Mama Michie's Musings

Wordless/ful Wednesday – My brother

Michaela — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:21:55 +0000

: via Charlotte News14

The firefighter on the far left of the screenshot there is my brother… he’s a volunteer firefighter in NC who luckily was unhurt in a training burn gone wrong. Though we may not agree about everything and though those differences have caused problems, we’re still family and I love and miss him.

Check out more Wordless/ful Wednesday posts at To Be Thode and 7 Clown Circus

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Noah vs Bedtime

Michaela — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 02:23:34 +0000

My sweet little boy… he is getting better at it, but he is still such a pain in the rear when it comes to sleep.

We have had more than our share of bed time problems with this little two year old and yet bed time continues to be a thorn in my side with this little one.

It’s not so much that he puts up a fight at bedtime… we’ve past that… in fact he lets us brush his teeth after going potty, gives daddy a kiss and happily climbs the stairs to go out to his room. Once there he crawls right into bed… well on most nights… and waits in it until I have Abby changed and in her crib. He lets me change him and some days even gets his night time diaper out of the dresser cabinet. We then lay in bed and read a story or two… lately The Going-To-Bed Book has been our book of choice… and say our prayers (…in German, the way that I have always said my prayers). Then… well… then I tell him that I have to go downstairs and clean the kitchen because if I don’t there will be bugs… yes, I know it’s a terrible thing to do, but it is effective (he looks at me with these huge eyes and quietly says “bugs… ewww” then lays down) and it has pretty much eliminated what used to be 45-90 minutes of bedtime drama.

I wish I could say that he goes right to sleep, but I can’t. About five (5) minutes after walking out of the kids room I can hear him get up, walk to the door and start to whimper… “Mami pah-tee… pah-tee mami!” I open the door and he walks straight to the master bathroom (he can’t go into his own until the remodel is finished). I find it amazing that 95% of the time he will actually go “yellow”, despite having gone not more than 20 minutes earlier! Then it’s back to bed… another mention of cleaning the kitchen and bugs and out the door I go. Some nights I’m up there again a few minutes later, while on others he’s good with that.

We can usually count on him sleeping for 3 hours or so then until sometime between midnight and 1am. That’s when he wakes up again. I try to get him to go back to sleep in his bed. It doesn’t last long though and he usually wakes within 30 minutes again. At this point I know that Abby will be awake in the very near future looking for her personal milk bar and I am just so tired. He doesn’t have to put up much of a fight and I have him in bed with Ray and me. What follows is a restless night of sleep with hands and feet poking and prodding me… pushing my blankets away when I try to pull them up.

Part of me wishes that he would just sleep through the night in his bed… his twin bed that we just went and bought a new mattress and bedding for. But then again… I know that this wouldn’t last forever. While he is a big brother, he’s still so small and young… I often forget that… expect more of him than I might if Abby weren’t here… and so I take him into bed with us and let him sleep there. Because I know it won’t always be this way… and besides it’s nice waking up to a smiling face.

I guess in the fight of Noah vs Bedtime, both win a little and both lose a little… and as long as there are no tears shed I’m okay with it.

{Amazon affiliate link included in post}

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Have you Moon Doughed? {Review}

Michaela — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 03:04:49 +0000

I think we all know what play dough is… I mean what child growing up over the last 30 years or so, hasn’t played with it? Do you know what Moon Dough is though? I had never heard of it prior to this review… though I had heard of and maybe played with moon sand once or twice.

Moon Dough is a new molding compound that never dries out. It is soft and light… like a marshmallow. It comes in eight (8) different colors and various play sets. We were sent the Moon Dough Barnyard and Noah couldn’t wait to open it! I was finally able to tear it out of his hands long enough to take a picture of the box and then get to work setting it up for him.

The barn itself came in a few pieces that you had to put together… this wasn’t so bad, but I have noticed over the past week that the bottom part of the silo doesn’t want to stay in place and I keep finding it in various places around the house… usually not far from Noah’s cars since he likes to stick them in there. I guess he thinks it’s a little garage or something… who knows. Anyway… like I was saying… putting the barn together was easy. I next opened up the play mat, which in my opinion was an over glorified laminated paper place-mat. The last thing I opened up was the Moon Dough itself. My first impression was that it didn’t smell good… so much so that I double checked to see if it was non-toxic and where it is made (it is non-toxic and is made in Sweden).

So, with the safety of the dough verified, I opened the bag and smooshed it together (yes that is the technical term). It definitely is light! It is a bit flaky though and leaves your hands feeling like you’ve rubbed flour on them. Not terrible, just different. We then put it to the toddler test! I helped Noah mold it and play with it. we made a few fences and hay bales… a few chickens and cows. The moon dough really is pretty cool and fun to play with.

I just don’t think that Noah is quite ready for it yet… or better yet I’m not ready for him to play with it yet… because it is messy. It is definitely not meant for rough toddler hands… ones that quickly destroy the newly molded cow just by picking it up. It quickly breaks apart and little pieces get everywhere. That’s not something that I feel like dealing with right now since Abby is thisclose to crawling.

Overall… I think that Moon Dough is fun to play with… it’s just not necessarily the right thing for a two year old… he can’t turn the handle to make the little animal shapes and just has too strong of a grasp to play with the molded shapes. I like that it never dries out the way that other doughs do, but I don’t like that the plastic bags that the dough comes in are not resealable… I mean how hard is it to put it into a resealable bag or tub? I do like that extra Moon Dough is available in other colors and can be bought separately.

Do you and your kids want to try out Moon Dough for yourself? It’s available at Amazon.com, Michael’s, Target and many of the other big box stores.

Fine Print

{I was sent the product mentioned above to review for free courtesy of Team Mom. I was given no other compensation. The review is written based on my opinion. Please click on the link to see my full disclosure policy.}

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My Baby Clothes Boutique {Review/Giveaway}

Michaela — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:43:46 +0000

When I found out last November that I was having a little girl, I became excited and panicked at the same time. I mean I knew how to deal with a little boy, but a girl?! But then again the clothes… oh the little girl clothes… let’s face it, girl clothes are just so much cuter than little boy clothes… and there’s a whole lot more of it!

I was contacted shortly before Noah’s birthday by My Baby Clothes Boutique. I took a look at their website and just had a blast! There were so many cute outfits that I could picture Abby in… but I was able to narrow it down to an adorable pettiskirt.

I couldn’t wait for the package with Abby’s new pettiskirt and headband to arrive. I didn’t have to wait long though… I was impressed with how quickly it shipped. I opened it right away and couldn’t wait to have Abby try it on. What do you think… isn’t it cute?

Here’s a close up of the headband…

I love the feel of the feather… it’s soo soft! The headband fits nice and snug without digging into her head.

Overall, I’m very happy with both the skirt and headband as well as with the website and service!

Giveaway

Here’s your chance to enter to win a $25 gift certificate to My Baby Clothes Boutique! To enter just leave me a comment letting me know which outfit or accessories you would buy from there. That’s all it takes to enter, but this step is mandatory! This giveaway will end on Thursday, September 9, 2010 at 11:59 PM CST.

You can do any of the following for an additional entry each:

Follow me via Google Friend Connect
Subscribe via RSS or sign up for email updates (You must verify the subscription in the follow-up email)
Follow me on Twitter (@MamaMichie) and tweet about this giveaway. Please leave the URL to your tweet in the comments. (You can tweet daily for 1 entry per day)
Feel free to copy and paste this as your tweet:
Dress your little one in style! Win $25 to www.mybabyboutique.com Enter @MamaMichie http://bit.ly/93zfTf #giveaway
Become a Facebook Fan (Leave user name and a separate comment for each entry)
Follow me on Networked Blogs (Leave user name)

Please make sure that you leave me a separate comment for each entry!

Also as long as you fill out your information in the secure form, you do not need to list your email again in your comment.

I will be using random.org to pick the winner. The winner will have 48 hours to get back to me otherwise a new winner will be chosen. Good luck!!

Fine Print

{I was sent the product mentioned above to review for free courtesy of My Baby Clothes Boutique. I was given no other compensation. The review is written based on my opinion. To see my full disclosure policy, please go here}

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Foto Friday – Sleeping buddy

Michaela — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:00:57 +0000

This giraffe was given to us by a friend of the family… who just happens to be my former 9th grade English teacher!! She loves giraffes and bought this one for Noah… I know that I have a picture of him trying to eat it posted on here somewhere!

Anyway… Abby decided to play with it one day… which meant that I also let her play with it while she was in her swing. A few minutes later I found the two of them like this…

I had to capture the moment!!

This seems to have been Abby’s week. I took a couple of great shots of Noah over the past few days with the DSLR, but they need to be converted to jpeg’s before I can post them… so it will be Noah’s turn next week!! =)

But let’s not jump ahead of ourselves! It’s your turn to share now, so link up and show us your best shot!

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On the go with Go-Gurt {Review}

Michaela — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 02:17:10 +0000

As I may have mentioned more than a few times on here, we are big yogurt lovers… I mean BIG yogurt lovers here in our house. It is a sad, sad day when there is no yogurt to be had. Even Noah loves his yogurt; it’s the first thing he eats when it’s included in meal. If he sees me eating some without him… well lets just say he gets to me pretty quickly so that he doesn’t miss another spoonful.

We’ve been going out more now with a packed lunch, since joining a local play group earlier this summer. One thing I hardly ever took with us though was yogurt… 1) because it would get to warm by the time we ate and 2) bringing a spoon with us was a bit of a pain since I prefer not to use disposable cutlery. I was recently introduced to Yoplait’s Go-Gurt and I’m happy to say that now I can start bring yogurt with us!

Yoplait Go-Gurt is different than the tub of regular yogurt in that it comes in a tube that you can put in the freezer… which means that it is perfect by the time we sit down to eat. Also… because it comes in a tube, you don’t need a spoon! You can just squeeze, push and suck that tasty goodness out of there. Not to mention, I don’t have to worry about bringing as many (if any) ice packs with us, since the tube is frozen. Oh yeah… and Noah… loves them… though there is no way I will let him hold the tube on his own… one squeeze from his little hand and I would have a big Go-Gurt mess to clean up.

Giveaway

Here’s your chance to enter to win a fun “Keeping Cool in School” prize pack (Noah loves playing with the calculator and having the pen fan blowing in his direction!!). To enter just leave me a comment letting me know what your favorite yogurt flavor is. That’s all it takes to enter, but this step is mandatory! This giveaway will end on Thursday, September 2, 2010 at 11:59 PM CST.

You can do any of the following for an additional entry each:

Follow me via Google Friend Connect
Subscribe via RSS or sign up for email updates (You must verify the subscription in the follow-up email)
Follow me on Twitter (@MamaMichie) and tweet about this giveaway. Please leave the URL to your tweet in the comments. (You can tweet daily for 1 entry per day)
Feel free to copy and paste this as your tweet:
Win a Yoplait Go-Gurt “Keeping Cool in School” prize pack @MamaMichie http://bit.ly/dm5oEX #giveaway
Become a Facebook Fan (Leave user name and a separate comment for each entry)
Follow me on Networked Blogs (Leave user name)

Please make sure that you leave me a separate comment for each entry!

Also as long as you fill out your information in the secure form, you do not need to list your email again in your comment.

I will be using random.org to pick the winner. The winner will have 48 hours to get back to me otherwise a new winner will be chosen. Good luck!!

Fine Print

{I was sent the product and prize pack mentioned above to review for free courtesy of MyBlogSpark and Yoplait. I was given no other compensation. The review is written based on my opinion. To see my full disclosure policy, please go here}

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I’ve been featured!!

Michaela — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 19:30:24 +0000

I interrupt the regularly scheduled program of not yet posted but will be posted later today reviews, to let you know that my Alphabet Bean Bag Tutorial was featured on Ucreate!!

I’m so excited because it is THE place to go for craft/sewing inspirations!! YAY!!

Please don’t mind me… while Noah is napping right now, I’m doing the dance of joy with Abby!

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Wordless Wednesday – Raspberries

Michaela — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 03:48:12 +0000

You won’t find photo’s of the edible kind… not here at least.

Abby has learned how to blow raspberries and was loves showing off her new talent.

(I forgot how much fun it is to take photos with the DSLR – and how much better they turn out! Must remember to use it more)

Now it’s your turn… link up here then check out more Wordless/ful Wednesday posts at

Check out more Wordless/ful Wednesday posts at To Be Thode and 7 Clown Circus

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Alphabet Bean Bag Tutorial

Michaela — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 19:40:58 +0000

This tutorial has been on my mind for quite some time now… since Christmas of last year actually. At that time I had made Noah a set of numbered bean bags following the freezer paper method that I saw on Lil Blue Boo. She’s got a great tutorial for it there, so I’m not going to repeat it. I printed out my alphabet on the freezer paper at the same time as I printed the numbers. I never finished cutting them out though, because it was very, very tedious and not something that I had the time or patience for… even before Abby was born. So my stack of fabric just sat there for months.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago when a local store had a sale on the Cricut Expression. I have been drooling after it for almost a year and although I had told myself it would be my reward for completing school, I had to buy it now because this price was too good to pass up!

Now I had never seen an infomercial for this device… all that I knew was that I had many projects in mind that I could use it for. When my mom and sister told me that it cut fabric, angels sang and the light bulb glowed brightly over my head! Alright… maybe not literally, but you get what I mean. I read up about cutting fabric, got the necessities and set to work.

(Side note… if you are going to cut fabric with the Cricut, you want to make sure that you starch the living daylights out of your fabric before ironing on the fusible backing (aka Heat n Bond). Also if you want to stitch over the appliquéd piece, use the Heat n Bond light and not the heavy duty stuff… it is a pain in the rear trying to get a needle through it! I not only used my Expression to cut out the alphabet, but also used it to cut out the appliqué for Noah’s birthday shirt… so let’s just say I’m talking from experience!)

Anyway…

**I first cut out a set of lowercase and a set of uppercase letters using my Cricut.

**Next, I added the letters to my stack of 6″x6″ fabric squares.

**After I did that, I laid out1 “bag” on my ironing board and centered a letter on each piece of fabric…

**I then ironed the letters onto the fabric (see the instructions on the fusible backing to see what settings you need for this)

(And to answer your question, yes… I had a towel underneath my fabric. My ironing board cover had seen better days and was so thin that whenever I would iron something, I would get the pattern of the metal bars ironed into my fabric… the towel just gave me a little padding and I have since bought a new cover!)

Anyway…

**After the stack was ironed and fused, I got out my pins and pinned each set of letters – right sides together… and then sewed them up, making sure that I left a 2″-3″ opening on one side of the fabric. I clipped the corners, turned the bags right side out and ironed them again before filling them. I used a 1 cup mixture of pinto and navy beans to fill the bags, because I liked the way the different sizes felt… (unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of this… oops)

** After you have filled the bags, pin the opening shut. Then either hand sew or machine sew it closed.

(I hand sewed the numbered bean bags and took out the machine for the lettered ones.)

** I tried to sew as close to the edge as possible and double stitched it, just to give it a little added strength.

** That’s it… now you can enjoy them, just remember… if you use real beans to fill them, they can’t get wet!

Just a note… I made my bean bags a little larger than others I have seen online… 6×6 with a 1/2″ seam allowance, so I added one cup of the bean mixture to each bag (this ended up filling the bag about half way). I didn’t realize just how many beans I would end up using and made 2 trips to the store to stock up so that I could finish them in time for Noah’s birthday! Also, we’ve been playing with the bags daily for almost 3 weeks and I’ve noticed some of the letters starting to peel off the fabric. I will use liquid stitch to adhere them again, but if I were to do it over again I would probably use the Heat n Bond light to fuse the letters onto the fabric and then stitch over them for added strength.

Overall, I love how they turned out and more importantly, Noah loves them. He has fun throwing them around and I love using them as practice tools for both his colors and letters.

I hope this tutorial was helpful! If you decide to make a set, please let me know… I’d love to see them!

I linked up to

{The Cricut Expression link is an affiliate link for Amazon Associates. I was not compensated by Cricut in any way as I bought the machine with my own funds. I just love using and spreading the word about it, because it makes my crafting life much easier!}

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Foto Friday – Staples

Michaela — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 05:05:43 +0000

Over the past few weeks, Ray has spent time demolishing what used to be our guest/Noah’s bathroom. I’m glad that he has been doing it, because I would not have wanted to have to pull out every single one of these bad boys…

He did it though and got every single one out of the sub-floor so that he could lay down concrete backer in preparation for our new tiles.

A full up to date bathroom remodel post will come as soon as the tile is picked out!!

What photo(s) do you have to share with us this week? Feel free to add you link below!

Edit: Find more from me today at OurMommyhood, where I talk about “me time” and going back to school!

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