Internet Shopping

My father taught me from when I was little that when you have a question, you look up the answer! I remember being young and asking my dad a question, when he didn't know the answer (and didn't try to just make one up that sounded good) he would say"Look it up". So we would go to the shelf with our set of encyclopedias and see if we could find the answer.

With the explosion of the Internet, research became a lot easier. Now we can ask questions like "what other movie did that guy play in" and other more "useless" questions. Now when we ask a question, the answer is usually "I bet you could find it on the Internet!"

So naturally, having this ingrained into my head from a little girl, when my son lost his monkey my father's words came to mind "I bet you could find it on the Internet!"

I began my search to try and replace the missing monkey. I started at BabiesRus.com since that is where the monkey originally came from back in April 2008. I found a monkey that was described as I would describe Brendan's lost monkey. Little Monkey 10 inch plush rattle. "cheerful chimp, who rattles when he plays, is just the right size for babys tiny hands and just the right furry friend for a bouncing, bundle of joy." Perfect! The only problem is that the picture was not available at the time. But it sounded perfect and was on sale. I got really excited and ordered the monkey.

What arrived in the mail is this monkey:

I'm not sure if you can really tell by the picture but it is NOT Brendan's monkey that we lost. I was very upset. It is made in the same material so it is just as soft as his old monkey, but the "rattle" inside is more of a "Bell" unlike the old one that had a "rattle" sound.

So I went back on the Internet to try again. Brendan's monkey has to be there! You can find anything on the Internet! This time I turned to ebay. I found a monkey that looked pretty close, 11 inches high with a long tail. It was called "Swingsly the Monkey" made by Gund and sold by plushfriends.com. This time I saw a picture, it had to be Brendan's monkey! So I waited and waited (the shipping took forever!) Finally, the package arrived outside our door.

This is the monkey that we got:

Closer, but not quite right.

This time Scott told me I had to stop buying monkeys. In fact he told me I was a little obsessive about this whole monkey thing and said that Brendan didn't need that many monkey and we should save the second one for Caleb. Scott also told me that Brendan didn't know any different. Which is probably true. I wasn't planning on giving the first monkey we received to Brendan because I was so disappointed with the way it looked, Scott didn't realize that I was being selfish and a little crazy (so he says) about the whole monkey thing, and had given the first monkey to Brendan. He is already carrying it around and calling it "His Monkey" so I guess as long as he is happy...

So Brendan has A monkey now, although it is not as compact and cute as his old one, it does take his place. And Brendan loves him just the same. It's a good thing my son is not as discriminatory as I am!

Brendan with his new monkey this morning. "Monkey" (as we so lovingly call him) seems to have taken the place of his much loved predecessor quite well.

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

Notice my "Mr. Independent" with the fork in one hand and eating with the other?

No help from mom! I can do it myself!

Oh, and the cow-lick from our nap just to top it off!

2010 Resolution #1

I'm not sure exactly when or how this happened. Maybe it started during my Maternity leave with Brendan, perhaps it has been slowly increasing since I got married. Anyway it happened, I have come to the conclusion that I have too many magazines!

I have been slowly accumulating magazine subscriptions, I guess from the time I got married and we got our own apartment. It began with Real Simple. I loved the magazine, which introduced me to Martha Stewart Living. Although her recipes and ideas are usually a little complex (or time consuming) for me, it did provide some great ideas and reading material. I also received a subscription to Better Homes and Garden for a two year subscription the kept getting renewed. One year, for my Mother-in-laws birthday, I got her a subscription to Everyday with Rachel Ray, and bought a year for myself as well. After I had Brendan, I was subscribed to Parents as well as Family Fun. Finally, one of my favorite magazines to receive is Kraft Foods.

While I love all of these magazines (with the exception of Parents which isn't really my favorite) it became overwhelming after a while. I never really thought about cancelling them because I would eventually read them. Some would automatically renew because they had my credit card number, others would send me notices and I would send them back renewal notices without realizing that I still had months left of my current subscription. Finally, my husband said ENOUGH!

I had stopped reading them, lack of time mostly. How often do I get a chance to sit down with a magazine and just read? Usually on a plane, which is almost impossible when flying with a child, or sitting poolside on vacation, and when was the last time that happened?

Currently, I have a stack of 32 magazines in my storage ottoman waiting to be read.

All these magazines are "new" and yet to be opened. Some still in the plastic wrap.

My Resolution for 2010:

Cut back on the junk mail (or mail in general)! This is mostly unneeded magazines. But also includes cancelling other junk mail that we get in our mailbox. Receiving bills electronically when possible. Cleaning out my e-mail box and unsubscribe to the hundreds of junk e-mails sent monthly.

Finally, part of my resolution is to cancel all magazine subscriptions. Read the magazines that I already have stacked up, and then if I desire, I can subscribe to one magazine a year. Except Kraft Foods, we are keeping that one!

So although it may not sound like a very exciting resolution like getting fit, losing weight, changing a major life habit of mine, it is enough to get me started.

Anyone have a need/use for a bunch of old magazines I can unload??

Presents!

Do you ever start to write a blog, get halfway through and realize, this is a really boring post! Well, it just happened to me. So instead of boring you through the series of Illness Drama in my family the past couple months, I thought I would instead post a light-hearted video of Christmas that I didn't post after Christmas as I intended to do. Hopefully this is slightly more interesting than the plagues of my family!

as an introduction, we taught Brendan the sign language word for "Please" in order to begin teaching him manners (rubbing your hand in a circular motion on your chest). He is very good at saying please, and it cracked me up on Christmas morning. For every present he opened, he wanted it REALLY opened so he could play with it right now! I had to capture it on film. Sorry it is late, and not really Christmas anymore, but enjoy!

P.S. you can see that Daddy is a little impatient as well and is "helping" Brendan open his presents. I would have let him take his time, but that is just me.

Caleb Joseph

I realized that I had not yet posted the name that we have picked out for our new little one. As you saw in my earlier post, our baby is defiantly a little boy! :) We have told most of you the name but it had not yet been posted. You may remember back in November when we thought we narrowed it down to to names. And then again in December when we had the results of the voting, but decided not to go with either. The name we have chosen together, and both very much agree upon, is:

Caleb Joseph

I'm not sure how we came across the name, we threw names back and forth at each other, every day, after working all day with student files I would bring Scott a new list of names. Finally we came across Caleb. We both enjoyed the name but I continued to look for other options. Finally we decided to just stop looking, that Caleb was still our favorite. It was a week before Christmas when I got an e-mail from BabyCenter.com with the top 100 baby names for 2010. I was very upset to see Caleb listed at number 14. One of the reasons we chose Brendan was because it was not very common when I chose the name, although it too is gaining in popularity. I came home that evening with a list of names not on the list to try and sway my husbands decision and to go with a less popular name. Much to my constant..well..nagging, my efforts fell flat. Caleb it was. To be perfectly honest, I think I may have been very disappointed if Scott had given into my request, I have grown quite fond of the name Caleb.

We went with his Middle name of Joseph after Scott's grandfather. I have always liked the name Joseph, and I think that it fits well with Caleb.

Caleb is Hebrew, from the Old Testament meaning Faithful. The name Joseph is also Hebrew, meaning "God will increase".

Having a name picked out makes the coming of our new baby that much more anticipated, we can not wait to hold our little Caleb in our arms. A little more than 3 months away.

Toddler Discipline

The other night we had our friends over to visit and have the toddler boys play together. I watched my friend as she tried to discipline her 17-month-old with the limited logical and understanding skills they posses. As she is sternly correcting him for hitting, very upset with him, he walks over to his mom with a big smile on his face and kisses her. She turns to me with defeat on her face.

"It's hard to be mad at him when he just wants to give kisses."

Discipline for a toddler is tough, especially when they don't really understand what is going on. It just takes time, until then, I'll take the kisses!

The Green Popscicle

While Brendan was sick with his bad cold, I knew his throat was hurting badly (because my throat hurt badly). So on one trip to the grocery store, I was looking at the Popsicles and found a box called "Mighty Minis" with slow melt formula. Hoping these would be okay for Brendan to try and eat, and help sooth his core throat I picked them up. They are wonderful for him! Each Popsicle is about 3 inches tall, and they are made with gelatin which makes them a slightly different consistency and slower to melt - therefore, less mess! The box says that a serving size is actually 3 Popsicles if that gives you any idea of the size. Just perfect for a toddler!

Brendan just loved his Popsicle. You can be sure I will be purchasing these again! They serving size is perfect and there is no huge mess to clean up when he is done!

For Christina, the collage was made through Costco's photo center.