Monthly Archives: January 2014

Skin Deep App

Have you ever wondered if the make up you are using contains harmful chemicals or if the lotion you are putting on your kids is bad for them?  Well, look no further!  The Environmental Working Group and Skin Deep have gotten together and made the best app ever!  It is called “Skin Deep”.

I typically use the Skin Deep website to look up the toxicity of the makeup and lotions that I might buy to see if I should purchase them or not.  I also use the website each spring to research the different brands of sunscreen to see which is the most effective and least harmful to our health.  Skin Deep ranks all products with a number of 0-10 and with a color of green, yellow or red, depending on the toxicity level. You want things to be as close to zero as possible and the color coding makes it easy. Go for the green! It is a fabulous resource.  Here are the two websites that I use: www.skindeep.org  
www.EWG.org

Today I went to Target to buy some lotion. I usually buy products that are either all natural or organic but you can never fully trust the label. I decided to download the Skin Deep app while I was there and it worked beautifully.  I was able to use the app to scan the barcodes on the various types of lotions that were in the “naturals” aisle.  Believe it or not, but not everything that says “natural” on it is something that is actually natural.  It is just a marketing ploy.  Well, today I was able to purchase a lotion that was labeled organic and was ranked a green two. Thanks to my new app.

Please get the app! You can scan make up, shampoo, lotion, sunscreen, baby products, etc. It was so helpful and saved me both time and money. I will use it every time I am at the store and have a question as to whether or not I should use a product.

One of my top app recommendations !

Oh! And did I mention that it is free?!

Sick. Again.

I am typically only sick once every other year or so. Now that I am teaching preschool I have gotten sick twice in the last month. I am not usually big on using hand sanitizer or the over washing of my hands, but I have realized that I need to step it up, at least a little bit. I do not want to go through again.  This time I ended up with Strep Throat.  I had a fever on Tuesday and by Wednesday even the outside of my throat hurt.  I went to the Minute Clinic at CVS.  It is brilliant!!  I do not have a regular doctor and so when I get sick I don’t usually know where to go.  CVS has a nurse practitioner that can prescribe meds and can do a quick Strep test. The best part is that it only costs as much as a doctor’s co-pay.  For me, the whole thing only cost an hour of my time and $30.  That is better than a doctor visit.

That being said, being sick has made me grateful for one thing: my parents. On Tuesday, my fever wasn’t too high yet and so I was able to watch Miller in the morning.  My dad offered to watch the kids for me while I took an hour and a half nap that afternoon.  Then, on Wednesday, I dropped the kids off for their full day at Grandma’s house.  I was able to go to CVS, watch two hours of Downton Abbey, and rest.  I was sooooo thankful.

Everyone tells me how lucky I am to have such able-bodied and willing parents.  They watch my kids all day on Mondays and Wednesdays.  This has been going on since I became pregnant with Miller (even though they have been watching “the cousins” on those days for many years).  My dad even says that the very reason he retired was so that he could take care of the “little people”. That works great for me!!  I appreciate the time that they give me, especially when I am sick.  Life doesn’t stop just because I don’t feel well.

So, today I feel better but not great.  My throat still hurts and I know that I still have a slight fever.  I was hoping that the penicillin would be a miracle drug and I would feel 100% better within 24 hours.  It wasn’t.  I do feel better and was able to take care of the kids today even though my patience wore thin at times.  I know that tomorrow will be better and yesterday I was given the gift of rest…which I am very thankful for.

Christmas presents

I like to name the top ten presents that the kids receive each year for Christmas. They like them all and they play with them all, but there are always a few that stand out. Here they are in no particular order:

1. Pajama Panchos from Aunt Shelly. These are actually a really funny and useful gift. The kids love them. It is a fleece blanket with a hood in the middle. They each got one: a Thomas the train, a princess and a Spider-Man poncho. They wear them all the time!

2. Pillow Pet Dream Lites – This is a pillow pet that shines stars in the ceiling. Fabulous! Faith already had one and used it frequently so I got one for Miller. He loves it. I turn it on before I turn off the light at bed time, turn off the lights and then he dives in bed. He even carries it around the house.  It also keeps him occupied in the morning which is even better!

3. Roller skates – I bought Faith a pair of purple and white Roller Derby Firestar skates.  She isn’t very good at it yet, but she wears them all of the time.  I don’t remember roller skating being difficult to learn, but it seems that it is.  At least she keeps trying!

4. Little Virtuoso MP3 player and microphone – This was for Miller.  He walks around carrying it and singing very loudly into it.  Tom looked at me last night and said, “Who’s idea was this?!?” (knowing full well it was mine).  He likes it and it gets played with often.

5. Star Wars sheets – Boring gift but totally cool at the same time.  They are very retro.  I bought them at the consignment sale two years ago and have been waiting for Wilson to be old enough before I gave them to him.

6. Helicopter with a remote –  This toy didn’t last very long, but the kids loved it.  It it was a very small helicopter that flew very fast.  The only problem was that it was fragile and the battery life was only six minutes!  Tom wants to buy another one and try not to crash it as much.  We will see.

7. Crayola bath tablets and shaving cream – Aunt Kim gave the boys two cans of pretend shaving cream – a pink and a blue.  It even came with a pretend razor.  Luckily we had another pretend razor already.  The two cans only lasted one bath, but it was worth it.  They also received a small container full of what looks like Easter egg dying tablets: red, blue and yellow.  The kids put these tablets in the tub and it makes the water change colors.  This makes an “all natural” mom like myself cringe a bit, but they love it.  I feel like I am dying children instead of Easter eggs.

8.  Thomas the Train book with sounds –  Miller loves this book.  He pushes the seven buttons as I read the story.  He is even beginning to push them at the appropriate time.

9.  Imaginext Pirate Ship – Miller likes to shoot the cannons.  Unfortunately, we only have one or two of the cannons left.

10.  Griddle for the stove top – This one if for me!  I grew up with a stand alone griddle and Tom grew up with one that goes on top of the burner.  I now have one for the top of the burner and it is great!  I needed something to make four grilled cheeses or pancakes on at one time.  Thanks Tom!!

Rock climbing

Yesterday I told tom that I didn’t want Miller to grow up any more! I want him to stay the same age forever. I want him sweet and talkative and little forever. However, I cannot stop time. He will continue to grow and my baby will be gone….he is already two, knows his colors, sings songs and can count to ten. Amazing right?

But then that afternoon Faith had a birthday party at Inner Peaks, an indoor rock climbing center. She and her friends put on harnesses and began to climb as high as they could. Faith made it half way up before being afraid of the height (she gets that from me). I was so excited for her and proud of her that I could have cried, literally. She tried something new that was scary and she did it well.

I get very emotionally involved when it comes to my kids and their accomplishments and life experiences. Watching faith climb reminded me that there are so many wonderful and exciting new experiences to come for all of my kids. There is so much ahead of them: school, sports, awards, recitals, dances, weddings and eventually kids.
Hence, there is no need to be sad about miller growing up because I am going to be proud of every new experience he has, just like I am with Wilson and faith.

Here is faith climbing….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCqFRjJ4YY4

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Swimming at the Y

Yesterday we had scheduled a playdate with Sidney and her kids.  We typically do the same things, either go to the playground or one of our houses.   We decided to change it up and go to the indoor pool at the Harris YMCA.  This Y has a graduated pool for the kiddies and a small kiddie slide as well.  It is a great indoor pool for children.  Compared to the air temperature, the water felt rather warm.  The kids loved it!  Rarely do I take them swimming in the winter.  Personally, I don’t like swimming or getting into a cold swimming pool, but I may have to suck it up and do it more often anyway.  The kids need to continue working on their swimming skills so that they will be ready for summer.

The Charlotte YMCAs require that kids pass a small swim test in order to swim more than an arm’s reach from their parents.  I totally forgot to bring the kids’ necklaces from last year and Robin had never taken the test.  The life guard gave them the swim test again and they both passed.  (Wilson didn’t want to take it again.)  Having a necklace meant that Robin and Faith could do something totally new and exciting:  go down the giant waterslide!  Faith was scared at first but after seeing Robin do it she went for it.  They loved it!  I think that they each went down the slide at least six times in a row.  I was proud of them – it was a really big slide.  Again, this is something that we need to do more often.  Life can get somewhat boring if I don’t change things up every once in a while.  Today I can say that we did something out of the ordinary and had a great time!

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Home Again

I have spent two wonderful days at home with the kids. With the rush of school and work over the past few months,  I had forgotten how much I enjoy being at home with them.  It reminded me of how much fun we used to have when we were all at home together everyday.  Although those days got a little long sometimes, it was fun just having them around me while I cleaned or did other things.   Now that Miller is older, the three of them can all play together, and they do it very well.  Wilson and Miller are even going off together to play in Wilson’s room.   The three of them run around the house making up games (I don’t know why they even have any toys).

I am not looking forward to school starting again tomorrow.  The mornings come early and are very busy.   I really don’t want to go back to work.  As easy and fun as my job is, I just want to spend time with those that are most important to me.   I will now have a better appreciation of the time that we do spend together on the weekends and some afternoons.  Saturday may now be designated as “family day.”  Sometimes Saturdays turn into a tag-team event.  I go out for a few hours by myself and as soon as I return Tom goes somewhere by himself.   I am sure that we will still have some days like that, but I hope that a “family” day will happen more times than not.

Mc Donalds

The other day I decided to meet my friend Erin and her two kids at the McDonalds near my house because it was freezing outside.  I typically do not go to McDonalds because I find their food repulsive, except for the ice cream cones. I arrived first and I walked into the McDonalds to find this play area…..

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At first glance it seemed pretty boring.  Erin and I thought that we would try to stick it out for about half an hour because that is how long we thought that the kids would actually be entertained.  It turns out that they were able to play here for over two hours!  For a while they took the sanitizing wipes out of the dispenser and cleaned all of the play equipment.  They did this until all of the wipes were gone.  At one point they lined up the chairs in the corner and played under the chairs. They did play on the statues for quite a while as well.

Erin and I just sat there and watched.  We did give them ice cream as a treat, but that only took up ten minutes. Some how the kids had a great time in this play area for babies.  I bet we could go back and they would enjoy it just the same.  This just goes to prove that it isn’t about what they are playing with, but who they are playing with.