The Annotated Ankle Biter

Easter Egg Tree Craft

Johanna — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 00:26:07 +0000

This was my first attempt at making an Easter Egg Tree. I used pussy willow branches, and I coloured my eggs with an Easter Egg kit that had dye tabs you dissolve in water (and vinegar) instead of food colour. I’m going to try food colour next year because the tabs didn’t dissolve completely. There [...]

Easter Ideas

Johanna — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 10:01:59 +0000

Some of my favourite links for Easter celebration inspiration. Easter Egg Decorating Beautiful felt-covered decorative eggs http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/felt_easter_eggs.htm Easter egg coloring tips http://www.eggs.ab.ca/recipes/craftcorner/dyeing.html How to make leaf imprints on Easter eggs http://www.ehow.com/how_2223920_leaf-imprints-easter-eggs.html Egg Blow Out http://www.wikihow.com/Blow-Out-Eggs Easter Egg Tree Easter egg tree centerpiece using cut branches and decorated, blown eggs http://www.marthastewart.com/good-things/easter-egg-tree Hanging your eggs on the easter egg tree http://www.eggs.ab.ca/recipes/craftcorner/tree.html Easter Basket Easter Basket Favors—individual easter baskets made from paper cups and [...]

Quite a Pickle

Johanna — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 11:20:55 +0000

I was quite optimistic about my daughter’s eating habits when at one year old she was fond of gnawing on pickles, sucking the salad dressing off of my caesar salad, and slurping down her carrot soup. She still likes some healthy food, but somewhere between 1 and 2, she stopped eating any vegetables except tomato [...]

Adhesive Mounting Strips and Other Sticky Business

Johanna — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 04:08:31 +0000

One of the goals of this blog is to make note of anything that notably enhances or diminishes the serenity of my life as a parent. The “little things” didn’t seem as important before. In the larger scheme of things, the words “don’t sweat the small stuff” are great advice. But time, energy, money, and [...]

Going to the Movies with Kids

Johanna — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 23:11:23 +0000

Kids In Mind With the holidays coming up, I was looking for a movie we all might enjoy and I discovered http://www.kids-in-mind.com which might be a good resource for years to come for the following reasons. They give a brief synopsis of each movie and an objective, 3-part rating based on 3 categories: “Sex & [...]

One Laptop Per Child—Give One Get One

Johanna — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 15:34:12 +0000

I was looking into child-friendly laptops when I found out about the OLPC “$100 laptop” now called the XO. OLPC, an acronym for One Laptop Per Child, is a non-profit organization dedicated to giving children around the world the opportunity to “explore, experiment and express themselves” via these very cool laptops. XO Band Demo Students in Ban [...]

Momiji Dolls

Johanna — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 07:21:08 +0000

I went to one of my favourite tea shops today and saw these Momiji Mugs and fell in love. The mugs currently come in 4 different designs, each with a different message at the bottom of the mug. The packaging is pretty, and it cleverly holds the the mug so it won’t move around in [...]

Baby Wearing with Style and without Back Pain?

Johanna — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 05:39:37 +0000

If I had it to do over again, I would give “baby wearing” another try. When my daughter was an infant, I couldn’t wait until she was big enough to go in the black Baby Bjorn Original Carrier I had which I thought was very stylish. I loved using the Baby Bjorn carrier at first, but [...]

Me and My Shadow

Johanna — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 23:29:33 +0000

About a month ago, my daughter and I walked to the beach to watch the sunset. I enjoyed the serenity with no one else around. It was starting to get dark as we walked back, but it was a beautiful night. My daughter was dawdling a bit, so I stopped to let her catch up. [...]

My Life with the Monster Boy, Episode 2

Kevin — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 19:32:34 +0000

I understand that making a toy educational is theoretically a good thing, but I remember when the only educational advantage I had during any given day was an adult who was trying to teach me something. The benefit of that being that if I started to learn the wrong thing, they could correct me and [...]

My Life with the Monster Boy, Episode 1

Kevin — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 04:33:52 +0000

I have never met a parent in my life who did not at some point or another make this claim: “I never had as many toys as my son/daughter!” I wasn’t sure what the point of the statement was. I didn’t know whether it meant ‘I’m going to spoil the kid rotten in order to [...]

The Best Bibs

Johanna — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 07:27:09 +0000

Toddler meets yogurt with blueberries It wasn’t until my daughter was about a year old that I formed any opinion about bibs and their usefulness. I used to think that the one that best matched her outfit was the one for the job. About the same time that my daughter was able to walk a bit, I [...]