Neighborly Vibes

I spent some time this evening outside with my little Miss No-No while she played with our neighbor's son. The two of them are really close and they get along very well. I am sure they would get along no matter what - - both of them are very easy going and they both have great, friendly dispositions. However, they are only two months apart...so his momma and I were both pregnant with our (only) babies at the same time. We are able to share a lot about development, being good parents, and just funny stories, while each thing we have to say is relevant to the other's life. It's very cool and very awesome.

ANYWAYS....the little ones were out playing today and our neighbor's son was out with his Dad. We talked the whole time we were outside and then we were walking back to our houses (and the dad walks us to our door since it's usually dark by the time we are done and our house is on the way to his). Mr. No-No was waiting outside for us to come back. We stopped to say good night and he said to us, "I am so thankful for our children who are so beautiful and great to have. And, I feel blessed that they bring us out of our shells a little bit so we get to know each other better"!

Ah! That gave me such a great feeling inside - - and that's how I feel, too!

It's so awesome to have my little Miss No-No and I love all the things that she brings into my life, but those two sentences explain all that feeling in just a few words!!! Amazing how saying something soooo soooo simple can encompass sooooo sooo many things in my heart.

Now go hug your babies!

Or, wait, maybe you should wait until they are out of bed! Hahahhaha! :)

More later! :)

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Miss No-No's 4th Tea

Miss No-No turned FOUR earlier this month. Every year, to celebrate, we take her out for "high tea". It's something special for her to look forward to and something special that I can do with her to celebrate each annual milestone. I like having a tradition where we always do the same things every year just for her.

This year, we went to the Vintage Tea Leaf in Long Beach, CA. It was very nice and very up-scale. They even happily accommodated my vegan sandwich requests!

Miss No-No had PB&J with Pooh Bear Honey Hot Chocolate. The coolest thing was that when we walked in, they let us pick out our own tea cups!

Miss No-No had a great time and me and my mom enjoyed ourselves as well.

If you are looking for a place in the Long Beach area to celebrate something special, I suggest you run in and check this place out. The service is awesome, the food is good, and the decor is outstanding. Since this has been our 4th high tea, I can tell you, it's one of the best places that we have been to so far!

What are some special traditions that you have in your family?

Please stop by and visit the giveaway post to read about the review and giveaway where we are co-hosting a giveaway with Sarah from Shaklee. We will have two winners and the giveaway ends June 1st.

More later! :)

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What are you Reading Friday

 I have been taking Miss No-No to the library ever since she was born. We go every week! Even when we are on vacation, we usually make a stop at a local library (even if we don't check anything out). When she was little, we would go on Fridays because they had a baby and Mommy-play program in the mornings. Now, she is too old for that, and she would rather be at preschool on Friday mornings, so now we go Thursdays after school. She really loves it and it's something that she looks forward to. She always picks out books, she knows where her "section" is, and she usually spends some time doing puzzles, talking to other kids (or just watching them), and then helping me check out the books using the self-check machine.I think it is a great way to foster her love of books (and reading!) and to let her see that I also use the library regularly.
I used to always buy books, but after Mr. No-No and I got married, we quickly realized that ALL of our books were just too many for our little place. We downsized and now I go to the library. We still have some books (and I have my cookbooks), but going to the library means that we have a huge place to 'store' all of 'our' books when we aren't actively using them....which means more space for us at home!I have been reading a lot of fiction lately, but (very) recently have decided that maybe I should be spending my time more wisely (ah, yes, grasshopper!).Here is my take home from the library today:
 
 

• The Social Media Bible by Lon Safko and David K. Brake - Tactics, Tools & strategies for Business Success
• Enough Already by Peter Walsh - Cleaning Mental Clutter to Become the Best You
• the creative family by Amanda Blake Soule - simple project and activities for you and your children
• The Ice Cream Maker by Subir Chowdhury - An inspiring tale about making quality the key ingredient in everything you do

I got two of these suggestions from Katy Wolk-Stanley's blog, the Non-Consumer Advocate, which I love A LOT. But, since we go to the library every week and since I am working on more constructive endeavors, I have decided that I will try to post my weekly take-home from the library.

Maybe you will be inspired and, hopefully, you will give me some ideas about books that you have read (about anything). Maybe I will pick up something new courtesy of you!

In light of all that:

What are your favorite kinds of books to read?

What are you reading right now?

What is your all time favorite book?

Do you buy your books or do you borrow them from the library?

I am interested in what you have to say, so please don't be shy. Share with me and let's encourage each other to grab a new book and read a little bit more - - even if it's fun fiction!!! :)

More later!!  :)

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The Weekend of Firsts

It rained again (!) most of this past weekend!! We spent a lot of time inside, but I also got a lot of cooking done!

I made a potato and leek soup, a raw "tuna" salad for lunches during the week, a big salad, and vegetable broth (with my vegetable scraps from the past month or so). This broth is so easy, fast, and cheap(!) compared to any dried bullion that you would buy at the grocery store. It's flavorful and has no preservatives, no coloring, no animal products, and no extreme amount of salt. To get ready to make the broth, I take all the vegetable peelings and cuttings (except for broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower) and put them in a large Ziploc bag and freeze. Every night, I just add more peelings to the bag - which is nice because I am completely using alllll parts of the veggies that I use, which is just more value for my grocery dollar - and when the bag is full, it's time to make broth!

Vegetable Broth

Scraps from vegetable peelings and cuttings

Enough hot water to fill a 6 quart stockpot (with veggies already in the pot)

3 or 4 whole garlic cloves

1 tsp. kosher salt

3 dried bay leaves

20 peppercorns

1 tsp. each dried parsley, oregano, and thyme

Bring the water and veggie peelings to a rapid boil. Add remaining ingredients. Cover and simmer the broth for about one hour. Turn the heat off, take the lid off and let cool for approximately 1/2 to 1 hour. Strain broth into containers (and ice cube trays) and freeze for later use.

Miss No-No also got to wear her new Rapunzel hair clip that I mentioned a few posts ago.

I also taught Miss No-No how to make "Ants on a Log". Which was funny because she's only had them once before!! But, she never MADE them herself before and she really enjoyed it. She likes to do things in the kitchen, which, of course, makes me happy. Creating brings me a lot of joy, and I hope that she can find joy in some creative endeavors as well!

 

 

Who would have known that almond butter, celery, and raisins could be soooo much fun?? :)

We also went for sushi (vegan!) on Friday night and frozen yogurt on Sunday ~ she had never had either of those either! So it was a weekend of firsts for her.

Thanks for your comments on my last post about the Indian-Inspired soup. I really enjoyed making - and eating - that one!

When it's cold outside, if you stay inside, what kinds of things do you do? What keeps you busy?
Are you letting your little ones cook / make treats for themselves yet? What do you trust them to do?

More later! :)

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What's Your Personality Type?

I spent the day today being busy, busy, busy.

Took Miss No-No to Tar-jay (french for Target! hahaha) to get new flops. Her ones from the Disney store are so so cute, but were giving her blisters whenever she wore them for more than five minutes because the straps are plastic. These new ones from Target were only $6.99 and the straps are made from cloth and the insides are padded! What a great deal for the price - - and no more blisters to tend to. They also have a strap across the back so that she won't slip out of them when she runs (which also causes bloody knees, as we have learned!).

Of course, they are purple AND glittery!

We also went to Michael's to pick up felt to make her a Rapunzel ponytail holder that I saw in Family Fun magazine. What little girl ISN'T obsessed with the blond tower-bound princess right now???

Thanks to the answers from my last post about Hummus and your favorite snacks! Pamela from Thoughts of Pamela suggested that I try the Snacks Personality Test - which was a fun way to test what your personality is based on your preferred snack. Thanks, Pamela! According to the test, I am smart and ambitious. Well, hey! These are the kind of tests that I like!!! ;)

If you took the test, tell me, how did you score / what is your personality?

You could probably get lost on this website, they have allll kinds of personality tests!

What are your favorite go to / must buy items at Target?

Do you have another (run-in and buy-it and get-out) store that you prefer more?

I look forward to hearing what you all have to say!

More later!! :)

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IKEA Review

Hahahahha! Just kidding! This is NOT a review of IKEA - especially since everyone knows what it is. But, it could be a review through the eyes of Miss NoNo. We took her to IKEA twice before, but I guess that she didn't remember it!!!

This time, she had so much fun running around, trying things out (the chairs, the beds, the dressers!). I think she was just stunned that we were in a place where she could actually touch and play with anything (in the kid's department). She kept telling us, however, that she wanted to go downstairs.... to the playroom.... which is really funny since she didn't see it coming in and she told us that she didn't remember ever having been there before!!! Last time we were there, I couldn't bear to let her go in - - since the parents can't go in with the kids, I was too uncomfortable leaving her there...

(I know, I know - I am TRYING to not be a helicopter parent....but, since she is my only baby, I tend to be (slightly!) OVER protective....sigh!)

Anyways, this time, she looked big enough to hold her own with the other kids in there - they all looked about the same age. Evidently, judging from the length of the line of parents ready to drop their kids off - and the excited kids - the IKEA "playground" is a regular occurrence for some of them. I suppose when it rains, it's a great place to go. And, why I never thought of it on my own before is beyond me. :)

Miss NoNo ended up making friends with the little girl in line behind us and that was the end of that. They were inseparable from the time they got in there.

(Yes...I did stand at the glass and watch for about 10 minutes - - just to be SURE she was  okay - lol)

The whole set up is cool - they have play stations and a ball area and just lots of little things to keep kids entertained. You can leave your kids for an hour (provided they are a certain height and are potty trained), and they take their shoes (no roughhousing?), and then give you a beeper. If they need you to come back before the hour, they beep you to come back. Also, they took my ID, they had me write down my address (in case of an emergency), and they put a label with her name on the back of her dress (also in case of an emergency). The coolest thing was that since I checked her in, no one else can check her out. Makes me feel very safe. And it's all enclosed - - no one out, no one in unless they go through TWO locked 1/2-door things.

When we were done and went to pick her up, they used a megaphone to call her back up to the counter. They had to call her three times....She never came up...They finally asked me what she was wearing and sent someone to go look for her!!! She was just sitting and talking to two or three other kids. I guess she wasn't ready to come back to adult-land.  :)

Oh, yeah - we picked out a cool new bed for her with a canopy / net thing to go over it, new sheets, and a new rug...and a full length mirror for her room!! (Mr. NoNo thinks that she has outgrown her Dora bed.)

Although, I did ask her last week if she wanted a new bed....She told me that yes, she did, but she would be keeping her Dora bed, in her room, too!! Hahahaha

More later!!! :)

New Camera

Still having a blast with the new camera! Unfortunately, it's a lot different than my old point-and-shot. There are TONS of buttons and settings. I have read through the owners manual and my mom even got me a book about photography, but (sigh!) there is so much to learn! It's difficult because I read about something, but am not actually in a position to try stuff out when I am reading. I am getting "book" smart, but not actually camera smart!
In light of all that, I have signed up for a photography class! Whooohooohoooo. It's a two hour class - one hour is classroom instruction and going over all the functions of the camera and the following hour is spent at a local beach, learning HOW to use the camera and the buttons. I am looking forward to some hands on learning and really world experience. Hopefully, it translates into better and more creative picture taking!!

Here are some of the pictures that I have taken recently. Although they have come out really clear and look nice, I would love to be able to do something that is more creative and a bonus would be able to take pictures that are truly able to capture everything - the environment, my daughter's enjoyment at whatever she is doing, her reactions, and the entire scene....so that someone who isn't there (or maybe even her in 10 years) can look at the pictures and REALLY get a feel for what's going on....but, I suppose, that is every photographer's goal!!!

..She's really not a devil..or a terror....lol....she just likes to pose like that - and I love to take pics of her being HER!!!!

More later!! :)

Valentine's Day 2011

Happy V-Day!!
Spent some time last night with Miss NoNo finding places to hide kisses for Daddy.  :)  We "hid" them in:

• his underwear, sock, and t-shirt drawers
• in his shoes
• in his lunch bag
• by the front door
• in the dryer
• in his bathroom drawer
• on his nightstand
• in the refrigerator: in the fruit drawer, in the eggs, next to the milk, and on top of his pre-made (for lunch) sandwich
• and one on top of the trash can

You would have thought that the kisses were for Miss NoNo herself as excited as she was!! Mr. NoNo told me later that she kept telling him, "there is something for you hidden somewhere, but I can't tell you where because it won't be as much fun". This morning, the excitement overwhelmed her, I guess. She kept telling Mr. NoNo - you need to look in the eggs now, don't forget to look in the eggs. Hahahaha.

I also made a little "basket" for Miss M - two preschool activity books, Disney Princess pens, window markers, and a squeezable applesauce container that she can put in her lunch one day this week! She didn't see it before I left for work. But, after the chocolate high (from school) slows down, I'm sure she will be telling me all about it!!!

Tonight, I am making a special VDay dinner: Homemade (!) gnocchi with red sauce, a simple salad, mushroom crostini (as an appetizer while dinner finishes) and rosemary apple turnovers for dessert!!! Yum! My plan is to have the tarts cooking while we eat dinner and then pull them out and serve after a little bit. (The turnovers are a treat for Mr. NoNo who had something like that at a restaurant last month and was still talking about it a couple of days later!)
I will share the pics and the recipes later this week!!!

This was the most fun I have had on Valentine's Day in years!!
More later!! :)

February? Already?

Feels like Christmas was just here and gone....I can't believe it's ALREADY February!!!! AAACCCCKKKKK....The time is flying by tooooo quick.
We have been having so much fun, I hardly know where to start! Miss NoNo has been hanging out with her friends and having lots of fun (seems like LOTS of kids that she knows were born in December and January!).
For Christmas, I got a new Nikon D5000 - wow! Can't believe that Mr. NoNo bought that for me. BUT, I have to say - I am sooo happy with it - it takes the greatest pics and I have been having a lot of fun playing around and learning how to use it..... As evidenced by the pictures below!!!

...and this is just early December!!! Now that I have learned how to download AND edit the pics, I will be able to share!!

More later!!! :)

Santa Barbara Weekend

We spent Saturday in Santa Barbara - it was a Girls' Weekend!! :) Me, my mom, Miss No-No, a few of my aunts and all of my girl cousins were up there for the day.

We went for lunch, a long walk, and shopping. We saw a concert in front of the Borders (wow! they should do that at MY Borders!!!), we looked at flowers, watched a wedding procession file out of a church, and ran in the rain. But, the highlight of the day, for the little ones at least, was this crazy park that has a castle structure with catwalks, hidden stairways, and secret hiding spots. We could have gone up there, gone to the park, played until Miss No-No couldn't take it anymore, and then driven all the way home and she would have loved it just the same - lol!!!

More later!!! :)

Halloween Night

I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe Halloween!!! We had so much fun!! This is the first year that I took Miss No-No trick or treating!! There was a street by our house where all the businesses handed out candy and that's where we went. It was nice and fun to see everyone in costumes (even a lot of the parents dressed up - but, obviously, I didn't). But, free candy = crowded streets - lol. Everyone was out. You would have thought you could only get candy for free and only on Halloween the way some people were lined up...but, it was during the day and safe, so it was easy on everyone.

As we were walking to the street with the businesses, I saw one house that already had a basket of candy out so I told Miss No-No to go up and see what was in the basket. She walked right up there, looked in, saw that there was candy, looked back at me, and reached in and just took ONE. She got back to the street, and kept checking in her pumpkin basket. Then, she looked up at me and she said, "Mom, if you see another one of those baskets, you let me know, okay?"

I was worried that she would be intimidated by the crowds, or by the people that she didn't know, or by the scary costumes, because she is only THREE, but she seemed fine!! There was even one guy that was really tall with a costume that was a little bit scary - I was trying to steer her around the guy, but she caught a glimpse of him and wouldn't stop staring.... She ended up walking right up to the guy and telling him that she liked his costume!!

After we hit like the third business, and she had four of five pieces of candy, we were walking towards the next one, she told me, "I just love this trick or treating thing." It was so cute and made me feel so glad that I had taken her down to do it and be a part of it. When we got home, she went through all the candy and was passing it out to us (I think she may have thought if she shared it, I would let her eat a lot of it!). But she had fun and I am so glad that she did!

Earlier in the day, we did pumpkin carving. I know, I know, late....but, our pumpkins rot if they are left out for a week, so we decided to just do them the morning of Halloween. We had Miss No-No help pull out the seeds, and she kept telling us, "It's sooo gooooooey!"

More later!! :)

SnapShot Day at the Library

Yesterday was snapshot day at the Dana Library! Since we go in every Thursday, we know the librarian (not her name or anything, but she always says hello to Miss NoNo and usually has some comment for her about how nice her hair looks or something like that). Yesterday, she came up to me and asked me if she could take Miss NoNo's picture to use to promote the library. She said that she doesn't know if the picture would actually get used but that she was supposed to take a couple of pictures of kids who come in a lot and then someone else would make the final decision about which pictures get used. I was a little conflicted at first, but then figured if it's just for the library, there can't really be too much harm done.
ANYWAYS - she took the picture and she just sent it to me this morning!
I am so proud of my little one!! She actually smiled *and* kept her eyes OPEN at the same time.
...I couldn't help but share.....

More later!  :)

Whale Watching

Took Miss NoNo whale watching this weekend! We talked about it for days before, I showed her pictures on the Internet, out of nowhere, she would ask me questions about it. She was soooo excited.

So we got ready (packed lunches, snacks, drinks) and went out to get on the boat. She saw a couple of dolphins in the distance and then we really started to move away from the shore.

Once the boat got out in the open water, it started rocking a bit more. I had her sitting on a spot in between my legs and she just kept getting heavier and heavier.

I guess the rocking finally lulled her to sleep!!! LOL! She didn't wake up until we started coming back in towards the harbor...

Now we will just have to go again!

Fortunately (for her), I guess whale-watching season is actually over. All we saw were dolphins. They were beautiful - at one point, I looked out and could just see the mommas and babies jumping out of the water together (everywhere!). It was very magical.
Maybe next time, Twinkletoes will get to see it, too!
More later!  :)

We are a Bottle Free Family!!! :)

Busy, busy this week!
Hoping to have another tutorial up by this weekend!

We are FINALLY a bottle free household - yay! I told Miss NoNo that she could leave her bottles for the "bottle fairy"...we would put all the bottles in a bag by the bed and in the middle of the night, the bottle fairy would come to take the bottles and give them away to babies that needed bottles still - and! - the fairy would leave her a bag full of presents. I thought that we would have a problem with the whole thing, but she took to it like it was no problem at all. We set it all up Sunday night and I traded out the bottles with some books, stickers, Dora stick on earrings, a Dora ring, and some new clothes. She was SOOOO excited in the morning...Well, initially, she forgot about it all, but she also forgot to ask for a bottle. About an hour after she got up, she remembered! She was happy all day yesterday. I did hear her ask Mr. NoNo for a bottle this morning, but when he reminded her about the bottle fairy, she asked if she could have a sippy cup....Whoo!
We may have to have an intervention with the "sippy cup fairy" in a couple months, but I am happy the bottles are now a thing of the past....Since she is 3 and all....  :)

On another note, Miss NoNo has been saying a lot of funny things to me lately:

• She told me that if I couldn't find something maybe it was because the "house fairy" came and took it because I didn't put it away
• She told me one day that I needed to wait patiently for my turn
• She told me that she would let me know when I could help her with something
• She told me that she doesn't like walking, she likes to be pushed in the stroller
• ...and she told me that she is having a party tonight and inviting all her friends over

Lol - what else can I say? hahahaha!
More later!
:)

Bike Riding Adventures

Went to the park last Sunday to just run around - and again this past Sunday for some bike riding fun with the new Dora bike!! :) Miss M loved it. We went to El Dorado Park and they have this little roundabout at the end of the "street". We actually drove around that thing for probably 1/2 an hour - - and she just had so much fun. She did fall down once - she was turning around too fast and she just tipped over. At first, I thought that she was going to cry, she was a bit shaken up, but turns out that's all it was - - I brushed her off and asked her if she was done or if she wanted to get back on and keep going...and she wanted to get back on!! Yay! Next time, we will have to try a park that has more actual trails so that we have somewhere to go instead of around in circles...
Afterwards we went to lunch at the Factory - - I was disappointed...I have been waiting to go to this place for MONTHS and it really wasn't all that great....Although, I think I would probably go back again just to give it one more chance - - and the fact that not only did they have kids menus, but had peanut butter and honey (!) sandwiches on their menus scores extra points with me - - lol.

Also tried to continue my weekend crafting adventures, but I got caught up with being at the park all morning - - hahaha. I did start making a TeaRoseHome ruffle tee that I was really excited about. However, I sewed the first row of ruffles and realized that it didn't look right. I took all the stitches out to re-do it and decided that maybe I should spend some time doing other things (that NEEDED to be done) and then re-visit the tee when I have more time....And since that probably won't happen until next Friday, I guess I will just have a new shirt to wear on the weekend!!!
More later! :)

Miss M can do it by herself

Had the busiest weekend! Friday morning, Miss M had to go to the dentist - I noticed that her top teeth seemed more yellow than the bottom ones (which were nice and white) and I was concerned - no amount of brushing seemed to get her teeth whiter! We ended up getting to the dentist's about 40 minutes early so (even though we had already had breakfast) we went over to Eggs, Etc. - this restaurant across the street. This place is so packed on the weekends that there is a line to get in. SN and I have always talked about eating there, but never have, so since we had the time to spare, we walked over there and got a bite to eat. I was just planning on having something small but I ended up getting potatoes with tortillas (and ate almost all of it) and Miss M got pancakes with fruit (and at all of that!). Then we went over to see Dr. D. We had been talking about the dentist every day for over a week - how it doesn't hurt, it's not Dr.D's job to make people hurt, how it's good for her teeth, how her friends all go, etc., etc. - but, I wasn't sure how it was gonna go once we actually got in there! But, she was spectacular! She sat on my lap on the chair, we leaned back together and she was great. The dentist and hygenist both said that they couldn't believe that she did such a good job (since the time before she had ended up crying and they hadn't been able to do anything but check her teeth for a minute). They ended up giving her a toothbrush, stickers, and a braclet (which she promptly lost!), but it all means that next time we go to the dentist, it will be something that she looks forward to! Yay! After school, I told her that as a treat we could go anywhere that she wanted to go....so we ended up on the merrygoround at the mall (lol!). I keep telling her that I will put her on there by herself and just let her go (but I haven't done it yet). This time, she told me that she could do it, so I was about to get off and then the operator started the ride, so I just stepped back a couple of feet (which was probably better than me actually getting off!). After a minute or so, she looked at me and she said - Mommy, I CAN DO THIS! I can do it by myself! Ahhhh! She was so proud of herself and so in awe that she didn't need me to hold her and, I think, that she wasn't scared. Could my heart get any bigger???
More later!
:)

busy bees

We have been so busy lately - - running here, doing this, and seeing everything!!! Here's a re-cap of what we have been doing:

singing and taking pictures (!) in the car,

drinking coconut water at a new restaurant

doing too much shopping at Target

and LOTS of dancing, changing into ballet clothes, talking about dance classes, and posing for the camera!
More later!
:)