Camera suggestions anyone?

This is a post mostly for any of you who know more about digital cameras than me, because I know that at least some of my readers do.

Every time I take my children somewhere to get their picture taken, I seem to come home dissatisfied. True I have never used a private photographer, and maybe I would be happier with their results. But I often feel like, if I had a a nicer camera than I do, a few props, maybe a back ground or two, and a little bit of know how, I could get pictures just as good as the ones I am paying a lot of money for.

Now true I know nothing about photography, so I am willing to admit, my pictures might be worthless too. Anyway, I am contemplating the idea of getting a better camera, and I want some advice from someone who knows about cameras.

My current camera is an Olympus Camedia with D-535 zoom, and 3.2 megapixel. I would like to get a camera that has a better digital zoom, higher resolution, and one that doesn't take forever for the picture to take after you push the button. I don't want to go so fancy as to have lenses that I need to change, or have a flash I have to attach. Built in flash is fine. But I want something that would take nice enough pictures that I could print off an 8 x10, that would be high enough quality to hang on my wall, and not have it be grainy, or blurry.

So if you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them. Thanks.

My baby who doesn't sleep. At least not when she is supposed to.

So Sleeping Beauty, loves to sleep. During the day. At night time, she would rather be awake. I know this is common for babies, but that doesn't make it any easier to deal with.

The other day she went 7 hours in the morning between feedings. But at night she goes 3-4. And she isn't necessarily asleep between those feedings. Some might say, don't let her go that long during the day. Well the idea is good. It just doesn't necessarily apply. If I try to feed her as often during the day as she eats at night, she will often just nurse for maybe 5 min, then look at me and smile. Hence, she isn't really that hungry.

At night I feed her and put her back in bed. She sometimes will sleep three or four hours. But often she sleeps about an hour, and then she is awake, and crying. So I find myself stumbling out of bed to give her back her pacifier. This will sometimes coax her back to sleep. Sometimes. More often than not it seems she spits it out 5 min later, and I have to go put it back in. Hence I don't get much sleep.

Last night my husband suggested that we just let her cry it out, and see if she would put herself back to sleep. So we tried. She screamed for at least 2 hours, until it was time to eat again, and then she only calmed down when I fed her. And of course by that time it was time for me to get up for the day. So I am thinking that at least at this point in the game, crying it out isn't going to work for her.

So do any of you have any suggestions? I am so exhausted. But for me to sleep, she needs to sleep.

Snack, and lunch ideas anyone?

So lately Cinderella doesn't eat lunch. Not really. I make her a sandwich or some other kind of food and she barely touches it. I think the snack she gets at preschool is maybe filling her up quite a bit. But I'm not really impressed with how healthy (or maybe I should say not healthy) those snacks tend to be. She won't eat veggies raw, and she pretty much just licks the topping off any sandwich I make, regardless of what kind of bread or grain I use. Bagels, bread, tortillas, pitas, English muffins, etc. She will maybe eat the fruit I give her. And usually she drinks her milk.

So I have been thinking lately, I don't want put so much effort into making food for her that is just going to stay on the table. But I don't want her to be hungry if she is, and I would like for her to get some nutrition in what she eats, not just empty calories, or lots of sodium, fat and sugar. You know what I mean? So I was thinking maybe snack sized portions, but I need some more ideas. I was wondering if anyone has any snack or light meal ideas, that kids tend to eat well, that are nutritious? Preferably something that doesn't take a ton of work, because it just isn't worth it, if she isn't going to eat it. And Guy is following her example a lot of the time, so I guess it applies to him too.

Quiet Time

My kids are getting board with quiet time, and don't want to do it. Guy will tear apart his room, bang on his door, etc. Cinderella comes out constantly, wanting to know if it is time to be done.

So I know I've asked a question similar to this before, but I'm going to ask it again. Maybe there are some new ideas out there.

Do you do quiet time at your house? What kinds of things do you have your kids do during quiet time? Do you have any ideas of what I can do to make quiet time be a fun and exciting time, but still a break for me? Any ideas of things they can do on there own, in their rooms that is quiet, and nondestructive?

I would appreciate any suggestions any of you may have.

What do you do about an defiant 4 year old?

So Cinderella has entered a stage lately that I don't know how to deal with. It probably doesn't help that I am currently sleep deprived. But she is ornery, and screams all the time. Any time she doesn't get her way she starts screaming, and then she turns and hits Guy.

Sometimes he deserves it, I guess. He does egg her on, but I don't think that kind of behavior is ever acceptable. Then when I try to discipline she totally ignores me, and does what she can to get out of the discipline. I try to ignore her behavior when I feel like it can be ignored, but sometimes it can't.

For example. This morning I had Sleeping Beauty laying on the floor, while I was sorting laundry. Cinderella was talking to her, but then decided that it would be a good idea to jump over her. Well, that is one action I can't condone. But knowing that she might not even realize there is something wrong with doing this, I calmly explained that doing this can hurt the baby, and that she needs to not do it. She said OK, then waited till I went back to the laundry, and then started jumping again.

I once again told her she can't jump over the baby, because it can hurt the baby. Then I asked her if she understood what I was saying. She just stared at me, and refused to acknowledge that I had even said anything. It is at this point that I start fuming, and get frustrated. I asked her several times if she understood. Finally she said she did. I let her go, and then she went and stood next to the baby, and acted like she was going to jump, and said, "no, I don't understand." So I made her take a time out, by sitting on a stool, in the laundry room with me. She sat there for a minute then stood up, and looked at me with this look that seemed to say, "how are you going to make me, mom?"

This kind of defiant attitude is the way she is treating all of my discipline tactics lately. I know a big part of it is the age and stage. But the thing is, I know I really can't force her to take a time out. I can't force her to say she is sorry. I can't force her to not hit her brother. She is right, I can't make her. But I don't want her to get the message that the boundaries that are set aren't real, and aren't going to be enforced.

So I want to know if any of you have any suggestions of what you have done with your children in this stage, or what you would do.

Meal ideas anyone?

OK we are getting down to the wire of when I will be leaving. I leave a week from tomorrow. My husband leaves a week and day after me. My goal is to have as much as possible packed before I leave. And I don't want to have to put off packing too much. So right now I'm trying to think about what we are going to eat.

I want meals that don't require too many pans and bowls to make. Breakfast isn't too hard. If we have cereal with juice every morning the only prep dish we need is a pitcher for the juice.

Lunch, could be PB and J. If I buy pre-made bread, all I need to make it is a knife and spoon (which can be plastic).

Dinners however are a bit more complicated. I am trying to come up with as many meals as I can that you can make with 1 frying pan, 1 sauce pan, and maybe a colander, cutting board and set of sharp knives. Or less. Also I want them to be meals that take as little prep as possible, because I am going to be busy all day, and not have a lot of energy for cooking at the end of the day. I might be asking for too much, but if you don't ask, you never learn right?

So if anyone has any meal suggestions, I would appreciate the input. And if you could give me basic instructions on making it (if it isn't something simple like to make spaghetti: you boil the noodles, and heat up the sauce), I would appreciate it.

So I need dinner ideas for this Saturday through next Thursday suitable for my whole family, and then meals for the next Friday through the Friday after that for my husband.

Thanks.

It's quite the timing.

At my house we have a quiet time. It is something that I feel the need to enforce because it gives me a much needed break time, and the kids some alone time.

My apartment is a 3 bedroom. In the current set up we have a master bedroom; the kids room, which has a toddler bed, crib and dresser in it; and the guest room/playroom, which has a twin size day bed (do they come in any other size?), the toys and a pack-n-play.

Up until today this worked fine. I put Guy down for a nap in the pack-n-play, and let Cinderella have her "quiet time" that usually isn't all that quiet, in her room. Cinderella hasn't taken an afternoon nap on a regular basis for quite a while. Guy however takes, and needs them, daily. Hence why I put them in separate rooms for this hour of the day.

Well today, I put them down for quiet time, then I sat down to the computer. They were down for probably about 40 min. when Guy came marching out of the playroom, dragging his blankets behind him looking so proud of himself. At first I figured that Cinderella had snuck in there and pulled him out so they could play. I asked her where she was, and she came out of her room. So I figured out that he had climbed out of the pack-n-play all on his own. I had it at the end of the day bed, so I guessed that he had somehow used the daybed to climb out. So I moved the pack-n-play and put him back inside. Not too much longer I heard a thud, and the sound of him moving around the room. Now his timing is terrible, because we are planning on going to my Father-in-law's house for Thanksgiving. Always when we go, Guy sleeps in the pack-n-play. Now I'm wondering what is going to happen when we put him down for bed, and he decides to climb out, in a place he isn't as familiar with.

The other thing is our regular bed situation. Guy sleeps in the crib, and Cinderella sleeps in the toddler bed. I am afraid that my little climber, now that he knows he can climb out of the pack-n-play, isn't going to give up until he figures out how to climb out of the crib too. And it is a lot higher up.

We have been planning on moving the kids to the next size bed anyway, but the timing is off. Cinderella hates change. And by her choice, she doesn't want to give up "her" bed. So the plan was, I am making her a Disney Princess quilt for the twin size bed for Christmas, and she is getting a set of Disney Princess Sheets that are twin size for her birthday, which is right after Christmas. I was hoping those things would make her excited to switch beds. Well now I'm wondering if I can wait a month, or if that will be too risky for Guy.

Oh and the other part of the equation is trying to figure out which beds go in which rooms, when the kids upgrade. I'm not sure what will fit together. So I need to get on the ball, and figure out a solution.

Any suggestions? Would you wait a month? Is there some way you would try to convince Cinderella to switch beds without some way to identify it as hers? Oh and how would you handle quiet time without the pack-n-play? I know your kids (if you have kids) are not my kids, and respond in different ways, but I would welcome any ideas right now.

Frustrating

So does anyone have any tips on potty training a child who doesn't seem to care if she wet her pants and doesn't seem to mind wearing wet pants. And won't even own up to having wet her pants? I just don't know what to do with this child.

Defiance

So this morning, Cinderella hit a curve ball at me that I'm not quite sure how to deal with yet. Last night I watched one of my friends kids, until quite late. As a result, my kids ended up staying up quite a bit later than normal. To top it off, when I was getting Guy in his PJ's last night, I noticed he had a fever. We ended up putting our kids to bed before their friends left, but not by much. As soon as my friend picked up her kids, my husband and I decided to call it a night, without even cleaning up. And believe me, with 4 toddlers, it was a big mess.

Well this morning, Guy still wasn't feeling well, and was quite ornery all through breakfast. So I put him down for a nap, as soon as I could. Well Cinderella wanted to play Kwala on the computer, and because I figured it would be a quiet activity, allowing Guy to get his much needed rest, I allowed her to do so. She played for about an hour, and then stopped for a snack. Then she and I played a memory game, on the floor. Then she wanted to play the computer again. I decided to let her.

About half an hour later, Guy woke up from his nap. I let her play a little longer. Then I told her it was time to be done, and we needed to clean up.

I asked if she wanted me to turn on some music, while we cleaned up. She didn't respond, so I turned some on. Then I started to pick up books off the floor. She said "NO!" then came over and pulled a book out of the book case and set it on the floor. It's not like she was even looking at it. It was out and out defiance. Mom is picking up books, so I'm going to pull them out. I'm not sure how to handle that. I told her if she was going to act like that, I wouldn't let her play Kwala. Then she started whining in a baby voice, "I want to play Kwala, I want to play Kwala." It is driving me crazy, and she is being so ornery. Any suggestions?

Blog Book

One of my friends told me that you can make a blog book, where a company will print and bind your blog for you. So I was wondering, have any of you done anything like that? What service did you use? Would you recommend it?

Another request for advice...

Cinderella is getting to be impossible lately. I know we all have different parenting styles, but apparently mine isn't working in this case, so I want to know what you would do.

I am more than willing to pick my battles, but there are three things I won't stand for, but I'm not sure what consequences she should have. So far nothing really fazes her.

1. Hitting and spitting. OK so this one came about because I swatted her a few times. Never really hard, but it was a hit. So now when she gets upset she hits. If she doesn't like something that I do, she hits me. At first I enforced one day of no movies for each time she hit me. True we were at the point that she wasn't watching that many movies anymore anyway, but just the saying "OK you can't watch any more movies today", then tomorrow and so on for each hit, seemed to do some good at first. I could see her think about it for a while, and then hit the air, or the couch or something that wasn't a person. But then one day she just got really mad. She didn't want to leave the zoo, and she really started whacking me. She got up to a week and a half of no movies before I got her to stop. And after that she just really didn't seem to care. And if she doesn't hit, she spits in my face. This level of disrespect is something that I don't think I should have to tolerate, but I don't know how to handle it. Anytime I try to discipline her she says I'm frustrated and thinks that gives her reason to be unkind, and she says she is frustrated to, and starts pitching a fit.
   
2. Bullying her brother. Guy dishes out as good as he gets most of the time, and I try to let them handle most of their squabbles themselves. But lately Cinderella, has realized that Guy can't open doors. So she takes what ever he is playing with that she wants away from him, then runs down the hall to the playroom and slams the door shut before he can come it. I have a problem with this for 2 reasons. 1 is that fingers can get shut in doors. And 2 I don't think it is fair to treat someone unkindly in a way that they can't defend themselves, that is just bullying.
3. Going to bed. Lately for some reason she has this issue with going to bed. She doesn't want to go to bed in her room. She doesn't have any problems falling asleep on our couch, if my husband or I are in the living room, or on our bed if one of us is in the bedroom. We tried leaving her door open, which works sometimes but not all the time. Lately she has decided she should climb into Guy's crib. I try to ignore it and let it go, but tonight, my husband had gone to a meeting and Guy was really tired. He went to bed about 6:30, which I knew was too early for Cinderella. So I let her lie on my bed next to me, and quietly look at books. Well she reached a point that she wasn't lying quietly so I told her she needed to go to her bed. She refused, so I picked her up and carried her in, then shut the door. Well her door has a child safety nob on it, so she couldn't get it open. So she proceeded to scream for me until she had woken up Guy. I went and got her and talked to her about it, then put her back in bed. She wasn't happy about it but went and cried. She stayed in there until Daddy got home. Then she came out. It felt like a circus getting her back in her bed, but we finally did. A while later, I heard Guy crying and the crib banging against the wall. I went in there and Cinderella was in the crib lying on top of Guy who was still trying to sleep. I was so frustrated. It was all I could do to pull her out and not get really mad at her. I don't know what to do. I don't think it is fair to Guy to have to wake him up and move him because his sister is being a pest climbing into his bed.
   

Anyway, this probably isn't as big of a deal as it feels at the moment. But I thought I'd ask for advice. So what would you do if if was your kid?

Sewing machine

So lately I have been thinking of replacing my sewing machine. It is a machine that has a strait stitch and a zig zag. It also came equipped with only the basic foot. The feed dogs don't lower, it just has a plate that you can fit on top of them, if you aren't wanting to use them. Personally it isn't my favorite machine, and I didn't know much when I bought it or I would have selected a different model. I think it would work well for basic non-clothing sewing, but for sewing that requires buttonholes, and zippers it is inadequate.
So I have some questions for all of you. I know that many people who read this blog sew and have their own machines.

• What type of machine do you have? Brand and model.
• How long have you had it?
• Do you like it?
  
• Would you recommend it to someone else?
  
• Do you use it much?
  
• What qualms do you have with it?
  
• If you purchased it, about what price did you pay for it?
• Do you feel like it was or is worth the price you paid?
• Do you have any recommendations on what would be a good machine, even if it is different than one you own?

Thanks. I feel like personal opinion can be a big key into getting a god product. Especially if it is something I am going to spend a lot of money on.

Books

So I have a dilemma and I need some advice. But first a few facts:

1. So Cinderella is a 3 year old. She turned 3 in December, so she is a young 3.
2. Cinderella loves books. I think that is a good thing. I love books. Cinderella can sit and look at books for hours by herself. She will let me read books to her for hours.
   
3. Cinderella doesn't take naps anymore. She will maybe take one every 2 weeks or so.
   
4. I need quiet time. It is my only down time in the entire day from when the kids get up (somewhere between 6:00 and 7:00) until they go to bed (between 7:00 and 8:00). I only enforce it for 1 hour, but I need that hour.
5. Guy takes a nap during quiet time, so I really need Cinderella to be quiet.
6. For quiet time what I have been doing is I put Guy down for a nap in the play yard in the play room, and have Cinderella go in her room with some books and puzzles (which are toys that I think she should be able to play quietly with). She has the option to not have the books and puzzles, and to have her pacifier and take a nap instead. She has been opting for the books and puzzles most of the time lately. I tell her she needs to stay in her room unless she needs to use the potty, or has a messy diaper, until the timer that is on the stove beeps. I set the timer for 1 hour, and when it beeps she can come out.
7. A few weeks ago I went into the kids room after quiet time and found that Cinderella had torn one of the pages out of her book. So then I enforced board books only for quiet time. She could look at page books with Mom, but not by herself in her room.

So my dilemma. Today after quiet time I found this in her room.
If you can't tell from the picture, she started tearing the pages apart in the board books too.
I really don't know what to do for her for quiet time. I don't feel like at the moment I can give her books of any kind. She will just ruin them. But she only has 3 puzzles, and that won't keep her entertained and quiet for an hour.
So my question is... What suggestions do you have, or what do you do for your children, to keep them quiet for quiet time?
And what would you enforce about the books? I don't want to not let her look at books. I think a love of reading is something that is started young. But I don't want to just have her destroy books either. I want her to treat books the right way. Would you put all the books away for a time? Rule out books during quiet time? Or do something different?

Snack Time

OK so something that seems to be a recurring problem for me is trying to think of healthy snack ideas that don't take much work. And that don't present a choking hazard for a 1 year old.

I seem to remember having this same problem when Cinderella was about a year old too. The problem is I don't remember what solutions I came up with. So I want to ask you.

If you were making snacks for a 3 and 1 year old, and you wanted it to be healthy and balanced what would you serve?
Or what do you give your kids as snacks?

Any Suggestions?

I have a problem, but before I ask for advice I need to give a little background.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has a program for children between the ages of 18 months and 12 years. 18 months to 3 years is called nursery and 3 to 12 years is called Primary. Infants under 18 months stay with their parents in the parents meetings.
My husband and I teach a primary class of children who are turning 9 and 10 this year. Cinderella, who is 3 is in Primary. Guy who is only 10 months, is stuck with Mom and Dad.

So the problem: Guy is getting to be a distraction in our primary class during the hour that we try to teach a lesson. He is mobile so he is constantly moving and getting into things, and the kids want to be on the floor playing with him instead of listening to the lesson. I need to figure out what to do with him for at least that hour of church.
Last year I tried asking one of the women from our church to watch him, but we would forget to get him to her, and she has responsibilities that keep her pretty busy, so I feel bad asking her to do it again. The other women that I know well, either also have responsibilities during that time, or children under 18 months themselves.

I tried asking our Relief Society (the organization in our church set up to meet the needs of the women) President if she had any suggestions. She suggested someone who was only able to do it that week, and didn't really want the responsibility every week. Which I can totally understand. She doesn't really know me and she doesn't know my kid, why should she want to watch him for me.
Anyway I am without ideas, so I thought I would turn to this source. Actually I prayed about it and thought I should write a blog on the subject. So I would welcome any suggestions, and if you don't have any suggestions, I would welcome prayers, because I have been so frazzled, and stressed after church every Sunday this year, I'm not sure how much more my nerves can stand.