Onesie purchased from Etsy seller SimpleWear. LOVE IT!
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Monday, June 6, 2011
T is for Turtle
I've had a lot of people ask me why we call Lily Turtle. It came about for two reasons.
1) Turtle was born with an amazing amount of neck strength. Moments after she was born, they plopped her up on my stomach even before they cut the cord and the first thing she did was LIFT UP HER HEAD AND LOOK ME IN THE EYES! I remember thinking... I'm not sure you're supposed to be doing that yet! Well, it wasn't a fluke. She kept lifting up her head to look around every chance she got. In the early weeks she would lose control of it and bonk us in the mouth our neck, but now she's pretty much got it all figured out. As you can see from this picture (which I was taking when she rolled over for the first time), that she looks just like a turtle when she lifts her head up like that.
2) When I was very big and pregnant with her, Jay use to tease me and call me Turtle because I would get on my back on the couch and not be able to get up without his help. So, it seems appropriate that she would be my little turtle.
You know those white stick figure families that people put on the back of their cars, I'd love to find a turtle family to put on the back of ours. Jay rolled his eyes when I suggested it, but then said he'd trade me the "I heart My Shiz-Tu" magnet I have on there now for it. :-) We're still trying to figure out what we are going to do when Lily learns that owls eat turtles (since her nursery is done in owls). I told Jay we'd just explain to her that her nursery owls are vegetarians. :-)
Do your kids have special nick names? Where did they originate from?
1) Turtle was born with an amazing amount of neck strength. Moments after she was born, they plopped her up on my stomach even before they cut the cord and the first thing she did was LIFT UP HER HEAD AND LOOK ME IN THE EYES! I remember thinking... I'm not sure you're supposed to be doing that yet! Well, it wasn't a fluke. She kept lifting up her head to look around every chance she got. In the early weeks she would lose control of it and bonk us in the mouth our neck, but now she's pretty much got it all figured out. As you can see from this picture (which I was taking when she rolled over for the first time), that she looks just like a turtle when she lifts her head up like that.
2) When I was very big and pregnant with her, Jay use to tease me and call me Turtle because I would get on my back on the couch and not be able to get up without his help. So, it seems appropriate that she would be my little turtle.
You know those white stick figure families that people put on the back of their cars, I'd love to find a turtle family to put on the back of ours. Jay rolled his eyes when I suggested it, but then said he'd trade me the "I heart My Shiz-Tu" magnet I have on there now for it. :-) We're still trying to figure out what we are going to do when Lily learns that owls eat turtles (since her nursery is done in owls). I told Jay we'd just explain to her that her nursery owls are vegetarians. :-)
Do your kids have special nick names? Where did they originate from?
Fun, fun, and more fun! (Week 15)
I simply cannot get over how big Turtle is getting!!! Look as those chunky baby thighs! I'm always pointing them out and Jay will say, "Mama, don't make fun of my fat!" I tell her that baby fat is adorable. It's only adult fat that isn't. ;-)
See that big huge smile? She was smiling at her Daddy making faces. I enlisted his help this week for the pictures since she tends to lose her smile when I put the camera in front of my face. It worked like a charm, and I think I'll be enlisting Daddy's help every week.
This was an odd week routine wise. I'm not a big fan of forcing Lily onto a schedule, but we have noticed that she generally has a natural routine that she follows. Well, this week she was all over the place. Sleeping strangely, eating odd amounts and at odd intervals. For instance she went from eating about 7 oz every 5-6 hours last week to 5 oz every 3-4 hours this week. Since, like I said, I'm not a fan of forcing her to follow a schedule we all just tried to follow her lead. Although that meant Mama was really tired a few days when Turtle had wanted to play the Binki Game half the night. (That's the game where Turtle spits out her binki and then fusses until Mama finds it and puts it back in. A few minutes later the whole process is repeated. She learned this game from the puppy who plays the push-the-squeak-toy-under-the-couch-and-watch-Mama-dig-it-out-game.) I have heard that babies will sometimes completely throw off their routines before they accomplish a big milestone like sitting up or crawling. The theory is that their brains and bodies are so occupied with learning the new skill that it throws off their routines. It seems to make sense now that she rolled over for the first time. So, we'll see if she settles back in. She definitely slept better last night then she has in a while. We put her to bed at about 9:30 last night and she didn't start fussing until about 5am. This is progress since usually it's about 3:30 am when she fusses and wants in our bed. This past week she slept the entire night in our bed a couple of times since she just didn't want to completely calm down.
This weekend was so much fun! It really started Friday at lunch when I went to Buy Buy Baby to look for something for Jay's Father's Day gift and ended up buying half their store. I really shouldn't shop on Fridays because that's when I get paid and I feel like I have money. Oops! I picked up a couple of things for Jay and then found a few things for Lily. One was what's called a Wubbanub. It's basically a Soothie (pacifier) sewn to a stuffed animal and sold for 4 times it's worth. But I'd been coveting them online and this was the first time I'd seen them in a store so I had to buy it!
Lily's ehh about the Soothie, Nuk's are her favorite binki's, but she loves the bear! She'll hug it and hold it's arms and it's so freaking cute!
Saturday morning, Jay went to Cars and Coffee with our friend Dave and since Lily hadn't slept well and had me up at 7am, I texted mom to see if she wanted to grab breakfast. She was of course game so I picked her up and we headed to IHOP. It was Lily's first trip and I think every.single.server. came by our table to see her. She's always the hit of the party wherever we go.
We of course had to document the milestone! And don't you love her bib. In case you can't see it says, "T is for turtle". Squeee! It was one of the other things I got her during my epic Buy Buy Baby trip.
Later on Saturday, My Childhood BFF's daughter had her ballet performance and Lily went with us. Well, technically she went with us to the Nutcracker performance in December too, but she says it was pretty dark! ;-)
We got there an hour early to make sure we could get a seat since it's a free performance and ends up being standing room only. I wanted to make sure we got a seat in the back on the isle so that I could slip out if Turtle got cranky. She ate right before the show started so she was very alert at the beginning. I sat her up so she could see and even being that far back she still stared at the stage. About 45 minutes in, she started to get a little wiggly and I could tell she was ready to take a nap. So, I snuck out and put her in the wrap and she slept pretty much the rest of the performance. Here we all are after it was over.
That's me and Lily and April and her daughter (the ballerina!)
And here's all the girls.
That's me and Lily, April and her daughter, Debby (April's mom), my mom, Anna (April's sister) and her two beautiful daughters in front. My mom and dad moved in to my childhood home across the street from Debby when I was just born and April was about 9 months old. We were best friends for years and years and now here we are, 30 something years later, all grown up with daughters of our own! It's amazing how that works. What a pretty group of women!
After I took Mama home, I headed over to our friends' Dave and Lauren's house to meet Jay and we chilled there for a while.
On Sunday we had our weekly photo session and that's when she rolled over which I've already documented in pictures. But I'll leave you with this one last picture. Oh how I love her feet!
Hope everyone had a great weekend!
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Epic Working Mother WIN!!!
One of my biggest fears as a working mom is missing some of those big firsts. But today I got to witness Lily rolling over (tummy to back) for the first time! And she agreed not to tell me if she has in fact done it at grandma's before now. :-D
I was taking Lily's weekly picture and was taking some of her on her tummy to show everyone why we call her Turtle, when she tucked her hip under and rolled over on her back. I started squealing and clapping. She wasn't sure what I was so excited about. It was such a cool moment!
A few minutes later, I put her back on her tummy to get some more pictures and see if she would roll over again, and yet she did!
This working mom is soaking in the milestone glory! Woohoo!!
I was taking Lily's weekly picture and was taking some of her on her tummy to show everyone why we call her Turtle, when she tucked her hip under and rolled over on her back. I started squealing and clapping. She wasn't sure what I was so excited about. It was such a cool moment!
A few minutes later, I put her back on her tummy to get some more pictures and see if she would roll over again, and yet she did!
Are you watching, Mama?
No, really, Mama? Are you watching?
Hehe! Here I go!
Weeee!
TA DA!!!
This working mom is soaking in the milestone glory! Woohoo!!
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Revealing a Dirty Little Secret
Folks, I'm going to to share a dirty little secret with you. One that the baby stores and design websites don't want you to know....
Are you ready...
Having a perfectly designed/decorated nursery is not the be-all-end-all of parenting. It doesn't make you a good parent any more than not having a magazine worthy nursery makes you a bad parent. There... don't you feel better! I spent so much of my pregnancy stressing over her nursery, bedding sets vs. separates vs. making our own. $600 upholstered rocker vs. $90 Ikea Poang. Wall decals and changing tables and cribs and ahhhh! It about drove me bonkers. As my due date arrived, I realized that we were not going to be able to afford the "dream" nursery I had been designing. And I was devastated. To be totally honest, I felt like a failure as a mother and my baby wasn't even here yet. My daughter didn't have any wall decals, in fact her walls were bare other than one painting a friend had done. Her valence was cattywampas and made by her mom. The changing table was discarded by the previous owner of the house with a fresh coat of spray paint which didn't even take evenly. She had no dresser, no glider, no matching rug, no wall shelves for nick nacks and no nick nacks to put on the non-existent shelves. As silly as it sounds, I remember feeling like I was failing my daughter.
Then my beautiful turtle was born. And she didn't even go in her room for the first couple of weeks! We were so sleep deprived that we spent most of the first week in the bed. We used a puppy pad to change her on our bed or on the ottoman in the living room. Since she was eating around the clock we fixed her bottles in the upstairs bathroom and fed her in the bed or downstairs in the living room. While feeding in the living room we realized that our Ikea chair made for a perfect baby chair so we bought another one for the nursery with money my grandparents sent. A few weeks later I realized that I really missed having a foot stool while I fed her, so I found an awesome storage ottoman at Target for hardly anything (and we had a gift card). As time passed I started spending more and more time in her room with her. The simplicity of it felt comforting. As she became more aware I realized that she liked to stare at the valence when I fed her in her room. So, while at the party store looking for supplies for my friend's baby shower, I found some colorful cheap paper lanterns to hang over her changing table and chair. They became her favorite things in the whole wide world and the joy they bring to her far out way any decorative value.
The nesting instinct is strong, and it's important. Over our evolutionary history those mothers who investing time and energy into creating a safe place for their babies to live were more likely to succeed at getting their genes into the next generation. But like everything else in our consumer driven society, we've taken things to an extreme. Yes having a beautiful nursery is wonderful, and looking at the endless design blogs, shows, and stores is fun, but keep in mind that the most important thing is to provide a clean, safe place for your baby to come home to. Everything else is just gravy. And like every.thing.else. baby related, you won't know what you baby really likes until he or she is here. Looking back, I'm actually glad that we didn't complete our nursery until Lily was here because I feel like I've decorated it around things she likes to look at and seeing the joy on her face when she sees the stuff in her room brings me way more satisfaction than I ever would have gotten from posting our finished nursery online for people to admire.
You know I always have to have a disclaimer anytime I state a strong opinion and this post is no different... This is in no way meant to make anyone feel bad about the way they did things when they were pregnant! If you were lucky enough to have the money (or generous friends and family) to furnish and decorate an award winning nursery then YAY for you! Go forth and have fun!! This is meant more for those of us who don't have the cash (or friends and family with cash), it's meant to put their minds at ease that even if you feel like the nursery is the.most.important.thing.in.the.world and your worth as a mother rides on your ability to create a magazine worthy nursery, know that you are not alone and that things will feel very different after the baby comes. Or at least they did for me.
The two most important things I've learned in the 3 whole months I've been a mother...
1) You never know exactly what you need until the baby gets here regardless of how much research you do.
and
2) It's amazing how drastically your perspective can change (for the good) when that amazing little human comes into this world.
Are you ready...
Having a perfectly designed/decorated nursery is not the be-all-end-all of parenting. It doesn't make you a good parent any more than not having a magazine worthy nursery makes you a bad parent. There... don't you feel better! I spent so much of my pregnancy stressing over her nursery, bedding sets vs. separates vs. making our own. $600 upholstered rocker vs. $90 Ikea Poang. Wall decals and changing tables and cribs and ahhhh! It about drove me bonkers. As my due date arrived, I realized that we were not going to be able to afford the "dream" nursery I had been designing. And I was devastated. To be totally honest, I felt like a failure as a mother and my baby wasn't even here yet. My daughter didn't have any wall decals, in fact her walls were bare other than one painting a friend had done. Her valence was cattywampas and made by her mom. The changing table was discarded by the previous owner of the house with a fresh coat of spray paint which didn't even take evenly. She had no dresser, no glider, no matching rug, no wall shelves for nick nacks and no nick nacks to put on the non-existent shelves. As silly as it sounds, I remember feeling like I was failing my daughter.
Then my beautiful turtle was born. And she didn't even go in her room for the first couple of weeks! We were so sleep deprived that we spent most of the first week in the bed. We used a puppy pad to change her on our bed or on the ottoman in the living room. Since she was eating around the clock we fixed her bottles in the upstairs bathroom and fed her in the bed or downstairs in the living room. While feeding in the living room we realized that our Ikea chair made for a perfect baby chair so we bought another one for the nursery with money my grandparents sent. A few weeks later I realized that I really missed having a foot stool while I fed her, so I found an awesome storage ottoman at Target for hardly anything (and we had a gift card). As time passed I started spending more and more time in her room with her. The simplicity of it felt comforting. As she became more aware I realized that she liked to stare at the valence when I fed her in her room. So, while at the party store looking for supplies for my friend's baby shower, I found some colorful cheap paper lanterns to hang over her changing table and chair. They became her favorite things in the whole wide world and the joy they bring to her far out way any decorative value.
The nesting instinct is strong, and it's important. Over our evolutionary history those mothers who investing time and energy into creating a safe place for their babies to live were more likely to succeed at getting their genes into the next generation. But like everything else in our consumer driven society, we've taken things to an extreme. Yes having a beautiful nursery is wonderful, and looking at the endless design blogs, shows, and stores is fun, but keep in mind that the most important thing is to provide a clean, safe place for your baby to come home to. Everything else is just gravy. And like every.thing.else. baby related, you won't know what you baby really likes until he or she is here. Looking back, I'm actually glad that we didn't complete our nursery until Lily was here because I feel like I've decorated it around things she likes to look at and seeing the joy on her face when she sees the stuff in her room brings me way more satisfaction than I ever would have gotten from posting our finished nursery online for people to admire.
You know I always have to have a disclaimer anytime I state a strong opinion and this post is no different... This is in no way meant to make anyone feel bad about the way they did things when they were pregnant! If you were lucky enough to have the money (or generous friends and family) to furnish and decorate an award winning nursery then YAY for you! Go forth and have fun!! This is meant more for those of us who don't have the cash (or friends and family with cash), it's meant to put their minds at ease that even if you feel like the nursery is the.most.important.thing.in.the.world and your worth as a mother rides on your ability to create a magazine worthy nursery, know that you are not alone and that things will feel very different after the baby comes. Or at least they did for me.
The two most important things I've learned in the 3 whole months I've been a mother...
1) You never know exactly what you need until the baby gets here regardless of how much research you do.
and
2) It's amazing how drastically your perspective can change (for the good) when that amazing little human comes into this world.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Catch Up (Week 14)
You know those mornings were you get up late and you spend the rest of the day trying to catch up? Well, all of last week felt like that. Since we only determined that the fridge was fixed on Sunday night we didn't have any food in the house and we were too tired to do any major grocery shopping all week. So, each night was spent going, "What do you want for dinner?" "I don't know. You?" "I don't know. You?" For like an hour! And I didn't even get a weekly picture this week. Can you believe it? We had a three day weekend and everything and I didn't get it done. Oh well. She'll forgive me.
I did get a couple of projects done for her nursery this weekend though. I'd seen this idea around the bloggasphear for a while and had been meaning to try it and the three day weekend sounded like the perfect time.
So, Friday after work, on the start of not only the holiday weekend, but the Coca-Cola 600 race weekend, mom and I braved the possibility of race traffic to go to Ikea. Amazingly the place was all but a ghost town. I think people were 1) avoiding that area like the plague because of the race and 2) just getting to their holiday weekend destination so the traffic wasn't that bad yet.
But before I cut a huge swath of the owl fabric I had to special order, I decided to tackle the owl pillow project I'd been wanting to do since... like... December (I'm embarrassed to admit). It's a fairly easy sewing pattern but since I'm so horribly out of practice I was really worried about my ability to do it. Well, my seam ripper got a major workout but I finally got it to a place where I was ok with it. It's not professional by any stretch of the imagination, but Lily LOVES (and I mean LOVES) this thing and that's really the only thing that matters. It made me smile so very much to see her face light up and her little hand start trying to touch it. So... without further delay, here is my slightly cattywampas owl pillow.
So, with the rest of the fabric free for the taking, I cut a large rectangle and hemmed around all four sides. This time I remembered to hem the sides first so that I didn't close up the pouch the curtain rods go through like I did on her valence. Oops. Jay mounted the whole thing to the wall and Ms. Lily is now the proud owner of a book hanging thingy.
I'm going to get some spice racks from Ikea to put her shorter board books in and mount them to the wall behind the chair, but our Ikea was out of them on Friday. :-/ Eventually, I'll spray paint the hangers white/cream to match the rods instead of the silver they are now. But for now, I'm glad to have a place for the books to go instead of just sitting on the parson's table.
Saturday we spent with our friends Dave and Lauren. Lauren's sister was in town so we went out to eat with them and then hung out at their house. We had so much fun and were there so long we had to go get take out for dinner. :-) Their little one is going through the colicky stage that Lily went through so it was nice to be able to give them an extra set of arms to help sooth the baby so they could catch their breath. I know how hard it is when you spend night upon night trying to calm a cranky baby. We also tried to share as many of the tricks we'd learned for calming Lily, keeping in mind that not only is every baby different, but every day is different. What worked for one baby one night, could very well not work the next night for the same baby. They are doing great as parents though and their little one is getting so big already! I can't believe she's over 1 month old already!
Sunday and Monday were pretty low key other than crafting projects. Every weekend I say I'm going to get my house cleaned up and every weekend I choose to do other things. Oh well, my life's motto has always been "A spotless house is a sign of a life not lived!" So, I keep reminding myself that there needs to be balance.
Sunday we did have lunch with my brother, his roommate, and my mom. Lily was styling in her sunglasses!
This weekend coming up is going to be fun! My childhood BFF's daughter's dance recital is Saturday and mom and I are taking Lily. It'll be her first dance performance and I can't wait! I plan to wear her and find an isle seat in the back that way if she starts fussing we can slip out. Knowing her though, she'll do great! I hope everyone is having a great day!
I did get a couple of projects done for her nursery this weekend though. I'd seen this idea around the bloggasphear for a while and had been meaning to try it and the three day weekend sounded like the perfect time.
So, Friday after work, on the start of not only the holiday weekend, but the Coca-Cola 600 race weekend, mom and I braved the possibility of race traffic to go to Ikea. Amazingly the place was all but a ghost town. I think people were 1) avoiding that area like the plague because of the race and 2) just getting to their holiday weekend destination so the traffic wasn't that bad yet.
But before I cut a huge swath of the owl fabric I had to special order, I decided to tackle the owl pillow project I'd been wanting to do since... like... December (I'm embarrassed to admit). It's a fairly easy sewing pattern but since I'm so horribly out of practice I was really worried about my ability to do it. Well, my seam ripper got a major workout but I finally got it to a place where I was ok with it. It's not professional by any stretch of the imagination, but Lily LOVES (and I mean LOVES) this thing and that's really the only thing that matters. It made me smile so very much to see her face light up and her little hand start trying to touch it. So... without further delay, here is my slightly cattywampas owl pillow.
So, with the rest of the fabric free for the taking, I cut a large rectangle and hemmed around all four sides. This time I remembered to hem the sides first so that I didn't close up the pouch the curtain rods go through like I did on her valence. Oops. Jay mounted the whole thing to the wall and Ms. Lily is now the proud owner of a book hanging thingy.
I'm going to get some spice racks from Ikea to put her shorter board books in and mount them to the wall behind the chair, but our Ikea was out of them on Friday. :-/ Eventually, I'll spray paint the hangers white/cream to match the rods instead of the silver they are now. But for now, I'm glad to have a place for the books to go instead of just sitting on the parson's table.
Saturday we spent with our friends Dave and Lauren. Lauren's sister was in town so we went out to eat with them and then hung out at their house. We had so much fun and were there so long we had to go get take out for dinner. :-) Their little one is going through the colicky stage that Lily went through so it was nice to be able to give them an extra set of arms to help sooth the baby so they could catch their breath. I know how hard it is when you spend night upon night trying to calm a cranky baby. We also tried to share as many of the tricks we'd learned for calming Lily, keeping in mind that not only is every baby different, but every day is different. What worked for one baby one night, could very well not work the next night for the same baby. They are doing great as parents though and their little one is getting so big already! I can't believe she's over 1 month old already!
Sunday and Monday were pretty low key other than crafting projects. Every weekend I say I'm going to get my house cleaned up and every weekend I choose to do other things. Oh well, my life's motto has always been "A spotless house is a sign of a life not lived!" So, I keep reminding myself that there needs to be balance.
Sunday we did have lunch with my brother, his roommate, and my mom. Lily was styling in her sunglasses!
This weekend coming up is going to be fun! My childhood BFF's daughter's dance recital is Saturday and mom and I are taking Lily. It'll be her first dance performance and I can't wait! I plan to wear her and find an isle seat in the back that way if she starts fussing we can slip out. Knowing her though, she'll do great! I hope everyone is having a great day!
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