Girlymama

We made the other night and they were a huge hit!! Super easy to!

Corn Fritters

3 ears corn, husks and silk removed
1/3 cup milk
1 large egg
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup flour
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Remove kernels: Cut off tip of each
cob; stand in a wide shallow bowl. With a sharp knife, slice downward
to remove kernels. To bowl, add milk, egg, sugar, baking powder, 1/2
teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper; mix. Fold in cornmeal and flour.

I tend to cut my hair on a whim. Dramatically cut my hair on a whim.
Yesterday, I called and made an appointment on the way to church and right after church was over, I headed over and chopped about 12 inches off my hair.

GULP.

Here is basically how long it was yesterday:

Here it is now:

Just a tad shorter in the back, wouldn't you say? Sorry for the self portrait. I'll try to get a better pic soon!

I love it!!Now I just need to decide on a color. Can't decide if I should go lighter or darker. What do you think?

We went to the Zhuniverse event at the Please Touch Museum, where the kids had a total blast.

The highlight of the Zhuniverse Tour was by FAR the kid's hamster wheel:

Zhu Zhu Pets, you may be on to something here. I would totally buy this.

Then we went inside the museum and had a blast showing one of our favorite places to Daddy. For some reason, he's never gone with us! The place was practically empty, which was awesome. Colin's favorite part is the water exhibit.

Then we headed over to the zoo for a picnic.

And some bird watching

We even saw some dinosaurs. RAWWWRRRRRRR!

It was super fun!

What did you do this weekend?

Life got in the way of Fashion Friday this week. Well, not so much "life" as that instead of working on my post last night like I planned, I went out an met Kelly and Jo-Lynne for some girl talk at Cheesecake Factory. Which was just what the doctor ordered on this particularly insane week. I have approximately 8,000 things to do today, so I need to keep it really short, but I still have a few little gems to share with you this week!

1. Unique Vintage: I could spend hours browsing this site. If you love the old school glamor of Mad Men, this site will be perfect. Look at this Pleated Bodice Cap Sleeve Wiggle Dress. And I love this Houndstooth Skirt for fall. (Although its admittedly hard to think about fall clothes when its 97 degrees outside.)
Unique Vintage is offering Girlymama readers 15% off the entire site with the discount code "getmad". Happy shopping!

2. Target Booty: A Target opened this week less than TWO MILES from my house. This is both good and bad. But I was able to hit it before the grand opening and was welcomed by a fully stocked clothing section with everything in every size. *SWOON* And I picked up some really cute things. I love this Ruffle Neck Blouse. I also picked up this Wrap Dress by Merona that is super cute, lightweight and "easy care" so it won't wrinkle. Yipee! And meet my new best friends.

3. Did you see French Connection is having an up to 75% off sale? You're welcome.

Colin is two.

And he is driving me crazy.

He wakes up in the morning and he's immediately two. This morning, for example, he cried because Daddy came to get him out of the crib instead of Mommy. Then he was smiling and cuddling in our bed with us. Then he cried because I need to change his diaper before we went down to breakfast. Then he threw a fit because he doesn't want to take off his pajamas. Then he threw a BIGGER fit because he didn't like the shirt I picked out. Then he calmed down and happily walked down the stairs to the kitchen. Where we discovered we were out of strawberry yogurt. Then he threw another fit because I offered him blueberry yogurt instead. Then (after another time out) he sat down and cheerfully ate the blueberry yogurt.

This is not a fun way to start one's day. You can see why I'm exhausted.

Yesterday he threw a fit for 45 minutes. Not crying and fussing on and off for 45 minutes. He was laying on his floor, kicking, screaming and crying for FORTY-FIVE MINUTES. STRAIGHT. The only thing that stopped him was me finally going in there and holding him tightly until he stopped screaming and calmed down. (That fit was because I insisted on changing his dirty, stinky diaper. I know. The injustice of it all! The poor baby!)

He's an emotional roller coaster all day long: one minute he's happy as a clam, the next he's on the floor screaming. He's playing happily, then he he's in tears. Cute little adorable toddler to monster child. For no apparent reason.

Except being in public. I can almost guarantee that whenever we're in public, he'll throw at least one fit. He's almost always leaves the store held under my arm like a football – screaming – while I try to get my shopping cart and two other spacey children herded to my car.

I'm so frustrated. Not to mention that he does not sleep through the night — STILL. Whenever he wakes up, he screams for me. And he won't stop until I go down and rock him back to sleep.  He wakes up almost every night around midnight, then again around 4:00am. Its ridiculous.

I know this is a stage. And as much as I don't want him to grow up too quickly, I will NOT be sad to say goodbye to this little monster that has taken over my two-year-old.

Showing kids that reading can be fun is one of the many challenges of parenting – especially during the summer, when school is out and kids want to play. VTech, creator of the V.Reader e-book for kids, asked TheMotherhood.com, an online community of moms, to provide their ultimate tip list for encouraging kids to read. Moms came through with hundreds of suggestions, and here are the top ten:

• Integrate Reading into Real Life: Show children that reading can be both practical and fun. Try reading recipes and creating goodies together, or read a story and then re-enact a favorite scene for other family members, complete with props and basic sets.
• Ask Your Pet to Lend an Ear: Encourage your children to read aloud to the family dog or a favorite stuffed animal. Your youngsters will get to practice their reading, and pets make great listeners!
• Create an Intimate Space: Make reading exciting with indoor “campouts.” Use sheets and chairs to help your kids make tents, pile blankets and pillows inside, and bring snacks and a stack of books. Reading with a flashlight will add novelty to the activity.
• Reward Reading Comprehension: Set aside one night each week for a “quiz night,” when you can read to your kids and give them rewards, such as money to set aside for more books, for answering comprehension questions correctly.
• Throw a Book Party: Make reading a social activity. Invite a few of your child’s friends to your house and ask them to bring a favorite book. Provide snacks and games that incorporate reading.
• Get Involved Locally: Check area libraries, bookstores and even bank branches. They will often host story hours or summer reading programs for kids, offering incentives for reading a certain number of books.
• Think Outside the Box – or Book: You don’t need to use books alone to encourage kids to read. Ask your child to read things like street signs and menus when you are out and about, or put closed captioning on the TV so he can see as well as hear the words of his favorite shows.
• Give Them a Choice: Set aside an hour or two of quiet time during the day, and tell your kids they can either read or take a nap during that period. Letting them choose to read will remind them that they can choose reading at other times, too.
• Write Stories Together: Reading and writing go hand in hand. Write stories with your kids one word at a time – you write one word, they read it and write one word of their own – until you have a story you created together.
• Play to Their Interests: Let your kids read about subjects they already enjoy. From Pokemon to ponies, if they are fascinated by a topic, they will love reading about it.

This list will be on the V.Tech website and one lucky contributor will be winning a VTech V.Reader and three animated storybook cartridges (worth over $110!). They will love it – it quickly became one of our favorite toys! And, finally, I wanted to share with you the amazing Summer Reading Packet that my daughter Ellie came home with this summer. It has been tremendously helpful and wanted to show it to you:

Disclosure: I was provided with a V.Reader for review purposes by VTech and TheMotherhood and was compensated for my time in writing this post. As always all opinions are mine.

I have to share a peek at these precious little ones God has added to our family!
I can't wait to meet them!

I was rocking Colin in the rocking chair before bed and he laid down sideways, wanting me to cradle him like a newborn. He was cuddling his blanket next to his face and sucking on his finger.

"Are you Mommy's baby or Mommy's big boy?" I asked.
"Mama bay-bee. Me Mama bay-bee," he replied.

And he is my baby still.

Despite the fact that his legs are hanging over the side of the rocking chair because he's so tall.
And that he now sings along with his lullaby and prays with me.
And usually informs me that "No bed. Me no sleepeee."

The baby stage is far behind us. I blinked. Now were talking about potty training and preschool. I have a little man who is only a shadow of my baby boy. But as long as he's still calling himself my baby and still wants to cuddle with me and still loves to grab my face and give me slobbery kisses and says "Wub ouuuuu, Mama" and  loves to hold my hand….