Babies, babies, babies!

Seems like everybody’s having them these days, doesn’t it?

I remember when I was pregnant with my first child, I armed myself with my baby registry scanner and registered for just about every single thing I could find.  I registered for bottles, pacifiers and toys I’d never even use.  When a friend of mine asked me if I registered for a layette, I said “A wha-?”

I honestly never even thought about what I’d bring the baby home in.  I had no idea they took pictures of the baby in the hospital and I seriously didn’t know that I should get a super cute outfit to put on my baby when it was time for the pictures.

When I was finally schooled on the facts and traditions of parenthood, I then had to choose the layette I’d want my baby to wear.   I looked in stores and online and really wanted to make sure I chose what would not only look adorable, I wanted something that was super soft and okay against my babies sensitive skin.

According to First Impressions,  a layette is made up of all the soft pieces your newborn needs for his or her fist days and weeks.  These include:

• 6-8 Footed Coveralls
• 1 Hooded Towel
• 1 Hat
• 4-6 Convertible Gowns
• 4-6 Blankets
• 1 Robe
• 4-6 pair of pants
• 3 Take me home sets
• 9-12 bodysuits (more…)

I love water.  I choose to drink water over everything else.  I actually always feel guilty when I go out to eat, because water is what I want to drink, I’m not trying to be cheap.  Honest!

Because I travel a lot and drink so much water, I can taste the difference in the various waters of the region.  I also get nervous because of all the chemicals that may be in the water.  I recently saw a commercial that said so many people have dumped expired medications in their toilet, it’s starting to filer into the nation’s water systems.  THAT scares me.

I go to Upstate NY a lot to visit my family and my mother has a gigantic water filtration system.  It makes the water taste fresh and crisp, but it’s very cumbersome.  I have a filtration system built into my fridge but the water just doesn’t taste the way I’d like and the filters don’t last too long.

Enter the Homedics Restore Clean Water System.

Utilizing the germ-killing benefits of UVC light, HoMedics, the leader in health and wellness products, developed Restore®, a complete water purification system in an easy to use pitcher. Restore combines UV Clean technology to remove bacteria, viruses and microbial cysts with a filtration system to reduce heavy metals, chlorine (taste and odor), and some industrial and agricultural pollutants. (more…)

Sometimes it’s tough having kids three years apart.  With a 4 1/2 year old and an 18 month old, finding the right toys for them to share and play with can be difficult.  Some of the toys are too fragile for my toddler, while other toys are just too “babyish” for my older child.

My oldest, Jake, is convinced he wants to be a quarterback (YAY for my early retirement!) and everyone else is convinced Joshua, my youngest, is going to be a defensive back so our toy box is just full of balls.

We have baseballs, footballs and basketballs.  We throw, we catch, we break nails – oh, wait, that’s just me.

Joshua wants to be just like his older brother.  It’s sometimes frustrating for him when Jake wants to throw a ball and Josh can’t grasp it properly to throw back.  Enter Rhino Toys. (more…)

I have a big baby.  He’s not huge or anything, but when people see him they automatically inform me I have a linebacker on my hands.  This pleases me.  What doesn’t please me is the difficulty I have getting the kid into clothes.

At 18 months, we’re finding that the same clothes we used successfully on our now four year old just don’t make the cut.  Josh has never worn the size that corresponds with his age, but sometimes going the size up required to satisfy his clothing needs will fit in the belly but be too long in the body, causing him to trip when he’s running crazy.

Enter Happy Panda Baby.  Designed with big and tall children in mind, Happy Panda Baby clothes provide parents with a better fit when dressing by age and have a variety of baby wear for your hard-to-dress child.

They had a great mention in Made Here Baby, the Essential Guide to finding the Best American-Made Products for Your Kids and are currently featuring their cute Halloween design, pictured above.

You can find out more about this adorable line of children’s clothes by visiting their website, joining their Facebook fan page or following them on Twitter.  With reasonable pricing and adorable clothing, you’ll be glad you did!

I don’t even know where to start.  I’ve always been a fan of Tide.  I’ve tried every other detergent and have felt that it was one of the absolute best products on the market.  I love that they have coupons available and find it reasonably priced, and I’m a frugal grocery shopper.

I was introduced to Tide Coldwater a few weeks ago and was very excited to test it out.  My favorite thing to wash is my sheets.  There is nothing better than fresh sheets out of the dryer.  I always washed my clothes on cold anyway but I wasn’t sure if they were getting the right kind of clean.  I honestly don’t know much about laundry.  I don’t separate colors and whites and figure if I wash them on cold, they hopefully won’t shrink. (more…)