Today I’ve got another brand-new papa as challenger (look for another one of those next week!).  He first caught my eye in the Lord of the Rings movies, and somehow, even though he’s handsome, he’s never looked as good to me since.  But I’m sure that’s just my own special brand of quirk.

Let’s see what you think.

VERSUS

Is it just me or did this weekend completely zip by? As my daughter is getting older and thus napping less, it seems my spare time has pretty much shrunk to nothing.

Last week I wanted to know how you shop, and 60% of you like to see the things you buy in person. I can totally relate to that, although I will admit that it seems stores are carrying less and less inventory and I am pretty much being forced to shop online for many things. Even though I would buy them in person if I could. Just the other day I was at Nordstrom’s, looking for Philosophy’s Save Me, and they didn’t have it. They had everything else but that. Of course, because that is what I wanted and that is the story of my life.

A couple of weeks ago I had a cupcake from this place, and I was completely underwhelmed. Which got me to thinking…

It was all very simple, really:

Lose:

Stolen from marriedtothesea.com.

What if the Buddha were just some guy in his mom’s basement (LettersHomeToYou)

Food porn: getting back to your roots (Fracas)

Contest: Punkins in the Pumpkin Patch (CelebrityBabyScoop)

Ear this! (LAStylistMom)

It’s never too early for Christmas! (MagnetoBoldToo)

Cringe: teenage livejournal entries of the rich and famous (Dooce)

Jenny McCarthy claims to work miracles (Babyrazzi)

The death of recess (Dadsmacker)

Cake! (VitaFapis via 69015)

Yes, we’re a whole year old! Walking on our own, fully toilet-trained and we even have a substantial vocabulary. Who’d have predicted it?

Following Glinda’s lead, here’s my list of the best posts of the past year:

The Frugal Indulgent Manifesto

Garage Sales of the Elder Gods

Love’s Labour a Liability

The Very Bearable Uncle Karl

The Un-Dark Knight

Day of the Ninja Approacheth, Stealthily

Baby Baldie? Try a Baby Toupee!

Halloween Costumes of the Great Old Ones

Xtreem Kid’s Parties: Xtreemly Cheap!

and, of course

everything Elmo! HE MUST BE STOPPED!

We here at Teeny Manolo are just a wee bit excited to announce that we have been nominated by the superfantastic reader Galadrium for the Blogger’s Choice Awards in the Best Parenting Blog Category!  Thank you Galadrium, we are indeed honored and humbled.

Now, dear readers, would you be so kind as to join forces with the good Galadrium?  You will have to register on the site, which can take an extra minute or two. But in doing so, know you will be suffused with that special glow that comes from a deed of kindness.  People will stop you on the street and say, “My, you look even more fabulous today than usual!” and you will reply, “That’s because I voted for Teeny Manolo!”

Simply go to the Blogger’s Choice Awards site, register, and search for us under our URL, which is teenymanolo.com.

That’s it!

Go now! Because at the moment, we have only one vote, and we’d really, really like to break into the double digits!

And you’d like to bring about World Peace, wouldn’t you? 

moar funny pictures

Having the sort of vitality and creativity that comes with almost three weeks of forced captivity with a sick family, I began to think of all sorts of ways in which I could improve upon my content here at Teeny Manolo.  I know, I know, it’s so hard to improve upon perfection, but still, I want to try.

As all these ideas were whirling around in my head, I began to think that perhaps I should solicit the help of the people who are actually the ones being subjected treated to what I put up here.   Perhaps the ideas that I think are so great only sound great to me because I haven’t seen the outside world in over a week.  So without further ado, I humbly ask our smart, witty, and super fantastic readers:

more at twiigs.com…

Raincoaster and I wish our wonderful readers a year filled with much happiness, luck, love, and good health!