Friday Favorite: Ergo Carrier

Yesterday at Calvin's preschool one of the other moms asked me about my baby carrier. I always have Henry strapped to me in the Ergo when I'm dropping off and picking up Calvin.

I told her I love our Ergobaby carrier. We've been using an Ergo carrier sine the Bean was a tiny baby.

That one was a Performance Ergo, which was great for hiking because it's a water resistant material that didn't absorb much sweat. That particular Ergo met an untimely demise during Henry's babyhood when I shut the car door with the strap hanging out... the strap got caught under the wheel and ripped off. Oops. 

So then we got a new one and I decided to go for the organic one because I knew from my friends' organic Ergo that the material is really soft and comfy. I love it. I still use it just about every day. 

I actually wrote a post about babywearing a while back and in that post I wrote all about why I love our Ergo so much. It's easy to put on/take off. It's comfy with Henry's weight and doesn't hurt my back (though, admittedly Henry isn't that heavy for a 2-yr-old at 23 lbs). It's easy to clean - I just throw it in the washer and dryer. I will say that the color has faded some from the sun and the washing/drying, but that is probably related to the dye in the organic fabric. Our old Ergo didn't fade at all (the "performance" one). 

But, like I told this other mom, there are so many other great baby carriers on the market now! I don't even know anything about the newer ones. The Becco? The Boba carrier? We have the Boba wrap, but they have a carrier now too! The new Ergo360? I often see other parents with sweet-looking baby carriers that I've never seen before. 

So babywearing parents our there, fill me in! 

What cool carrier are you and your little one using?? What do you love about it? 

(P.S. I have no affiliation with Ergobaby other than being a satisfied customer! I'm not getting anything from them for writing about their product.)

Simple but Special Birthday Breakfasts

James' birthday was yesterday and my very favorite birthday tradition is birthday breakfast!! 

It's a tradition that my parents started with my brother and me. Whenever it's someone's birthday, the whole family gets up to have breakfast together and everyone has to be there, so it has to happen before the first person needs to leave for work or school. For many years our dad had a long morning commute so we'd all get up for birthday breakfasts before the crack of dawn and it's pretty much like that for us now! 

It's kind of like saying "We love you so much we'll sacrifice that extra little bit of sleep to get up and sing you Happy Birthday over a plate of pancakes! Except you have to get up too. HAPPY BIRTHDAAAYYY!!" 

It's the greatest. 

 

Pinterest is full of ideas for fun birthday breakfast treats. Yesterday, when I was up in the dark, early AM before the rest of the family, I eyed the Pinterest recipe for funfetti pancake muffins on my "Birthdays" pin board and I was liiiike... Nah. Probably not.

Not that the recipe was complicated... I am just not really into baking and I like to keep things super simple and familiar (read: lazy), especially at 6 AM. But for birthday breakfast I still want to do something to make it special.

So here are some ideas for some simple (lazy) but still special birthday breakfasts. Most of them involve boxed pancake mix. We're into pancakes around here.

- Toss some sprinkles into box pancake mix. Boom. Funfetti pancakes.

- Put cake icing on pancakes. Bonus points if you put a few drops of food coloring on the icing and swirl it around. You could also add sprinkles. Because sprinkles.

- Make your breakfast look like an animal. This could get complicated, but it doesn't have to be. This birthday pancake bear I made for Calvin was not hard to do.

- Hit the donut drive through. Our favorite is Krispy Kreme. You can even go the night before and reheat them in the morning. Bonus points if you stack them into a donut cake.

- Have cake for breakfast. Go for it. As the saying goes, life is short, eat dessert first!

- Just stick a birthday candle in any breakfast food. Except probably cereal. Once I even did birthday breakfast chicken biscuits for my brother. 

What do you think? Do you prefer whipping up a special recipe? Any other lazy cooks out there? 

What would you want for birthday breakfast?

Friday Favorite: Coffee O'Clock

Mmmm. Coffee.

Coffee is one of my favorite things in life. 

James and I are both big coffee drinkers. You might remember our morning nicknames "Chirpy" and "Grumpy." Grumpy (James) is one of those people who really doesn't function well in the morning until he has had at least one cup of coffee. He loves coffee, and he also kind of needs it because he is SO NOT a morning person! 

This is so him:

I, on the other hand, am the chirpy one. I am totally a morning person. I don't need coffee to wake me up, I just LOVE IT. I like the ritual of a morning cup of coffee. I like the comfort of a nice hot mug on a cool morning. (Mornings are always cool where I live.) And if it's warm outside, I like a glass of iced coffee just as much!

I'm a simple kind of coffee drinker. I like it black. I don't have a favorite brand or roast. I usually buy the Wake Up blend from Trader Joe's. But I do have a favorite coffee mug! It's a Hawaii mug that was a gift from one of my sweetest students ever. A girl named Nyssa brought it back for me from her Hawaiian vacation. I love it because it reminds me of the trip James and I took to Kauai in 2011, just before I got pregnant with Calvin. I remember drinking yummy Hawaiian coffee there, spending days at the beach in the hot sun, and hiking the Napali coast with James. 

Here's a little #FlashbackFriday of that trip to Kauai. Feels like a lifetime ago!

On the Kalalau Trail, Napali Coast. 2011

Touring the Kauai Coffee Company Koloa Estate in 2011

Coffee tasting at the Koloa Estate, 2011

What's your favorite morning beverage? How do you feel about coffee? Love it or hate it?

P.S. The "Coffee O'Clock" sign and the "Now you may speak" mug are both products on Etsy! Click on the pics to check them out. I have no affiliation with either of these Etsy sellers or their products, but I thought these two were perfect for this post :)