Great new things

Vanilla or banana johurgt and dairy in general
the weather
snails
the pool
transportation
the library
stay at home parenting
Well I've already posted on FB about the yummie vannila yogurt, we tried banana yesterday. Can you believe that it was made with real banana! So it does turn more brown after is is opened, but oh my god, it was sooo tasty, none of that fake flavor or jelly in the bottom of the yogurt, just some chopped up or mushed fruit. You can choose from 0.1-40% fat, seriously, and they all taste great. I don't know what I'm gonna do when I come home. Cultural Revolution yogurt was my favorite, but hands donw, nothing compares to what we're eating :) I bought some 'mystery' milk yesterday. It seems to say most of the same things as the bottle I regularly buy, but it is in a brown jar. I wonder what it'll be like! I love the surprise.
The weather has been rainy, but much nicer than anything I've been hearing about in the states, with storms and blackouts and over 100 for forever. Which brings me to my next subject, snails and slugs. Because of all the rain we've had lots of snails and slugs out. Tara looks at them, sort of backs away and says bye-bye. I'm trying to get her to see how cute they are and how amazing their abilities are, but she is less than impressed so far. Some of the snails we see are the eating kind, I don't think I'll look up a recipe, but they are rather beutiful. Tara kicked a ball this morning over a slug in the path and we watched for 5 min's before it expanded and started crawling away. I was trying to show her that even if you hold your hand near them they will retract their antenna, but she was not that interested. I'll keep trying. Right now I'd say she is a budding ornathologist: "bird (pointing), bird, caw, caw, bird, daddy, daddy, bird,up" That is the gist at any rate.
We spent our pre-nap outing at the library today, so tomorrow we will be at the pool again. With it's kiddy water slide and snake fountain and something like 85F temp. we'll be having a ball. In the regular pool they have a lagoon area with a current. I've been swimming on my back and having Tara hold around my neck and we go around in circles in this great current, it is strong enough that you cannot stand still in it. I think Tara is a bit warry, but I try to be full of smiles and laughter. She's only gotten water up her nose once :)

Now to change subjects completely. I knew that our parenting style was working with Tara and that we were happy with it. But now I've found that it has created at least one resonably responsible adult. I was talking to an undergrad in the kitchen this afternoon and she started talking about how she liked how I interacted with Tara b/c it reminded her of her upbringing. We talked about offering two positive choices, both of which get you to where the parent needs to get. About timeouts and just ignoring and not talking about it after (with the thought that your child is in fact smarter than a dog. If you punish your dog and don't have to explain why, your kid will also know why they are being punished). The undergrad did have a wonderful suggestion. She said that whenever she or her sister were going to get into something that their mother did not want them in, or was dangerous, the mom would say "gee, I sure could use a hug right now" and the little girls would run over, full of laughter. It might be a few more months before I can use this one, but what a great idea!
Tara has progressed on the 'instant gratification' area. We were in the Goethe Gallery mall, where I do most of my grocery shopping, where they have the cars and two horse carosell things that you can put money in and they blink and spin and whatever. Well Tara loves the fuerevahrauto (firetruck), so I pointed it out and told her that if she could refrain from screaming in the grocery store, then we'd be able to play with the car. I had to reminder her twice, once after 20 mins and then I reminded her that I knew waiting in line was the hardest part, but that if she would sit in the cart and be quiet, we'd be able to go to the car. She sat in her cart and talked about car/truck/bus's for the five min's of checking out and then we got to go to the cars. Hopefully this was not a fluke and that it is repeatable, we'll be testing the theory on Monday :)
Breasfeeding: it being breasfeeding awareness month, atleast according to FB, I was about to write the mommy mafia about my issues and now Tara seems to be tailing off. As most of you know, we were down to twice a day, morning and bedtime, before we left. I thought she might have become addicted, b/c after two weeks here she was up to four and five times a day! And ALWAYS talking about nursing or reaching down my shirt (especially on the bus). So now that Nate has been gone more than a week I think she has settled into a routine and relaxed a bit. Her world is 'normal'. She has gone back to morning (although it is up to an hour! sometimes) after nap and bedtime. She still asks, but is not adamant when I say "we can do that after nap". So hopefully we have a quick ajustment to Nates reappearance in a few days, and her world stays 'safe'. We are moving when Nate returns, so we'll see how she does with that. My boobs need a rest.
I'm nearly done with 'Cast of Shadows' and next I'll be starting 'While I Was Gone' by Sue Miller. I'm really happy to be reading again. It is nice to have some time!
I hope you enjoy my trains of thought :) Love to all!