Show me the way to go home

I ran across this video on one of the local news' website and though I know we're a few years away from this for our young Kyra, it was definitely an eye-opener for me. And it's never too soon to start practicing and teaching...

By the way, just click on the word "video" above, and it should take you to the new page. For some reason, this particular blog design won't let me designate a different color for links within the post, so I apologize if it's hard to tell where they are. Technology, you gotta love it!

Oh the precious things kids say...

Our girl Kyra just loves to help out around the house with any and all chores within reason--obviously the dishwasher is off-limits, but just about everything else is fair game:-)

One of her favorites right now is helping with the laundry. She also loves to "name the item" when transferring it from the washer to the dryer, i.e. Mommy's socks, Kyra's shirt, etc. However, being 2, she still doesn't get all of her words 100% right, so some things are, shall we say, uniquely named. Take for instance, underwear. In our house it's referred to as "wonder wear"--don't know where she got this, it just is. Pretty cute, right?

Well, one day right before Easter, I decided to pop into Macy's to try & find a dress. I had Kyra with me, which I was a little hesitant about since I didn't know how she'd do with all the sitting around in her stroller, but I really wanted a new dress for Easter.

After finding several possibilities, we headed to the dressing rooms. As I'm readying myself to try on the first dress, my dear sweet daughter pipes up, nice & loud so those in the next county could hear her, "Mommy, that's your wonder wear!"

Fearing she would repeat it, if she didn't get a response the first time (something she typically does--"Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom"--you know the drill), I meekly responded, "Yes, honey. This IS Mommy's underwear."

If I could have stayed in that dressing room all morning, I would have. But the reality was we needed to get home for lunch & a nap. So after deciding on a really cute polka dotted dress, I slunk out of the dressing room, kinda hiding behind the dress, and we headed home.

Needless to say, this is not the first time I've been faced with an awkward Kyra comment (see this previous post), and I'm sure it won't be the last. But as I've always said, life's too short to get all worked up about the small stuff. And a little laughter goes a long, long way.

Here's to loving innocent comments & the ones that bless us with them,
k~

Our Easter Weekend

I'm sitting here in a nice sugar coma from all the candy I've stuffed myself with, but I thought I'd give a little recap of our Easter Weekend.

It started yesterday morning with our neighborhood association holding an Easter Egg Hunt & Coloring contest for all the kids. At least for the little ones, it was more of a "we'll toss a bunch of candy out on the grass, and they can pick it up" than an actual egg hunt, but it was still fun. They divided the different events up by age group so you didn't have the 6 yr olds slide-tackling the 2 yr olds, which was nice. We neglected to previously hold an at-home "Egg Hunting Boot Camp" complete with time trials with Kyra, as I thought this might be going a little overboard, but David mentioned to me that he'd been teaching her WWF moves, in his spare time, to get her ready. Thanks Honey!

When they said go, Kyra watched all the other kids, 3 yrs old and younger, duck under the tape, and looked over at me, as if to say, "Now what do I do?" So Super Mommy to the rescue. Flinging kids aside, left and right...No just kidding. We ran over to where there was an explosion of candy on the grass, and then started loading up her bucket. Then when all the candy had been found that hadn't been stomped into the ground, they called time, and announced the winners of the coloring contest. Our sweet girl took 3rd place in her age group!!! She received a purple ribbon (which, bonus! purple is her favorite color), and some Play-dough. Needless to say the whole event was a little overwhelming for her, but I think she enjoyed it. I've posted some pictures below of our morning.

Kyra's in the middle of the pack with the red coat

Just one piece Mom!

Then later on that afternoon we tackled the age-old tradition of dyeing Easter eggs. Kyra was a natural, and had a ball giving the eggs a colored bath :-)

We ended our day with several rousing games of CandyLand, which was a first for Kyra, as she'd never played a board game before. However, she did relatively well, and seemed to have a good time. Then it was time for brushing teeth, bath, reading a book with Daddy, and bed. Unfortunately, due to all of the day's hype and SUGAR, sleep was not quick in coming, and there were many, many crying fits, not all of them Kyra's, I might add.

Kyra was up bright and early this morning, as usual (she's her Daddy's girl!!) even though she got to sleep quite late, and there were yet more new things to experience--her Easter Basket that Mommy went overboard with, and a real Easter Egg hunt--this time inside, as it was pouring rain. She loved every minute of that, as evidenced below.


The saddest part about our weekend was that we didn't make it to church to celebrate the real reason for Easter--Christ's death on a cross & triumphant resurrection on the 3rd day. That's because in between, and probably because of all of our running around the past couple days, Kyra picked up a cold, with an extremely runny nose, so no church for us. But we did have my Mom & Dad, and our friend Lena over for Easter lunch/dinner, and ate yummy roasted lamb, potatoes, fruit salad, rolls & cupcakes for dessert.

All in all, it was a great weekend spent with family & friends & of course, you can't go wrong with chocolate & Jelly Belly jelly beans :-)

Happy Easter friends! He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!
k~

Chocolate Lovers' Brownies

As a self-proclaimed Chocolate lover, I'm always on the lookout for all things chocolate. So when Kyra asked to make cookies the other day, I decided brownies would be a better choice--less work, and the pan was clean :-)

I need to preface something however. I'm very picky when it comes to brownies. Most homemade, from scratch, brownies I've met, or made in my life, are more cake-y than I prefer, and I had pretty much come to the conclusion that I just couldn't beat the ones made from the Hershey's mix. It seems the difference was the Hershey's syrup packet that came with it.

But then, Costco stopped selling that particular mix (GASP!), so I decided to try homemade brownies, completely from scratch, one more time. With a little trepidation, I went to a new cookbook I got recently called Oregon Sampler: Resorts & Recipes, and whipped up a batch of their "Favorite Brownies", with my own little twist--the all-important Hershey's syrup :-) Oh my gosh!!! I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. My husband, who can take or leave chocolate, thought they were just OK, but I could have easily eaten the whole pan in one sitting.

So, if you are looking for the ultimate in chocolate treats, look no further--those on a diet, steer clear!

Favorite Brownies
Makes 1 dozen

Ingredients:

4 oz unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon Hershey's chocolate syrup
1 cup flour
1/2 cup walnuts (optional--I left these out as I'm allergic to them)
powdered sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt chocolate and butter in large saucepan over low heat. Add sugar and eggs, one at a time. Stir well. Add vanilla & Hershey's syrup. Add flour and nuts (if using), and stir until well combined. Pour into a greased 9-inch square baking pan. Bake for 25 minutes; center will not be completely set. Cool before cutting. Dust with powdered sugar, if desired.

Enjoy, and Happy Wednesday friends!
k~

A great Rainy Day Project for Kids

Yes, it's another one of our famous Liquid Sunshine Days in the beautiful Pacific NW!! That means today we needed to find something fun to do Inside, and At Home, as I'm still getting over the latest batch of creeping crud that has lived in our house for the last month!

So, what to do? While thumbing through one of our favorite cookbooks called "Alpha Bakery Children's Cookbook", I found a recipe for making Finger Paint that looked fairly simple, and we had all the ingredients. Whoo hoo! A few minutes later, and lots of stirring, and we had 6 beautiful pots of finger paint :-)

Before we could begin painting, however, I realized even though this was washable, non-staining paint, I didn't really want it everywhere. So I put an old beach towel on the kitchen floor, threw an old T-shirt of David's on Kyra, and we went at it.

We had so much fun, and the best thing was, because we had made the paints ourselves, I knew if some happened to get in her mouth, it wasn't going to hurt her :-)

So if you're looking for something fun to do with your kids, and you don't mind a little mess, try calling up your inner artist--you never know what you might create!

Finger Paint
Makes a lot!

Ingredients

1/3 cup of cornstarch
3 tablespoons of sugar
2 cups of cold water
Food coloring

Muffin tin
toothpicks

1. Mix cornstarch, sugar and water in 1-quart saucepan.
2. Cook and stir over medium heat about 5 minutes or until thickened; remove from heat.
3. Divide the mixture by pouring into muffin tin depressions--Be careful as mixture is really hot!
   
4. Tint mixture in each depression with a different food color by adding a couple drops and stirring with a toothpick. Stir several times until it's the color you desire and the paint is cool.
5. Time to paint!
6. When finished, you can store the paints in airtight containers, although it works best if you use them the same day as you make it.

I've also included a short video of our painting fun. Be sure to turn the sound up on your computer so you can hear Kyra's comments too. I also apologize for the graininess (sp?) of the video--I took it with our little digital camera, and it isn't the best...

Happy Monday friends!
k~

Being 2

Oh, the wonderful 2s! A typical conversation at our house:

Little K: "Do you want Teddy Bear & Dolly?"
Mommy: "Sure! I'll give them some lovin'."
Little K: "Don't touch my Teddy Bear & Dolly!!!" all the while she's crying hysterically & throwing herself down upon whatever horizontal surface is available.

Or this:

Mommy: "Would you like me to rub your back?"--after putting her in her crib for nap time.
Little K: "No."
Mommy: "Okay. Have a good rest."---Mommy starts to leave the room.
Little K: "RUB MY BACK! RUB MY BACK!"--and again with the hysterical waterworks.

Prior to Mommyhood, I remember hearing the poem below, and laughing, thinking, "Oh, that's so cute." Now it's my life on a daily basis :-)

Enjoy~

The Toddlers' Creed

If I like it, it's mine.
If it's in my hand, it's mine.
If I can take it from you, it's mine.
If I had it a little while ago, it's mine.
If It's mine it must never appear to be yours in ANY way.
If I'm doing or building some thing, ALL the pieces are mine.
If It looks just like mine, it's mine.
If It is broken, It's yours!!!
If it is on, I must turn it off.
If it is off, I must turn it on.
If it is folded, I must unfold it.
If it is a liquid, it must be shaken, then spilled.
If it a solid, it must be crumbled, chewed or smeared.
If it is high, it must be reached.
If it is shelved, it must be unshelved.
If it is pointed, it must be run with at top speed.
If it has leaves, they must be picked.
If it is plugged, it must be unplugged.
If it is not trash, it must be thrown away.
If it is in the trash, it must be removed, inspected, and thrown on the floor.
If it is closed, it must be opened.
If it does not open, it must be screamed at.
If it has drawers, they must be rifled.
If it is a pencil, it must write on the refrigerator, monitor, or table.
If it is full, it will be more interesting emptied.
If it is empty, it will be more interesting full.
If it is a pile of dirt, it must be laid upon.
If it is stroller, it must under no circumstances be ridden in without protest. It must be pushed by me instead.
If it has a flat surface, it must be banged upon.
If Mommy's hands are full, I must be carried.
If Mommy is in a hurry and wants to carry me, I must walk alone.
If it is paper, it must be torn.
If it has buttons, they must be pressed.
If the volume is low, it must go high.
If it is toilet paper, it must be unrolled on the floor.
If it is a drawer, it must be pulled upon.
If it is a toothbrush, it must be inserted into my mouth.
If it has a faucet, it must be turned on at full force.
If it is a phone, I must talk to it.
If it is a bug, it must be swallowed.
If it doesn't stay on my spoon, it must be dropped on the floor.
If it is not food, it must be tasted.
If it is food, it must not be tasted.
If it is dry, it must be made wet with drool, milk, or toilet water.
If it is a carseat, it must be protested with an arched back.
If it is Mommy (or Daddy), it must be hugged.
I am toddler!

Happy Wednesday, friends!
k~

Taking Recalls a little too far, me thinks

It seems like every week the news is reporting that another item or items are being recalled because they are dangerous, etc. Now don't get me wrong. I think it's great that they care about protecting the public, especially if it's tainted meat or lead-drenched toys. But the one that came out recently I think is going a little overboard (see below):

Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream voluntarily recalled 90 cartons of its Dreyer's Slow Churned Light Caramel Delight ice cream and Slow Churned Light Butter Pecan ice cream because they may contain pecans not identified on the label.

The potentially affected 1.75-quart cartons were distributed to grocery stores in Oregon and three other Western states.

The affected cartons have the code "Best If Purchased By 09/11/08 049-32" printed on their bottoms.

Consumers who have purchased the ice cream with the code should call Dreyer's for a full refund.

I'm sorry, but if someone intentionally buys BUTTER PECAN ice cream, regardless if Pecans are listed in the ingredients list, the company should not be held responsible or feel like they have to issue a recall. Maybe with the other flavor, Caramel Delight, because it's not obvious if it contains nuts from the title. But the name of the ice cream is Butter Pecan. It would make more sense to issue a recall if it DIDN'T have pecans, false advertising and all.

It's sad when our society has gotten so "sue-happy" that companies feel they need to put out a recall for something like this.

Happy Wednesday friends!
k~