Quick Guide Giveaway

***This giveaway is now closed***

When my daughter was born 3 years ago, I lay in my hospital bed holding my new little baby with a swarm of questions buzzing through my head. How often do I change her? What do I do if she's fussy and won't calm down? What if she gets a fever? It was exhausting trying to figure out all of the "what if's" while functioning on very little sleep. As a new mom, I wanted to be the best one I could, but I still had so much to learn. 

Three years and two kids later, I can say I made it through babyhood and can answer most baby questions like a seasoned vet. But I venture to say most new mom's feel just as I did - excited but a little scared and full of a lot of questions. Luckily for all of us, Lianne, a mother of four, answered all of those questions for us an compiled them in a postcard-sized booklet for easy reference. 

Lianne's Quick Guide booklet is a comprehensive guide for parents of children ages 0-6 months old. It covers all of the basics from newborn care to basic development questions and everything in between. The booklet is small, so it's easy to pack in a hospital bag or purse, and would make a great gift for any new parent (I sure wish I had one when I had my daughter!)

Lianne has offered to give away one of her quick guides to one of my readers (even all of my wonderful international readers :) so that you can keep it for your own reference, or maybe gift it to a friend (hello baby shower!)

To enter, just do one (or both) of the following:

1. Tell me why you would like a Quick Guide

2. Give me one question or subject that you would like to know more about

Please make sure you leave your email address in your comment if it's not linked to your profile so I can contact you if you win! The giveaway will be opened until midnight on June 28th CST, and the winner will be announced here the next day.

And, even if you don't win, Lianne is selling her book in paperback or PDF form on her website for only $7.95, so go grab a copy!

Trouble

(Source)

Exhibit A:

Here's a tip: when your son is alone in his room and he's quiet for a little too long, you should probably go investigate. Chances are, he probably found the baby powder and decided to shake it all over his room. And his head. and the floor.

Check out the baby powder line on his head, I don't even know HOW he managed to do that. And if you look closely, you can see that it's even on his pacifier!

Oh this boy, he's the funniest little, dirt-covered noisy mess I know.

My big kid

I had some fun snapping a few shots of this little guy lately. Or should I say big guy? He's 17 months now...wow it's strange to even type that! He's in that bittersweet stage between baby and kid where the glimpses of his babyhood are becoming less and less and I see him becoming more of a "big kid."

His vocabulary is off the charts. The doctor said at this point, he should have a vocabulary around 4-6 words, but I can name off at least 20 words that he spouts off on a regular basis. He also prefers to run most places instead of toddling around like he used to.

But then I catch him playing with his toes like he used to when he was a baby and it makes me smile and think about those little glimpses of babyhood that I get each day. Like how he still mostly babbles, or how he thinks it's funny when I sing "itsy bitsy spider" to him and tickle his chunky legs.

And the cuddles....I hope he's always this cuddly! I'm lucky that both of my kids still enjoy cuddling with me. Sitting down on the couch and cuddling with them after dinner is one of my favorite things.

So Connor, take your time becoming a big kid. I don't mind waiting a little longer.

Make it rain....marshmallows

Hi, my name is Connor McCaffrey and I'm addicted to marshmallows.

I blame my husband. Not for the mess, but for what caused the mess: the marshmallow addiction. I can't remember the first day that Patrick gave Connor a mini marshmallow, but from that day forward the boy has had a blood lust for them. He can be in a horrible mood and all he has to see is that bag of Jet-Puffed marshmallows, his drug of choice, and his little face lights up. It's cute really, but not when your floor is covered in marshmallows.

We have a pantry door that had the baby lock broken on it from 3 years of Haley's little fingers attempting to pry it open. Eventually the little plastic lock gave up on life, and we've never bothered to replace it. Enter Connor and his addiction.

Patrick and I recently had a particularly eventful evening with whiny children last week, and we had just sat down to our dinner while the kids played. We heard rustling by the pantry door and knew immediately that Connor had found the bag of marshmallows. Knowing that the bag had a clip on it, we decided to give ourselves another minute to chew until one of us would have to pry the bag out of his little fingers. One minute was all he needed.

As Patrick walked over to Connor, what he saw was a very pleased little boy in the midst of a mini marshmallow feast. Rather than waiting for us to give him a couple marshmallows, Connor had taken matters into his own hands and shaken the contents around the kitchen. If he could talk in full sentences, I imagine him yelling, "Make it rain!" while scattering the contents of the bag around the kitchen.

And unfortunately for Connor, the 5 second rule did not apply to these marshmallows. He had to go several days without his fix until we could buy a new bag. And that new bag now resides in the pantry on lock down.

Push Pack Giveaway with Small Batch Studio

***This giveaway is now closed***

I have another great giveaway for you this week! If you're a follower of my blog, chances are it's because you found me because you saw my Hospital Survival Kit on Pinterest or another social site. I could have never guessed how popular that little bag of goodies would be! I made the kit for a friend of mine who was due with her first baby last year. Since she had never had a baby before, my friend didn't know what kind of things she would want or need when she went to the hospital. I thought back to my last two births in the hospital and the things I wished I had brought with me, and that became my inspiration to make the kit.

Laura, a mother of 3 girls and owner of Small Batch Studio, had the same inspiration that led her to create the Push Pack, a pre-packed bag of wants and needs for laboring mamas. And the best part? The Push Pack is already assembled for you and can be customized in your choice of pink or blue. 

Laura says, There is nothing like preparing for the birth of your first-born...One thing I struggled with was what to bring to the hospital. There are lists out there, long lists. I know people who brought birthing balls, boom boxes, aromatherapy massage oils, as well as the clothes for themselves and their baby. Now, I am not saying that those things are unnecessary, but I don’t know any mom who brings the same stuff when they’re having #2.

The packing list for the subsequent births are much smaller and more practical. The only problem is now that you have a child or children, when do you have time to pack all of your essentials? Do you want to live out of a travel bag for two weeks? I came up with the idea of the Push Pack. I interviewed a bunch of moms asking them what things they were so glad to have or wished they’d had while they were in labor. The push pack includes the items that were mentioned most often. Call it wisdom and experience, peace of mind, and a gift of love all wrapped into one bag.

The Push Pack includes so many fun and useful goodies for new moms, and all bath and body products are either natural or organic. The pack includes:

• EO® lavender scented shampoo, conditioner and bath gel
• washcloth
• make up remover
• razor and shaving cream lotion
• deodorant
• comb and hair bands
• lip balm
• toothbrush and toothpaste
• breast pads
• maxi pads
• disposable underwear
• comfy socks (your choice of pink or blue)
• playing cards
• Motherlove Organic Nipple Cream®
• notepad
• thank you cards and pen
• gum
• Preggie Pop Drops®
• Bellybar®
• cup of oatmeal and spoon

What new mother wouldn't love to have all the essentials on hand when their new little one is born? The Push Pack would make a great shower gift for a friend (or keep one on hand for yourself!)

Laura is giving one of my lucky readers a chance to win their very own Push Pack! Each pack comes with the items above in your choice of blue or pink.

You can enter 3 different ways to win:

1. Tell me which item in the Push Pack you love the most
2. Like Small Batch Studio on Facebook
3. Follow My Own Road and leave me a comment on this post letting me know

**The giveaway ends February 23rd at midnight CST. The winner of the Push Pack giveaway will be chosen using Random.org, and announced here on February 24th. Please make sure that your email address is linked to your profile when you comment, or include it in your comment.**

A walk outside

Today was..well, not what I expected. We went to church, dropped the kids off, then 30 minutes into the service, we got a call that our house alarm went off. We grabbed the kids and rushed home after being assured that the cops were on their way. When we got home do you know what we found?

Nothing. A balloon that we bought the kids had moved when the AC came on and set the motion sensor off. I'm sure we were the least exciting call the cops had gotten all day.

We did enjoy some time outside though. It was one of those overcast, perfect-for-picture-taking kind of days. So Connor and I took a trip outside while Haley was napping.

This guy is busy perfecting his walking. He actually has it down really well, as long as he's not wearing shoes that is.

Shoes on his little chunky feet make him one angry dude. The minute we put them on him, he kicks and whines pitifully until they come off again. It's not comfortable for him, shoes just make his little life more difficult. It made me think of how our relationship with God can be sometimes. When something hard comes along, we kick and scream instead of doing what we should do - just come to Him.

And He picks us up and sets us on our feet again.

That's not to say we won't have other spills later. But He's always there, watching over us like any caring parent does. Ready to wipe away the tears and pick us up again. Because ultimately, we have to go through the hard stuff to make us stronger.

Even though it may be hard to understand at the time, one day we'll look back on all that hard stuff and say, "If I hadn't tried and tripped a little, I wouldn't have learned how to walk."

So thank you God for shoes. And for helping us up when we fall.

Little Monster 1st birthday party

We're back from vacation, I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! We sure did, and we celebrated our little guy's 1st birthday too. It was a whole week full of parties and overeating. But we didn't mind that at all.

My boy turned one. ONE. I can't believe it's been a year already. He's just growing so fast (maybe a little TOO fast, he's already in 18 month clothing)! To celebrate, we threw him a Little Monster 1st birthday party, customized monster shirt and all. We had a great time!

The invitations were made using my new digital scrapbooking software by My Memories. I actually designed the monster myself using various shapes that were included in the software.

For the food and decorations, I kept it somewhat simple (if you don't count the time I took to design 25 monster sandwiches :) The plates, napkins, banner, table cloth, and pinata were all purchased from Target (I couldn't believe my luck when I went to the party aisle and saw that they had monster party supplies!) We also decorated with some streamers and balloons - again, I wanted easy stuff!



The food was my favorite part. We made "monster fruit dip" by combining a package of cream cheese and a container of marshmallow fluff and dying it green.

And my absolute FAVORITE part was the monster sandwiches (tutorial to come!) in turkey and ham, complete with olive eyes and cheese teeth.

Little monster cake pops with a foam board covered in tissue paper as a stand.

And of course, the cake. I found this cake on Pinterest and was determined to duplicate it. I'm going to man up and confess that I had to Photoshop this picture a bit to cover up the fact that the cake split in the back some after sticking the cake pops into it. It was kind of a bummer that it didn't turn out exactly like I wanted, but I told the perfectionist in me to chill out because it was still pretty dang cute I think. Major props to my mom for piping on all the frosting "fur"!

The cake was 3 layers, with each layer dyed a different color! Note to self: in the future, purchase professional food coloring and not just the little tubes from Wal-Mart. I didn't get the exact colors I wanted, but they were close enough.

 

Connor couldn't believe his luck at first when we set the cake in front of him. I think he was wondering if we mistakenly gave him his very own huge piece of cake to have all to himself. He got over the shock pretty quickly :)

We didn't do any party games because Connor is so little, but my awesome sister-in-law made these great monster masks out of foam which made for great photo props!

At present time, Connor wasn't too into the actual gift opening.

He was more interested in feeding me the wrapping paper.

But we had a great time catching up with friends and family and celebrating Connor, my favorite little monster boy.

Haley didn't even mind sharing all the attention. Just for a little while. She looked adorable in her monster shirt too.

I'll be sharing more of the details on the party soon!

Happy Birthday Connor!

Happy first birthday, Connor!

One year ago today, I was sitting in a hospital bed holding my little snuggly son and marveling at how small and helpless he was. Today, he's a ball of energy - and 3 times the size! Despite all the bed rest and worrying, my boy came out just perfect (and on his own time.)

I'm so proud to be your Mama.

Acorn Knot Hat

In case you missed my guest post over at Sugar Bee Crafts recently, here's what I shared!

When Mandy asked us to come up with something holiday or season-themed, I knew just wanted I wanted to do. When putting away my son's summer wardrobe, I realized that he didn't have any winter hats  - and he has a lot of noggin to keep warm - so I decided to make him one. I immediately thought about doing a knot hat because the knot on top looks kind of like the stem on an acorn. Add a leaf, and you have an acorn knot hat! And what's more adorable than a baby in an acorn knot hat? Exactly.
Here's what you need to make one too!


Supplies:

• Knit fabric for the hat
• Knit fabric for the cuff
• Small scrap of felt for the leaf
• Needle and embroidery floss
• Fabric glue
• Basic sewing supplies

Step 1: Create your pattern.

First, draw a basic knot hat pattern to fit your child's head (use a tape measure to help!) and add 1 inch on for seam allowance. Then, cut the bottom 2 inches off so you have two pattern pieces: the hat piece and the cuff.

Step 2: Cut out your pattern pieces.

Use your pattern to trace and cut out two hat pieces from your knit fabric.

For the cuff, fold your fabric in half and place your cuff template on the fold (I cut up an old onesie I had laying around to use for the cuff.) Trace and cut out your cuff piece. Repeat for a second cuff piece.

Each cuff should be 4 inches wide when they're open.

Step 3: Attach your hat and cuff pieces.

With one of your hat pieces facing right side up, fold one cuffs with the wrong sides together and pin the raw edge of your cuff to the raw edge of the hat (see below.) The folded part of the cuff should be facing up. Sew straight across the cuff using 1/4 inch seam allowance.

Flip the cuff down and press (as tempting as it may be, don't skip this step!).

Now, stitch straight across the top of the cuff to make sure it lays flat (I used a zig-zag stitch to make it more decorative.)

Step 4: Make your leaf.

Cut two leaves from some craft felt. Use a disappearing ink marker to draw the veins on one of the leaves.

Using a needle and some white floss, stitch across your drawn lines and knot your thread. Using some craft glue like Fabri-tac, glue the other leaf to the back of the one you just stitched and let dry.



Step 5: Finish your hat.

Place your two hat pieces right sides together and pin. Insert your felt leaf near the base of the knot and pin in place. Sew to join the two pieces. (You can finish the edges by zig-zagging or serging them, but since knit fabric doesn't fray, I didn't bother to.)

Turn your hat inside out and use a skewer to push out any corners. Tie a knot at the top to make your acorn stem, and there you have it!

I put the hat on my son to take some pictures and as it turns out...my son hates hats. Maybe I should change step one to read: First, make sure that your child likes to wear hats. Yes? OK, now move on to step 2.

Oh well, I still think it's super cute. I'll just have to convince him of that too.

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