The Tragedy

Lance had already given me a warning of what I was about to face when Javan came walking downstairs, with his blankie and a frown.  

He looked up to me and said "Mommy, I burned a hole in my blankie...!!!"

And then came the tears...and "Mommy, sew it, PLEASE mommy, fix it!!!" His little pleas were heartbreaking.

He thought it was a fun idea to pile his blankets onto his lamp in his room.  

I was trying to think of the best way to handle this since there is no way I can sew a hole that was burned into his blankie. 

I hugged my sad little boy and said "How about we go to the store and you can pick out any fabric you want and we'll make you a NEW blankie."

He was less than pleased with that idea. I don't really blame him, he has had that blanket since he was about 6 months old and for some reason he fell in love with the silly thing.  

Which leads me to my next question, why do kids get so attached to such things?? Possibly an unsolvable mystery...

Anyway, my next idea.  

"How about I cut out the part that has the hole and we can go find some fabric and make your blanket BIGGER!!"

The idea took a little warming up to before it was accepted by the jury.

So, off to the fabric store we went. He picked out a very cool Robot print. Then it was time for bed and while he was sleeping I set to work. 

The finished product:

Alright friends, don't look too close. Its got a few imperfections. But, you know what the best part is?

You got it! It doesn't matter how imperfect it is... its perfect for him. The smile on that boys face is priceless.

Fighting with the gator

Fighting with the gators

No more training wheels.

As you know, we took his training wheels off on Monday. The first day we took them off, there was a lot of distraction going on having our neighbor Matthew around. Javan LOVES playing with Matthew and really wanted to play "Tron" with him or whatever game it was at the moment...

As you can see from this video...





Tues, Wed, and Thurs were super busy with preschool, going to daddy's house, gymnastics and playing with Matthew we didn't have a lot of time to practice....

Yesterday, I finally had a chance to get Javan out there (without Matthew around).  I thought it would take some time to teach him but NOPE... once I got him started... he was OFF!!!



We sill need to practice "getting started" but he's GREAT at stopping.

Javan was riding his bike and I said to Lance, "Now, we just need to teach him starting and stopping..." as I was saying that, Javan was zooming by with a proud "LOOK AT ME!!" expression on his face. He was looking at us instead of the car parked on the street RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM!!  I started yelling, "Javan, STOP!!  THE CAR. STOP!!!"

Luckily, Javan slammed on his breaks and stopped just inches from the car bumper.  Shew, it took quite a while for my heart to stop racing!!!

....AND... we learned that he is just fine when it comes to stopping!! haha.

A big day for Javan

Friend over Fridays...

Something I made up to give Javan something to look forward to and a great way for me to get a little break.

Tonight we got free tickets to go bowling and invited one of Javan's preschool friend, Brayden, to join us. Afterwards, Javan had his very first sleepover at our house. He was PRETTY EXCITED, to say the least!

When we got to the bowling alley, there were all sorts of leagues going on so they said to come back in an hour (it was already 7 at that time, so we then realized we were in for a long night).

While we waited we went to Chik-Fil-a for some playtime and a treat.

Then we went bowling. It was a blast!!!

The boys were so tired when they got home but that didn't stop them from giggling and talking in bed for an hour before they actually fell asleep. This picture was taken at 10pm!!! haha.

Lexi didn't want to miss out on all of the fun!

OTHER big news is that Javan officially learned how to ride his bike on two wheels today!! No more training wheels for my big guy!! Videos and details to follow. I'm uploading the videos now (takes a while). Hopefully, I'll get that blog post out tomorrow.

SPRING!!

This week has been AMAZING!!! It might even hit 70 today!!! YAY!

My mood has totally improved. Its amazing how the weather can do that!!!

This week, we have been playing OUTSIDE!!! Javan and I took a nice long bike ride this week (although, we expected the snow on the sidewalks to be completely shoveled, but they weren't so we had some interested obstacles to get through. Still a whole lotta fun!!

After that long bike ride, we decided to take Javan's training wheels off!!! He is doing great without them and will hopefully be riding with two wheels soon. He probably would be riding with 2 wheels now except that he kept getting distracted with our neighbor, Matthew, playing outside around him. haha. We might be better off taking him to a private parking lot.

I'll update with some videos and pics soon!!

This first day of beautiful weather in...what felt like an eternity.

Oh it felt so nice to get out and do something... without shivering!!

We went to Crown Center and did a little ice skating. Javan did GREAT!!

He enjoyed making himself fall... typical boy.

But, when he wasn't "trying" to fall... he did awesome iceskating without any falls. It was pretty impressive. We went around the rink several times holding hands and no major tumbles. Then he went around BY HIMSELF... it was a lot of fun!

Afterwards, we went to Crown Center (which is basically a big mall that is downtown) and they had a little indoor playground/maize thing decorated like underwater...advertising the new aquarium that they adding to Crown Center in 2012. Can't wait for that!!!!!

Click the link to view pics

https://picasaweb.google.com/Merriettgrace/Winter20102011#

On top of a snow bank at the grocery store.

Welp, its been quite a while since I've posted anything. I hate to blame it on the whether, but... its the weather.

Seriously. It has been the coldest most miserable winter!!! I know, i'm a ninny. You can call me a ninny.

I try really hard not to complain.. but you know, its so cold that I don't want to leave the house and I'm getting totally stir-crazy from staying in. Its a lose lose, really.

Anyway, I've been thinking about dying my hair...dark. Yikes!! It all started with the henna hair dye that I bought. Henna is really good because its healthy for your hair. I bought "Marigold blonde" and was totally amazed at how much more FULL and HEALTHY my hair was.... but it didn't turn my roots Marigold blonde. I emailed the owner of the company and he said "henna doesn't dye your hair blonde, it only dyes your greys blonde. Which if i had a ton of grey hair it would look pretty cool to have "blonde highlights" from the dyed grey. But... i don't have enough grey to have that effect and from what I understand you have to do it for several months for the grey to dye (or something like that.. I didn't really do the research to find out)...

BUT... you can dye your hair brunette with henna. At first that option was out of the question. I've NEVER dyed my hair dark before. Its always been red or blond or a combo of the two. So, i've been thinking and thinking about it and I'm almost at the point where I'm going to take the plunge to "brunette-land". Its kind of exciting :-)

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Javan has his Valentines Day party at school today. I got some great valentines day cards at Walmart.com for less than $4!!

It was a great deal, but they didn't come with individual envelopes. So, I decided to tape them to a pencil. These pencils where .59 each but I got them on sale at Walgreens for .20 each. :-)

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We had some friends over and I decided to crack open a jar of my homemade tomato sauce and make lasagna.. BLAH!! The tomato sauce was totally watery!! Now, I know that the best and only way I will make sauce is by roasting the tomato's and red peppers in the oven. Boiled tomatoes=epic fail.

I made some apple pie last week and Javan was happily nibbling on all of the apple skins. I hated to throw them away .... such a WASTE... so I googled some ideas of what to do with apple peels.

This is what I did... I put them in a pot with just enough water to cover the peels and a cup of sugar and some cinnamon. Boiled them for 10 min. Strained out the water and threw away the peels. I put the water back into the pan and boiled it until it began to have a "jelly like consistency". Poured the "jelly" in a jar and let it cool. VOILA! Apple cinnamon jelly! :-)

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Oh look... its a 12 degrees outside. Practically a HEAT WAVE compared to what its been lately (it was -2 when i got up this morning) :-(

The good news is I think next week its going to be mighty nice out!!

THANK YOU LORD... Maybe we can get the bikes out!!!! Do I see 60's on Wednesday!! Oh please be right, Mr. Weatherman!!!!!

Local Text Forecast for
Shawnee Mission, KS (66202)

Feb 10 Today
Sunny to partly cloudy. High 29F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph.
Feb 10 Tonight
Partly cloudy skies. Low 14F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.
Feb 11 Tomorrow
Except for a few afternoon clouds, mainly sunny. High 39F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph.
Feb 11 Tomorrow night
Clear skies. Low 22F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.
Feb 12 Saturday
Sunshine. Highs in the low 40s and lows in the low 30s.
Feb 13 Sunday
Abundant sunshine. Highs in the upper 40s and lows in the low 30s.
Feb 14 Monday
Sunshine. Highs in the mid 50s and lows in the low 30s.
Feb 15 Tuesday
Plenty of sun. Highs in the mid 50s and lows in the upper 40s.
Feb 16 Wednesday
Mix of sun and clouds. Highs in the low 60s and lows in the mid 40s.
Feb 17 Thursday
Times of sun and clouds. Highs in the upper 50s and lows in the mid 30s.
Feb 18 Friday
Sunshine. Highs in the low 50s and lows in the mid 30s.
Feb 19 Saturday
Showers possible. Highs in the low 50s and lows in the mid 30s.

Walmart

My friend posted this on Facebook.  I have mixed feelings about Walmart and how they impact our economy and small businesses... :-(

But... I would be absolutely delighted if they somehow would be able to impact the cost of healthier foods....

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Wal-Mart Collaborates With Obama Administration - Leslie Dach
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

We got just a little bit of snow!! Haha.