Teddy Ruxpin

Okay, so the picture at right is not the one I was trying to capture. Logan was lying on his stomach with Teddy Ruxpin sitting in front of him telling a story. But as every mother knows trying to capture the picture you want isn't always easy work.

I remember how much I enjoyed my Teddy Ruxpin as a child. Changing his cassette's to tell me a story or sing me a song. Of course back then with regular cassette tapes you could put anyone of them in Teddy and he would sing along. (My husband told me how he and his cousin used to make Teddy Ruxpin sing Tina Turner songs.)

Logan received Teddy Ruxpin the other day from his Grandma; and he has been practically inseparable from him ever since. When Teddy sings, Logan twirls him around and dances with him. During story time, he sits and listens while intently watching Teddy's eyes and mouth move.

Teddy was even brought to bed with Logan, I watched as Logan drifted off to sleep while Teddy sang him lullabies. And it didn't take Logan long to figure out how to operate Teddy himself, even changing his cartridges to play different stories.

I know that Logan will enjoy his Teddy Ruxpin just as much as I enjoyed mine.

Finished!

It was right before Logan was born (2 years ago) that one of our ranch hand's wife asked me to make each of her five grandkids a quilt. After discussing a pattern and what each child likes (Dora the Explorer, Disney Princess, High School Musical, and Washington Redskins)I got started with some excitement.

I finally finished the last of the five quilts earlier this month! And our ranch hand and his wife couldn't be more pleased (I was nervous making something that I was actually get paid for.) They both have gone on and on about how much their grandkids love their quilts and how they are inseparable from them.

Not only are the grandkids pleased but I learned quite a bit in this process. For example, I used to always take my quilt in to a quilt shop to be quilted; with these I learned how to do that myself. And I have discovered that I hate doing scalloped edges - which were done on four of these quilts!

Now if only I could find my quilt journal to enter this last one in...

Finding a Nanny

It has been getting harder and harder for my little guy to sit in the office with his mom. With some slighlty warmer weather our way, my husband has been doing more cow work and has not had a chance to take Logan; therefore Logan is stuck in the office with me. It wouldn't be so bad if my little two year old wasn't expected to sit quietly and play with his toys for the whole time. But, he would rather climb on the desk, get into the office supplies on the bookshelves, mess with the computers, and so on.

Again and again I have been told that I need to put Logan into a daycare. I've looked, I really have. All the good ones it seems require the kids to be there a minimum of half a week. Or the children have to be toilet trained - which we are working on but just not quite there yet. And it just is not feasible for me to drive an hour out to drop Logan off at a daycare center than another hour to drive back home to work, another two to pick him up and bring him home again.

And things are not going to get better or easier with another one on the way. It's hard enough trying to get everything done with one child cooped up with you but two? I might as well forget it!

So, upon a discussion I had with my sister-in-law, I brought up the idea of hiring a nanny to my husband. He thought it was great and we discussed having someone come in three days a week for about five hours a day. Long enough for me to go get some work done. Now to actually find one!

Technology

Sometimes I have to wonder, is technology all that it's cracked up to be? Really? There are days where I feel that the world would be a better place if we could go back to horse drawn carriages, rotary phones, and hand written letters. Call me old fashioned but I still prefer a hand written letter as opposed to 60 e-mails piled in my inbox.

Part of the reason why I am feeling this way is that I have been fighting with Trend-Micro Internet Security for the past 9 days. Why are computer tech people so willing and helpful when they know at the end of the job you will fork out a couple hundred bucks their way? As soon as a mistake is made on their part and they owe you money, their computer savviness all of a sudden diminishes?

This is what is happening to me. Of course it starts out where I call the company only to have a voice prompt tell me that for my case I need to send an e-mail making my claim. This right away irks me! Whatever happened to talking to a human being?

I read somewhere that with facebook, e-mails, and text messages we are raising generations of kids who are lacking in people skills. With all these new and improved ways to communicate, who needs to talk to a real person?

As I sit here frustrated and wishing for simpler times, I continue my fight with Trend Micro determined not to let a "computer glitch" get the best of me.