So I am Kind of a Dork...

This is off my usual blogging topic (i.e. my kids), but Ray just sent me a link - and I was so excited that I had to post it. Late Night host Jimmy Fallon (who I never watch, it is on way past my bedtime) is attempting to reunite the cast of Saved by the Bell - and that is absolutely fantastic!

http://www.tvsquad.com/2009/03/29/help-jimmy-fallon-reunite-the-cast-of-saved-by-the-bell-video/

Go to this link! And sign the petition on the right side of the page. I used to LOVE that show. I have seen every episode at least 20 times. This is almost as good as when I heard NKOTB was doing a reunion tour... that I missed when they were here. :(

You Know Your Kid Watches Too Much TV....

....when you are looking at a book about animals to your 2-year old, and he points to a picture of a guinea pig and proudly exclaims "Wonder Pets!".

Miss Safety

Back when we had cable (which by the way, I really don't miss it too much), Emmy watched a lot of Playhouse Disney. They had a short 5 minute show aired frequently called Lou and Lou Safety Patrol. One of the episodes was about riding in the car, featuring rules to follow to be safe in the car.

Despite the fact that Emmy has not seen the show in months, she still remembers the safety "rules" as demonstrated by Lou and Lou. You would think that this is a good thing - and it sort of is. She always makes sure everyone is buckled up (we always are anyway), and yesterday I overheard her tell Pooky to stop yelling, because it was "distracting the driver" (those were her exact words). But the one that I keep getting caught with is talking on the cell phone while driving.

Don't get me wrong - it's not like I chat on my phone all the time. But, there are times that I do need to use my phone briefly while driving. Like to tell my friend we are running late to meet her at the playground, or to quickly call Ray to ask him something I just remembered. In my opinion, no big deal. But, Emmy is always quick to remind me...

"Mommy! You aren't supposed to talk on a cell phone while driving. It is not safe!"

*sigh*
Of course she is right. So, what am I supposed to do? I put the phone away. Leave it to Emmy to keep us all safe...
And, it really does bug me to see other drivers chatting away on their phones while driving like idiots, so I know that this isn't a bad thing, but it is driving me crazy. She caught me twice this week! What are the chance that she will forget that safety rule any time soon?? ;)

Goodbye Cable

Effective at midnight tonight ( about 1 1/2 hours away) we will no longer have cable TV.

(dramatic pause as you all gasp in shock)

Yep, no more cable. In effort to save some money, plus not completely rot our brains, we have canceled our cable. That is about $50 in savings per month, and perhaps we will even get a little more family time in. Or maybe I will read a book or something.

Who am I kidding? I will just be on the Internet even more, because we can't drop Internet (Ray's work pays for it since it is required for his computer geek job).

Truthfully, I don't watch too much TV. My husband does, and my kids watch way too much. I will miss our DVR though, which always has something fun recorded on it. It definitely comes in handy to have an episode or two of Bob the Builder for Pooky to watch on a fussy day. But, no more DVR either.

We can get our local channels in pretty clearly without cable, so we will still have those. The kids can still watch a few shows in the morning on PBS and I can still watch The Office. But the next couple of weeks might be interesting until we are used to it.

On that note, I had better go watch some cable TV. Only a little over an hour left.

We Love Clifford!

My sister and I took the kiddos to meet Clifford the Big Red Dog today, who was visiting our local library today. Emmy was very excited, and was asking me questions all morning, like "How many legs does Clifford have?" and "How old is Clifford?". She seemed a bit nervous too, but once we got there, we ran right over to him for a big hug.

Jon and Kate!

I am a big fan of the show Jon and Kate Plus 8, on TLC. And even though Ray wouldn't admit it, he really likes the show too, and we always record the show and watch it together. If you aren't familiar with the show, the Gosselin family has 8 kids, 7 year old twins, and 3 year old sextuplets. Obviously they have a crazy busy life, and Ray and I enjoy watching, knowing that our life is a piece of cake compared to what they do every day!
Anyway, I was checking out their website a few months back and noticed that they were going to be speaking at a church about 2 hours from here, and it was open to the public. So, I got tickets for Ray and me - and that is where we went today! It was a fun time - I am a dork and was excited to see these two people who I watch on TV all the time in real life. They have an amazing story and they talked about a lot of things that aren't in the show. They are a strong Christian family and they talked about their faith and how much God has blessed them over the years - and they have had some very tough times! It was a good time for Ray and me, not only because we got to see Jon and Kate in person, but we had a few hours to ourselves!
My only complaint for the day was that the church was not very big, and of course it was very crowded, making it difficult to see. So although I did see Jon and Kate in person, we were pretty far back. And we opted not to wait in the LONG line after the event to see them up close or get an autograph. I am a fan, but not a crazy fan - some of the people there were hilarious! During the question and answer time at the end, a few women stood up and said really intelligent things like "Hi Kate! I am a huge fan!" and "I am crazy about hand sanitizer too, so I am just like you!". Um, yeah. Good to know there are bigger dorks than me out there. :)

On a different note, I have decided to delete my post I wrote a couple of days ago about CrazyMom and what names our kids call adults. A lot of people who know me in real life read my blog, and although CrazyMom drives me bananas, I don't want her to read that post. I do appreciate all of your comments, and I do plan on sticking with "Miss Missy", not "Mrs. Tunu" for now!

Tuesday Nights

I love Tuesday evenings. That is when The Biggest Loser is on, and as soon as the kids are in bed, I excitedly turn on the TV and the DVR, which of course is already recording the show so that I don't have to watch those pesky commercials.
The Biggest Loser really makes me feel motivated to be healthy and lose weight.
But I think the fact that I sit here watching the show every week snacking on cookies and junk food is probably not the best way to start that healthy lifestyle. :)

On a totally unrelated note, I had to send back the TV blocker thingy that I was so excited to get. As it turns out, the front of my television set is slightly curved, making the blocker thingy totally useless - you could just as easily push the buttons though the blocker as you could without.
On the upside, for some reason the babies have forgotten about the TV buttons and haven't really been bothering it.
Happy Tuesday!

Random Thought

I am sitting here watching 1 vs 100 on TV, which I rarely watch, but is anyone else watching this? And do you find it hilarious that there is a monkey playing?? I do...

Pushing my Buttons

OK, so I am needing some input.
Ray and I have almost always agreed on everything when it comes to raising our kids. Most everything has never even warranted a discussion - we are just always on the same page; What he says goes and vice versa.
However, there is one little thing right now that we aren't agreeing on, and it is driving me crazy! Pook is at the age where he is getting into everything. Pushing buttons is one of his favorite activities. Our TV and DVD player are at the perfect height for him to stand there and continually push buttons. TV off, TV on, volume up, volume down, DVD tray out, channel up, then down. And at 14 months, Pook really is just learning what "NO" means, and usually he just smiles when you say it, and then does it again. And Baby R is the same age, so during the day I have 2 little ones playing with the buttons all day.
I wanted to get one of those TV button blockers - a plastic strip that stops all the button pushing, but the remotes are still able to work through it. They are inexpensive and easy, and would save me a lot of grief right now. However, Ray does not want one. He says that the babies just need to learn not to touch the buttons, and it will take a bit of work, but they will learn. He thinks that excessive baby-proofing is for lazy people who don't want to really watch their kids. And I agree with him to a point - our house is baby proofed so that it is safe, with most "NO" things (breakable or dangerous items) out of reach or put away. However, those TV buttons are neither breakable or dangerous, and pretty tempting to two 14 month-olds..
We didn't have this issue with Emmy. When she was this age, we were staying with my parents during our move from Michigan, and most of their tempting buttons are behind doors in the TV cabinet or out of reach. So, now I am not sure what is the best path to take.
So, what do you think? I agree with setting boundaries and having the kids learn what "no" means, but I am so tired of saying "no" every 5 seconds when it comes to the TV. Should we save ourselves the grief and get a TV button blocker, or keep working on teaching them not to push the buttons?

Super Why!

One of Emmy's very favorite shows is Super Why on PBS. I find it extremely irritating - almost too educational. However, the kids love it, and hopefully learning something too...there is lots of good alphabet and reading stuff.
The funny part is that Pook absolutely loves the show too. He doesn't usually pay much attention to the TV when it is on, but as soon as Super Why comes on, he sits and watches it, which I think is funny.















Even Baby R loves SuperWhy!

(Happy birthday Baby R! She turns 1 today!)

Random Cartoon Observations

Emmy loves her cartoons. And I usually end up watching them as well, although most of them drive me nuts. I have a few observations and questions about these shows....

Why is Caillou bald? Everyone else in his family has hair, even his baby sister. From what I can tell, he does not have a medical condition and he does not shave his head. He is 4 years old and bald.
How do the Higglys on Higglytown Heroes go to the bathroom? Since they regularly hop in and out of each other, and they store all kinds of junk inside their bodies, I don't see any sort of equipment needed too go to the bathroom.
Do the Little Einsteins have parents? I am not sure that I would let my 5-year old (no matter how smart he may be) fly all over the world in a rocketship every day with no parental supervision. That does not seem very safe.
Does Manny on Handy Manny get paid to fix all that stuff? He and his talking tools are always going above and beyond the call of duty, but the topic of payment never seems to come up. He also rarely pays for anything at Kelly's Hardware Store. Ray seems to think that Manny and Kelly are secretly in love. Maybe that has something to do with it...
Oh, and speaking of those talking tools, they eat food, but how do they go to the bathroom?

Emmy's Favorite Commercials

In the evenings when "adult" programming is on TV (as opposed to cartoons a.k.a. "kid" programming), Emmy doesn't typically pay much attention to the TV. However, she like commercials. I am not sure why, maybe it is the musical jingles, or all of the bright colors on some of the commercials, but she will stop playing and stare intently at the TV when they come on.
Her two favorite commercials:
1.) Lunesta - the one where the bright green butterfly is gracefully flying all around people who are sleeping. Emmy loves that butterfly. She shrieks with delight and points frantically at the TV. Then she flaps her arms up and down, like a butterfly. Cute.
2.) Suncom - Emmy has a crush on Harry Connick Jr. As soon as the Suncom jingle plays at the beginning of the commercial, she comes running to the TV, no matter what she was previously doing.
I am not really sure what all of this means, other than the folks in advertising are doing a great job marketing their product to 1 year olds. :)
Also, as I was looking on the Internet for a good picture of Harry to put with this post (which I did not find and I am too tired to look any more), I did find an interesting blog of another stay at home mommy whose kid also loves the Harry Connick Jr Suncom commerical.... weird, huh?

Donald Grump

Emmy and I watched a funny Sesame Street episode this morning, about a famous grouch named Donald Grump, who owned more trash than any other grouch on the planet. Donald Grump visited Sesame Street, where Oscar the Grouch, Elmo, and a few other Grouches competed to be Grump's Apprentice, to help him run his trash empire. Donald Grump even had bad hair~ I thought that it was funny! And then, Grump even said, "Scram! You're fired!" This picture I found is Donald Grump talking to Donald Trump Muppet, who was also on the show.
Not sure how many toddlers would make the connection to the real Apprentice and Donald Trump, but I enjoyed it! :)