It's like a Cow's opinion...it's Moo...

The vintage pearl giveaway

2010-07-24T12:58:00.003-04:00

I hope I win this, because I LOVE LOVE LOVE the vintage pearl! Here's the link, http://thevintagepearl.blogspot.com/2010/07/midsummer-blog-party-giveaway.html So don't you enter and ruin my chances. :) I think I'm going to pick one of these up if I win

https://www.thevintagepearl.com/products/thinleathercuff_p80

PS dont forget to go to my new blog
http://ourmoopoints.wordpress.com

New Blog!

2010-06-23T07:05:00.002-04:00

Okay, so I've been using wordpress for my running blog and I LOVE it. So I ported all my stuff from this blog over there. I hope you won't mind updating your subscriptions or favorites or however it is that you click to get here. As a reward, there is an eleven month post up over on my new blog with pictures of my sweet one's adorableness!

Just go here! This will be my last post on this blog!

http://ourmoopoints.wordpress.com/

Like/Don't Like Edition One!

2010-06-21T10:16:00.002-04:00

I'm putting off writing C's 11 month update till we have pictures, so I'm doing a fun little post that was on my mind this morning!

Like: All the Laundry basket's being empty (I think this has happened once since C was born. Maybe once since we've been married.)

Don't like: Realizing at 1030pm that B has no clean pants for work.

Like(new like!): Baking cakes.

Dislike: the 9000 things needing to be washed after baking.

Like: running

Dislike: injuries

Like: Mornings (I'm a morning person!)

Dislike: Mornings that start before 6! (C needs more curtains in her room, apparently)

Like: Twitter, Facebook, Blogging and Reading Blogs
Dislike: wasting so much time!

Like: Currently Reading: Sally Clarkson's "Mission of Motherhood"
Dislike: Not having time to read!

Like: shopping on etsy! REALLY wanting this for C's birthday... or this...

Dislike: Budgets and Math!

Like: Writing this!
Dislike: Having to stop to go do laundry!

Feel free to link back to your own blog of Likes/ and Don't Likes! :)

10.5 Month Update!

2010-06-05T11:14:00.003-04:00

Well, yesterday was an exciting day! After a few days of thumb sucking (new) and extra clingy-ness, mama finally saw another tooth popping through! Yay. So that makes 5. and I think number 6 (and more!) are on their way. Looks like her 1 year molars might be starting up as well. Might be a loooong couple of months!

For awhile now, I've been wondering if C really knew the baby sign for "more". Yesterday a friend confirmed it- she also thought she was signing it! The sign is similar to clapping, so i had been thinking she was sort of clapping for herself. But, she just watched Baby Signing Time again(i let her watch it during those clingy teething days!!) and then the next day she was doing it! I realized that she only does this type of clapping or whatever when she is eating, so it is definitely a sign! yay! I'll try to capture it on video.

She's also putting more and more effort into talking! It's so cute. Sometimes she imitates us really well.Me: "C, say, 'book!'"
C: "Boo!!"

Other times, it goes more like this.
Me: "C, say, 'Ball'!"
C: "djo!"

(which reminds me of the Friends Episode, "The One Where Joey Speaks French" )
She also does this little gremlin type voice when she's excited. It's super cute, but also kind of weird. :)
Finally, she's also started cruising a bit. Mostly, it's only a step or two. But, she is definitely much less timid at her play table lately! And she climbs on more objects than me and B. Yesterday, she pulled up on her baby gate (AKA my sanity saver!)

Is she not the cutest thing EVER? I know, I know, she is. :)

Wordless Wednesday

2010-06-02T06:36:00.005-04:00

In other news...

2010-05-24T14:48:00.003-04:00

C cruised today! She's been getting slightly less scared of standing & holding an object (she's actually standing with objects other than me!) and has even pulled herself up to her playtable on her own a few times! Today, she cruised from one side of it to the other (motivated by trying to reach a basket of laundry, of course!) Very exciting to see her gain courage!

She's eating like a champ, but is a mystery sometimes- Today, wouldn't pick up carrots, but if i fed them to her off a spoon, she would eat them! There are many of these funny little quirks that change day to day with her eating... I wonder who she got these quirks from? :)

She still LOVES to swing, and I'm itching to get one at our house set up for her, she loves it so much! I think we will have to head to the park today! We went to the park on Saturday and met another baby her age- she LOVED sitting next to the little girl and exchanging toys back and forth. I'm looking forward to a lot of fun park days this summer! (also, love that the local parks for me, are on the OCEAN! How cool is that? :)

Poor B is still recovering from getting his wisdom teeth out, so he's on the same sort of diet as C!
Hopefully he will be feeling better soon!!

This is from our Family 5 Miler we did the day before Mother's Day. I'll spare you the one of me crossing the finish line, but there is one the photographer snapped of the three of us!

This is a picture filled post! Here are some of the other pictures I considered for my contest entry. I ultimately went with the one in the post below because of her expression. Some of these pictures are definitely more "Yellow" though, so it was tough! I love this yellow hat, I'm sure we will be seeing many more pictures all summer long!

May 24th- I Heart Faces- Yellow!

2010-05-24T06:24:00.003-04:00

This is my entry to this week's I heart faces Contest (http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com/). The theme is yellow... What do you think? :)

May 17th- I heart Faces Entry: Flowers

2010-05-17T14:10:00.003-04:00

This is my first time entering I heart faces weekly contest... (http://www.iheartfaces.com) ...wish me luck! :)

C is 10 Months Old!

2010-05-15T10:40:00.003-04:00

Which means I'm freaking out! I can't believe she's in the double digits. And that I'm starting to plan her first birthday party! eep. Daddy was unable to take C's 10 month pictures on the actual DAY she turned 10 months, so Mum gave it a go. Which proved to be very difficult with a baby who is on the go while she is awake. She is NOT one to lay still (which makes diaper changes a tiring challenge). Therefor, this solo photo shoot resulted in our first real good bump on the noggin. There were only a few tears, thank goodness!She is now a great crawler. She used to stick pretty much to the room I was in, but now she is making her way around the house. We are in need of some baby gates ASAP! Fortunately, she is kind of timid and definitely not into EVERYTHING. (Just, ALMOST everything!). She can and will pull up, but doesn't cruise just yet. She almost seems afraid! She will pull up on something, but then check to make sure I'm still close enough for her to grab on to. It's pretty cute, actually. :) She definitely WANTS to stand and pull up more than she will actually attempt. She often will be crawling and then pick up her knees and do "downward dog" while lifting up one hand, so she is trying to be upright, she's just nervous!She definitely still has book preferences. She loves "Brown Bear Brown Bear what do you hear" (every parent's fav...NOT), and a few others. But her selection is definitely limited. She won't let me read my favorite, "Guess How Much I Love You"... I guess she already knows how much I love her! :)She claps and waves all the time still. She doesn't have any words, though she said "Bah" yesterday at the appropriate "Bye Bye" time.. so I think we are getting closer. She also will say something close to "water" and "that" or "this" occasionally. We will see!Naps are pretty consistent these days, Thank Goodness. She definitely does NOT like to nap in the car, and so we are tied to home a lot of the time, but a well rested baby is worth it! So much easier to deal with. When she is tired now, she gets to be even MORE clingy and needing Mummy. Which is sweet, but also draining!! We are still nursing 4x a day most days. Not sure when the transition away from that will be started... But I'm so thankful to have made it this long!

She's eating great, I'd say about 80% regular table food. I give her all kinds of cooked veggies and soft fruits. The only thing she hasn't really taken to is Raspberries! (though she will eat raspberry yogurt). She mostly feeds herself, but sometimes needs Mum to get her started. She loves meatballs, chicken and turkey burgers. I hope she keeps up this eating! (Though I'm sure things will change once she learns "No!"). It's funny how sometimes if you give her something likes, if it is unexpected, she will spit it out. But then, she will eat it a second later. Silly Girl.

Alright I better go and clean up the living room before she wakes up from nap one! Crap, i think I just heard her stir on the monitor... :)

New Blog Post about a New Blog!

2010-05-13T13:17:00.002-04:00

So I read a lot of blogs while I was breastfeeding C in the wee hours of the morning. I like reading them. I've been clogging this blog lately with posts about running. I decided to separate them (a bit, I'm sure there will be crossover, but I'd like to share even MORE than I have already on here:)

Any way, I hope you will read it and comment and give me feedback. I'd love to encourage others with this. I also just really like to write blogs (though we all know I'm not always the best at keeping up with them, I'm working on it!). I think it will also give me some accountability for my running.

and i just watched Julie and Julia. Who doesn't want to blog after that, LOL?

Anywhoo, here's the site. Feedback is appreciated! I hope you like it! :) Share with your friends. :)

One Running Mum

Mother's Day!

2010-05-10T20:33:00.004-04:00

We celebrated Mother's Day a day early, and it was a great day!! B and C and I ran in a road race together (I pushed C in the stroller, we didn't make here crawl!). It was a 5 mile race. We had a lot of fun running together, hopefully I can add some pictures soon! I surprised myself and ran about a 940 mile. That's about the same time i cranked out when i ran my first 5k, way back just before I got pregnant with C. I'm really pleased with my time, but the rest of this week has been tough on me for runs! I picked up some insoles for my shoes... We will see if that helps! I gotta crank out two more long runs before the 1/2 marathon which is just over 2 weeks away. No more about that. I might break out in hives.
Weight loss wise things are still going really well, yay! I'm glad that im feeling like it's really do-able. I'm still getting plenty of "treats" AND I'm losing weight! Of course, I'm not sure things will still be as great when i stop breastfeeding (I get like 10 extra points on weight watchers while I'm nursing!) but I'll cross that bridge when i get there! (kinda the way i fee about the sagamore these days... When will that construction be done again??)

Anywho, the rest of my first mother's day was nice and relaxing, we just hung around the house and then went out to get Chinese... Mmmm. :) On actual Mother's day I went in to Boston with C and met my mom. We walked a lot and had a good time. C seemed to have a lot of fun too. :) what more can I mom ask for?

Promise to post pictures soon!!

Time sure flies!

2010-05-05T07:13:00.003-04:00

I can't believe how long I've gone without a post. There's so much going on, but also not a lot going on. Yeah, I know that made sense. :)

C is into everything, so curious. She's super adorable right now! She "talks" a lot. When we were at B's parents house, she seemed to be asking for "Da-da" and called B's Dad, Dada also. I don't think we can yet call it her first word though, since it's still the only consonant sound she is consistently making. She also will imitate me if I sneeze or cough in the car! So cute. We had a great time in TN. The flight down was awesome since she actually slept! The flight back was not so great. We were delayed bc of all the rain in Nashville (praying for the people there still!) C did really well under the circumstances, but it was still a really long day! She had a great time with Nan and GP though! We miss them already!

On the running/weight loss front, I crested losing 20 pounds! (then went back up a half pound, but we will just go ahead skip over that and hope for a loss again this week!) I decided to go ahead and train for a half marathon! Yikes. I wasn't even seriously running before the end of March, and now I'm running a half marathon on May 30th! I have some great support from my family and I have two friends running with me, so we are checking in daily, which is great. Another challenge is the new heat and humidity. I'm still adjusting! Yesterday's run was tough because of the heat!! I did 8 miles in Chattanooga and I was SO HOT at the end. I am hoping for warm weather on the 29th for my friend's wedding, but then for a cool down overnight on the 30th! If you're in the area I'd love to have you come and cheer me on! Here's the race info!

http://www.greathyannisroadraces.com/halfmar/

Sorry no adorable pictures right now since I have to go get the wee one! :)

9 Months old!

2010-04-17T08:22:00.003-04:00

I can't believe C is already 9 Months old. Time flies when you are having fun! And fun, we are definitely having!! Now that she is napping pretty consistently, both Mum and baby are happy! Here are the 9 Month Stats:

Weight: 18 pounds, 6 oz
Length: 27.5 inches
Head: 18 inches

Everything is about the 40th percentile, which is down from the 60th, but normal do to her increase in activity! We saw the nurse practitioner who I LOVE this time, and C loved her too. She was very happy with how well C is doing! Yay!
And she's been going going going while awake! After months of "almost" crawling, this week she has achieved the true movements of crawling. She's still a bit slow, but each day she is speeding up faster and faster... which means I'm getting faster and faster! Her current favorite "forbidden" objects to crawl to include electrical wires (particularly the ones attached to floor lamps! EEK!) breastpump tubing, my booklight, and of course, the never boring remotes and iPhone. You should see her GLEE when she gets a hold of the phone for one moment!She loves waving and clapping for "the baby in the mirror" and tries to squirm from my arms to get to "her". Speaking of waving, for awhile I've been wondering if she is waving, but I'd say for sure, in the last week, she does a sort of "frankenstine-esque" wave intentionally. Other times she will do a small hand opening and closing wave (she did it a lot @ last night's red sox game) but still with her hand low by her side. But she's getting there. Since I didn't post about it in my 8 Month update, it must've been in the last month that she's been clapping for herself, the cat, pretty anything. It's pretty much the cutest thing ever. :)She seems to have developed preferences for certain books, shutting others when we attempt to read them. It's cute, but also tough to find something she actually wants to read! Her favorites are "Peek-a-Who?" and "Grow Up" both of which feature a mirror at the end!
She does so well when we have outings, I'm so thankful. Last night we got the opportunity to get some GREAT seats for a Red Sox game at a GREAT price. She didnt have any great naps yesterday, had her 9 month appointment (didn't even cry at her shot!), and then spent the day in the car, stroller, or baby carrier. (Speaking of which, how many WW points do you think I earned babywearing an 18 and a half pound baby for the better part of 5 hrs?). She slept a little bit in her carrier till Youk got tagged out when he was trying to bring us into the lead. The Boos from the crowd woke her! She passed out again on the train ride back to the car and slept the whole way home- but still, wasn't in her crib till nearly one am, and never really fussed! We are so blessed! I hope she wasn't too badly scarred by everyone thinking she was a boy because she was in Red Sox colors! :) And yes, we are letting her lay low today!
Besides the return of the Red Sox, spring also has brought so much nice weather. As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, it's been SO awesome to go running with C in the stroller. I ran a new personal longest run with my friend down on the Cape Cod Canal last week- 4 miles! (we stopped every mile or so for water, but we pretty much ran straight through, doing a 10 min mile!) C seems to enjoy it. We even ran to Starbucks to get our free coffee on Tax day. :) I'm looking for a race to run in soon!

It's not an April Fools Joke, I swear!

2010-04-02T08:34:00.000-04:00

So, did I tell the story of the missing sneakers on here? I think it was around mid-February when it began. I ran on the treadmill one morning, and took off my sneakers. The treadmill (and therefore, the sneakers) is in our house. The next day, I go to look for the sneakers and I can't find them. I didnt have time to look, so I just wore something else. The third day was a day to run, so i really needed them. I could.not.find them ANYWHERE. I mean, Over the course of the next MONTH I tore apart my house looking for them! I even put away stuff that had been out since December! (On the one hand, that's a good thing, on the other hand, I had obviously NOT wanted to put it all away, LOL!) B also searched high and low for them. People in our small group looked also. I finally give up and buy new sneakers. But because of Murphy's law, I wait a few more days to take the tags off the new sneakers. ( I was sure buying new sneakers would be the key to the old ones turning up!). No dice. I finally give up and walk with my new sneakers (which cost more and I didn't like NEARLY as much!). At this time it's mid- March.

Fast forward to two nights later when I go out with some girlfriends. God bless my husband, who is much neater than I am, he was cleaning/straightening the basement (it's finished, but we don't use it for more than working out) up while I was out.
I come home.
There, sitting on my stairs, my old sneakers sat! I was shocked! Apparently he had found them in between a pile of clean sheets that I had folded by the laundry room. (yes, I had CLEAN sheets, folded, but not put away, for over a month!)

So that whole story explains why I hadn't run for over a month. Then even after the sneakers were found, I still have my very inconsistent napper to deal with. So I wasn't really into exercising.

But now we have our new (FAB!) jogging stroller. It's a BOB revolution, and if you're in the market for a jogger, I highly recommend it. Anyway, so yesterday, I decided to take it for it's inaugural spin. After a month and a half off, I had no idea how long i could run for, or how far, pushing a jogger. I started out trying to make it (on the flat side) to the end of my street. I kept going. I did it again, then I did the hilly side and back! I ran for about 30 minutes and for about 2.7 miles (according to B)! I can't believe it. So here's hoping I can do it again tomorrow or Sunday.

I also ended up walking with my neighbor for a few miles in the afternoon yesterday, I'm a workout machine!

In other weight loss news, I thought I'd post some about what I'm eating. I'm a snacker, that's my downfall. I've found eating some of the following things satisfies my need to snack without sacrificing my diet.

I found out microwave popcorn is TERRIBLE for you (even the fat free kind, they are all very chemically), so I've been popping my own on the stove for awhile now (so easy, no need to buy an air popper or anything!). I put a little "Molly McButter" on it to make it taste SUPER yummy. Popcorn is actually a great source of fiber and better for you than chips and whatnot if you make it like this. I find it to be filling and it's only a few points for a LOT of it!
I love eating a few pretzels and dipping them in trader joe's bean dip. The bean dip is no points and super yum. And a bowl of pretzels is MUCH less than 7 or 8 tortilla chips! I use the pretzel trick for guacamole also.
I also started eating the Laughing Cow light cheese wedges. TWO wedges is only 1.5 points. And with a few pretzels or reduced fat-wheat thins, this is a low point and filling snack!

Another downfall of mine is drinks. I love me some sweet drinks. I've banned soda (diet and otherwise) from the house, though we treat ourselves to a diet or regular drink when we are out and about. I sometimes will buy diet snapple to satisfy a craving, but I'm not wild about artificial sweeteners in everything (i use them in my coffee and try to limit it to that). But, I'll tell you what, it's easy to not drink em when we don't have any in the house! That's my main strategy. Now that it's warmer I've been getting Passion Tea at Starbucks because it's sweet without syrup or anything and I like it! I'll also make tea for myself at home (I like Harney and Son's Hot Cinnamon Spice) that is so flavorful I don't need to add anything (sometimes a little agave, but not even all the time).

It's so true that as you cut out some of those things, you crave them less. I really am enjoying my water, most of the time! And my milk at the end of the day! :)

Alright this is long enough and I want to get some downtime in before the wee one wakes from her nap!

What I love(d) about being pregnant/being a Mom.

2010-03-27T08:47:00.006-04:00

On my message board the other day someone posted about all the trials of pregnancy. That served as a good reminder that I could wait awhile before attempting baby #2! :) But then some people also posted spin offs about what was great about pregnancy and having a new baby (these made me ache to be pregnant and have a new baby again!) Here are some of mine:

Best parts of pregnancy:

How (mostly) everyone is so nice to you!

Feeling the baby move!

Having such an intimate connection with the baby. You get to have a relationship with someone who isn't yet born...it's pretty awesome... I wonder if God sort of feels this way about us before we are born also?!

Eating Ice Cream. (Though I've resolved, repeatedly, to not do this as much next time!)

Being infinitely interesting. People (including strangers) always want to know about you, how you're doing, when you're due, what you're having... I think it's probably because they know how awesome what you're about to do is!

Getting to park in "expectant mother parking".

Best Parts of Mommyhood, so far:

feeling the weight of her little body rest against mine.
getting to experience all those "firsts!"
her smiling at me just because I'm me.
seeing her try to peek over the crib rail to see if I'm there.
breastfeeding, for me, has almost always been a very positive experience.
watching her learn and explore "simple" things has made me appreciate them more.
feeling pretty darn productive even if "all" i did that day was keep her safe & fed.
teaching & playing Peekaboo.
a sense of pride that is so inexplicable
understanding, a sliver, a tiny bit more, the love that God must have for us. :)

There are many many more, but that's all i got for now. ;)

8 Months (and change...)

2010-03-23T08:38:00.010-04:00

I was so excited about my weight loss that I forgot to first post this post on C turning 8 months old! She is just SO much fun right now. I definitely think 8 Months is my favorite age so far. She already had her two bottom teeth so aside from a FEW wake ups from teething, she's been sleeping well at night and that makes mama happy. She can sit unassisted for a long time and seems to know how to "fall" without hurting her self if she is done with sitting. She is so interactive now. She imitates us and does things she knows we will imitate. Her favorite is to fake cough or clear her throat. She gets such a kick out of that! On 8 months, one day, she finally started making consonant sounds. B swears she says "Hi Daddy" but I think it's wishful thinking, since she also says "haaa dadadada" to her exersaucer. :)

She continues to really take in the world. She is a pensive baby. She can sit and play independently for quite awhile usually. She will pick up a toy and really inspect it, like she wants to know how it works. (Maybe she will be an engineer like daddy!) Although, in the last few days, we have had a case of "the Mommies". She seems to be fine with Daddy or a stranger even, if I'm not within sight. But if Daddy is feeding and Mum is in the kitchen... Look out, there is sure to be some hollering. It's cute, but also tough sometimes! Yesterday I was trying to make her food, but she wouldnt even play in the kitchen in her exersaucer and I was RIGHT THERE. Fortunately I can put her on my back now in my babyhawk (highly recommend these!) and get some stuff done when the Mommies hit.

Yesterday she took two awesome naps- but naps are still inconsistent for me, and TWO awesome naps is very rare. B was pleasantly surprised at how productive i was- it helps so much when she sleeps! My best guess is that every other day she will take better naps. So I'm gearing up for a not so good nap day and will be pleasantly surprised if I'm wrong!
She still loves to eat, and of course prefers the sweet food, but usually I can get her to eat mostly anything, just certain things take longer! Her dexterity seemed to have progressed overnight, suddenly she is REALLY into feeding her self. (you have to have some puffs for her to hold while she's eating or she gets mad!) She also gets EXTREMELY excited when you go to the fridge, I think because she thinks she MIGHT get a piece of cheese. She loves cheese! So cute!

We also "celebrated" St. Patrick's Day by dressing C up in the appropriate attire. Of course, we aren't Irish, but we'll just skip over that bit. :) I love the way all of these came out! I'm SO glad to be married to such a wonderful photographer. There's more pictures from our "shoot" on our photo website. Email me if you need the link.
Speaking of links to photos, I also took C to get some photos done with a real live bunny. SO freaking cute. It's password protected, so just shoot me an email if you'd like to see them!! B was a bit miffed that he got passed over for his photography, but really, it was just about the bunny...if he lets me adopt a bunny then he can take her pictures with it next year!! :)

I'll try to add some video later, but here's some pictures of recent adventures!

I did it, I did it!

2010-03-21T14:49:00.002-04:00

Yeah!! I reached my pre-pregnancy weight! While it's not a great weight for me, certainly not where I'd like to be, I'm very excited to have reached my mini goal. "Nine months on, 8.5 months off!" Wahoo!

I've also dropped 4 sizes (in the Gap) since October, which means since 2007 I have been 10 different sizes at the Gap! (Not including Maternity!) LOL. I'm excited to get closer to those lower sizes before I jump into pregnancy pants again. I'm so glad to have lost the 5oish lbs (yes, I'm coming clean that I gained about 50lbs while pregnant). And though I birthed an 8lb 11oz child, I only lost about 10 pounds post delivery and lost another 5 in the first few weeks home. I was not fortunate enough to have the weight melt off me while breastfeeding. The weight I've lost has mostly to do with my eating habits (thank you weight watchers!) and the rest is from just trying to increase my workouts/exercise. I've been off the exercise wagon the last month or so due to traveling and C's (and therefor mine!) sleep issues. But I cannot WAIT to get our jogging stroller so that C and I can start hitting the road despite her lack of naps. :)

So, I still have about 20-25 to lose to be where I'd LOVE to be, but I'm aiming to just keep losing and being healthy until we decide to have baby #2. The lighter I am before becoming pregnant again, the healthier I'll be.

And I'm vowing not to eat nearly as much ice cream this time!

Princess and the Pea...or the hardwood floor, as it were.

2010-03-02T11:05:00.004-05:00

C is doing well! Not too much to report. We still have trouble with naps, though we think the culprit may be vibrations... I think because her crib is on a hardwood floor, when we walk by it must creak or something, and the vibration gets her up (if she is at the "light" stage of sleep). At night it is no trouble, but in the wee am hours when B gets up or during naps, she ALWAYS wakes up if we walk by. (I know it isn't sounds, because we have a white noise machine AND a humidifier in there!)

So I'm in the market for carpet, since I can't be banished from the upstairs for a few hours a day! (And I NEED it to be a few hours a day, LOL!)

Otherwise, she's doing great. She's eating lots of foods, she loves to gnaw on a bagel or a piece of toast- helps me get the dishes done! She's still not quite crawling, but anytime now!

We're off to meet my new nephew this week, so excited about that!

and I'll leave you with this picture, which I've named "It's hard to hit a moving target!"

Update on Me!

2010-02-22T14:49:00.002-05:00

Mostly I know everyone checks in here to see how cute C is getting. However, since I did post about our new weight loss regime, I will go ahead and do a 6 week update! Since January 7th, I've lost 11 pounds (as of Feb 20)! My hope to be back to pre-pregnancy weight by the time she is 9 months old is definitely becoming a realistic reality! While that is still pretty far above my ultimate goal weight, I'm still pretty excited about it.

I'm a pretty big snacker, so my big challenge is finding things I want to nibble on that aren't too bad for me, or limiting the really bad (good!) stuff to it's ACTUAL portion size. It's really working for me to count out how many pretzels or wheat thins I'm going to eat, rather than mindlessly reaching into the box.

I'm also getting "into" running again. For me, once i am at the point I'm at now (actually able to run) it's pretty enjoyable. I'm considering signing up for a 9K in May, but I need to raise a 1000$ to do it. (Proceeds go to local veterans and victims of traumatic brain injury. Let me know if you'd be willing to sponsor me- I'm still about 500 away from being able to sign up!). If I can't do this particular 9K, I'm pretty sure I will sign up for something, just so that I have something to shoot for.

Hopefully C stops waking up during her naps soon so I can get a longer run in! (I find it hard to focus when she's babbling on the monitor!)

opposite of a super-mom...

2010-02-20T22:53:00.003-05:00

C's been having a rough week with her teething, or who knows what else is getting at her... but it's been rough. And the other night she was inconsolable. Neither B nor I could calm her, we pulled out all the stops. She wouldn't even nurse. I was really upset that not only was my baby screaming in my ear, but that i no longer was capable of soothing all her pains. It used to be that nursing could cure all evil.

What did I think, I could nurse her through her first bump on her head after falling off her bike? That I could nurse her through her first fat lip, first stitches, or first heart break?

Obviously not.

But, it was still difficult to have the realization that i could not and will not be able to ease her pain.

But with great relief I realized I'm glad that that responsibility is His alone. He is always there for all of us, with the ability to soothe even our worst pain (even worse than teething. :) . We just need to call on Him. I'm looking forward to the opportunities I will have to point C to Him in her pain. Thank you for your reliability Father!

7 Months Old!

2010-02-16T09:05:00.006-05:00

We had a little photo shoot with B's new photography lights for C's 7 Month birthday- enjoy! :)

Big developments this month. Besides continuing to grow even more cute (it IS possible!), she now sits unassisted (but I still supervise as when she gets tired or overly excited by a toy she is still wobbly!), has TWO (sharp!) teeth poking through, is still unable to consciously roll from tummy to back, but knows that screaming will eventually get mummy or daddy. Blowing lots of Rasberries creates a need for a lot of wardrobe changes (fortunately, she has PLENTY to wear!).
She has figured out how to initate/play peekaboo, which is really fun! It cracks us up when we aren't paying attention to her and then we catch her playing peekaboo with, well, no one! Here's a video of a little peekaboo action:

We've discovered her first food that she doesn't LOVE is green beans. (I don't blame her- i wouldn't like them without some salt or something either!!) However, green beans are palatable if mixed with a little breastmilk and cereal (okay, so that's not how i like them!). Her food selection is still quite limited, but I'm still really enjoying making her food. Here's what's on C's menu at 7 Months:

rice cereal
oatmeal
carrots
apples
pears
avocado
peas
green beans (a la mum)
banana
sweet potato

And, as of yesterday she can give me a high 5! Still doesn't wave buh bye, but gives me a high 5!

She made her first art project with Mum- some Valentine's for her special someone's. (we had a play date valentine's party!)

We had a rough week last week with the teeth, but it seems like things are back to normal now that they aren't bothering her as much anymore. She's still the most awesome thing ever! :)

She sits unassisted! (Very Temporarily!)

2010-02-05T20:17:00.007-05:00

I realized a few weeks ago I should probably give C more practice sitting up. So, I would let her sit with my legs kind of froggied around her to keep her from falling. Anyway, so on Monday, she was still really wobbly. Then Tuesday? Tuesday she could sit alone. CRAZINESS. How does that happen overnight?

Oh, and now she's getting closer and closer to what look like crawling movements... I'm terrified!

Anyway, I tried to take video a few times before actually catching her sitting alone... Enjoy. :)

also, enjoy this "video" of her with the cat! (it was supposed to be a pic but was accidentally a video!)

Super-Mom

2010-02-01T20:26:00.003-05:00

So C is doing really well with eating solid food. It's been really fun introducing new foods to her each week. So far she's had peas, carrots, apples, avacado and cereals. I want to save money, and feel good about taking advantage of my time at home with her, so I'm making baby food.

And for some reason, making babyfood makes me feel like Super Mom. I have no idea why. But, last night I was cranking out batches of food and I felt so empowered.

For what it's worth, I don't make the peas (ew! Though she LOVES them!), so I don't have anything against jarred food. But this was my supermom moment, last night.

This post from MckMama was what got me thinking about my SuperMom moment, and I couldn't come up with one when she wrote it.. but now I have it!!

Need Hat, Will Knit...

2010-01-26T09:19:00.003-05:00

I feel like writing a long letter to baby clothing companies and explaining that "one size fits all" is BS when it comes to baby. a hat that fits a newborn will not fit a 6 month old. (admittedly, my child has a large head). I could not for the LIFE of me find a hat for C for the rest of the winter. The one I had from ON was perfect, but she outgrew it, and of course, now they are all gone, selling swimsuits... in January.

But I digress.
Anyway, I decided to pick up my needles for the first time in over a year & solve my problems.

I think it came out really well! :) And I'm excited to be knitting again!

Expectations...

2010-01-21T08:20:00.003-05:00

Expectations have come up a lot lately in my life. Expectations about being a mother. about being a daughter, a friend, a bible study member, a church go-er, a God follower, a wife... you get the idea.

I really don't think expectations have a place in our lives. I can't think of an instance where it's appropriate to expect something from anyone. Shall I expect my husband to come home and be perfectly willing (after a long hard day's work) to take the baby, change her, feed her, play with her AND take care of MY emotional needs. (And, expect that he shan't expect anything in return, of course.) On an even more basic level, I can hope that he honor's his commitment to me, but do i have the right to EXPECT that? (PS I have no doubt that he does/has/will honor this commitment, I'm just showing how deep our expectations can be...)

Should I expect my friends to call me and keep in touch (not thinking of ANYONE in particular, don't worry girls), so that I won't have to call them?

Should I expect that my daughter will never challenge me? Expect that she will grow up to be a God fearing woman just because I want her to?

Shall I expect to have a perfectly safe, protected life provided from my God? What right have I to expect anything from Him, when He has already given me His All?

I think not.

I loved when my church showed the video's from North Point Ministries called "iMarriage". I think everyone (married or not) will benefit from watching these. You can find them doing a youtube search. This video is from that series, just sort of a funny commentary on our expectations from Marriage...

I want to empty myself of my expectations. This is a daily struggle. Especially since I keep uncovering a new expectation I didn't realize I had, almot daily.

Expectations ruin my quest for contentment as well. Expectations that I have of myself, or (worse) think others have of me just cause me to struggle. Perhaps it is okay to expect things of ones self... but I'm not sure.

This post isn't really going anywhere, but I just wanted to share the idea that we all need to let go of our expectations, whatever they may be, and just seek Him first.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-01-13T21:21:00.003-05:00

C's First Meal!

2010-01-12T14:37:00.003-05:00

Daddy got to feed me!

I Love this one!!

Mommy gave it a go too!

9 months on...3 months off?

2010-01-08T15:02:00.003-05:00

So, I know the saying is 9 months on, nine months off, but that means I only have about 3 months to lose that baby (ice cream) weight! While the big guys on the Biggest Loser (my new favorite show) can lose 30lbs in a week, I don't think that is super realistic for moi.

Sadly, SBL was a big fat (pun intended) failure. We did decide to buy a treadmill as a Christmas gift for each other. We've committed to the Couch to 5k running plan, so far B has completed week one. I've completed 2/3 of week one (I would've completed it today but SOMEONE woke up early from her nap, cutting my work out by 10 min or so. So I'm going to do re-do it tomorrow!) Ultimately, I'd like to run a marathon someday, but i think it will have to wait until my child bearing days are over! One of my friends mentioned doing her "daily 5" which i've been trying to do as well. You do 5 push ups and 5 situps a day, and then add 5 each week. It isn't much, but it's enough to start making it a habit. I've found that incorporating the baby in my workouts makes it even better; I do my push ups over her face and kiss her each time i go down. She LOVES it! And it's more fun for me! I also try to hold her over my head and bench press her a few times a day for a few reps- she's probably 17-18lbs, so that's something! I'd like to do some work out videos on my days "off" from Cto5K... But I dont want to waste money either. So please recommend your favorite workout videos! :)

My longterm goal is to lose 35 pounds. This would put me at a pleasant, but not too thin, weight for my height. I have no idea how long it SHOULD take someone my size to lose that much weight.

Losing the baby (ice cream!) weight would mean losing about 15lbs. Can I do that in 3 months? Maybe if I only eat salad? (not realistic! but i could cut out my 1/2 a jar of PB a week...what? I LOVE PB!)

Another goal I have is to cook more. I really want to love to cook, LOL. I am trying to cook (or eat leftovers from a homecooked meal) 6 days a week & include more veggies. I'm planning on making C's babyfood, so I'll definitely have more fruits and veggies around for her! So hopefully we will snack on her left overs! :)

I'm putting this all out there (again!) so that I have some more accountability... If you're trying to get healthier too, feel free to let me know so we can encourage each other!

Surprise!

2010-01-07T15:23:00.007-05:00

So after a few (wonderful!) days at home where we totally relaxed and just enjoyed ourselves, we (of course!) hit the road again. We headed to PA to visit with a few friends we have there-- little to B know, it was also a trip for his surprise 30th birthday party! The party was a huge success, (largely thanks to the O'Toole family! Thanks again!!) he was SO surprised and we had an AWESOME turnout. I'm so thankful so many people came! It was a long drive for a lot of people, but because they love B they came!

Here are a few of the pictures. If you want to see the rest go here!

He was surprised!

Somebody partied too hard! (actually, she was sick, still is sick with her first cold :( )

C's First Christmas!

2010-01-04T20:40:00.004-05:00

Sorry for the lag in posts.. I've got to catch up from all the festivities that we've had recently!

Christmas Morning!

On our way to Christmas Eve Service...

Enjoying one of her new books from Mommy and Daddy!

Soooo close to sitting on her own!
Cutest Face EVER!

I'm a cute little Reindeer!

In our Christmas Eve gift (Jammies!) Our first Christmas as a family of 3!

A book and a dolly from Grandpa!

My gift from B! Love it! My fav player!

Really, Daddy? Socks? REALLY?
Helping Mommy open a gift!
Opening her first Christmas gift (Jammies on Christmas Eve)

Daddy and C on Christmas Eve

Merry (Belated!) Christmas!

Welcome to New England, C!

2009-12-22T08:08:00.005-05:00

We got hit hard (as did everyone!) with the snow, and I had to take time off from shoveling to get these pictures with C and her first snow! She wasn't too impressed (and she was only outside for about ten seconds!)

Her latest thing is tucking her bottom lip under like that- so cute!

Snow Angel? :)

I did tuck her into a snowsuit and into my sling and we went for a walk yesterday though and she seemed to like looking all around at the neighborhood covered in white! Funny how on all our walks in the summer and fall, we hardly met anyone in our neighborhood- but with 2 feet of snow on the ground, we met one!

Gives you an idea of how much snow we had!

5 Months Old!

2009-12-14T21:03:00.003-05:00

You can't see it, but I made a Christmas tree instead of an Exclamation Point this time!
Merry Christmas!

Do I start every post with "I can't believe..."? Because I feel like everyday I wake up to something new I can't believe she is doing. My little baby is getting so big, and I truly can't stand it.

I visited the neighbors twins and I keep thinking how much I miss that sleepy newborn stage... And C was never all that sleepy! I truly enjoy each day, even though I lament the passing of time. She is so sweet and we love her SO much!

She LOVED the socks. It was hard to get her to look up!

She continues to love to be called "the banana king" (stupid video can be seen here!) She is still working on mastering all her milestones. She is trying hard to sit on her own, but she still has a ways to go (much to her dismay!) She is so smiley in the morning (she's her mum's baby!) and continues to love "nakey" time. (being changed or getting ready for bed!) She hates having her jammies put on- we've concluded it's because you can never get the jammies on fast enough for her- she's ready for what follows jammies- FOOD! She still loves nursing, which I continue to be so thankful for. I cant believe in just a few weeks we will start giving her REAL food. Yikes!

I've got to hit the sack, so that's all for now!Hadn't gotten a daddy-daughter picture in awhile...

Chattanooga

2009-12-13T14:11:00.008-05:00

I have many blogs in mind to write right now, hopefully i will pound them all out soon!

Our 3 weeks in TN went by so quickly. And I can't believe it's almost Christmas. After another eventful trip, we finally made it home friday night at 3am! The cat was VERY happy to see us. She's all up in my face even as I type. She tried to get in my lap when I was nursing the baby, she was so happy we were home.

I'm trying to think back on our trip and write about it, but i feel it flew by so fast! We did some shopping at the Chattanooga Market, one of my favorite places~and strangely enough, I even bumped into a girl I knew from Eastern! We both did a double take, and we weren't sure HOW we knew each other, but figured we at least must've met in passing...I figured out later, I'm pretty sure she was my TA for a Theology class! So weird! Especially since Eastern is so small!

We got Brian's mom hooked on Settlers of Catan and so mostly we played that while C took naps... It was definitely a change from being on the go the entire trip like we used to do! It was fun staying home and just seeing C interact with the Grandparents. I'm sure she's going to be bored to just have me to look at now!! Fortunately, it IS Christmas time which means there will be lots to do! (yes, yes, I DO realize we are too much on the go!)

It was especially nice for me to have help changing diapers and rocking the wee one to sleep. Speaking of sleep, we kept up with the Nap training and it is definitely helping ~ obviously, since I'm having time to blog! :) Literally, the DAY I was going to give up on it, she took her first nap without crying in the middle! She is still struggling with her afternoon nap, but hopefully today helps with that! She didnt get a great morning nap (gone are the days I can go to church and her have a nap! She only napped on my chest for about 20 minutes in the cry room) so she was ready to sleep this afternoon! Yay!

I got to (briefly) attend our neighborhood Christmas party last night. {Briefly because we had to put SOMEONE down early due to our travels the night before, and she woke up wanting to eat one last time} It was fun finally meeting a few more neighbors! I hope next year I'll be able to stay longer. We have such lovely neighbors! I'm so glad we live here! I knew the people who live behind us were expecting twins and I didn't see them at the party, so I stopped o ver there today and she DID deliver them a bit early! They were soooo cute. I can't imagine having two though! The first thing her husband said to me was, "So when did she sleep through the night! haha! Poor guy! So if you think of it, say a prayer for Greg & Sarah!

Tomorrow C turns 5 Months old. I can't believe it. I looked at those tiny newborns in total disbelief that my child was like 4x their size! (She was twice their size at birth!) She rolled over yesterday, for the first time I think it was actually intentional. She is definitely trying to figure it out whenever we leave her on her belly!

First trip to see Santa!

2009-12-05T23:18:00.003-05:00

We took C down to the Chattanooga Choo Choo for the first time today, and Santa Clause had come to town, apparently! :) C got to meet him. It took quite a bit of coaxing (and finally, praising her for being The Banana King) but we got a smile!

Enjoy!

Just a tip...

2009-12-04T12:53:00.003-05:00

I've been so tired lately. Too tired to remember cute stories to post on the blog. Too tired to post a wordless wednesday picture even! All because C hasn't been napping well. Baby "bootcamp" fixed her night sleep fairly easily, but her naps were still terrible. I've read several books and still felt like maybe i was doomed.

Enter my friend Susanne's blog!

thank you thank you thank you Susanne! She wrote a blog on working on stopping the swaddle. If you can believe it, all the books i've read go on and on about how swaddling is a wonderful thing (it is!) but NO tips on how to stop! So after going back and forth with her a bit, I'm now sitting here wondering if i need to wake the child up! She's taking her first nap that is longer than 50 minutes in over a month!! I'm in shock.

(In fact, I went and checked on her and made sure she was still breathing!!)

So check it out. She covers LOTS of great topics, not just sleep issues. I'm so thankful!

http://blogginaboutbabies.wordpress.com/

Traveling with Tiny Tonk

2009-12-01T07:59:00.007-05:00

C's nickname from her southern-style grandparents is Tiny Tonk. This comes from B's Uncle, who calls B's Mom (did you follow that?!) " Tonkins", so C is "Little Tonk", but "Tiny Tonk" has better alliteration. So what better to go with "Traveling" than "Tiny Tonk"! She's QUITE the traveler. We finally had a traveling mishap- it was bound to happen eventually. It made me VERY thankful that i have such a good baby!

We traveled to the southern style Grandparents for Thanksgiving. We used a voucher, so we didn't get to pick a convenient flight time, nor a direct flight. Our flight originally was taking off after C's bedtime, so when it got delayed, I got really worried. But She did GREAT, and ended up only taking a 20 minute nap on the plane at about 10pm. Fortunately for us, our lay over was near our good friends K&C. K picked us up from the airport (she even did some sleuthing to figure out when our flight was coming in, bc my phone died so i couldn't call her!). We thought we could just live without changing our clothes, until we realized we had checked our carseat! So we had to wait around for that...by the time we got to K&C's & got tiny tonk in bed, it was 1230 (6hrs later than normal!) and she had only slept 20 minutes. She slept in a suitcase (thanks to MckMama for the idea!) where she slept great! I was expecting several wake ups, but instead, (unfortunately!) we had to wake HER up to make our AM flight.

She again did great with us toying with her schedule. She made it to the South & then did well 2 hour ride to Nan and GP's. She finally had a freak out at 5pm (when we were planning to put her to bed early- apparently we were just a few minutes behind when she wanted to go to bed!) She cried (and by cried, I mean full out screamed & wailed) during her entire bath, for the first time since she was 1 week old. She has always loved her bath and it usually calms her down (hence why we went for it!). Yah, that didn't work out so well! But she did go down easily and didnt get up till the morning! Yay!

She's transitioned just fine down in the south. I was worried about her sleeping in our room and whether or not she would take naps, but she's done great! She loves all the attention (she's so happy to have someone other than me to look at!). Grandma Jean (i'm still rooting for Gigi for her grandma name) got her a pop a tot for christmas & i had it shipped to my in law. (thanks Jen! she posted about it here). She's definitely small for it, but she loves it! The first few days it took her a bit to get used to it, but now she sits in it for quite awhile. The idea is that she could stand, but she can't touch the bottom! But she is able to sit back in it (kind of like a baby swing) and enjoy her toys for awhile.

I'm SO glad we got this! It's allowed me to get to play several rounds of Settlers of Catan (a game i got B for Christmas, but gave him early so we could play with his fam on Thanksgiving). I'm a total addict now! :) if your family likes games, i recommend it!

Thanksgiving here was very yummy and full of fun (Catan!) and FOOTBALL. I love football, grew up watching NFL but never college. Well if you like College football (as B's family does) Thanksgiving is your Football WEEK. I actually ended up being a bit "footballed out" by the end of the weekend!

Nan has taught me to make bows, and i am SO thankful cause I was going to go broke buying them for C! (she needs to grow hair ASAP!) We are going to perfect bow making later today I think! Yay! And then we are going to try to make C a little shift dress! Yay for craftiness. I'll be posting pictures if it turns out well! :)

We had our first ever diaper "explosion", on our Thanksgiving outfit, only minutes after we put it on her! We didnt even have time to get a picture! We put it on her again to go out to the market & B snapped a quick pic. I'll upload it when we get home!

Nan and GP are impressed with how much C has grown in just a month! She is really playing with her toys, smiling at them and at us more... she is so interactive now! Her newest "trick" is that she has started grabbing at the pages of books when we read to her! It seems like she is turning the page & it is so cute! She's also always chewing on her fingers and toys. No teeth bumps yet, but we will be on the lookout! :)

I can't seem to post pictures from B's Computer, so don't forget to go to our Photo site to see some recent pictures of Tiny Tonk!

http://gallery.me.com/mrsgoose

4 Months Old!

2009-11-18T17:39:00.009-05:00

Four Months!

C turned 4 months old. FOUR MONTHS! It sounds so old to me. I can't believe it. Month three flew by faster than any of the other months. I think it's cause we were gone for so much of it! In the last month we've been all over! And even when we've been home, we've been REALLY busy!

I've been meaning to blog for awhile, so this will be a bit of a catch up post as well! First things first, C had her 4 month check up on Monday, and passed with flying colors. Here are the stats:

Weight: 15.2 lbs (82-83%)

Height: 24.5 in (60%)

Head Circumfrence: 16.5 in (76%)

So, she's doing great! :) We love her so much!! She's started regularly waking up happy, content to play in her crib for a bit. (Which is awesome, since she is a TOTAL cat napper!) We did a bit of "baby bootcamp" as I call it, because she was so messed up from our t

ravels. She now sleeps through the night (usually 12 hrs!). I'm still hoping for some longer naps at some point, but for now, her short naps aren't affecting her night sleep, so i guess she's getting enough!

Happy to be headed home! (in the airport!)

She's also learned to blow bubbles/rasberries in the last week or so. She's only kind of doing it, but it's super cute. And, on Friday she rolled over from her tummy to her back. I of course tried to catch this feat on video, and of course, she hasn't done it again since!

Go PSU!

We made a trip to Chicago, IL to see C's (and mine!) first Penn State game. We got to hang out with lots of friends which was awesome. Best of all, Penn State won! Woohoo! We even got C to meet the Nittany Lion!

We came back from Chicago to a full house! My college roommate and good friend Jenny and her husband and son came to visit us. They were up checking out Gordon-Conwell Seminary. We're hopeful that that will be their pick-- we'd love for them to be closer than VA! :) It was great fun having them visit. Aaron is very handy (actually, so is Jenny, but she was busy with the baby on this trip! :) and he helped us install/fix 2 ceiling fans and 2 light fixtures! We are SO thankful, because we probably would've electrocuted ourselves in the process! So he saved us a lot of money in hospital, as well as electrician bills! :)

Now it's nap time! :)

Tiny Socks and other preciousness...

2009-11-04T15:07:00.005-05:00

Then...

...and now!

My baby outgrew her socks. (Like 3 weeks ago, but give me a break, I've been busy. I've been cooking this blog post for awhile!) I could handle it when i realized she'd outgrown her newborn clothes... I mean, she was a big baby, made sense she'd out grow her clothes fast. But Socks? How did she get big enough to out grow socks?? I can't handle it. She is NOT allowed to do that! So now she is in 3-6 months socks, and I refuse to believe she will outgrow these. She.will.not.

It was funny, as i discussed this horrible fact (sock-outgrowing) with a mom at church, she said it's funny how everything suddenly becomes precious. like socks. there is certainly nothing precious about B's socks, or my own socks.... but C's? her socks are soooooo precious! anything pint sized is precious. and even when i change her... okay, well, that isnt so precious! Seriously though, I've never been this nostalgic. Sure, I was a little sad to leave college, for example, but mostly excited to be moving forward. Same with moving to and back from Colorado... Even getting married, I wasn't NEARLY as emotional as being a Mother has made me. I'm such a sap now! I cry so much more easily. If you haven't read the book Love you, Forever, you should! But beware, you'll probably cry. It's a tad creepy, if you stop and think about it, but the sentiment is so sweet. When I read it to my little baby, (who, incidentally, is usually busy looking ANYWHERE but the book) I seriously cry. every.time. it's so sweet. The old me would've thought it was sweet, but wouldn't tear up. Now Mum must bring the tissues when she reads that book! (Thanks, Beth!)

As I watch her while she nurses, when we play on the change table (she LOVES being naked!), or when she's in her swing or bouncer, I wonder if I will always have this kind of love for her. I imagine I won't ALWAYS dote on her so adoringly... she WILL be a teenager someday, after all... Do our parents still look at us with that kind of love? Or is it different? Maybe someday I'll go back to this post and think, "yup, i still love you like that!" I hope so. (In the very least, I'll come back to this and think, "alright, you rotten teenager, I loved you like that once, I can do it again, as i ground you for life...").

My dad pointed out to me how amazing it is that the human race has survived....Human babies need parental care so much more than other mammals... I mean, after about 8 weeks or so, kittens, puppies... they can (for the most part) survive on their own. But human babies? I don't think a 5 week old would last too long on their own! Makes you wonder if evolution is a valid theory, when you look at it from that way... Personally, I think God made babies so adorable and our love for them so deep (truly, to an unfathomable depth is how much we love her!) so that we will wake up with them multiple times a night, walk hallways, bounce, whatever to get them to sleep...We will smile, talk in goofy voices about goofy things, all to elicit a beautiful smile. Truly, survival of the human race, in my opinion, is based in the deep love that is supernaturally given to us by God.

And when i was pondering THAT thought, I realized, and how much more my Heavenly Father must love me. He DOES look at me with that same adoring, unfathomable love that I have for C. But his love is even MORE deep and pure. While my love probably WILL fail C at sometime... sometime I probably will lose my patience with her... God's love for me, for C, for all of us... He will never lose patience. He loves us in our darkest times... and for that, I'm overwhelmed with thankfulness.

Two Years! :)

2009-10-27T16:33:00.011-04:00

It's funny how life has changed since this date two years ago! We've had a lot of adventure in the last two years, including the biggest adventure of them all! :

I'm sitting here with my feet up, while the baby is napping and B is making me dinne r (this is the life!!). I'm just trying to reflect on how much life has changed... I'm so blessed! It's hard to put it all into words, i think partly because my memory sucks, and partly because it has all changed SO much! I think the main thing I have to say is just that I need to be more thankful for my wonderful life! Of course, before I was married, I had a pretty wonderful

life, and I really should've been more thankful then. My sin

ner's heart got in the way, same as it does now.

When I opened up my bible today, I came across an old church bulletin that I saved (or, just never threw away...) It had this verse in it that really spoke to me, today.

Romans 15:5

"May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. "

Of course, Paul wasn't talking about Marriage here, so it is s ort of bad exegesis to apply it to marriage, but that's how it spoke to me today, so here goes it. :) I want to work harder at having a spirit of unity in my marriage. We are united as one, me and B, and i think most of the time we opperate as so. But I'd like to be even better at following his lead and being, well, more agreable. I have a nasty habit of needing to be right! I need to get over it! With God's help, I know I can!

And, the computer shut down without saving a lot of my post, drat! Hopefully I can recapture some of my thoughts...

I want my marriage to glorify God. But with my pesky need to be right, that certainly isn't happening! I also need to be better about spending time in the Word and in prayer. I'm writing this mostly so that my friends and family might offer me some accountability. Please pray for me and ask me how I'm doing being in the word! I so want to be in better relationship with the Lord, and I've been struggling with it lately. I think it is just too easy for me to get caught up in the work of day to day (and let's face it, Facebook...) I need to carve out special time for Him.

I'm going to close this post with a prayer for my married friends. Seems apropos on an anniversary. Please know this is my sincere prayer for you (and me!)! It always seems easier for me to pray for others, so please let me know if you have specific things you need prayer for-- it will help me delve back in to prayer time! :)

"Dear God,

I'm so thankful for this gift you have given me, my husband, B. Please help me to remember what a gift he is! Help all of us, Lord, remember what gifts our spouses are, and help us to remember to treat them as such. You view us all as valuable treasures. Help us to treasure our spouses.

God, please help us to be aware of our selfish ways. For me, one big area is feeling like i NEED to be right. For others, it may look different. But please, Lord, our hearts are for you. Help us to honor and glorify you with our marriages. Help us to die to our selfish ways and become more like you. Only you can transform our hearts!

And God, please help me to continue to be in your Word and spending time

with you. I need it more than I know!

Amen."

Leaving Port of Miami on our cruise to Grand Cayman and Jamaica

8.5 Months pregnant, visiting the "Green Monstah" in Fenway park.

10/28/07 Day after our Wedding, B surprised me with an vintage car ride! :)

First day of our Honeymoon.

Another Catch Up Post... Pumpkin Patch!

2009-10-25T16:27:00.002-04:00

So when we returned from the OBX we had a few visitors! Our friends Tim and Brianne and their son came to visit on their way back from VT. It was an awesome time. We got to hang out with them and just catch up which was so great. We are so blessed to have so many great friends!

While they were here we decided to look for a place to pick pumpkins. I found a place and to my surprise, it was a "Harvest Hoedown" that weekend! They had hayrides as well as a bunch of other stuff that will be great when C is older.

We got some good pictures, though for some reason C had a freak out right when we were taking the pictures... Her face is pretty hilarious, even though it's so sad!

Once she cheered up, the pictures improved! :)

OBX

2009-10-20T21:36:00.005-04:00

So week 2 of our adventures was in the Outer Banks with my Dad, step-mom, bro & sister in law, niece, hubs and C. It was such a fun trip! My Dad rents this awesome house (yay for "off" season!) and we all get to go for free- thanks Dad!

C slept through the night (as i mentioned) for the first time while we were there! Yay! I'll never forget it! It's been off and on since then, but seems to be back on right now, Huzzah! I think she slept through the night because she was so exhausted from all the fun family times. We even made it out to eat with my dad and stepmom one time! (though someone managed to foil our plans for a night out, but we will forgive her because she is soooo cute!)

I love my brother and sister in law and it was so great spending (1/2) the week with them! I hope that next year maybe they can stay the whole time! I ruled at kill dr. lucky (again!), though i may have lost the respect of certain family members (L!) when my competitive (evil!) side came out!

C got her first dip in the Atlantic Ocean... She wasn't too thrilled (it was a bit too cold, but she recovered as soon as she was out of it, so I'm thinking maybe next year she will like it!). My dad got better pictures of her little face crumbling, which i'll have to post later!

B was sweet enough to give me quite a bit of "anne" time, away from C, I love my hubs! My dad got my step-mom, L and I all facials at this posh place nearby, which i LOOOOVED. It was sooo awesome. Another day I got to take a good swim (I looove swimming and don't get to do it enough!) and another day, shopping! C gave him a hard time, unfortunately, at least one of the days! But she is getting better and better with the bottle, woot!

It was so fun to see C1 and imagine how our C (C2) is going to be so similar next year! I can't believe how much she is going to change. (only, i guess i can, because she has already changed sooo much! :::tear:::)

Here's some links to our pictures, because I can't get them to work right now (I'm writing while in TN visiting B's parents).

C's First Dip
OBX

Entering a giveaway...

2009-10-20T21:24:00.002-04:00

Oh I know, I know, I owe several "real" posts. But I want to enter this giveaway, so I'm sharing a video!! :)

Maybe if I keep feeling awake I will blog for real. :)

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW9navHC7Qo

3 Months Old!

2009-10-14T17:13:00.006-04:00

3 Months Old!

I promise I'll post a blog about all our recent adventures to the Outer Banks and elsewhere, but today C is 3 Months old!

She is doing so well! She has started trying to sit up when we hold her reclining, so she much prefers to sit straight up now! (assisted, of course!) She also still likes us to hold her up to stand or over our shoulders to see everything! She did sleep through the night for about a week and then started having (i think!) a 3 month growth spurt. So hopefully she will go back to sleeping through the night here pretty (very!) soon!

She is definitely all smiles! People always comment on what a good baby she is! She hardly ever fusses or cries! She does get a bit sad when she's hungry or tired (which of course is to be expected- so do i! :) but it's hardly anything! She has her off days, which really throw me for a loop because normally she is so good!! :)

She is more alert and more sturdy almost every day it seems! I can't really believe it's been three months. I recently looked at some pictures from when she was a newborn and I already forget what she looked like then!! She is so chunky (in that adorable baby fat way!). I love her chunky thighs, and it really is hard not to just squeeze her!! We love her SO much!

We're gearing up for yet another trip (this time to Nan and GP's in TN!) but in her three short months she's already been to: MA, RI, MD, VA, NC, PA, CT, and NY! And before she is four months she will have added TN and IL to that list! She's quite the traveler! Hopefully I'll catch the blog up soon! :)

C is such a blessing. Really, I feel our marriage is so much stronger with her as a part of our family. I am so thankful to God for all the richness that she has brought to our lives! We certainly have our trying moments (and I usually skip blogging on those days, I guess!) , but I feel like overall, we are SO blessed. :)

Here's a family photo from our trip to the pumpkin patch... C REALLY liked it. (she did, but for some reason was freaking out when we took this!)

Two Month Stats (now that she is almost 3 months old...)

2009-10-07T10:39:00.006-04:00

So we had C's two month appointment a bit late, and then we got REALLY busy, so I'm just getting around to posting!

So, at 2 months and one week old, her were the stats:

Weight: 12 lbs 8 oz (up from 8.11 at birth and 10.6 at one month)

23 inches (up from 20in at birth and 22 at one month)

15.9 (up from 13.75 at birth ad 15.5 at one month)

so, she's doing great! after much deliberation, we decided to delay the vaccines until her 4 month appointment. So no shots this time!

We can't believe how big she is getting! She is SO alert. She loves to look around over your shoulder and push up! around 10-11 weeks, she started to smile more in response to being tickled/having her face kissed. She smiles at things we do, rather than just smiling back at a smile, which is fun. She's also started giving more smiles to people other than me and B. She is liking tummy time a bit more, but it definitely is NOT the highlight of her day. (the highlight continues to be eating!)

Other exciting updates (most excited for Mummy!) is that she REALLY slept through the night last night. I know, I know, I shouldn't get too excited. She probably won't have a repeat performance, but a Mum can dream, right? But she went down about 830 and slept until 530 and then went back down till 9! Woohoo! ((Update, repeat performance last night! 830-620! WOOT!))

She is an amazing little traveller. She took her first plane ride with me down to Baltimore for Clare's wedding. I was hoping for an empty flight, but we were not so lucky, it was overbooked! Fortunately, the people next to me were (self-proclaimed) "baby-friendly". She didn't sleep, but she was very good! Yay for NOT being the people on the plane that everyone hated! There's a cute picture here (I can't seem to get it to work to be in the post, so you'll just have to click).

We were on the go pretty much once we hit the ground in MD.

Napping with Aunty Clare while Mum's getting a Pedicure

She did GREAT! Of course, I loved having her be admired. :) She napped on the go really well. And at the actual wedding, Genelle, the baby-whisperer, took great care of her, got her to nap AND TO TAKE A BOTTLE!! Shout out to Genelle!

Clare's wedding was so fun, I wish I could've been a part of it a bit more, but between the baby and singing in the service, i felt like i missed a lot. I know that she didn't mind, but come on, I've been planning to be in this wedding for 13 years! I wanted to see more of it!!! :)

Me and C in our matching dresses and Clare, Me and C

Partied Out!

I loved getting to see so many loved ones from the MD area the rest of the week. Between the wedding activities and my various visits the rest of the week, it made me realize just how blessed i am with such amazing friends. And though we may not see each other often, we are able to hang out like no time has passed. (And thank you twitter and facebook, for keeping us all in touch!)

Before the week was out we got to see Aaron and Jenny and meet their little one, which was sooo fun! I can't wait for him to hang out with C when they are both a bit older! I'm still pushing for Aaron to go to Gordon-Conwell for school next year! Hopefully they'll come visit the campus (and us!) soon!

We also got a visit from Shani and her new beau, which as always, was too short. (actually, i could say that about the time i had with anyone and everyone in the DC area!) It was nice to finally meet this guy! B & I liked him, so that's a bonus. :) We're hoping for a visit from them sometime soon, too.

C also got to meet her great-grandmother and all her great aunt's and uncles that she hadn't met yet at a little get together at my grandma's. Here's a pic of four generations!

We basically had a date with a friend everyday we were in the DC area, which was awesome! Even on our way out, C got to meet Katie in VA! :)

Can't leave out from the post that we stayed at my bro and sister-in-law's house in Baltimore. What gracious hosts they are- letting me borrow tons of baby items, a car, and even letting me wash cloth diapers there! Not to mention that my baby had a bad habit of waking their daughter up from her naps!! C1 and C2 (my C is C2) got along fabulously outside of nap time! C1 was infatuated with C2. C1 is definitely expanding her vocabulary, but by far her favorite word was "baby". It was so sweet!

Just for those who keep track of such things (B!!), C has now been to the following states in her less- than 3 months of life:

MA, RI, MD, VA and NC. On the way back from NC we will at least be driving through a few more!

Okay I think this blog post is long enough for today! I'll hopefully update soon about our fun in the Outer Banks!

Wordless Wednesday!

2009-09-16T11:55:00.003-04:00

Two Months Old!

2009-09-14T21:13:00.010-04:00

I'm probably going to cry while writing this. Motherhood has made me a crier.

Going to month two has brought all kinds of changes. We regularly see her dimples now (yay for something from Mummy!), and she still reserves her best smiles for her two favorite people- Mum and Dad. But she's starting to smile for other people now, too.

I've packed up all her newborn clothing and diapers, which i CANNOT believe she grew out of so fast! I want her to stay my snuggly baby forever, but i'm pretty sure she's going to go off to college in a second...

She has REALLY good head control now. In fact, she fusses if we don't hold her over our shoulder- she wants to practice holding up that noggin. She also pushes herself up to stand when we have her over our shoulder!

She sleeps REALLY well. While I can't seem to get her to sleep through the night (if I feed her at 10 or 11 she still wakes up) she usually only gets up once in the night, for about 30-40 minutes. So I'm feeling pretty well rested. :) She also takes great naps.

This month has brought an addition to our family: Calvin. Calvin is what B has named the glow seahorse that my friend Tanya (the genius!) told me about. Calvin is a remake of the old gloworm of my youth. He plays music and lights up. And C LOVES HIM. Seriously, we lay her down for a nap and her eyes are GLUED to him. And we only rarely have had to re-start him (he plays for about 5 min), usually she falls asleep during that 5 minutes! What's great about him is that we can bring him with us! We'll be doing a LOT of traveling these next few months, and C will always have Calvin with her. :)
(Note, this picture is NOT of her. Calvin "sleeps" in the corner, quite far from her. Babies this size don't really snuggle with their stuffed animals- this pic kind of made me giggle!)

Our awesome friends Brian and Beth brought us to a Red Sox game Sunday night, so C has been two TWO Red Sox games in the two months she's been alive. Craziness. We had a fun time with them, as always, and, the Sox won! Yay! :)

Next Week C will go in for her two month check up, so i'll have the official stats then, but by home scale, i think she's about 13 pounds! But you can REALLY tell how much she has changed by looking at these pics. The second onesie i made is the same size as the first- i couldn't even BEGIN to be able to button it! I had to make another one-in the 6-9month size!! (though, this brand runs REALLY small). But anyway, you can see that Month One fits, while Month two, does not! She's a good eater, alright!

Speaking of eating, she IS a good nurser..but she HATES the bottle!! We've had such a hard time with getting her to take one. She does take it a little bit, but it is hit or miss whether or not she will take a whole feeding. Hopefully by the end of the month she'll be better- at my friend's wedding that i'm in she'll need to take a bottle from her babysitter! The girl does NOT like latex or silicone. She won't take a pacifier either. (i've tried 3 brands of bottles and 5 pacifier brands... I'm giving up hope!)

She is starting to find her hands and realize cause and effect- if i touch this, it makes noise. She doesn't REALLY get it yet, but she's starting to. (like, if she hits it by accident, she's happy that she did it and tries again....sometimes!). She DOES like to suck on her hands, when they (accidentally) make it to her mouth. Blankets are also a-okay to suck on. (but not plastic, latex, or silicone!)

Today we went to our first Strollerstrides class. Strollerstrides is TONS of fun AND a good workout. We jog and do calisthenics and use rubber resistance bands while interacting with the babies... For example, we sang songs to the babies while doing squats. Hopefully this will help me get the edge during the SBL! C seemed to like it, for the most part. It was fun seeing older babies look at all the mommies. This week (Hopefully) we will be going to a "Mommy & Me" Yoga class, with some of the women I did pre-natal yoga with! Should be fun!

Cassie goes to Boston (& SBL Update!)

2009-09-11T12:58:00.005-04:00

C & Me @ Boston Common

We had a busy Labor Day weekend with our friends Seth & Jennifer in town for a wedding. We didn't get to hang out with them as much as we would've liked (we are still learning to budget our time travelling with a baby, sorry again guys!) But it was a lot of fun. We intended to go to Boston with Seth and Jennifer, but we lost them right around Boston Common (our intended destination). B&C and I had fun, though we were missing our friends!

We took C to Boston Common because it was such a beautiful day. We went to see the Make Way for Ducklings (a children's book that takes place in Boston) statue. We also wandered around and made our way across Newbury Street over to Trinity Church for B to take some pictures. We then walked over to the Prudential Center for me to check out some stuff for C.
Here's a map of our walk...

View Larger Map

We ended the day by taking a ride on the famous Swan Boats . It will be fun to do these again when C is old enough to appreciate the boat ride. :) We sat on Boston Common for awhile seeing people play frisbee and hang out with their dogs... It was a great family day! :) We are looking forward to doing it again, if it doesn't get too cold soon!

C & Daddy waiting for the Swan Boat:

We spent Monday at my Mom's house where I succesfully achieved my goal of dropping a ski. I also managed to do this LAST Labor Day. But since I was pregnant for the majority of the summer, I'm proud i got it at all this year. Maybe next year I'll be able to finally master this skill! B & C hung out most of the day, and I got to snap this sweet picture:

And now for a SBL update. This week, I'm crowned the winner, though both of us feel that we could've made a better effort- we didn't lose much. I'm down 1.18% and B is down 0.873%. Hopefully I can stay in the lead! :) I think my prize may be a pair of Ugg Boots, but that hasn't been confirmed yet. :)

Wordless Wednesday!

2009-09-09T11:08:00.002-04:00

Cloth Diapering Part Two...

2009-09-06T09:59:00.002-04:00

So a friend of mine had too many questions to comment, so she emailed me. I'll do my best at answering them in this follow up Cloth Diapering Post!

• How many covers do you have for the pre-folds in each size (XS, SZ 1, SZ 2) and do you feel like you have enough?

I started out with 6 newborn (NB) covers. 2 XS Thirsties, 2 Imse Vmse, 2 Bummis Super Whisper Wraps and one by Brookiellen. I ended up buying another from Brookiellen because i loved it so much! I also bought a Thirsties Duo Wrap (size 1) because I wanted to try them out. (I recommend getting those!). But 6 was definitely enough, because I was also able to use Gro Baby's. I'd recommend having @ least 6, because the poop definitely runs onto the cover if you are trifolding (and even if you are snapping but aren't good at snappis yet, like me!)

• How often are you doing PF/cover/Gro Baby laundry? (I combined these questions)

When she was a NB I was able to go 3 full days (washing on the am of the 4th day) because i had SO many diapers (I had some that weren't favorites, but could use in a pinch, plus the gro babys, while bulky, WERE usable from pretty much the beginning, so I could use those on laundry day.)

Now that she is bigger, though, I only use the gro babys. I'm currently having to do laundry on the morning of the 3rd day, if not sooner. (the little stinkers know when you put a clean diaper on, and save their poop for then! I'm told this is NOT a phenomenon that is limited to my child, so be warned). I just bought 4 more inserts for my Gro babys, so I'm not sure where that leaves me.

I wash the covers when ever I wash diapers. With the amount of covers I had, I was able to do it that way. You can also hand wash a cover if you needed to, I never did.

• How many prefolds do you have? What kind of prefolds do you have?

18 orange edge Green Mountain Diapers (purchased as seconds, meaning they may have imperfections- nothing seems wrong with them to me!) These were my favorite diapers. Very fluffy and fit great, not too bulky.

12 Infant PFs from SewCraftyBaby (SCB) & 6 Preemie PFs from SCB- Never really used any of these from SCB, because i didn't feel they were fluffy/absorbant enough. They also were longer but not wide. GMD's claim to fame is that they are wider but shorter so they tend to fit better.

6 Green edge diapers from a friend -these were great for wash days, and when she got a bit bigger.

6 Yellow edge diapers- these were bigger and I never used them as diapers. Great burp cloths/changing pad covers though!

I just packed up all my Newborn diapers/covers (:::tear:::). Some of them WOULD still fit her, but for simplicity's sake, we are using only Gro Baby's now.

• Did you get the "rubber pant" style for night time?
No, those are the cheapest covers you can get, and apparently they DO work, so if you really want to save $, they are the way to go. But the others are cuter and work fine! :)

• How many gro-baby diapers do you have? How many snap in liners do you have for the gro-baby?
I have 11 Gro Baby "shells" (outer part/cover) and (just yesterday got 4 more) 23 snap in soakers. My laundry estimates were based on having 19 soakers. I feel like i could use some more shells (well, at least on some days i feel like that, others, i feel like i have plenty!) I'm waiting for their new pretty prints to come out though!

• Are you doing cloth wipes?If you are then how many wipes do you have?

I'm just using washcloths for wipes. I find it is easier to use cloth wipes (when at home) that I wet with a bit of water (i keep a squirt bottle at my changing area) because then everything from a diaper change goes into the laundry basket. Because I'm just using washcloths, which i obviously use for baths, hand/face cleaning and other miscellaneous baby duties (DOOTIES!!! heehe.. Katie gets this, I know...), I have a LOT of "wipes". Probably like 40? Maybe less, but a LOT. I don't run out though, either. That wasn't very useful of an answer, I'm sure. But wipes are cheap and easy to come by (if you use washcloths, that is). I ran out and bought more at one point, at walmart. Easy-peasy.

• How many diapers are you using in a typical day?

Totally depends on the day! I've learned (the hard way!) to wait awhile after she eats in the am to change her. Sure, she's wet from the night time, but she also needs to poop from not doing it all night... She kept pooping on a brand fresh diaper before I wised up to her game and started waiting her out... Now I put her in the magic "poop chair" (bouncy seat- has the right angle i guess!) and wait till she goes, saving me a diaper change. Enough about her poop. Anyway, it really depends. But if I *had* to guess, I'd say I'm changing her roughly 8-10 times a day, (midnight to midnight), at LEAST once that includes a cover getting pooped on and therefore out of the rotation.
• Were you able to find out when new colors for the Grow Baby are coming out? Is there a blog or something I can look at to hear the rumors?

Gro Baby has a facebook fan page. They announced the new covers are coming out in late september i believe. On their page you can see the prototypes- they are super cute!

• Has the TTO helped with the smell in the bags?
Actually, since C is exclusively breastfed, her poop doesnt stink. I did use a bit of TTO to see if it made the bag smell good (i just poured some onto a prefold) and it did! So i'd guess it will help when she starts eating the real stuff!

• Do you have a big diaper pail in your changing room that you use for the wet / dirty diapers?

Yup. I have what is actually a laundry basket with a Planet Wise liner. Someone suggested that these are a good idea because it helps keep the diapers "breathing" (not locked up tight), but it still has a top (to keep the smell somewhat contained, once the poop smells). Works great! I have two liners, so while one is washing, the other is in the pail.

• Are you rinsing the dirty diapers right away or throwing them into the pail for later? (the ones without solid ish poop, although I guess with her just on B-milk that would probably be most if not all)...

Again, because C is EBF, no need to rinse the poop at all- it's water soluble! (see, this post is now advocating EBF AND CDing!). Later, when she does have more solid poops, I will try to shake them off into the toilet. I may also end up using liners that can be washed & re-used if it is just wet, and flushed if it is poop. (like imse vmse reusable liners...a friend uses these). Other methods include having a diaper sprayer- (basically a kitchen sink sprayer hooked to your toilet's plumbing), or using TP or a spatula to get the poop off. As far as i know, diaper manufacturers do NOT recommend "wet pailing" anymore.

I hope that helps!! :)

Off to check the diaper laundry... :)

Biggest Loser!

2009-09-04T20:48:00.003-04:00

No, I'm not referring to my high school self in the title. (But speaking of high school, uhm, my ten year reunion will be next year! Yikes!) Some friends of mine are doing a "biggest loser" competition. Although I've never watched the show, I could use the accountability to lose my "baby" weight. (aka "eat-whatever-i-want-to-because-i'm-pregnant-weight"...), so I joined up!

Then I remembered my friend from college, Heather, did some sort of competition with her husband. (I think, I could be making this up, LOL). So I challenged B to the Smith Biggest Loser Competition (SBL). The picture above is a good "goal" picture for us. Pre-post-wedding, post-moving and living in a hotel only eating out for 2.5 months- weight gain! :)The timing will be the same as my other competition. I think BL with my buddies ends 11/13/09, which is when the SBL will also end. I need to figure out what my prize will be (besides a new wardrobe! I threw out a lot of my too small clothes today!), if I win. Any ideas?

We weigh in on Fridays, so check back each Friday/Saturday/when i get around to it, but hopefully weekly, to see who's winning!

We both have a good bit to lose, but we won't post our weights, just percentages. :) I have a small advantage because I am breastfeeding, but seeing as how that hasn't really helped me drop the weight yet, I don't think it is a real advantage! :) Brian has a gym membership (I can't go till C is 6 months old and can be in childcare), so that's his advantage! But C and I are going walking everyday!!

Wish us luck!

Wordless Wednesday!

2009-09-02T17:12:00.002-04:00

Cloth Diapering Pictures...

2009-08-31T10:33:00.005-04:00

Ok, So I tried to upload these close to chronological order. I need to take some more recent pics in her Gro Baby's! While I am pretty sure most of her covers would still actually fit, I've retired them rather than buy more prefolds to use in them. So for now (as long as i can contain myself from buying more CDs!) all we use are the Gro Baby's.

6 Days Old in a Gro Baby.

3 Days old in a cover made by my friend Brooke. You can visit her Etsy Shop.

3 Days Old in an XS Thirsties Cover. (Thirsties are my favorite covers!)

2 Days Old in a preemie Imse Vmse cover. (I liked these, but C outgrew them fast. Great for a smaller baby, I'd think...)

10 Days old in another XS Thirsties Cover

8 Days old in a Gro Baby. I used two booster pads instead of a snap-in soaker for a trimmer fit. Worked great! (I still do that in a pinch if it's laundry day!)

15 Days old. This is an Orange Edged Green Mountain Diaper Prefold. These were great! This is what she is wearing under most of the covers. We mostly jus trifolded into the cover (no pins or snappis needed), but we occasionally snappied (shown here). Snappi-ing is the new pinning. Sooo Easy! I never got REALLY good at doing folds with snappis, but I'm sure if I had practiced I would've gotten it!

15 Days old in a Gro Baby.

16 Days old, in another creation by Brooke! Love it!! :) My Lil fan!

18 days old, in a Thirsties Duo Size One. Sooo excited about these new covers. As I said in my last post, if I were to do it all over again, I would just use prefolds & covers. And if I was going to do that, i would stock up on Thirsties Duos. They are not a one size cover, but almost! This cover snaps down to what I would say is the same, if not a bit smaller, than a Thirsties XS cover. It goes to 18lbs or approximately 9 months. Then you can get the Thirsties Duo, size 2, which should take you through potty training. These really save you $ because they are well priced to begin with, & you won't have to buy NEARLY as many covers. (unless you just can't resist all the beautiful colors it comes in!)

Maybe I'll snap some pictures of her in her Gro Baby's later today for some more updated pictures! :) I do want to say, I LOVE my Gro Baby's! While they aren't AS economical as prefolds and covers, I think in the long run they are pretty close...

:) Feel free to ask any questions! :)

Cloth Diapering (part one)

2009-08-21T08:58:00.005-04:00

Lots of people had crazy reactions when I said I was going to cloth diaper (CD), mostly they thought i was crazy , that it is so much extra work at an already crazy time & that it is pretty gross to CD. Generally I'd say I'm a pretty lazy person, and i'm not finding it too much extra work! (I will say, today was an exhausting day and I was a tiny bit bummed that i had to to do CD laundry, but, since it isnt THAT hard to do, i survived! :))

On me and Cloth Diapering !

Since day 3 I used prefolds(PFs) (traditional rectangular diapers like our Mom's remember) and covers. These days they have covers that have velcro, instead of rubber pants. (Well, some people DO still use the rubber pants, but I'd rather use velcro! :)) I used PFs from Green Mountain Diapers. I also bought some from another company, but so far they are too small or too big. I use them as burp cloths and changing pad covers for now. But I can tell the quality is MUCH better from Green Mountain Diapers (GMD). GMD is a tad more expensive but they make PFs in sizes that are less bulky.

If I knew then what I knew now...

I would've ONLY bought PFs and covers!! This is the cheapest way to CD! And it really isn't very hard! I bought other diapers for night time because i thought in my sleep deprived state it would be too hard to use PFs at night, but it really isn't!

I will say that the Orange Edge PFs didn't last too long for us. C was a big baby, but actually, I found she outgrew them as far as absorbancy went, before actually outgrowing them size wise. I never had a leak though, so they were still absorbant enough, but just barely!

Because I wasn't sure how I'd feel about PFs, I was looking for a simple system that would *hopefully* last throughout diaper wearing days for more than one kid. A new diaper hit the market while I was planning my CD "stash" & it seemed to fit the bill. I ended up going with this system for my longterm use diapers. Diapers that are meant to last from newborn stage to toddlerhood are called "one size" (OS). Most OS diapers are NOT infact, one size, because they usually don't fit newborns. (which is why i had PFs and covers on hand). However, my ginormous baby (ok, not really. she was slightly bigger than average, at 8lbs 11oz) fit her OS diapers pretty much right away. I tried them on her at 6 days old & they were quite bulky, but fit. I'll post some pictures so you can see.

I'll go ahead and say here some advice that is good, but i kind of ignored. You really shouldn't invest in ONE system before your baby is born, b/c you just don't know what you will like. it's best to try out a diaper or two and THEN commit. I would've only gotten PFs and Covers if i had done that... but I wanted to have diapers ready to go when she came...plus, people got me some as gifts! :) But that's my tip to you, even though i didnt really follow it...

Anyway, the diaper I selected was the Gro Baby diaper. It is a OS diaper, but what i like about it is that the absorbant part snaps in & out, so if the diaper is wet only (or if poop didnt get on the cover), you can keep re-using the outer part. Exclusively breastfed newborns poop is quite runny, so it often gets on the cover, a complaint by some, but it doesn't really bother me. you could get away with a lot less shells though, (so cheaper) if you waited to start using these for an older baby who is eating solids. I figured in the long run, since i had already committed to this system, it was cheaper to just have a lot of shells. I also didn't want to have a lot of different diapers around- it would just confuse B!! (and i don't want to get addicted to diaper buying- that isn't gonna save money!! :)

As far as washing goes, I keep it simple. I use either country save or tiny bubbles (both cloth diaper safe and good for the enviroment). I do a hot wash with extra water (a setting on my HE washer) and an extra rinse. NO liquid softener in our washer (in any load, not just diapers) anymore! And no dryer sheets either. I use dryer balls and LOVE them.

my "pager" (aka C is crying) is going off, so i'm going to finish this for now. I'll try to make a post soon with pictures of C in her diapers. Also, if you post any questions in the comments, I'll do a follow up blog answering them! :)

Wordless Wednesday! (well not quite).

2009-08-19T09:00:00.003-04:00

I know I know, I updated 2x in 2 days!!

This Wednesday is not quite wordless b/c I just wanted to say that I stole this idea from a friend of mine's blog: http://gatesfamblog.blogspot.com/ All future Wordless Wednesday's will actually be wordless. :)

One Month Old!!

2009-08-18T20:08:00.005-04:00

eep! it's so hard to keep up with the blog these days. I also wish I had more time to read my buddies blogs. I've gotta fix up my google reader so I can read them on my iphone...

things are going really well. Of course, it all depends on when you ask me that question. Obviously, if I have time to write a blog, it's a good day, so I think things are going splendidly. :) C sleeps pretty well- even when i complain, i realize it could be a thousand times worse! She recently started giving me really long stretches at night, which has been awesome. She sleeps in her own room now (:tear:!) I miss her, but I'm much happier having my husband in my room. Maybe it's controversial, but I think our room is for US. And B couldn't sleep with her getting up in the night, so he was sleeping in the guest room. Well that lasted for four nights! I'm glad things are as they should be, though I really missed having her by the bed! And she looks so little in her crib!

We've had quite the slew of visitors! My Dad, Robin, My mom, B's parents, Shani, my bro and sis-in law, and various aunts and uncles & cousins and tomorrow Genelle! Phew! when Genelle leaves I'll really be on my own! GULP!! I've had a few alone days though, and they go okay. :)

We had a family reunion with my mom's side of the family this past weekend. it was SO fun! it is crazy how much my cousins kids have grown up. I can't believe next year how much different C will be!! I really love my family and I'm glad we got to see everyone and hang out! And C was SO good!! She made me look like such a good mom, LOL.

We've been cloth diapering since we came home from the hospital (so since she was 2 days old!) I really like doing it! I'll probably blog in detail about it sometime in the future, but I HIGHLY reccommend it. It really isn't much extra work at all-- It's actually fun for me to do diaper laundry! And i'm so glad to be doing something good for the environment. Plus, no poop explosions! I haven't had a diaper leak (other than user error when she was really little). And trust me, there's been some SERIOUS pooping goin on. (this is the only time in life i find it appropriate to blog about poop, LOL. and probably some of you think even now isn't a good time! hehe.)

Brian has been doing really well with her. :) It's so cute. I got tears in my eyes when we first came home from the hospital and he was holding her... i might get choked up again just thinking about it....

speaking of post partum hormones, i feel like i'm doing pretty well. Though I suppose you should ask Brian!! hehe! it has definitely been rough some days (usually it's in connection with rough nights!) , for the most part I feel like I'm feeling pretty good, emotionally and physically. My tailbone is still pretty sore though! :(

I seriously can't believe how much C has changed already. She can hold her head up for quite awhile (it's SO cute! she peers over my shoulder, just taking in the world.::dies:::) She really looks different too! (though everyone still says she looks like Brian!!)

I swear she smiled at me the other morning. I know it's too soon, and it was at 4am and I'm all sleep deprived. But I'm still going to think that she smiled at me. :)

I'm sure I could write about a thousand other things, but I'm afraid naptime is about to end! :)

More pics to come later! You can check out my web gallery here:

http://gallery.me.com/mrsgoose

When will Baby Smith Arrive...

2009-06-24T08:16:00.006-04:00

Well, I'm officially Full Term (according to my estimate of my due date... according to the doctor, I'll be fully cooked tomorrow...). That means Baby S has the green light to arrive. I have been having LOTS of contractions, but no baby yet! So, When do YOU think she will make her appearance? FYI, my due dates are July 12 (my estimate) and July 16 (according to an ultrasound I had at about 10 weeks). At my most recent appointment I was measuring just a few days ahead of the July 16th date... You can vote here...

(I changed it b/c the other one was too confusing!)

Or Click HERE

I've been feeling pretty good, though fairly tired (i suppose waking up several times a night is going to be my new "normal!"). We've been blessed (in MY opinion!) with unusually cool weather. It's been quite rainy- but I'm not going to complain b/c I am so happy it isn't too hot!! We've had a lot of visitors recently- hopefully I'll blog about those soon! :)
:)

Links to Pictures

2009-06-04T07:23:00.004-04:00

Here's a few pictures from our recent activities, as well as links to all the pics! :)

These are two of the pictures we had done recently... Here's a link to the rest of the "teaser" pics we have. When we get ALL the pictures, I'll be sure to post them! :) These pics are from when I was 32 weeks!

My First Baby Shower, hosted by Clare and Shani!
Link 1
Link 2 (has pics from both showers)

Baby Shower #2, hosted by various family members :)!
Link

And, here is the baby's room post shower (and pre-organizing!) We are so blessed!!

Oops, has it been THAT long?

2009-05-25T07:17:00.000-04:00

We've been busy, so I guess I better get cracking on telling you all the news in Smithland.

Here are some April Updates: (yes, I looked through my calendar to remember what we had been up to)

I failed my one hour glucose test :(
But I passed the 3 hr!
Brian's plant had an "outage" where the plant refuels (this is done every other year). This means that for about a month, Brian worked SOME hours nearly every.single.day. It was a bummer. :( But, it is FINALLY over (they got pretty behind!) and now it is strange to have him home "normal" time everyday! :) I like it though!
I'm REALLY loving prenatal Yoga. I hope I will get into Yoga post baby as well. :o)

May Updates:

I came down to MD for a visit and my first {baby} shower. It was such an awesome trip! I arrived in Baltimore where Clare and Reese picked me up and we went to go see Clare's wedding dress! SO exciting! We also looked at the Bridesmaid dresses that I can't try on. :o) Clare treated me to a Mom-to-be pedicure which was also awesome!

We spent the next day at the Baltimore Zoo, which I had never been to! They have PENGUINS!! It was so fun! I really can't remember ever going to a zoo that wasn't the National Zoo, so it was fun to see a different set of animals. It was a pretty hot day though! I'm glad it was a relatively small zoo!! They had a baby elephant there who was SO cute!

My shower was the next day, and it was SO great getting to see everyone who came. There was SO much yummy food (and enough cake for Fusionites the next night!). It's smart to have two best friends who love to cook... :o). Clare and Shani did a great job with the shower! Everyone was so generous- Baby Smith is already so loved! My two girlfriends from college stayed after for awhile so we could catch up, which was so nice!!! :)

Post shower, I stayed over at Shani's house and we just relaaaaaaxed. It was SO nice to get to spend some time with her, and great to just sit by the pool after all the running around I had been doing. I wish I had a pool...

Shani then brought me to Fusion, where I hadn't been for sooo long! It was so good to be back there again. I loved hearing Tim speak, and I got to see so many friends! (who, as I mentioned, enjoyed my shower cake leftovers!)

I went from Fusion to Josh and Genelle's to hang out with them and baby E- though E was pretty much asleep the entire time I was there! (which his mama was thankful for I'm sure!) I had to leave eeeeeeeearly the next morning, so I didn't get nearly enough time with my dear friends!

While home, I managed to eat Chick Fil A twice and Ledo's Pizza 3x. (yes, yes, I had a very healthy weekend!). Seriously, Massachusetts needs to get these restaurants in my vicinity STAT. I'm getting hungry just writing about these!!

I feel like this blog is lacking. I used the terms "really fun" and "really nice" an awful lot. But, what can you do? I'm tired and my brain no longer works properly thanks to my insomnia...

I'll add pictures in a separate post later!

Third Trimester! (AAaaaaaaah!)

2009-04-17T20:06:00.009-04:00

I've been wracking (racking?) my brain trying to come up with a blog to write. I'm so boring. It will be much easier to come up with things to write about once the baby (hereafter, TB) arrives. I'll have cute pictures and great stories to post. For now, it's just boring ole Brian and I. And most of the "joys" of pregnancy might not be blog friendly content. (heck, my husband doesn't even want to hear a lot of what I have to say about pregnancy!) But I'll give a go at sharing the "G" rated content. :)

When Brian's pager went off @ 2am (don't worry, the plant didn't meltdown), I couldn't get back to sleep and I remembered some other stuff to add to this post. If it is new, it is in blue.

I look down and I don't feel all that huge. But then I look at the recent pictures of myself and I'm like, WHOA. Who's that?! And really, the baby is only about 2-3lbs... why am I so huge? (I know, I know, fluid, placenta, etc.) I never really expected to NOT be huge. It is still just weird seeing your body change like that...seemingly overnight!

I LOVE love LOVE feeling TB move. It is so weird, but awesome. It can still be hard for other people to feel her sometimes, but Brian has gotten to feel her quite a bit now. She is stubborn (this is a bad sign), b/c some how she seems to know when someone else puts their hand on my belly-- then she stops kicking! (this reminds me of an episode of Friends every time she does it...). She also is a snuggle bug. During both my ultrasounds the tech had a difficult time getting the measurements needed b/c the baby was curled up in some way. I can also FEEL her wasting space in my enormous abdomen. She gets all tucked up in my right side. The left side is just all fluid- it's crazy that you can FEEL the difference in my belly where she is and where she isn't! I think I'm going to really miss feeling her move once she's on the outside! (Or, I'll be so tired from having a newborn I won't even notice!)

I'm surprised at my lack of documentation around this pregnancy. I thought I'd be making Brian whip out the camera every chance he got to take a picture of my emerging belly. I've been very forgetful, and so my belly pictures are sporadic at best. Now that there is more rapid change, perhaps i'll be more on top of it. Here's a slideshow of Ultrasounds and the belly pictures I DO have...

Funny Story: On April Fool's Day, I got Brian and my parents to believe that the baby was really a boy! I was so proud of myself. Especially since my Mom has always gotten me on April Fools Day. When I was a kid, she would call over to my dad's house reeeeeeeeeally early in the AM and tell me school was canceled or my stepdad won the lottery... and I always believed her b/c it was so early!! But, now I am sort of paranoid that TB really COULD be a boy, and I've jinxed it now...now, no one will believe me! LOL.

I'm in the third trimester now, which is crazy. This is the trimester you deliver in! Whoa. There will be a BABY soon. Holy heck, what did we get ourselves into?! And there is still so much to do! I'm getting a little anxious, even though I KNOW we have time to do everything... I'm still going to be uneasy till it is all done, i think!

27/28 week appointment- I had my glucose test this week (testing for Gestational Diabetes). I still don't know the results, even though my office said they had them, they had to be reviewed by my midwife. I had to drink this really sweet drink on an empty stomach, and for the first time my entire pregnancy, I almost threw up! I was so glad when I got to eat! In between drinking the drink and having my blood drawn, I had my appointment with my midwife. My mom had oh-so-kindly pointed out that she thought i looked bigger than 27 weeks. Well, I'm happy to report my weight gain is on the low (but healthy) end, and my belly measured right on track! Woohoo!

Non-pregnancy related updates...

My Dad and stepmom came to visit (we forgot to take pictures, of course!), which was lots of fun! It was too short, but i'm so glad they came. In preparation for their visit I did a massive overhaul cleaning which was long overdue. (I'm a baaaaaaaad housewife, especially in winter). We'd also been meaning to paint our bathroom, and their visit gave us the much needed motivation to do so. But before we painted, we decided, why not change the light fixture, and get rid of the mirror?! Unfortunately, I did forget to take before pictures, but I do have some pic's of our "renovation". It looks 100x better! I'm so happy! (The trim still needs paint...We'll get around to it...someday...) It was QUITE the ordeal, but we got it all done!

We then had a really nice time with my mom's family on Easter (again, no pictures)... We did our usual thing of eating and playing games. Our time there reinforced my thinking that we will never get cable. Brian enjoyed the access to ESPN a little too much! He was watching GOLF. I can get on board with watching most sports...but GOLF? Anyway, it made me realize that would be all.we.would.watch if we had cable. So, I'm glad we've got nothing for now! :) I think that's about all for the updates! :)

Real Post Later...

2009-04-13T08:26:00.002-04:00

But for now, check this out:

V-Day (plus one)

2009-03-27T08:06:00.002-04:00

I intended to write this post on the actual V-day, but I was busy turning my house upside down yesterday to clean it... So I'm a day late. (hence the plus one).

Yesterday was the day i've been looking forward to my entire pregnancy. Viability day. Some of you may know this, some of you may not, but there has to be a cut off point where NICU doctor's say, "Your baby is just too little, we can't do anything". Even though she only weighs approximately 1.5-2.2lbs, Baby S is now past that stage. Viability day was yesterday, @ 24 weeks (according to the doctor's due date).

It's really strange to think that if something had happened on Monday, they wouldn't have tried to save her (@ most hospitals). But Thursday comes, and BAM. We're "viable".

Now, we'd prefer if if she cooks another 16 weeks! Every week past this week is more weight for her to gain, more for her lungs (and other systems) to develop. Survival rate @ 24 weeks still isn't great... but it really wasn't all that long ago that people were losing babies @ 30 weeks! The technology that God has blessed us with is truly amazing.

I probably looked forward to this day more than the average pregnant person (and honestly, I held my breath till this day for my sister-in-law's pregnancy, as well as some of my good friends). I attribute this to being a labor and delivery nurse. I've seen too much for my own good. I won't go into gory detail, but i was working on a night when we had a patient come in and deliver @ 22 weeks. While there was no way that baby would have lived (even with medical technology as good as it is), he DID live for several hours. And he was a baby. Not a fetus. It was truly one of the worst days of my life. His face and tiny body are etched in my memory. I am so thankful to God that we've made it this far! Praise Jesus!

Another was when I delivered a lady whose baby had died in utero, 2 weeks before christmas. She was 38 weeks pregnant. There was nothing wrong with her beautiful baby girl...sometimes these things happen... I'm terrified of it happening to me! I often find myself remembering this delivery, which was heartwrenching. (Again I won't go into the details). I have to remind myself, that throughout my daughter's life (whoa, that's weird to be typing... I'm used to BEING a daughter, not HAVING one!), that God is in control. He isn't in MORE control now b/c she is inside me. He will be in JUST as much control when I'm parenting her. When I make mistakes, He is still in the SAME amount of control. We can rely on Him. For everything. He is there with her now, and He will be always. (Just as He is for me). When I remember to remind myself of this, I have so much more peace, and less worry. Thank you Jesus for your goodness, your love, your everlasting peace!

Update to Baby S movements...

2009-03-21T11:20:00.001-04:00

There has been a new movement instilled in me this week (week 24 of pregnancy).

Slithery-Roo

This is sort of a combination of the "Twitch" and the "Jab", except for that instead of the movement seeming to be directed out (away from my insides) the slithery-roo's defining characteristic is that it is directed more towards my internal organs. While I still LOVE feeling her move, these movements are giving me the heebie-jeebies. It feels SO weird, like she is touching stuff that isn't meant to be touched!! I felt a little "rolling" this AM so I was hoping the slithery-roo was over and she had moved enough that it would be back to "normal". But alas, she is still doing the slithery-roo jig on my bladder, intestines and various other organs. Still isn't a painful movement, just incredibly weird!

:)

Movements of Baby S

2009-03-16T15:32:00.000-04:00

I've been thinking about all the different movements that this lil one makes. This is probably NOT interesting to anyone besides me, but since I will one day feel nostalgic for pregnancy (supposedly) I figured I should type out these musings.

"The Twitch"

Ever have a random twitch in your thigh muscle? That is what this movement feels like. This is currently her most common movement. It is sort of fluttery, and this is what i feel, I'd say 80% of the time.

"The Roll"

@ least, that's what I assume this feeling is. Sometimes I will get this slow, hardening sensation (but i know it isn't a contraction b/c of the location) and then I will feel the "twitch" movement afterwards. I think she is rolling side to side or top to bottom when i feel this. This is currently the most rare movement.

"The Jab"

This is MUCH stronger than the "twitch". The Jab is much more likely to be felt by outside observers (so far, outside of myself of course, only B has experienced feeling any movements by baby S). In fact, there have been a few "Jab's" that were so strong they startled me! While I have been feeling the Jab for awhile now, it has been mainly fairly low. But in the last few days I've been feeling many more Jabs in my mid abdomen... so I think she has moved around some. I have a feeling as she gets bigger and the space around her gets smaller that the "Jab" will become the most frequent (and painful!) movement. But for now, this is about 15-20% of Baby S's movements.

Of course all of these movements have much more detailed subcategories, but I am not yet observant enough to define them. :)

Panic is Settling in...

2009-02-27T11:05:00.000-05:00

We found out yesterday:

It's a GIRL!

I knew it, B knew it. We weren't surprised at all! I had two dreams that it would be a girl.. plus, out of the 10 or 12 kids that have been born to our friends in the last year all but 2 have been boys. Evolution said it would have to be a girl.

She is a snuggle bunny, apparently. There is all kinds of room in my upper abdomen, but she is lodged snugly in my lower belly- and she is all jackknifed up. She has her hands AND her feet by her head. (this made attaining the measurements needed for my ultrasound pretty difficult for the tech. She also didn't be have for my previous u/s at 12 weeks. Further proof that she is A) a girl and B) my kid). Currently, she is butt down, but has TONS of time to flip to head down. But, again, with my luck, I bet she winds up staying right as she is and I'll have to have a c/s.'

Her position pretty much made it impossible to get any cute shots of her. I have one of her little foot, but that is about it. Maybe I will add pictures from my 12 week U/s to this post later, since she was much more into posing for the camera then...

More later when I'm not panicking over the idea of "it" being a "she!"

Baby Bump and Cruise Pics

2009-02-25T10:50:00.001-05:00

Here's a link to my facebook photos that have my "bump" pictures... I'll go ahead and show you the most recent one, taken at 19.5 weeks, on our cruise:

Right now, I can still just look fat, depending on the angle and the outfit. Trust me, this is a really flattering "bump" pic. :) Hopefully I will be more on top of taking pictures now!

Over the last week, baby S has REALLY stepped up the movement. Before I used to have to be sitting still for awhile to feel him/her. But now, almost as soon as I sit or lay down, I feel the baby moving! Its crazy! I love the feeling.

Another baby note- we find out tomorrow if baby S is a boy or a girl! We both think it is a girl.. but we will see!! Or, with my luck, the baby will be super shy and not show it (or the lack of an "it") off! :)

Here's a link to our Miami and Cruise pictures... I will add a few of Brian's pics later, probably to the same album, so don't be afraid to check again!

This is a slideshow of the same pictures, in case you are too lazy to click on the link. :o)

Be sure to check out the captions to hear about our trip! :) I may post a trip blog, or I may not... so the captions may be all you get! :)

25 Things...

2009-02-04T11:44:00.000-05:00

25 Things is a Facebook Phenomenon. Basically, you write 25 "interesting" things about yourself, then you get other people you are friends with to do the same. I finally caved and did mine, and figured i should add it to the blog as well... Thus taking care of my weekly post. :)

Here are my 25 things...

1)I had to read other people's notes for inspiration in order to come up with 25 things. That's kind of sad, b/c i think of myself as fairly interesting.
2) I scrunch my toes when i am nervous. In general, i move my toes a lot. I really like moving my toes.
3) I LOVE my husband. He spoils me rotten, and I love it.
4) Along those lines, I LOVE having my feet rubbed by said husband, but I won't rub his. Boy feet skeeve me out.
5) I am good at ideas- I'm a starter, not a finisher. Probably why it has taken me so long to finish this! Brian jokes that pregnancy is the one "idea" that i will have to finish! Hopefully it will help me to grow!
6)I love old cars. I'd love to redo one someday, though I have no idea what i am doing. And, I'd probably never finish it (see#5!)
7)I am a pretty decent swing dancer. I miss it. Someday, I would love to compete, if i ever got that good.
8) 8 is my lucky number. I was born 8 days late, 8 days before christmas, and the digits in my birthday = 8 (1+7=8). When i say my "lucky #", what I mean is, it is my favorite #.
9)When I was a little girl, my dad brought my brother and I to work (@ the FBI) and we took polygraph tests. I failed.
10) I'd love to climb a "fourteener" someday, even though when I lived in CO I could barely climb a foothill. I'd love to do it though!
11) I plan on running a marathon someday!
12) I love to travel, but hate to plan for the travel. Another reason I love my husband, he is a good planner! :)
13) I belong to an "Online Community" which makes me feel extremely geeky. However, I've met some awesome women on there, and it keeps me from being totally isolated since moving to MA! So I love it!
14) I REALLY enjoyed gambling the few times I have done it. I am pretty sure I should never live anywhere where gambling is legal. I might get into trouble.
15) I LOVED playing texas hold 'em with an old group of friends- not for the gambling, but b/c we always had such a fun time! I wish I could get a group together again to play, but I am sure it would never be the same..
16) the baby just kicked me. Such a cool feeling!
17) I LOVE how close I live to to the ocean now, even though it is REALLY cold water, even in the hottest summer. I think I will always need to live this close to water now...
18) I finally got up on one ski last summer, on the last water skiing day of the season. I am bummed that i may not get a chance to practice again this summer, due to the arrival of baby S. But, i think that is a good reason to skip it next year!
19) I love Coach bags. I always said I didn't "get" designer bags. I blame my addiction on my best friend.
20) I love my best friend. She is totally awesome, so generous. She knows how to handle me, and she puts me in my place! she rocks my sox off.
21) I have two cats. One of them has never gotten a name that sticks. So her name is "baby girl".
22) I have started to like baseball, b/c I have been swept into Red Sox Nation.
23) I always have been, and always will be, a die hard Redskins fan.
24)I love Jesus. I'm struggling with what it means to be in a Christian marriage and raise a Christian family. But I am excited to find out, and I know He will carry me, and bring me through!
25) I think I have been tagged so many times, not because everyone wanted to know more about me, but because my name begins with "a" so that brings me to the top of a list quicker...

16 weeks pregnant, maybe I should finally blog?

2009-01-29T17:37:00.000-05:00

Well, the cat is out of the bag, as everyone knows already. So I can finally blog about being pregnant.

Of course, I would've done it sooner, had I had the energy.

The first trimester, I felt VERY blessed, b/c i really had no morning sickness. Yay! Praise God! I did have some food aversions (still do!), but it has really been very easy to manage.

I did however, get the Oh-so-fun insomnia, which still comes and goes, though it isn't as bad as in the first trimester.

And, the lovely exhaustion. Hopefully my subsequent pregnancies I won't be quite so exhausted!! I can't imagine having a toddler running around and being this tired!! ACK! Anyway, the exhaustion, like the insomnia, seems to be coming and going now.. some days i am really good, and other days, i could sleep all day!

Still no baby bump.

I had my 16 week appointment yesterday, which was really good. My midwife assured me that all was well even though I have no bump, and no weight gain. We scheduled my appointment for my "big" ultrasound.. this is the ultrasound where they check fetal anatomy for different typed of birth defects-- heart chambers, the brain, abdominal organs, etc. This is also the ultrasound where we get to find out whether the baby is a boy or a girl! We can't wait! :)

Baby S's heartrate was in the 140s again.. seriously, best sound ever! :) It was such a great reassurance to hear it! According to my weekly emails, baby S is about the size of an avocado this week.

I have started to feel the baby move- i think! I really can't tell for sure if it is the baby, but I am 90% sure! I usually can feel it when i am laying on my stomach, or sitting really still (like when i am typing on the laptop!) I can't wait for the movement to be more regular!

Alright, i think this is enough excitement for now! Hopefully I won't go so long between blogs from now on! :)

Pictures...

2008-12-31T07:56:00.001-05:00

Here are some pictures of our Hot Air Balloon "ride" and Our second Snow in MA. (Didn't get around to taking pictures of snow #1!!) Got Snow (not much) # 3 yesterday, and expecting MORE today. Still getting used to MA, that is for sure!

Our view while we were up... (first picture is where we took off from- it didn't take long @ all to get pretty high!!)

Looking up into the Balloon:

And, Post Crash... (doesn't it look all sad? :( )

And this was what our house looked like the day we drove to WV for Christmas... (yes, it was still snowing! ) When we got home, all the snow was gone! Crazy, huh!?

Our Exciting Hot Air Balloon Ride.. (well, sort of ride...)

2008-12-24T08:41:00.000-05:00

So, Have i got a story for you all. (I will add pictures later, if MH will attach his camera.. my camera wire is @ home...)

So, In May 2006, Hubs (then BF) decided to propose to me in a hot air balloon (my secret dream actually, which he swears he didn't know!). Well, it didn't work out bc of the winds being to high, so he went with his back up route (which was fine). He paid in advance though, so an extra engagement gift (on top of my beautiful ring) was that I would eventually get to go on a hot air balloon ride (a life long dream of mine).

WELL. We have tried to do this 3x now. Once the weather didnt cooperate and we didnt even bother trying, another time we drove all the way to where the place is, (1.5 hrs from my Dads house) to only arrive to a sudden storm coming up and being unable to lift off.

But yesterday takes the cake.

We got there, and we were the only people on this flight, so that was exciting. Weather is cooperating- but i said to DH- I am holding my breath until we are actually IN THE AIR. Well, apparantly I should have kept holding it.

We helped fill the balloon and got in the basket and got going.. I was so excited we were finally doing this! Yay!! This euphoria lasted for about 5 minutes, when the balloon guy goes to add a little more heat (you don't leave it constantly burning, just a little burst every few minutes) and the burner didn't go. No big deal, I thought, I remembered him putting the lighter thingie in the balloon before we took off. Well he sparks it a few times, and NADA.

SRSLY.

So I am watching the guy, thinking, hmm he looks a little panicked. Then He looks around and he is firmly saying, OK, this is a good spot, we are going down. NOW. It is going to be tooo fast, so hold on. Are you holding on? HOLD ON. Ok but it is a good spot. HOLD ON. (Fortunately this all happened very quickly, so we didn't have time to get scared. In fact, I was kind of thinking, OF COURSE this would happen to us!).

We crash landed into a tree, so we were all fine, except for the balloon. It will definitely be an expensive repair. :( It took us nearly an hour to extract the balloon from the tree (the basket itself eventually settled on the ground, so we got out easily).

The guy has never had all the flames go out and not been able to relight before , that was a first in over 800 flights in 10 years. LUCKY US. Maybe I should go play the lottery? LOL. He told us he was worried that we might break some ankles (glad he didnt say that when we were actually falling!!) So we were actually falling a lot faster than I felt like we were. Fast enough that one of his cousins or something saw us when he was dropping his daughter off @ school and thought, WHOA that ain't right... and stopped and helped us get the balloon off. So I guess we were really falling fast!

New News...

2008-11-02T12:45:00.000-05:00

So, in case you don't follow me on Twitter, I have some news! I am starting to sell my scarves! Woohoo! It is mostly just for fun.. .but who doesn't mind a wee bit O cash, too?! To the right I have posted the link to my shop and my new blog, which I will (hopefully) be updating often with updates about me and my shop, what I am knitting, and also other things I've found that are cool on etsy... If I get a good enough following on twitter and etsy, I may try to do a giveaway (not just my items) or something over on that blog... so it is worth checking out!! :) Plus, I'd really appreciate it!

That's it for now...i wrote a good one yesterday, so i figure this could be a short, shameless plug...

http://cablegal.etsy.com

http://cablegals.blogspot.com

One Year...

2008-11-01T10:05:00.000-04:00

Ok, So I am a little late posting my One Year Blog...but we had a busy week!

I can't believe we've been married for a year! It's SO crazy to me.. it feels like yesterday I was freaking out trying to pack up everything to drive to Chesapeake Beach for the wedding. At the same time, it has been SUCH a busy year, it sometimes feels a lot longer than only one...

So, since Oct 27th, 2007:

I have moved 2x (brian only once:)

Lived in 3 states due to those moves.

Spent more time in a hotel than I EVER have in my life.

Travelled to California and Alabama for the first time (for me)

Saw the Pacific Ocean and Disneyland, LA and San Diego for the first time!

Travelled to or through the following states: NH, MA, RI, CT, NY, NJ, DE, PA, MD, VA, TN, CA, AL, GA, NC, FL, WV-- that is 17!! That is a THIRD of the US. That is insane, by the way!

Went to Mexico for the first time (again, for me...B is much more travelled than i!)

Went to @ least 3 weddings...

Seen like, 10 of our friends have babies! (or get pregnant)!

and that of course, is just the tip of the iceberg... The real stuff, the important stuff... that is too much to ever list! we have grown so much, learned so much about each other.. It hasn't all been fun and games folks! (if you've ever been in any relationship, you would know that! LOL. ) But the good that comes from the fighting always makes it worth it.. Hopefully year two will make us even more patient and loving with each other! God has revealed Himself so much to me through B.. Marriage is definitely a powerful tool of the Holy Spirit... I hope that I will continue to seek God's heart for our marriage in the coming year...even more so than last year!

I can't wait to see what He brings next year!!

I am a bad, bad blogger...

2008-10-19T13:22:00.000-04:00

But, what can you do!?

TN Travels, Part 2. well... really, our way home from TN...

On our way home, we stopped to see my dear friend Genelle and her hubby Josh... they happened to be going to Josh's parents for the night the same time we were going to be driving through VA! it

was great to see them, of course!

B got to take some pictures in Shenandoah National Park while we were waiting for J &G to arrive in Staunton.

We then tried to do our hot air balloon ride... but it wa

s a bust, again! Maybe Christmas time it will work out...

We stopped by my Dad's for a quick visit, which was awesome! I'm such a daddy's girl...

Then we continued on to State College, PA, home of B's alma mater...you may have heard of it... PENN STATE! And, for labor day weekend, Lori and Dustin Butler's wedding! :) We had a blast @ the wedding and in state college... We loved catching up with so many of our wonderful friends-- PSU weddings are like reunions! B and I met up with our friends Colin and Liz... they had to introduce me to "Nittany":

But the best part (for me!) was getting to meet all the new future Penn State-ers! I think 4 PSU babies (maybe more, I can't remember!) were born in the 7 weeks before this wedding! So I got to enjoy holding and cooing over all the babies!!

Okay, that's One (mini) post down... I may even post again later today to continue w/ my catch up!

Not a real blog update...

2008-10-03T14:15:00.000-04:00

I have spent the morning reading this awesome (but very sad) blog... this family is going through a VERY difficult time right now, and their faith is awesome... I hope to never have to face what they are facing..but if I do, I pray that I will have the faith that Stacy has, the knowledge that He Will Carry Me...

I really encourage you to click on the link and spend sometime reading the past blogs of Stacy, that explain where she, her husband Spencer, and their son, Isaac...

It is challenging to think that in the face of such sadness that our God IS a good God...that he has a plan for us..

I have some friends in MD who went through a similar thing last year. I attended their baby's funeral, and i was struck then, too, how awesome their faith was.

If you want to know more about the God that Stacy & her family are clinging to after reading her blogs, just ask me.

I will try to post a real update later!

okay okay okay! TN Travels, Part 1!

2008-09-10T19:02:00.000-04:00

Alright, I know I have taken for-EVAH to update! But I've had a lot going on! :) After 3 weeks in TN, I had kitties to re-bond with, a house to clean, etc! I will probably post a few updates about our TN travels...

First of all, if you don't get the new blog title, it's because you are seriously un-cool... Just kidding! It's a reference from my most favorite show (anyone know it?!) Friends! It is from an episode in season seven. You can see the clip on Youtube, Here.

Joey: "all right, Rach. The big question is, "does he like you?" All right? Because if he doesn't like you, this is all a moo point. "

Rachel: "Huh. A moo point?"

Joey: "Yeah, it's like a cow's opinion. It just doesn't matter. It's moo. "

Rachel: "Have I been living with him for too long, or did that all just make sense?"

ah, one of my most favorite Friends moments!

Well, we drove down to TN by way of Baltimore, MD to see my favorite niece, Charlotte-O.(and her parents, who happen to be my favorite Brother and Sister in Law!) It was too short of a visit, but it was great to see them again! I miss them lots! I am looking forward to going with them to the Outer Banks in October, where my Dad has rented a Beach house! Woot!

We got to TN, where B went to work learning important stuff about nuclear reactors... don't ask me about it though, cuz i totally don't get it! I am the lucky one, cause I got to play all day everyday with my in laws! :) Ann and I went and had tea at a fancy tea room (owned by a British woman!) and did LOTS of shopping!

I got an early Christmas gift- golf clubs! I am learning to golf (sort of!) and so I got to go to the driving range and try out my new clubs with B and his Dad! Yea!! B and Bruce did play one game one day, and B did really good! :)

We also got to go to the Tennessee Aquarium, which was AWESOME. The day we went the penguins were SO active! They were sooo cute, and of course, reminded me why they are my most favoritest animal! The aquarium has two sides, a river side and an ocean side... it is seriously huge! we did it on two separate days! They also had interactive parts... I got to touch a sting ray and a sturgeon! There was a butterfly sanctuary which was also pretty neat. We also did a boat ride on the TN River, which was cool, but we were hoping to have seen a little more wildlife. (Saw LOTS of blue herons though!)

We had lunch in Georgia with Ann's brother and sister and their spouse's, which was really cool! I had never met Uncle Pat & his wife before, so I was really glad to finally do so!

We also got to eat dinner on the REAL Chattanooga Choo Choo! They had a restaurant in an authentic dining car! It was soo cool, and yummy too!

We also went down to GA to go to the World of Coke. Both B and I had been there before, but the two southerner's (Ann and Bruce) had not! Anyway, since we were there last the world of coke has moved to a completely new location, at the Olympic Park where the 1996 Olympic Opening Ceremonies was held. It was totally different than the last time I had been there! Of course I LOVED it! We also got to eat @ the Varsity, which is near GA Tech (Bruce's Alma Mater) and it is the world's largest drive in restaurant. It was cool! ( and Yummy!). On our way home (after B took pictures @ olympic park @ sunset...) we stopped at a LEDO's!!! For those who don't know....Ledo's Pizza originally opened in College Park, MD and is the greatest pizza in the world! And B and I have been missing it!! It was so good to get it again!

That's a good summary of our 3 weeks. I will post another one about all that we did on our trip home!

You can see all the pic's that I have (so far. i don't have B's), Here. *

*when i originally typed this there were lots of pictures.. but i entered them wrong, andi am too lazy to enter them again. So just click on the link :)