Busy Packing

Blogging is on hold for a bit... big changes coming up for us and I'm busy packing. Be back soon!

Happy Birthday Little Boy

Mr. Big Stuff turned two today? How did that happen so fast?

Happy Birthday Ethan! Thank you for making me a mommy!

We took him out for his very first icecream cone. Messy, melty, gooey fun!

I've been a bit pre-occupied this week and we're having a small get together with some grandparents tomorrow to celebrate. After that, I will be back to blogland!

Baby Bargain Websites!!

Who doesn't love a bargain? Especially when it comes to our babies & kids because they grow so fast, its hard to want to spend money on the good stuff, especially if you want to be getting more natural, healthy or quality products. Those are pricey.

Well say hello to the bargain websites!!

I've brought a few of these sites up recently to mom friends and I figured it was time to do a blog entry about these great sites. In turn, if you know of any that I've missed, please share with me.

Most of these deal sites feature a new product every single week day (some of them also on weekends) of a great product that is 40-50% off its regular retail price. The trick is to check the sites in the mornings. Because most of them have limited quantities and if its a popular item, especially when its cloth diapers, they sell out fast. I think almost all of these sites also have facebook pages so you can see what the deal is right from your facebook page and can decide there if you want to go further to check the products that day.

The forerunner of all these is Baby Steals:   

This is what they say in their "about us" page: At BabySteals.com we sell one quality baby or maternity product every day at 50-80% off until it sells out. It's not just a deal, it's a steal! A 'BabySteal'!

Recent "steals" have been: diapers bags, sleep sacks, stroller liners, Robeez shoes, and organic baby washes, just to name a few.

They also have two sibling sites: KidSteals which has some great steals for the toddlers & older kidlets  and ScrapbookSteals that you scrappers might want to avoid check out to spend your money on more great scrapping stuff!! Customer service is great & shipping fees are usually reasonable, even to us Canadians.

My next favourite site is Baby Half Off

They say about themselves "At Baby Half Off, we are constantly searching for great buys for moms and dads who love precious brands for their little ones. No more paying full price!"
Recent deals here have been: eco friendly lunch boxes, Fuzzibuns diapers with matching leggings, organic cotton hooded towels, diaper bags, safe sippy cups, and more.

Green Baby Bargains is next on the list

What they're about: ... where we dish out one incredible, eco-friendly bargain per day!  As moms ourselves, we know moms (and dads!) want the safest and most natural options for their children, and better yet, we know moms LOVE bargains! So, we have combined the two into an entertaining and addicting place to shop!

Recent bargains have been: organic t-shirts & onesies, Umi shoes, Bumkins diapers, natural cleaning supplies, organic crib sheets & blankets, shopping cart covers & more.

Eco Baby Buys is yet another great deal site.
And they say: When we set out to create EcoBabyBuys.com, we had one principle in mind. Our mission was to discover manufacturers that offered non-toxic, eco-friendly and fairly traded baby products. As urban mothers, we thought a little bit of style wouldn’t hurt either.
Recent buys here have been: organic stuffed toys & blankies, UV safe swimwear, and safe sunscreen products, diaper bags, Bumkins diapers, organic clothing & shoes, leggings, wipes, maternity tops & more.

Hippo Bargains is a deal site I've just recently discovered

What is hippobargains.com? : Basically, we sell cool stuff cheap. It's really rather fun, especially because it doesn't cost you a fortune. Everything we sell is a ridiculously amazing bargain...cheaper than you can find it anywhere else, so cheap that it might take us a long while to actually make a profit ;-) We don't mind. We want good people to have good things, regardless of how much money they have in their pocket. We aren't completely selfless though. We like games. This is a bit of a game. You have to be on top of it to win. If you miss an item.. It's gone..can't play the game over...until of course, the next day, when there is a new item to buy. Just stay on top of your game, and you'll win.

Recent bargains here have been: nursing necklaces, envirosax, Blueberry Minky diaper covers, flower headbands, hooded towels, diaper bags & much more.

Mini Bargainz is another of the same. I'm starting to sound like a broken record...

About Us: At mini bargainz, our mission is simple – To offer high quality baby products at an affordable price. As new parents ourselves, we understand that you are looking to stretch your dollar and baby products can be expensive. Our passion for finding great deals - as well as sharing them - has led us to create a place where you too can get great deals.

Recent bargainz: organic socks, backpack buddies, photo keychains, changepads, bibs & more.


This is all I have for now. I'm certain there are more. There are also many blogs & websites that can point you to individual site & retailer sales like "Deal"ectible Mommies and Baby Cheapskate to name a couple. But I think I could go on & on searching out sites like these to list. So this is my gift to get you started. If you have more deal websites that you can notify me of, I'll happily add them on. I'm always looking for a deal when it comes to quality products like these sites offer.

Happy Bargain Hunting!!

"Me" Time & the Family breakdown...

Its Haircut Night for me tonight! I have a tonne of hair and the summer heat just makes it feel heavier so tonight I'm getting a cut. Its a big deal for me. I have to plan most of my 'me time' for evenings when the husband is home. Its a little bit easier to get out now because Ethan is almost done breastfeeding. 98% of the time he doesn't need one before bed anymore so my freedom is starting to grow. But I have to admit that I am a bit jealous of these mommies that can make appointments and go out whenever they want to because they have friends & family available at their elbow for quick babysitting opportunities. They really don't know how lucky they are. But I do know that many of us are NOT near our family and so 'me time' and 'date nights' are a very rare & special event when they do happen.

I'm not complaining, I'm just stating a fact. I do wish that we lived closer to family for that reason (as well as for visiting & just having family time)  We live in a town where there is a large population of East Indians. Lawrence and I often find ourselves a bit envious of their family units. They build amazingly huge homes because there are so many of them living there. Grandmas & Grandpas, brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, etc. The whole family pitches in with the work in the orchard or vineyard, the child care, and the household duties. We used to laugh at them, but now, we GET IT! They really take care of their own!

I don't know what happened to the North American Family? We're spread out from east to west, we put our parents in care homes because we can't or won't care for them, we let daycares raise our kids because we're forced back to work, we can't even share resources to those whom we share blood. I'm not judging, I'm just sad that this is the way it is. I know its like this in many other countries & cultures too, I just seem to think that deep down, it shouldn't be like this. I wish I could herd all my family closer together, so we could share resources and look after eachother, but we are an independant nation, desperately trying to prove we can make it on our own, without help from our friends or family. Months and years go by without contact between some families. I hate that! It is what it is, but I'm saying that ideally, we'd all be nearer, looking after eachother, providing the needs as they arise, sharing the load, and making sure none of us go hungry, lonely, weary, or lost.  That's my ideal world! I don't care if its unrealistic!

Cloth Diapers -First Steps

Let me begin this by saying I LOVE CLOTH DIAPERING!!

There, now that I've said that, I will tell you about how I got into this love, this addiction, because I wasn't always a believer. I had the same notions that most people do. Pins & plastic pants, dealing with poop & diaper rash. I had no idea how WRONG I was going to be.

I didn't really get introduced to cloth diapering for noble reasons. I wasn't overly concerned about all those disposables going into the landfill, even though I was putting two full garbage bags out the door every single week, not realizing that those diapers probably won't decompose EVER, barring a nuclear blast.

Neither was I concerned about the cost saving factor. I didn't do the math to see how much money I was spending on disposables and had no idea that there was a cheaper alternative. I didn't even realize that cloth diapers could be re-used on multiple babies, or sold in used condition to other mamas who will get months or years out of their uses after I'm finished with them.

I also didn't know about the yucky chemicals that are put into disposable diapers that would be touching my babies delicate bottom & reproductive organs 24-7 for the first 2-3 years of his life.

And, I didn't know at the time that cloth contains those explosive breastfed newborn poops WAY better than any disposable does. (And the disposable mommies are arguing that they don't want to have to deal with poop...um, how about that onesie you just soaked in the sink because your babe was head-to-toe in poop... yeah, you're still dealing with LOTS of poop when using disposables)

Also, I didn't realize that diaper laundry would become my favourite laundry EVER, that it would relax me, that I would squeel with delight at all the adorable fluff that I'm lovingly folding for my son, or the domestic peace it brings me when I hang it on the clothesline to dry in the sun.

I definitely didn't realize that there was a CUTE factor to cloth diapering either. I expected I was going to be getting white diapers with white covers that I would have to bleach all the time. It blew my mind when I started to see all the adorable colors & prints. Yeah, its still just a poo catcher but so what. Do you only buy plain white cotton underwear for yourself? No way, Victoria's Secret wouldn't be in business if we didn't go for the hot pink, the leopard, the plaid and the polkadots for our own underwear, so why should diapers be different?

So, all those great things that I didn't know about before I looked into cloth diapering. What prompted me? The economy! No, I wasn't worried about affording diapers, I was worried about the possibility of such an economic crash that the stores would be out of diapers or something like that. (seriously, I had these thoughts, that there could be a global economic meltdown) So I figured I needed at least a handful of diapers that I could wash & dry, even if we were living in a tent or something like that.

Little did I know what the researching was getting me into. I couldn't believe, not only all the options, but how easy cloth diapering would be, how much I would love it and how much BETTER for him, for the environment and for our wallets it was going to be.

So, now I have all sorts of brands & options, and I am a passionate advocate of cloth diapering, more than I ever could have imagined. I'll write some future posts on the different types of diapers we use, how we care for them, and some links to some great sites that make or sell diapers & diapering accessories.  I just hope that I've been able to educate someone new that cloth diapers are no longer just your mama's pins & plastic pants and that there are MANY benefits for using them.

Bounty

Its just a small plot but my garden is growing beautifully. And lastnight, I got the first samples of its bounty :)

I went to make a potatoe salad and discovered I was all out of dill (I used it ALL in the zumma borscht a couple days ago) I am growing dill in my garden but I wasn't aware that you don't have to wait till its super tall to use it. Thanks to google, I cut off a few stems and cut up FRESH dill in my potatoe salad. It was HEAVENLY, and smelled 100x more fantastic than dill from a spice jar. Wow! And because I cut it, the garden smelled like hot dill in the setting sun all evening. It was great.

As I was watering the garden later that night, I realized that my pea plants had peas dangling away. I don't even remember them blossoming!! And there are peas there already. Not quite ready yet, but I snapped one off & chewed it up with delight.  The carrots will be ready next, but probably not for a couple weeks and then finally the tomatoes. So, its just a small garden but I'm thrilled with it all the same. In between the veggies are sunflowers and hopefully they'll keep growing right into the fall so I can enjoy them later.

Ethan has been good about leaving the plants alone. Of course the fence around it helped but I planted some marigolds between the tomatoes and he LOVES flowers, and he's very gentle with them so the 'plant respect' started early and he just touches them delicately, no pulling or tugging, thankfully.

And, I have to share, that I leaned into the garden just now to take this picture and leaned against the rose bush a bit. Well, little did I know that one big blossom was absolutely FULL of water from the sprinklers lastnight and dumped its entire flower-cupful onto my shoulder. Excellent. Guess its time to get us out of jammies anyways.

Because... today is more jam making once the little boy goes to sleep.

Summer Sizzle

Things are finally heating up in the Okanagan. After an unusually cool June, the thermometer is finally creeping over 30C and things are getting hot.

I have to admit that Summer is my Fourth Favourite Season. Its not that I don't like it, but I like it the least out of all of them. Oh sure, I love swimming, tanning, long days, fresh fruit and all that good stuff that comes with it. I don't love the hot HOT days though. But, living in a desert valley, we get lots of them. In fact, its not unusual to have "hot & sunny" on the forecast for 2-3 months straight. Great for tourists, boring for me.

I crave a good summer storm, a rainy day to break up the heat, even a cloudy day. Of course, I'm sure I'd complain oppositely if we had nothing but cool rainy days all summer long. Perhaps I just need heat in moderation. Once the temp is over 27, that's too hot. Too hot to play outside, too hot to go to the beach. We just sit inside, bored, wishing it wasn't so hot.

I have a small pool set up for Ethan and he loves running thru the sprinkler. But he's not quite two, so his attention span for each activity isn't much more than 15 minutes and then we're back inside. And while I like to make sure he has a hat on, I'm not a big fan of sunscreen.  So many of them are, in my opinion, more unsafe than sun exposure itself. So, I have a more natural brand, but I only put it on him if we're going to be outside for more than 15-20 minutes. All his play equipment is in the shade so if he's playing on that, I don't put it on at all.

But I know we'll be having a beach day soon enough and I'll have to deal with it differently for those times. He has a long-sleeve swim shirt coming in the mail. I got him a sun hat with a neck flap but it swallows his head up (might fit when he's 5) so we just stick to the bucket hats he has. And I have lots of umbrellas set up to provide as much shade as possible. I want him to have some sun exposure every day so he gets his Vitamin D but not too much.

It also seems that the hotter days have made his eczema worse. Poor little guy. I've tried figuring out if its a food allergy related thing but it seems irritated when he's hot so when we are outside, I almost always turn on the sprinkler for him to run through. Just to keep his little body cooler.

And well, his cloth diapers allow his bum to breathe far better than any disposable could so I'm grateful for all the cloth diapering options we have now. Besides, they are so cute that he can run around outside in just his diap, if it gets wet I whip it off & throw it on the clothesline... not into a garbage can!

But I'll save talking about cloth diapers for another day.

Today is another hot one & we're heading to visit grandma instead!

Family Reunion

We just got back from a wonderful weekend away at a Family Reunion! We got to see many cousins and relatives that we have not seen in many years. There was lots of visiting, lots of laughing, plenty of eating & it was all so much fun!

Ethan was the youngest of all the cousins' kids but he had a blast chasing the older girls, playing football with the big boys and just charming everyone in general.

The reunion took place on my aunt & uncle's beautiful property in the Barriere area, overlooking the river. The weather was great on the Saturday and we enjoyed the day outside in the fresh air, and the nights weren't too cold in my aunt's camper that they allowed our little family of 3 to use. A new experience for all of us.

Its good to be home though because Ethan and I finally  got Lawrence's cold so we're having a lazy Jammies Day and just vegging, snoozing & watching TV this morning.