Our little one's first trip was to Japan as a 15 week-old bun in the oven and a couple months later on a road trip to Canada. His first flights out in the real world were home to North Carolina at 6 weeks and again at 6 months. But going home, well, that's not really traveling. I mean, my parents have a pack 'n play and borrow tons of toys from my Aunt and spoil us rotten. So, I can't really count that as traveling or vacation. It's just... going home ^_^

This past weekend was our first real trip with baby in tow. We took the Go Bus up to Boston where we rented and shared an apartment with my sister's family (hubby and kids ages 3 and 5), and they even provided us with a Pack 'n Play! The bus wasn't nearly as terrible as I expected, other than being long. Including the transportation to and from the bus stations, it took us NINE HOURS door to door from Brooklyn to Boston, and about 8 on the return trip. Yikes! Luckily Kenzo was fairly easily entertained, and took a couple of naps each way. But it made us seriously contemplate the Thanksgiving trip to Japan we are planning. >_<

We thought about renting a car, but actually the bus ended up being much better - we could take turns playing with the baby without having to pull over and switch seats. Whoever's not playing with baby could sleep or catch up on e-mails, or whatever. And hello, SO MUCH CHEAPER!!! We paid $73 round trip, total, for all 3 of us! I felt a bit guilty about not paying for Kenzo and bringing his car seat, will probably go ahead and do that next time. I didn't really think about it until we were on the bus and my head started filling with scary scenarios of crashing. Ugh.

As far as the time in Boston goes, we had a blast! Kenzo wouldn't go to bed before us which was around 10pm (look for a post on our sleep training which started last night coming soon!), and his little cousins had us all up around 6 or 7am, so he was seriously sleep deprived and uber cranky, but for the most part a trooper. He LOVED the aquarium and was really fascinated with all the fish and animals! He loved his Aunt and cousins but for some reason cried every time his Uncle got near him...

Saturday and Sunday were long full days with lots of walking, so we were happy to carry Kenzo in his Mei Tai occasionally so his cousins could take a nap in his stroller. Of course we took him to Harvard for a bit to check out his future school, but told him he has to study hard if he wants to go there cuz mommy and daddy sure can't pay for it! Ha!

But of course family time was top priority! Lots of cuddles!!!

But you know those vacations where you get home and you're like, "Dude, I need a vacation after my vacation"?? This was one of those vacations! Haha! Between the 3 little ones and 4 exhausted parents, there was always somebody in a mood...probalby me most of the time lol! I'm really not sure how you deal with more than one child, but I guess we'll cross that road when we get to it!!

I don't know about you but I'm kind of a germaphobe. Long before baby, I never left home without my handy dandy bottle of hand sanitizer. Now with baby it's even worse. As he's getting older I'm getting a little less paranoid, hey, I'm actually starting to let him TOUCH STUFF outside of the home. At 7 months, I realize catching a cold probably won't kill him and will most likely help build his immune system. Still, yuck, this is New York City guys! Think of all the germs and diseases running amok on every single surface that your baby wants to touch and lick and gnaw on. Ick ick ick.

But we can't exactly wash with soap or douse in hand sanitizer every single thing, so I was pretty psyched to check out the SaniLite UV Hand Held Sanitizerby Baby's Journey:

Push the button for 2 seconds to turn it on. Wave it half an inch over whatever you want to sanitize for 20 seconds and bish bash bosh goodbye germy germs! Easy? YES! Does it work? Well, it says it kills 99.9% of germs, viruses, bacteria & allergens on hard surfaces. Short of using my hubby's suggestion (get someone with a cold to suck on a pen, then use the sanitizer and suck on the pen yourself and wait a week - HA!) I guess you just have to take their word for it. It definitely eliminates your helpless feeling when you want to clean baby's surroundings because let's face it sometimes a wipe isn't enough and you don't want to use hand sanitizer on something that will be in baby's mouth! And it is way smaller than that huge high chair / shopping cart cover I lug around - it's just barely bigger than a computer mouse, and has a safety mechanism that turns off the UV light if the device gets flipped upside down.

Baby's Journey has a ton of other great products for baby, so definitely check them out! In the meantime, get your own SaniLite for FREE by entering the giveaway now (US Residents ages 18 and older only):

**Disclaimer: Although I did receive this product free of charge, I was not compensated in any other way to do this product review. All thoughts and opinions are my own and completely unbiased.

Yep, my little man turned 7 months today. Where has the time gone? It seems like just yesterday he was kicking around in my tummy, and today he's kicking me in the face! But he is also giving me the sweetest smiles and giggles, babbling mamama's and babababa's, crawling snake style (flat on the ground rather than up on hands and knees), eating solids (so far he's done, in this order, carrots, peas, sweet potato, apple, and pear). He hasn't shown any signs of pulling himself up or sitting up from a laying position, but the other day he started putting his hands on the top of the crib rail, so we moved his mattress down to the lowest level just to be safe! He just has his bottom 2 teeth, but there are 2 gigantic bubbles up on the top so I reckon those will be in soon! And now the monthly collage you've all been waiting for...

As an "Expert Mom" for Mommy Nearest (an awesome app for parents - download today and don't forget to join the #SummerChallenge and win $1,000!!!), Kenzo and I were invited to the launch of a cool new baby product they sponsored...Spuni. With my linguistical background I had no problem reading it correctly, but for those of you not in the know it's pronounced "spoo-nee" ^_^

Can you guess what it is? Can you??

Baby spoons!! Really cute ones at that. With a funky design that is meant to be less messy - the idea is that the shape will lead to baby sucking out the food better, and won't allow baby to push the food to the back end of the spoon, which is what usually happens am I right?!

We met CEO and co-founder Marcel, pictured above, who ironically doesn't have any kids but was an incredibly nice guy and took the time to tell me about the international team behind Spuni and its years of development. I can't believe how much effort goes into... a spoon... Just shows how much they believe in their product and want it to be the best it can be!

After ogling the Spuni cakes for a bit (yes, that's cake pictured above!!), I decided it was time for Kenzo to give this thing a go and see what all the fuss is about!

Well, the little dude was not having it. I don't really blame him... he's only been on solids for a couple of weeks, and has only been fed by mommy and daddy in his high chair in the kitchen. So, I can't say I'm not surprised he wouldn't open up for a complete stranger coming at him with a funky spoon in the middle of a party. Haha!! I gave it a try next and he did take a little bite, but it was not at all what you could call a good test of the product. >_< Booooo... I guess I can always go out and buy a set (they come in packs of 2, with 8 color options, and silver and wood coming soon - fun stuff!!).

Did you hear did you hear?? Yesterday Wills & Kate had a bouncing baby..... BOY!!! A whopping 8 pounds 6 ounces. Let the frenzy of judgement and influence begin!

Of course when you get down to it, they are just a man and a woman, a husband and a wife, two brand spanking new parents who are clueless and scared and thrilled to have such a blessing enter their lives. But get real, they're not just any new parents, they're the freaking future King and Queen of England!! What they do, who they wear, how they act, it's all newsworthy! Every detail leaked about their little one will be headline news and impact the decisions of parents around the world! Let's get started with just a few decisions they'll make this week alone that we are all DYING to find out:

1) What kind of birth did they have? Vaginal (if so - medicated, unmedicated, assisted?) or C-Section. The reports are it was "natural" and not a cesarean. To me "natural" means out the hoo-ha with no drugs (pitocin, epidural, etc) or vacuum or forceps. When the news agencies say "natural" what they really mean is vaginal, they just don't want to use the word vaginal. VAG VAG VAGINAL!!! lol

2) Will the boy be circumcised? The word is probably not, because hello, it's Europe. Good on them. We didn't either. Seems to be moving a bit in that direction despite the AAP endorsing it recently. Sorry, I'm not gonna cut my son's penis just because it will slightly lower his risk of STD's and infection. How bout we teach him how to properly clean it and wear a condom. Sounds like a better approach to me! (No judgement to those who choose to circumcise for religion or to match daddy or for whatever reason! It'd definitely one of those tough personal decisions parents have to make!)

3) Will Kate breastfeed? Pump? Formula feed? Have a wet nurse? Will the little prince be fed straight up champagne and caviar from a golden bottle encrusted with diamonds and sapphires?

4) What name(s) did they choose? Can you just IMAGINE if they went with something wonky like Pickle. Ha! Wait, do they even have a last name? Wait, who cares...

5) Other questions that I doubt we'll ever have an answer to, but inquiring minds would LOVE to know... Did William cut the cord? Will they plant the placenta by a tree at Buckingham Palace, or encapsulate it for Kate? Did they save the cord blood? Did they do skin to skin kangaroo care after birth? Did the baby room in or get whisked away to the nursery? Will they co-sleep? Will they get a full time nanny? Will they waste no time and have a set of royal Irish twins???

So, what parenting decisions do you think they have made or hope they will make?? Do you think we will ever know, or should we even be privy to such private details? Personally, I would love to know every single detail because I am so completely fascinated with the Royals, but frankly I don't think it's any of our business... booooo....

It's a vicious cycle that most new parents know well. Baby doesn't get a good night of sleep (for whatever reason be it teething or upset stomach or too excited developing a new skill or fill in the blank with just about any reason you can possibly think of), so baby is tired and cranky which leads him to not not go down for a nap or to take a super short one, which leads him to be more tired and more cranky which leads him to not go down or sleep well during the next nap, which leads to even more overtiredness and crankiness which leads to fighting bedtime and waking up throughout the night which leads to.... you see where I'm going here? AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH F#$#@%#@$@&^!*@&#^$*&^!*@&#!!!!!!!

This has been going on for the past 3 nights/days. I am so so so tired. Like, reminiscent of the first few weeks of motherhood tired. To make matters worse I was so tired and cranky yesterday that I broke down and had a tall iced coffee from Starbucks at 4pm. Whoops. Of course I was tossing and turning not able to fall asleep til like 3am. That's what happens when you average one cup of coffee every 6 months for the past year and a half. It hits you hard!

For several days now (or weeks? i've lost track of time...), Kenzo will fall asleep while nursing, I'll transfer him to his crib, and he'll wake up crying about 20-30 minutes later. This happsn for most naps during the day, and also every bedtime. I always give it a few minutes because very very rarely he'll settle himself down. But usually it escalates to the point of hysterical screaming/crying and I go rescue him until I can go lie down to go to sleep together. Last night we were so frustrated we decided to try the "Cry It Out" method. We let him scream for 5 minutes (ok, I caved at 3 minutes) and I went in there to just reassure him that I'm here, quietly. That didn't do a damn thing to calm him down. He doesn't seem in pain, he's not tugging at his ears or curling his legs up or anything. But it is literally dinosaur blood curdling screaching. Like, I worry he's going to damage his vocal cords! No joke!! So finally I picked him up and like a light switch all the screaming and huffing and puffing stopped. Amazeballs. WTF dude!!! Is he faking? Manipulating? Experiencing honest to goodness traumatizing levels of separation anxiety??? Being haunted by some super evil poltergeist when I'm not in the room???!!! I put him back down, with a pacifier, and he started screaming immediately. I left the room, gave it 5 minutes, went back in. Same old same old. Finally gave up and went back to the old routine - all 3 of us just went to bed together. Hmph.

I think he finally passed out around midnight last night, and woke up twice in the night. This morning he woke up at like 6:30am flipping around, cooing, crying, kicking me in the boob. I laid there with him for almost an hour thinking he would fall back asleep. Instead he finally started crying, so we got up. I was holding him in my lap and he just passed out, drool and all! Poor guy is so tired!!! Mommy too....

The "cry it out" method is very controversial. Some people say "If it doesn't feel right, it probably isn't". And, you know, it really doesn't feel right, letting your child scream and cry and sound so terribly sad!! But what also doesn't feel right is knowing my 7 month old baby can't go to sleep or fall back asleep by himself. We're not going to be able to drop everything and go to sleep with him every damn time. If I knew this was a phase that would end organically in a month or two, I'd just deal with it, and try to enjoy the extra cuddle time. But I worry that as long as we let him call the shots it's going to be worse and worse and before we know it we're going to have a kindergartner who is still sleeping with us and is crying and having tantrums every day when we drop him off at school.

OMG TELL ME WHAT TO DO!!!! WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

It's been almost a year and a half since I went OUT out, and even longer since I had a proper girls night out. When one of my Bay Ridge Baby Mamas started planning a ladies' night out a while back, I initially excluded myself from the plans. I felt guilty to ask my husband for a night out. Not to mention the fact that Kenzo doesn't go to bed until around 10 or 11pm, at which time he nurses. A few days before the event I got a change of heart and decided I deserved this. I took out a few bottles which we hadn't tried since the one time 4 months ago when Kenzo refused all of them. I filled them up with water and let him try them, and you know what, he actually took some sips!! So, I decided I could pump and daddy could feed him from a bottle if need be.

Friday morning, this mama got pumped for her big night out :)

After a miserably hot day home with the little one, I finally pulled myself together and daddy got home just in time for me to take off. He's used to getting Kenzo ready for bed and I didn't feel the need to write him a list of instructions or anything. My only instruction was regarding the milk I had pumped... I pumped 4 ounces which was in the fridge ready to go. I had another 4 ounces frozen from 3 months ago. I told him to call or e-mail me if he was going to give him milk because I had to calculate so as not to have too much to drink. They say you need 2 hours to process 1 drink. Oh man, so much to think about, no more carefree getting trashed with the girls out on the town!!

A quick photo to capture this landmark occasion, an air kiss to baby and hubby (since I had lipstick on, is this a first since Kenzo's birth?!?!), and I was out the door.

I thought I would be anxious or sad or guilty or all kinds of bad feelings, but you know what?? It felt great!!! I did feel a bit naked without baby or stroller or diaper bag or anything. And my ears felt awkward wearing dangly earrings for the first time in 6+ months. Other than that, it was exhilarating!!! And hot. I met some of the girls from nearby to walk together the 16 blocks to the bar where we'd meet everyone else. It was 8:30pm but still over 90 degrees and sooooooooo humid. YUCK!

We tried to keep baby talk to a minimum, but of course the random discussion about babies eating their own poop came up here and there! haha!! I had a yummy hard cider on ice and then we moved on to another bar where I was on the fence about whether or not to have another drink. Then I got a text from hubby saying Kenzo's getting his bottle of milk. Hmmm I guess that made my decision for me. I cut myself off and switched to ice water instead which was equally yummy since I had been sweltering all day with no AC and somehow both of the bars we went to were pretty tepid and failed to cease my "glow".

Around 11:30pm we were on the move. I decided to go ahead and call it a night. A bunch of the other moms continued on to another bar and then dancing I believe. I don't regret my decision to go home because it was a rough night after I got home - Kenzo woke up screaming soon after I got home, so I nursed him and we co-slept as he was waking up every couple of hours. Possibly due to the heat (no AC remember?), or teething, or who knows what. But today I'm hot and tired and BEYOND THRILLED that I am not at all hungover. I can't even imagine that. Yuck. That said, I can't wait for the next ladies night and I will prepare for it better by stocking up the freezer with breast milk. YEEHAW!!!

Daddy reported that he had a good night with Kenzo. He started crawling!! WHAT!?!!? And he drank nearly the whole 4 ounces of milk from the bottle! What a good boy :)

My night out was a success and has me feeling like maybe we are ready to look into getting a babysitter for an occasional date night, or doing a babysitting co-op with some mommy friends... Maybe soon...

My little one is almost 7 months and while he has (thank god) grown out of his spit-up factory phase, he has entered the teething and drooling-like-no-other phase. Especially when he's gnawing on his Sophie teether, his shirt is just soaked in sweet baby drool! What's a mom to do? Throw on a bib, of course! We have some hand-me-downs that do the job, but they're stained and, well, boring.

So imagine my delight when I came across Beauty & the Bib making the cutest bibs ever!!! My favorite is their bandana style bib, which they have in cute designs such as London Bus, camo, and bumblebee! They also have fun shapes like strawberry, star, apple, cupcake, and heart.

Here are the bibs I got my hands on:

I was oh too excited to strap one of these on to my little guy. No longer was his bib just for doing the dirty work, now it was a cute accessory, too! I was so excited with our find that I took our new bib stash to one of our play groups and let our baby friends try them on. They are some pretty darned adorable kids, but these bibs are a close second in cute factor ^_^

Review wise, I can't say enough how cute and unique they are. They're also incredibly soft and well made. They have a long velcro strip in the back giving you extra room to grow. So whether your baby is spitting up, drooling, or having a wet time getting the hang of a sippy cup / bottle, definitely check out Beauty & the Bib if you want your little one to be stylin'! Please note that the US distribution site is under construction, but you should be able to order directly from them by mid-August 2013, with a 10% off discount using the code "MINYMOE" no less! If you can't wait that long, you can order from the original UK site here.

**Disclaimer: Although I did receive this product free of charge, I was not compensated in any other way to do this product review. All thoughts and opinions are my own and completely unbiased.

If you'll recall I jumped on the Mommy Nearest train as an "Expert Mom" back at the beginning of June and it's been a fun ride ever since! The app is pretty freaking awesome, and I've been working really hard to get the best family friendly Bay Ridge spots on there, and review restaurants and shops and play places I go with my little one! The other Expert Mom's have been hard at work as well. We are a small (and mighty, hoowah!) group, but we need your help to make Mommy Nearest the end all be all app for mommy's around town!!

How can you help, you ask?? WELL....

Mommy Nearest is launching (like, RIGHT NOW!!) a summer-long contest called the Mommy Nearest Summer Challenge.

You can play along and get rewarded for the things that you do on the app -- like add a favorite kid-friendly restaurant or rate/review other places.  The top competitors get some seriously amazing prizes...

The top individual prize is $1,000 cash (umm, yes please!!).  Some of the other prizes include iPad minis, free kids classes at Gymboree and Wee Ones Club, free babysitting services by Urban Sitter and even free apartment cleanings courtesy of MyClean.

Mommy Nearest is also giving a whopping $5,000 to the Mommy Group that earns the most points as a team! So, make sure you are part of the "Bay Ridge Baby Mamas (& Daddies)" group - we are gonna DESTROY the other groups and claim our rightful $5K yo!!! (If you're not automatically added to my group, go to your profile and add yourself!)

CLICK HERE to join the Mommy Nearest Summer Challenge!!!

Winners will be announced shortly after Labor Day, so start playing today.

If you’re not using Mommy Nearest yet, it’s a free mobile app that helps parents find child-friendly resources on-the-go.  The places listed on the app are rated and reviewed by other moms, including me!  The app has been helpful when I’ve been in a pinch looking for a place to change my little guy's diaper, a nursing friendly spot, a yummy place with a high chair...

If you're looking for some good reads as well, you can check out my posts as well as posts from the other awesome Expert Moms on the Mommy Nearest blog here.  

Enjoy the #SummerChallenge! 

<Comment below if you've signed up so I can be sure to follow you on the app!!>

At 6 months and some change, my little man is becoming quite the little monkey. Which is great! And cute. And fun... Except when we're co-sleeping and I get kicked in the jaw out of the blue. Also not so fun when it comes time to change his diaper. I recently read a hilarious blog about the styles of squirmers during diaper changes (It's totes worth a read! FYI, mine is a death roll-octopus-fire hose combo!)

Seriously the day after reading that blog entry I randomly came across this product which literally blew my mind:  The Happy Changer by Hulabye. It's basically a vest that straps onto your diaper changing pad and keeps your little one from flipping himself all over the place. Genius. GENIUS I tell ya!! I contacted them right away and wouldn't ya know they were awesome enough to send me one for review - happy days!!!

The set-up instructions were nice to have, but a glance at them was all it took and I had the thing set up in all of 20 seconds - it's just velcro if you're wondering, not a bunch of hooks and ties or snaps or anything complicated.

First impression? MAN, this thing is soft!!! Like, I just want to rub it on my face. Is that weird? lol. I got the "minky" fabric, so I can't attest to the "flannel" one, but I imagine it's nice and soft as well. But the minky one, wow, if only all of my clothing and bedding could be made of that stuff!

OK, enough drooling over the fabric. It's time to get down to business here! After confirming the time is right with the tried and true "pinch test", I scooped up the little guy and strapped him in. It says "all sizes", and it fit him just fine, so no problems there! Though, he doesn't seem quite as taken with the "minky" goodness as I was, but what can you expect.

How cute is this design, by the way!? They have some other great choices as well. And then, without having to ask, he started his own product test run. Let the "death roll" action begin!

Would you look at that? Happy Changer SUCCESS - this thing works!! Kenzo's days as a death-roller have ended (on the changing table at least). Happy Mama! Poor guy isn't quite sure what's going on though. He's all "Hey, what's with this resistance?? Come on!!! I wanna move!!" And then he is appeased when he realizes he can still grab his toes. Happy Baby :)

My overall impression is that I love this thing. It's soft, it's cute, it's easy to setup, it's easy to clean, and it keeps my baby in one place while I change him! I will say that it won't work in the worst of the worst diaper blowouts, you know, the ones where poo goes all the way up to the neck. But seriously, in that case, just hose the little one down in the shower!

If you're like I was and can't wait to get your hands on a Happy Changer, I'm happy to let you know Hulabye's offering 15% off for my readers!! Just order from their site and enter the code "USJAPANFAM" (offer valid for 60 days from 7/15/2013). FYI, they have free shipping to anywhere in the US!

Happy shopping and happy changing to ya!!

**Disclaimer: Although I did receive this product free of charge, I was not compensated in any other way to do this product review. All thoughts and opinions are my own and completely unbiased.