Awesome iPhone apps!

Well I know I haven’t been around for a while.  Things have been overly crazy here and I have not had a free second to blog in, much less to think about things to blog about!  But I’m back, at least sporadically.

The iPhone has been the very best toy we have ever had.  Of course it’s not a toy, really.  But it is!  I keep a solid case on it to protect against drops, put some fun games on it for my daughter, and she love love loves it and is a total pro at swiping and moving things around on there.  There are tons of apps in the app store for toddlers, but some are more worth the time/trouble/cost than others.  Here are some of our favorites.

Adam’s Game:  Toddler Flash Cards
This game is really cute, and good for iPhone beginners.  My daughter (almost 3) is bored with it now, but loved it for a long time.  It shows 3 pictures of things, and says “find the ____”.  Find the apple, find the triangle, all different kinds of things.  If the child doesn’t get it right, a little kid’s voice says “Uh oh!”  If they do, lots of kids say “YAY!!!”   You can also program it with your own voice and pictures, which is a really cool feature.  Lots of fun, and only $.99.

Sid’s Microphone
By PBS, and free!  This game is exactly what it sounds like.  The screen turns into Sid’s microphone with all the buttons Sid pushes on the show.  Children can record and play back their own voice.   Cute!

Preschool Arcade
One of our very very favorites, this game has 3 little games reminiscent of our own arcade games from our youth.  One game is kind of like space invaders, except that a voice announces a letter, the child touches the right letter, and the space ship flies there.  It is so cute!  Another is like one of those claw games in arcades, except it is shape matching.  So it shows you the shape of a truck, you have to touch the truck, then the claw reaches down and grabs it.  Very, very cute!  I wish they’d come out with more games for this one.   The pinball game has not been as big a hit with Bella, but this one is worth the price for the other two games.

Preschool Adventure
Also by 3DAL (makers of Preschool Arcade, above), this one is a great first game.  It doesn’t require the child to do anything more than touch things and enjoy.  The voice that goes with the game is lovely, sweet, friendly, clear and easy to understand.   The numbers (dot to dot) game is a bit more challenging for those children who are ready for that.  This company also makes Make a Martian, which is really fun, and Preschool Music.  But Arcade and Adventure are IMO the best!

Peekaboo Barn
Peekaboo Barn (and now Peekaboo Wild) are absolutely adorable, easy, enchanting for little ones.  Lots of fun and very simple.   The barn sort of wiggles, and you hear an animal sound.  Tap the barn and the view zooms in, the door opens, and you see the animal making the sound.  Then it does it again with a different animal.  At the end all the animals are asleep.  Cute!  There are free versions of both Barn and Wild that you can try out.

The Little Red Hen
This is a story that can be read to your child or they can read themselves and it is ADORABLE.  The voice reading is a child herself, and bonus for us Americans who love accents… she has an English accent.  The story is timeless and lovely and the animals all make sounds if you touch them, including the mouse who says very quietly… “Squeak, SQUEAK.”  It is seriously so cute.   Bella loves this one!

First Words:  Animals
Well, we have Animals, but they have several other versions.  This is great.  There is a picture of the word, for example a picture of a Fish.  Four boxes for the letters to go, with a shadow of each letter for the child to see.  The letters are jumbled up at the bottom and the child needs to drag each letter to the correct box.  The narrator reads the word at the end.

ShapeBuilder
This game is *awesome.*  It is so simple, and yet is the single game that has held Bella’s attention for the longest.  But she loves puzzles, so if your child is not into puzzles this may not be a hit of the same magnitude… they have a free version so it is worth trying to see!

There are lots of other games we’ve tried, but these are our favorites so far!

Posted: November 20th, 2009 under toddler talk - No Comments. Tags: iphone apps, toddler games

Haunted House update…

Well it’s coming along… I really need to buy some teensier tiny paintbrushes to get better details, and obviously I am no artist.  I am having a very hard time doing cute faces for the little ghost people so if anyone has any advice, it is welcome!

Spoooky haunted house!

Posted: September 30th, 2009 under crafty stuff - No Comments. Tags: crafting

A spooooky work in progress…

A spooky mess!

Right now it’s kind of a mess, but what it’s going to be … hopefully, eventually, hopefully soon!  Is a ghostly, spooooOOoOOooky haunted house playset for Bella… complete with a family of little white ghosts!

She is very excited about this project and was determined to help paint.  She helped paint the actual house for 5 seconds flat before she was covered head to toe in black paint.  She painted the little wooden ghosts with gobs and gobs of white paint (for that 3D effect!) and when I told her how well she was doing, she kindly said to me:  “I can teach you Mommy!”

More pictures to come when the spookiness has progressed a bit…

Posted: September 25th, 2009 under crafty stuff, just for fun..., toddler talk - 1 Comment. Tags: crafting, halloween, toddler talk, toys

Sexism is dead. Or, not!

So yesterday Bella and I stopped by a bookstore. There’s a nice, if small, area for children, complete with a train table and lots of toys for sale. When we arrived, a little boy of about Bella’s age (late 2, early 3) was also playing. Bella went straight for the train table, then a bit later got bored and headed over to grab a ride-on horsey. She pranced around on her horsey, and of course this got the little boy interested, so he too ran over to grab a horsey.

Unfortunately for him, he grabbed a PINK horsey.

I was honestly bewildered to see his young, hip-looking, pierced mom, sneer at him “You don’t want a horse like THAT,” before she grabbed it away from him. Before I knew it she had whisked the little boy away. One aisle over, where she could angrily put him in time-out for being “bad.” The little boy was, of course, crying, his mom AND dad were now yelling at him, and Bella looked at me all concerned saying “Mommy, that boy is sad!”.

So. What kind of horse do you think the boy will choose next time? And then his mom will tell all her friends, “He is SUCH a boy, he just has NO INTEREST in pink things at all.” Some mystery there, huh? Genetics? Or Mommy goes HULK SMASH if you touch something pink?

I can’t help but wonder what the mom was so concerned about anyways. Did she think the little pink horsey would …. give her son Teh Gay?!?!?!

I suppose I looked pissed-off to hipster mom.  In fact, I was fairly pissed off.   She communicated in that moment utter disgust for a boy choosing something pink, not only to her son, but to me, and to my child.

So much for the idea that sexism is dead, huh?

Posted: September 17th, 2009 under feminism, liberal bias, rants... - No Comments. Tags: boys, feminism, sexism, toys

It could happen to you…

How likely is the following scenario?

A few days ago I took my daughter with me to Michael’s. While there, she happened to spy one of those little cardboard houses to paint and make into a Christmas ornament. She wanted it. It was like $.50, so ok. She told me she wanted it to be blue. So we went and picked out the exact shade of blue she wanted together too.

That night, after she was asleep, I sat down on the floor watching Dexter and painted the little house. I had my two little tiny reused bottlecaps of paint inside of a deep reused take-out tray. That way, no worries about spills, right?

I finished, took the whole business into the kitchen to let the little house dry so that I could later add some glitter accents.

Later, added the glitter accents.

That day, idiot me left the house with the tray with the two TINY bottle caps full of paint on the counter. What could go wrong???

My dog, that’s what. !@(*&@#$! Now my dogs paws are each at least twice as big as one bottle cap, but still. He managed to get the tray down, knock it over, and somehow then STEP INTO the bottle cap (the one with teal BLUE paint, of course, not the one with WHITE paint) and proceeded to leave teal blue paw prints All. Over. The. House. Every single step leading to the basement, the beige carpet.

The weirdest thing is that he literally did not *spill* a drop of paint. The paint was still in the darned bottle caps! He STEPPED IN the cap and got the paint on his foot.

I would just about kill for a video of this thing so I could laugh at it.

Meanwhile, I’ve been googling how to remove acrylic paint from beige carpet and found one lonely tip out there in the interwebz, to use rubbing alcohol. So in case this ever happens to you (likely, right?!), here’s the scoop. Dump the alcohol directly onto the stain, then scrub like crazy with a very absorbent towel (that you don’t mind chucking afterward). The stains are coming right out, but the fumes have me a bit dizzy. On the bright side, my floor is going to be So Clean!!!!!

Posted: September 12th, 2009 under rants... - 1 Comment. Tags: crafting paint cleaning disaster doggy

You got to move it, move it!

I’ve talked to many moms who have said that babywearing hasn’t worked for them, for one reason or another.  I always kind of want to point out that, like anything else, babywearing is a tool.  It’s meant to help make life easier for you, but you may have to explore ways to make it work.  Babywearing is not necessarily a magic bullet (although for some babies it may be), it requires a little tweaking to figure out what works for you and your baby.

Babywearing has literally saved my life, so I’m a bit of an evangelist on the subject, and I know I am, and try to watch it.  Still, I’m just so enthusiastic about it, and while I don’t judge someone for giving up on it, I always find myself wanting to troubleshoot and figure out how to make things better for them.  Because it is a *tool*, meant to make your life *easier*!  I’m all about making everyones lives easier.

The number one thing that I think people don’t know when they first start babywearing, is that babies being worn want to MOVE.  I was able to wear Bella a few times while doing dishes or cooking, but mostly, that was too static for her.  I needed to move.  So while I was able to get some things done, ie: get her to sleep without losing my sanity as much, it wasn’t like I was Miss Chore-Accomplisher while she was on my back.  Mostly I was usually focused on getting her to sleep.  Sleep, baby, sleep!

That’s how I started vacuuming.  I probably also read this tip on The Babywearer (which is an excellent, amazing resource for moms interested in wearing their babes!), about vacuuming.  Vacuuming while the baby is on your back does a couple of things.  It makes you move, it provides rhythmic movement, it provides sound, and the babe is “swaddled”  (held tightly with fabric) to your body.  It reminds me in many ways of Dr. Karp’s method of the 5 S’s, for soothing colicky babes.  Suck, Swaddle, Side, Sway, and SHHHH.  Well, they don’t get suck or side, but they do get swaddle, sway, and shhhhh, plus your heartbeat, your closeness, your calm.

Some other ideas for moving:  walking the dog, walking up and down stairs (especially if they are squiggling, wiggling, seem uncomfy), walking back and forth in a long hallway (I’ve done this successfully in hotels), and a simple sway, especially with music.  I’ve also done this in hotels, where I’d just darken the room completely, put her on my back, and then stand in the darkest part of the room and sway back and forth.

It’s *saved* me.  I really really mean that.  So if you are a mom at your wits end with a child who won’t sleep, I really recommend giving it another shot even if it hasn’t worked out for you before.  Some things take a little practice, and take some effort, but it is so worth it in the long run.

Posted: September 10th, 2009 under babywearing - 1 Comment. Tags: babywearing, sleep, toddler

Sleep woes…

Bella is currently in a sleep-less cycle.  We go through phases, some she sleeps better, some worse, right now it is definitely in the “worse” phase.  She goes to bed late, gets up early, and tries to sleep horizontal all night long, kicking mama and pushing on Daddy.

So, what to do?

If past experience is any indication, just wait it out.

She goes through these phases, and when she is sleeping well, she sleeps very well.  She goes down easily, sleeps soundly, and sleeps a reasonable length of time.  When she’s not sleeping well she just isn’t, and it hasn’t seemed to matter what I do.

I confess that there are moments when she just won’t.  go.  to.  sleep.   When I get so frustrated, and I snap at her, “JUST LAY DOWN!”   Every once in a blue moon, that actually works, she lies down and goes to sleep!  (A miracle!)  But most of the time, it just makes her feel crappy.  Then it makes me feel crappy.  Then I remember being little, and scared, and unable to sleep, and my mom yelling at me, and then I get all upset with myself for snapping.  Getting her to sleep a few minutes sooner just isn’t worth making both of us feel awful.  The truth is that I wasn’t a very good sleeper either, and had many battles throughout my life with my mother, and having her anger directed at me when I was already desperately tired didn’t help things at all.

So, I wait it out.  I wish I had thought of it more this way when she was littler, because I stressed over her sleep *so* much, and honestly nothing I ever tried really accomplished anything.   I wish I could have talked myself through it a bit more, reminding myself that these are phases, many times sleep disruptions occur during developmental leaps, and ultimately:  this too shall pass.  It would’ve saved me a lot of useless anger.

Posted: September 8th, 2009 under co-sleeping - No Comments. Tags: co-s, sleep

The Disney Princess thing…

Recently I’ve been involved in some very heated discussions about the Disney princess empire, and why I’m choosing to keep my daughter away from it.  (For as long as I can.)  Actually, heated isn’t even the right word.  I was attacked because of my stance that the Princess movies can and do contribute to a sexist view of women in the world, and they can and frequently do effect the way our little girls look at themselves and the women and men around them.

Currently my daughter is not yet 3.  So she is not yet in the “hot button” phase of the Princess obsession, for which I am grateful.  I am very, very hopeful that we will avoid the princess obsession through my own example and through providing her with alternate role models that are also female, fun, and (my personal preference) as ferocious as possible.

So for now, we watch things like Kiki’s Delivery Service, about a little female witch who saves the day!  And instead of pretending to eat a poison apple and fall into a sleep from which only her prince can save her, my little one pretends to rescue us on her broom.  Over and over.  One day she will be exposed to the idea of princess as helpless-heroine, I’m sure, it’s unavoidable.  But she will encounter it with a background of having seen women as RESCUERS, SAVIORS, the strong brave ones who saved the day!  She will see princesses through a different lens than a little girl who has never seen women in that role.

Beauty and the Beast is one of the movies which was up for discussion.  Someone pointed out that Beauty and the Beast is not exactly a *current* Disney production, which is true.  However it’s also true that Belle is promoted as one of the Princess’s, and so her story is told over and over all the time.  So it’s definitely relevant.  Let’s talk about the scene where Gaston proposes to Belle.

He tells her all about the fabulous life she’ll have, raising his babies and rubbing his feet.  To which she, rightfully, wrinkles her (tiny, pretty, and oh yes oh so white) nose.   Then he pins her up against the wall, telling her how lucky she will be.  She gracefully, gently, extricates herself and gives him the boot.

Excellent.

Er… except for the fact that this big, burly asshole felt completely entitled to waltz into her home, put his dirty feet on her table, and pin her to the wall.  Not something I want my daughter to believe is EVER ok.

Then of course there is the fact that ultimately she is held captive and falls in love with her captor.  A particularly disgusting message in light of the fact that men who kidnap little girls often work very hard to convince them that they are in fact their saviour, not their captor.

Frankly I do not feel our children lose anything by not being exposed to these ideas at a very young age, and further, I do think that we as parents have the power to say no to it.  If we cave and allow it into our homes, we give it our tacit approval, no matter what we say about it later.   We have options in this day and age, to NOT show our children things like this and still provide them with a huge world of pretend play, lots of various role models, and all kinds of rich stories to spark imagination.   I’m not anti-tv.  Well, I am, except I’m also human and deal with a high-needs child, so we do watch a lot of tv.  We watch Ni Hao Kai Lan, and Diego, and Kiki, and Totoro, and now Ponyo, and Sesame Street, and Dragon Tales.

I am not in my own mind a rabid feminist.  Apparently to others, I am!  Ironic as I’m a stay-at-home mom.  Then again, I’m not so great at dishes or housekeeping, and my husband does all the laundry.  So it’s my hope that my daughter will see both my husband and I sharing equal roles in our marriage and life together and learn by our example.

This is a really interesting video about masculinity in Disney movies.  In other words, yeah, it’s not only little girls who are effected by these ideas about gender.

I believe it’s possible to be a feminist mom without being a “no-fun” mom, and that’s what I aspire to be.

Posted: September 5th, 2009 under liberal bias, mommy wars, musings..., rants... - No Comments. Tags: disney, feminism, media, movies, princess, sexism

Friday Funny…

Just had to share a few funny links… first is the People of Walmart.   It’s worth looking through all the older posts, too.

That’ll warm you up, then when you are ready… read this letter on Emails From Crazy People.  It’s been a while since I laughed that hard!

Posted: September 4th, 2009 under just for fun... - No Comments. Tags: funny

Sigg: Lying liars who lie!

I know I’ve been on a bit of a blog hiatus, but this story needs telling in as many places as possible.   Now I must confess that I consider myself lucky here because I’ve never been a big fan of Sigg, but I’ve always kind of felt like I was missing something because of this.  I have one of their bottles, but never used it much.

Well, as it turns out, their original Sigg bottles with the coppery lining contains BPA.  Not only does it contain BPA, but Sigg knew this and covered it up repeatedly, using tricky language to try to confuse people.  They affirmed over and over that their bottles do not leach BPA, which may be true, but millions of those bottles were purchased by people who were attempting to avoid BPA altogether.

Check out the first expose’ article over at ZRecommends.   When you’ve finished that one, check out their follow-up article which is equally disturbing and discusses the fact that the new, “safe” lining Sigg is promoting may also be toxic.

I cannot imagine doing business with this lying company ever, ever again.

Posted: August 24th, 2009 under rants... - No Comments. Tags: bpa, sigg, water bottles