Summer is Here!!!!

Today was the last day of school. I officially have the kids home for the next 12 weeks (3 months).

I'll keep you posted on my insanity :-}

~Sane Mommy (at this moment)

Change is Coming

Mommy's Little Monkey is due for a face lift and will receive one very soon!!! We've been working extra hard on the new changes. Stay tuned!

~Evie

Thumb Addiction

When my little monkey princess~Nina was born there were a couple of indications she would probably suck her precious little thumb. Actually, I guess the first one came before she was born. Her ultrasound showed her peacefully sucking her thumb in womb. Once born, she was a pro nurser. Immediately she went straight to the breast and was very ready to nurse or pacify. This was a very different experience from our first Monkey Princess~Mia.

Princess Monkey~Nina was calm and very peaceful mostly all of the time but even more so if she was nursing or sucking on her hands until she found her thumb at about 2-3 months old and from then on that's what she always preferred in her mouth (of course other than her nursing tool).

Monkey Princess~Nina will turn 6 soon and the habit that was once so cute and photo worthy has turned to not so cute and forget photos if she's caught with it in her mouth. It just has to stop. You see, I never had problems with Monkey Princess~Nina sucking her thumb. Not when we recently witnessed her permanent teeth start to come in a bit crooked or even when I gave her a manicure making sure to skip the thumb that has flattened and widened over time knowing if I paint it it will scrape off in a day or two. I did however get very bothered once we started trying to quit. I realized what an addiction and small problem she has that will need much motivation, diligence and bribery to attack.

The first night we tried to quit cold turkey, and this was a mutual agreement with a bit of a bribe attached, she had a panic attack/temper tantrum. She literally kicked and screamed on the floor until she got it out of her system then I invited to hold and lay with her on the couch until she fell asleep. The next night was a bit better and then the next better than the night before the previous one but then I went to my best friends home to visit about 5 days into the quitting and did not put her to sleep as I routinely had been doing so and it messed up our achievement causing her to relapse and go back to the dirty little habit. We've been trying but as you can see inconsistency really has hurt our goal. Back to the start and trying over again. Tonight she cries (more like whines) wanting to suck her thumb as I wait patiently for time to go by to see if she can put herself to sleep without her not so little thumb. As I end this I hear nothing in the distance....I think she has conquered our first night again. Much better this time.

Any suggestions?

Monkey Man Update: Popcorn Kernel in your where???

I believe that someone should invent a device of some sort that would allow all mommies and daddies to extract the unpopped kernels in a microwave bag of popcorn. Wondering why I even mention this? Well, because I have three little monkeys that LOVE popcorn! They also love the unpopped kernels. They love to suck the salt off the unpopped kernels, chomp on the unpopped kernels and recently my little monkey man decided he loved to stick them up his nose and in his ear!
Yes, he actually stuck one up his nose but luckily he was able to blow it out.....the one in his ear he was not so lucky with. Yes, if you follow along with this blog then you would know that little monkey man is a mischievous, curious and a very active little monkey. He just so happened to be a little too curious and stuck one in his ear which led us to the Emergency room then led us to surgery..........I know he has fed his curiosity with popcorn kernels and has recently mentioned that they do not belong in the ear or the nose.
Glad to know that probably will not happen again considering what he had to go through to get it out.

Goal Update!

Well, I wrote to you letting you know that I had a goal for the month of April and that was to add a boutique to my retailers list. Well, guess what? I did!!!

Champagne Taste, a sweet boutique with a very kind owner, Andrea, is a place I've been hoping would make Mommy's Little Monkey a part of their shop and has done just that, made The Simple & Sweet Nursing Curtain a little sweet home. For anyone in the San Diego area wanting to do some very cute and quality shopping for your little monkey you must check out Andrea's shop, Champagne Taste where you can find Eco friendly candles, lotions and potions, baby clothing and great children's books plus more. Champagne Taste is located at 2248 30Th St. San Diego, CA 92104
(619) 234-3585‎

www.champagnetaste.com

Quote of the day

"Imagine that the world had invented a new "dream product" to feed and immunize everyone born on Earth. Imagine also that it was available everywhere, required no storage or delivery -- and helped mothers to plan their families and reduce the risk of cancer. Then imagine that the world refused to use it." -Margaret Porter

Red Box

I Have to share this great new Red find with you! Red Box. Let me tell you what it is, it's a red box (yes, literally a red box) with movies you can rent inside of it. They're located in several different places and they hold current and fun movies you've been wanting to watch. The way you use it is just press the "rent a DVD" touch screen option and choose the movie you want, check out with a easy touch screen option, pay with your debit or credit card and whalah you have a movie rental for just $1.00 for one night. Return it by 9PM the next evening and you're good to go but go over the 9PM time frame and you're charged another $1.00 fee. If you should want to keep the movie the Red Box company will charge you everyday for 25 days maximum and it's yours to keep. Genius! No lines so far, no one to hassle you or ask you questions you just go, choose, pay and return the next day.

March Update

Let me catch you up on what I've been doing the last month and a half. Let's start on my personal side first. Well, I've had a little monkey man accident about every two weeks. 1 Broken shower faucet, 1 clogged toilet which he chose to clog with a plastic bottle cap, a clogged sink which he chose to play with the faucet water stopper (whatever they're called) a couple of times too many and then it broke off so off to the hardware store we went to buy a drain stopper and then he took that off and stuck one of his sisters barrettes down the drain. Up until today nothing had really be destroyed by monkey man for about a week but then he came into the house with a broken light bulb that he mentioned he just so happened to be trying to help me screw it on tighter but he actually unscrewed it causing it to fall off my sewing machine and break. Ugh! The RULES lecture has come up a million times in that last month in my house.

Spring break has passed and it was relaxing and nice to spend time with my little monkeys. Monkey man is on a three week break from preschool (looking forward to that starting back up) and of course Easter came and I was able to spend a very nice time with our family.

On the business side of things I landed an account with a W.I.C. office here in town! That's a great and wonderful step for my business. I've been working hard planning, organizing and getting ready to update my website and change out my nursing cover fabric and need to add baby tees plus I'm getting myself mentally prepared to get out into more stores. Which brings me to a little vulnerable subject to share with you......I am terrified of approaching stores! Why you ask? Well, I don't know why exactly but after reflecting on this subject I'm assuming is that big ole rejection factor I personally hate and am fearful of. So, knowing I need to do it no matter what and trying to gain knowledge on the whole subject I went to my good and knowledgeable friend, Google, and he led me to so much information on cold calling and business approaching. I found a wonderful and to my surprise a local business that blogs about her business experience and after reading it for a while I was in tears! Yeah, I'm an emotional wreck at times but Amber of Baby Fabulous hit all of my fears, excitement and struggles of creating a business from scratch and bringing it to fruition on the nail. I can create, I can organize, package, and have details in order but sales.....let's just say I'm terrified of it. I love her blog and she is such an inspiration and has honestly motivated me. I wrote to Amber hoping to meet her someday.

My goal for April, which I will blog to you about and work on, is to make it into 1-2 new boutiques. Cross your fingers, your toes and say a little prayer for me while I do this and I'll keep you posted.

Talk to you soon,

~Evie

Big Apple Moms Encouraged to Breastfeed for 6 Months

New york City's Mayor Bloomberg is launching a multimillion-dollar good-parenting campaign that includes a push to put more newborns to the breast. The city is spending more than 2 million to encourage mommies to nurse for up to six months where at this point 75% start to breastfeed and 38% stop before 6 months.

The campaign will really help turn New York's hospitals into baby friendly hospitals where they will not encourage formula feeding or automatically give away formula filled diaper bags and information. Two new programs will ride the campaign to help low income mothers providing health workers to check up on the new mothers and another where health workers visit families every two weeks up to two years.

This should be something we all tune into to see how it works and if the rates increase with this great campaign.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Hope you're day has been wonderful and full of love! Mine has been full of Valentine's for the kids, cookies, candy, parties that were full of cookies, candy and sugar, plus a ton of cards...oh and did I mention candy? With three kids a valentine's day is sure to promise cavities :-)

I did get the best card from my gorilla hubby though. I had to share it with you because I love it and promise to keep if forever......oh gosh I'm such a mess. Just in case I did a horrible job photographing it, it's a photo of king Kong in boxers.

Have a great night!

~Evie

Hello Again

I hope you had a wonderful holiday and New Year's.

So I'm back into the swing of everything and it's been a little hard getting in the groove. Christmas vacation was wonderful. Sleeping in, baking and relaxing with the kids was very nice. We did have a lot of running around to do though too. Last minute shopping, wrapping and gifting made our vacation a little hectic but it's all over now and I look forward to spring break :-)

We here in San Diego had so much to celebrate with the Chargers going to the Playoffs the last couple of weeks. The whole city was really in the spirit. I Just happened to go downtown this last Friday evening and many building were decorated with lightning bolts and Charger signs. It was too exciting! My Gorilla hubby went downtown for all of the festivities on Friday morning and had a great time too! To make it even better he won a autographed L.T jersey in a contest. He even made it on the evening news because of it. Let's skip the sad lost though and go on to the next subject.......

Babies, babies, babies!!!!!! It seems that there is a baby boomlet going on in the United States. The rates are the highest since 1961. Reports state that the expected number of children a woman is to have in her lifetime is 2.1 compared to other countries at 1.3 per woman . The Rise has been blamed on a larger population and an increase in Hispanics! We're having all the babies according to the CDC. Hispanics have a higher fertility rate, about 40% higher but I will agree with the experts that middle America just has a more favorable out look on family and children in general. As for me and the surrounding women in my life, we're all averaging three children each with the exception of a couple that have more than three. I do have to agree with Nan Marie Astone, associate professor of population, that "Americans like children. We are the only people who respond to prosperity by saying, `Let's have another kid,"'.

Love That!

Until next time

~Evie

Pretty Embarrassing

For my business promotions and spreading the word I use a great service called Constant Contact. This really works well because it keeps all of my customers informed on the latest happenings with Mommy's Little Monkey.

So I sent one out last night to my contact list at around 12 am. Being that I've stayed up every night until 12-1 am I was pretty beat. No excuses, I sent out a email with a misused word! That is very embarrassing! It wasn't a small word or hidden mistake either, it had to be right at the entry of the email and one of the main point words :-( of course spell check didn't catch it because it's a word, it's just not the word I wanted to use!

Here it is:

Need to but that special gift for that special mommy or baby in your life? You're invited to A Mommy Soiree!
To celebrate this holiday season, Mommy's Little Monkey is offering you 20% off of your next purchase. Present this coupon at the event or order online to receive this special offer.
*Discount will be refunded after on line purchase.

Event: A Mommy Soiree
DATE: Sunday, December 9Th
TIME: 3-6 PM
Location: 2802 Juan Street In Old Town, CA. 92110 (right in front of the boutique)

Really bad and embarrassing. If you received one please excuse my mistake.

I think it's time for a new and higher resolution camera.....don't you?

I have spent so much of my day trying to get my camera to take a good picture of my products. It's not working.

Santa will you please bring me a great new one?

Thanks,

~Evie

To my Wonderful Nurse......

When I was pregnant with my first little monkey I made sure I went over my birth plan with my doctor. Because he was not guaranteed to be there for the delivery he told me not to worry and to have it ready to fork over to my delivery team once I arrived at the hospital.

My husband and I had it all planned out. I was not to have any medication, I was also only going to breastfeed and we had chosen to save and donate her cord blood along with some other little details in our plan. So once in labor and in a ton of pain we set off to the hospital. In between contractions and concentration I made sure to remember my paper with my golden birth plan on it and tried to hand it to my nurse. The attitude I received from my nurse was more like the paper was written in a different language and was immediately disregarded. However this made me feel, a bit insecure, irritated and ignored, I continued laboring to get what felt like a 30 pound watermelon out of my pained body. As expected from people who had no idea of what my wishes were there was pressure to medicate, anger directed to my poor husband by the staff who was first of all only trying to carry out my original wishes, and of course a bottle feeding of formula.

I was an emotional and not to mention a hormonal wreck while recovering. I wanted to cry, I wanted to scream, I wanted to just be heard and not treated as the inexperienced mother I was. Although I knew why I was so emotional, I still struggled against my emotions because I felt the staff had so much more knowledge then I could have had in the few hours I had become a mother. Clearly my nurse acted as if she knew what was best for me. She suggested we get rest and have our new crying baby taken to the nursery. So, after a 24 hour labor and a new baby that would not stop crying who would resist her invitation? I guess I should have. I didn't though and 8 hours later I woke up without my baby realizing we had been separated for a very long time and insisted on having her back with me. My nurse brought her to me bundled and comfortably asleep filled up on a bottle of formula. That 's when I knew my time was up at this birth plan disregarding hospital and I wanted out!

This experience and recent conversations with other women and their similar stories has inspired me to make a little difference. Giving mommies a little reassurance is what I hope to achieve. Introducing my new little "Note to Nurse" shirt/beanie set by Mommy's Little Monkey. The note reads:

To my Wonderful Nurse,

I am learning how to breastfeed.

Please no bottle or pacifiers while I'm in your care.

Mommy is waiting for my return to feed me.

(heart),

Baby

Beanie reads:

Breastfeeder in Training

Each set in carried in a stylish drawstring organza bag and come in size newborn. This is the perfect baby shower gift. Check them out and pass on the news about this great new product!

Wearing my Monkeys

When I started this business I really did not know how many groups or parenting styles women/parents place themselves in. I know, I know I talk about this a lot but just keep reading, I'm getting to my little intro..

I mean I labored naturally with all 3 children (with the exception of my first 24 hour labor- I had 2 shots of Demerol) but I never placed myself in a "natural birthing" mom club. Did I feel proud? Of course I did but it wasn't a lifestyle that I revolved around. I co-slept and still do from time to time but did I consider myself an attached parent? No, not until I learned what an attached parent was, I just did what my parents allowed me to do as a child. I wore my babies in carriers or Baby Bjorn's but I did not consider myself a baby wearer? No, really all that I was doing was taking very little steps at making motherhood as easy as I possibly could. With 3 children, sleep deprivation and a things to do list the length of Santa's list I just wanted rest so I slept with my kids and just wanted peace so I wore my kids so I didn't hear them crying. Plus it killed me to see them so uncomfortable so if I could help out in this very temporary stage of life by wearing them then I would and I did.

So do you know all of the different styles out there to wear your baby? There's the sling, and the pouch and the carrier and the back pack and I'm sure more than that but that's all I know at this moment. I personally wore a carrier BUT if there happened to be a next time I will try them all. A new company out there (which I consider a sister or cousin company since the designer of our sites is the same company) is

Wearing My Baby.

I'm very excited to meet the owner, Catherine, very soon at an event we'll both be attending. If you happen to be in San Diego come and check us out at the Mommy Soiree on December 9Th from 3-6pm in Old Town at the Ducks n Daisies boutique courtyard. A evening of shopping, prizes, food and beverages is what to be expected. Check out the advertisement on Page 50 of Family Magazine for December to find out more.

Project Runway is BACK!!!!!

It's finally back....yeah!!!! I love project Runway so much, it just gets my creativity flowing and my heart dreaming away. If any of you (the 2-4 readers I have :-) kisses to you) love it as much as I do I thought I would pass along a little reminder, tonight on BRAVO at 10/9c. Tivo or DVR it if you have to.

Love ya,

~Evie

And the Winner is.......

If you've had a chance to check out my myspace page then you've noticed that I have a guestbook. I really like this feature so much and wanted to do a giveaway that I combined these two ideas and motivated my myspace friends to sign my guestbook for an entry into a drawing I held today. The prize? Well one free item from my website of course.

I drew a name from the 14 entry's and Angie from Tennessee won! If you're interested in next months drawing being held December 1st then just log onto my myspace page and sign my guest book. You'll be entered into the next giveaway.

Pass on the word too.

Good Luck

~Evie

Halloween with my Monkeys

Halloween was wonderful and exciting!!! It's an actual exciting holiday here in my house. I make a nice dinner and this year I made a Halloween cake plus caramel apples. I made the monkey princesses their costumes by hand and of course being that little monkey man is absolutely obsessed with Cars the movie he was a very adorable Lightning McQueen (last year he was Tow Mater). Loved the day and had a wonderful evening with my brother, sister-in-law, nephews, grandma,grandpa, Nana and papa, cousins and their children.

To the 3 of You

To the 3 of you who read this blog Thank you! All joking aside, I'm back to write in and update you on this Mommy's busy life. So Far all has been good. If you've been alert lately you probably know all about the terrible fires southern California had two weeks ago. It rained ashes for days and our homes smelt of smoke. We couldn't open the windows and of course the temperature outside rose into the 90's. Here we've been hearing the terrible stories of loved ones, friends and family experienced during it all. It's tragic, very sad and honestly something we here in San Diego will dread every October to come now that it's happened twice.

In The Toilet

What is it with kids and toilets? Every one of my little monkeys has gone through a stage where they just have to clog it with something. The girls just toilet paper but my boy, let me just tell you what happened. Little Monkey Man loves toilets. He loves to throw anything he can into them, he loves to pee all over them (and on the floor) and he loves to clean them when I'm not around with wipes. Yes, my first and only boy so I'm as grossed out as much as everyone else will be after reading this.

Well, yesterday evening he just so happened to love the toilet so much that he threw his sisters toothbrush in it!!!! Just wonderful. Of course my 5 year old monkey girl reported the situation to me immediately. She also made sure to inform me that it was hers and that it needed to be taken out. The wave of voices saying the exact thing by the next two monkeys followed. I just did what any other mommy would do at 7pm at night. I told them I would do it later....at least once showers were done. Well, I forgot. So the kids took their regular evening showers and then Diva Monkey girl (the new name I've given my eldest daughter) had to use the restroom and flushed it down with the rest of the stuff no one wanted to sort through to remove this tool that would potentially cost me a fortune to fix!!! What a disaster.

I flushed and flushed and plunged and plunged and then thought of the one tool all homes need to have in case of an emergency, even if you won't use them in your closet, a wire hanger. Every time I'm in a bind to get something far in a corner, out of the sink, in a crack, I swear I could even use one as a weapon if I had to, I think of the good almighty wire hanger. So I went and got one out of my husband's closet and reshaped it and Ta Da I got the long nasty toothbrush out of the toilet. Yeah, I'm too proud of myself for fixing that problem.

Then came the lecture to Little Monkey Man that he is not to place ANYTHING in the toilet ever, except ....well, you know what naturally is supposed to be in there plus a little bit of toilet paper. So what does he try to place in there this morning? PAPER TOWELS!

Point of my story: Always keep a wire hanger around they're great tools.

~Evie