Baby Wearing

I have two baby carriers, no wait, make that three. I just picked up a used hiking backpack from a neighbor.

But....originally I had 2 when PC was born.  I had the Ergo and the Moby Wrap.  Both of which I had researched and new that I wanted a few years before PC was even born.  Call me a planner, or maybe a little crazy...but, it's what I do.

I know some people say to wear your babies as much as possible, to hold them close, to keep that bonding time.  Others say, if your baby is super fussy, wear them. If they are colicky, wear them.  If they don't want you to put them down, wear them.  You get the idea.  I will agree, wearing your baby is a lot easier than carrying them around if you need to get household chores done.  Thankfully for us PC was none of those.  She didn't need to be held round the clock (although I could have if I wanted) and she wasn't sickly, other than jaundice and I wasn't allowed to hold her when she was on her special light anyway.  She was completely content sleeping in her rock n' sleeper, so I figured, why disturb her.  When I did need to wear her around the house though I would use our Moby.  It pulled her close and was less bulky, well other than the fact that I felt like I was mummified with all the wrapping.  One thing that I wish the Moby had was a pocket.  In the summer/fall when PC was lil I would wear the Moby when I took the dogs out, worked up a sweat, but had no where to hold my phone or keys.
Another negative with the Moby is it isn't practical when you go out, unless you already have it tied around you.  If you don't, the long "tails" drag on the ground collecting all kinds of goodies.

Oddly enough I still wil
l randomly wear the Moby, especially if my husband takes the car with the Ergo.  For short walks she's fine.  She does move around a lot more though.  Today I watched a video on how to do a hip hold with the Moby. I of course then had to try it out immediately, much to PC's dismay, but she seemed to like it.  I think that this would be very convenient when doing a quick walk, or quick errand (via walking).  As far as I can tell, this is not one that you can pre-do.  I didn't wear it very long so I can't say how my back or hips would feel.  I will say that she is 15 months old, but only weighs about 17 lbs. so that might make a huge difference versus another child.

** Apparently I wrote this two months ago, whoops.... PC is now 17 months and I'm not quite sure how much she weighs....somewhere between 17-20lbs.  I think she actually went through a growth spurt as I had some new pain in my one mommy arm- lefty is my dominant hold baby arm, even though I am a righty.

Does anyone have a favorite baby carrier? Do you use a sling? 

Maybe we will try an ergo360 for the next baby- I dunno, does having baby face outward throw you off balance at all?

Role Model

Of course I want to be a great role model for PC. I make sure to eat right around her and give her balanced meals. I wanna make sure I don't say inappropriate things around her. They are sponges after all right? So of course I go to sit down tonight where? Yup the coffee table. Actually it's a very common place for me to sit ask the hubs. I will even sit cross legged up there. I know weird right?!  So of course lil miss PC saw me tonight and this happened.

I better watch out. Also she's super flexible I'm a little jealous. Ha 

I love books!

We started reading to PC almost as soon as she came home.  My parents read to me growing up and there are so many books that I remember and love.  One thing that I wanted to do, at an early age, was tointroduce lil to all of them, old and new.  She will be well versed in Caldecotts.  I hope she will have a love of reading like her father and I do.  Thankfully our local library is stocked full of children's books, saves us some money and rotates the books frequently.  

PC loves turning the pages and she especially loves those touch and feel books and books where you can lift the flap.  There are times when I won't hear anything for a little while, I'll be in the kitchen or in the bedroom and I'll go and look for her and this is what I find...... She will just be quietly sitting there looking through her books. I LOVE THIS KID! LOL....I mean.... I will even if she doesn't love books like we do, but I hope she will.  <3  <3 

Fall Goodies!

It's fall, which means time for some fall treats!

With all the apples we picked at the Orchard the other week I figured I needed to do something with them, use them before they went bad.  I had planned(still planning) on making applesauce because lil miss PC LOOOOVES her some applesauce! However, we still had a bunch, so enter..... apple crisp! MMMM....if only I had some homemade vanilla ice cream, actually any vanilla ice cream would have worked.  I do wish that I hadn't put oatmeal on top, it was initially fine, but when it gets wet it gets that soggy oatmeal quality- Not.a.fan!  I also wish I had sliced the apples thinner, I don't like crunchy apples in my apple crisp, or apple pie. However, that being said, we ate it all.....over the course of a few days ;-)

I also had to make a chicken pot pie.  There is something very comforting about pot pie. I love eating a nice slice of warm pot pie on a brisk fall evening.  I think it may even taste better in sweatpants and a sweatshirt, but maybe that's just me :-) 

Dining out is always an Adventure

My little panda cub is loving on Chinese good. Americanized of course. She even has her panda cub bib on!  

Chopstick user in training😊

Favorites of the summer

Summer's over, but......

Here were some of our summer essentials:

1)Re-useable swim diapers- originally I had planned on ordering some of the cute colored/designed ones, but realized that the white swim diapers are better because they pretty much match all the bathing suits
This one is a the iplay diaper which I bought at Target, but you can get some super cute girl ones on Amazon here

 The second swim diaper was ordered from Target, it is Charlie Banana brand, PC is pretty small still so I got the small. What I like about this swim diaper is that there is a draw string inside so that if it's a little big you can tighten it up.

2)Cute sun hats(gotta shield the eyes, head, face and neck)- also a super cute Target purchase

This pink polka dot one goes with her Old Navy bathing suit.

3)Swim Hat(overboard??) I dunno I don't want her white hat to get all water stained, so why not invest in a hat made out of swim material? Purchased from Target, it is Speedo brand and has a UV50+ protection...gotta protect her cute lil cranium.

4)Sunglasses(she's not the biggest fan of these) I'm a little worried she'll pull them back and snap them on her little face.

5)Sunblock-I purchased Neutrogena pure & free baby SPF 60+

6)Baby Pool- which I scored for FREE! BOOOYA!

7) Swim Suit: I originally invested in a super cute pink polka dot one from Old Navy, but realized that a two piece makes more sense because PC will wear the swim diaper on the bottom and then just wear the top, that way it's a lot easier to change her
I purchased this bathing suit from Zulily- a website I love. Such CUTE stuff! It's soo dangerous too, dangerous for the wallet- LOL

8) I also invested in a long sleeve rash guard for PC- We used it a lot this summer! LOVE! Nothing like extra sun protection for precious baby skin

9) This baby floaty from Target, but you can also purchase it on Amazon. They are on super sale right now at Target though. Clearance!

Urban Sandbox

Living in the city, in a row house, we don't exactly have tons of yard space. The nice thing is there are lots of parks. However, sandboxes are not typically part of them, due to germs, bugs and animals. I've seen the turtle sandbox and it is super cute - I'm pretty sure once upon a time I even played in one, but again we just don't have the room. Not to mention that it gets real hot in the backyard and the dogs stink it up(yeah we could remedy that). There are also the relentless mosquitos too(I need a good solution!). A few weeks ago I did score a rejected sand/water table. It's missing a lot of parts including the lid to cover the sandbox part. But..... It was free. I can buy other play toys too and I'll try and DIY a cover for the sand part(will post a pic if when I am successful). It is small and fits nicely on the porch, I would love for her to play there, but the front mosquitos are worse than that backyard mosquitos(maybe we need bats). Thankfully cooler weather is upon us which hopefully means bye bye bugs.

This is what it should look like:

This is what we actually have- haha

We do have an upper deck off the back master bedroom. It does get sun, but bug wise it's pretty good. So, I purchased a 50lb bag of sand and filled one of my under the bed containers. Perfect! It can sit on the back deck on our double beach towel and lil miss PC can play. If it's raining I can just cover it, pick it up(maybe) and carry it downstairs to the kitchen, or maybe it would be easier to drag it over to her room. So it's our indoor/ outdoor urban sandbox. 

Jury is still out whether she will like it or not. Today she touched it with a finger then eventually several fingers but didn't really get into it. Though her mouth may have sampled some- oops.   While I'm not always keen on her putting EVERYTHING in her mouth, I know that  I will also miss the day when she stops.  It's the inquisitive baby/toddler nature- I still don't think of her as a toddler, she's not walking yet, still fits in 6 month clothes and still wears size 2 diapers. She's still my little baby.

"You'll Always be my Baby!"(insert Mariah Carey song)