Babies

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of NETFLIX. Before we got married, my husband was a big tv watcher. He couldn’t believe I didn’t have cable or even basic television in my home to watch shows daily. I said “I don’t need those, I have Netflix“. After we got married, he [...]You just finished reading My Children Watch Netflix Kids (and Nothing Else) #NetflixKids! Consider leaving a comment!This post is written by Penelope Guzman from Penelope's Oasis. If you are not currently reading this via e-mail or an RSS feed directly from Penelope's Oasis, then this post has been stolen or scraped. Stolen content can be reported here .

Throughout the month of May, receive 30% off Maclaren's entire collection of diaper bags. Besides buying online, you can also take advantage of this offer at one of their showroom stores in NYC and Norwalk, CT. Excludes the BMW bag.

Love America? Then you will love this room! This American Pride room from Country Living shows country pride in many details.  The state-pennant artwork from Neiman Marcus is an eye-catcher and also the working traffic light. Add stars, add stripes, and your country room is in process of becoming something wonderful! Reminds me of a country fair! The post American Pride Kids Bedroom appeared first on Design Dazzle.

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Comfort and Harmony. All opinions are 100% mine. I have a secret when it comes to trying to balance this mom of two thing, and it’s having my hands free. I wear my little guy in a wrap (I love mine by Sugar Sweet Baby) about 50% of the time at home and 99% of the time when we’re out. I haven’t mastered nursing him in the wrap just yet… We still need to work on that, but I recently discovered another awesome way to have my hands free while feeding him at home. I was trying to do my daughter’s hair before bed, which can be a process at times. Big T was getting fussy and tired, but I needed to finish with Lil’ J before she went to bed with crazy wet hair. Her patience doesn’t always last long when I’m doing her curls so I didn’t want to take a break to feed him before finishing. Just then I noticed my nursing pillow… BINGO! I plopped him on there, got him latched on, and had my hands free to finish my daughter’s hair. I felt like a supermom. So here’s the thing. The funny thing about babies and baby gear is there are so many places you can set a baby. They sell swings; fancy Mamaroos, bouncy seats, moses baskets, Bumbo chairs… And the list goes on. We sold off and gave away all of our baby stuff after Lil’ J was older, it just took up too much space. I was hesitant to get anything this time around for fear of the same thing—Having so much stuff I’ll rarely use. So when I was contacted to review the Mombo nursing pillow, I was hesitant to accept because it’s one more thing I may or may not need. I have a Boppy but I didn’t have a real nursing pillow, so I thought “what the heck” I’d give it a try. I was also intrigued by the little vibration panel it has inside. When it arrived I was a little disappointed batteries weren’t included, but lucky me, I had an extra C battery in my office drawer. I set it up and propped my little guy in it. There’s a soft side for lounging and if you flip it over, the other side is firm. I posted a photo on Instagram and people have been asking me how it compares to the popular Boppy pillow. I promised to share my honest opinion so here we go… He doesn’t seem to really care for the vibration feature. I thought he’d love it since he has it on his bouncy chair and seems to like that, but I noticed when I laid my head on it, it was a bit strong. I could see myself getting a headache from that, so maybe that’s how he felt. It’s also pretty sensitive to turn on and off. It accidently gets pushed easily. Like I mentioned, I didn’t have a nursing pillow and I didn’t really use anything to prop him on while feeding him, but when I realized I could use it and have my hands free when I was in a pinch, I fell in love. It is a bit of a tight squeeze opening it up around my waist. I think the firm side makes it not as easy and I’m not sure how easy it would be for a heavier sized person to use it, but that’s something to note. Other than that, it’s beautiful, and a nice quality build. I love the alternating firmness on each side. When I nurse him on it he almost always falls asleep. And if I need to pee, I can set him in there for a minute while my daughter adores him, and not have to worry about him falling out. Speaking of my daughter again, she of course always wants to hold him, and the pillow works perfectly for wrapping around her, and letting him sit propped up in her arms. I captured this video, which pretty much sells it for me, and for her… And for her hair. You can find the Mombo pillow at Babies ‘R Us for $24.99. Then there are several of cute covers you could choose for it, some with taggies. For more information about the Monbo pillow you can follow Comfort & Harmony on Twitter or like Comfort & Harmo

It's a fact that moms-to-be look forward to sandal season both to try the latest styles in spring shoes and summer fashions as well as for reasons of comfort.

Parents of girls (especially only girls), answer me this….do girls play-fight like this, or is it a boy thing? (I know my sister and I fought like this growing up, but it wasn’t pretend like here!) While I have you here, do you mind clicking on the Top Mommy Blogs button on the right? I’m at #32 right now, which is pretty pathetic. Only takes a second! The post Boys. appeared first on pyjammy's triplets.

Brent and I decided early on that we wanted to get Arlo a sandbox for his second birthday, as he and Everly always enjoy playing in the ones at our local parks. Late last month, I spent some time researching options online looking for one that would fit our needs. For aesthetic reasons, I wanted a wooden sandbox since it would be in our front yard. I also wanted something that would keep Arlo shaded and I kept thinking that if it was mobile, it would be nice not to have to kill what little grass we have (and the green weeds that we like to pretend is grass). I really loved the design of the Badger Basket Sandbox  because it features a lid that covers the entire box but plays double duty as it folds up into two bench seats. I looked at a lot of different models, but the functionality and price ($119) for this cedar model was my favorite. We purchased the kit to build our own and sent mama the dimensions and asked her if she could design a way to make it mobile. She drove down to Raleigh for Arlo’s birthday party and when she showed me what she had made, I was absolutely thrilled. Her design has five wheels and a long tow rope so that we can move it around the yard. She painted the base bright red to give it some color. She put the sandbox kit together and then attached it to the base with L brackets. Before we added the sand, we drilled holes in the platform base, and then added a layer of mesh outdoor gardening fabric so that water could drain through, but the sand would stay put if it rained. (Mama and her finished sandbox) The result was a beautiful sandbox that can be wheeled around to shady parts of the yard as the day progresses that won’t destroy the ground cover underneath. It’s heavy with the sand, but it works great! At Arlo’s dinosaur party on Saturday (a post to come on that tomorrow!) we filled it full of plastic dinosaurs and dino skeletons and it was a huge hit with the kids in attendance as they practiced being little paleontologists. Some of them stayed put for thirty minutes or more as they happily dug! The only downside is that now I’ve got to learn to come to terms with the layer of sand that I’ve found in the house since it arrived! My mom can build anything out of wood. Our house is full of tables and shelves and bowls and even cupcake stands that she has made based off a simple photo or idea I sent her way. She’s like my own personal Bob Vila! I was just so proud of this that I wanted to share it on my blog. Happy Monday! Love, M

We decided to head out on an adventure yesterday. After a rainy day stuck inside, we were all itching to get out doors. Eddie came up with a plan to visit Stumphouse Tunnel in Walhalla, SC - after reminiscing about a childhood trip there and how awesome he remembered it. So a quick stop to Academy Sports for some flashlights (oh, and they had puddle jumpers on sale for $14), we were off! For those that have never heard of Stumphouse Tunnel, it was started in 1852 as a tunnel for the Blue Ridge Railroad to connect Charleston to Knoxville. But, the Civil War brought construction to a halt. The tunnel is 17 feet wide, 25 feet high, and there's an airshaft about halfway down the 1,600 foot tunnel. In 1951, Clemson University bought the tunnel and used it to cure their famous blue cheese (ew, this sounds so gross to me!). We also got to climb on one of the train cars, I'm assuming that was there in the 1800s, but I couldn't find any information about it. We read a sign going in that there were bats in the cave, and since we were the only ones in there - I was officially freaked out about bats & serial killers. My husband laughed about the bats and said they didn't seem to bother Bruce Wayne all that much. To which I replied that Bruce Wayne was a billionaire with the funds to seek therapy for his trauma - I'd just be stuck as the crazy lady terrified of bats. I'm also a chicken because my 18 month old boy basically led the way down the tunnel and didn't want to come out. Dead of cuteness! The fog did not help ease my bat/serial killer fears At this point, I heard a bat squeak and dragged the girls out running We then headed down a path to view the Issaqueena Falls, named after a Native American woman who alerted settlers (her husband was David Francis, a silversmith) to a native attack. When her tribe realized what she was doing, she jumped off the falls, and they believed her to be dead. In reality, she either landed on a ledge, or a stump (hence Stumphouse Tunnel) and she & her husband left South Carolina to live in Alabama. There's a little easy paved trail to an overlook of the falls. Of course, this was not enough for me & my adventurous family, so we ended up hiking straight down a cliff to get a better view, and play in, the falls. Even little man did some good hiking & climbing! Natalie: "Hooray - the waterfall!"Me: "Honey, that's not it - it's only a little one" Thank you, random hiker that wasn't a serial killer, for taking our picture! We had such a great day, and I hope the girls will remember this. I'm actively finding more places for us to visit this summer, hopefully one a week. I want them to have a love of the outdoors, and possibly not fear bats like I do, hehe. And last, but not least, please click below to help vote for us on Top Mommy Blogs. It's been a while since I've asked, and we've definitely fallen out of the top ten. Thanks!

A typical day in my life right now is drastically different than it was a couple of months ago, and different than it will be a month from now. See, I’m on maternity leave. So a typical day right now usually means I’m surrounded by my awesome kids all day. I’m waking up when my daughter comes barreling in around 8am. If I’m lucky I can give her a bagel and my iPhone and snooze for an extra half hour or so before the baby wakes up to eat. He sleeps on and off in the morning, and I get some time to myself—Well sorta—Alone with the baby, while my husband takes our girl out to the gym. I use that time to write or catch up on freelance work and scarf down a simple breakfast. We spend time all four of us together until my husband goes to work, then we’ll head out to either play with friends, shop, go swimming, anything to get out of the house for a bit. I’ll usually try to squeeze a nap in somewhere if I was up late the night before. The kids and I will crash on the couch or my bed. Late afternoon is dinnertime and usually make pasta or pancakes or grilled cheese, or hot dogs.—Something easy and typically unhealthy (I’m working on that). Then it’s bath, and a couple episodes of something on Nick Jr. or PBS, and it’s bedtime. Bedtime consist of prepping my daughter’s hair, reading 1-3 books and a prayer, sometimes some back rubs and a song. By that time it’s usually a little after 9pm. I sit down and eat something for myself and rock the baby to sleep. He usually doses off around 10pm. Then from 10pm to about 2am (or 4am or 6am this week) I get “me time” to write, edit photos I took during the day, sew, clean, or do whatever else I have a hard time doing during the day when I’m a (willing) slave to my children. The last few nights I’ve been sewing ’til the sun comes up. I’ve realized an afternoon power nap does wonders for me, and I’d rather get less sleep and cross things off my to-do list than sleep my hours of productivity away. The baby is waking up to eat a couple times a night, so I feed him then go back to sleep. Or if I’m still up working I feed him then put him back to bed. In another month when I’m back at work it’s pretty much the same routine except you can add in waking up a little earlier, getting kids ready for school, packing lunches, and working 8 hours in between. I also won’t stay up quite as late since I need to be a presentable functioning adult. On weekends I’m at work just after 4am so I can anchor the morning show, and I try to pre-plan fun stuff in the afternoon or evening with my kiddos. It’s a busy life that’s for sure. But I love it. This was Day 12 of the installment of 30 Things my kids should know about me. Follow the link to play along and link up. The post A glimpse of my busy life appeared first on Baby Making Machine.

(On a trip to Target to pick out a special prize for being well behaved. Arlo had already chosen a toy motorcycle and we were browsing the doll aisle) Everly: Mama, instead of a toy, can I pick out a new pair of shoes? Me: Shoes instead of a toy? Are you sure? Everly: Yes. Sparkly ones. They need to have sparkles. Me: This is proof we are soul mates.