I'm not very good at this blogging crap. I really could list all the excuses but I think I'm mostly starting to have blogging envy. Sad but true. I originally started this for friends and family to see how the renovations were going...and our life with the many animals. Then along came my pregnancy. That overwhelmed my blog. The more pregnant I became- and the more things I talked to family about the pregnancy- the more I realized a lot of people don't remember those little pregnancy details. I wanted to, or at least wanted to look back on them. That became the goal of the blog and continued when Makenna was born. I think in doing this I have bored the few readers I had though. Although I would still like to have this as something to look back on, I also envy the people who have fun looking blogs...who write random things and it makes sense... who are mixed in the creative blog world. Not saying I don't like blogging about my fabulous little girl- I do! I just feel like I'm stuck in the blog stone age. I might as well have a rock and a chisel to document Makennas steps.
So I think sometimes, even when I do get a chance, I hesitate posting.
But. For a while, this blog will have to stay in the stone age. I just don't have time to revamp things. And if I did, I'm not sure I would know where to begin.
Hopefully this week I can break out that rock and chisel and do an update post. We have had a lot go on with the holiday, especially since it was Makennas first Christmas!
Until then...
Monday, December 27, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Its begining to look a lot like Christmas!
Readers beware, this is gonna be a long one!
Im not really sure where to start. A lot has gone on in the world of Makenna since I last blogged. Last Saturday night we ventured into Philly for her first big city trip with a few friends of ours and their baby (who is a few months older than Makenna). We were Macys bound to see the little light show they put on. It was cute. Cheesey if it were just us adults but cute for the kids. Makenna loved it. She jumped around in her Daddy's arms and made silly noises at the lights. I think we may have started another family tradition. Next time we will be sure to take the train though. Parking is NOT fun in the city and the train station is right at the Macy's building. I also realized how incredibly uncomfortable I am in the city. I have been to Philly plenty of times, but never with my baby. She was in her stroller snug and safe with her Daddy pushing her but the streets of Philly were packed. It made for a very nervous Mommy. I dont know what it is. I have never been a city person but I guess being in the hustle bustle of Center City never scared me until I had her with me. My life. But despite my nerves, it was a great little trip. She seemed to like the fast pace of the city- all the lights, all the new noises.
Tomorrow we are Philly bound again. This time on the train! My brother is graduating with a Digital Media Production degree, I couldnt be more proud of him. He is so talented and I know he will do big things. He is a city boy, for sure. He has it all planned out for the three of us, my parents and him and his girlfriend to take the train to his graduation then stop buy a Christmas display done by his school, then dinner. Im sure Makenna will love it!
Then Saturday we are headed out to PA for a Christmas party at my Dad's friends. It will be our first year going to the party but I heard its a great time!
In other news... Im extremely disappointed to say that I tried out cloth diapers and didnt like them. Neither did Makenna. Im really bummed about it because I was REALLY looking forward to them. I love that they are better for the environment and dont have the chemicals disposables have. But it just didnt work. I think if I had tried them from the start, it might be a different story. Maybe I will try them again with the next baby. But the first few I tried were very bulky. Makenna is a very active baby and didnt like the fact that she couldnt move around as much as normal. She was majorly fussy. I guess I didnt think of the fact that they would be a lot bulkier than her normal diapers. Her clothes didnt fit her right since they were so bulky either. I thought at first I had the size wrong (ordered them too big) and that was causing the extra bulkiness but I tried the adjustable ones that were for her size and weight and had the same problem. Also the second diaper I tried she leaked right through after about 2 hours. I was frustrated. She was frustrated. We gave up. I have to admit, I did love the fact that they were easily washable though. Going into it, I thought I would hate that part the most. I am glad I tried them out before buying a bunch though. If anyone is interested in using cloth diapers I highly recommend using the trial program at Jillian's Drawers.
A few cute Makenna happenings...
- she is even closer to crawling. If she would move her hands/ arms she would definitely have it down. She does this little frog hop where she hops both legs but keeps her hands in place. So silly. I wish I had video to show! She does so a little scoot/army crawl to get where she needs to go though.
-She has created her own "pick me up" sign language. When she has had enough of playing on the floor she will scoot over to you and lift her arms and legs up and move them like crazy while being on her belly. She looks like a turtle on its back but she is on her belly. So funny.
- We are trying out a new cup. I figured it would be easier for her to hold a cup with handles rather than a bottle for her juice or water. She loves having a "big girl cup". If I could only get her to like the pear juice so she would get things flowing again!
- We have started the Baby Led Weaning. She has had fresh bananas. Which she isnt fond of. This morning I boiled some apple slices for her to try. Also not such a hit. I am not sure if she just isnt sure what to think about it or if she really doesnt like it. She does play with them and try to eat them and figure things out though. Usually she ends up spitting them out but its a start! Im going to try some veggies this weekend, maybe they will be a better hit.
Okay, this post is getting really long and I know she is close to waking up from her nap so Im going to quit the ramblings for now and upload the holiday pics I promised.
First, this is our awesome card that my brother designed. I also owe him the credit for taking the pics!
And here are a few un-editted pics. I havent had a chance to edit them yet. I do plan to so we can get some printed.
She will probably hate me some day for posting this one but its too funny...
And a little pj/elmo time
Last but not least, we visited Santa in a local town's holiday fest with her buddy CJ on the 3rd!
Im not really sure where to start. A lot has gone on in the world of Makenna since I last blogged. Last Saturday night we ventured into Philly for her first big city trip with a few friends of ours and their baby (who is a few months older than Makenna). We were Macys bound to see the little light show they put on. It was cute. Cheesey if it were just us adults but cute for the kids. Makenna loved it. She jumped around in her Daddy's arms and made silly noises at the lights. I think we may have started another family tradition. Next time we will be sure to take the train though. Parking is NOT fun in the city and the train station is right at the Macy's building. I also realized how incredibly uncomfortable I am in the city. I have been to Philly plenty of times, but never with my baby. She was in her stroller snug and safe with her Daddy pushing her but the streets of Philly were packed. It made for a very nervous Mommy. I dont know what it is. I have never been a city person but I guess being in the hustle bustle of Center City never scared me until I had her with me. My life. But despite my nerves, it was a great little trip. She seemed to like the fast pace of the city- all the lights, all the new noises.
Tomorrow we are Philly bound again. This time on the train! My brother is graduating with a Digital Media Production degree, I couldnt be more proud of him. He is so talented and I know he will do big things. He is a city boy, for sure. He has it all planned out for the three of us, my parents and him and his girlfriend to take the train to his graduation then stop buy a Christmas display done by his school, then dinner. Im sure Makenna will love it!
Then Saturday we are headed out to PA for a Christmas party at my Dad's friends. It will be our first year going to the party but I heard its a great time!
In other news... Im extremely disappointed to say that I tried out cloth diapers and didnt like them. Neither did Makenna. Im really bummed about it because I was REALLY looking forward to them. I love that they are better for the environment and dont have the chemicals disposables have. But it just didnt work. I think if I had tried them from the start, it might be a different story. Maybe I will try them again with the next baby. But the first few I tried were very bulky. Makenna is a very active baby and didnt like the fact that she couldnt move around as much as normal. She was majorly fussy. I guess I didnt think of the fact that they would be a lot bulkier than her normal diapers. Her clothes didnt fit her right since they were so bulky either. I thought at first I had the size wrong (ordered them too big) and that was causing the extra bulkiness but I tried the adjustable ones that were for her size and weight and had the same problem. Also the second diaper I tried she leaked right through after about 2 hours. I was frustrated. She was frustrated. We gave up. I have to admit, I did love the fact that they were easily washable though. Going into it, I thought I would hate that part the most. I am glad I tried them out before buying a bunch though. If anyone is interested in using cloth diapers I highly recommend using the trial program at Jillian's Drawers.
A few cute Makenna happenings...
- she is even closer to crawling. If she would move her hands/ arms she would definitely have it down. She does this little frog hop where she hops both legs but keeps her hands in place. So silly. I wish I had video to show! She does so a little scoot/army crawl to get where she needs to go though.
-She has created her own "pick me up" sign language. When she has had enough of playing on the floor she will scoot over to you and lift her arms and legs up and move them like crazy while being on her belly. She looks like a turtle on its back but she is on her belly. So funny.
- We are trying out a new cup. I figured it would be easier for her to hold a cup with handles rather than a bottle for her juice or water. She loves having a "big girl cup". If I could only get her to like the pear juice so she would get things flowing again!
- We have started the Baby Led Weaning. She has had fresh bananas. Which she isnt fond of. This morning I boiled some apple slices for her to try. Also not such a hit. I am not sure if she just isnt sure what to think about it or if she really doesnt like it. She does play with them and try to eat them and figure things out though. Usually she ends up spitting them out but its a start! Im going to try some veggies this weekend, maybe they will be a better hit.
Okay, this post is getting really long and I know she is close to waking up from her nap so Im going to quit the ramblings for now and upload the holiday pics I promised.
First, this is our awesome card that my brother designed. I also owe him the credit for taking the pics!
And here are a few un-editted pics. I havent had a chance to edit them yet. I do plan to so we can get some printed.
She will probably hate me some day for posting this one but its too funny...
And a little pj/elmo time
Last but not least, we visited Santa in a local town's holiday fest with her buddy CJ on the 3rd!
Friday, December 3, 2010
Happy Thanksgiving!
This is how blogging goes when you are a stay at home Mom. I cant imagine being a working Mom! I started this Thanksgiving night and finally Im getting to updating and posting it. Enjoy!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! As you know, it was Makenna's first. I dont think it could have gone better. We woke up to snow this morning. I brought her to the window and told her all about the snow, she loved it. Big smiles. I can't wait till she is big enough to play out in it- well, I can wait but I'm excited for that day. Don't want to rush these precious infant moments! They are already going by so fast. She is almost 100% on sitting now. We have been practicing. I always sit behind her just in case but for the most part, she is a champ at it. We moved the area rug from the dining room to the living room on Sunday so she wasnt playing on the wood floor now that she is more active on the floor. She is getting really good with scooting around on her belly. The day after we moved the rug into the living room, she figured out how to get traction and get up on her hands knees and rock. So close to crawling! And she gets so proud! Check it out...
Since she is more active on the floor and scoots her way to her toys, it's much easier to keep her occupied for a bit. She is definitely less frustrated too. I picked up some new cars for her, they are super cute and have a ball to roll them instead of the wheels. She loved them!
And of course she loves her Elmo time...
We have also started to let her "taste" things. I'm not sure if I mentioned it but I have been looking into Baby-Led Weaning. She has really shown an interest in foods the past few weeks. I dont think she is ready to fully try it out just yet so we have started with a few frozen things, like a tastey teething treat. She loves frozen peaches, hated the bananas and loved sucking on a carrot. My cousin gave us this handy little Sassy Teether. It's pretty awesome.
We used it on Thanksgiving for the carrots so she didnt choke. She went to town!
~~~~
Updated from December 3...
Makenna is fully sitting on her own now. I still put the boppy behind her incase she takes a spill backwards but its rare. She also is much better about getting up on her hands and knees. She pulls her knees closer together, she is SO close to crawling. Which means Ive been shopping for more baby gates!
Last weekend we were in Delaware for her cousin Mikey's 4th birthday. She went to town sucking on a pretzel stick (of course I got the salt off first). We try to include her in every sit down meal we have. She doesnt usually get anything aside from her teething ring or frozen peaches but she loves being a part of the family. She is showing more and more interest in food and sometimes reaches for our plates or watches in amazement as we put the food in our mouth. With even the small amount of things she has tasted in the last 2 weeks, it had her bound up bad (tmi, sorry!). I tried giving her prune juice- she hated it. Then we tried baby food peaches (eventhough I didnt want to do the puree thing). She didnt like it, who can blame her though?! It tasted kinda like peaches but smelled like wet dog! Gah-ross! So then finally I called the doctor and she said to try pear juice, it has the same effect as prune juice but tastes better. She still isnt too crazy about it but likes playing with the bottle so she drank some. And after a few days, we are back to flowing normal. :o)
In more exciting news, my brother helped out a ton with her Christmas pictures in the last week. I wont post any until after the cards go out next week but they came out really cute. I couldnt have done it without him. It took us 4 days of shooting- about 45 mins each day but he got some great shots. Then he designed an awesome card. Im really excited to send them out! One of my favorite things about Christmas is getting the photocards from everyone!
Okay, enough blabbing in this post!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! As you know, it was Makenna's first. I dont think it could have gone better. We woke up to snow this morning. I brought her to the window and told her all about the snow, she loved it. Big smiles. I can't wait till she is big enough to play out in it- well, I can wait but I'm excited for that day. Don't want to rush these precious infant moments! They are already going by so fast. She is almost 100% on sitting now. We have been practicing. I always sit behind her just in case but for the most part, she is a champ at it. We moved the area rug from the dining room to the living room on Sunday so she wasnt playing on the wood floor now that she is more active on the floor. She is getting really good with scooting around on her belly. The day after we moved the rug into the living room, she figured out how to get traction and get up on her hands knees and rock. So close to crawling! And she gets so proud! Check it out...
Since she is more active on the floor and scoots her way to her toys, it's much easier to keep her occupied for a bit. She is definitely less frustrated too. I picked up some new cars for her, they are super cute and have a ball to roll them instead of the wheels. She loved them!
And of course she loves her Elmo time...
We have also started to let her "taste" things. I'm not sure if I mentioned it but I have been looking into Baby-Led Weaning. She has really shown an interest in foods the past few weeks. I dont think she is ready to fully try it out just yet so we have started with a few frozen things, like a tastey teething treat. She loves frozen peaches, hated the bananas and loved sucking on a carrot. My cousin gave us this handy little Sassy Teether. It's pretty awesome.
We used it on Thanksgiving for the carrots so she didnt choke. She went to town!
~~~~
Updated from December 3...
Makenna is fully sitting on her own now. I still put the boppy behind her incase she takes a spill backwards but its rare. She also is much better about getting up on her hands and knees. She pulls her knees closer together, she is SO close to crawling. Which means Ive been shopping for more baby gates!
Last weekend we were in Delaware for her cousin Mikey's 4th birthday. She went to town sucking on a pretzel stick (of course I got the salt off first). We try to include her in every sit down meal we have. She doesnt usually get anything aside from her teething ring or frozen peaches but she loves being a part of the family. She is showing more and more interest in food and sometimes reaches for our plates or watches in amazement as we put the food in our mouth. With even the small amount of things she has tasted in the last 2 weeks, it had her bound up bad (tmi, sorry!). I tried giving her prune juice- she hated it. Then we tried baby food peaches (eventhough I didnt want to do the puree thing). She didnt like it, who can blame her though?! It tasted kinda like peaches but smelled like wet dog! Gah-ross! So then finally I called the doctor and she said to try pear juice, it has the same effect as prune juice but tastes better. She still isnt too crazy about it but likes playing with the bottle so she drank some. And after a few days, we are back to flowing normal. :o)
In more exciting news, my brother helped out a ton with her Christmas pictures in the last week. I wont post any until after the cards go out next week but they came out really cute. I couldnt have done it without him. It took us 4 days of shooting- about 45 mins each day but he got some great shots. Then he designed an awesome card. Im really excited to send them out! One of my favorite things about Christmas is getting the photocards from everyone!
Okay, enough blabbing in this post!
Friday, November 12, 2010
Ta Da...The Nursery!
Is it still considered a nursery if she is 4.5 months the first time she sleeps in it? Meh, whatever the important part is that its DONE! Tonight will be Makenna's first night in her own room! Hopefully it goes smooth.
I have to give my fabulous husband a ton of credit, he busted his butt and did an amazing job! Its much more perfect than I ever imagined it. We of course hit a few snags along the way but the solutions made the room that much more perfect. Our main issue started when I requested that the old style trim be taken off and replaced. Simple enough, right? Nope. After all trim was off, the plaster and lathe started to crumble, of course. There were a few options... 1. re-drywall the entire room- way too much work. 2. try to re- plaster the bottom where it had crumbled and hope we could seam it well so it didn't look goofy.- I'm confident in my husband's work but this seemed the half-butted way. 3. He came up with the idea of wainscoting. - Perfect! It broke up the paint a bit since we have the funky walls, it would look super cute and would be easy to clean! So that's what we did!
Okay, okay. Enough of my rambling. Here it is!
Before- dark pink + brown carpet= depressing!
Now...
This first picture is the wall you see all the way to the left in the above picture. We added built in storage...
I custom painted both her letters and hangers shown in this pic...
I have to give my fabulous husband a ton of credit, he busted his butt and did an amazing job! Its much more perfect than I ever imagined it. We of course hit a few snags along the way but the solutions made the room that much more perfect. Our main issue started when I requested that the old style trim be taken off and replaced. Simple enough, right? Nope. After all trim was off, the plaster and lathe started to crumble, of course. There were a few options... 1. re-drywall the entire room- way too much work. 2. try to re- plaster the bottom where it had crumbled and hope we could seam it well so it didn't look goofy.- I'm confident in my husband's work but this seemed the half-butted way. 3. He came up with the idea of wainscoting. - Perfect! It broke up the paint a bit since we have the funky walls, it would look super cute and would be easy to clean! So that's what we did!
Okay, okay. Enough of my rambling. Here it is!
Before- dark pink + brown carpet= depressing!
Now...
This first picture is the wall you see all the way to the left in the above picture. We added built in storage...
I custom painted both her letters and hangers shown in this pic...
Four months going on...Seven?!
Makenna had her 4 month check up Tuesday night. She is 27 inches and 18 lbs...the size of an average 7 month old! The doctor couldn't believe how active she was either- she wouldn't sit still the entire appointment. That's my Makenna. She did have to get a few shots though, which always breaks my heart to see her in that quick moment of pain.
Wednesday we took a ride with my dad to NY so Makenna could meet her Great Grandpa. It ws a great trip. We stopped by my cousin's house and got to meet the newest member of the family, baby Logan. Then we had lunch with my cousins family and two of my Aunts then headed up to see Grandpa. He was excited to see everyone and meet the new babies. In true Grandpa fashion he didn't make it a long visit and we were back on the road headed to Jersey. Thankfully, Makenna is a great traveler and slept the whole way there and back. I think the shots had a lot to do with her sleeping a good part of the day also.
These past few days she has been really fussy. Not her normal bossy fussiness but more of a "i don't feel good" cry. She doesn't have a fever, or a runny nose and only does a random cough a few times a day but I think she is coming down with something. I dreaded the day she got sick, I feel so helpless and just want to cuddle her and make it better.
In better news, she is just about sitting! She can hold herself up for a while but hasn't figured out that when she throws herself backward or to the side, down she goes. I give it another 2 weeks and she will have it down!
She is also trying to get on her knees from her belly. She still has a ways to go with that one but its definitely in the works. Although the goof still hasn't rolled back onto her back yet. I guess she has bigger and better things to worry about!
Wednesday we took a ride with my dad to NY so Makenna could meet her Great Grandpa. It ws a great trip. We stopped by my cousin's house and got to meet the newest member of the family, baby Logan. Then we had lunch with my cousins family and two of my Aunts then headed up to see Grandpa. He was excited to see everyone and meet the new babies. In true Grandpa fashion he didn't make it a long visit and we were back on the road headed to Jersey. Thankfully, Makenna is a great traveler and slept the whole way there and back. I think the shots had a lot to do with her sleeping a good part of the day also.
These past few days she has been really fussy. Not her normal bossy fussiness but more of a "i don't feel good" cry. She doesn't have a fever, or a runny nose and only does a random cough a few times a day but I think she is coming down with something. I dreaded the day she got sick, I feel so helpless and just want to cuddle her and make it better.
In better news, she is just about sitting! She can hold herself up for a while but hasn't figured out that when she throws herself backward or to the side, down she goes. I give it another 2 weeks and she will have it down!
She is also trying to get on her knees from her belly. She still has a ways to go with that one but its definitely in the works. Although the goof still hasn't rolled back onto her back yet. I guess she has bigger and better things to worry about!
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
My little cuddle bug
Makenna has never been a huge cuddler. She would much rather be held in an upright postion where she can move, jump around and watch the world over my shoulder. Today, she realized that she can rest her head on my shoulder and still watch the world and she did it all day. I didnt think it was possible to fall more in love with her. My heart melted and I definitely had an "Awwe" Mommy Moment. Words cant express how much I love that little girl.
In other news, she grew out of her infant car seat already! It only goes up to 22 lbs- which Im sure my 4 month old is already past!- So we had to get a new one. Today she took her first ride in her new "big girl" seat...
Can ya tell she is proud?! She loved being able to sit up and see out the window like a big girl. Of course since she cant sit up on her own quite yet, I brought along the infant seat to put in the shopping cart while we were food shopping. Silly, but it worked!
In other news, she grew out of her infant car seat already! It only goes up to 22 lbs- which Im sure my 4 month old is already past!- So we had to get a new one. Today she took her first ride in her new "big girl" seat...
Can ya tell she is proud?! She loved being able to sit up and see out the window like a big girl. Of course since she cant sit up on her own quite yet, I brought along the infant seat to put in the shopping cart while we were food shopping. Silly, but it worked!
Monday, November 1, 2010
Tales of the crazy, sleep deprived Mom...
Let me start off this ridiculous story by saying that Makenna has recently gotten worse with her sleeping. Instead of going 4-6 hours sleeping at night she has been waking up about every 2 hours. It takes atleast 1/2 hour between the feeding and changing her diaper then I wont fall asleep until she is asleep so sometimes Im missing up to an hour during each feeding. Sadly, you get use to walking around like a zombie...most times.
The other day started as one of those restless nights. Awesome. I always sit up at the top of the bed, against the wall to feed her. But lately its hard for me to keep my eyes open while feeding her so I have developed this fear of falling asleep during a feeding. Apparently I have transferred that fear to my dreams. Although I dont remember the dream- I do remember waking up to a warm body under the covers, against my leg that I knew was not my husband. My immidate and only reaction- "OH My GOSH, Makenna is in the bed!". I quickly fly out of bed, go pick up the sleeping, warm body. I held it up in the air about 1/2 arms length away, staring into those confused eyes. I was just as confused myself. Then it hit me. I looked over to her bed, she was comfortably snoozing away in there. I was holding our half awake dog. So confused and unhappy that his deep sleep had been interupted for no reason than his Moms insanity. I did a half giggle, too tired to fully laugh at my idiotness (makin up words) appologized to him, put him back under the covers and got back into bed. Poor Neik.
On another note- I know some of you may be looking for some pics of the most adorable baby human/ giraffe ever... aka Makenna during her first Halloween. BUT I left my memory card at my parents so when I get that back from them I will be uploading some pics!
Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween and weekend!
The other day started as one of those restless nights. Awesome. I always sit up at the top of the bed, against the wall to feed her. But lately its hard for me to keep my eyes open while feeding her so I have developed this fear of falling asleep during a feeding. Apparently I have transferred that fear to my dreams. Although I dont remember the dream- I do remember waking up to a warm body under the covers, against my leg that I knew was not my husband. My immidate and only reaction- "OH My GOSH, Makenna is in the bed!". I quickly fly out of bed, go pick up the sleeping, warm body. I held it up in the air about 1/2 arms length away, staring into those confused eyes. I was just as confused myself. Then it hit me. I looked over to her bed, she was comfortably snoozing away in there. I was holding our half awake dog. So confused and unhappy that his deep sleep had been interupted for no reason than his Moms insanity. I did a half giggle, too tired to fully laugh at my idiotness (makin up words) appologized to him, put him back under the covers and got back into bed. Poor Neik.
On another note- I know some of you may be looking for some pics of the most adorable baby human/ giraffe ever... aka Makenna during her first Halloween. BUT I left my memory card at my parents so when I get that back from them I will be uploading some pics!
Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween and weekend!
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