Thank Magic Eraser!

The Magic Eraser is the absolute best cleaning product on the planet! Truly it is! if you've never tried it, you HAVE to. Pedro and I decided last summer that we liked the clean look of white appliances, but never having had white appliances before, we didn't realize how painful it would be to keep them looking clean. I LOVE my gas stove, but trying to keep the white top and gray grates clean has been a miserable process. Then someone suggested the Magic Eraser. I was skeptical at first, but it is amazing. It cleans up everything on the stove and I barely have to use any elbow grease. Thank you magic eraser! You rock!

And now, we interrupt this commercial with some pics of Sam. I know its the only reason people read this blog in the first place.

Laundry

Samson LOVES laundry. Everything was folded and neatly sorted into baskets. Within two minutes, everything was a tangled mess. But how can you be mad at that sweet face? It made me laugh.

Hungry Boy

My boys are big eaters. Especially my little boy. I Know I just did a post of pics of him eating, but I had to do another one. Its such a mess. This morning Sam had toast and then an entire container of pears mixed with quite a bit of oatmeal. Then some yogurt melts. For his mid-morning snack he had more oatmeal, cottage cheese and diced pears. He insisted on feeding himself. Doesn't that look delicious?
We're working hard at teaching him the sign for more, but right now, he points if he wants more of something.

P.S. Mom, if you're reading this, Sam ate the entire box of Zwieback toast, the crackers and the yogurt melts in a week.

Food Fight

Now that my little guy is starting to eat real food, he wants less of the baby variety. He loves his puffs, yogurt melts, diced fruits and veggies, zwieback toast, crackers, mashed potatoes, cheese, meat sticks and basically whatever Pedro and I are eating. Yesterday, he ate all my yogurt. I think I got one bite.
He has now decided that when he has to eat something requiring a spoon, he wants to feed himself. Haha, what a mess, I mean blast, that is. I put a little of whatever he is eating on the tray and he tries his very hardest to get it on the spoon and into his mouth. Usually while he does this I sit next to him with a spoon and a bowl and help the process along. Today he decided that he wanted to feed ME. Every time I gave him a spoonful, he would mash his spoon into the gunk on his tray and push it into my mouth. Mmmmmmmm, there is nothing quite as tasty as chicken and apple puree with a side of baby slobber, but it was sweet and since I went through 9 long hours of labor and a c-section, I think I'll keep him.

Wednesday Cuteness

I LOVE him! I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOOOOVE my son. That's all I can say. The pictures speak for themselves. I want to pinch his fat rolls and kiss his chunky cheeks. CONSTANTLY.

Happy Belated Easter

I have taken a TON of pictures in the last week, but I haven't had much time to blog. Solo & Ensemble us is coming up on Saturday and I am doubling up on lessons for a lot of my students so forgive me for the lack of posts. I hope everyone had a relaxing Easter.

STANDING!

That's my baby!!! He's STANDING!! He's been doing it for about a week now and each day he is able to stay up for progressively longer. Sometimes he tries to take steps! This is the first time we've gotten it on camera. And yes, those are MY Kermit the Frog PJ's. Now, excuse me while I go run circles around the house in excitement.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot about Flashback Friday. Here he is at 3 hours old.

Pants-ed

Its official that I don't know how to spell pantsed, pansed, pant-sed, pants-ed? Oh who cares. Yesterday afternoon I went into Sam's room after his nap and was greeted by a pile of socks and PANTS laying on the floor by his crib.

There is never a dull moment in our house.

Eat your heart out Martha Stewart

My crib rail protectors are finally finished. They may not be the most polished looking bit of decor. I'm definitely no Martha Stewart. However, I think they'll get the job done. The best part about the project was that it used materials I already had and took me maybe 5 minutes. We're going to make them together. Are you ready? Let's go. Begin with a receiving blanket. I used four total for the entire crib. These receiving blankets are soft flannel and match Sam's bedding. You could probably use any soft receiving blanket. I like the flannel because the fabric stays in place. I think cotton would slip around on the rails too much.

Take your receiving blanket and lay it out flat with the wrong side facing up. If you really want to be prissy, you can iron it and get rid of the wrinkles, but who cares. Its going on a crib and its going to be chewed and slobbered on. (Is it "its" or "it's?")

Now take a long side and fold it in towards the center. Take the opposite end and fold it in towards the center as well.

Now at this point, you could certainly sew the folded sides in place, but I don't have time to mess with my sewing machine right now. That would involve bringing it up from the basement since the builder of our fine home didn't see fit to add more than one outlet in the living space of our basement. So much for my basement sewing room and home office. That's a whole other project.

Now take the whole thing and fold it in half on itself. It will look something like this:


Now we are going to add velcro. The adhesive kind. Yes, I said adhesive. I don't have time to mess with sewing remember? Take a deep breath. It may be white trash, but it works. These are desperate times.


At this point my camera batteries died. The pictures will return shortly.
I took about 2 inches of velcro and cut it into 8 pieces, about a quarter inch each. I used four pieces per side crib rail. I put the velcro along the bottom edge of the folded blanket for the first cover and then pinned it more snuggly at the base of the rail. Don't just randomly place your velcro. Hang the cover over the crib rail first so that you can get the best fit. Our side rails are thinner toward the front and thicker toward the back. With the other side, I placed the velcro so that it would fit snuggly just below the rail. I don't like the loose ends, but either way works just as well. For the front rail of the crib, I had to use two receiving blankets. Because we have a sleigh bed style crib, I was even more ghetto and pinned the blankets in place because I had to fold them differently and couldn't finagle the velcro the way I wanted it. Here is how it looks.



Again it isn't professional, but they have held up through two naps and one night without shifting.

Sprint Strikes Again

Sprint has zinged us yet AGAIN. In fact, I'll now be referring to them as ZingMobile. Sam enjoys playing with my cell phone. Last night after he had finished playing with it, I picked it up to see "Service Required, Please call 1-888-211-4727 for further assistance." I turned it on and off, but no dice. I used Pedro's phone to call Customer Service and shockingly, I got right through to someone. Note to self that 6:30pm EST is a good time to call. The lady from tech support suggested that I turn my phone off, take the battery out for 10 seconds to reset. Did it work? NOPE! Then tech support lady informs me that she'll have to transfer me to someone in Tech Support. Wait? I thought that's who I was talking with? What?
They transfered me to someone who was clearly from.....India! Shocker. (And let me say I have NO problem whatsoever with people from other countries, I just think its funny that India seems to be the go to country for Tech Support.)
India Lady: Yes, how can I help you with?
Me: My phone says "Service Required, Please call 1-888-211-4727 for further assistance." I've already turned it off and taken the battery out and that did nothing."
IL: Yes, I need you to power your phone off and take your battery out.
Me: I already did that.
IL: I need you to turn off your phone and take your battery out.
Me: Ugh, fine. (Loooooooong pause) Um? Can I put the battery back?
IL: No. Not yet. (two more minutes go by) Ok. Replace your battery.
I put the battery back and power up the phone and guess what? SAME MESSAGE!
Me: Didn't work.
IL: How old is your phone?
Me: Almost 3 years old.
IL: You need a new phone. You are eligible for an upgrade. You'll have to go to your closest repair center. Would you like me to find that for you.
Me: No. I know where that is. Thanks.

Now, right before Pedro and I got married, we consolidated to a family plan. Pedro switched from Nextel to Sprint. When we did that I had to cancel my old plan and sign up for a new family plan contract. My phone was JUST short of being 2 years old (so actually my phone is ALMOST four years old!) and I wasn't eligible for an upgrade yet, even though Pedro was getting a brand new phone and we were signing up for a brand new contract. I don't understand the logic, but this is ZingMobile that we're talking about here.
So the real zinger is that NOW I'm eligible for a phone upgrade, but Pedro isn't yet since his phone is 4 months short of the 2 year mark meaning I have to sign up for another 2 years of service to get my new phone and we'll probably go through this all over again in another 18 months when Pedro's phone dies. Good thing we have insurance on his phone. Although that annoys me too. Insurance is for cars, home and health. Cell phones should be covered under a company warranty just like other electronics and appliances. I don't have to take out insurance on my refrigerator.