The Armadillo Tales

Aranzi

If I was brave enough to order internationally, I'd be all over the items featured at Aranzi's online shop.   I adore everything listed.    Check it out and tell me if you order something!   

Sample This Sample That

Have you ever been to Costco when they have the free sample tables setup?   I used to enjoy trying the differing offerings but now I've come to hate these samples.   It's not the food or drink, it's the people.   The Costco shoppers who make beelines for their free sample of the cube of smoked gouda or the beef taquito.   Most of these people are pushy, rude and did I mention rude?    They ram their shopping carts in the direction of the tables.  Sometimes they leave their shopping carts in the middle of the pathway.   I even had a woman snatch a sample of smoked salmon on cream cheese and cracker right from under my hand.   

Are you people that hungry?   Geesh, I'll give all of you a buck fifty each to get a hot dog and soda if you just get out of my way.

Recycle Crayons

As the armadillo gets older, his collection of crayons grow, as a result so do the number of broken crayons.    Normally I throw them away because I'm afraid that the sumo baby will get ahold of one and it will end up jammed in his throat.   But now I don't have to chuk those crayons in the rubbish can.    Broken crayons can be sent to The Crayon Recycling program.   You send in the crayons and this organization melts it down to form crazy crayons which is available for purchase or as a trade-in reward for your old crayons.

Via Karen Youso 

We All Have It

Well women that is ... well women who haven't reached menopause yet ... well females who have already reached puberty ... well you know what I mean.   I know this is probably too much information type of post but I just thought about how handy this item is because I need one and I don't have one.   In case you can't tell it's called a Pursonal.   The Pursonal holds all of our woman's necessities.   It's made specifically for that time of the month and it holds a good supply of what we need to while we're out and about.   A big plus is that it's crafted using a colorful and delightful fabric, and a velcro closure to secure.     I don't know why more people don't make these as I'm sure women would buy them.

Makeover

Just trying a new look ... I thought it was time for a makeover.   Wish Typepad had those themes over at VOX.

I Miss the Little Guy

We've been inhabiting these two hotel rooms for almost three weeks now and I am seriously missing my TIVO.    It's hard to go to cable and no TIVO when you're living with TIVO and a satellite dish at home.   I find myself constantly wanting to rewind the bit I missed or to pause the latest episode of Lost because the armadillo is throwing his 139th tantrum of the day.    I don't know how the "I don't have TIVO" population survives.    How can you people watch a television program and not go "What did he (the character on TV) say?" or "Was that a fumble?".   I can't wait to go back home and watch the shows on my Season Passes.   I just hope that the DVR didn't run out of space.   That would suck big time if it did.   I want to go home and watch my TIVO.   Life without TIVO forever ... I don't want to think about it.

Check out TIVO if you get a chance but remember, ... once you go TIVO you never go back-O.

Never in a Million Years

You know if I actually thought I looked like Charlize Theron I would post my actual picture but since I know that I in no shape or form resemble her in any way, my picture has been omitted.   Though I have to admit my head has swelled just a tiny bit.

Can It Get Any Worse?

... Of course it can.   Taking care of 2 boys under the age of 3 is proving to be a lot more challenging this week than it was last month, or so it seems.   Gone it seems are the days of tending to 1 child at a time.  These days I'm multi-tasking between saying "No!" ... "Stop!" and trying to sit up the other one after he tilts over on to his face.   Can you guess who I'm picking up and who I'm demanding that he put down that glass he's holding between his teeth?    Be-geezus.   The armadillo is in the stage of defiance.   No more are the looks of innocence when I catch him doing something bad.   Now I get his glare of antagonism and the hitting of inanimate objects around him.   Whoa where did that fury come from?   I guess one could say that he is a normal 2 year old but I abhor the normalcy of 2 year old peevishness and crabbiness.    Why can't toddlers be loving and well behaved, ALL the time?   Why is that conduct out of the norm?   Is it to test my patience as a parent?   I can tell you that it's working ... the trying of my patience that is.    But of course it wasn't meant to be and that he is right on course to be an ideal 2 year old ... full of remarkable, intriguing, mischevious and sometimes peculiar behaviors. 

I'm somwhat relieved to know that the armadillo's friends all have some sort of James Dean rebellion in them and I'm not alone.    It seems lately when I get together with my mama friends we all have some sort of story to tell, our mama-wartime tales.   

The sumo baby has yet to hit the insurgence of toddlerhood but he's firmly set in his goal of crawling.   That has led to a number of face plants into the bed, rug, floor, mat, etc ... you name it.   This prevents me from going more than 2 feet away from him as I always have to rush back to pick him up.   Thank goodness for the Bumbo seat I say.   I can plant him in there and not have to worry so much that he'll tip over.   Though he is getting stronger and more squirmy, and that puts him in such awkward positions in the seat that I still have to go back and adjust his placement.   

My boys ... I love 'em but they sure can be a couple of poops sometimes.

Free Hugs

Saw this video courtesy of City Mama ...

What a great idea ... you think Jake Gyllenhaal might want to join the campaign?   

Ooooh I'm Green with Envy

Oh I'm so jealous!    I recently read this post on The Poop which described a "Family Lounge" at the new Westfield San Francisco Centre.    I wish it was mandatory that all public places where families visit have one like this.   Plus that it had to be cleaned every half an hour and stocked with toys, comfy chairs, stylish changing tables, etc ...    The author also mentions another lounge near the new Bloomingdales' store.   I would totally start hanging out in these lounges.   I would bring my mama friends there and we could take turns watching each other's children while the other mamas shop.   I don't know why more malls don't have something like this.  This would unquestionably bring in more shoppers thus increasing their business.    They could even take it one step further and provide a sort of daycare facility.  Now that would make a great business idea!   

But it's about time familes in San Francisco are taken care of.   Seeing that families are leaving the city in increasing numbers and that not everything in SF is clean and practical, so if you and your family live in the city, kudos to you and you definitely deserve these lounges.

Image credit: SFGate