Naptime Blog

The time is here for our little ones to go out Trick or Treating in their costumes. Some will want to look cute, others will want to look spooky. Some costumes will be a little more elaborate than others. My favorites are always the home made ones. As silly as it may seem. I love the ones that the children get to build themselves… along with a parent’s help of course.

My girls are totally into dressing up for Halloween, and can’t wait this year. They’ve been Princesses and Fairies, and this year, they’ve taken a liking to being a Puppy and a Kitten. The coolest part is that I’m totally going to save money on their costumes this year. We were out at Michael’s and they found these cute headbands that have dog & cat ears on them, but the big deal is that down the front center, there’s a strip of “fur” that has a nose attached to it, so it looks almost like a full mask. It’s just too cute on them! Well, they’ve decided they want to wear those this Halloween but they want to be “Girl” doggie and kitty. I’m thinking “YES!” This is going to be easy!!! It will be! All I need to do is get a long sleeve shirt to match their mask, and either a pair of matching colored pants/leggings or tights. I’m going to take some fun, bright fabric and make skirts and matching hair bows for them. I can’t wait!

Some other very cool ideas that I’ve seen are:

 A quick and easy pumpkin costume:

• Take a very large sweatshirt, maybe 2-3 sizes too big for you. 
• Paint a Jack O’Lantern face on the front. 
• Wear with green leggings and a green ski cap. 
• Have fun with it and add felt leaves and curly pipe cleaners to the top for vines!

Bag of Jelly Beans:

• Cut a hole in the bottom of a clear garbage bag for a neck, and arm holes on the sides. 
• Fill with small brightly colored balloons.
• Cinch up the bottom of the bag to hold balloons in place. 
• Have fun with it and add a cute “label” to the front!

Angel:

• Cut a hole in the center of a white sheet just large enough to get your head through. 
• Take a decorative rope or braid some yarn to use as a belt and tie around your waist. 
• Make wings out of a wire clothes hanger or cardboard and aluminum foil
• Make a halo out of aluminum foil
• Have fun with it and make a harp or add “clouds” to the bottom of your sheet by glueing on cotton balls, or batting remnants!

Cat in the Hat:

• Take black sweatshirt and pants and glue on white felt on chest to make the cat’s chest.
• If you have a red tie, use that, if not, you can just use some red scrap fabric and glue it in the shape of a tie. 
• The hat is easily made with scraps of red and white fabric sewn together. Add some light poster board to the inside so it stands up a little better. Or you can buy it pretty inexpensively at some novelty hat stores. 
• Make a tail by sewing a black tube out of scrap fabric and filling with batting or foam.
• Wear black high top tennis shoes to complete the look. 
• Have fun with it! Find an old cane at a thrift store and/or look for a plastic fish bowl, and glue a picture of a goldfish to the inside. You can even use that as your treat “bag” if you add a handle to it!

Geisha Girl:

• Use toilet paper tubes, or make tubes out of bubble wrap and stuff into the legs of opaque black tights. 
• Make the wig by putting the waist of the tights on your child’s head. Wrap one leg around and safety pin it in place. Tie the second leg into a knot and safety pin it in the center of the wig. 
• Decorate your geisha’s “hair” with chopsticks, silk flowers, costume jewelry hair combs, etc. Use black tape to secure everything. 
• Put on white t-shirt, or undershirt, tights, sandals and silky robe. Tie and pin a silky scarf just above the waistline. 
• If desired, you can put some lipstick on your geisha, eyeliner, white powder on her face and some blush on each cheek. 
• Have fun with it! Give her a bag decorated like a Japanese lantern, folding fan, or parasol to carry.

Many costumes are made even more fun with face paint. If you’re like me and would rather use natural ingredients rather than the makeup that’s out there from who knows where, I have a recipe that’s perfect for you!

All you need to do to make your own face paint:

• Mix 3 TBSP of cornstarch and 1 TBSP of flour together. 
• Stir in 3/4 cup of light corn syrup and 1/4 cup of water. 
• Mix until smooth. 
• Divide into several different containers depending on how many colors you need. 
• Add several drops of food coloring to each container to make your desired color. 
• Use a paint brush or cotton swab to apply to faces…. 
• Completely Safe, non-toxic and home made!

I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween!!!
 
~Monica Brady
Mommy Brain Reports
http://www.mommybrainreports.com

If you’ve followed my blogging adventures, you will know that our son is quite the lazy boy. He finally began to crawl just a couple of weeks before his first birthday, and it wasn’t “experimental” crawling either, he was fast as lightning from the start which leads my husband and I to believe that it was all an act! He knew how to crawl, just didn’t feel like it. I’m sure he found us crawling on the floor while trying to teach him rather amusing. The next step to try and get him to do was standing using furniture around or his little activity table. While my husband and I were sitting on the floor in Shaughn’s room with him, we would try to stand him up while holding onto his hands. He was NOT having it. He kept making his legs bend and fussed til he was on the floor, so we gave up.

Shaughn has this little lion “car” that he can sit  and roll around on, or the seat converts to a walking toy. His nose is a button that activates music and a laugh, and our son constantly hits it. Before the songs are over he just hits it over and over again. It was time for bed and I put the lion car away, with his nose facing the wall and perfectly in between furniture so he couldn’t press it anymore. Guess what this kid does… He crawls towards it, puts his hands on the seat, and very quickly stands up – yes STANDS UP- reaches his hand around and presses the lion’s nose! My husband and I look at each other in shock, surprise, etc. Then we just start laughing because we’re figuring out Shaughn is going to do things whenever he sees the time is right. There’s nothing we can do to rush any sort of physical development because he will just do it when he wants. I couldn’t believe it! Granted, we were very happy he did it, but it was so funny how against it he was when we were trying to make him stand. Now, of course, he stands any chance he gets and takes little steps, but he refuses to do it while we’re holding his hands. Silly kid…

-Krystle

I remember before I had my boys that I’d see parents with their kids and think, “Why on earth would they do that?” I think a lot of us are guilty of this, right?

 I would see a mom with a toddler screaming in a grocery cart and think, “Why can’t she calm him down?” Oh, how naïve I was! Having kids sure does slap you with reality and make you understand things. If I observe that same scene now (sometimes involving me and my party of two), I nod with total understanding and empathy.

Before kids I couldn’t fathom why a parent would put noisy shoes on their child. I would see children running through malls with squeaky shoes on and cover my ears. I never understood why the moms and dads would sit there with a big smile, watching their little one, oblivious to the offending noise.
You know what?

I now get it! I TOTALLY get it! Every child is different. Every family is different. I have a 2 ½ year old son with developmental delays. He walks, but struggles with it daily. Lately, he has been walking on his own more and more and he’s so proud. I get tears of joy in my eyes just thinking about it. He takes unassisted steps with a huge smile on his face and a look in his eyes that says, “Are you proud of me?”. Awhile back, I was given a pair of squeaky shoes for him. Let me tell you, that squeak squeak squeak as he walks little by little, step by step is beautiful music to this proud mother’s ears. He loves hearing the squeak and that helps him want to walk more and more.

So, the next time you see someone doing something you don’t understand, try putting yourself in their shoes (squeaky or not) for just a minute.

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

It’s October! This is my favorite month (I did mention it’s my birthday month, right?). Even though most days are still hot and humid, there are little hints here and there of cooler days to come.

As I walk the aisles of the local merchants, I am seeing more and more pumpkins, cornucopias and other fall themed decorative items. Store racks are packed with adorable little Halloween costumes for the little ones. As I drive down the freeway, I see several Halloween super stores packed from wall to wall with Halloween costumes and decorations for people of every age.

I want to enjoy each season thoroughly, but seeing Christmas trees in September and October is a bit much. Don’t you think? I mean, I’m still in shorts and could easily take a swim and get a suntan on almost any given day. I say hold off on the Christmas decorations until we’ve at least had our first real cold front.

Anyway, back to Halloween. What are your little ones going as? Do you dress up? I am not really into dressing up myself but I love to dress the boys up. This year they will be monkeys. I got the costumes for $5 on clearance last year. The same exact costume is on sale for $25 again this year so I say I got a steal! By the way, that’s a neat savings tip… buy Halloween costumes, Christmas décor, etc. when it goes on clearance each year.

Do you have a fall tradition? We like to go to our church’s fall festival where the boys can safely trick or treat and show off their costumes. They have all sorts of activities for the kids and music for the adults. Afterwards, we will probably let them trick or treat at a few homes in our neighborhood as we pull them around in their wagon.

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

I have noticed since I started buying mostly store brands that almost all of the store brands are manufactured in the United States. Many of the national brands are made in other countries. So with the economy in such distress I am happy to help keep jobs local. Wal-Mart recently changed the packaging on their store brand and I love the clean simple labels. Sometimes labels can be distracting, so it is refreshing to see. The new packaging is Great Value, and it is a great value. I buy Tristan’s Apple Juice in a huge bottle for around $2. A bottle of baby juice half the size is twice as much. I do a 50/50 juice water mix and it is the same as baby juice, so my Great Value juice lasts almost 4 times as long as the Gerber juices I was buying before.

Since I started working out more a great high energy snack is the Great Value Mountain Trail Mix. It is a mix of salty and sweet and I have to hide it from my husband because he takes the whole big bag to work. It has nuts, raisins, chocolate covered candy and more. A few of the other staples in our pantry from the Great Value line are eggs, Yogurt, Sugar (I love to bake for others so I use an endless amount of sugar,) and so much more. They also have laundry detergent, fabric softner sheets, light bulbs and dish soap for half the price of national brands. I love to save money, get more and be totally satisfied. Great value’s line does just that!

-Chrystal

My biggest bad habit is smoking cigarettes. Once I found out I was pregnant, I trashed the remaining half pack and didn’t smoke throughout the pregnancy. It wasn’t that big of a deal either. Yes I got moody because of it on some days and wanted to “just have one” but I didn’t. What a perfect jump start to quitting such a terrible habit. After we moved back to Florida, we went out one night with some friends, had a couple of drinks, and I smoked a cigarette. Since that night, I started to buy packs again. Not a good move on my part. Brent quit for a little while during the pregnancy but ultimately went back to it. Never did he smoke around me though. My routine after the baby since I wasn’t breastfeeding, was smoke a cigarette, wash my hands, use hand sanitizer, and change my shirt. I even read in some of my pre baby reading material from the doctor that parents who smoke after the baby is born could increase the risk of SIDS. I never did and would never smoke around our son, but I took those extra precautions.

In addition to the raising price of these darn things, we are going to try to quit again. I think of the future and how I’m going to be if I continue to smoke all these years. I think of how life would be if I, God forbid, had cancer from smoking. I would never in a million years want my son at any age to witness anything like that just because mommy needed a nicotine fix. Its going to be a hard thing to do in the beginning but I just have to keep remembering that it is only for the better. Continuing to smoke has no positive benefits for me now or later. All of our friends smoke, and when we’re around them I know I’m going to want to do it more, but again, gotta keep thinking of how its going to help me to decline a cigarette. Here’s to the future! Have any of you quit smoking and if so, how hard was it to battle your craving?

-Krystle

During the summer months, we did a lot of barbecuing. In the beginning of the summer, this was easy. Hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, steaks, London broil, pinwheels, sausage, spare ribs, even roast beef.  We would barbecue ears of corn, grilled vegetables, you name it, and we grilled it. But after a while, even barbecued foods got redundant.  As we started to see cooler weather, we were ready to start changing things up again with oven cooked meals.

So here we are, early fall, and I am already stumped on what to cook for dinner. I’m thinking of doing a meatloaf one of these days, which is something I haven’t made since the spring. I have a slow cooker/ crock pot, but never seem to remember to start something in the morning that could simmer all day.  And I would need to find good recipes my husband would eat.  I can’t let the thought of cooking beef stew in a crock pot sink in. To me, it belongs in a pot on the stove.  Regardless, I don’t have the time to cut up all the vegetables and watch a stew all day long.  And I cannot believe some people actually do dinner early in the morning!  All I can manage to do in the morning is take the meat out of the freezer to thaw!  The rest I need to do later in the afternoon.

Hmmm. Chicken soup sounds good.  And I must admit I can make a pretty good chicken vegetable soup from scratch.  And my Italian roots allow me to whip up any pasta also, something I am looking forward to making a lot of in the next few months.  But my favorite dish, my mother’s signature dish, is eggplant parmagiana. Yummy.  It just takes so long to prepare!

So there’s also grilled chicken, grilled salmon, stir fry (I love using my wok for chicken stir fry!), pork chops, lamb chops, veal cutlets… I can make a pork roast, turkey (although the husband only likes turkey on Thanksgiving), a Caesar salad, linguini with clam sauce, and I can even make pizzas with different toppings.

I like a variety of different side dishes as well.  I am lucky to have children that enjoy eating their veggies, so any meat/chicken/fish dish can be altered from one meal to the next by changing up the vegetable or other side dish.

So I have listed many different options here, haven’t I?  So can someone tell me why I am stumped about what’s for dinner?

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

There is never enough time in the day! I work as a Special Needs Teacher, 5 days a week and close to 8 hrs a day. I also commute out of state for work. My commute ranges from 40 to 45 min. 1 way. It is difficult sometimes, but it pays the bills. I wonder could I handle a part-time job.

I am exhausted when I get home evenings; my children keep me very busy at school. When I get home I have a crawling, busy baby and my oldest son who is in the 4th grade often needs help with homework, OH don’t forget dinner!

I know I probably don’t have the time or energy to devote, but our household would really benefit from the extra income. I was considered high-risk with my last pregnancy and the doctor bills are really adding up. I tried Avon ( www.avon.com ) and I wasn’t really good at that. I was buying too much stuff for myself, lolol

What are some other things that I could do, that would not consume so much time away from home and would help a little with our bills? I would love your ideas,

~Shanta

When finished this is more like a thick soup with big potato chunks and Kielbasa! This was easy to make and very warming on these cool fall nights.

PREP TIME 15 Min
COOK TIME 1 Hr 30 Min
READY IN 1 Hr 45 Min
8 Servings

INGREDIENTS -

• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 2 cups milk
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 pound kielbasa sausage, sliced thin
• 4 large russet potatoes, peeled and cubed

DIRECTIONS -

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). 
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix together soup, milk, garlic, salt, and pepper.
3.  Stir in potatoes and kielbasa. Spoon into a 7×11 inch casserole dish. 
4. Place casserole on a baking sheet, and bake in the preheated oven for 90 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.

 ENJOY!

-Chrystal

We have 2 cats. One cat has not once let Shaughn touch him since he’s been born and the other is constantly by his side. Milk, the antisocial cat, who was name because of his little milk mustache spotting, refuses to go near Shaughn. He doesn’t even walk near him! Stitch, Shaughn’s guardian cat, however is always around him. I mean, always. In the morning when I go into Shaughn’s room and get him, Stitch runs up the stairs and sits by his crib. Then when we come downstairs and I make Shaughn his breakfast, he lays right next to him and literally take a beating. He is so excited to see the cat, he gives him hugs, tries to crawl on top of him, pull at his ears, and Stitch just lays there purring. He’s about 61/2 years old and is just the best cat. When I was pregnant, he was always by me. When I had a big belly and Shaughn would kick, Stitch would come up and lay on my tummy and just feel it. The two days before I gave birth, Stitch would follow me EVERYWHERE. I tried to take a picture of me in the bathroom mirror to show my family and friends and Stitch jumped on the counter and was in the shot, after I brushed him off about 3 times.

The first night we brought Shaughn home, Milk sniffed around, decided he wanted no part in what was going on and that was it. Stitch would sniff around, react to the different noises Shaughn would make, but would never seem to want to leave. I never allowed the cats to be around Shaughn when he slept if we weren’t around in the same room. I have heard too many stories! If Stitch is laying down in his bed, and Shaughn starts to fuss or cry, he runs out of there and lays next to him. Is that normal for a cat? I would expect that from a dog more than I would a cat, but its so cute anyway. I have a lot of pictures of Shaughn cuddling him on the floor. Ok, its not cuddling, its more of wrestling with him, but its still cute. What are your stories with your family pets? How has their behavior changed, if any change at all, since the arrival of your little one?

-Krystle