Review: Dream Big, Little Pig!

I recently got a chance to review Dream Big, Little Pig!, By Kristi Yamaguchi. When it came in the mail, both boys were excited to get a chance to open the envelope and look at the book. While the cover was decorated to mostly catch a girls attention, my boys were excited to read it, and thought the cover was fun. (My youngest has a cabbage patch baby named "Movie" so we do not worry about "gender-appropriateness in this house.) The cover was sparkly and pretty and grabbed their attention and they liked it, even with all the pink and the purple.

While the cover of the book might be considered"girly", the message and story most certainly weren't. In the book we meet Poppy, the pig with big dreams who learns to never give up, to keep trying, and soon enough, she finds her calling on the ice skating rink. At the end of the book she even dreams of being a pilot.

The writing had a lyrical quality to it, which made it much easier and more enjoyable for me to read and for my children to pay attention to the book. The drawings featured animals from all over the world and they were beautifully drawn. Overall I really enjoyed this book, and my youngest son did too. My oldest son had less interest in the book, mostly because his life revolves around science, and not as much about fictional stories (anything not real is not cool, unless it is Phineas and Ferb). The book is listed on Amazon as being for 4-8 year olds, but I would think that it's better suited for 3-6 year olds. Still, it's a wonderful, high quality book that I will read to my boys again.

*Disclosure: I received an advance copy of this book for review. I received no compensation for this review other than the book itself. The thoughts and opinions on the book are my own.

The Wordless Wednesday That Wasn't

I was all set to post a funny picture of Mr. B cuddling a pillow pet as he slept on the couch. I posted it on Facebook, and I thought it was cute/funny. I told him that I posted it, so he would know it was up there. He didn't care....

...until he got to work and saw that the picture was posted all over his work. I got a call this morning to take it off facebook. I felt terrible. I apologized profusely.

Apparently this is my lesson learned about what I post on the internet, and internet privacy. In other words, keep those funny pictures private overall this just reconfirms what I already know-

Sometimes facebook sucks! Sometimes it feels like the fish and company rule, it stinks after 2 days, and sometime I feel like I have 300 people stinking up the place. (You know I still love you, it's just those few rotten apples that spoil the bunch.)
photo © 2009 Adam Tinworth | more info (via: Wylio)


Anyway, I have learned my lesson, at least until the next time I stick my foot in my Facebook.

Hopefully I have learned my lesson about using sayings poorly to fill out a blog post too.... no probably not.

Also, here I am pimping myself out- Please go vote for me in the Top 25 Funny Moms over at Circle of Moms. I don't know who nominated me, but thank you! You can vote once a day until Monday! Thanks a bunch!

Sherlock Bones and The Mystery of the Rotting Food

photo © 2010 Marianne Szeto | more info (via: Wylio)
There seemed to be a string of rotten food that was being found in the Bee house by our Detective Dog, Louie. Every day it seemed he was bringing me a slimy apple, orange, or the like. I couldn't help but wonder, where he was finding all of this food.

I followed him and discovered that he was finding all of these fruits and vegetables under the pedestal of our table. We had a food waster on our hands, but the question was, who was it?

I had my suspicions.

Mr. B had his suspicions.

Louie had his suspicions....

photo © 2009 Procsilas Moscas | more info (via: Wylio)

.....wait that was just what Louie was hoping to find instead of a rotten banana.

So I confronted Mr. I-hate-all-fruit-and-vegetables himself.

He denied it, of course. I then made a blanket statement to all of the boys: There better be no more food found on the ground or else!
Honestly, I had no plans for or else, but it sounded ominous enough.

Enough to scare Drew the food-waster straight, for a while.

Then one night we had asparagus for dinner. Drew took forever eating his asparagus. As I was cleaning up, I saw he had all of them still on his plate. I turned my back 30 seconds later and voila!

"I'm done!" He exclaimed.

"Really?" asked Mr. B.

"Really."

"I don't believe you Drew, where are you hiding them?" I said suspiciously.

"No, honest!"

"Oh okay... this is your chance to tell the truth, and I won't be mad. Did you really eat them?" Asked Mr. B.

"Really I did!"

"Okay," I said. "We are choosing to trust you."

Drew jumped up from his chair. As soon as he did that, we investigated, and noticed he had thrown all of his asparagus in a cardboard box that held Mr. B's old hats.

Upon further investigation we also discovered old apples, bananas, mushrooms... basically every fruit and vegetable  he was supposed to be eating this week. The boy is going to develop scurvy.

So the boy got a timeout, a talking to about lying and wastefulness, and a supervised eating of some new asparagus.

After our anger subsided about the lying, my husband and I got some good laughs, I got a blog post, and Louie got a treat for being a super sniffer who hates fruits and vegetables as much as Drew does.

The Tooth Fairy is a Jerk

One of the things that has been happening in rapid fire fashion in the Bee house is that my son is slowly becoming a toothless wonder.

Last week he lost his first front tooth. He pulled it out himself it was so incredibly loose. Honestly, this boy was so excited about the tooth fairy visiting, he could barely contain himself. I posted his picture on facebook with a witty caption, put the tooth in the designated tooth pillow, and put him to bed.

The next day when he woke up, he came into my room, his voice trembling. "The tooth fairy forgot to come!"

My first thoughts that morning: Well, shit.

Wiping the sleep from my eyes, I told the sad boy "well, maybe she is running behind. I'm sure she would never forget".

All morning he was the saddest little boy you have ever seen. I have never felt so terrible. The Tooth Fairy is a jerk, and the Tooth fairy is me.

When I called Mr. B at work, hiding in our bedroom, I was beside myself. We agreed to have the Tooth Fairy visit while Drew was at school. Mr. B hurried home to place the dollar (yes the Tooth Fairy leaves a dollar, no she is not familiar with inflation) in the pillow pocket, and then picked Drew up from the bus stop.

Drew greeted Mr. B, saying "I have bad news Daddy, the Tooth Fairy didn't come last night."

Mr. B quickly responded, "Well, let's check- she might have been running late." Drew found the dollar, crisis averted.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cut to last night:

Drew lost his other front tooth.
Mr. B had to work early.
I would have to be the Tooth Fairy.

I was nervous. I had to wait until I knew he was asleep. I kept reminding myself. I got ready for bed, laid down and began to surf the web on my Ipod, and...

Omigod. How did I almost fall asleep without doing this again? My mind is like Swiss cheese, I tell you.

I snuck into his room and placed the dollar. Then I breathed a sigh of relief.

The Tooth Fairy is now less Jerk, more Awesome in our house. Crisis averted.... until the next lost tooth.

To be continued....

Thinking of Springing

I've been working on decluttering... our house, my life, my feelings. I'm hoping for a fresh start. People have been asking me if this month has been easier than last month. The answer is yes and no. The past two months have been scary and hard, but I'm confident that one day I will feel like a grown up and be ready to tackle all of my problems..... er, right? With my job more than likely ending, I am at a crossroads and want to make the correct decisions. Lately I've been feeling like I've made some bad ones in the past that I cannot escape. Someone give me a cheat sheet (or a crystal ball), I need the answers!

On a more humorous note:

This family is so ready for spring and ready to be uncooped from our house. It has become a jungle gym in here.

I am also celebrating spring by trying to declutter myself as well. So far 9 pounds down. Unfortunately this only takes care of the "stress eating" that took place this Winter. I am hoping to drop at least 20 more pounds, hopefully by my birthday in mid-May, wish me luck!

Wordless Wednesday- Look Mommy, I brought you a present!

Posting just barely makes it into Wednesday!

For more Wordless Wednesday, Visit 5 Minutes for Mom.