Keep little hands warm with those unmatched socks

The Christmas season brought many magical moments with it this year, with both girls being in the perfect age range for enjoying our holiday traditions. In addition to those rapturous family moments, this season also brought several rounds with the stomach bug. The best way I found to keep the girls hydrated while they were sick was with the beloved Popsicle, more specifically those electrolyte freeze pops. In so doing I found a use for all of the mismatched socks the dryer seems to give me - as a sleeve to keep little hands warm! When not in use as a hand warmer, this particular one moonlights as a sock puppet, drawing smiles and giggles out of even the sickest little ones in the house. :)

Making mornings smoother with an evening routine

Those of you who read the last post in this series might have anticipated today’s topic? What better way to prepare for a stress free morning than with a little evening preparation!

Each evening I make an effort to complete the following items:

Prepare lunch
Choose everyone’s clothing
Put together a reminder list for the morning
Pack Sweetpea’s preschool bag
Load the dishwasher
Lay out or write down (on the reminder list) breakfast ideas
Identify wake up plan

I find that the best time to pack lunches is as I’m cleaning up after dinner. I believe this elegant and effective idea came to me via Meagan Francis on twitter. If we have enough food for a meal later in the week, I package it accordingly, and the remainder is portioned into lunch sized containers and put either in the refrigerator or the freezer. If we have a lot of food already in the fridge, it’s nice to have some things stashed in the freezer for later!

Both girls like to choose their clothing (already!) and given the option would change their minds multiple times each morning. To reduce this frustrating time suck, we choose outfits ahead of time and I have them get dressed at daycare. Somehow they never have outfit attitude with the daycare provider like they do for mama. I pack clothes in the daycare bag and put it in the car the night before. I also carry an extra pair of shoes in the car for each child – I don’t want to admit the number of times one of them has arrived without footwear…

I am a list mama, and if I need to remember something – especially in the morning – it needs to be written down. An added bonus of this strategy is that it helps me decompress and empty my brain at the end of the day, which makes it easier to relax and unwind. The last thing I want is for my mind to be racing when I finally get to lie down at night. This list goes under my car keys on the kitchen counter.

Sweetpea started preschool this fall, and her class made special bags for transporting to and from school each day. Anything that needs taken to school gets packed into that bag, and projects or notes to parents come home in the bag each day. I empty the contents and reload as necessary. This bag gets put into the car the night before so it doesn't get left behind.

It’s funny how a pile of dishes in the sink when I wake up bothers me – the thought of them sitting there all day, waiting for me to return home is what gets me. Somehow I don’t mind them at all when my bed is singing its siren song at the end of the day. To keep myself from being tempted to waste precious time in the morning, I rinse and load anything that is dishwasher safe and call it “good enough”.

As with lunch, a little prep for breakfast is a big help. I try and have two options available to give the girls a choice in the morning. They love to be in control of their breakfast (are you noticing a pattern here?!) and I like to be able to give at least the impression that I’m being flexible and giving the girls their way!

Wake up plan – this is the topic for the next blog post in this series – for now suffice it to say that I spend time thinking about how I’m going to get the girls up and at ‘em each morning. They like some predictability, but we also like to mix it up from time to time.

Do you have an evening routine? What tasks do you complete each evening in order to smooth out your mornings?

No More Morning Mania! Tips for more peaceful mornings...

Going back to work has brought crazy back to our mornings. I hate it when my failure to plan causes melt downs, stress and widespread grouchiness. It's so much nicer to savor the mornings at a leisurely pace than to rush through them sprinting to the car in a desperate attempt to be on time.

This is the first in a series on making mornings more peaceful -regardless of what your day might hold, I hope you'll find some ideas that get it started in a positive way, and in turn share what works for you!

First things First: Have a plan, write it down, review/revise it as needed, and STICK TO IT! For me, that means a morning and evening routine and a wake up time that allows me time to reflect and get prepared before the rest of the family wakes up. A plan also allows me to be realistic about what I can get done before leaving the house, and a minimum list of accomplishments that, once complete, mean the day will get off to a good (enough) start. It's amazing what I think I can do the next morning when I'm wilting from exhaustion and just want to go to bed...my routine keeps me honest and provides a bit of a reality check.

Do you have a morning and/or evening routine? How often do you revise it?

We are Blissfully Frugal!

Hubs and I have always been frugal - we enjoy saving where we can so we can spend on the things that really matter to us. The key to being frugal for me is knowing what matters most to me and my husband - what things really make us happy, and what are necessities... In addition, it's important that I keep in mind the value of my time. If I spend hours to save a few dollars on something that I don't enjoy, then I'm going to get burned out. Lastly, even in the areas where we splurge we do so wisely – even though it’s a splurge I don’t want to overpay.

What things do we like to splurge on? I’m glad you asked! ;)

• traveling, both near and far
• taking advantage of the great amusement park just 20 minutes from our house
• belonging to our local YMCA
• celebrating big and little events in our lives

What things are less important to us?

• Having a big house - for me that just means more to clean. I do enjoy decorating our home and making improvements, but we do much of the work ourselves and take on projects one at a time as we have the time and money to devote to them.
• Clothes - I love clothes, but I will never be mistaken for trendy...I try to stick with pieces I really love, that fit well, and that are going to last. I love shopping at consignment shops, and for my girls we are lucky to have an excellent supply of gently worn hand me downs.
• Having the perfect car - we know what we like, but buying new is something we try and avoid at all costs. Gently broken in is much more affordable, and allows us to get a nicer car than we might have afforded if we bought it new.

How do we make sure we're spending wisely when we splurge? We use talk to friends and search the internet before we buy. I rely heavily on menu planning and stockpiling. I cook from scratch as much as I can without stressing myself out, and freezer cook when our favorites are on sale. I keep a price book for things I use regularly so I know when I’m getting a good deal. I also follow a few sites that are a big help, including Mommy's Wish List, Freebies 4 Mom, Inexpensively, and BabyCheapskate. Even when it comes to necessities we stockpile when a great deal comes up - for me this includes kids clothes, holiday clearance, diapers and wipes, and presents for friends and family, as long as I know I will use them.

What are your secrets to being frugal? I'd love to hear them!

*this post is my entry into Inexpensively's Blissfully Frugal contest* If you're interested in attending Blissdom, you should check it out!

Dairy sensitivity and colic

Sugar Plum is a pretty laid back little girl. She doesn't get upset easily and is quick to flash a grin. She has also perfected the over the back spit up routine and occasionally seemed to suffer from gas pains. As she approached the three month mark, her evening fussiness seemed to be ramping up. Could this be colic? Wasn't colic supposed to be subsiding at three months, not starting?

On an especially horrible night for all involved, poor Sugar Plum was beyond consoling, arching her back and wailing for hours on end. I was searching the internet while patting her back and swaying back and forth, willing my google search to render a solution. It seemed that I'd tried all the suggestions that kept coming up, so I turned to my twitter friends for a solution.

How is it that in all my searches for colic, colicky baby, calming the colicky baby, breastfed colic and so on, none had turned up a discussion of dairy sensitivity? Thankfully @kblogger and @SomewhatCrunchy came to my rescue and suggested removing dairy from my diet. Once I knew to search for dairy sensitivity in breastfed babies I found all kinds of resources.

Apparently it can take weeks to see an improvement, but Sugar Plum was so much better in a matter of days. I also learned that Soy milk might also cause a problem (it does seem to bother her - anyone interested in 2/3 of a carton of plain light organic soy milk?) but that goat's milk products might be tolerable. I've tried some goat's milk cheese and at least in small doses it doesn't seem to bother her.

The next challenge is finding food to eat...and getting enough calcium. Sugar Plum's GaSue is a dietitian and she happened to be visiting for Thanksgiving. She was nice enough to let me pick her brain for ideas over lunch one day - in addition to small quantities of goat's milk products, I'll be enjoying calcium fortified orange juice, dark greens and a few calcium supplements spaced throughout the day. I'm eating a lot more fruits and vegetables, and I am going to check out rice milk ice cream the next time I'm at the store...

For more information on going dairy free and dairy sensitivity in babies, here are some helpful links:

Kellymom has a section on food sensitivity and also on getting enough calcium

Fussy Baby has several good articles on the dairy sensitive baby and going dairy free

Go Dairy Free is a good resource for dairy free foods and recipes

Do any of you have suggestions for eating dairy free? Any snack ideas or recipes you don't mind sharing? I'd love to hear them!

Fun and mess free toddler snacking

Sweetpea has always loved applesauce and yogurt, and we would frequently order one one or the other as side dishes when we were eating out. As she became a more independent eater, this became particularly messy! One day when we were eating out she dropped her spoon on the floor after one or two bites of applesauce. The wait staff was particularly busy and I didn't expect we would be able to flag someone down for quite awhile, so I improvised - giving Sweetpea my straw to finish her applesauce.

Not only did she think it was fun to use a straw, it was a much quicker and less messy way to get her snack from the bowl into her mouth! She requests a straw now whenever she eats applesauce or yogurt. I love that she enjoys eating these healthy snacks and thinks of her straw as an extra special treat. We purchased a big bag of extra wide straws for $1.50 to make it a little easier for her to "drink" her snacks.

What untraditional feeding methods have you come up with to help your toddler or preschooler have fun eating healthy sometimes messy snacks? I'd love to hear your tips!

Potty Training Tips - from the trenches!

The following is a guest post from Brooke, who blogs at Dinkypops No More and is currently a mommy in the trenches of potty training.

When it comes to potty training, I'm by far no expert. Nope, not me. I'm one of those moms who wishes she could have hired an expert potty trainer....well that, or at least have sent my daughter off to some sort of potty training boot camp for a few weeks!

I'll start with a little back story. Growing up, I babysat all the time. I babysat for many a kids that were potty training, and I never recall it being a difficult process. The kids seemed to catch on to the concept, and I don't recall having to clean up many accidents.

This is the point where you can call me naive!

Back before we even started trying to potty train, I imagined that my daughter would be potty trained by her second birthday. I imagined it would be a quick, easy little process. I imagined we might have to stick at home for a few days, but I felt like she would catch on in a jiff and we'd be on our way. After all, I always remember hearing that girls were so much easier to potty train than boys, so I thought I had a leg up on the game.

Enter my daughter. Welcome me to my own reality show! I felt I was the only mom to have ever had to train a stubborn almost 2.5 year old toddler! (And why didn't anyone mention to me that being confined to the home for the first few days of potty training could be so lonely?)

I had heard all the methods for potty training. You have the How to Potty Train in One Day, How to Potty Train in One Weekend, and the 3 Day Potty Training methods. You have books, DVDs, reward charts, and many other tools to encourage potty training. I picked some "weapons", and thought we'd give it a try. After all, my daughter had shown many of the signs she was ready to start potty training. And we tried many times!

But I'm here to say we made it through the tough days. We've survived, and there were no casualties. We still have a little ways to go on some things, but we are potty trained!

Like I said before, I'm definitely no expert. We've had our challenges with potty training, and still have a few small hurdles to overcome. But I thought I'd at least share some of the tips I've learned from scouring the web and tricks from friends who have been through the process.

Here's what worked best in our potty training adventure:

• We stayed at home for the first three days or so. This was hard! (And it was a bit lonesome too.) We are always on the go and not used to staying put. But I owed this to her if I wanted her to be successful at potty training. It allowed both of us to focus on the big task at hand without outside distractions.
• The very first day of training, I gave her lots of lemonade. This is something she normally never drink, so she was excited for the sugary treat. And it made her have to pee - a lot! I also set the buzzer on the stove to go off every hour. I told her that when it buzzed, it meant it was time to go sit on the potty. (I had friends who used this method, and it worked really well. We tried it for the first day, and after that we let up on the timer).
• We hid her diapers. I had heard from many people to "throw out all the diapers". What? Gasp! I was not ready to do this, but I did hide them in my daughter's closet. My daughter was one of those kids who cried that she didn't want to wear her super cool, spankin' new "big girl" panties. And as soon as diapers weren't visible, she had an even bigger fit. Within a few days though, she asked for her diapers less and less. Out of sight, out of mind. It somewhat applied here.
• We constantly praised her. I never told her she was a "good girl", but rather always said how proud I was of what a "big girl" she was now that she used the potty. Every time she went, we would give high-fives, and I'd praise her over and over. The way her face would light up when she knew I was so proud of her was priceless.
• We never asked her "Do you need to go potty?" It was always "Let mommy know if you need to go potty. Remember, we need to keep your panties dry." I would say this over and over, several times an hour. I think this was key in her ability to know tell me "Mama, I have to go potty".
• We bribed her with candy. My daughter rarely gets it, so it was a special treat for her every time she used the potty. (She would get one M&M for peeing and five M&Ms for a BM.) In the beginning, she got candy every time she used the potty. After the first week or so of potty training, she asked for candy less and less.
• When she started to "play" in the bathroom or stay in there for extended periods of times, I would set a timer. I would tell her that when the timer would ring, that meant we had to leave the bathroom. I would tell her that her body wasn't ready yet to go potty, and we could come back later when it was ready.
• We got "special" toilet paper for her that has prints on it so she knows where to pull it off so she's not taking too much. She loves that she has her own special "wipee".
• She gets to flush "All by myself!" She loves to do this, and will often say "Bye bye pee" and waves as the toilet flushes. This is just a small, obvious way to incorporate her in the training process.
• We avoided pull-ups. I read a lot of evidence that suggested these could prolong the process. And plain and simple, I really didn't want to have to purchase them! When we did leave the house, I simply lined her car seat with a hospital-type absorbent pad "just in case" there might be an accident. After about a week, I removed it from her car seat.
• We got a travel potty. This helped me get over my fear of running errands and worrying about where we would stop if she had to go potty. I still l have this major fear of public restrooms with my daughter and her insatiable curiosity to touch everything in site, so I'm also more apt to run out to the car and have her use her travel potty versus the pubic restroom at the grocery store.
• We stop liquids about three hours before bedtime. This is a hard one for us, since we usually eat later than most families. But I can definitely tell that if she gets liquids too late into the evening, she will wake the next morning wet. I had a friend suggest waking her in the middle of the night to make her use the potty. We did this for the first week, and it really made a difference with helping her wake up dry.

My daughter's been potty trained now for about three weeks. We had only two accidents the first week, and I think it was two accidents, both on our second day of training. When this happened, I just said "Uh oh. We didn't make it to the bathroom on time. Next time, we need to make sure the pee pee goes in the potty". And that seemed to work for us.

Until I can declare her "officially" potty trained, we still need to work on a few things:

• No diapers at night. We've tried a few nights without diapers, some of those nights were successful, some weren't. Once we can get better with limiting liquids at night, then I think this part will come along as well.. (She's been doing no diapers at nap time since the first week of training).
• Pulling her panties down and back up herself. She can pull them up most the time on her own with some assistance, but she still needs lots of help getting them down quickly.
• Wiping. She can wipe after she pees, but needs help making sure she gets it all. And she always says "Front to back, front to back" although I don't think she quite understands what it means just yet! Wiping after a BM will be a long road ahead of us, as I think it is for most kids.

Potty training is just another perfect example of how each child is so different and develops at their own rate. Sure, I compared myself to others and felt a little guilty that my kid wasn't potty trained when all of her friends the same age were. I just constantly had to remind myself to not get all worked up, and it would happen when it would happen. And it did, finally!

What tips and tricks do you have up your sleeve for those who are about to face the potty training milestone?

Be sure to visit Brooke at Dinkypops No More where she blogs about life with her darling little girl and showcases her beautiful photographs!

Organizing our summer fun - the summer list

I saw this fabulous idea at MomAdvice last year, courtesty of Megan. It was such a hit at our house that we created a fall and Christmas list as well. Writing down the "don't want to miss" activities for each season and posting the list in a visible area (our fridge) really helps us keep our priorities in line. I am definitely one who benefits from accountability, and if I don't keep certain events and activities in front of me, time tends to get away. (Is it seriously June already?!? Yikes!)


What are your "don't want to miss" activities this summer? What tricks do you use to help make sure you schedule those activities before time gets away from you?

Looking for a great makeup routine? A Bare Minerals review

My mom and I are big both fans of Bare Minerals. She was nice enough to write up this guest post explaining why she loves the products so much. Without further delay, please give a warm bloggy welcome to Problem Solvin Mom's Mom! :)

Infomercials…..I love to hate them. So how can my absolute favorite of all products be something that peddles itself at 4 am over and over ad naseaum?

I have to admit, I never would have tried it if my daughter hadn’t told me that her buddies at the Y in the morning were telling her how much they love….Bare Minerals.

My daughter and I made a trip to the closest Bare Escentuals store about a year ago to treat ourselves to a makeover; prepared to spend some bucks. And spend we did, but boy did we look good! I will say though, that now that I know what I need, the expense is not too bad and I will NEVER use any other makeup.

I would think the infomercial would scare some ladies off by saying the TV special that you get for $60 is worth $209. I would never spend $209 on makeup. Once you get that starter kit with the brushes, the things you will need to replace are Prime Time (the most amazing of all), the foundation, the Warmth (which lasts for a long time) and the mineral veil finishing powder. I also use I.D. Bare Vitamins before the Prime Time, but I think some people use regular moisturizer. I am worth every penny I spend on BareMinerals.

The reason I am so captured by this product is that my skin has improved so much since I started using it. I am 61 years old, had redness that would start to show immediately after starting my day…until Bare Minerals. It has actually improved my skin so much that it even looks better without makeup than it did before.

I asked for some of my Bare Minerals for Christmas this year; but I did run out of foundation prior to Christmas Day. I stopped in to get a name brand at the drug store; but there was no comparison and I was glad to stop using it!!

You can believe every word spoken in the BareMinerals infomercial. So, besides wanting to tell everyone how wonderful Bare Minerals is, I have to wonder what other infomercials are actually peddling some good products….anyone have a favorite that they were skeptical about at first?

I guess that’s why they call them PESTS…Car seat woes!

EmDee got home last night about midnight from his trip, (coincidentally the same time we got back from urgent care last night after taking Sweetpea in for an ear infection) and reminded me that he would need the car seat replaced in his car before I left for work in the morning if he was going to be able to pick Sweetpea up from daycare. I am admittedly anal about installing the car seat, but this little reminder elicited a groan from me nonetheless. The thought of getting up early to install a car seat after getting home from the sick kiddo zoo at midnight wasn’t overly appealing.

That groan was nothing like the one (or was it whispered cursing under my breath? I’ll never tell) that I let escape when I saw a little mouse had taken up residence in the car seat over the week that EmDee had been gone. At first I thought it was just the pad that sits in the bottom of the seat. No big deal, really. I dusted it off and shook the car seat every which way to make sure said mouse wasn’t still in residence.

As I went to install the seat, I noticed that mouse hadn’t stopped at the pad. He felt it necessary to chew the edges of the straps of the car seat too! I imagine it was the stray goldfish and the warmth of the seat that attracted him. Why, then, did he spare the goldfish cracker and eat the straps? I guess that’s why they call them PESTS!! I don’t think I’ll ever be able to look at Mickey the same way.

Oh, and to add insult to injury, the straps the mouse chewed? Not replaceable!! That means this miscreant ruined my $130 car seat – I could just cry thinking about it! {{sob}}

*edited to add* I absolutely LOVE my Evenflo Triumph Advanced car seat, but as an engineer I can't imagine designing straps that can't be removed. If I had known at the time, I never would have purchased this model. I love the infinitely adjustable shoulder strap height, but apparently it is that very feature that is causing me so much grief right now. I called the manufacturer and confirmed that I can't replace the straps.