Summer Wear

Oh, hi mom. Yes, I know I look cute in these little one-piece deals you bought for me for the summer.
Ok, I'm just going to sit down now. No need to take anymore pictures. We get the point - I'm cute.
Oy, if you're going to continue to take pictures, I'm just going to lay down now!

Moose!

As usual, Ish clams up pretty quickly when he figures out that I'm trying to capture his cuteness on video. I was trying to get him to say "awesome" (a new word for him) with no luck. But you can hear him say "Moose" and "Zee" pretty clearly - and I just think it's the cutest thing in the world! He loves those crazy characters. Surprisingly, as much as this moose and bird are loved (I've taken a few informal polls), I can't seem to find any paraphernalia on the market - no stuffed animals, no t-shirts, nothing. Does Nickelodeon not realize the profit potential??

Dear Nickelodeon:
Please start producing Moose and Zee merchandise asap.
Thank you.

Some Random Blog Stuff

Even though I rarely win anything, I'm a blog contest junkie. Seriously, if you are hosting a giveaway, you will find my name amongst the entries. If you are hosting a giveaway and I'm not in-it-to-win-it, email me - I can't believe I missed it!

So, on to something I actually won! Victoria over at Our Life with Jake hosted a giveaway for a really neat piece of jewelry - a scrabble tile necklace from Kelli Brewer Photography. Isn't it cute??
But here's the thing - I didn't win it. Well, not the first time anyway. when I checked out Victoria's winner announcement I was bummed that I was not the lucky chosen one. However, the winner failed to contact Victoria to claim her prize, so she re-drew (is that a word?) a winner from Random.org and lucky #9 was chosen (ME!!!). Needless to say, I contacted Victoria immediately to claim my prize!

Here's the picture I'm going to use - vintage Ish from June 2009:
I love love love this picture. I remember the day I took it - I remember Ish climbing all over me to try to steal my camera. We had a lot of fun together. This was a totally random shot that I took as he was using my leg for leverage to get himself closer to snagging the camera. The picture makes me smile. And now I'll get to take it with me wherever I go! Thanks Victoria!!

In other bloggie news, I was awarded the coveted Trendy Blog Award earlier in the week - thank you Sippy Cup Mom! If you haven't checked out her blog yet, you are missing out! She's one of my favorites.

And, my last piece of randomness, sometime next week a children's toy organization piece will be arriving at my house for me to review - I am beyond excited!!! It has to do with the playroom area, so I'll have pics and updates on my progress in that room.

That's all for now - I hope you all have a happy and safe Memorial Day Weekend!

Sharing is Caring

Just a few things I've found lately...

Free child safety kit (we got one of these at our local Community Day event - it's good info to have on hand);
http://www.childsafekit.com/request.aspx?Flag=Globe

Free Nexcare Bandage - you can never have too many bandages around!
http://www.nexcaregive.com/receive-a-free-sample/

Free Child Safety Tattoos - I've never heard of these before, but am seeing them more and more online lately:
http://www.protectionone.com/kids/

Free Summer Printables:
http://familyfun.go.com/summer/summer-printables/

Are you a Huggies Facebook fan? They reset their $3 diaper coupon on Wednesday:
http://www.facebook.com/huggies

Planning on doing some shopping this holiday weekend?
$10 off $50 at Carters
30% off $40 or more at Carters
$10 off $50 at Oshkosh
25% off your entire purchase at Stride Rite

And don't forget - you can still get 15% off your first order at EcoMom by using the code SBBL317 at checkout (expires 5/31).

Wishlist Wednesday - More Organizing

Just a few more things I need to continue on my basement playroom re-do task.

I'd love to get a few of these puzzle organizer racks. Ish has a lot of puzzles and currently they are spread out all over the place with pieces everywhere and anywhere (I try to gather up all the pieces at night when he goes to bed). I'd like to be able to "put them away" at night.

I'd also like some extra shelving for the back wall of the basement - to store the board games/non-everyday toys. This would free up some floor space for playing.
That's all for today - easy peasy, right? No reason why the Wishlist Wednesday Fairy can't grant me these two measly items, right??!!

Bed Head: Ish Haz It

Fun and Games

I can't believe mommy and daddy brought me back to the mall play area - I LOVE this place! Plus me and dad get to show off how white our socks are (thanks mom!!).
Hey, this spinny thing looks new - is this new? Nah, can't be new. Can it? Maybe. Oh well, it's fun either way.
No no no dad - I can do this.
WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey mom, look, numbers! I know numbers!
Six, seven, eight...
NINE NINE NINE NINE NINE NINE NINE NINE NINE NINE!!!!!
Hey, why did you want me to stand behind this big cardboard thing mom? What's on the other side of this? Mom?
Oh, hey, that's a cow! A cow says MOOOOOOO!!!
Holy cow (get it)!
Wow, this Stew Leonard's place is much more fun than Shoprite. I would actually behave when food shopping if we came here every week.
Hey, another cow! This one seems a little different - the other cow didn't ask for a high five. Oh well, what do I know from cows?
Boy, I had fun today - but duty calls! This lawn isn't going to mow itself!

Summer is here

Not officially of course, we're still a week away from even the "unofficial start" of that, but the summer-like weather has made it's appearance these past few days. It was cold and rainy and in the 50s early in the week, sunny, humid and in the 80s by the end of the week (a typical NY weather pattern).

Ish seems to enjoy the shirtless/pantless/shoeless/sockless play in the hot weather - so I gladly oblige by whipping off his outer clothes when we walk in the house at night and letting him take over the house in his diaper and undershirt.


Seeing those skinny little legs sticking out of his Winnie the Pooh Huggies makes me giggle every time!

Mmmmmm...coffee....

So every morning I make myself a nice latte in our pretty little Keurig one-cup coffee maker. I have to - it's the only way I can function and, well, it's important for me to be able to function in the morning because I'm responsible for getting myself and Ish up and out of the house on time. So I make my coffee. With 2 Splendas. In my Vipers skull coffee mug. It's Matt's from his army days. I think the skull is kind of fitting for a coffee cup.

Anyways, Ish has been eyeballing my coffee mug for months. I tell him he can't have any because it's "hot" - he repeats "hot" and usually walks away, defeated. This makes me feel bad. So we have a new morning ritual - I make my coffee in my army skull mug and young Ish gets some water in his blue dolphin Matthew mug that grandma bought him in Atlantic City. And we both take sips and say "ahhhhh" and we go on our merry way.

And yes, that is a half-eaten super-size tub of Nutella from BJ's behind my skull mug. Mmmmm....Nutella....

Wishlist Wednesday - Safety 1st

I don't trust Ish. I love him - but I don't trust him. He's curious about A LOT - which gets him into trouble. He's also fearless about a lot of things. So I need to stock up on some safety items now that he's the climbing, scaling, sneaky little monkey that he is. I found all these items in the new One Step Ahead catalog that I got the other day.

The first thing I would like to get is the Safety Turtle. This little guy will tell me if young Ish finds a way into our pool.
We also need these lovely flat panel tv straps - Ish get excited to see his Moose and Zee buddies and thinks that touching the tv somehow brings him closer to them. We have mucho fingerprints on all our tvs. I don't want to see the day when he tries to hug them.
And although all of Ish's toddler furniture came with safety straps, we have a lot of pieces around the house that we'll need to bolt to the wall. We'll have to stock up on these.
And last, but not least, I would like to get a driveway guard. Even though our street dead-ends at an elementary school, we get a lot of lunatics barreling down the street. This will make me feel a little bit better when we're playing outside.

I'd like to end today's post with a special thank you to "Mama Hen" - she has a great blog called Mama's Little Chick (get it, Mama Hen, Little Chick??!!). She has quickly become one of my favorite blogs to read. She passed on two awards to me this past week - The Versatile Blogger Award and The Sunshine Award. Thanks so much Mama Hen!!
As always, these awards are meant to be shared - but I would have a hard time picking only a handful of blogs to pass them on to! I've come across a lot of great blogs these past few days thanks to the D-Listed Blog Party. So, I would like to send you to the D-Listed site and let you take your pick of blogs to check out!

At the car wash (sing it!)

Hey, that's momma's car in there. What's happening to it? Oh, bath time. Wow - so that's the real color of momma's car! I thought it was brown like Mater, but it's black like Sheriff. Good to know.

A Little Birdie Told Me So

Notice anything different about my blog??!! I was lucky enough to win a giveaway from Franchesca at Small Bird Studio a few weeks ago that she hosted in memory of her beautiful daughter Jenna Belle. My prize was a complete blog makeover - all the bells and whistles!

I think the design captures me and Ish perfectly. It's a little him and a little me. I love it!

I highly suggest checking out Franchesca's blog, she does a great job of mixing design, fun giveaways and family life all in one spot - and if you're in the market for a new look for your blog, check out her portfolio.

Thank you Franchesca!

Partying with my fellow D-Listers!

If you're popping over from the D-Listed Blog Party 2010 - welcome! If not, you can click here and learn more about it.

This is my first blog party - I like it because I don't have to get a new outfit or actually brush my hair. All I have to do is tell you a little about myself and my blog - I can handle that!

I'm Gina, I'm somewhere in my 30s, married and living in the suburbs of NY with my husband Matt and my 19-month-old son Matthew (who we call Ish - hence the blog name). We called Matthew Ish from the beginning - before we even knew he was a boy. The nickname stuck even though we knew his name would be Matthew. I like to take pictures, I like to write and I like to write about the pictures I take - so blogging is a good fit for me.

I love meeting other bloggers - I'm always adding to my reading list! So, leave me a comment and let me know where I can find you.

Cheers! (People still say that at parties, right?).

Gina

Work Work Work

Every weekend it's the same thing "Clean the house, mow the lawn, clean the house, mow the lawn" - what more do they want from me??? That's it, another 18 years then I'm outta here!

Motorcycle Cop

Boy Joy

There are a lot of things I'm enjoying about having a little boy.

1. The clothes - how cute are boys clothes??!! The doggies, the frogs, the cars, the stripes - I LOVE shopping for him.
2. The curiosity - which gets the best of him sometimes. He's fearless (which I guess is a good and a bad thing). It oftentimes leads to trouble - especially when his curiosity has him climbing furniture or putting something yucky in his mouth.
3. The love of trucks - well, anything with wheels really. Even truck puzzle pieces fascinate this boy. His cars/trucks keep him occupied for hours at a time. He always seems to have a car in his hand at any given time. And he even insists on taking some to bed at night.
I love when he lines them up and leaves them for me as a gift.
Sometimes he hands them to me to hold on to while he heads off to watch Moose or play with something different. He expects me to hang on to them until he comes back for them.
4. Have I mentioned the love of trucks?
I could go on for days. He really is so much fun. I'm looking forward to the rest of the snips and snails and puppy dog tails that he has in store for me.

PS - another great thing about my boy, he likes to share. Here's 10 more Pampers Points for you: WELOVECHEERIOS2

WINNER WINNER!!

The winner of the Ecomom/Revolutionary Foods Giveaway is lucky #7 - Victoria from Our Life With Jake!

Congrats Victoria - I will email you with details on claiming your prize. I hope Jake enjoys the food as much as my Ish has!

Thanks to everyone for entering - you can still use code SBBL317 at checkout on Ecomom.com for a 15% discount through 5/31. I encourage you to "Like" them on Facebook and follow on Twitter - there are fun little contests and deeper discounts to be had!