Rather than an actual quote, today's entry is more of a funny story.
Brad took the kids to his parents yesterday while I visited with my BFF, L, during her visit here to Hockeytown. At Brad's parent's home the kids basically roam free, as evidenced in this story.
His Mom decorates with a lot of "country" type items, things in baskets and bowls and things to look at on shelves. This continues down into their finished basement-even into the downstairs bathroom. She has a basket/bowl of wax apples down there.
Apparently, Bryce thought they were real. Brad's Dad found one wax apple with a bite taken out of it. The bite was next to the apple.
When Bryce was asked today about eating the apple, his response was "yucky".
At least he's biting apples, right?
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Friday, November 26, 2010
Why Shutterfly??
While we're all still full from Thanksgiving, it's time to think about the next big holiday coming our way-Christmas. It seems to come earlier every year! One thing that has stressed me out in the past, enough so that some years we don't send any, is Christmas cards. I gasp at the prices of cards in the stores and then struggle to pick which one photo of the kids I'll print and stick in the cards.
I have used Shutterfly in the past for Bryce's birth announcement & baby shower invitations and even Christmas cards. It's so easy, I don't know why I even bother thinking about buying printed cards and then including a photo. I can sit at home and upload photos and then just play with the assortment of card designs. Many of the designs allow for multiple photos so you don't have to pick just one--you can highlight the whole year on one card! The colors and designs and fonts that are available are very modern and really remind me of some of the latest scrapbooking trends.
Here's a link to one of the designs I like: Modern Collage Card. (no, those aren't my children!) But there are several others I like a lot--it's so hard to choose!
Another cool thing you can do is create personalized wall calendars. While I've never done a calendar, it would sure be a cool gift for a grandparent. Or myself.
I realize that this blog post is a bit different from my typical entries. Any blogger can check out this link and blog to receive 50 free holdiay cards! That's exactly what I'm doing. I figure--why not? I was going to use Shutterfly for my cards anyway. Even if you're not a blogger, check out Shutterfly anyway. You won't be disappointed!
I have used Shutterfly in the past for Bryce's birth announcement & baby shower invitations and even Christmas cards. It's so easy, I don't know why I even bother thinking about buying printed cards and then including a photo. I can sit at home and upload photos and then just play with the assortment of card designs. Many of the designs allow for multiple photos so you don't have to pick just one--you can highlight the whole year on one card! The colors and designs and fonts that are available are very modern and really remind me of some of the latest scrapbooking trends.
Here's a link to one of the designs I like: Modern Collage Card. (no, those aren't my children!) But there are several others I like a lot--it's so hard to choose!
Another cool thing you can do is create personalized wall calendars. While I've never done a calendar, it would sure be a cool gift for a grandparent. Or myself.
I realize that this blog post is a bit different from my typical entries. Any blogger can check out this link and blog to receive 50 free holdiay cards! That's exactly what I'm doing. I figure--why not? I was going to use Shutterfly for my cards anyway. Even if you're not a blogger, check out Shutterfly anyway. You won't be disappointed!
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Why Customer Service Matters.
I just had the most pleasant customer service experience I think I've ever had and it truly warrants a blog post and a free plug of this company. I am thoroughly impressed because I think customer service in general has fallen off of the radar.
Bryce eats a large serving daily of HappyBellies probiotic organic oatmeal. It is a "trendy" baby cereal designed for younger babies, but he likes it and consumes enough of it for the probiotics to be helpful. It is very expensive but worth every penny.
Last week Bryce had nearly finished off a can and Brad opened up a new can. The new can was very much off-color and so we didn't use it. I intended to just return it to Target and figured it was a fluke. We bought another can, from the same Target, and when we opened it up, it too was off-color. It appeared as though it had pepper in it and just didn't look "right".
I am pleased to say that when I called Happy Baby Foods this morning I got the most pleasant customer service representative. I explained why I was calling and Andre asked if the expiry on the can was June of 2012. Well indeed, the expiration of both cans is June 2012. Happy Baby is aware of the problem and all of those cans were supposed to have been pulled from the shelves. They had not properly received the nitrogen treatment that eliminates the oxygen in the product, so the cereal oxidized. It's safe to eat, but off color, much like a cut avocado turns brown, this cereal turned brown. Happy Baby Foods is sending me replacement cans via Fed Ex.
This is why customer service matters-it builds product loyalty. I will shamelessly plug this company and continue to purchase it's products. I will email them and tell them how pleasant their employee was and how nice it is that they are sending replacement product.
*added content* I should note that I regularly call various food companies, art supply companies, vitamin companies, etc, to find out what's in their products. I called Gerber/Good Start/Nestle when Bryce's soy formula for older babies started disappearing from store shelves last year. Let's just say they were less than helpful. I switched brands. Customer service matters when you're someone like me who constantly has to call companies for pertinent information about their products.
Bryce eats a large serving daily of HappyBellies probiotic organic oatmeal. It is a "trendy" baby cereal designed for younger babies, but he likes it and consumes enough of it for the probiotics to be helpful. It is very expensive but worth every penny.
Last week Bryce had nearly finished off a can and Brad opened up a new can. The new can was very much off-color and so we didn't use it. I intended to just return it to Target and figured it was a fluke. We bought another can, from the same Target, and when we opened it up, it too was off-color. It appeared as though it had pepper in it and just didn't look "right".
I am pleased to say that when I called Happy Baby Foods this morning I got the most pleasant customer service representative. I explained why I was calling and Andre asked if the expiry on the can was June of 2012. Well indeed, the expiration of both cans is June 2012. Happy Baby is aware of the problem and all of those cans were supposed to have been pulled from the shelves. They had not properly received the nitrogen treatment that eliminates the oxygen in the product, so the cereal oxidized. It's safe to eat, but off color, much like a cut avocado turns brown, this cereal turned brown. Happy Baby Foods is sending me replacement cans via Fed Ex.
This is why customer service matters-it builds product loyalty. I will shamelessly plug this company and continue to purchase it's products. I will email them and tell them how pleasant their employee was and how nice it is that they are sending replacement product.
*added content* I should note that I regularly call various food companies, art supply companies, vitamin companies, etc, to find out what's in their products. I called Gerber/Good Start/Nestle when Bryce's soy formula for older babies started disappearing from store shelves last year. Let's just say they were less than helpful. I switched brands. Customer service matters when you're someone like me who constantly has to call companies for pertinent information about their products.
Friday, November 19, 2010
School Update.
The school year is settling into a predictable pattern for both the boys and the adults. We've all adjusted to the schedule, the extra curriculars, the timing of activities, etc. The 1st cardmarking is over for the boys. Brendan's and Brett's conferences are under our belts. Bryce continues to attend Early On 1 day per week with me and has speech at the house 1 day per week. I continue to get headaches trying to juggle it all!
Brendan's had a rough adjustment to middle school. Not in terms of making friends or finding his classes, but in terms of the amount of homework received. He really had never had homework throughout the years spent at the gifted magnet school and he's had a bit of a shock with the amount of homework in the 7th grade gifted magnet program. He's also never had to study. Without embarrassing him, I'll just say that he has a 3.5 GPA. His nemesis, Social Studies, is proving to be quite a challenge. I work with him on time management, working ahead and currently we're discussing the idea that homework is not ONLY work you didn't finish in class, it's also spending a bit of time in each subject going over material.
Brendan is really enjoying Band and has an excellent Band Director. The Band Director posts his weekly goals and objectives on a website and I must say, for a fellow that wasn't trained at WMU by Suddendorf & Dunnigan, he's really quite amazing. I am impressed with what he covers each week in class. Brendan is considering switching from flute to trumpet. Who am I to say "no" to that?! He's reluctantly participating in Solo & Ensemble Festival in January. Brad and I gave him NO CHOICE on that one. We both did it in 7th grade, he can do it, too. He has an excellent sound on the flute, especially considering he's only played 1 year. He seems to enjoy practicing and likes working ahead in his band book.
Brett loves 2nd grade and has a lot of friends. He has the shortest bus ride that the 2 boys have EVER had to elementary school: 40mins in the AM and 33 mins in the PM. This is amazing considering that the transfer run that Brett is on used to have 27 buses and now only has 15 due to budget cuts. Less buses=faster times? Strange, but true. He is looped with the same teacher & children from last year, in a 1/2 split. Brendan had this same teacher, which is nice. He comes home every day with stories about recess or getting carrots off the lunch cart or talking about math group or sharing, you get the picture. He's our social butterfly, he knows everyone and talks to everyone. Surprisingly, our conference did not consist of "Brett talks too much." Instead it was "Brett is a social asset to the class, making positive peer connections with other students."
Bryce really enjoys going to his school. His class meets one day per week and I attend with him. The children rotate through gross motor, music and fine motor rooms. Bryce seems to like the gross motor room and does not require me to direct him when to switch to the next room. He just follows the teacher and ditches me. Many of the children in his group has global issues, whereas Bryce's reason for qualifying is strictly speech. One aspect of the school that I dislike is that we are supposed to provide constant narration of what the child is (or isn't) doing. What if I'm saying "The cow is up" when in Bryce's mind "the cow is jumping" or something like that? I don't want to put words in his mouth. I want him to have words, of course--his own! Not mine.
Bryce also receives speech for 1 hour per week and the teacher comes to our home. This has been interesting to say the least. The teacher has learned that she needs to pack activities for Bryce that are different from the other children. They are all the same "grade", but because Bryce just has speech issues and has tested cognitively much older than he is chronologically, he needs more complex work to do. Today it was tangrams on a magnet board and cars on a track to illicit the words "stop" and "go". Bryce turned the latter activity into "1,2,3 GO" or "8,9,10 GO", which is only understandable if you are fluent in Bryce-speak. While Bryce has made strides in speech (he's testing now at 23 mos and entered the program testing at 15 mos), and was exited from OT, hitting the 36 month ceiling on the test at 31 months of age, I do not anticipate him being exited from speech upon completion of this school year. I'd love to be proven wrong, but he'll have to make huge gains for that to happen.
Brendan's had a rough adjustment to middle school. Not in terms of making friends or finding his classes, but in terms of the amount of homework received. He really had never had homework throughout the years spent at the gifted magnet school and he's had a bit of a shock with the amount of homework in the 7th grade gifted magnet program. He's also never had to study. Without embarrassing him, I'll just say that he has a 3.5 GPA. His nemesis, Social Studies, is proving to be quite a challenge. I work with him on time management, working ahead and currently we're discussing the idea that homework is not ONLY work you didn't finish in class, it's also spending a bit of time in each subject going over material.
Brendan is really enjoying Band and has an excellent Band Director. The Band Director posts his weekly goals and objectives on a website and I must say, for a fellow that wasn't trained at WMU by Suddendorf & Dunnigan, he's really quite amazing. I am impressed with what he covers each week in class. Brendan is considering switching from flute to trumpet. Who am I to say "no" to that?! He's reluctantly participating in Solo & Ensemble Festival in January. Brad and I gave him NO CHOICE on that one. We both did it in 7th grade, he can do it, too. He has an excellent sound on the flute, especially considering he's only played 1 year. He seems to enjoy practicing and likes working ahead in his band book.
Brett loves 2nd grade and has a lot of friends. He has the shortest bus ride that the 2 boys have EVER had to elementary school: 40mins in the AM and 33 mins in the PM. This is amazing considering that the transfer run that Brett is on used to have 27 buses and now only has 15 due to budget cuts. Less buses=faster times? Strange, but true. He is looped with the same teacher & children from last year, in a 1/2 split. Brendan had this same teacher, which is nice. He comes home every day with stories about recess or getting carrots off the lunch cart or talking about math group or sharing, you get the picture. He's our social butterfly, he knows everyone and talks to everyone. Surprisingly, our conference did not consist of "Brett talks too much." Instead it was "Brett is a social asset to the class, making positive peer connections with other students."
Bryce really enjoys going to his school. His class meets one day per week and I attend with him. The children rotate through gross motor, music and fine motor rooms. Bryce seems to like the gross motor room and does not require me to direct him when to switch to the next room. He just follows the teacher and ditches me. Many of the children in his group has global issues, whereas Bryce's reason for qualifying is strictly speech. One aspect of the school that I dislike is that we are supposed to provide constant narration of what the child is (or isn't) doing. What if I'm saying "The cow is up" when in Bryce's mind "the cow is jumping" or something like that? I don't want to put words in his mouth. I want him to have words, of course--his own! Not mine.
Bryce also receives speech for 1 hour per week and the teacher comes to our home. This has been interesting to say the least. The teacher has learned that she needs to pack activities for Bryce that are different from the other children. They are all the same "grade", but because Bryce just has speech issues and has tested cognitively much older than he is chronologically, he needs more complex work to do. Today it was tangrams on a magnet board and cars on a track to illicit the words "stop" and "go". Bryce turned the latter activity into "1,2,3 GO" or "8,9,10 GO", which is only understandable if you are fluent in Bryce-speak. While Bryce has made strides in speech (he's testing now at 23 mos and entered the program testing at 15 mos), and was exited from OT, hitting the 36 month ceiling on the test at 31 months of age, I do not anticipate him being exited from speech upon completion of this school year. I'd love to be proven wrong, but he'll have to make huge gains for that to happen.
Eureka!
I have solved the problem of constantly being behind in the laundry department.
Problems like having piles of laundry on your basement floor and baskets of unfolded laundry dumped upstairs on your bed. Nobody has any socks and "where is my?" is a constant refrain. Running loads of laundry into the wee hours of the night, only to have to trudge downstairs at 6AM to get those clothes. Problems like that.
Or is that just my house?
The solution?
Two loads per day.
I have found that if I just do two loads a day as a minimum-folded and put away, mind you-that I can tame that laundry beast and nobody runs out of anything. This is much easier than my previous laundry technique which was running laundry, 6-8 loads in a day, and then spending the next day folding and putting it all away. That was torture.
Problems like having piles of laundry on your basement floor and baskets of unfolded laundry dumped upstairs on your bed. Nobody has any socks and "where is my
Or is that just my house?
The solution?
Two loads per day.
I have found that if I just do two loads a day as a minimum-folded and put away, mind you-that I can tame that laundry beast and nobody runs out of anything. This is much easier than my previous laundry technique which was running laundry, 6-8 loads in a day, and then spending the next day folding and putting it all away. That was torture.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Quotable Kids.
Conversation today at approximately 6:50AM.
(and yes, my children are "morning people")
Me: Brett, how did you sleep last night?
Brett: Well, pretty good except that Dad woke me up.
Me: Dad woke you up? You mean this morning to get up for school?
Brett: I don't know. I was asleep, and he unexpectantly woke me up.
Me: Brett, that was Dad waking you up 10 minutes ago for school. It wasn't exactly "unexpected".
Brett: Well, it was to me. I was still sleeping!
Seriously, folks, he's this funny all.the.time. Everyday. And his shows are free.
(and yes, my children are "morning people")
Me: Brett, how did you sleep last night?
Brett: Well, pretty good except that Dad woke me up.
Me: Dad woke you up? You mean this morning to get up for school?
Brett: I don't know. I was asleep, and he unexpectantly woke me up.
Me: Brett, that was Dad waking you up 10 minutes ago for school. It wasn't exactly "unexpected".
Brett: Well, it was to me. I was still sleeping!
Seriously, folks, he's this funny all.the.time. Everyday. And his shows are free.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Sigh.
Just when we get comfortable with the status quo of Bryce's food allergies something always pops up.
This time, it's sesame and cinnamon. As in, we suspect Bryce to be allergic to sesame and cinnamon.
Bryce is allowed from time to time to play in the pantry cupboard. He mostly rearranges the spices or plays in the potatoes or garlic, but this time he got a little busy. I think I was making dinner when this particular incident went down, so I was around but truthfully, not paying attention.
He managed to dump an entire container of cocoa powder out and mixed in it was the jar of sesame seeds. He's previously been unable to open the spice jars, so this is a new trick for him. Great. So I clean up the mess (no photos, i was too irritated at myself for not paying closer attention to him) and then I noticed them. The hives. The blotches. They had returned. While I suppose it could be the cocoa powder, it's more likely that the sesame caused the reaction. He got the Benadryl and a bath and he was fine. Sesame is a legume, and thusly, related to peanuts. This is an easy one to avoid.
Next up is cinnamon. He had an opportunity to do a craft at his weekly school which involved cinnamon in a scratch-n-sniff fashion. He took one sniff of that cinnamon and ran off. The rest of the kids shook cinnamon out in a gleeful frenzy. By the time his school session was over, he had hives. I gave him Benadryl and chalked it up to "rogue hives" which he gets occaisionally.
Two days later, I canned applesauce with my friend G. Two of the batches we made had cinnamon in them, both towards the end of the canning. Well, once again, Bryce ended up in hives. After ruling out the take-out Mexican we had for dinner and everything else, it came down to cinnamon. Inhaled cinnamon.
For now, we avoid both sesame and cinnamon which really is easy for someone who is already avoiding wheat. Sesame gets sprinkled on breads as does cinnamon. As for the cinnamon applesauce, it all went home with my friend G because we can't risk Bryce consuming any. We'll ask for testing at his next allergy visit in March.
Sigh.
This time, it's sesame and cinnamon. As in, we suspect Bryce to be allergic to sesame and cinnamon.
Bryce is allowed from time to time to play in the pantry cupboard. He mostly rearranges the spices or plays in the potatoes or garlic, but this time he got a little busy. I think I was making dinner when this particular incident went down, so I was around but truthfully, not paying attention.
He managed to dump an entire container of cocoa powder out and mixed in it was the jar of sesame seeds. He's previously been unable to open the spice jars, so this is a new trick for him. Great. So I clean up the mess (no photos, i was too irritated at myself for not paying closer attention to him) and then I noticed them. The hives. The blotches. They had returned. While I suppose it could be the cocoa powder, it's more likely that the sesame caused the reaction. He got the Benadryl and a bath and he was fine. Sesame is a legume, and thusly, related to peanuts. This is an easy one to avoid.
Next up is cinnamon. He had an opportunity to do a craft at his weekly school which involved cinnamon in a scratch-n-sniff fashion. He took one sniff of that cinnamon and ran off. The rest of the kids shook cinnamon out in a gleeful frenzy. By the time his school session was over, he had hives. I gave him Benadryl and chalked it up to "rogue hives" which he gets occaisionally.
Two days later, I canned applesauce with my friend G. Two of the batches we made had cinnamon in them, both towards the end of the canning. Well, once again, Bryce ended up in hives. After ruling out the take-out Mexican we had for dinner and everything else, it came down to cinnamon. Inhaled cinnamon.
For now, we avoid both sesame and cinnamon which really is easy for someone who is already avoiding wheat. Sesame gets sprinkled on breads as does cinnamon. As for the cinnamon applesauce, it all went home with my friend G because we can't risk Bryce consuming any. We'll ask for testing at his next allergy visit in March.
Sigh.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Happy Halloween!
Alright. Halloween is long gone and the candy left in my kids' buckets is mostly suckers and gum and all that other junk that I won't bother eating. I mean that THEY won't bother eating. Whatever.
Brendan was on the fence about trick or treating this year. I told him he could have Bryce's candy, which he seriously considered. He then tried on his Elmo costume from last year and amazingly, it fit and PRESTO! he was going trick or treating.
Brett was most pleased to be wearing a store-bought Mario costume. I'm not sure how I feel about that. He wore homemade costumes up until this year and his last couple had taken me a lot of time. His joy over BUYING a costume from the store seemed strange, but I'm over it.
Bryce is the 3rd boy to wear this cute bear costume. It was made for Brendan when he was 2 1/2 and is supposed to be "Baby Bear" from Sesame Street. Brett wore it and now Bryce. It's adorable. Took Bryce a bit of convincing to wear it at our church's Trunk or Treat, but after some "persuasion", he settled in and enjoyed himself.
We had a safe Halloween on all fronts. No razor blades in the candy (do people still even bother trying that?) and no food allergy reactions from Bryce. All the nut containing candy was dumped back into the bowl to be handed out to the little beggars and the rest was either taken to work with Brad or tossed. Bryce wasn't even interested in eating his candy.
Brendan was on the fence about trick or treating this year. I told him he could have Bryce's candy, which he seriously considered. He then tried on his Elmo costume from last year and amazingly, it fit and PRESTO! he was going trick or treating.
Brett was most pleased to be wearing a store-bought Mario costume. I'm not sure how I feel about that. He wore homemade costumes up until this year and his last couple had taken me a lot of time. His joy over BUYING a costume from the store seemed strange, but I'm over it.
Bryce is the 3rd boy to wear this cute bear costume. It was made for Brendan when he was 2 1/2 and is supposed to be "Baby Bear" from Sesame Street. Brett wore it and now Bryce. It's adorable. Took Bryce a bit of convincing to wear it at our church's Trunk or Treat, but after some "persuasion", he settled in and enjoyed himself.
We had a safe Halloween on all fronts. No razor blades in the candy (do people still even bother trying that?) and no food allergy reactions from Bryce. All the nut containing candy was dumped back into the bowl to be handed out to the little beggars and the rest was either taken to work with Brad or tossed. Bryce wasn't even interested in eating his candy.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Quotable Kids.
Brendan: Brett, you want to really impress you music teacher? Let me tell you about what the word "measure" means.
Brett: (listening with great intent...)
Tsh tsh. They're both funny. The older kid, because he thinks the definition of "measure" will impress a 2nd grader's music teacher and the younger kid, because he listened to the older kid.
Brett: (listening with great intent...)
Tsh tsh. They're both funny. The older kid, because he thinks the definition of "measure" will impress a 2nd grader's music teacher and the younger kid, because he listened to the older kid.
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