He or She?

It's a ....

Yay! We are so excited! And once again, so very surprised!

Strangely, when I was pregnant with Canden, I kept having dreams that it was a girl. Everything kept telling me it was going to be girl from old wives tales to the good ol' mother's "intuition." We were shocked that Canden was a boy...I mean, I was convinced, it was a girl.

This time around was no exception. The exact same thing happened. Girl dreams, wives tales predictions, and that apparently extremely inaccurate mother's "intuition." But this time I knew better. In fact, there was a part of me that because 'girl' kept appearing everywhere, that it must be a boy. But who knew really?

Regardless, we are so happy and excited to have another little man running around the house. I'm sure Canden is going to make a fantastic big brother!

Fine Motor Skill Activity

If you are a friend of mine on Facebook, this post is old news. I originally made this activity like, hmm, 6 months ago or so. But regardless, as Canden was exploring it today, it really made me realize just how important and amazing of a fine motor skill activity it is. I just must share!

I am unsure where I originally got the idea...Pinterest maybe? It would be no surprise to me if so. But the concept is simple - sticking pipe cleaners into small holes.

Now if you want to skip getting all artsy and crafty at this point, I'll let you in on a little secret that way you can get on with your day: a colander works just as well as the cute little canister I made. But, if you are like me and prefer to have your cookware available as much as possible, this craft really doesn't take much time or effort. Also, another plus side of making your own canister for this: it stores the pipe cleaners so you can keep the activity pieces together.

Here is what we are aiming for:

Here is what you will need:

 Steps:

1. Take your "Little Crunchies" can and remove the lid. Use the paper punch to punch holes around the lid. Set aside. 
2. Using whatever you wish to apply your mod podge (sponge, brush etc.), coat the sides of the "Little Crunchies" canister. 
3. Apply a layer of tissue paper so that none of the sides are showing. 
4. Apply more mod podge on top of the tissue paper to glue and seal it into place. 
5. Repeat steps 2-4 until there are enough layers of tissue paper to hide the label of the "Little Crunchies" container. 
6. Allow the mod podge to fully dry. 
7. I found that the pipe cleaners were pretty darn long, so I took four of them and cut them in half. 
8. Replace the lid and play, play, play!

Another Great Sensory Activity For One Year Olds

We are on a sensory activities kick.

The great thing about sensory play is that you can use just about anything. I won't say that this sensory example is the most unique in the world, but definitely one of the most simple ones to make.

I literally took some pasta and a couple random things around the house that I thought I could mix in there. It contained pasta, Q-tips, Pom-Pom balls, crayons, a couple of cookie cutters, ice cream scoop, measuring cups and a couple tuperware containers for scooping and dumping. I put down a blanket inside for our exploratory play.

When it comes to this activity I have 2 rules.
1. Nothing is allowed in the mouth.
2. Nothing leaves the blanket. (Really I'm more concerned about the pasta).

Here's why - dry pasta, q-tips, and poms are easy chewing targets, which also makes them choke hazards. I of course had Canden in my sight the whole time we played. This leads into rule number 2 - if everything stays on the blanket, I can keep track of it. Canden like to string his toys and whatever else he can get his hands on, all over the house. It is a lot harder to keep track of all the pasta bits if they leave the blanket - making a perfect opportunity for him to later find some pasta and attempt to eat it. Not happening.

So, on to the fun learning opportunities with the activity!!

Canden and I worked on "full" and "empty." He loved taking the ice cream scooper and measuring cup to scoop up some pasta and pour it into another container.

Because he was only on a blanket, we would often work on "soft" and "hard" or "rough." This didn't just involve feeling with our hands, he also loved walking on all the different textures too! Feet are very senstive and any part of the body can be used for sensory learning!

There are so many more options when you add all the other sensory items. Such as "smooth" from the crayon, "bumpy" from the pasta; "short" for the pasta, "long" for the q-tip etc. 

As mentioned, just get creative. Kids want to explore anything and everything, and they should get to within safe reason. Everything is a learning opportunity!

Sensory Activity for One Year Old's

Whenever I search online for crafty, sensory of fun activities for one year old's, I often keep finding the same limited options over and over again - finger painting, painting with sponges, water painting, painting, painting, and more painting. Then there's the occasional oats or rice sensory bins and so forth. Honestly, I was finding unique options challenging to find or come up with on my own.

I stumbled across this lovely blog on Pinterest titled "35 Activities for 18 Month Old's and Younger." Honestly I was expecting the same old same old that I've been pinning regarding young toddler activities - more painting, more rice, more bins. I was pleasently surprised as I started exploring this blog. Yes, under the art section, you'll see plenty of the same old finger paint business I was talking about. However, there is also a section called "Sensory Play," "Imaginative Play," "Motor Skills," and "Explore." I'm hooked already.

I literally found this blog this morning and have looked over all the different activities and decided to try one. Today we did the Spaghetti Sensory play. It was a hit! However I changed my process of making the spaghetti ever so slightly to hopefully make for a less messy experience.

Here is the blogs suggestion for making the spaghetti for the sensory play activity: Cook the paste al dente according to the package; prepare zip lock bags for spaghetti dying by mixing some oil and food coloring in the bag (no measurements were provided); split up the cooked paste between the bags and mix well; rinse the pasta.

To me it seemed as though the oil would make this activity pretty messy to clean up as oil isn't my favorite substance to try and get off of, well, anything. So I substituted the oil for water. I did everything the same except I added a few tablespoons (2-3) of water to each bag with the food coloring. No oil. I allowed the pasta to sit in the color water mixture for a couple minutes. The longer you allow the pasta to sit in the dye, the darker they will become.

I'm glad that I decided to put Canden in some old clothes and go outside for this. Although the picture on the blog shows a little girl in what appears to be nice clothing and indoors, this was surprisingly more messy of a project than I thought it would be. I don't know if the oil in the original recipe was present to help the noodles be more slippery, therefore, wouldn't chunk off noodle and color...??? I don't know. I figured it was kind of a trade off - either a baby covered in oil, or a baby covered in noodle bits. Also, the noodles definitely stained the sidewalk. Luckily, his clothes weren't really affected, even though we were wearing old clothes for this.

I hope you enjoy this activity as much as we did. We will be trying more activities soon!

Baby Shower Etiquette - My Views

Since I am expecting baby number two *yay!!* I have been asked on a couple of occasions whether or not I will have another baby shower. Immediately my mind started rolling. Is that appropriate with the second child? Then I started thinking about all the etiquette violations that I've seen through past showers that I've attended whether that be their first child, second, or dare I say, even their third. So, I've decided to jot down some of my own personal thoughts on what I think is appropriate etiquette for baby showers go. It's of course not an all inclusive list (believe me, if you google baby shower etiquette, you'll read for days), but random thoughts that have popped into my head. And again, this is just my opinion, by all means do whatever the heck you want when it comes to your own showers or throwing someone else a shower.

1) Let's start with what led into this thought vomit - Is it appropriate to have a shower for baby #2?
With that I give a complicated answer. You're welcome in advance :) In the case that your second baby is the opposite gender of your first, absolutely appropriate. And, really it might not be that bad to have a shower for the second baby even if they are the same gender; there are always things that you wish you would have had with the first that would make life easier. But I must say, I can justify in my mind a lot more easily have a shower for the second baby if he/she was the opposite gender than the first. Another  case in which I think it is absolutely appropriate to have a shower for the second child is if there's actually going to be more than one arriving - yes, pregnancies with multiples. I don't care how many children and showers you've had for them previously, if you are pregnant with multiples, dear god I hope you have at the very least, a diaper shower.

2) Is it appropriate to have more than one shower for the same pregnancy?
Ugh, this one frustrates me. I've heard the logic - "Well my family wants to throw me a shower and then my best friend wants to throw me one, oh and the people at work want to throw me one..." No. Just no. It is ridiculous to me to have more than one baby shower unless your family is the size of Rhode Islands population. Allow one person or persons to throw you one shower, and the invites will be sent to family, friends and co-workers. If other people want to help throw it, but all means, the more helping hands the better right? But how insanely selfish and materialistic looking is it to throw more than one party. In general, it seems as though having two showers is commonplace anymore, even though it still makes me cringe. But I know of one person at least who had three, who often like to remind me that my makeup hobby was a first world luxury and I could live without it.....You see where I'm going with this?

3) Baby Shower Games
If I go to one more shower were I have to eat melted candy bars in diapers, I'm going to scream. That's not cute. It's overdone. It's gross. Just no. Even the "guess the baby food" game is much better than that one and I'm not a fan of the baby food game either.

4) Who can throw the shower?
I would say in general most people would agree that throwing yourself (or your spouse throwing you) a shower is inappropriate. Also, asking someone to throw you a shower is inappropriate. Easy, done. Anyone else can step up to the plate.

5) Is it okay for guests to bring their babies to the shower?
Um, it's a baby shower. If you don't want babies around, maybe you should have reconsidered getting pregnant in the first place. On the other side however, if guests are bringing older children who don't know how to behave themselves, I could understand the annoyance of their presence.

6) The registry.
While I believe that the expecting parents should pick reasonable items to add to their registry, I also firmly believe that guests should pay close attention to the registry. For the parents, don't be putting ridiculously high priced items on your registry - ie. cribs, carseats, outdoor jungle gyms, etc. You get the picture. At the same time, guests, pay attention to the registry! There is a reason why the couple registered and that is because they are in need of the items on the list. When I am a guest to a baby shower, I always make sure to look over the registry and find what I want to get the couple. If what I would really like to get them (or anything similar) isn't on the list, I will buy one item off their registry, and then buy what I really wanted to get them as well. That way I know that at the very least they are getting items that we all know that they need and would appreciate not having to buy themselves. The other item that I just really wanted to get for them, is also nice because it is more from the heart. But, do both. If you are on a budget (as I always am) trust me when I say that there are just about always, cheap baby items on a baby registry. I don't think I've ever seen a registry where they didn't have a couple items that are $10 or under. It's doable.

7) For those who are throwing the baby shower - Listen to the mama! She most likely has been dreaming about what her baby shower will be like since she thought about having kids. Listen to what she wants - what is the theme she is going for? What is her style? There's the wonderful world of pinterest that has so many wonderfully decorated photos that can help translate one person's style to another if words aren't cutting it. As someone who has thrown a shower or two, I would have KILLED to have pinterest at that time. It would have been immensely helpful to have the mother show me pictures of how she envisioned her shower.  Likewise, mothers, don't be afraid to express your vision. If the person throwing you the shower asks, tell them! Also, don't sweat the small stuff. I'm not saying that showers need to be magazine picturesque. It's not about that.

8) Partner Showers
I love the idea of having a more adult themed baby shower that invites couples. Cocktails, appetizers, gifts and laughs yes! However, I recently had an experience in which I received a baby shower invitation, drove about 45 minutes to the shower, only to find out, I was the only person there without their partner. I was baffled. How did I miss this detail?! I immediately looked at the invitation and no where did it say "coed" or "couples" anywhere. Everyone else knew because they all worked together and had talked about the shower. But for some reason, that information was left out to me. I was humiliated and angry, especially since I know my husband would have loved to go as the father-to-be was one of his best friends. Um, include that MAJOR detail on the invite would ya? I can't believe I even have to point that out.

A Mommy Duty - Review of TheBump.com

Today I was on TheBump.com message boards community. Believe it or not, there is a lot more information on that site for after your baby is, well, no longer a baby.

I had a pretty general question that I couldn't find the answer to previously and posted it to the boards. What happened next was astonishing to me. The comments that followed insulted my intelligence as a person and as a mother, were rude, condescending, straightforward bullying, and most of all, pointless. I was shocked.

These are mothers and future mothers here. Is this what you want to represent to your children on how to treat others? I looked at other boards, not just what I posted. Same story. People attacking others; relentlessly. I've never been so disgusted. I was in utter shock. This is why people shoot up schools, malls etc. This is why people commit suicide. This is why self esteem is almost impossible to achieve in this world. THIS is a major problem.

As a mother it will be my ultimate duty to try and teach my children to have not only a thick skin to deal with the toxic environment around them, but to also, no matter how poorly they are treated by others, to ensure that they treat everyone with the utmost respect. Even if they don't appear to deserve it.

I've been a member of those boards for years - started with The Knot, then The Nest and now I'm on The Bump. After that, I'm done. What I once thought was a warm and inviting community where other mothers and those expecting can gather for support, is indeed a lie.

If you plan on using the site, by all means there is plenty of extremely valuable information and articles there. However, if I were you I would stay clear of the message boards. Over the years it has only gotten worse, and I'm afraid it's hit a level of no return at this point.

My 10 Guilty Pleasures

Being a mom and a wife, I try to put my two favorite men and their needs a head of my own. For the most part, I think I do a decent job - I hope anyway.

There are times however, where I need to embrace some selfish indulgences. Most of these I keep to myself typically, either because I don't think others would be interested, or I fear that I might be judged haha.
Here are my top 10 guilty pleasures.

1. Labor videos on Youtube. Yep. When I was pregnant with Canden, I figured I needed to better prepare myself for what was about to take place and watch some videos on the miracle of life. Uncensored, raw, full of emotion. Really I can't get enough. Once I got past the gross and fear factors, it always ended the same way. A joyful, beautiful moment in time where a little human has been brought onto this earth. I find the whole process of pregnancy and birth fascinating. Our bodies are amazing pieces of magical machinery. I tear up at the end of almost every birthing video because the best part is when the mother and father are holding their sweet child for the first time. It reminds me of the most significant moment of my life when I got to do that with Canden.

2. Bingo. HA! I just laughed out loud at myself on this one. I play Bingo Blitz on my phone. If that doesn't make me feel old, lame and as if I don't have a life, I don't know what will.

3. Bad Girls Club. If you've never seen the show Bad Girls Club on the Oxygen channel, let me tell you about it. It's a reality show full of classless, bitchy, fame thirsty women who can't act with an once of dignity in anything they do. My IQ most likely drops a few several points each time I watch it. But I can't. Get. Enough.

4. I Use WAY Too Much TP. Let's just keep it honest. I care about hygiene. A lot. And I don't skimp on the thing that is supposed to make me clean after doing my business. Late TMI alert. Sorry.

5. Makeup. Well, that one's obvious so far. I've dedicated an entire tab of my blog to beauty. My makeup collection, I must say, is quite impressive. Consists mostly of eyeshadow as that is my favorite. If you see my Coastal Scents collection post alone, you'll get the idea.

6. Shopping For Anything I Can't Realistically Afford. I love Louis Vuitton, Mark Jacobs, Michael Kors...the list goes on and on. I dream of owning so many designer things. Unfortunately my style doesn't match my wallet, which breaks my heart. It won't stop me from endlessly searching and dreaming over the items I'll never be able to buy.

7. Chocolate. Do I really have to go into detail about this. I could eat it everyday, all day. No probs. The extent of my sweet tooth is actually semi-concerning.

8. When Canden Takes a Nap. Don't get me wrong, I love that child more than anything on this earth. However, when he goes to sleep and I get a break, the heavens shine down and a full orchestra and choir is heard performing "Hallelujah." I actually count down the time until his approximate nap time.

9. Gossip. This one shouldn't be a big surprise as most people can get wrapped up into gossip. I just can't help myself but look at the Facebook pages, or ask friends/ex-workers how certain train wreck doomed individuals are doing. That wasn't nice.

10.  Never Answering Phone Calls. I can about guarantee that 95% of the phone calls I receive that aren't from my husband or immediate family, go unanswered. I HATE answering the phone, especially if it is from a number I don't know. I always let it go to voice-mail. If it's important, their leave one.

Healthy-ish Oatmeal Pancakes with a Twist!

I first saw a recipe for healthy oatmeal pancakes through Pinterest which linked me to this blog called Sally's Baking Addiction.

Looks scrumptious.

I have now made this recipe (kind of) several times since first seeing it. Honestly, not once did I follow the recipe exactly.

This recipe has all your staples when you try to think of a healthy pancake recipe - whole wheat flour, oats, egg whites, greek yogurt, etc.

I made simple changes to make the recipe my own. For example, not once did I use Greek yogurt. Not because I didn't want to or didn't like it, I didn't have it on hand. So, that's out. Also, I enjoy adding different flavors. Since there is a wonderful presence of cinnamon and brown sugar, I took Gerbers toddler apple fruit pickups (yes, that's right, I said toddler food), and mixed that into the batter. You may be thinking to yourself, "why in the world is that lady adding baby/toddler food to her pancakes?" Well, in all honesty, okay, yes, TECHNICALLY it's food for young tykes. However, it's not apple puree, it's chunks of apple. Even if it were apple puree, it's all natural apple. Anyone can eat it.  I have it on hand always for my 13 month old. These apple chunks are the perfect consistency of cooked apples, without the work of cutting and cooking. They are soaked in a grape juice and have a wonderful tang to their flavor. Let me tell you, these pancakes tasted like apple pie. My family loves it. Plus, it's different. The recipe is great on it's own, and yes, it takes like oatmeal just as described. But adding the apple sure did turn this recipe into something else for sure!

Just so you know, I have made this recipe without putting in the Greek Yogurt at all or even substituting for it and the consistency came out just fine for cooking. It wasn't too thick - it's a naturally thick batter anyway due to the oats. As another option if you don't have the Greek yogurt, you can supplement with the apple chunks that I described. If you have more time than I do, feel free to cook up your own apples. I am now thinking of what other fun yummies I can add to the mix. Delicious I tell you!

Here is the original recipe via Sally's Baking Addiction:

Ingredients:
1 cup (123g) whole wheat flour (or white whole-wheat)1/2 cup (40g) quick oats1/4 teaspoon salt2 teaspoons baking powder1 teaspoon ground cinnamon1 large egg (or 2 egg whites)1 cup (240ml) milk*2 Tablespoons dark brown sugar (or light brown)1/4 cup (63g) Greek yogurt*1 teaspoon vanilla extract1/2 cup add-ins like chocolate chips or fruit, optional

Directions:
Toss the flour, oats, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon together in a large bowl. Set aside. In a separate medium bowl, whisk the egg and milk together. Whisk in the brown sugar and yogurt until no lumps remain. Whisk in the vanilla until combined.
Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients in. Stir gently until just combined. Do not overmix the batter or your pancakes will be tough and very dense. Add any mix-ins you prefer, but again - do not overmix the batter.
Heat a griddle or skillet over medium heat. Coat generously with cooking spray, oil, or butter.  Once hot, drop about 1/4 cup of batter on the griddle. Cook until the edges look dry and bubbles begin to form on the center or sides, about 1 minute. Flip and cook on the other side until cooked through, about 2 more minutes. Coat griddle/skillet again with nonstick spray for each pancake or batch of pancakes.

Pinterest Inspired Nursery Project!

It won't be very often that you will me come up with some sort of creative idea on my own. I wish I had that ability to think up designs or projects, but I just don't. With that being said, I am super proud of myself to share with you this next project that I kind of created almost, all on my own. So this isn't so much a pinterest review as it is me showing off mah skillz.

Before Canden was born I was looking for inspiration for how to decorate his room. I found these adorable letters on Pinterest and followed the link to the Etsy site. I had to have them. They were too precious to pass up.

Etsy

Yeah! Super cute! Until I saw the price....$12 a letter....with 6 letters....comes to $72, not including shipping. Well, looks like I'm not buying those. I just couldn't justify paying that much for letters. So I started thinking. I loved the look and idea of the letters, but how can I do it myself?

Modge Podge. The correct answer to just about everything. Here's what I came up with step by step to create my own -

First, I made a Hobby Lobby Trip. I purchased these:

• Scrapbook Paper - 6 sheets, all different designs to mimic the picture above. 
• Modge Podge 
  
• 6 Paper Mache Alphabet Letters (spelling Canden obviously) 
  

My first step in all this was painting the paper mache letters a dark brown. You of course can choose whatever color you would like to match your color theme.

After I painted the letters and let them dry, I took the modge podge and put a layer on the front facing part of the letter (aka just the front side of the letter). I then stuck the whole piece of scrapbook paper of my choosing, onto the front. I allowed the modge podge to dry. Then, I took an exacto knife and cut the paper along the edge of the letter so that the paper was now only covering the front.

I then covered the sides and front of the letter with more modge podge to insure that there was a seal on the paper so it won't detach from the letter. It also gave a nice glossy finish which I wanted. (You can buy different kinds of modge podge based on the finsih you would like - ie, glossy, matte, sparkly etc.)

For the last step, I took some brown ribbon that I had in the house and created hangers by hot gluing them to the backs of the letters. I measured out the distance from the top of the letter to where the push pin that would go into the wall would be to insure even lengths. Your ribbon length will be different for each letter though do to the different letter shape and where you glue them. Don't worry. The only consistency that matters is between the top of the letter and where the push pin goes.

When you are finished, this is what your result should be!

What do you think? I think I spent around $20 bucks for the materials...if that! I already had the brown ribbon and brown paint hanging around so I didn't have to purchase those (also, already had a glue gun, glue, and push pins). Even if you had to buy all those supplies, you would still be saving money compared to the $12 a letter plus shipping if your child has a longer name.

This project was mostly time consuming - waiting for paint to dry/waiting for modge podge to dry. But overall this was super simple to do and hey, I can say I made that :)

Please let me know what you think! I hope you find this helpful and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

Creamy Spinach Tomato Tortellini

Another day, another Pinterest recipe find.

Find the original post HERE

This pin originated from this site which like it has some other scrumptious recipes as well.
Honestly, this might be the shortest recipe blog ever. Here's the deal - It's easy, and it's delicious. 'Nuff said. If there was one thing that I would change, it would be that I would add a hair more spinach. We are a spinach loving family; even the 13 month old.
It came out looking EXACTLY like the picture above. Ugh, one of my pet peeves is making something that it looks nothing like the original picture.

We served this wonderful pasta dish with a spinach salad (shouldn't be a surprise there) and corn muffins. Yeah, corn muffins don't really scream Italy to us either. But hey, we were in the mood for some, and that's all that matters! :)

Do yourself a favor and make this recipe.

Follow me on Pinterest for more awesome finds!

Mongolian Beef with Broccoli

So excited to make this tonight - it will only be the second time I've ever made it!

Courtesy of Cravings of a Lunatic Blog - link below

I am not much of a chef as you will probably soon learn throughout my posts. Cooking is super hard for me. My husband however, rocks my socks. Seriously, how can anyone be so naturally awesome at cooking?! Anyway, I am trying to get better at it. Most of my inspiration for recipes comes from Pinterest. Shocking. I know.

Anyway, I found this pin which is originally from the blog Cravings of a Lunatic. There are a couple things I changed to the recipe - Firstly, the recipe calls for 1 tablespoon of sesame oil. Quite frankly I didn't have it, and didn't feel like running out to get it..so I just kinda, ya know, left it out. Secondly, I didn't have Canadian Beef. Like the sesame oil, I didn't plan on running out and getting that either. For convenience sake, I bought steak tenderloin strips, cut it into bite size pieces, and boom. Delicious. I'm sure that someone who has a keen taste or is super familiar with this recipe would notice the lack of sesame oil, to me and my family however, it tasted better than the locally acclaimed Chinese restaurant in town. I don't think we missed it too much.

I have more great Pinterest recipes. Be sure to follow me!

DIY Crib Protector Review

As I was strolling Pinterest one day I came across this pin:

At first I thought, "Oh what a cute way to decorate a crib!" As a new mom I was/am still quite stupid naive to all the wonderful and not so wonderful things you discover your children will do. This projects purpose is to help eliminate a teething baby from leaving this:

This is not my son's crib, just an example.

When I first saw this pin, Canden wasn't teething too seriously yet, so there were no battle marks on his crib yet. I kept my eye on his crib because this won't just be Canden's crib, it will belong to future babes too. Not only that, I like to sell just about everything we don't use anymore, so I know that years down the line, I will hope to resell this crib. 

Sure enough, I spotted one morning a couple small gouges along the railing of his crib. I immediately thought of the above pin and was determined to fashion my own guard against the teeth. 

Now, I did some research as well. I know that you can buy some similar, pre-made cloth protector that range in price from anywhere between $25 to upwards of $100. The problem that I saw however is that it cost $25 for a protector to just cover the front (for example). I needed to cover at least three sides of the crib. I could buy 2 pack protectors for the sides as well, but, why bother when I can make my own for all three sides under $20. Regardless, there is another kind of protector out there as well. It is a hard plastic cover that (here) fits on top of the rail. The price isn't too shabby either - only $12.99. After reading some reviews of that product and similar ones, I saw that a common complaint was that they have a strong chemical, plastic-y smell. Besides, they don't look as pretty as the pin above.

So, it was settled then. I was doing this project.

All in all it was pretty darn easy to do. I measured the length of all the sides I would be covering and added 2 inches to allow for any unexpected bumps along the way. As far as measuring the width, I used the most scientific way I knew how to measure: I "wung" it. Ok, so really I did SORT of measure. I measured from the top of the rail down to wear the fabric would have a tie, then added 2 inches to allow for enough fabric to tie with.

With a little help from my husband who is far better with a pair of scissors than I am, we cut the pieces of fabric into the length of strips we needed for each rail. Then, we laid the fabric on top of the rail and again, we "wung" it. Sooooo helpful of me to fully explain, I know. But really, it's not complicated. I cut two strips, tied it off at the end of one of the rails, then cut and tied as I went until I reached the end of the rail. I tucked the loose pieces underneath last. This is the final result --

I think it turned out quite well! Since we used fleece, after we did all the cutting and tying to make sure it fit okay, we ran the fabric through the drier to get rid of any fuzzy shreads that came off in the process. Then we retied it to the crib and it's been there ever since. I think that the fabric adds a nice, warm and cozy feeling to the crib as opposed to that hard plastic alternative.

So far, it seems we haven't had any more issues with teething on the crib. I would definitely recommend to other mommies to take the time to do this little project. You can customize the look anyway you want to by going and picking out your fabric (fleece is what was recommended for this) and matching it to the overall theme of your nursery.

Please make sure to follow me on Pinterest to see all the things I am loving and trying! Have a great Monday!

Happy Easter!

Canden's first official Easter basket was a hit!

Meet My Little!

This wouldn't be a blog about mommy-hood if I didn't have a post of my main man. Please meet Canden, aka: Little Nugget.