Halloween Primer

(Three posts in one day!? What's going on?)

Tips for Potential SAHDs

If you're considering being a full-time dad, the writer behind the blog 'dadventure' has some tips that I thought I'd pass along.

Things to Come

I've recently had a bunch of ideas for posts, but I've not had the chance to write them up. I thought I'd offer you a preview of what to expect in the upcoming week(s).

Diplomacy - It's been a long time since we've talked about my favorite game, all the way back to the tournament, where I decided to take a break for a while.

Gmail - I've had the opportunity to try out Google's web-email setup, and I think I really like it. It's weird, not having folders, but they have things that give me new ways to sort email, and that's a good thing. We'll see how this goes.

Parenting Tools - There are a few 'things' that make my parenting easier, and I want to share them.

Webspace Change - I'm considering changing from OpenAppleDumb to something else, and I hope to do it rather soon (in the next month). OAD never really became what it was going to be, and the name doesn't really make sense anyway, no matter how much I like the sound of it.

We Need Mittens (good thing we have'em)

I think it's just easier to put up some pictures than to form recognizable streams of thought right now, so you're getting lots of pictures, and not many words. I don't suppose most of you mind.

I promise that there will be more pictures of Henry in the near future. Right now he spends most of his time in the wrap, strapped to my chest, so there's not many chances to take pictures of him.

Toledo Library

I remember walking around in the children's area of the Toledo library before I had children. I remember thinking, "I will take my children here." It's such a great place, with an aquarium, a toddler room, lots of interesting things hanging on the walls and ceilings, it's a place where children can look around and feel as if they're in a magical land. And overall it's the most impressive library I've ever been in.

Marion, Henry, and I had the chance to visit the library this past weekend, and it was great. Unfortunately the camera stopped working part of the way through our trip, and we lost all the cool pictures. I hope we get to go back soon, with a working camera.

Marion loved the Rainbow Fish aquarium, and she sat in the Jeep with the sheep (just like the book). She met new friends in the toddler room, and tried to take books with her as she left the area. She's learning and learning. Henry enjoyed it too, but mainly as a place to sleep, as he pretty much just slept on my chest in the wrap.

We'll be back, I assure you, and with a camera.

A Cold Day at the Park

We had a good time (and a good chill) at the park today. Henry spent the whole time on me (in the pouch) to stay warm while Marion ran around and had lots of fun.

A Day Outdoors

Yesterday we spent about four hours at the botanical gardens, and had a great time. Henry even got to pee into the wilderness, how manly is that?

Pea Addict

Marion is addicted to 'Just Peas', which are dehydrated peas that we found in Whole Foods.

Here they are, in all their splendor, for you to check out yourself: Just Peas.

Pony's One Trick

For some unknown reason Marion decided a couple of days ago to lift her shoulder up, and bring her head down so her ear was touching her shoulder. No reason, she just did it, and I saw her do it, and then I asked her to do it again.

Now, because she's such a learner, she does it on command. Useful, don't you think? Whenever I need her to lift her shoulder, I just ask her, and there ya have it. Now, I can't think of anything that this might be good for, but she can do it.

Maybe I should focus my attention on useful skills, like jumping, pushing a wagon, or signing the checkbook.

Let's Go Krogering

Keleigh and I typically shop at Whole Foods (hereafter referred to as WF, because I'm lazy), which is a great place for getting food that is organic, isn't overly processed, and is generally better for you. Before we switched to WF, we used to shop at Kroger, which worked out well, as there are a bunch of Kroger's in the area. Every once in a while, when we're pressed for time or need something 'mainstream' that WF doesn't have, we'll go to Kroger.

Since we've been shopping at WF, we've averaged about $75 a week. Everyone told us to expect to spend a lot more at WF than we were spending at Kroger, but it actually turned out to be less. We were spending about $110 a week at Kroger, so WF has saved us $35 a week. We went to Kroger to get groceries this week and spent $141!

So, we took a look at what we bought, and why it was so much more, and we came across two important themes: We bought stuff we probably shouldn't be eating, and almost everything we bought had -tons- of sugar in it.

Take a look at the nutritional information in your cereal, your yogurt, and drinks. It's scary. Take, for instance, the Yoplait 'Nouriche SuperSmoothie' (11oz), a yogurt/fruit smoothie thing, sounds healthy right? Ten grams protein, five grams fiber, 30% of the recommended calcium, and a giant sack of sugar...42grams. To put this into perspective, a can (12 oz) of Coke has 39grams. Insanity!

We bought chocolate covered almonds, microwave 'kettle corn', Dinty Moore beef stew (fat in a can), and a bunch of other not-so-healthy things that we wouldn't have purchased at WF.

So, it comes down to this. You can spend less shopping at WF, where products are generally more expensive than their 'mainstream' counterparts, because you won't buy a bunch of crap. You'll eat better (less sugar especially), you'll feel better, and you'll be supporting organic (and small-scale) farming and production.

Today's Ethical Question (+Chili)

Is it naughty to use a plastic vegetable bag for a diaper cover?



And, Marion loves chili!

Today is Tricky

This is the first day that I've felt like having two children is harder (not just more complicated) than having one. I'm a bit sick, so that certainly doesn't help.

Marion keeps trying to pull the bottle out of Henry's mouth, and is quite upset when I suggest that she doesn't do it. She also really wants to eat the berries that are on the sidewalk from some tree. Not sure what they are, but they're pretty little red berries, and toddlers are attracted to them.

Henry didn't sleep very well for his nap, which made it tricky for me to take a break, and for me to get things ready for the rest of the day. Oh well.

We did, however catch two of Henry's pees in the toilet. I didn't even have to wait very long, just put him over the toilet, and blammo, we have pee.

4:39 update. Childproofing? Marion just pulled one of those electrical plug fillers out of the plug, and put it in her mouth. Yeah, let's choke on that, that'd be fun for everyone. (She didn't choke, it just scared us.)

Break Time

It's been a very busy couple of weeks, and I'm ready for a break. Hopefully this week we can slow things down. I don't have too much planned, just groceries today or tomorrow, Mothering Arts on Thursday, and then probably a couple of things on the weekend. It shouldn't require lots of driving, as we've done recently.

The family went to Alma for homecoming on Saturday, followed by a visit to my brother's in Carland (about 1/2 hour south-east of Alma). Then on Sunday it was down to Perrysburg and a going-away party for Keleigh's sister (she's moving to San Jose).

We had a great time everywhere, lots of fun, but with all the driving and lack of sleep we're now really run down. Hopefully this can be a restful day for us.



This fun picture is of Henry getting ready to pee in the wilderness. He's really doing well with the elimination communication, and we're excited about not having to do so many loads of diaper laundry.