Mid-Week Musings

The past week and a half have been crazy busy. From a semi-disastrous July 4th to missing my furry child...we enjoyed some pool time...and I treated myself to some extra sleep and some Basil-Infused Simple Syrup (recipe at end of post). 

What we've been up to...






Baby Wipes Search. Sadly the Honest Company has changed up their wipes product...and not for the better. I've been a Diapers and Wipes bundle customer of theirs for just over two years now. I'm hoping they fix the issues with the new product, but am also considering making a change. I asked my friends for suggestions and have started the process of product testing. A post with my findings is coming soon, the great baby wipe off of 2017!


Beware the new wipes! Here is the packaging. The new wipes are thinner and will not dispense properly from the package! I have the Honest Company wipes dispenser and they neither dispense properly through that nor pull out just through the package hole. I always end up with a clump of wipes. Plus the tape doesn't stick back so if you don't have a dispenser they will dry out.





Bottle City. With baby #2 I told myself I was going to bottle feed more. Alas, that has not been the case. I pumped earlier and was fairly successful so I have plenty of pumped milk in my freezer which I need to start using. Lucas took a bottle of thawed milk on Sunday which started me back on pumping. My goal is for him to take one bottle at least every other day. He is currently fussy about starting sucking on the bottle, but after some time does take it. I've been using a Dr. Brown's 4 oz glass bottle with a preemie nipple (more info in this post) and he doesn't spit up at all. But his lips are actually touching the plastic nipple ring! I think he may do better with a wider nipple base so we are going to try the AVENT Bottle, luckily I have 2 free ones sitting in my bin of extra feeding stuff.

Vomit Kit for Car. We had a less than thrilling 4th of July. It started well...we even did a very short photo shoot before leaving the house. How handsome are my boys?!?

We packed the kids in the car just before lunchtime and headed to a friend's house. After a 30 minute drive, we arrived and my 2-year old promptly threw up all over himself and his carseat. We were invited to stay, but after a 30 minute clean up, decided to drive home. He doesn't have a history of carsickness and we didn't want to risk exposing the other kids at the party if he had a stomach bug. Luckily it seems to have just been a mixture of carsickness and a full belly. I had given him a late morning snack since we would be having lunch late. In retrospect, this was probably a mistake. We also discovered we had nothing besides some travel wipes (in the diaper bag) for clean up. Our friends graciously helped out! So a project for this past weekend was making a "Vomit Kit" for the car. 


I used an old tote bag and packed - 2 onesies, 1 pair shorts, 2 bottles of water, 2 large navy towels, 2 navy handtowels, and a pack of wipes. I also prepped an idea my husband read about online. I took two of his old t-shirts and cut out the backs, leaving the sleeves intact and some fabric around the neck hole. The idea is to buckle the child into the carseat and then slip the t-shirt over their head and put their arms through the sleeves. The front makes a type of smock covering the straps and buckles of the carseat. Of course, it's not waterproof and projectile vomit will still make a mess, but it will hopefully save the buckles and straps which are the worse thing to try to clean after a vomit episode.


This event also led to me testing out our Chicco NextFit Zip's main feature - the zip off front. After a quick youtube video view to see how to get the front of the carseat off...I threw it in the wash and dried it out in the sun. It washed up beautifully and was easy to put back on! The straps and buckles of course cannot be removed from the seat. I put a bowl of hot, soapy water in the base of the seat (carefully!) and piled the straps and buckles in to soak. Several changes of water later and some q-tips to get at the buckle crevices, everything was fairly clean smelling. I put the base also out in the sun to let the straps dry.

Pool Time. We enjoyed some more pool time last weekend. Lucas has been waking around 7:30 so we leave for the pool around 8:45 (his first nap is between then and 9:00). He will typically fall asleep in the stroller during the walk to the pool and nap in the shade for 45 minutes while we enjoy the water. Henry LOVES the pool. There is a fairly large "child" end but he is too short for it unless he stays on the steps. We've tried several floaties without much success. I think the Puddle Jumper (hand me down from his cousin) will work well once he is a little bigger. Henry also got a much needed haircut over the weekend!

Missing Frisco. Our sweet dog Frisco still has a presence in our house. He is on a canvas on the wall, in pictures on the fridge, and on countless pages of the photo album my toddler loves to look through. Henry will page through the album and point out on each relevant page, "There's Frisco, there's Frisco." This past weekend he finally got stuck on the refrain of, "Where's Frisco?" We knew it would come eventually. Henry loves to ask where people and things are and then find them. He makes a show out of looking for them. "Where's the ball?" "It's not behind the door." "It's not under the chair." ... You get the idea. I likely should have prepared better, but we settled on simply telling him, "Frisco isn't here anymore." Advice online does not recommend using a vague statement like that, but most of the suggestions are also geared towards older children. 

Henry and Frisco

Mom Treat ~ Basil-Infused Simple Syrup. My Garden in a Can is doing meh. Only 4 plants sprouted from the seed packet which was disappointing. This could have been partly my fault because it needs to be watered more frequently. I've moved it to my kitchen window sill to help me remember. I should have taken a pic ahead of time...but I harvested off the tops of my four plants. Hopefully they will spawn new stalks now. 

I decided to get some long lasting flavor out of my basil by making a Basil-infused simple syrup. I boiled a cup and a half of filtered water and dissolved one cup of sugar in it. Then I turned off the heat and added the basil to infuse. (I had around 15 basil leaves from my plant.) 30 minutes probably is plenty, but I forgot about it and infused the syrup for 3 hours. I strained the mixture into a jar and put it in the fridge (with a cap). I've been adding 2 teaspoons to my morning coffee or tea and it is absolutely delicious!

Happy Hump Day!