Slow learner

Man am I screwed if Izzy doesn't turn out to be a tomboy. Growing up I of course read Cosmo and Teen Beat but frankly was way more into sports- mostly playing them- to worry about makeup and fashion. It has taken me a loooooong time to catch up and frankly I still feel like I am learning the basics! Here I am, 36 years old, and finally learning some of these lessons. Ridiculous.

Aquaphor

If you told me that Aquaphor also cured cancer I would believe you. This is an amazing product. We had been using Angel Baby Earth Mama bottom balm on Izzy for diaper rash while she was in cloth diapers and that worked well. After we switched to disposables it didn't seem to work as well so I tried Butt Paste (eh) and then was told that Aquaphor could not only be used on dry skin, but also for diaper rash. This stuff is amazing!! I not only use it on Izzy's bum (which clears things up in no time), but slathered it on my hands every other night before putting on gloves during Chicago's winter months. I can't say enough good things about it because it has CURED my cracked skin on my hands during winter. I had tried EVERYTHING under the sun and was resigned to having painful cracked hands 4 months a year but no longer! After that I bought Aquaphor lip balm which is doing amazing things to my lips. Aquaphor, I love you and should probably buy stock in your company because I am using so much of you in my daily life!

Bobby pins

Uhhh did you know that there is a right and wrong way to put bobby pins in your hair? The smooth side is supposed to face out, the bumpy side towards your head. Thank goodness for silly Huffington Post articles in my Facebook News Feed!

Makeup

About a year ago I finally decided to wear powder and eyeliner to work along with doing something with my hair every day. It takes only a few minutes to do but I think that it makes a world of difference. 

Wide calf knee high socks

Yes I own a pair of these sock monkey socks (image from the website)

Can socks be fashionable? I do like to wear crazy socks even if the rest of my outfit is professional and normal. Thank goodness for the company Sock it to Me. I randomly came across their socks when I was in NYC last fall and noticed that they had wide calf knee high socks. I love to wear knee highs during winter- especially if I am commuting to/from work or outside a bunch- they can really help with the cold. I was wary that the socks really wouldn't be stretchy enough because I have tried wide calf boots and have yet to find a pair that fit me (to be honest, I haven't tried very hard). Anyway, these socks are amazing. Very comfortable and no problems with my calves! Hopefully they start to make more patterns in the wide-calf version!


Undersummers

This product is going to change my summer (image from the website)

Finally, I am excited to wear dresses and skirts this summer. Why you might ask? Well it's because I finally did a little research into rash guards for my inner thighs and bought something called an Undersummer. It came highly recommended on a website so I decided to try it out. For years now I have hated wearing dresses and shirts because of thigh chafing (the last time I don't think that I had a problem with chafing was around my wedding/honeymoon when I was about 35 pounds lighter than I currently am right now). I tried lotion, I tried CP's Gold Bond powder, and I tried Body Glide (runners use it). Everything wore out too quickly so I was happy if I only had to wear a dress/shirt for a few hours but wasn't a fan wearing something all day which made me sad because there are some cute dresses out there! I think with Undersummers I have finally found the solution! I can't wear any mini skirts but that's okay because I'm almost 40 anyway. But I did find a cute maxi skirt at Target that I wore to work yesterday and I'm happy to say that the Undersummers worked like a charm! Yay!

What took you a while to learn?

*Sadly I was not paid or given anything for this post. Just trying to spread the word to others about products/things you may or may not already know about.*

Not ready

Remember earlier this month when I decided on a whim to sign up for the Chicago Mudderella event at the end of this month? At the time I was chugging along at the 30 Day Shred but thought the event sounded like fun.

I got two runs in (3 miles each) right after I signed up....then didn't run again until yesterday morning. I knew Mother's Day weekend was going to be hard as we had friends in town from Thursday-Monday. Then right after they left I got the cold from hell. I literally felt like death for a few days as my head was so stuffed up I had a constant headache. For the past two weeks I have had an awful cough that finally seems to be going away. Needless to say that cold (likely something worse that I could have gotten drugs for but I didn't want to go to the doctor) knocked me out until yesterday morning.

With the race looming on Saturday and my cough under enough control that I could breathe on the run, I ran/walked 4 miles. It wasn't pretty but I didn't feel awful after I finished. The course will be 5.5 miles long with 12 obstacles- I'm hoping that I get a chance to walk a little and catch my breath at the obstacles.

We'll find out on Saturday!

Trip to Cleveland

This past weekend we had a family party in Cleveland. I was born in Cleveland but thankfully my parents moved to Chicago when I was four so I didn't grow up there. I wasn't sure how exciting the trip would be because let's face it, Chicago is really the only city to live in the Midwest (maaaaybe Minneapolis- sorry people that live anywhere else).

Waiting for the plane

We only had things at night so after we arrived Friday morning we had lunch at a great Mediterranean place and then headed over to a park called Preston's H.O.P.E. that my friend recommended we go to. Izzy thoroughly enjoyed herself on everything, but especially loved the sandbox. She learned the art of pouring sand all over herself which made a bath quite necessary before dinner. The play area was free and is a great place for the kids- although I do think the construction of a few things could have been better (the place was only 3 years old but definitely already showing a lot of wear).

Sand in my hair is the best

The next day we headed to the Cleveland Museum of Art. It's in a beautiful marble building that was expanded recently (according to my parents). Izzy wasn't too interested in the art so she went down with CP to the atrium in the middle to have a snack and run around. 

Did you know that Cleveland has a Rodin's "The Thinker" statue and that it was hit by a bomb in the 70s? The museum decided to keep it that way so the statue is missing some limbs and part of the base.

Afterwards we walked next door to the Cleveland Botanical Garden which was a big hit. They had a Madagascar exhibit where Izzy got to see some hissing cockroaches (yuck), turtles, a chameleon, a hedgehog, and succulents.....but the bigger hit was the Costa Rica exhibit. There were birds and butterflies fluttering all over the place! 

The only butterfly that would stay put long enough for me to take a picture!

The Japanese garden

The Botanic Gardens had a great outdoor section- including a number of cool treehouses where kids could play chimes and run around but unfortunately Izzy was getting tired so we walked through with her in the stroller while she started to fall asleep.

We decided to try to get as long of a car seat nap for Izzy as possible so instead of driving back to the hotel and risk waking her up we drove down to Cuyahoga Valley National Park to do a quick drive through. It's a national park that needs to be walked through but it was a nice enough drive.

Sassy Izzy before the party

Other than that we were hanging out with extended family at a dinner Friday night and a party Saturday night. Izzy got to meet her second cousin who is just two months younger than her. Both kids did excellent despite the lack of long naps. We brought Izzy's pack n play but because we were in the room she refused to sleep in there, instead sleeping between us on the king sized bed.

One year later

What a difference a year makes! 

Izzy on daycare picture day in 2014 on the left; Izzy on daycare picture day in 2015 on the right. More hair, more teeth, but just as cute. Her face has changed so much already!

What will she look like next year?

Potty!

I realize that this may be only interesting to me, but last night Izzy peed on her potty! I had been thinking the past couple of days that I should probably start talking more about the potty. Izzy is still young to start learning and I think that daycare doesn't do anything for another few months anyway, but it would be good to have a nice foundation for when we are ready to ramp up potty training.

So last night before her bath I sat her down on the big potty for a few minutes with no results. After her bath as I was putting on  her diaper Izzy gave me the "potty" sign so I took her over to her small potty and we sat there for a few minutes, singing songs from her Elmo potty book. A few minutes later she peed on the potty! She got some high fives and lots of congratulations for that and got to "flush" so that the potty's face lit up and said "yay!" Unfortunately I haven't wired the back so she didn't get the song playing as her pee hit the sensors- but it looks like I will need to get that set up soon. I also didn't have anything that I could use to "treat" her but she seemed excited enough about all of the congratulations (maybe she doesn't need it?).

Yay for Izzy!

Sick Day

Twenty four hours makes a world of difference when it comes to a kid. Izzy had a fantastic weekend, concluding with dinner at a sushi restaurant with my parents and my sister/her fiance for a late Mother's Day celebration. She was fantastic throughout the whole meal and ate some edamame, daikon, and even sushi after finishing her tofu appetizer! 

Eating daikon at dinner

She went off to daycare on Monday as usual, but in the middle of a meeting Monday afternoon I got a call that she had puked during snack time.

Yesterday I took off work to be with her as she worked through her fever. She woke up at 4am and although I brought her back into my bed to finish sleeping, I didn't fall back asleep and we were up for the day at 5:30am. From the moment we got downstairs it was "outside?" every two minutes. We watched some Sesame Street, ate some toast and eggs, drank some Pedialyte, but all she wanted to do was go outside.

Watching tv and snuggling with Bear

Finally at 8:30 I bundled her up (at that point it was 45 degrees out- Chicago is having a bit of a cold snap) and decided to take her and Buster on a walk. At least she would be outside but not having to expend any energy.

When we got back in the house she wanted to eat- a lot. Banana, Cheerios, Yogurt. 

Despite being sick she was still able to entertain me

We went to the store, ate lunch, and then both of us took naps (Izzy's lasted longer than mine). As soon as she was downstairs again it was "outside?" over and over. I decided to take her on another walk with Buster (he was super happy yesterday with all of the long walks). I brought her crackers for an afternoon snack and she was very frustrated with the gloves and eating the crackers.

The struggle is real kid. Cold hands or hard to eat crackers?

We ended the walk near the train station where we watched a few trains stop at the station and Izzy got super excited, saying "choo choo" over and over. Even sick she is adorable.

Waving bye to the trains. Notice that the gloves didn't make the cut.

Last night she was feeling better and running around like a hurricane while we were trying to Facetime with CP. Not one wakeup throughout the night and this morning her fever was gone. Hooray!

I was a little worried about what I was going to do with her all day while she was sick. 17.5 months into parenting and I still question myself. I was happy that although I couldn't just take her to the park and let her run around and play like I usually would, we were able to make it through a long day together without relying on too much tv time. Although, when you are sick tv time limits do sort of go out the door.....

Microblog Mondays

This weekend a local Catholic school had a sale on all things with wheels. People bring used items that they want to sell (strollers, bikes, lawnmowers, etc), the school keeps 20% of the profit and buyers (like myself) get discounted items. I went on Saturday morning to try to find a wagon for Izzy and while I missed out on the two Radio Flyers that there there, I was able to snag a Step2 wagon that Izzy is now quite attached to.

It even has drink holders!

As soon as I brought it home she wanted to get in and sit in it. Soon after CP and I did some weeding and Izzy helped by bringing the weeds to her wagon and rolling it over to the yard waste bin. It was also helpful to cart Izzy and some sand toys to our local park on Sunday.

Needless to say it's a big hit and will definitely get a lot of use!

Want to read more Microblog Mondays? Go here.....