heart to heart blog

As a mom of an almost 4-year-old girl, my house is exploding with pink. Pink clothes, pink sheets, pink stuffed animals, pink cars, pink tutus…you name, I have it. The one pink thing that I did not have is a pink car seat. Pudding Pop is now at the age that she thinks her car seat is a “baby seat” since she sees her little sister in her car seat.

So, in order to get around this (and to add some color to my back seat), I got a pink Nautilus 3-in-1 car seat (in the Miley fashion to be exact). I was shocked by how excited PP got when she saw the box. She jumped up & down & asked when we were going to put it in the car.

I got the seat out of the box and PP proudly sat in it as I adjusted the harness straps. She couldn’t wait to get in it. My husband installed the car seat as PP asked when we could go somewhere so she could sit in her new seat. No more fights about sitting in the “baby seat” anymore–PP runs to the car so she can sit in her “big girl pink seat”. Ohh..the power of pink!

For a parent, feeling immediately bonded with your newborn is not something that should be taken for granted. It’s sometimes not as easy as 1-2-3. Happily there are plenty of ideas out there to share if someone is looking for help. There are ideas to promote bonding between both parents and baby here and here, but it can also be as simple as a massage with sweet smelling baby lotion, wearing your baby in a sling, or taking a stroll in a face to face stroller.

As babies grow into toddlers, they take on a new persona of independence. They start wanting to try and walk, feed themselves, get themselves dressed, etc. As parents, so many of us have heard the phrase “I do it” from a toddler at one point or another. Amazing how such a tiny person can have such a loud voice. I find myself wondering, how do parents stay connected with their children and keep nurturing that initial bond as they scream for independence?

Time goes by so fast. Before you know it, your baby is five years old and heading to kindergarten. Amidst going to work and facing all life’s little challenges, DH and I have made an extra effort to stay closely bonded to our children. We choose to incorporate little ones into our own established hobbies or favorite past times and create new ones based on their personalities as well. For example, DH loves college basketball. To put his love into perspective for you, March was the only month off-limits when it came to planning our wedding date. Now with children we have the introduction of mini toy hoops and soft basketballs for playtime. Game time outs and commercial breaks are filled with mini slam dunks and tons of giggles from all three of the juveniles in the living room.

For me, I like to cook, so it’s fabulous for Baby and I to spend time together in the kitchen. We bake and create, and with every recipe we add hugs, kisses and giggles into the mix. From the child side, Baby is a lover of books. DH and I both make a point to fit in snuggle/reading time a few nights a weeks before bedtime. That face-to-face time is so important to Baby as well as for us as parents.

Making time for our children sometimes takes precedence over makin sure all the dirty dishes are in the dishwasher after dinner or folding that load of laundry that’s in the dryer, but to be honest…I am really ok with that.

How do you continue to bond with your child as they grow? Do you have any tips to share?

Thanks so much to our friend Tiffany over at Lattes and Life for this adorable post! Make sure you pay her a visit and check out more great stories like this one.

Growing up an only child I often wondered what it would be like to have a sibling. Someone to play with, argue with, plot crazy schemes with. Someone who would have my back as we grew older, and be my confidant. Being an only child was very lonely, especially since I was raised by a single mom. Because of my experience I knew I wanted more than one child when the time came. I wanted my kids to experience the camaraderie and closeness that I always longed for.

When my son was almost two years old I got pregnant again. I envisioned his little toddler head leaning over my arms to stare at his baby sister, giving her sweet little kisses and hugs. But that was not exactly how it turned out. My son didn’t want anything to do with his sister. I’m not talking disinterested nonchalance. I’m talking complete avoidance! He screamed if we brought her anywhere near him. He wouldn’t touch her, wouldn’t acknowledge her at all. It broke my heart.

Time went on and he came to accept her. He still wasn’t impressed, and kept his distance. But he seemed to be resigned to the fact that she wasn’t going anywhere. Every once in awhile he’d get in her face and check her out, but he still ran away screaming if we brought her near him. I started to worry, wondering if they would ever be close. I saw friends having babies, and their toddlers wouldn’t leave the baby alone! Their toddlers wanted to hold and kiss the baby and were completely smitten!

Then one day, eight long months later, my son’s entire demeanor changed. Suddenly he started talking to his sister, and interacting with her. He started getting on the floor and playing with her. He ran around so she could crawl after him, and he’d give her a toy to play with if she had thrown hers out of reach. I watch them giggling together and my heart melts. I can see them becoming friends, not just siblings. And I couldn’t be happier.

Maya Angelou is quoted as having said, “I don’t believe an accident of birth makes people sisters or brothers. It makes them siblings, gives them mutuality of parentage. Sisterhood and brotherhood is a condition people have to work at.”

I love every moment of my babies working at it…every little moment.

Today we’d like to introduce the first of our “Bundles, Bumps & Babies” series – a new little bundle of joy who arrived exactly two weeks ago! Congrats to new daddy Brian Ashton, Finance Leader at Graco. She’s just beautiful!

We’ve been having so much fun on Wednesdays, sharing wondrous moments of our Graco family’s children and friends in our weekly “Wondrous Wednesday” blog posts. And it seems like our readers have too, because we’ve gotten a lot of questions asking, “Can you put my baby on the blog too!?”

Our Graco Blog team thought it would be fun if we added a little more interaction, so we’d like to open it up to all of you to share your wondrous moments and stories with us!

Today, we’re introducing our very first “Bundles, Bumps and Babies” post. Each week we will choose a picture to post from your submissions and feature your special moments (and some of our own too, of course!) We may even throw in an occasional contest here and there.

Maybe you’d like to share that great shot of the ever-growing baby bump you are sporting, your newborn baby’s very first picture or anything that captures the wonder, humor, marvel of childhood and parenthood.

Here’s all you need to do:

Send a photo in .jpg format with a short commentary or a“caption” that says it all, and include your email address and url. We’re looking for something a little unique that makes you just crack a smile or laugh to tears. The best photos and stories will be chosen.

If your picture is selected for publication, we’ll contact you to ask that you sign a release form and return it prior to publication. That’s it!

You can submit your entries to Graco by sending an e-mail to donna.donnelly@gracobaby.com or sharing a TwitPic with @gracoDonna, @gracoKelly,  or @gracobaby.

We can’t wait to see what wondrous moments you have to share with us!

I love working here at Graco for many reasons..but being able to try new products definitely tops the list on why I love it here. Recently, I received the Alano FlipIt for my little daughter, Pinkie Pie.

The Alano FlipIt stroller is one our newest strollers to hit the market–and one of my favorite innovative features about this product is the reversible (and adjustable!) handle. When Pudding Pop was Pinkie Pie’s age, I used a traditional stroller (baby faces out). Now with Pinkie Pie, I had the chance to use a stroller which gives you the option to face your baby while strolling around.

The reversible handle feature is useful in so many ways. First, there’s the practicality of it – it’s easy to flip the handle so you can quickly calm a fussy baby (no need to remove or flip the seat), or you can see if her pacifier falls out (or in my case, see if your baby has spit up in order to quickly clean her up – no one saw that, right?!).

But beyond that, I really love using the stroller to walk with Pinkie Pie facing me (which is what I have been doing) since I love to see her adorable little smiling face. Plus, I really feel like it gives me more time to connect with her while we’re out and about. I can point out colors and words, try to make her giggle and share what I’m doing with her while we walk. I love bonding with Pinkie Pie and now I have another way to do that.

The reversible handle is not the only great feature on this stroller–there are still the all-important features like a large basket, parent cup holder (this is really cool since it pivots to remain upright when you flip the handle so you can always have your drink close at hand), and it has a one hand, self-standing fold to help with an easy in & out of the car trunk.

Once PP saw Pinkie Pie in this stroller, she wanted to get in too. PP is now almost 4 years old but I think she sometimes wants to be mommy’s little baby too. So, PP hopped in the stroller too for a test drive. She loved being able to see me & chat with me while we took a post lunch stroll around the neighborhood (and made me go around the block several times since she enjoyed it so much!)

I’m so glad I had the chance to try out this stroller and I’ll continue to use it to keep connecting with my girls while we’re out shopping or strolling around the neighborhood. I love being able to have extra face-to-face time with them and this another way to keep doing that!

How do you connect with your baby?

This blog post is a tribute to my cool parents. Papa and Nana are madly in love with their family. I’m the youngest of four, 2 older brothers and an older sister. We have the coolest brother & sister in laws in our family and 14 amazing grandkids/nieces & nephews. Bear & LoveBug are the youngest in the group, with the oldest at 15 years old.

Well, my parents decided to give the most generous and adventurous gift ever – a trip for the entire family to Disney World for a week between Christmas and New Years. What an amazing time.

Okay, the reason for the post is to unveil where I get some of my idiosyncrasies from…both my mom and dad.

For starters, they are over-planners. During the 6 months of planning – my parents sent out emails taking requests…you know, “what does success look like during our trip to Disney.” What restaurant requests, favorite characters, things people want to see and do? Speak now…because schedule here we come!

To no surprise, because my parents believe “all things are possible”…they made every dream come true for all 14 kids (and the 8 older kids too…us) while we were at Disney World. We later learned they had an internal Alias at Disney.

It all started at our first dinner when Bear met Cinderella. The moment was quite priceless.

After dancing with Cinderella Bear came back to the table and said; “Mom, I can’t believe she is real! Isn’t her dress beautiful?” That rhetorical question made her remember something, so she jumped out of her seat, ran up to Cinderella and asked to see her glass slippers. Classic and a memory not to be forgotten.

If that wasn’t enough, how about:
• A luau at the Polynesian
• Our own private bus tour for the African Safari at Animal Kingdom
• Ringing in 2010 with Champagne & Fireworks on the Beach Overlooking the Castle
• Private Dining Room with Mickey & Minnie
• Lego World & lunch at T-Rex
• It’s a Small World ride with our entire family (a Celine Dion spotting)
And yes…85% of the time we stayed together as a large group.

My mom loves the fact that we stay together and the only thing she loves more than that are “premiums” for the trip.

So of course she designed a logo, and made t-shirts and back packs for the trip. Inside each family backpack – gum, mini first aid kit, a laminated schedule for the week, and more. And she likes to easily identify our group so we had matching black jackets and white Disney Hats to collect autographs. We were quite the sight.

This was actually quite controlled compared to our last Disney Trip (6 years ago) when we started every day at 6am and had matching shirts EVERY day.

The in-laws on this trip, my husband, Annette & Julie (sister-in-laws) and Joe (brother-in-law) –did a lot of smiling. Because…they are patient, endure a lot and never complained once during this action packed week.

And, we even had our own jobs: our Guide was my brother who gathered us at the entrance every day, held the map up and outlined our first 3 rides. My other brother was Fast Pass Leader – identifying every morning what were the hot rides and he would get the Fast Passes. My sister ran point as the chaperone for the Crazy Rides with the older kids – Space Mountain, Frontierland Roller Coaster, and more. And I ran point with the Pin-Traders and the little TinkerBell fans seeking the real Pixie Dust Septire.

It sounds crazy I realize. But I will say we laughed to the point of tears, reminisced, reconnected, watched the kids in awe and gave thanks for our health – love for each other – blessed family – and the ability (and desire) to be together.

It was an amazing trip that deserves more than a million thank yous. Papa and Nana – you rock!

How about a Disney Cruise in 6 Years?

What are some of your favorite family vacation stories?

WOW! I cannot believe my baby boy is a year old already. We were planning to celebrate with the usual cake and ice cream, but to my surprise, a few of the high chair product team members showed up at my desk a few days before Jed’s birthday. Can you guess what they brought me? One of our newly launched DuoDiner™ high chairs to try out! I was so excited! Working for a baby product company when you currently have a baby certainly has its advantages, especially when asked to provide my honest opinion on the product.

I took the high chair home and immediately put it together. Yes, I put it together all by myself. Honestly, it was the easiest thing I have ever assembled. I was expecting to have to call for help since I am usually slightly challenged in that area, but it was done in 15 minutes. Score one for Mommy. I couldn’t wait to strap Jed into his new seat.

The high chair has some cool features, like the adjustable foot rest and the dishwasher safe tray. I know I only get about 3.2 seconds of Jed eating from a plate before it’s dumped upside down. The chair also has rear glides, instead of all wheels. The glides are a bonus feature towards the end of feeding time when Mommy needs to “do the airplane” to finish a meal. I can easily move the chair with my foot to emphasize my fabulous spoon aeronautics. Don’t laugh…you know you all do it too! That’s what keeps meal time fun.

I think what I am most excited about is the booster chair feature. You have the usual height adjustment for the whole chair to fit any table, but as Jed gets older, the upper portion of the chair separates from the lower to create a booster seat. How cool is that? Two in one! Moms are pretty talented multi-taskers, so why shouldn’t our baby gear be made with the same thing in mind?

Jed got his cake and now he can eat it too, in a nice new highchair I hope you all like the chair as much as Jed does!

What was special about your baby’s first birthday?

Mommyfriend is a new find for me.  I recently joined  Network for Wives where I found Mommyfriend.com highlighted by it’s creator, Lori.  You are drawn in by the tagline “…finding perfection in imperfection daily” and you are not disappointed from there. 

Lori creates a really fun feel, has a light and open format and I find her writing style witty and honest.  She writes about topics we can all relate to like,  whether or not your child is a genius, whether or not you have “the look,” or what really happens when you finally get to date night.  She also has started a Mommyfriend page where she invites people to post their profiles.  Hers is there too – check it out!  We asked Lori if she would be willing to share some of what makes blogging so special for her and she graciously accepted.

1) When & why did you start blogging?

I began blogging in 2002 with my first pregnancy. Since the birth of my first son, I have continued to maintain a personal blog written from my eldest son’s point-of-view which is a fun and playful way to keep up with our family. I launched Mommyfriend.com at the start of the New Year because I wanted to share an honest and relatable perspective of motherhood that was worthy of a nod and a giggle.

2) As a mother, what has blogging meant for you?

Writing has always been a form of cathartic expression for me but my blogging took on new and personal meaning with the loss of my second pregnancy. What began as a hopeful and joyous pregnancy blog sadly turned into a tale of devastating loss. Blogging through the experience allowed me to take inventory of my emotions and process the surreal events that had transpired. I continued candidly blogging as I began my path toward emotional healing and the ultimate decision to try again. Blogging has been my therapy, my public diary and my personal check and balance system.

3) Is there any advice that you can offer to new moms?

The best personal advice I can offer to new moms is to leave their expectations at the door. So much of the confusion and overwhelming emotion that goes into new motherhood is rooted in our failed expectations. The truth is that the reality is fierce and chaotically beautiful. As such, I propose a new and more realistic expectation of new motherhood that includes a solid mix of confusion, elation, fear and gratitude. New mothers will weather the beautiful storm and carry the personal pride of survival; this is the stuff nostalgia is made of.

4) What is your favorite part about being a mom?

As cliché as it may sound, my favorite part about being a mom is being able to rediscover simple joys I had forgotten as an adult. Things like noticing cloud shapes and ugly bugs, blowing bubbles in the backyard and finger-painting. My kids give me license to act silly (in fact, they prefer it) and spend time doing nothing more productive than laughing until my stomach hurts. My kids remind me daily that togetherness is all that matters.

5) What was your latest wondrous moment with your child?

My latest wondrous moment was a few days ago when my 2 year old fell and bumped his head. He was wailing and sobbing so I rushed to his side only to find my 7 year old son kissing his head saying, “You need to be more careful” followed by a reassuring hug. My youngest immediately stopped crying and hugged him back. I was so proud to witness my eldest take charge and demonstrate genuine compassion. The best part was seeing my youngest find comfort in his brother even though I was standing right beside him; I loved that.

6) And finally, what is your favorite Graco product?

The Graco Pack ‘n Play is the greatest invention of the modern maternal world. Our particular model came equipped with a changing table, bassinet and play pen in one and even had a mobile and diaper/wipe holder. This portable play yard transforms into a compact folded marvel to behold! We have owned 3 Pack ‘n Plays which have been a godsend, particularly when visiting away from home. Durable, compact and portable, the Graco Pack ‘n Play is a Mommy Friend must have!

Want to read more from Lori? Check her out at: www.mommyfriend.com.

Do you have a favorite blogger you want to see here on the Graco Blog? Let us know, and they might be featured in next month’s Monthly Blogger Spotlight!

A new baby will have so many wondrous firsts, like the first car ride, the first bath, first photo shoot, etc. We were so happy when Colleen Klein, Account Manager for teutonia and Aprica USA, wanted to share her nephew’s FIRST SMILE caught on camera! I can completely understand how “Mr. Adorable” received his nickname.

Best wishes to Mr. Adorable and his whole family.  We hope you enjoy celebrating the many more firsts life has to offer.

Every Wednesday we’ll be sharing a photo showing off a little bit of wonder in the lives of our extended Graco family of customers, employees and friends.

With so many new highchair features and fashions out there, parents have more reasons that ever to be excited about making Baby a part of family mealtime. Whether you are looking for an affordable option, a chair that compliments your existing home décor or greater longevity, Graco has many options – it just depends on what you’re looking for!

Affordability: Are you looking for a highchair with all of the essential features without a high price tag? The Meal Time™ Highchair will fit the bill without added expense. This highchair includes such key features as height adjustment, reclining seat and a machine-washable seat for quick clean up.

Ease of Use: Are you looking to simplify your daily feeding routine with your baby? Look no further than the Cozy Dinette™ Highchair. The Easy Entry tray™ feature makes getting your baby in and out a snap. The removable tray is dishwasher safe and seat pad is machine-washable, allowing for easy clean ups. The chair also includes rear locking casters to keep baby in place during feedings.

Easy Storage: Does it seem like your baby gear is taking over your entire house? Are you looking for a highchair that has all of the essential features, but can be easily stored in a nearby pantry or storage closet? The Contempo™ Highchair is perfect for your modern lifestyle. Not only is this highchair the slimmest fold made by Graco, but it comes pre-assembled and is ready for use straight out of the box. An additional seat pad is also included for added convenience.

Fashion Forward: Are you worried that your highchair might clash with your newly renovated kitchen? Fashionistas near and far love the Classic Wood Highchair available in rich wood colors such as butter pecan and cherry vanilla. Evoking an heirloom feel, this chair will seamlessly blend into your kitchen or dining room environment. Plus, this chair converts to a toddler and youth chair for future use, so it’s guaranteed to become a fixture for years to come.

Longevity: Are you looking for greater versatility and value? Graco has two *new* options to fit your growing child’s needs:

- DuoDiner™ Highchair: This newly launched highchair is designed for greater versatility as your child grows. Offering both a highchair and booster seat, DuoDiner™ is perfect for those who seek greater value. With all of the essential features including height adjustment, reclining seat, adjustable tray, front wheels, rear glides and adjustable footrest, this 2-in-1 highchair is the perfect solution for incorporating your baby into mealtime.

- Blossom™ 4-in-1 Highchair: This highchair is designed for extended use and seeks to accommodate the needs of your growing family. Do you have both an infant and toddler? Are you planning to have another child in the near future? Designed for greater longevity, Blossom™ includes a highchair, infant feeding booster, toddler booster and youth chair all in one box. The innovative design of this highchair allows you to seat two children at once.

With so many options, finding the perfect highchair to fit your individual needs and lifestyle can be a little bit easier.

What are you looking for in a highchair, and what features are must-haves when feeding your baby?