A Weekend with 2

This week I haven't been feeling the greatest between allergies a slight cold and late nights and just feeling like utter crap I have been feeling pretty drained. I'm trying to keep up with everything and so far its been going ok there is room for improvement but all in all its going well.

This weekend I offered to watch my friends little guy who is just a year younger then L and they are pretty much best friends. We call them boyfriend and girlfriend because they are just the cutest together. They also play really really well together which makes the whole thing super nice!

I wasn't sure what we were going to eat for lunch and dinner today as I would have both kids for both eating periods of the day. I ended up ordering myself a small pizza and got them chicken bites and fries and at the request of my kiddo potato wedges as well. The food got here super quick which was really nice L didn't want any nuggets and only ate fries and wedges and G ate 1 nugget (I gave him 3). They are both picky eaters but usually eat pretty well in each others company but they just weren't feeling it today.

We spent the morning playing and watching Noddy and had lunch and then after lunch we watched 2 more episodes of Noddy and the went outside for a swim in the pool. This was the fun part G took no time to get in the pool and was having a blast while my child who has only had one swimming lesson and now thinks she's a mermaid refused to put on and wear her puddle jumper in the pool. I made a deal with her that she could do 3 of her mermaid swims and then she had to put on her jumper she did and then the fight began. Finally I was able to put it on her and she proceeded to sit one the step to the pool for the next 20 min whining. I finally decided to see if she would jump into the deep end of the pool and joked around with her she jumped in a couple times and then all was good with the world.

The kids spent 2 hours in the pool and then decided they had had enough and were ready to go in so we did. we had a bit more of our lunch for dinner and the rest of the day the kids just wanted to play family/house in the living room and watch more Noddy so thats what they did and I sat at the kitchen table and worked. All in all it was a great day with only one melt down from my own child!

Daycare no more!

So L only has a couple days left and then she is done with Daycare. I have such mixed feelings about this I took the plunge this year and a lot of things are changing for us I went full time with my business. So I stay home all day and work from home. L has gone to daycare since she was 1 and full time since she was 2. I feel like My daycare has raised her more than I have which is a very weird think to think and I kind of hate that I think that. It's basically the same as a kid being in school the teachers have your kids all day so they are the ones taking care of your children.

The plan was that at the end of June L would be done daycare and I would have her home with me for 2 months before she starts school in September. This is no longer the plan as Daycare needs to let her go now. So I will have L home with me full time for 4 months instead of 2 which in all honesty is fine with me. L is such a good kid and I'm looking forward to spending time with her and doing things.

The other thing that will be really nice is saving money Daycare is so expensive and I have L in one of the cheaper daycares but I end up paying $700 a month. I am looking forward to not having to fork that out each month and hopefully we can put that money away instead. Hopefully that will bring us closer to our goal of buying our own home.

I have a bunch of things planned for the first few weeks of no Daycare. L has been wanting to go to the library for a little while now so I think I will probably take her there one day next week. She loves books and reading so it could be pretty fun.

I also have a plan for us to go to a local indoor playground we have here which she loves. If we go in the morning between 10-12 They have a discount and free coffee so that's a bonus! I'm also going to see if L's little boy friend and his mom can go as well to make it more fun for her. We will see!

It's going to be different and fun all in one. I'm working on getting things organized and planned in the fact that I want to start doing a chore chart and rewards system with L. I was going to do it with a money reward but have since decided that I am going to do a ticket reward system. she earns so many tickets depending on what the task is and then She can cash in her ticket for certain rewards that will have different ticket costs. Its still a work in progress.

Wish us luck!

Crayola Bathtub Crayons *Wednesday Review*

Today's Wednesday review is Crayola's Bathtub Crayons. When I saw these in the store I was kind of excited I thought L will love these! L loves to colour so bath time and colouring just seemed perfect. So last night it was bath time and I decided to surprise her with them and try them out for the first time.

You get 10 colours in the package. There is a little clicking part on the crayons that allow you to move them up out of their plastic casing. I find with the plastic casing I like it but then I also found that the crayon was very wobbly in it so you can't move the crayon up too fast or they will brake off.

The Crayon has great colour and goes on pretty thick. They are basically actual crayons just in a plastic case. L loved these and drew all over the tub. She asked to draw on the tile wall so I told her to test it out in a little patch to make sure it would wipe off before we committed. When she drew she drew slightly in the grout between the tiles and we weren't able to get the crayon to come off the grout. So this should only be used on tile and bath and stay away from the grout. 

After a while of drawing (even the adults were colouring) it was time to get out and clean up so here is the real test. The crayon was relatively easy to wipe off with just a wet paper towel. If you touched any of the crayon with your hands it would come off onto your skin but easily washed off. 

The only issues with these that I found was that I have some pink left over crayon colouring that I can't seem to clean off of the side of the tub. So now I have a slight pink colour on the inside sides of the tub. It's not totally noticeable and I'm hoping in time it will come off. It was a little disappointing though to not be able to totally clean it up. I even tried using a mild bleach spray and that didn't help.

All in all I like this product but probably won't use it again We tried the crayons again tonight and it left marks on the tub that I am having a hard time cleaning up and since the tub has dried marks that I thought I had cleaned are now showing from the other day. All in all I would give this product a 3 out of 5. It's a lot of fun and well constructed but leaves marks in the tub which just isn't something I want. 

Baking With Mommy *Tip Tuesday*

Tip Tuesday! Heres my tip if you want to bake but don't want to do a lot of clean up or don't have a ton of time Quaker Muffin Mix is what you need! I know there is always things like pillsbury products that you just roll out and they are ready for the oven, but my kiddo always wants to do more then just roll out dough. L loves to bake and make things so this gives a little extra for her to do. There are only 3 ingredients needed, Muffin mix, water and an egg. We always add chocolate chips but you could probably add fruit or something else to them as well.

We usually make a 12 muffins which is 3 cups of mix. There is enough mix to make 24 muffins. All you have to do is pour 3 cups of mix into the bowl add in the 3/4s water and 1 egg. Mix that all together and you are ready to add them to your muffin pan. We always add about a cup of chocolate chips give or take. L loves to be the one to crack the egg which I have to say she does a great job at. L basically makes them on her own while I watch her and instruct her on what to do next.

The next thing we do is take a ice cream scoop and scoop the batter into the muffin pan. The oven should be preheated to 400 already. Put the pan in the middle rack in the oven for about 15 minutes. The should have risen and look golden brown. Take a tooth pick and stick it in the muffin if you pull it out and there is muffin stuck to the pick than it needs more time if not its done.

Once The muffins are taken out of the oven I let them sit for about a minute or two and then I take a fork and flip them onto there side. I like my muffins to have a crispy outside so I flip them and then take them out of the pan and place them on a cooling rack. This gives them a great crispy outside.  Yummy Yummy!

In our house 12 muffins made this way usually last a day and a half. We usually don't have any muffins after the following morning. L has so much fun with this and she is so excited that she made something for us all.

This is just a fun quick and easy thing for us to do especially on a rainy day. The clean up is super quick and easy as there really aren't many ingredients and you are just using 1 big bowl and 2 measuring cups.

Quaker Muffin mic for the win in this household!

I'm That Mom

I don't know about you but I am totally that mom that documents everything when it comes to my kid being sick. I have pictures of every rash she has had since she was an infant. I have notes on my phone of temperatures that she has had and at what times. I am that anal mom who takes 20 pictures of rashes and things on my kid to show the Drs just in case.

My kiddo has had a few rashes in her days she's almost 4 and has had hives, postviral rash, eczema rash, severe bum rash, some bacterial rash I can't remember the name of from when she had a severe  runny nose, and she's also had a blister rash from amoxicillin. To many rashes if you ask me. I'm sure I'm probably forgetting a few in there as well.

This week has been fun L yesterday was complaining that she was feeling very cold. My sister noticed that she was radiating heat as she was sitting beside her so when we got home from dinner I took her temp. It was 100 so I gave her some medicine and a cool bath and put her to bed. This morning she woke up and I took her temp and she was 100. So I let daycare know she wasn't going to come in and I gave her some medicine. She was hungry so I gave her a slice of toast with butter on it which she ate half of. For most of the day we spent laying around on the couch and in bed every so often having spurts of energy. She drank a bit of water and juice. She had a cookie and a few cucumbers and cheese but that was basically it for her she didn't want to eat anything else.

It is now 2 am as I write this and she woke up about half an hour ago wanting a drink. She's been talking in her sleep all night. And I took her temp since she was already up and it was 103.1 yikes. More medicine for her and a cold cloth on her forehead and she's back asleep. I have written down everything about today her temps and what Time they were taken as well as how much medics I have given her. I have down what she ate and drank and what time I noticed a rash starting on her stomach. And then I thought OMG I'm that mom!

My family laughs at me for it but I know from experience with all of Ls rashes and what not that the Drs appreciate having the pictures to look at to see how things have progressed it there has been time between when a rash starts to when it is clearing up. It usually ends up that by the time we get seen at the Drs office her rash has gone down a lot all ready.

All in all I'm OK being that mom!

Giving options

I feel in my household that it's important to give my kiddo options when it comes to things like giving up toys. I don't want to just take things and give them away without her knowing I think it's good for her to make those decisions for herself. This is something that I have been doing with her for the last few years.

It all started with an overwhelming amount of stuffed animals that were taking over our room. I sat down with L and held a stuffy up and gave her the option to keep or get rid of. I was very surprised when she narrowed it down to just a few stuffed animals. We ended up getting rid of a whole garbage bag of stuffies!

Our next endeavour was to go through her toys. This one I was positive was going to be a struggle. I told her that the toys she didn't want to keep we were going to give to new babies so that they could have fun and play with them. Easy peasy lemon squeezy! another box of toys off to new babies and a less cluttered room! I can't believe how easy it really has been and even if she says she wants to keep something and I don't think its something that she will ever play with she is super easy to reason with.

Today we tackled her clothes. We went through every drawer and she said she wanted to keep or give away. There were a couple items that she was far to happy to give away because she hates them (jeans). Then there were a few things that she thought she wanted to keep but I didn't think she would need or would still fit so I would reason with her. Most of the time she will give in and give that item up because she will realize that mommy is right and that item doesn't fit with her age and what not anymore.

It makes me proud to think that L can make those decisions and she doesn't get overly upset if at all about getting rid of stuff. Basically I'm glad she's not a hoarder. I know myself I have a hard time getting rid of my own stuff. You always have that thought in the back of your head. What if I need that someday? That I am glad L doesn't have and I hope she never does.