Wordless Wednesday.

Lovable Labels [Review & Giveaway]

I have mentioned a time or two that I really, really love labels & labeling the boys' goodies for daycare. Well when the wonderful folks at Lovable Labels contacted me asking if I would do a review/giveaway of their Ultimate Camp Pack...you know I said yes right away.

So I picked their Movin' & Groovin' labels with 'H. Semans' on them so both boys can use them & also because they end up sharing most of the clothes and bigger items so I won't have to re-label everything.

They came really quickly and were in the most awesome little booklet. Seriously, this is the most convenient thing ever. All of my other labels are just on sheets so they are literally all over- I lack organization skills...haha.

& even cooler than the booklet itself...each different kind of sticker is labeled with tabs so they are easy to find and grab.










There are 3 pages of the clothing stickers :)



So far I have labeled the boys' spring jackets, face cream, lotion, a few sippies & my new HD Flip camera. Ya know cause I love labeling things :) I love 'em...I can't wait to label the rest of the boys' spring goodies! ____________________________________________________________________

& now for the super fun part!!

Lovable Labels has very generously offered one of my lucky readers a Camp Pack of their choice...that's 153 labels!!!


To Enter [please leave a separate comment for each entry]:

Mandatory Entries:

Visit Lovable Labels and tell me which product is your favorite. [1 entry/comment]

Follow my blog & tell me that you do. [1 entry/comment]


Additional Entries:

"Like" Lovable Labels on Facebook. [1 entry/comment]

Follow me & Lovable Labels on Twitter. [1 entry/comment]

Tweet "WIN a Camp Pack from @mylovablelabels @jennifermae0625 http://tinyurl.com/4jh9236" and leave me the link. [1 entry/comment per tweet per day].

Blog about this giveaway and leave me the link. [1 entry/comment]

Good Luck!!! This giveaway will end one week from today Tuesday, April 5, 2011 at 12noon CST [just in time for Camp Season!]. The winner [chosen by random.org] will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. Open to US and Canadian residents only.


Please note: I was provided with these awesome labels free of charge. I was in no other way compensated for this review/giveaway. These opinions are my own.

Mommy Tears.

It's mornings like this morning that make me wish I didn't have to go to work- at least not every day or at least not when my boys want to play.

So this morning I dropped Holden off in his room- he was full of smiles and talking up a storm. He just loves his teachers and little friends.

I walked Henry to his room & he was the first tot there- which was unusual but I thought he would like his first pick of morning toys. He was a bit clingy but was excited when his teacher brought out the chalkboard and chalk. He reached for the chalk bucket and grabbed 2 pieces of chalk. He kept one and handed the other to me saying, "Mommy."- yes, he now calls me mommy- it makes my heart melt.

Anyways, I was already running late for work so I told him that I couldn't play but I love him and I hope he has an awesome day. He was totally fine with that and watched me leave his room as he was coloring away.

I barely made it to my car before bursting into tears. One- because my sweet baby boy just wanted to play with his mom & I had to go to work and two- he has grown into such an independent little boy and was just fine without me.

Some days are just a little hard being a working mom.

We're sleeping. All of us.

Henry has been a pretty awesome sleeper in his crib since we did Ferber with him when he was around 7 months old. & Holden was a good one too until the night we had to call 911...we didn't feel comfortable putting him back in his crib alone because we were afraid we weren't going to hear him if something similar happened again.

Well that was over a month ago and he was still in our bed. I love cuddling with my sweet boy all night but none of us- including Holden- were getting a full night's sleep. All 3 of us were rolling, turning and wiggling all night. Not to mention the numerous times a night Ryan & I woke up during the night to make sure he was ok.

So last weekend we said enough was enough and Holden needed to go back to his crib. So set on using Ferber again- we fed our sweet boy and laid him in his crib awake. I brushed my teeth and washed my face & 4 minutes later he was screaming so I went in to do our 1st check. I reached down to rub his tummy & his jams were soaking wet. Yeah he had thrown up his entire bottle. We took him into our room for a quick bath and new jams and put him back into our bed for the night. Boo!

Well we tried again earlier this week and we have been living on a cloud ever since. The first night it took him about an hour and several check-ins. The second night it took him 15 minutes and two check-ins and last night it took my sweet Holden only 6 minutes and one check-in. He has officially learned to soothe himself to sleep. It's wonderful.

Now the only problem is....Ryan & I are sleeping too well. We are having a very hard time waking up in the morning because we are so blissfully sleeping.

& so are my sweet boys...these are the pictures I took of them this morning after I turned the lights on in their rooms...

Happy Friday :)

Have I Become THAT Mom?

From as early as I can remember I always wanted to be a mom. A young mom. I didn't want to be married for a number of years before having babies and I wanted lots of them.

Now that I am an actual mom to real human babies, I fear that I am losing who I am- who I used to be.

I find myself talking about my kids every time I open my mouth. "Henry said 'tank youp' last night without being prompted when I handed him his cheese.", "Holden slept in his crib last night- for the whole night.", "Henry can unzip his jacket himself now.", "Holden has the sweetest dimples...ever."....see I can't stop myself. I seriously could have kept writing.

I am probably the most annoying co-worker and friend. Seriously- I would be sick of hearing about H2 and all the 'awesome' things they do. But my mind is consumed of baby & toddler related thoughts...all.day.long. & it's very hard to turn off.

& on top of all the chatter about my ridiculously adorable kids...I don't really do anything for myself anymore. Sure, I take a bath by myself every night while the kids are sleeping but that really is about it. Even when I take time to make crafts [which I LOVE doing]- it's a cutie baby blanket or onesie- for the kids.

I get my adult interaction fix while I'm at work and as soon as I get home, I don't want to leave. Well I don't want to leave my boys. It seems to be getting harder and harder for me to ask family to watch the boys while Ryan and I go out and do something without the boys. I know that some of the stems from the mommy-guilt I have from working full time but I don't know if it would be much different if I was home with them.

Now don't get my wrong...I love, love, love being a mom. It's by far the most amazing and rewarding thing I have ever done in my 26.75 years of life. I wouldn't trade the sleepless nights or temper tantrums for anything. But I want to make sure I'm something other than 'Henry and Holden's mom'.

So basically I'm in a rut...

Teething Hell.

We have had bouts of teething crabbiness before but NOTHING compared to this week. & actually it was just Henry. We thought he had all his teeth...well apparently not. His very last molars- which I think are technically 3 year molars- have all broken the skin. All 4 of them. You would think someone was trying to cut his arms off by the screaming that has happened. & Tylenol, you suck. So we have been keeping up on the Ibuprofen [& Dora, Handy Manny & Mickey Mouse] and he seems much better. Hopefully this will pass quickly.

But also in teething news...my sweet, tiny [not really tiny] Holden muffin is now the proud owner of 6 [SIX] teeth. He now has his 2 bottom ones that came in around 3 months and 4 shiny teeth on top. & it makes me cry.

Wiggly babies make it hard to get pictures of all 4 top teeth but you get the idea.

My sweet babes are growing way too fast but I do love their tiny teeth :)

Electric Lime Photography Winner!!

Drumroll please....




Congratulations Elizabeth- I can't wait to see your photos!!!! Email me at jennifermae0625@gmail.com within 48 hours or a new winner will be chosen.

Wordless Wednesday.

Sunday [& Saturday] Funday

We actually had a pretty productive weekend- which for us is a huge accomplishment. Well the laundry room is still full of laundry baskets full of baby and toddler clothes but we will pretend it's not there :)

We spent Saturday at Ikea with my mom and sister. We didn't really have any plans to buy anything but walked out with a bunch of stuff to add little updates to our house. We got a new lime green duvet for our bed, curtains for our eating area in our kitchen, new pillows for the couch, a vase & decorative branches for our dining room and a bunch of random kitchen supplies. It was a pretty good trip & we were able to jazz up quite a few rooms.

We then spent Sunday at Costco- & it was the first time we didn't spend over $100. We only bought the fresh fruit we needed for the week. Go us! & we spent the rest of the afternoon trying to get our 2nd baby art wall hung up.

All was well with the pictures and those actually only took 10 minutes to hang up but the darn wire curtain rod thing is a pain in my rear and I will never put another one up again. It's probably because we didn't have the correct wire cutter to actually cut the wire without having it fray so it didn't fit in the stupid hole but we jimmy-rigged it with some tape...let's hope it stays!

I LOVE how it turned out! Everytime Henry walks to his room, he points at the art and says "Mine!". It's so cute to see how proud he is to see his art on the wall. :)

The Cutest Baseball Hats...Ever.

Our family is pretty baseball obsessed. Ryan played his whole life- tee ball through college and has coached a varsity high school team. Henry's big boy room is baseball and the boys have countless baseball goodies. They are destined to play- let's just hope they like it :)

So I was searching on Etsy one day [huge shock!] where I found the most adorable baseball hats. Well I remembered a good friend of mine [Lindsey] had just opened her own Etsy store and asked her if she could replicate the adorable baseball hats. About a week later...these little gems were at our front door.



Tell me that those aren't the cutest baseball hats...ever!!! Thank you Lindsey...they are perfect!!!

Electric Lime Photography [Giveaway]

This is probably my most exciting giveaway to date!

You saw the adorable photos that she took of my family this past weekend & in case you missed it...here are a few of the cuties...

Christina [a full time working mom and photographer extraordinaire] at Electric Lime Photography offered to give away a free photo shoot complete with 1-2 hours of shoot time along with a disc of the images to one of my VERY lucky Twin Cities readers!!

There are just a couple rules:
~The winner must be from the Twin Cities or Greater Twin Cities Area.
~The shoot will take place in April or May and will likely be outdoors [MN weather permitting :)].
~The shoot can be for any type of photos- baby, family, engagement, maternity, etc. You do not need to have kids to win!
____________________________________________________________________

Ok now the really fun part!!

Please remember to leave a separate comment for each entry. ie: if it says 3 entries...leave 3 comments!


Mandatory Entries:

Follow my blog and tell me that you do. [1 entry/comment]

Tell us why you want to win this super awesome photo shoot. [1 entry/comment]

Additional Entries:

Like Electric Lime Photography on Facebook. [1 entry/comment]

Follow Christina's awesome blog. [1 entry/comment]

Share this giveaway on a public forum [Facebook, Twitter, blog, etc.] & leave me the link [3 entries/comments]


Good Luck!!! This giveaway will end one week from today on Wednesday, March 23rd at 12noon CST. The winner [chosen by random.org] will be announced later that afternoon. They will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be drawn.

Sunday Funday

We had a pretty good Sunday...we ate chicken nuggets...took a nap on the couch...chased each other around the house...& spent a few hours trying to get 2 little boys to take some cutie pictures. A toddler who will remain nameless wanted nothing to do with it...but he did end up cracking a tiny smile.
___________________________________________________________________

A fellow blogger and wife of a college friend recently contacted me to see if she could take some photos of the boys for her photography portfolio [Electric Lime Photography]. Of course I jumped at the opportunity. It was a bit challenging with a 19 month old who suddenly became shy and didn't want his picture taken and a 6 month old who managed to bump his head pretty good...twice. But overall it was a good time and I think the pictures turned out adorable!!! I can't wait for the CD with the rest of the images :)

Children & Gender Roles

I have been thinking a lot about gender roles lately...mainly sparked by a few incidents at daycare. & the more I think about it, the more I [Ryan, too] am ok with my boys doing things that aren't necessarily within the gender norms for little boys.

I think it was about 3-4 weeks ago I walked into daycare and found Henry spinning in a circle wearing a hot pink tutu. I instantly got a smile on my face and watched my little boy dance around. I was also happy that his teacher didn't make him take it off just because he is a boy. He watches his little [boy & girl] friends play dress up and he wanted to play too.

Last week his teacher mentioned that when she was putting little piggies in a little girl’s hair, Henry sat down and asked for some. She didn’t give him any at the time because she didn’t know how we would feel about that but she did ask us that evening and we both looked at each other and said sure. There is no harm in a tiny toddler piggy tail.

& last night I went to pick the boys up and I realized that Henry wasn’t wearing the pants that I had sent him in. After a closer look, I noticed some cutie ribbons decorating his new jeans. His teacher said she went to grab his extra clothes [I totally spaced on this one] and when she couldn’t find any, she had to put him in girls jeans since they were the only ones in his size. She did also make a comment that she knew we wouldn’t mind because we are pretty open minded parents. I loved hearing that!! & no we didn’t care one bit that for a few hours he had to wear girls jeans.



Now don’t get me wrong, we aren’t going to go out and buy the boys frilly dresses or hair bows. But if our kids want to play house with a Barbie or have matching piggy tails as their friend, we aren’t going to say no. Perhaps our gender roles decisions stems from how we were raised. I grew up with 2 younger sisters and we were never told we couldn’t do something because girls aren’t supposed to do it. My sister played baseball [not softball], we fished, we took gun safety, we played in dirt & dug up worms…I could go on.

Now I know society is a bit hypocritical when it comes to girls being able to do boyish things but boys shouldn’t do girly things. I have never understood that way of thinking. & I know there are tons of people [probably some of you] who cringe when they hear that a little boy is taking a dance class or playing with baby dolls. & I am by no means saying that our point of view and way of raising our boys without definite gender roles is the correct way, so please don’t take this post as that.

But I would love to know where you stand on the subject…

Holden 6 Months & Henry 19 Months

My sweet muffin boys are growing up so freaking fast. Seriously...where has the time gone?!?

Holden:

~20 pounds, 12 ounces
~28.5 inches long
~Rolling onto his side and tummy to sleep at night.
~Has 3 teeth [2 on the bottom, 1 on top] with 2 more coming in.
~Eating 1-2 meals of solids a day- so far it's squash and green beans.
~Babbling all kinds of sounds- I swear he calls me "mama" :)
~Loves Henry and tries to hug him every time he is within reach.
~Still our sweet boy but isn't afraid to let us know if he doesn't like something.
~Loves, loves, loves to cuddle at night [we haven't moved him back in his crib since the 911/hospital incident].
~Is a jumping maniac and loves his new Jumperoo.

Henry:

~25 pounds, 8 ounces
~33 inches long
~Saying every possible word he hears.
~Still counting to 3...we are working on 4 & 5.
~Says please [pees] and thank you [tank youp].
~Can drink from a glass without spilling.
~Loves Holden as much as he loves him.
~Has 16 teeth.
~Takes every stuffie and blankie out of his crib every time he gets up in the morning.
~Loves cleaning and is obsessed with vacuums [whoa].
~His best friend is still Bella at daycare and talks about her all the time.


& a cutie picture of my big boys...jumping together :)

The Answers.

You asked...now I'll answer... :)

Britt said...
So I'm in your same position with 2 under 2 and always like to know how other families relate...What's a typical daily routine your family has? Our weekday routine is pretty set. Ryan and I wake up by 5:45 and try to get ready as fast as we can before the boys wake up. The boys are usually up by 6:30 [sometimes we have to wake them up], we get them ready and are out the door by 7. We drop off and pick up at daycare together most days. We get home around 5:15, have dinner, sing songs/dance, bath and bed. Week days are hard because we don't get to spend as much time with the boys as we would like due to both working full time but we savor the weekends :)

How do you make time for yourself? (I'm really bad at this and any ideas would be great!) The only thing that I really do is take a bath by myself every night. I usually do it after the boys go to bed but if Holden happens to be up, Ryan takes care of him so I can have 30 minutes to myself.

When was the last "date night" you and the hubby had? We are pretty fortunate to have family close by who LOVE to watch the boys so we get out every couple weeks. We actually just had a date night with another couple [our favorites- Mark & Janna :)] last Friday.

Is 2 under 2 harder or easier than you expected? I would have to say it's pretty much what I expected. We have hard days and super easy days. I think if you have the mindset that everything is fine, it is. You can't expect every day to go perfectly or you will make your life much harder than it needs to be.

Anonymous said...
I know you work full time, do you wish you were a SAHM? Haha...nope. In an ideal world I would work part time [3 days a week] but my darn insurance is too good and it wouldn't be the same at part time.

Do you and Ryan want more kids? We have been toying with the idea of another baby. I would love another one, Ryan goes back and forth.

Anonymous said...
What is your typical morning routine? See question 1 :)

What do you and Ryan do for a living? We are both elementary teachers by degree and it's how we met [I was student teaching at the school he taught at] but now neither of us is teaching. Ryan is an Education Consultant Coordinator- basically he trains school districts and corporations on how to use different technologies- SMART Boards and such. I work as a Financial Aid Officer at a state college, one day I would love to get back into teaching.

Phillips Family said...
I am curious if you are still breastfeeding Holden and if so, is it difficult to pump while at work? I am preggo with my 2nd and hope to be more successful w/ bf-ing #2 and I will return to work after 3 months. I am not :( I did nurse him after I went back to work after 12 weeks but my supply tanked with the pumping/nursing change and we just felt it was best to wean him at that point. I did have a huge freezer stash so he had breast milk for quite a few weeks after I returned to work.

Also, my 1st born Carson is the same age as Henry and we are wondering if Carson will be ready for a toddler bed when the 2nd baby arrives? We toyed with the idea of a toddler bed for Henry but we just didn't feel it was the right time.

When do you think Henry will be ready for a toddler bed? We aren't pushing it and he hasn't made any attempts to climb out of his crib yet so we are good with the crib for now. We may try this summer around his 2nd birthday.

Megan said...
You are also a MN Mommy, what fun places do you take the kids to when it is a million degrees below 0? Our go-to place is Mall of America. We are seriously there twice a month, sometimes more. The kids love people watching and walking around.

Do you and Ryan play any sports, if so which ones? If chasing a toddler is a sport, then that's my sport :) Ryan plays softball every spring/summer.

I am a chicken shit when it comes to cutting my hair, how did you decide the shorter cut was for you? I had cut my hair prior to my wedding and then grew it back out but when I wore it in a pony every.single.day, I knew I had to cut it again. I just get too lazy with long hair & now I'm forced to do it.

Ryan V. said...
Where is your favorite place to shop for yourself? For the boys? We LOVE Nordstrom Rack. Ryan and I buy most of our clothes there and shoes for the boys. I would say we buy a majority of our boys clothes at Target and Old Navy. I refuse to spend a lot of money on kids clothes. We are clearance rack kind of people :)

Mrs.Zimmerman said...
I'm a mother of two- 8 years old and 1 and I find it hard to keep up with them sometimes. I admire you with the 2 little ones. We've been talking about having another and I would love to hear any tips you have being a mommy of 2 under 2. I think our biggest thing is team work. If Ryan and I didn't work together, it would be MUCH harder than it is. Typically we each take a kid and do what we need to do. Another thing is not worrying if your house is a total mess and you are living out of laundry baskets in the laundry room. I think this has been the hardest thing for Ryan because he is a clean freak. You have to let the little things go and just live.

Also any go to recipes for weekly dinners? Haha...I wish. We are SO bad at eating at home. We have done Let's Dish before and that does help with us eating at home and the meals are super easy to make and are pretty tasty.

Anonymous said...
Have you found having 2 under 2 has changed friendships? I think to a degree it has but I think that's natural when people start having kids. I feel like people just assume we are too busy to hang out because we have two kids and I guess they are right but we also enjoy going out with friends and enjoying adult time. It's a hard struggle for me in particular because I don't see my boys much during the week since I work full time and the weekends really are our only time to spend with them, I think that's hard for friends without kids or SAHM's to understand sometimes. 9 times out of 10 I will choose to stay home with my kids and Ryan if asked to go out but then again I have always been a home body & would prefer a movie and pizza to going out any day.

How do you (or do you) meet other momma friends? I have met a few fabulous ladies through blogging and other online mommy groups. & of course some of my pre-mommy friends are now moms so they are now my mommy friends :)

That was fun! We'll have to do it again sometime!!

My Organic Chemistry Winner!!

Drumroll please....

Congrats Brittney!!! Email me at jennifermae0625@gmail.com within 48 hours or a new winner will be drawn.

Do you have questions???

After seeing a few of my hot blogger friends posting Q & A posts, I decided to be a copy cat and jump on that train since I haven't done one in quite some time.

So if you have a burning question or are just simply wondering something about me, the boys or anything really...ask away :)

I will likely post the answers on Monday or Tuesday!

We're a Featured Blog.

I was pretty flattered to get an email from Krista at www.become.com asking if I was interested in having my tiny, little blog featured on their Best of the Web feature. Of course I jumped at the opportunity...so check us out [we are about halfway down] :)

http://pocketchange.become.com/2011/03/best-of-the-web-be-home-19.html

Wordless Wednesday.