Being the mom of a little boy clothing options are a bit slim compared to the girl clothing options out there. Since decent looking boy clothing options in the stores are slim pickins. Or the clothing options are splattered with bright colors and cartoon characters; I do on occasion like Gray in something appliqued or monogrammed. I am learning that to do so you’ve got to be on the ball, y’all. By that I mean, to have an outfit made for my son for Chirstmas this year I had to order it late September or early October. I ordered it from a lady on Etsy. It was totally worth the wait.

Why didn’t anyone ever tell me this? I totally understand that things (especially made by hand) take time, but another thing I didn’t take into consideration is that you have to order early from even the big stores like Pottery Barn Kids. We have plans to go to Florida this summer so I wanted to get Grayson a special beach towel with his name on it. Ordering it in February should get me the towel on time right? Wrong!

I found this adorable towel on the Pottery Barn Kids website the other day and totally fell in love.

I added that bad boy to my cart, and then was smacked in the face by a little red message stating that is was on backorder until May 6th. Say what!?! That’s right, 2-3 months before the dang thing arrives. So, not only did people not warn me of having to order extra early from custom shops like you might find on Etsy; now I’ve got to think about things like beach towels in like…January!

For all you soon to be Mommas, one day Mommas, or brand new moms gear up, because if you want that precious little darling of yours in “new” applique, smocked, or monogrammed items start thinking and shopping for those pieces at least 2-3 months ahead of time.

I have found another way to get them into these types of clothes are by hitting up the consignment sales in your area. But with consignment sales you generally have to shop/buy for events 6mths to 1yr or 2yrs away, because in my part of town they typically only happen 2-3 times a year. But it’s totally worth it, because you can find some amazing items super cheap.

Anyway, this post was originally about the super cute beach towel the kiddo will be sporting in Florida, at the pool, and the lake this summer, but then it turned into a rant, and then helpful hints. I can’t wait to see him wrapped up in his super fluffy towel. That’s if it  makes it here before the summer ends. Fingers crossed!

I’m not 100% certain exactly how I found out about Citrus Lane, but I think some of my friends had “liked” their page on FB. However I was introduced I am so glad I found it. Citrus Lane explanes their service like this, “you get a box every month filled with cute and practical products recommended by real parents. It’s like having your own team of personal shoppers dedicated to finding the best products for your child.”

Each month they mail you a box filled with goodies based around a theme that you and your wee one will enjoy. The box changes each month. They build it out to match the season, and around customer feedback. When you sign up they ask a few questions about you and your child to make sure the box is always right your child’s age and stage.

February was my 1st box, and it was awesome. Here is a pic of the goodies I found inside, minus the yummy popcorn they sent. I ate that right away. Hehe.

Do you see that wood toy? It’s a solid wood stacker. For $25 bucks and free shipping Gray got a beautiful wood toy, a CD of folk children’s music, a book, and a cute piece of wall art by Petite Lemon. Oh yeah, and the popcorn that I gobbled down ASAP.

This was the snack that I ate right away. This popcorn was G to the double OD. The bag was only 100 calories! How kick arse is that? This was unlike any low calorie snack I’ve ever eaten before. It wasn’t all “I’m trying to be awesome and taste like real food, but all I am is some lightly flavored rice cake that still only taste like your eating styrofoam.” Nope, none of that lack luster flavor for this popcorn. It was perfectly popped, evenly coated in that caramel-y goodness, and lightly salted. And it all melted in your mouth like cotton candy on a hot day at the ball park.

My only issue with this yummy popcorn is that it’s not yet sold anywhere in TN, so I have to resort to buying it in bulk on Amazon. I’m not going to lie. I’m very tempted to hit the “Add To Cart” button.

I seriously cannot wait until the March box is dropped on my doorstep. You would think the toys were for me the way I get all giddy over things like this. You’ve got to try this. The subscription to Citrus Lane is $25/month with free shipping, but you can find discount codes online. If you subscribe and pay for multiple months at at time they do offer you a bit of a discount. Click here to order your 1st box.

You know those 1st few pieces of art that your baby creates? Sure you can put them in a frame or wedge them in between some pages in his or her baby book, but why not turn it into a real piece of art? Grayson created his 1st painting shortly before he turned one, and I wanted to display it, but still keep it in pristine condition. So I came up with a cool way to put his work on display.

I had a coupon for $50 off any size canvas from Canvas People which got me thinking. Why not scan his painting and turn it into a photo canvas? With my $50 discount all I paid for an 8×10″ canvas was the $14 or so dollars on shipping.

Here is how it turned out…

Presh, right?! On the back I will add his name and the date he painted this fine piece of art.

Since my little booger has recently moved into a toddler bed (crush my heart!) I am doing a little redecorating in his room to transition it into more of a toddler’s room. *sob*  We have plans for a new Expidit Ikea bookcase in his room and I think this funky yet fun piece of art will add a nice pOp! to the all white bookcase.

Since Canvas People run promotions all the time I have plans to make a few more of his future artwork pieces into photo canvases. Wouldn’t this be a cool idea if your son/daughter was into drawing characters like monsters, princesses, or robots? You could convert them into canvases and display their own art in their room.

Has anyone else out there done something like this?

I just wanted to share this, because well…look at it. What a goofball I have on my hands.

It’s amazing how a $1.00 package of play dough can make a toddler so happy.

Unfortunately, toddlers like to put everything in their mouths. Then I ran across a recipe for edible play dough. Luckily, my little dude isn’t allergic to peanuts, because this stuff has quite a bit of them in it.

Here’s what I used to make edible play dough…

1 cup peanut butter

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tbls of soft butter, then mix together

The kiddo loved mashing and banging around with the stuff. Oh yeah, and eating it too. You can even make no-bake cookies out of the stuff too. Just put it on wax paper for a few hours to dry out. Playtime in the AM, and a fun snack for after nap. I like to call that a win-win situation.

If you do plan to make cookies out of the stuff I would set part of the dough aside and not let the kids get their grubby little fingers in that portion. There’s nothing like a big fat booger to ruin your appetite.

Gray seemed to think the dogs needed a taste of our delicious concoction. They very much enjoyed the  treat.

I want my baby back, and I ain’t talkin’ about no dang ribs. My tiny baby is growing up way to fast. On Christmas night he climbed out of his crib for the 1st time, so we dropped his crib mattress all the way to the floor. Guess what. He did it again. This is just another negative to having an 18 month old in the 90th percentile in height. Sheesh!

When I took Gray in for his 18 month check up I asked his doctor about this little “issue”. I was afraid he was just to young to move into a toddler bed, and that’s what I was hoping he would tell me. No luck. He said we needed to get him out of the crib STAT. Even though he lands on his feet it only takes one bad fall to severely injure him. That’s the last thing I wanted.

So when Daddy got home the boys goto to work. (Sorry about the pics. I snapped them with my iPhone.)

He loves the change. He climbs in and out of it constantly.

The 1st night was the hardest. I don’t think he really understood that he was going to have to sleep in this new open bed. It took him about 2 hours that 1st night to figure out what he was supposed to do. At first he just played and read books, but by the end of the 1st hour he was at the gate on his doorway crying to be let out. We of course went in there and tried laying with him to show him what we wanted him to do. And that worked until we got up to leave. Teaching him to sleep in this big boy  bed broke my heart way more than sleep training him when he was 5 months old. I’m pretty sure it had to do with the fact that he cried out “Mum, Mum, Mum!” over and over in that sweet tear strained voice.

The second night was way better. He played around in his room for about 5 minutes, and climbed in bed and went to sleep after Derek popped his head in the door and told him to get back in bed. We were beyond surprised. The same thing happened on night 3 and 4. Naps are a little harder to get him to settle down than night time, but I think that has to do with the light and not wanting to stop playing.

I was expecting this transition to be pure torture for both me and him. I don’t know what more to say. We didn’t do anything special or really have the opportunity to put our training plan into action. He really hasn’t given us the opportunity to. The only thing I can think of is that he just really appreciates the freedom and change. I guess he understands more than I gave him credit for.

Here he is during one of his naps. I snuck in and snapped a pic to send to Derek during lunch.

My little big boy. I can’t believe he has already moved out of a crib. He’s not supposed to grow up this fast. I want that baby time back. But since I can’t, I’m savoring every last second I still have of him being small.

I just realized I never posted about Valentine’s Day. Derek and I aren’t really into the whole V-day thing over here. Don’t worry ladies, he didn’t trick me into it. I came into this relationship with this mindset. Big romantic gestures make me feel awkward. So awkward in fact that when he proposed I sprung a nosebleed. That’s how much my blood pressure shot up.

Like I said, around here we keep iheartyou day pretty low key. Since we have a little one around I don’t want to give him the wrong idea about Valentine’s Day, and totally ruin him for his future wife, so I stepped up my game.

Check out how blonde this kid’s hair looks in the sun. I love it. Coming from a family of brunettes blonde hair is totally foreign to me. And I love it. I can’t wait to see how light it gets this summer.

To show my tiny tike just how much Mommy and Daddy love him I made special animal crackers for him. Basically, I just dipped them in white chocolate. I also filled one of those cute little mailboxes from the Target dollar section with other fun little goodies I found in the dollar section. The crayons I’ve had for months, but never pulled out for him to use. I figured he could use them to draw on his cute little robot pad.

In his mailbox I put some suckers (he was only allowed to have one sucker and it was his 2nd sucker ever…you could totally tell too), a toy clacker, and a squeeze ball.

For Daddy, I made some kiwi dipped in white chocolate, and Grayson drew a Valentine. I threw in a few suckers in there for good measure. I decided to make Derek something too, because I didn’t want him to feel left out since I decided to and will continue to give something to Grayson.

It just so happened I found something at the Pottery Barn Outlet a few days before, and mentioned it to Derek. He walked in the door on Valentine’s Day with it in hand. So I ended up getting a gift that day too.

Does anyone else out there not do much for Vday, or are we the only anti-Vday folks out there?