We had three leftover hamburger buns sitting in our bread box. I saw them when I was scrounging around for something to make for lunch and decided I should use them up. So I started spreading peanut butter and strawberry jam on the buns, but I was a bit worried my girls might balk at the buns and want “normal” bread.

Then I had a stroke of genius: I grabbed a banana and cut it up into french-fry pieces and got some strawberry yogurt out of the fridge for “ketchup.” I called the girls over and told them we were having silly hamburgers with french fries and ketchup for lunch. They looked around at the table a bit confused and then started laughing.

“These aren’t hamburgers,” Atty said.

“Sure they are. Just use your imagination,” I replied.

They quickly joined me as we dipped our silly french fries in the silly ketchup. We decided that the silly hamburgers actually tasted yummy dipped in the ketchup too. The girls giggled all through lunch and ate up every bite.

Has to be the best use for leftover hamburger buns ever!

Ever since I did my research for our Managing Memories story last year I’ve been dabbling with scrapbooking. I’m following Stacy Julian’s low-pressure approach, which basically means I scrapbook whatever pictures I want and don’t worry about the order they were taken. I find this strategy satisfying because sometimes I feel like making a page about something we did last week, but then other times I feel like reminiscing and making a page out of pictures from the past. It really doesn’t matter because scrapbooking isn’t about perfection, it’s about capturing memories so you can savor them with your family.

Since I’m just getting started and only have a handful of pages so far, my scrapbook is not yet in any kind of order. Interestingly my family doesn’t care — they enjoy looking at the book anyway.

Here’s one of my latest pages. These photos were taken two years ago. One ordinary morning the girls were playing, and I was working. I took a short break to check on them and found Atty playing with her pink kitchen and her underwear was on her head — a chef’s hat I presume? Then a very little Pip was playing INSIDE the toy cupboard. Strange? Yes. But if they’re happy; I’m happy.

If you’ve always wanted to scrapbook but don’t know where to start, I say start with your favorite picture right now. (1) Print off the photo. (2) Take it to your local craft store and pick out two pieces of paper, one patterned and one coordinating sold. (3) Find an embellishment (ribbon, sticker, chipboard shape, etc — there will be a whole aisle to choose from); get some acid-free adhesive; and a package of coordinating letter stickers (I love American Crafts Thickers). (4) Go home and put the page together and feel free to copy any layout you like. For ideas go here or use mine — I’ll be posting more of my pages from time to time.

When a kid wakes up crying late at night, you might think it is a bad dream. I know I did. Shortly after we potty trained my oldest daughter, she awoke upset, in tears and completely inconsolable. I picked her up and brought her into my bed. (Big mistake.) As I snuggled and tried to soothe her, suddenly she peed all over me and my bed!

Frustrated and shocked, I changed her into fresh pajamas, laid her back in her dry bed and then went to deal with my now soaked sheets. As my husband and I remade our bed, we wondered aloud if perhaps that was the source of the tears — she needed to go to the bathroom. We theorized that being new to potty training, in her sleepy state she must have had trouble connecting that uncomfortable, “I have to go” feeling to what it really meant (go to the bathroom), and instead got incredibly upset at this discomfort that interrupted her slumber.

So a few nights later when she again woke up in tears, we rushed her to the toilet. She went number one, and we laid her back in bed. End of story. No rocking or singing needed, and more importantly, no pee everywhere.

I figured this strange behavior was unique to my Attalie, but a few nights ago as I was relaxing on the couch with my Halloween edition of Martha Stewart Living, I heard some whimpering and Piper appeared in the hallway completely, upset and throwing herself about in a fit. The light bulb went on — she too is newly potty trained. I picked her up and rushed her to the bathroom, calmly trying to explain to her sleep-walking mind that she just needed to go potty. I sat her on the toilet and she instantly started going. Aha! I was right. As I was silently (an prematurely) congratulating myself, unfortunately her temper fit continued, and her flailing about caused urine to spray all over me and the bathroom. An improvement over my previous wet bed, but still incredibly unpleasant.

I showered off and cleaned the bathroom, and started wondering if this was normal behavior. I’d never heard of anything like this, but perhaps it is one of those odd things that all kids do and parents just don’t think to talk about. Or maybe my kids are just strange?

Regardless, I thought I’d mention it as a warning to other unsuspecting parents: if a potty-trained child wakes up crying, do NOT let them in your bed. Get them to a bathroom, quick!

Why do kids like to run around naked? Ever since we potty trained my two year old, we can’t seem to get her to keep her clothes on. I swear every time I turn around, the kid is streaking around the house in her birthday suit. What’s worse, both my girls have been obsessed with the Hannah Montana movie lately, and watch it at least once a day. So more than once, I have walked into the TV room to find my child, nude, standing on the table and singing the “Boom-Boom-Clap” song from the movie.

Table dancing at two. Do you think I should be worried?

My girls are obsessed, OBSESSED, with phones. They are particularly fond of my husband’s and my cell phones. This can be a bit problematic. (We don’t want them calling 911 or China, do we?) So of course, I have bought them toy cell phones, but do they play with them? No. They want the REAL deal.

Before Christmas last year, Fisher Price started selling again their old Chatter Phone — a toy I remember loving as a child. I was so excited when I saw it on the shelf at the store, that I got one to give to my little phone lovers. Interestingly, with its rotary dial, my daughters didn’t even recognize it as a phone. It’s funny how technology changes so rapidly, which is a blessing I guess because our outdated cell phones seem to be the best middle ground we have for the ongoing phone battle at our house.

Last week in a public restroom I was again reminded that my daughter is definitely a product of the 21st Century. My four year old had proudly used the toilet all by herself (Mommy had to stand outside of the stall and not interfere). She came out, dutifully washed her hands, and went over to the paper towel dispenser, which was an older model with a crank on the side. She held her hand beneath the dispenser and eventually started waving her hands side to side in frustration. Then it dawned on me that she thought it was one of those newer dispensers that feed the towel out automatically when their sensor is triggered. I couldn’t help laughing as I wound the paper towel roll for her. Boy does she have a different childhood than I did.

So remember how I mentioned that we were moving… oh, like 2 months ago? Well this week I finally started unpacking. Why such a long wait you ask; because, being the geniuses that we are, we decided to move our entire household and then take three successive trips out of town. Isn’t it lovely how things just work out so perfectly sometimes? (So hopefully that explains a little of why I’ve been AWOL with my posts.)

Naturally as we were packing for these trips we would need something that was somewhere in one these hundreds of boxes. So we have been randomly opening boxes and throwing things haphazardly around the house in such fashion as to create an incredibly huge mess.

Yesterday I decided to take back the house and restore order (or as much order as possible with two kids and a dog). I’d feel like I was making progress only to turn around and see my work undone by a toddler cyclone. For instance, we have this desk area in our kitchen that has become a dumping ground with layer upon layer of junk mixed with important papers, cell phones, chargers, ipods, tools, kid’s drawings, etc. It was driving me absolutely crazy. I spent three hours finding a place for everything, and I got all the kitchen counters completely cleared off. In the time it took me to say, “Hallelujah!” the pile had already started up again. I think I’m fighting a losing battle.

My two year old cut her own hair. A story often told, but gladly my older daughter never tried out this particular stunt. Looking back, I know exactly where I went wrong — just last week my four year old got her first haircut (yes, that is pretty old for a first haircut, but my kid’s hair is very thin and grows slowly). Piper witnessed this event, and today during nap time, she snuck off to get a trim of her own.

Why do kids have to be so darn observant?

Luckily her hair was in ponytails so when it is down, the part she cut is underneath and doesn’t show.