August 2 Months

There are still a few more days to enter the Monster N-tunes headphone giveaway.  Don't miss out on the chance to win a pair of these great headphones.

I'm alive, in case you were wondering.  I know that things have slowed way down in the past year, and while I can't promise that things are going to change, I can tell you that I have been very busy sewing up a Halloween storm/craft fair storm lately.

Meanwhile, this little guy turned two months old.  I can't believe that it has been two months already.  He's been such a great addition to our family.  He's a big little guy, at nearly 16 pounds.  It makes me sad to see him outgrow his clothes so quickly, but it is so fun to see him change.

We've been giving him Baby Gaia Probiotics for a few weeks now, and have some seen some improvement.  His digestive system is still working out some kinks, but he seems to be quite a bit more comfortable than he was.  At his two month check up I talking to his doctor about breastfeeding vs. formula feeding with his sensitivity issues.  He informed me that 90% of sensitive babies do better with breastmilk than formula, and that he'd recommend sticking with breastfeeding, and so that is what we will do.  I'm still hoping to reintroduce some foods into my diet.  Even if I can't get away with chocolate, a bit more variety would be welcome.

White Satin Blessing Onesie

Don't forget to let me know about your favorite flavor of Monster Candy, and enter to win a pair of Monster N-Tune Headphones.  Check out my review and enter the giveaway here.

Those of you that have been following my blog, may remember reading about the guilt I was feeling about not having time to make a blessing outfit for August.  Well my guilt got the best of me, and the day before the blessing I managed to whip up a semi handmade blessing vest. I actually had a blessing outfit hanging in the closet to use, but my massive 7 week old didn't quite fit into the tuxedo jacket.  So, I decided to keep the pants, and make a vest and bow tie onesie to accompany them.  I've made plenty of these, so it whipped up pretty quickly, and fortunately August slept.  

It makes for a fairly simple blessing outfit, but he looked handsome none the less.  He had been a bit grumpy the night before the blessing, so I feared he was going to scream through the entire thing, but he did awesome.

Photographing a busy baby isn't the easiest thing.  I'm sharing these blurry smiles because I just can't get over how it looks like he is taking a selfie.  Makes me laugh every time.

This week we started with infant probiotics.  At $30 for .17 ounces, I hope they work.  It's been three days, and it seems to take about a week from the reviews I've read to see improvement.  I'm hoping for the best for this little guy. I'll keep you posted.

I've also cut out eggs, which has seemed to help a bit.  Now I am on a Gluten free, egg free, peanut butter, chocolate, tomato, and bean free diet.  Meal ideas anyone?  I'm running out.

Monster N-Tune Review and Giveway

With three little boys I have a lot of things: toy monster trucks, foam darts, super hero books, all of which get spread around the house; and most of which are missing wheels, tips, and pages.  My husband and I have discussed on more than one occasion that nice things will have to wait until our children are older.

Kids break things.  Despite the numerous lectures on how we don't eat outside of the kitchen, the leather sofa still ends up coated in peanut butter. Pennies are inserted into the optical drive of the computer, and beds are jumped on.

It's hard to spend money on nice things, when you know that they will be subject to sticky little hands of  destruction.

When I had a chance to test out Monster's N-Tune headphones, I was excited.  A nice new toy for me, but how was I going to hide them from my children?  I hid the shipping box, and didn't pull it out until nap time. Well, it turns out there was no reason to hide the box, or the headphones. These beautiful bad boys were made to withstand my little (sweet) bad boys.

I was immediately impressed with how well made the head phones were.  Not only were they comfortable, but everything seemed to be securely in place.   No flimsy pieces of plastic here, but instead flexible and well constructed Candy Grape Purple goodness. Twist the center piece, no problem.  These headphones were made to survive a bit of normal every day use, which includes being grabbed and thrown around a bit by a toddler or two.

 With noise-isolation design, these headphones do an excellent job at reducing background noise.  Which means that when I need an escape, I can escape the sound of noisy toy helicopters and enjoy a  bit more of my favorite music.

 It's nice to add a quality product to my little collection of toys.  Something that works great, sounds great, feels great on my big old head, and will last me more than two weeks. The pretty packaging, thoughtful cleaning cloth, and fun color, are all bonuses to an already great product.  I look forward to using these headphones, and maybe even sharing then with my little boys, for a long time to come.

To win your very own pair of N-Tune headphones (valued at $150),  read all about the Monster headphones here and let me know in the comments of this post which color you prefer. The comments on this post will be aggregated with the comments on the posts from the other bloggers participating in this review, and 25 pairs will be given away. This giveaway will close on Nov 1.

Sweepstakes Rules:

No duplicate comments.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

• Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
• Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
• Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post.
• For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winner  will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

BlogHer will pool entries from participating blogs and select a sweepstakes winner at random and will contact the winner with details about fulfilling the prize.

The Official Rules are available here.
This sweepstakes runs from 10/2/13 – 11/1/13.

 Monster Headphones has compensated me for my review of their headphones, which were provided me free of charge. All thoughts and opinions are 100% mine.

Crocheted Pumpkin Hat and Smiles

Ahh, an actual project up on the blog.  Micah Makes has some of the funnest little crochet hat patterns, and I had to make her crocheted pumpkin hat for the fall season.  It was a project that I found I could work on while August slept on my lap, which means that it actually got done.  Hooray!  

This newborn sized hat will be a perfect photography prop, and I might just make another to throw on August for Halloween.  Micah also provides instructions for making a leaf to add to the top of the hat.  I made the leaf, but chose not to add it.  I like it the way it is.  I love that little ribbed stem, such a perfect detail.  Hop on over to her blog to find her free crochet pumpkin hat pattern.  

Now for a little August update.  Thanks to all of you for your sweet and supportive comments on my last post.  I wrote up the post at a  bit of a desperate moment, and I am so grateful to have kind readers to share their experiences and wisdom.  Thank you, thank you.  We are still trying to figure out exactly what is bothering his little digestive system, and I'm still currently breastfeeding.  It may just be that his digestive system is immature, but he has had some really good days among the harder ones.  So it is a bit more tolerable for all of us. He's also started to give some social smiles, which is so wonderfully rewarding as a parent.  I'm considering giving the infant probiotic drops a whirl, just to see if they help his little system out.  Have any of you tried them?  The reviews online seem pretty good, so I figure it is worth a shot.

Mom Top Knot Hat blogged about here.