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
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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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
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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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
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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[alternate title: It's OK. I'm Laughing At Him, Too.]

[alternate alternate title: Does That Hood Have Bear Ears On It?]

[actual title: I Really Wanted To Post Today But He Keeps Distracting Me!]

Why I Didn’t Post Today is a post from: ohamanda.com
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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OK, well, maybe not those Salisbury steak ones with the mac and cheese that comes out of it’s little container in one big blob. But generally speaking, hot food that is ready when I’m hungry, I likey.

So, I was pretty excited when Happy Baby foods contacted me to try out some of their food. OK, not ME, but Lydia! I remember seeing their food when Lydia started solids and always wanted to try it. (keep reading…there’s something in it for you, too!)

It just looks yummy! I even want to eat it. The whole idea of their frozen organic meals is pureed food in little “ice cube trays”.  You pop out a few of them, throw them in the microwave and have a gourmet meal for your little baby. Isn’t that great? You can mix and match them even for fun “recipes”! Or add them to fresh food like avocados or bananas. (Oh, and listen to some of the names of the food: Yes Peas & Thank You Carrots, Gobble Gobble & Paradise Puree and Smarter Squash & Wiser Apple! I love it!)

I pureed all of Lydia’s baby food, but having some of this already done for me would have been great. Especially the meat, because I hated giving Lydia meat from a jar. And I certainly didn’t want to cook it and puree it for her. Yuck.

The best part about their food is the good-for-you-ness of it! Everything is organic, allergen friendly and 100% natural ingredients. Plus they give back to Project Peanut Butter to help feed starving kids in Malawi. This is the kind of stuff I like. Not just a new bucket-of-sodium-high-fructose-corn-syrup-filled-kids’ meal with a skateboarding cartoon character on the front—but a company that is really trying to help kids—here and in other countries.

OK. Now onto the taste test. No, we didn’t taste the baby food. We moved straight to the toddler food called Happy Bites!

The whole premise of these meals are the “secret veggies”. So, let’s see, we tried the mac & cheese patties (I know, sounds gross), salmon sticks, veggie tots and the breakfast pocket—all with hidden veggies inside. Plus, they each come with a sauce to dip.

Right now Lydia is eating (non-organic, Wal-Mart brand) tater tots and dipping it in Cheetah Sauce. Which looks and tastes like macaroni-and-cheese cheese but is made from sweet potatoes and butternut squash. Good idea, right? (You can buy the sauces by themselves and I am really a fan of these!)

Lydia is kinda picky in that she doesn’t eat much meat. So, she didn’t really get into the fish sticks. But I tasted them and I thought it was kinda good. She didn’t like the veggie tots either, but I kinda liked those, too. They were like giant tater tots but with a few veggies inside. I wasn’t with her when she ate the mac/cheese but she *did* eat it, so that’s good. However, she LOVED the breakfast pocket!

The only negatives to the food is the cooking directions. Every time I followed the directions, something went wrong. The veggie tots were cold in the middle after I followed the directions. The Cheetah sauce was so overcooked it had a burn mark on the container. And there were no specific instructions like “place on a cookie sheet” or “remove lid”, etc. I’m all about following the directions, so this was kinda frustrating.

The verdict: For frozen food, these were good. I like tots and sticks for toddlers. It makes it easy (and attractive) to eat. And dipping it? The best thing ever! I just love the idea of the sauces being made from pureed veggies. I will definitely be buying the sauces again. And I’ll probably keep a few of the other meals on hand for those days when Asa is crying, Lydia is whining and I’m tired. It’s good to know that even a frozen food can be healthy for my kids!

And hey, Happy Baby Food is so nice they are giving you a coupon! Yes, YOU! Just click here and get $1 off any of their food! (Which by the way, also includes infant cereal with DHA and probiotics. How cool is that?) So click and print away. If you try the food out, let me know! I’d love to hear what you and your kiddos thought about it. Don’t forget to click around Happy Baby’s website, there are some old newsletters you can read with lots of good info and a contest to be on the front of Dr. Sear’s new book about baby food!

Thanks, Happy Baby! You made me happy!

(and one more thing…check out diaper diaries for more fun product reviews and other things people love!)

Things I Love: Frozen Dinners is a post from: ohamanda.com
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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So did you hear the uproar in the blogosphere and twitter-land about the Motrin babywearing ads? YIKES. I knew social media was a force. But this shows how big it is. And how loud (in a good way) moms can be.

Anyway, there are so many posts about it, I’m not even sure where to link to. But I thought in honor of moms (hear us roar!), I thought I’d post my own babywearing picture.

Or as close as I could get…

Lydia and Flopsy. Last Summer.

Adventures in Bunny-wearing is a post from: ohamanda.com
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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