DwellStudio for Target

Dwell Studio has modern and adorabe patterns and styles for baby bedding and furniture.  Of course, it tends to be pretty pricey.  My friend, who is having twins, just told me about DwellStudio by Target!  These cribs and matching furniture are adorable.  There's no drop side, so no worries about injuries, and it has very useful drawers at the bottom.  Plus the price is NICE - $299! 

Target also carries tons of DwellStudio crib and toddler bedding, blankets, etc.  You can actually buy a cute separate crib sheet for $10.  Yahoo!  No more wasting money on crib sets just to get a nice crib sheet.  Am I the only dope who did that? 

Allergies Are Still Haunting Us - Sort Of

Since he was around 8 months, we determined that Henry's allergies were either gone or extremely mild.  He drinks milk twice a day, eats yogurt, cheese, eggs, etc. without a problem.  That is until we traveled to Mexico where he regularly ate food cooked by others, and those others used a lot of butter.  He loved the pancakes and would gleefully wipe his butter-smeared hands all over his face and hair.  

On day 3, he broke out in a terrible red rash on his face (only).  Now that I think of it, the rash was reminiscent of a rash he had when he was 2-3 weeks old.  I never cook with butter at home, and am convinced that the mantequilla touching his face was the culprit.  Since we’ve been home, he has not had any rashes.  (See above photo - he's eating a cheddar omelet, notice no rash) 

Upon our return home, I took Henry for his 15 month well visit, and our pediatrician recommended we either go to an allergist or do a blood draw at the office.  The blood draw would test for 12 different possible allergies.  It was torture.  Poor Henry screamed the entire time, and the blood came out so slowly.  He survived the blood draw, despite a small bruise. 

A week later, the pediatrician’s office called to tell me that there was not enough blood to do a full test, and the only thing they determined was that Henry has a very mild allergy to something, but they don’t know what it is.  I was livid.   I would recommend avoiding a blood draw for allergies if at all possible.  We will be visiting an allergist once we’re settled in our new home.    

My uneducated diagnosis is that Henry is allergic to dairy when it touches his face.  When he was a newborn I let him nurse resting on the nursing pillow, which would often be wet with breast milk (I was eating dairy).  He broke out in a rash, and I thought it was because the milk was dirty.  Once I started putting a towel under his face, and changing it for each feeding, the rash subsided.  Perhaps this allergy should’ve been discovered a year ago.  Or, maybe the reason so many children have allergies today, is not because more children have allergies, but because in previous generations, children just had rashes and parents assumed it was nothing.  Hmmmmmm.    

Taiwanese Susan Boyle

This is so amazingly awesome.  I love it.

Puj Baby Bathtub

This new infant tub by Puj is super cool.  It's a foam tub that folds totally flat when not in use and fits in virtually any bathroom sink.  It saves you from the big plastic infant tub.  Henry flailed and splashed water everywhere, which did not do good things for the cabinets below.  Plus the big plastic tubs are annoying to store.  The flexible foam will hug baby and make him comfy in the warm water.  It's a no brainer!

Great Toddler Spoons and Forks for Self-Feeding

I just got this Beaba fork (4) and spoon (6) set at Giggle while I was shopping for a friend's baby gift.  It's virtually impossible to buy a baby gift without getting suckered into buying something for Henry.  These spoons were worth the shopping guilt/$20.  Henry can actually spear food with the forks (they are sharper than other plastic toddler forks) and the spoon is deep enough to cradle food.  Both features are really useful considering his lack of coordination.  I also plan to wrap a few of them up (we don't need that many) as baby gifts for Henry's pals.  So, don't be surprised if your kid is turning 1 soon and you receive a pink fork and spoon set -- yea, Sara, I'm talking to you.  ;)

Sold Our Condo in 2 Weeks!

Despite the real estate crisis, after a week and a half on the market, our condo went under contract.  We had 4 offers, and wrote up our contract for $4K over asking price.  Of course, we went into the process knowing we'd have to take a loss, but even still we breathed a "Phew" of relief once we were under contract.  I’m not saying this to rub it in anyone’s face, but only to say that things might not be as bad as everyone says.  Pending home sales jumped 8.2% in February, so things are looking up!! 

First, our agents are amazing.  I would HIGHLY recommend Ed Jelinek and Susan Amory to anyone selling in Chicago.  They responded immediately to all my emails, and answered all my dumb questions.  We did pretty much everything they asked us to do:  priced it lower than we wanted; put half our crap in storage; nothing on the floors of the closets; moved big furniture around; nothing on the counter tops; etc.  It was no small feat, but 2 weeks after our first meeting with them, our place was up on MLS and the rest of the sites. 

The showings the first week were plentiful but hectic, and I was dismayed when we didn’t receive any offers.  Keeping the condo clean with Henry traipsing around was not easy, but could’ve been much worse.  We hid out at friends’ and relatives’ homes during naps, took long walks weather permitting and ate out in the evenings. 

Our first second showing chose to buy a different place.  But on Wed after the first week of showings we got our first offer.  It was low, and we were slightly offended.  But our agent assured us that in this kind of market people offer very low initially.  We alerted our other interested buyers immediately, and the floodgates opened.  Suddenly we had 4 second showings on Wednesday and Thursday, and 4 offers by Friday.  We asked them all to come back to us with their best offers.  The eventual bid winner required a very quick closing date, giving us 4 weeks to find somewhere to live.  “Ah!  Yikes! Eek!  Gasp!” is what we are thinking – quoted from Henry’s current favorite book, “Duck and Cover,” by Jackie Urbanovic.       

My Busy Kit

Last week my super hip and cool Silicon Valley brother-in-law gave us a gift for the plane called My Busy Kit.  On the last day of our vacation, Aunt and Uncle California gave each kid a Busy Kit bag customized for his/her age.  Henry's had crayons, a pad for drawing, Klix, little men that connect, small car, a quiet noisemaker, shards of broken glass, etc.  The bag (with zipper closure) itself was also entertaining.  He loved taking the toys out and putting them back in.  The toys were all appropriate for quiet play (shards of broken glass weren't actually included), and new, which is always intriguing.  

Busy Kits are meant to entertain kids during travel, church, etc.  Ideally you can purchase them online or at the airport at the newsstand.  Then you keep them hidden until the exact moment you need to entertain your child.  

AWESOME idea for busy parents who don't have time to pack their own bag 'o entertainment.