Saturday, December 1, 2012

Oh So Sleepy

Grandma and Grandpa have given up on having Isaak lay down for a nap. I don't blame them, I don't have him nap all the time either.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday Isaak looked like this by the time we got home at 5:30:


Oh and it looks like I need to check little man's work with buckling. He insists on doing it. I have to say it's a lot easier to have him do it. The lower belt is over the handle and the upper belt is not in the slot.

Whenever I turned on the radio, or started asking him questions about his day he said, "Mommy I'm tired. Can we just be quiet?" This is coming from Mr. Jabber Mouth himself.

On the way to Grandma and Grandpa's house on Friday Isaak was singing Christmas songs. I started singing along. It was a week after all that I couldn't sing from being sick. I had just gotten back my singing voice (sort of). I was excited to sing. That was until he said, "Don't sing Mommy! That's the song I know. You don't go to preschool, so you don't know them." I tried telling him otherwise, but he wouldn't have it. He was convinced that these songs were his.

Sing, Sing a Song Saturday

I started doing what I call Sing, Sing a Song Saturday.  I'm going to post one song on Saturdays that the boys or I like. 

The song may be part of a movie, a kid's video or just a song we like. It may or may not include words. I'll try and include why we like it and/or the history of the song/singer.

This week I was watching different videos and this one just happened to pop up on YouTube that was so artistic. I just love the visuals throughout the song. The group is called The Lost Brothers and the song that enchanted me the most was this one:

Blue Moon in September


Another great one:
Angry at the Sun


They are pretty good live to:

Who Could Love You More


About The Lost Brothers:

They met in 2007 at a library in Liverpool, England. Both came from musical families in Ireland. They had both been in different bands. Then decided to start playing in bars. Then moved to Portland, Oregon.

They went back to London to create their own label, 'Bird Dog Recordings'. They have three albums you can purchase here.

The Lost Brothers:

Oisin Leech – vocals, guitar
Mark McCausland – vocals, guitar



Friday, November 30, 2012

Baby WOD Toys Review

I was really excited to learn about WOD Toys at My Journey With Candida Blog. I was even more excited to win some of their toys!

WOD Toys carries light weight exercise equipment. Kids can exercise right along with Mommy and Daddy.

I won the Baby WOD set. My nephew Emerson is getting this set! I was so excited to get his toys in the mail. I know he can use them for his Physical Therapy he goes to twice a week. I'm excited to see how these toys will work for babies with special needs. I'm sure I'll post about them again after Christmas.

His brother Elijah got to help me wrap the gift. First he had to try them out.


His favorite is the Baby Barbell. I think it's pretty cute to!


We were having fun throwing around the Baby Med Ball. The second toy, the Baby Kettle will be the easiest for Emerson to hold onto.


This set was originally $45.95 and on sale for $39.95. These are for ages 0+.

Like WOD Toys: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.


Disclaimer: The opinions on the post are my personal take on the product. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. I am not compensated to provide my opinion except for receiving the products themselves to test out. WOD Toys  provided to me a free product to help with this review.

The Apel's The Apel's The Apel's The Apel'sThe Apel's

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Create Abilities

I've seen a few companies lately where you pay a monthly or yearly fee and your child gets a craft kit from them once or twice a month. I like the idea of companies that geared towards helping kids to be creative. Especially when art programs are being cut left and right out of schools.

One company is called Create Abilities For Kids. Such a fun, positive name. New Age Mama is giving a one of their craft kits away.


I know Isaak would love to get a box full of crafts in the mail.


Puzzles

Isaak has only asked for a puzzle for Christmas. I went ahead and got him The Robotz Puzzle at Frecklebox. I hope he likes it!


Mica's always been gifted with puzzles since shortly after he started preschool. It's hard to find ones that are challenging enough, yet not too hard. I saw on New Age Mama a product called Stenzzles™ - Dogs Collection . I thought at first, "Oh Isaak would LOVE that." Then I saw the age and read more about it and it's for ages 8 years and up.

This challenging puzzle's goal is to have the creator replicate a colorful image by layering the 8 Stenzzles cards together in the correct order and orientation. To play, the player has to select one of 8 challenges and flip, rotate and layer the cards until your stack exactly matches the challenge image. It's both stylish and clever.

Fruity Turkey

This is the turkey I made for Thanksgiving. No I didn't make it on the ground. I just set it down on the way out to the car to get a photo.


The body is an acorn squash cut down and somewhat hallowed out. I put part of a cheese block inside to help the skewers to have something to go in.

The squash went in another dish to eat.

If I were to do it again, I'd snap my skewers in 1/2 or get smaller ones. I just didn't see smaller ones. Then I'd add more feathers.

I put the grapes on the skewers first. Then jammed them into the squash.

The head and gobbler is 1/2 a red pepper; put in with toothpicks.

The beak is cheese glued on with frosting.

The eyes I found in the baking section. They are edible eyes. I glued them on with frosting.

My husband cut and put cheese around the plate. When we got to my aunt's house I added crackers.

The grapes, cheese and crackers disappeared throughout the day. The bowl of squash disappeared during our meal.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

WW: 2012 Christmas Card {Linky}

I've had the front done for awhile.


The Disclaimer at the bottom that is oh so small says: Duct tape was not actually used.

I put it there just so some people wouldn't get all worked up thinking I taped my kid's mouths up. Photoshop does wonders.

The back is what took me FOREVER! My husband and I wrote things over and over again. It's not perfect, but it's good enough! My co-worker was laughing at me because I had a lady that was Jewish proofing it. She didn't care! Here's what we came up with:

Silent Night

Silent night, colorful night
Isaak draws on the floor so bright
Brothers wrestling ever so wild
Mom and Dad try to keep things mild
Brush their teeth, off to bed
We tuck them in and kiss their heads

Silent night, surprises in sight
A train station trip in the dark night
Glory streams from Chicago afar
We tour the city without a car
Tickets were lost; Daddy was scorned
Eager to leave honked the train horn

Silent night, beautiful night
The boys color without a fight
Mica draws each president’s face
Isaak glues objects on a wooden base
Such a delight for creative minds
The fridge is covered with vibrant designs

Happy Holidays
Travis, Alissa, Mica and Isaak Apel
theapels.blogspot.com

Then I made custom stamps at Zazzle.com. Here's my low res screen shot. You get the picture.



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Scratch Art Portable Box from Melissa and Doug giveaway and a Limited Edition Friends Prize Pack of Two Oversized Mugs and a Picture Frame.

Monday, November 26, 2012

Strep

Well Isaak and I got sick on Friday night, early Saturday morning. I took him in to get tested for strep because Isaak was around 2 cousins that had it. We both felt achy all over, I had a fever and he felt warm.We had stomach issues to.

Isaak tested out to be negative to strep. Homeward we went to sleep the day away. By 5 Isaak was happy. I still slept off and on all night.

On Sunday we were better. I still felt off, but I figured it was because we did nothing and ate barely anything the day before.

Today I went to work. Isaak was laughing, jumping around and very talkative. I felt much better, but still sore.

At 1 pm Daddy got a call from the doctor's office. Isaak's culture grew over the weekend. He had strep throat. I right away called my doctor and told them what was up. They were nice enough to call me in some meds. I didn't have to go in and pay, yet another co-pay. I went back home and have felt stiff in the neck the rest of the day.

I hope we haven't passed it on. I can't count how many times this evening I've had to get after the boys about leaving each other alone! Mica wanted to cheat with washing his hand. He rinsed them for like 2 minutes. I made him wash again, while singing the alphabet.

Isaak's skipping preschool tomorrow and I'm skipping my class. It stinks because it's almost finals time. I can't go in.

There you have it: 2 sickies.

At least I cyber shopped and took photos today. If you know any new moms I'll be having some giveaways going up on my blog: Milking the Issue tomorrow.

I'll also post on here for my WW: My Christmas Cards! I got them printed with a cyber deal. Then I bought custom stamps to go with my postcards on zazzle.com. I had their cyber deal and a gift code. I also bought $50 worth of kids clothing at Crazy 8. They are all larger than what my boys are fitting in now. Clothes for next year. I saved $50 with my purchase!

Here's a few of my buys at Crazy 8. I mainly buy for Mica since he's the one growing. Isaak gets a few things to match his personality along the way.





Hooker?

Isaak was playing with a Fisher Price Little People Ship a few mornings back.


He set it up on a kitchen chair and said, "This ship needs to get up on an island! He doesn't want to leave his hooker behind!"

I looked over and knew exactly what he was talking about. I said, "You mean to say, 'He doesn't want to leave his anchor behind.'"

Sunday, November 25, 2012

RSVP

Mica came home with 2 birthday party invites last Tuesday. On Friday I had him RSVP to one of them.

Me: "Mica do you want to RSVP to this birthday party, or do you want me to?"

Mica: "I'll do it!" :)

He looked at the invitation, dialed the phone number and began speaking right away.

Mica: "I can come to Les' birthday party."

Me: "Tell them your name."

Mica" "Oh my name is Mica and I belong to the Apel household. Can you give me directions to Newport AVE?"

Me: "Mica I'll figure out where it's at."

Mica: "Never mind my Mom can figure out where it is I think."

Truth be told I'm not really great with directions, but I figured it out. The party was today. I was worried he wouldn't be able to go with all the sickness Isaak and I had yesterday. We're all well again. Mica and Daddy haven't gotten our stomach flu yet. I hope they don't! We feel better, but now Isaak and I are all stuffy in the nose. Explain that one to me. How does the stomach flu lead to a stuffy nose?

Mica said the birthday party was kind of boring. You want to know why? Because it was a birthday party like I used to go to. It consisted of cake, ice cream, musical chairs, presents, playing outside and a giveaway bag. Boring, I think not. Kids these days have this desire to be so entertained.

I never understood the giveaway bags. I did it because all the other parties have them. We gave away snacks. Come on...the kid receives gifts and has to give giveaway bags (gifts) and turn around and write thank you cards to everyone that came to the party. It seems kind of silly and backwards to me. Isn't the kids coming to the party, being fed cake and entertained for a few hours enough? When my kid comes home with a bag full of candy I'm thinking, "Great"! We still have Halloween candy up in the cupboard. Sometimes I feel like I should write a thank you card to the person having the party. "Thank you for entertaining my child, feeding my child and giving them a treat bag." Share your thoughts about this...

Disclaimer

The opinions on this blog are my personal take on products and topics relating to motherhood. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me.

I am not compensated to provide opinions on a variety of topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are my own. If I claim to show knowledge of certain topic or product I will only endorse products or services that I feel, based on my expertise, are worthy of such endorsement.

If you have any questions about this blog, or want to get in contact with me please email me at: anapeladay@gmail.com