Pretty in Pink

Six months ago, in a time that now feels like a lifetime ago, you entered our lives. You flipped everything upside down and changed it all for the better. Your smiles light up our life. Your slobbery, drooly kisses melt my heart. And I can't imagine a day without your gummy smiles.

Thank you, Adly. I'm so glad I was picked to be your mommy.

Shopaholic in Training

My favorite thing to do on the weekends now is to get out of the house with my little mini, just the two of us. We go shopping and run errands at least once during this time. As she's passed over the 6 month threshold, she's really gotten to be fun while we're out an about. She loves looking around, oohing and ahhing at everything she sees and talking to people that pass by.

This past weekend, after a quick trip lugging her in the car seat out of the house, I decided she's just gotten too heavy for me to lug her around in the car seat anymore. I've mentioned how I feel about change and well, this is a big one for me.

The car seat is just so easy....especially in the winter. You see, you can't put infants in a snowsuit while in the car seat. Therefore, we purchased a fantastic snuggly cover that keeps her warm in her regular clothes while we're out and about. I love this cover. But now the problem of having to take her out of the car seat while we're out is quickly approaching. She's just too heavy.

In order to help me along with this change, I spent all day on Sunday preparing a shopping trip to test out taking her out of the carseat. We received a shopping cart cover at one of our baby showers that I've kept on hand in the car, should we need it. I know, I know...I'm totally that new mom. I'm sure by the next one I'll be throwing the infant in the cart without a thought about what diseases might be all over the cart. (Sorry, future second child). But for now, for my sanity, my precious little bundle must be kept safe from all the scary things out there.

I planned the trip to a baby store to get some things for her nursery she's been needing. I dressed her in a light fleece, hat, sweatpants and socks. We pulled into the parking lot and of course as luck would have it, had to park light years away. As soon as I pulled into a spot, however, I saw a mom doing the same thing I was about to do. So I sat in my car and watched her. Total creeper. When she was done, I felt a boost of confidence as I dashed to get a freezing cold cart and began putting the cart cover on. Those things are totally not made for dummies. Why is a piece of cloth with two holes for legs in it so difficult to figure out!?! After what felt like 20 minutes of finagling the thing into place, I finally took Adly out of the car seat and put her into the cart. The cover immediately pulled off of the cart. Ugh!

Luckily she was too intrigued about being out of the car seat to notice she was freezing which gave me a few moments to mess with the cover. After some maneuvering I was able to figure it out and get her strapped in.

We then raced into the store with a gust of glory. I had done it!! We had done it! From the start Adly was completely giddy. It must be quite an experience going from being carted everywhere in your little cocoon of a carseat to being thrust out into the open among all the lights, shiny things, and people.

Anyways, we happily shopped together through the store for a good hour before she started to get bored. Oh, and that mom I stalked with my eyes in the car? Well, I stalked her inside the store too. I really have no shame these days. I ran into her (on purpose) and awkwardly confessed I had watched her use the cart cover and asked for any advice on how to set it up more seamlessly. Thankfully, instead of running away from her creepy stalker, she gave me some tips about how to use it and even showed me the loops to use to attach toys for entertainment. See? We moms need to stick together!

Mom! Stop talking to me. I'm looking at the shiny things....

I love shopping!

Lovely Day

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. 

Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. 

-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

I have a great appreciation for all of the many things Dr. King accomplished in his lifetime. But this year, I have to selfishly admit I couldn't be more excited to be able to stay at home one more day with my two favorite people.

To go along with the mandatory theme of relaxing all day, Adam came up with the idea to make some chicken and waffles together at home. This was a meal that I craved like a wild animal when I was pregnant. Every weekend I would make Adam look up new restaurants that served it for brunch and we would traipse all over town fulfilling my ravenous cravings. 

Since having Adly the craving has disappeared thankfully (for my waistline's sake), but it is still one of my favorite meals. For what ever reason, I had never thought of making it at home, despite how much I love to cook. But I'm so glad I did! This meal was amazeballs. I cannot even begin to explain just how good it was. I'm drooling as I write this. Therefore I had to share.

Crispy Chicken & Waffles
-2 chicken breasts
-buttermilk
-frozen waffles (or homemade if you have a waffle maker and the energy)
-corn flakes-crushed
-flour
-Franks Red Hot
-Pure maple syrup
-cinnamon
-cayenne pepper
-pepper
-salt
-onion powder
-garlic powder
(I'm bad at measuring. That's why I can't bake. I just use my eye. Sorry, there are no measurements.)

Take the breasts out of the package and stab a few knife holes in them. Sounds lovely, doesn't it? I think this helps it absorb more of the buttermilk goodness. Put the chicken breasts in a gallon ziploc baggie. Cover them with buttermilk. Sprinkle in a good amount of cayenne pepper, pepper, garlic and onion powder. Mix it up and put it in the refrigerator for about 2 hours.

In another ziploc baggie, crush up a few handfuls of corn flakes. Add a few good dashes of cayenne pepper, pepper, salt, onion and garlic powder. I added so much that when I tried the flakes after it was all mixed, I coughed, sneezed three times and had snot dripping down my face. Hey, we like it hot around here.  Place this mixture in a shallow dish. In another dish, add some flour. Take the chicken out of the baggie and put it on a plate. Pour the buttermilk marinade into yet another shallow dish of some kind.

Dust the chicken with the flour, shaking off any excess. Next dredge the chicken in the buttermilk mixture and then into the corn flake mixture. Make sure to get that crispy goodness all over the breast. Put it on a cooling rack on top of a baking sheet (or a roasting pan). Bake for 25-30 minutes at 400 degrees, or until cooked through. Toast your waffles. Put the crispy chicken on top of the waffles. 

Here's where the magic comes in. 

Mix together some Franks Red Hot with maple syrup (about half and half) with a dash of cinnamon for a mind blowingly amazing sauce. Pour that goodness all over your chicken and waffles and enjoy!

Mmmmm. 

In between all the cooking, drooling, and eating I also got in lots of extra play time and snuggles. What an amazing extra day.

Wooooo!!!

Toys? Who Needs Toys?

When you have a sock, that is.

And my personal favorite....

I'm so lucky to get home early enough to get some time in with this lovely lady every night. No matter how tired I find myself, I always look forward to our evening play time. The other night, I plopped her on our bed so I could lay down while we played. I brought with us some of her favorite toys of the week. But before I could even give her the toys, she found her sock that was falling off, grabbed it and began playing with it like it was the best toy ever!

She also knows what a camera is now....or at least that when it comes out she's going to get to see pictures of a baby on the screen. So when I whipped out my camera, she started hamming it up. Apparently I need to stop buying toys immediately because socks are the new rage around here. 

There are no words to describe my love for this sock eating munchkin!

6 Months

Six months brought more big changes and they are happening at lightning speed! I just have to note that to kick off 6 months, Adly ever so kindly peed all over mommy at her doctors appointment. Thanks, my dear!

-Sitting. Adly is officially sitting up all on her own! This of course is a learning process that comes with many, many falls over as she learns how to balance herself. I found myself thinking the other day about how when we got home from our xmas travels on December 29th, I had her with me in her room sitting up while Adam unpacked the car. I couldn't leave her because she was toppling over within seconds of being let go. Fast forward two weeks later as she is turning 6 months and she can sit unassisted for good chunks of time. Soon enough we should be able to take down the pillow barriers that constantly surround her now. Those came after a handful of tumbles to the floor. Whoopsie daisies! Her latest move is to drop her toy, dive for it and then use those abs of steel to sit back up.

Doctor table paper is sooo fun.

-Eating solids. Adly is now consistently eating (pureed) solids 1-2x a day. Her favorite is still sweet potatoes with cinnamon. Yum! Her least favorite is definitely peas, but those are easily disguised within the sweet potatoes. Other favorites are pears and apples. Within the next few weeks we'll begin advancing to more "chunky" purees and then small bites! I don't know if I'm ready for this...

Neither is Adly....

-Nursing. We're still going strong with nursing at six months. This is something I was convinced was impossible oh...around 4, 8, 12 weeks. Back then I was setting goals by the day, even the week. "I'll nurse for one more week..." Over time it has become easier and easier. Now we have the hurdle of returning to work. I'm trying not to put pressure on myself to continue it, but I'm definitely not ready to stop. So I guess my next goal is, "as long as I can."

-"Swimming".  As Adly begins to make small moves towards crawling, she is now lunging forward from sitting position to end up on her belly. From there she "swims" with her arms and legs. But that doesn't get her anywhere and of course, brings on the frustration. It is really cute to watch though, at the expense of the happiness of our daughter. 

-That's Me!? Adly has enjoyed time in the mirror for quite a while. From what I've read, she didn't exactly know it was her- but it was someone her size. In the last few weeks, however, it appears she knows that's her in the mirror. She gets extremely excited to see herself and spends time looking at whoever is holding her there, then back at herself. 

-Babble. Her coo's have begun to turn into babbles in the last few weeks as well. She talks the most when she has a toy in her mouth (multi-tasking). But it's turned into a lot of different pitched ga-ga's and goo-goo's with some baa-baa's.

I am quickly learning why so many people mention they love months 4-9. She is so much fun and her personality is really starting to show. It is incredible how quickly she is changing and growing every day. Can't wait to see what's in store for us this next month!

Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho...

It's back to work I go....or I'm trying to....

This week, I was set to return back to work as a teacher to many little bitties. I absolutely love teaching and I've definitely missed it. But I do have to say, I also loved being able to stay home with Adly for six months more than I ever could have imagined.

The "back to work" behemoth mountain of dread has been looming for over a month as this ever-impending thing I knew was going to happen sooner than later. To be honest, it got to the point where I just wanted to get it over with. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans and sent us into an arctic blast for two days, therefore pushing back my start date. Two days in which thankfully the officials took notice of and decided that little ones shouldn't be walking to and from school in -40 something wind gusts. I have to say, I wasn't sure if all the hype was for reals. Then I bundled up and went outside to clean off my car the first day. Within 5 minutes, I lost feeling in my fingertips and my nostrils were frozen. This weather is no joke!

Either way, my leave has now been extended by an extra two days. Leading up to my return to work, I am convinced Adly sensed something was changing. Call it an instinct, call it crazy, but I swear she knew. This could've also had to do with a change in my own demeanor as well, but either way it melted my heart. In the last week, she has become much more clingy with mommy, developing this fast-paced breathing like she's going to panic every time I walked away from her. She has also started doing much more cuddling, nestling up under my neck and sucking her thumb. And then, the biggest thing, this Sunday she kissed me for the first time!

A big, open-mouth, drooly kiss from my almost 6 month old.

I cried. Or rather, I sobbed.

We were looking at each other in the mirror (her favorite thing to do these days) when I kissed her on the cheek. She then grabbed my face and planted a big fat one on my own cheek.

I came out of the bedroom crying and had to pass her off to daddy so I could collect myself. I kind of thought it was coincidental and maybe it had happened just to give me that extra push of, "It's ok, mama. I still love you. I'll be fine and so will you."

But then that night, she did it again....and again. Seriously, it's the best sendoff I ever could've received from my favorite little girl.

Mama loves you my little buggy boo!!

Decisions.

One thing I never realized before I became a mom was the overwhelming amount of decisions you have to make as a parent. And for every decision you make, you almost always second guess it. This is not good for an indecisive person, but that's besides the point.

The decisions we make as parents cover a wide spectrum. They can be something as mundane as picking out the proper outfit for your baby according to the weather, or as big as what religion your going to raise your child in, if any. Some decisions are made quickly, in the moment and others are thought over for long periods of time. Whether it be small or life changing decisions, they all play a role in what kind of person your baby is going to grow up to be.

No one person is the same, so therefore I also believe there is no one right way to raise a child. One persons' choices may be way different than mine, and that's ok...barring anything serious of course. As a new parent you are constantly bombarded with what you should, shouldn't, must, and must never do. This comes to you by way of well-meaning family, friends, media and the like. These days it's very easy to drive yourself crazy listening to all of the garble that is out there about how to raise your child in the best way possible. 

I do not have a lot of friends with babies yet, so my experience with this is limited to mainly my moms groups, mommy bloggers I follow, and Facebook friends that have children. You begin to notice how people have chosen to parent based on the articles they share, posts they write, pages they like, etc. There are the outspoken parent advocates that insist on giving you all the information possible about certain subjects. There are parents who do everything all natural and are against most modern medicines and practices. There are then those who are against all of those parents, and so on. At first, I found myself poring over every article I saw because I wanted to be knowledgeable about everything I could, no matter my opinion. 

Then I realized I was going a little cray cray. I was constantly second guessing decisions Adam and I had made together, based on what I was reading. Sure, maybe there are some things we could do differently, but for the most part, we are trying to do what we believe is best for our daughter.

When Adly was around 9 weeks, I ran into a mom I know when I was out with Adly. She's older and has three kids. Almost immediately after oohing and ahhing over my daughter, she went right into asking me about vaccinations. Yes, the v-word. The word I never thought would wreak so much havoc in my life I'd actually lose sleep over it. I honestly don't care what other parents choose to do with their own children and vaccinations. I feel that's their right as a parent to choose what they think is best. I hate...or shall I say, loathe talking about vaccinations with other parents. It's a hot button topic that almost always leads to judgement one way or another. 

Anyways, this mom went right into a speech, accosting me over the fact that I had just vaccinated my child at her 2 month appointment. How she learned of this was by asking how old she was and then immediately saying, "Oh no...please tell me you didn't vaccinate her at her 2 month appointment!?!" And then she continued on to tell me I must stop with the shots because I'm only going to be harming my daughter even further. It's my job as a mom to keep my child safe and by taking her in for more shots I would be making a conscious decision to hurt my sweet baby girl.

There I was, a weary, exhausted, emotionally unstable new mommy, staring back at her with huge saucer eyes and an inner rage. How dare she make me feel like such an awful person! Yet all I could say was, "thank you for the advice." It was after that incident that I cried. I cried on the walk home and into the evening and for many nights after that over one of the hardest decisions we've had to make. I beat myself up over it and questioned myself. I questioned it with Adam and I lay awake at night stressing out over it. 

Choosing to vaccinate was not an easy decision for me, personally. You are willingly giving the OK for a nurse to stab your child multiple times in one sitting with mixtures of I'm not really sure what. It is the first time you will see your child bleed, scream from pain, and cry because of something you allowed to happen. But despite all of the recent backlash over vaccines, I also think they are necessary. And that's my right as a parent to believe that. Whatever my choices, I don't deserve to hear that I'm an awful person for making that decision.

It wasn't until I saw this article on Facebook the other day that for the first time since becoming a mom, I felt a small sense of peace with our decision to vaccinate. I also realized I was still holding on to guilt over the comments from that mom. Yes, the article is only one persons' view. No, it's not scientifically backed. But to me, it shows that no matter how organic, pure, and natural I make Adly's life, she can still get sick. She can still get hurt. Things happen. And in my mind, by vaccinating, I'm helping my daughter in the best way possible to stay healthy. That is my personal decision. And every person is allowed to make their own decisions for their own family.

 

Raising a child is the hardest thing you will ever do. You will never second guess yourself more than when raising your son/daughter.  Take everything you read, hear, learn, or are told to do with a grain of salt. Take it in, think about it, make a decision and move on.

That's my goal for the year 2014. 

Daddy Daycare

I went into work yesterday to set up my classroom for when I return to work on Monday. Eeeek!

Adly will now be staying home with daddy for the next few months, entering into a real life Daddy Daycare. So we used the day as a trial run of what it will be like when mommy goes back to work. As promised, Adam sent me a picture in the middle of the day to show me what he and the munchkin were up to.

Let's just say, if this is what this winter is going to be like, I can't wait for the hilarity to ensue.

That's an oven mitt holding her arms down....

To help explain, Adly's favorite thing to do while eating these days is shove her right fist (the entire hand, if you will) and her left thumb into her mouth. She eats a spoonful of creamy puree, then puts the fist in the mouth to suck for a few seconds, then the thumb. She's probably showing early signs of OCD or her ability to create patterns. That's my girl!! But what you're left with is a huge mess when she's done eating. 

Apparently, today Adam came up with a new invention while feeding her by himself. To solve the problem of the fist and the thumb interruptions, he used an oven mitt from the kitchen to strap down her arms, thus creating a hands-free eating experience. 

I have to give it to him for the creative ingenuity it took to come up with that one....

Out West

A few weeks ago, Adam and I ventured out to Phoenix to see my childhood friend Kendra and her husband Marcus. Over the last few years, Adam and I have headed out there to visit during the dreadfully cold winter to get in some sun and relaxation. The last time we went, Kendra and I were both carrying little babies in our bellies.

This time, the babes were both here and we were SO excited for them to meet! Kendra's little man, Brooks is now 9 weeks and Adly is 21 weeks. Kendra and Marcus are always wonderful hosts to us, and this time was no different. It was actually the perfect time to visit, as Brooks isn't quite utilizing all of his playthings and nursery just yet, so Adly was able to move right into his space. We also got to play with the many toys that we don't have room for and Adly was definitely in heaven. Their plentiful amounts of baby goodies also allowed us to travel very lightly.

Adly was an unbelievable trooper on the airplane ride, both ways. I nursed on the takeoff and landing, per other mommies' advice. In between those times, Adly slept or played quietly. We picked the very last row of seats and both times lucked out with no one in the middle seat. She is such a good traveler!

It was interesting to see the difference in abilities of the babies, based on their ages. It's so crazy how quickly you forget what a few months ago in baby time was like. I can hardly remember what Adly was like when she spent her days mostly just eating and sleeping. I think it was just as crazy for Kendra to see what's in the near future for her little man.

While we were out there, each of the babies hit a big milestone. Little Brooks gave his parents some relief and finally began sleeping through the night! As of a few days after our visit, he was still continuing this huge accomplishment. Adly also had an amazing moment of her first gut-busting giggle that sent me into tears and Adam racing for the video camera. All it took was Adly to be in the bouncer with Kendra "caw-caw-ing" at her with a parrot. Who knew? It was the most amazing sound I've heard from her so far. Unfortunately, despite repeated, desperate attempts to re-create it, she has not giggled since.

As usual, we ate our hearts out while out there and while our visit was much more low key than it has been in the past, some of our most fun times were spent around the dinner table drinking wine after the babes had gone down to bed. I'm so excited to be sharing in this parenting adventure with one of my oldest and dearest friends.

Passed out on the plane. 

Daddies kissing babies. 

Adly and her new buddy. 

Trying out the jumper. She LOVED this!

Milk coma's are the best!

Buddies!!

We love warm weather walks!

Champagne brunch at our favorite outdoor market. 

Posing with daddy. 

Me and my lovebug. 

Beers, beers, beers!

Taking the little ones on a nighttime Christmas light stroll. 

Just hangin' out. 

Get the foot in my mouth!

Turn my head for a second and she's on her tummy...

Newborn snuggles

Raclette style dinner, our last night. This was amazeballs. 

Love this picture. Mommy and her little boy. 

Until next time!