Baby Products

As you know, we are expecting baby boy #3 in about 13 weeks.  We have kept most things related to babies and toddlers so fortunately we will not need too much.  Except that this baby will be born in May and Andrew and Carson were both November babies.  There will be a few sizes of clothes that will not match up for the season;  0-3 month clothing, 6-9 month, 12-18 month, 18-24 month...that is actually more than I realized but we will make due with what we have and buy some new items when needed.  I've already purchased quite a few clearance items in the 6-9 month size for next winter!  So fun.

We needed a new infant car seat.  Our base for the car seat we used with both boys has an expiration date of Dec. 2009 on it.  Is that for wear and tear on the plastic base?  I'm not exactly sure.  But we also were having issues with the car seat locking into the base, not good.  Sometimes we would get home and realize that the car seat wasn't actually locked into the base correctly!  Or we would have issues getting it disconnected from the base.  So what do we do with this old car seat?  It's really not safe to use...do we just throw it in the trash?   I was able to find a new travel system (infant car seat, base and stroller) for a good deal.  So I will try and sell our old stroller.

We still have our crib (though it is a drop side crib which I guess aren't safe anymore) Pack-n-play, high chair, bouncy seat, swing, activity mats, exercauser, door jumpy thing...so we won't need many new items.  When Carson was born, we didn't get too many new things.  We did however get a Bumpo seat, something I wish we had when Andrew was an infant!  He always wanted to be upright - much more content that way.

But there are a few things I am wondering about, considering purchasing.  Those of you with little ones, I would love your advice!!  If something worked well for you, or didn't work so well, I would love to hear about it!!

Some of the things I'm considering have to do with nursing.  Andrew & Carson are going to be around a lot of the time when I am breastfeeding.  I feel like I need to be a little more discreet - even in my own home this time.  I was never very good at that, especially with Andrew....trying to be modest and he hated being covered with a blanket while nursing!  I actually didn't like it either, it was hot!  So I was considering one of the nursing cover ups,  The Hooter Hider or Udder Covers or some other cover up.  And I never found a nursing cami that I liked either.  I would think these would be nice, no need to have a bare abdomen exposed.  I had one, a pretty well known brand (I think it was a Glamourmom) but it just didn't work for me...for reasons I don't really need to go into here.  And what about the nursing tops, shirts that have some secret way about them to make breast feeding your baby easier.  Never had any of those.  But maybe you wouldn't need the nursing tops or nursing tanks/camis if you had nursing cover up.  Advice?

We probably need some new bottles since ours were bought before the whole BPA thing came out.  We probably won't need to use too many bottles since I'm not working this time but would like to have bottles that are BPA free for on those rare occasions that we might go on a date or something.  We had Avent bottles before and liked them.  Advice?

A baby carrier.  We have a Snuggie baby carrier but I really didn't use it very much.  I found it difficult to put on and difficult to put the baby in.  And once I did have the baby in and the Snuggie on, it just wasn't very comfortable.  It hurt my back.  So I'm wondering about a baby sling or a different kind of carrier.  Advice?

A baby monitor.  Ours has all kinds of feedback!  Not exactly something I like to hear when attempting to sleep!

And while I am thinking about baby items and asking advice.... this will be the first time we bring home a newborn to this house.  Andrew & Carson were born where we lived before.  In that house, our bedroom and the baby's bedroom were right next to each other.  The boys were in their crib, in their room from night one.  At our house here, we have a ranch and our bedroom and the baby's bedroom are as far apart as possible and still be in the same house (well unless it was downstairs).  I'm not looking forward to recovering from a C-section and having to walk clear across our house multiple times a night to feed the baby.  There is a queen size bed in the baby's room but I just want to be in my own bed.  So I am thinking the baby will be in our room for a few weeks until I feel recovered enough to make the trek multiple times a night.  I think we will probably put the Pack-n-play in our room or maybe have the baby sleep in a booster seat during that time.  Any other thoughts on that situation.

I would really like to hear from you...tell me products you liked or didn't like and why.  Thanks for your help!!  If you don't want to comment on here, send me an email.... ckkauffman@embarqmail.com.  Thanks.

Chocolate Brownie Cookies

I made these Chocolate Brownie Cookies tonight. The best of both worlds! A fudgy brownie cookie. Yum. I doubled the recipe for more cookies to snack on.

Products

There are two new products in our house that are simply making life easier and I love them.

The first is a Eureka Enviro Hard-Surface Floor Steamer. It is wonderful. It uses only water, no chemicals. It has a cloth that goes on the base of the unit that is machine washable to reuse again and again. It cleans the floor with steam. It is amazing and our hardwood floors and bathroom floors will be mopped much more often now. My only wish is that the cord was a little longer. I remember when we still lived in our house in Dayton, I said if we had another house with hardwood floors, that I would get something to help clean the floors. That was 3 1/2 years ago! But I have one now and am just a little gitty over this product! I will never mop the floors like Cinderella again!

The second product Carson & I are enjoying is a new Babysmart Cushee Booster. He hadn't been using a booster seat at the table for many months now. We had a hard plastic booster with a detachable tray. When I had the booster seat off of the chair to clean under it, (disgusting!) I noticed that the hard plastic of the booster seat was rubbing off the finish of the chair. So we stopped using it. Since then he has been so squirmy at the table. He would sit on his knees so he was tall enough at the table. Then he would get fidgety, end up standing on the lower rung of the chair and we would find ourselves saying.... sit still Carson, sit down Carson... But this booster is great! It is all one piece, no more cracks for food to hide in. It is a soft cushee foam material, so it is comfortable for him to sit in and no more rubbing off the finish of the chair. Andrew could probably still benefit from one of these as well, but I guess one is enough.

These are two products I wish we would have had for years now! And I also love amazon.com where I got both of these products!

Winter Storm

This week we are experiencing a winter storm as many other states across the U.S. are. We have mainly had freezing rain/ice and now some wind and snow. We luckily never lost power, well only flickered a few times and I will still keep my fingers crossed that we don't lose it! The wooded area behind our house was coated with ice. It was a bit eery last night listening to the branches sway and crack with the ice breaking and crashing to the ground. Mainly small branches broke off, but a couple larger ones too.

The boys have not had school yesterday or today. I wonder if they will tomorrow? Our road still looks incredibly icy but our development often has the worst roads due to the rare appearances off the snow trucks. Well actually the past two snows we have had, they did a better job of clearing the roads. The boys and I are getting a bit restless! We haven't left the house since Monday afternoon.

Today was a great day to bake bread...something I haven't really felt like doing over the past several weeks. And now I can enjoy the smell of fresh baked bread! Love the aroma! Perhaps some cookies need to be baked as well!!

Below is some of our bushes covered in ice and snow. The holly bushes....

and our crab apple tree. Really kind of pretty, especially with the red berries!

See how slick the driveway looks! I haven't even ventured out to get the mail. I really don't need my pregnant butt falling on the icy driveway.

New Recipes....2 failure and 1 success!!

I recently tried a few new recipes. The first was Roasted Pepper Soup. I thought this recipe was quite tasty. It was a heart warming, comfort soup. The three males in our house had a different opinion. They each took one little bite of the soup and decided that was enough. I guess you sort of need to like red peppers to like this soup & I should have known better than to make it for them! Even though I really liked the soup, it made a fairly large batch and I didn't want to eat the soup for every meal for the next week. So I emailed some of my near by friends asking if they would like some free soup. I had two takers and delivered my own little "meals on wheels" the next day. They each enjoyed the soup. Although I enjoyed the soup, I probably won't be making it again. That is unless I have some red pepper loving friends come for a visit and Chad and the boys are not around. Yeah, not gonna happen!

The next recipe I tried was Mushroom and Black Bean Tortilla Casserole. In my attempt I did not use mushrooms due to our mushroom fearing boys. Instead I used two cans of black beans. The boys did not like the taste of this dish. And actually, I wasn't that thrilled with the taste either. I kept thinking, This should taste really good! We love all the ingredients. Why is the taste so off? I will try this recipe again. Next time I will make my own tortillas, they are so yummy but I just didn't feel up to making them the day I made this dish. I will also buy salsa instead of using the salsa I canned. I think this might help improve the taste. And I will bake it longer than this recipe says. Mine wasn't hot enough in the center, the cheese wasn't melted.

So I guess these recipe attempts weren't necessarily failures but they didn't work well for my family. I hope the Black Bean Tortilla Casserole is much improved the next time I make it.

The recipe I made last night was Chicken & Spinach Pesto Lasagna and it was a hit! We all enjoyed it!! I found the recipe on the back of a bag of Kroger mozzarella cheese. YUM! It makes a lot for this family of four. I ended up putting some away in the freezer.

Chicken & Spinach Pesto Lasagna

Ingredients:

12 uncooked lasagna noodles (I used 9)

3 T. olive oil (I used coconut oil)

1 cup chopped onions

3 cloves garlic, crushed

2 packages (12 oz each) frozen chopped spinach

3 cups cooked diced chicken breast meat

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

2 cups ricotta cheese (I used cottage cheese)

1 large egg

1-1/2 prepared pesto sauce,

plus 2 Tbsp

3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Spray 13x9 casserole or lasagna pan with nonstick cooking spray. Partially cook lasagna noodles according to package directions. Spread 2 Tbsp. pesto in bottom of prepared pan.

3. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook and stir onions and garlic until transparent. Add spinach; cook and stir about 5 minutes. Add cooked chicken and stir about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

4. In large bowl, mix together ricotta cheese, egg, pesto and Parmesan cheese until thoroughly blended. Add chicken and spinach mixture to bowl and stir to combine.

5. Layer 4 (3) lasagna noodles, slightly overlapping. Top with one third of spinach ricotta mixture and one third of mozzarella. Repeat layers twice.

6. Bake about 35-40 minutes or until hot and bubbly.