Squishy Color Bags

We did this this afternoon to teach Clark colors and teach Audrey about secondary colors. Lots of fun and super easy.

What's on my bedside table

And when I say bedside table, I mean "laying on the floor next to my bed."

Food Fights. Got lots of good ideas from this one--basically the gist was not to engage in a power struggle over eating, but continue to present lots of different food varieties.

ADD Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life. This book is wonderful--there are three levels of solutions to all of the organizational problems they address. For example, if you have mild problems with hyperfocus you might try a level 1 solution, like a timer. For moderate hyperfocus problems, find a support person to disengage you. For severe hyperfocus, you might need both plus some drugs! (ok I'm summarizing the last part.)

Gorgeously Green. Lots of good information, product reviews, for the beginning granola-mom.

Checked out all of these at the Temple Public Library in the new section. What are you reading?

Phthalates Ban to take effect in 6 months...

Mark it down, friends. I agree with Dianne Feinstein about something.
Washington Post reported yesterday:

Congressional negotiators agreed yesterday to a ban on a family of toxins found
in children's products, handing a major victory to parents and health experts
who have been clamoring for the government to remove harmful chemicals from
toys.

Senator Feinstein is sponsoring the legislation that would ban three different types of phthalates from children's products and restrict three additional types.

I started cleaning out our products with phthalates (pronounced thal-ates) last year when I read about this study of human babies with elevated phthalates levels. Phthalates evidently act as estrogenic and decrease anogenital distance and impair testicular function. Yikes! I want grandchildren, people!!

They are everywhere. Basically if a vinyl or plastic is flexible and doesn't say PVC-free and phthalate-free on the label, it's toxic. So here were a couple of the primary culprits in our house...

teethers, bath toys,

vinyl books, cute little turtles,
vinyl bibs,


and, *sniff, sniff*, nail polish.

That's right. I have to officially withdraw my endorsement of my favorite nail protein. Months ago I went to Target and stocked up on phthalate-free nail polish and it's been okay, not great--it does chip pretty fast. I guess I didn't think (or want to think) that--duh!--my two week nail treatment would be poison too.

It doesn't stop with flexible plastics. Most cosmetics and soaps that have that catch-all ingredient "fragrance" contain phthalates. So let's clean house!

Naptime Bribery

I've finally found something to help Audrey transition to nap time. I've been telling her for a while that if she goes to sleep with no whining and no crying we'll have a movie party with popcorn on the couch when she wakes up. We've done this for weeks with no luck, then all of a sudden, she got it! I think it helped that everytime she asked to watch tv or surf the web, I said, "Sure, hon, if you're sweet at naptime you can play--would you like that?" Three times now she has gladly jumped in bed for a chance for a popcorn party.

So I'm thrilled, right? You would think. But I really hate her watching a movie everyday--and there's no way she'd settle for a 30 minute TV show. I've tried 30 minutes of computer time but she still greatly prefers the movie/popcorn combination. Maybe I'll try and portion it out and the popcorn party will be 20 minutes or so of her favorite movie. Any other ideas?

Train them right...

I left Audrey alone downstairs for a little bit while I changed Clark and put him down for nap yesterday afternoon. I came downstairs and Audrey had dragged the chair over to the Kitchen-Aid mixer and pulled out the chocolate chips, brown sugar, baking soda, salt and vanilla. She has the entire chocolate chip cookie recipe memorized.


Yes, while some of you parents are teaching things like manners, ABCs, and Bible verses, we are mastering the finer art of "licking the paddle attachment." It was so cute. She said, "Mom I have an idea! Let's make chocolate chip cookies all together! I'll get the eggs." She also pulled out the cinnamon and said, "Is this for chocolate chip cookies or for French toast? I can't remember. Sorry, Mom, I forgot."


Here's my little chef stuffing her face with chocolate chips.

Yes, if you are wondering, cookies taste better if you bake them sans clothing. (Maybe this is why Natalie is having trouble replicating my recipe?)

So we made chocolate chip cookie dough for the third time in ten days. This is really not good for my waistline, but I figured it would give me a chance to incorporate some of the suggestions in this NYT article about the endless "perfect chocolate chip cookie" debate.

Preschool readiness

I found this list at my mom's a couple of weeks ago and thought I would share. We have a lot of work to do!

Skills suggested for your preschooler

1. First and last name
2. Address
3. Telephone number
4. Parents' first and last names
5. How to skip
6. How to zip, button and buckle
7. How to put on and take off shoes
8. Correct bathroom procedures
9. Count to 10
10. Identify by touch quantities from 1 to 5
11. Colors
12. Names of body parts
13. Nursery rhymes
14. Books have names, books have authors, book etiquette

Extras (any or all are helpful to know)
1. Days of the week
2. Own birthday
3. Emergency telephone number and contact person
4. How to print name (capital and lowercase letters)
5. Recognize rhyming sounds
6. Do finger plays
7. Recite alphabet without singing
8. Direction words: (over/under, around/through, up/down, left/right, forward/backward)
9. Position words: (beside/underneath, inside/outside, top/bottom, high/low)
10. Opposites: (fast/slow, boy/girl)
11. Sizes: (big/little, big/bigger/ biggest)
12. Shapes
13. Traffic safety
14. Time relationships (yesterday/today/tomorrow, morning/afternoon/night, early/late)