Colored Rice-- Updated with Pictures

Tomorrow I am going to be that awesome mom that gets everything I need to make colored rice for Kai.  I figure he can use it as a sensory activity.  I found the idea on the Smiles 'n' Snuggles blog.
I am anxious to see if Kai likes it.  He loves stirring his wooden blocks in my big bowls, so I figure he is going to love it, but we shall see.  Check out the blog post link above if you are interested in doing this project as well.  I will be posting pics later this weekend to let you know how it turns out.

Hiding puzzle pieces in it

Okay here is my update.  I used 5-6 cups of rice each because I wanted enough to fill my "sensory bin" or my Rubbermaid crate at least half way.  I used the 3 tablespoons rubbing alcohol and the entire squirt bottle of food coloring (which isn't 2 tablespoons for the record.)  I then filled the food coloring bottle up half way with water and used that as well.

I let the colors dry outside overnight since it is 80+ here even at night.  By morning they were dry and ready to play with.  They did leave a slight residue on my hands after playing with it, but it washed right off.  I would definitly advise using a large sheet if your child is as exuberant as Destructo was.  I had my sheet folded into a large square and he got rice everywhere.

Here are some pics:

Drying on my good platter it reminds me of fried rice

Rainbow rice

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Flashback Friday-- Our Honeymoon

It was always a dream of mine to go to the rain forest.  I also loved sea turtles and wanted to see an arribada occur.  This led us to decide to go to Costa Rica.  It had turtle, rain forests, and also wasn't more than a few hours by plane.  We also considered Australia, but it was nearly a full day by plane and we only had 7 days and six nights and for that kind of trip we figured we would want closer to two weeks.

We ended up staying at the Occidental Grand Papagayo, an all inclusive resort on the Gulf of Papagayo.  We figured that since it was both of our first times out of the country, all all inclusive was the way to go.  I don't regret staying there, but if we ever go back to Costa Rica (which we plan to hopefully for our ten year anniversary) we probably wouldn't do an all inclusive again.  We aren't big drinkers and I am not a big eater so it was kind of a waste of money.

View from the lobby of the resort

It was a different world in Costa Rica.  The drivers there are very aggressive drivers.  We were passed by a big tour bus on a two lane highway like we were standing still.  My husband was even slightly taken aback by it and he is a pretty aggressive driver himself.  Plus the road are not well labeled like American roads and without a GPS things were hard to find, so we didn't end up going nearly as many places as I would have liked to.  I never did get to see my sea turtles.  It was slightly to early in the season and we didn't want to navigate the roads at night any more than we had to.  Also, when they say rainy station, they mean it.  It rained every single day we were there except one.

My very favorite part of the stay was feeding my little friends.  Coatis ran all over the resort and were half tame since everyone snuck them food.  Every single morning we would wake up to them sitting on our patio screaming at me to come feed them.  The little ones even would climb up in my lap. I also left pieces of fruit for the white throated magpie jays.  I would love to have brought one of these home with me to hang out in my yard.  They were so pretty.

The coati family

Hand feeding a coati

White throated magpie jay (which sounds like something out of Hunger Games)

We hired some guy on the beach to take us on a tour of Arenal volcano.  This was the best money we ever spent.  We hiked through the rain forest and I spotted a rare bird and we got to see howler monkeys.  Then that night we went and saw the volcano and it was amazing to see the lava flowing down the sides of it in the dark.  We also went to an amazing waterfall.  And of course, the camera battery got left at the hotel so I have nothing but cheap disposable camera pics of any of this.

On our final night in Costa Rica, we finally got to see the howler monkeys that the hotel reviews all talked about.  I had been watching for these all week and was thrilled to finally get up close and personal with them.  They literally where less than 10 feet away at times.  I almost could reach them.  These suckers are loud at 5 AM when they get to howling.  Let me tell ya.

I also really liked walking along the shore of the gulf right before dark.  There were all kind of tidal pools to see fish in and the waves were gorgeous.

Overall while not the honeymoon we planned on, we still thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to going back sometime in the hopefully not so distant future.  I would really like to take Destructo when he is older so he can see the rain forest.  Oh and just for the record, this trip was also the first time I had eaten spring rolls.  I never knew what I was missing before that.  Spring rolls are awesome!






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Nursing in Public

Okay obviously I truly love the grocery store Publix way too much since I originally typed nursing in Publix as my title first time around. Over at The Slacker Mom 's breastfeeding blog hop, the topic is would you ask to nurse in public?  My answer is a resounding hell no.  I mean would you ask to eat your lunch in public?  No of course not, so what is any different about feeding your child in public?  I doubt most parents would find someone to ask if they could feed their wailing baby a bottle in a store.

My state (and I assume most states) have laws in place to protect nursing mothers from public indecency laws.  This is another reason I wouldn't' ask permission to nurse in public.  It is against the law not to let me.  Honestly though I never had any problems with anyone about nursing in public.  In fact, most places were great and one particular winery even let me go in the back to their break room and sit on the super comfy couch so I didn't have to sit on a hard, uncomfortable bench.  I loved that winery.

With that said, I do have to admit that I was not a huge nurser in public.  I did it a fair amount of times when Kai was itty bitty.  Heck I have nursed at the zoo, at numerous wineries on the way home from family vacation (and no I didn't nurse and drink wine),  at Kohls, at a billion restaurants' parking lots among other places.  But as soon as Destructo became aware of his surroundings, he got super nosy.  And that made nursing in public a challenge because he just would not stay on the boob long enough to nurse.  Then he would pop off and milk would get everywhere.

What I would do is find a quiet, semi-private area such as a dressing room, the car, or a bench outside where it was fairly quiet.  This way I could get him fed and go about my day, but have enough quiet that he nursed well.  My mom's group was always fun to go to.  All the other women would nurse their babies right in the room, whereas I had to go to the nursing room with Captain Curious to get him to eat.  My son.  I tell you what.  He likes to make my life interesting for sure.  

On a side note, two products that I had that I highly recommend are Hooter Hiders Cotton Nursing Cover - Aero and  aden + anais 4 Pack Muslin Swaddle Wrap, Mod About Baby.  I used the Hooter Hiders cover when I was first learning how to nurse and didn't have the coordination, but quickly found it to be a pain.  What it was super useful for was pumping in public.  I didn't have to do it much, but I went to the racetrack twice when Kai was young and had to pump in the car.  It worked great to cover everything up.  The Aden and Anais blankets were great for a million things, but I used them as nursing covers all the time.  They were super light weight so you weren't burning up using them and small enough to easily carry in your diaper bag.  But they are large enough to cover everything.  I was just never comfortable nursing in public without any sort of cover.

I also feel that nursing in public is a way to be a breastfeeding advocate.  I had only seen one woman nurse a baby my entire adult life until I had Kai.  If more women nursed in public, girls would grow up seeing this as the norm.  By nursing in public, I show anyone that happens to see that I am not ashamed of nursing my baby because it is what nature intended for my child.  Women should never be made to feel that they need to hide breastfeeding since it is what breasts are intended for.  It is just in today's society, that they have become sex symbols and that isn't right.

What are your opinions on getting permission to nurse in public?

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