Twitter Etiquette PSA

No one likes spoilers, especially ones pertaining to show finales or major plot twists in a movie.

Now I understand it's fun to "live tweet" while watching your favorite show and sharing your thoughts on events as they happen, but do you think it's really appropriate to tweet to all ~475 who just died on the show as it's airing in the east coast and central time zones?

This happened last night as the True Blood season finale was airing during the same time as Sunday Night Football. Because the TV that's hooked up to the box that gives us access to HBO is also our HDTV and that particular cable box is also the HD box obviously football took precedence (not to mention I wouldn't want to miss the game - watching sports after you already know who won isn't fun and kinda pointless). Another Twitter friend was also in the same boat as me, although she was recording True Blood during the game to watch afterwards.

I suppose I could have ignored Twitter, however there were several of us Cowboys fan and Jets fans tweeting back and forth with each other during the game, getting a little competition going on.

Yes, spoilers happen,  but I'm pretty sure it's a common courtesy that if you're on the east coast, don't give out spoilers until after the west coast has had a chance to watch it, otherwise, in my opinion, that's just rude - sure, I had the opportunity to watch it as it 1st aired, however people on the west coast don't so when you (on the east coast or in the central timezone) tweet major spoilers (such as who all died and made cameos in the episode) it totally ruins the show/finale/episode for those on the west coast.

I wouldn't be as annoyed if it was hours after the premiere or even the next day as by then most people have had an opportunity (whether they took it or not) to see it, but tweeting spoilers during the 1st broadcast... that's just rude and you deserve the unfollows that you received (especially since you continued after it was pointed out you were giving spoilers away to everyone unable to watch that particular broadcast!).

Same goes for movies and books - please don't blurt out who dies or what the major plot twist is in a book or movie where someone who hasn't seen/read it and maybe wants to can hear you. It totally ruins the excitement of what you were looking forward to.

If you must live tweet during a show you can do so without giving away spoilers, like "Omg! I can't believe that just happened to so and so!!!" leaving out what exactly it was that happened. When I watched the Game of Thrones season finale I did make a "Zomg! Dragons!!" tweet but unless you read the books, you wouldn't really know what exactly I was referring to or why I said dragons or where the dragons came from, etc. Be vague if you need to share, but don't spoil.

Thank God for Sprout!

I am sooooo glad we get the 24hour PBS Kids channel known as Sprout - Jay LOVES it!

I know and have read about some parents who don't let their babies watch any TV, however I need something on in the background for noise as I can't stand silence and we noticed that Jay was sometimes watching the TV when it was on so we figure that if it's going to be on, might as well put something somewhat educational on so if he does watch it maybe he'll absorb some of it and we won't have to worry about it being anything inappropriate.

Anyways, he started watching Sesame Street around 3 months old after he 1st saw Elmo in Barnes and Noble and was instantly drawn to the stuffed animal. He doesn't always watch all of Sesame Street but he does seem to pay attention more when Elmo's on.

I looked up what shows Nick Jr, Disney and Cartoon Network plays and really weren't impressed (there's not really much anymore on those channels for really little kids) and so I opted to let him watch PBS instead - you can't go wrong with Sesame Street and the rest of the shows on there seem to be pretty appropriate too (save for a few shows that seem to appeal to slightly older kids, such as Electric Company, Ruff Ruffman, Wild Kratts, WordGirl etc). WordWorld, while a cute show, is hit and miss with Jay - he'll watch it somedays and other days he just won't have any interest. Same with Super Why, Thomas, Caillou and Dinosaur Train. Sid the Science Kid and Martha Speaks both bore him right now. He does seem to like Clifford (which is usually on while he's drinking his 1st bottle of the day), Barney, Curious George and Arthur (which are usually on when I'm getting ready for work and he's stuck in his Pack n Play).

On the weekends it was a bit tougher though, as Sunday mornings PBS plays the more older kid shows and on Saturdays there just isn't much good on for kids nowadays (which is sad as I remember Saturday morning cartoons being AWESOME in the late 80s and early 90s... now ABC is the only channel with a 2hr block and the Magic School Bus is the only decent show in the line-up!). When Jay stayed with my parents for Thursday through Saturday trip hubby and I took up north for a wedding at the end of June and beginning of July my dad realized Sprout is on the basic digital starter line-up and I've been soooo glad for it!

It's nice to have something little-kid friendly on in the evenings, especially when he's eating his bedtime bottle and it's been great on the weekends too, as they show Sesame Street on there also.

Nina and Star
hosts of The Goodnight Show

The Goodnight Show with Nina and Star starts at 5pm and replays at 8pm and 11pm, so we usually catch the last hour and the first half hour around bedtime. It mixes the Sprout hosts teaching stuff with kids shows and other fun songs - we usually watch The Berenstein Bears, Driver Dan's Storytrain, the Rubba-Dubbers, the Nurdle Gurdle Aquafresh tooth-brushing song, a Jim Henson's Pajanimals song, Chica and the day's host from the morning's Sunny Side Up Show announcing the day's birthdays (he LOVES the Chica chicken puppet and watches her whenever she's on) and the commercials for the afternoon Sharing Show with the Patty the pig puppet (again, Jay LOVES the Patty puppet and watches her too whenever she's on).

Chica with the morning Sunny Side Up Show hosts Danesha, Sean, Kelly and Liz

On the weekends we usually catch the last hour or so of the Sunny Side Up Show with Chica and the 1 of the 4 daily hosts they rotate each week and sometimes Sesame Street at noon. In the afternoon we usually catch a little bit of the Sharing Show - he really likes this show called The Mighty Jungle which has... puppets! I swear, anything with puppets Jay will just sit and watch, lol... Bob the Builder is also on the Sharing Show and he seems to like that one too.

Patty from the Sharing Show and the main characters from The Mighty Jungle

She's ALWAYS crying about
something!!! WHY?!?!

The only show I really CANNOT stand is Angelina Ballerina. Now on Fridays, PBS plays a newer version of the show, but the version we often catch during the Goodnight Show is the older version and oh my gosh... I swear that mouse cries about something in EVERY episode - I have yet to see one where she doesn't cry about something. It gets really old and annoying. Fortunately Jay doesn't seem interested in her. I know a lot of parents complain about Caillou whining a lot, and while I notice he does whine from time to time, it's honestly not every episode like Angelina and her crying.

I also find the DirtGirlWorld show to be slightly creepy too, the way it merges actual people's faces and expressions with animation... soooooo creepy!

These guys creep me out with their big heads and realistic faces & expressions!

I know, I'm a horrible parent for letting my 7 month old watch TV... oh well, it works for us and honestly, while the TV may be on, he's usually playing with us or his toys half the time or eating or falling asleep so it's not like he's sitting glued to the TV like a zombie, it's just background noise and sometimes when something catches his attention (like whenever there's puppets on) he'll stop and watch for a few minutes.

Fun with Our Phones Monday #2

Linking up again this week to show off my photos =)

Yesterday, Jay's 7 month birthday, was a fun day for us. Daddy had a fantasy football draft with some of his co-workers from UPS so it was just me and Little Man for a good bit of the day. We went to PetCo which LOVED looking at all the animals they have there and then we went to Babies/Toys R Us as his baby monitor stopped working correctly Saturday night and I needed to get us a new one.

Anyways, onto the pictures!

Jay climbing under the coffee table, trying to get at the books (which are no longer there now because of this, lol...)

Riding like a big boy in the shopping cart at Target

I randomly decided to braid my hair in braided pigtails, lol...

 Playing with his blocks and Baby Einstein's turtle

I spelled his name with the blocks =)

 

He noticed I was taking pictures

 He found one of my braids and decided to be ornery, lol...

Trying out the shopping cart cover at Walmart, blinking due to the flash, lol... not sure why we bought the shopping cart cover - half the time we don't use it, we just wipe down the cart with a wipey real good first... this thing is a bit of a pain to put on, not sure how I'd juggle Jay and putting this thing on a cart by myself.

Hubby came home with some Wonka candy the other day - apparently they're now promoting the Willy Wonka book on their packaging now... kinda funny, but neat at the same time that they're plugging a book on a thing of candy!

Watching Sesame Street while mommy puts his shoes and stuff on

He fell asleep, in the shopping cart at Toys/Babies R Us, gripping onto the Winnie the Pooh figures he wanted, lol... prying the box out of his hands without waking him up to check-out was quite a challenge!

1st Carmel Apple Spice cider from Starbucks of the season! Hubby and I get a few of these every fall. This is the only thing I ever frequent Starbucks for, as the closest thing to coffee I'll drink is McDonald's Iced Mocha Frappes.

 We brought his walker downstairs while we watched our HBO shows tonight so he could move around and play with some toys (like his new Winnie the Pooh ones there). Between True Blood and Entourage we flipped it over to Sprout, which he's watching here.

7 months already!

By the time this is posted, Jay will officially be 7 months old!

Being a cutie with "uncle" Steven

7 months... wow! It's September already... where did summer go?!

Jay's been sitting up, playing with his toys pretty well these days and can stand by himself with minimal spotting. He also LOVES tearing into my (already read) magazines that live under our end tables. It's official - our front room, while I would have liked to have kept it as a nice living room, is actually just a nice family room since we spend a lot of time up here as it's carpeted for Jay to play on and his toys keep finding a way out of his room into here (he has almost no toys to play with in his room as they're all currently residing in the family room, lol...). He was moving along quite well in his walker tonight too, speeding back and forth across the kitchen. He gets mad I won't let him pull over the trash can though (it's got a pop-up lid so it has to stay out).

He LOVES shows with puppets in them too, I've noticed - for some reason they catch his attention and he'll just sit and watch them the whole time they're on the screen.

Crawling under the coffee table

He loves to jump too - lately he's been quite the jumping jack, if you stand him up (and hold onto him) on a flat/hard surface he'll often start jumping like crazy, lol...

He can't completely crawl properly yet, but he does this military-like crawl where he pushes and pulls himself all over the place. This afternoon I left him sitting with his toys in the family room while I went in the kitchen to get his dinner ready. As we're in the separation anxiety phase, he soon realized I left the family room and started crying, so I called to him from the kitchen so he would know I was just around the corner. I went to go get him to put him in his high chair and there he is, doing his form of crawling and halfway between where I left him and the kitchen, like he was coming to see where I went, lol...

Sitting in the shopping cart like a big boy!

He enjoys trying new foods/tastes too - he got some ice cream cake at my birthday and loved that, daddy let him lick a cool ranch Dorito and he liked that, he liked the candy daddy let him lick tonight... we gave him a little bit of plain steamed rice which he seemed curious about. He also eats the Gerber Graduates Puffs in Strawberry Apple for a snack sometimes too (my friend let us try the banana organic ones her little girl eats - he didn't seem to like the banana flavor too much though, despite him eating banana baby food). He loves Apple and Strawberry and Grape tasting things though!

He likes to make some pretty funny noises too - his latest enjoyment is rapidly smacking his lips and the noise that makes, daddy taught him that and he gets such a kick out of other people doing it after he starts doing it, lol...

He also likes "playing" with blocks - ie: you build them up, he knocks them and makes them go "boom!" He's also riding in shopping carts now like a big boy - he LOVES being able to sit and see everything at his eye-level rather than ride in his carrier on top of the cart (which by the way, he's almost too big for his carrier now too - he has less than 5lbs til he's over the weight limit!)

Playing blocks with mommy

He also seems to understand teeth brushing, as we added that to his bedtime routine recently - he knows when I put the toothbrush to his mouth to open up for me =)

And also, I noticed tonight, when his head was back while I was changing him that his top 2 front teeth are in! The right one is all the way through and about halfway fully in while the other you can just see the tip of the whiteness broken through! So 7 months old and 4 teeth already! I knew he was getting a few more in soon, as he was really tired earlier this week and the last day or so he hasn't been finishing his bottles completely either like normal.

A day in our regular routine goes like this:

• Jay wakes up between 930 and 1045am, I change his diaper and bring him over to our bed to snuggle with me for a bit, putting on PBS (Sesame Street is on from 10-11am so he usually watches that while I hold onto him and close my eyes for a bit longer, sometimes he falls back asleep too).
• By 1130 or so he's wide awake and hungry so we get up and I fix him a big bowl of Gerber's Rice Cereal with Apple (2 servings in his bowl) and the remaining amount of formula in his bottle (a full bottle is 8oz of water with 4 scoops of Enfamil Premium Powdered Formula and the cereal is mixed with about 1.5-2oz of that).
• He eats all his cereal and then we sit down on the couch and watch some Clifford the Big Red Dog while he eats his bottle. Sometimes he falls back asleep right after his bottle, other times he'll stay awake, playing with his toys til about 1/130pm before falling asleep for his 1st nap.
• On days I work I'll wake him up about 3/315pm so I can get ready for work and we can leave around 4pm when I drop him off at my mom's.
• He usually takes his afternoon bottle around 4/430pm.
• Usually he takes another nap in the early evening while the rest of the time he plays.
• Between 7 and 8pm he eats dinner - 1 jar of veggies, 1 jar of fruit, and a 6oz bottle.
• After his dinner he plays some more, sometimes he'll take a short nap, hubby and I usually eat around 9pm (hubby goes into his 3rd shift job around 10pm and if we eat too early he gets hungry again shortly after he gets to work - eating at 9 usually holds him over for the night).
• Jay takes his medicine between 9 and 10pm, as I don't like to give it to him too close to meals in case it upsets his stomach. 
• We play for a bit after daddy leaves and then a little before 11pm we start getting him ready for bed - change his diaper, let him pick out his jammies and put them on, turn on his scent melt plug-in and his nightlight, brush his teeth and we sit down and he eats his "bedtime bottle" (8oz) while watching The Goodnight Show on Sprout. If we're lucky he falls asleep before finishing his bottle or right after, otherwise, we try to keep him calmed down, reading to him if need be before putting him down if he's still awake past 1130pm.

Flashback Friday: My favorite music videos in the mid 80s-early 90s

In attempt to remove "unnecessary" photos from my Google+ account, a lot of my custom made icons, such as the Flashback Friday logo got deleted as well and sadly I haven't had much time to try and find the originals!

Jessi recently posted about the Beatles and it got me thinking and watching my favorite George Harrison video from his solo days. This then led to me finding a bunch of old music videos VH1 would play in the mid-late 80s and early 90s that I LOVED as a kid and would spend hours with the TV turned to VH1 in the background as I played with my toys hoping I would get to see my favorite music videos that day!

"I Got My Mind Set On You" by George Harrison


This one came out in 1987 and as a 3 year old, I LOVED it and with all the dancing furniture and animal heads/skins I'm sure it's pretty easy to say why. Even now, 24 years later, it still made me crack up!

"You Can Call Me Al" by Paul Simon


Chevy Chase and his antics in the video are pretty much why I loved it. I saw Christmas Vacation when I was like 5 and for the longest time I associated Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold.

"Cold Hearted Snake" by Paula Abdul


Watching this now, this video was quite racy for being the late-80s and I have no idea why my 5-year old self was allowed to watch it as it wreaks sexuality. I loved the song back though and gotta admit, it's still pretty catchy!

"Opposites Attract" by Paula Abdul


What kid didn't love this video - it had a talking, singing, dancing cartoon cat in it! 'Nuff said.

"I'm Your Baby Tonight" by Whitney Houston


Took me forever to find this one, as all I could remember from the video was a woman (who I coulda sworn was Tina Turner until I thought it could possibly be Whitney) in a leather jacket magically getting on a motorcycle near the end of it! Not sure why I liked this one but something about the motorcycle stood out to me!

"Live for Loving You" by Gloria Estefan


My mom listened to a lot of Gloria in the 80s and for some reason I LOVED this video and the animation in it (totally 80s, btw!). I remember getting furious at my 2nd cousin over this video when I was little too - we were visiting my grandparents and I learned their TV in the basement had cable and so, like usual, I was watching VH1, waiting for my favorite videos to come on. This one *finally* came on and I was rockin' out to it when my older teenage 2nd cousin came in and tried to take over the TV to watch a New Kids on the Block video she had bought. I was screaming and in tears when she took over the TV while my jam was on, despite her telling me that what she was putting on was better and I would like it (I didn't - as all it was was them trying to get on a tour bus while hundreds of girls were screaming and attacking the bus, which I thought was dumb, lol...)

"Just Leave Me Alone" by Michael Jackson


I know it was the stop-motion and claymation/animation in this video that made me love it, on top of the fact I decided when I was 4 I wanted to marry MJ after seeing the Captain EO movie at Disney World's Epcot Center.

"Thriller" by Michael Jackson


I was fascinated by this song and video so much that my parents confiscated my cassette of the album, I listened it to so much, lol...

"Black or White" by Michael Jackson


I remember when this one was premiered world-wide in the early 90s on Fox (I want to say it was after the Simpsons). MJ, Macaulay Culkin (whom everyone my age knew as Kevin from Home Alone) and people morphing into each other... LOVED IT!

(*note* I think mid-80s to early 90s Michael was the best!)

"Escapade" by Janet Jackson


During this period I used to confuse her with Paula Abdul soooo much, as they had a similar hairstyle and were both great performers!

"Always" by Bon Jovi


Another "racy" (for its time) video that my friend and I probably shouldn't dave watched when we were kids but we did, and we LOVED this song and video because of the story it told. It's fun watching it now, as I recognize Keri Russell, Carla Gugino (from Son-in-Law with Pauly Shore and Entourage), the blonde bully neighbor from The Brady Bunch Movie and the artist guy was Joe in NBC's short-lived series Persons Unknown.

"Wild Night" by John Mellencamp & Me'Shell Ndegeocello


A video that follows a night in the life of a female New York taxi driver who's rocking out to John Mellencamp and the chick with the last night we could never seem to pronounce as kids, lol...

"Jack and Diane" by John Cougar Mellencamp


So it came out before I was born but this song was big throughout the 80s and still played on the radio in the 90s. You know you loved clapping along with this one!

"Forever Young" by Rod Stewart


My favorite thing about this video was the whole father/son aspect - I thought it was soooo cute (and still do, despite the kid looking a bit scared of riding on his dad's lap of a the back of a truck the 1st half of the video! lol...)

"Don't Come Around Here No More" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers


The creepy, twist Alice in Wonderland aspect of the video was what always caught my attention, lol...

"Last Dance With Mary Jane" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers


Tom Petty made some pretty creepy videos in the 80s and 90s!

Jay welcomed September with a thud

Jay greeted the month of September with a THUD this morning as he fell off our bed and onto the floor =(

Jay playing with his blocks and Baby Einstein's turtle

Poor guy... that's the 3rd time he's gotten hurt this week, as he banged his head on the back of his changing table earlier this week while my mom was changing him (which is the 2nd time now that he's whacked his head while getting changed as he won't lay/sit still...). Then Wednesday night, while we were playing in his room with his blocks he was sitting up but fell over on me, his face smashing into my glasses and giving him a little scratch on the side of his face...

...and then this morning.

Every morning he wakes up between 930-1045am and usually lays in bed with me and we snuggle as he watches Sesame Street and mommy gets a little more shut-eye (he usually lays on my chest with my arms around him or next to me with my arm around him). This morning though, he was laying next to me and got away. I heard a loud thud, opened my eyes and as he started screaming it registered that he was no longer in the bed. I sprang up out of the bed and ran over to the other side and there he was, face down on our laminate floor, crying at the top of his lungs. I quickly picked him up, checking to make sure there wasn't any blood. His teeth were still intact, his nose didn't seem broken, I felt his ribs and they all seemed okay and once he calmed down (he was snuggled up on me bawling for a good minute or 2) I bent his legs, knees, arms, elbows and wrists to make sure they didn't hurt and weren't broken or sprained either.

I also called hubby to see if he thought I should take him to get checked out - just as he said the time Jay whacked his head on the shelf above his changing table, he reminded me that babies fall time to time and that as long as I checked him out and he seemed to be okay then not to worry about it, just keep an eye on him and see if he behaves like his normal self. I called my mom to see if she knew what signs I should keep an eye out for and Googled as well. No vomiting or seizures and I kept him up for a couple hours before letting him take his nap just in case he had a concussion or anything. He was a little clingy the rest of the day but other than that he seemed like his normal self, so that's good!

Fortunately our bed is only like 3 feet high, so it could have been worse. I think he was just more scared than anything as he's never fallen like that before. Well I guess you could say he learned why we don't let him get close to the edge and always pull him back when he crawls/rolls too close to it! Gotta say though, I was pretty scared at the time though and felt sooooo bad for it happening as it could have been prevented.