Some People SHOULD Not Be Allowed to Have Kids

This happened in the town where I went to college.

Published August 06 2009
Sentencing today in case of breastfeeding by intoxicated GF momThe sentencing of a Grand Forks mother who police say was “extremely intoxicated” while breastfeeding her 6-week-old is set for 11 a.m. today. Stacey Anvarinia, 26, pleaded guilty to child neglect, a Class C felony, in state District Court in June.

By: Archie Ingersoll, Grand Forks Herald

The sentencing of a Grand Forks mother who police say was “extremely intoxicated” while breastfeeding her 6-week-old is set for 11 a.m. today.
Stacey Anvarinia, 26, pleaded guilty to child neglect, a Class C felony, in state District Court in June.

Grand Forks police responded to a domestic disturbance at Anvarinia’s home in February. Officers reported that she was drunk and breastfeeding. The child was taken to Altru Hospital, and Anvarinia was arrested.

The unusual case has stirred debate and grabbed international attention.
Authorities have emphasized that breastfeeding while drunk was not the only reason for Anvarinia’s arrest, saying she was intoxicated to the point of not being able to care for her child.

Anvarinia, who is no longer in custody, faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $5,000 fine

Fun with Blue

I used blue painter's tape to make this outline.
We made 3 shades of blue by just adding a little more white to our paint.

D thought painting with all 3 brushes at once was a neat idea.

It seems that our colors always get mixed, however we usually end up with brown.

Sometimes, I only give him one color at a time and have it dry in between so we don't get brown.

The tape came off horribly. Not sure what went wrong and not sure what else to use. Any ideas?

After D glued on pictures from magazines that were all blue.

Our finished project. We are planning on making a green one next.

Picnic table talks

Todays Picnic Table Talk is all about books. What are your favorites? How do you incorporate books into art projects and who are your favorite authors?



If you walked into our house on any given day you will find books scattered around. Even when my children were in utero I was reading to them. I have always believed it is never to early to start instilling in them the importance of reading.


So, this is a very hard question for me. Let's see of course we love any thing Dr. Suess, Eric Carle(The Very Hungry Caterpillar), Leo Lionni (A Color of His Own), Jan Brett (The Mitten), Margret Wise Brown (Good Night Moon), Marcus Pfister (Rainbow Fish), Norman Bridwell (Clifford), Mercer Mayer (Little Critter). I could go on.

During the school year I watch 2 little boys (2 & 4) along with my own 3 yr. old, of course. I try to do a lot of preschool things and plan to incorporate even more this year. I have used Jo's site a lot at http://www.makinglearningfun.com/activ.html She has a ton of great ideas. And I really like http://www.carlscorner.us.com/ and http://www.childcareland.com/free.html

I am also on some Yahoo groups. These ladies share awesome stuff. They are truly wonderful. If you need something, someone is always there to help. The groups are mostly made up of teachers and daycare providers.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PreschoolLessonPlans/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/awesomekidsprintables/

I know this post is supposed to be about what activities we do with books but these are all the places I get my ideas on what to do. Check them out.

I plan to start Tot School this fall and will be posting our activities. Each week we will be covering a new book.

Rice Table

D so loves playing with our rice table.

Ours is just made from a really cheap tote from Walmart.

We colored some of the rice with liquid watercolor.

Cheap, Easy, Fun

Indoor Camping

D loves camping.

So, I wasn't surprised when he brought our parachute upstairs wanting to make a tent.

He got out the marshmallows and went outside and got some sticks.

I made a quick little fire and got some snacks.

N came in to join in our festivities.

D told Daddy that he had to have a marshmallow.

Cast On, Cast Off

This Morning. (bad pic. sorry)

Woot-Woot. N finally got his cast off. Poor guy had one full week of summer vacation in before he broke his arm. You can read about how he broke it here.

This evening

He said his skin is very sensitive and almost hurts when he touches it. And funny, the hairs on his arm grew like crazy. Actually, they really didn't grow any faster than normal, they just weren't exposed to any friction that would pull them out or wear them down.

"Fish Steak"

Doesn't that sound Yummy. I don't know if D was inspired by his older brother's soup creation last night or what, but he spent half of the day making "fish steak." I gave him a pot this morning and all day he added to it, stirred it and fed us. The actual "fish steak" was the dogs harness, not sure why, but it made sense to him.

He added peanuts, carrots from our garden, uncooked noodles, colored dice and fake apples. He even told us that the blue dice were blueberries, the red ones were "matoes," the green ones were broccoli, the yellowish ones were oranges and the clear ones he wasn't sure about. Daddy told him they looked like the inside of grapes and he agreed with that.

He dug out a spoon for stirring and a pie spatula that he said was his "scooper" and each of us got bowls and spoons. Then he decided to start calling Daddy "brother," N "sister," he was "Daddy" and I was just "Mommy." He kept this going all night. Funny Guy.

Just a few months ago I worried about him depending too much on us during playtime. Then his imagination just boomed. Lately our dogs have been dragons that need to be captured.