One Stop Boy Shop

I may not be able to tell you (or my family) about what I want for Christmas, but I can let you in on something that would be an awesome gift to anyone ages 2 to 102.

I want to start by apologizing for this sounding like yet another movie review. Two in 1 week isn’t cool, but I just love this movie so much and wanted to tell you about Nathan so I couldn’t help it.

Even though (or maybe because) I’m a mom, I’m not a huge fan of animated/kid movies.  There are very few exceptions, I like the movies Cars and Madagascar… occasionally Ice Age is amusing but they all get old, quickly!  I can still watch Cars quite a bit because I love “Doc” (Paul Newman). 

I’m here to tell you about a new flick in town and it is AWESOME!  I’m sure you’ve heard of “Up“.  I was just blown away by this movie.  It has enough in it to really captivate the young and the old alike.  Nathan (my 2 year old, aka “Trouble”) is addicted to it and it’s playing at my house as often as he can convince me to turn it on. Usually no movie can hold his attention, but he sits there and watches it over and over again. He literally laughs out loud at some of the scenes and is completely engrossed and fascinated by this movie.

Young or old, will love this one, it’s such a great story.

Nathan will pretend to be “Carl” (Mr. Fredricksen) or Russell and sometimes even Kevin or Dug. Just yesterday he came to me and said “Look Mommy, I’m a Explorer – Mr. Fredricksen!”.

I was cracking up! The swimming goggles were just pure genius of improvisation in my opinion. What a clever little boy and he’s so stinkin’ cute! LOL I think that might mean that these need added to the Christmas list… got to give that boy some better props!

Anyway, if you haven’t seen “Up”, please do! Borrow it, rent it or better yet buy it and watch it a zillion times like we have. It would also make a great Christmas gift. Two Thumbs Up for “UP” and Pixar.

But the gag order has been lifted!  I will warn before I write any spoilers, so feel free to read the beginning of this post.

I went to see New Moon at the 12:02 am showing when it opened.  My friends had sworn me to silence until they’d seen it for themselves.  So I kept my mouth and my fingers shut.  The friend that was especially adamant that I speak no evil is SMM and I don’t even know if she reads my blog!  But I couldn’t take that chance (btw, in case she does read this, I’ll admit that she’s my girl-crush, LOL).  Now that they’ve had a chance to see it, I can now talk about it!

A guy friend on FaceBook posted “what is this new moon”?  My response?  It’s between the waxing and the waning. 

The first thing that I discovered is that I’m TOO OLD to go to a midnight movie on a week night.  I got home at 3:00 am and then had to get up with the kids at 6:30.  OUCH.  I had what I called a “New Moon Migraine”.  Friday was an awful day, the kids wouldn’t nap and I was completely exhausted.  The theater was of course PACKED with tweens and teens.  The gasps and ohhhs and ahhhhs were kind of annoying and sometimes interfered with hearing the dialogue but overall it wasn’t too bad.  My husband cautioned me to beware of teen girls swooning in the aisles but I responded with “I’ll just step over those silly girls”.  I’ve tried to weigh in my mind whether the movie was worth the sleep deprivation hangover and I’ve come to the conclusion that Yes….. it was worth it (but barely).

On to the actual film!

I thought the new director did a MUCH better job.  It seemed like a more polished film and I loved the parts that they managed to squeeze into the movie that I thought they’d have to drop.   I was impressed with how they worked in the narratives and kept the feel of the book.

I love the way they handled October, November, December.  They were able to help you feel the pain without dwelling on it too much.  Very clever.

I loved the Volturi parts and think they nailed those characters perfectly (including Dakota Fanning, which I was certain wasn’t going to work).  Loved the red eyes!

Here’s where my mild spoilers come in!

I loved that they finally said that Jasper could affect moods even if they snuck that in there quickly.

I loved Alice throughout the whole thing.  And I enjoyed the narrative with the emails that bounced.  I thought that was a clever way to work in the feelings they couldn’t actually portray.

I HATED Edwards bare chest.  EWWWWW, his nipples don’t look right, one is different than the other and his chest was just plain ugly!  If I knew my chest was going to be ogled by a group of girls, I would’ve worked out SOME.  I know he’s not supposed to be buff, but he could’ve at least looked pasty toned!

Jacob tried to win me over and almost succeeded.  I was certain he was the wrong guy for the part but the chemistry was really there and I really enjoyed his role.  I had to keep reminding myself not to drool, he’s only 17 (thankfully I already have a Hollywood crush (my first ever!) and I’ll post about that soon)!!  I think he (Taylor Lautner) did a great job.

I had no idea ahead of time how they could come up with the wolf transition or to make the creature be believable.  I feel they hit the mark.  This was a much more action-packed movie than the first.

The best actors in the film were the more seasoned ones such as Harry Clearwater, Billy Black, Charlie Swan (Billy Burke), the guy who played Aro and surprisingly Jacob!

In my opinion Bella (Kristen Stewart) still needs some acting lessons.  She looks perfect for the part, but her acting could use some more polishing although she did much better this film than the first one.

I didn’t leave the theater like I did with Twilight — obsessed but I did enjoy the film so much more if not the story.

I saw the film again this Wednesday (night before Thanksgiving) and was glad that I did.  I enjoyed it more the second time than the first (except that I had to sit in the second to the front row and it killed my old neck!).

Ah yes…. it feels good to spill the beans!

and sometimes a little boy does too.

As a mom to 3 boys, there is a shortage of dolls in my house.  Not that I’m against boys having dolls, just that I bought a boy Cabbage Patch doll for Ian when he was 2 and the only thing he used it for was to wack his older brother with.  He had absolutely NO interest in that doll other than using it as a weapon. He’s more of the car and dinosaur kind of kid.

I blogged recently about having “daughters” a short while back.  Kaynnah aka “Tinkerbell” my 3 year old temporary daughter is here in my house and stuck in a house full of “boys toys”.   Helen at “I’m Living Proof That God Has a Sense of Humor” was recently having a giveaway for a Liv Doll and I thought what a great opportunity for Kaynnah!  So I entered, and I won!!!!!  I certainly would not have known what to pick for her if I’d gone to a store and stared at the isles and isles of dolls.  It turned out that a Liv Doll was Perfect for her!  I could not believe how quickly Spinmaster, sent her choice (well my choice for her, lol). The very next day a box arrived for Kaynnah; we opened the box together and she was so exicted to see her Sophie Doll!  She did not put that doll down all day.  The wonderful people at Spinmaster even included an extra hair-do for “Sophie” as a bonus.  I see lots of shopping in my near future to buy more of the accesssories and outfits that they offer.  The quality of this doll is unbelievable.  Her eyes don’t look like cheap painted on, I don’t know how they did it but her eyes look fabulous and her hair is incredibly soft.  Her clothing and accessories seem to be made very well.  If you have little girls, I can honestly give my recommendation.

What I didn’t anticipate was that my 4 year old son would be so jealous to not have a doll of his own that my ears would bleed and my head would ache from all of the fighting and whining.  It wasn’t that he was asking for one of his own, but that he wanted to play with “Sophia”.  Daddy and Ian made a quick run to WalMart to try to calm down the jealousy.  My husband tried his hardest to convince him to get a G.I. Joe doll with a machine gun (thank you my son for resisting).

Ian just HAD to have “Rocky”, but Ian calls him “Rocky, the Rocker Dude”.  I have no idea if that is his real name since he was unpackaged and in full play mode with him by the time my husband and Ian had arrived home.  I have no idea what brand of doll he is but his feet fall off constantly!  I hope Liv Doll comes out with a “boy” doll so that little boys can enjoy them as well!  I went to their website but I couldn’t figure out where they list the Liv Dolls separately but noticed they have lots of other products.  There were too many for me to sort through to try to find out if they  had an equivelent of the Liv Doll for boys.

So now order is restored in my home…. that’s a stretch but at least there is no doll fighting.  Kaynnah has “Sophie” and Ian has “Rocky” and Mommy doesn’t have to hear the whining.  It’s a win, win.

Thank you so much Helene for the great Giveaway and thank you so much SpinMaster for sending (and so quickly!) the wonderful Sophia to my little “Tinkerbell” Kaynnah.  They say that Sophia is the doll with Fashion Sense, and if you’ve ever met my little Tinkerbell who has to constantly change her outfits throughout the day, you’d realize just how perfect Sophia is for her!

“Oh the Rhythm of my heart is beating like a drum, with the words I Love You rolling off my tongue. Never will I roam for I know my place is home. Where the ocean meets the sky, Ill be sailing”

In my previous post, I’d claimed that this concert was a “once in a lifetime chance”. Little did I know that the concert would be SO awesome and the overpriced seats would be SO worth it, that I’m ready and looking forward to going to see him again.

As they did a stage makeover from the opening band “The Kin”, whom by the way are an Australian band and I enjoyed them very much. They are a group of very talented musicians, at least two of which are brothers. Anyway as they changed the stage over, to prepare for Rod, I could tell that I was in for a real treat. The black curtains and flooring were all hauled away and pulled up into the rafters, sheer white drapes dropped down in their place, the white glossy floor was polished to shine and a whole new world was built in just moments.

The tempo of the crowd and the anticipation that was in the air was palpable. I could feel my heart racing as I scanned back and forth across the stage just wanting that first glimpse. Then there he was, strutting onto stage in a sparkly bright blue dinner jacket, blue tie over a white dress shirt and golden shoes. He was looking handsome and seemed genuinely happy to be there doing what he does best.

We had just about front row seats to the far right of the stage. If he were someone who just stood center stage in front of the mike, we may have been disappointed, but oh no; Not Rod Stewart! The man still moves and groves and dances and hops all around. He’s so youthful that I’m frankly quite jealous. His energy, his talent and his charisma were all very apparent. He may be 34 years older than I am, but he is definitely in better shape!

Song, after song of favorites and I couldn’t help myself, I was standing in front of my seat, dancing and singing right along with him. I feel bad for the nice people seated right next to me. Their ears may have been hurting from my singing and screaming after the concert was over. Also I feel bad for those directly behind me who had a nice view of my shaking ummmm behind. It was magical and by far the best concert I’ve ever been to. He sang all of my favorites (with one exception, “Do you think I’m sexy”, I think there’s a legal issue with that one). I laughed, I cried and I danced for 2 straight hours with Rod. He’d come over to our side of the stage and appeared to look right at me. If I were a wimpy girl, I swear I would’ve swooned.

I believe that he did have some issues with the Houston heat. I think all of the sweat was causing him some difficulties with his ear pieces and there was one break that I suspect was not planned and it was to go back stage to fix his earpiece issue. He made some funny comments about it though saying “I don’t know why I bothered doing my hair, it’s HOT here!”. He’d remove layers of clothes and then disappear backstage to come out in yet another stunning Rod outfit. It crossed my mind, thinking he may have been going backstage and yelling at his promoters saying something like “What the hell were you thinking in booking me in HOUSTON at an outside venue in JULY!”.

The Woodlands venue, although very nice does nothing in the way of protecting you from the heat or the humidity. It is covered but it’s still outdoors and Houston is just by default hot and muggy. It can’t help it, it’s just the way it is.

Rod showed off his still amazing football (aka soccer) skills to us by kicking signed balls out into the audience. I’d guess at least thirty. He kicked them so high and so far that they came close to hitting the top of the pavilion and it was obvious he still had excellent control on where the target was intended for. I wanted one really bad, but alas, a tall man in front of me got the only one that came my way. My boys would’ve loved that soccer ball and I would’ve had to hide it from them so I guess things were as they should be. But I still wish I’d caught one! I would’ve treasured it forever.

After the encore of Maggie Mae (which made my night complete), my mother and I headed to our hotel.

That night I had a dream of Rod. In my dream I was in a concession line and he poked his head around the corner trying to get the attention of one of the cashiers… I asked him, “were you wanting some wine?” and he said “Yes thank you, my normal please” and I told him I’d get it. The girl behind the counter added his wine to my water bill and the total was $199. I thought to myself (in my dream) “Uh Oh, Robert is going to kill me….. LOL.

After I sat down at the table with his wine, he came over and joined me and we talked a bit. We chatted about his 4 year old son Alistair and my boys and he signed my program and thanked me for the wine. Ahhhhhhhh some dreams do come true and that concert in and of itself was a dream come true.

Thank you Rod Stewart for such a magical evening!

Here are photos I took, unfortunately I didn’t have a “real” camera with me and had to use my cell phone.

in my eyes anyway.  I went through a long period of being very angry at Apple (the makers of Mac computers) for their way of not providing repairs.  I even vented on my blog if you’ll recall.  I took that link and emailed it into their corporate center as well as wrote them a not so nice letter by way of “survey”.  Rather than deal with their 4 day window of replacing my dvd drive, I chose instead of say flub it… I’ll just transfer things from cd from my old (reliable) Dell pc to my Mac via our home network.  That work-around didn’t help me fix my broken Adobe program that I really wished worked but other than that, I could get around being at Apple’s mercy.

Please keep in mind that I love my actual machine, it’s a MacBook Pro and the repairs that have been needed on it have been reasonable.  It’s just their process of getting a repair done that I take exception to.  Since I’d so publicly expressed my anger at Apple the last time,  I felt it deserved a follow-up.

Well this past week, I knew I was once again going to have to bite the bullet.  My battery was toast.  I couldn’t leave my machine unplugged for more than 4 minutes before it died.  In order to buy a battery I had to make yet another appointment with the Genius Bar.  I figured while I was there I’d finally get my DVD drive fixed.  I couldn’t stand the thought of getting worked up by them again so I begged my husband to take it in my stead.  Somehow between the house and the time the Genius opened my laptop one of my memory sticks died.  hmmmmm curious.  We will have to fix this ourselves (no biggie).

They confirmed that yep, my battery is gone, I’d gotten more than 630 cycles out of it which is more than double than their baseline.  $136.00 for a replacement, check.  Then they confirmed (again) that Yep, my optical drive is dead, they’d keep my laptop and fix it within 1 to 2 days.

Yesterday was Day 1, less than 24 hours (ok, so like 20 hours but still)!  I was shocked, amazed and thrilled when my Caller ID said Apple Store.   I think I even answered the phone with a giggle.  My machine was fixed and I could come and get it… but (BUT!?) my “genius” Will told me that today was the launch of the new iPhone and there’s crowds of people standing outside the store in line and that I should just go to the front of the line and tell every orange shirt and policeman I saw that I was there because I’d been called to pick up a repair.  Got it.

I felt like a rock star, pushing my stroller with Nathan in it… having Ian hold onto my belt loop and Random holding Ian’s shoulders.  We made a little family train and rolled people over with the stroller, shouldered through the throngs with a loud “EXCUSE ME!”‘and made our way to the front of the line.  People grumbled and glared but I got through!  WOO HOO!

Thank you Apple for semi-fixing my machine (all that they should have).  I’m working on half memory right now (I’m not referring to half of the memory I lost when I had children) while I wait for the memory company to send me some more but Apple did their thing, they did it politely and somewhat quickly (and let me feel like a “rock star” for a moment with my “backstage pass”)!  I still don’t get why they can’t just pop in a new DVD drive on the spot… it’s a SIMPLE repair!  But it’s a heck of a lot better turn around than last time.

Tot Loks. Yes the spelling error is intentional… No, I wasn’t trying to be cute!  I’m actually going to write about one or maybe two or three of the best inventions ever made for parents.  In our safety preparations, there were some gaps.  We bought cabinet locks, toilet locks and door knob covers. But along came Nathan who can find trouble in all shapes and forms.  We never had to child proof our house as diligently with our other boys.  Nathan inspires creative safety measures.  There were items on the market that we didn’t even know existed but were obviously made for parents with children like Nathan.

These first few are the ones we knew about and installed in preparation of Nathan becoming mobile. I think every parent knows about these.

The kitchen cabinets were easy to figure out how to secure.  We bought these, which worked until recently (this week actually), our 4 year old still can’t open them but Nathan now can!:

Door Knob covers keep our little man from escaping out all doors to go on walk-abouts in the neighborhood and so far they still do the trick, with the exception of the doggie door, which I have yet to find a solution for. I even attempted to duct tape the doggie door cover on. Nathan walked over to it, looked at it, yanked the tape off, handed it to me and proceeded out the door. Little Stinker!

Our stairway is wider than average and so we had trouble finding a gate that worked. The tension gates, Nathan could knock down (he’s a brute), the mesh ones, he just tore through the middle of them and so we found these, and he has yet to hurdle or break them. I feel their lifespan is shortening because he’s starting to put the metal bars between his toes in order to shimmy up them but so far so good and you can buy extensions for them for wider openings like our staircase.

Here’s where protecting the Houdini became interesting. There was proofing that was less obvious but was very necessary with “Hooligan Nathan” on the loose. We had to secure dressers and book cases to the walls since the child climbs up them! So we bought something like these, I couldn’t find the exact ones:

Our toughest quandary yet was, we were faced with the problem of how in the world can you lock other types of cabinets?  Those like your entertainment center and china cabinet?  My husband found the answer and it’s Tot Loks!

They’re also very inexpensive and are a must for protecting your DVD’s and Grandmothers China that your little Trouble child is sure to feel challenged to destroy. I could not believe what a great solution this turned out to be! No more scattered DVD’s and scratched movies. We didn’t know about these until recently so I thought I’d share this in case others have the same problem we did.

The only thing I should warn you about is if you buy them, don’t lose the opener! You can buy a replacement but honestly that would suck waiting to get into your cabinet until a new one arrived. Not only do they make your entertainment center child proof, their Mommy proof too without the opener!

This entire post reads like an infomercial but I thought I’d review some toys that our kids love and I’ll add some that they ignore. Since I’m a mom to 3 boys, I often get asked to suggest things for other boys for birthdays and such. Now this list obviously won’t assist my family or friends when they’re wondering what to get my boys, because they’ve already got this stuff! But maybe this could help YOUR family or friends if you have a birthday coming up..

My Hit and Miss List

Ages 2 and up

Hits:
By far, Nathan’s favorite birthday gift is this Leap Frog ABC game. This was given to him by a friend for his 2nd birthday. He LOVES this toy and it’s educational at the same time. Thanks to this gift, Nathan is learning letter recognition and the child can barely speak! But he knows O and A F, M and E. He’s only had this game for 2 weeks!

He also loves his “bike” that was also a birthday gift. I love it because I can push him without having to bend in half! It also converts into a rocker, which is very cool and Nathan loves.

This is by far, the best thing I’ve ever bought. I was lucky enough to find this at a garage sale in Arkansas for $10.00. I even submitted a video of Nathan on this to America’s Funniest Home Videos! Here’s a link to the video.

Miss:

Ages 4 and up

Both Ian and Nathan love this thing. A good old fashioned Jack in the Box! I had no idea this would be such a hit.

Then there’s the Leapster. I reviewed this awhile back but putting it on this list because it’s a huge hit for our 4 year old.

Miss

I couldn’t find a picture of it online, but a big (surprisingly) Miss was a Storm Trooper Helmet that changes your voice. It was played with the first day and after that? Not so much.

Ages 10 and up

Bakugan. These are the new hot item for the pre-teen boys. My 11 year old LOVES these.

At this age, Lego’s are still a huge hit as well.

Then there are the items that were perhaps bought for a specific child but that the entire family loves to play with!

Family Fun Items:

And then in closing.. the family type game that we love in this house, is the Hullabaloo.
I reviewed this recently so here’s the link if you missed it.

That’s it for this installment. If you know of a great Hit or Miss that I should include in the next one, please feel free to let me know by email or comment. Thanks for reading!

Why in the world would I re-review the Kindle 2?  I’ve discovered more things that I wished I had said, some good and some bad and some ugly.  In the past month since my initial review, I have read 9 books on my Kindle.  Here is my original review.

The Ugliest

The first and most important issue for me to get out is that I rescind my endorsement of the cover from my original review!  It cracked the front cover of my Kindle.  The way it is designed is very flawed.  It attaches to your Kindle by metal hooks that slide into slots on the side of the Kindle.  They made the hooks out of a more durable material than the Kindle, so in a fight between dominance, the hooks win and your Kindle cracks.  I’m not alone in this opinion.  There are 13 other negative reviews written on Amazon’s site that mirror what I’m saying.
This is the one… remember I don’t like it!

I personally think that they should quit selling it and redesign it.  A protective cover should PROTECT not break.  I called Amazon to report the cover problem.  Actually I wrote to them and they replied asking me to call.  I did not call to demand that they replace my Kindle, I just wanted them to be aware of my story.  After putting me on hold though, they came back on the phone to tell me that they felt I was negligent with my Kindle and that it breaking was my fault and my fault alone.  That said, they were over-nighting me a new Kindle.  Huh?  Um, Ok!  I guess if it makes YOU (amazon) feel better to blame ME and I get a new Kindle out of it, I won’t complain. 

The Bad

Some books, I’m discovering, are really pretty messed up in the Kindle translation.  I’ve read 9 books so far and all of them had *some* errors and were tolerable, but the House of Night, Book series was full of mistakes.  I’d like to get a copy of the paper book and see if it’s that way in print as well, but I have a hard time thinking that a publisher would put their name on a book that had so many grammatical errors.  I sent Kindle 2 in some samples of the errors and they received them very kindly.

Cost of books.

I’m not overly excited about the cost of the books in the Kindle version.  I thought the price differences would be substantial and they’re really not. I’m noticing that the difference between paperback and Kindle is an average of about $1.00 per book.  Sometimes there is no difference in the cost between paperback and Kindle and you’ll usually pay a lot more for the Kindle version than you would buying it used.  But in most instances I probably would’ve just gone to Barnes and Nobles and paid a lot more for the convenience.  Barnes and Nobles is now much less convenient than my “go anywhere, access books on the fly” Kindle and much more expensive.

The Good

You can read it while you’re on a Treadmill!!!  Now that is some awesome news for me.  I hate to get onto my treadmill, but when I set my Kindle in front of me and started reading (with larger text than normal) and walking, I got totally lost into my book and my 40 minutes were up before I was ready to stop reading.

Even though there are some negatives in my opinion, I feel the need to make it very clear that I LOVE my Kindle 2!  I gave most of the pluses in my initial review and I encourage you to go back and read that.  Do not let this mostly negative update suggest that I do not recommend the Kindle 2.  It is AWESOME!  There is no way that I would have read 9 books in a month if I had to wait until I had time to drive to the Book Store or wait for UPS to deliver an order.

The Kindle 2 is still a hit in my book.