Welcome to Mommihood!

Hi! I am a stay at home mommy of one! His name is Isaiah and he is about 10 days shy of 15 months! He had quite a rocky start so being a stay at home mom was at first a necessity and now a choice. You can read more about that here in my blog of letters to my son. I recently had the urge to just communicate all things Mommy. I am constantly bombarded through social media, websites, and even mommy encounters in the baby food isle of Target with comments and opinions on breastfeeding, attachment parenting, cosleeping, intactment, organics, and the list goes on! This is a place to express and explore all of the new parenting issues and challenges our generation is facing.The alternative to googling! I was like anyone else when I got pregnant and began googling EVERYTHING! This can be a great asset and your worst enemy all in one! Every wierd stomachache I had during my pregnancy was somehow preeclampsia or a miscarriage. As far as forums on medical symptoms go, on sites like Yahoo Answers, my advice is to simply stay away! It is almost always better to trust your gut, ask your doctor, and not turn your migraine into a tumor! With that being said, I can be found googling something of this nature at least once a week. Clearly easier said than done. I admittedly spend entirely too much time on social networks and pinterest! While I would love to say I am an amazing cook, I am by far NOT one. Though I do try! I am like simple, DELICIOUS, healthy options for a busy mom. I have gotten into crafting a lot since becoming a mother as well. That's the funny thing about motherhood, for me anyways, it made me so much more "domestic." It brought out desires in me I never knew I had. Like making christmas presents! I am making a couple christmas presents for my nephew this year. I googled things that would help develop fine motor skills and memory in a 3 year old and found a ton of ideas. Some very doable, others a little far fetched. These were the few that I decided on:

Wooden Lacing Cards: I found this idea through Dollar Store Crafts however, I found my wooden lace boards at Hobby Lobby. They were each about a dollar and I was able to pick out things that interested my nephew like a soccerball, a elephant, a heart, etc. I had it in my head that they would be the plain unpainted shapes that I would need to paint/decorate, but when I got there, they had a whole section of decorated shapes. The pic shows it done with a shoe string but I found a rope like string in the fabric section of the store. I liked this better because I could cut exactly the amount needed for each board, downside is that I am going to have to find a way to seal the ends and keep them from fraying. I am thinking hot glue or the sealant they sell at the fabric store. I will update with how this turns out as I do them. Great for fine motor skills!

Now this next one is my favorite because it is more personal!
Memory Game I want to give credit to this site purlbee.com for the idea here. While this fabric memory game is an awesome idea, I wanted to take it a step further and make it really personal to Landon (my nephew). I decided to take pictures of all of his closest loved ones and favorite toys and use them in the game instead. I have taken all the picutes and attached them to notecards (I cute these down to about 2 inch cubes). Now I just need to get them laminated and I plan on punching holes in the corners so that they fit onto a metal fabric ring for easy carrying/storing etc. I do think using the fabric would make the game a bit harder, and is definitely a great idea. Even using fabric of the same color but with different textures would be a great idea. Like using felt, velvet, cotton, etc. but all in the color blue.

I also have a few ideas for my some things for my son that I plan on doing this week. My husband is home on vacation and I will have a lot more free time on my hands.
This is an idea that I thought of and when I tried googling it I couldn't find one quite like I was imagining in my head, but I will post a similar idea. It is a christmas tree that he can decorate as many time as he wants. I am hoping this will stay on the coffee/endtable in the living room and deter him from wanting to redecorate our tree this year! I remember going to my friend's houses in years past, that had toddlers, and their trees were only decorated from halfway up! Last year Isaiah was too small (4 months) to really pose a threat to the tree. I am going to give him the benefit of the doubt at first, but I hope having his own tree will interst him more than messing with mine!! I am open to any ideas you might have for keeping kids from opening presents under the tree too! Here is a pic of one that I found. I think mine will be a bit different. First of all, it won't say baby's first christmas tree across the base, and I will make much more attractive decorations. I think this would also work as an advent tree for older kids that you could count up/down to the days of christmas by adding a ornament each day. Like I said, my ornaments won't be as cheesy but when I finally make mine I will post a pic of my non-ugly version!

The next is a photo book for him to look through. I think it will be a great way for him to learn everyone's names that he doesn't see all the time. While he knows who they are when we say their name, I think this will encourage him to actually say their names more. I will probably include my husband, myself, our parents, siblings and their kids. I may use a site like shutterfly to actually create the book simply for the fact that I want the names printed on the pictures like this. This shouldn't be too hard to create. I wouldn't mind putting it in my own small photo album if I could get the pictures printed on like shown.

This has been on my mind lately and I wanted to share. I checked the mail the other day and saw the new winter Carter's catalog had come! I was so excited to see all the cute new outfits for the coming season. In flipping through the first TWELVE pages of the catalog there was still not a single item for a boy. I actually looked back at the cover of the catalog to make sure that I hadn't received the girl winter catalog. Finally, starting on page 14 (of a 20 page catalog) there were 4 pages of boy items. Two of which contained female versions of the pajamas on the page. Is it just me or is this riddiculous? Upon learning that I was pregnant with a little boy almost 2 years ago, I quickly noticed that over 75% of the selection in stores was for girls! Recently I went to Concord Mills (a mall in my area) and in shopping in a store called Crazy 8, there were actually girl items in the boy section! I didn't see any of the boy items in the girl section!It was clear with the change of the seasons that they had a bit of overflow in merchandise and had to find a place for it, but it just further pointed out the fact that there is no demand for boy fashion! It is crazy to me how much more of a selection little girls have than boys! I am so sick of plaid and polos! Now with all of this being said, I haven't the slightest clue as to what would fix this situation. I suppose there are only so many renditions of the sweater vest that you can create. I get it! Girl's stuff is so much cuter and there is a lot more room for innovative fashion! Tutus and headbands/bows! I have to admit I love it all! I guess the only real solution for me here would be to have a little girl!