Big Carl

When other people are making you feel crazy, it is always better to do this:

instead of this:

**I cannot wait for a date with "big Carl" (Courtney Cox's giant wine glass), as soon as baby girl is born. I am not a HUGE drinker, but the last few weeks I have really been missing the ability to drink a glass of wine.

Non-Toxic Cleaning

I started my non-toxic cleaning venture about a year ago. After thinking about it, I mean really thinking about it, I decided that it wasn't a very good idea to clean my sons toys/highchair/anything with 409, bleach, lysol, or any other toxic cleaner. The kid was putting everything in his mouth, so it seemed really gross to let him chew on something that I had recently doused in chemical cleaners.

So my BIG (lol) project last June was to make my own cleaner. It was a lot of work (sarcasm). I had to buy a spray bottle:

I had to buy some vinegar:

Mine is always an off brand, about $2 a gallon.

I mixed it half and half with tap water:

Then to make it smell not so vinegary, I added vanilla extract, but I soon realized that it took a lot, and it turned the cleaner brown. Now I use almond extract. It takes a lot less, and is clear.

Again, always an off brand.

 

 

 

 

In just a few simple steps I changed my life! I don't mean to be so dramatic, but if you know me you know that I am a CLEAN FREAK!!! So to have a cleaner that I absolutely love, can make myself (for much, much cheaper than buying), and can use on everything, it is HUGE. I never feel guilty about cleaning anything in our house. I don't feel like I am going to die from the fumes when I clean, and, this is the best part, it is completely safe. If my son were to lick the table before I got the paper towel to wipe it up, it would be ok. If he climbed the kitchen counter and got the spray bottle out of the basket and poured it all over his body, it would be ok. 

 

I clean my bathrooms, my kitchen, my table, toys, kitchen and bathroom floors, mirrors, windows, EVERYTHING with this stuff. 

 

The only downside is that I can't use the "toxic fumes" excuse to have my husband clean like I did during my last pregnancy. Healthy living comes at a cost I suppose :).

 

I have heard some people say that they use essential oils to scent their cleaner, I'd like to find a citrusy smell, but I haven't really looked hard enough to try anything new yet. 

 

My next "big" project will be to make my own furniture polish. . .

New shoes

There is this thing about two-year-old kids, they have an opinion on everything, even if they can't really talk all that well. They always find a way to "tell" you what they want.

This week I spent a few days being ticked off because the shoes I bought Danny at the end of April already don't fit him. I don't know how I managed to buy him shoes right in the middle of a growth spurt, but apparently I did. His shoes typically average about 3-4 months, so less than a month-and-a-half really irked me. Anyway, after being annoyed for a few days I finally decided I had to buy him new shoes. So Thursday night the husband and I took Danny to do some shoe shopping. After striking out at a few places (I did not want to go spend a ton at Stride Rite since he just outgrew $40 shoes), we ended up at Kohls. After trying on several pairs on sandals we let him try on a pair of Crocs, although I had no intention of buying him Crocs.

Let me just say that kids hear and remember everything!

I don't know if I have ever talked about Crocs before around Danny, but someone has. As soon as we put the Crocs on his feet, and called them Crocs he was on cloud nine. He kept saying "Croc" and looking at his feet, he didn't want to take them off at all. The Crocs didn't fit, so we left the store with a very unhappy, and very teary-eyed little boy. He was just about devastated.

Fast forward to Friday morning, the kid still needs shoes, so we are the first people at the mall. I (reluctantly) go to Stride Rite, determined to get something for less than $30, and something that will hopefully last at least a few months. When we get there, Danny sees the Crocs and is pretty much going nuts over them. At the same time I find the cutest pair of sandals, they even have turtles on them, but the best part was they cost $19.99...great deal!! Unfortunately Danny didn't want anything to do with the great turtle shoes.

Who cares?? Right?? I am the boss, not Danny. Right??

Danny's new shoes.

WRONG. I am a big fat sucker. Maybe I just love making Danny happy, maybe I just didn't want to hear him cry for two weeks over the new shoes he hates, again. I think it is just that I LOVE seeing him so happy. He held his feet up in the stroller the rest of our mall trip, so he could look at his "blue Crocs." He insisted that he wanted the "blue" shoes, yet he pointed to the green ones.

After taxes the shoes were less than $30, but not by much, and definitely not as sweet of a deal as the turtle shoes. Once we added the three charms to the shoes we were closer to $40. I am a sucker.

How can I not be a sucker when my son is this cute????

Danny, 5/21/2012.

Pregnancy=Acne

For me pregnancy = acne. It sucks. I am about to turn 25, I'm like a "real" adult. Yet somehow I have the worst skin issues right now. The same thing happened to me when I was pregnant with Danny, but we were off living on the west coast and I didn't have to see family and friends all the time. Not that it didn't totally bum me out, because it did, but it didn't seem as bad.

My only hope for this jacked up face of mine is that the chlorine in pools and sunshine helps a sister out. I just want to feel pretty :)!!

My own Nemo

May, 2012. 

Here is a picture of my little fish. Danny got to swim with his cousins yesterday, and he was in complete heaven.

Saturday I took him swimming at my Grandma's pool (no dead mice this time). I put his floaties on and decided to take him away from the steps to see how he would do. I expected him to flip out and cry as soon as I let go of him. Not so much. The kid just went off on his own and started swimming. He wanted nothing to do with me holding him, or helping him as soon as he realized that he could float. It didn't stop there, he even jumped off the side of the pool by himself, in the deep end! The kid has no fear. At one point he was just jumping in the pool without me being close by, I had to swim by big pregnant self to the deep end as fast as I could to make sure he wasn't alone.

He is a fish.

Really, he didn't want to get out of the pool Saturday or Monday when we were there. He didn't want to take a break to eat or anything. I almost had to drag him out of the pool to give him ice cream yesterday--yes, my child has finally found something he likes better than food.

It is a good thing Danny and I are both good tanners, since we wont be spending many days away from the pool this summer.

Here is to hoping the little sister gets my skin, like Danny did, and not her dads Irish skin.

Irish skin and Gypsy skin.

The dead mouse

Alzheimer's Disease is nothing to joke about. It is a tragic way for an elderly person to spend the final years of his or her life. I know this because my Grandpa is suffering from the disease. He is 84-years-old, and in great physical health. He seems to be doing pretty well for a man well into his eighties, but he definitely has memory issues that seem to be affecting him more and more.

All that being said, sometimes humor is the only way to survive certain things in life. Today was just one of those days where you either laugh or cry, and laughing always seems like a better option.

I took Danny to my Grandma and Grandpa's house today for his first time in the pool for the season. We did a quick hello to the Grandparents and then made our way to the pool. Not long after Danny got in the pool, and was happily playing on the first step, my Grandma and Grandpa came by to do some outdoor work. Grandpa was cleaning the pool skimmers, and Grandma was chatting me up. A few minutes go by when all of the sudden Grandpa hurls a dead mouse at us, it lands right in between Grandma and me.

The mouse was much less cute, and much more dead, than this mouse.

I wasn't sure what to say or do, as Danny made a horrific face at the mouse carcass sitting on the pool deck, very close to him. I guess I must have yelled 'GRANDPA, DANNY CANNOT PLAY WITH A DEAD MOUSE" because Grandma quickly jumped in, in complete disgust and made Gpa get rid of the mouse. Grandpa was laughing the whole time and just kept saying "I thought Danny might want to play with it." Grandma and I were horrified, we even washed the deck down, you know, just in case there were mouse germs hanging around.

I am still laughing about it. I can't wait to tell all my cousins about the dead mouse that Grandpa threw at my two-year-old son.

Finding our normal

The next few weeks will be interesting for sure. We are trying to find our new normal within our family. Since Danny was four months old I have been a full-time student, which meant being away from him several hours a day 2-5 days a week, depending on which semester I was in. It was difficult, and we all sacrificed to make it happen.

I noticed in the past few months that Danny acted like he was used to me not being around, the days or hours that I would be home with him he seemed annoyed by me. Annoyed to have to follow my rules and behave in a certain way. It was very stressful. Some days it seemed like all I did was discipline him, and all he did was cry. I'm sure my pregnancy hormones didn't help, but the last semester of school for me gave me the most terrible Mommy guilt I could ever imagine.

Now that I have been home for a whole week I can see us slowly getting back into a normal groove. I guess I can't call it "getting back" because last time I was home with him 24/7 he couldn't sit up on his own, but none-the-less we are getting there. We had a great day today, we ran errands, visited Grandpa, played outside, created lego masterpieces etc. Danny was well behaved until around 4:30 this afternoon when he had just had enough of being a good boy.

Baby steps.

I got a regular nap out of him the last two days, we are eating meals at the same time every day--structure. It is a beautiful thing. Kids desperately need it, and Moms rely on it to make their days go smoothly.

My husband graduates from his police training class in three weeks. He will then be working shift work for the first time in a few years--I am hoping that Danny and I can maintain our normal-ness even when Dad is working a crazy schedule.

Here is to hope!