Friday, August 26, 2011

Breakfast Dinner and an Oatmeal Bath

Tonight both boys were excited because I made a breakfast meal for supper. We had pancakes with June Berries that I froze from our June Berry tree and organic raspberry syrup. Then we had potatoes from our garden with ham and carrots. I gave them each a slice of pear as well. They asked for juice, but I said "No because they had a juice box at Grandma and Grandpa Spiehs' house." They seemed to be ok with that answer.

After dinner I used the mini food processor to grind up 2 cups of oatmeal. My boy's had an oatmeal bath tonight. I read that it's supposed to help with itching (Isaak has a baby eczema outbreak on his head right now). It also is supposed to be calming. The boy's seemed excited that I was filling the tub up with water more then normal. I usually am pretty skimpy with water. Then Isaak was giddy about me sprinkling the oatmeal in. He was trying to eat it as it fell into the tub. He's so funny sometimes!

Best Place to Buy Probiotics?

No Name Nutrition! My parents said that Whole Foods is good for getting probiotics as well. I tried GNC and Walgreens and did not care for what they had. GNC was only pill form. That might be great for adults, but not for children. Walgreens had options, but the cultures were limited and not even listed.

I already started Isaak on it. I hope his baby eczema clears up soon on his head! In the past this is the only way I've found to clear it up.

I've tried expensive soaps, lotions and oils. Nothing else seemed to work.

I have read that Olive Oil helps. It's just that I don't want Isaak looking like a grease monkey!

I also read that oat meal baths help with the itching. You grind up 2 cups of oatmeal and put it in the bath tub. I might try that tonight.

Have a great weekend!

My cousin Brent is getting married. Time to pack! I hope we get to our destination alright! It's a little crazy with the flooding that happened earlier.

Enter one of my giveaway US readers! The giveaways are on my sidebar. I really need entries! Especially on the Del Monte giveaway. There is 3 winners! $25 of free fruit is amazing! I also added another giveaway for Bamboobies. If you are or know of a nursing mom, Bamboobies are GREAT! Plus the product name makes me chuckle!

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Guess Who is Under the Weather?

Guess which one is sick? I know they both look sick. Mica's the one. He came home from school, didn't ask for a snack, felt warm and crashed on the couch.

I woke him up for supper. He was out of it! He also had a low grade fever. In went the Motrin.

I just hope he doesn't get the tummy flu! That's been passed around our family!

Then we cuddled on the couch to watch Mrs. Doubtfire. The boy's think this movie is super funny! Mica cracks up laughing.
Image found here.
Guess who butted in on the cuddle time? Isaak of course. ;)


Finally I got up and let them cuddle. Isaak won't leave Mica alone anyhow. There is no use trying to separate them.

I just hope Mica wakes up feeling good. I teach tomorrow. Daddy's busy at work to. No one else wants to take care of sick boy.

My cousin Brent is getting married this weekend. All the more reason Mica needs to get well as soon as possible!

Want Some Earth Organics Milkmaid Tea?


It could be for yourself or someone else that is pregnant or a new mom! This stuff is great! I'm giving it away on my Milking the Issue site! I have a bunch of giveaways going on. Bunch for me anyhow. Check them out. The links are on the sidebar. They are all low in entries! I need people to enter please!

Wild Goose Chase for Treating Baby Eczema

Isaak has a HUGE outbreak of baby eczema. Under his hair is red, crusty, itchy and sore! This puts Isaak at a high risk for a staph infection. Poor preschooler! At least his hair covers it up, but it's horrible!

By the way, I have to look up how to spell "eczema" every time I type it! It should be spelled, "exzema."

Anyhow, it's on his scalp. Both Mica and Isaak have had problems with eczema on their scalp since they had their major infections (Isaak with meningitis and Mica with his staph infection). I sort of blame the one thing that saved their lives (heavy antibiotics) on their eczema problems.

Antibiotics are best not to give, if possible. I think that's a big reason why doctors started laying off antibiotics for ear infections.

Probiotics have worked to help with their eczema outbreaks. It just puts the good bacteria back into their systems. I've read a few articles about how eczema needs to be treated from the inside of your body, to help heal the main cause. They also mentioned to get the probiotics that can be refrigerated. It's a live bacteria, so it needs to be refrigerated to be effective. If I find one of the articles I will for sure attach it. That was a year ago I read them.

Many creams to treat eczema contain steroids. They only work for a week, then the eczema is back again. Sometimes worse then the first time!

Our kids have always been yogurt eaters. That has helped. I've gotten both of them to like eating plain yogurt. Mica's open to Greek yogurt. Isaak only likes the the other kids of plain yogurt. I call them the sour kinds. If you mix lemon juice with plain yogurt, it makes a wonderful sour cream! Isaak's been on a yogurt strike lately. He only wants to eat cottage cheese. I in turn went for a hunt for probiotics today.

First I tried GNC. A muscular guy helped me. He knew nothing about kids, but all about nutrition. I think I'd go to him as a personal trainer more then to buy a product to give to my 3 year old. I just didn't know what to buy and how much to give. He knew which products had the most cultures in them, but not how much to give my little boy. Then I tried Walgreens. They seemed busy. They just told me what doctors recommend. I couldn't find what cultures were in the pills at all on the box. I said, "Good bye" to Walgreens. I will try No Name Nutrition on the way home.

The boys doctor said to use Selson Blue Dandruff Shampoo on baby eczema. It gets rid of dandruff, and helps with eczema to. I believe him. He's a A+ doctor. Try putting that on your 3 year old's head and washing it out. I made the mistake once. He screamed bloody murder because it got in his eyes. Maybe I'll try it again, but lay him over the counter; head into the sink. It's still hard to do with how much the squirm!

Our boys seem to get it when it's hot and moist outside.

Any suggestions for treating baby eczema are welcome!

Tour of the Kids Rooms

I don't think I have ever posted pictures of the boy's entire rooms. They are my favorite rooms in the house. I put some work into them for sure. I posted Isaak's room before when he had a toddler bed, but not recently.


Here's Isaak's Doctor Seuss/Park Room:

The balls were a pain to hang from the ceiling! Our ceiling is hard, so no tacks or nails would even go in it! The small shelf on the wall has old toys on it. His sheets, pillow sham, clock and some bins are Doc. Seuss. The bed set came from cousin Ethan who is now in 6th grade. He got a loft bed for his room. Isaak got his captains bed.

 The tree is vinyl. I made the owl and birds nest in the tree out of sewn paper.

 Close ups of my paper birds:


I also made the puppy and kite below. The style of the puppy was off of Poky Little Puppy. I liked that puppy over Max from Dr. Seuss. The nursery before was green. I just put ripped tape on the walls in the form of hills and painted the top half sky blue.






Here's Mica's Street/Locker Room:

The streets were fun, but took awhile to paint. I still think about painting his ceiling with a circle road. The stop sign and no U turn were bought from Hobby Lobby. I thought about making them, but they were just too cheep and easy to buy! I did make the rd and st signs. They are all family names: APEL AVE, GARST AVE, SPIEHS LN, ANCELL AVE and SIEBERT ST. They were just printed and mounted on illustration board. I got the car pillows, bank, window valances and bed at Target.

Locker drawers. I love them!


This white cabinet will some day ( in a year or two) be replaced with a tall blue cubby locker. I got the locker for free from Golds Gym. They were throwing the locker out. I don't want to put it in Mica's room now because I fear a lot of slamming of locker doors! We may keep the white cabinet and add metal handles. Storage is always good. Mica has a much bigger room then Isaak!


Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Wordless Wednesday - Bike Riding {Linky}

 We're training Isaak to ride a bike instead of a trike.
 We're training Mica to ride a bike without training wheels.
Please Enter One of My Low Entry Giveaways:

Splinter

Daddy removed a splinter in Isaak's hand today. His skin had grown over it.

I would have thought that he would have freaked when Daddy started using the sterilized needle. Isaak was calm about it. Out came the 1.75 mm splinter. He was a real sport and showed no fear. Isaak was more concerned when this bandage slipped off.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Building Mania

All day on Saturday Mica was very tuned into putting together his new Lego toys. Daddy mentioned that Mica should wait to put together Lightning McQueen. Mica didn't want to wait. Things were really quit in his room, and he had this much built:

 
We were all pretty impressed with how far he got on his own! :)
 That is until he got close to the end. Daddy noticed that Mica missed some major steps. Mica was sleepy. They had to wreck what Mica had built and started all over again. :(

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Three Year Old Conversation

I've noticed that Isaak's vocabulary has really expanded in the last few months!

Not only does he say more words, he wants to discuss things more.

Tonight I put Isaak to bed. He didn't really want to go. As I was laying him down he said, "Mommy let's talk!"

This sounded serious. I was ready for a simi deep conversation.

I said, "What do you want to talk about Isaak?"

He said, "Spit!"

I said, "Spit? What about spit?"

He said, "Do you spit Mommy?"

I said, "Ya. When I brush my teeth I spit. When I have yucky allergies I spit in a tissue."

He said, "Oh! Goodnight Mommy."

Funny kid!

Moose Has a Loose Tooth!

Mica {AKA Moose} has his first loose tooth!

[ToothFairy.jpg]

I told him that he needs to spit it out into his hands when it's time for it to come out. I sure hope he doesn't swallow it! Then we talked about how it's normal to bleed.

He asked, "Mommy does everyone loose teeth?"
I told him, "Yep."


It is kind of funny because cousin Evan had his first loose tooth last year, the first week of kindergarten. Mica just started kindergarten to.

Mica told me that he has to leave his window open for the tooth fairy to fly through. I told him that, that wasn't necessary. She's so small she can fly through the crack of any door. I was thinking of winter time. Having the window open for a loose tooth wouldn't be practical!

Great Aunt Becky brought Mica over this:


It's a wooden tooth box. The last time she was over she brought Mica his safari set for his birthday. The boy's told her, "Next time bring something else." I said, "Oh no! No! No! It doesn't work that way boys."

Now I need to figure out what the going rate is for the tooth fairy to leave?!?

Tropical Traditions Coconut Flakes Review and Giveaway!

Tropical Traditions sent me their Coconut Flakes to review and giveaway!
This giveaway is open to US and Canada.


Things I want and wanted to try: Smoothies, cookies and granola. My first use was a smoothie. It was good! I love that this recipe doesn't have added sugar in it.

Recipe
 Directions
  1. Thaw out the frozen fruit. I used mango, but pineapple would taste good as well.
  2. Put the fruit through a mini food processor.
  3. Add all the ingredients to the blender and blend until smooth. It made enough for our family of 4 to each have some.
  4. I added extra coconut on top of mine, but the rest of the family had theirs without.

Everyone in the family gave the smoothie a thumbs up!

About Tropical Traditions Coconut Fakes
  • The flakes are 100% natural
  • They are make from organic drided colconuts in the Philippines that are grown with no fertilizers or pesticides
  • Contains no additives or preservatives
  • Not seweetened
  • Not treated with sulfites to keep the product white 
  • A great addition to recipes and baking, or just for snacks!
Giveaway
One reader is going to win a 1 gallon bucket full of Tropical Traditions Coconut Flakes!

You can enter if you are not a blogger. Leave a separate entry for each. Make sure the first entry is filled out before all others.
  1. For your first mandatory entry, tell me one thing you would make with Tropical Traditions Coconut Flakes? Leave your email address only with this first entry. one entry
The other entries are optional. Be sure to leave a new comment for each.
  1. Google Friend this blog. one entry
  2. Add The Apel's button to your site. Leave me your site link. one entry
  3. {Like} Tropical Traditions on Facebook. Leave your Facebook name in your entry. one entry
  4. {Like} Me on Facebook. Leave your Facebook name in your entry. one entry
  5. Leave a comment on one of my other posts. one entry
  6. Enter another giveaways listed on my sidebar. Leave the name of the giveaway. five entries
  7. Blog about this giveaway. Link back to this post and Tropical Traditions. Leave a link. five entries
  8. Vote for me on We're on the Fence! Just click on the button to the side to vote. one entry
  9. Subscribe to Tropical Traditions Email Sales Newsletter here: http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/subscribe_for_special_sales.cfm. one entry
You do not need to enter all of the entries to be qualified, just the first mandatory entry. 
This contest closes in 2 weeks,  September 5 at 10 pm.
The winner will be chosen using random.org.
Disclaimer:

The opinions on this post are my personal take on the products. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. I am not compensated to provide my opinion except for receiving the products themselves to test out. Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.

If you have questions about this post please contact me at: alissa4illustrationAThotmailDOTcom

Del Monte Teacher Monday: Cash For Classrooms Giveaway


I'm super excited to hear about Del Monte 2nd Annual Fresh Produce’s “Teacher Monday:  Cash for Classrooms!" I'm a college instructor and understand that the cost of supplies is pricey. I have students every year that can not afford their supplies. I do my best to share supplies of my own with them.

With Mica just starting kindergarten, we made sure to donate supplies to his classroom!







Del Monte 2nd Annual Fresh Produce’s “Teacher Monday:  Cash for Classrooms" is program encourages our kids and helps teachers educate nutritional benefits. Del Monte wants to help our kids make better choices. They want kids to pick a healthy fruit over a bag of salty chips.

Sixty teachers will win a total of $1,000 in cash to purchase school supplies and fresh fruit for their students.  The top winners will also get a Del Monte Fresh Field Day event for their school in which the entire student body will enjoy a day of Del Monte fresh fruit, games and fun activities.   Salad bars for schools will also be given away through promotions at supermarkets.  You can find out more about this here: fruits.com.

  

Teachers must register for “Teacher Monday:  Cash for Classrooms” to be eligible to win.  Just go to: fruits.com.  Ten winners are chosen each Monday for 6 weeks in October and November 2011.  You will want these votes since this is how the winners are chosen.  The winning teachers will receive $750 in cash and then $250 in Del Monte fresh fruit coupons for classroom snacks and education. Be sure to enter if you are a teacher or encourage teachers you know!

Giveaway Time! 

US readers, you can enter to win $25 in Del Monte Fresh Fruit Coupons right here! I will pick 3 winners total! 


I also have a backpack full of school supplies that the first winner chosen will win along with their $25 Del Monte Fresh Fruit coupons! If you are not a teacher and win this great prize, I encourage that you give it to your favorite teacher. Knowing that so many teachers are having to pay for school supplies out of their own pockets! This is a special gift to a teacher!





Leave a separate entry for each. Make sure the first entry is filled out before all others.
  1. For your first mandatory entry, tell me a Del Monte fruit you would love to buy! Leave your email address only with this first entry. one entry
The other entries are optional. Be sure to leave a new comment for each.
  1. Google Friend this blog. one entry
  2. Add Planet of the Apels button to your site. Leave me your site link. one entry
  3. Become a verified email subscriber. two entries
  4. {Like} Del Monte on Facebook. Leave your Facebook name in your entry. one entry
  5. {Like} Apel Mom on Facebook. Leave your Facebook name in your entry. one entry
  6. Leave a comment on one of my other posts. Just leave the title. one entry
  7. Blog about this giveaway. Link back to this post and Del Monte 2nd Annual Fresh Produce’s “Teacher Monday:  Cash for Classrooms". Leave a link. five entries
  8. Vote for me on We're on the Fence! Just click on the button to the side to vote. one entry
You do not need to enter all of the entries to be qualified, just the first mandatory entry.
This contest closes in 2 weeks, September 5 at 10 pm.
The winner will be chosen using random.org.

Disclaimer:

The opinions on this post are my personal take on the products. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. I am not compensated to provide my opinion except for receiving the products themselves to test out. Del Monte provided me with  coupons to help with this giveaway, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so choose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.


If you have questions about this post please contact me at: alissa4illustrationAThotmailDOTcom

Disclaimer

The opinions on this blog are my personal take on products and topics relating to motherhood. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me.

I am not compensated to provide opinions on a variety of topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are my own. If I claim to show knowledge of certain topic or product I will only endorse products or services that I feel, based on my expertise, are worthy of such endorsement.

If you have any questions about this blog, or want to get in contact with me please email me at: anapeladay@gmail.com