March for Babies

On Saturday, March 27th, I will be participating in the March of Dimes' March for Babies. I am doing this in honor of two special babies - my daughter and my friend's newborn son, who was born 11 weeks premature. My team goal is $1000 and my personal goal is $250. There are badges on this page where you can click to donate online and help support this cause.

Imagine if you had a baby who was born prematurely or with major birth defects. Wouldn't you want research to have provided medicine to help save and improve your baby's life? Do it for all the babies out there that are depending on us to give them a healthy start in life.

If you're in the Gainesville, FL area, come join me on this walk. It will be wonderful. Strollers and leashed dogs are welcome. There will be tents along the way with food and drinks and children's entertainment at the finish line. Let's March for Babies!!

Adventures in Baby Food (the healthy way)

When Olive was a baby and first started eating table foods, I played it safe and simple and bought lots of Gerber foods, with a few Beech-Nut thrown in for good measure.

Now that Buttons is eating real food, I am approaching things much differently. I have been making a lot of her food myself. I didn't do this the first time because I was intimidated and, well, lazy. I thought it would be much harder than it is so I didn't bother. I know now that I can simply make some extra of whatever we're eating (sweet potatoes, carrots, potatoes, peas, etc etc.) and pop it in the blender with some water, pour it in an ice cube tray, and voila!! Meals for days!! How easy is that?! So I've been trying to make some foods for Buttons so as much as possible, she can eat what we're eating, especially since that's what she'll be eating when she can tolerate chunkier foods and the peas that we eat taste nothing at all like the peas that Gerber sells. A friend recently recommended a website with lots of guidelines, recipes etc on it for making your own baby food. I haven't really explored it yet but the site is called Wholesome Baby Food and looks to be very promising.

As satisfying as it is to make your own baby food, there are times when you need a little help. Enter Sprout baby food (it's like takeout for babies!) Sprout food is organic, tasty, and different. I like that it's organic - that's phenomenal. But on top of that, there are so many other good attributes. The recipes are different and unusual combinations that leave baby begging for more. The roasted bananas and brown rice is a bit hit at my house (even with Olive and me too!) as well as the oatmeal with roasted cinnamon applesauce. The green beans and peas are interesting as they are mixed with mint (who'd have thunk it?) We are still fairly new to Sprout and still trying out the various flavors. Another neat thing about Sprout is that they are packaged in resealable pouches instead of cans or plastic containers. This makes them the perfect meal to throw in your diaper bag for lunch on the go. It is also an eco-conscious idea because it reduces the space it takes for shipping, therefore reducing the number of boxes needed to ship a certain amount. Another thing I am thrilled about with Sprout is that they offer a monthly subscription on their website where you can tailor your order to your baby's tastes (and change it monthly) and have it delivered right to your house!!! How great is that?! Genius, I tell you. Pure genius. I will certainly do this after the sale on Sprout at my local Publix grocery store is over ;-)

So there you have it...simple ways to feed your baby nutritious and wholesome meals while still making life easy on you. Nourishing your baby and watching him enjoy new foods should be fun and stress-free. Now it is. :)

The Messiness of Motherhood

I'm eight weeks in to being a new mom again and I'm reminded how messy motherhood can be.

Let's start at the beginning...

First you get pregnant and sweaty and nauseous. By the end of pregnancy, many women are wearing pantiliners to feel fresh (and some do this the whole time, some even bleed during pregnancy).

The baby is born and thus we enter another phase of messiness. First off, there are the baby messes. This includes dirty diapers, wet diapers, constant spit-up, projectile spit-up, projectile urine during diaper changes, and much more. Secondly (and perhaps often overlooked) are the mommy messes. After giving birth, women bleed for several weeks (making up for all those wonderful period-free months). Breastfeeding mothers experience lots of milk leaking from their breasts. Not only are these things messy and disgusting, but they require a lot of tending to and also a lot of trash. Think of all the pads that are used during this time and with each one, you have the pad itself, the wrapper, and the strips that adhere them. For nursing moms, most will wear breast pads to help control disgusting wet spots on the front of their shirts. You either use disposable ones (lots of trash) or reusable ones (lots of laundry). For all babies, there are lots of diapers. Again, you either use disposable ones (lots of trash) or reusable ones (lots of laundry). Have you ever thought about the impact on the environment of having a baby??

As baby gets a little older, we start developing the toddler drippy noses, skinned knees, and mushy messy baby food. Later it becomes dirty sports uniforms, stomach flus, and spilled juice. I could go into a lot more detail about each stage but you get the point... No matter how neat and clean of a person you are, the job of mother is anything but glamorous and anything but clean. Inevitably you will experience spills on your favorite couch, a few crushed Cheerios in your car, and spit-up on your dry-clean only blouse. While these things are anything but pleasant, it's just part of the game, and well worth it for that beautiful smile and "I love you" that comes every now and again (but never frequently enough!) After all, it's the little things...

Betting on Baby

I am less than a week away from my official due date and anxiously awaiting baby.

For kicks, we're having people guess the date of baby's arrival along with approximate weight.

Here are the only guesses thus far:

Olive - (she has two guesses): Today 6/25 or next Wed/Thursday 7/1 or 7/2

My doctor - Monday 6/29

My brother-in-law Seth - Monday 6/29

Dennis - Sunday 6/28

What do you think?

Trying to let it go...

To help some of my pregnancy woes, my doctor suggested that I be walking around 50% of the time and lying down with my feet elevated 50% of the time. No extended sitting or standing. All I have to say to that is HAHA. He does realize that I have a toddler with limitless energy so this is a bit of an unrealistic goal but I am trying to heed his advice, at least to a certain extent. I do need to rest more. But what that means is that many things go undone. And I'm not good with that. I'm a busybody through and through, one who never sits down for more than 1-2 minutes at a time. This is so hard for me! So I'm trying to just let it go and achieve what is absolutely necessary and not worry too much about the rest. Anyone have any secrets to this? Sigh... just a few more weeks until I meet this beautiful girl and I can't wait.

Baby Registries

Having a second child is both easier and harder in terms of baby supplies.

For the first baby, everyone is so excited and wants to throw you a shower and buy you lots of gifts and cutesy baby stuff. For the second, people hardly acknowledge his/her existence.

While it's true that we do have *most* of the things we need for baby #2 (especially since we're having another girl), there are some things that we borrowed or simply didn't have the first time around that I would really like to have now. Problem is, nobody wants to buy anything! First time we had all the furniture, clothing, and supplies pretty much taken care of. This time, NOTHING. There are always things you need, like diapers and usable supplies, if nothing else. Not that I'm complaining (well maybe I am just a little) but I do feel that every child is a blessing and should be celebrated as such.

So to make myself a checklist of the things I want and/or need, I created two registries for this baby. So if nothing else, I can buy gifts for her and feel like they are gifts and know that SOMEONE thinks she hung the moon. Plus, if you set up registries, they often send you extra coupons for fulfilling your registries later so what can it hurt? So I registered her at Babies R Us and another fantastic store (which blows BRU out of the water) called Buy Buy Baby. Buy Buy Baby does not have locations everywhere but they do also have an online feature, though not all items are available there. They are also affiliated with Bed, Bath, and Beyond so those many, many coupons you get from them are good there too.

So I am celebrating my second baby with as much zest and zeal as the first. I am determined not to let her get pushed to the side just because an older child demands my attention. I am still buying her some of her own clothes and other items because let's face it, while hand-me-downs are convenient for us, it's always nice to have something new for yourself (that hasn't been through the wash 1000 times to get rid of the sweet potato stains).

(If you can't tell, I'm getting a bit cranky and hormonal - can't believe it's taken this long!)

HUGE children's SALE CLEARANCE

A new federal law comes into effect in just a few weeks that will prohibit the sales of any product intended for children 0-12 that has not been tested for lead and deemed safe. If you have been to Target, Wal-Mart, Toys R Us, etc. lately, you may have noticed huge clearance items - they are trying to clear out all merchandise they have that was manufactured before these regulations come into effect.

The same is true for us little guys, though the law has different ramifications. As you can imagine, it's quite costly to have products tested and each and every part of a product must be tested to ensure full compliance. As a parent, this makes me happy to know that my kids will be playing with safe toys and worry less about all those lead paint toys imported from China. As a small business owner who deals primarily with work-at-home moms, this means that most of our children's line will unfortunately be discontinued. While there is no doubt in my mind that our products are all safe, this law applies to EVERYTHING - clothing, blankets, etc. - so the mom who sews baby blankets in her basement at night will soon be out of business. Therefore, my business (little pink pansy) is having a massive clearance sale to get rid of all existing children's inventory before the law comes into effect on February 10th, at which point, most of these items will be discontinued. So stock up now for your kids, for birthday parties, for Christmas, for nieces and nephews and neighbors. You won't find deals like this very often.

A few highlights... pictured above is an adorable coveralls set. This is great for children 6 months up to 2-3 years. It works well for messy eaters but has now become an excellent art smock for Olive. It wipes clean with a wet towel but is also machine washable (and very durable).

Another favorite is the fleece ribbon hats. We still have lots in stock - buy now for this cold weather and go ahead and get one for next year too! These also make excellent shower gifts.

Our adorable best-selling hairbows are also on clearance, at prices you can't find anywhere else for these hand-made beauties. Stock up and get one for every outfit.

To check out the full line, please visit www.littlepinkpansy.com and pass along the word to your friends and family.