Diaper Bag

The diaper bag. In the beginning everything was just thrown in the bag.. ok most of time it's just thrown in the bag.. but I have organized it a bit. As a first time mom, I didn't really know what exactly I needed or how to organize it at first. Ten months later this is what we have!

Diaper Bag: Pottery Barn Diaper Bag I love the look of this one and it's monogrammed. It came with a diaper changing pad and bottle holder. I don't like that you can't wash it and it gets really dirty. I also don't like the bottom part because it won't stand up on it's own. Looking on their website there are new ones that would probably be better. I'm also considering switching to the vera bradley ones because you can throw them in the washer.

I always keep: bibs, burp cloth, diapers, swim diapers, wipes (both for the booty and the hands), and toys in the bag. That's self explanatory.

Sunscreen! I leave sunscreen in the bag because you do NOT want to burn your baby.

Coupon book: I get a million baby coupons and I kept throwing them in the bag which lead to me loosing them or forgetting about them. So I bought a coupon organizer and it's a life changer! No more paper all over the diaper bag.

First Aid/Epi Pen Chases: I originally was going to buy these just to keep my diaper bag organized for all that little stuff and then we had to get the Epi Pen so it worked for both cases! They are super cute! And I have had no leaking! I got them from this shop and I am looking at all her new stuff... AWESOME. She messaged me to ask why I bought the bags and I told her what I told you.. maybe that's why she has added some diaper bag stuff?! First Aid kit: bandaids, hand sanitizer, diaper cream, lotion, tissues, and some little first aid wipes (I can't remember the name).

Not pictured:

• Aden and Anais Blanket: I always bring one for just about anything: blanket, to sit him on, changing pad if mine is buried, to wipe stuff up, it multi-functional
• Food/Snacks/Bottles: Since I make all of Jackson's food this has to go in last minute
• Extra Clothes: I usually don't put extra clothes in, mostly because I forget, but I think it's a great idea!
• Cloth diapers and wet bag: This is usually a last minute decision based off where we are going, etc.
• Shopping cart cover stays in the car at all times!

Am I missing anything?! Does anyone have a better diaper bag? I like the "tote" look and it has to be cute because this is my "purse" also. 

Cherrybrook Kitchen Pancakes (Vegan)

Hello sanity saver :) JK! Now that I have been making everything from scratch, I will admit I had a hard time letting go and using a "box". But I thought this would be great to try for those weeks when I run out of time.

Cherrybrook Kitchen fully supports people with allergies! Their website is very user friendly. I was a little hesitate to use their products at first because VEGAN does not mean it's soy free. In fact Vegan's love soy. I do think Jackson is out growing the soy allergy so far so good.

These were super easy to make and taste pretty good! Of course, if you could add butter and syrup they would taste really good. Jackson gobbled them up this morning.

I would highly recommend them to anyone and everyone. As my mom read the back of the cake box ingredients (in prep for Jackson's first birthday), she said "hey you actually know what every ingredient is in this!"

Next up: allergy free cake and frosting!

Dairy/Egg/Soy Free Bread

Really? Yep, you can make dairy/egg/soy free bread and it actually tastes good! I would eat it if it wasn't so expensive to make.

I got the recipe from here. I bought the app. Again since I had to buy the app, I'm pretty sure I can't share the recipe.

Here are the ingredients: 

Mixing the wet goods:

Dry goods:

Letting it rise:

Ready to bake

Finished product!

This was relatively easy to make, however, it does take a lot of time. I made it over the holiday weekend, so it helped having Jamie entertain the wild man. I have never made bread before but it turned out great! I ended up freezing most of it in slices.. I'll have to let you know how that goes. I also have been heating it up a little bit to make it extra soft for Jackson to eat. Overall, I would recommend it!

Clothing Diapering Updates

I hit the jack pot this month with a few good finds/solutions.

1. Charlie's Soap: I had read about it but I hadn't actually tried it... and then I did AMAZING. It takes out stains and it washes the diapers really well. I went back to my usual 2 cycle rinse and we have had no diaper rashes. Score! I love it so much I want to use it on all of our clothes. *There was nothing wrong with the bumgenius soap we were using, we just ran out so I thought I would try something new.

2. Overnight wetting. We have tried a few things for our heavy wetter: 1. Putting two inserts in the cloth diaper. This actually works really well, it's just really thick to put under PJ's. And then you have to use more inserts/less diapers for the day, etc. 2. Putting two disposable diapers on. This works up to a point. I think if we went up a size, it would probably work better but he was waking up with his jammies soaked every morning. 

Solution: One disposable and put a cloth diaper over it. Genius! It works like a charm. It doesn't make his jammies too snug and he wakes up dry. Jamie likes to say he thought of this... he did not :) 

Clothing diapering is going well. I went back to just the 2 cycle rinse with the Charlie's soap. I rarely hang them outside (because I'm lazy and the Charlie's bleaches them). We use one disposable at night and usually if we are out but that's really because we have a bunch left from vacation. 

If anyone is considering cloth diapering, feel free to talk with me! I would be glad to help... share my mistakes :)

9 Month Favorite Toys

A month or so ago I posted our "wish" list.... well I may have found a lot of coupons and bought some of them :) BUT he loves them! Really there is only one toy I went wrong with so I'm at like a 99% accuracy on buying great toys :) That one toy was a wooden teether. I . bought. because he was screaming through Target trying to teething on anything and everything. This was months ago and I was determined to make it though Target. We were sleep deprived. I just couldn't handle it at the time. So we ended up with this stupid teether that did work to get him through the shopping trip but he hasn't used it since. I'm pretty sure that was the day I was about to leave all my groceries and cart in the store and just go home. hahah it's funny to think about now. He loves going to Target! I don't even bring toys with us anymore. This just goes to show that EVERYTHING IS A PHASE.

Anyways here we go:

1. Baby Einstein Activity Table: See post here. He loves to walk around it and push all the buttons. It keeps him entertained for long periods of time! Plus it has Spanish and French which I attempt to imitate but who knows what I'm saying :)

2. Motorcycle Rider and Walker. I looked at different walkers and this one I liked because they can ride on it or walk with it. Two in one deal. And if you have a girl it comes in pink. It plays the best music- I like to move it move it, Ticket to ride, and there is another one.. but we sing and dance and zoom this around the house everyday. It's great. It's also great to scare the S*** out of the cats- Oscar will high tail it out of there when we are zooming around. It's hilarious.

3. Ball pit balls. Throw them in the pack in play! Jackson's favorite game is to throw all 150 of them out of the pack in play. He also loves to carry them around the house, roll them, throw them, etc. I bought them here. Best investment really. I even find them in my CAR. 

Add these to your registry now!! :)

And I did consider trying to find gently used toys but we planning on having 1-2 more kiddos maybe 3 (Jamie just had a heart attack) and I want all these bad boys to last for all of our kids. And they are plastic with batteries so I'm thinking the longevity of them can't be too fantastic. This also why I buy gender neutral stuff (God just laughed at me and said you know your in for all boys right?!) I do however, buy used toys for work! When/if we have more kiddos I'm totally going to Craigslist the BOB stroller which I did for Jackson but they were all PINK. Who buys a pink stroller? 

Any of other great toy ideas? 

9 Month Foods

Cloth diapers are washed, chicken is baking, Jackson is napping and I am blogging (I should be steaming the yams but... I need a break). As much as I have complained about making Jackson's baby food, I am pretty proud of myself for sticking with it (not that I have much choice). I'm extremely proud in how healthy he eats. I love the fact that I don't have to worry about what preservatives are in his food. We just watched the documentary Forks over Knives, that will get you thinking. It also gives him a great variety of food and I think it saves money (I haven't sat down and calculated it but I'm sure it does). I really do like making it, especially now that he is napping and doing independent play. With this being said, I do not think that what we are doing is "better" it just works for us. So if you feed the jar stuff, I think that's great (you have more time to play and drink coffee :) )! There are pros and cons to everything and us mommies shouldn't judge other mommies!

When you hit the 9 month food mark things get a little tricky. 1. Baby can now have stage 3 and 2. You can start doing more finger foods that are soft. At this stage you aren't quite to the point of "here have what we eat" because they don't have a lot of teeth and are still learning to chew. There is also that list of "no" they can't have this and that yet.

Once we hit this stage I remember thinking ok well now what? Here is our meal plan (obviously you should consult your DR about foods etc):
*Note everything is cut up in small pieces

Breakfast: Homemade frozen waffles (no butter, no syrup) or oatmeal (he really is not a fan of it but we still give it a go every once in a while), Fruits (banana, blueberry, raspberry, peach, pear) or puree fruit (pears, grapes)

Lunch: Lunch meat (organic- I know that lunch meat isn't the best for you so I stick with the $5.00 organic kind) or beans (he hates beans but we have tried them), rice, bell peppers/avocado/ green beans, fruit, and we just started sandwich bread (homemade) torn in small pieces

Snack: Teething biscuit, puree fruit in a pouch- when fruit starts ripening too fast I puree and freeze in the pouches. He loves pouches! This also gives me one meal that I don't have to sweep the floor. Whew.

These things are great! $20.00 for four but you can reuse them/freeze. We are obsessed! It's so easy to travel with them- freeze them and then stick them in the diaper bag to thaw out. It can be a little slushy/smoothie. They are hard to clean but you can stick them in the dishwasher. I hand clean them and then sometimes stick them in the dishwasher to sterilize. 

These are the teething biscuits we get: Healthy Times. They are egg/diary/soy free and organic! I have been buying them at Native Sun or diapers.com but I just found on Amazon that they sell them in bulk! These things smell bad but Jackson loves them. I mean loves them. I hate them because they are super messy and he bites big chunks off but hey whatever. 

Dinner: Puree sweet potatoes and chicken with rice (I make it like a stage 3 food now), green beans, sometimes a fruit again

• We have a lot of fruit because we are still testing out the veggies 
• Soon we will be trying: peas, barley, pancakes, sun butter, tomatoes, kiwi, fish
• I would like to try hummus with pita bread (if I can make one egg free)
• Obviously if he could have cheese and dairy that would be added in as well.
• Eggs would be such an awesome food to have at this stage if Jackson wasn't allergic to them
• Jackson is finger feeding himself all the foods except purees
• I also keep a straw cup of formula or water on his tray that he will drink through out the meals
• We have tried pasta but he didn't really like it.. we will be trying that again when I can add a sauce to it

It's a work in progress but with trying only one food at a time things are slow! I hope this gave you some food ideas. 

4th of July 2013

I was looking for the 2012 post but I guess I didn't blog about it! This year was so much fun having Jackson actually here.

We (Jamie and I) started our day with red velvet pancakes (red, white, and blue). They were delicious!

After Jackson's long morning nap, we feed him lunch, packed up our stuff, and headed to the beach!

Once we got to the beach condo, Jamie and I ate lunch. I made this fantastic chicken salad! Finally we planted ourselves on the beach. We spent all afternoon playing in the sand, going in the water, and having a few cocktails.

After we were all beached out, we grilled out at the condo and then headed home. Baby boy was EXHAUSTED. He fell asleep in the car. Heck we fell asleep super early too. So no fireworks this year but maybe next!

I hope everyone had a fantastic 4th!

10 months!

Jackson,
      Another month has flown by!! I can't even figure out what happened this month it went so fast. The beginning of the month you seemed to be boycotting the second nap and now you are sleeping like a champ. Dare I say you might be outgrowing this hatred of sleep? Of course you did just cry for an HOUR before you fell asleep... just about drove me mad. Honestly, if I never had to put you to sleep life would be pretty much perfect.  But daddy and I are starting to be tougher on the sleep thing after another awful trip of no sleep. And the first two nights of our tough love you have slept until 6:30!!!!!! Whew. Enough about sleep.
       This month you started giving me the best bear hugs and pats on the back.. I am about die with all the sweetness. I can't get enough. We started cuddling in the rocker every morning and we pet Stella. You then tell me all sorts of things and give more bear hugs. It's my favorite part of the day! You also love to crawl up in my lap for more hugs and kisses.
         You are now the biggest daddy's boy ever. I hate it. No I don't really but it makes me a little sad. If daddy is holding you, you do NOT want mommy. I think it's because you don't spend as much time with daddy so you are soaking it all up. I knew this would happen eventually.

Milestones:

• Standing with one hand all the time, brief periods of no hands!
• Walking with our hands
• Giving high fives
• Imitating sounds
• First trip to the aquarium and you loved it! First trip to Atlanta
• Love: Raspberries!! And waffles now.
• Hate: broccoli, carrots
• Indifferent: rice, peppers, lunch meat
• I think that's it?

Health: Starting COW's milk formula. It seems to be going ok. Other than that healthy!! 

I can't wait to see what next month brings!! Maybe walking?