Coupon Holder

Wow, who would have thought this was possible?  A non-baby related blog?  Whoa!

I've become my mom.  I've become a coupon clipping suburban mom.  I subscribe to the local newspaper for Thursday and Sunday deliveries.  I don't even read the newspaper.  I get all of my news from the internet.  So why the heck did I get a subscription to the local paper?  I would have totally opted for only Sunday deliveries but it's not available for some reason. Once I receive the Thursday paper, I just chuck it into the recycle bin.  Hopefully my mom reads when she's at my house!  I pay $9/month just so I can get the Sunday newspaper - cuz it's chock full of coupons that I can cut!  Haha.

Before I would totally shove in my coupons in this plain white envelope and it was totally unorganized so it was pretty difficult sorting out coupons in the store.  But now I have a solution.  My mom actually carries around this ugly-as-hell coupon organizer from Shop Rite. It's this nasty yellow and red but it organizes her coupons and it was free.  I wouldn't be caught dead in that coupon organizer.  So on a whim, I did a google search and thank goodness, people sell coupon holders on Etsy.com!  Pretty ones!

I ordered one last week and just received it yesterday and I luv it!  I haven't organized my stuff yet but I can't wait to.  Now I have an idea what to get people as gifts. Hehehe.  So don't be surprised if you get a coupon organizer from me for Xmas (esp if you live in the 'burbs).  Keheheheh.

What's also very cool about it is that you can hang it on your shopping cart so it makes shopping easier! :)

The shop is Grandma's Little Lilly and she sells other items as well.  Shipping is fast and I totally recommend this Etsy!

Refreshed...

I had a wonderful weekend.  Meanie had to work all weekend and honestly, I was quite worried if I could handle taking care of the baby all by myself.  So I had a little taste of what it would be like to be a SAHM (Stay At Home Mom). My mom always said staying home and taking care of a baby is much harder work than having an office job from 9 to 5.  At least at an office job, you can just sit and stare at a computer and have a 1 hour lunch break so it's a total of 7 "working" hours.  My mom arrives at my house at 7:30am and doesn't leave till about 7pm when we get home from work. That's a 12 hour day taking care of the baby.  No wonder she looks so tired. Children suck the life force out of adults!! :)

Honestly, I really enjoyed it.  Yeah, I was tired when he woke up at 7am but that's made up for during his naps!  He naps twice a day, each spanning about 1.5 to 2 hours each, if there are no interruptions like pesky phone callers, etc.  And I got to spend a lot of time with my baby boy and I'm sure he loved getting mommy all to himself, all day (and night) long. And on top of taking care of the baby, I also did 4 loads of laundry and cleaned up some mail.  I wanted to bake some brownies but never got around to doing that. 

I want to do so many things like bake some baked goods (Meanie really misses that), catch up on my DVR (I'm like 90% full on one of the DVRs - YES, I have 2!!), play some videogames (not happening.  Would like to finish Lost Odyssey but not getting any closer), and have tons of "to-do" things on my mental list which I seem to never get to.  At least I have an IPhone to entertain me in spurts.

Rowrrr

Happy Belated Lunar New Year & Happy Belated Valentine's Day!

It's the Year of the Tiger - MY year.  I hope that means a good year.  It seems like everyone I know has had a bad start to their new year - both regular and lunar new year.  Yesterday was a crappy day for Carey and me.  We both had big falls!  My poor baby rolled off the couch and hit the coffee table.  The loud thump had us both running and we found him on the floor next to the coffee table.  Luckily we have a rug underneath so I think it softened it fall but it totally scared him but he seems fine. 

And for me, I was heading downstairs to the playroom and laundry room with Carey in my arms and I slipped and fell down the stairs.  There are only 7 steps are so but I fell down and I remember thinking, protect the baby, protect the baby!!!  I did manage to protect the baby but I'm sore in several places.  But he totally freaked out cuz it was kinda scary and then screamed for a couple minutes till he was ok.

Speaking of tigers, someone has taught my baby how to growl like a rabid dog/tiger and totally sounds like a demon.  He was scaring both his parents cuz he sounded so demonic!  However, my family thought it was hilarious and caught it on videotape.  But I noticed he only seems to growl when his dad is around. He's ok when he's around me.  Haha.

Weekend was fun.  Had some visitors over - family visitors.  Went to eat at several restaurants in the area.  I'm still kinda annoyed at a visitor we had over the weekend.  I think it's only common sense, as a visitor, to respect the hosts of the house.  Not to demean them in any way or disrespect them, you know?  It's only basic common sense.  Yet this one visitor we have (I won't name any names and/or titles) is constantly dissing me and my people (Taiwanese) and it bothers the hell out of me.  Out of respect to my family, I keep my mouth shut so I don't create any drama but sometimes I wish I can just rip her a new one - in her Commie Chinese speck of a brainwashed brain.  =X  Oops, did I go there?  I sure did and that's it. 

Also, when you know the other party is footing the restaurant bill, you don't go and order EVERY SINGLE THING on the friggin menu and then go one to say that the food wasn't good.  "I like the variety and that's it".  Learn some freaking humility and order what you want to eat, not what you want to try.  Ok, that's the end of my rant but poor Meanie is going to have to go thru a whole week of mimicking by me of the bullshit that came out of her mouth.

*grumble*

2 Teef & Solid Feeding

My baby has his 2 bottom teeth coming out.  Carey's age is now 8 months and 2 weeks (34 weeks) but his adjusted age is 27 weeks, which is about 6 months and 3 weeks. It's confusing with preemies because he's got an actual age (when he was born) and his adjusted age cuz he's a preemie.  He's small compared to all other babies that are around 8 months old.  In reality, his real age is about a 6 monther.  But he seems to be doing very well!  I haven't compared him with another baby his age so I have no grounds for comparison.  He's got 2 teeth and I've started him on solids already.  We received a Beaba for Xmas so I've been making some of his baby food.  At first, I buy Gerber Organic or just regular Gerber (the ones in the plastic rectangle container) to see what he likes and then if he does like something, I'll go out to the store and buy organic produce to make his own food.

I totally love the Beaba! I've read reviews that some people think it's a waste of money and that a regular blender would just suffice.  But the good thing about the Beaba is that not only does it puree food, it also steams/cooks the food all in one gadget.  I definitely recommend the Beaba and it seems to puree food to a much better consistency than it would in a regular blender or even in a regular food processor. 

I've already made a batch of butternut squash and a batch of sweet potato.  He loves both but I think he's starting to get sick of it.  I just made a batch of pureed prunes with apple.  The consistency is a little gooey but once you mix it with another fruit, like banana, it becomes a nice pureed fruit.  It also helps with constipation!

Carey also loves fresh banana (all mashed up) and fresh avocado (also mashed up).  He is born into a family of foodies so it's only likely that he will enjoy his food.  I hope I don't have a picky eater!  I ventured out to the veggie world of Gerber and got him some green beans. I smelled it and thought it was disgusting.  Apparently Carey thinks so too because his facial expression is like BLEGHH.  I've seen him gag when I spoon it into his mouth.  But I read an article that your own facial expression should be positive at all times, esp when feeding him icky foods or changing his poopy diaper so he won't have issues later on.  Having a positive facial expression definitely works because Carey ate all of his green beans (I also mixed with sweet potato to make it a little more palatable)!  I think I won't venture to the veggie world like green beans and peas until Carey is able to gum it down himself.  That pureed stuff is just horrible!

Once you're a mother/parent, you are obsessed with baby poops.  It sounds disgusting but it's all a part of parenting.  You become obsessed to see if the baby pooped and what kind of poop it is.  Hahaha.  Carey always had a problem with poops.  His problem was that he didn't poop!  Maybe like once a week, if we're lucky.  He hates all kinds of juice so prune/apple/pear juice didn't help and that's what the doctor always ordered.  Water was also recommended but he hates the taste of water, probably because it tastes like absolutely nothing.  One time we used a suppository but I didn't want to make that a habit.  The process itself is traumatizing enuf and the clean-up afterwards isn't so fun either. 

Carey's new flouride vitamin causes him to be constipated.  His new diet of solid foods also cause him constipation but at least he's pooping more regularly now.  And the pureed prunes definitely help!  He also prefers oats cereal over rice cereal because it has more flavor.  Rice cereal is just a pile of mush.  I feed him Happy Bellies Organic cereal.  I think I'm going to try to feed him yogurt soon.  I just bought some Stonybrook Organic Yo Baby yogurt but I just realized after I bought it that there's sugar in it.  Does anyone use it and is it bad for babies?

Sorry this blog is so long but it's been a long time since I've blogged and I have so much stuff on my mind to blog about!  :)

I wanted to get Carey this cool Vtech book that one of my friends have for her baby.  It's the Vtech Infant Rhyme and Discover book.  My friend brought it over and Carey loooved it so I was going to purchase it on Amazon until I read one of the reviews that one part had contained lead.  Gahhh!

This website has a list of toys and what toys are safe and what aren't.  It's pretty shocking to see how much chemicals are in children's toys.  They say that you should just buy products that aren't made in China but it seems like everything is made in China these days.  Just on the safe side, I opted not to purchase the Vtech book even though Carey really enjoyed it.

More to come later!