Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Opinions wanted


I have this baby. She's pretty freakin' cute as evidenced by these photos.



But.....she's rockin' a pretty sweet mullet.


Should I cut it? I've added a poll to the right for this incredibly important decision.






And just because....

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Heat Hiatus


We had to leave. Too hot. Too hot to play outside which means hot, cranky, bored kids.
So we left. Away we went to the beach where my sister lives with her husband and his fam. They were so kind to let us crash at their place. Five minutes from the beach. 70-80 degrees. Perfection!


It's a good thing I have such helpful, loving sisters. The girls love all their aunts (and uncles of course)



Oh this girl. I love this age. She's 16 months (tomorrow!) and a handful. She has the world at her fingertips. To her, it's just one big park. I snapped a pic of her running into the street for the 8057th time. (Then quickly demanded that hubby retrieve her)

Ironically I forgot to bring the camera to the beach. But let me illustrate a few pictures for you:

*Myself going for a run along the beach trail, breathing in that cool, salty breeze*
*Lil Sis' tripping in the water then biffing it in the sand minutes later becoming a very sandy baby and NOT liking it*
*Diva shoveling sand into her mouth, licking her fingers and when asked why she was eating the sand her response, "It's salty!"*
*Hubby doing aaaaaLOOOOT of surfing. Enough to last him a few months that's for sure.*
*My sister watching us wrangle our kids thinking, "I'm not having kids for a LONG time."


I did however document our fun in the pool.




Diva is our fish. She would live in the water if she could. She's picked up swimming on her own remarkably well since we ditched her swim vest a couple weeks ago. (Out of necessity) she can hold her breath under water as she swims from edge to edge. We're working on the whole "treading water while coming up for air" skill.



And our little guppy who probably drank 30 gallons of pool water.


We were almost sad to come back and read that it will be over 100* here the rest of the week. Awesome!

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Keeping it in perspective

The past couple weeks have been very rough. Diva, as much as I love her, has been wearing me down. There is a reason her nickname is Diva. Now I know a lot of 3 year-olds can be demanding but I feel like she is on the extreme end of the spectrum. I spend most of my days battling with her, being frustrated and/or angry with her. It's exhausting to say the least. I don't want to be like that.

Every morning I try my absolutely hardest to put on my best smile and greet her with utmost enthusiasm and love. Nine times out of ten she responds with a growl or shouting accompanied with her perfected scowl. Breakfast is usually shouts of, "No oatmeal...CHEERCHOS! GIMME IT RIGHT NOW!" Lunch and dinner are no better.

When Lil' Sis' is asleep I sit down with her and give her suggestions on what we should do:

"Would you like me to read you stories?"
"NO!"
"Do you want to paint?"
"NO!"
"Do you want to draw?"
"NO!"
and so on.

I seriously ask myself, "Why is she so angry all the time? I must be a terrible mother. What have I done wrong?"

Then I leave her with other people and I hear how polite and sweet she was. Really? Great. That makes me feel worse.

The last week especially I just felt emotionally drained. I know Diva is exhausted too and it greatly contributes to her attitude. Simple answer? She needs more sleep. Oh but did I mention the girl abhors bedtime? Ya. Like so much so that come 8 pm she magically turns into a sweet, cute little girl. The nicer she is, the later she can stay up. I like my 8 o'clock Diva. It's a side of her that I rarely get to see during the day.

So, as not to sound like a Debbie Downer this post has a "happy ending." After much prayer and changing a few things here and there, Diva has been acting a little better. Not a complete transformation but better. I know that dwelling on the negative will get me nowhere. Focusing on the positive things is what makes life "livable" and more enjoyable.


Last night she was completely overcome with excitement at the thought of sleeping in a tent with Daddy. It warmed my heart.

She's growing up so fast. It freaks me out a little.

Today she came to me, hugged me tight and said, "I love you Mommy."

Totally worth it.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Update!-Specifics!

I know you are all waiting with baited breath to see how my "noo-poo" experiment has been going.

I can proudly say I went two weeks without an ounce of shampoo touching my hair. I didn't grow dreads, I didn't become a grease ball and I certainly didn't smell. And trust me, that was huge because this is coming from a person who loves to exercise and sweat....a LOT. The only reason shampoo eventually touched my hair was because I had a hair cut a few days ago. But I'm back in the game!

What I did notice was my hair becoming a lot softer all on its own. No "cones" to produce that effect, just good natural shine and softness.

Anyway don't worry I won't continue to talk about this hippy-ish escapade for every post. Next few posts should be filled with more Divaisms and/or pics of just pure cuteness.

*Specifics!*

I didn't really think people were going to take me seriously on this or even want to try it themselves so that's why I didn't write down a lot of specifics. At any rate here they are:

-Shampoo=bad, Conditioners containing ingredients such as amodimethicone, dimethicone, silcone=bad.
-Buy some non-"cone" conditioner. Suave Naturals is cheap and cone- free. Burt's Bees is also great. Aveda is another one that makes natural products.
-Use that conditioner in place of shampoo. "Co-wash" as often as you would shampoo.
-Arm yourself with some Arm&Hammer Baking soda (har har har). Once a week I scrubbed my scalp with a tsp of baking soda in one cup of water along with a tsp of honey. It felt SO good on my scalp. Make sure you follow up with some cone-free conditioner.

If you're really truly interested in all of this, google "No-Poo" and a plethora of information will come up.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

No-poo!

Two days ago will have been the last time I shampoo'd my hair. That is if all goes well with this experiment. There's a no-poo train coming and I'm jumping aboard.

No I'm not trying to grow dreads or become a hippie. Shampoo is bad bad bad for your hair. The sulfates in it strip your hair of natural, healthy oils. Then comes the conditioner with harsh, fake ingredients such as dimethicone. Those ingredients that end in "cone" are there to replace the moisture stripped from your hair because of the shampoo BUT cones don't absorb. They coat your hair strands basically suffocating your hair. Your poor strands are dying of thirst so your body sends signals to your oil glands in your head to produce more oil. The only way to remove the "cones" from you hair is to shampoo. See the vicious cycle? So a lot of people think they can't possibly go more than a day without shampooing because of the oil in their hair. It's BECAUSE of the shampoo that your hair is so oily. The less you shampoo, the less oil your glands will produce and eventually your body will regulate the amount of oil used to moisturize your hair.

Sooo what's a girl to do when they've got nasty, sweaty hair? Co-wash! Co is short for conditioner. There are a lot of cheap, cone-free conditioners you can use to "shampoo" your hair and then follow up with a heavier, cone free conditioner to condition. Simple as that.

Once a week to "reset" your hair you can wash with baking soda and vinegar. Yummy right? 1 tbsp baking soda in one cup of water to scrub your scalp and then follow up with same amounts of vinegar and water to rinse.

This process will wonders for someone like me who has naturally wavy/curly hair. Going 3-4 days without shampooing is already the norm for my hair so I doubt this will be much of a change. I'm hoping that it will revitalize my curls!

LW

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