Category: Babies

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Babies Baby Gear Baby Shower Diaper Bags Gifts Petunia Petunia Pickle Bottom

A rose by any other name… would be called Petunia

When I had my first baby, I had no idea about baby products. None of my friends had kids. I had to figure out what was wonderful and what was a disastrous waste of money all on my own. The internet was there and there was some reviews on various sites, but nothing like today. It was honestly trial and error. For everything.

Touring Tote prepped for hospital

Most things I purchased back then I would never purchase again. Ever. There was one thing, however, that opened me to the world of luxury, stylish baby products and I have never turned back. (I guess after reading this, my husband is regretting ever making that purchase.. haha)

My oldest son was about a year-and-a-half old, my husband brought home this gorgeous brown and teal brocade diaper bag. It was large, had a million pockets and a built in changing pad. It held everything I needed, and a million and one things I didn’t need.. but brought along anyway. (Don’t judge me. I bet every one of you has more unnecessary things in your diaper bags than you do necessary ones! Haha.) This bag, was a Petunia Pickle Bottom “Camellia Roll” Boxy Backpack. 

 


Stroller Blanket – ready to leave hospital

Another Stroller blanket.

I had gone through several cheap, ugly diaper bags. Never happy. Never satisfied. And then.. THIS. Oh. It was gorgeous. Practical. I would never settle for mediocrity again. I used that one bag for years. Roughly 6 months into my second baby, I bought a second Petunia bag. Another Boxy Backpack, this time a glazed (aka: wipe-able!) one, in a beautiful teal color. Tranquil in Tibet, was it’s name. I went between the two bags on a constant basis. Each had a purpose. If I was going somewhere nice, I used the Brocade. If I was going somewhere that I thought the bag may get dirty (the zoo? the beach?) I used the Glazed.

Comfy and soft receiving blanket.

When I was pregnant with my 3rd baby I was opened to the world of new Petunia Pickle Bottom products. Clothes, blankets, stroller bunting bags, Ergo Carriers, Nursing covers, wallets, travel bags, iPhone cases.. and of course more diaper bags.(Yes, I own one of each of those items!) I got smart and learned that I could still be thrifty with some of my Petunia purchases, too. Every so often they do an online outlet sale. (Go register! They’ll email before the next sale!) This helped me convince my husband to buy not one, but TWO more diaper bags. A small, purse sized bag (The Oasis Roll Touring Tote) and yet another Boxy Backpack. The Moroccan Mint. I love my collection of bags. With three kids, one in cloth diapers, I do get much more use out of my Boxy Backpacks (though, I have yet to convince myself that I need the larger, Abundance Boxy.. but you never know!) so my Touring Tote has found another home.. but don’t get me wrong. I loved that thing.

Train Case makes great toy tote!


Snuggle Set.

Petunia Pickle Bottom is one of my go-to brands for baby shower gifts, and I can honestly say that I will never buy another brand diaper bag again. Ever. I will continue to expand my collection of Petunia until I no longer need to carry anything with me. They make the perfect laptop/tablet/carry-on bags!! The quality of the Petunia bags is outstanding. The quality of all of their products is outstanding. My baby spent many days laying on the soft and fluffy recieving blanket I bought him and once the weather gets cold again, he will spend many nights snuggled up with it again. He was swaddled to sleep in his Petunia Swaddle until he wouldn’t allow me to swaddle him any longer. Should I have any more babies, they will also get Petunia swaddles and receiving blankets.

PPB Ergo. Love!

You should go look at the Petunia Pickle Bottom site and tell me: What would be the ultimate Petunia Pickle Bottom product of your dreams?

Note: These products were not provided to me. We bought them, we love them, our children love them, so I am showing them to you in the hope that you will love them too.

Categories
Babies Baby Gear Owls Play Gym Review Skip Hop Skip*Hop

Loo Loo, Skip*Hop to my Loo

It has been no secret to anyone who knows my baby, that very early on in life, he became infatuated with owls. While he loves pretty much any owl baby toy in existence, his favorite owl has, and probably always will be, the Skip*Hop Hug & Hide Owl that was given to him at my baby shower. We expanded his owl collection… but really, we expanded our Skip*Hop collection. We even found ourselves looking for more of the Skip*Hop owls that we already had, but came in different colors at Pottery Barn Kids.

We eventually got the owl that hangs off the car seat, the owl that attaches to the stroller, the owls that rattle.. and the big one. The Skip*Hop TreeTop Activity Gym. After three kids and a good number of play gyms, this is by far the best one I’ve ever spent money on. Not just because of the owls, but for our baby, that definitely added to the appeal.

 

The size of the gym isn’t too incredibly large, but it definitely isn’t small. It gave the baby the right amount of space to roll around a bit, and enough different toys to keep him occupied long enough for me to get things done. Our baby is rather small for his age and has some gross motor delays, so this activity gym also acted as a means of physical exercise for him when he really wasn’t capable of much. It even inspired him to sit for longer periods of time without the assistance of a baby seat.

The quality of the Skip*Hop products is wonderful. Most are washable, and trust me, in a house with three boys, our Skip*Hop toys have had numerous turns in the washing machine. I have only had one product not really make it back into rotation after the washing machine, and that was the cow mirror that says it is machine washable, but it contains a squeaker inside that seems to retain water after being washed — and for 2 days following, any time you squeaked it, water would squish out. Yuck. I removed it from rotation and got the rabbit version..The cow version was a favorite of the baby’s, and the quality was amazing.. just needed to avoid washing it. The rabbit found his home on the anti-rebound bar of our car seat.

The Activity gym is no exception to the durability of the Skip*Hop toys. It has been thrown around, stored, tossed in a closet and thrown in the back of our car for 2 weeks during our recent move. The washable pieces have been washed a few times, and it has been well chewed, gnawed and sucked on. It is still pristine!

 

I love this product so much, I am having a hard time deciding if I can part with it or not. We are sitting in limbo about whether or not our family is done expanding.. and until I know for sure, one way or another, I don’t want to give it up. So, now that our baby is 14 months old and past the baby gym phase, I have it sitting in our closet, knowing that if I need it again, even years from now, it will still be just as pristine as it was for him. And all the little tree friends hanging from it, the owls our baby loves so much? He gets regular use out of them still. They squeak and rattle and entertain him still. Some of them will find their way into his memory box. A token of his babyhood for him to share with his kids. I bet they will still be just as perfect then as they are now.

 

If you are in the market for an activity gym, or really any baby toy, definitely go look at the Skip*Hop line of products. I hope you and your baby love them as much as me and my baby do! As our baby gets older, and our other kids are in school, we have started expanding into Skip*Hops other lines of products, too, like the ZOO Dinosaur Lunch box that our oldest son proudly trots with him to school every day.

Note: These products were not provided to me. We bought them, our children love them, so I am showing them to you in the hope that you will love them too.

Categories
Babies Baby Toys Giraffe Sophie the Giraffe

Phie Phie!

I always heard about this giraffe baby toy. Apparently, it squeaked like a dogs chew toy and was non-toxic for your kids to chew on. Reviews I had read claimed it to be the best teething toy. I thought it was all hype. During one  of our many stops at our favorite local baby boutique, our baby spotted it. Hanging on a wall display. In a cute little brown cardboard box. This Sophie the Giraffe teether. Not the original Sophie, but rather one with handles, in the traditional white with brown giraffe spots. He FLIPPED. With hands flapping, the squealing began and we knew at that moment, we weren’t leaving that store without that little brown box.

Our older boys insisted that we needed to immediately go find a replacement. Back to our favorite boutique we went. They were out of the same teether. What? What were we going to do?? Then, the arm flapping and shrieking started up. Had he spotted one? No. Well, not exactly. What he spotted was a Sophie the Giraffe green colored Vanilla teether. I don’t know how he knew it was the same giraffe, but he did. We, once again, were not leaving that store without that giraffe.That Sophie teether went everywhere with us. And then, the unspeakable happened. While out of town for a funeral, we lost the teether. Heaven help us. My guess is that it is somewhere in a Starbucks parking lot. (What? Isn’t that the most logical place for us to have stopped in order to lose something?) Crying began, sad whimpering. I don’t know what it was about that giraffe, but it found a place in our baby’s heart.

I am very happy to say that we have not lost that teether. After the first mishap, I made sure to tether that thing to anything and everything possible. The love… the infatuation.. didn’t stop, though. Each and every time we go to that baby boutique, or any other baby store for that matter, our older kids go on a Sophie hunt. Once she is located, the baby’s arms start flapping and squeals begin. He doesn’t talk, you see. Talking or not, though, he makes it very clear how much he loves that giraffe.

As I said in the last blog post, we helped at an event this past weekend. Right across from the booth we were working in he spotted her. “PHIE PHIE!!!!” he shrieked. He called for her for the first 15-20 minutes we were there. I didn’t want to lose his “Phie Phie” so I left her in the car. I should have brought her. I almost had to go buy him another one.We eventually ended up with the large, squeaks-like-a-dogs-chew-toy Sophie. He snuggles it. He smiles when he sees it. He actually started referring to it in as much of a word as he can. “Phie Phie.” He spots “Phie Phie’s” from anywhere. We cannot leave without seeing all the “Phie Phies.”

Tell me, do you have any Sophie products? How do you or your kids like them? If you don’t, which Sophie do you wish you had?My piece of advice to you: If you have a baby or are expecting a baby, get a Sophie. Any Sophie. I don’t know a baby yet that has one and doesn’t love it. I have a feeling we will be adding more of the Sophie products to our household, as well as perhaps Sophie’s friends, the Chan Pie Gnon.

Note: These products were not provided to me. We bought them, our children love them, so I am showing them to you in the hope that you will love them too.