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Archives for January 2013

New Toddler Tricks: Mommy Gets Schooled (Almost 16 months old)

This is my first submission for Mommy Monday Link up on You Just Can’t Google Everything (http://can’t googleeverything.blogspot.com/2013/01/mommy-Monday-1.html)

Little Miss Toddles has learned some new tricks this week. Honestly, I feel like she learned them in a 48 hour period and the only thing that came to mind, as I was being schooled by my toddler on her new talents, laughter. Welcome to my inner dialogue:
First thought, sheer laughter.
Close second, what is happening?
Lastly, did you really think you’d mastered this stage?! Newb!

Let me preface by saying, the toddler stage is my favorite. It is truly fascinating to watch someone learn and watch her master new talents. She pretend plays with tea cups and spoons, or “drinks” from the baby doll bottle. She walks around with our cell phones in hand saying hello and babbling with it clenched between her squishy cheek and shoulder as if she’s been chit chatting in the phone for ages.

I love all this, I’ve come to truly appreciate my phone being stolen away occasionally for a pretend conversation or finding it in her discovery box in the kitchen. Said discovery box has random empty kitchen containers for her to play with and keep occupied with while I cook and it was the contents of this box that led me discover her new ability or discovery, I haven’t quite figured out how to label it just yet.

The scene: Mommy washing dishes while toddler plays quietly with discover box. (I added in the “quietly” as creative license, we all know toddlers don’t play quietly). Busy toddler all of a sudden whizzes by and into our bedroom and remains quite for entirely too many seconds. Again, toddlers don’t play quietly, they get into trouble quietly. I decide to investigate the reason for the silence.

The discovery: Discover box containers in toilet and a good portion of the toilet paper roll unraveled and being guided into the trash can. :: insert gasps and flashing visions of cartoon like germ characters crawling the walls of the bathroom and Little Miss Busy Bee::

Must disinfect bathroom, play toy and child…immediately

What actually occurred, a quick soapy rinse of the hands and face, container tossed out and calling the now excess toilet paper strand a loss.

Other new tricks: Throwing everything into the trash can including toys, clean diapers and actual garbage. Unrolling the toilet paper and throwing it into the toilet opposed to trash can is said item is confiscated. Depositing toys into decorative vases or narrow crevices.

Needless to say, the roaming-the-house- talking-on-cell-phone days may be numbered, it may mean we find one swimming in the toilet. Lesson of the weekend, don’t get too comfy Mama’s, it means something new is on the horizon.

New Toddler Tricks: Mommy Gets Schooled (Almost 16 months old)

This is my first submission for Mommy Monday Link up on You Just Can’t Google Everything (http://can’t googleeverything.blogspot.com/2013/01/mommy-Monday-1.html)

Little Miss Toddles has learned some new tricks this week. Honestly, I feel like she learned them in a 48 hour period and the only thing that came to mind, as I was being schooled by my toddler on her new talents, laughter. Welcome to my inner dialogue:
First thought, sheer laughter.
Close second, what is happening?
Lastly, did you really think you’d mastered this stage?! Newb!

Let me preface by saying, the toddler stage is my favorite. It is truly fascinating to watch someone learn and watch her master new talents. She pretend plays with tea cups and spoons, or “drinks” from the baby doll bottle. She walks around with our cell phones in hand saying hello and babbling with it clenched between her squishy cheek and shoulder as if she’s been chit chatting in the phone for ages.

I love all this, I’ve come to truly appreciate my phone being stolen away occasionally for a pretend conversation or finding it in her discovery box in the kitchen. Said discovery box has random empty kitchen containers for her to play with and keep occupied with while I cook and it was the contents of this box that led me discover her new ability or discovery, I haven’t quite figured out how to label it just yet.

The scene: Mommy washing dishes while toddler plays quietly with discover box. (I added in the “quietly” as creative license, we all know toddlers don’t play quietly). Busy toddler all of a sudden whizzes by and into our bedroom and remains quite for entirely too many seconds. Again, toddlers don’t play quietly, they get into trouble quietly. I decide to investigate the reason for the silence.

The discovery: Discover box containers in toilet and a good portion of the toilet paper roll unraveled and being guided into the trash can. :: insert gasps and flashing visions of cartoon like germ characters crawling the walls of the bathroom and Little Miss Busy Bee::

Must disinfect bathroom, play toy and child…immediately

What actually occurred, a quick soapy rinse of the hands and face, container tossed out and calling the now excess toilet paper strand a loss.

Other new tricks: Throwing everything into the trash can including toys, clean diapers and actual garbage. Unrolling the toilet paper and throwing it into the toilet opposed to trash can is said item is confiscated. Depositing toys into decorative vases or narrow crevices.

Needless to say, the roaming-the-house- talking-on-cell-phone days may be numbered, it may mean we find one swimming in the toilet. Lesson of the weekend, don’t get too comfy Mama’s, it means something new is on the horizon.

New Toddler Tricks: Mommy Gets Schooled (Almost 16 months old)

This is my first submission for Mommy Monday Link up on You Just Can’t Google Everything (http://can’t googleeverything.blogspot.com/2013/01/mommy-Monday-1.html)

Little Miss Toddles has learned some new tricks this week. Honestly, I feel like she learned them in a 48 hour period and the only thing that came to mind, as I was being schooled by my toddler on her new talents, laughter. Welcome to my inner dialogue:
First thought, sheer laughter.
Close second, what is happening?
Lastly, did you really think you’d mastered this stage?! Newb!

Let me preface by saying, the toddler stage is my favorite. It is truly fascinating to watch someone learn and watch her master new talents. She pretend plays with tea cups and spoons, or “drinks” from the baby doll bottle. She walks around with our cell phones in hand saying hello and babbling with it clenched between her squishy cheek and shoulder as if she’s been chit chatting in the phone for ages.

I love all this, I’ve come to truly appreciate my phone being stolen away occasionally for a pretend conversation or finding it in her discovery box in the kitchen. Said discovery box has random empty kitchen containers for her to play with and keep occupied with while I cook and it was the contents of this box that led me discover her new ability or discovery, I haven’t quite figured out how to label it just yet.

The scene: Mommy washing dishes while toddler plays quietly with discover box. (I added in the “quietly” as creative license, we all know toddlers don’t play quietly). Busy toddler all of a sudden whizzes by and into our bedroom and remains quite for entirely too many seconds. Again, toddlers don’t play quietly, they get into trouble quietly. I decide to investigate the reason for the silence.

The discovery: Discover box containers in toilet and a good portion of the toilet paper roll unraveled and being guided into the trash can. :: insert gasps and flashing visions of cartoon like germ characters crawling the walls of the bathroom and Little Miss Busy Bee::

Must disinfect bathroom, play toy and child…immediately

What actually occurred, a quick soapy rinse of the hands and face, container tossed out and calling the now excess toilet paper strand a loss.

Other new tricks: Throwing everything into the trash can including toys, clean diapers and actual garbage. Unrolling the toilet paper and throwing it into the toilet opposed to trash can is said item is confiscated. Depositing toys into decorative vases or narrow crevices.

Needless to say, the roaming-the-house- talking-on-cell-phone days may be numbered, it may mean we find one swimming in the toilet. Lesson of the weekend, don’t get too comfy Mama’s, it means something new is on the horizon.

Preemie Problems: Tiny Walker, Non-slip Grip Pj’s

Technically this isn’t just a preemie problem but it’s my preemies problem. My 16 month old is in full on toddler mode. Crawling is overrated and attire isn’t going to hold her back. I know, some of you might be thinking, we know toddlers crawl, so what’s the issue? Most kids who are wearing 3-6 month and 6-9 month clothes aren’t toddler age. So basically my petite preemie + footed Jammie’s + my gorgeous laminate floors =  not a good combo. She’s literally cruisin’ for a bruisin’.

The first thing I did, consult the Preemie Support crew to find out if I was just buying the wrong brands and had perhaps missed the memo about infant sized toddler clothing. Per usual, they had the answer. Puff paint! Wait, what? That’s correct, DIY non-slip grips for PJ’s and socks. So here is my easy to follow tutorial along with tips and tricks and variations.

Supplies:
Puff Paint
You little ones favorite but danger ridden socks or jammies


And…that’s all you need! Even if you aren’t the DIY type, this is pretty much as beginner friendly as it gets.

I chose white because I figured it would go with everything but you can choose any color you have or  coordinate with clothing colors.










Next, start applying your dots! Let it dry overnight and that’s about it.



Pretty simple right? Well if you want to step it up a notch, add designs like zig zags, hearts…get creative, anything goes.








My one recommendation of what NOT to do, don’t apply to much in any one place. All I could imagine was putting dots that are too thick and poor Sofia feeling like she had little pebbles on her feet. Keep your designs flat but with enough coverage to provide grip against your flooring.

My fail moment. I thought about placing a thick dot, giving the paint enough time to get tacky and then pressing each one flat to create a nice cushion dot. Good in theory but total fail. Essentially as the dots dry, they become paint bubbles that “explode” when pushed on. So my pretty little dots became mushed, messy blobs. All I can say is thank goodness she doesn’t stop walking around long enough for anyone to notice the bottom!

Exploding paint bubbles, not fun!

And the final product!

Preemie Problems: Tiny Walker, Non-slip Grip Pj’s

Technically this isn’t just a preemie problem but it’s my preemies problem. My 16 month old is in full on toddler mode. Crawling is overrated and attire isn’t going to hold her back. I know, some of you might be thinking, we know toddlers crawl, so what’s the issue? Most kids who are wearing 3-6 month and 6-9 month clothes aren’t toddler age. So basically my petite preemie + footed Jammie’s + my gorgeous laminate floors =  not a good combo. She’s literally cruisin’ for a bruisin’.

The first thing I did, consult the Preemie Support crew to find out if I was just buying the wrong brands and had perhaps missed the memo about infant sized toddler clothing. Per usual, they had the answer. Puff paint! Wait, what? That’s correct, DIY non-slip grips for PJ’s and socks. So here is my easy to follow tutorial along with tips and tricks and variations.

Supplies:
Puff Paint
You little ones favorite but danger ridden socks or jammies


And…that’s all you need! Even if you aren’t the DIY type, this is pretty much as beginner friendly as it gets.

I chose white because I figured it would go with everything but you can choose any color you have or  coordinate with clothing colors.










Next, start applying your dots! Let it dry overnight and that’s about it.



Pretty simple right? Well if you want to step it up a notch, add designs like zig zags, hearts…get creative, anything goes.








My one recommendation of what NOT to do, don’t apply to much in any one place. All I could imagine was putting dots that are too thick and poor Sofia feeling like she had little pebbles on her feet. Keep your designs flat but with enough coverage to provide grip against your flooring.

My fail moment. I thought about placing a thick dot, giving the paint enough time to get tacky and then pressing each one flat to create a nice cushion dot. Good in theory but total fail. Essentially as the dots dry, they become paint bubbles that “explode” when pushed on. So my pretty little dots became mushed, messy blobs. All I can say is thank goodness she doesn’t stop walking around long enough for anyone to notice the bottom!

Exploding paint bubbles, not fun!

And the final product!

Preemie Problems: Tiny Walker, Non-slip Grip Pj’s

Technically this isn’t just a preemie problem but it’s my preemies problem. My 16 month old is in full on toddler mode. Crawling is overrated and attire isn’t going to hold her back. I know, some of you might be thinking, we know toddlers crawl, so what’s the issue? Most kids who are wearing 3-6 month and 6-9 month clothes aren’t toddler age. So basically my petite preemie + footed Jammie’s + my gorgeous laminate floors =  not a good combo. She’s literally cruisin’ for a bruisin’.

The first thing I did, consult the Preemie Support crew to find out if I was just buying the wrong brands and had perhaps missed the memo about infant sized toddler clothing. Per usual, they had the answer. Puff paint! Wait, what? That’s correct, DIY non-slip grips for PJ’s and socks. So here is my easy to follow tutorial along with tips and tricks and variations.

Supplies:
Puff Paint
You little ones favorite but danger ridden socks or jammies


And…that’s all you need! Even if you aren’t the DIY type, this is pretty much as beginner friendly as it gets.

I chose white because I figured it would go with everything but you can choose any color you have or  coordinate with clothing colors.










Next, start applying your dots! Let it dry overnight and that’s about it.



Pretty simple right? Well if you want to step it up a notch, add designs like zig zags, hearts…get creative, anything goes.








My one recommendation of what NOT to do, don’t apply to much in any one place. All I could imagine was putting dots that are too thick and poor Sofia feeling like she had little pebbles on her feet. Keep your designs flat but with enough coverage to provide grip against your flooring.

My fail moment. I thought about placing a thick dot, giving the paint enough time to get tacky and then pressing each one flat to create a nice cushion dot. Good in theory but total fail. Essentially as the dots dry, they become paint bubbles that “explode” when pushed on. So my pretty little dots became mushed, messy blobs. All I can say is thank goodness she doesn’t stop walking around long enough for anyone to notice the bottom!

Exploding paint bubbles, not fun!

And the final product!

Meal Planning: The Intro!

I’ve explained in an earlier post that we are Simplifying Life in 2013 and part of that is making sure that we are budgeting and sticking with it. We pulled up Mint.com earlier in the month and realized that we had spent an astronomical and embarrassing amount of money on food and eating out. This had never been a huge issue before but with balancing work and parenthood we have sort of been running by the seat of our pants just trying to get through dinner and bedtime routine at night and trying to catch our breath on weekend.
We decided, to truly get a handle on the food budget we needed to change a few things. First, cut out the 500 individual trips to the grocery store a week. Second, start planning the week’s meals and lastly, get a handle on the prep. At this point we have some of these things in place. We are far from that now but we are working on it. For example, here is what a week’s worth of meal planning looks like. With everything written out, it’s much easier to see what we need and what can be used in each meal, what can be used in multiple meals.

For example, with Monday‘s sausage and pepper and onion meal we always have extra sausage and most of the time extra peppers and onions. By chopping the extras, I can use the green peppers in Wednesdays pasta dish and the onions in my Crock Pot minestrone on Friday. I can also take the extra sausage from Monday and buy a full pound of shrimp for Wednesdays pasta and use the excess for an easy Jambalaya recipe on Thursday. The goal is to have as little waste as possible and as many meals with the least amount of spend. I also try to decide what will freeze well and mark what needs to be frozen if we find good sales on certain food.
I’ve also been experimenting, which has proved great and disastrous results…apologies to my poor family for the disasters…on what meals are healthy, tasty and QUICK week day meals. I’ll have those recipes up over the next few weeks. I’ve also set aside some great Crock Pot recipes that I’ve made some tweeks to perfect and….wait for it… Crock Pot meals that can be 100% frozen and just thrown in with remarkably little morning prep. I was a little hesitant about throwing frozen meat or chicken in but I have to admit, it comes out great.

Coming Soon…weekday, almost completely homemade, chicken pot pie. This was an amazing accident

Meal Planning: The Intro!

I’ve explained in an earlier post that we are Simplifying Life in 2013 and part of that is making sure that we are budgeting and sticking with it. We pulled up Mint.com earlier in the month and realized that we had spent an astronomical and embarrassing amount of money on food and eating out. This had never been a huge issue before but with balancing work and parenthood we have sort of been running by the seat of our pants just trying to get through dinner and bedtime routine at night and trying to catch our breath on weekend.
We decided, to truly get a handle on the food budget we needed to change a few things. First, cut out the 500 individual trips to the grocery store a week. Second, start planning the week’s meals and lastly, get a handle on the prep. At this point we have some of these things in place. We are far from that now but we are working on it. For example, here is what a week’s worth of meal planning looks like. With everything written out, it’s much easier to see what we need and what can be used in each meal, what can be used in multiple meals.

For example, with Monday‘s sausage and pepper and onion meal we always have extra sausage and most of the time extra peppers and onions. By chopping the extras, I can use the green peppers in Wednesdays pasta dish and the onions in my Crock Pot minestrone on Friday. I can also take the extra sausage from Monday and buy a full pound of shrimp for Wednesdays pasta and use the excess for an easy Jambalaya recipe on Thursday. The goal is to have as little waste as possible and as many meals with the least amount of spend. I also try to decide what will freeze well and mark what needs to be frozen if we find good sales on certain food.
I’ve also been experimenting, which has proved great and disastrous results…apologies to my poor family for the disasters…on what meals are healthy, tasty and QUICK week day meals. I’ll have those recipes up over the next few weeks. I’ve also set aside some great Crock Pot recipes that I’ve made some tweeks to perfect and….wait for it… Crock Pot meals that can be 100% frozen and just thrown in with remarkably little morning prep. I was a little hesitant about throwing frozen meat or chicken in but I have to admit, it comes out great.

Coming Soon…weekday, almost completely homemade, chicken pot pie. This was an amazing accident

Meal Planning: The Intro!

I’ve explained in an earlier post that we are Simplifying Life in 2013 and part of that is making sure that we are budgeting and sticking with it. We pulled up Mint.com earlier in the month and realized that we had spent an astronomical and embarrassing amount of money on food and eating out. This had never been a huge issue before but with balancing work and parenthood we have sort of been running by the seat of our pants just trying to get through dinner and bedtime routine at night and trying to catch our breath on weekend.
We decided, to truly get a handle on the food budget we needed to change a few things. First, cut out the 500 individual trips to the grocery store a week. Second, start planning the week’s meals and lastly, get a handle on the prep. At this point we have some of these things in place. We are far from that now but we are working on it. For example, here is what a week’s worth of meal planning looks like. With everything written out, it’s much easier to see what we need and what can be used in each meal, what can be used in multiple meals.

For example, with Monday‘s sausage and pepper and onion meal we always have extra sausage and most of the time extra peppers and onions. By chopping the extras, I can use the green peppers in Wednesdays pasta dish and the onions in my Crock Pot minestrone on Friday. I can also take the extra sausage from Monday and buy a full pound of shrimp for Wednesdays pasta and use the excess for an easy Jambalaya recipe on Thursday. The goal is to have as little waste as possible and as many meals with the least amount of spend. I also try to decide what will freeze well and mark what needs to be frozen if we find good sales on certain food.
I’ve also been experimenting, which has proved great and disastrous results…apologies to my poor family for the disasters…on what meals are healthy, tasty and QUICK week day meals. I’ll have those recipes up over the next few weeks. I’ve also set aside some great Crock Pot recipes that I’ve made some tweeks to perfect and….wait for it… Crock Pot meals that can be 100% frozen and just thrown in with remarkably little morning prep. I was a little hesitant about throwing frozen meat or chicken in but I have to admit, it comes out great.

Coming Soon…weekday, almost completely homemade, chicken pot pie. This was an amazing accident

Sharing the Preemie Love

I just wanted to give a shout out to some of my favorite Preemie Mom’s and their amazing little munchkins. These are just a few of the amazing ladies in the Facebook Preemie support group. If you ever want to see the preemie experience from different perspectives check out these sites.

The first set of blogs are babies who were all due January 2011 but are just a few weeks older than Sofia. We went through our NICU experiences together.

This is Liam, the amazing 15oz preemie who was even voted the smallest Saints fan while in the NICU! Who Dat!
www.micropreemiemom.com

Nora is actually our local preemie buddy. We were in different states during our NICU days but we even got to go to Nora’s 1st birthday!
http://jackies1stblog.blogspot.com/

These are our new preemie friends who we have “met” over the last few months.

This is Jack Ryan who is a 2yr old 28 weaker.
http://www.jackryansjourney.blogspot.com

Jaxson is an amazing 23 week micro preemie who is currently recovering from a few surgeries but is doing well and is such a strong little man.
http://anearlystart.wordpress.com

Hattie is our youngest just under 2 wks old, in the beginning of her NICU experience but a beautiful 26 weaker.
http://www.hattieharper.com

Michael’s AD