Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Stepping out Saturday (and Sunday): A weekend of Firsts

What a weekend!!!

On Saturday, we headed over to my brother and sister-in-law’s for Monkey Butts 1st Birthday Party. It was a warm day and an informal affair, so I was all casual in some Target purchased shorts, and LL Bean flip flips. A mostly undocumented outfit. But Munchkin celebrated in style, wearing an absolutely adorable Carter’s dress (an, erm, size 18M dress…what the what?!)

 

The Monkey Butt was styling in his own special Birthday shirt made by yours truly. I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out, but I was pretty pleased with it (and you guys? It has googly eyes!!!).

The next day was my first Mother’s day. We were more formally attired as we went to mass earlier in the day. I was pleased to be able to still wear a dress that I bought three years earlier from good ol’ JCPenney’s.  Munchkin wore two outfits, because her first outfit was a sailor suit. While absolutely beautiful,

the sailor suit is white…and well, when she eats she looks like this:

So a white outfit+food=not on my watch. I only got this one picture of her in that outfit…just waking up from the baby napping spot.

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The rest of the day she was ever so cute (and probably much more comfy) in her romper from Koala Baby.

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Again, for this Stepping Out, I’m linking up with Mandy from Harpers Happenings:

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

The best day off. EVER.

So who has been delinquent in her blog postings?

*looks around*

*sheepishly raises hand*

*Hurries to distract with an adorable baby*

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I can’t blame work, because it’s back to roses and butterflies…tee hee…maybe not that awesome, but way way way better. But I’ve been in a crafting groove—and it’s blogging or crafting. Crafting is winning. But since I have to wait for paint to dry, I decided to let you into our day off a few Fridays back.

I took the day off to go to Heidi’s Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Gallery for the Graphic Design Program. She didn’t know I was coming as I’m usually working. I was excited both by getting a day of on what was later named the worst day of work ever and surprising Heidi. Well, I was quite surprised the next day when Marc told me he had the day off (now mind you, he pissed me off first by refusing to get up for work…lol). And then he told me he took it off for us to go to the zoo…my favorite place ever…a zoo, any zoo, but the one here is just fine.

It started off looking cloudy and cold but it cleared up. And we had a wonderful day off.

Since the bears were moving around, it caught Autumn’s eye…but she really wasn’t sure what to make of it.

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I have always found the vultures to be rather dull. But something was up with them this day. There was a keeper hiding behind a bush monitoring them. The vulture was running around grabbing a stick here or a leaf there and holding it in it’s mouth like a dog would. It was hilarious.

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There was a VERY loud cow that apparently was an attention hog. She would moo very loudly if someone wasn’t looking at her.

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And OMG…a baby gorilla. Autumn was transfixed by the gorillas. It was so cute.

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I thought the tigers were cool. Autumn could care less…the same for most of the animals—including the majestic lions.

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But the giraffes…Oh did we love the giraffes! She could have stared all day.

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But, a day at the zoo was exhausting…and we couldn’t take a stroller into the Rainforest, so it was a no go this day. Booo…But we have a zoo membership. I will be back! Who else is coming?

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Finished off our day with a quick run to the grocery store. It was munchkin’s first time sitting up in the seat of the shopping cart. What a big girl! Mommy is so happy—it makes grocery shopping much easier.DSC02270

Later, we surprised Heidi at her gallery. It was very nice—Autumn even dressed for the event. Mommy slacked and didn’t take a single picture.

We need to have days like that more often. It was so great!!!

LiveJournal Tags: ,,,,

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

May Day! May Day! My Daughter is growing up too Fast

May day…as in the term used to signal distress…My baby girl is Six months old.

Time is a puzzling thing…I can’t believe only six months ago, we were laboring (oh, and how we were laboring), but how the heck did this child get to be six months old? It seems like a dream that she was once a little nugget incubating in my belly. Goodness knows she wouldn’t fit now.

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After the last doctor's appointment, the doctor had indicated that the munchkin didn’t put on as much weight as he’d like. Today, he said she’s back on track. Right up in the top percentiles for everything…that’s my big girl.

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So a recap of our first six months of parenting:

Feeding: My goal was to nurse six months. And six month I nursed. We hit this mark kicking and screaming with it being only twice a day by the end. But I think we’re done. The munchkin is no longer interested it seems. I like my pediatrician—he says she got the protection she needed in these past six month with no guilt trip attached. Now we’re on to bigger and better things—can carrots really be considered better?

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Diapering: Well, it’s been six months and we’re still holding strong in the cloth diaper department. We’re not crazy must-cloth-diaper-all-the-time people. The sitters have a stash of disposables to use. And when we leave the house we put on a disposable—although I have been known to forget and then have a surprise to deal with at diaper change time. Even the husband is game. Granted diaper changes aren’t his favorite, but he’ll change them. I’m still content with my decision.  Prefolds and flats make up our stash…cheaper than many other options and much much easier to wash. We use a snappi instead of pins for my husband’s peace of mind. I’m solely responsible for the getting them from the pail to washer…lol. But the fact that Marc doesn’t complain about them makes up for it. And after some of the craziness from disposables, he’ll deal with the cloth to avoid the larger explosion.

Growth: Big from the beginning—9 lbs 9 oz…phew. The munchkin stays right on target for top percentiles. She weighs in today at 17 lbs 6 oz with a length of 27.5 inches. Where she gets her height from is a mystery, but she is wearing size 12 month clothes…

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Milestones: We’ve started rolling from front to back. Back to front will have to wait for the toes to taste less yummy—as that is currently munchkin's favorite thing to do when laying on her back. “Mamamamama” is frequently heard throughout the house (daddy’s working on getting some “dadadada”) but I know she associates nothing with the noise, besides sheer fun. We’ve been sitting alone for a month now and boy do we love books. To eat that is…in church my biggest challenge is to keep her from trying to swipe my book or that of someone near me.

Temperament: Mad baby banished.  Smiles and giggles abound in this house—with tears reserved only for tired times (and informing mom and dad that “shots hurt”). That being said, I have a very serious child. Unknown elements and even sometimes the known have to earn their smiles. But once that smile comes out to play, it’s all uphill from there.

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Sleep: My child, you spoil us. You’ve been putting in 4-5 hours at a time since birth and sleeping soundly through the night since six weeks. Your next sibling (God willing) is going to make up for it I fear. You nap every two hours. When we are home it’s clockwork. When we are not—if we don’t have somewhere to lay you, you forego the nap. And then are a cranky pants sometimes—but not mad baby, just cranky—there is too much to see, do and miss out on. Today for instance. We didn’t nap—until around 5:30. We went to the doctor (although we didn’t wake up for the day until 9:45 am), went to see Memere and some aunts and uncles, and then Noni came over. No time to sleep.

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That’s all I can think of for the time being. I look forward to see what awaits us in the next six months. The next six months that will take their time passing so that we can savor every great and wonderful moment with our munchkin.

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Happy Six Months Baby Girl Smile

 

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