The Valentines Day Edition

There are many different stories regarding the origins of Valentine's day. The one that I find most intriguing is the theory that Valentine's Day with the Christian martyrs is celebrated in the middle of February as a way to Christianize the pagan celebration of Lupercalia, a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.

The actual fertility celebrations get a little weird with women and crop fields getting slapped with strips of goat hide that had been soaked in dog's blood (I couldn't make this up even if I tried).

Lupercalia survived the initial rise of Christianity and but was outlawed—as it was deemed “un-Christian”–at the end of the 5th century, when Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine’s Day. It was not until much later, however, that the day became definitively associated with love. During the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds’ mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of Valentine’s Day should be a day for romance.

All of this information and more can be read in its entirety on the History Channel's website.

Thankfully in my house, there is no slapping women with goat hides dipped in dog's blood (and after three children I definitely do not need any more fertility). Instead we go for the more mundane tradition of giving gifts to each other.

Wine Glasses

 

My Therapy

As funny as this may sound, this glass accurately sums up my experience with wine. Had a bad day at work? A glass of wine will help calm you down and let it go. Kids driving you crazy? Put them to bed and enjoy that warmth and fuzzy feeling a glass of wine can provide. 









 


 What Night?


Another great and funny wine glass that helps me gauge how much wine is needed after a long day.  Most of the time, all I need is just a good night or maybe a great night. Sometime, though after a really long and trying day with work and/or my minions a what night? is needed to help unwind.

Both glasses are from GotMeTipsy and are a great quality for the price. Other glasses I have purchased at this price point felt thin and fragile. These glasses, while not overly thick or heavy feel appropriate for every day use. The designs on them are white and printed on the glass instead of etched in making the designs easy to see and read whether you are drinking a red, blush, or white or you need a refill. Best of all they are dishwasher safe so the design is not going anywhere.






Coffee Mugs 

Go Away

Much like the What Night? wine glass this coffee mug is marked with different levels communicating to everyone around you whether you are approachable or not yet. This is particularly handy after a night of indulging in "What Night?" levels of wine drinking or if you are generally just not a morning person. It is a great tongue-in-cheek gift for anyone who is not a morning person or is a coffee addict.




 

Favorite Child

This mug makes for great subtle bragging rights in large families. I have a lot of sibling and I like to joke that I am my mother's favorite. So it only seemed fitting for me to get this mug. I like to break it out during family gatherings just to show off a little to my brothers and sisters. 

 Much like the wine glasses listed above, these coffee mugs are also from GotMeTipsy. They sport the same screen printing technique for the design making them easy to read even when the mug is empty. Also just like with the wine glasses, these are dishwasher safe so the design is not going to just come off with one washing.

Both mugs, while made of glass are fairly weighty and feel well made and the handles are well crafted and not a seam can be found.



Wrist Rest


I work extensively at computers, both at my day job as well as with my hobbies.




Lately, I had started getting a little concerned because it seemed as though my hands were "falling asleep" more frequently than usual. I had also started noticing shooting pains from my wrist to my fingers not terribly often nor would they last too long, but long enough to have me concerned.


I watched my mother and her journey with carpal tunnel and it is not something that I am anxious to repeat. I know that the damage that is already done, is most likely irreversible but hopefully with the right gear I can slow down its progression. That is why this gift means so much to me.

The wrist rest pad does help me to keep my wrist in line while typing and the filling is supportive but also soft enough to yield a little to the weight of my hands. That plus the soft covering makes for a really comfortable experience. The bonus mouse pad is made of the same material and is just as comfortable.

Since I started using these items, I have not noticed the shooting pains and my hands are not falling asleep all the time. Hopefully I have bought myself a little bit of time before I will have to got for medical intervention for carpal tunnel.



My gift to everyone else was rolling sushi by hand.

Sushi knives

As with most things, what may seem like a hard task is made much easier if you have the proper tools. For example rolling and cutting sushi can be quite disastrous. I have tried to do this in the past with my other knives, and while I love them and they are great at what they do, they are not a good fit for cutting sushi rolls. They tear the wrap and all the sushi rice sticks to the blade preventing a good clean cut. This sushi knife is super sharp and slices right through the wrap. The shape and thickness of the blade is such that it helps reduce the amount of rice that sticks to the blade. The knives are lot lighter than my normal cooking knives and the balance feels just slightly off. My only other complaint is that the way the tang of the blade fits into the handle I am worried about the knife's longevity but so far it has not been an issue.




Complete with mixed drinks made with a new cocktail shaker.



Bars N Roses has a beautiful stainless steel cocktail shaker kit. The lid of the shaker fits down nicely into the bottom and the cap comes off for easy pouring through the strainer. The kit also included a smaller jigger for measuring as well as an ebook with drink recipes. Now my house is equipped for me to play bartender.






As always feedback, questions, comments, and suggestions are always welcome. Please remember to follow the blog and register your email address at the top of the page to have new posts delivered right to your email inbox and never miss an update. Disclaimer: please be aware that any item mentioned in this blog may have been received for free or at a discount in exchange for a fair and honest review. The opinions expressed in this blog are my own regardless of how the items were acquired.

Teething Babies

Minion Number 3 is 22 months. Just a few months away from the "terrible twos"; although with him it looks like "Tyrant twos" might be more accurate. I am sure we have all seen the Toddler's Rules of Possession meme that has been making rounds on social media. I recently saw it again on Facebook and thought to myself how accurately it described my tyrant of a little minion.

The other day, Minion Number 2 had decided to have a snack of peanut butter crackers. She made some for herself and after encouragement from me and daddy, she also made a small plate for Minion Number 3. She handed him the plate and he started shoving the little crackers in his mouth with much gusto. As soon as Minion Number 2 sat down with her plate and started eating her crackers, Minion 3 started screaming and having a full on melt-down. Apparently, in his eyes, her plate of crackers were also his, and she had just stolen his food. Never mind that there were more crackers there than he could eat in one setting.  Poor Minion 2, she didn't know what was going on, or why he was crying. Confusedly, she looked to me for answers. When I explained why he was crying, she tried  to explain to him that she was only eating her crackers. Of course the only thing that worked to get him to calm down was just a little bit of time.

Don't get me wrong. Minion Number 3 is a very sweet little boy, but like most toddler's he is still trying to work out the rules of social interaction. To make things worse for Minion Number 3, he has had a bad bout out teething. I know 22 months is a little late for this kind of issue. It caught me a little bit by surprise myself. Especially, since his first teething coming in only seemed to give him a little bit of discomfort.

What started out as just a mild grumpiness grew to nightmare proportions. It started a few weeks ago. Minion 3 went to bed as usual and right on time at 8pm. However, at 11pm, we hear him start to stir. We leave him be for a few minutes, to see if he would go back to sleep. Needless to say, he didn't and after just 10 minutes, the restless stirring escalated to full on wailing. I go into his room and check on him. He felt a little warm but nothing alarming. I pick him up and cuddle him a little while also checking his diaper. It checks out, but the cuddles are not working to calm him down. That is when I notice that he is acting a little 'weird'. He would push at me as though he wanted me to put him down and then he would throw himself forward on me. I put him down, thinking maybe he had a bad dream and just needed a moment to calm down, but he continues that weird behavior of sitting up and then throwing himself forward on the floor. I offered him some water to drink, frankly because watching him cry so much was making me thirsty. He would go through the motions of taking a sip, but would start crying again before actually drinking anything.

At this point it becomes apparent that he is in distress and obviously in discomfort. I feel around his ears and neck to see if I get a reaction out of him (checking of ear infections). Nothing. Finally, just completely stumped, I gave him a dose of baby Tylenol. The time it took for it to kick in felt like an eternity, but at last he calmed down and started drifting off to sleep. Breathing a sigh of relief, I lay him back down and I start winding down for bed. Shortly after drifting off to sleep (about 4 hours after I had giving Minion Number 3 his Tylenol), he wakes up crying again, and we repeat the session above.

And so this behavior continued over the next few days. Minion Number 3 and I were sleeping in 4 hour increments and it was not doing either of us any good. Finally, late at night on the 3rd or 4th night of this, I called my insurance's 24-hour nurse hotline. The fantastic nurse on the other line, compassionately asked me several questions, and finally had me look in Minion Number 3's mouth. Sure enough, his gums were swollen and I could see the white points where his new canines were trying to cut through and fill in the gaps between his incisors and his eye teeth that has already come in. In addition to those, he was also starting to get his two-year old molars on the bottom. (No wonder he didn't feel well.)

A friend of mine from high school told me about amber teething necklaces when I shared this story with her. She said that her daughter had a horrific time cutting teeth and that this was the only thing that worked for her. So I looked it up, and decided to give it a try, even though I know most of the time these things down work.



This Bambini & Me amber necklace offered a lot of the same things that other amber teething necklaces offer, but a few features made it stand out.


Features & Benefits:

• 100% certified high-quality Baltic amber
• Warm to the touch
• Safety knots between amber pieces
• Natural immune system booster
• Includes a silicone teething necklace mom can wear!

I really like that there are safety knots between the amber pieces. Minion 2 has had several bead necklaces and once those strings pop, beads go flying everywhere. Having those knots in place ensure that in the event the string does give out that there are not going to be a million of little amber pieces to try to clean up.


Another boon for me is that with this product from Bambini & Me, you are protected by our 30 day NO QUESTIONS asked money back guarantee.

After receiving it, I tried it on Minion Number 3. It fits perfectly. It fit him just slightly more loose than a choker style necklace. Normally, putting any necklace around his neck, he is irritated with it and is trying to pull it off within three minutes. To be perfectly honest, he doesn't seem to mind this necklace. And it looks absolutely adorable on him. Here I have just laid him down for a nap, and was just about to take the necklace off for him to sleep.

 So far we have noticed a great improvement. He is now sleeping through the nights again. He is eating and drinking normally. He does still run a little warm, but it is within a normal range and we have not had to give him Tylenol in several days. He seems happier, and to me that means the world.




Safety Suggestions:

• Infants should be supervised while wearing the necklace- no chewing.
• Remove the necklace if child is left unattended.
• Necklace is not to be worn while sleeping.
• Necklace is double-knotted for added protection, but if broken please discard.

Another side effect of teething is all the drooling. I have used regular bibs in the past but they usually just trap moisture next to the baby's skin which leads to chafing. With my first two children, I had reached out to family members who knew how to sew to have them create double layered bibs for my kids. I used to have them sew a cotton/polyester blend cloth over the top of terry cloth for extra absorbency. The bibs were functional if not the prettiest. I recently found bibs that I could purchase that had that same dual layer idea but were way cuter than anything my relatives and I could  have thought up.

Patoshi has created these super cute bandana style bibs. As I mentioned above they are dual layered with the underside created from a layer of fleece. These bibs are incredibly soft and really absorbent.

Another bonus for me is that these bibs do not use Velcro for the closure. As many of you already know, Velcro on children's clothes don't always work. The Velcro has a very limited life span and quickly loses its ability to fasten as the little hooks and loops age. These bandana bibs use good old fashioned metal snap closures. It also has three different positions so that baby can feasibly wear these from 3 months to 2 years.

As always feedback, questions, comments, and suggestions are always welcome. Please remember to follow the blog and register your email address at the top of the page to have new posts delivered right to your email inbox and never miss an update.

Disclaimer: please be aware that any item mentioned in this blog may have been received for free or at a discount in exchange for a fair and honest review. The opinions expressed in this blog are my own regardless of how the items were acquired.