Oops

"Beeni Baby" binky holder

Garrett has a very strong sucking reflex, and wants a bink in his mouth at all times.  Before he was born, I was totally against pacifiers.  Then he came out, latched on like a pro, and I decided that it just might be okay. :)  Anyways, he often sucks so rigorously that his bink pops out and inevitably falls on the floor.  Mark and I have always said, "Wouldn't it be nice if there were some kind of strap that just keeps it in there for him?"  We never thought such a thing actually existed, considering the obvious choking and asphyxiation hazards.  But I decided to google it anyways, just to satisfy my curiosity.  Oh man.  I was slightly horrified to find this contraption.
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It's called a "Beeni Baby."  Initially I thought it was a joke.  But....it's NOT.  Can you believe this?  I mean, really?  Luckily it has been re-called.  Just because all of us 'wish' this kind of thing existed, we all know that it's totally impractical and unsafe.  The best part was all the comments from parents.  Here are a few of my favorites:
 
"No way. it looks like a muzzle. would NEVER use this with my child or give it to anyone as a gift."
"For one thing, it doesn’t look right at all!"
"Ok, we’ve all thought of this (including plain old duct tape), but none of us actually did it! I think I dislike this as much as Walking Wings. Just do the work yourself (meaning pick up the paci, clean it off, etc). No one said being a mom was a cake walk of baby products that did the job for you."
So the verdict is out on "Beeni Baby": definite NO.  Guess we'll just continue to fish around in Garrett's swing and car seat for his dropped bink, and listen to fussing when he accidentally spits it out :)  Such is life!

Garrett's baby hickey

Continuing on the subject of Garrett's love of sucking (is that weird??), we recently discovered a bad habit of his.  While laying his belly, perched on my chest, Garrett sucked contentedly on his forearm.  He was slurping away and I just thought it was so cute.  He did this for probably 15 minutes before I put his in his swing so I could get some cleaning done.  An hour later I noticed a small, purple bruise on Garrett's little arm.  Turns out he gave himself a baby hickey.  Hahaha.  The nurse at our Monday morning weight-check told me I need to dress him in long sleeves so people don't call Children's Services on us.  Seriously?  I just try to keep his arm out of his mouth.  But when I don't and he somehow manages to get it into his mouth, I just smile.  Who knew they even did that? :)







 

Wanderlust

View of the Blue Ridge Mts. from Craggy Gardens Pinnacle
Outside Asheville, NC

Overlooking the Sleeping Bear Dunes from the top of a dune bluff

Empire, MI (20 miles outside the gorgeous Traverse City)

There are so many places I want to see and experience at some point in my life...but of the places I've already been, these two are especially dear to me.  Someday I'm going to drag my husband and son (and any other future little ones) to both destinations.  And they're going to like it.  Even the 8-hr. drive to NC or the 9-hr. drive to Northern MI.  Cause I said so :) 

454 miles from home

502 miles from home

Good morning, love

Garrett and I spent a few minutes outside on this warm morning.  Oh, how I love quiet time with him.

It's the little things...

Greetings from our little home.  I've been meaning to update for a while now, but life with a newborn gets crazy (imagine that?!).  So Mark and I discovered that Garrett makes this wonderfully funny face when air hits him. Then everyone started telling us that it's because wind/air makes a newborn hold their breath.  Either way, we think it's the cutest thing in the world.  And for the record, we don't make a habit of blowing in his face...hehe.  It's just for the occasional photo-op. :)

Well Garrett is just under a month old and I'm nursing, which means several late-night/obscenely-early-morning feedings.  I've found that the longer I spend feeding him, the longer he will sleep when I eventually put him back in his crib - so it pays to be patient.  It also pays to rock him to sleep before laying him down because if I don't, he invariably fusses less than ten minutes after I get back into bed.  Our baby monitor works well (too well, it sometimes seems), and even the slightest baby whimper sounds like a yell.  Of course that may be less about the monitor and more about my motherly instincts, considering the fact that Mark sleeps right through it.  Anyways, last night I was up with Garrett around 3:30am.  I was watching TLC, eating lemon sandwich cookies (don't judge me), and trying to coax him back to sleep.  Around 4, Garrett's eyes finally shut and his breathing became patterned. SUCCESS.  I tip-toed back to his nursery and carefully laid him in his crib.  The second his body hit the bed he let out the smallest little fart, which woke him up.  I checked his diaper, which was clean.  But that pesky little toot kept us up for an additional 30 minutes by the he stopped fussing and fell back asleep. Go figure :)