Smartie pants

Brayden is with me today (sleeping right now. Bless 'im - he's a great sleeper! He'll nap for about three hours this afternoon!). I had promised him that the next time he came to my house, he could write in my "book" (my 5 x 7 Daily To Do List notebook I keep). So this morning, he climbed up on his bench so he could reach the counter, and I gave him a pen and the book, and he started scribbling. He wanted me to write with him, so I asked him what he wanted me to write. Usually he says a name ("Mama") and I write it out, saying each letter as I go. I swear this is true. Today I asked him what he wanted me to write... and he said.."B" So I wrote a B... then he said R..... A....Y....Z....E.....N... Well, OK, he got the Z/D wrong... but this little guy SPELLED HIS NAME! LOL! I think that's amazing for a JUST turned two year old! (Of course, I think everything he does is amazing... but really! This is REALLY amazing!) He got a Memory Game for his birthday, and I sat down with him to show him how to play. Now, admittedly, he doesn't get the whole "take turns" thing (though we'll work on it), but I did take 8 cards (4 pair) and turn them upside down, and had him turn one card right side up and try to find it's match. If he didn't find a match, I turned both cards upside down again. He was great at it! He did an excellent job of remembering where the cards were, even though he couldn't see the pictures! I did read a hint on Amazon that little ones can play this game, you just start them with fewer cards. Once I get him to understand about taking turns, we'll start adding in cards as he accomplishes each level. So...I'm a proud Grandma (Umma) today!

Monday Mayhem

Blog photo of the day:

My To Do List

I have SO much to do today (and obviously need to get off the computer and DO it!) so I need to make a To Do list to keep myself on track:

1. Laundry (and lots of it!) - done
2. Ironing (Jeff's work clothes) - done
3. Clean out SUV to get it ready to leave the yard (yay!)
4. Clean kitchen counters and stove top - done
5. Make bed - done
6. Vac upstairs - done
7. Dust upstairs - done
8. Empty all trash - will do with Brayden tomorrow
9. Mail BD cards - done
10. Dust dining room - done
11. Fill humidifier - ask Jeff
12. Get ground beef and turkey out of freezer - done
13. Make meatloaf and meatballs - done
14. Clean downstairs bathroom - done
15. Continue folding quilt room fabric - 2 more baskets done

I have a feeling that isn't all, but that's enough for now! Spring is in the air here in southwestern Ohio, and I would like to get outside for at least an hour or so and start cleaning up the yard. Our house is located at the bottom of a hill on a cul-de-sac, and the winds blow everyone's trash into our yard. Once the snow goes, you can see paper everywhere!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Brayden Lee!!!

We had a small family party for Brayden today, with Brayden, Jeff, Rachael (Mary's best friend), Mary and myself. It was F-U-N!! Most important of all, Brayden had a great time.

Aunt Lisa and Uncle Jeff gave Brayden a shake-em-up NASCAR (Jeff Gordon) car, and it was a party-stopper. Brayden didn't want to do anything but play with that car! He absolutely loved it. He got out his Green Flag and shook shook shook the car, plopped the car down, yelled "GO!" and the car would take off-- and he laughed and laughed and laughed! Here's a small video of what actually went on for a good 45 minutes! (or see it on YouTube)

Another gift Brayden received and loved was a touch-and-feel book about farm animals from his great-grandmother. Another show stopper! Before he was done with the book, he could say all the animal sounds.

He received other great gifts as well. Jeff and I gave him a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse singing Mickey and Minnie, the Memory Game, and a turtle made of stone that belonged to Jeff's mother (Brayden loves turtles). Rachael gave him a bathtub spout toy that changes the bath water colors (and protects the child's hands from a hot fauce) and a T-Ball game! Mary gave him a "My First Remote Control Car" school bus and glow-in-the-dark stars to put on his ceiling. My step-mom also gave him two collectible NASCARs in cases, which he thought was wonderful because Jeff's cars are all in clear cases like that, and a bible story flip book. I know Lisa and JJ also gave him another gift, but we had such a tough time getting him to open more gifts that Mary took him home with plans on opening the rest later!

It was a wonderful way to spend the day -- even Joey helped with party preparations:

Brayden's first gym class

What a great day we had today! Jeff took the day off and he, Brayden and I went to Brayden's first gym class. We were a little worried he would be too shy to try anything but it took him all of one minute to get in the swing of it. He had a GREAT time!

He did somersaults, the balance beam, danced, ran, threw balls, played with bells, laughed a lot, and just plain had a good time.

My itty bitty audio book player

My new MP3/wma (audio books) player arrived yesterday, and I'm so thrilled to have it back! I bought one of these last year, but haven't seen it in a long, long time (I believe I left if at the local Sears store when I went to pick up my new eyeglasses -- at least, that's the last time I remember having it. I've searched and searched with no luck, and finally gave in and bought a new one. Although the name is different than my last one, the same manufacturer makes it (Creative Labs) and it was on sale for $19.99 (refurbished)!!! It's a 1 gig player, which is plenty of room for me, since I use this only for audio books.

My local library is a member of a service called Net Library, which offers free downloadable audio books. Although the most recent bestsellers are probably not available, many great books are -- and did I mention, it's FREE?? You get to check out the audio book for three weeks, and you can renew one time for another three weeks. They evidently put in some kind of date code that shuts the audio book down when your time is up. But did I mention - it's FREE?


This little player (about 3 inches x 1 1/2 inches x 1/2 inch) weighs next to nothing and fits in my jeans pocket. The sound is crystal clear. You can easily foward and rewind, and it's best feature -- if you click it off in the middle of an audio book, it will save the spot where you left off. The audio books are NOT broken down into "tracks" so this feature is critical! Some more expensive players do have a "bookmark" feature, but this player doesn't have one.

It's a Creative MuVo V100 - and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves audio books! If you buy any other brand, make sure the player will play WMA files, which are audio book files. Please note that many MP3 players (including iPod) will not work with WMA files. Be sure and check specs!