Car seat Tent 2.0

I must say I DO love a good idea. I’m always looking for recommendations to make anything easier or to hear about something someone just cant live without and give it a try myself. With that said, I LOVE my car seat tent. (It’s also served as a burp rag, nursing cover and changing pad. It’s very versatile :D) I’ve noticed since having it for the whole 3 months of Eli’s life that there are some things I wish mine had. You saw in this post that I made a cover for a friend of mine and added a window because with Eli, I was always lifting the whole thing up to see if he was sleeping or not after a car ride (which 99.9% of the time he is) and the flash of brightness is enough to wake him up if he was sleeping, grrrr. So I added one to mine.

Also, now that he’s learning just how cool his hands are and grabbing at things, I’ve wanted to hang a toy from the handle and couldn’t, obviously with the way the tent attaches to the handles. I figured that was an easy fix and a must now that he’s older. Now he has his hangy toy just within reach:

Ta da! You can’t even tell that there are 2 new holes. (They sell these tents all over etsy so check’em out. Adding the holes is easy to do if you want me to show you)

Also I’m totally grossed out by the little pads that sit up by Eli’s chin in his car seat because he has spit up many times on them or more recently, munches’ on them, and how do you clean them?? You have to DISMANTLE the car seat straps from the back to get them off! I don’t think so! Call me lazy but No.Thank.You. Can you see how stained they are below? Guh-ross.

I decided a velcro set was in order so that I can pop them in the wash whenever he spits up on them. Here’s Eli modeling them while we were at dinner.

These are made of that soft cuddle fabric and bound with the same fabric as his tent—super comfy!

Also, did you see the folded burp rag under where his head and butt go in the previous pictures? Go on, scroll back up, I’ll wait :) Talk about a “Eureka!” moment. That fabric on the car seat does not breathe at all and during the hot summer days, the poor thing would be so sweaty and leave these huge sweat stains behind, not to mention the numerous times his poop has gone up his back and onto the car seat…see where I’m going with this? The burp cloth is just folded into a strip and it absorbs sweat and prevents poop from getting all over his seat. All I have to do is pull that puppy out and wash it. It fits PERFECTLY like it was designed for this purpose. I swear I heard angels sings when I discovered this.  A little shout out to my friend Nicole Rissman who made that one for me! I love them, thanks girlie :)

Go on, get out those burp cloths and line those car seats :)

That’s all for now

-Linds

Birthday fun!

I just celebrated my 29th birthday yesterday. It was a beautiful day with the weather being bright, sunny and warm and good times with the family. Eli and I started off our day inviting Grandma to watch his swim lessons and she came prepared with the camera. He did such a great job again and even tolerated being dunked under water for the first time :)

Getting ready to go under the water sprinkler…

  Getting instructions from the teacher…

Learning to back float…

Up close view of his back floating skills :)

Kicking off the wall with his buddy Nicholas (Eli loves kicking off anything!)

Front facing, kicking off the wall. Hi Nicholas and Jacque!

We start by using these cups to pour water over their backs (1), their necks (2) and then finally on the count of 3, their heads

At the end, the last 5 minutes or so is “play time”

I hope I’ve convinced some of you to give this a try. It seriously is sooooo much fun. Only draw back is that mommy has to get into a swim suit while baby is still too young to go by himself :/

Next we went over to Grandmas where she fed us delicious food (Eli got to “taste” it later, wink*wink), and we opened presents. Steph came with her hubby, and Jac came as well since her birthday is the 19th. Everything was scrumdiddliumpscious! Thanks mom!

Don gives us a rose for every year. This is our pageant pose :)

Another Don tradition is a lottery ticket for every year.

We’re each modeling some of the hair accessories I made Steph.

Steph’s in what I call an “Accessory phase”, so we decked her out. (Bracelet, flower watch-ring, silver ring, and feather hair clip) 

Steph and I got her this leather coat from Guess. I wanted to keep it sooooo bad!

The 29 roses brightening up my kitchen.

A “good luck” plant from my momma :)

And Eli supervising to make sure the party didn’t get out of hand

All in all I’d say I was totally spoiled rotten. Thank you all for the birthday wishes!

-Linds

10 Year High School Reunion…

Grrr. I’m so mad I can’t find the picture of me, Steph, and Jac on the first day of our senior year wearing our “Seniors 01” shirt! I found the frame I had it in for years but no picture! I have no idea where it could be so I’m doing this post without. Major bummer. I did find a couple of pics of the 3 of us I believe our senior year that I’ll post. They are pictures of pictures, (I know, I’m totally ghetto but I do not have a scanner), bear with me. Then:

Steph, Jac, Me

(and yes I purposely left this picture itty bitty, ha ha)

I’ll let you figure out who’s who, Jaci is even sporting some Maroon pride

Now:

Makeup was a wonderful invention :)

 

Best friends

With the hubbies.

I didn’t want to lug my big new camera to the reunion and I forgot to charge the battery on my little one, doh! So unfortunately I do not have anymore of the night. So sad.

Overall we had a great time catching up with people but I feel like since I have facebook, it wasn’t as exciting as it could be, you know? I’m nosey so facebook to me is the greatest thing ever! I already knew how many kids people had, if they were married and what careers they had chosen. But, with that said, I did love seeing the people I haven’t seen in years in person. Overall, I’d give it a 2 thumbs up :)

-Linds

My baby is FOURTEEN weeks old!

And what a FUN 14 wks its been! Everybody was right when they say each phase the child is in currently is their favorite. It’s so true. I loved the infant stage because he was just so itty bitty and cuddly. I love this stage because he’s smiling ALL THE TIME and he’s starting to jabber away! I can’t wait for what’s in store for the next stage of life now :)
So this is how I start my mornings lately, (Thank GOD it’s 8am now instead of the 5:30-6:00am like he was doing) :

It’s mid October and still 80 degrees??! Yowza! I am NOT turning the air on in October. So it’s 78 degrees in the house with the beautiful sun shining in and the windows open. That means its just a stay-in-my-diaper-and-chill kind of day.

My little Al Bundy. Ha ha.

Alrighty folks, that’s all for now. I have my TEN year high school reunion tonight. Can you believe that??? Where does the time go. Gosh, high school seems like a lifetime ago! I’ll post pics tomorrow :)

-Linds

Stop…Belly time!

Did you read the title as intended? In true MC Hammer fashion? :)
So Eli was doing a little belly time this morning and making momma so proud! He’s getting so strong and he was just as cute as can be. Lately he’s been “talking” up a storm! I think it drives him  cuh-raaazy not being able to say what he wants to say yet. Here are some pics of him doing some belly time. I have to guide his hands forward, otherwise he just planks :)

“Hi momma! Look what I’m doin’!” 

Grabbing onto the ribbon for some leverage…. “oh, a taggie!”

Here he is, hammin’ it up for the camera. I could just eat that face!

Now you got your Eli fix, hope you all have an awesome day!
-Linds

Swim lessons!!!

Ohmygosh my squeezies I’m so excited to tell you all about our first swim lesson! So Energym in sycamore has free swim lessons for pregnant women and infants from 3m to 8m! How cool is that???! My friend Nicole mentioned how awesome it was and suggested I try it out once Eli turned 3 months. So the temp of the water is set at 92 degrees, (I DESPISED swim lessons as a kid because my mom always chose the classes that started at the but crack of dawn, in an outdoor pool, where the water was never higher than 0 degrees. I’m certain I saw ice crystals. Needless to say, I had to be forced into the pool against my will and vowed never to do that to my children. I still love you mom, I know you meant well) and there is 1 instructor for every 4 students. Check out their website for more info if you’re interested—I HIGHLY recommend it! (Oh, and tell them I referred you because we BOTH then get $25 off of the lesson fee when we have to start paying after 8months, pleaseandthankyou). Nicole, I told them you referred me so they said they’d apply your $25 credit :) Here’s the link . Check it out!
Unfortunately we had to start in the middle of the term because Eli had to turn 3 months first. There were 2 other women and their kidlets (one of them I know from work! What a small world.) and the instructor is AWESOME with the kiddos. At this stage it’s just about getting them acclimated to the water and working with their baby reflexes. Eli did awesome! He didn’t fuss ONCE even when I poured water over his face. We took it easy this first week, but next week he’ll be dunked under water so we’ll see how he does then :) You have to purchase an approved swim diaper, no disposables allowed. I got a blue camo pair for Eli. He was super cute in them. I didn’t have a helper today so I just took a pic with my phone in his car seat right before getting into the water. I can’t wait for Aaron, my mom, and Steph to come to one of these lessons and see what it’s all about and to take some better pics. But for now, this one will have to do:

At this point he’s not too sure about this whole swimming thing.

Seriously, if you can’t tell already, I’m SUPER excited for Monday mornings now. We are in the 10:20 class. Come join us :) There’s even a viewing window to watch through :)

-Linds

My baby is THREE months old today!

This onesie is from my cousin Karen. She stitched his name on it using letters from t-shirts. SUPER cute! Thanks Karen!

  ,..And oh what fun Auntie Stephie and I had during his “photo shoot”! He’s looking like such a big boy. I pulled an over-all outfit out that Jac let me borrow since Parker has obviously outgrown it being almost 10 months. It’s size 3 months, looks huge, and yet barely fits :/ I’m guessing this will be the one and only time he’ll be able to wear it so we might as well get pics in it. Here he is, my little stud, ha ha:





We thought it would be funny to leave the top part of his shirt unbuttoned but I got a vision of him being 18 years old and I didn’t like it! The second pic is better because he looks like my baby boy (Auntie Stephie said “do you miss grandma?? Grandma is gonna be home soon and I’m sure she miiiiisses YOU!”—and that’s how we got the smile in this second pic :) True story. We’ve been very sad around here because Grandma did a road trip with her sisters to Florida for a wedding this past week, and we’ve had no Eli/grandma time :(
 Alrighty, lets get down to business:
Size: He weighed in at a whopping 14lbs today and was 24 1/2in long!
Likes: Well he hasn’t napped on his belly in a really long time so I think that no longer makes the list. He has however, made a new friend, Gerry. We got Gerry the Giraffe, a hangy toy from one of Aaron’s Minnesota buddies in the mail after Eli was born and he’s just now realizing his hands have a purpose and is enjoying swatting and grabbing at him. (Speaking of hands, he seems to think those things taste scrumdiddliumpscious because he is constantly shoving BOTH fists into his mouth, so add that to the list). He’s still loving the car seat (thank GOD!), and stroller rides. He loves listening to people talk to him and he’s a great listener.
Dislikes: Being ignored. If you’re in his presence, you better be interacting with him or he’ll let you know that your behavior is unacceptable. Mommy’s dislikes include Eli’s growth spurts, for 2 reasons: 1) He’s fussy and his schedule gets all jacked up, and 2) he Grows! :*(
Feeding: I’m happy to report that he takes a bottle (of breast milk) no problem since I’ve had to return to work. What a nightmare that would be if he wouldn’t! He still eats every 2-3hrs during the day and can go long stretches during the night now that he’s sleeping great. He still only takes 3 1/2 oz though when I Do give him the bottle. Very odd to me. I figured he’d take more by now. One of my friends said her son took EIGHT ounces by this age! Yowza!  I tried to give him 4-5oz one night before bed but he kept pushing the nipple out of his mouth at the 3 1/2 oz mark. Maybe he’s never needed more because he  eats every 2hrs..? Either way, I don’t worry about it because clearly he’s growing juuuuusttt fiiiiinnne.
Sleeping: So I get the question “is he sleeping through the night??” almost daily and I find it tough to answer. Yes he sleeps 8-10 hours straight but no, not THROUGH the night. He goes down at 7pm routinely now and he’ll wake up anywhere from 2-4am to eat, then go back to bed for a few more hours.  Last night he didn’t get up until 5am for his first middle-of-the-night feeding and then slept until 8:15! Woo hoo! I was so thankful because I had worked the night before and didn’t get into bed until after 1am so I was beat :(
Milestones: He can now support his head pretty well independently and loves when you hold him up to balance on his feet or pull on his hands to a sitting position. Still waiting on him to roll over. He comes awfully close a lot, but no cigar.
So there you have it! He’s growing so fast!

Night night!
-Linds