Now let’s look again at Crystal but this time look at the spelling – you have Crystal, Crystel, Krystle, Krystal, etc. There are so many different ways to spell a baby’s name. When we decided to name our daughter, “Kendall,” my husband and I had a long discussion on how we would spell her name. I, always wanting to be different (I mean really, I do go by the name “Bert” even though my given name is Elizabeth), wanted to spell her name “Kendyl” while my husband liked the traditional spelling “Kendall.” He said that my spelling of the name reminded him of a pickle. No one’s going to argue with the imagery of a pickle now are they? I think not thank you very much. We also named our oldest boy, Brennan; that could have been spelled “Brennen.” So my question, does the spelling of the name change the “personality” that’s associated with the person who has the name? No, a rose, if by another name would still be as sweet; Shakespeare was right about that one.

My given name, “Elizabeth,” has such a formal, classy persona attached to it; people see my given name and place me into a category. I don’t consider myself to be formal or classy which is why “Bert” seems to fit better than my given name. My mom hates this; she calls me “Beth” and had always wanted a little girl named “Beth.” Thinking about this always makes me feel a little guilty. I mean how would I feel if my daughter chose to go by another name? I’ve had her name picked out since I was 13 years old. Would a rose still smell as sweet?

Whether we choose to use an obscure spelling of a traditional name (ahem, like Khloe) or a popular name (anyone know a ton of Jessica’s like I do?), our children will have the final say in what they are called. We can choose a name but the name doesn’t make the person after all, a rose if called by any other name would still smell as sweet, don’t you think?

Related articles

• Fastest-growing baby names: Would you consider them?
• List released of most popular baby names
• Most Popular Baby Names

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“My fried brain at the moment” – a digital and artistic delusion by mimitalks, married w/children (Photo credit: mimitalks, married, under grace)

I would assume that 99.9% of you that read this will say, “YES!” I posted a question about how many of our followers had Mommy Brain, and got a lot of responses! What’s that you say? You put your cell phone in the fridge and the baby bottle in your purse? No problem. This is a normal phenomenon for moms, even while expecting. It will help if we can laugh at ourselves, because it will most likely last for quite a while!There is no doubt that feeling scatterbrained is frustrating, but there is one important thing that we need to remember. Just because we are sometimes forgetful or absent-minded, it does not mean we are less intelligent. Being a mom does not mean we aren’t working, learning, or using our mind. On the contrary, we are using more of our mental capacity for our new role.

According to Discovery News, “a woman’s brain changes after giving birth. Parts of the brain that grow are involved in motivation, reward behavior and emotion regulation, which prepare us for our new roles. These are the areas that motivate a mother to take care of her baby, feel rewarded when the baby smiles at her, and fill her with positive emotions from simple interactions with her infant. These brain areas are also involved in planning and foresight, which might help a mother anticipate her infant’s needs and be prepared to meet them.”

So stress less on what we forget or misplace, and know that we are doing the most important job of all – raising, protecting, and taking care of our greatest resource – our children! Below are some resources that may help alleviate some of the mental fog and make you feel better at the same time.

Tips to alleviate sleep deprivation:

• Keep a nighttime routine as much as possible
• Sleep when baby does if possible, for 60-90 minutes (that sounds wonderful, doesn’t it!)
• Co-sleeping may help
• Give partner baby duty once a night if possible
• Go to sleep earlier if possible

According to Parenting Magazine, “New information is solidified in the brain while you sleep, so not getting enough can affect your ability to remember things.”

Tips for energy and mental clarity

• Exercise in the morning with your baby (walking, yoga, bicycling)
• Have small amounts of caffeine during the day
• Eat a good diet rich in protein, iron, zinc, vitamin B-12, and folic acid

Tips for stress:

• Realize we can’t always avoid it, but we can manage it
• Exercise
• Take “5” when you can in a quiet place and practice deep breathing
• Sit with your kids and observe them, they will most likely make you smile, laugh, or both!
• Simplify as much as possible
• Try not to multi-task, focus on one thing at a time
• Organize
• Connect with a friend or family member
• Get out as much as possible (maybe a date night with your partner)
• Remember to take care of yourself!

We wish you all the best!

~Sonya

References:

http://www.parenting.com/article/mommy-brain?page=0,0

http://news.discovery.com/human/psychology/mommy-brain-maternal-changes.htm

http://blogs.babycenter.com/mom_stories/mommy-brain-ill-give-you-mommy-brain/

You see, I am anything but crafty; artistic, yes, but only in the written form on paper or a computer screen. I don’t know what I was thinking when I came up with this beautifully themed party with a huge guest list. Was it for my little girl? Probably not. Kendall is a lot like her daddy and not a fan of large crowds.

I put in hours of party prep and received a ton of help from my sister and mom who both came into town for the event. Everything was going swimmingly and finally it was time for her to dig into her cake. I was so excited to see her eat her first bites of the cake. Would she eat it like a lady or dive in the way her brother did? Then the unexpected happened.

She cried hysterically. Oh my word, I thought, she’s afraid of her cake!!

After that episode I decided to take a different route with Kendall’s birthday. We’re keeping it simple this year: family members only. It’s more Kendall’s style; less prep for me and it’s also less work for my husband who inevitably gets really involved since I’m not the detail oriented person of our family. Plus the more and more I reflected on last year’s party the more I realized how pressured I felt to be like all of the other super awesome Pinterest party moms. I mean their pictures are beautiful, their parties put some weddings to shame and I cannot even hold a candle to the things they are able to pull off.

What do you think? Has Pinterest made our lives a little more pressure-filled to be picture Pinterest perfect? ABC’s Good Morning America recently did a piece on the increase in depression among young moms linking one of the pressure points being Pinterest. Are we trying too hard to be perfect Pinterest mommies? I mean if being crafty isn’t your thing why should you feel like you have to fake it? Okay I’m mainly talking to myself here but this is why I’m going smaller this year. No fancy decorations, party favors that take me a a few weeks to put together, and no huge beautiful cakes to scare the baby.

Savings

Based on 8,000 diaper changes from birth to potty training you can expect to spend between $2,300 to $2,800 on disposable diapers and wipes. In contrast, cloth diapering your baby can cost as little as a few hundred dollars. Using these figures, you can save up to $2,500 by choosing to use cloth diapers and wipes. Proper care and use will extend the life of your cloth diapers and allow for further savings by using them on additional babies.

The #1 reason our customers chose to use cloth diapers was for the financial savings. (Based on Thirsties’ 2012 Customer Survey of 720 cloth diapering families)

Use our Savings Calculator to see how much you can save by using Thirsties cloth diapers.

Healthy for your baby’s skin

Disposable diapers contain various toxins such as Tributyltin, Sodium Polyacrylate, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s) and trace amounts of Dioxin. Your baby’s delicate skin functions as a sponge and what we put on it goes in it.

Thirsties uses low impact reactive dyes and processes that are eco-friendly. No heavy metals, toxic substances, or environmentally destructive practices are used in dying our fabrics. All Thirsties products are PVC (vinyl), phthalate, and lead free.

The second most important reason our customers chose to use cloth diapers was because they are healthier against their baby’s delicate skin. (Based on Thirsties’ 2012 Customer Survey of 720 cloth diapering families)

Environmental Impact

Disposable diapers generate sixty times more solid waste and use twenty times more raw materials than reusable diapers. Disposable diapers are the third largest contributor to our landfills and will remain intact for 500 years.

Style

With the available variety of styles, colors, and prints you can customize a diaper stash that fits your baby’s personality and your budget. Thirsties offers over a dozen fun colors and several adorable prints to fashionably compliment your baby’s style.

Convenience

With cloth diapers, there are no late-night trips to the grocery store for more diapers, no emptying your diaper pail into your already full trash bin, no pins and no rubber pants. With sturdy and easy-to-use closures cloth diapers go on your baby just as disposables do but with oodles more cuteness and style.

98% of our customers think that using cloth diapers is easier than they thought or about what they expected. (Based on Thirsties’ 2012 Customer Survey of 720 cloth diapering families)

Fewer blowouts

Cloth diapers contain blowouts far better than disposables. You can sleep soundly knowing you won’t be up during the night changing outfits, bedding, or bathing your baby.

There are two kinds of ways to protect your skin: sunscreen and sunblock. While reading through the AMF, I learned that the difference between them is that sunscreen is a provides a chemical barrier on your skin and sunblock is a physical barrier. Sunscreen is less visible, cleans up neatly and acts like a filter and reduces the radiation of ultraviolet rays. Sunblock is messy, very visible and actually cannot compete with a sunscreen of SPF 30; sunblock is typically used on individuals whose skin is particularly sensitive to UV rays. (More information can be found here.)

I know, I know; the word chemical is a complete turn-off for me. Is it for you? I think that once you’re in the cloth diaper world you are more aware of what comes in contact with your skin and your child’s skin. With conflicting reports and so many different stories it’s so hard to even know where to go for information. I use Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) website. I trust their information for many reasons but mainly it’s because of their involvement with a “large baby skin care company”. They recently became “the little engine that could” and brought to the light some of the potentially harmful ingredients of ”said large baby skin care company”  products. The company is now reformulating their ingredients.

EWG has a really easy to navigate sunscreen informational guide on their website. It’s chock full of articles and helpful consumer guides. Be sure to use their Best Sunscreens consumer guide. EWG takes the ingredients that are used in any product and then analyzes them based on recent studies and findings. From there they use a grading system that involves numbers and traffic light corresponding colors. Green means safe, yellow is okay and red means that the product is not safe or that the company did not give the entire list of ingredients for them to analyze.

Sure the best approach to avoiding sun damage on your skin is to avoid exposing yourself to the sun, however, the natural vitamin D that’s in the sun is essential to your health. So rather than becoming a hermit, use EWG’s guide, try to cover your skin and your baby’s with sunblock clothing and get out and soak up some rays!

Do you look at ingredient lists or consumer guides when choosing a sunscreen?

Jana won:

1-Duo All in One Cloth Diaper

1-Booty Love 2oz

1-Booty Luster 8oz

Jana, please contact us here to claim your giveaway. When you contact us let us know you are the winner and also include your email address for verification purposes. You have until June 6th at 4pm cst to claim otherwise we will draw a new winner.

1-Thirsties Duo Wrap

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Our Warranty:

• Your product is under limited warranty for possible return for up to 1 year after the original purchase date.
• Defects include loose stitching, holes discovered upon arrival, broken snaps, etc.
• Staining, fading, holes that develop with use and potential build-up are all considered normal ‘wear and tear’ and does not suffice for repair or replacement purposes.
• Leaks are not considered a defect. Please search our database for detailed instructions in battling leaks or call us and we will be happy to troubleshoot with you to ensure successful cloth diapering.
• If your products were damaged by the use of additives or improper care, the warranty will be void.

If your product meets our warranty guidelines please click here to complete the necessary information.

What to Expect Next:

Upon receipt of your information a customer representative will review and contact you shortly.  If a replacement item is deemed necessary, we will send the same color and size of the defective diaper at no cost to you. Your replacement product will arrive with a prepaid label to send your defective item back to us.

If possible, we will repair the defective items and donate to supply needy families with cloth diapers and accessories.

It all started out innocently; Brennan, my son, came dashing into the kitchen excitedly. “Mom! Mom! Can we make banana squirrel?” he asked. Maybe you’re thinking the same thing that I was thinking, “What on God’s green Earth is banana squirrel?” I asked him what he was talking about and this brought on an entire litany of actions and descriptions; the only thing that I could really make out of it was that he had seen this banana squirrel thing on Daniel Tiger. My answer was easy as we had just run out of bananas that morning. I had hoped that he would forget about it the next day but you know the saying about an elephant never forgetting anything? The same can be said of a four year old child. On and on the banana squirrel mystery began to haunt me, day in and day out. “Let’s make banana squirrel Mommy! It’s easy, you should take a banana and do this,” he would gesture making a circle, “and then you eat it.” Oh sure, it’s easy. I just could not figure out why this thing my child wanted to eat was called banana squirrel!

Frustrated I headed to good old Google.  Turns out that I wasn’t the only baffled parent trying to figure out how to appease their child’s banana squirrel obsession. I learned from my research that what Brennan was actually asking for was a concoction called “banana swirl.”

My second encounter with Mr. Tiger is what I prefer to call the Valentine’s Tantrum of 2013. We were enjoying Valentine’s Day quietly, munching on chocolate and talking about ways to show people that we loved them. Quiet time came around and I was really looking forward to putting my feet up and drinking some afternoon coffee. The quietness broke just after 1:30pm when, you guessed it, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood ended. “Mommy! We have to make banana bread! That’s how you show people you love them,” Brennan informed me. The gesture was sweet and would have been wonderful to do, however, I hadn’t been to the grocery store and we were fresh out of eggs. I explained this to Brennan and then Mt. Vesuvius erupted. Arms flailing, yelling in frustration, my determined son ranted and raged about my lack of preparation. How could I have known that today, of all days, Daniel would learn that “making something is one way to say, ‘I love you?’” Why had I not gone out to the store in anticipation of this valuable lesson from my favorite little tiger?

I didn’t have the manual. Simply put, while I love the lessons, songs, and ideas that this little tiger’s TV show brings into my home I often feel like I need an instruction manual to go along with it. Never fear, Mama, before you “feel so mad that you want to roar” just take a deep breath and head on over to the PBS website. Why? Well, the smart folks over at Daniel Tiger have created a handy dandy parents’ guide website full of ideas as well as the lyrics to the songs and games that are played during every episode. Don’t let your little one get frustrated while you stupidly (okay the stupid part is really only pertaining to me since I’m certain you’ve probably figured this out already) try to figure out what squirrels have to do with bananas; go straight to the instruction manual. Then you won’t have to count to four. (Any of you who are avid Daniel Tiger watchers will get that reference!)

Do you have any funny misinterpretations that your kids have told you after watching a TV show?