Think Age Appropriate

I think it's time to remind my dad was is and isn't appropriate as a gift for Ellie.  He's leaving in a couple of days for a trip to Cherokee, and I know he'll bring a gift back for the grand kids.  Daddy takes a few trips each year to Gatlinburg, and he always brings something back for the kiddos.  That's totally understandable, but he's got to remember just because he thinks something is cool doesn't mean it's the right thing to buy.  Daddy is known for handmade and unique gifts.  As soon as Ellie was big enough to beat on a toy drum he went to Cherokee and got her a handmade Native American drum. At a little over a year old she could play with it, but I had to take the big chunky wooden drumsticks away so she didn't beat everyone with them...yes, she tried.

At the beginning of the Summer Daddy came back from a trip with more wooden toys in tow.  He got my 2 year old nephew a wooden pop gun (the kind where the cork is tied to the gun) which took all of 10 minutes to injure one of the kids.  Ellie smashed and cut her finger putting the cork back in the hole.  He brought Ellie a wood puzzle type toy that would be great for an older kid, but dangerous for her.  It's a wooden dowel with a heavy wooden ring tied to it.  There are smaller dowels running down the pole, and the object is to swing the ring and catch it on the pole so it slides down without getting caught on any of the smaller dowels.  Ellie will be 3 in October, and there is no way she can figure that thing out. Ben and I both tried it, and not only did it take us both quite a few tries to get it, but we both ended up smacking ourselves with the wooden ring trying to swing it.  Ellie tried to swing it and knocked herself in the head with it!  So, of course those toys have been hidden in the closet, and she can have them when she's older and more capable of playing with them!

GPS For Golfing? Really?

I feel like I'm falling behind on technology.  Maybe it's because the gadget I just saw was something I would never use, but I didn't know you could buy buy golf gps units and watches. Seriously? What will they think of next? My Papa took me golfing with him many times when I was very young. He passed away right before my 8th birthday, and the last thing he gave me was a custom mini lefty putter. I used it a few times for putt putt, but I haven't been golfing since. The hubby isn't much of a golfer either. He has 2 full sets of clubs that we really need to sell because he's never used either of them. One was a hand me down set from his Dad, and the other was a gift from a friend. They're both sitting in the utility room collecting dust, so why keep them? His idea of spending the day at the golf course is watching his friends golf while he rides around in the golf cart!

A Hot Mess In More Ways Than One

I just spent 2 hours soaking and scrubbing my wax tart burner.  Why?  I decided to burn a tart last night that was supposed to smell like a Red Hot candy.  The smell was wonderful, but the aftermath?  Not so much.  The tart had a real red hot in it that melted, bubbled, and caramelized into a hot mess that turned into a rock solid black layer when the tart cooled and solidified!  I had to confiscate a chisel from Hubby just to get the ball of yuck out of the burner.

Unfortunately I lost the business card that came out of a sample box with this particular tart, so I don't know which e-tailer this tart came from.  I'll have to search the sample sites I buy from to see if I can find who this one came from so I can avoid it in the future.  So, here's my note to all you e-tailers out there who might think about putting real candy in your wax tarts.  Please don't do it!  The mess is absolutely horrible!

Herbal Essences Totally Twisted Curl Scrunching Gel Review

I’ve noticed lately that one of two things has happened…maybe it’s a combination of both.  Either my hair is changing, and my styling products that I’m in love with just aren’t working the same anymore, or my favorite curling gel isn’t what it used to be.  Whatever is happening I’ve been having a hard time getting my naturally wavy locks to scrunch with my usual scrunching spray. 

So a couple months ago I grabbed a coupon for a free Herbal Essences product on their Facebook page.  When the coupon arrived I stuck it in my coupon binder thinking I would use it when it was time to stock up on shampoo or conditioner, but because I’ve been getting some great shampoo and conditioner coupons lately I finally decided to use it for something else. 

I headed to the store and picked up some Herbal Essences Totally Twisted Curl Scrunching Gel.  It’s an extra hold gel (level 2 out of 3 on the Herbal Essences scale).  I figured hey it’s free, so it’s worth a shot.  I knew if I didn’t like it I could just chock it up to trying a new product without wasting any money.

The verdict?

I am absolutely in love with this product!  All week I’ve been playing around with it, scrunching my hair one day, flat ironing, adding the Totally Twisted gel, and using it to help hold some random curls the next.  The best part is this product is half the cost of my old scrunching spray that isn’t do it’s job anymore, so I’m going to be saving money, too!  The tropical mystique scent smells so yummy, too, and Ben loves it.  I think I’ll have to give the rest of the Totally Twisted line a try now starting with the Shampoo and Conditioner.

No More Cheap Sunglasses

Am I the only person out there who buys something expensive and immediately loses it?  Why is it if I spend more than $10 on a pair of sunglasses they’ll disappear within hours of buying them, yet if I buy the cheapo sunglasses I can’t get rid of them.  I swear if I break the cheap ones and throw them in the trash they’ll reappear on my desk!

I found a pair of persol sunglasses I would really like to buy, but I’m afraid if I do I’ll lose them no sooner than they arrive in the mail.  Just my luck they’d get lost in the mail.  I really do love the persol style 2976 glasses, though, and if I had the cash I would probably order them right now anyway.  I’ve been wanting a good pair of sunglasses.  I spend way too much money on cheap ones that break easily.  Now I just need to figure out how to keep them from getting lost.  Maybe I’ll just glue them to my head and be done with it! LOL!

Volcanoes Erupting On Mount Jenn’s Face

Today has been a very blah kind of day for me.  I’ve had one of those days when I just didn’t want to leave the house because my self esteem was at rock bottom.  I’ve always struggled with my self esteem, but over the years I’ve learned to embrace the person that I am inside and out…most of the time.  It doesn’t matter how hard I try to remind myself of this my self esteem hits rock bottom when that “time of the month” rolls around.  Actually it’s usually the week before when my hormones start to go haywire.  My face breaks out in a gazillion pimples, and I’m not talking little red dots either.  We’re talking massive volcanoes erupting everywhere.  Combine the one that popped up this morning that has half my cheek swollen with the bloating that's making me feel super fat and ready to pop a handful of apidexin, and I really didn't feel like going anywhere.

I finally did drag myself out of the house this evening.  My poor mood meant I didn’t feel like cooking at all (and who wants to stand over a hot stove in this heat?), so we did a quick drive thru dinner and stopped by Walmart.  I had to pick up a few things to finish a diaper cake I’m making for a baby shower on Sunday.  Let’s just hope this zit with it’s own zip code decides to subside by then!  I generously applied some Zip Zapper to it, and it’s looking better already.  If don’t know what Zip Zapper is you’re totally missing out.  Since it’s only $1 (as with most other E.L.F. products) I decided to give it a try because it’s not much cash to lose if it didn’t work.  I’m totally in love with this product!  It’s the only thing that’s helped me lately, and I ended up ordering 3 more to have plenty on hand at all times!  I’m almost out of mineral foundation, so when I put in an order in the very near future I’ll definitely have to order a few more of those babies!

Finding The Perfect Gift For The Man In Your Life

Hubby still hasn’t found a job, but I was able to kick it in gear last week and make some extra cash.  I was blessed with a couple of contract jobs that paid well, the bills for the month are paid, most of Ellie’s Christmas is purchased, and it’s time to shop for the rest of the family.

When it comes to my Christmas list the men are always the hardest ones to shop for.  You can only buy so many socks, ties, and underwear!  Unfortunately those do tend to be the go to gift options for a lot of people who have trouble gift shopping for men. 

This year I promised myself I would not buy any of the above for any of the men in my life.  I have to shop for Hubby, both of our dad’s, my grandpa, and two brother-in-law’s.  Hubby’s gift was easy as he’s been going on and on about two Playstation 3 games.  I preordered one in November, and I’ll be able to pick up the other this weekend.  Thanks to Christine I have a great gift idea for my NRA member Dad.  The rest of my list is not so simple, though.

After spending a good deal of time online searching for the perfect gifts I think I have finally picked out something for one of my brother-in-laws.  He is a smoker, and I know he enjoys cigars from time to time.  He showed up at the hospital with cigars for Hubby when Ellie was born, and Hubby did the same for him when my nephew was born.  Because of that I’m thinking perdomo cigars might just make the perfect gift. Now my problem is choosing which sampler set to get him. There are a few in my price range, so I'll have to narrow it down to one. Unfortunately I have the hardest time making decisions like this!

Ever Used Penaten Baby Cream?

When I had my little one I never imagined all the products I would try to keep her safe, clean, healthy, and happy.  I'm also a little surprised at how many products I've used that don't work as well as I thought they would, namely name brand products that I've heard other parents rave about for years.

The latest example of this can be found among the many bottles of diaper rash creams we've purchased.  During my childless years I considered Desitin to be the go to diaper rash treatment.  I seemed to find a tube in the diaper bag of every baby I've ever babysat, so I was pretty surprised when the little one came along, and I found Desitin to be the one cream I refuse to use on my baby's bottom.  While we were still in the hospital the pediatrician informed us Desitin has a habit of making rashes worse instead of healing them.  After talking to a few friends with babies they all said their doctor's said the same thing or they switched to another cream after seeing this first hand.  I decided right then and there I wouldn't use Desitin.

Although Elliana hasn't had to deal with much diaper rash, we have had the occasional patch pop up.  There was the one time when she had a nasty rash pop up after using the new version of Pamper's Swaddlers, and she's had a few little patches since.  We haven't had to deal with another bad rash until last week.  We've been using Boudreaux's Butt Paste , and I do love it, but this time it just wasn't getting the job done.  Ellie's rash started out pretty small, but within a couple days it erupted into a very painful rash all over her bottom.  The Butt Paste wasn't helping at all.  We switched to A&D, but that didn't help either.  After a week her rash was still horrible. 

I turned to a friend for help because her daughter suffers from horrible diaper rash on a regular basis.  She sent me home with something I had never even heard of, Penaten Baby Cream
.  I slathered it on Ellie as soon as we got home, and within a couple hours her rash was looking much better.  Two days later the rash is almost completely cleared up!  I have to say I'm now totally sold on Penaten creme, and I ordered a tin of it tonight. 

Family Cookout & Baby's Pool Party

I had an enjoyable evening tonight with my family.  We had a small little family cookout, just the three of us, my Mom, and my sister, her hubby, and baby boy.  I'd have to say it's the most fun I've had with my family in a long time, and I think Ellie really enjoyed herself as well.

After dinner my Mom pulled out the baby pool she'd bought for Ellie.  Hubby blew it up, and Ellie was playing in it within 10 minutes.  She had her own little pool party for almost an hour while my sis and I watched her, talked about diet pills, and I played with my nephew who at 1 month old is no where near old enough to get in and splash with Ellie yet. My sis is trying to get rid of her baby weight as well, and she's definitely considering diet pills since she can't breastfeed any longer. She saw an ad for adipo-x, and she was telling me what she'd looked up online about adipo-x version 2.0 side effects. It's the pill she's thinking about using, but she wants to consult her doctor first since in high dosages you can have side effects like insomnia, anxiety, and high blood pressure. She was asking me what I thought, and honestly I told her I don't think she even needs diet pills. She's already dropped almost all of her baby weight, and her son is only 1 month old. I'd say she's on a great track already.

Anywho, as for the Intex Froggy Fun Baby Pool, Ellie absolutely 100% LOVED it. I definitely recommend this pool to anyone looking to buy a cheap kiddie pool for an infant or toddler. My mom purchased the pool for $10 at Walmart. Target sells it for $14.99, and it's well worth it at such a cheap price. The single ring frog shaped pool is partially covered by a rainbow that protects baby from the sun. It can hold up to 12 gallons of water with a total depth of 5". We only filled the pool about half way, and it was more than enough for Ellie to splash and play. She splashed around for awhile until she figured out how to flip over and slither around. She had a blast, and she wore herself out, too. When I finally got her out of the pool she was asleep within 10 minutes.

I'm pretty worn out now myself after 2 sleepless nights due to Ellie teething and keeping me up all night. Oh well, it's all part of mamahood! Now I think I'm going to get some work finished so I can curl up in bed myself.

Burt’s Bees Natural Toothpaste

Every time I see a Burt’s Bees product it always reminds me of growing up on the farm.  My dad was a farmer and a beekeeper, so I was around honeybees a lot.  We sold jars of local honey, and he used to make candles and other various products out of the wax, so that’s where I was first introduced to all natural products. 

That’s another reason why I gravitated towards the Burt’s Bees line when it was first introduced.  The name alone reminded me of the products my dad used to make, and I loved the fact that I was buying natural earth friendly products.  I fell in love with the line from the beginning, and today I continue to use a lot of the Burt’s Bees products, especially the lip balm.

So when I received a sample tube of the Burt’s Bees Natural Toothpaste I was more than excited to try it.  Of course I absolutely love it.  I received the peppermint flavor fluoride multicare toothpaste, and I have to say this is my new favorite toothpaste to use. 

The Burt’s Bees Website says:

Want a toothpaste that features multiple benefits to naturally care for your teeth and gums? This minty-fresh natural and effective toothpaste is clinically proven to improve oral health. With regular brushing it prevents cavities, reduces plaque, whitens teeth, promotes healthy gums, and freshens breath. Made with real cranberry extract known to block bacteria from adhering to teeth and gums, it helps prevent plaque formation before it starts. The SLS-free formula contains calcium and phosphorous to promote strong, healthy teeth. No artificial colors, flavors, preservatives or sweeteners.

After one brushing my teeth felt great. They honestly felt cleaner than they do after using my normal toothpaste of choice. I'm normally can't stand peppermint flavorite toothpaste, but I loved this stuff. That's probably because the flavor isn't very strong. It reminds me of walking out into the backyard as a kid and picking a piece of mint to chew on. It's a very light and natural flavor that didn't leave my sensitive mouth cringing. Hours after using this toothpaste my mouth still felt fresh, and I didn't have that urge to run back to brush my teeth again before I walked out the door to go shopping.

I've only found two downsides to the Burt's Bees toothpaste. It is not a completely all natural product. It's 99.2% all natural because it does contain caveats, and it is a little expensive in my opinion. We all know we tend to pay a higher price for natural products, but it sells for $5 a tube on the Burt’s Bees website, and that’s a little much in my opinion.  I did find it on Amazon.com for $3.99!

BabyGanics Review

I have to tell you how much I’m totally in love with the BabyGanics line of products.  I’ve been searching for the perfect non toxic cleaning line to use with the baby in the house, and this stuff is exactly what I was looking for!

BabyGanics is a naturally non-toxic household line made out of plant based cleaning agents.  It even says right on the bottle that it won’t hurt your kids and/or pets if they accidentally drink the stuff.  That’s my kind of cleaner.  The The line was created by 2 fathers who wanted something that’s not only safe for the planet but for their little ones as well. 

I spotted the BabyGanics products at Walmart about a month ago.  They were sitting on the end of one of the baby isles, and caught my attention.  I admit at first I was skeptical.  Most “green” products I’ve tried either don’t work well at all or really aren’t as green as I thought they were.  Time and time again I found myself checking out the products as we shopped in the baby section.  On one such occasion Hubby finally told me to stop staring at the stuff and just buy some already.  It wouldn’t hurt to give it a try, and $5 wouldn’t be much of a waste if we hated it.

I started with the Stain Stain Go Away Laundry Stain Remover, and I was totally in awe after the first use.  It pulled out poop stains that had been left behind after a previous wash with Oxyclean and Spray and Wash Dual Power.  It worked so well I decided to use it on Hubby’s work clothes that I’d given up on.  His work clothes tend to be stained so bad nothing will remove it, but Stain Stain Go Away pulled almost all of those stains out.  Some of them had been on his work jeans for years!

After having so much success with the stain remover I decided to move onto The Grime Fighter otherwise known as the all purpose cleaner.  Yep, I love it just as much.  I chose the fragrance free version, and not only did it clean everything to a sparkle, but I didn’t have to contend with that nasty chemical smell that causes most cleaners to leave my head feeling like I’ve been hit by a freight train.

I had thought about buying the Scrub A Tub tub and tile cleaner next, but I think I’ll hold off on that.  The Grime Fighter cleaned my tub and tile just fine.  I do, however, want to try the Floors To Adore floor cleaner that can be used on the linoleum we have now and the hardwoods when we get them installed. 

If you’ve been interested in checking out the BabyGanics line now is a great time.  Walmart is selling bottles with Buy 1 Get 1 free coupons attached, and other stores like diapers.com are also running discounts.  Go ahead and give it a try.  I have a feeling you’ll love the BabyGanics line just as much as I do!

Safety First Glow & Go Monitor

I was walking through the store a few weeks ago having no luck finding a cream that I thought could give me easy stretch mark removal, so I gave up and decided to spend the cash in my pocket on something for the baby. These days I'm less worried about how my body works and more worried about the safety of my child, so I headed to the baby monitors.
We already had a baby monitor, but I wasn’t too happy with it.  My mom gave us a used Safety 1st monitor that’s about 4-5 years old that she picked up at a thrift store.  It was doing the job, but it had a lot of static in it no matter what channel I used.  I started looking at video monitors, then I quickly realized that would be a waste of my money.  Our house is small, and if I want to see how Elliana is doing all I have to do is pop my head into her doorway.  I decided I’d pick up another audio monitor to see if I could get it to work better than the old one.  I figured the old one had it’s quirks mainly because it’s well…old.
I didn’t have a lot of cash to spend at the time, so I grabbed the Safety 1st Glow & Go Monitor.  I was drawn to it because it was cheap ($24.99 for the single & $39.99 for the duo), I liked the fact that it has a built in night light, and it lights up when baby makes noise.  My old monitor doesn’t have lights, and that was a drag.  Sometimes when Hubby and I are watching tv I would prefer to keep the volume turned down, and with lights I could see if she’s making noise.  That’s also a handy feature for those who are hearing impaired.  I also like that the parent unit is small.  My old one was bulky, and would weight down my pants if I had it clipped to my waist. 
I also liked that the Glow & Go monitor uses less energy.  Conventional monitors (and anything else using an AC adapter) pull power even when the unit is switched off.  The only way to save power is to unplug the unit all together.  The Glow & Go adapters only pull power when the units are switched on.  Plus both the baby and parent units can run off batteries, so you don’t have to unplug the unit if you need it in another room.  Since Elliana is in and out of various rooms throughout the day, that’s an added bonus.  The packaging is also “eco-conscious” since Safety 1st used 44% less cardboard and 29% less plastic in the packaging.
On top of it all my favorite feature is the digital room temperature display.  I had purchased a cheap little $5 portable thermometer so I could measure the temp in her room, and it doesn’t read accurately.  Plus it was just one more thing I had to find room for on the dresser.  The Glow & Go has a 400ft range, but we’ve discovered it will actually pick up a little farther than that for us.  If I need to run next door to my Grandparent's house (which is about 500 ft away from mine) I’ll leave the baby with Hubby and take the monitor with me.  It will get a little bit of static in their house, but I can still hear everything perfectly.
After using the Glow & Go monitor one night I was satisfied.  We’ve had it for a little over a month now, and I’m so glad I purchased it.  It does everything I need it to without a ton of frills or added cost.  It’s a 2 channel monitor, and neither channel has any static at all.  We also discovered that we can use the parent unit from the old monitor with it without any static!  That means we saved ourselves $10 since we didn’t have to buy the 2 parent unit model.  We have a ton of electronics in our home, and we’re happy knowing none of them are causing interference with the monitor.
Overall I’m extremely happy with this monitor, and I recommend it to any parent looking for a good cheap monitor.  The great results, temperature display, and night light make it a great alternative to higher priced versions.

Update 4-21-10:
Today the parent handset to the unit stopped working.  Well it didn’t completely stop, but the speaker seems to have died in it.  The light portion still works.  I will be contacting Safety 1st to see if this is a common issue with these monitors.  I’m not happy at all right now because the monitor should not die after less than 2 months of use!

Update 4-27-10:
Safety 1st has offered to replace my monitor with the newer 2010 model.  Thank you Safety 1st for taking care of your customers!

Fisher-Price Rainforest Bouncer Review

When it was time to create a baby registry I admit I was kind of lost.  I knew what type of stuff we needed, but the amount of stuff to choose from can be overwhelming.  I remember spending hours looking at swings and bouncy seats afraid I’d pick one that my baby wouldn’t like.  That fear mostly came from watching one of our friends go through 3 swings before she found one her son would sit in for more than 5 minutes without screaming.  I was getting so frustrated with all the products out there I found it easier to help my sis-in-law choose her disability insurance. Now that's bad!

One day I decided to stop worrying about it and go with a theme.  I decided if we didn’t like what we chose we could always exchange it later.  I knew I wanted to go with a neutral theme because I want to be able to use everything multiple times, and at the time we didn’t know what the gender of our baby would be.  I chose a jungle theme for the bedroom, so I stuck with that when it came time to choose a bouncy seat. 

I narrowed it down to 3 jungle themed bouncers, then I decided to go with the one that seemed to have the most features.  I ended up choosing the Rainforest bouncer after I saw a display model.  It seemed to have a lot of features some of the others were lacking, and it was cheaper!  Boy am I glad I went with that one.  Elliana absolutely loves it.  She’s got another bouncer that my Nanas that has more toys to play with, but the lack of lights and action bore her.

When we first got the bouncer Ellie was still a preemie, so we didn’t use the toy bar.  Frankly it scared the crap out of her.  The seat was very soothing to her though, and as she grew we added the bar.  We started by letting it play the soothing rainforest sounds, and eventually worked our way up to the whole lights, music, and animations deal.  Now when she’s in her Rainforest bouncer her eyes stay glued to the swinging monkey while her little hands explore the bird and monkey rattles.  I love that I can set it to play on continuous mode, or I can set the animations to be triggered when she hits one of the rattles.  One continuous mode the toy bar shuts off after 15 minutes to save batteries, and it turns back on as soon as the baby touches one of the rattles. I love that there are 3 different volume levels, and we can choose either music (plays 18 songs) or rainforest sounds (that put her to sleep).

If you’re looking for a bouncer check out the Rainforest bouncer by Fisher-Price.  We absolutely love it!  Oh, and a tip for you new parents out there…definitely invest in a good battery charger that takes every size and a ton of rechargeable batteries!  Just about everything takes batteries these days, and we found ourselves going through 4 D batteries a week.  When you look at the cost of batteries these days the rechargeable ones paid for themselves after 2 uses.

Done For The Day

It feels so good to be home finally. Most of the day was spent doing nothing but running around from place to place. Hubby and I tried to go out to dinner to kind of chill out since Elliana was in a really good mood, but that didn't happen either. By the time we got a chance to go eat it was 7:15pm. We pulled up to the restaurant we had chosen and found out they close at 7pm on Friday nights. WTF!? Seriously, 7pm is still in the middle of dinner rush around here, especially on a Friday night in a college town!

We were both tired (and Hubby had a pulled muscle), so we decided to just order food from Monk's and eat it at Hubby's parents' house before we headed home. While we ate Elliana was extremely interested in my food, so that tells me she's definitely ready to start cereal soon. I'm going to wait until she goes in for her wellness check next Friday, and I'll discuss it with the pediatrician before I start giving it to her, though.

Now she's sitting in her boppy on the couch with Hubby while I get some work done and work on my sister's baby shower plans. I saw some cute communion invitations at naptimecards.com, and then I found out they have some seriously cute baby shower invitations, too. I may just have to order my sister's invitations from them because I absolutely love this one. She's doing her nursery in John Deere since she's having a boy (and she's a freak about John Deere), so I may just have to do her shower theme in Cowboys. I don't want to do a John Deere themed shower, but cowboys seem close enough to me. Plus that invitation is just too darn cute. Plus there are coordinating party supplies that go with the invitation!

Gillette SatinCare In Shower Moisturizer Review

Commenters are having a hard time finding this product in stores and online.  I have found it at both local Walmart, and it is now available online at Amazon.com. I have added the product link to my Amazon Sidebar Widget and below for those of you having a hard time finding the product!

At Christmas my mom gave me a gift pack from Gillette that included a can of SatinCare shave gel, a Gillette Venus Embrace Razor, and a bottle of the new SatinCare In Shower Moisturizer in Lavender Kiss.  I have to say I absolutely love this new moisturizer! 

As I’ve mentioned plenty of times on this blog I have some seriously sensitive skin.  I just wrote about how even baby detergent caused me to break out!  Well, my super sensitive skin is also super dry skin, and pregnancy did nothing but make it worse.  My ob/gyn warned me that I would probably have skin problems until I stop breastfeeding, and since I plan to continue breastfeeding for as long as I possibly can (at least until those little teeth become a problem), I’ve been battling the extra dryness. 

My entire body is one dry itchy mess, and my knuckles are cracking and bleeding.  Even the various products I used throughout my pregnancy aren’t working anymore (including Eucerin and Aquaphor), so I was super excited when I tried the Satin Care Moisturizer, and it actually worked!

The website says

Get silky smooth legs right out of the shower with new SatinCare® Dry Skin In-Shower Moisturizer. This Dry Skin formula, with Shea Butter, helps lock in moisture. Simply smooth onto wet legs, rinse and pat dry to leave your skin feeling soft and silky.

Using the moisturizer is simple.  You shower as normal, and after you shave you smooth it on your legs, or in my case I smooth it on my entire body.  Then you just rinse it off.  I’m not sure if it helps any, but I let it sit on my body for about a minute before I rinse because I can use all the help I can get.  At first I felt kind of weird about it because the first time I used it I felt slimy after my shower.  After I toweled off the slimy feeling went away, and my skin felt great.  I’ve smoothed this stuff after every shower for 2 weeks now, and I can tell a HUGE difference in my skin.  My skin is still super dry, but it’s getting better.  I’m not itchy all over anymore, and my knuckles are starting to heal.  I smelled so good, too!  Hours after my shower Hubby came home from work and asked me what smelled so good.  He was quite pleased to find out it was me!

The only place I’m not smoothing this stuff on is my face. My chin acne is back in full force, so I really don't think it'd be a good idea to use it on my face. I'll stick with my regular daily moisturizer for that, but I'm sold on the Satin Care In Shower Moisturizer for the rest of my body.

Allergic To Baby Detergent!

Tonight I put on a sweater I washed today, wore it a couple of hours, and discovered I’m allergic to something I never considered I could ever be allergic to!  I ran out of my normal laundry detergent which is Ultra Purex Natural Elements, and because of the snow I didn’t venture out to get anymore.  I’m highly allergic to a ton of laundry detergents and soaps.  You don’t even want to imagine the things that Tide does to my skin.  Actually my skin is so sensitive I even have to use natural acne treatment these days because the ones with harsh chemicals make me break out even more. Most of my life I’ve had to use the free & clear versions of stuff, but the Purex Natural Elements is one of the few that hasn’t bothered me, so I’ve stuck with it.  Sometimes I’ll use the Purex Complete 3-in-1 sheets, too, but they’re just not that practical for me since I hang my clothes on the line in the summer and don’t use my dryer much.

When I had Elliana I chose to use Ultra Purex Baby because let’s face it in this economy I’ll save some moola anyway I can, and the Purex Baby is mucho bucks cheaper than the other baby brands like Dreft.  Plus I figured if she happened to end up with my super sensitive skin Purex might actually work for her.  After a few trials with washing an item of hers with my clothes I discovered she has no problems at all with the Natural Elements, but I decided to keep washing her clothes in the baby stuff anyway.  If I ever run out of her baby detergent I do know I can throw her stuff in with my detergent without it irritating her.

Apparently it doesn’t work the other way around, though.  When I ran out of my Natural Elements I decided to wash the sweater I needed in the baby stuff.  I also ended up washing a load of pj pants so I could have my favorite fuzzy ones to sleep in tonight.  I only wore the sweater for about 2 hours before I noticed my arms were really itchy.  It got so bad I finally took the sweater off, and that’s when I saw I was getting hives all over my arms.  I know it wasn’t the sweater because a.  it’s a super soft sweater that I wear all the time (actually my fave one), and b. I tested it with the pj pants.  I only wore them for about 30 minutes before my legs started itching, and hives started showing up on my inner calves and thighs. 

Case closed.  I’m freakin’ allergic to baby detergent!  How the heck?  I swear my body does some weird things, but I never could have imagined I’d be allergic to the stuff made for the most sensitive skin in the world.

Electric Cigarettes To Fight The Battle

I just found something I wish I'd had when I was trying to quit smoking. Have you heard of electric cigarettes? If not they're these cool electric cigs that produce no smoke, no smell, and no harmful side effects. Yep, I said no tar, no tobacco, no harmful chemicals like carbon monoxide and who knows what else. They're great for people who are trying to quit smoking because they take refillable cartridges that just give you the nicotine you're craving.

I seriously wish I'd had something like this all those times I tried to quit without success. I think I would have had a much better success rate because I wouldn't have all those other chemicals that are used to keep you addicted. I could have weaned myself off at my own pace. Honestly I admit I would probably still be struggling with my cigarette battle if I hadn't gotten pregnant. As soon as I found out I had a little one on the way I put them down without any hesitation. Sometimes all we really need to quit is a really good motivator!

Drifting Off Peacefully

Ya know there’s one thing these days that I can’t complain about, and that’s falling asleep.  Day or night if I get a chance to sleep I’m out like a light.  I used to have a hard time falling asleep, and sometimes I’d even have to take natural sleeping pills. I don't like the prescription kind because you can become addicted. I prefer the all natural stuff that helps me drift off peacefully, and I use to need to use them quite a bit. The addition of the baby means way less sleep, so when I have a chance to get to sleep I take it, and my body agrees by letting me drift off without any problems. Maybe I should have had a baby a lot sooner! Maybe I wouldn't have needed to use sleeping pills at all if I had.

How My Netbook Improved My Life

I've been wanting a netbook for awhile now because I thought having one would make my life much easier. First of all I wouldn't have to repair my laptop that's seriously outdated anyway. I've had it tucked in a drawer for months needing repair, but I just haven't felt like doing it. I thought having a netbook would be much easier because it would be so much easier to carry with it's small size especially now that I'm lugging around a baby tucked in a car seat and a diaper bag everywhere I go!

Even though I've wanted one for awhile I had decided to put my purchase off until after the new year since we had so much other stuff to worry about with the baby and then the holidays coming up. Then I ended up in the hospital for 9 days laid up in bed bored out of my mind with nothing to do but watch tv and listen to the beeping of my monitors. I wasn't physically able to take care of my newborn, so Hubby was handling that while I was shooting off short little text and picture messages to Facebook and Twitter from my phone. That was the only contact I had with the online world, the only way to share my new baby girl with my online friends, and my only way to contact my bosses to let them know of my emergency hospital stay.

That's when we realized how much easier those 9 days could have been if I'd had my netbook already. I could have taken advantage of the free wifi in my room, and I couldn't have not only contacted everyone I needed to contact, but I could have even kept working from my hospital bed! I could probably say I would have been the only woman in history to go back to work within hours of delivering lol!

Hubby decided he was going to buy me one as my Christmas present, so I picked out the one I wanted, and he ordered it from Amazon on Black Friday. I decided I wanted the ASUS Eee PC 1005HA-PU1X-BK 10.1-Inch Black Netbook after reading numerous reviews on it. This one has meets all my spec requirements, and it has the 10.5 hour battery life. As it's setup out of the box I'm getting about 8 hours battery life, and that's to be expected since the battery life depends on the computer's power settings.

It arrived Monday, and it's so much more than I expected. I love it, and I'm so glad I chose this one. I'm quite impressed with it, I have to say it has made a world of difference already. For starters I moved my desktop pc back to the office where it belongs which got it out of the living room floor. I can now work on my Netbook in the living room without having to worry about trying to be close to the baby. I was also having to use our tv as my monitor in the living room, and now I can put a movie on for the baby while I work from my netbook. It keeps her occupied, and I get more accomplished. Yep, at 5 weeks she does watch the tv. She's got two movies that totally intrigue her.

Also now I'm not carrying around a huge stack of photos everywhere I go without the baby. Now I'm carrying my netbook, and I can just pop up a slideshow of photos at anytime. Oh yeah, and when the baby's with me the netbook slides perfectly in the outer pocket of the diaper bag.

The best part of all for me is the fact that I can now keep myself occupied at during those late night breastfeeding sessions. I can lay in bed with her, and I can keep myself occupied online so I don't fall asleep without having to turn the tv or lights on which disturb her and make it harder to put her back to bed. When I'm having trouble putting her to sleep I can load up the ambient sound mixer on the Johnson's Baby website, put my laptop near her crib, and let the white noise and various sounds put her to sleep. We've used that technique two nights now when she was fussy and didn't want to sleep!

I never thought a little 10" netbook would make my life so much easier, but it has.

Preemie Diapers: Pampers Swaddlers Vs. Huggies Little Snugglers

Who knew it was going to be so hard to figure out what kind of diapers we want to use?  Of course I would prefer to use cloth diapers, but with a preemie it’s just not going to happen right now.  I had planned to use disposables until she grew out of the newborn size anyway, but with a preemie I’d basically have to cut down and sew my own little diapers to fit her.  Yeah that isn't happening right now.

Anywho, we’re very thankful that a ton of family members and friends ran out when she was born and stocked up on preemie diapers for us knowing that newborn diapers would be way too big for her.  We received a ton of Pampers Swaddlers and a few packs of Huggies Little Snugglers.  Both diapers are for preemies up to 6lbs, but unfortunately weighing in at 4lbs 5oz both types of diapers swallow her whole.  Pampers does make an xs size of Swaddlers specifically for babies 1-5lbs, but the nearest store that carries them is still almost an hour away.  I could have ordered them online, but none of us had our laptops at the hospital and by the time they would have shipped to us she was already grown out of them.

Through trial and error we figured out how to make the Pampers work without leaking all over the place, but the Huggies were benched until she gained more weight.  I was hoping to be able to use the Huggies once she hit 5lbs because I love that they have the wetness indicator strip.  The Pampers have the strip on the newborn diapers but not the preemie version. 

Now that she’s weighing in at 5lbs 3oz I figured I’d give the Huggies another try because I’m running low on Pampers.  Plus the Huggies say they’re for “up to 6lbs”, so I didn’t want her growing out of them before we could use them.  I don’t think I’ll have to worry about that because the Huggies are still huge on her, and I don’t see how they’ll ever give her a no leak fit before she reaches 6lbs.  Even the Pampers newborn size fits better than the Huggies, so it looks like the Huggies have become our emergency only diapers until I can get to the store to exchange the unopened packs.  We definitely recommend the Pampers Swaddlers preemie diapers over the Huggies Little Snugglers.