Great holiday deals on Amazon!

We've just added some holiday purchases, some we weren't planning on getting til the prices went so low. Sometimes shopping last minute has its advantages!

These items are all excellent deals as I write this post...but prices can change quickly, so please do your research before buying if you're not sure what these usually sell for. And as always, if you plan on buying these or anything else on Amazon, I'm very grateful if you click one of my links to start your shopping ;)

My daughter is obsessed with the babies at the store that have carriers, beds, etc. For $8, I couldn't resist this dolly in her carrier.

And for my budding photographer who won't keep her hands off Mommy's cameras, a real camera that actually shows her pictures on the back. She LOVES looking at pictures on the computer screen or camera preview monitor. 

I saw these were pretty affordable at the moment and told my husband I was thinking she'd enjoy one at some point. He surprised me by thinking they were a great idea, and thought it'd cost more but wanted to get her one. He brought up her taking pictures of her new sibling in May, and that evoked warm and fuzzy thoughts.

The Fisher-Price Kid-Tough Digital Camera Blue was what initially caught my eye, especially since it was $10 less when I was looking at them. But after reading reviews and looking at how the buttons were laid out, I decided to go for the Kidizoom instead, even at $10 more. If we're going to have this camera for years, it will be worth the difference. I DO like the frustration-free packaging available on the Kid-Tough camera.

I'm sitting on my hands on this next one... the Melissa and Doug easel for half price! $30 instead of $60! But she's a little young for it and it takes up a lot more space than that camera does...

Getting way too many phone books you never use?

We just signed up at YellowPagesGoesGreen.org to stop them from coming. We get about 4-5 a year from various companies and instantly recycle almost all of them. 

We use online yellow pages most of the time and keep a single phone book around for when the internet goes down.

Get too many books but don't want to stop them completely? You can call the phone company and request a phone book. Signing up on this site just stops them from being automatically delivered.

Snow!

Winter is officially here! Well, as far as I'm concerned it is. Who cares what the calendar says. Mid-November in Ohio is winter.

I'll try to get some pictures up soon for my Florida readers. Right now I have to go clean off the car. Well, as soon as Miss Uncooperative decides she can live without being in contact with me for a moment. We've had a rough morning.

The reason this blog has been so quiet lately...

Surprise...


It's been a rough last few months. I'm finally feeling better the last couple of weeks, but have had a ton of things to catch up on. We're still in the middle of a bunch of projects, and I'm really tired and have been dealing with major toddler sleep problems. Telling her Mommy needs to sleep even if she doesn't just doesn't work.

I'm due in the middle of May and am just finishing the first trimester and starting the second. I can't believe I'm 1/3 of the way through already. Now that I don't feel awful, I'd like this pregnancy to just take its time. I'm in no hurry to have a huge stomach, back problems, insane heartburn, etc. Not to mention labor and the sleepless weeks that follow!

Blown away

This is what happens when a toddler tries to play outside despite crazy strong winds. The photos were taken less than a minute apart. The leaves on the trees are blurry because they are moving so much.





Check out how the gusts changed directions. It was really hard to avoid them.

We were lucky to not lose power or a tree. So many trees and power lines went down that much of the state is still without power three days later.

We were safely inside before stuff really started blowing around. Who would have thought Hurricane Ike could affect the midwest so much!

P.S. She picked out her own outfit Sunday, from the shirt to the shoes.

Uh

My joints (and my taste buds) hurt just thinking about it.

Yes, she is chewing on her toes. Comfy as can be, in my bed, which she frequently decides she is queen of.

(edited to add: that's a medium Fuzzi Bunz pocket diaper she's wearing)

Reaching out...

Don't be afraid to leave comments, contact me, whatever. I'd love your feedback. Unlike this little one, you can rest assured that I don't bite.

A fresh selection of crock pot recipes

I was thrilled to discover the A Year of CrockPotting's vegetarian section. There's a wide selection of recipes that look really good! I can't wait to try them out.

Track? Trig?

Some of Sarah Palin's kids have pretty interesting names. One of my favorite name writers wrote an excellent commentary here on The Baby Name Wizard Blog.

Begging my toddler for mercy

Dear Daughter,

PLEASE go back to sleep. Please please please. We were frustrated that you were up until 12:30 a.m. Mommy was up for a few hours after that, thanks to missing her window to fall asleep easily because you were still up. Eighteen-month olds need more than four and a half hours of sleep. Trust me, we'll both be cranky if you don't fall back to sleep.

Thank you for your understanding,

Your Mother

P.S. Pretty please???

Fork over the watermelon!

Mmm, good!

She ate all of her watermelon with her fork tonight. Pretty good for a little girl who was still working on the skill last night. It's as if she's grown up so much in the course of a single day.

(and yes, that's one of our Bumkins bibs. The Pink Nova Superbib.)

She used the potty! Twice!

We're 2 for 2 with #2. Peeing in the potty would be great too, but I'm thrilled that our newest potty is working so well! She's just 18 months old and I'm pretty impressed.

We've had a blue Baby Bjorn Potty Chair for a while and she sits on it while I go to the bathroom and some other times. We haven't had much success with getting her to use that potty. It's not too tall for her, but does seem more like a seat than a toilet for her.

Despite reviews that talked about it being too small, I decided to try a Baby Bjorn Little Potty. I'm so glad we did! It's definitely smaller, but it lets her sit in more of a squatting or crouching position. She seemed to feel like it was a good place to poop instead of a nice place to sit.


I highly recommend the Little Potty if you have a little one who isn't too huge. The simple design will prevent your little one from taking it apart and playing with the pieces (stack, unstack, stack, unstack). It's also too small for my 18-month old to stand in...unlike her Potty Chair.

My daughter is 32 inches tall and around 23 pounds, maybe with a couple of ounces. Tall and getting leaner every day. So many of the online reviews talk about using these little potties for really little babies doing Elimination Communication, so I opted to get the larger potty initially. If you want to compare sizes, Babies R Us carries them both in store, but you won't get the same color choices that you do online at Amazon and other places. I saw white (boring) and pink (girly) at my local BRU. I expect this simple, well-designed potty to last us for a while and I don't want to have a future child refuse to use it because boys don't use pink potties. I'm practical like that. And the blue matches my bathroom nicely.

Hopefully I'm not jinxing myself talking about our pottying success!

Rave: Bumkins Waterproof Bibs

These bibs keep the mess off your child's clothes without being stiff like some vinyl bibs. The unique material feels more like cloth than plastic. We received a few Bumkins Superbibs as baby gifts and I fell in love. I've since added a few sleeved bibs to my collection.

The Bumkins Sleeved Bibs are perfect for those really messy, self-feeding days. I've been known to insist on the sleeved bib when my daughter is wearing a stain magnet particularly nice outfit.

Amazon has a particularly good price on the Pink Supernova long-sleeved bib right now. If you don't have a girl or just don't care for the print, pay more now or watch for other prints to go on sale at random. My favorite boyish print is the green Urban Chaos print. There are plenty of fun options.

The warm days of summer will be ending soon, and stripping my kid down to her diaper for a messy meal just won't be an option anymore. I'm glad to have two sleeved bibs in the rotation, along with some superbibs. After all, learning to use a spoon is hard work.

I Heart Microfiber Cloths!

My love for these just keeps growing. They make great cleaning rags that grab dust rather than spread it around. When one of the resident klutzes knocks over a glass of water, they absorb more than a bunch of paper towels. I put one on the Swiffer I'd had sitting in a closet for ages because I was too cheap to buy refill "cloths". The microfiber worked great!

You can find microfiber cleaning cloths with the brooms and scrub brushes, but you'll get a lot more bang for your buck buying them in the auto department. Target has some great thick orange ones that are super-thirsty for spills. Walmart has a white and blue pack that are smaller and thinner and make great Swiffer or dusting cloths. I find more uses for my microfiber cloths all the time. You can help the environment and save money with these reusable products.

A cautionary note: I love the orange ones from Target, but if you wash them with other things on hot, be prepared to dye the rest of your fabric yellow for many many washes.

Let's get something started!

This blog will be a collection of things I enjoy, cool crafts, sales, funny writers, photos, etc. Whether you are a parent, enjoy green living, or handmade arts and crafts, you just might find something you enjoy here.