Hurt

Have you ever had your feelings hurt unintentionally and then felt silly/ridiculous for feeling that way? That is the way I am feeling tonight. I know the slight was unintentional, but I'm still feeling hurt by it. Sometimes people are just really inconsiderate of others' feelings.

Okay, I'm taking a deep breath and letting it go ... mostly.

Finding the Silver Lining

Sometimes it is so hard to just count your blessings and find the silver linings in things. That is what I am trying to do today.

Princess Fi has been a teething, cranky, drooly, needy mess for several weeks now. She has had a few good days mixed in there, but there have been a LOT of cranky ones. It has been difficult to accomplish much because on the cranky days, she wants to be held a lot and does NOT let me out of her sight without a major meltdown. It has been rough.

Today, I am making an attempt to change MY attitude, because the teething isn't going to go away and most likely the crankiness isn't either. So, here it goes.

I am grateful that my daughter loves me and still wants to snuggle with me and thinks I can make everything better. I am thankful that she has one tooth through, so that is one down. I am thankful that she is hitting appropriate developmental milestones, like separation anxiety.

Now to keep reminding myself of this when she doesn't want me to put her down so I can eat, go to the bathroom, or shower. I can do it.

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Cousins

Candle Winner

The winner of the PartyLite candles is #9.

Amanda said...
I'm following your blog! :) Just found it and can't wait to keep reading!

Congratulations! You win 36 candles so your house can smell nice too!

Splish, Splash

Princess Fiona's Grandpa bought her a baby pool for the backyard last weekend. Isn't it cute?


Yesterday, we tried it out since it was like 100 degrees with unGodly humidity. A little back story for those of you who don't know, Fi is the hotest baby ever. I've known a lot of babies and she wins the award. She pours buckets of sweat when the temperature goes above 75. This winter, I had all these cute fleece outfits that people had bought for her, but I couldn't put any of those on her because she immediately overheated and got heat rash. So being a hot blooded baby she loves to be naked and she loves the water. I couldn't wait to take her out to sit in the pool because she loves the bath so much.

After the initial bad mommy moment where I turned to grab the camera and she rolled backwards and got all wet (the water was a little chilly and I think it startled her), she loved it. She sat out there chewing on stuff and splashing in the water for 30 minutes and would have continued to play, but mommy was overheating sitting in the sun beside her.

She thought the floating pillow was the best toy ever. What a great present. Thanks Grandpa!

Saturday Mornings in Summer

Here is what Fiona and I look like on most Saturday mornings, at least this summer.

We pack up early in the morning, so like 8:30, and head out to the Farmer's Market downtown. Fiona's Daddy stays home and sleeps because he is not a fan of morning. So we go with my Mom, our friend Nancy, and sometimes my Dad. We stroll around, drink some rootbeer, eat some pastries or kolatches, and buy fresh, locally grown produce. It is such a nice way to spend a Saturday morning.

Fiona loves going to the Farmer's Market. She loves to look at all the people and just watch everything that is going on. Plus, she loves riding in her ring sling, which I am pretty proud of. My Mom and I made it because I really wanted to try one out, but they are not very cheap. We decided we could make our own for pretty cheap. I really love the way it turned out. I think if I make another one I will make it longer because this one isn't long enough for Nathan to use. I have even had a few people at the Farmer's Market ask me if I made the slings to sell. Hmmm ... an interesting prospect. What do you think?

Wordless Wednesday

Candle Giveaway

I've been working on cleaning out our office/storage room this last week. Our lease is up at the end of July and we haven't decided if we will stay or go. So in case we decide to go, I have been working on cleaning/organizing stuff and some purging.

Last year I had a PartyLite party and had the chance to buy a TON of tealights and votives for like $5 or something, plus all the free stuff I earned from the party. This translated into a LOT of candles. I love PartyLite candles and I love burning candles in general. It just makes the house smell so nice.

Anyway, I decided that I have way more candles than I will burn in a long time, so I decided to give some away. I have been wanting to do a blog giveaway for awhile, so what better opportunity.

So you have the chance to win 12 votive candles and 24 tealight candles. You will get to pick from the following scents: Herbal Mint, Island Orchid&Pink Peppercorn, Cherry&Papaya, and Coconut Milk Chocolate. They all smell delicious and I would be sad to part with them, but I will never have a chance to burn them all, so now you will have a chance to burn them and make your house smell pretty.

To have a chance to win the candles:
1. Follow my blog.
2. Follow me on Twitter (AnnathanMagz).
3. Tweet about this giveaway (include @AnnathanMagz in the tweet or post a link in your comment).
4. Post about it on Facebook.

Leave a comment for each of these that you do and I will pick a winner using random.org.

Contest ends June 23 at Midnight (CST).

Smartipants Diapers

I got to try out a new diaper called a Smartipants diaper. Smartipants is a new diaper brand that has some awesome features.

One of my favorite things about this diaper is called the "smart sleeve". The "smart sleeve" means that there is an opening at both ends of the diaper for the insert, so there is no need to remove the insert before washing the diaper. The insert falls out in the wash and your hands stay cleaner. Forget smart, this is genius. One of the things that I did not like about pocket diapers is that you have to remove the wet/dirty insert before washing it. I am not a huge fan of handling the dirty/wet parts of the diaper if I don't have to.

The Smartipants diaper is a one size diaper with snaps. I was a little wary of the snaps at first. When you look at the diaper it just looks complicated. However, that really isn't the case. I actually really liked the snaps. They don't come undone easily and not such a pain in the washer/dryer.

I love the idea of one size diapers for saving money, but lots of them are pretty bulky on my little peanut. This diaper is a little bit on the bulky side on her, but not as bad as other one size diapers. It works so well for us that I can definitely forgive a little bulk for now. I'm sure it will get much trimmer as she gets a little bigger.

One last thing that I love about Smartipants is that they are made in the USA! I love being able to support companies here in America.

We have tried this diaper a couple of times and are really liking it. There have been absolutely no leaks and we have even tried it overnight. I really like how nice it fits Fi around her legs, which helps with the no leaking. One of the things that I really like about this diaper is how affordable it is. A lot of pocket diapers are pretty expensive. You get one diaper and two inserts for $14.95, which is pretty reasonable. Right now you can even get a package of 3 diapers and 3 inserts for $36.95, but that is a limited time offer, so hurry and go buy yours. I will be ordering a couple more of these diapers for our stash.

GroBaby Diaper

So just for blogging about wanting to try out the GroBaby Diaper, The Natural Baby Co sent me a free diaper kit to try out. I was SO EXCITED to get it in the mail and try it out!

The shell set was blackberry (if you know me well, you know it couldn't have come in a more perfect color) and came with a shell, an organic soaker pad, and an organic booster. This is what the inside looks like.

The GroBaby diaper is a one size diaper with an adjustable rise, so it will fit from birth to potty training. Sometimes one size diapers can be very bulky on my little peanut (I mean seriously, she just outgrew her 0-3 month clothes at 6 months). However, I was very surprised at how trim this diaper was on her. Much less bulky than our Bum Genius one size diapers.

Another thing I REALLY like about these diapers is the aplix (velcro). It is different than on all the other diapers I have tried. It doesn't get full of lint and it is much softer, so it doesn't dig into baby's skin if it rubs.

So we have tried out this diaper about 4 times and I am totally sold. I love that you don't have to throw the whole thing in the diaper pail. You just swap out the soaker pad and you can reuse the shell. After using prefolds for so long, it seems wasteful to me to just take off the whole diaper and throw it in the pail. I thought that this might be a reason that my hubby wouldn't like this diaper, but he actually brought up this point and said he liked that part too.

These diaper get the Daddy seal of approval too. That is a MAJOR accomplishment in this house. He thought that they were VERY EASY to use and NO LEAKS. My husband doesn't always have patience for changing diapers and sometimes the diaper is not always put on the way I would put it on, which often times leads to leaking. However, after Daddy diaper changes two times with this diaper there were still no leaks. WOO HOO!

It even passed the overnight test. The pjs and sheets were dry after a night with this diaper. We did add in the booster for overnight, which still didn't make the diaper super bulky. She isn't a hugely heavy wetter, but she does a lot of moving around in her sleep, which a lot of times leads to leaking. No leaks though!

So there you have it. GroBaby definitely gets our seal of approval and we will be looking to buy a couple more. Especially since the princess had a growth spurt and our prefolds no longer fit with a snappi. They do still fit with pins, but the hubby won't do those.

Almost Wordless Wednesday

I took my point-and-shoot camera to the family campout because I didn't want to worry about my nice camera, but it was a mistake. Half the pictures turned out blurry and the rest just aren't as nice as I wanted them to be.

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling ...

I have no idea why we wish for our children to become mobile. My life was so much simpler when Fiona was stationary. For a couple of months she has been rolling over. However, she pretty much just rolled around in one spot. She didn't use this skill to get anywhere. She would scoot herselves in circles or roll over to reach a toy just out of reach, but for the most part I could put her down and walk away to put in another load of laundry or something and I would come back and she would be relatively in the same spot.

I miss those days.

She figured out recently that rolling can actually get you to places. You can simply roll to the things Mommy doesn't want you to get into or the dogs who just want a nap. I was so excited for all of 5 seconds when she first rolled across the living room. Then the frantic baby proofing began. No more cords on the ground anywhere and the baby gate had to go up. Sheesh.

I was not ready for this. Fiona is supposed to stay my little baby, not grow up. She has even made a few attempts to get up on her hands and knees. I am definitely not ready for a crawling baby. Either are the dogs. They were also quite surprised the first time she came rolling up to them. Nothing is safe anymore. She is a rolling fiend.

My baby is growing up ... sniff, sniff.

Wordless Wednesday