Motherhood Is Messy

Motherhood is very messy at times. Between the drool, spit-up, vomit, poop, food spills, mucus, blood, etc. it's a disgusting job at times.

So far, in the almost 3 1/2 years I've been "employed" by my kidlets, I've caught puke in my bare hands, picked poop off the bathroom floor, scrubbed smeared poop off a cream colored carpet, wiped runny little noses literally thousands of times, stepped in pee puddles with my bare feet, located Princess by following the trail of drool she left behind, mopped up gallons of spilled milk, washed blood out of hair and off foreheads and little knees, and much more. But what happened this morning topped all the disgusting things I've done and seen as a mother so far. To be honest, I'm not sure it can be topped. Feel free to prove me wrong with your own tale of woe. Just to warn you, this post is not for the faint of heart or stomach. You may want to locate an ice cream pail and stash it under your computer chair if you have a tendency to feel nauseous.

Our toilet is hard to flush. Not for an adult or older child, but 3 year old Princess has a hard time pushing down the handle to flush it. She's supposed to close the lid and shut the bathroom door so Little Man doesn't get in the bathroom to, you know, play in the handy little pool of water that's at just the right level for him. She's forgotten numerous times and so numerous times, I've dragged Little Man away from the toilet just before he goes for a dip. He's managed to get his hands in there a few times, but nothing too serious. Until today.

This morning, Princess was in the bathroom washing her hands after using the toilet and I was in the living room with Little Man. Then I heard suspicious splashing sounds and realized that Little Man was gone. I found him standing next to the toilet in the bathroom and my worst fears were confirmed. He was EATING the poop out of the toilet. That's right. EATING POOP. He had it all over his hands and had dropped some on his feet too. Gagging, I cleaned him up and began trying to clean his mouth out. He's getting 4 new teeth in and wasn't too keen on me swiping the inside of his mouth with a wet rag so I had to fight him. After cleaning him up, I carried him into the kitchen to give him something to wash it down with. I had to carry him at arm's length because his breath was absolutely putrid. He drank half a sippy cup of juice, but his breath still smelled terrible. Mortified that my child had eaten something so nasty and I hadn't noticed until too late, I called the pediatrician who assured me that unless Princess were sick, Little Man should be okay, but told me to call Poison Control just in case. At this point of my mothering career, I have Poison Control on speed dial. They basically reiterated what the doctor had said, but told me to keep an eye out for fever, diarrhea, etc.

As one of my friends said, "Talk about a blackmail story!" This cute little anecdote is going in Little Man's baby book.

Unsolicited Advice: Ummmmm....don't let your kids eat poop.

Revamping the Boutique

I've decided that I'm sick of working for about a dollar an hour. I started my boutique for four reasons...
1. To be able to stay home with my children.
2. Because I LOVE creating functional and adorable things for children.
3. So that people like me who don't have much money can still afford boutique style for their children.
4. To make enough money to be able to afford things. Things like clothing for my kids, medications for me and my daughter, etc. Not to be able to buy fun stuff, but for the basics.

I have to revamp Annalie's Baby Boutique. The first two reasons are not why I'm revamping my boutique. It's the third and fourth reasons. I started out marketing my products to my target audience, who are the people in the third reason. Unfortunately, it turns out that you can't make any money trying to sell things to people who also don't have much money. I deeply appreciate every one of my customers and my Facebook fans. You've all given me the inspiration and energy to keep going even when I've felt like giving up. I would not be where I am at today without you.

I priced my products so low that I'm barely making any money and when I figured my supplies AND my time into the equation, I realized that I am making about a dollar an hour. I just can't support my family on that amount. Also, my time is valuable as it is time I could be spending with my children. I cannot justify giving up large chunks of time with Princess and Little Man for a few dollars.

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be going through my products one by one and determining how much the supplies cost along with the time it takes me to make it. This is not something I just decided to do on a whim. I've been spending a LOT of time and prayer going over all my options and making this decision. Not all of my prices will change. Some things only take me a short time to make so those prices will stay the same or even go down. Other prices will be going up. I sincerely apologize if this upsets anyone, but it's what I have to do or I will have to close down. I will continue to have special deals and giveaways periodically as well as rewarding my returning customers with Loyalty Bucks. I will also hopefully be adding some new innovative products.

Thank you so much to all my wonderful fans and customers, and I look forward to a great future for Annalie's Baby Boutique.

A New Cape for the Princess

At a garage sale last weekend, I picked up a burgundy velvet cape for Princess's dress-up box. It was adult size, but I figured I could fix that :)
(Please ignore the mess in the background, it was a sewing day, not a cleaning day, lol)


First thing I did was measure Princess from the shoulders to about the ankles where I wanted the cape to fall. After doing this, I measured the cape from the shoulders down and cut off the excess.

With the extra fabric I had from the bottom, I decided to make a hood. I used one of my hooded sweaters to make a paper pattern.


Next, I cut out the hood pieces and pinned them together, facing each other. Then I folded over the bottom edge of the actual cape and pinned this in place as well. I zigzagged the edges of the hood together and zigzagged the bottom of the cape. By the way, stretchy velvet material is kinda tricky to work with so my stitching didn't turn out perfect, but it was good enough for a dress-up cape.

When the hood pieces were sewn together, I folded over the front edges of the hood and zigzagged that just like I'd done to the bottom of the cape. It turned out with a lettuce edge which actually looked kinda cute.


Now all I had to do was attach the hood to the cape. The cape had a slightly padded stand-up collar on it. To make things easier, I folded the collar down and simply zigzagged the hood onto the same seam that the original maker of the cape had created when they'd attached the collar to the cape.

Done! It took me about 15 minutes to whip this up By this time, Princess had gone outside to play so I chased her down to try on her new dress-up cape. She's thrilled with the latest addition to her dress-up box and loves that it makes her feel like a real princess.

Giving Away Money

I'm going to ask you for help with some stuff...I might just beg and plead. We'll see.

I'm earning money on two different websites. One is Swagbucks (earn points by using their search engine, doing tasks, surveys, special offers, finding codes, watching short videos, etc). I signed up for this site at the beginning of March. So far, I've earned $60 in Amazon Gift Cards. I tell ya, being able to get something for FREE is such a good feeling.

The other site I use is an invitation-only website called Superpoints (earn points by watching a short video every day, completing special offers, and, my personal favorite, clicking on the "Superlucky" button to randomly win points). I signed up for Superpoints on Sunday and I already have 118 points that I can redeem for prizes or Amazon gift cards. Word to the wise, always go for the Amazon gift cards-you can literally buy anything on Amazon.

I know people who have never paid for diapers simply by using one or more of this type of website. Other people save up all year (amazon gift cards NEVER expire) and use the money they earn to buy Christmas gifts. Both sites I use are completely free as long as you stay away from the special offers where you have to sign up to buy something to earn points. I've never spent a cent on either of these websites.

Here's where I grovel a bit. To up my earnings, I need people to sign up for one or both of these sites with my referral links. Personally, I don't see why more people don't do stuff like this. I mean, IT'S FREE MONEY!!!! But I digress.

Here's my referral link to Swagbucks. Anyone and everyone can use this link.

http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/annaliesboutique

Here're a few referral links to Superpoints. If you click on a link and it's expired or used already, please comment on this post or email me at annaliesbabyboutique@yahoo.com and I would be more than happy to dig up another link for you to sign up with. Also, in order for me to actually get any benefits from you signing up, you have to upgrade to the Basic membership. Which means just filling in basic profile info and verifying your email address. Supereasy.
UPDATED 8-16-11

http://superpoints.com/wrpgs/jcwpku

http://superpoints.com/wrpgs/a65aiv

http://superpoints.com/wrpgs/rks1f1

Thanks in advance to all who sign up!!!!

Unsolicited Advice: Want something for free? Use one or both of the links above to sign up for FREE money or stuff!

Allergies

Princess had an appointment with her allergy specialist yesterday and he told us that since she is doing so well, we can start feeding her again! Well, we've been feeding her, but when you have to cut wheat, dairy, peanuts, and eggs out of a diet, that doesn't leave many options. She can only have her "allergy" foods several times a week so I plan to stick to her food plan at home and let her have "treats" when we're out somewhere. I celebrated Princess's semi-release from her nearly year-long strict diet by buying her a M&M cookie. She took it from me and just stared at it with huge eyes for a minute before asking, "Mommy, can I eat this?" When I told her that she could, she could barely contain her excitement.

It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be to cut wheat, eggs, peanuts, and dairy out of Princess's diet, but at times, it was heartbreaking. Like when I asked her what she wanted for her birthday meal and all she wanted was a sandwich. Or when I would sit down to eat something that was off-limits for Princess and she'd ask, "Mommy, can I just smell it, please?" Then she's smell my food and say, "Mmmmm, that's good!" I'm just glad we went through this while she's still young because it wasn't as much of an adjustment for her versus what it would be for an older child or adult.

Unsolicited Advice: Many people think that when a person has food allergies, that they will have an instant reaction to that food such as itching, hives, asphyxiation, etc. However, many times, food allergies cause other symptoms like wetting the bed, behavior issues, asthma, etc.

Annoyances

Things that annoy me:

Bugs. They come in my house, they scare the living daylights out of me if they look weird enough or have 8 legs or more. I just don't like 'em

People who assume that just because we live in a small town, we don't know what's going on in that great big ole' world out there. Seriously, we have a television. And multiple radios.

People who don't keep their houses clean. Okay, actually my house is a disaster 95% of the time. I'm mostly just annoyed with myself because I'm sick of it being a mess.

My outside cat. Dumb thing won't quit climbing window screens.

Spilt milk. I know, I know, don't cry over spilt milk. I don't cry over it, I just get vaguely annoyed that I have to clean up spilt milk AGAIN.

Laundry GREATLY annoys me. It's neverending. Right now I have 4 loads partially folded on my living room floor, 1 NOT folded load on the bright orange crushed-velvet chair (I dig retro furnishings, okay?), and 6 or 7 loads that need to be washed, dried, folded, and put away. Help.

Whining. GET. OVER. IT. My beautiful 3 year old is aware that whining gets her absolutely nowhere with me and doesn't use it much ("I can't understand you because all I hear is a whiny voice."), my 12 month old is the king of whine. Which he is learning gets him nowhere as well.

Emptying the garbage can. Don't know why, I just hate this household chore and am looking forward to the day I can pass this job onto my dear children.

The lack of space in my house. A small 2 bedroom basement apartment is just not big enough for 2 adults, 2 kids, all their toys, and 2 home based businesses.

Name Changes

I've decided to change my kids' names. Not in real life, just here on the blog. The names I picked for them here has caused some confusion among my real-life friends. So to eliminate the confusion as to why they have the names Louise and Nathan, they shall hereby be known as "Princess" and "Little Man" from this point forward. Someday if I get ambitious, I'll go back and change their names in the previous posts to avoid confusing new followers to the blog, but frankly, I don't have time right now.

I think it's pretty obvious why I selected the names "Princess" and "Little Man." Loui...I mean Princess is under the impression that she is in fact a Princess and in all actuality she is, indeed, God's little princess.
Little Man is thusly named because he is my "little man." He got his first haircut last week (*sob) and looks like a little boy. He has never seemed like a baby to me, just a miniature adult who used to cry a lot, uses a diaper, and doesn't know how to feed himself.

Unsolicited Advice: Can't think of any today and the kids are whiny because it's suppertime so...behave yourself!

Changes

I've made some changes at Annalie's Baby Boutique! Here they are:
1. I will do a weekly deal which will be different every week. Each deal will run from Monday until Sunday.
2. I will be doing flash giveaways and special deals at least once a month if not more. This is where I randomly post a giveaway or special deal as my status or on my blog and you have a certain amount of time to enter the giveaway or special deal using the link I will provide before I pick a winner through random.org
3. Starting May 1st, every purchase made will earn you Loyalty Bucks. You get 1 Loyalty Buck for each $10 spent (does not include shipping costs) and when you get 5 Loyalty Bucks, you can exchange them for a $5 credit or keep saving up. If you have small orders (under $10), I will keep track of them as well and apply them towards your next Loyalty Buck. I will be keeping track of all these in a spreadsheet so you, as the customer, will not have the responsibility of remembering and tracking your Loyalty Bucks.

There's also been a big change at my house...Little Man is a year old!!! Okay, he's not officially a year old for a few more days, but we celebrated with a party last Saturday. Hard to believe he's that old already since this past year went by so fast. He's chattering a lot, but not saying any real words, can do sign language for "all done", "more", and "milk" when he wants to, doesn't walk yet, but stands without hanging onto anything for up to two minutes, got his first haircut last week, and is transitioning to the sippy cup quite well.
Here's a few pictures of his party:

The sock monkey lovey is from Baby Bug Boutique
The sock monkey hat is from Nanna's Threads. I made the overalls along with a matching jumper dress for Princess to wear.

Lasts

Have you ever looked back and thought, "I wish I'd know that would be the last time I (fill in the blank)." I've found that there are a lot of moments like that when you have kids. We carefully mark firsts in the baby book, but lasts are rarely recorded because most of the time we're not aware that it's the last time until much later.

Here are some of my kids' lasts that I wish I known about. Some were welcomed, some were sad:

You can read an update version of this post on my new blog, Sunshine and Spoons!

New Stuff and a Resolution

I've resolved that I WILL post once a week from now on. I get so busy, I forget about the joys of blogging and the next thing you know, it's been over a month since I last graced this blog with my presence.

What's going on right now....

I got the CUTEST leg warmers in the mail the other day. Added them all to my store and I'm stalking my wholesaler because there's rumors she will be adding soccer leg warmers and lace leggings to her website soon.

I made both of my kids Easter outfits plus outfits for Little Man's sock monkey themed 1st birthday party which is coming up a lot faster than I expected. For Easter, Princess got a triple ruffle dress, matching ruffle socks, and a flower clip that says "Happy Easter" in the center.  Little Man got a bowtie and vest that coordinate with Princess's dress. I'm crazy about the matchy-matchy look for my kiddos. For Little Man's party, I designed patterns for a new dress style complete with pockets and an elasticized back for ease of fit and a pair of overalls, also with pockets and a "1" on the front. They both turned out really cute. I'd love to show you pics of all these new outfits I've made. However, we recently attended a niece's birthday party and left the camera there. I'd run over and pick it up from my sister-in-law, but she and her family live 6 hours away from us so it'll have to wait until we see them next. I see your tears of disappointment, but don't worry. They're planning to visit within the next 2 weeks so I promise pictures at that time.

Like I said, Little Man's 1st birthday party is sock monkey themed. I ordered a sock monkey cake topper from TwoSugarBabies on Etsy for his cake, a sock monkey hat from Nanna's Threads (I also bought him this adorable bear hat about 6 months ago), and a sock monkey lovey from Baby Bug Boutique.
Other than that, I haven't had any thoughts as to decorations. I'm thinking red and brown plates, cups, napkins, etc. and placing Princess's sock monkey strategically for a decoration. Any other ideas? If I have time (and enough supplies) I might make a felt pendant banner and applique a letter of Little Man's name on each pendant using my sock monkey fabric I have leftover from his overalls.

Unsolicited Advice: When planning a themed event (or any event, or just because), check out Etsy.com for handmade creations to fit whatever theme you are going for. Also, there are a TON of people who have "shops" on Facebook and are willing to create a custom item for you. To get started on finding these shops, check out Made in the USA-A Boutique Collection.