Homemade Pedialyte

If you've ever had a sick little one in danger of dehydration, you're probably familiar with Pedialyte. Sam has needed it a couple of times, and yesterday at the doctor they told me he had double ear infections and bronchitis. Ouch. After I got him home, he threw up and has since been having near-constant (ahem)... diarrhea. Poor little guy.

Before making the trekk out to pick up some Pedialyte, I thought I would do a little looking around online for alternatives... mostly because the price of Pedialyte makes me think it's actually unicorn tears or something. Lo and behold, I found a recipe to make it yourself! I made a couple of minor tweaks, and wanted to share it with you.

Homemade Pedialyte

2 quarts water

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

7 Tablespoons sugar (I used Stevia for something more all-natural, or you could use honey, but ONLY for a child over one year old)

1 packet sugar free Kool-Aid (or I used 2 Tablespoons of flavored gelatin)

Heat the water in a large pot over low heat - just enough to help other ingredients dissolve. Whisk in remaining ingredients until dissolved. Allow to cool, then chill.

You can pour some into ice cube trays to help keep their drink cold, or freeze with toothpicks to make homemade pedialyte popsicles. I poured some into an ice cube tray, covered it with press n' seal, stuck toothpicks down into the seal to help them stand up straight, then put it in the freezer. After I made it, I thought about adding some kids Emergen-C since that has electrolytes, antioxidents, as well as vitamins and minerals. I'll probably try that next time.

Hopefully you won't need to use this anytime soon, but if you do, I hope it helps!

First Haircut

A few weeks ago, we decided to give Sam his first haircut. It was starting to get pretty long and unruly in the back. I thought about just letting it go and rolling him a rat tail or something, but Mike nixed that idea. He can be a real dream stealer sometimes. (See how cool they can look? If Marty with a rat tail can't convince him, I don't know what will.)

I won't say who accidentally shaved a small bald patch in an unfortunate area, but Mike did mumble something about banning me from the razor for the rest of eternity. Hey, it was his idea to go with the haircut... I'm the one who wasn't afraid to be edgy with the rat tail. Anyway, here's my sweet boy and the wiz hair-stylist in action:

He loved watching himself in the mirror. So much fun!

This was our trick for getting him to sit still. As long as the toothbrush was turned on and buzzing, he was putty in our hands.

Look at how cute he is! Just smiling away at his reflection.

The finished product. You did a great job, Mike! Sorry I called you a dream stealer. In reality, you make all my dreams come true.

The Boy in the Red Pants

*** Warning: this post is long. I tend to word vomit when I haven't blogged in awhile and I'm truly sorry.

The weather was glorious today, so Sam and I tried to make the most of it and spent the afternoon at the park. Sam ran around and had a great time. I could tell that some of the kids and parents thought he was a little too 'friendly', but when did crawling over the other 3 children in the plastic tube over and over again become socially unacceptable? I guess they don't call him "The Bulldozer" in the church nursery for nothing. I apologized as much as I could. I can't decide whether to be excited or worried that he seems to have developed a shoe fettish. After bulldozing a crowd, he'd go back to each of them, point to their shoes and yell "Doooo!!". I know it sounds a little obnoxious, but somehow that seemed to make some amends for the 'dozing.

Anyway, that's not even what I wanted to post about. On to the real story...

While Sam and I were walking around, we kept passing a large group of boys who were running around like banshees with sticks. They were yelling, hitting each other, and just being true boys. I could tell they were trying to form teams for some type of game. I was able to decipher that the team leaders were Jonathan, Drew, and someone who was only referred to as "the boy in the red pants". I wouldn't have thought much of it, but I noticed their voices lowered at the very mention of him. Everyone wanted to be a part of his team. Poor old John and Drew weren't getting much love. I skimmed the crowd of dirt covered shorts, but didn't see any red. Eventually I heard someone ask, "Where is he? Where is the boy in the red pants?". He almost whispered it. You would have thought they were talking about Lord Voldemort or using curse words or something. My curiosity was piqued. No one seemed to know where he was, and at that point Sam decided he wanted to swing, so I lost out on the rest of the conversation.

As Sam played on the swings, the banshee party eventually dispersed among us peasants. I kid you not that I continued to hear whisperings of the red pant-ed mystery. It was pretty amusing, and I got sort of caught up in watching them play. There's something about little boys that just blesses me. The wild abandon, the energy, the enthusiasm, and the rough and tumble-ness of those little hunter-gatherers is just something I love to watch. I guess God really knew what He was doing when He gave me a son... imagine that!

It was getting time for us to leave, i.e. Momma was flat worn out, when it happened. I heard a low rumble forming from the banshee crowd. I looked up and the boys instantaneously formed into groups and were all running towards the creek. In a flash, there he was - the boy in the red pants. There was no question it was him. Time seemed to stand still. His red pants burned my eyeballs. I would have cried if I could have, both because of the emotion of the moment and the fact that his shirt had orange in it and not red. A true crime of fashion. He seemed to move in slow motion as he leapt over the creek in a single bound, stick suspended from his hand. He slashed and burned his way through the rest of the boys like I can rip through a bag of Oreos. He was glorious. Within a minute or two, the massacre was over and he and his men had taken the creek. Victory. The fallen John and Drew clans knew they were beaten, but seemed satisfied in their defeat. It was all over as soon as it had begun, but from the look on the boys faces, history had been made that day.

I packed Sam up and we got in the car. Before we drove off, I looked behind us at the group of warriors, but couldn't spot the boy in the red pants. He had vanished. Gone the same way he came, I guess.

Driving home, I felt blessed to have been a fly on the wall to such a momentous event. I also felt blessed that it was naptime and I knew Sam was good and tired. The boy in the red pants had really taken me back to that time of wonder and imagination as a kid. It's exciting to think that I probably have a guaranteed good seat to more stick fights in my future. And who knows, I might need to buy the 'dozer some red pants one of these days.

When it's grey outside...

... this is one of my favorite things to do:

Fresh homemade cookies somehow make the grey seem ok. Especially when Mike makes a fire in the fireplace. The glorious, simple pleasures of home!

I love having a full jar of cookies on my counter. But the BEST part is definitely this:

Isn't he getting so big? I gave him his own big cookie and he was feeling pretty special. Gosh, I love that boy.