Mairead - 14 Months old

Current teeth: 8
Current hair color: Auburn
Current eye color: Greenish blue
Height: 32" tall, or 2ft 8in.
Weight: 23 lbs
Naps: 2

My favorite book: All of them!
My favorite song: The Alphabet, although after E I just get confused...they all sound like E!
My favorite toy: My music table (although I really like my other ones too!)
My favorite time of day: Anytime there's food! (All day!)
My favorite food: Cheese, like mama!
My favorite show: Super Why!, Chica, and I'm pretty into Poppy Cat
My favorite color: Red, I pick this color the most when I play with my toys
My favorite shape: Circle, I really like round things!
My favorite place: The Zoo!
My favorite animal: My favorite is doggies, but I really liked birds and goats when I went to the zoo. Those Ostriches are so pretty!
My favorite word: All of them, depends on the day! I can say a lot now, 20 or 30!

My favorite hobbies: EATING. I will eat all day long. All day. Long. I learned how to open the cabinets in the kitchen, so that is a must! I love talking on anything that resembles a telephone! I love to throw my toys out of my playpen, and then put them back in if I could reach...like I do with my toy boxes! I still love my bathtime. I like milk snuggles with mama, often! I can run in circles now even though I fall on my face a lot, it's fun! I like to dance, my favorite move is the leg shake.

My current dislikes: Mama leaving the room, Mama eating without sharing, that scary talking face Grandma took out for Halloween and the little talking guy. I also hate being told no.


I love you, pretty girl, I can't believe how big you're getting. Every day that passes is a new journey, even when I feel like it's just another day. You're such a special soul that lights up my world even in the darkest of times.

~Mama

Call the Midwife

I just finished watching the season premiere of Call the Midwife, a show about a young wealthy nurse-midwife in 1950's England, who heads over to a nunnery in East London and is face with conditions she has never seen before. As an American, we were put through the wringer in over-emphasis of Europe's terrible conditions in this time, compared to our terrible conditions. (Of course the textbooks tried to make it seem like we were less terrible, bah!) The Midwife, Jenny, encounters Syphilis, a premature birth, post-partum hemorrhaging emergency, conditions far beyond her scope of belief and overwhelming sadness for the women.  You can watch the season premiere on PBS, located here. The show will run every Sunday until November 4.

One of the women, the one who went into premature labor, Conchita, had 24 other children by her English husband besides the newborn. Jenny is astounded with their poor living conditions and does not see the love the family has for what it is. It is only in the end, after the baby survives against all odds (30 week premie was not usually viable in the 1950's, regardless of birthplace); that Jenny finally sees. "We must see what love can do." It is a wonderful sentiment. It finally makes her realize that she is not the martyr for the work she is doing, it is the women who are the heroines for all that they do.

Apart from being a nunnery, you can see the sisterhood in Midwifery...it is a part of womanhood; it is every one, it is everyone's job. It is so wonderful, and so comforting, and so...indescribable. It just reinforces my decision to become a CPM. I want to serve women and their families, I want to care for them as they birth their babies (unlike a doctor who "delivers" "it" "for them"), I want to see them through the darkness and into the beautiful kaleidoscope rollercoaster of life. I can't wait. Midwifery is not always beautiful, it is not always easy, it is not always profitable....but what it is always, is a journey. It will always be a journey of life, a pathway of nursing the goddesses who bring for life, nursing new life, and nursing passing life. I want to be a part of it.

One day, I will be proud to call myself a Midwife. I will serve life.

A First Pinterest Project - Oobleck

As M is now old enough to enjoy sensory play, I decided to go with some Oobleck, also known as goop and "silly slime" among other things. I made it as a child and really enjoyed playing in it. It's supposed to work a bit like quick sand, where it is extremely liquidy if you have it in your hands, but it solidifies in a container; if you stick your fingers in it is harder to pull them out.

Because M is only 13 months, I wanted it to be a little less "sticky" so that it wasn't awful to clean up. So instead of the traditional recipe I altered it a bit.


Oobleck Recipe

• 1 1/2 - 2 cups of Flour (my alteration)
• 2 cups of Corn Starch
• 2 cups Water
• Marker Ink (my alteration)

In the original recipe, you are supposed to use only corn starch. I diluted it with flour to keep it from being too sticky. I estimated my cups so use your own discretion when diluting it. Also, the original recipe calls for food coloring, which we were out of. I search for substitutes on Google, and someone said that they successfully substituted food coloring with marker ink diluted in water. Unfortunately, this didn't work for me, and it ran right off the Oobleck and into the drain. 

Because I didn't want to spend two hours mopping, wiping, and bathing M, I just let her play with it in the bathtub. It was perfect, and it was 5 minutes total of clean up!!

Anyways, here are some pictures of her playing in it. She LOVED it! The pictures are not great quality because the bathroom has virtually no natural light.

~Rose

A Review of Sprout

For many Americans, Sprout is one of the most popular and widely-available toddler-preschool-acceptable channel on cable television. It breaks the day up into several smaller "shows" during the day where episodes are played. The Wiggly Waffle is hosted by The Wiggles, from 6-9 AM, followed by the live Sunny Side Up Show who has several  rotating hosts from 9 AM until 12 PM, then The 2-hour SuperSproutlet Show which was recently added and hosted by Bean and Sportacus (from LazyTown), followed by The 2-hour Super Sharing Show hosted by three puppets named Patty, Ricky, and Curtis E. Owl, and lastly; The Goodnight Show which plays from 6 PM - 6 AM in 3 hour loops hosted by Nina and two puppets, Star and Lucy.

The number of shows played on this channel on a daily basis are extremely wonderfully diverse with new shows added every few months. Some include the ever-popular Angelina Ballerina, Barney & Friends, The Berenstein Bears, Bob the Builder, Caillou, Chloe's Closet, Driver Dan's Story Train, Fifi and the Flowertots, Fireman Sam, Kipper, LazyTown, Nina's Little Fables, Pajanamals, Play With Me Sesame (Sesame Street spin-off), Poppy Cat, Sesame Street, Super WHY!, and The Wiggles. Many of these shows are Canadian, Australian, or English in origin, mostly Angelina Ballerina, Caillou, Chloe's Closet, Fireman Sam, Kipper, Poppy Cat, and The Wiggles. This past year they've added 2-3 new shows already or altered ones they already show. They've even announced new shows this year to be added to their schedule.

I enjoy this channel due to the animated characters - human and puppet alike. I enjoy this channel because my daughter enjoys these characters as well - they are charismatic and funny. She loves Chica, the new host Carly, and Nina and Star. She loves to sing in the morning with Chica and stretch with Nina at night. The shows are educational and have few downsides, unlike, for example "Max & Ruby" which is plays on Nick Jr. In "Max & Ruby," Max is 3 and Ruby is 7; and they live alone without supervision. I don't believe their parents have been shown in any of the five seasons. Ruby is often bossy and abusive to Max, ignoring him and constantly lecturing him over nothing. None of the shows played on Sprout have that kind of nonsense.

If I were to rate this channel, I would give it a four out of five stars, only because there is always room for improvement. I truly enjoy this channel and only allow M to watch a few other shows from other channels. This is the number one channel I recommend to other parents with young children.

~Rose



Disclaimer: I was not paid or asked to review this channel or any of the shows mention, I did not receive any gifts or items from the sponsors or producers of the channel or any of the shows. All opinions and thoughts are my own.