Here’s a great site for high-end products for moms, babies, and toddlers. http://babyfashiongifts.blogs.com/baby_fashion/
I wish I’d read about the Bebe Au Lait Nursing Cover a few months ago when I was exclusively breastfeeding! Those Baby-Gami swaddle blankets look great too – so cute!
Don’t forget to check out new products even if you’re not a first time mom. There are some great new products that have come along in the four years since my first child was born. Time flies!!
Here are a few tips to celebrate the start of summer.
1) Land’s End has “slenderizing” swimsuits designed to make you look a size smaller. I went with the “Control Separates Swim Mini” since I need some extra help this year, only six months after my third C-section. The “Hi-neck Slender Swimsuit” did a good job on my mid-section, but the solid color didn’t do enough to camouflage.
Sears has a Land’s End section in their retail stores. They have several suits, but not all the styles and colors that I wanted. If you don’t find what you want there you can order at the Land’s End kiosk in the Sears store to avoid shipping charges.
2) Use Tend Skin lotion to prevent razor bumps. My OB/GYN recommended this to me, and it really works (if you remember to use it.) Use it at least once a day and you won’t get ingrown hairs. You can find it online, at Sephora, or at high-end spas.
3) I highly recommend continuous spray sunscreen. I prefer the transparent, no-rubbing-required kind; the lotion kind requires rubbing and can be drippy. Wal-mart has the best deals; you can find it for under $7. My kids have very fair skin, so the continuous spray saves me about three minutes per kid per day!
My kids and I love our Croc shoes. My two-year-old daughter and I have purple ones and my four-year-old son has sea blue ones. Yes, technically they are ugly, but what they lack in style they make up for in personality!
I like that the kids can wear them without socks, thus reducing the amount of time I spend hunting for, putting on, and washing socks. With three kids this time and effort can really add up!
They are also easy to clean. Last year I bought Serena some huarache sandals that smelled horrible by the end of the summer. My sweet little angel had feet that smelled like a turd wrapped in burnt hair, to quote Anchorman. Crocs are bacteria and odor resistant, and you can wipe them down with bleach.
One word of warning: I was told that they are top shelf dishwasher-safe. They even mention this on the Crocs site: http://www.crocs.com/consumer/news_details/208194/. I did this and they came out at least one half size smaller, so watch out!
I bought our Crocs at Nordstrom for $24.95. They’re the same price at www.crocs.com, but you avoid the $8 for shipping. I also found kids’ Crocs at Dick’s Sporting Goods, but they were $5 more and they didn’t have the sizes and colors that I needed.
p.s. If you decide to order from Dick’s, note that their website is www.dickssportinggoods.com. I thought it was just dicks.com and got a nasty surprise. My son was with me, and I just about had a heart attack. Thank God they had a warning page saying that it was an adult site.
Have you tried a Bumbo seat? http://www.bumbobabyseat.com/ This seems to be a relatively new invention (I didn’t see them in stores when my two-year-old was a baby). I splurged on one ($39.95 at Target — this may not seem like a lot, but we’re all about hand-me-downs at this point!), even though we’re on our last child. He likes it pretty well for about seven minutes per sitting. That’s not a lot of time, but every minute helps! I bet if we’d gotten it earlier (he’s six months old now) he would be more accustomed to it and like it more.
Our daycare uses them now; they really are strong and secure enough to leave a non-sitting infant in a sitting position. The other day my son pooped all over one just as I arrived to pick him up. I’m not sure if it was a protest poop or a ringing endorsement…?
