Biker Family

Update: Bikes are made by Taga. I LOVE them. But $1500 is crazy for a bike considering I haven't ridden   a bike since I was like 12.


I'm hoping that someone out there can help me out and tell me who makes these bikes that Tori Spelling and Dean McDermot are riding?


Shawn and I have been talking about getting bikes now for awhile and these are GREAT!

source

You can lead a toddler to the table...

But you can't make them eat...

When you have a baby you constantly worry if they are getting enough food. For me especially this was always on my mind. If you want to know the whole story you can find out about our challenges with nursing and weight gain here and here and here.

Now that Phoenix is a toddler that worry is even more prevenlent in my mind. He's a rambunctious toddler who never, ever, ever stops moving. Even in his sleep he is literally ALL OVER THE PLACE. So I worry he is burning more calories then he's taking in.

He'll go through periods where he'll eat really well. Al three meals and tons of snacks. And then as soon as it starts it stops and he's back to eating nothing for what seems like weeks (but in reality is probably only 3 days at most). 

I learned last week that part of the problem at dinner was he wanted our plate and utensils and prefers sitting at his table or in the booster at the big table instead of the highchair. Not even the toddler kind. So now he gets a small glass salad plate and a real fork (the small kind) and surprisingly he's pretty coordinated and we have had no problems with it.

I was just complaining to my mom last week that he went the entire week barely touching any of his meals. It was the week of the mah-jay snow storm all he choosing to consume was Cheez its. It got me thinking that maybe I should start buying like all the nasty organic cardboard tasting snacks since that's all he seemed to want to eat.

But would you know that Valentine night when we went on our family dinner date he ate his entire plate of chicken fingers and french fries. And in fact when his plate came he started exclaiming "Wow! 

Wow! Oh Wow!"

Blackberry Disney Channel TV shows saves this night out!

And then last night when I thought it might have been a fluke he whined to get out of his seat and carried his plate of quesadillas and juice into the living room to watch his choo-choo movie.

I normally wouldn't condone TV/Dinner watching like that at such a young age (although sometimes we do have dinner &  movie night) but he ate the entire plate so whatever it takes!

Do you have problems getting your toddler to eat? How do you delicately "force feed" them?

Real Housewives give parenting advice?

I'm sure I'm not alone in watching all of the hilarious insanity of The Real Houswives OC right? You know the big fake boobed blondies? 

Did you catch the episode where Gretchen took loopy Lynn's daughter Alexis out on a shopping trip to tell her if she ever needed to talk she could go straight to her?


They pretty much have been recapping it the last 3 episodes and Lynn went BANANAS on Gretchen for giving her daughter unsolicited advice.


I was pretty shocked to hear Gretchen completely disrespect Lynn as a parent and thought she was completely out of line for trying to go behind her back...


But now I'm curious (as I always am). What do you think? How do you feel about your teenager getting advice from other adults? Is it ok from a relative, but not a random adult friend? Does it matter to you who your teen is talking to as long as their talking?


Me personally, I don't like it. I would be totally fine if Phoenix wanted to confide in one of his many, many uncles or several aunts or of course his Ya or Bop-Bop. But I would expect that this mature and rational adult would fill me in on the conversation if it meant he was doing something or thinking of doing something that could end him up in jail, hurt, a baby-daddy or dead. 


But other then very close family members I would be offended and feel disrespected if a friend tried to pull Phoenix aside to be a confidant. 


Thoughts?

Baby Sign vs. Actual Words

Phoenix is 16 1/2 months old now and says close to 40 words and phrases.

I attribute this to the fact that we talk a lot to him. And he may be an only child, but he is constantly with my family. At least twice a week. Hearing all 12 of us talk surely helps him heaps!


Recently he has developed an extreme love for books (His favorites are Once Upon a Potty & I Love You Through And Through<--- this book taught him where his nose, toes, and hair were) and this really helps (as we all know) build our little ones vocab.

I actually keep a list on the right side bar. I try an update it as frequently as he picks up a new word but I often forget. I try to keep this list because I am super bad about writing in his baby book. Yet another thing I should add to my list.

You've probably heard me say before that I've been around kids all my life so I picked up a lot of baby and kid tips. One thing I remember hearing about that I thought I would do was baby sign. 

I've tried a couple times to teach sign to Phoenix because of heard from other moms and mommy blogs that baby sign is an excellent tool to use.

Last week I tried putting in a signing video for Phoenix to watch and we got through Eat, Milk, and More before he jumped off the couch (but not before actually saying the words) 


So I thought. "Maybe this isn't for us"


But I can't seem to feel bombarded with signs to try baby sign.


In fact just in today's email I get a Baby Center Bulletin about toddlers using baby sign AND Babysteals.com has Baby Signing videos today.



The only sign Phoenix has picked up has been"All done" he does this more of a joke then actually letting us know he's "all done"

So my question is how many of you moms use(d) baby sign and is it worth it? And should I try and teach it now or just continue with words?

We communicate great I think for a mom and a 16 month old but this can always be approved upon. My concern is possibly hindering or slowing down his speech by introducing something new.


It also would be helpful if you could recommend the best videos to teach baby sign