New Look

What do you think of our new look? I finally figured out how to add my custom background. *sigh*

Nursing Bracelets

When I first had Buggy, I was a little disoriented. Needless to say, the lack of sleep, exhaustion from labor, and all the ups and downs of becoming a first time mom coupled with all the new emotions, were quite a heavy load to handle. On top of all this, I decided I really wanted to breastfeed. Luckily for me, Buggy took right to it and nursed like a champ from the get go.

However, just with everything, breastfeeding took time, hardwork and concentration. The last idea being the hardest one. When you first start breastfeeding, the lactation consultants and nurses, and whoever else thinks they know more about your boobs than you, will tell you that you have to nurse each side and flip back and forth so that way your milk will come in, you won't become engorged and won't risk mastitis. Also, it's best to feed on demand, and its a good idea to keep track of when feedings take place and for how long, etc, etc.

This is all pretty difficult to remember, especially when you are bleary eyed from lack of sleep.

My wonderful, beautiful, super intelligent mom (shhh she may be reading this) found this handy dandy think called a Milk Band which totally helped me keep track of all this and took so much off my mind. Basically, you use the little dial on the bracelet to tell you what side, duration and time you nursed. I used mine religiously for the first 2 months, then kind of stopped after I got the full hang of nursing.

You can also find more stylish nursing bracelet if the plain rubber band type bracelet isn't your style. Doing a simple Google search I found this site which boasts fancy beaded bracelets. I love them and would totally rock if I still needed to keep track of nursing.

Definitely check into them if you are nursing or plan to nurse. They were a super lifesaver for me!

Giveaway: Jewelry Set from The Living Vine! *~CLOSED~*

Alright ladies (and gentlemen if there's any out there) I'm so happy to present our first ever giveaway! This giveaway is for a gorgeous jewelry set, valued at $25, from The Living Vine.

Now, let me tell you a little bit about The Living Vine.

My wonderful friend Hope is the owner and main designer of The Living Vine. She's a stay at home mommy as well to a beautiful little girl. Hope is a beautiful soul, and also very creative to boot with a kickin' fashion sense. When she started The Living Vine, her plans were not so much to make money, but to donate her earnings to a local food bank: Second Harvest. There is a growing need for food banks across the USA and the world and it was Hope's plan to help try and provide needed funds for her local food bank.

However, The Living Vine grew and now her business not only donates to Second Harvest, but also to a local Christian radio station. In talking to Hope, we decided to do a giveaway so that she could share the wealth yet again.

The contest will be open for one week, until next Friday, February 26, 2010 at noon. After the winner is announced, they will have 3 (three) days to contact Hope through The Living Vine on Facebook or myself to get your order in.

Prizes:

This giveaway is for a custom necklace/earring set or necklace/bracelet set, valued up to $25. The winner will be chosen through random.org. Also, you can have up to 5 entries, which means 5 chances to win a gorgeous custom set of jewelry!

Now, for the rules:

1. You must post a comment below including an email address so that I will be able to contact you when you win. The contest will be open for one week, until next Friday, February 26, 2010 at noon.

Additional Entries (post a seperate comment for each entry explaining what you did as well as your name/email address):
2. Become a Follower of The Mommy Logs. Just click the Follow me link in the Followers section to the right.

3. Become a Fan of The Mommy Logs on Facebook.

4. Become a Fan of The Living Vine on Facebook.

5. Donate to your local food bank. You can find one by going here. (Now of course, this one is on the honor system. I don't know if you actually do this.)

Everybody got it? Alright, get to it people! Lets get those comments coming!  

Hi to Mommy's Internet Readers!

Buggy says "What's up?"

Wait, when did she start doing this?

I've been giving Buggy Gerber Puffs every day to get her used to the pincer grasp and what not. She's never really successfully gotten them in her mouth. Mostly they end up on the floor. Today, at lunch, I gave her maybe a dozen and in about half an hour, she dropped them all but got 2 in her mouth. So exciting. We clapped, we high fived. All in a days work.
Well, while I was heating up dinner, the hubster just put one in his hand and she immediately picked it up and put it in her mouth like she's been doing it forever. Now she's happily sitting in her high chair with a plate full of puffs successfully eating them all.

When did this happen?

She's growing up way too fast. She's now clapping all the time, feeding herself, and she'll give us high 5s. Wow. Where did the itty bitty baby go? Now, if we could only successfully learn how to suck out of a sippy, we'll be set.

Beautiful Blogger Award

My wonderful friend Jenn over at her amazingly awesome blog, ...and baby makes six, nominated me for the Beautiful Blogger Award. How sweet is she? Get a load of that right there folks. I have a beautiful blog, or I am a beautiful blogger, one of the two. Either way, I have my first ever award! Heck yes!

So, okay, the award doesn't come stringless, so there are a few things I have to do to accept it.
These are the rules:


1. Thank the person(s) who nominated you and link to their blog(s).  Thanks Jenn!

2. Copy the award and paste it to your blog. Bam. Up above.

3. Tell us 7 interesting things about yourself. Define "interesting."

4. Nominate 7 bloggers that you love and link to their blogs. I'm getting to it.

So, okay 7 interesting things. Hmmm, let me think long and hard. I'm not that interesting, despite the fact I choose to blog all the random every day happenings to the world. I'm just a boring city girl that stays at home.

Okay, here we go.

1. I was valedictorian and head cheerleader at my Christian high school.
2. Despite the fact of the above statement, I also dressed like a punk rocker when I wasn't in uniform.
3. I love all things Irish and one of my life goals is to one day go to Ireland.
4. In my senior year of high school, I wrote a novel (unpublished, of course.)
5. I'm a Star Trek type nerd and was OBSESSED with X-Files. (I swear!)
6. I have an unhealthy obsession with flip flops.
7. I used to model...back when I was thinner and pretty. You'd never guess that looking at me now. Sigh.

Alright, the 7 bloggers. I honestly don't read that many blogs. How about 5?
Once a Mom, Always a Mom
With Roots and Wings
Momfrontations
Happy is What Happens When All Your Dreams Come True
One + One = Three

And there we have it folks! My first award. Aw, shucks. :)

Playing around with Photoshop

Happy Valentines everyone! Today, Buggy spent some quality time with her Nana and Papa giving them lots of love and hugs and kisses. I felt it would be a great time to capture some of these unique and cherished moments so of course, out came the camera. I snapped a ton few pictures and really loved the set, however I decided to try my hand at photoshop.
Now, let me tell you, I am a total novice at photoshop. I'm a GIMP girl, always will be. This high tech new-fangled photoshop stuff is really fancy. However, we had an older version of PS that I'd never used and thought "Why not." So tonight I played a little with a few of the photos and eventually, after tweaking and fiddling around with them for a while, ended with these 5. I think they work...but I'm not sure. What do you guys think?

I'm just not sure if they look right, and would love to hear what you think of the style and look of the photos.