Reminder: Less than 24 hours LEFT!! JULY GIVEAWAY!!

Just a quick reminder about our July GIVEAWAY! Please leave comments on the ORIGINAL POST. 

This month is Cupcake's Birthday so we will have not ONE winner but TWO winners!!!  So what are we giving away this month??  Skip*Hop Zoo Tableware!

Two winners will be getting one of these adorable plates as well as a matching bowl!

To enter this contest just leave a comment on the ORIGINAL post telling us which character is your favorite. 
Make sure you leave your name and your last name initial! (just in case we have two of the same first names)

To enter more entries you can:

• Like Urban Warrior Moms on Facebook and Skip*Hop and say you did this on our Facebook wall.  You must post this on our wall because that's the only way we know you have "liked" us.
• Follow Urban Warrior Moms on Twitter and Skip*Hop and tweet that you did this, mention this contest and Urban Warrior Moms and comment below on our blog.
• Subscribe to us and comment below that you did.  
• Become a "Follower" of our blog and comment below.

There's a total of 5 different ways to enter!  This contest will end on Friday (7/29/11) at 11:59 PM (PST)!  So start commenting, liking, and following!  Good Luck!

AGAIN, pls leave comments on the ORIGINAL POST.  It's easier for us to keep track who joined the contest and give numbers out for random drawing. Thanks!

The winner will be announced on Monday (8/1/11).  The winner has 48 hours to contact us via email urbanwarriormoms@gmail.com.  We apologize but only folks living in North America can enter.

My 1st Puree

I'm starting solids with my little guy.  He's been eating rice cereal 3-4 weeks now, so I think it's time for some puree food.  I've been going back and forth to which one to expose him to...it will be the first puree food he is going to eat...so  I want to make sure he enjoys it.  Of course as a new mother you ask around, so that's what I did.  I was curious what other mother's chose as their baby's first puree food.  I even asked Mama B for some advice.  So which one did I choose...was it apple, banana, or avocado...hmmmmm. 

I ended up giving my son Red Delicious apples as his first Puree.

3 washed Red Delicious Apples

Here's the recipe, it's fairly simple and straight forward:

Placed quartered Red Delicious apples in a steamer.  I use my rice cooker to steam the apples

Quartered apples placed in the steamer basket

Once apples are tender, I let the apples cool. 

Tender Apples cooling

After the apples have cooled I remove the skin and puree it using my Cuisinart hand blender.

Puree Apple

I do a quick taste...delicious!  and it's now ready to serve.  Like Mama B, I place my purees in Munchkin's Fresh Food Freezer cups for storage.  Prior to serving, I usually mix in a little bit of breast milk.

Puree Apple in Munchkin's Fresh Food Freezer cups ready for storage.

Forest Critters!

Are you trying to find some bags or luggage for your little one?  Check these adorable little critters out!  These bags are from Beatrix New York.  They are real popular with the Celebrity mommies.     
They have luggage, lunch bags, backpacks for big kids and little kids, as well as matching water bottles!

Whooo whooo whoo.  This cute owl will be loved by your little one

Do you have a little that loves Dinosaurs? Meet Percival!

There's Juju the ladybug!

Your little munckins will love Dieter the lovable monkey

For those who love robots there's Alexander

Do you have a little one that love bears?  meet Fernando!

They even have matching lunch bags!  How cute are these...your little ones can carry their lunches in one of these adorable critter bags.

They have more adorable lunch bag designs.  Check them out at Beatrix New York's website.

Stuck on Number 4

I finally had time to get a frame for a print I bought  from  Mateo and Tobias  store in Etsy.  Thank you Cathy! I just love the print and it looks even better hanging in my son's room.  If you missed our Facebook link to Mateo and Tobias, you should go and see all the cute handmade plush toys and colorful wall art she does.  The great part is, her stuff is reasonably priced!  You can customize the color for some of her wall art which makes finding what you want easy.  Not only do you get a great deal, the wall print adds a wonderful touch to your room's decor.

Anyway, I am almost done with my to do list for my son's room.  Of course I decided to start my list at #4 and work my way up.  But it seems I've been stuck on #4 for a while, dreading the unavoidable...#1 moving my shoes out.  Maybe, it's natural for a woman to be dreading anything that deals with closet space or her shoes... in this case both.  In the end I will have to deal with it so I will have to either find a new place for my shoes or start donating some of them (sniff sniff).

To Do List:

1. Take my shoes out of his closet. - Yes! I admit it... I am still using his closet space.  I have to figure out where to put all my wonderful beautiful shoes.
2. Organize his dresser.  - I've been dreading this but I have to face it. I need to take all the clothes that are too small for him out and see what clothes he needs for the upcoming months.
3. Take out stuff my son no longer uses. - I know he is just 6 months old, but can you believe he has stuff in his room he no longer uses?  Like his size 1 diapers and his swaddling blankets
4.  Finalize on room decor - I actually enjoy doing this.

Will update you how far I get on my list.  I am hoping I can finish my list by the time summer ends.  We will see...

To be continued

July Giveaway!!

It's that time of the month again... We are doing another GIVEAWAY!!  This month is Cupcake's Birthday so we will have not ONE winner but TWO winners!!!  So what are we giving away this month??  Skip*Hop Zoo Tableware!

Two winners will be getting one of these adorable plates as well as a matching bowl!

To enter this contest just leave a comment on this post telling us which character is your favorite.
Make sure you leave your name and your last name initial! (just in case we have two of the same first names)

To enter more entries you can:

• Like Urban Warrior Moms on Facebook and Skip*Hop and say you did this on our Facebook wall.  You must post this on our wall because that's the only way we know you have "liked" us.
• Follow Urban Warrior Moms on Twitter and Skip*Hop and tweet that you did this, mention this contest and Urban Warrior Moms and comment below on our blog.
• Subscribe to us and comment below that you did.  
• Become a "Follower" of our blog and comment below.

There's a total of 5 different ways to enter!  This contest will end on Friday (7/29/11) at 11:59 PM (PST)!  So start commenting, liking, and following!  You have nothing to loose it's FREE!  

The winner will be announced on Monday (8/1/11).  The winner has 48 hours to contact us via email urbanwarriormoms@gmail.com.  We apologize but only folks living in North America can enter.

My Mini Teddy Pies!!

Initially I was going for mini pie pops, but it didn't work out too well so I ended up just making mini pies.  For some reason, I had a difficult time keeping the stick in the pie.  After I baked the darn mini pie pops, let them cool, and hold them up...the stick would just slide off to the side.  What gives??!!  If any of you have any suggestions why the stick is sliding off please let me know.  I didn't want all my work and time go to waste so I decided to write about making mini Teddy pies instead.  You will also notice the pictures aren't the greatest quality.  I realized I had left my camera at work after I had peeled the 3 apples so I took the pictures using my iPhone. 

For the filling, I used Paula Deen's Apple Pie Filling recipe which can be found on the Food Network website.  Because I was using the filling for mini-pies I cut the recipe in half and also made sure to chop the apples in smaller pieces.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, plus more for sprinkling
• Freshly ground nutmeg, to taste
• 7 medium apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced 
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Mix together the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a small bowl. In another bowl, sprinkle apples with the juice of 1 lemon and toss. Stir in the sugar mixture to evenly coat the apples.

For the Pie Crust you can use ready made pie crust (like I did) or if you have the time, you can try Paula Deen's Pie Crust recipe below. 

Paula's Perfect Pie Crust:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
• 3 tablespoons granulated white sugar
• 1/4 cup vegetable shortening, cold
• 12 tablespoons butter, cold and cubed
• 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup ice water

In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, salt and sugar. Add the shortening and break it up with your hands as you start to coat it all up with the flour. Add the cold butter cubes and work it into the flour with your hands or a pastry cutter. Work it quickly, so the butter doesn't get too soft, until the mixture is crumbly, like very coarse cornmeal. Add the ice water, a little at a time, until the mixture comes together forming a dough. Bring the dough together into a ball.

When it comes together stop working it otherwise the dough will get over-worked and tough. Divide the dough in half and flatten it slightly to form a disk shape.

Once your dough is ready..start rolling and cutting! 

Ingredients (BTW, I ended up using PAM instead of butter)

Peel Three  Granny Smith Apples

Cut Apples in little chucks.  Remember small enough to fit in the mini pies!

Add in the sugar/flour mixture with the apple/lemon mixture

Take your pie crust lay it out

Begin cutting your shapes!

Fill each mini pie with the Apple filling

Add the tops to them

Add Teddy Bear over the tops, aren't these cute!!

Rest of the Teddy Pies!  Don't forget to PAM the pan, in my case the foil.

Add some egg wash on top of each mini Teddy pie

Use a Fork to prick a few holes on the side

 Sprinkle some cinnamon and sugar on top!Yummy!!! mini Teddy pies!!

Garlands Galore!

Garlands galore!  I was browsing through Etsy looking for garlands and found various types being offered.  Check out these garlands from Short Cake Party Picks.  They are so colorful and happy...you can not only use them for parties but also in bedrooms too!  I just love the pom pom garlands made of yarn.  It looks so soft and plush adding a nice touch to any child's room.  Short Cake Party Picks allows you to pick the colors for the garlands too!  So you can customize it to a party or room color scheme!

Color Yarn Pom Garland

Tulle Pom Garland

Felt Fringe Garland in Blue and Green

Felt Fringe Garland in soft pink and hot pink

Crochet Flower Garland

Another Etsy shop I found is  Sugar Owl Design. They sell these beautiful butterfly garlands available in various motifs.  They have butterflies in Tropical Island colors and prints as shown below.  They have these garlands in Picnic Jubilee, Ocean Meets Sky, Strawberry Cream, and Fashionista. These gorgeous garlands are made of high quality cotton fabric sewn together with heavy duty upholstery thread. The smaller inside layer of wings have also been individually pressed to achieve a 3D effect. These garlands can be used for parties as well as decor to add color to a room!

Butterfly Garland in Tropical Paradise

If you are looking for  good classic pom pom garlands, Pom Love has them!  Again, these garlands can be custom made so colors can be designed by you!  Won't these look pretty in a nursery?

Pink, Peach, Purple Pom Pom Garland

Want to go neutral?  You can get a beige and white one!

More Summer Toys for your tiny Tots!

Been trying to find some outdoor toys for your little ones?  There are quite a few on Land of Nod.  These cute and adorable toys will keep your little one busy so you can enjoy some fun in the sun as well.

Have fun with George of the Jungle Toss.  It comes with 6 bean bags.

Earth Friendly jump ropes available in pink, purple, and green

Noddo Croquet Set.  Check out the adorable animals! How cute is that?

Get an I spy glass for those curious little ones

Wooden BBQ stand for those tots who want to be like Dad

Wooden Food for the BBQ set. So cute!

Bath Time is now Play time!

Bath time for my son used to be a nightmare.  He would start screaming once his little toe hit the warm soapy water.   When I say screaming, I mean like he was in severe pain going to die screaming.  Sometimes he would open his mouth real big and no sound would come out.  Both my husband and I would bathe him in various ways trying to play with him while he was in his mini bath tub.  Because he would scream and fidget in his bath tub, bath time became a dreaded chore for us… but we both knew we had to do it.  In fact after each bath…we were sooo tired out, exhausted from trying to keep him in the water, playing with him, and  making it fun.  This went on for the first 3 months! I remember initially I would constantly check the temperature of the water, scratching my head why he was screaming all the time.  I even bought bath toys to keep him preoccupied while he was bathing…but he was still screaming.

When I came back to work, I started talking to a friend of mine who has two kids of her own.  She has a lot of experience under her belt so I asked her for some advice.  She told me she also had the same problem and ended up placing the mini bath tub in her kitchen sink and using those dish sprayers while bathing her kids when they were babies.  The spray of water helped keep her babies preoccupied and made the bath a fun experience. 

I decided to try her advice.  I set up a bath station in my kitchen sink.  Placed his mini bath tub in the sink, filled it with water, and started running warm water through the sprayer.  Once everything was perfectly set up, I carried my son to the bathing station and placed him in his mini bath tub.  I can see his eyes were getting drawn to the sprayer… and he slowly reached his hands trying to feel the water coming out of it.  To my surprise…my son did not scream the whole time he was getting a bath.  Sure he was fidgeting while I was giving him a bath, but at least he was not screaming.  What a joy it was to my ears to hear just water splashing during bath time.  After a few times, my son finally stopped fidgeting and now enjoys taking baths!  He loves splashing in the water and playing with his squirting toys.  Bath time is now  playtime in my household.   Both my hubby and I no longer dread bath time with our baby.  In fact, I can give my son a bath by myself!  No need for hubby to help me keep him down. I now look forward to his baths…spending time with him and seeing him laugh and smile. What wonders a simple sprayer can do to bath time! 

Potter Mania

Both of us are Potter heads.  We own and have read all of the books.  Mama D has even dressed up as Harry Potter for Halloween!  In case you don't know yet, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 comes out today!  Here are some products which scream Potter!

This Hogwarts like fort comes from Green Town Toys.  Only $44.79!  It's collapsible and 100% recyclable!

Want to make something from the Wizard World...like chocolate frogs or butterscotch brew with the kids?  Check out this Sweet Shoppe Kit!

 



These funky sunglasses the character, Luna Lovegood wears is available for us Muggles!





These Trumpette Argyle socks are very preppy and look adorable on any tiny feet!



Legos!! One of kids favorite toys!



Remember Buckbeak?  Is this cute or what!!  This creature helped Harry Potter and his friends in Prisoner of Azkaban.