Taxes and signing

Taxes finished (federal, state, and local) and mailed in last week.

I am NOT doing them again.

I am perfectly willing to pay our tax guy to do them for us and mail them in early.

I have already informed Brian that next year, when I say, "I can do the taxes and save us the money," he is allowed to lovingly smack me upside the head and remind me of how much I hated doing them this year.

Oh, and why for the love of Pete, is it not FREE to e-file?

Rant over.

Happy note...Tam has learned two more signs. He has become really good at "more", however, he only signs this when prompted. To sign more, you bring your fingertips of both hands together in front of you. If I ask Tam if he wants more of something, he'll perform the sign if he wants more. He really likes asking for more pushes on his swing :-)

Just this week we have been trying to get Tam to sign "please" when he want something form us. This sign was a tad more difficult for him because it is similar to our simplified "help" sign. For "help" he pats his chest with both hands. For "please", it is a circular motion of the flat hand in front of the chest. With his lack of complete coordination, Tam tends to sign please by rubbing his chest to the point of shaking his entire upper torso. Very cute. Again, he hasn't used the sign on his own yet, but will repeat it if I verbally tell him to say please.

Now if he would only do some more true talking. (He has been working on T and C sounds repeatedly this week.)

Are we ready for a #2?

As usual, when I hit the meiosis / mitosis discussions in my general biology class, I freak myself out. These are the lectures pertaining to cell division, production of sperm and eggs, and resulting fertilization and development of offspring. It is all really interesting subjects. It is a bit hard to believe that your body is doing all these freakin' cool things and you don't even realize it.

Then I get to talking about ALL THE THINGS THAT CAN GO WRONG in the cell division system.

This includes many of the most common genetic disorders, such as Down's Syndrome, Turner's Syndrome, Trisomy 16, 18, or 22, etc.

Along with their possible origination in cell division errors, I talk about the morphological features of the children, the likelihood of the offspring's survival, and the percent occurrence in a healthy sexual attive population.

Finally, we explore the trend that usually the mistake is because of an error in egg development (mom's fault) and that the chances for happening INCREASE WITH MATERNAL AGE.

How old am I again? Do we want Tamlin to be an only child? Can we freakin' afford another kiddo (money, time, and energy?) Do we really want to be Grand Rapids for the long haul or to attempt looking for other opportunities while having two kids?

Internal panic has ensued.
Maybe our friends did it right with having two at once (grins).

Nearly Wordless Wednesday - Latest crafts

Another bib completed on left. And I tried my hand at vinyl-covering the fabric and snaps for second bib.

Remember I bought 3 shirts to decorate?

Here's shirt 1 completed with appliques on front & back, and stitching

Here's shirt 2 almost complete with bleach pen design. There will be a stenciled truck spewing this curling exhaust (or a beaker spewing smoke).

Shirt 3 is in process with a stenciled design and stitching.

A single guess as to which of these Tam really liked?

. . .

Family at Easter

I don't really remember last Easter Season. I think I was still in a daze from the new wee one in the family or hopped up on drugs or knee deep in laundry / grading. Whatever it was, I really don't think of last year as Tam's first Easter since it was all a blur.

With this idea, this Easter season we actually celebrated together as a family. We completed the Christian traditions of attending church service, as well as the heathen traditions of an egg hunt and baskets.

I had hid eight plastic eggs obviously around the living room. Inside the eggs, I placed 1 or 2 nilla wafer cookies. By obvious, I

mean right smack in the middle of the living room rug...as well as in his shoes, on his toy box, etc. At first, Tamlin wasn't quite sure what to think of the new eggs and was a bit frighten of the chair covered in blankets (under which his basket was hid). However, once Brian showed him that (A) the egg makes noise when you shake it and (B) inside held a treat, Tam thought this was an awesome new game. With his short attention span, he found about 4 eggs in the morning.

I kept his Easter Basket simple. It was filled with a few pieces of chocolate, a chocolate bunny, nilla wafer cookies, stuffed animals from relatives, a ball, and a new truck. Three guesses as to what was Tam's favorite part of the basket... yep, the truck. However, lately the ball has been getting a bit

of use around the house as well.

The day was beautiful and unusually warm. We didn't have to put on our Easter clothes and then bundle up in winter coats to stay warm :-) Tam even got to wear his new outfit from his great-aunts.

Since Brian had to work Sunday afternoon, we had Easter dinner a day late on Monday. Yummy slow-cooked ham. Happiness and full bellies all around.

In reference to friends' post on babyproofing and books...

We have MANY books. We LOVE books. Brian and I both *heart* reading. (Whoa, that was a bit cheesy). We have at least 6 bookshelves stocked with books. Many of our favorites are science-fiction and fantasy novels, but we have some non-fiction tomes thrown in for flavor.

Tam currently is into books, especially if they are about cars or are lift-the-flaps. He is VERY into car magazines. He will actually sit still in one of our laps and patiently turn through a book if it is about trucks.

We are not worried about him not having reading material... and, as of yet, we are not worried about him ripping up the "grown-up" books. He has not pulled our books off any of the shelves, even the ones within his reach. This may be because we keep certain shelves and buckets just for his books and he readily knows where these are in the various rooms of the house.

Knowledge is power = encourage reading!

Clothing score for the weekend

I just switched over kiddo's clothes from 18months to 24month sizes. The 18m were a tad too small; Tam's big head wasn't fitting through the tops and the pants were becoming high-waders circa "Revenge of the Nerds". However, with this size jump, these new larger clothes are, well, BIG, with some much more so than others, depending on the brand. In the end, most of this size has room for a bit of growth over the next months. People warned me they grow fast...

I according to the latest edition of Reader's Digest, I'm frugal and NOT a tightwad. Frugal being that I enjoy saving money/getting a deal/not paying retail. Tightwad equating to one who takes it too the extreme, such as reusing toothpicks and rationing toilet paper. So, how does a frugal mom keep up with a growing boy? I certainly don't get this many new clothes every 3 months! Well, I had been stocking up on 24m/2T sizes at the mom2mom sales around here this winter. Additionally, I am looking forward to the spring season of yard sales that are just beginning to start. This weekend, I just couldn't pass up a killer sale at the commercial store, Babies-R-Us. Their promo was an additional 25% of clothes that fit in their reusable canvas bag. Score.

I hit the shop right after opening when there wasn't many other parents (or parents to be) present yet. I found a good amount of clothes for Tam for this summer, as well as a few outfits in 3T and 4T sizes for the future. Plus a few blank shirts that I plan to personalize with freezer-paper stenciling. With BRU clearance sales AND the 25% deal, I walked with a bag full of clothes for $50...roughly $3.50 per item. Bargain, since this is just a smidge more than I usually pay for used clothes. Now, I think I might be set with keeping Tam clothed for the next few months. Tam's favorite? I red t-shirt with McQueen from Cars movie on the front.

The final deal for the day was that Babies-R-Us sells 7th generation all purpose cleaner. This company is supposedly a green company that utilizes thyme and lemongrass to combat bacteria instead of harsher chemicals. Earlier this year, I tested this product in our microbiology lab to see if their 99.9% bacterial killing claims held true. Results of the testing was that even at 50% concentration, 7th generation killed E.coli and S. aureus 100% of the time. Excellent. The bargain was that they were selling the bottles at buy one, get one 50% off. Two bottles that I can dilute down to 4 bottles, means that I got a huge discount! One bottle for each of the kitchen, 2 bathrooms, and kiddo's room. Ah...it is the little things in life that make me smile.