Favorite Things Friday: Oral B Brush Ups

So I've mentioned before that I'm a little obsessed with my teeth. Despite the fact that I've had two emergency root canals in the past few years and the fact that I recently had to have a tooth pulled because there was nothing else that could be done to save it for the long-term, I swear that I take scrupulous care of my teeth. I shudder to think how much worse my dental issues would be if I didn't brush, floss and visit the dentist on a very regular basis.

And yet, this pregnancy has brought on a new dental woe: sour mouth. Basically, my mouth tastes bad almost all the time. It is just awful. In addition to brushing and using mouth wash more often throughout the day, another weapon in my arsenal is a product I've loved for years: Oral B Brush Ups. That's why I'm featuring them today for my Favorite Things Friday.

Brush Ups are basically little mint-flavored textured sleeves that fit over your fingertip. They are individually packaged. You simply put it on your finger and swipe over your teeth and tongue. They do a really great job of truly cleaning your teeth (that texture works wonders!) and freshening your breath. I always have a few in my purse. Except this exact moment, however, because I've been going through them more quickly than usual. I'll be sure to restock this weekend!


I really enjoyed having my sister guest post for Favorite Things Friday last week. Let me know if you have a favorite thing you'd like to do a future guest post about! E-mail smilingaimee [at] gmail [dot] com.

Original post by Smiling Mama. Thanks for reading!

Like the best summer camp ever

When we drove home from the beach on Saturday, we drove home without Lucas. No, we didn't leave him at the beach to frolic in the surf, he drove up to Pennsylvania with my parents and sister who is on the east coast for another week of vacation. Sarah declared that she needed more Lucas time, my dad is now officially retired and my mom's off for the summer as a teacher so we knew he'd have plenty of attention.

As far as I can tell, he's basically been at the most amazing summer camp ever. On Sunday they went to see the movie "Up" and I'm told that at the end, Lucas stood up on his chair and yelled, "that was awesome!"

On Monday they took him to Hershey Park. Just like when we were kids, my parents made sure to arrive at 10am, as soon as the park opened. The crew was my parents, sister, Lucas, Sarah's best childhood friend, Meredith, and Meredith's boyfriend and her 4yo niece. Coincidentally that niece is the daughter of one of my childhood best friends who my parents took with us to Hershey Park when I was not much older than Lucas. I'm told that after every single ride, Lucas wanted to ride it again and again. He basically had to be dragged to each new ride which he then declared to be THE BEST and wanted to ride and ride again. At 6:40pm I got the following text from my mom: "The adults r pooped. The kids r going strong. Bribing with Mickey Ds to leave."

Yesterday afternoon I got a call from Lucas. Apparently they had visited a farm. He saw cows, chickens, horses and pigs. He collected eggs from the hens. And, as he told me, he got to drive a truck. Here's the conversation we had about that:

Lucas: Mama, I drove a truck!
Smiling Mama: WHAT?! You got to drive a truck? Wow! That's so cool!
Lucas: No, Mama. Say, little boys can't drive cars or trucks!
Smiling Mama: Oh, okay. Little boys can't drive cars or trucks!
Lucas: Yes! It is possible!

He then handed the phone to my mom who said he had worked out that entire conversation before calling. Apparently at Hershey Park there were several rides where he got to "drive" and then at the farm there was some sort of rugged golf cart thing that he also drove. I think I'm in trouble now. He's always begging to drive our cars and I always tell him that little boys can't drive cars. He's going to be impossible to convince now that he believes that he has, in fact, driven cars and trucks!

Abel and I miss him like crazy. I'm so glad he's getting so much awesome time with my parents and sister but also am very jealous that he's having so many amazing first-time experiences without his mama and dada. His life is going to seem pretty boring next week when he's home--no beach, no amusement parks, no constant attention from many adults other than his parents! But it will be nice to have him around and get back to normal.

Original post by Smiling Mama. Thanks for reading!

Arc of a Beach Vacation

You know one beach post just isn't enough. I'm over at DC Metro Moms today with a humorous (I hope!) take on the arc of a beach vacation. You know, things are nice and slow at the start of the week then suddenly it's the last day and you wonder where in the world the week went!

Go check it out, pretty please!

Original post by Smiling Mama. Thanks for reading!

The Beach

So my blogging break was actually a family trip to the beach. Which was, in a word, glorious. We had 12 adults (if you include my 16yo cousin as an adult), a 2 year old and 3 year old in one house for 7 days. Definitely could have been a recipe for disaster but it went incredibly well.

My dad officially retired a few weeks ago and all he wanted for his retirement was for our whole family (plus any extended family that could join in) to go to the beach for a week. We've done family beach weeks in the past but this year we (my dad) splurged and we got a house on the beach. We walked out the back door, down a wooden ramp and were on the sand. It was amazing. I don't think we'll ever go back to the much-more-reasonably-priced second row again.

Anytime you hear about a family vacation that includes one or more babies/toddlers/children, the parents always lament that, of course, it wasn't really a vacation because the baby/toddler/child still got up early, had to be tended to, etc. Well, I have to say, this was a true vacation for Abel and me. Not that we shirked our parental duties completely, but we did shirk them quite a bit.

First, my parents uber-generously offered for Lucas to sleep on his little air bed in their room. That meant that theirs was the bed he crawled into at 3am and they were the people awoken at 6:30am while Abel and I snoozed blissfully away until 8:30 or 9am every single day. And, there were enough doting aunts, uncles, grandparents, second cousins, great aunts and great uncles to help keep him (and the other toddler) entertained on the beach and at the house during all waking hours.

We were on the beach by 9:30am each morning and I took a nap almost every single day (while Lucas was napping). Most days we also went back to the beach in the afternoon/early evening. Or, we walked along the pier or went to the playground. We split dinners so that each couple/family only cooked one night. The remaining two nights we ordered pizza and went out.

One evening (on my sister's night) we cooked up a feast of some of my dad's favorite foods: crab cakes, shrimp, potatoes and corn on the cob; surprised him with a new driver (golf club!); and, did a "roast" sharing our favorite Herb-isms or favorite funny/sentimental stories. It was great fun!

As always, the beginning of the week went by super slowly, feeling like we'd be at the beach forever. And by Wednesday the days seemed to move into warp speed. Our departure on Saturday morning definitely came way to quickly.

But, my oh-so-slightly tan skin and the bit of sand that was tracked into the house via beach chairs and seashells are helping me remember what a glorious week we had.


Original post by Smiling Mama. Thanks for reading!

Favorite Things Friday: Skype

In keeping with my vacation from blogging this week, I asked my sister to do a guest post for this week’s Favorite Things Friday. She’s under the impression that her blog has approximately three readers (our mom, me and perhaps another friend) but I’m so glad that she keeps it up because her posts regularly make me laugh, sometimes make me cry, and always give me insight into the life and mind of my little sister. Sarah blogs at Sorry Sarah which she describes as “a glimpse into the life of a military wife / junior high teacher / wannabe mother.” Here’s her guest post.



The other night Mike and I met up with one of his dad's old military friends for dinner.

Side Note: Said Military Friend first showed up at our door unexpectedly the evening before thanks to my in-laws who gave him our address but did not happen to tell us that he was in town or that he would be stopping by to see us. It just so happened, though, that he showed up at the door about 5 minutes after Mike had left for his evening soccer game, and I, convinced that it was my stalker, hid in the hallway and did not answer the door. Comedy of errors anyone? But, really, that is quite another story for another day.

Throughout the course of our dinner, Military Friend spent a great majority of time talking about his military career, particularly his deployments. Mike having just returned from his 2nd deployment to Iraq in February, and currently gearing up for a deployment to Afghanistan this May, is no stranger to deployments. However, our dinner conversation with Military Friend was quite an eye opener.

We realized just how very lucky we are. I mean, spending 7 months away from your spouse could never by any stretch of the imagination be considered easy, but it's certainly a heck of a lot easier than it used to be back in the old days. I attribute this to one very important thing:

Communication.

This is why for my guest spot on Smiling Mama, I am featuring Skype for my Favorite Things Friday. Skype allows you to make FREE long distance voice and video calls. All you need is a computer with internet connection, a microphone, and a webcam.

Mike and I tried out a couple different messenger services for webcamming during his last deployment such as msn and yahoo, but both of these proved to be sub par as far as video quality goes. Skype, on the other hand, has excellent picture quality and rarely has a delay.

Thanks to Skype, the world seemed a whole lot smaller during what was sometimes a long and dreary 7 month separation from my husband.

Of course, you don't have to have a husband in Iraq to enjoy the benefits of Skype. My in-laws use Skype regularly to webcam with their grandchildren who live across the country from them, and one of my co-workers has a friend living in China who he Skypes with every now and then to keep in touch.

Twenty years ago, military members on deployment had only snail mail letters and short wave radio phone calls to rely on for communication. Today we have email and real time webcamming at our disposal. At this rate, you really have to wonder what kind of high-tech communication tool will be available to us in another 20 years. That's something to ponder.

For now, though, as far as communication goes, it really doesn't get any better than Skype.

Original post by Smiling Mama. Thanks for reading!

Positive proof

This is the third of three not previously published posts that I wrote about being pregnant before I was ready to spill the beans publicly. I'll be back from my little break next week!

*My deepest apologies to the artist but I have no idea where this cartoon came from! It is just too perfect to not include here.


So back in February when my hematologist gave me the okay to get pregnant she also told me that she wanted to be my second phone call when I found out. Conveniently, I already had an appointment scheduled for about a week after my positive pee test. I called the office a few days before the appointment to let them know that I was pregnant because I suspected they'd want to add that to my blood work. You know, they wouldn't necessarily take me at my word, they would need an actual positive blood test to add to the records, right? The nurse called me back to let me know that, indeed, the doctor would add it to my work up.

When the appointment came, however, they apparently had forgotten to add it. After waiting about 35 minutes for them to figure the result wasn't coming back because it wasn't tested for, they had me pee into a cup instead of making me get another blood draw that afternoon. By the time I met with the doctor the actual pee test results weren't back. Apparently that fact came to light later that evening when I was complaining to Abel about how long I had to wait for what ended up being a 3 minute visit with the doctor.

Abel: They didn't confirm it?

Smiling Mama: Well, I'm sure the results came back later in the afternoon.

Abel: But, they didn't call to tell you? I mean. What if you aren't pregnant?

Smiling Mama: Dude. Two positive pee tests, 4 weeks late, exhausted, nauseous all the time: I'm pregnant. We don't need the doctor to confirm it.

Abel: Well, if you're sure.

Smiling Mama: I'm sure.



Original post by Smiling Mama. Thanks for reading!

Must Nap

This is the second of three not previously published posts that I wrote about being pregnant before I was ready to spill the beans publicly. I'll be back from my little break next week!


I totally took a nap at work al la George Castanza the other day. It was great. Well, not exactly great, but it was good.

As I have mentioned, I have this huge office. Also, I have a door that locks. That is key to a successful nap at work. I had woken up exhausted that morning and since I have been napping pretty much every weekend day and when I am home with Lucas, I knew this full day of work was going to kill me. I grabbed my yoga mat and a beach towel on my way out the door.

After eating a quick lunch at my desk, I closed and locked my door, rolled out the mat placed the towel on top and laid down. The first five minutes dragged by and I almost got up. But then suddenly it was 35 minutes later. It wasn't overly comfortable but I wasn't completely uncomfortable, either. At minimum I will need a little travel pillow for future office naps. My dream is to bring an air mattress into the office but that might just be a little much, don't you agree?


Original post by Smiling Mama. Thanks for reading!