Mold Detective At Your Service

I have one more post to share from my sister's home but I also wanted to post about detecting mold.  I just couldn't end the week talking about mold so I am covering that today.  Beautiful living room pictures coming tomorrow!

Our son, Reed, has been wheezy and congested since January.  We thought it was a cold that turned into RSV but a couple of things made us think it might be allergies.  For starters when we went to Utah his symptoms completely went away.  And he was not getting better after a month of nebulizer treatments.  So off to the allergist we went.  I was so sure it was going to be our dogs or dust mites.

Turns out our little guy has a mold allergy.  Eeek!  Visions of gross mold making our boy sick made Rudy and I so worried!  Not to mention to bucks we would need to shell out to remedy a problem. 

So we called a mold detection service to come out to to the house.  They did not see anything suspicicious (he even put on a full white suit and crawled around in our crawl space) and our moisture levels were good.  But I was still not sure because he had the allergy and was better in Utah.  Maybe it is just Charlotte, maybe our house, maybe the daycare?

So the next thing I did was purchase these handy kits:

You have to buy at least two to get a reading of the suspicious area and one of the outside to be your control.  In a nutshell, if there is more mold growing in the inside petri dish than the outside, you have a problem.  I did an air quality test in his room and then in our back yard. 

As you can see we have much more on the outside than the inside so it confirms that we are in the clear.  In hindsight, I wish we would have done this first prior to paying $100 for the service to come but odds are I would have done both anyway. 

Next step is to do the same at the daycare.  Yes, I could just put Reed on allergy medicines and keep him on the steriod nebulizer treatments but the thing is that he is restless at night and now waking up at midnight to eat...we want our happy sleeper back!

Traveling With A Baby

Reed Ready to Go to VEGAS!

It is 5:00 AM in Vegas and Rudy and Reed are on the road headed to Red Rocks to take pictures and explore.  My husband is a photographer as a business and side gig.  He takes the best pictures - I can't wait to see how they turn out!

When preparing for this trip I learned that people can be very accommodating for babies.  Here are some things that made this trip easier:

1.      If you have a baby you get to go through the priority and medical liquids line.  Expressed milk is A-Ok.

2.      I was worried we were going to need to bring our pack-n-play but pleasantly surprised that both the casino in Vegas (South Point) and Flanigan’s Inn in Springdale, UT have cribs with sheets for us to use.

3.      The rental car company had a car seat we could rent for $60.  We opted to bring our own to save money.  $60 isn’t bad but since our car seat sits in our stroller it isn’t really a pain to bring and saving that $60 means more yummy food and wine for Mommy and Daddy on the trip!

4.      Take pacifiers and milk for baby to use and drink on the way up and down on the flight.  It will help their ears.  Pediatrician said Tylenol too in case his ears were bothering him.

5.      Kept it simple – we brought his stroller, car seat, clothes and just a few toys for the plane.  Would having the bumbo be nice?  The Johnny jump up fun?  Sure, but we didn’t want to fool with it.  We figured being with Mommy and Daddy 24/7 and all the new lights, sounds and scenery would be entertainment enough.

6.  You can check your carseat or carseat base for free. 

Here is Reed sitting in Rudy's lap on the plane - I got this when I was sitting in one of my sessions.  My heart melted when I saw Reed's hand on Rudy's.  So sweet.

Having these little things made the trip more doable.  It is a great vacation so far – can’t wait to get to Zion!

More Shower Pictures

I realized that I didn't put any photos of us actually enjoying the shower!  Here is Eloise and the hostesses - Jenni, Me, Mindie and little Maggie (Elise's future BFF).



Flower arrangement in the lower level.  This has been the most awesome thing...I got it as a wedding present and use it every time I have a party.  Makes arranging super easy!

Opening gifts!  Elise got such sweet things!

Eloise and Elise's grandmothers.

Table set up...

I did an exercise last week with my team in New York about details and learned that I am quick to miss the small details.  I like to think that it makes me more "big picture" in thinking.  This was evident in the fact that when I took off this tablecloth below I realized that it had been on upside down...oops!  Good thing it was as pretty on the underside as it was on the top!

It's A Girl! Tea Party Baby Shower

My cousin Eloise is expecting a little girl - Elise and what better way to help her celebrate and stock her nursery than a tea party.  We held it this past weekend and it was so fun.  Here are the pics - enjoy!

Let's start with the entry way.  I think it is funny you can see Eloise and I in the reflection in the glass!

I nestled the It's A Girl!  heart in a purple and green wreath.  Her nursery colors are lilac and white.

If she wants, she can take this to the hospital and hang on her door there.

I tied lilac and white polka dot ribbon on my planters and then carried the ribbon to the fireplace.

I displayed the invitation and flowers in a sweet teapot to go along with the theme...goodness knows I love a theme!

We set the sweet treats in the living room on the coffee table and placed the savory foods on the kitchen table.

I moved my entry table in here to put the plates, napkins and utensils on.  Made the flow a lot more seamless.  My mother in law loaned me some beautiful tablecloths that were just perfect for a ladies tea.

The morning of the shower I went to the farmer's market and picked up $30 worth of fresh purple and white flowers.  I was able to put together 8 arrangements around my house for $30...you can't beat that!

Bringing out real utensils, glassware and plates tells your guests that this is something special.  It also saves money and all that trash from plastic and paper.  I did get purple napkins instead of cloth to bring in more lilac and admittedly I am not so good at keeping my cloth napkins fresh.

I love using my silver whenever I can.  It just makes things special you know?  Another sweet teapot flower arrangement.  I really only spent the $30 on the flowers as far as decor.  I was able to borrow lots of teapots and the linens which really helped to save $$$ and make it feel unique rather than everything so "matchy matchy".

We served some lovely sandwiches - cucumber, pimiento cheese and chicken salad as well as wonderful cranberry pecan cheese wafers.  FYI the cheese wafers were AWESOME!  We also served fruit salad, cheese and crackers, mocha brownies, scones, black and white cookies all store bought.  We did have a lot of food left over but better to have too much than too little!

I set all of the drinks in the kitchen.  We served tea, lemonade, hot chocolate and hot spiced tea.

We had an awesome response to this party - Eloise invited 27 and 24 could come!  Yay but space was at a premium so I set my basement up as the present opening "area".  We brought in extra chairs and everyone sat in one big circle to watch her open all of the gifts.

 It was a great shower and lots of fun.  I can't wait to meet little Elise!

Homemade Valentine's Day Cards

Reed has a little Valentine's Day Party at school today.  The kids are so excited and so cute about it.  Last night we made Valentine's Day Cards for all of his friends.  Reed helped too!  I can't wait until he is older and he can really get involved in making sweet cards even if it is just for Dad, Grammy and Mama B and Daddy B.

First I made purple, pink and red hand prints and footprints all over a white sheet of paper with Reed's feet and hands.  I worked one at a time and wiped each one off with a baby wipe between colors.

Then I drew red hearts over all of the sheet of paper trying to get a lot of color in each one.

Look at that sweet little footprint.  Aw!!!!

Then I cut out the hearts one by one.

I glued them to the front of these little red cards I found at Michael's.

The inside of the cards read:

Happy Valentine's Day!

Thank you for being my friend.

Love,

Reed

I can't wait to see all of the little cards that Reed got today!  

It's A Girl! Door Hanging

My cousin is having a little girl and I am hosting the baby shower at my home in just a few weeks.  I wanted to create something for my front door for the day of the shower.   I thought about a wreath but then I got the idea to create something that she could take with her and hang on the hospital door if she wanted.

Her nursery colors are lilac and white so I went through my scrapbook paper and ribbons and found some in pinks and purples.

I drew a vertical heart and cut it out out of cardboard.  Then I traced it onto two sheets of purple scrapbook paper. 

I then glued the paper to the front and back of the heart.  I picked out the ribbon I wanted to use.

Then I punched a hole in the "dip" of the top of the heart and at the bottom.  I made a loop to hang it on the door and then tied the rest in a large bow.  I did the same at the bottom. 

Then I made a pretty "E" for little Elise and glued it on the front.  Can't wait to hang this up on the shower day!

La Leche Would Be Proud - Flying and Pumping Success

Okay so this is a post about pumping and travel.  If you are not pregnant, breastfeeding or interested in my adventures in travel pumping, you may want to come back tomorrow.

I left Tuesday morning for my first trip without Reed.  (sob...)  I travel for my job and am typically gone for 1-4 nights per month.  I completely used up my stash of pumped milk with this trip so I wanted to save what I pumped and bring it back home.  I left armed with

1.  A car charger power source
2.  Battery pack
3.  Bottles
4.  Freezer bags
5.  Plastic grocery bags
6.  Mini cooler (the size that can hold a 6-pack of beer)

The trip started out with a session at Charlotte Douglas International Airport.  They have benches in each restroom for nursing mothers.  I could have also used the family bathroom but I was running late (taxi driver's fault) and I didn't want to have to look for it.  I brought my modesty cover and just went through my work emails.  It was a little awkward being out in the open in a busy woman's restroom but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do and many women could probably relate to what I was doing.  The only drawback was that there wasn't an outlet but I just used my handy Medela battery pack and was just fine.
DC National offered a spot in their restroom too with the bonus of having an outlet.
Albany was even better with cushioned chairs, power source and a more separate area in the bathroom.

The hotel we stayed in for our meeting has refrigerators in each room with a small freezer space.  This was perfect - I was able to keep my freezer pack frozen and begin to freeze my milk in storage bags.
Here is how I packed my milk up to go home:

1.  Bottom layer of ice in grocery bag.
2.  Milk bags in the middle
3.  Top layer of ice in grocery bag.
4.  Wrapped cooler in 4 grocery bags and then the large dry cleaning bag from the hotel.

My goal with all the bags was to prevent leaking from the cooler.  I will bring tape next time to really seal the cooler in addition to the bags.

I checked the bag thinking that it would stay cool enough below the plane.  And thankfully it did!  The proof was the fact that the milk and ice were still frozen.  I was able to save all of my milk!

Success!!

Thank You Dr. Ferber! Cheers to sleep in 2012!

I am sure you have all heard of the saying "let them cry it out" when talking about getting a baby to go to sleep.  It sounds hard but it works.  Thanks to recommendations of several friends and my sister, Rudy and I purchased the book by Dr. Richard Ferber, Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems.

Now I wouldn't say Reed had a serious problem...he just didn't know how to put himself to sleep on his own.  We knew we couldn't be rocking and shushing him for the next year so we bit the bullet and tried it.  And it worked!

By the third day he was falling asleep on his own, no pacifier, no rocking, no nothing in about 5 minutes.

Last night for NYE, he yawned so I put him down with his little blanket dog and he was quiet as a mouse. Within 5 minutes he was asleep.  We were over at a friend's house for the night and it was so nice to be able to put him down and then join the party.

The concept does not mean that you leave your child screaming alone in the crib for hours upon end.  It starts with a gradual process.  The first night you go back in after 3 minutes, then 5, then 10 and then every 10 until your baby falls asleep.  You go in and say "I love you, it's bedtime, go to sleep." This way they know you still care and that it is okay to go to sleep.  If you are hesitant about it, just try it, what have you got to lose?  The first night he cried for 50 minutes, second night 25, third night 5.  And by the third night it wasn't even major crying.  Just sort of putting himself to sleep moaning and grunting.  I know you know that sound!  It was super hard the first night - I wouldn't try this on your own.  Make sure your husband or someone is with you for support.  I would highly recommend this book and the method. 

So, here's to you Dr. Ferber!  Thank you!

Footprint Butterfly Art

Rudy and I like to give each other surprises for Christmas.  For me that often means giving him some kind of art or something made by hand.  This year I wanted to bring Reed into the tradition using his handprints or footprints in some way. 

I decided on a butterfly and here is the most adorable little butterfly we ended up with!

Here is the how to in case you would like to make one with your little one.

I decided to do it on water color paper rather than a canvas.  I figured if I messed up I could just get a new piece of paper.  That wouldn't be so easy with a canvas.  I also picked water color paper because I thought I was going to paint around his feet to make it look more butterfly-ish...I tried and that didn't turn out so cute.

I picked several colors of acryllic paint and a soft brush.

I took Reed's socks off and rolled his pants up...he has been kind of squirmy lately so I knew I had to work fast!  I also timed it right after a meal so he would be content.

I painted one foot and then the other trying to make each foot a little different from the other.

Then I stamped each foot on the paper one at a time making sure to do a thorough cleaning between feet - especially in between the toes!

The finished products looked like this:

I even put his initials on it so years from now everyone would know it was a Reed Baldwin Hayden original.  :)

Merry Christmas Daddy!

I'm Joining:

bumGenius Has Done It Again!

If we were pregnant now, I would be registering for the new diapers from Bumgenius - the Freetime.  They look amazing!  We use cloth diapers in our home and LOVE them.  We have 23 diapers and do laundry every other day.  Our preferred diapers are the Bumgenius 4.0.  We also use Oh Katy! and Happy Heiny but hands down prefer the Bumgenius better.  You get a good fit, they don't leak and come in cute colors.

Here is some information about the new bumGenius diaper that I received from an email from Kelly's Closet. 

"Freetime is an all-in-one, one-size diaper that combines the features of the best selling bumGenius 4.0 with the conveniences of the bumGenius Elemental.  What's different?  The Freetime inserts are sewn in so that you don't have to stuff or unstuff the inserts on laundry day.  The Freetime inserts are microfiber with a stay dry suede cloth layer to make them more affordable than the bumGenius Elementals.  We think you'll be quite happy with this new addition to the already fabulous bumGenius line of diapers."

I have to say that washing the diapers is not a big deal - seriously it isn't!  And the money we save makes the extra bit of laundry worth it.  But not having to take out the inserts and stuff them would be a great timesaver.  More time = more play time with Reed.  Perhaps by baby #2 we will be needing to replace some of our 4.0s.  I will definitely look into the Freetime diapers! 

 

No Sew Crib Skirt

I got the idea for this project from one of my favorite blogs to follow (http://www.younghouselove.com/).  If you do not know about this blog, check it out!  They also inspired me to create my own blog and who would of thought it would come from the how to for a no sew crib skirt.

Awesome instructions and pictures can be found on their site here: http://www.younghouselove.com/2010/03/nursery-progress-skirting-the-issue/

Here is the skirt I made.  I purchased polka dot fabric from Mary Jo's cloth store and coordinating striped fabric for the curtains.  More on no sew curtains later...

I followed the steps and created my skirt.  The skirt, curtains and a covered bulletin board cost me about $100 and I still had fabric left over. 

Animal Silhouette Nursery Art

When I was thinking about how I wanted to decorate my son's nursery, I went online to find inspiration.  I stumbled upon this photo of a Dwell Studio nursery and loved the animal silhouettes.  But the colors weren't really my thing so I decided to take the idea of these and to create my own.

Since I had decided to decorate the nusery in blue and yellow I went to Michael's to begin my project.  I purchased several coordinating scrapbook paper sheets in blues and yellows.  Then I went online and found silhouette's of animals and printed them out.  I traced the animals on cardstock to make a template and then got to work on cutting out many animals.  I painted a plain canvas yellow with acryllic paint and then glued the animals down with modge podge.  After it was dry I went back over the canvas with varnish to seal the deal.  

The next project was to create these four pictures using the same process but backing them with opposite scrap book paper.  I got the frames at Michael's for around $6, so all in all a very inexpensive and custom way to create nursery art!