Moby baby carrier

When I was pregnant with Griff, I received a huge bag of hand me downs from my neighbor. Included was her moby wrap. I had wanted one of these and they aren't cheap, so I was very grateful.

After G was born I used the moby all the time. Walking around the neighborhood, at parties, grocery shopping... It was so great that I went and bought a white one off of Craigslist. It was summer and the black was hot.

I also had an ergo carrier but G was too small and I didn't have the infant insert. Now he is big enough and I love my ergo even more than I loved my moby, but as I prepare for our first family cross country trip I debated packing my moby.

G likes to face forward and I knew that the moby was my only option. I had heard negative things about carrying heavy kids in the moby and baby is at least 18 lbs now. I figured I'd give it a try before packing it. I'm tough and pretty strong so I figured I could do it.

All those women were right. I couldn't do it. Baby was comfy, and it wrapped well. I decided to do some work in the kitchen while carrying him and after 5 minutes my back was hurting. That will not work for a day in NYC.

Looks like I have one less thing to pack, and the mobys will sit in the drawer until the next little baby comes along.

Making simple holiday trees

To make cute Xmas trees for your holiday table you only need a few things. It cost me about $2. Maybe less!

You will need-
4 sheets of felt for each tree. I did solid green trees but you can mix it up, or even make red or brown.

Hot glue gun and hot glue sticks

Scissors

Pom poms. I got mine in the dollar bin at Joann's.

Poster board or an old thin box. I used a box. Whatever you use just needs to be the thickness of poster board to support the felt, and thin enough to bend.

Tape

How to make the tree-

1. Cut your poster into two rectangles. Basically, in half hamburger style.

2. Make it into a cone, and tape the pointy end together so it doesn't unravel. After you do this you can manipulate the bottom opening to be as wide as you want. The bottom will not be flat.

3. Tape the seam once you are happy with the shape.

4. Cut the bottom so that it is flat. There should be some point that your cone starts to separate. That is a good place to cut.

5. Fold two of your felt sheets into thirds and cut half circles out of it. You should be able to get 9-12 half circles out of each sheet. Fold the other two into 5ths and cut smaller half circles.

6. Starting at the bottom, layer your circles from largest to smallest going up the tree. Use your hot glue just at the flat part of the half circle.

7. At the end you should have a couple scraps of felt leftover to cover the exposed parts at the very bottom of the tree.

8. Put your Pom poms on however you like!

I realize I have no step by step photos. I realized this after I finished making the trees so feel free to ask me questions of you need clarification.

Crochet candy cane baby hat

Fits most 6-9 month olds.

Materials
- 1 small ball of white
- 1 small ball of red

Instructions
1. In white - Magic loop. Double crochet 10 times in loop and tighten.
2. Chain 3. Double crochet 2 times in each dc. Join with top chain.
3. In red - chain 3. double crochet in first loop 2 times. Double crochet once in next loop. Repeat until end of row. Join with top chain.
4. In white - chain 3. dc twice in first loop and once in next two loops. Repeat until end and join to top chain.
5. Chain 3. dc in first loop twice, and once in the next 3 loops. Repeat until end and join to top chain.
6. In red - chain 3. dc in each loop once. Join to top chain.
7. In white - chain 3. dc around and join.
8-9. In red- chain 2. single crochet around and join. These two single crochet rows make a sightly smaller band then a dc would.
10. In white - chain 3. dc around and join.
11. In red - chain 2. single crochet around and join.
12. In white - chain 2. Single crochet around and join.
13. In red- chain 2. sc around and join.
14-18. In white - chain 3. Double crochet, then front post dc. Repeat around and join. Fpdc can be confusing, but watch youtube videos and feel free to ask me questions!

You can make 17 rows instead of 18 if you want a shorter cap depending on the child's head.

To add a bow
Chain 16 or so. Whatever length you want your bow to be. Sc until end, chain 1. Repeat in back loop only for 9 rows. Less for shorter bows. Join middle with yarn and secure.

There you have a candy cane baby hat, for a boy or girl!

The best socks for babies

If you've ever had kids you know that a huge challenge is finding socks that stay on. 

My baby's favorite pasttime is trying to kick his socks off as soon as I get them on.

There are only two brands of socks that I've found that will stay on through all the kicking.

1. Old navy. Specifically the socks that don't fold and look sort of long. I love these for cool weather because they are thick and they go up to my boys knees. They are tight and leave marks, but it doesn't seem to bother him. He is 5 months but wears 12-18 months in these socks so buy big. Way big.

2. Gymboree. I'm pretty sure that the ones he has are too small, but they stay on somehow and are true to size. They are thin, so good if its warmer, or with shoes. They don't go up far, and have characters on them or are very colorful. Kinda pricey for socks.

Here he is in his old navy socks today. The one under that is his gymboree socks.

Baby Santa hat

I realize I've posted about this once before, but this post has my corrections AND cute photos :)

Knowing Christmas is coming up, I wanted to make my own Santa hats for the little ones. I sent one off to my niece with some matching booties, and I made a hat for Griff as well. I gave the first one I made to Griff's friend, who was also adorable in his hat!
I followed this pattern.
As with many crochet patterns, it was ridiculously off and I had to adjust it. Here are my adjustments.
White brim-
1. Chain as many links as you want your brim to be wide.
2. Continue as the pattern says, but don't follow how many rows to says to make. Measure your child's head circumference and make the brim that long when slightly stretched. I ended up with 53 rows (which is way more than 37 or whatever it asks for). I followed the pattern for 6-12 months without measuring and it would be fit for a newborn.
3. When starting your red rows, just get 1 stitch into each row. I had 53 rows, so I made 53 red slip stitches into the white when starting the hat part.
4. You end up having to add some rows in at the end, but it doesn't make a big difference. Just follow the pattern until you are ready to stitch your hat together.
5. I stitch the entire white brim on the outside, instead of half. This is because I flipped the whole white brim up.
The hats turned out super cute! We got lots of compliments when going to see Santa.