Car Seat Nazi

I've been nicknamed (lovingly) the Car Seat Nazi by my good friend. You know what, I am perfectly okay with that. I know the term nazi isn't exactly PC but if it gets the point across, so be it. I really am a huge advocate for child car seat safety and if you look over there <--- you'll see links for it. It amazes me how many parents don't bother to read the instruction manuals on their seats. Take 5 minutes people! And then there are those who don't do research at all on the subject. Just because that booster seat says it starts at 30lbs does NOT mean your 2yr old should sit in it!!!! Most of my friends are really good at asking questions and advice and I don't know it all, so I do go to the experts (CPST- Child Passenger Safety Technicians) sometimes. I certainly don't want to give out any bad information. I'm really happy to help anyone with questions when it comes to their child's safety and do the research for them. I'm hoping one day to be able to take the CPST courses and become certified myself. That will have to wait for another year at least though.

So what brought this on? Well, my friend was showing me her car seat the other day and I saw she had folded up towels under her seats. That's a No-no (ahem...you know who you are and you still haven't taken them off! Get busy girl). I took one out and reinstalled her harnessed seat. She was supposed to take the other towels out and put a shelf liner after I left since her seats are leather. (AHEM!!!!!! Now, not in 2 months Miss J) She had a friend come over yesterday and noticed not only the car seat flopping all over (serious belt slack) but that the chest clip was at the baby's belly. The friend was pretty nonchalant about it from what I gathered. That just appalls me. How can a parent be nonchalant about their child when it comes to being in a vehicle? Said vehicle could be driving 15mph and in an accident, it won't matter. The child could be seriously injured and possibly die. Can you imagine at 70mph? So my friend helped her reinstall her seat and told her all about ME. :) Yes, I'm the Car Seat nazi and damn proud.

All I ask is that any parents out there reading this, PLEASE take the time to do some research. Keep your child harnessed as long as possible. There are many options out there now. Check out my links. Check out some of the YouTube videos such as Belle's Gift and the Kyle Miller video.

Don't blindly go by weight limits the mfg give you on the seat. Just because the seat can be used at 30lbs does not mean it should be used at 30lbs.

Check the expiration dates if you have a carseat that is 4-5 years old. Yes, car seats DO have expiration dates. They are anywhere from 5-8 years depending on the brand. It's not a marketing ploy. Plastic does degrade over time and break down. Think about it like this- milk also has an expiration date. It may not spoil on the exact date marked on the carton, but it WILL spoil.

Make sure any seat you are using, is used properly. That means the chest clip is level with the armpits, the straps are as tight on their shoulders as you can get and at the correct slot positions and the seat is at the correct angle. Babies under aget 1 AND 20lbs (not or) must be rear facing. Leave them RF until the limits of the seat if you can. No, their long legs will not bother them and it's better to have broken legs than a broken neck.

Make sure you read the manual and install your seat correctly. If you need help, find a CPST in your area. Your seat shouldn't move more than 1 inch at the belt path, but even better if it doesn't move at all.

This is your child(ren)s life at stake. They are your pride and joy. You are the parent and with that comes a responsibility to keep them safe. Don't let them down.

What a memory!

My soon to be middle child is 2.5 and has the memory of an elephant. He could spot a McDonald's a mile away when he'd only been once or twice. He knows what to order too (scary!).

Dh had to buy a new car battery a few weeks ago so we followed him to Discount Auto Parts. Just a few days later, we passed by a different DAP and he kept saying "battery dead". He recognized the store front/sign!

He can recognize a Target/SuperTarget if we pass one(well, we do shop there a LOT. He noticed one near Orlando last weekend as we drove down the interstate).

He knows what Campbell's is (local ice cream joint) and we don't go there very often.

Just this morning, we passed by our fave pizza place and he remembered picking up pizza last week there. "mmm I wuv it"

I'm happy to say he doesn't know what Walmart is. I don't shop there if I can help it.

It just really surprises me how much he remembers. Now if we would only apply that to his ABCs, shapes, colors, etc!

Dinner time!

See, I told you I'd come up with something. I got my idea from Pioneer Woman (see her link on my blog roll over there <---) who always makes yummy looking stuff but my friend Julie has done a few of these too. In fact, she started a second blog just for her recipes. Anyway, I don't cook much anymore since becoming pregnant. And this is what I usually do- throw something last minute together. Here it is in all it's pictorial glory. I have step by step directions so this may get long. Feel free to ignore as unless you can't boil water, it's not exactly a gourmet meal.

The cast of ingredients. Please pretend there is actually pasta in that box. I added a cast member after I had poured the pasta. I didn't realize I had cheese! Btw, if you don't usually like Ragu sauce, try the Organic version. Yum!!

Boil water...ignore all my pregnancy pills in the back ;)

Add salt- AFTER boiling water. Did you know salt before boiling can scar your pan? You can only truly season pasta in the water it's boiling in, not afterwards.

Pour pasta

Stir it around. Cook until al dente. Okay, so I've never known exactly when that was, so I just taste as it cooks....a few times. Mmm.

Drain well, shake a bit to get all the excess water hiding away in the pasta. Noone wants watery pasta.

Pour into your baking dish- can you see the steam in the back?

Time to pour the sauce!

Add some cheese and stir it around. Taste test...mmmm

Add some extra cheese on top.

If you have time, just put it in a 350 oven until it's really hot and the cheese is melty, but I was hungry (I'm pregnant people!) so I just put it under the broiler until the top layer was melty. I really like a browned cheese top but didn't feel like waiting that long. Low fat cheese just doesn't brown very well either. Dh is on WW though so low fat it is.

And it's done! Scoop some out to feed your children and nibble on some more until it's time to make your plate.

I decided to see if we had some garlic bread and found some in the back of the freezer. Here it is in it's frozen state. I chose to throw it in our Advantium oven so I didn't have to use the normal oven again.

And after it was done. Yummmmmy! I could eat all 3 pieces but I'll be nice and share.

And that was the end of my not-so-gourmet pasta dinner. Quick and easy!

Huh

For once I have absolutely nothing to blog about. My mind is a blank and has been all day. You've read about those school zone racers that irk me so much and you've read about bloody noses (which Ian just got again). There's nothing new pregnancy wise. Huh... what else can I write about? I'm sure to come up with something....sometime soon....my mind can't be blank forever can it?

Disney Sunday

Despite the rain clouds and cold, we decided to head to WDW for the day. It wasn't looking pretty but we had confidence that the weather guys were right in that it would clear up. Amazingly, the sky started clearing once we spotted our Disney exit sign. It was a crystal blue sky by the time we parked and made it onto the ferry. Yippee! It was still c-c-cold though with the wind blowing but thankfully it warmed up quite a bit as the afternoon wore on. The park was much more crowded than I anticipated but the lines weren't that bad- maybe 20min waits? We did FastPass Big Thunder Mt for Logan though. Splash Mt is down for a refurb so everyone was waiting over at BTMRR and it was a 70min wait! No way jose! So we criss crossed the park a few times and got our exercise in. The boys got to ride what they wanted to and everyone was happy. That is until it was time to leave the park...Ian wanted to ride the tram back to the car and we weren't that far away so we chose to walk. It's just a PITA to fold up the stroller and carry everything we had. He fell asleep before we even hit the interstate. Okay, a few pics!

On the drive over...watching the Incredibles




We met some very distant cousins of Donald and Daisy...and fed them popcorn while the toddler next to us fed them goldfish and giggled.

Ohhh mememememe! Pick me!


Whatyoulookinat?!


Night night


And a couple of non-Disney related pics...

Aww brothers....


Gigglepusses

Someone's reading my blog!

Wow. I added a ticker/counter/widget/whatever to my blog the other day. I started it at a weird number of 381 because I couldn't remember what my last counter said and it disappeared at some point. I now have over 700 hits. Cool beans! Comment people!

Tag, You're it!

10 Things I've Done

Here’s an interesting meme (yes, I had to look it up as I had no clue). Julie tagged me and I'm tagging the rest of you!

List ten things I have done that others likely have not. This was very hard to do (I'm such a boring person LOL).

1... I played the violin in the school orchestra for 8 years. I was pretty good and was always in 1st violin, and between 1st-3rd chair.

2... I worked in a bicycle handlegrips factory for a few months. (!!)

3... I failed geometry in middle school (seriously, it wasn't my fault!)

4... I worked for a vending/wholesale distributor for over 8 years and got to try samples of new foods/candies before they hit the shelves (and I wonder why I got fat?).

5... I lived with my parents until I got engaged and then moved in with my fiance, BIL and MIL for over a year.

6... I aced all my spelling tests in 5th grade so much that the teacher just let me give the test instead of taking it.

7... I dared/taunted my sister when we were kids to swim across an above ground pool and she nearly drowned. I believe my dad had to jump in to get her. Oops.

8... I've breastfed 2 boys for 4.5 years in total.

9... I've visited all major theme parks in the Central FL area at least once. I've done WDW more times than I can count.

10... I/my family has owned one dog or another my entire life.

Told you I'm boring! This was tough!!!

ETA: I thought of another one. I've been to two Super Bowls in Tampa!

Good morning

Once again, Ian was up several times in the night. Ugh. Then as I was getting out of bed this morning, I started getting palpitations again. I can't get it to stop though. If it ever does, we'll be headed to Disney!

ETA: Laying down for a few minutes helped. I don't think it's my blood pressure though as I don't show any other signs of preeclampsia. I will ask my MW though about it.

ETAA: I had no other problems all day and we had fun at Disney!

Another boring Saturday

We got zip done today- no painting, no cleaning, nothing. Well, I did get the alarm fixed on my truck but other than that, zip! Both Ian and Logan were up several times last night and just didn't want to sleep. They weren't sick, just awake! Ian finally crawled in bed with us and slept but dh and I were so tired today. After dropping off my truck at Sound Advice, we got the boys some lunch and put them both down for a nap. An hour and a half later, Logan fell asleep but Ian still hadn't. Dh was napping in the tv room and all I wanted to do was nap but Ian was frustrating the hell out of me not staying in bed. If I closed his door, he'd cry and I didn't want him waking Logan. Ugh. I think he finally slept for an hour before getting up again. I was like forget it already, dh is here, he can watch him and I went to sleep. I think I woke up around 4:30 (nice huh?) and we were off to go get my truck again. I left them at SA while I drove to the Vitamin Shoppe for some Red Raspberry Leaf caplets and tea and to get some dinner. That was an hour ago and they still aren't home. Uh oh...I should know better than to leave dh at SA by himself. Heaven knows what he'll bring home. When I called him, he was looking at a projector that was 75% off....

Well alrighty then...

Check out this post on Craigslist. Hurry before it's gone!

And speaking of...

Why is it pregnant woman seem to become so scatterbrained? What is it about pregnancy that causes your brain cell to freeze up? I have a hard time remembering appointments or what I ate yesterday. After the baby is here, it's even worse because then you are sleep deprived on top of it. What time did I feed him last? Which side did I nurse last? Did I change his diaper recently? I know when I had my boys at the hospital, the nurses were always asking how long it had been between feedings? How the hell do I know? I'm exhausted and just want some sleep. Hello?! 23 hours of labor here. I just fibbed with my 2nd. It kept them off my back.

This time around, I know the midwives want you to keep a record too. Ugh! Like I want to write down every time she's fed or changed. This is my 3rd baby, I think I can handle it. But I will be the good little mommy and write it down for their records. I did come across this handy little gadget. Not sure if I want to buy it or not though. I'd still have to write everything down for the 1st 2 weeks or so. At least it would help me remember what side I nursed on, that is if I remembered to push the buttons. I can see in my sleep deprived stupor, not remembering to do that either. It's all a mad cycle!

It's Secret Sister time!

Our playgroup is doing a SS for Valentine's Day (and possibly all of Feb). We have a very minute dollar limit ($5) and I'm so unimaginative. What am I going to do for the next 2 weeks much less 4 if we keep going?? I'm used to a much bigger budget ($20). LOL My scatterbrained pregnant self is at a loss right now... I'll think of something though!

Baby Name

Okay, I think we've come to a decision....Bella will be her name. Isabella is just too popular of a name now. I just can't seem to call her Isabella when I'm talking to her either. It's always Bella. Dh thought of something else by the way. My first name is actually Linda which means beautiful in Spanish. We didn't plan this but Bella also means beautiful only in Italian. She'll also have my middle name spelled a bit differently. I thought that was pretty neat!

Love this opening scene

I don't know what it is about this song, but I absolutely love it and will listen to it over and over again. Ian loves it too. I have the soundtrack on my iPods to the whole movie. Here's the video:

Things I'm learning about Ian

#1 Ian loves turkey and salami. Who knew? Yesterday at lunch I was just fooling around and asked if he wanted a turkey sandwich and he said yes so I gave him just the turkey, some salami and some apples and he ate it all! Guess he's my little omnivore. Logan just isn't a big meat eater. He'll probably follow dh and be a veg.

This morning, he wanted a snack too. Guess what he asked for? Apples and turkey. He also got some salami and cheese. At least it's somewhat healthy!

#2 He's pretty funny. This morning's conversation went something like this. (We pass a cow/horse pasture everyday near Logan's school)
I: Look at all the poopy!
Me: (laughing) Yea, that's a lot of poop.
I: Bad dog
Me: What dog?
I: Bad Horse!
Me: Why's the horse bad?
I: Horse no poop in potty.
Me: (cracking up) Horses don't poop in the potty. Ian poops in potty, Logan poops in potty.....(etc)
I: Horse sit time out! Horse no poop in potty.

Sometimes I wish I had a tape recorder on me.

Weird

I'm just sitting here and out of the blue my heart starts racing. I used to get palpitations a long time ago but they stopped once I started losing weight (or so I think- don't really remember). I counted the beats and it was 144hbm and now they are back to 96. I think my normal rate is in the 80s. Very weird! I hate the feeling though.

This is funny

Dh told me about this guy last night. He's pretty funny.

Not a good start

Everything was fine this morning until I actually had to walk out the front door. I have a new alarm/remote start on my car so as usual I unlocked the car so the boys could get in. Something happened though between last night and this morning because the alarm went off and I couldn't get it to stop!! OMG is it ever LOUD! I pushed buttons and put my key into the ignition and finally had to call dh. Putting the key into the door works by the way. I think what happened was last night when we were getting the groceries out the alarm was set off and while dh thought he turned it off, it automatically goes off after a minute or two, so this morning I just set it off again bc it was never reset last night. Did you get all that? Ugh... thank goodness Logan doesn't have to be at school until 9am so I didn't feel like I was waking the entire neighborhood. It's still stressful though!

To top it off, I was driving down my street after the alarm fiasco and some lady thought I wasn't going to stop at the stop sign and honked at me and started pointing at the sign. It just irked me to no end. I've lived here for nearly 8 years. I think I know where the stop sign I've stopped at 5,759 times is. ARGH!

Word of advice

Never send a pregnant woman to the grocery store. Even with a list of 10-15 items, she'll end up spending over $100. Seriously, I needed milk, soymilk, cereal, lunchmeat, lettuce, avocados, grapes, bananas, hotdogs (veg), chicken nuggets (veg) and juice and I ended up with so much more. At least it wasn't all junk!

What I don't need...

All this cleaning and sorting has led me to a few discoveries. I have WAY more baby lotion and baby wash then I need. I found a bag full of it. I guess it's a stockpile from a really good sale at one point. I haven't even started on the closet yet but I do see I don't need anymore baby hand molds or baby hand/foot painting kits. I have at least 3-4 of them! Baby blankets- check! I still have a few with tags still on. Good heavens! Who knows what else I will discover.

Our new Ikea bookcase

Here's the pic I promised. I've gone thru nearly all the toys in the house and sorted them out. I still have 1 toybox to go though and I can't get to it because dh has heavy boxes of extra flooring on top (in Bella's room). After sorting and tossing broken stuff, it's not as bad as I thought! Now if I can keep it neat and get the boys to keep it sorted! Think we have enough books yet?

Oh and after reading some blogs, I'm feeling crafty. I don't sew a lick and yet I want to make some felt food like this for the kids to play with. WTH am I thinking?! I saw some at PBK but I'm not paying their prices either! Oh and this is what dh wants to buy Bella eventually. He saw it at PBK when we went and that's all he wants now. She's not even here yet. LOL

Road Rage

Dear I-4 driver,

Was it really necessary for you to ride right on my bumper when I'm going as fast I can? Speeding up only to hit your brakes isn't going to make me do anything. And really, the speed limit is 70 (I was doing almost 80). I know I'm in the fast lane, but I can only go as fast as the guy in front of ME. I obviously couldn't get over either. All you did was make me want to go slower. For all your rushing and trying to get around me, I hope it was really an emergency.

31wks

Could time move any faster? I had a midwife appt this morning. Everything looks good. Bella is in a posterior position but there's plenty of room for her to move still. That helps explain my pointed tummy. Heart rate was 148. I had traces of ketones and protein but nothing they were worried about. It just means I needed to eat (all I had was a small bowl of cereal) and drink lots of water today. The boys did find a new toy they loved while we were there so I'm on the lookout for it. I asked online because I wasn't sure of the name(although I recognized them) and was told they are Krinkle/bristle/or thistle blocks. I swear I had some of these at one time. I go back again in 2 weeks and I'm taking a waterbirth class that night as well. Should be interesting!

Baby shower time!

So my sister's baby shower was today. She got a lot of pink! LOL Hopefully she has enough to get her started at least. She seemed to like everything. She wouldn't let me install her carseat today though. Grrr. Something about needing to pick up her BF and his bike. I want to make sure it gets installed right! Hopefully she'll stop back by in the next 2 weeks. She's a lot smaller than I expected her to be at 34weeks. She was already a big girl though. I look bigger than her bellywise!

I made some really cute cupcakes to go along with the spread of food. You know I had to share the pics with all of you!

Icing the cupcakes... someone actually gave me 4 cans of this Valentine icing that was already pink and had sprinkles/hearts to add. Made it alot easier on me!


Adding the Sweetheart candies

And a close up...


Add a stick and ribbon


And voila! You have baby rattle cupcakes!

Ikea!!

Dh and I did get to go to Ikea today. Wow! What a humongous place! Everything was really nice though and the prices were great we thought. Dh found a computer chair but we didn't buy it just then. We'll be going back again. We found a huge storage cabinet but we really needed to measure the wall where we would place it first so we didn't get that either. It will be nice for hiding stuff away though like our DVDs and some toys.

We did buy a nice storage cubby/shelf thing for the boys' room though and a few storage boxes too. I'll have to take a picture of it tomorrow. I also found a nice storage/changing table(not seeing it on the web) if we decide to buy one. They didn't have it in stock though. And we found some nice kitchen cabinets and bathroom sinks and cabinets that we may get in the future. See? I could spend a ton of money in there but redo my entire house. I think it would actually be pretty cheap in the long run compared to Lowes or something.

It was really nice to just get out without the boys, just dh and I. We were able to talk without being interrupted, we were able to hold hands and we even got to go out to eat all by ourselves. Aaahhh...wish it could have lasted a bit longer but we had to relieve my BIL of his babysitting duties. He and the boys had fun too though. He said he was worn out! LOL

WTF Blog

For those who like our WTF blog, stay tuned. There may be more posts coming.

Fivebucks aka Starbucks

Went to SuperTarget today and had to stop in Starbucks. I just can't walk out of there without spending at least $5 but that does include an organic juice box for Ian. Today I got something new- a Grande Chai Tea Frappucino Light No Whip. Mmmm. Unfortunately I can't give you the nutritionals on it as there isn't a way of making it light on their online calculator. I can tell you it was yummy!!

And speaking of SuperTarget, can you believe I got out of there today under $18. Wow! I needed some stuff for the babyshower on Sunday and they didn't have it so I'll be headed to Publix tonight. There wasn't anything on good enough clearance for me either. oh and fyi- they are now carrying HotSlings.

Mom's Night Out

So I never updated on our MNO at The Melting Pot. For those who don't know, I've been in a playgroup for close to 5 years now (WOW!) and I've made so many good friends. Six of us got together Wed. night to go out to dinner. We all got semi dressed up and met at Julie's and Scarlett drove us all out there in her Pimp-Mobile aka Escapade(my bad!) aka Escalade. We shared 3 different cheese fondues and 3 chocolates. Mmmm. My faves were the Spinach Artichoke and the Cookies & Cream. We all had a salad too so the calories balanced out. haha! There was some conspiring going on (and no I'm not telling what it was), the usual kid talk and then talk about stopping at the Todd Adult store. Hmmm my friends are not what you'd call prudes (like me! LOL). Everyone had a good time though and hopefully I'll get a couple more MNO/MNI before having a newborn by my side 24/7. Here are a few pics. Julie has the only pic with all of us in it. She needs to share and post it! (hint hint) Not all of mine came out as clear as I'd like so this is what I have.

Love Scarlett's expression!


Amy cheesing it up


2 of our chocolates- the Original and Cookies & Cream - we were soooo full!

A different labor reading...

Hmmm...wonder how accurate she will be. It's weird, because I'm prepared for a labor that long again, I am having a girl, brown hair is dominant with dh being Puerto Rican and I really want a girl with my eyes (green!). Oh and she'll only be slightly smaller than Ian was.
http://pregnancyandbaby.com/pregnancy/baby/Madame-Zaritska-predicts-your-birth-experience-736.htm


Madame Zaritska, our resident clairvoyant, wants to help you prepare for the arrival of your child. Here she does her best to predict certain aspects of your labor and birth experience.
What she senses for you
The day you deliver, outside will be sunny. Your baby will arrive in the afternoon.
After a labor lasting approximately 21 hours, your child, a girl, will be born. Your baby will weigh about 7 pounds, 11 ounces, and will be 19-1/2 inches long. This child will have green eyes and dark hair.
But there is more. Although you may feel tired, your pregnancy will be over before you are truly ready to let go of having this precious baby you have all to yourself. I sense that you will look back and long for these days. I suggest doing something now to preserve some memories of this time. Many women enjoy making a belly cast. Perhaps you would be interested, too.

Of course, I went and took the test again with the same answers and it came back with a different prediction. LOL I'll stick with the first one!

Tragic- vent

I've been following a story on another board. A woman's BIL was in an motorcycle accident a week or so ago and he wasn't wearing a helmet. He died this morning leaving a young wife (30s) and 3 kids. It's so tragic yet I can't help feeling that he was selfish too. Why wasn't he wearing a helmet? Why would you take such a chance when you have a young family? And why does Florida have such sucky laws when it comes to motor vehicle safety?! In June 2000, FL overturned the law that motorcyclists would have to wear a helmet if they were a) over 21 and b) carried over $10,000 in medical. WHY? According to this NHTSA report, motorcycle fatalities increased by 81% during 2001-2003 compared to 1997-1999....Non fatal injuries jumped by 32%. I just don't get it. What makes it worth the risk? You don't want helmet hair?!

And don't get me started on FL's child car seat safety laws. They are such a joke. So according to this, there is no law for infants and being rearfacing (12mo AND 20lbs MINIMUM to turn forward facing), only that they are properly restrained. And your 4yr old can sit on your car's seat as long as they are wearing a seat belt. OMG. Do you know what a seat belt alone would do to a small child? How many 4-5yr old do you know that would sit still in a seatbelt, not lean over, slouch etc. There's nothing there about even being in the front seat or turning off airbags! Here's the law...

1)(a) Every operator of a motor vehicle as defined herein, while transporting a child in a motor vehicle operated on the roadways, streets, or highways of this state, shall, if the child is 5 years of age or younger, provide for protection of the child by properly using a crash-tested, federally approved child restraint device. For children aged through 3 years, such restraint device must be a separate carrier or a vehicle manufacturer's integrated child seat. For children aged 4 through 5 years, a separate carrier, an integrated child seat, or a seat belt may be used.

What I just posted above is the law but at least the DOT does give better guidelines. If this isn't a joke, I don't know what is. This "law" was passed in....1982!!!!! Seriously?! That's over 25 years ago! Again I ask WHY? Why do we have such outdated laws? Other states are passing laws that state kids must remain in child safety seats until at least 8yrs old and 80lbs and only 3yr olds need to be in seats in FL? I think I may go throw up now.

Yawn...

Just got home from MNO at The Melting Pot. I had to drive home barefoot. Wide pregnant feet and strappy sandals just don't mix! I'm so tired now (hence the yawn- not that I was bored) but had a blast as always. I'll update more tomorrow!

Baby wearing

Did you ever wear your baby? What did you use? I have a Maya sling somewhere, just not sure where it is. I used it a bit 2 years ago but it wasn't as comfy as I'd hoped. I don't care for the wraps that you have to wrap this way and that way around your body and need a college degree to use either. I really like the BabyHawk Mei Tais and I've heard great things about them. They look like they'd be great for the baby with head control. I need something good for nursing too. So we're back to slings. Some girls rave about the Posh Papoose. Aren't they purty? There are just SOOO many different kinds of slings, wraps, carriers and pouches now so it makes it all the worse when you are a very indecisive person. Oh and don't get me started on all the different fabrics to choose from: silks, cottons, gauze, Solarveil/Solarweave....

I have a feeling I'll be buying a prettier ring sling once I figure out a brand and a BHMT later on. Any suggestions?

Baby shower planning

I'm planning a baby shower to be held this weekend for my sister. There are only 7 of us so it's going to be very small. No games, just some finger foods. I'm just not sure what to prepare! So far my menu consists of a small veggie tray and dip like tzatziki sauce, baby rattle cupcakes and chocolate covered strawberries. What else should I make? A bread bowl with dip? Buffalo chicken dip? I have no ideas at the moment so suggestions are welcome! It's a mid-afternoon shower if that helps.

I'm hoping she gets a lot of stuff she needs. She has no extra income except to buy cigarettes it appears (ahem) and I want my niece to have what she needs. I bought her a stroller/carseat combo on clearance at Target and a good friend from our playgroup gave me a crib and changing table to give her (Thanks again Melodie!) so baby will have somewhere to sleep. We can't have her sleeping in a dresser drawer now! Relatives have asked me what to buy her and I honestly can't say. I may give her some crib sheets if she wants them but after 5 years, they are no longer in pristine condition. They just look dingy although they are in good shape. I know she plans on formula feeding and I know nothing about bottles. I've just been telling people wipes and diapers or gift cards for those things.

So now I need to get my house in order for Sunday. I plan on closing all doors to my house while company is here! LOL We still have so much to do and it's all so much a mess right now. I'm not even sure where to start. I did have an idea though. I need to run it by everyone involved first though. I was thinking, we need to purge some toys, so what if I buy some Rubbermaid containers and give one to my younger BIL, my mom and my MIL to keep at their house so when the boys are there, they'll have plenty to do. I thought it was a good idea. It gets them out of my house, but I don't feel like I'm just throwing them out or losing money on them. Tell me what you think.

Going to Ikea! or maybe not...

ETA: Crappola!! I just got back from the grocery store and I have a "malfunction light indicator" on in my truck. The 4WD light was on too although when I turned the engine off and on again, it stopped. This means of course a trip to the dealer which means possibly no Ikea. :'( We all know what the dealership ends up costing!

ETA2: I swear my dh is going to drive me crazy. He's more disappointed in not going on this trip than I am. He's walking around moping. It's not like I meant for the stupid light to come on, it just did! He just went to bed early and at this point, I'm over it. LOL


We're going to Ikea! I can't wait! My BIL is coming over to watch the boys Saturday and dh and I are headed out to Orlando. Yea! We're looking for toy storage solutions mainly but we'll see what we find. ;) I'm excited to see this place!

I've created a monster

Ian is a shopoholic. Last night I was telling him good night and usually he likes to stall and stall so I told him we'd go to the store in the morning thinking he'd go to bed quicker. I didn't say what store. I knew I had to get gas but that was it. He piped up right away, "We go to Target!". That's my boy! LOL He actually gets upset in the morning if I head towards home instead of into Brandon after dropping off Logan. At least he'll learn to bargain shop!

Registry

For those who care, I deleted the baby bath from my registry. I saw a much smaller and better fit at Petite Elite here in Brandon. I think it was by Primo(which is what the other was but was huge!)? Wait, I found it. Here's one I saw at PE and here is the other. People have been asking my what I need and I don't need much that I can think of. I have a few things on my registry (Registry #: 70440509) but besides that, all I can think of is gift cards to buy diapers (not sure what will work with this baby as not all brands work with all babies) and wipes (any will do unless she's sensitive). My MIL called this morning to see if we needed a crib. I had to tell her no as ours is still in great condition. I do need a mattress but I'm not sure if I'll buy a regular crib mattress or spend the big bucks and get a natural/organic one. After seeing the cost of the organic ($259 and up!), regular will probably be what we get. ;)

Front is finished- before and after pics!

Well except for landscaping of course. DH is ready to pull all the bushes out and start over again. That big dead looking bush is our bougainvillea I talked about a little bit yesterday. We still need to paint the back and right side of the house.
Before- plain stucco


Primed and painting




After


Oh and I did help him a little. I taped off the door and windows. There is still some touch up work to be done though as it's hard to tape around stucco. I also feel like the front needs something. I'm just not sure what. Dh thought we should buy some wooden blinds to put behind our room darkening blinds as they look good from the outside(we have them in our dining room window). I like shutters but we took the last ones down as they are wasp attractors. Hmmm... oh I should add, we are thinking about adding a front porch. We don't have much overhang though so I'm not sure how that would work. I'd prefer screened in so we can sit outside without having to deal with bugs but I also like the open look.

A Picture Post

I will hopefully be back later with something more worthwhile to talk about but until then, I give you a few shots I took today.

Dh is hard at work priming the front of the house. The primer was supposed to be tinted but the idiot at Lowes apparently didn't do his job. Hopefully it won't effect the paint color too much. The side of the house that is painted was what we had left of the old paint/primer. Oh and you can see my bouganvilla that looks so dead thanks to that last freeze. It needed to be cut back anyway. It's still alive though as I did some pink leaves/flowers underneath it. We also found a shrimp plant that we thought died out a couple of years ago!



My new Scooba is hard at work too! I ordered the cheapest model from HSN at the beginning of December. It didn't worked properly so after talking to CS at iRobot, they had me send it back to be replaced. UPS LOST my package though and from Dec 10 when it was "out for delivery" and earlier this week, it was MIA. I even filled out all the claims forms for it. Lo and behold, I suddenly got an email from iRobot that mine had been shipped and I got it the next day! (I had written to them too so see if they could trace it from their end). Not only did I get a new model, I got a more expensive model. Yippee! This one actually works too. Double bonus! LOL So here is our new Scooba which may/may not be called Donald due to his blue color. We haven't really decided.
ETA:He just finished up and boy was that water nasty! Dh just handmopped the floor a few days ago!



A few nature shots I got it today while outside with dh. This butterfly decided to come over and have a drink.





And because Ian seems to get all the attention on my blog, here are a couple of pics I took of Logan.



And finally, I tried once again to install 3 car seats across my Pilot and was successful! I'm not able to use LATCH on the Marathon to do it though. I had to seatbelt it in which is fine. I'm able to get a tight install either way. Now Bella can use the Snugride for a couple of months and then I'll get her and Ian a new seat. Ian's MA expires next year anyway. I went looking at Petite Elite today to see the Radian but they didn't have them yet. I did see some bedding I fell in love with though. Of course, it's too late since I already ordered the PBK bedding. Oh well!

Adventurous eater?

Could I possibly have one?? Or was it a fluke? We went out to Macaroni Grill tonight and Ian actually ate bread with olive oil on it, some of our parmesan artichoke cake(like a crabcake) appetizers, some seafood (scallops) and some of my pasta with it! Now why can't he eat dinner at home that well?? He also ate pizza and ice cream. He must be a) feeling better or b) going thru a growth spurt or c) both. I'd prefer C because he's been looking really skinny since getting that last cold that seemed to last forever! He's been asking for food ("nack") all the time even right after he's eaten! Let's hope he keeps it up although I know in his preteen to teen years, I'll be regretting that statement. Haha.

You riding the cotton pony?

I LOVE Carol Burnett and Vickie Lawrence. I miss watching that show. I wasn't old enough to see the beginning shows but I've seen a few and watched Mama's Family. I was watching some clips on YouTube and came across this one. So LMAO funny! CB can't even keep a straight face!

And some Blasts from the Past...
NKOTB- you know what that means if you're around my age! You got to have the Right Stuff. And don't forget Step by Step.

New Edition! I had their record! Candy Girl, Mr Telephone Man (loved this song!)

How about some Tv? Silver Spoons with Ricky and Alfonso! Punky Brewster was the best. Who could forget Kids Incorporated?

How many of these do you remember? I didn't see the Snorks or Smurfs in there though! I love that Logan loves to watch a lot of these now too.

Okay, enough for now! I'm sure you'll be busy for a while checking all these videos out!

Baby names and Ian-isms

Dh and I are stuck. We have been calling the baby Bella and now we're not sure whether to stick with Isabella or just Bella. I like them both and they both sound good with her middle name. On the plus side, if we name her Bella, noone can call her Izzy. ;-)

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And a few Ian-isms to start your day... I'll try to be back with more later.
From Yo Gabba Gabba- Pawy Tummy, so Mummy, so Mummy (There's a party in my tummy, so yummy, so yummy)

Pirate song- no ho no ho, piwate I O Me.

Swords- Yayayas

My newest creation

One of Logan's teachers is due with boy/girl twins just 10days before I'm due. She's now on partial bedrest and we're having a surprise shower for her today in class. I love baby showers and making diaper cakes so I decided to try something new- diaper cupcakes! They are 4 diapers each, a bib or lovey and a pair of mittens I rolled to sort of look like a flower bud. I picked up a cake box from Publix and they fit perfectly. She also has a 2.5yr dd so I found a princess doll on clearance at Target to throw in for her. The bibs and loveys were also clearance. I think I spent less than $30 total not counting diapers. I of course will use the leftovers once Bella is born. I think they came out really cute! Here are some pics:









Oh and I need to give credit for the scrapbooking supplies I used to make the Babykakes by Karlise label. Since I'm not actually selling these, I don't think I'm violating any copyrights. The paper and ribbon are from the Sweet Sprinkles kit by Shabby Princess.

ETA: These were a HUGE hit with all the moms who were at the party today. Everyone loved them. :)