Essential oil diaper rash cream

It is the most wonderful time of the year...for diaper rash. But seriously, I do love the summer but whereas I have skin that is tough as tire rubber, my sweet daughter is highly susceptible to heat and diaper rash during these warmer months. 

When we were at the beach last month I tried several types of diaper rash cream but nothing made a dent. Then a lightbulb finally went off and I remembered my essential oils...of course!

A quick mix in the hand of Melaleuca, Lavendar and some vitamin E oil and I finally saw improvement within about 24 hours. I decided to mix up a batch of my own diaper rash cream when I got home. Here is what you need:

-4 tablespoons coconut oil

-5 drops (or about 1 capsule) vitamin E oil

-10 drops Melaleuca EO

-10 drops Lavendar EO

You want to use a double boiler to melt the coconut oil and then let it cool down for a bit (but not harden up again yet) in the container you will keep it in. I used a cleaned out baby food jar. Once the coconut oil is cool (this is important so the heat doesn't change the properties of the essential oil) you can add the Vitamin E, melaleuca and Lavendar.

Then you just let it cool down to normal coconut oil consistency and use as you would a normal diaper cream. 

Some things to keep in mind before trying this at home are the individual allergies of your child. I knew before making this that AB was not allergic to any of the items used. You also want to be careful to use something clean to scoop it out each time so you don't get any "bum bacteria" in your diaper cream.

Hopefully this will give you a less chemically (is that a word?) version of diaper cream for your sweetie during this tough time of year. Oh and bonus! Since this uses just normal ingredients not specific to bums you can also mix up another separate batch to use on heat rash.

Bug spray

I mixed up this nifty bottle of safe bug spray for the family using:

20 drops Terrashield

1 drop Lavendar

Distilled water

I like knowing I have a safe alternative for my daughter when we go hiking, camping, or just want to enjoy these summer nights outside without Mosquitos.

The Terrashield will keep the bugs away for up to 6 hours and smells much better than store-bought spray. You can even use it neat on your dog (but you should research this on your own to do it properly).

30 day abdominal challenge

Anyone out there doing this challange? I am! So far so good. Definitely have not spent this much time on my abs in a long, long time.

They have a great Facebook page with tutorials and great support from other folks participating. You can also check out the website at GetYourFitTogether.com.

Books to read: The Quiltmaker's gift

The Quiltmaker's Gift is quite honestly one of the beautiful and well-written children's books that I have read in a long time. Check it out at www.quiltmakersgift.com.

Fabric fun-6 months

Today was a bit of a rough day. It started out with AB skipping her morning nap and continued through the afternoon with teething. She was either fussy or a bucket of tears just about every half hour until she went to bed. 

The one bright spot in the day, well actually there were 2. First I fed her eggs and was thrilled to see that she was not allergic (2 friends have kiddos with this allergy and it is downright scary). But second is that I created a fabric scrap pile for her that she absolutely LOVED! This was the only thing that provided any comfort to her today (well that and essential oils :)).

I cut a variety of swatches from my fabric scrap pile. Actually it was the fabric scrap collection of one of my grandmothers. She was the one that taught me to sew and encouraged my creativity. When she passed I was given all her old craft items including her fabric scraps. She used to sew custom pillows for an interior decorator my aunt worked for so when looking for different textures, I had plenty of variety to choose from which was great for AB. I also love that now my Mema's fabric has been shared with yet another generation.

Above are the scraps I cut. I more or less tried to keep them the same size. When figuring out the size keep in mind what is safest for your babe's level of development. The most important part of this exercise is not size or color, bit texture. By touching the different textures your kiddo is getting a better grasp of the world around them (no pun intended). Chances are what they are touching they will next try to put in their mouths. This is all part of the learning process and teaches your baby how the can combine reactions from two senses to gain a better understanding of the world. 

AB loved playing with the various textures and it was literally the only thing that kept her sane today. Picking up the pieces taught her not only about texture but also allowed her to exercise her fine motor skills. Plus since she was sitting in her chair while playing, she helped to build those muscles too.

Feeding solids and building fine motor skills-6 months

I am so in love with our daughter Annabelle. She is so smart and strong. She loves to be read to. She is a great eater and most importantly (at least to her dad) a great sleeper. This kiddo has been sleeping through the night since week 4 (amazing, right?).We want to do whatever we can for our daughter. She is adopted so building strong attachment is important. But so are other things like keeping her away from screens and providing lots of opportunities for growth and development.

The big things going on in AB's life these days are:
1) working towards crawling,
2) working towards sitting up on her own and
3) developing her fine motor skills so she can begin to self-feed.

We started AB on solids at 4 months. I know lots of folks wait until 6 months but there is the suggestion among the medical community to start at 4 months. My husband and I followed AB's cues when making that decision. We noticed around the 3.5 month mark that AB watched us more closely when we were eating. She perked up and took notice if she smelled food cooking and practically drooled when we were eating out and a waitress brought our food out.

If AB had been breast-fed and had more variety in her diet, I may have waited. Breast milk taste is affected by the foods the mom eats. Formula, however, doesn't come with that perk. I know AB didn't know that there was more to life than just the taste of Enfamil, but Beau (my husband) and I did.

We started her out with things like avocado, squash, etc. We took care to introduce only one food at a time and to space them out. The only thing (which is weird to me) that we have had any issue with is brown rice flour...weird right? She gets a slight redness on her cheeks when we feed her this. So we have stopped. I also have not introduced any wheat products. I just have read and heard (no scientific studies, just speculation) that this could lead to a gluten intolerance or allergy later in life. There are plenty of other ways for AB to get whole grains so I figured I would skip that for now.

I used to work as a Parent Educator helping families to stay involved in the lives of their children and teach them about development so that they can be kindergarten ready. One of the ages I always had a tough time with was the 6 month mark. Kids are right on the cusp of doing so many things at this age, but they just aren't quite there yet. Tummy time is still great and very helpful but what about trying to exercise those muscles that help your child to sit-up and use their fingers? What kind of toys/games are there for those things?

One of the things I learned in my former role was to use what you have around the house to engage your child. So I encouraged parents to do things like sit their child up and use pillows as cushion in case of falling when trying to engage their child and teach them to sit up. The other thing we suggested was using different materials to engage their children. Kids learn so much through what they can feel at this age. Different textures are amazing to children. That is why you see so many blankets and toys with a variety of textured surfaces. 

To practice what I used to preach with Annabelle as it relates to fine motor skills I took a look around the house and picked up some ribbon scraps (leftover from some costumes I am making for our church Sunday School). After eating breakfast, I kept AB in her Bumbo chair and (sorta) wiped the tray down and covered it with ribbon scraps. AB wasn't sure what to think at first but after a few minutes and some encouragement she started to move them around and even pick them up! This type of activity requires parental supervision of course. You have to make sure your kiddo doesn't swallow a ribbon. I also made sure that they were not too small but not too long (too small-she could swallow to easily, too long she could wrap them around a body part and cut off circulation). Also, any time your kid is in a Bumbo chair you need to keep them on a low surface so they don't fall out. 

(Told you I didn't wipe the tray too well)

All these parental warnings aside though, this was a really fun activity for AB. Next up, I'm going to sort through my fabric scraps and get a variety for AB to play with in her Bumbo. The thing I like about this activity is that it gets AB practicing both sitting up and using her fine motor skills. Right now I am spoon-feeding her mushy solids but soon she will need to learn how to pick up foods and feed herself and with this and other fine motor activities she'll be ready to go when it is time.

Some things I'm reading

I am way behind on this first one but today I finished reading "The Fault in our Stars". Overall I found it to be a great read. I think if I were an angsty teen, I would have absolutely loved it. However, I do think it gives all readers a healthy dose of reality.

For me though, I wish I had read it before becoming a mother. I remember before I was a mom that all my friends that were mothers would say things like that to me. Frankly it would piss me off. But now I get it. The emotional side of your brain (even if you think you already have a pretty emotional side) gets kicked into super-overdrive. I found ways to make mom connections in this book in places that were not meant to be mom-emo.

Definitely worth a read though and now that I have read it, I can of course see the movie...hooray!


The other book that I just picked up and have gotten about a chapter into is "Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life". I am reading this in prep for a church discipleship group that I am getting ready to join.

As you can probably tell by the title, this book is about establishing boundaries. I have an issue saying "no" to folks. I enter into commitments, get overwhelmed, and wish I had been honest about my disinterest in whatever the commitment was in the first place instead of worrying about disappointing someone in the first place.

My hubs says I need to worry less about disappointing others and more about disappointing myself. I'm hoping this book will help get me there.


What are you reading these days?