Bedhead {Or Time for Haircut #2}

We promise, a haircut is imminent. But he sure does look sweet with his tousled morning mane.

Q & A Part II

Q: The Lutz Family is interested on my take on babies and babbling...
A: Becks still does a lot of babbling, most of which is only understood by those closest to him. He's not great at enunciating yet, though definitely has a word for many things. Only recently has he started stringing a couple words together at a time (i.e. "Daddy car" when he sees B's car or "Brrr Cold" when we walk outside).

The best way, in my experience as a mom and teacher, for kiddos to learn to speak is to talk to them often during your daily activities, even if it's mundane (i.e. "Mommy would really like to go to the potty in privacy. Thanks!"), sing, and read.

We read often, and he enjoys the repetition of his favorite books - currently LuLu, Click Clack Moo, and Goodnight Moon. He also enjoys watching a Sesame Street sing-along and is captivated by many of the songs and characters. We usually watch it once a day!

At his 18-month check-up, the milestone for talking is around 7-8 words I think, so I wouldn't fret about Mister Ryder. It sounds like he is communicative, so that's important! Since I am in NO WAY a speech-language pathologist, you might be better off directing your questions to Gina or Jillian - both bloggin' mamas in this field :D {Hope you don't mind the referral, girls!}

Q: Sarah aks, Team Jacob or Team Edward?

A: 257 pages through Eclipse and I am still all for Team Edward. Real men sparkle, right?!

Q: Duet Diva wants to know, What is your favorite college memory (besides dead week in the Pi house)? AND what is your favorite meal to make for your family?

A: There are several that come to mind, and here are the most prominent: posing reindeer in risque positions on the roof, laying out on the front lawn, attacking everyone's whiteboards with words of wisdom from the *p* bandit, Mamalee's mad decorating skills with lace and doilies, Monday night violets, and playing flying squirrel between Allison's bunkbed and my own. I could go on for ages.

My favorite meal to fix for my boys is Mashed Potato Pizza.

Ingredients:

1 Boboli pizza crust

1 batch of homemade mashed potatoes

6-8oz shredded cheddar cheese

Cooked, crumbled bacon (I usually use 8-10 slices)

Cherry tomatoes, sour cream, chives

Directions: Preheat oven according to directions on pizza crust. Prepare mashed potatoes. Slather mashed potatoes to thick atop pizza crust. Top with bacon and shredded cheddar. Bake according to pizza crust directions. Top pizza with chives, sour cream, and sliced cherry tomatoes. Enjoy!

Q: Lea Liz asks, Where are your favorite places to shop for yourself and for lil Beckham!!

A: Beckham's clothes either come from Target, Walmart, Children's Place (sale), or Once Upon a Child (thrift). While I adore cute, little Ralph Lauren button-downs, I absolutely refuse to pay anywhere close to full-price for them. The one Becks wore on Christmas, pictured below, was $5.50 at Once Upon a Child and was in perfect condition. I can't justify spending too much on kids clothes when it's pretty much a race to see whether he will stain or outgrow it first!

I shop all over, but it truly has to be a sale or steep mark down for me to buy something. Loving the thrill of a good buy, I scope out Plato's Closet (thrift) for many trendy things that I wouldn't pay full price for elsewhere. The grey dress I wore to a New Year's Shower recently was $8 at Plato's Closet, and the black dress that I wore on my birthday was also $8 at Plato's Closet. The scarf was Walmart - $5.

Thanks for everyone who played along. Also, if you missed Part I, you can read it here.

The Muffin Man

Oh, do you know the muffin man?The muffin man, the muffin man?
Oh, do you know the muffin man?
Who bakes on snowy days?

PS. What a great shot of my ugly laminate floors. God rest your soul, 1974...

Black Eyed B

Becks got his first shiner the other day. Nope, not in a knock-down-drag-out skirmish over a sippy cup, but rather a graceful fall into the corner of the coffee table. He cried a bit and doesn't even know that he has a prominent battle scar under his eye. If you ask him about his boo-boo, he refers to his toe that has the most miniscule scab on it f. Interestingly, he refers to the toe injury whenever someone talks to him on the phone. He holds up his foot, as if the caller can see it, and says Toe? Boo-boo? From this diagram, we can deduce a couple of things. A) I want need professional picture editing software. B) Becks had brownies for breakfast. No need to hate. I don't regularly give my son brownies for breakfast. But he's been running a fever since yesterday morning due to a fierce cold and his appetite is pretty much only for things in the finger-food group. And a brownie totally qualifies. Lunch was a little better, though he wouldn't allow me to wrassle him into his highchair. So I filled several little bowls with foods that I didn't care if they wound up on the floor eventually and had some nutritional value: pretzel rod, Craisins, peanuts, banana slices, with a paci and a sippy of juice thrown in for good measure.

And, your eyes do not decieve you. That is a pink pacifier. I do not recommend Walgreens for your pacifier shopping on Christmas Eve. Apparently, everyone needs a spare on December 24th. It was the only one remaining. However, we think the boyish black eye totally compensates for the pink paci.

Anyway, during Snow Day #2 we did a whole lot of staying in our jammies. Only after his bath tonight did Becks change out of one pair of jammies and into another. {Does anyone else have to change their child into clean jammies every night or is that just me?}

Oh, we also played in the snow. Indoors. Per suggestion from Kelly. Initially, I let him stick his hands in the accumulation on our front porch. But then when I closed the door a meltdown ensued. And I'm not talking about the snow.

So, I took Kelly's suggestion and filled a big Rubbermaid container with several scoops of snow and let him play with it on top of his new table. {Aside: if you're in the market for a cute kids table, I cannot recommend the IKEA LÄTT enough. It's only $24.99 for the table and two chairs, easily assembled, and lightweight for easy portability. This is not a paid blog post, btw, I just love this product!}

Looks like tomorrow will be another jammies day, as school is already closed. Oh, and don't forget to follow me on Twitter @babblingabby so you can enjoy After the Final Tweet on Monday! Stay warm!

18-Month-Old Entertainment

This is Becks' favorite thing to do as of late. Leland appreciates it almost as much as I do. Her because she gets fed, and me because I get approximately 5 minutes to unload the dishwasher uninterrupted.

After the Final Tweet

What started as girly banter in our sorority house in college has now become the ramblings of three Mommy's who simply cant turn away from guess what... THE BACHELOR. With the newest season making its debut yesterday we decided to rally our forces. You didn't think the three of us could go an entire reality show season and not give our two, well three cents did you?

So without further ado....The Duet Diva, Babbling Abby and Brit of Dave and Brit Plus One bring you After the Final Tweet- a tweetathon and breakdown of the newest season of the Bachelor. But it doesn't end with us....we need and want your help. Every Monday the three of us will be hosting live tweets and posts during the Bachelor with our deductions of the latest drama. We would LOVE to hear your feedback and your three cents too.

Be sure to pop on over to Twitter and follow the three of us and check back here every Monday for the latest After the Final Tweet news. Here are our twitter links @BabblingAbby, @DuetDiva, & @daveandbrit.

This is the most "dramatic season ever" so don't miss out!

Oh yeah, one more thing....

If you want to add some love and show that you are participating in After The Final Tweet the button to grab is below. !

<a href="http://www.babblingabby.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://mbmfiles.com/Jan2010/100105-BpE4XBcDSSN.jpg" alt="''" border="0" /></a><br />

Snow Day Numero Uno

Today is my very first Snow Day of the school year. I wasn't really expecting one, but woke up to a 5:22am phone call from our county's all-call system saying that schools were CLOSED. Back from break for one day and -bam- Snow Day! This is actually one of the reasons that I love being a teacher, besides my adoration for young minds and summer vacation, of course.

Supposedly more snow is expected on Thursday, though I trust the local meteorologists about as much as I trust my son around a Christmas tree. And that's not saying a whole lot.

And, now for some complete random things I've been meaning to tell you...

1. I am obsessed with scarves lately, and accessorize with them daily because I think they add instant pizazz to an otherwise lame outfit. Plus, they keep my neck snuggly warm. Some of you asked where they were from, so here ya go: the purple scarf seen here is from Target, the zebra print scarf is from Walmart (for $5!) and this grey one is from Old Navy. I would recommend the Walmart ones, as they're cheap, have lots of patterns, and are long and wide.
2. I have one and only one New Year's Resolution. Here it is: SIMPLIFY. I want my life to be easier, simpler, stress-free-er. To kick of 2010, I began by detoxing our otherwise extremely toxic basement and threw away a five-foot-pile-o-junk. One garbage day, it looked like we were moving. I don't even know how the clutter began, but our basement looks better already and its orderliness makes it a little more appetizing to stay on top of the laundry. I hope it has a trickle-down effect to other aspects of my life.
3. I was talking with my friend, Rachel, about our bloglives, and how we both were kind of going through a blog slump. Or a blump, if you will. And she said something so true: How can I blog about it if I'm out living it? I couldn't agree more. Admittedly, I've posted just to post before. Not because I had something worthy of writing about, but because I felt I had to do so out of obligation. That's the wrong way to blog, and I vow that I will live it rather than blog about it more often.
4. We're having car drama again. Both cars this time. VW is about to lose our brand loyalty.
5. I gave Beckham his first time-out today. He's been doing this hitting thing, but I wasn't sure if it was malicious or not. I was giving him the benefit of the doubt and calling them love taps instead. And then, when I told him NO about something or other, he bonked me in the head with the remote control. TWICE! So, I made him sit in his rocking chair for 1 minute while I stood over him looking out of the corner of my eye. He was smiling behind his paci and I don't known if he knew he was being punished or not. I think he thought it was a game. After a minute was up, I explained the no hitting mommy rule and tried to coax a sorry out of him. For kid that's never been spanked, I have no clue where the hitting comes from. Is this a developmental thing that I can chalk up to 18 months?

Oh, yes. Lest I forget to tell you that I will be working with Duet Diva and Brit on an upcoming blog assignment. Check back later for details. {Spoiler: it totally has something to do with Jake and 25 lucky ladies!} And, in the meantime, go follow me on Twitter @babblingabby!

Stay warm!