baked goods...and of course fruits and veggies!
MMM! Look at those raspberries! YUM!
Claire wouldn't cooperate, but here she is with me in front of the capitol building.
It looks really cool at night, as it's all lit up!
Claire fell in love with this mini-pumpkin and it became her lovey for the rest of the day!
I love having a stroller. It comes in great as a shopping cart sometimes. :)
This was a very big farmer's market! The local ones here are super tiny!
They had flowers, meat, cheeses, baked goods...and of course fruits and veggies!
MMM! Look at those raspberries! YUM!
Claire wouldn't cooperate, but here she is with me in front of the capitol building.
It looks really cool at night, as it's all lit up!
Beefsteak Tomatoes!
After IN Beach, I spent 2 nights at my parents house. My brother Richie is holding up a HUGE beefsteak tomato grown in his garden. The soup can is for a size comparison.
I've never seen a tomato so big! And we had some yummy home-grown corn. Super sweet.
CHEESE!
I've never seen a tomato so big! And we had some yummy home-grown corn. Super sweet.
CHEESE!
Indiana Beach Amusement Park
Last Sunday I headed out on road trip! Josh flew to San Francisco for a business trip. I started out by meeting my parents at Indiana Beach for a day of rides!
Claire got to try her hand on rides for the first time. You have to be 36 inches for most kiddy rides like this.
The cool thing about IN Beach was kids ages 2 and under are free to ride! YAY! Admission and parking were also free, so it's a very reasonable place to go.
Claire had fun riding these boats and ringing the bell. I remember riding these same boats when I was little and having fun sticking my fingers in the water.
Here I am watching her!
Claire was terrified of the big Ferris wheel. But it was very windy and almost cold! It was only about 60!
If you've been to IN Beach, you'll remember these nasty carp that will eat anything, small children probably included.
Here is Claire on the very open train! She had fun!
Her favorite kiddy ride was the cars. She rode on them at least 4 times!
Here is my dad watching her!
Claire got to try her hand on rides for the first time. You have to be 36 inches for most kiddy rides like this.
The cool thing about IN Beach was kids ages 2 and under are free to ride! YAY! Admission and parking were also free, so it's a very reasonable place to go.
Claire had fun riding these boats and ringing the bell. I remember riding these same boats when I was little and having fun sticking my fingers in the water.
Here I am watching her!
Claire was terrified of the big Ferris wheel. But it was very windy and almost cold! It was only about 60!
If you've been to IN Beach, you'll remember these nasty carp that will eat anything, small children probably included.
Here is Claire on the very open train! She had fun!
Her favorite kiddy ride was the cars. She rode on them at least 4 times!
Here is my dad watching her!
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Camper!
Here are some pictures from when Matt and Brooke visited. I have gotten behind in posting, but thought I should post these before I post some from our trip last week!
Claire gets excited now when she sees a camper on the road since she's been in one, she knows what they are.
Then she'll say, "I miss Matt Brooke!" It's very cute!
Claire gets excited now when she sees a camper on the road since she's been in one, she knows what they are.
Then she'll say, "I miss Matt Brooke!" It's very cute!
Black Light Mini-Golf
We went black-light mini-golfing with our friends Matt and Brooke. Claire wasn't such a great help. Notice she has taken all of our golf balls!
They had a cute little golf club that was just her size! Of course she is probably close to 37 inches by now!
Claire really enjoyed seeing all the fish and paintings in "That Fun Place." It's pretty close to a locally owned Chuckie Cheese, but they have laser tag, bumper cars, and some kiddy rides in addition to the golf, pizza, and typical skeeball type games you win tickets at. I have never actually been to a Chuckie Cheese in my adult life, but I hear the pizza there isn't bad either? This place tosses their own crusts! Awesome!
She so did not get the game concept, but we all had fun anyways!
They had a cute little golf club that was just her size! Of course she is probably close to 37 inches by now!
Claire really enjoyed seeing all the fish and paintings in "That Fun Place." It's pretty close to a locally owned Chuckie Cheese, but they have laser tag, bumper cars, and some kiddy rides in addition to the golf, pizza, and typical skeeball type games you win tickets at. I have never actually been to a Chuckie Cheese in my adult life, but I hear the pizza there isn't bad either? This place tosses their own crusts! Awesome!
She so did not get the game concept, but we all had fun anyways!
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Bottle Feeding Mimics Mourning?
Very interesting article about bottle feeding right after birth causing "mourning" in mom http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=bottlefeeding-mimics-mourning&page=2 What do you think?
Friday, August 28, 2009
OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!
I haven't done much blogging lately, but I have a very good excuse. I am 7 weeks preggers, due April 16th. This baby-boo number two and all these hormone changes have left me absolutely EXHAUSTED! I was able to see the heart beat as well as hear it during the ultrasound. You can see the heartbeat recorded at the bottom of this first picture:
Here is a good shot of the fetus and the "yolk sac" which is like the early placenta. It's amazing really to think of how fast everything grows and changes.
The fetus is already in amniotic fluid. The black area directly around the fetus is the fluid. Amazing! I'm just as excited as I was with Claire! I have been having some morning sickness, so I'm convinced it's a girl, as I heard that it's more common with girls, but who knows. And I'll be equally happy with a boy or girl. :)
Here is a good shot of the fetus and the "yolk sac" which is like the early placenta. It's amazing really to think of how fast everything grows and changes.
The fetus is already in amniotic fluid. The black area directly around the fetus is the fluid. Amazing! I'm just as excited as I was with Claire! I have been having some morning sickness, so I'm convinced it's a girl, as I heard that it's more common with girls, but who knows. And I'll be equally happy with a boy or girl. :)
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Breastfeeding is NEVER weird!
Breastfeeding saves lives. It is never weird. http://blacktating.blogspot.com/2009/08/boobies-are-life-saving-devices.html Cultural perceptions differ, but mothers would never regret breastfeeding in an emergency, whereas formula would be a bit trickier to use!
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Ready to have kids?
So You Want To Have Children? (from this site: http://www.allowe.com/Humor/book/So%20You%20Want%20To%20Have%20Children.htm )
Preparation
Women:
Put on a dressing gown and stick a beanbag down the front.
Leave it there.
Every week, add another beanbag.
After 9 months, remove 2 beanbags.
Men:
Go to your pharmacy.
Empty your wallet on the counter.
Tell the pharmacist to help himself
Go to the supermarket.
Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their front office.
Go home.
Read the newspaper… for the last time.
Knowledge
Find a couple with children.
Berate them about their lack of discipline, lack of patience, low tolerance, and how their children run wild.
Suggest how they can improve their child’s sleeping habits, toilet training, table manners and general behavior.
Enjoy it while it lasts. It's the last time you'll have all the answers.
Nights
Turn the radio on to some loud screaming station.
Walk around the room from 5 to 10 PM carrying a 10 pound bag of wet goo while the station screams.
At 10 PM, put the bag down, set the alarm for midnight and go to sleep.
Get up at 11 and walk the bag around until 1 AM.
Set the alarm for 3. Since you can’t get to sleep, get up at 2 and make tea.
Go to bed at 2:30.
Get up at 3 AM when the alarm goes off.
Sing songs in the dark until 4.
Set the alarm for 5. Get up when it goes off.
Make breakfast.
Repeat for four years. Look cheerful!
Dressing Small Children
Buy a live octopus and a string bag.
Attempt to put the octopus into the string bag so that no arms hang out.
Time allowed: 5 minutes.
Cars
Sell the BMW.
Buy a 5-door wagon.
Put a large chocolate ice cream cone in the glove compartment. Leave it there.
Put a peanut butter sandwich in the CD player.
Mash a box of chocolate cookies into the back seat.
Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.
Going For a Walk
Wait.
Go out the front door.
Go back inside.
Go outside.
Come back in.
Go outside.
Walk down the front sidewalk.
Walk back up it.
Walk down it again.
Walk very slowly along the street for 5 minutes.
Stop at every piece of used chewing gum, dirty tissue, and dead bug along the way. Inspect each minutely. Ask at least 6 questions about each.
Retrace your steps.
Scream that you have had as much as you can stand until the neighbors come out and stare at you.
Give up and go back into the house.
Repeat for 5 years.
Patience
Repeat everything you say at least 5 times.
Grocery Shopping
Go to the supermarket. Take along the nearest thing to a pre-school child: a fully grown goat. (If you plan to have more than one child, take more than one goat.)
Buy your weekly groceries without letting the goat(s) get out of your sight.
Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys.
Feeding a 1 year-old
Prepare a bowl of cornflakes.
Hollow out a melon through a small hole in one side.
Suspend the melon from the ceiling.
Swing it back and forth.
Spoon the soggy cornflakes into the swaying melon while making airplane noises.
When at least half of the cornflakes are gone, pour the rest on your clothes and the floor.
TV
Learn the names of every character from every episode of the Wiggles, Barney, Teletubbies, and every Disney movie.
Watch nothing else on television for at least 5 years.
Cleanliness
Smear peanut butter on your sofa.
Smear jam on your curtains.
Hide a fish behind the stereo. Leave it there all summer.
Stick your fingers in dirt. Rub them on your walls.
Color your other walls with crayons.
Traveling
Make a recording of someone shouting “Mommy!” over and over. (There may be no more than 4 seconds between each shout.)
Include the occasional crescendo to the approximate decibel level of a fighter jet.
Play this tape in your car continuously the 5 years.
Conversations
1. Start a conversation with another adult.
2. Have someone else continually tug on your pants and shirtsleeves while playing the tape prepared above.
Get Dressed
1. On a day when you have an important meeting, wear your nicest work attire.
3. Put 1 cup of lemon juice into a cup of cream. Stir.
5. Pour half of it on your shirt.
6. Saturate a towel with the other half.
7. Attempt to clean your shirt by rubbing it with the saturated towel.
8. Do not change clothes. You're late already!
9. Go directly to work.
You are now ready to have children.
Preparation
Women:
Put on a dressing gown and stick a beanbag down the front.
Leave it there.
Every week, add another beanbag.
After 9 months, remove 2 beanbags.
Men:
Go to your pharmacy.
Empty your wallet on the counter.
Tell the pharmacist to help himself
Go to the supermarket.
Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their front office.
Go home.
Read the newspaper… for the last time.
Knowledge
Find a couple with children.
Berate them about their lack of discipline, lack of patience, low tolerance, and how their children run wild.
Suggest how they can improve their child’s sleeping habits, toilet training, table manners and general behavior.
Enjoy it while it lasts. It's the last time you'll have all the answers.
Nights
Turn the radio on to some loud screaming station.
Walk around the room from 5 to 10 PM carrying a 10 pound bag of wet goo while the station screams.
At 10 PM, put the bag down, set the alarm for midnight and go to sleep.
Get up at 11 and walk the bag around until 1 AM.
Set the alarm for 3. Since you can’t get to sleep, get up at 2 and make tea.
Go to bed at 2:30.
Get up at 3 AM when the alarm goes off.
Sing songs in the dark until 4.
Set the alarm for 5. Get up when it goes off.
Make breakfast.
Repeat for four years. Look cheerful!
Dressing Small Children
Buy a live octopus and a string bag.
Attempt to put the octopus into the string bag so that no arms hang out.
Time allowed: 5 minutes.
Cars
Sell the BMW.
Buy a 5-door wagon.
Put a large chocolate ice cream cone in the glove compartment. Leave it there.
Put a peanut butter sandwich in the CD player.
Mash a box of chocolate cookies into the back seat.
Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.
Going For a Walk
Wait.
Go out the front door.
Go back inside.
Go outside.
Come back in.
Go outside.
Walk down the front sidewalk.
Walk back up it.
Walk down it again.
Walk very slowly along the street for 5 minutes.
Stop at every piece of used chewing gum, dirty tissue, and dead bug along the way. Inspect each minutely. Ask at least 6 questions about each.
Retrace your steps.
Scream that you have had as much as you can stand until the neighbors come out and stare at you.
Give up and go back into the house.
Repeat for 5 years.
Patience
Repeat everything you say at least 5 times.
Grocery Shopping
Go to the supermarket. Take along the nearest thing to a pre-school child: a fully grown goat. (If you plan to have more than one child, take more than one goat.)
Buy your weekly groceries without letting the goat(s) get out of your sight.
Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys.
Feeding a 1 year-old
Prepare a bowl of cornflakes.
Hollow out a melon through a small hole in one side.
Suspend the melon from the ceiling.
Swing it back and forth.
Spoon the soggy cornflakes into the swaying melon while making airplane noises.
When at least half of the cornflakes are gone, pour the rest on your clothes and the floor.
TV
Learn the names of every character from every episode of the Wiggles, Barney, Teletubbies, and every Disney movie.
Watch nothing else on television for at least 5 years.
Cleanliness
Smear peanut butter on your sofa.
Smear jam on your curtains.
Hide a fish behind the stereo. Leave it there all summer.
Stick your fingers in dirt. Rub them on your walls.
Color your other walls with crayons.
Traveling
Make a recording of someone shouting “Mommy!” over and over. (There may be no more than 4 seconds between each shout.)
Include the occasional crescendo to the approximate decibel level of a fighter jet.
Play this tape in your car continuously the 5 years.
Conversations
1. Start a conversation with another adult.
2. Have someone else continually tug on your pants and shirtsleeves while playing the tape prepared above.
Get Dressed
1. On a day when you have an important meeting, wear your nicest work attire.
3. Put 1 cup of lemon juice into a cup of cream. Stir.
5. Pour half of it on your shirt.
6. Saturate a towel with the other half.
7. Attempt to clean your shirt by rubbing it with the saturated towel.
8. Do not change clothes. You're late already!
9. Go directly to work.
You are now ready to have children.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Kangaroo Care
Here is an awesome article about Kangaroo Care http://babywhys.wordpress.com/2009/08/20/mothers-last-skin-to-skin-goodbye-saves-her-20oz-baby/ It's truly amazing what the human body can do! :)
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Good Ole Grub!
We recently meet Daddy for lunch while Matt and Brooke while visiting. We went to YATS on MASS AVE!
This is their funky ceiling:
They don't have menus, just a chalkboard with today's offerings.
Their food is pretty spicy, so we just got Claire plain white rice with butter, which she of course, loved!
Here are Matt and Josh ready to dig into the good old sloppity-gloppity grub!
Their food may look like vomit, but it's always really thick and hearty stews and chilis...and VERY CHEAP! You get a HUGE plate of food for like 5 bucks. They also have all the funky Cajun stuff like gumbo, jambalaya, crawfish, and shrimp.
This is their funky ceiling:
They don't have menus, just a chalkboard with today's offerings.
Their food is pretty spicy, so we just got Claire plain white rice with butter, which she of course, loved!
Here are Matt and Josh ready to dig into the good old sloppity-gloppity grub!
Their food may look like vomit, but it's always really thick and hearty stews and chilis...and VERY CHEAP! You get a HUGE plate of food for like 5 bucks. They also have all the funky Cajun stuff like gumbo, jambalaya, crawfish, and shrimp.
New Stuffs
Well come check out my new stuffs. I added some awesomely and not-too-annoying blinkies on my sidebar of my blog. I changed the background, header photo, as well as the subtitle of our blog. I removed the labels because I added the "search" tool which seems much faster. What do you think? Should I put the labels back? I also added a "Blog Roll" at the bottom of blogs that I read regularly. If you want me to add or remove you, just let me know! If you don't have the "feed reader" thing active, you may not show up there.
Peanut Butter Playdough!
Today we enjoyed an early morning walk before the rain rolled in. Then we got some BBQ pork going in the crock pot and made some carrot-raisin muffins. They are fun to make...Claire loves the "Muffin Man" song! We also made cream cheese frosting to put on them. Claire loves to lick the beater! Then since it was raining, I decided to get crafty and continue my cooking streak today by trying out "Peanut Butter Playdough."
It was AWESOME! It actually tasted really good and doubled as a snack for both of us :) Hehe! It tastes like the peanut butter balls. Claire and I are huge peanut butter fans!
The recipe is this easy: 2 cups of powdered sugar, 1 cup of peanut butter, and 1/2 cup of honey. However, do not try to get all the honey that is stuck to the side of your honey bear off, by putting in the microwave for 1 minute, even on half power. It will melt your bears face into a very funny and sad looking proportion and probably leech all sorts of toxic plastic-y chemicals into the honey. Then you will just end up throwing away the honey that was originally stuck to the sides anyways. Be sure to double click on this bear picture for a full sized look:
Yes, it was absolutely glorious, fun to squish and play with, and I didn't have to tell Claire not to eat/lick/bite/chew or otherwise gum the playdough 42 times. I heard about edible playdough on JON AND CATE PLUS 8. I actually get lots of good ideas from her on what to do and what not to do...lol! I looked up a recipe online and there are a billion out there. Most of them call for flour or nonfat dry milk powder. I looked for one that I simply had all the ingredients for. I didn't want to go to the store in the rain today!
Go make some now to eat. Screw letting the kids play with the dough. This stuff is manna!
It was AWESOME! It actually tasted really good and doubled as a snack for both of us :) Hehe! It tastes like the peanut butter balls. Claire and I are huge peanut butter fans!
The recipe is this easy: 2 cups of powdered sugar, 1 cup of peanut butter, and 1/2 cup of honey. However, do not try to get all the honey that is stuck to the side of your honey bear off, by putting in the microwave for 1 minute, even on half power. It will melt your bears face into a very funny and sad looking proportion and probably leech all sorts of toxic plastic-y chemicals into the honey. Then you will just end up throwing away the honey that was originally stuck to the sides anyways. Be sure to double click on this bear picture for a full sized look:
Yes, it was absolutely glorious, fun to squish and play with, and I didn't have to tell Claire not to eat/lick/bite/chew or otherwise gum the playdough 42 times. I heard about edible playdough on JON AND CATE PLUS 8. I actually get lots of good ideas from her on what to do and what not to do...lol! I looked up a recipe online and there are a billion out there. Most of them call for flour or nonfat dry milk powder. I looked for one that I simply had all the ingredients for. I didn't want to go to the store in the rain today!
Go make some now to eat. Screw letting the kids play with the dough. This stuff is manna!
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