Fun times at Bear Branch Park

My bible study group has been a wealth of information on great places to take young kids in the Woodlands area, and today was no exception. Jack and I went to Carlee's (pictured left) third birthday party this morning up at Bear Branch Park in the Woodlands, and boy did we have a fun time! It's a great place to take toddlers because the ground is nice and soft, just perfect for a certain someone who is just about to take off walking!

Thanks again to Rebekah and Carlee for the invite! Here are a few photos below.

All eyes on the cupcakes!!

Cupcakes...they do a body good!

Aubrey and Lily chow down!


How do I make this thing go again?


Jack in the train!


Yes folks, he decided to stand all by himself!

Jack and Levi (sporting the cool shades)

Random Thought #3: The Thanksgiving love is officially gone from my household

So that this post makes a little more sense, keep in mind that I (the 3rd generation Aggie) married a Longhorn. So for 364 days out of the year, we're the loving married couple we should be, but that changes for the A&M/UT football game played each year after Thanksgiving.

I was just browsing the Chronicle online and noticed that apparently A&M and UT are going to play their yearly post-Turkey Day game on Thanksgiving Day instead for the next two years. Whohoo...can't get better than good eats and good college football right? The downside though is that a day which should be unified around thanksgiving will now be divided in the Looney Bin household because of school rivalry.

Of course, my husband's answer when I showed him the article was "Yeah, I know", complete with the what-rock-have-you-been-hiding-under look. He watches SportsCenter like I watch the Weather Channel...in fact if you turn the TV on at our house, it's a pretty safe bet one of those two channels was the last one watched.

I must say it's been nice to see the Aggies beat Texas the last two years in a row. Usually on the Friday after Thanksgiving I find myself sitting in a room full of my husband's (and mine I suppose) Longhorn buddies while they spout off every Aggie joke known to man in between their discussions of why ALL college football broadcasters are so obviously biased against Texas. Pride goeth before the fall, or something like that...

I say all of this in good fun of course, so Kami, Elizabeth, and/or Mandy (and any other Longhorn reading this), please know that I am big enough to root for your team too, but only 364 days a year :)

Which diaper brand do you prefer?

A good friend of mine who is pregnant with her first child was asking some of her girlfriends for any recommendations on diapers. This was what I wrote back to her:

For most of Jack's diaper phase, we've used Pampers and they've been great. They are SUPER absorbent and seem to fit his little bum pretty well, so we haven't had too many leaks aside from sheer blowouts that no diaper could contain anyway (luckily those are pretty rare). The downside is that they're more expensive...however...in my opinion, the expense is worth it in this area. Anything that cuts down on the amount of clothes changing in my book is good! We've also tried some off brands like Kroger and HEB diapers, and while they are cheaper, I do not recommend them because I can't tell you how many leaks we've had. HEB diapers are so hard it's like trying to fold a brick around his bum. My sister loves the Sam's brand diapers and says many of her friends do as well. They are cheaper and she doesn't ever complain about leakage, but I've not tried them myself. Another option is just to buy the more expensive brands (like Pampers or Huggies) in bulk at Sam's, which will probably save you some money. Bottom line, whatever brand you decide to try, the best advice I have is to buy the smallest amount possible at first, then go load up on the big boxes once you're sure you like them.


Anybody else have any wisdom in this area?

Beware of Flying Monkeys

As many stay-at-home moms do, I try to plan at least some time each day to get out of the house with Jack. This helps keep my sanity in check, and also gives me more opportunities to encourage him to walk . What's even better is when I can achieve these goals without spending any money. This rules out most of the Gymboree/jumping/tumbling/etc type places that tend to cost you money each time you go, which may be on top of an annual membership fee. So, in my infinite wisdom, my free place of choice for today was the large children's play area in the Woodlands Mall.

That's right, I said the Woodlands Mall. Land of Ann Taylor Loft, Gap, Pottery Barn, and Nine West, stores calling out my name that I have absolutely no business spending any money in...but the children's area is free! Umm, is there anything really free in the Woodlands?

Anyway, we make it to the children's area where I manage to find a space to offload Jack's stroller so that it won't be in anyone's way. I often wonder why these places don't have a flashing neon sign that says something like "Enter at your own risk" once a certain threshold of children is met (like, say, three). By this time the play area is pretty crowded, so I do my best to walk him around the other children. We're having a pretty good time, when all of the sudden I get hit in the back with a flying toy monkey. I turn around to see a couple of little boys happily chasing after each other and apparently hurling this monkey back and forth at one another.

I'm thinking, "Hey, no big deal, what should I expect in a play area?" Well, apparently my plain white shirt has some kind of invisible ink that only 5 year old boys can see which says "Why yes, I'd love for you to pelt me in the back with your monkey...in fact, the more times the better!" as I proceed to get a hit a few more times with this thing. By this time I'm beginning to wonder where these kids' parents are because I'd be a little mortified if my son kept chucking his monkey at some random adult over and over again. But hey, to each his (or her) own I suppose and no major harm done.

It did give me a glimpse into what raising a little boy will be like in a couple of years! Perhaps a good subject to tackle in another blog....

If anyone has any inexpensive or free ideas for entertaining little kids, I'm all ears!

A case of the Mommy Brain: Yogurt == Sour Cream

I'm fairly confident that most of us moms out there remember how pregnancy and the sleep deprivation that followed our baby's deliveries led us to shed at least half of our IQ points and become afflicted with the dreaded "Mommy Brain Syndrome".

The Mommy Brain Syndrome, or MBS for short, is just a fancy name for what I always called the "baby stupids" (hey, it's fun to take an adjective and try to make it a noun sometimes right?) Anyway, MBS most often presents with symptoms of memory loss, mismatched clothing (you and your children), poor vocabulary, etc. If you've ever come home and put your produce in the pantry and your cereal boxes in the refrigerator, then yes, you too have at some point battled this syndrome. Perhaps you're still struggling!

While MBS has littered my path to motherhood with all sorts of silly stories, one story in particular stands out in my mind. Bob's parents were in town last year to visit Jack, and my mother-in-law and I decided we were going to make her yummy spinach dip recipe for dinner. This spinach dip recipe uses about half a cup of sour cream, so we picked that up at the store as well as some other odds and ends, including yogurt for Jack.

I fed Jack some of his yogurt for a snack, and put the rest back in the refrigerator for another time. A few hours later, I started working on the spinach dip and pulled out the sour cream. I was pretty frustrated when I pulled the lid off of the sour cream and the safety seal had already been broken on it, plus it looked like some of the sour cream was already gone! I asked Cindy (my mother-in-law) if she had used some of it already, hoping that I wasn't going to have to run back to the store. Then the little light bulb went off: I had fed Jack the sour cream instead of his yogurt! That explained a lot about the reaction he had on his face when I gave him his first bite, but like the little trooper he is, he kept eating it anyway. Yuck!

In my defense, I will say that the Kroger brand 8 oz sour cream container is shaped very much like a yogurt container. The rest of it I totally blame on MBS. Cindy and I had a good long chuckle over that one.

What's your funniest Mommy Brain story?

When to start a family and child spacing: How did you decide?

Hmmm, not quite the creative title I'm going for on this one folks....originally it was "Family planning...", but that wasn't quite going down the path I want to take either. What I'm curious about is how people decide(d) when to start their family and if you have children now, how far apart your kids are spaced: 1 year, 2 years, etc.

My "plan" (because we all know how subject to change our plans are when it comes to having kids) is to aim for a two to two and a half year spacing between Jack and the next child, Lord willing. I'm just not that keen on having children in my 30's if I have any say about it, and I'm approaching that target date a little faster than I realized (denial is the subject of another post).

Of course there are all sorts of pros and cons in this discussion and I don't believe there's a one-size-fits-all type solution for everyone. I can totally understand wanting to build a career through the 20's and then thinking about children in your 30's (or 40s), and I can also see wanting to get child-rearing out of the way in time for you to still enjoy some of your pre-senior citizen status (I tend to fall into this camp).

As far as spacing goes, my sister made a good point when she said that it's nice to have a second child before the first is out of diapers, that way you're still in diaper mode and it's not such a shock to the system to start changing diapers again. I think the same kind of idea applies to breastfeeding, sleep deprivation, etc: it's harder to jump back into dealing with those things the longer you go without doing them. Of course, in regards to the diaper changing, the flip side is that you have two kids in diapers when it sure would be nice if at least one of them could fend for themselves in the potty arena.

I know people have all sorts of reasons for when they start a family (or don't) and how far apart they decide to space their children's birthdays, so I thought I would just ask everyone how you arrived at your decision.

Curly hair and haircuts

Back when I was pregnant with Jack, I used to wonder what he was going to look like..would it be like me or like Bob? Would he get my skin tone or Bob's? Blue or green eyes? But I can tell you that without a doubt, I always knew his hair would be some variation of wavy to curly. He never stood a chance whatsoever to have anything close to straight hair because of his parent's genes (I have curly hair, my husband has wavy hair). In fact, Bob's was pretty curly when he was a kid as well.

Jack's hair is just precious when it grows out a little bit. He gets these beautiful little blonde ringlets, especially in back when he's fresh out of the bathtub. However, there comes a time when these beautiful little ringlets begin to get a little longer and unruly. And since I have no desire to make my child look like a greaseball from gel at age 14 months (he can do that himself when he's in middle school), I have conquered my fears of pulling out the scissors and giving him a haircut now and again.

The beauty of curly hair (as I found out on myself after many disappointing haircuts) is that it's pretty forgiving if you (the non-professional stylist) need to snip a little more off the ends. If it's too long, you can scrunch it more, and it if it's too short, you can stretch it out. It's also great for Jack because hey, I'm not a professional, and let's just say sometimes I don't always get every hair cut the same length (oops). I can blend that small section in with the rest of his hair and voila, he looks great!

I do admit to wondering if the mohawk look for would work for him (as evidenced by the picture above), but so far I'm not seeing it :)

I luv Chick-Fil-A

I guess I've been hiding under a rock, or after moving to Virginia I think I just stopped eating out as much because the selection was more limited (in my humble Texas opinion). Either way, where has Chick-Fil-A been all my life??

Before becoming a mom, I probably wouldn't have paid as much attention as I do now to my dining experience in a fast-food restaurant. I would walk in, order, sit down, and eat away. But a funny thing happens when a child (or two or three) enters the picture: even the most mundane outing often becomes a large balancing act of strollers that won't open correctly, squirming children, and too few limbs (in a nutshell, the phrase "stay at home" takes on new meaning). Any additional help becomes greatly appreciated!

So, I began to notice the little things, like when a Chick-Fil-A employee opened the door for me. And how a Chick-Fil-A employee brought a rolling high chair up to the front counter for me so I could put Jack down instead of continuing to hold him while I ordered. And how she graciously asked if she could carry my tray to the table (a huge bonus), and then pulled together a few tables for me so the group I came with could all sit together. Then she handed me a plastic placemat (the kind that stick to the table and aren't cheap at Babies-R-Us) free of charge and asked me if she could get me anything else. About 10 minutes later she came by our table and asked if she could get us any refills on drinks, which was another huge bonus because with kids, less time spent away from the table equals less opportunity for things to go wrong. On top of all this, every time I thanked her she said "My pleasure", and I think she meant it! When was the last time a McDonald's/Wendy's/etc employee said "My pleasure" to anything?

I'm not intending to rag on every other fast-food restaurant out there, it was just blindingly obvious how polite and respectful the employees were at Chick-Fil-A, and that makes anything less pale in comparison pretty easily. Anybody else know of any restaurants with great customer service? Oh, Starbucks comes to my mind too!

Why it's worth it to carry around a spare set of clothes for young kids

I'm writing this now from home, but I should have been shopping at the Container Store this afternoon. Actually, I was shopping at the Container Store this afternoon, but let's just say things didn't go as planned.

I'm on a mission to find some large containers of some kind to put Jack's books in for his room so they won't be scattered all over the place. I've got a few of the nicer wicker/woven type baskets, but if he pulls on them hard enough, I've found some shards of wicker in my carpet that I don't want him eating anytime soon (even though I am looking for ways to introduce more fiber in his diet).

So, after checking Walmart yesterday and just not finding anything that really jumped out at me, I thought, "This is a great excuse for me to go look around the Container Store!" I don't shop there too often even though I love just about everything in it, mainly because the prices are a little high. But, it's fun to go look around every once in a while and I figured that would kill some time this afternoon.

I put Jack in the cart and we began walking up and down the aisles. Ironically, I stopped to look at a cute but relatively small tote bag and thought to myself, "Maybe I could put all of Jack's stuff in this thing instead of his large backpack....after all, I can't remember the last time I really needed the spare set of clothes I keep in that thing." Bingo, as if on cue, I hear the most awful gurgling noise coming from my sweet baby boy complete with the I'm-going-potty or I'm-blowing-some-serious-wind look on his face. Unfortunately it was the former, and sure enough it came up his back, out the top of the diaper, and all over the shopping cart.

So, as any calmly mortified mother would do, I walk (ok, race) the shopping cart back out the front door with Jack and head for the car, where I was never so happy to see his bulky backpack with a clean set of clothers, diapers, and plenty of wipes. I'll spare you the details, but I needed every single one! I put Jack in his car seat, cleaned the shopping cart, and walked it back into the store. The worst part was having to ask the cashier for some disinfectant spray so I could finish cleaning the cart, but hey, I wasn't about to leave that thing for someone else to touch!! She was very nice about the entire thing.

Needless to say, I learned that until my son is 30, I'm going to carry around a spare set of clothes :)

From one child to three in one hour!

My husband and I watched my sister's kids this weekend while she and her husband moved into their new townhome, effectively growing our kid count (albeit temporarily) from one to three in the span of an hour. It was a lot of fun, but also a lot of work!

The best thing was that Jack had other people to entertain him besides Bob and I, and I think he was very encouraged to be up and walking (with our help) to chase after Nate and Lexi in the yard. My sister has often told me that Nate, who is a few days older than Jack and started walking a few months ago, had the added incentive to walk because of his older sister Lexi who is almost four. Nate wants to be doing anything and everything his big sis does, so he learned to walk a lot faster than Lexi (my sister's first child). I definitely noticed a change in Jack with both of them up and walking around...he wanted to be up too!!

As much fun as we had, Bob and I were pretty tired Saturday night after we got the kids to bed. It gave us a glimpse into both the added work and blessing of having multiple children to watch over. I fully believe that for our situation, the benefit of having a sibling for Jack would far outweigh any negatives, but it did make me relish the time I get to spend one-on-one with him that much more!!

Now, how in the world do Jon and Kate (on the TLC show "Jon and Kate plus 8") do it? They have a set of twins and sextuplets and I get tired for them just watching their show...I joked around that we went from one kid to three in the span of an hour, but these people went from 2 to 8 in the span of an hour!! And much as we love them, we at least got to give Nate and Lexi back to their mom :) There are many times I want to (and do) complain just in my daily routine having one child, but that show puts me in my place pretty quickly!

Batteries and the power of a brand name

A trip through the grocery store is all you need to see how products that are identical or nearly identical can be sold for such different prices, all because of the brand name. Sometimes it's not much of a savings, and other times it can be several dollars. And no where (as I found out today) is this so evident than in the batteries section!

Blinking, singing toys, along with poopy diapers, runny noses, and fevers, are the stuff our kids' childhoods are made of. Parents pretty much know they need a hefty stock of batteries to keep those toys going (and thus our children's world turning). Fisher Price would go out of business without batteries!

So, I expected to pay a good bit for batteries when I went to Kroger this afternoon on a mission to resurrect my son's half house. Then I looked at the Kroger brand batteries...they were almost half the cost of the brand name Energizer or Duracell. Can I tell you how happy I was?? Now, I admit there are some things that I'm willing to pay the brand name price for because I either taste a difference or see a difference in the longevity of the product. Though I rarely buy them, Honey Nut Cheerios and Chips Ahoy Chocolate Chip Cookies are a few of the things that I won't substitute the generic brand for. But I've never really considered batteries before....so, I'm conducting an experiment. I went ahead and bought the Kroger brand batteries at about half the cost, and we'll see how long they last. Hopefully there won't be much of a difference and I (and other parents) can save a lot of money.

Anybody else have any money saving ideas?

Random Thought #2: HGTV

I realize in the grand scheme of things that anything dealing with TV is really not important, so please know I don't take this very seriously....it was just an idea that I thought might spark some debate.

HGTV is often on our television around the Looney Bin, and after watching enough of it, I've come to some conclusions about it's programming. I would say my least favorite show has become "Hidden Potential", mainly because it's so anti-climatic. The basic premise is that a designer shows a family three houses that he/she can completely renovate on the prospective owner's budget.

Whoa....I interrupt this blog to tell you that Jack just stood up on his own...for a whole 6 seconds...whohoo! Maybe we will walk at some point in the future.

Ok, sorry (it's the little things in life right?), back to Hidden Potential...the homes tend to be pretty outdated and the prospective owner's budget pretty large ($400-$600K range). The homes are usually well below the budget so that the designer can spend anywhere from $75-$200K totally gutting the place and bringing it up to date, courtesy of some spiffy software on a computer. So the prospective owner gets to choose from three different houses and thus three different interior redesigns. The audience is informed of their choice, and then the show is over! How crummy is that? I need the closure that comes from seeing the home actually renovated people! Everyone loves before and after! Are you listening HGTV?

My vote for most predictable show (aside from the formulaic but lovable "House Hunters") has become "Buy Me", where home owners fight to sell their prized homes in a struggling housing market. The reason they struggle is because all of them live in la la land where they either 1) don't need a realtor even though 50 gazillion other houses are also on the market in their neighborhood, or 2) are still living in the housing bubble of 2005 and think their homes are worth $100-200K more than what people are paying now, or 3) have creepy collections of items like dolls an figurines that they refuse to put away during open houses. I guess there wouldn't be much of a show if the seller was a reasonable person...reasonable people just make for boring reality television.

"House Hunters" is still one of my favorites, and "What you Get for the Money" is interesting too, although I've noticed no one seems to care about what you can get for $100K....it's all $300K and above!

What about you?

SUV or Minivan: I am becoming my parents.

With Jack in our lives now, especially as he gets older, it's becoming increasingly apparent to Bob and I that we would like a little more room in our next car. Bob currently drives our Civic and I drive the Accord. I must say that I can't complain too much about the Accord...it is quite spacious for a sedan and rides just like we bought it yesterday, even though it's just about four and half years old.

Having said that, we do plan to add more members to the Looney Bin at some point in the future (no, this is NOT an announcement), so we find ourselves in the midst of the SUV vs. minivan debate. I have also become keenly aware that I am becoming my parents by even remotely considering driving a minivan, which as a high school student driving my mom's white Dodge Caravan (aka the "Egg Mobile"), I swore I would never do as an adult.

We've been round and round on this discussion and seem to keep coming back to the point that for the room, gas mileage, and cost, which are the big factors for us, a minivan is the better option. If I'm going to lose the great gas mileage from my Accord, I at least want to be able to carry more than 4-5 people comfortably, which a third row of seating allows you to do in a minivan. And while a Suburban or other large SUV has the third row seating too, you're going to pay a lot more for it in both vehicle cost and gas mileage. At least with the smaller SUV's you don't lose so much of the gas mileage, but then in most cases you don't get the third row seating either (although I know the Highlander has an optional third row seat with a tight squeeze). I've also heard other mom's talk about how nice the minivan doors are in a crowded area because they push back instead of outward.

What this debate seems to boil down to, in my opinion, is a trade off between functionality/cost and the "coolness factor". I know that the coolness factor of driving a minivan is pretty much near zero, and readily admit to drooling over the shiny new black 2008 Toyota Sequoia that drove through my neighborhood yesterday. Some friends of ours who drive an Odyssey summed it up pretty well when they said something like "We've never been cool people, and weren't going to become that way now by buying an SUV". I think that sums us up pretty well too.

I'm not intending to be critical of other people's choice in automobiles, just throwing this out for discussion about how we arrived at our decision. Who knows, maybe it will change next week!!

Anyone else want to chime in on why they decided to buy an SUV or minivan (or maybe just stay with a sedan)?

Diaper Genie/Champ: Friend or Foe?

For those of you out of the diaper stage with your kids, you've probably happily forgotten (or are still trying to forget) the endless string of diaper changes you performed until the kids became potty trained. The makers of the diaper genies/champs, which IMHO are basically glorified trash cans for $30, try to help us diaper-changing parents out with one place to put all those stinky diapers that will lock in the stink. And I will say that while Jack was very young, the diaper champ I received as a baby shower gift DID come in handy.

That all changed when I stopped nursing him and he began eating the solid foods. It's at this point the stink quotient from messy diapers goes up exponentially, especially once a child hits the meats. So, instead of being able to go 3-4 days before changing the diaper genie because it was full (which is the point of having one in the first place or so I thought), it needed to be changed every day because the diaper(s) stunk so badly! Now that begins to defeat the purpose of having one, right?

So I changed my tactic. Messy diapers got put immediately into a plastic grocery bag and tossed outside, and I reserved the diaper champ for wet ones only. This works great until someone (hint hint Bob :) ) forgets and one of the stinkers gets tossed in the champ. In the span of about 5 minutes my son's room reeks of stinky diapers. Now, in Bob's defense, I will say that since Jack was born, he has changed the vast majority of the champ trash bags, and words cannot even begin to describe how badly some of them smelled. So I don't complain too much when one accidentally gets tossed in there now. As a side note, I say this completely tongue-in-cheek because I am not an advocate of torture, but sticking someone's head in a bag full of messy diapers could probably break just about anyone.

Now my beef with the champ is that the champ itself has begun to stink, and I'm not sure if I can reverse this process. I'm to the point where it's debatable whether the thing is even useful...perhaps I should drag it outside with some bleach and hose it down, because Lysol isn't working!

Anyone have any feelings one way or the other about the diaper genie or diaper champ?

Drums, dog chews, colanders, and other miscellaneous "toys"

One of the things that becomes readily apparent to new parents is that what we designate as toys for our children doesn't mean anything to them. Or if you're a new parent and haven't discovered this yet, wait until your child starts crawling...

It really doesn't take much to entertain a young child, does it? Sure, there are plenty of elaborate toys out there that we buy and sink hard earned money into, but unfortunately there's no guarantee our kids will play with said toys. In fact, now that I think about it, there seems to be an inverse relationship between the two: the more money you spend, the less interest your child will have in playing with it.

Generally speaking, it seems that if an object meets at least one of the following criteria, it stands an excellent shot of becoming your child's next favorite toy: 1) it has buttons, 2) it makes an exceedingly irritating or loud noise (often one in the same), 3) it's at someone else's house, or 4) it's a no-no . Jack discovered the drum set recently at a friend's house and boy was he in heaven. It was fun to watch him play around for a while, but I was very glad after about 5 minutes that the drum set was NOT at our house, though my father (a former percussionist) has threatened to buy us one.

At least around our house, Haley's dog chews (see #4) are also an instant play (and chew) toy for Jack. Recently my stash of colanders and cutting boards have also become interesting to him. I'm not quite sure why, since they don't really fall into the above categories, but since they're pretty harmless, I've just given in and let him pull them out of the kitchen cabinets while I cook.

One final observation on toys is that the age recommendations are often useless (aside from the risk from small parts to kids under 3). I recently bought Jack a kitchen to play with and he loves it (minus the small parts of course), even though the age on the box says 3 years and older. He's also shown a renewed interest in some of the things he played with as a baby, like keys, mirrors, etc.

How about you, what do your kids like to play with?