Bulky Bags

I’ve tried so hard to be more fashionable and buy fun, girly purses, but I fail miserably each time. My husband even tries to help. He surprises me with cute things like Coach purses or Vera Bradley wallets, but to no avail. I am too practical. You know what I want? Big bulky bags with tons of zippers that I can throw on the floor of the car, can throw dirty bibs with mushed up peas, and then throw in the washer at the end of the day! I get excited just thinking about that.

Even before Miss Belle was in the picture, I’ve loved big bags to carry all my stuff in. I love having everything with me: snacks so I don’t feel the need to stop and buy gross fast food if I’m out and about, my water bottle, my beloved agenda and journal/notepad, and my one million chapsticks, hand sanitizers, and lotions.

Now having Annabelle attached to me most of the time, I want to be able to keep some wipes and a spare diaper and her toys with me instead of lugging her diaper bag places like the grocery store or church. I rarely take her diaper bag in places. I prefer to just have the necessities (which for her, include a diaper, a Sophie or ring to hold, and my body). So while I’m totally in love with my pink Coach purse (a Mother’s Day gift from my husband), I think I will have to put it away for a while and grab one of these instead.

Which one of these mommy friendly bags do you like?

Recording All I Can

I am pretty obsessed with taking pictures and video of Annabelle (if we are friends on Facebook I'm sure you didn't need me to tell you this). I've had this phone since March and I have 522 pictures on it. Let me tell ya, they aren't of me and I'm not exaggerating.

See? 518 of 522. One of my coworkers/customers/friends walked by the other day, and seeing I was on the phone, just said a quick "How is the most photographed baby in the world doing?" He might not have been exaggerating. Anyway, I frantically try to record/document every minute of her life because I think every second is so cute and perfect.

The point of this post? Other than getting to shamelessly show off one of the cutest Annabelle pics in her Bellarina swimsuit as we call it? I wanted to share with you that I've been journaling for Annabelle since the day she came home (well technically, I was journaling for her before that too because I used to write to her when I was pregnant). I love looking back now at those first few days. Back then, in my sleep deprived state, I mostly wrote about her schedule and what I thought she liked and disliked. It was my way of getting to know her and reminding myself of things from day to day. For instance, looking back now, I remember that I couldn't figure her out in the evenings. All she wanted to do was be held or nurse. So that's what we did. I wrote about that at the time, thinking that my baby was never going to be able to make it through an evening without me or David holding her. Now I just smile thinking of those (long when you're in the middle of it) nights.

I also re-read the page I wrote 5 weeks ago when she slept through the night for the first time. You might think that page was written in triumph. It wasn't. I miss her so much during the night that I still wake up once or twice, stare at her and pray for a few minutes, and then go back to sleep. She probably knew she was going to have to drop that night feeding on her own or I would still be getting up with her when she was twelve years old to try to snuggle her, kiss her head, and sing "This Little Light of Mine."

I can only imagine what wonderful memories I will re-read 5 weeks from now or 5 months from now that at the time I thought I would never forget, but wouldn't have remembered if I didn't write them down. I am so happy I started writing to her - even just a paragraph every couple of nights - and I plan to keep it up forever.

Sleep Tight

I love, love, love Aden and Anais! We keep a muslin blanket in her diaper bag and she wears one of the sleep sacks every night and every nap. I think they are adorable and they seem so comfy. Her sleep sack seems like the perfect weight with a nightgown or jammies under. Since she was born I have worried that she was too hot or cold. I am so glad (7 months later) that I am more comfortable about this. Tell me I’m not the only momma out there with an Aden and Anais obsession.

We currently have this sleeping bag:

I don’t know which of these two new sleep sacks to get.

What do you all do to keep your babies comfortable at night?

The Best Weekend!

What a weekend!

Since moving into our house, we have had visitors staying with us each weekend! This seems a little hectic at times, but it is exactly what we wanted and thought about when house-hunting. As you know, we quickly outgrew our little blue house once we turned one of the two bedrooms into the nursery for miss Belle. Over the past year we had really started to get sad about not having any room at all to entertain. Even having people over for coffee was a challenge. Enough of that broken record though, I’m so happy to say that we have filled our house with family and friends as much as possible.

Thursday, Sister #2 got in town. After work we laid by the pool, grilled out, watched fireworks, drank yummy drinks, cuddled Annabelle, and talked, talked, talked. Throw in other people to that mix that came and went all weekend, and that pretty much sums up the next few days!

I loved having our dear friends stay Friday night, Sister #4 and my mom over Saturday morning, and Sister #1 and her familySaturday night. In case you want to keep count, we had me, David, Belle and Bo. Then a sister and dog, a friend with her two year old and dog, and then others in and out all weekend. I’m tellin’ ya. Last night, David and I threw ourselves down on the couch to watch a movie and talked about how we went from one extreme to the other. We went from three years of barely hosting to running a little motel. We really couldn’t be happier about this.

And the best little hostess of all is little Bella bear. The minute she wakes up from a nap she is looking around for aunts, cousins, or friends to talk to. It’s a little bit heartbreaking once everyone leaves. She seems to look around corners for her friends. At least she has Bo. J

I hope your weekend was filled with family and friends! Let me know if you ever want to stop by the Richmond hotel. We’d love to have you!

Deck Days

David and I have always tried to spend as much time as possible outside. We love docks, decks, porches, water, and anything that goes with those things. I'm thrilled to say that Annabelle loves being outside and in water as much as we do. We've spent every possible minute with her outside. She sits in her stroller to watch us play basketball, or sits on our back deck with us for dinner, or splashes in the pool, or anything else we can think of.

The other night we sat on the deck and had drinks and just played with her. David snapped a ton of pictures of Belle and I, and I just realized we were both in some 4th of July gear!

This is one of my favorite weeks of the year. I love our country so much and I get so sentimental this time of year. I know it is an understatement to say I'm proud to be an American, but it's true. I am so thankful for each and every one of our soldiers who have protected our freedom - and their beautiful families who have supported them in doing so.

Today, I'm sitting at work - negotiating away - and listening to "4th of July tracks" on Pandora. It is so encouraging. And I love that this year I get to celebrate with Annabelle. We will try to tell her from an early age that Independence Day is so much more than swimming, cook outs, and fireworks. Although it's all those things too :)

Here are some fun photos from our accidental 4th of July photo shoot. I love this silly girl so much!

Past and Present

There are things that come between friends, but it is apparent when you are truly connected to another person that not much truly separates you for long. This past weekend I spent some time with two of my friends from many, MANY years ago.

I have called Ashley my BFF on and off since about second grade. Now, 20 years later, we had daughters just days apart. And you all know that Emily was my best friend and maid of honor, even after multiple moves states away and now living 5 hours apart.

This weekend was precious to me, because for one hour, we got to all catch up, gather our daughters in the same room, and laugh and talk. From the outside you might not have known it had been nearly 13 years since Emily and Ashley had seen each other (wow! that makes us sound old!). It's been a lot of years and lots of states, but we picked up right where we left off.

Yummy Squash

This morning I made homemade squash for Baby Belle during her first nap.

It was easy and smelled so good. I stole a few bites (before I added the breast milk of course).

I started with this beauty and cut it in half length-wise.

Then I scopped out the seeds and pulpy stuff with a cookie scoop and put it in a glass dish with about an inch of water. Then put it in the oven on 400 for 40 minutes.

Once it looked like this, I used the cookie scoop again to scoop it into my bullet. I added an ounce of breast milk and pureed it.

Voila!

I can't wait for her to give this yummy food a try. This week she started plums so I will need to wait a couple of days to introduce this.

Annabelle eats so many different foods now. I love trying new ones. Here's her list so far:

Apples

Bananas

Pears

Peaches

Plums

Sweet potatoes

Peas

Carrots

Green beans (but we only tried this once and I think it hurt her stomach a little so I am waiting a few more weeks to try again).

Rice

Oatmeal

I have the cutest video from this morning of her eating her breakfast. She says "mmmm" and wiggles after each bite. And in this video, she sneezed all over. I love that I caught it on tape, but I'm not sure how to upload it here. You will just have to take my word for it. She's so precious!

How Does It Survive, You Might Ask?

 

This past Friday I did something I never do. I took the day off to be with Belle and relax. I have never done this before. We were going to go to a wedding in Kansas City that night so I thought this would be a great day to try it. Now, I want to go into early retirement. I can't believe how much I got done while still having the most relaxing day ever. 

I woke up and fed Annabelle and played with her until her nap time. Then I vacuumed the house while David vacuumed the pool. Oh yeah, did I mention he was off of work too? It was like Christmas! After that I made a grocery list and planned meals for the week.

After all of that, it was about 10 a.m. Seriously? So I grabbed my book and headed for the backyard, video monitor in hand. And I sat there, and read. It was wonderful.

I am reading (for the 7thish time) The Life of Pi. It is so good. In one of the beginning parts, the main character is describing the three-toed sloth and his sloth-like ways. It was perfect timing. I was lounging and trying to slow down and was reminded to be at peace in my environement.

Lately,  I can’t fight the nagging voice in my head that chirps at me all day to slow down. I know everyone is busy, so this isn’t intended to be a rant about how busy my schedule is. But let’s be honest, I am one crazy busy momma. I wake up and jump in the shower to get ready for work while Annabelle sleeps, I scarf down a quick breakfast which my adorable, perfect husband (APH) prepares, I get Annabelle up and nurse her, I hand her off to my APH, jump in my car, rush to work, pump the minute I walk in to hoard anything Annabelle didn’t drink, negotiate contracts (this is no small feat in itself…most of these are intense, high-dollar, crazy contracts), rush over to spend my lunch break nursing Annabelle, rush back to negotiate more and meet with vendors or customers, jump in my car and drive like a mad woman to pick up Annabelle so I can steal every possible minute with her, get home to nurse her and lay her down for one quick nap before the evening starts. Then somewhere in the next two hours our evenings include feeding Belle some solids that I made because I’ve convinced myself I can do that for her (enter your own working mommy guilt lines here), playing with her, reading to her, bathing her, cuddling her, wearing her, trying to make her laugh, on and on in the short time we get with her before it’s time to start laying her down for bed, packing up her bags for the next day, washing bottles, and then pumping again…all before 8:30 or 9 when I try to sit down, try to not check  my work email, and try to not stare at the video monitor and think…”Hmm is she really old enough to sleep on her stomach…when should I go flip her back over…is it the day to change her sheets again…I wonder what she’s dreaming about…okay I will go flip her back to her back…” and on and on. Did you notice in there I didn't wiggle in room to eat, make dinner, grocery shop, take a breath, touch base with friends, or anything like that?  Hopefully you didn't notice and skimmed that list instead of reading it word for word anyway.

All of this is just to say I need to learn a thing or two from the sloth (and the books I read), and probably so do you. Like I said, I know I just described pretty accurately the day to day life of most women out there….the majority of them doing this with multiple children (God bless Sister #1 pregnant with twins), or on their own, or without amazing husbands and family to help.

Honestly, all I meant to say was, here’s to Summer 2013. May you all take a deep breath, slow down, snuggle your baby, kiss your husband, and take a Friday to lay by the pool and read.

 

Oh Baby Food

I’ve been making my own baby food for Annabelle. There are a few reasons I’ve chosen to do this. Some are normal person reasons (I like controlling what is in her food and making as healthy of choices as possible…) some aren’t (I feel guilty walking into the baby food aisle at HyVee…like other moms walk by wearing their babies, drinking their green tea in recycled cups, and tisk tisking me for not being more natural).

But regardless, I’ve been doing it and it’s pretty easy and fun. I have it down to a fine art so that I can make a vegetable for the whole week in one quick nap time.

Here are the staples for us right now.

-          Sweet potatoes

-          Peas

-          Carrots

-          Bananas

-          Apples

-          Pears

-          Green beans

I try to buy all of these items organic. Then all I have to do is steam the vegetables and put them in my magic bullet with some stored breast milk, and puree them to death. Then I scoop them into about one tablespoon serving sizes and put them in a tray. After they cool I freeze the tray and the next morning put them in baggies.

Instead of an ice cube tray I use my Wilton mini brownie silicone mold. It has worked perfectly!

If you would like more detail about this, and would like to hear from someone that is probably doing this for more normal person reasons than I, check out Chronicles of a Babywise Mom blog: http://www.babywisemom.com/2013/01/baby-meal-planner-free-printable.html

Happy Pureeing

Half a Year!

How is our Belle 6 months old? Annabelle is so much fun these days. I know I keep saying this, but THIS is my favorite stage.

Here are some quick pictures that we took between her wiggling around everywhere. And, of course, she had to put the card in her mouth.

With the Pool Comes Pests

I have been debating what to do about bugs and Belle. I have not wanted to put any repellent on her of course, but the bugs drive me crazy!

We live outside from the minute we get home from work until it is bed time. And I absolutely love summer, but I despise the bugs anywhere near Bella Bear. What do you all do for bug sprays or repellents?

I found this DIY recipe from the Wellness Mama blog (wellnessmama.com) I'm thinking this might be worth trying.

Wellness Mama Bug Spray Ingredients:
- Essential oils: choose from Citronella, Clove, Lemongrass, Rosemary, Tea Tree, Cajeput, Eucalyptus, Cedar, Catnip, Lavender, Mint
- Natural Witch Hazel
- Distilled or boiled Water Vegetable glycerin (optional)

How to Make Homemade Bug Spray: Fill spray bottle (I used 8 ounce) 1/2 full with distilled or boiled water. Add witch hazel to fill almost to the top. Add 1/2 tsp vegetable glycerin if using. Add 30-50 drops of essential oils to desired scent. The more oils you use, the stronger the spray will be.

Books

I think of life as a good book. The further you get into it, the more it begins to make sense. –Harold Kushner

Since this is a blog about reading and all, I thought I should share some pictures of the reading I've been doing lately. Not quite the same as I'm used to, but I have to admit, I'm enjoying it more than I ever have.

 

 

Try, Try, Try Again

I have to admit that I haven’t always taken the best care of myself. I haven’t ever worried too much about the things I eat, the shampoos I use, or the household cleaners I spray on every possible surface. As a person that thinks too much about everything, it’s weird to say that I never thought too much about it.

That is, until I got pregnant and had Annabelle. Now I can’t stop reading labels, researching products, and cringing every time I hear about another product I’ve been using that has carcinogenic chemicals in it (cough, Johnson & Johnson, cough). I drive myself crazy thinking about what she is breathing in, what her little skin is absorbing, and what her tummy is trying to digest. I have to stop myself from spiraling. And I have David help me make good decisions without completly obsessing.

I still don’t do the best job. I use cheap shampoo, I have an obsession with Lavender Lysol, and Taco Bell is my weakness. However, I am constantly encouraged by my friends who are trying to make little and big changes. I find it motivating to hear their ideas and what they’ve learned. That’s what I love most about this blog world. I thrive off of all you guys out there trying to make the best decisions for your families.  Thank you for sharing. I fully intend to beg, borrow, and steal all of your ideas – especially for things I haven’t tested and tried myself but want to.

For example, one cute mama out there that I trust for some tips is my friend over at http://scarlettmoonblog.blogspot.com/. Ashley tries to live an organic lifestyle as much as possible (plus her little baby S is to die for!). I had been wanting to try The Honest Company products for a few months but hadn’t pulled the trigger. She raved about this line in one of her posts and I submitted my first order this morning. I can’t wait to test their cleaning and body products. I will let you know what I think! Thanks Ashley!

And since I called out Johnson & Johnson, I want to put a quick disclaimer that I trust that they are trying to right what they’ve wronged. They claim by the end of this year the nasty stuff in their baby line should be removed. I’m rooting for you and your night-time lavender lotion that I love so much J&J. Thank you for trying. As soon as you can assure me that these chemicals are gone, I will be back. (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-57493890-10391704/johnson-johnson-to-phase-out-potentially-harmful-chemicals-by-2015/).

What tips do you have to help me make better decisions? Baby steps people, baby steps.
Here's what I grabbed from Target today. I am obsessed with the Basil scent from Mrs. Meyer's for the kitchen. It's so fresh.

Bad Grades in Diapering

I got this text from my best friend/babysitter today. “We managed a poopy diaper today without a blowout!” Who would have known that this would be cause for celebration? You are going to think I overthink everything (if you don’t already know that about me), but to me, this message translated to: I finally figured out the appropriate size of diapers to put on my daughter. Dramatic? Yes.

Ask my poor husband. I make everything about Annabelle’s life dramatic right now. Even to the point of knowing which size and brand of diapers to buy. To me, every decision and event translates to some grade. The other day she went through three outfits because of diaper blowouts. Three! Obviously I deserved a D for that day. I wouldn’t give myself an F quite yet because I at least remembered the diapers…however I did forget spare outfits and Annabelle had to borrow her friend’s outfits…so now, thinking back, I should have received a D-.

So you can see, that when I receive a message from my saint of a sitter that says “We managed a poopy diaper today without a blowout!” I get to celebrate with a big fat A for diapering.

By the way, what brand of diapers do you all use? Maybe you could jump start my Honor Roll Student status…at least for the class of appropriate diapering.

Let's Try This Again

I am sure I have next to zero followers these days, and I will completely take ownership of that. I haven’t been able to find a single minute to blog. But I’ve been here, in the background, keeping up on all of your cute lives.

How do you all find time to do this? I’ve been loving finding more and more blogs to follow – blogs about books and babies, vacations, and anything I can find. I love taking a few minutes and catching up on your lives. Lately this has made me feel a little selfish that I haven’t been contributing too. I used to love to blog. I guess in the past few months I felt like the things I have to say you either wouldn’t be interested in or you might judge me on. And I figured both of those might be silly reasons not to write.

I guess if you aren’t interested in reading my posts, you won’t read them. And I guess if you want to judge some of the things I say, that’s okay too. If you don’t fall into either of those two categories, welcome back!

I will be writing about my life these days….learning new things about parenting my 6-month old (sheesh, she’s growing way too fast for this momma), loving my husband, decorating and taking care of our new house, having fun with my friends, reading good books, and trying to learn new ways to excel at my job.

A couple of books I want to read include The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh and It's All Good (Gwyneth Paltrow's cookbook). What else are you lovelies reading?