Throwing Cookies

I got a call from daycare the other day letting me know both girls had thrown up and I needed to come pick them up. I was doing a few more emails, when my oldest Janae threw up again. When I got to the daycare, my little Belle had joined Janae in the second heat of the Throw Up Olympics. When we arrived home, the "sick" girls ran down the hall and shouted with joy and began to play very hard to my surprise. In the meantime, I had beefed up my knowledge on their condition online and knew they could only have a few tablespoons of water every 5-10 minutes for the first 6-8 hours after vomiting. This didn't go over well, lots of whining and hunger pains going on even with the nod from mommy to drink Sprite. Pretty soon, I had them following me around the house begging for another cracker. I would hand them out like precious gems looking for any signs of nausea and diarrhea. But nothing happened, they only got hungrier. I promised a big bowl of noodles when they awoke from their nap and begged them, literally to go to sleep. When they awoke, everyone felt better, including me. and I served up the BRAT diet of bananas, rice/pasta, apples and toast and the next day they were eating normal food again. Looking back, I think the milk in their oatmeal that morning must have been the culprit.

Tell me a story about teething

I spoke to a mom at daycare about Belle’s’s teething and she recommended I stop by a drugstore and buy some teething tablets by Hylands. These little white homeopathic tablets worked wonders combined with a little Ibuprofen and Hylands teething gel. I give her a dose of all of this right before she goes to sleep and then another dose around 2am or so. The teething gel is 100% natural with no dyes or coloring agents. The tablets are a homeopathic combination of natural ingredients that help with sleeping and decrease pain and irritability. She didn’t like the taste of them first so I dissolved two tablets in a small dish with a ½ teaspoon of water and then used a small dropper to insert the liquid into her mouth. She now likes the taste and will chew them like a vitamin. Hylands also carries ear ache tablets and drops which are quite spendy at around $17.00 a box but I heard they are worth it and much preferred then the dreaded antibiotics.

the simple life

We are in the process of moving and selling our home. And while packing and renting a storage is a pain the ending result of a clutter free home is so worth it. The girls only have one bin of toys, we have eight plates and four glasses. There are five books on the bookshelf and no pictures to dust. I am loving life and thinking as I walk through our bare necessities condo, why do we have so much stuff? And I actually have time to play with the girls and not feel the need to clean. Now when we move in to the new space which, if I get my way, we will have a nice size garage. My declutter plan is to take two boxes in the house each day, go through it and make 3 piles: love it, maybe or hate it. If I love it, it stays in the house, maybe goes in the garage with a date on the box and if I hate it goes to charity. Now the maybe box needs to revisited 6 months to one year later and if I don't need to open it, its new home is the Goodwill.

More teeth please

At sixteen months my little one is still cutting teeth with only eight peeking through. We thought another nasty ear infection was looming, but no just new choppers. She has been awful fussy, low-grade fever, no appetite, sucks on her fingers, and bites my shoulder when I hold her. After some string cheese, a dose of Ibuprofen, and a stint with a frozen turtle teething ring, the clock struck 10 pm. And she still wasn't asleep. I was on the edge of loosing it...got desperate and grabbed an ice cube for her to munch on, a Popsicle to chew, and a teething biscuit. I finally found the baby teething gel and this was the icing. I put some on my finger and rubbed her gums for a couple of minutes and she cooed and sighed and was dreaming in seven minutes. The picture of her here is clearly a cute non-teething moment.

Evil mineral oil

It's in baby powder, baby wipes, lotions, aftershave, makeup, shampoo, detanglers, wall paper strippers, stain removers and the list goes on. Propylene Glycol is a colorless, alcohol based mineral oil. Skin contact has been linked to liver abnormalities and kidney damage and cancer . Good news is there are alternative products without PG. Scroll down to the bottom of this page but here are a few links:

Propylene Glycol-free Children's soaps / shampoos -Natural shampoo
Propylene Glycol-free Tooth paste - Natural Toothpaste
Organic beauty lines for the whole family - Kaia House and Futurenatural
Baby wipes - Seventh Generation and Home made

Kiddie Swaps

Forget what you might be thinking. Kiddie Swaps are for parents to swap out unwanted, gently used kid stuff for some other kid's items. We have held four of these at my work and all have been relatively successful. We have one coming up at the end of July but we are letting people bring their children's stuff in over the next two weeks to an empty office set up with labeled boxes. All the unswapped items are going to a local charity for low income women and kids. Knowing this makes it all the more fun when I am sorting through two and half years worth of toys and clothes.

Drum Roll

I should have known by the 2am screams and fever but I had no clue...I thought my 15 month old was teething so I kept loading her up with ibuprofen. Last Friday, her fever spiked to over 100 and I knew something wasn't right. I took her to urgent care the next day and sure enough she had an ear infection. Look for crankiness, difficult sleeping, tugging at ear, and fever. And if you take her/him to urgent care, make sure they thoroughly check the ear. I made two visits on the first ear infection and the doctor's were too timid checking the ear and gave up before seeing the redness and yucky stuff.