June 29th, 2012

Environmental Learning

Environmental PrintSummer vacation is in full force. My Facebook stream is peppered with posts from friends describing their vacation adventures in the car, on the plane or on the train. How we keep kids occupied often can make or break that road trip, whereever the ultimate destination may lie.

Even if the extent of your vacation is a stay-cation and the big adventure is to the grocery store, there are fun (and dually educational) opportunities that can keep kids entertained along the way.

A great game is calling out a letter and seeing where your child can find it: on billboard, a street sign, or on a mailbox. For older kids, call out the letters in a certain order to spell an object (like Lion) and see if they can put the ‘clues’ together. Once they have found the letters, and have guessed the object that the letters spell out, see if they can then find that object.

For children who are starting to read, take a walk in your town’s center with the various shops and signs. Find a word, like “Coffee” and see if they can find the sign that has that word. Then have them spell it out. They can then turn the tables on you by using the letters in the word they found, like ‘C’ in coffee, to call out a “C” object that you need to find.

For toddlers who may not yet know their letters or numbers, find images or colors. Like a teddy bear in a toy store sign, or a dog on the sign for the local veterinarians office. Or the color red on a stop sign, or a blue car in a parking lot.

Don’t forget about math! Look for numbers too, and find ways to incorporate mathematical problems for various stages like adding, subtracting or multiplication. For example, ask your child to find a sign with the number 9 in it. Then ask them to find a sign with the number 3 in it. Once they do, ask them what is 9 + 3. When they say 12, ask them to find the number 12 on an object like a price tag on a tee shirt or the “For Sale” sign on bananas at the grocery store.

One final idea that we used to do on long road trips, is to find license plates of cars from various states. We would write them down and see, at the end of the trip, who found the most states. Great way to incorporate geography into a learning opportunity too.

These activities are fantastic when you are standing in long line at Target, at a theme park like Disney World, or in a security line at the airport. Even if the game captures your child’s attention and imagination for only 15 minutes, it is an educational quarter of an hour (and a peaceful one too.)

All in all, using “environment print” is an easy way to educate, entertain and engage kids of all ages.

Happy Travels!


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June 27th, 2012

And Her Name Is…

I’m so excited that our newest Chronicle is here. It was a rather dramatic entrance, but we are all happy to be at home and adjusting to our life as a family of four.

However, in the first weeks of a newborn being in a house, things are crazy. Late nights, long days and desperation for food that you don’t have to make yourself. These are the reasons that I love Edible Arrangements for a new Mom/new baby gift as I wrote about in my post here.

 

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Needless to say, I was ecstatic when Edible Arrangements sent me this fruit masterpiece two days after I came home from the hospital. It is wonderful to have fresh, and already prepared, fruit to eat. The gentleman who delivered the bouquet was super friendly too.

 

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So this is my favorite thing to send (and receive) for a lot of occasions.

 

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And I’m happy to announce that Jessica won the Edible Arrangement Giveaway in the Baby Pool. She guessed within an hour of the baby’s arrival! And what did we go with for a final name? Well, we have nicknamed her “Super G” and it is a classic Welsh baby girl name. It fits her to a T G! It wasn’t a name that anyone suggested, but all the suggestions did help us realize that we had the right name under our noses all along. So congrats to Sarah for winning the prize pack for her name suggestions!

Such fun! And thank you all for following, helping, sharing and otherwise being such great fans in this journey!

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June 27th, 2012

Waxing During Pregnancy

Waxing SpaAfter reading many articles about getting a bikini or brazilian wax during pregnancy, I figured I give it a try and share my dos and don’t of pregnancy waxing.

I know, it does seem weird that one would get waxed during a pregnancy. First, for the obvious reason that you can’t see anything down there so why would you care or how would you even know. But if this is your second pregnancy, trust me when I say that while you can’t see anything, you can feel it (and it is not a pleasant feeling).

Second, even though you don’t want anyone ‘down there’ by the 9th month of pregnancy, you want to know that things are in ship shape for birth (since nothing else of your body is). Similar to the “I need a pedicure so my feet look pretty despite the fact I haven’t seen them in months” logic.

Thus, you might fall into the “I care camp”, and decide to schedule a bikini or brazilian wax. So here are my top five pregnancy waxing tips:

  1. Make sure you have done waxing before. Waxing is painful and it is even more so during pregnancy (see point #4) so having gone through the ropes before, will ensure your comfort, safety, and well-being.
  2. Find recommendations or go to spas that have a significant pregnancy menu. If they have pregnancy related services, it probably means they have people on staff who are used to treating and seeing pregnant women walking around. But call and speak to someone about the products they use and check that the product ingredients are safe for you too. Always run everything by your doctor or midwife.
  3. Let them know you are pregnant. Before walking in for your appointment. Let them know when you call to schedule the appointment and how many weeks along. This way, they can select the best technician for you and make sure that the service is right for you too.
  4. There will be more pain than normal. Despite the fact that you haven’t been able to see that region for months and have no desire for anyone to see that region either, it will hurt like hell. But since you will be giving birth in a matter of months or weeks, it is good prep. Kidding. But you will be more sensitive and it will be more painful than normal because of all the hormones in your system and the fact that your skin loses tautness. So it is harder to get the wax off and when it does, you may have some bleeding. Which leads me to point #5.
  5. You might leave ‘half done’. Depending on your pregnancy and the stage of your pregnancy, you may be too sensitive to have the full wax experience. Hence, my recommendation to skip the brazilian and just try a bikini wax. Even then, know that a good technician will monitor how you, and your skin, is reacting and may stop ‘short’ of a full bikini. Just be happy that they care about your well-being and check to see if they will adjust the cost of the service. In many cases, they will.

So I had a bikini wax at 38 weeks. It was not fun, nor was it the full deal, if you know what I mean, but I feel a little more ‘in control’. And at this point in this pregnancy, I need all the control-ness I can find. Added to the fact that I know I am not going to want anyone down there at least 6 weeks post-birth, I figured it was my last shot. Though, a good old-fashioned hair cut and pregnancy-safe coloring probably would be a good alternative.

What have you done to feel more ‘attractive’ during your pregnancy?

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June 25th, 2012

Decorating a Nursery

Despite the fact that she won’t be sleeping in the nursery for a few months (and will be with us in our room), I still want to have things in place before our daughter arrives.

We bought furniture for our toddler, which (in theory) should last him through his teenage years. Then I decorated and organized his new room, which you can read about here. But he will still be sleeping in the nursery crib until the fall, when we feel he will be ready to sleep in a double bed in his new room. So in the interim, he is using his big boy room for everything else, like playing and getting dressed, which is helping with the transition before the new baby comes.

My attention then went to re-decorating the nursery for a little girl, but I had to work around the existing furniture we wanted to reuse, and a glider that is in a bright lime green. So I really wasn’t quite sure which direction I was going, and could go. One day, however, inspiration came from this find at HomeGoods: A lamp with flowers in lime green, bright orange, hot pink and a striking blue.

Nursery_Lamp_CharChronicles
It matched the lime green in the existing nursery perfectly, but I still needed to find wall art. Since I moved most of the existing wall art to my toddler’s big boy bedroom, I needed to replace those items. Being on a budget, I wasn’t keen on shopping in any of the name brand stores, but even so, they didn’t have the colors I was looking for anyway.  I finally decided to use the same idea I had for my son’s nursery  - wooden letters, numbers and frames from Michaels, hand painted using craft paint in the same color scheme as the lamp, to paint the wood decorations. So I took the lampshade to better match the colors and went off to Michaels to get the items I needed.

However, when I got there, on my way to the craft paint, I walked by an aisle of summer items for outdoor entertaining – napkin holders, plastic tumblers and plates, bowls and placemats, and a variety of other outdoor decorations – for 40% off. Yet, it wasn’t the sale that caught my eye – it was the colors. The same as the ones in the lampshade.

Since I have watched more that my fair share of HGTV, I knew that some of these items, while not traditional wall decor, could be re-purposed as such. So I saw plastic bowls with the fluted edges that, when placed on a wall, had a similar design (and color) pattern as the lampshade.

Nursery_Bowls_CharChronicles

 

Then I found three placemats and put those above the crib for a bold focal point.

 

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I took two napkin holders that had a flower in the center to hold the napkins in place on a windy day outside, and hung them on the wall so the flowers dangled.

 

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Finally, I picked out outdoor flower decorations and hung them over the dresser.

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For about $40 of decorations, $40 for the lamps, and another $50 for a set of bright blue sheets and a changing pad cover from Land of Nod, I decorated the new nursery for around $130. Now it is a one-of-a-kind room ready for a little princess. And in a couple of years when she moves into a big girl room, we have a set of items for a fabulous outdoor party.

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