Deirdre, Author at JDaniel4s Mom

Deirdre Smith writes/owns JDaniel4’s Mom. After twenty years as a elementary school and technology resource teacher in Northern Virginia, she became a stay at home mom in upstate South Carolina. Her blog features ways she and her 5 year old are exploring learning, crafting, creating healthy meals and living life to its fullest. Deirdre can also be found on twitter as @jdaniel4smom and on her blog's FB page. You can also check her out on Google+.

“No, Thank You” Could Lead to a Coup Attempt

February 19, 2011 By Deirdre

“No, Thank you” should be a wonderfully polite phrase uttered when you are offered something that you have no interesting having or shouldn’t.

It could be really wonderfully delicious second slice of chocolate cake that you really don’t need.

It could be a cup of coffee offered when you walk into playgroup.

JDaniel has started saying, “No, Thank you”. He says it all the time. When we are out in public, people are so impressed when they hear him say it. While it is better than hearing no over and over, it is starting to sound just the same to me.

“Would you like to go to the potty?” I ask

He replies, “No, Thank you.”

“I need you to help me pick up toys” I say.

He replied, “No, Thank you.”

“It is time for you to take a bath! I exclaim.

He replies, “No, thank you.”

“We are going to have just one cookie for snack,” I inform him.

He replies, “No, thank you.”

It really sounds like he is trying to overrule what I am telling him.

Does it work for me? No, it really doesn’t.

Do I want to keep hearing it? No, thank you.

Well, in a polite way it would be okay as long as it isn’t part of a coup attempt.

Read.Explore.Learn. – Finding Love

February 18, 2011 By Deirdre

Welcome to Read. Explore. Learn! This meme was designed to be a place for you to share the learning opportunities, crafts, field trips, and other activities you have done this week that tie-in to children’s books. I look forward to seeing the ways you have learned with and explored books.

Steps:

Link your activity below.

Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. the badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.

<center><a href=”http://www.jdaniel4smom.com/”><img alt=”Shibley Smiles” src=”http://69.195.124.116/~jdanielf/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/ReadExploreLearn.jpg” alt=”jdaniel4smom” width=”150″ height=”150″ /></a></center>

Please try to visit at least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment and Stumble your post.

If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

Two ducks find love while working on a farm. This cute book could be read or sung to read to someone that you love.

What did we do with the book?

I found these great little ducks at our local grocery store half off after Valentine’s Day. We had the best time playing with them. Cooking

JDaniel made Duck Soup

Sorting

He sorted ducks not by color, but by family role. The white ducks were children, the red ducks were dads, and moms were the pink ducks.

Letter Configuration

I printed out some letters and he placed the ducks on them. It was a great time to review letters.

Housing for Ducks

JDaniel took the ducks in and out of this plastic igloo-like house.

This post is linked to Feed Me Friday.

Sunday Sleeping Lead to Silently Listening to My Husband and Son

February 16, 2011 By Deirdre

On Sunday afternoon I decided to take a nap when JDaniel did. My sinuses were driving me crazy and I has sneezed or coughed during most of church that morning.

I must have been in a hard sleep. I totally missed JDaniel’s screams for mama that fill the house when he wakes up from his nap. (He hasn’t figured out that he can get out of bed yet. He just sits there and screams for me until I come.) What did cause me to wake up was the pounding of feet down the steps and sounds of his voice coming from the kitchen.

I glanced up and noticed that my husband had closed the bedroom door so I could sleep without interruption . No one outside the door would know that I was awake. If I lay quietly without making a sound, I would be able to have a few more moments of quiet time to myself.

Then I felt my first bodily betrayal. I sneezed. I tried to quiet the sneeze by sneezing into my pillow. Yes, that was gross idea. I silently slid over to my husband’s pillow and listened for the sound of little feet to come to the bedroom door. There was silence.

It is strange to lay there in quiet of the bedroom and hear all the noises of a toddler as he moves around the house. After JDaniel inhaled a snack, I heard a loud crash in the living room. Oh! The trains were now dumped out all over the floor. I knew that wood on wood sound when I heard it.

Then there was a patter of feet to the bedroom door. He must have listened at the door and not heard anything because there was another patter of feet away from the door a few second later.

A second crash came from the living room. This time there were squeaks and groans along with the bang. The toy basket must have been dumped out too. Stuffer animals with squeakers, toy instruments and other assorted toys were now spilled out next to the trains. The idea of this growing mess was hard to fathom. I was sure my husband had come downstairs with him. Where had he gone? There weren’t any exchanges of conversation about needing to clean up before mom saw this mess or inquires as to what was going on. Just silence and then loud crashes filled the air.

I didn’t hear my husband’s voice until the phone rang. I heard a shuffling of penny loafers to the phone and a conversation with his friend Jeff begin. I was glad to know he was still downstairs.

It was at that moment my body decided to betray me a second time. It told me in very certain terms that I needed to get up and use the restroom or I was going to need to change the sheets soon.

I quietly tiptoed to the bathroom and used the toilet. Then I tried to flush quietly, but you really can’t flush quietly.

As I left the bathroom, the knob on the bedroom door started to jiggle and shake. A voice from the other side of the door demanded that I help open the bedroom door. “I need you!” the voice exclaimed.

I did what every mom would do. I opened the door and let my son rush in.

It was so worth it to have him rush into my arms and say, “I missed you.”

I asked if dad had done a good job getting him up and giving him snack. “He was great!” he said. I was please to hear that. “But I really missed you!” he continued.

It is great my husband took care of getting JDaniel up from his nap. It was great to get some quiet time to just lie in bed. More than anything it was great to be missed.

This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday and The Writer’s Workshop.

Muffin Tin Monday- Valentine’s Day

February 14, 2011 By Deirdre

We have been sick at our house for about a week with head and chest colds. I first noticed JDaniel coughing a week ago Saturday. We kept him home from church on Sunday and playgroup on Monday. I knew he was really sick on Monday at lunchtime when he ate two pancakes and a marshmallow for this lunch and announced he was done.

He was so excited about making the meal. The tin was based on a book about a special grandfather and grandson and the fun they have together called Lucky Pennies and Hot Chocolate by Carol Diggory Shields.

The grandfather in this book looks a lot like JDaniel’s GranDan. GranDan, my husband’s father, died last February. The grandfather in this book does so many of the things GranDan would have loved to do with JDaniel. They tell knock-knock jokes, visit construction sites, play with trains, wash dishes (The men in my family love to wash dishes.) and so much more.

One of the things more is making pancakes with raisins, bananas, and marshmallows. I decided we would try them out and see how they tasted. The marshmallows got all gooey and icky. JDaniel wasn’t interested in tasting that pancake.

I made pancakes without marshmallows and place them in the muffin tin with syrup, marshmallows not in pancakes, scrambled eggs, and berry applesauce. As I mentioned above he ate the pancakes without marshmallows and a marshmallow.

After taking a three-hour nap, JDaniel asked if he could have the scrambled eggs for a snack. I decided to give him something light instead. He got scrambled eggs for lunch later in the week.

Are you having a special Valentine’s Day meal today?

A Heart Shaped Shadow with a Promise- Valentine’s Day Gift

February 12, 2011 By Deirdre

I found this wonderful idea in part of my Sunday paper. It suggested taking a picture of a special ring in between pages of a special passage in the book to create a heart-shaped shadow. I thought this would be a wonderful gift for my husband

I tried my wedding band first, but I couldn’t get it to balance. After many attempts, I switched to my engagement ring. It would balance but, only with the diamond side down.

The verse I selected as my special passage comes from the book of Ruth chapter 1 verses 16-17a. This is one of the bible passages that were read on my wedding day. I love it for so many reasons. The biggest reason is that Ruth chooses to follow her mother-in-law back to her native land rather than stay in the place she was born and raised in. She left behind all she knew to follow someone she loved.

Here is the verse:

¹⁶ But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.

¹⁷ Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried.

When I got married, I left Virginia and move to South Carolina where my husband lived. It meant living behind all that I had ever known. I left behind my job of nineteen years, my friends, my house, my church, my bible study, and prayer group. It seemed like I was leaving behind everything I knew and loved to follow the man of love.

He is very much worth it!

What verse would you select for this project?

Read.Explore.Learn- The Kiss That Missed

February 11, 2011 By Deirdre

Steps:

Link your activity below.

Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. the badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.

Please try to visit at least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment and Stumble your post.

If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

A very busy king/father tosses a quick kiss good night to his son as he heads to the bath to clean off the grime of the day. The kiss he throws misses his son and heads out across the kingdom. A brave knight is sent to retrieve the kiss and bring it back to the palace. The kiss flies around the kingdom settling bear, wolves, and dragons down for the night as it travels. When it is finally caught and brought home, the king reads all who were touched by the kiss a good night story.

What did we do with the book?
Created Cards to Send to Exchange Partners

We are participating in the Fantastic Five’s Valentine’s Day Card Exchange. I had JDaniel decorate puzzle cards I found at Hobby Lobby. Yes, I took the easy way out having him put these together. I thought the children receiving them would like them better than one covered with our artwork.

Letter Recognition

I attached a magnet to the end of an old fishing pole my sister Michelle gave to JDaniel. He had fun fishing for the letters of the alphabet on hearts with paperclips attached to them.

I Crumbled While Making Cookies

February 10, 2011 By Deirdre

Last Monday I invited my friend Bridget and her daughter over for a play date and to decorate Valentine’s Day cookies. Before they arrived I decided to make the cookies and have them ready to decorate. JDaniel was watching The Cat in the Hat on television this meant I could make them without “help.”

As soon as I had the cookie ingredients mixed in the bowl, a patter of feet headed toward the kitchen. Before I could rush the dough out of the bowl and start rolling it out, I felt a plastic stepstool being knocked against my leg. “Move over Mom! I want to help you,” JDaniel announced. Apparently the Cat in the Hat had lost his attention.

I moved over and showed him what I was doing.

“I am trying to roll this dough out and cut it into hearts,” I explained.

“I need to taste!” he replied. I pinched off some of the dough and gave him a little bit.

“I will need more, please,” he told me. I gave him a little more and then started to roll the dough again.

Giving him little bits seemed like a good idea. It wasn’t a good idea. He kept trying to reach in the bowl and get more as I rolled out the dough and cut out the cookies.

I got more and more frustrated. He got more and more indignant about wanting the dough.

Thankfully my friend Bridget arrived on the scene with her daughter before the battle had really escalated.

When she saw the battle over the dough, she calmly picked up a spoon I had laying on the counter and filled it with dough.

“If you want this, you will need to go sit in your chair at the table,” she told JDaniel.

He walked right over to the table and climbed up in his chair. Once he had taken his seat, she handed JDaniel the spoon. He sat silently he licked the dough off the spoon while I finished getting the next batch of cookies in the oven.

“This happens at my house all the time,” Bridget said. “Really the best thing to do is give him his own ball of dough and let him play with it at the table.”

Why didn’t I think of that?

Why did I turn it into a battle?

Thankfully Bridget bakes often and she has gained experience on how to entertain her daughter while she cooks.

I don’t bake often, but I still should have known better.

I wish I hadn’t made a rookie baking mistake in front of her, but know what I will do next time I bake.

We did have fun decorating the cookies though.

Before I share my Muffin Tin Monday Meal, I want to let you know I have a guest review up at The Book Chook today. I reviewed the book the Alaska’s Three Pigs. If you get a chance, please stop by and check it out.

To celebrate the second day of the Virtual Valentine’s Day Party I am sharing a muffin tin of yummy lunch treats. We both enjoyed the foods in this tin.

This week JDaniel had a heart-shaped empanada ( I will share the recipe for them tomorrow.), homemade tomato soup, grape tomatoes, a heart-shaped crouton to dip in the soup, red grapes, and strawberry heart-shaped marshmallows.

Here is the recipe for the tomato soup:

Tomato Soup

3 large cans of stewed tomatoes

3 large garlic cloves

2 cups of chopped onion

1/4 cup of minced basil

1 can of chicken broth

1/2 cup of half and half cream

Salt and pepper to taste

2 slices of whole-grain bread

Directions:

In a large saucepan, sauté onion, garlic, and olive oil. Add tomatoes and basil; cook for 5 minutes.
Add broth; bring to a boil.
Puree in a blender until large chunks are removed and return the mixture to the saucepan.
Warm half and a half in a small saucepan over medium heat.
Stir half and half, salt and pepper into the soup.
Enjoy with croutons cut out of bread with a cookie cutter and sautéed in a pan with olive oil.

This post is linked to the Muffin Tin Mom’s Muffin Tin Monday meme.

What is your favorite Valentine’s Day treat?

Do you have a post on Valentine’s Day treat you would like to link up to the Virtual Valentine’s Day Party?