We have three quickly growing children, which is why I haven't found the time to make many blog posts for the website.  My oldest (Elise) turns 7 in a couple weeks.  Almost every day she asks, "how many days until my birthday now?"  Both the boys are growing by leaps and bounds.  They each moved up into big boy carseats this week.  Will got a new combination booster/harness seat and got to move into the back seat next to Elise.  He is thrilled every time we go anywhere now.  Seth moved out of a rear facing infant seat into Will's old forward-facing convertible seat and now can sit contentedly looking out the window, rather than at the seat back.  Seth perhaps is growing the fastest since he's the youngest.  I noticed the other day that his toes had reached the ends of his well-loved shooshoos soft-soled infant shoes.  Thankfully, I still had a size 12-18 months from Will and when I tried them on, they fit perfectly.  I am greatful these shoes lasted as well as they did.  I don't think anyone would guess that they're on their second child.  They are the brown suede wrap shoes, and the dark leather hides any scuffs or dirt well.  The only real easy way to tell how many times they've been worn is to turn them over where there is a perfect little replica of Will's footprint on the bottom where the suede has been worn smooth.  But that doesn't seem to bother Seth, who toddles around happily in them, working to add his own little marks to these shoes before we pass them on to someone else.

Here at The Baby Habit, we not only strive to offer eco-friendly products to our customers, we also desire to make all our processes more environmentally friendly. I thought it was time that I shared some of the steps we have been taking to make a difference in our environment.

One change we have made recently is to switch our gift boxes from white apparel boxes to 100% recycled kraft boxes. So, if you are sending a gift from The Baby Habit, rest assured that your gift will arrive nestled in recycled tissue paper in a box that has contributed to reduced waste. These boxes reuse waste not only from industrial recycling and waste trimmings, but approximately 40% of the used material comes directly from curbside recycling. The next step to making our gift wrapping process completely eco-friendly is to switch from regular wrapping paper and grosgrain ribbon to recycled paper and recycled grosgrain ribbon. I've been looking at options and my next purchase will be something a bit greener than what we use now. I want to thank Nashville Wraps for making it so easy to find eco-friendly packaging and gift wrap options and for providing detailed info on each of their green products.

Another change we are making for the better involves shipping. For small items to conserve on shipping costs we have been using plastic mailers. I recently purchased recycled paper shippers, that actually function just as well if not better than my old plastic envelopes. These shippers have at least 40% recycled material in them. Another bonus is that they are made in the US. We are transitioning over to these as we use up the remainder of our plastic supplies. Keep an eye out for these new mailers coming soon if you order a small clothing purchase.

We encourage you to do your part on the receiving end of this process as well. When you receive your order please either reuse the packaging or place it in the recycling bin. Let's get the most use out of these supplies that we can.

All details on recycled supplies were taken from www.nashvillewraps.com

I've been working on designing some new styles of burp cloths for awhile now, and I am pleased to announce that they are finally available online. Each of our burp cloth sets are designed by my husband John and I. When we first started, I sewed all the burp cloths, but as they have become more popular, it has become more than I can keep up with. So now all our burp cloths are sewn by women here in the Siloam Springs area. Most of them are stay-at-home moms. I really enjoy the fact that our business is able to give a little back to the moms we want to support in such a tangible way.

Our newest burp cloth line is the Minky Dots, available in both pink and blue. Made in a similar style as our popular cloth burp cloth line, these burp cloths are made with ultra soft minky fabric. Each set comes with two burp cloths, one trimmed on one end with minky and personalized with your baby's name, the other sewn with one large section of minky and personalized with your baby's first initial. Even though these snuggly burp cloths are soft enough to be used as a lovey, they are made with the same great quality cloth diapers, which means they are still just as practical for clean-up and protecting your shoulder.

One other new burp cloth set released this week is the Green Paisley burp cloth set. Our Pink Paisley burp cloth set has been our most popular of the cloth burp cloth sets, so we wanted to add a similar style that would work well for boys. This print is exactly the same as the Pink Paisley, only in blues and greens.

It is truly back-to-school season. Even though the weather here in Arkansas is still definitely summer, kids are preparing to start school soon. With that in mind, it is my pleasure to introduce the Ragged Edge Tote from Genuine. We purchased these bags because we loved the look of them and thought that the size would be just right for a small diaper bag. It works well for that, but we also discovered once we got them that they are perfectly sized for book bags. Roomy enough to fit several books inside, this bag will work well for library trips or as a small school bag. We've put our logo on them in a soft natural color that perfectly ties in with the removable straps. As an added bonus, when you order one of these bags you can add your own personalization to the other side for free.

Each bag is made with 100% cotton canvas. They are pigment-dyed, which makes the colors unique, that along with the ragged edged seams create a bag that is very appealing to the eye. It is also functional. The straps are removable so that you can hook them around stroller handles. There is a small pocket inside to hold your keys or library card. The canvas is soft, yet still sturdy enough to hold up to heavy books.

So, whether you are in need of a book bag or a small diaper bag, please check out the ragged edge tote.

A couple weeks ago our family went on vacation. I wanted to use the opportunity to try out some of our newest products to see how well they worked. So here are the results of those product tests:

I have heard a lot about Moby wraps, but had never used them before. In the past I've used a front carrier, which always made my back hurt. For a short period of time I used a sling, but I felt that the baby was too squished in it. So on our trip I used a moby wrap for the first time and LOVED it. I wore it in the airports, hiking in the desert, and walking on the beach. I never had any back pain, no matter how long I wore it. I never felt uncomfortably hot and 7 month Seth seemed happy and content. For those who are not familiar with the moby wrap, it is basically a long piece of knit fabric that you wrap around yourself following their instructions, and then strategically place the child into the wrap in one of various positions. I used the joey hold (baby facing forward with feet out) and the hug hold (baby facing in with feet hanging loose). These seemed to work really well for my 7 month old. There are a variety of holds for newborns and even some for older kids. I am anxious to try the hike hold with my 2 year old. It was not hard to wrap once you learned the basic technique. A couple hints I learned through experience: when wrapping, make it snug, so baby has plenty of support and make sure that the fabric spreads out across your back and shoulders and doesn't twist. This is the secret to not having any back strain.

As promised I took along a silicone nurser from Nursin' SMART. Seth had no problem switching between this bottle and his normal hard plastic ones. The bottle did collapse during feeding as advertised, and even stayed collapsed for awhile later, meaning it really wasn't letting extra air in. I washed it in hotel sinks and the dishwasher when I had access to one. It held up fine and is now being borrowed by my sister who is trying to get her 4 month old to accept a bottle. We are hoping the soft silicone nipple will be close enough to breastfeeding that he'll take it.

We've been carrying See Kai Run for several months now, and I hadn't had an excuse to try them out as my boys were not in need of shoes. But by the time vacation rolled around, 2 year old Will's feet had grown enough that he was in need of some new shoes. So for my first choice, I chose the Jayce shoes from See Kai Run. I love the chocolate and blue combination and the shoes look great with many of his outfits. They wore well throughout the trip, coming home with just a few minor scuffs on the toes from my very active 2 year old. My favorite characteristics of these shoes: their very soft leather uppers (they are even softer than they look), and their ultra-flexible rubber soles.

Will had outgrown his pediped sandals as well, so I also got him a pair of Shooshoos Camel Sandals. These were my choice for airport travel, and they were very easy to take on and off through airport security checks. These shoes are the most flexible of the rubber soled shoes that we carry. But they still have plenty of protection and wear really well. They look pretty much the same now as they did the first day he wore them.

I found a great product that I love so much that we are now selling it at The Baby Habit. These snack containers snap together and are the perfect size for packing all the food your baby needs for a trip out. Seth is 6 months old now, on solid food and formula bottles as well as nursing, so there is plenty to pack for him. When I go out now, here's how I pack my Packin' SMART snack container:

Two to three containers are packed with pre-measured formula for his bottles. Each container has enough room for an 8 oz formula feeding. The funnel lid works well to make sure I get all the powder into my bottle when I am ready to mix it. One container has his dry cereal. When I am ready to give him this I just mix it with water and remove the funnel lid. I can feed him directly from the container. The last container is filled with rice puffs for those moments when I just need a little something extra for him.

As he gets older, I anticipate using the container for other snack options, like raisins and cheerios. When he outgrows it altogether (if he ever does), I can use it for craft or kitchen supplies or maybe even pre-measured snacks for me.

My next innobaby product to test are these silicone bottles. They are also now available at our store and I'm excited to try them out. Each bottle is made from natural silicone, vs plastic which can contain unwanted chemicals or glass, which can break. The other benefit to the silicone is it is soft and flexible allowing the whole bottle to collapse while feeding, and reducing air bubbles in your babies tummy. Innobaby offers several different options for using the bottles. There are soft silicone nipples for traditional feeding, silicone spoons for spoon feeding either liquids or solids, and a straw cup top complete with handles. We have a very good selection of these and I will let you know how I like them after I give them a try.

This was an exciting week as we started setting up our newly remodeled and expanded store (more about that later). And one of the most exciting parts, especially for the kids, was receiving our PlanToys shipment!

If you're not familiar with the brand, PlanToys are great wooden toys, made with safe green methods, and kids love them. They sent a bunch of display items to setup, so there was lots of unboxing, reading or ignoring of instructions, and assembling to be done. One-and-a-half-year-old Will was a big help, at times, as we worked through the shelves.

We'll be spending the next few days uploading images to the website, and then you can browse our selection. For now, here's a look at our showroom-in-progress from yesterday:

Will and Elise have been thrilled with the demo city setup for the local kids to play with - they've definitely been doing a thorough play-test job. If you're in the area, come by and take a turn at it. My favorite part is the crank-driven car elevator.