Oooops I mixed up the order on you!

My kids love their Happy Nappers. Mason asks me all the time to switch it back and forth for him. He unzips the door/back of his castle/dragon and then says “Help me Mom!!!” If I’m not quick enough to respond, he follows it up with a “pretty please, Mommy, help me please!” which is just about the cutest thing ever. Audrey on the other hand…. she spends most of her time running around with her unicorn squealing.

The Happy Nappers are super soft and super fun. They are a huge hit in our house and there’s one for everyone on their site! Want a Happy Napper of your own? You can buy one here – and be sure to use the code SPECIAL4U to get free shipping!!

For those wondering why we were looking at Ms. Katie, I was reading the list from her blog. And if you’re wondering what he kept asking to do? It’s this:

and this:

and this:

and finally this:

"Look Mom, two me's!"

Ok toddler Mom’s!! Your turn!! Do a vlog with your little man or woman and link me to it in the comments!

My friend Jenni just opened up her etsy store, and you should all go buy bows and earrings and everything else she will undoubtedly be adding to the store as she continues to create some more gorgeous bows. allow me to introduce the Audrey bow! Named after you know who….

I know, I know, that’s not the best picture of the bow, but I couldn’t help myself when my pretty girl looked so darn cute…. check this one out for a better idea of the bow!

But that’s not all she sent. Oh no. Jenni also sent me this adorable little monogrammed piggy bow, a bow holder, and as a special treat, some earrings for me!!

Did you notice there are two Audrey bows on that bow holder?? Guess what?! One Audrey bow is for one of you!! Just enter below using the easy peasy rafflecopter form and you might have a gorgeous owl barrette in your mailbox soon!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

For anyone that cares, here’s the chain of events that happened…. for those of you that don’t (probably the majority of you) just skip this paragraph. This morning I took Mason to school as usual (except that we had his Teacher Appreciation gifts in tow). I dropped him off and as I left Audrey squealed with laughter at a bird flying out of a tree. She loves birds and fish and laughs anytime she sees them. I decided then and there that yes, I was going to make the birdbath out of pots because it might draw birds to our yard. So when we picked up Mason we all headed to Michael’s (Mason’s favorite store) and as we were picking out paints, Mason asked “You gonna paint my hand mom?” At which point I decided that yes, I absolutely was going to paint his hand. Because what’s cuter than a brightly colored birdbath? Well, a brightly colored birdbath with brightly colored handprints of everyone in the family. That’s what.

What you need

1 toddler that’s ready to help, 4-5 paints that can be used outdoors (I chose Glossy Acrylic paints), paintbrush(es), 2 large pots, 2 small pots, 1 large pot base (what the heck are those things called?), a hot glue gun

Let’s get crafty!

First thing’s first. You need to paint your pots. Since there were 5 pieces, I got 5 colors and let the kids go to town painting.

They got bored after about 4 minutes so I set up the sprinkler and let them run around while I finished painting. Plus, if you’re half as anal as I am about arts and crafts you’ll want to repaint anything they did anyway because OMG KEEP THE BRUSH STROKES ALL IN ONE DIRECTION!

Mmmmmm how yummy and bright and beautiful are those? You don’t need to paint the bottoms of the pots – just the bottom of one of the larger pots will show. But, since I hadn’t decided the layout yet, I painted both to be safe Now comes the challenging part – convincing your husband he needs to participate in this craft. I roped mine in by telling him if he acted excited for me and helped I would let him off the hook for a Mother’s Day present – that THIS could be my Mother’s Day present. He was a total sport and even smiled and laughed while we put handprints on each of the pots.

As you can see, we put all 4 handprints in the actual bath part. They got pretty jumbled together, but I like the way it looks. Plus, I know what it is, and that’s all that really matters Once your handprints dry, you’ll need to decide how you’re going to stack your pots. I tried a few different ways before I finally decided. Then, just glue them to each other and figure out where you’re going to keep it!

I used a hot glue gun to glue my pots together. So far, it’s worked, but I’m skeptical about how well it will work. I’m thinking I might need to come up with a better solution because I just don’t see a ring of hot glue holding these together forever. So, if you have any ideas, please please please share!! I will say, I started with my pots in the backyard and the cat rubbed up on them and knocked them over since they weren’t on level ground… and they held up to that… so maybe hot glue is enough??

Although it wasn’t originally my plan to have the birdbath in the front yard, I really like it there. It adds some bright colors to our garden and also gives me and Audrey a close up view when we peer out the window.

I am so pumped about the way this turned out. I absolutely love it, and I REALLY hope the birds love it too. If they don’t… I’m not too worried about it. It’s too darn cute for words with or without the birds!

Wondering how to make apple cookies? allow me to show you!

What you need: Red Candy melts (these can be found at most craft stores, but I got lucky and found them at Wal Mart when I went to get ribbon and cups), pretzels, Oreos (I used double stuff) Air Heads (you only need the green ones, but I ended up buying an entire bag. If you can find a store that sells them individually, 2 full size ones should be enough to make 15 or so cookies), something to package the cookies in (I used cups, but you could use a gift bag, a tin, or anything else!), Ribbon, and an optional tag!

First, put your candy melts into a microwave safe bowl and toss them in. I used about 3/4 of the bag and microwaved for 2 minutes stirring every 30 seconds.

You want the chocolate (I think that’s what this is? That’s what it tastes like… not that I was snacking as I made these or anything) to be completely melted, but you also don’t want to liquify it, so check often and stir frequently so you know what you’re dealing with. Once you’re ready, toss an oreo in.

I wish I had a good explanation of how to do this, but I don’t. You need to coat the oreo. I ended up just pushing them down into the candy melts, using a spatula to cover the top, and then fishing it out with my fingers. Be prepared to be covered in this stuff. It’s not a clean job. Once you have your oreo out of the chocolate, make sure you don’t have any big gloppy parts (you can tell what a great, professional baker I am) and then put it down on a cookie tray covered with wax paper. Add a piece of pretzel stick for the stem, and shape a leaf out of a small piece of Air Head. Both of these will eventually be held by the chocolate, but you need to sorta jam them in there….

You can see I kinda failed at the no gloppy parts on my first try. The second time, I figured out that using the spatula to scrape off some of the chocolate was a good idea. Repeat this process until your blue (well red) in the face. After about my 3rd cookie I was ready to be finished. It’s not a FUN thing to make…. but they are super cute. I ended up making 15 so each of Mason’s teachers could have 5…

Once you have them all finished, you’ll need to let the candy coating harden. If you want to speed this up (or if you live in Charleston and it’s always warm and you don’t think there’s any other way to keep them hard) feel free to toss them into the fridge.

And that’s it! I took the cups, put a little bit of easter grass in the bottom of each (stuff I had left over) and then put 5 cookies in, tied a ribbon around the cup and added a tag. My tags say “You’re the apple of my eye” on the front and “Thanks for being such a great teacher! Love, Mason” on the back. I think they turned out way cute and I’m pretty excited to see what his teachers think tomorrow!!

Mason cracks us up. Still. Regularly. He says the funniest things and I’ve started keeping a quote book. I’m thinking I might take a page out of my friend Emily’s book and start posting updates on my facebook page with the funny stuff he says so that I’m sure I have a record of everything.

Last night we went to a baseball game. It was the second one of the season and was a ton of fun. One of the player’s names was Mason. When he went up to bat and the crowd started cheering for him, my little man got super confused and started getting super upset about things “Someone is calling me mom!! Who is calling me?? Why are they calling me? Who is saying that?” Apart from that confusion, he had a blast. He even got to bring home a baseball that was played with IN THE REAL GAME! Audrey absolutely loves baseball games. It’s all of her favorite things rolled up into one night. Food, being outside, and more food. Last night we ate dinner before leaving, then she ate boiled peanuts, ice cream, and a hot dog while we were at the game.

Audrey got a molar. It sucked. It kinda still sucks. She is not a pretty teether.

Audrey understands SO MUCH. Almost anything we say she understands. She’s also incredibly independent and rebellious, which makes us nervous about the future. She hardly speaks because if we don’t understand what she wants with a loud shriek, Mason usually does and so she gets her way with her now patented banshee shriek.

This week, I’m hopeful that Audrey will potty train early. I’m thinking about starting her at around 18-20 months. She has started telling me and A when she needs a diaper change. Usually she does this by bringing me a new diaper and laying down on the ground, though just yesterday she insisted that A go into her room to change it. She did this by grabbing his leg until he acknowledged her, grabbing her diaper repeatedly, then pointing to and walking into her room where she retrieved a new diaper and gave it to him. He got the hint.

Tomorrow is Audrey’s 15 month well visit and I’m tempted to bring up Mason’s puking again since we had another episode today. Same stuff – puked all morning, was fine by noon and acted like his normal self the rest of the day.

We are redecorating Mason’s room and I can’t wait to share some pictures with you. It’s still a work in progress, but he’s going to be getting a big boy room… here’s hoping he sleeps in it.

Mason turns three in 2 months. I’m not sure how I feel about that just yet so I’m trying to ignore it and just throw myself into party planning. For the first time, I think he actually cares a little because he keeps reminding me about his “pirate party for my birthday” and will tell me things he needs… like a new robot. It was a toss up between a pirate party and a robot party, but I made an executive decision to go with pirates when I found out/remembered there is an awesome pirate themed park not too far from here.

Audrey is still breastfeeding pretty regularly. I’m not really sure how to go about weaning her, and I’m OK with her continuing to breastfeed. What I’m not ok with is her feeling like it’s totally cool to just rip my shirt off wherever she pleases, or her extra painful habit of pinching one nipple while she nurses from the other. Thankfully, her biting has stopped but that was bad for awhile too.

I didn’t get any cute pictures, so check out some other reviews to see gorgeous pictures of the contents of the box. I was too thrilled and excited (and rushed since A was screaming at me to get off the couch and help finish getting the kids ready), so I snapped one quick picture of the box, and then tore into it scattering everything around me in a happy fit of excitement.

So what was in the box?

Teething Bling This stuff has been on my favorites list for years. I have a bunch already and was more than happy to add another necklace to my collection.

L’oved Baby Bib  Super soft, maybe a little small for my taste but probably a fantastic bib for younger babes that are drooling up a storm. I took this and the next product to a friend with a younger baby and she was thrilled, it went right on to little baby Abby!

Le Bibble a little bottle bib type thing. It’s pretty cool. I would’ve kept it, but Audrey doesn’t do bottles, and I knew baby Abby would use it It’s a soft ring that goes around the bottle to catch any dribbles from your baby’s mouth, or the bottle itself. Very cool product and a fantastic idea.

Greenleaf Sachet When I first opened the box I was amazed at how great it smelled. At first, I thought it was scented tissue paper or something like that, but I eventually realized it was actually this little sachet packet. The sachet has found it’s way into the kids’ bathroom (where the diaper pail is) and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t walk through the bathroom a couple extra times each day just to catch a whiff.

Lula Clips This my friends, is the reason TeetheMe is so cool. A new product I had never (and probably wouldn’t have otherwise) heard of that I fell instantly in love with. Lula Clips are little hand pins with magnets inside. They go on the sides of your carseat to hold the harness out of the way when you put your baby in. GENIUS. It’s products like these that make me wonder why I didn’t think of this. I had never heard of them, but am 110% sure I need another set for Mason’s carseat (especially since he requests them each time he sees Audrey’s).

You can sign up to get Teethed too! A subscription to TeetheMe is just $24/month which gets you a box of product (worth well  over $24!) sent straight to your door every single month. There’s also a quickly growing online community on the TeetheMe website of moms writing reviews of the products they got, their favorite products in general, and just regular old mom chat. TeetheMe is a relatively new service, and something I am super excited about. Sign up today and GET TEETHED!

Mason has been big into pirates lately. Like HUGE into them. Since his birthday is coming up (OMG MY BABY BOY IS GOING TO BE THREE?!?) I’ve started planning a pirate themed party for him. Months ago, I heard that there is a pirate park on one of the nearby islands, and I thought it might be the perfect place to host his party. Yesterday, we headed out to check it out and see if we could make it work for his party. The playground is SO COOL. We had a blast, even Mason who fell asleep on the ride there and woke up cranky had a hard time keeping his angry face on

Lately, I’ve been starting to consider some holistic medicine practices. Mainly because two pediatricians have now told me (in much nicer words obviously) that I’m crazy and don’t need to be worried… but I still am. About once a month or so, Mason will wake up vommiting. He spends 3 or 4 hours in the morning completely miserable. He won’t eat, he won’t drink, and his stomach gets completely and totally emptied… and then some. At some point, he’ll vomit one more time and the second we get him cleaned up he asks for food. LOTS of food. His go-to feel better food is chicken nuggets; and he’s been known to eat over 20 in one sitting after one of his episodes. Super weird right?!? Doctors tell me it’s allergies or reflux or something along those lines and nothing I need to be worried about. Or maybe he has a low immunity to stomach bugs. But my Mommy instinct is telling me it’s something different. I’ve tried eliminating certain foods from his diet, I’ve tried changing the times he eats and what he eats, I’ve tried to force an episode so I can figure out what causes it… all to no avail. For now, it seems completely random and unpredictable.

The other day I happened to hear about another little one that is suffering from something very similar – though her case (??) seems much more advanced than Mason’s. I quickly emailed the Mom about it and we’ve been talking back and forth about how we just can’t believe it’s not SOMETHING medical. Before talking to her, I had pretty much resigned myself to having to wait until it got worse or more predictable. Now I’ve got a renewed sense of determination. I think the pediatricians’ lack of concern got me thinking maybe I was wrong and it’s just a fluke, but knowing that Mason isn’t the only one suffering from this has lit a fire under my little Mommy Butt and I’m once again motivated to try and find a way to make it stop.

I started looking into holistic medicine practices, to see if there was anything that would help with nausea and vomiting. I found some interesting stuff to try but have also been thrown into this world of alternative medicine and am learning so many new things. There are so many herbs, spices, and other “stuff” you have laying around in your house that might be good for healing… I had no idea! I’m not sure I’m ready to totally hop on board, but there are a few things I’ll be willing to try. For example, certain times of honey – like Manuka Honey can be used as a topical anti-bacterial creme; or St. John’s Wort can be used to help with depression.

You won’t catch me going doctor free anytime soon, but you can bet that for minor things like pain relief, scrapes and bruises, or other minor illnesses I’m going to start turning to the internet to see what kind of natural remedies are out there. Do you do any natural or herbal medicine?

I got paid for this post. But Mason’s problems are real (regardless of what the doctors say) and I have suddenly become interested in herbal/natural medicine in hopes of finding a cure for him!

Monthly subscriptions to e-meals start at $5. When creating your account, you determine which grocery store you’d like to shop at – or, if they don’t have plans for your grocery store you can just pick a general store. The benefit of picking a specific store, is that then e-meals will give you a meal plan centered around sales or specials at your grocery store that week. Before e-meals I usually did most of my grocery shopping at WalMart. I mainly chose WalMart because it was easy. I would be there anyway for one reason or another, and so I’d stroll through the aisles and pick up whatever struck me at that very moment as something that might be good for dinner or lunch… or whatever. I knew (and now have proof) that this wasn’t the best way to shop. I knew I’d save time and money if I did meal planning. But there JUST WASN’T TIME. I also would frequently go to WalMart for something like milk or eggs and end up spending $100 because going to WalMart (which has EVERYTHING) with 2 toddlers just isn’t ever cheap. I digress… When choosing my e-meals plan, I decided to register for Publix rather than WalMart. I knew it would keep me from buying toys, clothes, or whatever else might jump out at me if I didn’t ever go into WalMart.

The next day, I downloaded my meal plan and was incredibly impressed to also find a grocery list. The list gave a price estimate for the week and so I knew going into the store almost exactly what I would spend, and exactly what I needed to get. For the first week I tried e-meals, I headed into the store with two 2 year olds (A had Audrey, but I had Mason’s friend Austin with us). I was pretty positive it would be awful. I was pretty right. But not TOTALLY right. It was a heck of a lot less awful than I expected. We were in and out with just an extra pack of goldfish, and juice boxes. My e-meals grocery list predicted I’d spend about $85, and I ended up at $140. I know that seems like a ton more… but their list was for dinner only, and I went ahead and shopped for some lunch. I also had to get a few “staples” as e-meals refers to them. I put that in quotes because some of their “staples” are stuff that I would never consider staples, but of course I’m not the best chef anyway so maybe that’s just me.

Each night, I made one of our meals. Each one was easy. Super easy. I was impressed, but dubious about how they would taste each time. I really didn’t think something that easy to make would taste good. But it did. And each time we tried one, it got better and better. There were very few meals that A and I weren’t impressed with (unfortunately I can’t say the same for Mason, but Audrey ate everything on her plate every single night), and I’d make any and all of them again – in fact, I saved the meal plan and recipes so I could make them again sometime!

The second week of e-meals I spent closer to their estimate. Again, I was shopping for lunch and needed to pick up a few staples again so I spent around $100 as opposed to the estimated $83. The second week meals weren’t as phenomenal, but they were still very easy and we’re still saving the menu for future meals, though we probably won’t reach for it as often as we do that first week!

e-meals has made meal planning SO easy for me. It’s something I absolutely plan to continue to use. The ease and stress relief it gives is absolutely amazing. So what’s the downside? there are a few…. but they are small and for the most part inconsequential. One thing that bugs me about the shopping list (and this may just be with Publix) is that if they have a buy one get one free deal, e-meals estimates the price at half the normal price… for example a bag of cheese may be $4.99 regularly, e-meals then lists the sale price as $2.49; but it’s only that price if you buy 2 bags of cheese… which you may not need. It’s not a huge deal, and something I was ready for when starting week 2, but it is a little irritating if you’re on a budget or get their total price stuck in your head then get to the register and have to spend more. My only other complain is silly. I know it is, but I’ll tell you about it anyway… I wish they didn’t do 7 meals a week. The truth is, A and I enjoy going out to eat. We like to get out and like trying new restaurants and not having to cook or clean or anything. Having the entire menu there for me makes me FEEL like I need to cook all 7 meals in a week’s time. I FEEL pressured to make another dinner each night and although I could easily cross one of the meal’s ingredients off my list (e-meals even makes it easy by listing which meal each ingredient is for on your shopping list!) I can’t bring myself to actually do it. Both weeks I’ve gone shopping and gotten all 7 meals worth of ingredients and then felt bad when I don’t make one of the meals and instead head out with my family for dinner.

Do you meal plan? Do you wish you did? Sign up for e-meals and give it a whirl! I’m sure you’ll love it as much as I do!!