Naptime Blog

…But they sure are expensive!

As parent’s we are always looking for ways to cut back and save money, because lets face it having a baby is not cheap! This is even more relevant to first time parents who are starting off with nothing.  I knew the general cost of things before we got pregnant, my husband however has been having major sticker sock! I made him tag along with me to Babies R Us a month ago to set up our registry, as I was telling him to scan the things I wanted he kept making comments about the price tag!

Here are some of the ways I plan to save money along with some of the reasoning’s I have to spend money!!! (Lets face it shopping is fun!)

1. SAVE – Buy all your big ticket items gender neutral if you are planning or even have a small chance of having another child. While I think the pink stroller is sooooo cute, we got a brown one so that if baby #2 is a boy we could reuse it! This was true for items such as the crib, bouncer seat, swing, high chair, car seat ect.
2. SPEND – We decided to make sure the items we registered for where good quality items that would hold up for more than one child. What is the use of avoiding that pink stroller if it is only going to last for one child? If we spend a little more money then in the end we will actually be saving money by avoiding having to buy twice!
3. SAVE – Yard Sales!!!!  It is that time of the year again where you will see yard sales everywhere!  My husband and I have been waking up early the last few Saturdays to go out to hunt and boy has it paid off!  Just this past weekend we were able to get a TON of clothes for only $30! We haven’t found any “gear” yet but we are still on the hunt!



4. SPEND – I know people will have a difference of opinion on this BUT spend the money and buy a NEW quality car seat for your child!  For me this is something I would not compromise on, anything else ok I would consider getting it used, but the car seat was a must splurge on NEW item!  We ended up deciding on getting a Chicco travel system and were lucky enough to find it on sale (last year’s color) and we had a coupon to use on it so got it at a steal!
5.  SAVE – Cloth Diaper and Breast Feed.  There are a ton of reasons for this and I will not go into them all since they are pounded into a new mom’s head a million times over… We decided to cloth diaper not only for the money saving benefit (shhh don’t tell my hubby this might not be true with all the cute diapers out there I have been drooling over, but yes it can easily be cheaper) but also for the health reasons.  Both of my brothers were allergic to disposable diapers and had to use cloth, my parent’s used sposies for me and guess who was always getting diaper rashes and having blow outs??? That’s right ME … and since my husband is not all that excited over diapers in general we need to avoid blow outs at all costs
6. SAVE – Most people would think this would fall under a spend but if you know the facts it can be one of the biggest places you save! If you are not able to or choose not to breast feed you will need to buy formula. One trip down the formula aisle will have your head spinning due to the high price of the National brands.  But take a closer look, right next to the national brand you will find the store brand, then look at the price tag!  For example, we shop at Walmart; the store brand at Walmart is called Parent’s Choice.  If you compare the back of the Parent’s Choice can with that of the National brand you will see that it is the SAME stuff, the only difference is the price! After doing more research on the topic I found out that simply buy using Parent’s Choice we can save around $600 a year on formula! (www.parentschoiceformula.com) That made up my mind! If I end up not breast feeding I will be purchasing store brand!

What are some of your ways to save and splurge?

Shannon
Soon to be first time mom!

I will admit it, I LOVE soda. It is terrible, I know, but I just love it! I tried the “diet” thing but apparently there have been studies to show that diet is worse than regular soda.

The only best possible solution is to completely break up the relationship between yourself and this delicious refreshing drink we know as soda. Cutting it out altogether can be beneficial for people, especially who are trying to lose weight. Maybe I can limit myself to one can a day? Then perhaps I can be a strict water drinker.

Anyone who buys soda knows that it can be rather expensive. Sometimes around $5 for a 12 pack of cans. When it’s later in the evening, Brent or I have run out to Walgreens or the gas station here paying that extra money to have our Pepsi or Coca-Cola fix. However about 2 weeks ago I was in Publix, and I saw they were having a special on their brand of soda. I’ve had their coke version and I like it alot, so this was surely a deal to inspect! The deal was buy two, get one free. Well when one pack is around $3, it’s a good deal to get 3 12-packs for $6.

Publix brand has saved me alot of money, plus it has lasted us quite a while. When I tell you we are bad with soda, I’m being very serious. Not to worry, this is something I will NOT pass onto our son. I hope he doesn’t even know what soda is until his teens haha! I know that’s impossible, but I would rather him not even care for it or know it because he does great with water, milk, and his (water diluted) juices. Thanks Publix, I look forward to more deals you put out there!

-Krystle

There are many advantages to being a parent.  We get to experience love on a different level.  We get to see stages of life from the very beginning.  We get to see our children grow and develop their own unique personalities and strengths.  We get to see life once again through their eyes, and our own senses are renewed as we experience all that life has to offer once again through our children.  There are so many advantages the list is endless.

Another advantage to being a parent may at times seem like a disadvantage.  But if we use the knowledge that we gain from what we learn as a parent and make the necessary adjustments, it can be one of the biggest advantages we can forever thank our children for giving us.  That is the ability to see ourselves and our actions the way others see us.

A few months back I wrote a blog about how, as parents, we need to maintain our cool in front of our children.  I discussed how we model behavior to our children.  But if we really sit back and take a look at our children, we often see not only little echoes, but we might even see a mirror image of ourselves.  I can see myself in all of my children and I am reminded of the adjustments I need to make in my life.

My daughter is turning eight this month.  She is a great student, even though she doesn’t like school.  She is great at sports (she inherited that from her father and my sister, NOT me) and is a healthy, well rounded child.  My sister coaches Girls Basketball in the upper grades of my daughter’s school.  After practice one day, the girls were talking to my sister about my daughter.  Turns out, these older girls said that they see Juliana in the schoolyard sometimes and she is bossing around the boys in her class.  My sister was concerned and brought this to my attention.  I was alarmed, and had a talk with my daughter.  Juliana reported that she gets upset when the other kids don’t like to do things her way.  She told me that sometimes the boys do stupid things and she tries to tell them how to do things.  These comments really concerned me, because I realized that my daughter was just like me in that respect.  As a type A personality, I have always had to deal with my bossy tendencies.  Growing up, I spent plenty of time putting myself (and trying to keep myself) “in check”, and it took many years and many damaged friendships to realize that everyone has to live their own lives and I can only control myself. 

I am proud of my daughter for being a leader.  I am proud that she stands up for her beliefs, and I am proud that she is developing into a strong and independent young lady.  But seeing myself in my daughter, seeing one of my biggest challenges in life “in the mirror” has made me remember that I need to constantly be aware of how I cannot control everything and need to accept my faults and the faults of others and move forward.

My twins are 19 months, and can often be little parrots.  One of the boys is always being a clown, making everyone laugh and often needing to be reminded to behave.  I recently realized that I do the same thing my mother used to do.  I haven’t figured out yet if that is a good thing or a bad thing.  Whenever I used to get reprimanded by my mother, she would react by calling my dad if I needed to be reprimanded a second time.  “Lou!  Jennifer is not listening to me!”  So last week, when I reprimanded my son Louis (named after my father!), and he responded with “PAUL!” I knew that I used the same way of ‘reprimanding’ that my mom did.    When Louis misbehaves, I react by calling “Paul!”.  Louis just beat me to it by calling his father for me!

Funny thing is, my dad and I have always had a great relationship, and I don’t know why my mom always tried to make me afraid of him!  I guess she thought that having the male parent be the disciplinarian would work better than the female.  But, like in our house, my mom was the one who was home the majority of the time with the kids, and therefore had to do the majority of the disciplining when necessary.  So even if my children behave when my husband disciplines them, that will not help me when he is at work all day long!

I watch the twins interact with each other, and I watch my daughter interact with her brothers.  The twins talk to each other with their hands, pointing and shrugging their shoulders, making faces and raising their voices when they aren’t heard.  And they do it just like I do.  I recently was reminded once again how I need to watch how I react in front of my children, and how these little sponges were taking everything in.  My son Anthony will raise his voice and point his finger at his brother when his brother steals his cookies.  Just like I raise my voice and point my finger.

We are our children’s first teachers.  My little “echoes” are MY teachers.  When I see myself in them and see that their behaviors need to change, it reminds me that I am the one who might need to adjust MY behavior.  Just another advantage to being a parent.  We have that constant “mirror image” or “echo” that reminds us of what we may need to adjust.  As long as we follow up and work on adjusting it, we should be ok.  Just because we are grownups doesn’t mean we aren’t still learning, growing and changing, right?   

Jennifer
Wife to Paul, Mom to Juliana (8), Anthony and Louis (1) and Joseph (7 months)
www.nevaland.com

I have fallen into the latest infomercial craze, juicing. I have been on all the latest blogs and shopped around for the best juicer for our family. We have a difficult time getting in our 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. This has proven to be the easiest and fastest way for us to do that.

I compared several products at www.qvc.com & www.hsn.com and I feel the brand by Jack Lalanne gives you the best bang for you $buck$ and the warranty that it comes with is awesome. If your family has a hard time getting in their proper amount of fruits and veggies you should consider juicing; it’s fast, easy and tasty.

Follow the link for more information and see for yourself. Also, see one of my favorite juice recipes.  (https://www.powerjuicersale.com/?mid=562806)

Apple Pineapple Ginger Juice Recipe
1 apple, cored and sliced
1 cup fresh pineapple, cubed, skin removed
1/2 inch fresh ginger

Juice the apple and ginger together, then juice the pineapple and serve.

(Yummy)

~Shanta

I love family reunions. Sure, seeing family is wonderful, but the food is what I’m talking about. Who’s with me on this?

I was going through cookbooks and found one printed in 1992 that includes a bunch of family recipes. The cookbook was distributed at the annual family reunion. I would like to share one that is tried and true and really tasty. I love these because they aren’t overly sweet, but are addictive. I can’t eat just one. I like to dip mine in a hot mug of freshly brewed coffee.

Old Fashioned Tea Cakes
1 cup margarine, soft
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 tablespoons buttermilk
5 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
Additional sugar

Cream butter and gradually add sugar. Beat well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Add buttermilk and beat well. Combine flour and soda, gradually stirring into a creamed mixture. Stir in vanilla. Chill dough several hours or overnight.

Roll ¼ inch thick on lightly floured surface. Cut out 3 ½ inch circles (or desired shape). Place an inch apart on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Sprinkle sugar on cookie tops (this is optional as I don’t always do it if I am going to be using these to dunk in coffee). Bake 7-8 minutes in 400 degree oven. It makes four dozen cookies.

This recipe is good to use with cookie cutters for birthday or holiday cookies.

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

Everyone knows how it goes… but when it actually happens to you in real life do you believe it?

First Comes Love

It all starts with love so they say.  My husband and I first met on Match.com, an online dating website that “guarantees” they will match you up with your perfect match. What do you have to do?  Fill out a lengthy questionnaire and pay for a membership (of course), then you sit around and wait.

Well let me tell you they didn’t get it quite right at first, I went on a number of dates that were just horrible, all to people that they said were “right” for me.  So I started to get skeptical, really they can find me “the one” just by having me answer some questions? This led me to start looking around on my own. There were a few profiles that they said I would be around 60-70% match on, what do they know anyway… I “winked” at one of them and we started talking. A week or so later we had our first date; this one went a lot better than the ones before!

That was on August 1, 2008, on August 3rd him and I decided to cancel our membership with match.com, it was no longer needed, we had found “the one”. The story goes on to say how we were inseparable since that first date! So yes I guess match.com did what they said they would, as Brad and I would have never met if it wasn’t for match.com, and if we didn’t met then I wouldn’t be sitting here writing this post!

Then Comes Marriage

On January 10, 2009 Brad asked me to marry him, I of course said YES!!!  I found out that he had called my dad earlier in the day to ask for my hand, which according to him was the hardest thing he has ever done in his life.  My dad being in a little shock but also wanting to make Brad sweat a little didn’t say anything at first so Brad kept talking and pacing around his house before my dad finally said yes. (Whew)

The next 9 months became a huge whirlwind of wedding planning and moving.  Brad already owned a house and my lease was up that summer so we decided it would be best for me to move in with him prior to the wedding and get everything the way I want it! Let me tell you, it has been a lot of hard work to change the bachelor pad into our home, but slowly and surly it started to turn around.

October 3, 2009 we said “I Do” in my hometown of Lewes Delaware.  All the hard work and stress was well worth it in the end to see Brad break down during the vows (and after a pep talk from the minister he finished them) everything was perfect and came together to be the wedding any girl would dream of having!

We took a honeymoon to an all inclusive resort in Mexico and loved every minute of it! The highlights were the hour couples massage on the beach, sunset dinner for two on the beach, the amazing food, and open bar!

Then Comes Baby????

Brad and I have always talked about wanting kids, we both want to have at least 2. Ok so its more like he wants 2 and I want more than two, so we are agreeing to have at least 2 for now.  We also agreed that we didn’t want to wait very long to start our family, we somewhat decided that we would want kids within the first 2 years.

I had been on birth control pills for 8 years, so we decided that the month before our wedding would be my last pack.  Everything I read said for most people it takes at least 6 months for your cycle to return to normal and to be able to start to try to conceive.  So we figured we had a good chance of conceiving the summer of 2010, which would give us a spring 2011 baby. Perfect!

Well surprise surprise; we ended up conceiving my first month off birth control! Not quite a honeymoon baby but pretty close (within 2 weeks!)

Brad and I are now expecting our little girl on July 25, 2010.  So it’s a little sooner than planned but a welcomed surprise!

Shannon
Soon to be first time mom!

Shaughn is a little comedian, I’ll tell you that right now. He likes to hide behind walls and doors and try to scare you as you walk by. He’s achieved it some times already. That’s my husband’s doing because he plays that game with him all the time.

Shaughn enjoys also when you give him the scared reaction he’s looking for, and then he will turn it around so that he ends up being chased by you! He’s a trickster. Sometimes his little body goes way too fast than what he’s prepared for and he’ll fall (on carpet!) but he is laughing and happy screaming all the time that it doesn’t even affect him. What a tough little man. I’m 25 years old and I’ll cry myself if I were to trip and fall lol.

I’ve said this many times before, I just cannot believe how fast he is growing and how much he is learning. I very often say that I don’t want another child because we were SO lucky with him and I’m scared to have the total opposite with the next one. Shaughn started sleeping from 9pm-8am when he was 3 months old, he is so laid back and relaxed – like us – and such a good sport about different things that I’m scared of changing that.

What if baby #2 comes and he gets jealous or thinks we don’t love him? Then I think about how I missed being pregnant and loved the whole process and how my husband and I felt when little Shaughn arrived, then it makes me want another one, but not til Brent and I are DONE with school! That’s our plan anyway, of course things could happen without our consent…!

How long did you wait before adding another little angel to your family? What’s a good age gap between siblings?

-Krystle

Juliana will be making her First Holy Communion on May 8.  This is a huge milestone in our family and in our religion.  As Catholics, we believe that when we receive Communion, we receive Jesus’ Body and Blood.  So receiving Him for the first time is a big thing!  So much preparation and so much planning.  And I cannot believe it is right around the corner.

A few weeks ago, we got Juliana’s Communion Dress.  I wasn’t sure what to expect when we went to look at dresses.  Juliana right away knew what type of dress she wanted, and whenever my mother, mother-in-law or I would bring over a dress for her to try on that wasn’t her “style”, she would make it known right away that she didn’t like it, although she would be polite and try it on anyway.

My daughter likes to be a tomboy.  She loves to throw on sweats and play sports.  So when she put on her dress in the boutique, and picked out her shoes, veil, gloves, sweater and purse, tears came to my eyes.  She was so proud and excited to try on “her” dress.  And I am so proud of my beautiful little girl.

So, invitations have been ordered, the party is booked, menu is set, favors are all ordered, and Juliana has her dress and all the accessories, with the exception of her stockings.  I am very much looking forward to the ceremony, and I am sure that I will need a box of tissues!  And I can’t wait for Juliana’s Communion Party later that evening.  It will be so much fun!

Jennifer
Wife to Paul, Mom to Juliana (7), Anthony and Louis (1) and Joseph (4 months)
www.nevaland.com

One of my co-workers (Emma) is a die hard advocate of breast feeding. I love her enthusiasm and her passion about the subject but as most of us moms know; it is NOT as easy as it sounds for all mothers. I was proud to share my attempts at breast feeding but was also not ashamed of my defeats as well. My son had a very low birth weight and nursing did not come easy for us. I had to pump the entire time for the 1st 6 weeks of his life. It was a very painful, stressful experience for Jayce and I. When his doctor saw his weight picking up so fast he gave me the go head to begin formula. BOY WAS I RELIEVED.

Emma and I have had many work place debates about breastfeeding and its benefits. I completely agree with her but, what I try to get her to see is that everyone is not successful at it and sometimes formula is the next best thing for many moms.

Well recently her sweet little pumpkin bit her and she said “ok, enough is enough” and guess who she came to for advice on the best/affordable formulas on the market???  Me, me, me! I was so glad to share my “Parent’s Choice” story and direct her where to go to save. She has been using for a few weeks now and say her little guy is doing well 

Just another “Parent’s Choice” success story.

~Shanta

Are your little ones really affectionate?

Mine are sweet as can be and smile and hug you when they are tired or don’t feel well. They aren’t the type that kiss you or hug you all day. My oldest son is the one who would give us kisses every few months, until recently. Now he will smother us in kisses and it’s just super adorable. Truly!

We went out to eat recently because my parents were in town. The boys were having a good time, eating their food and entertaining their grandparents when my first born darling boy leaned in and gave me about 15 kisses on the face. It was so cute that onlookers noticed and said, “Awww!” It sure made my heart smile and erased the memories of him having a “two year old” moment just minutes before.

My sister says that when they realize that kisses can help them get what they want, I will be putty in their hands. Uh oh, no one tell them okay?
On second thought, tell them. I can’t have TOO many kisses and when they are grown they won’t want to kiss Mommy in public.

Moral of the story: Being a mom is sooo worth it!

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