Friday, November 30, 2012

Yotam Ottolenghi

Is that a cool name or what?  I distinctly remember when I first met Chris thinking that I couldn't marry him because his last name was Nelson and there was a girl in my high school with the same last name who was, how should I say, promiscuous, and you know how you get negative associations with names because of experiences?  Well, I got over it.

Anyway, Yotam Ottolenghi (super de-duper cool name) is a Jewish guy that's been living in London close to 20 years and he has written two cookbooks.  Both have been released with critical acclaim, oh, and because he probably is an over-achiever, he had restaurants before the cookbooks.


1.Product Details     2.   Product Details


Plenty, his first book I have owned for several years.  The focus on Plenty is vegetables which sounds so boring and unappetizing you can already hear your kids complaining.  But look inside the book and you will want to eat vegetables all the time based solely on the pictures, which was why I bought the book.  And here's the kicker- I have never used it.  Our basement flooded, things got shuffled and I forgot about it.  But then I saw his second book, Jerusalem, which caused me to remember the first.  So then I also ordered Jerusalem as well.  I know, I sound a little strange ordering a second cookbook when I haven't even used the first.  That is such a first world thing to do.

Jerusalem is done with a man named Sami Tamimi, another cool name.  Sami was raised on the Muslim eastern side of Jersusalem and Yotam was raised on the Western Jewish side of Jerusalem.  I am excited to see how the different cultures play out in the book. In the introduction he talks about how they both ate pretty similar things with just slight differences with their cultures.

To get a grip on myself for now having two cookbooks that I have not used, I am going to dedicate December to Yotam Ottolenghi month. When I am not using my amazingly, awesome freezer meals, which averages out to twice per week, then I will be cooking out of either Jerusalem or Plenty.  But not on weekends because weekends are too crazy to try and do something like that.  I figure this is a good way to actually use the cookbooks and then I can feel better about purchasing them.

 I did mention to Chris that it would have been so awesome if he had a last name like Ottolenghi, he didn't have much to say in return.  But it would probably make filling out forms a royal pain in the butt, so instead I will remind myself that Nelson is short and easy to spell.

Anyway, they are both around $20 on Amazon, and would make totally awesome Christmas presents for anyone that needs ideas.  Probably you should buy one of them just to say his name when people ask you where you got the recipe.  Something like "Oh, that old recipe?  It came out of Yotam Ottolenghi's cookbook".  Come on, admit it.  His name is really fun to say  :)

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

The Kidlets Christmas Presents

Thought I would post what we are getting the kids for Christmas.  Most of them are super easy to pick out for.  All except Ava.  She's 9 going on 15 and very mature for her age.  She would love some make-up, etc. I caught her going out the door this morning wearing my perfume- like I wasn't going to smell it- but nine year olds don't need to wear make-up and adult perfume to school.  Or anywhere outside of the home.  I am afraid to get these types of items for her and push her into being older.  There is already enough pressure like that from the world.  Or am I making too big a deal of it?

Anyway, everyone but Ava has presents.  Here they are.

Owen

 1.Product Details       2.Product Details
 3. Product Details

1. Character Encyclopedia  $10 on Amazon, by far the best price, it's around $20 everywhere else.

2. Ninjago Venom    $9 on Amazon, but I got it on Black Friday for around $5

3. Jay ZX Booster Pack  $6 on Amazon

This is our first foray into legos.  They are just so darn expensive, but he has seen this cartoon at my parents (don't know what he sees in it!) and loves it, and the book really is nice, plus comes with a little fighting dude.  So I thought we would give legos a whirl.  This will almost certainly end our lego buying, we just can't afford to spend $50 on lego sets.

Kembia


Disney Princess Tiana's Gumbo Cooking Party

Tiana's Gumbo Cooking Party  We scored big here, I paid $17 on clearance at Walmart, it's currently $49 at Target.  On a side note, this has got go be the worst Disney movie ever.  We ended up leaving the theater because my kids don't need a lesson in voodooism.


Moyz


I had to take a picture of this because Walmart apparently doesn't sell it on their website.  $10 
I'm feeling a little neutral about this at the moment.  I think it's super cute, but am wondering if all the little men are going to wind up around the house and irritate me to death.  We'll see if it makes the cut

Truitt

Fisher-Price Little People® Lil' Movers Airplane

Lil' Movers Airplane  We paid $15 at Kohl's, but it's almost the same at Amazon.  He is obsessed with carrying things around the house and this has a handle.  I totally see him just shoving random junk inside the plane and wandering around.  

Obviously, we don't buy the same number of presents per kid.  We try to do similar costs, which is why Owen got 3 instead of one.  Our kids have so much stuff that we don't really want to add lots of crap to that as well.  We will put a small toy in their stocking and a bunch of candy, because really, what children don't need more candy in their lives, and call it good.  

I also bought the Toby Mac Christmas CD, $10, which comes sometime today.  I tend to not get totally into Christmas music, but figure we won't be able to go wrong here.  We are obsessed with his Eye On It cd.  If you have kids, go out and buy this cd immediately.  Go out and buy this cd if you are an adult.  The best way to describe this music is a blend of hip hop/rap/all things funky, but it's Christian music.  All of my kids have most of the songs memorized.  He is by far our favorite artist.

Now the kids want us to wrap the presents, since they know they are bought, and put them under the tree.  Not gonna happen.  We just put up the tree Monday and have spent the last few days trying to keep Truitt from playing in it and grabbing the ornaments.  I foresee a long month ahead of us as far as the tree is concerned!








Tuesday, November 27, 2012

My Black Friday Loot

I have to admit I love black friday shopping.  Mostly I love watching people go crazy for dancing chipmunks and things like the Snuggie (remember that?), but you can find some good bargains.



This year I didn't find anything that I wanted in the ads- Target, I am so disappointed in your deals that I almost wanted to cry.  I wasn't even going to go out and watch people but Ava really wanted to and it's kind of become a tradition.  So I bucked up, woke up at 5 (late to most openings, I know) and got ready.  I was going to carpool with my brother in law because Chris wasn't going to go, but then he wakes up, decides to go because "he woke up at 2am thinking about it", and proceeds to tell me that I can't ride in the car with his brother and him because he doesn't want to stop where I want to go.  Awesome.

It actually worked out great because then I didn't have to go to Menards and wait for them while they bought batteries.  Because nothing says good deal on Black Friday like batteries.....

Here's the loot we brought home.  Shame on us for falling prey to impulse purchasing.

1. Gun case- nor really an impulse purchase because we have been looking for this, but it's massive and Chris now has to redo his closet to make room for it.

2. I bought boots, like I need another pair, but these have zippers on the outside which I thought was so stinking cool, plus they were a great tan color.  How could I pass them up?  I now have boots to last me probably for the rest of my life.

3. Ratchet straps.  How utterly boring.

4.  An SD card for our camera, boring.

5.  USB disc thing for storage of important docs. if our dying computer crashes one day and never recover, boring but necessary.

6.  Couple of Christmas presents for the kids.

7.  Christmas present for Chris, which I can't say what it is in the odd chance he reads this blog.  Which he does about twice a year and knowing my luck it would be this post.

8.  Fishing pole holders, boring.

9.  Christmas wrapping paper, boring, but mostly because Chris bought them and they didn't match.  I like to try and go for a theme, but I appreciate that he thought of this and initiated it all on his own.

10.  Canon Printer.  We're probably one of the remaining families in the US who didn't have a printer.  Normally I would email Chris and beg for him to print something off at work.  But we got an amazing deal on our printer so we snatched it up.  Cause it's definitely annoying to not be able to print when you need to.

You can see from this list that it was kind of a boring year, and mostly bought by the hubs.  It is just so practical.  And if anything drives me crazy it is practical presents and things.  You don't go out on Black Friday for practical.  Practical is everyday of the week.  Black Friday is for expensive things that are marked down so low you can now afford them.

The best part was that we shopped at a smallish town that essentially stocked enough of the black friday deals like it was a huge metro area.  I walked through a Target at around 10:30 and they had tons of tv's that were black friday deals still hanging around.  I bought our printer at Best Buy over the phone at 3 in the afternoon.  Both Chris and I thought we should go there every year.  Sleep in and don't worry about the crazy lines because all the good stuff will still be there later.


None of this for us, we leisurely strolled through every store.  Totally the way to go.



Monday, November 26, 2012

2012 Family Photo

I tend to take a lot of pictures throughout the year, but pretty much only take a family photo when the yearly Christmas cards are due.  The following are the best of the bunch.  I am actually fairly impressed with these.   We took about 10 as a group and 10 just the kids.  Without fail, there wasn't one picture where everyone was actually looking at the camera, even with family yelling and creating chaos behind the photographer.  But I'll take them.

You know by looking at them that they are ready to run away from all of this crazy picture stuff.  Kembia sort of looks like she is going to cry and Owen looks like he is restraining Moyz.  Truitt looks like this is the most ridiculous thing he has had to do in his short life.  Ava and Owen have that "we're pros at this" look to them.  Their motto- "hold the babies and smile."


Look at Moyz.  Doesn't he have a dignified look to him?  Like this whole thing is beneath me so I am going to look slightly off to the side and tilt my face upward to be all aristocratic like.  

Totally wish we would have been standing in front of a bunch of snow covered logs, but no such luck.  We always seem to not have snow when the picture is taken because if I wait too much longer then I don't get the cards out before Christmas.  And actually, I tried to order some from walmart last night, but somehow in the process deleted my card and ordered blank ones.  I amaze myself some times.  Good thing I was able to call and cancel them.  

Such is life.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Christmas Gift Ideas

I know, Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I should probably focus on the current holiday first, but I love Christmas time, the trees and decorations and all that fun stuff.  Plus the presents.  I know I should say that I love giving gifts, and I do, but truly, I like getting them more.  There.  I said it.

It's been awhile since I have done a round-up of cool things that I have found so I thought I would do that for present ideas.  Some DIY and some buy-because-you're-lazy/don't-have-time.

Also, for any family member reading this, you may or may not be receiving something from the list below.  It's up to you to continue on with reading!

1.  Rachel Ray "My Year In Meals"  $16.91 on Amazon

I love her recipes.  Never seen the show, but use her cookbooks all the time.  I am so excited to get this one in the mail.  Haven't seen one of her cookbooks that I haven't liked, and while yes, sometimes the recipes are quite familiar to others, it's always stuff that I never thought about.  

2.  Target Scarves  $14.99

Mossimo® Feather Scarf - Yellow    Mossimo® X's Scarf - Gray   Mossimo® Skull Scarf - Blue

I have the first two.  The yellow feather scarf actually stopped me in my tracks, that's how awesome it is.  The color is strange, more of a yellow/pea green, which I know doesn't make it sound appetizing, but it rocks.  Then I saw the second one and had to bring that home too.  The third is skulls.  I have an interesting relationship with skulls.  I love them, but sometimes people wear them in a way that I don't think is appropriate.  This, I think, is an acceptable way to put skulls into your wardrobe.

3.  DIY stamped friendship bracelets


These totally rock.  In fact, I want some for myself, but mostly I am thinking for my nieces and nephews.  You would have to buy all the stuff to do them, but Michael's and JoAnn's always have coupons in their ads.  

4.  The Zoo Calendar

Okay, so this picture is huge, but it is fabulous, and only $5 for the download.  Each month is printed out in color on cardstock.  I think these are gorgeous, and would make a great gift, especially for those who reside in an office during the day, something to look up and see on the wall.  How could you not smile?



5.  Freezer Meals


I know, how unglamorous could you possibly get?  But let me tell you, there isn't a busy mom in this world who wouldn't LOVE to get a few freezer meals.  When the babies got home, our friends and church gave us meals every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of the week for the first three months we were home.  And it saved my life.  The freezer co-op that I am a part of rocks my world.  I heart so much the fact that when it is crazy and and I don't know what to fix for supper I can just pull a meal out of the freezer, and so will any person who gets this for a present.

6.  State Park Pass

Infographic_state park passes

I really like this idea a lot.  It's not something that families generally consider, but really forces people to get out and use their pass and explore our awesome planet.  One state pass allows you to go to every park in that state.  I think for MN it's like $25 for an annual pass.

7.  Magazines

I have a slight magazine problem.  But everyone I know gets a magazine or two, sometimes 14 different ones (no names but it rhymes with mess!), per month.  My all time favorite one to give is National Geographic.  Watch Amazon closely because you can get it for as little as $15 per year. 

8.  Leatherman Wave Tool   $62 on Amazon

I have this in mind more for a man gift, but I actually own this and Chris has multi-tool envy.  This puppy has a crazy number of gadgets on it, including screwdrivers, knife, saw and scissors, plus tons more.  I carry it on me all the time in my purse, cause you never know when you might need it.  And at some point, you will need it.

9.  Survive: Essential Skills And Tactics To Get You Out Of Anywhere Alive  $13.59 on Amazon


Another man gift.  This is actually a very useful book.  Not only does it tell you what to have in your car, home, etc. for emergencies, it also tells you how to survive pretty much anywhere in any given circumstance. Your man will feel much better about himself and ability to keep you safe after he has read it.  I am not joking.  I felt better about my ability to take care of my family in the need of an emergency.  I seriously recommend this book for pretty much everyone, not just for a man gift like I said at the beginning.  

10.  DIY Barbecue Rub  


Big Batch Barbeque & Mediterranean Herb Rubs

Appeal to your man's inner desire to grill up a chunk of meat.  Will definitely be giving this one from Real Simple Magazine a whirl.


So there you have it.  A few ideas for this holiday season.  Hope something inspired you!


Tuesday, November 20, 2012

My kids disgust me

Truitt was walking around the house with a red straw.  For a fleeting second I thought that perhaps I shouldn't let him do this, you know, in case he falls and the straw stabs him in the back of the throat, but I didn't take it away.  Probably I should have.

Fast forward 10 minutes later when I went to go and meet Owen from school at the door.  When I went back to find Truitt and Moyz who were awfully quiet and missing, I discovered them using the straw and drinking from the toilet.

I truly don't have the words for the disgust I feel, so instead, I will just post a picture to show how cute they are.


Monday, November 19, 2012

Truitt and the ER (again)

Hopefully this week will prove to better then last, with a holiday in there, I don't see why it shouldn't.

Last week, Truitt fell out of the basket while shopping at Target.  Moyz and Kembia were buckled in the mega family cart, but at this Target, you couldn't put a baby where they would normally go in the seat.  The leg area was sealed off with red plastic, there were no buckles, and where the baby's butt would sit was the words "for merchandise only".  So I was out of options and in the basket he went.  I thought it would be okay because he was the shortest and least likely to fall out.  Didn't work out that way.

We call the clinic and they said that we needed to bring him into the ER and get a CT scan done.  What?  Ava fell out of a cart 7 years ago and we didn't do diddily squat.  So we decided not to take him and called a Paramedic friend of ours who ran us through some neurological stuff to do with him and stuff to look for and called it good.  Two days later he started bleeding heavy from the nose during nap time.

I freaked.  With head injuries it specifically tells you to call 911 if there is any nose bleeding after injury.  I didn't call 911 but rushed him to the ER freaking out that he had a brain hemmorhage or something equally terrible.

They took it very seriously since the timing of the bleeding after injury.  The triage nurse told me that if children survive a head injury after the first 6 hours they generally don't worry so much, then if you hit 24 all is pretty good, but because of the bleeding they were thinking that he had a frontal skull fracture causing the nose to bleed.  Great, my baby has a broken head.

I'm feeling generally pretty crappy about the whole situation and the nurse's comment about why kids shouldn't go in the basket really ticked me off.  I tried to explain about the cart and that my other kids were in there, but he cut me off and wouldn't let me finish.  At least the ER doc let me tell the whole story so I didn't look like the worst mother ever.

They did a very thorough exam of his head, heart and all that stuff.  And after spending extensive time shining a flashlight up his nose, determined that there were multiple lacerations inside, and thus deduced that it was not related to his head injury, and was in fact, because he is a nose picker.

nose picker lol
Not Truitt

Awesome.  So I spent $500 to have a doctor tell me that my son picks his nose.  At least they also said he wouldn't suffer any negatives from bashing his head onto a concrete floor.  And for what it's worth, he has never really picked his nose before.

And then poor kid, a can of food fell out of the closet and on to his face when we got home.

What doesn't kill them makes them smarter....?

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Little Animals

While stumbling around the internet looking for cool things and wasting my time while the kids were away for a little bit, I came across this print.

Owl

This is a real owl who's picture was taken.  I became obsessed.  There is just something about it, and I found out it came from the site The Animal Print Shop.  This woman takes pictures of real animals and puts them in front of a white back drop.  They are adorable, unique and all that jazz.  (It's hard to call a picture of a carrion bird adorable!)

Baby Deer
Porcupine



Lamb No. 2Vulture No. 1




Baby Monkey Close-Up
Macaw






Baby Giraffe No. 2 : vertical   

Aren't they so much fun?  Why can't I think of something  like this?  My favorites are the birds.  The prints start at $25 for an 8" X 11", and move steeply up from there, like the next size is $75.  The 30" X 40" is $1,950.  No lie.

I have been able to hold off from getting the small print of the owl for a week or so, but I am not sure how much longer I will be able to.  Something about the eyes just reel me right in.  I would love a humongous print of it, I think all that white would look great with my grey living room, and would work well if I go for "Good Luck Charlie" in the spring, but a large size is never, ever, ever, like ever, (thanks for that song Taylor Swift!) gonna happen.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Good Luck Charlie Home Inspiration

Have you seen the show Good Luck Charlie?  It's on the Disney channel and I saw it this weekend at my parents.  I know, it's a kids show, and it's been around for awhile, but I loved it!  Ava has seen it quite a bit being up at her grandparents, but this was the first time I had seen it and I loved it as much as Ava did.

In fact, I want to live in the set.  Seriously, it is super hip and full of bright colors.  It even had me googling teal cotton fabric to make another set of slipcovers.  You know, after I paint the walls white so all that color can pop!

And when I started googling images, I realized that I am not the first grown woman to obsess over this house!  I came across several blogs who had done Good Luck Charlie posts.  That makes me feel slightly better.  Although now I am sad because the only tv we get is what comes free through the antenna and so I won't be able to watch any shows!  Have to search on hulu or maybe the Disney home page to see if I can view them!

Check it out:

goodluckcharlie livingroom2 ON THE SET: GOOD LUCK CHARLIE

That couch and carpet.  Oh my goodness.  Can I say just how much I love this color?  And that look she is giving her brother is exactly the face that Ava gives Owen, and Moyz and Truitt and even, occasionally, Kembia.




I love, love the staircase.  It makes me want to paint my disgusting stairs into the unfinished basement some terrific hue, I am thinking hot pink.  And that lady on the step stool is the mother, who Ava told me is "like the coolest mom ever, she is so funky".  Now I know what level she is holding me to, and the episode we watched was how the mom was trying to bond her daughter's sports team and they almost got arrested for toilet papering a house at the mother's idea.  I refrained from telling Ava that my high school tennis team did that every fall for bonding and initiating!  You see that picture of a framed bug in the back?  That was the only thing Kembia noticed and kept talking about the bug.  At first I didn't even know what she was talking about until I finally saw it.




Check out the front of the fridge behind the guy in the right.  It has a chalkboard front.  I tried to convince Chris to let me do this before we got a new fridge, but he was all paranoid about chalk dust.  Does anyone know how much that has been in a problem for people who have done chalkboard walls, etc. in their homes?

I'm in love.  Somehow I don't think I could pull of the crazy color casual that they have going on.  For starters, I would have to spray paint most of the items of furniture in my house a different color, and I am not sure what Chris would think about that!  But, my beloved kitchen map has some great colors to go off of, don't you think?

Watercolor Map of the World Map

I am thinking teal couch, with the side dressers which are currently black to be painted hot pink, and some kind of colorful, funky drapes at the window, and crazy colored pillows balanced with some black.  Okay, I could totally pull this off!

I promised myself that I wouldn't repaint the living room until Spring and that I would live with the gray until then.  So although I am not a huge user of Pinterest, mostly for lack of time, I might have to start a Good Luck Charlie Living Room Inspiration Board!

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Afro Circus

Nope, not talking about this one


But this one:



She decided to take off her cute little skirt and shirt and put on her big brother's size 6 underwear and her little brothers sweatshirt.  She has an opinion about clothes, usually it's girly, but since we were hunting I guess she was going for more of an androgynous look.


Before- 1 year, after we cut it all off due to raging Lice infection

After- 16 months later


She calls it her "Afro Circus".  And I call her so-cute-I-just-want-to-eat-her, in a non-cannibalistic way.  Our hair routine this far into it is pretty simple.  Scrub with water mostly, occasionally wash with conditioner, and rarely shampoo.  This hair is actually after it was taken out of braids after a month.  Normally if we had washed her hair the curl is so tight that it sucks right down and is very close to her head.  I'm talking so short her hair only looks about 1 inch long.  Lately, I have been not rinsing out all of the conditioner when I use it in the bath, and after I took the braids out I used a combo of conditioner with a little olive oil mixed in and I liked that.  I try to keep her hair in braids the majority of the time, to help with breakage and aid with growth.  When pulled out all the way I bet her hair is close to 6 inches in the longest areas.

We only comb out in the shower after it has been thoroughly saturated with conditioner.  I want to try the tangle teezer but always forget to buy it when I am on Amazon.  Right now I use a pick and do a fair amount of finger de-tangling too.  We have quite a few products from cheaper stuff at Target to Miss Jessie's Baby Buttercream, love the smell, hate the price.  But I find that I mostly stick with conditioner in the tub, and then shea butter mixed with coconut oil the other times.  Kembia's hair isn't near as dry as Moyz's, but since we have kept his short it hasn't needed as much "stuff" to keep it soft.

Moyz's hair we have gone the buzz it short look.  His is still growing in and looks a little crazy if we let it go long, but I am waiting for the day when we can grow it out and start some styles on him as well.  


You have no idea how many shots it took to get this one picture. No before and after for him because his hair is actually shorter now, and that's not as exciting.

His routine is the same as Kembia's with a little more moisturizing outside the tub.  I mostly use the Baby Buttercream on him because it seems to help him more then her, and he requires much less of it since he has almost no hair.  This is hair growth after we buzzed it with the number 1 clipper attachment.  So by usual standards, this is long.  We are going to let it grow for awhile and see if his crazy spots are starting to fill in.

Don't you just want to squish their faces?

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

IKEA Botanical Chart

I caved.  Remember the IKEA botanical chart I posted last week?  Well, I couldn't stop thinking about it and went back and got it.

Seeing as my living room gray looks a little blue and the current orange-ish trim looks terrible together, I realized that my beloved copper candle holder that I made above the couch wasn't going to work because of the color and so I decided to try the chart.

Here is before:



And after:



No matter how hard I tried the IKEA picture reflected some light so everything looks just a little hazy, sorry about that.  The chart is actually made out of a plastic material and in the store I wasn't crazy about it.  In my house, outside of when you take a direct picture of it, you can't tell at all.  In fact I am in LOVE with it.  Chris came home and told me that with stuff on the walls he thinks the paint color doesn't look that bad, and even he likes the chart.

I think it looks totally fun and for a cost of $19.99 it is hands down a winner.  Especially when compared with the charts at The Evolution Store that go for almost $200.  They may be prettier, but this one still rocks.

What do you think?

PS: My rugrat child, Truitt just popped the enter key off my keyboard and lost the spring so now I can't put it back on, this should be fun.  And Owen told me that he voted for Mitt Romney at school because "he wanted to give the guy who wants to be president a chance since the other guy already did it."  That's so sweet of him, he is always, always filled with empathy.  Oh, and someone found my blog by typing in "acorn fingerprint".  Truly, I have no idea where that came from.  "Taping my children together", on the other hand, I do.

PPS: Daylight Savings Time is reeking havoc on my family.  Truitt got up at 4:45 today, and my other kidlets are getting up at least 30 minutes earlier.  We've tried keeping them up late, putting them to bed early.  I am seriously contemplating getting some melatonin and sneaking into their rooms at night and rubbing it on their necks to try and get them to sleep later.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Important Congo Article

Please, please go and read this article.  It is about an attempted assassination on a Congolese doctor who helps women and children who have been viciously raped in Eastern DRC.  I first saw it on Holly's blog: Alama ya Kitumaini.  She advocates for ethical adoption out of Congo, which is where two of our kids are from if you aren't familiar with our story.

This is the type of thing that happens all the time in Congo, and the world, for the most part ignores it.  Even the massive UN force that has been mobilized there for years hasn't been able to do much.

If you are interested further, I would suggest the book A thousand Sisters.

Product Details


PS: Today is the day- VOTE!

Monday, November 5, 2012

#$%@ People Say To Transracial Families by Rage Against the Minivan

Love this.  Clever Rage Against The Minivan and her girlfriends made this youtube video.  Check it out.



I've heard just about all of them.

And here's her website if you haven't been there yet.  Rage Against The Minivan

PS- Don't forget to vote tomorrow.  It IS important.  And take your kids even thought it might be a pain, it's good for them to see you wanting to make a difference in our country.  It drives me crazy when people complain about the government but then don't cast a vote.  I'm assuming you have an opinion on it, so vote for it!

Friday, November 2, 2012

Truitt Drank Paint

For real.  In the two minutes I was on the phone with my mom, he pulled the chair out from the table, climbed up, reached all the way across the counter, grabbed the paint in a cup (my mistake), and drank a ginormous mouthful.

Que poison control.

Apparently, this is sort of common, because the nice man I spoke to at poison control said, and I quote, "babies who drink paint generally do just fine".  This does make me feel slightly better that I am not the only moron out there who has allowed the circumstances to happen for her child to drink house paint.

Someone give me an award for keeping 5 kids alive thus far.

He must have heard how frantic I was because there were a couple of times where he chuckled.  And I am thinking this is not time to laugh,my kid drank paint.  Paint!

He also said the the hydrocarbons don't generally get absorbed by the intestine and to expect for him to have some diarrhea that is paint colored.  But that if he drank blue paint and his diarrhea is red then that is an emergency room situation.  Also, it is very common for kids to throw up in the first half an hour after drinking paint (Truitt didn't) but that if he aspirates the paint, which he said was very, very uncommon, then that would be an emergency room situation with a 911 call.

So there you go, what to do in the event that your child drinks paint.  Now go and google what a hydrocarbon is, I know you're dying to.



I stopped him just in time.  This diaper and pants were filled with poop.  But not of the I-just-ate-paint-and-now-look-what-happened type of poop.  That's to come later.

November is shaping up to be a great month.