Kid Giddy Helps to End the Thumbsucking Habits

Hi everyone!

I was working today on this new end the thumbsucking chart for any of you that have a thumbsucker in your home...and wanted to share it in a post, with some information even though it will have a little home on the right side of my blog for a while!

My girls were huge thumbsuckers...and yep - they got it from me! Here's the whole story, as one would find on my thumb guard listings on Etsy.

My older daughter Monkey started sucking her thumb at 8 1/2 months old. My younger daughter Elephant began at 4 1/2 months old. They have been sucking their thumbs ever since. Not a day went by or a moment, when their thumbs were not in their mouths! I feel your pain, it's a hard habit to break, and I know that first hand! (no pun intended!)

Since I have my own sewing business - I finally came up with a reversible thumb cover that they were willing to wear when they were ready to stop sucking their thumb. They struggled to be ready, but the day finally came.

The rule was to wear their thumb cover from 6pm to 6pm. If they did (without complaining and trying to renegotiate) they would get a "reward" from our little treasure chest. It was a little box filled with items from a party store,the dollar store or other dollar spots.

Some nights were hard, but since they couldn't take their thumb covers off by themselves, they stopped complaining and even stopped thinking about it. It became so comfortable to wear, they often forgot they were wearing it. I helped them take it off for washing hands and eating, but then we put them back on. They also charted their progress on a monthly chart with a sticker for each day that was successful, and an "x" for the hard days. They have both been thumb free since last year when they finished their 3rd month chart!!!

Some experts recommend starting the process with night time only. Once that is mastered, then do day time. But I say do what is right for you and your child. So if you need a thumb sucking guard, please contact me. And in the mean time, download a FREE copy of this "Two thumbs up for Me" chart to help your child stop today! I have left room at the top for your childs name, and at the bottom - so the child can decorate it or you the parents can help write goals or decide a special reward for making the said goal. If they don't suck their thumb all day (night to night) - they color in the hand - or put a sticker over it! Every kids LOVES stickers! If they suck their thumb - it is an "X". We allowed 3 "X" days out of 31 for the first month. 1 "X" day out of 31 for the second month and 0 "X" days for the 3rd and final month.  This allowed them to have "oops" days and not feel horrible about it! Please understand, every child is different. Some might quit in a week and never put up a struggle, some may take much longer than mine did. The best thing I found that I could do was be patient and loving as they fought their own battle.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions! I'm not an expert, but I have the experience from both sides! Have a great night! kg

 

Seller Saturday: Kid Giddy

Today I feature myself...since I haven't featured myself yet - and don't often talk about my shop here. Not sure why that is. The shop (happycreations4u)/artist (Phoeobe) I wanted to featured today will be featured next week because she lost power in our recent East Coast storm!

I never posted my Giddy-Up Friday yesterday because I was slammed with making my most popular item - my Thumb Covers. So I'll tell you a little about me and my shop today...and get back to our regular schedule again on Monday!!!

1. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? I would be White. With my mom being the art teacher that she is, I was always told White is actually not a "color" but a tint. (And likewise, Black is not a color either, but is a "shade"). Regardless, the world thinks white is a color, so I choose white. I love that white can lighten up other colors. I love helping people when they are in their struggles, and love to lighten their load. Many have done that for me, and it's a great feeling.


2. Do you have a special talent? I'm not sure why I included this question for my seller saturday's, but random "talents" can mean just about anything - and I guess that can be very interesting. I can wiggle my ears. Curl my tongue. I can tie a cherry stem in a knot in my mouth (saw that on the show called Twin Peaks ages ago! - had to try). I can write with both hands, and can now sew a button hole. (yep - that's talent - someday - I'll be able to say I can sew a zipper - for now - I'm still phobic of them I think!)

3. Which season do you love the most? Summer. I do love the changing seasons of Spring and Fall, but I really love to be warm. I love the sun on my cheeks and in my heart as it fills my soul for the cold days ahead. I love the color of green grass (but not the smell), I love hearing the birds singing, warm sand beneath my feet, and I love the blue in the sky!

4. What made you want to open up your Etsy shop? I wanted to help people get what they need (Thumb Covers to help stop Thumbsucking). I also wanted share my talents, and lighted the burden of my fabric spending on my families finances! I love the smell of fabric and it fills my craft room, I've got to use it up somehow!


5. What is your favorite item in your shop today? My all time favorite item is my Tuck 'n' Go. At first glance - people don't realize what it is, but it really works. I have a lot of friends I have given it to, and they have used it, loved it and passed it on to their family or friends! My next favorite is my Turtle Stuffy (I currently have 3 for sale in my shop)! The body can come out of it's shell and just looks so stinkin' cute!

So that's me. You can read more about me - on a different level by clicking the "About Me" tab above. Thanks for reading!

If you would like to be considered for a future Seller Saturday post please check out this thread on the Etsy forums for more information. Have a great Saturday/weekend everyone! Thanks! kg

Please remember all images are copyright and owned 2 is Beautiful, LLC. Please do not copy!

Edible Wednesday: Delaware Chicken

Dela...what? Delaware Chicken. I just told my little Elephant we were having chicken tonight and she got bummed out. I don't know why she doesn't love chicken...but she doesn't. And for that matter - she doesn't love bread or sandwiches or hamburgers or much of anything else. And this hasn't always been, but more recently she's been deciding for herself - what it likes and doesn't. I don't suspect gluten free - but I wonder if something is up...

Ok - back from my bird walk. So I told her in the car we were having chicken. She wasn't thrilled. Then I said it was chicken like Aunt Sue's chicken! She sat up in her seat, raised her eyebrows and got all kinds of excited. I turned back around to continue driving and that's when I heard her say "mommy - I love delaware chicken!"....

Oh - so that's what it's called?! She cracks me up! So here it is. It's really time consuming - but worth it. Get out your crock pot. Get a whole bird. Rinse it - empty it out, and stick it in your crock pot. Speak kind words as you put the lid on top and crank it to high. (Low if it's in the morning - high around noon). And then walk away.

That's it. You literally pop it in and walk away. How insanely easy. It is time consuming - but for the crock pot - not you!!! It will literally fall off the bones (which you do have to be very careful of!)...but I think that's why elephant loves it so much. It's tender, juicy and downright yummy! Again people - watch your portion control, it's easy to get lost in the finger licking good of it!

So try yours tomorrow...and enjoy! kg

Do you have an awesome recipe you'd like to share? - Your recipe could be a future Edible Wednesday! Click the Contact Me button above and email it to me.  Please include one photo (must be your photo) of said recipe completed - the Ingredients, Directions and the story behind it (and you!). Thanks! kg

Busy Monday: Drawings by Monkey & Elephant

Since both of my girls were little, they had one thumb in their mouth as they used their other hand to draw. Monkey started drawing at the tender age of 13 months old. She always wanted to take our pens or pencils and do what we were doing. I bought her some washable crayons and discovered she was going to eat them down to the paper...so think quick - plan b. I ventured out to Target and found a large Magna Doodle board that became our saving grace...and hers. She drew everyday. Every minute - from sun up to sun down. And still does. Before she turned 2 she was drawing recognizable drawings of the Sesame Street Characters, that I began teaching her after she could draw circles and ovals. She's won tickets when she was 3 1/2 years old to see Sesame Street Live for coloring in a really good picture of the characters, and then drew on the entry envelope a picture of Annie her dog Sandie and herself. The girl Rachel that called with the good news of her winning was in shock with the drawings on the envelope and said that was what sealed the deal for her as the winner. 2 years ago she drew a picture of a dairy farm and entered it into the calendar contest at Daddy's work, and made it in there as August.

Elephant didn't begin drawing so early. She didn't try to take the writing implements from our own hands. She watched her big sister, but didn't take on the itch as Monkey did....until she was about 19 months old. We got her, her own Magna Doodle and they would sit side by side drawing endlessly. She has not entered a contest yet, but we haven't found one that we thought she could be a strong contender for (and most are for Kindergartener's or 1st Graders!)...

She to this day, carries her own. She drew Daddy with his spiky hair before she turned 2 years old, and is now drawing princesses and castles galore. She is just as advanced as her sister and looks forward to winning her own contest someday.

So for today's Busy Monday, I wanted to share a little bit of my girls with you. The art runs thick in their blood and thick in ours. It will forever be a part of our family, and for that I am eternally grateful!

If you'd like to see more of their fun drawings, please visit the Kid Giddy Facebook fan page. Enjoy! kg

Giddy-Up Friday: White Crayon+Watercolors=Hidden Messages

I know it's Saturday, but I'm going to post a Giddy Up Friday post anyway. I've been traveling to visit family during my daughter's winter break this week, so I didn't have as much time as I hoped to blog, sew more thumb covers, and to write songs, etc. So much to do - so little time!

So here's your Giddy Up Friday activity:

• Grab a few pieces of white paper and a white crayon. 
• Draw a picture or write a message for your child. 
• When your are done, give them some watercolors to paint, have them uncover the secret image or message. 

I love to do this for my daughter's with a huge surprise or just to tell them I love them. Images obviously work best for little kids.

I'm getting in my car in 20 minutes, and will be driving up the east coast back home to vacationland! Have a great day and weekend. I'll be posting today's Seller Saturday later tonight! -kg

Edible Wednesday: Mini Taco Salads

Last summer my sister (the more creative one with food)...cut, sliced and diced this schmorgesborg of fixings for kid size taco salads. For some bizarre reason, I haven't made them since - but my girls LOVED it and so did I! Forgetful is most likely the reason, but you've got to try this...it really takes no time at all!

You'll need these ingredients...

Bowl style tortilla chips
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Black Olives
Avocados
Ground cooked Protein
Black Beans
Salsa
Sour Cream

Everything on my list is optional and of course add to this list anything else you might want to include in your mini taco salads! What can't you live without?

Cut, slice, dice, mince how ever you prefer...leave them in separate bowls or make separate piles on a large serving plate. Give each child a certain number of tortilla "bowls" on their plate and allow them to make their own salads.

With my own girls I put their protein in their bowl first, so they knew that had to be in there. Protein? They didn't care - they were just excited to make their salads and eat them too! This is another one of those...you can't just have 5 - so be aware of the portion control if you choose to make these - it's easy to keep popping these in your mouth!

And folks...these aren't just for kids! These make a great party or dinner appetizer! Serve them up the next time you have company over! Thanks sis! Enjoy everyone! kg (pictures will be forthcoming).

Do you have an awesome recipe you'd like to share? - Your recipe could be a future Edible Wednesday! Click the Contact Me button above and email it to me.  Please include one photo (must be your photo) of said recipe completed - the Ingredients, Directions and the story behind it (and you!). Thanks! kg

Busy Monday: Photos...

Many of my friends and family know that I'm not a huge fan of the winter snow. The cold bitter air flying up off the snow makes me itch. If it were always warm and melted quickly, I wouldn't mind so much. But there is still something mystical and magical about a first snowfall. The earth covered in white is a sight to behold. When my girls go out to play - I love taking their pictures and watching them grow out of their snow suits from year to year, and while they continue to play, I enjoy taking pictures.

These three are from our new Miniature Crab Apple Tree, and I am told the fruit won't grow much bigger than this.  I hope you are all enjoying your Monday. -kg

        

All photos on this blog are property of Kid Giddy a division of 2 is Beautiful, LLC (unless otherwise noted). Copyright 2010 All Rights reserved. Please do not copy without permission.

Giddy Up Friday: Kids Can Make Music Too!

Good Morning everyone...I realized that this is music week - and have postponed the Curtains on the Puppet Show until next week or the week after (no sure I have enough room to bring my sewing machine where I'm going)...but that's a whole other ball of wax...

In the meantime...I found this really awesome website for teaching kids about music and learning how to play, and found some really great online games too!

It starts here at Play Music.org - where you can choose from a variety of things to do (or learn more about). The best option - clearly is the Creating Music ("Try Writing Your Own Music"). Once you get to Creating Music - you can learn a whole host of things by playing different games. You can listen to the music and determine the pitch, or play with scales or simply - make your own music!

The possibilities are endless! If you are homeschooling, or teaching your child how to do something you love to do as a hobby (or career), or if they have even expressed interest themselves in learning - this is a great resource! No matter the reason - check it out. It's even fun for adults too!

Have a great, melodious weekend! kg

Busy Monday: February Album Writing Month

What is February Album Writing Month.......writing songs! also known as "FAWM". I found out about FAWM in Dec of 2006. I was talking with my friend Erin Maeflower - on the way home from Boston MA. I told her I've always wanted to write songs. I had started writing poetry when I was in college - My first poem was about the Sun and the Earth - it was more than I ever expected to write. I surprised myself and every year I continue to surprise myself. But I found I LOVED writing poems.
Luckily, when Erin had told me about it, it was late Dec. It's just songwriting - learning how, and just doing it. "You should try it she said". I didn't have to wait too long to really know what it was all about and to give it a try, because it was only 2 months away at best.
So I began my first FAWM.org challenge in February 2007. It was amazing to say the least. The community of fawmers was with me all the way. I had fawmers backing me up when I felt like I no place being there "writing songs" without a guitar or piano. I found myself feeling like a dork in the midst of these amazing indie artists! While on the forums I posted that I was hoping to collaborate with this awesome vocalist Becca Palm. She said she'd keep an eye on my lyrics - and if something caught her attention, she'd let me know. Collaborating wasn't all that common yet.
Many songs later, I was plugging away at my 14 song goal (14 songs is a standard length album - so the goal is to write 14 songs in 28 days). Finally I wrote something that had substance - merit, I guess. And Becca agreed. She played around with it (without me knowing yet) - mixed up my chorus a little to make it flow better and worked her magic on the piano & vocally. The results made me cry and I knew I wanted to do this every year from then on. The song The Moon Escapes Tonight can now be found on the Volume 3 fawmpilation disc on itunes (or by clicking on the steampunk cover image). I continued to write song lyrics that summer every once in a while, and looked forward to my next FAWMexperience!

Feb 2008, for my second year of FAWMing I wrote 18 songs and the collaborations were phenomenally awesome! so was my song "I'm Toast" - with both of my daughters (Monkey & Elephant). Later in 2008 I attempted my first 50/90 (write 50 songs in 90 days) and collaborated with some amazing folks out there in FAWM & 50/90 world...and came away with 11 songs.

Last year during FAWM of 2009, I wrote only 12 songs - but all my lyrics were demo'd giving me over 22 songs to listen to! Seriously...fawmers ROCK! I decided this was the year to submit more tracks for consideration to the annual album and submitted 7 tracks! I couldn't narrow it down - I only wrote the words - these people are amazing! Late last year I found out "On Rare Occasions" was chosen for the Fawmpilation (much thanks to the master man Josh Belville)! This song will be on itunes shortly - but can be found on the Volume 5 fawmpilation disc....(click the moon man image)

50/90 last year - was hit or miss for me. I was so busy and my girls are getting older so our summers mean outside fun and no songwriting. I did manage to write 5 songs one being the song "Our Yesterday" which was demo'd by 5 different artists!


Now I come to FAWM 2010 with a full heart, a full plate in front of me with my Etsy shop and my Blogging and my Family...and church and my girls schools...cleaning my house...wow! I get tired thinking about it. So by the time you read this - I will have been fawming for one week. (Today it's only Jan 30th - I'm trying to get ahead of my posting so I can fawm too!) This whole week will be dedicated to my "FAWMmunity"! If you haven't noticed - we use a lot of "fawmisms". My first year writing I was a "fawmling". It's tons of fun. If you have ever wanted to write a song, or you want to hear some of the newest, most amazing up and coming indie artists - check out FAWM.ORG!


Check back everyday this week for awesome 'Music', 'songwriting' related posts! Edible Wednesday will be with the great Dan Vaillancourt...who? what? FAWMer - Yeah! Have a great and busy monday! -kg

Project Linus & A Button Hole

Hi everyone -

I just wanted to throw this in here...I didn't get a chance to get a shop up here today to feature for Seller Saturday. I was busy taking care of my little girls - one is was getting better but developed an ear ache, possibly infection this evening (I can actually see that it's red in there...so sad & painful)...and the other one just started getting sick and is sitting on the fence - not sure she wants to get worse or better!

On top of all that - I went to my church today because we were hosting a Project Linus - "Blanket Days"...and I really wanted to make a blanket, and use up some fabric and donate lots of fabric...and call myself a "Blanketeer"! So - that's what I did! I will post the picture Monday after I download it!

Have a great weekend. Stay tuned for a musical week ahead!

oh...and I'm so excited - a friend taught me how to make a button hole on my sewing machine! I"m laughing as I type and you may be laughing as you read...but I was beginning to think I was phobic of Button Holes and Zippers! Ok - still might be phobic of putting in a zipper - but I am so psyched about button holes! YEAH!!! (it really is the little things that make me happy!). -kg

Giddy Up Friday: Puppet Show Box Plans

A couple of weeks ago my girls found the puppet bag. The puppet bag was filled with little finger puppets I used when they were little and stored away for a while as they seemingly moved on from them. When they saw the bag - they gasped and immediately began playing with them again. Mind you - my girls aren't teenagers. Monkey is almost 7 and Elephant is almost 5 1/2. So it's perfectly normal they would still want to play with them, it was really cute! Some things can bring back fond memories.

So as I come back from my short birdwalk down memory lane....it got me thinking I never did make a puppet show box for them. Now is the time mommy!

So here's the plan...

Follow the planning with me! Shorty Wardrobe Boxes from Uhaul are $7.95 and the Grand Waredrobe Box is 11.95. I don't recommend the space saver size they offer as it may be so skinny a child could tip over while in it...Now you can use a regular box - but how many of us get items from the store or shipped to us in a box this big?  Let's be fun here - just once in a while!

Next Friday - I'll have my box - and will be measuring out the fabric and making the curtains. Get yourself a box and make one with me. Happy Box shopping this weekend! -kg

Edible Wednesday: MacDaddy Meat Sauce

I have some of the coolest friends!!! And this friend asked her hubby if I could share this awesome recipe with you all - and guess what, he said "Yes"!

They only really referred to it as the Best Meat Sauce in the whole world...and I pretty much agree since I went to her house when it was being made and almost fell over when the aroma smacked me in the face! I just wasn't expecting to smell something that yummy without being in a restaurant. Wow - was I pleasantly surprised, and so was my tummy! So without further wait - I give you the "MacDaddy Meat Sauce" as I lovingly have named it....MacDaddy referring to the "person" and MacDaddy referring to the "status" of this being the best in the whole world!

Ingredients:
1 Large Onion diced
4 Cloves Garlic minced
1lb Sausage
1lb Ground Beef
1 Cup Red Wine
1 Bay Leaf
2 tsp Oregano
2 tsp Thyme
2 tsp Basil
Crushed Tomatoes
Tomato Sauce
Tomato paste (if it's too runny)
Sugar
1tbsp Beef Bouillon

Directions:
Brown the meat and the sausage. Mix all ingredients in a deep pot and simmer. The longer you cook it - the better it is!

Now why in the world you would want to go and put this on pasta is beyond me - I'd eat it on a spoon straight from the pot...however...we live in a society - where that is not always appropriate - in which case I would highly recommend you making some really yummy pasta and cooking it to perfection...lay down the sauce and enjoy! No drooling on the computer people!!! (or on my blog - get cooking!) See you next Wednesday for some more yummy yums! -kg

Do you have an awesome recipe you'd like to share? - Your recipe could be a future Edible Wednesday! Click the Contact Me button above and email it to me.  Please include one photo (must be your photo) of said recipe completed - the Ingredients, Directions and the story behind it. Thanks!