Owner: Much More Than A Mom URL:http://www.muchmorethanamom.com/ Join Date: Sun, 04 Mar 2007 11:02:04 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: I am a mom, yet so much more. Wife, daughter, sister, fur-baby mama, friend, teacher, geek-in-training, fitness instructor, personal trainer, workshop presenter...and I write about it all so you never know what you're going to get. Site statistics:Click here
Uh oh 2007-08-23 12:41:23 I was going to post about more recalls today, but Adrienne from Baby Toolkit did it better than I could have. Please go read her post and check your house.
“Real” post below.
Are my feet too big? 2007-08-22 23:01:19 I’m a size 9. Used to be an 8, but then my arches fell and I had a baby and I’ll never be an 8 again.
Seriously though - I’m talking about my footprint on the earth. It’s something of which I wasn’t really overly conscious until the moment we started to think about conceiving Rylan.
We have a very long way to go but we’re certainly doing our best. Though I really do try not to judge other people, it doesn’t usually work. Quite frankly, it pisses me off when people do things that are hurting the world that my babies and grandbabies (God willing) will be living in.
When it comes to the 3 R’s, we’re good at the recycling one, mediocre at the reuse one but not so good at the reduce one.
We:
-recycle everything that we can within our city’s very crappy recycling program (meaning we throw out all styrofoam or I try to use it in school craft projects).
-have switched to an in-home water purifier and stainless steel bottles (love t
Ah, work. 2007-08-29 08:16:17 So I have this fabulous job that I returned to full time this week (second best job in the world) and have an amazingly wonderful team (three of us) to work with and, though I’d always rather live a life of leisure, I love it. However, blogging? It suffers. I have eleven posts started and zero posts finished. And some amazing news about another blogger that I can hardly wait to share with you but I can’t just yet and I have to wait for the go ahead so it could be a while. I have hundreds of pictures on my camera waiting to be uploaded (my summer swap, my new hair and more - try to contain your excitement) but I just haven’t had time. Now I have to go wake the poor boy (formerly known as something else but now just “the boy” due to crazy freaky completely insane stalker types. Also the reason much of my archives are now gone.) up to give him breakfast before he goes to play with his friends at the HSBS’ house.
Leah’s back! I have had pre
Raising a tree hugger 2007-09-23 13:35:19
Yes, in the top right image he is, indeed, kissing the tree.
That’s mah boy!
Read more:Raising
Let’s Swap! 2007-09-21 20:29:39 This is a sticky post for a little while…check below for new content.
It sounds like a December swap is a go since we’ve got at least ten people - I’m so excited!
I’m thinking a “Much More Christmas” theme involving things that will help your partner feel, well…much more Christmas-y than they may usually feel at the end of November. You might send one big thing or several small things. They might be things that are special to your family or things that you think would be special to your partner’s family or even just things that are Christmas themed. It’s a nice idea to check out your partner’s blog prior to shopping to check out their taste and what their family is like (if they even have one), or ask a blogger who “knows” them.
We should all include a Christmas card which includes our blog address(es) if we are bloggers and our name if we’re not. Before that point, only I will know the pairs.
I pro
Talk to me, baby! 2007-09-20 18:41:11 We just received the boy’s 18 month Ages & Stages Questionnaire in the mail to complete between 17-19 months of age and take to his next well-visit to the health unit when he’ll receive more of the dreaded shots. (I have delayed all previous vaccinations for safety reasons but these ones are going to be almost on time - about a week or so after he’s 18 months.)
Tomorrow he will be 17 months old, which completely blows my mind. Three more months and the next one just might be here!
For the questionnaire, we had to answer whether or not he knows eight words in addition to ‘mama’ and ‘dada’ so, just for kicks, I made a list of the words he says at 17 months (minus a day).
mommy
mom
daddy
dad
Thai (one of our dogs)
puppy (dog)
Puppy (he can’t say “Mavi” and calls him Puppy)
Chloe (our cat. He used to say “Tsloe” until a couple of weeks ago.)
kitty
apple
cookie
cracker
car
outside
grandma “Gama”
gr
Success and Exhaustion, Babies and…um, more exhaustion. 2007-09-12 22:13:28 Complete randomness, but what’s a girl to do. It’s either this or don’t blog at all and I’m getting harassing emails about the latter.
Success
: I had meet the creature night tonight. That’s the night where parents come to see the freak that’s caring for and teaching their child all day. One of my mentors when I was in university called it that and it stuck. It was actually fantastic, and always is. We had a huge bbq in the gym with about 1000 people and I got to visit with lots of “my kids” from past years (which is one of my favourite things to do - I love them all). Even bigger than the success of the evening at school was the success of the evening at home while I wasn’t here. In 16 months, the BG has successfully gotten the boy to bed about two times. It’s not that he doesn’t try. He’s a very involved father but Daddy time = play time and the boy usually either gets super hyper and runs like a crazy man Read more:Babies
Weekend Review 2007-09-08 20:29:35 Time for the not-always-weekly-weekend-review…
I was sent a super cool Sanyo Katana phone and a $20 prepaid phone card on the Kajeet network to review. I was super excited to try it out with my pre-teen niece. She’s between two separate parents’ homes and 3 sets of grandparents’ homes on a regular basis and I was pumped to surprise her with it once I had set it up for her. And that’s where I was stumped.
Unfortunately, I can’t access what seems like a fabulous program because I’m Canadian. They use Sprint as their carrier and even though we have Sprint in Canada I still couldn’t access anything. So, rather than an actual review I’ll just tell you about the Kajeet service and how cool it looks from an outsider’s perspective.
It’s a pay-as-you-go only system with decent rates:
-Voice calls are $0.10/minute.
-Texts are $0.05 to send or receive.
-Pics are $0.25 to send or receive.
-RSS feeds are $0.10/text message.
- Read more:Weekend
I’m an onion, but I like to think I smell better. 2007-09-06 23:20:44 It’s been an insane first week back at school with the kiddos. I have wonderful kids and a few…mmmm…interesting ones! One little boy said to me at least a dozen times today “I had no idea that school would be so much fun!” Heh. I’m losing my voice, so it’s a good thing I don’t teach Fridays!
The boy is still loving his heaven-sent babysitter and his friends at her house. He wants to stay and play some more when I go to pick him up! It’s a day long play date with a nap in the middle and he’s so at home there. It’s wonderful! He’s such a well-adjusted kid, and I think
at least part of it is from being away from me and with such a variety of people but always being so well taken care of and feeling safe & secure. He’s talking up a storm from dusk ’til dawn, laughing all day and sleeping like a rock at night and nap time. We couldn’t ask for more.
I still have several posts on the go a Read more:onion
, better
Swappin’ 2007-09-02 13:00:11 When most of us hear the word ’swap’ we think of a strange sexual hobby (okay, maybe that’s just me) but this kind of swap doesn’t come with diseases and the scorn of those around you. I participated in a “summer swap” hosted by CPA Mom in which we had to send (and therefore would receive) a package to someone else containing items beginning with the letters s-u-m-m-e-r and within a summer theme. Here’s what I received from Amy:
It was super fun to get a package in the mail that was just for fun - thanks Amy! It was also cool to shop for someone I don’t know and snoop around her blog to find out what she might like. My recipient was Bethany at Ice Cream Mama and I sent her a summer scrapbooking themed package - thanks to Jaime for the idea! I took a picture of it but now I can’t find it but here’s what it contained:
S: Summer page header
U: “Unique” title card in summer colours
M: mango ink pad
M: ? Can&rsquo
New Head & Old Belly 2007-09-01 14:00:54 Before:
(But mostly it was in braids or pigtails because it’s too hot for me and I hate having sweaty hair on my neck.)
After:
BOB Books 2007-09-24 05:00:09 It’s another Mother-Talk book tour! I’m proud to say that I’m one of the few (20?) Mother-Talk Star bloggers meaning that I’m one of the highest rated bloggers and have first choice of the great books they represent. I’m super happy about that since reading is one of my favourite things to do. So is teaching reading, which made this tour a perfect fit for me!
This time, I’m reviewing the first set of BOB Books
, a box set of phonetic readers. My own set hasn’t arrived yet but luckily I had a friend with the box I was to review and she lent them to me. These are some great books which made their way very quickly into my classroom (I’m an early literacy teacher) and will definitely come home again (my own set, of course, when it finally arrives!) when the boy’s a little older. Hopefully they’ll be joined by the rest of the box sets too!
There’s so much to love about BOB Books (fun stuff notwithstanding). They’
When Parents Hurt 2007-10-01 22:08:31 I’ve been reading a review copy of When Parents
Hurt that I received from the publisher. Actually, I’ve been trying to read it for at least a month and finally decided to blog about it without finishing it. Hormonal and pregnant do not mix with a book about dealing with kids who don’t want any contact with you no matter how hard you tried. I couldn’t read it without bawling and worrying about the boy turning into a crack-head despite our best intentions.
That said, if you have a teen or adult child who is pulling away from you (whether you beat them, were the perfect parent or anything in between) and you need healing, this seems like it would be a great book. But my God please do not attempt to read it if you’re pregnant or aren’t in that type of situation. It’s damn near impossible.
I have tons of adorable pics to share but my laptop died a slow and painful death so I’m on a borrowed one right now and we haven’t had time to i
Weekend Review & Recap 2007-10-14 21:15:21 Weekend Review
I recently read The Little Black Book of Style and it was something completely different than what I’d usually read. It’s for people who care about being “fashionable” as opposed to “comfortable” and that’s just not me, but it was still an interesting read. For a young person going in to the world of fashion design or advertising, it would likely be a big hit. For me, it was okay. The “How to dress when…” section was interesting, but one part really pissed me off. The “How To Dress When Pregnant” section seemed like it was written by and/or for a fourteen year old who didn’t want anyone to know she was pregnant. It instructs women to wear lots of jewelery (which, of course, the guy needs to buy for you…barf) to detract attention from the belly. That part really ruined the book for me, but I can certainly see a population that would enjoy it. Want my copy? Leave a comment and let Read more:Weekend
, Recap
Updates x2 2007-10-10 08:02:45 Alright Swappers… I need your addresses asap so we can get going on this craziness! I’ll bold the participants as I receive addresses so you know that I got your email…
Rebecca at http://trenting.blogspot.com/
Deb at http://justacountrygirl.dakotablogs.com
Laura at http://lauralohr.com
Jacquie at http://dealwithitgirlsrule.blogspot.com/
Chelle at http://soodz.com/blog
You da Mom at http://youdamom.com/
Amy W at http://ashleyandaudrey.blogspot.com/
Janice at http://www.justjanice.ca/cosmogrrl
Angela at http://cpamomva.blogspot.com/
Damselfly at http://growingalife.blogspot.com
Gwen at http://leftcoastmama.net
Michelle at http://mdbeau.blogspot.com
Emily at http://www.fenicle.com/
Bitsy Parker at http://www.valuewit.com/
Tsoniki at http://mebeingcrafty.com
Me at http://www.muchmorethanamom.com/
So, Laura & Bitsy Parker…please email me your name & address as soon as possible to muchmorethanamom@gmail.com. Thanks! I hope to be able to get your sendin
What to do? 2007-10-08 05:00:06 This is cross-posted from The Opinionated Parent.
Looking for things to do with a toddler? Often, so are we! We’ve been looking for great sites full of activity ideas for kids between the ages of 1-3 and we think we’ve found some that aren’t too shabby. Some are blatantly obvious and others are rather creative. Many are great variations of things that I do in my classroom and have been simplified for the younger set. The boy is 17 months old and has yet to watch TV so we’re often looking for creative ways to entertain him and the internet is an ever growing resource.
I define “baby/infant” as newborn to 1, “toddler” as 1-3 years old, “preschooler” as 3-5 and 5 & up as “school aged.” However, it seems many “toddler” ideas are completely inappropriate for kids under 3. Use these ideas with your parental instinct at hand. Obviously you aren’t going to play with marbles with an 18 month
Happy Turkey Day! (and I got a new camera! Wheee!) 2007-10-07 21:19:05 It’s Canadian Turkey
Day aka Thanksgiving today and we’re rolling around on the floor with stomach cramps from overdoing it on delicious goodies.
We had a meal with the BG’s dad last night and with my whole family at the BG’s mom’s place tonight. Last night was ham, mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables and DQ blizzard cake, and it was fantastic. Tonight was the traditional meal we have on every holiday and my absolute favourite. Turkey, stuffing, gravy, ham, mashed potatoes, cabbage rolls, salads, sweet potato casserole (a la my mom), carrot turnip casserole (a la my mom), buns, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, fresh fruit…and that’s after a huge lunch at my parents place of french toast with blueberry sauce & back bacon.
Now you know why my stomach hurts! Good thing I’ve got this baby to make the fat look nice and hard for another couple of months.
I’m 28 weeks pregnant all of a sudden and I have no idea how that happen Read more:Happy
Deceptively Delicious? 2007-10-19 05:00:50 I’m the first to admit that I don’t use cookbooks. I copy recipes that I like at restaurants, see on tv or taste elsewhere by making them up myself and they’re often better than the original. Not because I’m a great cook but because they contain things that I like! If I really need a recipe, I get it from the internet. I use recipe books so rarely that I recently gave away 30 when I moved because I couldn’t foresee using one any time soon. However, I was an easy convert when I received Deceptively Delicious
by Jessica Seinfeld. (Yes, she’s married to Jerry.)
It’s a book full of simple ways to sneak vegetables into your kids’ food. Like pureed cauliflower in scrambled eggs. Who’da thunk? I consider myself very creative in the kitchen and I’d never have thought of that one. My son is a fruit & veggie kid, but I know there will come a day when I need to perform these sneaky maneuvers so I’m grateful to have s
The weird just keeps getting larger. 2007-10-16 19:20:32 Shamelessly stolen from That Chick Over There…
1. What kind of SOAP is in your bathtub right now?
Kiss My Face Organics - green tea and lime I think.
2. Do you have any watermelon in your refrigerator?
Yes, and I think it’s getting old.
3. What would you change about your living room?
I’d tear out the carpet and put in bamboo.
4. Are the dishes in your dishwasher clean or dirty?
Clean, thanks to the BG. The counter is covered in dirty ones though.
5. What is in your fridge?
Leftover Indian food, subs for lunch tomorrow, lots of yogurt & milk, condiments…you know the deal.
6. White or wheat bread?
Whole wheat with lots of seedy goodness.
7. What is on top of your refrigerator?
Three lunch boxes.
8. What color or design is on your shower curtain?
Ours is a frosted glass door in our ensuite. The boy’s bathroom has a white one and the downstairs bath doesn’t have one yet.
9. How many plants are in your home?
Exactly zero. I killed them all. I Read more:keeps
A year and half… 2007-10-22 22:54:03 For three days I was wondering where the hell you went…and then I realized this post was tagged as ‘private.’ Oops!
Dear (best little boy in the world),
You’re 18 months old and your daddy and I can hardly even believe it! It’s been 6 months since my last formal letter to you and now that I’m trying to remember everything to record it here I realize what a bad idea “just twice a year after the first birthday” was. Quarterly letters would be a better idea and I’ll try to remember that from now on. (Don’t hold me to it, but I promise to do my best.)
In the last 6 months…
-You’ve gone from taking your first independent steps the night before you turned one to running everywhere and only stopping to sleep.
-You’ve cut your 15 month molars on top & bottom and have been working on both eye teeth and 2 year molars - neither of which will show their damn faces already so you continue to suffer intermitte
Is there really anything you don’t know about me yet? 2007-10-29 05:00:30 Some of this may not be a surprise to any of you. After blogging for over three years there isn’t too much I haven’t told you at one time or another. However, Tsoniki tagged me for the oldie but goodie 7 things meme and in the name of good manners I’m going to try. And since much of my archives were deleted when the freaks were stalking y’all, maybe you don’t know some of this?
Seven Things You Might Not Know About Me
1. We do not have a boy name chosen for this baby. If it’s a girl we’re all set because it will have the girl name from last time. We’re struggling. Suggestions? (It can’t start with B, we’d prefer two syllables and it can’t be stupid.)
2. I can do a back bridge from standing and I couldn’t when I was a kid. Or maybe I never tried? Either way, it’s probably pretty freaky to see a big pregnant woman do it but I can! I have to lower to the ground to get up though. How badly do you wan Read more:anything
Weekend Review(s) 2007-10-27 18:46:36 It’s a four-fer-one deal! (#4 added while my kid was screaming and I needed a break.)
1) SquidSoap.
We use only organic/natural soaps in our house so I took this soap to my classroom where the kids wash their hands multiple times each day. I explained that they had to pump the soap themselves in order to get “inked” by the squid (I usually squirt it into their hands) and that they had to wash until the ink spot was gone. Most of them were very excited to try it, but one cried because he didn’t want ink on his hand. At least half of them had a hard time pushing the pump hard enough to get the soap out so they needed me to push down on their hand. By the sixth child, the rubber ring surrounding the ink pad had fallen off. I didn’t notice any difference when we were pumping it with dry hands, but when used wet the ink began to run all over everything. It came off easily, but the pump still needs some kind of a redesign. The whole concept behind SquidSo Read more:Weekend
Give Me Something Good To Eat 2007-11-01 20:53:00 Everything except the costume was a hit this year. From the moment I started to put it on, he told me “All done,” so I just got a few pictures like this:
and then he just wore his Happy Halloween shirt for the rest of the day.
He carved his first jack-o-lantern and loved everything except the guts. He loved shouting “Puhkin!” and pointing out it’s various facial features. His babysitter made him a caramel apple that was the highlight of his day. (Don’t worry, I scraped most of the caramel off first but am now going to put much of his fruit on sticks!) He even took it into the bathtub with him and we had to pry it from his hands to brush his teeth at bedtime. All in all it was a pretty great day!
Baby #2 had his or her first costume on too:
We hope you all had a fabulously spooktacular day!
(I got put on sick leave today so I’m officially a stay at home mom again…
for another 14 months anyway.)
You’d never know he nursed voraciously for 13 months. 2007-10-31 05:00:36 “Uh Oh. Ball!
Where ball go?
Ball please!
Uh Oh. Ball!”
That’s what my kid keeps saying as he pulls down my shirt to see what the two big bumps are, and then proceeds to try to pull them off to play with.
Anticipation… 2007-10-30 05:00:07 Remember when I reviewed The Dangerous Book for Boys? Well, I’m currently working on a review of The Daring Book For Girls and loving it!
You’ll have to wait until Nov. 23 for my review but in the meantime I recommend that you check out the vid and the book’s website.
Have a daughter? A niece? A girl you think is cool?
Buy it. Don’t wait for my review. It’s that good.
Read more:Anticipation
Dear Santa… 2007-11-06 04:00:03 Around here the holiday season begins as soon as Halloween ends. (The BG doesn’t agree with me, but that’s when I say it starts and I’m the decorator!)
We wanted to make sure Santa
got the boy’s letter on time, so we wrote it yesterday. Christmas letters and labels are all I can do while I wait for our damn basement to get finished so I can get to my Christmas bins in the garage. Only six days into November and I’m already starting to get bitter about it! I love my sparkly silver tree (decorations, not branches) and am itching to get it set up! I need to sip cider and watch the lights twinkle as I sit in front of the fire in the evening.
(Speaking of which, have you started shopping for the Much More Christmas Swap? I have!
Dear Santa
,
Merry Christmas! Did you notice my new address at the top of this letter? We moved to a bigger house this summer because I’m getting a brother or sister for Christmas! We’ll be at home this year because my mo
Dear Santa… 2007-11-06 04:00:03 Around here the holiday season begins as soon as Halloween ends. (The BG doesn’t agree with me, but that’s when I say it starts and I’m the decorator!)
We wanted to make sure Santa
got the boy’s letter on time, so we wrote it yesterday. Christmas letters and labels are all I can do while I wait for our damn basement to get finished so I can get to my Christmas bins in the garage. Only six days into November and I’m already starting to get bitter about it! I love my sparkly silver tree (decorations, not branches) and am itching to get it set up! I need to sip cider and watch the lights twinkle as I sit in front of the fire in the evening.
(Speaking of which, have you started shopping for the Much More Christmas Swap? I have!
Dear Santa
,
Merry Christmas! Did you notice my new address at the top of this letter? We moved to a bigger house this summer because I’m getting a brother or sister for Christmas! We’ll be at home this year because my mo
Just words? 2007-11-05 10:20:16 After hearing it not less than 20 times a day for 18.5 months and having us beg him to say it back (which I know he could do because he now has well over 100 words and can copy pretty much anything)…
The BG was standing in the kitchen getting breakfast this morning and the boy looked over at him and said with a huge smile,
“Daddy! Love you!”
And hasn’t said it since. Stinker.
Renos Suck Butt 2007-11-03 13:35:09 Some ideas, if you will…
1. We tore the carpet off our stairs and replaced the floor, but now have gross glue covered stringers to clean up and paint. What would you use to get the glue off? A scraper? Just sand like hell? Wanna come do it? Because I really really don’t want to.
2. We need to do moldings & baseboards, doors and other finishing crap within the next few months. Suggestions to make it easier? Do we need to buy/rent a nail gun? Will my staple gun’s nailing function work?
Big Box Mart 2007-11-09 23:28:00 In light of all the toy recalls, here’s some weekend viewing for you.
Support the little guys. We recommend some great ones over here. An extra buck or two could save your kid from lead (or freaking date rape drug) poisoning and someone else’s kid from working in a factory all day to make your Big Box Mart and Dollar Store crap.
Hopping off my soap box now. For a little while, anyway.
;-)
So, are you shopping at WalMart for your kids Christmas presents this year? Online? Small local suppliers? How are you going to make sure they’re not loading up on lead? Or GHB? Have you tried the home lead testing kits? Are you remaining in staunch denial? Do tell.
If you can’t guarantee me it’s safe and natural, it’s not going to be found in my house. Frankly, it’s just not worth it.
(My kid? Needs NO toys. We have a garage full of things for him and three toy boxes full in the house. I’ve started getting rid of stuff just to make some ro
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