Blogger Light - My Birthday Gifts

Here is another posting under my "Blogger Light" heading, something not very deep but something I wanted to share about.

















I try not to get too bogged down by "things" or too wrapped up in them. That being said, there are sometimes these purchases that you make that are very satisfying; ones that you searched and searched for or hemmed and hawed about and finally took the step and had a great result.

So this year I had my 40th birthday and was intentional about some money that I got as a gift from my dad and step mom and also my sister's 85-year-old father-in-law who is so generous. I usually just put it in the bank, but this year I decided to make a couple purchases. I had $100 to spend which was so generous. Well, I never thought to put a mixmaster on my wedding gift registry years ago so whenever I was baking or mixing I did it by hand (ugh) or used a hand mixer. Over the years, I've thought about a Kitchen Aid which is what my mom and sisters use, but I really don't bake enough to justify spending that kind of money. So I was really excited when I found a Wolfgang Puck mixmaster, not brand new but refurbished. It was only $25! I have had so much fun using it! I've made breads and cookies so far. My pumpkin bread recipe is so yummy that I've made 3 batches of it so far. I don't even frost it anymore, it is so light and moist you really don't need it. And my son loves it! So he's getting some veggies and fruit with every piece since it has pumpkin and banana in it.





















The other purchase I made for my birthday was a pair of warm winter boots. I have been searching and searching for probably the last 3 years for a good pair of warm, waterproof boots. I can't count how many pairs I tried on and they didn't fit or bought and had to return them because something just wasn't right. Until the ones I just got from the Sportsmen's Guide. I did end up getting a pair last year but the boots are very stiff and don't give in the ankle. I had a conversation with one of my sisters who was having the same problem, that it can really be hard to find a good pair of boots. So these boots fall under the category of "Pac boots". First off, they are usually somewhat expensive, starting anywhere around $50 and going up to $200. I wanted a pair that laced up that also had the waterproof part. I had suede in the past and my feet would often get wet from the snow soaking in. These fit so well, are very comfortable and I really like the way they look. I got them for $44. In general, I always look forward to snow because I have loved the outdoor activities of wintertime since I was a kid. I love snowshoeing in our city's arboretum and our parks, cross country skiing, hiking. Now that I have a child of my own, I am going sledding in winter and just having fun out in the snow. This winter, I am looking forward to having really comfy feet and getting a lot of wear out of these boots over the years.

Picture credits: Wolfgang Puck Mixer; Sportsman's Guide Boots

Tiny Talk Tuesday

**J is 29 months old**

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Tiny Talk Tuesday is a way to share the fun and interesting things our kids are saying. I love joining up for this blog carnival at Not Before 7. Click her button above to see what kind of Tiny Talk has been overhead in the homes of others!

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TINY TALK FEATURED FAMILY
What an honor! I've never done anything like this yet, and so it's quite exciting that today I'm featured on Mary's blog at Not Before 7. She's the host of Tiny Talk. Thanks, Mary for featuring me and hosting Tiny Talk!

This week I didn't get many "tiny talks" recorded, so I included a really cute video.

I was checking email on the computer when I heard J saying (out of the blue), "I will huff, I will puff, I will blow the house down." I started to join in and he said, "I'm going to blow my bed down!" (I had a little "bed" set up for him on the floor since he had asked me to make one). He then said, "I will huff, I will puff, I will blow my bed down!" (He leaned down and started blowing as hard as he could on the blankets). Then he dropped onto the "bed" and rolled around laughing. I said, "Do it again!" He said, "I can't, I'm sleeping."

J likes pretending he's a dinosaur lately and today he was making up dinosaur stories! They were kind of goofy. He said, "The dinosaur wants to taste my pancakes." Then he would say the same thing but add a different food. Then he said, "The dinosaur will eat my food, then go onto the sidewalk. He will get hit by a car and then have a tummy ache." (I told you they were goofy.)

One night, J was simply not tired. We had a family over for dinner and he was quite wound up after they left. He started singing all kinds of songs and I was able to get some of it on video. We recently got a CD from the library called Where is Thumbkin (he says where is "fun-kin"). I used to sing this song when I was a little kid! I had no idea how much he'd love this. We listen to it over and over and over mostly in the car. It was amazing to me how much he had memorized, but as you'll see we get interrupted by our dishwashing machine.





Thanks for stopping by!

Tracey's Kitchen

I don't think I've ever mentioned in my Musings posts that I have a second blog called Tracey's Kitchen. I do have a link to it on this blog, but it may not be very visible. Well just this month, I had a blogger friend encourage me to post something new on my recipe blog. I was really inspired. Thank you to Kelly at Crouching Mother, Hidden Toddler. She has a GREAT cooking and recipe related blog. I had many months where I only posted 1 recipe yet I've already posted 5 new recipes in November; which is a tie for the most posts on my recipe blog. The last time I posted that many recipes was last February, my 2nd month of the blog. I think I'm on a roll!

Anyhow, I thought I'd blend the blogs a bit and make mention of the recipes. I've had fun cooking this month! It really makes such a huge difference to know others look forward to your posts ;)

I'm especially into slow cooker and cool-weather recipes. Here are links to a few of the most recent ones that turned out pretty yummy.



















Tasty Roast Chicken Vegetable Soup


















(Slow Cooker) Pork Rib Ragu Pasta



















Shortcut Pumpkin Bread



















Yummy Slow Cooker Pot Roast

If you're into cooking, I hope you enjoy these as much as I did!

What My Child is Reading & Other Blog Hops

I found a great blog hop that highlights the current books we are reading with our kids. J and I don't usually focus on a theme. We go to the library often and I just pick books that he would be interested in that also have a good message or lesson.

Click the link below to see what others are reading!

God Sees Me All the Time
I found this book for J at the local thrift store. I had no idea that J would like it so much. We had it sitting around for a few weeks, but once he asked me to read it to him he wanted it again and again. The story is about a little girl tempted by chocolate chip cookies and learning that God can see her all the time. There's a neat part of the story when she gets scared and the teaching from her dad that God is always watching over us comforts her. Towards the end she's learning about little things we can do to serve the Lord that pleases Him. I really like that there are several lessons about God in the book.



The Nose Book
This book is just adorable. It's a Dr. Suess book and has an elephant on the cover, an instant draw for my son. He loves Dr. Suess and elephants are his favorite right now. It was fun watching his reactions to the story line, especially a part that has you imagine life without a nose. I like reading that part while holding my nose and J can't stop laughing and tries to imitate me. We also enjoyed naming all the animals in the book, with a couple that were hard even for me to identify! This is from the library, but I think we'll have to add this to our permanent collection.



One Drowsy Dragon
I was drawn to this book at first because of the dragon. J likes anything dragon or dinosaur related, but what was really cool is that this is actually a counting book. There are dragons marching, dragons dancing, dragons laughing and playing and more. It was a fun read.



Please say Please! Penguin's Guide to Manners
I'm always looking for good books on manners as we are regularly encouraging J's use of please, thank you, excuse me, etc. This book has lots of different animals in it and that made it extra fun. The illustrations are so cute. It has a little different spin in that it starts by saying the wrong way to do something, asking if this is right (NO) and then giving the right way to do it. Good lessons on manners.



A Polar Bear Can Swim, What Animals Can and Can't Do
A Polar Bear Can Swim has lots of neat tidbits of information and amazing facts about specific things certain animals can do. It also shares things they can't do. It's great for identifying animals and having J make the appropriate animal noise in addition to learn neat things about them.



Sounds Around Town
This one was fun! I thought this would be a good one when I skimmed it at the library. I love interacting with J while I read and this one had all kinds of different sounds in the pictures that I acted out for him. They also have two pages of kids drawings of various sounds in the front of the book and each time we read it, he makes sure I go through each picture making its sound.



Too Big, Too Small, Just Right
This book is a good one that I wanted to use to teach J more about size comparison. It uses two colorful bunnies and in a variety of situations they are in learning about too big, too tall, too dark, too bright and others. It also highlights their friendship.



Some more book reading fun!
Click below to visit the other book blog carnivals I link up to:

Tot School (Beans, Building and Just Plain Fun)

**J is 29 months old**


I love doing Tot School with J! We are very laid back and so far I don't really plan anything. I keep a lot of things visible to J and let him lead when it's time to do some focused learning-play. We had a fun week!

J wanted help to get out his Melissa and Doug dinosaur puzzle. He likes to lie on his tummy and work on fitting the pieces together. This is a more chunky puzzle that he can work mostly on his own and loves my encouragement when he finds a piece that fits. He did ask for help a few times. I just coached him by telling him how to turn the puzzle pieces he was trying to fit in. We were working together pretty well, but then he got his mind set on putting a piece where it didn't fit. He got a bit pushy when I tried to show it didn't fit and pushed my hand away. So I told him I was taking a little break. He didn't end up finishing it.































L has a penny jar he has been keeping for at least a couple years now. J loves putting pennies in it. We found a few that he was able to put in. Not too long and it will be full! It'll be great to see how much is in it.
































I was building a shelf for toy storage and right away J says, "I'll help!" He wanted a screwdriver so I gave him one and he pretended to help put the screws in. He said "I'm building momma!"
J has been playing with the real screwdriver a few times since and pretending to "build" things. Also at our playgroup PalZone, he was really interested in playing with the tools and workbench like I haven't seen before. I've been wondering what I might get him for Christmas and I am thinking of a toy tool set with tools and a construction helmet.
































I also needed to use a hammer for my shelf. J of course said he could hammer, and I remembered we have a little hammer and peg board so I got that out. J sat hammering away right next to me while I built the shelf. Even after I was done, he kept hammering away having me take the pegs out so he could start over again. He got this out several times throughout the week to hammer away. I tried to teach him he could get the pegs out by turning the board upside down. This worked for him some of the time and other times he'd just ask me to help.
































My friend brought over her son again this week so she could substitute teach. The boys did pretty well together since I was there to referee when there was a squabble. We played inside before lunch and then got outdoors to enjoy some of the wonderful weather we had this week. They didn't even need coats. They enjoyed things like sidewalk chalk and bubbles. They also spent some time just running around too.



















































J was looking for something to do and was asking for one of his puzzles but I couldn't find it. Then I remembered I bought a few bags of beans we could play with. So I dumped red beans, black beans and yellow split peas into a bin. I got him a couple shovels, containers to transfer into and also a stacking cup to use for pouring. He did the scooping and transferring for a while then turned to pouring. Then I started hiding little things in the beans and asking him to find them. He was really excited about this. He'd say, "What is it? It's a surprise!" I hid a stacking ring, then his little animals, then a pair of his sunglasses. At one point, I hid 4 little animals for him to find. He said, "I have work to do!" and got busy searching. He experimented with what he could hide in there too. His Mickey Mouse stuffed animal and blankie were too big though.




























































J wanted to get in my storage cupboard where I've been keeping a flower arranging project for a while. I got this idea from another Tot School blog, The Toy Box Years and J really wanted to try it. I found some flowers from the craft store along with some styrofoam to stick them in. I let J do all the arranging but had to help a bit to get the flowers in deep enough to stand up. As he went, he kept talking about "the contest" saying "this is for the contest". I don't know where that idea came from! He was very proud of himself when it was done and wanted to do more, but we had used them all so he just pulled them out and started over. When he was all done, he admired his work saying "I won! Ta Da!"
































We had some fun stacking and knocking down (or pile driving really) dominoes. J started out with the idea that we would match dominoes, but then had more fun knocking stacks of them over. We both were stacking and J was knocking over his own, but once he noticed I was stacking mine too he couldn't resist knocking mine over. I gave him some instructions to see how high we could stack them before knocking them down and he did hold back a bit. It was so tempting for him to knock them over though since he got into making sounds effects and sort-of pile driving them all over the place with both hands. I tried to get a good before and after shot with them all over the place.














































On one of the days that was nice out, J wanted to go outside and do some bowling. It's been a while since we did this but we always enjoy it. I set the pins up and J helps with that a little bit. Then I let him knock them down. This time he preferred to keep holding onto the bowling ball as he knocked the pins over. I let him know this wouldn't pass at a real bowling alley! He kept saying, "Go away wind!" since the wind knocked some pins down a couple times too.













































We also took some time again for one of our favorite nature activities, feeding the birds. This time, J got a couple small buckets so he could help distribute seed. He would fill his bucket from my big bucket, and then pour it into our larger wooden feeder. He also had fun picking out the peanuts and putting them into a little seed holder on the ground (no picture). While we were filling the feeders, we were blessed to have a chickadee come and land about 3 feet away from us! He was waiting for us to finish (no picture since we stood stock still, well at least I did - J tried).

Book Favorites
Handy Manny Cookie Rescue
The Nose Book
One Drowsy Dragon
Please say Please! Penguin's Guide to Manners
Sounds Around Town

Movie Favorites
Ralph S. Mouse and more exciting animal adventure stories (A Scholastic video)
Barney and Friends - Just Imagine
Handy Manny - The Big Race


Just Plain Fun
















On the day my friend's son was over playing, J decided it would be fun to put his mom's bag on his head. He sat there laughing while I ran for the camera and was able to snap off a few pictures. This one turned out the best.
































I bought some really cute big boy underpants as one of the things I'm doing to encourage him to start using the potty. He was interested at first, but now he's kind of forgotten about them. So I got them out and was just plain silly putting them on his head to see what he'd do. He thought this was really funny too and ran around the house with them on his head.


















One night, J was not tired at all for bed. We had friends over earlier in the evening and he was pretty wound up. He took out a bunch of toys and I found them all lined up on the couch (too bad his eyes are half closed here). Then he found this honey dipper thing and was using it like a conductor's wand and was singing his heart out. He sang the ABC's, he made up a song about the animals and toys that he loves and sang Where is Thumbkin. (I'll be adding a video of it to my Tiny Talk Tuesday post next week ;)

See the fun things other moms are doing at the Weekly Wrap Up, another place I link up.