8/9/10 months!!

Isabella Grace...HOW are you 10 months old already?!?!  Stop growing, please...stopitnow. 

And, an even better question...how is it that I'm already having to plan my baby's first birthday party already???  :::breathe, breathe:::

Bella has grown up so much in the past three months...it really is amazing.  She's like her own little person now, and has such a personality already.  I absolutely love it.  She's at SUCH a fun age now.  :)

Isabella - here are all the exciting things that have been going on these past 3 months:

~  You have TWO teeth right now!   I felt them coming up around October 25th (and I only remember that exactly because it was the day before your cousin Bennett was born!)  It's the two bottom teeth, and they both popped up at the same exact time.  Other than that, you're still gummy...which I love.  You still look like my lil baby.  :)

~  You LOVE to clap AND wave!  All of a sudden one day, you came home from school (aka: daycare) and starting clapping like you'd been doing it for months.  Ha!  It is TOO cute.  And now, whenever anyone says 'yaaaay', you clap afterwards.   And when we say 'bye bye', you wave.  Too cute!!

 Waving at Daddy

~  You're still exclusively breastfed (go us!), and you eat about 4-5 times a day, depending on how late you sleep in the morning.  I've been getting worried lately, though, since I'm pumping just enough milk (and sometimes a little less) to give you three bottles for the next day.  I've been having to take some milk from my freezer stash, and I'm just hoping we can make it until your first birthday!  *fingers crossed*

~  You're still on stage 2 'solids', and we give you Earth's Best organic jars.  We tried stage 3 jars a few weeks ago, and they were just too chunky/thick for you.  You gagged on every bite...haha!  You LOVE pretty much everything else we give you, though.  The only thing you still hate, and have since the first time you tried it, is avocados...which actually makes me really sad, since it's such a good fatty food for you to have, and would help you get some chunk on your bones!  You're my long and lean gal.  ;)

We've also been trying to give you some finger foods (Cheerios, puffs, etc), too, but for some reason, you don't want to put anything in your mouth yourself!  How many babies do you know that won't put anything in their mouth?  My strange child.  :P  You'll pick up the Cheerio, examine it, play with it, and then throw it back down on the tray or on the floor.  And then, you proceed to whine/cry until we put it in your mouth for you.  You little stinker. 

~  You still loving blowing raspberries at everyone/everything.  It's the cutest thing ever.  And now, whenever we do it to you first, you'll do it right back at us.  I love it! 

Her typical 'blowing raspberries' face

~  You love standing up while we hold your hands, and your new favorite thing is walking all over the place with daddy or I just holding on to your fingers.  You're getting so much stronger every day! 

My big girl! 

 ~  You're finally sleeping through the night again.  *knock on wood*  You went through a phase over the past couple of weeks where you would wake up at 1am-ish, almost exactly, and cry until we came in there.  I finally decided to stop taking you out of your crib, walking around with you, taking you into bed, and all those other things I was trying to get you back to sleep  (I tried letting her cry-it-out for a night or so, and it was awful.  She didn't sleep, I didn't sleep, and I felt horrible.  So, I don't do that anymore.)  Instead, all I do is go into your room, pat/rub your back until you calm down and start getting sleepy again, and then leave the room.  It took about a week or so, but, now if you do wake up in the middle of the night, you'll only cry for a few seconds, and then you go right back to sleep on your own.  Such a good baby!  :)

~  And, speaking of sleeping...you are 100% DONE with the swaddle!!  And, you've been done since a little after 8 months old.  While the swaddle was great when you were little, and it definitely helped you sleep better/longer...it started getting to the point where I was going in your room and re-swaddling you 53 times a night.  So, I knew you were over it.  And now, it's so cute to see you sleeping like a baby!  Crazy positions, your little bum sticking up in the air...I love it.  ;)

~  But, the main reason you starting sleeping without the swaddle...you got your first 'real' sickness a few months back.  :(  At first, you had double pink eye, which wasn't too bad, and you didn't seem too uncomfortable.  And then, a week or so later, you ended up with a double ear infection.  It was SO sad.  You were so tired, that your head barely even hit the crib before you were asleep.  But, thankfully, the antibiotics worked quickly, and you were as good as new after just a few days.  

My poor baby, getting over pink eye

~  You LOVE your animals...Bailey, Roxy, and Fozzie Bear.  Every time you see them, you get so excited and make all kinds of cute noises to get their attention.  And, they love you, too! 

Monthly pics!   

These are REALLY starting to get tough!  Ha!

My future little cheerleader  :)

Hanging out in her little rocker

 Typical  ;)

I honestly cannot believe how quickly these past ten months have flown by.  We love you SO much, baby girl, words can't even express it.  XOXO  :)

Well, you have to start somewhere, right?

Honestly, though, I don't even know where to start.  I think that's why it's been over a month since I last posted.  First, it was just me being tired/lazy most nights after working all day and *trying* to get to bed early.  Then, Christmas craziness came and went.  And now, here I am, already into the second week of 2012, and I still haven't blogged.   

I was just saying to some friends on Twitter tonight...I feel like I have SO much to write about/say, but, at the same time, nothing to say at all.  It makes no sense.  And, I know I've lost a few followers along the way, and even though it's my own fault, it still makes me a little sad.

So, I'm going to do what I do best...

Pretend like nothing ever happened, that I haven't been MIA for months, and jump right back into blogging like I did before Isabella was born.  Post at least 2-3 times per week.  I can do it.  That's my goal.  And, since I've told you all my goal, I have to keep up with it now.  If not, then I'll be a failure.  And, I HATE to fail at anything. 

So, as all of you (those of you who are still here!  thank you!!) as my witnesses...I'm back.  Officially. 

Isabella said she missed you all, too...

Santa's lil helper  :)

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year!!! 

Playing catch-up

So, as I sit here right now...there's a mound of dishes on the counter that need to be washed (including about 7 bottles, which I'm pretty sure will be the death of me), the whole house needs to be vacuumed since we decorated for Christmas yesterday and there's little bits of sparkles, needles, styrofoam, dog/cat hair, etc EVERYwhere, and there's probably 3/4 loads of laundry that should be washed.  

But, for probably one of the first times ever, I'm saying 'screw it.'  I want to blog.  I need to blog.  

I have all of these thoughts/ideas swirling around in my head, and if I don't get them all out, I'm going to forget it all (ya know, because I have absolutely NO short-term memory.  Seriously.)  And, I feel like I'm in one of those cycles where if I don't just get back into the swing of things (aka blogging more often), I'm never going to do it.  

I DO NOT want that to happen.  Honestly.  I know my lack of blogging may make you think otherwise, but, I do miss it.  Like, a lot.

So, I'm going to sit here stressing out and try not to think about the 39022 things that need to be done around the house.  Because, let's face it, that's what I normally do (stress out, I mean.)  I feel like I can't do anything for myself, until all those other chores are done.  And, I feel like I have to get it all done while Isabella is napping, because I feel guilty doing it while she's awake and wasting precious time we should be spending together.  

ANYways...now that I've written a book already, let's get to my actual blog post, shall we?  ;-)  This is the part where I just spew out random thoughts and hopefully not bore you to tears.  

~  Guys, my baby is going to be 9 months old next week.  9 months!  She's almost been here as long as she was in my belly.  That just seems insane.  Mainly because, the 9 months I was pregnant seemed to go on for. ev. er.  And, these past 9 months with my baby girl, have gone by in the blink of eye.  For reals.  I don't get that.  And, I would really appreciate it if time would stop going by SO quickly.  K?  Thanks. (And, I know I still need to do an 8 month post, but this slacker over here waited too long to do it (mommy fail), so I'm just going to do a 8/9 month post together...sometime next week.)

~  Thanksgiving has come and gone, and it's finally {officially} Christmas-time!!  I've been DYING to decorate for weeks now, but, of course the hubs wouldn't allow that.  So, we finally decorated last night!  We were busy all afternoon/early evening, so we ended up doing most of the decorating after Isabella went to sleep.  I can't wait for her to see the tree all lit up tonight and see what she thinks of it!  Here's our pretty tree:

~  Did anyone brave the craziness out there and go Black Friday shopping the other night/day??  I did!...for the first time, EVER.  I was so proud of myself.  :P  I think it helps that most of the stores open up at 12am now, because getting up at 3/4am to get there in time for the good deals was NOT my thing.  (Hello...so not a morning person over here.)  

So, my friend and I headed to Target a little before midnight (where there were already hundreds of people in line.  IN-sane.) and only ended up waiting about 15 minutes or so outside before it was our turn to go in.  Not bad at all!  But, I guess if you were trying to snatch up one of the good TV/electronic deals or something like that, it would've been necessary to be there hours in advance.  Not worth it to me, but, to each their own.  

I was going there for just one thing, and if I didn't get it, I didn't really care because I knew I could just order it online for the same price.  It was mainly for the experience.  But, I was lucky, and  got Isabella one of her big Christmas gifts for a great deal!  

I can't wait for her to play with it!  I'm hoping she really likes it.  We also hit up Express, Victorias Secret, and Old Navy.  I got some awesome deals at Old Navy!  I'm pretty psyched about that....even though the worst part about the whole experience was the slowest. moving. line. ever. there, it was still worth it. 

~  We're taking Isabella to Santa next week, and I'm so excited/nervous at the same time.  I'm praying she isn't in that 'absolutely terrified of Santa' stage yet, and we actually get a decent picture.  We'll see!  And, I got her this adorable little sweater dress from The Children's Place the other day for the picture.  And, the best part, it was on sale for $9.99!  Score for mom. 

 

~  Oh!  I almost forgot!  I wasn't going to share this until I did Isabella's 8/9 month post, but, I'm just too excited NOT to share.  

Finally, after 8 1/2 long months...my baby is sleeping UN-swaddled!!  :::does happy dance:::  Hallelujah!!  I honestly thought I'd be swaddling my child in her college dorm room.  Kidding.  Not really.  

And?  The best part?  Is that she's sleeping even better than she was before!  GO Bella!  :-)

~  Oh yeah, and the reason we actually got her to sleep un-swaddled?  Unfortunately, it was because she was pretty sick last weekend.  :-(  My poor baby got her first real sickness after 8 1/2 months.  Honestly, I'm grateful she's been so healthy for this long, but, that doesn't make seeing her sick any easier.  It was so sad.  But, she was just so tired/worn out, that as soon as we put her down in her crib, she was OUT.  And, it's been that way ever since.

I picked her up from daycare last Friday and she just looked so sick.  You know the look.  Sad, watery, red eyes.  Whining/whimpering because she just felt so awful.  I felt so bad for her.  And, she had her first temperature, too.  I immediately called her Dr. and got an appointment that night.  Turned out, she had a double ear infection!  I couldn't believe it.  

And, for the record, she didn't show any signs of an ear infection.  No pulling on her ears, no crying/pain when she laid down on either side to nurse, nothing.  The only thing she had was a runny nose a little bit of a cough.  That's it.  

Needless to say, the next time she has even as much as a sniffle, I'll be making an appointment to have her ears checked.  You just never know!

Ok, that's all from me for today.  Phew!  That was a long one.  My little peanut is babbling to herself in her crib right now, so that's my cue that nap-time is over and it's time to get up! 

And, just because it's been a while...here's a funny pic that I snapped the other night.  Her dad was changing her and getting her read for the bed the other night, and I walk in her room to find this:

My poor child!  haha  She looks so miserable!  

Happy Sunday!! 

Easy Canvas Prints review!

I was contacted by Easy Canvas Prints a few weeks ago to review their product, and I'm SO excited that I did!  ECP will turn your photos to canvas, and they seriously do such a great job!  I LOVE the canvas print I had made.  And, they're super easy to work with, their site is very user-friendly, and they're fast!  My canvas was at my door within a week of me ordering it.  Now that's my kind of service.  :-)

Here's my canvas that I had made:

It's going to be the perfect addition to my photo wall, once it's all set up.  And, I plan on getting a few more, too, since we don't have any good professional pictures printed from our engagement or wedding photos.  I can't wait to spruce our house up with these prints!

And, as an added bonus for my favorite ladies...if you go 'Like' their  Facebook page, you'll automatically receive 50% off your next order AND free shipping!  You can't beat that deal! 

So, what are you waiting for?  Go check them out! I promise you won't be disappointed.  :-)

Disclaimer:  I was provided one canvas print in return for a review.  All opinions/thoughts on the product are my own.

Happy {belated} Halloween!!

Um, how is it November already??  Where did 2011 go?!  Seriously.  

This Halloween weekend was actually pretty low key for us.  I started getting sick on Saturday night, and felt like death pretty much all day on Sunday, so we did a whole lotta nothin' really.  (Oh yeah, and, we had a freak autumn snowstorm with about 6 inches of snow on Saturday.  Yeah.  That was fun.)

 

Of course we got Isabella all dressed up in her costumes (yes, she had two) on Monday, though, and brought her over to see my mom and Hubs' mom.  I may be biased, but, I'm pretty sure she was the cutest lil kitty and ladybug I've ever seen. 

I also had a few different Halloween/fall-ish outfits that she wore to school (aka daycare) every day last week.  She was so festive!  I can't imagine what I'll be like when it gets closer to Christmas, though.  She's going to have a different Christmas outfit to wear for the whole month!  Kidding.  Not really. 

Anyway, here's what really matters.  Cuteness overload.  :-)

(Sorry for the crappy cell phone pics in the first few)

Hiiii, Mom!!

Cutest lil pumkin bum!

Poor baby was SO tired and over it at this point

I hope everyone else had a great Halloween weekend!  :-)

I can't handle the cuteness...

Now, if this doesn't make you smile, or brighten up your day just a little bit...then you have problems.  Just sayin.  ;-)  

(Make sure your volume is turned up!)

Not-so-thoughtless Thursday

Once again, I have a bunch of random crap swirling around in my head.  Sooo, enjoy my word-vomit. 

*  Isabella has her first TOOFER coming in!!  My lil baby is growing up too fast!  Waaaaah.

*  It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is on tonight!  Have I mentioned that I'm a huge fan of all things Snoopy and Peanuts??  Oh yes, obsessed.  

*  It still really bothers me that one of my really good friends didn't come visit me or see Isabella until a month after she was born.  Every other mutual friend that we have...she's either gone to the hospital or their house within the first week to see them.  It really makes me sad.  And, it brings up all my 'friend issues' again.  *sigh*  I used to feel this way all the time in high school (left out, kind of like an outsider, and that if I wasn't their friend, it wouldn't really make a difference to them)....I just thought it was a teenager thing.  Guess I was wrong.  Blaaaah.  (Sorry to be a Debbie Downer.  Sometimes it makes me feel better to just let it out.)

*  On a MUCH happier note...my SIL had her baby yesterday!!  Another baby boy!  And, guys....I got some serious baby fever last night holding that squishy little newborn.  Like whoa.  I honestly don't even remember Isabella being that tiny.  It made me so sad, and made me want another one just a liiiitle sooner than I originally thought.  Ohhh boy!

*  Um, the forecast for tonight is snow.  Snow?!  Are you freaking kidding me?  It's October, people.  Ugh.

*  I *finally* found some Pumpkin Spice K-cups at Target last night.  I've been searching for weeks!  So delicious...especially on this COLD, rainy day.  Mmmm.

*  Oooh, I just started watching the new show American Horror Story the other night, after hearing tons of people talk about it.  Creeee-py!!  And?  I love it.  Especially since it has Connie Britton as the main character.  Love her. 

*  Wanna know a random fact about me?  Well, I'm going to tell you anways... 

I have the. absolute. worst. short-term memory.  It's so bad.  Like, someone at work will tell me I need to call someone back, and I will literally forget that they told me within 30 seconds, or, as soon as I start to work on something else.  Or?  Someone will text me...I'll read it...and if I don't write back right away, I'll forget about their text until HOURS later. 

If I don't write EVERYthing down on a sticky note, I will not remember it.  I cannot stand it.  For this blog post, I had to make bullet points in the notepad on my computer to remember everything I wanted to write about.  Ha.  I'm an 80 year old woman stuck in a 30 year old's body. 

*  So, I think I've mentioned this recently, but, I'm dying to get a blog makeover.  Like, I think about what I want my new design to look like way more than necessary.  Yeah.  But?  I just cannot justify spending $$ on it right now.  If I could find a good deal somewhere in blog-land, I'd totally do it.  But, to spend $50+ on a new look....not so much.  Booo.  (Does anyone have any suggestions/recommendations for a reasonable designer??  I'd love to hear about them!)

And that's enough rambling from me today.  Tomorrow is FRIDAY!  Woop woop!  Happy Thursday, ya'll!  <----- Teehee...I love that word.