Camping con Bebé

I've often referred to myself as an "avid camper", but considering it had been over a year since my tent had seen daylight, I've had to humbly drop that tagline. We finally made it out last weekend and joined up with some fellow World Race alumni for a Houston-area camp out. It was a gorgeously clear and sunny weekend, with a nippy low of 22°.

The little bugger turned out to be a fantastic camper... can that sort of thing be genetic? He didn't really do much, which can be said for most 3-month-olds, but he was happy being along for the ride. He wore his usual grin all weekend and seemed unfazed by the chilly weather and lack of modern conveniences. I was inspired last spring when my cousin took her 2-month-old camping in March, and enlisted her advice. She recommended leaving the cloth diapers at home (disposables keep them a little drier which prevents them from getting too cold), and co-sleeping to keep them warm overnight. 
I was a bit timid to put him in my uber-tiny cocoon sleeping bag, but we felt that would still be a smarter decision than putting him in the generously sized bag with his dad who sleeps like a log and has been known to [unintentionally] punch me in the face in the middle of the night. He agreed that we might end up with a pancake for a child and that it would be best if the little guy slept with me. Fortunately he did not end up in the foot of my sleeping bag and woke up, after a solid 8 hours of sleep, sweaty and smiling. 

I will admit... I couldn't stand to pull him out of the snuggly warm sleeping bag, completely undress him, and bare his little butt in below-freezing air, so Hubby warmed up the car and we changed his diaper in there. Not to mention that there's not a ton of space in a one-and-a-half person tent, and an unexpected fountain of pee (which happens most often in the mornings) would soak EVER-Y-THING. 

The flares directly on the left and right are the "sun dogs".

After a scrumptious potato, bacon, and egg breakfast we explored the 200 acres, fed the cattle, picked apart massive wild hog skeletons, and piddled around on the ponds. 
In the middle of a very competitive game of washers, we noticed some really cool sun-reflections. I later learned they are called "sun dogs", and happen when ice crystals called "diamond dust" become vertically aligned with a "22° Halo"(relates to an angle, not the temperature.. rather coincidental, though!) that sometimes can appear around the sun in very cold weather. And no, I didn't make any of that up. 

All in all, a terrific weekend; we've got a second generation camper for sure. Looks like it's time for a bigger tent. 

Favorite Baby Items; Birth-3 Months

HAHA!!! One day I'll get the hubby to pose like this in our wraps. 

1. K'tan wrap

My K'tan has become my second skin. We have an Ergo, Maya, and Hotsling as well.. they are all fantastic. But the K'tan is by far my favorite. Most people think it's a Moby; it's made from the same stretchy cotton but requires zero wrapping and is super quick and easy to put on. I wore it for our 6 hour plane flight last month because I could take it on and off while sitting in my seat. I wear Finn in it between 2-3 hours a day... it's his favorite place to be. You can get them at Buy Buy Baby or off the K'tan website, or you could save yourself $50 and make one. Check out this page for a DIY tutorial.

2. Twinkle Lights

At Christmastime we learned that a quick fix for any fussiness was to hold Finn in front of the Christmas tree; he would immediately quiet down and stare at the lights. I picked up a battery-operated mini strand of lights at Target (runs on 4 AA's) and wound it around the handle of his car seat... instant hit. They are a little harder to find now that holiday stuff is off the shelves, but tons of websites sell them online. These lights blink.. I bought a second strand that didn't and he was far less interested. Call us redneck if you'd like, but these will be staying on the car seat well into summer.

3. Raw Shea Butter

Great, cheap, all-natural lotion. Whenever Finn's arms or legs are exposed in public and someone has the audacity to touch him, they often ask what lotion we use.. he's that soft! It's the only lotion I use as well. Also works great for helping prevent stretch marks during pregnancy. It is a little greasy and has a playdough-like smell, but both the greasiness and the smell disappear about 10 minutes after you rub it in. I buy mine off Amazon; it comes in a 5lb chunk from Ghana. After melting a handful on the stove and blending it with some olive oil it becomes a little softer and easier to apply. I'll probably whip some up to sell on Etsy one of these days.

4. Trend Lab Cloth Diapers

Found these puppies on Target.com while trying to use up a giftcard. Charlie Banana and Kawaii diapers, but for price & ease, Trend Lab rates high with us! The liner snaps in.. I don't have to stick my hand in a mess-filled pocket to pull the liner out. It also has seemed to fit Finn's legs the best.. no red marks. I had never heard of them before and am pleasantly surprised! They run about $12 a diaper.
*UPDATE: In the long run, these turned out so/so.. once he started crawling, they didn't hold much in and don't fit as well.

5. Frankie the Frog

Have I mentioned that my kid likes lights? He's really good at putting himself to sleep, and loves to stare at the stars on the side of the crib while dozing off. The music on it isn't exactly relaxing, but we use the "heartbeat" sound a lot. Frankie is a Summer Infant slumber buddy.. also at Target.

6. Swaddlers (pre-made)

Little bug loves to be swaddled and seems to sleep much longer when he's wrapped up snug. We have plenty of swaddling blankets, but he's a Houdini and manages to wriggle free of all of them. The pre-formed swaddlers with velcro tabs hold him all night.

We use the Kiddopotamus ones from Target; The Bonkie swaddles have awesome reviews as well, but are double the price. (Can you tell we spend a lot of time at Target???)

7. Wet Bags

I recently ordered a couple wet bags from Beth at Pink Paper Pigeons. The bags arrived 2 days after I ordered them (and a custom order, at that!) and I could not be happier with them. Until now, we had been putting our soiled cloth diapers in plastic bags until we had enough to wash.... ick. Let's just say our nursery finally smells fresh again! The XL holds about two days worth of diapers, the small goes in the diaper bag for diapers on the go/ dirty outfits. Love LOVE these wet bags! Check out Beth's Etsy page, Pink Pigeon Paper.
*UPDATE: Still really like the XL.. has held up incredibly well for being washed every 3 days for a year! The small is a little too small.. the opening at the top is too narrow and is really difficult to get a cloth diaper into without getting your hands.. err.. nasty. I'd go up a size. 

8. Dr. Brown's wide neck bottles

We don't use bottles often, but when we do.. these are the ones. Wide neck helps prevent nipple confusion, air releasing system prevents air bubbles being swallowed. Finn is a spitter.. yet rarely spits at all when we feed him from these bottles.

9. Manual Breast Pump

A must for traveling. I have an electric medela pump too, but I like having one I can toss in the diaper bag. On road trips, it's easy to pump & feed without having to pull over! It was also great to have when we flew last month.. there wasn't room in my carry on for the full electric pump. I have the Evenflo SimplyGo Pump.. I think it was around $15.

10. Spit-up De-stinkafiers

The little mister spits up. All. The. Time. I bought little spray bottles from the travel section at (you guessed it) Target and filled them with vinegar and water... about 1:3. We keep one in every room (plus one in the diaper bag) and spray it on whatever he's chosen to spit on this time. The vinegar smells goes away when it dries and helps prevent the sour milk smell on items that you can't immediately wash. I'll be honest... I wear the same shirt for the majority of the day. If I changed every time he spit on me, I'd go through 8 outfits a day. A little vinegar tides me over 'til that glorious moment that I get to slip into my fresh-smelling jammies.

Those are our faves from birth-3 months. I'll put up a favorites list every couple months because I know I'll find other must-haves as he gets older! 

Pilot

I'm fairly certain AOL Instant Messenger was my gateway drug. I did not yet own a cell phone, so being able to 'chat' with friends long past the hour I was allowed to call their home phone was a novelty. Not to mention how beneficial it was to my WPM skills... Mavis Beacon would have been proud. MySpace came next, followed by Facebook. Status updates, events, and hundreds of my friends' photos? It was love at first friend request. I'd gone to college out of state and it was just what I needed to stay "in the loop" with my friends back home. It seemed like such a great idea at the time, but before long, the ease of writing on walls nearly replaced phone calls. I mean, what if they don't answer? Then I'll have to leave a voice mail. Then we'll play phone tag. What if they're in the middle of dinner? Facebook seemed like the ultimate time-saving friend keeper-upper. Rather than waste hours on the phone, I could just click through a smattering of pics and be up to date on a handful of people.

But somehow time-saving turned into time-sucking. I'd sit down at my laptop and start to browse my news feed and then.. all of a sudden.. jolt out of a coma and realize that 3 hours had gone by. That jolt usually came about when I was halfway through 187 pictures of a friend's sister's boyfriend's aunt's co-worker's daughter's "Thanksgiving of 2009" album.

Remember the anti-smoking presentations in middle school? "If you buy 1 pack of cigarettes a day for 10 years, you will have spent "x" amount of money. Just think of what you could do with that money if you didn't have to buy cigarettes!".  I often wonder how many hours I've spent on social networks in the past 10 years. If I spent an hour a day online, that's 3,650 hours. That's 152 days... 

And I have absolutely nothing to show for it.

The other day I was an hour deep into Pinterest while the little bambino was playing in my lap. When scrolling through a friend's friend's friend's (you get the picture) pin board, I stumbled upon this poem:

 

Now, I'm not exactly a clean freak, and I've never been one to turn down an opportunity because sweeping my floors was just SO much more appealing. But the second I read it, I knew that cleaning/scrubbing/cobwebs/dust could easily be translated to facebook/twitter/pinterest. Here I am with a beautiful grinning 3-month-old in my lap, yet I'm enamored with pinned photos of houses I'll never be able to afford and more DIY ideas than I'll ever have time for. How many hours of the past three months did I spend looking at my iPhone or desktop instead of at my son?

The thought was horrifying.

Thus began the purging of my internet addiction. I deleted my Pinterest account immediately and begun tearing my Facebook apart.

*Sidenote: I'm not anti-social network just like I'm not anti-wine. In moderation, each is good. Pinterest rocks. If I have a plethora of potatoes and company coming over for dinner, I'll probably search "potato" on the public Pinterest food boards for a recipe idea. Facebook has been a stellar method of online photo storage. I have 7 years of photos, many of which I've lost the hard copies to, stored on that account (hence why I'm having to do a little backing up before completely deleting it).

I'm not advocating for the downfall of all that is social networking and I won't be bothered in the least if you don't follow me. I would, however, urge you to examine your current level of social network dependency and to take a step back if need be. Go for a walk. Sit on the couch and enjoy your cup of coffee instead of mindlessly sipping it while staring at a screen. Call up a friend whose voice you haven't heard in a while, or, if they live nearby, visit them! 

And yes, blogs are a form of social media. So why am I blogging? For one, to be held accountable. For two, to share my life with those of you that I can't visit without a $400+ plane ticket. I am committing to blog ONLY if my little one is napping, and if Hubby is home, only when Hubby is mowing or snoring. :)

Not quite sure what I'll be blogging about. If you know me, then you know it's bound to be quirky, sporadic, and spastic. If you'd like to keep up with my little adventure, go ahead and click the "follow" link on the side of the blog. 

"Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a short time and then vanishes"  -James 4:14

Carpe Diem.