Wednesday, December 21, 2011

8months.

*crawls all over the place (the traditional way)
*pulls up on short things, i am her favorite jungle gym
*has a tooth!
*says mamamama (used to, doesn't say it much anymore), dadadada (her favorite), babababa
*loves to blow raspberries
*loves "brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?"
*dances (not when we tell her to, but when she hears music)
*is a great eater, usually purees, but now some finger food too like cut up green beans, banana, avocado, carrot (cooked of course), kiwi
*loves yogurt, yogurt melts, and puffs (not sure about cheerios)
*gets 4 bottles (7am, 11,3,7), 3 solid meals (8:30, 11, 6) and 1 snack (4ish)
*goes to bed around 7 and gets up at 6:30/7
*does not like to have her diaper changed or get dressed
*immediately tries to roll or crawl away during diapers
*loves ruby
*is a bit hard to put down for a nap, she'd rather be crawling and pulling up than sleeping no matter how tired she is, i leave her alone and she eventually goes to sleep
*takes 2 naps a day around 9am and 1pm
*loves animal noises

Friday, December 9, 2011

thanksgiving.

the last few years we've all gone to the shuley's house for thanksgiving. every year it gets bigger and bigger and this year was certainly no different since we added andrew and finley into the mix! everyone brings a couple things and we always end up with tons of great food. this year i brought tomato basil soup, mashed potatoes and hot chocolate (with fun stir spoons). fin (and andrew) was a trooper. luckily she took a good nap before we went over there and hung out till bedtime. we kept her up just a tad bit later than normal and by the time we got back to mom's house she was definitely ready for bed. for thanksgiving dinner she had sweet potatoes, puffs and her first taste of real mashed potatoes. she probably could have tried some turkey and other things, i'm just still pretty cautious about table food for now. although dr. eddings told us at her 6 month appt. that closer to 9 months she should start eating what we're eating. she's almost 8 months now so i think we'll start that soon. i mean, obviously only things she can gum, but that will be a lot more than she gets now! anyways, finley's first thanksgiving was definitely a success. oh! she even crawled the REAL way for the first time that night. i guess she was waiting until she had a huge audience to show off. ever since she's been going non-stop! so proud of her.

playing at coco's

represent

erin and i were talking inside and then saw this blur run by out back. finley, your dad and grandpa are crazy. p.s. they were "watching" the kids outside.

fin and gigi!



so lucky to have jenna as a friend for the last 20ish years!






Tuesday, November 29, 2011

savings.

i decided to keep track of how much it was to make my own babyfood to see if it really was a savings. that's the main reason for making it. i mean, it's nice to know what's exactly going in her food, but i certainly don't think there's some conspiracy out there and they're putting weird things in babyfood. i keep store bought babyfood around in case i forget to thaw some or didn't get around to making anything. anyways here's what i've found:

fresh
4 bananas- $1.08 made 16 oz
4 yellow squash - $1.93 (used 3) made 6 oz
1 butternut squash- $2.88 13oz
4 organic gala apples- $4.20 (used 3 1/2) 15 oz
3 organic bosc pears- $4.02 13 oz
1 cauliflower- $1.50 18 oz
2 acorn squash- $6.34 30 oz (!!)
3 sweet potato- $2.93  (2 1/2) 34 oz (!!)

frozen
10 oz peaches- $2.29 made 6 oz
12 oz mango- $1.90 10 oz
19 oz peas- $1.42 24 oz
16 oz rhubarb- $2.42 10 oz
12 oz carrots- 10 0z

so all in all most of it saves money. i buy green beans and prunes made b/c i don't want to deal with skins. also apples, pears and peaches don't seem to be worth it to make. i also got a can of pumpkin which she LOVED. andi now buy unsweetened applesauce (get lots). and i also made spinach. i don't think i'll be able to make the meat when it comes time for that. just thinking about it makes me gag.

some of the freezer stash

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

inchworm.

finley is determined to crawl. that's all she wants to do right now. she's figured out a method that works for her so i don't know if she'll ever crawl the traditional way. our little inchworm is getting faster everyday. this video was a couple weeks ago and she started pretty far back there. this is about half way to her goal.

storytime3.

FINALLY we got in! surprisingly she slept till 8 monday morning (after waking up at 5:38 then falling back asleep around 6:30) so we went to the 9:30 storytime. we got there 15 min. early and got a ticket. there were already lots of people there. they have coloring activities out, computers and some toys so the kiddos are entertained till it's go time. it was really fun! mostly songs which was good b/c i didn't think she'd really sit there for 30 min of stories. at the end there was a parachute and bubbles which every baby loves. so we'll plan on going on mondays as long as she's awake.

7months.

she's closer to a year old than a newborn!! so bittersweet. she...


*sits herself up from a laying position
*has her own way of crawling-- it certainly gets her where she wants to go (especially to the off-limits pumpkins)
*likes to hang upside down, fly, dance, play peek-a-boo
*loves animal sounds and hanging out outside
*takes 2 naps a day (9ish and 1ish) for about 1.5 hrs each
*goes to bed around 7
*wakes up at 6/6:30 (!!) we're trying to push this back since sometimes it's as early as 5:30
*has eaten peas, sweet potato, squash (butternut, acorn, yellow), green beans, apples, pears, peaches, prunes, carrots, and avocado.
*loves to eat puffs and mum mums
*doesn't have any teeth yet, but those bottom ones look like they'll come through soon
*went to little gym and gymboree (loved both)
*studies everything, especially people's faces
* eats 3 solid meals (8:15, 11, and 6), and 4 6-8 oz bottles (7,11,3,7)
*loves ruby
*loves to beat on things
*is a rolling madwoman
*is ticklish

storytime2.

was a fail also. well, i guess it was partly successful. fin got up super early monday morning (5:30 eek!) and then took a short nap so we were up for the first storytime at 9:30. we got ready, go there on time and i followed some women in with their kiddos so i could see exactly where to go and what to do. so they ran out of tickets 2 kids in front of us. ooooof course. it was kind of successful because we got a library card and a few books. maybe third times the charm, we'll be back next week.

Monday, November 14, 2011

napgate.

finley is not so easy to put down for naps these days. it started about 3 weeks ago. she's so determined to crawl that that's all she'll do in her crib. some days it literally takes an HOUR of her "crawling" and rolling around before she'll fall asleep. she's happy as a clam in there so i leave her, but i know she's exhausted. she's rubbing her eyes, yawning, but still keeps going. sometimes after that she'll sleep for a while, but other times she's up after 30 minutes to keep on practicing. she's so very close to crawling. probably due to all this extra practice. i've started to pat her back for a bit to get her super sleepy, but she's so nosy she cranes her whole body to look at me and try to grab my hair. i put my head down on the crib rail so she can't see my face (mainly b/c i'm trying not to laugh) so my hair hangs over. too tempting and she ends up trying to get me. i always know i'm in for some entertainment when i put her down.

Monday, November 7, 2011

storytime.

was a complete fail. storytime starts at 11:30 at the local public library. they let you in until 11:40. finley and i showed up at 11:42. yep, 2 min late. i even asked the ladies at the counter if i could go in, but they said no. awesome. apparently they don't have kids or they don't remember what it's like to get a 6 month old out of the house promptly. fin eats at 11 normally so i bumped it up to 10:45 today so we could be on time. all was going well until we were headed out the door and she had a poopy diaper. ooooooof course. so i changed that quickly, found the library (never been before), got an amazing parking spot and still was 2 min. late on top of the 10 min. late. sigh.... i guess we'll try next week.


also? i felt uber old b/c the library is on a community college campus. you know, with college aged kids. and there i am with my baby.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

NY.

well what i really want to do it say "see erin's blog" b/c she documents things so well, but alas, i will do my best to recount fin's first vacation. our first family vacation! nanny and papa live in NY and hadn't met their 3rd grandchild yet so we thought we needed to make that happen. she's at a great age, the perfect time of year to visit up north and i just couldn't wait for them to meet. so we spend the 2nd week of october having a blast in cooler weather. early, early, early saturday morning we woke fin up and headed to the airport. checked in, got through security, grabbed breakfast and got to our gate at the perfect time. i was pretty anxious about the plane ride b/c i didn't want to be that mom, but i had to keep reminding myself 1. i'll never see these people again and 2. she's a baby. there's only so much you can do. needless to say, she did amazingly well. everyone around us was so nice and oohing and aahing over her. she had maybe just a few minutes of not being happy, but i don't blame her. i was ready to get off the plane too. she got a bottle going up (on both flights) but didn't need it for landing. her ears didn't seem to bother her at all thank goodness. when we landed mom, erin, grace and andrew were already there with nanny and papa. i was so excited for them to finally see finley in person! it was great. we gathered ALL the luggage (you should have seen how much 4 adults and 3 children need) and packed up 2 cars. one for the luggage and the other for all of us. erin and brandon installed 3 car seats perfectly and we were on our way. all 3 kiddos were angels while we were getting everything in order. of course we had a feast at nanny and papa's that night. wouldn't expect anything less. we spent the week going to parks, climbing mohonk, apple picking, shopping at woodstock, and pigging out (friendly's, dallas hot weiners, chinese food, pizza, and of course nanny's home cooked meals/desserts). it was so weird to take your own daughter (that's weird to say anyways) to the same parks you grew up going to.

chillin at the cleveland airport

love this pic of erin and grace napping
all packed up and ready to go!




by the end of the week we were pros at getting everyone out of the house in a timely manner. it actually wasn't that stressful. it helps that we were all on the same page with the importance of naps and keeping the kiddos happy. erin and i have the babies pretty much on the same schedule so that helped a ton. grace is an amazing little girl so she's the easiest one, just one of the gals. she grabs diapers for you, keeps the babies entertained, sings to them, plays with them, nicely reminds them to be gentle, she's just great. not to mention she's hilarious, polite, beautiful, witty, creative and just perfect. she's a great role model for finley.

we had an amazing week and i'm so thankful finley got to spend all that time with her great grandparents, great aunt and uncle, 2nd cousins, grandmother, aunt, cousins, mommy and daddy. she's one lucky little girl. i've got it pretty good too.

halloween.

we took fin "trick-or-treating" on halloween, but we did it a little different. clearly she can't eat candy, but i definitely wanted to show her off. i decided to do sort of a reverse trick or treating so i made some cookies and we delivered those. we dressed her up as a ladybug and went to 4 houses. really just the neighbors we talk to frequently that we thought would want to see her. they loved seeing her! the people directly next to us are really fun and they had a pumpkin pinata for the kids so we hung out with them for a little bit till fin was ready for bed. once finley was down for bed we took the monitor with us to the driveway and passed out candy from there. i'd call it a successful first halloween.

mirror.

for about a year now there has been a tall wall mirror with no home just hanging out against the wall in the living room. we finally have a use for it! well, finley does at least. she loooooves to stare at herself and try to play with the other baby. she'll stare, get excited and rock  back and forth, talk, scream, hit the mirror and look at me like "isn't this awesome??" we try to visit the mirror a few times a day, and stop by the mirrors in the bathroom as well.






Sunday, October 16, 2011

6months.

happy half birthday finley! at half a year old she

*sits all by herself (started a couple weeks ago)
*starting to get frustrated on her tummy when there's a toy she can't reach
*rolls from back to tummy both ways
*still only rolls from tummy to back in her crib and not that often
*sleeps 7ish-7ish with no feedings (allelujia!), occasionally she'll have a little chat with herself around 3/4am, but usually goes to sleep quickly
*eats 6-7 oz of formula at 7am, 11, 3 and bedtime
*has a great laugh (likes when we roar at her)
*is fascinated with ruby
*puts herself to sleep for naps and nighttime
*would rather sit up than be on her tummy/back
*has tried sweet potato, avocado and carrots-- i guess she liked them kinda? carrots more than anything but they didn't really taste like much to me
*eats cereal/veggie twice a day
*went on her first plane ride! and did awesome
*"talks" up a storm, now moving her mouth up and down babbling, i think she picked it up from hanging out with drew for a week
*scoots around
*sleeps with a blankie at naptime
*takes 2-3 naps, just depends on how long they are
*still no teeth, but maybe see the bottom front 2 coming in
*loves grabbing her feet and eats them occasionally
*stays up about 2-2.5 hrs before needing a nap, we push that time to 3-3.5 hrs before bedtime
*has found her ear and head-- only with her right hand, hence singular ear :)
*gets on all 4s, but only in her crib
*loves her bath
*still has grayish/bluish eyes, but sometimes i see a hint of brown in them
*wakes at 7, naps 9-10:30/11, naps 1-2:30/3, sometimes takes at catnap around 4, bedtime at 6:45
*is the best....still.



Sunday, October 2, 2011

veg.

the other night i was making dinner and we were going to be having mashed sweet potatoes so i thought i should keep some to the side and let finley have a try. so before i put the good stuff in them, i separated a few days worth for her and decided to give it a go.


she didn't mind too much at first, but as we went along she was kind of changing her mind. day 2 i think she liked them even less.


"daddy, help me"


we've started teaching her some sign language and she LOVES when we do "all done"  
day 2. it looks like she's saying "no more" but really she was trying to grab the spoon.

pumpkin.

well fall is here and it actually kinda felt like it yesterday! it was the perfect day to go to dewberry farm to check out the pumpkins. we've never been before and it looks like it will be a ton of fun when finley gets older. we had a good time yesterday, but there were a lot of activities for older kids. there was a pumpkin patch you could get to by hay ride or walk--we walked, it's not that far and she doesn't care if we go on a hay ride.
ready to go! got the cow print diaper on to go to the farm!

trying to figure out what's so scratchy...




miss prissy pants doesn't like grass. although it was pretty crunchy here.













they also have a corn cannon, corn maze, huge slides, flower picking, go cart thingies, awesome trampoline thingy, playgrounds, and animals including pony rides. we went after fin's afternoon nap (3 hrs! she must have know the fun she was about to have and rested up for it) and it only took about 30 min. to get there. we walked to the pumpkin patch, took some pics, learned that fin HATES grass, checked out the flowers and baby animals, took some more pics, bought a little pumpkin for finley and headed home. she did a great job hanging out in her stroller and checking everything out. it was super crowded, but not obnoxious and the weather was warm, but waaaaay better than 100 degrees. really the only time she got upset was when she was sitting in the grass. we put a burp cloth under her legs, but she still didn't like it. we should have brought a blanket, but oh well. i've been so excited (like since i found out i was pregnant) to take her to the pumpkin patch so i was in love. it was the perfect day.



fin was distracted by the flowers.


she loved her perfect little pumpkin!



yea, she's crying. no excuses here. the grass was quite soft.



they'll both put anything in their mouths. see stroller strap above.