29 May 2012

Oh so tiny...

For those of you who know me you might know I have a small obsession with miniature items.  One of my favourite place as a kid was the miniature village quite close to my house - what an awesome idea, a whole village made really small - brilliant.  Each year for Christmas my husband and I exchange ornaments and one year I found him a miniature Egg McMuffin and hash brown (a guilty pleasure of his is McDonald's breakfast). I was so pumped about this miniature dish and love pulling it out each year and putting it on the tree, probably even more then my hubby does.


Anyway, the main reason for me writing about miniatures is because I came across this amazing blog post about miniature food sculptures by artist Shay Aaron who also blends two things I love - miniature items and jewelry - Fabulous! 



I just had to share it - check it out!

Incredible Miniature Food Sculptures

PS:  Hubby, if you are reading this - super great gift idea for moi!

23 May 2012

Living room decor - baby vs. mommy

I promised myself I wouldn't be 'that kind of mom'. I told my husband to restrain me if he noticed even a glimmer of me being pulled over to the dark side (or what I thought was the dark side). You know the mom - the one whose whole house has been taken over by primary colors and large plastic thingamabobs. Swings, bouncers, exersaucers... the list goes on. For practical reasons I did an exhaustive amount of research on space-saving baby items for our city apartment. We got a nice, neutral swing which folded up and called it a day.

Then Kyla arrived and turned our world upside down. She would sleep in the swing once she was already super sleepy if we were lucky but hated it otherwise. We attempted putting her in her crib for some play time but that would only last for a few minutes before she would fuss. I created a makeshift mobile, finally gave in and purchased a mobile (and returned it the next day) and then really went nuts and bought a bouncer. Now my living room had two baby items which should have been my husband's signal that I was on the edge of full-blown baby blowout in my living room. Just when I thought I was at the end of my rope with no place baby enjoyed other then my or my husbands arms (both wrap and carrier didn't cut it either) all hell broke lose and Kai decided she didn't like napping during the day anymore either. So now my baby was always awake, eventually super cranky and the only place I could calm her down and keep her content that wasn't our arms was her change table. So we would stand, taking shifts watching her on the change pad as she cooed and smiled happy as could be. We tried moving the change pad to the couch so we could sit - tears! Moving it into the crib proved hopeful but we still had to stand over her or she would fuss. My husband suggested stealing the Justin Bieber life size cut out from our local Shoppers Drug Mart. Sadly, in desperation I actually considered this.

No one really warned me about the intense need a mother has to find something which can entertain your baby for, at the very least, the length of time it takes to step in and out of the shower. Naively I always thought these baby products were for babies' development and fun (which they are as well) but I was very quickly learning how helpful these products could be if my child seemed to like one of them, even if only for a little bit.

Then the day came; the day when your role as a parent really gets tested.
The first time your child is sick.
It seriously was the worst day of my life. Screaming, crying, tears and whimpers coming from not only my baby but my husband and me as well. We took temperatures - none, Googled symptoms, called nurses we knew and contemplated the emerg. "Is this normal," we asked, "a growth spurt maybe?" My mom came to stay with us as we endured 2 days of complete discontentment and finally we headed to the walk in, stood in line with many other parents and crying babies and were told after all the three of us had endured that it was simply gas and there was very little we could do.

And with that I became the mom who would put anything in their house to sooth my sad little one. I went online and searched for soothing products which could help a tired mom and dad out. Reading review after review I found it; as my husband calls it - the Rolls Royce of all baby products - the Mamaroo. So with a screaming baby in our hand and my phone in another I began calling around starting with used Mamaroos found on Craigslist (this seemed to help rationalize an impulsive purchase of this space pod look-a-like), but of course I couldn't find one so I began calling stores for the best price. We all jumped in the car and drove a good distance rushing to get to a store that closed at 6:00, or so I thought. When we arrived at 5:30 they had just locked the doors and I almost had a complete breakdown. So there my husband and I stood with crying baby outside the locked doors cursing that we didn't look up the time it closed before making the trek out there. We looked at each other and without saying a word we knew what we had to do. So we both took a door and in complete release of all frustration on all our parts started banging and screaming - "please let us in, open the doors." Tears streaming down my face and babies in a sleep deprived, mental breakdown I hit that door with all my might. People stopped on the street to stare, one women asked if we were okay but I was not going to give up! AND THEY CAME - a shocked sales attendant cautiously opened the door to hear our fumbled plea to please let us in so we could buy the Mamaroo which will hopefully sooth our baby and allow us to all get some much needed sleep. I'd like to think the women saw our desperation and in sympathy let us in but most likely she saw two crazy parents willing to pay a stupid amount of money on a space like looking pod of sorts.

To end this long story of our three days of hell, cross-over to the dark side of baby product purchases and test on parenting sanity. I will close with two photographs. One taken the moment we returned home and set our new Mamaroo up and the next taken just a few minutes ago as I typed this post.

All I have to say is thank you to the makers of this incredible product it was worth every penny - we love you Mamaroo and thankfully I was able to find a nice neutral grey so although my house is slowly filling up with baby products I still have a little colour control in my back pocket!