Do you take your own photos?

If so, I highly recommend www.mpix.com!

We just got our Littlest Heroes pictures back today, and oh my goodness...they do such a great job! Our photographer is sending us a CD, but when I asked about printing, she said she recommended Mpix because the photos are the closest thing to what you'd get from out of a studio.

Well, they are awesome, and super cheap! Try them out!

Blog Talk Tuesday: From our Medicine Cabinet

Will is getting ear tubes tomorrow. (Thank heavens.) He and my littlest one have cycled through ear and sinus infections all winter, and the little one is continuing to have issues because of suspected allergies.

A while back, I found a spray at the health food store called Xlear. It is just saline with Xylitol added. Xylitol has been found to combat bacteria, and it is now included in many types of chewing gum for this reason. Anyway, totally natural, totally safe. We started using it with both kiddos whenever we started to see their noses running, especially after a day or so when it isn't looking so clear anymore. I can not tell you how many antibiotics it has saved them from having. Totally recommend it...the stuff is awesome!

Remember to come and share your stories and tips below with Mr. Linky! Directions on how to participate are HERE.

Lose the Training Wheels

I saw a billboard for this today. Lose the Training Wheels is coming to our area and many others across the US during the summer. Will is too young for it, but I know when the time comes, we'll give it a go! Sounds like a really cool camp for many of our kids!

The Littlest Heroes Project

My apologies. My computer has been wacky since the four year old and one year old have decided to fight daily over who gets to play. The one year old likes to tick the four year old off by turning the computer off, mid-game.

I digress.

Tonight we had our Littlest Heroes photo shoot. I can not wait for the pictures!

Very cool giveaway!

This relates to special needs...in a roundabout way that only parents of kids with special needs understand.

So, I never take Will to get pictures taken at JCPenney, Walmart, Picture People, and so on. For many of you, you are already laughing. Do I REALLY need to elaborate? The last professional picture I have of him is at 18 months old. At 2, he kicked the photographer, threw a football at her, ran off the set and I left a total sweaty mess. Needless to say, I never went back. (I did happen to get a really nice school picture this year at age 4, surprisingly.)

Anyway, I recently purchased my first digital SLR camera. I'm determined to take a class this summer to learn to shoot in manual mode so that I can take my own pictures of the kids. It is something I enjoy, but just don't have the knowledge to use the camera properly. Eventually, I think it would be really cool to specialize in special needs photography...one can dream, right?

Soooo, the giveaway. I recently stumbled onto a website called iHeartFaces and they are having a super cool giveaway for a camera bag which really could be used for a diaper bag instead. I have personally been looking for a camera bag, but when I saw this, I thought....this would be *so* much nicer than the dumb bag I carry around full of diapers and Will's favorite Wall-E figurine now. ;) Click here for more info and to see pictures. The one pictured above is my favorite and the one I am seriously thinking about buying. Soon.

Free Montessori Materials

Have you seen this website? Montessori for Everyone has free materials to download and print to use with your kiddos. Look at the right hand column on the home page. You'll find them there.

We have the sensory room in our house set up with a shelf full of activities, Montessori style, for Will and the other kids to use. We do a very loose interpretation of Montessori teaching, but it is typically guided by what he wants to do. All of that might change soon...we're looking into some ABA therapy to see if it would benefit him. Can't say those two mix well together.

Regardless, the materials she has on her website are beautiful and can be used with a variety of kids.

WFMW: The Magic Bullet

Now, before you start giggling (You know who you are!), this is something we bought to puree foods for Will. For those who don't my four year old, he had a feeding tube placed shortly after birth due to aspiration. Just before turning a year old, he cleared his testing and was able to begin eating. Except that getting a one year old to eat who has never eaten a meal in his life is not so simple.

Anyway, a couple of years and many therapy visits later, Will was eating, but needed food pureed. I could never get things to puree smoothly in my blender or a food processor without adding TONS of liquid, which diluted our calorie content - a big issue for us.

Until we found the Magic Bullet. It will puree anything to a stage 2 consistency. And yes, even things like pizza and hot dogs. (I know. Blech.) I wish I had this little gadget when I was making baby food for my six year old. Oh how much easier that would have been!

It worked for me!

Adaptable utensils go mainstream!

Have you seen these? They are made by Boon and are sold at Target or Amazon.com.

The coolest part is...they bend! Special needs catalogs have been selling angled utensils for a while now, usually at a hefty price or with shipping added. These run about $5-6 at Target. Will has mastered eating with utensils, for the most part, but I bought Norah some. She loved them and they worked great!