Thumb Addiction

When my little monkey princess~Nina was born there were a couple of indications she would probably suck her precious little thumb. Actually, I guess the first one came before she was born. Her ultrasound showed her peacefully sucking her thumb in womb. Once born, she was a pro nurser. Immediately she went straight to the breast and was very ready to nurse or pacify. This was a very different experience from our first Monkey Princess~Mia.

Princess Monkey~Nina was calm and very peaceful mostly all of the time but even more so if she was nursing or sucking on her hands until she found her thumb at about 2-3 months old and from then on that's what she always preferred in her mouth (of course other than her nursing tool).

Monkey Princess~Nina will turn 6 soon and the habit that was once so cute and photo worthy has turned to not so cute and forget photos if she's caught with it in her mouth. It just has to stop. You see, I never had problems with Monkey Princess~Nina sucking her thumb. Not when we recently witnessed her permanent teeth start to come in a bit crooked or even when I gave her a manicure making sure to skip the thumb that has flattened and widened over time knowing if I paint it it will scrape off in a day or two. I did however get very bothered once we started trying to quit. I realized what an addiction and small problem she has that will need much motivation, diligence and bribery to attack.

The first night we tried to quit cold turkey, and this was a mutual agreement with a bit of a bribe attached, she had a panic attack/temper tantrum. She literally kicked and screamed on the floor until she got it out of her system then I invited to hold and lay with her on the couch until she fell asleep. The next night was a bit better and then the next better than the night before the previous one but then I went to my best friends home to visit about 5 days into the quitting and did not put her to sleep as I routinely had been doing so and it messed up our achievement causing her to relapse and go back to the dirty little habit. We've been trying but as you can see inconsistency really has hurt our goal. Back to the start and trying over again. Tonight she cries (more like whines) wanting to suck her thumb as I wait patiently for time to go by to see if she can put herself to sleep without her not so little thumb. As I end this I hear nothing in the distance....I think she has conquered our first night again. Much better this time.

Any suggestions?

Monkey Man Update: Popcorn Kernel in your where???

I believe that someone should invent a device of some sort that would allow all mommies and daddies to extract the unpopped kernels in a microwave bag of popcorn. Wondering why I even mention this? Well, because I have three little monkeys that LOVE popcorn! They also love the unpopped kernels. They love to suck the salt off the unpopped kernels, chomp on the unpopped kernels and recently my little monkey man decided he loved to stick them up his nose and in his ear!
Yes, he actually stuck one up his nose but luckily he was able to blow it out.....the one in his ear he was not so lucky with. Yes, if you follow along with this blog then you would know that little monkey man is a mischievous, curious and a very active little monkey. He just so happened to be a little too curious and stuck one in his ear which led us to the Emergency room then led us to surgery..........I know he has fed his curiosity with popcorn kernels and has recently mentioned that they do not belong in the ear or the nose.
Glad to know that probably will not happen again considering what he had to go through to get it out.

Goal Update!

Well, I wrote to you letting you know that I had a goal for the month of April and that was to add a boutique to my retailers list. Well, guess what? I did!!!

Champagne Taste, a sweet boutique with a very kind owner, Andrea, is a place I've been hoping would make Mommy's Little Monkey a part of their shop and has done just that, made The Simple & Sweet Nursing Curtain a little sweet home. For anyone in the San Diego area wanting to do some very cute and quality shopping for your little monkey you must check out Andrea's shop, Champagne Taste where you can find Eco friendly candles, lotions and potions, baby clothing and great children's books plus more. Champagne Taste is located at 2248 30Th St. San Diego, CA 92104
(619) 234-3585‎

www.champagnetaste.com

Quote of the day

"Imagine that the world had invented a new "dream product" to feed and immunize everyone born on Earth. Imagine also that it was available everywhere, required no storage or delivery -- and helped mothers to plan their families and reduce the risk of cancer. Then imagine that the world refused to use it." -Margaret Porter

Red Box

I Have to share this great new Red find with you! Red Box. Let me tell you what it is, it's a red box (yes, literally a red box) with movies you can rent inside of it. They're located in several different places and they hold current and fun movies you've been wanting to watch. The way you use it is just press the "rent a DVD" touch screen option and choose the movie you want, check out with a easy touch screen option, pay with your debit or credit card and whalah you have a movie rental for just $1.00 for one night. Return it by 9PM the next evening and you're good to go but go over the 9PM time frame and you're charged another $1.00 fee. If you should want to keep the movie the Red Box company will charge you everyday for 25 days maximum and it's yours to keep. Genius! No lines so far, no one to hassle you or ask you questions you just go, choose, pay and return the next day.

March Update

Let me catch you up on what I've been doing the last month and a half. Let's start on my personal side first. Well, I've had a little monkey man accident about every two weeks. 1 Broken shower faucet, 1 clogged toilet which he chose to clog with a plastic bottle cap, a clogged sink which he chose to play with the faucet water stopper (whatever they're called) a couple of times too many and then it broke off so off to the hardware store we went to buy a drain stopper and then he took that off and stuck one of his sisters barrettes down the drain. Up until today nothing had really be destroyed by monkey man for about a week but then he came into the house with a broken light bulb that he mentioned he just so happened to be trying to help me screw it on tighter but he actually unscrewed it causing it to fall off my sewing machine and break. Ugh! The RULES lecture has come up a million times in that last month in my house.

Spring break has passed and it was relaxing and nice to spend time with my little monkeys. Monkey man is on a three week break from preschool (looking forward to that starting back up) and of course Easter came and I was able to spend a very nice time with our family.

On the business side of things I landed an account with a W.I.C. office here in town! That's a great and wonderful step for my business. I've been working hard planning, organizing and getting ready to update my website and change out my nursing cover fabric and need to add baby tees plus I'm getting myself mentally prepared to get out into more stores. Which brings me to a little vulnerable subject to share with you......I am terrified of approaching stores! Why you ask? Well, I don't know why exactly but after reflecting on this subject I'm assuming is that big ole rejection factor I personally hate and am fearful of. So, knowing I need to do it no matter what and trying to gain knowledge on the whole subject I went to my good and knowledgeable friend, Google, and he led me to so much information on cold calling and business approaching. I found a wonderful and to my surprise a local business that blogs about her business experience and after reading it for a while I was in tears! Yeah, I'm an emotional wreck at times but Amber of Baby Fabulous hit all of my fears, excitement and struggles of creating a business from scratch and bringing it to fruition on the nail. I can create, I can organize, package, and have details in order but sales.....let's just say I'm terrified of it. I love her blog and she is such an inspiration and has honestly motivated me. I wrote to Amber hoping to meet her someday.

My goal for April, which I will blog to you about and work on, is to make it into 1-2 new boutiques. Cross your fingers, your toes and say a little prayer for me while I do this and I'll keep you posted.

Talk to you soon,

~Evie

Big Apple Moms Encouraged to Breastfeed for 6 Months

New york City's Mayor Bloomberg is launching a multimillion-dollar good-parenting campaign that includes a push to put more newborns to the breast. The city is spending more than 2 million to encourage mommies to nurse for up to six months where at this point 75% start to breastfeed and 38% stop before 6 months.

The campaign will really help turn New York's hospitals into baby friendly hospitals where they will not encourage formula feeding or automatically give away formula filled diaper bags and information. Two new programs will ride the campaign to help low income mothers providing health workers to check up on the new mothers and another where health workers visit families every two weeks up to two years.

This should be something we all tune into to see how it works and if the rates increase with this great campaign.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Hope you're day has been wonderful and full of love! Mine has been full of Valentine's for the kids, cookies, candy, parties that were full of cookies, candy and sugar, plus a ton of cards...oh and did I mention candy? With three kids a valentine's day is sure to promise cavities :-)

I did get the best card from my gorilla hubby though. I had to share it with you because I love it and promise to keep if forever......oh gosh I'm such a mess. Just in case I did a horrible job photographing it, it's a photo of king Kong in boxers.

Have a great night!

~Evie

Hello Again

I hope you had a wonderful holiday and New Year's.

So I'm back into the swing of everything and it's been a little hard getting in the groove. Christmas vacation was wonderful. Sleeping in, baking and relaxing with the kids was very nice. We did have a lot of running around to do though too. Last minute shopping, wrapping and gifting made our vacation a little hectic but it's all over now and I look forward to spring break :-)

We here in San Diego had so much to celebrate with the Chargers going to the Playoffs the last couple of weeks. The whole city was really in the spirit. I Just happened to go downtown this last Friday evening and many building were decorated with lightning bolts and Charger signs. It was too exciting! My Gorilla hubby went downtown for all of the festivities on Friday morning and had a great time too! To make it even better he won a autographed L.T jersey in a contest. He even made it on the evening news because of it. Let's skip the sad lost though and go on to the next subject.......

Babies, babies, babies!!!!!! It seems that there is a baby boomlet going on in the United States. The rates are the highest since 1961. Reports state that the expected number of children a woman is to have in her lifetime is 2.1 compared to other countries at 1.3 per woman . The Rise has been blamed on a larger population and an increase in Hispanics! We're having all the babies according to the CDC. Hispanics have a higher fertility rate, about 40% higher but I will agree with the experts that middle America just has a more favorable out look on family and children in general. As for me and the surrounding women in my life, we're all averaging three children each with the exception of a couple that have more than three. I do have to agree with Nan Marie Astone, associate professor of population, that "Americans like children. We are the only people who respond to prosperity by saying, `Let's have another kid,"'.

Love That!

Until next time

~Evie