8 months old!

Holy crap my bean is 8 months old! This month is no exception, I honestly can not believe she is really 8 months old. Time is moving way too fast. I just want it to slow down, just a little.

She got mad I made her sit still for a picture

She doesn't like to sit still anymore (as you can tell, see above picture!). She's around other kids who can move and I think that motivates her to really want to move. She is trying hard to crawl and is slowly getting the hang of it. We actually witnessed her crawl in her room, you can usually get her to do it if you put something in front of her that she really wants.

Right before she started to crawl!

She's still trying to stand every chance she gets. She just gets so excited when she's standing up holding onto something and lifts both hands up and usually falls down. Another fun trick she's learned to do is sitting up in her crib, which is good that she's sitting up on her own. The only down side is that it's much harder to get her to bed. It's pretty cute though when I go to her from her nap and she's sitting up, and has her hands raised for me to get her, it melts my heart.  I think her favorite trick is clapping. She claps for everything and it's pretty cute! She's such a happy baby!

She's doing really good with food. I don't know what it is but all of a sudden she likes everything which makes meal time a breeze! She even likes her cauliflower, which judging by the faces she made the first time she tried it I didn't think she'd ever come around. She's gotten really good with her puffs and can eat them all by herself which is awesome!  We've started to give her some solids and she does pretty well with them, even for having no teeth. So far she's tried eggs, potatoes, pasta, Papa's meatballs, broccoli, peas, and bananas (which she's not really a fan of). Pretty much anything soft she'll try. Next batch of food I'll be leaving it a little chunkier to get her ready for more solids.

I'm still breastfeeding. I'm really proud of myself for making it this far. I know it can be a struggle for some moms and I feel really blessed that we've been able to make it this far. I think we're going to up her foods to three times a day, she just seems like the milk is not enough at lunch time. I'm going to have to adjust her schedule a bit and see what works best. See how we can balance food and milk.

This summer has been so fun. Now that she's moving, sitting up and actually playing with things. It's so fun to watch her explore. She's definitely a water baby, absolutely loves the water! She likes her float and loves when you hold her so she can "swim".

We've been so busy this summer. Since the last post we've gone to a Valley Cats game and a Paw Sox game. Both so much fun! It's obviously way cheaper than a Red Sox game and perfect for Nella at this age. She can't sit for too long, so it's nice that we can bring the stroller and walk around.We enjoyed Nella's first 4th of July, lots of swimming and lots of catching up with friends.

 4th of July parade!

 She loves cousin Kody

 Loves to swing!

Hanging with her friends!

 Being this cute is tiring!

At the Valley Cats game!

She's still very much a mama's girl which I don't mind (for the most part). I love my bean! She still needs my shirt under her head to sleep, I tried to take it away and she woke up an hour later. So the shirt stays! Although I really do try to not have her be a cling on. She's pretty good at being able to entertain herself for a while. I just want her to explore, figure out things for herself. I love watching her figure things out. She's finally started saying "dada" which Scottie is very happy about!

Well that's all for now! Hope everyone is having a good summer!

A Baby Sprinkle

So what do you do when someone you know is having their second baby and you want to celebrate? Normally most people just get one shower, sometimes if you're lucky you'll get another for your other babies but most likely you'll just get one. Something we did for my sister, who had her second four years later, is throw a "Baby Sprinkle". Yes that's right, a baby sprinkle! To sum it up in a quick sentence it's a sprinkling of gifts for the parents to be. Pretty much you get them all the small stuff. New clothes, blankets, bottles, binkys, you get the point.

We decided to throw Jeff & Autumn a baby sprinkle. Autumn is pregnant with baby Colton and although this is her second this is Scottie's brother Jeff's first so we had to celebrate! Any excuse to throw a party!

I looked up some different ideas and settled on a "Little Man" theme. With the help of Scottie's mom and sister we pulled it all together. We got together a guest list, pulled together some food, got the cutest decorations and bam there you have it!

We only had two weeks to prepare everything. They live in Massachusetts and were coming up for the fireworks so we had to move fast. We pulled together an invitation and sent them out the next day. I found the paper plates and napkins on oriental trading. Table clothes (went with plain red) and plastic ware came from Wal-Mart.

Picture of the dinner plates! So cute right?

I googled sprinkle invitations, it's a relatively new thing so I was hoping I could find a cute saying to explain what a sprinkle was. Unfortunately all the invitations I found were a little girly so I decided to do the old cut and paste and create mine own.

Here's what I put on the invitation, "Bibs, diapers, and bottles galore, Jeff and Autumn are having one more! The new baby won't need a playpen or crib, so just bring the small stuff like bottles and a bib, remember it's a baby sprinkle indeed, a light showering of things that the baby will need." We also included a note to tell everyone we were having a diaper raffle and to bring a book instead of a card. Keeping with the mustache theme for the book tags (included in the invitation) they read, "I mustache a favor of you.....One small request that won't be too hard, Please bring a book instead of a card. Whether Cat in the Hat or Winnie the Pooh, You can sign the book with a note from you. Little man Colton will become very smart indeed, if we start early he will soon learn to read!" Diaper raffle tags read like this, "I mustache a favor of you.....Bring a pack of diapers.....in any shape or size! We'll enter you in a raffle, & you could win a great prize!" I just took the boarder from the invite, stuck a mustache on there and the tags were done!

For the food we decided to do a cook out. We made some salads, some baked beans, got some burgers and dogs, got some chips and called it a day. Frank manned the grill, we left the food inside so it wouldn't get spoiled in the sun.  For the food table we just threw a white table cloth down and popped the plastic ware in mason jars to dress it up a bit and that's it. No fuss no muss!

For decorations I made a banner but that had gotten lost in the shuffle, eventually we did end up finding it and used it as the back drop for pictures. My awesome sister took pictures to capture the whole event. I wanted her to get some maternity shots of Jeff and Autumn so they could remember this special time. The event was held in my sister in laws back yard so we really didn't need to much to dress it up. The outdoors worked for us. We had some tables set up and tons of chairs for people to hang out. We put up a clothes line with one onesies on it to just add a nice extra touch.

 My sweet banner. "Welcome Little Man"

 Parents to be!

 Love these guys!

 Clothes line!

I made the cake. I decided to just do a small round that they could cut and went with cupcakes to hand out to everyone else. On the cake I wrote "Welcome Baby Colton" and the cupcakes were so easy. I just frosted them with bright blue frosting, stuck a tooth pick mustache in them and that's it! So simple! Little did I know Autumn's obsessed with mustaches so the theme fit perfectly!

 Small round cake.

 Cupcakes!

 Notice the sweet mustache dessert plates from orientaltrading.com!

 The tooth pick mustaches were a big hit!

Even Nella joined in on the fun!

All in all I said it was a pretty good time. Everything went relatively smoothly and I think everyone had a really good time. I'm really glad we had my sister there to take pictures, especially ones of the whole family together. I can't wait to meet baby Colton, he is so loved already!

6 Months In!

Even a little early. And yes I know I missed her five month check in but cut me some slack I'm working again!

Here's the bean at 5 months!

I'm just happy to be sitting at the computer, by myself in a quiet house. Baby is asleep (after quite a battle) and hubby is at worship practice so I am soaking in the quiet, and enjoying some time to myself (even if it is just half an hour, hey I'll take what I can get!)

So in the bean world, yes my baby is going to be SIX months old next week! Yes you read that right, SIX months old already! It's going by way too fast, and now that I'm working again it's going by even faster. I treasure the time when we get home. She always falls asleep on the way home and I soak in every single moment. I take her out of her seat and snuggle with her on the couch (or in bed) and I soak in every breathe she takes, all her little hairs, her eye lashes, her cute button nose (ok I think you get the point). I think that's my favorite part of the day. Even if we have something to do, or someone to visit I take that half an hour and just lay with her. I do try to steal some alone time with her during the day but that's hard with a four year old and a seven month old.

Nannying has been going well. Although the babies are not on the same schedule it's working well. I've been trying to get them to nap at the same time at least once I day. I try to carve out some time for Eva and I to be alone together. We usually play games, make a craft or one her favorites play with some play doh. If the babies are awake I can usually keep them occupied long enough to get a game or two in. We love to go outside, we (the babies and I) watch the "sheriff" (that's what she calls herself) perform her lasso tricks or make some sweet bubbles. If I'm not sitting with babies then Eva and I are drawing chalk or I'm helping her with her bike. I try to stay away from the TV. She usually only gets TV for "rest time" or if we've been outside all morning and she's waiting for lunch. I think it's going well and I hope Eva is having fun too, it's been hard on her with Mom going back to work and I try really hard to make sure she's not lost in the shuffle of taking care of two babies.

 All my girls together!

 Mondays are fun because Addie is home!

 We love going outside!

Ok back to Nella. My bean is SIX months old. Have I mentioned that yet?! Gahh! I can't believe it! She's sitting up really well, she loves to eat her feet, she loves to be in her jumper and jump away! She still hasn't shown much interest in rolling over, I know she can do it (I've seen it) but she just doesn't. As my mom would say, "That's a lot of weight for her to move around." Which is true, I weighed her last week and she's up to 20 pounds already! We'll get her official weight when we go to the doctors later on in the month. She's already in size 4 diapers! She's getting too tall for the threes, she gets poop on her shirt at least once a day (not cool) so we've moved up to size 4's, hopefully that will help with the poop issue. Let's see she loves to be naked, as soon as I take her diaper/clothes off she starts to giggle (which I love!), she loves bath time, and she loves her momma something fierce.

Sitting up like a champ!

And that is beginning to become a problem. Not going to lie I absolutely love it but it's hard when we have to leave her somewhere for over an hour. She's good for about an hour, but once she realizes I'm gone she loses it. I'm hoping it's just a phase. We shall see.

The bean has also started food. We started her at 5 months on cereal to get her used to the whole eating process, after about two weeks of that she was over the cereal and ready to move on to bigger and better things. We started off with sweet potatoes (which she loved) then moved onto peas (not a fan of) and now we are onto squash which she seems to be enjoying. Next up is zucchini, we'll see what she thinks about that! I'm thinking of starting her on a sippy, with just water in it. One so she can get used to using one and two just so she something to drink while eating. I know I can't eat anything without having a glass of something to wash it down with.

 Loved the sweet potatoes!

 Peas.....not so much.

And yes I am that mom who makes her own baby food. And yes I am that mom who only buys organic for her baby. This baby gets the best! And with our baby bullet honestly the baby food is super easy to make (because if it wasn't, truth be told I wouldn't be making it!)

We love our Baby Bullet!

I think we've entered into the world of teething. I'm not 100% sure only because I have a cold right now (runny nose, achey, all that fun stuff) and she does too but she also is drooling more than ever so I'm leaning towards teething. Ugh, and the last two nights she's been in our bed for half the night! She just can't seem to get comfortable in her crib. We'll see if we get any teeth in the next month or so!

Update: After reading up on how to get your baby to sleep through the night I started to really get into a routine. So change her diaper, get her pjs on, read some books and then she nurses. I sing her a little song and the past couple nights she's fallen asleep in my arms gets transferred to her crib and we are done. She still gets up once a night but that's no big deal. Well last night didn't go so well, she started her crying and carrying on. I try to let her cry it out but she just doesn't seem to give in. If I go in and pick her up she passes right out. So my husband had a bright idea to put a shirt that I wore underneath her so she could smell my scent (sounds weird I know) but it totally worked! She slept until 5:30! Trying it again tonight, I've got my fingers crossed!

This month, not only do I get to celebrate my first real Mother's Day but my husband and I celebrate two years of marriage! May 20th we got hitched and I've every second of this crazy ride. It hasn't always been easy but I wouldn't have it any other way. Sadly this month we also remember Black Phil. I am so happy to say that Black Phil was a part of our wedding, little did we know that a little less than a year later he would lose his battle with cancer. Even though he's no longer with I know he's watching over Nella, and that makes my heart happy.

Also on Mother's Day well be getting Nella's six month pictures done. I love getting her pictures done, it's so cool to see just how much she's grown. And as an added bonus the hubby agreed to take some family shots too! I'm so excited to see how everything turns out. My sister takes the pictures for us and she does such an amazing job!

Well I think that about sums up my life right now. Back to work with a growing bean who is changing everyday and I'm just trying to catch every second of it!

Summer Fun!

So I haven't been blogging for at least a month now. Whoops, sorry! Last post I made was her six month check in and life is just moving right along. Missed her seventh month check in so here's a quick recap:

My baby girl is growing like a weed. Getting too big too fast. When I look at her in other peoples arms I really see just how big she is, and I wish I could just stop time. I just wanted her to learn to sit up and she could stay that little forever. But no she's gone far past that. She's almost crawling now and trying to pull herself up on everything! (Yes, yes I know I need to lower her crib and I know that didn't jump to any of your minds but I'm hoping if I write it I will remember to actually do it, it's written on the white board too in very large writing. Two days later, after I finish this I'm going to do it! Yes it takes two days to write and re-read a blog when working and when you have a baby!) She's started talking too, she says "mama", "papa", "baba" (although not quite sure why because she hates her "baba") we're working on "dada". Scottie's trying so hard to get her to say it. We've think we've heard it a few times but never when we tell her too, of course. She either says mama back to him or shakes her head no (which I never encourage- ever! Actually I do because it's the cutest thing ever!) Yes one of her new tricks is shaking her head no and it's super cute. She also likes to laugh at me when I tell her no, not cute (ok maybe I have to hide my laughs a little when she does it, but seriously you try keeping a straight face when your 7 month old shakes their head no at you!) Eating is a hit or miss, of course she loves pretty much any fruit you give her and is less than thrilled when you give her veggies but she deals with it. I just keep on giving them to her and praying someday she'll actually enjoy them!

Too big!Trying to pull herself up in the pool!

Scottie had his first Father's Day in June, we spent the whole day together! We went to church then we went shopping for his gift. We got him a new Red Sox (don't hate!) hat, and the World Series dvd. He had to come with us to shop because I knew you needed to have a certain size for the hat and I had no idea what that was and I knew there was no way I could get it from him (he wears it almost everyday) to get it myself, so we all went together. Nella made him an adorable sign, and she made a little something for both of her Papa's too. Daddy's sign said, " I love you Daddy! We make a good team, hands down! Love, Bean" and it had her hand print in the middle. For her Papa's she made a sign that said "I'm hooked on you Papa" with her hand made into a fish! Too cute!

Waiting to give Daddy his gifts!

Her gift to Daddy!

I'm done with Michelle  and the girls for the summer (I have a few dates left with her, but just a few until September). I've started watching Jackson for the summer, only part time which is nice because we are loving this summer weather. Nella is a true water baby! She absolutely loves it! She loves to be in her floatie, she kicks her feet like crazy, and she loves to be held in the water. She leans forward, and puts her face towards the water like she wants to swim! It's probably the cutest thing you'll ever see, although I may be a tiny bit biased.

So far this summer is passing in almost a blur. Hence why I haven't been present much in the blog world. I'm trying to soak in every second that I can. Even the little things. For example we went to the library today and it was Nella's first time. Yeah I know it's just a library and yes I know she can't read but it's still an experience. We went with my sister and her kids and they have this great play area for the kids so that's where Nell and myself went. It's fun to watch her, watch her explore these new places.

Here's a quick recap of our summer so far:

 My cousin Brent married his beautiful wife Krina! Of course we had to take a selfie before we went! [5.24.2014]

 We went to the carnival! Last year I couldn't go on anything because of my bump so I was a little excited!

 My best friend got married! [6.1.2014]

 Nella & Miss Lainey!

 Nell rocking her shades!

 Nella's first time in a pool! Little nervous at first, but she's def a water baby!

 Great day with family!

 First ice cream cone! She loved it!

 Playing with daddy!

 Comley Bar Crawl! [6.14.2014]

 4th of July fireworks with friends & family! [6.27.2014]

 Sister in laws together at Uncle Jeff and Aunt Autumn's Baby Sprinkle! [6.28.2014] There will be a separate post about this with all the details!

 Swimming at Auntie Julie's

 Swimming with Papa

The days go by so fast. It's like I'm trying to hold water in my hands. I'm already looking at pictures of her when she was a newborn and I can't believe how fast she's grown, how fast it's all happening. A little too fast for my liking. She slept through the night last night, like from 7pm to 5:10am (and yes you're going to think I'm crazy when I write this) but I miss her. I miss her needing me for a feeding or for just a cuddle. She won't even fall asleep with me anymore. I tried one night and she cuddles and snuggles and loves on me but refused to fall asleep. I got annoyed that she wasn't falling asleep so I put her in her crib. Five minutes later she was out like a light! And yes I know that's a great thing that she doesn't sleep with us, some people would kill for their kid to sleep in their own bed but I miss her falling asleep on me. She doesn't even fall asleep when I nurse her, when she's done she just pulls away. I give her the bink and lay her down and that's it.

Example A: Baby Nella, look how little she was! She barely even had any fat rolls on those sweet little legs!

Now look at her, so big! Seriously she's gotten so long!

In all her chubby glory! Love it!

As much as I want her to stay my wittle baby I do enjoy watching her grow and learn. It's amazing to really think about how far she's come, it's amazing to see her grow so big. I am blessed to say the least.

And a little side note, speaking of being blessed. I would just like to give a shout out to all the people who came to our shower and gave us diapers! We made it six months without having to buy any diapers! And we just finished our last thing of wipes! Can you believe that! Six months without having to buy diapers! That is truly amazing! So very blessed to have such an amazing family and such an awesome group of friends! Looking forward to a long weekend with my little family! Have a safe & happy 4th everyone!