Books...books...books...

During my elementary school days I was the queen of BOOK IT!.  Each month you'd have a goal to reach - be it number of books, number of pages, time spent reading etc...and when you reached it  (as verified by your parents of course) your teacher would give you a reading certificate that you could exchange for a personal pan pizza at PizzaHut!  It never hurts that pizza was involved but for me, while pizza was nice, I was jones'n for those stars for on my cool arse hologram pin! I think I filled four or five pins during my elementary school days. And I ALWAY wore it proudly on my jean jacket (along side my dinner plate sized Donnie Wahlberg pin).   I'm actually glad to see that the program still exists and I hope that it continues to exist when Noah is old enough to read.

For now, I want to instill in him the same love for reading that I had.  A generous gift from my co-workers enabled me to just about buy out Amazon and their book section! I grabbed a few of my all time favorites (Where the Wild things Are, Tiki Tiki Tembo, Ferdinand the bull) along with a few of the newer published books (Cloudy with a chance of meatballs, Pickles to Pittsburgh)

Photo Credit Amazon

What were some of your favorites growing up??

Carrier comparison...

There are three major styles of  baby wearing apparatuses (can you call it an apparatus?) - the sling (Hotsling, Peanut Shell etc..), the wrap (Sleepy Wrap, Moby) and the baby carrier (Baby Bjorn, ERGO, LilleBaby).  Each seems to serve its own purpose and I've found that many momma's own two or more of these in various styles to serve different functions.  I've tried 4 different carriers that cover all three styles and definitely have my favorites.  Here's the run down:

HotSlings

This is the first one I tried when Noah was wee little.  We took a walk around the block about 10 days postpartum.  It fit tight because I still had a good deal of baby weight and I could never seem to get him situated where I was comfortable enough to take my hands off of him.  I always felt like he was goign to suffocate.  Come to find out, weeks later after I'd abandoned this anyways, there were a number of recalls on sling type carriers due to positional asphyxiation.  Gah...My need to have my hand supporting him wasn't just me being paranoid!

I don't want to write this one off yet.  But I am going to wait till he's a bit older to try it again.  I'm sure it's great for carrying kiddos like the one below and it was comfy to wear. However,  I was (and still am) worried that he's not strong enough to turn his head to breath if he gets turned wrong.

Moby
This was my second carrier.  It's a wrap style carrier and I love love love it! Noah loved it too!  I could fold him up in the fetal position and wrap him up against my chest where he loved to be.  This wrap would turn a fussy baby into putty and put him right to sleep.  This wrap was the only way I got anything done in those early weeks.  I'd drop him in it when i needed to clean or get groceries or even go for a quick walk around the block.

It does take a few tries to get the tie right and I did find myself readjusting the wrap on a regular basis but all in all I love it and will continue to use it.  I will say that now that he's bigger it puts a good deal of strain on my back because there's no real support.  So, I reserve this for around the house and when he's super fussy.  This isn't for long walks or extended pd's of time where you're standing/walking.

Kelty Wallaby
This was the first carrier I bought before Noah was even born.  I had visions of DH carrying him around in this (because lord knows he wouldn't be caught dead in the Moby).  We tried it a few times and it works well although I had concerns about Noah's hips.  He was so tiny and it splayed his legs out at a weird angle.  I couldn't imagine it was comfortable.

I did use it quite a bit to let him face out when I was too tired to wrap myself up (or it was too hot).  Now that i have my ERGO though, this gets little use.

Ergo Sport
This is our latest carrier.  It's also a "carrier" style like the Kelty with two huge differences.  This one positions Noah where his hips are rolled under him like he's sitting in a swing. Much easier on his back and hips.  And two it has a bib at the bottom that helps distribute the weight across my hips.  I feel like I'm wearing my backpacking pack.

There are a bunch of wonderful things about this carrier that makes me think it will be our go to carrier from now on.
- It has great support.  The hip belt distributes the weight perfectly.  I can walk for miles with him in this and feel little fatigue.
- The straps are super cushy and comfortable.
- It's quick and easy to get on, even once the baby is asleep. I can get him in and out without waking him.
- You can wear this a thousand different ways (It does front, hip, and back carry positions depending on the childs age).
- It switches from hubsy (6'3") to me (5'3") very easily
- It puts Noah is a very natural position so I know we're not doing any damage to his hips.

The one draw back is that it has no forward facing position for a baby that has good head control.  Noey like to face out sometimes and when he does I ahve to use the Moby or the Kelty.  This one doesn't work like that (i'm not ready to do the hip carry with him yet)


We got the sport version because it's made of a different material that was said to be good for summer time.  It also has a vent on the back to let air circulate.  I did buy the Heart to Heart insert because it was recommended for children under 4 months of age but ended up not using it.  The sport actually comes up high enough to support his head.  Perhaps if he was smaller then I'd need it.  I guess we'll see when we have our next baby:)

Overall I'm very happy with the choice to purchase the ERGO and I think it's safe to say it will be my last carrier purchase. Between it and the Moby I have all of my needs covered.  Besides, I think DH will hurt me if I buy one more of these things:) haha..

3 months old!

So here we are - 3 months old!  My little Noey is growing up soo fast!  We did our monthly photo shoot this AM and I love love love that he's starting to be more responsive and actually smile when I ask him to (or rather coo and make funny high pitched noises until he smiles).

So, here's the recap:

- We're all getting more sleep!  He goes down around 7 or 8 and is up around 4am to eat then down again until 7 or 8 on most days (this is a relatively new development - normally he's up at 1am, 5am, 8am
- during the day he's eating 4 - 5 oz every 3-4 hours (we're up to 30-32oz a day!)
- he started daycare a few weeks ago and so far so good.  He seems to be thriving.
- he's figured out a few of his toys - if he bats long enough he gets them to flop and make noise.  It's pretty consistent now
- he smiles at everything - the walls, the drapes, other people (women especially - he has every woman in a 10 yard radius of him wrapped around his chubby little fingers almost instantly)
- he holds weight on his legs pretty well.  He'd rather be standing than anything these days. When he's on his back he's just kick kick kicking those little legs.
- still very much loves his baths and actually tolerates diaper changes pretty well.
- he's obsessed with his hands.  He plays with them, clasps them, stares at them and tries to fit both of them in his mouth at the same time.  Now and again he'll manage to get his thumb in but he'd rather just his fist.
- is in size 1 disposables although we're not using a ton as we've switched to cloth!
- he's on the tail end of his 0-3 month clothes and fits most of his 3 and 3-6 stuff.  I tend to size up on the pants due to the bulk of the cloth.

We didn't have a dr's appt for a well check up but did end up there for a sick visit (clogged tear duct) and found out that he's 13.5 lbs.  He soooo doesn't look like he weighs 13.5 lbs...

I calibrated my monitor and I'm not sure I like it...he looks green in all my pictures....I'm hoping he looks normal to everyone else.

Friday Follow and Summer Shape up Check in..

Gah! Again, here we are at Friday - I can't believe it!  My week did go a bit slower than normal but still was blazing fast!

Two orders of business today as usual - Friday Follow and my accountability check!  We'll be accoutable first (as always)...

I was down right sick this week! It all started with a very unpleasant incident at 3:00am on Saturday that I'm not going to get into and continued into a full blown cold - yuck!  The lack of energy, congestion, runny nose, and coughing kept me from going to boxing most of the week.  I did manage to get back there yesterday and even did some Jillian Michaels today (her 30 min Yoga Burn DVD is pretty good...I'm definitely feeling the burn..) but my success this week revolved around the fact that I'm counting calories...trying to be VERY careful about how much I'm taking in as compared to my output.  Fortunately for me I wasn't all that hungry anyways:)

Stats for this week:
Day 1 - 142lbs
Day 8 - 138lbs - woohoo!
Day 24 - 140lbs - ouch...no excuses, I have a new workout regime and a new resolve for eating healthy...we should start seeing that number drop.
Day 38 - 139.5 - okay, .5 lbs!  I attribute that to the fact that i'm putting on muscle and muscle weighs more than fat right??:)
Day 45 - 137.5 - woohooo!  Now, we fluctuated a bit this week but as of this AM this is where I'm at!!

I think next week I need to switch over to weeks instead of days....I'm having a hard time counting the days each time:)  I originally started on days because I was going to do the 30day shred...ya, we see how long tha lasted!  I'm still proud of myself for keeping with boxing though!  It's still totally fun which makes me want to go even more.

This week I'm adding as many evening walks as I can with Noah as well as either Yoga or 30 day shred on my non boxing days.  Let's see how that works!


Okay, all accounted for....on to fun things....this week I'm trying a different Friday follow group from the folks over at Trendy Treehouse (such a fun name)






Hello to all you new folks! I hope you find something here that you'll want to come back over and over again for! This blog was started to keep the fam up to date on my first pregnancy and has continued after my little Noah was born. Topics range from smitten momma ramblings to hard hitting pieces about 529 plans and the like (haha...hard hitting..maybe not but it's fun to dream that I could actually write something that could be considered hard hitting) and has a smattering of photography (of my little man of course) thrown in for fun.

Me? I'm an almost 30 something working mamma who would love to ditch her mortgage in order to stay home with little man but sadly bought when the housing market was at its peak and probably couldn't even break even in the sale. Some day I dream of leaving the corporate world to do something more creative - like photography or crocheting!:) But for now amuse myself with hobby photography and blogging.

Anywho...glad to e-meet you and I hope you leave a comment to let me know you stopped by!

A little afternoon photoshoot...

The lighting in the guest room was perfect the other night right before Noah's bath.  I tried a few pics with his cute little shirt on and then he told me he'd had it.  So, we waited until after his bath when he was happy again (he just loves loves loves his bath!)

Mr. Hippo wanted to pop in and say hello too!  You won't find any conventional rubber duckies here...we're all hippo!

♥Monkey Minute

I posted a few days ago about Mission Monkey - well, the blogging community has really taken a hold of the story and are rallying behind Michelle and her family and Ian over at The Daily Dose of Reality is leading the charge!  Today instead of the Monday minute they're doing the Monkey Minute and I thought I'd join in! 




Have you ever peed in the shower/bath/pool?
Um...who hasn't??  We were all children at one point in our lives:) Now that I'm older I've learned better habits

What is your biggest pet peeve?
Oh boy...that's a can of worms that we don't want to open today (or in a post designated for good vibes...not bitching...)

What's the story behind your blog title?
The blog was started when I found out I was pregnant with Noah.  At the time I didn't know he was a "he" or that his name would be Noah so I had to be generic. And since I lack the creativity to come up with something super cool and catchy , I went with a derivation of our last name. 

What is your definition of success?
Wow, hard question for a Monday morning.  I want to say that achieving the goal you set out to achieve would be success but there are times when that doesn't happen and you still can be deemed successful.  For me it's not black and white...there are a lot of "it depends".

If you were famous, what would you want to be famous for?
My photography  is the gut response.  Being a catalyst of change in the world is the thoughtful response.


Head over to Ian's blog to join in on the mission! 
 

Crafty crafty...

I've seen these marble magnets on a variety of different blogs and thought, "hey, I can do that"...and I did! So happy with how they turned out! I need bigger magnets for the larger ones but the tiny ones work perfectly!

I've been trying out new crafty items to see what works, is easy and cost efficient in preparation for a big fundraiser later in the fall for Nothing but Nets (blog to come on that).

I found directions over at Not Martha - super easy project with super cute results....

The diaper question...

Before Noah was born I went thru all my options for diapering.  I'd always liked the idea of cloth diapers because for every diaper I reused, that was another that was kept out of the landfill. However I just couldn't get over having to put poop into my washing machine and without a utility basin that's basically what I'd be doing.  So, when I found gDiapers I thought I'd struck gold!  The gDiaper is a hybrid system with biodegradable disposable inserts and the reusable outter shells (i've blogged about them here, here, and here).  I really like them because they were the best of both worlds. However, after using them for a while I've found that for the work involved I think I'm just as well off doing full cloth.  Don't get me wrong, I like my g's (once they fit Noah) but for poopy diapers I had to rinse out and then wash the liner anyways so why not just go full cloth and keep everything out of the landfill (plus I finally got over poop..)!

Off again I went to research what type of cloth I wanted.  I wanted something easy like a disposable so that hubs would buy in and that we could get our daycare to use.  Lucky for me cloth diapering has come a long way from the days of my parents!  There are a plethora of choices ranging from All-in-ones (AIOs) that have an outer shell and absorbent center all sewn together to traditional cloth diapers with covers, wool soakers, and the like.  Since I was looking for something simple the AIO's appealed to me a lot.  However, I read that they don't withstand the test of time because the waterproof outer cover wears out over time and you can't replace it.  Enter another hybrid called a pocket diaper!  It consists of a waterproof outer cover that has a pocket in it where a super absorbent soaker is inserted to catch the liquids and what not. 

Most cloth diapering mammas recommend a combination of systems depending on the situation (night time vs. day time, day care vs. home care etc...). However, since I'm just trying this out and haven't yet committed to all cloth diapering I settled on the bumgenius one size option for now.  It's a pocket diaper that has adjustable snaps that "grow" with the baby so you only have to buy one set of diapers (unlike other cloth options where the covers are sized). You do have to "stuff" them but you can adjust the absorbency by adding more soakers.

Today was our first day using them and everything went well - although I discovered that it's really nice to have a wet bag instead of using the sink to store the rinsed out but still not clean diapers - off to diapers.com I go!  They are a bit bulkier than the gDiaper and certainly more bulky than a disposable but nothing to the point where I'm putting him in a size up clothes to accommodate.

They absorb just as well as our disposables and don't leak either (and Noah's a heavy wetter!)  I was a little concerned that it kept his skin damp but I supposed that the lack of chemicals that you find in disposables out weigh that point.

I know I have a few followers that are debating right now so I wanted to put this out there.  The upfront cost of cloth seems huge but if you consider the number of disposables you go thru in a lifetime you'll save yourself a ton of cash in the long run!  You can also build your stash slowly...like I bought 3 to start with and just ordered 5 more to add to the stash. I'll mix g's, cloths, and disposables as necessary.  Ideally I'd be using cloth only but there are situations that disposables are just plain easier.  I want to get to the point where we're primarily cloth and only using a disposable in an emergency (or a very long car ride:) ). 

Anyways, I've gone on long enough. You can be sure I'll continue to talk about this as we get deeper into it.  As for the resources I found when looking I found some great info  here , here, and here during my search.

Mission Monkey...

As a mom, reading the story below makes my heart break over and over again.  Putting myself in her shoes and trying to imagine what she's feeling right now is difficult and I'm sure what I can imagine is only 1000000th the pain that she's feeling today.

Let's support our fellow mommy and blogger today (and every day until they kick this cancers butt!).  Go to mypixiedreams.com to read on and to leave your support - this momma and her family really need it now!

And if you want to help with the hospital bills that they're surely going to face, use the clicky below to donate to Monkey!

Mom's day present...

I'm double posting this one to my baby blog and my photography blog because they're actually related this time!  So, my mom has been talking about this one particular picture of Noah - one of my favorites too (so much so it's part of my header up there on Little Kloep) that I wanted to do something special for mom's day for her (because you can only buy your mom so much jewelry and mine's allergic to flowers).  So, I went out to BayPhoto and looked for a the best way to represent that photo for her (because printing and framing is so yesterday..:) ).

I ended up ordering one of their ThinWrap products with a metallic finish and I'm in LOVE!  So in love that I was anxious to give it to mom and totally forgot to take pictures of it...haha...they're now hanging over the mantel at her house in Pittsburgh - 4 hours away from where I am.

I ordered an 8x12 print that came wrapped and mounted on masonite board which made it super sturdy. Then they took a block of dense foam and attached it to the back so that when you hung it on the wall it stood off the wall by about .5 inches giving an even more awesome effect!  The print itself was metallic which is something new for me.  It's a very subtle sheen that when viewed at the right angle makes the image pop off the page.  It adds that extra dimension that makes the picture stunning (not that a photo of Noah wouldn't be stunning any way you presented it -this was just xtra stunning...haha).

I don't have pics of what I gave my mom (I'll have to take a few when we go home next) but I did pull a few from BayPhoto's site...

The top image is of the finishes.  We have the very bottom on there - metallic with a satin finish.  You can see the canvas and the satin finishes as well.  The bottom image is a view of the back - very well put together.

Anywho - I've not been asked by BayPhoto to review these, I just did it because I loved how everything turned out and thought others might find this useful!  I know we'll be trying other products from BayPhoto in the future and I'll feedback on those just as I did this one (but hopefully with some pics of the actual product!:) ).