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,

LiveJournal Tags: stepping out Saturday,mother's day,first birthday,monkey butt,little brown cow

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.

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

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

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*

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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?

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.

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: shopping,zoo,giraffe,gorilla,day off

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.

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.

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?

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…

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.

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.

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.

Happy Six Months Baby Girl

 

LiveJournal Tags: six months,growing,birthday,munchkin,sitting,solids,diapers,cloth,smile

“They” are back…

 

So it looks like work is back to normal. I liked normal; moreover, I LIKE normal. Maybe I won’t sprint away from my computer 2.5 seconds after I’m done for the day, and that means…blog posts for you!!! Also I failed on the Stepping Out series…and it’s only week two. Next week…I promise.

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With the many milestones a child reaches comes advice. Boatloads of advice. Luckily for me, my family is great about holding back unless asked. And I do ask. And then my mother laughs at me. Pretty much every time I ask her advice—laughter. But it’s ok, she has some good advice…and good perspective.

And then there’s the interweb world. The interweb world has lots and lots of advice. Sometimes it’s helpful. Sometimes it’s pretty harsh (read about some Natural birth advocates scorning C-sections…whew…nast-ay). Sometimes it’s funny…but usually it’s contradicting.

I’ve been contemplating about this post for a while. Since my child decided that she was going to grow up in the blink of an eye and not do anything on schedule—but rather mostly ahead of schedule…the milestone advice that “they” give per age category…yeah not so helpful.

The biggie that I’m running into now is centered around starting solids. My pediatrician indicated that the current timeframe is 6 months. For the munchkin that’s tomorrow (OMG RIGHT?!!), and she’s been eating solids for a couple weeks. “They” say four months. “They” say six months. “They” say when the child is sitting. “They” say when the child shows and interest. What’s a mother to do?

I decided I’d throw in a little common sense…if she wants food, I’ll see if she can handle it. And that’s what I did. I know neither of us (or our parents or siblings) have major food allergies, and I’m staying away from the major allergy culprits for the time being. Let’s see if I get yelled at tomorrow at Munchkin’s 6 month appointment…yay more shots (booo).

But it doesn’t end there. Now there’s tons of advice for first foods. What to eat at what age. How you should space the new foods out. On and on and on…I’m still muddling through that. Again…it’s a common sense (according to me) thing.

The newest advice “they” are coming out with deals with car seat recommendations. Instead of rear facing until age 1 or 20 pounds…it’s 2 and 40. Then in a forward facing seat/booster until age 10 or something crazy like that (I know if it’s the safest it’s not crazy)…supposedly car seats “expire” after 6 years…so, um, yeah.

But today I read this really well put together article, answering some very real questions. I myself was looking for an age guideline for using an umbrella stroller. And not only did it give the age requirements, it gave the logic behind it too. So this way, I can make an informed decision—disregarding the age guidelines, but following the realistic physical/mental suggestions. First time parents…this is for you.

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And to counterbalance all that text….

…One day this was just the easiest way to clean the Munchkin up. Best. Smile. Ever!!!

 

LiveJournal Tags: they,solids,car seat,advice,recommendations,smile,allergies

Next she’ll be asking for the keys…

So I’m forcing myself to sit here back at the computer for a blog post because HOLY COW IS MY LITTLE GIRL GROWING UP!!! (yes, caps were/are necessary). Work has been nothing short of a blast lately—ugh. Luckily the torment and hate is supposed to draw to a close soon (Please Please Please be true). Our department has been fielding calls for something separate from our normal routine and it’s awful. For someone who likes to avoid conflict, this just flings it in my face. And so every night…as my shift draws to a close…I run screaming and yelling (I mean I would if I had a voice) from my computer.

But it’s been one thing after another over here—as Marc says, one day we’re gonna tell her that she never wanted to cuddle because she’s always had stuff to do (I cleaned that up a little--hehe). And he’s not kidding.

First, we have this….

And this

And this

One day right before Easter the munchkin decided she was going to sit up on her own, and after that there was no stopping her. She’ll go for 45 minutes of play without falling over. What a big girl!

Then, we decided to try this…

Autumn kept trying to swipe my cup, so I decided to buy a sippy cup. I figured she wasn’t old enough for it, but since we’d need it eventually I wasn’t wasting money. Well…she took to it and has probably had a bottle three times since (she’s still nursing twice a day, but other than that it’s all sippy cup). And, honestly, I think she prefers the sippy.

And what falls naturally into that progression is this…

Now pediatricians these days recommend that babies start solids after six months, but this girl was ready. Along with swiping mommy’s cup, the food was also a target. So I decided to see if Autumn wanted some applesauce…silly question. She loved it…and we have slowly been building up her menu options ever since.

To add to her growing resume, yesterday Autumn rolled over for the first time (I think she has her sitting and rolling backwards, but to each their own) from front to back. She’s not proficient yet, and still gets stuck on her stomach, but it’s only a matter of time before she is a rolling maniac. I’m so sure of this, the baby gates have been installed.

She falls asleep so easily and quickly (thanks to daddy’s genetics I’m sure) and just recently we’ve eliminated the swaddling from the nighttime routine. I think she falls asleep even faster without it now (but it was a saving grace for quite a while).

She’s so much fun right now; you’d never know mad baby ever existed. Ms. Crazy Personality—she shrieks and eats our faces and get so excited over kitties and the huge truck filling cracks on our street.  Everyday begins with a huge smile and is a new and awesome adventure. Stay tuned!

I leave you with the best expression ever. I don’t think she likes the grass in her face. What do you think?

LiveJournal Tags: munchkin,baby,sitting,rolling,sippy cup,solids,growing,swaddle,sleep

Stepping out Sunday…

So I’m going to try to link up with Mandy from Harpers Happenings for her Stepping out Saturdays, but I’m doing it Sunday style. Since I don’t even need to dress up for work anymore, the dress code around here rarely veers from jeans and tees and rompers. But since we head off to church on Sundays, we try to change it up a bit. And since Autumn’s looking so cute, daddy cooperates for a photo session. And so I present Stepping Out Sunday…

Normally, the munchkin isn’t a cuddler…but today she was. And I’ll take all the baby cuddles I can get

Some Spitting action

Even Salem got in on the action.

On Autumn--dress: Carters (hand me down ); Long sleeve tee: Carters (garage sale snag from one of Autumn’s great aunts);Tights: Gaps Kids. On Mommy -- top: Body Central (the deals, oh the deals…I’m currently browsing the Summer catalog…such temptations); Camisole: Old Navy; Skirt: Old Navy; Necklace: Esty Shop LanOCrystal (gift from the Bro, SIL and Monkey Butt)

So I will be attempting to link up weekly…emphasis being placed heavily on attempting. As for the promised update on the every growing Munchkin…it’s coming, eventually.

LiveJournal Tags: munchkin,dressing up,Stepping out Saturday,Sunday