Obermillers

Finding the laughter in the day-to-day

Being the mother of a 3 year old is hard! I thought the two’s were supposed to be terrible, that was until I met the three’s. Wells can use more words and with them it is usually to express the opposite of anything I say. Luckily, the bright side of this age and expanded vocabulary happens to be the funny things they say on a daily basis. I thought I would share this interaction between my husband and son:

Husband is walking out of the bathroom after helping him onto the potty and accidentally turns the light off:

Wells: Turn the light back on! My poop is scared of the dark!

That is when we break into laughter and furiously write it down so we don’t forget. These moments and times of laughter need to be cherished and held onto especially when the next day they throw a tantrum and you are wondering how you will make it till dinner. Parenting is a lot like a roller coaster and I would like to keep focused on the laughter.

10562985_10100673488211224_7179580100379004057_n — Isla and Wells kissing through the patio door.

I hope this will be an encouragement to remember that this time is fleeting so focus on the good. I want to hold onto it so much that I’ve asked my husband to make a book of all the Wellington phrases for my Christmas presents (hint, hint)! I hope you will all try to find the joy and laughter. What are some funny things your child has said?

Oven Roasted Banana Bread Recipe

Not only do I like to look at modern kid’s things but I also love to bake. I love that the hard work of baking produces something so good that you can instantly enjoy. I can’t wait for anything to cool. It was a rainy day in Seattle and my bananas were too ripe to eat, so I knew the perfect afternoon activity. Also, with fresh blueberries to add from our recent picking expedition (we picked 13 pounds!), I was ready to make some healthy treats for the whole family.

I have a go to recipe that I have used for years for banana bread from the Cafe Zupas website. I have become so comfortable with it that I have made a few tweaks to the recipe. I increased the cinnamon to 2 tsp. I love how cinnamon compliments the flavor of the bananas. Also, I reduced the sugar to half a cup. As my kids will be eating this the less sugar the better. In the past I have swirled nutella and peanut butter cups in it. All of them have turned out great.

Roasting the bananas makes them very easy to incorporate into the batter. I absolutely love this recipe and it never lasts long in our house. What is your favorite banana bread recipe?

Whole Wheat Roasted Banana Bread
Modified from Cafe Zupas; see their site for baking instructions.

4 medium ripe bananas
2 cups whole wheat flour
1½ teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Left: peanut butter cup banana bread, Right: blueberry banana bread

Family Roadtrip Finished!

Well, everyone, we made it back from our big road trip. We visited Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, and Utah. That is a lot of states. We drove almost 5,000 miles! You may be wondering how these two kids did in the car? I am happy to answer that it went better than I expected. There were moments of tantrums and fighting between siblings and they both seem to push each other’s buttons, but they were good most of the time.

Here are a few tips: Wells for his birthday received a little VTech tablet from one of his friends. We saved it only for the car and it was only for long distances. He absolutely loved it and it kept him busy for hours. Isla really likes to unpack bags, so I had a reusable bag filled with toys or container, which kept her entertained.

We like to book our hotels ahead of time so we don’t have that stress while we are traveling. However, it sort of backfired on us since two of the days we overestimated the time we could cover due to construction or other deterrents. That made for some late nights and cranky kids. If you have access to a smart phone it would be worth it to book that same day so you can avoid some late nights. I would account for unplanned circumstances into your travel time. There was one day that I am pretty sure Wellington had to go to the bathroom every thirty minutes. That makes for a lot of stops along the way! Going with a newly potty trained child is going to be more difficult. Another thing we weren’t planning for was all the construction. We know it is summer and a busy time, but how much construction was happening and for huge stretches of a time was unreal. I am quite sure it always happened when I was driving, too.

Well, readers we made it to and back from Wisconsin safe and sound with a little stop in Utah for some extended R&R at my in-laws place (we had the house to ourselves!). I think the kids enjoyed seeing all their family. I am glad we did it for the new experience, definitely some trials but the good memories are outweighing the bad. Where are you guys vacationing this summer? Anyone headed on a road trip?

Wellington’s 3rd birthday: Train Edition

Honestly I never thought time would go by so fast. Parents always say it does and it is something you never understand till you have children. One day I will write about Wells’ birth story but suffice it to say it still feels like yesterday. Being his mother is such a privilege and watching him grow into a little man makes me beyond proud and breaks my heart at the same time. Who knew that was possible!

On a lighter note, we celebrated with a party for all of his friends. We had it during the week because weekends during the summer are very busy. The theme was trains because this little boy loves trains. I started out with my Pinterest board for inspiration. I wanted it to not be a complete Thomas character themed one. I went more for a vintage theme.

Follow Young Modern Mama’s board Wellington’s 3rd Birthday on Pinterest.

Luckily, my husband is quite good at making my vision come to life. I explain to him what I want and he somehow makes it happen. Here is what he created for the invites. I had him then just “stamp” the tickets with a Thank You to tape on the goodie bags. (You can download the train ticket invitation svg he created using Inkscape).

For a while Wells wanted a robot cake with a train on top, luckily we talked him out of that and ended up with a nice looking train cake.

Wellington blows out the candles on his train cake.

It was a great party with his friends. He enjoyed all the gifts. The most important part was how special he felt. Happy Birthday Wellington! I love you to the moon and back and you will always be my newborn Bean.

Surviving a plane ride with babies and toddlers

As you may have guessed we love to travel. Our kids have been flying since they were infants so we’ve learned quickly what works to avoid the screaming, crying baby.

Baby Wells sleeping on daddy on one of his many plane rides.

On the one hand, our son a calm, happy baby, and traveling with him was quite easy. Our daughter, on the other hand, is a completely different person. Here are some tips and lessons we have learned over dozens of flights:

Pick your flights strategically. Is your child able to sleep anywhere? Then flying during nap time might be a good suggestion. Is your child happiest in the morning? Then take a morning flight. Think about your child’s disposition when picking your flights. We used to take red eyes often with my son because he could sleep a little and would transition well to his crib when we got home. We figured our daughter would be the same way. Ugh, not so much! She slept most of the flight but woke up during landing and screamed the next twenty minutes on the plane, plus the car ride home. Lesson learned, no red eyes with Lady Bird.
Dress your kids in layers. Our kids mostly run hot but we were traveling in winter and planes usually run cold, right?! Wrong! Our daughter was screaming uncontrollably and we couldn’t figure out why. Well, she was sweating in a fleece sleeper. Once we stripped that off she cooled off and stopped crying. She didn’t have much under that sleeper, so she spent most of the plane ride naked. Lesson learned? In addition to bringing extra clothes, plan for it to be uncomfortably warm and frigidly cold. Also, avoid fleece entirely.
Avoid flying sick. Seems quite obvious, right? If flying in winter it is probably going to happen, especially if you already have an older child because toddlers seem to be cold factories! Be prepared when it does happen, though. I would suggest bringing pain reliever, saline drops, and NoseFrida. Also, a pacifier or a bottle helps with the changing pressure. I always try to nurse on take-off and landing, and taught my son to pop his ears by opening his mouth.

I find packing a diaper bag strategically to be one of the key things or flights. On our recent journey to Europe I used Ziploc gallon zipper bags to store toys, snacks, and clothes. Instead of digging around for what I needed I was able to find the bag quickly and pull it out without taking everything else along with it. It was a revelation! Why didn’t I think of this years ago?

A few other suggestions for key items to pack:

Several sets of clothes, our son once pooped through four sleepers in a four hour flight!
Snacks, a good snack can go a long way in diverting a tantrum. Think of things that will transport easily such as fruit leather and KIND bars.
Toys, this one is obvious. I went to the dollar store before our trip and picked some toys up. I would suggest wrapping them. That will make the novelty of their “present” last longer. I bought a new coloring book, trucks, and puzzles.
Media. We try to be strict on how much media son watches in a normal day. However, on plane rides that rule goes right out the window. You do what you need to survive! Beanie is really into Super Why, Curious George, and Little Pim. On the flight to Europe each seat comes with a media consul so he was able to watch his first movie, Planes. Also, we put books on our computer so we were able to read several Dr. Seuss books on the plane. You may feel guilty about letting them watch television but I am telling you to not! Traveling with children is hard and exhausting. If this makes them happy and you get to your destination with your sanity intact then that is a win!

I hope this provides some insight and helpful hints on flying with children. What were your flight experiences like? Any helpful hints I should add?

Dreams

Once we become mothers we often have so many dreams revolving around our children. We dream they will grow up become doctors, astronauts, or in my case just enough to pee on the potty. Often times our lives and emotions become so wrapped up in our children we lose sight of ourselves. We forget that before we became mothers we were women with our own hopes and dreams.

This happened to me when I became a stay-at-home mom. I love my job as a mom and wouldn’t trade these precious years for anything, but I also have dreams. Moving to Europe (hopefully in the not too distance future) and traveling the world are big dreams, and I am accomplishing another as we speak. I am writing this blog and you are reading it. That is a dream being fulfilled.

Whether you are a working mom, city mom, or a stay at home mom, don’t forget to have dreams for yourself. These can be big dreams or little dreams, but the important thing is to make them happen and not let them just slip away.

Road Trip, Part 1: Unfamiliar Territory

We live in Washington state but grew up in Wisconsin. Consequently, all of our family and college friends are back there. We have always flown to see them a couple of times of year but now that Wellington is over two it is becoming quite expensive, especially in the summer months. We try to keep costs low on these shorter trips to save up for big vacations so we always try to find a really good airfare deal.

Well, with planning for Europe I had no time to research airline tickets. Instead, we will drive the 2,000 miles to the Dairy State. My husband has parental leave to use from when Isla was born, so we will be packing up the car and embarking on something we have never done, a road trip. We have never driven more three hours to a destination and doing this with two children is a daunting task. I actually find this more frightening than a four-week European vacation.

We are planning to make a few stops along the way to see Yellowstone and Mt. Rushmore but even with those breaks it will be a lot of straight driving! How to keep my strong willed daughter happy is a question I ponder daily. I keep hoping that a miracle will occur and she will become a content baby. Any ideas on ways to keep an eleven month old entertained?

Hoping they will be like this on the trip!

Cloth Diapering, Part 2: Do you have to touch poop?

Back in Cloth Diapering, Part 1 I shared what kind of cloth diapers we use. Today I’ll give a little more detail about how we use them.

So, do you have to touch poop? The answer is of course not! Many people are grossed out by the thought of cloth diapering and I was at the beginning, too. However, I think that handling gross things is in the job description of parenthood. I mean I catch spit up in my hand just to save an outfit! I can only tell you my experience of cloth diapering a boy now almost three (all potty trained) and ten month old baby girl. The first 8 months of Bean’s life his poop was mostly liquid (we waited till 6 months to feed him solids). When we change a diaper we take the prefold off and put it into a container (mini-garbage). When the container is full or we’ve run out of covers or prefolds, we start the three cycle wash. The first cycle is a cold wash using detergent we made ourselves using oxi-clean free, borax, baking soda, and washing soap. The next cycle is a hot wash with detergent again, and the final one is a cold water rinse. We found this combination the best for making sure the diapers are clean and smell-free. We let the covers air dry and then put the pre-folds in the dryer on very dry. This is how we wash Isla’s diapers; the first time around with Bean, we would soak them overnight in cold water, then do a cold rinse and a hot wash. We find the three cycle method (recommended to us by Cotton Babies) eliminates the ammonia smell that started to develop in wet diapers.

How often do we wash these diapers you might be wondering? We wash our diapers around twice a week. Isla seems to prefer pooping in clean diapers so we are going through them much faster than with Wellington. The poop usually just rolls off into the toilet, but sometimes (and I usually make my husband do this) the prefold has to be dunked in the water until the poop falls off. You can get a sprayer attachment for your toilet or inserts that you just take out and are able to throw or flush away. We are contemplating getting those for some of her more messy poops that we have to rinse off.

What do you do at night? Currently we put Isla in the toddler size and we use an infant pre-fold to help soak up the pee. The great thing about using the Flip OS is that we can make it bigger to fit all that on her. This approach seems to be working well right now.

How do you fold these bad boys? In the beginning we used many different folding techniques. I would suggest you search on the internet because there are some helpful videos. During more of the infant stages I found the Ninja fold worked the easiest with the snappi. With Wells we did the Angel fold and now wit Isla we fold the prefold into thirds and tuck it under the flaps so there is no need for a snappi. Folding the night time diapers is a bit more complicated. It is much bigger so we make the padding in the front bigger for some added absorption since we are doubling up.

That’s how we cloth diaper. It is different than the cloth diapering of our grandparents. It is more work but after a while I don’t even notice it. They look cute and are saving us a lot of money. Feel free to share your cloth diapering experience or ask any questions that may still be holding you back!

I am now on Pinterest! I hope you will come check out my different boards. I plan to put ones for the kids birthdays, nursery, recipe and a whole other boards on there. Bear with me as I learn the ropes, these two kids keep me quite busy!

For starting out, I’m generating ideas for Wellington’s 3rd birthday. I am going with a train theme as he is obsessed with them. I am going for a modern, vintage theme. We will see how it turns out but I am sure if there is just one picture of a train my son will be happy.

Follow Young Modern Mama’s board Wellington’s 3rd Birthday on Pinterest.

Cloth Diapering, Part 1: Cloth in a Disposable World

My husband and I were having dinner with a couple that had a baby almost a year before us. When they mentioned cloth diapering to us I thought there was no way we would do that. I thought that was something they did in the Victorian period, not in this 21^st century world. When our turn came to welcome our little bundle of joy into the world my husband brought it up to me. I dutifully rolled my eyes and said “if you do the research then I will think about it.” I never dreamed he would actually do it and give me facts to convince me that this is for us. You see the hubby knows how to convince me of an idea by appealing to my frugality. The cost to outfit a kid in disposable diapers is roughly around $3,000! What the what?! That might be fine if I only wanted one child but I want between four and six. That means it would cost our family between $12,000 to $18,000 to put our kids in diapers. With cloth diapers there is a larger upfront investment, but then you reuse them for many children. $400 was the number it would roughly cost to buy most of the supplies. We started out slow to test if this was really something we could commit to, as cloth diapering is definitely more work.

After months of researching cloth diapers we came to the conclusion of using prefolds inside of a Flip One Size cover. Our friends recommended the Thirsties brand. Those are not one size but are a better fit for the newborn age. Also, we have one Blueberry. All in all we have 9 covers, 50 infant (aka regular) prefolds, and 50 toddler (aka premium) size prefolds. In the end we were so glad we did it! The Thirsties, at least for a boy, didn’t work as well for us. We found that with newborn liquid poop we were having leaking issues. Also, our son was a chunky little guy and he grew out of them so fast! On the “flip” side, we are so happy with the Flip OS. They contain poop quite well, not 100% but what diaper does? Also, because our children gain weight so quickly they were able to use the the Flip OS almost from the beginning.

Flip One-Size - Albert — Flip One-Size – Albert

That’s not to say we never use disposable diapers. We do go on vacation and we use the disposables but we are always happy to come home to our cloth diapers because no matter what brand he is wearing he always seemed to explosively poop out of them! When we went on vacation this last time we put our Flip diaper covers over disposables and it contained the poop quite well. It was one of our genius moments. In the next post I will cover how often we do wash, nighttime diapers, and the transition from newborn to infant. Until then take a look how cute my little man looks in his cloth diaper. Somehow I don’t think the effect would be as precious with disposables. The orange gave Wellington a nice pop of color! Here he is at four months. We called him our little Buddha.

Since our daughter, Isla, was not quite as chunky, she used the Thirsties for a couple weeks as an infant. Here she is at one-day old while she cuddles with her auntie.