Mommin' It Up!

May 16, 2011May 16, 2011

Super Snoozer

My sweet little Jonah boy L-O-V-E-S his Miracle Blanket swaddler, and so do I. I truly would not have survived his or Sophie’s babydom without it. BUT – small problem – he’s getting too big for it and was starting to be able to kick out of it at 5 months of age. (I know most people don’t swaddle their babies this long but hey, it was really working for us!) This was causing me to panic a bit because I also swaddled him for naps, and really I NEED him to nap and I NEED him to sleep at night. But alas, the Miracle Blanket has served us well, but it’s time for it to be retired. Jonah’s just too daggone BIG! Silly boy. Growing up and all.

This past week I started having a really hard time getting Jonah to nap because he was getting out of his swaddle so quickly. SO Bobby and I made the decision that it was time to take off the swaddle and take on the Ferber. The Ferber Method, that is.

Now, if you find the Ferber Method barbaric or cruel or whatever, please do not judge. I promise you I love the crap out of my kids and letting them cry for a wee bit for a couple nights while I check on them every few minutes is not going to send them to therapy. I’ve got lots of other parenting tricks up my sleeve for that one.

It totally worked with Joshua and it sort of worked with Sophie -we had to re-Ferber her a couple times, but she always came back to the way of the Ferber -and I was kind of in love with Dr. Ferber after we first Ferbered Joshua. Ahem. I mean, really! What a genius! So, I was ready to give it a go again.

So we put him down un-swaddled in his bed and let him cry, checking in on him and reassuring him at 3, 5, and 7 minute intervals.

He cried for 2.5 hours. We gave up.

The next night, we started over, checking on him at 5, 7, and 10 minute intervals. He fell asleep after an hour, but not for very long. Then, he cried for flipping ever again until we gave up about 1 am.

But Friday night we tried again, AND – he fell asleep in less than 5 minutes, slept til 3 am (went down at 10!) at which time I fed him, and he went right back down and slept til 6:30! On Saturday night – he gave almost an EXACT repeat performance!

Seriously I bet Dr. Ferber gets ALL the chicks!

I’m so proud of my big boy! And so happy to have him settling down to sleep in his own bed at night, even if it means he is growing up too fast.

May 15, 2011May 15, 2011

It’s a good thing my vanity needed a boost

Well if you’ve been reading this blog for awhile, you know that I am just a smidge on the vain side. And if you’ve been reading recently you know I’ve been struggling to get back to my vain old self since I had baby #3. But I’ve finally over the past two months or so been getting back to putting on my makeup and trying to look purty before I leave the house every day, even if it is just to take Sophie to preschool.

So it was with great glee that I said “YES!” when Mary Kay asked me to review their new limited edition Weekender Collection.

It’s a great collection of lip and eye pencils that double as liner and color! There’s some great nail colors in there, too.

I *love* all the colors. My eyes are poppin’ these days in the Classic Navy and Turquoise Waters colors. But my favorite, favorite FAVORITE thing that I can no longer live without and am going to have to order in mass quantity since it’s limited edition, is the eye pencil in “Whitewash”. It is the PERFECT sparkly white highlighter color for my browbone and the inside corner of my eyes. Can you see it? I just used a neutral mineral eye color, Hazelnut, with the Whitewash in this photo.

I want to marry it. Seriously, y’all call up your Mary Kay consultant and get you some Whitewash pencil!

That’s the Weekender Collection lip pencil in Pink Sand on my lips. Isn’t it pretty? It’s a great daytime netural! There are matching nail colors for it and the other lip color, Coral Stone. Love! I have Coral Stone polish on my toes now.

Having tried them all, I can highly, highly recommend all these products in the Weekender Collection! You can get them from your MK Consultant while supplies last, so hurry! If you don’t have a consultant, use mine, she’s wonderful and she ships for free even if you don’t live near me.

Thanks Mary Kay! I love this collection!

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Mary Kay gave me some sweet new makeup to try, and I did, and then I told you about it. Pretty straightforward, eh?

May 14, 2011

{Belated} Mother’s Day Makeover

I have an awesome friend, Jen. She is a mom of three boys (including 5-year-old twins!) and she helps me out all. the. time. She has been known to shovel my snowy driveway and clean my dirty house! A few weeks ago she texted me and asked me a kind of random question, “What makes you feel beautiful?” (But that is SO a Jen thing to do!) I texted her back that doing my makeup really makes me feel beautiful. What can I say, it just gives me a boost and makes me feel like myself. She texted me back that she really needed some new makeup, and I immediately decided that I wanted to get her some for Mother’s Day, because Jen is one of the most dedicated moms I know. So, I conspired with my friends at Mary Kay to give Jen a Mother’s Day makeover!

**BUT** life happened, as it has a tendency to do, and Jen spend most of the week of Mother’s Day in the hospital with some health problems. She got out the Friday before, but due to her being sick I wasn’t able to do her makeover until a couple of days after Mother’s Day. BUT better late than never, right? I went over to her house one night and did her makeup with all the Mary Kay products I picked out for her. Here’s Jen before I got ahold of her. Fortunately she takes very good care of her skin so she didn’t have any flaws to cover up! I just enhanced her beauty.

And here she is after:

Not bad, eh? She was feeling great, and the next day she got up and did her makeup herself and one of the moms at school told her how great she looked when she was picking up the kids. Woot woot!! How’s that for a confidence-booster??

Here are the Mary Kay products I used on Jen.

To get a smooth canvas: Mary Kay Foundation Primer, TimeWise MatteWear Liquid Foundation in Ivory 2, Concealer in Ivory 2, and Mineral Pressed Powder in Ivory 2.

On her cheeks: Mineral Blush in Sunny Spice and Mineral Highlighting Powder in Pink Stardust.

On her eyes: Mineral Eye Shadow in Crystalline on her browbone and lash line and Granite in the crease. Eye liner and Ultimate Mascara in Black.

On her lips: Lip liner in Cappucino and Creme Lipstick in Sweet Nectar,with NouriShine Lip Gloss in Fancy Nancy.

My friends at Palmer’s Skin care also sent Jen some of my FAVORITE products to pamper her whole body, including Skin Therapy Oil and Body Wash. Thanks so much to Mary Kay and Palmer’s for helping me give one of my best friends some pampering on Mother’s Day!

You can get these Mary Kay products through your MK Consultant. If you don’t have one, mine is awesome and she ships for free. Palmer’s Skin Care can be found at your local drug store!