Mommin' It Up!

October 10, 2013October 31, 2013

Giveaway: Kellogg’s Love Your Cereal!

This post is brought to you by Kellogg’s and The Motherhood, and I’ve been compensated for my time. However, all opinions are my own.
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Breakfast (and sometimes snacks. And also dinner) in our house include one main ingredient – cereal. I’ll be honest, I’m not one to whip up seasonally-themed Pinterest-esque pancakes, especially on a school day. Actually even the thought of making pancakes on a school day makes me laugh.

In full disclosure, I don’t even feed my kids breakfast on school days. I leave that to my sister to handle after I drop them off at her house. But I do participate in one way – I provide the cereal for her to feed them. And I’m perfectly comfortable with this arrangement.

Kellogg’s knows we’re busy, but they also know we want to get some good things into our kids’ bodies – including fiber. Kicking off the day with a fiber-ful breakfast helps get the recommended amount in every day, and Kellogg’s offers more ready-to-eat cereals that are a good source of fiber than any other brand. And we’re not talking Bowls Full o’ Twigs, either – Kellogg’s Froot Loops, Apple Jacks, and Mini-Wheats all have between 3-6 grams of fiber, and kids will gobble them up.

We got a Love Your Cereal package in the mail the other night, and despite the fact that we’d just finished dinner, Sam had to have some Froot Loops.

He also loved Toucan Sam!

Kellogg’s want YOU to Love Your Cereal too, so they’ve given us a Love Your Cereal kit to give away. The kit includes:
— 3 Boxes of Kellogg’s cereals (one box each of Frosted Mini-Wheats, Froot Loops and Apple Jacks)
— My Plate Game: a fun way to introduce and reinforce skills related to My Plate and healthy living.
— Toucan Sam plush toy
— Mini Wheats Soaking Cereal Bowl
— Tony the Tiger Spoon Set

Here’s how to enter:
Leave a comment on this post. Easy enough, right?

Optional 2nd entry: Tweet about this giveaway (you can copy and paste this): “Enter to win a @Kelloggs_US Love Your Cereal Kit from @momminitup @jennyitup http://bit.ly/GNqzDj #LoveYourCereal” and leave a comment on this post with your tweet URL.

Optional 3rd entry: Click to re-pin our pin of this post! Then come back here and leave a comment on this post with the URL of your pin.

ONE winner will be chosen at random on Wednesday, October 16, 2013 at 6pm EST. Good luck!

(Click here for the official rules from Kellogg’s.)

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October 10, 2013October 10, 2013

Review: Disney Fairies Fly and Go Seek Game

The Wonder Forge sent me this game to facilitate my review. All opinions are my own.

I have mentioned a few a million times on this blog that I LOVE the Wonder Forge. They are the makers of incredible board games for children. Several of their games were instrumental in my work at home with Sophie on her speech delay, and I can’t wait until Jonah is ready for games!! So, anytime the Wonder Forge asks me if I want to review something, I say yes if it is at all appropriate. I was thrilled to get their note about this Disney Fairies Fly and Go Seek game because Sophie loves Disney Fairies AND games! I knew it would be a big hit with her, but I am happy to report it is also a big hit with me and even Daddy!

Here’s what I like about it:

1) It comes in a handy and adorable storage bag. It doesn’t take up a lot of space and is much easier to store than our other games.

2) It keeps us active! Want to get some energy out on a rainy day? This is the perfect game. You have to “fly” from room to room while a timer ticks to collect cards – it’s fun and has left this mom a little breathless!

3) It makes you think. In this game you have to use your memory and some strategy to win. It’s great for teaching matching, pattern recognition, and for helping kids learn to follow directions.

4) It’s just FUN. The rules are simple and easy to learn. A 3-year-old could easily play this with a little help from a parent, yet it’s still great fun for my almost-seven-year-old.

This is a winner, my friends! If you have a fairy lover, or a game lover, this is sure to be a hit! Fly and Go Seek is available for $15-ish at Amazon, so it’s a great value, too.

Thanks to my friends at the Wonder Forge for making great games for our kids! Can’t wait to see what you guys do next.

What’s your favorite game to play with your kiddos?

October 9, 2013

Be Glad I’m Not Your Mom: Sick Toddler Edition

sick jonah — Yes, this IS as fun as it looks!

So, Jonah is sick with a bad cold. It is just that, a bad cold. Low fever, bad cough, lots of snot, nothing a doctor can do anything about. And what else does he have that a doctor can’t fix?

A mother who is super, super OVER IT. This is day 5, people. DAY FIVE. At the outset I can be super-cuddly-let-me-soothe-you-my-poor-baby Mom, but by now I’m like suck-it-up-and-quit-your-whining-a-cold-is-no-excuse-for-tyranny Mom. OH MY GOSH!!!!

Jonah is my kid who gets, pardon my French, SUPER-PISSED when he’s sick. My usually cheerful boy wakes up mad at the world and screams about anything and everything for the first hour or two of his day. Especially if one of the other two kids opens their mouths or approaches him. So this morning I’m like, at the end of my rope on DAY FIVE, yelling at the other kids to QUIT TALKING, because it makes Jonah mad. Yes, that’s right. The Snot King demands ABSOLUTE SILENCE. And he would also prefer that you don’t look at him. Avert. Your. Eyes.

Part of the reason my fuse is so short is because when something hangs on this long, worry sets in. Every coughing fit causes me great anxiety. Last night his temperature went up half a degree and I was mentally on my way to the emergency room. I try to push the panic aside as I forge ahead slathering Vicks (silver lining: I LOVE THE SMELL OF VICKS!) all over his chest, which makes him scream, which makes me irritable and shortens that ever-shrinking bit of nerve I’ve got left. Every time I take his temp or – God-forbid – give him medicine, I have to wrestle him into submission. It. Is. Exhausting.

His cough has woken him up, kept him up, and shortened his much-needed naps, which does nothing for either of our moods. And all of it, the lack of rest, the worry, the irritation, has made me pretty much non-functional in other areas. My house is a wreck, I can barely write a coherent thought, and it takes a huge amount of effort to do the dishes or make a peanut butter sandwich or OH MY WORD, help the big kids with HOMEWORK. As a matter of fact, my head about explodes when the older two walk in from school. Meeting the demands of Angry Toddler while trying to meet the needs of the other kids almost undid me last night. My ability to multi-task is NIL at this point.

In addition, Jonah has missed his toddler speech class (you know, the one he hates but HAS to get used to before preschool??) for two weeks in a row because he also had a weird one-day fever last Tuesday, which is his class day. So that causes me stress as well. If he is not better for his regular speech therapy session tomorrow, you will find me standing on the edge of a bridge.

I know this is just a cold. I know it is not a big deal. I know it could be much worse. I ALSO KNOW I CAN’T WAIT FOR IT TO BE GONE. I know I have lost most of a week. I know I miss my cheerful boy. I know it is going to be very difficult for me to wean him back off of TV. I know I am really, really, glad I bought a 2 Liter of Mountain Dew on my escapade to find homeopathic cough medicine last night. I know this too shall pass.

I also know you should be very glad I’m not YOUR mom.