So here we are on a really hot summer evening and where i live, there are no breezy evenings to feel better. my son is almost always dressed in boxers and a vest all day long.
He gets super bored in afternoons when we curfew his movements outside the house to play around, so to being in some joy in his already joyous life i bought this packet of 12 sea animals capsules that i found on a rack at a gift store. am not really a fan of magical toys but what the heck! anything to make my baby happy. YO!
and i thought of doing a review for my readers.
i bought it for 80rs. and it has 12 capsules paper minted pack in various colors.
sorry for the impatience my son has
my impatient baby tore it open before i could take a picture but it looked good whatsoever.
these capsules need to be placed in water where the upper plastic like layer dissolves and a foam like material in a sea animal shape pops up, and floats on water like a normal sponge does.
next:
we got a bowl of water excitedly and removed the capsules from the minted packs… put them in water.. saw it floating…
saw it floating…
saw it floating… … …
they wont magically blow up into sea animals!! huhhh//////
while waiting we even played a guessing game on what we shall find in each one of them:
high expectations
D had high hopes they WILL open up but by that time i lost my patience and opened them up myself! the plastic covering had to be manually removed.
and I recorded the entire thing and put it right here….
TADA!!
well, i am not youtuber mommy, bare me with the quality. i am still learning and i shall be better next time.
p.s reminding myself to record horizontal next time.
reviews:
it costed me 80 bucks, definitely not a buy if it takes so long for the magic to happen.
also, the packaging was not really high graded , per se the amount i paid for it. could have been better.
12 capsules but most of them were repetitive. kids dont touch things that repeat!
they also come in other styles such as animals etc. will try them for a lesser price.
worth a buy? well, maybe once if such things excite our baby and he/she is patient enough.
what else: makes a good birthday return gift considering the value and idea.
my son and I went to this weekend flea market where everything was super costly and extravagant, what i learned was- buying from exhibitions means spending all important cash on useless items.
what my son learned- huge gardens are fun and elephants are yellow and blue.
loving the lazying around
he particularly loved this installation and played around this elephant most of the evening. now grey elephants are so bookish for him because real elephants are colorful! we often see temple elephants on the streets… painted with beautiful pinks and yellows and green hues and then came this one- yellow and huge!
since that day i have never stopped his imagination. we often color cows in blue and lions in pink. we particularly love decorating kites with various sketchpens because they are all beautiful and more the colors more fun they look!
often i see parents restrict their kids with lots of rules and regulate their behavior.
D does like gardens and slides but if he gets to run his trucks and cars in sand and dirt he has his best time of the day! i let him do what he likes. he dirties his hands and knees, his hair often has specks of gifts from nature collected on the playground… i often shout at how he never listens to me to play indoors but hey, he did that for 30 months… now he wants to play outside and this mommy won’t say no! he weaves stories of how his truck is running on a difficult sloppy mud slide and conquers the demon like road! hahaha… have we all done that in our childhood already ?? yes, we have!!
4 of the 30 existing
if trucks are for muddy plays… let them do that!
if elephants are yellow, say yes!
do humans have wings?? yes, they r just not visible , they lay inside the tiny mind of the kid. tiny for us and gigantically grand for them. so many questions and so many beautiful colors that THEY PERCEIVE.
around the time when i will turn 30 i am assuming i will see the world in only three colors- black , white and grey. whereas my son has more shades of every colour than i have in my wardrobe… ready to be painted across his own world.
why do we restrict them to rules ? why can’t we just let them be kids when they are already?
i hate parents who treat their 3 year old like a 10 year old and expect him to show the same maturity in his talks, mannerisms and even conduct!
i can go on talking and arguing about why kids should be let free to play n learn on their own and paint the walls and roll in the mud and play with caterpillars and catch the butterflies in a jar! smash a window with a ball and leave the leftovers for the dog. sleep under the stars and kiss the kittens.
but for now i am too busy to talk about it—–
because we painting the bat green and purple
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seriously, we did go on a dual date with dad!
D’s dad that is.
i so badly needed a break and a friend of PG was hosting a destination wedding at Daman, although i would not have mind doing the baby and daddy work and the heap load of traveling work myself but its always such a pleasure when the husband decides to take over!
i relaxed and he took care of the kiddo and his food tantrums.
he was teething with side tooth sprouting out and his time had a major diarrhea issue, daddy decided to make a fun day for all of us.
specially for this mommy who, rather than enjoying the wedding was busy changing soiled diapers and managing kid friendly food in between getting dressed up for an indian wedding.
here i was on saturday morning after the wedding got over late friday night!!
mommy’s dirty mess!!
then came our superhero to the rescue, of course with lots of back up help by mumma. but i am glad this happened!
my son loves spending time with his father, he calls my husband “papai” .. sounds a lot like popoye! and we love it…
i got the bag ready and shoo-ed them out of the room. turned on the tv to a cute bollywood film and ordered in some food to relax myself.
our staycation for the weekend was at a resort called sandy resort at nani daman. it had a beautiful pool and my husband was super excited from the moment he saw it on the internet before we drove our way there early morning. he knew our little dolphin would love to go splash and have fun there.
so leaving me and my mess in the room… began the date with daddy.
they left to the pool straight away!
daddy-mode ON!
and began the splish splash n more fun around the pool…
the anchors of my life
there were a lot of words and tiny talks exchanged. i really dont know if they understand each other that well.. but i know them both in and out. i know daddy gets less time to spend with his growing toddler. but once in a while PG comes home early, calls me when he is on his way home to get the little hunk ready and off they go on a drive or just the play area and rides nearby.
its always so easy for a son to connect with his dad.. they are always alike. they not only share the same surname but even the same family legacy… the same habits, the same profession at times. the same home from childhood and in many cases the same state of mind. they think alike. they often have same choice of favorite sports and food… they share hereditary pros and cons, they often have the same sharpness on their faces. growing up they share the same car, the same house and same family members till they depart.
i see my dad look like my grandpa these days.. i see my dad in my brother and i see my brother in my nephew.. this is weird but this is how love travels… in family. and stays in family.
i share a strong liking for daughters but they soon get married and become someone else by molding into the husband’s family. its true for most of the indian households.
i love this ” look alike, feel alike, talk alike, do alike” stuff in fathers and sons… it always keeps the intimacy alive through generations.
bonding
thanks you daddyscapes for the perfect tee. it just felt like a perfect pre- father’s day celebration for us. although our family doesn’t believe in such fathers and mothers and whatever day. but its being talked about everywhere and it won;t really harm to mention this that we don’t need a special day to celebrate our love for each other.
here they are, giving a much needed break to me and celebrating the SR.JR combo!
meet the daddy
the duo went for mini train rides (pic not available) and bought balloons and sweet corn (yes, a plate of sweet corn is a fancy meal for my son) and the day ended with fries-ketchup-milkshake
nom-nom fave meal
i was so touched by the love and bonding they share, i wanted to hug them both tight and never let it go! thank you , wordpress. u helped me preserve this in form of a blog. love these two to the moon an back.
planning another trip in july on the same ground rules: one day for mommy to relax, another for daddy, and one day to have fun as a family. sounds so perfect. and this time i am gonna get all my tanning creams and beach hat packed on time! yay!
what are your perfect daddy-date plans? do mention in the comments below.
Whenever the weekend is here all I demand is some more sleep, alas! i am a mom and asking for such a luxury is asking thy lover to fetch some stars from the sky in a Shakespeare way!
my son turned 23 months old on Monday, he runs like he is some Tarzan on his way to save the jungle animals from beasts, always running around and jumping! he has learned to talk a lot, a lottttttt !! that makes my ears tired and he is never tired of running around, jumping around, getting curious, talking, asking questions, learning new stuff… no matter what.
so i opened some sites and did a little research, tried to read what scientists and experienced mothers do to put their kids to either sleep early or at least sleep a little more than usual. and here i was trying all of them one by one. after lots of experiments, here are my fool-proof or as you say, tried-tested-successful tips on putting your kids to sleep. no need to rug-mug through various sites yourself! all these seriously work my dear lady!
1. going bananas:
some kids may be fussy eaters but a banana before going to sleep or as a last meal may help the kids feel full and sleep comes easy with the stomach full. eat a little more at a wedding party and you will feel like dozing off at the sofa yourself. bananas are filled with carbs and potassium and often helps kids with energy during the day and with sleep at night. if your kids are allergic to bananas or allergic to idea of having fruits as a meal in itself you may want to skip this idea and move to tip no. 2
we made this banana strawberry choco chip snowman at school
2. doodh doodh doodh … piyo glass full doodh!
warm milk before going to sleep.
contact on info@awomansays.com to purchase these
its no secret, milk helps the kid sleep better. be it mother’s feed or a bottle of warm milk. make milk time more fun with a story-telling or just letting the child sit on your lap. many mothers have a dedicated song for milk time and many kids have a favorite cartoon they watch while having milk. I certainly am against kids watching tv before going to bed but some parents have no choice. the images of their last activity stays with the kid all night and i have a sit on my lap and let me call you sweet names kind of strategy. i always encourage my child with words like ‘i am so proud of you D, i love you my dearest, mumma’s so happy she has you with her blah blah blah…’ of course i mean all of this. say what’s true, say what you mean, say something that makes your kid feel how honest you are for your feelings for them. it always work keeping the kids happy and calm. a calm mind means dozing off on time.
3. Fire on the mountain, run run RUN
let the kid get involved in lots of physical activity in the evening. younger kids may want to crawl or turn around, toddlers may like to run and play.
give them a playground and let them get tired
search for playgrounds or gardens around your residence. if you are a working mom and find little time to take the kid to play in the evenings, ask someone to help you get his little feet moving. take the kid to play dates and malls at nights after you come home on fridays where there are special kids zone areas to play.
D loves his ‘riding the cycle’ time
remember, a/any fruit before their play-time always helps keep the kid’s metabolism intact. a healthy diet will make them tired and not weak. weakness ain’t a good aunt to visit to.
4. get them to think
yes, make the kids think a lot. ask them to guess things under some boxes, give them a puzzle or even a book to read if your kid loves to read before sleeping. let them use up the juice in the brains and they will want to ditch everything and hug the pillow.
apparently, lots of kid docs say that the child has lots of activities going on in his brains which make them mentally active all the time. they tend to think more then adults do. and getting them involved in something where they have to think and apply logic may make them feel tired.
shape and color activity at PEEK-A-BOO
adults too like to solve some crosswords and sudoku at night, read something thats heavy on the brains or just watch a film. extracting so much from the surrounding and only letting her/his brain do all the work will create the ‘lets hit the bed now’ feeling. my curious little kitten always blabbers the most just before his bedtime and this mumma lets him drain all that energy and curiousness, it has helped me a dozen times already!
5. cranberry and grapes
nope, i am not suggesting alcohol but cranberries and grapes have juices that helps calm the mind. a glass of cranberry tart juice or a string of grapes for a mid night snack always helps relax the mind. having it in the morning is very healthy but certainly not for adults who want to rush to work rather than feel relaxed early morning.
cranberry has melatonin, which is a hormone that regulates sleep or sleep patterns. cranberry flavored juices are often famous to be taken along with alcohol for adults. it releases all your stress and creates a calmness.
giving some harmless cranberries and fresh grapes from the market will help your kids too. also its a good substitute for sugar just in case you are not giving any other form of raw or processed sugar in your kid’s meals.
you know how sugar works! ask all those bars of chocolates and those desserts you had during pregnancy to feel better.
these are a few of his favorite things
6. press it warm
its a super tried and tested and recommended tip from my MIL; she says keeping some cloth, a soft toy or anything that’s bulky but not heavy against the child’s chest always help them sleep 60 to 90 minutes longer! wow! this sounds super hai na ? i tried inculcating a plush toy habit for my son, he preferred keeping a soft Dohar. this is his favorite blue one.
D in his cradle
this works for a lot of kids, it did for my husband and a neighbor’s kid and my kid any maybe your kid too. i tried to look around for those cutsie elephant soft toy pillow but didn’t find it here. contact me on info@awomansays.com in case you have those and would like to share/sale it to me please. so the theory says, anything that presses against the kid’s chest that’s not heavy in weight but feels warm and soft will replace the mother’s womb or her bosom and keep the kid emotionally happy and secured. this directly affects the sleep pattern and the kid shall sleep 90 mins longer. have tried this myself. the short cap nap in the noon turned into a nice 3 hour long sleep time. i am very happy with him waking up fresh and happy in the evening.
7. you and I
take a short walk with your kid in the morning , or just spend some lovely cuddle time at night,
marching and giggling, D and mommy
let the kid feel happy before going to bed. the child when happy has a calm mind. a mind with no heartbreaks or sadness has the power to feel more relaxed compared to that which isn’t. let the kid feel loved and pampered. play on the bed and kiss him goodnight, make the kid feel specially taken care of and loved. you will see the magic happening when the kid sleeps peacefully and for a longer time. you will see the kid smile at you when you see him first thing in the morning. [ no kidding with all the kids i just mentioned] :p
love has no substitute
the day my kid sleeps happy and loved he sleeps for an hour more than usual. yelling at your kids to sleep or getting angry because the child wants to jump a little more on the bed will not only sleep a little less but even his sleeping patterns and his dreams are not weighing on a healthier side of the happiness scale. you don’t like to be yelled at, and nor do they!
8. bathe and clean
a tried tested recommended and favored by all mothers across the world. now that summer is approaching, a warm bath before bed and a lotion massage will do the trick. let the kid feel fresh and light and clean and happy and tidy and relaxed! the pretty smell of the lotion will also make you want to cuddle next to the kid.
D
a few kisses and a fresh nightsuit, a bed time story or a hymn, do whatever favors you both and the kid will sleep with a smile without creating any fuss.
“The only love that I really believe in is a mother’s love for her children.”
― Karl Lagerfeld
let me know if you have any interesting and experienced ways to putting your kids to bed early or sleep till late.
write to us at info@awomansays.com
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lots of wishes and good luck on these.
love,
Kunj
O yes, you read it right, its #CaptainAmerica who visited us some days back and we planned to keep them with us.
Here is what happened… since Summer is approaching and for true amdavadis its already here. there is no autumn here… how I wish there was and with the autumn season comes those picnic-y days. anyways, I approached Mustang socks to help us with some new fresh summer collection i kept on drooling on their instagram account. if you are following me on instagram, u shall see me following them too. they have this whole cotton avengers range in kids and bright neon colored ones for women I so wanted to try. The mustang team was kind enough to send me lots of them to try and experience the feel myself.
#captainamerica watches nani teri morni
Here we are, D and me on a school date with #captainamerica from Mustang.
early morning I readied him with a pair of shorts and tee. He seemed happy to be finally out of that stuffy packaging and onto some feet.
little kangaroos shorts + avengers from mustang
sad to say our car broke down that morning and even though avengers the team could fly, he was all alone that day and in Ahmedabad where he could not find the way to our school… so we took him on an auto ride too…
did you check the auto ride pic on our instagram feed on the right of this site? its also on our instagram page. check awomansays page.
when we reached school D took him at this wooden board and brushed some brains… did #captainamerica learn anything here?? well, we tried to :
all play and no work 🙂
the date had just began, we thought it would be nice for him for learn some songs and do some craft too-
D makes a monkey hat
after some snack time, D took some real advantage of #captainamerica being with us that day, he asked the man with mask to find some brushes and tools form beneath the art-work fame wall at school. the big guy helped my small guy.
these socks are so soft and pure cotton, neither they slip off nor feel itchy. a lot of mix cotton socks found in the market these days make the kid’s feet perspire and itchy if the kid is allergic to un-pure fabrics.
I found Mustang to be of excellent quality and so soft that no matter how much the kid runs around in them (trust me, my tarzan runs like no other kid all day long in them) they don’t let perspiration stay on the feet. this eventually makes them no-slip socks and all day protection.
we can ask him to help … hai na?
by the end of class he still wasn’t dirty enough, and my kid made sure not to spare him of some school dust and dirt at the sand pit. i love this area the most in his school… its of the perfect height and D loves to play in it.
at the site
the entire range of avengers is available at all leading kid’s store and a few websites too… we have loved the stripes and spongebob theme all winter. the avengers in summer would be perfect. i simply love the colors and print. they do not shed colors upon washing and the fit is so perfect. right on the packaging is also a small table of what size socks would fit kids at which age. quite a smart thing if I am confused for the length which happened once while I was shopping at Mahindra’s mom and me… after seeing each size for 10 minutes there i still could not decide which size to buy. Mustang packs solves the case right at the spot. D is 22 months old. I use the 2 year size for him since he has bigggg feet.
mustang socks- #captainamerica
the date didn’t end here, #captainamerica slept at the feet and woke up to hear some rhymes and songs on mumma’s mobile; yes, sad and true my phone has become a wreck… need a new cam just for clicking pics for posts. anyone interested in sponsoring one ??
still looking good at end of day !
surprise.. surprise!!!
we took some of our fave Mustang socks even to the zoo. Mumma planned a red and white outfit for the pre valentines day date to the zoo with all classmates. well, the trip to the zoo was on 13th. and we wanted to dress up just perfect!
OOTD
Thank you the entire team of Mustang socks for the wonderful treat. we still have more socks to try on and go to dates on with Mumma. looking forward to trying some spiderman socks now. spiderman is also mumma’s favorite no!!
also mummas in the city, we have one pair of ben-10 socks we would like to giveaway to a reader. contest to happen on our fb page- facebook.com/awomansays fb page
follow us on facebook and instagram and leave a comment on any of the mustang pics on our page.
we shall contact you soon.
Crocs are my son’s favorite footwear and why not, they are just so super comfortable. and more than just comfort they are so light and fuss free to wear and run about in. and they attract a lot of playfulness, along with dirt and mud.
i have a Garfield shoes in the same material- light and white and pretty and bright.
ummm.. bright and white but not all the time-
awomansays
all i need were these, i selected a PH balanced wash liquid by Oriflame (not at all sweety, this product is definitely not meant for a croc wash) and a used unwanted toothbrush (i wont declare who used it before else I shall be in big trouble eeks!) ; ofcourse you can use any good liquid as far as you are confident they wont have a harsh effect on your little one’s feet.
tools to wash
these are his favorite dirt sucking monsters :
the dirty monsters
which after the wash became these pretty feet props to chase a few puppies in the parking:
where’s my water??
i shall be doing a lot many “HOW TO : ” TUTORIALS in the future too and i thought this maybe the best one to start with. my super active baby son has them on all the time and i need to clean them atleast once a week… i wanted to share a pic by pic ‘how to:’ since i feel a lot many other moms may find this helpful.
STEP 1 :
a few drops of the cleansing liquid into the shoes and brush them well with the bristles like you clean the sipper spouts… run through each corners n every speck of dirt (we are such crazy obsessive mothers, o Lord!)
dig the front bristles till the front ends
STEP 2 :
once you are done running the front and back of the brush in and out you may want to rub the bottoms and even the sides…
clean the bottom… the back
… and the sides too
STEP 3 :
turn them over and let them dry… simple ! i dry them over a small towel over the bed rest so that nothing is spoiled beneath and my munchkin cannot reach all the way there to pick the wet ones only to dirty them more before they dry out.
quick dry method
since crocs and shoes of similar material dry out quickly it only takes a while to pick them up again and slid them onto the ‘ready-to-run’ feet. you might want to consider keeping them under the sun for a more woolly or cloth material.
white n bright
my son has 6 pairs of footwear but these 2 are his favorite of them all. and why not, mum washes them every week. they are far more better to wear na??
my champ
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