My (little) movie star.

Creative licensing for this week's (week 29) p.52 weekly photo challenge theme, which is "movie party". Okay, here we go. Try to follow along.

Movie party = movie = movie stars = going incognito (or going glam) = way oversized shades (& baseball caps if going the incog route) = buddy in this picture.

Plus, he is the subject of 99% of my photos AND we haven't made popcorn in years!

ps - Those are my sunglasses, if that wasn't obvious.

Five ways to not say "no" to your kids.

Just read a good article today on "ways to avoid saying no" to your toddler. Ah, much needed advice. I often stop and think about the fact that I find myself saying "no" more than I'd like. I don't want to be a naysayer to my little guy, I just want him to be safe and sound.

But with a toddler who loves to explore and touch and feel and try everything, I'm finding myself saying no, no and no more than I care to do.

So this is a great read, and I actually found that I follow some of these tips already, mainly, #2 and #4.

I've listed the five tips and some examples below. And here is the link to the full article.

1. Steering Clear of a Difficult Situation
Anticipate; bring along stickers, crayons, etc. when going to a restaurant and move the knife away!

2. Distraction
Hey, let's line up the Sesame Street characters (instead of trying to climb atop the table).

3. Teach Them What They Can Do
If you want to hold the fork, we'll have to point it downwards and not near your eyes. 

4. Give Choices
You can hold my hand across the street or I can carry you --- let me know which you want. 

5. Use Danger Words
Stop! Too hot! Don't touch!

And, two personal add-ons;

1. Finger Wag
Sometimes, when I'm trying to teach the little guy something not to do and it's something that will come up on a regular basis, shaking my finger and showing him that it's a "no, no, no" often does help - said in a nice, sincere, calm tone.

He actually then repeats it -- just this morning, I let him walk next to me on the sidewalk, but when he wanted to get close to the curb, I did a finger wag, shaking my finger, "no, no, no, we can't go close to the cars, it's dangerous".  And then he repeated, shaking his little finger, no, no, no.

2. Stop & Ask Yourself
If you find yourself about to say "no", stop and think; "is it really a big deal?"  Sometimes, you may just realize that it's not a big deal if your kiddo is doing something or exploring.  It really just might be better to overlook and let them be!

Essie Bikini So Teeny.

Addendum to my "pedicure fun" post.

The official color of polish on my toes is Essie's Bikini So Teeny.

I'm liking it more and more - it is a lot of fun to look down and see those toes!

Essie Bikini So Teeny

Summer treats.

Little boy at a big table.

Summer treats! Yum! That's the subject of this week's (week 28) p.52 photo challenge.

We were visiting my grandma last weekend and amazingly, at 99, she is still setting out snacks and serving them to us when we visit.  The snacks usually consist of (see inset image): a small bowl of bugles (LOVE), a small bowl of Chex snack mix and her delicious bagel cookies (subject of this post). Sometimes a plate of kiwi or a dish of chocolates are part of the spread as well.

She has a specialty known as "bagel cookies" -- not sure exactly why they are called "bagel cookies", but they are. They are braided and twisted sugar-esque cookies and I grew up loving them. When my grandma used to live in Florida and would come to visit us, she'd bring dozens of bagel cookies for each of her children and present each family with a giant tinfoil package of her delicious cookies.

And now, anytime we visit, out comes a little plate of bagel cookies.  So, it was really fun when the little guy reached the age where he could taste the bagel cookies. And he loved them immediately! (I know, I should not be giving him cookies. But I find it very hard to say no to him ... but that's another post!).

So, every time we go, he happily grabs a few cookies and noshes away.  Here he is, enjoying one of his Summer Treats, aka Bubi's Bagel Cookies.

Mmmmmm.....cookie!

Pedicure fun.

Blue toes! I treated myself to a pedicure the other day and after selecting six shades of pink as my options, I decided to be a little daring* and ended up choosing light blue! Since I do not know what the name of this color is, I have nicknamed it "Thomas Blue" because it is the color of "Thomas the Train", which the little guy is loving these days.

*I typically don't get pedicures, and when I do, it always ends up being in the light pink family.

Do I like it? 

Why yes, I think I do. It's fun to look down and see happy blue toes.  But every so often, I look and think I look like I'm twelve years old. (But actually, what's wrong with that?) 

I'm already eyeing my next  color - orange!! Essie's Fear or Desire.

Essie Fear or Desire

Do you like the current array of rainbow colors that are so popular this summer?

How to entertain a toddler on an airplane.

This post is a combo of both a recommendation and my p.52 photo challenge. 

First, the photo challenge portion....kaboom is the theme (subtitle: fireworks) for this week (week 27).  Yikes I say (I do not have any pictures of fireworks).

Okay - what do I have from the 4th of July? Well, we just returned home from a fantastic trip to San Diego, and we left on the 4th of July. Which also happened to be Buddy's 22nd month birthday.  

So, a photo of Buddy on the 4th of July. En route to San Diego. Enthralled in an episode of Thomas and wearing his own special earphones, which he loved. 














Which leads me to my recommendation of how to entertain a toddler on an airplane.  Forget little toys, forget books -- too many tchatchkes and hard to bring them all along and not drop them.  One item needed. 

Portable Media Device. 

Plus, kid-friendly earphones.  I recommend Kidz Gear Wired Headphones for Kids.  

And your little one's favorite shows burned onto your media player.  Sesame Street. Thomas. Dora. Muppets. Arthur. Calliou. Toy Story. Any or all of the above.

We brought several episodes of Sesame Street and Thomas the Train along on our "portable media device" and it kept the little boy entertained almost the entire flight - there and home!  That's eight hours total.  

So, I want to write more about our trip to San Diego, but I'll keep this post shorter, since it's for the photo challenge too. Sorry my pic doesn't scream Kaboom - but it's as close to the theme as I got! 

And on a related note, the fireworks in San Diego happened to all go Kaboom at once. Twenty minutes worth of fireworks all went off at the same instant.  And it was right outside our hotel window - check it out.

Hope you all had a great 4th! 

P.52 photo challenge: week 26.

School's Out - this week's theme.

So, Buddy is too young for school and subsequently, for school to be out, but school being out sure signifies summer (cue music....school's out, for summer...).  Even though it's been hot, hot, hot (cue music again) in the midwest for quite some time now.  And hot, hot, hot means water, water, water.

The little guy is absolutely in love with water and this last weekend, we enjoyed time in every type of water there --- water tables, sprinklers and even the fountain near the local Apple store.

Here are some pics of the happy little guy enjoying some sprinkler time!  Time to play!