Surprisingly Good Finds at My Least Favorite Retail Chain . . . aka Walmart

I'll admit that I'm a diehard lover of all things Target.  It's set up all nice and inviting on the inside; which I'm sure is their ultimate goal to suck you into completely emptying your bank account when all you really wanted was some applesauce pouches for your toddler!  They've got to be taking some sort of business tips from the casinos when it comes to luring you in and never letting you go until it's too late to save yourself.  That being said, there are some things that Target just does not carry.  Don't get me wrong...I love Target but it's not necessarily for the super self-sufficient person.  It's for people who want to appear self-sufficient.  I.E. no real tool department, no paint department, no camping department, etc etc.  Walmart, however, does have all these things.  It also has a customer base that makes you never want to never have children.  I try to avoid going to Walmart if at all possible because not only does it usually cause my blood pressure to go through the roof but I've also been nearly physically assaulted at one by some lunatic who literally tried to rip a bracelet off my arm that apparently she was not going to leave without.  I wish I was joking about that one.

I've been trying out several different types of candles and scent burners recently and they've all been pretty much sucking when it comes to actually putting out a scent that goes more than 3 feet past the candle itself.  I'd found one last year that I loved and unfortunately, it came from Walmart.  I knew what I needed to do.  So I packed up Selah and we headed over to the less scary of the two Walmarts that are near our house.  Always go less scary if you can...it makes a difference in your experience.  And go at 9AM on a Wednesday...you'll have the place to yourself; thus minimizing your chances of blood pressure rising incidents.

I'm sure you're wondering what exactly is this holy grail of candles that I'm actually trekking to Walmart for.  Here it is:

  

It's the MainStays Aromabeads candle.  Not in this particular scent, mind you, but this is all I could find a decent photo of.  The so-called Aromabeads definitely do their job and I can smell my yummy vanilla candle upstairs from its spot on the kitchen counter.  It's actually a decent looking candle too if you don't pay attention to the kinda chintzy looking label.  The lid is oil rubbed bronze (and we all know how much I love me some ORB) and you can even repurpose the candle to a container for who knows what after it's all burned!  Plus, these bad boys are only $5.  Smells good, decent looking, $5...that's a big win for me.  So while we were there, I ventured into the toddler clothing area.  Now, Walmart clothing can be a real disaster and sometimes, there are some little gems here and there.  They carry Carter's brand, which is always good, and they also carry a couple others which can be surprisingly cute depending on the time of year.

But boy, did I hit the jackpot this day!  They had some seriously cute dresses and rompers and I pretty much picked everything they had in Selah's size.  On the sizes, I went with the dresses in a 3T since she's so tall and a 24 month/2T in the rompers and those ended up working out perfectly so far.  Here are some of the sweet little items I found.  Oh and did I mention they were all under $5???

These rompers are so cute! 

I got a few of these shirts in different colors, especially the white, because they'll go perfectly with with pretty much anything and the little puff sleeves are really cute!

And how cute is this dress...

...and these!

However, this dress...

...and this dress are probably my favorites that I picked up.

So not only did I pick up a bunch of really cute summer outfits for Selah and a great smelling candle for super cheap, I had a stress-free visit to Walmart and only wanted to kick one person in the process :)

Car Seat Safety : Not For Dummies Anymore

There are a few topics that I'm kinda passionate about and have spent perhaps a little too much time researching: the benefits to natural childbirth, DIY'ing a variety of things, derivatives (just kidding), and car seat safety.  You may be thinking, what more do you need to know about car seats other than keep your baby in one when they're in the car?  Sadly, I was the same way when I was pregnant with Selah.  I picked one out that was a cute color (yes, you can buy my business with cool colors) and would hold her up to 30 pounds.  Other than that, I was kinda blissfully clueless.  I became acquainted with some ladies who were really into car seat safety and kinda opened my eyes to all the things we as parents should be doing for our little ones when it comes to their car seats but more often than not, aren't.  

First up, have you ever noticed on the little plastic leg-opening flap on grocery carts there's usually 3-4 different rules printed?  Most carts will actually say NOT to put your infant's car seat in the front portion of the cart!  Hands raised who didn't know this.......I did it for awhile until some lady friends told me this is super dangerous for a couple reasons.  While I was thinking that hanging the latches over the seat back was making it safer for Selah, it could have potentially caused harm to the seat.  The car seats are designed to snap into their base with those latches and that's it.  Hanging them over a cart seat could potentially make the latches fail if your vehicle were in an accident.  That's a scary thought.  An even scarier thought is that infants have died when their seats fell out of the cart while perched in the seat.  A safer alternative if you want to keep your infant in their seat while out and about is putting their seat in the basket or carrying them on you in a wrap like an Ergo or a Moby.  Safety should trump convenience folks.

This next one kinda sends me over the edge a little, as well as a lot of mama friends of mine: when to turn your little one's car seat from rear to front facing?  For a long time, the American Academy of Pediatrics suggested keeping your kiddos rear facing until they hit 1 year old or 20 pounds.  They have since changed that keeping them rear facing until they're at least 2 years old and reach the maximum height and weight for their seats or as long as possible past that.  Why is that you may wonder?  Infants and toddlers heads and necks are not strong enough to withstand the force of being involved in an accident if they are front-facing.  If involved in a collision while rear-facing, the force is distributed over the child's entire body.  If in a collision while front-facing, that force is absorbed in their head, neck and spine.  This video shows exactly what I'm referring to starting at about 1:25.  Kinda hard to argue with those visuals.  Children that stay rear-facing until at least 2 years of age are 5 times safer if involved in an accident than those that are front-facing.  5 times!!!  If that statistic doesn't scare you, then maybe hearing that the force that's exerted on their body can cause stretching or snapping of the spinal cord and their skull can literally be ripped from their spine.  That's called internal decapitation.  Let that mental image sink in just for a bit.

Some of the 'arguments' (if you even want to call them that) for moving children to front-facing early I've heard and read are: 'his legs are all squished against the back of the seat', 'she doesn't like looking out the back window', 'well my mom had me rear-facing at an early age', 'his legs would break if we were in an accident!'  My response to these lack luster excuses?  1) Children are extremely flexible and when do you ever see them sitting on the floor or a chair with their legs ram-rod straight; 2) sorry but my child's safety trumps their happiness any day; 3) my mom also grew up in an era where they didn't have seat belts in vehicles period but things change; and 4) I'd rather be nursing a broken leg back to health than a broken neck.

It's true...a lot of parents just aren't made aware of the statistics and that's not entirely their fault.  Heck, I didn't know either but luckily I was made aware and then further educated myself.  Selah is still rear-facing in her seat and will be until she reaches the rear-facing height and weight limits for her seat; I'm willing to guess she'll be between 3-4 when that happens.   I see numerous photos posted online of their kiddos in front-facing car seats that are under 2 and some that are even under 1 year old!  Why are you in such a hurry to reach this next milestone when their lives actually could depend on it?!?  For those of you mamas who are car seat safety fanatics, do a search on Instagram of #carseat and it'll be guaranteed to send your blood pressure up a few points.

So Ms. Know-It-All, what are some good car seats to keep my toddler rear-facing longer?  Well, let me show you some and not all of them are bank breakers!  First up, the seat we use for Selah is the Britax Marathon 70-G3. 

I love this seat and is one of the safer ones on the market.  She can rear-face in it until she's 40 pounds and front-face to 70.   She'll be in this one awhile.  Next is the Chicco NextFit that I know a few friends have. 

This one is good for smaller vehicles like sedans or small SUV's.  Third, the Diono Radian RXT convertible seat. 

This one is the daddy of 'em all when it comes to high limits.  It rear faces to 45 pounds, front-faces to 80 and the booster seat will seat to 120 pounds!   These 3 seats are on the pricier end with the Diono being the most expensive but did you know that almost all convertible seats have a starting weight requirement of 5 pounds?  So you may not even have to even bother with getting the infant seat!  Win win!  Lastly, in case you thought I'd forgotten to add something that was a little more wallet friendly...I hadn't.  The Evenflo Tribute is $59.99 at Target and has a rear-facing limit of 40 pounds. 

So safety being too expensive doesn't have to be an excuse anymore.


If by reading this post I can help shed the light of the legitimate dangers of front-facing too soon on just one mom, then I'm glad.  Read some of the links below to give you some more facts and make the decision yourself.

www.joelsjourney.org
http://csftl.org/rear-facing-car-seat-myths-busted/

 

The Formative Years

This year's winter has been a little bipolar to say the least; weird at best.  With no real measurable snow 'storms' and a few 60 degree days thrown in, it left me putting my sweaters away and then pulling them back out, all in the same week.  I'll be the first to admit that I love winter.  I love cold, close-the-roads-down blizzards.  Bare ground and 50's in January...not a fan.  This is Colorado...act like it!  But now that spring has officially sprung, I've given up hope for any huge blizzards and am reluctantly embracing the warmer weather.  Every year around this time, I get these small yearnings to go back to my former lifestyle.  Now before you raise an eyebrow and get wild ideas of what I mean by that, it's nothing too out of this world.  Long before my days were filled with diaper changes and sippy cups, I was a river rat.  From early May to early September, my days were spent up in the mountains...in the sun, by the river, on the river.  It was heavenly and was a big part of my life for many years.

Growing up in the mecca of Colorado river rafting, it was kind of a given I'd end up working for one of the dozens of companies one day.  I started off as a whitewater rafting photographer, sitting on the banks of the river; shooting rafting trips as they went thru the rapids.  It killed 2 birds with one stone...being outdoors and using a camera.  And I had a killer tan.  You couldn't spend enough money at a tanning salon to get that kinda tan.  And I'm paying for it these days but that's a minor detail ;)  With working at that job for 4 years, I came to know a lot of the rafting companies in the area and realized that that was where I really wanted to be.  So I then started working for one of the local rafting companies...in the office booking trips and checking customers in for their trips and then guiding trips down the river on my days off.  And if you were wondering where I lived during all this...it was in a pickup camper at the back of my company's property.  No, not some cushy RV or even an apartment in town.  A bonafide, 1970's, goes-in-the-back-of-a-pickup-truck-camper that I could just barely stand up in.  There was an apartment over the office with a living area, kitchen and bathroom that all the employees shared lest you think I wasn't getting regular showers or cooking for myself.  I loved it.

This was during my checkout run.  Checkout run meaning this is where I was taking legitimate paying customers down the river and being cleared to take other customers down without a training guide in the boat with me.  Mildly terrifying for me as some rafts from another company collided with some of our other boats in the canyon and there were people swimming and overturned rafts; I got sucked under our raft trying to help drag an unmanned raft to shore.  I walked away with massive bruises and also as a commercial raft guide.  I'll call it a win :)

I'll go on record as saying this trip scared me to death.  Taking my family down the river.  Nothing happened...I was just scared I was going to dump them in the river and kill them.

This was my last trip of the season so why not wear a bright red wig?!?

Just hitting the river with a couple of friends.  Those were the best trips :)

My trusty sidekick, Finley.  It's been a long time since this girl has seen a raft but she still freaks out whenever she sees me pull her lifejacket out.  A true mountain dog and girl's best friend.

Would I ever go back to being a raft guide.  No way.  That's definitely a job that takes a beating on you physically and I'm too geriatric to try steering uncooperative tourists down the river again ;)  But I will say it's one job that I was extremely proud to have had.  I have asthma and a heart condition and my doctors didn't think it was a good idea to do it but I wanted to try and see if I could do it...and I did.  I got to raft some of the best (and scariest) rivers around the country and it was a fun thing to add to my former life.  Even if just thinking about it makes me want to call the chiropractor ;)