Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Preschool Spring Party

Today I worked Pete's spring preschool party.  He goes to a cooperative preschool so I go in to work in the classroom about once a month and work two parties a year. He loves when it is our turn to work at the preschool.  Last week I planned the party with a couple other moms at Starbucks, without the kiddos! I was in charge of a "bunny hop" game and picked up these super cute bunny ears from Party City online with free shipping.
Pete cheesing it up with his ears and Easter basket

The kids had a great time and loved all the games, snacks and books that we had ready for the party!

Snack time with the butterfly bodies they made during the craft! Such a great time all the way around!

Friday, March 27, 2015

Nursing Happens Scarf Review

I breastfeed Nora, she rarely eats from a bottle and I'm seldom sitting at home eating bon-bons and watching soap operas; actually that last part never happens.  My life typically is go go go, whether it is going to the park, church, preschool, my mom's house, grocery shopping or the doctors, something is always happening around here.  I'm not complaining, I get horrible cabin fever and find it easier to keep Pete from driving me nuts if we keep busy and not just stick around home all day every day.  As a result of life Nora has to eat other places than our nice comfy dedicated recliner.  After two kids I've become rather good at not flashing the world while feeding and sometime just don't care to cover while feeding my baby in public, not because of wanting the world to see it all but because of practicality.  Rarely is it possible to see anything so typically I don't see the need for covering once we have a good rhythm going with nursing, I also wear clothes and are a bit more conducive to nursing as well. I do find myself covering to nurse Nora at church the most of all the places we go. I think it is the proximity of people and the relatively quiet atmosphere makes me feel more comfortable to cover.  I cover for my comfort, not for those around me, if I'm comfortable nursing it works better for the both of us.

Nursing Happens Infinity Scarf in Pink Kiss Chevron

I was given the Nursing Happens Scarf in my MommyCon goodie bag as a blogger.  I've had the chance to wear it a couple times since then and have found it rather useful and that I missed it one day when I forgot it and had to use a blanket.  I started out my nursing journey with Nora using a tent style cover, I've never been a big fan but needed something. We stopped using it around 3 months because she would kick and flail around and send it flying open and me, being unprepared for such events, would be visible to what seems like the whole world.  I just stopped using anything and nursed so that nothing would be visible during our sessions. Nora does like to stop and look around sometimes, especially as she gets older, this cover seemed to allow that a bit more but also keep me covered where I needed it.  Surprisingly it wasn't horribly hot to wear the scarf, no more than any other I have hanging in the closet. I found it easy to throw in the diaper bag if I'm not actually wearing it, no plastic pieces to get bent out of shape.  It also looks good even when I have no plan of nursing Nora, like at work.  Part of me is tempted to get another in a different color because they are just cute and I like wearing scarves. I'm rather partial to the Boho Feathers design, lots of different colors would look great with it!

Check out all of the selection at their website. They also sell a wide selection of reusable snack bags, teething necklaces for mom, wet bags and lots of other fun and cute looking items!

I received the product for free in order to review and as part of a gift bag, but all comments and reviews are my own and not that of the company's.  The pictures are my own.


Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Kandoo Wipes and Handsoap Review and Giveaway!

Kandoo Wipes were not a big hit in our house for Pete.  Mostly he associated them with baby wipes and wanted nothing to do with them touching his behind! I'm not one to try and argue too much with a 4 year old (nobody wins when it does happen). I thought they'd be useful and help him do a better job on his own, but alas he didn't want to be a "baby". Though I have found them useful for other things such as cleaning up after him if his aim is off when peeing, quickly wiping down the bathroom between cleaning, and wiping off the SprayPal Splatter Shield after I've sprayed off Nora's poopy cloth diapers.  Pretty useful. And if Pete uses them for something, I'm not too concerned with bleach or anything on his hands. So they are useful for things other than the intended purpose I
n our house!

Kandoo Handsoap has been a huge hit in our house! Pete likes that he can see the soap on his hands and loves trying to see how purple he can make them before I finally make him rinse.  He has really gotten better about consistently washing his hands after using the bathroom and before and after meals with this soap.  I also enjoy the berry scent which isn't overpowering but definitely there. I even find myself occasionally using his soap. We all have sensitive skin in this house and frequently get dry skin rashes in the dry winter air, and frequent handwashes can aggravate it.  Pete hasn't had any issues this year, whereas last year at this time he had horrible rashes on his hands from dry skin.

I received the product for free in order to review, but all comments and reviews are my own and not that of the company's.  The pictures are courtesy of Kandoo. 
a Rafflecopter giveaway
You can take the KandooKids Oath and be entered to win one of 1000 kits each month that they are giving away at the Kandoo website.

If you have a little one somewhere on the potty training journey, Kandoo has a toolkit to help out.  Check it out here!

If you are an iPhone user, they have an app for coming up with age appropriate activities for your kiddos from baby to 4 years. You tell them the age and they can help brainstorm ideas that would be fun for both of you.  Check it out here!

Kandoo Wipes and Handsoap can be found at Wal-Mart; they do go on rollback and coupons are available online at the Kandoo Website.

Kando is also active on social media on facebook, and twitter.

Thursday, March 12, 2015

New Shoes for Pete

Pete didn't want to get new shoes he liked his old shoes, but he had grown to where he was curling his toes under get them to fit and complaining about sore feet every night.


His new kicks! I got a great deal on them with 1/2 off the clearance price.  Now hopefully his feet won't grow too much more until we can get to an outlet mall for a really good sale.

I pulled these little gems out of storage for an upcoming project, his first actual shoes, aren't they so sweet and little!

Friday, March 6, 2015

Breastfeeding.

This is a picture of me nursing Nora in bed - both of us got breakfast in bed.  I absolutely love this picture; it is one of the most beautiful things I've seen  and as a mother experienced.  Granted not every nursing session is this magical, well really most aren't, but every so often I'm blessed to have one that just exudes perfection and reminds me what it is all about and why I put up with the bad.  The beginning with Nora was awful, and I ended up in the lactation consultant's office at the hospital four days in a row over a weekend. One of those days I was there at 11:30 at night because she wouldn't latch on.  In the midst of that I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to breastfeed Nora, and I was heartbroken about not getting to bond with her this way.  It was one of the things I was looking forward to doing again as a mother. Thankfully we figured it out and we were good; for many months we had no issues whatsoever.  All of January I had reoccurring clogged ducts; it was miserable, but we worked through it again, this time with the help of some great friends on a nursing moms group on Facebook and with the lactation consultant.  So for me to be able to post this picture of Nora happily and sleepily eating and me to cuddle with her while eating my breakfast too is just wonderful and glorious.  Breastfeeding isn't the sole way of mothering by any means; mother-baby bonds can be made in so many meaningful ways.  Pete was breast and formula fed, and I still have a great bond and love for that boy and I have a wonderful bond with Nora. 

I was really nervous to post this picture and blogpost for fear of what others would think or say.  Then I decided it was too beautiful not to, and that it might help someone else out there in the internet world on their journey.  I'm not posting it because I want the whole world to see my boob; I'm sharing it to share what breastfeeding means to me and what a beautiful thing it is.  Also the photo credit goes to Phil because he captured just what I wanted after just a few tries and is sheer perfection.

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

MommyCon!

 

MommyCon Chicago was awesome! Phil and Pete dropped me off at the convention center and they headed out to their activities (another post!). I started out at breakfast for the bloggers and street team members. Yum! We scoped out the Evenflo Feeding Lounge for later in the day, we spotted the new Ergobaby Nursing Pillow, which we ended up trying out.  Nora fell asleep wandering over to Cloth Diapering 101, though she got a rude awakening when they announced the new Bumgenius print and the crowd got rather excited.
Evenflo Feeding Lounge



Cloth Diapering 101

We ogled a Britax Clicktight Carseat for Nora in the vender hall.  It was an amazing carseat, won't lie! We checked out a bit more of the vender hall before heading to a diaper change and trying out Babyganics diapers.
Britax Carseat that we were dreaming about

Diaper change time with Babyganics!

I was really excited to go to the Wrapping 101 class but Nora decided it was time to eat right when we got to the woven wrap part and we weren't able to try it out because she freaked out.  I did learn some basics but I don't think I'll be investing in a woven until I have a better chance at trying it out first.
Wrapping 101 Class

After another stop at the feeding lounge (Nora's personal favorite of MommyCon Chicago) we picked up our Kiinde Foodii and met some other moms in line and had a nice chat. I got a big burger and fries for lunch, and Nora enjoyed the Happy Baby HappyYogis yogurt and fruit snacks. They melted in her mouth and she loved them.  We puttered around and had a great time going to talks and learning new things. I even got to nurse Nora during The Badass Breastfeeders presentation!  Talk about empowering! It was fun to meet up with people that I follow online in various forms.  The whole event was great. One of my other favorite classes was on menstrual reusables though no lying I do gag a bit on the thought but do find it intriguing all the same. Everyone gets a goodie bag too, mine was different than the general admission for being a blogger, but both were great! I got samples, a nursing scarf, cloth diaper, wet bag, and so many other great things that I will post and review about later.


Snoozing in the Ergo

Checking out a workshop

Mommy Daughter Selfie


 It was a great event, I loved seeing so many other women (and men) that find the same things to be important. It is nice to know that you really aren't alone in the journey no matter what your parenting choices.

Nora checking out the Foodii box during a class