Lately...

We got to hang out with some friends of ours, the Gipsons. They are a family that had season tickets to the Pred's games next to ours for years and I got to know (and love) their boys from those games. They are too busy for season tickets these days so we rarely ever see them anymore but last week they came to our house to play and go to a Hockey Game with us. They brought PB SO MANY TOYS! Including that cool piano thing I showed y'all.  Their oldest boy is one of the reasons I wanted PB to be a boy SOOOO badly!  They had a great time playing with our dog children and called Ralphie "Growlphy" which was hilar to me. I always love when people mis-use or re-invent a Griza word or name. It cracks me up.

Cousin Jennifer also came to the game that night and PB loves her.

I saw this laminator in Target the other day and secretly want it! I always wanna laminate stuff. What is wrong with me? HA

Got Baby Fenn a $5 life jacket thingy for the pool when we go to the beach soon. It straps between his legs. He thought it was neat.

My mom emailed the other day saying that she was hanging with  my nephew and discovered where my bro had broken a branch off one of her plants. She looked at my nephew ( wilburs) and said "Im gonna get your daddy"
and he said
" NOOOO dont get my daddy! He's my BEST boy! He take care for me" HAHAH
I think that is soooo cute! I have been saying it all week " He's my best boy!!" HA


Sooo my Best girl, @EdwardsEdition is coming this weekend with my God -daughter Emma Bears and I cant wait to see them both! We have MAJAH plans for bargain baby shopping! Huge Consignment sale, super secret discount stores, and Junior League Rummage Sale!! Hooray! 

Cloth Diapering Series Part 1: Storage of Clean and Dirty Dipes

I have had a lot of questions about cloth diapers lately and so I thought I would do a blog series on them because it can seem overwhelming at first!

Here is my station! I really like having a changing table. We did not have room for a big one so there is no counter storage, thus the organizer hanging off the side of the table. It keeps things handy!

I use drawer separators to make little rows of clean dipes. To the left are extra inserts, wipes etc.

 I keep cloth wipes and hiney spray on one side, powder and but chapstick on the other. Disposable wipes in that skip hop container on the top and disposables underneath for night time. When peebs was younger I used cloth at night time with a doubler, but as he got older he was peeing too much for that which is why I use a disposable at night. Once I can get him to sleep through the night without nursing, I shall go back to cloth at night.

This is a pail liner. It is made of PLU and you use it like a garbage bag. The advantage of it is you re-use it over and over, and you can just chunk the whole thing, diapers and all into the wash without having to stick your hand in there and pull the dipes out!

It took me months to figure this out, but they have flannel squares on the inside which are for you to put a few drops of essential oils on for deodorizing the pail. I found that this works better than any of the other item they sell for such things. I don't have any problems with odor in his room as I also use a pail with a lid.

Here are my products. I love all 3!  The spray on the far right is for hiney washing. You can spray directly on the skin or onto a cloth wipe for cleaning up the booty!

So there you have it! Storage of the cloth!

Baby Fenn is 8 Months Old!!

Height: not sure!

Weight: 24 + pounds!

Size Clothes: 18 Months!

New Tricks/Milestones :
* Sitting up in a new herkey type position that allows him to get down and attempt to Crawl
(see pic)

* Scooting Backwards. He lays on his stomach, and pushes up on both arms and then accidentally propels himself backward instead of forward towards the toy he is after. It is kind of funny. I think this is typical pre-crawling behavior.

* Biting. **ouchie** he has been biting a lot lately, always when he is very tired, and it seems to be out of frustration that he does it, say the dogs bark real loud and scare him BITE. Say his nose is stopped up and he can't breathe good when he is trying to nurse BITE. I immediately make a noise and tell him NO and remove him from his boobies.
* throwing and smacking his toys. He loves doing this, and I guess that is just the boy in him.
*petting the puppies. I have noticed him properly petting Ralphie lately.
* 2 bottom center teeth are half way in! He only had teething crankies for abouy 3 days with a low grade fever and then was back to norm.

Toys & Baby Gear:
* Some friends recently brought him Fisher Price Piano Thingy and he loves it. He sits at it and plays himself some tunes for long periods.

* Scout the Vtech Dog. We programmed it to say his name and sing to him and he loves that.
* A Little Tykes Remote Control. ( I bought for $1 at Consignment sale).He loves this toy! May be his all time favorite!
* Someone gave him a JellyCats Book months ago and he has loved it since the begining.
* Tadpoles Playmat. This is nice for when he falls over, but firm enough he can practice crawling easily. Also easy to clean.

Things we use most these days are still the Playmat,  Einstein exersaucer, The Flair Highchair, and our stroller!


Favorite Non Toys:
* Still DADDY 
* Woofies
* people watching
*remote controls
* Pretty much any object he can put in his mouth!




Eating & Food:
* Eating 3 times a day! Fruit in the mornings and veggies at lunch and dinner.
* Decided he does like Bananas now if i pinch off pieces and give to him, but won't eat pureed banana.
* Loves Mum-Mums and enjoys puffs IF i feed them to him. I give him some for practice every day and he will get them in his mouth, but he does not know how to let go, so he puts it in his mouth, takes it right back out, then chews anyway. HA
* I give him a sippy cup for practice every day, and he can hold it and get it to his mouth, but he does not know how to tilt it to get out liquid. He loves to bite the nipple part and hold it like a cigar in his mouth. He also loves to throw his cups!
* Everyone keeps asking me about weaning and I forgot to update that I have not weaned him yet. It is just such a pain b.c he refuses bottles and formula so I doubt I will be weaning anytime soon. However this biting problem adds a new twist.





Cloth Diaper Update:
  * still using pocket diapers with regular inserts during the day.
* Using disposables in size 4 at night because of how much he tinkles.


We started our 8 Month photo shoot this morning, and he was happy to oblige!

 He does this move frequently while moving his hands and razzing his mouth so we call it driving the motorcycle!

 This is another new trick! He Enjoys grabbing his feet and practicing Yoga moves!

 and it took ALOT of instruction to get him to sit next to the BlaBla without grabbing him or eating him. I would like to point out that Mr. BlaBla no longer has EARS! They have been eaten off. I thought Blabla dolls were baby safe because of the no eyes etc but just FYI I would not have put this in the bed with him if I had known he could pull the ears off. ( they are tiny, like the size of a nickel)

 


Sleep: ( see previous post)

 On a side note, I have to say that I have totally fallen under that baby spell where I think he is the most awesome cutest bundle of snuggles that ever existed. I kiss him no less that 87,456 times a day and tel him how awesome he is too ( should have a great self esteem later) HA  It is crazy how much I love him! and how much I enjoy being a mother. I NEVER thought I would say that but so far these past 12 months have been all about things I never thought I would say or do!

Still Fighting the Sleep Demons..

Ya'll wanna know something CRAZY? I am still getting up with my little peeble pants every night 3-5 times a night. He is almost 8 months old. WHAT have I done to myself? All of my friends that tried to tell me to cry it out, are probably wagging their fingers right now, and rightfully so! I never thought they were wrong, I just knew I was weak.  In my heart of hearts, I just thought eventually, when he got to moving around, he would be SO tired he would just need that sleep.
BUT, as time goes by, I am beginning to think that won't happen. For the 1st time I have encountered another mom who did this same thing I have done, and she told me that it does not ever resolve itself.. it just gets worse as they age. OH NO! Worse?! and CB reminded me that soon he will be able to call and scream MAMMA from his crib !! Yikers!

So ... I am really trying to make myself come up with a plan and follow it, which is super hard for me because I am flaky! for realz. I just can not STAND making plans in advance and sticking to routines and all of that. I also can not stand to hear him cry! I would even put him in the bed with us at this point, but he does not sleep well in bed with us, plus that is special time for my dog children when they can have our undivided attention.
So... I am starting tonight since bubs does not have to work tomorrow and I am going to go in the room when he cries, and only pat him , not pick him up and NOT boob him to sleep. I shall increase the interval between times I go in each time and hopefully he will get tired of this game and just start sleeping through the night, and if he loves his momma, he will learn this all very fast before his overnight adventure with Bebe and PawPaw!!

I will keep ya'll posted! But for all you other mommas who have not gotten to this stage, I hope you learn from my mistakes. Practice your cry it out before they get this old! I think 4 months is a good age.

****UPDATE****
We have done CIO 2 nights in a row now, in stages. I let him cry when I initially put him to bed and if he wakes up before midnight I let him CIO. After Midnight I will go in and snuggle him then in a few days I will not go in there unless its after 2 am etc till he sleeps through the night. Night 1 he made some CRAZY dragon calling noises but went to bed in about 20 minutes. He did not wake up again until 2:30 am and only twice did I have to go in there. ( normally anywhere from 3-5 times)
Night 2, he really showed out when I was putting him to bed and it took about 20 minutes for him to go to sleep. He only woke up once, at 4:30 am and I went in there. I was SO proud of him for only waking up once!! So he may be learning faster than anticipated.

Also should say that he naps MUCH better on these days than he did previously! Hope it continues to go this well!

IPad app Review: Rattle

My friend and fellow baby momma CB told me about this nifty iPad app for babies called "Baby Rattle Toy" there is a free version and a 99 cent version. It shows beautiful bright colors and makes fun noises just by touch so it is really easy for a young babe










- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Ipad App Review : Pimp Your Screen

Looking to jazz up your ipad or iphone? Pimp your screen is a cool new app that does just that! I love these backgrounds that make your apps look all organized! Shelves and cubes...

Pretty images for the lock screen:

and more cubes to fill with apps:

and this is how it looks when you use the backgrounds under your apps:

Pimpin Out Your Stroller!

I know I talk about the stroller ALOT, but dang we use it soooo much, and I am so thankful that we got the one we got!  We have basically used it like a nursery on wheels since Fenn was born.
Friday PB and I joined Bro, Shauna and cousin Chlo at the Zoo! It was my first all day stroller outing in the HEAT. I learned a lot and will consider that a trial run for our upcoming beach trip.
I have been training peebs to wear hats and sunglasses for a while now and thankfully he tolerates them and does not try to yank them off so that I can protect his casper skin!

I am all the time talking about my discount store, which sells tons of things but most of it is from Amazon and is at least 60% off the retail price. Every week that it is there they mark it down another 10% so I get some GREAT deals there.Such a blessing considering how much I love shopping for baby gear!

I have seen this cooler for Baby Jogger strollers in there before for $12 and passed it up, regrettably, because after the Zoo trip I decided we needed one stat! I ordered it from Amazon and it got here TODAY! Don't know how that works. It had great reviews, but I had a TIME trying to get it to fit the City Select. I eventually had to add an extra piece of Velcro I had on hand to make it work out. No more $3 bottle of waters for me at the zoo! I shall sneak in my own ! HA

Then I set out to make myself a stroller kit so that all my stuff would be in one place and I can just keep it in the bottom of the stroller. One of the BEST things about this stroller is the huge basket underneath. Long days out require a lot of stuff like SLR cameras, jackets or rain gear, sunscreen, food, yadda yadda... and it is great to have somewhere to put all that junk, and I gotta admit I LOVE being able to push it all around on a cart now, instead of carrying it in a big purse like I did pre-baby. HA
So below you see:

• a first aid kit
• Stroller Fan
• Mosquito Net
• bag hooks
• extra parts
• sunscreen
• rain cover

and then when Pish Posh had that fund raiser for Japan, they sold some carry alls with defects for $5. I gladly picked up another one just for stroller junk.

I got this strap in baby shower presents and I LURVE it. It was meant for sippy cups but I have been using it forever to strap toys or paci's to the stroller so that when he tosses them or they fall, they don't touch the floor. He is at a stage now where knocking things off tables and tossing them is super fun for him... not so much for me!

Here is peebs modeling our mosquito net. We will be going to a swamp cook out in the Ville soon so I plan to protect his precious juicy-ness from those buggers. I got it at my Discount store for $2 but it is Eddie Bauer brand from target and is basically like a huge hair net so it expands to fit any stroller seat. The canopy keeps it from touching him and he can see through it so he does not mind.

I have my eye out for a special sun covering, similar to the mosquito net because peebs got a little sun on his calves at the zoo when he was snoozing in his stroller. The huge canopy covers most everything, but the part of his legs that peaks out. I have seen this one online and so now I just wait and watch for my discount store to have one. Sunscreen is great, but a mesh SPF canopy would give me some great peace of mind since I won't be worrying about reapplying or if I got it everywhere. I prefer the canopy nets and sunscreens to keep the chemicals off his skin as well. Both bug spray and sunscreen bother my skin so I can only imagine what they would do to his precious juicy new skin. (Babies 6 mos and under can not wear sunscreen so it is also good for that time ). They have excellent reviews online from parents talking about vacations and theme parks and how the nets allow circulation, and shade for naps no matter where you are.

This bag by skip hop is pretty cool and gets great reviews. I already have plenty of storage but some of your other mommas might like it!

 

Baby Jogger has a MP3 Parent Console available that is said to fit all of their strollers. I found it at my discount store this weekend for $20 ( Retail is $59) and the fit is a little awkward in my opinion but I was shocked at how loud the speaker is! It is pretty awesome, especially for when peebs and I stroll the hood. We always jam out but its hard to always hear just the speaker on my phone.My stroller has a boombox. LOL

This is a stroller lock for when you go places like Disney World and need to leave the stroller to ride rides. It gets great reviews ! It comes in lots of different animals and is a neat little thing to have when you go to theme parks and such.

Just an FYI to those of you who have the Baby Jogger or who are thinking of buying one, the 2010 models are on sale now because the 2011 just came out. There are not any huge differences ( you can see from this post) so that can save you some $ if you are interested. I found my 2nd seat online HERE discounted with no tax and no shipping which is GREAT. I wanted to go ahead and get it while it is on sale and also because when you go places with friends and 2 babes, it is much easier to take one stroller instead of 2. MUCH easier!  Plus little griza #2 will need it one day! Until then, Ralph will occupy it.

Pishposh Mommy Wet Bag and Changing Pad!

I saw on twitter recently that PishPosh came out with a NEW item! A Wet bag ! Super exciting since I use a wet bag often! Wet bags are GREAT for cloth diapering mommas, and they are also great for stashing clothes that experience a blow out... and that happens more than you think it will, and when you least expect it! Being able to protect your purse from that mess, and that smell is very important! I am a big matchy matchy girl. I love SETS. So naturally I ordered one that matched my diaper bag insert, which BTW I love more and more every day!

This wet bag is better than any of the others I have seen out there, and certainly priced better!
It is a great size, and allows you to snap it in the shape of a clutch so that you don't have this huge bag wandering around in your purse. I roll mine up like a fruit roll up and stash it in the side pocket of my diaper bag insert.
It also has a great PUL lining that is substantial. In the past I have used wet.dry bags from planet wise, and I was SO disappointed in the fabric ( it was not very substantial, which in turn does not hold odors).
and the icing on the cake? is that that wrist strap has a snap also so that you can clip the bag to your diaper bag strap, or a stroller handle with ease.
I will be using it to store dirty bottles and food containers as well once Baby Fenn has eaten his yummies.

and while I was at it, I ordered the matching changing pad because it will fit inside of the organizer with ease. I got caught recently with nothing to lay under peebles when I was changing his diaper so I added this. It holds about 2-3 diapers and a travel wipes case. It is not very big, but will do the job of keeping his head and booty off dirty counter tops!

because the wet bag is a new item they are offering a special on it right now, click HERE for details on that.