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Listerine’s October Oral Care Challenge

Posted on October 27, 2009 12:56 pm by TheAngelForever

Growing up, I learned the importance of good dental care. My parents both had a lot of dental work and made sure that my brother and I took care of our teeth. We went to the dentist every six months, used fluoride pills, had fluoride treatments done each visit, and brushed and flossed every day. To say that I was afraid of getting cavities would be an understatement. Just before my 30th birthday, I went to the dentist. The hygienist told me that if I had never had a cavity before this, it was unlikely I ever would.

I should have made her take those words back!

Care to guess what happened next? Yes, I was told I had my first cavity and needed a filling. It was very small, but I was a 29 year old baby who was nervous and crying over this.

TechyDad and I have only had two cavities between us. The boys have been brushing their gums since they were infants with no teeth. Oral hygiene is important in our house and the boys know it.

October is a tough month on teeth. Thanks to Halloween, most of us eat a little (or lot) of extra sugary foods. Thanks to this fact, Listerine and Reach created the "October Oral Care Challenge" for kids 6 and older. NHL (6) and I signed up for the challenge when asked by Mom Central. To complete it, we had to brush, floss, and rinse every day, twice a day for two weeks.

Even before the challenge, we were brushing twice daily and are getting much better at making sure everyone flosses in the evening before bed (our one area of weakness when in a rush). This challenge was not something difficult for us since we often do this and were already using some of the products that were sent to try.

Unfortunately, I have to confess something. The October Oral Care Challenge has been tough for us for an unrelated reason. When the items arrived in the mail, I was just getting sick. I had the flu for a week. The next week, my little guy had the flu. We started the two week challenge just after that point and are finishing it now. Sad to say that now one of the other participants, NHL has the flu. We still make sure to brush our teeth when sick, since the bacteria and germs love the warmer temperatures from the fever. What goes out the window are the extra steps like using the Listerine Agent Cool Blue. On these days, we do the brushing to get it done right and quickly. We will definitely continue with this challenge once NHL is feeling better.

NHL was a big fan of the Listerine Agent Cool Blue. He liked swishing it around in his mouth and then looking in the mirror to see what was on his teeth. The blue tint left on his teeth allowed NHL to gain more independence and brush on his own. We could then look in and see how he did and help to finish the job if needed. We also learned through this challenge that it is time for NHL to do this on his own. Thanks to the advice from not only our dentists, but Dr. Kaneta Lott we know what items he should be doing at certain ages. You can read more about Oral Care Smarts here. We also loved the Reach Flosser’s. They helped us to get into the back teeth easier and even allowed NHL to work on flossing solo.

Teaching oral care with our children is important to us and will always be. Our boys have learned this thanks to lots of modeling (they often go with us to the dentist too). We will continue to head to the dentist every six months, as well as brush twice daily, floss and rinse. Be sure to get your Listerine Total Care Coupon & the Listerine Smart Rinse Coupon.

Disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign for Mom Central on behalf of Listerine and Reach and received Listerine and Reach products for the Oral Care Challenge and a gift certificate to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Categories:
Blog Tour health awareness me moments nhl photos

Picking 35 pounds of apples

Posted on October 25, 2009 8:07 pm by TheAngelForever

After we picked up NHL from Hebrew School, we went home for lunch. Thanks to the events yesterday, we opted not to go to Six Flags today. Once we were done eating, I suggested that we see if the apple orchard was still allowing pick your own. We went online to check things out and sure enough they were. Today was actually the last day of the pick your own season.

So we packed up the boys and went to the orchard. In just about an hour, we managed to pick all of these apples:

That would be three bags that were not quite filled all the way, yet totaled approximately 35 pounds of apples! Yes, we are now coming up with recipes to use all of these apples in. Of course, the boys and I chowed down on five very large apples that were probably a few pounds right there.

When we drove there, we were not too sure what to expect. Would there still be plenty of apples? Did the frost we had ruin the apples already? Would a lot of other people be there and cause crowds while we explored the orchards? Did we dare go and risk a sudden turn of the weather?

Well, here are the answers to all of the questions:

1 – There were plenty of apples on the trees. Check them out:

2 – The frost was not kind to the look of the apples, but there were plenty that still taste quite amazing. There were a lot of apples that were on the ground.

3 – It was pretty empty at the orchard today. We only saw a few people here and there once we were out among the apples and trees. Most of the time, the only people we saw were hauling their bags of apples to the stand to pay and leave.

4 – The weather was gorgeous. There were absolutely no clouds in the sky. Who knew the fall could be so nice?!

The best part of the adventure was watching the boys (all three of them). They had so much fun and the little guy’s reaction to all of the apples was priceless. At almost two and a half, this is the first time he has gone apple picking. More photos of the kids picking the 35 pounds of apples coming soon.

If you have a great apple recipe (or more) to share, I wold greatly appreciate it. As you can see, we have a lot of apple baking/making ahead of us this week.

Categories:
food glorious food fun my boys photos weather weekend yummy

Lots of learning in 1st grade

Posted on October 24, 2009 8:11 pm by TheAngelForever

Dear NHL,

Today was a rough day for all of us. For some reason, every little thing was a battle. You were defiant, rude, and had a major attitude. We are not sure where you picked up this behavior, but it has to end. Daddy and I hope that this is not something you do at school since your teacher has never mentioned it. Even if we are upset with you, always know that we love you.

This week, you got your first progress report at school. Your teacher said that you love to learn and pick up new things quickly. You received an "E" (excellent) in almost everything and the rest were all S+ (just under the E). The only thing she mentioned is that you need to work on sitting and raising your hand since you get so excited to share your thoughts. This is definitely a skill that most first graders learn during the year, so we are not worried. As you know, Mommy taught first grade and remembers all of the kiddos with the wiggles. We can not wait to see your full report card, which we get the day before we see The Wiggles.

Another big event from the past week was finally starting Hebrew School. The first week was before all of the Jewish Holidays at the end of September and start of October while we were at Cousin S’s birthday party. Thanks to all of the time off and a new teacher, you were a little worried. We walked you in to meet your teacher and left you. When we came back three hours later, you were happy. You talked about making your Torah and having fun during Israeli Dance time.

Tomorrow, we will talk to your teacher to let her know that your homework was a little confusing for us. As you saw tonight, Mommy and Daddy can read Hebrew some, but we do not know much in the way of vocabulary.

Love,

Mommy

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If you want to participate in Dear Kid Saturday, head on over to Cutest Kid Ever by clicking on the button below.

Categories:
Dear Kid Saturday nhl photos school weekend

Texting time has come

Posted on October 23, 2009 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

On Sunday, TechyDad and I took made some major decisions of the technological kind. We finally decided to to ditch our landline (which was with our cable company) in order to save a pretty penny each month. They were able to port our number over and we have an extra cell phone in our house to use for that purpose. In addition to this, we finally upgraded our cell phone plans to include unlimited texting and photo messages. Prior to this, I had probably sent out only a dozen or two text messages. Part of this was the cost, the other the horrible phones that made texting a pain.

We shopped around over the weekend at AT&T and Verizon Wireless. In the end, we stayed with Verizon because for the same price each month, we could keep our home phone number. They also had no hidden fees, no activation costs and the rebates for two of the phones did not require a $20 data plan for the first month (talk about strange catches w/AT&T).

The person that helped us at Verizon Wireless also told us to go online to purchase three of our phones for FREE! So I present you with my new baby. She is really pretty, shiny, new and allows me to text like crazy. . . wow this is addictive (thank you Twitter text). Sorry about the bad glare in the photos.

So my questions for you are inspired by my new fun ~~toy~~ cell phone:

Do you have a cell phone plan that gives you unlimited texting ability? Do you still have a landline phone at home?

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #71

Categories:
Aloha Friday decisions jl photos shopping

Portrait conspiracy of the 6 yr old kind

Posted on October 22, 2009 9:39 am by TheAngelForever

Last night, we FINALLY took NHL to get his six year portraits done. Yes, he turned six two months ago, but who’s counting?! Throughout the entire thing, I kept thinking that there has to be a conspiracy. There must be more going on behind the scenes that happens when you go to these studios.

#1 – YESTERDAY, they changed the prices. Just our luck. We wait this long and they do it on the day that we finally go in. *sigh* Had the flu not gotten our house, we probably would have done this 2-3 weeks ago. Oh well, what can you do?

#2 – There has got to be something in the air once you enter the studio zone. The kids are great and cooperative when out in the waiting room. The second they walk into the actual room with the camera all bets are off. This happened in June with JSL for his 2 year portraits (had to do them twice since he would not stay still) and this time it was NHL’s turn. It was like someone was pumping sugar into his veins. He was bouncing off the walls after the first few pictures. NHL would wiggle, dance like he had ants in his pants, and look at the computer monitor instead of the camera.

#3 – Although you never really get the perfect photo, you select the best of the bunch just so you do not have to trudge back again for a second round of "fun" and excitement. I definitely felt this way last night. Even now I am second guessing what was ordered because I sort of like a different one more. Oy!

#4 – The child that is not celebrating their "birthday" is always the better behaved one. That child is the one that will pose, sit quietly and help to make the session work. I swear in May, I am telling NHL it is for him and not for JSL to test this theory.

So, you want to see some of the photos? Here are some thumbnails of the ones taken (sorry they are not the best). First up are the photos with the 6. We took dinosaur and Nintendo/Mario props with us. Two with dinosaurs made the photographers cut and only one with Nintendo.

We went with the first one because it was the best. TechyDad liked that one more than #3 because of the smile on NHL’s face. #2 was never really in the running.

Next, NHL was asked to go onto the floor. The photographer captured this gorgeous shot (this does not do it justice):

From this point on, the session started to go downhill. NHL was wired and did not listen well and could not stay still. He was looking the other way, doing a goofy smile, or something else that a six year old boy would do. Only three from this section made the photographers cut. (Please note the bad cropping was the program I used and not the studio)

Then we decided to be really brave and toss JSL into the photos. We were shocked that it was the little guy that was listening to what the photographer said (unlike at his portrait session in June). The photographer tried a few cute poses, but the little guy had a hard time balancing. Still, she sold us on this one: