Naptime Blog

I am from the first Sesame Street generation.  I remember when Mr. Hooper was alive and running his store, and I remember when he passed away.  I remember when Snuffy was Big Bird’s Imaginary friend and was only seen by him.  I watched Sesame Street before Elmo was born, before Abby Cadabby and Zoe, Baby Bear and Rosita.  I loved Sesame Street when I was a little girl.  So naturally I wanted my children to love Sesame Street as well.

When my oldest daughter was 18 months old, in 2003, I took her to see Sesame Street Live.  I had introduced the characters to her when she was a baby, and she loved Elmo (what baby doesn’t?).  As a matter of fact, whenever the Elmo’s World song came on during the TV show, Juliana would be glued to the TV.  I even had to get her a fish bowl and “Dorothy” the gold fish.  The theme of her first birthday was of course Sesame Street.  So seeing her face during Sesame Street Live was priceless…  She was glued to the stage whenever she saw that red monster.  I enjoyed the show, too!  There will always be a part of me that will always enjoy Sesame Street, no matter how old I am!

My twin sons are now fourteen months old.  At eight am every morning, they are glued to the TV just as their sister was.  And every time they hear the theme song, they stand up and dance away!  So naturally, I had to get tickets to see Sesame Street Live this time it was in the area!  I am so excited to be taking the kids to see the show in October!  I know they will love it!  When I told my daughter, who is now seven, that I was getting tickets to see Sesame Street Live, she was thrilled as well!  I definitely thought she’d consider it too babyish for her to go, but she is just as hooked as I am! 

Sesame Street Live is in the NYC area for three separate shows.  As I am expecting baby number 4 on September 22 (which means I will be looking again next year to take him to see Sesame Street Live when it returns to NY), I will be going to the show in Westchester in late October.  The local shows are:

IZOD center, September 17-20
Nassau Coliseum, September 24-27
Westchester County Center, October 22-25

If you go to ticketmaster.com and search for Sesame Street Live, you can see if there are any shows playing near you!  I can’t wait for the show, and will be sure to come back and tell you all about it!  Hmmm, am I an excited Mommy or a Kid at Heart?

Jennifer
Mom to Juliana (7), Louis (1) and Anthony (1)
Expecting #4 in September!
www.nevaland.com

I have mentioned before that I am a sucker for an infomercial!!  Every time the Your Baby Can Read infomercial comes on, I become glued to the T.V. With having a new baby in the house, I am anxious to try anything that will help him develop ALL his skills.

He is a very social baby and curious of the world around him. I was a bit apprehensive w/ the program because of the $$cost$$. Luckily granddaddy was more than willing to invest in the program for his big boy.

It comes w/ a series of videos and supporting flash cards. We have only been watching the 1st video for a few weeks now; I will be recording and documenting the process. I will give you all the down low on how it worked for us.

Have any of you tried it and had success??

http://www.yourbabycanread.com/

~Shanta

The boys learn things everyday, but today Mommy learned some things…

1. Dogs like to eat new sippy cups full of fresh milk.
2. Dogs like to eat diapers full of not so fresh, well, you know.
3. Certain art supplies make a huge mess on children.
4. Certain art supplies make a huge mess on rugs.
5. Oxyclean is my friend. I need to buy stock in that company as much as I buy it.
6. Dogs and children have a secret pact to cry, whine, scream and bark at precisely the exact same time each day.
7. Telemarketers and door to door sales people have a special kind of ESP to detect when aforementioned dogs and children have just dozed off for a nap. That’s when they decide to call or ring the doorbell.
8. 17 month old toddlers have an uncanny ability to turn into mini-hurricanes and destroy a living room in 10 seconds flat.
9. 29 month old toddlers have the wonderful ability to erase entire blog posts that mommy has spent an hour on before she thinks to save it. They do this with one key press while simultaneously closing the laptop lid.
10. Two toddlers living under the same roof are hungry, thirsty, tired, wet and dirty at the same time. Amazing!
11. Even 30-something moms need a mom every once in awhile.
12. Even though I will need 10 bottles of #5 to clean up #1, #2 and #4 after cleaning up #8 for the tenth time today, I wouldn’t change any of it. Why? Because out of it, I got the most beautiful drawing created by my oldest son. It’s more beautiful than any Picasso. Isn’t it perfect? Anyone beg to differ with this Mama? I didn’t think so.

What have you learned today?

Shannon
Potamus Prefers
http://www.potamusprefers.com/

I have mentioned before that I am a sucker for an infomercial!!  We have been playing video #1 for a little over a month now. I do not use T.V as a babysitter for my kids. But I do allow good stuff to play while I am cooking and cleaning. Instead of just allowing any old junk T.V to play I thought I would give this a try. As a school teacher I know that exposing your child to literacy early is a positive thing. This includes reading to your baby, talking to him, exposing him to a variety of different things.

I wanted to see if this early language program did what it promised. When Jayce, who is now 8 months, is in the living room playing and exploring while I cook, we let the video play. He really doesn’t pay much attention to the T.V, but when the cute little songs play, he will stop what he’s doing and turn towards the T.V and smile! He loves the music and the pictures that they pair with it. It is still too early to tell if it works, he has only been watching it a few weeks. I will keep you guys posted.

It comes w/ a series of videos and supporting flash cards. We are still on the 1st video; I will be recording and documenting the process. I will give you all the down low on how it worked for us.

Here is the link again for you to see for yourself,

http://www.yourbabycanread.com/

~Shanta

I dislike bugs, I know boys love them. I thought I had a good four years before I had to worry about Tristan playing with them. Just this week I have pulled two daddy long legs, one praying mantis, 2 worms, and one cave cricket out of his hands as they were on the way to his mouth. I love my little one but I hate the bugs. The other day I was going downstairs to do laundry, above the door was a praying mantis. I in my typical helpless female role when it comes to bugs screamed bloody murder. This brought Rick running with Tristan. Rick was laughing at me so Tristan did too, I know he doesn’t understand why Daddy was laughing at Mommy but he did it anyways.

Tristan has another favorite hobby… taking his diaper off. It is so annoying, I was cooking the other day and I turned around to step in his cold wet diaper. Then I had to chase Tristan to get a new diaper on him. These are the fun times my Mom keeps telling me. I love my son but some days I really want a little girl that does not bring me bugs, a little girl that is calm and gentle. Tristan is like a storm, but he is also very peaceful at times. He has a habit of running up and giving huge hugs for no reason, and I love it!

-Chrystal

Well, Shaughn turned one on the 4th of September and his party was on the 5th. Good that it fell on a 3 day weekend so a lot of people were able to travel for our event. On the day of his birthday, my mom, grandma, sister and cousin came over to celebrate the day at our house with chocolate cupcakes, which he thoroughly enjoyed. On Saturday, my husband, his cousin, my sister and I set up decorations at my moms house in the morning and timed Shaughn’s nap so that he would wake up and be in a good mood by the time his party started at 2. In addition to the pool party theme we also rented a 15 foot inflatable water slide that could entertain the older crowd and boy did it! The 3-7 year olds were on it a lot, parents were on it, the babies were on it with their parents, of course. Shaughn, my water baby, simply loved it. He went down the slide a few times with Daddy and was all smiles.

He was starting to get crabby towards the end which was cue for cake time. Everyone sang happy birthday, and there was a good 30 of us, he looked slightly startles but didn’t cry. I thought he would for some reason. After we were done I blew out his candle and placed his cake in front of him. The store we get our cakes from, Publix, provide a free “smash cake” with the purchase of a sheet cake and the colors matched the main Baby Einstein cake beautifully. Shaughn wasted no time digging in! He first was squishing the icing in his hands to feel it, then he went all for it! He was thoughtful enough to share with daddy as he smacked his hand, full of icing, across his face. About a half hour later, he was completely empty of energy and passed out for his power nap. It was very successful and I’m so happy everyone came out. Brent’s family all drove down and my grandma from NY was here. I couldn’t have asked for a better turn out. I just can’t believe Shaughn’s one!

-Krystle

I remember my Mom cleaning our whole house and baking a chocolate cake only hours before going into labor with my sister when I was younger.  When they woke me up to say they were going to the hospital, I was amazed, because just hours before that, my Mom was fine!  That is one thing that has always stuck in my mind. 

So here I am years later, about to have my fourth child, and am frantic with the “nesting” instinct!  I am supposed to be on bed rest, but all I want to do is clean my house and have everything in order for this baby! 

I was put on bed rest last week, and when the doctor was telling me all that good stuff about my restrictions, all I kept thinking in my head is “Is he kidding?”  I mean, he was the ‘on-call’ doctor for my regular OB, who knows my history inside and out, but I know I DID tell this doctor I had three kids at home, didn’t I?  Even modified bed rest wasn’t going to cut it! 

Luckily I have great family and in-laws, and every day since then someone has been with me to help out with the kids…  I haven’t changed a diaper in days (but the guilt from that is another story for another day…) and have had people to keep me company, keep my mind off of the thoughts of having this baby too soon, keep my seven year old busy, and lift up my growing toddler twin boys for me!  But there is something about the idea of asking someone else to clean my toilets!  And I need to clarify that my LEAST favorite thing in the world to do is clean, so why is it bothering me that I can’t clean my house? 

I guess I should admit that I am a bit of a control freak.  NO, that would be a lie… I am a TRUE control freak!  So being on bed rest with three kids and a house I can’t clean and not being able to get the new baby’s things ready on my own is TORTURE!  And of course my frustration is totally coming out on my husband, but I don’t understand why he isn’t all nuts about having to get everything ready like I am?  What’s the deal there?

I am reminded, however, when I do decide to get up and do something here and there why I am not supposed to… the contractions start up and I get uncomfortable.  But in my defense, I only did this thirteen months ago!  My twins just turned one and I was on bed rest much earlier on with their pregnancy due to the high risk pregnancy.   Well, I guess there is no comparison.  The twins’ pregnancy was much more difficult from the start because everything was magnified twice:  twice the morning sickness, twice the heartburn, everything was much more intense and I was put on bed rest for months with their pregnancy.  However, back then, I only had one child, and she was six at the time.  Her needs were easy.  As a matter of fact, she loved helping Mommy out and possibly one of my best memories of that pregnancy was having Juliana make us sandwiches every day…  turkey on whole wheat, baby carrots, and cherries.  And she adored pulling out all the board games, having Mommy’s attention for whole afternoons at a time.  But now things are different.  My boys are still very reliant on me, I still need to feed them and diaper them, play with them… heck, they are only one!  And my daughter is about to start school, so I need to get school supplies and uniforms ready to go as well! 

I don’t think anything is going to stop the “nesting” phenomenon or instinct or whatever it is.  I realize I need to put my health and my baby’s well-being as top priority, and leave the rest up to my husband and family to help me out with.  I guess I am unreasonably thinking that my children will be upset with me for not being able to do for them what I normally would do, especially the boys, who will have no memory of this time!  I have to deal with it and remember that in a few short weeks, this baby will join our family and all of this will be a distant memory.  And one day, I will look four teenagers and wish I was back at the time when they were safely in my belly or in their Pack N Plays sleeping soundly!

Jennifer
Mom to Juliana (7), Louis (1) and Anthony (1)
Expecting #4 in September!
www.nevaland.com

Our church family is great!! They are very supportive and kept us lifted up in prayer during our pregnancy. Many of them knew about the difficult high-risk pregnancies I had been thru.

Well, since Jayce has been born, we have only been a few times. It is so easy to just stay in bed, or catch up the laundry. Recently, I’ve been missing my church family. We can tell that we were missed.

Our church is a great, down home, southern church with AMAZING music!! Jayce loves the loud music; he looks all around, smiling and taking it all in. What I can’t understand is when its time to be quiet, like prayer time or during the sermon, why he decides to be really, really loud and vocal!!!

I know that it’s ok and he’s just a baby, but I feel like all eyes are on us at that time…

I guess this is part of the stage, and we he starts walking-OH Lord…lolololol

~Shanta

Tomorrow is the first day of fall, well officially, but the weather tells a different story here in the south. Just look at the weather forecast for this week according to our local television station.

I hear a rumor that there should be a cold front on Thursday. Um, ok, lol. A low of 70 is no cold front to me.  I know there are many people who would love this weather, but realize that along with it comes scorching hot summers. The summers are so hot that we literally can’t go outside many days because it’s unsafe for small children and others at risk of overheating. It sure can make it hard on parents to find budget-friendly ways to entertain the kiddos during the hot months.

You’d think malls or indoor play areas would be a good idea. Well, I guess the economy has those places cutting back, because the few I went to this summer were almost as hot inside as it is outside.

I crave cool weather. I yearn to be able to wear a long sleeve shirt without sweating and to fix my hair and have it stay fixed without melting from the heat and humidity before I’m through diapering and dressing two little ones. I think I could totally be one of those people who buy an RV to drive to cooler climates when it’s so hot. I’d love to visit a place where the leaves turn a beautiful fall color and there’s little to no chance that shorts will be required on Christmas day (yes, I have worn shorts many times on Christmas day).

On the flip side, I know there are people that are miserably cold during the winter, having to dig their cars out of the snow and have the opposite problem. These people have to stay indoors for safety during the winter while I am able to enjoy the warmer climate. So, yes, I definitely realize the grass isn’t greener. I’m just wishing for a little fall for us, too. Honestly, I was in early 30s before I saw snow in person and that was on a trip to a colder climate. Anyone want to share?

My wish is that I can put my boys in long sleeves for their annual pumpkin patch photo in October without feeling like I am overdressing them for the weather. I’d like to sip hot chocolate on a hayride and warm my chilly hands over a campfire. Is that too much to ask?

Shannon
Potamus Prefers
http://www.potamusprefers.com/

The further along I became in my pregnancy, the more I wondered if I would be better off with a triple stroller or with a double and a baby carrier.  I now have three babies under fourteen months.  My twins are still not walking, or I should say, they are not walking long distances.  Louis, the older one (by two minutes), will pull himself up by himself to stand in the middle of the room, and then he just stands there (with a PERFECT balance!).  He might take a step here and there but inevitably will dive back down to dash into a quick crawl and get where he wants to go.  Anthony, the younger one, will pull himself up by holding onto a couch or toy or whatever is in his way and will take four to six steps before he, too, dives into that dashing crawl.  Let’s put it this way, they can crawl faster than I walk so I guess they are in no rush to walk. 

That leaves me with a pretty big dilemma.  I have a newborn and two 20+ pound sons that still need to be carried around.  I was hoping to continue to use one of my two double strollers (I have both a Graco DuoGlider front-to-back and a Chicco side-by-side) and carry the baby with a Baby Bjorn carrier.  But I do worry that if I need to pick up one of the twins while we are out or walking somewhere, what will I do with the baby in the carrier in front of me?  I know that if I am with my husband we can always take one of the doubles and a single, but there will be times (like picking up my older daughter at the bus stop when I am by myself with the kids) where having two strollers will not work.

I decided to start shopping around for a triple stroller, and was unpleasantly surprised with the pricing.  $500, $700, $900, $1200 and up on a stroller that I will undoubtedly only need for a year or two at most?  I mainly rely on driving (which is a story for another day, as our lease is up next year on our Saturn Outlook and I might need to start looking at minivans for my brood), so it is unlikely I will be using a triple stroller each and every day.  If I do use it, it will mostly be to get around in a store with the kids (so yes, lifting the stroller in and out of a trunk regularly by myself is a big factor), and I just cannot see spending over $1000 on a stroller.  Plus, it is not in our budget. 

So, after narrowing down a stroller by price (staying under the $500 limit), I still wanted to get a sturdy stroller.  I really liked the jogging strollers (not that I jog!), but the ones that I would be inclined to purchase were over our spending limit.  I tried to see which was the lesser of two evils:  a front-to-back triple which I would be able to get in and out of doors with but when crossing the street I would need to be sure the child in the front was safe as he would be so far ahead of me; or a side-by-side stroller (and I have a hard enough time getting in and out of doors and through racks in stores as it is with a double stroller) which would be an awful wide load.

In the end, I decided to go with a front-to-back.  I found the Foundations Trio online and was pleasantly surprised that it was under $400.  I received it by Federal Express within 3-4 days of ordering.  So far so good.

I had my husband had to take it out of the box and put it together for me.  It was fairly simple, the wheels had to go into the axels and the canopies had to be put on.  Opening it was not difficult at all (however, I must admit that I have not tried it myself because I cannot lift anything heavy.  Closing it seemed a little more of a challenge, but we had to get used to closing our Graco and Chicco doubles as well.  I am lucky that my three boys will be in it, so the blue color (which is such a beautiful color by the way!) goes great for our family, and the fabric looks and feels like it will be very easy to keep clean.  I cannot tell you how my Chicco is all stained from juice and cookies and everything else the boys have eaten in it!

I am going to have to buy an infant head support insert, because the stroller does not seem as newborn-friendly as I would have liked. And I have decided to go with a Baby Bjorn carrier as well, in the event I want to travel once in a while with just a double, so we will see how that one goes also.

I will be sure to let you all know how it all works out in a few weeks when I am strolling around in the fall with my three sons to pick up my daughter from the bus and go shopping!

Jennifer
Mom to Juliana (7), Louis (1) and Anthony (1)
Expecting #4 in September!
www.nevaland.com