He brought me two carriers in one day!! My new Mei-Tai:
Reversable, for when I am wearing patterns (like the one I am wearing today) that wont go with the patterned carrier. Isn’t it pretty? Don’t you want one? Even if you don’t have a baby, you can pretend you do, or use it for your puppy, or a bunny rabbit!
I got outbid on my first choice, and then fell in love withthis one and got a great deal. I think I actually like it more than my first choice. Also it is preferable since it can be a shoulder bag or back-pack and back-pack is much better for baby-wearing or going somewhere without the stroller. I do tend to baby-wear a lot, and also don’t use a stroller much once my kids are walking (with the the girl I didn’t anyways). With her I had a shoulder bag and a back-pack I switched to when it was more reasonable to use a back-pack (and ended up switching to permanently by the time she was 18 months), but this convertible one is so pretty and seems much more functional:
I think is it still pretty gender neutral? The flowers and pink are a bit girly, but it is green enough that it doesn’t scream “girl”…and anyways…whatever gender this baby is I am still a (very girly) girl!!
I feel a bit…odd…buying stuff for bebe already. This the is first thing I have bought, though I have been eyeing cloth diapers forever. Jews traditionally don’t until our babies come (it is not a religious rule, but rather tradition/superstition). I am not very traditional or superstitious though, and with an Christmas due date that seems like a pretty unrealistic plan anyways!!
I did not wait until after the girl came either…but I did wait until after the big U/S (I have mine on July 25th). Oh well…it is a great bag and if G-d forbid I cannot use it, I am sure I’ll be able to sell it very easily when I am ready, or find someone to gift it to.
Squeee!!!!
Let’s compare to last year’s Sunglasses, shall we (why I was making a bitchface, I’ll never know!)?
O.K., here is a recent one (like, taken 2 minutes ago, in a room with bad lighting and some weird sorta glare).
Is it me, or are the glasses the same? OOPs. Let’s double check, shall we?
Phew, not quite the same. Similar style…but the new ones are darker and wider (and the D&G ones are awful quality, the arms loosen every single time I wear them. I have had them adjusted a million times and need to keep a screwdriver in the car for them!!!
While I am sharing pictures, here is a recent one of her gorgeousness in the adorable outfit my Sister and Brother in Law got her in Israel:
The problem: My cell phone took a little swim in the bottom of my handbag Sunday evening. After doing everything I could think of (taking the battery out, opening all the little input thingamajigs, shaking it madly, drying it with paper towel and then a blow dryer on low heat) it was still not working. It looked dry, and turned on, but the buttons would not work and when I called it did not ring. So, off to google I went.
The solution: Rice. Yup, dry uncooked rice. If you leave a wet cell phone it it, it sucks out the water. I left the phone in a bowl of dry rice all Sunday night. Amazingly, the next morning it worked almost perfectly. I could see some moisure in the display window though, and the back-light never turned off after I closed the phone. So back to the rice it went for the day. When I came home, perfect phone
Who knew?
P.S. I am very lucky I did not ruin the phone permanently because I kept putting the battery in and checking it before I was sure it was dry. If you do this, take out the battery and SIM card immediately, dry the phone with a towel as best you can, than leave it in the rice for a full day before attempting to use it again.
Before you understand how exciting this is, you need to know that I am a car seat freak. I am beyond anal when it comes to car seat safety. I cannot help it, I just am. There are worse things to be obsessive about.
So, the girl (who was rear-facing until she was almost 2) is still in a harnessed car seat. I know, she is 5. I know, every other 5 year old in the world is in a booster seat. Oh well. At 34lbs and 40 inches, she is still too small for a booster seat. Besides that, she is safer in a harness for even longer than the minimum of 40lbs…and I intend to keep her harnessed as long as possible. Her current car-seat will keep her harnessed to 48lb and 43 inches, so she has a while to go, but the car-seat in the man’s car is pretty well done, so I need to move my car-seat to his car (that she is in to go to or from school, less than a km away, about 3 times a week) and get a new seat for my car. Yeah, shopping!
So, I present, the girl’s new car seat:
The Sunshine kids Radian has the highest weight and height limits in Canada. If I was in the States, I’d be buying a Nautilusor the Gold Standard of Big Kid Car seats, the Regent (drool). But in Canada I am, so the Radian it is. Ok, weirdness of buying a new harnessed car-seat for a 5 year-old aside, is it pretty or what (obviously, the infant inserts will be removed)?
P.S. I strongly recommend all parents consider keeping their babies and young toddlers rear-facing as long as possible, and their preschoolers harnessed as long possible. I don’t wanna get preachy on you all, just sayin’ (and providing the links).
Remember, the bare minimum for turning to forward-facing is 1 year AND 20lbs, the bare minimum for going to a booster seat is 4 years AND 40lbs, and the bare minimum for sitting in a regular seat-belt is 8 years OR 80lbs (in Canada).
Taking a moment to promote a new blog I am co-authoring with the wonderful C.K.
As you all must know by now, I have been making a lot of efforts the last year or so to be kinder and gentler to the environment. I’ve made a lot of changes, and I hope to inspire others to as well. I also have a lot to learn, and hope that this blog will help me come up with new ideas to make my life greener!!
C.K. and I are both City girls, me in Toronto and C.K. in Hong Kong. We will be blogging about environmental issues and new and exciting (or not so new and exciting, but worthy anyways!) ways we have found to be kinder to the environment while staying true to our stylin’ city girl ways. The blog is C.K.’s baby, but as soon as I saw that she was starting it I thought “I wanna green blog, I WANNA GREEN BLOG!” so I begged her to let me in on the action, which she kindly did.
Pop on by, take a look at Green is Her New Blog…and don’t forget to take notice of the awesome amazing graphics, all C.K.’s work. Good thing too, since I don’t have an artistic bone in my body! She created some truly fabulous doll icons for herself, and I!!
Here she is: 
and me:
and expect to see C popping by as well,she is super green and an inspiration to us all. Hi C (not the drink, just saying “hi” to C’s adorable icon!!: 
it’s okay that I was too sick to buy a new brown purse at the Coach outlet in Orlando, since my parents just got back from Vegas and got me this beauty. I love parents!
P.S. I was too lazy to take my own picture, so this picture is stolen from Ebay but it is the exact same bag!
A few months ago, I switched from my Nalgene water bottle to a Sigg one. I had read too many articles about the dangers of Polycarbonateto ignore even though I know very well that it may just be paranoid hype (are eggs good or bad for us?). Since I use my water bottle every day and suck from it constantly, I just figured better safe than sorry. After some research I decides a Sigg was my best bet and bought one. I am not sure if it is really healthier or not, but I do love it. It looks great, and the water tastes great too. I fill it with filtered tap water nightly, and I find that water has less of a chemical taste from my Sigg than it did from my my Nalgene. I took the Sigg to Disney World, where it fell out of my bag no less than 1200 times. It lived, but is really scratched up and dented and doesn’t really stand straight anymore. Last week I finally made it to The Big Carrot to get a new one. Lucky for me, they had the one I have been coveting in stock. May I present my new suck toy:
Lovely, yes? If you are gonna spend $34 on a water bottle, it may as well be pretty, pink and give some proceeds (and create some awareness) for a good cause.
P.S. I really really recommend reusable water bottles, be it hard plastic or aluminum or even steel or glass. The cheap one time plastic ones are awful. Not only am I concerned about the health aspects of sucking on flimsy plastic all day, but the waste is just enormous. Every time I go to the supermarket I see people buying piles of cases of bottles of water, and it hurts me to think how most of those bottles won’t even make it to a recycling bin. Disposable water bottles are a huge contribution to the world’s waste problems, and even reusing them is not safe. I am lucky to live in a city that has safe regulated water, and am glad to take advantage of that!
Not on your life! Reading all the bulletin board and blog posts about the millions of gifts kids got (and parents bought), not to mention the overwhelming amount of decorations, trees, discarded wrappings and toys packaging parents now have to somehow store or discard makes me very, very happy that there is no Christmas in our house.
Chanukah, however, was a fun event and our girl did get a few gifts she loved. Here are her 2 favorites, so if any of my readers are looking for gift ideas for 4-5 year old girls…well…I highly recommend these:
Princess game house-This will require parental involvement if siblings are not around, but games are a lot more fun that playing with dolls!This toy has some that adults and kids can enjoy like checkers, bingo and tic-tac-toe. As a bonus, the box is a lovely wooden addition to any princess’s room, and keeps everything neat and tidy.
Alex Sticker Factory-Awesome toy. The girl played with it by herself for hours once she learned how to use it. A bit difficult to put together and learn to use, but easy once it is done. Creates a lot of paper clippings. Worth it though, for the baby-sitting factor. The man and I have had several romantic dinners out while the sticker factory kept our little girl out of trouble and saved us from having to pay for a baby-sitter (kidding, obviously…but it is a very occupying toy and she truly would not have noticed if we had gone out!). Be sure to buy several refills if you get it.
