Getting down to business

Things have been moving right along for the Schrock corporation! It's been pretty exciting, stressful, busy and so much fun.

My product review site is going well. It does get hard to maintain while trying to work on the store and take care of the family so we're still trying to find the balance but working it out. Here is your invitation to check it out. The name is Urban Baby Runway and you can check it out by clicking here. Just to warn you there may be some adult language thrown in for fun so don't be totally shocked. And FYI I use nicknames for Julian (Cricket) and Bryan (Sloth) because it is such a public forum. Let me know what you think. It's updated pretty much daily so come back every day! And actually my May contest kicks off today so please enter! If you don't have a need for the prize then give it as a gift (to me!)

I still get people contacting me about advertising and to send me free stuff which is flattering. I have a "gift" for Julian in the mail from a cute shop and I can't wait to see what it is. I'm glad they contacted me b/c I'm interested in their wholesale info now. They are also going to sponsor a contest and since I have had more interests in contest sponsorships that I expected I'm actually going to have 2 in May. I also have June's lined up. It's pretty funny b/c Bryan bought me a baby board book called Urban Babies Wear Black for Christmas. I did a review on it and emailed the review to the companies website and also said "if you ever want to sponsor a contest let me know." The author actually responded thanking me and said she was interested in doing the contest. So she sent a signed copy of the book along w/an Urban Babies Wear Black t-shirt. I thought that was pretty cool that a Christmas gift turned into all that.

But the coolest thing just happened last week. I got an email from a guy who is an exec for the company that makes Gwen Stafani's (formerly of No Doubt) shoes for her L.A.M.B line. He works directly with her. Gwen is going to be releasing crib shoes, infant and kid shoes this Summer for her clothing line. The exec wanted to be featured on Urban Baby Runway and I told him what his options are as far as buying an ad or getting a review. He's going to be sending me a pair of crib shoes this week! I feel like such an insider to own a pair before they are even released! They will be too small for Julian but how cool is it that I can say a guy who works w/Gwen Stefani gave me a free pair of their shoes to write a review? Pretty exciting. I can't wait to see them.

Our t-shirt store is doing great, we had an awesome April thanks to Bryan's awesome design skills. Because of this we are getting steam to forge ahead into bigger things such as our very own 100% owned/operated by us online baby boutique. It'll be under the same name as my product review site, Urban Baby Runway. I've been lining up products to sell, working out the wholesale deals and setting up a few drop shippers. You gotta love the drop shippers because it allows you to have a large inventory without upfront costs and having to maintain stock and handle the shipping. We'll eventually want to transition out of drop ship deals because you don't make as much profit and I'll want full control but it's a great start. We're hoping to have it up and running by Julian's first birthday but we're really aiming for the end of May.

We also got a good contact out of our current t-shirt store from a company that has been making large purchases from us, adding their own touches to the shirts and reselling. Bryan did so many custom requests for them too which keeps them coming back. They now want colored shirts but we only offer white. Because they've been such a steady and large customer this is making Bryan's desire to purchase a heat press machine and start printing our own more of a reality. We'll have our own "brand" of clothing, Bryan already has the name picked out. If we already have a client lined up then it makes dishing out the money for the heat press less worrisome.

As you can see we have a million little projects/businesses going on right now but someday they will all merge together. I know this update was more about Bryan and I than Julian but what is good for us is good for the kid. Right? Well here is a little update on Julian, he cut another tooth, his top left I tooth. The right one looks close behind. Today he has his Urology follow up but we're expecting the thumbs up so no worries. He's been quite a handful lately. Last week he had been a whiney, extremely clingy, grumpy boy. I couldn't get anything done like breathing. Even if Bryan was home trying to play with him he'd crawl after me whining Ma-ma, ma-ma and pulling on my leg but then he didn't want me to hold him and didn't want me to set him down. Who knows what he wanted. But Sunday he was an angel and pretty calm and independent. I'm pretty sure the tooth is a big part of the issue. He's so close to walking too! He is getting so big, so quickly. It still amazes me every time I look at him and see how much he's changed. We're so lucky to have such a perfect boy, even when he is acting like a turd.

Our first family vacation

Well we survived our first vacation with Julian in tow to Chicago. It was a great time and he was amazing! We stayed with our good friends Lisa and Jeff and their daughter Emma who we met for the first time. She is 1 month younger than Julian and they played together great. We also got to meet our nephew, Brandon's fiance who is beautiful and sweet and very quiet. Just like Brandon.

Here is a high level recap:

We had such a fun time with Lisa, Jeff and Emma. Julian woke up yesterday morning quite sad without his playmate.

I think the kids were learning from each other because Emma started saying Mama and I swear Julian is now making Emma noises.

Emma is a perfect match for Julian. She is spunky and tough. She body slammed him many a time, pulled his hair, plucked his eye out of his head and he loved every second of it.

Julian was so smiley and happy 99% of the time. The other 1% wasn't as great due to tiredness and teething. It appears he is getting teeth numbers 5 and 6, the FANGS on top. Oh and Lisa's Dad. He seemed a little freaked out by him, not sure why.

Julian didn't sleep any worse than usual and in fact maybe even better. He would sleep in past 7 which is really 8 our time (with his usual night wakings.)

I'm afraid Julian told Emma in code that sleeping through the night is overrated and she should really start waking up way more often.

Julian had his first pancake and taste of pizza sauce. He loved them both. Emma had her first Cheerios and she didn't seem that impressed with them.

Traveling with a baby was not so hard. I think we got lucky this time though. You would think we were the first people to do it with how triumphant I feel. The most annoying thing was having to take him out of the Mei Tai to go through BWI security because I waited until the last minute hoping they wouldn't make me take him out. We had him in the car seat for take off where he cried then fell asleep, cried, fell asleep, cried, sleep, cried, sleep. I am imagining the pressure changes may have had something to do with it so once the seatbelt light was turned off we took him out and strapped him in with his flight vest while I nursed him the rest of the way while he slept. The way home we decided to check our car seat and just use the vest. He had no interest in nursing so we gave him sips of water when our ears were popping. But he was an angel on the trip home from the moment we left Lisa's all the way until we got home. Amazing, amazing boy.

Julian started standing on his own while we were there for a couple seconds at a time. And yesterday he stood alone for almost a minute. I'm afriad walking is in our near future. Booo hooo.

We had great weather except for the second we hit the park that is located in a frozen tundra

Psycho Baby (a store downtown) has a lot of cool yet expensive things. I almost, ALMOST bought Julian a $42 t-shirt. I got caught up in the romance of vacationing. I came to my senses and bought an overpriced bib instead. All in the name of market research of course. But man was that t-shirt cool.

Gone are the days of totally relaxing vacations. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy traveling with Julian because I really did. All I'm saying is that our vacations were a time for Bryan and I to reconnect, have deep talks over dinner and linger after dessert. We would sleep in and take naps when we wanted. Explore cities all day long. We could just escape all the stresses. We didn't really have that option with Julian but I still wouldn't have it any other way. I guess I didn't realize this until we were there.

Julian started saying Mama before we left for Chicago. He is saying it in a way that shows he knows exactly who Mama is. I think this is his first official word. Although instead of ma-ma it's said like mmmmmmm-MA, mmmmmmm-MA and many, many, MANY times throughout the day. Emma was saying Mama by the time we left.

Emma has tons of killer toys that Julian loved and I'm trying to fight the urge to go out and buy them. I know if I do he will play with them for like a second. Still, maybe one little toy won't hurt. Or 10.

Vacation was way too short.

Now for the fun part:

I've turned a corner, I am only posting ONE photo from our Chicago trip and letting you see the rest in Flickr

This picture was perfect because incase you didn't know, Julian's nickname is Cricket.

(click above photo for rest of photos)

Alright here are a few of my faves. You can't change over night you know!

Final batch of Easter

Easter at the parents'

Click here to see Julian's new crawl in action


OK you gave me the sand shovel now where is the sand?!


What the heck is an egg doing out here?


Taking his cousin's bike for a spin and working that bell



Next stop...



Might be a good picture if I was looking at the camera


Whew, Easter is exhausting!

More celebrating

Easter at our house...(yeah, sorry the ... means there are more to come. I try but I can never be one of those people that put one nice picture up and let you go into Flickr to see the rest. It's a weakness, I know)

Bryan was very upset I spent a whopping 99 cents on his Easter basket. My logic was that we have no place to keep it so I don't mind throwing away a 99 cent basket.

I suppose we could have gotten him dressed and put him on the ground to actually enjoy his basket instead of keeping him locked up.


Yay! You got the egg that Mommy forgot to put something in!




What's this crap? Where is the chocolate??




Helping Mama blow bubbles


Playing with the fridge magnets the Easter Bunny brought him. You are supposed to match up the animals and if you put them together wrong they basically say "A horse sheep?! You are an idiot!" I don't think Julian likes that too much.

What a weekend!

I hope everyone enjoyed their Easter! We surely did and Julian had such a great time. Plus it was a big weekend for us in general with my birthday, Bryan's birthday, Easter and our 2 year wedding anniversary yesterday. A LOT of celebrating going on around here!

I had a great birthday from start to finish. First I was allowed to sleep in while the boys hung out. As usual though I didn't sleep in nearly as late as I should. Once I woke up at 8am I couldn't go back to sleep. I came downstairs and Bryan and Julian were all set to get a big breakfast ready for me. I spotted some balloons and walked over to them where there also was a potted Tulip plant. So very pretty. And, there were a few more presents. I'm not sure if you know but Bryan and I don't exchange birthday gifts. We usually go away for a little vacation, this year we're heading to Chicago...this week actually. This year I made sure Bryan and I were on the same page about not exchanging gifts. We were adamant about not doing anything so I was a little irritated to see anything at all. But it was just too thoughtful to stay irritated for long.

It actually was a dream come true for Bryan. He always has this desire to do all of his Christmas shopping at 7-11 late Christmas Eve. Strange desire, I know, but it never works out for him. This birthday is probably the closest he will ever come. While I was sleeping he took Julian out in his pajama shirt and jeans over to Safeway and bought my birthday presents which were several gift cards and an US magazine. I don't know if your grocery stores are the same but ours has gift cards to almost every store imaginable. So I got a few to some of my favorite places, woo hoo. Plus he's renewing my US subscription. It ran out and I can't stand how out of touch I've been. I mean it was like 2 weeks after Britney's son fell out of his highchair before I heard about it!! And lucky for Bryan it was also Easter weekend so there were Tulips-a-plenty. See, we both made out, I got some money to spend on me and Bryan got to do gift shopping at the last minute at a grocery store. Now how thoughtful is that?! Of course I actually stuck to the no gift giving rule so that night I had to run out to Safeway to do his shopping. Do we really go out of our way or what?

But my birthday was so nice. Bryan also had coffee ready for me when I woke up. I know it doesn't sound like much but this is a huge deal. He never, ever makes coffee. He doesn't have a clue what to do with the coffee maker. On our wedding day he called me early in the morning and I thought it was so sweet until he got to his point "I'm trying to make coffee and the coffee maker won't stop beeping at me." Good thing I married him anyway, he may never have a cup of coffee again. So as you see, I couldn't believe he had coffee ready then I found out he had run to Starbucks and poured it into our carafe. Hey he gets points for creativity.

The weather Saturday was so nice so we headed down to Fell's Point by the water and enjoyed ourselves a picnic. It was just what I wanted. We had arranged for my mom to babysit Julian at night so we can have a nice dinner out but the day was so perfect we cancelled. We didn't need anything more.

Bryan got a little ripped off on his birthday again this year. It's always something overshadowing, one year it was the engagement, then next the wedding, then the pregnancy and now Easter. But it was a great day too. We did a little celebrating at home in the morning and then headed to our parents for more. It was really such a great weekend. And yesterday being our wedding Anniversary, it just kept on going! And boy do I have some pictures to share. I have so many though I'll have to do it in batches...here is my birthday picnic.







He loves rough housing!






That's right Cricket, you must wear sunscreen at all times. That's sunblock in his hair, it's not sweat!


He always wakes up with mysterious scratches on his nose


He no longer likes his knees touching the ground when he crawls outside. I think this might be his natural progression to walking. Oh boy...

Julian Ridley: Month 9

When I carried you around in my belly, it seemed like the longest 9 months of my life. But I took comfort in the fact you were mine, all mine. Nobody could be closer to you during that time. So these past 9 months since your birth, that has flown by with the blink of an eye, you've been slowly breaking away from my grasp. You become your own person more and more each day. This seems to be a much easier transition for you than for me.

We had taken a short ride one day and upon returning home I opened the car door to get you and I thought I had just opened the door to a time machine. I almost didn't recognize the face looking back at me. I was expecting to see my baby boy but what I saw wasn't a baby, but a child. It made my heart break and swell with pride at the same time. After I put you to bed each night I stop and watch you for a moment and marvel at how your body takes up so much room. No wonder it's been becoming increasingly difficult for the 3 of us to sleep together. But it's all the more reason to cram together and wrap my arms around you as you sleep.

Aside from your first two top teeth poking through, there haven't been any "firsts" this month to really speak of as you aren't standing on your own or walking. You haven't surprised us with any complete sentences or even any real recognizable words. But that hasn't made this past month any less exciting. Quite the contrary, you have become a real handful. It takes two of us to handle you. Your Papa and I have to give you baths together because you flop and dive all around.


We can't do the dishes unless we're both home because the second we open the dishwasher you throw down whatever is in your hands and bolt toward it. You see your opportunity to get inside that strange machine we try to keep you out of and you don't want to let it get away. If we open the refrigerator when you are in the other room, next thing we know you are at our feet reaching for the condiments. We have to make sure the gate to the stairs is up because if we wait a moment to long to do it, you are already to the top.

You also love to play games with us and not just your silly mind games. Now you love to book across the house as fast as you can, giggling and stopping every so often to make sure we're chasing right behind. You've started to squeal with amazing delight and it really makes me realize exactly what is important in this world. You still study things with such intensity. You focus so hard you make a purring sound as you are trying to figure out just how everything works.



One of the few things you have learned to do is to open and close doors. You can sit there for hours just sitting on the floor opening and shutting the bathroom door. It's a natural progression from your talent of turning the pages to your books as we read to you. You still love books, one night you picked one up, dropped it next to your Daddy and crawled into his lap. You sat there, attention undivided and hanging on to his every word waiting for your cue to turn to the next page. You are still your Daddy's little buddy.


You did learn how to wave at appropriate times but it was fleeting. You seemed to have grown bored with it after just a short week. But you never, ever fail to give us the biggest, most welcoming smile when we walk into the room. If that doesn't make the world a better place, nothing will.

You always had such a personality but recently you are showing other sides. You are a pretty laid back fella but you have started to show some assertiveness. While at the park the other day, you were standing up at your favorite play spot when one of your older playmates leaned in front of you and began to take over. You did not like this and you began to grunt and fuss until she was taken away and you went back to playing happily once again.


You are also much more physically wild. If the dogs weren't scared of you before, they sure are now. We now have to keep a close watch with you around Jolie because she doesn't take to getting smacked over and over very well as she's sleeping. She has sent out some warnings to you, but you find it all so entertaining. I think you are missing her point.

Your consistent nap schedule is gone and I'm still trying to figure out when, or where you will be taking your next one.


You are really living life as fast as you can right now. Even though I struggle to keep up and adjust to how you grow more into a little boy every day and less like my baby, don't ever slow down to wait for your Mama. I won't be far behind.

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Hanging at Triple G's

This is from when we were at Cricket's Great Grandma G's house a week or so ago (hence Triple G).


He took this balloon everywhere with him as he crawled.


"Guys, you'll never believe this!"



FYI - I put a link to our store in the sidebar as well as Nana Schrock's photo flickr account.