Light Reading

I've been doing heaps of nighttime reading lately (mostly self-help baby books), and found myself wishing I had some sort of old-school reading light (remember those geekly little gadgets that would clip onto your book pages, hold your spot, and light up when you opened to that page??). Each night, after brushing my teeth, I head to bed with the intention of finishing another chapter in book #1 so that I can move onto book #2... but you know how it is - you say you'll be in bed reading by 10:30, but 11:15 rolls around and you're still in the living room? Anyways, I'm now at the point where I think I'm in the middle of about 5 different books! And since all are read primarily as I'm turning in for the night, I couldn't help but covet this insanely awesome bed lamp!! Not only can it shelve all 5 of my current reads, but it can hold the place in the one I fall asleep holding (my husband is rather good at removing forlorn books from sleeping clutches), and let there be (reading) light! Genius!!

This light would actually make for a creative and effective bed hack - imagine mounting these lamps to something as simple as the Ikea Malm headboards... Immediate custom made design-y beds! Pretty sweet for readers.

P.S. About those 5 books :)

A Labor of Love (I wrote about it once here.) The most perfect birthing book.

HypnoBirthing: The Mongan Method (Thanks Rachey!!) Very helpful birthing techniques.

Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems (Which is what has me coveting a bedside reading lamp to begin with - Freida has been inhabiting our bedroom at night, and I need to nip this in the bud before baby!)

The Sleep Easy Solution Reading up a bit on sleep scheduling for newborns... after the first two weeks I hope to establish a bit of a eating/sleeping schedule. This book makes it easy as pie!

Eat, Sleep, Poop A common sense guide to your baby's first year - well-written facts of little lives.

Little American Hipsters

Loving the new additions to the kids collection over at American Apparel! These guys seriously know how to bring indie-inspired hipster threads to pint-size options!! Check out the new pieces here.

P.S. How insanely cute is that camel wool cape?!?!

Butter: Free of the Dirty Three

Once you discover Butter, it will become a cosmetic staple - taking up permanent digs in your bathroom credenza. I bought my first bottle when I wanted to paint Freida's nails for the first time, and I've been hooked ever since. As an asthmatic I've come to appreciate when things are really "free" and "clear" (laundry detergents, air fresheners, carpet cleaning etc.), I just never thought I'd actually find a good quality nail laquer that could live up to the tagline of being "free"; painting my nails always involved holding my breathe for extended periods of time! :)

Butter London is free of the "dirty 3": Formaldehyde, Toluene, and DBP (plus free of all parabens)! And toxic-free nail color may not be a novelty to you; the quality of these varnishes are surely something to write home about - I'd take a bottle of this polish over a Chanel nail laquer any day!!

Great for giving even the littlest of divas manis and pedis - sans all that chemical guilt (I previously blogged about Hopscotch Kids toxin-free polish for little fingers and toes). And even more importantly, for mamas-to-be (DBP has been controversially linked to birth defects in animal testing) who should be steering clear of all hazardous chemicals for at least 9 months, and may not necessarily think of a weekly manicure as hazardous. Or may think there's no alternative... here you have it ladies!

Also, for those of you living in the Los Angeles area, a friend of mine (thanks Dini!!) recently tipped me off about a new toxin-free, baby-friendly wax and nail spa on Santa Monica blvd! Plush Beauty Bar  was created with moms in mind, featuring a children's play area, stroller parking, low-fume products and services, comfy armchairs for nursing in, bathrooms with changing tables, staff to help out on baby-watch, and fast services for those short attention spans! I never brought Freida with me to salons and spas when she was a baby, and I'm sure my girly glamour suffered as a result.  I seriously can't wait to check this place out - so glad to know about this before baby #2 arrives and steals my beauty routine! :)

Babyccino!

We've landed! Calling all babymamas of the greater Los Angeles area: join us on Mondays for a morning of baby-style rock 'n roll, super sensory explorations, and physical interactive activities and play. Meet and chat with other modern mamas, share a parenting tip or two over a steamy cappuccino, and relish in watching your little tykes explore and discover the world around them.

Come and check out what's about to go down at our free/trial session this Monday, November 21 at Shaarei Tefila - 7269 Beverly blvd! Come for the kids; stay for the fun!!

Feel free to contact me with questions or for more information: babyccino@shaareitefila.org

On the Move + Weekend Round-up!

So much commotion has been going down in the cozy little home of ours! We are so excited to announce that, thank God, we signed off on a duplex lease last week and are mid-move to the glorious city of Los Angeles!!  While we have been looking to move for about a year now, we did not expect it to happen this fast (but some incredibly undeniable offers have been thrown our way and so we jumped at opportunity!), and we're still sort of in shock-drop-and roll mode; packing up boxes, picking paint colors, but not quite grasping the entirety of the transition just yet... But, with the hecticness of the holidays behind us now, and on the recovery from our annual post-Tishrei sick week, reality should be hitting home any time now. :)

About those opportunities; Manasseh has been offered a really fulfilling job that is right up his favorite alley - revamping the youth program for our new Shul and community, Shaarei Tefilah. We are supremely excited to be joining such a young, growing, and thriving community, and can't wait to get started. The first plan of action will be renovating the youth rooms (Freidafroo style!), and the before and after photos should prove to make some really fun blog posts in the next few weeks - look forward!

Also (yes there's even more!), I'm so totally stoked to be announcing that I will, God Willing, be starting a Mommy & Me class!! As a collaboration between Congregation Shaarei Tefilah and a wonderfully kind group of women behind the organization Yad Le'Ima, I was offered the job and can not be more excited to get it off the ground!!! If you live in the greater Los Angeles area, have a child under 2 years old, and are looking for an insanely awesome way to spend a weekday morning (a creative round of exploration and bonding for the tots, a lovely morning of coffee, socializing, and parent-networking for the moms!), stay on the lookout for the exact dates and times and how to get yourself and your brood signed up to the classes! I will keep you posted, but if you know you are interested right off the bat, please email me (freidafroo@gmail.com) so that I know if I am looking at some crazy number of mamas! :)

At the moment, I am pondering how will get through our last Shabbos in Long Beach, being that Freida has diligently dumped all her toys into some empty moving boxes and her room is practically reeking: vacancy. On the upside, she's been sleeping in our bed, which has proved to be super cozily delicious!  Thankfully, our move in date is Tuesday, November 1st (!!), so it won't be long now. Can't wait to give you a peek at the new place, and share the transition and home improvements with you all...!

On a side note, being that I've been so swamped, I've been feeling guilty and figured I'd at least leave you with a little weekend round-up to make up for lost posts. Here are some things I would have blogged about had I had the time:

- Crewcuts for Babies debuted this week - sheer deliciousness!

- Clever wall treatment for a shared bedroom.

- How to make your own pinatas!

- These office prints made me laugh out loud.

- Great gift for moms of boys!

- Handmade Charlotte at Anthropologie!!

- Black smoke is back!

- Hoooked Zpagetti looks awesome!

- Autumn soup at it's best!

Wishing you all the lovliest of weekends!! Enjoy the beautiful fall weather, and take advantage of all the pumpkin patches and fall festivals going on in your town! I'm very much looking forward to the peace of Shabbos, and relishing in the last weekend with our family here on this side of town.... here's to bittersweet beginnings!