Showing posts with label baby. Show all posts
Showing posts with label baby. Show all posts

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Operation Sippy Cup

Operation Sippy Cup
Is now in action!

Say good-bye Bottles, Hello Sippy Cups!
Now that BabyMo is just 13 months old it's time for the switch from baby bottle to Sippy Cup.  
He hasn't been interested in Sippy Cups at ALL up until this point so I knew the switch would be a tough one.

I work Full Time and I often don't get to spend most of baby's "awake" hours with him.
So, I didn't want to leave this tormentuous (is that a word?) change over to Sippy Cups to someone else. 
I waited until Christmas Vacation to make the change when I knew I'd be with him for an entire 10 days straight.  

Hence --> Operation Sippy Cup Has Begun!!

Here's a photo to let you know how the switch is going so far...

YUP.
That's my 13 month old having a meltdown.
"Common' Mom.... just give me a bottle!"

No, but seriously.
I've had to go cold turkey on this kid.
I hid ALL the bottles and We are not going back.

Aside from the 3am meltdown which consisted of 45 minutes of straight screaming, 
I'd say we're doing okay! 
(I'm an optimist - what can I say)

We've been almost 24 hours with NO bottles.
And, I think we're making some progress.

Check out these photos which were taken just 10 minutes after the meltdown above...

Dear Santa... please bring more Sippy Cups.
Sincerely, BabyMo & MoMomma

Monday, May 30, 2011

Baby Nursery: DIY Painting Stripes






The past few weeks I've been encompassed in a big painting project.
I decided that I wanted to go BOLD for BabyMo's room. 

Just to get you PUMPED up for the project...
...Let me show you a sneak peak of the final room all put together...


Prior to the stripes the room was completely white, vanilla and bland.
It was the perfect blank canvas.


Here is the BEFORE and AFTER of the striped wall I did for his room:
Okay.  Are you ready to paint some stripes?  
Here's a short tutorial of how to do it!

Step 1: Find your inspiration
I used this scrapbook paper as my inspiration and pulled the colors right from this paper.
I took it to Lowe's and matched the colors right in their paint department.
Here are the paint chips for the colors I picked (All Valspar Satin finish)
Side Note: I'm positive that the brown tone called "Milk Chocolate" had no affect on me selecting it.  Humm maybe a little bit.
Step 2: Gather your painting supplies
I picked one gallon of my main room color and used my handy dandy $5 off Valspar coupon that was mailed to me a few months back.  They also sent me a couple of paint samples, but they didn't make it into this room. I did use their tiny rolling brushes (awesome!) as well as a few sponge brushes for painting.
I purchased four paint samples in my "bold" stripe colors. Then, I checked out the 'reject' paint rack and picked up one extra color (shown in the middle) which went nicely with those I had picked out.

All in all I spent about $60 in paint ( 1 gallon and 5 samples), rollers, paint trays, etc.
I also used all the leftover paint for my art projects in the room!
Be sure to purchase quality painting tape.
I went with Frog Tape.
It is the ONLY tape to use when painting stripes. 
It worked AWESOME.
I think it's the only tape the MoMomma household will use going forward.
Step 3: Tape off the room
Step 4: Get your "base" color ready to paint
This tan color is called "Woodrow Wilson Putty" by Valspar.
TIP TIP TIP!  
TIP ALERT:  Go find one of those empty formula containers and use it as a paint container!
It worked AWESOME for holding a small amount of paint while going around the room edging.
Check it out... the perfect size... AND ... a built in comfort grip!  :)
I don't know about you, but I have about forty of these things in my pantry! This was the perfect use.
Step 5: Plan
The next thing I did was to plan out how I wanted the wall to look.  I knew I wanted an element of random design on the wall.  But I also wanted a game plan to go by.  So, here is the plan I made on Photoshop.

Below you can see my tiny computer screen (plan) in front of my blank slate!
Step 6: Tape off your first lines
I knew I wanted to incorporate the white of the original wall, so I first taped off the lines that I wanted to STAY white before I painted the tan over this wall.

TIP TIP TIP!
TIP ALERT: It's important to use a RULER and a LEVEL to make sure these lines are straight.
 Okay, so here are my lines that I want to STAY white (the original wall color).
I wanted them to be thin, so I kept them the width of the Frog Tape.
Step 7:  Paint the edges of the tape the BACKGROUND color.
This can be the confusing part going forward so, take a step back and really think this one through before painting the wrong color or the wrong area of your wall.

The reason you are painting the edges the same color as the background is so that IF it bleeds through, the SAME color will bleed through. And, believe me it WILL bleed through.  Even with this awesome tape.

So, give it a quick coat of the background color and let it dry.
Step 8: Paint! 
I wanted to start with my tan color so I painted right over that tape!  You can't even see the tape in this photo but it's there.

Step 9: Peel away your tape!
This is the FUN step!  You don't need to let the paint dry for this step either.
Here you can see me pulling away the tape and below is a perfect white stripe (remember- the original background color)
Step 10:  Paint your next stripe color!

My next color was a deep brown.  Brown is one of the main colors in this room so I wanted these stripes to be big, bold and wide.  I first measured and taped off the stripes.  Then, remember to paint the edges your BACKGROUND color.  My NEW background color is my NEW tan color (not white).  Paint the edges of the green tape with Tan.  Let it dry.  Then, paint in between the lines with the BROWN paint.
Step 11:  Rinse and Repeat! 
I mean... Paint and Repeat!

Below you can see my Brown and Blue completed stripes.
Step 12: Keep adding stripes to the wall until you like the results.

I kept my BOLDEST color (orange) as my thinnest stripe.  I wanted it to be a small accent color in the room. I used the width of a DVD case as my template for the thin stripe :)  Look around. Maybe something near you would serve as a good template for a the width you are looking for.

Here is my end result:
Ta-Da!
What do you think?

 Let me show you one more Before and After shots to remind you of how far we've come.



If I can do it - you can do it!  I had never painted a stripe before this but I can tell you that there are sure to be many more stripes in my house after this day!  With the awesome results I got using Valspar paint from Lowe's and Frog Tape... the results are guaranteed to be awesome!

Perfectly straight lines that would make even my Engineer Father Proud :)

 Be sure to check out my other related blog posts:

Click HERE for information about the DETAILS of the room
Click HERE for the blog post about the Room Reveal



I was featured at Baby Lifestyles



Sunday, May 29, 2011

Baby Nursery: Details

BabyMo's Nursery is finally DONE!


Don't miss my other blog posts about:
NURSERY BEFORE & AFTER
and
DIY PAINTING STRIPES TUTORIAL

Here are some of my favorite details from BabyMo's Puppy Dog Nursery Room:


Above: Hand Painted Puppy Dog Art

Here's how I did it.
The first step was found when I was shopping at Ross.
I scored a 2 pack of 16x20 canvas's for 6.99.  HELLO. Great deal.
So, I purchased two of them.

 I started by painting the canvas's a light brown color which was left over from the stripes I had painted on the accent wall.
 Next up: Create a pattern from this sheet of scrapbook paper.
(This paper and the colors were the inspiration for the whole room!)
 I created a puppy pattern and cut it out of paper... what do you think?
 I traced the pattern onto the canvas's, picked my colors and started painting!
Woof Woof!
I really do love these puppies!  I think they really pull the room together.
And, what a great bargain they turned out to be!  Just $3.49 per CANVAS!

Below is a cute picture of BabyMo showing off his super cozy crib.
BabyMo just LOVES super soft snuggly fabric. I knew I had to find a crib sheet and bumper that was soft and cuddly to help him fall asleep at night.  So far- it's worked like a charm!

 The bumper and crib sheet are from Carter's.  You can find more about the bumper and crib sheet on Amazon by clicking here:








On the floor you can see a puppy paw play mat.
Kid mo was kind enough to re-arrange the paw colors for me in his own unique pattern.
I scored the play mat also at Ross for about $12.

In the upper Left corner you can see a lamp which I scored off Ebay for $2 plus shipping!
No kidding! What a deal!

Okay, my crowning achievement is installing these shelves:
(I installed them myself.... without any MEN around!) haha

I also installed the curtain rod myself.
Before this I had never picked up an electric drill in my life.  
Now I feel like I could install anything I wanted.... all by myself.
(I think I'll still ask MoDaddy to take care of that stuff though!)
The shelves were easy to install. 
I found them at our local Home Depot for about $30 each.

Some of the cute things you'll see on those shelves have been a part of my life for years.
The green book on the top shelf is called "Barkis".  My mom and I love this children's book and love the illustrations in all of her books. (Especially her Kitty books!  But hey... this is a puppy room and that just wouldn't make sense)

Next to the "Barkis" book on the top shelf is the only Bear in the room. This bear was my stuffed animal as a baby/child. I took that thing everywhere.  A close look will tell you that he was one well loved bear.  He needed a special place to sit so I thought this shelf was a good fit.

The black doggy on the lower shelf is a family treasure.  It used to sit in my mom's Aunt & Uncle's home (Auntie Myrtle and Uncle Bill).  We drove to visit them in Detroit Lakes, MN every summer from California.  (Side note- WOW- what a long car ride that was!) They would let me play with it every summer when we came to visit.  During one of my last visits before she passed away, Auntie Myrtle sent it home with me :) 

For now, I'll put things that are important to me on the shelves. Someday, BabyMo can fill them with his own treasures.

I found a cute Doggy Pillowcase on Ebay. I slipped it over a pillow and put it in this rocking glider chair that we had when KidMo was a baby.  It fits the chair perfectly and adds a little cushion when in the room for those middle of the night feedings.

I put the ottoman next to the rocking chair and used it like a side table.  Ottoman's are dangerous during middle of the night feedings... trust me. It's best to keep that thing out of the way to avoid stubbed toes and overall disasters.  It's much more useful holding this cute basket full of burp clothes, wipes and diapers.

I had a hard time picking out curtains for the room.
I settled on these Brown (Blackout) Curtains from Walmart.

Overall I think the room was a success.
BabyMo seems to love it! Ever since he "moved" into his room he's slept through the whole night! WOOHOO!

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Photo: Soft & Sweet

This week's theme for I Heart Face's photo challenge is: Soft & Sweet

Here is my submission:




This photo was taken of BabyMo when he was about 3 months old.  He fell asleep during our photo shoot and sure was cuddly, soft and sweet :)

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Today I lost to Hulk Hogan


Today I lost a battle with Hulk Hogan.

Early this morning KidMo brought in this Hulk Hogan action figure.
He gets up Super early and is happy to greet you with toys from his room. 
This morning he greeted us with Hulk Hogan. 

BabyMo was SO happy to see Hulk Hogan that he decided he went on an eating strike.
True story! 
He ONLY wanted to stare and baby-talk to Hulk Hogan! 
He smiled. He coo'd. He laughed. All for the Hulk. 
He had lost all interest in his bottle and wouldn't eat for me.



He WOULD eat for Hulk Hogan!

It turns out that if your baby won't eat - just show em a Hulk Hogan action figure.
Seriously - That baby has never been happier.

Thanks Hulk for stealing my thunder as a mother.  Hahaha.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Seven Slings Baby Carrier Review- FREE- Just pay shipping

A couple weeks ago I scored this deal that was posted on Saving With Amy's website for a FREE baby sling.

I couldn't pass up a deal for the free baby sling.  Well, free is a relative word.  It is "free" when using code COLORADO and paying $11.95 shipping.

Go to the Seven Slings website HERE

I would love to say that the photo below is of me and Baby-Mo but I'm too busy loosing handfulls of my hair and fighting my post- baby weight to be this cute right now.... maybe next year folks. 
(This is a paid model, not Mrs Mo Momma)
Back to reality...

My cute little 3 month old baby boy just loves to be held. Every night around 5 or 6pm he is fussy and it's hard for me to make dinner.  I figured a baby sling would be a great way to keep him happy while being able to move around the house. 

The REVIEW:  The product isn't too bad.  It is very basic.  It is actually just a thick piece of fabric sewed together.  Baby-Mo even fell asleep once in it!  SCORE!  On the negative side, my shoulder hurt for the rest of the night from the weight of the baby.

The GOOD:  The product is made well and I'm not worried about it ripping apart.  They are also made out of stylish material and look cute.

The BAD:  Not very comfortable for long term use. Also, It takes a while to get the baby situated correctly. And, if the baby is angry, I've learned it is impossible to get him in the sling correctly. And it just made Baby-Mo even more angry.  That is NOT a good thing.

Overall, I think it's a good buy.  I think Baby-Mo will do well with it once he is old enough to sit and can just hang on my hip a bit.

Do you have a favorite baby sling? Have you tried Seven Slings?  Post below with your comments please!