Silent Storm

Holy Cow Hiatus Batman!

2012-02-05T13:15:00.001-08:00

I have been absent from here for over 6months now! I can't believe that. We've had a crazy few months of doctors appts, surgeries, and now preparing to move. I think its time I dive back into my blog. I'll be catching up here soon!

5 years ago

2011-07-18T01:19:00.004-07:00

July 18th, 2006 my life changed for ever. My precious baby boy was born at 10:12pm, weighing 7lbs 9oz and 21" long.

Happy Birthday my booger head!

Super Duper cool giveaway

2011-06-09T23:16:00.001-07:00

Hey all, I've been super MIA just lots going on with Mr. Seamus finishing up school and school related things. Some medical things that will be saved for another post. But for this post I'm going to let you all in on a cool giveaway I found!

I’m posting this to enter a contest offered by Brad’s Deals at I Am Bossy! I want to win the iPad 2! Enter to win here!

So what are you waiting for go check it out!

Mohawk Rug Winner!

2011-04-20T13:37:00.002-07:00

The winner of the Mohawk Rug is #26, Kimberly!

Winner has been emailed :) thanks for entering

Happy Birthday to my sweet baby!

2011-04-08T00:55:00.002-07:00

I can't believe its already here. 2 years ago I was tossing and turning in my bed because I was going to have a baby in a few short hours! Baby Kieran was born via c-section on April 8th, 2009 @ 7:51am (due to being footling breach, and too risky to try a version). She weighed in at 6lbs 13ox and 19(or 19.5 I forget oops...lol)inches long. She took to breastfeeding like a champ, while I was in recovery still! We had some issues with her weight and latching after leaving the hospital but we pulled through and I'm proud to say that we nursed till she SELF weened in January of this year at 21½ months old!

Happy Birthday to my sweet, silly, goofy, lefty, dancing girly!

Mohawk Rug Review and Giveaway

2011-04-03T23:39:00.007-07:00

I was reproached by someone from Mohawk rugs last month about doing a review and giveaway on the blog. I was super excited to be given this chance, especially with moving to a new house. Kieran finally has her own room after almost 2yrs of sharing ours so we've been excited to decorate it and adding in the rug to review was awesome and perfect timing.

Here is some information about the nursery rugs:
-They are made with a new technology in yarn that is very soft to the touch, perfect for a baby or childs room
-Latex backing provides non skid surface for all hard surfaces or it works great to keep the rug in place on carpet
-Made from 100% Nylon. Nylon rugs are easy to take care of, they spot clean easily but you can also wash the 40"x60" size in a front load commercial washer
-Made in the USA

We got our rug on March 18th, just 2 days after moving in (review up a little late sorry!), and I waited a couple days to open it since we were still getting things organize. The first thing I noticed before opening it was how big it looked which I was excited about. Next thing I noticed was the colors, really nice and neutral to any color scheme in a girls room (I choose a brown and pink rug). Kieran's room right now is flowers, butterflies, and Tinkerbell and done in light purple, blue, and pink. The pink and brown striped rug we received for review works really well in her room.

When I laid the rug out, with the help of the kiddos, I was excited to see and feel how soft it was (so was Seamus!). I figured that the softness would go away after a couple days of walking on it and Kieran playing on it. I was super surprised and excited to see how soft it was after a few days and even now after 2 weeks of use its still just as soft as when I laid it out! I change Kieran's diaper on the rug before bed and she loves to feel the rug while laying there, I think most carpet and rugs are rough on babies but this one is nice a soft.

I think these rugs would be awesome in any nursery or child's room. They're nice and soft, and complement many decorating schemes, and a nice size too.

Mohawk has been kind enough to offer one of my readers the chance to win a rug! Winner will get the choice of rug, and size (40"x60" and a 60"x84" (5'x7').

Mandatory Entry: Like Mohawk on Facebook and let me know you did by posting your first name and last initial. (as well as an email address to contact you if you win. Mandatory Entry must be done before any extra entries)

Extra Entries: (one comment per entry_
-share this giveaway on your Facebook Wall
-Follow Mohawk on Twitter
-Follow Me on twitter (heart at top)
-Follow my blog with google friend connect
-Tweet this giveaway include @SliverStorm and @mohawk_home in the tweet, leave tweet link in comment
-add my button to your blog and tell me where to find it
-Tell me which rug you'd choose (first 6 on the list)and if it would be for your child's room or a gift

This will end on Sunday April 17th @ 11:59pm PST. At the close of this I will use Random.org to draw the winner and post on the blog. The winner has 48hrs to respond to my email before a new one will be drawn. US only.

**Disclosure**
I was not paid to post this giveaway. I was sent an item for review, and the review in this posting is my own, I did not receive any other compensation.

Going MIA

2011-03-14T10:44:00.001-07:00

I'll be MIA for about a week. We sign for the keys to the new house tomorrow (Tuesday) and our internet will be turned on at the new house "Sometime" on Thursday >.<. Time Warner only had a full day appointment available so we have to sit around all day (luckily my brother is staying with us since we have lots of appts. on Thursday's). I think I'll have a nice update blog post next week with pictures of the new house too :D

Saturday Snapshots: Listening Therapy/Therapeutic Listening

2011-03-05T15:27:00.004-08:00

The main idea is to emphasize integration of the auditory and vestibular systems together. Since there is such a close connection with visual functioning, visual processing also will likely improve. Particularly spatial awareness, and the concept of time and space.

Sensory-processing-disorder.com

Computer Fail 2011

2011-02-25T13:12:00.002-08:00

My luck with computers sucks! In late 2008, I had this feeling that something was wrong with my computer, it just seemed wrong. Hubby kept saying it was fine, and we could wait to "fix" whatever it was until tax time (Feb 2009). Sadly he was wrong and it wasn't fine, it died in late November 20008, just died, completely fried. (I don't think the graham crackers Seamus put in it helped matters much) It sucked but luckily the hard drive was still good (mother board and power supply went) so we didn't loose anything.

Fastforward to the end of January 2010, and we buy me a new computer(so ya dh and I "fought" over his desktop like a bunch of kids after school, for over a year lol). We stupidly went with HP even though we knew better, we knew they had issues with their power cords breaking and such. We got one of the newest models out at the time and paid just over $800 after taxes for it. It did pretty well till around November 2010, then the battery started having issues, and I'd have to keep it plugged in all the time or it would die. Then we had to pawn it for a month in early January 2011 due to having to pay off a lawsuit from old medical bills. We got the computer back early this month, and it "seemed" to be ok. But it didn't last long.

The warranty went up on January 29th, 2011, and exactly 2 weeks later the hard drive completely fails and dies, out of no where. We had no warning, and I had a 500gb hard drive more then half full with digital scrap booking stuff and pictures. Luckily most of my pictures were uploaded to facebook or photobucket so I didn't loose too many. Most of the pictures I lost were from the last 2 months, which sucks but at least it wasn't all of Kieran's first birthday pictures (most but not all are gone).

We then buy a new hard drive for the computer, only to remember that computers these days don't come with Microsoft disc's, so we have no way to install Windows 7 back on the computer. We do have Windows Vista from another computer we got for the kids (cheap $30 one for them to play around on) so we ended up putting that on the laptop. Huge fail Windows! Vista Sucks. My video card won't work, the drivers won't match up, Vista doesn't recognize it. We did order our Windows 7 backup disc from HP but it won't be here for a few more days.

Hubby's so ticked off with HP, and their horrid customer service, that he's trying to sell my laptop. He's done with HP and doesn't want this computer any more. We have 1 person looking at buying it (not back, $200 less then we paid a year ago), and if he does we're getting a new one. We debated whether or not to build another desktop for me. I'm planning on going back to school (if all works out) in the Fall so I wanted a laptop to take with me, plus I got spoiled with being able to lay down in bed with it, or watch a show on Netflix while taking a bath (lol). So we're going to get another laptop. We have our choices narrowed down to an Asus and a Toshiba. There's pros and cons of both so we aren't sure. Both of them have worse video cards then my current laptop which sucks (especially with my WoW withdraws from Vista not reading my video card right, right now), but the processor is better. The Asus has an Intel i5 processor which hubby likes, its just a tad better then mine so it will run a little better. But if we get the Asus I'll loose my BluRay and Lightscribe (even, though we hardly use them, it stinks)and my buttons on the laptop for easy volume and such will be gone, the Toshiba has those but the Asus doesn't. Both the Asus and Toshiba are between $550-620 so if we sell mine for $600 (asking $650, with a new hard drive in it) then we wouldnt' pay much out of pocket. Now we just have to decide which one to get.

But thats why I've been MIA so much this month. First I don't have a computer, then it super fails, and now that I have one I can't stand Vista so it drives me bonkers being on it. Oh ya and I'll be MIA again in just under 3 weeks with the move >.< lol

Moving

2011-02-15T10:56:00.003-08:00

We are finally moving! When we moved into this place in August 2008 we signed a 6month lease, and our plan was to move in Feb. 2009...well we found out a few days after we signed the lease that I was pregnant with Kieran and moving just 2 months prior to her being born probably wasn't a good idea. We decided to wait till Feb. 2010 to move, but it didn't work out right. Since November I've been watching Craigslist trying to find a place for us to move once February came. We had 3 different places in mind at the beginning of this month, each with pro's and con's and we couldn't decide which one. Once we finally decided and went to apply the people said that they had other apps and we had to wait, so we went with our second choice, same thing happened. After that we thought we wouldn't find anything, it was already 1.5weeks into Feb, and we had told our landlord we'd be moved out by Feb. 21st.

As I was looking through some rental companies around here I found one place that was similar looking outside as the current place we live. I had hubby call the rental place to see about it (and it was only 2 blocks up the road from us), but they mentioned that they had another place that was slighty bigger, and only $50/mo more. The place they mentioned was a duplex, rather then the triplex we called on, and is newer built. They had A side open but were holding it for someone who applied already. We got to go look at A side, because its the exact same as B side and B side would be the side we would get if we decided we liked it, just had to wait for the current tenants to move out. We really liked the place, a 3bd 2.5ba (opposed to our 2bd 1ba) with a fenced back yard (we have no fenced yard now and are on a fairly busy street), and the other nice thing is that its only $125 more then we pay now. One thing I realllllllly didn't like is that its the same exact layout as our current place. The front door opens to the living room then the kitchen straight back, you cannot see from the kitchen to the living room, I really wanted an open kitchen, and the laundry is in the kitchen again. All 3 beds are upstairs, along with 2 baths (one in the master one for the kids). We decided to go with this place because it had more pro's then con's. We put our deposit down on it on Friday the 11th, but we can't move till March 19th (haha lucky me on my birthday! >.<). The current tenants move out Feb. 28th but then the rental company has a 2 week period for inspection and cleaning/fixing things. So we'll have another month to move, luckily our current landlord is nice about waiting. So next month I'll probably be MIA for 2 weeks while we move and wait for Time Warner to come and hook up internet at the new place

Bright Starts Winner!

2011-02-14T13:34:00.005-08:00

The winner of the Brights Starts giveaway is #51 Jessica.

Winner has been emailed and has 48hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen :)

Kieran's going in for surgery

2011-01-31T14:54:00.002-08:00

Today we went to the ENT, Kieran's speech is behind (Average is 3-50+ words, Kieran has just over 10). We were worried that her hearing was the reason for her speech. Turns out we were right her hearing is the reason for her speech issues. When the did the first test to see how her ear drum reacts it wasn't good, her left ear hardly had a reaction at all, a tiny one at the end of the the flat line, the right had a slightly better one but still not good. And the hearing in her left ear wasn't good either (they didn't test her right?!) He said she was hearing at 30 decibels and they wanted it at 15 or higher (said the lower the # the more they could hear the softer and quieter sounds) so not terribly bad but he was worried about her ear drum not reacting like it should.

Like we thought he brought up tubes. Kieran's only had 3 ear infections since September so that wasn't the worry, he said normally kids like that with fluid on their ears he would just recheck in 6 weeks when the weather warms up. What he was worried about is the fact that its affecting her hearing and her speech, because of that he's going to put tubes in. He said we'll do the tubes then a few weeks later we will check her hearing again to see if it helps. He said this kind of hearing loss is normally reversible, in 5% (I think it was) of patients it isn't.

We are waiting on authorization from insurance but once thats in we are scheduled for the surgery on the 17th of Feb. He was also sort of worried about her tonsils and adenoids, they were larger then they should be, he said medium, so not as large as Seamus' were but he wants to watch that too. He also said they will possibly take out the adenoids if the tubes alone don't help the draining (The left ear was really full, the right a little)

Been on a Hiatus

2011-01-27T10:53:00.002-08:00

Sorry for the lack of posts since December. Seamus had a break from school, for the winter holidays and it hit us really hard. We had a lot of break downs and behavioral issues. We ended up stopping the brushing technique because it became too much of a fight. Some times he would asked to be brushed others I had to make him. Our OT said that it would cause him to regress on some behaviors but only for 2 weeks, after a month of it we couldn't take it any more. So now we're back to square 1 trying to find something else, hopefully the listening therapy but he doesn't like wearing the headphones so I'm not sure.

Other news about Seamus, we had a follow up at the Eye Specialist a few weeks ago, where we thought we would get to stop doing the dilating drops, but nope. The eye doctor (a new one, the main one in the office, since the old one left)didn't see enough of an improvement to let us stop. He has to continue the drops till April, then we will see the specialist again and decide from there whether or not to do the surgery on his eye.

Miss Kieran started Speech back in December. Her's is pretty delayed, only saying around 10 words and most are the same word just slightly said different. She sees the same speech therapist Seamus does so that's nice. Early Headstart has been worried with her hearing even though her receptive language (on the ST's test) was through the roof, so they kept testing her with the ear test that goes in the ear, which she failed multiple times since she pulls it out. I asked our pedi for a referral to the ENT (same one Seamus went to for his tonsil and adenoid surgery) to get tested in the sound booth. I'm glad that I got that referral. I found out on Saturday, when I took her to the pedi for a different reason, that she STILL has fluid on her left ear, its been months now that its been there. I'm actually quite irritated the doctors haven't done anything sooner when I kept asking about it. The doc I saw Saturday (in the office there's quite a few pedi's and NP's, when you do a "walk in" or same day appt, you see whoever is available, normally not our usual pedi.) said the ENT will most likely tube the ear, something I asked about in November to a different doc and he told me no <_<. The doc on Saturday told me that the fluid is probably the reason her speech is so bad, if its been there this long she's most likely not hearing out of that ear so its causing her to not hear words correctly. We have our ENT appt on Monday the 31st, so I'll find out more then. I kind of have to laugh though, Seamus was 2yrs 2mo old when he went to the ENT for his snoring and sleep apena, Kieran will be 22mo when she goes, pretty close to the same age, and if she gets surgery on the ear then again pretty close to the same age, lol.

Bright Starts Bounce-a-Bout ~Giveaway~

2011-01-25T20:58:00.006-08:00

I've had lots of Bright Start things for the kids, from the teething necklaces/beads, and rattles to their Exersaucers. When I saw Bright Starts post on their Facebook wall about looking for bloggers I jumped right on it, I love their stuff. Some of the first toys we bought for Kieran, while I was pregnant with her, were from Bright Start. We bought her a pink rattle, with a chewy part on one end, and some links to link on her car seat. Seamus had a couple of similar rattles when he was younger, the teething necklace, and both kids had one of their exersaucers (we've had 2, but ironically they were the "same" one lol!).

Bright Starts asked if I would be willing to do a giveaway on my blog...and well Yeah! I love their products and would love to share them with my readers!

Bright Starts has offered to giveaway a, Bright Starts Bounce-a-Bout (like an exersaucer). Here is some information on it:

Bounce, Spin & Rock in this fun filled entertainer! The unique bounce pad provides a soft surface for baby to bounce and dance. Seven entertaining toys are within baby's reach including a colorful bead chaser and push top spinner with swirling beads. The overhead toy bar also features two toys to encourage baby to reach and grab. The seat rotates 360° so baby has access to all the fun!

Features:

* Seat rotates 360° for access to all toys
* Three adjustable height settings allows entertainer to grow with baby
* Colorful bead chaser
* Frog push top spinner with swirling beads
* Spinning bee rattle ball
* Ratcheting bug with crinkle fabric wings
* Bendable firefly stalk toy
* Overhead toy arch includes teether and rattle
* Easy to clean toy tray
* Four toy loops for attaching more toys

Additional Features:

* Lays flat for storage
* Machine washable seat pad

This is a great item for babies 4months and up, lots of different toys and sensory items on it. This retails for $59.54 at Walmart.

Giveaway: Bright Starts has generosouly offered a Bounce-a-Bout to one (1) lucky Silent Storm reader!

Mandatory Entry: Visit Bright Starts site and tell me another product you'd love to try.
(must be completed before extra entries will be counted. Please leave me email address in at least 1 comment, so I can contact you if you are the winner)

Extra Entries:
-Follow Bright Starts on Facebook (2 entries/leave 2 comments)
-Follow me on Facebook (heart above)
-Follow me on Twitter (heart above)
-Follow my blog with google friend (2 entries/leave 2 comments)
-Grab my button and tell me where to find it on your blog (2 entries/leave 2 comments)
-Tweet about this giveaway. Be sure to include @SliverStorm with a link back to this post. This can be done twice a day, at least 4hrs apart.
-Blog about this giveaway, link me to the post
-Enter this giveaway into a Giveaway Mr. Linky and tell me where you did

This will end on Tuesday February 8th @ 11:59pm PST. At the close of this I will use Random.org to draw the winner and post on the blog. The winner has 48hrs to respond to my email before a new one will be drawn. US only.

**Disclosure**
I was not paid to post this giveaway. Bright Starts will send product to winner

Nana's Snowmen

2010-12-19T00:28:00.004-08:00

I have these little snow men that were my Nana's, and since I have all of her things I found them when I went through the garage. I've had them on my entertainment center but decided to stick them in their Home...yep their home, the lovely North Idaho snow of course! :D

One thing that prompted me to take this picture is that my friend Trish is having a photo contest on her blog. I know this photo isn't too fun or exciting, but having my Nana's snowmen and having a picture of them makes me feel a little better as we get ready to celebrate Christmas. This is the 2nd Christmas without Nana and its getting harder as it gets closer, I'm glad I have these snowmen.
The contest on Tutus & Sneakers is for a $20 GC to My Four Hens Photography. I love taking pictures but sometimes get frustrated getting good and neat edits. I love the look of the My Four Hens actions, they would be awesome to have when we do my brothers Senior pictures this spring/summer.

Brushing Technique

2010-12-10T01:03:00.004-08:00

Today at OT we talked about listening therapy again, something that we've planned to start for the last 2 months but one thing or another prevented it. Seamus has tried the headphones and cd player a few times at OT but he doesn't like them and always takes them off complaining they hurt his head, or its too loud, or he doesn't like the music (part of his sensory issues.). We think the listening therapy will help Seamus progress and relax, but his OT brought up a different therapy/technique to try first.

Our OT brought up the Brushing Technique, and asked if I had herd of it, which I hadn't. She explained it to me, basically it should help calm him down and give him the sensory input that he needs. She wants us to try this before we go on to the listening therapy, right now she doesn't think he would do the LT because of how he acts with the music and headphones.

She gave me a run down of what to do. I thought Seamus would freak out when she was first explaining it to me. You use a surgical brush to brush down their extremities, and back, and I thought it would be a poky and hard brush. The brush is actually fairly soft and doesn't hurt (she showed me on me then Seamus how to do it). I have to brush down his arms first, applying pressure to give him the deep sensory input he needs, then his back and last his legs. After I'm done brushing I have to do his joint compression, which is pushing all his joints in his extremities together 10x's each joint (shoulder, elbow, wrist, hips, knees and feet).

I was amazed when she showed Seamus and I. When she was doing it on me to show me how to do it, Seamus ignored us, playing with 'his' Little People. When she told him she was going to do it on him to show me some more, he wasn't too sure about it, he kind of froze up at first, he had one hand raised prepared to push her away. After a couple seconds of her brushing his arm you could see him relax more, he still held pretty stiff but he wasn't ready to push her off. To my amazement it did help calm him down for around an hour. The thing with this therapy/technique is that it doesn't last all day, it has to be done every 2-4hrs, the closer to every 2hrs the better. (but he's in school from 8am-11:45am, 4 days a week so it won't happen at those times)

I'm excited to see how this goes and hope it helps him so we can move on to the listening therapy too.

My little Ham's

2010-12-04T22:58:00.004-08:00

So I decided to try to get some Christmas-y pictures of the kids tonight...tried is the key word here. Kieran doesn't much care for smiling at the camera, never really has even our professional pictures she's more smug looking then smiley. I thought I'd give it ago, but only a couple are ok. Luckily I don't do picture cards or I'd be in trouble. These are really just pictures for me to see the kids over the years, I do it every year for the holidays (Except w/ Seamus in 08 cause I was sickly pregnant and we didn't get a tree till days before xmas).

Anyway here are our fun shots. I miss our Canon T1i right now (sadly its pawned till we can get it out in January) cause the pictures would've turned out better, but these work...lol

Winners!

2010-12-02T22:10:00.011-08:00

Sorry for the delay in posting the winners! We were pretty sick the last 2 weeks of November and felt like crud, but on the mend now.

Here we go!

The winner of the Charlie Banana OS diaper is ... Kristen!!

Daffodil Dolls Winner is...Laura!!!

And the 2 Del Monte GC winners are ... Julie!!

and... MommyTrenches!!!

All winners have been emailed and have 48hrs to respond or new winners will be chosen. As a reminder please do not enter the giveaway after the date it closes unless I've extended it :)

Wordy Wednesday

2010-11-23T21:32:00.003-08:00

The last few days have been bitterly cold. We got hit with an "Arctic Blast" from the north and..ya...FREEZING! Its been in the negative teen's with the windchill's. Sunday night through Tuesday morning we had snow and blizzards, we got around 8-10" out there of snow (and they are expecting another 6-10" for us by Sunday). Right now as I'm posting this at 9:30pm Tuesday night according to the Weather Channel its -5°F (-20C). They are warning people not to go out of their houses unless extremely needed. The schools have already canceled for Wednesday (and its still Tuesday as I write this, and we've known since around 2pm this afternoon) because the buses wont be able to run right, its so cold that diesel engines can turn to goo right now. Thank goodness Seamus was already off school for the week (preschools and Elem. was out for the whole week for Thanksgiving break), I would not want to drag them out at 7:30 in the morning to take him to school.

Wordless Wednesday: 1992, 5yrs old

2010-11-16T23:35:00.002-08:00

(love the outfit >.<)

Sickies

2010-11-13T09:03:00.002-08:00

We've all had colds for the last week. Seamus has an ear infection(first in years), and the rest of us have the fun, nose clogging snot and icky painful coughs. We're getting better though. Last night we decided to go to IHOP since kids eat free there. Kieran had been fine all day, then when we are sitting waiting for food she starts grunting, so I take her potty and find she's constipated. She refused to eat anything, but would drink. The waiter brought her some apple juice (which I really didn't want, but she had her first juice last night >.<) to help her go poo. When hubby and Seamus were done, and I was mostly done, she starts heaving and throws up all over her plate and hubby (he was holding her). Poor goose. :( We were able to drive the 15minutes home with no issues but as soon as we got home she threw up again all over the floor. We put her to bed with some water and she chugged it down, and threw up again a half hour later. Changed all the bedding and her, gave her a tiny bit of water (figured getting some down, even if its coming up, is better then none at all), and she slept for 2hrs. Between 11pm and 1am she was up throwing up 3 more times. I finally was able to nurse her and she kept that down, just dry heaving though the night. She's very very mopy today, and I'm pretty sure if I gave her any food she'd throw it up again, but she's nursing ok so we'll just keep doing that.

Here's my sicky last night at 1am (daddy had to take a picture on his phone lol)

Del Monte Fresh Produce Teacher Monday ~ Giveaway~

2010-11-11T20:30:00.006-08:00

I had planned on doing a Fruit of the Day thing on the blog but then, thanks to having a preschooler, we all got sick (Seamus has his first ear infection in years).

Here's a recap about the Teacher Monday from Del Monte.

Del Monte contacted me about doing a giveaway for their Teacher Monday promotion they have going on right now and I loved the sound of it (especially with Seamus starting school earlier this fall).

Here is some about Teacher Monday;

DEL MONTE FRESH SUPPORTS TEACHERS WITH CASH & FRESH FRUIT IN
"TEACHER MONDAY: CASH FOR CLASSROOMS"

Del Monte Fresh Produce, North America, Inc. announced today that it is launching a program to help support kindergarten thru 12th grade public school teachers across North and Central America with cash to purchase school supplies and fresh fruit in the “Teacher Monday: Cash for Classrooms” campaign. One hundred prizes totaling $1,000 each will be awarded to teachers who get the most votes in the “Teacher Monday: Cash for Classrooms” online contest at www.fruits.com.

“Monday’s can be difficult for all of us, but public school teachers face even bigger challenges these days with the largest budget cuts in 30 years expected this academic year,” said Dennis Christou, Vice President, Marketing, North America for Del Monte Fresh Produce. “Larger classrooms and far less supplies are putting enormous pressure on our teachers. The “Teacher Monday” program was designed to take some of the burden off teachers, many who pay for school supplies out of their own pockets. It will also provide teachers with tools and incentives to incorporate healthy eating messages into their curriculums, giving us an opportunity to help school children eat and live healthier,” Christou added.

To be eligible to win, teachers must register for the “Teacher Monday: Cash for Classrooms” online contest at www.fruits.com. After teachers register their name and school, they can get all their fans -- from parents to students, to friends and family -- to vote for them. Ten winners will be selected each Monday for five consecutive weeks in October/November, 2010, for a total of 50 winning teachers North American teachers. Winners are based solely on the number of votes they receive. Winning teachers will receive $750 in cash to purchase school supplies and $250 in Del Monte fresh fruit coupons for classroom snacks and to use in fruit educational activities.

In an effort to support schools in less developed countries where many Del Monte products are grown, and where classrooms are also experiencing economic disadvantages, the “Teacher Monday: Cash for Classrooms” program will link winning U.S. classrooms with a school in Guatemala or Costa Rica. The 50 selected Central American schools will also receive $1,000 each for school supplies.
“By linking U.S. and Central American schools, we want to help further the education of students by introducing them to another culture. Our hope is that sister schools will communicate with each other about fun physical activities and their favorite fruit dishes,” said Christou.

Beginning early Fall, consumers can expect to see “Teacher Monday: Cash for Classrooms” stickers on Del Monte Fresh Produce such as pineapples, bananas, melons, grapes, tomatoes and fresh-cut fruits and vegetables, as well as colorful posters and other materials in produce departments.

Finally, each week of promotion, Del Monte will distribute $25 gift certificate booklets for Del Monte Fresh Produce to consumers in major markets across the U.S. and Canada. Consumers will be notified about the giveaways via Twitter, Facebook, and radio promotions.

Check it out on their web page Fruits.com.

Entering is easy, the Teacher goes to fruits.com and sign up, fill out the information and write a little something about yourself and what you would use the prize for ($1000, $750 cash and $250 in fresh fruit gift certificates, awarded every Monday to ten teachers), as well as how you promote or plan to promote healthy eating to your classroom. After you submit your 'essay' tell your students, their parents, friends and families to vote for you (they can vote once a day). The top 10 teachers receiving the most votes will receive the prizes, every Monday (started October 18th). Also votes from non-winning teachers will carry over so keep voting!

I also wanted to point out some yummy fruit recipes that are listed on fruits.com, they look super yummy.

Giveaway:
Del Monte has sent me two (2) $25 Gift Certificates, for two (2) of my readers to win, to use on their Fresh Produce!

Mandatory Entry:
Go to Del Monte's Fruit Facts page, on their Teacher Monday page, and tell me a fun fruit fact that you learned.
(mandatory entry must be completed before any other entries will count. Please leave me your email address in the johndoe at emailprovider dot com format.)

Extra Entries:
-Follow Del Monte Fresh Produce on Facebook
-Follow Del Monte Fresh Produce on Twitter
-Follow me on Facebook (heart above)
-Follow me on Twitter (heart above)
-Follow my blog with google friend
-Spread the word about Teacher Monday and write a blog post about it (leave me the link)
-Tweet about this giveaway. Be sure to include @SliverStorm, @DelMonteFresh AND Teacher Monday along with a link back to this post. Can be done 3x's a day at least 2hrs apart, be sure to leave a link as soon as you tweet.
-Enter the Daffodil Dolls Giveaway
-Tell me what your favorite Teacher taught you in school

Be sure to tell your Children's Teachers about Teacher Monday, it ends on the 15th of November. Also feel free to share pictures on Del Monte's facebook.

This will end on Sunday November 21st 11:59pm PST. At the close of this I will use Random.org to draw the winner and post on the blog. The winner has 48hrs to respond to my email before a new one will be drawn. US only.

**Disclosure**
I was sent two (2) gift certificates to giveaway on my blog, did not receive any other compensation.

Charlie Banana ~ Review & Giveaway ~

2010-11-10T21:46:00.010-08:00

I found out about Charlie Banana early in the summer, it looked super neat. I emailed asking if they were doing any reviews yet and found out, at the time, they still hadn't been released in the US yet, but they agreed to sponsor a review once they were. I was super excited.

Charlie Banana is from Hong Kong China, and very well made. Here is a little about their company:

"Winc Design Limited is a Hong Kong base Company. The team is an eclectic mix of Canadian, American, French, British, Hong Kong, which gives wonderful results. We are a distributor and a manufacturer. We only distribute items we manufacture directly so we can control everything from start to finish. Being based in Hong Kong is ideal for shipping all over the world. It reduces shipping cost for our customers and it allows us to reduce carbon footprint by having our manufacturing at our door.

Gaelle & CharlieWinc Design Ltd. was nominated last year as “Earth Champion” for waste reduction. Earth champion is a wonderful organization operating worldwide. www.earthchampions.com. At Winc Design Ltd it is Earth Day every day! We are actively promoting waste reduction and have gained tremendous support from major retailers all over the world.

With many years of experience in the Toy and Juvenile Industry as well as being a mother of two young children, Winc Design’s president, Gaëlle Wizenberg, decided to create a custom line – Charlie Banana™ . Born from the Winc Design family, Charlie Banana™ is a product collection that combines eco friendliness, quality and design in one brand. Charlie Banana™ is a result of inspiration and joy from the owner’s children – her son Zachary and daughter Charlie, or “Charlie Banana” as Zachary calls her. It’s with great joy that Charlie Banana™ comes to life."

Review:
When I got this diaper I was super excited about the packaging, all the Hong Kong stamps and custom labels were so cool! I opened the package in the car after getting to Seamus' speech appt (which he was annoyed with lol). When I got the package open I was amazed by the diaper, it was so so so soft, and the pattern they sent me was beautiful! I was sent 1 OS diaper with little butterflies on it, 2 microfiber inserts, 2 disposable inserts and a carrying bag. Such an awesome package.

I was super excited to get home and prep the diaper. Once preped I put it on Kieran for a nap, our first test. I was surprised by the fit, I have the button settings between the 5 and 4 and I was still able to cross the tabs! The fit was perfect, I love the fit on this diaper, unlike some of our other OS diapers this one was easier to find a good setting on and get a good tight (without red marks!) fit. I also loved that the pocket opening is up front so you don't have to get messy poo everywhere when taking out the insert. The diaper did perfect at nap time, no leaks and dry wake up. I also tried it at night a few nights later with both inserts in and again, perfect, no leaking and dry wake up.

The next thing I tried was the disposable insert. I was a little afraid of this because we've tried another disposable insert from another company back in February and didn't care for them. This insert was great, I think it could be a little more narrow cause it seemed a tad too wide but it fit on Kieran well. I had planned on taking her out and about to Seamus' speech with it on but she had other plans and pooed in it with in an hour. It was nice being able to just pull it out and toss, and only a tiny bit of poo missed the insert. The nice thing about this insert is that it gets tucked under the front flap to help it stay in place, not sticky tabs that have to be stuck (and never come off) on the diaper!

Over all I loved this diaper! Its now in my top 2 favorite pocket diapers (the other one being a different style then this). I also love the cute prints and they also have both gentle soft solid colors and awesome bright colors!

Charlie Banana is a nice company to work with, they respond super quick with replies and the staff is super friendly. Charlie Banana also offered to sponsor a giveaway!

Giveaway:
One of my readers will win a Charlie Banana OS diaper and Single Wipes!

Mandatory Entry: Go to Charlie Banana's web site and take a look around. Tell me your favorite color/print, of diaper they offer AND something neat you learned about the company. Please answer both in 1 {one} comment.
(both parts of the mandatory entry must be done before doing any other "extra" entries. Also please leave me your email address in the joedoe at emailprovider dot com so I can contact you if you win.)

Extra Entries:
-Fan Charlie Banana on Facebook
-Follow Charlie Banana on Twitter
-Fan me on Facebook (heart on top)
-Follow me on Twitter (heart again)
-Enter the Daffodil Dolls giveaway
-Follow my blog via Google Friend Connect
-Add my button to your blog and tell me where to find it
-Tell me what made you want to start cloth diapering
-Tell me other ways you are more "green"
-Blog about this giveaway linking back to this post and Charlie Banana
-Add this giveaway to any giveaway Linky's (that are within the last week) and leave me the link to where you put it
-Tweet about this giveaway, be sure to include #clothdiapers, @SliverStorm and @CharlieBanana as well as a link back to this post. 2 tweets per day at least 4hrs apart, and make sure to post your tweet link as soon as you tweet, not hours later.

This will end on Wednesday November 24th 11:59pm PST. At the close of this I will use Random.org to draw the winner and post on the blog. The winner has 48hrs to respond to my email before a new one will be drawn. US only.

**Disclosure**
I was sent this product review, I did not receive any other compensation. The review is my own and my honest opinion of the product.

Day 3 of 30

2010-11-09T23:06:00.004-08:00

Day 03- A picture of you and your friends .... hmmm this one is hard, only one I can think of is from when I was 17...gotta look through the mom's facebook to see if she has any. Ok nope she didn't have the picture I thought she did...so heres one from my 17th birthday (March 2004) me and my friends playing Trivial Pursuit.

Wait .... you say I'm not in it ... yes I am, see my head in the corner :p

Okay, Okay here's one of me from that night, goofing off...

I'm 99% of the time the one behind the camera so its rare to have a picture of me with people. But there you go the closest picture I have of me and my friends (sadly I haven't seen the people in the first one since 2005, and Shanena (the one in the 2nd picture corner) I still see every few weeks)

Daffodil Dolls Review and Giveaway

2010-11-07T17:01:00.011-08:00

One of my friends from JustMommies approached me about doing a review and giveaway of her doll clothes, with Kieran getting into the age of dolls I was super excited to be given this opportunity!

I've known Ruth online now for about 2yrs, and she is a wonderful lady. She is a SAHM to two boys and expecting her first little girl later this month. I kind of look up to her with how she makes all this cute stuff! Here is a little bit about her Hyena Cart store Daffodil Dolls:

"Daffodil Dolls provides quality, affordable, handmade doll clothes and accessories. I began making doll clothes shortly after I received my first American Girl doll as a birthday gift. We didn’t have a lot of extra money to buy a bunch of clothes for my dolls so my mom taught me to sew. After my mom passed away from breast cancer sewing became a very special hobby for me and my store is named after one of my mom's favorite flowers. Now almost 20 years after making my first doll dress I still love sewing doll clothes. When I became a stay-at-home mom I turned my hobby into a small business. It is my desire to provide handmade doll clothes at reasonable prices so that anyone can enjoy having a fun wardrobe for their dolls.

I have try to provide outfits that will fit a wide variety of dolls. I personally own 18" American Girl dolls, and 15" Bitty Baby dolls so I know the clothes will fit those specific dolls. While I cannot guarantee how they will fit every type of doll many of my outfits will also fit Waldorf dolls and a variety of stuffed animals. I am always happy to provide the measurements of my outfits so you can check to see if they will work for your doll.

I also enjoy doing custom orders which include making outfits for boy dolls. I can also making matching child/doll outfits.

When necessary I recommend hand washing doll clothes in cool water with a mild detergent and laying them out to air dry."

Review:

Ruth was super sweet and even asked if she could send something for Seamus too to use on his stuffed animals. Seamus helped pick out the shirt for one of his animals and he loved being able to do that. It didn't take long at all to get the clothes, and when I did I was shocked to see that a couple of the items had only been made days before! Ruth has these super cute tags that she sews into the clothes and dates them so you know when they were made. The shirts and dresses close with aplix. I love the aplix on them because its easier for the kids to get them on and off with out having to mess with hooks or snaps. The bottoms are elastic waisted and super easy to pull on and off.

Seamus was super excited to get something for his animals, but ended up taking Kieran's bear (standard Build a Bear bear) to play with. He got the shirt on super easy and thought it was funny he could dress the bear. The pants he had a little hard time with (partly due to his SPD though) but the bear is stuffed more then usual cause we made him with more stuffin's. Seamus spent over an hour taking the clothes off and on he loves it.

Kieran still isn't too sure how to put the clothes on but she sure figured out how to get them off and brings it right back up to get them on, hehe. We recently bought Kieran her first real baby doll and it was perfect for the dress and bloomers. The dress fit really well and I think it could even fit a doll that was a little larger and still be a good fit. I love the more "classic" look of the dress, so much nicer then the clothes a lot of these dolls come with now days.

Overall I really really loved these, they are super well made. I think Ruth pays good attention to her products and does a wonderful job making them. I'm actually making a list of some to buy Kieran for Christmas!

Daffodil Dolls doesn't just make doll clothes though, they also offer a nice range of accessories from gloves, to scarfs, doll leg warmers, hats and even doll necklaces! I think these would be perfect for that little girl in your life (or even little boy for their animals!) for Christmas, birthday's, Easter or a just because gift!

One super cool thing I wanted to point out that Daffodil Dolls offer is trading. Ruth loves to trade things! Here's a little about that:

"If you are interested in trading send me an e-mail with pictures of what you have and tell me what you are wanting from my store. Once we agree upon a fair trade you will ship the items to me and then like with any other purchase once I receive the "payment" I'll ship your items out right away. If you have 50 or more positive feedback transactions here or on another buying/selling site (ie eBay, Etsy, Diaperswappers etc) I am fine with us both shipping our packages at the same time. For trades I require that all packages must be shipped with delivery confirmation to protect both parties. Please understand that while I do like to trade there may be times that I will not be able to trade so please be understanding if I do have to say no."

Ruth has been super awesome in letting me do a review of her awesome doll clothes and is even more awesome because she's offering a chance for one of my readers to win!

Giveaway:
Ruth of Daffodil Dolls is offering one of my readers a chance to win a $15 gift certificate to Daffodil Dolls Hyena Cart store!

Mandatory Entry:
Take a look through Daffodil Dolls store and tell me what you would get if you won and who you would get it for.
(Mandatory entry must be completed before you can do any of the "extra" entries. Also please leave me your email address in the johndoe at emailprovider dot com format so I can contact you and bots dont pick it up)

Extra Entries:
-Become a fan of Daffodil Dolls facebook
-Become a fan of my facebook (heart at top)
-Follow me on Twitter (also a heart)
-Follow me on Google Friend Connect
-Blog about this giveaway
-Email 3 friends about this and cc a copy to me (knjmcd at gmail dot com)
-Tweet this giveaway, can be done twice a day at least 4hrs apart, also make sure to leave me the link of each tweet at the time of the tweet not hours later. Make sure to include a link back to this post and @SliverStorm in the tweet.
-Tell me your favorite memory of dressing things up

This will end on Sunday November 21st 11:59pm PST. At the close of this I will use Random.org to draw the winner and post on the blog. The winner has 48hrs to respond to my email before a new one will be drawn. US only.

**Disclosure**
I was sent this product review, I did not receive any other compensation. The review is my own and my honest opinion of the product.

Del Monte Fresh Produce Teacher Monday

2010-11-04T22:33:00.008-07:00

Del Monte contacted me about doing a giveaway for their Teacher Monday promotion they have going on right now and I loved the sound of it (especially with Seamus starting school earlier this fall).

Here is some about Teacher Monday;

DEL MONTE FRESH SUPPORTS TEACHERS WITH CASH & FRESH FRUIT IN
"TEACHER MONDAY: CASH FOR CLASSROOMS"

Del Monte Fresh Produce, North America, Inc. announced today that it is launching a program to help support kindergarten thru 12th grade public school teachers across North and Central America with cash to purchase school supplies and fresh fruit in the “Teacher Monday: Cash for Classrooms” campaign. One hundred prizes totaling $1,000 each will be awarded to teachers who get the most votes in the “Teacher Monday: Cash for Classrooms” online contest at www.fruits.com.

“Monday’s can be difficult for all of us, but public school teachers face even bigger challenges these days with the largest budget cuts in 30 years expected this academic year,” said Dennis Christou, Vice President, Marketing, North America for Del Monte Fresh Produce. “Larger classrooms and far less supplies are putting enormous pressure on our teachers. The “Teacher Monday” program was designed to take some of the burden off teachers, many who pay for school supplies out of their own pockets. It will also provide teachers with tools and incentives to incorporate healthy eating messages into their curriculums, giving us an opportunity to help school children eat and live healthier,” Christou added.

To be eligible to win, teachers must register for the “Teacher Monday: Cash for Classrooms” online contest at www.fruits.com. After teachers register their name and school, they can get all their fans -- from parents to students, to friends and family -- to vote for them. Ten winners will be selected each Monday for five consecutive weeks in October/November, 2010, for a total of 50 winning teachers North American teachers. Winners are based solely on the number of votes they receive. Winning teachers will receive $750 in cash to purchase school supplies and $250 in Del Monte fresh fruit coupons for classroom snacks and to use in fruit educational activities.

In an effort to support schools in less developed countries where many Del Monte products are grown, and where classrooms are also experiencing economic disadvantages, the “Teacher Monday: Cash for Classrooms” program will link winning U.S. classrooms with a school in Guatemala or Costa Rica. The 50 selected Central American schools will also receive $1,000 each for school supplies.
“By linking U.S. and Central American schools, we want to help further the education of students by introducing them to another culture. Our hope is that sister schools will communicate with each other about fun physical activities and their favorite fruit dishes,” said Christou.

Beginning early Fall, consumers can expect to see “Teacher Monday: Cash for Classrooms” stickers on Del Monte Fresh Produce such as pineapples, bananas, melons, grapes, tomatoes and fresh-cut fruits and vegetables, as well as colorful posters and other materials in produce departments.

Finally, each week of promotion, Del Monte will distribute $25 gift certificate booklets for Del Monte Fresh Produce to consumers in major markets across the U.S. and Canada. Consumers will be notified about the giveaways via Twitter, Facebook, and radio promotions.

Check it out on their web page Fruits.com, while you're looking also add them on Twitter and Facebook.

Entering is easy, the Teacher goes to fruits.com and sign up, fill out the information and write a little something about yourself and what you would use the prize for ($1000, $750 cash and $250 in fresh fruit gift certificates, awarded every Monday to ten teachers), as well as how you promote or plan to promote healthy eating to your classroom. After you submit your 'essay' tell your students, their parents, friends and families to vote for you (they can vote once a day). The top 10 teachers receiving the most votes will receive the prizes, every Monday (started October 18th). Also votes from non-winning teachers will carry over so keep voting!

I also wanted to point out some yummy fruit recipes that are listed on fruits.com, they look super yummy and I may try to get Seamus to eat some of them.

I will have a giveaway posted in a few days with two $25 Del Monte gc's so be on the lookout, but in the mean time tell your childrens teachers to sign up for this! Fruits.com also has some fun fruit facts on their site so I'm going to try to post one fact a day about a fruit to help promote this :D

Day 2 of 30

2010-11-04T22:25:00.002-07:00

I know, I know its been a couple weeks since I posted Day 1 but life got the best of me.

Anyway, Day 02- The meaning behind your blog name ... That's easy. It started as a name that I just liked the sound of, but as Seamus got older I realized that he (now both kids) was my little Silent Storm, it would take him 30 seconds to have every toy pulled out and in the living room, or quietly sneaking off into a corner with a new pack of toilet paper and shredding every roll. My kids are my Silent Storms :D

Baby Dipper Bowl ~WINNER!!!~

2010-11-04T21:06:00.005-07:00

So so sorry for the delay in getting this up. I'm finally more on track now, the last week has been hard.

But without further ado, the winner is....

(And a full screen shot)

The winner is #30 Lindsey G. who said:

Winner has been emailed and has 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. Thank you all for entering!

I will also have a Daffodil Dolls review and giveaway up tomorrow(Friday) or Saturday.

Behind

2010-10-30T21:24:00.002-07:00

I'm behind in announcing the winner of the Baby Dipper Bowel, and in putting up 2 reviews/giveaways (Charlie Banana and Daffodil Dolls). Halfway through Wednesday I started to get a really bad pain and though I was having an odd bladder infection (but it didn't hurt to pee) and by early evening it got really bad and my mom ended up taking me to the ER. I have/had a kidney stone. Its the worst pain I have ever been in, even the post c-section pain with Kieran wasn't as bad and that was bad pain (I can't really compare it to labor since I've never really felt labor, since they gave me my epi an hour after breaking my water with Seamus and Kieran was straight into a c-section for being breech), but they say kidney stones hurt worse then labor does. I was pretty embarrassed after the fact because I was laying across 3 chairs in the ER lobby bawling it hurt so bad and no matter how I was laying or sitting I was still in horrid pain. I think its finally passed because going to the bathroom is easier but my side and kidney area are still pretty sore especially if I do too much or don't move slow enough.
I hope to get everything up and finished early this coming week. Sorry for the delay.

Special Needs Blog Hop

2010-10-22T11:46:00.002-07:00

I found this blog hop trough another JM mommy (Dotcomkari) and decided to link up too.
Its pretty neat, hosted by Autism Learning Felt and Super Mommy To The Rescue.

They have a Question on the blog so I will go a head and answer it.

Question for this Week: Introduce yourself and your Blog to us so we can get to know you:

I'm Justine, 23 and I live in North Idaho. I married Kenneth in 2006 after a year long engagement. Together we have 2 great kids.

My oldest, Seamus, is 4, born July 18th, 2006. Seamus just started preschool at Head Start and is loving it (and I'm liking the breaks too hehe). His life has been far from easy. When Seamus was a newborn he was constantly spitting up and throwing up, we went to a few doctors and NP's at our office and they all said it was normal. We finally found a doc in our clinic that told it it wasn't normal and that Seamus had GERD Reflux (he would vomit a foot or more a way a few times a day and was always spitting up after each meal), we tried a few medications before Previcad finally worked. When Seamus was 2mo old the Torticollis was caught and he started OT through Early Intervention, and a few weeks later we found the Plagiocephally (caught by the Tort.). While in OT we started realizing his delays and how far behind he was, he was anywhere from 3-6mo delayed on average, some things more. His doctor wasn't sure why he was delayed, she said that Tort doesn't usually cause kids to be delayed like he was. Seamus went through a couple tests, like a CT scan and a Cystic Fibrosis test, but they all came back normal. The CT Scan did reveal Macrocephally, which we sort of knew since his head had always been in the 95+%. When he was 6 or 7 months old he started PT as well as continuing his OT. At 15months they wanted him to start Speech Therapy too but we were moving out of state. The state we moved to said that Seamus was fine and they wouldn't offer any services to him. We moved back home 8months later and got right back into the swing of things. Seamus was now having behavior issues as well as his speech problems. His doctor is great and on the ball and listens to what we have to say. We started him on Melatonin in June of '09 because he was only sleeping for 3-4hrs a night and his behavior issues got worse with the lack of sleep. But the melatonin didn't help fully and in January he was started on Tenex to help calm him down (he's constantly moving and in motion), and she also referred him to a Counselor and hopped he would also be seen to get evaluated for Aspergers (what we thought for years he had), and she also put a referral in for Speech because his speech had gotten behind. Consoling was going great, but no one would see him for an Autism spectrum evaluation telling us to go to Infant-Toddler/Early Intervention (He was too old for EI and the others wouldn't see him till age 6). I was super upset with the run around we were still getting about things as was his doctor. Finally in July (almost 7 months after the referral) we got a call from the Speech Pathologist saying they had an opening and they wanted to evaluate Seamus. The day we went in was like a huge light bulb going off for us. Seamus was diagnosed with Articulation Disorder and a Minor Speech delay (its more how he says the words we can't understand), but during the evaluation the Speech Therapist asked me if he'd been evaluated for Sensory issues. The feeling when she said that was almost peaceful and wonderful, finally someone else was noticing things besides me and my family and it wasn't all in my head. She helped us get a referral from out doctor so Seamus could see the Sensory OT at the same place we have ST at. It took a month to get into the OT eval but that day was also a great day for me, finally figuring things out and a way that we can help Seamus. Seamus was diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder and a Fine Motor delay(his average score in FM was a 25%). Seamus has both Hyper and Hypo Sensitivities, but now that we know more about them and why he does some of the things he does its become very helpful.

Kieran is my second child, she is 18½ months old, born April 8th, 2009. Kieran is a lot different then her brother. She's always been more social then he was at similar ages and she loves to interact with people (with Seamus that's only started in the last 1-1.5yrs). She loves to dance and is starting to like to dress up. Kieran has hit the age of Separation Anxiety and stands by me when ever we go somewhere new (something Seamus has never done). Kieran is behind in speech but for right now they are just watching her, and I was told recently because of Seamus' issues Kieran may be behind since she models after him. Its been a whole different experience with Kieran and its "odd" seeing how children from the same 2 parents can be so different developmentally and physically.

Day 1 of 30

2010-10-21T09:06:00.003-07:00

Day 01- A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself

Gotta come back with the picture, its on hubby's phone

1. I am both the oldest child and the only child so I got the view from both sides (oldest with my mom and only for my dad)
2. I am very scatter brained, I remember odd things and forget simple things and do things randomly
3. I love to cook and bake but hate the clean up so I don't do it often
4. I'm addicted to Pepsi, badly, to the point that I have to have at least 1 a day or I get a massive headache
5. I am a night owl, generally up till 1-2am
6. I made my mom a grandma at 36yrs old (almost 37. I was 19)
7. Make up sucks. I hate it and very very rarely will use it, I prefer natural beauty for everyone
8. History is my most favorite thing in the world. Its my dream to be a Historian but I don't think it will happen since its not a very highly wanted position or paid well in most cases
9. All my grandparents are still alive and in their 60's, except for my grandma who passed last May in her 70's
10. I've always wanted to live on the East Coast, where the History is (1600-1800 history)
11. I have a very short temper and get irritated fast
12. I also have really bad self esteem and super high anxiety (I think everyone is out to get me)
13. I am very Liberal and a Democrat (if you couldn't figure that out :p)
14. I have 1 tattoo and have had quite a few piercings. My lip, nose, tongue and alot in my ears. I'm planning another tattoo for Feb if money works out.
15. I never thought I would have more then 1 kid. Then after Seamus was born I couldn't live with the thought of him being siblingless (I think I just made up a word :P)

Snatch and Steal

2010-10-19T09:00:00.003-07:00

I've seen this on a couple mommy blogs I follow(Trish and Rachel's) and I kept thinking I'd try it but never got around to it. I finally decided it was time to take part in the fun :). I'll try to get one up every day but I'm also looking for a Seasonal job right now, so we can move, so I won't have as much time on the computer as before.

Day 01- A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself
Day 02- The meaning behind your blog name
Day 03- A picture of you and your friends
Day 04- A habit that you wish you didn’t have
Day 05- A picture of somewhere you’ve been to
Day 06- Favorite super hero and why
Day 07- A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you
Day 08- Short term goals for this month and why
Day 09- Something you’re proud of in the past few days
Day 10- Songs you listen to when you are Happy, Sad, Bored, Hyped, Mad
Day 11- Another picture of you and your friends
Day 12- How you found out about blogs and why you made one
Day 13- A letter to someone who has hurt you recently
Day 14- A picture of you and your family
Day 15- Put your iPod on shuffle: First 10 songs that play
Day 16- Another picture of yourself
Day 17- Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why
Day 18- Plans/dreams/goals you have
Day 19- Nicknames you have; why do you have them
Day 20- Someone you see yourself marrying/being with in the future
Day 21- A picture of something that makes you happy
Day 22- What makes you different from everyone else
Day 23- Something you crave for a lot
Day 24- A letter to your parents
Day 25- What I would find in your bag
Day 26- What you think about your friends
Day 27- Why are you doing this 30 day challenge
Day 28- A picture of you last year and now, how have you changed since then?
Day 29- In this past month, what have you learned
Day 30- Who are you?

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awarness

2010-10-15T11:46:00.001-07:00

Baby Dipper Bowl Review and Giveaway! ~Extended!~

2010-10-01T09:33:00.011-07:00

I've seen this unique bowl around on other blogs and I was always interested in how different it was. I decided to ask Baby Dipper if they'd be willing to do a review, and to my excitement they said yes!! Kieran is at the age now that she's learning to feed herself with utensils so I thought this would be a perfect time to do a review.

When I first opened the bowl the first thing I noticed was the rubber bottom, to help keep it from moving around. The next thing I noticed was the shape of the spoon and fork, they are slightly curved to fit in the hand of toddlers and fit the way they hold things at this age. I also love how the spoon and fork fit perfectly in the bottom of the bowl so it can get everything out.

The very first thing I tried with the bowl was just a simple snack of Kix Cereal and it worked nice, Kieran could even hold on to the bowl a lot better then any of our other ones. Kieran hid it so it took me a couple days to find it >.<. When I found it the next thing I had her try was some spaghetti in it. She did awesome, it was super easy for her to hold the spoon and fork (tried both) and it was easy for her to eat out of it. I love that this bowl will help her learn to eat on her own. One thing that I think would be awesome is if they had some larger ones for older toddlers/preschoolers, but over all this was an awesome bowl, great design and very user friendly.

About the Baby Dipper Bowl:
-BPA-free, lead-free, and phthalate-free
-Transparent sides allow easy viewing of food
-Contoured interior guides food to spoon
-Spoon fits in lower corner of bowl
-Non-slip base helps prevent sliding
-Holds 4 fluid ounces
-Microwave safe
-Hand washing is recommended but it can be washed on the top rack of dishwashers

I think that this bowl is reasonably priced at $9.95. I've seen different bowl sets go for much higher and those sets were not worth it.

Baby Dipper has generously offed to giveaway one of their bowls to one of my readers!!

Mandatory Entry (make sure this is completed or the others will not count): Tell me why you would what this bowl and who it would be for.

Be sure to leave your email so I can contact you if you win, leave it in the johndoe at emailprovider dot com format so bots can't pick it up.

Extra Entries:
-Become a Baby Dipper Facebook "liker"
-"Like" my page on Facebook, heart at the top of the page
-Follow Baby Dipper on Twitter
-Follow me on Twitter, heart at the top of the page
-Sign up for Baby Dipper's newsletter
-Follow my RSS feed, heart at top
-Follow Baby Dipper's Blog
-Follow my blog with Google Friend
-Add my button to your blog and tell me where to find it
-Blog about this giveaway
-Add this giveaway to a giveaway linky and tell me where it is
-Tweet about this giveaway (once a day) including @BabyDipper and @SliverStorm or you can use:
"I want to win a @BabyDipper Bowl from @SliverStorm ends 10/15 http://tinyurl.com/SilentStormbdp"

This will end on ~~Friday October 15th 11:59pm PST~~ Extended till 10/27 At the close of this I will use Random.org to draw the winner and post on the blog. The winner has 48hrs to respond to my email before a new one will be drawn. US only.

**Disclosure**
I was sent this product review, I did not receive any other compensation. The review is my own and my honest opinion of the product.

~Also note that previous winners of Baby Dipper bowls (in giveaways sponsored by Baby Dipper, LLC) are not eligible to win again~

Babee Covee Review

2010-09-29T21:33:00.003-07:00

I found out about Babee Covee on JustMommies, and asked to do a review for them. I got this awesome 6-in-1 Babee Covee in the mail and loved it! The Babee Covee can be used 6 different ways and is a great versatile blanket/cover. Babee Covee can be used as; an Infant Car Seat cover, a Stroller blanket, a General Purpose blanket, High Chair Cover, Shopping Cart cover and nursing Cover.

The first thing I used it on was a High Chair. We went out to eat at Texas Roadhouse for our 4th wedding anniversary and I hate putting Kieran in high chairs cause I don't think they get very cleaned. I loved this cover for the high chair, she didn't have to touch any of the the chair (other then her bum), and people kept saying how cute and cool it looked! Kieran kept rubbing her hands on it she loved the way it felt and would point to the birds and make noises at them. (sadly we forgot to get pictures)

Next I used it in the stroller while taking Seamus to speech one morning. It was only 40-50 out, so pretty chilly and I forgot a jacket for her since she doesn't ride in the car seat with one. I put this on the stroller, again pretty easy to do, and she was nice and covered. After a while she pulled part of it down becuase she got toasty in the Speech room, hehe. I loved that I could tie it on and she couldn't get it off so it kept it safe, unlike a normal blanket that she could take off and throw on the floor.

(Cell phone photo, little blurry sorry)

The last thing I tried was the shopping cart cover. I think I may have tied it on wrong because it kept sliding off in the back but other then that it was great. I liked that neither of us had to touch the yucky, germy handles. And again people kept saying how cute and cool it was.

It was very easy to put on and take off of the things I tried, and I would recommend this cover it was awesome. I also loved the pattern of it, it wasn't the plain boring cover like most out there, it was cute and perfect for a baby or even nursing. Since Kieran's a little older I didn't try it on her infant seat since we leave it in the car now and just take her in and out (too heavy to carry a 19½lb 17.5mo old in an infant seat lol) but I can see how this would be an awesome Infant seat cover. I think it would also be an awesome nursing cover in the winter or cooler months, I didn't try it since we don't nurse more then 5-6x's a day and they are almost all done at home now, but if I had a younger baby I would be using this as a cover. I say that using it as a nursing cover in the cooler or winter months would be better cause I think its a little thick to use in the summer months but perfect for nursing in the cooler months, it would keep your exposed areas warm and baby's head warm at the same time.

Over all I really liked this 6-in-1 Babee Covee. It was really well made, I can tell they pay great attention to detail and put out a great product. I would recommend this for new parents or even for a nice baby shower gift!

Check out Babee Covee on their website

Babee Covee Stats:
-Measures approximately 30"x40"
-Made in the USA
-Reinforced with double stitching throughout
-Each one is hand inspected for perfection
-Cost is $79.50

**Disclosure**
I was sent this product review, I did not receive any other compensation. The review is my own and my honest opinion of the product.

A Merry Fluffy Christmas Giveaway Event

2010-09-22T18:43:00.007-07:00

I've decided to tank the plunge into a Blog Giveaway Event and its fun but scary at the same time! This event, started by And Then There Were 4, is going to be A Merry Fluffy Christmas!! A Fluffy event, super exciting!!

Here is a little about the event:

This December 1-5, be prepared to visit many different blogs doing a giveaway package a day, valued at least $25 per day, of ONLY CLOTH PRIZES!!!

(So that's at least $125 in cloth prizes for each blog!!)

This is the first year that I've been doing reviews and giveaways so I'm a little scared of this but I've got to start somewhere right?! I'm trying to find sponsors right now which is proven to be the most difficult part since my blog is small, but I'm working on it :)

Right now I have 4 lovely sponsors!! Give them a visit and watch the blog for the reviews coming in a few weeks!
Precious Bunz
TKCuddlers
Nivy Naps
Prairie Tails

If you are interested in sponsoring a small blog like mine send me a message, I'd love to work with you :D
knjmcd at gmail dot com

Green Blog Hop!!

2010-09-21T22:03:00.004-07:00

If you are a "Green" blog, love to read about being "green" or starting to become "green" then this blog hop is for you!!

About the hop

The purpose of creating this blog hop was not to create yet another general hop, but to help network bloggers who have taken the initiative to go green for the purpose of education and continuing efforts of saving our planet - one home at a time.

To join the hop

* PLEASE make sure to put the button on your site and make a quick blog entry (which can be found on the host blogs :D)

* Follow the blogs of the ladies in the top three spots :
Going Green with Noah, And Then There Were 4 and Tales of the Wife

*Link your green blog to the MckLinky below

* Follow as many other blogs as you want. The more you follow, the more that will follow you back! If someone follows you, it is common courtesy to follow back.

Gentle Cycle Pads Review

2010-09-21T20:56:00.004-07:00

Cloth Pads or "Mama Cloth" something new for me to venture into. I was always a little weirded out about cloth pads, till it hit me that it was no different then cloth diapers, actually a little less icky then diapers. At the same time that I realzied they weren't "icky" I thought I should probably make the switch since we have spent between $20-40 a month in disposable pads since Kieran was 8 weeks old. Something happened, all we know is I had a uterine infection whether it was caused by the c-section and never caught or the IUD put in at 6weeks PP but I've had female issues since then (got better after 2 rounds of antibiotics but after 2mo of being better it got worse then it was before). Because of the issues I've been having its scared me to take a full plunge into Mama cloth because I didn't think they would work for someone like me. But I was approached by Cindy from Gentle Cycle Pads and asked if I could do a review of one of her cloth pads.

Gentle Cycle Pads are made by Cindy a mom of 3. I was super excited when she asked me to review her pads. I'd never tried any before due to my fears of them not working for me, but I wanted to try them. Cindy sent me a Punk pad, it has cute skulls on the pretty print side and purple flannel on the other. The pad she sent me was for light to light-medium flow so its taken me a little to be able to post this.

I have to say I'm now addicted to cloth pads. The first day I wore it I was in Heaven. I've been having an issue with the rubbing feeling from the disposable ones and to wear a cloth pad and feel like I was just wearing underwear was so awesome! I was able to wear it on a fairly light day for around 3hrs and didn't have any leaks or issues at all, it went perfectly (and the few times after that I've used it too!). These are a great, ecofriendly, convenient, and natural feeling pad and for a great price too.

To see Cindy's pads check out her etsy shop Gentle Cycle Pads
Her blog
And Gentle Cycle Pads facebook

Crazy Schedule

2010-09-16T11:56:00.003-07:00

I should have prepared the kids and practiced our new schedule this week, but...well...I wanted to sleep in this week. :P
Seamus starts school on Monday. He goes from 8am-11:45am which means we will need to get up between 7-7:30, thats early for this mama! On top of that our weeks are packed, and this is why I can't figure out how to work out of the home!

Monday (our easy day)
Seamus school 8-11:45

Tuesday
School 8-11:45
Speech 2:30-3:00
Seamus PSR 4pm-6pm

Wednesday
School 8-11:45
Kieran playgroup 10am-12pm
Speech 2:30-3
EHS home visit 3:30-4:30

Thursday
School 8-11:45
OT 1:30-2:30
Counseling every other week 5-6pm

Friday
Free day! Which means bill paying day

Saturday
S PSR 12:30-2:30

Sunday
Free Day/Relax

My eyes keep going >.<, especially since Speech, OT, Playgroup and Counseling are all in the town next to us. So on Tuesdays & Thursday's its pick Seamus up, go home for a little then head to town, also on every other Thursday I don't want to drive back home only to turn around a half hour later to go back for counseling, so we'll have to stay in town and find something to do. Wednesday's are kind of a pain, my mom will pick Seamus up for me since I don't want to leave playgroup at 11 to get him on time, but after play group I'll have to come get Seamus (15-20min drive) then go back to town for speech right after.

Oh ya and be on the look out this weekend and next week I have 2 reviews and giveaways being posted :D

Its official

2010-09-11T14:34:00.004-07:00

Seamus does have Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD). To what extent and what sub category I don't know yet, Kieran was being a booger at the appt and I missed half the testing the OT did and we couldn't talk much after cause Seamus kept taking off and grabbing everything. We will go to OT once a week till the end of the year (after that his insurance will only provide 24 visits a year), along with his 2 speech visits each week.

Seamus also got into Headstart which I'm very thankful for. They are also going to help us with further testing, he still shows quite a few signs of Aspergers, which can go hand in hand with SPD. He starts school on September 20th, and is in the morning class from 8am-11:45am. I'm excited but sad at the same time, sad he wont be home but glad to get a little break from him 4 days a week.

Its taken over 3yrs to finally get to a point that things are making since with him, but I'm glad we are finally on the right track. I'm glad we will be learning better ways to help him learn and get him caught up(like learning ABC's, counting past 10, more then 3 shapes, how to draw more then lines, etc), and how to deal with his behaviors. I guess part of his behavioral issues are from SPD cause he doesn't know how to handle the emotions and will outburst instead.

My cute blinkie that Niamh on JustMommies made for me

Top to Bottom Baby ~~WINNER~~

2010-09-09T00:30:00.004-07:00

Thank you so much for all the entries in the giveaway. This was my first big review and giveaway and without all your help it wouldn't have been a success.

One thing before I announce the winner, I want to ask that if you're visiting my blog make sure you don't post on a giveaway post (from a GFC follow day) cause I had to delete a few posts. Thanks :D

And the WINNER is.....

Entry #156

LISA!!

Lisa's winning comment was:

The winner has been emailed and has 48hrs to respond or a new winner will be drawn. I hope to see you all entering more giveaways here, I have a couple that will be going up in 2-3 weeks :D

Wordless Wednesday: 4 years ago today

2010-09-01T01:00:00.000-07:00

September 1st, 2006

Always fear the noises you hear...coming from a 4yr old...

2010-08-30T22:57:00.007-07:00

((Warning pictures at end of post, not all will want to see))

Mr. Seamus is hyper, hardly ever stopping and non listening(teenager already?!). Tonight was full of telling him to stop running in our small living room (apx. 12'x12'). I went to the kitchen to do some dishes and get dinner made and the hubby was on his computer(which is in the kitchen looking into the living room. The kids were playing in the living room, running even after being told to stop. Next thing I know we hear a super thud, then the, "Owie, Owie, OWIE!!" screams. Hubby gets to Seamus first since he was less then 3ft away. As hubby went to give Seamus a hug, thinking it was just another bonk on the head, I notice the blood pouring down the side of his face. I know head injury's bleed a lot, but holy cow I didn't expect that much. I figured with how much blood and we needed to take him to the doctor. Our pediatrician's have 3 offices in 3 towns in our county, and I called to tell them we were coming into the one in our town...but they had just closed an hour before. Our only option was the main office in the big town in our county which was 15minutes away taking the interstate. The whole drive Seamus was fine, quiet for him, but fine. The bleeding had stopped on the way too. We had a 15minute wait after we got to the office, but Seamus did well sitting there and wanted to play (covered in caked on blood >.<).
When we get called back, the nurse wants to clean it up so the NP could get a better look at it. Just the sight of the water bottles set Seamus off and the blood started coming again. After the nurse got it all cleaned she said the NP would be in to see if she would close it with the glue or stitches. When the NP came in we were expecting her to say that she would glue it and we'd be on our way...not how it happened. The gash was too wide to use glue(its a little over an inch long and around 1/4-1/2" wide), and she said he needed 6-8 stitches. Poor Seamus, it was horrible holding him down while she trimmed his hair, he was screaming(they herd him out front in the lobby too) which was making him bleed worse. She couldn't do the 6-8 stitches because of how he was being so instead she did 3 or 4 and then a mattress stitch (which she said was a larger one to make up for the ones she couldn't do). He has to keep them in for 7 days then get removed. Hope the next 7 days go smoothly and he doesn't mess with them.

Warning Pictures are a little gory.

This was from hubby's cell phone at the doc's before the nurse cleaned him(after we'd wiped him down and held pressure on it before we got to the doc) so the picture quality isn't very good.

And after once we got home

Top to Bottom Baby Boutique Review and Giveaway ~~CLOSED~~~

2010-08-25T10:27:00.010-07:00

I found Top to Bottom Baby Boutique on twitter one day and contacted them about doing a review and giveaway. I was super excited when they agreed!

Top to Bottom Baby Boutique is located in Nebraska (where my dad and step-mom live, though different area!). They offer a wide range of cloth diapers and accessories; from prefolds to AIOS, to wool, swim diapers and wet bags. TTBBB also carries baby carriers and cloth diaper soaps. Top to Bottom Baby Boutique also has a blog where they feature an item of the week.

I was very lucky to work with TTBBB, very friendly staff, fast shipping, and helpful if you have any questions.

I was sent a Monkey Snuggles fitted diaper in a pink Zebra print to try on Miss Kieran. My first thoughts on getting this diaper, "OMG it's so soft!" I wanted to rub my face all over the diaper. The Monkey Snuggles fitted is an OS diaper, with a fold down rise, and 2 snap in soakers. The diaper is made of organic bamboo fleece, between a layer of organic bamboo velour with an adorable cotton print outer, the soakers are made of 4-layers velour. It is an OS diaper made to fit baby's appx. 10-35lbs.

My take on the diaper:

This was an awesome diaper. I've been on a fitted kick lately and was super excited to try another one. Right now this is my favorite fitted diaper we have. The first day I tried it on Kieran I did so at nap time, since I don't cover her at naps. When she woke from her nap I could barley tell she was wet, which was awesome! I did have a little issue figuring out how to make the diaper OS but a quick email to TTBBB helped me out with that. Kieran is 19½ pounds and I have the rise folded down on her for a beautiful fit. We used the diaper again for a normal play time and she had it on for 3hrs before I started to notice she was wet, and it was just barley noticeable. I love how absorbent this diaper is, as well as how soft against her skin it is.

I made my first ever video of a diaper, its a little shaky cause I was trying to balance it on my tummy. Next time I'll ask the hubby to help out (lol)

I will have a video added soon, just taking a while to upload

If you love fitteds, WAHM's or just want to try a new diaper check out Top to Bottom Baby Boutique and look at the Monkey Snuggles OS fitted diaper for $21.00.

Top to Bottom Baby Boutique have been super awesome to work with and as an added bonus they've offered to do a giveaway!

Win it: Win a $20 gift card to TTBBB!

Mandatory entry: Take a look at Top to Bottom Baby Boutique's site and tell me what you'd get if you won the GC.
(Mandatory entry must be completed before any extra entries. Make sure to leave an email address in the form of johndoe at gmail dot com so you can be contacted if you are the winner)

Extra Entries:
(Post a new comment for each entry to count)

-Become a fan on Top to Bottom Baby Boutique's facebook, and let them know I sent you, then post here in the comments (just post your first name and last initial so I can check)
-Join TTBBB's newsletter
-Follow me on Twitter @SliverStorm (make sure to leave me your twitter name so I can follow back)
-Follow @toptobottombaby on Twitter
-Follow @monkeysnuggles on Twitter

-Tweet anything with @SliverStorm AND @toptobottombaby AND #clothdiapers along with a link to the giveaway, or you can use this(can be done twice a day at least 4hrs apart, please post link to tweet);
"I want to win a $20 GC to @toptobottombaby from @SliverStorm #clothdiapers http://tinyurl.com/TTBBBgiveaway"

-Follow my Facebook
-Follow TTBBB's Blog
-Become a blog follower of mine on Google Friend Connect
-Add my button to your blog and let me know where to find it
-Add TTBBB's Button to your blog and let me know where to find it (found on their blog)
-Blog about this Review and Giveaway and include links to TTBBB and to this giveaway

This will end on Wedensday September 8th 11:59pm PST. At the close of this I will use Random.org to draw the winner and post on the blog. The winner has 48hrs to respond to my email before a new one will be drawn. US only.

**Disclosure**
I was sent this product review, I did not receive any other compensation. The review is my own and my honest opinion of the product.

Wordless Wednesday: "Where's your tongue?"

2010-08-18T10:43:00.001-07:00

The Heart Mender ~WINNER~

2010-08-16T13:21:00.004-07:00

Sorry it's taken me a few days to get this posted, but without fail, here is the winner of The Heart Mender giveaway.....
#5 - Kowanda who said:

My favorite book is Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. Christianity is so simple but we make is so hard.

I will be emailing you shortly. Please respond within 48hrs to the email or a new winner will be drawn :)

150 Fan Giveaway

2010-08-09T11:23:00.004-07:00

I decided to have a little giveaway when I reach 150 Google Friend Connect fans! The giveaway will be for a $10(maybe $15, gotta check with the hubby) to Mom's Milk Boutique! (click to check out my affiliate link). Once I get 150 GFC followers I will have the drawing, using random.org, but for now I'm offering a chance to get extra entries :) (I will add the 150 followers and these entries for the total to plug into random.org)

Mandatory Entry:
(don't post in a comment but in order to leave "extra" entry comments this must be done first)
Be a follower on Google Friend Connect

Extra Entries:
-Become a fan on Facebook, leave a comment on this post with your first name and last inital
-follow on twitter , leave a comment with your Twitter name
-Tweet about this giveaway with the #clothdiapers and @SliverStorm in your tweet, spread the love :)
-put my blog button on your blog and let me know where to find it
-tell me what you'd use the GC to get from MMB

Giveaway will end when I reach 150 followers

Well Child visits

2010-08-07T15:51:00.003-07:00

I forgot to update after the kids had their Well Child checks. We took them to a combined appointment, Seamus' 4yr and Kieran's 15mo on July 19th. Kieran is doing great developmentally and is where she should be for her age. She is still really small and dropped percentiles again, which the doctor wasn't too happy about. Kieran is now 19lbs 8oz which is the 7%(according to the nurse, the doc said 5%. She was the 10% at her 12mo appt), and is 30" tall which is the 25%(or 20% according to the doc. We still aren't sure why she doesn't gain weight well cause she eats like a horse, more then Seamus at most meals. She did stay on her growth curve for her height though so the doc said she was at least growing well in one aspect.

Seamus is still my big solid boy. He is 47lbs (95%) and 42" (85%), so his height to weight ratio is pretty even, so the doctor isn't too worried about that, which is a relief to me since WIC likes to mention how he's over weight (doc said no, not with how tall he is). Seamus of course is still having development issues, and behavior issues. We got the referral that his Speech Therapist asked us to get to go see an Occupational Therapist for Sensory issues. I of course was naughty and did some googling(is that a word? lol), and I found something very interesting, Sensory Processing Disorder(SPD). While reading I noticed that SPD had some similarities to Autism, and a light bulb went off in my head...if the Speech Therapist(and OT who watched him one day on a "non" official screening) noticed how he was right off the bat with nothing from me, then something is going on and its not in my head. SPD is similar to Autism where it has different "categories" if you will.
The Hyposensitivity to movement sounds alot like Seamus(* next to each like him):

2. Hyposensitivity To Movement (Under-Responsive):

* in constant motion, can't seem to sit still

* craves fast, spinning, and/or intense movement experiences

__ loves being tossed in the air

* could spin for hours and never appear to be dizzy

* loves the fast, intense, and/or scary rides at amusement parks

* always jumping on furniture, trampolines, spinning in a swivel chair, or getting into upside down positions

* loves to swing as high as possible and for long periods of time

* is a "thrill-seeker"; dangerous at times

* always running, jumping, hopping etc. instead of walking

__ rocks body, shakes leg, or head while sitting

* likes sudden or quick movements, such as, going over a big bump in the car or on a bike

Some other parts of SPD that are Seamus through and through, or how he was as a baby/toddler:

-distressed about having hair, toenails, or fingernails cut
-as an infant, did/does not like to be held or cuddled; may arch back, cry, and pull away
-prefers hugs
-may overreact to minor cuts, scrapes, and or bug bites
-is a picky eater, only eating certain tastes and textures; mixed textures tend to be avoided as well as hot or cold foods; resists trying new foods
-may not be aware that hands or face are dirty or feel his/her nose running
-may be self-abusive; pinching, biting, or banging his own head (this was a baby/toddler thing, the last year or so he doesn't do it as much)
-thoroughly enjoys and seeks out messy play
-may be afraid of the dark (extremely, he has to sleep with a night light and the regular light on)
-may be a messy dresser; looks disheveled, does not notice pants are twisted, shirt is half un tucked, shoes are untied, one pant leg is up and one is down, etc.(so much that I don't know how its comfy, and he doesn't seem to notice)
-has a limp, "floppy" body (as a baby/toddler, had very week muscle tone, always noted by his OT, PT and Pedi)
-frequently slumps, lies down, and/or leans head on hand or arm while working at his/her desk
-difficulty simultaneously lifting head, arms, and legs off the floor while lying on stomach ("superman" position) (again bay/toddle thing)
-has poor body awareness; bumps into things, knocks things over, trips, and/or appears clumsy
-poor gross motor skills; jumping, catching a ball, jumping jacks, climbing a ladder etc. (had issues with all of these, still has issues with jumping jacks and catching balls)

Sensory Seeking Behaviors(these are what Seamus does):
-seeks out jumping, bumping, and crashing activities
-stomps feet when walking
-kicks his/her feet on floor or chair while sitting at desk/table
-loves to be tightly wrapped in many or weighted blankets, especially at bedtime(he was swaddled nightly till 10mo or he wouldn't sleep at all, and off and on till 1, and even now likes to be in his blankets tight)
-loves/seeks out "squishing" activities
-enjoys bear hugs
-excessive banging on/with toys and objects
-loves "roughhousing" and tackling/wrestling games
-would jump on a trampoline for hours on end
-grinds his/her teeth throughout the day
-loves jumping off furniture or from high places

Signs Of Auditory Dysfunction: (no diagnosed hearing problem) His seems have a lot of Hypersensitivity and 2 hyposensitivites.
-distracted by sounds not normally noticed by others; i.e., humming of lights or refrigerators, fans, heaters, or clocks ticking
-fearful of the sound of a flushing toilet (especially in public bathrooms), vacuum, hairdryer, squeaky shoes, or a dog barking
-started with or distracted by loud or unexpected sounds
-bothered/distracted by background environmental sounds; i.e., lawn mowing or outside construction
-frequently asks people to be quiet; i.e., stop making noise, talking, or singing
-runs away, cries, and/or covers ears with loud or unexpected sounds
-often does not respond to verbal cues or to name being called
-appears to "make noise for noise's sake"

Those are just some of what fit well for Seamus, the list and categories are long. We were bumped to the top of the list for the OT since Seamus is already receiving Speech through the same place. The OT is on vacation till the middle of the month but hopefully we will be seeing her at the end of the month, especially since she already watched him one day and said that something was going on and he really needed an eval done.

The Heart Mender by Andy Andrews ~Review & Giveaway~ CLOSED

2010-08-05T22:59:00.007-07:00

This is a wonderful book, I fell in love with it after the first few pages and it was hard to put down! A historical book that will grab the attention of history buffs like me and the average non-fiction reader alike. I loved how the flow of the book went, taking you from present day when the author was digging in his backyard, back to World War II and back to present day. For me this was a story of love first and foremost, and forgiveness.

The book starts out with the author digging in his yard where he finds some old artifacts, he then proceeds to ask around to figure out what they are. Soon the author figures some of it out and we find out about Helen Mason a war widow who finds an injured solider on the beach, nursing him back to health, even after finding out he was a Nazi. You follow Helen in her world where she worked as a waitress, and how her and Josef's relationship bloomed.

This was a wonderful book, always keeping you on your toes and trying to guess what would happen next. The historical data in it was wonderful, and knowledgeable, and down right interesting. The story of forgiveness and love throughout the book was wonderful and got me thinking about my own life as well as Helen's. I would definitely recommend this book to everyone, I believe this book has something in it for everyone to learn from.

As a added bonus the wonderful people at BookSneeze.com have given me a copy to giveaway on my blog!

Mandatory entry (to be completed before any others, also please leave your email in this entry)
What is your favorite book and what lessons has it taught you?

Extra Entries (make sure to leave 1 comment for each entry, if it says 2 then leave 2 comments)
~Subscribe to my blog via RSS reader and/or E-mail (1 entry for each)
~Follow my blog via Google Friend (2 entries)
~Follow me on Twitter
~Follow me on Facebook, link on the heart upper right side of my blog
~Tweet this giveaway making sure to use @SliverStorm in your tweet. You can tweet 2x's a day with at least 4hours between tweets
~Tell me how you found my blog
~Random question: Do you like historical books?

Giveaway will end on Friday August 13th, 2010 @ 11:59pm PST. I will use random.org to pick the winner.

**Disclosure**
I was sent this book review, I did not receive any other compensation. The review is my own and my honest opinion of the said book.

Such a tiny girl!

2010-08-02T19:44:00.003-07:00

I was taking pictures for a Fluffy Fashion show on JustMommies, and I put our favorite wool pants on Kieran, and found a matching shirt. When I was taking the pictures I realized...she wore this outfit last year, almost a year ago...and it still fits her! The top is actually a dress though, its 3-6months but it still fits her just fine as a top, and the longies still fit, starting to get too short but the waist is still really large on her. Kind of nice to be able to use cloths for more then just a month or so but really a year lol. So odd having such a tiny baby after my monster of a boy Seamus.

Picture from last year (I'd say Septemberish 2009, 5 or so months old)

Picture this year (July 30th, 2010, almost 16mo old)

EcoMom Winner!!!

2010-07-31T09:30:00.003-07:00

Thank you all that entered the EcoMom R&G! I just plugged the #'s into random.org and it gave me the winner, #21 Ruth! I will be contacting you soon and passing your info/email onto EcoMom. Thanks again for entering :)

My baby boy is 4!!

2010-07-18T00:23:00.002-07:00

Where did the last 4 years go?! It seems like such a blur at points now, and it makes me kind of sad. Seamus is such a silly, goofy, helper(at times lol), wild and crazy boy. I love him so much and want him to stay little forever, makes me sad thinking that he only has 14yrs (which I'm sure will go fast) left at home.

Here's his birth story that I wrote back in 2006

Seamus Patrick Allen was born on Tuesday July 18th @ 10:12pm he weighed 7lbs 9oz!!!!!! so much smaller then they thought! and he was 21inches long!

July 18th, 2006

We went into the hospital on Monday night and they put something called cyododell(sp) on my cervix to help to dilate, they inserted it at around 10pm Monday night. The nurse told me that most people just dilate with the pill in place and nothing else, well I had been having contractions that I couldn't tell and the pill made them worse. I called my mom to come at 3am and the nurse put in the iv and group b strep medication, at 6am she came back and started the piticon at 2ml per hour, then in an hour upped it to 4 and a half an hour later upped it to 6 and about every half hour after that she upped it 2 more ml, at 8am the doc checked me I was 70% effaced adn at a 2 cm and station -3 so he broke my water, at around noon I was at 4 and about 90% dilated (at 9 they put in the epidural and I didn't have any pains from contractions at all! :) ) at around 8:30 pm I was in and out of sleep because of a horrible headache I had and they had giving me something for it, I started saying my bum was going to explode(sorry for the info!) and my mom laughed till I said it a lot and they got the nurse and Ii was 10cm and fully effaced and a +1 so pushing began at about 9pm Tuesday, I was very sick feeling from the headache and though I was going to faint but never did and I swear I was going to rip every muscle down there I felt the stinging and pulling and stretching and pushed for an hour shockingly only screaming a few times and the doc used the vacuum because I was getting weaker and then with 4 pushes and vacuum help he popped out! they placed him on my chest and I just grabbed him and so did df, and I cried and said that df needed to cut the cord, and the doc let him and then delivered the placenta which felt a little strange. they fixed my epsiomity I believe it was a 2 so they have 4 stitches0 on the second layer and 4 on the top. Seamus' apgars were 8 and 9. he layed on my chest for an hour bare on bare skin, and we tried to breast feed but he would take then. the nurse then took him and washed him and gave him his eye drops and vitamin k and hep b shots and did his blood sugars which needed to be above 40 and it was 58 so he was good and they took his picture and gave him to df. i had to wait for the epidural to ware off so they could move me to the post pardum room, but it was too strong at 2:30 the nurse came in and said it was time to move because my left leg was starting to have feeling again but when they stood me up I fell to the floor because my legs were too week, which was shocking considering my right leg never went numb from the epidural but my left leg was dead from it, so df had to lift me to a wheelchair and when we got to the room they took Seamus to the nicu because his breathing wasn't good. df then lifted me to the bed and the nurse sat ice under me, and I said I needed to pee and she said wait an hour or two and i said no I'm going to pee now, and they got a commode and lifted me to it and I filled the bucket with a ton of pee which was good since I didn't fill the cathadar very well that was in place earlier. At around 6am they brought Seamus back and he was good, later that day the pediatrician came in and said that we would have to stay because he was throwing up pretty badly. Then the lactation specialist came in and we found out that Seamus would take my nipples because they weren't big enough for him to take so I got a nipple guard plastic thing that I put over it for him to get milk from. He got severe jaundice(sp) and had to be under lights from Thursday after noon to Friday morning but is ok now!

(This is how I wrote it in 2006(though I did go and correct some spellings), I believe the day after we got out of the hospital so its not very fluid lol)

WooHoo its Friday

2010-07-16T09:20:00.004-07:00

Its the weekend and time for hubby to be home so my stress level goes from a 90 to a 50 hehehe...but then again Seamus' birthday is this weekend so stress will probably be higher.

Earlier this week I stumbled upon a blog and they have a Following Friday, I signed up for it and as I was following some of the other blogs I stumbled upon some others. So here is a quick run down of where I've linked up this week :D

Following Friday

Follow Me Friday

Fun Follow Friday

Social Parade-Follow on Fridays

July 14th, 2006

2010-07-14T09:23:00.005-07:00

On this day(though it was a Friday), July 14th, 20006, I was 39weeks 2days(or 3) pregnant with Seamus. I had one of my weekly u/s's to watch my fluid levels and his size. I was also miserable, nevermind it was mid July and in the 100's, I was still constantly having nasty headaches and seeing stars all the time. I thought this u/s would be no different then my other weekly ones. When I got back to my room one of my OB's came in(at the time I saw 2 different once cause either could end up delivering(now it's 3)) and said that we were going to have a baby! He told me the u/s showed Seamus as being 8lbs 15oz and that he needed to come out asap, and that because my BP and headaches hadn't gotten better it was best to do an induction(but I wouldn't have been allowed to go past 40 weeks anyway cause of the GD). My OB had one of the secretary's call the hospital hoping to get me in soon. The soonest they had was Monday night, July 17th, so it was set. Weird to believe that just 4 days after this appointment my 'TINY' little 7lb 9oz boy was born!

Appx, 15weeks pregnant, while in the ER in Texas

Around 20weeks

(had others but not sure if we have them here or in Nebraska still. I'll have to look)

EcoMom Review and Giveaway ~Extended~

2010-07-12T01:25:00.017-07:00

I'm always looking to try new things, especially ones that are more Eco-Friendly or "green". One day I saw a post on my Facebook wall from EcoMom(Eco-friendly Baby Products), and emailed them right away to see if I could do a review for them, I was very excited when they agreed. It only took 2 or 3 days from the first email I sent till I got the products to review, I couldn't believe how fast the shipping was! I opened the box right away(while still in the car at the post office lol!) and was surprised to see what was in there. I got a wide variety of foods from; Plum Organics Tots, Plum Organics Tots Fiddlesticks, Revolution Foods Organic Mashups(4 pack for $4.99!), Revolution Foods Grammy Sammy and Jammy Sammy's.

I was a little leery to try the Plum Organics Tots($20.64 for a 16 pack) with Kieran since she had refused pureed foods. I tried the Plum Strawberry Mish Mash with Kieran the day after I got the box, and to my surprise she loved it, and screamed for more when it was gone. I was so excited that she'd actually eaten it, and I also loved how fresh it smelled unlike other pureed foods. Seamus was the next one I tried it out on, he is a super picky eater, we can usually only get him to eat a handful of things(besides fruit and veggies). Seamus saw the box of Apple Carrot Fiddlesticks and asked to eat one. In less then 5minutes he had it gone and was begging for more! For snack I decided to let them try the Revolution Foods Jammy Sammy Organic Strawberry Jam & Peanut Butter Bars, Kieran devoured it and again wanted more, not surpirsingly Seamus wouldn't try it(my child is weird lol) but hubby sure seemed to like it when he ate Seamus' instead :D. I really love sharing these with my kids, and another awesome thing about Plum and Revolution foods is they have products from High Chair feeding all the way to Lunch Box foods!

I also want to share a special program that EcoMom has called EcoPass. EcoPass sounds like an awesome deal, here is what it includes;

$99 annual membership
15% discount off every order
Free shipping on all orders
Early Opportunity to sample and test New Products

This month(July) there is a special for the EcoPass. The membership is for life instead of annually! How cool is that?!

I loved these products, they smelled fresh and not packaged like other similar products do. My children loved them (as well as hubby and Uncle Scott who decided to eat some too hehe), and I was glad to be feeding them foods that were not junk foods.

Now the best part, I get to offer one of my readers a $20 GC for Plum and/or Revolution foods, and a discount code for everyone!!

Discount: Receive 15% off your first order using the code SBBL351 expires August 2010

Giveaway
Mandatory entry, to be done before any other entries:
Tell me what you do to be more green/eco friendly, and what you would get from the Plum/Revolution line if you won.
(both in one comment also be sure to leave an email address so I can contact the winner, in the joebob at gmail dot com format so bots don't pick it up)

Extra Entries:
(Post a new comment for each entry to count)
-Become a fan on EcoMom's facebook, and let them know I sent you, then post here in the comments
-Join EcoMom's newsletter
-Follow me on Twitter @SliverStorm
-Follow @EcoMomCEO on Twitter

-Tweet anything with @SliverStorm AND @EcoMomCEO or you can use this(can be done twice a day, please post link to tweet);
"Enter to win $20 of Plum and Revolution Foods from @EcoMomCEO and @SliverStorm http://tinyurl.com/ssEcoMom"

-Follow my Facebook
-Become a blog follower of mine on Google Friend Connect
-Subscribe to my blog via email
-Blog about this Review and Giveaway
-Tell me how you found this blog

This will end on Monday ~~July 26th~~ July 30th at 11:59pm PST. And the close of this I will use Random.org to draw the winner and post on the blog. The winner has 48hrs to respond to my email before a new one will be drawn. Open to US and Canadian's.

**Disclosure**
I was sent this product review, I did not receive any other compensation. The review is my own and my honest opinion of the product.

The EYE Patch

2010-07-06T00:29:00.003-07:00

Seamus now has a Pirate Eye! He wears an eye patch over his right eye for 4hours a day, and we were told to do it the same time every day, I choose 12-4 so that way Kieran is asleep for most of that. He's done pretty well the 2 time's he's had it on(just started Saturday, and Monday he took a nap a long one surprisingly). I'm going to make a blog post with each of his patches in a week, but here is a look at 2 of them so far :)

Day 1

Day 2

Behind a little

2010-06-30T19:46:00.003-07:00

Its been so busy lately trying to figure out when and how to do all these appointments that I've been behind on my blog. I have 2 reviews and giveaways to post, one from EcoMom and the other is a book. EcoMom should be up this weekend since the hubby has 4 days off and I'm halfway done reading the book. I also was supposed to make a tutu for my friends nieces birthday and only got the cutting done, I feel like such a bad friend but I can't work on it when the kids are up or all heck breaks loose. Then today I got my very first order on my Etsy shop!! I need to get to JoAnn's to get the tulle to make it for her but I'm very excited to do it, and now need to find time for it, hehehe.

We have a pretty busy schedule now though.
Monday 10am is speech, not sure yet how long, guessing an hour
Tuesday Seamus has PSR (unsure on official days yet though)
Wed. Kieran's Early Headstart
Thursday 10am is speech, 5pm is Seamus' counselors
Friday - Sunday Free days!! (for now, PSR is supposed to be twice a week)

New Layout soon

2010-06-29T02:25:00.002-07:00

I'm trying to figure out how to customize my blogger layout, and hopefully include a picture of the kids. I wanted it scrappy but I'm not sure if I can since I do reviews and giveaways occasionally(thinking that makes my blog profitable?), so I'm trying to free hand one. Hopefully after I make the header and adding it will be easy and keeping my drop down bar will be easy lol...so keep an eye out for an updated bloggy

Busy week ahead

2010-06-28T11:11:00.003-07:00

First off great news. I had posted a couple week ago about Seamus eye specialist appointment not being till the end of August, but then they were able to move it to July 14th and "Squeeze" us in, then last Monday I got a call from his normal eye doctor saying that the day has changed again. On Monday I got a call from his eye doc saying that another patient had gone to the eye specialist that Seamus was going to go to and they were not happy with this specialist after all, so they did some research and found a different pediatric eye specialist(PES). The new PES we will be going to, dh has even herd about, even before I did, a lady at work told him about this PES and how she loves her. The PES we will be going to now is part of Sacred Heart Medical Center, and that right there made me feel better, them being part of a top rated hospital. The best news about going to a different PES, they could get us in sooner without having to "squeeze" us in. Seamus' new appointment is Friday July 2nd!! We have to be there by 9:45 so that means we are going to have to be up at around 7am, and have Kieran to my mom's house by 8:30am then stop to grab some breakfast and head out of town. It takes about 30-40 minutes to get to Sacred Heart from here and that all depends on traffic. I'm excited they were able to get it moved closer and glad that we are going with a 'better' PES.

On Friday I got a voice-mail(I never answer phone numbers I don't know, but I had completely missed this call lol) saying to call back asap, that the speech therapist had an opening and a couple of people up next to get in and it would be who ever called her back first getting the slot. I ended up seeing the missed call about 30 minutes after she called so I was worried someone else had filled the spot. Luckily no one else had called back. We've been waiting for speech for Seamus since the end of January, thats how long the waiting list is, and finally after almost 7months we are in and I'm so happy. We go this afternoon, his appt is at 2pm and we have to be there at 1:45, the stinky thing is that hubby works till 2:30 so he wont be going and I'll be juggling both kids on my own(and its a feet to go anywhere with Seamus especially alone with both of them). I'm not sure what we will be doing today but I'm glad to finally be going.

All this is on top of our 2 normal weekly things, Kieran's Early Headstart home visit, usually on Wednesdays but this will will be tomorrow, and Seamus' counselors on Thursday.

Keep and Eye out

2010-06-22T10:26:00.002-07:00

Keep an eye on my blog and suggest friends, the more followers I have the better chance I have to do more reviews and giveaways! Right now I'm in the process of putting up a review and giveaway for EcoMom and a book review. EcoMom should hopefully be up this weekend and the book review just after the 4th of July(just got the book and just started reading it so it will be a little for that one), so stay tuned!!

Wordless Wednesday: Swimming

2010-06-15T23:53:00.002-07:00

Yay!

2010-06-10T11:16:00.001-07:00

Quick Update:
I just got a phone call from Seamus' eye doctor and they were able to get the specialist to move his visit up to July 14th @ 1:30pm PST. Thank-goodness, a month away is alot better then 2.5 months.

Seamus' Eyes

2010-06-07T20:12:00.003-07:00

A couple months ago(I think it was December, I can't remember for sure now), we took him to the eye doctor because Kieran's Early Head Start Family Coordinator(FC) did eye tests on both kids(after we said we were wondering about Seamus' eyes) and noticed how Seamus' eye looked. The eye doc we were seeing I guess was just a fill in and the lady that actually runs the practice was on leave for a few months. The first eye doc we saw said he didn't have a lazy eye that he was just very far sighted and would cross his eyes trying to focus on anything up close. Around March they had to change his script because the original one was too strong and gave him headaches. Well today we saw the eye doctor who runs the practice(and I guess the only one there now) and she wanted to start "Fresh" since she'd never seen us before.

The eye doc did a bunch of light tests with him and said his eye was one of the worst she'd seen. When he looks to the right his left eye looks like its almost sinking into his nose, when he looks straight he will sometimes cross(or get the lazy eye look) and sometimes not depending on how far or close the object is. Looking left is the worst, he can't look fully to the left without turning his whole head. Then came the surprising part, she asked me if he was developmentally delayed. I told her he had lots of problems when he was an infant and toddler and about the torticollis and plagiocephally, and also how he would drag his left leg and sometimes arm when he first started crawling and walking. The next part was shocking in a way, she said they were all connected somehow (we still haven't figured out whats going on with him). She said his eye is a "non-traditional" lazy eye and that lazy eyes are normally hereditary so that means probably from hubby's dad.

We have a new "game plan" now, before it was to try glasses for a few months then patch. Now the game plan is going to a pediatric eye specialist. The eye doc said with how his eye is, and how he can't fully look left that she is pretty sure one of the muscles in his eye will need to be cut/released. They called and set up an appointment but it's not till August 25th. The doc wasn't too happy about an appointment being 2.5months away, and said that they had another 3yr old in earlier today with something similar and they got her in next week and she's not anymore urgent then Seamus, so she said they are going to basically pester the specialist so they can get them in sooner.

Heres a couple pictures of him. We were trying to get him to look but it was hard to do since it was 7pm when we tried and he's had a long day.

This was an accidental shot but you can sort of see how his left eye is

And here we tried to get him to look left, you can sort of tell how he can't look to the side, he's got no side vision in that eye

May 27th, 2009

2010-05-28T00:00:00.002-07:00

May 27th, 2009 was a day that I went through in numb shock. I was woken up to my mom(who was living with us at the time to get back on her feet) screaming. Scared I ran to Seamus' room, where she stayed, thinking that something had happened to him, only to see her on the phone crying. I knew the instant that I noticed Seamus wasn't in the room that something had happened to my Nana. Nana passed away an hour before they called (called my mom at 9am, they had some problems getting a hold of her). We never got to say goodbye. Nana had health problems, and just the month before, days before Kieran was born, she was in the hospital for her heart issues but was doing fine after they changed her meds. Needless to say her death was unexpected to all of us, and what made it worse was we were supposed to see her on Mothers day but she called the day before saying that she had church plans(she often canceled due to church plans). She only got to see Kieran twice before she passed, the first time was Easter, April 12th, and the second was a couple days before Mothers day when we had ran into her at Walmart and made the plans to see her on Mothers day. Its weird to think that its been a whole year without my Nana, she could get on my nerves but I think that was because we were/are so similar in thinking. I miss her and I don't think I will ever fully forgive myself for not trying to see her the day before Mothers day or after.
Forever my Nana, Audrey Gray, August 8th, 1934 - May 27th, 2009

Mom and Nana on our wedding day, September 1st, 2006

Nana on the left (Grammie, dad's mom on the right)

Seamus' first birthday party, July 14th, 2007

Taking us(Seamus and I) to the airport when we moved to Nebraska, November 10th, 2007

Do you like bumGenius and other Cotton Babies products?

2010-05-07T11:14:00.002-07:00

If you answered yes then check out their blog post. They are having a contest and the winner will win a $100 gift card to Cotton Babies Store! I love my BumGenius diapers, I have the most of them then any other diapers, and have been suggesting them to a family friend that is due in a couple weeks. So go check out Cotton Babies Store and their blog post and enter for your chance!

Two weeks ago

2010-05-04T10:13:00.003-07:00

Two weeks ago today, started just like any other day and I thought it would end just like any other day. Except for around 6pm something bad happened, and I ended up in the ER. I've never felt this stupid, odd, and "traumatized" before, labor with Seamus(nor the c-section with Kieran) wasn't this bad(not physically, really, more-so emotionally). When I woke up I didn't realize it'd been two weeks but then it hit me like a ton of bricks and now I keep going over what happened in my head over and over. I don't wish this feeling, these mixed emotions, on my worst enemy. I hope to never go through something like it again either.

The what ifs...

2010-04-28T20:10:00.005-07:00

I sit here watching my children play, and I'm grateful for them. But at the same time I think of the What If's...What if the first baby would've made it? What if we would've have a girl first? What if that baby would've stuck, would we have gone to Texas or just stayed here? What if...

It's weird to think that we would have a 4yr old already. If that baby would've stuck and been a girl I wouldn't have my Shaymee. And now after recent events its odd to think that we would've most likely had another reason to be joyful at Christmas time. The mind wonders, sometimes good and sometimes bad.

But tonight I want to say I'm thankful for my children. I want to send hugs to those with infertility and those that have had losses, its never easy no matter who you are.

Our first angel, Due 4/16/2006, went to Heaven on August 12th, 2005 (5.5-6weeks)

Our second angel, Due mid-late December 2010, went to Heaven on April 20th, 2010 (unsure on gestation 5-8weeks but probably more like 6.5)

My Diaper Stash

2010-04-26T22:15:00.011-07:00

I know I haven't updated in a while, had some personal things that happened and just starting to physically and emotionally get through them, but I have some posts lined up.
In the meantime I wanted to share my diaper stash. I'm quite proud of it, its taken months to get it to where I'm fairly happy with it. We started cloth diapering back in August '09 when Kieran was almost 4months old, and we were given a bunch of diapers by an awesome gal on JustMommies to help us out(sadly some have had elastic die :(). Since August I've learned what works for us and Kieran the best and I've been slowly revamping our stash, buying some here and there when we could and also from diaper giveaways I've won. It seems though diaper stashes are ever evolving and changing lol.

Here's all my pocket diapers(and my stack of wipes)

2 BG OS; one Grasshopper one Ribit, 3 CushyToosh OS; Light Green, Light Pink and Light Purple, 1 FuzziBunz medium; Apple, 1 FuzziBunz OS; pink, 1 Whamies; Red, 2 Nubunz; Red/Maroon and Aqua, 1 Dypes By Dixon; Minky, and 2 WHAM mom ones; Black and Blue (not pictured at the time a BumJoy red) for a total of 14 pocket diapers

Heres my mix lot of randoms

1 Banana Bottoms Medium, 2 BG AIO's in Zinnia, 2 GroBaby's; Blackberry and Mandarin, 2 made by me; Monkeys and Flowers, 1 BSRB, 1 Unknown WAHM

My prefolds, flats and covers

I have 6 Bummis Superbrites(not all pictured), 2 Bummis Whisper Wraps in Medium(one's missing), and 1 Small Bummis Whisper Wrap. 6 Newborn Indain Prefolds, had a dozen Gerber prefolds but recently threw some out, 6 Bummis Organic prefolds, 2 PB&E Flats, and 3 pre-fitteds(2 pictured)

And a couple days after these pictures were taken I got some fluffy mail. I'm also waiting on 3 Thirsties Duo cover's I won(kinda replacing the Bummis ones cause even in medium they are still too big on Kieran) and a Planetwise wet bag.

1 Tweedle Bugs in Minky Moo, 1 Rump-a-Rooz in Rootbear(won), a bottle of Eucalan wool wash in lavender (won a gc from a photo contest and thats how I got the wash and TB)

2 more BG AIO's one in Moonbeam the other in Zinnia

I also have some wool but pictures are taking forever to upload so just showing diapers for now lol

I'm actually thinking of getting rid of the CushyToosh ones because no matter how I do them they always droop on her and fall off. And I can't get the Banana Bottoms to fit right either :(

I have a post coming

2010-04-21T18:01:00.000-07:00

I was going to post a tastey blog post yesterday but then some pretty bad feminine things happened (big possibility of a m/c even though most of the tests I took were neg(2 were light pos but it was hard to tell)) so it will be delayed a couple days.

Happy Birthday my baby girl!

2010-04-08T00:32:00.003-07:00

My precious Kieran you are 1 today! You have gone from my tiny 6lb 13oz newborn (down to 5lbs 9oz at 2weeks old) to my 18lb even 12month old. It was an amazing year watching you grow and learn things, and for me to grow and learn how different you are from your brother(and how much easier you were!) You are the most laid back, sweetest little baby I've ever seen, preferring to watch everyone and observe your surroundings, then to run out into them. My silly, face making, goofy little girl, I love you and here's to many more years of watching you grow and learn!
<3 Mommy

Kieran's Birth Story

2010-04-07T22:31:00.001-07:00

This is exactly how I wrote it on April 19th, 2009.

Monday April 6th I had my 38week OB appt. I see 3 different OB's sense they dont know who would be on call if I went into labor on my own. One OB the week before had said it was ok to deliver at 38weeks 3days so we scheduled the c-section for the 8th of April the previous week. At my appt Monday I saw a different OB and he was worried about doing the c-seciton at 38weeks 3days(it would be him doing the section) so he said #1 we either wait till 39weeks and have issues with dh's work or #2 do steroid shots. He was worried about delivering her so soon due to the GD and the issues with lung development in GD babies. Dh and I opted for the steroid shots. The first shot was at 1pm Monday then the second was at 8am Tuesday morning.

Tuesday night I had to wash with some nasty smelling stuff called hibbaclense(sp?) and then wasnt' allowed to use conditioner for 24hrs prior to the surgery or any products that contained Alochol as an ingredent due to possible fire hazzards in the OR.

We woke up at 4:30am on Wed. morning and I had to again wash with this stuff, supposed to help reduce the chance of infections. We left for the hospital at 5am and got there at 5:15am, got checked in at the ER/registeration desk, then waddled my little butt up to L&D (I dennyed a wheelchair sense I wouldnt be able to walk for 24hrs after the surgery). We get up to L&D and they tell me go to room 6...we get in there and I relize that it looks really similar to the room we had Seamus in and then dh starts laughing and said its the same room that Seamus was born in. There was 5 nurses waiting in my room when we got there. I got my gown and monitors on, then they started all the questions sense I haddn't registered this time, and they started the IV.

I guess my office does this thing where they take a huge vial of blood(appx 6" long and 1.5-2in wide) and do something to it and in surgery they spray it on the paitent and its supposed to speed up the healing process, so they got the huge vial of blood from me and then got the IV and antibiotics started. The doctor comes in around 6:30ish with a portable u/s machine to check that she was still breech, during the u/s she had her head in my left side just under my ribs and her feet on my right side in the middle between my ribs and hip, her back was facing down towards my cervix. The OB gave us the option one more time to try a version but he also wasnt' too sure about it because of her odd possition, dh was competely agains it and I wasnt' much for one either so we dennyed it.

The OR room was right next door to the room I was in so they have me walk into the OR room around 7:05am and help me on the table. Man that room was freezing and it didnt' help my shakes from being nervous. I got the spinal placed, so much eaiser then the epi was with Seamus. The lyed me down and then hooked up these things to my legs like giant blood pressure cuffs to help from getting blood clotts sense I woudlnt' be walking/using my legs for around 24hrs. Then they placed the cathader..I wasnt' completely numb so I felt a small pinch but not horrible painful. They call dh in at 7:38am and he sits there, then next thing I know I here 7:51am then "congrats". They called dh over to trim up the cord, and then she started crying, her apgars were 9/9 slightly better then Seamus' who was born at 39weeks 6days.

They let dh bring her over to me for about 10minutes then they take her back to the room, and do all her cleaning and weighing and such. They came back in around 8:30 and told me she was 6lbs 13oz and 19.5in long, way smaller then she looked and almost exactly a pound smaller then the u/s on Monday had predicted.

They finally got done with me at 8:58am, all while I'm itching like mad in my eyes and nose. The itching I guess is a side effect from this medication they put in the spinal called duramorph(sp?), it was freggin horrible to itch that bad and not able to itch it. I was wheeled to recovery then asked if I wanted to rest or see the baby, sense my bp was doing great. Of course I wanted to see the baby. They brought her to me and she nursed for 20minutes!! I got to the recovery PP room at around 10:20am PST, and dh and the baby where there waiting for me.

I was starving when I got to the PP recovery room sense I haddn't eaten sense 10pm the night before and asked for food. I got some grape juice and water, I wasnt' allowed food. Thank goodness I didnt' get food..About 20 minutes after I drank the grape juice I puked it all up, another side effect from the meds. Even with the pain meds it hurt like heck to be puking. I found out from dh that she was really 6lbs 12.9oz but they rounded it to 13oz instead.

Later that afternoon I felt better and wanted to try to eat so my mom ordered me some jello and chicken broth from the cafitera (dh was gone with Seamus getting me a nursing pillow sense we haddn't had the chance to get one before hand) and I slowly ate the jello and felt great...about 20minutes later again I puked it all up. Finally the nurse offered me some anti nausia meds, and of course took them, and dh brought me a frosty from wendys and I ate that fell asleep and felt great by 7pm/dinner time, and ate dinner (chicken strips and brocoli) and kept it down just fine.
I lucked out and my first nurse in the PP recovery was my brother's girlfriends mom.

I got the blood pressure thingys taken off my legs on Thursday morning and was told to get up about an hour or so after the cathader was taken out to try to pee, the nurse helped me walk, I felt like I'd been riding a horse for hours but it wasnt' too horrible to walk thanks to the pain meds.
I spent most of Thursday by myself with Kieran because my mom had to work that day and dh had to stay home with Seamus till 11:30pm.

I got to go home on Friday, one of the OBs(not the one that did the section but the one that delivered Seamus) said I could go home at 7am when he came to see me but I had to have a bowel movement first...I haddn't yet. At 12ish I had to get a lovely enema and finally went about 15minutes later. We got to leave at 1:30pm. It was horribley painful in the car. The main street by the hospital, a highway, has horrible potholes and every one was super painful when the car went over it(Thankfully they are redoing the hwy).

Been doing pretty good at home the first few days were bad, was taking my pain meds every 6hrs on the dot. Thankfully dh has been off work all week, I'm now able to go 8-9hrs between pain meds and the OB gave me a script for a lower dosage of pain meds to start taking(was taking percocet(sp?) now with hydro's)

Kieran Elizabeth
7:51am Pacific Standard Time
6lbs 13oz
19½inches long
Blonde hair blue eyes

A Year ago

2010-04-07T10:05:00.002-07:00

This time last year I was doing the last few things around the house(laundry, and dishes) and making sure my bags were packed. It was also the last day as a mommy of 1, so I tried to spend most of the day just me and Seamus, even had him sleep with me in bed that night. Its weird to think a year has already gone by, it seems like Kieran has been here for ever but not at the same time.
Here is my last belly shot, 38weeks 3days, taken just after I got out of the shower. I had to wash with this special soap the hospital gave me to clean my tummy off to help prepare for the c-section.

Wordless Wednesday: Easter

2010-04-07T00:05:00.004-07:00

(Kieran's 2nd Easter and Seamus' 4th)

Wordless Wednesday: Flowers

2010-03-31T09:45:00.001-07:00

(You know its spring when the dandelions come out)

Franklin Goose promotion

2010-03-27T18:23:00.005-07:00

Franklin Goose, a children's online store, is having an awesome promo right now. But hurry it ends on March 31st! Right now for each product review you give they will give you $5. Its amazing the products they have an how fast the credits build up. I found out about this on Tuesday, and did $90 worth of reviews in just a couple hours. I was so excited that I placed an order that night. Over the last few days I've gone through their site more thoroughly and found more products that I've used/tried (and they've been adding more things) and have been able to review enough to get $35 more credits, but I believe I'm done now can't find anything else lol.
Like most people when I heard about this I thought, "No way, too good to be true." But I decided what could it hurt its all free, you can even use your credits to pay for shipping (all shipping up to 25lbs is only $5). I placed my order Tuesday night, and almost everything I ordered was backordered except for 1 thing(which is now backordered lol), but when I woke up this morning I saw an email from them, a TRACKING NUMBER! I was so excited, I've been following threads on both JustMommies and DiaperSwappers and seen that people were getting tracking numbers and actually getting the items but I thought that it would be a while if I did. I'm so excited, only one of my items is shipping but thats ok, it will be a present for Kieran :P

My first order (with my original $90) was;
1 - Thirsties DuoWrap Diaper Cover
Color: Storm
Size: Size Two $12.50

1 - GroBaby Shell
Color: Blackberry $16.95

1 - Bum Genius Organic One Size
Color: Moonbeam SNAP $19.95

1 - Bum Genius Organic One Size
Color: Clementine SNAP $19.95

1 - Boon fluid toddler cup
Color: Pink/Translucent 365 $5.99

1 - Boon Odd Ducks
Color: Slim-Blue/Green/White 952 $5.99

1 - bum Genius Hemp Babies Diaper Doubler
Size: Large $3.00

The GroBaby shell is what shipped, so happy to have another one of those.

Franklin Goose has cloth diapers, children's safety items, stuff for the nursery, children's gear and even household items. Many people have been wondering why they are doing this, and this is what they said on their facebook page;

Many people have asked why were are doing this. The answer is simple. We believe in our site. When we consider all the ways to let people know, we prefer to spend $500,000 on giving money to the people who need it in a creative way rather than to an ad agency for a series of magazine ads.

What they said makes since, with how many mommies, online diapering and organic communities, and even freebie sites posting this all over, I think their company is getting more exposure then any add in a magazine would get them. I know I will be shopping here again(for Seamus' birthday especially)

So hurry up to Franklin Goose and do some reviews!

Just as a forewarning they are backlogged right now, taking 3-4days for credit to show up on your account, but they've said as long as your review is done by the 31st(and on the 31st I believe) you will get the credit. You can even "bank" your credit and save it for a year and get an extra 20% for doing so!

Check out my Scrapblog

2010-03-24T17:55:00.000-07:00

I've been doing lots of digiscrapping(reason why I haven't been keeping tabs on this blog) and I just created my first template and I'm sharing it with everyone.

Take a look here.

Aloha Friday #3 (March 19th, 2010)

2010-03-18T23:05:00.006-07:00

Been Months since I've posted one of these!

In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that we take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So I thought that on Fridays I would take it easy on posting, too. Therefore, I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response.

What do you do on YOUR birthday? Go out with friends and family, stay home like any other day, or do something fun with the kids?

I will be; first taking the kids to the doctor at 10am, Seamus has a med check and Kieran a weight check, then paying bills, then having some friends and family over for a Chicken BBQ and a Cake Seamus and I will bake in the afternoon. At around 8:30-9pm we are going out and my brother is watching the kids(Though they will be asleep, or should be in Kieran's case).

Head over to An Island Life for more Aloha Friday!!

This is for the 19th of March, blog says 18th cause I'm in pacific time and its only 11:15pm here lol so not quite the 19th yet but close

So proud

2010-03-10T23:44:00.005-08:00

For Christmas I bought Seamus some dry erase cards to practice his letters and alphabet with. We tried them and it failed so I put them away for a later time. Well today(Wed.) I took them out, 3 at a time, and showed him how to do it. After a couple times of me holding his hand and the maker he figured out how to follow the lines and figured v's and a's out, and even wrote an a on regular paper for me. He was very excited and would go trade his 3 cards for 3 more and try. Hes a little heavy on the marker though so he squiggles and scribbles a lot but its progress for him.

He's still not doing well on his letters though. A couple hours later I told him to get the Apple card again and asked him what letter A started with and he said "g" >.<

Birthday Party Planning

2010-03-08T21:51:00.004-08:00

Its bitter sweet that I'm planning Kieran's first birthday. I've been slowly getting supplies for the last month, but it hit me today(her 11mo birthday) that she's actually going to be 1 in a month. This last year has gone faster then I ever thought it could. With my Nana dying so soon after Kieran was born, my mom living with us from March - July 2009, hubby's hours being so scarce we were applying for unemployment(they thankfully went back up soon after he got approved and we never got a check), to the h1n1 that Seamus had and we got some down graded version of it. Looking at her makes me want to cry, I want my tiny baby back, not that she's very big but still.
Her birthday is going to be on a Thursday so we are having her party on Saturday the 10th of April. Right now we still are not 100% sure on where it will be, I send out her invites just saying that her party will be at our house, but its possible, weather depending, that we can have it at a local park. Her them is mostly a Bold and Bright Color theme, with cupcakes and tea party thrown in. I was having just a cupcake-tea party theme before I realized how many girls were having that theme for their first birthday, and even slightly changing it up I found out a lot are doing similar colors(her primary are Bright Pink and Bright Green). Seamus' first birthday was so much easier, being in the summer I just did a Hawaiian theme and no one else I know(IRL or online) was doing it. So far it looks like it will be us, my mom and 1 brother (other is an iffy, with his marriage going up and down) and possibly my friend and her son(he will be 10.5mo then), but I've invited more just waiting to hear if anymore will come. I'm hoping to make a veggie tray like I did for Seamus, have some macaroni salad(though I wont eat it), peanut-butter sandwiches for the kids, cucumber sandwiches and tuna sandwiches and drinks. There's still a few more things that I'm not sure about but slowly figuring it out.

Here is her invite

(Pictures taken w/ a Canon T1i, Digiscrap kit, "Party Time," by Pure Creativity Designs, I did the layout, fonts from Fonts For Peas)

Seamus

2010-03-03T01:04:00.001-08:00

Seamus has had some behavior and developmental issues since he was born. His gross and fine motor skills have improved greatly over the last 3½years but his behavior hasn't (and his speech was doing well but started to decline the last few months.) We've been working with our pedi for years to try to figure out what was going on.

He was born with Torticollis ("twisting of the neck") which resulted in Plagiocephally. Neither of the 2 would have cause him to be as delayed in the fine and gross motor areas, so we did lots of testing, blood work, CT scans (which showed nothing but Macrocephally). He was in OT from 3months old till 15months(we moved out of state for a couple months) and PT from around 8months till 15months. It was hard seeing him suffer through the therapies but they helped and now instead of being 3-6+ months behind developmentally like he was he is only at most 3mo in some categories.

Onto his behavior, he's always been more of a "I want to be by myself" kind of kid. When he was a baby he never wanted us to play with him, throwing fits or just not playing if we tried, if we left him alone he'd have a ball. Even to this day 75% of the time he prefers to play alone. We also cannot initiate things, like games, or counting, or play time, he has to do it or he will have nothing to do with you or what you're trying to do. I've been trying for over a year to get him to count past 10, and he wont, heck he wont even count to 10 if you ask him(but when he's playing alone he'll do it just fine) same with the alphabet, he wont say it if you provoke him but alone I've herd him say almost the whole thing (even lmnop in the the correct order). He's also very picky about things and how they have to be or all hell will break loose...speaking of that his temper its bad and so are this tantrums. One day Kieran's Early Headstart FC was here and she wasn't talking to Seamus and he threw a block at her so I put him in his room(he hadn't had quiet time yet so I said he needed it then) and for well over 45mintues he screamed....because he wanted the block (or FC was timing him till she left). He has to sleep with his light on, I've tried using a night light(taking it out of our room) and he freaked, tried a small lamp, freak out again, but at the same time he freaks out about the sun being too bright or flashes from camera's. Seamus is also overly friendly...scarily so, he'll talk to anyone and go with anyone without any fears and he's always been this way. On the topic of other people, hes not aware of others bubbles, touching people (hands, feet, face, etc.) even strangers, even when they tell him no. He's also horrid with listening, we could tell him to do something more then 6 times before he finally does it, or not to do something. Punishments have also been bad, we've tried spanking(I know...) it works for a little then he goes back to the naughty behavior. We've tried time outs that's a major fail, he just yell's and screams and then when its over he goes right back to being naughty sometimes even more so. I moved on to taking a toy away...resulted in major breakdown fits, so at this point we've had to put him in his room "grounding" him for 10-15minutes(depending on what he did) it seems to work some of the time.There's other "odd" quirks he has but right now I focused on some of the main ones.

Seamus' pedi referred him to a psychologist for counseling and to get the ADOS test done. The ADOS test is to test for Autism, something that we've brought up to our pedi since Seamus was about 15 months old but she said they couldn't do anything till he was 3. We've herd from a couple different people that they think he's high functioning Autistic(without us saying anything). Seamus has gone to one counselor's meeting, last week, and she said just by watching him(she had a sandbox) she saw some things that made her think possible Autism, and then when we told her about what he does she said that its a strong possibility. We are trying to get his ADOS test set up but the psychologist that does the test is busy(works for the hospital too) so its hard to get a hold of him, but the counselor we see is in his practice so hopefully she will mention something.

So right now its looking like he has Autism. I'm not trying to "label" my son, but I'm trying to figure this all out and learn how to be a better parent for him and actually be able to teach him right because right now I'm at a loss and so stressed with him I can barley handle him.

Been a little MIA

2010-02-28T16:06:00.001-08:00

Sorry folks been MIA for a week or so, just trying to recoup from our trip still and deal with some medical things for Seamus(post on that soon.)
I've also been digiscraping alot lately check out that blog McDilda Scraps to see some of my pages.
And today I opened an Etsy Shop, for now just selling Tutu's but soon hopefully other things too. But I'm still trying to think of a name.
Should have a good post about Seamus here this week and some pictures from our trip, stay tuned!

We did go

2010-02-19T17:22:00.001-08:00

Scratch that last post we did end up going. We had some issues with one car and at the last minute decided to take our smaller car on the trip. I got my hand smashed in the car on V-Day and broke 1.5 nails pretty low (trying to keep it from falling off though) so its hard to type. I'll try to get a post up tonight or tomorrow after the kids are in bed (w/ pictures)

Not going

2010-02-12T13:01:00.001-08:00

trip canceled, packed and got Seamus excited for nothing. update later I'm not in the best of moods

Diapers

2010-02-11T23:27:00.002-08:00

For weeks now I've been trying to figure out what to do about our trip and Kieran's diapers. We've cloth diapered her since August, so most of her life. I didn't want to waste money on disposables and I'm quite turned off by them now after using cloth. I was helping my mom one day after her surgery and one of her friends was there. I was very excited to tell her friend about my diapers and was showing her them and told her our story of how we started cloth. The next day I get a phone call from my mom saying her friend bought us diapers (my mom said because this friend felt bad we clothed!). I thought, well this will solve our diaper issue for the trip, because we couldn't bring our cloth since we wont be able to wash for over a week and with no wet bag that will start stinking bad and fast. Then I won a Fluff Friday giveaway at The Cloth Diaper Whisperer of a GroBaby and bio soakers! I was over the moon cause we could now use our cloth stuffs! I have a package of 50 bio soakers and I think that will last us from Friday the 12th till Friday the 19th, but just incase I've packed some BumGenius, FuzziBunz and Bummis prefolds for the return trip home. I'm so excited to use my GroBaby!

Wordless Wednesday: Yummy Foot!

2010-02-10T08:09:00.002-08:00

Packing our bags

2010-02-08T13:02:00.002-08:00

This week I'm going to slowly be packing our bags for our trip. But before I do any packing I need to figure out a suitcase for hubby and I...eek. I have a medium size duffel bag that will fit all of the kids clothes in just fine but our only other one is a huge one that is too big to be taking. I think my mom has a medium sized normal suitcase we can borrow, and I think I need to find one for my brother now that I think of it.

We went to the store the other day and bought the kids some travel sized soap/shampoo's, and us some normal sized ones(ours are almost gone and we figured for the price just buy the big ones). I've also been a laundry maniac, haven't folded it but I've done around 6 loads in 3 days with about 6more to go. I want all the laundry done and put away before we leave Friday afternoon. We did a pretty good deep clean of the living room, bathroom and kitchen, now we just need our room and Seamus' cleaned up good.

Hubby and I are also trying to plan our stops for gas. We're using MapQuest and when hubby was looking at it yesterday we noticed they had us going to Cheyenne, Wy and hitting I-80 which would take us out of the way since we need to stop in Scottsbluff, Ne on the way to where we are going. Luckily he noticed that now instead of when we were almost down there. We're figuring that it will cost about $200 each way for gas...dang I wish gas was as cheap as it was last year, right now its between $2.30-2.70/gallon depending on the state we will be in.

So far the panic of getting it all done hasn't set in, I think it will Wednesday especially if our car can't get fix(that's another blog entry later).

Traveling

2010-02-03T23:53:00.002-08:00

The last few weeks I have been planing, and replaning and running a checklist all in my head for our trip to Nebraska. We are leaving around noon on February 12th, and hoping to make it to Sheridan, Wy late that night and spend the night then arrive in Nebraska on Saturday. I'm a little worried about actually spending the night in a hotel, for 2 reasons. The first reason I'm worried is when we came back up from Nebraska in 2008 we planned to stay the night in Billings, Mt but when we got there we found out that all the hotels(that we knew about) were full because of a local Native American convention going on and the tribes had the rooms booked, so I'm worried about finding a room. Hubby thinks we will just drive till we are tired, making it to Billings or Sheridan and finding a hotel then, I wanted to reserve one but I was warned about the weather and we may not make it to either place and I dont want to waste a reservation. My second reason for being worried...the kids. I think Kieran will be fine sleeping in a hotel in bed with me and hubby, but Seamus, I think, will have a hard time. Seamus already has a really bad time sleeping and being in a strange place will be even harder on in (especially sharing a bed with my brother).

I keep trying to think of things for the kids to do while driving, we were going to get a dvd player to strap on the headrest but didn't like what we found (hoping to borrow a friends player), so now I'm back to square one. I was thinking crayons, but Mr. Shaymee will color on anything and he will be riding right next to Kieran and I don't want him giving her the crayons so I nixed that one. What I've come up with is either buying them each a small new toy to play with, and/or letting Seamus pick something out so he'll be more excited to play with it.

We've (...well I've) decided to get a cooler and fill it with ice and drinks so we aren't wasting money at gas stations on those, I was also wanting to do the same with lunch but hubby said he'd rather stop to get that. Hubby's dad sent Seamus these cool cups that have a snack cup on top, and a straw runs through it to a bottom drink cup so that will be nice and compact for him to use. Not sure yet what to do for Kieran, cause I know she will want food when she see's Seamus eating something(hopefully he wont try to feed her).

We will be in Nebraska from mid Saturday till very early Wednesday. Wednesday morning we are leaving for South Dakota and stopping at Mt. Rushmore(4hrs north of where we will be in Nebraska). I've been to Mt. Rushmore back in 2004 but my brother and hubby haven't and I thought it'd be a neat little detour. Our plans are to stay the night in Rapid City then take I-90 straight home on Thursday making it home late Thursday night early Friday morning.

It will be fun seeing how the kids do on the trip. I'll be updating my blog as the trip goes on :)

Back

2010-02-02T23:08:00.002-08:00

I should be back in the swing of things. The last few weeks have been too crazy with doctors appointments, teething 9month olds, colds, taxes and trip planning.

I'm planning a post here in the next day or so about planning a trip with a 3½yr old and a 10month old. And I'm asking for your help. I want to include some tips from you, what ideas do you have for the drive(appx 1200miles) in mid winter through pretty empty roads(Montana, and Wyoming into Nebraska), what do you pack, how do those that cloth diaper do it(we wont be able to wash ours so looks like bringing our cloth is out of the question). Anything that has to do with trips, snacks, eating on the road, sleeping in a strange house(well for the kids, its my dad's house, but there will be 2 hotel stays), etc. Post here in the comments or email me at j.mcdilda at gmail dot com

Been a tad MIA

2010-01-19T13:27:00.003-08:00

This last week has been a little hectic, err well just the weekend really. I feel so thrown off still. Wedensday we went to my mom's to pickup her van. Why you may ask? Because she can't drive it for a couple weeks...again why? She had to have a hysterectomy Thursday morning(I have the van so I can drive her around or get her in the day while hubby is working if needed since we only have one car for now). She's been having some problems for just over a year now so this was something that we kind of knew would be coming, and its good that its done now. She went in for surgery Thursday morning and found out Thursday evening when the doc finally came to talk to her that they accidentally cut her bladder. Since they cut her bladder she has to have a catheter in until this coming Thursday (hopefully its healed enough to remove then). Mom was released Friday night and Kieran and I went to stay with her. I stayed with her until late Saturday night because she's not supposed to be doing much (shes got a dog and cat that need taken care of too) and shes lonely by herself.

Friday morning we also had Seamus' evaluation to see how he is. I'm so happy to say hes finally on track with his developments, averaging 65% (they were between 65-66%) on his gross motor skills. He did fail his hearing because he wouldn't cooperate with the lady, and they are wanting to keep an eye on his speech and want him re-evaluated. I'm going to pass on redoing the hearing because he's been tested quite a big and we know he can hear just fine, for the speech we will be talking with his pedi in a couple weeks. The 1 problem they all had with him...he wouldn't listen, got off track and didn't cooperate with the, the same issues we have at home. If we aren't in Nebraska he has an appointment on February 8th with his pedi to talk about his behavior and how its slowly getting worse, and about how his speech is declining. Kieran's Early Headstart FC (Seamus' old one too but he aged out of the program at 3) said that they had a speaker at the office a couple weeks back, and the lady was talking about her son. Our FC said the speakers son sounded just like Seamus, the speakers son has ADHD and Bipolar disorder. Both of those issues are very likely, Bipolar slightly more as it seems to run in hubbys family (His grandma, mom, him and brother all have it...its partially why he's up here and all his family is in Texas), and ADHD is in both of our families. From what my mom has told me there is a fine line between Bipolar and ADHD and something around 85% of people with ADHD also have Bipolar. We will be talking with his doctor about getting him tested for these. If we can find an answer I think it will help us all out.

Last Monday (12th) we had Kieran's 9 month appointment. She's doing well, still small in the 20-25% for weight and height at 17lbs 12oz and 26½" long. She's on track with all her milestones and seems to be doing great. The doc said to just skip the baby purees since she refuses to eat them and let her have big people food if thats what she wants.

Winner!

2010-01-17T10:55:00.002-08:00

The winner of my first review & giveaway is Cindy #18! Congrats!

Winner has been emailed and has 48hrs to respond or another winner will be chosen.

Wordless Wednesday: 9mo and 3.5yrs

2010-01-12T23:58:00.003-08:00

Seamus will be 3.5yrs on the 18th, and Kieran turned 9mo on the 8th. These were taken at JC Penney on 1/9

Happy Birthday

2010-01-07T11:34:00.002-08:00

Today my husband turns 26. I keep giving him a bunch of crap about only having 4yrs till hes 30, and that he's old now. I mean, geeze, hes been starting to gray since he was 22, when I found the first gray one he said I was lying, now he listens to me. I think its cute, its flecked above his ears mostly, though I did find one in an eye brow a couple months back :P. Its not a lot, his dad doesn't have much gray but its also above his ears so I think hubby will be the same way. It's weird to believe that I've knowing him for over 5yrs now, we met while he was still 20 a couple months before 21, and now here he is 26, and still as cute as ever. I love him
Happy Birthday love.

(From July 09, Seamus 3rd bday)

Wordless Wednesday

2010-01-06T01:14:00.001-08:00

9 Months old (well on Friday 1/8)

Skin MD Natural Shielding Lotion: Review and Giveaway

2010-01-04T22:54:00.011-08:00

Skin MD approached me a little bit ago about doing a review on Skin MD Natural and I jumped at the chance. Here is my review (and a giveaway!) of this great lotion!

With the winter weather I usually get really dry hands and elbows. I haven't been able to find a lotion in years that helps with this. Recently I was sent a bottle of Skin MD Natural Shielding Lotion. The first thing I did when I got the bottle was smell it, not over whelming and no strong scents, loved that. Next I put some on my dry cracked elbow, I noticed right away that it didn't feel think or greasy like some other lotions, and it went on smooth with very little needed. I started using it every few hours like suggested on the bottle, with in 2 days I noticed a huge difference in my elbow. I also loved how soft and moisturized my hands felt afterwords, for hours. I've been using it once a day now, right before bed, and I wake up with nice soft hands, arms and elbows. One of the other things that I love about this is the statement, "A little goes a long way," is certainly true, you don't need very much of it to do the job and do it well.

My lovely Elbow Before Skin MD

My Elbow After

Skin MD Natural is a Shielding lotion, that hydrates and helps to keep the skins natural moisture.

* No animal products or testing
* Dermatology tested
* Fragrance and colorant free
* Hypoallergenic
* Paraben free
* Non-comedogenic

I really enjoyed this product. It was easy to use, didn't irritate my skin or my daughters if I touched her right after, actually I even let my 3 year old son use some and he loved it.

Skin MD offers a Sample online here
Or you can buy some for yourself(or as a gift :D) take a look at the store locator to see where its offered at close to you.

****
Or you can Win one! Skin MD Natural has offered to give one of Silent Storm's readers a full sized (4oz) bottle of Skin MD Natural Shielding Lotion

To enter please do the mandatory entry before any others for your entry(s) to count. Also leave a comment for each extra entry you do. NO need to be a blogger to enter, anyone can :) Remember to also leave an email address either in "blank dot gmail dot com" or "blank(@)gmail.com" format so I can contact you if you win (or have public on blogger profile) if I don't have a way to contact you, you can't win.

MANDATORY entry:
Go to Skin MD's site and tell me something you learned about their products

Extra entries:

- Subscribe to my blog via email (top of blog)
- Follow my blog via Google Friend (halfway down page)
- Subscribe(follow) Silent Storm's RSS feed
- Follow Skin MD Natural on Twitter
- Follow me on Twitter and leave me your twitter name
- Tweet "RT @SliverStorm Skin MD Natural Review and Giveaway! Win a full sized bottle of Shielding Lotion http://tinyurl.com/y8974tw" (You may tweet twice a day, make sure each tweet is at least 4hrs apart and leave me the link to the specific tweet)
- Blog about this giveaway (2 entries)
- Tell me what you look for in lotion and skin care products

(US only)

This giveaway will end, Friday January 15th, at 11:59pm PST. To choose the winner I will enter all the eligible entries into Random.org and match the number it gives me to the coordinating number here.

*Disclosure* I was sent a bottle and a couple sample packets of Skin MD Natural Shielding Lotion from Skin MD to test and review. The review is my own and my honest opinion of the product.

Extra Entry

2010-01-03T23:14:00.001-08:00

I will be putting my first review/giveaway up either late tomorrow(Monday) or the day after(Tues.) but I'm an entry short, I don't have a blog button. So for an extra entry into my giveaway make a button for my blog :D Each person that emails me a button will get an extra entry, the winning one(will have hubby help decide) will get 2 extra entries! Please have them emailed to me j.mcdilda(@)gmail.com by 9pm PST Monday (1/4).

Little about the blog, I'm a mommy to two kids ages 3.5 and 9mo. The name Silent Storm originally came about because I liked it, but now I realize that sums up my life...er well my son. He is my Silent Storm, if you turn your back for a second its like a tornado went through the house. So the blog "Silent Storm" is essentially about my life and how quickly and silently things can change.

Wordless Wednesday: 1st Christmas

2009-12-29T23:40:00.001-08:00

Can't get comfy?

2009-12-21T22:57:00.002-08:00

Need a new bed? I know we sure do, the one we have was one we got through FreeCycles when we first moved back from Nebraska and it has broken springs and, its just utterly uncomfortable. Our current bed is so uncomfortable that my hubby cannot sleep in it on nights that he works, and right now thats 6 nights a week, if he sleeps in there he can barley move when he wakes up and with his job he needs to be able to move and lift very heavy pieces of metal. Mommy Mandy and Sealy are having a giveaway for a Sealy Posturepedix Innerspring Signature 11 Series bed. How neat would this be to win? I would love to win this to help my husband out and get to spend every night with him not just one a week, it gets lonely without him.
Click here to enter.

Cloth Diaper Giveaways part 4

2009-12-18T09:54:00.002-08:00

Ornament Exchange

2009-12-17T09:42:00.003-08:00

I participated in an ornament exchange at Moma Lovebug's blog. It was fun to exchange ornaments with someone in a different state! We got a little guy in a Texas jacket jumping over a cactus. Hubby laughed when he saw it, it fits perfectly because he's from Texas(grew up back in forth in Houston and Austin between parents). Its now hanging on our tree! Thanks Brie!

About me

2009-12-13T01:26:00.002-08:00

I'm Justine, a young mommy and wife to Kenneth. We live up in North Idaho, and love it here. My family moved here in 1993 from SoCal when my mom and step-dad got married(dad moved to Nebraska w/ my step-mom a year later). I've spent most of the last 16 years up here, hubby and I tried a trial move to Texas(where he is from) in 2005/2006 and we lived in Nebraska for 7months in 2007/2008 but Idaho kept calling us. We love the mountains, lakes rivers and getting all 4 seasons.

I met my husband in late 2004 at work when I was 17(him 20), we started dating a couple days after I turned 18 in March 2005. We were engaged in August 2005 and ended up pregnant with my first, my son, in October 2005. My son was born in July 2006, he had a hard first couple of years but now is a rambunctious, wild 3.5yr old. Kenneth and I were married September 1st, 2006. In May of 2008 we decided it was time to expand our family, but it wasn't as easy as we though(well we knew, even though my son was a surprise, we still had "help" getting him), my body didn't want to work and after a visit to a doctor in August 2008 I was told that we wouldn't be able to have another baby without help again, and I was given a prescription for progesterone. Lo-and-behold I found out we were pregnant on August 17th, 2008. My daughter was born via c-section in April 2009, due to being breech. She is so much different then her brother, no delays like he had, the only issues we've had with her is her poor weight gain in the beginning and slow weight gain now.

I am a Breastfeeding mommy. I breastfed my son till he was 12.5mo, at that point we'd spent 2 weeks trying to get him to keep nursing, and through the tears and fighting I finally gave in and realized he was done. I've been nursing my daughter since the day she was born and now at 8months old she is still primarily breastfed, she's refusing solids, we try every couple days but she still would rather have breast milk. I recently started cloth diapering, I wanted to with my first but we couldn't because we only had coin-op laundry at that time and its too spendy to do. I wanted to start cloth diapering my daughter from the beginning but my husband wouldn't have it, he thought it was gross, then his hours took a horrid turn this summer and we couldn't afford to buy disposables as quick as, my then, 3.5month old daughter was going through them. We started cloth diapering in August 2009 just before my daughter turned 4months old and have never looked back, we love it, hubby surprisingly came around pretty fast. Another newer thing that I started doing is baby wearing. I tried to wear my son but back in 2006 the only things I knew about were slings and front carriers. We couldn't use slings with him because he had bad Torticollis and he would scream from the neck pain, and front carriers hurt my messed up shoulder so carrying him was nixed. In the last few years I've learned about wraps, so I thought I'd give it a try with my daughter, I made my own similar to a Moby wrap and we love it and even hubby uses it.

So all in all, I'm a Breastfeeding, Cloth Diapering, semi baby wearing, semi Crunchy mommy.