Ducky Tub

I followed Krystyna's advice and looked in Walmart after I failed to find an inflatable tub in-stock at BRU (I know...something out-of-stock at BRU...shocking!). Even though I generally hate Walmart, I had to love it today because I found the ducky tub! It's seriously just too darned cute. It even quacks. Now the trick is for one of us to actually inflate it so she can take a bath tomorrow night. Good thing we have a foot pump!

In other news, we finally have a real highchair! Mealtime was getting pretty pathetic. We were still putting her in a bouncer to eat her solids (when she was in the kitchen, we had her booster seat in the sunroom...it's just now always ideal conditions to feed her out there). Becky has had one for us for awhile, but it was never a good time to pick it up or when I was over there, I had too much stuff in my car to fit it in. Ed stopped by there today on his way back from the wedding rehearsal to pick it up. Yay! :) And then he decided not to go to the other thing he was going to go to tonight. Double yay! :)

Start Practicing Your Scream!

New Kids on the Block are coming to the Verizon Center on October 2nd! Woooooooooooooooooooo!!! Tickets go on sale next month! I'm so there!

I Got My Baby Back, Baby Back, Baby Back...

It was definitely novel to be baby-free for a whole day, but I was oh-so-happy when I finally got to see her today. I missed her very, very much. And she was very happy to see me too. I got the biggest smile, giggles and happy/excited kicks. Yay. :) I'm on my own for most of the day tomorrow. Ed has a wedding rehearsal to go to during the afternoon...for a wedding that's still two weeks away. I know! Then he's supposed to go to a "reception" in the evening for one of his work peeps that got married in St. Lucia last month. Good times for him...boring times for me. At least I can play with my Abby-doodle.

Perhaps Abby and I will trek on over to BRU to get her an inflatable tub. Hopefully they carry inflatable tubs in store. I know they have them on their site, but I'm not sure if it will be there when we go. All of a sudden, Abby hates baths. She used to love them, but the past three times we've bathed her, it's been tears galore. I'm thinking maybe the baby tub is getting too small and uncomfortable for her. I'm still not ready to just plop her in the big tub yet, so we're going to try the inflatable one. Assuming I can find one I don't have to pay shipping for. I hate to pay for shipping!

And for my fellow bargain hunters, I got cheap ice cream today. Walgreens had their Ben and Jerry's on sale, buy one get one for a penny, this week (through tomorrow). If you go to Smartsource.com, there should be a coupon for $1 off 2 that you can print twice (or at least it was there last week). I got my B&J's on for about $1.75 each. Yeehah.

Happy Birthday To Me!

Yup, 31 is here. Definitely not nearly as traumatic as 30 was. Just another year closer to the next horrible milestone. ;) Thanks Val, Kathy, Meg and Becky for the birthday wishes (in one form or another). :)

The real trauma of today is the fact that we're spending our first night without Abby since she was born. :( My MIL has been chomping at the bit to get her overnight for months now, so I finally gave in so Ed and I could go out for my birthday. We had a nice dinner and he took me out for ice cream. Woohoo. Now I just miss my baby. But, it's good to get her used to spending the night without us on occasion. It will do all three of us good. We talked to his mom around 7:30 and she had just fallen to sleep. She was a good girl all day, so that makes me feel a little better. I'll be happier when I'm back with her tomorrow.

Randomness

-Stupid cable has been down, so I haven't been able to get online at home for a couple of days. Blah.
-My first Mother's Day was pretty good. Exhausting, but good. Abby and I made four stops in one day. The best was my sister's house for a mother's day cookout...yummy food and good company. Ed did good with the gift...I got a gift certificate to a spa. Woohoo!
-I was right about tooth number two being right behind the tooth number one. It popped up the next day. :)
-My birthday's in two days. I'll be old plus a year. Heh. I'm over the 30-thing now...it is what it is. You're only as old as you feel (although some days I feel pretty darned old).
-I got my driver's license renewed today. It was actually pretty painless. The new MVA express up this way is quick and easy. I could have done it by mail, but dumb me forgot about it until it was too late to mail it in. Oh well, at least now I can mail it next time instead. :)
-That's all...I'm tired and I have to load the dishwasher before I go to bed. Or else I'll be washing bottles by hand in the morning. So not going to happen!

7 Months!

And yet another month flies by. I can't believe how big my little baby is getting. I remember when I could hold her in one arm...not anymore! But she's still such a good baby. She's curious about everything and loves to play with whatever she can get her hands on. She sits up on her own like a pro and rolls all over the place. She's been babbling away and Ed and I are both trying our best to get her to say either "mamamamama" or "dadadadadada" (it depends on who's talking to her). I know we still have a little time before we get to that, but it's fun to try. ;) She's now eating solids three times a day and she's started on meat dishes at night. She's all about anything with chicken right now. And we've discovered the joy of puffs.

And for a monthday present, Abby got...her first tooth! Woohoo! She's been a little grumpy the past few evenings and now we know why. It's the one on right side (if you're looking at her) in the center bottom. That toothless grin that I love will be gone before I know it. But, she'll be eating real foods before I know it too. I have a feeling that the other bottom one will be along shortly as well.

Here's her official monthday picture:

No worries, she wasn't going around all day yesterday in bare legs. She was actually in her jammies all day because she was over grandma's house and grandma likes to keep her in the sleepers. I just liked this dress and she'll probably won't have a chance to wear it out, so I put her in it to take the picture. :) Ed keep getting her to smile, but we couldn't time the smile with the camera. This was the best one we could get. But I like it. :)

Another Half Weekend

Yup...had to work another Saturday. Blah. It wasn't too bad though...I had our spring "Teacher Open House," so that kept me busy for most of the day. Not that many teachers showed, but I only do what the company says I have to do. At least it made the day fly by.

When I got home yesterday, Ed had just put Abby down for a nap. He was watching her in the monitor and when I came and said hello to him, he saw Abby's head pop up at the sound of my voice. So I had to go get her and cuddle her for awhile (not that I minded in the least). I love getting her out of her crib...as soon as she sees me or Ed she grins from ear to ear and starts to giggle. It's the little things in life.

After she had a little snooze, we went to Kohl's and to one of the Timonium garden centers. We got some stuff for Abby and a large azalea bush for his mom for Mother's Day. I was supposed to get my mom a couple of hanging baskets for Mother's Day, but she called me today and said that she went out and bought them herself because she saw one that she loved. Grrrrrrrrrrrr. But, she gave me another idea, so I'll just have to work on that instead.

Speaking of Mother's Day, I thought I had bought all the Mother's Day cards we needed the other day, but then I realized that I forgot to get grandmother cards from me and Ed. Too many cards this year...everything is doubled because of the baby. Heaven forbid anyone doesn't get a card just from Abby. Plus, Ed still has to buy me cards (it's my first Mother's Day after all, I must insist that I get my cards). We should own stock in Hallmark.

Today was okay. Ed had softball early, so Abby and I opted to stay home and snooze instead. We went to Target to get a couple of things and then played for awhile. I even managed to get a few things done around the house. We even lowered her crib, which we've been meaning to do for awhile. It was still on the first setting. At least we don't have to cover her Ocean Wonders Aquarium with the bumper pad anymore (not that it stopped her from playing with it once she figured out how to get it out of the way...we only had it like that she she didn't hit it with her head while she slept). She's getting so big. It's a little sad, actually.

Claire and Daddy

Hehehe...cute, short video of my Claire-Bear and Scott. Listen closely...she gets a little excited at the end and misses a couple of numbers.:)

I Hate Meetings

Especially when they involve driving to and from Pikesville during rush hour. Blah. At least the meeting was semi-useful. There was an actual focus this year, which there usually isn't. That helped a lot...I didn't feel like I spend half the day there for nothing. The food wasn't bad either, so that helped put me in a better mood. :) Plus, I got to go to the good Trader Joe's afterwards. I got a few bags of shrimp and some tuna steaks. Yum.

Baby was in a foul mood this evening. It was like a perfect storm. She was hungry, sleepy, gassy and congested...all at the same time. She whined the whole time I was feed her the solids because of the other three issues. She downed her bottle though and was in a much better mood after that. She played for awhile and then went down without a problem. Hopefully she'll feel better tomorrow.

I Said Brrrrrrrrrrr...

We did wind up going to softball with Ed and it was a little chillier than it was supposed to be. So I spent most of the time keeping Abby warm. She was fine...she had on a sweat jacket with the hood up and I snuggled her to me wrapped in the extra part of the blanket I was sitting on. She seemed to have fun, until she got sleepy and didn't want to fall asleep against me. I tried to explain to her that she used to sleep that way all the time, but she didn't believe me. Eventually she did doze off, so that was good. Ed's team split the series (they play 2), which he was thrilled about since it was a team that they haven't beaten in ten years. He played really well too, thanks to me. ;)

Hey...if any of my weirdo-NASCAR-lovin' friends wants a red, 12-month onesie with the #9 car (whoever's that is) on it, let me know. My SIL gave it to me in a big bag of Kaylee's old clothes. Obviously, my child will not be wearing it. NASCAR, blah!

Working Weekends Sucks

With apologies to any of my wonderful co-workers who may be reading this who have to work a heck of a lot more weekends than I do. But, you have to admit, it does suck. I would much rather be at home with my family since Ed typically doesn't work weekends. Plus, now softball season is in full swing, which screws up my Sundays. Blah.

Besides working, I also ran to the grocery store on my way home, brought in and put away all the groceries, played with Abby, fed Abby, gave Abby a bath, and made dinner. What was Ed doing all this time? He was actually very productive today as well (despite the fact that Abby was having a nap-strike today). He mowed the lawn and did the initial set-up for his vegetable garden. That was actually a lot of work...he totally redid the whole shape of the garden, used landscaping bricks to outline it and then built it up so that he can get a garden fence to go high enough to keep the bunnies out of his beans. It took him a couple hours to finish it, but it looks really nice. Now he just has to plant everything. I think he's doing beans, kale (gag) and tomatoes. He has a pretty good green thumb. I, on the other hand, kill all plants that I come into contact with. At least I hate yard work anyway. ;)

Tomorrow Abby and I are going to go to softball with Ed. Hopefully the weather will cooperate better this week. It's supposed to be in the mid-to-upper 60's and cloudy...but no rain until the evening. Keep your fingers crossed that it stays that way. :)

Useless, but Awesome

That would be the "Pizza Tracker" feature on the Domino's website. I have long since discovered the joy of ordering my pizza via Internet, mainly because I hate the phone and talking to stupid people on said phone. So, easy-peasy Internet ordering it is. We decided to splurge a little tonight and get a pizza. The "Pizza Tracker" is a lovely little innovation on the site that gives you real-time updates on how your order is going. For example, my pizza was packaged and placed in a hot Heatwave box at 8:05 pm. Good to know. ;)

Apparently Val is completely insane and has decided to invite about 120 people to Jordan's first birthday party. Oy. I don't even think I know 120 that I would invite, much less be able to figure out how to get them in my house. Good luck with that one, Val! Hopefully we'll be able to make it. I thought it was supposed to be on that Saturday, not Sunday...so we told his parents that we would spend the rest of the weekend with them at their other house. I'll try to work it out though.

And finally, it looks like Meg and Erin are planning a group play date for when our long-lost friend Tracy is back in town from Hong Kong. Best part...it involves margaritas for the mommies. Score!

What Was I Thinking?

This being the first day of Ed's softball season, I thought I would be a good wife and go watch him. We were going to take the baby too, but the weather forecast wasn't looking too good. We dropped her off at Ed's parents' house instead. I should have just stayed there with her, but off to the game I went. It was a little chillier than I had anticipated, so I was already a little uncomfortable in the jeans and short-sleeved shirt I was wearing. Then, just before the first game started (yup, they're always double-headers), it started to drizzle. Then the thunder and lightening started. They decided to play anyway, so I tried my best to ignore the rain. About twenty minutes into it, the skies opened up and it started to pour. I gathered up my stuff and made a beeline for the car. Soaked and freezing, I decided I'd had enough of the outdoors for one day and enjoyed the rest of the games from the front seat. Good times, I tell ya!

In other news, Abby has mastered the art of rolling from her tummy to her back. At least, she's mastered it while in her crib. As in, if we put her down and she decides she's not quite ready for a nap, she'll roll onto her back to play with her feet for awhile. She'll usually start to fuss not long after that, so we have to turn her over to her tummy so she'll go to sleep. She rolls onto her tummy on the floor all the time, but won't do that in her crib. Strange child. She'll also roll onto her back once she's done sleeping and we're taking to long to rescue her from the crib. She's so proud of herself when we go in and exclaim over what she did. Too funny. Next time I change her sheets, we'll be moving the matress down a level or two.

Movin' On Up

We have officially moved up to the level 2 foods for her dinner. I had to reduce the amount of cereal I give her at that time from 3 tablespoons to 2, but after that she'll eat the entire container of veggies. Today she devoured a container of "Garden Vegetables." I think it had carrots, beans and spinach. I guess the carrot taste was strong enough to negate the bean taste. She also had a mix of squash and corn and seemed to like that too. Good thing...I was getting bored with the level 1 foods. ;) She has less than a week's worth of level 1 fruits left, so we'll be moving up in the morning soon too.

Not much else going on right now. We did a little shopping early this afternoon (I sweet talked Ed into buying me Juno) and then met my mom for lunch. Then Ed installed Abby's carseat into my mom's car, so now she can take Abby places (and pick her up from daycare for me if I'm desperate). Now she just has to figure out how to get Abby in and out of it and we're in business. ;)

Can you believe how nice the weather has gotten? I'm actually hot right now. Our house has been open for the past few days and I'm loving every minute of it. Not only does it feel great, especially at night when it cools down, but we're saving a ton off of our BGE bill. Score!

And I'll end with saying: GO O'S! They beat the poo out of the Yankees last night and they're ahead 4-0 in the 6th right now. WOOHOO! So far this season, they've been pretty fun to watch.

I Love BNL!

That's Barenaked Ladies for those not in the know. Here's a video for a song off their first kids CD coming out May 6th. Abby and I must own it! Anyway, the song and video are hysterical. Enjoy!

6-Month Checkup

Yesterday I had the fun of taking Abby to her 6-month checkup by myself. Blah. Actually, I forgot it was supposed to be yesterday. I somehow lost the appointment card and was too lazy to call the office to see when the appointment was supposed to be. They always call the day before to remind us anyway, so when I called my home machine from work on Thursday, I got the reminder. Luckily, I have the ability to be pretty flexible about my schedule at work, so I just changed my hours to 10:30 to 7 for her 9:15 appointment.

Anyway, here's the usual stats: Weight: 17 lbs 12 oz (75th percentile); Length: 27 inches (90th percentile); and once again, her head circumference is in the 25th percentile. Heh. Don't know where she got that tiny head from. Other than that, everything looks good and she's a healthy little girl. She wasn't too thrilled with the shots, but who can blame her? Actually, the first one didn't bother her. It wasn't until after the second that she noticed something was amiss and it was all over once we reached the third and fourth shots. Poor baby. But she got to go to Grandma's house right afterwards, where she got lots of love and comfort, so it was all okay.

Today I went to visit Becky, who was watching Val's baby, Jordan. My poor sister. For anyone who doesn't know, Becky is preggo once again (yay!) and is due in October (we're hoping for right around, but not on, Abby's birthday so we can combine parties). She was trying to take care of Jordan, who had taken a liking to her, but Claire was having none of it. If Becky was holding Jordan, Claire was pretty sure she was supposed to be the one being held instead. She wouldn't even go to Scott, she only wanted Becky. Naturally, Jordan wouldn't go to Scott either. Let's hope that Claire gets past this phase by October, or that she's like I was when Becky was born and decides to cling to Daddy instead once the new baby arrives. Oy.

6 Months Old!

Holy moley...I have a six-month old! She's officially half-a-year old. Crazy, I tell you! Yet, it's hard to remember life without my little bundle of joy. I couldn't be happier with my sweet baby and I'm grateful for her everyday. :)

This month she mastered solid foods, she's working on sitting up on her own, she loves to play (especially in her Exersaucer), Ed can get her to belly laugh to the point of hiccups, she's starting to hold her bottle by herself a little, she recognizes more people, and she's now a jumping bean (see video).

She's so much fun and I can't wait to see what she learns next!

Actually...

I figured out the "share" link so that none of my personal info comes up. So here you go!

Adventures in Photo-Land

So we got Abby's six-month portraits done. They turned out pretty cute...I can't wait to get the prints. I liked the Sears place, so I got the "Smile Savers" membership. If you spend over $50 (which we unfortunately did), it's only $10. We get free sittings (not that I paid this time...coupons are my friends), a free 8x10 every time you go and if you go Monday through Thursday, you get buy-one-get-ones for whatever you get. Monday through Thursday is no problem since I'll never go back on the weekend. What a pain in the dupa. We had the pictures taken yesterday and had to go back today to view them since they were under-staffed and over-booked. Working retail, I can relate, so I couldn't really get annoyed. We'll be able to pick up the pictures on the 16th. If anyone is dying to see them, let me know and I'll e-mail you the link. :)

Other than that, it's been a boring weekend. Got a couple things done around the house and went to CVS this morning to get my weekly deals. I spent a little more than I meant to because the teenage cashier missed my $9.98 Extra Care Bucks voucher. I wasn't paying attention when he rang me up, but then realized that it seemed like I had estimated it to be a lot less. So I studied my receipt and realized what he did, then had to go and get my voucher back. I'll just use it next week instead.

Tomorrow I have plans to go out for lunch with my work buddies, so that will be fun. We're supposed to go to the Chinese Buffet, but I'm almost leaning towards Chick-Fil-A. Apparently they're giving away free milkshakes with any purchase on Mondays all month. Score! I love me some Chick-Fil-A milkshakes!

C is for Cookie, That's Good Enough For Me!

Sorry, I've been listening to the Sesame Street Platinum CD that I bought for Abby. A lot. Is it wrong to admit that I like it better than she does at this point? No? Good.

Not too much exciting going on this week. We're taking Abby to get her six-month pictures done at Sears today. As much as I like Picture People, I just can't afford to go there every three months for the pictures we want to get done. Although I'm thinking of splurging for her first birthday and getting those pictures done there. In the meantime, Sears has some great deals that I couldn't pass up. I'll get out of there for about $60 with what would have cost me about $100 more at PP. I gotta go with the bargain. Hopefully the pictures will turn out cute enough. :)

I'm pretty sure the baby's in the middle of another growth spurt right now. It seems like she's a little bigger every day. It's crazy, I tell you! As far as food, we'll be trying our last level 1 flavor tomorrow morning: Prunes! Woohoo! So far, she's still liked everything but green beans. She even seemed to like the peas well enough. At least, she ate them without crying or trying to push the spoon away. They didn't seem to particularly thrill her, but at least she tolerated them. I did make a second attempt with the green beans, but got the same result. She just don't like 'em.

In other news, I got my hair chopped on Wednesday. It was getting ridiculously long and I was just sick of it. All I ever did with it was pull it back in a doubled-over ponytail at the nape of my neck so that the baby couldn't grab it. So, I went to Mastercuts at the mall during my lunch break. It ain't fancy, but at least it's not Haircuttery! Anyway, I had great timing (for once) because there was nobody there and the manager took me immediately. I was shampooed, cut, blown dry and back to work before the hour was up. Go me!

The hair is now a little above my shoulders with long layers. He cut so much off that he was able to bundle it up in a ponytail to donate to one of those charities that makes wigs for kids with cancer. So, I also did a good deed. Go me again. He must have asked me twenty times if I was sure I wanted it all cut off. I was like, "Just cut the damned hair already!" But it looks and feels much better now, so I'm happy. :)

Photo Dump

After a yummy breakfast. Notice the food stains on the legs of her jammies. This would be why we go through so much stain spray!

Easter morning with Mommy and her presents.

Apparently Daddy is pretty darned funny!

She is a little scooter bug. This is where she winds up in the morning about 75% of the time. We place her at the bottom of the crib at night.

Silly baby in her (borrowed) Exersaucer.

"Hey, I can get this one in my mouth!"

Playing with Daddy.

As good of a family portrait as we managed to get at Ed's niece's birthday party yesterday.

Not Doing What I Should Be Doing

So I finally started the fun task of switching out Abby's 3-6 month stuff for the 6-9/12 month stuff. While going through the baby clothes is fun (for me anyway), it's definitely a little challenging of a task to complete. I got everything washed over the weekend, but I finally had time alone in the house today to try to get the old stuff out and the new stuff in. I got a good chunk done, but I still have a lot to hang up and I have to deal with the jammies. I also got all the old stuff washed so I can get it all put away. I fit half of it into the two bins I have, but the rest is going in a trash bag.

We dressed her in the 6-9 stuff for the first time today. Uhhhh...she probably should have been in it a couple of weeks ago. I was afraid it was going to be a little long on her, but it fit perfectly. Oh well, maybe nobody else noticed that her pants have been waaaaaaaaaaaaay too short for awhile now. Yup, she's going to be tall like her mama.

Today was "Daddy Day," so Ed stayed home with her. He did wind up taking her to his mom's for a little while because he had a meeting he had to go to. But it worked out perfectly because his office is less than ten minutes from his mom's and she was home from work in time to take the baby. She even gave her a bath and fed her dinner, so score for me! ;)

When they got home, I jumped in the car and we made a BJ's run. We were still in need of a second car seat (she's just about outgrown the infant seat and Becky gave me a fancy-schmancy Britax car seat for Abby's christening). Since we can't afford a second fancy-schmancy Britax carseat, we were looking for a less costly alternative. Then my SIL told us that the Alpha Omega Elite car seat was $80 at BJ's...apparently it's very highly rated by Consumer Reports for safety. Plus, it converts to a booster...up to 80 pounds. So...we decided to go for it. Then I told my mom about it and she had us get one for her too...so now she'll be able to take Abby (and Claire) places when she's babysitting. :) Once the weather gets just a tad warmer, we'll take the plunge and loose the infant seat and install the regular car seats. The weather is relevant because I'm still toting Abby around in the carrier with the Bundle Me in it, thereby avoiding dealing with a coat. I'm just about ready to switch though.

I finally gave in to temptation and went to the evil Gymboree during my break today. I wound up getting some really good deals, so I'm happy. :) Go me! Okay, so that last one wasn't too fabulous a deal, but I loved it, so there! And at least I got $25 in Gymboree bucks for next time. Yup, that's how they get ya!

Just Another Day

At least my mom came to visit me and then wound up taking me to lunch. Score! We even stopped at Old Navy and she bought Abby a white cardigan sweater that I wanted for her (at 40% off...score! again). Abby has inherited many, many adorable sundresses that I can't wait to start dressing her in. I figure that with the sweater, I can get her in them even earlier. Having a baby girl is fun. :) The only bummer was that I didn't get to go over to the mall during lunch. Maybe tomorrow...I want to check out the clearance rack at Gymboree and at the Children's Place. The one thing I seem to be lacking in the 6-9 month stuff is long-sleeved onesies. Perhaps I'll see something worth picking up.

So we tried our Wednesday new food...Barley Cereal. It seemed to be a hit...I couldn't shovel it into her mouth fast enough. Of course, she woke up from her nap ravenous, so that could have had something to do with it. But there definitely weren't any of the kind of protests I sometimes get when feeding her rice cereal. So, the barley is a keeper. Woohoo.

Why I Hate Gymboree

Because their clothes are absolutely adorable, but are outrageously expensive. Seriously...as much as I love this collection, there is no way I can justify spending $30 on a sundress or $29.50 on a two-piece set. Especially when I already have an obscene amount of clothes from Becky and others. I went over her house last week and we went through all of Claire's old stuff and I came home with a trash bag full of 6-9/6-12 stuff and one full of 9-12. Plus, I remembered that I had another trash bag full of 6-9 stuff already. My project for this week is to go through everything and separate out the cooler weather stuff that she can wear now from the warmer weather stuff that she can wear in a month or two.

Good luck to my sister to try to resist this collection from the same evil chain. She loves turtles...Claire has owned just about every piece of turtle clothing ever made (which means Abby has also owned just about every piece of turtle clothing ever made). Thank goodness for Old Navy and their much-more-reasonable line of baby clothes. It may not be in the same league as Gymboree, but their stuff can still be pretty darned cute. And it's much easier to justify splurging on a dress for Abby when it's $14.50 as opposed to $30.

Is it Teething?

She's drooling like a mad dog, chewing (hard) on everything in sight, is slightly fussier than normal and has a runny nose. Plus, Ed swears he can see "white" under her bottom gums...whatever that means. Is she teething, or are we reading too much into everyday baby things? I guess time will tell.

One thing's for sure though...it hasn't diminished her appetite at all. She's all about the solids. Right now we're up to 2 tablespoons of oatmeal in the morning and a container of a level 1 fruit and then at night she's getting 3 tablespoons of rice cereal and a container of a level 1 veggie. I think she's starting to decide that the rice cereal isn't her favorite...she sometimes whines while she's eating that one. Although I usually mix the fruit/veggie in with her cereals too. Maybe she's just been in a bad mood at dinner time. She definitely cheers up when she gets the straight baby food from the jar though.

Our current fruits/veggies are peaches, bananas, applesauce, sweet potatoes, carrots, squash and green beans. She loves everything but the green beans...although I haven't been brave enough to try them again since the first time. Maybe this week. We've been doing a new food every Wednesday and Saturday. I'm thinking that I'll try her on the barley cereal on Wednesday to see if she likes that any better than the rice cereal. We still have to try level 1 pears, peas and prunes. Then we'll have completed the collection. How long until we move to level 2's?

Hoppy Easter!

Hope everyone had a lovely holiday. I have to go to work tomorrow to recover from mine! ;) Oh wait...schools are out...work's going to suck this week. Blah!

Couple of Video Clips

The first one's a little old, but it's a cute one of her giggling. The second is Abby rolling. Sorry for the poor quality, but they were just taken with my digital camera. :)

Sleepy Week

I know, I know...it's only Tuesday...but I'm tired! :P Seriously, I don't know what the deal is...I've just been dead to the world yesterday and today. It doesn't help that I have to have the baby at daycare by 6:45 on Monday, so I have to be up way earlier than I like. I'm just not a morning person at all. At least Ed has Abby all day tomorrow, so I don't have to get up early to get her up and ready. She can wake up when she wants and Daddy gets to do it all. :)

Can you believe it's almost Easter? Craziness, I tell you! I got Abby her present on Sunday. Toys R Us is having a great sale, for anyone who's not circular/sale/coupon obsessed like me. Buy (almost) any Fisher Price toy priced over $20 and get one priced under $20 for free. Woohoo! So, I got her this:

for about $21 and got her this:

for free! Score! :) Plus, I got her two cans of Puffs (Sweet Potato and Banana) for her Easter basket. She'll be chowing down on those things before I know it!

Now I just have to figure out what to dress her in on Sunday. I'm leaning towards an extremely girly-girl dress that someone from work gave me as a shower gift. At least I'll get one use out of it before she outgrows it. She's definitely getting ready to make the move into 6-9 month stuff. I just went through the 6-9 month bins that we picked up from my mom's house...and they were mostly filled with 3-6 month stuff. I forgot that my mom was confused when we were sorting and thought that the single numbered size meant that was the low number. So a "6" to her meant 6-9 when a "6" actually means 3-6. So, Becky...we'll definitely have to go through your stuff soon! On the bright side, I have some new 3-6 month stuff to dress her in. I was getting bored with the old things. ;)

Positive Things About Not Breastfeeding

1. Caesar Salad
2. The yummy Quesadilla Explosion Salad from Chili's
3. Ed can feed her in the morning on occasion, allowing me to sleep
4. Alcohol
5. My boobs are mine again
6. Nobody whining about me pumping at work
7. Not having to pump, period
8. My Chipperilli salad (I need to make me some of that)
9. Did I mention alcohol?
10. No more leaking

I still miss it though! Especially the saving money part. I finally made the switch to Target brand formula. It's cheaper than Enfamil, even with a coupon AND a check combined. Blah.

Hi From Grandma's

I just got to my mom's about 30 minutes ago and my mom had put Abby down for a nap not too long before I got here. I don't want to wake her yet, so I'm stuck here for a little while. My mom's not even here anymore because she had to run to Becky's house to watch Claire until Scott gets home. Apparently Becky is going to visit a friend in one of the Carolinas and had to catch her flight. So, I had to switch my hours to 7:30 to 4 to get here in time to let my mom leave in time to get to Becky's in time for her to get to the airport in time for her flight. Got that? Good.

Everything else is same old, same old. Lost was awesome last night, but it's been pretty darned good all season. Some of my other shows finally start back up again on Monday, so that's something to look forward to. Hi, my name is Mandy and I'm a television junkie. Good thing Abby is pretty consistent with her bedtime, it gives us plenty of time to catch up on our shows. Thank goodness for our DVR...one of the greatest inventions ever!

New Food of the Day

Today we tried green beans. Apparently, she's not a big fan. It started out okay...she kept it in her mouth a long time, testing the waters. Then about five spoonfulls later, she made up her mind that she did NOT like it. She started crying and making the funniest faces. Maybe it's just the Gerber beans she doesn't like. Ed's niece didn't like the Gerber beans, but she liked the Beechnut ones. We'll try again next week. That is all. ;)

That's How She Rolls

Perhaps I spoke too soon about the lack of rollage around here. Yesterday morning, I put Abby under her gym so I could finish getting ready for work. When I walked back into the room, she was playing happily on her tummy. Alrighty then. It definitely wasn't a fluke either...she did it twice more last night. Now, if we could just master rolling from the tummy to the back, she would be all set. ;) Guess we should start to think about baby-proofing soon, huh?

Got a bookfair at work tonight. Blah. But, on the funny side, that means that Ed has to spoon feed her for the first time. I think he's afraid...he's been happy to let me do it up till now. Hehehehe...should be fun. ;)

Photo Dump

Might as well give you some more cuteness while I'm downloading. :)

She loves, loves, loves her Rainforest Gym. She plays happily under there for long periods of time. She likes to try to pull the toys down into her mouth.

She also loves playing with Daddy's scruffy face. I don't get it...I'm very anti-scruff.

Mmmmmmmmmmm....Sweet Potatoes!

Tummy time on the floor. We were trying to convince her to roll over with no success.

Official 5-Month Picture

Not the best shot, but at least she's smiling!

Holy Crap...I Have a 5-Month Old!

When did that happen? Weird. Picture to come once she wakes up from her nap. :)

This month's big adventure is food, glorious food! She's all about the food. We tried oatmeal for the first time this morning and she loved it! She's also all about the sweet potatoes, which we had for the first time Wednesday. Rice cereal, apple sauce and bananas are the other foods in her diet at the moment. I think we'll try a green veggie this week...that should be fun. ;)

Other than that, she's babbling away, loves to sit and "stand," is way into her toys and is just a joy all the time. Not much going on in the rolling department, but we have time to work on that more. She was trying last night, but couldn't quite pull it out. It was fun to watch though.

Busy Week

Sorry for the slacking this week...it's been busy. Thanks to everyone who offered their advice on my boob problems. Unfortunately, I have come to the sad conclusion that I just have to accept the fact that I am done breastfeeding. I gave her a good five months, but I'm just not producing like I used to. It seems silly to keep trying when we just have to give her a bottle 30 minutes after I finish feeding her because she's still starving. As much as the thought of breastfeeding used to freak me out, I have to admit that I'll miss it. I wouldn't trade the time I spent doing it for all the world.

But at least that means I'll be able to indulge in a cocktail every once in awhile now. And I can have salad again! I didn't think I would miss salad so much, but I do. I guess it's just that fact that I can't have it that makes me want it so much. But, it's a non-issue now. Woohoo.

Right now I'm posting from my mom's house. Abby spent the day here and now we're waiting to go to the funeral parlor to see my BIL's grandmother. She passed a couple days ago and the viewings are today. We're not going to the funeral tomorrow, so we'll stop by for a little while tonight. At least it's right by my house, so I can get the baby home and fed pretty quickly once I leave. At least tomorrow's Saturday, so we don't have to wake her up in the morning...she gets to wake us up instead. ;)

The Drying of the Well

Abby's appetite just keeps increasing and, much to my dismay, my milk supply seems to be dwindling at the same rate. That makes me very sad because I enjoy the whole nursing thing, besides the fact that it saves us money. And I was hoping to be able to go until she was at least six months old. Anybody have any advice on how to keep the flow going...besides pumping more, which (unfortunately) just isn't an option when I work all day. :(

Good Times

All but one of my movies has been guessed. I can't believe that one hasn't been guessed yet. It's a line that always makes me laugh, but perhaps I'm just weird. If nobody guesses it by tonight, I'm just going to fill it in.

It's the weekend! Yay! Hopefully the couple days off will give my family a little time to recover. Ed's moved past the fluish stage and has settled into the coughing/sneezing/icky nose portion of the fun with me and Abby. We're going through a lot of tissues in our house, that's for sure.

I just had my Saturday morning fun of going through circulars and clipping coupons. I've become obsessed with sales and coupons. Saving money is fun. If anyone out there likes Kellogg's Raisin Bran (which I don't, but Ed does), if you go to the Smart Source website, there's a coupon there that makes you answer two questions. If you say that Post is your favorite raisin bran and that you buy it 12 or more times a year, you'll get a coupon for $3 off two boxes...and then they're on sale at Superfresh this week 2/$4...so you can get them for 50 cents a box. There are some other good coupons there as well ($1 off Huggies, $1.50 off three bags Hershey's Easter candy, etc.), so it's worth checking out. It's the little things in life, I tell ya! ;)

Now that I've bored everyone with my coupon talk, I'm signing off. :)

Movie Game

Some of my Live Journal pals are playing this, and seeing as how I'm home sick, the baby's sleeping and I'm bored, I thought I would play. Somebody please play along so I don't look stupid! ;) Keep in mind that the list is not all of my favorite movies...just the ones that popped into my head first.

Movie meme
1. Pick 15 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them in your journal (BLOG!) for everyone to guess.
4. Fill in the film title once it's guessed.
5. NO GOOGLING / using IMDb search functions.

1. From Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban as guessed by Luke's Mommy
Mysterious thing, time. Powerful, and when meddled with, dangerous.

2. From Clerks as guessed by Becky (it's the part where they're playing hockey on the roof and the rude customer knocks their ball into the storm drain...and yes, the second line was Jay)
-Are there any balls down there?
-About the biggest pair you ever seen, dingleberry!

3. From Love Actually as guessed by Val
American girls would seriously dig me with my cute British accent.

4. From The Goonies as guessed by Tracy
Kids suck.

5. From West Side Story as guessed by Meg
Now look, fellas. Let's be reasonable. If I don't get a little law and order around here, I get busted down to a traffic corner. And your friend don't like traffic corners. So that means you're gonna start making nice with the PRs from now on.

6. From Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers as guessed by Brooke
Where is the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing? They have passed like rain on the mountain, like wind in the meadow. The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow. How did it come to this?

7. From Hairspray (Musical Version) as guessed by Luke's Mommy
Well, I had a dream that I would own a coin-operated laundromat but I came down from that cloud real quickly!

8. From A Christmas Story as guessed by Luke's Mommy
Over the years I got to be quite a connoisseur of soap. Though my personal preference was for Lux, I found that Palmolive had a nice, piquant after-dinner flavor - heavy, but with a touch of mellow smoothness. Life Buoy, on the other hand... YECCHH!

9. From Grease as guessed by Becky
If you can't be an athlete, be an athletic supporter.

10. From Knocked Up as guessed by Brooke
…and then your Mommy said, "Just do it already!" which was very confusing to Daddy, so I took the most literal translation.

11. From Beauty and the Beast as guessed by Becky and Janelle
Oh, it's no use. She's so beautiful, and I'm... Well, look at me!

12. From A Knight's Tale as guessed by Luke's Mommy
I first met him atop a mountain near Jerusalem, praying to God, asking his forgiveness for the Saracen blood spilt by his sword. Next, he amazed me still further in Italy when he saved a fatherless beauty from the would-be ravishing of her dreadful Turkish uncle.

13. From 40-Year-Old Virgin as guessed by Tim
He's performing a public colonoscopy. Isn't that sweet?

14. From The Sound of Music as guessed by Meg and Tracy
I forgot the other boy. Oh, what's his name. Oh, well, God bless What's-his-name

15. From The Muppet Movie as guessed by Val
-You, you with the banjo, can you help me? I seem to have lost my sense of direction!
-Have you tried Hare Krishna?

Hear Me As I Cough

Blah...the chest thing I have is getting worse. I'm already sick of coughing. Ed still feels like crap and the baby is still recovering. She has the sniffles and a bit of a cough as well. Sucks to be us. I'm most likely going to call out sick tomorrow because we don't have daycare and I don't want Ed taking care of the baby by himself while he has the flu. In fact, I want him as far away from Abby as possible until he's better. The last thing I need is for her to get what he has. Plus, if I'm getting sick, I just want to rest up tomorrow to keep it from getting too bad. It feels weird to plan to call out...I haven't called out "sick" in a couple of years. I had to call out for two days when I busted my knee open, but that doesn't count. I never even called out when I was pregnant. But, it's for my baby (and me), so I'll just do it. Plus, I haven't had a good night's sleep since Friday night...I'm tired!

And the Hits Just Keep on Comin'

Now that the baby seems to be feeling much better, the husband is now sick. And he's about 10x worse than the baby about it too. Good times, I tell ya! As for me, I seem to have some weird congestion in my chest that is causing an occassional cough, but nothing worth whining about. Boo to germs!

Feeling Better

Abby actually slept through the night last night, which is more than I can say for me. Every time she made the tiniest noise, I was wide awake and grabbing the video monitor to make sure she was okay. We had the humidifier going in her room all night, so that helped a lot. When we had to wake her up this morning, her temperature was down to 99.7, so that's not too bad. My MIL said that when Abby got to her house, after sleeping all the way there, she went right down in the pack-n-play and slept for about another 3 1/2 hours or so. But after she woke up, she took a bottle and then played for a long time. She also said that she didn't feel warm at all, so hopefully it's just about run its course.

Abby is supposed to go to daycare tomorrow, but my MIL volunteered to watch her tomorrow too. That way we can make sure she's better without having to worry about her not sleeping at daycare. Thank goodness the timing worked out with Sandi's days off. Abby will be back at daycare on Wednesday though.

Today was an okay day, despite my being exhausted for most of it. We did the Chinese Buffet for lunch (yum!) and a lot of my favorite peeps were working, so that was fun. :) I'm going to try to get a few things done around here before Ed and Abby get home. Go me!

BTW...for anyone who saw the Sarah Silverman video "I'm Fu**ing Matt Damon," Jimmy Kimmel posted a reply..."I'm Fu**ing Ben Affleck." Hysterical...go to youtube now and watch it. And if you've never seen the original, watch that too. It's hilarious.

Poor Sickie-Poo Baby

I woke up at 3:30 in the morning to the sounds of Abby whining into the monitor. Seeing as how my baby usually sleeps through the night with minimal problems, I went to go check on her to make sure she was okay. She was wide awake and still whining, so I picked her up. She felt really hot to me, so I changed her diaper and took her temperature and saw, to my dismay, that she had a 101.7 degree fever. She wasn't really fussing, and her diaper had been dirty so she wasn't constipated or dehydrated, so I gave her some baby Tylenol and rocked her back to sleep.

She woke up again at 6 wanting to eat. I took her temperature again, and it was down to 99.1. So, I nursed her and she went back down pretty quickly. When she woke up again around 8, the fever was back. And so the story has been for the rest of the day up until now. It's up, it's down. It actually went as high as 102.6, but that didn't last long. I just keep giving her the baby Tylenol every four hours or so. Her nose is really runny too, so it's probably just a cold with a fever. She's not too fussy...just gets annoyed when her nose is really running badly. And she's been eating...maybe not as much in one sitting as she normally would, but she's eating a decent amount of small meals. If there were any other weird or scary symptoms, I'd call the doctor, but right now it's just the nose and the fever. I've even gotten her to play and she was laughing at me a couple times, so it can't be too bad.

I have a feeling that it's going to be a long night. She keeps going down because she's sleepy, but she hasn't been staying down for long. Thank goodness we weren't taking her to daycare tomorrow anyway. She can't go if she has a fever. But since my mom has to watch Claire on Friday (and she can't deal with both babies at once), we had already arranged the schedule so my MIL will watch Abby tomorrow and she'll be in daycare on Friday. Funny how things work out sometimes. If she's still sick on Tuesday, my MIL is still off, so she can take her then too. We'll just play that one by ear though. Hopefully Abby will be feeling better way before then. Poor baby. :(

Look What Abby Found...

Feet!

Hehehe...she totally cracks me up! She actually found them last week, but I just got around to downloading the pictures. So cute! Now they're her new favorite toy. Makes diaper changes fun...although at least now we don't have to worry as much about her putting her foot in a dirty diaper. Yuck!

Back to the Grind

Vacation's over. Blah. It wasn't fun to get up at the crack of dawn this morning...but I gotta do what I gotta do. The baby wasn't too happy either. I'm pretty sure she enjoyed sleeping in just as much as I did. Of course my definition of "sleeping in" has changed a little since Abby was born. It used to mean sleeping until 10. Now it's sleeping until 7 (8 if we're really, really lucky). But, I take what I can get.

Today wasn't too bad at work, despite it being a holiday and everyone else in the world getting to have a day off. A small group of us went to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch. We all got wings (mine being wussy sweet bbq wings) and potato wedges (very yummy...crisp and well seasoned). It was a very good lunch, although the services was a tad on the slow side. We were just a little late getting back, which was made even worse by the fact that there was no parking left in the lot behind the store, so I had to park across the street. Stupid holiday.

After work I picked the baby up from daycare and then went to see Becky, Scott and Claire. I had something I needed to drop off and they haven't see Abby in awhile. Poor baby was so sleepy by the time we got back in the car to go home that she fell right to sleep and didn't even wake a little when I took her out of the carseat and put her in her crib. She's sleeping away happy as can be now. Just have to make sure she's awake by 7 so I can feed her and get her back in bed by a decent time.

The postponed doctor's appointment is tomorrow. Blah again.

Not Going Well

I just cannot concentrate at all today. I don't know what the heck my problem is. I just took a break and got a shower in, so I feel a little better. I guess I'll try, try again.

BTW...for my fellow Baltimore mommies...Superfresh has Huggies jumbo packs on sale for $6.99 today through Monday. That's a heck of a deal...especially with the recent diaper price hike. There's a limit of 2 though, but I plan on going back by Monday to get two more. We're pretty well stocked on size 2's (which she just moved up to), so I'm starting a size 3 stockpile. Unfortunately, I just used my last coupon. Hopefully I can get my hands on another one (or two) by the time I go back. There weren't any sale signs in the baby aisle, but I grabbed a circular just to make sure and they were definitely on sale. It also came up a little weird on the receipt, there are actually two discounts listed, one for about $3.20 off each and then another at the bottom for $2 off each. But they came up the right price, so that's all I care about. I love getting a bargain. :) Oh, and as an added bonus, I got a $2 off Pampers coupon at checkout. Score!

Alone Again

This week is totally throwing me off. Today is the third day in a week that I've been alone in the house for hours on end. It's so weird to not have the baby home with me. But, we pay for daycare whether we use it or not, so I may as well take advantage of it and get some studying and various house-things done while I'm off. I still miss my baby though. :(

Valentine's Day was fairly dull. My mom came over for lunch (leftover beef stew, which she loved) and gave Abby a funny dancing/singing Valentine's dog. She was a little wary of it at first, but then she decided she liked it and kept talking to it and grabbing it's face. It was very cute. Then Ed got home and we got Carrabba's carryout for dinner. Yum! I got two good meals in a week! Then we watched Lost (awesome!) and went to sleep. Good times. ;)

I suppose I should go study or something. Blah.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Our First Cereal

Hey...what's with this huge bib?

Whoa...what is that?

I wonder if I can grab that stuff...

I can definitely grab this thing though...

I will get the hang of this before mommy and daddy know it!

A Brief Commentary

I now remember how much I hate studying.

Insurance is boring.

I would rather be playing with Abby.

That is all.

Yummy Dinner/Crappy Roads

I braved the icky, icy roads tonight to go out to dinner with all the managers from work. It was our Christmas present from our store manager. We went to the Original Steakhouse and it was yummy! It felt so weird to go out to dinner...I can barely remember the last time that happened. Carrie and I shared a crab dip and I got a steak. I don't even want to know what the bill was, but our boss told us to get whatever we wanted. He's pretty cool when he wants to be. ;)

I had to leave a little early though to get home to take over baby duties from Ed. He has to get up at 3am for work. :( Hopefully the roads will be a little better by then. At least there shouldn't be much traffic. It took him over an hour and a half to make the 40 minute trip home from the office today. Not fun for him and not fun for me as I was waiting for him. At least I wasn't late for dinner...I was one of the first three there (which just goes to show how late some of the other managers were).

Thursday is Valentine's Day, which is usually special for Ed and me since he proposed to me on Valentine's Day. This year, with the baby and with our budget being a little tighter, we're probably just going to get carryout from someplace decent instead of going out. That's fine with me...just as long as I don't have to cook. ;) I'm so sick of cooking...I even cooked dinner today, despite the fact that I was going out. I did a beef stew in the crockpot for Ed because I hadn't made it for him yet this season, and I felt bad going out for a good dinner without him. He was very grateful for it though and had two huge bowls, so it was worth it. :) I'll probably still make a special dessert for Valentine's Day...but that's just as much for me as it is for Ed. I have a Pampered Chef torte pan that I keep meaning to try out. I'm thinking something along the lines of chocolate cake, chocolate pudding and Cool Whip. Chocolate...yum!

Needles Are Bad

My poor baby is sleeping off the after-effects of the four shots she had to get at the doctor's today. That was not fun at all. But before the screams of pain, we found out that she is 14lbs, 12oz (75th percentile), 25 1/2 inches (90th percentile) and she still has a small head (25th to 50th percentile). Good times. Everything else looks a-okay and we got the go-ahead for cereal. :)

In other news, today is the anniversary of the day I found out I was pregnant. What an interesting day that was. I had a split-shift at work, so Becky and I took Claire shopping. While we were out, we were talking about how funny it would be if I wound up pregnant since Ed and I had decided to stop trying for awhile. When I got home, I got to thinking that I was pretty sure that my period had been due a day or two before. So, I got out one of my pregnancy tests that Val had given me, not actually thinking it would be positive, and sure enough, that little line showed up clear as day. My heart stopped as I saw it starting to appear....I just couldn't believe it. I actually called Ed and told him over the phone because I HAD to tell someone and since I couldn't tell anyone else until he knew, I had to call him. Then I called Becky and my mom and told them. Then I told Carrie when I got to work.

Of course, I came down a bit from my high when I got home that night and found out that Ed had lost his job. How's that for timing? But, we knew we'd get through it and the news about the pregnancy was happy enough to balance out the bad news. Still not quite daring to believe it was true, I took another test...again, the line was clear as day. Ed called his mom and told her the good news (not the bad news). It was a very strange day. But, all I have ever wanted was to be a mommy and I couldn't have been any happier.

Now, a year later, I have the most beautiful, happy, precious baby girl I could ever have dreamed of. Funny how life works sometimes. :)

Another Milestone

I woke up a little before the alarm clock this morning to a weird banging sound coming from the baby monitor. I looked at the screen (gotta love the video monitor) and saw Abby's feet waving around in the air. Yup, she rolled herself over from her tummy to her back. She was having a blast playing with her Ocean Wonders Aquarium. Hehe...it was too cute. When I went in to get her I made a big deal about the rolling and she just looked at me like, "What? I'm just playing here." At least we can mention that she rolled both ways when we go to the doctor's in a couple of hours. ;)

The Coolest Place Ever!

Believe it or not, it's the Rosedale library! They just built this new interactive children's "literacy playground" called Storyville. It is way awesome! They should really charge admission, but it's free as can be. It for infants to kids up to age 6. There are all kinds of different play areas for the kids to explore. There's an "infant garden" that's fenced off so that only non-walkers and their parents can play in there. There's a grocery store, a post office, a puppet stage complete with puppets, an interactive stage that's currently set up for "The Mitten" by Jan Brett, there's a house complete with kitchen, living room and garden. There's a construction zone, dress-up clothes, a "water" area (no actual water, it's just set up for water learning...complete with a rocking boat), a library (of course) and a lot more. I went with Claire and Becky after I dropped Abby off at daycare (Becky called me as I was on my way to daycare to see if I wanted to join them). Claire had the best time ever running around and exploring everything. I can't wait to take Abby there. I would suggest going at opening though if you're interested. That's when we got there and there were only a few other kids there. But by 10ish when we left, it was starting to get a little more crowded.

After that fun, I went to BRU to take advantage of their baby food sale combined with the Gerber coupons I had. They were mostly out of stage 1's, but I got what I could. Then I went to Target to get spoons (BRU was out of the Gerber spoons, which I had a coupon for) and I used my coupon from Gerber.com for $2 off a can of their new DHA cereal...so I got that for about 50 cents. What a deal, what a steal. Now I'm wasting time in an attempt to put off studying for the insurance exam. Good times. ;)

Lazy Weekend

Except for the fact that I just went grocery shopping. Now I remember how much I hate doing a full grocery shop alone...complete with coupons. Could have been worse though...I could have had the baby with me. Ed stayed home and took care of Abby. It was time for her bottle-feed and it's always better when he does that. But at least we have food in the house now, so yay! :) That's all.

Official Monthday Picture

4 Months Old!

Can you believe that my beautiful baby girl is 4 months old today? How crazy is that? "They" were right when they told me how quickly time seems to fly when you have a baby. I can hardly remember how tough the first couple of months were. She's such a good baby and she's my joy. Whenever I'm with her I can't help but to be happy...no matter how bad everything else may seem. I wouldn't trade her for all the world.

Picture to come later today. She's too busy napping at the moment for a photo shoot. Plus, Ed's out and about until later this afternoon and he likes to do the monthly photo with me. :)

And the best news...I'm on vacation. Woohoo! I get four weeks a year now, so I might as well spread them out a bit. Plus all the managers at work have to take a lame 2-hour "sexual harrassment" course at work and my computer is the only one they can use. I figure I'd rather be on vacation and let them take over my computer while I'm out then have to fight for my own computer while I'm working. Since we have to pay for daycare anyway, I'm still going to take Abby on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I'll use that time to finally study for the insurance producer's exam so I can try to get my license and start helping out Ed's office peeps (for fair compensation, of course).

Tuesday the baby and I are both supposed to have doctor's appointments. I may have to postpone mine though. Since I started on the pill again, my periods have been unpredictable. Weird, I know, but it's a different sort of pill (low-dose...same pill everyday...no plecebo...it's the only one I can take and still continue to breastfeed). I have a feeling that I may have my period in full force on Tuesday afternoon. I'll determine on Monday morning what I should do. Not that I want to go, but I just want to get it over with. Blah.

I'm almost looking forward to Abby's appointment though...except for the fact that she has to get four shots again. That's going to suck. But I'm dying to know her exact weight and length. We do the "on the scale alone and then again with the baby and figure out the difference" method, but that's never a very accurate measure. Plus, the girl's so long...I'm curious to know what percentile she's in for length. I'm pretty sure she's going to be tall like her mama. Hopefully she'll be feeling well enough after the doctor's appointment for me to run to BRU afterwards. I won't hold my breath though.

Baby Alarm!

We finally got the crap scared out of us by the "baby alarm" at 4:30 this morning. Good times. For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, the "baby alarm" is the AngelCare Monitor that we bought to make ourselves feel better about letting Abby sleep on her tummy. It's basically a sensor pad that goes under the crib mattress that senses baby's every little movement. If it doesn't feel anything for 20 seconds or so, an alarm goes off so you can check on the baby. We've been using it for about a month now and it had never gone off before (except for when we take her out of the crib and forget to turn it off).

Since the monitor is right by my head, I heard it right away, but for a moment I thought it was the alarm clock. I realized what it really was a second later and jumped out of bed and ran for the door. Ed was right there with me when the alarm stopped. We went into the nursery and looked...and had to laugh. The baby had scooted herself all the way to the top of the crib and then managed to turn herself sideways so that her body was parallel to the head of the crib and was therefore totally off of the sensor mat. Gotta love it. Ed picked her up and put her back at the bottom of the crib. It didn't even phase her...she slept through the whole thing. Scared the crap out of us though. It definitely took awhile for either of us to get back to sleep after that.

BTW...if anyone doesn't checkout the Baby Cheapskate website, you really should. There's always some great stuff on there. Today there's a link for a free Family Pack of photos from Walgreen's. I'm using it on a picture of Abby in her christening dress. :)

Poor Sleepy Baby!

I love our daycare provider and she loves Abby, but whenever Abby is there for the day, she doesn't sleep. It's very sad. And I know it's because the law says that she can't be put down on her tummy. Blah. She either doesn't sleep at all or she'll catch a quick catnap or two. By the time I pick her up and get her home, she can barely keep her eyes open. I put her in her crib and she's usually out for a good 3 1/2 to 4 hours. Which stinks because I miss her and would like some playtime with her when I get home. :( Today she was so tired when I got her out of the carrier that she was fussing up a storm and didn't want to be put down. So I rocked her until she fell asleep (less than five minutes) and she's now sound asleep in her crib. The fussing is very unusual...hence how I know she's exhausted.

On the bright side, she rolled from her back to her tummy again. Maybe she'll get the hang of it enough so that she can roll herself over when she wants to sleep at daycare. If she can roll herself onto her tummy, the daycare provider is allowed to let her sleep like that. She still hasn't done it for us here at home though. I think it's because we usually play with her on the bed or the couch...she's usually only on the floor if she's under her gym or playing with her kick toy. I need to start just putting her down on a blanket on the floor to see what she does.

One of the other bad things about Abby not sleeping at daycare is that it throws any possible bedtime routine right out the window. Thank goodness she's a good sleeper (for us anyway...knock on wood) and goes down without a fuss (usually...knock on wood again). But when she sleeps so long when she gets home, we don't have the heart to put her back down right away after she eats. She still needs to get bathed (at least a few times a week) and we need some playtime with her every day. She's usually up for only an hour and a half to two hours after she wakes up from the mega-nap, but it varies. We're just going to keep going with the flow for now. Especially since she sleeps through the night fine (knock on wood a third time).

Tomorrow she's at Ed's mom's for the day and Friday she's with my mom, so she'll get plenty of sleep (and love) for the rest of the week. Hooray. And as an added bonus, since Ed is in charge of dropping off and picking up when she's over his mom's, I get to run some errands after work tomorrow. Woohoo. Target has her bottles on sale...she needs at least one more pack of mediums since we've pretty much retired the small bottles at this point. The little pigger is taking up to 8 ounces at a time. Which is also why I can only send one bottle of breastmilk to daycare with her a day. And it's also why we have to give her at least one bottle of formula a day even when I'm home with her all day long. I just can't keep up with her anymore. She turns four months on Saturday and has her doctor's appointment on Tuesday. Hopefully he'll give me the go-ahead to start her on cereal. And even if he doesn't, I'll probably start her on it anyway. She's definitely ready and my boobs need a break!

While I'm Posting Away

I might as well give you some photo action.

A hand-me-down onesie from Claire that just cracks me up. :)

What the heck is that?

In her jumper for the first time. She doesn't get the jumping concept yet, but she likes to play with the toys.

An outtake from our Valentine's Day card photo shoot. :)

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

I had stuff I wanted to do today!

Nothing too important, but I do need to get to Walmart and the Cake Cottage. Walmart so I can pick up the photo Valentine's Day cards I had made. About $3 for 8 cards (including tax)...plus no shipping because I have it sent to the store. Much cheaper than buying regular cards for the grandparents, aunts and such. And Cake Cottage so I can get the good chocolate confectioners coating so I can make the yummy Peanut Butter Balls for the Super Bowl party we're going to on Sunday. Thanks again for the recipe Janelle...they were a big hit at the christening party!

We're finally officially old. We're already planning on leaving the party on Sunday around half-time so that the baby can be in bed at a decent time. If it were Friday or Saturday night, it wouldn't be as big a deal, but we have to wake her up early on Mondays because Ed and I both have early work meetings that day. She has to be at daycare by 6:45 so I can be at work by 7. She's never a happy camper on Monday mornings. But at least we'll get to go to the party and hang out for a little while...and enjoy the yummy food. :)

Sorry I'm a Slacker

Things have just been a little crazy lately. My baby is wonderful though. She keeps learning new tricks all the time. Apparently she rolled from her back to her tummy at daycare on Wednesday. I know! How crazy is that? And she's started to fling herself foward when I have her sitting propped up against pillows. Gotta watch out for that one too. And she's grabbing at everything now (and trying to put most of it in her mouth). And she's been laughing out loud a lot, which is absolutely the cutest thing ever! It's so much fun to watch her develop little by little.

I got a good deal on formula today that I couldn't pass up. I'm still getting some freebies from my wonderful friend Erin, but I needed a new can for daycare on Monday. Walgreen's had a $5 off a $20 purchase coupon for yesterday only, so I combined that with a $5 off a can of Enfamil coupon I got at Walgreen's the last time I bought diapers there and then added a $5 formula check, so I got two small cans of formula and a package of Pampers wipes (on sale) for $15. Go me. I have to get the smaller cans of formula for dacare since she's only there 3 days a week and I give my daycare provider at least one good bottle's worth of breastmilk every day. Hey, Abby and I both have doctor's appointments on the 12th, so maybe I'll see if I can score some sample cans at both places. Here's hoping!

Work is work...I go, I sell books, I come home (yay!). I can't believe I've only been back about a month and a half. It feels like forever. Thank goodness I have some good friends there who make being away from Abby bearable. Have I ever mentioned how much I wish I could be a stay-at-home mommy? ;)