Up until now this blog has been primarily about me. And why not, it’s pretty easy subject matter for me to write about. But today I am going to stir things up, go a little crazy, and turn it back on YOU.
Here are some burning questions that I have:
Take a look at the aircrib . Now tell me what you think. Would you buy one? Why or why not? Do you have any suggestions for changes to make?
Take a look at BTVco. What cool, innovative products are we missing?
Now give me lots of good answers so that I can be swamped with following up on them for the foreseeable future. And thanks in advance!
Yesterday morning in a moment of weakness I took Miles to get his first haircut. I swore that he was still too young and his curls too precious to cut off but I did it anyway. His hair was starting to get a little out of control especially on the top. I wanted to have them trim the top and leave the back but I couldn’t let the little guy walk around with a mullet. So I asked the nice hairdresser to just neaten it up all around.
Miles was absolutely wonderful for the whole ordeal. He sat in a racecar chair and spent the entire haircut pulling and banging on the steering wheel while shouting with joy. The hairdresser worked quickly and did a nice job. I did have to stop her before she went a little too nuts with the scissors. The boy needs some hair on his head, it’s cold outside!
When we left we received a little certificate capturing the momentous occasion. I didn’t need the certificate though, I felt like some of my heart and soul was left with the little curls that lay all over the floor. Will the pain ever subside?
Yup, I’ve got it. DeQuervain’s tendinitis that is. I’ve had it since Miles was about 1 month old which means that oh my god I’ve had it for one whole year now. After suffering through it for the first couple of months I finally went to see my primary care doctor. She diagnosed it but said that since I was nursing I really couldn’t take the medication necessary to reduce the swelling. She did kindly prescribe a nice brace for me to wear but I just couldn’t get it to work with my outfits. Kidding, I wore it for a little while but it didn’t really help.
Fast forward to two weeks ago. After suffering with this stupid, painful bump on my wrist I decided to get aggressive. I’m not pregnant, I’m not nursing, I can finally go after this thing and get rid of it once and for all. So I self-referred myself to a hand specialist (at least that is how the specialist put it). He agreed that it is deQuervain’s tendinitis and explained exactly what it is. Basically it is inflammation of the tendon sheath on the thumb side of your wrist. Any activity involving my thumb can be very painful. For example, last month I was carrying a bag of dog food and somehow tweaked my wrist just right an ouch! I felt the pain for at least a week. The swollen lump is also very tender.
The specialist gave me a cortisone injection, told me to wear my lovely brace for a week, and sent me on my merry way. Now I am wearing this cumbersome brace and clumsily typing away. New screens keep popping up randomly as I type this because my brace is hitting keys on my keyboard. It is also below zero outside and guess what? No gloves fit over this stupid thing. I had to force a huge snowboarding mitten on this morning just to cover my skin from the frigid temps.
The best part is, if the cortisone doesn’t work then I have to be cut open. Yeah, surgery is the next step. Wouldn’t that just be lovely. The one advantage of surgery is that it would prevent this from flaring up again, ever. I am afraid that without the surgery when I have my next darling (no news to report) it will be a problem again. But for now I am just hopeful that the current course of action will take care of everything.
Miles has always been very fond of my father but this fondness seems to have grown to an obsession. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day with my family so Miles and Grandpa spent a lot of time together. When I say a lot I mean every single second. My father would put Miles down so that he could do something and Miles would just stand there looking at him with his arms held up. It was very cute and I have to admit that I enjoyed the break. My poor mother kept trying to have some time with her Grandson but all he wanted was Grandpa. I think that he was even saying the word Grandpa by yesterday evening. If anyone else held him he just looked around and pointed until they brought him back to Grandpa.
But where was Grandpa at 3 AM when Miles woke up and wouldn’t go back to sleep? Huh, where was he?
I am having a bad case of writer’s block this week. All of the things that I want to talk about are too short to dedicate an entire post to. So here is what’s on my mind…
I still can’t seem to figure out how to include a video in a post. I have gone to help boards, downloaded plugins only to find that I have no idea where they went, uploaded plugins that I was able to find and still nothing works. I’ll keep trying. It’s not like I have a really interesting video, now it’s just the principle of the matter that I want to be able to do it. Just in case.
While working on posting a video I uploaded our little AirCrib spot to YouTube. Immediately I had two subscribers. For some reason that just creeps me out. Why would people subscribe to what pretty much constitutes a commercial? I did receive a great comment though. Comments rock. Hint, hint…
Usually I love wrapping Christmas presents but this year I just can’t get into it. Maybe because each evening is spent feeding, playing with, and then putting Miles to bed. Followed be feeding myself, walking the dog, cleaning up the hundreds of dishes from Miles’ lunchbox, and then packing the next day’s meal. Then I have to shower (my husband is now training for the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon and he seems to think that morning is the best time to train - I won’t tell you how I feel about that…) and then it’s past my bedtime. This weekend I will have to get to it, just in time for all of the gifts to be unwrapped.
Miles woke up yesterday sounding something like a cross between a turkey and an alien. He seems to understand what he is saying because he goes on and on and on. How can he just wake up one morning with a new skill? What goes on in that little head of his while sleeping?
I haven’t been to the gym much lately because I just seem to be busy. This is not the time of year to be skipping out on the gym. Oh well, I’m still enjoying my gourmet peanut butter cup washed down with a nice eggnog latte. I’m serious!
And finally, I don’t know what to get for our babysitter for Christmas. She has only sat a few times but she is going to start sitting for us on a regular basis so that we can have a date night (yay!). My husband wants to support local businesses so I have to get her something local. She has a baby but I would like to get something for her and not her child as she is the one babysitting for us, not the baby. And of course it has to be special. Oh - and I need to have it by tomorrow night because she is sitting for us then. I can’t take the pressure!
That’s it for my random ramblings today. Have a happy holiday!
We have been getting more very nice product reviews lately and they make us all very proud. Traffic is up on our web site and AirCribs are shipping out all over the country. Check out the nice things that people had to say about our product:
Parenting.com’s Daily Fave
Mommies With Style
Now we are trying to think of some ways that we could potentially improve the AirCrib. Any suggestions (color, size, accessories)?
Miles turned one this past weekend. Sigh. How did my little baby turn one already? Over the past week I have played the “this time last year I was…” game. It has been a lot of fun to think back on such an exciting time of my life. I have to say that if I could go back and do it all over again, I would! Seriously. Even the labor part. Except I would try to avoid looking in the mirror or walking for several days after the delivery. Both of those things kind of sucked.
I had such a great experience in the hospital that I am actually looking forward to the next time. No - no announcement to make but I would like to have more children some time. Just definitely not right now.
We had a small gathering of family and friends late Sunday afternoon to celebrate Miles’ birthday. He had so much fun, the only time I saw him was when he cruised through the kitchen either following or being followed by his pack of older friends. He so enjoys playing with other kids, especially older ones who do interesting things. I think that I caught a glimpse of what my boy is going to become. He LOVES being in the spotlight. A crowd of twenty adults and children singing to him didn’t upset him in the least. In fact, after assessing the situation briefly he actually smiled at the crowd. That’s my boy!
I wonder where he gets his party genes? (hint: me, me, me!!)
I was a big user of the Halo SleepSack for Miles’ first winter. He was born in December so he was a tiny nugget that first winter (well, relatively speaking since he came out of the womb at 9 1/2 pounds) and I didn’t want to risk using a blanket. Plus his room seems to be the coldest one in the house so he needed extra warmth. I loved the SleepSack and had a few of them in the pajama rotation. They gave me peace of mind knowing that Miles would not get tangled up in his blanket and he would not be cold.
When this fall rolled around I wondered whether or not to buy a new fleet of SleepSacks. I was worried that Miles would get too tangled in them when he tried to stand up in his crib. I also thought that the danger of getting tangled in his blankets was no longer an issue. What I didn’t realize is that now that he can move, he can wiggle out of his blanket. And a cold Miles means an awake me - not a good combination.
Around the same time that I was pondering how to keep my little cherub warm, I had lunch with my new friend Karen of Halo Innovations. Karen was kind enough to have lunch with me and share some tips of the trade for getting the AirCrib on the market. After we parted ways Karen sent me an email that she had read my blog and wanted to send me some SleepSacks to do a product review. I was ecstatic! My problem was solved. I could not only test out the SleepSack to write about here but I could also potentially solve my nighttime warmth dilemma. I didn’t want to tell Karen that I was already a strong believer in her product because I wanted some new, larger ones to try!
I received my package in the mail with several models to try. I have “tested” the Deluxe Velboa, the Micro-Fleece, and the Early Walkers styles. They are all fabulous. Most importantly Miles stays warm (but I have to talk to Karen - he still isn’t sleeping through the night) and he does not get tangled at all. When he wakes up he is still able to stand and he can also crawl around while wearing the SleepSack with no problem.
The innovative folks at Halo have also made a sherpa on-the-go version. It is such a great idea - it has a safety belt slot for the carseat or stroller. There were many times last winter that I went to my parents’ house for dinner with Miles and put him in his pajamas for the ride home. Once home I had to disturb his precious slumber by putting him the SleepSack on him but now you can put everything on all at once and then just transfer to the crib once home.
470 calories in an eggnog latte - 350 calories burned at the gym = 120 calories of eggnog latte that will end up on my abdominal rolls. Damn!
I just schlepped across the back parking lot through snow and slush to go the gym. I then spent 3o minutes on the treadmill running 3 miles (with some warm up and cool down walking in there), did 20 sit ups (I know, wimpy but I was short on time), and stretched. Then I had to shower and trudge back through the snow and wind to the office. I should be proud of myself and feeling really good but truthfully I am bummed. I am bummed because after all of that, I still did not work off enough calories to earn my much cherished and dreamed about eggnog latte.
I wait all year for the six weeks that Starbucks offers the coveted eggnog latte. For those of you not familiar with this little concoction from heaven, it is espresso with steamed eggnog and a sprinkle of spicy nutmeg. I can tolerate eggnog on its own somewhat but am not a huge fan. But eggnog with coffee has turned out to be a whole different story.
This past weekend I tried and tried to fit an eggnog latte into my plans but each time my plans were foiled. First I was going to get one and sip on it as I leisurely shopped my way through the grocery store. Instead I had to run through the store throwing items into the cart so that I could shop and pick up lunch before my husband ate Miles from lack of alternative food choices. With my plans thwarted for Saturday I decided that we could stop at the Bucks on the way to a birthday celebration for Miles and his friends (they are all within one week of each other). I forgot to factor into those plans the simple fact that I am always late and there was no way in hell that we had time to stop for anything, red lights included. So my plan for today is to convince my coworker that he wants Starbucks too and that he also wants to get out of the office for a little while to go there. I’ll let you know if this one actually comes to fruition.
I try not to promote the AirCrib too much in my posts because this blog isn’t about our products, it’s about ME. So let me make things easy and tell you right off the bat that this post is about how my hard work at marketing the AirCrib is finally starting to pay off. I just like to show you the results of what I am doing here behind the scenes. And be prepared - you should start seeing more and more results.
So the big news today is that we have an independent, outside product review on the Daily Dish! And the even better news is that Emily, the wonderful reviewer, loved it! She took one with her on vacation and put it to the test. If you read the review then you will find a nice promotion code at the bottom.
