The Munchie Mug / Meal Time Changes

So my son is going though yet another meal time transition. Sure everyone talks about "transition" usually relating to nap times. Children transition from two naps to one but not many people talk about the difficulties of children transitioning from multiple snacks a day to two or one. I've decided to talk about this toady because my son is going though a meal time transition.

Prior to the past couple of weeks our son was eating three meals a day and in addition he had a sizable morning snack, since he eats breakfast so early, as well as an afternoon snack after nap time. A little over a week ago I began noticing that my son wasn't eating quite as much as usual for supper. At first I thought well everyone goes through days where they just don't feel like eating much. I asked the next day at day care how meal times had gone the day before and they reported everything was normal. I began keeping track of the days when he came home having had an afternoon snack and days where he hadn't had one. At the end of last week I finally oiled it down to the fact that my son is transitioning to no afternoon snacks. On the days that he didn't have an afternoon snack my D.S. ate a healthy supper of whatever I put in front of him. On days he had an afternoon snack he was exceedingly picky about food and once went to bed without eating anything at all for supper, not for our lack of trying.

On top of that my son is still going through the stage where meat and eggs are still hit or miss even with "sauce" or "dip." (Ketchup or apple sauce or the like.) It's not been an easy week to say the least. I'm putting this out there that yes, there is transitions in meal times, no it's not fun. After multiple assurances that I'm not crazy and kids can't be hungry all the time.

That being said I thought I'd post today about the Munchie Mug. This was probably the second or third snack cup that we purchased for our son and, truth be told, this was another of my mother's finds. While on the steep side as far as price goes: a whopping 16$ per cup, it's been worth every penny. The prior snack cups were of the no spill variety but were never really spill proof. With a dog and two cats in the house there are certain things that pets should not eat. This snack cup also keeps me from having to follow my son with a vacuum cleaner every time I give him a dry snack. The cup itself is made of polypropylene and is BPA and phthalate free and is made in the USA. A couple of things give this bonus points in my book. The first is that it's dishwasher safe. Second the soft overlapping fabric opening doesn't hurt my son's hand and third there's a snug fitting plain lid that comes with it to keep snacks fresh. This is the only snack cup we use now and we own two. It's the best, hands down. I would say a must have for any home with children and rate it a 10 out 10!

Saftey 1st Bi-Fold Door Locks

I didn't do a lot of research on these before I bought them. It was one of those spur of the moment purchases at Babies-R-Us. Prior to living in a real house we lived in a condo that had no bi-fold doors. All the doors we had were the regular kind with the round handles that most kids have issues with. At that point our DS was so young that doors weren't a major interest yet. Last December when we moved into our current house I saw that I was going to have a few more issues with controlling where my son could and could not go.

One of those places was the pantry. Now I have a nice large pantry with bi-fold doors and I don't just keep food in there. Glass bottles of wine are on the floor at the bottom of the pantry as are some of the larger "small" appliances and over-sized boxes of garbage bags from BJ's. These are not things that I wanted or want my son to get into. I saw these Saftey 1st Bi-fold Door Locks as a solution and I have to say that so far they have served their purpose quite well. Now if you follow the link to Amazon.com you'll find that most of the reviews are negative claiming that they don't work on particular doors or (my favorite) are inappropriate for shorter people. Yes, these go on top of the bi-fold doors. If you can't reach the top of the door then you need to use a different product, clearly. I have standard bi-fold doors, the contractor's special, and I can tell you that these worked just fine.

These are made with a little knob to tighten the lock to your door. My door was sufficiently large that I did not need to tighten it at all. My son has very rarely exhibited the strength needed to make them pop off the door. However on occasion I have forgotten that they are on and I have pulled the door open and caused the silly thing to pop off. It doesn't necessarily bother me. For one, this has happened several times and the lock has not broken. Second, having the lock pop off is better than it breaking or worse breaking the door or the door track. 2.50$ for a new plastic lock or 50-100$ for a new door and track....it's not brain surgery folks.

***I feel that it's important to say this though in light of a lot of negative reviews (including my own) of baby safety items.It's important that nothing will keep a truly determined child out of anything. All of these "child-proofing" measures that we take are really nothing more than very good child deterrents. They do not replace the watchful eye of a parent! Don't think that they do.***

Basement Finishing

One of the benefits of my down time between jobs is that I get to see the basement finishing process from start to finish. It's really amazing how much work gets done in just a couple of days! I even took pictures of the work after day two. Today they are planning on framing the cement wall on the West side of the house and lay the DRIcore flooring that's going into my sewing studio. I'm really rather excited about seeing it at the end of the day today.

The full sized closet in the mud room
and the pocket door to my studio.

 I have to say it's become a bit of a game with myself. I try not to go peek before the end of the day and be completely surprised. It doesn't always work, I'm not very patient when it comes to those kinds of things. I'm also just super excited that it's finally getting done! When all is said and done my little studio will allow me to sew on a regular basis again and maybe even start my business again. There hasn't been any delays as of yet but I have been warned that those usually happen at the inspection stage. I'm hoping that there won't be too many delays as this is kind of a birthday present. At least that how I see it!

The small closet in the mud room
that will  hide the water inlet.

There will be more to do once the walls and such are done. Painting, making my ironing and cutting tables, figuring out storage and layout of peg boards for tools. There's a long road still but being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel has a lot to do with the little patience I do have. I probably won't be done until March at least but at least all the hard work will be done! I just have to pick out some vinyl laminate for the floor and I'll be all set! As soon as that's done and the drop ceiling is in I'll start painting. YAY! I'm not sure what color it'll be but I'm going for a light color that will keep it bright but not white.

The length of my sewing studio. WOO!

Next month is also my birthday so I've been attempting to put something together for that. It'll be very small and I'll probably end up cooking. Since I love doing that I don't mind. My hubby and I are alike in that way. We prefer the smaller, quieter parties to the larger, louder ones. It's the big 3-0 for me this year so I'm doing it my way! I'm trying for a better, healthier year for myself this year. That's my birthday wish.

During my down time I'm also hoping to put up a couple more recipes that I love as well as a couple of reviews. So here's to the New Year and to the big 3-0!

Food Saver / Tommie Tippee Explora Easi-roll Bibs

After last night's supper (and let it be said the day in general) I just wanted to post a little review about these bibs. The Tommie Tippee Explora Easi-roll bibs are amazing. I've had a set of two since my son was a year old. He's now nearly three and these bibs have been everywhere with us and stuffed in every possible bag. They are still standing and clean. 

When my mother fist bought these for my DS I thought rigid bibs must be so uncomfortable. As time went on  I started using them more and more. My DS didn't seem particularly bothered my the silicone-type bibs. A bonus for me is that as he began to feed himself in earnest these bibs caught everything because they are formed to stay open. Cloth bibs just didn't do that. These bibs also have some neat features that I didn't see in others. For one, the back side is dimpled to encourage air flow and prevent irritation on baby skin during hot months when they're in only a diaper. It also serves to keep clothes dry because they sweat less. These bibs are also made to roll up for easy travel. They close easy as well and while older children can pull them off, I think that it's a good thing. The best part of these though is that they are so easy to clean! All kinds of stuff just wipes off or washes off with some soap and hot water in the sink. They are top rack dishwasher safe too if you need to sanitize them and BPA- and Phthalate-free. 

My son is now drinking from a normal cup at the dinner table. Not everything makes it into his mouth but I can count on these bibs to catch it all and keep him dry. So awesome. I give this a 10 out of 10. These are great products that I think no parent should be without!

Washer Difficulties

First the website crashed now the clothes washer is making odd noises. I have a Cabrio washer and it's started making some weird grinding and squealing noises. Last night I only had two pairs of jeans, four shirts and two pairs of boxers in the silly thing and the noise it was making made me stop it all. I pulled out the sopping wet clothes from the tub still full of water and put them in the sink. I only left a couple of shirts in there and put it to a spin and drain cycle.

I went back this morning and saw that I had set it on the heavy duty setting. This morning I made sure that I put it on the normal setting and broke up my load into a couple of smaller ones. It seems to have done the trick though my DH did some research last night. It seems there's a little gear at the bottom of the drum that tends to get stripped rather easily. It's a 20$ part so I think we may try to fix it ourselves. If it fixes the problem then an hour of time and 20$ are all that's been lost. If it doesn't work it looks like we'll have to call an appliance repair person.

It seems like I have bad luck tendencies with washers I guess...

Website Difficulties

After a few days of pulling my hair out and cursing at the computer in multiple languages I've finally fixed my website. The news came about three days ago that my domain name for my website had completely expired. I had never received any email notifying me that it was about to expire or that I still had the opportunity to reclaim my newly expired domain. Long story short, GoDaddy, my provider, wanted to charge me 105$ to reclaim my domain. I just don't have that kind of money, not when I can get a new domain with a more appropriate name which I was thinking about doing anyways. The real pain in the neck thing was having to copy all the posts into a word document then put it into copy it from there into the new website and back date all of the entries. I also lost my databases after all that so I had to find again the pictures and link them back again. It was a labor of love. *BLEGH*

On the up side I do think that the new site looks better than the old one. Easier to navigate too. I'm glad I was forced to change the layout since I couldn't remember the theme that I had used. I thought I did but couldn't find anything like it on the site. It was a change for the better I think.

If you like to see it:   A Thread In Time

Better Garden Site

As I have been going through I have found a better place to do online journaling for your garden if that is your thing! SmartGardener has everything you could ask for! The plant listings are detailed and include when you should start them inside, transplant, harvest and even will make up a calender with your various tasks. It will also email you a reminder of what tasks need to be done! I was rather bummed out that the MyFolia site didn't really live up to expectation but this is so much better.

Instead of buying a subscription for all the premium services SmartGardner has a set up where you can simply buy add-on's to their service. If you love growing eight kinds of berries there is a berry add-on with all the berries. If you want to find out how much money your saving there's a harvest calculator. It's great and they are one time purchases. I haven't seen one for more than five dollars which isn't bad at all. On top of it all There is also a spiffy garden layout and planning app built right in! I'm still going to be keeping track of everything on paper but this will help!

Planning Ahead / My First Garden On My Own

Some of the really great things I received for Christmas this year are a couple of planting and gardening books as well as some packets of seeds that I've been trying to get my hands on. I really am quite excited for the spring! Not only is my Dear Son turning three in April (I am so done with the terrible two's!) but I will be planting a garden of my very own this year for the first time. I am excited and apprehensive all at the same time. Thankfully I work with a number of people that know their peas from their beans and a great deal more besides!

Right now I am trying to plan...I am a paper person and while I am thoroughly impressed with online sites like Folia, a free web garden tracking site, I think I'm going to go the old paper route. I'm thinking of investing in a traditional paper garden journal. Moleskine has one that I would like to see up close but have only seen on Amazon.com to date. In the mean time I have been reading up on alternative planting methods. Our lot faces East-West so we have a lot of sun. I've been reading up on vertical gardening, which helps you make more of small space, and companion planting or the art of know what to plant next to what so that it's mutually beneficial.

Thankfully it's still winter and I have a bit to go but not much! I'm looking at starting some seeds indoors this year and transplanting them when it's time. It's the first time I'm going to do it so I'm not super confident about that either. However I have found a few things to help me! I love Gardener's Supply Company. Not only do they have neat gardening tools but they also have some very good articles. There's a great Seed starting FAQ and an article on how to create a seed starting schedule. I'm planning on getting a new planner, two actually, one for gardening and one for life in general.

It's something else that I have just decided. While it's nice to have everything on my phone the truth of the matter is that I simply don't put half the things I should in it because it's a hassle to type. I'm going back to paper and my multicolored pens! I'll take pictures of my step by step to go along with the how-to I mentioned above. For now it's time for me to go to sleep!

Getting Over the Holidays

The holidays are always hectic and crazy. Thanksgiving to Christmas passes in a whirlwind of parties, wrapping paper, food, and yes, at times, too much family. I haven't had much time to write new posts and post some really neat recipes that I have tried with great success over the holidays. It did not help that I rounded up a part time holiday job as well.

That being said I'm now finding myself without work again for the month of January and most of February. I miss it some though I'll have time to plan my basement since we are having it finished this month. I'll have plenty of time to update the blog to and format my recipes and other posts as well.