The Daily Fuss

Self Evaluation

At three this afternoon, the overall score for the day was nothing short of promising. Most importantly, Leighton's little barely-slept-a-wink self was at school and would most certainly be too pooped to wreak any real toddler havoc when she got home.

I caught up with the laundry, made progress on a legal publication I'm spearheading, finished a post, showered AND dried my hair, made hair and massage appointments, pumped an extra feeding, snapped a few pictures of Mairin, cleaned any messy aspects of the house and remembered to feed Lue and let her out the requisite number of times throughout the day. A few gifts were delivered for Miss Mairin, as well - driving the score even higher.

Ryan returned with Lei shortly thereafter and the circus promptly began. Here are a few things that fall under the auspice of what I like to call "toddler mayhem":

Squeezing little sis around the middle and/or hugging her by the head whilst I'm feeding her - out of love, of course.

Spontaneously bursting into song in an attempt to avoid answering a direct question.

Finishing my sentences incorrectly to suit her needs.

Bedtime battles and temper tantrums - most of which include "the noodle" where she raises her arms above her head and her shoulder blades turn to cartilage and it's impossible to find any place on her to grab hold and successfully pick her up. (How do all kids know how to noodle instincitvely? The phenomenon needs to be studied).

Getting naked for no real reason other than to mess with me.

Putting anything other than potty, in the potty.

Doing artwork anywhere other than on paper while nodding and telling me "paper only" and "keep it on the paper, mama".

AND MY FAVORITE ...

Slapping me (more like controlled flailing as if to say "I'm going to swing my arm around fiercely and you best not get in its way") followed by profuse apologies, patting me on the shoulder or back, caressing my face and telling me that "everything will be okay mommy" in a slightly Munchausen by proxy sort of way.

The list goes grows daily with some new goofiness, but these incidents don't last long and they aren't as frequent as I'm making it seem. Leighton is really a very sweet little girl, it's just that she sprung the mayhem on us suddenly a few weeks ago and it's still throwing a monkey wrench into what was a very happy and well-managed daily routine. She's a toddler and this is totally normal. We get it. I promise. Still, it doesn't make it any less exhausting or hilarious to us.

Tonight, Leighton can add pooping in the bathtub (I think it was more of a gambled-and-lost, toot-confusion situation rather than an act of defiance, but it counts) and needing to wear a tiara to bed to read The Princess and the Pea with babies, silks and blankies strewn about her special sleeping spot to take the daily score down just a smidge.

The real point deduction for the day was all on me. I spilled several ounces of freshly pumped sweet juice all over the dining room table and on to the floor. What a MAJOR EFFING DISAPPOINTMENT. If this were my first baby, I would have been inconsolable for at least an hour. But, I'm over it.

The daily tally buoyied again late in the day. By 7:39pm, everyone was fed, and everyone under the age of two was asleep. At this point, the television remains off and Ryan just opened a bottle of red. There will most definitely be few spitups, wakeups, feedings and trips to the potty over the next several hours. But overall, I'm pleased with our team's performance.

I give us a solid 10.

Awesome Foursome (and a little dog too)

So little sis was born just AFTER the biggest blizzard in the history of Chicago weather situations since at least 1967, if not EVER. We left the Marriott downtown at 3pm on February 2nd, only to make the chilly, unplowed, white out, nary-another-car-on-the-road return trip at 1am. Figures.

Although I was (once again) hoping for an annoyingly uneventful labor and delivery ... it  simply wasn't to be. Well, the labor part anyway.

Due to the outrageous and unrelenting dumping of snow the day before, inductions, c-sections and various other surgeries had been postponed. No one was available for break my water for five hours after I caved on the epidural. How annoying.

Still, it was worth it in the end. By 7:44pm, after insisting someone check me again, it only took two pushes, 180 seconds and NO STITCHES to meet the littlest Freeman.  I fully consider this a pleasant alternative to the 90 minutes of pushing and painstaking needlepoint involved in delivering Leighton.

Mairin Isabel was born at 7:45pm with a full head of shiny, black hair (no real clue where that comes from), big sister's giraffe eyelashes and a dimple in her chin to match both mommy and Leighton. She was just too cute, right away.

Leighton was super pumped to meet little sis for the first time and never misses a chance to kiss her and hug her and tell her just how much she loves her. Sometimes, she loves her a little too "hard" but we've learned to manage the hard lovin' to some degree. If we can't lock it down completely, Mairin might need a helmet - at least until the soft spot closes up.

Luella didn't seem to need much of an adjustment this time. She's relatively chill and actually appears to love the newest member of our squad - most likely because she has witnessed, first hand, how rambunctions these sweet little people can become over the course of twenty-two months.

In this house, the infant is the easy one. Mairin is a sleeper, which feels crazy to us. We keep checking to make sure she's okay. Lei needed constant entertainment and sleep management - she still does to some degree. A sleepy baby is so completely different than the toddler who WON'T GO TO BED.

In fact, Lei's recent behavioral outbursts have risen to a level of toddler mayhem so cleverly calculated that they seem unlikely to have come from said toddler. Last night, she managed to fight sleep until 1am by bargaining for drinks, trips to the potty, crying, screaming, flailing and pulling random stunts. I was ready to poke my own eyes out by 12:45am, but am happy to report that last night's shenanigans seem but a distant memory at this point.

In fact, Ryan and I are enjoying a few blissed-out, mommy/daddy moments of simultaneous maternity and paternity leave with Mairin sleepily cooing in the living room bassinet as we blog and google our way through the next thirty minutes until it's time to pick Big Sis up from school.

What happens after that is anyone's guess, but I'm guessing you'll hear about it tomorrow.

Mini-Vain

I've never wanted to own a car, much less two - which is where this post is headed. 

Well, maybe I had a few delusions of car ownership when I turned sixteen, but I stopped giving a rip about it relatively soon after that. Borrowing my parents' car suited me just fine. Two years later, I arrived at the UW in Madison, Wisconsin where I definitely didn't need a car AT ALL.

I moved to Chicago after graduation, where the cost of all car-related expenses is legitimate deterrent, thus relieving me of any desire or real need to own an automobile. A decade of cab fare doesn't rival the cost of monthly parking and guaranteed parking tickets - not to mention the fact that my twenties involved plenty of cocktails, making driving illegal much of the time. To this day, I'm convinced I played it right - no need to own a car in Chi-town.

Until Leighton was born.

I didn't marry Ryan for the sole purpose of inheriting co-ownership of his Jeep grand Cherokee. However, I will admit to falling head-over-heels in love with her over the years. She's was fully loaded in 2000 and even after a decade, still purrs like a kitten. She's been good to us.

Her looks belie her 120k-mile experience. With still-supple leather, functioning heated seats, new shoes, fresh brakes, new air conditioning/heating block and nary a scratch on her silvery-taupe exterior, she's a sweet ride. Sure we're missing a few key features of the latter part of this decade - like the latch system, to name one - but, Leighton sits content, rear-facing in the back-middle spot and we all get along just fine.

What's the problem? The problem is that once little sis comes along, the Freeman family will no longer physically fit in our beloved Jeep.  < PLEASE INSERT THE MOST DRAMATIC SIGH YOU'VE EVER HEARD RIGHT HERE>.

Ryan is a tall drink of water. At six-foot-five-inches tall, you can't squeeze a car seat behind his seat, lest you chance jamming up his incredibly long shank, thus forcing the vehicle into a light post on your journey. He's too careful to allow the possibility of such a scenario, so we're in the market for a new family car.

In the search for suitable transportation, our criteria is limiting. We need enough room for Ryan to drive comfortably, space for at least two car seats, room for baby/kid gear and any presents we will undoubtedly accumulate at either of the grandparents' houses, the ability to move around the vehicle with relative ease on a long road trip to St. Louis and some entertainment for little ones.

"Get a minivan, dumbass,"  is the obvious answer to this dilemma.

The prospect of minivan ownership actually doesn't bother me at all. I've demonstrated my couldn't-care-less-edness about the whole car thing, so "whatever works" is fine with me. I swear.

Ryan, is another story, another breed - the kind that swore to NEVER EVER own a minivan under ANY circumstances whatsoever. Probably because minivans didn't exist back in the day when his parents were hauling three giant man-boys to various sporting events, but the underlying reason doesn't much matter. He's cemented his position even moreso after spying the 2011 model of our beloved Jeep and, after seeing it for myself, I can't find a reason to NOT show up at the nearest Jeep dealership with two car seats in tow - ready for a test run.

The millennial counterpart to our trusty transport is nothing if not gorgeous. I think it would be a stretch to shoehorn this family into it, but I'm willing to try. The girl who finds cars to be an incredible waste of money is now faced with a monthly car payment (something we haven't had in years) so the giant mass of metal we choose better bring the goods.

Any advice you have, dear readers, is most welcome. To minivan, or not to minivan is the ultimate question. Please post a comment and share your fuss with us.

Maybe Baby

We went for Leighton's 18-month checkup today. Everything was great. She's tall, thin, smart, sassy and didn't cry for her shots - like a mini supermodel with a mild temperament and sweet little mullet on her 82.5 percentile head.

On the way out, we passed a freshie in the waiting room. She was an adorable little Chinese peanut with a shock of black hair and that typical far-away newborn gaze. And, for the life of me, I could not remember Leighton ever being that tiny.

Ever.

I put Lei to bed a little while ago and came straight downstairs to peruse photographs from the first six weeks of her life in a concerted effort to find evidence that she was, in fact, the drooling, gurgling, can't-hold-her-head up baby that she certainly must have been. Right?

Sure, there are a few pictures where she's staring blankly and intently on a shadow in the corner of the ceiling, but the other seven thousand eight hundred fifty two shots show an incredibly alert kid. At this point, I'm even having trouble remembering her not talking - probably because we've been able to communicate since the moment our eyes met.

And, they met seconds after she was born. They put her in my arms and she stared calmly and confidently right up at me. Leighton's gaze instantly destroyed and reinvented me. Then she did it to her dad, grandmas, grandpas ... everyone. It was nuts. I made them wait before administering those gooey eye drops because I couldn't stand to end the hour of continuous eye contact.

I started thinking about the insane amount of thought and hope and anticipation and expectation wrapped around my first-born, and realize that my memories are gilded to some degree. But, I will say that the picture above was taken at four days old. Those are the eyes that locked mine that first day - the day she let me know just how much she expected of me.

Now, I can't help thinking about Little Sis. For baby number two, much of that anticipation is gone. We know what babies are like and how many diapers we'll change and what to feed her and when she should hit which milestone. With Lei, we've been (and still are) anxious to see how quickly she can learn things and in some ways, it feels like we're speeding her along to the next phase, always looking forward. If little sis is our last, then maybe the reverse will be true - that we'll always want to see her as a baby and always will.

It stands to reason anyway.

Family placement and its affect on each of us has always intrigued me - probably because the whole "only child" thing is foreign to most people and doesn't fit comfortably into the discussion of traditional family placement. Come February, little sis will put me well outside my sphere of knowledge on the topic and that's definitely a good thing.

Plus, I figure I'll have twice as much to write about.

What the Fuss? Nice Rack

Cute and clever - a wicked combination. Especially when we're talking about baby products. I spent the last sixteen months balancing bottles and nipples on a drying rack that resembled a warped starter set of Construx.

Why you ask? Because I didn't know any better.

When we moved, my mom showed up with a few treats for me. (Let me say that she rarely, if ever, shows up empty handed. In fact, Leighton's first move after greeting her Gaga is to rifle through her purse looking for gifts. Please remember that my mother only lives and hour away and we see her quite often. The pavlovian effect was swift).

This time, my gifties were two newAvent wide-mouth Natural Feeding bottles, a kickass bottle brush(also Avent) and the Boon Grass Drying Rack. Yes, Lei is a toddler but she still like her baba at night and I refuse to deprive her of such things until she's two. We have no baba shame in the Freeman house. Plus, she has been a straw drinker since eight months and does not like sippy cups. Hence, the baba.

I love the Avent products - made in England and beautifully designed. Still, the jackpot portion of my haul was the Boon Grass Drying Rack. It's two dishwasher-friendly pieces of fun that hold any baby item to dry completely. It's ingenious, adorable and takes a spin in the dishwasher without warping.

You can pick up your Boon Grass Drying Rack at Target for $15 - or closer to $20 elsewhere. This Fussworthy Must-Have makes a great shower gift and is not to be missed.

Just curious, at what age did your toddler give up the bottle? Parents seem to get nervous about it and my nanny said that the parents of her other charges were sheepishly wondering the same thing. Please leave a comment and share your fuss with us!

Been Busy

So I took a little break. I needed it. There's a lot going on these days and while fully immersed in bloggy land much of the time, I consider myself a private person. Well, maybe not exactly private, but I'm not great at lying - which (in my opinion) includes sins of omission.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I preferred a month of radio silence to thirty, cagey What the Fuss? posts to avoid telling you all that I'm pregnant. What?!

Yep. Number Two is scheduled for debut in February. Leighton will be two in March. Luella will be seven on Christmas. (That's 42 in Yorkie years.)

It's certainly been very exciting, although not timed perfectly. We moved to our new house last thursday and I took on a new role at work and I feel like throwing up most of the time and packing was horrible and unpacking was even more horrible and none of my clothes fit and Leighton learned the words "no" and "mine" and has taken up whining and I'm traveling this week for work, and I'm sitting in a hotel room with a head cold that Lei passed generously to me on the way out the door.

Good times.

For the record, I will die in this house. I am never moving again. Unless of course we sell all of our possessions with this house and start over back in our condo in the city. Condo + City of Chicago = Perfect retirement community.

Anyway, back to reality and our little Number Two.

I am an only child. If I haven't mentioned this before, you may be having an A-HA moment. The fun of reading a blog is to put the pieces together over time and this is a big one.  I have close cousins, but I never had to really share anything - including my parents. Nor have I ever been involved in a sibling rivalry, much less argument for that matter. Come February, I will be way out of my element. GaGa and GaPa won't be much help either.

Come February, I fully expect that the utility and import of baby doll toys and furniture will zoom into sharp focus for Lei. Right now, she knows what to do with all of that stuff, but she sees it in a way that it relates to her as a baby not another, completely different, teeny weeny REAL LIVE BABY!

Number Two is going to blow Lei's little mind. And then, I fully anticipate her desire to send it back from whence it came.

I missed you all. Please forgive the sabbatical. I'm back.

And the Little One Said ...

I may have mentioned once or ten times that Leighton comes into our bed at two AM like clockwork.

It was exciting when she was brand-spankin' new and still super duper fun when she was an eight month-old peanut who got cozy and slept rather still on a pillow.

I still love sleeping next to her - even when I get walloped in the face by a stray arm or klunked in the bridge of the nose with a dramatic head-to-pillow fah-whoomp or suffer the tickle-pain of her screwdriver toes in my rib cage throughout my slumber. I do.

However, when I excitedly discuss my family's sleeping arrangement with others (not in our family) they respond with a "Whoooooooooah. No. No. No. NO! NO! You want to nip this in the bud."

The crux of the argument seems to be that the inevitable result of the family bed setup is that my hair will soon fall out, I'll be fired from my job and my marriage will crumble.

Puh-leeze.

I made a vow to parent unapologetically and NOT JUDGE other parents. Why can't everyone play nice and follow along? And why do other parents have such strong opinions on how much sleep I get and whether my kid sleeps in our bed?

The Freeman co-sleeping, family bed situation evolved from traveling the shortest distance between two points. I breastfed for ten months and Leighton has always slept better in our bed. Ergo, I did not have to get up and tend to her fussing in the other room throughout the course of an evening. Shortest distance.

And, she sleeps like a teeny, purring log. Granted, she helps us form a human "H".  But, she sleeps.

Admittedly, I am not jumping up and down about the fact that she's waking earlier and earlier. And so, I'd like to nip that in the proverbial bud. Not because I don't enjoy the family bed, but because this kid needs to learn to self-soothe and I am on board with that.

I do suspect that if Lei becomes an expert in the art of solo slumber ... we will miss her head klunks and screwdriver toes all night long. At this moment, I am not ready to confine her to her crib. Ask me again in a few hours, and I will most-likely have a different answer.

Family bed, yes or no? Why or why not? Please share your fuss with us.

WIN IT! Happy Baby Foods and Snacks for Your Wee One

To salute the purveyors of organic beeb foods, The Daily Fuss is giving away Happy Baby organic foods and snacks meal kits to three lucky fans. Happy Baby groups their delectable into stages.

Stage 1: Starting Solids

Stage 2: Simple Combos for 6+ Months

Stage 3: Meals for 7+ Months  

Since I have no clue how old your beebs and tots are, please post your stage preference in your post. If you don't, I will hunt you down anyway, but I'd prefer you make it easy on me.

Meal kits will include the best and yummiest picks from Happy Baby for your particular peanut - a $40 value for each winner.

How do I win, you ask?

Leave a comment on this blog post telling us your kid(s) favorite foods and ways you try, as a responsible parent, to offer palate-building variety.

Or maybe you just serve taco pie and mac n cheese every night. We won't judge. In fact, that's a great reason to try something new. Be creative and share your fuss with us.

Here are the official rules for the giveaway:

1. Leave a comment on this blog post per the above instruction.

2. Your official comment to this blog post during the specified time frame counts as an entry.

3. Three comments will be selected as winners.

4. Comments will be open until March 31, 2010 at 5PM Central.

5. Comments will each be assigned a number and winners will be chosen randomly using Random.org.

6. Winners will be announced on April 2, 2010.

7. The prize for each winner is a Happy Baby organic foods and snacks meal kit. Please specify Stage 1m 2 or 3. ($40 value each)

GOOD LUCK!

Please check back soon for The Daily Fuss Guide to prepared baby foods. Thanks for reading and if the mood strikes, please leave a comment and share your fuss with us.

What the Fuss? Squeezable Fruit

Build it and they will come. Or build a package to safely deliver organic squeezable fruit to your kid and companies will fill 'em.

My mom gave us treats as we headed to the airport last week for vacation. It included Plum Tots Mish Mash and Revolution Foods Mash Ups - basically mashed organic fruit in BPA free, foil-lined pouches with built in straw-type spouts. Kids can squeeze the fruit mash into their mouths while sucking from the straw.

Clearly too tough for a ten-month-old? NOPE. Lei sucked it down like a little champ. And, I have a feeling she could have done it months ago. She's been a straw-drinker for months.

So I gave Plum Tots extra points for the clever packaging, but as it turns out I have been under a rock since Lei was born. I totally missed the squeezable organic fruit revolution. I also missed the baby spacefood/MRE revolution of full meals in a pouch but you'll have to look for those in another post.

Here are your options for roughly $1 each:

1) Plum Tots Mish Mash

2) Revolution Foods Mashups

3) Happy Baby Pouches

4) Peter Rabbit Organics Fruit Snack

5) Materne Go Go Squeeze Applesauces

6) Organic Smashies Smashed Fruit and Applesauce

They are all organic, additive-free and come in BPA-free packaging. Some are only fruit, some have legumes, grains and veggies involved and a few are applesauce-centric. Click on the video to see Lei in action with some Mashups.

Lei loves Plum Tots Mish Mash, Revolution Mashups and the Happy Baby pouches. We haven't tried the others yet, but included them for your convenience. If we missed some, please let us know.

Yum!

This product review conforms to the Fuss Formula.

Have you tried squeezable smashed fruits and such? Let us know what you think. Please leave a comment and share your fuss with us.

What the Fuss? Little Movers

Before we left for vacation in Florida this past week, my mom flipped me a pack of Huggies Little Movers. She had a coupon (pronounced "kew'-pon").

For disposables, we've always been a Pampers house. Those Swaddlers are fabulously soft. And, ohhh the spongy absorbent gel. I've never been one to mess up a good thing, and so without frugalista grandma, I never would have tried the Little Movers.

I love these disposables. Leighton is up and down and sideways and squatting and standing and walking and falling and riding her rocking horse and falling and doing it all without two extra inches of cotton paper and spongy flavor crystals in the crotch area. She scampers gleefully and I have more time to snap pictures and blog for you.

Yay Huggies!

Check out these diaper deals if you're interested:

Don't forget to check upromise.com for cash-back college savings - for example get 5% of your purchase back at drugstore.com

Get a free sample of Huggies Little Movers Diapersfrom Walmart.com

Print a $1.50/1 couponto use on any package of Huggies Diapers

First time shoppers receive 10% on almost everything BUT diapers at diapers.com, but it's great if you need other stuff too.

This product review conforms to the Fuss Formula.

Have you tried Little Movers? Please leave a comment and share your fuss with us.

Ear-itation

I'm fed up with ear infections.  Lei isn't quite eleven months old and we've already had five. SINCE OCTOBER.

We started the one-day-a-week at daycare thing October 1st. We took December off completely because we couldn't take being sick anymore and miraculously escaped antibiotics for much of that month. Last week was our last day. For now anyway.

SIDEBAR: I do not consider antibiotics an over-the-counter equivalent. In fact, I'd rather not rely on them. However, when my kid is too tiny to tell me what's really wrong and to what degree. And, her ped prescribes them. And, I'm positive this is the last ear infection. And, we're getting on an airplane in five days. WE TAKE THEM. Defeatedly. But we take them.

The owners of our day care were initially defensive about our choice to temporarily pull Leighton from day care. I GET IT. Day care doesn't cause ear infections. Still, there is a reason most parents refer to day care as a petri dish. My logic, leading to what I consider a good parenting decision, is as follows:

At day care, a small herd of children are playing on top of each other all day long. Thus, I must assume that germs and toys are shared alike. Plus, as I mentioned previously, Leighton looooooves her friends. She loves them hard. If germs are present, Lei will certainly pick them up. If she's crawling with germs, she will get sick. If she gets sick, she will absolutely get an ear infection.

CONCLUSION: I must keep this child healthy until her eustachian tubes develop or she can properly blow her nose.  Leighton had never been sick until day care and was perfectly healthy for the month she was away. And so it goes ... No more day care. No more colds. No more ear infections. I pray to every god out there that this works. I will do whatever it takes to NOT PUT those tubes in her little ears.

I need your feedback, dear readers:

1) What is your experience with nanny versus daycare and your kids getting sick?

2) What are your thoughts on taking antibiotics versus watchful waiting?

3) Did your child have ear tubes and did they actually work to some degree of success?

Thanks so much for reading. Please leave a comment to answer one or all of the questions and share your fuss with us!

Movie Real

I am acutely aware of that point in every movie where things are perfectly peachy, it's sunny, dad is playing with the kids, the birthday party is in full swing ... It's the high point in the movie just before it all goes to hell.

It's disconcerting.

I point out this movie moment every single time we watch one (which isn't very often). It's escalated to the point that Ryan tries to beat be to the moment of recognition - usually about 34-37 minutes in.

It's a little game and we laugh about it. But, I must say, in all honesty, I HATE the shattering of homeostasis and the anxiety of the resulting struggle (or rest of the movie) wherein characters practically kill themselves to get back to the place they were 63-67 minutes earlier. I'd be fine with ending the flick back at minute 34.

I love my life. I could use more sleep, a few more bucks and a round of lipo of course, but I am happy. Really, truly, unabashedly happy. And, in light of said happiness, I no longer have space in my head or the emotional constitution for sadness or drama on screen. In other words, I don't need a movie to get myself all worked up. I can handle that just fine on my own. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

I mentioned that in the small moments, fear creeps in and plants the "what if" seeds. What if this very moment is as good as it gets? What if something horrendous happens and my happy is ripped from my grasp like one of Lue's chew toys from Lei's little hands? What if ...?

I just can't imagine losing my family, as it exists, at this second. I can hardly bear to think about Leighton getting bigger. I even get blurry-eyed when I consider having another baby. Our crew wouldn't be the same - the Freeman clan would no longer exists as it does on this day. What if that baby is sick? Every second that passes - every tick of the clock - is a moment for me to either panic like it's minute 38 or settle in and savor everything for which I am grateful.

Obviously, the latter is the more attractive option. I'm just saying ... sometimes it takes effort to forget about the laundry or work or the fact that Lue hasn't had a fresh hairdo in two months. The effort always pays off. Life is a work in progress and every day I choose to live mine one movie minute at a time.

Am I on a limb out here or are you feeling me? How do you handle it? Leave a comment and share your fuss with us.

WIN IT! Snack Attack: Zoli Snack Dispenser and Combi Utensil Set

This time around, The Daily Fuss is giving away a Zoli On-The-Go snack dispenser and Combi Fork and Spoon set with protective case. ($22 value)

Why do I want this stuff? The snack dispenser is cute, cool and super duper handy - we take ours everywhere. And, we're dying to try the fork and spoon. We're hooked on the ergonomic design and plastic case to keep them clean when on the go.

Also, be sure to read The Daily Fuss posts on all things fabulous for feeding time.

Here are the official rules for the giveaway:

1. Leave a comment on this blog post telling us your favorite or least favorite thing about meal time. Do you eat out often or are you afraid to take the kids to a restaurant? Do you have a picky eater or does your wee tot gobble up everything in sight? Be creative and share your fuss with us.

2. Your official comment to this blog post during the specified time frame counts as an entry. If you are a Facebook Fan of The Daily Fuss, your entry counts TWICE. Become a fan.

3. Two comments will be selected as winners. Please include your meal time tips and tricks.

4. Comments will be open until January 5, 2010 at 5PM Central.

5. Comments will each be assigned a number and winners will be chosen randomly using Random.org.

6. Winners will be announced on January 6, 2010.

7. The prize is a Zoli On-The-Go snack dispenser and Combi Fork and Spoon set with protective case. ($22 value)

GOOD LUCK!

What the Fuss? Feeding Frenzy Part I: Breastfeeding

As I mentioned here, Lei's brush with disaster was the impetus for this post on all things fabulous for feeding. I have compiled a list of extraordinary items for you and per the Fuss Formula my reasons for including each in this feeding frenzy of must-haves for nourishing your wee ones.

Once I got rolling, I realized that there are quite a few fussworthy finds, so I separated them out into breastfeeding and toddlerfeeding categories and numbered them to keep the confusion to a minimum. I'll tackle breastfeeding goodies today and toddlerfeeding in tomorrow's post. Enjoy!

 
  
I breastfed Leighton for nearly nine months. At that point, she had long since lost interest in the boobies except to smack them and laugh at me and I could no longer muster the will to pump in the face of such naughtiness on the part of my sassy daughter. I'm still a little sad about it, especially after reminiscing about all of the sweet gear that comes with breastfeeding, so I'm glad you're along for this trip down a most recent memory lane. Here we go ... The Daily Fuss's can't-breastfeed-without-'em items.

1) The Medela Freestyle breast pump is easily the best pump in town. As I discuss here in enthusiastic detail, it has expressive power, battery life, can pump both sides at once, is hands-free and clips to your waistband so you can walk around whilst you pump. This amazing little friend is worth every last penny. It retails for $379 (catch your breath) but I got mine brand new and sealed on eBay for $245. I would pay full price for it if I had to buy it again. Don't tether yourself to a pump pack the size of a boom box, get the Freestyle. You'll be glad you did.

2) Wee Go glass bottles are super duper cute and have a nice, safe, colorful, grippy cover. However, they are $18 each. I picked mine up at Babygap.com and unfortunately, I can't drum up a justification to overcome the excessive price tag. So, I'm sticking with my $2.50 Evenflo Classic Glass bottles. I actually used a box of each the 4oz and 8oz bottles for Jelly Belly filled shower decorations and ended up loving them. Here, I professed my love for the Adiri Natural Nursers, but once Leighton reached five months, she lost interest in them and I found the Evenflo Classic Glass easier to use - you can run them under hot water to heat them up quickly.  We also enjoy the Avent Natural Feeding bottles now that Lei sucks down a huge baba before bed. They are made in England, have the wide mouth and are easy to hold. You can pick them up for roughly $10 apiece.

3) We rarely use our Boppy now, but it was in high demand up until three weeks ago - I couldn't live without it. Now, we use it as a fancy TV pillow. I received the Boppy Barenaked pillow ($30) and organic cotton Boppy cover ($25) as shower gifts from my Giggle registry. There is no way you will get that load of wash done in the three hours you have between feedings. So do yourself a favor and register for two.

4) I was freshly sprogged up and searching online for a legitimate way to escape stretch marks when I stumbled upon Tummy Honey Butter. I used two jars through my entire pregnancy and I DON'T HAVE ANY STRETCH MARKS. Friends who have used it don't either. I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'. You should get it. And, remember to rub it on your BOOBS! I pay $20 a jar at early-pregnancy-tests.com. They sell pregnancy and ovulation tests super cheap too - not to mention a thousand other things. Love that site!

5) Lily Padz are an amazing replacement for those cotton breast pads that get all wet and harbor ferocious bacteria leading to mastitis. At least ... that's what happened to me. I had successfully used Lily Padz for weeks and then I got nervous thinking that sticking silicone pasties on myself could be unhealthy and clog a duct. So I bought organic cotton pads and within a week had an infection fever, clogged ducts, pain the whole nine yards. I researched Lily Padz and found that hospital studies have proven them to be more clean and effective at stopping leaks than their cotton counterparts. I bought my Lily Padz at the fancy pharmacy by my house and paid $24.95 each for two pair. They lose their stick after a while but still work, so I had an everyday pair and another for special occasions like work meetings and weddings.

6) The Baby Bond Nursing Wrap is a soft, twisty piece of cotton knit fabric that basically turns any shirt into a nursing top so you can see your baby without putting your bare skin out there for the world to see. It's a keen invention and the product tagline is ever so clever - For Nursing and Conversing. Feed Your Baby. Nourish Your Relationship. Accompanying this brilliant design is a quality burp cloth that can hang from the wrap, as well as a handy little bag for storage. It looks great, rolls up quite small and goes right in the wash. I did not pay the $35 retail price as the wrap was sent to me courtesy of Baby Bond, but I absolutely would. In fact, the Baby Bond Nursing Wrap is the newest addition to my new mom gift bag.

7) If you are even thinking about breastfeeding you need The Ultimate Breastfeeding Book of Answers. I've read every chapter and found it to be the most useful and reliable book I have aside from What to Expect - both of which were shower gifts. It retails for $20 but you can get it for half that price on Amazon.

8) We cloth diapered Leighton and Caroline (love her) at Giggle talked me into trying Bambino Mio. We ditched them quite quickly (they leak) for Fuzzi Bunz (best pocket diapers EVER) which left us with sixteen Bambino Mio Nappies or prefold cloth inserts. So, we used them as burp cloths. I like them better than any other burp cloth we tried. Swaddle Designs burpies were an easy favorite, but they are pricey and I only like the one with the flannel strip, not the ribbon, yet you are forced to buy one of each in a two pack. Boo. Plus, they fade in the wash. Double boo. The cheapy cloth diapers from Babies R Us basically turn to cardboard over time. So, lucky me, stuck with high-quality, super-soft, multi-purpose nappies. At $35 for eight, I would buy them all over again - just skip the covers.

9) It may seem that including the Bebe Au Lait Hooter Hider AND the Baby Bond Nursing wrap is redundant or conflicting. However, if you are serious about breastfeeding get both. The Hooter Hider is an apron-like cover that allows you to see what you're doing underneath. The bonus of the Hooter Hider is that it shields baby from the distractions of the world whenever necessary. I received two as gifts and have spent the $32 to give them as gifts, as well. I praise the Hooter Hider in greater detail here and continue to give it two boobs up. Although, I will note that new moms may have an easier time with Baby Bond as it is less cumbersome.

We welcome any comments you have good or bad about any of the products featured here. Feel free to mention any that we may have overlooked too! You never know what will turn up as the next Fussworthy giveaway. And remember to check back tomorrow for fabulous toddlerfeeding gadgets, utensils, feeding seating and more.

This product review conforms to the Fuss Formula.

As you may have gathered, a number of my items can be found at Giggle. It's my favorite baby store and I registered there when I was pregnant. I love it so much I contacted them to be an affiliate advertiser. In the interest of full disclosure, The Daily Fuss does receive a small percentage of purchases made at Giggle when clicking through from our Giggle banner. Your support is certainly appreciated. Happy shopping!

Pears and Glass

I took prenatal vitamins and ate healthy food while pregnant with Leighton. I breast fed her for eight months, made my own baby food and continue to make her meals from scratch. And oh yeah ... I fed her glass the other day.

You heard me. FED HER GLASS. I am not proud of this mishap, but as cautionary tales go, this one turns out just fine.

The cliffs notes version of the terrifically harrowing saga goes something like this: We were driving back from St. Louis for Christmas Eve in Milwaukee. Lei, Lue and I were camped out in the back seat, having a wonderful time. After the seventh round of "point to Mommy's nose" Leighton got hungry. I reached for some Gerber pears because I figured they were pureed to a velvety consistency and Lei would be able to eat them in a moving vehicle without choking.

Yes. I realize that at the outset of this post, I congratulated myself for my Martha Stewart-like dedication to handcrafted baby food. However, I make it in large batches and freeze it, so it wouldn't have traveled without spoiling. I figured a few rule-breaking jars of America's favorite pears wouldn't be a dangerous deviation from our norm.

I was wrong. On the fourth bite, Lei started gagging and gasping. I could see that she was able to breathe, so I figured we had a "wrong pipe" situation. However, it lasted for sooo long that I had Ryan pull over. I quickly snapped her out of her seat, and after a few pats on the back, she was okay. By okay I mean wailing, bright red, and super duper pissed - like the time she rolled off the couch and fully blamed me for it.

I couldn't figure out what went so incredibly wrong for her, so I inspected the pears. They appeared fine, but when I stuck my finger inside the jar and felt under the label/sticker, I felt pieces of broken glass. BROKEN GLASS! WTF?

You couldn't even see the damage from the outside because the label covered up the crumbly glass and held it all together. Two jars must have banged into each other and this one got smacked just right. Gerber will be getting a letter from me. How unfortunate for them to injure the child of a woman with an audience. BUMMER FOR GERBER.

I didn't see any blood in Lei's mouth or throat and we managed to calm her down. Once I realized that she was out of immediate danger, I sat back and thought about the fact that I had, perhaps, just scooped a tiny shard of glass onto a spoon and fed it to the most precious little creature on my planet. The thought of it was so utterly ridiculous to me - like putting Tobasco on her eggs or letting her loose on a can of mixed nuts or letting her play on a window ledge or Munchausen syndrome or something equally odd. I couldn't comprehend it. And, if anything seriously traumatic would have happened, I'm not sure what I would be writing to you at this very moment. Shudder.

I dismissed the horrific thoughts and proceeded to load Lei up with roughly 12 ounces of formula. I proceeded to check her respirations and heart rate every five seconds for the rest of the ride home. I couldn't completely calm down. It sucked.

The long short is that Dr. Weissbluth's office told us to make our way home and check in with the ER Attending at Children's, which is less than two blocks from our house. We bundled up and walked there in the snow like we were headed to Argo for a holiday tea break.

There was no wait in the emergency room (it was pleasantly eerie) and Lei had a great time rifling through tongue depressors and making eyes at the nurses. She didn't even need an Xray and she pooped three times since, so we are out of the woods with regard to crapping shards of Gerber safety glass. WHEW!

Anyway, the point of this - other than the fact that I will never feed my child Gerber food again - is that I will never feed my child Gerber food again. Oh wait. I said that already. If you are wondering why I don't just buy the plastic tubs of food instead, the answer is that I think contents smell and taste like plastic. Who knows how long that boiled food sits in there before your kid eats it? And, if I feed Lei commercially prepared baby food, I use Earth's Best because it looks, smells and tastes much better. The grocery store just happened to be out of pears the day we packed for our trip.

Bottom line: Nothing beats mama's (or daddy's) cooking - just ask Leighton.

So, I got to thinking about all of the cool gear we've used to feed Leighton since birth, and tomorrow's post is a ginormous What the Fuss? on all things feeding. Like anything you do in the kitchen, you simply must have good equipment, and I am more than happy to share my fuss with you.