How to be a Good Big Brother

Make sure Baby Sister is safely in her car seat next to you.

(Ethan will not leave the house until Lily is in her car seat in the car.)

Check on baby when she cries.

Share your favorite toys with her.

"Help" with diaper changes by sharing more toys.

Let her hold a magnet.

Or all your magnets!

Watch TV together.

Jump on the bed together!

Overall just enjoy having a new "toy" to play with!

Two is the New One- Rear Facing Car Seat!!

I've been asked many time when I was going to let Ethan turn around and face forward in his car seat. The answer is "As long as he fits in his rear facing car seat (35lbs) he will face the rear!!". I might even get another car seat if he out grows that one before two. Now the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) agrees. If you have a child under two please read this article from Seattle Children's Hospital and keep your child rear facing until two!!

Where is my Baby????

Why has my baby left me and been replaced with a little boy????? And when did it happen? I don't remember. I love my little boy and all the things he can do now! His little personality is really shining through, the good and the not so good:) We are off on our first trip of the month so I thought I'd leave you with a few updated little boy pics to tide you over for awhile.

He loves animal crackers!

Doesn't he look like a little DJ spinning his records?
He pulled up to a standing position today for the first time all by himself!!! Eli and I were in the kitchen and we looked and there he was, standing! I'm glad Eli was here for one of his "first". You'll have to excuse the huge bit marks on his legs. The mosquitoes just love him.

"Riding" his fire truck. He can sit on it by himself but Mom still pushes him around.

Here we are at the garage sale. It was really cold (for South Texas!).

This was the only hat I could find that would fit his big head! It's Eli's and he wore it when he was working in Antarctica!

Ethan showing off my "organized" fabric stash.

"Working" on his truck. He mostly likes to spin the wheels.

Not too happy to be wearing Mom's purple hat! This was before I found the red one.
Favorite time "naked time" after bath!

Dad time.

Oh! He found Dad's computer! Thankfully this one isn't plugged in.

He has also started crawling!!! One knee in front of the other and then a few spins on the bum and a good backwards scoot can get him just about anywhere he wants to go.

If anyone sees my Baby can you let me know because I'm getting a bit tired chasing this little boy around! And he's not even walking yet.

Texas Law-Car Seats and Freebies

Texas passed a new car seat law and it went into effect September 1, 2009. Basically, children now have to be in some type of restraint until 8 years old or 4'9. I think this is a great law because motor vehicle accidents are the #1 killer of kids. Out of all the things we worry about with our children this is one thing we know we can always do right! Having your child properly restrained can keep them from having serious injuries in a car accident.

If you don't live in Texas check out SeatCheck.com to find out your state's laws and the location where you can get your car seat inspected.

Choosing the best car seat is important. After much research, we went with the Britax Roundabout Convertible. It was compact enough to fit in my old Sunfire but had the safety features and weight limit we were looking for. I plan on having Ethan rear face until 30lbs. The law is 20lbs and 1 year old but, after much research, we have decided that the longer they rear face, the better. And the way he eats that could be sooner then later!

Ethan is very comfortable in it. He loves to be able to look out of the windows at all that passes by. This seat is good from 5lbs-40lbs so we will be using it with the next baby also. By then Ethan will be in a seat for bigger kids!

We had our car seat inspected on Tuesday and we had been doing a few things wrong. The seat wasn't buckled in tight enough. It should not be able to move more then 1 inch. We were told we shouldn't have hard toys or the rear facing mirror because in an accident they could fly around and hit us. (I think that could really go for anything you have in the car so we will be leaving the mirror so I can see him. I will risk it hitting us vs not seeing him choke.) We also didn't have his belt tight enough.

Here's before:

And after:You really shouldn't be able to get your finger in between the baby and the strap.

Over all I feel much happier now about the safety of my car set. And the great thing about it was it was free! Here are some more great child safety web sites:

NHTSA

Safe Kids, USA

Speaking of free:

I signed up to USA Baby e-mom rewards program and Ethan got a free pair of Robeez shoes! All the stores are locally owned so I'm not sure if your local store is doing the same but it wouldn't hurt to look. Robeez has the cutest soft soled shoes for crawlers up to toddlers. This is the pair we picked (retails for $19.99):

He already has a pair of winnie the pooh ones that were given to him by his aunt and uncle. After getting our free shoes we walked around the store and found this:

This is Arnold the Snoring Pig! Ethan just laughed and laughed big belly laughs the whole time Arnold was "snoring". It was so funny to see! He even started laughing when I played this video!

When we were in OK last week, a friend of mine who has 2 little boys gave us 2 boxes of cloths (2T-4T) and 1 big box of shoes! They are all so cute and I can't wait till he can fit into them. There was even a pair of cowboy boots! Good thing we live in Texas.

Harlequin is celebrating its 60th anniversary and they are giving away Free books! I found this one at the mall on a stand only the free copy is red. You can't really miss it; it's a whole bunch of the same books with a big "free" sign.

You can also go to their web site http://www.harlequincelebrates.com/ and download a variety of great romance stories for free! I'm not a big harlequin fan but I love free.

Remember: Buckle up for Safety!!

Ode to the Sunfire, Hello Vibe!

My Sunfire and I have been together for 12 years and after 140,000+ miles I can say she has been a good car.

We drove together to college and cosmetology school, a summer in the Ozark Mountains and all the way to Hollywood and back.

I "lived" in her for a whole month while I was "homeless in Hollywood".

She drove our son home for the first time and drove our Harry dog on his last ride.

We have been on countless trips back and forth to visit family in Oklahoma; So many she could probably get there by herself!

Hopefully she will be just as good for her next owner but if not, you will know it's because she misses me. I know I will miss her.

But not enough not to LOVE our new Vibe!!!!!!

This car just jumped out at us when we pulled into the first car lot on our search for a used car. It is perfect! Great gas mileage, lots of room and my mom's favorite feature: the front passengers seat that folds forward! There are lots of other features I won't go into but just know that this car is great! Ethan loves his new backseat. He is not in his "cave" anymore and he can see out of the side windows. We couldn't be happer. I think it was meant to be.

I think the purple frog is happy, too.

Recycling Toys

I am a big fan of recycling toys. Not only is it cheaper for you but you're not adding to the trash in the landfill. It's a good idea to do it as much as you can while your child is still young enough not to know the difference between new and used! One day they will.


So far we have gotten used:
Kick & Play- $10 garage sale
Walker- $20 craigslist.com
Swing- gift from friend
Stroller- gift from friend
Shopping cart cover- $5 garage sale
Fisher Price Car- $3 garage sale
Leap Frog Baby play center- $5 garage sale
Countless number of books for the whole family- thrift stores, garage sales, half price books (I never pay more then $1 for any of Ethan's books and they are all in very good used condition, no writing or tears.)
And of course cloth diapers! Although I think I'm going to stick to new for the one size so they will last through the next few babies.

Here are my 2 new great finds:

After a quick scrub down with some Lysol and a rinse with the water hose, staying away from any battery operated parts, these look good as new.

Here are a few things to look out for when shopping for used items:
Removable and washable fabric parts. Babies make a mess and it is very important to be able to wash the fabric. As I have found with Ethan they also like to chew on everything and you want to be able to get any other babies germs off before your baby chews on it.

Plastic that can be washed and rinsed without damaging any electronic parts. For the same reason as above.

Electronic parts in working order. If the person selling it really wants to sell it they will make sure it has batteries and works. You want to play around with it to make sure it works.

Books need to be in good condition. No chewed corners, torn pages or crayon marks. I'm a big fan of keeping books in good condition. I hope to teach that to Ethan!

With clothes I make sure they don't have stains on them or they are not torn. Unless it is a really cute outfit and I can fix what ever is wrong.

I have lots of thrift stores here and some are better then others. Some have a great selection of books, some are really big on clothes. I only shop at Goodwill for books because their prices are too high for everything else. Some of the prices are as high as if you bought it new. You just have to be careful and know your retail prices. This comes from years of shopping experience!!

There is only one thing I have found so far that I will not buy used: Car seat! It is very important to know that your car seat is in excellent condition. They say that after 6 years the plastic in the seat starts to break down and doesn't protect as well. Also, if you are not the original owner then you will not find out about any recalls that your car seat might have. Here are a few great web sites I found that have excellent reviews:

http://www.consumersearch.com/car-seats

www.CarSeatData.org On this one you can type in what car you have and see what seats work best. This helped us out because I have a really small backseat and I want Ethan to rear face until 33lbs.

Happy Shopping!