Friday, September 30, 2011

some things.


Olive must have sat on a cat.
That's the only explanation I can come up with.


I just ordered myself a pair of shoes from The Clymb. What do you think? They're only $29.98!

New Balance

If you haven't checked out The Clymb before you probably should. There are a lot of great deals on outdoor clothing and gear and right now if you order a T-Shirt your entire order ships free! :)

Also, this morning I entered a few photos of Olive into the Zulily photo contest. I would love for you to follow these links and click "love it" on her photos! :)

Photo 1
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Just like The Clymb, Zulily also has numerous great deals on all kinds of kid and mom products. Right now they have a great Melissa & Doug event going on. It's a perfect time to start Christmas shopping, don't you think? :)

Yesterday I remembered a bit of a dream that I had. I dreamt that I had to, in some way, represet the letter H. I remember writing part of a speech and getting quite emotional about the fact that poor H is so often not focused on when tacked onto a T, a C, or an S. Hmm.

Yesterday morning I must have been dreaming about something strange... Tyler was getting ready for work when he dropped something and it hit the floor with a loud bang! I immediately opened my eyes and looked for Olive because I thought that she was a balloon and that bang was the sound of her popping. What?!

TRESemme Dry Shampoo

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of TRESemmé for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.



Have you ever heard of dry shampoo?  I first heard about it when reading various mom-esque blogs when pregnant with Olive.  I believe it came as a tip for mom's with twins but, honestly, I think it's a useful tool for anyone to have in their "bag of tricks", but is especially useful for moms.



Do you ever find yourself too busy do take a shower? Or suddenly find yourself with somewhere to go but little time to get ready? I often find myself speeding through a shower listening intently to the baby monitor hoping I can get at least my hair washed before Olive wakes.





If you answered "yes" to any of those questions you should probably give dry shampoo a try!  Specifically I suggest TRESemme's line of TRESemmé Fresh Start Dry Shampoo. TRESemme actually offers a line of different types of dry shampoo so you can get the exact look you're going for.   The full line includes:



 



- Strengthening Dry Shampoo: The formula, with B12 vitamins and keratin, helps strengthen hair and leaves it full of healthy body.



- Volumizing Dry Shampoo: The formula, with mineral clay and citrus, removes oil while injecting hair with salon-gorgeous volume.



-  Smoothing Dry Shampoo: The formula, with Vitamin H & Silk Proteins, refreshes your straight style by removing excess oil, impurities and odor to ensure your smooth look lasts.



- Moisturizing Waterless Foam Shampoo: The formula, with Witch Hazel, Citrus, and Aloe Vera, refreshes your hair by removing excess oil, impurities and odor while moisturizing hair.



TRESemme offers this complete line of dry shampoos that revive your style's look and feel on days that you skip a shampoo.  They are uniquely formulated to absorb excess oil and remove odor.  If you can believe it, the full line of dry shampoos rejuvenates hair without a single drop of water!  And there is a renewing burst of citrus extracts infused into every product, leaving hair with a clean, fresh scent.



If you have never tried dry shampoo here are some tips from TRESemme to achieve the best results:



- Shake vigorously before use and in between spray busts for best results.



- Lift sections of dry hair and spray lightly at the roots.



- Don’t spray it like hair spray (all over and continuously).



- Leave in for 1-2 minutes.



- Use your fingertips or a brush to distribute the dry shampoo evenly.



- If clogging occurs, remove the nozzle and rinse under warm water, then reattach.



YouTube Celebrity Elle Fowler  discusses the Top Hair Products for School and has teamed up with TRESemme and created a tutorial to teach people how to use TRESemmé Fresh Start Dry Shampoo properly.  Go take a peek and try TRESemmé Fresh Start Dry Shampoo for yourself!  :)



[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdUL87ssORg&w=560&h=345]




Visit Sponsor's Site

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

a day at the park.

Today Olive and I stopped at Cottage Park in north Minneapolis, a tiny park just north of West Broadway Ave, after a really great meeting at Bauer Brothers Salvage. There Olive experienced her first bucket swing. I think we both had a wonderful time. :)

(Please forgive Olive for wearing the same outfit as her seven month photos)

(Also please forgive me.. this post is PHOTO HEAVY!!!!)

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The end!

seven months old.

Last week Olive turned seven months old.

Her army crawl has become pretty quick and she sometimes morphs into an inchworm.. briefly getting up on her hands and knees.
Recently she's been getting onto all fours and rocking back and forth which causes me to giggle every single time.
Olive has become much more consistent when waving. She waves at mirrors in the house when we pass them and today she waved at a lady walking on the sidewalk who was quite far away from us. And not even looking at us. She also often accompanies a wave with a "hhhhhhhhha". Today she waved when Tyler left for work but he had already closed the door. :(
Olive's pincer grasp blows me away. I guess I'm not sure how precise it should be at this age but I don't think it could get any better. She pick up the smallest things with such precision! I think I have baby led weaning to thank for that.
Speaking of baby led weaning - We've been feeding Olive the same food that we have been eating for a couple of months now. Just a few of the things she has tried and enjoy include steak, curry chicken, lots of homemade bread, apple pieces, plum, various stir frys, sauerkraut soup, eggs, pancakes, pizza, Moroccan vegetable stew, Ramadan soup, brats, and so many more things. I don't think there has been anything that she hasn't been willing to eat though I think there is a clear preference for meat! She is so entertaining to watch eat. :)
We have recently shaken up the nap and bed time routines as Olive was previously falling asleep only during yoga ball bounces, in the car, or rarely while nursing. It's only been a few days thus far but she seems to be doing well!
Olive has two teeth - she has had the middle right bottom one for about a month and a couple of days ago the other middle bottom tooth poked through. Thankfully she has had little to no teething pain! I think I have to thank her Baltic amber teething necklace for some of that.
Olive occasionally signs milk but when she's really hungry I don't think she has the ability to do much of anything besides nearly hyperventilate!
Unfortunately it is hard to tell the difference between waving and milk as Olive's waving is occasionally facing her and is just her hand opening and closing. Much like milk.
Olive really likes to hug Honey, our pup. It's cute. :) Until she tears out fistfuls of hair.. yuck.
Olive is playing with all of her toys much more accurately now (not that I think any toy really has a right or wrong - I encourage creativity!). She turns pages, shakes rattles and maracas very well, a and knocks down block towers.
She laughs a lot and plays back and forth with sounds much more than before.
Elimination Communication is still going well. Olive has many wet diapers throughout the day - neither of us are good at catching all of those. She goes weeks without a dirty diaper though, which is great. Every other day or so she has a big big deal poop in her bedroom potty. She usually hugs me while pooping.. which is strange yet adorable.

Overall she's pretty great. :)

Here are some photos of our seven month old Olive bug!

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Waving:

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Suddenly excited:

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She has a small booger:

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I apologize to those of you who follow this blog, my Facebook photo page, and my photo blog - you're probably tired of seeing the same thing.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

it's official!

I have officially partnered with Christine Ransom (of Majestic Touch Massage & Doula Services)! When you hire Christine as your doula you will also receive a maternity session with me! :) Christine also offers massage to her doula clients AND she was our doula for Olive's birth! We're both very excited to be working together.
Tell your friends! :)

winner! yay! woohoo!

It is with great pleasure that I announce the winner of the giveaway for an 8x10 print of your choice from Livy Love Designs!!


I'm so happy to have had the chance to host a giveaway of one of Diana's prints on my blog - I love her work! :)


Without further ado...




The winner is...


#8!



Meri, from Meri-Goes-Round!!!


Congratulations Meri!!


I hope winning this print helps you feel a little better and maybe even recover more quickly. :)  Email me your address and print choice to anowlsnest(at)gmail(dot)com and I'll pass it on to Diana!  :)


And if you didn't win you should still go order a print because they're so pretty! :)