baby /toddler alarm for car seat

Sad incident at Bart Station in Bay Area last week where a Dad forgot his 4 month old was in car, having thought he dropped him off at daycare and left him in car all day when his Mum found him at 5pm after not finding him at daycare. Theres an alarm in all cars if you don't put your seatbelt on but none for letting you know your baby or toddler is still in the car. We'd all like to think we would never do that but we are all human and make mistakes

So came across this baby and toddler car alarm and I'll also be passing onto my friends with kids.

http://babyalert.info/TheChildMinderSystems.php

Ordering ours today and praying for those poor folks.

Hereditary Spherocytosis

"In the life of the portly, inflexible spherocyte, the spleen is the villain."
-Pathological Basis Of Disease-Robbins & Cotran(page 625)
wrt molecular Pathology of Hereditary Spherocytosis[HS].

Not often you hear such poetic license about HS.

videos of the wee man

http://mcviking.ning.com/video

this is from a bbq at the murphy's, where wee lad goes to day care. as soon as he got over the fact that mommy and daddy were *staying*, he had a *blast* tonight! that's christopher, catherine's son, and wee man's favorite person in the world, swinging him around

BBQ weekend

What a wonderful long weekend

Friday we met Paul and Ann for a pint. Nice to get out on a Friday.

Saturday himself put my swing canopy up that he got for my birthday.
Up and read two books while enjoying the shade. Later after wee mans
nap, we went to our friend Emiles place for a BBQ and a swim. Emile
cooked the most amazing lamb. Wee man chomped away on the fruit salad
and lamb. It was 6 months since we last went swimming and he loved it
which is a big relief. Be a long long summer if we couldn't go for a
swim.

Sunday morn I got to sleep in the morning. Fantastic! Then in
afternoon we were over to our dear daycare lady for a BBQ. Wee man
was slightly confused why we stayed with him. Lots of kids running
around and our wee lad running around in circles pretending to also be
chasing them. Funny watching the wee guy. Lively night but turned
cold and we put the fire on when we came home. Love the library.
Finished another book. My brain returns!

Monday let hubbie sleep in. Cooked up some breakfast. Cleared up 4
boxes from the front room. Will get there eventually! Hopefully get
some more emptied this week. Hubbie dug up the back bed. Will try and
plant down the 30 plants I have germinated in our bay window.

In the afternoon we went to our friends Ann and Paul for a brilliant
BBQ. We swam in the pool, ate the most delicious fish and had a
wonderful BBQ.

A great afternoon with good friends, that in fact summed up the whole
weekend. Sleep late, do a little, eat good food and laugh with good
friends.

What ya been doing?

So we move into our new house. With most of the boxes in garage.
Referred to after as Gotham City, my folks come back from 5 week trip
around NZ and my Dad has made friends with some hot air balloon guy
and brings back a large bottle of NZ bootleg whiskey. Except it's not
bootleg as NZ let's you brew whiskey for your own use. Well
considering how lovely country is but how unpopulated not surprising.
Now comparing theirs to Irish bootleg whiskey known as Poteen, no
comparison. Poteen can strip wallpaper off walls by accident while
this was smooth according to folks my Da pretty much made drink at a
wee housewarming.

Few days later we were off to Ireland. Longest 10 hour flight ever I
thought but that was before flight back. Wee man slept 3/4 hours but
that still leaves you with 6/7 hours to entertain him in an area that
you can't move yourself, never mind with an 18month old. Seriously
we'll go back when he can watch a 3 hr DVD. Non stop.
Perhaps age 7!

So getting us all on Irish time was also mad as everyone came to my
Mams. Like 10 kids and 12 adults in same house for a stay. Then wee
man who went to bed at 8 normally like here woke up at 12am and was
WIDE awake till 5. Wanting to play ad his clock said was time to be
awake in CA. Took 3 days before we all had a night sleep. We escaped
to Belfast and my sister very nicely gave us her whole house and we
all slept a very needed catch up.

Then we headed off to the Giants causeway where Fionn Mc Cool fought
the giant. Was windy cold and raining sideways. We ate meals as big
as our heads and waited till the rain dried off. Magical walk.

wet and laughing

So at Childrens discovery Museum. Had a blast and last thing we did as I learnt from last time is the water area last. Gandalf was soaked from head to toe including his socks in his shoes and loving it! He also discovered how to spray the water so him and a fellow toddler kept spraying each other laughing. The other parents kept running in with paper towel on kids face and it was like watching them rearrange deck chairs on titanic. Dry at the end folks not in between. We had a brilliant day and its also right beside flight path of airport so when you come out you can see large planes landing - which is magic for a boy who shouts AirPlane Airplane! Which is ironic how much he loves them after our long long did I say long flight to Ireland and back but thats another blog folks..

 

lending club and $50

So I joined lending club - its a peer to peer lending network but unlike some random -Bob wants to borrow $100 off you and you may never know if you will get it back its actually got some cool tools and information behind it. So you can see the risk of the loan - you only loan $25 to any one person and the interest rates that you get back beat the hell out of the banks, Cd's and etrade. I heard great stuff about it as one of himself friends work there so decided to set up account. Told himself and wish I had sent him link as he would have got $50 for his new account. I'm not putting in much to play around with but having some fun reading stories and deciding what funds to lend to. You can also just slide what risk and interest you want if you want to do it quickly instead

Click here to be referred by me so you actually get to get the free dollars.. Who loves ya!

link to lending club

ah you will ya will ya will

Fr Ted fans might recognize quote above. If you haven't seen the series then get to netflicks now or itunes and download. Very funny and a comedy classic..

Anyway - where's my head, oh yes, barely attached to my shoulders. Why - well we moved right, and we have a garage full of boxes right.. and then Saturday morning we tried to do two music classes back to back as make up session. Wee man pulled at me to door Saturday morning - Mama go you you - which is baby talk for Mama go music class as you you you is his favorite song that we sing at the class, mainly because it has no no no words in it as well which of course is a 18 month old mantra.. I think they have to learn that first or get kicked out of toddlerhood.
We do the music classes through our local community center http://www.musictogether.com/
and music together runs the classes. Wonderful program, wee lad laps it all up and teaches rhythm and tone - not just the usual fare.

Normally Gandalf is all about the class - he likes the songs but hates the getting up in a circle with scarf songs. I don't know why - but he prefers to be held for those ones. Maybe its not the color scarfs he likes. Anyway - teacher this class finished song and wee man eagerly ran up to give her back the scarf. He loves giving back the instruments or putting away and getting braver about doing it with other kids running around. Of course this would be the one class she said hold on to scarves as doing another song with them. Wee man was confused why she wouldn't take back and two other kids just burst into tears as they couldn't hand back scarves.. Teacher - once a routine is there - lets hold onto it... Anyway wasn't the best class he had as playing songs I noticed he doesn't like that much and he kept singing you you you asking teacher to play it. Thankfully shes a very nice young lady and during break of two classes played it on the CD player. He was done though after one class and 15 minutes into other one we left.

Then we went to old apt for walk through of old apt. Everything was spotless but kitchen floor which had burn marks on it. They had gave me a fright during week telling me it was $1900 for kitchen floor which was insane since the stove was very dodgy (like it went on fire when we boiled water and if you put on 2 burners and tried to say use tea kettle everything would blow) they even had landlord over fixing 5 times including Christmas lunchtime as blew out everything in whole house before we had 9 people coming for dinner in an hour..... Its a stove that fits the custom width and seems they don't make it any more. Its a bit nutty as everything else was brand new, fridge, freezer, microwave, carpets and landlords were fantastic. So thankfully misunderstanding and we said go ahead use deposit to replace the floor. It was damaged beyond repair and more than wear and tear and fairs fair - was a brand new floor although hopefully now he can use Julian our super floor guy and get a lot cheaper for them. We got placed cleaned and carpets all spotless. Himself just has to get the humming bird feeder. My Dad must have spent 3 hours one day when they were there one time taking photos of the humming birds outside the door. So another chapter closed in our lives.

The Saturday afternoon picked up my folks on their way back from New Zealand. So they got to help us pack from old place and now in new place they got to relax. We used the hot tub for first time Saturday night - hello scalded chickens! Yep was a bit too hot but will be nice once we figure out the lets not boil our skin feature...

Sunday himself and my Dad popped over to Frys to buy adaptors for trip since ours are in Gotham Garage - that's what we are calling the garage now with its skyscraper boxes... God knows whats in there. Garage of doom.. Hopefully we can empty by December. That's my new year resolution - several months later..

Then the men hopped to Burlington Coat Factory and got new curtains for our front room. Very nice and really makes the room. Kudos to my co-worker Marcia for suggesting the place. Shes like having your own nicer version of Martha Stewart next to you and also my workout buddy. She keeps me honest and home design tips as well. Everyone needs a Marcia in their lives..

So myself and my Mum hit Safeway as we had a mini housewarming. Great craic with 16 folks coming over and 5 kids and mine there. Dad shared the moonshine that the hot air balloon guy had made (in New Zealand its legal to make your own). So anyone who tried to leave he said you have to try this with ya will ya will ya will. Several folks had coats on ready to leave and ended up staying there another two hours. We had great night but sure all a bit tender this morning. Mine is more from lack of sleep as I was smart enough to not try the moonshine..

So off we go to Ireland in two days. Now we just need to pack. (insert maniacal laughter here...) Mam and Dad are out shopping for list of stuff folks want brought back. With my Mam shopping its more like - oh don't throw me into the briar patch there Mr fox.. No great hardship and now she also wants to go to Burlington coat factory as my Dad had mentioned was a bit like mervyns.. She's still sad it closed down...

So a busy weekend but very nice to share our new house with family and friends. I can see a no alcohol rule though until we hit Ireland. Between the moonshine and new keg we are feeling our livers loved a bit too tender...

Sunday morning at Effie's

City of boxes

So Friday we moved. Unlike other times (this would be 15th move since I came to states 15 years ago) we had wonderful help from daughter of our friend. She needed more work, we needed help. Things happen for a reason. So Thursday I worked at home and she needed some more work so she came over and packed packed packed. It was brilliant as I had ton of work so couldn't take day off with taking Friday as well.

As it as I still worked till 1030 with hubby going ahem we move tomorrow. Can you stop please. I had forgotten how hard it is to switch off when working at home. Cubicles get a bad rap but at least stay there after you leave.

So Friday I got up at 6 and did last minute packing. Movers came at 9 and were done by 3 moving into house. I got them off Yelp and they were worth every penny and deserved the positive reviews they got. Excellent movers and none of this we are charging you extra for putting clingwrap around your vacuum cleaner nonsense. All included.

So they moved furniture in and worked like a dervish to have baby's room all done and den so seemed as normal as possible to him. Picked up munchkin and he had a brilliant time running around. So we put more rugs down so not as much slipping when doing that toddler full charge;) there's a step down to den that's carpeted and I was worried would take him a while to get it. Now he steps down holding shelves and then side of a chair. Smart wee man. We got curtains but need to darken his room more. Sun shines straight into both our bedrooms. Wonderful light, just not at 6am please.

So garage is a sea of boxes, looking like a city of skyscrapers in which we have two paths to get in and to get to side door and washer dryer. Sunday we got a quarter done and trying to do a box or so a night.

Murphy's law being what it is we pick boxes of third drawer down to unpack so every third box is one we might need. Still haven't found baby's socks so target new ones will do for now.

If anyone wants to help unpack more than welcome;) till them we are finding our stuff one box at a time