Tips and Tricks Tuesdays from moms

Isn't my button adorbs?! Don't forget to grab it and put it on your post!

This week I'm talking apps! I recently got to borrow my Dad's ipad and I'm totally obsessed! Hear that apple? You can send me one any time!

Now we try not to use technology too often with our little man. We want him to be a lover of the outdoors and we think the way we were raised was pretty great. I loved my childhood summers spent playing in the neighborhood with my friends and coming home when the street lights came on.

So far, we try to limit the tv watching. I only turn it on as a last resort. When he is in one of those hold me moods and I am busy doing something else or when he refuses to leave the dishwasher alone and I'm trying to empty or load it.

The Ipad is also a last resort tool for us. Like when he was standing up in his stroller at this clinic I was at getting a tb test. Hello, Ipad!

These are the apps we love (all are free because you know that's how I roll!):

The best app is Peekaboo HD. C is almost 15 months and can tap the hay bales to make the animal appear.

Fisher Price has 4 free apps that are great. C loves them all. Two have keyboards that you can play which he loves. One is animals and the other is body parts on a puppy and kitty with cute songs that he dances to.

Road Rally is an interactive Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode. Love it!

Pirate School is Jake and the never land pirates and you put a picture of your kiddo on a pirate body. It is a little advanced but so freaking cute!

Animals Zoo is fun. Pretty basic, the animals make noise.

Since C liked the keyboard on the fisher price games I downloaded Epic Piano, Epic Banjo, and R-Tap Drums. They are ok.

OldMcDonald has some fun games. Only sings the first verse of the song on the free version.

Phone4kids has a lot of fun stuff on it. It has letters, painting, a phone, and pretend texting.

Twinkle star sings twinkle, twinkle and has fun games.

Those are our fave apps right now. What apps do your kiddos love? Write a post and link up! I think next week we will be talking about traveling with toddlers!

A hair tutorial for people that suck at doing hair!

Did you see I got a haircut? I've been dying to tell you all about the hair tutorial I finally found that works! I think my hair looks pretty good in those pictures. I used Kate at The Small Things Blog's How To Curl Your Hair With  A Curling Iron (full head tutorial).

I shower at night because I am a mom. Can I get an amen? I go to bed with wet hair because by the time the kid is in bed I'm ready for bed myself. I would love to roll out of bed in the morning with my hair done for the day. I've tried all the no heat curl methods and they don't work! See below.

I've tried other curling methods like the girl that was on Ellen that sings fast or the easy beach waves where you just twist your hair and put a straightner over it. They don't work. Or should I say give me the look I am after.

Not only does this curling method give me cute hair, it is super quick! The 2nd time I did it with my longer hair it took me 15 mins. With my shorter hair it only took 12.

You guys definitely have to check out Kate's blog and all her hair tutorials. I might be slightly obsessed with her hair. I might have taken in pictures of her hair when I got my haircut. I love the half up braids. It is definitely a go to hair style for me!

Show us your life picture display

Today is show us your life ways you display pictures. We have a ton of built ins in our house. Our downstairs family room/man cave has a built in desk and built in shelves. I decided to put a lot of our framed pictures on those shelves since I don't think there is a good place for a wall gallery in our house.

Below is the shelves to the right of the desk. We have all different frames and some black and white pictures. I even used some place card holders from our wedding to hold pictures!

 The shelves on the left side. Two rows of shelves have dvds on them. The other two have pictures.

This is a picture of the desk and you can see the shelves on either side.

So that's our main place we display pictures!

Stop and Smell the Roses Vlog!

I'm linking up with Mandy from House of Rose this week, trying a peach, and Hubby answers a question!!!

Yes, Chase is a wiggle worm! Yes, I'm a freak of nature that hasn't tried A LOT of common foods. I'm thinking of doing a vlog series with me trying different foods. Any other picky eaters want to join in on it?

Tips and Tricks Tuesdays from Moms swimming lessons

This week I wanted to talk about swim lessons! Last week we finished up our 8 days of swim lessons at our local city pool. Remember I recently told you all that I had planned out my swimsuits and cover ups...

Swimming lessons tip #1: It is not a fashion show. I don't know about swim lessons where you live but Chase and I were the youngest mom/son duo. There were a few other skinny moms that rocked the two piece but there were some tankinis, one pieces, and even swim shirts? On the cool days those moms in the swim shirts were probably laughing at our skinny butts.

tip #2: Pray that your kid isn't the one crying but if they are don't sweat it. Day 1 one of the little boys was having a tough morning. Another mom said, "One of those mornings?" I'm sure she felt so much better after that. We also had a little girl that cried the entire 30 minutes every day. I think her mom and I both figured out she didn't like the cold. There was one warm day that she was fine. I could tell her mom was miserable the whole lesson and felt like she was torturing us. I didn't care. I just felt bad for them both.

tip #3 Be prepared for a lot of play time (I asked Hubby for another tip when I was at nine and without reading this he said these exact words) and your kid to have no clue the majority of the lesson. Again, I'm just speaking from my experience but C spent the majority of the lesson trying to drink the water when it was time to blow bubbles. He obviosuly had no response when she asked him what kind of ice cream he wanted to scoop or what kind of animal he wanted to be. He also wouldn't give her high fives. I thought she was going to suggest adaptive lessons.

tip #4 If your child is a giant like mine try to remind people how old he is and be super annoying and say his age in months. C was the same size as some of the almost 2 year olds so I wanted to be specific and tell them he was 14 months old. He's not 1 almost 2. He's barely 1. I only do the month thing with other parents and because of his size. I hope I won't have to do it forever! I'm really bad at math.

tip #5 Get yourself dressed and sunscreen before your baby. Then sunscreen your baby up, doing it with the tv on is helpful to distract them and keep them from wiggling. Then put the swim diaper on.

tip #6 Get yourself and your baby dressed and sunscreened before you leave the house if you can. We were only five minutes from the pool so it was much easier to do all that before we got there.

tip #7 Bring your stroller. It was nice to have a place to kind of contain C while I took my cover up off.

tip #8 After the lesson dry off and head out to the car. Change your baby out of the swim diaper in the car before putting them in the carseat. I swear those things don't actually hold any pee!

tip #9 PRAY that your baby doesn't drop a duece in the swim diaper. I hear it is no fun to clean up. We've never experience the #2 swim diaper. My boy knows when to hold it! Knocking on wood as I type.

tip #10 Invite the grandparents and Daddy to come watch if they can. Have them bring cameras. I may have told other moms I could teach them what we learned at swim lessons in 15 minutes in our pool but it was still a first and he loved it!







Don't forget to grab my button and link up!

Hair cut!

I got a haircut! I love it! I might go even shorter next time!

Hubby made fun of me for putting on make up to get my haircut. I told him I want them to think I'm cute and give me a cute haircut. I didn't tell him I tried to pick out cute clothes too! Do you do that too?

I apologize

I wanted to apologize for my blog post yesterday. Again, my heart is broken for the families in Colorado. Thank God that infant is ok. My intention was never to upset anyone.

It does bring up an interesting topic. Judgement. Is it ever ok? Where do we draw the line with parenting decisions?

I am learning and growing every day and this blog helps me to do that. I strive to be a better person and you all help me with that.

Now let's have a great weekend and have some fun next week! 

Fired up!

I cannot believe people are sticking up for the parents of the 3 month old child in the Colorado theater.

First, if you aren't a parent, sorry you can't comment. I don't care how many neices and nephews or God children you have. It is not the same as being a parent. Read this blog. I have COMPLETELY changed since having my child. There are hundreds of things you say you will do before you have a child that you change your mind about. Sorry.

I try SO hard not to judge other parents. I see a kid screaming in Target and I try to say to myself there are a million things that could be going on. Today, at the library when there were parents with their eyes closed. I judged. That's not ok. You don't bring your kids some where and take a nap. I don't care how tired you are. Because you know what? I'm TIRED. I don't nap when I'm in my own home. I sure as heck don't nap when my child is playing with other children.

You bring your 3 month old to a midnight showing of a PG-13 rated movie it is wrong.

I've seen the argument that the parents needed a break. Do you know how expensive movies are? I honestly don't, because guess what, we don't go to movies because they are too expensive! If you needed a break THAT badly use the money to pay for a sitter and go some where free.

I have seen the argument that the baby would just sleep through it. My child has never been a good sleeper. I don't know many 3 month olds that sleep through the night in a loud movie theater. We have left restaurants because the mariachi band was too loud.

Is hearing violence car crashes, guns, and explosions good for a child's development? I don't think so.

I'm not in any way blaming the parents for their child getting injured. What happened is horrific and my heart really is broken for all the families of those lives lost. I just keep picturing Hubby and I being in that theater or Chase when he is 13 or older (because it is pg-13 just sayin) being in that theater. So so scary.

This is the first time I have heard of an infant being brought to a late night violent movie. That is what I am commenting on.

On the outside

Some of you may have noticed I've been around the blogging world a little bit more lately. You know what I've discovered? There are a lot of bloggers! A lot of bloggers that have way more followers than me!

There are also a lot of blog bffs. For some reason I can't help but feel like an outsider when I see these bloggers all commenting on each others' blogs and they don't comment on mine.

A friend of mine, Desiree, recently tweeted that she felt like she has been snubbed by some people. I have to say, I've been there!


So today, let's not snub each other! Let's reply to comments. Let's leave comments on other bloggers' posts! Visit Desiree's blog and show her some love!

P.S. This weekend I'm going to do a vlog for next week's Stop and Smell the Roses. I figured I would get Hubby to make an appearance but we have to give him something to talk about so ask him a question! He will randomly select a question to read. So excited! Leave a comment with your question!

Munchkin Meals

I am linking up with my pal over at A Healthy Slice of Life for Munchkin Meals this week! This week we are talking about lunch! I'm excited to participate this week because we have something pretty much every day at lunch that I've been wanting to share with my mom friends, go gurt!

Did you pass out? I know! I said go gurt. Go gurt is totally one of the things that was on my never going to give my kids lists. But, my 14 month old refuses to eat from a spoon. He loves the pouch things which he hasn't had in a long time. So I thought to myself, maybe we will try go gurt! It has less sugar, calories, and fat than chobani champions. The only thing it doesn't have as much of is protein. Makes my momma heart happy that I FINALLY found a way for him to get those great active cultures and calcium that yogurt has!

Yesterday was the last day of swim lessons! Grandpa came to watch Chase at swim lessons Tuesday and Wednesday. I guess my chicken nuggets that I served him Tuesday didn't impress him, so he wanted to get something "fun" on Wednesday. So we ordered our favorite papa murphy's pizza! We gave Chase some hamburger meat and sausage off of the all meat pizza Grandpa had and some of the tomatoes off my chicken pieces. We also had some grapes!

Writing it down so I don't forget!

My son is happiest when he is with his father and I.

Tonight, we were making dinner and C was going back and forth hugging out legs.

After dinner we all shared a smoothie. We sat on the steps and C put one hand on each of our legs.

I have a friend that is going through a divorce and I now feel like I can't post positive things about my husband or family on facebook. She's commented before things like, "That's nice, my husband turned out to be a jerk".

I do want to write these moments down though.

I had a blast writing a guest blog post for my pal Sarah with some advice for her and all other engaged ladies out there. Go check it out!



Tips and Tricks Tuesdays for moms!

 It is Tuesday again! Time for another tips and tricks tuesdays for moms link up! Don't forget to grab my button and put it on your post! Tweeting that you linked up is always fun too! I try to retweet or tweet about posts :)

Don't forget to visit the other posts too. They always have such great tips!

Before I start talking about my tips and tricks for this week I have to mention that I also have a guest post on my friend Kristin's blog today. I shared one of our favorite recipes for her Tasty Tuesdays post. So hop on over there!

Today, I'm giving you an invaluable trick/tip! An indoor boredom buster! I don't know about you moms, but whenever I look on pinterest at my stuff to do with littles board, all there is for 1 year olds is paint projects! We have done cute art projects that I will share with you guys soon but we've also attempted other art projects and they have been disastrous.

There was a big fire near us last week and I wanted to stay in with C. So I turned to pinterest. I decided we were going to do marble painting. Then as I was driving to Target I started imagining him putting the marbles with paint on them in his mouth and I decided it was probably not a good idea.

Below is a picture of C in his favorite new toy. A box from Costco.

I save a lot of diaper boxes.  I put the clothes C has outgrown into them. I used them to transport birthday party supplies. As I was driving I was thinking I could make a tunnel for C to crawl through and play in by just taping some boxes together. So after seeing the tunnels you can buy are like $13, I decided to try it. 

Here is C crawling through the tunnel.

This was much more our style. No paint mess. Nothing to choke on.

So if it is hot or raining where you are. Grab some boxes and make a tunnel! Or just let your little one play in them.

Don't forget to grab my buttong and link up! Visit these other links for awesome tips and tweet when you link up!

Our Mantle!

I'm linking up with Kelly today too for Show Us Your Life. Today's Show Us Your Life is Mantles! I love our fireplace so I had to link up today. Sorry for two posts in one day! Here is our mantle...

The big picture is from Kohls. I wasn't excited about buying a picture from there thinking we would see it at everyone's house but it matches the colors in our living room perfectly and haven't seen it at anyone else's house yet! The wood sign is from Target and says, "And they lived happily ever after..." I know a lot of people have the one that says because two people fell in love. Then there are two black and white pictures of us in frames. You may recognize them from my blog header! And last but not least on the right is a clock we got as a wedding present.

Friday's letters

I'm jumping on the Friday's letters bandwagon! I love that she encourages people that link up to visit other bloggers that link up!

Dear Chase, I know you are getting more teeth and it really hurts. Thanks for spending the whole night in your crib. I love to cuddle with you but don't love when you lay horizontal and kick me

Dear Infant Advil, Thank you for allowing me to get a few hours of sleep.

Dear Dad, Thank you for coming back from your 2.5 week motorcycle adventure! We were glad you got to take this trip but we really missed you around here! Especially me because you help me out so much.

Dear A, Don't know if you will read this but you know I love you so much and my heart is broken for you. Get in touch with me soon so I can give you a big hug.

Dear SoCal friends, Thanks for having a bunch of babies in the last year! I can't wait to squish them all soon!

Dear former emplyer, Sorry we lied to you about me being pregnant! I can't wait for you all to meet our little secret that we kept from you. For some reason seeing him run through those halls will be a full circle moment for me.

Last, but certainly not least, Dear husband, Thanks for being such a great hubby and daddy! Makes me teary eyed to picture Chase's face when he's giving you a hug or playing with you. Thanks for working so hard so Chase and I can play in the pool all summer!



So What Wednesday!

This week I'm linking up with my pal Shannon for So What Wednesday!

So what if...

• I planned out my swimsuits and cover ups for swim lessons the next 8 days. Swim lessons are the most exciting thing that has happened around here in awhile.
• I lay awake at night thinking about what I will write in this post.
• I am feeling left out because no one has tagged me in WIDN on instagram.
• To hate proving I'm not a robot to be able to leave a comment on a blog. I squint and have no clue what I'm looking at.
• To also have a new hatred for the monthly baby update posts. All I do is compare Chase to them and feel bad.
• To hate when I get a blog comment from someone with a no reply blogger email! I want to email my lovely readers back!

Things have taken a hateful turn so I should probably stop.

Tips and Tricks Tuesdays for moms

It's Tuesday! I told you I was bringing back Tips and Tricks Tuesdays for moms!

Today, I'm talking about toy rotation! I had heard about toy rotation on a blog I think. So of course when I saw a pin about it I had to pin it and was excited to check it out. The pin takes you to the Little Stories blog. The subtitle is early speech and language development. Which gets my little teacher heart so excited!

This is the best explanation of how to rotate toys. My short version is you categorize your toys into 3 categories. 1) thinking toys like puzzles, shape sorters, and stacking rings 2) moving toys like balls, instruments, and ride on toys and 3) pretending toys stuffed animals, phones, or at our house cardboard boxes. Then you pick 3 toys from each category and that is all they get to play with. Put the other stuff away and rotate every couple weeks. Easy peasy!

We have a tri level house so Chase (aka spoiled rotten brat) has three play areas. Before I organized his toys I did rotate things around and hide some things so he kept interested.

Here is his play area on our main level in the kitchen now. On the left is the pretending toys: carboard boxes, my breast pump bag that he likes to carry around and we call it a purse or satchel and his snake toy that he chases us around the house with. Then there are his thinking toys in the middle: blocks, a puzzle, and an apple from the very hungry caterpillar book that has a caterpillar and fruit in it. Then on the right are his moving toys: a ball, a keyboard, and his musical turtle with wheels.

You might have seen a tweet from me about @lilstoriesblog. You all need to follow her! She tweets about speech and language development stuff and gets back to you quickly which I love! She tweeted me and asked how toy rotation was going and I asked her what category that musical turtle with wheels that Annie and I have would be and she responded right away.

Here is Chase's play area upstairs. Thinking toys: the shape sorter turtle, puzzle, and stacking rings. Pretending toys: his puppy, the phone, and the construction ramp. Moving toys, bats, drum, and basketball hoop.

The play area downstairs. Moving toys: ride on fire truck, lawn mower, and ball. Pretending toys: his shopping bag with food, his workbench, and another phone. Thinking toys: puzzle, blocks, and the thing behind the lawn mower it has a shape sorter and different knobs and stuff to play with.

I had a lot of fun organizing his toys. Like I said it makes my heart happy to feel like he is learning while he is playing. I know we shouldn't compare our kids but when I read that Melissa's 13 month old can stack blocks I panic and start trying to get Chase to stack blocks.

Has toy rotation stopped him from going behind the tv or climbing on the coffee table? No. When he woke up from his nap and his toys were all organized he was excited to play with everything. Since I went through everything and made sure all the pieces were where they should be there were some things he hadn't played with in awhile.

I also leave board books out for him to read. He loves to have us read to him. I just separated them out so there are 4 or so in every play area.

Got any tips and tricks for moms? You don't have to be a mom. You could give hair tips because we all know I have serious mom hair. Write a post and link up!

I'm bringing it back!

No, not sexy. The tips and tricks Tuesday for moms link up!


After Chase was born I hosted this link up to help out myself and other new moms. As Chase got mobile and I got busy, I stopped doing it. Well, I'm bringing it back!

So on Tuesdays write about tips and tricks for moms. It could be toy rotation, a pinterest art project you tried, or maybe some advice for us annoying mom bloggers!

Then grab the button and link up!

Let me know if you have any questions.

So excited! I have to go clean up Chase's toys and take pictures for my toy rotation blog this Tuesday.

Can someone send a copy of Romy and Michelle to my high school pres?

I haven't told you guys about my 10 year high school reunion that is coming up! Makes me feel so old! I probably won't be going because I hear they are doing it at a deli. So stupid. They also decided to have it in December which is so weird. Have they not seen Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion?

I can't believe I have been out of high school for 10 years and out of college for 5! I had an extra year for my teaching credential, not that there is anything wrong with taking longer than 4 years. I'm not sure if any of my readers are still in college. But I figured some of you might be or might be thinking about going back. Maybe some of you have kids that will be heading off to college soon!


I wanted to tell you about this awesome website campusbookrentals.com. Remember when you were in school you just bought books from the book store? Well, on campusbookrentals.com they are 40-90% cheaper than the bookstore! There is free shipping both ways. You can highlight in the books. They even have flexible renting periods.

Click here to see what it would cost to rent a Child Psychology book. $41 for a semester instead of paying $149!

I know where Chase will be getting his college books from!

I was compensated by campusbookrentals.com for writing this post.

Blog Star!

I had to join in on the fun today!

I'm Meagan. Wife to a wonderful Hubby and mom to the cutest boy ever, Chase. I've been blogging since May of 2009 when Hubs and I were engaged, living in Southern California, and Chase was a twinkle in his Daddy's eye. All our prayers were answered in the fall of 2010 when we found out we were going to have a baby and Hubby got a job transfer back to Northern California where our parents live. We bought a house at the beginning of 2011 and Chase arrived in May. I thank God every day for each and every blessing in our life. One of the big ones is that I have been able to stay at home with Chase.

I blog about whatever is going on in my life. Lately it has been getting back in shape, baby #2 fever, and all things summer. We have a busy summer planned and I go back to substitute teaching part time in the fall. I am looking forward to our future and I hope you want to follow along with us!

You can find me on twitter, facebook, instagram (username meags7827), pinterest, and probably hotornot.com.

One and done?

Happy 4th of July! Today Hubby has the day off and I'm not sure what we are going to do.

You might have been guessing from Monday's post that baby fever has been hanging around our house for some time. My pregnancy with Chase was easy. I want a belly again. Labor wasn't pretty or easy but I would do it again in a heartbeat. We want a big family. I've mentioned before that Chase is an attention whore and I feel bad having another one for him to share the spotlight with.

Then, I read this post by Lucy. For some reason this post made me want to stay a family of three.

Chase has been sick and I think is now teething. Isn't that always how it goes?! Hubs had a super busy week at work and had been out of town. We all had to adjust a little to having Daddy around again. Hubs just wanted to love on C and play but C wasn't really into it. We went to the park and Hubs got to see the terror that I have been dealing with every evening while trying to make dinner. C went to bed fine then around 9pm he woke up. I got him back to sleep and returned to RHOC and at 9:15 he was up again and would not go back to sleep.

We prefer to use cuddles instead of medicine if we can so we brought Chase into our bed. At 14 months old he is still a pretty big mama's boy. I was shocked that he rolled over to his Dad's side of the bed and wrapped his little arms around his neck. I seriously got a little teary!

Above was written on 6/24. Below was written on 7/2.

I caught baby fever so bad I wasn't cherishing my time with Chase. That post was a wake up call that I will be so happy if Chase ends up being our only child. The three of us fit pretty nicely in that bed and I need to cherish all these moments as a family of three in case we are blessed with another child.

I know in the post on Monday I said I have, "...been complaining on twitter...". I received an anonymous comment that said I shouldn't complain about not being pregnant with my second. They asked if I take into consideration that my readers may be struggling with having their first. Since this comment was anonymous I wasn't able to respond by email. Please know I welcome any and all comments. I love all the comments that I received on this post from people who have children, people that are trying to get pregnant, and people who have recently suffered a miscarriage. I was able to respond by email to all of these comments and none of them seemed offended.

I have read posts about people struggling to have their second and was surprised to read that it has a lot of the same heartache as the first time. It is one of those things that you can't really tell me how to feel or what to do if you aren't in the same boat. This is my blog and I will always be honest and I do think about my readers. I think most of my readers know I am not heartless.

Something in the water?

If you follow me on twitter you have probably seen me complaining about the non stop pregnancy announcements on facebook. Seriously, it is like every day.

A lot of the announcements are baby #2 announcements from the mom group I joined when Chase was around 3 months. I was telling Bekah the other night at dinner that I never thought about how these announcements would affect me. I think part of the reason is I thought we would be some of the first ones pregnant.

I mentioned the other day that we want our children close in age. I even discussed trying for #2 with a nurse when Chase was around 5 months old. The nurse told me that the dr would tell me to stop nursing. This is one of those topics that every doctor will tell you something different. Anyways, we are cheap and didn't want to have to buy formula so we decided I would nurse Chase until he was 1 and then start talking about baby #2 again at that time.

Most of the moms in the mom group I am in have kids close in age to Chase. There are 96 members in the facebook group but I only know like 30 I think. I think 11 or 12 of them are pregnant! That's a lot!

I wonder if people think about things before they post them on facebook sometimes. I'm not kidding you one mom said, "I guess I should have waited longer than 2 weeks after weaning my daughter to get pregnant."

There have also been some friends from high school that are pregnant with their first making their announcements.

I can really only think of 2 friends that announced their pregnancy on facebook before I got pregnant. One posted her positive pregnancy test the day she took it. Another had someone spill the beans for her and ended up having a miscarriage. We kept things private online for awhile for several reasons. We announced on facebook after we found out we were having a boy. The announcement was nothing exciting. It was before the times of pinterest and cute announcements.

I also told Bekah that I had pinned cute #2 announcements but wasn't sure if I would do them. I know first hand how hard it is to log in to facebook and see them. Bekah encouraged me to do one because they are pretty cute :)

I have to share the most recent and cutest facebook pregnancy announcement with you guys.

"Twinkle, twinkle little star
Christmas time is not that far.
A bundle of joy in Santa's sleigh...
BABY (I'll keep their last name private)LAY is on its way!!"

Isn't that the cutest?! What do you think about facebook pregnancy announcements? How did you handle it? What will you do for #2? Is there something in the water?!