The Easiest (And Cheapest) Bathtub Paint

Sam has been having kind of a tough time the last couple days. We've been working on more rules and higher behavior expectations as discussed in THIS previous post (he's not a fan), he is cutting a couple lower molars which has resulted in a runny nose and a low grade fever AND he's two. He's just two. Two is hard sometimes. I thought a special, fun bath time treat might be just the thing to bring some cheer to his little heart.

 

You can, and will, find a drazillion recipes for homemade bathtub paint on Pinterest and elsewhere on the internet but this is by far the cheapest, easiest kind I've come across. I purchased a can of shaving cream, food coloring, foam paint brushes, and a muffin tin from Dollar Tree. We had a pair of leftover chopsticks from a carry-out meal, and lots of little puff balls and Q-tips around the house already. And of course, we had our fingers and hands with which to paint.

 

Oooooo, the anticipation. Hurry up mooooooommmmyyyyyyyy.

 

 

I'm so excited to get started!! I've got my paint brushes ready.

 

Mommy put the color in the shaving cream. Time to mix, mix, mix.

 



 

Messy play rules!

 

The aftermath. Yes the water looks like toxic waste when you're done. And yes, because Sam is blond, we had to run fresh water from the tap to wash his hair so it wouldn't be toxic waste colored also.

 



 

Filling the tin with water and dumping it over and over again turned out to be a fun game for Sam also. I took this opportunity to run some water over Sam's wall paintings so it wouldn't stain. I don't really think there's enough food coloring in the shaving cream to stain but why risk it?

 

Sam was interested in how different items would paint the walls so I think next time I'll add some different types of brushes, cotton balls, kitchen tools, leaves, toys, and whatever else we can find to test that question.

 

Happy painting!

 

 

My Modern Day Parenting Isn't In A Crisis, Not Necessarily

A couple days ago, I stumbled across an article titled 5 Reasons Modern-Day Parenting Is In Crisis, According To A British Nanny by author Emma Jenner. Jenner is the Author of Keep Calm and Parent On and the Star of TLC's "Take Home Nanny". I'm not going to lie, the title alone made me little defensive and quite skeptical. I know I'm not the perfect parent by any means but who doesn't think they're doing a PRETTY good job?!?!

 

Then I read the article. It confirmed for me that I am in fact doing a pretty good job, a little bit great even. But it also opened my eyes to a couple areas that I have committed myself to working on in the name of a healthy, happy, well adjusted child. That's what I get for poo-pooing the article. So here's what I learned from my read.

 

I do in fact suffer from a fear of my child. Not in the traditional sense that I think he'll do something awful to me but in the sense that I wouldn't pass Jenner's "sippy cup test". The sippy cup test is actually a regular fail for me. If I get Sam a water and he sees that it's in the "wrong" sippy cup, he begins to through a fit and rather than fight him, I've always just poured it into the "right" cup. So now I have given him the power, created a situation in which he knows he gets his way with mommy if he throws a fit (super bad lesson) AND created another dish for me to wash. Same goes for Cheese-Its instead of pretzels, or red jammies instead of motorcycle jammies.

 

I also get super wound up, stressed, and overly accommodating at restaurants. Luckily he's got pretty great manners in general. He says please and thank you. He says bless you when someone near him sneezes. And he says "sorry" without prompting when he gets overzealous and accidentally hits, headbutts, or scratches. Restaurants can be a different, exhausting story however. I think I fell victim to the "That's just the way it is with kids" mentality. Wrong. I will learn to expect more of both myself and my child. That's not to say that I think he will be able to sit through a two hour, formal, white table cloth dinner. Duh, he's three. But I will expect him to leave his shoes on, not lay on the floor under the table, scream like a banshee, or throw food. Madame Jenner, consider the bar raised.

 

Man this shrimp cocktail is good! Awesome behavior
at a fancy restaurant for my mom's birthday!

Luckily because

A) I had great parenting role-models growing up

B) I'm not the kind of person who believes that my child doesn't make mistakes or is never at fault

C) I can recognize and correct potential issues with my parenting

D) I'm not afraid to say no sometimes

E) I want to be his parent, not his friend,

I fully believe that I am not raising an entitled, impatient, rude, selfish, ass of a human.

 

I hope you'll use this as a chance for some honest evaluation and reflection as I did.

 

See the full article HERE. 

This Is A Tough One-Finding The Only Child Silver Lining

I'm feeling a little sad about Sam being an only child today. I am almost always okay with the situation because I grieved the lack of future children being possible more than two years ago now, but some days are just tough. Some days I just want to scream "IT'S NOT FAIR, I WANTED THREE!!!!!!". I found out yesterday that a second cousin I grew up with was having her third and the wound was flayed wide open again. I'm happy for her, I really am, and I hope it's not unforgivable to be sad for myself at the same time.
 

Just after Sam was born, my liver enzymes and blood platelets went all wonky. By wonky, I mean things got scary and a liver specialist had to be called in. I was confined to the bed and I had these particularly awful, and constantly inflating and deflating, bladders on my legs to prevent blood clots 24 hours a day for 5 more days. They also doped me so hard that I only remember snippets between the liver specialist consult and the removal of my IVs. Worse than my worst ever drunk.


Turns out I had developed HELLP Syndrome. HELLP syndrome is a life-threatening pregnancy complication usually considered to be a variant of preeclampsia. It is a group of symptoms that occur in pregnant women who have:

H -- hemolysis or the breakdown of red blood cells

EL -- elevated liver enzymes

LP -- low platelet count
 

There are scads of resources if you'd like to research further but for the purposes of this post, suffice to say, it's gnarly. It's also likely to return in subsequent pregnancies potentially endangering the lives of both mom and baby. For many reasons too scary and sad to think about, should I become pregnant again, the risk is just not worth it according to my doctors. So we are a family of three. Many people have suggested, and I have investigated, adoption. I am adopted so I am a huge supporter of adoption in all it's forms but after much soul searching, I think maybe this is what my family was meant to look like. I've not completely ruled it out, but today my heart says "Look at what you already have. Look how lucky you already are.".
 

 

SO, here is the silver lining (for me) to having an only child who is almost 3.
 

1. I sleep through the night, every night.

2. Soon, no more diapers......ever, ever, ever again.

3. We have our routine. Every one knows the routine. The routine won't have to be rewritten.

4. Our financial resources will not be split further, now for expensive baby items and holiday gifts, or in the future for college tuition and weddings. We also have more money with which to travel, explore, and have adventures.

5. Nursing is a pain in the ass AND boobs!

6. Every month it seems like I have to carry less and less accoutrement when we leave the house and it's fabulous. It's also great to get rid of baby gates, fireplace bumpers, high chairs, etc.

7. Lots more activities are open to us without baby slings, carriers, and strollers, like cave exploring and hiking.

8. Christmas, Easter, birthdays, story time, etc. is for all of us now. Not just for the pictures or for me and Jeff.

9. No more carrying F-ing car seats onto the plane. I can check it!

10. The rounds of immunizations (i.e. looks of betrayal on my child's face while I hold him down for shots) are over until he starts school.

11. I'm over the brand new, shiny baby phase. He's got bruises and mosquito bites and it doesn't freak me out anymore.

12. I don't have to smell baby spit-up until I have grandchildren.

13. Sam gets my full, undivided attention, energy, and mommy heart space.

14. I don't have to break up fights about whose toys are whose, or stop siblings from "I'm not touching you" games in the back seat of the car.

15. Babysitters are cheaper with only one.

16. My body is now, and will always be, mine.

Life really is a beautiful dance, and my dance partners are so perfect for me!

Science Is Fun-Dancing Milk

Color, science "speremints", and messy play. These are three things that really trip Sam's trigger. This fun project is something I saw recently on a friend's Facebook page and just knew he would love to play with. We made a bubbly, wiggly, gyrating, dancing color wheel with a plate, milk, food coloring, dish soap, and a Q-tip. 

 

 

Pour enough milk onto a plate to cover the bottom. 

Drop food coloring onto the milk.  

Dip a cotton swab in dishwashing detergent liquid. 

Give your kiddo the coated swab so he/she can place it in the milk at the center of the plate. 

 Don't stir the milk; it isn't necessary. The colors will swirl on their own as soon as the detergent contacts the liquid.

Sam could only be so still with the soap and the cotton swab. The initial reaction of the food coloring in the milk was to make a fantastic star burst. Once he saw that he wanted to swirl and twist the cotton swab in the colors. Ok, that's not exactly following the directions but he was having a blast  oooo-ing, ahhh-ing, and generally loving the experience so whatever. It was his experience to enjoy.

 



 

Here he is going back for more soap. I do wish I'd waited until the milk was room temperature as that evidently works better in this experiment but as soon as Sam saw me setting up the supplies, he pulled up a chair and got excited. That's really the point of cool, fun projects like this anyway isn't it? To get kids excited about science in a hands-on way.

 

Mission accomplished once again!

 

We attempted to get video of the color changing magic but they just didn't turn out to be of very good quality so I found links to much better videos HERE and HERE.

 

If your kiddo is old enough to want to know, and be able to understand, how it works, here you go. Thank you Steve Spangler Science for the following explanation.

 

Milk is mostly water but also contains vitamins, minerals, proteins, and tiny droplets of fat suspended in solution. Fats and proteins are sensitive to changes in the surrounding solution (the milk).

The secret of the bursting colors is the chemistry of that tiny drop of soap. Dish soap, because of its bipolar characteristics (nonpolar on one end and polar on the other), weakens the chemical bonds that hold the proteins and fats in solution. The soap's polar, or hydrophilic (water-loving), end dissolves in water, and its hydrophobic (water-fearing) end attaches to a fat globule in the milk. 

The molecules of fat bend, roll, twist, and contort in all directions as the soap molecules race around to join up with the fat molecules. During all of this fat molecule gymnastics, the food coloring molecules are bumped and shoved everywhere, providing an easy way to observe all the invisible activity. As the soap becomes evenly mixed with the milk, the action slows down and eventually stops. 

Try adding another drop of soap to see if there's any more movement. If so, you discovered there are still more fat molecules that haven't found a partner at the big color dance. Add another drop of soap to start the process again.

 

Lake Travel With A Toddler

We have traveled with Sam since he was 4 months old. He has slept in motels, hotels, inns, family's homes, and the car and he's always done great so far. One place we hadn't been was the lake. My parent's had a boat from the time I was 10 or so until the last one sank during an ice storm a couple years ago so the lake was old hat for me. Jeff sinks like a stone in the water however so he'd never expressed a desire for a trip to any of our myriad area lakes. It didn't help the situation either that we didn't really have intimate access to accommodations anymore since the sad loss of the aforementioned boat.

 

Several weeks ago, one of our friends suggested a trip to his family lake house for the Fourth weekend. Not being one to pass up a trip away from home with no lodging cost, I jumped at the chance. Water centric travel is a whole different kind of trip with a toddler than anything we had done before and I learned a couple things.

 

1. Tire them out just a little before you get in the car for 2 hours. I try to do this with all car travel but especially something brand new! The lawn was overgrown. Perfect opportunity to walk some wiggles out before a road trip.

 

Mowing the lawn with Daddy.

 

2. Get your kiddo used to his/her life preserver BEFORE you need them to wear it. Sam had had his on briefly when we purchased it but wearing it for hours on a hot dock and a hot boat is a whole different prospect. They don't care about the safety of it, and you can exhaust yourself worrying and following them around if you take it off even for one minute. And just try to explain that it's lake law. HA! It was a bit of a struggle.

 

3. Take your toddler cot, even if you are staying in a home with available bedding. This is a good piece of advice no matter where you are staying. Sam knows our Regalo is HIS bed, and it's a sense of security and familiarity in new, overwhelming series of situations and stimuli. Read more about this indispensable travel accessory HERE.

 

4. Take LOTS of snacks. Somehow, sitting around a dock, in the hot sun, relaxing and hanging out makes a 2 year old constantly starving. Plus you need to feed the fish and geese, right? Make sure to take lots of sunscreen too, especially if there are no other littles from whom you might poach a little sun protection.

 

Geese love Cheese-Its!

 

5. Take familiar toys. Another sort of general piece of advice but in this case, in addition to his bedtime friends, I packed some of his tub toys and some of the things he likes to play with in his inflatable pool in our back yard. Water toys are important because you may discover, as I did, that your kiddo WILL NOT get in the water. If you have water guns, you can cool yourself down too since you may not get to spend any time in the water.

 

6. If your kiddo is a scheduled one, make your own schedule. We were at a friends house as I mentioned. They had all of their own plans, food, scheduling, and routine. Their youngest  is 14. They eat dinner at 7 (or later). The kiddos stay up until 10 or 11. In short, nothing worked with Sam's schedule. And no, I'm not a complete freak, only a little crazy about his schedule because I know what he's like if we deviate too much AND it's me and Jeff that have to manage the fallout. I did let him stay up to watch the fireworks Friday night and I was terrified I was ruining the whole weekend by tempting fate that way but thank God he slept until 8:30 the next morning and woke up in a fantastic mood.

 

7. Take 4 times as many "swimmer" diapers as you think you'll need. They are fantastic at not absorbing liquid from the outside but you know what? They also don't absorb any liquid from the inside. One hands soaking pee bomb of a diaper will teach you quickly to change them often if they're wearing those things.

 

8. Be careful with the special treats. Once again, good advice wherever you are, but when you're with friends whose kids are drinking soda and you think you're just giving in once, you aren't. Then it's an every meal, every snack, every time they see one of the older kids crack a bottle or can, every hour kind of monster. An example of a good special treat we tried out was a huge, lovely surprise for Sam. He's a very rolly-polly sleeper so I've never let him sleep on a grown-up bed before. He was so excited and happy for the chance!

 

My angel's first time in a big boy bed.

  

9. If you're at a friends house and your toddler wants to vacuum, let them vacuum. Or dust, or sweep, or wash dishes, or roll balls across the pool table, or pack and unpack your suitcase 10 times, whatever it takes because come on, this is your vacation too.

 

10. Relax and have fun. There are a lot of opportunities to admire the beauty all around you. This is as much advice for me as it is for anyone. Relaxing doesn't exactly come easy to me. I'm improving. Just look at that sky. How serene is that fairly still water and gorgeous rays coming out of all sides of the clouds? A view like that certainly helped!

 

 

 

 

 

Bikini Wax? Did I Go For It......You Bet Your Ass I Did

Last Saturday at my book club, my friend Julie had an awkward question to ask. She is an amazing esthetician and had just returned from a salon show in Las Vegas. She has decided to use a new kind of hard wax for bikini waxes and needed some "models". My immediate question was "Are you going to TAKE PICTURES?!?!?". After a 10 minutes holding our sides, a couple of us falling off of our chairs, style laughter from all of the girls, she assured us that she would not in fact take pictures. And because she needed models to practice on, there would be no charge this first time. What the hell, let's do this.

I checked in at the salon and she took me back to her work room. Every time I've ever been in there for a facial or eyebrow wax, the lights have been dimmed to a relaxing, peaceful spot to facilitate a calm, spa atmosphere. Not this time! I think they were about 600 Watt bulbs in the sockets. And I was already kind of anxiety sweating anyway. then I turn to her chair and see this.

OH! MY! GOSH! Tension broken. You've got to freshen up before your friend gets to the job of waxing away months of unwanted hair right? Why not do it with an I Love My Muff towelet? These things are brilliant. What a way to break the awkwardness in an inherently uncomfortable (at first) situation. Next to the muff freshener was a little cup of numbing cream, (thank you very much!) and a towel to cover up with that at first glance looked to be the size of a postage stamp, eeeeeep!

Here we go. Dancer's pose assumed. For the uninitiated, the dancer's pose is one leg straight, other leg bent outward with the bottom of that foot touching the first leg's knee. On to the waxing. Hot, melted, smurfy blue wax is spread across the hair removal area. This particular wax hardens so quickly that within seconds I felt like a candle. A strange, bright blue, sweaty candle. It was an odd sensation to say the least. The nice thing about the hard wax is that it hardens on the skin enough that it doesn't require strips for removal. No strips, just a hand pulling the skin taut, then RIP!

Ok, that wasn't as bad as I'd anticipated. Several strips in, the teensy, tiny towel flipped off of me but by then I was so comfortable in the moment that I just didn't care anymore. Let's keep going. Good job! More, more! We did stop short of pre-pubescence. It's not my favorite look and frankly the wax was a touch too warm on the more tender areas.

I really thought I was going to be supremely uncomfortable having my friend since the first grade all up (or is that down?) in my business, but I honestly think because we were gabbing as we always do, it made it a much more comfortable, less unpleasant, experience. In fact after we were done, I hopped straight out of the chair and grabbed my undies and skirt while she cleaned up her supplies with nary a break in the conversation. How liberating!! Best part, I'm all ready to go to the lake, with no razor burn, for the 4th holiday!

Verdict? If you are even sort of thinking about getting a bikini wax, research your options and if a hard wax procedure is available in you area, make the call and go! Even better, if you have a friend who is a salon professional, it isn't weird unless you let it be because A) it's their job, and B) their friendship probably has nothing to do with your hoo-haw anyway :).

In other news, Sam really didn't get the full enjoyment out of our fireworks last year that he's clearly going to get this year. Check out his "citement" face.

And this was just from a little preview. I didn't even get the main bag of works out yet.

Managing Your GIANT Papers, Posterboard, Foam Sheets, Etc.

 I just love finding perfect storage solutions at really discounted prices! I have a miscellaneous collection of large paper and foam products. Some are left-over foam from cutting out facial features for the monsters I made for Sam's second birthday photo booth. You can see the green monster behind Sam in this photo.

 

 

Some are from various photo matting projects. Some are for an awesome project I can't wait to do for Halloween this year. Check it out.

 

 

Some are scraps of posterboard that we've made a million products from. And some are just giant posters I've saved from work events to draw on the back of or rip up for collages. I buy things I know we'll use when I see them on sale and there are always left-over pieces and scraps from our projects. These pieces and scraps were stored in 6 separate locations within the house, garage and shed. They get bent, smudged, and torn in several of those locations. I knew I had to find an affordable solution.

 

I rarely frequent the "real" artists section of my local craft store because I am a terrible drawer/painter and the supplies are usually kind of expensive. I do love the 40% off signs though and was led down the sketch book/charcoal/easel aisle by just such a sign.

 

Yay, I found the perfect thing. A 24"x32" Filexec Black Carry All Artist's Portfolio. It had been $14.99 but with 40% off, it came to $8.99. I'll definitely pay $8.99 plus tax for organizational piece of mind!

 

Filexec Black Carry All Artist's Portfolio

 

Okay, so one of the pieces of mat board sticks out of the top and I can't zip it as a result. Who cares! It's all in one place, and easily flip-through-able to find just what I need in a flash.

 

Keeps your eyes open for those 40% off signs, even in aisles you never go down.