Keep The Change

A few weeks ago our kiddo finally put together that spare change can sometimes go into his piggy bank- aka BEAR. Now if he finds some spare change he runs over to me exclaims "bear!" and runs to his room to give it to bear.

Today, this got a bit interesting as he found my little change dish in our bedroom that I use on the rare occasion I have spare change left. Many times today I have found him running from my room to his all giddy saying "money, money, bear" with little fists full of change. That's all great and everything (especially since it did keep him occupied) but when I tried to tell him that this was Mommy's place to save a small amount of money he looks at me and says "No Mommy money, MY money myyyyyyyy" and proceeds to put the money into his bear.

I suppose this way at least it's getting saved.

Wordless Wednesday:Happy Fall

Thank you

I am touched by the kind comments you left me, thank you. While I am having a little trouble swallowing what has happened and why things have to be according to God's plan and on his time I do know that things will get better and that I am SO amazingly blessed with a terrific husband, son and friends. One of whom I spent the better part of the day with today and it was so nice just to sit and chat, cuddle her little one and let the toddlers play.

I have been thinking and praying about going on a retreat with my church this weekend that I had planned on attending. My hubby and I decided last night that I should still go. Even though I will miss my "boys" terribly, I think it will be nice to be surrounded by friends...so yes, Sophie I'll be there! If I haven't been leaving comments in my usual places I'll be back next week ready to go!

Thanks again.

Lately, I have been at a loss for words but since I've shared so much I thought I would share a bit of the last 5 days or so too. My Dr's appt. last week didn't have the best news, and as of Saturday, September 16th we are no longer pregnant. I mostly have been feeling ok, but I feel like a toddler. I was reminded of a phrase that my best friend used to describe her little ones that they are ok until they're not and that's pretty much what I feel like too. I think I might have a bit more sympathy towards my son and boy has he been just extra adorable for the last few days!

So, here are pictures (as requested) of our BIG boy sitting at the dinner table with us now! No more high chair, he actually uses the plate on the table now-finally! He's eating banana bread and in the second picture he's looking for the chocolate chips- he'll actually pick them out and eat them first...ahh smart child!

He has also started singing really well now and knows a lot of the words to Jesus loves me, Tinkle Stars (as he calls it) and a few others. It's really cute how he sings like every other word or so. He does the same thing with the alphabet song which is a favorite of late. Very entertaining for Mom and Dad especially when he throws some dance moves in there, oh melt my little heart and helping it heal.

A couple of memes

I was tagged by The FlipFlop Mamma for this fun meme. Here are the words I got:

1. Bed: warm
2. Rain: book
3. Monkey: banana trees
4. Brunette: my sister
5. Strawberry: juicy

The words for the next contestants are:
1. rock
2. bicycle
3. green
4. tomato
5. smile

And catching on wacky bookish meme that I was tagged for by Lori at Glass Half Full from about a week ago. Here are the instructions:
Grab the book closest to you
Open to page 123
Scroll down to the 5th sentence
Post the text of next 3 sentences on your blog
Name of the book and the author
Tag 3 people

Here we go, I think the nearest book to me is on the island in the kitchen...

"Do they get rewashed, sterilized and reused? What about the juice containers that are made from multiple materials- paper, plastic, aluminum? Have you found anyplace where you can recycle them?

From the book "Worms Eat My Garbage" by Mary Appelhof. She's talking about trying to achieve a zero waste society, and yes I really do want to have worms eat my garbage (mostly kitchen waste) and turn it into awesome compost!

I'm changing this up a little bit. I'm tagging 3 people (only if you really want too, of course) but you get to pick which one of these you'd like to do, so let me know and I tag: Mary at Owlhaven
Stephanie from Adventures in the 100 acre wood
Ashlee from New Mama's Nest

I've gotta get ready for my first Dr's appt. YEAH so I'm to lazy to put links but they are all on my sidebar!

Wordless Wednesday: Playdoh Fun

Just when I thought life was getting too boring around here to blog about I accidentally taught my son a new word. Warning: this does have to with bodily functions so if you don't read any further I won't mind.

We've been calling gas "toots" in our house (sure beats some other names for it) and it's what we came up with. Anyway, the other morning he seemed to have a lot of it so I said "Wow, you sure do have a lot of gas today, say excuse me." He says "cuse me Mommy" followed by "Lala gas, Lala gas." (Helpful information here: he can't say his name so he pronounces it like "Lala" - no idea why.) Now whenever he toots he says this clear as day, wonderfully pronuciated in an - I hope it never happens in church kind of a way - over and over until finally he'll comply and say "cuse me."

Possibly the funniest and most utterly embarassing part of all this is that he doesn't just apply this to himself. Let's say our dog Molly toots, then he'll say "Molly gas, Molly gas...." yeah good one Mom!

Regretfully, now I know names.

"The hero is commonly the simplest and obscurest of all men." Henry David Thoreau

In a town like NY you have alot of neighbors, people and their pets live in tiny boxes above, below and around you. Your neighbors also include taxi's whizzing around the city streets, the awesome french pastry shop you wished you could afford more of on a student budget, Vinnie the guy that sits out side and gets your Dad out of a parking ticket when everyone else got one,(I wonder if he's still there), a few trees on each block to keep you in tune with nature, the sidewalks, the pigeons, the buildings. They all become your neighbors in a sense when you live in such a place with metal and steel and brick and concrete all around it just becomes a part of you and you it. Even when you leave it and move to the other side of the country, it is still there, buried but that first crisp smell of fall air will always bring it right back.

I lived in SoHo, NY for 2 years (before it became all trendy if you know it now!) in a small apartment right around the corner from the Fire Station on Lafayette St. between Spring St. and Prince St. These fire fighters were always so kind to my roomate and I whenever we'd walk by. Sometimes they'd be getting back at 4am when we were out dancing or out for some fresh midday air in the afternoon. We'd sometimes stand and chat, day or night but mostly they were just friendly faces at the end of a long hard day. We never introduced ourselves, never knew names only that we were neighbors.

On 9/11/01 after I finally got in touch with a friend who worked in the WTC and got in touch with some of her family (since I was calling from out of the area occasionally I could get through, even though none of them could). Really another story, anyway, after that first hour or so my next thought was to those firemen I never really knew but who I knew had to be there. So today I'd like to remember the fallen hero's of Squad 18 and Ladder 20, it is with sincere gratitude and regret that I have now learned their names....my prayers are with your families and loved ones as well as all the others who lost so much on that tragic morning:

Squad 18: Lt. William McGinn, FF Eric Allen, FF Andrew Fredericks, FF David Halderman, FF Timothy Haskell, FF Manuel Mojica, FF Lawrence Virgilio

Ladder 20: Lt John Fischer, FF John Burnside, FF James Gray, FF Sean Hanley, FF David LaForge, FF Robert Linnane, FF Robert McMahon

I WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER 9-11-01

I'm going to love my aching feet in a few months!

Proof that my week really was productive even though my house is a major mess.
I think I'm still going to wish we did more peaches, my son and I LOVE them! Plus I share with our parents- if you were wondering why a family of 3 needs THAT many frozen and canned treats! I'll still do at least one more batch of tomatoes but other than that I think I'm about done!

**************************************************************

I was tagged for a few meme's awhile ago that I thought I've finally catch up on... The FlipFlop Mamma tagged me for this one last month (I know I've really lagged!)

4 Things Meme

4 Jobs I have had in my life.
1. Worked in the NYU gym's Proshop through college
2. Veterinary Assistant
3. Chiropractic Assistant when I was pregnant and boy did I love the free adjustments!
4. Temp. Receptionist at the State Tax Commission - also when I was prego- oh so boring!

4 Movies that I could watch over and over (in no particular order)
1. The Princess Bride (it's been awhile but when I first saw it I actually did watch it twice in one day.)
2. Irving Berlin's White Christmas - (Even though watching it once a year now makes my hubby cringe, I seriously LOVE it!)
3. The Sound of Music (the Movie Musical...I love them!)
4. Comedy, action I love too...Men in Black, Last of the Mohicans, Rush hour, (I don't know how to follow directions)

4 places I have lived
1. Suburbs of NYC (born & raised)
2. NY, NY
3. Santa Barbara, CA (met hubby)
4. San Diego, CA (married hubby)

4 things I like to do
1. Hang out with my family
2. Watch movies
3. Travel
4. Hike

4 places I have been on vacation
1. Quechee, VT (almost every winter I can remember as a kid)
2. London, England (and other surrounding towns with my Chamber Choir in HS)
3. Catalina Island, CA
4. Negril, Jamaica (Honeymoon)

4 websites I visit daily
1&2. MSN & Google - pretty much for information
3. Not so much daily but the Yankee website to keep up on the "home team"
4. All of my blogroll when I'm not stuck in the kitchen!

4 of my favorite foods
1. Sushi
2. Thai
3. Chinese
4. Vietnamese fresh spring rolls....gee can you tell what I've been craving lately, I do LOVE ethnic foods but my favorite is usually Italian - Not so this pregnancy!

4 places I would like to be right now
1. On a remote island with my family and all the fixin's of a wonderful scuba adventure(oops I'm pregnant), virgin margaritas, and swimming pools and beaches sounds good...
2. Able to sleep more than a couple of hours without having to pee
3. back to # one
4. back to # two

Taking a break from peaches...

...just to say that I love how my kiddo will just name things. My sister gave him this book called Chicka Chicka 1,2,3 which he calls the "Apple Tree Book" and he calls tissues "nose paper".

On another subject I realized this morning that he knows how to turn on the computer when I heard it booting up from the other room, oops!

Making me really think here....

I have been following along with some journeys through 30 Days of Nothing at Intent. How powerful it is.

While we are not actively participating and posting about it we have been having lots of REALLY great conversations about what we can do to streamline our budget and what we can do that will actually make a difference in the world. How can we really help others around the world and/or here at home? How much is enough? Will it ever be enough? Why would God let a child be born just to let it starve months later? Maybe so those of us who have the means can help out? How can we raise our children mindfully so that they have a great childhood but also a keen sense of awareness of the world and others in different circumstances? These are just some of the topics we've discussed so far.

Along the same lines, last night I watched a show on PBS that I've never seen before called Wide Angle the topic of which was Back to School. It followed 7 children in different countries, their first visit was in 2003 and now they were "checking up" on them earlier in 2006.

An estimated 110 million children -- 60 percent of them girls -- between the ages of six and 11 will not see the inside of a classroom this year. Another 150 million are likely to drop out before completing primary school.

This show was very touching and I don't know what I was expecting but it really shocked me. Five of the children lived in very poor situations. A girl from Romania who was a success story had to commute 45 minutes on public transportation at age 7 to get to school since both parents worked and couldn't afford day care. Much has changed in Romania since it is no longer under communist rule and their schooling has gone through many changes.

One from Benin is the only girl from her family who is permitted to go to school and pressure for her to stay home is greater now that her father has past away. Her Mother really had to scrape just to afford her school supplies and chalk.

A boy from Brazil lives in a "shanty town" but against the odds is at the top of his class so his mother has great hopes for him to get out of their crime ridden neighborhood. A girl from Afghanistan is in 6th grade which is a great accomplishment since 74% of girls drop out by 5th grade in her country. She only goes to school in the afternoon because of a shortage of teachers and she is the oldest girl living at home so her mornings are filled with chores and helping with younger siblings which doesn’t leave much time for studying. A boy in Kenya deals with the death of his Mother and drops out of school for a few weeks when he is talked into coming back to his class of 92 students. In Kenya if a parent gets sick and dies everyone assumes it's AIDS so even this boy’s friends shunned him.

It really just tugs on my heartstrings the work that these children have to do just to get an education. It is so important for these kids to learn. One of the girls learned in school (I think the one from Afghanistan) about cleanliness and personal hygiene, they then showed her with younger siblings washing their hands. How important is just that little piece of knowledge on her whole family. She also was shown teaching a bunch of other kids the English alphabet.

Anyway, I don't know if I have a point or if I'm just going to ramble all night but I am just still in awe about the drive of these kids as I think about even my own schooling - complaining about teachers, bus rides and English class. How lucky I am to have received so much education and how lucky that I only had a 20 min bus ride and only 20 or so kids in my classes and not such a worry about disease or political unrest. By goodness I'm so grateful it's amazing. But I'm also so amazed by all the others around the world and full of wonder with what I can do to help them.

I'd like to put a button on my sidebar that links to this website but do I have to get their permission or does any one know how I can do that? Thanks for helping my semi new to the rules and ways of blogging self!

Millions of peaches!

Ok, not quite millions but we went and picked peaches yesterday afternoon an now I have two bushels sitting in my laundry room waiting to be canned. I also have about 1/2 bushel of tomatoes ready to go as well and more to be picked, on top of zucchini needing to be frozen and probably some beets too. I'm going to be up to my eyeballs in canning this week...but at least for now I'm motivated to change the laundry since it smells so yummy and juicy in there!

Some silly pictures

Being silly helping Mommy outside. I think by the end of this post it'll be obvious who's the silly one here.

After using me as a human binky for 22 months now he thinks it's great!

Ready to go! Here's cuddle bug sporting fall’s hot new look. His bright orange diaper is fall’s hottest shade and it's a Heidi original. The hat, courtesy of Dad, is big and baggy, you'll see this on the runways all season folks! The bag, well any bag will do this Fall just grab whatever you find and it'll all go together great!

Adios amigos!Arrivederci!Au revior mes amis!Auf Wiedersehen!Ciao!
**********************Hasta la vista BABY!*********************

I'll show you my green thumb!

Playing again with O Mama Mia and Show me yours and I'll show you mine.

Show Me Your Green Thumb. Soil, water, sunshine, love… that’s what this week’s theme is made of. Outdoors or in, whether it blooms and grows beneath your watchful eye and nurturing touch…. or just plain exists at the bare threshold of greenness…. Show Me!!

I love to garden! This spring we had as much lettuce and spinach as we wanted. Next year I think I'll plant more broccoli which turned out good this year. I harvested and cured about 15 cloves of garlic in July, I think I'll do more for next year too.

Here's what is left of the garden: 5 tomato plants, some beets, carrots and one lettuce that's gone to seed.I've already canned two batches of tomatoes but with a two year old around a batch is only about 7 or 8 cans so I'll be doing more this month too.

I also planted cucumbers, zucchinni, and eggplant (which don't seem to want to give me any fruit) mixed in with my flower/shrub beds since our yard is fairly small - less than a quarter of an acre for our entire lot. We've had far more zucchinni than we can eat or give away so they get frozen for use in stews or stir fry or shredded then frozen for zucchinni bread.

Then there are pumpkin plants that have taken over the entire side of our house with the exception of a couple more tomato plants that are over there too. We have about 5 large ones and a bunch of little ones from 3 plants. So if you think your yard is to small to enjoy sweet, juicy, crunchy bounties from beautiful green vines or deep roots, you just have to be creative ... or else just do what I did and stick them anywhere and see what happens!

Remembering Spc. Segun Frederick Akintade

My brother had the honor of serving with Spc. Segun Frederick Akintade in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Spc. Akintade served in the Army National Guard to help pay for college and when his unit (2nd Battalion, 108th Infantry Regiment, based in Utica, NY) was called to go to Iraq he went willingly. He was killed on October 28, 2004 by a roadside bomb and small arms fire in Abd Allah, Iraq at 34 years old.

He moved to Brooklyn, New York from Lagos, Nigeria where he sent money home to his Mother. He had plans to marry his girlfriend in NY upon his return from Iraq. Spc. Akintade also had plans to become a US citizen since he felt our country had been so good to him.

Spc. Segun Frederick Akintade, I am personally grateful to you for your service and I pray for your family and friends that they find a peace and grace that only God can provide. I'm deeply saddened that you paid the ultimate sacrifice for me and everyone else in America and I truly appreciate all that you've done so that we can go on with our lives here at home. May God bless you and your family.

If you'd like to honor a fallen hero click HERE to visit Some Gave All where they are Remembering The Fallen By Name.

Refreshed

Ok, so I have much more confidence in my parenting skills today. We took a drive up into the mountains and had a picnic and soaked up a little nature. Ah, refreshed! Before kiddo (and before $3/gal gas) my husband and I used to love to go for drives and just talk to each other so it was nice to do that again with the kiddo, who snacked and slept.

I wanted to document the following silly thing that our 2 year old does (can't believe I can actually say that now!). During a meal if there is mention or sight of another food that is more enticing than what we are currently eating he'll hand over plate/bowl/fork saying "no, no, no" until we take them away or ask him to finish eating x,y,z if he hadn't eaten much yet. Occasionally he'll actually grab out whatever food is in his mouth and put it back on the plate as well. (Gross!) My husband say’s it’s like he’s decides to “abandon ship.”

Today, we stopped for ice cream and while we were lazily enjoying our treats we asked him if he wanted to go to the park and as fast as he could he held out the ice cream cone to Daddy and said "no, no" and then "yup, park". Trust me when I tell you that he is definitely our kid when it comes to ice cream - any mention of it is joyfully responded to by the ice cream sign and the words "num, nummy, num." It's sort of nice to know that being outside at the park on the swings is more fun than that!

A Life Lesson

Yesterday afternoon at the fair my son played in this sort of sandbox that they had set up but instead of using sand they used grain, dried pinto beans, and corn. They had tons of small tractors in there for the kids to play with but my son kept taking others' toys away.

Patiently, my husband and I kept teaching and showing him how to share while talking to another Mom. In response, this Mom said about sharing: "It's a life lesson, one that I'm still learning."

I've been thinking about this off and on for a day now and realizing not only is she SO right but how the heck can I expect to teach my son something that I'm not very good at. I gripe if my husband wants a bite of my ice cream or pretty much anything that I'm eating. A couple of hours ago I thought of a bunch of ways that I needed to share more- now I don't remember but I think I can make my point anyway.

Seriously, it's not only the sharing thing because he's still young it's everything else. I am so not a perfect example of probably anything I'm going to be teaching our son over the years so how am I going to do it? How can God expect ME to mold and shape my son when I am so imperfect? I'm sure that this must be one of life's parenting lessons in that I get to relearn all of these lessons in hopes that they might actually stick! I guess that's also why I need God to help me because I have absolutely no clue on my own!!!!!!!

A Fanfare

A $30 food bill at the county fair.

A 30 minute visit petting and feeding countless animals.

Mommy and Daddy purchase $2 toy trumpet since their son was a trooper behaving so well at the fair on a day with no nap.

2 year old figures out how to actually blow the trumpet in the car on the way home while 1 and a half parents are plugging their ears (Daddy has to drive with one hand:), all are giggling emphatically---PRICELESS

Show me yours and VIP

First of all I wanted to thank Mary at Owlhaven who gave me her VIP (Very Interesting Person) award for my comment on this post about college memories. It was fun and there are lots of other interesting comments there as well so go check it out! Mary's blog was one of the first blogs I'd ever read and I love it! She's a great writer and her posts are humorous, educational, insightful and refreshingly real so check her out if you don't know her already...go on, I'll be here when you get back!!

Secondly I wanted to join the fun over at O Mama Mia a few days late for Show me yours & I'll show you mine
Show Me Your (Inner) Domestic Goddess. Are you in suburban bliss? Do you get lost in your kitchen, flouring the hours away, baking? Do you love your home? Or maybe you’re in suburban turmoil & you live amongst desperate housewives? Show Me!! Let me hear all about it!

I think I'll start by saying that I think I'm more of a nerd than a "domestic goddess." I'll have to put on some high heels one night while I bake cookies and see if that brings less nerdiness! I find that the house cleaning part of being a SAHM is not my favorite, I mean I do it but I sometimes let the dishes go until the next meal and I sweep only when I notice the dogs hair against the floorboards. Terrible, I know but I do spend a lot of time with my Son that I know I'll never get back so that justifies it to me!

Back to the point, I love, love, LOVE to bake. My Mom and my Gram are both awesome bakers so I've managed to pick up some pointers along the way. Both my son's birthday cakes so far have been made by me from scratch. No box mixes here, last year's was a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and this was a yellow cake with a creamy frosting. I won't even pretend that they came out looking professional, they look homemade but it's something that's important to me to do for my son.

One side dish to Tuesday night's dinner was stuffed zucchini - from the garden and everything from scratch (sautéed onion and garlic, seasonings, celery, breadcrumbs and chicken broth). When it's almost done baking then I melt cheese over the top. So goddess/nerd well, what's in a name after all?!

It's not surprising that blogger won't upload my pics currently so I'll update this to include some pics after I go do the dishes! Uggghhhh blogger!

Dishes are done and blogger's now partially awake you can look at this post to see this years cake if you missed it since blogger only let me upload the one pic....

Wordless Wednesday: A Walk in Daddy's Shoes