Toddler Science Experiment

The past few weeks I noticed my grandson was fascinated with  the mini box fan I have sitting on an end table. I have not had a problem with him inspecting the fan and enjoying the air moving over his face because the grill over the front has very small openings. We checked it out and his little fingers can not pass through the openings. He has not really played with it but he liked to stand in front and let the air blow through his hair.
Today I decided to show him how the moving air can blow paper around. I held up a napkin and let him see it blow across the table. He squealed with delight. I gave him different types of paper and cardboard and watched him absorb the information. He learned to lean the fan just right to get heavier paper and a wadded paper ball to move across the table. After a few minutes he ran off to his toy box, thinking he was ready for something new I switched off the fan. A minute later he returned to the fan with a hand full of toys and asked me to turn the fan on. I was amazed at his thinking. He tried  toys and other objects around the house. I could see his little mind running high speed trying to understand why some things were moving and others were not.
Finally in the end he exclaimed with his toy cow in front of the fan "stuck."

                                                                                   

                                                                           

  

Another Week on the Potty Train

Our adventure continues. Pooh Bear has been a real trooper this week. His mother and I both think the end is in sight. I am so excited to see my grandson asking to use the potty to pee.  In fact a few times he actually only had to see the potty and decided by himself to sit down and go. There was also a time or two when  I just told him  " Why don't you go sit on the potty" and he just went over and sat on the potty with out any help. Up until this point it had been the normal to walk him over to the potty. Then sit him down to go pee. It is so nice with just a few reminders he is able to stay accident free all day.

Now our next step is to teach him how to get his pants down with out having an accident. While at home we have been leaving him with out pants. We just dress him in a long tee-shirt. This makes it easier for him to use the potty himself. It's hard for a toddler to pull down their pants and not pee at the same time. It takes a lot of coordination to wait and pee after the pants are down.
Pooh Bear has also decided all his little friends need to go potty too. So through out the day he sits his little friends on the potty. I think he is trying to potty train them.

Chocolate Pudding Pops

While searching for a pudding recipe I came across so many that require the cooking to be done in the microwave. While I don't have a problem using the microwave I really wanted a stove top pudding recipe.
So this is what I came up with.

Chocolate Pudding Pops

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 and 3/4 cups whole milk( you can substitute low fat)

1 ounce of unsweetened chocolate squares

2 tablespoons butter

2 egg yolks

1 tablespoon vanilla

In a saucepan over medium heat, add sugar, cornstarch and salt. Stir the milk and chocolate in slowly. Constantly continue to stir until chocolate is melted and mixture thickens. Remove from heat and stir in egg yolks completely. Return to heat and cook  another 2 minutes. Remove from heat add vanilla and butter stirring until incorporated.  

Spoon into paper cups or molds and insert Popsicle sticks. Freeze until solid.  

Dip in warm water to remove from cup or mold. Enjoy!

Toddler Motion Sickness

Ok, We need some help or rather Pooh Bear my 20 month old grand son needs help.
Pooh Bear travels often with his family. The last couple months when traveling more than 40 minutes in a car he gets sick. Not just a little. He vomits every where! It is terrible for him. We keep extra clothing, water, wipes, bags, blankets and towels in the car. We tried traveling at night and stopping often. We tried feeding him a light meal 30 minutes before traveling.  We adjusted his car seat to different heights. We moved him from the middle to the side and back to the middle.
If anyone has an idea what might help please leave a comment. We will be traveling again this weekend.
I want to make him as comfortable as possible and we are out of ideas. 

Peanut Butter Cookie/Brownies

I love Peanut Butter cookies and I love Brownies so I decided to combined the two recipes and see what I get.
I preheated the oven to a setting between 350 and 375 degrees. I choose to set it between the brownie temperature and the cookie temperature.

Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter

1 cup any style peanut butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

2 1/2 cups white flour

Cream butter and peanut butter together slowly add sugar while mixing. Mix in eggs.

In a separate bowl mix dry ingredients together. Add creamed mixture with dry ingredients. 

Press the dough into the bottom of a 9 x 9 baking pan.

Brownies

1 cup  softened butter

2 cups sugar

3eggs

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup white flour 

Mix butter, sugar and eggs together in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl mix dry ingredients together. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Pour the batter over the peanut butter cookie dough.

Bake 35 to 45 minutes. Test with a tooth pick. The baking time is the best estimate I could come up with.

My brownies took 45 minutes.  Cool and frost if desired.

Vintage Recipe Thursday

Lemon Ice

My mother made this for our family in the summer time. We loved this better than ice cream.

1 cup fresh squeezed Lemon Juice

2 cups water

1 packet unflavored gelatin

1 cup sugar

Finely grated lemon zest from one lemon

2 egg whites, stiffly beaten

Squeeze the lemon juice in a large bowl. 

2 cups of water in a saucepan stir in gelatin until dissolved.

Bring to a boil, add lemon zest and sugar. 

Pour the hot mixture in to the lemon juice mix well.

Fold in the beaten egg whites.

Pour into shallow baking pan and freeze solid.

Remove from the freezer and begin to thaw.

Thaw just to the point where you are able to cut.

Cut into cubes.

With a food processor, drop into the opening while running. Process until smooth and creamy.

serve immediately or refreeze and thaw to serve.

Looking for more great recipes and the Vintage Recipe Thursday Linky 

please visit

Earn free Amazon Gift Cards and Free Pay PayPal Cash!

Fridays are Mega Swag Bucks Day. If you don't have a Swag Bucks account you are missing out in awesome free gift cards and many other rewards. The list of prizes is long. There is something for everyone. Here are a few of the awesome prizes, HDTV's, Playstation's, Xboxes, Kindle books, MP3s, Home Depot e-gift cards,
Amazon gift cards and the list goes on and on.

So here is the basics on how it works. When you open an account and use the swag bucks search engine you are awarded points to your account for some of your searches. The search has to be legitimate. You can't just search all day long and rack up swag points. But if you search say a couple searches a day you should be awarded swag points. Not every search will give you points but at least once, twice or even three times a day you can earn swag points.  There are also many other ways to earn swag points. Watching Swag TV is one of my favorites. Doing easy surveys and polls also are easy ways to earn.
I have cashed in my swag points a few times for paypal cash and also amazon gift cards. Now I am saving for a really big prize(HDTV).
For more information or to open an account visit here.

Baking Bread

My family loves home made bread. I love making bread. When I say I love making bread I mean by hand not by machine. I do have a bread machine and I used  it when I worked a full time job. I really enjoy the kneading process most. Here is the basic recipe I use often. This can be used to make a loaf of bread, dinner rolls or bread sticks.

My little helper.

Basic White Bread

3 cups of white flour(or bread flour) plus a little extra for kneading

1 package of active dry yeast 

1 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup white sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 cup warm water

1 small egg

In a small bowl dissolve sugar in the warm water, add yeast and allow to proof. (foam)

Mix flour and salt together. Add  oil and yeast mixture to the flour. Mix until dough pulls off the side of the bowl. Add a dusting of flour if sticky. If the dough is stiff or dry add a few drops of warm water.

Knead until dough is smooth on the surface.

Place in a well oiled bowl. Rolling the dough over until all sides of dough are oiled. Cover with a damp towel. Keep out of drafts.  Allow to rise until double in size. 45 minutes to 1 hour. 

Remove from bowl and knead for a couple minutes. Divide and shape dough as you like. Place in a well oiled pan. Brush with beaten egg yolk. Allow to rise about 30 minutes. 

Bake 30 minutes in a 350 degrees F oven.

Our Potty Training Adventure update

I skipped posting last week about our potty training adventure. So here is the short version of last week.
Our little Pooh Bear (my grandson) was under the weather last week. He had an ear infection. It's no fun for anyone when he gets cranky and sleepless. He still did well with going to the potty. There was just a few times he just did not feel like sitting on the potty. Who could blame him.
He is feeling much better now. We are back on the potty train and enjoying the ride.

Wordless Wednesday

Tiggerific Tuesday Blog Hop

Thanks to the Magical Mouse Schoolhouse  for the blog hop.

I Just Love The Grand Kids!

As the grand kids get older it's much harder to get good pictures of them. They never stay in one place long enough to get a great shot. I have a lot of blurry photos and back of heads. 

Weekend Trip

Our local Fire Department had a fire safety event this weekend at the neighborhood Walgreens. My grandson and his father enjoyed sitting in the fire truck and playing games. He even brought home a fire safety coloring book.

Our Deer Park Trip

Our summer fun trip. Visiting the Deer park in Sandusky, Ohio

Our grandchildren had a blast. The deer were very friendly and came up to eat from the kids hands.

Book Review: A Place Called Blessing by John Trent, PhD with Annette Smith

A Place Called Blessing is a Fictional Christian book that is based on the five elements of The Blessing.
Wow, this is a good book! This book brought tears to my eyes! When I first started reading this book I was unsure if I would enjoy the book at all.  The story is about a boy named Josh and his two brothers. The three boys have lousy parents who don't take care of them. They are at most times left home alone without supervision or food.  The boys lose their parents to a drunk-driving accident.  They are separated and sent to live in foster homes. At one point they actually get to live together in the same foster home. Josh makes a friend his age and seems to finally find a little happiness. Then there is a tragic accident which causes the boys to be sent to a group home. Josh gets separated from is brothers and loses all hope now of ever having a normal life.
When Josh turns 18 he has to leave the group home and make his own way in life. This is where the story gets even more emotional. Josh has much to learn in life. Along the way he will have to learn to trust in people again. There are many unexpected twists and turns in the story line so be prepared to want to read the book in one sitting. Although, the story is mostly sad it has a surprisingly happy ending.

I enjoyed reading A Place Called Blessing. The story is written in first person narrative. I don't always like books written in first person narrative but this story is written very well and is easy to read and become involved in the story. You might even find yourself wishing you could help Josh.

There is a study guide of questions at the end of the book that would be very useful in a classroom setting. A Place Called Blessing is suitable reading material for young adults and adults.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 

The Grandkids

Traveling While Potty Training!

We are back from our little trip. Traveling with a toddler in potty training can be done with just a little effort.. Sure, it was not easy. We had some big bumps in the road this weekend. When we started our trip I knew not everything would go as planned but, I was not expecting any big issues. Driving was not a problem. We stopped often for potty breaks and had no accidents. My grandson understood he had to sit on the potty each time we stopped and he did fantastic.

Where did we run into trouble you ask? Well, once we arrived at Grandma Bonnie(that's me) and Grandpa's house the fun began!

First, I will let you in on a secrete Grandma and Grandpa's house is the family gathering place. At any given time you will find babies, toddlers and children through out our house. My grandson arrived to find three toddlers his own age and a newborn baby. The entire weekend consisted of play, swim, sleep and eating.

In the beginning of the weekend we offered to take him to the potty. Each offer was met with a simple refusal.

In the middle of our weekend we started to insist on taking him to the potty. This was met with tears and pleading no, no. We finally gave up and put him in pull ups.

I  just wonder was it the strange bathroom , was it all the fun and excitement  or just maybe everything was  too overwhelming.

Today, my grandson is back home and happily using the potty! With no lasting side effects from our little trip.

I welcome any tips or advice when it comes to traveling with a toddler in potty training. Until next week, good luck to all you potty trainers.

Wordless Wednesday

Every year we sit in our front yard on the fourth of July and watch the fire works show our neighbors put on.
It's like having front row seats to the best show in town. The fire works started at dusk and lasted over 30 minutes.

See What Grandma Won!

Thank you Lemondrops Dream too. It came in the mail today. It's Potty Time. Potty training book. I won this fantastic book at Lemondrops Dream too!  I am so happy with the book. The timing is perfect for my grandsons potty training adventure.