I just found some great simple tips on creating a home for baby that’s clean, green, and environmentally safe. If you’re like me, you want your surroundings to be as healthy as possible.
Here they are from Seventh Generation’s list of 10 ways to ready your home for your new baby:

• Start cleaning house the safe way—with biodegradable cleaners made from natural and non-toxic ingredients. Natural cleaners won’t fill your home with chemical fumes or coat its surfaces with unhealthy residues.
• Eat organic food when possible. Conventionally-produced foods can contain genetically-modified ingredients as well as traces of pesticides and other chemicals. A healthy diet benefits you and your baby.
• Store pesticides somewhere else. Growing babies are vulnerable to even tiny amounts of the poisons pesticides contain. This includes all pet flea and tick products, bug repellents, anti-mildew products, moth balls, fly strips, and bait traps.
• Dust with a damp cloth. Because household dust is the final resting place for many of the toxins that enter our homes, get into the habit of dusting with a slightly damp cloth instead of traditional dusters, which can stir dust and chemical residue back into the air.
• Open the windows. The EPA has found that the air inside our homes can be up to five more polluted than the air outside. So open your windows as often as possible.
• Choose toys made from wood and natural fibers instead of plastic. Soft plastic toys can leach out phthalates, a hormone-disrupting chemical, while hard plastics may expose your child to another hormone-disrupting chemical called bisphenol-a.
• Use glass baby bottles to protect your newborn from the bisphenol-a found in many polycarbonate (#7) plastic models.
• Get a natural crib mattress that is free of the synthetic foams and fibers, vinyl coverings, flame retardants, and chemical treatments commonly found in conventional crib mattresses.
• Choose organic natural fibers for clothing, bedding, and other items. These products will also be free of treatments that can expose infants to chemicals and other unhealthy compounds.

I've mentioned it before, but I seriously love Stroller Strides. It's a mommy-baby exercise class where you workout with your stroller. I’ve been going to the one at Windward Mall on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays since September 2. This particular group of moms all have young babies and the classes are less intense than the Kailua Beach classes. There’s not as much running or hills.

I heart...

1. the social aspect—there are playgroup activities every Thursday and Friday after class, and Moms Nights Out once a month. The photos below are from last Friday's Halloween party at the park playgroup. I was dressed as an 80's workout girl and Cole was a dog. 
2. circuit training—it’s toning exercises using resistance bands, intermixed with cardio bursts (power-walking, jogging, or just high-intensity drills).
3. that we cover all the major muscle groups every time. So it’s a well-rounded workout and I work muscles that I wouldn’t if I were doing it alone.
4. The accountability—the other moms wonder where you are if you don’t show up for class. That makes you want to show up.
5. I can workout with Cole. 24-Hour Fitness’ Kid’s Club doesn’t accept kids until they are 6 months old, so I’m sticking with this until then. 
6. the good modeling in letting your kids to see you exercising. They grow up knowing that it’s just a standard part of life.
7. that the babies get to play, know and grow up with other babies/kids around the same age.
8. the best remedy for post-partum depression or depression of any kind, really. Endorphins are awesome.
9. that you can make it as mellow or intense of a workout as you want because the instructor always gives both walker and runner instructions, and 3 levels of each exercise.
10. the time (60-75 minutes) flying by because you’re going from one thing to the next, and talking with the other moms the whole time.
    

First class is always free, so if you get the chance, GO STROLLER STRIDES!

     

Click here to download:

I_heart_Stroller_Strides.zip (90 KB)

I LOVE my Phil & Ted’s E3 Buggy!!! To me there’s no better double stroller on earth. And I’m not saying that to justify paying an arm and a leg for it, because I didn’t. I was all set to dish out $800 for a new Phil & Ted’s VIBE with the doubles kit, when I found this E3 on Craigslist for $280! It was in mint condition.

Here’s what I love about it:

1. Compact. You can squeeze through tight spaces and narrow aisles that you wouldn’t be able to with a side-by-side or tandem stroller.
2. Handles like a jogging stroller. Smooth, one-handed steering, super easy to turn and switch directions.
3. Run with it! It’s not meant to be a jogging stroller, but you can definitely use it as one. It’s actually an “all-terrain” stroller, so it can go off-roading!
4. Single or double. When you want to use it as a single stroller, you just take off the doubles seat!
5. Not heavy at all. It’s not as light as my Maclaren (8 lbs.) but it’s lighter than my old jogging stroller. It’s 24 lbs., which is average for a double stroller.
6. Double seat ease. Attaching and removing the doubles seat is seriously no big deal. It’s super easy and quick to do before folding.
7. Super versatile. I put the infant seat on top deck and Evan on bottom (he loves it) for now. Later I’ll switch it up so that Cole is on the bottom and Evan’s in the main seat on top. Or I can recline the main seat and put the doubles seat on top.
8. Great big storage basket. I fit my whole huge diaper bag and a big beach blanket, all Evan’s snacks, and he still manages to stretch his legs out under there.
   

The one thing I recommend is NOT getting the attachment kit from Baby Emporium. It’s just a bunch of straps. I have it and it’s a pain in the butt. Straps get in the way, you have two more steps when strapping the car seat in. You can buy a Phil & Ted’s car seat adapter bar, but they don’t sell it in Hawaii. Look online. I got mine on eBay. It hasn’t arrived yet so I’ll comment later about how it works when have a chance to try it out.

By the way, if you're trying to make sense of the different models, here's the order in which they came out: 1) E3 Buggy, 2) Sport Buggy, 3) VIBE, 4) DASH (to be released).

Three cheers for Phil & Ted, whoever they are!

These things are amazing. I think it's the best all-around blanket, especially in hot weather. Cole is a very hot baby, so I had stopped swaddling him early on. In Hawaii weather I didn’t think I would be able to soothe him to sleep by swaddling, which was a bummer because I had wanted to follow the "Happiest Baby on the Block" book that recommends swaddling. Then Shandis told me about Luna Lullaby soothing blankets. They are made from muslin cloth, which is a stretchable fabric weave designed to breathe easily. I got the Aden & Anais brand because I wanted the 4-pack—2 for Cole and 2 for Evan. Aden & Anais has a set of 4 for $45 and Luna Lullaby comes in a set of 3 for $40. Cupcake Boutique and Baby Emporium have them.

Here’s the history behind this Australian Muslin baby wrap. Muslin is a unique cotton fabric first introduced into England in the late 17th century. Muslin has a light, open weave that allows air to flow seamlessly through the material. The soft natural fibers allow your baby's body temperature to adjust naturally, eliminating over-heating, but ensuring warmth and comfort. These wraps will allow you to safely swaddle your baby, giving you confidence that your baby will experience a peaceful and secure sleep.

The cloths are so super soft that Evan and Cole loved them right off the bat. Evan has this weird habit of wrapping his head in his blanket, really tight, so that the car noises from the street don’t wake him up at night. I would worry that he couldn’t breathe. But with the Aden & Anais cloths, they are totally breathable so I don’t have to worry.

The way I swaddle Cole now is kind of unconventional because he easily gets out of the traditional swaddle. I lay the cloth out flat, set him down in the middle of the top edge with his head above the edge. I take the side and fold it over his left arm and tuck it under his body so that it’s pretty snug. I do the same thing with his right arm. So his chest isn’t covered. The excess blanket on the bottom I just bring up and drape over his legs. He seems to like it, it keeps him from knocking his pacifier out of his mouth and prevents the morrow reflex from waking him up. A video of this would probably help. I'll work on that. 

         

Click here to download:

Luna_Lullaby_Aden_Anais_Swaddl.zip (217 KB)

While I was pregnant with Evan, I started meeting all these other pregnant women...in infant care class, childbirth class, family friends, friends of friends. I got to thinking that it would be great to get together with these women after our kids are born and do a playgroup sort of thing. So I started a list of “cool pregnant girls” and their contact info. I e-mailed the moms, we met for lunch and started the discussion of what we want to do together. Basically we all wanted:

• early socialization (pre-preschool) for our kids
• socialization/support group/resource pool/discussion forum for us moms with first time moms who are in a similar place
• FUN – playdates, activities, people to do stuff with
• something low-maintenance because Lord knows none of us have the time for a high-maintenance commitment
  

We started out just meeting every-other Saturday to stroll around the mall together. Now our babies are all going on three years old, we still have playdates twice a month but now we vary the activities since the babies are more active and social. We take turns “hosting” playdates so no one person is burdened with the planning. We’ve done things like: picnic in the park, music lessons, trip to the zoo, infant massage, movies, swim dates, art projects, yoga, and more.

We named ourselves “babybuds” because we’re buddies, and we’re growing and blossoming together. It’s been SUCH a wonderful experience for and blessing to all of us. Another babybuds group started last year and then another one is starting now. The groups are all free to follow the model that has been evolving in our group, or to evolve into something different. The most recent one, babybuds 3, was spear-headed by my sister-in-law and it’s a great group of moms and open to moms with babies who are within 9 months of her 5-month old.

We ALL have our share of ups and downs, but we don’t have to do it alone. We can share in both the burdens and the JOYS! I think playgroups are SO important in combating post-pardum depression, sharing information and ideas, commiserating in our parenting trials, and socializing our little monkeys.

Here are some of the other playgroup options out there that I’ve experienced:

1. Stroller Strides – It’s a mommy-baby exercise group, but we also have playdates every Thursday and Friday after class and Mom’s-Nights-Out once a month. You don’t have to be a member to come to those—they’re free and open to all. I go to the classes at Windward Mall on Mon, Wed, Fri, 8:30 am. I love, love it and will have to do a separate post on Stroller Strides soon. http://www.strollerstrides.com
2. Families for Real is a program sponsored by the DOE that offers infant and toddler classes for free. There’s one at Kapunahala Elem in Kaneohe, and there’s one on the Leeward side—I think maybe at Pearl Highlands but I’m not sure. That’s a really great class (I went to both infant and toddler classes with Evan) but it’s only 10 weeks long. It’s educational for the parents and it exposes kids to a classroom environment. I was amazed when the teacher taught Evan that he had to sit down nicely before getting a snack. http://familysupport.k12.hi.us/fam_real.html
3. Mighty Moms – my church has an awesome mom’s group called “Mighty Moms” on Tuesday mornings at 9:30 am at First Prez in Kaneohe (Ko‘olau Golf Club). There’s free childcare in the church nursery, which is a precious respite from the daily grind of caring for baby. http://www.fpchawaii.org/?page_id=23&ministry=24
4. Childcare at church and 24 Hour Fitness Kid’s Club – I think any time you can regularly leave your child with another caregiver, it’s good for their social development. They have to get used to being separated from you, comfortable with other adults, and playing with other kids. http://www.fpchawaii.org/?page_id=23&ministry=43 http://www.24hourfitness.com/FindClubDetailGeneric.do?clubid=00559
5. Keiki O Ka Aina – incredible program for parents and children. I only took Evan there for a few months, but I was really impressed. We went to the one at King Intermediate, which is a Hawaiian language immersion parent-participation preschool. It’s totally like taking them to preschool. Evan enjoyed lots of new experiences like painting on an easel, making art projects, playing with water, bubbles and riding toys outside, following the older kids up and down the hill, being Kumu’s helper when she asked for a volunteer, singing songs and dancing, getting a sticker at the end, and most of all, eating at snack time. It’s a great program and only costs $50 a year! http://www.keikiokaaina.org/
   

There’s also Baby Hui, which I haven’t been involved with before, but I hear it’s good. I think one pro is that the groups are geographically-based so everyone lives close to each other. One con is that you have to pay dues to the national nonprofit organization. It’s actually a suggested donation according to your income-level. Another con, in my opinion, is that you have to follow their curriculum—they have a binder of discussion topics for each meeting. There’s more structure and less freedom in that, but I’m sure many people would prefer that kind of format. http://www.thebabyhui.org/

MOPS is a great international organization, too. It stands for Mothers Of Preschoolers (and infants). This is a very structured social group—they have a topic, craft and activity at each meeting, I think. It’s hosted by a church and I heard there are only 3 MOPS groups on the island. One is at Faith Baptist Church in Kailua. http://www.mops.org/

So many ways to socialize you and baby, yea? All too quickly it becomes important to prune so that you don’t end up running like a chicken without a head from playdate to playdate.

                   

Click here to download:

Wanna_join_a_playgroup.zip (5108 KB)