Fitness Friday: How Soda Impacts Your Body

I have never been a soda drinker until I became pregnant with my first child. I had really bad headaches and my doctor recommended drinking some caffeine. It was the only thing that helped. A friend of mine told me her mom started drinking soda when she was pregnant with her youngest sister and that she still is addicted and her sister is 18! I was relieved that the craving and the headaches went away after giving birth. Same thing happened when I was pregnant with my second, but the only different is that she is now 13 months and that dang craving has not gone away! I know it is awful and I go in spurts where I get off it for a little while, but then I have a few days of needing a little caffeine boost and I'm hooked again! I read an interesting article on the impact of soda recently, but can't find it. I did however, come across this image from a past news article that I thought summed up why I know I need to give it up. Here's to drinking more water! 

Tips & Tricks Tuesday: Bath Toy Solution

I have been overwhelmed with bath toy clutter for a couple years now and have tried numerous baskets and expensive bath toy holders to no avail. Can any moms relate? For about $12 at IKEA I found the perfect solution! The "trash baskets" are found in the kitchen section and the hangers are found in the bath section of Ikea. This seriously has been a life saver for me. 

5 pack hangers- $7.99 http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90225793/

trash basket- $3.99 http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80182237/

red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple

those are the colors of the rainbow!

This activity provided the opportunity to teach the colors of the rainbow along with a song, talk about colors, sorting (a great pre-math activity), talk about letters in the names of the colors, work on fine motor skills (see here the importance of fine motor skills), practice delayed gratification. It took several steps to complete the project and we broke it up into a couple days and was just a lot of fun!

Shamrock Banner

Kids love helping and they love contributing. Make a clover banner! together. I used my silhouette cameo to cut out the shamrocks, but you can easily find shamrock clipart and print and cut them out. We experimented with mixing blue and yellow paint to make green and Sage and her little friends had fun painting them. My little 13 month old even joined in the fun with green finger paint and painted a few herself. 

Product Review: Melissa and Doug Water Wow

A friend at church had one of these incredible books for her little ones and I knew we needed them! Sage girl got some for her birthday and they are awesome! They have several different versions that include an animal theme, letters, numbers and vehicles. They are perfect for church, in the car, in restraints, doctors office... any place you have to wait! We purchased them at Target for $4.99 or they can be found on Amazon too. 

No-mess painting for kids! This exciting paint-with-water coloring book includes four reusable pages and a refillable water pen. Simply use the pen to color in each scene--details and vibrant color appear with every stroke! Then let the page dry to erase the pictures and fill it in again and again. This animal-themed book includes four scenes to color, and a search-and-find activity for each scene. The chunky-sized water pen is easy for kids to hold and stores neatly right in the front cover, so Water WOW books make ideal travel activity books and travel toys for kids!