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 A good linky system is great asset to your blog if you want to run a contest or a blog carnival. Unfortunately, they can tend to be unreliable and sometimes slow your blog down. Well our "friend" Mckmama and her friend Brent came up with a great, new, simple, and reliable linky system called MckLinky!! You can check it out and implement it on your blog a www.mcklinky.com. I had a chance to actually use MckLinky yesterday at My Charming Kids, when I wrote my Not Me Monday post and linked to it on her site. Now I am so excited to try this out on my blog that I am thinking of turning this weeks Friday Favorites blog post into a carnival where you can all write your own Friday Favorite and link it with MckLinky.... what do you think about that?! You better start brainstorming a favorite product to write about on Friday, I want to know what you're lovin'! 
 Bubbie has recently taken an interest in cooking. I had purchased the Kids in the Kitchen cookbook a few months ago and he loves to look at it and pick out things to make.. If you aren't familiar with Kids in the Kitchen, I highly recommend their site! It's a great program put on by the Junior League all over the country. Yesterday, when I was preparing lunch he wanted to make "spider" sandwiches. I wasn't sure exactly what he was talking about until he pulled out the Kids in the Kitchen cookbook. I was already making peanut butter and honey sandwiches so I thought, sure, this will be easy! And it was! He did most of it himself.  I quickly remembered my sandwich sealer that I had bought from Pampered Chef years ago. I hadn't ever really tried it out. Well I'm glad I did! We will be using this again! It works to make your sandwiches just like those uncrustables at the store. I let him spread the peanut butter and squirt the honey. Then he assisted me in cutting the sandwich with the sealer ( I did have to flip it over and cut from both sides). I then just gave him some pretzel sticks and Crasins on his plate and let him have at it! I think his sandwich came out soooo cute, don't you?!
 Not Me Monday is brought to you by one of my favorite blogs, My Charming Kids. This is a place where blog mamas can unite together and confess all their imperfections as moms, you know... all the things we would NEVER really do! ;) This past week we most definitely have not been swimming all around town in different friends pools. I most definitely have not arranged as many play dates as possible at pools just to submerge my pregnant, overheated self in a nice, cool body of water. And I absolutely have not counted swimming as baths for more than one day in a row this week. Bubbie totally had to have had more than one bath between Wednesday and Sunday morning when I didn't realized it had been awhile and threw him in the shower quickly before church. Not me, I would never let my children count swimming and sprinklers as bathing!  Sass had absolutely hit all four of her food groups on Saturday between the birthday party we attended and the baseball game we went to that night. Her meals definitely did not only consist of chips, juice and cupcakes for lunch and popcorn, dip n dots and frozen lemonade for dinner..... oh and she didn't drink a chocolate milkshake in between those meals either. Nope, not me!Not my child at all!  Now head over to My Charming Kids to see what everyone else has "not" been doing and if you are brave enough, maybe even you will confess!
Wooden toys get a lot of play time at our house. It amazes me because grown ups automatically assume that kids will want the bright plastic stuff that lights up and sings and does stuff but that is so not the case. Those toys get played with right at first then shoved to the side, but our wooden toys get played with daily. Unfortunately wooden toys come with a higher price tag most of the time. The most affordable option I have found are Melissa and Doug toys and I know that their is a lot of conflict of opinion on them because they are made in China and are painted, but my children are past the stage of chewing on them so I feel confident allowing them to play with them. You can read their safety statements here.Here are some favorites that get played with on a daily basis at our house: the pizza party  Sass and Bubbie love to make me pizza. They love "cutting" the pizza with the roller. All the wooden toppings and slices stick together with Velcro. This pizza has gotten tons of love around here and is served up on a regular basis! shape puzzles  Bubbie got these for his 2nd birthday if I remember correctly. They are still today a favorite and both kids love them. We have taught shapes and colors using these. Each puzzle board is two sided so there are tons of options of what they can put together. These puzzles are by far played with more than any others we own. I love that both Bubbie (4 1/2) and Sass (2) can both play with these and enjoy them! pattern blocks and boards  These are one of the newest M&D products I have purchased. I bought this a few weeks ago to take on a trip for Bubbie to play with in the hotel room. It kind of seemed like a step up from the pattern block puzzles above. So far he is still in the exploration stage of these and enjoys making things out of the pieces more than trying to coping and cover the boards. We have made pattern trains with the pieces and he seemed to like that. Sass wants to do these and understands the concept but doesn't have the fine motor skills to not knock the pieces off as she puts on new ones! This seems like a toy that they will both grow into. stacking blocks  Bubbie received a set of these his second Christmas from some cousins. These are played with a lot! Both kids love building tall towers and knocking them down. They stack and sort and love to hide things in the boxes. A great first birthday present! I have found a great place to purchase Melissa and Doug toys is at stores like TJ Max or Homegoods. Our local Homegoods has a huge selection of them and they are a good 25% - 50% cheaper than the toy store. Also Toys R Us tends to run good sales on them, although I avoid that place like the plague!
*disclaimer: Friday favorites are not sponsored, payed for or in any other way endorsed by the company. These are products that we have purchased (or given to my kids as gifts like some of the products I mentioned today!) and really use. They have not been given to me to review and post about.*
congrats to ASHLEE!!Random.org picked your post number as the lucky winner of the briar.claire hairclip! Please email me your address to greenkiddos.com (at) gmail.com and I will get it sent out! Also, I officially am requiring a pic of cute "m" wearing the clip once you receive it! (nothing like strings attached!).
 Are you familiar with gdiapers?? These are great if you are curious about cloth but not sure you want to jump right in. Gdiapers are a cloth shell with a biodegradable insert. The insert can be flushed, composted, or tossed if needed because there is no plastic in them and they will break down quickly. I have wanted to try gdiapers for years now. They are what first got me curious about cloth, but the cost of the refills always scared me away. Well, now the lovely friends at gdiapers have come out with gcloth, a cloth insert that can be washed and reused. I love the idea of using a cloth insert at home and a biodegradable one when out and about. That makes the whole concept much more affordable.  You know what else makes it more affordable.... this great code for $30 off! I am now a "gmum" and have the code g1378swanson which gets you the e verday g's six pack for $40!!! This is a great savings because the 6 pack normally retails for $70!! I just ordered it to try g diapers out with new baby. The pack comes with 3 vanilla bean covers and 3 great orange covers, 6 liners, a swish stick and a guide explaining how to use them. Each cover normally retails fro $16.99 so this is an incredible deal! And apparently you can use your prefolds in a trifold inside the diapers too! I am so excited to give gdiapers a try. They have some great resources on their site, so if you are curious but want more info on their diapers, click here. Oh and I've been told that you can best deals on refills at amazon.com or diapers.com with their $10 off coupons. ETA: I misread the deal a little.... it comes with 6 covers and 6 snap in liners (not inserts, I wasn't aware that those were different!), you still have to purchase your inserts, either cloth or flushable. I think I'm going to order some cloth ones to try at first!
In light of my friends losing their two year old son yesterday very unexpectedly, today I just feel thankful to have these two little bitties to wake up to and care for. The words to Casting Crowns song I Will Praise You in this Storm are ringing so true to how I feel and can only imagine my friends feel this morning as they wake and have to bear the reality of their life now. And I'll praise You in this storm
And I will lift my hands
For You are who You are
No matter where I am
And every tear I've cried
You hold in Your hand
You never left my side
And though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm....
.....I lift my eyes unto the hills
Where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord
The Maker of Heaven and Earth
Some old friends of ours lost their toddler son today. I don't have a lot of details, so I won't go into any yet, but please lift Jason and Angela up in your prayers. This family has been attacked by Satan before when it came to one of their children and we all rejoiced in the miracles we saw God perform. Please help us still praise God through this storm. Psalm 34:18
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit
I'm on my way, rested and ready to see my babes! Until then... use these last few minutes to enter the briar.claire contest!! I will update with a winner later and a new post about where I have been hiding the last few days! hurry.... this cute clip could be on it's way to you later this week!! leave a comment here! 
I'm too tired tonight to even go through it all, so I will draw my winner after my anniversary with super dad on Tuesday afternoon! So scroll down, leave a comment and enter to win! And tell your friends to enter to win too! Oh and don't forget, for each thing you do, leave a separate comment, so each will count as an individual entry..... ready. set. go!!!
This weekend we aren't only celebrating Father's Day for Super Dad, but also it will be 7 years ago that I married this super guy! So what makes Super Dad so super??? Lots of things actually!! This sweet guy swept me off my feet just 8 years ago... yup that's right... we were only dating about 6 months before we were engaged!! We were then engaged for 10 months and then had the wedding of my dreams! It was so fun! I always say that if I could redo a day just to experience it again, my wedding would be at the top of the list. We had a blast! Just over 2 years later Bubbie was born and my sweet hubby became a dad. I can't tell you what a great husband and dad he is. I have never met a guy more concerned or in love with his kids. His first thought is always for them and I love that about him. He works so hard so I can stay home and raise our children. He loves the Lord and is instilling his love for Jesus in our children. He changes diapers (even cloth ones!), fixes meals, gives baths and reads bedtime stories! He's quick to tell me "you go rest, I'll take care of them". He's super fun and adventurous and loves to play with his kids! We are different in our ways, that's for sure. I'm social and always on the go. He would rather stay home and just play with the kids. He loves sports, tennis and mountain biking to be specific. He is super strong. He loves running and working out. He sets such a good example to our kids of what healthy living should look like. He is anything but sedentary! It's been so fun to watch him grow as a dad. Motherhood was a natural transition for me. I grew up playing with babies, baby sitting, then started teaching school. Having kids to me was like breathing, of course it was the next step after marriage. But he's a guy! I don't think he had ever changed a diaper until Bubbie was born. But you would never know that now! He knows all about car seats and cloth diapers, and pureeing baby food! He can even put hair bows in! He builds legos and plays dolls. He jumped right in and figured it out and is super involved in our kids lives.... this is such a blessing to me! So this weekend I'm thankful. I'm thankful that the Lord blessed me with a loving and caring husband. I'm thank that the Lord has made him a father soon to be three times over. I'm thankful that we are a priority in his life and that he loves us so much! Super Dad we love you!! Happy Father's Day and Happy Anniversary!!
 If your kids are anything like mine, they love juice! I do dilute juice a lot when I give it to my kids, but it is by far the beverage of choice. It's also so easy when we are going somewhere to just throw a few juice boxes in my bag and be on our way, but I know it's not the best thing for my kids and I need to get them to drink more water. I too could use more water intake but I never really cared for the taste of it. I grew up drinking Kool Aid and Hawaiian Punch, so drinking water with a meal was just not the norm for me. In order to cut back on bottle water usage and the drinking of too many sugary drinks, we invested in a Brita Pitcher a few weeks ago. I have instantly fallen in love. The water tastes so much better! I think it tastes even better than bottle water which has a little bit of a plastic taste to it. We have also invested in some good BPA free water bottles for the family. I bought both kiddos their own Nalgene bottle which they love, one in pink and one in blue of course! I love them because they are like a sippy with a spill proof valve inside!  Super dad is a fan of the Camelbak bottles, like this one:  But I really like the look of the new stainless steel Camelbaks..... because even drinking water can be cute right?!  Since switching to our Brita water system we are all drinking so much more water!! At first I got a little pull back from the kids, but they have quickly adapted and now are requesting water instead of juice! We fill our water bottles every morning and just take them with us. The other huge benefit to using a system like Brita is the money savings. Water bottles were costing us a fortune every month and we wasted so much by throwing half bottles away. Plus all the plastic that was being used is such a waste. The Brita pitcher cost us about $25. Filters are about $25 for 4 but each one last you 3 months.... this comes to about $50 for this year and then $25 a year after that... we would spend that much in just a few months on bottled water. We did invest in BPA free water bottles, so that adds to our cost for this year, but you don't have to buy water bottles if you just drink water at home. This is an easy and inexpensive little change that has big impact environmentally, financially and for your own personal health!
See this cute hair clip.... it could be yours!! The sweet girls at briar.claire sent it to me with my last order to giveaway. I have written about these cute clips before, as you may remember. While I love a good hair bow, these clips are my all time favorite in Sassie's hair. My poor follically challenged child doesn't have a ton of thick hair to do fabulous things with, but these clippies stay in great! I love that you can wear just one or add a bunch and they look so cute. I am officially addicted.  So here's how you can win this cute hair clip.... leave a comment. Any comment will do (as long as your nice!). Tell me about your blog, or what you want to see more of on my blog, or just hi. Whatever you want just make sure if you don't have a blog that you leave me an email address so I can email you if you win! On Saturday night I will close the contest and use a random number generator to pick a winner! It's that easy! I know, the clip is really, really cute and you really ,really want to win, so here are some ways to get extra chances: 1. follow me on twitter or let me know that you already do with your twitter name. I'm @greenkiddo, there's a link up top to get you there! (I'm almost at 100 followers! Help me get there!) 2. Blog about this contest and send me a link to your post! 3. Become a reader of my blog or let me know that you already are (see right hand side bar to do this). 4. Facebook this contest in your status with a link to my site. Let me know in a comment Remember each of these counts as a seperate entry so leave each thing you do as a seperate comment to get your extra entries! Oh and make sure you go persue briar.claire's site.... they are giving away a free clip with every three your order right now.... but, I wouldn't know this though from personal experience ...ummm... because I would never have ordered three more clips last night..... no, not me. Now I'm off to chug that nasty glucose drink.... YUCK!
suntans
sand pails
salty kisses
sweet memories
summer
 Cloth diapering is a great experience and while it will save you a lot of money in the long run, the initial investment can be steep to put up all at once. Miracle Diapers is a great non profit that has been set up to provide cloth diapers to mamas who want to diaper in a greener way but can't afford to. If you are at all like me, in your stash you either have diapers that just never get pulled or don't fit just right or are now too small. Miracle Diapers is a great organization to donate those diapers to! Miracle Diapers is also looking to start chapters all of the country so you might be interested in helping to get a chapter started in your town! I highly recommend you check out this site and pass it on to anyone you know who cloth diapers or who might be in need of cloth diapers!
I flew up to NY with my mom on Friday for my cousin's bridal shower. We are having a blast on on girls getaway weekend, but I'm completely exhausted! We have been so busy. Here are some pics from our first day here.
My cousin has a beautiful apartment which she graciously gave up to us to use while we are here this weekend. This is the view from her balcony. Absolutely breathtaking!
 One thing I really wanted to do while we were here was go downtown and see the 9-11 site. Unfortunately so much of it is tarped up due to construction I couldn't see much, but the experience of riding buses and subways around the city still was tons of fun! Across the street from 9-11 is St. Paul's cathedral. Miraculously through the destruction that took place, not a single window in this church blew out. It was locked up for the day but I was able to snap a few pics through the gate.  Here is the view facing where the towers use to be standing in front of St. Paul's. It's just a big empty gap now, which is so strange to see amongst the massive amounts of buildings down there.
I peeked in any where I could to try and grasp the enormity of the place. It looks like a giant city under construction right now. There was still something solemn about it though. It was nice to stand on the platform peaking in and just taking a few moments to pray for all the souls that were lost there on that day. After hitting 9-11 we went to visit my cousin Evan who works for an amazing photographer, Peter Lik. I have never seen photos like these before. They absolutely glow, yet there is no light behind them and he shoots with film. His talent is amazing. You should totally check out his site but I don't know if anything can do justice to what I saw in person. We then headed to dinner and back on the subway and some how ended up just a few blocks from Times Square, so of course despite being up for a million hours at this point, I had to go see it all lit up at night. They have closed the main street in front of Times Square now, so you can walk all around. It was so cool and amazing how many people are out walking around the city so late at night. Now I know why they say it's the city that never sleeps!
 People are always asking me what natural products I like, or what kind of small changes they can make. Well we have recently discovered a great one. Having two young kiddos, instant hand sanitizer, aka "magic soap" at our house, is a great product to have around. The down side is that it is loaded with alcohol which I have never been really keen about spreading on my toddlers hands that will eventually end up in her mouth. A friend of ours recently recommended Clean Well products to us and they are great. Instead of alcohol Clean Well uses essentially oils to kill 99.9% of germs. It's safe, non toxic and all natural. A much better option in my opinion. And the great thing is you can find it locally at places like Whole Foods and Target!
 If you are at all like me, and I suppose you must be somewhat like me if you read my blog, then you are always looking for healthy, kid friendly foods! Well our friends at Kiwi Magazine are here to help us out! They have come up with a great list by category of Kid's Favorites ranging from crackers to baby food to fruit snacks! I hate purchasing a new organic food for my kids to have them turn their noses up to it. These foods tend to be a little pricier anyways, so it really stinks to have them not want to eat what you purchase. This list is great because the foods are already kid tested and approved! We have tried numerous things on the list and I don't see one on there that my kids didn't love. So print this list off and keep it with your grocery notebook. (what?! You don't own a grocery notebook?? Oh, I will have to explain that another day! Until then just stash it somewhere safe.) Thanks Kiwi Magazine for a great resource! We love you and your lists!!
ring around the rosie a pocket full of posies
ashes. ashes.
we all fall down!
 OK, so I know they are stinking cute. And I know that they use sustainable organic materials. But really am I totally missing out on a great cloth diapering experience because I don't own at least one of these?? I am so tempted to order at least one to try but just can't get over the price tag on these ($33 a diaper). I did see they have a bargain section where the diapers run about $24 a piece, but still more than I have ever spent on a fitted. I also like the solids which run $29 a piece. Here are my reasons why I want to try one (aka, how I'm justifying the purchase) 1- They are one size diapers. Sass could use them at nap times now and new baby would be able to wear them from birth to potty training as long as I ordered gender neutral ( I really love the orange solid cotton). 2- I could do a write up about them on my blog and call it an "expense". 3- They have a great work ethic. You can read more about that here.4- They are American made. 5- I currently am buying fitteds for my new baby at $10 a diaper, but they are sized, which means I will have to buy numerous sizes so would the cost even out?? I know myself and once I get curious about something like this I won't be able to resist for long, so fill me in. Do you own a Goodmama? Do you love it? Was it a good investment? Do you prefer one version over another? Tell me why I should cave and order one! Should I be really bad and order two.... one for me and one for a giveaway?? Hmmm.... now you've got me thinking and you haven't even commented yet.
I have grown up eating this meal and it's one of my all time favorites. My mama makes this for me and finally I wrote down the directions so I could make it too! It's super simple and pretty healthy because chick peas, aka garbanzo beans, are so good for you! I could eat this on a regular basis but my family would probably get sick of it way before I would! What you will need: 1 can chick peas 1 small can of tomato sauce ( I use publix greenwise organic) 1 small can of water (use your tomato sauce can) 1 small onion or some diced frozen onion (I use frozen!) half a pound of pasta ( I used broken spaghetti tonight, but we use ditalini or elbows a lot too) How to "fix" it, as we say down here in the south: First off I peel my chick peas. I grew up this way and none of us like the skins floating in our pasta. This is by no means a requirement though. Lots of people apparently eat the skins, I do not. I start off by draining my chick peas into a bowl, then as I peel, I throw the skins into the can and the beans into the bowl that had the original "juice" in it. Set those aside. In your blender add one small can of tomato sauce, some diced onion ( I use a 1/4 - 1/2 of bag of the frozen, but you do it to taste!) and one can of water. Hit puree and blend up those onions. Again this step is not necessary, but apparently I would not eat this meal if I could see the onions in it as a child, so now this is how I am accustomed to it! Dump sauce into a sauce pan along with the chick peas and the chick pea juice (does that sound gross... what would you call it though?). Add a dash of salt and pepper to taste and let simmer on low stirring occasionally. Once you have your sauce going you can boil your water and cook your pasta. The longer your sauce cooks the more tender the chick peas will be. When you go to add your pasta to your sauce you want it to be a soupy consistency. The pasta will absorb a lot of the sauce as it sits, so if you put too much in too soon it will dry out quickly. Also, this makes just enough for my small family, so if you have good eaters or lots to feed I would at least double this recipe. Just remember 1:1 ratio on chickpeas, tomato sauce and water and you are good to go! I top this off with some Parmesan and dig in! If you make this let me know what you think of it (unless you hate it, than just lie to me and tell me how good you thought it was). PS. Did you know that chick peas have tons of iron, folate, and fiber and have tons of health benefits. You can read all about them here!
 I recently became "friends" with Christine who owns Essential Saltes Baby via Twitter. She makes these awesome cloth diapers that she sells here on etsy. She also has these incredible informational sheets explaining all about cloth diapers that she is allowing me to share with y'all here on my blog and the girls that attend my cloth diaper workshop at the end of the month will also get hard copies of these! (sidetrack- that will be on June 28th, let me know if you are interested and local and I will get you the info!). She was even generous enough to send me a diaper to raffle off at the cloth diaper workshop and a diaper/cover for me to try out on new baby this fall (you will get a detailed update with lots of pictures when the time comes b/c the diapers are SO cute!). I can tell you though with out even using them, her workmanship is incredible! I love that the newborn diapers snap down for the umbilical cord and I love that the extra layers for absorbency snap in to allow for faster drying time. Her diaper covers are so cute and totally reasonably priced. I can't wait until I know what this baby is so I can order some more fun covers from her!  While you are at it, don't just check out her in stock etsy store, but make sure you check out her site by clicking here. You can custom order diapers through this site, plus see all the other great products she makes such as wetbags and wipes! And guess what else I just discovered on there.... cloth DOLL diapers! Can I tell you how excited I am about that! I will absolutely be ordering Sass some of those when new baby comes along so she can diaper her babies right along side me! Here are a few of the information sheets that she offers, you can find all of them here on her site! (ps. did I mention that they aren't only super useful, but absolutely cute too! I'm a sucker for a cute presentation!) Make sure you click on the link because she has more great information that breaks down how to wash and care for diapers, she explains Mama Cloth and goes into more detail about care for her specific diapers. Seriously check out these sheets if you have any questions about cloth diapering. She explains everything so simply, but if you still have questions please leave a comment and let me know! I will do my best to answer them!  
I have officially decided to move Meal Planning Monday to Sundays. It just make more sense. I usually shop on Sundays and plan my meals for the week on Sundays, so there is no reason to wait until Monday to make the post. Plus, we live in the South and we eat supper here, not dinner. Here's what I've got so far for the week. Recipes may or may not come to follow, seeing that I am coming up with all of this as I type. Sunday- Burgers on the grill. Grownups will have theirs on salads with sauteed mushrooms and onions and some shredded cheese and diced tomatoes. Kiddos shall have theirs on a bun or in a pita with sweet potato fries and baked beans. Watermelon for dessert. Monday- Macaroni and chick peas I have been meaning to make this and post pictures/recipes for awhile now, but with our beach trip it just never happened. I will make it happen this week! Tuesday- Sweet tea pork chops on the grill, corn on the cob and onion potatoes.
Wednesday- Cheese tortellini and salads Thursday I leave for NY with my mom. Super dad is flying solo... well not really. Mimi is coming in town to help out, so I'm sure dinner at their favorite pizza place is in store for at least one night, possibly some Annie's mac and cheese will be thrown in there and who knows what else! They will survive! Plus there are sure to be some left overs floating around! I also really want to make these muffins this afternoon. Strawberries are on sale and we have VBS this week which means we will be out the door early every morning... muffins travel well in the car! So, what will you be eating this week? Leave me a comment and let me know! Share a great recipe with me! I am all about trying new things!
 I ran up to our local baby shop today to get an accessory for my new stroller when I stumbled across this baby bedding. To say I'm in love with it is an understatement. I really want to do the new baby's nursery in a pretty yellow since we have white bead board half way up the wall. I also really want to do something very different than I have done in the past. We didn't find out the gender with Bubbie and I did his room in light green and white. When he was born I added lots of baby blue accents to his room. We did find out with Sass and since she was a girl, I went all out, bubble gum pink and super girly! This time I want to do something unpredictable. I want yellows and reds and blues or turquoises maybe even some oranges. I don't want trucks or butterflies or any kind of pattern like that. And this bedding I saw today totally fit the bill.... minus the FLORAL print!! So forget the floral print for a minute and let's chat about the other ways I love this bedding, like the accessories.... How stinkin' cute is this mobile??  And these picture frames are to die for, I mean seriously so cute!  But my all time favorite is this diaper stacker! I am dying over it! How many cloth diapers could I shove in there??  Really bedding designers, is it that hard to come up with gender neutral bedding that doesn't have monkeys, jungle animals or ABC's on it?
I just wrote the longest heartfelt post about potty training and totally lost the whole thing.... ugh. I will try and recreate it, but we'll see if it comes out the way I wanted it to. I am a firm believer in early potty training. I believe our children are totally capable to learn this skill way earlier than society now gives them credit for. People actually think I'm crazy for attempting to potty train my 2 year old, but I know she is smart enough to learn this skill and believe that the habit of going in a diaper is going to be harder to break if she gets to practice it for another year. All that being said, even though I introduced the potty at just around a year, we didn't really start training until right after Sass turned 2. Bubbie was just over 2 1/2 when we trained him and he picked it up so quickly. Sass isn't getting it quite as quick, but still doing great! For the first week I put her in pull ups and sat her on the potty a lot. We didn't have very many successes but she was getting the concept. About a week or so later she started wearing panties at home and learning from our accidents. She still wore pull ups out and about but I would take her and she started to actually use public in potties (gross!!). After about another week we transitioned to full time panties. There have been lots of accidents but also lots of successes. Here is where potty training stinks. I don't know if I'm the only mom that feels this way, but it is so personal to me. I feel so happy and proud of her successes and crushed when she has an accident. I end up putting my worth as a mom into how well she is doing. Am I a better mom the days she has no accidents? Don't I deserve a gold star? A pat on the back? Am I not as good of a mom on the days she tinkles through three pairs of panties in a row? Am I not paying her enough attention? Am I too busy to catch her and help her learn? Should I just slap a diaper back on her? Washing panties, wiping up tinkle... those are the easy parts. It's the stress I put on myself that makes potty training so hard. The good news is as quickly as I get down on myself when she has an accident, I turn it around when she has a success. Each day is a new day and before I know it this will be another stage of her babyhood that is gone. Another step towards her being a big girl. So for today I'm going to enjoy her and her cute toddler self for what she is, tinkle on the floor and all.
It's time to put on your creativity caps and name this photo! Leave me a comment with a great caption for this picture and I will post a winner on Friday night. You have until 8pm EST Friday night to come up with a great title for this picture. It's time to unlurk if you've been reading and not commenting! I'm not sure yet if there will be a prize to this or just a big congratulations. I have to wait and see what I can come up with, it may be something great though so name away!
 Tonight we opted to stay in. We cooked dinner here and let the kids swim a little extra before bed. Then the grown ups stayed up late playing domino's. To end our supper in I wanted to bake a little treat for the me.. umm.. I mean the kids, but obviously was limited in what I could produce not being in my own kitchen. I ran to the grocery store earlier today and I found these yummy cookies from Immaculate Baking Co. These break and bake cookies are not only super easy and yummy but way better for you than the traditional break and bake cookies. They are made from organic ingredients and have no HFCS or trans fats in them. Super delicious and very convenient to keep on hand for when you are in a pinch. I baked a dozen tonight and still have a dozen to bake another day as they pack came with two dozen. While I opted for triple chocolate chip cookies tonight, Immaculate Baking Co. has numerous delicious flavors. Super Dad love the oatmeal raisin and I would love to try out the Cranberry Oatmeal White Chocolate! Yum! If you can't find Immaculate Baking Co. Products in your local grocery yet don't fret! You can also order them online!
Sass is having a blast!
We are actually all having a great time here at the beach. Bubbie has discovered boogie boarding and spends hours in the waves. Although this morning he declared that he will no longer be getting his hair wet while at the beach. When asked why, he very matter of factly told me " so I don't have to take any more showers here". Silly boy! Chlorine and salt water don't account for bathing.... well at least not on a daily basis.
Sass isn't so interested in getting into the "big" ocean, but she loves the little one... AKA a puddle that seems to form every night and is perfect for her to splash in. She also continues on being the master of disaster. She can hardly contain herself as you build a sandcastle because she so eagerly awaits smashing it into smithereens!
Last night we ate at this super yummy brick oven pizza place, then went for ice cream. It was also our maiden voyage in the Phil and Teds. Bubbie is truly too big for a stroller but wanted to ride anyway and Sass loved sitting underneath, not nearly though as much as she loved kicking the top seat where Bubbie was trying to relax and enjoy his ride.... good thing she doesn't get to stay down there too much longer! I loved the stroller though. Who knew I could push 70 lbs of kids around so easily with just one hand if need be!! I'm happy with my investment!
Well, the kiddos are headed to go see the dolphins. Guess I need to go throw on a suit!
We have had a swim diaper dilemma with Sass. She is so super tiny that we have had some embarassing swim diaper moments in the past. I started trying the traditional disposable swim diapers last summer and had a few blow outs in pools which is by far the most mortifying experience I have had ever as a mother. Especially when the blowouts where not the type that could easily be scooped out. I was really hoping that now she is a year older we would have outgrown this problem, but I quickly learned during our March Disney trip that we had not! YUCK! She isn't even leaking out the side which is what you would expect, yet the top because the waist bands just aren't tight enough.
I have spent the last few weeks reading and researching cloth swim diapers just not sure if any of them would work. I picked up an I Play swim diaper at Bab ies R Us to give a try. It was cheap and I didn't have to order it so I could have it in time for our trip. Well I am happy to say........ it works! It's much tighter than the disposable ones around her waist and theighs so it contains much better. I do feel bad that she has some marks from the elastic but they don't seem to bother her at all. Several online diaper stores sell these too, but I love that I can run to Target or Babies R Us to pick up some more.
Sass has been a little fish running between the pool and the ocean along with Bubbie who has discovered boogie boarding and loving it!
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