The big blizzard may not have hit us, but we woke up to plenty of snow Saturday. And of course, Cal loves playing in the “nooo!”
Oliver was disappointed he couldn’t go out too, but he has a cold still, so he stayed inside with me and played.
He’ll be ready to play in the snow next year at this time.
This weeks ADM Blog Hop Entry (remember, anyone can play, just click the McLinky link at the end of this post):
Fred and I have talked about this a lot. While there are definitely a few things that we do not want to repeat with our kids, we both have great stories from our childhoods about special traditions and things that our parents did with or for us. We will continue with many traditions, both for special occasions and everyday instances, that we remember with fondness from our childhoods. We also plan on using some of the same teaching methods that stick in our minds today; like the time my dad deflated my car tire and emptied my car of oil – I learned to change the flat and change the oil in my car…skills every girl needs! Fred is adamant about always following through on his word, just as his mom did; even if it means sticking to a seemingly unfair punishment.
In this post, I’m going to focus on one thing that, now that I’m older and wiser (wink wink), has really made an impact on my view of life and education.
When I was younger I was not the perfect student (shocker, I know!). I would do anything to get out of homework, especially math homework! But my dad was a real stickler about getting things done and doing them right. He was constantly looking over my shoulder and making sure that I not only completed my work, but that I did it correctly. Fred’s parents had similar ideas; Fred had to take practice spelling tests over and over again until he got the majority of them right, even though his spelling is still sketchy 
(Love you Fred!)
My dad also made sure that I did what I was supposed to do in class…from the time I was in kindergarten up until I graduated from high school. In fact, I think he was probably one of the only parents to actually visit teachers during parent-teacher conferences in high school. You could say he was a “helicopter parent” in this respect, but I think it really made a difference. He knew what I was up to and I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to slack off.
In my experiences with the students I work with (and hear about from Fred), this is all too important. I see kids falling behind and getting bad grades because they have no one checking their homework or looking over their shoulders to make sure they are doing what they need to in school. I know that I would not have done any homework or completed many of my assignments if my dad had not been on my case. Thanks to my dad’s nagging, I got a good education and have a great career (or will if I can find a full time job!) and am able to write well enough to make sense in this blog-most of the time anyway.
I belong to a North East Ohio moms group online (known from here on out as ADM) and they’ve recently started their own carnival. No, we aren’t exploiting our children or our husbands…it’s a blog carnival. No crazy clowns or overworked and mistreated animals here! Once a week the hostess, Paige will post a new topic and we’ll all respond on our own blogs. This should make me more diligent about my posts and get this and the others girls some more readership (this means, please check out the other mommy blogs listed below, I promise they are all great, even better than mine!). Now you don’t have to belong to ADM (the AntiDrama Mamas) to participate, just post your thoughts in the comments section or join our carnival!
This weeks topic:
I’ll answer for each boy separately…
Calvin, my little monkey is a funny guy. He loves lots of food, most of the time. Sometimes he decides that he’s too
busy to eat, but usually he’s willing to munch on whatever is in front of him. Some of his
very favorites: cookies (I know, I’m a bad mom for feeding my toddler cookies, but he is my child- with my sweet tooth can you expect any less?), , bananas, yogurt, cheese, apple slices, pancakes or “pa-akes” as he calls them now, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (on whole wheat bread, of course!) made just right by his dad (extra peanut buttery and extra messy).
Some of his least favorites: peas (I don’t blame him, they’re smushy), potatoes (this makes me so sad), and jalapeno peppers. Like I said, there’s not much he doesn’t like.
I am happy about Cal’s taste in food, he eats most vegetables, he loves broccoli and green beans,a variety of meat, and he’s pretty willing to try stuff, like our friend Mike’s homemade hummus. Now getting him to eat more than a couple bites of anything before deciding to feed the dog is a little challenging, especially when she’s waiting so patiently for him to drop her a tasty morsel. But that’s another story.
If you asked Fred how we encourage a more diverse palate, he’d say we don’t because I’m a picky eater, which is partially true. I do tend to make the same types of dinners over and over because I like them, and I am kind of picky (no seafood for me!). However, I am trying to branch out a little, one night this week I made a crab and artichoke casserole. I didn’t like it, but I made it (Fred and Cal liked it, so that’s all that matters, right?). We do have a strict rule for Calvin though, he either eats what we’re having or he doesn’t eat. Normally this means he’ll eat a decent dinner, but occasionally he will throw more to the dog than he actually eats.
Maybe he likes his fist better than the cereal?
Now my little, little guy, Oliver is just starting to experience food. His favorite is still mommy’s milk, but he’s also beginning to like rice cereal. In the next few weeks we’ll be starting to give him some fruit and vegetable purees, so I’m sure he’ll be able to tell me all about what he likes and dislikes soon enough.
For now, I can without a doubt tell you that he doesn’t like coffee…which makes me sad, because some days I really need a cup of coffee. For the sake of Oliver’s sensitive tummy, I have stayed away from Starbucks, McDonald’s McCafes, Dunkin’ Donuts drive thru coffee, and every other caffeine fix stop.
As for diversifying his palate, my only method right now is making sure I eat from a diverse menu. Still, I’m a picky eater, so that’s not saying a whole lot. I did try the crab and artichoke casserole, but I didn’t eat much of it. We’ll work on his palate more when he’s eating solid foods.
Tune in later this week for the next edition to the ADM blog carnival/hop!
Click here to enter your link and view the entire list of entered links…
Last night sometime one of our cats, well, originally my cat, Casper passed away. He had been sick for a while, so it wasn’t too much of a surprise, but that doesn’t mean it hurt any less.
He had been prone to UTIs since Calvin was born. The stress of the new babies, we thought, triggered these, but it may have been something more. In late November he got his 3rd UTI and the vet told us that we should switch his food to support a healthier urinary tract as well as overall lifestyle for him and our other two cats. Well, Casper, who has never been a picky eater, didn’t like the new prescription food. He went on a hunger strike and tried to eat anything else he could, including dog food and table scraps (thanks to Calvin, he was able to keep this up for a little while). Then he just stopped eating all together. By Christmas we noticed that he was losing a considerable amount of weight, and still wasn’t eating the new cat food, so we switched back over to the food we had been feeding the cats before. We thought that fixed the problem and he’d start gaining weight back. Well, we were wrong. He never started eating again. And he started urinating in different spots around the house. So back to the vet, who gave us more antibiotics for his UTI. But that didn’t fix the problem.
Last weekend I noticed that he had become really yellow under his black coat. So after some googling, I found that he probably had liver failure from not eating for so long. So Fred takes him back to the vet who tells us that this isn’t the end for my 5 year old cat; he could insert a feeding tube into his stomach and we could force feed him back to health. He told us the procedure had an 85% survival rate. We took a day to think it over, because with 2 small children, tube feeding a cat every 3 hours or so is not easy. But in the end, we couldn’t not try, this is my Casper, the feistiest black cat known to man! Unfortunately, we can’t add him to the 85% of cats who survive and thrive after liver failure. He died sometime last night, 1/29/10.
So here’s a few pictures that I found today that made me remember all the good times
He loved his pink string and his “jungle.”
He loved Nina (sometimes) and the babies, even if they were loud!
But most of all, I think he loved being close to the action, he never missed anything!
He will be missed very much.
I know it’s a few weeks late, but the boys wanted to wish the cyber-world a very happy new year!
In case you’re wondering, neither boy made it to midnight on New Year’s Eve. Cal was out by 8:30 and Oliver by 10!
