Double the kids, double the stuff.

Hey moms who are having another baby or thinking about having another one, here's a little warning for you: baby stuff + already existing kids stuff = a LOT of stuff. Yeah, I know, that seems like an obvious thing to point out, but I think I must have blocked out of my mind how bulky all of the baby stuff is. Or, maybe it's just because when I was pregnant with Jake, I looked at the swing, playmat, etc...and just thought "aww, stuff for the baby! I love it! we'll make room! we don't need our furniture!" Whereas this time, we pulled all the stuff back out & I thought "OMG. Did this stuff grow since we used it for Jake? why is it so big??" Add that deluded frame of mind to the fact that we had to make room for this bulky stuff alongside all of Jake's toys and all of a sudden, we had a very crowded play room!

The nice thing is, we had kept everything from Jake & it was all in good shape, so we didn't really have to buy anything. We did buy a new bouncy seat, which is the best $30 I spent on Liam so far :) Lifesaver! We got this Bright Starts seat:


I highly recommend it; the music isn't annoying (score!) and it bounces by itself...genius!

The other main piece of gear I'm thinking about buying is a space saver high chair, like this Fisher Price one:



We still have the Chicco high chair we used for Jake, which was fine, but it's just.so.big. We have an eat-in kitchen in this new house, but the table is smaller and I hate to stuff a gigantic high chair behind it and have it take up half of the room. The spacesaver seems like a good idea, so I've been stalking craigslist for the past week. No luck just yet (at least none that are within a reasonable drive), but I'll keep looking. If I'm able to find a used one, I'll put our chicco up for sale.

So I'm pretty much just accepting the fact that there will always be a new rotation of gear & toys. Now it's the teeny-tiny infant stuff; before I know it, we'll be busting out the exersaucer and actual toys for Liam. Then, the next thing I know, the boys will be wanting to turn the play room into their cool hangout & put in a pool table and a big screen TV, and whatever the newest gaming system is. (now pushing thoughts of having teenage boys out of my mind--they're going to be my little boys forever, RIGHT??)

*This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase something from a link above, I will receive a small monetary compensation. 

Travel Tips

Am I the only one with the vacation bug?? Considering the fact that we're not going until August and it's only MARCH, that's bad!!

In honor of my itch to go to the beach, I wanted to do a post about beach must-have's and travel tips for toddlers. I feel like my BFF and I spent countless hours last year on the phone before departing trying to figure out what to bring, how much of everything to pack and debating about items and if we would really need them.

To preface, we rented a house for the week and had full intentions of cooking pretty much every meal, which we did stick to (the temptation to go out to eat is lessened greatly with the thought of doing it with 2 toddlers!) I guess this all depends on where you go, but we had been warned that food where we were heading to (Sea Isle City, NJ) was very expensive in local grocery stores, so we made up a menu for all of the days we were going to be there, then made up a grocery list and split it as best we could so that we each bought about half of the food. We included all of the food for dinners, as well as plenty of snacks, breakfast foods, lunches, etc.... A few days before we left, I made Crockpot Salsa Chicken, froze it and brought it along with us; this worked out well because it makes a ton of food, so we had enough for dinner one night and some leftovers for lunch. We brought coolers and packed lunches to eat on the beach everyday.

Must-Haves:

• Portable DVD Player: seriously, this thing was a lifesaver. Jake did great in the car for the first part of the trip...we left at 5:30, so he slept the first 2 hours, then we were able to keep him entertained with books, songs, etc.... Then, we hit massive traffic in Philly and bad things started to happen. Books were thrown, tears were shed....not a pretty sight. Finally, I turned on the magical feature presentation and Elmo's World saved the day. Bliss!

• Rash Guards/Sun Shirts/Whatever you want to call them....it was great not having to worry as much about the sun since he was much more covered than he would have been in just swim shorts.

• Booster Seat: I think this is a good thing to have anyway, but it was very handy on vacation. I'm sure you can rent high chairs in vacation areas, but this thing is pretty compact and we've used it a lot since then.

• Baby Powder: I don't know how it works, but somehow, sprinkling a bit of baby powder on areas where sand is stuck to skin makes it magically brush right away! We kept some in the garage of the house we were staying in and just powdered him up outside, rinsed with a hose and toweled him off....ta-da! The sand disappears much easier than trying to scrape it all off.

• A few bathing suits/swim shorts: We had about 4 pairs of swim shorts for Jake and I was happy to have them...we fell into a pattern of going to the beach all morning, eating lunch on the beach, then heading back to the house around 12:30 for nap time. Most of the time, we would then head back down to the beach after nap, so I needed another pair of shorts to put on him since the others were always still damp (and EWWW, who wants to put damp clothes back on??)

• A beach cart: our house had one that we were able to use and it was wonderful. We hauled so much stuff down to the beach everyday (lunches, toys, 2 toddlers, towels, beach chairs, etc....) that we probably would have had to make more than 1 trip, even with 4 adults. We were able to get most of the stuff into the cart and it even had a handle where you could hang beach chairs....genius!
• 

Travel Tips:

• If you need to use a crib, I would highly suggest doing some research to see if there are any local crib rentals available. This was a lifesaver to us, as we have a small car and those pack & plays take up an obnoxious amount of space. The company that we used offered pick up and drop off service, the cribs were on wheels so we just slid them right into the boys' rooms and ta-da! Just like home, no headache. I think they were around $40 for the week....worth every penny! Just don't forget to bring your own sheets!

• Pack lightly on the toys....maybe it was a bit different because Jake had his buddy Ben there to play with, but aside from a few books, a ball and a truck....we didn't really need much in the way of toys. Same thing for beach toys....a truck, a football and some basics (shovel and bucket) and we were set.

That's all I have for you for now :) We've been working diligently with Jake on his fist-pumping skills, we hope to have them perfected by August.

Until next time, Jersey Shore!

Baby it's cold...in the pool.

While the weather was perfect for hanging out outside, it did not cooperate to warm the pool up during our visit to the in-laws over the weekend. (is it just me, or does it not feel at all like July??)

Jake was all about the pool from afar (running toward it, yelling "wa-wa! wa-wa!") every time we were outside and signing more. He even loved to splash in it with his hands:



Since he was so enthusiastic about it, we figured we'd give it a shot. We put him into his swim attire, slathered him up with sunscreen, put one toe into the water & he screamed. FAIL.

The good news is, he was content to just sit in his boat on the pool deck. Yep, just sit there and rock the boat. (We found out today that the boat has been recalled, along with many others made by the same company...moms, you might want to check your kids floaty toys!)



A few days later, he also enjoyed splashing in the water on a slip & slide. That was as close to swimming as he got all weekend. Hopefully at the beach in August he'll get his chance.....

BCU-the next big thing in baby products

I present to you the latest in Baby Containment Units:

Now that Jake is mobile (video of him crawling will be posted soon, I promise!) I have found that everyday household chores have become a challenge. While attemping to fold laundry on the floor, Jake started trying to chew a rawhide (much to Gracie's dismay) so I gave him some clean socks to play with:

That fun lasted about 45 seconds, until he caught sight of Gracie's slobbery tennis ball...as he took off on a speedy mission to taste said tennis ball, I quickly dumped some of the clothes out of the basket onto the floor & deposited my little speedy gonzales into the basket. Problem solved!

Cooking with Emmy

Wait, don't run away! I'm not burning anything, I promise!

I've discovered my new favorite style of cooking...pureeing. Yep, I've started venturing into making my own baby food! (I must say, it is MUCH easier than cooking regular food!) Before I get into how easy this is, let me tell you a few of my past cooking mishaps:

-a recipe called for "refrigerated linguine"; naturally, I went to the grocery store, bought a box of linguine and stuck it in the fridge. My mom was over one day and we were trying to figure out what to make for dinner; I enthusiastically suggested this recipe and produce the box of linguine directly out of my refrigerator. Needless to say, my mom got a good laugh out of that one.

-While attemping to be all "Suzy Homemaker" during my maternity leave, I decide to make cupcakes just for fun. My cupcake pan only holds 12 cupcakes, but the box makes 24, so I just filled the little cupcake tins up as far as they would go and the leftover batter went into a small square cake pan. I was really proud of my quick thinking, until I pulled the product out of the oven, only to discover that they looked like cupcakes on steroids and had taken over the entire pan. Determined to make the most of it, I decided to go ahead and ice them (and my small cake) anyway, only no one ever told me that you should let stuff cool off before attempting to ice. My cake looked like someone let a rabid dog get a hold of it. :(

-And last, but not least, Brian & I had our friend Olivia over for dinner one night....while chatting away with her, I was putting some frozen twice-baked potatoes into the oven (you know, the kind that come pre-stuffed in a box, you just plop them onto a baking sheet?) when Brian interrupts our discussion to inform me that I was putting the potatoes on the sheet upside down. I was adamant that I was doing it right, for some reason, I thought for sure you put the skin side up! Brian then pointed out that if I did that, the cheese & stuffed part would bake onto the sheet and make a big, burned mess. Oops. (Liv was not surprised by this incident---she had Cooking Class with me in high school...my group always put me in charge of making the Kool-Aid to go along with the meal, I'm not sure why....)

So, back to my latest cooking adventure...you may be thinking to yourself, "If she can't even cook dinner for herself, why is she trying to cook for her baby?" I'll tell you why...baby food is expensive. It may not seem like it when you're looking at the individual cost, but add up what you're spending over time and it's quite a bit! We've been using Earth's Best and the cheapest I've found it is at Walmart (about .48 for the Stage 1 jar--he gets about 2 meals out of that) So instead of doing that, I started buying bags of frozen veggies (for about $1), steaming 1/2 bag, pureeing and freezing and viola, meals for the Jake Man! A 1/2 bag makes about 12-14 meals!! Much more cost-effective.

For any moms looking to venture into this (and clearly if I can do it, anyone can) I have been using www.wholesomebabyfood.com as a resource for many of my questions. So far I have stocked our freezer with peas, carrots, pears and bananas!

Swing baby, yea!

Unfortunately, the trees at our house are not conducive to swinging; the branches are either too small, too high or the tree just isn't in the right place to hang a swing. The good news is, there are plenty of trees at G.G. and Pappy's house to hang one from! I picked up a swing at Toys R Us (Little Tykes) a few weeks ago on end-of-summer clearance and Pappy was nice enough to install it for us. We tested it out this weekend & it was a hit!!

At first, he wasn't sure what to make of it...

But soon, he had a smile plastered across his face as daddy pushed the swing (sometimes a bit too high for mommy's liking!)

Of course, we had to go back out the next morning to get some more use out of the swing before heading back up to Pittsburgh....here is Jake sporting his stylish new hat that Mommy is mildly obsessed with:

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming....

As promised in the last post, here are the pictures of Jake's first time swimming. We bought him a little inflatable baby boat that worked out very well ($9.99 at BRU, if anyone needs one!) and he seemed very content to just float around the pool in it!

When he wasn't in his boat, Aunt Amy was giving him swim lessons (he would pull his legs up & his little feet would stick up out of the water, he looked like a chubby little frog!)

While Gracie has been swimming before, we can't really say that she loved it, so we weren't going to put her in the pool this time. She started out sunbathing on the pool deck, but quickly became overwhelmed with jealousy that everyone was in the pool except for her, she couldn't stand it! She started crying & trying to jump into the pool...eventually she got back in, then wanted to get back in, then wanted out, then in...you get the picture....here she is, sporting the "drowned rat" look:

Since the first day of swimming was such a success (and it was even hotter outside the next day) we decided to go again...this time, Jake lasted about 15 minutes, then passed out in his little boat! He ended up sleeping for an hour & a half, just relaxed as could be, floating around!

I'll have Lucky Charms next time, please.

We got the green light for starting solids at Jake's 4 month pediatrician appointment, but decided that we didnt' want to rush things and would hold off for just a bit. After having him watch us like hawks while eating and even grab at our food in the past 2 weeks, we decided that the wait was over, maybe the little man was ready! So we armed ourselves with a box of rice cereal (Earth's Best brand, just for reference) and went to town!

I'd been warned that he might not take to it at first & that it may be a few weeks before he really starts eating much of the cereal....not so much the case with our little piglet!! After the initial "what the hell is this?" look of disgust on his face, he went to town. In between bites, he was kicking his feet and opening his mouth while staring at the bowl!

Here's the very first bite:





Here he is after his first few bites:



G.G. took a turn feeding him a few bites:



And here he is the next night after finishing his bowl, but grabbing the spoon and attempting to eat it as well:

The Great Bottle Debate of 08

I try to not be a paranoid alarmist, though sometimes it's difficult (particuarly with a baby!) so I honestly didn't pay too much attention to the whole BPA panic when I was first pregnant. It seemed like at the time, there was nothing concrete and no exact evidence of harm. However, as the months went on and more & more reports came out and as other countries started trying to ban the chemical, I decided maybe it was time to do something about it. (Plus, this was also right around the time that Jake started daycare, so he was getting at least 4 bottles a day, rather than just 1 or so a week) I know I can't protect him from everything so if I can help out by getting rid of those bottles, it would be worth it.

I felt bad because he had enough trouble adjusting to taking a bottle in the first place, I hated to traumatize him by changing things up on him...but I figured if it was for his own good, he'd get over it. After some trial & error, we finally found a bottle/nipple combo that seems to work...in fact, his teacher told us that he seems to take these bottles a little bit easier! (He was using Playtex Ventaires before) We went with NUBY ($7.49 for 3 bottles at BRU-a much cheaper alternative to other bottle choices!) however, the nipples that come with the bottle were crap....Jake really had to work to get any milk out and he got frustrated. So we ended up going with Dr. Browns standard nipples (stage 2) and so far, so good!

so if any moms/moms to be are looking for a cheaper BPA free bottle, I definitely recommend this set.

A weekend of firsts....

We had 2 "firsts" this weekend....one is fun, one is not so fun. We'll do the fun one first...

Normally when we eat dinner, Jake hangs out in his bouncy seat on the floor beside us....we've noticed that lately, he's been straining his neck to try and look up & see what we're doing at the table and we took that as a sign that he might want to have a seat of his own during mealtime, so we drug out the high chair. He looks kind of lost in it, but he was content the whole meal to hang out with Mr. Woofy and a rattle in hand and watch us eat. And for any mommies-to-be on the hunt for a highchair, we LOVE this one (Chicco)...it was easy to set up, has a pop off plastic tray that is dishwasher safe, and folds up really flat so we're able to shove it into our coat closet between meals (one less baby thing to look at all the time, woohoo!)

Now, onto the next first....Jake's first battle with pink eye (ugh!) The germs at daycare seem to be neverending! Brian noticed that his eye was full of goop when he picked him up Friday afternoon from school....so instead of the relaxing, pizza filled evening we had planned, we instead drug ourselves to MedExpress. They seriously should give us a discount there or something, we have to be some of their best customers! I was just there 2 weeks ago for my sinus infection & as many of you remember, Brian was there last year. Twice. In one month. For the same injury (blasting his thumb with a power drill, for those of you who haven't heard the story)

Anyway--as always, they were great at MedExpress & said that other than the pink eye, he's in perfect health (I guess the constant runny nose is just a side effect of daycare that I have to get used to) So we're putting drops in his eyes & hoping that it clears up soon!

The rest of the weekend was good, we hung out at GG & Pappy's house in Washpa on Saturday...Gracie FINALLY got a hair cut (she was so shaggy, it was just embarassing) and we went to a local greenhouse so that Brian could stock up on annuals for the season. Here is Gracie showing off her new haircut, while supervising a diaper change: