LOVE

Too many options!

I have spent today and yesterday working on the layout of this blog ~ there are way too many options for templates, fonts, colours, everything!  Don't get me wrong, I love all the options :)  but boy talk about taking a heck of a load of time to get it the way I want it.  I guess the great thing is that I can change the look, feel anytime I want.  This experience setting up my blog is a mirror image of my life lately ~ lots of options, just gotta go with what feels right RIGHT now knowing I can always change it.

This is my baby 8 short months ago ~ born beautiful<3

This is a "MOG" and I am a "MOGGER"

I haven't googled this yet but I was just sitting here playing with my new blog ~ Marley is sleeping like a baby ~ a good sleeping baby, not those ones that wake up every 2 hours for a feed:)  Any who, this term just popped into my head and I think it's clever.  Could be that it's late and I am coming down with a sinus cold or maybe I really am a genius ~ either way I like it!  Get it?  I am a mama and this is my mama blog = MOG(pronounced ma-og) HENCE I am MOGGER!  I think it will catch on ~ what do you say mamas?

Still in pajamas

Have you ever had one of those days where you look at the clock and it's 9:00pm and you realize you didn't change out of your pajamas that you were wearing when you woke up this morning? Yeah...me neither;)

Except for today~baby Marley and I just hung out in our home all day. Maybe other mamas can relate ~ those wonderful days when you just spend time together and not worry about laundry or dishes until baby is napping. When she wakes up from a nap, you feed her, change her and then just play. Just be. I took the time to go thru activity to activity like reading stories (her fav right now is Three Little Mermaids and Peekawho?), showing her the plants outside, laying on our foam play mat just looking at one another. And then it's off to a nap and I get some chores done and then she awakes and we do it again. I fed her in her bumbo during lunch without a diaper (you know bare bum time) then I hear "splat, splat, splat" ~ you know when you just smack or tap some water on a hard surface. Yeah Marley had peed and was tapping the pee puddle with her left foot while munching on cheerios. It was so funny ~ so I cleaned it up and pulled her out of the bumbo and sat her on a receiving blanket on the kitchen tile. We spent some time looking at tupperware containers and a rubber piggy then she made a grunt sound. Ok I know that's the poo face ~ you know the one ~ where they turn red and I jumped up ~ quick thinking let her poo on the blanket or take her to the potty. So I grabbed her and carried her over to the bathroom and sat her on the edge of the potty. She is 8 months old and was just smiling away then the grunt face came back and she pooed in the toilet ~ I don't mean to brag but I was pretty proud! LOL! Overall it was such a great day of just being together ~ I think every mama and papa needs to spend a day just hanging out together<3

What I learned over the last 8 months

January 26, 2011 was a day that changed my life forever.  That is the miraculous day that our beautiful daughter Marley Marie made an entrance.  Since then I have learned TONS!  The purpose of this blog is to share with you what I have learned and I will share what I learn along the way.  So here goes:  If you can breastfeed, do it ~ it can save you a lot of money!  Marley just turned 8 months old and I started adding formula just to fill her up along with solids and breast milk.  But boy formula is expensive!  Do cloth diapers even if you are nervous about it ~ we switched to cloth about 4 months ago and have never looked back!  It was the best move for us ~ saved us money, really good for her tushy and I like the idea that I am helping the earth.  Oh and the patterns and colours of the diaper covers are very cute!  I live in British Columbia Canada and I have found a few great companies that I have really liked dealing with.  Baby Bellhop in Victoria has a great on-line store and they have the best customer service.  We decided to go with bumGenius Flips as a start and will expand our cloth diaper inventory as we go ~ dependant on what comes on sale, etc.  But so far I am super happy with them!  Also love Rock n Green detergent and it's even better if you can get it on sale.
There are a few sites&pages that I wish I found while I was pregnant ~ I am so happy I have them right now for sure!  Baby Half Off is a great one ~ gives you one deal a day ~ shipping is out of the USA so the deal has to be smoking deal!  The next one is called Baby Steals and they provide 2 deals daily ~ one at 9 am EST and one at 9 pm EST ~ I have found quite a few awesome things to add to my baby collection like cheap baby legs, baby wrap, etc.  Also shipping out of the USA so better to find a great deal to make it worth your while.  The next one is called Baby Heist and it's Canadian so great shipping prices.  They have a deal a day.  Another thing to look for are the archives to the baby deal sites ~ so even if you missed the deal originally you might still have a chance to find some goodies!
On Facebook ~ try to find any local baby swap pages/parent buy and sell pages, etc.  This is a great way to sell any of the items you don't need anymore as well as find some good deals on things you might be in search of.  Also great for the environment because you are reusing items!
Gotta sign off but if you know of any other great baby deal sites please leave them in the comments as I would love to hear about them!
Thanks!