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1. Road #9293 diesel locomotive from the Norfolk Southern power fleet, model #GE Dash 9-40CW (D9-40CW), built in April '99, spotted at 8:27 am on Thursday 10-9-08.For the past couple weeks I've wanted to take Biscuit to a railroad crossing when a train was actually passing by so he could see life-size locomotives in action. The problem was, we don't have a station in town, just a crossing for mostly freight trains, so finding a schedule of when to expect to see anything was next to impossible. Instead, we spent some time just listening for the "choo-choos!" Anytime we heard one go by, we'd make a note of the time and day. So today we decided to check our improvised timetable for accuracy by driving to the crossing and waiting for 8:26 am, when we'd heard a train pass exactly one week before. Immediately we encountered an "uh-oh" when we heard a train going by just as we got in the car to leave, about 8:14 a.m.!! Hmmm...maybe it was early?? We were afraid we'd missed our chance for the day but we decided to go anyway just to be sure. Well, 8:26 rolled around, but the train didn't, so we were afraid our suspicions were correct and we'd have to try to catch a train another day. But then, about 8:27, DING DING DING! The lights started flashing, the crossing guards came down and whoo-whoo came the train barreling past, just a minute after we expected it! WOO-HOO!! Biscuit was very entertained to watch, but we were glad we were there in time to see it because it was a VERY short train, only taking about 10 seconds to pass...Which leads me to an explanation of our game...maybe you've heard of the 43 Things website where you create a list of 43 things you want to accomplish in your lifetime? Well, we're going to create a list of 43 things too, but with a twist - we'll make a scavenger hunt game of it: our goal is to see if we can spot 43 different locomotives before Biscuit is 43 months old. Anytime we can document a new sighting, I'll add the photo and info above in this p ...

Arrgghhh, Shiver me timbers, and Blow me down. (Pictures at the end of the article) This was just some of the pirate talk I heard on Saturday at my son’s 4th birthday party. You see he loves pirates and so we decided to throw him a pirate birthday party. I started planning for it at the

Little Biscuit loves any excuse to go for a walk outside, so today he got to put on his backpack and walk with Mommy down the street to pick up some colorful autumn leaves. It was just step 1 of our outdoor/indoor toddler boredom buster activity today...Then, when we had gathered enough leaves, we came home and unloaded our finds. Since Biscuit loves stickers, leaves and also any excuse to stand at the windows and doors (more specifically, to pound on them!), we made glass clings from the leaves by wrapping them in squares of plastic wrap. Once assembled, I showed Biscuit how to "stick" them all over our glass door (I put up the high ones and let him go at the bottom of the door).He had fun, (equal parts sticking them on and pulling them back off!) but when he was done I had a lovely seasonal masterpiece on my door to show for all his hard work...and one that wouldn't leave hard-to-remove gooey marks like stickers either :D (He's pretty satisfied too, as you can see!)Thanks for subscribing to pudgypencils.blogspot.com!

Biscuit, to put it mildly, loves trains...as I mentioned in the previous post, he is bonkers about train tables, as you can see from these pics...So this weekend we went to a museum full of not only train tables, but REAL trains, and one you could ride as well. Old cars, boats and airplanes were on display too. We found coupons of course so it wasn't expensive at all, so although I don't usually post our adventures unless they're free or nearly free, I thought one one was too good not to share, if you don't know this museum exists...(you can climb inside and ring this bell on the train!)(or walk through a giant tanker, or sit on the side!)(or ride on a scale-model train over a real retired turntable and wave as you leave the station!)All Biscuit can think is...wow!! ;) Naturally he cried his eyes out when we had to get off!! We'll definitely have to go back sometime!Thanks for subscribing to pudgypencils.blogspot.com!

Well, Little Biscuit has been dealing with some big pain at night the past few weeks from his molars and canines coming in - sometimes waking up every hour or two, so we are all pretty sleep-deprived. One thing that really distracts him in the daytime though and keeps him pretty happy for long stretches is table play. He is crazy about the free train tables set up at Barnes and Noble, Toys R Us and Lagoona Magoo. Since they're pretty pricey to buy ourselves, we improvised with some scrap wood slats I found at Home Depot for 1.27 apiece (I bought five and covered them with packing tape to avoid splinters and rough edges). Here's a look at just the tip of the iceburg of all the fun things we've been able to do with them so far...Ramps...beep! beep!(We used a basket and some of Biscuit's little bowls to make a ramp system. We also set a few ramps up against the couch, three in a row, and made a tunnel for his cars to drive through - he LOVED that, since he's a tunnel junkie!)Racetracks...vroom! vroom!Railroads...choo-choo! (We're still trying to decide if we want to draw on railroad tracks on one side with markers, and street stripes on the other side...)Thanks for subscribing to pudgypencils.blogspot.com!

Today Biscuit and I found a "hidden" park we didn't know existed - we both had a great time playing on the fun, new equipment, but after Biscuit played peek-a-boo on a swinging bridge with a new buddy he met there, we had to go home and play "peek-a-boo-boo." He'd managed to trip and fall and earned his "big boy badge" while he was at it -- he'd skinned his soft, smooth little baby knees for the first time!I know today's incident is only the beginning of many more scrapes, splinters and sappy sagas yet to come, so I wanted his 1st "first aid" experience to be as positive as possible. Here's how it went down...First, Biscuit got to play with the Boo-Boo Box full of gauze, sterile strips and other surprises...Then he doctored up the Boo-boo Bear - we put some antibiotic ointment and a Band-Aid "sticker" on his fuzzy blue knee to see what it'd be like.Biscuit's turn! Let's wash that dirty knee, then put on some cream, and add the Band-Aid...Where's the boo-boo?? PEEK-a-boo-boo!! ("Who needs a Band-Aid, Mom? I'm a big boy!")"Ha, ha, nice try, Mom, but I'm gonna peek-a-boo-boo this one too when you're not looking!""So, hey, Mom...this was swell fun and all, but can we go back to the park now!?"Thanks for subscribing to pudgypencils.blogspot.com!

Not to long ago we had a brand new addition to our family. About two years ago I developed an allergic reaction to pet dander, and certain types of pet hair. At the time I had a beautiful and wonderful dog named Marley. Marley was a mix between a ridgeback and a rottweiler. She was the