Apples Apples Apples!

When is it in a woman's life, that she learns to peel an apple with one continuous cut?? In my little fantasy world, I believed that it magically occurred when you became a mother. I was wrong. Completely wrong. I've practiced and practiced. I don't have the apple magic. I do have a fabulous apple cutter that cuts out the core and slices the apple into pieces! I'll keep practicing though. It is most certainly a talent and an art that I must master!

I did come across this little gadget online when looking for a picture, but unless you peel apples for a living or bake apple pies daily, why would you spend money on such a thing? Let alone add it to the million kitchen 'gadgets' that you just have to have that now collect dust in the closet. I sure don't need anything else to wash on a daily basis.

Congratulations to this fine creative person for developing the fear of apples in toddlers everywhere. Way to go.

Today, we play.

Nothing to write about today....just playing. Oh, and I spy a hat in 6 of the pictures.

3D

My Oh My, have 3D glasses come a long way!
Tim and I went to see Avatar this past weekend, and I really thought we were going to get the cool red and blue lens spectacles. Now they look like really bad sunglasses.


They have containers to recycle them on your way out of the theatre, but being the tickets were $4 more than your average, non 3D movie, I brought mine home. Perfect new addition to the tons of stuff Gavin plays with that are not his "toys". Sorry about that brilliant bright flash in the eye there buddy.

A pretty picture

Another day last weekend we went shopping for some big crayons, markers, and paper to get out of the house for a bit. I should clarify, that we had markers already, but I wanted to get some kid friendly, aka, washable, stuff for use on our table. I even bought some tub crayons! He loves them. I found some tadoodles, they are these big round characters that have a crayon sticking out on the bottom to help toddlers grasp them. I didn't like them. Gavin couldn't master how to get the little bit of crayon to go straight down on the paper, therefore, becoming frustrated and bored quickly. However, he can hold the large crayons and make masterpieces!

Daddy sat and colored with him for a little bit too! I loved that!

What color should I use next?

I think I'm done coloring now, Mom.

But first lets admire the art. We all had a little part in this piece of work:)

Hat fun!

So remember how I mentioned I was going to get out of debt and cut costs?? Well, I had no idea how many costs I was going to need to cut. But that is another blog. However this blog is all about HATS! I mentioned before how my son has this crazy attachment to hats, so I saw an activity to make our own. Real cheap! I'm talking barely over a dollar a hat! Mind you I made these over a week ago, but I lost my computer for over a week so I couldn't share my latest craft until now. All you need for these hats is some cut fleece (available at any craft store), cut pieces of felt and some fabric glue.

The first thing we had to do was measure Gavin's head.


Next, I cut up some pieces of felt.

So, my first hat ended up a wee bit tight. I'll cut the next one a tad bit bigger.

Now this one fits much better!


Here are the first four hats that I was able to complete. I have enough material to make 3 more! All for under ten dollars! I could have made four more, but I messed up the cutting and had extra pieces that weren't big enough to do anything. However, I never let things go to waste, they just won't be used for anymore hats. I think he has enough anyway :)

Here are a few pictures of his other hats.


Now this is by far his favorite attachment. I don't know what is so special about this particular hat, but it goes everywhere with him. He doesn't let it out of his sight if he does put it down. After a nap on this particular afternoon, he was experiencing nothing less than a meltdown if I took it from him. I explained to him that he can not eat his snack holding onto it. Usually he will put it down when it's time to get into his seat, but not today. So I finally just put it on his head. He seemed to be ok with that. This will be a work in progress...

Can you see that hat in his hand?? Always with him.

Sitting by his basket of hats.

Wearing Uncle Ron's hat was fun too...for a minute.

More

Just had to share since I caught it on camera. He doesn't have the words down yet, but you can hear him trying to say more along with the sign. We are working really hard with communicating. The new tantrums seem to fuel from not being able to communicate with us. Then again, tantrums erupt when we leave the room or put our coats on before him too.....and the list could go on. That will be another post later. Next time maybe I'll catch him playing the piano on tape too :)

Ch..Ch..Ch..Changes!

So it's 2010 and while I've never made any New Year's Resolutions because I know I couldn't keep them anyway, I've decided that this is the year to make some changes.

Changes in a good way, but not the the famous "I'm going to lose weight and start working out" change. I want to do that, but it will just have to happen as it does. I'm not going to make a resolution out of it, because I will only disappoint myself.

This year, I want to work on getting out of debt. Of course, everyone wants that, but we received a nice Christmas gift that allowed us to get started, and a book that helps put money management and debt elimination in easy to understand terms. (no, not from the same person either.) So I figure, here's our sign, let's do it. I have made a list and written all of our debts, excluding the house and Tim's new truck, onto one simple sheet in order from biggest to smallest. My first dilemma was which way to attack it. After talking with a few people, I've decided to attack the biggest one (MasterCard) first. So I made a large payment to it. Goodbye Christmas money, it was nice having you for a minute. I also intend to put our entire tax refund towards it as well. Many people told me, including the author of the book, that you should start with the smallest. I've come to view it this way: while tackling smaller debt is great because it's satisfied quicker, in the long run, it will cost you more money in accrued interest. Tackle the BIG debt first, it's less interest on smaller amounts over a long period of time. So MasterCard...I'm coming after you! After getting that big guy out of the way, I will probably resort back to the smaller ones and pay them off accordingly. Without the ginormous minimum payment I've been flushing away for the last few years on MC, I can start knocking Home Depot, LaZBoy, etc out quickly. Some are medical bills for myself, I haven't even paid off St. Charles from when Gavin was born, and now Tim's ACL surgery. These bills don't carry interest and the hospitals are just happy to receive payments every month. Why should I hurry? Debts with interest are on top of my list.

Besides the obvious way of saving money and putting it all towards the bills, I've been thinking of ways to be more cost efficient here at home. I mean, Gavin doesn't need a different outfit for everyday of the month, nor does he need 6 different hats. They were all just so cute! I did get everything on sale, but still...couldn't that money have been better off paying for something else?! Another big one, is our grocery habits. We run to the store as needed to make whatever sounds good to eat that night. We don't plan dinners, and I rarely eat leftovers. Leftovers going in the disposal is the same as cash going in the trash! So this past week, I did things a little different.

I made a list of several dinners containing many of the same ingredients. We started with a Baked Ziti Primavera (with baby spinach, carrots, zucchini, mushrooms, and of course spaghetti sauce) It was delicious and we ALL ate it up. Gavin and Tim had it the next day for lunch. For dinner the following night we had polish sausage with kidney beans. Gavin picked out those two main ingredients, but it's better than nothing. So now we have two different types of leftovers to choose from. Day 3, I made Zucchini Pasta. I was able to make this using leftover zucchini from the Ziti and adding some yellow squash and roasted red peppers. YUM! However, not for Gavin, I wasn't thinking and it was naturally too hot for him. Since I hadn't used all the noodles or chicken, and I had leftover Spaghetti Sauce from the Ziti, I could make a quick and simple chicken and noodle pasta for him. He devoured it. Today I heated Gavin up some leftovers, and took the leftover spinach and mushrooms and made some delicious sammies for Tim and I. I cooked the s & m a few minutes with salt and pepper and then using my new griddle made sandwiches with swiss cheese!

This might sound very simple to you all, but I must honestly say that in prior weeks, I wouldn't have saved leftover plain noodles, I would have dumped them. A tiny bit of spaghetti sauce in the bottom of the jar would have been tossed too. I've never put a little bit of spinach or mushrooms in baggies for later either. It kills me to realize how much I used to throw away when I was cooking this week and saving every last bit. It ALL went into another dish and it ALL was eaten. Wow! I could pay off a bill or two real fast at this rate:)

Wish us luck! Just the thought of being able to get out of debt has been very motivating!! We CAN do this!

What is it about HATS?

Growing up is tough. Whether you're 1, 10, 35, 0r 50, we are all still growing and can appreciate something of comfort. Comfort is found in many ways; affection from a spouse or pet, home, hobbies, pictures, letters, snuggly blankets, and in my son's case....hats.

I don't know what is so special about these hats but he finds comfort with them. They can calm him down anytime and anywhere (usually). He actually looks for them. You might think that it is the material, but you would be wrong. He likes his ball hats, knit hats, fleece hats, etc, all the same. It doesn't matter. Perhaps it's because he knows they are his?? At this time, I don't question it very much. It used to be his silky blankets, but they have become only needed at bed/nap time. I've heard stories of different comforting items young toddlers become obsessed with, so I won't complain about the hats. :)

This is also my first time playing with trimming and linking videos together with my new flip. I just picked a song from the flip software at random. Not loving the mambo jive in the background, but I'm not showcasing this little flick either.

A stay-at-home weekend!!

While we had a wonderful Christmas (minus the crying) and it was great to see all our family from every direction, it was good to finally get to stay at home this weekend. Our schedules, especially feeding and nap times, had become in disarray! Gavin has also learned to be very vocal, if you will, when he wants something and doesn't get it. Sometimes it's because we say no, and other times, it's because we don't know what he wants. Not knowing what he wants, my friends, is very frustrating.

So today we thought we would take it easy and hang out together at home. Gavin kept "pushing" daddy over here. He would giggle his little heart out every time daddy "fell down."

It was very much a daddy day too. He wanted to be near him all day. He even put on daddy's gloves. Check out the hair, he must have recently taken off a hat because it is generally pretty curly.

Hmmmm, what should I draw?

Gavin has made some pretty fancy drawings on his new aquadoodle.

Somehow daddy ended up in the balls with Gavin. Careful, dad, we want this toy to last.

Uh-oh! We have an escapee!! Gavin is VERY good about making sure all the balls are in the pit. We didn't show him to keep putting them all back either...he just does it. Nice:)

He received many new cars for Christmas and has fun making them go "vroom vroom" all over. When I say all over, this includes more than just the ottoman, but also the dogs, daddy's boots and head when he is laying on the floor, and mommy's legs and behind. You can't help but laugh, but when you're trying to clean up, a little car up the backside isn't actually a helping hand. :)

This is what I love to see. Playing nicely on his rug while I take down decorations.

I don't know where you learned this little buddy, but I don't think this is the proper way to use your rocking chair. (one of these times, he is going to succeed at flipping over the bar and landing on his head)

I don't think this is the proper way either, but I suppose the chair is right-side up for once today. Be careful, son, and please turn around and sit down. Daddy, why are you encouraging such safety....

Later, he went to pull out his sleep n play all by himself. This is strange because he usually only likes it in the "couch" position.

I wish I could say this was a pleasant end to the day and he lays down and curls up for the evening...but no, this is only the first of MANY times to pull out the sofa, and put it back, and repeat, and repeat, and repeat....... But we had a good weekend! I'm looking forward to many more this year!

Good Morning 2010!

After staying up to watch the ball drop and calling my mom at midnight, I finally went to bed around 1am. This is WAY to late for me. This morning was rough. Tim and I did enjoy a few cocktails while watching some Dick Clark after Gavin went to bed. So when it was time to get up this morning, I was in major slow motion!! I wanted to make a wonderful New Year's breakfast on my new griddle, but this is the extent of my energy. I suppose it could have been worse:)

Happy New Year little Angel! We are looking forward to the good times of 2010!