Green Product Find: Dr. Bronner's Magic Organic Fair Trade Hair Creme

Dr. Bronner's Magic Organic Fair Trade Hair Creme

I am always looking for a good styling product for my hair. It's hard to find something that helps smooth the frizziness and style it nicely. I decided to try Dr. Bronner's Magic Organic Fair Trade Hair Creme and I really like it. It makes my hair smooth and supple and manageable. It also smells like peppermint so it has a great invigorating scent. I would recommend this product to anyone with thick hair. Just don't use too much at one time or else it might leave your hair looking a little limp. Buy it at Beauty.com. You earn money back at any of the Beauty.com partners so it's well worth it.

Happy Styling!

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!

Adventures in Baby Food (the healthy way)

When Olive was a baby and first started eating table foods, I played it safe and simple and bought lots of Gerber foods, with a few Beech-Nut thrown in for good measure.

Now that Buttons is eating real food, I am approaching things much differently. I have been making a lot of her food myself. I didn't do this the first time because I was intimidated and, well, lazy. I thought it would be much harder than it is so I didn't bother. I know now that I can simply make some extra of whatever we're eating (sweet potatoes, carrots, potatoes, peas, etc etc.) and pop it in the blender with some water, pour it in an ice cube tray, and voila!! Meals for days!! How easy is that?! So I've been trying to make some foods for Buttons so as much as possible, she can eat what we're eating, especially since that's what she'll be eating when she can tolerate chunkier foods and the peas that we eat taste nothing at all like the peas that Gerber sells. A friend recently recommended a website with lots of guidelines, recipes etc on it for making your own baby food. I haven't really explored it yet but the site is called Wholesome Baby Food and looks to be very promising.

As satisfying as it is to make your own baby food, there are times when you need a little help. Enter Sprout baby food (it's like takeout for babies!) Sprout food is organic, tasty, and different. I like that it's organic - that's phenomenal. But on top of that, there are so many other good attributes. The recipes are different and unusual combinations that leave baby begging for more. The roasted bananas and brown rice is a bit hit at my house (even with Olive and me too!) as well as the oatmeal with roasted cinnamon applesauce. The green beans and peas are interesting as they are mixed with mint (who'd have thunk it?) We are still fairly new to Sprout and still trying out the various flavors. Another neat thing about Sprout is that they are packaged in resealable pouches instead of cans or plastic containers. This makes them the perfect meal to throw in your diaper bag for lunch on the go. It is also an eco-conscious idea because it reduces the space it takes for shipping, therefore reducing the number of boxes needed to ship a certain amount. Another thing I am thrilled about with Sprout is that they offer a monthly subscription on their website where you can tailor your order to your baby's tastes (and change it monthly) and have it delivered right to your house!!! How great is that?! Genius, I tell you. Pure genius. I will certainly do this after the sale on Sprout at my local Publix grocery store is over ;-)

So there you have it...simple ways to feed your baby nutritious and wholesome meals while still making life easy on you. Nourishing your baby and watching him enjoy new foods should be fun and stress-free. Now it is. :)

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!!!

Rainy Day Activities

Being born and raised in the Sunshine State, I have very little appreciation for endless gloomy, rainy days. Every once in awhile it is nice but after awhile, it gets old.

On top of that, I have a toddler with the activity level of a Mexican jumping bean and between the two of us, we get a little stir crazy so I've been trying to think of some fun indoor activities for us during these seemingly endless gloomy days. Here are a few ideas I've come up with:

1. Good old-fashioned coloring book coloring

2. Coloring printables - find your kids' favorite characters and print them out for free at www.noggin.com or www.nickjr.com. They also have lots of fun craft ideas. We now have a Dora Thanksgiving placemat colored oh-so-prettily in blue. You can also find other printables at www.crayola.com.

3. Online games at www.noggin.com, www.nickjr.com, and www.disney.com.

4. Finger painting, watercolor painting, or better yet - Color Wonder painting

5. Arts & crafts projects - this can be as simple as sticking stickers on a piece of paper to something more elaborate for older kids. You can draw a scene of something and have the kid put stickers/decorations/color in areas you specify for them (ie, put a sticker of a flower OUTSIDE of the house). Color the dog's ears brown. etc. etc. For kids who know their numbers or letters, you can do color by number.

6. Thanksgiving craft idea - Tom the Turkey - trace your child's hand on construction paper, have them help you cut it out, then decorate with feathers or other scraps of colorful construction paper

7. Read some books together.

8. Cut out pictures from old magazines and make a collage of your child's favorite things. Then send to Grandma for an early Christmas gift (bonus: saves time and money at the store!)

9. Bake cookies or cupcakes together - be sure to check out the book Pinkalicious by Victoria Kann & Elizabeth Kann beforehand so the kids will be forewarned not to eat too many cupcakes ;)

10. Build a fort.

11. Hide and seek

12. Scavenger hunt

13. Build an indoor obstacle course.

14. Turn up the music and DANCE!

15. Help Mommy fold the laundry. Oops, how did that one get in there? Well it's a good chance to catch up on that too ;)

16. If all else fails, grab your favorite animated movie (ie, the one that annoys you the least), a bowl of popcorn, and curl up on the couch and have a quiet afternoon snuggling together.

Olive's 1st Haircut

Yesterday Dennis had the day off work for Veteran's Day. We decided to take Olive to get her first haircut. Anticipating a lot of kicking and screaming, we thought it might be easier if we all went together. Boy were we wrong! She was amazing! She even let them wash and blow dry her hair! She sat still and quiet and was happy as could be. We took her to Cartoon Cuts in our mall and the lady was fast, efficient, and friendly. At each station, they also had a TV playing some kid favorites - at our station it was Diego, next door was Dora. They also had some Dum-Dum lollipops. It was definitely a win-win for us! Olive did fantastic! We were both surprised. When she was finished, the stylist gave her a "First Haircut Certificate" and saved a lock of her hair for us. While I was so sad to have the first haircut, Olive's hair had gotten quite unruly. While we did take off some length, it looks much more manageable and classy now. I am including some before and after pictures for your entertainment. If you live in Virginia, Maryland, Florida, Illinois, Texas, or Puerto Rico, see if there is a Cartoon Cuts near you - I HIGHLY recommend it!

BEFORE - Long and straggly

Getting it washed at the salon

Mid-cut

AFTER - Cute as a button

I love to read

A friend just introduced me to this great new site called Goodreads. It's a networking plus book review site all in one. The way it works is that you rate books you've read and you can put other books on your "current reading" or "to read" lists. You add friends and you can view each other's reviews. Pretty neat to see what your friends are reading and recommending. Gives you great tips for when you go to the library, you'll know what to check out.





I'm currently reading a few books - GRITS Friends are Forevah, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and Remember Me?

Happy Reading and have a great weekend!