I called a friend of mine who is very in touch with all things organic, natural, and homeopathic and begged her for a natural remedy to help us through the weekend. And of course, she had one! I had totally forgotten about this solution until a mutual friend of ours came to a Mom’s Night Out with her sick baby who also had an ear infection. Not only did my friend tell this mom how to take care of it, another mom in the group walked into the kitchen, prepared this solution below and took it to my friend to administer to the desperate mom’s crying baby. The mom sent an email to all of us the next day thanking our friends for helping her out and ecstatic that the solution took care of her baby’s ear infection without a doctor’s visit!

(Obviously, you’ll want to go with your gut on anything anyone recommends for treating your children – if you’re not comfortable with it, don’t do it! Research another solution and go with what gives you (and your partner) the most peace. Just my own little disclaimer here before dispensing ‘medical’ advice…)

Here’s my friend’s instructions:

For ear infection: Pour 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan with some 2-3 cloves of diced garlic. Cook it until you get most of the aroma out of the garlic. (I think she cooked it for about 5-8 minutes.) Let it cool to room temperature (obviously!) before pouring the liquid into the ear (4 to 10 drops). You can use a small spoon or even an eye dropper to administer the liquid. You can pour it inside of the ear as many times you want, depending on the severity of the infection, but I would recommend that you wait about 1 hour in between ‘doses’.

By the way, another discussion that came up that night related to ear infections was the D word. That’s right – DAIRY. It seems that there is some link between children that get multiple ear infections when they’re little and dairy products. Sometimes, the ear infections are acting as an allergic reaction to the dairy, and when you’re able to wean the child off of dairy, the ear infections decrease. Just an idea for those of you moms that are pulling your hair out trying to figure out why the ear infections keep happening.

One last idea my friend sent us to try is a natural remedy for fever. Cut a garlic clove or an onion in half. Rub the cut side of the garlic or onion on the feet. Your feet actually absorb and process things rather quickly and this natural remedy has worked for MANY years before Tylenol was invented.

Not only has my friend done these things with her own children, but a couple of the other moms in our group have also tried these natural remedies for ear infections and fever with great success. If you try either of these ideas, please leave us a comment to let us know how it worked for you!

The one where you gasp, your heart completely melts, and you’re filled with more joy than you ever thought a human could feel…  

The moment when your baby first smiles at you.

Well, apparently, some super-smart people at Baylor College of Medicine decided to find out exactly what that smile does to a mom.

Here’s what they say:

They found that when the mothers saw their own infants’ faces, key areas of the brain associated with reward lit up during the scans.

“These are areas that have been activated in other experiments associated with drug addiction,” said Strathearn. “It may be that seeing your own baby’s smiling face is like a ‘natural high’”.

Read more about their findings here…  Much can be gleaned from reaction to baby’s smile

What I love is that scientists are just confirming what all mothers around the world already know.  There’s nothing better than your baby’s smile!

• I LOVE how easy this booster is to move from car to car. Basically unthread the seatbelt from the shoulder belt positioner and you’re good to go!
• Ethan loves the race car color scheme (as does his daddy!) and the fact that he now feels like a ‘big boy’.
• Kate loves that she’s not getting hit in the face with the side of a huge car seat. (She sits in the middle of the back seat between her two siblings. Not something she’ll be able to do much longer as her hips and shoulders grow and become wider than the opening between the two seats. Hopefully we’ll be able to purchase a larger vehicle by the time that becomes an issue. And when we do, we’ll probably get Kate the pink princess version of this same seat.)
• Shawn loves that the price didn’t strain our pocket book too much. I think we got ours on sale for around $40.
• Karis loves the fact that she’s not stuck in that rear-facing infant seat anymore. She loves being able to see out the windows! 

So, if you’re even the slightest bit thrifty and want to know how to get a hold of baby and maternity stuff for free, check out the site and sign up for your local area. Then come back and tell me what YOU gave away or got for free!

Here’s the product description from Step 2…

This adorable Sand and Water Activity Center features wood crafted styling and nature’s colors that blend with traditional landscapes in residential outdoor living areas. It’s divided into two separate sides – one for water, the other for sand.

It holds up to 20 lbs. of sand and two gallons of water (not included). The eight-piece accessory set includes an umbrella, two bridges, two boats, two pots and one shovel. A durable, one-piece plastic cover keeps the sand clean and dry – and your little ones, too. Elastic tie-downs on the ends of the lid keep it securely attached. Molded-in roadways on the lid provide an additional play surface. Legs detach so product can be used at ground level. An umbrella is included for shaded play (design and colors may vary). Minimal adult assembly required. Measures 20.75″H x 46.25″W x 26″D.

I have to say that when I got this table for Kate 2 years ago, I never expected how well it would hold up. This table has lasted through many a thunderstorm and HOT summer days (we DO live in Houston), plus it’s held up to LOTS of kids abusing it, too! It is just heavy enough to be durable, but not so heavy that it’s impossible to move around the yard by myself (even when it’s loaded down with sand).

The ability to fill up one side with water adds to the fun of the table for the kiddos, too! They love being able to build sand castles on one side, while floating boats and motoring monster trucks across the bridges on the other. The water side has a drain so that you can get rid of the nasty water that collects after a rain, too (or when Ethan a certain child fills it with sand). The lid fits VERY snugly and bungees to ensure that rain and bugs stay OUT (when you remember to close it, of course). And Ethan even loves driving his cars around the ‘track’ on the lid, too. The umbrella is a nice addition that allows you to place the table anywhere you’d like and still have shade for those sweet little faces.

My only complaint (and it’s a very small one) is that I wish the sand side also had a drain for when Ethan certain children decide to fill the sand side with water, too. Of course, I’ve found that a decent work-around for this problem is to leave the water side empty so the temptation to go back and forth is alleviated.

Overall, I give this sand and water table two thumbs up. It’s a great outdoor play table for the kids and it holds up summer after summer. So, if you’re in the market, give this one a look. It’s a great product and priced pretty competitively, too.

What are your favorite outdoor toys that have stood the test of time at your house?

Granted, it’s not my dream bag (I’m still in love with the whole DadGear line of bags), but it’s still a great bag, especially for the sale price of only $16.83 on Amazon!

So, as soon as I got my new bag in the mail today, I dumped the contents out of my old bag and proceeded to slowly figure out exactly where each item belonged in the new bag. (I know, I’m a freak about organizational types of things. Just humor me here.) I was so surprised that a bag that is slightly smaller on the inside of the main compartment than my old back pack style bag actually fit all my stuff and still had room for more.

“How?” you might ask? Pockets, pockets, and more pockets. This bag is loaded with pockets, inside and out. Inside the main compartment there are three pockets – one zippered mesh pocket, a vinyl velcro pocket, and an iPod pocket (complete with access port to pull wires through). I’ve got an extra outfit for Karis, all her toys, a container of Cheerios and a mini diaper tote for all our diapering needs. (BTW, this was one of the best purchases I’ve made in a long time – it’s so much easier to grab the mini tote to take with the baby into the restaurant’s bathroom when it’s time to change the diaper than to take the whole diaper bag!)

Zip that compartment closed and there are 3 more mesh pockets (2 elastic and 1 zippered) on the inside of the flap that covers the big zipper. On the outside of the bag, there’s another zippered pocket, and a big elasticized mesh pocket for bottles or sippy cups. On the back side of the main compartment, is a large zippered pocket that holds the matching changing pad and actually has enough room that you could carry diapers and wipes, too. Then on the sling there are 2 more pockets – 1 zippered and yet another elasticized mesh.

Believe it or not, I haven’t even filled all the pockets yet!

The entire thing is made of a vinyl type of material called Nylon Rip Stop that will wipe off easily with a wet rag (always a plus around babies!). And it has several ‘D rings’ that you can hang things off of and a bungee across the front that you could slip a blanket or lovey under and not have to use the space inside the bag.

Overall, I’m in love with this bag. My only suggestion for improvement would be to make the inside of the main compartment a lighter color than black so that you can see things a little better. Other than that, I’ll let you know how it holds up over the next couple of years!!

Let’s just say that I enjoyed that vacation experience of whipping out the stroller and putting Karis in it in 10 seconds flat so much that I decided to buy myself an umbrella stroller to throw in the back of my car for quick jaunts to the library and such.

So, last week when I was at Wal-Mart I stopped in the baby section to see what they had in stock. They had the same exact stroller that my mom had bought just a month ago, but I found one I liked little better. The one I wound up buying had metal legs and a really cool primary color design.

And the best part??

I only spent ten dollars and 52 cents!!

What could be better?

And I’ve already used it several times and have LOVED how easy it is to get out, use and put back in the car without throwing my back out!!

Don’t get me wrong. I still love my bigger strollers for longer walks and strolling the mall and anything else that would need the diaper bag and other gear to come along. But for those short little adventures out with baby, I’ll take my $10.52 Wal-Mart umbrella stroller any day of the week!!

Kate: Around the time Kate was going to turn two, we decided to try to wean her from her pacifier (which she had named her ‘bobby’). We started by just taking it away during the day while she was playing at first. She would only get her pacifier at nap time and night time to go to sleep. After a couple of weeks of getting used to that, we worked on taking the pacifier away at nap time, too, so that she would only use it to go to sleep at night. This took a little more work, but we would read a story to her and sing a song to her while she was in her bed about to nap. This helped to soothe her and distract her from not having her ‘bobby’. She also had several stuffed animals that she loved and kept in bed with her, too. Then we worked on not using the pacifier every night. Some nights were better than others, some nights I’m sure we gave in and gave her the pacifier, but after a few weeks, she was doing great and not even asking for it. Of course, we did the same bedtime ritual at night that we did at nap time, with a book and song while tucked in bed. Kids love structure, so it’s really important to do the same thing every time.

Ethan: Ethan was about one when he wound up weaning himself off of pacifiers. For whatever reason, he got to a point where he only liked one kind of pacifier. And, of course, it was the ONLY one of it’s kind in the entire pacifier collection. And, to make matters worse/better it wasn’t a normal pacifier that you could just buy in the baby section of any store. He had gotten himself attached to one of those pacifiers that comes with a gift set of stuff with the pacifier clip used to attach it to their clothes. So, there was really no way to buy another one. Unfortunately, we wound up actually losing that pacifier and that was it. The funny thing is that I then had to call my good friend, Sarah, and ask how to put a baby to sleep WITHOUT a pacifier since I’d never had to do that before. It took about a month to six weeks of difficult nights, but we finally established a night-time ritual of playing the same lullaby CD and patting his back that worked for Ethan.

Friend #1: I have a friend that weaned her kids off of their pacifiers by clipping a little piece off the end of the ‘nipple’ on the pacifier. Just enough to make it uncomfortable to suck on. This worked perfectly the first time with her daughter. But even after cutting a little, and then a little more, and then a little more off her son’s pacifier, he was still stubbornly clenching event the tiniest bit of the pacifier that was left in his teeth.

Friend #2: I have another friend that weaned one of her kids by ‘throwing away’ (I think she may not have actually thrown them in trash can) a pacifier every time it fell on the floor or otherwise. She explained to her son that the pacifier was ‘dirty’ and had to go in the trash. I think she even had him help by making him throw some of them away. She did this until they were all gone, and then she could say, “Sorry honey, we don’t have anymore pacifiers.”

Friend #3: (Disclaimer – This technique is not necessarily one I would recommend, but it worked for her. ) This friend had tried all the other ‘nice’ techniques to weaning a baby off their pacifier and her two and half year old was NOT giving up. Her brother had brought her a small alligator skull as a joke, and she knew her son was a tad scared of it. So, one day when she’d had enough, she took the pacifier, put it in the alligator’s mouth and told her son, “Sorry, the alligator ate it.” He quit his pacifier right then and there!

What about you? Do you have any suggestions or ideas that you’ve heard or have worked for you? Because I have a feeling, I might need all the help I can get when it comes time to wean Karis. This one came out of the womb looking for something to suck on!!!