Baby Bond Nursing Cover Review and Mega Deal!

I am one of those moms who is a bit reluctant to nurse in public. I of course will do it when Lainey is hungry as I wouldn't dare not feed my child when she is in need but I am a bit uncomfortable 95% of the time nursing in public....now the thing is I am not concerned of people seeing my breasts but instead I am super self conscious of others seeing my side flab and stretch marks hanging out while I am nursing! 


Enter Baby Bond nursing cover to save the day! This great breastfeeding accessory covers you and not your baby! I chose the couture model as it can function for both shirt styles that open from the top or for those that you have to lift from the bottom (majority of mine!) which tends to leave a whole lot more of your body exposed! 

I will say Baby Bond is one of those products that is so simple to use that you tend to over think and may get very confused trying to use it the first time....at least I did haha! I read and re-read directions finally realizing it was SO beyond easy to use i had to laugh! I chose to wear it around my waist so I could nurse Lainey at the annual trip at the pumpkin patch. All you do is wrap it around and pull it through the little loop to adjust to your size, lift shirt up and pull up on fabric a bit to cover desired amount of your side that may be exposed. 


I will say I almost wished it had a snap feature though so that it would stay adjusted once I had it where I wanted it to be as it did tend to loosen and start sagging a bit through the nursing session. Maybe an upgrade they will offer at a later time! All in all I LOVE my baby bond and plan to keep it in the diaper bag from now on for any public nursing sessions! No more fear of my stretch marks or flab being shown to the world HOORAY!!!!


Thank  you so much BabyBond for this wonderful product that doesn't involve covering Miss Lainey up (only for her to think we are playing peekaboo!).


BabyBond is offering a 75% discount on their site for any reader who orders a BabyBond on babiesrus.com. Now you will be able to buy 2 BabyBonds for less than $46!!!  All you need to do is email a copy of your receipt from Babies R Us to missy@babybondnursing.com, and she will reply with a 75% off discount code to order another BabyBond on their site with 75% off. 

Just CLICK HERE to find Babybonds! Would make a great baby shower gift as well!

[Product review & giveaway disclosure: I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR, Part 255 "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."]

Sponsored by Tomoson.com

Chex Mix Gameday Sweepstakes and Review; Enter Today!

I was a lucky chosen host recently for a Chex Mix "Game Day" Get together via MyGetTogether. I was sent 3 flavors of chex mix; original, turtle, and honey nut. I have to say we were disappointed with the original as it was very bland and just dry tasting. Nothing like the homemade stuff I grew up with my grandma making at Christmas time! The turtle flavor was pretty tasty and gave me a nice chocolate fix! Honey nut is good as well but I still stand by my favorite flavor is the bold which they did not include in this host pack.

We were also sent a super cute Chex Mix football themed bowl and napkins and plates. I want to thank General Mills for sending plenty of coupons to hand out to friends and family as well as the allergy info for these products!

The most exciting thing I wanted to share with you though is the Chex Mix Sweepstakes going on right now! Enter today to win $10,000 or a year's worth of Chex Mix (talk about having snacks for parties and school snacks for the kids!). 


So please head on over to Chex Mix on Facebook and enter today! 

Upcoming Reviews

Life got a bit crazy here this past week but it is hopefully all sorted and should be back to normal for the weekend (HOPEFULLY!) I just wanted to post a list of upcoming reviews I will  be doing so please stay tuned as some may offer giveaways as well :D

• ChexMix Game Day Party
• Baby Bond Nursing Cover (Cover mom not the baby!)
• Pink Princess (gorgeous sneak peek at Lainey's 1st birthday dress!)
• Boon bender toddler cutlery and groovy bowl set
• Keen herbal natural baby wipes
• Neatnik Baby Saucer

Also don't forget it is your last chance to get in entries for the KristiG Versapurse and/or diaper bag! Remember to follow me on twitter and get at least an additional entry for doing a tweet today about the contest with a link to the giveaway! Make sure to leave a link of your tweet!

7 months

As you can see by the photos this was a tricky month to attempt posed pics! Mommy gave up after a short while haha! You are growing so much and seem to be so much older everyday which fills us with joy but is also so hard to bear some days when we realize just how quickly it is going!

• Daddy came into your room to find you sitting up in your crib waiting today!
• Obviously you have learned to sit all on your own this month and you get into position in the cutest ways (sometimes from being on all 4’s to plopping backwards onto your bum, other times doing a sideways maneuver)
• Still breastfeeding and I think you really enjoyed your 2 weeks of no bottles while in England!
• Luckily you went back to taking pumped milk from daddy in a bottle with no problem though!
• You are eating more and more solids and we LOVE doing baby led weaning/solids with you! So easy!
• Your hand to eye coordination is fantastic and you are learning just how to get even the most slippery bits to your mouth (chicken is a favorite!)
• You still haven’t figured out a sippy cup but that is ok as we haven’t really let you practice too much!
• Bruno is definitely becoming your sidekick! You adore him and are still loving chewing on him…he doesn’t mind this too much it seems although he wasn’t too happy when you had a death grip on one of his jowls! He was patient though and just licked you a bit until you let go and then he pawed at his face for quite awhile as he swiftly moved away from you hahaha
• Your army crawl gets you to where you need to go! We are putting carpet down this week so will be interesting to see if you perfect a “normal crawl” once that is down. Needless to say more baby proofing will be done!
• Since England you now go to sleep at night with no night light or music…this kinda makes me sad and I may need to re-introduce but as long as you are sleeping I guess it shouldn’t matter to what I want LOL
• You are still wearing 6 to 9 month clothes but some are getting snug
• You are officially out of your size small fuzzibunz which makes us sad since they worked the best and now we need to afford some mediums! We were having wayyy too many leaks with them since they are too small for your chubness, have to use the ebay cheapies and a couple Happy Heinys we have until new FB can be purchased.
• Mommy and Daddy have started to do the baby signing for “milk” to you anytime you nurse or have a bottle….it gets either big smiles or frantic panting grunting noises (indicating YES that is what you want!). Will be fun to see if you start doing it yourself when you want milk.

Scrappy Sunday

Again it was not a weekend to get much crafting done despite thinking I would....all I managed to create this weekend was another super quick card per request by Gabby for her friends birthday. Used Create a Critter and made the same style that my last few cards have been but made this one a smaller size. Wasn't super pleased with it but Gabby was and so was her little friend so that is what matters :D

PS don't mind the glue marks on the inside those did all dry and go away ;)

October/November To Do List

So I haven't done one of these in awhile (at least not on here...believe me I am the queen of scattered hand written to-do lists all over the house, in my purse, on spreadsheets on the computer etc....). I don't know if I want to call this a to-do list or a goal list....we will go with more of a goal list as sometimes funding can get in the way of actually being able to accomplish all my to-do's!

So in no particular order...

• FINISH my week in the life album.....OMG soooo behind on this....it is inches from being done so it is a shame I cannot call it complete yet!
• Get up to date with my Project life monthly album (lots of journaling needs to be done and last couple months of pics need to be printed and put in yet)
• Get our carpet put in living room (happening tomorrow evening thanks to my dad YAY!)
• Get a door for back entry to block off basement (hoping will save us on heat and also keep Lainey from getting to the stairs!)
• Christmas shopping! (I have lists believe me so now need to start knocking some items off of them for the kiddos)
• Plan out Christmas cards and project for Gabby's class party (yay cricut!)
• Pumpkin Patch visit (next weekend for sure! YIPPEE!)
• 8 scrap layouts (at least 4 (or more!) for each girl would be great)
• Get all signed up for masters program (eeekkk this scaressss me yet excites me)

I am sure there are many more things that will end up on this list but these are top ones in my mind at this very moment!

Asparagus and chicken casserole

These posts are going to be a bit less about individual foods since we are starting to give Lainey a mix of whatever we have for dinner. I am not 100% sure if I will go too much further with the BLW/BLS posts since they will all kinda be the same from here on out. I may just do progress ones so you can see how she has progressed with being able to feed herself though and how she does it and how her pincer grip starts to develop more etc.....So without further ado I give you asparagus and chicken and stuffing casserole!

Lainey loved sucking the juice out of the asparagus and although she gave us quite a few "yuck" looks she still kept picking it back up and trying it more and more! Something I feel you wouldn't really get with purees as you would prob give up if they turned away more than a few times! BLW leaves it up to the child though so that THEY can explore and truly try it as much as THEY want to!

Now the casserole was def not too BLW friendly in the respect it was squishy and not too easy to grasp onto etc....but Lainey managed just fine after a bit of practice and was getting handfuls into her mouth!

I took a video but for some reason blogger is rejecting it so I will need to try and load it elsewhere and link up.

PROS: Lainey is learning to eat whatever we have!!!
CONS: sure it is messy at times but it is sooo low stress it more than makes up for the mess (plus if you have a dog the only mess is on the baby haha)

Education re-visited

Lord help me.....so for those that really know me I am a wee bit ADD when it comes to education and my future....I have changed my mind soooo many times on what I want to do and what school I would apply to etc...the thing is if I want to move up in my career I HAVE to have a masters degree. I have asked myself many times if this is what I wanted (ya know to move up in what I am doing already) and I keep coming back to yes I do!

I am in a pretty good spot right now as I assist state counselors and this school year I am pretty much running my own caseload which I love. Problem is of course I am not hired by the state nor getting the compensation that I would be getting all because of no masters degree.

I have no desire to apply to a school that makes me take a GRE or write a 5 page or more paper about myself etc...I just want to get in and do the work and get the degree!

Well just a few days ago my supervisor mentioned Phoenix to me....I instantly balked a bit as I have heard they are kinda not a "real college" or are looked at poorly etc...my supervisor said that definitely not and that I could be hired by the state if I got my masters through basically any school as long as it was accredited.

So here I go again this Thursday to go discuss starting a masters program in counseling. The good thing is I will only have to take class one night a week from 6 to 10 pm. The bad thing is it is about an hour drive each way so that one night I won't be home until 11 maybe later in the winter especially. But it is 3 years of my life that I know will fly by and hopefully hopefully HOPEFULLY at the end of it I can be hired in by the state or better yet get a federal position in counseling! So I need to just give myself a huge kick in the rear and DO THIS.

So I put it out there......let's hope I can commit and start this program starting January 2011.

Scrappy Sunday

Ok so I am majorly jet lagged, but I did manage to be a tiny bit crafty on Sunday this weekend (we just got home from England on Thursday evening and I was crazy enough to work Friday!). I had a baby shower to attend for my cousins wife and I decided to whip up a quick card and also embellish a giftbag to match (what a great way to make something recycled special!). Here is what I made....

Create a Critter bird cut at 3" on the card and sentiment cut at 2.5" on the bag I did the bird I believe at 6" and sentiment was 3 or 4"

Pottery Heaven Winner

Random numnber generator chose number 58 (if anyone can teach me how to easily cut n' paste the random generator onto my page that would be great!).

Number 58 is Nicole from Colie's Kitchen! So Nicole I will email you and please email me your mailing addy so I can send off your lovely hand made ring holder from Pottery Heaven!

Congrats! Thanks again to Pottery Heaven for hosting this giveaway!

Cauliflower and Chicken!

I wish I would have had more pictures of this eating adventure for Lainey but we were at a Sunday roast at a pub and I just wasn't really thinking of taking pictures. I wasn't even planning on feeding her anything but what we have learned is as soon as you let them start tasting and experimenting and being part of the family dining experience it is hard to NOT let them join in! So mommy licked the gravy off a hunk of cauliflower and much to Nana's disgust handed over a hunk of it to a bib less Lainey! Lainey put it straight into her mouth and was munching away (she does have her bottom two teeth now pretty much fully in) I also handed her a strip of my roasted chicken which she happily sucked and nibbled away on!

Cauliflower

Pros: easy to prep, can serve steamed or roasted etc....just 3 florets provides you with 67% of your daily vitamin C! Also high in folate

Cons: it stinks LOL! Otherwise no real cons I can think of 

Chicken

Pros: readily available anywhere you may dine, not too messy,low in fat but high in protein,vitamins B6 and B12, high in iron (what I learned from the BLW book is that the baby doesn't need to eat the meat to gain the goodness from it, as long as they suck on the piece of meat they are getting the benefits!)

Cons: none I can think of

September wins and thank yous!

I had a great month for winning on goodies on various blogs and I just wanted to take a moment to do a post and thank all the blogs I won off of for putting on such great giveaways! Of course thank you to all the wonderful sponsors as well!!!

In no particular order many super duper THANKS to:

Monkey Toes  - $50 gift certificate to Olee Kids for a cute wall decal

The ABCD Diaries- case of Lindsay olives

Happy Hour Mom- $120 gift certificate to Voda Swimwear

Paisley Passions- Memory Works Ele.Men.ta.ry Scrapbook set

Lolidots- Max and Ruby dvd

Colie's Kitchen- Souper James Set (salsa, soup,dip,jam)

Mom it Forward- $50 Threadless kids clothing gift certificate

Stash Mama- $30 My Precious Kid gift certificate

My Baby's Green- Messy Bib and Lunch bug by Mimi the Sardine

Sweeps 4 Bloggers- Ringley natural baby teething toy

THANK YOU all sooooo much!!! If I keep on a roll like this I will get bulk of Christmas shopping done for my girls :)