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I am a Christian, tattoo loving, paranormal believing, pierced up, supernatural watching, vampire diaries adoring, soccer coaching, animal helping, Earth saving, twimom to 4 living a crazy life I love. I am definitely Not Everyones Mama.

Archive for June 27th, 2010

Look-A-Like Meter

Posted by Heather Manning On June - 27 - 2010

I couldn’t resist playing with this.

MyHeritage: Family treeGenealogyCelebrityCollageMorph

MyHeritage: Look-alike MeterFamily tree softwareGeneology

MyHeritage: Family treesGenealogyCelebsCollageMorph

MyHeritage: Family treeGenealogyCelebCollageMorph

Which is absolutely hilarious. I didn’t have a picture of Jordan’s dad scanned into my computer and I always hear how much Jordan looks like Pato so I thought I’d give it a try. That picture of Jordan is from wacky hair day at school. :)

And the last one –

MyHeritage: Family treesGenealogyCelebritiesCollageMorph

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Little Grips

Posted by Heather Manning On June - 27 - 2010

Who has a baby/toddler who hasn’t quite mastered silverware yet?

raising my own hand

Christiano wants so badly to use silverware like the rest of us, but he just can’t get it yet.  He tries and tries and tries some more.  Sometimes he gets lucky and gets something on his fork after stabbing 15 times (you know how easy it to pick things up with a plastic fork!).  Nothing stays on a spoon.  Nothing.  It gets flipped around, usually ending up down his chest or on the floor, unless he wings it as he is spinning it and it sticks to my refrigerator.  After a few tries, he ends up digging in with his fingers, which makes for a very messy baby.

I have found a genius invention!

littlegrips

You look at those and think, hmmmmm, that might work!  We’ll give it a try!

Let me let the company tell you a bit more about Little Grips first, then I’ll tell you how they worked for us.

An ergonomic design that takes advantage of a toddler’s stronger grasping and overall hand-movement skills, while still allowing them to learn proper feeding motions. You will see your child’s confidence build and messiness diminish.

  • A toddler utensil designed for toddler feeding
  • Comfortable non-slip grip that fits easily and naturally in your toddler’s palm
  • Toddler feeding that ends frustation and builds confidence
  • No-choke safety design with rounded edges
  • Made from durable, high quality plastic and stainless steel
  • Dishwasher safe
  • Only $10.95! plus shipping and handling

We got the package in the mail.  I opened them up, threw them in the dishwasher (cuz I still do that), and when it was suppertime I placed them on Christiano’s plate and sat back and watched.

He knew just want to do.  Picked the fork up, stabbed a piece of chicken, put it in his mouth.  He looked at me with surprise in his eyes, and said….if you follow my blog, you know what’s coming…..I did it!

Yes he did.  The moment couldn’t have been more perfect.

Now, he even gets in the silverware drawer to get out his spoon and fork when it’s not time to eat.  He brings them to me and points toward the kitchen.  He LOVES them.  I think we need another set because I’m having to hand wash these for lunch and dinner (usually I run the dishwasher once a day, after supper) so he can use them for all of his meals. 

For those who are new visiting this post, Christiano just turned 16 months.

I think these are absolutely fabulous!  Who knew such a simple change in design to silverware could make such a big difference in whether he could do it on his own or not. 

He still gets messy (what toddler doesn’t?), but seeing him become more independent is so much fun!  Plus, I get more time to enjoy my own meal.  He doesn’t get frustrated and it just makes meal time go a little smoother.

You can buy Little Grips at their website.  They are not available in stores, though I hope they are soon!  I’d love to be able to run and grab these for last minute gifts that I am always forgetting. (I am constantly being told, ohhhhh…so and so’s baby shower is tomorrow, I thought I told you!)   Plus, I would love more colors!  Blue, green, pink, purple, they’d even be so much fun in a rainbow pattern!

Verdict?

thumbsup

Huge thumbs up for helping Christiano master a task that he really wanted to do, but didn’t have the dexterity yet to do on his own.  Excellent excellent product!

disclaimer

Thank you so much to Little Grips for sending us a set of Little Grips Utensils for Christiano to try out.  He loves them and so do I!

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Did I Save It?

Posted by Heather Manning On June - 27 - 2010

I hope so.

I wish I would have thought to take a picture.  We came home from a day out shopping yesterday and I looked on my wicker couch on my porch.  There was something sitting there.  For some reason, baby bird didn’t even register in my head.  I asked my husband, is that a toy bird someone threw on our porch?  He said, um, no.  It’s real.  I looked again.  Yep, it was a naked little thing, no feathers, just laying there on my couch.  Barely moving.  Couldn’t even stand up yet on it’s own 2 legs. 

We were searching for a nest every where.  I’m thinking it had to have been a baby barn swallow that fell.  I even asked the people on the 2nd and 3rd floor if they had a nest in the rafters of the porch above them or the rafters of the roof. (My neighbors seemed to accept the fact that I’m a tad kooky.) 

Everyone looked, no nest.

There are no trees around my porch where it could have fallen out of a nest.

I called the animal rescue league, no answer on a Saturday night.  Iowa DNR – no answer on a Saturday night.  An emergency vet.  They answer but they don’t take wild life.  But she said, Iowa State University has a small animal ICU (and a large animal one I saw) and they take baby birds.  I was upset because it was over 90 degrees yesterday and we had been gone hours.  I wasn’t sure how long this poor thing had been laying there, but there was no sign of the parents while we were inside and I was searching the internet and calling people.

Iowa State told me to bring it down to them.  A 45 minute drive…….. each way.  I asked if I should give it baby bird formula .  You have that?  Yes, I do, for my lovebird.  Yes, see if it will eat.  It did.  It took a bit for it to figure out what I was trying to do, but once it got a taste, it opened right up and ate.

Put it in a shoe box and took it off to Iowa State University’s small animal hospital where I really hope they can save it.

Everyone but my sister in law and my kids were like, you drove all the way to Ames?  Well, what was I suppose to do?  Leave it on my porch to die?  I could have put it in a box and handfed it on my porch and hoped it would take off on it’s own when it’s ready to fledge.  But, don’t bird parents teach their young how to fly and how to hunt?  Plus, it’s a felony to have a migratory bird (See Migratory Bird Treaty Act) in your possession without a special permit.  I don’t want to go to jail either.

I hope it makes it.

Like I said, we went shopping yesterday.  We hit 2 malls and Wal-Mart.  Pato and Jordan got some summer clothes that were on sale at Aeropostale.  If someone could pronounce that for me, that would be awesome.  I can never say it right.

I got the girls some new earrings at Claire’s.  I haven’t bought them new earrings for awhile.  Kat got some at the beginning of school, Alyce probably when she was 1.  I stopped buying them when they started taking them out on their own after a couple of hours and losing them.  We thought we’d give them a try again.

At the other mall, I hit Hot Topic and got the shirt that I was thinking about yesterday for when we go see Eclipse Tuesday night.  I also got a new nose ring.  I haven’t worn one in a year or so because I keep losing them.  :)   See, I don’t buy stuff over and over again if any of us continuously loses the same object.  My nose rings would fall out.  This time I got a hoop with a ball on it.  I have a picture but it’s cell phone and it’s not great of me.  I was totally trying to take a picture of it in the mirror while Jordan was getting his haircut and these guys were sitting behind me.  I was trying to sneak a picture and my flash kept going off.  Can’t be sneaky with a big flash of light.

june-48

I needed to reapply my lipstick. :)   I’m hoping it’s not too big.  Hurt like a …. yeah, you know, putting it in.  Like I said, I haven’t worn one in quite awhile.  The hole wasn’t closed, I tried one of the girls’ earrings in it and it went in.  I think when they pierced it though, they did it funny.  Though, maybe it’s normal cuz my sister in law has the same problem with her’s.  The back hole doesn’t line up with the front hole.  You have to fish around for the hole.  That’s great with a straight post, but with a curved hoop that I needed to put in from the inside going out, it wasn’t easy.  I did it in the car and Pato thought it was funny to keep tapping the brakes while I was attempting insertion. :)

After the mall, we went to Wal-Mart because we needed garbage bags, toilet paper, stuff to grill out for supper last night.  Jordan saw the hair salon and said, maybe I could get my hair cut.  I seized the moment, even though we’ve had bad experiences with Wal-Mart’s salon.  May I say though, Maria is awesome.  She looked at the picture that I had found googling on my phone, Jordan wanted his hair cut like Jacob.  I think he wants to be a werewolf.  I showed her this picture of Taylor Lautner.  I can’t actually find the picture that popped up on my phone when I searched for him.  But this one is close enough

She took it and kind of adjusted it for Jordan’s face and I LOVE how it turned out.  You should have seen the smile on my face. 

jordanbna

Does he not look so much better without the long shaggy hair?  He is thrilled with it!  I am hoping this is the end of the I’m going to grow my hair out stage that he’s going through.

Now to work on those abs.  :)   For real though, he has been doing really good.  He’s gone from a size 38 husky back down to his 36’s.  Again, thrilled mommy!  I just want him to be healthy and happy, if you can’t tell from the smile above, he was happy yesterday!

Let me leave you with a story about Jordan from Friday.

We had gone grocery shopping (to grill out again – you think I’d get more than one day worth of meat since I knew Pato was off the next day, but no.).  Jordan saw a lady in camo in the dairy aisle.  He said, mom!  Look, she’s a soldier!  I said, I know, very cool.  He said, should I tell her thank you?  I said, I think that would be awesome.  He couldn’t find her again after that.

We were going to check out, behind about 4 other people, when he saw another soldier.  He said, I’m going to go tell him thank you.  Ok.  By the time he managed to get through all of the people, the guy was gone.  Jordan went outside, chased him half way across the parking lot (yes, he looked for cars, I asked) yelling, sir!  Sir!  Hold on sir!  The guy finally realized that Jordan was talking to him and turned around.  All out of breath, Jordan said, I just wanted to say thank you for serving and fighting for our country.  The guy smiled and thanked Jordan. 

Jordan turned around and came back into me.

Is he not the sweetest? 

He has a heart of gold.

As much as they drive me nuts with not listening or doing their chores, and with as much as I question my own parenting skills because of the aforementioned, when it comes down to it, I think I am doing ok with them. I have so many moments where I just beam with pride at something they have done to help someone or at a kind word they give to someone who needs it.

I have some wonderful children.

Have a great day!

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