Citrus Lane – January 2013

Weird.  I thought I cancelled this subscription?  I checked my credit card to see if I was charged but nope, I wasn’t.  Did someone send me this as a gift?  It doesn’t say anywhere on my account at Citrus Lane.  I also never received the blue brag book that was supposed to be sent to me. I had received a pink one instead.  Is this to make up for it?  Whatever, I am happy and really surprised to see this arrive at my door a couple weeks ago!  I was mighty unhappy with the December 2012 box but the January box totally made up for my disappointment.  I love love this box!

They changed some things about the box.  Here we go!

Yay, nice to see you again, Citrus Lane!

When I first opened the box.  The packing list is on a folded sheet of paper now, not cardboard-type paper anymore.

Packing list!

25% off coupon at Skip Hop with a $30 purchase.
Have I told you how much I love Skip Hop?
Love love love!

Underneath all that yellow tissue paper.
Skip Hop!  *swoons*!  Just that alone has made up the unhappiness from the December box.

Another book – Bear About Town. ($6.99)
Both of my kids would love this book!

Episencial.  I love these products.  This came with a full sized tube of Soothing Cream and a sample of the Playful Wash.
I received a full size of Soothing Cream from Bluum last year and I still have it. It lasts for a long time and it really does soothe on itchy patches.
I’ve used it for myself, too!  A full sized tube of Soothing Cream is about $11.00.

A Skip Hop Elephant Insulated Lunch Bag! Yay! ($14.00)
CB received a Giraffe one over Xmas and I can give this one to BB when he goes off to school one day.

Ella’s Milk & Vanilla baby cookies.($4.21)

This is great! I’ve been wanting to give BB some cookies.
I got him some Mum-mums from Amazon and he loves them but the only downside is that it’s made in China!!
The Hot Kid website says that it tests all the Mum mums products so it’s all safe to give to your kids but I can’t help but feel suspicious about that.
Of course they’ll say that – but how much of it is true?

This is a great alternative to the Mum mums.
I’ve tried giving BB this but he doesn’t like the texture so much and it kinda dribbles out of his mouth on the side.
It’s a bit messy and it doesn’t have the certain crunch rice crackers have – which he loves so much.  Gah.

Clean Well Disinfectant Spray – I had gotten this from a prior Citrus Lane box.
I haven’t tried it yet though.  Have to soon! ($3.99)

Here’s the whole box! If you add all the prices that I’ve found, it comes out to about $40 for the whole box.

Not too shabby!

Love it! I hope I get another one mysteriously.  🙂

If you’re interested in joining Citrus Lane, please use my invitation code HERE.  I love Citrus Lane. I think it’s the best subscription box out there for kids!  If you click on that link and create your own subscription, you will receive $10 off their order and I’ll get a $10 credit!  So it’s a win win situation. 🙂

Happy 1st Birthday, BB!

Saturday was BB’s first birthday.  Where did the time go??

My LO (Little One) is already pulling himself up to stand and crawling (just started, so he’s still kinda slow). Soon he’ll be walking! He got the go ahead from the pediatrician yesterday to start on whole milk which is a relief to me. No more formula!  Woohoo! That stuff is mighty expensive!  I nursed BB for the first five months but then my milk production just died after that. I think it runs in the family or something. 😦  So we’ve been on formula since then.  7 months of buying formula was not fun.  Not at all!

Saturday we had friends and family come over to celebrate with tons of food.  I didn’t really take any pictures. Bad mama!  A lot of fun was had by all, I hope.  My friends took pictures, phew!  We celebrate again this weekend with my side of the family. My parents were out having fun in Costa Rica and missed their grandson’s birthday by a day. That’s ok!  Meanie will be making a big pot of chicken pho and I’ll be making Steamy Kitchen‘s Gua Bao recipe – Pork Belly Buns!  Yummy!  I made it a while ago and it was pretty awesome.  Actually my mom saw the leftovers in my fridge and asked me where I had bought them.  I mentioned to her that I had made them all by myself and then she goes on to insult me that the meat was too dry.  Typical.  She’ll be eating my “dry” pork belly buns this weekend as appetizer.  Can’t wait to hear what she has to say to that this time!

Citrus Lane Review – December 2012

Yep, you saw that right, Citrus Lane!  I did cancel my subscription from earlier this year but I had a $10 credit waiting for me in my account so I used it for the December box.  🙂  I was excited to come back to Citrus Lane and I expected to be wow’ed by the December box but I’m not so wow’ed. 😦  Boohoo.

For those who are new to my blog, Citrus Lane is a monthly subscription box service that delivers boxes catered to your child’s age.  Citrus Lane calls their boxes “care packages for parents”.  Toys, baby food, feeding accessories are items that are usually included in the boxes.  I had a 3-month subscription earlier this year and totally loved them but I had to cancel because it was getting a little pricey.

So I jumped on this opportunity.  I don’t know if it’s just not an impressive box overall or is it just me?  What do you people think?

This month’s theme is “a few of our favorite things”
Just from that theme itself, you would expect an awesome box, right? I sure did!

Here’s the packing list – there are only 5 items in it. Well, 4, really and 1 coupon.

1)  Green Toys Submarine – I was very happy to see this! I give BB baths in the bathtub and need some more bath toys.  This is great when he graduates to the bigger toddler tub.  He’s still in the infant/toddler tub..in the bathroom sink. He tends to freak out when I wash him in the adult tub, even though in his baby bathtub. 😦  This is priced at $14.99

 

2)  Ecomom Offer – $15 towards anything.  This is great! I’ve heard a lot of good things about Ecomom and I’m sure I can definitely use this voucher.

3)  Pearhead Brag Book – …in Pink…??  It’s a pretty book and all and I would love to use it but it’s in pink?  I’ve got two little boys.  I emailed Citrus Lane and asked if I could get one in blue.  They promptly replied to me, apologized and said that a blue one is on the way. Yay!  Anyone interested in a pink brag book?  Let me know!  This is priced at $8.95

4)  Renee & Jeremy It’s a Big World CD – I’m not familiar with this at all but I’m sure both CB and BB would enjoy this since they love listening to music.  This has terrific reviews on Amazon and it’s priced at $12.70 on Amazon.  The website of Renee & Jeremy priced it at $10.00.  Citrus Lane priced this CD at $12.00 so I’ll go with that.

5)  Madécasse 75% Cocoa Mini Chocolate Bar – I like dark chocolate – but I find the higher the percentage is, the grosser it tastes.  I hope I like this one.  This looks really yummy but the other flavors look so much better.   Sea salt and nibs?  Arabica Coffee? Yummie!  75% dark chocolate.  I’m cringing just a little bit but I just hope it’s not as bitter as I expect it to be.  This bar costs $1.50

This box costs $52.44 total counting the Ecomom coupon.  That’s not too shabby at all compared to the $15 I paid for the box this month with my $10 credit!  But this box didn’t wow me as much as the other ones.   I’m just a wee bit disappointed but I’m kinda glad I stopped this subscription. I just wish the December box was a little more impressive than this one.  😦

I got my Winter Favorites Cravebox yesterday!  I’m going to review it soon. I also have a Holiday Voxbox from Influenster on the way.  Yay! My first official Voxbox! 🙂

 

A Little Bit of Everything Post

A Little Bit of Everything Noodle Soup – from Mee Noodle Restaurant
I used to live by here and ate this a lot.  Ollie’s, too!

You know, that noodle soup you can find in Chinese restaurants?  A Little Bit of Everything Noodle Soup?  It’s this noodle soup with a thick soup with literally, a little bit of everything.  Some pork, chicken, seafood, shrimp, assorted veggies, tofu and it’s oh-so-good. I haven’t had it in a while but this post is a lot like that soup.  A little bit of everything.

Unfortunately, this post is not about food.  Hah, caught your eye, didn’t I?  Just a bunch of random things and I’m too lazy to post them all in their own separate posts.

I just purchased something from SheSteals.com.  This Steal Network has great items on sale, two times a day, at really discount prices.  There’s also a KidSteals, BabySteals and a ScrapbookSteals (for those who scrapbook – I want to learn and make those one day!) Evil websites!  This is only a few that I check almost every day.  I should stop doing that.  So the other day I jumped on a MicrodermaMitt body mitt.  These things are awesome if you have really dry skin or just want to exfoliate.  I find that using a simple loofah or a pouf isn’t as effective as I like it to be.

My skin tends to get dry in the winter (like everyone else) so this is perfect.  You don’t use any cleansers or soap with this.  The directions say to step in a hot shower for a few minutes without using any soap or cleansers on your body so during that time, I just wash my hair.  After I wash my hair, I turn the water off or away from me, and use this sucker to scrub up and down or left and right all over my body.  It’s fascinating to see how much dead skin falls off of you.  After I use it, I go under the shower again and then I wash with my shower gel. I find that my skin is really soft afterwards and I’ve only used it twice so far!

This may be TMI but I use this sucker to slough off the dead skin that’s been hanging out in my armpits.  Long time ago when I was a teenager, I developed an allergic reaction to a deodorant (Ban deodorant – does that exist today still?) and it darkened my armpits and it’s embarrassing!  And well, after 2 pregnancies, my armpit condition hasn’t gotten any better since that day.  I’ve switched to non-aluminum deodorants, thanks to sites like Influenster and subscription box services like Conscious Box that made me aware that such items do exist.  I learned about Crystal stick deodorant and GeoDeo deodorant and those have been working pretty well for me. I don’t stink, I don’t think?  I’m not sure how these would work in the summer but I’ve been OK so far.  I think?  No one’s told me I stink yet. LOL.

So hopefully now with the Microderma Body Mitt, I’ll have super soft skin and normal armpits again! Yay! 🙂

I always seem to come down with something serious after I get pregnant.  After my first pregnancy, I had a raging root canal that needed to be done right away and I had to stop nursing CB because I was on painkiller drugs for the pain.  So not fun.  This time around, I came down with….shingles.  Ugh.

Horrible!!!  It started out with a seemingly harmless rash and then it started to look worse and worse, until the extreme pain start.  OMG.  The pain from shingles is NO JOKE.  I was taking Advil like it was candy and I had to stay home from work because I was literally writhing from the pain.  The pain was almost like labor but in the area where the rash was.  I had a patch of rash underneath my belly button and it felt like I was giving birth to a baby again. So not fun.  Luckily, I had caught it relatively early and was prescribed some meds from my bro-in-law but I was in so much pain.  I’m considered luckier than some though.  I know of some people who have had shingles but they still deal with the pain today, even tho it’s over.  I just have some bad scars on me so hopefully the mitt will help me a lot in that part, too! They have mitts for the face, too. I definitely recommend these products. Love it!  Now I need to find more (preferably at the price I got it by) for future presents!

On kids news, CB will probably start Preschool next week!  There’s been a lot of steps trying to get him into Preschool and I just handed in all the papers yesterday so there’s a huge chance he’ll be starting next week.  I will do a separate post on that soon…

Yesterday right before I gave BB a bath, I was poking around in his mouth (I usually wipe his teeth before bath) and noticed that it hurt when he chomped down.  So I poked and peered around and discovered 2 more teeth coming from up on top!  My baby is growing so fast! He was hiding those from me!  These days he drinks less formula and eats more food which is good.  That’s where we want to be.  As for crawling, he can get to his point of destination but I wouldn’t call it crawling or army crawling or bulldozing.  It’s weird.  It starts with this inchworm form, then he sticks his butt totally up so he’s in Downward Dog position, then flop to one side and roll a little bit but somehow he’s moved up a little bit and then repeat.  It’s not very pretty.  LOL but it works for him.

On the very last note, I was nominated for the Beautiful Blogger Award by Jennifer from My Life as a Single Mom.  Thanks Jennifer!  I’m new to this official blogger world so I’m not sure what this means.  🙂  I’ve been blogging on communities before such as Xanga and Live Journal so this is a whole new thing for me.  I am delighted and thankful for receiving this recognition though.  I think I’m supposed to list 7 things about me and then direct some well-deserved attention to 7 blogs I read.  So stay tuned!

Conversations with CB – #2

Hello, sorry for the hiatus in posts. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving (or a nice weekend if you aren’t in the US). We were busy little bees.  First, we had our annual Thanksgiving dinner at my sister’s house.  It was more like a one-sided family reunion.  It was really fun and there were lots of kids. My sister has plenty of toys and space so all the kids were very entertained.  BB had his first turkey day, complete with a turkey bib.  I did not get a picture – I know, I’m a bad mom. My dad did, though, but I haven’t seen them yet.  BB also had his first bits of turkey (not pureed!), some cheese, beer bread and other yummy treats.  I also fed him some brownie from McCafe and he seems to love it.  He’s becoming a pro at eating and chewing very well.  Hee hee.  He just hasn’t figured out putting the food in his mouth yet. He’ll try but he hasn’t grasped the idea of dropping the food in his mouth. I just see him gnawing on a fist.  Ha ha.

We also went to Boston for the first time in more than a year.  Meanie has family up there so we often go and visit every couple months.  We also get our haircuts up there, too!  So it’s been over a year since I’ve gotten a haircut.  I got about 6-8 inches chopped off.  Quite drastic, yes, but I’m free!  I think CB was wondering where my hair went, though.  He grabbed my tiny stub of a ponytail and looked bewildered as to where the rest of it is. Doh!

I wanted to introduce you to Carey’s babies – James & Bear-Bear.  🙂

 

James the Giraffe (given name) and Bear-Bear (named by CB)
They’re posing for a picture in BB’s crib
Yes, one of Bear-Bear’s eyes is unraveling. CB doesn’t seem to care.

James is about 1.5 years old.  We discovered him at a zoo in Montreal in a sea of giraffes, fell in love (me) and bought one for CB.  It was love at first sight for the two of them.  He now looks like he’s decades old, not just 1.5 years old.

He used to look like this:

All fuzzy and fluffy.
If you want him, he is sold at Amazon.

I know he’s got the shortest neck ever for a giraffe but he’s still a cutie.  Ha ha.

Bear-Bear also came with a blankie.  CB was so attached to this blankie but not to Bear-Bear at the time.  I had to buy a bunch of blankies because I had to wash them all the time cuz it got really gross and yucky so I had to recycle them.  So I had 5 blankies and 5 bears.  I’ve been gifting those bears to baby boys, without the blanket. Sorry, guys! 🙂  But he’s a very cuddly bear. He used to look like this:

Yep, all nice and fluffy.  Not any more!
He’s available at Amazon, too, but this listing has a bad review!
If you’re interested, he’s a Cocalo Bear and Blanket set but he’s from 3 years ago
so I don’t see him on their website anymore.

James and Bear-Bear are his babies.  The first thing he runs for when he gets home is for the two of them.  I think if he had to choose one over the other, he would totally choose James but the two are usually together.  I wash them every weekend (that’s why they’re not fuzzy anymore) in the laundry machine and if they are away “taking a shower” and he is about to take his afternoon nap, he asks for them.  “James?”  “Bear-Bear??”  “James???”  “Bear-Bear??!!?”  I just have to tell him that they are taking a bath at the moment but they will be with him when he wakes up from his nap.

I’ve caught CB in the act of feeding James (usually not Bear-Bear, don’t know why) whatever snack he’s eating.  He was trying to shove a pretzel rod in James’ mouth one time.  He will get a tissue to wipe James’ mouth or nose, because maybe he was sniffling, too.  He’s always hugging these guys and I’m sure he talks to them, too, because we hear him yapping away in his room before he goes to nap/sleep at night.

So we were leaving Boston on Sunday and I was packing his babies up.  I threw them in my bag and CB starts these bloodcurdling screams because apparently I was murdering them by throwing them in my bag.

So I said, “Fine, fine, I’ll leave their heads out so they can breathe, too, ok?”

I zip up his babies to the head so their heads are sticking out of my bag so you know, they can “breathe”.

CB is still screaming bloody murder….

I give up, threw him his babies and tell him not to forget them because we are not driving back for them!

CB gingerly holds up James and Bear-Bear, looks into their faces lovingly, and says to them in a worried voice, “ARE YOU OK, BABY??!!??!”

I was on the floor.  ROFL. Funniest and cutest thing ever.  LOL.  🙂

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BB is 10 months old this past Monday!  We went for his 9-month well visit last week (a little delayed because of Hurricane Sandy) and his measurements are:

Height:  28.25 inches

Head:  46 cm

Weight:  18 lbs, 10 oz

We are mostly surprised by the weight because we were convinced he was at least 20 lbs!  My dad was convinced that he was no longer 25th percentile for his weight because he’s so heavy but he’s not even that heavy. He just feels really heavy.  He gained 2 lbs, right on schedule.

He’s not crawling yet but he’s rocking/swaying on his hands and knees. He might be crawling by Christmas! He’s also loving “people food” (our food, not in puree form anymore) but he does love his oatmeal cereal and whatever purees I’ve made for him.  Fruits and veggies.  I also made him a chicken puree with sweet potatoes and carrots.  He looked really grossed out the first time he had it. I think he almost vomited.  LOL but he kept on opening his mouth for more. I think he looked really grossed out because it wasn’t sweet like the other purees he’s had in the past.  He’s definitely a sweet tooth, I think!

10 months, yay!
Can’t believe he’ll be a year old in 2 months!