How to safely wear a winter coat in a car seat!

My cousin shared this on her facebook page yesterday so I decided to share it on mine as well as here. It is by Maddie Quinn, a certified CPST (Child Passenger Safety Technician). It is a series of pictures on her facebook page that show and explain why winter coats are unsafe when strapped into the harness of a car seat with the child. She then shows two safe alternatives. The first is putting the child in a fleece jacket and using a blanket, hat, mittens, etc. The second shows you how to put the child's coat on outside of the car seats harness. She also reminds us of some of the safe way to strap children in such as making sure the straps are tight enough (using the pinch method), not twisted, making sure the clip is at armpit level, and that the top of the shoulder straps are at the right setting. These are very important and I am guessing that most of us don't think about that every time we strap children into their car seats so it is a good reminder.

So here is the web address to the album. Sorry, you will probably have to copy and paste it because I haven't had the time to figure out links on here just yet. Also, I'm not sure if you need a facebook account to see the pictures or not. I know for sure that the album is public so you should be able to see them. Please leave comments if it doesn't work and I will try to figure something out.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=2211036&id=199108530&fbid=655405427102&ref=mf

Wheaton library book sale!

M and I just got back from the library where they were having a book sale. All children's books were $0.25! They had some good ones in there and some that were older. I only spent a few minutes looking through them and picked out 4. This afternoon we may go back and get more. I also stopped and looked at the prices of the adult books and they were $0.50 or $1. I didn't look at the selection though. Also, I don't know if you have to have a Wheaton library card or not. I will find out this afternoon and update. I think the sale was supposed to end already but I was told that they will have it going until all of the books are gone.

**Update: Sorry, I forgot to update the other day. It is open to anyone with or without a wheaton library card.

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I'm neglecting this poor blog!

Since school has started it has been a bit busy. We are still doing things that I will blog about when I have time (maybe this weekend?) but I have been slacking with the picture taking. We have gone on a few outings but not much that I haven't blogged about before. Tomorrow M and I are going somewhere kind of new. We have been to one before but at a different location. I don't really want to say where we are going just to play it safe. But I promise to take pictures and blog about it!

For now, I will share with you a little bit of how our week goes.
E is in school every morning now so while E is at school, I try to keep M busy.
Monday- we have an art class
Tuesday- I take her to the library to pick out new books
Wednesday- I am going to start trying to add in some learning for her so that will be the day to do any projects or outings that go with that week. I just don't have everything figured out yet (again, maybe this weekend?)
Thursday- we have music
Friday- we go to story time at the other library

While we are playing at home, M has been very into puzzles lately and she is getting pretty good! She can do the big floor puzzles if I tell here where the piece goes. She then figures out how to get it to fit in there. She has also been into dressing up. Later I will post a cute picture of her dressed as a pirate. Over the weekend, I made her a tutu. I am bringing it today and will take pictures of that also. I think I also have a few others so I will probably have a post just for dress up!

Reusable snack and sandwich bags

A while back I posted about ReUsies. I really liked the idea of having reusable snack and sandwich bags to use. These would have come in handy this summer when I packed lunches for the kids and I. Anyway, I really wanted to try and make some myself to use and to sell on Etsy. After a lot of research, I finally found a water resistant fabric that was safe to use with food. I also found out that the style that I liked has a patent on it so I can not sell them on Etsy. There is only one style that is okay to sell on Etsy. I do actually like that style the more I think about it.

So yesterday I broke out the sewing machine and started making the bags. It took me some time to get everything right. The first set that I made will probably have to be re-done. The stitching on them is just not good enough to sell. This morning I decided to try again. I played around with the tension until I found a setting that worked with this material. Yay! So I made a set of bags in the style that I cannot sell (one sandwich and two snack bags) and one sandwich bag in the other style.

I can't wait to try these out. If anyone is interested in purchasing some, please let me know. These would be great for packing lunches for school aged kids, or just using for yourself. They are $5.50 each or $10 for one of each size. For $14 you can add a second snack bag. I can get fabric in any colors or prints. Just let me know. You can get them in all the same fabric or coordinating fabric.

Now for pictures!


These are the ones that I can sell on Etsy. They open at the top and have a strip of Velcro that goes all the way across the opening.

These are the ones that I cannot sell on Etsy. I made them mostly because I liked them and wanted to share. I probably could sell them privately though.