Favorite Product of the Week

This is a new deal I am doing. I will be talking about one of my new products I have put up in my Etsy shop Tortoise and Hare. I will be doing this weekly.

So I am going to start off my first Favorite Product of the Week post with:

Musical Houndstooth Black and White Bow Tie Bobbies (4)

These nifty hair pins are my latest addition to my Etsy shop Tortoise and Hare. I sell fabric covered button hair ties in my shop and they are really popular with the buyers that buy baby shoes. But I wanted to creative another item that can be used as a hair accessory.

I got the idea from my Baby Booties with Bows like these cutie patooties.

I am a bobby pin FREAK. I have THICK wavy hair that is very can be unruly. And I have these "baby hairs" around my face that annoy me when I am cleaning or when it is hot outside. But bobby pins can be unsightly at times when you need to have a more groomed look. So I sewed up a rectangle of my favorite scrap fabric and hand sewed it onto my bobby pin. Wa la!

This particular listing is for 4 Bow Tie Bobbies complete with black non-slip Goodie bobby pins.

The first 2 are made with black and white houndstooth fabric (my personal favorite)

And the last 2 are made with a white cotton that has black music sheet print, very unique!

They can be worn on their own to hold back bangs or slices of hair or to hold back those pesty baby hairs that stick out when wearing a pony tail. They are also just a cute addition to everyday hair, something to make you feel girly and well adorable!

Crisscross Bib Giveaway Almost Over!

I am giving away a Swirls and Curls Crisscross Toddler bib to a lucky entry winner here http://chubbycheeksthinks.blogspot.com/2010/05/review-giveaway-tortoise-hare-designs.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ChubbyCheeksThinks+%28Chubby+Cheeks+Thinks...%29

The giveaway is almost closed, so go and enter to win! This bib is so cute! For a girl or a boy and they can NOT rip it off.

Good luck!

The Park

Olive and I go to the park on a regular basis, but when her Daddy is not working we go to Discovery Park. This is a big deal to Olive. She knows when we are going to the big park because I pack the diaper bag. Doing this is almost like grabbing the leach around a dog. She starts hollering and jumping up and down and running from the door to me, to the door to me.

I'm not sure what is so great about the big park. The park that Olive and I go to daily has a swing and lots of grass to run around on. But we don't get in the car or pack the diaper bag and of course Daddy doesn't come. Maybe this is why she gets so excited. She is a die-hard Daddy's girl. I would be too if Dev was my Dad. He is a wonderful Dad. More than I could have hoped for and honestly waaaay more interactive and supportive than I thought he would be. Olive is lucky to have such a hardworking Daddy.

Discovery Park is a big deal. Olive gets to go on a ride in the car and scream-sing to metallica and three days grace. She is a music baby. Loves to scream alot to whatever is on. Whenever we turn down the music to talk or to have some quiet time, Olive continues to scream-sing along to the non-existent music. She is so silly.

The park is also a big deal because there are lots of little kids for Olive to terrorize. And that is exactly what she does. She follows other kids around and when they turn around she screams in their face and runs the other way. Or she will encourage them to chase her while screaming bloody murder. I think she likes other kids but i think she enjoys scaring them more. :]

The best part of the Big Park is having Daddy along to chase and tickle. Devin is so good at playing with Olive. They go off in their own little world and I am left in the dust. It warms my heart to see them interact together. Olive doesn't get to see her Daddy often because he works so much, so when he is around I am chop liver. I enjoy this. This means I get to breathe. I get to do un-mommy-related things.

Now enjoy some photos of my bugger butt exploring

She is too cute to keep to myself.

Summer is here at our home

Well it is officially summer time at our home, we bought a blow up pool. Manly for Olive to cool off and to play, but Devin bought the bigger on so that we could join her. This thing is HUGE! I wasn't sure it would fit on our concrete slab but it is just perfect. We leave the water in it and just scoop out the leaves and whatnot. This is Olive's first pool experience. She was leary at first and didn't want me to let her go but it is shallow enough to go no further than her waist. After warming up the the idea of the pool, she loved it! So much so that she threw a mini fit when it was time to go inside.

We bought her a "swimsuit" at Target too! I quoted the word swimsuit because I think the swimsuits they sell nowadays for toddlers are way to revealing. First of all I will not buy my daughter a two piece mid-rift showing bath suit until she is at least 16. The swimsuits for little girl is size 12 month and 18 month are horrific! They are like two teeny tiny triangles and a bikini cut bottom. That is just poor taste. I would never feel comfortable putting my daughter in that, even if we were just in the backyard. I mean it would even be better to just have her in a diaper and nothing else than dress her in those "sexy" bathing suits. I mean there are alot of "sexy" type clothes for little girls, most of the things in the stores I will not buy for her. I don't even like putting her in a tanktop or spaghetti strap dress of shirt. I think it is too mature for her. But this is only my opinion, and you know whats great about being a mom, I CAN have my opinions and I can do things MY way.

So after gasping at all the girls suits in the baby girl section, I ran to the boys section and got her a surf shirt. It is the same material at a bathing suit but it is a long shirt. We paired it with a Skort, and wa la she is ready for the swimming pool (not the Vegas strip)

Looking Back

I was watching Olive play yesterday and realized she is far from a baby. She has grown into the cutest little toddler, but where did the time go? I was craving baby pictures, so I went on to my computer and spent about an hour going through all of her photos. The thing that gets me is that the first thousand pictures of her that I have, she is either hooked up to an iv, going into surgery or in a doctor's office. I broke my heart to see picture after picture of different midnight hospital visits for kidney infections and 106 fevers. And the countless times we spent in the hospital for antibiotic drips, weeks at a time, just Olive and I. Away from Daddy that had to work.

All of this has reminded me of what we will be going through in about a month. Middle of June is her third surgery. If this goes correctly, or as the doctor hopes, than she will need no more. But we have been told this before, so I refuse to get my hopes up.

Thinking of her last two surgeries and comparing it to how it will be now kills me. Her first surgery was at 3 days old, she had no idea what was happening, and was not scared (I also was not by her side, Devin was, I was having complications myself) And her second, she could not even sit up or crawl, she was extremely young. I am having a hard time picturing myself handing her off to the nurses. This time will be different. She depends on me, she needs me, she cries for me "Maaammma!" This time will be harder. The recovery will be more difficult than the others. It will hurt her to walk and now she can rip out her stitches if she wanted to.

I think I was designed for this. I believe I was created to be in this moment. I was sent here to be Olive's Mommy and to love her like no other. My job is to be a Mom and Mothers need to be strong. I was made for this. I was made to help her through this and to stand by her side. So when I start to feel overwhelmed with sadness and fear, I repeat this in my mind. I was made for this, I can do this, for her.

My daughter is the most precious and important thing to me. Without her, I wouldn't be the women I am today. I thank her for all she has taught me. To love, to protect, how to breathe, Patience, understanding, empathy, kindness, perseverance. She has molded me into who I am, and I love her for that.