MOPS

Well I finally bit the bullet and joined MOPS. If you don't know what that is, it stands for Mothers of Preschoolers. I learned about it last year at a local Mom 2 Mom sale here in Ludington. I really wanted to go but I had a 10 month old baby who napped at 10; MOPS was from 9:30 to 11:30. I really needed it last year but I couldn't make myself go. This year Natalie naps around 1:30 so I had no good excuse not to go. Actually I had all the reasons to go. I need to get to know more moms in the area, Natalie needs more exposure to playing with other kids and when the winter rolls around we are dying to get out of the house.

The first meeting came and I felt so nervous. It was like starting high school all over again, really. I had to drop Nat off in a nursery with strangers. She has never been watched by anyone but family so that alone made me nervous. We went in and checked out the toys, I clamped her name tag on and stuck her diaper bag in the little slot, letting them know if she needed a snack they were in the bag and I left. Natalie was preoccupied so I didn't even get to say goodbye. The tear filled goodbye that I had worked myself up for never came. I did go back 15 minutes later to check on her but she didn't even notice I was gone!

I headed down to the mom's area not really sure what to expect. They had it decorated so pretty and there was a table full of food. The ladies that we there already were so welcoming. They all introduced themselves to me and I didn't feel out of place at all.

The meeting finally started and we were assigned to groups, these will be our groups all year. I really liked loved that idea because it will give me a chance to get to know these few ladies on a more personal level. We soon found out that our activity for the day was "speed friending". Gulp. You mean I have to talk to more people? Don't get me wrong I love people just when I'm in my comfort zone. My table and my group was now my comfort zone. We did the speed friending, it's just like it sounds like speed dating. We moved chair to chair and got to know about 16 new people. It was really fun and I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

The 2 hours that we were there just flew by. Before I knew it I was going to pick Natalie up from the nursery. I was really excited to see her and hear how much fun she had. I was about 10 feet from her door and I heard her screaming. My heart sank and I felt so guilty. I had had so much fun and never even thought to check on Natalie again. The ladies said that she did great but the last 20 minutes she cried. I guess someone came down to take her picture and that upset her. Her first experience wasn't that great. I asked if she had fun playing with the kids and she said yes. She kept saying mommy the whole way home. I know I shouldn't feel guilty but I do. I just hope that with each meeting she will get better and she will enjoy it too. I know it was so nice for me to have that 2 hour break and not have to worry about Natalie. I got to know quite a few nice ladies and I'm really looking forward to our meeting next week.

Changes are happening.....

Well one of the changes we have been going through lately is the weather. It has gotten cold! Most days our high temps are in the 50’s to low 60’s. I know that doesn’t sound too bad but when you add in there that it has been windy and/or rainy it makes it seem cold. I have been wanting a lot of soup for dinner and we are bundled when we go outside.

This cold weather doesn’t stop Natalie from wanting to go outside and play. She loves the outdoors. Her love started early this spring when we both had cabin fever and we couldn’t handle being inside anymore! Last winter Natalie got 14 new teeth in 4 months and had 3 ear infections. We were ready for change. So I bundled her up and outside we went. We really didn’t have anything to occupy us so Natalie made her own games. She would collect acorns all day long. She had no idea what the acorns were or why she was collecting them but I guess it made the time pass. Natalie would spend hours outside before I would have to beg, plead and bribe her to go inside because I was cold.

This summer we had so much fun outside. Natalie would say “I go outside” and we would head out, not knowing how much time had passed while we were out there we would go back in when the sun started to set or just in time for dinner. We went to the beach and had picnics. We even had mud baths at the beach provided by Natalie! 

We also found a new park by the marina. In the summer when it’s so hot out and the humidity feels like 100%; it’s the perfect park. The wind from Lake Michigan is a welcome break from the heat. It still gets hot but at least you get a little break here and there when the wind decides to blow. Natalie discovered the slides and the swings. There was even a slide that she would go up and down the stairs just to do over and over again.

I love fall but I’m sad to see the summer go. We created so many new memories and I know it’s a time we will never forget but we will never get back either. I look forward to the many summers we have as a family. I can’t wait to see what we will do next summer, what things we will explore and what adventures we will take.

I'm back (I hope)

Life seriously has been way too busy. I wanted  to blog but every time I sat down I knew there were other things that needed to be done. Right now  I sit among a messy desk that needs to be organized but I want to blog. When I sit and try to blog and I'm distracted then my words don't come out right. It doesn't sound like me instead it sounds forced and to be honest it isn't much fun to read.

I'm putting in my best effort to blog again. I know I've said this before but this time I mean it. I need this outlet for myself so I'm going to make it a priority. Oh, there are plenty of changes coming this way too... I will be writing about them soon!

Little Ducks Organics Winner!

The winner is...

True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 20 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Chany said...
http://twitter.com/chany10/status/20310018036

August 4, 2010 11:47 AM

Congrats!!! I will be contacting you and you have 48 hours to respond.

Little Duck Organics Review and Giveaway

My toddler is a snacker. I have such a hard time getting her to sit down for meals and when I do I feel like she doesn’t eat much. I can ask her at any given time during the day and she will say she is hungry though. I love to keep snacks on hand for her so that she stays satisfied. It’s very easy to get into the routine of giving her what is easy and not always making sure what she eats is healthy. I found Little Duck Organics snacks and they are the perfect solution for this dilemma. They are so easy! They come in a pouch and I just pour them into a little cup and let Natalie have it. She loves it because she feels like a big girl carrying around her snack!

We were sent the Strawberry/ Mango, Blueberry/Apple, and Strawberry/Banana to review. I assumed that Natalie’s favorite would be the blueberry apple because she loves blueberries but she surprised me and she loved the Strawberry/Mango. She kept coming to me signing “more”. I think she ate half of the package in 1 snack time. I didn’t feel bad giving them to her either! Talk about a gilt free snack.

Here is a little more from their site:
Tiny Fruits are naturally delicious baby snacks made with 100% real organic fruit. Each bag contains four full servings of fruit so you can feel good knowing that you are giving your child the vitamins and nutrients they need for healthy development.

Want to try some for your child?

You can purchase your own by going to their site and shopping online or you can find a store in your area that carries them.

Or

Little Duck Organics has provided 3 bags of their snacks to give away to 1 of my lucky readers!!!
Mandatory Entry:
Visit Little Duck Organics and tell me what you think your child would like most.

Extras:
Follow my blog via GFC. (1 entry)
Follow me on twitter @Kaylynbuckner (1 entry)
Follow Little Duck Organics on twitter. (1 entry)

Tweet about this giveaway including a link back here, @Kaylynbuckner, @littleduckorg or use this “Love Organic Snacks? Enter to win some from @Littleduckorg and @Kaylynbuckner. http://bit.ly/bTHTkH “ (2 entries per day, must be 4 hours apart)

Like Little Duck Organics on Facebook, tell them I sent you. (2 entries)

 Giveaway will end on 8/5/10 at 9 P.M Est.
*I was given Little Duck Organics snack to review but I was not paid for my review, all opinions expressed here are my own. 

The first big incident

The title of the post says it all, well most of it anyway. Natalie had her first big incident this past weekend. We took a road trip to Chicago to visit some family. We had a pretty busy weekend planned and the trip down went perfectly. Natalie got a little fussy at the end but I turned on Diego and all was good again. She fell asleep too and even got about an hour nap. Our first stop was Dh’s grandma’s house. Hubby’s aunt wasn’t supposed to be home but she got out of work early. She was very happy that she was going to be able to see Natalie since it’s been over a year since we have seen them. When we first arrived Natalie was still napping so we decided to wait in the car until she woke up, it only took a few minutes. We went inside and were greeted with hugs and warm welcomes. Natalie was being very shy, even shy for her. She is shy by nature but she wouldn’t even take her head off of Hubby’s shoulder to look up. They have a dog so I thought it would be a good icebreaker for her to pet the dog because she loves dogs. (This is where I mention that it’s a pretty decent size dog, they stand face to face.) Hubby put her down by the dog and she reached out to pet it and he snapped and bit her! I wasn’t right there; I just heard all the commotion. Hubby didn’t think the dog had actually gotten her at first but then she started bleeding pretty badly.

I took her thinking she would calm down but she just kept screaming “dog dog” and pointing where the dog was. She didn’t understand what had happened at all. She wouldn’t calm down a bit and after I few minutes I suggested we leave so that we could all calm down. I had been holding in all my emotions from the moment it happened, when I got in the car I just exploded. I burst into tears and I couldn’t hold it back anymore. That just made Natalie more upset so I tried to cry quietly. Meanwhile, my mom called our pediatrician to see what we should do. I didn’t want to take her in but I was so worried about the bacteria. Sure enough her doc said to take her straight to the ER. She said that even if we were in MI that she would want us to take her just because of the risk of infection.

We finally found an ER and took her straight there. Once inside we got the millions of questions. I felt bad telling them about the dog because I didn’t want anyone to get in trouble. I know it was just an accident but Natalie is my baby so I was really having mixed feelings. The doc looked at her bite and said it was pretty bad. He then asked if we had cleaned it out at all. Hubby and I just looked at each other like, it was very important to do that and we both flaked out on it! We did put antibiotic ointment on it though, doesn’t that count for something? They finally cleaned it out and did X-rays. The doc said that since it was so deep they didn’t want to stitch it because it could essentially just trap the bacteria in the wound. The X-rays were fine so they just put some glue and bandages on her hand and said we were free to go. Natalie was doing great by this point; I think it was harder on me than it was on her. As long as nobody touched her hand she was calm.

We finally left the ER with a bandaged hand and a prescription for antibiotics. I am happy to say that her hand is healing very well. She isn’t scared of dogs at all, which is wonderful. But she is scared of loud noises now. When we are playing outside if there is a loud car or truck that goes by she comes running up to me crying. It just breaks my heart because she wasn’t skittish at all before. I am very thankful though that for her some day she probably won’t remember this. Mommy will never forget it but we will get over it. Hubby said I was overacting but it was one of those situations where you beat yourself up because it even happened.

CSN Review

I have had an amazing opportunity to host a giveaway for CSNstores.com in the past. I loved it and I had great success on my blog. Now I am going to be doing a review for them as well. I couldn’t be more excited! This is a great company to work with. They have over 200 online stores! They have such a wide variety of things including outdoor furniture, dining room sets, baby stuff and even shoes! I have no idea what I’m going to select to review yet but I sure will have fun looking!

So stay tuned for an awesome review coming soon. Thanks so much for reading!