Everything I know, I learned from Pinterest!

I LOVE Pinterest!

It inspires me to do creative and beautiful things.

I realized though that it would be one thing to pin a bunch of wonderful ideas and recipes and crafts and another to actually attempt to create some magic of my own.

So I am starting this new series to keep me motivated and moving forward.

My first project was inspired by this pin

http://pinterest.com/pin/269230883944903017/

From a lovely blog - I heart Organizing

So my oldest child jus started preschool and I love every single paper that she comes home with and know I just can't part with them. 

When I saw this pin and read the coordinating blog post - I knew I needed my very own box for Emma. 

I bought the cheapest file box with a lid at Staples 

and used Modge Podge and paper to make it girly!

I used sharpie paint markers to write "Emma Grace School Memories" on the front of the box. 

I heart organizing offers great templates that you can download for free for including on the outside of each file folder!

I decided to design my own to match the pink, coral and green box. 

 School pictures were today so once I get them back, I will add one to the front of the file. 

Each year I can add a photo and other details!

Papers were already starting to pile up so I am so excited that I have a nice place to keep everything! 

Thanks so much for the inspiration Pinterest and I heart organizing! 

The Kind Project - May Kindness

Yesterday I posted about my new idea to help teach my daughter about being kind to others, the Kind Project! 

I have been so excited to tell you about our first victim!

My cousin's beautiful four year old daughter was recently diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Although this diagnosis is not a death sentence, it is a life sentence and the life of this little girl and her family has forever been changed.

A few weeks ago my cousins had a "Hope ceremony" for her! I thought it was such a meaningful way for the family to celebrate the hope they have for their daughter and her bright (but changed) future. She wrote a letter to her diabetes and they buried it and planted a Hope tree over it. They made a little portion of their yard into a Hope Garden.

It's times like these that I really miss my family back in NM and I hate missing out on stuff like this. I started thinking about a meaningful way that we could contribute and the "Birdhouse of Hope" idea was born.

My 2 year old daughter and I went to Michaels. She picked out one of their pre-made birdhouses, 2 paint colors and some wooden and sparkly embellishments. We waited for a nice sunny day and painted the house and put the embellishments on it.

My daughter working on the birdhouse

Our finished house! Pink and Purple with flowers, butterflies, hearts and LOVE!!

As we were working on the house, I explained to Emma why we were making the birdhouse. I said that her cousin was sick and that she was going to be sick for the rest of her life. That we were making the birdhouse for her hope garden. I asked her how she thought she would feel if she was sick and she said sad. I explained to her that cousin feels sad a lot and that maybe our birdhouse would help cheer her up. I asked Emma what she thought and she said, "Mommy, I think it needs more butterflies!" (the butterflies were sparkly embellishments she picked out for the house) 

We both felt so good making this and knowing that it wasn't just a bird house, but a symbol of love and hope and that it would mean so much to my cousin and his family. 

Last night my cousin received the birdhouse and I can't even begin to explain in words how happy my heart feels knowing that we have lifted his family up even for just a short time. 

Tomorrow I will share more from their reactions and also some more thoughts about this project from my 2 year old. 

Until then, I remain....

Clueless but with a huge happy smiling heart! 

The Nice Project!

I have to say, all of the news lately about kids being bullied so much that it drives them to suicide really really bothers me! So very sad!!

I have two kids and I hope they are so many things but one of the most important in my eyes is that I hope they are kind! I am trying to teach my oldest about kindness and being kind to others and I hope I make an impact on her. I hope that when she starts school, she is the one extending a hand to others instead of pushing them around. I hope that I am a role model to both of my children and they see in me someone who is kind!

I have been thinking a lot about ways that I can teach my daughter about kindness in a meaningful way and the nice project was born. Each month we are going to pick one person who we think needs some lifting up and we are going to do something extra nice for them!

My hope is that the project not only teaches my daughter abbot kindness but that it influences others to act in the same manner.

We will be documenting our journey here so please be sure to check back!

Until then, I remain,
Clueless, but also Kind 

A pretty crappy day!

Wow, when I say I had a pretty crappy day, I mean it literally!

We planned to meet my MIL and SIL at the local mall, to see if we could convince the kids to take a decent photo with the Easter bunny! I put my son in a cute outfit given to him by my MIL. Look how cute he looked:

We arrived at the mall at the same time that my son needed to eat, no problem, we have become pros at breast feeding in the car! So we proceed with the feeding, but he's not very focused and keeps pulling away. Suddenly, he passes gas with the force of a full grown male and I smell poop! I sit him up to burp him and see his whole back covered in poop! Fantastic.
Not only that but it's on my shirt and pants! No problem I think to myself, I can change him in the back. I get a nice changing station set up in the back, only to discover, I forgot to put his change of clothes in the diaper bag! Crap!!!!! Okay, we are at Macy's lets go buy something. I pack us all up and we search the racks for something for him to wear while he sits in his poop explosion and I walk around with poop on my pants and shirt! What a sight we must have been!!
Suffice it to say, we got our Easter bunny photo! (a pretty good one too) and the rest of the day went off with out a hitch! Until we came home to find my dog had diarrhea in the house!! I dunno, it must have been my day for a poop storm!

Knee deep in crap and still,
Clueless

Shedding a tear in Target!

It's Friday and I like to head to Target on Fridays!

With a toddler and an infant I feel like its a pretty safe place for us as well. My kids can cry, we can get lunch and I can shop with very few people giving me the evil eye for anything. My daughter, for some crazy reason loves going to target, and especially loves having lunch there.

We had a pretty uneventful trip today. My daughter didn't throw any tantrums and my son was awake the whole time and didn't cry. I decided to get one of those huge carts, where my daughter can sit facing forward and my son can sit in his carrier. And that was a disaster, ever try pushing one of these boats around in Target?? I felt like I have truly evolved as a mom pushing this honker around!

Anyway, I digress....The point of this blog post is coming, I promise!

So we check out and proceed to the nice little cafe area, Pizza hut for my daughter, starbucks for me and a nice fresh pumped bottle for my son. The pizza would take about 10 minutes and my son started to  scream, so I used the empty seat of the cart as a little bottle station and warmed up the bottle with a cup of hot water I purchased (UGH!!!!) from starbucks as we waited. I feel kind of like a jerk standing at the front of Target with a screaming baby, using the cart as a station, but we do what we must!

I am suddenly approached by a woman. She's around 40 - early 50 and just looks so kind. I fear she might scold me but instead she says, I just had to come see who was make all that racket. She spent a good 5 minutes looking at my son, asking his name, telling me how cute he was, when all of a sudden I noticed she was crying. I must have had a look of concern because she says, he reminds me so much of my son. He's a senior in high school graduating in a few weeks and I can't for the life of me figure out where all the time went. She told me to enjoy every single minute, because it goes so fast and you know what, I started crying too. I cried because I could see myself down the road wondering the same thing.

Even if everyday is crazy and I don't have a clue most of the time what I am doing, I do cherish every moment and I do know that it's going to go so fast! So, to the kind woman who shared a tear with me today at Target: thank you so much for putting my days into prospective for me and putting me back on track. (at least until my daughter turns into a beast again or my son poops on me!)

Have a great weekend friends.........

Enjoying the ride but still pretty much,

CLUELESS

Nursing...

Phew, ever have a day where you feel completely clueless and incompetent nursing?

ME TOO!!!

Especially today! My son (almost 3 mths) is having one of  those days where he's hungry all the time and when I feed him he does what I call "the fuss nurse"! Eat a little, pull away, cry and then go back. It makes me feel like I am not producing enough to make him happy and then I get frustrated too. It brought me to tears for the first time since I have had him. I can remember crying over breastfeeding with my daughter on more than one occasion, so I must be evolving as a mom!

The thing is, breastfeeding is hard! (one of the hardest things I have ever done!) There is so much about it that people don't tell you, that you don't expect and its so darn easy to just give up!!!

So here is my list of things you should know about breastfeeding that nobody thought to tell you:

1. You will literally feel like a milk cow from the second the milk starts to flow!!

2. When the milk does start to flow, you'd be amazed at how far it can squirt!

3. It's not fun to be talking to your mother-in law and suddenly have your milk come down with no breast pad. It's like suddenly peeing your pants, only its in a far more obvious spot. Bring breast pads with you everywhere!

4. There will be a time where whipping out your breast seems so much easier than waiting for the wait staff at your favorite restaurant to bring you a mug of hot water while your baby screams and those who are trying to enjoy a nice quiet meal shoot daggers at you with their eyes!!

5.Breastfeeding in public seems like a viable option now that you are finally breastfeeding.
(I used to think breastfeeding in public was weird, now that I am a breastfeeder, it sounds like a great idea! Where do I sign up for one of those public demonstrations?)

6. Everything you do will now revolve around breastfeeding! Running to the store is no longer. First you have to decide if you can squeeze in a quick trip before the 2 1/2 hours is up and you need to feed your baby again.

7. 2 to 3 hours is a very very short time, especially if your child eats for 45 min to an hour - then it's even less time that you have where you don't have the sweet little thing latched to you!!

8. Trying to see exactly how much you can get done in the short time you have between feedings becomes your new favorite game.

9. Having visitors is not as easy as it once was, now you have to determine if the visit will fall in the feeding zone and then you will have to decide if you are going to leave your visitors for awhile to go feed the baby in private, feed the baby with the visitors in the same room but cover up, or prepare a bottle and pray that the baby takes it from you, your hubby or one of the visitors.

10. Breastfeeding is very demanding, is not easy and takes up a lot of your time, but it is one of the best things you can do for your children! If you are able to do it, good for you! Keep it up! If you aren't, it's okay too - don't beat yourself up over it!!

Baby Latched as I type and still pretty........

CLUELESS

Judge Not!

A friend of mine posted this to Facebook and after reading it and completely agreeing with it - it got me thinking!!

I was, of course, one of those people who judged parents with their kids when I was not a parent myself. I can remember sitting on plane rides, in particular, with a screaming kid and thinking to myself, "UGH, I will never allow my kids to scream on a plane! How rude for the rest of us!"

I say to myself back then - "HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!

That one really came back to bite me in the butt when we took our daughter, who was 1 1/2, to New Mexico last Christmas. This was her first plane ride.

We woke up the day after Christmas to a white out blizzard and were certain our flight would be cancelled. After checking the flight status all morning, our flight was on time as we headed to the airport. We must have made it through security, etc without a hitch because I simply do not remember any of this part of that trip.

What I do remember is boarding the plane, looking out the window and thinking there is no way we are taking off in this weather. We had used points to upgrade to first class for this leg of the flight and were excited to enjoy a rare luxury for a bit.  We were armed with Snacks and Toys and Juice for Emma but what we could not prepare for was the 3 hours we would have to spend on the tarmac, simply WAITING!! The first leg of our trip was to be about 3 hours and we had just spent 3 hrs not even flying yet! I knew we were doomed!

Emma was ready to get up and move around, and you know that's a no-no when you are just sitting there! Once we finally took off, it took everything my husband and I had in us to keep her sitting on our laps happily. The rest of the flight must have been okay, I don't remember much. I do remember putting Emma on the floor in front of me and letting her play with toys. Oh the pre-kid me would have had a field day about that one! I put my child on the filthy airplane floor!!

Anyhoo..... the landing was just about the worst 45 minutes of our lives! Once Emma had to get back in my husbands lap, she was PISSED and then her ears started to hurt and the scream fest began!!

We were in first class too so the people around us were extra stuffy! I can remember this one man turning around and shooting my hubby a dirty look, to which the hubby replied "you think this is fun for us?"

Once we finally landed and had to haul all of our crap across the airport for the second leg of the flight - I collapsed into tears. I think it was part - i just listened to my daughter scream helplessly for 45 minutes, and part - Everyone on that plane hated us.

I can't believe the pre-kid me was so judgmental and it's amazing to me how judgmental non-parents can be!!

We have not gone on another trip since that awful experience but now that Emma is almost 3, we are hoping to give it another go! I hope we can be brave enough to actually go through with it and I hope this time I won't give a rats butt what all of the judges around me think!!

I leave you with a photo of Sally Screamer on said flight:

CLUELESS AND NON-JUDGEMENTAL

Get A Clue Thursday

Project: Lemon Sugar Scrub Valentines Day Gifts

One thing I know for sure is that I want my children to have plenty of opportunities to learn, grow and be creative. As a stay at home mom, I do my best to provide activities and learning opportunities for them.

This was a Valentines Day project we worked on. 

I wanted Emma to be able to physically make something for her grandma and aunt. 

I also wanted it to be something useful for them and not something sweet (everyone is watching their girly figure). 

So I found this recipe from Under the Table and Dreaming  for a lemon sugar hand scrub. 

It was so easy to make and so much fun for us - plus it didn't cost more than about $8! 

I found the jars at Michaels. 

 

I had the flowers and the heart shaped teaspoons just lying around the house. 

I made the labels with my computer and my scallop and circle punches. 

 Emma loves following recipes, mixing and best of all giving gifts to family and friends and this was the perfect project for us.

Second Year Molars

What follows is my epic saga with Emma's two year molars (or so I thought!)


Tuesday: Emma starts to act a little "off". Whining (more than usual), not wanting to eat, just not her self.

Wednesday: Wakes up off, falls asleep on the couch (something she never ever does) and wakes up with a fever. She seems to be holding lots of spit in her mouth. Naturally, she's not swallowing because it hurts, I look in her mouth, see a white spot on her tonsil and the panic sets in. She has strep and I have a 2 month old. Emma gets rushed to the doctor's and gets diagnosed with a simple "virus" that needs to run it's course.

Thursday: Fever dies down and hubby notices that Emma's gums are swollen. I google "swollen gums, fever and crankiness in a 2 year old" and a bunch of stuff comes up about teething. I think to myself, "no, we are past teething!" but I grab my hubby's flashlight and try to get a look in her mouth. Sure enough, she has molars trying to pop up on both sides on the bottom. Once we know what it is, it seems she just gets worse. Cries at everything and nothing, won't eat,barely drinks. My sweet little girl has turned into a beast!

Friday: Hubby has a day off, poor guy! I don't think having a teething beast was part of his plan, not to mention a cranky baby.

Saturday: Yippee another whole day at home with "the beast" - I am ready to rip my eyes out. I buy a bottle of wine and would have consumed the entire bottle in one swig, if I wasn't breastfeeding. One large glass will have to do.

Sunday: Beast still lurking. We decide to take a family outing to my brother-in-laws house. I haven't been anywhere in days and maybe the beast will be easier to deal with in the company of others. Emma immediately makes my BIL and SIL her slaves, poor them, they didn't even see it coming. "I want a cook book", " I want pizza and juice", "I want a better cookbook", "I don't want pizza and juice" God help us!

Monday: Hubby is giddy, he gets to go back to work! Leaving me here alone with baby and beast!! As I type this, I can only hope that this has passed. I've said several prayers asking for her to wake up the happy, sweet girl I know. Opps, I can hear her crying through the monitor....so far, not so good. I am totally frightened of what the day is going to bring with my hubby at work.

If I make it out alive I will keep you posted on the saga of the Second year Molars, until then I remain...

CLUELESS!

Second Year Molars...part 2

Case in point I have no clue.....

For five days I think my daughter is getting her 2 year molars! I watch helplessly as she cries out in pain, her gums (the whole mouth) are severely swollen and she refuses to eat. And yet there is some little thing deep down telling me perhaps this is something more.

As continued from here....

Monday

Beast comes down the stairs with daddy, crying about something completely outlandish! Daddy has all her sheets and I think, "what a smart man, she's drooling so much!" But then I notice the blood stains all over the sheets and pillowcases and my panic mode comes into play again. She does have a small blister on the corner of her mouth, I thought it was a zit, you know, from all the drool.

So I am scouring the internet, finding all kinds of scary things she could have while having an internal melodrama with myself about why or why not she needs to see a doctor when the phone rings. It's my hubby (he's on his way to work) "you might think I am crazy, but I called the doctor and made an appointment for Emma to go in this morning" CRAZY? No hunny you are a brave brave man. I sat and had crazy stupid conversations over and over in my head while my cool calm and collected husband simply picked up the phone and made the call. Why can't all of my decisions be that simple? Anyhow......

So we go to the doctor and I explain all of the symptoms and within seconds the doctor says, she has Gingivostomatitis!!

WTH? This whole time I thought she was teething!!!

On a lighter note, I don't have to worry about little AJ coming down with the gingiwhatsomacallit because he's breastfed! How awesome is that? While I may not have a clue about a lot of things, I do know that Breastfeeding Rocks!!

Until we meet again..... I remain,

Clueless

The beautiful gift of nap time!

I might be totally clueless about most of this stuff, but one thing I know for sure is the importance of nap time!! And not just for my own sanity but also for my children!

My daughter was super easy to get the hang of sleep!! She was sleeping through the night at 6 weeks and I know I never had any trouble getting her on a nap schedule.

My son on the other hand is proving to be a bit more of a challenge!

We've gotten him so he will go to bed on his own at night - I can't stress the importance of teaching your children to fall asleep on their own as early as you possibly can. I have read a lot about this and find that the methods of Tracy Hogg, The Baby Whisperer are really the best. She is somewhere in the middle of the Cry it Out method and the Co-sleeping method. Anyway, I would put AJ down in his crib AWAKE but tired. For about a week, it was a bit of a struggle, he would cry, ALOT and we did let him cry but once he got into what I call "pterodactyl" (high pitch screams), my husband or I would go in there and reassure him that he was okay. We didn't pick him up or turn on the light, just simply stayed with him for a little bit and left. Now sometimes we would have to repeat this several times before he finally gave in. One word of advice I can give about the whole process is stick to a bedtime routine and TIME!

Nap time is a whole different monster! Now granted, he is only 3 months old but I know the sooner we can have routine nap time around the same time each day, the easier this will all be for ALL of us! I am trying not to be obsessed with getting it down but at the same time I know I have to remain consistent in my methods and he will eventually catch on!

Yesterday, both of my children gave me the gift of long beautiful naps! And not only that, but they napped at the same time!! So naturally, when something so perfect happens, the next day when one of them decides they don't need to nap its such a ginormous let down.  I feel like I have been trying to get my son to take a nap all day long. I know I shouldn't expect to have two great days in a row but it was just so nice!

As I type this both of my children are asleep (finally) and my house is filled with a nice calm quiet that is so refreshing. I can sit here and recharge and be ready for whatever the second part of the day is going to bring. This moment alone was worth the battle royal my son and I had for most of the day about the nap. Mommy 1 AJ  0  :)

Basking in the moment but still a little....

Clueless