Funny vs Not Funny

Dear darling daughter,

You are lovely, clever and charming, but your sense of humour needs some refinement.

Your cute little sounds, that can go on for twenty minutes - aaa-ooooo-booo-guh-aaaa-ayyyyypbbbbb-boo-booo-el-goooo-yuh ayboo-eh-geeeee-buhzeee (I'm transcribing as she talks right now) - those are Funny.

Those superextraloud grunts you come out with while we are half-asleep nursing in bed in the middle of the night, the ones that keep Daddy awake on work nights... Not Funny.

When you bust out your heh-heh-ha! laugh when Daddy goes nom-nom-nom on your neck or belly, that's Funny!

When you settle in for a nap, but it only lasts half an hour, that's Not Funny.

The way you wake up grumpy, but as soon as you see your Mum or Dad you give a giant gummy grin and sometimes a squeal - that's Funny!

When Daddy gives you a shower and Mummy takes you, dripping wet, and cuddles you dry in your hooded towel, and then you spit up all over your just-cleaned self and the towel and Mummy, that is Not Funny.

When you fill your pants five minutes after Mummy puts a fresh diaper on you, that is Not Funny. Stop grinning.

When you grab your toes when Mummy is changing you, that's Funny.

When you poop twelve times in one day, that is seriously Not Funny. Let's never repeat that debacle.

When it's 4am and you are having your diaper changed in the semi-dark by a very sleepy Mummy, and Mummy turns to put your old diaper in the bin, and grabs the last clean cloth diaper to put on you, starts to snap it and discovers that you've peed a puddle on the change mat, which is now soaking your clothing, yourself, the last clean diaper and Mummy as well... that's Not Funny.

When you're nursing at 4:30am and you keep falling asleep, and Mummy thinks she can put you gently down and go back to sleep but you wake with a start and re-latch like you're starving, and repeat every three minutes for twenty minutes, that's Not Funny.

When Mummy finally gets you into the bassinet at 4:50am, it is Not Funny to spend the next hour Riverdancing. Mummy needs a little sleep.

When you're hungry and you try to nurse on Daddy, that's Funny.

When you're hungry and you try to nurse on Mummy, but she's not ready for you, and you're either drooling on the nipple area of her shirt (leaving a big soaking wet spot), missing the mark entirely and slobbering all over her chest, or giving her an honest-to-goodness hickey on her arm that she later must explain to her own Mum (true story), that's Not Funny.

When you make faces and constantly roll to the side every single time Mummy is trying to take a picture of the two of you together, that's actually kind of Funny.
When you grab Mummy's nose and honk it... that's Funny! (even better is getting a picture of the moment!)Love,
Mummy.

Tropical Traditions Natural Soap - Review and Giveaway!

***This giveaway is closed.***
Winner: Diane!

I've had the pleasure of reviewing several products from Tropical Traditions already (some of my favourites: the laundry detergent - great for cloth diapers! -, flaked coconut, and organic honey!). Each time I've been happy with the quality of the products and the lack of chemicals or additives. This company does wonders with natural ingredients.

I had the opportunity to try out some of their organic natural soaps recently. We were sent the unscented, lavender, and tea tree oil varieties. Here they are before use:
The unscented soap has just one ingredient: saponified organic virgin coconut oil. Who knew that coconut oil could be soap?! It is truly scentless and like all coconut oil skin products is wonderfully moisturizing.

The lavender soap smelled lovely and has only the addition of organic essential oil of lavender.

The tea tree soap (the unwrapped one in my photo) again only has added organic essential oils of tea tree and lemon to give it scent. I like the herbal/medicinal scent of tea tree oil (and the antibacterial properties); my husband said it "smelled like car cleaner", so I guess to each their own.

I loved how the bars lathered up well and I really felt after using them that I wasn't left with residue on my skin - just soft skin from the coconut oil, but no oily feeling. I could use these on the sensitive skin on my face without drying out my skin or having a bad reaction. I also like that they are so simple in their ingredients.

My one complaint was that the bars didn't last super long. However, if I had left them to cure, unwrapped in a dry location for a week or longer, I probably could have gotten more use from them. As it was, we busted these open right away and used them up.

The soap bars are now on special so it's a good time to pick some up!

Tropical Traditions has generously offered one of my readers the chance to try the organic natural soaps for free!

The giveaway:
A set of three Tropical Traditions soaps like the ones I tried!

How to enter: Head over to Tropical Traditions and let me know one other thing you'd like to try, OR one thing that you learned there. Make sure I've got a way to contact you if you're the winner!

Extra entries (please leave an extra comment for each. If you already do any of these things, leave the comment - you do get the entry for it!):

• Subscribe via email to the Tropical Traditions newsletter
  
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• Tweet about this giveaway for ONE entry, this is not a daily! You can use this if you like:

  #Win organic, all natural soap bars from @TropTraditions at Emily's Latest @emilyisland http://bit.ly/kOi4R2 US/CAN 6/27
  

• Follow my blog (publicly) – 2 entries, leave 2 comments
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I will be verifying comments so please actually do the things you say you do ☺ If you already do any of these things, it still counts for entries!

Please be sure to include your email address if it’s not public in your blogger profile! Anonymous comments without a way to contact you will be rejected. Canadian or US mailing addresses only, please. Giveaway ends June 27th at 11:59 MST. A winner will be drawn within a few days, announced here, in a separate post and emailed!

Prize will be shipped by sponsor. Note for Canadian entrants: Tropical Traditions is not responsible for customs or duties that Canada may charge if you decide to participate in this Tropical Traditions sponsored blog giveaway. (FYI - it's unlikely to have a charge, being well under the $60 that incurs duty charges. There was no extra charge on my soaps, which came to Canada quickly and packaged well)

Dinosaurs, Hoo doos & the Badlands

(Sounds like a great children's book title!)

This weekend we visited Alberta's Badlands.

Drumheller, Alberta has the world's largest town mascot - a towering dinosaur (that you have to pay to climb up for a view from the dino's mouth. We didn't.). Mia was singularly unafraid, but played the part of mockingly terrified well for a photo! It's way bigger than it looks in this photo at 86 feet tall!

The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology is one of the world's finest dinosaur museums, with lots of bones! It's amazing to think that T. Rex and Stegosauri roamed around these parts long ago. Definitely worth a visit if you're anywhere nearby.

We hiked the loop by the RTM and it was lovely, with the characteristic "popcorn rock" of bentonite clay and views of the gorgeous badlands, but we were swarmed by the little bloodsuckers. Mia was wrapped up in her carrier and a blanket and hat, so didn't get bitten at all.

The Hoo Doos, however, are probably not as awesome as you might expect. I mean, they sound awesome, right? Like something out of L. Frank Baum's Oz books! I expected the Wheelers to roll out from behind every corner. Alas, there was no Wheeler in sight (or maybe not; as I recall, they weren't very nice). The Hoo Doos are pillars of soft rock, topped by a hard one - creations of erosion. There are only a few at the location and the mosquitos are insane.
They do look cool.