Labels

I received some labels in the mail from Applied Labels for Elina to review on this here blog.  They claim to be dishwasher and laundry proof and perfect for labeling kids items for school or daycare.  Well, Lina is still to young to attend school and going to my Mom’s house doesn’t really count as daycare.  So I had to get creative about what was worthy of getting a label.  I thought about putting a label in one of her books, but that wouldn’t really test the product and it would drive me crazy.  I can’t even handle price tags on my books, or folded pages for that matter.  Call me weird.  I didn't want to put a label on her clothes, because she might have a sister one day who will be able to wear her adorable clothes.

Finally our trip to Mason's family reunion/vacation proved to be a worthy event for testing these labels.  Four items were tested for this trip.  A sippy cup, a snack catcher, a pink rubber duckie and a squirty elephant.  I wanted to put a label on her fabric covered raft as well, but the directions for the labels said to put them on the tag only.  There was no tag, so I didn't attempt it.

The Results:

Sippy Cup:  There was no flat surface on this cup, so I couldn't find a good place to stick the label.  Since the label had no stretch, the top and bottom of the label were left unstuck.  Even partially unstuck, the label showed no signs of falling off.  It was pulled off before being stuck in the dishwasher.

Snack Catcher:  There were plenty of places to stick the label on this one.  This probably also received the most abuse on the trip as well.  It held Lina's snacks, became a toy with several of her cousins and spent most of it's time being drooled on and dropped on the ground.  It has been through the dish washer several times and the label is still there looking brand new.

Bath Toys:  I brought these along for Lina to play with in the pool, they weren't very expensive so I wasn't too worried about loosing them.  But I didn't exactly feel like replacing them either.  I also wasn't expecting the labels to stick very well either.  The material was just too flexible, and the labels did slip a little.  That being said, those toys have been floating around in the pool with the hot sun shining on them for a month and the labels are still there.

All in all, the labels worked great.  We returned from our trip with all of our items.  The snack catcher went missing for a little while, but it was returned by dinner.  It's a good thing it had her name on it, otherwise who knows where it would have ended up.

Because I liked this product so much, I get to share this deal with you.  $5 off your labels and free shipping!

Shop www.AppliedLabels.com

Enter "B2S2011" in your shopping cart (the field is in the bottom left corner).

Click the blue button below the field reading "Enter Coupon Code & Click to Update."

*Free shipping is first-class and ONLY available on label packs. $5 OFF coupon is applied to each label pack and each order containing Applied Labels™, Mini Applied Labels™ and Tag-A-Longs™. Excludes all B2B orders.

STOCK UP! HURRY and beat the rush! This offer will expire September 1, 2011.


I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Her First Sentance

If Elina were one of the Little Miss characters, her name would be "Little Miss Sassy."  In fact I think she is going to need some of those books for her birthday.

On Friday I asked Miss O to come get a piece of paper from me and give it to Mimi.  Normally Miss O would jump at this opportunity.  But this day, the blocks were more important, so she said "no."  I of course had no choice but to try again.  When she ignored me, my sister told Miss O to tell me what she always told her.  Miss O continued to play with her blocks and yelled (as if we were in separate rooms), "Just a minute!"

Lina adores Miss O and wants to do everything that Miss O does.  Without skipping a beat, Lina shouted "Yus-a-yenet!" 

The words might not have been perfectly formed, but the tone was dead on.  I knew I was going to have my hands full while I was still pregnant, but how do you prepare yourself for your 11 month old daughter telling you just a minute?

My Very Own Fight Club

It’s not every day that I get to talk about the time I punched myself in the face. Total spoiler alert, I know. Well, my sister and I have been shopping quite a bit lately, which means we either have to drive separate or play musical car seats. For both our amusement and the girls, we have been choosing to play the car seat game.

Since my sister is expecting her second child, that leaves all the heavy awkward lifting to me. While installing Miss O’s seat in my car, I wanted to make sure it was nice and tight so that the seat wouldn’t budge. I was giving the strap one final tug when the clip slipped off the hook and my fist went flying towards my face. My knuckles crashed into my forehead and the heel of my hand struck my glasses driving the nose piece into the side of my nose and smudging my lens. Fortunately my glasses survived the attack of my fist and I only had to tweak the nose piece a little to get it back into place. And I am so glad my face took the impact instead of Miss O if an accident had happened.

I bought myself a soda after that. I needed the bubbles and caffeine to battle the headache that was brewing, and Miss O needed an orange lemon-aid from Old McDonalds (also known as orange Hi-C from McDonalds, but don’t tell her that).

Peek-a-Boo!

Lina just LOVES her cousin!  Listen closely, she says her version of Olivia.

Father's Day

For Father’s Day, I had some amazing French Toast for breakfast.

Mason didn’t though. I don’t know what he had, probably a bowl of cereal. I was in Hermann celebrating my friends 30th birthday, he was back home with Lina. That was his real Father’s Day gift, a weekend of precious bonding time for the two of them. They had a lazy Saturday morning together while I woke up to a lovely breakfast of fruit and granola before getting an amazing massage. He dressed Lina in mismatched clothes while I was busy doing things like this after drinking more than my fair share of sample wine.

After breakfast on Sunday I played find the gnome (I’m convinced there were more than 2) while Mason and Lina got ready to go bowling with his family (once again in mismatched clothes).

Mason’s weekend was filled with dirty diapers, temper tantrums and a teething baby. Mine was filled with great food, shopping for antiques, wonderful ice cream, relaxing massages, fun games, famous Bratwurst and amazing friends. I had a great Father’s Day Weekend.

Mason’s mug came in and as I expected, I have mixed feelings about it. While I love the concept and I think it is the perfect gift for Mason, I don’t think the quality is up to my standards. I will be the first to admit that I am extra picky when it comes to photography things, so perhaps I’m not the best person to review these types of things. That being said, I think Mason won’t even notice the things about it that drive me crazy.

The winning photo.

The finished product. The colors are a little weak and it’s very pixilated. But that is such a cute girl on that mug!

The view that Mason will see while he drinks. This is the part that bothers me the most.

All in all, this is exactly what I expected. I had the same complaints with the regular mug that I got for free when Lina was 3 months old. I still drink out of it, I still like to look at her picture and I still get compliments on it.

Someday, I'm Going To Win The Lottery

I know what you are thinking. Where did Kayla go? And why did she take her wonderfully witty stories with her? Well it just so happens that I was working on a post that was all about my first trip to the eye doctor in a decade. I was off to a great start, but just couldn’t get to an ending. So, let’s just say… I can see clearly now, my eyes are fixed. And if you didn’t at least sing that last sentence in your head, then you can go ahead and stop reading now.

Now, on to more fun things. Mason has started drinking coffee, which is totally my fault since he hated it when we got married. Anyway, I came across a travel mug on Snapfish. While I have had mixed results with their products, I still thought I had to give this a chance. After all, it is the perfect gift for him. He keeps saying that he needs pictures to show off, yet he has nowhere to put them. With the mug, he can carry around his sweet baby's face and drink his favorite morning beverage at the same time. Anyway I wanted a recent picture of Miss Elina for this project so we had a quick impromptu photo shoot in the front yard while Mason was at the bank. And since Mason doesn’t read this blog, I’m not afraid to share some of my favorite outtakes with you.

It took her a moment to be okay with the weeds on her feet.

"Ahhhh!"  Cute, but it needs to be horizontal and not quite the look we are going for.

That's better, but still not much of a smile.

Close, but not quite there yet...