August 2011 Archives

We have a very hungry new addition to our household and I'm not talking about a baby or a pet! During  a recent trip to the plant nursery, my husband picked up an exotic plant called Drosera capensis, or Cape Sundew. Since its arrival, this carnivorous species has been capturing little bugs like a champ. The small dark spots on the leaves show how effective these plants are.

Kellan loves our new plant! He checks out the leaves every morning to see little fruit flies stuck to its "dew" covered plant hairs. The little droplets actually attract small insects then trap them while the leaf wraps around it like a tentacle. The plant secretes enzymes to basically liquefy the bugs and eat them. Kellan thinks it's creepy but cool.

Sundews are fairly easy to care for, as long as it has plenty of sunlight and plenty of water. We put our plant in a south-facing windowsill to maximize sun exposure. Hopefully, this will help during our dreary Pacific Northwest winter. This has also been a fun way for us to observe a plant's special adaptation. Now we know Venus Flytraps don't have all the fun.

I used to think having dinner at a restaurant would be easier as my son got older - and in many ways it has - but it is still a test of patience at times. While he's much better about eating different things on the menu, it can be a real challenge to keep him in his seat the whole meal.

To be honest, we avoid restaurant meals when we can help it, but sometimes we could all use a break from our routine. We go to restaurants prepared and bring a backpack filled with crayons, paper, and a few small toys. Sometimes I even bring a small bag of snacks so he's not starving and cranky while we wait for our food. Our problem usually happens when he finishes well before my husband and I do. At times he is just done sitting at the table and feels the need to get up or even worse, whine about wanting to leave.

We've tried keeping the conversation directed at him, playing cars and trucks while we finish our meals and, on a few desperate occasions, we've handed him a phone app to play. Giving him an electronic diversion is my least favorite thing to do, but sometimes we just want to get through the last ten minutes of our meal.

It can be difficult for a little one to sit through dinner, but there have to be more ways to keep a kid occupied. Do you have any suggestions? Please share in the comments.

The other day I was trying to have a post-tantrum conversation with Kellan about his behavior. He had been whining and it escalated into a bit of a meltdown. Later in the day we took a walk and I tried to go over with him exactly what made his reaction unacceptable. I told him it made me sad when he acts like that. Then he told me I made him sad when I hurt his feelings. Well! I guess two can play at that game.

It really struck me how kids can be sensitive to their parents' disapproval. I try to correct him constructively, but obviously I don't always succeed. I realize talking to him while I'm frustrated and exasperated hurts his feelings. He's able to express himself better so I want him to open up to me, even when my own reaction isn't so stellar.

How do you handle hurt feelings?

Who likes to be bored? I certainly don't, but some are making a case for it, and it makes perfect sense. We are in Minnesota this week visiting Kellan's grandparents and my mother-in-law directed me to this article in the Wall Street Journal. In it, cartoonist Scott Adams says great creativity can come from being bored and mentions the cures for boredom that helped keep him busy in his childhood.

The word "bored" isn't in Kellan's vocabulary yet since kids his age seem to find ways to entertain themselves with nothing more than a straw or a patch of dirt. He gets excited about things adults may find mundane, like going to the car wash or watering plants. It's actually inspiring to me that little kids can see the potential for fun in almost anything.

This will definitely change as he gets older and the article reminded me that maybe letting kids be bored is a good way to encourage introspection and spark creativity. Maybe I need to find time to be bored!

I have mentioned in previous posts that I am a big fan of limiting the number of toys Kellan has on hand. No matter how I try the less is more approach, my son ends up with much more than he needs or even wants.

Now that his fourth birthday has come and gone, I think it's time to clear out the clutter again. I've been tossing broken toys and letting his younger cousins take things that he's clearly outgrown, but we're still left with a lot of stuff.

This time I want my son to work with me to edit his toy collection, but I'm not sure if he's going to embrace this little project. Even when I try to store long neglected toys in the garage he insists he's still playing with them. He even found our hiding place where we keep toys to rotate in and out.

How do you handle excess toys? Share your approach in the comments. I could use the advice!

There are many ways to save energy and water around the house, but one often-overlooked household item can actually make a big impact when it comes to water conservation. I'm talking about your toilet.

The average household uses 350 gallons of water a day and your toilets use about 25% of that average. That's a lot of water! I just fixed a toilet in our home that was constantly running. I knew letting it continue was like flushing money away, but I had no idea how much water our toilets actually use.

I searched online to figure out how to fix the problem myself and found out we could do more to conserve water. While switching to a high efficiency toilet, or HET, isn't practical at this point, I did find a valve that would help save water with each flush and costs under $12.

Installing the new valve was easy and it was a relief not to hear the toilet running anymore. Now that I know how much water we can save, I'm going to install the new valves on the rest of our toilets. I feel a little smarter for learning how to fix a small household problem that can help make a big impact on the environment!

We are getting ready for a trip to the Oregon coast and I have to admit that it's a breeze when it comes to packing for my kid. He rarely has an opinion on what he wears. Once in a while he'll say he wants to wear the t-shirt with the VW bus on it, but if it's in the laundry pile, he moves on.

This is not always the case for other parents, who have to deal with very opinionated dressers. I don't want to exaggerate and say just girls do this, but it does seem like females care more about what they wear. I remember being very opinionated about what I wore, but that probably started around third grade. Now I know toddlers who only want to wear dresses or special sparkly shoes. It can definitely cause frustration on the part of parents who just want to get their kids dressed and out the door.

Do your little ones like to take control of every outfit?