Splish - Splash

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend.  The kiddies were a little under the weather this weekend, but still managed to get some fishing and swimming in at Grandma and Grandpa K's house.

Millie was feeling a little better this morning so after walking Noah to school we took a detour on the way home at stopped across the street for a little run through the sprinklers.

She started out just putting her hands in the sprinkles...

She was soon over her shyness and started running right through the streams of water...

By the end she was pretty soaked and had no fear in getting up close and personal with the sprayer.

She squished all the way home.

My little veggie lover!

I had to post a quick picture of Millie.  This girl will eat just about any veggie you put in front of her.  Here she is eating a piece of FROZEN broccoli...and loving it!  Sometimes I have to get creative (or desperate) to get her to stop squawking while I make dinner...

Broccoli Pops anyone?

A tasty treat!

Millie and I were running errands this morning and had a little time to spare while we were waiting for some locks to be keyed.  We stopped into one of my favorite breakfast places for a quick treat - Ann Sather.  I haven't had these cinnamon rolls in YEARS!  Jon and I used to frequent the Clark Street location (no longer there, boo) when we lived in Lincoln Park, but today we visited the Southport location.  Millie and I split one of their famous cinnamon rolls (okay, actually she had about 4 bites and I devoured the rest) and we brought one home for Jon and Noah to have for dessert tonight.  Delicious!

Millie couldn't shove her little bites in fast enough!

My challenge this week.

I am very attached to my phone.  I would not say addicted, but just very attached.   I have had an iPhone for over two years now and for those two years I have had a love - hate relationship with it. 

I love it because... 

It allows me to have so much information at my fingertips. 

I hate it because...

It allows me to have so much information at my fingertips.  

I have grown so attached to being able to check my email (personal and work), look up something on the web, find directions (gps), read blogs, etc whenever and where ever I want.

Last week I was thinking about how many times a day I check my email via my phone and how much time that probably consumes without me even realizing it.  On top of that, I do not want my children to think it is acceptable to be tied to your phone.  How bad would it be if 60 years from now someone asks them about their childhood and what they remember about their mother and they say...'Well, I remember she always had her phone.'  Well, that might be a little extreme...I'm not that bad...yet :o ) 

Anyway, on to the point of my post.  As of yesterday I have disabled the email functionality on my phone, have sworn off the internet button and no more flipping through and reading my blogs (via my phone).  For the next week, my phone will just be a phone...nothing else.

It's a Mystery to Me!

I am a T-shirt and jeans kind of girl.  Don't get me wrong, I love to get dressed up when the occasion calls for it, but on a day to day basis I am usually in my 'mommy uniform.'  I have quite a collection of T-shirts and love them all for different reasons.  Some are just your standard, plain colored T's.  Some have a unique style or neckline (those I call my 'fancy' T's... hehe). Some I use just to layer.  A few have designs - not many though, I usually like plain. But the one thing many of them seem to have in common lately are HOLES!  I don't understand it!  It has happened to so many of my shirts and I don't know what is causing it.  ALL the holes seem to be right in front  at the bottom.  Some of the t-shirts are J-Crew tissue T's so they are thinner and I can understand that they would be at a higher risk for this to happen, but not all of them are thin.  Not all the T's are old either.  I have a shirt that I have probably only worn 5 times and it already has a hole in it!

Soo before I throw them out... I thought I would ask for your thoughts on what could be causing my dilema. 

Has it ever happened to you?

Please respond in the comments if :

1.  You have any idea why I am getting holes in so many of my shirts

2.  Any ideas of how to prevent it

3.  Creative ways on how to re-use these shirts (as you can see, some of them are no longer wearable, but I hate to throw them out...)

(The shirts pictured here are older and by far the worst)

A couple of Noah's latest antics

Today:
We sat down to have lunch and Noah started talking to his hotdog.  It went a little like this:
Noah:  "Hi Hotdog, I'm going to eat you now."
Hotdog (aka Noah using his low 'hotdog' voice):  "Okay, Noah"
He takes a bite of the hotdog
Hotdog:  "Ouch, ouch!  Noah, that hurts!"
Noah:  "Sorry Hotdog"
Hotdog:  "Thats okay, but your teeth are sharp.  Do you use your teeth to talk?"
Noah:  "No, hotdog, I use them to eat!"

As he is doing this I ducked behind the counter to call Jon.  I just had to share this with him!  I was trying to whisper so Noah wouldn't hear me, but I think my giggles gave me away.  I stood up and he was sitting there with a big grin on his face.  He totally caught me.

A week or so a go:
We were in the car and both Noah and Millie were a little fidgety.  I gave Noah a book to read and Millie the DoodlePro.  Noah was then upset because (of course) he wanted the DoodlePro.  I told him he needed to wait until Millie was finished with it, and gave him a pad of paper and a pen to drawn with instead.  He took the paper, tore off a sheet and asked me to 'show him how to draw an 'X.'  This was a little strange, because I know he knows how to draw an 'X', but I did it and handed it back.  He then took the pen and started to draw a little, but soon got frustrated and said in a very stern voice..."Mommy.  I don't know how to draw Millie's face on the 'X'.  I need you to help me."  Again, giggles insued.  He has done the samething another time since then, but used a red marker to make the 'X'.  He said he was making a sign to show Millie to 'stay off his stuff.'



The sibling rivalry begins...

A.P.B!

We are having sort of a small crisis here today. Noah has lost his Lightning McQueen car. He just keeps saying... "I can't find my best pal Lightning McQueen! He usually gets 'lost' multiple times a day, but we are usually able to find him within about 10 mins of looking. This morning we have searched all over the house and haven't had any luck so far.

Please be on the lookout for him.

Description:

Hotwheels style car,

Red with a 95 on the side

No headlights

Lots of scratches and body damage...all inflicted with love, of course.

Please post a comment with any clues or knowledge of his whereabouts. I think I might go crazy if we can't find him...or I might just have to make a sneaky trip to Target!

Put-off by the Post Office

Why do I always seem to have such a hard time making it to the post office? This seems like a simple errand that everyone must do from time to time, but for me, I absolutely DREAD going. My friends never understand why it takes me months to send them a simple gift, return a book, or mail a stationery order, etc. Well, here are just a few of the many reasons I STRONGLY DISLIKE going to the post office:

Maybe it is because in Chicago a post office with a parking lot is rare if one even exsists? This means driving around the block until a meter spot opens, or someone pulls away from the always full curbside parking (loading zone), or parking blocks away and hauling both kids in through the snow, rain, wind, or whatever else Mother Nature is dumping on us that day.

Or maybe it is because the postal workers who work there are so patient, calm and friendly...NOT!

Or because it means I will be chasing Noah down while lugging the 22lb carseat in the crook of my arm and trying balance the stack of 4 packages I need to mail out.

Or because I love spending 30mins of my day waiting in line (I wish I could say 'standing in line' but... see above) no matter what time of day I go!

Or maybe I love to pay WAY too much for packaging tape because I forgot to tape the box before I left the house and of course they won't share theirs, and this is the second time I have had to buy it because I thought I would out smart them by keeping a roll in the car, but whoops...I drove a different car that day!

Now I realize some of these issues are self-inflicted, but for once, it would be nice to have a peaceful, quick, positive experience. I think the only way that would happen is if someone built a drive-thru post office...hmm...not a bad idea. If you see a 'Mailing Mama' open up in a city near you just remember you heard it here first!

Sparking Carrots??!!

Over the weekend I made Millie some diced carrots by cutting them into small cubes and simmering them in chicken stock until they were soft enough for her to mash with her little tooth-less gums (she is 8 1/2mos and still no teeth!). Today I wanted to warm them a little before giving them to her so I put them in the microwave for 11 seconds. Three seconds...yes, THREE seconds later it looked like the Fourth of July. Sparks were FLYING! Are you kidding me? I took them out quickly to see if in my usual mindless lunchtime haste I had put something metallic into the bowl, but there was nothing in there but tiny little charred pieces of carrot.

I had to bring Jon in to take a look. I just couldn't believe this. The whole purpose of me making the carrots myself was to know exactly what was in the food I would be giving my little Mills. Anyway, he couldn't believe it either.

So of course I had to get online and find out if this was 'normal' or if I had just witnessed a fluke occurence? What was going on?

Unfortunately, I was dissapointed to find no concrete answers. Everywhere I looked seemed to have a different assumption than the next, but these are the reasons I found:

From the USDA website:

"Some foods such as raw carrots and hot dogs can cause arcing while being microwaved. In hot dogs, this can be due to the uneven mixing of salts and additives. In carrots, it can be due to the minerals in the soil in which they were grown. Whatever the cause, turn off the oven immediately to end the sparks"

Some sites mention that it has to do with the higher amount of minerals (iron, magnesium and selenium) in carrots -and a few other veggies.

Others say if the carrots are cut with metal knives and have sharp edges/corners that the electrons congretate at the ends and jump from one piece to the other??

"Anecdotal evidence suggests that a cut edge of the fruit or vegetable must be present, touching that of another cut edge, for the phenomenon to occur. This phenomenon seems similar to that of the 'edge effect' where electrons congregate at the sharp edges and point of a metal in an electric field and can discharge via a spark to another edge or point nearby."

Doe anyone else think it is crazy?

Whatever the reason, it is still unnerving to me. Am I the only one who has witnessed this?

If you don't believe me, and don't have the time to experiment on your own, I found this clip on YouTube that looked EXACTLY like what happened in my kitchen today...right down the to bowl they used. Now you can experience flaming carrots without the fire hazard!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ4c-l6m5YE