Do you have a pool or live in an area where you swim more than just a couple of weeks per year?

If so, here are some tips for water safety. Water safety is extremely important especially since drowning is the leading cause of death among children under age 5 in Florida. That’s a very scary statistic!

Supervision of your children around water is key. Don’t leave your children unattended in a pool, lake or even the bath. I often read newspaper articles about someone having gone inside the house for “just a minute” to answer the phone, get a drink, etc., and tragically, during that short time, the child drowns or nearly drowns in the family pool. No phone call or errand is worth your child’s life.

Also, be sure entrances to your pool area are in no way accessible to children. In Florida, there are laws for new pools that require fencing or some other mechanism to lock children out. All of my mom friends have fencing around the pool that allows for the mom to open for a swim.
Remember to consider the places where you may not be supervising your child personally like a relative’s or friend’s house. We installed plastic Burglar Bars at my mother-in-law’s house to keep our children from opening the doors to the pool.

Finally, have your kids learn how to swim. There are a variety of choices in swim lessons available depending on your area. Many YMCAs and recreation programs have swim classes. There are also private lessons by individuals, sometimes at their homes, sometimes at your home. If you are in a warmer area, you will probably find individual swim schools as well. With any of these, talk with the instructors about how they teach the child to swim. Repetition is an important part of the lessons and you may find you need to do lessons over the summer for a few years.

Personally, we picked a swim school local to us that came recommended by friends. Originally, we took our 3 year old daughter to the city’s recreation program for classes. At the end of the month (3 days a week), she was no better off than we started and she still wouldn’t put her face in the water.

The Seal Swim School located in Tarpon Springs, Florida was our choice. At the end of the first week (also 3 days a week), our daughter was swimming with her face in the water. By the end of the first one month session, she was swimming 5 feet with her face in the water unassisted. After a second consecutive session, she was swimming 8 feet. This year, we started her again and she’s turning into a fish in the water! This school has been a great help and I feel confident that if my daughter fell in a pool, that she could get out without help. We still watch her the entire time she swims but it is no longer necessary to be in the water with her.
If you’d like to learn more information about the Seal Swim School, visit their website at www.SealSwimSchool.com. They have other locations in Lutz and South Tampa. If you decide to attend, mention Vanessa Cox as your referrer and we’ll get a discount when we put our infant in next year.

Be safe!

I don’t know why I do it every season. I watch the Season Finales of shows I like anticipating a good ending. Once again, I was disappointed with a cliffhanger! Actually a couple of cliffhangers!
I make a good effort to watch or at least TIVO Thursday night TV on NBC. I like to watch My Name is Earl, The Office and ER.

This season, The Office left me hanging with no marriage proposal by Jim to Pam. (Note: I am not a soap opera watcher except when I happen to be at my mother-in-law’s house during the Guiding light so these shows are the biggest soap-type dramas I watch!). This particular episode leaves me wondering what they will be doing next season.

ER disappointed me with a major cliffhanger with threat of losing a major character…. AGAIN! They have done this before at least a couple of times. They make you think someone major died then they come back with some miraculous situation where that person escaped the situation alive. This time, they have left us with the potential of 2 major characters having been killed by or in an exploding ambulance. This time they may actually eliminate a character since, from what I understand, this next season is the last for ER. I am sure there are not as many viewers as before, but this is one show I am consistent about watching even though I am alone in my household viewing it.

The production companies do know how to get us viewers watching the next season though as I will be watching the TV guide carefully when the new season is starting. I guess now’s the time to get into some better habits of turning off the TV and getting outside in the evening. Then maybe when the next season comes around, I will be fitter and won’t care when the shows are coming on.

…Sounds like a goal to me!

I realized today in CVS Drugstore as I was holding my 4 month old son and keeping an eye on my 4 year old daughter that being a mother is really a lot of work. Now, don’t get me wrong, I have had my share of difficulties with having one and adjusting to two children, but struggling to care for two at a time really made me aware. I can’t imagine having more than two kids!

My husband has to work and my mother is out of town until evening, so I will have no break. However, I hope you have the opportunity to get a break from working as a mom and enjoy yourself. Take a long bath with the door locked and music loud (otherwise you can hear your kids banging on the door). Take a walk alone. Go out with your husband and kids to a park and tell hubby you will be having fun and not disciplining or chasing kids.

Essentially, ENJOY YOURSELF and savor being a mom.

Have you ever heard the recommendation to “shop the perimeter” of your grocery store?

What this means is that you should be buying items from the outer sections of the store. Every store has produce, dairy, bakery and meats all along the perimeter of the store. All the processed and non-food items are in the middle. If you “shop the perimeter,” you will be avoiding the chemicals, preservatives, dyes and other fake items in the processed foods.

This is a much healthier diet anyway, but recently I read an article about some of the larger corporations using a chemical to reduce the sodium and sugar in the processed foods. This chemical falls into the category of “artificial flavors” which don’t have to be disclosed any further.

You can read this article at Dr. Mercola’s website.

Personally, I do read the labels and find that organic products like soups and other boxed items don’t have artificial preservatives and flavors. More and more grocery stores are carrying organic items so look for these products as alternatives to your favorite processed foods or take the time to search the internet for ways to make the items yourself.

What are your plans to celebrate Earth Day today?

You can make a change in your day to reduce your fuel usage. Walk when you normally would drive.
Reduce electric use by turning off a light and opening your curtains or blinds. Or better yet, open your windows and turn off your air conditioning (assuming you have yours on like we do in Florida now!).
Find out what items you use that can be recycled and recycle them. I personally had no idea that my city would take paper boxes like cereal boxes, but now I am putting them out at the curb with our other recyclables.

Happy Earth Day!

Earth Day is coming up on Tuesday, April 22nd. I do what I can to help the earth by recycling newspapers, cans, bottles, etc. In the past, I have tried to use rechargeable batteries, but then the items I needed them for worked better and lasted longer with regular batteries. Now I have to run a baby swing many times throughout the day and the 4 D batteries tend to only last about 7-10 days (guess the baby is in there a lot!).

So, my bright idea to reduce my carbon footprint is to get a charger and 4 D rechargeable batteries. “Of course it will be great! I won’t have to run out to the drugstore for batteries every couple of weeks. Think of the reduction in waste and especially the reduction in cost!”
HA! I spent about $45 for the charger and batteries, but they only last for 2 days! What?! I have to remember to charge them every 2 days? Yikes, that’s a lot of responsibility! Hard to do with Mommy Mush Brain, but I will do it so I can feel good about not filling the landfills with used batteries.

Hopefully someone is working on a rechargeable battery that will last longer for these types of items. Or Mr. Fisher-Price, have you thought about a battery pack??

I am sure by now you have heard about the dangers of Bisphenol-A (BPA) in plastics. The danger lies in that this chemical leaches out of the plastic into the beverages or foods contained within the container.
Most recently, it’s been found that many baby bottles and sippy cups have these chemicals and this doesn’t even include the sports bottles available for our older kids and us when we go to the gym. They use BPA in polycarbonate plastics and will most of the time be designated by a #7 in a recycle symbol on the bottom of the item. However, not all #7 bottles have BPA and not all plastic is marked with any number.

So, what do you do? Well, first, look at the plastic items you have to see if any have distinguishing marks on them. If you are unsure, it’s a good idea to decide if you should take a chance on using the item. There was a report on television that said that the more you use items with BPA, the more of the chemical leaches out. So, if it’s an older item and you are unsure, please keep that in mind.

There alternatives to these items out there. One choice is to confirm if the plastic item definitely doesn’t have BPA. www.SafeMama.com has a list of products detailing which items are BPA free. There is also more detailed information on BPA and how it affects people. You can view this information by clicking here. She also sells some of the products at this website: www.EliteBreastfeeding.com.

Options for adults include glass items and stainless steel. I have seen a number of stainless steel sports bottles for working out. I personally have a to-go coffee mug that is stainless steel on the inside that I use at this time and my daughter has a Hello Kitty stainless steel Thermos we purchased.
Check out www.TheSoftLanding.com for stainless steel and other safe items. Don’t be deterred by the prices as these containers will last for you.

Let’s keep our kids healthy!

Gas prices aren’t the only thing that has gone up in recent months. With it has come a slow but steady increase in the cost of groceries as well, along with anything else that must be transported from one location to another. Everything from milk to meat has gone up and with it the amount of money we must allocate for groceries each month. Now is a great time to get into a few little habits that will add up to big savings at the cash register.

If you’ve thought that coupons were a big waste of time, now may be the time to rethink it and give these little money savers another try. Yes, coupons can save you money, but use them carefully. Don’t let the fact that you have a coupon for product X bully you into buying it if you don’t really need it. Figure out what you really need from the store and then go through your coupons. Only grab those you actually need and weed out any coupons that have expired as you go along. Make it a habit to clip coupons once a week and stick them into a little box or an envelope.

Comparison shopping is also a good idea. Take a few minutes to glance through the different store advertisements to find out who has chicken on sale or where you can find the cheapest milk (check your local gas station for milk). If you know your family eats a lot of chicken breast for example, it’s worth making a trip to the store that has it on sale and stock up on a few pounds. Freeze some of the meat for the next few weeks.

Make sure you don’t go to the store hungry. Grab a little snack before you head out the door. When we’re hungry, we end up buying a lot more food – especially junk food – that we don’t really need and weren’t planning on buying in the first place. All these extra little purchases add up, not only at the register, but also later on the scale. Shop after you eat, or at least grab a piece of fruit or a handful of nuts to eat on your way to the store.

So far so good… while all of the above will help you save money on your groceries, we haven’t gotten to the most powerful strategy yet. You’ll be surprised how simple, yet effective it is once you put it into place. Here it is – Plan your meals ahead of time and only purchase the items that you need for those meals. You can plan part of your meals around the items that are on sale, or look for a good deal on the ingredients you need to prepare the dishes you picked. Why does planning ahead of time work so well? Because you can make a grocery list that includes everything you need to prepare those dishes (avoiding extra trips to the store), and you don’t buy too much extra “stuff” that ends up going bad in the back of the fridge. Coming up with a plan is also the best strategy to avoid impulse buys that will have you overspending on your weekly grocery budget.

Planning your meals and your grocery list is easy with the Menu Planning Basics report and the menu and shopping worksheets that you can grab free at www.MenuPlanningCentral.com – Or if you prefer, you can have “The Menu Mom” create the menus for you.

If you have a baby or toddler in diapers, you need more than a small shoulder bag like what’s popular now. On our main site we have some colorful and inexpensive Asian diaper bags like the one below.

These diaper bags are made of a silk brocade fabric in a variety of colors. Designs include dragonflies, butterflies, cherry blossoms, fortune flowers and chili flowers. These are priced so you can switch out bags to match outfits or your mood. They are purse sized so you will not want to rely on these bags to carry enough for a full day, but they are a good size to carry a few diapers, a bottle or two and an extra outfit.

We tend to have more available than what is on the site so please email me at vanessa@tropicalbabyboutique.com if you are looking for something specific.

View all of our in-stock diaper bags by clicking here: Diaper Bags.

If you would like to do a link exchange with this blog or our main website, please email me at vanessa@tropicalbabyboutique.com.
I am also looking for ideas for articles for the blog and will consider posting articles geared towards parenting.