Tag: top baby blog | Baby Doodah!

My 2014 Intentions

Posted on January 2 by Jillian416 • 2 Comments

I’m sharing my 2014 Intentions.

I don’t know if anyone is like me, but every year I make resolutions (you can read last year’s here), and nearly every year I fail to follow-through. It’s pretty depressing, and I have absolutely no one to blame but myself. I want 2014 to be different, beyond all else, I’d love for this to be the year that I stop making excuses.

So in an effort to stick to this overarching goal, my theme for the year is (just like Nike), Just Do It!

Without further ado, my 2014 Intentions:

Grow My Blog – Baby Doodah is slowly but surely growing in readership, but I need to put more time into the behind the scenes organization. This includes, completing my editorial calendar, getting a notebook (or a great app) to keep with me always to keep track of ideas that pop into my head at a moments notice.

I want to continue writing consistently, since July I’ve been writing about 5 to 7 posts a week, and I really want to keep up with that. I feel so great when I sit down and dedicate time to writing a post, it inspires me to write more. What better way to keep blogging, then to dedicate myself to writing AT LEAST 30 minutes a day? Nothing! So that’s what I’ll do.

Stop being obsessed with the numbers! Right now, I’m so concerned with how many views my blog gets each day, that I am checking my stats constantly. I recently read a tip that you should check your stats once a month, and take that time to, instead write great posts. I’d like to adopt this philosophy.

Work on my focus and time management, in regards to my blog. Right now, every time I sit down to write, I think of everything else I need to do, and it overwhelms me. If I’ve sat down to write, I start flipping through email, or reading one of the many bookmarked sites I have, and the last thing I work on is the blog post. I’d like to have dedicated time to do emails, write, and read things I’ve bookmarked – if I stick to these dedicated times, I believe I’ll gain some serious focus.

I am also considering a few new blog series, but for now, they’re still in development, so I can’t share anything more about them. 😉

Take My Health Seriously – I need to stop futzing around with my health. I’m extremely overweight, probably in the morbidly obese category, and that needs to stop. I want more children, and I am just not at a weight that I am comfortable with. I put myself, and the future child in so much danger being so high in weight. Honestly, there is no better motivation, than losing weight so that I can be around a long, long time for my children. I am going to be taking part in the Genetix Program (more to come on this in future posts), and I’m hoping it will help assist in the motivation to get healthy, once and for all! I need to wrangle in my eating and start breaking a sweat in the gym.

Focus on ME – I am a person who is always concerned with what others think of me, and I struggle when I feel like someone doesn’t like me or is thinking negatively about me. I need to stop, what is most important is what I think of me. There are times when people’s opinions are important, but other times I worry unnecessarily. I need to work on changing this, but I’m not quite sure how, research is needed. Of my intentions for the year, this will likely be the most difficult.

Those are my 2014 Intentions, I’m keeping it to three so that I can truly focus on them, and accomplish great things.

Your turn!

What are your 2014 Intentions? Let’s keep each other accountable!

Filed Under: All About Me

Blogs I Read – Mommy Blogs

Posted on September 22 by Jillian416 • 2 Comments

I don’t know about anyone else, but I am constantly on the lookout for new, quality blogs to read. AND since word of mouth is the best way to share great blogs, I thought I’d dedicate this post entirely to some of my favorite Mommy Blogs. Enjoy!

My Favorite Mommy Blogs

A Healthy Slice of Life – I think my favorite thing about Brittany and A Healthy Slice of life is her Munchkin Meals link-up. Every first Thursday of the month she shares what her daughter is eating and provides a link-up for other mommies to share what they’re feeding their children. She also shares so much about her daughter, meal prep, the foods she eats and the different products she likes.

Ain’t No Mom Jeans – One of my absolute favorites! Shana shares great fashion finds for the momma. Clothes that are flattering to the leftover baby pooch, bras for saggy boobs and so much more. Shana was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, and is currently undergoing chemo. Stop in, read her blog and wish her well. She is an inspiration!

BuyModernBaby.com – A great site for all the new modern finds for babies and kids. Some of the room designs they feature, are items I’d love to buy and decorate my next child’s room with. They’re so beautiful!

Fitness Cheerleader – Janice’s blog is a new find to me, but I’m thrilled that I found it. She’s a working mom with three little girls who also manages to workout and stay in great shape. This blog is highly motivational for me because I’m always struggling with balancing work, exercise, being a wife and being a mom.

Healthy Tipping Point – A favorite and an old standby. I love Caitlin’s blog, always have, always will! She is currently training for a half Iron Man and seeing how much she works out and continues to be a great mom is so SO inspirational.

Kath Eats Real Food – Kath’s blog has so much food inspiration. She shares all the foods she feeds her family and since she is a Registered Dietitian everything is very healthy AND it looks so delicious.

The Alpha Parent – If you’re considering breastfeeding, bookmark this blog! It is pro-breastfeeding, and helps you believe in yourself and your ability as a mother to nurse your baby. There are weekly stories called Triumphant Tuesdays, where mothers share their birth stories and how outside forces tried to thwart their efforts to breastfeed. Reading this blog helped me to understand there is NO excuse not to breastfeed. Check it out!

The Art of Making a Baby – Another standby for me! I’ve been reading this blog since just after Emmett was born. Elena’s photos are stunning (and her daughter is so flippin’ adorable), her articles are always full of great information for new and old moms.

This Little Chickpea – A new find I found while reading A Healthy Slice of Life’s Munchkin Meals link-up. She’s also a working mom, with two kids and manages to keep things healthy in her house. There’s some great motivation to be found here!

There you have it, my current favorite Mommy Blogs.

Your turn!

What mommy blogs do you read that I haven’t mentioned?

Filed Under: Blogs

Mighty Handle – Happiness in a Hook

Posted on September 3 by Jillian416 • 0 Comments

I’m not lying when I say that the Mighty Handle is happiness!

If you’re anything like me, you hate making more than one trip to your car for bags of groceries, your dry cleaning or any other heavy items, you want to collect it all and get it into the house all at once. The problem is that when you grab 4 or 5 bags (or other items) at once, your fingers start to ache or go numb from the heft of the items and the uneven distribution. The Mighty Handle can fix all of that! It might sound like an infomercial, but I assure you it lives up to it’s name!

When Bloggy Moms contacted me about trying out and reviewing the Mighty Handle, I was thrilled but I had my doubts. I’ve lived in the city for about 14 years and have never been able to find a way to make one trip into the house with all of my groceries, and that’s not for lack of trying. However, I kept an open mind, because anything is possible.

I wasn’t about to take it easy on the product, I wanted to put it to the highest test possible. Guess what!? It passed and with flying colors!

The first time I used it was for groceries. Seamus typically will take the heavier bags and run them in the house quickly, this time I grabbed them all. Bags with 3 or 4 bottles of Polar Seltzer, bags full of veggies and fruit and bags full of jars and cans. I loaded up the hook with the bags sitting on the floor of my car and then lifted, it was still heavy (obviously the Mighty Handle doesn’t reduce the weight of things) but it felt like I could have loaded it up even more. I managed to carry everything into our house without a problem. My hands and fingers weren’t aching, nor were they numb. In fact, if I had two of these, I would have been able to get everything in, in ONE TRIP!!!

Mighty Handle Stats

Mighty Handle’s ergonomic grip provides a more comfortable way to transport groceries and dry cleaning
Prevent spills with Mighty Handle’s unique Twist-Lock feature
Carry up to 50lbs per handle
Made in the USA
Produced from recycled material

If you’re looking for an easier more efficient way to load and unload your car, then look no further than the Mighty Handle. I’m assure you that you won’t be disappointed! You can order it on Amazon, here.

You can Like Mighty Handle on Facebook, or follow on Twitter.

Your turn!

Have you ever tried a gadget like the Mighty Handle to help with lifting heavy items?

**Mighty Green Solutions provided me a Mighty Handle to try and review. As always, the statements and opinions are my own.

You can see my other reviews, here.

Filed Under: Reviews

Active Weekend – Unofficial End to Summer

Posted on September 2 by Jillian416 • 0 Comments

Since this weekend is considered the unofficial end of summer, I wanted to make sure I made the most of it. We were active and busy every single day and I wouldn’t have it any other way. If you had asked me a year and a half ago whether I’d want to have a jam packed active weekend, my answer would have been no. Now? I love it! I love having something to do with Emmett and Seamus, it makes the weekends so awesome!

On to what made this last weekend of summer, so great…

Emmett actually let us sleep in until quarter to 7 on Saturday, which was wonderful considering he had kept us up most of Friday night. Once he did wake up, we spent our usual time in our bed cuddling and waking up and then got up for breakfast. It was still early, and the cloudy sky had started to turn sunny, so I decided that Emmett and I would head out on a walk and end up at the Farmer’s market. It was pretty humid, but it felt good to get outside and to grab some delicious fruits and veggies from the market. This week’s spread was similar to last week’s.

I grabbed some tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, red onion (that ended up being rotten inside, yuck!), nectarines, a cinnamon roll (for Emmett and I to share) and finally some First Light Farm and Creamery Garlic and Dill Chevre (of course).

Once we were home, we attempted to put Emmett down for a nap but since he had taken a quick little nap in his stroller, he fought going down in his crib. He fought hard too! He scratched me and kept hitting me to get down, I knew he was exhausted because he kept rubbing his little eyes and yawning. Eventually I gave up trying to put him down in the crib and we went back in our bedroom and took a family nap.

Have you seen anything sweeter?

I eventually dozed off too, for a good hour and a half! I think we were all still behind on sleep from Thursday night / Friday morning. It felt good to nap and we all woke up in much better spirits! We played for a bit and then went out to grab some Five Guys for dinner, definitely not the healthiest but it sure was tasty. My favorite part about Five Guys are their fries. They fill up the fry container and then just throw (about) another small fry on top of the bag, and they’re SO good.

I made plans Saturday evening, to go out for a bike ride with a couple friends, and Emmett in his trailer, on Sunday morning. Emmett woke up bright and early at about 5:30, which gave us plenty of time since our ride wasn’t until 7:30. We ate breakfast, got dressed and then played, while we waited for my friends to show up.

We rode 5 miles down to Canalside where we stopped and got some coffee (and milk for Emmett). It was gorgeous down there! The City of Buffalo has done a really nice job of beefing up the waterfront to attract more visitors. Emmett was so cute by the water, I let him out to walk around, he was watching the birds bounce around and playing silly games with my friends. Rest assured, he had a good time!

Our ride back was decidedly more difficult than the ride down. There’s a very steep incline, that you have to go up in order to get back home. Sadly, I got off and walked at one point, I just couldn’t make it up the hill. I couldn’t peddle fast enough to keep my bike moving forward. I think if I didn’t have the trailer and Emmett, I might have been able to make it. It would have still been a challenge but definitely something I could have accomplished. Either way it was a great workout with great friends!

We got home, Seamus had just finished up his workout at the gym, so we all had a small snack, showered and then headed out for some lunch. We ended up at Milos, the food was fantastic! Seamus needed new work pants so our next stop was the Eastern Hills Mall once we were finished with lunch. We weren’t in any hurry so we walked the whole mall just to see what other stores were there (we haven’t been to this mall in years) and so Seamus could find a couple pairs of pants that weren’t astronomically expensive. He found the best deal at Sears and bought a couple different pairs.

Emmett was the best little boy. He just sat and was friendly with all the strangers we came across, smiling at them and waving. He was very very happy!

We got home and played for awhile and eventually it was time for dinner, then bath, milk, cuddles and bed. We were both so worn out!

And finally today, Labor Day! Emmett once again had us up early at 5:30, I went in and nursed him and then we went back to our room where we all cuddled and tried to get Emmett to sleep for just a bit longer, it didn’t work out. We were up and making breakfast before we knew it. That’s okay, when you’re up early, it gives you time to get everything done that you need to.

We went to Target and got some household items that we needed, and also a few items that weren’t needed. (It’s just not possible to go into Target for only what you need.) Then to Wegmans for our weekly grocery shopping, it was dead when we got there but eventually got pretty busy. I’m assuming it was because of all the kids who return to school tomorrow and Wednesday.

We got home, put the groceries away and then put Emmett down for a nap. While he slept I was able to relax, clean and work on my blog! Call me productive!

Our weekend ended with a trip to Babies R Us for new shoes for Emmett, he lost the pair we got him two weeks ago, well we have one shoe but the other is gone, it disappeared into thin air. We also hit up Kohl’s for gym shorts for Seamus and then Anderson’s for ice cream for the whole family.

We were active and busy and it felt good to enjoy the last “unofficial” weekend of summer.

Your turn!

What fun things did you do this weekend, to end your summer right?

Filed Under: Daily Updates, Family

My Finds Friday

Posted on August 30 by Jillian416 • 0 Comments

What. A. Week.

It flew by, but at the same time it seemed to last forever. Either way, I’m glad it’s the weekend and that we get an extra day. More time for family!

Today was Emmett’s last day of day care at his current location. I went in thinking it wouldn’t be sad at all, and when I dropped him off this morning it wasn’t. Everybody was being super sweet to him, but no tears were shed. However, when I was picking him up, that’s a whole other story. I went in and right away people were saying how much they were going to miss him and giving him hugs and how important he had been to them, it made me feel good to know that these people cared so much for my sweet boy. They also wrote some very sweet messages in his log book that they keep, which made me cry even harder.

It’s hard as a mom to feel completely comfortable with where you are leaving your child for 8 or 9 hours a day, but I never questioned his day care. I knew he was safe and very well cared for. I’ll miss his teachers and his director, they were just so wonderful to him. If anyone of them should read this, please know you were loved and appreciated by the Baby Doodah! family.

Now on with the show…

My Finds Friday!

Ice cream and summer – one of the best pairs ever dreamed up! However, sometimes you don’t want to use all your calories and fat on a big bowl of mint chocolate chip, here’s a yummy alternative from The Fitnessista, Avocado Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream.
If you’re a blogger or an aspiring blogger you need to check out Daniel’s entire site, Reviewz ‘n’ Tips. I was going to pick a single article but after I paged through a few of them, it’s impossible to pick one, they are all chock full of fantastic tips for bloggers. Trust me, check it out!
As a parent, I’m continually learning. There is no way that I can know everything, I’ve only been doing this for 13 months. This article has some amazing information for new parents, and maybe even for some veteran parents. Read the article, here.
We’re not traveling with Emmett yet, but we will eventually and this article provides some really practical tips for traveling with kids.
Do you pee during workouts? It’s a real thing and apparently common enough to create a viral video. Check out the article here and the video here.

And just for the fun of it, an adorable picture of my little Color Runner. Also, for anyone who is a fan of the Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks (like I am), they’re back early!

Your turn!

Do you have any great My Finds Friday, this week?

Filed Under: My Finds Friday

Dear Emmett – 13 Months,

Posted on August 27 by Jillian416 • 0 Comments

You are 13 months old! Can you believe that? 13 whole months and we are well on our way into your second year!

We’ve been busy since your last birthday! You are more active than ever, and you keep becoming more and more fun. You are exploring and getting into everything and it makes for some pretty exciting play times.

You’re a lucky little boy! Your daddy and I decided to take our dining room, make it baby safe and turn it into your playroom. We cleared out all of our stuff that was in there (we were mainly using it for storage), bought a baby fence and got some foam flooring (from your paternal grandparents) and now it is a toddler’s paradise. You have all sorts of toys in there now too, legos, fisher-price people, wooden blocks, shape sorters, a little table and chairs (from your maternal grandparents), crayons and paper, etc. We need to get some bins to keep the toys in, because as of now things are kind of strewn all over the place but you love being in there as long as we’re in there with you. I’m happy that we could make you so happy!

You are also firmly in the walking stage, and actually you are nearly running. Shortly after your first birthday you began slowly walking more than crawling. You’d stand yourself up, take a few steps and then plop down. As the month progressed, you became more and more of a pro and now you hardly ever crawl. The only time is if you’ve fallen and are trying to chase us, you will often chase after us in a speedy little crawl.

We bought you your first pair of shoes. I wanted to make sure we got you shoes that had soft soles with some rubber on the bottom because your feet aren’t fully formed and I didn’t want hard rubber soles inhibiting that. The most notorious for those types of bottoms is the PediPed brand, but we needed something kind of quick and ended up finding a cute pair at Babies R Us, in their Koala Kids line. They’re adorable, and the first time I put them on you was one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time. They don’t bother you too much now, but you still take them off almost every morning on the car ride to day care. Silly boy!

I’m so excited to say that you have mastered the signs we’ve taught you thus far. We taught you milk, water, more and all done and you can do them all and use them frequently. You were doing milk really early on, you’d know it was time to nurse and you’d start to clench your little fist, which is your version of milk. However, you’ve slowly but surely began using it whenever you are actually wanting milk, not just when I ask you. You also know that when you’re thirsty and don’t want milk, that you can ask for water. When we are all sitting down to dinner and you’ve finished everything that you want on your tray, you will make the sign for more and we will give it to you. It is really awesome! You’re slowly beginning to gain the ability to communicate with us and it is just so fun.

You continue to make your different sounds but more and more they are beginning to actually sound like the words we speak. When I ask you if you’re all done, you will wave your hands (the sign for all done) and make a sound that sounds like “alld.” I wouldn’t say it is a formal word yet, more of a mimic of what I said but you are definitely getting closer.

You and food get along great! You love eating and for the most part continue to eat anything we give you. You do go in spurts where you’ll only eat soft foods, but I believe that’s because you’re growing some of your back teeth (poor guy).

Right now, I’d say your favorite toy is a toss up between your fisher-price farm (that your aunt, uncle and cousin got you) and your legos. With the farm house, you love opening and closing the doors and hearing the animal sounds they make. You also love moo’ing yourself, I’ll show you the cow and go “Mooooooo” and you’ll mimic me. It’s adorable! When you’re done playing with the farm, you like to leave the doors open and if I close them you open them back up. Such a cutie! In regards to the legos, anytime that your dad or I build something, you love to grab it and take it apart. You’ve also begun trying to get them to stick together, you’ll bang bang bang and then sometimes they’ll stick and sometimes they won’t. When they do, you get the BIGGEST smile on your face.

You love cuddling up with your big brown monkey blanket, it pretty much goes everywhere with us. You’re also really into cuddling up this stuffed monkey that plays music that I got as a gift from some of my staff in Rochester. I love it when you lay your head down on his belly and curl up, it is the sweetest thing.

I just cannot believe you’re 13 months, I love you and can’t wait to see what the next month will bring us.

To see all of the Dear Emmett’s, click here.

Filed Under: Daily Updates, Emmett, Family

Wonderful Weekend – Fun as a Toddler

Posted on August 26 by Jillian416 • 0 Comments

That title says it all, it was an absolutely wonderful weekend!

We didn’t have any major plans this wonderful weekend, but I did knew that I wanted to get Emmett out of the house as much as possible. The warm weekend summers are slowly but surely coming to an end and I want to do as much as possible before the first flakes flies.

Emmett woke up very early on Saturday morning (5 am) and I decided to take full advantage of that. We ate a quick breakfast and then decided to hitch up the bike trailer that my in-laws (THANK YOU!) got Emmett for his birthday. It was so awesome! The trailer is the inStep brand and is just perfect, it has room for 2 kids and little pockets on the side that Emmett can put little toys or snacks in. We put on his little helmet, got him all buckled in and away we went. I think we were riding for about 15 minutes, before I turned around and saw that he was fast asleep. So when people ask me whether I think Emmett had a good time or not, I say, heck yes he had a good time, he was comfortable enough to fall asleep. We ended up riding for 6.5 miles and then heading back home because I wanted to get to the farmer’s market before it got too busy.

We stopped home, used the bathroom and then pulled the jogging stroller out to head to the market. I was concerned that Emmett wouldn’t be very pleased with going from one enclosed buckled in seat to another, but he was just fine, in fact, he seemed really happy. Once we’re at the market, he’s always happy because he has so much to look at. He’s totally like his momma, a people watcher!

The colors of fruit and vegetables at the market were just beautiful. Check out this spread I picked up, tomatoes (so many tomatoes), cucumbers, red onion, zucchini, red potatoes and some Chevre from First Light Farm and Creamery. I barely bought any produce at the actual super market, just some lettuce because they didn’t have much at Bidwell. That makes me happy because I love supporting local and things that are fresh, never shipped, ALWAYS taste better.

After all that early morning activity, Emmett was really sleepy and I needed a shower so we headed home for both. While he slept I worked on my blog post, 5 tips for New Moms and got that nearly completed so we could have some family fun after Emmett woke up.

We headed out for some ice cream at Anderson’s and then some playground time. We always get Emmett a baby sized dish of vanilla frozen custard and he eats about a quarter of it and then daddy finishes the rest. 🙂 It really hit the spot. We headed over to a nearby playground next and we swung and swung. He loves it! He giggles and smiles the whole time and it just makes me so happy. After awhile there was another baby waiting to get on the swing so we decided to try the slide. Check out this picture, is it not the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?!

Finally, we ended up in a ginormous sandbox, which Emmett loved. We didn’t stay long because we had forgotten sunblock and didn’t want Emmett’s skin to be damaged, but he thoroughly enjoyed himself. He even whined a little bit when we forced him to go, he’s turning into such a little boy, no longer our tiny baby, in fact he turned 13 months on Friday. (OMG!)

Sunday was another early wake-up for Emmett, 5 am again. I normally don’t mind getting up that early but I was really feeling sluggish Sunday morning. Didn’t matter though, we sat down to some breakfast, ate, then I showered and we headed out to the grocery store. I really like taking Emmett to the store, it gets him out of the house and able to experience something new and different each week. Since it wasn’t even 9 am yet, it was pretty quiet at Wegmans and our trip went quickly.

We unloaded and put away the groceries and then it was time to head to Grammy and Grandpy’s house! We were heading down there to celebrate a belated birthday with my dad (it was back on 8/13/13). Nothing special, just some playing, a light lunch and cuddles with Grandpa. We did have some cake but Emmett wasn’t interested, he was having more fun playing with all the new and different toys that live at Grammy’s house.

We headed back to Buffalo around 3:30 and were home in time for dinner as a family. We were all feeling lazy, after a busy weekend so we decided on some pizza… I think that Emmett thoroughly enjoyed himself!