Recommendation Wednesdays

Yesterday, I got a frantic call from a good friend who was at the hospital with her husband who had appendicitis. She needed someone to pick up her daughter from school and watch her until her mother was able to come down from Annapolis. Fortunately for my friend, her daughter was not only in my son's pre-school class, but she had spent a lot of time around me, so she knew me and was not alarmed at all when I picked her up instead of Mommy. Also lucky for my friend was the fact that I had an extra car seat at my house that I could put into my car to actually put her kid in.

Emergencies happen, I get that, that is why they are called emergencies. Inevitably these nasty cluster situations rear their ugly heads when you are sick, tired, having your period, out of diapers and milk, and forced to leave your messy house without a charged cell phone to get into your car that has an empty gas tank. That being said, I know you can't predict when these emergencies will arise, but you can plan in some ways that will help you deal with the situation when and if they do arise and trust me, if you have children, emergencies will arise.

Check out these tips below for how to always be prepared for emergencies:

1. Phone Numbers-Make sure that you have all the important phone numbers that you need programmed into your cell phone. This includes, your kids' school, friends and family who you can contact in the event of an emergency, poison control, the local hospital, your doctor as well as your kids' doctor's office. Also save a contact in your phone under the title ICE (In case of Emergency). That way if you are ever in an accident and someone finds you or your phone, they will know who to call on your behalf.

2. House Preparation-Write out information sheets about your children's needs/schedules etc. so that if someone does have to jump in and help you out they will be aware of things like feeding times, bedtimes, and allergies. Also, put a card with your home address and phone number and the numbers for poison control , the local hospital, and emergency contact information BY EACH PHONE in your home. That way if there is an accident or an emergency situation while you are not home, the caregiver can take the necessary steps to intervene.

3. Car-Have a bag or bin in your car that is stocked with the necessary supplies, should you experience an emergency while outside of your home. For example, what if you are at the park and one of your kids falls and hits his head? What is your emergency plan? Do you have everything that you need in the car should you have to drive right to the hospital?

4. Go Bag-Do you have one packed? Do you even know what a Go Bag is? Somewhere in your home you should have one duffle bag packed with supplies for the entire family should there be a situation that presents itself and forces you to leave your home immediately. This bag should include things like cash, first aid supplies, bottled water, food supplies, a flashlight etc.

5. Keep your tank above the half way mark-This is a great trick that my husband taught me when I was pregnant with our first child. He told me to never leave my gas tank less than half full. The reason being that if I ever got lost in a sketchy part of town, or if I had an emergency, I wouldn't have to stop and fill up. It's a basic rule of thumb to live by, but a very practical one. It has saved me many a time.

I hope that you find these tips useful and that you take the necessary steps to implement an emergency preparedness plan.

Recommendation Wednesdays

With my son's 2nd birthday approaching and tons of other kiddies celebrating their spring birthdays, I have recently had the chance to do a lot of research on kids' birthday parties, events, crafts, goodie bags etc.

I wanted to pass along a great website to help you plan you kid's next party. Check out www.kidsparties.com. You can select your state and then they break down all sorts of useful information according to categories. For example, you can select Virginia and click on the Entertainers/Venues Button and they list, with a detailed paragraph description, all the different places to have birthday parties, as well as all the people (magicians, petting zoos etc.) that come to your home to entertain.

This website is really a one-stop shop for all your birthday party needs and it's super easy to use.

Check it out and tell your friends about it. Just go and look at it and you might get some ideas about indoor places to take your kiddies in the winter or on rainy days.

Tummy Trouble

OMG, its my 50th post-what a milestone. I feel so accomplished! I won't bore you with more of my son's antics and poop incidents, but I will let you in on a little secret for how to deal with stomach issues in children. Ultimately this post will involve poop talk as well, but my son's poop is not the focus.

Now first, you must recognize that there are lots of different kinds of stomach issues.

First, there is the basic tummy ache which can be a result of constipation or bloating. Believe it or not, kids can still poop everyday and still be considered constipated. To ease this type of tummy trouble try the following things:

1) Massage their belly to expel some of the gas and to move things around.

2) A hot water bottle wrapped in a blanket and placed on their belly helps relax those tight muscles. This will provide some comfort.

3) Give them a bath. This also helps relax their tight bellies and if there is a poop backup, the warm water will help move things along.

4) Also in the realm of moving things along are these two tricks. Take your child's temperature rectally. This can help them poop and is perfectly safe to do every once in a while. You can also fill a plastic water bottle with warm water and squirt it into your child's bottom.

Then there is the dreaded stomach flu or viral infection of some kind that causes explosive poop and/or vomiting. For this type of tummy trouble, try the following remedies:

1) The BRATT diet is the only way to go when you have a house of disease. The BRATT diet stands for Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, Tea and Toast. Eating these food when you can't stop pooping will help stop you up and these foods are all very bland and easy to hold down so that you won't keep throwing up.

2) To prevent dehydration in children who are experiencing this type of tummy trouble, give them watered down apple juice, Gatorade, or you can give them the syrup from a can of pears of peaches. The sugar helps coat the stomach so the liquid will not just sit in your child's tummy the way water does and it will not churn up their tummy the way milk does. You can also warm up a packet of jello and let your child drink that. It's very easy on the tummy. Popsicles also work well.

3) Be sure to avoid DAIRY, especially milk. Dairy is very hard to digest and even more disgusting when your child vomits it up-trust me I know from experience.

Next time your little one is experiencing tummy issues find out why and try one of the solutions listed here.

Torpedo in the Tub and Other Toilet Antics

What is it with my son and bodily waste? Is it because he is a boy? The kid is absolutely fascinated by any type of dirty waste expelled from his little body.

His most recent bodily escapades involved a torpedo in the bath tub, urinating on his baby sister and stuffing things with his hands down Mommy and Daddy's toilet just because the opportunity presented itself.

After this trifecta of filth I finally realized that my not-yet two year-old son is probably ready to start potty training.

I will share the antics leading up to this conclusion with all of you though since it is quite humorous and good for a laugh.

The first was the bombing of the bath tub while we were in Florida on vacation. This one was pretty mainstream in terms of bath room issues so that's why I didn't think it was any indication that Bruno might want to poop in the potty. He had a big dinner and didn't take a post meal poop , which he doesn't always do, so I put him in the tub and continued along with his routine. Well mid-bath I get a whiff and realize that Bruno has pooped in the tub. Pretty obvious why-he had to go and the warm water in the tub just eased things along. Not pretty, but it could have been a lot worse and fortunately it wasn't my tub.

Now the second incident was a little more of a red flag in terms of wanting to potty train and now that I look back on it, this is the incident that should have made me stop and say-"let's break out the potty."

While we were in Florida our infant turned that corner (you know, the one where they start sleeping and eating more regularly because they have hit 12 weeks of age) and she and my son started going to sleep at the same time-6:30 pm. I was smart enough to pick up on her routine change so I began synchronizing their schedules. This meant feeding both kids dinner at 5 pm and then letting them play until almost 6 and then giving them a bath together so that they could both get jammies and bed thereafter. Bruno had been following Daddy around a lot on vacation and wanted to spend all his time with Daddy-even when Daddy was in the toilet. Obviously my husband stands up to pee and Bruno became quite the little voyeur. So I guess it shouldn't have surprised me when he stood up in the tub the other night before pissing all over his sister. He had the most accomplished look on his face as he screamed "Mommy, I did it" at the top of his lungs. Poor little serious Brooke just sat there ( I mean come one, she is only 14 weeks) with this perplexed look on her face while her big brother urinated all over her.

Clearly Bruno was picking up a few bathroom tricks from Daddy (not that my husband pisses on our baby, but you know what I mean) and was smart enough to realize that males stand to pee, which was a real testament to his smarts, but it didn't pan out well for his sister when executed.

Finally, to wrap up the bath room trifecta Bruno decided that when we got home he was going to take Mommy's toothbrush and an entire tube of toothpaste and empty them into the toilet. Now toothpaste does not dissolve well in toilet water, so he had to stick his hands in there to break up the gelatinous clumps of blue goo, which apparently didn't slow him down or deter him from his toilet festivities because the next step was to watch the toothbrush swim down the swirling drain as he repeatedly flushed the toilet for good measure-flushed it so many times that he left a reminder of his toilet tendencies because it keep running for hours-so awesome!

Not only did I have to reach into my toilet and pull out my toothbrush and toothpaste, but I had to sit and listen to it run for half the day until my husband was able to come home and fix that stupid pump part.

You are all probably sitting there thinking what a complete idiot I am, which maybe I am, but in my defense, these events all transpired over a few weeks time so it took me a while to add them all up and see what the sum of their parts was indicating. Math was never my strong suit.

Finally, it hit me-it's potty time.

We have now broken out the training toilets and we have two centrally located far away from the baby. Hopefully this will pique my son's interest and make him want to use the potty for his bodily functions instead of my floor or his crib or his sister.

Vacation Rules to Live By

My husband and I were in desperate need of a vacation-we were beyond the winter blues. He was overworked and stressed and I was sleep deprived and stuck inside with two small kiddies after the winter birth of our second child.

After talking and talking about it, we decided two things. First, that there seemed to be no good time to take a vacation-we had work and we didn't want to take our son out of school etc. etc., blah, blah, blah, the list goes on and on. Second, that we couldn't afford to NOT take a vacation-we were both on the brink of a meltdown and some R&R was not only well deserved, but pretty much necessary to break our winter blues and get us out of our work, caffeniate, care for babies routine.

Work was the big sticking point for my husband, but for me, it was the thought of driving from Virginia to Florida in the car with two kids under two and the family bulldog. For the three weeks prior to our vacation, I was secretly wishing that "something" would come up at work that would force us to stay home in the safety of our rut, but there was no earth shattering real estate catstrophe that warranted us canceling our vacation. The only thing that came close to detering us was the fact that I got so sick (flu and sinus infection, plus two ear infections-ALL at the same time) the week before we left that I thought that I wouldn't even be able to make it down to Florida for the vacation.

Ultimately, I survived-YEAH and was able to make the much dreaded car trip to Florida to the much needed vacation that I deserved and longed for in my spare time. I think getting sick right before my vacation actually changed my outlook on vacations in general, not to mention the fact that it postively affected my mood. Being SO sick-to the point where I laid in bed for the first 72 hours unable to move-literally, made me realize that I was in a rut and that my fear about traveling to my vacation destination was only a side effect of said winter rut. I knew that I wanted to be in Florida and I knew that I needed to be in Florida, but yet it was still so hard to just do it-it was easier to be complacent and push the vacation off-getting there was the hard part.

Regardless of the roadblocks that almost deterred our vaction, we made it here safe and sound and I was so happy that the trip down here had gone so much more smoothly than anticipated that I kept that attitude of gratitude from the begininng of my vacation and really embraced my vaction this time. Usually it takes me at least 4 or 5 days to unwind and by then it is almost time to go home-where is the time for enjoyment? Well this attitude of gratitude made me embrace the vacation enjoyment from the get-go and we have only been here for 6 days and already I feel like we have been here for weeks.

Here are my personal recommendations, a personal vacation mantra, if you will, for ways to really enjoy your vaction from the start by adopting an attitude of gratitude:

1. Let your kids throw caution to the wind and disregard their schedules as long as it is for something good like staying up past their bedtime to get ice cream or not getting dressed until the afternoon so that they can play outside in their PJ's. I let my son play outside every morning in his PJ's because he just can't wait to get his day started; he doesn't want to be slowed down by something as useless as changing his clothes. Who could blame him? He is just going to get his clean clothes instantly dirty, why not wear the dirty PJ'S and get them more dirty? Makes sense and is ultimately pretty practical if you think about it. I love how two year-olds think, it is so pure.

2. Exercise outside. Jog outside and enjoy the smell of different air or exercise outside of the box and try a new class like hot yoga, or skip exercise altogether. Just break up the routine of what you do at home. My body was used to running the hills in our neighborhood at home, so I took my jog to the beach. Not only did my body ache in places that I forgot that I had, but I got some sun and fresh air in the process-YEAH FOR MOMMY (YFM!)

3. Visit the attractions that the locals recommend, not the tourist attractions that are local to the area. Where do locals eat? Go there and order the chef's special or the daily special-you will be guaranteed a great meal. Be happy that you didn't have to shop for the food, prepare it or clean it up. I ate a Grouper Reuben (I know, it sounds pretty scary) the other day at Captain Al's seaside dinning and it was so delicious.

4. Disengage from your electronic devices. I know this a hard one for many people, but it is so worth it. I didn't check my email for the first few days of vacation and I felt totally liberated. If it is really that urgent people will call you, twice if necessary, but not being constantly attached to your phone or email really gives you time to think. You are not on work auto-pilot which is a good thing.

5. Do one thing that scares you, even if it is small and stupid. This will remind you of your capabilities and will give you a sense of adventure and freshness-you may surprise yourself or learn something new. For me on this vacation, this meant taking a boat ride. I hate boats and fear them because they make me puke all the time. Well, I tried it and for the first time ever I got on a boat, rode around for an hour, didn't puke and had fun-shit, maybe I outgrew my motion sickness after 31 years. The point is, I found enjoyment in something that used to always cause me pain.

6. Be thankful. Being here has made me realize how much Mommies have to do at home when they have little ones. When we are here, my mother-in-law gets up every morning and makes the coffee (not the way I do it, she doesn't measure anything, she just throws in some water and some coffee grinds. Some days it's stronger than others or weak and thin, but it's one less thing I have to do in the morning and it is ready when I am struggling to wake up. Again, YFM!). She also feeds the dog twice a day. Having extra adult hands on deck makes my life easier and more enjoyable because I am not frantically rushing to do everything for everyone else. I can actually go and take a shit without having two kids in the bathroom with me-AMAZING!

7. Stop multi-tasking. I realize now that part of the reason I failed to relax on past vacations is because I was still functioning in "at-home-mom-machine-work mode" which entails constant multi-tasking. On this vacation I have been really good about doing one thing at a time and ONLY one thing at a time. Playing at the beach with my kids, making the salad for dinner etc. These may sound like stupid mundane tasks, but at home I do these two tasks while breast feeding, folding laundry, exercising and doing our taxes. By taking time to consciously not multi-task I have found a lot more enjoyment in each individual task. Just because you can multi-task (come on, what woman can't and doesn't???) does not mean that you should.

8. Mix things up a little. If you never stop for lunch at home because you are too busy stuffing a granola bar into your mouth in the carpool lane, then take a day to eat lunch somewhere scenic and beautiful. Sit down and taste your food-eat because you enjoy food, not because you need it to survive through your next meeting. My husband and I went to a local part of town the other day and had a nice long lunch. I even went crazy and had a drink at lunch. We sat outside and watched the boats come in by the pier, at least I think they were boats, I was pretty buzzed off of my one drink (it was big and involved rum), but again, the point is I was enjoying myself and really relaxing. I felt like I was doing something I shouldn't, like I would be called into the Principal's office for leaving class without my hall pass. My husband and I had some nice alone time and we broke the mold of our daily grind.

9. If you are near a hot tub, heated pool or an ocean, go for a dip. There is definitely something healing and purifying and cleansing about water. I will not wax about the various religious, health or spiritual properties of swimming in the ocean, but I can attest to the fact that sitting in a hot tub after a long day in the Florida sun not only soothes your muscles, but it somehow releases the tension in your mind.

10. Put your toes in the sand. At Bruno's preschool they do a lot with the little kids and objects that have different textures and feels to them so that the kiddies can develop their senses. Walking barefoot in the sand is a big person exercise in sensory motor comprehension-again, there is something so simple and pleasurable about the feel of sand between your toes and beneath your feet that you forget your troubles.

These items are the ways I kept an attitude of gratitude the whole vacation and got more than I bargained for this time around. Who says you can't teach an old mommy new tricks?

Enjoy and pass it along. Or better yet, develop your own vacation mantra so that you too can enjoy your vacation from day one.