FREE App Friday!

If you have any little ones around (kids, students, grandbabies...) you MUST check this out!  I just downloaded ALL of them because... well, they're FREE!

Check them out at Smart Apps for Kids

What's your favorite app for kids?
XO!

4 Teacher Appreciation Gift Ideas

1260.  That is the number of hours your child's teacher spends with your little one in a school year.  Each of these hours is filled with patience, knowledge and love.  Even if your kid is driving them up a wall, a good teacher still loves and cares for the kiddo as if he/she is her own.  Let one of the most important people in your child's life this year know how much you appreciate everything they do to make your little one successful.

Teacher appreciation gifts can fit ANY budget.  One of the best gifts a teacher can get is a heartfelt note from the parents of one of their kiddos.

Here's what we did for Chloe's teachers this year.

On Monday, Chloe took a bouquet of flowers for her teachers to enjoy throughout the week.

Hy-Vee bouquet of Lillies: $4.99

Vase from the collection under the sink: FREE
Thank you card from the junk drawer: FREE

*Tip for Fresh Flowers:  For fresher flowers longer, fill the vase 1/2 with water.  Add 1 capful of Hydrogen Peroxide to kill any bacteria in the water.  Add 1 teaspoon of sugar to "feed" the flower.

On Tuesday, we set a goodie bag for each teacher.
A large container of Hand Sanitizer: $1.00
Fingernail polish removed: $1.00
Fun summer color of finger nail polish: $1.00
Cute nail file: $.50
Traced and cut out preschooler hand with "You deserve a hand for all you do!": FREE

On Thursday, some chocolate bars and mixed candy for a sweet treat for each teacher. 

A glass candle holder: $1.00

Mixed candy: $2.00

On Friday, an Easy Mug Cake mix to enjoy for each teacher.

A tupperwear container with a tight lid: $.50

1 box of Angel Food cake mix: $1.50

1 box of Chocolate cake mix: $1.00

A note with instructions: FREE

*Add 3 tablespoons of cake mix and 2 tablespoons of water to a microwave safe mug/bowl for 1 minute.  Top with icing, powered sugar or whipped cream. 

*To make this totally adorable bow: How About Orange 

Total spent for a week of spoiling: $9.75 per teacher.  A measly price to pay for the gratitude we feel toward both of her preschool teachers. 

How do you show your little one's teachers how much they mean to your family?

XO! 

Cleaning Vomit out of Carpet

I hate that I have this experience to share, but I suppose its a celebration that it took us over 4 years to have it.

This is how I felt at 3:00 this morning... but more disheveled.

Cleaning Vomit out of Carpet
*spoon
*paper towels
*baking soda or corn starch
*stain remover of your choice (here's mine)
*vacuum

Scrap as much of the vomit up using the spoon as you can.
Blot the remaining spot with paper towels to absorb as much liquid as you can.
Sprinkle baking soda or corn starch onto spot and let it sit for 15-20 minutes.
Vacuum
Use stain remover for any remaining color.

Sorry you need this and I hope someone gets better soon!
XO!

A Meltdown over Poop

This is only ONE of the many differences between our 2 kids, but its a difference I'm struggling with a lot.  Aria has had a rough go with her tummy since 2 weeks old.  First was a battle with colic (here was the beginning) and now is a battle of constipation.

Aria has been breastfed until a week ago, when we began introducing formula 1 bottle at a time.  Her first formula bottle was 1 week ago and she spent the next day "spitting up" (I called it throwing up because it was everything she'd eaten... the nurse didn't agree since there wasn't any "wrenching").  My initial thinking was... omg, what did I do to our poor baby girl?!  But I followed the nurse's urge to continue formula and allow her little body time to adjust.  The next day, I noticed that she was only "spitting up" when she was straining to poop.  (Pooping has never been her strong suit, usually going days -a week, a couple times- between bowel movements and often times harder stools.)

After talking to the doctor and nurse on the phone a few times, we have tried: eating prunes, drinking prune juice, tummy massage, water, and bicycle legs. The catch-22 of the situation is that she doesn't poop every day, which means she doesn't have to feel miserable while pushing every day - but also I'm sure it makes it worse when she does since it's not a daily occurrence.

This morning, on the way to preschool, she began straining to poop and "spit up" clear liquid, enough to soak her shirt.  I hurried home to get her cleaned up and hopefully find a dirty diaper.  No luck.  All that pain for nothing... just a wet diaper. For the next hour, she went about her day eating and playing without any trouble.  Until she tried going again... up came most of her food, again (but this time it came out of her mouth and nose and was very thick).  She did successfully get a small nugget out, but man... this is not OK.

A serious conversation with her doctor (and the med student that always happens to be there for appointments when I don't want him to be) about her tummy troubles, and our major concern for her not growing more quickly, I left with our 12 lb 2 oz, 8 month old and headed to Walgreens to pick up Miralax and some high calorie baby food.

1 teaspoon of Mirlax into a bottle after dinner last night, a good night's sleep and a painfree poop later... she can suddenly crawl!  Imagine my surprise when I set her down on the floor this morning.  Poor girl must have been miserable!

Is she the only one with these tummy troubles?
XO!

DIY Felt Board for Toddlers/Preschoolers

In Chloe's preschool class, the kiddos are encouraged to write books about anything that interests them.  As a way to help Chloe understand that things are drawn with different shapes, I created a felt board that she can manipulate into many different scenes using basic shapes.  (square, circle, rectangle, triangle)  As she grows, the possibilities of what she can create are endless by adding felt shapes as she wants.

Here's how to make your own.  I began with an easel we bought from Ikea last year for Christmas.  One side has a chalkboard that she loves to draw on, which is also great for her writing muscles since it's large enough that she has to reach up and pull down.  The other side is a white board that rarely gets used because of the lap-sized marker board she's always drawing on.  If you don't have an easel, a large frame would work just as well!

For an easel sized felt board, you will need 3/4 yards of fabric.  I chose black so any scenes created would "POP" out.  White or brown would have the same effect.  After cutting the felt to size, I used a clothespin to help hold it in place while I marked where I wanted to Velcro to be.  (If you are using a frame or do not care if the felt is permanent, hot glue the felt into place.  I wanted to be able to remove it should we need the marker board in the future.)

Mark where you want the Velcro to go, and sew on to secure.  I planned on using 4 pieces of Velcro - top corners and bottom corners - but once I started securing it to the frame, 6 peieces were needed to keep a taunt pull, plan accordingly. 

Once the Velcro is attached to your felt, stretch it onto the frame and mark for the companion Velcro piece. Because it was on the back of the frame and you can't see it, I hot glued the other piece of Velcro onto the wood.  

Continue as needed until you are satisfied with the tightness of the felt on the frame. 

Add whatever shapes or pieces will interest your little one! The benefit of this project is that you can customize it for you - if you don't have a lot of room, make it small, if they need help with spelling make letters that can easily be moved around, etc.  

What would you put on a felt board for your toddler or preschooler? 

XO! 

Cradle Cap Confession

Our first babe was a baldy. Well, that's not entirely true... she had a severe old man thing happening where she only had hair around the bottom 1" of her head, but it was blonde so nearly invisible. 

Our second babe was born with as much hair as Chloe acquired over the first 9 months of her life.  What a surprise when she made her entrance! (I was already in shock throughout labor because of the intensity and speed of everything, but when the doctor pulled her out, my initial thought was "Whose baby is that?" because of how different she looked that Chloe)

I used to think about how sweet it would be to have a baby with hair who could wear hair clips, or a little pigtail.  I used to!

Some things that never crossed my mind until having to deal with newborn hair

• Tangles.  Yes, at less than 1 month old, she had tangles in the back of her hair.  And when I tried to oh so gently comb them out, it pulled out her hair and I about died.
• The bald spot.  All babies get them, its just what happens.  But with a head full of dark hair, this is what stands out: 

• Cradle cap.  I'm fairly sure that almost all babies experience this as well.  Chloe had it when she was a few months old, and now Aria does. 

Dealing with cradle cap is fairly easy.  It doesn't hurt the baby at all, it's dry skin (although it looks FAR worse and makes any new mom lose their ----).  A nurse friend of my suggested rubbing a small amount of baby oil onto Chloe's head before her bath and, low and behold, it was gone after 2-3 treatments.  So when I noticed Aria's (which wasn't as obvious through her hair), I gave myself a mental thumbs-up and went to grab the baby oil and comb. 

It was not a happy ending though! It was so much worse than I could have expected.  It did it's job of loosening the dead skin, which then began to "float" around her hair for days and days, even after multiple shampooings.  Luckily her 4 month appointment was a short week away and after a quick conversation with her pediatrician I learned: Do not use baby oil and try to comb out on a baby with hair.  Her sad story ended with her own daughter losing all of her hair from being pulled out with the comb.  I was experiencing this the first day when I was attempting to pull out the dead skin with the comb - the comb with pull the flake, and with it would come the hair! I left her little head alone after hearing her personal experience but it still bothered me looking at it (I know it doesn't hurt her, but it looks like it should).  

A few days ago, we tried something different.  Head&Shoulders shampoo.  It works with flakes on adults, maybe on babies too? Totally did!  After living with huge flakes laying throughout her hair for nearly a month, no more flakes! 

Underneath, she still has cradle cap, but it makes me feel better not having the urge to pick out pieces and risk pulling out her hair.  Now I just have to force myself to be patient - it will clear up itself. 

*When using anything other than baby shampoo, be extra cautious of shampoo getting into eyes. 4 hands comes in handy when dealing with a wiggly baby and a stingy shampoo. 

How did/do you deal with cradle cap?

XO!

I Pinned This - Letter to Disney Princess

We have a big princess fanatic in our house. Sometimes I stop to question how this happened and the only answer is: it must be an inherent princess trait. Chloe was born loving princesses and had many of the old Disney classics memorized after 1-2 times watching (which made me look like that mom that lets her kids watch hours of TV but she really just absorbed and remembered every word!)

When I saw this pin, I knew it was something we HAD to try! (And I was very much expecting it to be a myth and wait for months for no response.

Here's what Pinterest promises:
if you write a letter to a character at disney (walt disney world communications p.o. box 10040 lake buena vista, fl 32830-0040), they will send you an autographed photo back! Could be a fun project for teaching how to write a letter! gonna do this with my kids :) (couponingtodisney.com)

Here's what I did:
Without much promise for a response, I made a fun game out of writing a letter to a Princess. She picked Repunzal and away we wrote about our love of Tangled and Eugene. (It goes so far that one of us is Eugene or Repunzal at any given time of the day and we recently had a huge meltdown before our last hair appointment because her hair would turn brown.)
Anywho.. And then we waited.

Guess what showed up in the mail about 3 weeks later!!

XO!

Closet Overhaul

It's been 10 weeks since Aria was born... 10 weeks! ... and I still don't fit into my jeans.  UGH.

I have 1 pair of jeans that have always been very big and (I can't believe I'm saying this but..) they are the only jeans I've been wearing for nearly 10 weeks.  Ridiculous.

In other clothing news... I am also having trouble feeling comfortable in any of my shirts (not size comfortable, but how my body looks).  My typical days includes throwing on another T-shirt and my only pair of jeans, take Chloe to school, come home and switch to sweatpants, repeat to pick her up.  I hate that.

 I hate it so much in fact that this is what I spent today doing:

With the exception of a few pairs of jeans that I know don't fit yet... this is all of my clothes, so sad

I emptied every drawer, every hanger, every laundry basket (after a laundry spree, it's all clean expect for what I was currently wearing - small victory around here).  I sorted all of it into piles - T-shirts, tanks/camis, sweats, sweaters, skirts, etc.
Then came the hard part.  I put on every shirt I own and made an impulsive decision to keep or toss.

First came tank tops and cami's... most of them are for under things so it was fairly easy decision - if they fit they stayed. The left is the starting pile, the right is the keepers.

Next came T-shirts... my most embarrassing pile.  Almost all of these shirts were from high school/college or free.  (Am I the only one who feels obligated to keep stupid shirts because they were free and ya never know when you may need a shirt to paint in or... lounge in... or...)

My most dramatic cutting by far.  Left is toss, right is keep.

I went through sweaters

I widdled down the sweatshirts and sweatpants by several pairs and discovered a couple more pairs of jeans that fit I had stored away when I started wearing maternity clothes (Happy Day!)

By the end of my painful task, I realized several things. 

1. I have mostly black or white clothing... I have no idea why
2. I do not stop and think about clothing purchases for long enough.  I had many pieces of clothing that I know I haven't liked since day 1, but continued to fold them and put them away.
3. I love (HATE) Pinterest for making me so self-conscious about my wardrobe with all of there cute outfits pins. 
4. Time to go shopping and hope for better and longer lasting decisions. 

These is what went back into drawers and onto hangers (expect of the cutey helper of course).

Do you have troubles with hating your clothing or is it just my post-baby (won't go back to where it was - damn second pregnancy body)?

Until next time... XO!

Baby Blanket tutorial

I love getting back to my sewing machine the last couple of weeks.  It has been quite a long while (months to be honest) and I'm happy to be finding some time during our hectic schedule.

The hubby's counterpart at work recently had a baby and Ed wanted to give them something sweet and pink for their first girl.  Normally, I would make a shirt like the one I made for my cousin's birthday the other day

but I had just stumbled upon a minky tips Pinterest post and wanted to give a minky blanket a try (especially since our oldest's favorite blanket is minky and she is wearing it out rather quickly).

1. I began with preshrinking the flannel material I got (Minky does not shrink so it's up to you if you wash it first)
2. Cut the material to size.  I cut both materials 41x41 - I only had to trim a little off the side with the JoAnn's Fabric advertising
3. Begin pinning with pretty sides together.  This was a tip from the Pinterest post... pin every 1-1 1/2". As a sewer who kind of hates pinning and usually does bare minimal pinning, I heeded their warning and did as told.

   4.  After pinning your heart out, begin sewing.  I used a 1/4 seam from the edge of the flannel material.      Don't forget to leave 5-6 inches to turn your blanket right side out.  BEFORE flipping, trim off the excess minky to avoid bulky edges. 

   5. After flipping over, you may wish to add another stitch to give the blanket a more "professional" look.  I did so with a 1/2" seam. 

   6.  Trim off any extra threads and TADA! 

A soft, warm and, best of all, large baby blanket for a quarter of the cost of buying one in store.  Now I'm ready to hurry back to JoAnn's to pick up some more material to make one or two for Aria! 

Best of luck... XO! 

...Big Sigh

A quick note to let you know that SOME (big some... but I'll take any some at this point) of our sweet little one's crying has been replaced with adorable smiles and fun coos.

Responding to her silly sister's attempt at making her laugh

LOVE HER!

And with a few more smiles and few less cries... I've been able to do a few things around the house, which was in desperate need of a little attention over the last several weeks.

I will be back later this week with a few projects I've finished up.  

Until then... XO

Help me

For the last 3 weeks, we have been trying desparately to deal with a baby girl who cries in pain from what appears to be gas.  I am at my wits end after trying anything and everything we can think of to help her deal the pain. (gas drops, leg ups, warm towel on tummy, etc.). In addition to the gas, or maybe in conjunction, the little one is not having bowel movements often... As in every 5-7 days.  The doctor has told us this may just be her "normal" but the gas and crying is getting worse.

What can I do for this sweet, little, miserable girl??

Preeclampsia

How's this for a bit of drama..

Short hours after posting about my beautiful new baby, I was rushed to the ER with blood pressure of 172/100.  (as someone who has never understood how blood pressure works, I was less concerned than it seemed everyone else was at first).

So here I sit, in a hospital room again waiting for the medicine to work its magic and let me return to my family at home.

We were informed by the doctor shortly after arriving that preeclampsia is a condition many pregnant women get that involved high blood pressure but usually corrects itself after delivery.  I have to go off the charts and get it AFTER delivery with no other preexisting conditions, and frankly... They don't really have any idea why I have this.

12 hours of magnesium sulfate IV, 3 blood pressure pills and a little bit of rest later, I feel shaky with a terrible headache, stressed to the max about my girls, and more tired than I felt after our first night home with Aria.  Good note, my BP is down to 130/80... Still high for me, but I'm out of the seizure high levels for now. 

And maybe I can go home soon...ish.

Until then.. XO

It's a Girl!!

The day has finally come and gone.  We have another beautiful daughter to add to our family.  Meet Aria! 

Hours old

Packed up and ready to go home

Super proud BIG SISTER

Relaxing after a big meal

Aria was welcomed into our lives on Friday night after a very fast paced labor that left us running for the hospital, a ride in the ambulance and a painful delivery a short 1 hour 21 min after my water broke.  Whew... but she's here and she's perfect. 

XOXO

Crying Wolf

Although I'm over 37 weeks pregnant and more than ready to meet this little bundle... I'm not one of those people who like to use pregnancy as an excuse to not do something or complain about the aches and pains [insert big lie here].

I really really try not to complain about it, but I have to say... 2nd pregnancy sucks!  I was pregnant with Chloe 4 years ago, at the ripe age of 23, and maybe my younger body was capable of handling such reactions but this time around, my poor ol' torso is feeling the pain inside and outside.  I have been experiencing some pretty nasty "Braxton Hicks" contractions for a few weeks now and have been certain, at least 3 times, that this little girl was going to make her appearance.  On Thursday, I was so certain that I drug my hubby home from work early with 6 minute intervals and made him pack up the car and drive me right on down to the hospital... to be patted on the leg and sent straight home until they "became more regular and intense".  (Don't they know that I'm not making these things up?!)

So since Thursday... after my embarrassing 3rd "This is it!" moment, I have decided to keep my mouth shut, to anyone who asks about the pains, aches, contractions and uncomfortableness.  Don't get me wrong... they still hurt and come more frequently than I want, but I hate being the poor miserable pregnant girl who is continually crying wolf.  Next time... it will be for real!

Until then... XO

Emergency Diaper "Kit"

As I mentioned before... I am expecting a little bundle in about 5 weeks!  One of my best friends is expecting a little girl in 6 weeks (eek!) While pursing Pinterest lately, I stumbled upon this adorable idea.  What a fun idea to make as a small gift for my friend... and who am I kidding, myself! 

Here is my tutorial, which may vary from the original idea because I didn't really read it so much as LOVE the picture and explore on my own. 

Begin by cutting the fabric to size.  I used a size 1 diaper, but I wanted bigger ones to fit so I cut the fabric large. 

Hem the tops of the fabric. Be sure to leave plenty of room to thread the ribbon through.  (I should know this, but I'm admitting that I don't... ) I used the 2nd and 3rd line guides on my machine.

3 pumps of the needle after the last picture, I ran out of bobbin thread - annoyingly refilling the bobbin

Pin the ugly sides together when you are done hemming the tops and sew.  I used the 1st line on my machine for this one.. I also decreased the space stitching to make for a tighter hold on the seams. 

Once you turn inside out, this is what you get.  You can stop here and thread the ribbon or...

Sew small diagonals across the bottom seams and cut for a more specialized look. 

My favorite tip for threading ribbon (or elastic) through a hem.  Secure a bobby pin a few inches down and push the bobby pin through the hem... super easy! 

Stuff full of any goodies you'd like in your emergency kit... I have a Ziploc snack bag of 3 wipes, a size 1 diaper, Sani-hands in case of contact and no sink and 1 extra shirt... because worse things have happened. 

Enjoy your beautiful Emergency Diaper Kit for your car, your spouse's car... or as a cuter alternative to carrying a diaper into the gas station's restroom. 

I hope you enjoy making this!  If you would rather just buy, I've added it to my Facebook shop By Nicole

Until next time... XO