Taking 2 Under 6 to the Dentist

I hate the Dentist! I've always hated going! They never tell you you're doing anything right, it's always what you're doing wrong in my experience. Until I was about six I went to an adult dentist and did not enjoy it one bit. Then my mom found a children's dentist for me and my two younger siblings and he was a sweet old man that was gentle and talked me through the whole thing in order to calm my nerves. I do not want my past unpleasant experiences to dictate how my children perceive the dentist. After a lot of research, I found a children's dentist that's in the same building as my dentist. Again he is a sweet old man, he is very patient with my kids. All the hygienists are extremely patient, they talk to my kids like they're the most important people in the room and I'm allowed to be in there with them which was very very important to me. So how do I do it by myself?

1. I make the appointment at the end of the school day, just late enough that my son only misses the last 20 minutes of school so hopefully there aren't a bunch of kids there or a long wait time.

2. I get there early to fill out paperwork, because there always seems to be more paperwork I have to fill out at every visit.

3. In the waiting room they have video games  but I also brought along snacks, juice cups and tablets with headphones just in case.

4. To make things easier on myself for after the appointment I decided to make dinner using the crock pot that way no matter how long it takes (with a 5 year old and a screaming Terrible Two Toddler, extra time is always a good idea!) the main component of dinner will be done and ready for us when we get home. I just have to heat up the taco shells, my husband already shredded the cheese from earlier in the week and set the table.

Mom Tip: When we used to go to the dentist as kids my mom would pick us up from school and have us brush our teeth in the car. I didn't understand the reason then because they made you brush your teeth again when you got there and then they brushed them with their dentist tools. As a mom though I completely understand where she was coming from. Not that my kids are old enough to understand and brush their teeth before we go - so I just gave them breath mints and hoped that their teeth aren't so bad.

Their visit went great! We honestly spent more time in the waiting room than we did in the exam area. My youngest screamed when they counted his teeth, so that was all they could do for him. The hygienist did give him a treat bag with a new tooth brush, sticker and bathtub toy. She also gave him a plastic mouth mirror, hoping it would allow them to do more. It did not but my youngest liked his new toys. My oldest was very good! Since they examined my kids at the same time, my focus was on holding my youngest and helping the dentist, and my oldest was left with his hygienist. He did everything he was told and they both had no cavities!

Happy Mommy-ing!

Surviving Our Income Tax Appointment

It's Income Tax Time! My husband and I have always gone into an office to get our taxes done just in case something goes wrong or we fill out something the wrong way. This post is about how we took our 5 and 2 year olds into an office and how they behaved well in a cubicle for our appointment that lasted an hour and a half: 

1. We Prepared Before-Hand: Whenever there is a chance for me to print off forms and fill them out at home, I do. The Tax Office told us what forms to fill out and what documents to bring with us when we called to set up our appointment. I found all the things I needed and once I filled out the forms, I put them all into an accordion file. 

All of our papers were safe from the rain and kids in this folder

2. We Brought Quiet Activities: I have done a few posts on all the quiet time activities I have for my kids (link here to Ultimate Busy Bag Post). I brought our Restaurant Kit (link Here) with us as well as some small blocks and this V-Tech Tablet my youngest got for his birthday but it also helps my oldest with his letters and numbers. Most of the time my youngest sat in my husband's lap coloring and eating while my oldest sat playing with the V-Tech toy, then the blocks on the floor since he decide the blocks needed to fall down after he built a tower with them. 

Our Restaurant Kit, V-Tech tablet toy and blocks

3. We Had Snacks: Snacks are the #1 thing that keep our 2 year old from having meltdowns every minute! We always have packed with us: a sippy cup with half juice/half water, fruit snacks, some type of cookie and some type of cracker. This time we almost brought extra cereal in a snack container, mini water bottle, mini juice bottle, cereal bars and extra fruit snacks. 

This is not all we took with us, there was a lot more! This was all that was left!

4. When All Else Failed, We had the Tablet with Headphones and Movies: I don't know where my husband got this headphone splitter years ago but it helps us out so much! I brought their headband headphones (LOVE THESE!!), Tablet and tablet stand. We ended up not needing this until the very end. My youngest was okay watching a movie after he got tired of sitting on my husband's lap while my oldest sat on the floor building with the blocks.

Headband headphones, headphone splitter and tablet stand. My oldest has his tablet for nap time right now.

5. Mommy's Secret Weapon! I didn't end up needing this Secret Weapon but I had it stashed away in my purse in the event I needed to calm or bribe one or both kids to behave. It works every time! 

We did it! We got through our appointment with one meltdown from each kid but it was quickly resolved by a snack or new activity! No one had to go to the car or take a kid home, no one got stressed out and no weird looks from anyone so I would call today's appointment a success! 

Happy Mommy-ing!

Surviving 2 Under 6 While Flying Alone

We are going on our 7th snow day and I am finally feeling almost normal sick wise so I finally unpacked the last of our stuff from our trip to Disneyland.
I flew with my two boys (ages 5 and 2) alone and I prepared and researched activities, apps, and snacks for months prior to our flight. I OVER-PACKED AND OVER PLANNED! I had so much packed that my bag would not zip closed! 

I had:

•  2 coloring books
• 2 packs of crayons
• felt street Busy Bag with toy cars
• the pill box pom pom color game
• a Melissa & Doug Water Wow
• Travel pack Color Wonder
• a kid's tablet
• an old phone with baby games
• my Surface Pro
• headphones for us all
• a headphone splitter
• blankets for both kids (I wore a blanket scarf)
• packed breakfast boxes
• 2 kids' thermoses (I purchased a bottle of water, a bottle of apple juice to split, and a highly caffeinated soda for me once we got through security)
• a bag of suckers for the take off and landing
• extra snacks
• extra clothes (pants, socks, shirt for youngest and shirt for oldest)
• 3 times the amount of diapers and wipes I normally have (8 diapers and a full thing of wipes)
• both disinfecting wipes and travel spray
• travel flush-able wipes for my oldest
• 2 extra pacifiers (his Wuby pacifier with animal attached and extra pacifier)
• my wallet 
• my keys
• my IPod (which I forgot to charge) 
• pill box with medicine for us all
• an external battery pack with three charging cables
• the homemade bib my friend made me (since my youngest won't use the disposable bibs, he just stares them off)
• a wet bag in case I needed to change them
• my zipper pouch that had odds & ends (lotion, chapstick, tide pen, pouch food straw attachment, toy teethers, extra pacifier clip, band aids, diaper rash cream, sunblock stick) 
• and of course my stroller! 

Holy crap! No wonder the bag didn't zip shut! Even with my oldest carrying his own backpack and my youngest little backpack being clipped to the stroller... I still carried a diaper bag and a computer bag plus blankets. We did have about an hour layover both going and coming home but but the time we deplaned, found the bathroom to go potty and change the diaper, then find a store to get some snacks, and a Dr. Pepper for mommy and found our next gate we had maybe 20 minutes before they called us to board the plane so not very long. 

Everybody's kids are different. Some kids need a bunch of activities to keep them entertained and don't like to eat or snack all the time. I quickly found out I did not need half of the stuff I had brought with me:The toy cars were fine but I didn't need the street because there wasn't enough room to build it. The pom pom game got thrown on the ground under the seat in the airplane so that didn't work. My oldest liked his Color Wonder little pack better than the bigger coloring book with the small colored crayons because they easily got lost and the Color Wonder markers were easier for him to find and put away. My youngest didn't like either coloring option because he just threw the markers and colored crayons on the floor and tried to color on the seat. However he did really enjoy the Melissa & Doug Water Wow coloring system. 

It's cardboard with a little non drip water pain that you color on to reveal things in the picture. It's about 3 or 4 pages long, nice size pages that once you've colored them all you wait for them to dry and then you do it again! It kept him entertained the longest.

The suckers, although they were hit, caused both of my kids to become very very hyper and that's just not something you want when you want them to sit still and be quiet on a plane full of people! So for my kids coming home instead of the suckers on takeoff and landing, I gave them some medicine (Kid's Tylenol and Kid's Dramamine, not at the same time! Kid's Dramamine on take off so they would go to sleep and Kid's Tylenol, 1/2 their normal dose, little bit before landing). The pill box also had: Aleve, Sudafed, Pepto Bismol, Anti-poop medicine, Dramamine, Kid's Tylenol tablets and Kid's Pepto Bismol. 

On our layover they ate the breakfast boxes I made them which had: mini muffins, pop tarts, dried apples, yogurt melts for my youngest, cereal and breakfast cookies. They could eat whatever they wanted because they both had the same things (expect the yogurt melts) and it was a huge success making nose the only issue I had is I packed them vertically so a little spilled but not much. 

The tablets were obviously a huge hit! I got a bunch of their favorite games and about four of their favorite movies downloaded to work in airplane mode. I also purchased $5 headphones per each kid. The problem was my youngest didn't like having his headphones on and my oldest headphones broke halfway during the trip so that meant no movies and Note tablet because neither one of them could use my earbuds. I wish we would have gotten these before the trip but for Christmas we got them headband headphones, it's exactly what it sounds like it's a soft headband that goes around their heads and it has built-in speakers that go over their ears. They're about 20 bucks each depending on where you buy them from, and they're perfect we should have purchased them before the trip because both my boys have fallen asleep in the car wearing them and my youngest no longer has an issue wearing them and they don't fall off at all. So if you have kids with tablets I highly highly recommend you purchase some headband headphones especially for your kids that are younger! They are a lifesaver and my youngest's currently stay in our diaper bag so that when he wants to use my phone at the grocery store I don't have to hear it anymore. Plus the headbands fold-up and the ones we got are washable, the speakers come out and we can wash the headband.

On Left: The new headband headphones we love! Plus they have a volume restriction so the kids can't turn up their tablets too loud. The old phone for my youngest and their shared tablet (although it's really more used by my oldest) and the headphone splitter under it and the cheap, always falling off kids' headphones on the right.

I limited the amount of fluids both my boys drank before getting on the airplane and since I gave them medicine on take off, they slept the majority of the flight. My oldest did not need to use the bathroom on the plane and he was very good at holding it till we got to the airport and found one. I could've pack only 3 or 4 diapers and would have been fine with a travel-size pack of wipes for my youngest instead of the 10 I packed and a full thing of wipes. It would have saved me a lot of room in my diaper bag! And although it's always nice to have extra clothes in your diaper bag, both my boys are older -they're not babies anymore so I probably could have left my extra clothes in my suitcase and not packed in the diaper bag. And I also didn't need my an extra clothes for both my boys packed into a Ziploc bag and my wet bag both in my diaper bag. I should have simplified my odds and ends pouch - I didn't need a sunblock stick in my diaper bag for the airplane. I didn't need 3 charging cables for the external battery pack, and I really should have charged my iPod the night before!

So the next time I fly with my kids I will make sure that I have a simplified packed diaper bag with:

•  3-4 diapers (Hopefully next time I will not need diapers at all)
• travel wipes
• still both travel-size disinfecting wipes and travel spray
• a zipper pouch (band-aids, food pouch attachment, chap-stick, diaper cream, travel lotion, 1 pacifier with extra clip)
• travel flush-able wipes
• the pill box with medicine for us all

Activities for my boys (in each of their backpacks):

• a charged tablet with a couple of their favorite movies
• headband headphones
• their favorite blankets
• Color Wonder travel set for my oldest and the Water Wow for my youngest
• 1 toy car each
• snacks

I added carabiner clips to both their backpacks so when I had to hold them, I could easily hook them to the stroller 

My tip for you Moms is - don't overthink it. You know your kids, and most likely you'll be the one carrying everything. You don't need to take everything in the kitchen sink just take what you think will entertain your kids the best and keep them well-behaved on the airplane.

 Happy Mommy-ing!

Restaurant Kit Simplified

So I am an over packer 😶 I am that mom that has something for any situation that might arise when it comes to my kids. Not necessarily a bad thing per say, however in my experience with my kids it doesn't pay to over pack. When I have too many options for them, they tend to misbehave more or go through the items more quickly in order to do every single activity I have packed for them. Too many options confuse them.

Here is my old restaurant kit (link to full post here)

This kit was great! It held everything and anything my kids would want in order to keep them happy while we were dining out. I will keep this kit in my car but I wanted a smaller, simpler version for when it is just me with my youngest. Something compact that I could grab and go with a few diapers in my purse. A bag of some sort with snacks and distractions to get through a lunch with a friend.
Pinterest has tons of ideas but the one idea that I fell in love with was making a kit using a make up bag! Those bags in the Pins looked like this:

However this type of bag retails for 25$ or more! For a bag I was just using once in a while, I couldn't bring myself to spend that much of it. Luckily I stumbled upon this bag:

On clearance for only 10$! Score! That was too good to pass up so I got it! I was disappointed in the fact that it doesn't have a middle section like the ones in the Pins did. I was even trying to figure out how to attach one to it...before I started filling it! I didn't think it would hold what I needed because I'm so used to over packing. But I was wrong! This little bag holds the perfect amount of items! Everything fits perfectly with room to spare! 

On the Left: I decided to store eating items and snacks. Things like cut down bendy straws, kid sized utensils, a throw away bib (not that my youngest wears them, he pulls them off) and a throw away table topper.

 Next to the eating items I packed this thing full of tons of snacks to keep my youngest happy. His favorites are Gerber Grabbers and Organics Happy Tot pureed pouches. If I allowed him, he would eat 10 a day! I limit them to one or two a day depending on what we are doing. Both my boys love applesauce pouches as well. Other favorites are fruit snacks, cereal bars and Goldfish crackers. Recently I purchased Simply Balanced fruit leather bars from my local Target, hoping they would be like the Fruit Rolls they had in the produce section from my childhood. Although tasty, they sadly were not like the Fruit Rolls I remember; this brand was more sticky and not as dry and textured as the Fruit Rolls. Still good and something my youngest and myself like (hey we moms need snacks every once in a while, see the Fiber One Bar, when the food is taking too long to come or it's been awhile since you last ate while you are out running errands, it happens and nice to be prepared!) 

Now these are all non perishable items that I can pack up and leave in there until I need them which is a mom's best friend in my opinion...I like having things packed and ready to go instead of running around last minute packing things and forgetting half of what I needed. I have 3 diaper bags packed at all times for various outings but that's another post coming soon 😉 so back to the kit:

 On the Right: I have a Fun On The Go Finding Dory coloring kit (stickers, coloring pages & tiny markers), a Zootopia mini coloring book from a Play Pack, scented Crayola twist-able colored crayons, a Hot-wheel, Giant deck of cards in Finding Dory and a Finding Dory cardboard book (Gee can anyone guess as to my youngest favorite character right now?!). 

Very simple and non confusing for my youngest. As a back up for in the event he wants nothing to do with anything in this kit, I have apps on my phone to entertain him. I also always have my portable highchair/cart safety strap/walking harness in the car because it's amazing and a must-have when I go out to eat with my youngest (since he throws the biggest fit when we put him in a highchair and will not stay seated in a normal chair, which leaves me holding him. No thank you!).

We went out for my youngest birthday and that was the first I used this new kit and it was a mild success 😕 I don't know if it was because my youngest is not feeling well, he was upset by the fact that I put him in a booster seat that was very similar to a high chair or if he just didn't like the kit. He played for a little bit but once the food came (I ordered his as soon as we were seated so it came out sooner) he went nuts! He wanted to color and eat at the same time, he was eating pancakes with syrup so his hands were very sticky and I didn't want the crayons getting super sticky too.

Things I will doing differently the next time I use this kit (that very well may be when we fly to California) I will be adding: Suckers with plastic sticks and more fruit snacks. He ate all three fruit snacks and I believe if I had packed a sucker, he would have sat there and not cried or tried to get down. It's the little things that count!

Every mom should have her own version of a kit that they can use to hold snacks and entertainment items for a stress-free, well maybe less stressful, outing with their toddlers...This kit is a "Busy Bag" in itself and as such is ideal for restaurants, doctor's offices, dentist offices, eye doctor's, DMV, income tax appointments, Heck anywhere you need to keep your little monster in one place and happy.

HAPPY MOMMY-ING!  

MORE Felt "Busy Bags"

So if you followed my previous post on felt busy bags (link here) you might have been asking, "I got 7 sheets of felt left...what do I do now?" I personally do not like having extra supplies of anything laying around, it makes me feel lazy and like I need to do something with them. 

1. Fish Game: My mom (like I said in the previous post) already did several busy bags for me. Had she not I would definitely do the fish game cut up fish with the felt, glue a paperclip in between, find magnet for rope and pencil - got yourself a pond with fish in it.

2. Build-able Racetrack: Another felt idea is to make roads that the kids can build. I had black felt and yellow felt so I took the black and cut up for curve pieces and several straight pieces so they can make a track Then I cut out tiny yellow pieces to put in the middle of the road pieces and hot glued them together (careful it's super hot and tricky because the yellow pieces are tiny!) I picked through the hundreds of Hot wheels my boys have for some flat race cars for them to race (plus the flatter the car, the easier they stay in the bag). And that bag is done!

3. Shape/Color Matching: I could not figure out what other projects I wanted to do. You can cut little pieces and have it make a picture but I thought that would be too many little pieces for the airplane and my youngest . I also wanted something both my 2 year old and my 5 year old could benefit from. So I decided to trace the same 5 shapes (triangle, rectangle, square, circle & star) on each leftover felt square. I cut them out and now I can teach both boys different things...For my youngest: same color & same shape. For my oldest: same as my youngest & same or different (put like a square and circle together and ask him are they the same color, are they the same shape, which one is bigger, which one is smaller, which one is taller, which one is shorter, etc= basic opposites). Both my boys enjoyed these felt pieces. They sorted them and stacked them. Perfect!

That project used up most of my extra felt! I kept the yellow so I could make more street pieces for that busy bag. So for under 15$ you have yourself 4 or 5 "Busy Bags" completed!

1. Felt Shapes

2. Felt Fishing Game

3. Felt Crazy Straw Beading

4. Felt Race Car Track

5. Felt Button Snake (I did not do this, below is the one my mom made me but I cut up more than enough felt for the Crazy Straws that I could have done this as well)

Happy Mommy-ing! 

To See The Mother Load of all the Busy Bags I have, Check out this post here

The Mother Load of "Busy Bags"

Wow! I was looking through all the "Busy Bags" my mom had made me a few years ago and I had NO IDEA I had so many wonderful bags at my fingertips! I even re-created some because I had not checked my stock pile:

Not a "Busy Bag" but a really cool book with a manga doodle attached

Coloring: Mini White Board and Dry Erase Markers

My Mom found this at a Craft Fair: Left side holds six cars in pockets and the street is sewn on

Building: Beads and cut up straws with yarn and shoelaces

Matching: Paint swatches (FREE) and Poms Poms 

Matching Game: Felt sewn together to create a pocket and popsicle sticks with felt glued on

Lacing Cards

Puppets: Paint swatches as puppets and finger puppets

Cards: Dollar Store Flash Cards

Coloring: Coloring, Stickers and Paper

Building: Colored Popsicle sticks and printed, laminated pattern cards

Building: Wiffle balls and pile cleaners

Button Snake: Ribbon with button sewn on & cut out felt with slit in the middle

I Spy: colored rice and small items to hide (inside a Ziploc, in the pencil pouch, glued zipper and safety pinned!)

Building: Colored Popsicle sticks with Velcro circles on them

Matching Game: Felt Hands with matching paper clips

Matching: Cardboard Alphabet puzzles 

Building: Felt pieces with snaps to make rings

Activity: Felt Fishing Game (magnets sewn in-between felt, yarn on pencil with washer on the end and felt pond)

I Spy: Magnifying glass and small animals

Building: Cut up sponges as quiet blocks

Matching: More Puzzles (Letters and Numbers) 

WOW is all I can say! That was what my mom blessed me with years ago and I have added to it so here are those: 

Building: Crazy Straws and cut out felt pieces with slits in the middle

Coloring: Grab and Go coloring pack and Crayons

Matching: Five cut out felt shapes in five colors

Cards: Huge deck of playing cards 

Activity: Build-able street pieces and car

  I have 27 "Busy Bags" at my disposal! Holy Cow!!!! You would think I have the most quiet kids when we go out to eat or while waiting at places but honestly there are a few bags that I need to help my kids with and there are some that they do not care for. Only a handful hold their attention for longer than a few minutes. It's not reasonable to take this entire box and all 27 bags with me everywhere I go! I always have some sort of coloring for my kids, some sort of cards (playing cards or flash cards) and cars with me at all times: both in the car and the diaper bag. But these little bags are AMAZING! I cannot stress enough that every mom, no matter how much money you can spend, no matter how much time you have, no matter how old you child/children are: "Busy Bags" are a must for moms!