Baby Loves Disco - Detroit

This ain't your typical playgroup at the library...

So, a friend of mine told me of this crazy awesome thing that's going on in Detroit- it's actually going on all over. It's called Baby Loves Disco. Here's the deal- they baby proof a nightclub and then open it up during the day for families to bring their kids under 7 years old. They play 70s-80s music and let you and your little ones dance away on the dance floor. It costs $12 per walking person.

I think we may actually take daughter to her first nightclub! If we do be sure to check back and see how it went! I have high expectations for this event and I hope it exceeds them!

dada, a-dah, mama & Ah-ma

Yep, you guessed it, the title is baby words. The funny thing is, before I had a child, I thought my friends who translated for their children were nuts. Now I find myself translating for my daughter. My friend's child would say "Gah-dah" and my friend would laugh and look at me and ask "Do you know what he is saying?" I would stare blankly at her, then realizing she honestly thought I understand her child's lingo. I would think fast and say any what it sounded like-to me,"Garbage?" My friend would frown disappointingly at me and say "No, he said Giraffe." Oh, that would make sense as he was pointing at a zoo picture. I just didn't "get it."

Nope, I didn't understand until I had my own child. I now understand the "baby-lingo" of my own child. The easy to understand ones are; Mama and Dada. Now, when she finishes her food she states "Ah-dah' which means "All Done." Her newest is after evening prayers she says"Ah-ma" which means "Amen." We went to church today and I was so proud of my daughter piping "Ah-Ma-Ah-Ma." I realize though, that all the people around me hadn't had a clue that was what she was saying- but we did. As I tucked our babe into bed tonight she sighed "Niii." I know can look back at how proud my friend was of her son saying "Gah-dah" and understand why she was so proud. I can also now understand how she knew what the child was saying was indeed not garbage- but real words- real language that meant something...at least to mom :)

Stop Domestic Violence

I have tried to make most of my posts lighthearted. I realy didn't want to get too serious on this site- however yesterday I saw a video that made me just breakdown. It touched my heart. Domestic Violence is a serious matter and too often children become the victims. It's the little ones whose voice is not heard or is overpowered by the abuser.

How can you help?
If you see someone being abused or hear about it- CALL THE POLICE!
If your friend is being verbally abused in front of you SPEAK UP!
Talk about domestic violence and how wrong it is- abusers don't think they are doing anything "wrong"
Don't blame the victim! This is so tragic as people often blame the victims as they think"she should just leave" It's not that easy- most deaths from DV occur when the woman is trying to leave- that is the most dangerous time.
Donate or volunteer at a local anti-DV group
Need Help? Find it here

LEARN MORE- Read up on DV and you will be surprised that

On average, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends in this country every day¹⁶

Homicide is the leading cause of death overall for pregnant women.²⁰

Here is the video- watch it if you want, but be prepared to cry:





http://www.endabuse.org/
¹⁶Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, February 2003
²⁰Nannini, A., Weiss, J., Goldstein, R., & Fogerty, S., (2002). Pregnancy-Associated Mortality at the End of the Twentieth Century: Massachusetts, 1990 – 1999. Journal

Crib-O-Clothes

The other day I noticed some random clothing in Baby's crib. Nothing much just a long sleeve onesie. Today I went in to put her down for a nap and I noticed a long sleeve onesie, a pair of pants and pajamas. I was puzzled and thought "Why did I put this in her crib" thinking in my haste and mommy brain I had the clothes in her blanket...then I see my clue. Another pair of pajamas is streaming like a banner between her crib and the laundry basket! She must have been reaching thru and getting items out of her basket!

The case of the Crib-o-Clothes SOLVED!

Crib Sheets and Changing Pad covers

I love beautiful and luxurious fabrics. I made a huge mistake while I was registering for baby items. I registered for bed sheets, towels and mattress pad covers without thinking. I picked out fabrics based only on color and pattern. Now that I am wiser I have replaced all her crib sheets with chamois crib sheets. these have such a luxurious feel and warmth to them that is unbeatable! I love these and even though I have 5 other crib sheets I find myself washing these ones and exclusively using them.

My friend recommended these and I have used them ever since!

Recently I bought a changing pad cover with this same material. I found a beautiful Ecru color one with dots at Babies-R-Us and used my 15% off coupon which brought the cost to only $13! This was a GREAT price for such a lift to her room. I had a few other changing pad covers and I bought them as I loved the color, but they shrunk in the wash and every time I put them on her pad they squish and deform the pad.

So, all you who have not invested yet- learn from my mistakes! Invest a little more money in quality items and in the long run it pays off.

Seperation Anxiety

Everyone knows that my daughter is not so much a mommy's girl. She has never been too clingy and never went thru separation anxiety...so I thought. Today was the first day that we experienced this separation anxiety FULL FORCE. I was a little surprised as my sister0in-law came to spend a few days with us. I was ecstatic, because she LOVES my daughter and is such a huge help with her. Well, I was excited too soon as today as I went to leave the room to get things done a tantrum started. I walk near her and she grabbed my legs and wanted me to pick her up! AT first I won't lie I was a bit flattered. That was around 10am, and when 3pm rolled around I was ready for this phase to pass!

I think I will enjoy this phase for awhile. Hopefully it passes, but I think I will miss this brief time that my daughter wants me to hold her 24/7 :)

Sweeney Todd

So hubby and me had our first date night since Septeber last night. We always stressed how important it is to have date nights, but things always happen and it's amazing how busy people are on the weekends! I think people without kids don't understand how hard it is to ask others to watch our kids. Yes- we always hear"we'll watch her!" and then we call them and oh- their busy. So, after a few "busys" we just stop asking. So anyways we had our 1st weekend date!

We went to see Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. It was a great movie. Rather gory, but I had never seen the play before and didn't know what to expect. Johnny Depp was amazing per ALWAYS. I liked seeing it at the movie theater as it was just like seeing a play. If you like dark movies than you should see this one!

It's amazing how much his anger took this guy over. It is so prevalent in the movie. You can see his anger turn him rather psychotic.

Can't wait for next date night ;)

Store coming soon!

I love baby fashion! I love dressing my daughter in cute clothes and I often find myself making sure an outfit is clean so that when we plan to go somewhere I have her outfit ready to go. We have a cute "Future Rockstar" jumper that has been worn out. They say not to spend alot of money on baby items, but I think you have to buy a few key items. Not only does you kid look adorable in them- it makes you feel better about wearing jeans and a black shirt! You look more put together when your kid does! For some reason my clothes get more dirty then hers! I cannot wait to open our store for business- I can't wait to show off all the designs we are going to have and all the incredibly unique and adorable clothing! We will have other things as well, but today as I was dressing Audrey in another pink outfit I couldn't help but think "Our store will rock this world!"

Bottles Bottles

"Don't buy that bottle- it contains harmful chemicals! " I am sure you are all aware of the scare we all had last year about the bottles containing BPA- a harmful chemical that was being found in bottles. I was so scared I rid all my expensive Bottles- rigged up the inserts to fit my glass bottles and then started buying disposable inserts! I then found Born Free bottles. I said "No Way- $9 a bottle forget that!" Then after spending well over $70 on disposable diapers I now realize that would have been a better investment and KICK myself for not getting them!

Born Free has a BPA free bottle. They have wide mouth and regular bottles. they run about $10 a bottle or you can buy a set of 8 bottles for $78. I think it is worth the investment and in retrospect I should have bought them!

Remember though- that same BPA is found in water bottles too- so if you are filling your BPA baby bottles with bottled water- you are canceling out the BPA free bottle!

Biodegradable Diapers

Well, if you have a baby you know that baby's go thru diapers like crazy. I was thinking last week how much actual garbage that creates. Think about it- about 1 huge garbage bag a week. That a huge waste and it probably is impacting our environment to a huge degree, esp since there are millions of babies using diapers. It's overwhelming to think about. I don't ever want to go to cloth diapers, because don't they waste alot of water!? So, I did some researching and stumbled upon G-Diapers. This is an amazing new type of diaper that mixes disposable diapers with washable ones. There is a cute washable diaper cover that you get (very fashionable) and you insert these disposable/ biodegradable diapers. They kinda look like sanitary napkins. Then after baby soiled you flush it down the toilet or (peepee only) you put it in your compost heap! Isn't that pretty cool? I guess you have to swirl it in the toilet to break it up, but the fact that it biodegradable is awesome. Check out their video on how fast it decomposes!

Pros:
Trendy
Biodegradable
GREEN

Cons:
Less absorbant
Most Costly

Now, where did I put that?

So, lately something strange has been happening. I have been mysteriously loosing things...It's uncanny and it has been happening ALOT. I first started noticing this when I lost my stamp set :( that I paid way too much for. But about 2 weeks before that I lost the remote control for my upstairs TV. Then I lost my camera's Compact Flash Memory card. I then lost Audrey's carrier. "This is nuts!" I thought. Slowly things have been reappearing. I mysteriously found Audrey's carrier in Ryan's car last week. Two days ago I found my memory card. What a relief that was...Then, I was elated when I found my remote control, until I realized I lost my glasses! Yup- they are gone!

Games Games Games

Okay as most of you know- my hubby LOVES games. he has game night, game parties and game conventions. It's CrAzY! Tonight he has been playing Halo for about 4 hours. Granted he folded the towels while playing, but it's crazy?! I suppose since he plans online with his friends it is a social thing. Is there any games that I would like? I like Lego Star Wars- that is the only X-Box game I truly enjoyed.

Do any of you play video games with your hubby?

Work out

Nursing a baby is great- you get the special "bonding" time and you feel like you are all your baby needs. All that sentiment aside- it makes you burn about 500-1000 calories a day! I slimed down to pre-pregnancy and pre-marriage weight within 8 weeks. Unfortunately for me it ended around the 5 month age. She no longer was interested. This is when...the pounds started to pack. I am now passed pre-preggo weight - and need to get back down. I have started back with my Tae-Bo videos which are great. I can fit in 20 minutes-3 times a week! Before my wedding that's pretty much what I did- Billy for 20 mins and the 8 mins of abs or arms. It worked fairly quickly. If you add some weights to the punches (2lbs) you can feel the workout working fasting or if you try the billy blanks Amped you will probably have to work out less and see more results- Quality not Quantity!

Anyways- this is my goal 2-3 workouts/week. So 60 minutes a week? Anyone care to join?

Poor Neglected Dog...

In our house our dog is more than a pet to us! She is a 2 year old Shih-tzu with pizazze. We love our Chloe Dog so much! She loved her grandmas too and we take her to visit them often. Last month when we getting ready for Grandma's we all left the house. Chloe is a really good dog and followed us out to the car per usual. We packed and loaded ourselves in the car. As we head away and were a few blocks from home we realized "We left Chloe!" We turned the car around and drove back home to get her. As we pull near the drive our poor neglected dog was sitting on the sidewalk near the driveway with her sad puppy eyes looking around. "Where did they go?" We pulled up and put her in the car- but laughing and at the same time thanking God that she didn't try to chase after the car!

Mama's the word

So off to the doctor's today. What a funny story I have to tell:

So doctor was asking if words were being said or sounds"mama-dada." I said she says "dada" and "lala" and her latest sound is "guh." I continue to say that she makes lots of sounds but has not really said "mama." All of a sudden "Mama" came flying thru her mouth! The doctors eyes got big and the her, the nurse and me started to laugh in shock. Way to prove mama wrong! LOL

We are eating carrots!

Our new favorite food is carrots! I dice some soft carrots up and Little Hipster picks them up and puts into her mouth! 1/2 of them go straight to CrAzY dog and 1/4 go into her clothing, but I am pretty sure she is actually ingesting 1/8 of the carrots. I know that she has eaten some... gross I know :P


An easy way to feed baby carrots is to boil carrots in water until soft almost mushy. It may take some time. Once you have them strain and cool under cool water. Test to make sure they are mushy and not too hot. Put a few in the fridge for later or freeze them. Take one carrot and either mash up with a fork (if baby is just starting stage 3 types of food) or cut up into little piece for baby to pick up and eat! Yumm!

*You know your baby's limits and what he/she can and can't eat. If you haven't fed your baby carrots yet then I don't recommend doing this. Also check with your doctor before you start!!!!

Boys vs. Girls

So as I was looking at my poll about having a daughter I noticed that many people have boys! Then I thought about it and most of my close friends have boys! So I did a little research on the world census to fin this fact! In 2007 the male to female ration for children (0-4 years old) is 106. So, if you have a child 4 or younger there is a 51.5% chance it's a boy.


The actual numbers are:
Total children (world)in 2007 = 618,068,212* (0-4 years)
Boys=318,545,370* (that is Three hundred and eighteen MILLION)
Girls=299,522,842*


*Data from U.S. Census Bureau
http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/worldpopinfo.html

Dog Food

So today as I am setting up my new company (www.littlehipsteronline.com) I am in a trance at my computer. You know how that goes- log into your e-mail start chatting it up with people and before you know it 2 hours have passed. So, today I am chatting it up and my little hipster is crawling around all over. I have the gates up no biggie. I turn to see where she was and there she is by the dog's food chopping away! Well, at least she's being entertained!