October 26, 2012 ~ The Apple Spider Game

How to Play;

First, put the Apple Spider in your mouth.

Then, while holding the Apple Spider in your mouth (no swallowing!) jump across the kitchen in leaps and bounds as high as you can until you reach the other side.

Repeat, going across the kitchen in the other direction until you reach Mommy.

Then, swallow the Apple Spider.

Ask Mommy for another Apple Spider.

Repeat until you get bored.

That's the Apple Spider game.


Billy translation: Apple Spider = apple cider

October 25, 2012 ~ Potty Training

I bet you don't want to hear about the tantrum du jour. So, since it was an uneventful day minus the epic tantrums...

Potty Training.

Yep. Four days in a row Billy has successfully peed in the potty both in the morning and just before bed. I've had to wipe up the floor a few times (still working on the 'aim') but he's got it down.

Here's how it goes:

Billy says he needs to pee and runs to the potty. He waits for me to turn on the light, because well, the dark bathroom is scary. "It's 'cary, Mommy". Then he does his business. Then, he pops up, pulls the seat off of his little duck potty and removes the catch cup inside of it. He then dumps the catch cup into the big potty (two hands, Billy, two hands!!! argh, okay, I'll wipe that up...) Then he flushes the big potty and claps.

We still have not had a successful potty poop, but we'll take what we can get.

Potty training. I'm on it!

Drawn In Thursdays: Holiday Hijinks #2

Click to Enlarge

A true story from last week

October 23, 2012 ~ The Costume Bin

The time had come for me to dig through the costume bin. It's a yearly ritual. Halloween is a week away and I need a costume. The "bin" is four boxes of costumes, decorations and all things spooky.

In truth I had been through the bin last week trying to piece together my costume, but got called away (by Daddy) to deal with a tornado, aka our toddler.

So, again I was back at it. Last week I found all but one- that's right, one- piece to my costume. That required me digging through all of the boxes to find it.

This time I let Billy dig through the bin with me. He immediately took to the train engineer's hat, originally worn by Grandma as a girl. Next we found a rubber snake. I teased him with it. He thought that was awesome. Next up, a captain's hat. It was too big. There was also a cat in the hat hat which he tossed around. We found spiders and bones and ghosts and ghouls.

But his favorite was a little plastic cutlass. He picked it up and never put it down. Like any true pirate he found and hook and carried that around too. In the car, still holding the sword. Diaper change? Still holding the sword. Bedtime? He wouldn't give it up. Any good pirate sleeps with his sword, don't you know.

At the end of the night this was the full ensemble he decided would be his costume:

October 22, 2012 ~ Was That?

I sat Billy down to dinner and presented him with his plate. There were three things on the plate: hot dog, broccoli and potatoes.

Wait...what? Billy HATES broccoli and HATES potatoes even more! What are you thinking? He won't eat that!

"Here Billy. Here's your dinner."

"Hot dog! Mommy, was that?" he points to the broccoli.

"Those are baby trees. They are super yummy. And they are covered in butter. You are so lucky to be able to eat baby trees. Wow, Billy. That's really cool."

"Butter?" Ah, the magic word.

"And was that?" he points to the potatoes.

"Those are, um," struggling to find non-potatoey words here, "papas!"

"Yes, those are baby papas and they are also covered in butter."

"Butter?" He reaches to take a bite.

Okay, I know what you're thinking here. Papas? Like the Mamas and the Papas? No, silly. For some reason the only thing my brain would do is switch to Spanish. So, now they're just Spanish potatoes. But don't ever say "potato" in my house. Billy will run screaming from the table. They're papas.

He ate a bite of potato. Then a bite of broccoli. Then he ate all of his broccoli. I couldn't get him to eat the rest of the potat... excuse me, papas. But I have high hopes for today.

Yes. I tricked my toddler into eating two foods he hates. And you know what? He liked it.

October 21, 2012 ~ The Lion That Lives on the Playground

Billy has a new game. You pretend to sleep, and then he attacks you with a pillow to wake you up. Sound like something he would do while cuddling? Well, yes probably. But, no. He invented this game while sitting on the sofa with Grandma. As soon as she would "wake up" he would grab her arm and tell her "Gan-ma, go sleep!" Then... attack!

After Grandma left we went to pick out pumpkins.

This isn't our usual place to go, but it's got free stuff for kids to do so we headed over there. He could have cared less about the hay maze. Wasn't interested in the pumpkins over 1000 pounds (of which there are three). Didn't scream in the haunted house. (Although he did jump a little when a ghost popped out).

Nope.

It was all about the wagon. He didn't want to ride in it. He wanted to pull it around. And he did. Through the whole place. At one point it was loaded down with pumpkins and he still managed to pull it around, even up a small hill.

And after pumpkins we checked out Christmas. Oh yeah, they are full decorated for Christmas, train garden and all.

Then it was home to roast marshmallows with Cub and his parents. We did smores in the back yard with our fire pit. Billy wanted to sit in the same chair with Cub and was quite the little host, bringing Cub his apple cider and even wiping chocolate off of Cub's face.  We had a glow stick and a mini tent and the two boys got to play outside under the stars until well past their bedtimes, hyped on chocolate and marshmallows.

We adults roast Easter Peeps as well. So yummy. So wrong. There's nothing like skewering your favorite Easter candies and shoving them into a fire.

Sunday was a quiet day, since he was up so late the night before. The only thing we did was head on over to the playground.

The playground has some trees. I wouldn't even call it woods. Maybe a copse. More like a scattering of trees around the fields. But Billy apparently thinks that it's the jungle. And he's certain that a lion lives there. To be clear: it's just some trees. Not even a lion statue. Nothing. Just trees. But he roars to the lion that lives on the playground.

So beware. It's invisible. It's not real. But there's a lion that lives on the playground.

The Sunday Post ~ Workman Tool Bench Review

Buy it here.

This is a fabulous toy and worth every penny. The best part? It's not very expensive.

The work bench comes with three power tool plus three more tools and interchangeable heads for the screwdriver, including a chisel attachment. It also comes with screws and bolts with drawers to contain them.

The power tools? A nail gun, a lathe and an electric screwdriver. (All of which work straight out of the box). The nail gun lights up and makes extra noises when the trigger is pulled. The lathe with the baseball bat on it is mounted to the bench and has an on off switch.

It also has extra storage for the other tools and work toys that you already own.

This is a great bench. Our son absolutely loves this toy. It has provided hours and hours of fun for him already. It has lots of different toys to play with to keep him occupied.

My only recommendation? Get some earplugs... for yourself. The power tools are loud- as they should be!