Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Shopping with kids and other random thoughts...

...on a Wednesday.
-Pillow Intervention. Before I was pregnant, I slept with one pillow and a small pillow to hold. When I got pregnant (and wasn't supposed to sleep on my back anymore) I added another pillow under my head (so my sinuses could drain), a body pillow to put between my legs and a full size pillow to hug. I haven't been able to break the habit, so it looks like there is someone sleeping in my bed- even when I'm not there. I think I need a pillow intervention (anyone watch "How I Met Your Mother"?). At least John doesn't complain about it.

-Free lunches. On Monday I stopped by Noodles to get my free bowl of Pasta (for my birthday), and on Tuesday I stopped by Red Robin and got my free birthday burger to go. Jay and I had picnics in the grass both days, then we did some shopping. If you sign up with these restaurants- you too can get your free birthday meal (which usually is good for the 2 weeks surrounding your birthday). Noodles sends you an e-mail and Red Robin just started a new loyalty card, so it is a little more work, but totally worth it. FREE FOOD.

-Shopping with kids? While I was shopping I stopped by a store that was having a big sale to get some new bras(guess which store). I navigated my way through the sale racks with a stroller and picked up a few things from the sale racks. As I was pulling in to the dressing room area I overheard two of the store employees talking. They said "if they can afford to shop here the can afford a BABYSITTER". I decided to turn away from the dressing room with my stroller and think for a second. Then another lady with a stroller came to the dressing room and asked to try something on. They informed her that only one of the dressing rooms was big enough for a stroller and it was being used so it could be a while. I asked about the return policy and decided to buy something and try it on AT HOME. I'm still feeling kind of disgusted by the comment. If our kids are being good (and every kid in that store was just hanging out in the stroller being good) we should be able to shop with them- right?

-Almost walking. Jay has been cruising along the furniture, the walls, anything he can get his hands on. He really has been "almost walking" for 2 weeks now. He can take 5-6 steps anytime he chooses to. I guess he will decide when he wants to walk.

-Sippy cup failure. I have been trying to get Jay to take (and like) a sippy cup for MONTHS now. I took out the stoppers (so the water comes out easily) but that doesn't seem to help. He shoves it away from his face anytime I am trying to get him to drink. I mostly put water in, but sometimes I put some watered down juice in. When he is in the baby pool with a cup (without a lid) he will drink LOTS of water (spilling most of it over himself). I haven't tried water in a bottle or formula in a sippy cup- should I be trying that? I'm slowly limiting the bottles he has in a day because he is almost a year old...but he needs to drink. Help.

-Date disaster. John and I went out on a date and couldn't find a babysitter (we didn't try that hard) so Jay came with us. We went to a nice restaurant and Jay had a blast. He ate 1 1/2 things of baby food, drank a lot of water (yes in his sippy cup- maybe that was because it had ice in it?), had some crackers, a bean, and a few puffs. He was a happy camper. After we were done, we strapped him in his car seat and headed to a nearby town to do a bit of shopping. Along the way we heard a big PLUCHHHH sound and it started to smell like throw up:(. We pulled over in a parking lot and Jay had just puked up like a cup and a half of stomach contents. We started emptying his car seat, changed his clothes, cleaned everything up and then...continued shopping. YEP. He seemed to be pretty happy and he was holding a blanket, so most of it was on that. When we got home we washed all the cloth parts and the straps of the car seat, hand washed the metal parts, and disinfected the rest. Kinda gross- but I guess every parent has to experience it sooner or later:)

-My Business plan. I am teaching a clay animation class for kids this summer and it has been going great. I charged a bit less than other classes hoping to get lots of kids to sign up- and it worked. I have two 8th graders there helping me run the class (and helping out with the little kids) and they are getting community service hours (which are required at our school). I have a teacher watching Jay during the class each week and can have their kid attend for free. I paid the art teacher to help me run the class the first week and I am running it the second week by myself - with the student helpers. I have had a blast and the projects are looking great. Maybe I will post a few on here. That being said...Jay spends a lot of time at my school with me while I get set up in the morning and while I clean up afterwords. He doesn't complain and kind of likes that chance to explore new things.

His FAVORITE thing is to touch all the keyboards and push the keys (we don't let him do that at home:)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad your class is going great.
Free food is always fun.
Put water in a bottle for whenever he is thirsty. That way he won't spill so much, but still drink.
He'll drink from a cup before he starts school. :)
G-ma N

Chelsea Ellingson said...

I put water in a cup for the last couple of weeks and Odell didn't want anything to do with it, then I put some formula in it and she figured it out pretty quick after that- my other kids didn't have a problem with that. I'm proud of you for not leaving "guess which store" because of snooty people (some people were loitering to get plane routes that didn't allow children- I'm sorry, but really, have some compassion! They wouldn't be who they were today if THEIR mothers didn't take them shopping and flying and everywhere with them!!) and proud of you for going date shopping even after the puke. Our motto is, if we don't do it now, it won't happen!

Dan and Sarah said...

Great post. I have so much to say about it! I guess I owe you a phone call :)

Last time Rebecca threw up all over away from home we were in the mall and I had to buy her a new outfit because I didn't have another one with me - she was almost 2.

Leslie said...

Have you tried the sippy cups with the soft tops? They were a great transition for my girls from the bottle to the sippy cup. The girls were so used to the feel of a bottle, but were much too old to have one so the soft top sippy cups worked wonderfully. I think you should be able to find them just about anywhere.