Ingenue Mom

On Thursdays until I start my long term sub, I'm watching my best friend's 4-year old. Sometimes during Isis' naps, we will watch a TV show! So, since Isis still isn't watching TV yet, I'm able to gather my info on my favorite current kid TV shows for when she does start watching a little TV! Here are my favorites right now! Little Bill Yo Gabba Gabba Toot & Puddle Dora the Explorer Special Agent Oso Olivia Moose & Zee Little Bear Oswald Charlie & Lola Timmy Time Caillou I also love to watch the old classics on Boomerang !! Looney Tunes, Captain Planet, The Flinstones, The Jetsons, Yogi Bear & Pink Panther all come on Boomerang!! What are your favorite current kid's TV shows?

I think Dr. Seuss was a genius. Here's why: Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than You. - Happy Birthday to You Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple. -As quoted in Looking Tall by Standing Next to Short People, And Other Techniques for Managing a Law Firm (2007) by H. Edward Wesemann I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I've bought a big bat. I'm all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me! -Unknown source   The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go. - I Can Read With my Eyes Shut   A person's a person, no matter how small. - Horton Hears a Who You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. You are the guy

Today is a hard day for me, for some reason. I know we've all been there. I've struggled with doubt and insecurity for as long as I can remember. I made it through adolescence and high school only by the grace of God and some wonderful friends He placed in my life. I sincerely believe that without them, I wouldn't be here today. I was that kind of teenager. Not the really rebellious one, but the insecure, self-destructive one. I believe in God and I believe in Satan. You may not agree and that's okay. I'm writing this for me,  not for you. But both have been very real in my life. Today is one of those days where I feel under attack. I wanted to just curl up in a ball & have a little pity party for myself this morning while Isis took her nap, but oddly enough, I read a status update by Queenie from The Planet Pink on Facebook and it hit me hard. I'm sure she didn't even realize that her words would be speaking to me. In my life, that's how God has wo

I found these ideas on this blog & this blog . I decided to do my own version. Dear Cameron at 3 years old, You just became a big sister! Enjoy these next several years because things are going to get crazy one day. Addiction will take a lot of years from your family. Enjoy every moment of simple joys & simple pleasures. Enjoy playing with your brother. Enjoy the birthday hat incident. Love these years. For a lot of reasons, you're going to be looking back at them with nostalgia, wondering where they went. Dear Cameron at 11 years old, You just started your first year in private school. It's going to prove a lot different and in some ways a lot more difficult than public school. Try hard not to lose yourself. And if I could give you one major suggestion, don't use sun-in on your hair. Just leave it alone. Also, boys are not that big of a deal. Just leave them alone, too. Dear Cameron at 14 years old, The boy you are about to spend the whole year obses

I go in little media spurts. Some months, I'll just want to watch the entire series of some TV show on DVD. Other months I'll want to read every free second I possibly have. I've been known to watch every movie with a certain actor or actress in it. I just get on these little kicks. Over Christmas break, it was reading - anything I could find! Over the course of about 3 weeks, I read all these books & I wanted to recommend them to you!! Lewis got me a Nook for Christmas, so a couple of these were read on my new Nook! The Hunger Games Catching Fire Mockingjay All three of these are in the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. I was a little skeptical at first. The story of yearly games where children aged 12-18 have to fight to the death in a futuristic America just doesn't sound like something I would normally like. But I had been hearing about them constantly & I knew that most things that become that popular have a reason to, so I decided to check it out.

Continuing with my thoughts about parenting on purpose, I've decided to make some changes in my life! For one, I need to start exercising. I hate exercising. I hate almost everything about it. I don't like taking the time to do it. I don't think it's fun. I don't like going to the gym and feeling self-conscious. I just really don't like it. Exercising was also not something that was cultivated in me throughout my life. Lewis, on the other hand, has been working out regularly since he was young - I think maybe 13 is when he said he remembers regularly doing some form of regular physical activity other than just the playing that a kid does. Ever since I've known him, he's made a point to work out about every other day. He'll run, lift weights, etc. We have a treadmill and a whole slew of weight lifting equipment in our basement, as well as two different kinds of punching bags. He kick-boxed for a while in college. He also completed the P90X stuff a co

I have been blessed to have a wonderful friend who has two daughters, ages 4 and 6. I've been watching her parent for the last 6 years. When we finally decided we were ready to get pregnant and have a child of our own, I'd already  had years of time to really think about the type of parent I wanted to be. While a lot of the specifics of parenting and the look of your day to day can change because of the diverse needs of your children, there is one thing that always has stayed the same for me. That thing is the idea that it is important to parent on purpose.  I never wanted to be someone who just took each difficulty or each night or each act of discipline as a fly by the seat of your pants kind of thing. I absolutely think it has been so important for me to take time to enjoy Isis where she is at each moment, to savor those little idiosyncrasies of raising a baby. I've cuddled, I've loved, I've held, I've allowed some cry-it-out, I've fed, I've weaned,

We moved into our house in May 2007. After almost 4 years in our cute little townhouse, we have decided it's time to put it up for sale! We are in the process of organizing & getting it ready. No major repairs, just some staging to make it look great! One of my biggest prayers right now is that is sells. It's just not a great time for selling your house, but we cannot have another baby in this house! Plus we've just run out of room. Check out these great posts from 2007 when I was blogging about  my House Hunt! There are a couple pics of my house in there, but the inside is all the prior owner's stuff.  Anybody out there had any luck recently with selling your house? Any great tips for me??

  So our lucky girl is going to end up having THREE first birthday parties! I had one at my friend Diana's house with just friends. Then my mom had one with my side of the family and Lewis' mom is going to have one at the end of January with their side of the family! This won't be something we do every year, but it's how it ended up working out this year. Normally, we will just have a party at our house, but right now we are in a townhouse & there's just no way we could fit very many people there. Our first party was at my friend Diana's house. It was a cupcake themed party! I made the cupcake liner pom-poms that I found on Melissa from Dear Baby 's guest post on The Daily Julie . They turned out really great & I did them in colors similar to Isis' bedroom so that I could hang them over her bed after the party! She LOVES them! Everytime we get her up, she wants to reach up & touch them. We had a make your own cupcake set-up, so we just h

  All pictures by Avenue D Photography General stats : Weight - 20 lbs, 8 oz, Height - 29 inches She has grown 13 lbs, 12 oz and 11 inches this year!! Movement : She is a major crawler & a major cruiser, but has yet to walk. I think she crawls too well & cruises too well when leaning on things! We try to stand her up & get her to walk to us, but she seems to just know that crawling is faster or she will reach out for the couch or the wall & then walk to us. She will stand on her own sometimes if distracted, like holding a toy with both hands, but as soon as she realizes she's not leaning on anything, she drops straight down. We've seen her stand on her own for about 10 seconds, but she won't do it very often. We're just waiting patiently for this, I guess! Food : She eats anything & everything...except pasta. I have no idea why she doesn't like pasta! We've tried everything with no allergic reactions. She love pickles! And she eats black o

Isis is now officially drinking from a cup - no more bottles!! But our journey to get here hasn't been the most fun, although it was probably better than some! I thought I'd share some of our story for those of you who may be at this point soon! First, we started weaning her at about 11 1/2 months. At that point, she was taking a bottle at 7:30am, 11:30am, 3:30pm and 7:00pm. We started with the 3:30pm bottle. I gave her a sippy cup with half whole milk & half formula. She screamed. For about 45 minutes. It was awful. I consoled her every few minutes, but I didn't offer her a bottle. After about 45 minutes, I sat her down in the living room with the sippy cup on the ottoman and I walked in the kitchen to get her a piece of bread. I was gone about 5 seconds. When I came back, she was drinking the milk from the cup. Hilarious! I guess other than her 45 minute tantrum, it was a pretty easy transition. About 3 days later, I started giving her a cup at the 11:30am feeding w

2010 has brought so many wonderful new people into my life - other than Isis, who was obviously the most fabulous! Blogging has been really fun for me, mostly because of the wonderful new friends I have made! Adriel is one of them & I'm totally stealing this post idea from her. She has the BEST ideas for posts! If you haven't read her blog, please do! Here are the friends who just really made a difference to me over this past year! Adriel at The Mommyhood Memos Queenie at The Planet Pink Amy at Somebody's Parents Liz at A Belle, A Bean and a Chicago Dog Vanita at After Bedtime Blog Melissa at Another Lunch Melissa at Confessions of a Dr. Mom Gina at It's How She Rolls Lisa at Korean American Mommy Dawn at Life Unscripted Hanan at Lilac City Momma Mama Hen at Mama's Little Chick Jojo at One Sassy Vixen Lori at Mommyfriend Micheline at Flyrish Foibles Roz at A Little R & R Livy at Making Over Mum Lindsey at Peaceful Island Mother Melissa