To Freak Out, Or Not To Freak Out... That Is the Question

Having another child (we now have 2 girls), has caused a few things to change in regards to my parenting. One of those things is how often I freak out about stuff. There are some things that I let my second baby do that I would never have dreamed of letting my first child do. Since I'm a self-proclaimed List Lover, here's a list of a few of those things.

• I let Lorelei eat random things (within reason). And I'm not talking about food. I'm talking paper, fuzzies, leaves, etc. I don't always let her eat "whatever", but more often that not, it's not worth the energy to take the small-as-a-pea-sized piece of paper out of her mouth. Besides, it usually comes out the other end.. eventually.

• I let L drink out of random cups. Right now she's only drinking water so I don't *think* it gets too gross. But I would never have let Gilly drink out of any cup that had been used once already without thoroughly washing it first. Now, if there's a sippy cup (with water in it) lying on our floor, it's a free-for-all.

• I don't always wash L up after a meal. It really depends on how "dirty" she is or how lazy I'm feeling at the moment. I always washed Gilly's face and hands thoroughly after every meal. Always. Now? Ehh, not so much.

Things that haven't changed:

• I'm an obsessive diaper-changer. Even if a diaper is a little wet, I change it. Immediately. Well, usually. Unless I'm really tired or really lazy. (Anyone see a theme here?) I've had friends who looked at what looked like to me a FULL diaper and patted it and said, "Nope, there's still more room in there." To that I say, "To each her own." :)

• I let the girls fall down without freaking out. I usually will wait to see what their reaction is before I go to pick them up. Although, I do have to say, Lorelei has a knack for hitting her head on EVERYTHING! So for a short while I was freaking out a little, but I've gotten better. 

I'm sure as both girls get older, I will freak out about less. I hope. But, for right now, I'm comfortable with my moderate freak-out-edness. ;)

What do you freak out about?

 

Household Tips

I thought I would share a few tips that help me around the house. Most of them you've probably heard of already but humor me. :)

1. Use the least amount of dish washing detergent possible. I read about this at iDreamofClean a few weeks ago. Since I've been using less detergent, my dishes have been coming out cleaner! True story! Part of how much detergent you should use also depends on whether or not you have hard or soft water. But play around with it and see if it makes a difference. I use about 1/4 of the amount recommended for my dishwasher. Obviously, this will also save some money which is always a good thing. (Whew! Who knew there was so much to say about washing dishes?!)

2. Use a plastic mesh vegetable bag to cover a sponge. I first read about this in Organic Housekeeping.

. I actually went and bought some scrubby sponges at the dollar store recently and they SCRATCHED my dishes! So, I'm back to the veggie bag!And I've been doing it ever since

3. Deodorize with a baking soda-filled coffee filter. I used to just pour some baking soda in the bottom of my garbage can, but that's rather messy. Pour about a tablespoon or two into a coffee filter than use a twist tie to close it up. I put one of these in my garbage can every so often and it helps SO much!

4. Put extra garbage bags in the bottom of garbage cans. Ok, so probably everyone does this, but I had to add it to this list. This really does save me so much time.

5. Sanitize sponge in microwave. This is a two-for-one tip. Not only does microwaving a WET sponge on high for 60 seconds sanitize it, it also makes the microwave super easy to clean! Just wipe it out after disinfecting your sponge. Voila! Clean microwave!

6. Use paper bags for newspaper and cardboard to be recycled.

Now, this might seem like a no-brainer to some of you, but I just recently stumbled across this tip and I love it! We used to put our newspapers and cardboard in piles or hard plastic bins and it was always such a pain to bundle them up! Now, the whole bag gets taken out to the curb! Easy peasy!

That's it! Those are a few tips to help make life a little easier! Please share some of your tips in the comments! :)