Clothes, Carseats and Strollers. Oh My!!!

So I have been trying to figure out what I need for this, my second child. I don't need all the stuff I had to get with Grayson (Thank Gawd!) but still there are things to get.

I am hopeful that I am carrying a girl so that I can buy all the cute girly clothes cause we all know I have a "minor" Gymboree addiction. Only 6-7 more weeks until I get the Ultra Sound to tell me that its a girl. Fingers, toes, eyes all crossed!

Then there is the car seat. We currently have a "bucket" baby seat but Grayson was so tall that
he outgrew it at about 4 months. At that point he had to go into a convertible car seat which can go from backwards to forwards. Luckily we had a freebie from my previous employer of a lovely ($$) Britax Marathon. But for this baby I have decided to sell our current bucket that only goes to 29" and 22 lbs in favor of one that goes to a more accommodating 32" and 30 lbs. (Grayson is 33" and 23 lbs now at 17 months so it would last much longer!) The Graco Safe seat is only $100 compared to the Britax that we would be buying at 4 months which is $250 (yikes but they are very safe and go to 65 lbs so worth it in the long run) Isn't it amazing that we all lived through our childhoods with out $100-250 car seats or car seats at all for that matter?! I believe I rode home from the hospital on my moms lap! Now you can't leave the maternity floor without your bucket in hand, which is obnoxious if you are not using a bucket but a convertible.

As for the stroller, of coarse I have a single stroller. But now that I will have a second child it would probably be convenient to have a double so that I can haul all my monkeys and their gear... I can't pack lightly as my family and husband will a test. I have never been every good at parring down. :) So I have been looking online at all the amazing options for strollers out there. It is amazing to me that people will pay $800 for a stroller! Like this Bugaboo chameleon. www.bugaboostrollers.com

I knew I wanted something with options, which is why people like the above Bugaboo, the seats change out and around so as the child grows and develops you can turn then to face away from you as they are ready. I know this first hand. I started a baby boot camp class when Grayson was 3 months old and in the jogger I had he would SCREAM the entire time because he could not see me. So I went online and found a stroller that was less expensive than the above but about as cool. (much heavier though I found out) I ended up getting a used one on CL for $75 instead of $350. It was a Zooper Buddy. I love that stroller. The seat can face you or with a few handy clicks, turn to face away. It was great and boot camp was much more pleasant for both of us. So my search for the perfect double continued. Fast forward to the other day at the zoo. (below) and right as we were leaving I saw this stroller in a line:


The Kolcraft Contour Tandem. Both seats can be removed completely or turned either direction. So the children can face each other when they are older or when the baby is new I can have it face me and G can face out front. Or I can even take out the babies seat and use the under area for groceries and walk to the grocery store with the baby in the front pack and G in the front of the stroller. (since gas is SO expensive!) Cool huh? I am so excited about this stroller, now I just have to sell some stuff to afford it...stupid expensive gas...

Anyway, other than that I have figured out I need a set of bunk beds for G. Rather than another crib I will then have to store. So we will attempt to transition him between when baby B gets here and when it needs to leave my room probably around 3 months old.
Also:
- baby bedding if its a girl- I love this stuff from babies r us

- and I would love to get a new Organic mattress for the crib but it may not be in the budget. sigh.

If anyone has some good lotto numbers to play let me know! LOL

Oh, any friends/ family with multiple children please let me know if there is something else handy that I can't live without! :P

Zoo Fun!

One of our favorite things to do lately is go to the zoo. Grayson loves to see the animals and it helps to have him see them and learn the sign. We have been 3-4 times in the last month and he loves to learn the signs for all the new animals he sees. This trip (yesterday) we saw the elephants, tigars, zebras, giraffes, bear and gazelle and he now knows the sign for all but gazelle, only because I don't know that one to teach him- I think its the one for deer but I can't remember that one either.

We went with our friend Diana and her son Jeremiah who is almost 9 months old and her nephew John who is 4 months old. We had a great time a really wore the boys out! (not sure who was more tired, me or them!)




We loved watching the animals do funny things. This Gazelle (I think thats what its called) REALLY wanted to eat these leaves. I knew they did this because I had seen it on the discovery channel but I had never seen it in person.

And this goofy bear, he looks dead but we were told that
it was sleeping, I am still a little concerned.













(This is Jeremiah----------------------------------->)

Enter to win a Bum Genius Starter Kit!

http://blog.thenatureschild.com/2008/06/beat-heat-summer-con-
test.html

Blah!

So women, tell me again why we want children when they make us SO sick?! I am miserable. This nausea is killing me! I spend most of the day about ready to blow and at some point usually do. It seems to have no rhyme or reason or pattern. I am sick one day in the a.m. the next in the evening the next not at all and the next all day, or some weird combo of those! arg. Darn baby. It better be a girl. (She is already trouble...wish us luck!)

My poor son, he is getting totally shafted. I barely leave the house anymore and spend most of my day lying around on one or the other of the couches in my house. He tries to be a good sport but I am sure he would rather his Mommy play and engage him then turn on the tv or doze while he plays by himself. I keep telling myself this is just a phase and it too will pass but....gotta barf!

The first Kiss!

It's your First Kiss and several questions might come to mind:

Is it the right time ?
Is anyone watching?
Does your partner even want to?
Is your breath fresh?
AND,---Should you use some tongue?

Then you say ...

'What the heck!' and Just Go for it!!!

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This must be a 2nd or 3rd child...because Mom grabbed the camera and not the kid!

oooooouch!

Let me just preface this post by saying the injuries inflicted on this child were in no way caused or inflicted by his parents! Disclaimer finished I would like to introduce you to Lumpy, Grayson's pet bump. Grayson was playing outside and wanted to ride his plasma car- see previous posts- so I let him, sans helmet...doh! He has started to be able to push himself around on it so I was walking behind him as he went down the sidewalk. We got to the corner, 2 houses down and turned around. We were to the edge of our neighbors driveway when it happened. Out of "no where" the wheels flew out from under him and Grayson landed on his face in the driveway. Now I am not a worrier of kid bumps in general, I have been a nanny long enough to know that kids bounce, but I knew this one was gonna be bad. Not scream for hours and bleed profusely bad but the quiet is broken by a deafening silence like the calm before a storm, the eye of a hurricane and then they take a deep breath and with ALL their might they let out a wail that only small mammals can hear... bad. I scooped him up immediately, I couldn't prevent it unfortunately even though I was an arms length away, all I could do was watch the horror unfold. I scooped up my writhing babe who tried to climb me apparently to get to a place where the pain would no longer be with him and held him as tight as I could and tried to assess the damage while he screamed and writhed in pain. I noted no blood so that was a "good" sign, checked for missing teeth etc then surveyed the head bonk that was growing before my eyes.

Lumpy as we fondly refer to him is a good strong bump who knows no limits for which to stop. These photos were taken a few hours after it had happened and the swelling was starting to go down already. He refused to let me ice it and I figured sitting on him would only make it more tramatic so it went uniced. Lumpy stood about an inch off Grayson's head at his peak and turned lovely shades of black blue and purple. As of this writing Lumpy is more like a Bruisy with a mild lumpy :) and is lovely shades of green. (Our FIRST black eye- GREAT!)

As I said I am not a worrier but I must admit I grabbed the good old Kaiser handbook to see the signs of concussion and when to call in...and when he slept a little too long on his nap I checked on him to make sure was still breathing. Poor kid. Later that night he was trying to hand me some books to read before bed and he slipped and fell into the corner of his dresser, getting Lumpy's brother Bumpy on the back of his head. Luckily Bumpy didn't bruise or stay long, just a short evening visit! (accident prone like his dad or just clumsy like his mom...only time will tell)

Bun in the Oven!

That phrase has always kinda bugged me! But alas it is true. I have a bean in my belly! :) Little one is due January 10th 2009, which for those not in the know, is 3!!! days before Grayson's second birthday. I'd like to say that it was all in my grand plan- cause those that know me would say I am good at that but sadly- little one was a surprise to us! I have had two ultra sounds to determine for sure the size and age of LO (cause we had almost NO idea when conception occurred! Too much info I am sure!) and both point to that date.

So far this pregnancy has proved to be very interesting. I had no idea for the first 5 weeks and then almost as soon I found out I was nauseous. (psychosomatic? Maybe.) Now I fluctuate between nauseous and praying to the porcelain Gods. Which after I puke I feel surprisingly better. Who knew. Luckily I have Jesse around to clean the toilets. :P (cause cleaning them or thinking about cleaning them makes me want to puke more)
I am hoping that this baby is a girl cause the pregnancy is so different from the first one.

Oh and my Chinese Conception calendar say so! HAHA!