This past Thursday we got a call from one of the girls' friends saying she had lice. Ugh. I checked both girls' hair and sure enough...nits. I'm in my late 30s and have never had to deal with lice before. I called my neighbor and she came right over! There are things I would have never known about how to get rid of lice so I thought I would share what I learned. Lice is harder to find than you might think. Google photos of lice in hair and you'll get pictures of worst cases that are easy to spot. You'll also get pictures where the nits and lice have been blown up to be easier to see. In reality, nits are super tiny and blend in with hair. Lice, are super quick at hiding and you may not find live lice with just a hair check. My girls' hair looked like this...one nit every rare strand of hair. Most over-the-counter head lice treatments will work just fine. All kill lice and nits making them easier to remove. However, lice are becoming resistant to insecticide treatments such … [Read more...]
Top Apps for Moms
Today I'm excited to have Rebekah from My Circus, My Monkeys guest blogging. Rebekah has done her research and come up with the top apps for moms to help make life easier. I've heard of some of these but not others. I can't wait to check all of them out!... Moms’ lives are busier than ever these days. Apps can help you keep track of your calendars, plan your meals and even save money. Here are the top apps that all moms should have on their phones. Organization: Cozi - This app keeps track of all your schedules and calendars. It is able to sync across all phones and mobile devices, so all members of the family will know what is going on. Evernote - Need to make a note of an extra soccer practice? Evernote is great because it syncs with a desktop or laptop, so you can take notes while at work or on the computer and have them readily available later on your phone. Meal Planning: AllRecipes - The best part about the AllRecipes app is the dinner spinner. Simply enter … [Read more...]
Bed Wetting is More Common Than You Think! #ConquerBedWetting
*This post is sponsored by Acorn, an Influence Company 15% of children still wet the bed at age 5 5% of children still wet the bed at age 10. A few weeks ago I wrote a post about why I did not potty train my girls. In that post I talked strongly about the fact that you can not night train your children. Your child’s ability to stay dry through the night is solely based on physical development and their subconscious ability to hold their bladder while sleeping. You can't teach that. While I admit, both my girls stayed dry at night before they stayed dry during the day, we still had one or two bed wetting accidents per girl. Nutty was more mortified by it than Tottie was. A lot of my friends have had their kids continue to wet the bed long after they were potty trained during the day. Bed wetting (even in children up to age 10) is more common than people realize (or talk about). Again, I'll remind you that night-time dryness is NOT something you can teach. It is also not … [Read more...]
Why I Didn’t Potty Train My Girls
I didn't potty train my girls. Yup, you read that right, I didn't potty train my girls. I don't believe in potty training. In my online mom and blogger groups people ask potty training advice all the time. I rarely pipe in with advice but when I do it's, "let your kids do it themselves." Your child's ability to go to the bathroom on the toilet is both a physical/developmental process and a mental process. Despite you and your child's greatest efforts, if your child's body is not developmentally ready to potty train, it's not going to work. I'm going to say it again, "Potty training" is a natural physical and mental development. That's why I disagree with a lot of the methods out there to help potty train children. I believe, when children are ready both mentally and physically, they will do it themselves. Here are my issues with a few potty training methods: The Timer Method This method does nothing but potty train you. Your child needs to learn his/her body cues for when to … [Read more...]
Discipline Sticks
Naughty Sticks, Discipline Sticks, Consequence Sticks- whatever you want to call them! This is an idea that I came up with along with the help of my husband. He and I have often come to heads when discussing a consequence for a negative behavior with our kids. We sat down together a couple of months ago and talked through the problems at hand: When our kids see us disagree on a consequence they have learned that they have the upper hand because they saw that we don't agree. Because we didn't agree on discipline they often shopped for answers (they would go to one parent and get an answer and then go to the other to see if their answer was better). Time outs just didn't make a change in their behavior. The kids actually would "take the time out" just so they could continue on with the negative behavior. Cue the "naughty sticks!" My husband and I sat down for about an hour after the kids were in bed and discussed a handful of consequences they we both agreed upon. They … [Read more...]
Chores and Allowance
Kids. Chores. Allowance. At some level we all know that these three things should go together in some way. But the how and why of it all sometimes gets lost in the sleep deprivation and “don’t do that’s” of parenthood. Let’s start with chores. The general school of thought is that kids should do chores. What those experts don’t tell us is how much work it is to make it happen! Yes, kids should do chores – for many reasons. But enforcing a chore system in your house can sometimes seem like more trouble than it’s worth. So let’s start with the benefits of chores: The positives for mom are pretty awesome - When the kids do chores, mom has a little bit less work to do – eventually. If our kids can ever get a handle on doing things like cleaning and laundry, then theoretically, our lives will get easier. The other benefit is a greater level of respect for all that Mom does and how hard she works to keep things running. The positives for kids are character rewards – … [Read more...]
