That kid stole my stuff.... KID LABELS - MOM APPROVED

For the past few years, my kids have been going to some sort of school. Starting at 18 months, my oldest went to Mother's Day Out, then Montessori Preschool, now off to Kindergarten. You have to pack extra clothes, sippy cups, lunches. We have lost shoes, jackets, hats, lunch boxes etc. One time I actually some a girl walk out of school with my kids shoes on. Really? Well I guess I forgot to label her shoes! I was on a mission to find some good labels. I quickly discovered LABELYOURSTUFF.COM. It's a really great site that has all sort of labels for every occasion. I'll share with you some of my favorites.

Bag Tags: I have three girls. I have so many bags I have no where to put them. Label Your Stuff has some awesome labels. They have great designs. My oldest recently picked out this one for her school bag. We put her name and this unicorn picture on the front and we put our address and my phone number on the back. Great idea. For those of you who have children with allergies, they make an awesome Allergy Alert Tag. My second daughter was allergic to Soy, Dairy and Corn for the first three years of her life. We got her these allergy alert tags. We put one on her bag and one on her lunch box.

Another great option for Allergies are the allergy alert stickers. For my middle bean, we put these stickers on her back for the first few weeks of school until the teachers and aides were able to UNDERSTAND that she could not have certain foods. It really came in handy. They teachers loved them. If you have a child with allergies, consider getting these. 

Another great option from LabelYourStuff.com are the shoe labels. Especially during the winter, my kids were taking off their shoes at school and putting on boots. It helped the teachers identify the shoes. I found that these shoe labels lasted the entire school year. Instead of putting their first name on the labels I just got a bunch with our last name on them. That way they are interchangeable between children and it saves me money. Consider getting a "starter pack" which comes with several different types of labels.

My favorite labels are the WATERPROOF LABELS (by the way the shoe labels can be found in the waterproof section as they are waterproof. score.) These waterproof labels are great for baby bottles, sippy cups, plastic containers that go in lunch boxes. I have a packet of labels for each child with their first and last name. These have saved me several times as I tend to forget bottles and sippy cups.

Last but not least, another great label is the "gift label". We are constantly going to birthday parties and I splurged on these labels. They are cute, easy to use. I even gave some to a friend of mine as a gift for THEIR KIDS! They come with different designs and even for christmas! Once I stuck one on a bottle of wine :)

Bottom line, is if you have kids, I recommend this site. They have sales throughout the year. I believe they are having a promo right now for July - use coupon code "LABELS10".  I hope you like them as much as I do. They also have iron-on labels.  I own them as they came in my original "camp pack" that I bought a few years ago, but I don't own an iron so never used them! Give them a try.

Happy Baby Thoughts!
:)R

WAHMIES WET BAGS - because kids are sticky and wet

It seems that the second wave of friends are now starting to have babies. I have tons of friends who have kids who are around my kids' age but now I find that I'm going to a lot of "first time" baby showers. I love doing that. I love going to see the glowing mom and listen to her excitement. She is going to go through what I went through 6 years ago when I had my first shower. I like to be on the "outside" looking in. I was reminded today as I was shopping for a friend's baby shower about a great product that I have recently discovered. Here is the 411.

So as a mom of a little baby, you quickly find out that things get wet. Sippy cups leak in your purse. Things get knocked over and spill. You get thrown up on. Or they throw up on your neighbor. Kids pee out of their diaper or pee on you. Or pee on the floor. Or have a poop blow out in the store and you have forgotten a spare set of clothes. I remember being in Babies R Us several years ago with my oldest and she had a horrible blow out while she was in the shopping cart. I started to panic. I ran out of wipes, had to run to the diaper section and buy more wipes. Then I realized I had just used her last outfit for the last blow out she had right before we left so I had to rip the tags off of the new outfit I grabbed from Aisle 7 and put it on her. I think one time I even wheeled around my baby in just a diaper because I refused to buy more clothes. Not sure why I didn't have any with me.... maybe I just decided I had enough and decided I wanted to make as many people stare at me as possible and left my child naked in the cart. Anyways, back to the product, what do you do with the wet clothes? Say you are at a park and you need to stash things somewhere. You DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT, want to put that wet outfit in your purse. I've done that. I decided I need to find some sort of dri-fit bag that could hold things. Thus the  new product.

These bags are called WAHMIES. I love them. They are super waterproof. They are a durable, washable and have cute prints. They come in three sizes.... small, regular and all day size. We only have the small and the all day size. They are designed for my moms who use cloth diapers. As you know, crunchy moms like that need all the waterproofing they can get their hands on. The small holds one diaper and one outfit. I use them as a small holder for one small onsie, a small packet of wipes and a diaper. It's the perfect size for me to go to the gym. I actually keep it in my diaper bag so I have everything in one spot. The bag comes in handy in case I need to put anything wet in there. The regular size bag I believe holds a few diapers. Either way you can't lose. I have several of the small ones. I actually sometime just give the small bag to my husband so he doesn't have to lug the diaper bag to and from the gym or wherever he is taking the baby.

What I have discovered is my FAVORITE bag is the ALL DAY BAG. Its HUGE. It comes with a great quality snap hook on the top. I have one bag for swimming. Ever see that mom who lugs their kids to the pool with the huge open top boat bag spilling out with towels, suits, sunscreen, sand shovels, goggles???? Well that's me. I'm dropping things left and right. Well recently I decided to downgrade and not use that huge bag. When we go to swim lessons, I take my All Day bag. I put two towels, change of clothes for each and their goggles. When they are old enough, they will each get a day bag. My oldest loves carrying it because it's pretty and has a carrying handle. So I put their wet towels, wet suits and goggles in there when we leave. Take it directly to the laundry room, empty contents into the washer (sans goggles of course) and throw the bag in there as well. Viola. Done. I love this bag. It's a wet bag. It's a mom's best friend.

There are so many uses for this bag. So my suggestion to you is to check them out. If you are a seasoned mom going to a first time mom shower, think of giving them these. By the way, I buy them on Ebay. Much cheaper.

Let me know your stories. I hope I'm not alone in my debacles of being a crazy mommy running around the store because I've just been thrown up on. The best was one time I actually had to cut a onsie off my child because it was so bad I didn't want to pull it over her head and drag the stuff through her hair. And also, as a third time mom who is not having any more kids, I don't even save the badly soiled outfit. In the trash it goes, it's not even worth the worry. Either way, would have been great to have these bags in a lot of situations that I had with my first child.

If you do get them, I hope you enjoy them. Or give them to a new mom, I'm sure they will love them!

Happy Baby Thoughts :)
R

How NOT to make your baby scream her head off - Mom's Fav New Tool

I think the worst day of my life as a new mommy was the day that I carelessly cut my daughter's fingernails. As we all know, baby's fingernails are always sharp and long. They scratch her face, your face, your arms, her belly. They are CONSTANTLY growing. You trim them one day, the next morning they are razor sharp and you have to do it again. When you walk through the baby store, you see lots of infant fingernail clippers. There are ones that look like adults, there are cheap ones and expensive ones. I think now they have the one with the magnifying glass and a flashlight on the end. We just had the plain Safety 1st ones that have a bigger handle. The problem with those are when you are attempting to cut their nails you really can't see "the underside" of the nail and you don't know when you hit skin. You don't know what's going on until you hear the shreeeeeeking coming from your child.

It happened to me one day when I was on vacation visiting my parents. My oldest was a few months old. I remember the night vividly. We were sitting on the couch and I had the TV in the background. I had just gotten off the phone. I started to cut little bean's nails and then I heard it. Screaming. OH MY GOD. I have never heard a child scream so loud in my life. I was thinking I was going to remove the nail clipper to find I had cut off her entire finger, but of course it was a little snip. It was bleeding a little but boy did she scream. I was crying. She was screaming. I called for my mom. I felt like a horrible mother. What the hell just happened? I caused pain to my child. Something I did hurt my child. My life was over. Okay, well if you know me, I'm a little dramatic. Anyways, I'm sure it was no big deal and that everyone has had this happen to them but wow did I feel bad. She calmed down after a little bit but I will never forget the look on her face. A happy smiling child...then a smile turned upside down, then a pink face turned red and she screamed and screamed. Cracked my heart right in half.

After I recovered from that I vowed never to cut her fingernails again. She of course was not scarred by it. I really just nicked the quick of her nail but to me it was traumatizing. I guess the moral of my story is, I know several people who have done this to their child so it made me feel better to know I was not alone.

And so, as a mom who loves gadgets and the fact that I'm in a constant search of something that's better than what I have, I wanted to see what other solution could I find to my fear of cutting my children's nails (by the way, the same thing goes with my dog..... I cut her nails once and never again - I pay the vet to do it).

This is my solution!!!! I recently found an article in a parenting magazine. It was a mom who reviewed this product and loved it. She too had cut her child's nails a little too short and caused excruciating pain to her infant. She too had been a bad mom. I ordered this product when my third daughter was born. I was a little hesitant because it's TEN DOLLARS for a nail clipper but let me tell you, I love it. I'm going to give it to every new mom I know. I'm sure there are other ones like it out there at the baby store, but I like this one. It got good reviews at Amazon.com (my favorite online store).

PIYO PIYO BABY NAIL SCISSORS (Precision made for baby's nails)

This product comes with a cute cover. Decorated with a fuzzy little duck. If you are going to be a new mom or dad, consider getting this tool. Or you could just wait until you try and cut your child's nails. Remember, the first few weeks the nails are LITERALLY PAPER THIN. My doc said don't try to cut their nails, just get some emory boards and file them down a bit. I love those shirts that have the hand covers on them. Or the little mittens. Once they are a little older you can actually cut their nails.

As a mom of three girls and a mom who has traumatized herself and her child, I highly recommend these. You can actually see the underneath when you cut and you can not only see the top of the nail but also the bottom. All from a good angle. Good precision and stability. If you don't believe me, read the reviews on amazon. You won't regret the purchase. 

That's my two cents. 

Happy Baby Thoughts

:)R