Creating A Car Emergency Kit

I've been on a bit of an organizing kick the past few days. Oh, who am I kidding? I'm ALWAYS on an organizing kick. It just makes me happy. Today I decided to tackle my car. 

Scary stuff.

I'm notorious for not keeping my car nearly as clean as I should. When I was working, I spent a LOT of time driving. I didn't have an office, so I would have to eat on the run in between clients. This means my car was always super messy because at the end of the day when I finally got home, I was too tired (*coughlazycough*) to clean the trash out of it. 

Now that Hadley is in the picture, she doesn't exactly help the mess situation. If we are out and about in the morning when it's snack time I will let her eat in the car. We won't discuss how many stray fruit snacks I cleaned out of the back seat. 

I also decided to make a car emergency kit of sorts that will serve a couple different purposes. One, it will allow me to not have to haul everything in my purse. Two, we will have various supplies on hand for boo boos, sudden sickness, impromptu trips to the park, etc. 

I was able to make my "kit" with mostly items I already had, plus a few extra things I picked up at the dollar store. It includes paper towels, baby wipes, diapers, a burp rag (to wipe faces and such), a pen and notepad, sunscreen, bandaids, Neosporin, cotton swabs, latex gloves, several plastic bags (for trash or dirty diapers), and some "lady items" (not pictured--you're welcome). 

Everything except the baby wipes and paper towels fit nicely into this box I picked up at the dollar store. 

Then I put all my items into my Thirty One large utility tote (I'm not sure the correct name for it) that I won as a door prize! It also holds my Thirty One thermal tote and the sun shade for the windshield. 

So there you have it. One afternoon, one quick trip to the dollar store, and I feel prepared for things that may come up while we're out and about. 

I'll leave you with some nice shiny clean car pictures! 

Still rocking the rear facing car seat at 2 years!

Independent Play & Room Time

Many people who hear about Babywise think it's only about those first few weeks/months when you are teaching your child to sleep through the night. That's not the case though! Babywise is a lifestyle that extends beyond sleep habits. One of the main components of Babywise is independent play. This is basically picking a consistent time each day and letting your child play on his own. This begins at a young age in the pack-n-play and moves to room time as he or she gets older and shows the maturity to handle a larger play area. 

Confession time: I totally did not do any independent play time with Hadley when she was a baby. *cue gasps from other more hardcore Babywise followers* To be honest, I don't exactly remember why I didn't do it, I guess I just thought it wasn't super important because she has been what I consider a very independent child from the beginning. She has always been pretty content to entertain herself while I get some things done around the house so I figured it wasn't an issue that we needed to address. 

Now that Hadley is 2, I know she needs this time on her own (and I need a little time to myself to clean house, make phone calls, etc.). Independent play time teaches two important things: how to entertain yourself, and boundaries. Since Hadley is now too big for a pack-n-play, we just went straight to room time. I believe the recommendation for her age is up to an hour, twice a day. To me, that seems a bit much, but we may eventually get there as she gets older. My goal for right now is 30-40 minutes, once a day. I choose to do room time in the half hour before lunch so that I can prep lunch without her under my feet. It really doesn't matter when you do independent play time, as long as it's the same time every day (consistency and routine!). 

The main thing to remember is this: room time is NOT when your child just decides to go in his room and play for a while. Room time happens when MOM (not child) decides it begins and ends. 

It's important to keep the toys interesting and challenging to prevent boredom during independent play. The cat was not one of the chosen toys this day...

I excitedly tell Hadley it's time to play in her room, take her there, get out a few toys, close the gate and tell her goodbye and to have fun. 

I chose to use a small gate in her doorway rather than shutting her door so I can peek in on her and hear her better.

The iPod set up in her room to play classical music and also serve as the timer

I turn on some classical music for her to listen to and set a timer. Once the timer goes off, I go in there and praise her for playing so well on her own! We will usually play together for the remaining few minutes before lunch. 

For more information, tips for success, and troubleshooting, I strongly recommend visiting Chronicles of a Babywise Mom. She has a whole list of posts specifically on independent play and room time. (http://www.babywisemom.com/2009/08/index-independent-play.html)

Hadley has done amazingly well with room time so far. It is one of many Babywise principles that has benefitted her and our entire family. 

Learning Time

Hadley does not attend any sort of daycare or preschool and I feel that one of my most important jobs as her mom is to teach her skills that she will need when she does eventually go to school (that is, if I let her grow up--I'm still undecided). We schedule 30 minutes a day of what we call learning time. We have a child-size table and chairs and Hadley always races to go sit down when I tell her it's time. This setup is pretty natural for me because it's basically what I did when I worked with kids with autism--lots of table time. I have a general guide that I use to figure out what tasks we will do daily, but if there is something specific that Hadley asks to play with that day, we go for it. 

The table is set up in a corner of our living room

Monday is theme day. Each week has a theme (jungle, sky, family, etc.) so on Mondays we usually do a coloring sheet for that theme.

Tuesday is our grocery/errand day so the morning is usually taken up with that so I don't have table time that day. We do say our Bible memory verse though.

Wednesday is letter day. We do a different letter each week. I will have a coloring sheet of that letter and we will talk about things that start with that letter. One of these days I will get adventurous and let her trace the letter in pudding...one day.

Thursday is shape/color day. Every other week we do a shape or a color. For shapes we cut them out with playdoh. For colors we will use that color crayon or go around the house and find things that color.

Friday is number day. We will put that many stickers on a piece of paper, build a tower with that many blocks, etc.

In addition to our day of the week activities, I will also throw in another activity like pegs, puzzles, shape sorter, etc. I try to incorporate fine motor skills in some way. Sometimes we will do some sort of craft, but we will probably do more of that when she is older and able to enjoy it a little more. She's not really to the cutting/gluing stage yet. 

I bought an adorable file box from Target that I keep all of our papers in. I have folders for each day of the week and extra folders to keep extra forms, all of the papers she has colored so far (so I can look back and see how much progress she has made on her coloring), and the index cards I use to write our memory verses. I created my own sheet that I attach to the front of the file box with a binder clip so we can see what we will be working on that week.

Not only am I teaching her basic academics that I feel she should know, but I'm also teaching her boundaries (you will hear me say this word again!). She is not allowed to get up from the table until I say she can, and it teaches her to be still and focus on something for a period of time. There are so many different ways to do learning time! One day could be art day, one day music, one day a field trip--the list goes on. Pinterest is full of great ideas!

I'd love to hear about ways you do learning time with your toddler or preschooler!

Curious Hadley's 2nd Birthday Party

For the past year, Curious George has been on a continuous loop on our TV (thank you Netflix!). Hadley can actually recite parts of episodes right before they happen. The downside to all this is that she seems to think she can leap over chairs like a monkey...which led to a busted lip the day before her 2 year old pictures. 

I knew that I wanted to give Hadley a Curious George themed party but I wanted to put a girly spin on it. What's a 2 year old girl's party without lots of pink?! 

Birthday morning presents from Mommy & Daddy

This was on a bulletin board covered with pictures of my curious little girl throughout the past year.

Yellow hat place settings

Banner made with yellow and pink chevron paper

 Guests signed their names in this Curious George birthday book

Banana bread party favors next to a sign that says "Thanks for swinging by!"

Favors for Hadley's "curious" buddies

More homemade yellow & pink chevron decorations!

Hadley's special low-protein cupcake

Fish crackers for the Quints

Nuts for Jumpy Squirrel

Worm race worms

Licorice whips

Veggies for Bill's bunnies

Instead of cake we had a make your own banana split bar!

Hadley's low-protein version of a banana split!

The birthday girl's shirt...complete with strawberry syrup stains. :)

Overall the party was a big success! I had a great time planning it and making the decorations. For us, birthdays aren't just about celebrating another year of Hadley's life, but they're also a celebration of making it through another year with PKU. I'm so thankful for the friends and family who helped us celebrate!

Home Tour: Master Bedroom

I can now add the master bedroom to the list of rooms that are done! The layout of this room caused a lot of problems for me, but I think I've found a work to work around it. All 4 walls have either a window or a door so furniture placement was a little tricky. I'm pretty happy with the style of the room and I'm slowly working toward the same style in the rest of the house. I really love the farmhouse style, mainly for its simplicity, so I'm wanting to add touches of farmhouse throughout the house without going full-out farmhouse.

View as you walk into the room

I found this chair at an antique store and I love the gorgeous wood. Eventually I'd like to get an oversized chair for reading but for now this works.

My desk is my new favorite area. I love the picture hanger that I made from an old barn wood frame and the blue mason jar with flowers is just the cutest. 

PKU Cooking Class

When I got the invitation to the PKU cooking class in Huntsville I was so excited that there was going to be an event so close to home. The event was sponsored by BioMarin and it was free for PKU families! We figured there would be 4 or 5 families there, but we were shocked at how many people were there. The youngest PKU patient there was a 3.5 month old precious baby girl. The oldest was a woman who was probably in her thirties who successfully dealt with maternal PKU and had a perfectly healthy child. I had a great conversation with a 16-year-old young man who has PKU and I was very impressed with his maturity and his understanding of how essential staying on diet is to his overall health and mental clarity. 

The event began with a meet-and-greet where we got to talk with the speakers for the day and some of the other families. Then we had a cooking demonstration by a professionally trained chef. I can't say enough about this guy! He teaches at a college level in Wisconsin and traveled all the way to Alabama just to teach this class. He has 3 children, 2 of which have PKU, so he cooks low-pro things every single day. Also, he used to work in D.C. where he was the chef for President and Mrs. Clinton! How awesome is that?!

Chef Kevin Brown. I didn't get a picture of him at the class, but this is him at another PKU seminar. (http://www.mnpku.org/seminar)

We split into groups and made 4 different low-protein recipes. My group made a delicious apple desert. Think apple cider doughnuts, apples sautéed in maple syrup, topped with Rice Dream ice cream. It was amazing! My job was to chop and sauté the apples. Probably the easiest job of the day--which is a good thing. I would have had 40 people very upset with me if I had messed it up. :)

Blurry picture of my sautéed apples. It's not easy to cook and take pictures at the same time.

The other 3 recipes were vegetable noodle soup, vegetable ragout, and breakfast sandwiches. The chef is a genius! He taught us to make bacon out of sweet potatoes! BACON! Out of sweet potatoes! It was delicious. 

Three of the dishes we learned to make. I didn't take time to get a picture of the dessert--I was too concerned about devouring it!

The food was all amazing. All of the recipes are ones that can be served to PKU as well as non-PKU eaters. For example, you can add shredded chicken to the soup for the non-PKU folks. 

While we ate, a social worker spoke to us about executive functioning difficulties in people with PKU. Executive functioning includes things like attention, memory, problem solving--things we need to make it through every day life. Then another speaker gave us some information on Kuvan, a medication used to treat PKU. Maybe I'll do a more detailed post about Kuvan someday.

Overall, I was extremely impressed with the event. I learned so much and it was wonderful to connect with other PKU families. I look forward to the next one!

Calculating Phe From Protein

Over the past week, I have hit the PKU-friendly-food jackpot. I have found so many things that Hadley can eat that are either low in phe or phe-free. The best part is that they have all been in local stores. Hooray for no outrageous shipping costs! 

However, not all low-protein foods are created equal. Just because the package says 0g protein does not mean that it is phe-free. Manufacturers are only required to put the estimated amount of protein on a package. Therefore, a product that claims to be 0g protein may actually contain up to 0.4g of protein (they were allowed to round down to 0). The same is true for a product claiming to have 1g protein. It may contain anywhere from 0.5g to 1.4g. This could mean a big difference in the amount of phe. 

Most, if not all, PKU families rely heavily on the book Low Protein Food List for PKU by Virginia Schuett. This book contains the phe content for a LOT of different foods, but not all. There have been times when I have found a potential food for Hadley in a store but it was not listed in the book. 

So how do we go about determining the phe in these new products? The first step is to call the company and request the exact protein found in the product. Most companies unfortunately do not have the phe amounts in their products, so the exact protein is the next best thing. 

Here is an example:

The package states that there is less than 1g of protein per serving. I called the Glutino company and they told me that the exact amount of protein is 0.9g per serving. Since 1g protein=50mg phe, I multiplied 0.9 by 50 to determine that there are 45mg of phe per 52g serving (or 0.87mg phe per gram of product). 

I contacted Virginia Schuett to make sure I was doing my calculations correctly. She said the multiplier may not always be 50, depending on the main ingredients found in the product. For the toaster pastries, the main source of phe is eggs. However, eggs are listed 8th out of 17 ingredients (ingredients are listed in order from highest to lowest prevalence), so there probably isn't very much in there; therefore, 50 would have been an appropriate multiplier for this product. 

Even with the added task of determining the amount of phe in Hadley's new foods, I am so thankful that she has more variety in her diet now. So far she enjoys all the new things she has been able to try!

Funny side note about these toaster pastries: I told Hadley it was a pop-tart but she thought I said "hop-tart" because she made it go "hop hop hop" across the table. She cracks me up. :)