Front Facing Car Seat

We went with the Evenflo Symphony 65 e3 All-In-One Convertible Car Seat (Hamilton) at $160 after coupons and ebates cashback from babies r us. 

Ebates is awesome by the way, I already have received $56 back for shopping online and refering a friend. all you need to do is sign up then when you want to shop online go to ebates first and search for the store you want to shop at. Click on the stores shop now button to go to their site and make a purchase. Ebates tracks that you got to lets say gap from clicking on the link from ebates and will reward you if you make a purchase. I like to see who is paying out the most and buy what I need from them. 

So $160 is still a lot of money but I figured I buy most of his clothes cheap at target so I can spend a little more on my big purchases.

It is extremely safe and easy to use. The seat reclines into 3 positions, has the sureLATCH system and easy adjust for height with the slide harness (my favorite part). No more fighting to get the shoulder straps through the seat base.

You can look into it further here

He loves it so very much

$5 target shirt

FYI, My little man has 8 teeth and working on the molars! They grow so fast. 

DIY Grip Socks

I recently upgraded little C to bigger socks and found that they were way more slippery than his old ones. Having wood floors made it hard for him to walk around....so I busted out the puff paint.

Do you call it puff paint? My husband has no idea what that is and thinks I made it up. 

I opted for the tulip slick glow in the dark paint. It was slick enough to still be able to get his shoes on but also have just enough grip to be able to walk around.

A simple and easy fix. 

Baby proofing

It's been a while.... sorry. We have been very busy with large scale projects. While working on staining our kitchen cabinets we decided to also install wood floors all downstairs. While raising our little man it has been very time consuming. The floors derailed my cabinets for a little bit but are now just about done.

Our little man has gotten so big he decided it was time to play with his toys on the entertainment center and to grab the tv corner. After first needing to put on doors to our entertainment center.

Yes it is from Ikea. Sometimes you just have to buy cheap and thank goodness we did because it was so easy 2 years later to go and pick up some doors for it at $15 a piece.

After about 2 mins C figured out how to get the doors open and pulled our dvd player right out of the shelf..again. Then the blue tape went up.

Our next step was getting the mount up on the wall high enough to be out of reach of the little one. This was one ordeal as we had three adults that all had a different way of doing it. In the end It was put up and that is what matters.

We got our mount at Monoprice and at a great price!! it was under $50 dollars out with taxes and shipping for a fulling adjustable 46" mount. They offered great overnight shipping for $9. I would highly recommend them to anyone needing a tv mount.

We have not yet installed the wood floor under the tv

Yes..I may have been watching Glee and Little C's favorite thing is to play with his toys on the entertainment center

It took a little bit to get used to the height but now that I have had a few days I am loving it. I still need to get the cords all worked out but that can wait until after our floors are finished.

I apologize for the horrid pictures my camera battery decided that it no longer wanted to work.....

Tunnel Time

My growing boy is all about getting into things. I wanted to try and find a new outlet for him instead of climbing in our shelves. (Which he still loves to do still) For the $15 price tag this tunnel was a great find. My little man wasn't afraid to go through it when we got it open and figured out how to do it on his own in minutes. Now after having it for a few weeks he loves to just go through it on his own or play peek a boo with us.

Positives:

It closes up and opens easy

Small and easy to store once closed

Soft with no sharp edges or hard spots

Negatives:

Makes my house seem messy..er when it is out

You looking at me mom?

Sili Squeeze review

I normally don't normally buy products and end up hating them... but this is one of them. As it is a newer product (I think) and there were not many product reviews out there for me to read I decided to take a chance on it. I thought "Oh yes this will be much better than the Little green bag I want to get" ... Boy was I wrong.

The spill proof nipple is way to hard for my 7 and a half month old to get anything out of. Then when I tried it it was way to hard for even me to get anything out. The company says that it is harder for me to do as it is designed for little mouths and that little C just needed to learn how to use it. After using the squeeze with ease nipple I still have complaints. Yes Little C likes it for the first few bites but then after the silicone bag is no longer full he cannot get anything else out. It was too hard for him to suck the bottom portion out for the container because of the shape.

He has used the regular store bought pouches that come with food in them and has had no problem getting the entire portion out of the bag. Yes the Sili Squeeze may be better for an older child but at that point a child can have slices of apples and not need apple sauce.

I would say this product was a major let down for me and not worth the money at all. I wish I had more pictures of the extremely fussy baby with this product but as I said he was EXTREMELY FUSSY!! I would be too if I was hungry and the food would just not get in my tummy. :)

Middle of the night leaks

Little C officially can roll over as of a month ago and with the new found skills comes some complications.

He is now a tummy sleeper, despite my efforts.

Now that he sleeps on his tummy he has a problem with his diaper leaking and getting all over the place.



He doesn't take a pacifier it just happen to be in the crib

He is not one to sleep through it and will not go back to sleep until I take off his diaper. After the diaper is off he goes back to sleep and sleeps through me putting his diaper on and new pants and putting a blanket under him (all while he is on his still laying on his tummy, putting a diaper on butt up is not a smooth operation).

He does sleep through the night so when he is awake for more then a short cry I know I am in for another clean up.

I thought it was the costco diapers as I have noticed that if you put pressure on the diaper it will leak through the outside. Even when it barely has anything in it. I am not a fan of having to take of his jumper seat and wash it.

I switched over to the Luvs as they are the cheaper of the better diapers. I like them better then pampers due to the pampers being too fragrant and better then costco because they are softer and the straps are thinner making less irritation on my sons legs from movement and rubbing. I find the costco diapers run his leg and tummy raw from the large rough straps.


After the luvs leaked overnight I decided it was time to pay the price and try the Huggies Overnight diapers. They worked great!!!!

No he does not have a pink blanket, it was mine as a baby and he loves that it is silky. I have not found any blanket that is all silky for him. Also yes he sleeps with blankets in his face... I have tried to pull them away but he just keeps pulling them back in his face.... don't look at the fact that I don't have his sheets back on his bed yet hehe

Chicco Poly Highchair

There are a lot of highchairs out there that are great looking that I may have preferred but not at the $250 price tag they came with.

We got our Chicco Polly Highchair for $107 (normally $160) at Buy Buy Baby.

I love the adjustable height and chair slope. I also like that the seat was a little larger than some of the other options. We like to move it next to us while we watch TV and it is incredibly easy since its legs fold in so easy.

A lot of people complain that they can't get it clean and that its not washable but if you clean it after each feeding (which we don't always do...there is food on it in the pictures, dang!!) or just the big spills then you will be fine. My little man does love to grab the straps and suck on them while he has food in his mouth (which is why I put one of the straps behind the top layer pad) and food gets in it. It comes out fine but I have to take a little time to clean that part really well.

All in all I love it and Little C loves it too. Great deal for the $107 :)

Fussy Baby Tip

My child is only 7 months and already wants to do everything himself. Sometimes it becomes a problem when he is feeling independent and wants to feed himself but is still too little for table foods or using spoons. He then doesnt want to eat very much food and doesnt get the satisfaction of a full tummy.

My solution.... let him do it himself.

He got a lot of the first one as it was half gone and thicker food but the second puch... well he didnt realize it was as full as it was and mommy was not allowed to help at that point he just wanted it right that moment.

He loved it and since he was on a washable blanket, mommy and daddy love it too.

All he needed was a bath after and our baby was happy the rest of the night.

Sometimes you just gotta let a baby do what they want to do. :) Even if it means he is not eating the yummy homemade baby food you have in a bowl ready to eat.

Teething - Stage 1

Little C has official cut his two bottom teeth. Some parents say that they hardly even noticed when their child was teething, for us this was partly true. His first tooth came and we wouldn't have even noticed if he hadn't caught me off guard and got my hand in his mouth. He was fussy but we thought it was just him getting bored with his toys. During the second tooth he was a bit my fussy then before but now that we knew why he was fussy we were prepared. My theory is not to give meds until I have no other option, my husbands is if he is in pain give it too him. We tried the teething gel and both me and the baby hate it. It gets very sticky on my figures after it hits his drool and he just screams. You would think the yummy flavor would make him enjoy it... nope. Yes, I did taste it as I wanted to know if it was sweet or not.

Little C loves the teething tablets and once I put them under his tongue he will stop crying. I believe from the way he acts that they work faster than the gel as well because once he had them he didn't fuss again for a while.

There are times when he is is a lot of pain and I want to give him a little more then the tablets. He second tooth wouldn't get through the gums for the first 2 days and they were sore and red. Times like that is when I gave him the Baby ibuprofen to get the swelling to go down. I love giving it to him at night, it helps relieve the pain enough to get him to sleep and then help him sleep for a little while.  He is very good about taking it so I have no tips on how to give it to a child that doesn't want it, my kid is just that good. ;)

Once the tooth was through I only had to use the tablets to relieve a little of the pain. Through The teething process I have only given him tablets at most two times a day (max is 4) and Ibuprofen a max of two times as well. I am sure when we get to the molars I will be hitting my max limit on the tablets. I hear those are brutal.

We have bought a few different things for teething to help before the meds come out and some have worked and others have not. One things that he loves is his teething ball. I got it on amazon for $5, which is a great price apposed to some other things we have gotten. It is a soft plastic that has numbs coming out on all sides. It is easy for him to hold himself and direct to the area he would like to chew with. when he is crying I like to squeak it in his face and the noise and the air makes him calm down and notice that it is there for him to play with. I will add that if you have dogs you should keep this up as it is just like a dog toy. My dogs never chew on anything but their toys as they are very well trained. This toy however confused them and they thought it was theirs and tore it up. Little C and I loved it so much that I did get another one, well worth even $10 dollars.

Another toy that he likes for teething is his toofeze. It has a thick soft plastic handle and a metal circle piece. Little C likes to chew on both parts, dipping the metal part in ice water is an extra bonus that I rarely do as he doesn't want me to keep taking it from him. This was a $19 dollar purchase on Amazon and I do like it but I would feel now after using it I would have only spent $15 on it max.

One thing he loves is his shoes (Flip Flops, no it is not a teething toy), it is very easy for him to hold and gives him a new thing to chew on.

I like to keep a little pile of the toys he likes next to me when I hold him, he often gets excited and flings his arms and his toys go flying. They are often across the room and its not a quick bend over and pick it up thing. It is such a pain to get up and down to get his things while holding him.

C also loves to simply chew on a wet baby rag. I would say it is maybe one of his favorite things. Some people freeze their rags but I think it gets too cold for him and he does fine without it being frozen. It works on multiple levels with him being hot from summer, being bored and wanting something to chew on.

Ours are from target :)

One purchase that I go back and forth on it being a good purchase is the Munchkin Food Feeder. Putting ice chips in the mesh (as they suggest) didn't work for us. It melted to quickly and the straight ice made his moth too cold and he was extremely upset after. I have put some gold grapes in it and he really like that but isn't coordinated enough yet to fully love it. He has a hard time holding on to the handle and keeping it in his mouth. I am sure that in a couple of month I will love this purchase but at 6 months its not my favorite. ALSO this is the one thing that you SHOULD NOT buy on amazon it is a $1.50 (or so) more on amazon than at target.

My worst purchase is the standard freezable rings that everyone has. Now I didn't buy them myself but I have tried to use them multiple times. He hates them not frozen and frozen. I thing a little softer plastic may work better but again my son just hate these all together.

We also purchased a mouth gaurd as my husband calls it, Tommee Tippee Stage 1 Chewther. Little C did not like this after it made him gag and throw up. NOT WORTH IT.

Sleeping on His Own

Little man C is now 6 months and mommy decided(with the doctors suggestion) that it is time to start getting him to sleep through the night. The first few months he was really good about sleeping and would only wake up one time in the middle of the night to eat. Now that he is in in a really bad habit of getting up 4 times in the middle of the night. He eats maybe 2 ounces and then goes back to sleep. There are times that he will eat 3 full 4 ounce bottles in the middle of the night but the doctor says if he is fine and doesn't need the food. I love my doctor and do everything he suggests as he is one of the most sought after doctors in our area. He said right now C is forming bad habits of waking up too much and if we don't fix it now it will be really hard to fix it.
So on to the fix.
The suggestion was to go in tell him it was ok and let him cry himself back to sleep while just checking to make sure that there was nothing wrong that was not him being just upset (example: in throw up). The first time we tried it he screamed for 3 hours! NO JOKE! It was so hard for me to just let him cry and cry and at that point I gave in and gave him a bottle. I waited a few weeks so that he was not cutting a tooth and then I tried it again. The first night was not terrible but he did cry for about an hour (I think, I was really out of it). Then I decided to bite the bullet with the support of my hubby and go pick out a crib soother.


We picked out the Baby Einstein mobile sea dreams at Buy Buy Baby for $50. I picked it for the fact that it stays on longer than the other options and it has a remote that allows me to turn it on and off without my son seeing me. I might have been able to find this for cheaper but I needed it right then as I was desperate for sleep.

The first night we used it was magical. I put C in awake and he feel asleep to it, after of course being so excited and making his happy noises. In the middle of the night I would go and turn it on and tell him it was ok and he would take about 15 minutes and then fall asleep to it. He would still cry and be fussy but it never grew to him being extremely upset and he still fell asleep without me or a bottle.

The morning of the second night I went in to get him ready for church and was surprised that he was awake and happy (usually he lets me know to come get him) and was kicking it on and off.

I am happy that he figured that out so fast. Maybe when he wakes up in the middle of the night he can turn it on himself... wishful thinking! As far as right now it is well worth the money.

We were nervous that it would scratch the finish on our pricey crib so we put a burp rag around the strap in hops that it will help.

After using it for a few weeks I find that there are nights were he will have nights were he will still cry until he gets a bottle but after that the soother works like normal. I am guessing he is a growing boy and sometimes he just needs a little food :)

Favorite Baby Things

I have come to love and not love a lot of our baby things, this is our top 4 favorite big purchase baby items.

1. Fisher Price Little Lamb Swing

It was wonderful to have for C while he was little. I could set him in and he would enjoy the shape and comfort of being swayed. Most valuable feature is that the swing can be faced in different directions. My son loved to look out the window and swing side to side at first, now that he is older he prefers the front and back motion. He is 6 months now and is almost grown out of liking it. Currently he like to try and grab the mobile and make faces at himself. C is a mover and the seat cannot be in the upright position without the front piece as he tries to wiggle out. All in all it was a great buy, especially for the $140 we got it for on Amazon. LOVE amazon, its my friend.

2. Babybjorn Miracle Baby Carrier

This is the easiest way to go to the grocery store with a baby. Putting the car seat on the cart is not safe and it doesn't always fit. Car seat are way to heavy with a baby in them to carry anywhere for a long period of time. Also now that C is older is want to be carried while in the store and the carrier helps to free up my arms and give them a break. I love the adjustable positioning and back support on this model as I have a little more back pain these days. My favorite part is how easy it is to get on and off.

3. Fisher Price Animal Crackers Jumperoo

My all time favorite thing "right now". Little C will jump for hours in this, without the music even. He is a mover and this really helps my tired arms from having to hold him up while he bounces. He is loves the blocks and recently the leaf. when he is extra fussy I put on the music and lights and it will catch his eye and allow him to calm down. Downside... the music gets stuck in my head. It is adjustable so that when your baby gets taller you can raise it up, we just now raising it to the second level. the tray next to the leaf is great to put toys in so that C can grab them and not throw them on the ground as easy. It may seem like a lot of money but it is SOOOO worth the money. My husband is one that doesn't want to buy tons of baby stuff and he was thrilled that we spent the money on this and might even have paid more. (amazon $130) It is very easy to take down and take to grandmas house and is very light. I prefer it to the ones that mount on the ceiling or doorway as my son like to be in different areas of the house. He gets bored sometimes with one spot so we like to move him to get a different view. Favorite part of this.. hmmm ... everything.

4. Bugaboo Cameleon Stroller

Now I have to start off by saying that this was a hard sell for my husband. We bought it used as we don't have or want to drop $1000 on a stroller. Hubby is not usually for buying used items and who can blame him. I have to fight myself from saving up for a new one for our next kid. First off this stroller comes with a bassinet that can be used with newborns. We didn't use this much as we didn't go out much at first. I do love the option of having it for our second child, as I feel we may be more prone to go out with two kids. There is also an adaptor that attaches your car seat to the stroller. I find that this is way better then the bassinet. If my baby is sleeping I don't want to wake him up by switching him around so I take him out of the car hook him to the stroller and head into target. I am now at the point where he is big enough and I use the stroller seat rather than the car seat. I still carry the adaptor just in case he is asleep and I decide I don't want to change seats. The stroller is very easy to take in and out of the car and isn't heavy. My favorite part is how smooth it glides and how easy it transforms into different directions of sitting, different heights for the handle bar, and different angles for the seat. One other positive is that bugaboo is made that if something breaks it is easy to change out that piece and you don't have to buy a new stroller. Downsides are that we have the fleece fabric and my son gets hot easy against it. If I bought this stroller new I would have purchased the canvas fabric instead of the fleece. The stroller can be used without the fleece seat liner but I prefer to keep my base seat fabric protected. I am looking into getting the bugaboo seat liner that helps the seat to breath better but that is something I am still unsure what color I want. The other downside is that the shade goes over the back of the seat and I find that in some situations my son is not protected from the sun. He is very far skinned so its a minimal thing that is important for us. I like the sun shade for the donkey, as it is one piece that is expandable rather than the cameleon sun shade which is two pieces. I hope that bugaboo makes one for the cameleon like the donkey soon, if not I am going to buy the donkey sun shade for my cameleon.