Tell Me Thursday~ Jungle Fun

Last week, through a comment left on my Wordless Wednesday, I stumbled onto a fun meme called, Tell Me Thursday. I love that sometimes, I will be able to take advantage of how hard it is for me to keep quiet about my photos, and follow up my Wordless Wednesday posts with an explanation on Thursday. I'm not sure I'll always do it, but sometimes, I'll be unable to resist. Often I get questions about my Wordless Wednesday posts, so this will also be a great opportunity to followup with those.

This week, I posted some photos of a fun set of toys Sugar Bear received for Christmas from her paternal grandparents. They are called, Kid K'NEX. We both LOVE them. I adore the funny little creatures we can make, and Sugar loves making the train. She as always been a lover of trains. Somehow, she hasn't been drawn to the whole Thomas madness, but regular old generic trains are intriguing to her.

Often as we play, she sets me to the task of making the animals, while she busies herself making the train. She requires a bit of help at times, but I enjoy the process of encouraging her creativity, and problem solving skills. I try to refrain from jumping to the rescue, and often use the opportunity to work with her on patience, and calming her body when she gets frustrated. We stop our play, and do some deep breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth when the agitation of struggling to get the pieces to fit just right starts to feel overwhelming.  I figure it is a nice non-threatening moment to stretch her abilities.  Humorously, it also tends to be a moment of growth for me. Sometimes, I have to curb my own creativity to allow for her ideas. Mama thinks she just might have to pull those little suckers aside, so that after bedtime....I can create to my heart's desire. Tee hee....

Me thinks....we might need more!

Wordless Wednesday~ It's a Jungle in here

For more Wordless Wednesday go HERE and HERE!

A Fun Football Find

I'm sure it isn't a shock to hear that I am LOVING Spring.  Getting out of our house, and into the fresh air is a such an amazing blessing.  The other day, while tossing the tennis ball for our Daisy Dog, it accidentally went over the fence.  The Sugar and I went traipsing through the muddy and mucky field to retrieve it, since our retriever....doesn't really retrieve it unless she sees where it lands, AND can get to it in a straight line.  For some reason...she doesn't hunt for it like our other Labs did.  

Anyhow...while we were exploring the field, Sugar Bear found a special little something.  The Hubby had cleared out some blackberries in the field last fall, and we hadn't been down there since.  She apparently unearthed an old football that must have been their since before we purchased the place, because neither of us recall owning a football.  That would make this football at least 13 years old.  

Well, I'd say this little thing is holding up pretty well. Sure it has cracks...and looks a bit rough around the edges, but according to Sugar....it has lots of FUN left in it.

In the Living and Loving household, televised sports is NEVER viewed.  Yup...NEVER.  Oh wait...during the Olympics we watch some, but other than that.  It is never on.  Neither The Hubby nor I enjoy watching sports on TV.  The Hubby in fact doesn't watch sports at all.  I will watch a LIVE game on occasion.  While I played both volleyball, and basketball in school, I don't find myself drawn to watch sports that often.  However, I do value very much the playing of sports, and hope to encourage Sugar Bear to find a sport of which she enjoys.

My parents on the other hand....they watch a TON of sports.  Sugar's exposure to sports is very much reliant on her visits to the farm.  Not only will sports be playing the TV at nearly all times, she often goes to the local high school football, volleyball or basketball games with them, if she is visiting on a weekend.

Much of what she has learned of sports comes from her visits to the farm or the boys at daycare/preschool.  She seems to actually know quite a bit more about the different sports than I was aware.  While she and I often play games....it is only occasionally sports related, like practicing with her ball and bat.  This day, however, I encouraged a little bit of football throwing, after we had done our share of running around trying to catch the person that had the football.  (okay, so I'll admit it.  I was feeling lazy, and wanted to quit running.......yup...it's true.)  Here she is sizing up the target area she has chosen.

Next she proceeded to try many different hand holds in which to begin each launch of the football.  While she tried them all, none seemed to work better than the other, so she just had fun chucking it any which way she felt like it.

And I have to say, I enjoyed capturing the fun.  This last shot was a purposeful capture.  It took about three tries before I got the one I wanted, and I ADORE it.  The ball is in a perfect position, and the look on her face says so much about her personality.  She is a go getter, and has so much fun doing it. 

Gosh I love this kid!  LIFE IS GOOD!

Photostory Friday~ The Not so Perfectly Picky Eater

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

You may not know that I am a picky eater.  I USED to be an extremely picky eater, but I have gotten better as an adult.  I blame my initial picky eating habits on my  parents.  Yes...I did just say that.  And YES, it is coming back to bite me in the arse (Sugar is a bit of a picky eater, and part of it is my fault). 

As I was say, my parents ruined me.  I know...I know...but they did.  They didn't feed me the things they didn't like, so not only did I have my own natural aversions, I had theirs through simply not being exposed.  Here are a few of the more common things NEVER fed to me in my childhood home:

Mayonnaise

mustard

salad dressing

sour cream

onions (of any kind)

peppers (of any kind)

tomatoes

That is a small list, but pretty significant.  Growing up with a dislike for those things was tough.  Try going to your friends house and eating a meal prepared with none of those things.  I gagged down more meals than I care to remember.

When I went to college, I worked hard at acclimating myself to things cooked with onions or peppers, and I proud to say I can safely tolerate both.  I am currently working on tomatoes.  I eat them cooked, but not raw.  As for the others...I figure they are high in fat.  I do not need to start liking them.

There are plenty of other foods I do not like....or more accurately, I do not try them, so who really knows.  This is something I really need to remedy.  For instance, for YEARS......like all my life, I have not even tried something that had Feta cheese on it, because I SWORE I had it once and didn't like it.  Well, the other day, my boss made us this pretty salad, and I decided to give it a chance (minus the raw tomato), and was shocked to find out that I liked Feta.  

I think....I was confusing it with Bleu Cheese, which I KNOW for sure I do not like.  EWWWWWW

Anyhow, I swore I would do my best to give Sugar a better opportunity to eat a variety of foods, but man it is really hard to prepare and serve a child something I wouldn't eat.  It isn't that I CAN'T do it....I just don't think to do it.  

This photo serves as my reminder.  Life is too short to only eat what you know.....you gotta keep trying new things.