Mom Memos….

My 4 year old son started on a bowling league this year.  He’s always loved bowling, but didn’t think that he was old enough to start bowling.  We found a league that had a bumber bowling portion.  The age range is 2-7, which is perfect.  However, all young children should be taught proper safety and the rules of the game before starting any sport. 

The safety rules of bowling are:

• If you’re done with your turn, you need to sit down or go to the carpeted area.
• Never allow your child to go on to the approach (woodden floor) unless it’s their turn.
• Don’t step over the foul line.  The lanes have oil on them and you can easily slip and get hurt
• Always wear bowling shoes.
• Use two hands when picking up your ball out of the ball return.
• Do not put your hands inbetween the balls on the ball return. 
• Do not put your hands in the ball return machine hole.
• Always let the person bowling to your left go first, if they are ready to roll their ball.

I hope some of these safety rules are helpful.  All sports can be fun, if the rules are followed.

Here are the steps to make a Special Agent Oso Costume.  If you have someone who knows how to sew, even better, but you can make one without any special sewing skills.

1. Buy yellow pants.

2. Buy yellow long sleeve shirt (turtle neck is perfect).

3. Buy yellow shoes and yellow socks.

4.  Buy a blue watch and place on your child’s wrist.

5. Cut out a round piece of white fabric or white felt large enough to cover your child “Oso’s” belly and sew onto the shirt.

6. Buy a black vest and either sew red edging on the edges or paint red on the edges.

6. Buy a plastic head pand and cut out Oso’s ears out of foam and glue to the top of the headband.

7.  Create Paw Pilot out of felt and cut out and sew or pin on the top of the vest by the shoulder.

8.  Buy face paint and paint Oso’s eyes and nose on your child.

9.  Go Trick-or Treating and have fun!

We recently came back from a to Chicago. Here’s a list of must go places to visit in the Chicago area with your kids:

Brookfield Zoo
Six Flags Great America
Shedd Aquarium
Adler Planitarium
Kohl’s Children’s Museum
Museum of Science and Industry

My husband decided to take his love for math and build a new website which will help people of all ages learn math skills. The site already has some good content and a lot of worksheet generators. If you have need some math worksheets go and check it out. It is still very much under construction, but very usable.

www.mathmix.com

Over a year ago, I learned about BzzAgent. It’s a website that enables you to try different products for free in exchange for providing your opinion on these items as well as telling others.

I have tried so many products from this site that ranged from big to small. In the past I have received a Sonicare toothbrush, Sonicare Toothbrush cleaner, Loreal Mascara, Ziploc Steam Bags and many more.

It costs nothing to join! While it does take some time to complete each campaign, it is really worth it for what you receive in exchange.

To sign up, go to Bzzagent.com. I can also send you a referral link, if you like, but it’s not necessary.

My husband and I welcomed our 2nd son into this world on February 20th. He weighed in at 8lbs and 10 oz, 21 inches long.

I was induced with my first son so I never truly experienced the “going into labor” thing. His birth was chemically and mechanically induced. I was nervous that if I did go into labor with my 2nd son, I would miss the signs and be too late. Well, his due date came and I went to work. The next day came and I went to work for a half a day at one of our satellite locations. My husband (and his teammates) just didn’t want me to go into labor before (or during) their softball game. So, I went to the game and came home…

Then at 1:25 am I kind of felt a pop and a gush that woke me out of a dead sleep. I ran into the bathroom and contempated for a good 5 minutes whether this was worth waking my husband up. Finally I decided it would be best to wake him and at least give him a heads up. I then called my mom to come over and watch my older son overnight. At this point I was having no contractions and I have heard of women not delivering for many hours after their water breaks, so I wasn’t in a huge hurry….in fact I took a shower since I was unsure when my next shower would be. Still no contractions.

About 15-20 minutes later, the contractions started…..every 2 minutes! While you kind of forget how bad contractions feel, you remember it again as soon as they start. My mom arrived and my husband and I jumped in the car. The hospital was about 10 minutes away and it was the longest 10 minutes of my life….how many red lights are between here and the hospital? The answer…..too many!

Upon arrival at the hospital at 2am, I had to wait in line to check in….behind a family who doesn’t speak English and therefore there was interpreter was there (which means everything gets said TWICE!). Finally, it was my turn and had to sign paperwork and verify all my information.

Finally I made it to triage at 2:25am and it was confirmed my water broke and I was 6cm dilated. I started begging for the epidural, but they needed to finish my history, get labs drawn and put a liter of fluid in me!

At 3:20, they moved me into the labor suite. My labs were back and the fluid was in. I just needed to wait for the anethesiolgist to finish an epidural in the other room. He couldn’t come fast enough. They moved me into the position to get the epidural, but I told the nurses that I felt like I needed to push or have a bowel movement. They immeadiately laid me back and checked me and the head was right there and told me it was too late for an epidural and I was doing this with zero medications on board. The doctor was also going to miss the birth, so the nurses would have to deliver him! WHAT???? This was not what I wanted…I wanted an epidural and to enjoy the process of having this baby.

After several pushes and lot of screaming, our second son was born at 3:43 am.

I’ve been told that I’m very brave….bravery had nothing to do with it…..I just had to do what I had to do. But now I have bragging rights….I experienced natural childbirth, even if it was against my will!

To read my husband’s perspective on the birth, you can read it here

So, we left off with the guest list has been done and the party place has been reserved. It’s now about 2 weeks before the party. If you are planning a theme, like we are, make a decision. Our son has decided that he would like a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse birthday party.

The next step is letting your guest know about the party. I’m a huge advocate of written invitations vs calling people and letting them know about the party. Here’s some invitations ideas:

1. Look online and see what other people have done. I started out by doing a internet search of “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse birthday party invitations” and found that Playhousedisney.com had some printable invitations. I printed these and found them to be a little more work than I had the time to do.
2. Most party places sell paper invitations that you just fill in the name, date and place which is a quick and easy method.
3. Have some photo invitations printed. Almost all photo sites have invitations as well that you can customize. I find the cheapest to be at Costco, but you must be a member to buy them (50 invites for $14.50) However, you can order through Shutterfly, Kodak, or Snapfish.
4. If a paper method is not going to work for you, you can always use Evite. However, you need to have email addresses for your guests and your guests actually have to check their email on a regular basis.

We chose the photo cards. I was able to pick them up the next day and each guest gets a picture! Costco sell Mickey Mouse Clubhouse designed invitation which made it even better!

Finally, gets those invites addressed and mailed out! Don’t forget to include your RSVP phone number or email address so you know how many people to expect!

So, this one if for parents of young children. Huggies has a rewards program that allows you to input special codes off their products into their website. While I hardly ever use Huggies because of the price of the diapers, if I had the right coupon, I might buy it. This rewards program allows you to use your points for several things:

1. Enter contests (longer running and instant wins)
2. Donate your points to the American Red Cross
3. Use your points to obtain free items such diapers, baby and toddler toys and gift certificates

Here’s how to start:
Register at Huggies Enjoy The Ride website
You’ll earn points just for registering and completing one question surveys!
Check your changing table to see if you have any Huggies codes!

Have fun!

I thought I would also start a series on saving money, finding free stuff and earning rewards. I have loved participating in these things for many years. So, I thought I would pass on a new site each time that qualifies under each of those categories.

My newest find I found information about in this past week’s coupons. I think that most families purchase orange juice on a weekly basis. We usually flip between several different brands depending on what is on sale and what I have coupons for. However, one of the brands that I buy is Tropicana. Tropicana just launched a rewards program in which you input codes from their containers into their website and you earn points. Each point can earn you different rewards ranging from “Donate your points to save the rainforest” to museum discounts, massage discounts and much more. I didn’t really see on their site where you can turn in your points for a free item, but if you are planning an outing, it might be worth looking to see if you can cash in your points before leaving the house.

Here’s how to start:

Register at Tropicana’s website
The reward code in the paper was LA73E C79W4 so enter your code to earn 1 point
You get a bonus point by completing their survey
Raid your fridge and see if you have any points on your Tropicana Juice containers

Enjoy! Would love to hear if anyone uses the rewards on this site!

Our son will be celebrating his 4th birthday in a little over a month. He has started to get to the age where he would like to have friends at his party. While our house isn’t exactly tiny, we determined that with the number of people that we would like to attend, our house would not be the best option. So, we decided that a public park would be fun. Here’s some tips to planning your child’s party:

1. Determine how big your guest list will be (doens’t have to be exact yet)
2. If you are going to be hosting the party away from home, research each site and visit if possible.
3. Reserve as early as possible if you want the date that you want.