Hannah was shaking her sippy cup of water into some play dishes at her play kitchen. Then she’d stir, pour some into other dishes, stir some more, etc. She was in mini-masterchef mode. I’m quite sure in her eyes, there was more than water. She was creating something.
“What are you making?” I asked her.
Without hesitation, she answered me, as if she’d known through the whole process exactly what it was that she was creating. “Amazing Kung kung!”
I stifled a giggle. Such an imagination my little monkey has! She was so proud of her dish. She brought me some in a cup to drink. I, of course, just pretended.
“Would you like some amazing kung kung Mommy?”
“Mmmmm! This is delicious!” I told her.
When Aaron got home, she was still at it. Slaving away at her kitchen like it was the only thing in the world that mattered.
“What are you cooking?” Aaron asked her.
“Amazing Kung kung!” She told him proudly.
“What’s in Kung kung? Is there flour in it?”
“No.”
“Eggs?”
“No.”
“Butter?”
“Yeah. And pool. And Kung.” She told us.
“Anything else?” Aaron asked her.
“No.”
Inside, we were in hysterics, but we didn’t want to laugh at her when she was having such a great time and using her imagination so well.
The next day, she was making Kung kung again.
“What’s in your Kung kung Hannah?”
“1 cup of sugar, and some water.”
I asked her again today.
“Just water.” She told me.
I guess Kung kung is ever-changing. And ever-hilarious.
I don’t know where Hannah comes up with this stuff, but she sure makes us laugh!
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Hannah loves playing hide and seek. I think if she had someone willing, she could play all day long.
She’s a very good hider.
“Mommy, I want to play hide and seek.” Hannah tells me.
“Ok sweetie, you hide and I’ll count.”
“I’m going to hide in the closet!”
She doesn’t seem to get the fact that I’m not supposed to know where she’s hiding.
“Can you help me mommy, I need help getting into the hamper.”
Her hiding places are so good that she needs help getting into them properly.
In the laundry hamper
Sometimes she can hide herself.
Hiding in her blanket
But then while she’s in her hiding spot, she yells “Mommy! I’m in here Mommy! Mommy, I’m in my bed!” I, of course, pretend I don’t know where she is and go around announcing that I can’t find her.
“Where’s Hannah? I can’t find her anywhere! She’s not in the closet…she’s not under the bed.”
“Mommy, I’m in my bed!”
“THERE YOU ARE! You’re such a good hider!”
Oh, I had no idea you were in your bed….
Sometimes she plays with me and Aaron. Aaron will help her hide while I count.
But she still tells me where she’s going to hide.
“Mommy, Daddy is going to help me hide in the couch!” She tells me excitedly.
This is a favourite spot of hers
Daniel likes to play too.
Daniel finding Hannah
Especially when Hannah hides on Aaron’s and my bed.
Sometimes Mickey gets to play too
She hides in Aaron’s coat.
Where did Hannah go?
And she loves to hide in her stuffed toy bucket. Once we played when Grandma was here and Grandma really had no idea where she was (Grandma is hard of hearing, so she couldn’t hear Hannah’s muffled “I’m in here Grandma!” talking).
Hannah is actually in that bucket.
See, she really is in there
How do your toddlers play hide and seek?
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This is the second instalment of how to make every bite count , in which I review a few recipes for The Main Meal, and of course, attempt to get Hannah to eat meat, and teach Daniel to like, well, everything. As I said in the last post, Hannah pretty much eats like I ate when I was little, and that pretty much drives me nuts. Sigh. At least I eat better now. Apart from the red meat. I still don’t like that. Ick. Except kangaroo. Yeah, I don’t mind a bit of the Aussie icon. All of my fellow Americans are probably cringing at that about now. All the Aussies are probably muttering something like “good on ya mate.”
This week, I cooked Beef casserole and Dumplings. And by cooked, I mean cut up some stuff and threw it in the slow cooker. How I love the slower cooker. Especially since I have kids. I like that I can throw some stuff in there in the morning when the kids are fresh and will entertain themselves, instead of trying to cook something at 6pm when they are tired and whingey and trying to hang off my legs and poke out each other’s eyes.
As you can see, I opted to go with the ‘to cook in a slow cooker’ method. I was going to use sweet potatoes instead of potatoes since neither of my kids like potatoes, but Coles was out of them. At 2pm on a Sunday. Random. So I stuck with the recipe and got normal white potatoes.
I wouldn’t say that the prep time is actually 15 minutes. Maybe I’m just a slow chopper, but by the time you add up all the meat and veg chopping and peeling, plus the zucchini grating and squeezing (which, mind you, is a very messy job) and dumpling making, it was more like 30 minutes of prep time. Luckily it was in the morning, and the kids were cooperative.
Last week, Daniel was in the lumpy/mushy category. Oh wait, I did the last recipe review the week before last. Then we were at Tresillian and I didn’t get one out that week. Sigh. Anyway, last time he was lumpy/mushy. Now, he’s all into the finger foods. I took him and Hannah to the shopping centre the other day at dinner time and bought Hannah a McNugget happy meal (yeah, she’ll sometimes eat chicken if it’s in the form of a nugget. Just like her mommy…). Daniel ate half of her nuggets! He loved them. Just FYI, I don’t always feed my children greasy food. For lunch that day, he had mild green chicken curry with a side of peas, corn and carrots. So there.
This recipe suggests putting the finger food portion into a nice little ramekin/bowl.
HA! Maybe all children aren’t as wild as mine, but if I did that, the ramekin would end up broken on the floor, and the food would be either a) all over me, b) all over Daniel, c) all over the floor with the dish, d) all over the walls, or e) all of the above. No dishes are ever used with my cheeky little monkey, so I just plopped it all on his high chair tray for him to finger.
This is how he eats his food….
He grabbed a carrot and clumsily put it in his mouth. And then spit it straight back out. Sigh. I put a little piece of beef on a spoon and gave that to him. And that went straight back out too. He started making annoyed noises and vigorously rubbing his hands back and forth on his tray, flinging food off it as he did. Daniel didn’t like it. At all. Sigh.
For toddlers, the recipe suggests the little bowl again.
Hannah is fine with little bowls, but prefers one of those melamine plates with the different sections. Since they had steamed vegetables at lunch, I gave them a side of kiwi instead. And cheese. I know Hannah likes cheese. At least there was something on her plate that I knew she would eat.
She took one look at that plate and declared she didn’t want it. She wouldn’t even sit down. She came over and stole the cheese but refused to try anything else for 10 minutes. I finally got her to try a tiny bit of carrot in exchange for giving her something else to eat if she didn’t like it. After all, I just wanted her to try it! She put it in her mouth. And then spit it out onto the floor. Sigh.
When Aaron got home from work, I dished him up a big bowl of the casserole. He likes beef. He was thrilled to be having beef again. I never make him beef. Except for the last time I reviewed one of these recipes. He took a bite.
“Um…I think I want something else for dinner.” he told me. Sigh.
“What’s wrong with it?” I asked.
“It has no flavour.”
This one was a complete miss. Sigh.
If you do want to make it (maybe add a bit of something for flavour…), here are the instructions to make it into smooth puree, and lumpy/mushy:
You can find all of the Make Every Bite Count baby to adult recipes in the e-brochure here.
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I can’t wear my hair down around Daniel anymore. He thinks it’s an awesome fun toy made just for him. Any hint of loose hair and his lightning quick reflexes are all over it, pulling at will and attempting to ingest.
Yeah, I’ve used this image before. Whatever, it takes a long time to draw stuff!
Considering I lost half my hair after giving birth to Daniel, I don’t really want him to pull out what little is left. I’m glad it’s growing back, but now I look like this:
So I wear my hair up every day. I’m a bit time poor. Well, it’s more like if I attempt to make a bit of an effort, and take my time doing my hair, a cheeky baby crawls up to me and tries to climb up my leg whilst making irritated mommy-pick-me-up-now noises. Not to mention Hannah will also be there asking me to play with her. So yeah, I just throw my hair in a low pony tail as quickly as I can and I’m done.
Until I was sent some lovely new Flexi Clips from Lilla Rose consultant,Linda Menke. They came with step by step instructions on how to put your hair up in various styles with the different sized clips. The first day, I decided to do a french twist. Since I didn’t have to loop a pony tail holder ’round and ’round my hair, it took the same amount of time as just throwing my hair in a boring low pony tail.
I thought it would fall out since it was just the one little clip holding the style in place, but it didn’t. It stayed firm all day long. Even after chasing Hannah around Grandma’s back yard. I also like to put my hair half up with the clip.
Hannah wearing a flexi clip
I tried the smallest flexi clip in Hannah’s hair. She looked beyond adorable, and it didn’t fall out. Her hair is stick straight and super slippery, everything else falls out. She went to creche at church with the flexi clip in her hair, played on the slides, ran around, etc. and came out with her hair looking exactly the same as it did going in. She does have a habit of pulling out her hair clips though, so I’m kind of scared of using one on her very often. I don’t want to lose them. I like them too much!
I also tried the crystal bead headband.
I wore it the first time when Aaron and I went out to dinner for Aaron and Sheri Day because it’s so pretty. I have the worst time with headbands. I love them, but they hate me. When I wear the hard plastic kind, it feels like it is trying to slowly burrow it’s way into my skull just above my ears. I always end up taking them off because they hurt. The fabric and/or elastic kind I have to bobby pin to stay in place. Otherwise I stick them on and then they move to the back of my head and then fall off. In record time.
I was expecting to have to bobby pin my lovely pink Lilla Rose head band in place. But I didn’t. I put it on, adjusted the elastic strap at the bottom, so that it was just the right size for my head, and then decided to gamble. I went bobby pin free. We went out to dinner and my head band didn’t budge.
Me wearing the headband before going out to dinner
Lastly, I tried the You pins. I love all things stars, so they were right up my alley. I watched a video on youtube of how to put my hair into a bun using only them. It’s supposed to work for all hair types, thin, thick, coarse, sleek, slippery. But it didn’t work on mine. That or I did it wrong…. That doesn’t mean I won’t use them. I will still put them in my hair when I can be bothered putting my hair in a messy bun. Sure they won’t actually be holding my hair up, but they will still look awesome.
To purchase your own Lilla Rose products, click here. Check out Linda’s facebook page here, and follow her tweets here. Those of you outside the U.S. and Canada, you can’t buy products through the website, but you can email Linda at mrsmenk@menk.us tell her what you want, and she’ll send you a paypal invoice.
GIVEAWAY! Want to win a FREE Lilla Rose product (giveaway provided by Independent Consultant Linda Menke)? All you have to do is like Linda’s Lilla Rose Facebook Page and comment on this blog post with which Lilla Rose item you’d like to win.
Terms and Conditions:
-Giveaway open to people world wide, however, if winner is not residing in the U.S. or Canada, winner is responsible for postage costs
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-Winner will be announced 23 May . Please leave your email address in comment (or email it to me) if you want me to contact you if you win, otherwise you are responsible for contacting me after winner is announced.
Good Luck!
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Last night, Aaron ordered a ukelele on ebay for something ridiculously cheap like 30 bucks including shipping (from the U.S. so that’s pretty darn good)!
Why a ukelele? Aaron wants to start playing his guitar again. So why not have a Hannah sized “guitar” so she can play with him?!
Watch out world, we’ll soon have the female version of this:
I know, adorable right? Just FYI, that little boy doesn’t speak english…
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Yesterday Hannah drew a lovely picture. Well, it was a bunch of scribbles with some different coloured circles in the middle. But you know, I think it was lovely.
She rolled it up, took it to Aaron’s spot at the dining table, and set it down.
“Did you make that for Daddy?” I asked her.
“Yeah,” she smiled as she told me excitedly.
“Oh, Daddy will love to get that when he gets home.”
There it sat, all day.
When Aaron got home, he found it on the table.
“Did you make this for me?” He asked her as he unrolled it happily.
“Yeah.”
“Wow! It’s really nice!” Aaron told her.
“Actually, it’s for Grandma.” Hannah told Aaron as she took it out of his hands.
Oh snap!
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Hannah is finally starting to poop on the potty. It’s only been…hmm…I can’t even remember, but way too long. I’ve cleaned up way too much poo. Ick. Sigh.
And by starting, I mean only just. As in the day before yesterday. Seems marshmallows are worth sitting on the toilet for. Especially the pink ones.
This morning started out well. There was no vomit (because yesterday, there was lots. Ick. I hate vomit. But you all know that well enough by now), Hannah was drinking and eating and playing.
But then I smelled something. Something icky. Something poop-ish. Ick. I thought it was Daniel. A quick smell through his clothes proved otherwise.
“Hannah, do you have to poop?”
“No.”
“Are you just doing stinky toots?”
“No.”
“Who’s making those smells?” Hannah asked me. Usually she admits when she farts. Or poops. Or both. I didn’t think it was her, I thought Daniel must just be farting and not pooping.
I kept smelling it. Hannah’s back was to me.
And there it was. A protrusion from her pants. A clear as day poo coming out (or already out) outline. Ick.
I took her to the bathroom and checked her underpants. A poo nugget had already been freed in there. I stood her on the toilet, one foot on each side and pulled her underwear down, and towards the front of the toilet, in one quick fluid movement. That’s the best way to not get poo on myself, herself, and/or our surroundings. The poo nugget dropped nicely in the toilet without touching anything. Yeah, underpants emptying is a good skill to have. It’s taken me a long time to develop it. Sigh.
“Are you done pooping? Do you need to do some more?” I asked her.
“I need to do some more.” She told me. I sat her down on the toilet, her special I-don’t-want-my-child-to-fall-in smaller seat fitted to the inside of the normal seat.
I stepped towards the door to go get the iPad. Watching Mickey Mouse helps her poop. Whatever works right?
I felt something under my foot. It didn’t feel like a towel. Or clothes. Or a rubber ducky, a bottle of shampoo, a washcloth, a hairbrush, or anything that may be accidentally lying about the bathroom floor (and by accidentally, I mean a toddler and/or cheeky baby put it there).
It felt wrong. Like when I stepped on it, it was one height, and then it shrank as the weight of my foot beat down on it.
I lifted my foot, panic filling me. I knew what it must be. But I was still hoping it wasn’t.
I looked down. And there it was. A squished poo nugget. Ick.
I saw the nugget from her underwear fall into the toilet. How on earth did that one get there? Oh my gosh, I stepped in poo. Human poo. Ick.
I wiped it up with some toilet paper and flushed it away before immediately scrubbing the floor with disinfectant. Seriously, how did it get there?
A few hours later Hannah told me she had to poop.
“It’s coming out of my bottom!” She screeched.
We ran to the bathroom. Part of it was already loose in her underpants. We did the whole standing-on-toilet-seat thing again. Again, the poo went in the toilet and then I sat her down and headed towards the door.
Splat. Oh frick. Not again.
I picked up my foot. Crap (literally). Those darn ninja nuggets struck again. How could I step on poop TWICE in one day?!?!?! HOW DID THEY GET THERE???!!!! Luckily I was wearing socks. Both times.
Sigh.
Maybe I’m not so skilled at dropping poop from Hannah’s underpants into the toilet. Double sigh.
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I’ve been feeling like a zombie. Minus the brain cravings. I’m kind of awake, but my mind is pretty much asleep. Wish my body was too. But it isn’t. Sigh.
Nope, instead I’ve been up half the night, night after night, for months with a screaming Daniel. I pat him in his cot while he protests and attempts to stand up. Eventually, he goes to sleep. A few minutes later, he cries again. Sometimes I’d be patting him off and on for an hour before giving up and giving him some boob. Then he’d sleep for an hour. Maybe 2. And the whole thing would start again. Sigh.
At first I thought it was teething. But then it went on for over a month. I went to my doctor to beg for a referral to Tresillian (Tresillian is a government run (I think it is government run anyway) organisation that helps families deal with baby/toddler sleep, feeding, behavioural, etc. issues). My doctor was on vacation, so I begged his replacement instead.
The wait to get a day stay at Tresillian was long. I waited over a month. I thought maybe in that time Daniel would sleep better over night. He didn’t. Well, that’s not true, every so often, he would have a good night. But then it’d be back to 5-10 wake-ups per night. Not stirrings, proper, have-to-go-in-there-and-comfort-him wake-ups.
Being half asleep all the time takes it’s toll. I’ve been grumpy. Snappy. Impatient. Easily annoyed. Emotional. I was desperate for change. Desperate for a little help.
I pretty much feel like screaming this (Not that I swear. But if I did….):
I couldn’t wait for my day stay appointment. I knew they couldn’t physically help me with the night wakings since we were there for the day only. And he sleeps fine during the day. I just wanted to get some advice, strategies, etc. I had to complete a diary detailing when Daniel ate, slept, cried, and was being settled for 5 days and nights before coming in.
“So how often do you breastfeed him?” The lady asked me after looking the diary.
“Hmm….probably around 5-6 times per day. Plus the overnight feeds.”
Apparently, that’s too much. Oops. A baby of Daniel’s age should only be getting 3 a day. And maybe one over night. I didn’t really have that problem with Hannah. She was uninterested in the boob by Daniel’s age. Mostly. She still fed once over night. That was unfortunately the only time she ever wanted it. Too much other stuff to do during the day. Feeding was boring.
Daniel on the other hand…. He is constantly shoving his face in my chest while trying to pull my shirt down and making urgent whinge noises. So I’d feed him.
The nurse told me to cut down on his feeds. Starting then. He shoved his little baby face in my chest. I gave him some water. And a snack. A solid food snack. Not a boob snack.
She told me they had a residential program. A stay of 4 nights with nurses on duty 24/7 to help with settling, feeding, behaviour, anything baby/child related. “Is a residential stay something you’d like to do?” She asked me. Of course, I want to sleep. Proper sleep. None of this awake every hour stuff. Ick.
There was a spot open the very next day. And I could take both kids. Because you know, they share a room. Kind of pointless doing the whole thing with just Daniel when at home he’s not in the room by himself. I figured I might as well get it over with. Hopefully sort out the sleeping. I had to be there the next day at 9am. Lucky it was close to my house. I could have walked there. If I didn’t have so much stuff to bring. You need a lot of stuff to be away 4 nights with a baby and a toddler.
Of course Daniel slept like a champion that first night at Tresillian. He only woke once. Then not at all the second night. The staff were probably wondering what the heck I was doing there. The kids were no trouble at all. Perfect sleepers. He woke once the third and forth nights, and stirred a couple of times. If you can call it that. More like half a cry in his sleep. For like 5 seconds.
I kind of wanted him to be his usual non-sleeping self so they could help me with settling. It’s one thing to tell me how to handle things. Quite another to actually do it.
Since I cut out half the breastfeeds, he was eating more solids. Could the problem be that he was actually hungry and thirsty that whole time? Was it that simple. Given Daniel’s sleep performance at Tresillian, I thought so.
But then we came home. And again he was up about every hour. Sigh. And also, what the? I seriously don’t know what the problem is. I cut down the feeds, I always put him to bed awake (rather then letting him fall asleep on the boob and then doing the sneaky transfer like I used to a lot), I gave him plenty of food and water during the day, and did all the other things they told me to do. How could he be so good for 4 days and then suddenly sleep horribly again?
Last night he started his horrible sleeping again. I fed him. He started stirring again straight away. I turned on the vaporiser. And then he slept the entire rest of the night with not a single peep. Hmm…. I didn’t have a vaporiser whilst at Tresillian, so I’m still not sure why he slept there so good and not here. But whatever, I don’t care as long as he keeps doing it. I’ll crank up that vaporiser again tonight and hope for the best.
Otherwise, I can call Tresillian again, and they’ll give me another stay if I need it. Or I could use their facebook live chat, or their new smart phone app which was launched just last week.
Hannah enjoying one of the playgrounds
Despite being there because my child wasn’t sleeping, I actually had a great time. It was full of other moms (and some dads) and kids there for the very same reason as me (and some for other reasons). I made a few friends there. Hannah had a wonderful time with a little girl about her age. They would play together pretty much all day. They have a class every morning. One on stress relief, another about toddler behaviour, and then one about bonding with your baby. I didn’t have to cook, or clean, or anything like that. There were 2 outside playground, one inside playground and then lots of little living rooms to play in too. If only they had the internet (hence my lack of posts).
As fun as it was though, I hope I never have to go back. Because that would mean that Daniel is screaming half the night again. And I certainly don’t want that.
Fingers crossed for tonight. So far so good….
UPDATE:
It’s been a week since I got back from Tresillian. The first few nights were hard. Lots of crying. Lots of patting. But I didn’t give in and give him the boob. It’s been getting better each night. Last night, and the night before, Daniel slept until 4. He woke for a feed and then slept until after 6. It’s such a relief!
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“The car is really dirty, we should wash it next week.” Aaron told me as we drove down our driveway.
“Yeah, sounds good.”
To the right, a big blue Commodore, blocked the view. Plus the other 2 cars parked behind it. And the crest of a hill. That doesn’t help much either. To the left, a little Barina was parked right next to the driveway. Aaron looked to the right before we got to the foot path. Checked to see if anyone was coming. You have to look under the cars because you can’t see through them/over them/beyond them. Unless you stick the entire hood of your car onto the road. But then you’d be blocking a whole lane of traffic.
It’s ok when there is no one parked to the left of the drive way. Then you can turn onto the side of the road and look from there without being collected as you pull out.
No one was coming. He checked again, then hit the gas. Gotta be quick since you can’t see past the hill even if there are no cars parked there at all.
“AARON!!!!!” I screamed. Or something to that effect. I can’t actually remember what I said. Just that it was said whilst screaming. He didn’t see it until I screamed.
A flash of red was right next to us. The car jolted and made hideous screeching and crunching metal-on-metal noises.
I could see the blue car that was parked to the left of our driveway. My side of the car was headed straight for it.
The blue car we side swiped
More screeching and crunching filled the air. People came running out of their apartments to see what was going on.
I was shaking like a leaf. Hannah was laughing. Apparently this ride was the super fun.
Somehow we managed to pull over to the side of the road just behind the red car we collided with.
The red car we collided with
I sat there, shaking in my seat and practically hyperventilating. I don’t know why. The accident didn’t even jolt us about. We weren’t hurt in the slightest. Just shocked. Or something like that.
Our poor WRX
I stayed in the car for a while. Watched Aaron jump out and enquire as to the wellbeing of the man and woman in the other car. They were fine too. I sat there. Watching. Shaking. Regrouping.
We only just paid off the car. Did I mention that? Yeah. Just a few weeks ago. It’s finally ours. We finally own one thing that costs more than a thousand dollars. Sigh.
The people in the other car were very nice about it. They said their driveway is really hard to see from too. They completely understood. They weren’t even annoyed. Just relieved that everyone was ok.
They were turning right from a street across the road and to the right of us. They weren’t even visible through the cars. No wonder Aaron didn’t see them. By the time he was on the road it was too late. Plus he was looking left anyway, to make sure he didn’t hit the blue car when turning.
We were on our way to church. Today was the church’s birthday. They were having pony rides, face painting, a jumping castle, and a petting zoo. Hannah was so excited.
But now we have no car. We had to speak to the insurance company, get a tow truck, organise a rental car for the next couple of weeks.
I got the kids out of the car and took them inside. Hannah wanted to get her tool box out so she could go fix the car. I told her she couldn’t because there were lots of sharp pieces of glass. She wanted to do some pasting instead.
“What do you want to paste?” I asked her. She gets me to cut things out and then she pastes them onto a sheet of paper.
“Cars.” She told me “Three cars.”
And this is what she made:
How sad is that?
“Daddy doesn’t look where he is going.” She told us. “Daddy crashed the car. But mommy looks where she is going.”
My little Hannah tiger
Eventually we did get to church. Hannah got to ride a pony, with her face painted like a
Hannah having a pony ride
tiger. And then we went home. On the bus.
And now, as I write this, I can hear people running over little bits of our car as they drive past. Aaron swept up what he could, but it was kinda hard to do in traffic breaks. Sigh.
Daniel watching the petting zoo
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Hannah’s hair is long. Really long. Halfway down her back long (and she’s only 2 and a half years old, so it’s been long for pretty much her entire life). Well, it was until the weekend, when I took her to the hairdressers for a trim and they hacked 2+ inches off. And they cut more hair into her fringe, after I SPECIFICALLY told them not to. Why don’t hairdressers ever listen? Anyway, that’s so not the point.
“I DON’T WANT TO HAVE A BATH!!!!!!!!!!” Hannah would scream when it was hair washing time. She used to be fine with me washing her hair. She’d lay down in the tub and I’d use my hand to gently rinse out her tear-free conditioning shampoo. Occasionally it would get in her eyes. But that didn’t matter, it was no more tears. She didn’t care.
As her hair got longer though, conditioning shampoo just didn’t do it for her. It was fine for the shampoo part. But she needed a stand alone conditioner. Something to nourish her hair and help me comb her awful tangles out. 2 year olds get a lot of tangles.
I went in search of a baby/toddler product to use. But I found nothing. Not one stand alone conditioner for babies or toddlers.
So I decided to just use my conditioner on her. It was going great for a while. Her hair was strong, healthy and shiny and non straw-like.
But then one day whilst using my hand as a cup to rinse out that lovely conditioner from her hair, the tiniest little drop of mostly water with a little bit of conditioner in it got in her eye. Worst. Clumsy Moment. Ever. Sigh.
She screamed. The white of her eye went an angry shade of red. Tears flew out of her eyes. Snot descended from her nose. Her mouth emitted way too much drool. And it lasted for ages.
Ever since that day, she has been terrified of getting her hair washed. I had to hold her down in the bottom of the bathtub (which obviously wasn’t filled very high) while she screamed and kicked just so I could wash the days gunk out of her hair. I started forcing her to wear her hair up (she doesn’t particularly like it up) so it wouldn’t get food, glue, paint, playdoh, etc. in it. I only washed it once or twice per week to avoid melt downs.
And then I got a wonderful email. There is now a conditioner for toddlers. A no tears, toddler specific stand alone conditioner. And, they wanted me to try it for free, along with the shampoo, and detangler. YES THANKS!
When they arrived, I told Hannah the package was for her. I told her she would have her very own hair stuff that wouldn’t hurt her eyes. She was very excited.
She still screamed for the next few baths. I got some in her eye accidentally. She screamed for about a bit, but then realised it didn’t actually hurt. Now, she doesn’t scream in the bath at all. Instead, she has fun in there like she used to.
Her hair is so easy to comb out now. When I was using my conditioner on her, it still took a few minutes to comb out the tangles. Now I put the Johnson and Johnson No More Tangles Conditioner in her hair, and it takes about 20 seconds to comb it out in the bath. And the best part? If she doesn’t want to rinse out the conditioner, she doesn’t have to. You can leave it in.
I was skeptical of leaving it in. I thought it would make her hair look greasy and yuck. But it didn’t. It looked and felt exactly the same as when we rinsed it out.
And the detangler? That’s great too. When Hannah wakes up in the morning, head full of tangles from sleeping on it all night, I just spray it with detangler, and quickly and easily brush it out. Simple. And awesome. I use it on me too for the same reason. Plus it smells nice.
Hannah’s hair was a tad bit shinier when I was using my conditioner in her hair, but I’d trade a bit of shine for easy to comb and doesn’t make her eyes red any day of the week. Plus, she’s 2, she doesn’t need super shiny hair.
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