So far it has been pretty exciting. The plane ride here sucked. It was four and half hours with screaming kids. I made it through it though. LOL They had a limo pick me up. It was pretty cool. I got to baggage claim and the driver was standing there with a sign with my name on it. I probably will never have that happen again, but it still was super awesome. We are staying at La Valencia Hotel and this place rocks. I highly recommend it to anyone staying San Diego. I have an ocean view room. I can literally lay in bed, open my balcony doors, and watch the waves. Sony also provided in our rooms some chocolate and a rose. We also were given gift certificates for dinner. I had fillet mignon. It melted in mouth, that’s how good it was. Even though I didn’t order dessert, I tried my fellow bloggers desserts and they were to die for. So far, this trip has been awesome. Tomorrow should be another fun day. We get to play with the cameras that we are getting. They have us going from 9 am – 9 pm, so hopefully, I will get a chance to blog somewhere in there.
Posts Tagged ‘liter’
Sony Mommy Bloggers Event Part I
Thursday, April 17th, 2008Takeoff
Sunday, February 3rd, 2008I actually typed this up on Wednesday morning before I left for Miami. My WiFi connection was not great there and didn’t work most of the time, so I am finally posting this now.
It’s about 9 am and I have been up since 5:30 am. I am at O’hare (even though this won’t publish until I am already in Miami since I refuse to pay $6.95 for wifi for the thirty minutes or so I’ll actually have time to blog). I am amazed at the amount of kids that will be on my flight. Not all are so little. There is one little one that I am terrified is going to be sitting next to me. I left my kids home for a reason. I do not want to be sitting next to them. I know that sounds really bad since the kid looks to be a little older than Will. I should be more understanding because I have kids. However, the grandmother is currently chasing the little one around the concourse right now. Every time she makes him sit down, he screams. Please keep your fingers crossed for me. Otherwise, this is going to be a really, really, really long flight.
After the bad weather last night (50 mph winds and snow), I am amazed that my flight is even going to leave on time. O’hare is known for delays, so I was happily surprised that there were no delays. Woo hoo!!! The crazy part of this trip is that with the wind chill it is -25 degrees. Currently, it is 71 in Miami.
I started feeling guilty last night already. I spend 24/7 with my kids so I do like the break. However, with that, I feel incredibly guilty that I am leaving for 3 days. I know they are perfectly fine with my mother in law. However, the mom guilt always gets you.
I did have a funny moment happen at the airport. This may be lack of sleep though and only funny to me. I was walking around looking for a bathroom. They had a sign for a drinking fountain which basically is a person who is bent over drinking. Well, at first glance, it looked like somebody throwing up. I literally stopped and did a double take. I realized what it really was and laughed to myself (don’t want to laugh out loud by myself at the airport – they make think I am crazy lol).
At this point, we are waiting for the flight attendants so we can board the plane. The plane is here, the pilots are here, however, we have no flight attendants. I think they said they were running late. The plane is not suppose to take off for another 25 minutes, so as long as everyone boards quickly, we should still take off on time (in theory).
BlogWorld – Day 1 Evening
Saturday, November 17th, 2007I left BlogWorld and hopped onto the monorail to get back to my hotel. Having been to Vegas two times before, I was excited to ride the monorail. It wasn’t here my two prior visits. You still end up doing a ton of walking, but it definitely does help to get around. The monorail dropped me off at the Hilton. I then walked to my hotel.
Actually, my hotel wasn’t really a hotel at all. Instead, it is a Hilton timeshare. What is a timeshare? Basically, what I did was to rent condos for the 3 nights I was there (actually make that 1 condo for all three nights). Bill and I did not buy a condo. We just borrowed my inlaws. I do think you can buy these as condos for sale. I know this is super confusing. However, since we don’t belong to this, I have a very limited understanding of it. The room was gorgeous. I love staying in places that are better than my house. I had a king size bed for all of me. It was great. Since there was only me staying there, I only got the studio. However, if Bill would have come with, I definitely would have gotten the 1 bedroom. Otherwise, we would have been on top of each other and driving one another bananas.
Once I got settled, I met up with several other bloggers for dinner at a German place there. Anybody who was with — please let me know the name. Bill has been to Germany, and I would love to see if he went there or not. However, I do not know the name of the place. I took a couple of pictures. For some reason, a lot of pictures turned out really dark, so bear with me.
I forgot to take a picture of the beer. It was huge (like a liter of beer). Dinner took forever, but it was good and fun to meet up with everyone!
Breast Is Best . . . Or is it?
Sunday, June 17th, 2007The other most common question I seem to get asked since I have had Will is whether or not I am breastfeeding. Well, here’s the story of both Madison and Will on this topic.
Madison’s Breastfeeding tale
Madison would never latch on. I met with lactation consultants and everything, and she would not latch on. We had decided that breastfeeding was the way to go. We continued to try and breastfeed when we brought her home. However, she started to become very jaundice. When we brought her in the doctor, we had a blood test done, and her billyrubin (sp?) count was 14.7. Once that number hits 15, they have to have a billy blanket. I was given 3 choices: keep trying to breastfeed and she’d probably end up in the hospital, give her formula, or go buy a breast pump.
We did the later of the three. I ended up pumping for 4 months with her. I quit when I started resenting pumping. I have to think it works, because Madison hardly ever gets sick. She never has had an ear infection. She’s had a few colds and the flu, but that’s it.
Will’s Breastfeeding tale
Well, we are running into some of the same problems with Will. Once we get him latched on, he will eat. However, we have had major problems getting him to latch. Last Sunday, we made the decision after trying to get him to latch for an hour and half at 3 am, that this is not working. I would literally feel myself tense up when I had to feed him, since we were having some many problems. Needless to say, we decided that I should again pump. He will get all the benefits of breast milk, and somebody other than me can feed him. Again, not a perfect solution, but it is the best we can come up with. He also started becoming jaundice, but when we brought him in last Monday, it was already going away.
Where do we go from here?
Honestly, I don’t know. I am not sure if I can do this for 4 months again. However, I have been pumping and freezing what I can. For those of you who have pumped before, how much should I be freezing in each bag? I have been only doing 2 oz in each bag. I do know once you thaw it, you have to use it, so my theory was to do small amounts. However, I now have a ton of bags in my freezer.
Let me know your thoughts!
Children’s Programming
Friday, March 16th, 2007Children’s programming is not what it use to be. I remember being a child and your only choice was Sesame Street. Nowadays, you have stations like Noggin and Nick Jr. who are dedicated to children’s program. My daughter does not even really like Sesame Street. Some of Madison’s favorite shows include Upside Down Show and Wonder Pets. I actually TIVO these two shows for her, so we can watch them any time we want.
The Upside Down show has Shane and David, and we get to watch their daily adventures. We have been to the art museum, the movies, and the airport among several other places with them. The part Madison loves the most about this show is the imaginary remote. She often plays with her imaginary remote even when we are not watching the show. Honestly, I find the show pretty corny, but my husband giggles right along with Madison (not sure what that says). There are several learning goals with this show:
Imaginative Play
- boosts creativity by modeling pretend play
- fosters a humorous approach to problem-solving
- models a think-outside-the-box attitude
Language and Early Literacy Skills
- introduces new vocabulary in surprising and funny ways
- reinforces phonological awareness with use of alliteration, rhyming, and other kinds of language play
Cognitive Skills
- reinforces logical thinking skills such as making predictions and noticing connections
- models using abstract thinking and imagination to find new ways of looking at a problem
- demonstrates and explores relational concepts (high/low, inside/outside, light/dark)
Social and Emotional Development
- models cooperation and negotiation
- models accommodating and supporting the needs of others
At least she is learning when she is watching this. I do have to admit that my favorite imaginary remote button has to be the Irish dancing button.
The other show she enjoys is Wonder Pets. This show is about three classroom pets named Linny (he’s the guinea pig), Ming-Ming (the duck), and Tuck (the turtle). The show is about how these three animals turn into superhereos to save other animals in trouble. This is one of my favorite shows. It is cute and even holds my attention. The learning goals that are supported by this show are:
Cognitive Skills
Language and Early Literacy
- introduces new vocabulary
- reinforces phonological awareness with its use of sung dialogue, rhythms, alliteration, and songs
Music
- exposes viewers to a wide range of musical styles and formats
- helps make connections between musical styles and world cultures
Social and Emotional Development
- promotes appreciation of and orientation towards teamwork
- models cooperation with others
- reinforces the value of listening to others’ ideas
- models an attitude of helping
There are a few other show I like too, but these are Madison two main shows that we do not miss. These shows are not too annoying, and I like that she is learning something by watching them.
