Rosenberry Rooms is a website I have enjoyed hours of browsing for baby/kid products ranging from diaper bags, growth charts (like the farm animals version at left) and nursery furniture to wall decor (like the "Abby" wall letters below), art, and "green" gifts.

There are a lot of items for just about every category and they carry several name brands not generally found at local retailers.

The number of items I have purchased from this site: 0. Unfortunately. Everything here is either really cute or really different, and most are far from necessities. I mean, who would really go for a $495 high chair shaped like a giraffe?

Why has it taken me this long to discover Babylicious Gear?!

If you haven't noticed yet, most of Abby's outfits are heavily polka-dotted. I didn't even know I had an affinity towards dots, but I obviously do.

Most things at Babylicious are polka-dots and stripes - from blankets and decor to nursing pillow covers and teething bibs/collars.

For Christmas, Abby received two hair clips from Aunt Linn and Aunt Libby, who came across these hand-made gems from Lovebug Lane at a craft show in Virginia Beach. What struck me first was their cuteness and uniqueness, followed by amazement at the quality and creativity of the products after careful examination. For anyone who's ever shopped for baby/toddler girls' clothing, you know you come across hundreds upon hundreds of hair barrettes, but all of them seem to look like different colors of the same lame thing over and over again.

Oh, yes, one last thing. I did not notice the note at first, but Lovebug Lane also makes handmade hair clips for pets!!! And, boy, are they adorable!

I just got a new baby carrier and am loving it! This is the Beco Butterfly (BB) and it is a soft structured carrier like the Ergo and Yamo, which I had talked about in my Babywearing post. A Google search will quickly provide details about this new carrier design, but what I want to share is what I like and dislike about the Beco Butterfly.

Let's start with the dislikes since the list is shorter: I am used to the Ergo and Yamo where there is no fussing with a harness to put baby in. Getting the baby in a front or back carry involves a few extra steps with the BB. Rather than the baby always resting her cheeks on soft straps when she falls asleep, her face can end up rubbing against the webbing or buckles. The hood is not attached, so if you need it while it's stowed away in the waist strap sleeve, you need to fumble with it to attach before use. That's it!

I thought the added harness and built-in infant insert of the BB would make the carrier too hot with baby in it, but so far, I have used it in 90+ degree weather and I can not feel the difference. In fact, I swear it adds an extra layer of protection between me and my "portable space heater," so that Abby doesn't actually feel as hot against me as she normally does!

Now for the likes: This carrier is by FAR the most comfortable for me and I have NO complaints about the Ergo or Yamo. The BB is just a few degrees MORE comfortable. There are more straps, yes, but it means it can be adjusted better for comfort. Abby does not like to be carried tight against me, but I need the straps tight to distribute the weight properly across my back and down to the hips instead of on one shoulder or another. The BB allows me to adjust the distance of Abby from my body, totally separate from the shoulder strap adjustment. The straps - containing a special foam - are curved to add amazing comfort. I like the longer body of the BB for giving Abby more support when she sleeps. The hood is actually better support than the Ergo's hood, which has always been too big for Abby. The hood is similar to the Yamo's support, but putting the hood up is done with quieter buckles. Finally, I feel so much more comfortable putting Abby in a back carry with the BB than with any of the other carriers because of its added safety features.

All three of these soft structured carriers are wonderful and I still can't decide which one I would give up if I had to sell one.

I am a huge advocate for babywearing. Before I gave birth to Abby, I always had the mental image of a baby being perfectly content being moved around in a stroller. My friend Ashley introduced me to babywearing and as I watched her with her alert, observant, energetic son, I quickly learned that I had a misconception of what contentment for a baby meant. She taught me about slings, pouches, and the very versatile Ergo soft-structured carrier.

I wasn't ready to invest a lot in anything yet until I met my baby. What I did do was go to JoAnn's Fabric and buy $5 worth of gauze to make a ring sling. This sling was light and breathable, yet durable, and would allow me to carry Abby around as a newborn in the hot summer months. I figured this sling would help me determine if Abby would be one of those laid-back content-with-stroller babies I had imagined or not.

Fast-forward to Abby at six weeks old. Since she was 2 days old I had been using my homemade ring sling. She only slept being held and walked around. Without the sling, my arms would've fallen off by day 5! She nursed every hour for about 30 minutes to 45 minutes at a time because she would inevitably snooze while feeding, so without a sling, I was in a chair or on the couch with her ALL THE TIME! So, at six weeks after Abby's birth, I was online ordering my very own Ergo Baby Carrier.

Fast-forward again to Abby at 13 months old. The Ergo is in the car and we use it every time we go shopping or walking around. It definitely gets more use than her stroller. Abby likes her stroller rides, but when she gets tired, when she's had a data overload, or when she just wants a different point of view, she will only be happy in the carrier. She can't fall asleep being carried in our arms, but she dozes off quite easily in the her carrier.

Around the house, we use a Yamo carrier. Similar to the Ergo, but much softer and less bulky.

Yesterday, I ordered a Beco Butterfly. It was on sale. Normally $149, down to $105. Again, similar to the Ergo and Yamo in that they're all buckle soft-structured carriers, but Beco has done a LOT for the Butterfly for safety and function and I was dying to try one out. The sad thing is that you can't just buy a Beco, Yamo, or sometimes the Ergo at your local baby gear store. In 2007, Baby Bargains book ranked the Ergo above the Baby Bjorn baby carrier, so now a few Ergos may actually be found at SOME baby stores, but it's still difficult to track down unless you shop online. Forget about finding Becos and Yamos at a retail store, even if you find a babywearing specialty boutique around you.

I'm excited to try the Beco, but I really don't need 3 soft-structured carriers, so I'm probably going to be selling one after I try the Beco. Luckily, the Beco and Yamo are usually in pretty high demand because they're so hard to find, so hopefully I will not have too much trouble off-loading one.

As Abby is getting out of the infant stage and literally cruising into the toddler stage, her diaper bag needs are changing. She no longer requires us to carry a large, cumbersome bag, anticipating every possible need. These days, if we carry a couple of diapers, wipes, a baggie of cheeries and/or puffs, a hat, a couple of pacifiers, a pacifier holder, some antibacterial wipes, and a sippy cup of water, we're pretty much ready to go out for several hours.

Abby has finally outgrown her Peg Perego Infant Car Seat. After much research and trying out car seats in our Nissan Maxima at Great Beginnings, we decided on purchasing the Britax Marathon. This seat will last until Abigail reaches 65 lbs or 49 inches tall. We guess that's around age 5 or 6.

We found that TravelTikes.com had the best price for the Marathons at $219.99. (The NEX catalog had the next best price at $249.99.) We just ordered the Ashley Floral print. I can not believe Paul was ok with me buying a floral print. Even more surprising, I can not believe I love a floral print so much!!

It's very girly, but since Abby will be in it for so long, we will probably have to buy a different seat for a second child anyway, so we didn't worry about getting something gender-neutral.

Update: The Ashley Floral has been discontinued and replaced with the Mariposa fabric. TravelTikes called and they are willing to honor the sale price, otherwise the Mariposa would cost $279! Below is a picture of the Mariposa. Butterflies instead of the flowers. I would have preferred a little more red, but I still like it a lot.

For Abby's first birthday, Paul and I are planning on getting her a bike trailer so that the whole family can start taking bike trips together. We think Abby will love the ride. As it is, we have had a chance to try out some of these trailers at stores as strollers and she seems to be pretty content just sitting in them! We have done a good amount of research online and today we drove to REI and Hudson Trail Outfitters to take a look at them in person.

The two we were interested in are the Burley D'Lite Double and Chariot Cougar 2. Both of these are multi-function bike trailers, meaning that with conversion kits they can be used as strollers and joggers, hikers, skiers, and probably a slew of others. Although our primary use for them would be as bike trailers, we think the stroller and jogger attachments might come in handy. Both trailers accommodate 1 or 2 kids, up to total of 100 lbs.

We played around with both of these models at REI and felt that the Chariot was far better than the Burley in terms of looks (the Burley looks like a higher quality version of any bike trailer you can find at Target or Walmart in that it's not stylish or sleek), ease-of-use (Paul was able to fold the Chariot down and unfold it without instructions and in seconds vs the Burley, which took a few minutes of fumbling around and turning the whole thing upside-down), comfort for the child (interior cushiness) and parent (handlebars for use as strollers and joggers). The Chariot Cougar 2 is a whopping $600 for the chassis alone! Everything else is sold as individual conversion kits. The Burley D'Lite costs about $100 less than the Chariot, but the Cougar 2 was worth the difference in cost.

Next, we headed to Hudson Trail Outfitters. Their selection was slightly bigger, but what they had on the floor was extremely limited. We asked to see something comparable to the Chariot Cougar 2 and they brought out the Croozer 535 (fits 1 or 2 kids)....First impression was, "Oooh, it looks pretty nice, but does it come with all of THAT?" That being all the accessories that the Burley and Chariot were selling as their individual conversion kits. The answer was "YES!" At $369, it came as a 3-in-1 (trailer, jogger, and stroller). Once Paul was able to get the thing unfolded, it looked pretty neat...not as sleek as the Cougar, but definitely more sporty than the D'Lite. There was a HUGE storage compartment with several large pockets in the back, behind the seats. Rather than the bench style seats of the Burley or Chariot, the Croozer had two bucket seats, which meant that two kids wouldn't be sliding into each others' laps. We did notice that the Croozer seemed to have more plastic parts to it, which could definitely explain the price difference.

We came home and popped online to do some further research. What it comes down to is that the Chariot Cougar 2 is fabulous. We don't think we can find anything better. However, for the cost of $600, plus around $100 for the bike and stroller conversion kits, we think that is outrageous! If we can find the Cougar 2 on ebay or craigslist, we'd definitely consider it, but so far, we've found nothing in the DC area and certainly nothing less than $500 for the lot. (At least that says something about it's resale value and the fact that people seem to like their purchases and want to hang on to them.) We really like the Croozer 535 if we want to buy new. It's certainly not the high-quality of the Cougar 2, but is far, far better than a low-end trailer. Based on user reviews, people seem highly satisfied with the Croozers.

What do you think?


^The Croozer 535

^The Chariot Cougar

Purchase online through Amazon.com:

The Barenaked Ladies came out with a Children's CD last Tuesday called Snacktime (http://www.bnlmusic.com/snacktime/). Paul and I have been very entertained by the song, "789" - based on the old "why is 6 afraid of 7?" joke - which can be found on the CD. Since we have always enjoyed the humor and music of The BNL, we are looking forward to picking up this CD, perhaps sometime this weekend. In the meantime, we can watch the YouTube video for the "789" song.

The Stride Rite pre-walker shoes gave Abigail blisters on her ankles. We returned the Stride Rites and visited the Children's Shoebox store at our local mall and asked for other options for baby kick-proof shoes.

Since Abigail has been starting to cruise and daycare has been letting her practice walking, we have decided that she needed some pre-walker infant shoes. Ideally, we would like her to go barefoot. That is the recommended and most natural way for her to learn to walk, however, with her eczema so bad around her ankles, we need to try to keep socks on her to prevent her from scratching them until they're bloody.

I started looking into flexible-sole shoes and - more importantly - shoes that will stay on her active feet. I observed the walking babies at daycare to see which shoes seem to work the best. Talking to the teachers, we concluded that the Pedipeds were extremely soft, durable, impossibly cute, and stayed on the feet fairly well. The Robeez were great for staying on feet and were softer than even the Pedipeds, but were not nearly as durable.

After a few days of internet research, I decided that Abby should try on the Robeez, Pedipeds, and Stride Rite Pre-walkers. To my disappointment, the Pedipeds just didn't fit her well. It turns out that she has very narrow feet and the Pedipeds just fell right off when she dangled her feet - even with the 0-6 months size! They were definitely the cutest of them all. :(

None of the Robeez shoes appealed to me. They looked just like the Carter's baby shoes that Abby already has and which she kicks off almost quicker than we can put them on. Yet, people SWEAR they stay put.

Finally, at the Stride Rite store at the Lakeforest Mall, we looked at Stage 1 and Stage 2 pre-walkers. The Stage 2 shoes were for cruisers/walkers, which seemed appropriate for Abby, but I was not impressed by how hard the rubber soles were. The idea is that they protect the toes of little walkers, but to me the soles felt way too hard for a kid learning to walk, so I looked at the Stage 1 shoes. They are marketed for crawlers, but they felt right to me. They offered flexibility, plus rubber "pods" for traction. With their "Buy one pair, get the second pair half off sale," I ended up picking up two pairs of Stride Rites - size 3 Safari Oatmeal (left) and Pandora Pink/Gold (right).



The Robeez shoes that Stride Rite sold were REALLY ugly, but I still wanted to buy a pair for Abby to try, so we marched across the mall to the Children's Shoebox. There, we tried on 6-12 month shoes, but found them to be too large. The 0-6 month shoes fit very well and gave her about a centimeter of room to grow. Apparently, Abby has TINY feet for 9 months!! Hard to imagine considering how large they were compared to her newborn body. All the Robeez at the store for girls were blaring pink, except for a pair of purple ones, but the "fairy" design was kind of kooky. We ended up walking away with a pair of gender neutral "squirrel" slippers.