Friday, January 30, 2009

First Visit to Orchestra Hall


Isabel, mommy, daddy & grandma went to Orchestra Hall today to listen to the MN Orchestra perform a compilation of songs written by Leonard Bernstein. They titled their performance "Bernstein Beat" and it was a part of their Young People's Concert Series. Most of the time Isabel was attentive, but there was a period of a couple of songs that she insisted on laying on the floor beneath our chairs in the box suite we watched from.
One of the things neat about this concert was that Leonard Bernstein's daughter, Jamie, was there on stage with the orchestra to educate everyone about the pieces of music and her father. It was very educational. I know I learned a lot.
Afterwards, we had lunch at the Fire Lake Restaurant. It was very yummy. They cook with organic, local & sustainable ingredients.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Bed Head

So, I was taking some pictures this morning of the plastic bag flowers I was making and Isabel decided to take a breakfast from eating her breakfast to ask to have her picture taken. She normally doesn't ask, it's usually me just taking them. Anyways, we got her clothes changed before breakfast but she still has bed head. What we have here is one nice smiling picture and one silly tongue-sticking-out picture.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

McDonalds is Not THAT Evil

Before I had kids I wanted to believe that I was rarely if ever going to take my child to McDonald's. That was before I had kids. The reality is that is isn't as bad it can be. It's all about choices. Plus it can be a real sanity saver. When it's cold here in MN and you need to get out of the house, McDonald's playground is a good place for kids to burn off energy.

Sure, some argue that those tubes and slides are covered in germs and maybe kids with weaker immune systems should stay away. Or maybe they should go there to be exposed to germs and build up some immunities. Anyways, I have yet to attribute a sniffle ot runny nose to McDonald's. Seriously, how can I tell if she got that from McDonald's or holding hands with a friend at a playdate or sitting in the shopping cart at the grocery store. Unless you keep your child in a completly sterile environment at all other times, can you really attribute a virus to playing there.

And as far as food goes, yes I have read Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser and I avoided McDonald's for many years after that (combined with an episode of food poisoning that could have been from there or from food at an outdoor concert that day), but I have to sometimes turn a blind-eye to the monoply they have on the beef, chicken, & potato, etc. market if I want to go there with my daughter.

I am lucky in that my daughter like a cheeseburger, apples (w/o the dip), & milk. She doesn't care for fries or pop all that much, but a lot of that has to do with the fact that I gave her apples & milk initially and it's the norm for her to have that. Although, what gets me is when people tell me that I should get the chicken nuggets for her (which she never wants -- she likes cheeseburgers) because they are healthy. Seriously people, read labels.

Both the cheeseburger and a 4-piece chicken nuggets have 12 grams of fat. Yes, the cheeseburger has an extra hundred calories, but the cheeseburger also has 2 grams of fiber (chicken nuggets have ZERO), a cheeseburger has 15 grams of protein and the nuggets have 10 grams. With a cheeseburger you get 6% RDA of vitamin A, 2% of vitamin C, 20% of calcium, and 15% of iron -- the 4-pc nuggets you get 2% of Vitamin C & 4% of iron (that's it.) Although you get double the amount of sodium in a cheeseburger than in the 4-pc nuggets, so the nuggets win out there. But you have to remember that if you use any sauces, you have to add extra. All the sauce add an extra 50 calories and other than the honey, all the sauces will bring the sodium content to being on par with the cheeseburger. So, when you consider when you eat the nuggets you are getting very little else other than fat & sodium, the cheeseburger (not that's healthy) looks like the better option. I don't see anything healthy about the nuggets at all.

So, it may not be the best choice for an entree for my child, but we don't go too terribly much. But we do go and I don't feel bad about it.

She eats a lot of fruits & veggies when we are at home and we have high fiber bread and brown rice at home, so I think she gets quite a bit of healthy food. Plus I think it's good for her to learn at an early age to make healthy choices and not feel like she has to be restricted from the Golden Arches.

Breakfast Playgroup

We hosted a breakfast playgroup at our house this morning. It was a really good time. All the kids played so well together that we were able to actually have a lot of uninterrupted conversations. What a treat! I made an egg bake & creme brule french toast and asked the other moms to fill in with milk, fruit, juice, bacon & baked goods. It was such a filling breakfast it's no wonder that I am not hungry for lunch yet (& it's almost 1pm). Our friends that came over were: Beth & Aleyah, Mary, Cheri, Cole & Jacke, and Becky, Kennedy & Maddy.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

At Church


Here are some pictures I took on Sunday when we were at church. They were taken at the end when we were about to have the Annual Celebration, which is a big meal. It was yummy. Our church is currently renting a space as they build a new building which is supposed to be completed this spring. The new building is visible from the highway and it sure is going to be a big place.
So, yesterday we went to swim class and I am taking her out of the class. This is a parent-child class and there were 20 kids with parents in the water with the instructor for a total of 41 people in the water. There was a clearly posted sign that said the pool capacity is 24. How irresponsible of community ed. to violate a health code (and having been a certified pool operator, I know it is a health code and not just a suggestion) and put everyone in danger. I am not about to keep in this class. It is a small pool and was packed. Isabel had no problem jumping in and kicking around her feet, but other kids were scared and having a fearless child so close to them jumping in & swimming around just increased their anxities. And Isabel being the show-off she is in the water would relish in listening to the other parents tell their chld to be brave like "that girl" (Isabel) and jump into the water. But as watch her jump in over & over and further & further out, I was worried that some other child would get caught underneath her jump and both of them end up going under. Seriously, we were on top of each other in there. It was not safe.
Isabel has been enjoying going swimming a lot lately and she is getting so much better. She is really starting to develop some skill (which I believe she may learn very little of in this class because they taught the same thing we learned when she took the class when she was 9 months and now she is almost 2 years & 9 months.) So, I'll just continue to take her on our own time and pay the money to do that rather than lessons at this point. And next time we do lessons I am going to ask to make sure that the enrollment does not exceed the capacity

Monday, January 26, 2009

Popsicles & Leaves

Art Time

We did some fun art stuff today. First she painted with ice cubes & kool-aid. Then she wanted to paint some more so we went to her art room and I gave her the stretched canvas that I had and let her create. Below you will see her piece that she titled "Popsicles & Leaves". I will be posting a slideshow of her painting it shortly.


It was interesting watching her paint this one as compared to the one she did on canvas last year. Last year she just used her finger and played around with the paint, this year she used a variety of brushes, her fingers, stamps, and talked about the colors she made as she mixed them together. She even talked about what she was painting this time and gave it a title.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Her First Time Bowling

She was very excited to go bowling. One of the moms in our MOMS Club posted on our forum that she was taking her boys bowling today and wanted to know if anyone wanted to join them. Isabel had been asking to go bowling, so I thought we would go. They have a winter pass that allows her 2 games & shoes, Sun-Th, for $25. I think MOMS Club will go in February, so I went for the pass. Besides, I need some stuff to do with her in the afternoon since she is trying to get rid of her nap. It's good util April 30th, so we will have lots of times to bowl.

She was so excited to pick out a ball & wear her bowling shes. She was dancing around and just plain giddy. But by 6th frame she was too tired to carry the ball and by the 8th frame she was asking to go home & take a nap. She can't bowl with one arm, in fact, she needs helping pushing the ball to get it down the lane all the way. Anyways, we came home and she still asked to go upstairs & take a nap and she did.

We also went to visit our friend Cheri, Cole & baby Jackie today. Jackie is just over 2 weeks old now. We went to visit, have a little playdate, bring presents and a meal I made them. I made them Mexican Lasagna, Mexican Rice & Cranberry Coffeecake. We are having all of this too. I double up my recipe when I make something for others. No sense not doing that, as it doesn't take me any longer to double everything. Isabel & I had some of our cranberry coffeecake today for lunch and it is good.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Ice Skating


We took Isabel ice skating for her first time today. We aren't sure where daddy's skates went to (I'm a little suspicious since he wasn't that fond of ice skating) so just mommy & Isabel had on their skates. She didn't last too long, but since daddy was just in boots he could take her to the park to play while mom skated some more.
The Snow Park is new to our town. The city recieved a grant that is paying for it, the warming house & the attendant to staff it, etc. They have 2 small rinks there. One for hockey & one for open skating.
Right now I am listening to Isabel try to tell daddy how to play Gran Turismo 4. She keeps telling him to "STOP!" I think she is afraid he is going to hit something with his car. Time to go eat some supper and them we are meeting friends for swimming.

Internet Research

There are a few things that Isabel & I wanted to know about, so we researched them online:

* What does a giraffe sound like? Answer. Here is a guy making animals sounds, including giraffe.
* What Seasame Street character is on the red heart necklace she got from Santa? Answer. Abby Cadabby.
* What are the rest of the words to "Sing a New Song" since mom can only remember the chorus? Answer.

Sunday Crafts

We made some crafts this morning. Isabel & daddy made a squirrel feeder out of the bottom of a milk gallon and some foam stickers to decorate it. They filled it with peanuts for the squirrels. They set it up outside on a table and Isabel wanted to wait for the squirrels to come. In the meantime they refilled the bird feeders as well. We've been enjoying watching the birds & squirrels eat out of the bird feeders.

I made the snowman felt board pieces to go along with our January Theme of winter. She has been asking to make a snowman out of felt and I finally got around to making them.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Snow Shoeing

Isabel rode in the sled white daddy & I were snow shoeing. She didn't want to try any on. She would lay down on in the sled and drag her hands while we pulled her. She thought she was hilarious for doing it.

Daddy wasn't sosure about going with us, but I think he had fun. Although, the wind was fierce when we were protected by the trees. It was certainly nice to get outside and have fun and not b running from the car to the house in the -20 degrees.

This was the first time that all three of us went snow shoeing. In the collage below you will see Isabel did try them out with daddy.

We went to River Bend Nature Center (we love that place) for their snowshoe event & treasure hunt this weekend. What was kinda neat was they gave us coupon to come back & rent snowshoes free for coming out today for the snowshoe event. I think Isabel & I will come back again sometime. This evening we went out shopping & bought new ice skates for mommy & some ice skates for Isabel. They are big for her, probably will fit her better next year, but we can put lots of socks on and try them out. She wants to go ice skating. I like how adventuresome she is and wants to try everything. She has been asking to go bowling too, which we will probably do this winter some time. Maybe I will see if our playgroup wants to go bumper bowling.


This was taken during the middle of this week. We went swimming with our friends Beth (she's takig the picture) & Aleyah. It has been so nice to go swimming again with Isabel. The pool is warm, which was such a change when we were running from the car to the inside with -20 degrees outside. We have plans to go swimming with them again tomorrow afternoon, along with our friend Carrie & Gavin, and the daddies too (Derek, Kyle & Isabel's daddy.)



Snowman Snacks

We made these snacks for the playdate at our house on Friday. It is two marshmellows (I thought 3 would be too many) that are held togetherby peanut butter, with pretzel stick limbs, and mini chocolate chips for eyes & nose & mini Hershey kisses held on my some nutella. They are sitting on snow/popcorn with snowballs/yogurt covered raisins. Isabel ate quite a few supplies while we were making them.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Let the Warm-Up Begin! PLEASE!

Well, we are staying in again this morning. Schools were delayed 2 hours, but not cancelled like yesterday. I suppose that is because we suppose to go from -26 to +9 degrees today.

So, we are skipping going to the gym (for mommy) and gymnastics open gym (for Isabel) this morning. We did make some smoothies. She's afraid of the blender when it's on, but put everything in there and took the cover off when it wasn't running.

This afternoon we are having some friends over for a smallish playgroup. So, that will be fun. Yesterday we had a playdate with our friends Rebecca, Casey & Dani. Isabel & Casey will be in swim class together in a couple weeks. On Wednesday we met our friends Beth & Aleyah to go swimming for open swim. That was nice because the water was so warm and it was sunny out and the wun was coming in through the windows and it didn't feel like it was below zero outside. We plan to go swimming again on Sunday with some friends. Tomorrow I would like to take her to the Nature Center for their snowshoeing event. I haven't talked to daddy about it and I am not sure if he wants to go with or not.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Quiet Time


We're still working out the kinks of quiet time as opposed to nap time. She decided this week that nap time was no longer, but by 4pm she's ready for a nap and it's just too late to take one.


Anyways, she doesn't quite get that she is supposed to stay in her room the whole time. She plays quietly and doesn't disturb me or ask me to play with her, but after a while she ends up playing in the hallway and I have to tell her to go back in her room.


Plus she has this new found sense of power & independence that doesn't jive to well with me at time and leaves me wanting to drink heavily or beat my head against a wall. There have been some rough moments for power struggles in our household this week.


Here's a little video of her at the start of quiet time.


And if anyone is looking for a coloring book to make for someone, here's a fun one of A-Z of foods from the USDA. I am going to print it off soon because we are doing Alphabet as a theme sometime soon. Although I am re-thinking that since she knows all her letters & their sounds. It might just be redundant. I was thinking Fruits & Vegtables would be a good theme, and this coloring book would tie in perfect. Plus, it would be a good way to get her off her sugar kick and explore more fruits & veggies (which she generally loves.) I haven't decided which month I will do it yet, as we are thinking about booking a vacation somewhere warm and I want to tie in the theme for that month with that.

Brrrr!


They say on the news that today is the coldest day here in 5 years. So, we're inside today. We may leave this afternoon when we reach our high of -4 to go to a playdate. Our playdate has a bounce house in their basement, so jumping around could be just what she needs.
In one of the pictures she is sitting on the steps with her friends, Ta (the red teddy bear), Dolly (the dolly), and Hop (her purple bunny).

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Happy Birthday Grandma!

It's Grandma S's birthday today and we hope she has a good one.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Picking Out Her Own Clothes


Well, she now wants to pick out all her own clothes. And sometimes she doesn't match at all....like today. Actually, her first outfit wasn't too bad, but then she had to change when she needed to go potty (not because of an accident, but just to change). So, now she has on a white turtleneck with pink ballerinas on it, a summer sundress, black tights and green frog socks.
This morning didn't start off too great for us. It was a huge power struggle and we ended up not going to gymnastics and she had a long quiet time in her room. I did tell her she could read books & (finish) eat her breakfast, but that she needed to stay in her room because mommy was mad at her. She gets quite upset when I tell her she made mommy mad. After her quiet time, when we both cooled down, she told me she was sorry and gave me a hug. I will have to call and see if we can make up missing class with the Monday night class next week.
Isabel also seems to be trying to transition away from naps. I got a lot of advice from other moms and we'll have to see how this goes.
I have some old short videos that you can view:

Monday, January 12, 2009

Staying Busy

Yesterday, after naptime, we went over to Isabel's friend Aleyah's house and had dinner with her & her parents. Then all six of us walked to the high school (they live next to OHS) for the lullaby concert that the orchestra was putting on. It was a nice little concert. Isabel seemed to enjoy it and like watching how the instruments were played, so hopefully that means we will have a good time when we go to the MN Orchestra for a Yound People's Concert at the end of the month.

This morning before it got too bad out & schools closed in the are, we got to the gym so I could go to yoga class. The rest of the morning was spent coloring & stamping & imaginary play. We also watched the birds eating out of some of our birdfeeders and a squirrel that was being vreay creative in figuring out a way to eat out of one of them too. This afternoon we had to reschedule our playdate because of the weather, but we did go outside ourselves to pull her around on the sled and do some shoveling while she climbed the snow piles. Our plow guy is here right now plowing the about 5 inches that we got today. There are still flurries, but I don't think it will amount to much more.

We also brought in a bowl full of snow to make some more snow ice cream. While we were outside playing, Isabel kept saying "We're playing in winter, mom."

Interesting things from magazines

* PBS Kids Island (play games & learn literacy skills at the same time, ages 2-8)
* Teething Biscuits Recipe (using unbleached flour, ww flour, maple syrup, & applesauce) from Wondertime Magazine Feb '09 issue
* Make colored snow with squirt bottles filled with water & food coloring
* Compostable disposable plates bowls, plates, cups & flatware from Earthshell, Verterra, & World Centric
* Tri-Chair (This is SO NEAT! It changes from a highchair to a rocking horse to an art desk. I love the versitility of it. And even better is that it is mad of recycled sawdust.)
* Versaline Clothesline Drop
* Passive Infared Wall Switch Vacancy Sensor
* Tax Credits for Energy Efficiency -The bummer is that we finished installing windows this year and this year there are no tax credits for it. Same thing with the roof. It's 10% of the cost and that adds up when you have done several windows & a whole roof. Although, we do plan to replace our front door in 2009, so we'll have to remember to get the credit for that. We are also thinking about looking into a new boiler, which will get the credit too as long as it is Energy Star. You can only claim $500 tax credit over the lifetime of the credit, which is 06, 07 & 09. We never submitted our windows in 2006. I am not sure why, as we had an accountant doing our taxes then. They should have asked, but oh well. I guess we'll get it this time if we are replacing more stuff.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Colleecting Box Tops & UPC's

I started emailing this out to some people, but I thougt maybe I would just post it here too:

Our school collects all different kinds of UPCs & boxtops & milk caps and they have been able to buy several new things for the classrooms from the money they get from different places. If you don't already collect these things, it would be greatly appreciated if you would start. Let me know if this is something you are willing to do.

Here's the list:
* Box Tops from Betty Crocker & Pillsbury Products (10 cents)
* Milk Moola from Kwik Trip milk bags & cartons (5 cents)
* Our Family Products - UPC (5 cents)
* Kemp - Caps (5 cents)
* Food Club Products - UPC (5 cents)
* Land'o'Lakes Milk - caps (5 cents)
* Tyson Project A+ - A+ symbol (24 cents)
* Lables for Educations http://www.labelsforeducation.com/ - UPC, see website for extensive list of Campbell's Soups, Tyson, & Goldfish products
* http://www.boxtops4education.com/, just by signing up on this website and selecting Medford School, they get credit, plus if you ever buy stuff on there they get money from that too
* They also turn in printer cartiridges, call phones, palm pilots, & laptops and get money for recycling those.They ask that you use a separate baggie for each "category" above so that they know where each ones goes.

Thanks so much if you are able & willing to help out with this.

Sunday, January 11th

These top pictures I took with my new camera phone (well, it's a few weeks old now). I took these this morning while we in the car after church. Isabel went to church school all by herself today. Today they learned about God Made the Jungle Animals.

Isabel has really been getting into wanting to do little crafts, which I love to do with her. So, today we made the homemade birdfeeders out of dried grapefuit peels. She used a plastic needle and would run the yarm through the holes I had made. We each made a birdfeeder to put outside.


The other thing we made today was a necklace using beads & a black string, just like they did in the book Paperwhite that we have been reading. Again she used the plastic needle with yarn to string her beads on.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

A Busy Saturday

Well, it was a pretty busy Saturday. We met Uncle Al & Lisa out for breakfast this morning and then we all went to Target. After that, mommy, daddy & Isabel met a bunch of friends at our school for Little Dudes Open Gym. Most of the people that were there were our friends from playgroup that we invited to come. The school is having another one of these open gyms in February too.
After open gym, we came home and Uncle Al Lisa came over to have lunch with us. Then it was naptime for all three of us and after naptime we went to a different Target to buy a couple things that our local was out of. We had good luck. Daddy went out to play pool & have drinks with a friend while we were gone & he's still not back. He must be having fun.

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Making Paper Snowflakes



This evening after dinner, Isabel says, "Mom, let's go make a craft." So, all three of us made paper snowflakes. We have been reading the book Frosty Colors that we have in our personal library. It's a Little Golden Book. Anyways, Stewart Snowman is sick of all the white and suggests the theme of their upcoming block party be "Frosty Colors" and so it must be and they make a bunch of decorations that are colorful. So, we made some snowflakes out of round coffee filters and then colored them with markers and then we hung them from the chandlelier over the kicthen table.

We met some moms & kids from our playgroup at McD's today. It was nice to get out & sit & talk. Isabel and her friend Bella shared some kisses. All of a sudden one mom says "Oh, how cute! They're giving each other kisses." I looked over and asked Isabel what she was doing and she said "I'm just kissing my friend mom."

Tomorrow we are going to meet some friends at open gym gymnastics and then in the afternoon we have a playdate at our friend Lisa's house with her three girls and another mom & her daughter.

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Anotehr Visit to RBNC


We went with our friends Beth & Aleyah to River Bend Nature Center. They had never been there before. We spent 2.5 hours there. We were outside for about an hour. It was fine in the woods because the trees protected us from the wind, which was brutal in the parking lot. Then we spent the rest of the time in the Interpretation Center. We packed a lunch and the girls played. We stayed a bit too long and Isabel did not take a nap today. This evening we went to a potluck for church, which was nice. There were a lot of people there and a lot of good food.

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Snowman Cookie Picture


Just in case you are unable to view the slideshow, I have put one of the pictures here.

Snowman Cookie

Here is about a 50 second slideshow of the snowman cookie we made this evening. Talk about sugar rush!

Recent Activities & more to come....

I forgot to post about some of the fun we had recently. Last week Friday we swimming with our friends Carrie & Gavin. Carrie told us she was pregnant again while we were there. We were supposed to get pregnant together, guess daddy & I need to get cracking. Anyways, the water was nice & warm and it was so nice to go swimming. We swam for about an hour and it would have been longer if it was up to Isabel. That evening we went to Javalive Coffeehouse and listened to some area bands that played there. We were there for almost 2 hours and let Isabel stay up way past her bedtime. But she seemed to enjoy herself.

Today we went sledding with another mom & her boys. And then we went to the library and picked up some new videos & books.

Our friend Cheri posted on our MOMS Club page that she was having contractions & her water broke and she was going to be having her daughter Jackie soon. I hope it went fine. Jackie decided to wait a week past her due date to be born.

I also decided to sign Isabel up for swim lessons. We start in just less than 3 weeks. It's at the pool we were swimming at on Friday. We did lessons there once before and that pool was freezing then, but they renovated and they must have got a new pump and/or heater for the pool. It is much more pleasant.

We had gymnastics today and Isabel had a hard time getting back in the groove of listening to th teacher after having 2 weeks off. Actually, she didn't want the teacher to help her or touch her at all. It's not just the gymnastics coach either, she is like that pretty much everywhere lately. Hopefully some kind of stage she passing through.....

We don't really have any plans for tomorrow. I should really say home and clean the house, but I might try to set up a playdate instead or maybe take her to the Nature Center.

Monday, January 05, 2009

Pictures from the past week

This was one of our activities today. We talked about how juice was a liquid and she could pour it. We talked about how cold it was outside and what we thought would happen to the juice if we put it outside today. We had been talking about water turning into ice a lot the past week, so she knew the right answer is that it would turn to ice. It was 22 degrees when we put it out there in the morning (hence she is still in her jammies, well, and she's wearing a party hat from church class). After and hour we went to check on it and you can see her checking it out with her finger. It was slushy and we talked about how it was still part liquid and part ice and that is what makes it slush. Then we left it until after naptime and it was 29 degrees then and it still wasn't frozen solid. So, we brought it back in the house and stuck it in the freezer until this evening.

Today we also started learning the 2 snowman songs I posted below. I also went through our books and found 2 books about snowmen that she has been obsessing about today. She keeps saying, "Let's read about Frosty", even though none of the snowmen in the books are called Frosty. She just remembers Frosty from the holiday cartoon special.

Yesterday, she went to church class for the first time. About half way through the service the kids get up to go to their classrooms and she wanted to know where everyone was going. I told her they were going to church class and asked if she wanted to go. She said yes, so we went to the nursery and she saw itw as the nursery and said, "No, this isn't class. I don't want to go here." She's not 3 years old yet, so I didn't know if she would be allowed to go in the class for 3-4 year olds. So, I asked if she could go and offered to stay there with her. She did just fine and I don't think she would have needed to have me there. She learned about how God makes everyone special and we did a little art project with fingerprints, sang some songs, talked about special talents and had a little party to celebrate our specialness.
I took these pictures today, but we actually planted this bulb yesterday. Although yesterday my batteries were dead in the camera and I didn't think to grab my cell phone to take pictures. So, we took some pictures today.

This is from a few days ago. I attempted to have her make q-tip snowflakes, like the ones pictured in the bottom right picture (I made that.) But she had other ideas. She wanted to use the q-tips as a paintbrush and then decided it would be more fun just to finger paint. She fingerpainted on both a blank piece of paper and also a picture of a snowman.
Tomorrow she has gymnastics class again. It is good to be back in a routine. Her school class will start again in a couple weeks.

Today, I Ate A Grapefruit

And tomorrow (or whatever day the peel is sufficiently dry) we will be making homemade bird feeder. I love this project already!

As part of our winter theme we are talking about birds needing food and how it'shard for them to find it in the winter. So, we are going to make every effort to keep the bird feeders filled and are now going to make a couple new feeders to add outside. Pictures to come.

Maybe We Can't Afford to Have Another Baby (& Clothe It)?

Ok - the easier version is to read this article: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-thrift2-2009jan02,0,2083247.story

But, you can certainly read what the government has to say about the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act: http://www.cpsc.gov/ABOUT/Cpsia/cpsia.HTML#timetable

When I look at how much of Isabel's toys & clothes are used, I know a second child who have far (FAR!) fewer.

I read a few articles online about this and I thought the LA Times article was the best written.

I first want to say that I am in support of have regulations that are monitoring lead levels of newly created products.

But what happens to all the used toys & clothes that are now deemed toxic, whether they have lead in them or not, just because someone can't prove that they are not toxic.

And if the current regulations stay as they are, it sounds like every thrift store will have to stop selling anything to do with kids, both toys & clothes. You can't sell used toys & clothes ANYWHERE!

What kind of consequences does this have on our landfill system that will now be filled with kids toys & clothes? Am I really supposed to throw everything away? The thought just sickens me on so many levels.

What happens to the thirft stores that only sell kids stuff? Are they literally forced out of business on February 10th?

What happens to the small manufacturers that can't afford this testing? Are they now forced out of business?

Will we see the cost of kids clothes & toys increase tremendously as companies try to offset the cost of this testing and as stores try to make up for inventory they have to throw away on 2/10?

In a time that business are laying off left & right and closing their doors, it seems like the government is doing a disservice by having these regulations be so broad that thrift stores are forced out of business, that people are not allowed to -resell their used baby items.

So, should I find a sitter for the day on February 9th (it's a Monday), so that I can run around to every store I can find and try to purchase clothes they have very deeply discounted so that they don't have to pay additional trash removal costs in addition to losing all the money ona product. I have a big house, I can stock up on clothes until she is 13 (the regulations are for clothes for kids under 13). I can't say that she would be happy with the style of something that was up to a decade old.

I suppose if we can guarantee we have a girl, we can at least afford to outfit them in clothes up to a size 4T (3T is getting too small, even though 4T is still a little big, but we go with 4T now.) But what happens with that 50% chance that I have a boy. My child is stuck wearing the few gender neutral clothes I have for the first 6 months and then I have 2 children to have to buy new clothes for all the time.

Guess it's a good thing I bought that new sewing machine. I'm going to have to start using it. I'll really have to start using it if we are ever blessed with another child.

Can our country really afford to throw all this stuff in the landfills?

Can our country really afford to no reduce, reuse, recycle?

I am by no means saying I am in support of high lead levels or any lead levels for that matter. But from my understaning, the regulations are too strict as they are written currently and who is going to take the time to pay to test lead content in used clothing & toys? No one, they get throw away. And many of used items may have no lead in them at all, but unless someone proves it they are considered toxic.

Anyone want to join me for a shopping spree at Babies'r'Us on Monday, February 9th?

Sunday, January 04, 2009

Library Books

We went to the library last week and picked up some new books and I thought I would mention a few we enjoy:

Good Night Goon : This is a parody of Good Night Moon and Isabel loves it. She had me read it 3 times tonight. The librarian recommended this book. Apparently, it is a big hit among kids.

Jump into January : This is a fun search & find book that address ideas of things you might do each month.

Paperwhite : This is such a great book to give you ideas of things to do with your child. It really helps them learn how to do something & that they can learn how to do something from books. I couldn't find a Paperwhite bulb to buy, but I did buy a pink Amaryllis bulb, which we planted today and will watch grow over the next 6 weeks. She also wants to make beaded necklace they talk about in there. They mention playing the piano (which she hasn't asked about yet) and making cutout cookies (which we have done already, she just asks for cookies after we read this part.)

Snow Globe Family : This is a very cute book. She loves the small baby & big baby in here.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening : This is the Robert Frost Poem. I love the pictures in here and how they have drawn in the animals so you can kinda see tem, kinda not. Such a great way to introduce her to a Robert Frost poem.

I hope this gives you some ideas of books to buy or checkout of the library.