Being outnumbered by the small beings is in turns lovely and terrifying and hilarious and very, very in-the-moment. I spend most of my time trying to give the older kids the parent time they need and they keep surprising me with all the little things that change in a kid’s life on a daily basis. As I write this, I’m carrying on a conversation with Ana about what’s going on in Pet Town. One of her favorite activities is role playing with her toys. Apparently the animals are busy splashing and tickling each other – activities she happens to know quite a lot about.

Little Mouse is getting big so fast. She is very aware, always looking around. She grins at every opportunity and has continued experimenting with different sounds. Sometimes you’re talking to her and right as you finish a sentence she’ll go “heh!” and it’s all interactive and awesome.

I don’t know how Julie does it because Angie wants to be in her arms about 23.5 hours a day. The 30 minutes of freedom is partly from Mouse deciding to tolerate daddy for a few brief minutes but mostly because she really enjoys her swing.

Cute baby is cute.

Earlier today I spent 20 minutes or so catching up on my feeds. Okay, I had the best intentions, really. I ended up spending the entire time reading everything I missed during the last two months over at Cool Tools. This feed has been in my reader ever since I discovered RSS and, for a gadget freak like me it is like crack. The first thing I noticed was the review for the Blender Bottle. I hate mixing up protein powder when I’m not at home because every container I’ve tried either leaks, doesn’t mix properly, is virtually unwashable, or some combination. This may be the answer.

Aiyah! Why didn’t anyone tell me that Leatherman has a new, slimmer, full-size multitool on the market? The Skeletool looks like the perfect update to the tremendously useful Leatherman Wave. I carried my Wave whenever I left the house (but especially at work) for years and loved the combination of an easily accessible blade with good sturdy needlenose pliers plus phillips head and several flat head screwdrivers. The only problem was that the edges of the steel frame weren’t quite rounded enough and the significant heft and bulk caused it to slowly cut its way through my trouser pockets. I like to keep my geek side under the radar when possible which rules out the belt sheath as a carrying option. About a year ago I got fed up with buying new pants and started carrying the Kershaw Ken Onion Leek instead. It’s super slim and lightweight and is a great little knife but doesn’t do much for all the other multitool applications. The Skeletool is about half the weight of the Wave and retains all the most important functionality. I should plan to catch up on Cool Tools reading at this time every year when I’m trying to figure out how to spend the remains of my department’s fiscal year budget.

Categories: angie, kids and parenting, toys
Comments Off

Ack, this is so cool!

Categories: harry potter
Comments Off