Can't believe this happened to me...I mean him...

About 3 months ago, I noticed my 2yr old scratching his head – it felt like every 5 minutes he was scratch scratch scratch – I thought it was weird so bath time was early. I’m combing out his hair I see things that look like dandruff. I thought oh that must be why he’s scratching so much. So I washed his hair every day, which is really not an easy task. (For a boy who doesn’t like to be dirty, he sure hates taking baths…I guess it’s a boy thing…anyone else have this issue??) I'm combing out and washing out the dandruff and I did this for a week straight. The following week, I am combing thru his hair again, and thought I saw something crawling around. So I kept going thru the hair…yup sure enough, there they were staring me down, LICE. OMG OMG OMG!!! I am freakin' out! UGH!I squeamishly picked every last one of them things out, a few here, a few there, spread throughout his scalp… thinking that would be the end of it… WRONG! I read up on any and everything I could get my hands on about these pesky little things. I've never had to deal with this for me or my siblings. The “dandruff” that I was washing out every day, they were actually Nits (lice eggs). I bought every Licefree ® product I could find. I sprayed and combed thru his hair every day/night and washed every other day. I washed all the linens and vacuumed everything else that couldn’t be washed. His stuffed toys were put in a sealed plastic bag just in case anything was transferred to Buzz Light Year and Woody. I also treated my husband and daughter just in case. When I first used the spray, it got rid of the lice, but not all of the nits. I had to go thru each strand of hair on his head to remove what I could see. I did this for 2 weeks straight. After that I saw very little activity – just a few nits here and there. The next two weeks sprayed and washed with the Licefree ® every 3-4 days, but combed every day. And the last two weeks, I sprayed and washed with Licefree ®once a week. I have not seen a single lice or nit since. Yes, very embarrassing at first, but I am sharing because it wasn’t shared with me. Be proactive and positive about the situation. What I’ve learned, lice has nothing to do with how clean or dirty a person or household may be. Lice is much like a common cold, if your child is in daycare or school, they are more likely to bring it home and share with the rest of the household. Even though the combing and washing and picking were tedious, I am sooo happy I didn’t have to cut his hair. I stuck with the regimen and I fixed the problem. Just look at that face!!! It was definitely worth it to see this smile!!! Meet James! ~ Karesa ~

Watch Your Mouth There Is A Recorder Around! KIDS

So my lovely sister decided that my 23 month old should take a ride with her. In the beginning that sounded like a wonderful idea, she was out of my hair for at least the next 3 hours. All of a sudden my cell phone begins to ring. What do I think just a random call my sister wants to CHAT. NOT! She wants to tell me that someone cut her off in traffic. The phone call at this point is still a little normal. The call gets better my sister proceeds to tell me that she yelled “Oh Hell NO”. Just as you are thinking she is only talking to me. Yet again NOT! There was a little recorder in the backseat sitting securely in her car seat who happens to be my 23 month old daughter. She repeated verbatim with expression “Oh HELLLL NO”. This has truly become a problem in my house. She records everything, every single word, phrase, sentence, expression and sometimes we even think she gets our THOUGHTS.

I sit back and think I can’t be the only person dealing with this. Cursing should never be done around your children if at all but guess what I am HUMAN and I make mistakes just like the next person. I’ve noticed that as long as we don't react when she says the bad word she won’t say it. The bad part is that she has been saying it for about a month and I just got that yesterday:)

If you can relate to this then you understand what I am going through. She is driving the entire house crazy repeating everything her older sisters say making it impossible for them to get a sentence out without her butting in trying to keep up with what they are saying. Thank you NICK Jr, for my reinforcement of good words, well not totally NICK Jr I have to give credit where credit is due. THANK YOU TO MY ENTIRE HOUSEHOLD…LOL

PROBLEM solved yes and no. She still manages to take rides with her AUNTIE, but auntie is on high alert that she is not always only talking on the cell phone to one person. The RECORDER is always listening.

Doesn’t she look innocent?

Text/Instant Messaging 2: Would You PASS?

Let’s go back into time when you were an adolescent/teenager. How did we communicate with our parents, friends, family members and general people? We surely did not have cell phones; well at least the vast majority of us did not have one. May be a pager (BLEEP: BLEEP) but that’s about it, heck we just made the era of call waiting, 3-way call and caller ID. Caller ID/Call waiting still did not come for some time after that. We had the opportunity to play around with e-mail in our early teenage years, but communicating then is nothing of how it is now. If you were one of the ones to have a cell phone for this blog’s sake well just call you FORTUNATE.

My oldest daughter is 9 years old getting ready to turn 10. I have been up in arms about getting her a cell phone. It almost seems as if I can’t go without getting her one. She has a very active life in which I am apart of 100%, so I just have to decide YES or NO.com THE END..

My job passed out these text/instant messaging quizzes and of COURSE I FAILED. I only knew the ones I taught my mother because she is in dinosaur times RIGHT? WRONG? After taking this quiz I am in dinosaur times myself. I think I may have made it through like 15 of the 65. Please don’t think there are only 65 codes. REALLY? I went on several websites listed on the paper to find that there are hundreds of codes. I am treading DEEP WATERS trying to keep up. Looking at all the codes out there I need a weekly training to keep up. I think as PARENTS we are obligated to keep up with what our children are getting involved in. There is a time and a place to be a parent and a place and time to be a FRIEND. When it comes to the safety of our children we should be parents 210% and more of the time.

Depending on your age if you were asked how you communicated as a teenager would defer from the teenagers in 2012. The overall percentage of teen’s texting is 75%. This simply tells me that this is one of the most used forms of communicating for teenagers today. Check out the list below on a few text/instant messaging lingos. How many did you get right? Be sure to leave a comment in the comment area and let us know.

These are just a few that I wanted to share with you. Be sure to check out the following website for more text/instant messaging codes/lingo.

www.netlingo.com

www.techdictionary.com

www.urbandictionary.com

2 The Neighborhood "Our Spotlight"

We would like to welcome you into the lives of 2 lovely young ladies and of course wonderful mothers who enjoy helping to capture the moment where girls get to be princesses. Jasmine and Tania have been “girly girls” as early as they can remember. Between the two of them they have 5 little princesses who now get to experience the "girly girl" factor as they did. Giving other little princesses the opportunity to smile and be dressed as a princess brings them nothing but joy.

Jasmine and Tania have now extended the “girly girl” factor into every home where there lives a little princess. Please check out their website and facebook fan page for some of the items pictured below as well as many other items for purchase.

www.dosprimabowtique.webs.com

Stop by their Facebook Fan Page. Don't forget to hit the LIKE button!!!! Tell them Toni & Karesa sent you:)

www.facebook.com/dosprimabowtique

YES! We are BIKINI Ready…………..SPEAK FOR YOUR SELF!

To Diet or not to Diet? To exercise or not to exercise? NOT! I’m allergic to exercise and I can’t give up food. I’m exhausted; I’m so tired; I just want to sleep and eat and sleep some more. Why are those Double Stuff Golden Oreos ® so good?! Ugh! Familiar?

Why is getting back into shape so hard? Before kids, I was working up to 3 jobs-sometimes all at the same time, a cheerleader in college and had no care in the world about what I ate and not a drop of body fat in site. Had all the energy in the world and functioned on 3-4 hours of sleep. Oh the early 20’s…I miss you so much. Years later, I was 9 months pregnant and tipped the scale over 200lbs. (not a lot of weight to some, but it was a big deal for me.) Oh man, it was tough to look at the scale the last few weeks of that pregnancy. My tiny 5’6”, B cup (or bra less), 130 lb body, stomach so flat you can see my 8-pack abs, will NEVER be the same again. The hubby tried to reassure me I was beautiful, but I was not trying to hear that. I didn’t feel beautiful. I didn’t feel sexy. I didn’t feel anything, except the joys of being a first time mom – greatest feeling ever – but I want to feel beautiful and sexy again. Not just for the hubby, but for me. I want to be that care free early 20 yr old again…

REALITY CHECK: Can’t go back in time and be 20something, but I can fix my muffin top now. You know…that pudgy stuff hanging over your jeans àMuffin Top. Not attractive at all. AND buying bigger size jeans to stuff it in there is also not attractive…and is costly. It took 2 years for me to wrap my mind around working out and getting back into shape. The weight took a big toll on my self esteem. I was in a size 14/16. Every part of my body and joints were aching. My doctor strongly advised I needed to get it together. And with kids around me, I don’t have a choice but to be active. So why not get in shape now and have fun chasing the kids around and tire them out FIRST! That being said, I have decided to get my butt and muffin top in gear. No I’m not dieting, I don’t believe in it. I love food too much to give it up. However I have disciplined myself to use portion control, calorie counting and exercise. Here is my routine. I hope it helps…it’s really worked for me.

Better Eating Habits:

· In the mornings I eat a strawberry or mango Chobani yogurt, or 2 hard boiled eggs, or ½ an omlette (save the other for the next day), with a glass of orange juice. My Snack is a banana, or a cup of fresh berries, or some turtle chex mix.

· For lunch, I have ½ a salad, or ½ a chicken salad and a side of sour cream and cheddar chips, or a meatless sandwich-preferably a caprese panini, or ½ sandwich and soup from the local deli near my job. Then my snack is either fruit, or more chex mix, or 1 cookie, or some kind of chocolate to kill that sweet tooth. However when we have luncheons at work and I know there will be a lot of tasty food, I normally forgo my snack between breakfast and lunch. I will say I have been eating a lot more fruit –natural sweet stuff– at work and drinking tons of water. (PS-I also think I’m allergic to water!)

· For dinner, I eat off of a dessert plate. I’ve found that because I’m snacking more throughout the day, I don’t need to pig out on dinner and over eat.

Calorie Intake:

COUNT YOUR CALORIES! There are so many calorie counters out there. I use Lose It. After I eat a meal, I track what I eat on my phone. Sometimes I even plan my meals in the morning with the calorie counter. When I know I am going to be drinking or having some take-out, I save my calories for the weekend. No, not by not eating, by working out!

Working it out:

I do Zumba. Only. I love Zumba. It’s dancing and having fun with a great group of women and occasional men that are there for one thing, to get healthy. I do Zumba at my local rec center and at home on the XBOX 360 Kinect. It’s fun and easy. Doesn’t matter if you can’t dance or can’t get the moves. Its all about moving your body, getting the heart rate up and burning those calories. I Zumba 3 times a week. I typically am an early morning rise and shine do everything before the kids and husband get up, but I take 2 classes during the week night and an early morning Saturday class. You don’t have to do Zumba by all means, just get out and do something. And don’t forget to put your exercise in Lose It or whatever calorie counter you prefer.

Quick Tips:

· Switch to wheat/whole grain pasta – Barilla is a good buy. · Switch to wheat/whole grain pasta –Nature’s Own Honey Wheat is pretty good. · Use extra virgin olive oil/canola oil or salted cream butter. Yes, butter! Believe it or not, I use about 80% less salt in food when I cook with butter. I normally coat the ban with a table spoon of butter and about 3 tablespoons of EVOO…depending on what I’m cooking. · Use turkey ground meat for any meal that calls for ground meat. I mostly cook with chicken. It’s very rare that I cook any pork or beef, unless its breakfast or breakfast for dinner. I gotta have my bacon and beef or turkey sausage.

As always, please consult your physician before doing any type of exercising and/or dieting. I am not a doctor or a nutritionist. I am just letting you know what works for me. It took me 9 months to get back into my size 8’s and I couldn’t be happier. I didn’t have to get a whole new wardrobe. I already had the stuff that I haven’t worn in over 6 years!!!

Even if it’s playing with the kids in the yard for an hour or so, do it! It’s sooo worth it.

What's In Your Basket ?????

Basket full of GRASS with Chocolate Covered Bunnies, Sweetarts, Bunny Shaped Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups, Jelly Beans, Colored Eggs, Toys and let’s not forget the HUNT! My mom and dad would create these wonderful baskets for my siblings and I filled with nothing. Then it was Easter Egg Hunt time this is where I got most of my candy but of course there was more where that came from INSIDE OF THE HOUSE! Easter has always been fun since I was a child I can remember going to church on Easter Sunday rushing home to change out of my pretty dress in preparation of decorating eggs. Everyone would come up with their own style of creating their "MASTERPIECE" egg. My brother's egg was messy, my sister maybe had 2 colors and of course I had a cleaver design. I guess you can call me an artist in the making. Now that I have children of my own it is a joy to see my children enjoy it as much as I did.

Easter is fast approaching for many of us who celebrate this wonderful holiday. How many of us parents have actually sat down and talked to our children about the true meaning of Easter? Well that's where we come to help, keep reading this post to find creative ways of introducing the importance of celebrating Easter.

Easter this year will be celebrated on April 8, 2012. Easter is not about the bunnies, candy and hunts. Although we enjoy and have fun putting baskets together for our little ones it's more than just that. This is the time to discuss with our children all that Jesus has done for us and what he did on the cross.

Eater is one of the most sacred Christian Holiday's. Easter is the celebration of Jesus Christ's rising from the dead (resurrection) after he was crucified. Jesus was crucified on the cross on what we know it as today "Good Friday". God sent his only son Jesus to die for our sins. Even though Jesus died he did not stay dead, he rose from the dead on Easter Sunday. This is why we celebrate Easter it is the celebration of New Life.

Here is the link to a great movie that will help you explain the True Meaning of Easter.

Please check out our "Let's Get Crafty Page" for cool Easter ideas. Here is a little sneek peek:

Happy First Day of Spring….Cleaning!

If you live in the DMV (DC, MD & VA) area, you know we never really had a winter season and spring has been in full effect for several weeks. The kids were looking forward to wearing their new snow suits. We’ve had no snow. It actually hasn’t even been cold enough for them to wear the typical winter gear. Now don’t get us wrong, we are definitely not a fan of the winter ice mix, school delays and closings and worst of all the traffic (Ranked #2 in the top 10 of worst cities for traffic), but this winter was just not the same without the 3ft of snow. We’ve had up to 80°weather, a little rain and overcast, but still able to wear shorts, tanks/tees and flip flops…ummm YES please! It’s actually been kind of tough to dress the kids because it’s still cold in the morning then warms up by mid afternoon. Do we dress them in shorts anticipating it will be warm, or do we still keep them in pants with a short sleeve short and light jacket and a pack a pair of shorts for them for later? But if we send them to school/daycare in shorts they may catch a cold because the weather is so bi-polar. But if they’re in pants, will they be comfortable? Too hot? What to do, what to do?

Spring cleaning anyone? Winter is officially over…time to for spring cleaning. Do we have to? Yes, yes we do. But why? (Doesn’t this sound familiar-It’s funny how most of will resort to the 4 yr old or teen for that matter when it comes to cleaning) Honestly, who likes to clean? I’m sure we all feel spring cleaning just snuck up on us, out of nowhere. As much as we are procrastinating and kicking and screaming we really got to get it done. It’s going to help you and your sanity in the long run. We’ve found that when we do take the time to do a thorough Spring Cleaning, it’s easier to for us parents and kids to keep up with our day to day tasks, activities and most important, stay organized.

Everyone lives in the house, so everyone is responsible for cleaning it up and making sure it stays clean. Yes, even the little ones. Get them started EARLY! Be sure to check out our checklist to help get you started (Can be found under the 1 For Fun 2 Get it Done! Page). By all means please use your discretion for the little ones.

Depending on how much change the kids found in the couches and cars, take the family out for some ice cream and take a stroll in the park. By the time you get home, the kids should be exhausted. You probably will be exhausted too, but at least you don’t have to clean ANYTHING when you get home!

Making A Change!

National Nutrition Month

Way back when, our parents and grand-parents day, they had no video games, cable TV, and no computers. FAST FOOD restaurants, you gotta be kidding me! There were few of those around and they sure did not have 1 on every corner.

Most of their time was spent outdoors riding bikes, creating outdoor games, climbing trees and eating from the family garden. We surly cannot say that for the kids growing up today. Kids today watch an average of 20-30 hours of T.V. a week; we can average that out to the amount of time spent in school learning. Kids that eat fast food consume an average of 187 more calories a day. Childhood Obesity does exist! Let’s start changing the numbers NOW not LATER.

Parents we have to be a role model for our kids. Get out and get fit! Start with small steps take the kids from in front of the T.V. and do a learning activity, get them involved in the kitchen as you prepare meals, take them outside for at least 20-30 minutes a day 5 days a week. With this, we are creating an environment of taking care of your mind, body and health. Who said rewards were a bad thing?? Encourage and reward your kid’s physical activity with outings, games, and or equipment related to different activities.

Where Did My Hour GO?????

It’s that time of year again! On Sunday, March 11^th at 2AM, we will Spring Forward one hour. This means we lose an hour of sleep, but gain an hour of PLAY! This also means summer is right around the corner! This is the time that you may want to start preparing your minds for Spring Cleaning-but that’s a whole other blog…coming soon! J

Here is a link where you can keep track of the different time zones http://www.timeanddate.com/ and time changes around the world. This will be a great way to teach the kids about the different time zones and 4 seasons. If you have family in different states, have the kids call them to see what time is where they live. The kids can also learn what the different temperatures are, sunrise and sunset, and moonrise and moonset where your families are.

When you get up Sunday morning, before breakfast, go around the house and have the kids change all of the clocks. The kids will have fun running around the house and your toddlers are now learning their numbers and how to tell time. Have fun!

Much Love! T & K

Welcome

Toni & Karesa would like to welcome you to our blog!!!!!!!!!