Pinterest Plunders: Cool Whip Egg Dyeing

Pinterest Plunders! The place where Pinterest Pins get recreated and rated a Pass or Plunder. Sometimes they Pass the test of DIY Divas and sometimes this DIY Diva plunders those pins (but not purposely- I really try my best to recreate pins I like).

This week is Easter! The week of egg dyeing, Easter baskets, and celebrating Christ's resurrection. A pretty cool little pin about egg dyeing came across my computer screen yesterday and the hubby and I just had to try it out. We decided to let our little girl help and use it as a sensory craft for her sensory disorder. She had fun but for some reason didn't consider the project as a craft and didn't care for getting her hands "dirty". 

This is what the cool whip colored eggs are supposed to look like once dyed. Ours turned out ... Well take a look. 

We started out with boiling our eggs in vinegar and water. After they cooled we patted them dry and then began to dye them. We mixed 1/2 tbs vinegar with 5 drops of food coloring. 

Next we laid a layer of cool whip into a cake pan about an inch thick. Once we completed this step we poured the dye into the cool whip and mixed it in. 

After mixing the dye and cool whip together, we had Maddie bury the eggs. Silly girl was scared to get her hands dirty and after some prompting from mama (more like I shoved her hand into the pan) she began to... No not bury the eggs. Instead she flung what was on her hands all around my kitchen. We had to clean her hands as quickly as possible before she painted my fridge blue.

After successfully burying the eggs, we waited 20 minutes and then rinsed them off. We patted them dry and voila! A beautiful batch of dyed Easter eggs. Now, they aren't as dark or bright as Passion For Savings' video, but they turned out beautifully. 

I would say that this Pinterest Plunder was a PASS! The Pinterest Pin I found this craft from was: http://www.passionforsavings.com/how-to-dye-Easter-eggs-with-cool-whip

If you have a Pinterest Pin you would like me to recreate, please comment with a link to the pin and I'd be more than happy to give it a try. 

New threats to our FTT Journey

I wanted to update everyone on our Failure to Thrive journey. We have had some very interesting past few months. In my last blog post I reported on our meeting with the Occupational Therapist. Since seeing her we have started Maddie on the new eating rules, chewy tubes, and have begun to really pay attention to her calorie intake. We have had some great days and some pretty stressful days but are still pushing forward. February 1st we had a Dr's appointment for my youngest. The girls' Dr was shocked and scared at how Maddie was looking. Maddie, at the time, had red all around her eyes from not getting a nap all day and the veins in her forehead were more prominent than usual. Maddie looked pretty sick at that moment which freaked out her Dr. She Dr gave us some suggestions and a major warning. She said that if Maddie didn't gain any weight in one month then she was going to hospitalize Maddie. She would settle for even one pound. Her (almost) exact words were "You need to crack the whip and get her to drink 3-4 Pediasures a day. She needs to start gaining weight or I am putting her in a hospital by the first of next month." This is something we did not want to hear.

This mama cried her eyes out all night. I held my little girl close and prayed for her, squeezed her and tried overcoming my personal feelings so we could focus on the task at hand. At that moment I felt like such a failure. I failed my daughter. I failed to get her to eat, gain weight and now we were being threatened with Maddie being forced away from us and hospitalized for 10-14 days. All I could think about was her being alone and scared in that hospital. I pictured the Dr's forcing food and drinks down her throat till they were satisfied. I pictured her crying for her mommy and daddy and so alone and scared wondering what she did to deserve this treatment. My mind probably went a little crazy and over exaggerated the extent of treatment that Maddie would be getting but it did send me into a worry frenzy. I decided to do what I normally do when presented with a problem that I needed answers to; I worry researched.

I was researching ways to increase her calories till 2 am! I reached out to other moms on a  hunch and it paid off! I found this new calorie increasing supplement called Benecalories. It is a 1.5 oz container which is a whopping total of 330 calories and 50% fat. The contents look like coffee creamer and are tasteless. They just change the texture of drinks a little by making them a little thicker. These things are a godsend! Expensive but very much worth it. I can make one of Maddie's Pediasures go from 240 calories to 620 with the help of the Benecalories and some Hershey's syrup for flavoring. This makes reaching our 1000 calorie goal much more attainable and less stressful.  Maddie at first didn't care for the Benecalories but has seemed to have gotten used to it. We have been able to reach 1000 most days with the help of these little things and yes we have been cracking the whip. I hate the pressure and stress this puts on us all but for the moment it is working.

Our Family's FTT Journey: Meeting the OT

It has been some time since I last posted about our Failure To Thrive journey, so I thought I’d give you an update. In the last blog post I listed the new rules for our little monkey to follow for eating. My new rules were based off of what I read in the book “Helping Your Child with EPE (Extreme Picky Eating)”.  We have since seen an Occupational Therapist (OT) and have had a few more trips to the Dr.’s office. 

To say that our OT gave us some hope is an understatement. We were very happy with how our appointment went and with the new techniques that the OT wanted us to start using. She loved the new rules I presented her and even added a few herself. We discussed Madison’s eating habits, foods aversions, sensory issues, and oral motor issues. She noticed that Maddie had an issue rotating her jaw when chewing and preferred biting her fingers to biting food.  After examining and discussing Madision, our OT implemented a these new rules:

• Madison is to use a chewy tube when she wants to bite down on something. This will save her fingers and help with her oral motor issues.
• She will use a good bye bowl to dispose of food that she doesn’t want to eat. She has to kiss, lick, blow or tap the food to her teeth before disposing of it into the bowl.  What goes in the bowl does not come out.
•  No liquids one hour before a meal. Pediasure is given after she is done eating. Solids are always given first
•  Let her know she doesn’t have to eat it
•  Talk about the properties of foods: texture, color, and so on.

Since obtaining these new rules and having my list approved, we have tried to implement them all to the best of our ability.  It isn’t easy to stay on a routine, especially when having to be out and about running errands or attending Dr.’s appointments.  Sadly, since starting these new routines, Madison’s eating has gotten worse.  She refuses her Pediasure often, she suddenly doesn’t like her ‘safe’ foods, and will only eat unhealthy foods. She refuses to drink shakes or smoothies now, and hasn’t gained any weight.

Our stress levels have gone through the roof. Some people tell us not to worry because it is just a phase, while others scare us with thoughts of having the need of a GI feeding tube placed. We are trying to avoid the hospital and GI tube as best we can. These treatments are worst case scenario and I pray we are not headed there.  We are taking things one day at a time and we shall see where we go from here.

Misconceptions of being a "Perfect Mom"

      Perfect. We all strive to be the definition of this word. Whether we are trying to be impeccable parents, children, employees, business owners or trying to perfect a skill, we strive to be unequaled. The sad truth is that no one is perfect. We cannot and will not ever be faultless people or beyond compare at anything. So why do we push ourselves so hard to achieve a level of perfection that we set? We work our fingers to the bone and only end up hurting ourselves, pushing people away and creating this false sense of perfection which we will never amount to. Why do we do this? I believe we are made to feel guilty and take our cues from society, TV, Pinterest and Facebook.
      I am a Pinterest addict. I cannot lie about that. I am usually on Pinterest pinning things that I like or want to do (which most things I pin I never recreate or use) in the least 3 times a day. I get all of my ideas from there.  I won't lie but Pinterest has saved my butt many times when it has come to gift ideas, crafts and quick dinner recipes. There is a major downfall to Pinterest, however, other than making you such an addict. Pinterest gives mothers a false sense of what a perfect mother should be. I can click on a pin which will take me to the blog which that pin was linked to and read all the wonderful things that mother does with her kids. Multiple pins from the same mom are posted with all the cool DIY projects, crafts, dinner ideas and so on. I look at these blog posts and pins and start to feel like an inadequate mother. I begin telling myself that I have to be a better mom. I have to do more things with my kiddo crafts wise, cook better dinners, keep my house sparkling clean, and make my kids snacks from scratch. I'll be darned if I'm going to order a cake for my kids birthday instead of be the creative and do-it-all mom who makes a perfect themed cake.

          Now don't get me wrong, Pinterest is awesome. I love Pinterest. I love repining and getting ideas, reading the blog posts that are linked to these pins and trying to better myself as a mom. My problem with some of these pins and blogs is that they give a false sense of what a mom should be able to achieve. I myself started to stress and freak about about my house, my kiddo not learning enough or me not doing enough DIY. I wore myself down just thinking about all I had to do that day and trying to complete these long lists I had written. Facebook, TV and society all advertise moms that can do it all. One minute they are making their kids lunches for school, the next they are finishing their kids science projects and baking cookies for class snack day all before they head off to work. When they get home they make dinner, help with homework, clean the house, do the laundry and even have time to do a DIY project. Before bed they have date time with their spouse, some mommy relaxation time and then off to bed for a long peaceful nights sleep.  While all that is great and wonderful, lets be honest, can you do all that? The reality of it is you're lucky to have made your kids lunch and even remembered to eat breakfast before getting the kids to school on time.
     Moms these days are overworked. We don't need society telling us that we aren't great moms because we don't have our houses cleaned each day or that we don't do enough with our children. We need to stop looking at all the things that some moms are able to accomplish and start looking at what we are able to achieve. I have come to realize that the perfect mom isn't one who can do it all. The perfect mom isn't a mom who wears an apron all day, has a smile slapped on her face every minute, and is a perfect replica of skills like Mary Poppins. The perfect mom is one who spends time with her family, keeps them healthy, shows she cares and is there for them no matter what. The perfect mom is one who kisses booboos, tries her hardest to do all she can for her family, and when the going gets tough, is the calm in the storm. Looking back at my childhood I don't remember a perfectly cleaned house all the time (although my mom kept our house pretty clean and is known by other family members as a clean freak- love you mom!), my mom making our food from scratch each night, or each craft she did with my brother and I. What I remember most was the love, attention, fun trips, her kissing our booboos and her being there when it mattered.

       We as moms need to be there for each other, encourage each other and stop tearing each other down. I love mommy blogs. I learn so much from them, but I have to remind myself each day that I am not a false sense of what a perfect mom is. I cannot do everything that these moms can. Every parent has a different situation which allows them to do different things. We all raise our kiddos differently and have misconceptions of what we need to be and do to be perfect.
       So moms, help each other out, boost each other up and be perfect. Perfect in the sense that your kids see you as a superhero. It's time you should as well. What will they remember when they get older? Would you rather them remember a mom who was a frazzled mess all the time trying to do so many things that she didn't have the time to just sit down and play? I'd rather be known as the mom who gave my children the best memories possible just by being there and loving them. To my mom, thank you for giving me great childhood memories and for showing me what being a great mom is all about.