In Loving Memory

Thirteen years ago I bought my own place. Since I was a single female, I decided I would feel safer and less lonely with the company of a canine companion. There was a farm that raised American Eskimos. I called and was told that the litter was already taken. A couple days later, they called me back to inform me that one had been returned. A reject, but was I still interested. I drove out to pick you up. On the ride home, you must have been car sick because you threw up. It was easy to overlook this mess because you were such a cute tiny ball of fur, with one floppy ear that did not quite stand up yet. I named you Cheyenne.

Since then we have been through a lot together. Your fur has dried many tears. You have been a faithful companion. Your paws have hiked many miles. You have slept in a tent countless nights. You loved to play outside and get dirty. And boy were you good at it. People who didn't know you would comment about how such a pretty white dog could get so dirty. You loved it.

Then Mark came into our picture and you accepted him as he accepted the fact that he would have to buy clothes based on your shedding. No more black or dark colored clothes for him. he loved you as his own. Now we were a family of three.

When I was pregnant with Morgan, people expressed their fear about your breed. You were not supposed to be good with small children. You might get jealous. You might bite. All of that was just words. From the day we brought home Morgan, you embraced your new role as guardian. You proudly took your new position taking watch at the foot of the crib. And there you stayed, even when Morgan transitioned to a bed.

Then you developed a limp. Oh so slight at first. Pain medicine appeared to work for a while. Then the limp got worse. We took you to several doctors until finally you were diagnosed with a tumor pressing on your sciatic nerve. We tried to make you comfortable but we had to leave you behind as we went camping and hiking. Soon you had troubles making it around the block. With in time you hardly moved at all. The pain medicine was no longer working. It has been a good journey. You have been a good dog. You fought a good battle, but now it is time. Time for you to rest, my dear friend. So now with tears in our eyes, we say goodbye. It's time to run free. Run now like you haven't run in years.

Cheyenne Burch

June 1995-October 2008

A Little Monkey Bizness

Cori and I got the kids together for some playtime, not just for them but for us. There is a new place that opened called Little Monkey Bizness. It's a spin off of the regular Monkey Bizness but it's geared towards kids 2-6 (nobody over 6 is allowed). Another added bonus is the coffee shop inside so the kids can play while the adults get (semi-)uninterupted conversation time. It was a nice place, but Connor and Morgan both agreed that they like Monkey Bizness more. The play equipment seemed to be geared more towards 2-3 year olds - no giant slides to please those that are thrillseekers.

They did have an art room with painting and coloring which both kids enjoyed. The logo for Little Monkey Bizness is a girl monkey with a bow in her hair. All the coloring pages had this monkey on them. Connor was complaining that there was nothing for him to color - he was not going to color a girl. Morgan put her great problem solving skills to use. She grabbed some scissors and cut the bow off the paper, handed it to Connor and said "Look it's a boy now". Connor happily colored away.

Lady Luck

I can not believe it happened AGAIN! Another contest at MomDot and the second time I saw my name on the winner page. This time I won a t-shirt from Baby Fish Mouth. Baby Fish Mouth specializes in "fashion for future film fans". They carry shirts and onesies sporting famous quotes from movies with a toddler/baby twist. Morgan's shirt arrived in their signature movie popcorn box.

She received the Fight Club version: The First Rule of Daycare - Don't Talk About Daycare.

With this luck, it looks like I need to book a trip to Vegas ASAP!

By Popular Request - Pixos Review

I tried to find a picture of the Pixos Portable Pack set we purchased, but alas, I could not find the exact one, even at Target's website. Replace the small 3-D mold for a large flat blue mold, change the pattern templates and you have an idea of what we purchased for $19.

The kit comes with three two-side templates that you place behind the molds. The templates tell you exactually how many of each color bead you will need and the difficulty level of the pattern (green smiley face for easy, yellow straight mouth face for medium and red surprised mouth for hard). All of our templates were the easy ones. The template also lets you know which mold to use by using a red or blue symbol to match the mold colors. One mold lines the dot rows up, the other mold off-centers the dot rows. All of these directions are super easy to understand, even for a child who can't yet read, making this a very good "alone time" toy.

Our templates included white beads. These were hard to see through the mold. I would suggest marking them with a pen it to make it easier to view.

I really liked that this kit came with storage box. The top tray allows the beads to be separated without being dumped out of bags each time. Easy for little fingers to reach in and grab. Also, there is plenty of space below the tray to store the pen, spray bottle templates, molds and finished creations. A must have if you are an organized neat freak.

My biggest complaint about this toy is the pen. You are supposed to use the pen to place the beads into the mold, but we never got it to work. It's like the pen is too fat. The sides bump into the already placed beads knocking them out. Morgan decided very quickly to abandon the pen and use just her fingers. She would still accidentally bump beads with her fingers, sending them scattering. There were a few moments of frustration, but she persevered and has completed three of the six templates in a matter of days.

The kit only comes with enough beads to complete each design one time. Unless you completely abandon the templates, there isn't much opportunity for open-end creativity. If you are looking for that, I would suggest buying the Perler Activity Kit Group Buckets. However, those buckets require that the beads are ironed, where as Pixos beads just need a spray of water. There are always trade-offs.

Once you spray the beads with water, the directions say to wait 10 minutes. We found that it was best to wait at least an hour. After they were completely dry, Morgan had no problems removing them from the molds herself. None of the finished designs have broke. They seem to be pretty sturdy.

While, as an adult, I am some what disappointed with the kit (seems expensive for an unusable pen, a cheap spray bottle, and a limited number of beads), overall this product has provided lots of entertainment for Morgan. From a four year old's point of view, she loves this thing. And I guess that's what really matters.

A Week In Review

I'll try and make this week summary short and sweet.

Last week was Spirit Week at Morgan's school. The first day was crazy hair day. Apparently Morgan has an inner punk rocker just dying to get out.

There was also PJ day, sports day (she wore her Barbie cheerleader outfit), and then costume day, where she wore her Jasmine princess costume.

We also carved her pumpkin. Our tough little girl suddenly has an issue with being messy. Her reaction when she found out she needed to use her hands to clean out the pumpkin can be summed up with one word that she used over and over: GROSS! She actually went to the drawer and got herself a spoon instead.

Mark thought power tools were the best way to carve.

Morgan wanted in on the fun too so he had to go back to the old fashion way.

The weather on Halloween was down right warm. For the first time ever, no jackets were required. Madison was actually hot in her Barney costume.

Our neighborhood completely rocked. People from other communities came into ours as the word about our cool factor spread. There were haunted garages, people dressed up on their patios and lots and lots of decorations. One neighbors costumes and garage set up had Morgan so scared, she saw it and started running away and hiding in a nearby yard. After that, Morgan was choosy about which door she would go up to based on the scare factor.

Next, we got the parent of the year award. We decided to let Morgan gorge herself with as much candy as she wanted on Halloween. This ended with her running into the bathroom and throwing up at the end of the day. In hindsight, this was a bad idea.

Did I mention that candy is Morgan's addiction.?I have never seen such a candy fiend before. Some kids lose interest in their candy after a few days, some lose track of their candy and parents can slowly make it mysteriously disappear. Neither of these tactics work with Morgan. Last year she would throw a fit wondering where her third Starburst package went. Yes, she counted, inventoried and remembered all her candy. So this year I had a plan. I would give Morgan the option to trade her candy in for a toy after a week of binging.

Two days after Halloween, we were in Target and Morgan saw a Pixos kit. She asked if she could trade her candy for this. I told her that we could come back next week and get it. She was very insistent that she was ready now to trade it in. Mark thought this was going to end poorly, but we got the kit with the agreement she needed to trade in her candy when we got home. As soon as she got home, she ran up to her stash and started throwing it in a bag. To Mark's amazement, we didn't have any issue at all.

I'm sure the vomiting incident helped.

We Aren't in Kansas Anymore

Since our office moral has been pretty low (See Killer Job below), our group decided to don the Halloween spirit and dress up. I wanted to find something fun and cute, but it still had to be work appropriate. Not as easy as it might seem, especially when you wait until the last minute..

As I was leaving the house this morning, I was mumbling about how silly I felt. Morgan heard me and replied "Mom! You look soooo cool!" I guess approval by my number fan is all that really matters.

Go ahead. Laugh.

As a side note: My coworker who took this picture, cut off the best part - my ruby-red tennis shoes.

Happy Halloween from a Slacker

We have been busy doing all sorts of Halloween stuff this week, you would think I would be able to get some posts up - at least a picture or two. But alas, I have been slacking. I will try and get things up this weekend. In the meantime - Happy Halloween everyone! Have fun and be safe out there!

Two Thumbs Up

We've had pretty bad luck taking our really sensitive daughter to a movie that didn't end poorly. Here is her record:
Meet the Robinsons - T-Rex scared the daylight out of her. Hid her face on my shoulder most of the movie.
Ratatouille - Scared of most of the scenes. Refused to speak to us after the movie.
The Water Horse - Learned to check out the reviews of the WHOLE movie before assuming its a cute innocent show. Walked out with screaming child when the Water Horse tried to eat his friend.
Veggie Tales: Pirates who Don't do Anything - Once again walked out with a screaming child when the cheetos tried to eat Bob.
Kit Kittridge: American Girl - Nothing scary, but don't think she really understood the movie. The Great Depression might be a bit over the head of a four year old. She almost fell asleep during it.

So I was VERY thrilled when we finally saw a movie that was not too scary and held some entertainment value. Beverly Hills Chihuahua made her laughed out loud. I know it didn't get the best reviews from the "experts" but it worked for our family.

Momdot.com Blog Party

Since stores are already putting up their Christmas decorations, isn't it time you started getting in the holiday spirit? Nevermind that Halloween hasn't even come yet.

One great way to get ready is to join the great people at Momdot.com for an awesome holiday-themed Blog Party. Travel with us around the blogosphere, meeting new bloggers and winning some great prices (including a Dyson). The blog party will run from Nov 12-27th, followed by a Christmas of Dreams on the 28th. For more information click Here and for early entries click Here.

Morganese

The following is some Morganese heard around our house:

Heartbeep - I can hear your heartbeep
Ice cubes - (While playing a game) Your turn. Roll the ice cubes.
Black Willow - That looks like a Black Willow Spider
Ank - The printer is out of ank (suddenly she has a southern accent??)

Fall Festival Fun

It's a Fall/Halloween tradition, that you probably remember doing as kids. You may even have fond memories of it. It seemed fun and innocent at the time. But have you watched it performed as an adult, or even better as a parent? GROSS!!! I'm talking about bobbing for apples - the kid-favorite activity at Morgan's school's Fall Festival. This has to single-handily be the most disgusting thing I have ever witnesses. Tons of children lined up to emerge their face in snotty, spit ridden water. I cringe just thinking about it. Luckily, Morgan is a clever little girl. Instead of sloshing around in the water, she carefully studied the apples, finding the one with the longest stem. Then, ever so delicately, she bite down on the stem and pulled the apple out.

They also had a haunted house in one of the classrooms. If you know anything about Morgan you know she is one of the most sensitive (easily scared) child out there. We walked out of Veggie Tales Pirates Who Don't Do Anything because she was full on screaming in the theater. So, this hyper-sensitive little girl decides that she wants to go through the haunted house. Last year she wouldn't even get near it. Well, we got about ten feet in, strobe lights are going and we come face to face with a mannequin that lifts off it's head. I look at her and her eyes are as wide as saucers. I ask if she wants to leave. She starts straight ahead, a deer in the headlights, unable to move or talk. I ask again if she wants to leave. She's still non-responsive. I take that as a sign to abort. We leave, but she wants to stay right outside. She keeps peeking under the tarp. You can tell she's struggling with her fear and wanting to beat it. There is no encouragement from us, no pushing her to do anything. She announces she wants to go back in and then she's off, running right through it as fast as she can, eyes straight ahead. I have to give her HUGE credit for being so brave and trying to conquer her fears.

Knowing More Than Mom

Morgan was working on a ocean-themed puzzle when I joined her and asked if I could help. I asked her if she was working on the octopus, to which she immediately corrected me. That's not an octopus mom, that's a squid. (insert annoyed sigh from Morgan here)

It's started already.

A Killer Job

Let me start by saying that, while the company I work for is huge, our office is not. There are probably around 150 employees in our location.

In the past year three people have died, two of which were found passed out on the ground in our building. Even with the economy, our job instability and other stress issues, this is a pretty unusually high percentage. Taking this one step further we have also had: ex-employees, coworkers at another location and an employee spouse pass away.

On top of this we have had: an employee survive a heart attack, an employee needing the Heimlich, the ambulance called to our office for an allergy attack, three different guys getting casts on a foot, a guy in the hospital for weeks with a intestinal problem, a guy who has cancer... the list goes on and on. I'm sure I'm missing some of the problems.

This is getting down right scary.

Maybe our office is built on an ancient Indian burial ground?

A Great Website for Your Young Readers

I recently joined BzzAgent where I get to try out products and websites and pass along my "Word of Mouth" honest feedback on them. I am not paid, this is a volunteer thing. Some of you have already received individual e-mails from me about websites that I thought you would find interesting.

Well, I have to post a link to a website that I really love and I think will benefit many of you out there. It is called Lookybook and if you have a child that likes to read, you need to bookmark this site.

Lookybook allows you to to look at picture books in their entirety—from cover to cover - for free and no registration is required. No longer will you order a picture book online hoping the inside is as good as the cover. Just take a look at a book and if you like it, click to ‘buy book’ and they will send you to a store such as Amazon or Barnes and Noble. They currently have over 300 titles to choose from and that number is growing daily.

They value the book reviews of librarians and industry experts and they especially value the opinions of moms and dads. Because they are a site for looking at and discovering new books, they want to know what you think and like. Not only can you share your comments about a particular book, you can share all your favorite books by creating and posting your Bookshelf. Fellow Lookybookers can look at your favorites and show you theirs—creating a virtual show-and-tell about today’s best picture books.

Whenever you look at a book, they will provide a collection of other books that you might enjoy at the left of the page. Have a look, you are bound to discover something you never knew existed.

Visit Lookybook

Potty Training for Cats

I came home to see our cat Abby with a big sticker on the top of her head. It was an "I am Potty Trained" sticker. When I asked why Abby had a a sticker on her head, the response I received was: because she is.

I guess being litter boxed trained can equal potty trained.

Introducing Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde

Or should I say Re-introducing since this isn't completely new. It's just been a while.

Saturday night while patiently waiting for dinner (over an hour, but that's a whole other story), Morgan had a coloring book and a Tupperware container of crayons. She asked me, ever so politely if she could ask someone she doesn't know to color with her. After first making sure she was referring to another child and not some creepy guy, I told her that was a great idea. So she went, again, ever so politely up to this little girl and asked "would you like to color with me". When the little girl Mya shook her head yes, Morgan proceeded to ask her which page she would like from her book and torn it out for her. Soon, Mya was joined by her little sister and Morgan, without hesitation, torn yet another page out of her coloring book. The three girls shared crayons and colored nicely together until they moved on to a game of tag. (Don't freak out. We weren't letting them run wild in the restaurant. I guess I should mention we were waiting outside.)

So see, she can be sweet. She can be polite. She can share. Until... Sunday. When all this is replaced by a spoiled acting, sassy, disagreeable monster. I am seriously embarrassed to write down all her bad behaviour. To sum it up she was talking back, spitting, kicking and just plain out of control. Unfortunetely most of this happened at Grammie's house, where Mark and I had to, in the middle of dessert, haul out and take home a screaming four year old.

Anyone know an exorcist? I forgot to keep the number of our last one.

Pumpkin Patch

We were supposed to go to the pumpkin patch last weekend, but the weather was rainy and cold. The plus of going this weekend: it was warm and sunny. The downside: hundreds of people also postponed their trip to this weekend. I think we musted have waited over a half hour just to get in.

Then we had to wait in line for each of the rides, like the Every Pumpkin Patch Must Have One Barrel Ride.
Despite the bad weather last weekend, the patch was still pretty well picked over. The unchoosen few that were left were rotten. I don't know what they are going to do for the next couple of weeks.
Another time to be thankful for the simpleness of a four year. She still managed to find her perfect "pumpkin".
When we got back from the patch, they had a pile of good quality pumpkins near the wagon ride drop off where we managed to find a pumpkin big enough to carve.

And the Winner is...

...ME! I can't believe it. I never win anything. Yet when Momdot.com had a contest for a pair of pajamas at My Baby Pajamas, there was my name under the winner post.

Linda at My Baby Pajamas contacted me immediately to find out which pair of pajamas I wanted. There were so many adorable ones to choose from (including a holiday line and an organic line), but I finally decided on At Home Ballet Class.

I can't say enough about the great customer service Linda provided. She kept me in the loop through the whole process, letting me know exactually when the package was mailed and the tracking number.

The pajamas arrived in a very timely matter. When I opened them up, they were so cute. The pictures don't do it justice. As you can see, Morgan is one happy customer, and so am I.


Doing the happy dance.

Monkeying Around

Morgan's pediatrician administers flu shots at weird hours, so instead of trying to fit it around my work schedule, I decided to take the whole day off. Morgan used to be great with shots, last year she didn't even make a peep when she got the flu shot. This year, because her four year shots (4 of them!) hurt so much, she was, shall I say, a little less cooperative this year. It took a while to settle her down enough to get the shot, and then she screamed like a banshee. After it was done I said "See, that wasn't so bad". I got back a very sassy "Yes it was!" I can see this is going to be a good time from now on.

After the shots, I let her pick something fun to do. Orginally, she wanted to go to the zoo, but it was too cool and cloud. Instead, we headed over to Monkey Bizness thinking it was going to be packed. Boy were we pleasantly surprised because it was empty. That's right, empty. For a half hour we were the only people there. Morgan thought that was the best!

I've discovered that my very impatient toddler has become an extremely persistent pre-schooler. The obstacle course wall has become run-down and the steps you use to get up it don't have as much substance to them then what they used to. Therefore, they were extremely difficult to climb up, even for me. She was struggling with it, but didn't want any help. As a matter of fact, she wanted me to wait on the other side. It was hilarious as I saw her head peak over the top, only to disappear as she tumbled down, then peak back up, then tumble down, over and over. But she didn't get frustrated and she didn't give up. Finally, a very triumphant Morgan climbed over the wall.

Number Trouble

It became very obvious this weekend that Morgan is struggling with recognizing her numbers. She knows them (can count) and she can tell me which number is higher/lower if asked verbally, and can do simple verbal addition and subtraction (if you have three apples and give me one, how many do you have?), but when it comes to the written number - forget about it. She can recognize numbers up to 5 and then after that she has no clue. We have been working on this for awhile, but she just can't seem to grasp the concept.

As a side note, she does not have this problem with letters. She is able to recognize all the letters of the alphabet and has started to spell/read simple words like zoo, mom and cat.

If anyone has any ideas on how to help her improve this skill (games, videos, etc.), I would love to hear about it.

Weekend Update

Saturday, we went bowling with the Moore's. Morgan and Caleb are still very close. Whenever it was her turn, Caleb would go down on the lane and help her set up her ramp and would hand her her bowling ball. Such a little gentleman!

Sunday, we went to the circus with the Banaitis Family. Morgan's favorite part was the pre-show where you could go down on the floor and get close and personal with the performers. She really liked watching the elephant paint a picture. Her second favorite thing was (and I shudder here) the clowns. I have a huge fear/dislike for clowns, but she loved them. She was laughing out loud at their skits. At least Gigi will be happy!

Science According to a Four Year Old

Some of them true, some of them an interesting take on the world:

1. Starfish poop out of their mouths. I learned that at SeaWorld. (Since the topic is poop, of course she remembers this gross fact.)
2. Our heads stay on our bodies because our blood glues them on.
3. I know where Jaguars live before they live at zoos - at the Rain Forest.

Some questions we have had to field:

1. What do worms eat?
2. What does it look like inside my tummy?
3. And best of all... What does it look like inside my butt?

Babycap Contest by MomDot

The awesome ladies at momdot.com are having another great contest. This time they are giving away a Babycap. These stylish capes allow you to safely put your baby/toddler/preschooler in a carseat while still staying warm. And as an added bonus, one sizes fits all so there is no need to buy a new one year after year. Check out this contest, click Here

Right Back at You... Literally

We came home from the bookstore last night and lo and behold there on our front step was a Halloween basket. As we pulled in Morgan screamed "I got Boo'ed! I got Boo'ed". She knew right away it had to come from Keaghan or Madison since those are the two we Boo'ed. We brought the basket inside and she was thrilled to death at her find. Ahhh, to be four again and think it's an amazing coincident that your basket is just like the one you sent out, minus half of the stuff. Yep, the kept half of the treats (or put them in the second basket) and gave us back the other half. I guess they didn't know the basket came from us! Well, at least the Boo was passed on.

Since we started the whole thing, I now need to put together two more baskets and pass them on. Mark wanted to know why I didn't put Boo on our door to begin with, but I still wanted Morgan to have the fun of receiving. Two more baskets is well worth the price of her excitement.