Monday, March 26, 2012

Easy Way to peel garlic...


Nope, I haven't tried it, yet!

Friday, March 9, 2012

Rare Weekend Off

This is rare for us.  A full weekend with both my husband and I  off from work!

Our house is a mess.  Our yard is a mess.  I have an online class I need to finish before April 10.  He has things to do for his class.  We have loads of laundry.  We have a bathroom that needs to be remodeled.  I would like to change the vanity in our powder room.  I would like to bake.  I would like us to cook and consume all the frozen vegetables from last year's harvest.  I have books I want to read.  I would like to make up for lost sleep.    To top it all, we have a toddler who needs constant attention!

Maybe working on the weekends is not a bad thing  after all!

28th Month

Today he turned 28th month.  I realized we haven't been  updating his baby book for quite a while.  I neglected to record his height and weight since he turned 9 month.  I don't even remember when his first molar appeared.  Oh well, at least, I kept his hair from his first haircut.

What can I say about Benji? 

He spits.  He curses.  He hits.  At least now, he stopped biting.  Yes, he is the epitome of bad behavior. Many times he embarrasses me in public. He could throw a tantrum wherever. He had broken items in the store (good thing they don't have us pay for those except  in oriental store where he broke a bottle of soy sauce).  At times, he is just too quick and strong for us.  He likes the attention of other people but gets shy once he gets it. His favorite pick-up  or attention-getting line is Iowa Public Television Foundation (you could tell, we've been watching a lot of PBS lately.)  He only eats hamburger (with or without spaghetti sauce), cheese pizza, granola bar, cookies, Kix, snap pea crisp, candies (of course) and a blended concoction of mango, pears and spinach.  I threw all Dr. Sear's suggestions on nutrition because he is just too picky.  He needs to be coaxed to drink milk, even. 

Most kids (that I know) bring their blankets or soft toys in bed.  Benji would bring his hot wheel cars, tooth brushes, mouth swab,  ball of socks,   etc.  He can get so obsessive.  He inhales Altoids tin can  and dryer sheets  like a person addicted to cocaine or glue.  It is strange to see a toddler like that.  But I have to pick my battles.  It does not hurt him. Yet.

He could make our house looks like it's been ran sacked.   It takes him just few minutes to trash the house that took us hours to clean up.  To no avail, I teach him to bring his toys back to the bin and  his books back to the shelves.  We just give up cleaning.  He would also trash the library if given an opportunity.  He'd thrown books and CD's on the floor when he's bored.

Not all about him is bad.  He has developed by leaps and bounds since he was born.    He  loves to sing and hum nursery rhymes,  especially  Baa Baa Black Sheep.  A  month ago, he added ABC to his song list,  then 2 weeks ago The Farmer in the Dell.  I'm pretty sure he knows more songs than what I mentioned  here.   He also loves listening to  the Wiggles' Hot Potato and Fruit Salad.  He knows his capital letters (he's still learning small letters) and numbers 1 to 9 (he insists small L as 1).  He could count a little bit.  He knows his primary colors.  But he does not know  how to say Bye's and Thank yous.  He refuses to do it!

My husband's fear is that he will never get potty trained.  My fear is that he will not learn how to read.  Maybe, we should worry about his manners , huh?