Fine motor skills

Here are some fine motor skills that BabyCenter says can help toddlers develop their fine motor skills:

• Filling up and dumping out: J is helping to clean up, and he doesn't even know it. Yesterday, he even put the square and star-shaped pieces in their right holes.
• Dressing and undressing: Since he could sit on his own, J's been lifting and bending his arms when we're dressing/undressing him. Now that he's standing (with support), he also lifts and bends his legs when we're putting pants on him. He also lifts and bends right out of them! It's kinda a chore to get him dressed in the mornings ;). J also loves to help with the chest buckle on his car seat.
• Drawing and scribbling: I just bought a roll of craft paper and jumbo crayons for J to practice this skill at home.
• Stacking and stringing: This one J isn't doing yet.
• Poking and punching (really, we're supposed to encourage this? Haha!) He certainly bites and pinches. The pinching is funny. The biting is scary because his teeth are so sharp!

That's not what mom said

[Source]

While doing some research on saving energy in homes, I came across this little tid-bit that surprised me:

Avoid hand washing dishes: Studies are showing more and more that, when used to maximize energy-saving features, modern dishwashers can outperform all but the most frugal hand washers. [American Council for Energy-Efficient Economy].

That's not what mom said! But this blogger makes a good point:

If you can't run the dishwasher everyday, because the washer isn't full, food items may get stuck. So if you have to pre-rinse, the tip above may not apply to you. I've found that our dishwasher is pretty good at removing stuck-on food, even after a day sitting in the washer. What does that mean? We may be running the washer more than we did before -- just gotta remember to utilize the water/energy-saving features....where's that manual?

You hand-wash or use the dishwasher? 

This tip change your mind?

Head banging

When J turned 1, he started occasionally banging his head against things. Apparently, 20% of babies and toddlers do this -- boys more likely than girls. BabyCenter says they do it for several reasons -- self comfort, pain relief (ironic, isn't it?), frustration, need for attention, or it can be an indication of a developmental problem.

We think J does it for self-comfort and also out of frustration. Surprisingly, he does it for one more reason -- EXCITEMENT! Whenever I arrive at daycare to pick J up, he:

1.  Smiles widely at me
2. Bangs his head on the nearest surface
3. Smiles widely at me  
 

The teachers find it hilarious! Don't worry, we make sure he never hurts himself.

What weird, yet totally normal, things does your child do?

Sale on KitchenAid

Head on over to Beyond the Rack for great discounts on KitchenAid products. Pro 500 Series 5-quart Stand Mixer for $300 (originally $500). The one below is $390 (originally $500).

If you use Blogger, your images will now...

Blogger Buzz: Your images never looked so good: Images posted in Blogger will now automatically expand into a new overlay (like on Facebook) to be viewed full size when clicked. Unless you have other settings for the image, like redirect to a website. The other images in your post will also show up as thumbnails, making them easy to view. So cool!

You'll want to learn to surf after watching these vids

These videos of a 2- and 3-year-old surfing with their respective parents makes me wanna take up surfing just so I can teach it to J and post an awesome video of it. Too bad I can't swim!

Ba ba

Let the record show that on Sept. 18, 2011, J said "ba ba."

I believe these were my husband's exact words.

My husband was on his way to walk Jasper. He was at the door. J came up behind him and said "ba ba".

Hello, melt our hearts! Almost makes up for a tiring/stressful weekend trying to soothe a sick 1-year-old. This is the toughest sickness yet!

I bet you remember when your kid first said mama or baba. 

Were there tears?

How walkable is your community?

I attended a workshop at work yesterday, Strategies to get to Net Zero Energy Homes.

Side note: There are many meanings of "net zero" but they point to energy use or emissions. Basically, what you use or expend should be equal to what you produce. As we look to buying a home in the next few years, I hope that we can find a high-efficiency home, reduce our energy use, and pay lower utility bills every month. More on that when we start seriously looking.

WalkScore.com was mentioned - how walkable is your community? Washington, D.C. got a score of 88 (very walkable). My neighborhood got a score of 48 (car-dependent). I'm not surprised and honestly, it's 

New pages added to blog

New pages:

• Activities for kids: Small lists (to start) of activities for kids in the MD/VA/DC region as well as Philly, PA since we used to live there.
• Online deals: Cash back for shopping online, sites where I sometimes shop for deals

Feel free to help me fill up these lists!

Month of complaints

A combination of being under the weather and not being able to fully communicate has made J a little unbearable at times. He gets frustrated very easily. This makes him flail his arms and throw whatever is in his hands. I just have to remain calm and tell him everything will be ok.

He'll suddenly stop what he is doing and start crying for no apparent reason. I just have to remain calm and distract him with something else.

He doesn't like his diaper changed. He doesn't want his milk in a cup (give me a bottle!). He doesn't want to sit in his chair (high- or car-).

Deep breath in. Deep breath out.

In other news, my husband and I took J to the Be With Me: The Children's Playseum on Sunday (Bethesda location). It's like a tiny version of the Please Touch Museum in Philly. Admission was $6/person regardless of age. There were paid-activities such as cupcake decorating and fingernail painting. J had a good time, but we were nervous because he was putting everything in his mouth. We're sure toys are NOT sanitized there. We'd probably bring J back when he's older (and not putting everything in his mouth). Nevertheless, we enjoyed walking around Bethesda a bit. There was a small farmer's/flea market across the street. We also enjoyed snack-time at Starbucks with cheese crackers, banana walnut bread, and iced soy lattes. Well, J didn't have a latte.

Part of me has moved

Now that I'm taking a more serious interest in photography, I've copied related posts (there were only 3) to http://capturng.wordpress.com. Please follow me there!!!

Speaking of photography - aperture, shutter speed, ISO

Did you know that from one f-stop (or aperture) to the next either halves or doubles the size of the opening in the lens (and thus the amount of light getting through)? Did you know that from one shutter speed to the next also either halves or doubles the amount of light. So that if you increase one and decrease the other, you let in the same amount of light? I learned that here.

So, f/1.4 lets in more light than f/2.8. And a shutter speed of 1/30 lets in more light than 1/60.

Ever heard of "depth of field" (DOF). I had no idea what "shallow depth of field" meant until I read this. So the depth of field is the amount of your shot in focus. For shallow depth of field, only a small (or shallow) portion is in focus. Oh! I love images with shallow DOF!

What about ISO? I've never really played around with ISO. I know that indoors I used ISO400 a lot with my point-and-shoot so that I wouldn't get blurry images...but they sure were grainy. Now that I have a DSLR, do I do things differently? According to the article, increasing the ISO would allow me to increase my shutter speed and my aperture (i.e., let in less light through lens but still get good exposure - I think).

No photos to post lately. Been too tired after work, dinner, and cleaning-up to much else than veg on the couch...