Melmo

This little man adores his "Melmo" to pieces; sleeps with him, carries him just about everywhere with him, and even took him slip and sliding and then mud sliding the other day. I have yet to photograph him pushing his beloved red monster in his little pink stroller - which he does on a regular daily basis. Just wanted to capture this love affair while it lasts. La la la la, la la la la...

What are the odds?

It just so happened that I sat down today to do some sunscreen research and fell upon a friend's blog of the exact same nature, and then looked back at one of my own posts of such research only to realize it was posted on June 22nd exactly three years ago. Apparently it is sunscreen research day.

I'm frustrated with how much the packaging and types of sunscreen change from year to year. We have stuck to our NO-AD Ultimate Sunblock Lotion SPF 60 for the past three years and have been really happy with the results. Only last year did the baby have an extreme allergic reaction and rash outbreak because of it and so I had to search for a sunscreen that he could tolerate but that would still have the appropriate ingredients to offer both UVB and UVA protection. I finally found it and have just about used it all up and can't find the exact same kind again. It was Coppertone Water Babies Sunscreen Lotion Spray. MIA everywhere... now it's all about those continuous spray aerosol cans. So I picked up what I thought was a replica, just without the spray option: Coppertone Water Babies Sunscreen Lotion. Huge reaction again. In sitting down and comparing the ingredients between all three, I think I've concluded that baby (now almost 2) is allergic to the zinc oxide. My NO-AD contains only 2%, the Water Babies from last year 0 (though it has 3% avobenzone, another active UVA blocker), and the new Water Babies 14.5%. (No wonder he couldn't tolerate it!) So now I'm off to find another sunscreen that has similar ingredients to our last year sensitive skinned one and zero zinc oxide, and we'll experiment on my little red-headed baby once again. If you see a mother in an aisle with a print-out of ingredients, holding 3 bottles of sunscreen and comparing bottle after bottle - yeah, it's me. We're about to spend a week at the beach and sunscreen is a must for everyone - especially all the kiddos who spend hour upon hour out of doors.

For now, I wanted to repost my research from June 22, 2006 as well as include this fun site my friend posted on her blog: http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/splash.php?URI=%2Fspecial%2Fsunscreens2008%2Ffindyoursunscreen.php

Search for Sunscreen
With the recent sunscreen lawsuits and my children’s misfortune to have my skin, I’ve been doing a little research on sunscreens. I’ve learned much, but unfortunately am having a hard time applying my knowledge. Let me share what I’ve learned.

Basically not all sunscreen is created equal. While consumers may blame the companies for misleading them with their packaging labels, mostly it’s an issue of ignorance and misunderstanding what the labels represent. I was among the unaware who assumed that the higher the SPF(sunscreen protection factor) the better – people were constantly commenting on my SPF 50, cause well, you know that’s like double SPF 25 right? Wrong. According to ConsumerSearch, “SPF 15 blocks 93% of rays, while SPF 30 blocks 97%, only 4% more. SPF ratings higher than 30 don't offer any further UV protection, and let the same 3% of UV rays through as SPF 30. Further, SPF only blocks UVB rays. For that reason, it's just as important to look specifically for UVA protection.” Surprisingly, not very many sunscreens contain the necessary ingredients providing that UVA protection. Unless your product contains avobenzone, titanium dioxide, or zinc oxide, you're not protected from UVA – which is the light that causes much deeper damage than just your surface sunburn.

So now on to finding out which sunscreens will protect me and my fair-skinned children. CNN helped me out with the following info: “Sunscreen reviews also point out that most children's sunscreens are no different than those for adults, except for added fragrance that can actually irritate kids' more-sensitive skin. The only beneficial difference to look for is UVA protection with titanium dioxide or zinc oxide, since these are less irritating than avobenzone to children's skin.” These are hard to come by. I have spent all morning dragging my kids from stores and pharmacies trying to find what my research shows me is the best. Sorry Moms, but those SpWipes and Sprays are no good…the SpWipes have no UVA-protecting ingredients, and most of the sprays say they offer UVA protection but don’t contain the right ingredients – don’t be fooled by oxybenzone, it is not the same as avobenzone. I stand to be corrected, if you find a spray that contains the right ingredients, let me know… however you do lose a lot of the spray into the air and you can’t use it on faces.

The best finds for kids are Blue Lizard Baby Sunscreen and No-Ad Sunscreen. For us Moms, it looks like Neutrogena’s UVA/UVB Sunblock Lotion is definitely worth a try (it has all the right ingredients and is sweat-proof, water resistant – since no product can be waterproof-, fragrance and oil-fee as well as being good for sensitive skin). I’m trying to go with No-Ad for the fam since it’s also very affordable and comes in super big bottles. Apparently an adult should use 4 oz of sunscreen to cover his/her whole body if the sunscreen is going to work properly. (So much for those 6 oz travel-friendly bottles!)Do your research, read your labels and be sun-safe. But for heaven’s sake, let me know where to find the right stuff!

Father's Day

{Little E picked this book up at a yard sale and these three have spent hours reading page after page of random things like the history of Volkswagen and twin carburetors... all I know is, they have a great Dad}

This is my husband's new favourite quote on fatherhood:

"Nothing in literature prepares a father for his role. Motherhood is swamped with books - poetic, fictional, factual. No authority discourses on the prenatal and postpartum care of young fathers.

Fatherhood, for me, has been less a job than an unstable and surprising combination of adventure, blindman's bluff, guerrilla warfare, and crossword puzzles."

-Fredrick F. Van de Water

LEMONADE!

With moving comes goodbyes. Some of our kids' (an our) very best friends are moving prior to our moving. So sad. With our backyards leading into the same big field, we have had impromptu playdates, dinners and just plain old fun for years and years now. Miss J and best friend Miss E have been best friends since they were three. We've been happy to spend extra time with them lately and Miss J (a girl after my own heart) planned a whole "Best Friend Camp 2009" full of activities. The list includes: tea party, friendship bracelets, lemonade stand, field day, talent show and pictures. Today we checked a few of these off the list, including the infamous lemonade stand. The girls made their sign, made their lemonade and set up their stand and then looked at me expectantly: "now what?" Thankfully the accompanying brothers worked hard at advertising, and I almost felt badly for the ruckus they were making.


Perhaps people crept over to pay them to be quiet for a moment or two! One older lady said we should call the newspaper since she hasn't seen a lemonade stand since she was a little girl. Their first customer was the highlight of the day, and when she offered a dollar when the charge was only a nickel and said "keep the change" the children were ecstatic! After the second offer of "keep the change" Little E started to tell people beforehand, "You can only have some lemonade if we can keep your change." It was a hot hot day, and I think most of our customers belonged to our entrepreneurial company, but they walked away with a total of $4.70. Not bad, especially since they don't realize I spent $6 on cups and lemonade!!! It was well worth it to see them experience the summer delight of a good old fashioned lemonade stand. Oh the memories.

Hurt my pride... but still prejudiced

We went more than a week without phone, internet or cable. The phone and internet were a definite loss, but we only have basic cable and only because it was part of the package and not because we really watch much tv. So when the cable guy came to fix the internal and external problems and Mr. Man complained about us having to pay for a whole months worth of service that we didn't receive all of, the news that they would compensate us with a cable box and an upgraded cable package didn't bring too much excitement. However, during a rainy day moment I browsed the hundreds of channels and stopped at the Cartoon Network for the kids to watch a Clone Wars episode and suddenly became cool mom of the century. Last night I was completely worn out and sat down to veg in front of our newly acquired television options. So many options and still I felt like there was nothing on. I couldn't believe some of the shows that are still playing, honestly, does anybody watch some of these? I amused myself with The Bachelorette for a bit, and then turned to Desperate Housewives (of which I have never actually watched a full episode) and couldn't believe how horrible the acting was, how much like a soap opera, and yet how much it was making me giggle. Finally I settled on a movie: Pride and Prejudice with Kiera Knightley. Oh how my heart feels happy when I am in the presence of anything Jane Austen. It was lovely. It's been a long time since I've seen this version and yet I found myself getting irritated with the constancy of commercials, and could see how easy it would be for me to want to go from cable to TiVo or DVR or whatever it may be called now. (Though I should really just put the movie on hold at the library for free!) The movie was just getting to the best part, when Lizzie realizes her feelings for Mr. Darcy while visiting Pemberly, when Mr. Man took control of the remote and I struggled not to be completely disappointed - though I did bring it up.

It seems Mr. Man couldn't tell the difference between any of the three shows I had perused. He thought they were all identical, each having some girl falling in love after only minutes of meeting or just eyeing some guy. He thought The Bachelorette was just some modern day Pride and Prejudice. I was appalled. And hurt. I was just toying with the first two shows, but sincerely love the third. But is it really as shallow as he was making it out to be? Personally I don't think so... but I'd like to leave it open to all you Jane Austen fans and also those that aren't...

The Good Word?

I've been a complete slacker lately when it comes to reading my scriptures. It seems I go through phases: some where I read and study religiously (meaning daily) and others where, well, I don't. We are still having our family morning devotional, and I usually put in a good half hour every night preparing for that, and so I've sort of made that my fall-back for not doing my own reading. But in the back of my mind I know it's a poor excuse.

When I had consistant nappers, that was always the first thing I would do when they went down. I'm not a morning person, so that could never work out for me. And I'm usually too tuckered at bedtime to really feel like I get something out of it - though when I do read before bed at least it's something. I prefer a mid-day approach so that I can be alert, pull out other sources if I so choose and have a bit of an uplift to help me through the rest of the day. Summer seems to be even less compatible with scripture-reading time because everyone is home all day long and there are more hours spent out of doors. Perhaps I should try reading while I watch the kids on the slip and slide?

I was remembering a friend from when we did our masters' degree. At the time I had one, maybe two, kids and I think she had six. She shared how she had everyone have a scripture reading time in the middle of the day (it was summer break for them also) and each person retired to their rooms to read their scriptures (or the younger ones would look at picture scripture books). It was such a great experience for her and her children. I was thinking what a great middle of the day reprieve that must be and what a good example to her children of having a priority and also knowing that Mom is reading her scriptures at the same time as everyone else - that we all need spiritual nourishment and the knowledge found in the good word of God. I'm thinking we may try this approach this week... but I would love to hear any of your tried and true (or even tried) techniques for sneaking in a little solo scripture reading in the midst of mothering. I need some scripture power!

Front Entry

Our Plan B house - which was actually the first house we were considering - had zero front entry. You walked right into the front room or right up the stairs (similar to what we live in right now). The house we chose has the most beautiful front entry ever - we love it so much! The square footage of the front entry isn't huge, but what makes it seem spectacular is the 30 foot high ceiling and hanging chandelier. I wish I'd taken better pictures, but you'll have to come visit in order to get the full effect. I present to you our new front entry:

{the front door from the living room}
{stairwell and great closet that goes all the way behind the stairs - sort of Harry Potter-ish and may be a small play/toy area - we'll see}
{here we see the top of the door, the 1/2 bath door and the high ceiling and chandelier}
{from upstairs looking down to the front entry}

{the stairs go up, have a landing, and then turn and go the rest of the way - this HUGE window brings in so much light and is just spectacular... I just hope nobody slides down the railing and out the window!!!}

House Hunting Trip Part II

{on one of our drives}

As much as we prepared, and prepare we did, there is nothing like going through the whole experience of finding your first house. Granted, there are still what feels like a million steps before the home we found will truly be ours, but for once in my life I'm optimistic and hopeful. I feel like we went from being totally unexperienced homebuyers to now feeling like I hold a wealth of knowledge (all of which I am happy to share - since I picked so many of your minds and experiences to begin with).

To make a long weekend short, we travelled non-stop for a day, slept for a few hours and then got up bright and early to browse the neighborhoods of our new town and check out all the homes on our list. Some of the neighborhoods were just not for us, others had too much traffic (we were out and about during the morning work and school commutes), and some homes were easy to rule out based on proximity to other homes, lack of backyard or just the appearance. Our list of 21 homes quickly went down to 10 - and even two of our most favourite homes that we had sworn to see and even made appointments to see were no longer on our list. It was admittedly discouraging, and we openly wondered if we were being too picky and would be leaving homeless.

But not so. We met our agent (love him) and after some initial paperwork and discussion started looking at homes. We hit six on the first day, and then re-visited one of the six. We also visited the university during our lunch break, and Mr. Man had a real estate decision to make there as he picked out an office - with a view! We had two homes that we really liked. One was huge, but also a short sale - don't get me started! The other we could totally picture our family in and only had about 5 projects for Mr. Man to work on (but he likes projects). Really it was a great home.

{coming out of our bed and breakfast - we found snow in JUNE!}

I woke up feeling certain that the short sale house was not for us. We arranged to see the other home we had liked again along with the other four on our list, plus another that had just come on the market. Most of these homes we had to "try" really hard to make feel like they would work for our family. They just didn't fit. Either there weren't enough bedrooms, or not enough living space downstairs. Another one just felt dark to me and also had NO backyard! While another would need to basically be torn down and rebuilt it was that old, that disgusting and that unlivable. Mr. Man was up for the challenge, but I was ready to cry - view of the mountains or no. Then came the big brown house.

Let me back up for a moment and tell you that this house was one that when looking online I had omitted from our list because I thought the exterior was so ugly. Brown and ugly. For some unknown, to us, reason, Mr. Man snuck it back on our list. We hadn’t scheduled to see it, but during our drive-bys I admitted that it looked better in person than in the pictures and so I consented to taking a peek inside. One peek was almost enough. This house was AMAZING. The front entry is to die for, the window views spectacular… it has soooooooo much storage, a great pantry, HUGE master bedroom, four upstairs bedrooms with 3 same-sized rooms for the kids, front porch... the list goes on. Then came the challenge of deciding between this amazing home, and the one that we liked from the day before. We did a lot of comparing, a lot of thinking, praying and discussing with a great sounding-board family member, re-visited both houses and finally made our decision to go with the second one. The one that felt like ours from the first step in. The one that had enough room for us so we wouldn't need to upgrade or move in the future unless we wanted to (since we wouldn't EVER need to). We picked the one that had no projects for Mr. Man to work on, so he's been given landscaping, or any projects that could brighten up a big brown house, or how about making tenure?! It was also the more expensive of the two and we knew that if in our counter-offering we met a certain number we would have to back down and comfortably go with plan B.

Now Mr. Man knows numbers, and, though I'm also considering it being an act of God, I won't dismiss his God-given number talent. Our agent and I wanted to offer a similar number... but Mr. Man pushed a bit higher, countering that it was psychologically much higher. And, while I know this doesn't seem like a long story made short (it really is... you should read my journal) our original offer was accepted! The only change they made was to the closing date, which will be fine - we'll just move when we want to and close at the earlier date that they want (since the home is vacant.) So hurrah! We can't believe how blessed we feel to have that agonizing money struggle over before it even started. Our agent and the sellers' (there were two) agent couldn't believe that there was no counter offer - as it so seldom happens that way. We are thrilled!

Of course I have some pictures to share of our new home. All the exterior photos I have of the house show the street sign (since we have a corner lot) and I'm not comfortable posting anything close to that on the internet. But enjoy and imagine and I'm sure I'll have more to come!!!

{my laundry room - no longer IN the KITCHEN!!! The door to the left is storage, door the the right is to the garage - a GARAGE - WOW!}

{check out the pretty trim and great laminate floors... this room is meant to be the dining room, but for now will hold my piano and books... and perhaps host a future book group or recital!}

{my pretty kitchen}
{the front porch and beautiful front door... I guess I'll try picturing lovely snowy days spent watching my husband shovel the driveway versus the summery sit on your porch reading days!}

{part of our backyard - fenced in, and yes, they HAD a dog!}

{taken from the living room into the kitchen/eating area... love the little window nook and that door goes out to the deck and, ahem, hot tub... I know, I feel spoiled and bratty, but if just happened to be there... I'm sure the cold long winters will make it's presence felt in our family}
{living room and fireplace - every house there has one, it's a given - but still will be such a treat to have in our home}

House Hunting Trip

... we're still smiling and learning sooooo much about this whole process. Love it!

More to come...

Summer

Summer is upon us. Joyful, hot summer – and perhaps our last with such soaring temperatures. Mr. Man and I head out for our house-hunting trip together and noticeably absent in most of the homes we have hopes of happening upon is A/C. Truth be told I had never heard of the term before I married Mr. Man and made the States my home. In Canada we call it “air conditioning” a long term, but so seldom used nor present in many homes that we have the time to say it when the need arises. Right now, as we hit 86 degrees yesterday and today promises high 90s I am in love with my A/C.

The kids are in love with the slip and slide, and today yields our summer weekly “Tuesday Adventure” complete with water balloons and ice cream bars which are sure to melt all over us. I have to PLAN adventures into our schedule because that’s just the way I am. I let my to-do lists and schedules dictate my life way too much, and so I’ve had to plan and schedule in some fun as well. And with all my planning and forward-thinking, this summer is looking promising, and fun for everyone.

Now I’m off to peruse my new town and hopefully next time I post I will be 30 years shy of owning our new home!