Going on Vacation!!

It is that time of year for me to hop on the vacation plane. One lovely week at the beach, maybe a Washington DC trip, and 2 months visiting my family for me. Don't you all worry, you can still have your dose of me...in a week or less. I will try my best to let you know how things are going but don't count on it because this Momma wants to relax. Yes, even I need a blogger break :-P
Try not to miss me too much :)

Product Review: The "Snack Trap" Dispenser

I have found my favorite snack holder for Ian and I just had to share how wonderful this contraption is. It is called the Snack Trap. What is it? Well it is a snack holder and dispenser. It comes with a rubber top with which your child can stick their hand through and grab their snack. The best thing is they can shake this cup all around and not a snack piece will drop! I use this a lot with Ian when we go out because he has come to the stage where he loves to feed himself. Also if he is crying in the stroller I can hand him this cup and be on my way without having to stop and feed him a snack. I like to call this my “thank goodness that child has stopped crying” cup. There is one dislike (as with most items), when he tries to pull out his snack he grabs handfuls sometimes and then spills half of what he took out. So this is not a "one at a time" dispenser. My favorite snacks to put in it are Cheerios and Gerber Puffs. For those with older children, they come with cute characters so your child can pick out which one they like.Now go out and grab one today :-P

Price: $4.95-$6.00, 3 pack: $10.99-$13.75
Available at: Snacktrap.com, Toysrus, One Step Ahead, Lullaby Lane, Burlington Coat Factory, HappyMothers.com

Acessories and Replacement Parts Available

Hurt child and a Mommy breakdown

I was going to blog about something else but I will save that for the next post. I am just not in the mood to be too peppy. I think all of us Moms have our moments where we feel like we aren’t good mothers or worthy of being a mom. I think I am having my moment.

Last night Ian got another hurt. This time he cut his finger and when fingers get cut it is hard to stop the bleeding. I picked him up out of the bath to dry him off and I saw some blood and then saw his finger, he was bleeding a lot but did not seem to care. I was trying my best to keep the pressure on his finger but it was really hard with a toddler who does not want you to hold their hand back from exploring.

My husband called his parents. Thank goodness for his parents. His mom helped me to distract Ian awhile so we could keep the pressure on his finger. After about an hour we got it to stop and applied the band-aid (that actually stayed that time).

All is okay now..I think he found my shaving blade that was hidden in the soap container. I really learned from that. I guess I am just in the middle of a momma breakdown..I am sure I will pop out of it soon. I just hope that Ian can keep himself out of trouble long enough to make it to the US. Kids are walking disasters waiting to happen!


For all you parents out there, what crazy thing has your child done that hurt them?

Monkey Hat, Disney Princess, and Baby Einstein Boy Approved

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the hat!!! I never thought I would get this excited over a hat but I almost had a hat scare. Back to the DPAM Store I went today and ran straight to the hats and to my surprise only 3 were left. I start to have a slight panic attack then I found out they were all 3 months size. AHH..my hat, my poor monkey hat. Then my lovely DH found a pile of them in the HAT section and there it was..HIS hat. So now we have the entire monkey outfit and mommy is a happy lady. (pictures to come..at somepoint)

After the hat adventure I found him a few more cute things for the summer at the store (hard to resist their items) and then I went on my run to find him some airplane approved goodies. I did find the Crayola color wonder paper and markers but it is a new item to Switzerland so I had to get him the Disney Princess paper.heheeee. He won’t know the difference, right? I also picked up a pot and pan set with some spoons. I figure he can have pieces every hour. Not bad for a half a days trip out.

We are almost trip ready, just a bunch of packing left to do but that shouldn’t take too long. The only thing that will cause us a little trouble is we will have no water the day before we go and the early morning because they will be doing something to it. What a pain in the butt! Paper plates and cups on our shopping list to get for Thursday.

In Ian news, he is well and spending the weekend at his Swiss Grandmas because his Great Grandma is in from Italy to visit. He is having a blast and wearing himself out. But you know their is always a need to relax.

This has turned into his favorite Baby Einstein watching spot. Not only does he use that to watch his videos, but to be a ham.

Is this the next class clown? Or is mommy..

Nah, but we sure are a silly family so you can see where he gets it from. Have a great weekend!

How will I fly with a young toddler?

Is the leg better yet? Nope, Ian still is not using it but he certainly is doing excellent finding ways to do his normal things. Now he has mastered going up the stairs with…One leg doing all the work. That is talent! Think I am joking? Have a look for yourself:

We might take him over the doctors if his leg still hasn’t healed more than it has by Friday. Other than a hurt leg, there is not too much going on around here. Still blah weather so I haven’t made that trip back out to Zürich to grab the monkey hat. I hope it is still there when I get back or I might have a hatless momma meltdown!

Speaking of moms, I am starting to feel like I am a new Mom again. Our neighbors to the left and right have new babies and I am up at night when they are. When one finally stops crying I hear the other one or when I finally get almost back asleep the baby starts to cry again. It is time for me to grab some earplugs when I hit the grocery store today. Sadly it has to come to that.

On to happy things, it is less than two weeks till we travel! I have been scouring the internet for tips on keeping a young toddler in airplane peace. I have come across a lot of great ideas. So when I go out to the stores I am going to look for small cheap toys to give him, one for each hour of the flight. I also had my dear hubby put some Baby Einstein on his PSP but I am going to test that out on Ian before we go to see how he likes that, not totally sure if that will work. Other than those things the best I can do is provide him with snacks, walks up and down the aisle, and visits with flight attendants.

We did purchase him the CARES Saftey Belt because his Carseat will not fit the requirements plus who wants to drag a big seat onto a plane. I really love this belt because it is a 5-point harness that fits in with the airplane belt. It is a little difficult for me to explain but I will snap a shot of Ian in it on the flight. We will see how well it really works.

Monday Pains(literally)

Is it really Monday? The overcast weather outside tells me it is so! It is back to the normal week for Ian and me with just a little more added stress. His leg is still really hurting him (poor thing) but he seems to be finding a lot of ways to get around it. He is crawling, standing, and getting into trouble again..all with setbacks.

"Flamingo Leg (ignore the water spot)"

"More Flamingo Leg"

With crawling he does okay but when it comes to standing, he will stand with a flamingo leg then get stuck and scream for me to come get him. Will this poor little leg heal soon? I don’t know, but I hope so because I want him to have a good vacation.
Yes, that is right, VACATION!!! It is that time again where I get to go see my family that I have missed so much. I will be staying for a little less than 2 and ½ months. Two days after we arrive to the U.S. we are heading to the beach. I am really looking forward to relaxing by the ocean and introducing Ian to the sand and waves. I bet his reaction will be priceless. In preparation for the water I ordered him some swim diapers because I do not want to spend a fortune on those disposable swim diapers or struggle with them. After searching for what “they” all say is the best one, I went with the Kushies Swim Diaper.
The outer is made of nylon and the inside is super soft cotton to protect the bits. They are supposed to be easy to get off if you have an explosion. Just pull the ties and undo Velcro; no need to slide down the leg and smear the mess. And the added bonus is they come in solid and cute prints so they work well as the swimsuit. We will see how they do!
I also saw this super cute “award winning” blanket on their site that looked like it would be a favorite of Ian and a well deserved treat for the long plane trip. It has a little critter attached to the top of the blanket. I think if Ian takes a liking to it I could whip him up one myself. Here is what they look like..

It is time to get back to caring for my injured child. Lunch is calling.

Don't forget to give me your ideas on what you like this blog to look like.

Two Doctor Visits in one day..

The last part of this week was pretty uneventful till Friday. Ian had a doctor appointment yesterday for an immunization before we pop over to the US. The doctor also checked to make sure he was on schedule with everything and he for sure is! He even got the “His brain works really well for his age” statement. Yay, I have a smarty!!! Oh wait, let me skip back to Wednesday. The afternoon was spent full of child free shopping. I forgot how easy it was to pop through stores without pushing around a honker stroller. I had to get myself and Ian some things for the summer. I had a little meltdown last weekend when all my spring and summer bottoms looked like bags on me. I must have lost a bit of my pregnancy weight since then (I was a cow!).

I shopped for a few things for Ian at a French Children’s boutique called Du Pareil Au Même, located in Zürich (which has international online shopping!). It is my favorite store to find things for Ian because they are so different from everything else out there and CUTE!!

"Winne outfit"

"A couple summertime outfits"

"Pj and summertime outfit"

"Top and Capris"

"3 new tank tops"

"Monster PJs"

This one is for my sister..I also got him the perfect outfit. The top has a Monkey with a superman type outfit on and then the shirt says “Super Monkey”. The shorts also have the Monkey on them and Super on the back pocket. They also had a matching hat but Ian wasn’t there for me to try it on him so I hope when I go back it will still be there. I was going to get a picture but of him in the outfit yesterday but…

Last night we went to the playground and I decided to take Ian down the slide for the first time with me but it all turned into a disaster. As I was going down the slide his foot went under me and got pushed back as I went down then after that he was crying his head off. For a few moments I thought it was broken… what kind of Mom am I!? I didn’t see it turn purple but he would cry to the touch of it and wouldn’t stand so we headed to the hospital. After a few tries to get him to stand, they decided on an Xray. They found all bones perfectly intact! Whew! They said that he pulled something in his leg. For my guess, a tendon? He can’t walk on it or crawl to well as of today. I hate to see him in pain! So we are giving him tylenol. Pray for his fast recovery and that Mommy can make it through this week…I can’t really leave his side because all he can do is sit somewhere and with his curiosity that doesn’t turn out too well, so I have to keep him occupied. Okay..I think I am done complaining!

Here is to a happy weekend for the rest of you!

Funny POTD:

"Chilling under his chair"

Your Opinons Needed for a Makeover

*Note: If you are reading this through e-mail , you will need to have images on

*misspellings above: Interaction not intercation, Everyone not everyone one

(silly me didn't save the .psd file)

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Makeovers and Meat

Happy Tuesday!! Yesterday was a day off here in Switzerland so we had a little grill party. We invited Mike and Sinem over for some delicious meat on the new grill. Starting up the grill was hilarious. I have a silly Husband that doesn’t like to listen to his wife (isn't that normal?) but when he went out to grab matches I got it fired up by the time he got back. Not what he was expecting. I slapped that meat on the grill after 20 minutes but I told André, since he wanted the grill so bad, he was in charge of flipping the meat.

I was surprised to see that Sinem got all up in there and was a flipping queen. So for all you men that think women can’t grill..we might just rock at it more than you :-P

I picked out some pork kebabs with garlic sauce and they were so delicious. It is true that meat just tastes so much better on the grill. YUM YUM.

Ian spent most of Monday with my In-Laws so we could have our grill party but now he is back and we are back to having a messy living room. I sure missed it :-P

So, Ian was in need of a major bangs cut because they kept getting his eyes and Mommy cannot stand that shabby look. I brought out those scissors and did his first hair snippety snip. It is okay, don’t freak out! I did not cut the beautiful curly locks in the back. Ian would look like his hair went through a chipper if I attempted that. I think his bangs turned out alright for my first try at ever cutting hair (not including teenager Lisa’s quick snip snips).

"The first snip"

What do you think?

I finally got around to putting up the last canvas pictures I had laying around the place. I put up Ian’s Winnie the Pooh ones and the New York ones. The New York ones look a lot better than I thought. My livingroom is starting to look a little snazzy but our livingroom can’t look too snazzy with a whole decked out play corner.

"I know..I need to fix Eeyore on the left"

"Gotta love the toy corner"

Awesome Tough MOM

As you all know (shame on you if you don’t), it is Mother’s Day. It is hard to believe that this is my second one already! It just seems like yesterday when I became a mom. There are so many joys about being a mother that I can just not put into words. Even though I can not really celebrate this one with my son yet I still know how much he appreciates me by the way he holds up his hands for me to pick him up or makes his funny grunts when he sees food that I made being served to him.

I couldn’t possibly be this type of mom without my Mom. She has done so much for me and even put up with my teenagerish ways and still loves me throughout it all. It takes a woman of gold to bare all that and come out of it shining. Even though I can not be with my mom today, since I live over 5,000 miles away from her, I just want her to know how much I appreciate everything she has done for me and still does for me. Mom, thanks for being there during the hard times and the best times! Enjoy your Mother’s Day and take some time to pamper yourself.

A WONDERFUL MOTHER.
GOD made a wonderful mother,

A mother who never grows old;

He made her smile of the sunshine,

And He molded her heart of pure gold;

In her eyes He placed bright shining stars,

In her cheeks, fair roses you see;

God made a wonderful mother,

nd He gave that dear mother to me.
~Pat O'Reilly~

"Mom and I hanging out in Atlanta"

"My Mom welcoming my son into the world"

"Mom and I enjoing Uncle Billys Day"

"Beautiful Mom"

Happy Mothers Day!!!!

Last week of class!!

Did everyone had a good week? Mine was alright, it was the last week of my Visual Basic class and..and..I had a lot of issues. You were expecting to hear that I passed, weren’t you? That is still unknown yet, but I am pretty sure I am going to come out of that class with an "A" folks. How ‘bout it? To the issue part, I had to take the same exam twice. Why twice? Well, let me tell you what..I am not happy about it! I got into the test and it included a note on top saying:

“Your final exam's letter grade (based on a 10 point scale) cannot be more than one letter grade lower than your course final letter grade. In other words, if a student aced every exercise, but failed the final with a 56%, he could still potentially get an A if this exception was not in force; however, the student has failed to show mastery of the material, even though he has shown ability to get the assignments completed. In order to get a B in the course, you will have to at least earn a C on the final exam. In order to get an A in the course, you must earn at least a B on the final, assuming the rest of your grades support this grade.”

So of course I freak out about this andI look up every question of 100. This is an open book test, I’m not a cheater silly! :-P I soon start seeing questions about things we never learned and tons of them. About half the test ended up being questions I had never seen. Well then, it takes me well over 3 hours to complete and I have a fussy Husband to deal with..when I press the submit button it takes me to the no connection found Internet Explorer page. I lost my internet connection!! AHHH, freak out freak out! Then I get locked out of the test so I wait two days for the teacher to answer my question about letting me back in so I can submit..no answer so I try to get into the test again and all my answers are……. GONE! I had to take the whole test again. What a pain in the bootay. I redid it then I saw my grade and freakedout again. The teacher gave a curve on the test since she deployed the wrong one but now I do not know what an “A” or a “B” is and still haven’t heard back from her after two days. Teacher oh Teacher come out, come out wherever you are! So did I pass? We shall see..

Ian is doing well. Playing around all day and loving pushing his bike around. Still no standing in the middle of the room alone. Not much else to say about “His Sweetness” so enjoy looking at him..

Remember tomorrow is Mothers Day. Lets love on our Mommies.

"The new flowers"

Proud Parents

We are now the proud parents of a grill. He or is it she, was born May 5, 2008 at 8pm. So yup, we now have a grill. André was trying to convince me to let him get one for a while now and I finally gave in. It isn’t anything special, just something to get the job done. Andy was so excited that right when he walked in the door with it he started ripping into the box and began putting it together. That is not quite what I was ready to have done then but you know men and their toys.

We might crank it up this weekend because someone (not going to name names), is ready to try out the grill.

Watching Dad put the grill together

Quick shot of Ian and I

Ian is now starting to stand more on his own. I caught him yesterday pulling a little box out of a cabinet and standing there trying to open it. It must have been about 1 full minute of standing. I am so proud of him!! It is taking a lot of time but that is okay. He will get it. I keep trying to get it on camera but I never have my camera with me and it is really hard to trick him into standing. I did get him to do it for a couple seconds today so the shot I got isn’t the greatest but you get the point.

Look closely, not touching..

I am gunna jump around today…There is a new drink out here called RedBull Cola and André brought some home yesterday so I took a taste. It has a pretty interesting flavor and is supposed to only have all natural ingredients. It was like having 5 different flavors all one right after the other and the last flavor ending in cherry. I think it is a drink that will have to grow on me.

Beauty

These are the times when you can really see God working in all his glory. My Grandfather had an uneventful surgery and woke up well. As of yesterday, he was in a lot of pain but that is to be expected and he is on his way to recovering back to his chipper self. My Visual Basic class is on its last week out of 8 weeks and I have been doing better than I could have ever imagined. I just might be looking at getting myself an “A” this semester! All the hard work has really paid off but I am not done yet, I still have one lesson and a final exam to complete.

With all the glorious things happening lately I decided that our home needed some more plants to liven things up. I picked up a few flowers to put in a window box, a tomato plant, and this plant that flowers but I am not sure what kind it is..I just thought it looked pretty.

"The unknown flowering plant"

"Sad looking tomato plant with flowers"

"I am too lazy to open the door and take a picture..enjoy the window"

"The free plant we got and seedlings that are trying to grow"

I might go today and pick up this rose tree I saw because it looked so pretty and who wouldn’t want to have fresh roses everyday? The cactus that got freezer burned this summer needs to go and a rose tree would be a perfect replacement.

I just need to keep Ian out of all the plants. He has found a friend in the rocks outside, as they have turned into his new favorite snack. We might just need a fence there since he likes to hang outside but just can’t keep those hands out of things :-P

"Crawling away"

"Playing by the front door"