Mommy FTW

Recently I was talking to a friend who is 7 months pregnant and I asked her what she was using on her baby belly to prevent stretch marks.  She said she had just run out of what she was using, and was thinking of trying something else.  That reminded me of an amazing product I used when I was pregnant with Cameron which another mom friend had recommended to me – L’Occitane Shea Butter.

This product, while not specifically marketed as “stretch mark cream” is, I think, the best thing out there for the job.  Most stretch mark creams have shea butter in them, but this stuff is 100% pure shea butter!

I knew from my own experience this stuff really works(I didn’t get a single one *knock on wood* for next time) but I wondered why shea butter actually helps prevent stretch marks so I asked my friend Google!  Here’s what I found out:

Because of its high concentration of non-saponifiable fatty acids, shea butter has a moisturizing and healing effect on the skin. The lipids contained in the butter are highly beneficial to the cells found in the epidermis and promote skin healing and improvement. Shea butter works well to improve the skin’s elasticity, thus enabling it to stretch with greater ease.

Sounds good to me!  You can buy this cream on Amazon.com, on the Sephora website, in Sephora stores, or at L’Occitane stores. It is a little pricey, but I would say that not getting stretch marks is worth it! One 4.9 oz tin will most likely get you through the whole pregnancy.

Posted from New York, New York, United States.

For many people, summer time means lots of travel.  When we travel with Cameron, we always take along our Baby Bjorn Travel Crib.  We bought it last summer, and used it many times – it’s super light, easy to set up, and folds up into it’s own neat little suitcase.  I was worried that this summer Cameron would have grown out of it – but he hasn’t!  In fact, he seems to really love sleeping in his own personal pup tent.

Let's go!

This crib is a litle on the pricey side, but I think it is WAY better than any other Pack N Play I’ve ever seen – and the convenience factor makes it totally worth it for me and my little guy.  By the way, don’t bother buying a specific sheet for this crib, just use a regular crib sheet and tuck in the extra sheet around the edge.

I wrote a write up on the Baby Bjorn Travel Crib last year – check out my review here.

Posted from New York, New York, United States.

Today I stopped in at the Home and U store on at 394 Myrtle Avenue between Clermont and Vanderbuilt.  I found some really great items there for Cameron (at LOW prices) so I wanted to share so it was on your radar!

In the back by the cash registers I stumbled upon the most amazing Truck book (it’s called My First Truck Book).  Apparently the version I got isn’t made anymore (which I am guessing is why it ended up at Home and U).  But honestly, I don’t care if it’s a few years out of date – since the book itself was still brand new!  Anyways, I paid $2.99 – on Amazon a newer version is over $7, and is smaller in size.  Not too shabby!

And, picked up a small Elmo doll which Cameron immediately fell in love with.  At $1.99 it was worth every penny.

They also have lots of spray bottles to choose from – which are great fun at the sprinklers and playgrounds.  And plenty of other odds and ends toys for summer fun.

And, don’t forget I got Cameron’s little watering can there, which he uses to help me water the plants in the garden.

I will certainly be back to dig for more items.  The store can seem a little cramped and disorganized, but if you take a look you can find some low cost treasures.

Posted from New York, New York, United States.

Cameron’s favorite books are always changing as he grows – but I wanted to let you all in on his current favorites (FYI – he is 20 months old).

Cameron is obsessed with Cars (which for some reason he calls “choo choo”) and Trucks (“tuck”)  He also loves Cats (“tat”) since we have two of them.  So, his favorite books revolve around these items:

My Car – Byron Barton – This is a book about a man named Sam who loves his car and drives a bus.  There are lots of pictures of all kids of vehicles.  Sam also wears a hat and shoes which Cameron likes to point out and say on every page.  It is required that this book is read at least once before bed time.  This book has thick pages, but is a step below a board book in terms of durability.

Find the Kitten – Find it Board Books – Each page of this book has a picture of a kitten and Cameron loves to point it out on every page.  There’s also other things to point out to help build vocabulary.  As you might have guessed, this book is a board book.

Trucks Roll! – Richard Jackson Books – I’ve been reading this book to Cameron since he was born, but he loves it more and more every day.  It’s got so many pictures of semi trucks in it, Cameron is in heaven.  He always pulls it off the shelf for me to read every morning.  This book is more of a “big kid book” as the pages are not cardboard or thick.

Goodnight Moon – Margaret Wise Brown – If you didn’t get at least one copy of this book as a gift, I would be shocked!  Did you ever notice how many kittens are pictured in it?  Well Cameron did, and he points them out on every page.  A classic goodnight story.  We have the large “Lap Edition” and a smaller travel size both of which are board books.

Toes, Ears, Nose – Karen Katz – This is one of many “Lift the Flap Books” by Karen Katz, all of which Cameron enjoys (we find them at Clinton Hill Library) but I really like this one because it helps Cameron learn his body parts.  Unfortunately, some of the flaps have been removed due to all the tough love that Cameron has shown this book.

Also, check out my post about Bath Books Cameron Loves – I wrote in in September 2009 (almost a year ago!) but Cameron still loves all these books, and they are still a big part of bath time.

Posted from New York, New York, United States.

Last year we were visiting Cameron’s Great Grand Parents in Chicago and he fell in love with this little rocking chair they had which belonged to another Great Grand Child.

This chair is just right...

When we got home, I looked it up on Amazon and bought it for his first Birthday.  7 months later, he is still loving it (and so do all his friends that come over!)  If you are looking for a simple and affordable chair for your little one that is just the right size, then check it out!

Posted from New York, New York, United States.

Although I try and do most of my shopping on Amazon (with their subscribe and save, the prices are great) more often than I’d like to admit I realized that I’ve almost run out of diapers…. Tragedy is at hand, and in that situation Diapers.com is my savior.  Here’s a cool video I saw recently that shows just how amazing they are behind the scenes.  I know here in Brooklyn, NY I get my orders next day – even on Saturdays – which has saved me for more than one birthday party.  Anyways – they are, in a word – awesome.  Enjoy the vid!

I can’t wait to try out Soap.com when it launches!

Ok – I’ve done a lot of searching to find Cameron the right sippy.  I’ve stumbled upon a new option that I saw another mom friend using.  It’s a CamelBak bottle in a kids size (.4 Liter).

A great sippy for water!

It doesn’t leak, and Cameron loves using it.  It’s also BPA free!  I ordered mine from Amazon – they have lots of colors and patterns to choose from.

Our vacation is less a week away (!!) so I’ve been asking my fellow moms for advice when it comes to entertaining a toddler on a plane.  None of these are exactly groundbreaking ideas, but maybe some of these them will be helpful to you.

Stickers – lots and lots of stickers! – Cameron is really into stickers lately, so this idea made perfect sense to me.  We’ve been getting them after our weekly visits to Trader Joe’s and Cameron will spend the whole walk back sticking and unsticking them to his pants and anything around him.  I went to Target and picked up a bunch in the Stationary and Scrapbooking sections (on the first floor near the greeting cards).  We went for the truck and farm stickers, but there’s a big assortment.  I also ordered some Melissa and Doug stickers off of Amazon.  I got a pad of paper (also from Target) so that the stickers hopefully end up there instead of all over the plane.  I also plan to bring crayons.

Cameron picks out some stickers at Target

A new toy – I’m going for something blinky that involves batteries.  I haven’t quite picked out something yet, but I’ll keep you posted as to what I end up with.  But, I plan to keep it totally secret until we get on the plane, that way it will be all the more exciting.

Videos – I ordered a Yo Gabba Gabba DVD – It is Cameron’s favorite so I am hoping it will buy me at least an hour or so.  I went for the Dancey Dance Bunch, but I’m pretty sure any of them would do.  Cameron doesn’t seem to mind watching them over and over again.  I also have some Baby Einstein.  Cameron loves Baby Wordsworth, and Neighborhood Animals.

iPhone – Peekaboo Barn is still Cameron’s favorite iPhone App, but he also loves just flipping through the photos (most of them are of him) and pressing the buttons in general.

Snacks – lots and lots of snacks.  I think we all know that there isn’t much food on airplanes anymore, so don’t forget to pack an arsenal.  It was also suggested to me to try lollipops.  This isn’t something I would normally give Cameron, but when it comes to keeping a toddler quiet on a plane, I’ll go for pretty much anything.

Non-Refrigerated Milk (yes, they make that!) – I actually plan to bring this for not just the plane, but the vacation in general.  You can get it on Fresh Direct (it’s called Farmland Lil’ Milk Stay Fresh Whole Milk).  By the way, they also have 1% and 2% if your little one is no longer on Whole Milk.

Other Passengers – Cameron loves to make friends.  Hopefully some of my fellow passengers will be interested in making friends back!  If so, I plan to use them for as much entertainment as possible.

Books and Puzzles – Just like his videos, Cameron can play with his puzzles and books over and over and not get bored of them.  He also really likes his touch and feel flash cards.  I think I’ll stick with his most favorite ones (tractor, firetruck, dog, cat, ball).

Any of you mommies out there have other ideas to share with everyone?  I can use all the help I can get!

One thing I am really excited about for the summer is getting Cameron on my husband’s bike and sending them off for some outdoor fun (sometimes with, and sometimes without mommy!)  We got our bike seat on Amazon – I had pretty much already selected it ages ago because some friends of ours had it, and loved it.  It’s one of those seats that goes on the front of the bike:

Adventure, here we come!

It has 360+ reviews on Amazon, with an average of 4.5 stars – not too shabby!  Anyways, being on the front of the bike means more excitement for Cameron, but also makes mom a little more nervous.  But no matter where on the bike you’re going to put your baby, you definitely need a helmet!  I did consider buying one online, but I wanted to make sure that it fit properly, since this is so important.

Put a Helmet on that Baby!

So, we went to check out Bespoke Bicycles (64-B Lafayette Avenue in Fort Greene 718-643-6816).  They were extremely friendly, and had exactly what we needed!  Plus, the price was comparable to what was being sold on Amazon – so I was more than happy to support a local business and get better service at the same time.  So for all your baby / kids bike related needs, check out Bespoke Bicycles!

Ready to go...

I’ve never really felt like I “needed” a dust buster until Cameron started throwing anything and everything (mostly food items) on the floor.  I can’t tell you how many Cheerios I’ve stepped on in the past week – creating that oh-so-hard-to-clean-up Cheerio dust.  I knew now was the time to get myself a dust buster!  I went to Amazon.com to see what the options were.  I am a sucker for well reviewed item, so in the end I went for one that had 155 reviews with an average of 4.5 stars – it had to be good, right?!  And, indeed it is!

This baby has some serious power!

This little number from Black and Decker isn’t going to be winning any beauty pageants any time soon, but it sure does the job!  So far, I haven’t met a chunk of who-knows-what it can’t handle (although I am sure Cameron will do his best).  The only thing I wish is that it was also a wet-dry-vac.  But I don’t think any cordless hand held is going to do that for you.  At a price of just under $55 – I am sold on this one.  Cameron even claps when I get it out!  Give it a try if your little one loves to leave treats underfoot.