Erin Akin Carroll

When Hudson was a baby, he absolutely loved all of the Baby Einstein toys we had and especially the DVDs. We started with Baby Mozart and Baby Beethoven at 3 months. He would honestly start bouncing up and down and screaming when the cute little caterpillar crawled across the screen. It was one of his favorite things and then it was one of our favorite things because he loved it so much.

We advanced to World Animals and Baby MacDonald. Baby MacDonald was his absolute favorite. He learned to sing “e-i-e-i-o” in Old MacDonald Had a Farm and then he learned all of his animals and the animal noises. I know that we helped him learn all of that great stuff, but I think the Baby Einstein videos are just genius. They always held his attention and I knew he was learning something!

When he was 12 months old, we started watching Numbers Nursery and Baby Wordsworth. Baby Wordsworth helped him learn a few signs and he would do the sign and say the word. It was the cutest thing in the world!

Now that Hayes is old enough, I’ve been thinking that I need to introduce him to Baby Einstein soon! We have an extensive collection and I know he would absolutely love it. He has a very long attention span, like Hudson, and the videos are so educational and fun.

The CDs are perfect for the car because they get to hear their favorite songs from the videos in the car. And the Discovery Cards? Wow! Hudson has the animal Discovery Cards and they were truly his favorite toy for the longest time. He was constantly showing people how he knew his animals!

A couple weeks ago, the awesome folks at Baby Einstein contacted me about doing a giveaway. Because this is a product that Hudson loved so much and I can’t wait to introduce Hayes to it, I was so excited to give it away on my blog to a lucky reader.

Baby Einstein is giving away one Baby Einstein 9-Piece Discovery Kit to one reader.

From Baby Einstein:

Baby Einstein Discovery Kits (kits that are uniquely packaged to include a DVD, a music CD and either a book or Discovery Cards in a single package) are designed to help provide parents with new ways to introduce their little ones to the world around them in playful and engaging ways. The kits not only promote discovery and inspire baby’s natural curiosities but they also encourage parents to look to their everyday experiences as a way to extend content beyond just the kit.

Discovery Kits align with a baby’s path from infant to toddler by offering three broad levels of discovery — Experience (Level 1), Explore (Level 2) and Expression (Level 3) and the suggested Retail Price: $19.99 U.S.

Video: http://youtu.be/J7lC-6uv_qw

But this discovery is a complete 9-piece collection!

Look at all that  comes in this collection!

To enter, just leave a comment on this post. The giveaway will end on Christmas Eve, so hurry up and leave your comment!

This could be a great belated Christmas gift for a little one in your life!

Disclosure:

I received these products from Baby Einstein. However, all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own and no other monetary compensation took place. I am a very loyal Baby Einstein fan and, as always, only promote products that I believe in and use in my home.

Visit Baby Einstein on the web for more information:

Official Baby Einstein website: http://www.babyeinstein.com

Official Baby Einstein blog: http://www.baby-einstein.net

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BabyEinstein

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/BabyEinstein

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/BabyEinstein

I believe in Christ Jesus.

I believe that He is the reason for everything.

I believe that a Christmas tree does not look complete until wrapped presents are nestled underneath.

But I believe that family, not presents, make Christmas special.

I believe in family and tradition, which is why it’s not Christmas until my family arrives.

I believe that the anticipation of waiting for your family to arrive in town for Christmas must feel an awful lot like the ways kids feel when they’re waiting for Santa to arrive.

My children have the opportunity to believe in Santa Claus.

We believe that ear infections are a terrible Christmas tradition.

I believe that an old dog’s sweet eyes can cure a bad day, even if they can’t cure an ear infection.

I believe that it is terribly challenging to drive past a Chick-fil-A without stopping.

I believe this is made more difficult because of the cow-obsessed toddler in the backseat yelling, “Chick-a-lay!!”

I believe that Christmas leaves us too quickly every year. I’m tempted to bust out some Faith Hill’s “Where Are You, Christmas” on December 26.

I believe in turning Christmas into a magical day for my kids, even after they stop believing. (Is it appropriate to sing “Don’t Stop Believing” to a child who is questioning the believability of Santa Claus?)

I am sad that believing in something (or someone) you cannot see labels you anything other than “faithful.”

What do you believe in today? What keeps you moving amidst the chaos of this week?

A few weeks ago, I was talking to a new girl I’d met. She also has a 2.5 year old little boy, so we were swapping stories. Then I mentioned that we also had a 7 month old named Hayes.

She said, “Oh my gosh! You have two? How do you do it?”

(Now, I know many of you reading have two kids. Some of you may have three or four kids or even five kids. So I’m sure you’ve all gotten this question before.)

And I responded and said, “You just do it.”

There’s no magic answer. I am not special. I just live hour to hour. Especially in the beginning.

I was terrified of my mom leaving and being home alone with two kids under 2. How would I survive? But you just do. You do what has to be done and then you move on to the next thing that has to be done.

Somedays, depending on what happens, there’s not a lot of time for anything else other than playing with them, feeding them, changing them and making sure their needs are met.

It’s a completely different world than the one I was in just three years ago. I can count on one hand the parts of my life that are the same as three years ago. A lot of that has to do with the fact that I stay home with them.

I stay home with them, so I don’t have many responsibilities outside of the house. My job every day is to take care of them. It’s a very big responsibility, but it’s not at all glamorous or a cake walk.

Now that Hayes is older and Hudson has become really independent, I don’t have to live hour to hour anymore. We have our days scheduled out. But it can still be overwhelming. Hudson gets upset when I have to give Hayes a bottle. Hayes is wanting to do more than he can, so he needs my help a lot– usually when I’m trying to help Hudson with something.

But you just do it.

Yesterday was a horrible day. Everyone was sick. I didn’t go back into my bedroom after I rushed out of bed to get a coughing Hudson first thing yesterday morning. I was in the clothes I slept in all day and Hudson never napped. My hair was a wreck and I may or may not have gotten an opportunity to brush my teeth. But they needed me. It is possible to get everything done with more than one baby. It’s not at all easy and the responsibility is huge.

When you’re in the moment and the kids you’re caring for are your kids, it’s not scary. I’m not being graded or observed. I’m just loving them and doing everything I know how to do to teach them and mold them into the kind of people I want them to be.

It’s not pretty. It’s messy. It’s hectic. I’m not always nice. I even miss the care-free days. But I wouldn’t trade what we have now for anything.

I don’t always know what I’m doing. I wish I could add more hours to the day to help get things done, but I can’t. So I just do what I can.

Two-year olds are challenging little humans. Seven month olds are in such a great place where they’re just ready to learn and develop. But they both need me, so I just do what I can do.

Christmas only comes once a year, so I like to use as many Christmas song lyrics for titles to my posts as possible during this time of the year. Although, Christmas does seem to come faster every year as we get older, and older, and older…

I’m going to attempt to write this post in a way that seems positive and upbeat, despite how tired and run down I feel today.

In true week-before-Christmas fashion, Hudson is sick. It’s such a horrible coincidence, but I guess we can be thankful that he didn’t have to miss any school. He was complaining about his ear on Saturday morning, so while Hayes napped, Hudson sat on my lap sipping his Ovaltine and watching How The Grinch Stole Christmas. TC had gone to breakfast with the guys from our Sunday school class. When TC came home, he was giving Hudson some medicine. I guess Hudson got choked or something because, without warning, he lost his breakfast (and Ovaltine) all over our white sofa and me. Poor guy. Poor mama.

He was in tears and I was nearly in tears. TC kept saying, “don’t cry, either of you.” We all got baths. The couch got cleaned. Hudson took an epic nap that day. Thankfully, after you get tubes, ear infections aren’t nearly as bad as they were before tubes. We have drops on hand to nip those ear infections in the bud quickly. So we did.

But now that Hudson is sick, we’re all kind of sick. TC didn’t sleep a wink last night, I’ve got an awful sore throat that seems to be getting worse with each cup of coffee I drink. But I can’t seem to lay off the coffee. There’s still so much to be done despite the sickness.

Christmas is days away and my Christmas cards are still sitting in the box waiting to be addressed. I had to order more this year. I looked at my list and the amount I ordered and it wasn’t even close. I usually end up with about 25 extra cards and it always seems wasteful, so I cut back this year. I guess I made a bunch of new friends this year, so yay for that! Right?

Maybe I’ll make good use of my time tonight and watch The Family Stone while I address Christmas cards. TC should be willing to do it, but he uses “poor handwriting” as his excuse to not have to address them. Don’t lawyers have really strong hands after taking the bar exam? (That was six or seven years ago, so maybe he’s not as conditioned anymore.)

Sweet Hayes is the only one of us who hasn’t seemed at all sick, thank goodness. He is trying so hard to crawl and just smiles when he pushes up to all fours. He can crawl backwards, but he just can’t figure out how to move forward. He gets around, though. He does a mixture of army crawl and rolling to get where he needs to go. He’s such a happy guy.

(sorry for the blurry iPhone picture)

I got a little video of him trying to crawl last week.

I don’t think I mentioned this on the blog, but we drove to South Louisiana last weekend. (I guess a week of Christmas-related posts kept me from doing a lot of catching up.) It was a 14-ish hour drive (including all of our stops to feed the boys and change diapers). When we got home on Sunday night it was about 10:30 p.m. The boys were both in gross clothes, so I stripped them down to a clean diaper and just let them play before putting them down for bed.

Hayes and Hudson were seriously wired and I got this hilarious video of them. It’s long, but they are both just so funny to me. Hayes cracks himself up and Hudson takes this “big brother” thing pretty seriously, it seems. Hayes is also pretty loud, so turn down the volume if you watch the video.

Sorry for the big blog ramble, but it was fun to do a little catching up! I hope you’re all settling down and getting ready for a fun week with family and celebrations.