cold mice

Ice cream good.  Mice bad.  An ice cream mouse...tasty.  We made these the other night at pre-school family night.  Here's what you do - place a scoop of ice-cream or frozen yogurt into a cupcake liner and then let the kiddies decorate it to make a mouse.  Use vanilla wafers or mini cookies for the ears, craisins or jelly beans for the mouth and eyes and a pretzel stick for the tail.  Make it organic by using - Julie's Organic Ice Cream and Newman's Own baked pretzels.

allergies and congestion

Janae has had chronic sinus infections for oh...about a year.  Her symptoms?  Yellow snot, headaches, and severe congestion.  Her pediatrician has been treating it with antibiotic which clears the issue but the infection pays a visit 2 months later.  So she had an allergy back prick test.  The cause?  Dust mites and grass.  We have now encased her pillows and mattress, kicked up the air purifier, dutifully vacuum her room twice a week and wash her bed linen once a week in hot water.  And she does a daily sinus rinse (nasal irrigation) and a prescribed steroid nose spray - fluticasone. It's working. Want a homeopathic sinus recipe? Just mix iodine-free salt, baking soda and water. Allergy Buster is a homeopathic nose spray option. And instead of the antibiotic, I now give her the allergy tablet cetirizine when her symptoms flair. Allergy shots are another option if your kids can deal.  There are side effects to everything, so do your research.

manners baby

We actually started the "Can I be excused from the table?" a month or so ago.  Had to.  Here's a taste of what they were doing - sitting and eating children, 4 minutes in, getting up, walking, running, playing, food in mouth, food on floor, mess.  I was done.  Tonight we sat down to eat dinner.  TV was off. I had the girls tell me things they could do to show good manners.  Eat with your mouth close.  No talking while eating. Saying excuse me when someone is talking or you walk in front of them.  They sat the whole time.  Talking.  In his weekly blog, Rosemond says - "We will spend at least as much time helping our children develop good manners as do helping them get good grades in school, which means we will cut back significantly on the time helping with the latter (in consideration of the fact that good manners, which are expressions of respect for others, will take one further in life than will good grades)."  Read more at www.rosemond.com

Happy resolutions.