Jack’s first trip to the zoo

We went to the zoo on Saturday. It was a really nice day for it- the weather was perfect! Jack was excited about seeing the elephants, but as the afternoon wore on, either he was tired, or he just didn’t quite get it yet. Mom bought us passes for the year, so we’ll be back and hopefully more of the animals will be awake. He sure didn’t want to ride in the stroller - he wanted to walk! Jack holds hands for a little while, but it doesn’t last long.

The best blocks ever - Magna Tiles

A really good idea

I love to organize things, and this system of toy “management” is a great one:

‘Toy library’ promotes cleanup AND creativity: Parent Hacks

Technorati Tags: organization, toys

Jack @ 21 months

Jack has found a new hat. This mixing/measuring bowl is a perfect fit for his head! Jack’s favorite pass time these days is chasing the cats around- he loves to tackle them and lay on top of them. Every once in a while Lilee nips him and he looks so hurt and offended, like he just can’t believe she would do something like that to him. Then, of course, he goes right back to laying on top of her. His other favorite thing to do is slide! He will make a slide out of anything- even Mommy’s legs. We went to the park a couple of weeks ago the day it was warm, and he just has no fear on the playground equipment. This translates into lots of fear for me, and while he really has a good time out there, he’s probably a little young to be playing on the park playground equipment when there are lots of bigger kids running around and not paying much attention to who they might run into.

He is enjoying Emily more and more and many days the first word out of his mouth, before I even get him out of the crib is “Eh-ly?” They are beginning to interact in a really cute way and have back and forth squealing conversations that are fun to listen to. Jack can name most of the letters and basic shapes, is starting to use short sentences, and can almost count to ten. He sounds so cute counting, “one, two, tree, foh, five, six, nine! Yay, I did it!” It’s amazing how fast kids learn things at this age. His favorite foods are raisins (raysis), applesauce (ah-sauce),pretzels, french fries (eff-fries) and chicken.

(I’m sure it seems like I record such mundane things here for you to read… it’s not that I think everyone is interested in Jack’s current favorite foods, but I just don’t always get things like that written down in the journal I’m keeping about him. These monthly comments about Jack are a perfect place for me to record them so I can come back later as these years become a blur.)

Stinkin’ Good Fruit Puff Pastry

Do you every use Pepperidge Farm’s Puff Pastry? It’s in the frozen section near the frozen desserts, etc. If you ever need to make a fancy meal or dessert you need to visit puffpastry.com. There are a million different ways to use it, and lots of the recipes are super easy.

Last Sunday we had the traditional Pig-Out Easter Breakfast Smorgasbord Potluck at church (after which we were all so sleepy that we didn’t really hear the sermon at all)
I took this No-Fuss Fruit Pie:

1 pkg. Pepperidge Farm® Frozen Puff Pastry Sheets (2 sheets)
1 egg
1 tbsp. water
1 can or jar (21 oz.) fruit pie filling, any variety
(I also sprinkled the fruit pie filling with cinnamon and a little sugar)

THAW pastry sheets at room temperature 30 min. Preheat oven to 400F. Mix egg and water.

UNFOLD pastry sheets. Place 1 pastry sheet on baking sheet. Spread pie filling on pastry to within 1″ of edges. Brush edges with egg mixture. Place remaining pastry sheet over pie filling. Press edges together with fork to seal. Brush with egg mixture. Cut several 2″ slits in top of pastry.

BAKE 30 min. or until golden. Cool on baking sheet on wire rack at least 15 min. Cut into squares.

This recipe would be great for any meal. You could put it in the oven just as dinner is starting, and it would be ready to serve warm with ice cream for dessert!

By the way , the key to using their puff pastry is the thaw time. You will just break it if you try to unfold it before it’s completely thawed.

Other recipes I’ve made and enjoyed from puffpastry.com:

Chocolate Walnut Strudel

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

Sugar & Spice Pastry Straws

How to set your kids up for success- don’t tell them they’re smart

I just read a review on Guy Kawasaki’s blog of an article called “The Effort Effect” by Marina Krakovsky, that addresses some of the questions I’m always pondering about how to best set Jack up for success.

“Labels, even though positive, can be harmful. They may instill a fixed mind-set and all the baggage that goes with it, from performance anxiety to a tendency to give up quickly. Well-meaning words can sap children’s motivation and enjoyment of learning and undermine their performance.”

It seems that telling kids they’re smart or talented all the time is not the way to best encourage them. This can become part of their identity and lead to the mindset that talent or intelligence is a fixed trait, rather than something that can be improved with effort. Children (and adults) with this mindset give up after attempting something the first time either because they believe they are just not smart or talented enough to succeed, or conversely, because intelligence or talent is part of their self-image that must not be jeopardized by failure.

The best way to encourage children, then, is not by telling them how smart or talented they are when they succeed, but rather by praising their effort and persistence which led to the success. This helps to foster the view of “failure” as merely a challenge to find a better way to do it next time.

13 Twists on the Classic Rice Krispy Treat

Do you like Rice Krispy Treats? They are one of my favorite desserts- I think I could eat a whole pan of them. I have a hard time leaving anything plain though- I’m just wired to try new and different ways of making things prettier or more interesting. Yesterday at FreeStuff4Kids I posted 13 Ways to Dress up Your Rice Krispy Treats. In particular I think the Peeps Nest thing is really cute- even though I hate Peeps, I wanted to make them!

Made me laugh

Google now offering free wireless internet for your home

Stop flushing your money down the toilet paying for high-speed internet.  Click here to read about this latest creative endeavor from Google. TiSP is something we’ll all have in our homes in the coming years, I’m sure.

Thanks, David, for the tip!