Family Trip

      Yesterday, we took a trip to Quebec with friends to go to Mont Cascades.
Kaelynn traveled well and only got upset when she was tired. I felt so bad when she kept putting her arms up to ask for "out".

     We arrived, got changed and away we went. First stop was the wading pool. Kaelynn and daddy went in, to get her used to it. I then took her down a child slide. I let her go and followed down after her, bracing myself against the walls of the slide with my knees. An 18 month does not have enough weight to go down, so daddy suggested I just scoop her up. That worked, only I gave myself an amazing plastic burn on my wrist.

     I went down some slides and then switched off with daddy. While I was riding Black Magic and The Mammoth, daddy took Kaelynn to the splash pool and paddling pool. At the paddling pool, she LOVED the stairs.

     Lunch time.

     We decided to try to take her down the bigger rides. Success. No one stopped us and no one got hurt. First stop, Mammoth.
I carried Kaelynn up the hill, daddy and Mike rolled the giant tube up. There was a French family ahead of us, arguing with their possibly 4-5 year old son who didn't want to ride. We all went first. Mommy and baby climbed into the circle, then the guys. Mommy seatbelt engaged and we were flying down. Not a peep was made from Kaelynn.

     While we were on a roll, we did a 2 person ride: River Rapids. Daddy took Kaelynn down. I was so scared to do that. I would have to hold onto her and not the float. What if we both got dumped out because I wasn't holding on? I know daddy did the same ride last year with a kid a bit older. They went first, Mike and I followed. Apparently, Kaelynn looked back at Daddy with a WTF look at one point. We all arrived at the bottom alive.

     Daddy went on more slides with other children and we kept trading off. We went down bigger kiddie slides and there were no more plastic burns. I took Kaelynn to the children's rainforest and she was so unhappy. Water dripped down, like a shower, from every where. I took her down some slides and at the bottom, she.got splashed in face. She was stunned, but not crying.

     She ate all the food.
*1.5 pancakes before we left
*1/2 package of cookies in the car
*1/4 bag of Goldfish
*1/2 jam sandwich
*4 green bean pods
*almost a whole container of black berries (I had 5)
*3 watermelon balls (ice cream scoops)
*1/2 of my ice cream cone
*2 chicken nuggets and 3 fries for dinner

     It was almost time to go home. I recruited 3 others and we went down Tornado Alley. This time I did not scream "let me off" or " I dont want to do this anymore". It was still a roller coaster water slide, but I was less afraid, it was quicker, and I Lamaze breathed my way through it. I probably could have gone again, if there was time.

     All in all, it was a great day and can't wait for next summer. I was thinking we could even do their birthday package.

Resolution Center

     Big big heartfelt thanks to the crew at PayPal for reimbursing me the money that was "lost" in the whole Please Mum debacle. I still have 5 days until I see any funds and can return them to the right people, but I received the confirmation email that they ruled in my favour.

     What has been happening since the last post?
     I received in the mail a large envelope from the Please Mum layers. 10 pages of their financials and 1 page basically saying I needed to contact my payment method because I would not be receiving my shipment.
    Of course, everyone who went through this is getting all the same information.

     It's a horrible situation that got resolved, but I am still sad about the amazing purchase that could have been.

Buyer Beware

     Everyone has heard the term "you get what you pay for". In my case recently, and a few others, you don't get what you paid for.

    This post is to warn others about a clothing scam that happened, and my side of things.

              PLEASE MUM, PLEASE DON'T

     A friend found a most awesome 3 season jacket on a clothing site where she made a previous purchase. I fell in love, and saw other things that I liked. Stuff was 70-90% off, which doesn't seem unusual for a website. If you ordered $75 of stuff, you would receive free shipping. Not bad..I went to some moms I knew and asked if they needed anything. We had a purchase set up.

     Before money changed hands, I Googled the company (because I had never heard of it) and found out that many stores had closed and went bankrupt. Them, having a website still made sense to me. Some companies bounce back without that being in the news, some sell off their stock online. Apparently, this was not the case.

     July 18th, 2014, I made a PayPal payment. Money left my bank account and went into World Shake Productions account. In a week, I had not received a "we mailed your stuff" email. Their website said "temporarily unavailable". I tried to call all their numbers and none were in service. I sent emails, nothing. I was not impressed, and starting to get worried. I tried calling and their website daily.
I Googled "PLEASE MUM TOOK MY MONEY" and that lead me to a Facebook group about boycotting PLEASE MUM. There was a post about how it happened to another mother. More people commented. The same week, I had placed an order and their site was down, the same week the other women did too. They all tried everything I tried. PLEASE MUM had also taken down all their social media information, as well as taking everyone's payments.

     PayPal dispute filed. 45 days.from payment, I hope to get our money back (Aug 14).


      Why is this post important? The owner has apparently done this before. After this happened, I looked into it.
     From now on, I will fully look into a company if I'd never heard about it, even if recommended by friends. In all fairness, it's not like a normal person would look into Wal-Mart/Target/etc. Yet, I still feel dumb.

Wacky Wednesday

     Today was a busy busy day.  Daddy babywore Kaelynn on his back the whole way there.
     Little Ray's Reptile Zoo was having a demonstration at the local library. I found out about this last week and had planned for it, unfortunately, many mothers did not.
     We had to be at the library at 1pm to pick up free admission tickets for 2pm. There was a line when we got there and tickets were gone in 3 minutes.
     5 tickets in hand, we popped over to the mall for lunch and a quick errand.

     2pm and we go through the door. We sit near the front with the other children. Daddy hung off to the side. I am surprised that Kaelynn seemed interested in touching the reptiles, maybe because everyone else was. My friend and her daughter showed up late, and we made room. Daddy moved to the back.
     Kaelynn spent time playing with my camera, touching the reptiles as they came around, looking out the window, and babbling at her daddy from across the room.
    I am proud that even I touched them...and they freak me out.

     Afterwards, we came home and went for a swim. Somehow in all the clothes we have, I found a swim suit to fit my friend's daughter.

     Before dinner, she fell asleep. She stayed asleep while I transferred her to her high chair. I ate and then woke her up.

    Baby girl is happy and pooped.

An experiment

     For the past 2 months, I have been using flour sack towels as inserts in my cloth diapers. I am loving them!!

     What are flour sack towels? They are 100% cotton kitchen towels. You've probably seen them in your grandmother's kitchen, maybe with embroidery on them.

     I read that you could use them as inserts, and was curious. Currently, I use microfiber and they're getting old. I was looking for a budget friendly way to replace them all. At Target, I purchased a.pack of 4 flour sack towels for about $5-6. I figured, if I did not like them, I could use them for cleaning.

               I liked them.
      I fold them in half, half the other way, and then the ends towards the middle. This gives me 4 layers and fits most of the pockets perfectly.

     If you cloth diaper and are looking for something new as an insert, I highly recommend flour sack towels.

17 Months old

     Three days shy of 17 months, little miss grew 3 teeth. I'm a few days late with this post, but she still only has 3 teeth.

      When it comes down to words, we are lacking. She makes more sounds, and we pretend they are words. She makes it perfectly clear if she wants something and if we get it wrong.

      Getting her to sleep in her own bed is the same struggle. She spends from about 11pm-3am in it before waking up and not settling herself. There are some nights where I don't remember getting her, but there she is in the middle.

     We were in a wedding on Saturday (07/12/14) and she took it like a champ. She was a well behaved flower girl.

     She refuses to stack blocks, preferring to knock them down. She does love to nest and line up objects.

The Lovely Lampshadelux

     A lovely friend of mine has started up a clothing redecorating business and has graciously given Kaelynn a personalized outfit to love.
     If you've been following along, or know us, you will know that Kaelynn is a wild child. She has no real fear of anything and is usually up for trying new things. As I write this, she is climbing all over an Avon delivery box.
     Along with clothing, Kim (L.S Lux) makes personalized shoes. She has a etsy and an instagram account dedicated to her work. Check her out, she does adult as well as children items. Before July 4th, I modeled some fabulous 4th of July celebration shorts that she modified.