Passing on the Love

Thanks to Lola at Lola's Diner for this award.


I am passing this award on to:
La Tonya at Che'Demi's Boutique
Lisa at Work at Home Mom Revolution
Nicole at Moms Home Run
Denene at My Brown Baby
Diana at Diana's Daily Ramblings


Happy Holidays and Best Wishes.

Jitterbug- music for hip kids

I recently came across this cool website that has music videos for kids. The site is called www.jitterbug.tv and it has cool monkeies, rhinos, and iguana's just to name a few. The videos had Madison up dancing and learning about all kinds of animals. There are Greek and French lullabies and lots more. I think this a pretty cool site and it was created by a couple of dads with toddler daughters of their own. Check it out, it will give you a much needed Momma break. You can sit down and watch the kids laugh or join in with the dancing and singing.

Peach Cobbler

This is a holiday favorite for my family. It is the easiest peach cobbler recipe I have ever heard of and the crust is to die for. Enjoy!!!!!

1 stick butter
1 c. sugar
1 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 c. milk
Canned Fruit - peaches, raspberries, cherries
cinnamon (optional)
nutmeg (optional)
1/2 c sugar

Melt butter in cake pan or glass baking dish in oven. Heat the can peaches and season to taste with nutmeg and cinnamon if desired. Mix sugar, flour, baking powder, and milk. Pour over butter. Do not stir. Pour fruit over top. Sprinkle with second 1/2 c of sugar. Bake 30-45 minutes at 350 degrees.

Just what the doctor order

My two year old caught a bug and had a bad night. My niece brought home something from the school and Madison was stuffy all night. Since I am away from home I didn't have the usual vaporizer, vapor rub and such and found my self in Walgreens at 2:00 AM and again at 4:00 AM (I bought the wrong thing the first time). In the end I returned to the remedies my mother used when I was a child, a good old vaporizer, but I was amazed at all the products that are out there for small children. What happened to a cup of chicken soup does the trick? This made me wonder, what are some of the remedies you have heard over the years with your children or just heard people try? Do they work or not? One I have frequently heard is to blow in your child's mouth to push all the mucus out of her nose when it is congested........YUCK, but I have heard it works.

Holiday time for Momma

With all the crowded malls, list to Santa, planning a holiday meal and changes in the economy, finding time for ourselves this season maybe a little harder. I came across a beauty college in Los Angeles, called Marinello where the students provided massages at a discounted rate. They are working towards their license hours but provide wonderful treatments at less than half the price. This way we can take 30 to 60 minutes out while the kids are at school or with daddy and enjoy a relaxing massage. Some of these schools even offer hair and nail treatments but I know that as women we tend to be a little more select when it comes to letting others do our hair (or maybe that's just me).


Here are some links that can help you find locations in your area or try a google search of massage schools in your area:

www.atlantaschoolofmassage.com
www.avalonmassageschool.com
www.SpaBeautySchools.com



Enjoy the time to your self

Pecan Pralines

Pecan Pralines

Okay I was not a big praline person until I tasted this recipe this week. What can I say I am home for the holidays and people just keep bringing food by. This is a simple recipe and a great addition to the holiday table.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup evaporated milk
• 2 cups pecan pieces and halves
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 tablespoons chilled butter, cut in pieces

Preparation:

Combine sugar, milk, and water in a 2-quart saucepan; heat to boiling stirring constantly. Cook until mixture reaches soft ball consistency (235°).Remove from heat; stir in pecans, vanilla, and butter. Immediately drop by tablespoons onto wax paper. Let stand until firm for 1/2 hour. (The trick is to make sure that temp stays at about 235°)

Blog Face Lift

FYI

Momma Momma got a face lift today thanks to the wonderful design skills of Sheila at Designs by Sheila. She has really affordable custom blog templates and she works really fast. I thought as we enter the new year it would be exciting to have a new look......


Check out her site at
http://designsbysheila.blogspot.com/

If that were my child I would........

How many times have you heard this before? This probably should have been one of my first post. This evening I attended a school play with my two year old. Like most small children, after a day at church, in dress shoes all day, and an abbreviated nap, it became obvious after an hour and a half that she was cranky. Like most mothers who have had two year old, I was not surprised when it became evident that my daughter was ready to go at intermission and I had come prepared to make an early departure. I did all the typical toddler mom things, brought snacks, sat in the back and on an aisle seat. What I was not prepared for was the rudest of this other "mother." As my daughter began to toss and turn more and we made our exist (keep in mind that it was intermission and she was not disturbing the play) another woman yelled out, "I don't care if she is two and tired, I would whoop her tail!!"

Now, regardless of the different opinions about using spanking as a option of discipline (she said whoop her tail.....not spank) I was irritated that she felt the need to give her expert advise on Child Rearing 101. Why do other mothers always forget what their children were like or feel the need to tell you what they would have done? This doesn't apply to mommy support groups or blog such as this, where we seek the advice and opinion of others......I am referring to the random opinions and advice that strangers seem to give. Why is it that when you are at church, eating in a family restaurant or in public period, and your little one says out loud " Mommy look at that," or laughs because she finds something funny, people (usually other mothers) turn and look at you funny, with their noses in the air and shake their heads? How soon we forget.

Is it just me or have you had a similar experience? So from here on I refuse to call it the terrible 2's, I like the teachable 2's or the trainable 2's or even together time 2's.

Chocolate Trifle

My husband's cousin gave me this cool recipe for a Chocolate Trifle. It was delicious and super easy, I made it with my 6 year old niece. Great Christmas dessert!!!!!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 (19.8 ounce) package brownie mix (just a hint the richer the brownie mix the richer the dessert will turn out)
  
• 1 (3.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
• 1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 1 (12 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 1 package of Toffee chips (you can find this in the baking section)
  

• 1 bottle of Caramel Sundae Topping
  

DIRECTIONS

1. Prepare brownie mix according to package directions and cool completely.(Brownies can cool while you prepare the pudding. Crumble with a spoon.
   
2. In a large bowl, combine pudding mix, (I used chocolate soy milk to make the pudding it was great). Mix until smooth, then fold in 8 ounces whipped topping until no streaks remain( Adding the additional whipped topping here is optional, you can add condensed milk and water to give it the right consistency. I skipped this entire step and just used the instant pudding alone).
   
3. In a trifle bowl or glass serving dish, place half of the brownies,half the toffee bits, a few swirls of the sundae topping, half of the pudding mixture and half of the 12 ounce container of whipped topping. Repeat layers. Shave chocolate onto top layer for garnish. Refrigerate 8 hours before serving.

This is a very sweet dessert so you can alternate the ingredients to what you like. My niece doesn't like Caramel so we only did it on the lower layer and didn't use very much. Hope you enjoy.

Mommy Breaks- House of Payne

How many of you watched the premier of Tyler Perry's House of Payne last night? In case you missed it one of the lead characters had twins and it addressed the issue of feeling overwhelmed after child birth, feeling alone and not getting help from the father and other family members. It also dealt with other signs and symptoms of postpartum depression. I thought it gave a inside look as to how mothers often feel after child birth and how those around the mother sometimes don't fully understand all of the physical and emotional aspects that are involved with this new bundle of joy.

I loved how in the end the rest oft the family was able to really see how overwhelming the whole process was and step in to help. This isn't always what happen,s as I am sure many of you know. I have had friends who were afraid to ask others for help after child birth because they didn't want to be viewed as weak. I personally can remember people saying how easy it all looked and that I should hurry up and have another (people still say this).

I put together a list of sites that can help with postpartum depression symptoms and places where help can be sought (cut and paste into you browser). What were your experiences? Maybe you had a wonderful team of support and maybe you didn't. What advice would you give expecting or new moms? They would love the advice. My words of wisdom are this, when others offer you help, don't be afraid to accept it, you may need them to tend to your little one but they can wash dishes, cook meals or other things around the house you have put on hold.

http://www.womensmentalhealth.org/specialty-clinics/postpartum-psychiatric-disorders/?gclid=COCM9L-qp5cCFQ8Qagod7yF7jg

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/postpartum-depression/DS00546

http://www.psycom.net/depression.central.post-partum.html

Toddler Travel

So tomorrow I leave for my much anticipated trip home for the holidays. However this is the first time I am flying with my daughter since she had been weaned. The previous times I have traveled by plane, I was always comforted in knowing that if anything happened, if she became fussy or needed to be calmed, we had a built in system (she was much younger the last time we flew). Now that she is a toddler and has been weaned for several months, I became anxious wondering if we would make it okay without getting those dreadful stares from other passengers. This made me search the Internet to find helpful tips for my trip. Now if they don't work you know that I will let you know first thing tomorrow when my flight lands.

1. I decided as always to take a flight at 6:00 AM, Madison is usually slip and has slept though the whole process of checking in and security.

2. I shipped all my things ahead. With the price of baggage checking, I was able to ship our stuff ahead and it has already arrived at my sister's for our vacation. I don't have to lug things in the airport and worry about picking up bags when I arrive.

3. Dress for success, this includes my toddler and me. With all the steps that are taken when you go through security ( remove shoes, etc.) we are dressing comfortably and with easy off shoes.

4. Wear her out the night before and in the airport. I have read several tips that say not to let her sit down while we are waiting in the airport. I'll let you know how this goes, in the past I have just let her sleep the entire time.

5. I never travel with out my gogo Kidz travel mate. This is money well spent. It is a gadget that attaches to her car seat and lets me push her through the airport. It turns your car seat into a stroller (see picture above). I got mine at the One Step Ahead site.

6. Snacks and milk are important. I plan on taking Cheeros, granola bars and milk. This site can give you the exact amounts of liquids and formula/milk you can have when you travel with small children:
http://www.flyingrugrats.com/
Did you know that using a bottle during landing and take off can protect their little ears (of course gum for the older children works too).

7. Last but not least, I plan on having plenty of DVD's, books, coloring books and games to keep her entertained when she wakes up.

Overall, my daughter has been a real trooper when traveling, but I feel better being prepared just in case.