Summer Must Haves

The summer weather is finally here...fingers crossed.  We've had a ridiculous amount of rainy days here lately although nothing compared to parts of Texas where houses are literally floating away.  Yikes.  Colorado is definitely not known for its rainy weather so it's been a bit odd to have it rain for days on end with not much of a break in between.  We've been getting little breaks here and there and with a play date at a local splash park this morning, it has me really looking forward to the summer weather.  Remind me of this statement when I'm a sweating, whiny mess at 95 degrees.

So here are some of my summer must haves; some old, some new but all in all, things that will be in our summer arsenal.

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1) When we sold our house, I was really hoping we could find a rental in a nearby neighborhood that has a great pool and rec center but since the housing market is somewhat insane in Denver/Colorado, that didn't happen.  It was either rent a house in that neighborhood that was going to be way too small for all of us or rent a house with enough space in a neighborhood with no pool.  We went with more space.  That being said, I'm hoping to get Selah into some swim lessons here soon and with a few trips planned this summer that will involve pool time, some floaties were needed.  We got this Puddle Jumper at our local Costco but it can also be found here.  I'm hoping that Selah's first swim-on-her-own experience goes well.

2) Anyone that lives or has been to Colorado knows the sun is super intense here.  Blame it on being that much closer to the sun but it does not take long to get a wicked sunburn.  (Wicked?  Apparently I'm from Boston now).  I love this sunscreen for the kiddos!  It's not chock full of chemicals, smells good and small enough to toss in the diaper bag and not have it take up the entire thing!

3) We've never really had to worry about mosquitoes too much here but with all the rain we've been having, they've been a little out of control.  It's hard to keep Selah indoors during the day so after seeing the nice welts hiding under her short sleeves (sorry kiddo!), I knew I couldn't really let her out back without some kind of protection.  I loooove our local grocery store because it has a great selection of natural remedies for pretty much anything.  I didn't really want to put some of the well known, name brand bug spray on her that was filled with all sorts of chemicals because she still pops her hands in her mouth and I have it on good authority (cough cough) that a certain bug spray with DEET in it will numb your mouth if you, say, have mustard on your hand from a campfire hot dog and go to lick said mustard off.  Wanting to avoid the same issue with Selah, I grabbed this bug spray at our grocery store.  It's DEET-free and repels bugs with several essential oils and I think it smells pretty good.  The hubby doesn't agree but that's okay ;)

4)  We've got a couple trips lined up this summer to visit family with pools and I know Harrison is going to be getting some water time.  This little baby float is perfect and the shade will keep the sun out of his awesome baby blues.

5)  I learned the hard way a couple years ago that Selah cannot have any sunscreen on her face that isn't all natural.  It took me putting it on her face twice to make the connection that a certain big name 'baby' sunscreen was causing her to have a bad allergic reaction: red rash, runny nose and swollen eyes.  I thought it was something in the water at a local pool because she didn't have the reaction anywhere else on her but the 2nd time at a local lake, she had the same reaction and I realized it was the sunscreen so nothing but natural for the girl!  I love the sunscreen sticks for areas like the face because you don't have to worry about accidentally getting some from your fingers to their eyes and the small tube is perfect for tossing in my diaper bag.

What are some of your summer must haves?

Baby Must Haves : Strollers and Monitors and Diapers...Oh My!

So just when you get the hang of having one kiddo and going out and about with said kiddo, you add another one to the mix and now you have to add on to the endless mountain of 'must have baby items' in order to make your life function.  Or at least that's what you're told.  I never bought into a lot of the hype of some of these items: like a wipes warmer.   Um, what do you do when you have to wipe your baby's bum out in public when it's only accustomed to a 98 degree wipe?   Granted I'm only 7 weeks in with two kids but these are a few of the things that are making my life a little easier.  Although the industrial sized drum of Patience and Sanity always seems to be out of stock when I go to order it.  Go figure ;)

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1)  I was really torn on getting a double stroller when I was pregnant with Harrison.  I thought I'd just make do with the single jogging stroller we already had for Selah and then carry Harrison in the Ergo.  However, I'd had my eye on the Contours Options Tandem Stroller for a couple months and scored one on a great deal about a month ago and really like it.  So not only do I not have to worry about the stroller being so wide that I can't fit through a doorway or racks of clothes at Target, you can configure the seats into 7 different positions, including a car seat attachment.  That means I can have the kiddos facing each other in the future so they can conspire and plot against me.

2) Diaper bags.  This was a difficult one for me to get on board with when I was pregnant with Selah.  I'm a bit of a purse fiend and was more than a little reluctant to give up on my Tory Burch bags for some dowdy looking diaper bag.  I was going to be a mom but I at least wanted to have some style while doing it!  I tried the satchel style originally and it only took me a couple months to realize that it was driving me nuts with its lack of pockets and organizational 'skills'.  I was considering the Petunia Pickle Bottom boxy backpack because I'd seen numerous moms carrying them and loved their fabrics and patterns.  However, I asked a couple mom friends of mine for their opinions on the bags and only got so-so reviews on them but was given rave reviews about the JuJuBe bags.  I spent an embarrassing amount of time looking at their bags online and went with the JuJuBe Be Hip.  It's covered in a machine washable and wipeable fabric and has pockets galore!  I loved this bag but realized that while this bag is great for carrying things you need for a toddler, I was probably going to need something a little bigger once Harrison arrived.  Once again I looked at the JuJuBe bags and was torn between having more room for all the gadgets you inevitably need for an infant and not getting a bag that was so big it needed its own stroller.  I decided on the JuJuBe BFF in the Magic Merlot fabric and sadly enough for my big dorky self, was super pumped to test it out when it arrived.  These bags carry so much stuff without being huge.  Last thing a mom needs when she's got a car seat with an infant hooked on one elbow and a writhing, screeching toddler under the other arm, is a diaper bag that weighs 20 pounds and is bursting at the seams with baby gear.  I swore I would never ever own a diaper bag that had backpack straps because that to me was the diaper bag equivalent of a minivan but I'm tellin' ya, don't knock it til you try it.  They're pretty freaking handy.  Especially when hauling said screeching toddler out of a pumpkin patch for refusing to stop chucking handfuls of corn, for example.

3) Somehow we managed to get through 2 years of having kids without having a video monitor but I broke down and got one when we moved Selah out of her crib and into a big bed this past summer.  I was curious and wanted to see what she was up to once we put her to bed and I will say, the girl is pretty entertaining.  I wanted something decent but also didn't want to spend a fortune either.  I decided on the Summer Infant Sure Sight and picked up an extra monitor for Harrison's room too so now I can obsessively watch to see if he's breathing and alive from the privacy of my own room.

4) I remember a friend giving us a SwaddleMe swaddle when Selah was born and wasn't quite sure what to do with it at first because, weren't the super cute and trendy muslin swaddle blankets going to keep my sweet baby from flailing around and giving herself an upper cut to the jaw in the middle of the night?  They work if you actually know how to do a decent swaddle...which I do not.  5 minutes later and the baby is free and flipping out.  So I gave the gifted swaddle a try and was hooked so I knew I needed more for when Harrison arrived.  He definitely loves to be snuggled and feel cozy so these swaddles in fleece were perfect since it's currently winter here (although you'd never know it with the warm temps we've been having) and we like to keep the house a few degrees above 'are you kidding me?' cold.

5)  Every baby is different.  Yes, I know this and you'd think I'd know this going into baby numero dos but I'll use several hours of labor and sleep deprivation as my excuse that I forgot this rule.  Selah never really took a pacifier.  Girl could've cared less about them, which I kinda liked.  Probably being a little braggy about the fact that my baby didn't like them nor need them was what bit me in the butt this time.  Harrison is much more needy, if you will, than Selah was and sometimes the pacifier is just what he needs to take the edge off and get himself under control.  That being said, his 7 week old wrestling moves sometimes get out of control and knock his pacifier out of his mouth and thus starts the whole 'calming yo'self down' routine over again.  I was dragging my feet on the whole pacifier thing but figure if we were going to do it, we'd do it right and picked up a Wubbanub.  The added weight of the stuffed animal helps keep the pacifier in his mouth...and Mom for not losing her mind when she's putting the pacifier back in for the twentieth time in 5 minutes.

6)  Once again, the trusty NoseFrida comes to the rescue.  Not only is Colorado as dry as a cork leg (as my dad would say), it being winter makes that dryness even worse and so Mr. Harrison tends to wake up with some lovely boogs that plug his tiny nose.  He wasn't quite sure what to make of the booger sucking device at first but now I think he realizes that it helps him out and just goes with it.  Big Sister is another story.  She had a pretty nasty cold a month ago and has yet to get the real concept of blowing her nose so it took some serious convincing (and Dad holding her) while I did the dirty deed.  This thing is worth its weight in booger gold.

7) I didn't have a lot of knowledge or proper support when it came to breastfeeding and pumping with Selah but I did know that this time around, I wanted to use the Lansinoh storage bags.  I really prefer them over the Medela bags for a couple reasons.  I have a Medela pump that I love (well, as much as you can love a breast pump) but I just was not loving the bags that are made to go with the pump.  The material of the bags is super thick and not forgiving and I just don't like the attachment you can use to connect it directly to the pump.  I can't tell you how many times I spilled breastmilk out of those bags while using that dumb attachment.  However, the Lansinoh bags are not only bigger but they're made out of a softer material that I just like better. 

So there ya have it...some favorites that are making my life a little bit better with 2 kiddos and I'll take all the help I can get!

Monthly Baby Gadgets

Baby gadgets.  There are 18 trillion different kinds of baby gadgets that promise to not only make your life better as a parent, but they also threaten for your (and your baby's) world to actually implode if you don't hop in your car, run over a few elderly pedestrians, and sprint through your nearest super store to purchase them.  I'll admit that in the first few weeks, I was both supremely naive and terrified that if I didn't buy said super life saving gadgets, something terrible would happen.  News flash: Selah is now 19 months old and so far, there have been no imploding worlds due to my negligence in buying these gadgets.  That being said, there are a few gadgets that I've bought that are complete life savers and do in fact make our lives a little easier and keep those pesky imploding worlds at bay.

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1)  When it came time to give the bottles the heave ho, I spent a small fortune trying to find a sippy cup that Selah would actually drink out of.  There were a few that she actually gave eye rolls to.  Lady, please.  Of course there were the $20 sippy cups that in addition to curing cancer, they also hydrated your child.  $20 to hydrate my kid???  I'll take 5!  So on one of my what seemed like daily trips to our local grocery store, I decided to cruise down the kiddo aisle and found the aforementioned flip top straw cups.  I bought one and gave it a try the next morning and wouldntchaknow it...she loved it!  I went back and bought 2 more before God forbid, they discontinued them and I was back to square one.  I love that the straw just flips closed and is small enough to fit into the side pouch of the diaper bag.  And best part...you can buy 2 for under $10.  Double score.

2) We've been using these great kiddo utensils for months.  Right around Selah's 1st birthday, she and I ventured down to our local Ikea.  It's a good thing it's on the complete opposite end of the city as us, otherwise I'd be bankrupting us.  Love Ikea.  I was beginning to toy with the idea of getting her some big girl utensils when the Ikea fairies just happened to shine this glorious light on a huge bin of their Kalas flatwear set.  They're the perfect size, in cool vibrant colors and, hold onto your shorts, you get 18 pieces for $1.99.  You're welcome.  

3) If I had a dollar for every time I sang the praises of the NoseFrida, I'd be livin' large.  I remember calling Selah's pediatrician up in a cold sweat the first time she got a cold at 3 weeks and gagging at the thought of this 'snot sucker' he highly recommended.  Someone tells you you're going to be literally sucking the snot out of your kid's nose and you'll be gagging too.  But at that point, I didn't care.  I had tried the battery operated snot sucker (it did absolutely nothing and smelled like it was going to catch on fire at any second) and the blue hospital bulb gave her a bloody nose.  This thing arrived and any mama who's used one will tell you they've never been so excited to see snot.  I had to use it recently on Selah when she had a bad cold and hasn't quite mastered the nose blowing.  Lemme tell ya though, using this on a newborn and then on an 18 month old is a whole 'nother ball game.  Think greased pig wrestling.  Still awesome now though.

4) Piggybacking off the NoseFrida and cold gadgets is this Eucalyptus essential oil from Aura Cacia.  I originally bought this bottle for myself pre-kiddo for a nasty sinus infection I had.  Skip forward to Selah having a cold and this stuff works wonders in so many ways!  My favorite is to put drops of it in her humidifier whenever she was sleeping.  Awesome sauce.

5) I'm kinda anal when it comes to keeping my vehicle clean and I swore up and down that once I had a baby, I wouldn't have a car that looked like a garbage dump.  I didn't want to have trash and dried up months old food everywhere.  I'm sure moms everywhere were not-so-quietly laughing whenever I'd say this but guess what, I still keep a clean car.  That's just me and it makes me happier to have a clean vehicle.  I'm sure this pleases my OCD hubby to no end as well.  So when Selah got to snacking-in-the-car age, I was once again in my favorite bank account sucking store and found the Munchkin Snack Catcher.  I swear, that company has some of the coolest stuff for kids and they're super affordable.  We were given another snack catching gadget that you can supposedly fling around and nothing flies out; which it does what it says it will.  It does not, however, guarantee against small toddlers setting the gadget on the floor and emptying fist fulls of snacks out onto the floor.  Purpose defeated.

If you pick up at least one of these bad boys, I guarantee you'll smile just a little :)

*This post is not sponsored in any way.  These are just products I've purchased on my own that I love.*