Fishy Fun

Yesterday we went on a family day trip to the Florida Aquarium in Tampa.

We were meeting family and thought this would be a great place to entertain the kids so we could visit but WOW, we were ALL entertained. The grown-ups probably liked it just as much as the kids did. They had some great exhibits and shows too. Olive's favorite was the Penguin Promenade, which was pretty neat. The little penguins were so cute waddling around! They also had a shark show, a dive show, and a Wetlands show that we saw. There were so many fascinating aquatic animals. My favorites were the sea dragons - a creature related to the seahorse that looks like floating seaweed and lives off the coast of Australia. (see picture below) They also had a bunch of very pregnant seahorses - and did you know that the males are the ones that bear the children? How great!

There were also some "Touch Tanks" where you could touch sting rays, sharks, starfish, and sea anemone. Otters, alligators, and more were swimming around the Wetlands exhibit. One of Olive's other favorites was the outdoor playground. (go figure!) They do have a water playground in the warmer months.

The aquarium is located in downtown Tampa, right next to the cruise ship terminals. We saw two massive ships in the port, which was almost as exciting as the creatures inside.

Prices were fairly reasonable. You do get a $3 discount per ticket if you purchase online. Parking is $6 per car. They do have food there in cafes and the food was pretty decent and not terribly overpriced. (Tip: The kids meals are bigger than adult meals at half the price). Enormous gift shop that is fully stocked with everything (both cute and tacky). Olive came home with a stuffed striped pink fish and Buttons got a mermaid book (both very tasteful and adorable).

All in all, a great outing. So next time you're in the Tampa area, check it out!

Olive is 3

Wow, how time flies....

Olive turned 3 a couple of weeks ago. I'm still in disbelief that my little bitty baby could already be three years old but I'll say, so far so good. We had a family brunch on her actual birthday, which was a lot of fun. Then this past weekend, we did a party with a bunch of her little friends from school. What an amazing group of 3 year olds!! We also had a couple of other friends join us and it was great. I couldn't have asked for anything better!

Today I took Olive to the pediatrician for her three year checkup. Did I mention that I LOVE my new ped?? She is great. She too is a mother, which means so much to me. She is very caring but also very matter-of-fact. She gives it to me straight, tells me what I need to hear and how to do it without being condescending or judgmental about the way I do things. Sometimes I know what I need to do (a little extra "tough love") but she tells me WHY I should do it and how important it is. For me, it is validation for being what sometimes feels like a "mean mommy". So after seeing her today, I must say I feel really empowered. In control. Ready to tackle the next toddler tantrum. (well, ok, I am not exactly looking forward to the last one but I know it will happen sooner or later...)

So we started right away...I limited Olive's milk intake to 2 cups today and gave her unlimited water. I fed her dinner with no extra options and she could eat what she wanted and when dinner was over, I put the food away. I put her to bed a little earlier. I fed her a full-sized vitamin. Tomorrow we will tackle our 1-2 hour nap/quiet time (she's been "resting" in her room for about 20-30 minutes, if I'm lucky). The list continues...

I think I even feel empowered enough to take her advice on Baby Bit too and move her upstairs tonight to her own room. Maybe. But she did sleep all night last night (9-6:45) in the Pack n Play in our room, all nice and swaddled. But tonight she fell asleep early so I will have to wake her to feed her again...maybe I will wait until another night... maybe tomorrow.... this is becoming a stream of conciousness...I should probably go to bed myself. Night night!!!

Change is Hard

We've had a lot of change this summer. A LOT.

It's been mostly good stuff with some that's not so good. But it's been hard on all of us. We are finally settling in a little to our new house and new routine, including school and ballet for Olive. We're getting by but there have been a lot of tears (from all of us) of sadness, anger, frustration, and overall exhaustion. I'm finally starting to feel like a little bit of progress is being made and my head is clearing just a little. I can breathe again, if only for now.

So as I always promise, I'll try to be better about blogging. I have lots of great recommendations for children's books that we've discovered (my mom is a big fan of taking Olive to the library).

Now...I'm off to make princess lollipops for Olive's 3rd birthday (which was actually last weekend but her party with her little friends is on Sunday). Until later...

Back to School with Food Allergies

For those of us whose children have food allergies, going to school can be a scary prospect.

Olive's new school is not nut-free (as her last one was) which has caused me a lot of anxiety. However, the staff has been phenomenal in their support of children's special needs. Apparently in this (much larger) school, there are only 3 kiddos with nut allergies. This is so strange to me as in her previous school, I think there were 3 kids in her class of 10 with nut allergies. Anyhow, the principal and teachers sat down with the parents and we reviewed action plans for possible reactions and what to do in case of emergency as well as what things are and are not safe for our children to eat (if you haven't been following my posts, you may not realize that there are SO many more things besides just peanuts and peanut butter that aren't safe for Olive). In another very positive step, the school sent a great letter to the parents in our classrooms and I thought I would share it here in the hopes that another FA (Food Allergy) family could use this as a method of communication within their schools. Also, at Olive's school, they provide the snacks for the children. Since she is not able to eat all the same foods as the other kids, they give her the ones that are safe for her (fruit, cheese, etc.) and I keep a stockpile of other non-perishables (pretzels, cheese crackers, fruit snacks) in her classroom to use as a substitute for the others.

Here's the letter:

Dear Fellow Parent/Guardians,

Occasionally a health concern arises in a school setting that requires enlisting the support of parent/guardians and the classmates to help make the classroom a safe and healthy place for all. This letter is to inform you that a sutdent in your child's classroom has a severe allergy to peanuts/tree nuts. For this child, strict avoidance of these allergens is the only way to prevent a life-threatening allergic reaction.

We are asking for your assistance in providing our students with a safe learning environment. Even touching a small amount of a product or acidental ingestion containing peanuts/tree nuts could result in a life-threatening situation that requires emergency medical treatment. To reduce the risk of exposure in the classroom, we are asking that you consider not sending any products containing nuts for your child to eat during snack or lunchtime and for birthday treats as well. Some examples include: peanut butter, peanuts, or snacks specifically containing peanuts. Products produced on shared equipment are also a concern for these children, but we understand that avoiding this altogether would be difficult. Please read ingredient labels carefully, but understand we may still double check since they are often confusing. If your child has eaten peanuts or tree nuts prior to coming to school, please b e sure their hands ahve been thoroughly washed prior to entering the school.

Parents of two children with this condition have offered their contact information should anyone have questions about the allergy or how to respond.

(this is where my email/phone # and another parent's are listed)

We believe all families understand a parent/guardian's concern about safety and will join us in ensuring the environment is safe for all students. If you have any questions regarding ingredient lists, safe snacks, or other questions, please feel free to contact or email us. Thank you for your help in making this a safe school yar for all!

-----
Not bad, right? Hopefully this helps the other parents understand our concerns. I know lots of parents feel inconvenienced by requests like this but I think we can all understand the parent's need to guard their children as best they can.

Happy eating and good luck at back to school!!

The Messiness of Motherhood

I'm eight weeks in to being a new mom again and I'm reminded how messy motherhood can be.

Let's start at the beginning...

First you get pregnant and sweaty and nauseous. By the end of pregnancy, many women are wearing pantiliners to feel fresh (and some do this the whole time, some even bleed during pregnancy).

The baby is born and thus we enter another phase of messiness. First off, there are the baby messes. This includes dirty diapers, wet diapers, constant spit-up, projectile spit-up, projectile urine during diaper changes, and much more. Secondly (and perhaps often overlooked) are the mommy messes. After giving birth, women bleed for several weeks (making up for all those wonderful period-free months). Breastfeeding mothers experience lots of milk leaking from their breasts. Not only are these things messy and disgusting, but they require a lot of tending to and also a lot of trash. Think of all the pads that are used during this time and with each one, you have the pad itself, the wrapper, and the strips that adhere them. For nursing moms, most will wear breast pads to help control disgusting wet spots on the front of their shirts. You either use disposable ones (lots of trash) or reusable ones (lots of laundry). For all babies, there are lots of diapers. Again, you either use disposable ones (lots of trash) or reusable ones (lots of laundry). Have you ever thought about the impact on the environment of having a baby??

As baby gets a little older, we start developing the toddler drippy noses, skinned knees, and mushy messy baby food. Later it becomes dirty sports uniforms, stomach flus, and spilled juice. I could go into a lot more detail about each stage but you get the point... No matter how neat and clean of a person you are, the job of mother is anything but glamorous and anything but clean. Inevitably you will experience spills on your favorite couch, a few crushed Cheerios in your car, and spit-up on your dry-clean only blouse. While these things are anything but pleasant, it's just part of the game, and well worth it for that beautiful smile and "I love you" that comes every now and again (but never frequently enough!) After all, it's the little things...

D is for Delirious

Ok, let's be honest here... I have not been as good about our daily letter lessons as I had intended. Call it laziness, exhaustion, being overwhelmed, whatever... but I am still doing it and that should count for something, right??

Here is our "D" list. Some letters are just easier than others. For me these days, "D" just stands for "delirious". While Baby Bit has had a couple of nights where she slept longer than 3-4 hours, I'm still getting up twice a night most nights and let's just say that I'm a bit tired. But as any of you with toddlers know, there's no sleeping in or resting when you have a toddler. Sigh... so with bags under my eyes and a forced smile, I keep chugging along, enjoying this time with my girls and doing what I can to make life a little bit more stable for them. Luckily, we move into our new house this week so after that, things should calm down. Here are a few pics of Olive on our scavenger hunt.

Learning the ABC's

I have decided to try to teach Olive her ABC's.

She seems to know her numbers fairly well so thought I'd give a shot at letters. I know she can do it, I've just never had any idea how to teach it. I came up with this little daily plan, which is easy, fun, and quick. We'll see how it goes and I will try to keep you updated. If you have any other great ideas for teaching letters and pre-reading skills, please share as I'd love to reinforce this however I can.

Here's how it works: Each day (weekday, that is) we pick a new letter. (We are going in alphabetical order or else I'd get too confused). On one piece of paper, we write both the capital and lowercase versions of the letter (ex: A a) and on another sheet of paper, I create a scavenger hunt with objects that begin with that letter. I also try to use a couple of proper nouns that require uppercase letters. I try to use words and objects that she is familiar with and will see on a regular basis, as well as the names of her favorite characters or family and friends. Then the rest of the day, we look for the featured letter in other words, signs, etc. Here are some pictures of her with her lists. Feel free to use any of this to help teach your own kiddos their letters. (and notice that on the "C" day, she is eating one of the items from her list - "cookie" - after all, it was important for her grasping the letter "C", hehe).

Olive's 1st Day of School

Today was Olive's first day of her new school here in Florida.

She is in the "butterfly" class and was so excited. When we arrived at school, she went right to the table and started painting a yellow school bus with her teacher and some other children. She hardly noticed when I left. I had to ask for a hug and a kiss. When I picked her up, she didn't want to leave and when we got home, she kept asking, "can we go back to my school?" I think it was a successful day!

Besides that being great news, the head of the school and the teachers sat down with the parents of food allergy children and we had a talk about allergies and what to do in case of emergency, what foods are safe and not, and how to use an Epi-pen. It was very reassuring. A step in the right direction.

I'm excited to get back into a routine. This summer has been great with a lot of major changes (new baby, moving, still not in our own house yet, death in the family, etc...) but very chaotic. I think we all need some sense of "normalcy" again. However, Olive will be in school 3 days a week this year and I must admit I'm a little sad she'll be gone so much. But it does give me some wonderful one-on-one time with Baby Bit and I'm grateful for that. Happy School Year!

Wasting Away the Time

I feel like Olive and I are so busy, busy, busy all the time that I thought we'd take today off and just sorta relax. I need it - my pregnant body feels like it's going to collapse (I don't remember being this tired at this stage last time?). We did go to the mall today to buy Olive some shoes for her uncle's wedding in a few weeks (that I'll have to miss, boohoo) and look for curtains for the nursery (we got shoes but no luck on curtains). I can't believe how exhausted it made me to just walk around the mall. Amazing. I am now 32 weeks pregnant so technically, I have another 8 weeks to go. The way I feel right now, I don't know how I will make it that long! So I've had to cut back. But I get bored easily and being around the house and actually relaxing and getting things done is pleasing but boring. Although I'm still two months out, I feel like I did at the end before Olive was born - like I'm just killing time awaiting her arrival. Strange, isn't it? I know this endless rain and gloom we've been having doesn't help either. Luckily today has been dark but not too rainy so as soon as this kid wakes up from her nap, I think I need to take her outside and let her run free for a little while. Expend some toddler energy. I just need to go somewhere fenced in so I can sit down! ;) In the meantime, think I'll go enjoy a cup of tea and revel in the quiet. It doesn't happen often enough and pretty soon, there will be no such thing... ;)

Goodnight Mom

While perusing through some old magazines to decide which ones to recycle, I stumbled across this cute little excerpt from Parenting Magazine (November 2008) edition. In each magazine, there is something at the end called "Last Word" which usually gives me a good chuckle. Reading this one was no exception. It's based loosely on Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown.


Goodnight Mom (with apologies to Margaret Wise Brown)

In the messy green
family room
There was a telemarketer
ringing the telephone
And a crying toddler
because his brother
just popped his
red balloon
And a picture of --

The cow jumping over the moon
(which someone colored on
with permanent marker)
And there was a missing
teddy bear, and a girl with
gum in her hair

And one to be scolded
And laundry to be folded
And a very hungry spouse
And something stinky in the house
(that no one else seemed to smell)

And a comb and a brush and a colicky
baby who just won't shush
And a frazzled mommy screaming #*%#@

Goodnight messy room
Goodnight scribbled-on moon
Goodnight cow getting out while she can
Goodnight telemarketers and the
popped balloon

Goodnight long-gone teddy bear
Goodnight cereal bar smeared all
over the dining room chair

Goodnight spitup
And goodnight leaky sippy cup
Goodnight much-too-little house and
goodnight grumpy spouse
Goodnight comb and goodnight brush
And goodnight to a certain 4-year-old
who just needs to hush right now I mean it

Goodnight Elmo
Goodnight toys we'll pick up tomorrow,
or the next day
Hello chardonnay and TiVo--
"me" time finally - Sarah Jio

Strides for Success

Are you a runner, jogger, or walker? Do you enjoy helping women and children?

Come join us for the Strides for Success 5K & 1K Fun Run/Walk on Sunday, April 26th, 2009 at Fairfax Corner Shopping Center (11950 Grand Commons Avenue) in Fairfax, VA. This event is put on by the Junior League of Northern Virginia and proceeds go to benefit women and children in the Northern Virginia area through various outreach projects such as our Back to School Health Fairs, JamPacks (stuffing backpacks for kids who wouldn't have school supplies), shelter projects, and a partnership with the Children's Science Center, among many other things.

The event is lots of fun and features two separate races - a 5K and also a 1K Fun Run/Walk. Strollers are welcome in the 1K only but sorry, no dogs or headphones allowed. Last year, Olive and I did the 1K Fun Run and let me tell you, it was FUN!

Registration Information: 5K: $30 through April 20; after April 20 the fee is $35.
5K Children 10 and under - $15.00
1K Fun Run/Walk: $20.
Children 10 and under $15.

This year, I am much too big to participate so I'll be volunteering instead. This is a great event with lots of fun for the whole family. There is also a post-race brunch and a tent with children's events. The 5K starts at 9:00am, the 1K will start shortly thereafter, around 9:15am.

For more information, please visit http://www.runwashington.com/archive0209/features/stridesforsuccessinfo.html# where you can register.

Hope to see you there!

Check out PIXIE BOWS!!!

My dear friends and colleagues (Holly & Sharon) have been working on their Pixie Bows business for quite some time. They finally have their new website up with their fresh new designs. Their styles are pretty much all that Olive wears and gets so many compliments on them. I'm really excited about their new line, with lots of new funky clips besides just pretty bows. I will soon be carrying them on Little Pink Pansy too so go visit them at Pixie Bows and post here which styles/colorways are your favorites so I can be sure to include them on the Little Pink Pansy site too!

They also have a blog that will keep you updated on their business and feature some great hair accessories. You can also follow them on Twitter.

Post a comment and let us know what you think!

Spring Break

We are now officially on "Spring Break" from Olive's school. Since we did our big trip a couple of weeks ago, we are now taking it easy and just enjoying being home (and getting to see our teacher friends that we don't see too often!) Today we went to a fun concert of a local kids band - Rocknocerous. Olive is all talk when it comes to live music. She was so excited to go to the "concert" and showed me all the dance moves she was going to use when we got there. But, as is often the case, we arrived and even though there were about 5 or 6 of her friends there, she got shy. My child, SHY. Which is really funny if you know her - she's anything but shy, but for some reason she gets quiet in this large groups sometimes. Nonetheless, we had a great time, then enjoyed some spring break eats (chicken nuggets and ice cream) with friends and made a day of it.

If you haven't heard of Rocknocerous, check them out. Their music is catchy and fun and they do lots of local concerts in the DC area. They also have CDs for sale as well as other paraphenalia (you'd be surprised at the number of kids who show up to these things wearing their band t-shirts!). A good compromise for parents and kids alike!

Daily Life with Food Allergies

A year ago, I would have looked at this tantalizing picture of peanuts and licked my chops before I dug in. Now, all I see is poison and fear.

Olive has a peanut allergy. I had no idea what a different life you lead when you have to worry about every food you taste. Dennis and I both LOVE peanuts. Some of his favorites are peanut butter and Reese's Cups. Some of my favorites are boiled peanuts (a Southern delicacy) and my world-famous (ok, not really) peanut butter pie. When I was pregnant with Olive, I ate trail mix every day as it was one of the only things I could stomach. Now we have to avoid peanuts. But not just peanuts, all sorts of nuts and other things that do not contain nuts but were processed in the same facility as nuts. etc. etc. It's an exhausting process but one you learn to deal with.

Recently though, there have been a few occasions where it was not so easy. While in Florida, I sat down with my parents and went over everything about her allergy, showed them lists of things to avoid, taught them to use the Epi-Pen and the appropriate dosage of Benadryl, and what things were typically pretty safe. While they listened, their joking response was, "I'll just take her to McDonald's every day." Haha, except I'm not sure how joking they were. I want them to be comfortable feeding her if we're not around and I'll really need their help when Baby #2 comes and it won't be much help if Olive is running up to me every little while asking, "is this safe?" I know, people who don't have to worry about this on a daily basis don't get it (I surely didn't until I had to) but it's still frustrating.

On the way home from our trip, Olive and I were nestled in for a little snooze on the airplane when all of a sudden my nostrils were filled with the delicious scent of peanuts. WAIT! PEANUTS??? I thought all airlines quit serving peanuts on planes?!? I have not been on one flight since we found her allergy (about 6 months ago) that had peanuts! And I realized that the man sitting next to us had just finished his bag. I almost went into super panic mode. My blood pressure started rising and anxiety kicked in. Luckily, Olive slept through all of it, unscathed. She was not directly affected by the peanuts in the closed air but it made me worry about her exposure and was this adding toxins to her system (raising her IgE levels) so that her next reaction will be more severe and she will have more of it in her little body??

We arrive home and a couple of days later, I went to have a bite of my healthy chocolate (dark chocolate plums, a great antioxidant) that I've given to Olive several times. For some reason, I decided to look at the label again and almost dropped the bag on the floor. Right there on the bag it did claim that it might contain peanuts and tree nuts. OH NO!! However, it was not listed near the ingredients as it usually is so somehow in our other eatings of this, I had missed the warning. Again, panic attack.

So as you can see...as if there aren't enough things for us to worry about as parents, food allergies are a frightening and constant worry. If there's a kid at school or coming to a playdate at your house etc., please be aware that these can be life-threatening and are a major concern to every parent who deals with it. Be sensitive to our seeming hypochondria as we are just doing our best to protect our precious children.

The Joys of Pregnancy

I am really blossoming.

As you can see, little baby girl #2 is growing like a weed (and so am I!) I will be 27 weeks along tomorrow (almost to the end of my second trimester, yikes!) with an estimated due date sometime around July 1st.

This pregnancy has been different in every way, which is why Dennis and I were convinced that it was a boy (two ultrasounds have said differently though so looks like it will be another sweet little girl). When I was pregnant with Olive, it was all very glamorous (ok, so not all glamorous, but more so). I had a desk job with a stool under my desk to prop up my feet. I could rest all the time, eat even more of the time, and come home and go to bed after work. This go round, my main job is taking care of Olive, an active 2 year old with her own agenda. She doesn't care that I'd rather be lying on the couch with my feet propped up and dozing in and out while reading pregnancy books. Nope, she doesn't care, and she doesn't slow down for anything.

So this time, pregnancy has been much less glamorous. And I've had all the yucky side effects that I didn't have the first time. For example, with Olive, I was "glowing" - this time, I am zitty and yucky. More nausea (which I'm just now starting to get over, but not completely, I still had to take my prescribed anti-nausea meds the other day). Varicose veins popping up everywhere. (eww) Feeling contractions and discomfort for months. And lots of other too-intimate details to share but let me just tell you that it hasn't been pretty. On top of this, I am so preoccupied by other things that I haven't had as much time to dwell on the idea of being pregnant and this beautiful little creature growing inside. When someone asks me how far along I am, I say, "uh, I don't know, I'm due around July 1st" (I had to look at my calendar to try to calculate for this post). I haven't read the weekly pregnancy books in a very long time (we used to do this religiously with Olive). I also took weekly progress pics of my belly the first time and while I'm doing that now, there are often several weeks that go by without pictures. My doctor reassures me that this is normal and actually a healthier way to parent, where you're not so overly concerned about everything. I guess he's right, but I still feel sort of bad...However, as we creep ever closer to D-day (Delivery Day), I am getting more and more excited to meet this girl and I know that it will all be worth it.

Anyone out there had totally different experiences with pregnancy? The good, the bad, the ugly? I'd love to hear...

**Apologies for the giant picture...this was as small as I could get it. It's probably big enough for you to visually see all my flaws.

Adventures in Parenting, the next chapter

As I've said before, I have been blessed to be surrounded by friends and acquaintances of every different style, interested in all sorts of things.

Recently, Olive and I were playing with another child and her mother. The mom got chatting about how she doesn't push gender roles and doesn't like to comment on her daughter's physical attributes but rather her personality since girls are usually complimented on their looks and boys on their ability. What a great idea...I like to compliment Olive on her good behavior and abilities but I do also comment a lot on her looks. Though I find I comment a lot on most small kids' looks (ie, what a pretty dress, cute shirt, etc.). Not two minutes after this conversation, her daughter did something really adorable and I found myself saying, "Annie, you're so cute!" Uh, oops. "What?" the mom asked. "She has such a friendly face," I lamely replied. Insert foot into mouth. Later, on the same playdate, the mom comments on how the little girl's bedroom is not done in pink but rather more neutral colors - green and red. It was a fun room and I think it's great not to push the girl stuff but then I realized that I will soon have two little girls and guess what colors their rooms are - Olive's is pink and green and Baby #2's room is purple and green. I fell into the "girl" trap again. I left thinking maybe I should go home and neutralize my kids' rooms. (then I walked into them and saw how beautiful they were and couldn't bring myself to change a thing!)

A few days later, we had an Easter egg hunt for the kids at the park. Olive meticulously stuffed her eggs with jellybeans and marshmallow bunnies ("so the children will have candy" she said). Fun and cute. We checked our candy carefully to be sure it was all nut-free and safe for Olive to eat. We arrive at the park and one of the other children, who just recently turned 2, is not allowed to have sugar. Huh? Oops... So guess what he put in his eggs - dried fruit and NUTS. AAAHHH. Talk about a heart attack waiting to happen! Luckily, Olive is old enough to understand that she couldn't collect those particular eggs but it's still something we had to watch. But I was also feeling bad because my child brought candy and cookies for everyone and they don't even eat sweets at all?? I'm all for not letting the kids overindulge but I feel like they should have some fun treats every now again. It's part of being a kid, right? (as a side note, this mama also takes her kid to a homeopathic doctor vs. a regular pediatrician and skips all the vaccines).

Anyways...sometimes these things make you feel a little inadequate but I have to remind myself that just because I let my little girls have pink bedrooms and eat candy on occasion that I'm not a bad mom and everyone has to do what's right for their family. But I just hate feeling judged...

Tuesday's Tip: Be Child-Like

Olive and I are here in Florida visiting my family and having some fun while poor Dennis is stuck at home transforming my former office into a new bedroom for Olive (she will move in there since it's bigger and the baby will get her old room - a perfect nursery). My parents and I took Olive for her first trip to Disney World over the weekend and let me just say - it was MAGICAL. Amazing. WAY better than I ever would have dreamed. And definitely more exciting as a parent than it ever was a child. Olive was a champ - she went and went and went. We rode several rides, watched the parade, climbed treehouses and play areas, met with lots of characters, and even stayed up to watch the fireworks over Cinderella's castle from our hotel room. All in all, an absolutely perfect trip (except for missing Dennis!) I've had so much fun both at Disney and here at my parents' house with her just enjoying being a kid again that I thought that would be a good tip for today. Just have fun - cut loose - be a kid - and don't worry what anyone else has to say about it (they're just jealous!) Here's just a (very) small sampling of some of our pics from Disney to share.



Arriving at the airport, ready for fun



At the entrance to Disney - Olive, me, and my mom



Olive and my mom watching the parade at Main Street Disney



Riding Dumbo the Elephant



My dad and Olive, with her souvenir Minnie Mouse ears



She got her face painted like Tinkerbell!



Meeting with Mickey and Minnie

Princess Aurora (aka Sleeping Beauty)

our favorite princess, Cinderella

Princess Belle (from Beauty & the Beast)

Remember these guys? Chip and Dale - she thought they were so silly ;)

Breakfast with Minnie Mouse

Breakfast with Goofy

Breakfast with Donald Duck

Breakfast with Chef Mickey

Breakfast with Pluto

Dancing on a platform and screaming (with arms in the air) - "We're going to party FOREVER!"

On the way home, we stopped at a fruit stand and ate fresh grapefruit. Dig in!

Inspiration

Sometimes I am totally inspired by a person, an event, a book, or something else. Most recently I have been inspired by reading the blog Green Mamma, written by an eco-conscious mom with a beautiful toddler girl and another one on the way. I do actually know this woman personally but not very well. I like her blog as she provides tips on green living, great kids activities, books to read, and other anecdotes on life. She is an advocate of attachment parenting and breastfeeding well into toddlerhood (two things that don't exactly describe me) but I like reading her thoughts and ideas. Most recently she has inspired me with a post from last Thursday, March 5th titled "Books . . . this is a long one". In this post I was reminded of many of the things I wish to accomplish in my life - one important one being empowering women. If you know anything about my business (little pink pansy), you know that it seeks to help women achieve their dreams. She is also into photography and posts some beautiful pictures, like the ones in today's post "Chirping Frogs". Check out her blog and see if it doesn't make you want to do something great for yourself, your family, your world, and others.

Great Deals on Cute Children's Bedding

We have decided to move Olive into our spare bedroom (currently it is my office) and give Baby Girl #2 all of the furniture and everything in Olive's room. Baby Girl #2 has gotten new bedding but will keep the same furniture and setup that's there now. Olive now will have a bigger room and a bigger bed etc. In doing our research, we've found lots of great things at some great prices. Depending on what you're looking for, these places might be worth a peek.

Company Kids is a branch of The Company Store - a great place for linens etc. Company Kids has adorable bed linens, rugs & windows, room decor, bed & bath, personalized items, bags, and furniture and storage. Their prices are pretty good to start with but they also have a Clearance center. I'm currently searching here for shams, sheets, and a bed skirt for Olive's new bed as well as a coordinating pillow or something for Baby Girl's room.

The children's counterpart to the home furnishings store, Pottery Barn Kids is even better with their selections. Beautiful bedding, bath, furniture, toys, clothes, etc. are easy to find here. The prices can be steep but they have excellent sales (both in store and online) and you can find some real steals if you keep your eyes open (this is how we decorated their bathroom for less than $50). Another great option for this store is if you can find a Pottery Barn Outlet - click here to see if there's one near you. Both girls' comforters have come from here as well as some towels and sheets.

If you're in the local DC metro area, there is a fabulous store in Manassas, VA called Baby2Teen. They have everything from strollers and rocking horses to TONS of furniture and bedding (for all ages and stages). This is where we found Olive's new bed. Be sure to also check out their clearance room for some excellent deals on discontinued items.

Last but certainly not least is IKEA. If you have one nearby, you've undoubtedly been there to peruse their enormous showroom and find deals on everything from couches to baking pans and EVERYTHING in between. IKEA is an experience, a wonderful chance to stock up on accent pieces or furniture without breaking the budget. You can also purchase online if you don't have one nearby. Some of their stuff is very good quality but most of it is stuff you don't plan to have forever and pass on to your grandchildren. However, for outfitting a child's room or finding some extra accessories, it is the place to go. They also have good deals on some babyproofing items, and in particular the mounted baby gates.

Hope you found our research helpful. We are still perusing mattress options. We did see some really nice and comfortable ones at IKEA the other day for very reasonable prices. If you have any other great places to search, please post a comment.

Disney Princesses

Olive and I will be headed to Florida soon for a visit with my family. My mom and I decided that it might be time to take her to Disney World before the new baby comes. We have been looking for some fun extra activities while we're there and can I just say how fascinated she is by the Disney princesses?? I thought this would come a little later but she is SO excited to see the princesses. Mind you, she's never actually seen any of the Disney princess movies, but has princess panties and PJs, among other things, and so knows their names. Her favorite is Cinderella. At one of my doctor's appointments that she attended, there was a Cinderella book in the waiting room about Cinderella winning some cake-baking contest so this is what she thinks the Cinderella story is! How funny. If anyone has been to Disney recently, is there anything you'd recommend to do with a 2.5 year old princess fanatic?