Creativity

Cottonbabies is having one last big giveaway in celebration of their new Artist Series Prints. They have asked all of us a question to be answered in some sort of public media.

How do you encourage a creative, artistic spirit in your baby, toddler or young child?

I have a 13 month old son who is all boy. To be honest I try not to encourage him to be one way or another. I just want him to be himself! With that said I try to enroll him in lots of different activities to keep him well rounded so he can start to become his own person. He's currently in Music Together (where he loves to shake his cute cloth diapered bum!), a 18month and under playgroup, lots of other various in home playgroups with our Moms Club, plus lots of day trips to museums, zoos, aquariums, and parks!

But my favorite thing is to put his cute fluff in front of him and let him choose what color he'd like to wear! Nothing better than wearing a piece of art on your behind!!

13 months

Tommy turned 13 months old yesterday. I still can't get over how fast time is flying by. He is turning into a wonderful little boy!

I remember when I was pregnant with him I said I wouldn't allow him to watch T.V. until he was at least 2 years old. Nope, not in my house! Now, at 13 months, I can't even trick him to watch a show for 2 minutes! Oh how I wish I could get him occupied for 5 minutes so I can do the dishes or make the bed or swiffer the floor. Eh, nice thought at least...

Speaking of tv, is anyone else as disgusted with Disney and Nick/Nick Jr as I am? I can't believe what they deem appropriate for kids and tweens, nevermind toddlers and babies. I do not want my child watching a pair of 10 year olds stealing and playing tricks on others, or seeing a 12 year old girl wearing a skirt shorter than my underwear. Whatever happened to the good cartoons like Scooby Doo, the Flinstones, The Snorkels?? Granted even those weren't perfect but they were a heck of a lot better than what's on today!

That said, I really like some of the cartoons of PBS and WGBY. Dinosaur Train and the Cat in the Hat are really cute! If only I could get Tommy to agree lol. Hey there could be worse things my kid could be doing (or not doing!).

bumGenius Artist Series!

bumGenius Artist Series was finally unveiled today! Its called the "Tiny Socialite" series and they are adorable! Check out the video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkcCXhxbF9Q&feature=sub

My personal favorite is Eiffel Tower. What's yours??

Share the Love Giveaway!

I'm a giveaway junkie, I fully admit that. I have a daily "hour of power" as I call it where I do all my daily tweets and other entries so I have the best chance possible for winning. And it's worked- so far I've won a Applecheeks Set, a bumGenius Organic (Elemental), a Kissaluv Marvel OS Fitted, and a $50 Gift Card to Toys 'R Us.

Now Diaper Junction is hosting the giveaways of all giveaways- $1000 in diapers!!! There are 4 prizes:

1st: $500 to Diaper Junction
2nd: 12pk Fuzzibunz OS Pockets
3rd: GroVia Half Time Package
4th: 6pk bumGenius 4.0 Pockets

How awesome is that??? Of course I would love to win the Grand Prize, but the GroVia and BG ones are high up there too!

There are lots of ways to enter. Just head on over to and get your entries in! You have until 1pm on October 12th so enter today!!

Rave about Nicki's Diapers!

I spend a lot of time cruising around online cloth diaper stores. I have a couple "go to" shops but I like to spend a bit at several. I know these mamas are working hard so I want to support them!

One diaper shop that I think deserves way more credit than they get is Nicki's Diapers (www.nickisdiapers.com). Not only do they have a HUGE variety of cloth diapers, in all styles and brands, but they have a ton of cloth diaper accessories, mama items, baby gear, feeding accessories, and even used items! Combine all that with free shipping on orders over $75 and free gifts with orders over $100 and you have a top notch diaper shop! Oh, and the awesome customer service helps too :-) Most diaper shops you'll find diapers and accessories and that's about it.

Nicki's Diaper is also home to the super popular new Best Bottoms System and Imagine Prefolds, Flats, and wipes. Check them out today!

Happy Birthday!

Tommy turned 1 yesterday. Can you believe it? My baby is a year old! How did this happen so fast? My baby is almost a toddler!



I took this of him yesterday. Of course we had to wear our new BGOS 4.0 from Cottonbabies to celebrate! He is just so smart and full of life, and so incredibly adorable! Not that that's a surprise ;-)

He had two birthday parties. One with family and family friends and then one with some of our MOMs Club friends. Both were a great time.




What an amazing ride this past year has been. Having a child really makes you rethink everything. Little things that once mattered don't matter any longer. Big things that didn't matter are now most important. Everything I do is for him. I look at Tom and I just think to myself, "What an amazing father. How lucky can I be? How lucky can our son be to have such a wonderful man to call 'daddy'?" I ask myself why I deserve to have such a terrific little boy. But I do deserve to have him. Because he's my son,I made him! Why shouldn't I deserve him? I don't know if there is a god up there, but whatever sort of higher power exists knew that this little boy was exactly what I needed in my life.

Happy Birthday Baby!

Hug your Babies Today

Last night was one of the worst nights of my life. In the end it was nothing, but before knowing that it was hell. More than hell.
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We heard this panicked scream come from Tommy so we ran to get him. There were roughly 3 small piles of spit up (the usual gross white stuff) on the floor in front of him. But he was screaming and gagging. Did he swallow something? Why was he throwing up?

He would scream, his stomach would make a gurgling-regurgitating type sound, and he'd try to throw up some mucousy-phlegm stuff. Immediately he'd try to suck it back down, which I'm sure was caused by the intense crying, so we attempted to scoop as much as possible out from his mouth. It had a tinge of blood which really set me off.

This cycle just kept repeating for what seemed like forever. In reality it was probably only 10 minutes before we called 911. He finally spit up a golf ball size chunk of phlegm. A few minutes after the ambulance finally showed up he calmed down and was acting very....Tommy.

As silly as it sounds, he was choking on his own spit. We have an appointment with the Pedi today to determine if it was just caused by teething or a cold or something else. This had to be the most intense and horrible moment of our lives.

Just hug your babies extra hard today. Just because.