Dinosaur Names

My son has been talking about dinosaurs a lot recently and I've been looking for a pronunciation key for the names.

They are almost as bad as medical terms! I found a couple of sites to use and thought I'd share:

Dinosauria Translation and Pronunciation Guide has them listed alphabetically with the pronunciation and some information on the name itself. This is a simple yet effective site.

DinoDictionary.com not only has the pronunciation but also information on the dinosaur as well.

They also have audio files that pronounce the name and talk about some of the dinosaur's features. Once you have mastered them, they have a game to test your knowledge plus links to other sites. Lots of other information here too!

A Violin for Mom

My New Violin

Santa (my mother) bought me a violin for Christmas and yes, I wanted one. I've spent a lot of time this year exposing my son to music and watching him develop a strong interest in the orchestra. He loves to watch the musicians play and knows every instrument and what family it belongs to.

I had thought about getting him a violin but then I thought, what about me? I have always loved the violin. Listening to one being played releases emotions so deep in my core being, I didn't even know they existed. Wouldn't it be great to learn to play an instrument that I have always loved? Of course it would and then I could teach my son later.

We come from a musical family. My mother plays piano and my father played guitar. I did learn to play the clarinet in high school, but I will need a refresher on reading music. I still have the clarinet (hidden away) for my son if he wants to learn. Right now he has a recorder and an electronic keyboard that he is getting pretty good at. Plus I got him a xylophonethis Christmas that he didn't get last year. He can play Jingle Bells and Mary Had A Little Lamb on them all.

When I mentioned my idea to my mother, she said go ahead and order what I needed and she would pay for it. After some research I found a great beginners violin with a case and accessories on Amazon.com (I really should buy stock in that company). So far I have got it tuned and it sounds great (I think). I ordered a DVD to learn from and some extra strings.

My son thinks his mom can do anything, so he is already planning a mommy and me concert. I'll keep you posted on the date, ha ha. So this is my New Year's resolution: This is the year I teach an old dog (my brain) a new trick. I will learn to play the violin!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you all a very Merry and Peaceful Christmas.

Christmas is Over

At our house anyway. This year we celebrated Christmas early. Today was the last day for a while, that we would not have to leave the house early to do pet sitting rounds. I am so glad I decided to do it this way! We had a relaxed morning opening gifts and playing, without having to rush out to walk dogs.

I think my son was happy with his gifts, except he did make a comment that none of them had bows. Oops, I completely forgot them, so I told him Santa must have run out. Of all things for him to notice!

Of course the kittens enjoyed the morning as well.

Nothing better than a pile of paper to shred.

We will still go to Grandma's on Friday for Christmas dinner, but now I can relax a little and concentrate on the pet sitting jobs.

Winter Word Tree

I added winter words to our word tree today.

It took a while to cut out all those snowflakes,

but my son thinks they look cool.

The Great Balloon Experiment!

Remember the balloons my son got for his birthday? Well two of them met with a tragic end.

He received three balloons altogether, one on it's own with an anchor on the bottom of the string and two others tied together with one anchor on both strings.

The next day he decided he wanted to see how they would float outside, so he took the pair that were tied together out to the front yard and was letting the wind carry them down the slope of the lawn. Then the unexpected happened, a gust of wind blew and picked up the two balloons and carried them away over the roof tops, with the anchor still attached. I guess the two together were buoyant enough with the gust of wind, that the anchor couldn't hold them.

My son was devastated and shocked. The tears lasted hours. The next day even after warnings from me, he insisted on taking the single balloon outside to test a theory. He said that only one balloon with an anchor, would not float enough for the wind to carry it away. Also he said there was less wind today.

So out he went to experiment with wind. On this day he was right, the wind did not carry the single balloon away. The above drawing is his documentation of the events. Results: weights on the bottom of two balloons need to be heavier than on one balloon, if you don't want the wind to carry them away. This concludes the great balloon experiment of 2009.

Santa Had to Get Sneaky This Year

Do you hide your children's Christmas gifts around the house? If so, do you forget where they are? I do. This year was hard. Now that my son is five, he is well aware that I do all of my shopping online. I hardly ever shop for anything in a store, except groceries and if I could have them delivered in my area, I probably would.

Whenever the USP man or the postman comes, it's a mad dash to see what's in the box. Unless it's pet food. That's the only thing he's not interested in checking out. So this Christmas whenever a box comes, I look at the label and quickly tell him it's pet food. I'm wondering when it's going to dawn on him that we have had an awful lot of "pet food" delivered lately!

Then when he's not looking, I stash the box somewhere in the house. However this year I remembered that last year I forgot some of them and they ended up being Easter gifts. So now I keep a list of what's hidden where. This year I will try to wrap them ahead of time too because last year he was out of bed every twenty minutes on Christmas Eve and Santa almost lost her cool. Now if I can only remember where I put that list, humm....

Gingerbread House

My son tells me this is a Gingerbread House. I do believe he's right.

Happy Wordless Wednesday!

For more photo fun visit 5 Minutes for Mom.

Birthday Balloons

We had my son's belated birthday celebration today. It was a small gathering, just family. My nephew who is thirteen came and he kept my son entertained. I think he really enjoyed himself, even though it wasn't a big party. He went to bed singing "It's my birthday, happy, happy, birthday!"


He received several very nice gifts, but as usual he had more fun with the balloons than anything. He took them with him from room to room all night and then to bed. I had to take them out of the room after he fell asleep so he didn't tangle himself up in the night!

It's great that even at five years old, he's still so easily entertained. The balloons were not such a big hit with the cats however. I'm sure they will be making themselves scarce until they deflate.

My Baby is Five

I still can not believe that this tiny face is now five years old. Yesterday was his 5th birthday, but we are celebrating on the weekend.

Between Thanksgiving and a very full pet sitting schedule, his birthday would have gotten lost this week. We are going to bake his cake together and have family over for pizza.

Happy Birthday my sweet boy! No matter how much you grow, this is the image that will forever live in my heart.