Girls Night Out...

Enough said. :)

Happy 4th of July

 

Happy 4th of July!!!

Wishing you all a fun and safe Fourth with your friends and families! 

My posting will be a little more sparse, since we are having so much fun with our sweet and funny Harper, but there exciting things coming up, so stay tuned! 

Allergies...Smallergies

Years ago, my mother was a kindergarten teacher and had a student who was severely allergic to peanuts. Other children couldn't even breathe in the same room as this child if they had just eaten a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch, because it would throw the child into a severe allergic reaction called anaphylactic shock. Peanuts are the number one food allergy in children, and can cause severe symptoms, including death.

I am very lucky to have a healthy girl who still shows no signs of severe allergies, however, I do know a few babies who are allergic to milk, and other things. As a parent, it is easy to control their intake and exposure from home, but when you leave your child in the company of others, they don't know the risks of exposure that could threaten your child's welfare. And while your child may wear a medical ID bracelet with their allergies listed, it does no good if your child is allergic to peanut butter and the caretaker has not checked their bracelet before serving them a snack.

A friend of the family created a line of children's clothing for kids with allergies, to let others know the dangers of exposing them to certain foods or allergens. The line is called Smallergies, and they make a line of t-shirts for children that are cute, but are also in plain site to warn others of their severe allergies. My favorites are the Crab and the Peanut, but the Cow and Fish are cute too!

If your child or a friend has severe food allergies, these might be a great gift for them that is both cute and important, and it helps raise awareness for others like them. Check out their site www.smallergies.com for more information.

Online Baby Sites

Babies are E-X-P-E-N-S-I-V-E.

Not just the hospital bills for the delivery. The diapers. The wipes. The breast pump and the formula. Here are a few of my favorite sites for everything Baby.

As much as I dread driving 30 minutes to the closest Babies 'R Us because they are the only place in town that carries XYZ baby product, I go because it is the ONLY place that carries it ALL. I always have a coupon for something that I need, and they are also good about stacking coupons even on top of their sales. Like Bed Bath and Beyond, you should never go in there without one of their 20% off one item coupons, and I seem to use one EVERY TIME. I also took a bunch of gift cards and loaded the balances onto one of their VIB cards, and saved even more money with their 10% bonus rewards.

I am fairly new to Diapers.com, but they are very comparable to Amazon.com. Easy to use and great to price compare everything. Use the code NATA4684 to get 30% cash back on diapers for three months + 15% off everything else on your first order.  Don't forget you will also get FREE 2-day shipping on your order of $49 or more, or FREE 2-day shipping on your order of $25 or more if you add any item from Soap.com to your cart.

I had registered for the DaVinci Jenny Lind crib at both Babies R Us and Amazon. When my due date was fast approaching, and the only thing missing in the nursery was the crib, both sites showed that the crib suddenly was out of stock. I tried to find something else I loved just as much, but had my heart set on this crib. After a few hours of exhaustive research, I found one at a site called Wayfair, and actually found it cheaper than the other sites, and with free shipping on any order over $69. Their customer service was extremely helpful, and I was pleasantly surprised with the entire experience. They have such a range of products that it is one of my new favorite sites. 

Amazon is my family's go-to site for just about anything. If you are an Amazon Mom or Prime member, then you already know about the free 2 day shipping for Amazon sponsored products. They also offer great discounts and Subscribe and Save options for certain products, so you never run out of diapers or wipes... they are automatically sent to your home when you schedule them. Easy peasy! 

What are your favorite sites for all your baby products?

The Littlest Hostess

She is getting started early on her hostess skills...

Introducing....

After 9.5 months of a really easy and uncomplicated pregnancy, true to self, I went into labor on my due date 6-6-12. But our birth story doesn't start there, but actually 24 hours prior. My in-laws, with whom we live temporarily, each came down with their own ailments. As the clock struck midnight to start my due date, my mother in-law was undergoing an appendectomy and my father-in-law was laid up in bed with a badly sprained ankle. Only two hours later would contractions start, which led to a long 48 hours of multiple trips to the hospital, induced labor, hours of pushing, and an emergency C-section. It was a crazy time for our family... But she is perfect and we feel so blessed everyone is now healthy and happy!

Introducing...... Harper Reina DeVicente

The Final Wall....

In honor of her dute date today, I give you the final wall of the nursery... and Baby D's name - HARPER!

I went to Michaels and picked up some letters spelling her first name, as well as some Martha Stewart acrylic paint in brown and green. I had my husband cut a piece of 2"x4" wood board into 6" sections on which to prop up the special hippo collection.

I painted the letters in the brown and the wood blocksin the green to make them pop on the white shelf.

The hippos on the blocks are from all over the world, and were given to us by our parents when we told them we were collecting hippos for Baby D. There are close ups below... they are made of wood, pottery, and stone.

We can't wait to add to Harper's hippo collection in the many years to come!

Baby Ready?!

Baby D will be here in a matter of days, and I have been slacking a bit on normal blog activities to prepare for her arrival. While all the books and websites tell you to relax, get plenty of rest, and enjoy these last moments until your newborn arrives, I am lucky to have friends who really help put things in realistic perspective for me. I was passed along the article You're So Not Almost Ready For A Baby, Even If You Think You Are by Tracy Moore as a guide to what I should be doing these last couple of days. Be sure to check out the excerpt below, and the full article here. 

not Baby D, and I am praying she doesn't look like this too often!

I ... would come with the following drills/regimen for the entire year prior to conception...:

• Practice wrestling a large, slippery fish three times a week.
• Wake up every two hours at night, punch yourself in the face, walk around for 28 minutes pleading in jibberish. Go back to "sleep." Repeat.
• Socialize with friends in 18-second increments.
• Practice asking for the check, boxing up your food and exiting a restaurant in under sixty seconds — two bites into the meal.
• Watch 38% of any film or television show; never see the ending or resolution.
• Read the same three paragraphs of a novel once every two weeks; fall asleep.
• Shower every three to five days, but only for two minutes.
• Hire a makeup artist to make you up to look 10 years older. Look at yourself in the mirror, then laugh, cry, laugh, cry, laugh, cry. Do not go get a drink.
• Pack two additional bags of random stuff to carry with you every time you leave the house.
• Stand around a tennis court and catch fly balls with one hand for two hours a day while also preparing a peanut butter sandwich.
• Practice wrestling aforementioned large, slippery fish, then dress it in seasonally appropriate outfit, including hat and/or jacket. Then go back, remove all clothing, and apply sunscreen. Re-dress fish.
• Memorize The Cat in the Hat, then repeat every evening between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m.
• Make 24 hours of baby-crying audio; hit play the moment you take a phone call, fire up your computer, or begin speaking any sentences to another human that contain important or useful information.
• Imagine a mental written list of your responsibilities for each day, tear it in half, burn one piece, take a (literal) [poop] on the other one.  

So basically, we are in for the shock of our lives. If I disappear for two weeks (or more) you'll know that I have not mastered the above tasks/daily care for Baby D. Do you have any good last minute tips for this momma to be?  

The TuTu Project

In honor of the last day of a loved one's cancer treatments (Yippee!), I came across the Tutu Project and was reminded of how truly brave one can be after a cancer diagnosis. What is unusual about this is that it is not about the patient, but a loved one putting their face on cancer. The TuTu project started as photographer Bob Carey's dedication to make his wife smile through her cancer battles, and in the process, found that his efforts can also raise money for breast cancer research and finding a cure.

Check out some of his images below:

 

  

 

And here is the Tutu Project as featured on the Today show.

What is not to love about a man in a pink tutu?! He has a book titled Ballerina coming out in the fall with all of the images he has captured in the nine years his wife has been battling cancer. Proceeds of his book, and his photography, will all be donated to breast cancer organizations. Be sure to check out his mission and donate if you have the means to this great cause.

It takes a brave face to deal with cancer, but I only wish we all had a face brave enough to wear a tutu.

Pillow Progress!

In just a few days, I found a pillow that works in Baby D's crib, as originally wanted in this list from the Nursery Reveal:

There are just a few details left I want to do to make it 100% complete:
-Find some artwork for over the twin bed
-Find a cute pillow for the crib (which I will take out when she sleeps so we don't give her any suffocation hazards - more on SIDS here)
-Frame some vintage photos of our parents and grandparents when they were children for the room

I have looked everywhere online and in stores for a pillow that matches the blue, green, and brown tones of the room and rug that we reused from our last guest room. And let me tell you, it is not easy to match tones of moss green, turquoise blue and medium brown! So after much frustration, I went back to Pier 1 where I originally bought the rug years ago. They just got in some new pillows, and I bought three different ones, hoping that one would match. We tried them all out, and added the green solid throw pillow from the twin bed and her Sleep Sheep, and the brown one looked best!

And a nursery bonus! My sweet husband surprised me with a new hippo addition to Baby D's nursery. There are lots of cool vintage hippos on Etsy, and she was my favorite! I named her Rosebud...

She is large and ceramic, and I absolutely love her!  I think I am going to give her a green bow instead of orange, so she matches the nursery a little better. I only hope Baby D loves her too!