Baby Talk Wednesday: Father’s Day for Dad-to-be

As a side bar, for those of you concerned with the lack of “house posts” currently in this blog, I promise they are coming.  We’ve been trying to cram as much “couples time” into the last few months as possible knowing that it would get miserably hot soon and I hate the heat to begin with, let alone while pregnant.  We have lots of “last minute” things we want to fix pre-baby arrival, so stay tuned!

And now for our regularly scheduled programming.  A few weekend’s back, it was Father’s Day and I was excited to celebrate Steve’s first as a “dad to be”.  Something I didn’t realize about baby growing is it’s sometimes hard for dad-to-be to feel really involved in the process.  A lot of baby prep is focused on momma to be (obviously, I mean, how the heck am I going to get this baby out is a good place to start with the baby prep), but I think dad’s need some attention too, which brings me to Father’s Day.

I decided to put together a “Daddy-To-Be” bag for Steve to prepare him for Baby P’s pending arrival.

First up — the bag itself.  I went with the Diaper Dude Messenger 1.  We had seen it at Babies R Us and Steve liked the overall feel.  It’s a cross body messenger bag with some handy pockets in the front.

It’s simple but feels very durable, we’ll keep you posted on that in a few months.

Next, it was time to pack it with some essentials.

I threw in some wipes, hand sanitizer,  Kleenex, baby powder, some disposable bibs I found that seemed appropriate for a “dad” bag, chapstick, and some trail mix.  These items fit nicely in the front pockets with room to spare.

I didn’t pack too much inside except for a handful of diapers.  The bag came with a changing pad which you can see on the right.  There is a handy hook inside the bag which I suspect is for keys, easy pacified access, etc. and a pocket in the back that he could put his wallet in if he didn’t want to carry it.

And then finally, I threw in some reading material.

I liked how this book was organized and it’s very focused on dad to be which most pregnancy/expecting books are not.  Steve is enjoying it so far, I’ll ask him for the full lowdown once he’s done with it.

My mom also helped out by sending me down a few extra supplies — an “I Love Daddy” bib and a “Daddy and Me” story book.  All in all, Steve loved his gift and has already said that he likes having his own designated bag that he can pack up how he chooses…apparently he’s already predicted the diaper bag I have will be full of everything including the kitchen sink.  Probably comes from one too many times of carrying my suitcase when we go somewhere…

Anyone else put together a daddy to be gift?  Pampered dad a little extra on Father’s Day?  Recommendations on other guy diaper bags?

Baby Talk Wednesday: Dog Theory

As you might guess, while we have minimal knowledge of baby, we have a decent base of dog knowledge, so it probably won’t surprise you that pretty early on we started prepping our dogs for all things baby.

While Kirby didn’t really enjoy the company of children, Lucy has always loved kids.  When our nieces or nephews come over, she’s happy as can be to follow them around, let them lay on her, whatever they like, she eats it up.  The youngest child she had really been around though was 5, which is obviously a bit different than even a smaller toddler.  While, we had a BBQ to celebrate the beginning of summer and our friends brought over their almost 2 year old.  Same thing, Lucy followed her wherever she went, phew.  Most recently, Lucy hung out with a 10 month old who thought she was the cat’s pajamas.  She was content to just sit by him and let him touch her, all good things as far as we’re concerned!

Hurley is still a bit shy of people, he’s always been shy, and he warms up if treats are involved, but he takes a bit with new people.  Anytime we have him out and about, kids always want to pet him.  We’ve found he trusts kids a lot more than adults, and if they have a little treat to give him, he’s a happy camper.  Again, excellent first steps.

We have a full and intensive dog schedule going on over here, so I’ll share along the way (and let you know if any of it worked once the baby is actually here…hahaha).

Meanwhile, anyone else have a dog they needed to get ready for baby and/or kids?  What all did you do to prepare?  How’d your dog do with the new family member or tiny friend?  Lay it on me, I love to try out theories!

Baby Talk Wednesday: 365 Stories

I was home a few weekends ago for my sister’s wedding and while I was there I was talking to my mom, I was reminiscing about my favorite childhood story book — 365 Bedtime Stories.  It is a story for every day of the year (obviously), but it was something from my great grandma that I read with my mom and dad.  I loved sitting and listening to the stories every night and when I started learning how to read, it was with this book.  I headed downstairs to dig it out.

Sadly, it was in much worse shape than I remembered…most of January was a lost cause as the pages were too torn to decipher.  My mom had found a newer copy (the original was from 1955) at a garage sale, but it didn’t have the same vintage pictures, colorful cover, or delightful old book smell like the one I remembered.  I took to the internet and found a few good copies available through Amazon.  I ordered my copy and it arrived today!!

I still love how vibrant the colors are and how engaging the artwork is.

Love the vintage coloring and of course, it has that fantastic old page smell.

I’m so excited to share this book with Steve and Baby P!  In fact, I learned that the baby can hear now, so we’ve started reading nightly and I can’t wait to add this to the rotation.

Anyone else get sentimental in their baby preparations?  What was the first baby purchase you made or can see yourself making during your pregnancy?  Dang hormones got me tearing all up as I type…

Baby Talk Wednesday: Necessary Baby Gear?

Don’t worry, I’m not going to actually write the post in baby talk…I want to talk about baby stuff.  We’re starting to research all kinds of the big (and little) things that babies need — strollers, baby monitors, breast pumps, diaper bags, etc.  I’m not big on extra clutter or getting everything and the kitchen sink for the bambino, but I know we need the essentials…which brings me to my baby talk question of the month…

So moms — new and seasoned — what are/were your top 3 baby “must haves”?  If you aren’t a mom yet, what are the 3 coolest baby things you’ve seen?  

Please help us out because mostly, we feel like this….

And yes, this was taken the day we found out.  I felt just like Steve on the inside…

Introducing — Hurley!

With all the excitement of our upcoming addition, I totally neglected to mention our newest furbaby member.  My apologies to him for the delayed introduction.  Before he makes his blog debut, I thought I’d give you some back story…

If you’ve been a reader for any amount of time, you know that we have two dogs, Kirby & Lucy.   They were great dogs, but Kirby had a bit of a dark side and he is really uncomfortable with children.  I adopted him several years ago when he was 9 months old, and didn’t have him around any children.  After I’d had him about a year, he had his first encounter with a pint size human and he was not a fan.  Several years of observation later, and the best I can guess is that some kids were very mean to him, he fought back to protect himself, and then off he went to the overnight receiving kennels to be adopted out without any history.

Fast forward to our discovery that we were going to be having a pint size human and we knew we’d need to figure out something for Kirby.  As it would happen, my parents dog passed away a few years ago and they have been in dog withdrawal (and subsequent denial about the withdrawal) for some time.  Kirby fits in great with their empty nesting, quiet, lifestyle so he has retired up to South Dakota.  We were planning to just have Lucy but after a few months without her brother, it was EXTREMELY obvious that Lucy is a multiple dog kinda gal.

We wanted to make sure her new buddy would be good with kids, so we set our sites on puppies 6 mos. or under, knowing we’d have time to raise and socialize them before the new baby comes.  I know, you’re thinking it, we’re crazy.  However, we found Hurley.  Hurley was 4 months old and had lived with a foster family since he was 6 weeks.  He was brought in to a shelter in Kansas City at 6 weeks where they were going to put him down.  Thankfully, a rescue group found him, raised him in a foster home with his brothers and sisters, and got him ready to go.

He’s 5 and a half months, weighs 45 lbs, and is doing great in his puppy classes.  Lucy is significantly happier and I know he’s going to be great with the new baby as well.  Not sure what he is, some sort of lab mix probably (super vague, obviously, haha)  but we’ve never cared much about pedigree in this house, only temperament.

Without further ado, I’d like you to me Mr. Hurley!

As for how we got his name, we just stumbled in to it.  His given name was Snoopy which just was not jiving with us, so we tried out several before we found one that fit!

Anybody else adding any new family members?  New or Fur?  Any tips on getting dogs ready for kids??  We’re in full baby prep mode over here as far as dogs are concerned…