ankuchma's Profile

For our first baby, we splurged on an organic mattress and bought an inexpensive IKEA crib that we painted grey. I'd really wanted the Oeuf Sparrow crib, but decided it was better to spend more on the part that my baby's face would be right next to for the first two-ish years of his life! Oh, and cord blood banking and a beautiful set of Alexander Girard building blocks that may still be sitting on the top shelf of his bookcase! The more I think about it, I kind of went crazy with my first.

For baby number two, we splurged on a Bugaboo Donkey. We're reusing lots of things from our first baby but still needed a double stroller. I decided to go with the Donkey because both kids get a great seat, I have a place to put everything and it's also quite cute, in my opinion.

Just noticed how many exclamation points I used there! Apparently, I'm pretty passionate about this one!!!

Wow, I'm thrilled to see Calgary so high up on this list! Plus, I'm happy to see so many others who have nice things to say about this city. I love Calgary, but had always felt like I had to defend it as being more than an oil-driven, conservative-leaning city - which is definitely a part of Calgary, but there's so much more to it than that! I've been here 10 years, loved it from the start, and have happily watched it grow into the diverse city it has become today - thanks in no small part to having a pretty awesome current mayor.

When we're not using cloth or gDiaper inserts we've used these Broody Chick compostable diapers. They're Canadian-made, so I'm not sure how readily available they are in the US but they're a great product.

http://www.broodychick.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=19

Before my son was born I picked up a print for his room that simply states: "Become who you are", I thought it was such a perfect statement for someone just entering the world.

I'll chime in with my favorite, Benjamin Moore's Oxford White. It's a little more of a true white compared to the warmth of Cloud White. After working in an environment for several years that was painted in Cloud White I grew to gradually dislike it...too yellow for me. But paint clour, even white, is super personal and very dependant on the light you have in your home. I'd agree with everyone else that Zero-VOC is the way to go, plus all of Benjamin Moore's Zero-VOC paints are considered all-in-one paint and primer so though they aren't the cheapest paints, they do cover well so you won't be wasting paint, time and money on several coats! If you can get the under advertised Benjamin Moore Eco Spec - their Zero-VOC contractor grade paint - it's a little more economical but still fantastic quality. Good luck!

I immediately bought the book on Amazon after reading this post! We've got the first two books and they're my favorites in my son's book collection...still can't read "Where You Came From" without tearing up. I'm really hoping that, in the future, they'll collaborate on a book involving a sibling entering the picture.

One Christmas my mom, in an effort to give my sister and I a super special gift (and likely also due to the fact that CPKs were sold out everywhere), hand-made a couple jumbo CPKs for us. Unfortunately they proved to be a lot of work and on Christmas morning mine was complete, but my sister's had no hair! Luckily she was a toddler and could've cared less, and I was smart enough not to be too obvious about how disappointed I was about not getting the real thing. My mom must've sensed it, though since the next Christmas we had two "real" CPKs under the tree.

Well done! Like many commenters before me, I'm also not normally a fan of "theme rooms" but this one is beautifully done and easy to change along with a growing childs' tastes. And if your little one does grow to share a love for Star Wars you absolutely have to make this growth chart by Geeky Dad:

http://geeky-dad.tumblr.com/post/3869493918/my-daughter-is-turning-one-soon-and-i-decided-we

I was on the hunt for wool puddle pads before my son was born but was also reluctatant to shell out the big bucks for them. However, I came across the same wool melton used for puddle pads on the Plum Project fabric website:

http://shop.plumproject.com/

The material is not exactly cheap, but you can make it to the exact size you want, plus if you have time to wait they have some decent sales from time to time. I lucked out and bought mine 40% off! Good luck!

PS. It's also a Canadian website with great service and speedy delivery!