Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Tuesday Baby Link Up: Week 28

Welcome to the Tuesday Baby Link Up!




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Your Hosts

Shannon at GrowingSlower
Jennifer at Every Breath I Take

Featured Post

This week I am featuring Green Idea Review's post about Making a Rainbow Cake with all Natural Food Coloring.  As many of you know, we are trying to completely eliminate food dyes from Destructo's diet since he is a bit on the hyper honey badgerish side.  It does seem to have made at least a slight difference.  With his birthday coming up next week, this post just spoke to me haha.  Check out the delicious looking cake!
Source

 

Monday, April 29, 2013

Oh Destructo you are Funny

Some more funny Destructoisms to brighten your day!

He chased his auntie Kara around saying sinnkyy feee trying to put them on her.

He barged by someone in the grocery store so close he actually brushed them.  He looked at him and said "Beep, beep out da way!"  I yelled at him and said "we say excuse me.  You are being very rude."  He replied to the guy, "That funneee?  Baby funny?"  The guy cracked up and told him that yes he was very funny.  Thanks for the pack up on my parenting random guy at Aldi's.

He was banging his cast on the table at Cracker Barrel and the more I told him to stop the more he laughed and did it.  It was so loud the entire restaurant kept looking at us.  They were all laughing and some random guy actually came up to him and said "That is quite the noise you are making.  Do it again."  Again way to go stranger dude for encouraging my heathen child in his heathen ways.

Speaking of Cracker Barrel, Destructo calls it Crack Babeee.  I might laugh every time at this.

He knows where the Sonic on our exit is even without seeing it.  He can actually direct me there.  I might like cherry coke too much.

I said Oh crap in front of him the other day when we almost crashed while bike riding.  He repeated it over and over and over.  Whoops.

I walked in his play room at my parents house to see him with the baby doll in his arms rocking it.  I asked him if it was Baby Liam (my pregnant sisters baby.)  He said la (yeah.)  Then he laughed devilishly and threw it in the floor and said Leelee in wah wah.  I think he won't be holding baby Liam any time soon.

He laid in bed with me and Mr. Destructo the other morning.  He said punch, kick dada and did just that while laughing.  Then he asked "That Funny?"

His playroom was destroyed at my parents house and I asked him who made this big mess.  Without skipping a beat, he replied "Monk."

Sunday, April 28, 2013

GoFreshBaby Reusable Pouch Review and Giveaway

I was given the opportunity to review a set of three GoFresh Baby reusable baby food pouches.  As I have said in previous posts, I am always looking for ways to live a little greener and more naturally.  I love these pouches because it is less waste in the landfills, less expense since I can make purees a lot cheaper than I can buy store bought pouches, and probably healthier too since I can control exactly what goes into the purees I make.

Source


The seal on these is very secure.  I have trouble getting it open which is a great thing when you are a mom to a honey badger.  They are dishwasher safe (although I recommend hand washing with a bottle brush to truly get them clean in all the nooks and crannies) and also freezer safe.  They have oz and mm measurements on the side so you know how much baby is eating.  I also like that the spout is on the top like store bought pouches.  Kai reaches for these first since they are green and apparently that is super important to the toddler mind.

Filling them was do able with a spoon, but I would recommend buying the funnel that GoFresh Baby sells.  It would make things much cleaner and easier.  These pouches are also recyclable when you are done with them and free of all bad things like BPA, pthalates, etc.

And even more exciting, GoFresh Baby is sponsoring a giveaway for a 3 back of these pouches!  They are a great way to get veggies in your picky eaters as well!


Disclosure:  I was given a pair of the GoFreshBaby  reusable pouches for free to review and keep.  I was not paid to review them and all opinions are honest and my own.    See my full disclosure policy tab for more information.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Tuesday Baby Link Up: Week 27

Welcome to the Tuesday Baby Link Up!

Hey guys!  Welcome back to the 26th Tuesday Baby link up!  



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Your Hosts

Shannon at GrowingSlower
Jennifer at Every Breath I Take

Featured Post

I am featuring  Attachment: It's a Parent Thing Too  a wonderful post from the blog Death by Great Wall about the attachment process when we give birth to babies or adopt them. I relate to this post very much because while I was fiercely protective of Destructo from birth on, the love was nothing like what I have now.  I was physically uncomfortable while watching his birth video since he just kept crying and all I wanted to do was snuggle him and make it all better.  But in the video, I am talking about work and chatting with my doctor oblivious to his screaming.  Read it and let me know what you think.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Happy Earth Day!

Source: Kelly's Closet

It is Earth Day!  So my question for my awesome readers are what do you do in your household to reduce, reuse, save the planet, and in other words be awesome!  

We chose to cloth diaper and have since Destructo was nine days old.  When I do use disposables because Kai is quite prone to yeast rashes, we use the bleach free kind.  

I make my own laundry soap and while I have read that the ingredients aren't the most eco friendly, it still cuts down on waste in the landfills from all the soap bottles.

I try to recycle, but the recycling place isn't very close to us so I mostly just recycle aluminum cans since our church takes them and plastic since I can drop those off at work.

I use mainly all reusable cleaning rags, towels, etc.  

I would say I use half ecofriendly cleaning products.  I have quite a stock pile from my coupon queen days of not so eco friendly ones and as I use those up, I replace them with home made and eco friendly cleaners.

breastfed Kai and did baby lead weaning therefore reducing waste from formula jars and baby food jars.  I also recently have started switching to reusable pouches to further reduce our footprint.

Ways I would like to improve before next year's Earth day

Continue phasing out un ecofriendly cleaners.

Switch over to all/most ecofriendly, natural toiletries

Possibly start using either mama cloth or a Diva cup not sure which.  This is the one I am not sure about.

Get my hubby to build me a rain barrel.

So what do you guys do that is ecofriendly?  


Sunday, April 21, 2013

Yummi Pouch review

I recently received a six pack of the Yummi Pouch for review and have to say I really like them!  You can check them out here for more info about them.
They come in pack of six for 14.99.  They are BPA, phthalate, PVC free so none of the bad things in them.  They are super easy to fill.  The top is a zipper top and they are very hard to get open which I consider a great thing.  Even I struggle to open them and had to keep making Mr. Destructo open them which is great because I would hate for Destructo to be able to open them and make a huge mess.  He even stepped on one that he dropped and while the applesauce squirted everywhere from the spout, it didn't unzip.  

 They have a stand up bottom which makes for easy filling and can hold up to six ounces.  They work just like store bought pouches, but have the added bonus of being reusable and therefore are much more ecofriendly.  There are also some neat spoon attachments I would like to try out for them.  I will update this if I order some in the future.  They are also freezer and dishwasher safe.

They were also super easy to fill.  You can buy a funnel/measuring cup which would make it even easier.  But I had no problem just spooning the applesauce into the pouch.  It's opening is very wide.


I look forward to getting creative and making smoothies and different puree concoctions for Destructo and using these.  I haven't had much of a chance to since life has been a bit crazy since he broke his arm a week and a half ago.  We have mostly just been using applesauce in them haha.  Oh and pretend you see a picture of Kai eating from this pouch below this.  I meant to take one this afternoon and he had finished his pouch before I could.  I will get another one tomorrow.

Check out Yummi Pouches facebook page https://www.facebook.com/YummiPouch?fref=ts for recipes and tips for using these!  


Disclosure:  I was given a pair of the Yummi Pouch reusable pouches for free to review and keep.  I was not paid to review them and all opinions are honest and my own.    See my full disclosure policy tab for more information.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Yay for five senses!

To follow up with my feeling sentimental Wordless Wednesday post  from yesterday, do you guys have certain songs, smells, sounds, places that just take you back to yesteryear?  I have a lot of these and I am very glad for this.  These flashbacks were also a lot of life lessons that will come in handy as I navigate parenting children.

For example, anytime I hear Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight" song I flash back to being 16 and carefree.  I was dating a cute guy with a smile I used to call his Tom Cruise smile.  He was my first "serious" boyfriend and we dated nearly a year.   That was our song and I still think of him every time I hear it.  And I am glad for this because down the road when I have a daughter, I can remember this time in my life and empathize with her better when she thinks her heart is broken beyond healing and that she will never love again when her and her first boyfriend break up.

The smell of pine needles takes me instantly back to camping as a child on family vacation "up north" in northern Michigan.  We went every single year and I can still remember the smell of the pine needles and the crunch of them as I rolled around the floor of the tent.  Heck in grosser memories I still remember how disgusting the outhouses were.  Gag.  But these childhood family vacation memories make me want to give Kai the same things.  We took him on vacation to Destin, Florida and he loved the ocean and the outside shower.  He also has been to Blue Ridge, Georgia twice since he was born to see the mountains.  I hope even if we can't afford elaborate vacations down the road, that we still at least go camping somewhere as a family.  I just value my vacation memories so highly.  Oh and side note the Kid Rock "All Summer Long" song always makes me wonder how my life would have turned out if we hadn't moved away from Michigan when I was 12
Source

The smell of green apple takes me back to my dumb early 20's (and still makes me gag even to just think about it.)  Green apple pucker hang overs suck royally.  How is this a life lesson to help me raise my kids?  Well I guess if I realize my kid was out drinking one night and is hung over the next day, I can at least comfort myself with the fact that I turned out fairly well and had my share of stupid moments as a young adult.

A certain smell that can only be described as leather, strawberry conditioner, and sweaty horse make me instantly flashback to hot summer trail rides, good friends, and my beautiful mare Ellie.  I can still hear the sound of the leather saddle creaking and smell horse sweat and grass.  I hope that my children get to experience this whether it is by me owning horses again (oh please please please let this happen) or just by them taking riding lessons.  There truly isn't many better feelings than the sun on your head, the wind in your hair, and loping through an open field on a beloved horse.

If I hear the song "Yellow" by Coldplay or "Never Let You Go" by Third Eye Blind or smell a certain cherry scent, I remember my high school best friend.  We were inseparable and even stayed friends for quite awhile after college.  Heck if I looked him up today and called him crying, I am sure he would still talk me through my problems.   He was there for me through a whole lot of teenage angst and drama and we had fun even doing the stupid little things.  I mean one of the most fun nights we had was going from store to store and buying bouncy balls from the quarter machines.  (I had a bouncy ball collection.  Well still technically do at my parents house and had over 900 balls at one point.  Who does this?  Weirdo.)    I hope my children have someone that they know without a doubt will always be there for them and that they can just let loose and have fun with without ever getting themselves into trouble.

If I hear "Hanging by a Moment" by Lifehouse, I always remember  the first time Mr. Destructo told me he loved me.  Eating Gushers has this same affect on me.  The smell of leather jackets reminds me of our early days as well.  I am glad for this memory because honestly I hope my children find someone to marry and make a life with.  And give me adorable grand babies hahaha.  The song "Cotton Eye Joe" always makes me grin.  We danced to this song at our wedding and it was the highlight of my evening.   And another side note, I am listening to music as I type this and "Drive" by Incubus just came on and I flashed back to when Mr. Destructo and I were just starting to really get to know each other and were riding around in his car and this song came on.

A few other notable flashbacks I have are when I watch Toy Story or Monsters Inc, I always fondly remember a college friend.  We always had a shared love of Disney movies and Mario Kart.  Heck corn dogs, green ketchup, and kitchen fires also make me think of this particular person.  So do hubcaps and spinach if you are reading this unnamed friend haha!   If I ever see those little wax bottles with the colored sugar water stuff in them, I immediately think of a close friend my first few years of college.  I still miss trying to feed her birds gummie worms.  haha  I can't hear an Aerosmith song without thinking of a certain college friend. 
Source

I thank God every day for my five senses.  I can't imagine a life without them.  I am a very sensory oriented person and some of my best memories involve one or more of my senses.  Do you guys flash back to different points in your life because of one of your senses?

Linked up at:
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Tuesday Baby

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

The Tuesday Baby Link Up: Week 26

Welcome to the Tuesday Baby Link Up!

your intro here



Grab the Badge




 

Your Hosts

Shannon at GrowingSlower
Jennifer at Every Breath I Take

Featured Post

I chose a post about breastfeeding with a lip tie as my featured post this week. Go over to Nanny to Mommy's blog to check it out!

Monday, April 15, 2013

That's Funny (More Destructoisms)

I hear the expression that's funny or Baby is funny a million times a day.  Destructo has replaced why and treat with that's funny.  Today he was doing something he knows he isn't supposed to do and when I told him he needed to stop he laughed and said "Baby's funny."  No Baby you aren't funny.  Except of course it is.

Some other funny Destructoisms here recently:
No pants, no pants, no pants.  He is against wearing clothes but pants in particular.  We compromise by letting him wear baby legs when he is at home.  Or just a diaper if it is warm enough.

No dinner, no dinner, no dinner.  No way.  He doesn't really care to eat.  At all.  Especially dinner.  Or sometimes if he doesn't feel like chanting, he will just look at me when I tell him it is time to eat and say nope and walk away.  Whatever kid.  Don't eat as long as you let me  eat in peace.  No meat no meat no meat is also uttered pretty regularly.

Yogurt is laylay.  I love how he mispronounces that one.

He loves streaking.  He will run around the house screaming Baby Nakeyyyyyy and be quite evasive in my efforts to clothe him.

He can count to ten.  He won't count to ten.  I only know he can do it based on the fact that if I say one, he follows with two, and so on to ten.

His auntie Dayna is having either a robot, truck, treat, or gorilla.  It changes depending on the day.

He asked me why 22 times in a row the other day.  Even though I wasn't answering him anymore.  22 times.

He likes to cheer me on as I jog.  Go momma go.  It is nice to have my own personal cheerleader.

He likes to tell us he isn't going places.  The other day he told me "I stay Baby's house.  No go."  I love that my not quite two year old seems to think he is the boss.

He caught his first fish the other day.  He has since told me that he let the fish go "Bye bye fish" every single day since then.


We took him for frozen yogurt the other night.  He says Sweet Cece's like Sweeee Sheshe's.  I love it.

He is awfully proud of his lellow cass.  I am not sure breaking your arm before you are even two is a proud moment, but he loves his cast so ehh.

He threatened to run away 500 times in the last few days.  Anytime he doesn't want to do something you ask him to, he replies "Baby run away."  The other night he took it a step further and told me "Baby run away.  Baby run away to monk's house."   Fine son, let me open the door for you.

He can say the strangest things perfectly clearly like cinnamon break, pirate ship, or McDonald's (ducks head in shame.)  But simple words, he butchers.
 
Finally,  he spontaneously said I luv you momma the other day.  I almost cried.  It was too sweet.

Linked up at:
Modest Monday
My Pregnancy Journal

Friday, April 12, 2013

Destructo Self Destructed

Sorry I have kind of fallen off the face of the planet the last few days.  Destructo had his first big mishap.  He seemed to think he could overcome gravity.  He can't just for the record.  This experiment resulted in this scene.
Showing of his lellow cass and his treat  red suck 
He was swinging on the big kid swings and just let go.  He fell and in theory shouldn't have broken his wrist since it was on very thick mulch and he has had worse falls when he launches himself off the couch or runs down his slide in the backyard.  But he sadly landed right on his left wrist with it outstretched.  He got two buckles fractures on both sides of his wrist.  

He got a hard cast and after the ortho guy watched him for a few minutes he decided that he needed a full arm cast even though the fracture itself is very minor.  Good call doc dude, good call.  Sure enough before we even made it home, Destructo decided to take off his cast and was wiggling his arm and pulling as hard as he could.  I decided that it was the best choice to put it above the elbow.  haha

All day today he told everyone he wanted a tiger striped cast.  We get there and I tell the doctor that and he looks all frowny at me and say NO Daniel.  Lellow.  So yellow he got.  And he thinks it is great.  I am just thankful that it is finally casted because the last two days have been horrible.  We didn't think it was broken at first since he could completely use it and wasn't in that much pain unless he used his wrist to get up or something else that was putting his full weight on it.  The pedi said to bring him in today if it wasn't immensely better.  Well it wasn't and we did but yesterday was horrible since he fell a few times or just forgot and would use it and scream and cry.  I hated it.  

Four weeks and the cast gets taken off.  Thanks goodness it will literally be the day before his birthday party.  So yay for pictures without a cast.  Although he does look awful cute if I do say so myself!

Let me just say that you should always trust your mommy intuition.  I was very nervous about him swinging on the big boys swings even though he has done it before that night.  I should have listened and taken him off the swing.  Then as soon as he fell, I knew without a doubt it was broken just from his cry which was different than normal and the weird way he was initially holding it.  I wish I had taken him in that next morning so he would have had a cast yesterday instead of tonight.  But he was able to use it so well that we really thought it was just bruised or sprained.  He is a tough little guy for sure.  

Motherhood is a scary business.  I will never forget his cry when he fell.  Seeing him so scared was awful.  Even today I hated seeing him scared and unsure of what was happening.  I mean I told him ahead of time every single thing that was going to happen, but he is not quite two.  It is hard to explain what a cast is and the fact that it won't come off for four weeks.  Oh and yes I shed tears before he got casted today (when he couldn't see me of course.)  I won't get to see my sweet baby's arm or most of his hand for a month.  Sob.  But it is still worth it.  Every day.

The frog's belly lights up.  It is super cool.
Oh and a funny convo that we had today:
Me:  Kai in a little bit we have to go to the doctor.  She is going to look at your arm and probably put a heavy bandaid on it to make it get better.
Kai:  No doc-er.  No doc-er.
Bye bye doc.  Bye bye doc.
Baby run away.  NOOOOO doc-er.  Baby run away doc-er.  

I died laughing.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Wordless Wednesday-- 24 Days

Source: Me in 2010
Source:  Me in 2012
Courtesy: Kentuckytourism.com
That's right ladies and gentlemen! 24 days (and about 10ish hours) until "My Old Kentucky Home" plays, the crowds quiet, the gates spring open and a roar from the crowd starts.  24 days until I scream myself hoarse cheering on whatever 3 year old I deem the best.  24 days until a horse crosses the finish line and gets donned with the blanket of red roses.  24 days until we have a winner of the Kentucky Derby and  hope spring anew that this is the year I will finally get to see my first Triple Crown winner. 

Quick someone talk Derby to me.  Okay this wasn't wordless.  Ooops.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Welcome to Week 25 of the Tuesday Baby Link Up!

Welcome to the Tuesday Baby Link Up!

Guess what guys?  I am the newest host of the Tuesday Baby Link Up!  Yay!  This link up has always been one of my favorites to link up with and to read posts from.  Won't you join us and link up?  Spread the word to your friends as well.  There is so much info to be gained from some of the posts here.



Grab the Badge




 

Your Hosts

Shannon at GrowingSlower
Jennifer at Every Breath I Take

Featured Post

This week I picked my feature post based on the fact that when asked if his Auntie Dayna is having a boy or girl baby, Destructo likes to pick a Baby Robot.  Be sure to check out this awesome post over at Baby List blog for all your baby robot needs.

Monday, April 8, 2013

I am a Stripper

Okay so this post might not be as exciting as the title sounds.  Actually there isn't anything exciting about it.  But it is informative if you are a cloth diaperer.

Why strip your diapers?
Stripping your diapers can help with removing mineral or soap build up.  It can help if you are having stink issues.  It can help if you are having repelling issues and leaky diapers.  Basically, it can help if your diapers aren't working the way they are supposed to.

Three methods I have used to Strip my Diapers
First of all let me preface that by saying we have extremely hard water where I live so treatments like vinegar and even bleach don't do much for my stink issues I have had.  We had a lot of problem with ammonia buildup until I got a better washing routine worked out.  If ammonia build up gets bad enough, it can cause very bad rashes as well.  Those without hard water should feel so very grateful.

The first method I have tried is to do a bunch of hot water washes checking each time until you don't see any soap bubbles or residue in the water on clean diapers.  It is better to do hot washes and warm rinses, but of course my washer doesn't have this option so it takes longer.  I only had limited success with this method though.  It just didn't seem to get enough of the minerals, soap, etc out.

The second option that worked well was putting a squirt or two of blue dawn in the hot wash with your clean diapers.  Then you continue rinsing until you see no more bubbles.  It takes a number of rinses to do this and warm or hot rinses work better.  Blue Dawn is a degreaser and helps break up all the things clinging to your diapers and inserts.  (Interesting animal science major tidbit, it also kills fleas on animals although you can't use it much or else it can really dry out their skin.  But it does work well.)    


The third option is to buy RLR.  You sprinkle this in hot water with your clean diapers and then do rinses until their are no more bubbles and soap residue left in the rinse water.  I prefer this method more than the other two because while the Blue Dawn works, it takes more rinses than the RLR.  More rinses equals more water which equals a higher water bill (although the cost difference probably equals out when you figure how cheap blue dawn is if you prefer that method.)  See here for a detailed post about stripping with RLR since that is my preferred method.
Picture via Kelly's Closet

How to prevent having to strip your diapers regularly:
  • Make sure to rinse every diaper even just pee diapers before putting them in the wet bag.
  • Wash every couple of days even if you only have a few diapers.
  • Figure out a good wash routine that uses enough soap, but not too much soap to cause buildup.
  • Use only cloth diaper safe ointments or make sure to always use liners.
  • Avoid using fabric softeners or static cling sheets on your diapers (but it can also help to avoid using them in your machine all together.
  • Avoid over using additives in your wash routine.
Feel free to ask me any stripping questions you might have!  haha

Linked up at:
Titus 2sday
Tuesday Baby

  This post contains affiliate links which compensate Adventures with Captain Destructo with a % of the sale. Using these links doesn't cost you anything extra, but it helps support this blog and my family. Thanks!

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Top Ten Toys that have the Potential to Inflict Bodily Damage


1) Legos.  If you ever step on one of these without bare feet, you understand why this one tops the list.

2) Hot Wheels or the like.  Yeah not only do they hurt to step on, but they also cause you to fall on your butt if you step on enough of them.

3) This particular set of blocks is quite painful when they are tossed at your head.  They also can be quite slippery when you round a corner and step on one.

4)This set in itself isn't horrible.  But the orange in it is deadly.  Destructo thinks it is a ball. Balls are made to be thrown at everything including windows, TVs, my head.  The orange has sadly "disappeared" into the dark depths of the closet.

5) This shape stacker is dangerous.  As with the orange, the round ball like piece for the circle shape stacker part is thrown like a very painful ball.  It also needs to disappear to the depths of hell or the closet either way.

6) Yeah baseball bats and toddlers are not meant to come together.  Even plastic bats.  Even outside.  The box LIES when it says ages 1 1/2 -3.

7) This toaster hurts a lot when it is dropped on your barefoot.  Not that Destructo has ever done that or anything.

8) Again toddlers and sticks don't mesh.  Again I didn't buy him this just as I didn't buy the tee ball set.  Mr. Destructo was fully responsible for that.

9) Bubble machine.  This is fine for an outside toy.  But we bought it for Destructo in the winter and let him use it in the house.  Yeah talk about break your neck slippery floors.  Poor Destructo wiped out before I could get it wiped up.

10) Puzzles that have the little red peg on top of them.  It might make putting them in the appropriate place easier for kiddos, but it sure does hurt when you step on it.

There you have it, Destructo's ten most deadly toys.  What toys would be on your deadly list?

Linked up at:
Tuesday Baby 
Top Ten Tuesday 



This post contains affiliate links which compensate Adventures with Captain Destructo with a % of the sale. Using these links doesn't cost you anything extra, but it helps support this blog and my family. Thanks!