Stretchy's First Boyfriend

The nice thing about really good friends is that no matter how long you haven't spoken, or how life has caused you to drift apart, they're still really good friends when your paths cross again.

One of my childhood friends, C, happened to get pregnant right around the same time I did.  At the time, I was living in Germany and she was living in my hometown, so we didn't really have a chance to commiserate over swollen ankles or the need for pickles at 3am.  It wasn't until we ventured to NH with Stretchy that we were able to get together.  I have to say, its really nice to reconnect with C, especially when we both have just embarked on a drastically new path in life... one that, though amazing and wonderful, comes with its fair share of sleeplessness, crankiness, uncertainty and general insanity that most of our other friends, unless they too have new babies, just don't understand!

The cutest thing is that C's baby, H, is a boy... making him Stretchy's first boyfriend.  At first they seemed a little unsure of each other.

Did I say unsure?  I meant confused and extremely upset...

Still not quite sure...

Now, they seem pretty keen on each other.  Well, some of the time anyway.  At least when they want to share toys :)

Photo that will be on the engagement announcements.

Wait, what's going on?

Oh, we're supposed to sit here together?

Yeah, we could get used to this...

Uh, oh, I think someone's watching...

We were just cuddling!  Honest!

Aw, it's okay... a little more cuddling?

First Time Playing in the Snow

Last week Stretchy and I visited my parents and sister in NH.  It's always nice to get away for a couple of days and have someone take care of the both of us.  Usually my day consists of balancing a baby on my hip while trying to move the laundry around and cook dinner (or at least defrost something from the freezer) while intermittenly playing, dancing, singing or some combination of the three.

It was nice to only have to play, dance and sing.  And occasionally rock and burp and feed and change.  But the best part was that there were three other people around who love Stretchy and wanted to take a turn at entertaining her for a while!

We planned on coming home Thursday, but as always, something had to come up to foil our travel plans. This time, it was a snowstorm.  Yes, snow.  There hasn't been snow all winter, but the one day I plan on driving, it snows.  A lot.  Too much to drive in.  I would say I was disappointed, but it was pretty awesome to be stuck in NH for an extra day of TLC.  AND, the following:

The first snowflakes were cold and wet

But soon it was fun... Look at the cute baby snow angel!

Lying on the inner tube was fun... 

We weren't so sure about being pulled around... 

A Third Chair at the Table

At four months babies can start eating solid food.  In preparation for Stretchy eating, we bought her a seat for the table.  We might have gone the actual high-chair route, but we really don't have the space.  This travel baby chair is pretty awesome and it takes up less space than a normal chair at the table.  AND it looks really comfy.  I wonder if they make them in grown-up sizes?

At first she seemed a little confused...

But then decided she liked it.

Metzker liked it too.

I guess the typical first foods are vegetable purees and cereals.  We're thinking about Baby Led Weaning, where the baby starts eating real food when they're interested instead of being spoon fed.  Stretchy isn't quite ready for this yet, but since she's sitting at the dinner table now, I figured we'd see how she liked real food.

Food 1:  Squash.
Stretchy's Reaction:  Seemed to like it.
Amount eaten:  Sucked off some juice.

Stretchy's First Swim!

 

Let me start by saying that babies in bathing suits on beach chairs are absolutely the cutest thing in the entire world.  I must also credit the humidity in the pool area for making what would have been an awesome photo even awesomer- I mean, I don't know how to make my camera do that on my own.  So thanks humidity!

This weekend has been a weekend full of visitors.  Bob's brother visited and my aunt came to town.  Might have something to do with school vacation starting Monday... 

While the guys were off doing "boy things," my aunt, my mom (who never passes up and excuse to come visit her granddaughter), Stretchy and I went swimming in the hotel pool where my mom and aunt were staying.  

She's a natural fish.  She LOVED it.  Even the getting dunked underwater part (what? you're not supposed to do that to babies?)

Cutest thing ever.  That's all I have to say.  Here's a video to prove it.

My Personal Trainer

A mom's body just isn't the same after having a baby.  Period.  If yours is, congratulations, I hate you, and stop reading this now.

There are an insane number of workout videos, books, CDs, you name it- all with the promise to help shed the baby weight.  I suppose when you consider that 80% of women have had a child (roughly? the number was 82% in 2008, its probably a lucrative business.  

I was naive enough to think that I would have time to work out and bought a book and a video.  I have done the video exactly 0 times.  I read the book and did a couple exercises... um... twice?  I suppose if, unlike me, you have a baby that naps for more than 30 minutes at a time or more than 3 times a day, you are lucky, I hate you, and again, stop reading.  If I actually tried to do a workout video, I'm pretty sure this is what would happen:

Rock baby to sleep.  Put baby down.  Baby fusses.  Pick baby up.  Rock some more.  Put baby down.  tiptoe upstairs so baby doesn't wake up.  Change into workout clothes.  Find DVD.  Turn it on, with very low volume.  Start workout.  Stretch.  Do something that involves a jumping movement.  Startle baby.  Freeze.  Stare at baby to make sure she goes back to sleep.  Wait a couple minutes to make sure she really is asleep.  Resume workout.  Complete 2 exercises.  Baby wakes up.  And its a wrap... I'm pretty sure those two exercises aren't going to do anything for me.

So I've wasted a few bucks on some workouts that I probably won't ever do again...

Good news is, I've found a solution.  A personal trainer.  Usually personal trainers are expensive- $50 a session.  I've found one for free.  The exercises she's taught me are great- body weight exercises with high reps.  She's available at all hours of the day and is teaching me that you can squeeze in a workout just about anywhere any time.

Because I'm a nice person, I'm going to share her exercise that guarantees a six pack in under 4 months.  She started out with a pot belly and I can definitely see her results!

Anytime you are lying down, preoccupy yourself with something fun and reverse crunch away:

Happy Valentine's Day

To start this post, I've never really been a fan.

BUT, I have to admit, I am kind of a sucker for cute Valentine's art projects and cookies.

I had big plans: cute window hangings, handprint Valentines, cute heart-shaped cookies...

And yet, here it is, Valentine's Day, and my windows are bare, no one is receiving Valentines and while I would love a sugar cookie, there are none to be found.

We got sick :(

Being sick is no fun.  Being sick with a baby is no fun-er.  And being sick with a sick baby is just about the worst thing ever.  Not only do you not want to play, but baby doesn't want to play either.  Baby wants to cry.  You are tired and don't know how to make baby stop crying, and that, in turn, makes you want to cry.  It's been a long couple days.

Fortunately, we were both feeling well enough to at least do something a little Valentine-y...

Here are some pictures of a baby in a tutu.  What could possibly be cuter than that??

Project Closet: Complete

As you may know, I am addicted to Pinterest.  Since joining, I've realized that Stretchy's room needed a little bit more.  The paint on the walls is perfect- just how I pictured it.  The animal mural makes me smile every time I see it.  BUT, as we accumulate baby things I've realized that her room needs storage.  With a couch, a bathroom door and two closets, there wasn't any wall space for shelves that she'll be able to access for toys and books.

Intro: Project Closet.

I've pinned many a kid's closet to my Pinterest boards and finally used that inspiration to create a closet perfect for my soon-to-be-toddler's jungle bedroom.

Here is a picture of one of the closets (this one we actually use to store all our junk):

Nothing fancy.  Picture one closet rod, two upper shelves.  Same thing in the closet on the right (of course, not pictured...)


Now, here is a picture of the new and improved closet.  Might I add that I thought this would be an easy project to do a little bit at a time while Stretchy napped during the day.  Turns out, it was an entire two day project.  BUT, well worth it!

I used ClosetMaid organizers, added fun colored luan, a few built in shelves, and stacked closet rods.

In a year or so, all toys, books, games, play clothes and shoes will be easily accessible to a crawling (and walking?) toddler!

My Baby is All Grown Up

As any nursing mom can tell you, feeding a baby makes you SO THIRSTY.  All. the. time.  More often than not I'm balancing a baby on one arm while waiting impatiently at the fridge for the water dispenser to fill my giant plastic cup.  I must also either dance, sway or bounce during this time or said baby gets even more impatient than thirsty mom.

Lately, as I've been drinking water during all our play-time activities, Stretchy has become very interested in what's going on in that cup.  She stares, oogles, talks to and reaches for it almost every time I pick it up to take a sip.

A couple days ago, on my way to the fridge, with just a drop left, she grabbed the cup with both hands and brought it to her mouth.  Does she do this with all her toys?  Yes.  Is a cup a pretty rattling toy?  No.  So I thought, "Hey, maybe she's really thirsty too."

I was right on:

Pretty soon she'll be sitting at the table with a full set of silverware...

Super Bowl Snacks and Baby-Love

1. I have a hangover.  Not a drinking hangover (though after Stretchy went to bed, I did have a beer or two), but a food hangover.  We didn't go out to a Superbowl party or have people over or anything.  It was just me and Bob and a whole bunch of terrible for you, fried, frozen appetizers.  SO YUMMY.  Food-love.  However, this morning I feel like a piece of ****.  Fun.

2.  Baby-Love.  Last night was not a good sleeping night.  Stretchy was up 3 times instead of her usual one or two.  I was tired (and beginning my food hangover).  This morning at 6am I did not want to wake up.  BUT, Stretchy was SO CUTE this morning, that she totally made up for it.  I got a gillion smiles and even a bunch of giggles.  And now she is napping.  Happy Mom (if only I wasn't food-hungover, it would be a fantastic start to a day).

My Baby, The Genius

Just saying, Stretchy is awesome and can totally read books now :)

Time. I've Lost Mine, Can I Borrow Some of Yours?

Let's start by saying that before I had a babbling, rolling, giggling, smiling, energetic baby on my hands I actually wondered in those last months of pregnancy, what I was going to do with myself during the day once she arrived.  SERIOUSLY??

Let me continue by saying that the few posts I've managed to write in the past few days have occurred for the following reasons.  1. My parents were here and successfully managed to entertain the baby for a while.  2. I have decided that despite my New Year's resolution to be more organized, which resulted in a cleaning schedule, that cleaning is not the best use of my time. 3. Stretchy is taking a nap.

Since she was born, I have gone from having all the time in the world.  Time which I used to fill with mindless activities like browsing the internet, playing mindless solitaire games on the computer, drawing random doodles, trying new recipes, shopping at stores by walking down every single aisle, and even, on occasion, napping.

For some reason, now that I have zero time, I continually think of things that I never did WHEN I HAD TIME, but that seem imperative now that I don't.  Like making a home organization binder, redoing my teaching portfolio, making a book of our photos from our year in Dresden, sleeping...

In fact, now it seems that I have actually managed to have negative time.  Negative time occurs when you not only have zero time to get anything done, but when it seems that the time you might have to get things done is so minimal that it doesn't exist.  It causes all "things that need to get done" to pile up so that you become so overwhelmed that even when you have time, you cannot utilize it because you are so befuddled by those "things" that you don't know where to start and are fairly certain that even if you did start, you wouldn't be able to finish and would probably just add to the list rather than be able to cross things off.

Stretchy naps about 3 times a day.  Awesome?  Sure, it would be.  If she ever slept for more than 20 minutes.  20 minutes allows for the completion of the following household tasks:  emptying 1/2 the dishwasher, washing 6.8 dishes, putting in 1.2 loads of laundry, folding 20 items, putting away a laundry basket full of items, except those 4 things, making a bed, taking a shower and getting dressed, writing 4/5 of a blog post, or most often, checking e-mail (resulting in the use of the remaining 19.5 minutes mindlessly surfing the internet).

So, how about it.  I've lost all my time.  Can I borrow some?

Cake Wars: Me vs. Me... In my kitchen!

I love Food Network Challenge where they have to make crazy cakes.  Every time I watch it I'm convinced I should probably be on it.  Mostly because I have close to zero cake decorating experience and have made all of two (now three) decorative cakes in my baking career.  Yet I still feel, that despite never having even seen a piece of fondant, that I could be a strong competitor.

While in Dresden, I made two fancy-schmancy cakes.  One was an alligator for our friend Casey's birthday, and another was "commissioned" after the cake was displayed at a party, for another friend's daughter's birthday.

Click here to see the first cake, an awesome alligator.  Here to see the second cake- a frog prince.

After the first cake a year ago, I was asked to create a dragon cake for a friend's birthday.  He's Welsh, and the Welsh flag looks like this:

Unfortunately, when I agreed upon making the cake, I didn't even know I'd have a baby yet!  Needless to say, making fancy-schmancy cakes is a time-consuming process.  With a small baby, I would have needed approximately 1 year, 4 weeks and 3 days to complete a dragon cake.  So, I had to call in the reinforcements.  Thanks Mom!!

Due to my incredible cake-decorating expertise, I only had to redo the entire carved part of the cake once, and the wings twice, but other than that, things went smoothly (though as always, took about 14 times longer than originally anticipated).

Here is the fancy-schmancy dragon cake.

I also made cutsy-wootsy dragon cake pops.

See, told you I should be on Food Network!  Also judging by the quality of photo #1, I should not enter photo contests... Though I am starting to work on the quality of photos (see photo #2)  but can only manage to bang out one good photo a session...

In Other News...

Stretchy is the cutest ever and is getting cuter by the minute.

Mission Organization: Started

To keep up with my New Year's Resolution I have so far completed the following.  Check.:

-organized my pantry with matching storage containers

-organized my kitchen cupboards with additional shelf risers

-organized kitchen paper clutter with the following two awesome ideas found on Pinterest*

Mail Station/ Message Board

Paper Filing System

*Pinterest is a fantastically awesome way to collect things you see online on your own personal "pin boards" to be shared with family and friends.  It also allows you to see what family and friends are collecting.  It is also extremely addictive and should be used with care.  Many hours of what could have been productive computer time editing photos, updating my blog, or doing other important things have been wasted searching the internet for fun things for my boards.  Just saying... 

Darth Vader

The past two nights I've been in the company of Darth Vader Baby. We're sharing a room since we're at my parents visiting, and let me say that sleeping with a baby who snores louder than my dad (think chainsaw) makes sleeping very difficult. Not to mention the possibly lethal levels of Vick's Vapo-rub particulates circulating throughout the room or the fact that humidity levels in there rivaled the rainforest. Let's just say I'm tired... Strethcy hasn't been sick yet (though I've supposed some days of not feeling so great to give her an excuse for being fussy 24/7), so the past couple days I've been the most paranoid mother on the face of the earth. Its probably a good thing that I'm here with my own mother to keep me grounded or we'd probably have been to every hospital in the state multiple times. ("What do you mean she's fine and just keep her elevated? Clearly she has brochitis or some other respitory disorder." "It's NOT pneumonia? Well then it must be whooping cough- those vaccines suck!!") Fortunately, Stretchy is still alive. She's clearly not a happy baby, but her condition looks like its not life threatening. Probably a good thing I didn't go to all those hospitals because now I'd feel like an idiot. Dear baby, Please get better soon. Mommy doesn't sleep well with a snoring baby next to her. Also, she's very tired from getting up every 10 minutes to check if you are breathing. Love, Mommy.

Happy 1/4 Birthday!!

Today is Stretchy's 1/4 birthday!  I can't believe that she's already 3 months old.  I also can't believe that 3 months ago we didn't have a baby.

I had to make sure that we had some pictures of her on her 3 month birthday, so I put her in my favorite outfit, the one with whales, and set her up with her new favorite toy, the fishtank.  (PS. Lamaze toys are THE best)

So Happy Quarter Birthday!

Hang On!

Stretchy learned how to do something new and awesome the other day.   She can now hang on to things put in front of her when sitting up.  She's been perfecting the "grab and hang on" with the toys dangling from her play mat, but until Thursday, she couldn't hold on to things that would fall away from her.

Anyway.  So cute.  I have to restrain myself from squeezing her too hard.

A New Year's Resolution

...which obviously, at this point, is not posting every day.  I'm sure I'll get there, especially once we start doing fun things that I really want to post about.  But right now, Stretchy is top priority.  She's sleeping a lot less during the day and really wants to interact with things, but since she's still perfecting the grab and can't sit up yet, in order for her to play, I have to play with her.  So, for now, posts will continue to be few and far between.

However, I thought today I'd share my New Year's Resolution, which is to become more organized.  It's a huge project, but I think once I get everything up and running, it will make our lives a whole lot easier!

I got an iPad for Christmas (awesome!!) and my first task is to create a Home Management Binder (idea from The Nest Effect) using Noteshelf- probably the coolest app around.  Have an iPad?  Have any use for notepads, sketchbooks, binders etc. but don't have the shelf space... This is the app for you!!

I'll keep you posted on my organizational projects!

Until next time, keep organized my friends!

I Was So Brave!

Topic 1 for today's post:  Bad Bloggers.

I hate it when I enjoy reading someone's blog and they don't post for a while.  I kind of forget about them, bu tin the back of my mind I know they're around and just aren't posting.  Then when they do post, I'm always a little upset that it took them so long...

So I'm sorry.

In a favorable light, I keep reading... so I'm hoping that anyone out there that reads this doesn't need an everyday post and will keep reading anyway...


Topic 2:  Snow.

Today I woke up and there was snow on the ground!!  Yay!  I love snow and was very excited.  However, it reminded me of the following things about this winter:

Days I have woken up to snow (and Halloween DOESN'T count!): 2.

Snowforts I could have made with this winter's snow: 0.  I might have been able to finagle a welcome mat.

Snowmen I could have made: 1.  very small snowman.  Like coffee table size.

So winter, let's go.  Bring on the snow.


Topic 3:  I Was So Brave.

Today an event occured that was very similar to the first night I put Stretchy alone in her room- just for part of the night- while I slept attempted sleep.  Stretchy was fine.  I was worried, anxious and all around a complete spazz until morning when I saw all was okay.

I went to the YMCA.  I am now a member so that I can get in shape attempt to work my body back to the way it was before I had Stretchy.  I have been on one tour and taken two "Mommy Madness" classes (more on that later).  Today I worked out ALONE.  While Stretchy was in the babysitting room.

I would like to say I just hopped on my machine and worked out for half an hour trusting that she was fine, but stupidly, they put the babysitting room within viewing distance of the machines... so I now have sore legs and a stiff neck from turning it to the right while bouncing around.

Yet again, while I was the total spazz mom, Stretchy was fine and smiled and cooed for the babysitters who were eager to let me know she was welcome back any time.

Every mom has to leave their kid sometime.  Still, I think I was pretty brave.  After all... I did work out move my legs up and down on the machine for 20 minutes and look away from the room at least twice.