Making Curtains

Sewing

On Sunday, Lukas and Nanna made half the new curtains for our kitchen. Lukas is very interested in sewing and serging. He helps feed the fabric through the machine and helps take pins out of the fabric. Looks like sewing skills are going to skip my generation.

Mutts

Mutts by Patrick McDonnell
April 28, 2008

Mommy Loves Hip Hop

Last week I heard a review on NPR about Baby Loves Hip Hop - The Dino 5. It's a hip hop album for kids. They played some music and talked about a toddler listening party of sorts. The music (especially the "theme song") got stuck in my head and I had to download it on iTunes. The great part is that it's a narrated story with songs. Lukas and I listened in the car but he didn't exactly pay attention to the whole story. He also didn't start dancing and singing in his car seat, but he didn't cry either. I found it catchy and entertaining and I think Lukas will grow into it. The "Baby Loves" series has other kinds of music too, but I haven't checked those out yet.

Here's all the links you need to get your Dino grooves going:

The NPR Story
Baby Loves Hip Hop
The Dino 5's Site

Deaf Dog?

Is she really deaf?

So, sometimes you hear something and at seemingly the same time your "deaf" dog looks around as if she's heard it too. You think, this dog is just pretending to be deaf! She's just being difficult! Or, maybe she's just a bit hard of hearing. But then things happen that make you know for sure she's completely without hearing. My top 3 favorites (so far) are....

3. when the vacuum cleaner runs into her before she moves
2. when the lawn mower almost runs into her before she moves
1. when you get 3 of 4 paws Dremeled before she wakes up

(see doberdawn.com & click on the "How to Dremel Dog Nails" on the sidebar for a nifty instructional - this is so much easier on me than clipping - making a dog bleed is not fun plus they run around getting blood on the carpet)

Having a deaf dog is interesting. I don't think training too much harder than with a hearing dog, it's just different. The biggest problem is not being able to yell "NO!" from across the room. That's where a strategically placed squirt bottle of water comes in handy. We've been to 3 of 4 training sessions with a dog trainer and it's going pretty well. I don't devote as much practice time to it as the trainer would like. The trainer is a bit obsessed with how she walks on a leash, where I'm more interested in her not using my floors as a toilet. I'm hoping to wait a few months and sign up for a group class somewhere. Abby is easily distracted, so that will be a much needed challenge.

1 paw to go!

Super Why!

Alpha Pig, Wonder Red, Super Why, & Princess Presto

Lukas has been watching a new (to us) show called Super Why! on PBS and it is really good stuff. I don't know if it's school or Super Why!, but we were watching the other day and the Princess says "what letter makes the sound "t"?" and Lukas says "T". I had no idea he knew anything like that! He knew a few others they asked too. I don't know what time it comes on, but I've got the DVR set to record all episodes. Learning is fun!

They have an interactive web site for kids here. They also have a parents web site here.



You can also subscribe to the Super Why! podcast on iTunes, but it looks like they only have 2 episodes on there.

Book Orders

Everyone remembers "book orders", right? You're a kid in school and you get this little color newsprint brochure of books you can order and you rush it home and circle all the stuff you want. Then, you beg your parents to buy all 13 books you've chosen. Well, Lukas got his first book order this week - he's officially a kid. I've seen my brother and sister (age 9) with these recently and thought I'd have to wait until at least kindergarten to have one of my very own, but I was wrong. They are peddling them very early. We actually got two of them with different names, "Firefly" and "Honeybee", so I'm guessing they are for different age groups, but I don't know what age groups.

Although I haven't circled anything on them yet, I'm sure I'll be placing an order. It's all about supporting the school (for the 2 days a week Lukas goes). We'll have to get a Clifford ("the red big dog" as Lukas says) book and something about bugs, maybe that book about the squid, and definitely "No More Diapers for Ducky!". We do love to read...

Target Garden

Friday night I was at Target and saw these great flower pots in the dollar section. They are plastic and the sticker on them said "recyclable". They are from Buzzy Seeds, but I don't see them on their web site. I picked up one of each color (3) and a dollar box of 3 herb seeds. I brought them home, got out the drill, drilled holes in the bottom for drainage and two holes under the rim for attaching them to my fence. I used picture hanging wire to attach them to the pickets. I opened up the seed box and the herb seeds were all mixed in one packet! Since I had also bought 5 for a buck plant markers, I couldn't very well put my herbs in the pots all mixed up. So, I headed back to WLR Target for seeds and more pots on Sunday. All they had were the terra cotta colored pots, so I just bought individual herb seeds. Monday I drove to NLR Target where they had zero pots. But happy day on Wednesday - WLR had lots-o-pots. I bought 6 more than I had intended and now have a total of 15. I only have 9 of them planted with things like cilantro, sweet basil, Genovese basil, purple ruffle basil, garlic chives, and oregano. For some reason I didn't pick up another package of plant markers, so I'm sure I'll be back at Target tomorrow. I've got to get over to Home Depot anyway to pick up 6 more varieties of herbs. I'm thinking rosemary and mint and whatever else catches my eye. If I still had cats, I'd of course get the catnip.

Oh yeah, Lukas helped plant 3 of these, but I left him out of the rest. Bad Mommy.

PS - Check out my sweet rose bush in the background! My excellent neighbor, Pam, comes over & moves the branches around to make them climb the fence. 1 branch (stem?) is shooting up into her tree.

Abby Adorable

Everyone loves the "comfy couch".

Back Yard

I'm still experimenting with my new camera and sweet f1.8 lens so I took some pictures of the boy & the dog in the back yard today.

Back Yard

A Conversation

A conversation between Mommy & Lukas on Monday, April 14, 2008:

Mommy: What’s Mommy’s name?
Lukas: Mommy.
Mommy: What’s Mommy’s real name?
Lukas: Big Mommy.
Mommy: No, what’s Mommy’s real name?
Lukas: Old.

Nice, right?

Portraits

Lukas in Texas
March 1, 2008

Lukas in Texas
March 1, 2008


Daddy wearing the outfit that his Dad brought him back from a trip to Hong Kong.
Mid 1970s

Lukas in Daddy's "Hong Kong" Outfit
Can you believe I didn't have any red knee socks?
March 1, 2008

Devon, Kolby & Lukas
March 26, 2008

Lukas
March 26, 2008

It's Easter, Finally

Lukas examines his Easter Eggs
Easter Sunday, 2008

Although the new dog is keeping me pretty busy, I did remember that I had a son, and that there were some Easter pictures of him that need to be seen. Here's the album for our Purdy, MO trip. I tried to label most of the pictures - most people are Rich's cousins, I probably misspelled names, or gave the wrong name to people. My apologies!

Click on the Picasa link on the right to see the new album.