Freshly Picked Giveaway!!

The winner is Megan Hainline!!!!!! I will message you shortly with details! 

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I first heard about Freshly Picked Moccasins from my friend Kelly. She told me they were literally the only shoes her daughter would wear and that they were amazing. So of course I needed to try them out for myself!

Like all of the products I talk about on my blog, Freshly Picked (of FP) was started by a mom looking for something better for her children. Susan Petersen, creator and owner, started making baby moccasins in 2009 after becoming frustrated by the lack of well-designed baby shoes. She created the first moccasins on her kitchen table with scrap leather she had found at a yard sale. She worked on the design until she came up with something that was both adorable and functional. Finally something that would fit her baby's cute chubby feet but also look fun! 

FP Moccasins come in a few styles, but we tried out the soft soled baby model. The cool thing about the soft soled feature is that the babies can still get a good feel of the ground below their feet while still having a decent piece of leather protecting them. This allows them to grip the ground with their toes, thus helping them continue their progress with walking. While Mira was learning to walk, we found that most of the baby shoes geared towards her size had solid plastic or rubber soles and she had a really hard time keeping her balance in them. The soft soles of the moccasins eliminate that issue. 

The leather design lets the shoes grow and stretch with your child. So you end up having more time between sizing up, thus getting more bang for your buck. They are also super easy to get on. They have elastic bands around the rim that stretch nicely when you are trying to wrangle your kids foot into them.

Ok, onto our favorite part of FB Moccasins: SO MANY COLORS. There are so many choices. You could have a pair for each outfit and still not run out of options. Check out these puppies: 

You can check out all the options on their website: http://freshlypicked.com/

We went for the Merci Moccasins. They match a lot of her outfits and are super cute! 

That last one is with our friend Hallie, whose Mama Kelly told us all about FB Moccasins :) As you can see, she still rocks them on a regular basis.

Ok, so you've seen them, you've heard me talk about them, now how do you get a pair for yourself?

Luckily for you, FP and I are giving away a pair for FREEEEEEE. This giveaway is for the soft soled baby version, so be aware of that when you are entering. Here's what you need to do:

1. Follow Freshly Picked on either Facebook or Instagram.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/freshlypicked
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freshlypicked/

2. Comment on this blog post with your name so I can keep track of everyone.

THAT'S IT, SO EASY! I will be doing the drawing tomorrow evening, so you have 2 whole days to enter. Also, if you want an extra entry, you can share this post on Facebook (be sure to tag me when you do so I don't miss it). Ok friends, good luck to you!

SOCKLINGS!!!

Remember those ADORABLE baby socks I posted about a while back? If you missed the post, check it out here.

Well now you have a chance to win a pair of your very own! You have the WHOLE weekend to enter for your free pair of adorable thigh high baby socks from my awesome friends over at Socklings. I will randomly pick and announce a winner on Monday, so don't forget to check back in then.

Ok, here's how you do it:

1. You must LIKE the Socklings Facebook page, which can conveniently be found HERE.

Easy right? Ok, onto step 2.

2. You must FOLLOW the Socklings Instagram page, which of course is right HERE.

Yay! You did it! Almost done.

3. Now you must comment at the bottom of this post. You can comment with anything you'd like, but you get an extra name in the drawing if you tell me who will be wearing the Socklings if you win (i.e. Mira, 22 months, pulls off her socks within seconds of having them put on).

YAY! YOU ARE READY! Now that you've done all that work, here's some awesome stuff to read about Socklings and how they came to be.

I sat down with Socklings Owner and Creator Ericka Chapman to get the details.

Here she is with her adorable tiny human (modeling the one of the original handmade versions of the Sockling)

How did you get into creating clothing? 

Having a desire to create fashions all started when I was a child. I would take pieces of scrap fabric from my mother’s sewing room and turn those discarded textiles into beautiful gowns for my Barbie dolls, displaying each one like a model strutting down the catwalk. And it remains my dream to this day; to create something meaningful out of nothing, and become part of the fashion industry. Little did I know that my dream would become a reality once my daughter was born.

How did the idea of Socklings come about? 

When my daughter was just a couple months old I struggled with keeping her socks on her feet. They would be on her little feet, snug as a bug, until she started wiggling and trying to crawl. The moment her tiny feet touched the floor, carpet, or her tiny hands, her socks would instantly fly off as if she had some magical superpower! I tried to solve this problem with tights but after a few dirty diaper changes, I realized that was an even worse idea. So I sat down at my sewing machine grabbed some fabric and started cutting and sewing; this was the day Socklings was born. I knew I had to create a solution for lost socks for parents everywhere and that is what I did.

Besides being adorable and functional, what else makes Socklings unique? 

When you buy a pair of Socklings, you are essentially making an investment. These are socks that not only will stay on your child's feet (side note from Whitney: this is completely true. Mira CANNOT take off these socks by herself, which is amazing), but they will grow with your child and continue to be functional for years to come. We have families who have passed down Socklings from child to child, and they are almost impossible to lose. I guarantee you that if you look in your child's sock drawer right now, you will find at LEAST one lonely sock in there without a match. Socklings are easy to keep track of so you end up saving that money that you would have spent on buying a new pair of socks every month to make up for the ones that have mysteriously disappeared. Also, Socklings are 100% made in the US, from the materials to the manufacturing. 

You can check out more about Socklings and all the styles they currently offer on their website, at socklings.myshopify.com.

Rocks and Socks

Every month McKinney holds what they call "Trade Days". This is essentially a flea market full of everything, and I mean everything. You can get yourself a puppy, a 5 foot metal chicken, and some homemade chipotle peach jelly. This Friday was the first day of this months Trade Days and I decided to bring Mira and let her walk around (usually I wear her or we bring the stroller so this was a first for us).

She started off well, pulling me along the middle aisle at a decent pace and only face planting once (she brushed it off like a champ). Then we went down the aisle with the puppies. Obviously she's going to be all excited about the cute, fluffy puppies right? WRONG. She was excited for all the hand sanitizer bottles they attach to the cages so you don't spread puppy spit from booth to booth. I had to drag her away from these things and eventually had to throw her over my shoulder and stomp to the next aisle so she wouldn't try to suck on the top of one like a straw.

She then proceeded to try to walk into the forested area nearby, the one that has a huge sign next to it that says "SNAKES AND POISON IVY, STAY OUT". Luckily, I am a freakishly fast mom ninja and I saved her from certain doom before she could reach the edge. Soon after this, she discovered that the road was made of lots and lots of rocks. She is obsessed with rocks right now and decided that the middle of the road was the perfect place to plop down and start collecting. Unfortunately most of the rocks were imbedded into the pavement, a problem that incited the Puerto Rican Fire (aka Rage Mode 12) and she started a full blown tantrum to show her displeasure. Eventually we found some loose rocks and she started stuffing as many as she could into the chest pocket of her overalls (super freakishly cute by the way; also, side note, I forgot about those rocks until I tossed her overalls onto the kitchen counter later and those rocks came flying out like shrapnel and almost took out one of our cats).

We also ran into a LuLaRoe booth, and I literally mean I ran to it. I'm pretty sure Mira is aware of my addiction because she immediately started a meltdown and I had to pop her up into a carrier to stop her from pulling all the dresses off their hangers. It may have had something to do with the Bavarian Nut lady that was roasting sugary sweet almonds right next door, because I know they were driving me completely crazy....with desire....

Somewhere in the midst of all of this madness, we came upon a booth run by two fabulous ladies who are obsessed with baby feet....or at least covering them. They were still setting up shop (we got there at the crack of dawn) but they had already started hanging up the most adorable baby socks I had every seen. They were thigh high baby socks to be exact and I knew immediately that I had to have a pair. You guys know I don't tote things unless I think they are amazing, so what I am about to tell you is my legit mom opinion of these things: they are amazing. Not only are they super cute and fun, they are perfectly functional and almost impossible for Mira to get off on her own (unlike any other sock in the world which she takes off in 3 seconds flat and somehow flings into the dash of our moving vehicle). Beyond the actual product itself, I was totally impressed with this 2 person team of women who decided they were going to start their business from the ground up and by golly, they made it happen. Below are some pictures of these adorable socks, so you can see not only how cute they are but also, obviously, how cute they look on Mira's super awesome baby legs. Please observe that we stumbled upon a treasure trove of rocks for her to play with. She played nicely for about 5 minutes before she started throwing them backwards with Hulk level strength.

The quality of these socks are fabulous and they are completely made in the US (even down the the fibers they use). They are extra soft and stretchy so not only are they comfy, but they will continue to fit her for some time. I didn't take pictures of this, but I also scrunched them down to her knees to see how they would look and it was fantastically 80s warm-up-esc and totally cute. 

Because I love these socks and because I love start up companies run by women (and moms!), I've requested to do a giveaway with these ladies and their company, Socklings. So be on the lookout for a post about that so you can have a chance to get a FREE pair of socks (because come on, who doesn't like free? I hear free and I'm like "I don't care what it is, I'll take it"....which is probably why I have so much useless swag in boxes, but that's another story). 

Things I Will Never Do: Toddler Edition

When I imagined myself as a mother when I was still a teenager/in my early 20's I had a lot of plans and opinions about how things would work. Though I never sat down and wrote a list (though that may be a lie, I may very well have done that and forgotten about it), I definitely had a mental list of my future mom rules that I would follow no matter what. I realized recently how incredibly foolish this was as one cannot begin to understand motherhood until you are right in the middle of the fire with chewed up food in one hand and a screaming child in the other.

This is especially true for being the parent of a toddler. I'm pretty sure none of my plans have come to fruition, but just for kicks and giggles, I have compared my list of "rules" to the actual reality of being a parent to a toddler. Obviously these don't apply to all toddlers, because they are all different, they are like unique snowflakes....crazy, loud, messy snowflakes that want to do things by themselves but also want you to do everything and expect you to know which of those they prefer at any given moment. No judging allowed....

1. My child will never throw fits in public, because the first time they do it I will just walk away and they will realize that the fit is futile and come over to me immediately to apologize.

This does not work with Mira, at all. She will follow you around the store, screaming her head off and pulling random items from the shelves and throwing them to the ground. While in California a bit ago, I marched out of a pet shop with her flailing and screaming, laying horizontally in my arms, all because I would not let her lick a cat toy she was playing with. 

2. I will never let my child watch TV on a tablet when we are out in public, and especially not at the table at a restaurant.

Yeah, well, sometimes I am actually hungry and would like to eat instead of picking up the following items from the floor 1000 times: forks, spoons, salt shakers, crayons, bowls of salsa, fake flowers in vases, my keys, and oh my gosh so many pacifiers. 

3. I will never use bribery to get my child to behave.

"Come sit down, I will give you a cookie"- A thing I actually uttered while at a park the other day. This isn't something I'm proud of and not something I plan to do in the future, but will most likely end up doing anyway. 

4. I potty trained eleven 2-year-olds at one time while teaching, potty training my own child will be a breeze.

I just removed a baguette-sized poop from the bathtub with my bare hands.  

5. My kid will have a strict bedtime, and it will be early enough that I can have plenty of time afterwards to do whatever I want.

I actually really like my kid, and sometimes what I want to do is hang out with her after 7:30pm. Last night she was in an extra awesome mood and so we hung out in the living room for a while, just chatting and playing as a family. Contrary to popular belief, your child will not die if they stay up past bedtime a few times. 

6. I will never be that parent in the airplane with the screaming child, obviously they are just lazy and aren't meeting their child's needs.

Nope, nope, double nope. Sometimes their "needs" are to get the heck off the plane immediately. Which is a little difficult to do when you are 30,000ft above the ground. Most of the time this isn't an issue for us, but the last flight we were on was super "special"....

7. I won't be one of those parents that gets annoyed with their kid.

I love my kid, I love her so much. But sometimes I do NOT like her. Sometimes when her father gets home I pass her over to him and lock myself in the bathroom and turn the fan on so I can't hear her.

8. My child will not be naughty, obviously I will be a better parent than that.

I always assumed that parents with crazy kids must have screwed up somewhere. Those kids must have learned that behavior somewhere, right? I have since learned that children do not come out as perfect angels and you ruin them, they come out as tiny monsters that you have to tame. I'm ashamed that I was a judgey pre-mom, because now I see other moms with screaming children and all I want to do is give those moms a hug, because I feel ya sister. We must band together with our mom buns and stained shirts, and uplift each other in the face of the tiny humans. 

9. My child will always be friendly and happy because she will have all her needs met and that's all it takes!

My toddler is like that cat you can pet exactly 6 times. If you pet it 7 times it will claw your eyes out. Except sometimes it's 5 times, not 6...or maybe she wants to cuddle all day except for at 1pm and then she doesn't like you. Also she will decide on a daily basis who she wants to be held by. Sometimes she walks up to complete strangers and starts a conversation, sometimes I am the only person in the world who is allowed to acknowledge her. She can be fed, hydrated, well rested, warm, and entertained, and yet still angry at life in general. We call this Diva Mode, it technically has levels ranging from 1-10....but lets be honest, she's either not in Diva Mode or she's in Diva Mode Level 8 and up. 

10. I have so much experience with children from teaching, there won't be any surprises when I have my own kid, especially when she's a toddler and a 4 year old (my classes as a teacher).

Hahahahaaaaaaa. I learn something new every day. Some things are pretty general things (crayon is really hard to get out of your white bedsheets) and some are specific to Mira. My favorite Mira-specific things are as follows: She will eat a sandwich all by herself, but quesadillas must be torn into tiny pieces. She must turn her pacifier in a circle at least once every 20 seconds. She usually poops on the potty halfway through the second book we read after she sits down. She must give all visitors or new people a gift of some sort, like a pillow from our couch or a crayon. And my absolute favorite: if she can't find something she will give you an imaginary item that she "picks up" from the floor and puts in your hand. 

In conclusion: Toddlers are weird, and are continually changing their minds about everything. If you accept that you will never really have the hang of parenting a toddler, you may survive this stage with your sanity still intact. Now I'm off to watch Peg + Cat and cuddle on the couch with my tiny human, or maybe we will end up stacking cat food cans and eating pretzels, because you never really know what the day holds, let alone what next week will look like.

Oh, and here is us trying to take a cute picture together this morning....because toddlers....

Red Splotches

When Mira was little, I would explain to people about how we were giving her Propranolol for her hemangiomas. More often than you would think, I would get this response "That's great! It will go away and she can be nice and pretty." I would smile and respond with, "Well she's already pretty, she just won't have hemangiomas threatening to close off her airway and damage her eye anymore." People can be jerks sometimes, even when they are trying to be nice.

All I want in the world is for Mira to feel beautiful no matter what she looks like. Societies rules and regulations for beauty make it hard for parents to instill self-worth and confidence in their children, not matter how hard they try. When you have a child that looks "different" from what people label as normal, it makes it that much more of a challenge. I realize of course that Mira's external hemangiomas will continue to fade and that someday she may not have any trace of them at all. This won't stop her from looking at pictures of herself as a baby and forming an opinion about how that baby with a special face relates to who she is then and whether than changes how she feels about herself. I've often worried about how she will feel looking back at all the pictures I take of her. Sometimes I've even wished I could do something to drastic to make her feel more comfortable, now and in the future, with her appearance. Like that couple who got tattoos of their child's birthmark on their legs, who if you haven't read about them, you should check it out here.

It's strange how things work out sometimes. Two weeks ago I was diagnosed with Psoriasis. For those of you who don't know, Psoriasis is an auto-immune disease that causes your cells to create new skin too quickly, leaving you with dry, red patches on your body. I've probably had some form of this my whole life, and it's just now decided to make itself known. It decided to do that on my face and scalp. At first I was freaking out because my face was (very rapidly) changing right before my eyes and I wasn't sure how to feel about it. Then a strange thing happened. I realized that my hope for a way to show Mira how everyone is awesome, even people with red splotches on their face, was staring right back at me in the mirror. 

So I made a decision. If I felt like wearing make-up to go out and feel fancy, I would. But otherwise, I 'm not going to make a big to-do about it every single day just to cover up these red splotches. 

I'd like to say this will be an easy thing to do, that my confidence is amazing and that I will never wonder what someone is thinking when I have a flair up and my face looks like it's on fire. But I have my own struggle with loving myself, as most of us do, and I know I will have a hard time feeling awesome all the time. But I feel like that's also something we should share with our children. That confidence isn't something that comes easily and that it's ok to struggle with it, just like mom or dad does. I think it's ok to let your kids know that you are human (gasp, I know, so crazy) and that they can share their fears and troubles with you because you've been there (or are currently still hanging out there). So, I'm going to go out into the world as I am. I am also going to make sure to take lots of pictures, so in 10 years when we are looking back at when Mira was tiny, I can show her how both of us were gorgeous inside and out everywhere we went.

To balance out the serious vibe of this post, I chose this picture to accompany it:

Just Dance

If you would have told me the day after we got Mira's Dandy Walker diagnosis that less than 2 years later she would be in dance class, I would have punched you in the face (sorry, I was pretty upset that day). Today we woke up early, ate a little breakfast, and put on our dance clothes. Mine may or may not have been yoga pants and a large shirt, no judging. The important part is that Mira's outfit involved a pink leotard. It was amazing.

We headed to the Chamberlain School of Ballet and enjoyed our first of many Wednesday mornings dancing around like maniacs (that may have just been me) with our friend Hallie (and her mama Kelly). Mira totally loved it (well, 3/4ths of it, she was tired and was ready for nap pretty quickly) and couldn't stop giggling about everything. It was awesome to see her not only enjoying herself and socializing, but doing something that I had convinced myself was something she would not be able to do anytime soon. This kid is a rockstar, I can't wait to see her continue to prove me wrong every day.

On a Roll

So I bought a film camera. My first camera was a 1976 Honeywell Pentax and I still dig the pictures that little guy took. I went to a local guy that has been collecting cameras for a while and bought myself a Canon A1, or as he kept calling it, The Black Beauty.

I decided that the best medicine for my lack of interest in my photography would be to bring it on back to film and then to do some pictures just for me. I decided to do this by photographing my favorite thing ever, aka Mira. 366 days this year and I will take (at least) 1 picture per day of her in her natural habitat, doing stuff that Mira just does.

I got my first roll back today and discovered a few things.

1. My house is dark, like way darker than I realized.
2. I'm a bit rusty with the whole film situation.
3. When one isn't supplied with an automatic focus, some of the pictures turn out a bit "different".
4. I love them anyway.

You'll notice they are a mixture of decent, ok, and downright blurry, but I've decided even the blurry ones are a part of the story. These pictures are from December 30 through January 4.