I had the privilege of observing this conversation at the dinner table this week.

Ava wasn’t very motivated to eat dinner, so I enthusiastically pointed out the different foods on her plate in hopes of encouraging her to eat something. After saying the name of each thing, Ava added “poop” to the list of foods.

Jody piped in, “We don’t eat poop, our food turns into poop.” And then gave a fast lesson on digestion about how when we eat food it goes into our tummies, turns into energy and helps us grow, and then we poop out what’s left.

Ava had an incredulous look on her face and said, “Nuh-uh, that’s not what happens.”

Jody said, “What happens to food when we eat it?”

Ava explained that when we eat food “it goes into a pile and then little bits go out to your body” and give you lots of “energy and energy and energy!” At which point she got very animated in demonstrating the energy.

She then turned to me to ask, “Is that right, Mommy?”

Me: “Yes, that’s pretty close to what happens.”

Jody (to Ava): “So then where does poop come from?”

Ava (pausing to think for a second): “Your butt.”

Cue peals of laughter from Jody and me.

Yep, Ava, you definitely know what you’re talking about. :)

Stumble it!

Welcome to February’s Carnival of Breastfeeding sponsored by The Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog. This month our theme is breastfeeding humor, or “What’s so funny about breastfeeding?”

Here are a few breastfeeding funnies - a joke, picture and video - I gathered up from around the ‘net. Enjoy! :)

First, the joke:

A woman and a baby come into the doctor’s office.

She was told to go into a room and wait for the doctor.

After arriving there, the doctor examined the baby and asked the woman, “Is he breast fed or on the bottle?”

“Breast fed” she replied.

“Well, strip down to your waist,” the doctor ordered.

She did.

He pressed, kneaded and pinched both breasts for a while in a detailed examination.

Motioning to her to get dressed said, “No wonder this baby is hungry. You don’t have any milk.”

“Naturally,” she said, “I’m his aunt. But I’m glad I came.”

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Next, the picture:

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Finally, the video: (Note: this video includes a bit of non-sexual nudity, it’s about breastfeeding after all, but it may not be considered “work safe.”)

I don’t know what the woman says in this (anyone?), but you’ll get the gist of it regardless of the language spoken. ;)

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Other participants in this month’s carnival:
Please take a moment to check out some of their funnies.

- Tanya at The Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog reviews two new breastfeeding humor books.
- Stacie at The Twinkies shares the breastfeeding conversation she fears.
- Andi at Mama Knows Breast shares a dads’ nursing in public video.
- Sinead at Breastfeeding Mums shares a pumping multi-tasking disaster.
- Carol at Happy Sad Mama shares why she loves to nurse her toddler.
- Angela at Breastfeeding 1-2-3 shares some crazy search terms that led readers to her site.

Stumble it!

That’s how much money we saved ourselves this weekend by picking up the dog crap in the yard ourselves, instead of hiring the local pooper scooper to do it.

After the diagnosis of the crazy balled up ligament in my back and the increasing pain I was experiencing, I felt justified in considering hiring someone to remove the last two months’ worth of frozen poopsicles from our yard. However, after discovering the pooper scooper charges $40 per 5-gallon bucketful for a one-time removal, and knowing our backyard was fuller than I should probably admit, Jody and I decided just to do it ourselves this past weekend. Most of the snow had melted, the temperature was in the 50s, the sun was shining - it was a glorious day for poop scooping.

After quickly realizing a yard full of poop was no place for a toddler, Julian hung out in the swing while Jody, Ava and I all got to work. I know what you are thinking - what awful parents, making your 3-year-old pick up dog crap. The thing is, she insists that she helps. She was like that this past fall and apparently the novelty hasn’t worn off yet, so I’m going to enjoy her enthusiasm while it lasts.

Ava was so cute while we were spending family time picking up poop together too. She remarked, “See mama, you didn’t have to pay someone to pick up poop. You and me and Dada can do it. It’s the whole group family picking up poop.”

Who says you need a day at the park to get in good quality family time? We can get it right in our own backyard while picking up dog poop! :oP

Anyway, we ended up filling up our 5-gallon bucket two and a half times. $100 worth of crap. Makes me wonder what in the world the pooper scooper does with all of that poop.

Stumble it!

Jan. 25, 2008

I was sitting on the couch with Julian in my lap the other evening as he nursed. His shirt was pulled up a little bit so that his belly was exposed. He lightly touched his tummy with one finger and then giggled. Totally amused, he did it again and again, giggling away as he nursed. :) It was so cute and his laughter so infectious, I was soon laughing right along with him.

And here I thought it was impossible to tickle yourself. Guess not.

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Jan. 24, 2008

Ava was trying to make ducks out of Legos, like daddy makes. I was in the middle of making dinner and told her I’d help her in a minute, but she figured (figgered) it on her own and was so excited.

Ava: I figgered out how Dada did it! I just figgered and figgered and figgered until I got it right!

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Jan. 2, 2008

Julian was laying across my lap having just finished nursing and hung his head upside-down off my leg to look at Ava, who came over to give him some sisterly “love.”

Me: Ava, don’t pull on his [Julian’s] head please.

Ava: You mean don’t pull OFF his head.

Uh, yeah. That too.

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December, 2007

A conversation between Ava and me while I was putting her to bed. I was trying to commend her for her generosity.

Me: “Honey, Santa knew that you were so generous to give away your old doll house to someone who didn’t have one so he brought you the new wooden one.”

Ava: “Santa didn’t know I gave away my farm too. Silly Santa.”

(She got a replacement doll house, but not a replacement farm. That kid, she doesn’t miss anything.)

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Lastly - totally unrelated, but something you don’t want to miss - tomorrow is another round of the Bloggy Giveaways carnival. Last time I gave away a Mommy Blogger t-shirt. This time I’m giving away an HP 6.2 MP Digital Camera! Be sure to check back tomorrow for details and to enter to win. :)
Also just want to mention that this is a GREAT way to gain some exposure for your blog. And you can give just about anything away (see the official site for rules), so nearly anyone with a blog can participate. Hope you’ll join in! :)

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I took the kids grocery shopping at Vitamin Cottage this afternoon. Julian found a tub of yogurt to be particularly fascinating, so I let him play with it while we moved about the store. He dropped it on the floor one time - no big deal. I gave it back to him. (Hindsight: What was I thinking??) A few minutes later he dropped it on the floor again and this happened:

A word to the wise: Mothers, don’t let your children play with tubs of yogurt while in the shopping cart.

Note: This picture (albeit a not very good one because I took it myself) is of the dried mess after we got home from the store. (If only I’d had my camera with me at Vitamin Cottage. I can see it now. “No, sir, wait! I don’t want a towel and don’t clean up the mess yet! I need a picture for my blog. Can you take it for me?”) I was quite the sight when it had just happened. I swear 90% of the yogurt went on my jeans, shoes and coat, the other 10% hit the floor. Thank God for the kind woman nearby who saw it all happen and immediately went to get an employee to help with the disaster area mess. I was wracking my brain trying to figure out how I was going to clean all of that yogurt off of myself with the three tissues I had in my coat pocket. ;)

The VC employee who came to offer me a towel and brought one to clean up the floor as well looked at Julian sitting happily in the cart and said, “Did you do this?” And Ava, being the helpful big sister that she is and knowing that Julian can’t talk said, “Yes, he did.” And ratted her brother out, just like that. ;)

Next time, I’m giving him a can to play with. Of course then he’ll probably drop it on his sister’s head. Oy.

Stumble it!

While Julian took a nice long nap yesterday, Ava and I spent some time in the kitchen together baking Snickerdoodles.

Ava did a great job rolling the dough into little balls (and a couple of snakes - the snakes burned by the way so you probably should avoid that if you make Snickerdoodles - LOL) and coating them with cinnamon and sugar.

At one point I mentioned what a good helper she is to me and she said, “Every time you make cookies, I will be your helper. Always, I will.” It was one of life’s sweet moments you never want to forget. Of course she followed it up with, “I’m getting a poopy hand!” as she covered her hand in the cinnamon/sugar mixture making her fingers brown. ;)

Despite their poopy brown hue, the cookies turned out quite tasty, but were harder than I expected. I wonder if it’s because I didn’t do any adjusting for high altitude. I’ll have to check into that. We kept a few for our family, but mostly wrapped them up for Jody’s coworkers.

Stumble it!

NaBloPoMo - Day 18

My son has been pooping vegetables. Yes, you read that right. Pooping vegetables. I don’t mean bits of vegetables mixed in with his poop. I mean just vegetables and nothing else. I know he doesn’t chew his food all that well, but this single veggie pooping is a bit bizarre.

First yesterday morning he pooped a slice of carrot. No poop, just a carrot. Jody changed that diaper so I took his word for it, but wondered if the carrot had somehow fallen into his diaper. Later in the day, however, I had the chance to see for myself when he pooped a single kernel of corn. Again, no poop, just the corn kernel. Huh?

Wonder if I can somehow get him to poop money. Probably not unless I feed it to him first. And ugh, after having a dog once swallow a wad of 20 dollar bills, I don’t even want to go there.

Somehow I get the distinct feeling he is going to hate me for this post when he’s a bit older.

Stumble it!

NaBloPoMo - Day 15 (15 days down, 15 days to go!)

There are a lot of reasons why I love that Ava is going to a Waldorf-inspired preschool, but one that jumps out at me lately is how polite she’s been. Don’t get me wrong, she’s always been pretty good with her pleases and thank yous, but now she’s also starting to use the word “may.” “May I have a treat please?” “I may do _____ now.” “You may take a turn.” Etc.

Another thing she’s been saying that I love is “Oh me, oh my!” :) Since neither Jody nor I use that expression, I had a sneaking suspicion I knew where she picked it up. I asked her if her teacher Miss G says it and she said no, but I knew better. At the Halloween party we attended at school, on a few occasions I heard Miss G utter “Oh me, oh my” or “Oh my, oh me.” :) It’s a lot better than “Oh crap,” so you won’t hear me complaining.

And actually, that reminds me. My sister (Aunt Carrie) was at our house a few days ago and she accidentally let an “Oh crap” out in front of Ava. And Ava replied, “Why did you say ‘oh crud‘?” I wonder if that’s the product of preschool as well, because as much as I hate to admit it, “crap” is one of the words I haven’t been able to stop saying.

In addition to the cute little things that come out of Ava’s mouth, I love that her class is so small (only three other kids) and she has such a great relationship with the other kids as well as her teacher. She often plays “school” at home and pretends to be one of the kids in her class or her teacher or she asks me to be her teacher and Julian is one of the other kids, etc. She has such a wonderful imagination and I love that she’s getting to explore it so fully in Waldorf school. I also love that she is nurtured, respected and loved there. I don’t have to question the care she is receiving.

I’m not sure how far we will continue doing the Waldorf thing. That’s still up in the air, but for now I’m very happy with it and think the money we spend to send her two days a week is well worth it - not only for the experience for her, but for the break for mommy. Let’s face it, as much as I love being a SAHM - oh me, oh my - I need my breaks too. ;) Balance is a good thing.

Stumble it!

NaBloPoMo - Day 1

Today, Nov. 1 is day one of NaBloPoMo, otherwise known as National Blog Posting Month. I know it’s getting late in the day and you may have thought that I was going to throw in the towel before things even got started, but oh no no no. I’m in, baby! I’m in! :) I just got a bit sidetracked today what with the shuffling Ava to and from preschool, the baby that wouldn’t nap for hours, making apricot nut bread (it’s so yummy!), making dinner, grocery shopping, and working on a new project (more on that another day, I promise). The time definitely snuck away from me today. Any old who, if you’ve signed up for NaBloPoMo, please feel free to look me up. I’m there under “amygeekgrl” (not sure why I didn’t use crunchy domestic goddess, but c’est la vie).

With a whole month of posting goodness ahead of me, I figure November will be a great time for giveaways (heck, December will be too!) and I have several things coming up for you to take a chance at! In fact, if you haven’t already seen, I have three giveaways going on right now - a Bitty Braille shirt, a Mommy Blogger shirt and an I make milk. What’s your superpower? shirt.

What else will I be reviewing and giving away over the next couple months? Hmm. Should I share? Oh OK, OK. You twisted my arm. Here’s a taste of a few things I have lined up

• a six-month subscription to What’s Cooking Weekly
• some natural cleaning products from Lily’s Garden Herbals
• a Tees for Change shirt
• and more, more, more!

Be sure to check back here regularly so you don’t miss anything. K? :)

And now, because I am tired, I’m ending this post. In fact, we’re all pretty tired around here. This week seems to have thrown us all out of whack what with Halloween falling smack dab in the middle. When Jody was getting the kids ready for bed earlier and putting Ava in her pajamas, she kept saying “ow.” As he was trying to figure out what was hurting her, he discovered he was trying to put her in Julian’s pajamas! Size 4T vs. size 18 months. Big difference. In his defense, they are roughly the same color. Too funny though. No wonder she was saying “ow.” :) The point of that story is - we’re all spent.

Good night and happy NaBloPoMo!!

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I overheard this conversation between Ava (3) and Jody AKA Daddy while I stepped out of the kitchen to use the bathroom this evening.

Ava: Where’d mommy go?
Daddy: To the bathroom.
Ava: Why?
Daddy: Because she has to pee.
Ava: Why?
Daddy: Because she drank a lot of water so her bladder is full.
Ava: You poop out of your vagina.
Daddy: No, you poop out of your…(pause)…your anus. And you pee out of your urethra.
Ava: What do you use your vagina for?
Daddy: Pause.
That’s a little more complicated. We’ll talk about that when you get older.

(Note: I hesitated before posting this for fear of attracting perverts, so if you are indeed a pervert, please take your leave now. “There’s nothing to see here. Move along. Move along.”)

Stumble it!