iPhone Photo Adventures

This was last weekend in pictures!

1. Scarlett recreating a photo I took of her cousin Makayla around the same age

2. Ethiopian with the Ney Family.. meeting Isaac for the first time!

3. She loved watching him, giggling, etc. Isaac is super handsome!

4. Just relaxing, reading a book at the restaurant, refusing to sit in the high chair

5. The grub. Addisu is the spot. Hit it up if you're looking for local yet authentic cuisine.

6. Watching the parade in front of our house

7. The classic cards were cool, plus everyone threw candy at us, Score!

8. Barnstormers game picture with Makayla. It was chilly in the shade.. brrr!

9. Picture with Aunt Jessica, gorgeous gals!

10. Sunday morning walking practice. She made it to the exersaucer!

11. Just lounging, drinking some water.

12. My first attempts at felt flowers. Moving onto more designs soon!

Hope you had a nice weekend as well!

Lately

Just a couple of notes of what we've been up to lately..

..we finished watching LOST on Netflix. Call me crazy but I actually liked the ending. Just in time for fall shows to start up soon! Yippee!

..I've been stroller striding twice a week (as long as my schedule allows) since the beginning of August and it feels good to get out there and work out. Not to mention the ladies there are super nice and I'm the kind of work out girl that needs other people around doing the same thing I am to motivate me (or pressure me) into keeping up.

..Alex and I keep meaning to start this 5k training app I have on my phone, but things keep getting in the way after work. For some reason we are just fighting the whole 'establish a routine' thing.

..Weekends have been relaxing recently and it's been lovely to say the least. As the weather cools down we have some ideas of how to enjoy the fall, such as apple picking and pumpkin patch visiting.

..Scarlett is pulling herself up on everything and perfecting her crawl. She just started letting go of things to balance for a couple seconds before sitting down, so there's that..

..We just bought a bunch of gates from Alex's coworker and now we just need to figure out how to install them. We're actually thinking of turning the 'eat in kitchen' area beside the kitchen into a little play area that Scarlett can go wild in.

..Volleyball is going to start in a couple of weeks and I'm pretty pumped to be able to play the full season this time (last year I was pregnant and played half the season). Alex is playing Tennis this year as well. He started last week and is really enjoying it so far.

..I'm trying to figure out the best way to keep track of all the baby food we have in the freezer. I currently just have a running list but I feel like there has to be a better way.

..I really want to take a trip to Ikea, but that's a dangerous venture because I really don't need anything. Plus I've been thinking about christmas far too often and have updated my Amazon Wish List and started a Gift List for Scarlett to try to put all my ideas for her in one place.

..I think Scarlett needs shoes. And some fall clothing...... uh oh!

That's probably enough. I'm sure I could go on and on and on but I won't!!

Tough Love pt 2

Well after researching this every single night, I finally found a website that explains everything, and I do mean everything, that I was looking for.

Most of the questions I had were related to how to interact with her after the initial cry it out session. Should I nurse her if she wakes up? Should I even go in and soothe her if it will just make her mad again?

Over the past five nights, she's consistently awakening at 2:30am (last night was a bugger bc she was up more, which we later suspected was a dirty diaper, boo!) and I figured it was because she was hungry but my previous reading and the even the doctor at our last appointment and my own personal opinions made me feel like, she got enough food during the day, she doesn't need to eat at night. I didn't even think about trying to wean her off of night feedings until reading this website that I was reading last night (at 2:00am) and today during my lunch break.

About a million light bulbs flashed in my head about 20 minutes ago. Bringo! I get it now. I am going to start weaning her off of night feedings instead of unintentionally trying to have her go cold turkey. Miss Scarlett is an eater.. I should've known that she wouldn't give up her early morning snacks so easily.

I just wanted to come in and update on this subject and perhaps also point out that "Tough Love" is probably not the most appropriate title. I understand now that crying it out has a point and she learned how to put herself to sleep at bedtime (not without a min or two of crying but it's still a success). It's not an end all excuse to let her cry all night long if she wakes up. Babies have needs and I apologized to Scarlett for missing her cues of hunger (and that dirty dipe, she never poo's at night.. sheesh!). And I told her I wouldn't ignore her cues anymore and that we will be working on sleeping through the night over the next couple of weeks until her she is weaned from eating at night. I hope she understood what I said but who knows! :)

Anyway, Happy Monday to those of you who are reading!

Also, Edited to Add... I'm a total twit for not mentioning the website I was reading! It was TroublesomeTots .. Praise praise praise :)

Tough Love

Last night, we did it.

We let Scarlett cry herself to sleep.

I had every intention to do what I normally do, and nurse her than rock her to sleep, then lay her down gently. After laying her down gently, she opened her eyes and smiled at me, in a sort of.. haha, gotcha lady, you are mine, i am the boss.. sort of way. I knew I didn't want to spend another 15 minutes upstairs trying to rock her back to sleep and lay her down gently. I patted her gently, said it's nigh-night time and promptly left the room. She was angry. I went downstairs to grab my phone so that I could look up how to actually do this and headed back upstairs so I could sit outside her door, which was cracked.

I timed 3 minutes and she was still pretty angry so I went in, laid her down because she was standing up at the crib. I know for a split second she thought I was going to pick her up, which probably brought a glimmer of hope to her little world, right before I laid her down and the agony continued. I said to her gently again, it's nigh-night time, i love you but it's time to go to sleep. And promptly left again. More crying ensued and I was supposed to wait 5 minutes before going in again. Her crys were dying down to whimpers so I stayed out more like 8 minutes and then made a mistake. She was still crying on and off so I thought one more time to go in would be the last. Well that made her mad again when I left, again, but about 5 minutes later she had laid down and fallen asleep.

Success!

She slept until 1:30 am. I walked over to her room, laid her down, told her to go back to sleep and left. Again, she was angry but fell back asleep in about 5 minutes or so.

She woke again at 3:30am. I did the same thing. She was quiet in her crib so I thought I would go and check on her. I found her sitting in her crib looking around. She had been doing that for 15 minutes. I wondered if she was hungry and since she wasn't bawling for me, I did nurse her. When she was done, she was sleepy again and I laid her down again. She wailed again when I left and then fell asleep about 5 minutes later.

She woke for the day at 6:45am.

Overall, I think it was a successful evening. I didn't actually lose anymore sleep than I normally would. I'm hoping tonight goes even better and she can sleep even longer.

It's bittersweet sleep training her, I know it's what is best for her and me but I will miss getting up with her. I will miss her needing me. I will miss holding her limp sleeping body with her head upon my shoulder right before I lay her back down to sleep. Pretty soon, she'll sleep through the night and we won't look back. I do hope to remember these times though, as they truly are precious. Guess we'll just have to have another so I can do it all over again :)

Nursery Update

I added a print to Scarlett's nursery and wanted to share it here, so I took a couple of other pictures of the room as well. Check out this label to see other posts about the nursery. I know I still haven't shared the tree that I painted BUT it is painted and the white flowers are painted on as well. I didn't end up using a stencil bc that was just too time consuming/didn't turn out well, looks wise. I need to paint on the magenta flowers and I also plan on putting some 3-d elements on as well (depending on how they look when a couple are put up).

I saw this pin on pinterest and yes, it's taken me a while but I finally got around to designing my own. It incorporates Scarlett's room colors and mini theme of butterflies. I really like it, and this actually is the third draft. :)

Tad disappointed that my paper is whiter than the frame but oh well!

There are a couple other pieces I have in mind for this wall.

My awesome consignment find! And handmade mobile.

Trinket shelf. The black bear is from the Smoky Mtns, and the tea set is from Alex's cousin Rachel (and her husband Ewan) from Scotland. The tiny beach themed box contains a tiny bracelet from my mom from a cruise, I believe.

Made that thingy from paper towel, toilet paper rolls.

 Next project coming up is creating an alphabet book for Scarlett with her favorite things! Al la this pin!

If anyone is interested in a print like the one above for their own babe, I'd love to make you one. It's not hard and you could pick the colors too. :)

Playtime with the Hix Family!

Harper & Scarlett

Love Harper's watermelon outfit!

They definitely like to trade toys.. sharing is going to be a fun concept!

The Hix Family!

The Brubaker Family!

Bethany Beach 2012

Included below are some pictures from our Bethany Beach trip from the beginning of August. We had a great time as we always do and it was extra special sharing Scarlett with her Aunts, Uncles and cousins who she doesn't get to see as much as we would like because they live a state or two away. I'm not going to lie though, taking a baby on vacation is hard work. It really wears on sleep schedules and just the amount of sand she could get on her in such a short amount of time plus the clean up afterward was a lot. We're figuring it will be easier next year when she's a bit older and walking. Just keepin' it real!

South Bethany Beach on Dwellable

Scarlett :: 7 months

Stats (approx)
Weight- 20-21 lbs
Height- 28.5"

Eats
She eats two meals a day, for breakfast she has cereal and a fruit and for dinner she has a veggie and a fruit. The cereal is organic and from Target, Earths Best?. They have 3 different kinds that we switch between. Her fruits and veggies have been a mix of Plum Organic squeezies and homemade baby food. I plan to freeze a lot over the next couple of weeks to get some of summers best all frozen for her for the fall. This includes Spaghetti Squash, Broccoli, Spinach, Peaches, Pears and Apples. Usually I pick a couple and mix them together like Plum does with the squeezies, then she gets lots of flavors all together!

She also nurses about every 3 hours and drinks bottles while I'm at work about every 3-4 depending on activities happening around her.

Sleeps
She has been teething hardcore the last couple weeks so sleeping has been difficult for her. We got her an amber teething necklace and put it on the other day and this has definitely improved her mood and sleep. She wakes twice a night to eat generally now, around midnight and around 3am and then 6 am where sometimes I can get her back to sleep and sometimes I can't. I am okay with this schedule and I'm in no rush to sleep train, despite what I may have said a couple weeks ago (not on the blog). We did move her to her own room a couple weeks ago and she has been doing well! Alex and I have been sleeping upstairs in the other bedroom so that we're close by but my sleep has definitely improved now that i'm not checking her every second (exaggeration).

Activities
She crawls like a pro now and pulls herself up on furniture. She is very brave and lets go of the furniture a lot to try to balance. Her balance is not the best but it's getting better little by little. It is bittersweet that she is so mobile. I know it's awesome and all but she's growing up way too fast. She still loves swimming in pools, though she prefers private homes vs public pools. She has been very vocal the last couple weeks and has resorted to happy yelling a lot. Sometimes we hear a "Ba.." or a "Da.." or even a "Ma..". I know these sounds barely mean anything at this point but we hear a lot more sounds unrelated to the ba, ma, da which is great!

Other
She enjoyed the beach a couple weeks ago, ate some sand, yes and was scared of the waves when her feet were on the ground and the were splashing on her.

She is very loving. I put my head to her head and she just smiles so wide. It's also pretty easy to make her laugh, I kiss attack her like you can see below and she just laughs her face off. It's awesome! She loves hair. She pulls and tugs at my hair all day long and likes to tug at other people's hair too if they're holding her. I'm not sure what her obsession with it is but her hair is growing faster now so soon she'll have her own to pull.

Enjoy some pictures below :) 

 

 

 

Squash Tots

This summer, Alex grew some spaghetti squash and much less zucchini than previous years. We may have to up the ante next year due to this recipe bc oh my goodness I could eat a ton of these little buggers.

I saw this recipe originally on Pinterest, which actually directs you to this blog post (cutting out the middle man, sorry Pinterest), using zucchini. That is the first squash we tried it with and they were yummy! Then we had spaghetti squash, as I mentioned, on hand so we decided to try it with that and they turned out even better! I'm also thinking this will be a killer kids side dish in a year or so. Maybe with a little less onion though!

I will go over the details of the recipe below because it's so easy and also because I took the recipe from above and times it by 4 because I had 4 cups of squash to use.

First, this is pretty time consuming if you're using spaghetti squash and far less time consuming if you're using zucchini. Spaghetti squash you have to cut and then roast and then scoop out. Zucchini you just have to shred. I roasted a lot of squash one night so that I could puree a bunch for baby food for Miss Scarlett and I put the extra in the fridge because I planned to freeze it to make tots in the near future. Later in the week, I just decided to make the tots and then freeze them so I could pop them in the microwave for an easy breakfast, which by the way, these are awesome for breakfast!

Recipe//
Makes approx. 50 tots
Oven Temp: 400 F
Oven Cook Time: 18 minutes +/-

Ingredients//
4 cups of squash (if this is zucchini, you need to shred it with a box grater and then squeeze out as much water as humanly possible, if it's pre-cooked spag squash then no need to do that)
4 eggs
1 cup of breadcrumbs (we used Panko)
1+ cup of sharp cheddar cheese, I just eye balled it
1 onion finely diced (these are quite oniony with this amt, put as much as you see fit)
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions//
Mix it all together
Put it into a greased (or ungreased if you use Pampered Chef's, I found this out by accident!) mini muffin tin and push down on them with a spoon to really press it in so they don't fall apart when taking them out.
Put it in your pre-heated oven for between 16-20 minutes. 18 minutes is my oven's sweet spot.
If you plan to eat them immediately, let them cool for a couple minutes and then jab them with a fork to pull them out.
If you plan to freeze them, let them cool down to room temp and then put them on a tray in the freezer for an hour or so until they're solid, then transfer to a freezer safe bag or container. I put ours in a container bc they will not be lasting long!

To heat them after they're frozen, put them in the microwave for 1 minute.

Wham, Bam, check out the pictures below!
{ps. is this font hard to read??}

All fits in one nice bowl for easy cleanup!

Don't forget the cheese.. mmmm

What Scarlett was up to while I was making these!

Ready for the oven and completely out of focus :)

Missing a couple bc my husband couldn't resist :)

Ready for the freezer!

RSVPing in the 21st Century

I'm gonna flip the switch and talk about something unrelated to my baby and talk about something that really grinds my gears about this here (my) generation of peoples.

Now I've been thinking about this for a long time and it comes to a head each time there is a party to throw and invitations to send. Remember back when you were little and your mom wanted to throw you a birthday party (or for some of you, like my mom, who did this for their children) and so she bought some invitations and sent them out. She wrote RSVP on there so that she would know how many kids were coming and how much pizza to buy or how many gift baggies to make up. And the beauty of this was that people actually called to say they were or were not coming. The whole point of the RSVP! That model worked for so long, for obvious reasons.. people were more decent back then I guess.

This brings me to now. Or really, 5 years ago when people really started using Facebook to send invitations etc and the whole RSVP world collapsed in on itself (for my generation). Here's the thing about using FB to track your event.. you don't really know how often people check their facebook. It's not like a text message,which you know the person received, even if they don't have the decency to respond promptly or sometimes at all. It's not like mailing an invite because obviously they have a mailbox and they check their mail. See this is where I failed for the first time. I tried to throw my husband a surprise 25th birthday party and thought, "ok, FB is perfect for this" .. it turned out that maybe 6 people out of -i don't know- 25 actually said they were coming, some said maybe, some said no. Maybe??!! Really? Are you waiting until the day of to see what the plans are for that day before deciding to come. Maybe should be removed from that scenario. It's yes or no, plan in advance and then stick to it. I've also sent numerous actual mailed invitations only to hear nothing back and then I have to go forth and contact those people to find out if they're coming or not, when most of the time it's no, they aren't coming. They were probably scared to call (or text, again, really?) with the word no, even though it's just a word and it's necessary a lot more then people admit these days.

I try to be as honest as possible with these events on FB now since I am so utterly peeved with my own experiences. Same with mailed invitations, I try to RSVP the day I get the invitation to get it out of the way after I've checked my calendar. Call me crazy, but it's just considerate.

Just as a sidebar, I am not hating on the use of FB as a means to send an invitation. It honestly is the easiest way to get it done, track who's coming and who's not (when people are honest), give information to them that can be easily found if forgotten, etc. I'm hating on people here, okay? People in general in a digital world who can't take 5 seconds to RSVP.

The Great Smoky Mountains

Okay, so it took like a month to get pictures up of our trip, but here they are. I did not get a chance to edit these (ahh!) but they are up here none the less! Enjoy!

Dream Home(s)

I don't think I've ever shared this on here but I most definitely have a dream home. Honestly, I kind of have two.. one that is realistic and one that is.. not. Both have some similar features and I've tailored them to my likes. I had a dream the other night that I was walking through the realistic one. That's what I do when I want to go back to sleep, I imagine myself walking through my dream homes. It's my 'counting sheep' if you will. I just remember in the dream that the house was fantastic.. and now literally makes it a dream home.

Take a looksie:

This is the original plan that I edited to my likes. See below :)

This is the real thing, the one I walked through in my dream the other night. I only had the pleasure of going through the kitchen and great room into the master and through the walk in closet. In the great room we would have a wall of windows and a huge back porch that is covered. I love the openness of the plan and how everything surrounds the great room/dining room/kitchen areas. I also added stairs that weren't in the original plan because I would want a basement for storage and more living space. I have a floor plan for this I created but basements are kind of boring.

Main Floor of the Unrealistic Dream Home, not so open though which is a downside.

2nd Floor of the Unrealistic Dream Home

Scarlett :: 6 months!

I can't believe my bitty baby is half a year old. She gets more awesome each day!

Stats
Weight- 19 lbs 11 oz (90%)
Length- 28" (97%)

Eats
Scarlett mastered eating cereal during her 5th month. She eats cereal twice a day and in the morning usually has a fruit and in the evening has a veggie (if we have one ready to steam). She doesn't seem to dislike any foods so far which is good but we haven't given her that much variety yet. Her favorite so far would be cantaloupe in the mesh net thingy.

She still nurses a lot as well. When i'm present she eats about every 2 hours.. still. If you asked me why, i'd say it's for comfort. When i'm not around, I would guess it's more like every 3 hours or so. Breastfeeding has really started to drop the pounds for me, which is nice. I'm trying to ride that out as much as I can, while I can..

Sleeps
At the beginning of month 5, she was only waking up about once a night. We went on vacation and it messed everything up. She was getting better then I went to my parents and that messed everything up again. I think this has to do with her teething. She wakes up crying a lot. She could barely go to bed last night bc they must've been hurting her so much. The good news though is that she's napping for longer. We think this is because she's crawling and burning more energy.

Activities
Yep, she crawls now. She just started in her last week of month 5. She's been scooting/inch-worming a lot and now she full on crawls. We really have to supervise her now because if we leave the room, she'll be somewhere completely different. Luckily we don't have stairs in the vicinity but she is already trying to climb up on us, next is probably furniture. Slow down! She also sits really well now and can transition from crawling to sitting back to crawling with ease. She just cannot sit still!

Other
She loves swimming, maybe we'll sign up for the Y's baby swim class soon because this girl would crawl to water if she saw it. She's been doing great in the car recently, she learned to adapt while we were in TN and car riding was the thing to do. She gives hugs and kisses. She tried to climb up our bodies while hugging us. It's so neat to see her understand when we say come here and she crawls over. She laughs hysterically at her cousin, Makayla and smiles a lot in general. She's such a happy girl! She's just moving into 6-9 month clothing now (for the most part).. it's time to retire some onesies!

Parenthood is truly amazing. I loved the tiny infant stage because they were so cuddly, but this stage she's in right now is so fun. Especially since she can kind of understand things we say/do. I know things are only going to get even better and while we cannot wait for that, we also want time to slow down. We definitely enjoy and try to savor every moment we can!

10 Things :: V7

10 :: Blogging. I suck at finding time to do this. Yes. I. Do. I like blogging and I don't really have trouble finding things to write about it's just finding the time to do it. I'll work on it.. :)

9 :: Alex and I started watching Lost together on Netflix. It's interesting so far to say the least. I might have ruined it for myself by reading the wiki on it but it doesn't bother me.

8 :: I'm finally back to my pre-pregnancy weight! I hope this breastfeeding thing can help me shed even more pounds.. now if i could only stop drinking soda!

7 :: Look, I made it through the first three without mentioning Scarlett, I do have a life outside my baby! ;) She's awesome by the way, I'm currently trying to teach her how to go to sleep on her own (while I lay beside her) it's kind of inconsistent though. I also think she's teething, which means she wakes up crying for no reason sometimes. Ouchies.

6 :: We just returned from the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. Post coming on this!

5 :: We're really enjoying our CSA this year so far. Alex has been making us some yummy dinners with our fresh organic veggies and the fruit share has been decent as well. Tomatoes are ripening.. this means unlimited salsa is on the way!

4 :: I've been following the bachelorette this season and next week we get to find out who wins. Team Jef for sure. Arie's family just doesn't seem like the right fit for Emily and Ricki. I hope she makes the right choice and it sticks.

3 :: We had a sushi making party with friends a couple weekends ago and it was de-licious! I wish I would've taken more pictures but maybe I will write a post on all the prep and planning that it took in case someone wants to do it on their own. Making sushi is surprisingly easy!

2 :: Somebody might be crawling now. I'll try to take a video to upload. It's good, but also.. not so good. A lot comes along with having a mobile baby and I was kind of hoping to keep her immobile for a little while longer. Oh well, there's no stopping this girl!

1 :: I have so many iphone pictures to put on here but surprisingly, I don't take as many as I used to. I'm not sure why this is and when I think about it, i usually end up snapping a ton at one time. We have been trying to use our regular camera though and I want to get a picture of all of our family members faces so that I can make her a faces book so she can learn everyone faces and names. This goes along with me wanting to make a digital scrapbook each year for her, I should probably start that now so I don't have to do it all at once, huh?

Scarlett :: 5 months!

Stats (approx)
Weight: 18 lbs (7 lb 7 oz at birth)
Length:  " (20.5" at birth)

Details
Eating: We started solids this month. Maybe I should rephrase.. we are trying to start solids. We're pretty inconsistent but so far she's tried sweet potatoes, avocado, steel cut oatmeal, asparagus, rice cereal and bananas. She's getting better and better at opening her mouth and letting us put the food in. She still nurses (or eats a bottle on days I work) about every 2-3 hours. Bottles seem to last her longer, i'm sure there are many reasons for that. Just this past weekend into this week she has been hungrier than usual, so she may be going through a growth spurt.

Sleeping: She consistently wakes up only once a night now. Rarely, she'll wake up twice. Sometimes she rutches around and I just put her pacifier back in and she goes back to sleep. I'm going to start experimenting with this at the 3/4am hour when she wakes up to see if that will help. She is still a cat napper but throws a curve ball and sleeps for an hour or more sometimes. Last week she gave me a 2 hour nap! I did NOT know what to do with myself.. so I watched the Bachelorette and now of course I have to continue to keep up with it.

Activity/Skills:She is rolling around like crazy. If we put her favorite toys out of her reach she will make her way there by rolling/scooting until she gets to it. Mover and a shaker, this girl! She is starting to push up on her hands and knees in the 'ready to crawl' position, this just happened in the last couple of days. She also has just started to sit up unassisted (with supervision) for longer periods of time. I guess 5 month's is a good age to check off a bunch of milestones?

Other: Scarlett went swimming for the first time in Richmond, VA at the neighborhood pool. She loved it! My timing was a little off because after about 10 minutes in the water she was sleepy so she took a nap, then we did a little more swimming then she was hungry, then we did a little more swimming! She sure loves splashing around! Not to mention her swim suits are the cutest! She's enjoyed swimming pools a couple more times this past month and I swear it's like a giant bath tub to her, she loves it!

We do wish she would grow some hair but it's coming in slowly. She also has a party going on in the back (aka a mullet of sorts).

This month she has started laughing at different things. She loves to watch her cousin, Makayla, dance and sing and play peek-a-boo. Animals (cats/dogs) also crack her up. She has a couple tickle spots on her tummy that I get at in the morning and she still loves being outside and taking baths. She doesn't have too many dislikes at this point, at least not off the top of my head.

It's hard to believe she's already 5 months old. Seems like only yesterday.....