What a Sweet Heart

3Po and Jammy attended a Valentine's Day cookie party this morning. Surprise, surprise, all the little girls showed up in pink and red, and spent most of the time decorating cookie after cookie after cookie. Not that the boys were too far behind in that department. They piled on the icing and candy hearts until each cookie was loaded with sugary treats. Oh, well. Valentine's Day comes only once a year, right? (and so does St. Patrick's Day. And Easter. And every other annual celebration that simply must be accompanied by a cookie decorating extravaganza.) At least it makes for a cute photograph!

Happy Love Thursday!

Monday Mornings: I'm fabulous!

Last Monday I received this nice award from My Bella Figlia -- isn't that a great way to start the week off? Thanks, Shangrila -- it's nice to be told I'm fabulous on a day when I have to rush out of the house with breakfast half-eaten and my hair sticking up in every direction. And before I give 5 other bloggers that same Monday Morning lift by passing the award on, I'd like to begin my acceptance speech....

Okay, it's not the Oscars, so I'll nix the speech, but do I get to list things that I am "into" right now:

1) Oatmeal. Eating it. Cooking with it. And most importantly, donating it to hungry people via the Quaker Oats' Start With Substance program.

2) Getting to the BlogHer '09 conference in Chicago. The cost is daunting, but I've applied for a BlogHer scholarship and joined sponsorship contests here and there. You never know...

3) Soup. I've been having a bowl of soup for lunch almost every day, and I love the warm feeling in my tummy on a cold day.

4) Webkinz. The Pea wants to have a Webkinz birthday party when she turns 8, so I'm obsessing over party ideas that don't involve purchasing $16.00 stuffed animals for each and every party guest.

5) The octuplets' mother. I'm into her in a negative way, as in "I hope no one helps her exploit her children for financial gain and attention because it's wrong, wrong, wrong".

And now I get to pass this award on. To Poppy Fields, Tech Savvy Mama, MJ, Rachel, and mom2ag, I say -- Your Blog is Fabulous! To everyone else, do take a minute to stop by their blogs, leave a comment and make their Monday Morning a good one!


How is your morning going? If you leave a link to your latest post in the comments section, I'll go visit and leave a comment.

Making plans for BlogHer

I really need to find a way to get to BlogHer '09. Because seriously, people, BlogHer is a great conference. Whatever your reasons for blogging, at BlogHer you'll find things to inspire you to take your blog in whatever direction you choose. Here are some of the things I know BlogHer can help you (and me!) with :

* Get information and advice on every aspect of blogging -- photography, topics, ethics, monetizing, time management, you name it -- from people who've been there, done that
* Meet your favorite bloggers face-to-face for the first time.
* Meet companies that can help you with your blog -- from technology to ideas to product -- or ways to streamline your life so you can get on with your blog.
* Get yourself noticed!


So I'm researching my transportation options, and I think the most cost-effective one is to hitchhike to Chicago. So I have to work on my sales and marketing pitch. What do you think of my hitchhiking face?

Hmmm. Maybe not. I wouldn't get noticed in a sea of BlogHer hitchhikers. I need something to get me noticed. Not my body, heavens no.


How about that old standby, a cute kid? Families will be more likely to stop for us and it'll send a signal to potential rides that I'm not planning to murder them with an axe in front of my own kid. Nah. Still too cheerful. We don't look desperate enough. Why not just ditch the grownup and go for the whole "help an orphan out" ploy?



Yes, that's better. I'll just have to hide behind a bush on the roadside and jump into the car with 3Po when the nice family takes pity on him and gives him a ride to BlogHer. Now all I have to do is teach him to pronounce BlogHer correctly.
Good -- transportation down, lodging and conference to go. Fortunately, the good people over at Label Daddy and MomDot are giving bloggers like me the chance to win a conference pass to BlogHer '09. Winning a conference pass would mean the world to me, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. And teaching 3Po to say, "Please help my mama get to Bloggah..."

How to turn a conversation around

3Po's teacher told me a funny story about him the other day. She had asked him a question and was trying to listen to his answer. He was facing away from her, so she asked him to turn around so she could her him better. Whereupon 3Po stood up and began to twirl round and round while repeating his answer.

Building Bridges

When I first began buying wooden train tracks (back when The Pea was a toddler), I complained about how expensive they were (and still are). But when you look at how much play the kids have gotten out of it, it's actually a great investment. Who would have thought a simple wooden bridge could provide so many hundreds of hours of fun? Even though they're older, my kids still love Thomas the Tank. In fact, we're planning to watch Thomas and Friends perform live on stage in Cupertino this March. Which means these wooden tracks and bridges are going to remain a favorite for quite a while.

For more bridges, click here.

The food of love

This combination of graham crackers and cool whip sandwiches is one of our current snacktime favorites. As Jammy puts it, "It just fills my whole brain with love".

For more expressions of love, click here.

My blog is fabulous!

I received this nice award from My Bella Figlia -- thanks so much! I'll hang on to this for a while and pass it on next Monday....

Send mama to BlogHer!

I'm not above exploiting the adorable-ness of my kids to plead my case for winning the MomDot/LabelDaddy BlogHer '09 scholarship. They were happy to help, because they like seeing their videos up on YouTube. And they're smart kids. They know that if I get to go to BlogHer '09, there's gonna be a couple of perks for them as well:

* More networking opportunities for mama with companies who reach out to bloggers means more product review opportunities for her blog -- and what would a toy review be without a kid to help review it?

* Lots of cool tchotchkes from the conference sponsors and exhibitors. After all, what five year old doesn't want a flashing jelly necklace/keychain or mousepad?

* Going to BlogHer '09 will make mama happy. And as Barack Obama acknowledges, "When momma's happy, everybody's happy".


So here's what 3Po and Jammy have to say:

Monday Mornings: In my pj's

This was obviously not taken on a Monday morning. I love staying in my pj's as late as possible on the weekends. My neighbors are used to seeing me take out the trash in my lovely Strawberry Shortcake ensemble, but I don't think the principal or teachers or other parents would be as nonchalant. Maybe I just need to find a floor-length trenchcoat.


How is your morning going? If you leave a link to your Monday Morning post in the comments section, I'll go visit and leave a comment.

Learning to Read

Today 3Po scribbled on a piece of paper:

hTSECRETCEY
ESHEDN

He asked me to read it out loud to him, so I gamely attempted to translate.

Me: Hut secret say?
3Po: No, mama! "The secret key"!
Me: Oh, sorry. You're right, the secret key. By the way, key begins with K, not C. And the second line is, "Es hedu"?
3Po: No, mama! That says, "Is hidden"!
Me: Ohhhhh.... The secret key is hidden! Sorry about that, I thought that N was a U. Good work!
3Po: Mama, I thought you knew how to read.


I'm so proud of my beginning reader. I think he'll be fine in kindergarten. As for me, I guess I need some reading remedial classes.