This weekend, while we were getting everything pre-heated to start cooking dinner, I decided to bust out the Swiffer Sweep & Trap to clean our hardwood floors.
I’ve used this product a few times, and I’m still iffy on if I like it or not. Some days it picks up well, other days I have to push it really forcefully to get the little bits up. I figured it was worth a shot and I’m still giving it a shot before I fully review it.
I will say that B loves it. Loves. It.
Any time I pull it out of the closet he points to it and says “Ehh…Ehh”, which translated means “Give that to me, now.” He audibly was upset with me when I didn’t hand it over right away. I eventually caved and he went around the living room pushing it haphazardly. He was having fun and out of our hair, so I let him go forth and clean.
So excited to be cleaning? He must get that from his father…
Dragging it behind him…
I got to thinking, “I wonder if there are any kid-size Swiffer type things out there,” so I did what any normal mom does now-a-days, I Googled it. I came across a toy-sized product from One Step Ahead called My Size Toy Floor Sweeper. It’s cute, the pad is washable, but really, I like the regular Swiffer pads since I don’t have to wash them (ding, ding, ding, yes, I’m lazy!), so I kept looking.
Then I came across this blog post that literally made me think, “Why didn’t *I* think of that?!” She just took a regular sized Swiffer (not the Sweep & Trap) and removed the two middle bars. Genius!
I just so happened to have a regular Swiffer in the closet, so I pulled it out, quickly removed the two center rods, and B was off and running in no time. He walked around the main floor pushing, pulling, and carrying his new pride and joy around. He had me cracking up cleaning while carrying his sippy cup by his teeth.
Make sure you get up under the sofa, mmmkay?
This is fun, mama!
So now, the next time I need to clean the floor I can give B his and let him help out. At 17 months, it’s time he starts earning his keep anyway. 😉
This is a lot of work! I need to drink some water!
It’s that time of year again…sharing of the blog stats. I love numbers and Google Analytics, so this is always a fun post to put together. 2013 was a slow blogging year for me, especially since B arrived. He takes up a lot of my free time, and I’m okay with that! Trying to do better this year…
With that being said, here are the blog stats year over year:
2013:
– Total Site Visits: 2,342 Visits
– Unique Site Visitors: 2,057 Unique Visitors
– Total Posts Written: 17 posts (way low!)
– Total Page Views: 3,349 Page views
– Average Page Views per Visit: 1.43 Pages/Visit
– Avg. Visit Duration: 0:48
2012:
– Total Site Visits: 3,133 Visits
– Unique Site Visitors: 2,178 Unique Visitors
– Total Posts Written: 54 [crossed off #34 from my Life List!]
– Total Page Views: 4,913 Page views
– Average Page Views per Visit: 1.57 Pages/Visit
– Avg. Visit Duration: 1:12
2011:
– Total Site Visits: 1,714 Visits
– Unique Site Visitors: 1,272 Unique Visitors
– Total Posts Written: 30
– Total Page Views: 2,679 Page views
– Average Page Views per Visit: 1.56 Pages/Visit
– Avg. Visit Duration: 1:26
2010:
– Total Site Visits: 234 Visits
– Unique Site Visitors: 177 Unique Visitors
– Total Posts Written: 7
– Total Page Views: 384 Page views
– Average Page Views per Visit: 1.64 Pages/Visit
– Avg. Visit Duration: 1:30
And last but not least, the Top 5 Posts in 2013 (in case you weren’t around to see ’em the first time!):
1. Travel Inspired by the Bachelor (295 views / 273 unique) — I’m amazed this continues to be one of the most visited posts on the site!
2. Certain Shades of Green (160 views / 136 unique)
3. Our Little Man’s Birth Story (120 views / 110 unique)
4. Dining Room Dilemmas (72 views / 59 unique)
5. My Weekend Menu (71 views / 67 unique)
Anyone can be a father, but it takes a lot to be a daddy. – Anonymous
While I like to tease Josh (hey, he teases me *ALL* the time), and perhaps post things that make him look like a smart-a, I love the guy tremendously and wouldn’t choose anyone else to be my hubby or the father of my child.
I know I’ve said before that I knew Josh would be a great dad, but he continues to prove me correctly each day.
He talks me off the ledge after lack of sleep when B suddenly decides he doesn’t want to eat one of the few things he’ll actually eat (that isn’t baby food).
He has absolutely NO problem acting goofy to get a smile or giggle out of our little dude.
He’s so patient and kind with our little guy, I enjoy watching them interact with each other.
I’m 99.9% sure B gets his humor and ability to make me laugh from Josh.
He loves our sweet boy, and I can see it when he looks at him. And thus, I love him even more.
Happy Father’s Day, Josh! I love you and so does B!
Who knows if I’ll really keep this up, but hey, it sounded catchy! Today’s WttWW is: What not to say to your pregnant wife. (Note: No, I am not pregnant again. Whew.)
I kept this list on my phone while I was pregnant, and came across it when I backed this up before a total restore a couple weeks ago. Josh, you knew this blog post was coming…
- “You look like Humpty Dumpty.”
- “You look like a roly poly.”
- When walking into a room: “Hey, hey, hey!” (said Fat Albert style)
- “You look like the Kool-Aid man.”
- “You’re moving like a Galapagos turtle.”
- “You reminded me of a hippopotamus in heat.”
- “You’re a big ball of no fun. Literally.”
- “We’re going to take you down to audition for Big Momma 3.”
- “You look like you need another doughnut…”
- “You look like a Christmas ornament.”
I might give him this one…my stomach in this shirt did kind of resemble an ornament…
Yes ladies, Josh is still alive after all of those comments. 🙂 My payback was going to be the blog post, it’s just long overdue. He’s lucky I love him, and that he’s so darn cute. 😉
So…what are things your spouse/partner might have said to while pregnant that you wanted to backhand them for? Share in the comments section below!
At one point, I had grand plans to review products that we used with B. I started off doing well with Part I and Part II, but never got around to Part III – the products that were disappointing. I mean, those are the most important to discuss – because you don’t want your friends/family/random people stopping by to waste their money if you can stop them!
Below are the products we really wanted to like, but they came up short:
Boon Winter Grass Countertop Drying Rack
I was so excited by the look of the Boon Grass drying rack, I really wanted to love it. But with going through several bottles a day, I found that there really wasn’t much room for all the parts/pieces of the pump that were drying along with the bottles/nipples/etc. I had to extend to paper towels on the counter to keep up. I do know there’s a larger version called the “Lawn” but we had this one and it just didn’t hold up to all of the things we needed to dry at once. I liked to wash a whole bunch of things at once, rather than every single time, because I didn’t like washing ALL day long! We ended up getting the Munchkin High Capacity Drying Rack for up to 8 bottles. Since we have 12 bottles that we run through every 3 days, we actually still use the Boon rack for spillover items – it’s just a secondary rack vs. the primary one.
Munchkin Lulla-Vibe Vibrating Mattress Pad
I saw this product while walking through the store that *always* manages to suck me in and buy more than I intended (Target) and I thought it was a genius idea! Since we’d used the vibration feature on the 3-in-1 napper for B, I bought it and brought it home to try in the crib since he’d moved over.
When I took it out of the box and got it setup, I lifted the crib mattress and inserted it per the directions. It left the crib uneven and awkward. I moved it to one of the ends of the crib, rather than the center, and still, the same thing. I figured since B wasn’t moving around much, we’d keep it at the end and just try it out.
When I turned it on, it RATTLED the springs on the crib. It was so loud. There was no way this was going to work! We ended it up taking it out from under the mattress and put it in the corner of the crib. Again, B was NOT moving at this point, and it gave the mattress a gentle vibration that seemed to work. Once he started moving around in his crib, we never used it again…
Blooming Baby Bath Flower
This product was cute. So cute. But our sinks were small (and I wasn’t interested in using the kitchen sink, I mean, that would mean we’d have to always put our dishes in the dishwasher right away!) and our kid was big (when you start out 9 lbs/10 oz and 22 inches long, a normal sink won’t cut it for long) so it didn’t last long. The plush nature of the flower took up a lot of space in the sink, so he was fairly squished after a short period of time.
I need a new tub!
In addition to being squished, it also was kind of a pain to dry for the next use. It took us a little while to consider laying it over the faucet in the tub overnight to get it to dry out. Once we thought about that, instead of laying it over the edge of the tub, it worked out better.
We used this for less than 2 months before we moved up (see Part II for the tub we ended up with)
Munchkin Formula Dispenser
Of all the formula dispensers we tried. This was absolutely THE WORST. It wasn’t secure, the formula would go from compartment to compartment – so I wasn’t sure how much powder was in either section after measuring them out before a trip around town. After the first time it spilled everywhere, I never used it again. Now, they do make another formula dispenser that’s great – just make sure you don’t buy this one in particular!
Munchkin Formula Mixer
This was recommended by a friend when we first made the switch to formula. It worked, and we ended up using it for quite awhile, until we got frustrated by the button and how cumbersome it was to use. Upon searching amongst the greatness that is Amazon, we found the Prince Lionheart Versa Formula Mixer and never looked back. That thing is badass.
Are there any products out there that you tried and were left feeling disappointed that you’d spend your money (or had other spend their money) on that you’d like to share? Comment below!
Note: I was not paid for or given any of these products by any company to review. They were purchased either by us or gifted as baby shower presents, and I wanted to share them with friends. Now if you’re out there and would like for me to review a product of yours, feel free to contact me at wishiweretherenow at gmail dot com. 
Note: WishIWereThereNow.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
I know I’ve said it before, and I’m sure I’ll say it again – but keeping up with a blog ain’t easy!
Going on 4 months since my last post, so I figured I’d do a catch-up post. 🙂
In January, B turned one. I’m still amazed that a) time moved THAT fast like everyone says it will and b) we kept him alive for a whole year! (kidding, I figured we’d nail that one).
We threw a sports themed get-together for “our little rookie”. We had everyone come wearing their team colors, took photos, ate food, opened presents, and enjoyed the company of our friends and family.
Unsure about the icing on his cupcake…
*Definitely* not a fan of the icing!
A few days after the party, Atlanta was shut down by a snow storm that brought 1-2 inches of snow. I’d opted to stay home the day it was supposed to hit, thankfully I did! B’s school closed early, all of Atlanta was sent home early, and the roads were a nightmare! Josh ended up having to park a few miles from home and walk home. B wasn’t a fan of the snow, but we had to get pictures of him out in the pretty white stuff.
My boys all bundled up
In February, my brother and sister-in-law had their first child, the adorable PJ! I now have 2 nieces and 1 nephew – yay for being an Aunt!
Proud Papa!
B was NOT a fan of me holding PJ
And if one snow storm wasn’t enough, there was ANOTHER one that kept us stuck at home for a few days. This time we were prepared, and we all stayed home waiting for it to show up. Working from home with a kiddo is not easy. I think it’s safe to say after several days of being at home we were all happy to head back to school and work. 🙂
In March, we celebrated our nephew, W’s, first birthday. I’ll never forget the day he was born – since we were taking cover in our bathroom due to tornado warnings in the area. It was fun celebrating with J’s side of the family and seeing the two boys together again.
B with the birthday boy!
B and I with the birthday boy. 🙂
And in non-kiddo related news, MERCER BEAT DUKE in the first round of the NCAA tournament!!! Once we found out where they’d be playing, Mom and I decided to buy tickets and drive to Raleigh. So glad that we did! It was by far the best basketball game I’ve experienced cheering on the Bears.
BEARS WIN!!!!
While in Raleigh, I also got to see one of my good friends, Larissa, and meet her little girl. It was so great having lunch with her and catching up!
Such a cute little lady!
April brought lots of rain, a wedding, our fifth anniversary, and Easter.
Em got married to Eric, it was a beautiful ceremony and I’m so glad that we were able to join them to celebrate!
With the newlyweds!
Josh and I celebrated being married for five years. Our celebration consisted of Italian take-out on a rainy day. It was quiet and perfect, with a side of screaming toddler. 😉
For Easter we spent time with Josh’s family for the afternoon. B got to hang out with his cousins, and it was fun to watch them run around and play together.
Our Easter cutie
B with his cousins
Family photo with my loves
And that brings us to May…
Hoping to keep up from here, seriously going to make an effort to post more. We’ll see how that goes!
All for now!
One year ago today, Josh and I checked in at the hospital, ready to meet our little boy. So anxious, so excited, and in my case, a little scared! We were going to be parents?!? Me?? Josh?? Forever known as ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’ to OUR kid? Responsible for someone else until they’re at least 18 years old!? We knew the day would change our lives forever, but little did we know how much more awesome it’d be.
In the past year, B has taught us so much about ourselves and each other. He’s taught me the value of sleep (I took this for granted before!), the need for patience (this is a daily struggle), the importance of laughter (I need to lighten up more!), and that you can have fun with just about anything if you put your mind to it (homeboy loves plastic Tupperware containers, plastic bottles, and anything he can hit on the floor to make noise).
I never really pictured myself as a mother growing up, but deciding to expand our family was the best decision we’ve ever made. I cannot imagine life now without B. His smiles, laughs, and facial expressions can get us through some of the toughest days. I find that I’m always looking forward to the minute I can leave work to go pick him up and see that sweet face again. I’m amazed at how quickly this year has gone by, and I have so many mixed emotions today. He’s growing up so fast and learning so quickly, and he’s not a little baby anymore (not that he was ever really little!). I love our little man more than I could put into words. I’m not ready for him to grow up, but I know there’s much more to look forward to as he gets older – and for that I’m excited.
Happy birthday, little man. Your Mama and Daddy love you very much!
Today was the first day that B cried when I dropped him off at school. He was happy when I handed him over to his teacher, kissed him on the forehead and turned to go out the door. It was then that I noticed that he was almost out of diapers. I keep a box of his diapers in my trunk, so that I don’t ever let him run out at school.
I said goodbye and ran out to the car to grab a sleeve of diapers for his cubby. When I walked back into the room and started putting them in his cubby, he spotted me. And when I didn’t walk over to him immediately like I do in the afternoons, he started crying.
Gasp.
The tears instantly came to my eyes and I felt so guilty leaving him there while I went to work. This was the first time in the entire four months he’s been there that he’s gotten upset when I was leaving, and I know it won’t be the last, but it still hurt.
That was at 7:10 am.
I called at lunch to see how he was doing, and of course he was doing just fine. He’s eating, he’s playing, he’s laughing. He’s fine.
It’s now 3:00 pm and my eyes still sting from the tears that want to attempt an escape from their ducts, but I’m fighting them back. Tears won’t do me any good. And why should I cry? He’s in a good environment with lots of other kiddos to play with and learn from. Yes, it sucks leaving him every day. Yes, there are days when I wish I could stay at home with him. But I do love my job and I enjoy working. I’m not anywhere near ready to hang that up and stay at home – it’s just not me.
So for now, I’ll keep the guilt, and continue counting down the hours until I can go pick up my little man each day.
Two hours to go!
It’s hard to believe that it has been a little over six months since B entered the world. Man, people weren’t lying when they said time would fly! I mean, how is it already August??
I’ve been pretty slack when it comes to blogging, but I spend all of my weekdays working and all of my weeknights spending time with B and Josh, and getting ready for the next day once B goes to sleep. The weekends are dedicated to spending as much time as possible with my boys. This may or may not include never putting B down to sleep during the day – I’ll totally veg out and take a nap with him cuddled up on me. Laundry needs to be done? It can wait.* Need to clean the bathrooms? It can wait.* I know in the years to come he won’t want to snuggle up, so I’m taking advantage of it now, while he can’t say anything about it! 😉
The past six months have been amazing. Watching B grow and learn new things every day has been a lot of fun. Every month I think “This is the best age” and then the next month I feel the same way. Now that he’s become even more interactive and aware, he’s constantly cracking us up!
From him shaking his head to where it looks like he’s saying no to him leaning back and ‘banging’ his head on his chair while we’re eating dinner when he’s bored. Or his little toothy grin when you make a funny face at him to him leaning forward with an open mouth to your cheek when you ask for a kiss. I absolutely adore this little guy. Both Josh and I can’t imagine our life without him, and barely remember life before him. Except for getting more sleep…we still recognize we had that before him. 😉 It’s been completely worth it though.
We’re six months in, and I couldn’t be happier with this whole parenting gig.
*Or Josh will get it done. I love that man – he’s so good to me. 🙂
My poor little guy. He’s sensitive. Sensitive skin and a sensitive bum.
In the first 11 weeks of his life, B dealt with diaper rash for about 9-10 of them. And by dealt, I mean it. He was quite the trooper. There were days he was so blistered, I don’t know how he tolerated diaper changes. There were days he would SCREAM and there were days you wouldn’t know anything was wrong. I was still pumping, so he was consuming my milk – but because the milk from BF is so digestible, he seemed to have a movement every hour or two – which was destroying his bum. I’d had it, and was determined to move him over to formula – knowing it would reduce the number of times a day he would have movements. Regular formula…had the same impact as the milk. What the what!?
We looked into everything possible, we tried every diaper cream imaginable, and nothing worked. He was seen at the pediatrician 4-5 times during this period and they seemed unsure as to what was going on.
We switched from Pampers to Huggies. We stopped using diaper wipes and went solely with warm wet washcloths (that was fun, let me tell you!). We changed him every hour on the hour (and even more frequently if he was wet – thanks to the indicator strips on the diapers).
We tried Nystatin when they thought it was a yeasty diaper rash, we tried corn starch, we tried Neosporin, we tried Triple Paste (and Triple Paste AF), Desitin, A&D Original, Boudreaux’s Butt Paste, Burt’s Bees Diaper Ointment (smelled pleasant, but didn’t work), and Balmex.
Just some of the attempted diaper rash remedies.
Nothing worked.
It wasn’t until one of the later doctor appointments that one of our doctors wrote a prescription for Silvadene cream. It’s used for bacterial or fungal infections, as well as burns [which is what his butt looked like – some kind of burn (out of respect for B – no pictures of this will be shared)]. She also gave us some soy formula samples to try, since the regular formula had been iffy as well. In addition to this, she referred us to one of the pediatric dermatologists in the area. It took a month to get in with them!
In that month, we used the Silvadene as prescribed and after a week or so we noticed a distinct difference. His bum was healing, he wasn’t having as many movements, and the soy formula didn’t bother him. Holy cow – we were so excited.
By the time we met with the pediatric dermatologist, his bum was healed (of course)! I was able to show her pictures, and based on our discussion and the review of the pictures taken over the weeks, she diagnosed him with Jacquet’s Diaper Dermatitis. She recommended using Sensi-Care on him for a barrier cream, and I tell you, that stuff works wonders. We use it on him at night to prevent as much contact as possible with anything in his diaper since he’s sleeping through the night and not waking up requiring diaper changes.
Over time we determined that it could have been the lactose bothering him (he gets it honestly – and I was lactose intolerant as a baby too – and still am), so the soy has definitely helped. However, now that teething has ramped up (homeboy has 2 teeth that have cut through already!), we’ve seen the diaper rash attempting to come back at least once.
At one of his recent visits to the doctor, he was diagnosed with a stomach virus, because teething shouldn’t have him going THAT frequently. It did a number on him.
We applied the Silvadene to help repair as necessary, the Sensi-care at night, as well as Triple Paste during the day (instead of the petroleum jelly we normally use) since it’s thicker and seems to stay on him bum a little longer. Daycare is changing him every hour, which also helps, and we’re tossing a little baking soda in with his bath water to assist in the healing, too.
And our little guy, he’s a champ. You still wouldn’t know he’s having issues unless I told you – always a smile on his face. 😉
I normally wouldn’t share something so personal about our little guy, but I looked everywhere online for ideas and help. If anything in this post can help someone else in the future, you’re welcome!
And if you have diaper rash remedies that you can share, please do!
Note: WishIWereThereNow.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
