It’s Jogging Stroller Season!

I always thought about getting a jogging stroller but I never saw the benefit in it. I always went with the cheap stroller that had no benefits but the fact that it was cheap. Last year we walked in a race called Bloomsday. Here in Spokane so many people show up to run and walk Bloomsday. It is a 7.46 mile run/walk and it is loads of fun! My husband and I walked it last year with our daughter and we used one of those umbrella strollers to push our daughter in it and after mile 5, she was not a happy camper. It was not comfortable. This year, we were starting to worry about how she was going to make it through the 7 miles!

I knew that our umbrella stroller wouldn’t make it. It didn’t even have a cup holder! I mean we had no places to even store a thing! I lost her sweater along the way because I had to tie it to the handle and it fell off. So that stroller wasn’t going to work for either of us.

After doing some research, I discovered the Schwinn Interval Jogger. In comparison to my stroller, this is like the Mercedes of strollers. It is so incredible!!!  I can’t believe for the past couple of years we were suffering with a regular stroller.

I had no idea how amazing jogging strollers were. I would always see them when we would bike ride on the trails and wish I had one but I never thought I would use it. This year being that we are 100% into fitness and working out as much as we can, it only made sense to get a jogging stroller so that we could go places outside of the smooth floor in the mall with the stroller.

After choosing the Schwinn, I wanted to tell you some of the benefits I noticed from the minute we put it together. Firstly, my husband put it together, and if you know anything about how my husband puts things together, you would know that he doesn’t use the directions. Well, he was able to do it quickly and efficiently without the directions, which is an A+ in my book, so that I did not have to go back and fix it for him (like I did with Doc McStuffins X-Ray Machine!)

After putting it together, just look at the pictures! I mean, the basket!  The cup holder!!! The container next to the cup holder that has a lid that I can put my phone and music in! AMAZING!

Ok – enough about me. The stroller seat adjusts to your babies height and it can even adjust to have a car seat in added in there. That right there is a selling point for me, because I don’t want to have to purchase another stroller just to add a car seat in. Great idea there.

Now look at the part for my daughter. She gets her own cup holder too! This is amazing because usually, my cup holder turns into hers! Also there is a place where if she had some snacks or toys she wanted to put on the little shelf next to the cup holder, she has room to do that as well. In my other stroller, there was no front part like that, she was just strapped in. The canopy that goes over her head which is so nice especially when we are running in the sun or a 7 mile race!

One of the best features is that it runs so smoothly. Hailey hated going over bumps because she would get all thrown around in the carriage and not be able to get comfortable. This stroller is so smooth that you don’t even really feel any bumps at all. We do a lot of trail jogging and walking so especially the parts of the trail where the street is jagged, it won’t even be felt anymore to Hailey. Perfect.

I honestly cannot believe it took me this many years to get a jogging stroller. But I will never go back! Part of being a fit mom and enjoying the outdoors comfortably is to have one of these strollers

After having to register for my baby registry as a first time mom and having no clue what to put on it, I wish someone had suggested this Schwinn Interval Jogger. I hope that after reading this and looking at the amazing pictures that you’ll consider putting it on your registry like I wish I would have!

Chemical-Free Baby Water Wipes

After having my first baby, I realize now as I research many different topics I didn’t know during that time and wonder, why didn’t I know about this before? Another product I came across along with a substitute for prenatals,  Insoles, Baby Toddler Spoons, and shirts that have multiple purposes, I have now found these amazingly soft, and chemical free baby wipes. WHY did I not know there were alternatives to the regular baby wipes I would by at all the retail stores?

Every time I used to wipe my daughter after going to the bathroom with regular wipes, she would always complain that they were too hard or they would hurt her. At the same time, I took to using baby wipes to take off my make up as well. But they are rough – there is no softness about them, but we just dealt with it because that’s what we had.

After trying out the Water Pura wipes on myself and my daughter, I don’t think I could ever go back. They are so soft. After you use then, your face feels soft and not automatically dry. After I use them on my daughter’s bottom, she did not complain at all about the wipe being to hard or too cold. It was quite amazing. The added bonus was that there are no chemicals in it.

The wipes are they made in america, chemical-free, and mommy-made – bigger and stronger so they don’t tear very easily. All amazing things that are needed in a wipe. Like I said before, why did I not know about these before?! 

Lastly, I will leave you with this: if you are thinking that the cost will be higher because it is a clearly better made product than the wipes in the grocery/retail stores, well think again. 9 packs for $31. I mean, you can’ really beat that for a high end product!

Chemical-free and so, so worth it. Check out Waterpura baby water wipes! Don’t believe it? Watch this video…..I wish I had seen this when Hailey had diaper rash all of the freakin time!

Kizingo: Toddler Spoons

I recently have been finding all of these seriously amazing products that I never knew about or even thought about when I first had Hailey and now I am wishing that someone had told me about these things!
Kizingo has made toddler spoons for right handed kids. Who even knew they made right-handed AND left-handed kids spoons?!?!

Is that not insane or what? But wow, that is something I really could have used TWO YEARS AGO!!

Read this amazing description:

 

“KIZINGO products are designed to promote successful self-feeding, giving confidence to parents and children. Little ones learning to feed themselves can get frustrated and most utensils are not well designed for how toddlers want to hold and use them. As a result, parents often take over feeding which can have unintended consequences. KIZINGO spoons are curved to work with the way children hold utensils, making it easier for kids to successfully do it themselves.”

I don’t know about you, but watching my daughter hold the spoon was painful! Especially even more painful when what she managed to put on the spoon now fell on the floor or the table as she tried to get it into her mouth but it slid off. That’s probably why she eats with her hands!

I know that for my next child, I will buy this spoon and make life easier for my poor child! And myself! Less mess — always the best choice and easy to do. Seriously, where is the downfall? Anyone can buy a cheap spoon from the grocery store, but has your kid learned to spoon their food or are you still doing it for them, or is it just falling back into their plates?

Also – a bonus – the first time you sign up your email, you get 10% off your purchase!

#parentingproblems – the struggle is real ladies! Kizingo is here for us!

 

 

SOL: What is the Right Way to Parent?

When I was pregnant, so many people HAD to give me advice on what to do and what not to do when the baby was born.

You have to breastfeed.

You can only use Avent bottles.

Do NOT use formula!

Always have a routine.

They have to be in your room for 6 months.

Do not put them in your bed!

Make sure they have five layers of clothes on before going outside.

Better yet, don’t go outside.

Make every single person use hand sanitizer.

ROUTINE ROUTINE ROUTINE! Don’t EVER BREAK THE ROUTINE!

 

I mean the list could go on. And honestly, some of the things I heard, yeah, they were very useful.

But the other stuff, it was almost like, please keep your opinions to yourself, because I do not have a kid yet and I am not taking notes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now – there are so many more important questions I would have liked to be answered instead of that other stuff that is way easier to find out.

Like – what’s the best way to get rid of binkies? How do you get them to not pee in their diapers at night when they don’t wear one all day? How much does a c-section really hurt? Am I going to be able to move after it? What in the fuck is hand foot mouth disease?

Those are questions that when given advice, I would have preferred answers to those. But those are things that no one wants to tell you.

I do know a few things from just being a parent, watching my friend be a parent and then seeing the product of good and bad parenting in my classrooms.

There are right and wrong ways to parent.

Unfortunately, the ones who choose to be a bad parent, aren’t people who would read articles like this or even have anyone to give them advice like I got during my pregnancy.

I am positive that I am parenting the right away – it may not be your way, but it is not the wrong way.

 

 

The Baby Booster Prenatal Supplements

WHY DID I NOT HEAR ABOUT THIS WHEN I WAS PREGNANT!?!?!?

These are things that nobody tells you and that no one else suggests. The prenatal vitamins that my doctor gave me made me sick so I had to stop taking them and I was given no other options to replace them with. My doctor was very much traditional and never gave you options outside of the “norm”. Basically = useless.

Superfruit Punch Prenatal Supplement

We are planning to try again next October for another child and this is the exact product I will be buying to replace the prenatal.

Read the description:

How about a refreshing pick-me-up that is as healthy as it is delicious? Like Piña Colada, our Superfruit Punch has a great, non-filling lightness to it, and it is so tasty, you won’t believe it has 20g of protein and a spectrum of essential prenatal nutrients in every serving. (See our blog for creative, delicious ideas!). Enjoy!

 

 

 

Kona Mocha Prenatal Supplement

Another product these have is coffee replacement shakes that don’t have caffeine. Now for people like me who are obsessed and can’t live without coffee, instead of struggling through every day trying not to fall asleep like I did my entire pregnancy, here is a supplement for that.

Read the description:

“Miss your morning coffee? Many moms-to-be find it hard to give up their favorite coffee shop beverage. Now you can get the delicious flavor of a Kona Mocha coffee without any of the caffeine…instead you’ll get a spectrum of essential prenatal nutrients and 20 g of protein. Delicious and healthy hot, warm, or cold, Baby Booster’s Kona Mocha may become a part of your morning routine even after pregnancy. See our Baby Booster Barista Blog for fun and tasty recipes so you can keep your coffee!”

 

These look amazing and the reviews were even better!

Check out the rest of their site, Baby Booster – they have compression socks (which I TOTALLY needed), the bottle to make the shakes in, customized tank tops and much, much more. I am obsessed and I am not even pregnant yet!

 

Please share this site with your pregnant friends – just in case there are others like me and no one gave them another option!

Why College Should Start in Your 20’s

Did you know what you wanted to do when you went to college at 18? Are you still in that profession using your degree now ?

If I knew what I knew now, there is no way I would have wasted my time getting a BA in Communications! After I wasted my time doing that, I spent 8 more years in grad school getting my masters in education! What a waste. I’m sure not everyone has that same situation happen to them but if I had experienced life and working before I went to college, I would have been able to make better decisions. 

From what I learned about college, here are the top 5 reasons of why kids should go to college in their 20s after working a bit. 

1. They have no idea what they want to do and college costs a LOT of money. 
2. Make sure you know which school is best to go to for your major and not just because it was the only one that accepted you. 
3. Partying too hard from being let loose from parents site is a big problem and usually causes more waste in a lot of money. 
4. It is not for everyone. 
5. Know about a career before you invest hundreds of thousands of dollars of yours or the banks or your parents money. 

Granted I didn’t do any of this and I did basically the complete opposite and I don’t say that I regret any of it but when my daughter gets ready for college I will give her a ton of advice that I did not know and hope she’ll wait before going to college undecided. 

Things I Learned Having a 2 yr. old

There are SO many things that I have learned since having Hailey, but even more random things that I have learned that no one can really prepare you for or things that just seem to happen and you wonder, why did no one ever tell me these things before? So I have compiled a list of some of the things I have learned having a two year old.

1. Just turning 2 is too young to sign your kid up for a sport – wait until almost 3! – I signed Hailey up for ballet. I was totally tricked into it because she tried on the outfit and oh my god, how freakin cute! I paid the $200 for the whole summer and it came with the whole costume and shoes, and awesome. I am thinking what a great mom I am. Fast forward to the classes starting, she will not do the class. At all. We tried twice. They won’t give me a refund. Now I want to strangle this woman, but its not her fault, they are a small dance studio and they can’t always just refund people because their kids don’t like it. They said for me to hold off until she gets a little older and they will honor my payments I made already. Well thanks… you are SO GENEROUS. Fail.

2. Hand, Foot, Mouth Disease is the DEVIL.Literally. Hailey couldnt go to daycare for the entire week with these spots on her hands and at the same time, I couldn’t really bring her anywhere else because it was a highly contagious disease, so I almost had to keep her basically inside and just with me the whole week back and forth between my husband and myself covering days off of work and keeping her isolated! And sometimes one week is not enough!! It could be TWO! And there is no shot that will cause this not to happen. Gross.

3. Embrace Daycare. I cannot even stand having the conversation with people (teachers) who keep their kid home all summer long, but have relatives and friends with kids and siblings with kids who come over and hang out etc. I don’t have that, and I have no relatives around me to even watch her for like 2 hours even. So I say embrace daycare, they need to play! Yes, it is great to spend time with her and have mommy daughter time, but there is only so much in a day that we can do, every day, together, always, with no other people around. So for friendless mom’s like me, daycare is great because it offers kids there already for her to play with and I don’t have to host some weirdos from my complex in my house or watch other peoples kids for free.

4. Otter pops – For summer days, these are easy to use and cheap to buy. Hailey can hold them by herself, eat it by herself and all is good. As long as she understands about the whole spilling the juice out when it gets warm, then for the most part this is a successful, clean snack.

5. Scheduled Routines – HAVE THEM!!!!! There are so many moms out there that I have heard that can’t get their kid to sleep at night or they wake up super early or they wake up all night long etc. Since Hailey has was born, she had a schedule at night for bath, then sleep. Now that she is 2, an acceptable time for her to go to sleep is 8-9 the LATEST. It is ridiculous when people keep their kids up to all hours of the night and let them go to sleep whenever. Kids that young cannot handle having that type of responsibility because they ARE TWO YEARS OLD. So having a set bed time and bath time every day really helps with sleeping routines and if you value your sleep as much as I do, i am telling you it works. It does not mean that you have to be a time drill sergeant, but sticking in the general time frame really helps. SAME goes with naps.

6. If she is going to fall, she’s going to fall. I am definitely notorious for following my kid around the playground making sure she doesn’t get hurt but I am , slowly, realizing that I need to back off and if shes going to fall, she will and then she will learn from that. But if I continue to make the environment totally safe and hurt proof, I am not setting her up for what happens when I am not there and how to deal with that. I don’t want to be a helicopter mom, I think it causes kids to want to run the other direction towards what you are trying to protect them from because they are kids and don’t get it.

7. The “No” Stage Sucks. I will just put that out there. It sucks, its annoying, I hate it, and it drives me nuts. I keep going back and forth especially when trying to get her to share and she says “no, mine” then I am telling her it is ours, not your and not mine but ours and we share. I am repeating myself constantly but it has to happen. Again, this stage sucks!

8. Workout!! You will never get your pre-baby body back unless you actually workout and make an effort. Unless you were in the most amazing shape prior to having a baby, then it will be much harder to rebound. It took me a whole year to realize that I actually had to work hard at getting back in shape again, it wouldn’t just happen over night or ever if I just sat around doing nothing.

I hope some of these tips can help you. I know for kid 2 i will be well prepared and I will already have the experience, but right now sometimes I just feel like an idiot because I didn’t know these things or was not prepared.

 

Relaxing vs. BBQ Hosting

I didn’t think that I would have enjoyed a cabin In the woods ever in my life but it’s been nice. Even nicer that we could take the bikes into the town and then ride them down to the beach. It was a nice time at the lake. 

But now we have company from my husbands office and I have been running around like a crazy person and then taking care of the baby. The point of relaxation is now gone. 

The morning was like this…..

And now it’s not. I just wonder at what point is it fun anymore to have people over and just clean up after everyone and follow around your kids so they don’t go up and down the stairs and get hurt, is it fun to have people over? 

Ever since I got married I would say it is not fun anymore to have people over anymore because all I do is clean and clean and clean and literally no one helps me. 

After my daughters birthday party we had people at our apartment club house and only ONE person stayed to help me. It’s just not fun! It’s not like college parties where you can just leave it to the next day or when you had no kids. 

Am I alone in this feeling? 

Prenatal Yoga

Now looking back on my pregnancy, I was really not into fitness prior to getting pregnant and even during, I barely worked out because it just wasn’t apart of my life at all. I did however partake in prenatal yoga in the first 6 months of my pregnancy. My husband even went with me and we went Sunday mornings from November to March and looking back at how awesome that studio was, I wish I had done more. I had all the time in the world, I don’t know why I did not take advantage of it.

I guess you don’t realize the amount of time that you have until you have your first child do you realize NOW how much time you do not have. Your time, all depends on everyone else; the nanny, the grandparents, your husband, the daycare, the timing of everything that is not open during the times that your child is being watched by someone else.

Now taking yoga consistently, I realize the absolute benefits and the strengths that I gained from taking the classes. I definitely should have used it to de-stress after being a teacher in the south Bronx for my first year (hello classroom management fail), and being pregnant for the first time and my weight being out of my control.

If I were to get pregnant again, I now know that I would work out during the entire pregnancy. I have been in bootcamp recently where a lady who was 39 weeks was still doing burpees and push-ups and running like myself, who was the farthest from pregnant, and she was doing just fine.

There is a myth about pregnant women and that they “shouldn’t lift anything heavy” or they “shouldn’t push themselves” or they “shouldn’t be running” or basically what most theories say “sit on the couch and eat cake and get fat”.

That is the stereotype that fit pregnant women are changing these days and their body bounce back time is INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!

I can say I gained 60lbs (a lot of water weight) and as soon as I gave birth within days I lost 20 of that. I was able to get down to just 10 pounds left and literally could not get rid of it. I realized I needed to actually do something to get rid of it. I took up Yoga again and boot camp classes as well as fitness classes; basically anything that was forcing me to work out.

Knowing what I know now about Yoga and fitness, it could have changed my entire pregnancy, but that was not the mindset that I was in.

This is an excellent article from parents.com on Amazing Benefits of Prenatal Yoga, you should read it in full but I will summarize it for you. Some of the benefits of prenatal yoga:

1. You are toning your muscle groups – this is very important because if you are that tired pregnant, this is the absolute last thing that you ever want to do.
2. It prepares you for delivery – this is great because of the deep breathing that is practiced and the different hip exercises that are done, all help ease that area and most importantly keep you calm.
3.  You feel more connected with your baby- there are poses that you can do in order to lay on your back and feel the baby moving with your breath.
4. Might help out with certain symptoms of pregnancy – You can use yoga to help with deep breathing exercises and stretching and toning muscles, all which can help with symptoms like nausea, lower back pain, headaches, shortness of breath, insomnia, and more. Work it just for this reason!!
5. Healthier pregnancy – Now, just doing yoga alone, and eating like crap, will not make you have a healty pregnancy. You need to continuasly be exercising, going to yoga more than once a week, I would say at least 3-4 times would be keeping you in shape as long as you are not pounding a whole chocolate cake weekly either.

But you are doing yoga to better yourself in so many ways that it’s important to stick with it. Most yoga insructers know how to modify for women who are pregnant and which positions are better than others and which not to do. When it was modified for me, I did not feel as if I was missing out on the class at all, because yoga is not just one way, but it is used as a practice to work for your body and that is what is so great about yoga.

 

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