GUILT.

Almost every Mom has one of those days where she wants a little quiet time to herself or a day where she needs to get a TON of things done, so we resort to plopping our kids in front of the television or finding them things that will keep them occupied for hours instead of playing with them ourselves.

Today, I had one of those days. I hate the guilt the rushes over me for choosing/needing to do my "TO DO" list over playing with my daughter, reading to her or just plain snuggling with her. I feel like today was worse than any other time I've done this. This day went by me so fast, I just realized I've only picked her up twice. She's been in her playpen or her bouncer most of the day :-( *SIGH* I totally know she's fine...but the guilt still sucks haha. I feel like I constantly have to chant to myself, "It's okay, I'm only human" but that never works LOL!

Have any of you guys experienced this feeling of guilt by distracting your child to get things done or to have a little quiet time? How do you cope?

Party Time!

I feel like it's been FOREVER since I've actually just blogged and not ran a contest or giveaway! Well, I'M BACK!! WOO HOO! :-)

I've been struggling with planning Miss K's 1st birthday party. I'm in disbelief that my little baby is already going to be a year old when it feels like we just brought her home from the hospital. I'm struggling because I LOVE that's she getting bigger and changing daily, but I want my baby to stay a baby forever! HAHA! All you Mom's know what I'm talking about. How have you dealt with it? Any loving advice?

For Miss K's party, I decided to go with a Jungle theme! Her entire nursery theme is Jungle decor so I figured I'd stick with that. I've been having such a fun time finding all the little party accessories and want to buy it all. Problem is, I don't know where to stop or draw that line...haha. I want to get EVERYTHING I see for her party but I know for a fact that we won't use all of it and it would be pointless but part of me is screaming "she only turns 1 ONCE, just go all out!". This was the Jungle theme that I really like so far...

 My other struggle is with the invite list....where do I draw the line as to who I should invite. I feel like I want the whole world to be a part of her big day, but at the same time it's a day that's really special so I want everyone to be able to enjoy it as much as possible and just share it with close friends and family. HELP!? :-)

For those of you that have thrown birthday parties, got any tips or tricks up your sleeves to make this day extra special without breaking the bank?! I'd love to hear what you all have to say.

Much Love,

Caty

**Knitted Together by Katrina Giveaway**

**US RESIDENTS ONLY PLEASE**

Looking for some ADORABLE, handmade, quality baby booties with a matching hat?! Katrina, a WAHM mother of two beautiful babies of Knitted Together by Katrina has graciously put up a set of baby booties and matching hat for this giveaway! All of her items are made with careful detail and love! This set of booties and hat make a PERFECT baby gift for any little one in your life.

ONLY ONE SET IS BEING GIVEN AWAY FOR THIS GIVEAWAY

 BUY THEM:
Knitted Together by Katrina - She doesn't have a shop yet, so all you have to do is go to her Facebook page and request a custom order! She has tons of photos albums showing what she offers and she's always willing to work with anything new you'd like to try.

WIN IT:
Katrina at Knitted Together by Katrina would like to give one of my readers a hat with a matching set of booties of any size or gender!!

MANDATORY ENTRIES:
You must be/become a follower of this blog and tell me how I can find you! (example: what name or ID did you use to "follow" my blog?) Make sure you include your email address (so I know how to contact you if you're the winner) in your comment on this post.

Head on over to the Knitted Together by Katrina's Facebook page and become a fan. Come back and comment on this post with your Facebook name/ID along with your email address.

ADDITIONAL ENTRIES:

***You MUST complete the mandatory entries in order for the additional entries to qualify. If you haven't done so, scroll back up and see what you need to do for the mandatory entries. If the mandatory entries are not completely FIRST, all additional entries will be VOID :-)***

All additional entries count as just one entry unless otherwise stated.

PLEASE make sure you follow the instructions for each entry carefully. If there is one thing wrong with an entry it will NOT be posted and will NOT qualify for an entry. I definitely don't want you guys to miss out on this AWESOME prize, so please read carefully! :-)

Follow Modern Mommy - Paid in Smiles, Giggles & Kisses on Facebook. Comment back here with your name and email address.

Become a follower of my other blog Made With Love By Caty, come back here and comment on this blog saying you've done so with your name and email address.

Follow Modern Mommy - Paid in Smiles, Giggles & Kisses on Twitter. Comment below with your Twitter ID and email address.

Follow Made With Love By Caty on Twitter. Comment below with your Twitter ID and email address.

Tweet about this giveaway including Knitted Together by Katrina, @PaidInSmiles, #babyaccessory, #giveaway and the link to this giveaway, you may tweet once a day until the giveaway ends, just comment here with the link to the tweet and your email address each time.

If you have your own blog, write a blog post about this giveaway including the link to this giveaway. Come back here and post the link to your blog entry about this giveaway.

Grab my Modern Mommy-Paid In Smiles, Giggles & Kisses button and post it on your blog somewhere. Comment back here with the link to your blog and your email address.

Grab my Made With Love By Caty button and post it on your blog somewhere. Comment back here with the link to your blog and your email address.

With this giveaway, you have several ways to win, but you must come back and comment for each of them with your email address if you want to be entered for all entries. All entries must be received by Monday February 21st by 11:59 PM EST. I will be checking to make sure that each requirement is done and you will want to make sure you do the mandatory entry to qualify for this giveaway. Please remember that I DO LOOK AT EACH ENTRY and if they are not valid for the giveaway, I WILL NOT PUBLISH THEM. The winner will be drawn via random.org and will then have 48 hours to respond by email or another winner will be drawn.

Thank you guys so much! Good Luck!

Caty

Banana Bottoms Cloth Diaper Winner IS......

The winner, chosen by Random.org, is.....

#8 - Kristi!!

I grabbed your Made With Love by Caty button and put it on my blog

http://flutiepatootie.blogspot.com/

flutie(dot)patootie(at)yahoo(dot)com

February 3, 2011 4:06 PM


CONGRATULATIONS KRISTI!!

Please email me within the next 24 hours with your choice of gender and size of diaper at cblakley0531@gmail.com or another winner will be chosen :-)

Thank you to all of you that participated and showing your support for Banana Bottoms!

Win a Planet Wise Inc Hanging Wet Bag!!

Hey All,

It's been a LONG time since I've done a post that doesn't include running a giveaway but I guess this post is similar since it's me telling you about something amazing you can win from a giveaway!

For all you gals out there that have been following me on my cloth diapering journey since Day 1, you all know how much I love my Planet Wise Inc Hanging Wet Bag and Small/Travel Wet Bag from them! If you can get one...DO IT! You WILL NOT be disappointed!

If you can't purchase one at the moment, try to win it! Take Time to Smell the Roses is hosting a giveaway on her blog RIGHT NOW! So head on over there and enter to win! There are LOTS of opportunities to better your chances of winning.






GOOD LUCK!!

**Banana Bottoms Cloth Diaper Review and Giveaway** Feb 3rd-9th

**US/CANADA RESIDENTS ONLY**

REVIEW:

Kristen, owner and founder of Banana Bottoms Cloth Diapers, is a WAHM of 4 beautiful littles ones and LOVES making cloth diapers.

"I have been sewing since I was a kid and love to create. I have been making/designing cloth diapers since the birth of my oldest, 12 years ago." -Kristen

Kristen is SUCH a joy to work with and her customer service is absolutely amazing. I've only been cloth diapering since October 2010 with OSFM (one size fits most) waterproof PUL pocket diapers and I had tons of questions about fitted diapers, diaper covers, etc because I've never really dealt with fitteds before. Kristen was so patient with me and answered all of the questions I had about these diapers. It meant a lot to me that she made such a huge effort to make sure I understood everything and had what I need to add fitted diapers to my stash.

I started looking to add fitted diapers to my collection because being a WAHM myself, there would be days where my time was very limited to taking care of and maintain PUL cloth diapers. When I get super busy, I don't have a whole lot of time to hang dry my PUL diapers and I can't throw them in dryer because the PUL would melt so that's why I started looking to add more fitted diapers to Miss K's stash.

When I received my fitted diaper from Banana Bottoms in the mail and took it out of the box, it was LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT! I know how corny that sounds, but it's completely true. I adored the fabric pattern that was used to make this diaper. Then, when I picked the diaper up, I fell in love all over again.

The diaper is made out of a soft knit fabric for the outer layer and when you open it up, the entire inside is made of the SOFTEST bamboo velour as well as the soakers! A lot of you cloth diapering Mothers out there will completely understand when the first thing I did was start rubbing that cloth diaper against my face and snuggled it! :-) It was just SO soft to not do that.

Here are the components to the Banana Bottoms diaper:

Inside of diaper with the dual snap in soakers.

Coming back to the time issue. With PUL diapers you can only dry them on a low heat setting in your dryer or hang dry them so you won't melt/ruin the PUL material. This process takes at least 24 hours by the time they're ready to be put on my baby's bum. There are days where I have no time to deal with this process and need diapers within a matter of HOURS. With fitted diapers, there is no waterproof PUL lining in them so I can just toss them in the dryer with the inserts and they're ready to go in NO time! This is by far one of my favorite things about fitteds.

With this diaper I also have the piece of mind that Miss K's bum is touching nothing but the best, softest fabric out there. The dual soakers wick away moisture from her bum so she's less likely to get rashes. We all know how frustrating it is to see our babies in pain from diaper rashes. It's not fun at all.

With fitted diapers, it is suggested that you get a diaper cover for your baby to wear with it to avoid leakage. With this diaper, you will need a cover when you first get it, because it takes up to 5 washes for the diaper to reach its soaking potential. When my diaper reached its soaking potential, I didn't need a cover as much because the dual soaker did an amazing job soaking up all the wetness. I was able to put Miss K in it during the day for a couple hours and not have to worry about leaking. If I knew she was going to be in her diaper for a little longer, I would just put her in some fleece bottoms to help. Kristen offers fleece diaper covers on her Etsy site as well.

This diaper (when worn with a cover) is excellent for night time use. Miss K seemed SO comfortable in this diaper when she slept, it almost seemed to feel like a part of her. This diaper is more trim compared to the ones Miss K normally uses and it was very nice when it came to putting clothes on her. I didn't have to go up a size in pants like I usually do because of the bulkiness.

Each Banana Bottoms diaper is made and stitched with the most care. You can tell Kristen puts a lot of effort, time, and craftsmanship into each of her diapers. These diapers look and feel as though they withstand a lot and still come out working perfectly and looking awesome.

Kristen also offers a variety of other products such as training pants, shorts, longies, skirties, and baby bedding. Just go check out her Etsy Shop. She also takes custom orders!

I will ALWAYS highly recommend Banana Bottoms diapers to anyone looking to try cloth for the first time or anyone out there who is already using cloth looking for something new, fun, and for amazing quality. Her diapers are very reasonably priced and worth every single penny!

BUY IT:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/bananabottoms

WIN IT:
Kristen at Banana Bottoms would like to give one of my readers a fitted cloth diaper of any size or gender!! Kristen gets to pick the fabric :-)

MANDATORY ENTRIES:
You must be/become a follower of this blog and tell me how I can find you! (example: what name or ID did you use to "follow" my blog?) Make sure you include your email address (so I know how to contact you if you're the winner) in your comment on this post.

Head on over to the Banana Bottoms' Facebook page and become a fan. Come back and comment on this post with your Facebook name/ID along with your email address.

ADDITIONAL ENTRIES:

***You MUST complete the mandatory entries in order for the additional entries to qualify. If you haven't done so, scroll back up and see what you need to do for the mandatory entries. If the mandatory entries are not completely FIRST, all additional entries will be VOID :-)***

All additional entries count as just one entry unless otherwise stated.

PLEASE make sure you follow the instructions for each entry carefully. If there is one thing wrong with an entry it will NOT be posted and will NOT qualify for an entry. I definitely don't want you guys to miss out on this AWESOME prize, so please read carefully! :-)

Follow Modern Mommy - Paid in Smiles, Giggles & Kisses on Facebook. Comment back here with your name and email address.

Become a follower of my other blog Made With Love By Caty, come back here and comment on this blog saying you've done so with your name and email address.

Become a follower of Banana Bottoms' blog, come back here and leave a comment on this blog saying you've done so with your email address.

Follow Modern Mommy - Paid in Smiles, Giggles & Kisses on Twitter. Comment below with your Twitter ID and email address.

Follow Made With Love By Caty on Twitter. Comment below with your Twitter ID and email address.

Tweet about this giveaway including Banana Bottoms, @PaidInSmiles, #clothdiaper, #giveaway and the link to this giveaway, you may tweet once a day until the giveaway ends, just comment here with the link to the tweet and your email address each time.

If you have your own blog, write a blog post about this giveaway including the link to this giveaway. Come back here and post the link to your blog entry about this giveaway.

Grab my Modern Mommy-Paid In Smiles, Giggles & Kisses button and post it on your blog somewhere. Comment back here with the link to your blog and your email address.

Grab my Made With Love By Caty button and post it on your blog somewhere. Comment back here with the link to your blog and your email address.

With this giveaway, you have several ways to win, but you must come back and comment for each of them with your email address if you want to be entered for all entries. All entries must be received by Wednesday February 9th by 11:59 PM EST. I will be checking to make sure that each requirement is done and you will want to make sure you do the mandatory entry to qualify for this giveaway. Please remember that I DO LOOK AT EACH ENTRY and if they are not valid for the giveaway, I WILL NOT PUBLISH THEM. The winner will be drawn via random.org and will then have 48 hours to respond by email or another winner will be drawn

Thank you guys so much! Good Luck!

Caty