It's Hot.

Getting through hot days with a 14 month old is tough. He’s cranky, I’m cranky and to top it off he’s teething and gets a heat rash from head to toe. Here is a list of a few things we did last week to cool off:

Set up fans – not necessarily in windows. Keeping the windows and blinds closed if you have no AC is important. Open at night, closed in the day. Make sure there is a fan near baby’s crib but not too close where fingers can get in trouble!

Get AC for the bedroom or common room in the house – nothing fancy needed just enough to take some humidity out and take the edge off the heat. I scored one for free from a friend but some great places to look are craigslist.org and freecycle.com. Make sure it’s working before buying and always clean/check the filter before running it in your own home.

If it gets unbearable, jump in the tub. Bathrooms tend to stay cool, put 3(ish) inches of cool water in the bottom of the tub and fill it with toys and stuff for baby to play with. I think last week we spent half a day playing in the bathtub.

Stay in the shade – if you want to be outside or have older kids too. Set up the sprinkler in a shady area. If you don’t have any shade hang a tarp off the house or post and hang out with the cool water. I do this because I’m not big on public pools, they kinda gross me out and some kids can be really aggressive.

Setup a few layers of towel on a hard surface – like tile kitchen or bathroom and get a bowl of ice cubes for baby to play with. They slip and slide all over but they are very fun and (obviously) cool.

POPSICLES! This recipe is from when I was a kiddo. Get maraschino cherries, orange juice and those neat little popsicle makers you throw in the freezer. Put a cherry in the bottom with a few drizzles of the grenadine from the jar, fill the rest with oj and pop in the freezer. We called them Sun-Rise Pops. When you pull them out the grenadine and cherry stay in the end and fades into the orange juice – looks like a sunrise! Refreshing and delicious.

If you do go outside, remember sunscreen, keep your baby ery hydrated and if either of you or the fam seem worn out get to a cool place quick. Heat exhaustion is dangerous and even more so for a baby or toddler. If worse comes to worse – go to the store or a walmart and walk around for a bit to keep cool.

Stay cool mamas,

PlusPeace