Ice, Ice Baby

Or, "Toddler" if we want to get really technical...Anyway, yes, this is Landon sucking on an icicle from our house. My mom gave it to him. He liked it. She also took these pictures. I was worried that he'd impale himself. He didn't. I obviously just need to relax more as a mom. Perhaps my mom was the same way and really wanted to give me and my sister icicles when we were kids, but didn't out of fear that we'd impale ourselves. But now that she's a grandma she has learned to relax and instead gives our kids icicles. I doubt that. Enjoy the pics!

Ice Skating

We took Landon ice skating for the first time a few weeks ago. Ice skating went great; getting there was not. Case in point:

Amount of time it took to get to St. Paul: 20 minutes
Amount of time it took to exchange $1 for quarters from the bank to pay the meter: 3 minutes
Amount of quarters put in the meter: 4
Time that it allotted us: 24 minutes
Time it was supposed to allot us: 48 minutes (the first quarter didn't take, the second did, the third one didn't - at which point I called the meter repair line and was told that there was nothing they could do and if I wanted my money back I'd have to send in a self-addressed stamped envelope. He also said I could stay parked there but risk a $33 ticket or move and use my last quarter. We opted to put the last quarter in the machine, hoping it would "take." It did.)
Additional time in here to walk to the rink, pay, and sign waivers.
Amount of time to put skating gear on a toddler and 2 adults: 13 minutes
Amount of time actually spent on the ice: 9 minutes
Ticket: None (thank you, Lord!)

It would have been nice if we had more time, since Landon thoroughly enjoyed it (and we paid $4 for the experience, but we didn't want to chance it any further). Next time, we'll remember to bring more quarters/dollars.



When Landon got tired of us holding him up by the armpits, he was perfectly content to sit on the ice and have Alan push him around. As you can tell, it wasn't crowded!

Long Overdue

Remember this post in which I shared my dreams for a freshly painted kitchen to go with my white cabinets and the cute pear fabric I found? Well, the kitchen is just about done and I neglected to post pictures. Yes, I did paint my kitchen lime green and love it!

It matches perfectly with my lime green KitchenAid (not pink, as I was initially hoping for, but it was a very generous gift and Landon loves using it, which might not be the case if it was pink - ha!) and the paint casts a kind of eerie glow upon our kitchen windows when it's dark outside and the kitchen lights are on.



Thanks to another gift, I was able to get new hardware for the kitchen cabinets, which we are slowly but surely getting installed.

I have a few more finishing touches to go (like hanging my apron, a shelf, and some artwork), but you still get the general idea.

Great Giveaway!

Here's another great giveaway going on at my other favorite blog site Money Saving Mom. Today she's giving away 5 $100 gift cards to the, drum roll please, store of your choice! Isn't that amazing and generous?!? If you'd like a chance to win too just head over here.

Pick Me! Pick Me!

I don't win things - ever. Okay, so maybe not "ever," but it's not very often. So when some of my favorite blogs offer contests, I enter them with the hopes of winning fun, fantastic prizes. And, today, while at MckMama's website, I saw that she was giving away an HP TouchSmart computer!!!!! Oy vey - that would be a great contest to win! So, in an effort to get as many entries into said contest as possible, I'm blogging about it. And, I suppose, you can enter too (even though it will reduce my chances of winning, but I'll still rejoice with you if you win the contest knowing you heard about it from me).

Priceless

Sorry for the shakiness - I was laughing at Landon's facial expression.

Proof

Thank goodness for modern technology. Because if I didn't have video capabilities on my phone, then Alan probably wouldn't have believed me that this happened. Shoot, I probably wouldn't have believed that this had happened!


Here's the story behind the video - After breakfast, I decided to clip Landon's fingernails while I had him confined in his chair. I easily did the right hand and was moving to the left when he decided to get all squirmy. I said, "I have just 5 more fingers to do," and Landon said, "Five, six, seven." Ohhhhh-kaaaaay. That is most definitely a "new" thing. He knows "1, 2, 3," because of the warnings we've given him, but never "5, 6, 7." I pursued a little further and he counted to nine! Of course, when I called my Grandma for Landon to share his new-found talent, he only got up to "2" because he was too preoccupied with the phone and it's lit up buttons. Fortunately, I was able to catch this moment later in the morning and he was, surprisingly, very focused on the task.