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To Tell Mom or Not to Tell Mom

Posted, April 8th, 2013, By Pamela Ray

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Recently I had a mom friend of mine post an interesting question on her Facebook. Her daughter, middle school aged, had a girlfriend over for a sleep over. The friend who visited brought with her some not so friendly habits that weren’t discovered until after the sleepover was over. My girlfriend was proposing to her facebook friends: ‘do I tell her mom or not? (of the problems brought with the little girl)’. It sparked an interesting debate on what she should do. While reading the responses, a thought came into my mind: If I was the mom of the little girl, would I want to know what my daughter had done? Could I receive the information from the mom without feeling as though she was attacking me and my daughter?

Let’s start with us as the mom hosting the sleep over. All children are raised differently. Depending on where you live and who your children associate with there may some ‘ground rule’ similarities, but what if there isn’t? Does this mean you child should be automatically banned from that friendship? In the situation mentioned above, the acts that took place were not necessarily moral upbringing type issues, but rather acts of defiance (and to an extent, just being a kid). So let’s say that your daughter’s best friend of the last few years headed by for a sleep over and ended up stealing one of your daughter’s candies (let’s say it’s candy that she earned by doing chores, or being nice to her siblings, “special candy”). Upon your daughter noticing it was gone you bring it up to your daughter and her friend. The friend tries to blame the candy missing on you, the parent; she tries to convince your daughter that perhaps you, her mom, took/ate the candy. Now, assuming you aren’t raiding the Easter Baskets, you now have the red flag that her girlfriend ate the candy and then lied to cover her tracks. There’s a few ways you can handle the situation. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Registry List

Posted, April 3rd, 2013, By Pamela Ray

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Pregnancy can often be a time of bliss and joy; it can be a time of excitement and thrill! It can also be a time to be scared out of your mind on how to care for a newborn! Don’t worry, we’ve all been there, even if we say we haven’t. It’s often a time of panic of “what will this baby need?” and a lot of parents fall victim to ‘the list’. Ya know, that list that EVERY baby store will hand you once you register telling you the millions of things you’ll NEED to have in order for baby to be born. Well, let me present you with a different point of view, YOU DON’T. If you go into baby registering as most things are listed as impulse buy or not necessary then you’ll probably fare alright. Now, keep in mind there are a few essentials that you will need but 90% of that ‘list’ won’t get you any closer to raising a baby!

The #1 must have for a newborn is some sort of car seat. You legally, no matter the state, cannot bring a baby home from the hospital without one. Make sure the car seat is newborn ready, as in can go rear facing and usually take 4-5 pound babies. Believe it or not, even that extra padding and inserts they put in car seats are often not needed. Make sure your car seat is BRAND NEW or in a non-expired state. Car seat hand me downs are typically not recommended as you have no idea where that car seat has or hasn’t been (if you need some reassurance go check out my blog about our accident we had recently). There is often no way to notice any damage even from a minor car accident; for example, my son’s old car seat would have been visually fine to sell: not expired, great condition, no stains, no outside damage. However, it was involved in a ‘minor’ accident and it was located on the damaged side of the vehicle, but you wouldn’t know that by my ad on craigslist would you? Trust me, if you’ve got 9 months to prepare for baby, you’ve got time to figure out a brand new car seat (no dumpster diving on this!). Even if you’re having a home birth, you’ll still want to plan to have a car seat just in case you and baby need to be transferred to a hospital for complications; always be prepared. Read the rest of this entry »

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Kid Friendly Easter Ideas

Posted, March 29th, 2013, By Pamela Ray

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If you’re not looking to celebrate Easter for the religious factor but still wanting something fun to do with the family, take a browse through some of our favorite Easter activities; they also make great Easter day party games for family and friends.

Stain Glass Eggs:
These are relatively simple to make but will require some adult supervision and prep work! I took our old broken crayons and shaved them down using a good old fashioned pencil sharpener. You’ll need to collect the shavings for this project so keep the set aside. Once you’ve got your shavings done- as many colors as you want, you’ll want to cut up some wax paper. You can make shapes like a bunny, or an egg or even a cross. You’ll want two sheets of wax cut out per project. You’ll also need an iron for this project, on a low setting. Take one sheet of wax cut out and sprinkle on some of the shaved crayons. Then, when you’ve applied the shavings of your choice (not too many! You’ll need it to be evenly distrusted), you’ll put the other piece of wax paper on top. Put a dish towel on top of the finished papers and start to iron while you melt the shaved crayons. I found once it was done a little trimming may be required. If you want a more finished look, cut out a thin boarder of construction paper to match your shape; this will also help seal the ends! Display in the window for great decorations of years to come!

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Making Your Own Babyfood

Posted, March 27th, 2013, By Pamela Ray

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Baby food can get quite expensive if you’re buying in a jar. Not only on that note, if you read the labels on baby food, it isn’t exactly pure and clean. Making the baby food yourself enables you to know exactly what you’re putting in your baby’s mouth at any given point.

There are a few foods that are quite simple to make, that is, they don’t require any steaming or cooking in order to make them baby friendly. Banana’s are a great fruit to start with. They are already mushy and don’t require anything more than simply mashing them up more! You can control the consistency and tailor it to what your baby can handle as they grow. If you are just introducing baby food, try mixing it with formula or breast milk as a familiar flavor. Another great one to try is avocado. It has great health benefits for people and lots of healthy fats! It is another already ‘soft’ one so all you need to do is mush accordingly! As baby gets older you’ll be able to keep the consistency thicker to help transition into solid foods. Other fruits and veggies will require some sort of cooking, whether it be baking or steaming, to make them baby food friendly. Read the rest of this entry »

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GIVEAWAY: For Names Sake Nursery Decor

Posted, March 27th, 2013, By Pamela Ray

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I can’t tell you how much I love decorating my children’s nursery. With both kids, I knew I wanted their names in the nursery one way or another. The current big trend is having their names in wooden letters decorated to match their nursery bedding and I decided that is what I was going to do! I was on a mission. I set out to find the perfect supplies and ended up finding the perfect person to do them for me! For Names Sake is owned by a wonderful mama named D’Ahn and she specializes in custom letters and arts for your room!

For my son Jacob, we went with her block letters. There are two different fonts for you to pick from (one that’s more girlie and one that is more boyish). She hand paints the letters to match ANY room décor. When we got my son’s letters, he didn’t have any bedding per say, but his theme was racecar. We had blues and reds in his room and that’s the information I gave her. From there, she did her amazing work and made a masterpiece! Jacob’s letters came ready to hang! They are the most adorable things I had ever seen and Jacob absolutely LOVED THEM! Read the rest of this entry »

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Car Seats and Car Accidents

Posted, March 20th, 2013, By Pamela Ray

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I bring this story to you at our unfortunate expense. Last night, my family and I were involved in a semi-minor car accident. My husband accidentally merged onto another vehicle. It was a pure accident and there was, thankfully, no injuries. The entire passenger side of his vehicle was damaged. I was in the passenger seat as with my son riding in the back seat on the passenger side. Our accident COULD have been so much worse than it actually was.

It was brought to my attention immediately to look into replacing my children’s car seats. Mind you, our vehicle was ‘drivable’ after the accident and followed other “rules” to classify the accident as minor but there was damage to the door where my son’s seat was sitting. This factor requires us to have to replace my son’s car seat. This would seem like a no brain-er but you’d be surprised how many people would not replace the seat. The impact to our vehicle was quite “low” as my children slept right through the whole thing and only woke when we pulled the car over to call the police. However, despite the “low” impact to the car, you can’t be certain on what sort of impact the car seat had to take on while the accident happened; no point in chancing it.

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