Pickle Perfect

Toddler Tuesday: Cooking with Sam

2012-05-08T20:37:00.001-05:00

Low fat Cranberry Orange Muffins

This week's learning lessons:
Go over the names of all the ingredients
Discuss textures and colors of all ingredients
Discuss how the measuring cups are different sizes
Show how to mix with a whisk
Practice counting with muffin tins
How to gently crack and egg
Show what happens when you mix sugar and butter

Ingredients
2 cups, plus 1 tbsp of unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup cake flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup plus 1 tbsp of sugar
4 tbsp of unsalted butter (softened)
2 large eggs
1tsp of grated zest from orange
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups plain low fat yogurt
1 1/2 cup of dried cranberries
2/3 cup orange juice

1. Turn on oven to 375. Then go over the first few learning lessons (see above).

2. Help your toddler measure out and combine all purpose flour, cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and 1/4 cup of sugar. Then whisk together and set aside.

3. Put additional 3/4 cup of sugar and soften butter into a mixing bowl. Mix for about 4 minutes. Have toddler help you scrap down the sides of the bowl if needed.

(oops a mess...clean up!)

4. Have toddler add 1 egg at a time to the mixing bowl. Mix well between each egg addition.

5. While the mixture is at a low speed add in a third of the flour mixture followed by a third of the yogurt mixture. Repeat until all of the flour mixture and yogurt are mixed in. Be careful not to over mix.

6. Put cranberries and orange juice in a microwave safe bowl and cover with saran wrap. Put in microwave for 1 minute and let the mixture sit for about 5 minutes. Then strain the cranberries and discard the juice.

7. Combine 1 cup plus 1 tsp of sugar with 2 tsp of grated orange zest.

8. Combine cranberries and remaining 1 tbsp of flour and fold into the batter.

9. Use an ice cream scoop to divide batter into each muffin cup. Back for 25-30 minutes.

10. Official toddler taste test.

*disclaimer - you know your child best. If you feel your child is not quite ready for some of the steps seen above then modify to do what is most appropriate for your child *

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Next week:Apple crisp

Toddler Tuesday: Cooking with Sam

2012-05-01T15:03:00.003-05:00

Chocolate Chip Banana Pancakes

This week's learning lessons:
Learn how to pour liquid into the bowl
Learn how to mix without spill batter everywhere
Learn that different kitchen utensils have different purposes
Watch how pancakes get fluffy
Go over "hot" with the skillet
Learn how to cut pancakes into smaller pieces

Ingredients (mostly taken from the Bisquick box)

2 cups Original Bisquick® mix
1 cup milk
2 eggs

Optional

Chocolate chips

banana

1. Pour two cups of Bisquick mix into a large bowl

2. Show toddler how you pour milk into measuring cup.

3. Allow toddler to pour milk into bowl.

4. Crack egg into a small bowl and allow toddler to add egg to bowl.

5. Show toddler how to mix everything together using circular motions.

See the batter getting less lumpy! Keep it up Sam.

6. Sam telling us that the skillet is HOT! Yes, yes it is.

7. Toddler adding a little oil to the skillet using a tbsp.

8. Have an adult scoop pancake batter onto skillet

9. Time to add some chocolate chips and mushed up banana. Oh yea, gotta make sure those chocolate chips didn't go bad....taste test!

10. Sam again reinforcing that the skillet is HOT!

11. Daddy showing Sam how to use a spatula to turn the pancakes.

12. Sam insisting that HE cut the pancakes into smaller bites. Yes that is a butter knife but it was good for his to practice.

13. Yummy! Also good to freeze them separably for a quick weekday breakfast.

*disclaimer - you know your child best. If you feel your child is not quite ready for some of the steps seen above then modify to do what is most appropriate for your child *

Linked up to:

Next week: Low Fat cranberry orange muffins

Toddler Tuesday: Cooking with Sam

2012-04-24T16:12:00.003-05:00

Chocolate Covered Rice Krispie Eggs

Cooking can be a wonderful activity to do with your child. There are so many learning lessons that can be incorporated and I will try to list those with each recipe that we try.

This week's learning lessons:

Go over color of the eggs and the ingredients

Learning to say all the ingredients.

Differentiation of the different textures of the ingredients

Practice pouring objects from one place to another

Start to understand how we measure

A talk about *hot*

Ingredients (taken from classic rice krispies recipe)

6 cups of Kellogg's Rice Krispies cereal

3 tablespoons butter

4 cups of miniature marshmallows

chocolate (I will confess, we used up all the random Valentine chocolate laying around)

Sprinkles

plastic easter eggs

1. Show toddler how to pour cereal into a large measuring cup.

2. Have toddler pour cereal from measuring cup into an extra large bowl.

3. Have toddler measure out the 4 cups of marshmallows and 3 tablespoons of butter and put into a pot. This would be a great time to have a discussion about HOT! We even sang a little made up song about the hot stove. Adult: stir until completely melted and then pour into extra large bowl.

4. Help toddler to mix it all together. Then a taste test of course! Ok, it takes great onto the eggs.

5. *Note - this step goes much easier if you spray all the eggs with PAM. Show your toddler how to stuff the eggs with the rice krispies mixture. Let sit for 5-10 minutes.

6. Another taste test. Still good.

7. Make a small double boiler. Fill a pot half way with water and bring to a boil. Then find a bowl just big enough to lay in the pot above the boiling water. Place chocolate in bowl and allow to melt. (don't know why I don't have a picture of this sorry).

8. When the chocolate is melted remove from heat and allow toddler to dip the egg in the chocolate. Then a little double dip for the egg into some sprinkles!

9. Allow to dry. We even put them in the freezer for hardening.

10. Final taste test!

*disclaimer - you know your child best. If you feel your child is not quite ready for some of the steps seen above then modify to do what is most appropriate for your child *

Linked up to:

Next week: Chocolate-banana pancakes

DIY: How to make a superhero cape tutorial

2012-04-22T16:27:00.000-05:00

This is my first Pinterest project. I decided to make a superhero cape for my 2 year old son. Since he is really into cats I decided to make it a cat theme. Just a note I still consider myself a beginner sewer but bear with me!

Supplies:

1 yard of solid color fabric

1 yard of print fabric

optional - fat quarter

black thread

white thread

pins

scissors

Iron out both pieces of fabric and then fold in half.

The neckline:
Then take the edge opposite the fold and fold it until there are about 5 inches on the top

Cut off the folded edge as seen below. You can do this free handed.
Why am I using a piece of plywood to cut my fabric? A certain someone (who shall not be named) thought I would ruin the cutting mat by getting little pieces of fabric stuck in the mat while I cut the fabric. The plywood got the job done.

I needed a round edge for the neckline so I grabbed my extra large mixing bowl from Ikea which worked perfectly. This allowed me to draw and cut a slight curve line from the cut edge to the folded piece.

Cape ties
Take the triangular scraps that you cut off in the first step and make a total of 4 straps that are 16 inches long by about 2 1/2 inches wide. Take one of the printed pieces and one of the solid pieces and put together inside out. Pin.

Sew along both long sides and one of the short sides. I cut the extra fabric along the corners so it was easier to turn inside out. When finished turn both ties right side out.

Assembly:
Now place the right side of each piece of fabric toward each other. Sandwich the cape tie between these two pieces leaving about a half an inch hanging out.

Now the fun part! Sew the cape together. I started with a basic straight stitch but I didn't think it was going to be strong enough so I went through and did a zig zag stitch. I left about 5 inches along the top open so I could put the cape right side out. Don't forget to trim the edges!

Cape decor:
I didn't include this in the instructions because I would do it differently the next time I make one. But for this one I wanted an S emblem so I printed out a very large S in Arial font about size 500. I very carefully traced the S onto a piece of fabric and cut. It didn't have to be perfect since I was going to attach the S with a zig zag stitch. For the cat I searched for a cat silhouette via the web and enlarged it. For the circles I got out my trusty Ikea bowls and traced.

If I were to do it again I would definitely skip the sewing and do some sort of iron on.

Special thanks to these blogs for inspiration and helping to get me started
http://thepleatedpoppy.com/2008/01/cape-tutorial/
http://www.georgialeigh.com/?p=57
http://www.allfortheboys.com/home/2012/1/2/diy-cape-christie-at-storehouse-crafts.html/
http://www.comeonilene.com/2011/06/20/reversible-superhero-cape/

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Warm Days of March

2012-03-25T09:58:00.002-05:00

Here are some fun photos from March (even though it may look like they were taken in June)

Oh boy! I found my blue chair!

Oh a camera. Cheese...Cheese...Cheese

What is that bright thing in the sky?

What is that big black thing you are sticking in my face?

OH! It is a camera, that is so funny.

Take a picture of me and Gorgy , Cheese

Orgy look at the camera

Look what a good brother I am, I will hold your hand.

I love Gorgy, she needs a hug. No hug is complete with out sound effects....awwww.

Oh yea, mom is still taking pictures....cheese!

Take a picture of Moa (Sam's name for Mona)

Take a picture of the sprinkler, mama

I love my blue chair, take more pictures mama (yes, he was REALLY into my taking pictures of him today)

This picture taking is tiring

Look I have my elephant

Why are you STILL taking pictures?

Look Mama, I can draw while sitting in my blue chair.

Yummy binki!

Ohh...I see a bubble.

There is another bubble

Mama take a picture of me sitting in my blue chair and the bubble machine.

Things to do with Kids Around Madison this Weekend

2012-03-07T13:54:00.000-06:00

Saturday March 10th

University of Wisconsin Space Place Saturday Science Workshop
Where: 2300 S. Park Street , Madison, WI
When: 10-11am
For ages 6-10 years old, this week's theme is Chemistry Fun. Free, but limited to the first 50 people.

Donuts with Dad

Where: Ashman branch library

When: 10-11am

Snacks, movies, stories, and fun with Dad!

Saturday Stories and Sweets

Where: Lakeview branch library
When: 10:30-11:15am
Donuts, juice, and storytime

Kids in the Rotunda:

Where: Overture Center for the Arts, 201 State Street Madison, WI 53703
When: 3 shows at 9:30 AM, 11 AM and 1 PM
This week is Tom Pease with his songs and storytelling

Wildlife Baby Shower
Where: Dane County Humane Society's Four Lake Wildlife Center, 5132 Voges Road, Madison
When: 12:30-4pm
The Dane County Wildlife Center is holding a baby shower for the orphaned wildlife that comes through their doors this time of year. They have a baby registry on their website or at Target. Entertainment includes balloon sculpting, a reptile program, a clown, and a juggling show.

Crawlers, Flyers, Hoppers and Skimmers

Where:Hawthorne branch library
When: 1:30-2:30 pm

UW Entomology Dept shows off a variety of insects. An interactive program for all ages.

Sunday March 11th

UW-Madison Arboretum: Arboretum Family Walk: “Mud”
Where: 1207 Seminole Hwy Madison, WI 53711
When: 1:30-2:30
Take a walk at the arboretum and learn about animal tracks

How to Build a Cat Tree

2012-03-04T09:41:00.000-06:00

**I originally posted this article over at PitelSpot in Feb '09 as a guest. But I am reposting it here so that I can answer any questions people may have. I have also edited a little.**

While in Oklahoma, Oscar had a small cat tree where he spent a large portion of his time. So much time in fact, that the structural integrity was destroyed by his constant jumping, bouncing, and swinging.

Our first attempt to replace the cat tree with a hardier, taller model proved to be out of our price range, with models starting at $250 going upwards of $500. So Nathan made me a deal. He would build a cat tree/condo when he got his workshop up and running and was able to buy a table saw. So 2 ½ years later, here’s the process:

The Design:

I started by browsing through websites that sell cat trees and condos. From these designs, we came up with several key elements that the tree should include:

Height. An interior decorator had recently helped us finish off our family room. On the left side of the mantle she had place a 7 foot high silk plant. To maintain balance in the room, we decided to build a 7 foot cat tree on the right side of the mantle. This created a triangle affect on the wall.
Tail Chasing. Oscar loves to chase his own tail by hanging off ledges. So several ledges needed to be included.
Hiding. Like most cats, Oscar likes to fit into small places, where he feels safe and warm. When he is a little unsure of things, he likes to climb to a spot as high as possible, allowing him to keep an eye on things. Right now, that spot is the cabinets above the fridge. We would like to go back to that point of blissful ignorance when he doesn’t walk around on the kitchen counters.

Materials:

After several trips to Menards for ideas, we came up with the following list of materials:

12 inch concrete form
3 2 foot x 6 foot 3/4inch plywood boards
16 ½ feet of junk 2x4s (already had from previous homeowners)
16 ½ feet of 8 inch PVC pipes
4 packages of sisal rope
60 feet of carpet (from remnant carpet section)
5 Long lag bolts (with end cut off to make double ended screws)
6 Lag bolts with large torx head
1 foot of fabric for cat hammock
Lots of glue sticks and staples

The Build:

Nathan did most of this section.

Columns: Nathan cut the PVC pipe into 4 sizes: 3 – 2 feet, 2 – 2.5 feet, 1 – 3.5 feet, 2 – 1 foot. He then fitted the 2×4 pieces inside the PVC pipes and screwed them in. Then he drilled holes for the bolts. I wrapped each pole with either carpet or sisal rope which was attached with high temperature glue.

2. Platforms: Nathan cut the platforms into several shapes. Base platform – 2 ftx2 ft. Level 1 – 2 ft x 2 ft with one corner cut off. Level 2 and Level 3 – 2 ft x 1 ft. Level 4 – 1 ft x 1ft. Level 4 was originally going to be a concrete form cut in half and placed on the side like a half moon shape but due to stability issues this top level was transformed into a platform. Nathan predrilled holes into the boards.

3. Concrete form: Nathan used a protractor to trace a circle on the outside of the form. He also traced and cut two more circles out of wood to wedge into the top and bottom of the form. The inside floor and the outside of the form were covered in carpet.

Finished Product:

Oscar LOVES his new cat tree. He spends a great deal of time chasing his tail on the ledges. He sleeps inside the concrete form and play with the toys hanging off the ledges.

ETA: It is now 3 years later and the cat tree is holding up well. Oscar now has a buddy (Calvin Coolidge) and the two of them can often be found batting at each other in play on the cat tree. My son also likes to hide things in the little cubby hole.

2012 Booklist

2012-02-29T15:24:00.000-06:00

I am trying to get back into reading more books this year. I will also continue to listen to them while I exercise. Here is what I have gotten through so far.

1. Shanghai Girls: A Novel

2 .A Stolen Life: A Memoir

3. Every Last One: A Novel

Tot School - Getting back into the groove 25 months

2012-02-12T14:15:00.001-06:00

Now that we are finally starting to settle into our new house we have started getting back into tot school (or rather S found the box of tot school supplies and insist on getting into it each day). I found by doing a little tot school each day he is much less likely to get into "2 year old trouble mode".

To our surprise we found out that he knew his whole alphabet and while we were moving we made sure to keep out his alphabet puzzle from Lauri Toys Primer Pack. I also printed out the Tot Time Notebook, which he just LOVES. At first he would just keep turning all the pages and saying the letters. Then he started saying the names of the icons on each page. Now he is starting to trace the letters while he says them. I don't know if I can keep up with his kid sometimes.

Now onto numbers! As usual I underestimated his knowledge. I have always counted things with him but I didn't think he was actually picking it up. Now he can count to twenty as I learned when he picked all the blueberries out of his cereal and laid them on the table and counted them as he fed them to the dog.

So anyway, not alot of pictures this week but we are going to try a little more structure in the coming weeks. This week we did do a few Valentine's worksheets (the ones that have the dots on them). But he also had to make some Valentines for this little friends at the Y. So here is what we did.

Supplies: Finger paints, Ikea paint brush, vanilla paper, multi-colored construction paper, and of course an old t-shirt for painting.

I put some dabs of paints on a paper plate and let S go to town. He had a blast and got to practice using his favorite word "More".

After we let the sheet dry I folded the paper and cut it into 8 hearts.

Then I let S use his handy dandy glue stick to glue all the hearts onto the construction paper.

Finally I tapes on a little dove chocolate into the middle (this had to be repeated several times since S took the chocolates off and ate them the first time around and the second time around I saw that the cat had eaten half the chocolate heart).

It is nothing fancy but it was a fun project for S!

Next week we are going to celebrate Dental Health Month! I have some fun handout that I made and will post them on next week's tot school blog.

Toddler YouTube Videos

2012-02-10T18:57:00.000-06:00

Making dinner while trying to entertain a 3 month old and a 2 year old can sometimes be challenging. Especially if your two year old wants to assist or has a trouble making ant in his pants. One day I turned to YouTube to see if I could find some songs for him to sing and I found a few great videos I have saved:

The classic Dr. Seuss videos! I was so excited since I haven't seen these videos in well over 20 years (jeez, I feel old). But right now S is really into Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham.

Cat in the Hat, Cat in the Hat (part 2)
Green Eggs and Ham

We also found a few videos for some of his currently favorite books:
The Hungry Caterpillar
Pete the Cat (I always wondered how his song went, now I know!)

Of course we needed to find some nursery rhyme videos since I am horrible at remembering them (yes, my DH did have to reteach me Old Mac Donald). Hoopla Kidz channel on YouTube had some cute versions of the nursery rhymes along with fables (which S isn't quite into yet). His favorites are:

ABC song
Itsy Bitsy Spider
Old Mac Donald
Wheels on the Bus

I will add to this list as it grows.

Ikea Inspired Playroom

2012-02-02T16:20:00.001-06:00

We moved into our new house a little over a month ago and one of the first things on the agenda was to set up a playroom on the main floor to hopefully contain some of the toys. To keep the remodeling budget reasonable we took the 2 hour drive to Ikea to pick up a few essentials.

Here is the room before we bought the house:

1. The room started out as this nasty salmon color and we (or rather my DH and FIL) painted the room a light taupe color to brighten the room. They also had to change out all the outlets since the previous owners decided the outlets themselves would look nice in a salmon color.

2. We had intended to buy a kids craft table for the holidays but I just couldn't find the right one. Then while surfing Target's website I happened upon a clearance table for $40 (down from $159.99) with free S/H when you spent $50 (like that was hard to do). The box came in damaged and my DH had to repair it a little but hey, for $40 I am not complaining.

3. Our big purchase was the Expedit shelving unit. We decided to go with the 25 cubbie hole model and we purchased 10 matching bins for $4.99 each and fit perfectly. The rest of the shelves we left open to display books, puzzles, etc. I put all the art supplies on the top shelf and left the bottom 3 shelves fully stocked with toys that are played with everyday (like the puzzles). I try to pull out a bin every couple of days since my toddler doesn't really go looking for things in there yet. Its a way to keep toys fresh. Oh and for those with kids that climb, this unit comes with hardware to attach to the wall.

4. Ikea hacks!
a. Stools - we found these cute little stools at Ikea for $5.99 but they were just a little too tall and my son had a little trouble getting up on them. So my DH took them downstairs and cut 2 inches off the legs of the stool. Now they fit perfect with the table and my son can hop right on them. They are surprisingly alot more stable then I thought they were going to be.
b. Art display - Since my son has been attending a little class at the Y, he is producing lots of artwork and we needed somewhere to display it. So we bought at curtain wire with little hooks and viola!

5. When we moved into the house there was sadly no room for our precious white board, which keeps us all organized (don't worry we bought a new one that is slightly smaller). But we didn't want to see this white board go to waste so we hung it in the playroom and now my son has a place to play with his letter. FYI - white board cleaner takes off permanent marker, pen, and crayon.

6. We also bought these two little Lack side tables so that my son would have a place to play with his new Ikea train set and his legos.

Eventually I would like to add some carpet tiles under the craft table so the carpet doesn't get stained with paint/markers. I would also like to add some touches of red to get some more color into the room.

Tot School - Odds and Ends

2011-10-28T13:47:00.000-05:00

Well it has been a crazy month. With selling our house, trying to find a new place to live, and getting ready for #2 Tot School has taken a little bit of a back burner. We have done some things here and there but it hasn't been as structured as I would have liked.

His favorite books continue to be Naptime Kitty during the day and Goodnight Moon at bedtime. S spends a large portion of his day playing with his Legos. If his towers fall apart he never gets angry he just sits down and begins building a new one.

Somedays if we haven't gotten to any Tot School activities he will go in the closet and choose an activity himself, which usually ends up being crayons and a piece a paper to draw on.

Here are a few of the activities we have done in the last few weeks. I haven't taken many pictures since the camera is all set up to go to the hospital with us.

S is placing glitter balls on the circles while saying the letter L. We also collected leaves outside and used them to make imprints on Play-doh.

Of course the dot paints are still a huge hit in this household. But I have to watch S closely because once he finishes filling in all the empty dots he starts to dot his arms.

I had some whole wheat spaghetti in the closet (which I was looking to get rid of because it tasted gross) and I let S put them through the holes of the strainer. But alot of the pieces ended up on the floor.

Luckily we had a little helper to spread them all over the floor with his paws.

I have never made caramel apples before so I though this would be a fun cooking project for S and I. I had gotten the wrong caramel product to do this so Nathan was nice enough to go to the store and pick out caramel. I also got out what remained of our sprinkle collection for decorations. Let' just say there were NO sprinkles left when we were done. S had a blast decorating them.

In mid-October we went to Barthel's Fruit Farm to pick apples and pumpkins. It was unusually hot and S was NOT happy that day so unfortunately we didn't get many good pictures. Hopefully pumpkin carving/painting goes better. :)

Tot School - Parts of the Body

2011-09-25T22:18:00.000-05:00

Letter: F

Shape: Triangle

Number: 2

Despite us all having head colds compounded with 2 year old molar teething I am impressed we were actually able to get some things done. Of course Legos continued to be the favorite toy of the week. Sometimes S will get them out 3 times a day and start building his towers.

Monday:

We worked on the handouts from 1+1+1=1 a little bit. But we only felt well enough to use the dry erase marker and work with the Play-doh. Daddy took S to gymnastics where he is really starting to get the hang of the Hokey Pokey.

Tuesday: We were feeling a little better so we decided to go to the library for storytime. Luckily the theme of story week was Parts of the Body! So S got to participate in lots of poems and songs about the body including our song of the day - Head,Shoulders,knees, and toes. We were both beat when we got home so we just played with Mr. Potato Head (another favorite toy of S's).

We got a few more books at the library.

Thursday: I cut out different parts of the body from the 1+1+1=1 handouts and taped them to some homemade dice that I made. We then rolled the dice and if the dice landed on "ear", I had S touch his ear. He was actually fairly amused with this game and learned some new vocab very quickly - ear, foot, eye, nose, mouth.

I got sucked into the $1 aisle and clearance section at Target and got S a few new supplies: watercolors, 5 reams of drawing paper ($.74/ream), huge book of stickers, dominoes, growing capsules. So today I got out the water colors to color his worksheets.

Of course what would be Parts of the Body week with out finger paints!

We finished up the day with some puzzles.

Friday: Today was craft day. I cut up a bunch of triangles and had S glue them to a piece of paper. We then of course had to get the dot paints out for a little bit. I also tried laying the left over triangles on the floor for S to hop on but he was not in the mood for any more tot school. So we relaxed to a little Super Why! (S's new favorite show) and he worked on sounding out the letters.

Saturday: Cooking with Daddy! This week's cooking activity was instant pudding.

Step 1: Always make sure the counter is clean.

Step 2: Make sure you have your ingrediants

Step 3: Mix all ingredients together

Misstep 3.5: Don't show 21 month old the timer as he quickly loses interest in cooking project :)

Step 4: Eating what you cooked, one large spoonful at a time.

Next week's theme: Fall

Theme: Clothing

2011-09-17T14:46:00.000-05:00

Theme: Clothing

Letter: S

Color: Blue

Number: 1

To start off the week I printed out some reminders of the things that we were going to learn this week. I hung them in the kitchen and found S going to them several times a day to go over them with me. I really think this helped reinforce some of the things we were learning especially the letter S.

S and I were a little bit under the weather towards the end of this week so we didn't get everything done that I had planned. Instead I just went with the flow and we did alot more motor related activities.

Monday: We probably did the most on this day. S is still loving using the dry erase marker on this S worksheets. The way he holds the pen is definitely beginning to change as he gets more practice. The dot paints on the other hand are becoming more of a messy affair as he likes to now use his thumb as a way to apply the paint to the paper.

I tried to add some objects for S to make imprints in the Play-doh but he is still mainly interested in pounding and feeling the Play-doh.

We read Pete the Cat and Nap Time for Kitty. In between reading and doing worksheets S wanted to play with his Mickey Shape Sorter and Farmer See N Say. Outside we got out his easel and he had a blast using the chalks.

Tuesday: We went to story time again and S did well . The theme for storytime was on the farm so he was well prepared to recognize all the farm animals. We also picked out some new books. At his point I think we are going to stick with the board books since I can trust him not to rip out the pages. Thus the books will probably not follow the weekly theme.

This we a favorite book of the week since S knew there was an Apple in it. He we sit down and go through each page saying "Apple".

S enjoyed pointing and finding all the animals in this book.

SOCKS: Later in the day we did some matching with different types of socks. We also had a little puppet show with the socks that we were using to match.

Thursday: We tried to do a few crafts.
Supplies: Printout of pants and shirt
Colored Cheerios or multi-colored pasta
Glue, q-tips, paper plate
I showed S how to apply the glue to the cheerios and then stick them on the piece of paper to decorate the clothing. But learn from my mistakes. I should have showed him how to apply the glue to the paper and then stick the cheerios on the glue. I had a difficult time trying to convince S that you don't eat the Cheerio or pasta after applying the glue. :)

I actually found S reading some books and doing his puzzles several times on this own this week. Progress!

Friday: Today we had a find the blue items hunt. I hid lots of blue items and S had to find them and put them in his bag as he said the word -- Blue. He loves running around the house and looking for items.

Here is some of the items that he found.

S was really into building this week. We had the Legos out almost every day. He likes to make large towers.

Tot School - Week 3 Letter C (21 months)

2011-09-10T15:04:00.000-05:00

While I as surfing this week's blog links over at 1+1+1=1, I found a blog that took a little bit of a different approach to Tot School. Throughout the day I kept coming back to this post in my mind and I thought maybe S would respond better if we took this approach instead. I know for the next few weeks (maybe months) I will continue to adjust my version of tot school until we find a routine that works best for us. As S grows I know I will continue to adjust his program to best fit his needs. So with that said I have postponed Monday's tot school so I can rearrange his lesson plan for the week a little bit. But in the mean time I thought it might be good to come up with some goals for the next month or two:

1. Books: get S a bit more interested in looking at books instead of ripping them apart.

2. Colors: start introducing the differences in colors.

3. Letters/Numbers: continue to show him new letters and see if we can get him to understand numbers beyond his nesting cups.

4. Pronunciations/Words: Continue to help him learn new words and match those words with objects.

With that said this week was a bit less structured then the last two weeks but S still got to get involved in lots of new things. Originally it was suppose to be C week.

Monday: We had some friends over and made some cheese fondue. S had some great fun using the fondue stick to dip his veggies, meat, and bread into the cheese (sorry I didn't get any pictures). We also continued to work on being gentle with the cats and saying the word cat instead of kitty.

S shows Calvin his cat book from the library. This is about as close as Calvin will let S get to him.

Tuesday: We went to story time at the library. We have been taking a break from story time since S would have NO part of sitting still for stories and songs for 20 minutes. But I wanted to get some books and so I decided to give it another try. It was wonderful. He sat and listened to two stories and participated in all the songs (in addition to clapping and saying YAH!! after each song).

S had fun playing with play dough using a cat cookie cutter and some cake decorating stamps (which he found are better suited for building).

Wednesday: S worked really hard on his listening skills when we went to do errands. He helped pick out things on the list and push the cart. S did really well with wanting to read books this week. Maybe because they all had cats of them but I actually saw him get one of the books and climb on to the Lazy-Boy and start going through it. He loved to point out the cats. He also liked to show the books to the cats.

Thursday: Today we made rice krispy treats. S poured the rice krispies into the measuring cup and then into the bowl. While I melted the butter and marshmallows, S took handfuls of rice krispies and put them into his mouth or handed them to the dog. We got back on track when we had to mix everything together and pat down the mixture onto the cookie sheet.

Then of course the most important lesson: learning to lick the spoon.

Friday: Daddy had planted two new maple trees in the yard this week and needed to mulch around the trees and finish moving some dirt. S was eager to help. We also had fun playing with his new board puzzles we got at a garage sale.

Daddy instructs S to put the chunky pieces of dirt in the wheelbarrow. S took this job very seriously.
S continues to help Daddy pick up dirt

S feels the job is better done using a shovel.

Perhaps a rake will help

Next week: Next week we are going to jump to the letter S. The theme is going to be types of clothes. The number of the week is going to be 1. The color of the week is going to be blue (since it is smurf's week at gymnastics). For vocabulary we are going to try to add new clothing words.

Tot School - Week 2 Letter B (21 months)

2011-09-04T13:34:00.008-05:00

Crafts:

We attempted to do two crafts this week. The first one was a lady bug. I got the idea from No Time for Flash Cards. S did really well with the painting and gluing and even laced the pipe cleaner through the holes. The second craft project was suppose to be a Bee but S was having no part of Tot school that day so we had to abort that particular day's project. We had also planned to have fun with the finger paints on the easel I got at a garage sale but it was so hot outside I decided to postpone this project until next week. At least we got one craft project done :)

Painting a paper plate red

Gluing pieces on the ladybug

Finished Ladybug

Worksheets: The dot to dot paints continue to be a ton of fun for S. He is really getting the hang of dotting the objects. However he finds that the caps of the paints are just as much fun to stack and put back on the paints.
I don't have a laminator so I glued the weaving printout onto a piece of thin cardboard. S is really loving the weaving and this week he was able to hold and weave at the same time.

We tried some stamps this week with NON-TOXIC ink. I know I have bigger stamps somewhere but I have to dig them out of our packed boxes. At first S really thought the stamp was interesting. So while he was doing this I turned away for about 20 seconds and......

I turned around to find that apparently the ink is also yummy. Luckily it washed off pretty easily.

S still really likes the foam puzzles

We also did a little bit of sorting with bears and puff balls. We are still working on books. I fortunately had picked up a lift the flap book at the library and we were able to get through a whole book. I am hoping if we keep trying he will eventually sit still while we try to read him one.

Sensory: I tried the sensory bin this week. S doesn't have alot of balls yet but luckily we have 2 spoiled cats and a dog with a whole basket of balls. S's favorite ball was a small green squishy cat ball. But he had fun putting all the balls back into the laundry basket.

Cooking: Each week I would like to do a little cooking/baking exercise with S since he loves kitchen utensils. However this week was a special treat since he got to do some baking with Daddy. This was S's first cookie making experience and first up on the menu - raisin, chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.

S helped Daddy pour all the ingredients into the mixer.

S helped Daddy beat the eggs

Of course the best part was eating. S insists that when a cookie is eaten it must be done in a Cookie Monster-like fashion. Hmmm... cookie.

The other cooking activity I had planned for a little later in the week was learning how to peel and cut a banana. We used a plastic knife of course.

B Activities: We did two B activities this week (well kind of ). First we went big boy bed shopping. Of course S really liked the loft beds with steps and ladders (I don't think so little guy). We didn't find anything we liked but S kept himself entertained by opening all the drawers on the storage beds. The second activity was getting to hear the baby on the doppler at the doctor's office. He always gets really smiley when he gets to hear the heartbeat.

Tot School - Week 1 Letter A (21 months)

2011-08-27T13:42:00.009-05:00

Over the last few weeks with S's explosion of new words and continued yearning to try and figure out everything we decided to try a little a little homeschooling. After a little searching on the internet I found this FANTASTIC site called: 1+1+1=1. Within this blog is a great section called Tot School and has lots of activities and printouts to get started.

This week we started with the Letter A and concentrated Apples and the Color Red. Here is how it went.

I didn't take pictures on Monday as I am still trying to figure this whole thing out.

1. Library: We started by walking over the library and stocking up on A themed books. S is still quite uninterested in most books and he would only sit still for the ABC book of CATS while Oscar demonstrated the finer points of cat ABCs.

2. Next we used kitchen tongs to transfer small toys from one muffin pan to the next. This gave me an idea.

3. I got some apples out of the fridge and scattered them in different spots. S then had to find them, say the word "Apple" and put them in the muffin tin. He LOVED this. After playing this game about 4 times he decided it was time for a snack and ate the whole apple.

4. I put some of our A work sheets in a sheet protector and gave him a dry erase marker to practice drawing the letter A.

I got my camera out the rest of the week but until I learn to multi-task a little better there may be a few more words than pictures. Hang in there with me.

Here is how the rest of the week went:

- I tried to show S how to use kid's scissor. But lesson fail. S is not quite ready for scissors. :)

- Let's try some play dough (as momma crosses her fingers that S doesn't think play dough is a yummy treat). Whew. We made the letter A out of red play dough before moving onto to smooshing and pounding the dough.

- One morning we tried the stamps with some finger paints but he was not a huge fan. Next week maybe we will try ink instead of paint to see if that goes over any better.

- The Dot Paints were definitely the favorite product of the week. Not only where they fun to use on the worksheets but the caps also were fun to stack and put on/off the paints. We used the dot paints again to make a cute Alligator A craft that I got off of No Time for Flash Cards. I did all the cutting for the craft and S did all the dot painting and gluing (extra plus in that S didn't eat the glue).

- I got this Lauri Primer Pack from Amazon. S actually spent quite a bit of time putting the puzzle together and working on the weaving portion (no picture since I had to help). I think I now have to get a laminator and laminate the weaving page from each weeks set of printable sheets.

-Of course we couldn't finish the week without a little outdoor time. All he wanted to do was try out his new trike (which I found at a garage sale for $4 - yea me!). S is still trying to figure out how to pedal but is completely content to sit on the trike and ring the bell.

To finish off our A week we participated in the MS Orchard Walk. We ate apple pancakes and picked 2 pecks of Paula Red Apples. Of course there had to be a little goat petting too :).

Not too bad for our first week. Let's see what the Letter B brings!

Spring-loading

2007-05-15T20:46:00.000-05:00

Tortoise Enclosure

Last summer I got Harry a wife named Erma. Over the winter they seemed to enjoy their indoor house, which included a 6 foot bookshelf turned on its side, lined with a rubber mat, and filled with Bed-A-Beast. But this summer I want them to be outside to enjoy the sunshine and eat some new types of Russian tortoise approved vegation. The first step was growing marigolds, cucumbers, petunias, and green peppers from seeds starting in late winter (pumpkin, kale are being grown directly in the outdoor enclosure). During the second spurt of nice weather we pulled up the sod from the side of the house. Nathan tilled the little area and I got busy putting down 2 layers of scalloped 12 x 4 inch long edgers.

The tortoises love their new enclosure. It will see some additions throughout the season, but it is a work in progress. They appear to enjoy petunias but have pretty much been scarfed down. Marigolds aren't a favorite and the cucumbers aren't enjoying the cross wind so much. So for now, I still have to provide some lettuce for them eat. And when the nights get below 50 degrees I have been bringing them in. I did lay some old sod into a nice little pile and put one of Oscar's plastic cat beds upside down over it, to give them a little place to stay dry when it rains. Here are the pictures:

Vegetable garden

So we waited and waited for the HOA to contact us about finishing a drainage project in our neighborhood. We knew that this spring, the back end of our yard would have to be dug up in order to correct some drainage issues. So we were hoping to plant the garden at this time. But the plants we grew from seeds quickly outgrew 3 different containers they were planted in. So I decided to do some research and see what could be planted in pots. Apparently, vegetables (even carrots) can be grown in pots and there are these new contraptions out called self-watering pots. These pots contain a water reservoir at the bottom of the pot that can be wicked up into the soil. So we are going to give it a try, despite the fact the contractors started work on our yard one week after I spent the majority of the weekend getting the pots and planting the veggies.

PS. I may be getting a new puppy in August.

2007-04-09T11:52:00.000-05:00

It has been a very long time since I have last written. Mainly b/c I have had two losts in my life in the last few months and I wanted to give them the proper good-byes. But I am still working on that so for now I will post a picture of them both.

Cody Aug 21st 1994 - Feb 2nd 2007

Mason Feb 17th 1994 - March 27th 2007

I will write more during this month about their loss which I may or may not post but it will be presented at a Bereavement Seminar which I was already scheduled to speak at this month. The subject has changed a bit and will cover loss from the perspective a veterinarian and an owner. If you would like to come please e-mail me for dates and times

Samson

2006-12-26T22:23:00.000-06:00

As promised here are some pictures of my parents puppy: Samson the bouncy Jack Russell. It was hard to get pictures of him since he spends most of his time bouncing but here are a few demos :-D

Samson

Going back to Oklahoma

2006-12-18T14:03:00.000-06:00

Most of the time we are so caught up in our daily events that we fail to stop and appreciate those around us. Last weekend, Nathan and I got that moment to stop a treasure our family and friends.

Nathan flew to OKC last week for one of his quartely visits and their holiday party. Things were going good throughout the week (despite the small leak from our water heater). He was suppose to attend the party Friday night and fly home Saturday morning (with a JR puppy for my parents).

On Friday at noon, Nathan calls me and says "I'm sick". I expelled everything in my system at midnight and I have been vomiting every couple hours. My tummy hurts. (at this point he was laying in his hotel room). I insist he calls a co-worker and goes to the ER for fluids. After minimal balking I offer to call his doctor in Edmond (even though they were closed on Friday). While I was making these calls, he calls a co-worker, who promtly takes him to the hopital where he proceeds to wait for 4 hours. At the end of these four hours he makes a trip to the bathroom to vomit. On the way out, a murse says...."You don't look so good man, let's bring you back and hook you up to fluids". (insert sarcastic comment here -- well duh, he hasn't been waiting for 4 hours b/c he feels peachy keen). At this point they run a blood test, ask him a bunch of questions. The blood tests come back and they hurry him up for a CAT scan.

At this point they come in and say they think he has appendicitis and they are going to take him to surgery. ......Let's recap.... he is now by himself, in Oklahoma, about to have surgery to remove his appendix. Nathan calls me around 6:30pm (as I am finishing up my day at work) and says I have appendicitis. I get emotional at this point, he is all by himself and who knows how good of a hospital he is at (in Oklahoma some of them can be pretty scetchy). I tell him I will get there as soon as I can. While I finish my last appointment, my boss runs upstairs and starts searching flights for that evening. I soon go up to see what he has found. At his point Nathan calls again and says his boss will pay for my ticket. There is one direct flight out of O'Hare that I could possible make if I could make if I was dropped off right at the terminal. A co-worker immediately offers to drive me. Another co-worker offers to take care of Mason, Oscar, and the tortoises for the weekend. With that said, I grabbed my coat and my purse and we were off.

We get to O'Hare 30 minutes before the plane was suppose to take off, all was good. I get the gate and it is delays...what the &$%^!!! I decide to call a friend from vet school who lives in OKC. She assures me, it is a good hospital. She knows the head nurse there and has had family members who have had proceedures there. She says it is a teaching hospital though. Then she offers to pick me up from the airport and take me to the hospital. After we talk,I sit impatiently and start talking to an older gentlman next to me, who says it will be ok and tells me about what happen when he got his appendix and everything he remembers about it (which actually made me feel better). I then talk to Nathan's mom. Apprentely, he called and said he is having his appendix out in Oklahoma and hangs up. She is very stressed, as am I after hearing another delay (due to a broken part on the airplane). I just want to get there before he wakes up. It is now almost 1 1/2 hours later (I should be about arriving in OKC by now). Another lady next to me says to call a speciall 411 number to get the number of the hospital to see how he is doing. I get in touch with the hospital and after being routed to 4 different departments i talk to the recovery nurse who says he is just waking up. (damn, I wanted to be there by now, he must be scared). I tell the nurse to tell him I am at the airpot (although I failed to tell her what airport) and I would be there as quick as I can.

Shortely after this, AA decides to give us a new plane but we have to talk to another terminal. By the time we all get there, the check-in people are told there are people and weight retrictions (plus they have to fit on 6 AA employeed on this flight). They says the need 13!!! volunteers. They get 10. So they are going to boot off the last 3 people to check in (that would be me). I go to the desk....and i freak out....I start crying and I say I have to get on this flight....my husband is in emergency surgery and there is NO ONE there with him. Of course the AA employee doesn't care. But the kind people around me do. One guy says I heard you on the phone...you need to get to your husband. He says, please take my seat. Another couple guys also offer their seats. I am so grateful.... a random act of kindness from complete strangers. I get on the plane and arrive in OKC at 1am. Due to the long delay, I told my vet school friend I would take a shuttle. I get off the plane and run towards the pick-up doors. When I get outside (at 1am in the morning), I see this randome pitbull running around outside (welcome to Oklahoma). I see him sniff a tree and I run over to an airport shuttle. I ask the driver, do you take credit cards. He says yes, but you have to wait a few minutes to see if there is anyone else. But it was only me. As we are driving out of the airport he says we need to stop by an ATM so I can get cash....WHAT!?!?! You said you take credit cards. No, only cash. Great. So we drive over to a 7 eleven and at 1:15 in the morning (not the greatest part of town) and i run in to use the ATM. I come back and get in the car and I relaize he isn't there. Five minutes later he gets back in. (the only thing that gave me the slightest amount of comfort is when I heard him say he was making a stop at St. Anothony's Hospital on his walkie talkie. We sat in silence until I got the hospital. I threw him the $20 and ran inside.

I get to Nathan's room at 2am and he is resting quietly. I am so relieved to see him. He shows me his incisions. We talk for a little while, I check the dosing on his IV antibiotics and fluid rate. A very friendly nurse comes in and helps me make up a bed to sleep in. And we fall asleep. The student nurses come in every 2 hours to do a TPR. A respiratory nurse comes in to show him to use this breathing toy thing. Before meeting the doctors I got a call in the morning from my boss to see how everything was. I was so tired that I was just talking and after a while I realized i had no idea who I was talking to. Shortly after Nathan gets a visit from his boss and another co-worker. In the morning, he orders some food from the hospital menu and we get to meet the student doctor and the surgeon. Both are really helpful and take their time to explain everything to nathan. They use the came critera for discharge as we do in vet medicine. If you can eat, not vomit, urinate, and defecate, you can go home. We around 1pm he is release from the hospital, with instructions not to lift/pull/push more than 5 lbs for 5 weeks and to walk alot to encourge the gas to work it way out.

My friend picks us up and drops us back at the hotel. After a brief shower, we walk to an Italian restaurant so Nathan can get some bland pasta. After lunch we realize the nurse was mistaken and there was no pharmacy in walking distance of the hotel. So Nathan contacts a co-worker to drive us to CVS. After getting back we take a nap and then get up to go have dinner with my vet school friend. That night we some much needed sleep.

The next morning (my birthday). I help Nathan pack up his stuff and I drag it downstairs. Throughout most of that day, we get strange looks as I lug his heavy laptop/PS2 bag and his suitcase around while he walks behind me. After some lunc he see Happy Feet before heading to the airport. At the airport we meet the JR breeder who gives us "Samson", an 8 week old JR puppy. He is all calm in the breeders arms. At security, we had to take him out of the bag and all the security people took turns hold him. When we got to the gate, he decided it was time to play and started squirming (nothing a little Benedryl for the flight doesn't help :-D ) . So anyway, we made it home safe and sound. Nathan is feeling much better! :-D

PS Pics of Samson to follow soon

Pitel Bloopers

2006-11-20T14:35:00.000-06:00

Log: November 20th 2006, It started one blistery cold Monday morning. The rents and his wife had taken off for a small day trip to Flemington. Grant was left by his lonesome......

Nathan receives an IM from Grant. He is locked out of the house, without a coat, without a cell phone. He only had his PDA to sustain communication with the outside world. Nathan signals to me to call my parents to ask what to do. Dad picks up. He is in the middle of a business meeting but tells Grant that there is a key under the white flowerpot. Yes, yes indeed...to my surprise I find out everyone has their own version of the key under the bunny rabbit. I convey this message to Grant via IM. He is unable to find the key. A phone call to Dad, finds he is unable to assist any further and my mom appears to be MIA. Grant suggests calling his wife (at this point I am unaware she is too in Flemington). Sheryl is unsure what to do and needs to have a pow wow with my mom. A few minutes later my mom calls to save the day and to instruct Grant where the key actually was.

Now we may feel sorry for Grant, outside in the cold without a coat. But there is more humor to be found in the story since this was not the first time Grant had locked himself out of the house.

Moral of the story. 1. Wear a coat when you go outside. 2. Don't lock the door when you are just bumming around the yard. 3. Always have a PDA on your side if you are lacking a cell phone.

Communicating with Mason and Oscar

2006-11-06T16:45:00.000-06:00

Gee, has it been a month already. I will back-up and tell you about the move (along with pictures), the visit from mom and dad (this past weekend), paintings lots of things etc. But for now I am going to tell you about our experience with the Animal Communicator this weekend. A little background. My boss kept hearing these amazing experiences people were having with this "pet psychic". So as a skeptic she decided to take her dog to it and was amazed at what this communicator told her. So as a fun treat for the staff, they paid a portion of her fee to come and communicate with the staff's animals. So I signed up with Mason and Oscar (and took mom along).
Here is what she had to say:

Mason
Pain: Mason started telling her how much he was in pain. He was hurting in his left hip, left knee, right hock, and both wrists. He wanted to know if I could make the pain go away, if I could help him breathe better, and if I could tell him if it was going to get worst. At this point I am crying (heck, I crying about it at the moment). The communicator wanted to know what I wanted to tell him. I can't make the pain go away, I can't make him breathe better, I have tried and all I am left with his pain control. He said he wasn't ready to go quite yet but he would let us know when he is. For right now he requested to be outside more often and to have a window open to help him breathe. ** I am still digesting the first portion of this reading and I am not quite sure about how to feel about this lady. Obviously you can tell just by looking at him that his age is rapidly catching up with him. But I don't know what to think from here.
Next the communicator, said he was talking about wetting his food and why it isn't done any more. At this point I look at mom who smiles at me. Mom use to always but some warm broth leftover on his food. He said he didn't mind the dry food but would like something wet on it from time to time. He then said that he likes his bed to be near the kitchen so he can see what is going on around him. The communicator
said he was talking about window wells, that he was worried something was going to get stuck in them. This was a strange comment, b/c our new house has 2 uncovered window wells in the front yard. But I know he has wondered over there once or twice. He requested that I look in those wells daily to make sure no critter is in them. I agreed. The communicator then said she was getting images of some type of pink food -- like a salmon fillet. Mason wanted some salmon and wondered if I could give it to him. I said no, he could have some pizza. He said that would be ok but he really wanted salmon. I said that gives him gas.

Brother - She said that Mason missed his brother, that he didn't know what happened to him. And wondered if there was another dog that use to live with us. I said he lived with 2 dogs in NJ before we left (but now that I think about it, it would have been Charlie who he lived with for 2 years and was very close to). Mason said he understood about Tippy but wanted to know if the other one was happy and well taken care of.

Mason then went on say he knows he has to be careful about the carpet. Weather it meant the carpeted stairs or the carpet to Nathan's office in the last two apartments who knows. I went on to ask the communicator to tell Mason not to go upstairs b/c it isn't good for him. But he says he doesn't want to be left out and will still go up them.

I then got to ask questions. First I asked if he likes to stay at the animal hospital or he likes the pet sitter. He says he likes either one. Then I asked if he minded Oscar kneading on him. Mason said...is that what that is? No he doesn't mind since Oscar seems to like it. In the final thoughts of his session, she said Mason asked if he was going to be euthanized now. The communicator said, no remember you said you weren't ready to go, and he said oh, yea. So she said he had some dementia going on.

Oscar
A little background. Oscar was in super curious mode the day of his communication. Just as we were about to begin with Mason, he decided to jump on the counter, knock her water to the ground along with some brochures. During Mason's reading he was jumping around the room, into the communicator's lap, looking at the window trying to catch bugs. With that said, on with Oscar:

After a few seconds of "communicating" with him the communicator said he is a very CURIOUS cat. He wanted to know where she lived, who she was, where she came from, if she could come visit him...etc. She explained to him in the communicator code who she was and what she was doing. Oscar said he was a very curious cat. He loves to run, and jump and especially swing from things. When he isn't swinging he likes to dream of swinging just like Tarzan. If he was a human he would be a trapeze artist. He said he has NO fear he will take on anything and likes to do so in front of an audience. He said he was smarter than the average cat and wondered if we noticed? (um, no). He said he wants to try more human food and would like it if we gave him small portions of our food. I said no. Then the communicator said he was VERY INTENSE about going outside. He needed to check things out and wanted to know if I would let him do that. I said on the next nice day.

He then asked "Are there bone fragments in my food?" "Those are things are bone fragments" " Are bone fragments good for me?" I said there were no bone fragments in the food. "Are you sure?" Yes, I am sure.

Then he said he would like to have another cat (or small dog) to play with. But he was very insistent that this small new pet would like him. But he needed a playmate. Then he wanted to know what was wrong with Mason, is he ok, (insert more tears from me). I said no, we slow down as we get older and we love him and will keep him around as long as he wants to be here. Oscar was worried what would happen to him when Mason went, if he would be all alone or would get a new pet. That he was afraid.

The communicator said he was talking about an aerosol can Nathan ("the man") had and wanted to know what he was doing, and what that can was. I said Nathan was spraying wasps. Oscar wanted to know if they would get into the house. I said no. Oscar wanted to know if he would see that can when we get home. I said sure.

Now on the the question portion
1. Do you like the pet sitter or staying at the animal hospital? He said he doesn't like the animal hospital. He LOVES the pet sitter and asked if she was coming to visit. He likes her b/c she talks to him.
2. Why do you knead on Mason? Well an animal that big should be a source of some nutrition. But it makes him feel good.
3. Why do you like Nathan so much? I like the water it is a fun game. And I really like the bathroom. But I also like his belly.
4. Why are you scared of the vacuum? He says its not clear but at some point there was something loud and blowing air on him on purpose. But he was out of it in this picture.
5. Stay out of the bedroom and off of the counters. Why he asks? B/c no animals on the counters and Nathan is allergic to you. He says, how is that my problem? B/c it makes him sick. Well I am not going to change.

So that was the animal communicator experience. And I know that pretty much everything she told us came from a fine-tuned skill in reading faces, emotions, the way we/our animals walk, dress ourselves, or seeing how they act in the room. I know she told me nothing new about Mason, heck most people choose to tell me what is wrong with him. But she said it in a way, like it was coming from him. Mason telling me he hurt, why can't I make the pain go away...etc. A cheap shot? maybe, a useful resource? maybe, and yet why does this truth I already know, still hurt so much? My brain knows better, my logic is swinging its arms wildly to pay attention - this lady is a quack, you are doing your best to keep him comfortable, this is a normal process of aging (add in all medical terminology here) you can't do anything to stop it, you know when it will be time. But my heart still feels like a dagger was put through it, when she said Why can't you make the hurt go away?

Flea Market

2006-10-02T16:33:00.000-05:00

I forgot to add the most important adventure from this past weekend. Nathan and I decided to venture over to the 7 Mile Fair ... aka a fairly large indoor/outdoor flea market. Since the olden days (ten years ago :-D ) I compared all flea markets to those in Florida (ie - Festival Flea Market and the Swap Shop). Over the years flea markets have seen a shift of the type of merchandise they sell. Originally flea markets were a place to sell your unwanted or homemade junk. A huge garage sale as you will. In the late 80's and 90's a flea market provided adequate choices of hair doohickeys, screened t-shirts, silver jewelry, and dried flowers. Nowadays the dusty aisles of your outdoor flea markets or the dark, cramped rows of your indoor flea markets are filled with audio equipment and car parts of questionable origin, mixed in with your $1 brown box shops.

On to the the 7 mile fair which turned out to be an interesting change of pace. As expected we there was your fair share of auto parts and audio equipment. Certain sections outside even went back to the archaic flea market times by selling any type of tool or appliance that was covered with at least 90% rust. A few neat finds included some old Oscilloscopes, a radio flyer, and any tool you could imagine. But as we were walking we wondered into 1st the "food" section. There were live chickens and pigeons (and I believe ducks) stuffed into small cages fro sale. And for those who preferred them dead, yes, you could find your evening meal from the cooler next to these cages. Oh let's not forget about the reptile guy who was selling turtles, snakes, and yes even a crocodile. So you wonder around some more and happen into the dog section were you could buy your very own "designer dog" (aka mutt) for a sale price of $375-625. Just when you thought you were done we happened upon the pet avian section where could buy your pick of several parrots or small birds or hedgehogs.

And yes, we did even see someone leaving with the kitchen sink :-D

October 1st

2006-10-01T22:13:00.000-05:00

Ok, it has been a few weeks but in my defense things have been insanely busy. But now they are slowing down and we can sit down and chat about a few things.

This past week was my final Wilton Cake class. The assignment was to build and decorate a 2 tiered wedding cake. Well since it isn't really the wedding season and football is in full gear I decided to show my badger pride with a cake. Nathan played a significant role in its construction. I decided to start building this cake fairly late on a Sunday night not realizing that you can't buy a 6 x 6 pan in every grocery store. So using an 8 x 8 disposable tin pan, Nathan reformed it into a decent 6 x 6 pan. So on to the theme....WI Badgers. You can't have a badger cake without the "W" logo. Nathan took some cheap metal cookie cutters, unbent them, and rebent them into a W using the official specs of the logo as his guide. He did an amazing job not once but twice. While he was doing this, I had my own experience with marshmallow fondant. And I learned a few things.

- Don't leave marshmallows unattended while nuking in the microwave.

- When disposing of exploded marshmallow goo, don't use your bare hands. It is hot and very sticky.

- Lesson number three, remove lid to trashcan prior to disposing of marshmallow goo stuck to your hand, other wise your hand will be stuck in the trashcan.

- Rubber gloves are useful when making red or black fondant.

Here is the final product: (the rest of the photos can be seen at our website).

I also posted a few pictures of our new house to the photo website. The closing is Oct 12th, so we should be able to take our time and paint some of the rooms and do odds and ends while we slowly move in.

Next weekend is the North American Reptile Breeders Conference & Trade Show

. This show is being held in Chicago and most of the major reptile retailers from around the country are expected to be there. I am going to meet Grand and Sheryl there on Sunday and I will see about getting Harry a wife :-D

Well it is getting a bit late so I am calling it a night.