a little thomas vocab update

I'm finding the toddler stage with Thomas to be both incredibly challenging and insanely adorable all wrapped into one sweet, limit-testing, endlessly active, into-everything package.  Sometimes my limits are tested to a near breaking point, and 5 seconds later I'm convinced God has never created a more adorable child.  But all the while I'm in awe of him - I can't seem to help it.

Lately Thomas' vocabulary has been exploding - seems that there's at least one new word or sound he's able to say with each passing day.  Here's a running list:

• Truck (if you've spent more than 2 minutes with Thomas in the last month, I'm fairly confident you've been told this word two dozen times at minimum).
• Jesus
• Priest
• Cracker
• Door
• Tree
• Kiss 
• Daddy (ahem...)
• Cheese
• Keys
• Please
• Thank you
• Fish
• Doggie
• Juice (he's never actually had juice yet, but it's what we call Pedialyte thanks to several recent stomach viruses he's had)
• Ball
• Animal sounds - moo, hiss, bzzzz, roar, and, if we're lucky, buzzing his lips with his arm in the air for an elephant

Sorry that I don't have some recent photos to include in this post - we've been so busy lately, and I haven't taken time with the camera.  I'll get a picture post up here soon!

sippy cup rage

Alright.  That's it.  I've had it!  All of our sippy cups leak like crazy...and of course, they all advertise "Leak proof!" or "No more spills!"  Lies, all lies!

We have sippy cups made by Avent, Nuby, and Munchkin, and I can't rely on a single one of them to not get milk/water all over our carpets and everywhere else.

HELP!  I'd really prefer not to by Dr. Brown at $10 a pop, but I'm getting desperate here.  Suggestions?

Healthy Toddler Snacks

I was talking with a few mom friends yesterday about the difficulty in finding healthy snacks that toddlers like.  It seems that so much of it is "cracker-based," which, in my opinion, is fine but just gets boring after a while.  Thomas usually gets either Cheerios, graham cracker, rice Chex, or Goldfish. (Note:  in reality, he gets the knock-off brand of each of the aforementioned name brands).  I decided to take matters into my own hands today and did some snack searching.  Throughout this afternoon and evening, I'm hoping to make the following snacks:

homemade sweet potato chips (my own concoction...let me know if you want my very informal recipe)
yogurt-based cookies (no egg!)
raisin granola bars (nut-free)...(from the More with Less cookbook)

I'm still on the look-out for more toddler-friendly snacks...any suggestions?