Eating more than takeout in my dorm room

Guest post written by Scott Leighton

I've had the good fortune of growing up with a mom that's an amazing cook. She also cooks all the time, so I love to take advantage of that. But now that I'm in college, I'm really going to miss her home cooking. I've picked up a few tricks from her along the way though, so I'm going to make sure that I actually cook and prepare some decent meals for myself this year. I refuse to just live off of Chinese takeout and delivery pizza like every other college student.

Well, I want to do a few more things than just steal my mom's recipes, though. I need some stuff that's simpler than those, so I went online to check some out. While I was doing that I saw the site internet.clear.com. I showed it to my mom and after that she decided to change over her home internet service to a package on there.
So far my dorm room eating has already been better than what I expect for the average student. I've been making grilled cheese sandwiches out of my favorite kind of cheese. You can't beat simplicity like that.

Andi's visit at Mt. Rainier WA

Andi's first adventure ever!  Mt. Rainier full of snow, she was so excited to play in the snow, but was screaming when her lola (grandma) left her.  

She never gets cold even though she was only wearing short pants.   I was quiet worried that she will get cranky on the trip, but she did so good.   She watched movies while on the road and fell asleep.  I was so surprised, I guess I had underestimated her :-)  She loves to travel I guess just like her mom and dad!

Well, she is 21 months now, and she always surprised us with new words and expressions that she learns every day.   She loves to say OK!  She could easily express what she wants and what she needs.  She could talk to you in broken sentences.  She is just amazing :-) 

The Big NBA Game

Guest post written by Ben Farley

This upcoming weekend is going to be a busy one. Just last night, I purchased my family some tickets to an NBA game. I"ve been to several, but for the rest of my family members, this will be their first game. I think we"re going to have a great time. I feel as though my kids will have a good time. They seem to like basketball when I watch it at home. I think the mascot will really interest them, as well. My wife is a big sports fan like I am, so I know that she"ll have a good time. Most of the time, she just wants to ! get out of the house on the weekends, no matter what the occasion.
I also have some chores to do this weekend. I need to get around to fixing the roof. I think I am going to hire the people with Home Pro Improvement to give me a hand. I am no expert when it comes to roofing. Aside from the house work, I need to finally get my taxes out of the way too. This should be quite the weekend.

Andi's first visit at Tulips Festival

This is Andi's first visit at Tulips Festival.   She immensely enjoyed it, smelling the flowers, running in the field, jumping in the mud and having fun with her sister.    I think she particularly loves the yellow tulips, because she keeps on smelling and touching them.   Her sister freak out every time Andi touched the flowers, because she is worried that Andi might break the buds or the stem :-)

I was a fun weekend, because after that we went to a friends birthday party, after walking for a few miles in the tulips field, we went home and indulge ourselves in a delicious and mouth watering food!!! 

She loves watching TV!

My Fifteen month old daughter just loved watching TV.  I know that most experts said that watching TV for babies or toddlers is not good, but what will you do if your toddler throw a fit every time you turn off the TV or every time she would ask you if she could watch her favorite show?  Who wants to have a cranky baby  the whole day?   I am sure I am not the only one who has this dilemma.   Andi would love to watch Little Einstien and Mickey Mouse in the morning and when she wakes up in the afternoon.   She watched theses shows over and over until my ear hurts :-(   Aside from these shows, she watched other shows that her big sister watched after school.  

She also love saying NO on things that she really does not want to do including shows on TV and food to eat.   She behaves like a big girl !  We do not want to spoil her but at the same time we want to let her learn and have the confidence.  

Mommies, have you ever experienced the same?  Any tips on how to handle this?