Wednesday, September 24, 2008

The Sound of Silence

It has been five months since I wrote Sleepless in Seattle, describing the sleep challenges that we [Baby, Mom and Dad] were having. April seems like ages ago and, in the life of my nearly one-year-old baby, it was. May and early June were huge challenges. He was waking several times between 9:00 PM and 6:00 AM. July was tough too. During those three months we were traveling a lot, we hosted guests on several occasions, and the little man got sick a couple of times to boot.

By mid-July [around nine months old] he started sleeping through the night. We traveled to the East Coast and during that trip he actually began to sleep pretty decently. When we returned home, it took him a few days to transition back to Pacific Time, but even that process went pretty smoothly.

Here are some of the things that helped us [all three of us] get through these last five months:

· The transitional object a.k.a. lovey [Nicholas' is a tiny square piece of fleece with knotted fringe edges] stays in the crib. It's there when we put him down and we put it in his arms if he doesn't grab it right away. Otherwise, we were misplacing it.

· We have a pacifier baby on our hands. We keep several lined up near the crib so that, if he starts fussing in the middle of the night, we can just stagger into the nursery and hand him a pacifier. This saves us the hassle of searching for it and keeps two of us [the baby and the sleep walking adult] from getting too wound up.

· When we travel or have guests stay at our house, we recognize that our little one doesn't respond easily to his night time routine so we take a little more time to hold him before he is put in his crib. It feels like a small step backward but it helps him unwind and relax.

Now with his twelve-month birthday around his corner, I'm waiting for the sleep disruptions to occur for the two weeks before and two weeks after his birthday. As usual, we'll see.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Product Review | Pink with Sparkles


Our latest review comes from Pink With Sparkles creator, blogger and Mama Princess extraordinaire – Dawn Gardner.

"Setting up a playdate on the fly has just gotten simpler. Now every mommy & tot duo you meet will be blowin' up your cell to holla at you.

Every mama knows it's no easy feat to find the perfect playmates for your kidlets. You need to be prepared in a pinch to not let a potential pal disappear without throwing her your digits. Thumbprint Trading Cards has a simple solution for setting up playdates at your crib or theirs…"

To read the full product review, please visit Pink with Sparkles.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Thumbprint Trading Cards | Temporary E-mail Workaround

Dear Thumbprint Trading Cards Customers and Visitors,

It has come to my attention that several messages to info@thumbprinttradingcards.com have bounced back their senders. I apologize for any inconveniences this has caused. I am currently investigating and working on an e-mail/IT solution.

In the meantime, I am posting a temporary e-mail workaround in the event that you are the recipient of a returned message.
I will post here again once this issue is resolved.

You can send me an e-mail [a.k.a. conversation] through my webstore. I will be checking my conversations for any incoming mail.

Again, I apologize for any inconveniences and thank you for your patience.

Sincerely,
Chris Guillot

Credits

You know that part of a magazine that talks about the photo session that led to the front cover? It discusses what the model was wearing upon arrival to the set, what he or she had for lunch and listened to while working. It provides the name of the styling team: wardrobe, hair and makeup. Do you know what I'm talking about?

Well that has never happened to me. No one has wanted to know what I wore on set or what is in my iTunes library. Since I only wear make-up when I'm getting dolled up, there's no need to provide credit there. I have self-love and I have self-confidence but I'm just a regular gal. You know what I mean?

But there are times when my eyebrows look so good that if I was in a magazine and there was a section talking about my styling, my aesthetician, Kate Thorbeck, would be credited. Kate is the owner of Surya Spa in Magnolia. I met Kate many moons ago when she fixed my poor brows that had been ruined by a horrible, horrible, horrible waxing experience.

After a recent visit to see Kate, I decided to create an occasion to credit Kate for my excellent eyebrows.

Eyebrows: Kate Thorbeck, Surya Spa
Photo: Emerald England, Emerald England Photography and Graphic Design, LLC

[While this photo was taken a year ago, it's the closet thing experience I've had to a "fashion" photo shoot.]