I recently purchased this dresser (found on Craigslist) for $50:

I found black cup pulls for a steal on ebay. I’ve decided on a shade of green that compliments my area rug and couch, and tomorrow, I will have a newly redone piece of furniture!

It seems that most of Southern California is being blessed with much needed rain. Dan has the day off today, so he took the older two kids to a friends house for a few hours. I was able to take a short nap, enjoy a long shower, and spend some one on one time with Addison. She really enjoyed her individual attention, but grew bored, missing her two playmates.

I stood with Addison on our front porch for a bit, so she could be up close and personal with the rain. It got more personal than planned, when the wind suddenly kicked up, throwing rain in our direction. I had to jump backwards back into the house as quickly as possible. She responded by doing her Happy Dance-kicking both legs, while grinning from ear to ear.

One of my favorite websites, Apartment Therapy posted an article today with information about dust mites and how to keep them to a minimum. I felt this short article was worth the read! Please note, the photo is kind of disturbing!

My baby girl (almost 9 months), wears cloth diapers, and she has really bad diaper rash. With cloth diapers there are several products you aren’t supposed to use with them, as that breaks down the absorbancy of the diaper, so I wasn’t sure what to do. I started researching diaper rash on the internet, and after looking at several photos, I concluded (yes, google image diagnose) she must have diaper rash caused by a yeast infection. I remembered several years ago a friend told me she heard of women using yogurt, down there! for yeast infections, so I figured it was worth a try on Addison.

I went out and bought a seperate tub of plain yogurt and some disposable diapers to use while testing the yogurt trick. I smeared yogurt all over her diaper area, and put a disposable diaper on and put her to bed. When I changed her diaper the next morning, her diaper rash was looking at least 50 times better! So I’ve been using the yogurt on her for a couple days now, and it’s really working. It’s actually quite cold her in Southern California right now (shocker), and the yogurt is even colder, which makes me feel bad putting it on her, but of course it’s worth it to get rid of this diaper rash! If you try this, be sure your yogurt contains Active Yogurt Coultures!(Please note, I am not qualified to give medical advice, I am just sharing a personal experience that worked for me).
This process made me consider what else I can use plain yogurt for. I am sure it’s possible to use yogurt in place of higher fat products when cooking and baking.

Read on for more ways to use plain yogurt:

*To smooth your skin, grind up walnuts and mix with plain yogurt. Scrub onto feet and hands, then rinse. The yogurt helps soften your skin, and the walnuts will scrub away dead skin cells.

*When a recipe calls for sour cream or cream cheese, try replacing half, or all, of the cream with plain yogurt. This will be trial and error, as plain yogurt doesn’t work for all recipes. I’m making a casserole tonight that calls for sour cream, and I’m going to try replacing half with plain yogurt.

*When baking muffins, in place of half the butter, use plain yogurt.

*Use when making smoothies.

*Spread plain yogurt on your face to moisturize skin, and tighten pores. Leave on for about 20 minutes, then rinse off.

*Make moss “paint” for the garden-dump a cup of plain active-culture yogurt into your blender along with a handful of common lawn moss and about a cup of water. Blend for about 30 seconds. Use a paintbrush to spread the mixture wherever you want moss to grow — as long as the spot is cool and shady. Mist the moss occasionally until it gets established. (From RD.com)

*Use for sunburn relief (but avoid sunburn in the first place and use sunscreen daily!)

*Yogurt can also be used for finger paint for kids, and many other toddler/preschool (and older) kids activities.

Do you have any yogurt uses to suggest?

Recently, I’ve been teaching her letters. She had been showing interest, so I took advantage of the opportunity. The thing is, she seems to really understand letters. We purchased a game on the XBox-flashcards. It displays numbers, letters, colors, shapes, etc like regular flashcards, and a voice names whatever is being displayed. I play this a couple times a week, and Bethy watches intently, repeating back each word. The other day she was repeating the letters, and when it got to Z, instead of saying Z she yelled “zebra!” (No, there was no pictures of zebras displayed). Yesterday I sat down with her, and went through a book ok letters, having her repeat the letter back to me. For the letter B, she said “B…baby!” Then C, “c…couch!” Again, no pictures, she is making the assocation between the letter and the sound, and I find this amazing. Maybe it’s average, but I think it’s amazing! =)

Today for her birthday, we had a fairly normal day. Dan is out of town for a business trip, so we’re waiting until Saturday to really celebrate. My sister-in-law sent her a jewelry box full of play jewelry, and she is so excited about it. She keeps wearing the jewelry and throwing it all over the floor. Everytime I try to put it back in the box she yells “no mommy! mine!”

I baked her a cake and my parents and my sister came over. She opened up one gift from my parents, and I bought her a very large balloon shaped like a cupcake. Her and Daniel have been fighting over it ever since I brought it home. Of course, he’s also adopted her play jewelry, and you’ll notice in the photos below, that sparkly necklaces look great with his Hulk t-shirt.

After we ate cake, the kids had an instant sugar rush, and went into super hyper mode. Daniel picked up an electrical cord (a short 3 foot one), and draped it over his shoulders and around the back of his neck, then he’d yell “ready! 1-2-3-4-5-6, GO!” and start pounding both ends of the cord on my canister vacuum cleaner. I’m assuming he was pretending each end of the cord was a drum stick. Bethy would then dance around, and slap her hands on her knees in rhythm to Daniel’s drum playing. (Talented kids I have)! Addison was really enjoying the music, and sat on the floor rocking to the beat. Whenever they stopped she also stopped and looked around, as if questioning where the music went. Then they’d start up again, and so would she, with a smile on her face.

And now for a few photos (Click on Thumbnail to view larger)!

I turned Curious George on the TV for my older two kids, and put my 9 month old baby down for a nap, then took a shower. When I got out of the shower I heard laughter down stairs and took that as a good sign (nobody was getting beat up, and I didn’t hear the sound of breaking dishes, so all must be well)! I took time to e-mail a friend, then text message my sister.

When I walked downstairs I was surprised at how cold it was, and noticed the sliding door was open. That’s when I noticed my kids built a fort with the couch pillows and cushions, and my throw blanket. Normally, this would not be a problem (although I do tell them at least six thousand times a day that the couch cushions are not for fort building, clearly they need hearing aids). However, the fort was built outside. And the couch is a brand new custom couch. And it was pouring rain.

I brought in the cushions and tore off the covers, and set them out to dry. Then I talked to my kids about why they can’t play with the couch cushions. This is when I noticed my two year old was holding a half eaten cookie. I took it away from her and saw that they had eaten all but two of the chocolate chip cookies I baked last night (I baked over two dozen). I now had to lecture them about eating all the cookies. And my mistake, I did use the world all. That’s when my four year old, who had been staring at me intently during the entire lecture, decided to interrupt me, and correct me by informing me they hadn’t eaten all the cookies. Silly me, I’ll have to be more accurate next time I have a serious discussion with him.

Here are a few of my favorites-click on photo for tutorial):

If you’re not feeling up to making your own (or don’t have the time), but love the idea of a homemade reusable advent calendar, Etsy has several available!

I have 3 kids, ages 4, almost 2, and 8 months. The most trauma we’ve dealt with, is my youngest living in the NICU the first 10 days of her life, but that had nothing to do with illness. She had a hole in her lung. Nothing I did or didn’t do could change that. It just happens to some people, sometimes.

My kids have had small colds, and they’ve had their share of throwing up, but it’s never lasted more than a day or two. My kids seem pretty healthy!

There is too much unknow about the vaccine, and there are risks (as with any vaccine). And honestly, I think if I knew they were going to get the swine flu, I’d probably still choose not to get them vaccinated against it. It’s too new, there have been complications, and I believe the risks out weigh the benefits. Why would I want to let my children be injected with something so foreign in their tiny bodies? That scares me more than the idea of them actually getting the swine flu.

My husband has asthma, he didn’t get the vaccine. My sister has asthma, she didn’t get the vaccine. They also haven’t caught the swine flu. Did I mention my sister is also pregnant?

My son has a good friend who was sick, and was tested for h1n1, it came back negative. He was feeling better a few days later, and we all went trick or treating together on halloween. Poor little friend got sick again, and was tested, again, for h1n1 (2 days after halloween), this time it came back positive. Even after spending a couple hours with me, none of my kids got sick. Nothing. Not even a sneeze or sniffle.

From what I’ve heard from several people and news sites, there has only been a small percentage of deaths associated with the swine flu. Much smaller than with the regular flu. I can’t be positive on numbers, I’m certainly no expert.

I decided to avoid the stress factor and not freak out about what can be. I live in California, but I’m not going to be scared every day about the Big One (earthquake), that I keep hearing is coming at some point. People get food poisoning all the time, but I shouldn’t worry every time I sit down to eat. I think the fear its self is more dangerous than the possibility!

Dan leaves for work, and I get the entire bed to myself for a couple more hours of sleep.

Addison wakes up, and I put her in bed with me to nurse, she falls back asleep with the most content look on her face, and I get to fall back asleep too.

Daniel wakes me up, usually holding a granola bar, fruit snacks, apple, or whatever else he feels like eating, and asks me to open/make specific food item for him.

I walk down the hall to Bethy’s room, get her out of her crib and she holds me hand tightly as we walk down each stair.

Dan gets home from work, and the older two kids hear him put the key in the door, they run screaching and laughing, so excited to see him, as though it’s been days or weeks.

The older two kids are in bed for the night, and Dan and I get to have adult time, to talk about what we would do if we had a million dollars, or what we would do if we were dirt poor, talk about the kids, his work, our weekend plans, watch our TV shows, have sarcastic conversations that don’t mean anything, but we both laughed for a few minutes.

Bonus: When I magically get all 3 kids to nap at the same time, and I really get ME time, I can do whatever I want (within the walls of my house, or, better yet, my property lines). I can choose to nap too, or read, or browse the internet, call friends, sit outside, clean house, be still, do my hair. Maybe I should be cleaning or doing laundry, but I’m rewarding myself for getting ALL THREE kids to sleep at the same time! There’s always tomorrow.

*Of course, I have many other highlights in my day. For now, at this stage in life, these are my favorite that I can count on day to day.

SmartiPants is a brand new cloth diaper, made right here in America!

A few months back, during my extensive research (many many many hours) of cloth diapers, I came across a small article stating the need for testers, to try out SmartiPants and give honest feedback.  Being brand new to the world of cloth diapering, I sent in a request to be a tester. 

I received a pale yellow, one size, pocket diaper, including one insert. SmartiPants is a lightweight, super absorbent cloth diaper, made with snaps, not hook and loop (velcro), for longer use.  The instructions state to wash the diaper, once, before use. Many cloth diapers need 3 to 5 washings before they reach maximum absorbancy.

I washed it, just once, line dried it, then used it that night on my new baby girl.  I wanted to use it overnight, all night, to really test it out, and see if it really held up to a long wear.  I let my daughter wear it through the night, then took my time changing her the next morning. After she had it on for about 10 hours (no, I don’t go that long between changings, but this was a test), I changed her, and was happy to find the diaper hadn’t leaked one bit, and my daughter was not soaking. The polyester-nylon insert had held up and absorded perfectly!

When I first received the diaper, Addison (6 weeks at the time) weighed about 10 pounds. The diaper, on the smallest setting, fit her perfectly. I admit, it looked kind of scrunchy to me, but again, no leaks, and she didn’t seem to have any complaints about the diaper.

I washed the diaper, without removing the insert-because I was told it will come out in the wash. The insert did come out in the wash, and once dry, I put it on my 32 pound toddler.  I let her wear it for several hours, and while it does fit her, it’s a bit snug. But she’s a big girl. She’s 18 months old, 30 inches tall, and weighs 32 pounds. She’s quite chunky around the middle and thigh area, so I was surprised the diaper actually fit her at all.  She wore the diaper for several hours, even seemed to enjoy being in it, and we had no leaks!

I have to say, the insert is the perfect size.  I plan to order a pack of their inserts to use with other pocket diapers I own. They are perfect.

I have ordered two additional diaper packages from SmartiPants. At $36.95 for a 3 pack+3 inserts, that’s quite a steal compared to other pocket diapers I own. That comes out to a bargain price of just over $12 per diaper. When I purchased the additional diaper packages, I went with the always safe white for one package, but had a hard time deciding what color choice to make for the 2nd package. I ended up buying the girl colors, but I love all their colors and want more!

When I first tried to order through the website, I came across some bugs. But keep in mind, this is a brand new company, that had just launched it’s product and website. I called customer service, and right away my call was answered. Customer service was incredibly friendly and helpful. I explained the bugs I kept coming across, and the lady on the other end of the phone went through a few steps, and then contacted her web development company about the bugs. The very next day the online order form was working perfectly.  How’s that for service?

If you’re considering cloth diapers, and need to build up your stash, I highly recommend you purchase a package from SmartiPants. It’s a great way to try cloth diapering without breaking the bank.  And I’m sure you’ll love them as much as I do!