Check out the eyes!

Please, people, no pictures!

At 9 months, I took Lucky to see an optometrist. Why? Well, no reason, really. I had read that it was highly suggested that an infant's eyes are checked at around 6 months, but my pediatrician made no mention of this so I didn't really sweat it. And then one of the ladies at the parent education class I take mentioned that she was referred to a free program to have her child's eyes checked called InfantSEE. So I figured if it's free, why not?

I took him to see Dr. Wang at the South Pasadena Optometric Group, and she was amazing with him (and me). I found it extremely interesting how she examined his eyes -- baby versions of an adult eye exam. Lucky was really sweet through the entire thing and even let them dilate his eyes and put sunglasses on afterwards with no issue. And the exam really was free. I had an amazing experience. I would highly recommend all parents take advantage of this program, which is offered to infants from age 6 months to one year.

Revisiting Babywearing

With the Infantino sling recall, I thought I would revisit the subject of babywearing. In the beginning we used a ring sling and the Moby Wrap, which cradled Lucky quite well and he really liked it, but the sling in particular didn't free my hands because I was always so worried that he would fall out. The Moby Wrap was awesome because I really felt that he was secure in there, but it took SO long to put it on, and then he got heavy fast so we stopped using it because we started wearing him the same way we did in the Belle Baby Carrier, and it was so much easier to put him in the Belle. I absolutely LOVE the Belle Baby Carrier. We got it for 50%, which was even sweeter. Here's a pic of the very one we bought (yes, we got the Cheetah):

There are two buckles and an adjustable ring belt, and that's it. We mostly wear Lucky facing out, but every now and then he gets tired and we can easily just turn him around in the Belle and have him face in. I do wish that I had gotten the organic version, which my friend has, as it seems softer and on the whole more breathable, but it wasn't 50%. I think since I started with the Belle that when I tried to put the Bjorn on it seemed counter-intuitive, but definitely Lucky loves it.

Oh my gosh it's been over a year?!!!

I can't believe it's been a year since I visited this blog! Oh my gosh! Well, I blame him:

I'm going to try to get back to blogging, but Lucky Boy here is a little dynamo!

Training the Cats

When my sister came over, I had her help me blow up some red latex balloons to put in the crib:

Now you might wonder why we did this. Here's the answer:

Our cats currently sleep on anything and everything they desire. And my husband and I have been of the idea that they should not be allowed to sleep in the baby's sleeping areas. At least for now. Orange and fluffy above especially loves to hug and groom things smaller than him, and while it's sweet, it worries us. Part of the reason we wanted to get the bassinet and crib set up so early was to train the cats to stay out of them.

I researched and researched and finally decided that latex balloons would be the best way to go. One, for whatever reason, my cats are scared of them. I brought them home once (the floaty kind) and they would not come anywhere near them. Two, if they were to try to jump into the crib, the balloons would either pop or hit them, neither of which they would enjoy. We learned the first night that we had the bassinet that the balloons were quite effective. In the middle of night, startling pops woke us up. Two balloons had burst, and while we don't know which cat was responsible, neither of them will go near the bassinet now. I've removed the balloons at this point from the bassinet, and so far, no cat sightings in the bassinet.

With the crib, you'll notice that there's now space for the cats to land and lay down should they desire. Our grand hope is that by the time the last balloon comes out, they won't have any desire to be in the crib at all.

DIY Project: Customizing a Bookcase

I have loved the idea of customizing a bookcase by wallpapering the backs of the bookcase with pretty paper or fabric. Honestly, though, I don't have the time or inclination right now to deal with glue and lining things up properly. We need shelving in the baby room, though, and I wanted to do something besides putting another utilitarian bookcase up in another room. So I thought a coat of paint would just be the perfect way to perk up a standard bookcase. I bought a quart of semi-gloss paint and an Ikea Billy bookcase and went to work.

Here's a before pic of the bookcase from the Ikea website:It's okay, but blah...just a regular old bookcase. I painted the back of the bookcase with a gorgeous aqua color (Olympic Premium in Caruso), and here is the result:

I will say that this project did come with a slight snafu. I had perused the Internet and found instructions on Domino that confirmed what I wanted to do: prime the back piece, then paint it. I primed the white laminated side of the backboard (the side that would normally show), and immediately had an idea that it wasn't going to work out because the primer was beading and not really sticking to the laminate. I painted two coats of primer (exactly the kind Domino had mentioned) and two coats of paint and it did in fact cover just fine. I let it dry overnight and when I went to put it into the Ikea bookcase...

Disaster.

Utter disaster.

When sliding it into place, the paint and primer scraped and peeled away from the original white laminated side. Honestly, if I were just going to hammer it into place (with nothing around that could possibly scrape at the paint), this paint job would have worked just fine. But the Ikea Billy has you sliding the backboard into these vertical slits and then hammering the thing along the horizontal supports. Perhaps if I were to sand it well before priming it would have worked better (but honestly no set of directions mentioned sanding), or if I had not used water-based primer and paint, but I'm pregnant and not about to subject myself to higher VOC products.

I actually was able to scrape all bits of paint and primer off the laminated side of the backboard that I had painted. I went to Plan B, which I had immediately thought of right after I started priming. I flipped the backboard over to the unlaminated, cardboard-looking side and primed and painted that. The paint stuck, no problem. And now, if we're ever tired of the aqua, we can always flip the backboard over and revert back to the original white.

Here's a pic of the bookcase with a bunch of baby stuff we've been storing up all around:

I absolutely love the result!

The Chair Dilemma

There's just one piece of major furniture left for us to get for the baby bedroom, and that's a chair. I was half hoping that the guest bed in there would serve double duty, but everyone who's been in the room has agreed with my assessment that there needs to be a chair of some sort in there. Unfortunately the room's not the biggest, and I don't want the room to start feeling cramped. Originally I had wanted to get this rocker combo from Babies R Us because eventually we may want to move the chair to another room in the house when the baby is done being a baby:
And who knows? We might yet still. I'm afraid, though, that the ottoman might stick out too much in the room, cutting all that nice open space we currently have in there. My friend suggested that we block the sliding glass door and just treat it like another wall, but I'm loathe to do that.

My sister and one of my best friends made mention that no matter what, it'd be really good to be able to put your feet up when you sit down. My sister suggested a recliner, which was what I was sort of debating. Best Chairs has a couple glider/recliners, and I could get it with the contrast piping if I wanted:
It would still rock and I'd still be able to put my feet up without having a bulky ottoman in the room. It seems like it would be the ideal choice except that it's a WAY pricier option that what I was originally thinking.

So then I was thinking, what if the chair either just rocked or just reclined? I mean, lots of people get just a standard rocking chair, something like this from Overstock:


And honestly, this Ikea recliner is pretty good looking and pretty darn comfortable, even if it doesn't rock:
(Ikea has a cheaper chair that rocks but unfortunately I couldn't get it to rock very much in store.)

Or I could just put a club chair or armchair of some sort in there and just call it a day. Who needs a chair to rock or recline anyway?

I see now why my friends had an office chair in their nursery.

The Look for Less: Baby Mod Olivia Crib v. Oeuf Classic Crib

So I was trolling my design blogs, as I often do early in the morning, when I happened upon a crib from Walmart called the Olivia Crib by Baby Mod:

This sort of reminded me of that show The Look for Less that Elizabeth Hasselbeck used to host before she went to The View (stick with fashion, Mrs. Hasselbeck, I loved you on The Look for Less...not so much on The View). Gosh I used to love that show. Anyway, this crib looked A LOT like the Oeuf Classic Crib:

There are obvious design differences, of course, but all cribs sold in the USA have to pass the same safety requirements, and for a third of the price, one can get a very very similar nursery look for a lot less. There's even a post on ohdeedoh on how to customize the crib feet.