He or She?

It's a ....

Yay! We are so excited! And once again, so very surprised!

Strangely, when I was pregnant with Canden, I kept having dreams that it was a girl. Everything kept telling me it was going to be girl from old wives tales to the good ol' mother's "intuition." We were shocked that Canden was a boy...I mean, I was convinced, it was a girl.

This time around was no exception. The exact same thing happened. Girl dreams, wives tales predictions, and that apparently extremely inaccurate mother's "intuition." But this time I knew better. In fact, there was a part of me that because 'girl' kept appearing everywhere, that it must be a boy. But who knew really?

Regardless, we are so happy and excited to have another little man running around the house. I'm sure Canden is going to make a fantastic big brother!

Fine Motor Skill Activity

If you are a friend of mine on Facebook, this post is old news. I originally made this activity like, hmm, 6 months ago or so. But regardless, as Canden was exploring it today, it really made me realize just how important and amazing of a fine motor skill activity it is. I just must share!

I am unsure where I originally got the idea...Pinterest maybe? It would be no surprise to me if so. But the concept is simple - sticking pipe cleaners into small holes.

Now if you want to skip getting all artsy and crafty at this point, I'll let you in on a little secret that way you can get on with your day: a colander works just as well as the cute little canister I made. But, if you are like me and prefer to have your cookware available as much as possible, this craft really doesn't take much time or effort. Also, another plus side of making your own canister for this: it stores the pipe cleaners so you can keep the activity pieces together.

Here is what we are aiming for:

Here is what you will need:

 Steps:

1. Take your "Little Crunchies" can and remove the lid. Use the paper punch to punch holes around the lid. Set aside. 
2. Using whatever you wish to apply your mod podge (sponge, brush etc.), coat the sides of the "Little Crunchies" canister. 
3. Apply a layer of tissue paper so that none of the sides are showing. 
4. Apply more mod podge on top of the tissue paper to glue and seal it into place. 
5. Repeat steps 2-4 until there are enough layers of tissue paper to hide the label of the "Little Crunchies" container. 
6. Allow the mod podge to fully dry. 
7. I found that the pipe cleaners were pretty darn long, so I took four of them and cut them in half. 
8. Replace the lid and play, play, play!

Maybelline The Nudes Palette

There has been a lot of hype and talk about the Maybelline The Nudes Palette lately and frankly I can understand why. Never before has there been a palette release by a drug store brand that is quite like this. Yes, there are those JUMBO eye shadow or various makeup kits that always seem to flood the shelves around Christmas as stocking-stuffer ideas, but no one really takes those too seriously. Often cheaply made, poor quality and gimmicky because of the season.

This on the other hand, is the drug store's first serious attempt at trying to rival high end brand and quality palettes for a fraction of the price. Of course, I was sucked in immediately and had been watching the makeup shelves for it's release since I first heard about it.

Photo courtesy of Ulta.com

Overall, I was pretty darn impressed, but there is room for improvement. There is a nice mix of matte and shimmer colors, which, I always thinks is important in mixing both within an eye look. Otherwise if you use all shimmer in a look where you are supposed to have the "nude" appearance, that doesn't look too natural to me.

I found that the taupe-y colors had pretty terrible color pay-off and were hard to blend. I suppose that would be my only complaint honestly. Luckily the darker colors of the palette seem to have better pay-off and blend-ability. The last thing you want is to use that matte black in the lower left hand corner with the inability to blend out the harsh lines. Scary!

Honestly, there's not much more for me to say about this palette. I like it and I will continue to use it despite the taupe colors leaving me less than impressed. This would be a really good starter palette for someone who is just getting into makeup and is on the fence about buying high end brand palette's (which, I still think everyone should invest in a good high end palette).

If you are having trouble finding this palette at your local drug store, you will most likely have more luck shopping this little beaut on ulta.com. If you are weary about paying shipping, have no fear! They have all of your drug store essentials and after you spend $50, shipping is free. So, in other words you can just stock up on all the things that you get normally and they can come right to your door. Saves a trip to the drug store!

Have a great week!

Another Great Sensory Activity For One Year Olds

We are on a sensory activities kick.

The great thing about sensory play is that you can use just about anything. I won't say that this sensory example is the most unique in the world, but definitely one of the most simple ones to make.

I literally took some pasta and a couple random things around the house that I thought I could mix in there. It contained pasta, Q-tips, Pom-Pom balls, crayons, a couple of cookie cutters, ice cream scoop, measuring cups and a couple tuperware containers for scooping and dumping. I put down a blanket inside for our exploratory play.

When it comes to this activity I have 2 rules.
1. Nothing is allowed in the mouth.
2. Nothing leaves the blanket. (Really I'm more concerned about the pasta).

Here's why - dry pasta, q-tips, and poms are easy chewing targets, which also makes them choke hazards. I of course had Canden in my sight the whole time we played. This leads into rule number 2 - if everything stays on the blanket, I can keep track of it. Canden like to string his toys and whatever else he can get his hands on, all over the house. It is a lot harder to keep track of all the pasta bits if they leave the blanket - making a perfect opportunity for him to later find some pasta and attempt to eat it. Not happening.

So, on to the fun learning opportunities with the activity!!

Canden and I worked on "full" and "empty." He loved taking the ice cream scooper and measuring cup to scoop up some pasta and pour it into another container.

Because he was only on a blanket, we would often work on "soft" and "hard" or "rough." This didn't just involve feeling with our hands, he also loved walking on all the different textures too! Feet are very senstive and any part of the body can be used for sensory learning!

There are so many more options when you add all the other sensory items. Such as "smooth" from the crayon, "bumpy" from the pasta; "short" for the pasta, "long" for the q-tip etc. 

As mentioned, just get creative. Kids want to explore anything and everything, and they should get to within safe reason. Everything is a learning opportunity!

Sensory Activity for One Year Old's

Whenever I search online for crafty, sensory of fun activities for one year old's, I often keep finding the same limited options over and over again - finger painting, painting with sponges, water painting, painting, painting, and more painting. Then there's the occasional oats or rice sensory bins and so forth. Honestly, I was finding unique options challenging to find or come up with on my own.

I stumbled across this lovely blog on Pinterest titled "35 Activities for 18 Month Old's and Younger." Honestly I was expecting the same old same old that I've been pinning regarding young toddler activities - more painting, more rice, more bins. I was pleasently surprised as I started exploring this blog. Yes, under the art section, you'll see plenty of the same old finger paint business I was talking about. However, there is also a section called "Sensory Play," "Imaginative Play," "Motor Skills," and "Explore." I'm hooked already.

I literally found this blog this morning and have looked over all the different activities and decided to try one. Today we did the Spaghetti Sensory play. It was a hit! However I changed my process of making the spaghetti ever so slightly to hopefully make for a less messy experience.

Here is the blogs suggestion for making the spaghetti for the sensory play activity: Cook the paste al dente according to the package; prepare zip lock bags for spaghetti dying by mixing some oil and food coloring in the bag (no measurements were provided); split up the cooked paste between the bags and mix well; rinse the pasta.

To me it seemed as though the oil would make this activity pretty messy to clean up as oil isn't my favorite substance to try and get off of, well, anything. So I substituted the oil for water. I did everything the same except I added a few tablespoons (2-3) of water to each bag with the food coloring. No oil. I allowed the pasta to sit in the color water mixture for a couple minutes. The longer you allow the pasta to sit in the dye, the darker they will become.

I'm glad that I decided to put Canden in some old clothes and go outside for this. Although the picture on the blog shows a little girl in what appears to be nice clothing and indoors, this was surprisingly more messy of a project than I thought it would be. I don't know if the oil in the original recipe was present to help the noodles be more slippery, therefore, wouldn't chunk off noodle and color...??? I don't know. I figured it was kind of a trade off - either a baby covered in oil, or a baby covered in noodle bits. Also, the noodles definitely stained the sidewalk. Luckily, his clothes weren't really affected, even though we were wearing old clothes for this.

I hope you enjoy this activity as much as we did. We will be trying more activities soon!

Baby Shower Etiquette - My Views

Since I am expecting baby number two *yay!!* I have been asked on a couple of occasions whether or not I will have another baby shower. Immediately my mind started rolling. Is that appropriate with the second child? Then I started thinking about all the etiquette violations that I've seen through past showers that I've attended whether that be their first child, second, or dare I say, even their third. So, I've decided to jot down some of my own personal thoughts on what I think is appropriate etiquette for baby showers go. It's of course not an all inclusive list (believe me, if you google baby shower etiquette, you'll read for days), but random thoughts that have popped into my head. And again, this is just my opinion, by all means do whatever the heck you want when it comes to your own showers or throwing someone else a shower.

1) Let's start with what led into this thought vomit - Is it appropriate to have a shower for baby #2?
With that I give a complicated answer. You're welcome in advance :) In the case that your second baby is the opposite gender of your first, absolutely appropriate. And, really it might not be that bad to have a shower for the second baby even if they are the same gender; there are always things that you wish you would have had with the first that would make life easier. But I must say, I can justify in my mind a lot more easily have a shower for the second baby if he/she was the opposite gender than the first. Another  case in which I think it is absolutely appropriate to have a shower for the second child is if there's actually going to be more than one arriving - yes, pregnancies with multiples. I don't care how many children and showers you've had for them previously, if you are pregnant with multiples, dear god I hope you have at the very least, a diaper shower.

2) Is it appropriate to have more than one shower for the same pregnancy?
Ugh, this one frustrates me. I've heard the logic - "Well my family wants to throw me a shower and then my best friend wants to throw me one, oh and the people at work want to throw me one..." No. Just no. It is ridiculous to me to have more than one baby shower unless your family is the size of Rhode Islands population. Allow one person or persons to throw you one shower, and the invites will be sent to family, friends and co-workers. If other people want to help throw it, but all means, the more helping hands the better right? But how insanely selfish and materialistic looking is it to throw more than one party. In general, it seems as though having two showers is commonplace anymore, even though it still makes me cringe. But I know of one person at least who had three, who often like to remind me that my makeup hobby was a first world luxury and I could live without it.....You see where I'm going with this?

3) Baby Shower Games
If I go to one more shower were I have to eat melted candy bars in diapers, I'm going to scream. That's not cute. It's overdone. It's gross. Just no. Even the "guess the baby food" game is much better than that one and I'm not a fan of the baby food game either.

4) Who can throw the shower?
I would say in general most people would agree that throwing yourself (or your spouse throwing you) a shower is inappropriate. Also, asking someone to throw you a shower is inappropriate. Easy, done. Anyone else can step up to the plate.

5) Is it okay for guests to bring their babies to the shower?
Um, it's a baby shower. If you don't want babies around, maybe you should have reconsidered getting pregnant in the first place. On the other side however, if guests are bringing older children who don't know how to behave themselves, I could understand the annoyance of their presence.

6) The registry.
While I believe that the expecting parents should pick reasonable items to add to their registry, I also firmly believe that guests should pay close attention to the registry. For the parents, don't be putting ridiculously high priced items on your registry - ie. cribs, carseats, outdoor jungle gyms, etc. You get the picture. At the same time, guests, pay attention to the registry! There is a reason why the couple registered and that is because they are in need of the items on the list. When I am a guest to a baby shower, I always make sure to look over the registry and find what I want to get the couple. If what I would really like to get them (or anything similar) isn't on the list, I will buy one item off their registry, and then buy what I really wanted to get them as well. That way I know that at the very least they are getting items that we all know that they need and would appreciate not having to buy themselves. The other item that I just really wanted to get for them, is also nice because it is more from the heart. But, do both. If you are on a budget (as I always am) trust me when I say that there are just about always, cheap baby items on a baby registry. I don't think I've ever seen a registry where they didn't have a couple items that are $10 or under. It's doable.

7) For those who are throwing the baby shower - Listen to the mama! She most likely has been dreaming about what her baby shower will be like since she thought about having kids. Listen to what she wants - what is the theme she is going for? What is her style? There's the wonderful world of pinterest that has so many wonderfully decorated photos that can help translate one person's style to another if words aren't cutting it. As someone who has thrown a shower or two, I would have KILLED to have pinterest at that time. It would have been immensely helpful to have the mother show me pictures of how she envisioned her shower.  Likewise, mothers, don't be afraid to express your vision. If the person throwing you the shower asks, tell them! Also, don't sweat the small stuff. I'm not saying that showers need to be magazine picturesque. It's not about that.

8) Partner Showers
I love the idea of having a more adult themed baby shower that invites couples. Cocktails, appetizers, gifts and laughs yes! However, I recently had an experience in which I received a baby shower invitation, drove about 45 minutes to the shower, only to find out, I was the only person there without their partner. I was baffled. How did I miss this detail?! I immediately looked at the invitation and no where did it say "coed" or "couples" anywhere. Everyone else knew because they all worked together and had talked about the shower. But for some reason, that information was left out to me. I was humiliated and angry, especially since I know my husband would have loved to go as the father-to-be was one of his best friends. Um, include that MAJOR detail on the invite would ya? I can't believe I even have to point that out.

Big News!

So I've taken some time away from the blog to get my poop in a group.
Honestly, I've straight up just felt like crap....and here's why -

Yes! Baby #2 is due in January 2015!
We are very excited of course, but I've been finding getting through each day with a toddler and upset stomach/extreme exhaustion nearly debilitating. I've barely been able to keep up with him, let alone this blog.
It seems like this week I am still quite exhausted, however some of my nausea has subsided (for now!). Hopefully that means I can stop slacking and get back to my blogging hobby!

In the mean time, everyone enjoy this holiday weekend. More to come later!