Things I've Been Doing - May 27, 2012

Wearing skirts and new shoes.

Wearing dresses and new shoes.

Using my FastPop to make popsicles.

Making popsicles with cold-brewed coffee,  almond milk, and agave.

Making popsicles with low-fat yogurt and Trader Joe's  cookie butter (speculoos/Biscoff spread).

Going to hippotherapy.

How are you?

Last Thrifting Trip Before the Long Summer - May 23, 2012

School is out on Friday for the summer...and it's going to be a long one. We have no camps lined up, but we do have four therapies, the pool, the work-and-play spot, a few girls who have volunteered to help out and play with my kid while I'm home...we should be OK.

But that said, I'm trying to get everything done before I find my time extremely limited. First, most exciting, tonight my husband and I are going on a CHILDFREE DATE. A friend of mine has volunteered to watch my daughter with her two daughters (who are adorable, wonderful, and sweet to my girl). I'm so excited I can't stop grinning.

And yesterday I ran off to have one last hurrah with my friend Amy and hang out, relax, and...shop, yeah. I didn't get much - I wasn't feeling the magic yesterday, but also I honestly don't need much to get me through the rest of the summer. Still, I had a ton of fun.

What you won't see are the seven books I bought for my kid's classroom - her teacher asked for new books, and I was glad to be able to provide. The woman at the thrift store for some reason gave me an incredible deal and only charged me $2 for the whole pile, which included two new Fancy Nancy books, a book about Yankee Doodle, Duck and the Truck, a giant board book version of Moo Baa La La La, a paperback of Quack Quack Moo, and one other that I can't remember.

Here's what I got at the Humane Society:

Soooo cute. 50 cents.

Plain turquoise T, Red Sawx St. Patty's Day T (soft! comfy!) - 50 cents each.

More breaking out of my comfort zone - orangey-reddish Old Navy capris. $1.

Crinkle cutter! Now my carrot and butternut squash fries can look cute - I've been looking for one of these for FOREVER. 50 cents!

Ridiculous gothy witchy dress that actually fits nicely and looks cute. I say it's meant for "Princess Dragonblood Isis" or something - but I finally gave in and thought maybe I'd wear it for Halloween. $2.

Absolutely adorable dress that is poorly photographed. Can't wait to wear this one. $2.

Comfy flowy lovely dress - I love this one too. $2. Trust me, it's great.

We wandered into Goodwill, scoffed at the prices, and I bought a single Backyardigans book for my kid for $1.50.

Then we went to our other favorite indie store, where I scored...

SQUEE! AND OMG! AND WHEEE! The 70s Weight Watchers recipe cards as seen at Candy Boots/in the Amazing Mackerel Pudding Plan/made fully humorous by Wendy McClure! SIXTY CENTS.

Could you just die???

AND a full set of Betty Crocker recipe cards from the same era! These were also 60 cents OMG.

Men's Favorites. Indeed.

I think these were $2 each - plain brown shirt, and P-A-T-S Pats Pats PATS! shirt.

Super cute beach bag for the summer. $2.

And finally, I had a $50 Target gift card that I'd earned from MyPoints. I decided that despite the fact that we're having some financial issues (two freelancers + one disabled child = things can get kind of sticky), I was going to spend this on ME...

I'd been staring at this bag for months, figuring I'd wait until it went on clearance. Instead, my local Target ran out of this design. I was at a different Target, saw it, and gave in to its charms. 

The story is the same for this. I really really really want a Zoku (anyone want to buy me one?) but I saw this and figured I'd wait for it to go on sale. Here's the ridiculous part - the reddish one was on sale for $25. The blue one that I bought was on sale for $24. The blue ones that were on the fancy summer display at the front of the store that had an item number that was identical but ended in an R...were not on sale at all and cost $30. (I checked all the prices with the store scanner.) WTF Target. Not cool. Anyway, the parts are drying right now and will go in the freezer tonight. Note that this, the Hamilton Beach FastPop Gourmet Pop Maker (68772 for blue, 68773 for red, 68772R for...something weird at Target), is the NEW version. When I looked for reviews of this product, I came up with an older version that required a key (Zoku-style) and that had terrible reviews. This one doesn't seem to have been reviewed yet - so I will let you know!

 And that ends my shopping for...quite some time.

Honey Bunches of Oats Contest and Review! - May 15, 2012

Disclaimer: Post provided a free sample of its Honey Bunches of Oats - Honey Roasted for me to review. All opinions expressed in my blog are mine - as always. Post also provided me with the prizes for the contest/giveaway - keep reading for more!

I haven't been eating much cereal on Weight Watchers because for a while I couldn't be trusted to not eat an entire box in a sitting. However, now that I've learned the tools to keep that impulse in check, I'm back to enjoying cereal once in a while.

Honey Bunches of Oats is one of my favorite cold cereals, and it was nice to be able to revisit it. I have always liked the contrast of the light flakes with the denser, crunchier "bunches." Now that I'm watching my weight, I particularly like that it's not oversweetened - there are only 6 grams of sugar in a serving (3/4 of a cup - make sure you measure that out!) and 10 grams of whole grain. And if you are good about measuring out that serving, it's just 3 Points Plus. I made mine with 1/3 of a cup of almond milk, which is zero points, making this a nice light part of my breakfast. It also would make an excellent afternoon snack!

Would you like to try Post's Honey Bunches of Oats? Thanks to A Place to Write Things and the generosity of Post, can win two - TWO! - coupons for a free box of any variety in their line. There are two sets of two coupons available. Just enter with Rafflecopter and you'll be alllll set.

(U.S. residents only, please.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I got me some horses to ride on...to ride on... - May 4, 2012

I am always looking for new things for my kid to try if it will help her in some way. If it's noninvasive and affordable and accessible to us, I'll give it a shot. I've been hemming and hawing about hippotherapy for months now. Possibly years. I definitely wanted hippotherapy to be a part of our repertoire, but until very recently I didn't sit down and actually make the calls and fill out the paperwork. A few weeks ago I did, and yesterday she had her first session.

I had been warned by a few people that it was possible she'd be afraid. She wouldn't necessarily want to pet a horse, nevermind go anywhere near one. However, I know my fearless daughter and I wasn't worried. A few weeks before I started the process, we took her to watch a friend's (neurotypical) daughter ride. My kid squealed and waved and petted that horse right on the nose. Yeah, I wasn't worried.

I didn't need to be. In fact, I could barely hold onto her once the pony was brought out all saddled up. My daughter twisted and turned in my arms as she reached reached REACHED to get near that horse. We handed her over to the therapists (warm, wonderful, delightful therapists!) and, well...she was the happiest I've seen her in a long time. In fact, these sessions last as long as they need to and as long as the kid cooperates, and my daughter did NOT want to stop riding. At all. At the end of the session she let the horse give her a kiss and a hand-nibble.

And I noticed immediate results. I did not get the miracle I am always hoping for, admittedly. Sometimes I believe that this is the thing that's going to make her stand up and walk across the room like a scene in the movie. That's not reality. But she felt stronger, immediately. Her babble seemed more organized, her words had a new clarity. Yet the bottom line was that SHE LIKES THIS - so if we simply look at it as an afterschool activity like any other kid might do, that's plenty for me. But it's also therapeutic, and that is just amazing.

So now there's PT, OT, speech - in school and out - and hippotherapy. We're on a waiting list to get evaluated for an AAC device too, and I have great hopes for that path as well. We'll swim a lot this summer and maybe someday I'll get her into aquatherapy too. We're moving forward, and she's moving forward. Her teacher recently showed us the incredible progress she made from last year to this year (based on one of those formal tests, of course - all the little numbers/percentiles went UP UP UP). Progress. It's all I can ask for. It's all I want. And it's wonderful.

Check out the Children's Place's Summer Line! #placepoolparty - May 2, 2012

Thanks to a sweet friend (who will remain anonymous unless she gives me the OK to say her name here), I was able to participate in a media event in Atlanta for the Children's Place and check out their new summer line of clothing for newborns, babies, and older boys and girls. And let me tell you, I had a BLAST.

Disclosure time! Right up front. You love it. I was given a gift card with which to shop, courtesy of the Children's Place, and I was given a special one-on-one tour of the store and the new line. However, all opinions are my own - and let me assure you, I'm going to be brutally honest here. 

I feel like TCP (can I call you TCP? Great!) is trying to reposition itself more in line with BabyGap and Gymboree and to move a bit away from where I always saw it, which was as at the same level as Carter's/OshKosh (which I am a huge fan of but I also know is a slightly lower-end brand with prices to match). TCP has hired a new designer away from - what a coincidence - BabyGap, and the pieces I saw today definitely showcase a new direction.

The summer line is full of neon colors (I don't know WHY I know this, as I am fashion challenged, but those are very IN right now). It's also full of details - sequins, extra stitching, accessories, and so on. I like that. Some of the dresses I saw even reminded me of high-end brands like Tea Collection in the general detailing.

I found the prices very reasonable overall. Some things cost a bit more than I would normally spend on my girl (have you been reading my blog? did you perhaps notice that I go to thrift stores a lot? hehe) but other items were definitely priced for my budget. There were some very cute T-shirts that I noticed on my way out the door that were only $5 each - and with the coupons that flow freely from TCP (sign up for their emails! do it!), those could be even less expensive. The most expensive thing I bought today was a Hello Kitty shirt for $13, and licensed items like that do always cost more (I could not resist the KITTY).

Ah yes, I bought. I bought and bought. I was given a generous $100 gift card with which to shop, and I am proud to say that my entire total for everything was $100.08.

This is what I got:

Here's the overview. I stuck with the pink/purple category, as you can see. I like that everything I got matches with everything else I got - and within the store, that was the case as well. Lots of mixing and matching, which is great!

T shirts! The purple and pink have sequins and butterflies and flowers  - but they just don't feel overly girlygirl to me since they're still T-shirts. $10 each. Hello Kitty is....Hello Kitty! $12.95.

I love these shorts. They're the longer style and they'll both go with so many things. They were $12 each.

The khaki shorts peeking in the back were $10. They're true shorts, and they have an elastic waist. Since we're still working on potty training (I'm determined to get that going this summer) those will work well. The pants roll up to become longer shorts, but I'm not sure if they'll fit and/or if I'll keep them. I liked the versatility but the fabric is a little heavy. We'll see when she tries them on. $10.

Super adorable plastic strawberry purse. That I may steal. That I probably will steal. That I love. $7.46!

My favorite piece that I bought today - a sweet denim skirt with a pretty purpley waistband. She might actually wear it because...

Peek-a-boo, there are shorts under there! She doesn't wear skirts that often because she's still usually crawling around or falling as she tries to take steps, so having a skort is a huge bonus. $10 - a steal, I think.

Now a quick note on what I didn't like. I didn't like the bathing suits that were available in her size. While I liked that they have SPF 50 built in (they called it...UPF I think?), the designs were just a bit too grown-up for me. I'm not a prude, I swear, but my five-year-old doesn't need to be wearing a two-piece or an off-the-shoulder suit to look cute. And the one-piece suits had odd detailing on the breast area. No. I skipped those. There was a super-cute rashguard but they didn't have it in my kid's size - I liked it a lot though. And I am not a fan of skinny jeans and/or jeggings for my little girl. That's partly because our situation is different and I need her pants to be easy to deal with, but also it, again, just feels a bit too OLD for a little girl. Leggings yes. Skinny jeans no. (She actually has a pair of skinny-ish jeans that I thrifted and I think she looks kind of weird in them!)

Those are minor issues though. Overall I thought the selection was great and well-thought-out. I also really liked the boy designs - there was one pair of shorts with skulls all over that I considered getting for my girl! It was nice to see a wide selection of styles and colors for the boys - friends with boys, take note! And the newborn stuff was really cute and would make a great baby shower gift because it's affordable so you can get two outfits instead of one.

I would like to thank the local and the imported staff of the Children's Place for hosting this event, and I hope I can participate in future events as well! Whee!

By the way...she looks really cute in the clothes!

My grown-up girl! (Watermarked. Deal with it!)

What's happening with the kid - May 1, 2012

OK, OK, OK. Enough about thrifting. No more about the Ekobrew (STILL my most-viewed post). I'll give you an update on my daughter, who is almost five and who has cerebral palsy (hypotonic - the rare kind, lucky us).

• She now can slide off a chair onto her feet and take up to four steps in a row across the room. They're wobbly steps, but she's doing it.
• She can stand for 30 seconds at a time and even shift weight and turn her body a bit. Stability before mobility - this is good.
• Her speech is improving but sometimes it sounds like she's speaking a very deliberate foreign language to which I've lost the dictionary. She has words, and she'll use them, but she'll also get frustrated very rapidly because I don't understand everything she's saying.
• To that end, we're on a waiting list to get her evaluated for an augmentative communication device/AAC. That probably won't happen for a month or two, but I'm glad we've gotten moving on that.
• She begins hippotherapy this week and I am SO EXCITED. Not just because I love horses and used to ride when I was at camp in the summers. OK that's a lot of it. But also because of the things that hippotherapy can do to help a child like mine. She's so close to walking and talking - could this be the piece of the puzzle that pushes her over the edge? We'll see!
• She's more or less outgrown her walker and it's time for the next one. I have a picture of her from about two years ago when she first got it, and the walker comes up to her armpits. Now she towers over it. I actually think we might buy it out of pocket - it's available on Amazon, I could have it within a week, and the price is extremely reasonable. On the other hand if we were to pursue it in a medical/insurance manner, it could take months, we might actually pay more due to deductibles and hoop jumping (plus time and energy and gas). Nothing's been decided, but I find it funny that in this day and age I can buy something like that. (I know about my other options - I'm just giving you one of them!) Which means that I'd love it if you clicked on any of my Amazon referral links in this here blog and bought things because every bit of Amazon credit I accrue goes toward her walker. Like, hey, I just read this really AMAZING book - possibly my favorite work of fiction that I've read this year - go check it out via my referral link!

• She's also outgrown her SMOs and is getting fitted for those next week. Growing girl!
• She's adorable, gorgeous, and funny. She has tantrums when she doesn't get her way. She loves listening to music on her iPad and making me read the album titles to her. She can read, she knows her colors, she knows her numbers, she can count aloud to three (I believe she can count higher but she stops saying things at three). I adore her.

Tomorrow I'll be taking part in a media event for the clothing store the Children's Place and I am really excited about it! Watch for a post about that in the near future. (They are not making me write a post, but they are going to be giving me a gift card with which to buy brand new clothes. My kid usually wears thrifted clothes - and I have no problem with that! - but getting her some nice new clothes is extra exciting.)

Yes, I went thrifting again - April 25, 2012

I have a feeling these posts about my thrift store finds are nobody's favorite posts but mine, but I enjoy them so you shall DEAL WITH IT.

Yesterday I swore I wouldn't buy much and would focus on the few things I did need. I got a bit distracted, but I had a wonderful day hanging out with Amy and just trying things on, figuring out my new body and new size, and spending not much money at all. Also, randomly, it seems like my feet also lost weight - I apparently have gone down a half shoe size. Go figure.

On with the photographic evidence!

First store, the infamous (if you're a regular reader of my blog, anyway) Humane Society. I spent $12 total there for all of the below:

I think I have enough jeans now. Maybe. Er...you'll see. These were the priciest item I bought at the store - two whole dollars! Hehe.

This skirt is adorable - and it has built-in shorts. At first I thought that was a bit...toddler-y. Then I realized it was fantastic. The skirt is a tiny bit shorter than I usually wear - and it doesn't matter! Whee!

Running skort! I was looking for one of these. At least I can see if I like running in something like this for a small investment and then decide if I want to buy a new one. 

Converse All-Star shirt with cute little blue stars.

Fun skirt. I seem to be focusing on browns this spring/summer - I'm on a quest for (new) brown dressy sandals!

Amy has the magic when it comes to finding Thrashers gear. Sigh. This one fits my husband better than it fits me - we can share.

Running shirt.

I'm kind of undecided on this, but Amy convinced me to get it. It's a velour-y/terrycloth beach coverup thing. It's definitely cute and soft and fits. I'll try it out at the pool this summer.

Shirt for the kid. Hard Rock Munich. I'm not big on the Hard Rock shirt thing, but the design (click to see it bigger)  was really cute.

Ladybug pants for the kid.

Old Navy skirt-with-shorts for the kid. Cute design, fun for the summer.

Next up, Value Village. I've said this before, but I used to be a Goodwill-only girl. Then Goodwill jacked up its prices to what I consider to be high-for-a-thrift-store (but still not awful, especially if they have something specific I want - and still cheaper than new!) and Value Village became more appealing. I like that they price things individually, which means you can find a great bargain - especially if you catch a half-price color (their half-price days are also great, though I haven't been to one in a while). The downside is that they INSIST on stapling the tags to things - often creating holes where holes did not need to be created. They also don't have fitting rooms, so you either have to dress creatively (I used to wear skirts with leggings so I could try on pants, but I haven't really had the energy for that lately) or pull things on over clothes (done that) or just take guesses (which I hate - even a dollar on something that doesn't fit and can't be returned is still a wasted dollar). But still. I like Value Village.

Jeans identical to the ones I was wearing yesterday. $5.29, but half-price color = $2.65, hooray!

A bit of a risk on these denim capris as they're Old Navy and my size, but they're also from a few years ago. Old Navy is *terrible* about both vanity sizing and changing what their sizes mean every so often. But I think they'll be OK. $4.29.

Soft T-shirt. Faux vintage! $2.29.

I went back and forth on this shirt but decided it was cute (the letters and stars are sewn on). $2.29.

Favorite find of the day, and I wasn't even going to try it on but Amy convinced me. $5.29 and really hard to get a good picture of it, but it's brown and turquoise and super duper cute. I may even consider posting a picture of me *in* it!

After that, we checked out a new-ish small store and bought nothing (GASP). Finally we hit another super secret local spot. Everything below was $3 - pretty much all of the clothing there is $3 unless there's a sale or something. Also, everything I bought with one exception was a Target brand. It's not what I usually prefer to do, but I liked everything I picked out and while I did score a tank top for $3 at Tarzhay last week due to sale plus coupon bonusness, most of the time even Target prices just aren't THAT low.

I didn't have a plain brown shirt that fit me in my wardrobe. I have lots of newly purchased brownish skirts though, so I fixed that situation. The shirt is a Converse shirt that I'd seen at the store a few times and always passed up. Today I gave in to its charms.

More jeans - see? I should be done now. Except I'd like more skinny jeans - but I probably won't be wearing that style in the summer so it can wait. The top pair is more denim capris - I'm maxed out on those too. Mossimo all around. 

Cute floofy skirt. IT IS THE SUMMER OF SKIRTS.

Also, I blew off tracking Weight Watchers points at dinner and instead ate queso and chips with abandon (and then didn't eat the tortilla on my spinach quesadilla to sort of balance that out). It was too cold to run on Monday (read: I'm a total wuss) so I'm playing catch up today on that too - but the scale still smiles upon me and I'm feeling good about my ability to maintain the weight loss despite reading a scary article that said that pretty much nobody ever manages to do so. EXCEPT ME.

And I drove today for the first time in quite a while and it confirmed that a) I am a perfectly capable driver and b) I HATE DRIVING SO MUCH. But at least I do it? That's a step. The next step is calling the therapist whose phone number I now have sitting in my email inbox.

And we're working on getting the kid set up with hippotherapy. And I find it amusing how many of my friends thought that involved hippopotamuses (hippopotami?) - it doesn't, it's horseback riding therapy. I have high hopes for it (and the kid isn't afraid of horses! and loves them!) so cross your fingers.