7 Quick Takes (Empire State of the South Edition)

— 1 —

We're in Georgia this weekend!  We really have no reason to keep hanging around in Florida, and to be honest, I was getting kind of homesick and bored.  I also wanted to meet my friend's little girl that was born in June, so here we are!  It's just for the weekend, but I'm also attending my 10-year high school reunion.  It's being held at the tavern in the town square.  No, I'm not from Stars Hollow, I promise.  But we do have a pretty nice gazebo . . .

— 2 —

My sister will probably be annoyed to hear this, but I have an awesome Mary Kay consultant.  My sister used to sell Mary Kay back when I completely refused to wear make-up.  So my friend Jiza became my MK consultant during my time in Virginia, which coincided with me deciding to become a bit more "put together" (shall we say).  She's another Navy nuke wife, and she does free shipping and handling, so it's been easy to keep buying from her even though we are now many states apart.  She has amazing customer service, too.  My order actually got kinda screwed up (not in a big way or anything), and she threw in all these other fun goodies for me, including a full-sized lip gloss!  You should check out her Mary Kay shop, since she is currently doing an inventory 50% off right now before she moves to Japan!  Oh, she also has a cute little blog.

— 3 —

Speaking of fun products and good people, have you entered my Lilla Rose giveaway yet?  It closes tomorrow at midnight, so you might wanna get on that now.

— 4 —

We have achieved full swaddle wean!  Yes, we are the crazies who had a baby still swaddled at 7 months old.  (She was in the larger-sized velcro SwaddleMe.)  Last week she hit a turning point.  I think it definitely happened because she could roll both ways now.  Even though she had always been a big hater of tummy time, she now rolls over and sleeps on her stomach.  She finally gets to wear footie pajamas now, too!  In the swaddle we just used a onesie so she wouldn't get too hot.

We had to add the bumpers in due to a variety of factors that were waking her up.
She can roll, so I'm not too worried.

 — 5 —

I went to a big seasonal consignment sale last week and got some amazing deals!  This is the same one I went to last year, so I knew it would be successful.  Here's the haul I got for just under $100.  The dress on the right still had the tags on it and will be baby's Christmas dress!  I also got her a Halloween costume :)

I got that ride-on toy in the back right for FIVE dollars!  She already loves just sitting on it.

— 6 —

As for being back in Georgia, I got to see my niece again last night.  She'll be 2 in December (sorry, I stop counting months around 18).  Her hair has been growing, and this child has a pretty crazy mullet now!  My sister tried putting her hair in a ponytail, and it was adorable for a minute . . . until my niece yanked it out.  Oh well, long live the mullet.

 — 7 —

This made me laugh:

For more Quick Takes, check out Conversion Diary.

Lilla Rose Review and Giveaway

Lately I've been a one-trick pony when it comes to hair.  Yes, the "mom ponytail." Babies like to grab hair, and baby Cora likes to yank really hard (yowch!), so of course I need to keep it up and back.  I was trying to figure out other ways to do a bun that didn't take too long.  I recently received a Lilla Rose Flexi Clip that is perfect for keeping my hair up and looking stylish at the same time!

The Roman-Style Cross Flexi in Medium

 I chose size medium clip hoping it would be able to hold all my hair up, and it did!  It took a little bit of practice – and watching some styling videos on the Lilla Rose website – but I found three easy styles I could do in no time. I loved that this clip stayed in place allllllll day, which is pretty awesome when you realize how much moving around you do with a baby.  I even walked two miles then did 40 jumping jacks with it in, just to test it out.  Yes, it stayed in place!

The Flexi Clip is all one piece; this is the back of it.  The pin has little grooves so it can catch the clip part.

3 of the styles I can easily do with the clip. The third one (the tails-up) is my favorite!

Lilla Rose has other hair accessories including hair sticks, headbands, and you-pins.  I also got a set of these adorable bobby pins!

Flower of Hearts bobbies

One of you lucky readers will win a Lilla Rose accessory of your choice from Independent Consultant Linda Menke.  Check out the giveaway below!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

In addition to my review, I wanted to mention that Lilla Rose Independent Consultant Linda Menke is sponsoring a special Mystery Hostess Party starting Sept 15 and ending at midnight on Sept 29. Everyone that orders will have a chance to be the Mystery Hostess and receive all the Hostess Rewards!  Due to a vendor swap also going on this month, the party is guaranteed to earn at least $450 in sales and all other orders will only increase that amount.  This is a great chance to order yourself a Flexi or start your Christmas shopping! (Check out the Flexi of the Month for Sept. – it’s beautiful) AND, if you are chosen as the Mystery Hostess, you can get lots of Lilla Rose loot for the holidays or for yourself.

To order from the party, Click Here.  Add yourself as a guest by entering your information under “New Guests Register Here.”  From there, simply shop and check-out. NOTE: Items ordered through the party will not ship until after the party closes on the 29^th. Items will probably ship by Oct. 2^nd. If you have problems or questions, please e-mail Linda at cliptomania@ymail.com.  Have Fun!

Also, please note while Lilla Rose does not ship outside of the US, Canada or Mexico, you can still order through my consultant! Please e-mail cliptomania@ymail.com for more information!

Baby Food, Revisited

Baby Cora has really taken to eating food lately!  The last time I posted about it, she still wasn't all that interested in food.  As much as I stressed over the what and the how in the beginning, I am relieved now that it's all working out.  We are still sorta doing baby-led weaning (BLW), but there are just some foods I wanted to introduce that don't work that way.  Plus, we now feed her twice a day (lunch and dinner), and my lunch foods are not very baby-friendly.  If we're spoon-feeding her and she really likes it, she will grab the spoon and help guide it into her mouth.  In addition, she still hasn't mastered the sippy cup (she just chews on it), but she totally drinks out of a regular cup when we hold it to her mouth and she sometimes grabs the sides.  I went to Target and got some little kid-sized plastic cups and bowls that were on clearance in the kitchen section, and they are perfect.  (I got 4 pieces for $1--can't beat that!  Pink and purple, too.)

The downfall of the BLW approach for me is that it just assumes you're eating super-healthy, which I often am not (especially for lunch).  One thing that has helped me a lot is a site called Babyfood101.  I have absolutely no idea how I stumbled upon this place, but it has been my saving grace.  Instead of being overwhelmed by a bunch of options, I get one email a week that tells me two new foods to give to baby (here's an example for the curious).  It tells me at what age she's ready (and it always matches up to her age, so there's never a food she's not ready for), how to prepare it, whether it is worth it to buy it organic or not, and it even gives an adult recipe for the food too.  For someone like me who has never had a good relationship with food (I generally eat for sustenance and didn't learn to cook until my 20's, so I mostly stick to the same stuff all the time), this is fan-freakin'-tastic!  I've been learning a lot about food and trying new things myself as well.

Oh, and most of the preparation that the site gives me is catered to not having much time (i.e., buy frozen peas instead of shelling them because they freeze well) and none of it has involved a steamer basket.  Most of the things can be finger foods or "fork-mashed" too, so I've only busted out the blender once--and it wasn't for lack of trying to do without it first when we did green beans.  I've used plain whole yogurt to our advantage too, as sometimes I just mix the food with that.  Who would've thought my baby would like pea-flavored yogurt?

Yum-o!

Speaking of the greens, I decided for this past week to be a vegetarian.  It's on my 101 list, so I figured now was a good time.  I also got to cross off another goal, which was to make something from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  I made her Ratatouille on Sunday night.  Her directions were pretty clear, and I learned how to juice and peel a tomato easily, but I still kinda screwed it up.  It just didn't have enough tomato at the end, so I did what any normal American would do and threw a can of tomato sauce in there.  The whole thing probably should have cooked even longer after that, but we were getting hungry.  The dish came out alright, but it was not nearly as good as the version my cousin made at Thanksgiving that B and I had both raved over.  From the ratatouille, though, we gave baby some green peppers and she loved them.  She has mostly liked everything so far except white potatoes.

Going vegetarian for the week wasn't all too hard, but I realized that almost everything I made had a tomato base to it.  Even the Boca burgers had tomato ketchup!  I also realized that I could never be vegan.  Or at least it would require a major pantry/fridge overhaul to do so, and at this point in unemployment/possibly-moving-soon, that is just out of the question.  As for being vegetarian?  I went to the store one night, and the fried chicken someone behind me was buying smelled heavenly.  I had already eaten dinner, too!  One week was enough for me, so pass me that bucket of chicken already.