I need a Kid Free Vacation ASAP

I love being a mom, it brings me such joy but sometimes I just need a vacation away. I love taking time and traveling to different places usually to see friends. I love going to New Hampshire and spending girl time with my best friend Brandy. Of course her sweet little ones are there which is fine. Her daughter is so amazing and since I only have a son it's fun to have a little girl time with Brandy's daughter. I would love to go on a trip where there's only adults. It's really important to have some me time or girl time. I am hoping sometime I can get Brandy away from her daily life and go somewhere fun together where neither of us has to but our mom hat on and we can just hang out and do whatever we want to.

It's easy to feel guilty especially if you are seeing families together but it is an important and vital part of parenthood. It's not going to be the end of the world if you spend a couple days away from them. If you can't afford a vacation, how about a night in a local hotel? That one night doesn't sound like much but it is a big deal and you will feel like new. You may even want to add another night to your hotel stay.  It's really important and a requirement to have some time to yourself every so often.

Enjoy your kid free vacation!

Operation Smile Brings Smiles to Kids

Operation Smile is such an amazing charity. Operation Smile helps correct Cleft Lip and Cleft Palate in babies.  It’s a congenital birth defect that hinders baby’s ability to suck and eat and even speak. When the baby is in their mother’s womb, sometimes their mouths or lips do not form and there is a hole.  Babies born with Cleft Lip or Cleft Palate do not have the ability to smile. Parents are not able to see their baby’s first smile as other parents do.  1 in 10 children with Cleft Lip or Cleft Palate don’t get to celebrate their first birthday. It is incredibly sad, thankfully Operation Smile is there to save the day. Operation Smile goes to third world countries where doctors are not an option. It’s a really simple and inexpensive surgery that they just cannot afford. It’s roughly $240 per surgery, and while that doesn’t sound like much to us, in some countries it may as well be ten thousand dollars.  Babies with Cleft Palate or Cleft Lip will experience ear problems and dental problems too. Thankfully it is curable and they can live normal lives. 1 in 700 babies will have Cleft Lip or Cleft Palate. That is so heart breaking because so many babies won’t get surgery without Operation Smile. Operation Smile needs our help, it takes a village to help others.  There are many volunteers and doctors who volunteer their time to travel to third world countries to help these precious little babes.

Campus Book Rentals has teamed up with Operation Smile to help donate smiles. For every text book you rent, Campus Book Rentals donates to Operation Smile. I think that’s so wonderful. So, if you are in college or have a child in college, check out Campus Book Rentals and consider renting text books from them and help support Operation Smile.

For more information and to learn about what they do, please visit Operation Smile

Traveling with a Fussy Baby

Noah is a huge traveler and I started him off young. We went on a long road trip when he was two months old. He enjoyed riding in the car most of the time. Occasionally, he would start to fuss. He didn't want to be in the car anymore. He wanted to stretch and be held by me. It's hard because you just want to hold them. It's not safe to hold a baby in the car, even though it's so tempting. If I could have just held him on long car trips it would have been easier. Thankfully I am creative and have a knack for making up songs. It helped some when we were in the car.

Even just sitting in the backseat isn't enough. I honestly think it can make it harder sometimes. If you have a snugly baby, just touching them is not satisfying. They can see you and almost beg to be held. It makes the temptation to slip them out of the seat worse. You really have to know what to do to soothe your infant in the car. It's important for everyone's sanity especially if you are traveling far. Trust me when I say this: picture it it's like nine pm we can't find our hotel and everyone is tired from driving. Noah starts crying and his toy breaks. This toy is the only thing that is stopping him from crying. I was a new mom as he was two months old. It was time to get creative. I sang rattle rattle thunder clatter boom boom don't worry call the car-x man for a half hour straight.  I tried to only sing it a few times but well Noah really loved it and he was done with the car that night.

I wrote a post about soothing your infant in the car to hopefully help other parents manage long car rides

The Internet can be a Very Scary Place

I have been on the Internet since I was in the 5th grade. I am 31 now so it was pretty new back then. I started out on Prodigy when it was just message boards. Looking back now I realized that I was a possible victim of solicitation of a minor. I remember  when I was on Prodigy, a guy asked me what my bra size was. I had no clue I was a naive kid. I said 50. No letter just 50. When I got AOL in the 7th grade I started going in to chat rooms. These were just town square rooms. I was 13. I would talk to these guys who I thought liked me. I felt special because they were like 17. I remember one in particular who was 17 or 18 could have been older. He told me that he had a sister my  age and I chatted with her. I never questioned if she was real or him on a screen name. I just thought it was so cool that this guy was talking to me. I am sure that is a common feeling for girls that age. He lived in Lakeland Florida and I lived in the suburbs in a nice community in Indiana.

There were other guys that would talk to me, some not so appropriately.  They weren't totally vulgar but more sneakily vulgar. There was definitely grooming going on too. That's basically where they get you to trust them and are really nice to you. The good thing is that they were all over the country and I wasn't stupid enough to send pictures of my body. Even good girls can be fooled. It is so important to monitor your children online. I hate to say it but trust is not enough. You can trust your child but you can't trust the other person. It doesn't matter what the kid says it could be all a lie. Pictures don't mean anything. Anyone can pretend to look like someone online. Teach your children when it comes to people online to trust no one.  I don't care if they are nice. It doesn't matter if they are cute. You don't talk to strangers when they offer you candy. You don't have private convos with strangers online. Even if they say they are a nun.

It really concerns me because even though we know more about online predators and pedophiles, with social media and everyone feeling the need to share every location and thing they are doing, it's really harmful. I see that kids have Facebook and Twitter who shouldn't. People are posting their private business with the masses. I think that Facebook and Twitter should tighten up their age requirement. Facebook and Twitter should require an actual way to verify age. Parents need to install monitoring software. This is not a trust issue. It is not a oh my kid is a good kid and wouldn't do that issue. It's a safety measure. If your perfect little angel becomes a victim of an Internet crime including bullying. You need a record. You need to be able to know who these people are in case there is something that needs your attention. If your child decides to meet someone online you need to know who this person is just in case. Some kind of contact number or an ip. Just having your computer in an open space isn't enough you can't watch them like a hawk all the time.

Your child probably will be mad if you monitor them with software. They may question if you trust them. You might have an argument over it. It's not a trust issue it's for their safety and when they are a parent they will understand and probably thank you. They will look back and think wow I really was fearless and did a lot of stupid things. Just as I did. I was totally fearless. I was a good polite kid and I did a lot of stupid stuff that people probably thought I wouldn't do. I thought I was invincible and nothing could hurt me.

Doodle Roll Review

As I have mentioned before, Noah loves to draw.  He will make the most elaborate coral reef pictures, city pictures to name a couple. He is a really good artist.  He is constantly drawing and asking me for more paper. He has even asked for tape to make a picture longer.  It doesn’t always work too well because of the seam of the taped part. He would love paper that was really long and he could have it on a roll. I remember my Grandma Rose had a roll of paper that she used to take messages and jot down plans and prayer requests. I remember how cool it was when she gave me a long piece to draw on. I of course am no artist, but Noah definitely is.  We had the opportunity to try out a product called Doodle Roll.  I love this concept. I can give it to Noah and he can make his pictures as long or as short as he wants. He is no long constrained by the paper running out. It even comes with double sided crayons which is great for when you are traveling. You have your paper and crayons all together in a nice little set.  I only have to keep track of four crayons instead of eight.  That is always a good thing as we are traveling this holiday season.  It also is pretty compact so you don’t have to worry about it taking up a lot of space. You get 30 FEET of paper. That is a lot that will keep Noah entertained for hours. He can work on a picture and come back and work on it some more. I don’t have to worry about it getting lost in the shuffle.  Noah is working on a Coral Reef mural right now. I can’t wait until it is finished! He puts a lot of thought and hard work in to his drawings.  This is a great gift for kids who love to draw detailed and complicated pictures. You could even use it for banners and signs.

For more information and to order please visit Doodle Roll.

Thank you to Doodle Roll for providing us with a couple samples to test out. All thoughts and opinions are my own.