Horror Movie Moment

The other night I woke up around 2:30am to go to the bathroom. I am always so mad when I wake up if Brett is sleeping through. So, I'm laying there in bed about to go back to sleep and, from the monitor right next to my head (sitting on the table) I hear a frightening thing.

The words "Peek a-boo I see you" comes through the monitor in an adult sing-songy voice. My heart begins to pound. I'm laying there perfectly still wondering if I had just had a weird dream. My husband is sound asleep next to me and clearly hadn't heard anything. Was I hearing things?

A few more seconds go by and, again, "Peek a-boo I see you" comes through the monitor! I'm thinking, is there a person in there with a toy trying to entertain my daughter? Is there a ghost in there activating something? I had obviously watched one too many Ghosthunter episodes as a dozen strange explanations run through my head.

I got out of bed and began to creep towards Brett's bedroom. I peek in to see that no one is in there. I do see, however, that she is squirming in her bed. One more time, the "Peek a-boo I see you" words are spoken. I see that she has wiggled her way to the top of her crib and her head is pressing against a mirror that I have hanging in her bed! I had NO idea that it made any noise what-so-ever, but it obviously 'speaks' when it is pressed.

I was up for almost two hours from adrenaline! I took the mirror out of the crib that night and it is going in the donation pile. My next baby will have a different mirror in his or her bed!

Cleaning Toys

A girlfriend came over to visit the other day and brought her youngest child. He was teething and, therefore, every toy that my daughter owned was put into his mouth at some point during the visit. As soon as they left I immediately began seeking out the best way to clean toys...

There are two different ways that you can wash a babies toys.

The first way is to clean the toy with soap (regular dish soap is fine) and warm water. This gets the drool, food, oils, etc. off of the toy. This is a good way to clean a toy when you first get it home. This does not sterilize the toy.

The second way is to sterilize the toy. This way will kill most of the germs on a toy. To do this put 1 tablespoon of bleach into 1 quart of water. Spray the toy down, then rinse it well and let it dry overnight.

If you prefer a more natural way to clean (but not sterilize) use vinegar. Put 1 cup of water with 1 cup of distilled white vinegar. Spray onto a cloth and wipe the toy down. Rinse well and let dry overnight. The smell will be gone by morning.

Toys should be cleaned every 3-4 weeks just to ensure your little one isn’t sticking last months illness (like diarrhea) back into her mouth.

I used the vinegar cleaning method and found it to work well. Plus, I felt confident that Brett wouldn't end up getting sick from any chemicals. The smell of the vinegar (though strong while rubbing the toys down) really was completely gone by the next morning.