Crappy Croup

Maddox was up coughing half the night (thus Mommy got in lots of sit-ups... I sat up with every cough to make sure he wasn’t spitting up). Since he's only three months old and wanted to make sure he isn't coming down with pnemonia or an ear infection, Daddy took him to the doctor this morning. The doctor thinks he has croup. At least we’ve been doing all the right things to ease his symptoms - having the cool mist humidifier in the room at night, bringing him in the bathroom during a steamy shower, having him sleep at an incline, etc. I guess it just needs to run its course at this point. The barking cough is scary! He hasn’t been eating as much and sleeping has been tough. Thanks for sharing germs, daycare buddies!

Comparative Pregnancy Musings

I wasn’t sure what to expect from either pregnancy—other than a baby, of course. My two pregnancies had some differences yet were fairly similar. Smells bothered me a lot with the first; in particular, beer smelled awful (and I usually love beer!) yet didn’t bother me at all during the second. I noticed that my sense of smell was heightened during the second pregnancy but nothing was particularly vomit-inducing. Fortunately, I didn’t really have much for morning sickness either time around. Though I was certainly huge both times; I started out at around the same weight and gained a little over 60lbs with Izaak whereas did a little better at about 45lbs with Maddox (5lbs of that was fluid retention packed on during the last week). I consumed a ridiculous quantity of milkshakes during Izaak’s pregnancy (hello, 60 lb weight gain!) but learned my lesson and tried to stay away from them for Maddox’s. I did give in to my craving for mushroom pizza a couple of times during Maddox’s stay in the womb yet I don’t think I had any inkling towards that while carrying Izaak. My ankles and feet were terribly swollen with Izaak, I didn’t have much of an issue with it while pregnant with Maddox. I carried Maddox a lot lower than Izaak; I didn’t get much for stretch marks until the very end of the first pregnancy but feel like I’m a mess from newly added stretch marks across my belly that were acquired towards the end of the latest pregnancy. There goes my swimsuit modeling career… Ha!

Breastfeeding. Ugh. I really wanted this to work out for both children and sadly, powdered formula ended up being the answer for both babies. I did give it a fierce try for a couple months each and both kiddos did get some of mother’s milk. Besides having some latch issues, my milk production sucked and I had big, hungry babies that needed sustenance!! Rather than beating myself up over this snafu, I choose to just be grateful for what I was able to provide them and give a big shout-out to science and technology for picking up the slack. Izaak tolerated a generic brand of “gentle” formula pretty well but we’ve found that Maddox does much better with the name-brand gentle formula. A $26 tub of formula lasts him about 4-5 days… if I could produce milk instead, believe me - I would!

I’m so very appreciative of my ability to make babies (with a little help from Joe, of course) and carry them to term and I know that creating a new life is really a miraculous capacity not afforded to everyone. I’m also definitely not implying that it wasn’t absolutely and completely worth it but it’s still no secret that I really didn’t enjoy being pregnant. I tried to have a good attitude about it but felt exhausted and crappy most of the time and I strongly detested the attention I received from casual acquaintances and random strangers about how gigantic I was. It’s a means to a very desirable end but 40 weeks can sure feel like a loooong time! My cognitive abilities felt like they’d been dulled (in fact, I’m not sure I’m ever going to quite recover!) and felt achy and uncomfortable during the majority of the time for both. I was convinced that Izaak’s toes were jammed in my ribs for the last couple months of his stay in my womb (ouch) and wow did I have some heartburn, especially with the last one. In general, I felt grumpy, frumpy, and slow! I also felt stressed about trying to make sure I wasn’t too stressed and trying to make sure that I was eating only the right things and not taking any meds that could potentially cause any issues. I had some particularly awful sinus problems during my pregnancy with Maddox and pretty much the only slight relief I could muster was from using a kid’s formula of saline nose spray (grape scented!). After too much time spent on the internet and reading people’s sad stories of pregnancies gone wrong; I was a little scared about miscarriage and/or birth defects especially given my practically geriatric maternal age for the second pregnancy (I was 33 while pregnant with Izaak and 37 with Maddox). So, essentially, I’m thrilled for my beautiful babes and glad to be done with all that goes along with pregnancy!

Maddox is 3 months old!

I’m back to work full-time now and have both kiddos in daycare but I was able to take 12 weeks for maternity leave—it was glorious! Not having paychecks for half of that time wasn’t entirely stellar but we felt that it was valuable time that could never be retrieved and I’m grateful for it. We kept Izaak in preschool for much of that time, we didn’t want his schedule turned completely upside-down and it allowed more one-on-one time for me and kid v2.0. Maddox and I spent a lot of quality time snuggling on the couch with Criminal Minds (via Netflix) or some DIY home fix-it show on in the background, playing a bit of peek-a-boo, and lots of time was spent with him snoozing in my arms while I gazed at his delicious little face. Luckily, Joe’s parents and grandpa had decided to come down, by chance, on the evening that I ended up going into labor and stayed with Izaak while Joe and I were in the hospital. Labor this time around came on very fast and furious so I’m not sure what we would’ve done with him otherwise!! Maddox arrived early on a Thursday morning; we were back home by Friday afternoon. My parents had a trip planned to visit us for a 10 days starting that weekend which worked out great too.

Everything about Maddox’s entrance into the world was quicker than Izaak’s. Izaak’s due date was 4 days prior to his actual arrival, Maddox only waited 2 extra days. I was in labor for about 14 hours with Izaak; we barely got checked in and into a hospital room in time for Maddox’s delivery. Really. The nurses were still doing check-in paperwork while Maddox was curled up on my chest. I’m not exactly sure what time we got to the hospital but my cell phone call log indicates that I dialed my doctor just after 2am and baby was out just after 4am. Besides laboring for what felt like an eternity, I was pushing for hours with Izaak yet Maddox was out in about 3 (excruciatingly-painful-because-there-wasn’t-enough-time-for-an-epidural) pushes! And, we actually had a doctor present this time, I hadn’t met her before as she was a stand-in for whichever of my doctors that was supposed to be on call, but we had a doctor nonetheless!! I refused any pain meds for aftercare this time other than regular Advil due to "the good stuff" not agreeing with my stomach - something I learned from the aftercare of the first pregnancy. Even the getting-pregnant part was quicker with Maddox; it took about a year to become pregnant with Izaak and only around 4 months for Maddox.

 

We’ve had Maddox in the breathing world for 3 months now and what a great baby he is! Such a sweet little butterball!! Izaak loves him to pieces too, it’s adorable when he holds his hand or plants a big, sloppy kiss on his forehead. I was a little worried about how our family dynamic would change with the new addition. Going from no kids to having a newborn in the house was a big adjustment for us but adding a second kid wasn’t as big of a shock to the system I guess! Sure, we’re still getting used to how to juggle our roles and responsibilities but overall things are going really well. I’d be lying if I said that Izaak wasn’t a little jealous here and there because he isn’t the only child anymore however. He was very accustomed to always being the center of attention and now the baby occupies some of the time that used to be devoted solely to him. For the most part, he’s been doing great with the change though and as mentioned, he loves his brother. Joe and I have been having fun with comparing their similarities and differences too. Probably the biggest difference this time around is us. In general, we seem to feel less worried about not knowing what to do with an infant. I don't think that the lower stress level is because we think we know everything, rather our realization and acceptance of “you’re not going to know everything” is huge… ya know?! For the most part, Maddox sleeps through the night too… how lucky are we??! Having two parents that aren’t always completely and utterly sleep deprived is a wonderful thing!!

Izaak has a brother!!

He's here!! Maddox Leo Niedzwecki was born two days past his due date, at around 4am on December 10th. He weighed in at 9lbs 3oz (Izaak was 8lbs 7oz) and 20.5" in length (Izaak was about the same at 20"). Labor was much quicker this time around, so quick in fact that the nurses were still doing paperwork to get me signed into the hospital after his grand entrance and while he was snugling on my chest. A noteable tidbit (to me anyhow): I wasn't able to have the epidural that I had counted on. OUCH! The back labor and intense pain was worth it though, Maddox is absolutley wonderful and the perfect addition to our family. Though he's not quite accustomed to NOT being the center of attention at all times, Izaak is so excited to be a big "brudder". They are almost exactly 3.5 years apart, seems like a good span. I'm really looking forward to them being able to play and interact with each other. Happy family!

Izaak's ABCs

Izaak's ABCs

What I learned while planning a wedding - part 4

The last (I think?!) in the wedding planning series...

OTHER (SOMETIMES COSTLY) DETAILS

Day-of Wedding Planner. Hired the lady that was affiliated with the venue. She was worth her weight in gold. She had suggestions for vendors, she knew the venue like the back of her hand, helped get the tables and decor setup the day of, met with us for the rehearsal, and most importantly, she kept the flow of the event moving and made sure everything and everyone was where they were intended to be. She also helped with clean up, who wants to make their loved ones take out garbage after a fun event like this?!

Officiant. Hired someone through a coworker’s suggestion. At the last minute, she couldn’t do the ceremony because she had to be out-of-town for her day job but she hooked me up with someone else she knew. The situation felt a little stressful, but the stand-in lady did a great job (walking cast and all!) and we lucked out that her fee was small too.

Photographer. We loved our photographer (Alyona Photography)! I found her portfolio online and loved the style of her photos. We had her do our engagement pics earlier in the year to make sure she was a good fit (yes!) and we were thrilled that she was available to do our wedding too. Not cheap, but totally worth it!! The “you get what you pay for” mantra is very true here.

Videographer. This was a somewhat last minute decision. I’m glad we have some video of the event but didn’t feel the final output was as good of quality as I’d have hoped for and I felt like the videographer have more in the way of interviewing guests in regard to “advice for the newlyweds”. We went with a lower budget on this and I guess “you get what you pay for” is apt here too.

Photobooth. While fun, it was an expense that we could’ve passed on. Maybe if we had a larger, younger crowd and/or the attendant encouraged more photos it would’ve been more worth it. Leaving out a Polaroid camera with instructions to take selfies would’ve worked just as well and saved a bunch!

Food. We had our favorite BBQ restaurant cater (Home Team BBQ). So tasty. I don’t care if anyone else was jazzed about the food, I loved it! They brought shrimp and grits appetizers, smoked pulled pork and chicken, mac n cheese… yum! There were some other sides too but I think that I’ve covered the important things. The cost wasn’t cheap but not over the top either. Totally happy with our choice on this detail.

Cake. Rather than getting a huge, expensive cake that we’d have to have someone cut and put on plates (that we’d have to either buy or rent), we opted for cupcakes and a small cake for the bride and groom to cut into. I purchased a special cake knife and had it engraved with our wedding date and names. I’m not a huge fan of cheesy things but I like to have some mementos of special occasions! We hired someone I found locally (via Craigslist) to make the cupcakes. She made a couple of different flavors and they were so tasty! She was also much more affordable than the boutique cupcake stores around town and totally open to suggestions on flavors. I ordered some chevron covered cupcake tier stands online to display them on. A couple of my coworkers helped out with the small cake, one made the cake (it was made to look like a birch tree stump, plus it was delicious!!) and the other sculpted a set of super adorable owls as the cake topper. I keep the owl family on display at home and absolutely love them!! I had originally planned to make the owl family cake toppers myself but was running out of time to do the task well. Luckily, I have talented work buddies! We were very pleased about how all of the “cake” details turned out.

 

Drinks. Joe made 4 different kegs of homebrew and we bought wine, liquor, and mixers. I bought some glass jugs with serving spouts to hold sweet tea and “wedding brew” (a mixture of lemonade and blue Hawaiian Punch). We hired a bartender to serve all the tasty adult beverages. I think she did ok, I didn’t interact with her much but it seemed like everyone who wanted drinks had them and I don’t think anyone complained. We purchased mason jars that we had personalized (as mentioned in a previous post) for everyone to drink out of but had back up plastic cups too, for the kids and people who wanted to taste test the homebrew. Joe built a chalkboard and I decorated it with the drink menu.

DJ. Our friend had a friend who DJs weddings on the weekends and we asked him to be our DJ because we were looking to cut corners on costs and he was willing to “cut us a deal”. I had requested that he not be totally cheesy for our event and his solution was to be mono-toned and not friendly to the guests… or maybe that’s just how he is? Either way, hindsight says that we should have found a moderately priced DJ with decent online reviews since we didn’t really know him to begin with and still ended up having to pay him a large enough sum.

Flowers. As mentioned above, we had a florist do the bridal bouquet and the bridesmaid bouquets (OK Florist). My bouquet had blue hydrangeas and blue-purple orchids - loved them!! We didn’t do floral arrangements on the tables (though some tables had the repurposed bridesmaid bouquets) and I think it was a wise decision. I could’ve thrown together some store-bought fresh flowers for our bouquets but already had way too many things to do with my parents and sister staying with us and had already committed to making the rainbow fruit-skewer appetizers too. We also had the florist make corsages for the mothers of the bride and groom. Not a must-have but they were pretty blue-purple orchids that I also had in my bouquet. As mentioned, I ordered Joe’s boutonniere from Etsy, it had hops and grains and was super cute. And I made the groomsmen’s boutonnieres and we also gave them to the fathers of the bride and groom.

Rentals. We had to rent chairs, tables, and tablecloths. Doesn’t sound like much but can still run you a hefty chunk of change! We priced a couple of companies and ultimately went with the one our day-of planner suggested as they had some chevron table runners I was really excited about, they were competitively priced, and our planner assured us everything would be perfect. They forgot to order the chevron table runners. WHAT?! Ok, at this point you are probably thinking, “who cares about table runners?!” but it was part of the overall look I had in mind so it was a disappointment for me!! Otherwise, things went fine (and I eventually got the money refunded for the no show items) but I wouldn’t recommend the company to anyone else.

Transportation. We rented a shuttle to take people back and forth from the hotel to the venue so people could have a good time and not have to worry about drinking and driving. Probably a good idea but maybe not totally necessary. We weren’t in an area where people could easily get a cab. Also rented a “getaway” limo for the bride and groom. The limo was kind of a silly extra as it was just me and Joe and the hotel wasn’t terribly far away.

GENERAL ADVICE:

Get a day-of planner, if nothing else. It’s worth every penny knowing somebody’s got your back to make sure that everything gets taken care of, vendors all arrive, and that the pace of events goes smoothly. If you can afford afull-blown wedding planner, I would imagine that it would be very helpful – especially if you work full-time otherwise and/or have kids!!

Make a list of all the stuff you may possibly need or want to do. Cross off the stuff you don’t care about. Check off "done" items as you go. Keep the visual reminder of progress and the things that still need attention.

Allow people to help you. Dole out some responsibilities to responsible friends and/or family members. I’m so guilty of piling more projects than I can handle because I want to do them or I’m too paranoid about how someone else would complete the task. Prioritize!

People will tell you that it’s YOUR day. It’s really not. You probably have put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into it but don’t trick yourself into believing that you really can just do whatever you want without consequences!! There are lots of people’s feelings to consider and take comfort in knowing that it is not possible to keep everyone happy all the time. That said, it IS your day to have a great time and to be MARRIED!

Try to have some perspective, it’s a really fabulous, important day – but it’s just a day. Relax! I think that keeping in mind that things don’t always work out perfectly will help you to unwind and roll with the punches. And in the end, you are married!! That’s the end goal, right?! J

What I learned while planning a wedding - part 3

This is the next chapter in the wedding planning saga, enjoy!!

PROJECTS/DECORATIONS.

This was the fun part for me but per usual, I tried to take on too many projects. Right off the bat, I picked mint green and grey for a color scheme, and was specifically excited about using a grey and white chevron pattern for accents. As I was looking at things that were mint green, I found myself more drawn toward aqua/tiffany blue colored things so the color scheme morphed a little, and I hadn’t made anything that had color on it yet anyhow. So I had a specific look in mind and started by assembling a list of things I liked on Pinterest.

 

 

THINGS I MADE.

Invites: I designed and printed the Save-the-Date magnets with custom printed return address envelopes, I designed and printed the 5x7 flat, double-sided invites, the RSVP postcards, and made custom address labels for the envelopes. I had quite a time with tricky yet pretty paper and multiple trips to the store to purchase more printer ink.

Fan programs: Why not? I figured that our wedding day was bound to be hot (yes, it certainly was!) and this was a cute idea procured from Pinterest. I designed and printed the programs on pretty paper and glued them onto tongue depressors, then tied some twine on each in order to fancy them up a bit. Put them in a basket I found at Ross or Marshalls, made a banner for the basket out of pretty paper and twine and called it "good-to-go".

 

For the bridesmaids: I made necklaces, made felt rosettes for the girls’ flip-flops, I personalized their welcome bags that held snacks, water, flip-flops, jewelry (also got them matching aqua earrings), aqua nail polish, lip gloss, and antibacterial hand gel. Side note: We had their gorgeous blue hydrangea bouquets made by a florist, thank goodness. It was something I probably could have done but might have lost my mind as result!

For the groomsmen: Boutonnieres. I didn’t actually make the sweetgrass roses but I assembled them into boutonniere form with ribbon, twine and antique buttons I picked up from Ebay. Joe made the guys some beer and we gave them each a pair of grey Converse.

 

Welcome bags (for guests staying in the hotel block): Filled with snacks, water bottles, and a custom printed thank-you note.

For the tables:

Votive jars. I saved up about 60 baby food jars, carefully cleaned up all the label goo, gave each a shot of silver spray paint and quick dip in glitter across the rim of the jars, assembled 5 different strips of pictures from our engagement photos then printed them on vellum and cut to fit inside the jar, then filled with an LED votive and tied twine around the rim.

Vases. We had 6 large and 6 smaller glass, cylinder vases, each was wrapped with a “band of bling” after they had been sprayed with silver spray paint across each of the rims. The smaller vases were used for bridesmaid bouquet receptacles. The larger vases contained “gum balls” from the sweetgum tree in our front yard that Izaak and I spent many afternoons collecting. I painstakingly spray painted each of them silver. I also cut some branches from the tree in the backyard that I think is finally, completely dead. We had replanted it from the front yard when we moved in, in order to make room for a palm tree. I spray painted the branches silver as well and we hung small crystals from some of the branches.

Table Numbers. I designed the numbers spelled out in a banner and printed them, then used spray-tac to adhere them to black foamcore board and cut each out with an Exact-o knife. I then attached Velcro to the back of each and the other side was attached to the band of bling on each vase – voila, table number/vase combos!

Tablesettings: I went out of my way to find and purchase silver plastic silverware. Bought them from Amazon.com. Sounds silly? I felt it looked a little classier than the clear or black plastic silverware that was going to be provided and I wanted to personalize the tablesettings. I wrapped each trio of knife, spoon, fork in a silver napkin, wrapped it with a paper napkin ring that I had printed the grey chevron pattern on one side and a thank you message from Joe and I on the opposite side, then wrapped it together with a piece of twine, tied into a bow. I printed the napkin rings on shimmery, letter-sized cardstock, each sheet had 9 thank you messages and each were hand-cut after printing. Definitely a detail that could’ve been passed on or simplified but I had fun with it and liked the end result.

Other bits and pieces:

Guestbook. I painted two owls on a tree branch that was intended to be our “guest book” of sorts and we had people sign it and have on display at home rather than have an actual book hiding on a shelf. It’s now hanging on the wall in our living room!

Mason jars. I designed the “logo” for the mason jars that Joe and his work buddy sandblasted onto a bunch of mason jars as our guest favor, I also made a sign for the mason jars that I put in a small frame – it referenced the fact that people should take a jar and go to the bar but not drink and drive.

Photobooth prints. I used the design from the mason jar for the photobooth strips logo but fancied it up a bit with a chevron.

Photobooks. I made two photobooks on Shutterfly to display at the event; one of engagement photos and one of photos of Joe and I throughout our 7 years of dating prior to engagement.

Mantle Décor. I spray painted and wrapped twine on the rims of some larger mason jars to decorate the mantle that also held a cutout “Love” sign that I painted in aqua and grey stripes. I made a painting that says “as you wish” in a speech bubble.

Wreath. I bought a grapevine wreath and attached two overlapping wooden letter “N”s on one side (I covered one of the Ns in grey chevron fabric) and made some rosettes from light and dark grey felt and hot-glued them to the opposite side. It is currently is hanging on our front door at home!

Paper lanterns. I didn’t have to make these, I found some on sale at World Market, hung them in the trees for the ceremony.

Pick a Seat Sign. Found a cute idea on Pinterest, duplicated the idea with a wood sign that Joe assembled and I painted the lettering.

Streamers for our exit. Lame! I could’ve totally skipped this detail and we should’ve gone with sparklers instead!! I was afraid of my dress getting burned though. Again, LAME!!!

 

I'll save more for later, stay tuned!!! :)

What I learned while planning a wedding - part 2

The second installment of my wedding planning adventures!

 

WEDDING RINGS.

While researching options for wedding rings, I came across the idea of having each other’s fingerprint on the inside of the wedding band. I completely fell in love with the idea of it and tried to find someone locally to accomplish this. We stopped at the jeweler that Joe got my engagement ring from and they couldn’t accommodate the request. I ended up contacting someone in Germany via Etsy to make our wedding rings. Even though I started the process months ahead of time, we ended up finally getting the rings pretty close to the actual date. We had to send our fingerprints using a molding kit that they had to send us and reportedly the ones from the first set weren’t useable so we had to wait for another kit and send that back again. Anyhow, things worked out and we’re pleased with the results. On the outside, they look like a fairly plain and unassuming white gold bands but we have each other’s fingerprint, our wedding date, and the phrase “as you wish” engraved on the inside. I feel they were worth the time and effort and I LOVE THEM!!

GUEST LIST, SAVE-THE-DATES, and INVITES.

As mentioned, I am not a fan of being in front of a crowd. I really had “small” and “intimate” in mind for our wedding. I don't have a very large family and figured we could get away with just inviting immediate family and a couple friends for our big day. I got started on making the Save-the-Dates in January because even though we had announced it on Facebook, I wanted everyone to have plenty of time to arrange for travel and accommodations. I’m well aware that travelling is expensive and I really hate the idea of putting anyone out in order to come to see us get married. I had gotten a list from Joe’s dad of the people he invited to Joe’s sister’s wedding that he had weeded out the guests of the groom and some of his work buddies and the instructions were to “invite who you want”. Joe went through the list and picked out the names he knew and we put them on the list. Since I was doing this thing, there’s no way I was going to go half-assed with it so we had to have magnets. Based on online research, I determined that it was pricey and time consuming to have somebody else make them and I wanted to design them myself anyhow so we found some print-yourself kits at Party City. We originally had enough supplies to print what we needed but the printer ate some of them, some of them printed blurry, and then the guest list kept growing so we ended up needing to order more sets online after we wiped out the stock in-store. Sigh. Turns out that it probably would’ve been cheaper in the long run to just have someone else print them! Had even more hassles with the invites; the super fancy, linen textured, pearlescent paper I had bought wasn’t appropriate for an ink jet printer, even though it was listed as such. I had to print each one single-sided and feed the paper one at a time then lay them flat overnight before printing the other side and allowing another round of laying flat overnight before sending them out. The postcards devoured the print cartridges. We went through about 3 or 4 each of color and black cartridges printing the magnets and invites. Not. Cheap.

Advice: Get your guest list quadruple-finalized before buying supplies or at least plan on buying about 30% or more supplies than you really think you need. Also, if you’re going to be printing stuff yourself, make sure the cost of ink isn’t going to outweigh the cost of just having them printed. Do plenty of test prints on plain paper before using actual magnets or whatever expensive paper too!

BRIDESMAID DRESSES.

My original vision was to have each of my four bridesmaids each wear a different dress, but in the same color. Knowing that the girls have varying skintones, I suggested that everyone just find a grey dress and we’ll be good. Nobody was comfortable with the amount of variations within the color grey so I figured I’d try to simplify things and find some similar dresses that they could choose from. I know everyone is on a tight budget so I did my due diligence and looked all over the place online for dresses under $100. I happily stumbled upon some cute grey bridesmaid dresses at Target.com that were around $70 and had multiple styles. I excitedly sent the girls an email that they could pick whatever dress they wanted from those styles as long as they pick “cement grey”. Well, two of them quickly responded that they liked a one-shoulder style and nobody else wanted to be the odd person out (none of the bridesmaid had met previously, by the way) so they all went with the one shoulder style. Little did I realize, there were TWO one-shoulder styles – a long length and a shorter length. Which we figured out after two girls had bought their dresses… one long, one short. We ended up going with the longer style, mostly because my sister hates shorter dresses (and she’s the maid of honor) but of course that meant that somebody had to send one back as the dresses aren’t sold in the stores, only online. There was some confusion on how the sizes run (bigger on the longer version than the short one, apparently)… and in the long run, I almost wish we had gone with the original idea so as to not have to deal with alterations or taking the trouble to order things multiple times. All-in-all, regardless of varying body shapes and sizes (and pregnancy for one!), everyone looked gorgeous and the blue hydrangea and baby’s breath bouquets each of my girls were carrying looked great. Aqua earrings and necklaces and gray flip-flops completed the look.

TUXEDOS.

The guys wore rented grey tuxes with grey Converse. They looked great!! Joe insisted on bowties and of course we picked vests (rather than cumberbunds... who wears those anymore?!). His tux was the same as everyone else’s but he had a darker bowtie and vest. Joe's dad wanted to wear a tuxedo, I figured my dad didn’t and verified that with my mom so the dads weren’t going to wear one. Until my dad found out that it was an option and decided that he did indeed want to wear a monkey-suit. Drama, sigh. Anyhow, they guys had boutonnieres made out of sweetgrass roses made locally, tied together with twine, and some antique aqua-colored buttons. The groom’s boutonniere had hops and wheat and beer-related matter attached to it (thank you, etsy.com).

More later, ciao for now!!

What I learned while planning a wedding - part 1

First off, I think I'm pretty close to the oppositie of "high maintenance" and not the type of girl who’s had their wedding planned out since 2^nd grade. My clothing style is pretty casual and I mostly wear varying shades of grey and black. My favorite outfit is well-worn blue jeans paired with a Star Wars t-shirt and flip-flops. Though I love pedicures, I've never had a manicure at a salon and I cut my own hair half the time (some call this "frugal", others may refer to me as being a "cheap a$$"). I like nice things but I also like to keep things more on the simple spectrum and less towards "foo-foo".

As far as previous relationship status, I hadn't been married before or even been (seriously) asked. Though I was in my 30s and I’d had other long-term(ish) relationships - even lived with someone for a while - it never worked out. Joe and I started dating towards the end of August 2005 and things were so perfect from the get-go that I never felt concerned about throwing a wedding into the mix. Fast-forward to 2011 and we joyfully brought a beautiful baby boy into the world. All of a sudden, I’ve become a “baby mama” and have a different last name than my charming child and his darling daddy. We had evolved from “couple” to “family” and somehow I started to feel that maybe the marriage thing had something to it. Neither of us strives to be overly traditional (and Joe might not realize it) but I felt that it wasn’t my place to do the proposing. I’m all for gender equality yet for whatever reason I didn't want to budge on this tiny detail. On August 14, 2012, our 7th anniversary of smooching in a field at a mutual friend’s party (what a first date!), Joe finally asked me to marry him and gave me a gorgeous, shiny bauble for a very important finger.

Initially, I may have suggested that we (please!!!) just get married at the courthouse since I’m not a fan of being the center of attention. (Hello, clumsy girl here, who has a habit of tripping over her own feet!!) I had also heard the rumor that weddings were really expensive (TRUE!) and we had plenty of other things to put money towards (house, car payments, Joe's grad school loans, diapers, etc) but ultimately, we felt that our families might feel a little miffed if they weren’t included in the festivities. And if we were going to do this thing, let's do it right. So the planning began. Neither of us really had much experience with weddings – we’d been to some weddings and I was even the maid of honor at my sister’s wedding but really hadn’t paid any attention to the details (I flew across country just for the wedding, didn’t help much with planning). I knew there needed to be food, music, cake, and a pretty dress. Easy, right?! Ha!

STEP ONE - VENUE.
I was originally from Washington State and met my husband while living in Pennsylvania, he lived in the Erie area most of his life, save for the college years spent in State College, PA. We’d only been living in the Charleston, South Carolina area since 2009, yet I don’t think we even considered having the wedding any other place than Charleston. While we don’t love every aspect of living here, the area is absolutely amazingly gorgeous and has such a rich and varied history so we really wanted to share that with friends and family. We figured our wedding would be the perfect excuse for people to see all that Charleston has to offer. It was determined that we’d like to have the wedding in 2013… maybe in the Spring? That’s a nice time of year in Charleston. We quickly discovered that Spring may be a little too soon planning-wise and some other friends of friends were getting married earlier in the year so we decided that late Summer/Fall would be a good option. In order to pick a date, of course we needed a venue! So, the venue hunt began.

We didn’t want a typical, boring, run-of-the-mill place to get hitched. BO-RING. Joe’s dad was working as a salesperson for a fireworks company and Joe is a licensed pyrotechnician so we were originally trying to find a venue that allowed fireworks. My first thought was that a wedding on the beach sounded fantastic but I didn’t know how one accomplished such a thing with a guest list that had the potential to get fairly large. And what if it rained?!? We also wanted to have the ceremony and reception at the same place to save our guests travel time, neither of us were a fan of that lull in between from weddings we’d been to that had the reception at a different location. It could probably be noted here that I did most of the research for the wedding via my computer and did most of my communicating via email. I detest talking on the phone (and trying to keep track of who-said-what) plus I loved that I could keep my emails organized and compiled in spreadsheets. We found the only hotel on the beach and proceeded to find out that it would be really expensive to have our shindig there and it would’ve been pricey for our out-of-town guests to stay there as well. So we moved on. A plantation sounded like a neat option but historic places don’t tend to want explosives near their very old, priceless structures so we talked to a lady in charge of a very nice golf course that was right on the water. We didn’t end up picking it – in hindsight, it would’ve probably been a lot easier if we had, as it was mostly all-inclusive. And we could’ve had fireworks. But, we figured that if people were going to bother to travel to see us, we wanted to provide something special. Enter our venue: Old Wide Awake Plantation. A big old southern home with wrap-around porches, surrounded by ancient oak trees and tucked away from the hustle and bustle… this place was just oozing charm and relaxation. After weighing the pros and cons – with a spreadsheet, of course – we determined that it was THE place to get married and have our reception. Even though we knew August 31^st promised to be hot and humid, and both the ceremony and reception would be held outdoors, there was no turning back.

Advice: Go with your head, but also go with your gut. You’re only doing this once! By the way, rain was a factor that I was terrified of (not because I think I’d melt if I got wet, rain often means thunder and lightning); we had a back-up plan to get married under the porches if we had to but I really wanted to be married in an area under trees. I did get my wish and it didn’t rain (yay!!) but the heat and humidity were pretty oppressive for a lot of our Northern friends and family (and everyone else too, if we're being honest!!). So maybe a venue with a climate-controlled indoor option would’ve been a good idea… A couple of other pesky nuisances at our venue were that everyone ended up being so spread out and you couldn’t hear the music at all when you were downstairs by the bar. I still love where we got married though, we had a great time there and absolutely LOVE how our professional photos turned out!

DRESS.
Next step for me was to start looking at dresses. Even though I consider myself low-maintenance, I really wanted something special in the way of the wedding gown. Trying on dresses was a little nerve-wrecking as I had managed to pack on about 60lbs while pregnant and still hadn’t lost it all a year later. In preparation for dress hunting, I did a bunch of lurking through magazines and websites; as result, I printed out a bunch of dresses I liked. We have a David’s Bridal in town and while I thought some of the dresses online were pretty, not exactly sure why but I was always under the impression that their dresses were of a lesser quality since some people had mentioned how they got their dress for $99 at David’s. My plan was just to go in to get an idea of what type of color/material/style would suit me and if I found something reasonably priced and pretty – all the better, but I didn’t have my hopes up. I arrived, armed with a good friend, print-outs of dress photos I liked, and a clear budget in mind. I talked to the nice girl who was tasked with helping me at the appointment and while she went to grab some dresses for me, the assistant manager glanced at the printouts, gave me a once-over and ran to grab this over-the-top dress that I was like “yeah, right, that thing looks heavy and BUSY”. I tried it on first thing anyhow, you know, in order to rule it out, and was completely blown away by how much I loved it. Hold on... you’re not supposed to love the first dress you try on… until I looked at the price tag. $1250!!? That’s over triple my budget and it would still need to be hemmed, if nothing else!! So I ruled that one out and tried on a couple other options. We determined that ivory was better than any of the shades of white on my pasty skin, we determined that “tea length” wasn’t the best option for me, and that I really liked the first dress. I walked out feeling slightly defeated but I continued my online search for dresses now that I had an idea of color and style that works for me (and started counting calories). I found a consignment shop in Scottsdale, AZ that had a gorgeous dress in my size that I liked a lot so made an appointment to see it when I was visiting my parents in Phoenix over Christmas time. My mom and cousin joined me for the appointment and it turned out that the dress I wanted was mismarked by 4 sizes smaller (more that I wanted to count on losing weight before the wedding for) and obviously didn’t fit. I had also been eyeing up another dress from that shop and tried it on, it looked pretty decent and had a lace up back so had the potential to fit even better once I dropped a couple more pounds. The gown was also within my self-imposed $400 budget, so I figured I should probably just get it. My mom swooped in at the last moment with her credit card and bought it for me. Oh no. What if I don’t love this dress by the time the big day comes around? I felt rushed into buying it and though I hate wasting money, wasting my money isn’t as bad as wasting my mom’s and I really hate feeling obligated. So with some twinges of regret, I walked out of the store with the wedding dress. We got it home and it lurked in my closet, I’d go visit it and try to talk myself into it being THE dress but never was terribly excited about it. I was trying to be practical about something that just wasn’t working for me.

Shortly after trying on that fated dress at David’s originally, I had created a saved-search on Ebay with the model number of the dress and didn’t think too much about it after that. One day,  months later, a notification popped up that one was available, brand-new, in the size and color I wanted for about half the original tag price. I had dropped 25lbs since Christmas time and went to try the dress on at David’s again to verify that it was indeed the right size. Even though it was still over my budget (and even though I had a perfectly good dress in my closet), I deliberated for a couple days, called my mom and explained how much I loved this other dress, and then bit the bullet and pressed the Buy It Now button. It arrived well-packed, in a box originally used to ship a bicycle – to give you an idea of how much material the dress was made of!! Upon initial inspection, I was horrified to note that there were makeup stains on the inside of the dress and deodorant stains on the armpits. Was this even a new dress? It did have a tag attached to it but that could’ve been tucked in during wear… or it was purchased off the rack and 80 sweaty girls had already tried it on?? Either way, I was freaking out. Nobody wants pit stains on their wedding dress! Long story short, David’s Bridal took care of the deodorant marks when I brought it in to be altered. And the alterations ended up costing an arm and a leg. Original budget was $400, price I ended up paying for the dress with alterations was around $1000. 12 bustles to keep the train up for the reception, eek! But, I wouldn’t have been as happy in the other dress so I definitely made the right decision. Though heavy, THE gown is just amazing and I got lots of compliments on its beauty and uniqueness. I’m glad that’s the dress I’m wearing in all the lovely pictures we’ll have to cherish for a lifetime too.

Advice: Make sure your budget has been established before anyone lets you try on dresses and be a little lenient if you’re able; this is a splurge that you will have photographic proof of for a really long time. Don’t buy a dress unless you’re really, REALLY sure about it. And if you look good in just any old thing, I might hate you a teensy bit :)

By the way, I made an attempt at wearing something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. My something old was a vintage necklace purchased from ebay, my borrowed and blue were a gorgeous pair of blue sapphire earrings my mom lent me, and my new items were the dress, shoes and headband!

Stay tuned for the next installment...

Oh my gosh, where has time gone?!

Wedding planning kept me so tied up the past year, I promise we've been spending plenty of time paying attention to kiddo too though!!

We survived the wedding, though hot and humid - it was lovely! Not everything went exactly to plan but I think everyone had a nice enough time, the food and drinks were delicious and a plenty, and we're finally, legally married! Izaak was an adorable ring bearer and we feel very fortunate that he was able to share the day with us. Our guest list ended up being considerably smaller than we had originally planned (ended up with about 65 guests) but that was fine by me. We got a couple of "sneak peek" pictures from the photographer, can't wait to see the rest!! We had a videographer too and we got our DVD back last week, the quality was a little lesser than we expected but it did capture the events and we're sooo glad we did end up deciding to hire one.

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Slacker Mom!

Latest "school picture" Oct 2012

I've been terribly busy trying to sort out details for my wedding to Izaak's "da-dah" and haven't been keeping up with his blog. It's been over two months since the proposal and I think we've only got the photographer figured out. The issue isn't lack of research and determination, it's an issue with me committing to one venue and being able to figure out what our best option is balancing it financially with consideration for "cool factor". We'd really like to have a unique, charming location to share our big day with our family and friends. I'd be fine with skipping all the hoopla and going to the courthouse to get our marriage certificate and a quick service from the justice of the peace but a big party sounds fun as well. Plus, it gives us an excuse to get some out-of-towners out here to see where we live these days. It will be the first time that Izaak gets to meet most everyone!

Izaak is doing great, we had to switch daycares but his teacher at the old place moved to the same daycare he's at now too so it was great to have her there to help him transition. He seems to really like the new place and we like how involved he is in art projects and activities! His daily reports usually tell that he's had a great day and he's not constantly in time-out anymore. They put him in a class appropriate for his size/skills/activity level instead of how old he is. And speaking of age, he's 17 months old already, nearly a year and a half! He's still in the 75+ percentile for his measurements, according to his last dr visit. I was thinking of it the other day while folding his laundry and determined that we've gone through 5 whole wardrobes since he was born. That's insane! If I was a little less neurotic, he would've had less clothing and wouldn't have known the difference. Luckily, I'm a thrifty shopper but can't honestly say that I haven't spent more than I should on baby clothes. OOPS! I guess there are worse things I could be guilty of at least.

Besides being a brute, Izaak has been expanding his vocabulary and is becoming more interested in books. He doesn't have a lot of words that he's consistent with using other than: "no", "nose", "shoe", "muh-muh", "da-dah", and did I mention "NO"? He imitates other words here and there and does plenty of Izee-babble, which is equal parts adorable and hilarious. He still has a talent for hitting his head off things and is in the process of giving me a head-full of gray hair from his climbing on things and jumping/falling off things that he's climbed on. I blame his daddy for the dare-devil tendencies! It's getting more difficult to get non-blurry pics of him anymore also, he's constantly on the go. We're starting to see a little bit of picky eating though he still puts down food like a professional, given the right options (dinosaur chicken nuggets, yogurt, and mandarin oranges, yes! yes!! yes!!!).

For Halloween this year, we went trick-or-treating with him for the first time and walked around the neighborhood with his friend Lilly, who was dressed as the cutest little owl ever! We brought with his Radio Flyer wagon and Lilly enjoyed it way more than he did! We didn't get too fancy with his costume, he doesn't like wearing anything like hoods or hats on his head and we wanted him to be comfortable so we went with a one-piece skeleton outfit. We only hit up a couple houses but I think he had a good time and we have a couple pictures to show from it so, totally worth it! I had a homemade Dorothy outfit and store-bought, terribly uncomfortable ruby slippers while Joe and Lilly's mom, Stephanie, were smarter and wore normal clothes. We also carved pumpkins with the kiddo this year, Joe wielding the sharp tools and Izaak examining the pumpkin guts with a stick. I thought he'd be interested in touching the slimy innards but the look on his face would've told anyone otherwise. Joe carved a small, traditional faced-pumpkin for Izaak and we got a little more creative with the other bigger pumpkin I had picked up. Spray painted it gold, then I drew in an outline of an owl silhouette in a full-moon while sitting on a branch which Joe used wood-carving tools to shave off the surface so there'd be more of a glow rather than bright light shining through. Both were fun and turned out great! We went to Boone Hall's pumpkin patch and enjoyed their hay ride and corn maze this year too!!

I'll try to add some more pictures when I can get to it, I've been adding them to Shutterfly, Facebook, etc but nothing is organized. Story of my life!!

<3

Put A Ring On It!

Joe and I celebrated our 7-year anniversary of dating with a nice dinner at a fancy restaurant downtown (Magnolias) while Izaak was spending some quality time hanging out with our friends, the McClams, at their house (thanks again, Lori and Drew!!). After a delicious meal, sans toddler, we wandered down to the end of the pier to see if there were any dolphins jumping in the water (there weren't) and wandered some more and stopped to linger at the kid-filled pineapple fountain then wandered some more down to the bottle shop we like. We made it back to the car with only minor blisters (mine) and then back to the McClams to pick up our little prince. I've been hoping for the past couple years that Joe would propose marriage but it hadn't happened so I wasn't terribly surprised that he hadn't asked me again, even though our anniversary seemed like a good time and there were ample opportunities this evening. So, imagine my shock when I was just climbing into bed and he got down on one knee and presented me with a jewelry box containing a beautiful ring!! I, of course, happily said yes!!!

I was really beginning to think that I'd have to ask him!

Izaak's 1st Year of Measurements

I'm terrified that I will lose the sheets of paper that the pediatrician gives us at each well-baby visit that lists Izaak's growth. Why does it frighten me so much? Good question... perhaps because I have a tendency to misplace everything! To help quell my fears, I'm recording the info here:

• Birth: HT: 20in  WT: 8lb 7.4oz  Head Circ: 15in
• 2 weeks: 20.5in (50%)  10lb 4oz (90%)  15in (75%)
• 2 months: 23.5in (75%)  14lb 2oz (95%)  16in (75%)
• 4 months: 27in (100%)  17lb 10oz (89%) 17in (75%)
• 6 months: 27in (90%)  20lb 8oz (90%) 18in (90%)
• 9 months: 28.75in (70%)  22lb 10oz (80%)  18.25in (75%)
• 12 months: 31in (85%)  25lb 14oz (85%)  19in (94%)

The nurse takes these measurements and the height measurement in particular seemed to be fairly subjective. To be fair, it isn't an easy task, trying to record the length of a wriggling baby. The two-week and 4-month visits especially seemed a little off but these numbers don't really mean anything, they just show a pattern of growth and can be used to help indicate if there's a potential issue. So far, he's been healthy and progressing very well. In fact, he's kind of a brute! Izaak has been pretty good at his visits to the doctor and even does pretty well with his immunizations. We did choose to have him immunized. I read about the pro's and con's and after weighing the good with the bad, we felt that giving him booster shots was the way to go, especially since he's at daycare and will eventually be in public schools.

There are a lot of personal decisions that go into a family and being a parent, things that I never really put much thought into previously. I sometimes wonder what kind of Mom I will be when Izaak reaches elementary school. Will I join the PTA and become competitive with the other mothers at bake sales and car washes? I anticipate that it will be difficult to balance being supportive but not pushy, involved but not annoying or embarrassing, loving but not smothering. Joe and I have discussed that we just hope that Izaak is "normal" and fits in ok with the other kids. We'd like for him to be well-adjusted and happy, not too much to ask for, right?! I recall some difficult growing up years and hope that Izaak doesn't have to deal with too much cruelty from his peers.

Anyhow, Izaak has had a wonderful first year and grew 11in taller, about 17.5lbs chunkier and gained 4in of head circumference. He has 5 teeth now, three on the bottom, two on top. His hair is very fine and light. It's still not much more than peach fuzz on top and he has a couple of small. wispy blonde curls around the back of his head. He's most good natured, loves to laugh and make you smile. His favorite word is still "NO" and knows when he's not supposed to be doing something because he typically says "no" and then flashes you an impish grin. He has short bouts of frustration and we've dubbed him "baby Hulk" because of it. Joe commented the other day that he's becoming more interactive, he will pick out and bring you a pair of your shoes, for example or respond to you talking to him. Izaak's tiny, infant stage was pretty stressful for us, we were short on sleep and felt awkward due to lack of baby experience. I think we're feeling more confident and Izaak is becoming a bit more independent. That said, you can't leave him for more than 5 seconds at a time because he'll try to climb something and end up falling on his head. You would think his head has a magnet in it that is attracted to things with sharp corners, edges,  or hardwood floors. Sheesh!

Joe and I feel so fortunate to have Izaak in our lives and look forward to seeing him progress through his toddler years and beyond!!

Izaak's 1st Sign Language Word!

Text msg from Izaak's daycare teacher: "Izaak can officially sign the word more in sign language! He did it today all by himself :)"

MORE!

We’ve Got a 1-Year-Old!



Birthday boy, playing with a party hat
"I AM 1"



Izaak’s 1st birthday went off without a hitch. We had a Paul Frank-themed party for him on Saturday, June 16th, he had a great turnout of party guests and we had lots of fun! Joe’s parents and Joe’s sister and family came down from Myrtle Beach and Charlotte; our friend, Smith joined us; my friend Lori and her family we able to make it; our neighbors, Michael and Jenn showed up; and Joe’s homebrew buddy, Justin and his family also made an appearance! Besides TONS of food, I also baked the cupcakes. They were made from a box of strawberry and a box of lemon cakemix. I divided each cakemix in half and added some neon food coloring then layered the batter in the cupcake papers in order to have multicolored cupcakes and made a delicious lemon-cream cheese frosting to top them with. I added some Nerds candy on top for sprinkles and used some Paul Frank plastic ring cupcake toppers that I purchased from ebay to finish the effect. I think they turned out ok, they were cute at very least! Izaak got tons of presents, he was thoroughly spoiled and had so much fun hanging out with his cousins and friends!

SUPER IZAAK!
(Adorable outfit from Erika Lechner)

 

Playing with and opening presents!




The cupcakes!

We had a little too much fun in Party City...

More Stuff about Baby Stuff - Installment #2

To continue about the stuff we've encountered on this fabulous baby ride, as promised, in this installment, I will discuss bottles, breast pumps, car seats, shopping cart covers, bouncy chairs, and bumbo seats. Here we go!

Bottles

We opted to use Playtex Drop-Ins Nurser bottles, partially because Joe's sister gave us a ton of them and partially because they are soooo easy to use, clean, and (supposedly) help to prevent colic. We discovered that the medium flow nipples worked best for our kiddo, he was always frustrated by the slow nipples and the fast nipples were super messy, they leak like crazy. The bottles have "drop in" liners which are disposable (sorry, environment, they're going to have to hang out in the landfill with the disposable diapers that we also happily use). We use the up & up brand liners from Target to cut down on costs. We hand wash the parts and dry them on the following super product:

Boon Grass Countertop Drying Rack

I have to say this one of my most favorite and most useful baby items. We use this puppy every day and luckily it's cute enough to leave out on the counter! And at $14.99, it's a steal. If you've got a baby on the way, go to Target. Now.

Medela Pump-In-Style

It was my grand plan to breastfeed my kiddo. Reasons? Good for the baby in terms of nutrition, great bonding experience, and supposed to help mommy drop a couple pounds after putting on enough to have triplets. Reality? Izaak didn't latch on well (not to me anyhow) and he was HUNGRY. Right after birth, the nurse in the hospital insisted that we give him bottles until my milk came in and it really never did. I used the pump to get some milk but the attempts were pathetic. I used the breast pump for a couple months to supplement the formula that Izaak was happily slurping down but it came to a point in which things were just NOT working and the process was becoming increasingly more painful for me and less fruitful. I have more than enough breast tissue but for whatever reason, things didn't work out in this realm. You probably have no idea what it's like to want to feed your infant and he's screaming at your boob because it doesn't work as well as a bottle. I won't beat myself up over it anymore, my kiddo is thriving and seems to be no worse for the wear! As far as the pump goes, it's pretty easy to use and I liked that it was self-contained in an inconspicuous bag. It comes with most everything you'd need including bottles and a convenient to-go case. If I were to have a brother or sister for Izaak and try breastfeeding again, I'd rent one of the Medela pumps from the hospital though until I was sure that things were all systems go since the price is pretty steep on these brand new (even with a 20% off Babies 'R Us coupon!) and I didn't feel ok with buying a used one. I did, however, feel ok selling it on Craigslist and sold it to a very nice girl who had a first baby on the way.

Graco Travel System

This is the pattern we chose for the travel system (and the Pack 'N Play). While I enjoyed the cute little owls, I neither loved nor hated the carseat or stroller. They both did their jobs well enough but I felt like the handle on the carrier was kind of awkward and the stroller always tended to have squeaky wheels, regardless of WD-40 application. The stroller folded with one hand, which was nice, but I often ended up scraping the tray on the pavement and needed two hands to get it in the trunk of the car anyhow! We bought an extra base for the babysitters when they were picking him up in the mornings so it was convenient. We used this set for about 9 months and bought it brand new - saved up all of our gift cards to Target from Christmas plus a little more. While I feel we got a lot of use out of it, if we go for Baby 2.0, we'll just get a carseat that goes with the jogging stroller that I finally decided on (more on that later).

"Big Boy" Carseats

As with most things, there are the more expensive models that would be lovely but then we get real and look in our price range. Izaak's "big boy" carseat is the Graco My Ride 65. This was one of the first things we picked out after finding out we were expecting and I very patiently waited until it was on sale to buy it. Target had it on sale for $100 one week, woohoo! It had good safety ratings and seemed to be the most comfortable in our price range. I like the colors too, always helpful. It seems to work well, it is monstrously huge compared to the carrier carseat and it's frustrating that he's rear-facing when he's throwing a fit while you're driving because you can't see what is wrong. I can sort of halfway dislocate my shoulder (not really, but it is an awkward stretch) in order to try to comfort him but if he's tossed his binky, we're in trouble. The air conditioning doesn't reach him as well either so the poor kid just sweats like a monkey, especially if he's sleeping. This doesn't sound like a positive review, but I actually really do like this carseat, just don't like having to have him rear-facing. We'll keep him that way for safety's sake as long as we have to though, of course.

Carseat - Alternate

Joe rarely drives his car, it's a 1999 Nissan Maxima that doesn't have working A/C and makes all sorts of interesting squealing noises. We carpool to work so he doesn't need to drive his car much or trade in something that's currently paid off. That said, sometimes he does have to drive his car and he needs to be able to take Izaak with him. So, we bought a separate carseat for his car. Being that it doesn't get used as much, we opted for a less expensive (and less cushy) yet still has good safety ratings model, the Cosco Apt 40RF (around $55). As mentioned, this one was more about function and less about fashion. It is pretty similar to the My Ride and we're happy enough with it. It's rated up to 40lbs for rear-facing and considering Izaak is already around 25lbs, this is a good thing for longevity! My parents bought a similar model, they picked up the Cosco Scenera for our visits to Phoenix.

Shopping Cart Cover #1

We tried this one first, it's made by Eddie Bauer, wasn't terribly expensive and I thought it was pretty cute. Reality? It was a hassle! It didn't fold up neatly or have a carrying bag or anything so was just a bunch of tangled up fabric in the diaper bag - when I remembered to throw it in. It also was intended to be used for high chairs at restaurants but didn't really fit very well. Sold it on Craiglist after a couple uses.

Shopping Cart Cover #2

The next attempt is the Floppy Seat, which I like better. It's downfall? It is huge! It does have it's own bag, but you have to remember to bring said bag with you in to the store. I'm the type of person that has to go back in the house multiple times in the mornings to fetch things I've forgotten so this isn't completely ideal. It is nice and cushy, it's fashionable (as if that matters!) and I bought it for $10 at Once Upon a Child so I feel like we've gotten our money's worth at least. If I'd spent $40 at Babies R Us, I might feel a little differently about it. Note: this picture is one I found on Google (i.e. not me or my kid!) to show the pattern we have. We still have this and may use it a couple more times but Izaak is getting less "floppy" himself so the need has diminished.

Shopping Cart Cover #3

Izaak does like to put his mouth on anything that he can. He has no regard for germs. Shopping carts are gross so I like this final option, the Infantino Top and Play Cart Cover, it just covers the shopping cart handle and has some toys attached that he can chew/slobber on. I spent maybe $7 on this and even though I often forget it and it doesn't fit all carts, I'm pretty happy with it. While the Floppy Seat is good for younger babies, this option is great for nearly-one-year-olds!

Bouncy Chair

We found a used Rainforest bouncer on Craigslist and it worked great. The waterfall is adorable and we liked the "rainforest" sounds. It also matches the mobile and soother mentioned in the first installment about baby stuff. This thing saved our sanity on many occasions and was totally worth the $15 or whatever I spent on it and I've since sold it for $15 at garage sale so it was as if we were just borrowing it for a little while! My only complaint was that it didn't fold flat so I caught my toes on it more than once in our small living room... ouch!

Bumbo Seat

This is a must-have according to many, but our kid has beefy legs and has magical escape skills so we didn't use it for very long. I found it at a garage sale in the neighborhood across the street for $10 and it even had the tray so I don't feel terribly distraught about not using it too much. Since I sold it on Craigslist for $20, I even feel less sad about our lack of use :) I like the idea of it and appreciate that it helps to build the baby's core muscles and such but Izaak never seemed very happy in it and I wished that it had a strap or something so we could've used it more like a high chair when he actually did fit in it instead of only being about to use it on the floor.

I feel this post is probably long-winded enough so I'll save high chairs, toys, and more for the next installment!