Just posted the cute ramblings of Miles, and then I feel the need to highlight something about Graham too. This is FAR from a highlight but...I guess someday I may want to remember this. The other day I scolded Graham for something, and he did his usual throwing of himself to the floor and burying his head in his hands. Then I thought I heard his muffled little voice say, "dumb mom". Granted, he is just 23 months old and barely puts two words together. I thought, "funny, that almost sounded like dumb mom". But surely my little baby wouldn't say something like that. Then again later that day the same thing happened. What? Was I hearing this right???
Now it is all the time. If he gets mad about ANYTHING, even if it's not because of me, I hear "dumb mom". And even better, today it segued into "stupid mom". First off, I don't know where he got this as "stupid" and "dumb" are not allowed in our house. Miles does not say these things in front of us, but it has to be where Graham picked this up. I am thinking that Miles says this under his breath when he is sent to his room...and Graham often follows close behind.
At any rate, this will not be tolerated but I'm having a hard time coming up with how to handle it. If I repeat it by saying, "don't say dumb mom", it just reinforces saying it to a 2 year old. Luckily I have Miles handled now...he doesn't laugh anymore when Graham says it. And even reports it to me now...that's nice...tattling is now in full force. The best I came up with today is telling him those are bad words and we don't say bad words. He does say "sorry mom" right after I remind him. But it's just a bad habit now, formed in like two days. I am also trying to say "silly Graham", "silly Miles" to maybe substitute a better word if he really feels the need to describe people. Time-out is also in full force. I hope all this will work and nip this in the bud quickly.
It sounds so horrible, especially from a 1 year old! Not to mention, will the kid ever call me "mommy"? Miles still does but to Graham it's always been, "MOM!". He's like the "grow up fast" kid in our family or something. What in the world do I have in store with this little rascal!?!?
This transaction worked as planned. Can't say the same for the others I have done but still good deals. 
We have had this bike picked out for Miles at Toys R Us for awhile now. But I have been waiting for the perfect sale and coupon combo to snag a deal. Since we were drenched in rain on Independence Day, we decided to head to the toy store for some indoor fun. Thankfully I remembered my coupons! Even though I had checked the toy ads like I do every week, I didn't know this bike was on sale. I already had some sani-hands coupons in tow for the 2/$4 sale at TRU. We love those things for the car. With the coupons, they would be $1 each. Not bad! 
Total Cost: $47.14
Today we made these Auntie Ann pretzels. The batch would have made 8 large pretzels but after making 3, I gave up on the pretzel shape. Rolling the dough into 3 foot strips was the hardest part of the whole process. 
So we moved onto pretzel STICKS. Still, can I not get an even consistent width on these things?
Does anyone safely eat hot dogs out there? Do you buy specialty ones? Or have you had luck with basic Oscar Meyer type hot dogs? It's grilling season, and I would love to try these with the boys. I'm just really nervous. I always hear about all the "hidden" stuff in hot dogs, right?
Ok, we have a whole box of ice cream cones to eat up....so next on the list of sorbet experiments was chocolate...my personal favorite. Graham loves chocolate much more than Miles, it's funny. Anyways, this recipe again only calls for 3 ingredients and you don't even need a mixer for this one. This is SO good. It tastes like a fudgecicle. Even if you don't have allergies, this is a great LOW FAT alternative to chocolate ice cream. 
