Florida

I'm excited! Tomorrow we leave for Florida and the Nanny Poppinz convention. I get to see three of my children [that I have been blogging about] and three of my grandchildren! It almost doesn't get better than that. I will check if they have been reading about themselves. It should be stuff they didn't know about before because they were too small.

I can't believe I will be warm for awhile. Lake still frozen here and many more snowstorms to come before we will have Spring here. More from Florida.

Diapers

So what is the thinking these days? Is it cloth to save the environment or disposable to save YOUR time?

Here's how it was back in the day. Cloth was by far the softer, cheaper way. Disposable diapers were scratchy and expensive. I remember we had a diaper service the first six weeks of the baby's life where they did it all. They picked up the dirty ones and gave nice clean, soft diapers back. The only drawback is it was expensive but worth it on the front end when you weren't up to speed yet. Mine never took to plastic pants over their cloth diapers. It always gave them a rash so I would use the disposables for out of the house trips which wasn't satisfactory either but the lessor of two evils.

Our first house didn't have a dryer so I had to hang outside which was okay if you used enough softener but not so good in winter when they froze on the line even tho it was Norfolk, Virginia. Then I would bring them in and rehang them over the floor heater. Oh those fun days!

Dummies

Now that I have your attention, let me say that I am going to blog about pacifiers which are called dummies in Britain.

I really wonder what the thinking is these days about pacifiers. I will tell you what we did. Three of the four took immediately to the pacifier. At four months old we took it away. No fuss, no screaming. They didn't act like it bothered them at all. Now one of the four didnot take to the pacifier and immediately after birth stuck her second finger, not her thumb, in her mouth and sucked on that. Let me tell you, one isn't taking that away at four months! She then added a "banky" to the sucking routine and kept this on for a very long time.

I hear these horror stories about mothers trying to take away the pacifier and how traumatic it is when their children are 2, 3 or even 4. Is it possible they waited too long? We had no problem at 4 months.

Valentines

Happy Valentine's Day! Didn't it used to be fun when you were a kid?

I spoke to a First grade teacher the other day to find out how they celebrate these days and was happy to learn that traditions hadn't changed that much. They still make a decorated box where the kids put the valentines in to be given away that day. She said they make their valentines and don't buy any. I like that even better.

I have a Pink and Red sweater with hearts, pearls and sparkles that I drag out every year and wear. My husband gave it to me over 25 years ago and he lights up when he sees me in it. So tonight it goes on again, tighter, smaller and shorter with each year but who cares?

TheAlmightyHighchair

This is more of a memory than a hint. My husband would put whoever was the current baby in the highchair even before they could really sit. He would stuff baby blankets on both sides of them to keep them from slipping out. His objective was to get them on solid foods as early as possible. Jr. foods never entered our kitchen. It was baby food to solid food.

I always thought the youngest one always enjoyed being part of the evening meal. My husband always sat next to the high chair and shoveled applesauce, mashed potatoes, smashed up veggies and anything he felt they wouldn't choke on. They were allowed to hold green beans, french fries, soft bread to gnaw on in between spoonfuls. His ulterior motive, I am sure, was to save money but I remember it as some of our best family time.

Playpens

This is as good as it gets. What I consider to be the BIGGEST help with babies and toddlers. The Almighty Playpen! Why oh why is this not popular now? I don't think I could have kept my sanity without one. We even considered it an essential item when camping.

Just think, you always knew where the they were. No keeping track of them, no covering electric outlets or locking cupboards.

They were in the middle of the action if you wanted them there, interacting with the rest of the family but in their own safe environment.

They stayed clean not picking up those dust bunnies or eating out of the dog's dish.

They learned the playpen was for playing and the crib was for sleeping, even the high chair was for eating. [more about that tomorrow]

SuperBowlSunday

No "Back in the day" hint today because it's Super Bowl Sunday and I live in Wisconsin and our Green Bay Packers are playing in the Super Bowl! But I do want to tell you a nice thing that I saw an entire school do up here in small town, North woods Wisconsin.

On Friday, we were invited to the local K-6 grade school in Sugar Camp, [my husband being on the school board] They had a tailgate lunch with Wisconsin Brats in their decorated green and gold gym. Then after school they had the first grade lead cheers for a pep rally which about blew everyone eardrums out. The principal said they have been having the pep rally every Friday during the season.

I thought this was all great and a way to make school fun, show pride in your state and make tiny Sugar Camp part of the big picture. It sure put me in the mood!

afterschool snacks

Hi, I was always so proud of the fact that my kids ate everything on their plates at dinner. You want to know why? They were hungry!!! They got home about 3:30 from school and we ate dinner usually at 5. Dad walked in the door and we immediately sat down to eat.

What happened at 3:30? No snacks is what happened. They could drink something. But we didn't allow snacks [in part because snacks were expensive] but MOSTLY because it would spoil their appetites.

All I know is it worked. They ate nutritious, well balanced meals at 5 not potato chippy junk at 3:30. Back in the day......