When Lydia was six months old, I started feeding her babyfood. We skipped the processed cereal and went straight to sweet potatoes. She ate every bite with minimal mess and loved it.

We went on the cruise and were moving when Asa was six months old, so I started a little later with him. His first food was avocados. He did not likey. He is now almost nine months old and he has yet to finish even one ounce of baby food. I’ve tried squash, apples, bananas, sweet potatoes, cereal, carrots, blueberries, pears and even cherries. He spits it straight out. And adds a grotesque face to match. And usually gags to add a little oomph to it.

I finally let him gnaw on a carrot yesterday and am pretty sure he may have gotten a half of a sliver of it down his throat. But seriously, what am I supposed to do? I’m thinking of just skipping the purreed baby food now. But what are some good finger foods? What’s something he won’t break off and choke on? Any advice for a baby that doesn’t want to eat?

After my breastfeeding difficulties are you believing this is happening to me?!!

I Need Your Advice: Baby Food is a post from: ohamanda.com

Remember how I had a baby? Yeah, it was like five months ago. And poor little guy doesn’t have one stick of a cute nursery. (Except for a fun pirate picture that bee sent him.) I know I said I picked out bedding for him. I even bought it. But after I got it in my hot little hands, well, it just wasn’t hot.

So, now that we are going to be moving in EEK a few days weeks, Asa’s room is my top priority. No one else is getting anything new for like five years. But the pirate? It has to be done.

I really want something different. I know, just saying those words is trite and totally UNdifferent. But I do. I just can’t stand all the lambies and fishies that are littered all over boys’ bedding. And if you get away from the cutie pie animals all you can find is something that looks like nautical bathroom wallpaper.

I still haven’t found exactly what I want. But for what it’s worth (and so you can be on the lookout for something cool, too), here’s my Top Ten Things I Want for the Pirate’s New Rock-a-Bye Baby Nursery. (nice title, huh?)

1. Guitar Pillow. This is really the inspiration for the entire room. You might remember Asa’s monthly picture is with his guitar pillow. I just love the colors and think this would be a fun color scheme for a non-babyish but still cute nursery.

2. Silver Sage Subtle Velvet Paint from Restoration Hardware. First of all, with a name like that you’d think it was a fingernail polish! But isn’t it nice?  Kinda like silver. Only not shiny. And not so silver.

3. Chair and Ottoman from Urban Outfitters. I would love a funky chair. Right now I have a glider that my mom covered in pink toile for Lydia’s room. I really really really don’t want to move that into Asa’s new room.

4. Mod Baby Crib from WalMart. I know, WalMart! I think white would look good up against a silvery gray wall. What do you think?

5. Guitar Decal from Wall Creations and More. I was thinking two of these on the wall horizontal  above the crib would be super cool. (This is an etsy shop and significantly less expensive than any of the other wall decal places I found online.)

6. Vintage Records. I have a vintage Snow White record that I framed thinking it would be hip for Lydia’s room. But if I could find some cool vintage boy-ish records, that would be a fun addition to his room.

photo by headexplodie

7. Bedding from Overstock.com. This is the only one I like. KIDDING.

8. This cool rug. My friend Yancy has this and I know the color is not exactly right, but the sparkly pieces in it are suh-weet.

9. Pampers. Well, I mean, really. I’ll have more of these than any other thing in the nursery. Plus, the whole one pack=one vaccine thing. (I can’t help it!)

10. Pirate Doll from Manhattan Toy. It has nothing to do with the room but don’t you think my pirate would love his very own pirate to chew on play with?

OK. I officially love this new nursery. Now to sell it to my hubby…or Project Nursery…or one of those reality TV make-over-my-room shows…

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Have a Top Ten to share? I’ve been loving everyone’s lists the past 2 weeks! We had 17 people play last week and *sniff* I’m honored. Some people hooked up late Tuesday night so make sure you come back to see who’s signing the Mr. Linky! It’s a fun way to make some new friends (and get a little traffic to your blog).

You know what to do: write a Top Ten post on your blog, sign the Mr. Linky with your permalink then start visiting the other participants! And if you link back to me in your post, even better!

Top Ten Tuesday: Rockin’ Baby Nursery is a post from: ohamanda.com

Today’s first Top Ten Tuesday list is in honor of my sleepy pirate. Remember how he started sleeping 8 hours like in November? Well, last week he reneged on that deal. He started waking up three times PER NIGHT. I was a zombie. A zombie. A zombie. Seriously. A zombie.

One night I just decided I was going to ignore him if he cried at his normal midnight hour. And he did. And I did. And within minutes he went back to sleep and SLEPT UNTIL THE MORNING. And has been doing that ever since! Isn’t that strange?!

So, not sure if these things helped, but here are my…

TOP TEN STEPS FOR GETTING YOUR BABY TO SLEEP

1. Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. Seriously best sleep book ever. Dr. Weissbluth should pay me commission.

2. Earplugs. These are for you, not them.

3. Miracle Blanket. It’s called the miracle blanket for a reason.

4. White Noise machine. I am normally not a fan of sounds during sleep. But when your kids rooms are connected by a door and you can literally hear the other one breathing heavy, I like this for covering up some of the noise.I bought this cheesy oneat Target. I keep it on rain, but it’s got tropical birds if you like that better.

5. Hyland’s Homeopathic Sleeping Helper Pill-Thingies. Have you seen these? When we went on our cruise last year our table-mates gave us some because Lydia didn’t sleep. Not sure if it worked but we’re going on another cruise in March (!!) and I’m thinking I might drug the pirate with them. Is that weird?

6. Miracle Blanket. Oh, have I mentioned this before?

7.The Moms on Call Book. You can never have too many get-your-kids-to-sleep ideas.

8. A warm bath and a snuggly towel.

9. A bedtime story. We’re doing The Magician’s Nephew. It’s taken us a few months to get to chapter 12, but I think he likes it.

10. Nyquil. KIDDING.

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So, what’s your Top Ten today? Top Ten Dishes You Still Need To Wash? Top Ten Oscar Nominated Movies I Didn’t See? Top Ten Things You Should Be Doing Instead of Reading My Blog?

I’d love for you to link up with my Top Ten Tuesday! Just post your Top Ten list on your blog. Then come back here and put your PERMALINK in the Mr. Linky. Click around to enjoy the rest of the top tens and make some new friends! (Here’s some real guidelines & a button if you’d like.)

And as an incentive (aka method of begging/pleading) I’m offering up a prize! If you play along with my Top Ten this week, you could win a set of TEN mini cards from an adorable little etsy shop, SarahsSmile!  I’ll announce the winner NEXT Tuesday.

 Thanks for playing!

Top Ten Tuesday: Getting Your Baby To Sleep is a post from: ohamanda.com