Our Saving Grace

Well, we're off on another road trip today. Good news though....we (when I say "we", I mean "my dad") bought the Orbit toddler carseat in hopes that this will be our saving grace on this road trip. Oh I so hope this will help b/c I'm not up for another trip where Lo is screaming the whole way.

So, since we've been on a roll with the road trips, I've been asking around and trying to get advice. So far no one has been able to offer advice that knocked me out of the park. Probably b/c there is no "real" solution to the problem. The fact is that babies don't like to be caged up for long periods of time. You can't blame them...I hate it too.

The best advice I received was from a friend, Meredith, who said she usually waits to leave when it's time for her daughter to go to sleep for the night. She said she feeds her, bathes her and does everything she would do on a normal night but instead of putting her in bed she puts her in the carseat. I thought this was a great idea but unfortunately not feasible for us on this trip. Other advice was buy some new toys or give the baby teething crackers and/or Gerber puffs. So I went to Target yesterday to get some of the fun finger foods that were recommended. We'll see how it all works out for us this round.

We're heading down to Junction, TX with my family. It usually takes approximately 5 hrs to get down there. I pre-warned my brother and sister-in-law that it could very well take us 8 hrs. I'm not sure he was too happy about that. I recommended to him that instead of leaving at the worst time which is around 3:00 p.m. that we should take the advice of Meredith and wait until about 8:00 p.m. when it's Lola's bedtime. He wasn't to hip on that idea. To be honest, we would probably get there at the same time either way.

Maybe I'm just being a pessimist and it won't be that bad. We'll see. But, I certainly do hope the Orbit toddler seat ends up being our saving grace on this trip.

Can't wait to update everyone on the fun. Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!!!!

Boys, boys, boys

Enough talk about baby girls...lets talk about boys for once. My sister-in-law, Molly, found out she's having a boy. Yea!!! Lola's first cousin will be a little bambino. This is a good thing...hopefully little Magill can protect Lola from all the boys that will be chasing after her at school.

Of course, when it comes to clothes, having a boy is much different from a girl. We've been on the search for cute boy clothes. It's really tough b/c it seems all the boy clothes are like mini-adult clothes. They're babies and you want them to look like babies so we've been trying to find clothes that have that classic baby look. You know...little rompers, jumpers, etc. I just think this look on little boys is absolutely adorable.

My friend Lane has a precious little boy, Milam, who is 18 months old now and she always has him dressed in fabulous outfits. I've attached a pic of him....How adorable is he in the little romper!!! Lane was able to give some insight to having a little boy. She is now pregnant and about to have her second so she has become somewhat of an expert. She gave Molly her list of brands that she loves. Her favorite stores are Haute Baby and Hip Hip Hooray but those stores can get a little expensive...like $85 dollar for a baby outfit expensive....a little crazy!!! So she also loves ebay and searches for her favorite brands. She says she finds great deals. For all of you out there that have little boys, here are Lane's recommendation on her favorite brands:

orient expressed (also a catalog company - they have good sales)
ragsland (same deal as orient expressed)
amanda remembered
auraluz
strasburg (they have a store in the galleria...good sales too)
good lad
remember nguyen
IMP originals
Sir John Rosalina
Petit Ami
Anavini
Search eBay "jon jon x" (x being the size)
Search "longall x" & "romper"

Here are some other places:
http://www.olivejuicekids.com/
http://www.plantationshop.com/
http://www.kellyskids.com/
http://www.grammies-attic.com/

I also love Feather Baby. Their clothes are simple but cute with that fabulous classic look. As we've been searching for boy clothes, I've found that the boy stuff is really cute too so I wanted to attach this website.

http://www.featherbaby.com/

Hope to have more tomorrow!!!

Ready, set, GO...

READY

SET

GOOOOOO!!!!

AND DONE!!!

Lo is seriously movin' and groovin' these days. And when she can't get somewhere quick enough....she tells ya!!! Seriously, we can't just sit the baby down and leave the room anymore....all the logistics and dynamics in our household have changed. This should be interesting.

Childproofing: It seems as soon as Lola started moving (can't technically call it a "crawl" yet as she is pulling herself...it's really amazing how quick they can move using this method), she went straight for the plugs. So I purchased some of those plug things last weekend and stuck them in all the outlets. This is obviously very important b/c we don't want her to get electrocuted. After I completed this task, I started looking around and trying to figure out what needs to be put up and out of the way and what else in the house needs to be "baby-proofed". Then I thought.....you know what....we're not putting any of it away. She needs to learn on her own what she can and can't do. We've tested out the sharp "NO" and she seems to somewhat understand so why not try to teach her what not to get into. I don't know if this "baby-proof" method will work but as long as there is nothing out that will seriously injure her, we're going to give it a shot.

BTW...If you can't already tell, Clay loves to cut off heads in picture. He actually does this intentionally.

No more Babies-R-Us

I will most likely never walk into Babies-R-Us again....Yea!!! Why? Well, I developed a great disdain for Babies-R-Us when I was pregnant and it was time to register. I asked around and EVERYONE said you "have" to register at Babies-R-Us. This frustrated me for several reasons: 1) It's way too overwhelming. Too many products. What do you choose? 2) They make you believe you need more than you really need and 3) I like more of a boutique feel in the stores I shop in. Now that Lola is 6 months and I have my "must haves" and I feel like I'm more "in the know" there is no need to go to Babies-R-Us. I can go to stores like Right Start (http://www.rightstart.com/) and find not only what I need but also find the new and improved baby items. I love this store.

Clay and I went this past weekend to search for Lo's first highchair. Unfortunately baby girls chubby legs don't really fit in the Bebe Pod anymore. I did my research beforehand and we decided on the Stokke Tripp Trapp highchair (http://www.stokkeusa.com/). It's not only baby chic and hip but it comes in fun vivacious colors which I love and it offers a plethora of features that your typical highchairs don't offer. If you can't already tell, we pretty much steer clear from all things that are baby like and traditional when it comes to baby purchases. I guess you could say we try to have fun with it....Why not??? So we went with the very non-traditional turquois Tripp Trapp.

To uphold my loyalty to eBay, I did look for a Tripp Trapp there first and wasn't able to find one in a color I wanted for a reasonable price so the next option was Right Start. Attached is a picture of our new highchair. I also bought a precious padded cover to go on it. I love that the chair is designed to pull right up to the table allowing the baby to have more interaction with family and helps them better learn social skills, language, etc. The best part is when you're done using it as a highchair, it converts to a regular chair for a toddler or adult. How great is that? Multi-function...gotta love it. It's amazing what you can get out of things that are thought out and designed well.
On our journey to Right Start, we also found some other things. As you know, I love my glass bottles best but still haven't found the "must have" plastic bottle that is BPA free until this past weekend. After trying the Adiri and Born free bottles, I still wasn't completely sold for a number of reasons but I'm proud to say that I've finally found "the one"!!! So which bottle is the winner???? Drum roll please....it is the thinkbaby bottle (http://www.thinkbaby.com/). Why do I like this bottle better than the others? 1) Like the others it is BPA free but in addition it is also free of Phthalates and PVC 2) It also has the venting system to reduce colic but it's much simpler and doesn't require additional parts / assembly and 3) The best part is they are reasonably priced. You can get 2 bottles for $16.99 and a the sippy cup was only $8.99. I'm so happy I finally found "the bottle". Of course, we'll only be using them for another 6 months but it's better late than never. But I now also know which sippy cups to buy. Woohoo!!! I can't tell you how happy I am about this find.
We also explored further and had some other finds. The Kidco food processor (http://www.kidco.com/) which was also recommended by Jodi Levine on Martha Stewart. Even though Martha doesn't have the best personality in the world, I still LOVE her. She really has some good stuff to offer not just for baby but for all. See attached video:

http://www.marthastewart.com/article/mommy-must-haves?autonomy_kw=baby%20must%20haves&rsc=header_2

I haven't had a chance to use the processor yet but I'm looking forward to it as I take on the challenge of making Lo's food.
Right Start also has so many fun baby books. As I look through the fabulous choices my mind starts spinning...I never can make a decision. We ended up buying these precious books by Rebecca Emberly entitled "My Colors Mis Colores", "My Animals Mis Animales" and "My Numbers Mis Numeros". What a great / simple way to incorporate English and Spanish. In addition, most of the words in these books I can actually pronounce and that's a plus.
It doesn't stop there....I also loved this book "Urban Babies Wear Black" by Michelle Sinclair Colman. She also has several other books such as "Eco Babies Wear Green" and "Foodie Babies Wear Bibs". I really like this author. Most of these books are probably more for adults than babies but I still love them....very clever and fun with fabulous illustrations for all those modern babies out there! They also make great gifts.

Finally, the best find were these great Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions of Radiohead, Beatles, U2, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and more. Clay was in hog heaven...he didn't know which ones to choose. Lola absolutely loves music so she'll get a kick out of these. Her favorite band right now seems to be The Decemberist but maybe it will soon be Radiohead. Who knows! The only thing they are missing is a Lullaby Renditions of Wilco. I've put in my request. Anyway, those are my finds for the week and I'm pretty pumped about them. It didn't take us anytime to put all of it to use. Lo approves too!!! I have some other things too but decided I should wait for another day. I'm telling you....I'm back on my "A" game and it feels good. As usual, I'll keep you updated on my thoughts and reviews.

I'm back on my "A" game

Ok...I'm finally back on my "A" game. It was rough but I survived!!! So, after further evaluation, it seems that my illness I had last week was not related to nerves but it was an actual illness. I'm telling you...it was hard core. It had me down for the count for a good 6 days.

The worst of it was Monday and Tuesday and it was bad. So bad that I really felt like I couldn't function whatsoever. It seriously took a ton of effort to just lift my arms. For those of you that have been pregnant, it felt very similar to the first trimester of pregnancy....nauseous, can't eat, fatigued, etc. Basically, all you want to do is lay in bed.

On Tuesday, I was heading back to work from lunch and was sitting at a red light...well, all of the sudden I just stepped on the gas and went....the light was still red. I didn't realize until after the fact that I ran a red light for no reason. I was completely out of it. It got a little worse and I hit rock bottom on Tuesday night....I won't go into these details but I was up all night and then I had to wake up at 4:30 a.m. to catch a flight. I didn't know how I was going to survive. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday I was basically still trying to recover. This is the first time that food was an enemy to me. I LOVE food and never imagined there would be a moment or a week for that matter that I wouldn't want to eat and that it would actually disgust me. Well, it happened. The good news is that I lost 6 lbs. The bad news is as soon as I get my appetite back I'm assuming it will pile right back on.

Clay spent most of last week making fun of me and didn't quite believe that I was sick. If he asked me once he asked me a thousand times "What's wrong with you". Every time I would answer "I'm sick...I know you don't believe me but I really don't feel good". I could see it in his eyes that he didn't really believe me until Friday. We were in Austin and it hit him...the sickness that is. He caught my bug. We were at a fabulous restaurant and he couldn't eat or drink. He felt terrible and it stuck with him. He started feeling a little better last night so it doesn't look like it's going to stick around as long for him but we were both pretty pitiful on Friday night.

Luckily, Lola has survived without catching this evil bug. Maybe it's the fact that the dogs have been licking her face since she was born and this has made her immune system tough as rocks. All I know is she has been happy-go-lucky all week thank goodness. Look how cute she is in this picture with her chubby little cheeks. She is the happiest little baby.

Now that I'm back on my "A" game (it may still be "B" game... "A" game should be here by tomorrow) I hope to blog more this week and update you on a few things. For now, I have a deadline to make today so I have to get going so I'm not stuck at work until midnight.

Hello & Good-bye

I'm not sure why I decided to title this blog "Hello & Good-bye". It just kind of came to mind. I guess it's b/c I'm just checking in to say "Hello" and I can only drop a quick note before I have to say "Good-bye" which will most likely be for the week.

It's been a tough week so far. I've been swamped at work and I'm taking my first business trip as a new mom. I'm in Nashville, TN...woohoo!!! On top of everything else going on this week, I've been sick with a TERRIBLE stomach bug. It's put me out and in bed by 8:30 every night. It's rough and I'm still not feeling much better but I'm just trying to fight through and finish up the week.

I was thinking today that maybe the stomach bug could be related to the anticipation of leaving baby Lo over night for the first time. I swore I wasn't going to do this. We're really good when it comes to keeping some independence. We try to meet friends, go out to dinner and do other things together that are baby free. However, I haven't left Lola over night yet. I never wanted to go this long. I wish I would have done this sooner b/c it's true that the longer you wait the harder it is. Now that I'm here, I'm much better but I have a sneaking suspicion that the stomach problems could be related to my nerves and the anticipation of leaving.

I know this is good for both of us....I like to say it's good for our souls. Lola has become pretty dependent on me so this is really perfect timing. Of course, I want her to love me and want me to be around, but I don't want her to "need" me (i.e. cry when I'm not around, cry when I leave, etc)....I want her to be independent and love to be around other people now and in the future. Hopefully this will help her become a strong woman one day. I know I know...she's a baby and I'm probably over thinking this but I do feel it's good to take some time apart. However, when she sees me tomorrow night, I certainly do hope she is filled with lots of joy...arms waving and all!!!

So, with that, I'm missing our reading time tonight. Clay snapped some pics of us reading earlier this week. Clay and Lo have reading time in the mornings and me and Lo have reading time in the evenings. She really loves it!!! As you can see from the picture, Bella also likes reading time. This dog (aka gorgeous girl) is never more than 3 feet away from Lola...It's almost like she thinks Lo is her baby...it is really sweet!!!

Well, if I'm not able to check in again before the end of the week, I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend. We're heading out to Austin for another road trip and we're looking forward to it.

momoFandango

You gotta love it!!! How adorable are these blankets. They are my favorites and another "must have".

My sister-in-law, Molly, started this little company called momoFandango where she designs baby blankets that are handmade using assorted vintage and modern fabrics. The best part is that no two are alike. The blankets are funky and fresh for all of us hip mothers!! They also make great baby gifts. The heart of the designs come from Molly's love for vintage fabrics and the idea that all things "baby" don't have to be about the usual color schemes (pinks, blues & yellows), soft cheniles, and little bunny rabbits/themes. The blankets are designed so babies can be groovy, hip, sophisticated, and still childlike.

Check out the momoFandango website at http://www.momofandango.com/ and the blog at http://www.themomodance.blogspot.com/. Molly hopes to have the blankets up for sell on Etsy and Ebay within the next couple weeks. Once the blankets are posted, I'll let you know. In the meantime, you can contact momofandango@gmail.com for pricing and ordering information.

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!!!

We made it (so far)

Well we made!!!! Lola is 6 months old and we have survived. Hooray!!! So far I really have no complaints about this parenthood thing. Yes, consistent sleep would be nice but as much as I love sleep, I wouldn't trade Lo in for it.

We had the 6 month doctor appointment yesterday. I'm really sad to announce that I wasn't able to go...boo!!! I got caught up at work and couldn't get away. That's the only bad thing about being a working mom. My job is very flexible so this rarely happens but I have a project I have to get done by the end of next week and it was just bad timing. I was kind of sad until I remembered a few things. 1) Waiting room with a baby...not fun! 2) Immunizations (we'll talk more about this debate in later blogs)....again, not fun!! The only 3 times I've seen Lola cry her heart out was during these shots....not a good experience. She sticks that pouty bottom lip out and then just goes off with the cry. All you want to do is pick her up, coddle her and tell her everything will be ok. So, I'm not sad I missed that stuff.

But, I do love the excitement of the appointment. Showing her off to the doctor and the anticipation of hearing her "statistics". This round here's how we stand:

• Weight: 18 lbs 7 oz - 90th percentile
• Height: 27 1/4" - 95th percentile
• Head: 44.5 cm - 90 - 95th percentile
• Developement: excellent
• Other: Two front teeth coming in

Odom's have very large heads so we continue to watch this statistic. She was in the 50th percentile early on and her head growth continues to rise up the percentile gage. Pretty funny.

You know when you have a big baby there are lots of crevices, cracks and indentions that you have to pay really close attention to. I've learned this the hard way. The last two times we've been to the doctor, she has found little hidden spots that I wasn't quite getting to. Yes....I know...a little embarrassing but it's really hard. When you wipe and bathe, you really have to peel apart things to make sure and catch everything.

So, the first time this happened was at her 8 or 12 week appointment and I was traumatized. ONCE AGAIN had one of those "I'm a terrible mother" moments. She found a spot buried deep that we weren't cleaning as well as we should. When the doctor pointed it out I thought "Are we even suppose to mess with that area?". The answer was "Yes". It's really hard as a first time parent.

Then, at the next appointment, I made sure to give Lo a bath and clean every crevice possible. I pried apart the little rolls on her legs, belly, arms, wrist and ankles . I thought she'll be sparkling clean when we walk in that office and I'd be proud! Well, the doctor peeled some areas back and once again found an area that could be a little cleaner. After she pointed it out I thought "How did I not see that" or the better question was actually "How in the world did you find that...seriously???". I've found you have to be very detailed oriented to get everything clean on a chubby baby. The doctor was real sweet that time and said "Well, it looks like the day-care missed this area"....Little did she know Lo had not been to the day-care that day and I specifically gave her a bath before the appointment to avoid the same embarrassment I had experience at the prior appointment. Oh my! I kept that to myself....felt that was the best way to go. Anyway, so I was glad Clay was taking Lola for this reason too. But, apparently this time when the doctor scoped around, all crevices were spiffy clean. YEA...we finally conquered the rolls!!!

On another note, is anyone else really struggling with this Olympic thing???? I'm not a big TV watcher. Basically only like to watch The Bachelor/Bachorlette, Project Runway, Americas Next Top Model (ANTM) and Flipping out. Yes, I realize these are all shows for the very top intellectuals but I can't help it. I get sucked into these shows like I do People and US Weekly magazines...very addicting to say the least. To even out this terrible habit I tend to listen to National Public Radio (NPR) during the day and try to read the newspaper and Time magazine also. I like to think they all offset each other and I remain somewhat intelligent.

Anyway, now that the Olympics have started, I've found I come home and watch them the entire evening. So basically nothing is getting done around our house...it's pretty much a disaster zone right now. The worst part of this is that they are on until 11:00 p.m. and I can't stop. Oh...I'm going to be a walking zombie by the end. If you haven't been watching, we all know Phelps is adorable in a "I have a very hot body" kind of way but ladies you need to check out Ryan Lockte...he is what I like to call "easy on the eyes". I would love to go to Daytona Beach and "accidently" run into him. Clay, Don't be jealous....

Road Trip

We took the brave step that all first time parents have to take at one point and headed out on a road trip this past weekend to Fredericksburg, TX. We have a 6 month old so naturally I was REAL nervous about this trip. The mapquest said the distance was 281.83 miles from Dallas or the scarier number for me was the 4 hrs and 46 minutes estimated travel time. This number jumped out in bold and stared at me as if it was trying to taunt me or something. I was terrified just thinking about it. All I could think was "this is a really long trip to take with a 6 month old". That number and thought continued to haunt me throughout the week. I was seriously a nervous wreck.

As we progressed through the week, my panic of the 4 hr and 46 minute drive increased greatly. So much so that on Thursday evening at about 6:45 p.m. I started to go into panic mode and began calling all the boutiques in town that may carry the Orbit toddler car seat. I'm not sure how much Lola weighs right now (We find out tomorrow at her 6 month appt...yea!!! So excited.) but I know it's a lot. As you can tell from pictures, she's a big girl. She basically protrudes out of her infant carrier which should last her until she is at least 1 year old. Not in our case!!! I think it's about time to go ahead and switch on over to the "big girl" car seat. I had always heard that you can switch when the baby is 22 lbs or 1 year old...whichever comes first. As my road trip concerns increased last week, I did some additional research on this and found that the orbit toddler car seat is good from 15 lbs to 35 lbs. Woohoo!!! Thank goodness. Problem with this is I wasn't able to find a store that was still open to go purchase the dang thing....I waited to late....bummer! So, on Friday morning, we set off with Lo in her infant carrier.

Luckily, it wasn't as bad as I expected (on the way down that is). Mornings are Lo's best time so I knew the earlier we left the better. We stopped several times on the way down to Fredericksburg and she did really well. Only a couple of small crying spurts that really were very manageable and could be taken care of with a bottle, toy or a kiss on the nose. Of course, it took us about 6 hours to get there (wowsers!) but we made it in one piece. That was a huge win in my opinion. Now, on Sunday, as we set out to take the much dreaded road trip home, it was a different story. How can I summarize this...it was HORRIBLE!!! Needless to say, there was some crying. Not spurts of crying but hard core crying. Of course, I don't want to put any blame on Lola as I feel this was ALL parent error. I mean there is only so much you can expect out of a 6 month old.

First off, we didn't leave until around 11:00. Baby 101...don't drive with a baby in the middle of the day when there is no scheduled nap within the near future. Lo usually takes a nap in the morning and then for the most part doesn't take another nap until about 4:00 or 5:00 p.m. (mind you...this is when we were scheduled to arrive home). So, it wasn't the smartest move to take off on a 4 hour and 46 minute drive when we knew a nap was at least 5 hours away. Especially when she is squished in an infant carrier.

Baby 101....don't feed a baby cereal before taking off on a 4 hour and 46 minute drive. Oh my goodness....what in the world was I thinking? Actually, I know what I was thinking. I was thinking that maybe if we crammed enough food and cereal down her that she would sleep like a baby the whole ride home. Well, that really back fired (excuse the pun). We had two huge explosions on the way back home. Poor baby girl.

Ok, so with that said, the trip home was a little overwhelming for me and I'm sure everyone else in the car. Here's the worst part of it....I've found that when Lola cries, my nerves get shot real quick and I literally feel like I may be going insane. My tolerance for the cry is very low...sad right??? I try to practice my yoga and take deep breaths but that doesn't always seem to work. I've also started taking fish oil hoping this will help. I'm very fortunate that Lo is not a fussy baby and rarely cries b/c it literally makes me a nervous wreck. I know...this is bad...I'm a mother and should be able to deal!!! Over the past day or two, I've been contemplating this point. I wonder does this make me a bad mother? This thought really eats me up. Then I think, what if baby #2 is a crier....will I be able to handle it? Luckily, Clay is very good with the cries. I think he begins to see my eyes get big and panic face start to kick in and he always sweeps in and takes over. Then I'm able to breath a sigh of relief. This is something that I'll continue to struggle with...I only hope it gets better with time.

Overall, Lola did a great job and I am very proud of her. Now we're all set to take another road trip next week to Austin and another in September. Like all first time parents, we've learned the hard way and we should be experts before long.

Now this is a challenge...

So, we're off to phase II.....

I'm referring to the baby feeding world. Of course, like everything else with Lola, it seems that Clay and I are making things a little more difficult on ourselves. You may ask how....feeding a baby is not difficult...all fun times right? Well, I hate to make a general statement but once again (like with cloth diapers) we're trying to stick with what we really believe in and no matter how hard and inconvenient it may be we're hell-bent on not taking the easy way out.

What does this mean? Well, as we all know, organic foods are the best for obvious health reasons. They cut out all the pesticides and other chemicals that our dumped on our foods and they are supposedly more nutritious. So if we try to do this for ourselves the obvious choice would be to do the same for Lola too. Great news!!! There are organic baby foods out there. There aren't a ton of choices but they're out there.

Since coming back to work, I've had to supplement some formula (I'll talk about this more in another blog...challenges of breastfeeding are never-ending) so we use Similic organic. Actually, I know this is bad but Parent's Choice organic (generic) is the exact same and half the price. For cereal we've been using Earth's Best (http://www.earthsbest.com/) which is also organic. Last week we decided to start Lo on "real" baby food. Yea!!! I've been using Earth's Best jarred baby foods which seems great so far. No additives which is key and Lo loves all of them....carrots, peas, pears, sweet potatoes....eats them all no problem. It appears she is not going to be a picky eater...thank goodness!!! But, in order to give Lola the "best" and the most nutritious meal possible, we've decided to take it even one step further.

What does a step further consist of??? Well, we're going to make her baby food. Due to the lack of time in our lives, this will be a definite challenge but we're going to make it work. So I just invested in my first book which is "Top 100 Baby Purees". It's great and provides so much variation. I'm telling you...some of the recipes in there are totally gourmet. If restaurants like Craft or Local served baby food purees, this is what would be on the menu. So, this is new for us and we're going to try it out.

Now, before you think "these people are crazy", I should say "I know". But, here's what I think....we as mothers put so much time and effort into breastfeeding for 12 months b/c it's the "best" for our babies so why wouldn't we continue doing the "best" most nutritious thing for our babies when they start eating the "real" foods. It can't be more inconvenient than breastfeeding can it?

Of course, Clay and I know this is a steep challenge so we're being realistic about it which means we'll most likely have to supplement some already prepared foods here and there. So I'm doing my research on this too. "They" say frozen organic foods are the most nutritious. Problem here is that they are very pricey. The Tasty Baby foods (http://www.tastybaby.com/) are suppose to be great but they run around $39.99 for a box of food. WOW...that is a big jump from .69 cents a jar. I'm currently on a search to find the right frozen organic food that won't break the bank. I hear Tom Thumb and Target both have a good brands but haven't had a chance to check into that yet. If anyone has any recommendations, please let me know.

I forget about the Lil Sugar blog. I need to make a point to read it more often...has some good stuff at times. My sister-in-law, Molly, sent this link to me the other day entitled "Do you make your own Baby food?".

http://www.lilsugar.com/1810268?utm_source=lilsugar&utm_medium=email&utm_term=1810268&utm_campaign=email_friend&utm_content=link_2

Here's another good website I reference when I have organic questions:

http://www.organic-center.org/

Finally, as most of you know, we lived in NYC for 4 years and loved it. Miss it oh so much!!! Anyway, I try to keep up to date with things going on there. One thing I love about NYC is that they are very progressive. They now require all restaurants to put the calorie and fat count on their menus. How awesome is that. Can you imagine? We seriously don't realize what we're eating when we go out. Well, this changes all that. I recently found this article about it and found it pretty interesting.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25464987/

I have so many other good articles and research but I'll go ahead and stop here. Sometimes I get a little crazy with this stuff!!! But, I'll make sure and keep everyone in the loop on our progress with making our own food. Oh my...why do we take on the challenges????

Conked out again

Considering the fact that Clay is chilling in his boxers he is going to kill me for posting this picture but here's what I walked in on this morning. Seriously, how does he do this? I've tried numerous times to get Lo to fall back to sleep with me when she wakes up in the morning. Never happens!!! I guess it's a daughter/father thing...

BTW...Monday evening I spent about a hour doing a major clean up on the house. It looked perfect when I left for work yesterday. Made the bed and all. Today, only 1 day later, I walk out this morning and it was a disaster. How in the world does this happen? I would really love to have a full time maid. I can't wait until I can fit that into our budget!!!

Conked Out

I've FINALLY developed quite a routine. I'm not a big routine person so I'm very proud of this fact. Again, like almost everything else, it's taken 6 months but at least I've got it down now...right? The problem is that my routine keeps me going 90 to nothing and I feel like I never have a chance to wind down. So I look forward to weekends to possible sleep in or even take a cat nap which I love so much. Well, hasn't happen so much lately.

So, my routine consist of this....Monday through Friday I wake up an 6:00 a.m., stumble out of bed (still really hard for me) and walk out the door to meet a friend at the lake. We usually run about 30 minutes in the morning (VERY hard right now with the heat). Soon we'll kick this up a notch. I get home around 7:00ish, jump in the shower, get ready, give Lo and Hubby a kiss good-bye and I'm out the door to head to work.

I've started a new job so I'm getting pretty overwhelmed at work but I manage. I try to leave no later than 5:00 p.m. and I'm out the door again to pick up Lola at school. We play, cook, eat, feed Lola (we'll talk about this more later this week b/c we started baby food and I need advice...another time, another blog) and then put her down around 8:30 p.m. Once we get Lo to bed, I always think it will be time to relax and have "me" time but there is always something to do...clean, wash clothes, get my lunch together for the next day, get bottles ready for Lola, etc. It's seriously non-stop. We usually get to bed around 10:30 p.m. and then I like to read. Once I finally fall asleep it's not long before Lola is ready for another feeding. She usually wakes up around 3:00 a.m. for a feeding....lately this seems to be pretty consistent. On top of this regime, I try to squeeze in 90 minutes of yoga on Tuesdays at 4:30 p.m. and sometimes Thursdays at 8:00 p.m.

Crazy right??? But, here's the deal...I feel like I really need to do mass amounts of exercise to keep my nerves running smoothly. This is my alternative to medication I guess. But it's hard b/c I don't want to cut out time with Lola so I've worked to find this happy medium. This way, I'm able to exercise and still able to spend just as much time with Lola. But the downfall is I feel I'm constantly on the go so this is why I look forward to the weekends. Of course on Fridays I have to get to bed really early b/c I wake up at 5:00 a.m. and head out to the lake to run with my group. I always hope to come home and squeeze in a cat nap but that hasn't worked lately. I'm usually off to run errands (I LOVE my errands) or play with Lola or once again clean.(BTW...what's the deal with this cleaning thing? Why is it always something?). So, Sundays are usually my big day to try to sleep in and nap.

I've found that pre-Lo I loved to take tiger naps, post-Lo but pre-Lo at 6 months I loved the cat naps and now that Lo is 6 months I find that I'm only able to squeeze in kitty naps....at most!!! It's funny though....as seen in the pictures, it appears Clay is still able to squeeze in the tiger/cat naps. Anymore, I'm not able to get Lola to lay down with me to take a nap but Clay is always able to make this happen. Seriously...what's up with that!!! He says his secret is the Tuvan throat singing. Do you know what this is? Google it! Another very funny thing he has with Lo. He does his Tuvan throat singing which she loves...at first she is squeeling and laughing and then all of the sudden she'll conk out. It's pretty fabulous! The belly rub always works for him too. But for me, it always seems like when I'm trying to kitty nap, she's up and at 'em and then when she's finally ready to take a nap, I'm up and at 'em. Oh my....I really have to figure out a way to squeeze these naps into my regime. We'll keep working on it. As usual, I'll get back to you with status b/c I know there is a solution to this.

Tree Hugger

I'm loving the tree hugger onsie. Lola doesn't know it yet but she's going to be a tree hugger one day.....Or, at least we hope. Clay and I will try to do everything we can to inspire her.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!!

eBay, eBay, eBay

I have a new found love!!! Ebay became a part of my life about two weeks ago and it was like love at first sight or a better term in this case is love at first sell. The love, the passion, the obsession I feel for it is like no other. It reminds me of the days when I was 18 and fell in love with Clay. You know…you have those constant butterflies and you can barely stand to be away from each other. We were so in love that we even called each other “Bunt” and I hate pet names. You may ask where in the world did we come up with such a ridiculous pet name such as bunt. Well, here’s how it was derived…

Somehow we started calling each other bunny…I have no idea why and I’m pretty embarrassed to admit this. It then went to bunnty with a “T”. The T was added as my childhood friends and I had this second language where we added a T to every word that had a N in it so tunta, dinnter, bunnty, etc, etc. Trust me…we had some fun with this back in the day. So I carried this language on to college and this is how Clay and I came up with Bunt. Pretty obnoxious, huh!!! Well we did it and Clay is going to kill me for telling it.

Back to my love for Ebay….It is really a riot!!! Ever since I received my “free money” I’m obsessed with this Ebay thing. Now I look at everything I own in a very different way. More objectively I guess. Any time I put on an outfit or when I’m just sitting around at the house, I think “Do I REALLY like this or is it put to better use on Ebay? Will I ever REALLY wear it or should I Ebay it? This has seriously changed my thought process on everything. For example, On Saturday we went to dinner and I was wearing a really cute dress (so I thought). About 1 hour into the evening I decided I HATED the way the dress looked on me. The entire evening I couldn’t quit thinking about getting home and ripping the dress off. When I was finally able to rip it off, I knew I wouldn’t wear it again but thought I could possibly save it for when I’m pregnant again (always thinking ahead). Then Ebay came to mind…I thought “Um no…that’s useless….I’ll Ebay it!!!” First thing Monday the dress was on Ebay. You gotta love it!!!

Ebay has now become a second job for me. Seriously!!! It can be a lot of work but it’s worth it. I made $200 last week just like that. So now you can see why it would be easy to get obsessed with it. Especially when energy costs are sky high and all expenses continue to go up. This will help pay for our $450 electricity bill and the $750 in a/c repairs that we have to get today. Ouch!!! Thank goodness for Ebay.

Attached are some pictures that Clay took of Lo on Sunday playing in the grass. We love hanging out outside in the evenings with baby Lo. Clay is getting real good at this photography thing. I wish I could attach all 50 pictures he took of her so you could get a good feel but that may be a little obnoxious. Of course I’ve noted to myself that if you put a baby in the grass, she will get attacked by bugs. They steer clear of me but not Lola. They ate her up. Poor thing…she had several little bug bites on her little body. Thank goodness it didn’t bother her and they went away quickly. Otherwise, I would have had one of those “I’m a terrible mother” moments. I hate those!

I’m off to get an egg sandwich now. I’ve been running all week so need to pump some protein into my body. I can taste it now…

Throw out the rocking chairs

Throw out the rocking chairs b/c I've got something even better....a YOGA BALL!!!

Let me back up a little....I know I use the term "when I was pregnant" a lot in this blog but you obviously think about what type of parents you want to be and you also think about what "parenting tools" (interesting term) that you want to use in your every day life most during pregnancy. Well, when I was choosing a chair for the nursery I decided not to go with a rocker for two reasons: 1) I didn't want to get in the habit of rocking Lola to sleep as I didn't want to create another habit.... Does this make sense? I guess I should clarify....I wanted Lola to learn how to put herself to sleep. What I didn't want was a 1 year old baby that I would still have to rock to sleep b/c she never learned to fall to sleep on her own. Does this make sense now? AND 2) I wanted a modern and cool chair in the nursery and a rocker did not fit the criteria. I'm pretty certain #2 was the deal breaker b/c I really had something specific picked out in my mind.

With this said, I still like to snuggle and rock baby Lola sometimes but I don't have a rocker. So how do the rocker and yoga ball correlate? Well, my yoga ball is my rocker. Why is the yoga ball better than a rocker??? One main reason is that you are getting a core work-out while rocking your baby. So, way to shoot two birds with one stone...quality time with baby plus an ab work-out all in one. Woohoo!!! With the yoga ball, new mothers can't make the excuse that they don't have time to work-out b/c this is a great solution to the time issue.

Another reason why we really love the yoga ball is it can be fun for the baby too. We'll get on it in the afternoon and play what we like to call "Bouncety, Bouncety, Bouncety Bounce". It goes a little something like this "Bouncety, bouncety, bouncety, bounce. Up down up down all around" and you repeat again. Say that three times fast....kind of fun! It drives Clay CRAZY b/c the rhyme is a little obnoxious but Lo LOVES it. I mean she giggles and giggles and giggles. So, I love that I'm able to play with baby Lola and get a fabulous ab work-out all at once. I really feel like my post-baby mushy belly is FINALLY starting to tone up and I'm sure that yoga ball has a lot to do with it. Of course, it's taken 6 months but at least we're finally starting to see some results.

Oh, also the yoga ball is great during pregnancy. Actually, this is when I decided to invest in one. Since you can't do hard core crunches and really get those abs working during pregnancy, this is a great substitute. All you have to do is sit on the ball and you're working your core. How fabulous is that! So I would sit on it while watching TV or just hanging out. Now this is what I call an easy work-out that's worthwhile!!!

Innovations for modern parents

I just had to go pick up more bottles. It seems like every morning when I go to fix the bottles to take to school for Lo I'm ALWAYS out. I finally decided I'm fed up with constantly washing bottles so I'll just invest in more.

I mentioned in a blog below about the importance of getting bottles that are BPA free. I love the Dr. Brown's glass bottles but you just can't find them right now. I tried to order some three months ago and they're still not here. Due to the backorder, I've had to explore and find other "must have" bottles.

I know it sounds crazy but we really like the glass bottle best. Old school...right? I've found that I like the Evenflo glass bottle which is only $9.99 for 6. You don't get much cheaper than that!!! Another plastic bottle that is BPA free is the Born Free bottle. They're $26.99 for 3 so they aren't the best deal in town but I figure we'll give them a shot. Lola has been attempting to hold the bottle when she eats. Right now, it's easier for her to hold a plastic bottle (for obvious reasons) so we'll see how she likes the Born Free bottle. I'll keep you updated on my review.

As I was exploring around for bottles, I "accidently" stumbled onto a really great website - http://www.booninc.com/ that I'm obsessed with now. I actually want one of everything!!! Their motto is "Innovations for modern parents". Clay and I LOVE modern so this is the site for us!I've seen some of their products at different boutiques and I believe Target also carry some of it but the website shows even more. I fell in love with their clothing line....very modern but also fun and funky at the same time. And, the best part is they are very reasonably priced. I attached a couple of pics. I was able to find some of the onsies and they are adorable...modern & fabulous...love them!!! You really can't have enough onsies...especially when you live in Big D which is blazing HOT right now.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Check in Monday for more fun!!!

Out with the old, in with the new

One of Lola's favorite things has been her playmat. It has been great with keeping her entertained for long periods of time (in baby terms) and it also seems to teach her to play on her own. You know....developing that independence so she can be a strong woman one day.

Well, as you know, Lo is a big girl. Over the past couple weeks she's been having a hard time with the playmat that we love so dearly as her body basically takes over the entire thing. When she would try to turn over onto her belly, her legs would get stuck on parts of it and the toys hanging down from the top would be in her face, etc....it's been pretty pitiful. Plus, she would get real frustrated that she couldn't move on it...the girl is ready to get to crawling. But, no fear, I've found something new and improved. It's time to throw out the old playmat (or actually put it away until child #2 rolls around) and bring in the new mat made for big girls.

This is one of my best finds yet!!! Must Have #8 . Check out this ADORABLE playmat that I found at Ikea (http://www.ikea.com/) for next to nothing. Seriously, it doesn't get much cuter than this. This is like the Taj Mahal of playmats. Lola LOVES it!!! When we first put her on it, it was like she had died and gone to heaven. She was fascinated by all the little things that surrounded her. She is able to pull and tug and grab and push all the little motifs on the mat. It also makes sounds and has different textures that help stimulate the senses which is great for baby development, motor skills and helps develop their desire to explore.

Plus, due to the "antislip material" Lola is able to move all around now....get some good traction and go. We've had this mat for less than a week and she is already rolling from one side to the other, turning, getting up on her arms and knees better and more. Seriously, this girl is ready to rock the crawl. I have a feeling it could be any week now so we're ready to get geared up and start child proofing (BTW...we have no clue where to begin with the childproofing thing so I'm sure this will be quite an experience...it's all about trial and error...right?).

Oh, and I must add one last great thing about this mat....at the end of the night, you can fold it up and put it away. As many of you know I don't like baby "stuff" laying around everywhere. I especially don't want it all over my "adult" living room. So I love things that I can put away at the end of the night. This is just that....LOVE IT!!!

Here's a great quote I heard the other day that for some reason made me giggle. I'm not sure why b/c it is sooooo goofy but it did so I thought I would share.

"When cheese gets it's picture taken, what does it say?" George Carlin

Yep, started giggling again when I typed it out....he,he,he.

She's a serious gal

Lola has started this new thing where she will get a real serious face and just starts talking or I guess babbling is a better term. It's almost as if she is telling a story....a serious one that is. It seems like the camera is never around when you need it but on Friday my luck was different. I was able to get to the camera quickly and caught some video of Lo babbling. It's really cute....check out the serious face...funny, funny!

Over the past month or so, Lo has been squeeling and giving us the aahhs and ga-ga noises but she has really started making noises that are more clear....she loves Ls, Bs and Ms right now. Since she has discovered this new language it seems it's constant babble. When I say constant, I mean literally ALL THE TIME! It's very cute but sometimes at 6:30 a.m. or at 10:00 p.m. it's not quite as cute as all we want to do is SLEEP. Clay and I have figured out that if we pretend like we're sleeping, she'll eventually stop and go back to sleep with us. I'm not sure if this is mean but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to get some sleep.

Clay and I have always had very strong feelings about our kids speaking a second language. All the research shows that the most important time to expose your kids to a second language is from the time a baby is born until they are three as this is a key time in their brain development. So, when we were searching for day-cares this was something that was very important to us. Luckily, the wonderful teachers that we love oh so much at Lola's day-care speak spanish to her during the day. We also have Uncle Benny who is bilingual so any time he's around we put the pressure on him to only speak spanish to Lo. When he's speaking to her in spanish, she is just fascinated.

Of course, when Lola is not at day-care or when Uncle Benny is not around, we still want to expose her to a second language. Unfortunately, Clay nor I can speak another language so we have CDs with spanish songs, books in spanish and Clay speaks fake French to her. Yes, I said fake french. It's greatness! Our only concern with this is that Lola will not actually pick up spanish or english first but will soon be speaking fake french. Who knows....maybe she already is speaking fake french in the video. I'll have to record Clay and see what you think.

Attached is a great website that gives good facts about the pros to babies being exposed to second language.

http://www.babyclassroom.com/article-language-second.html

Chocolate makes me nauseous!!!

Ok. We have a major problem. Or at least I think it may be a problem....you tell me. So I've developed this great love for chocolate. Specifically, any chocolate that is mixed with peanut butter or some sort of nut which would include peanut m&ms, reese's peanut butter cups, butterfinger, etc. The funny thing is that I was never a big chocolate person before or during pregnancy. Now, HUGE chocolate freak....obsess over it and gotta have.

Of course yesterday I seemed to take it to a new level....I ate so much chocolate (basically couldn't stop) that I made myself nauseous....literally felt like I needed to run to the bathroom and throw up more than once. Is this a problem? I'm sure the three diet cokes I had on top of the chocolate didn't help the nauseating feeling. The worst part of all of this was I fixed a nice healthy lunch to bring to work and was going to top it off with some nutritious grapes. Well, I ate all of that plus 2 slices of chocolate cake (cut big slices), 2 hand fulls of peanut m&ms and a butterfinger (not readily accessible...actually had to walk to the vending machine for this one). Then due to my guilty conscious kicking in, I spent all night feeling really bad about the chocolate feast. I did what most people do and said to myself "Tomorrow I will be good and only eat healthy...NO CHOCOLATE". Yea, that lasted about an hour this morning before I was heading to the vending machine for some Famous Amos cookies...HUH!!! Seriously...this is ridiculous!!! What's the deal with this? For now, I'm attributing it to all the running I've been doing but I fear I can only use this as an excuse for a limited amount of time. I really frustrate myself sometimes.

Today I've posted a pic of Clay and Lo. I feel like I'm constantly spending so much time blabbing about myself and Lola on this blog that Clay kind of gets the shaft. It's not that he isn't a huge part of our every day but it's basically b/c I always have too much to say about myself...i.e. my obsession with chocolate. So, due to this, I wanted to throw a pic in of Clay and his baby girl. I'm telling ya...he is so in love with this child...it is the sweetest thing!!!

It's a heat wave

Oh the heat this year....this is almost too much for me to handle. It is so HOT...and the heat wave seemed to come early this year. Maybe I'm wrong about this and just don't remember how hot summers are in Big D. Am I wrong? Either way I seem to be complaining about it all the time which I hate but I really can't get over it. To make matters worse, our house doesn't cool down very well. I'm not sure but I'm assuming it's the floor to ceiling windows that surround our living room. It's been rough for us as it doesn't get much cooler than 80 degrees in our house during the day and our a/c is running constantly so you can imagine what our electicity bill looks like. It's all very depressing. We're having the a/c checked out tomorrow and we're also going to look into the e film that insulates windows and supposedly keeps the heat out....we'll see. In the meantime, I guess we'll continue to sweat it out and have jaw dropping electricity bills. I can't wait for September to get here...

We had a fabulous weekend. Lola sat up on her own....we were so happy for her!!! It's funny how it happened....we were sitting on the playmat playing, I let go and she just stayed. I couldn't believe it. I yelled for Clay to come in and see. We immediately started clapping and praising her for tackling a new milestone. When we did this, she got all excited, started waving the arms uncontrollably and toppled over. It was too cute! I'm going to try to catch some video of it this evening. Hopefully I'll be able to post something tomorrow.

Attached are some pics of Lo playing in her exersaucer. When we were registering, I wasn't so sure about the exersaucer thing. I was fearful that all of this "stuff" that you are "suppose" to get was too much for the baby and they aren't ever forced to play on their own, therefore, limiting their imagination and their ability to entertain themselves. But I've quickly found that we love the exersaucer (must have #7) and so does Lola. Unlike the baby swing, we're ok with putting her in the exersaucer b/c she is able to explore and learn and at the same time we're able to get things done around the house. When we're not playing with Lo, she basically goes back and forth between the playmat and exersaucer. She really loves them and they're both great for developmental reasons....way to hit two birds with one stone!!!

Other than that, not much more to say today. Hopefully tomorrow will bring more fun.

Oh no....additional hair loss!!!

OK...I mentioned yesterday how sad I was that Lola was losing her hair in spots. Well, I forgot to mention that I'm also massively losing my hair. It has seriously gotten out of control!!! So basically our entire household is shedding. You have Lo, then me and of course Lady Bird and Bella. I feel like we live in one ball of hair right now. Well, it's actually not that bad but my hair loss is pretty severe.

My fabulous hairstylist Sara from Rocket Science Salon had pre-warned me about the hair loss when I was pregnant. She said "FYI...when the baby is about 3 months old, you'll start losing tons of hair". This really didn't happen when Lo was 3 months so I thought that I had dodged the bullet and this wouldn't happen to me. Nope....not so lucky....it started happening about a month ago. Seriously...if I run my fingers through my hair when it's wet, a hand full of hair comes out. It's terrible!!! My hair is already thin enough so this is the last thing I need. Not only that, but it's really obnoxious having to clean it up all the time. HUH!!! The things we have to go through.....

So, I did some research on this. Here's the deal...."they say" that a newborns hormone levels drop after birth which causes them to lose hair. It appears that new madres also lose large amounts of hair for the same reason. Well, "large" amounts is not a good term for my condition. I would say "enormous" amounts is a better term in this situation. I'm wondering how long this hair loss will last b/c I just can't afford to lose much. Oh my!!!

Attached is an adorable little pic of miss Lola with her second favorite toy.....her #1 fav toy being her toes of course. Some good friends of ours, Trey & Amy, put together a great little packet of their "must have" baby items. One of their "must haves" are these fun colorful rings. They're great...you can clip them together in all kinds of fun shapes. Well, we have found that this is also one of Lola's favorite things. It's really amazing how the most simple things such a rings entertain a baby so much. So this is my Must Have #6. She loves them and has them with her at all times!!!

Our little contortionist

Lola turned 5 months this past Thursday. Since her 4 month appointment, she has gained 1 lb. She now weighs 17.4 lbs....big girl!!! One of my favorite things about this stage is Lo's love for her toes. It is seriously the cutest thing! Throw out the toys b/c all we need are toes...she is always reaching for those suckers. We were taking a bath the other day and she was putting her little body in the funniest positions trying to reach for the toes...so cute!!! I posted some of the pics. How in the world does she get herself in these positions. She's our little contortionist.

We had a fabulous 4th of July weekend. We had lunch with Uncle Adam & Aunt Brana on Thursday and then packed up to head out to Baird to visit the grandparents. As we loaded up and got in the car, Lola experienced her first inconsolable breakdown. This baby rarely cries so it was quite a challenge for us. During the process of trying to calm her, I felt like I was on the verge of a breakdown due to her breakdown....poor Clay having to deal with us! We were finally able to get her to calm down and we hit the road. Over the weekend, she continued to act a little fussy. When we got back to Big D on Saturday we decided to take her temp....this was also a new experience for us. Well, I guess she caught what I had as it turns out she was running 102 temperature. This explained the random breakdown on Thursday...poor baby girl wasn't feeling good.

Oh, and another very depressing thing....Lo is losing her hair! Oh no!!! I've been very depressed about this and it's been very hard for me to deal with lately. She has bald patches on random places on her head. I know this is normal for babies but I just love her hair so much and don't want it to go away. I read today that they should stop losing the hair around 6 months so I really hope she doesn't lose anymore. Keep your fingers crossed.

Warms my heart...

My sister-in-law, Molly, sent some pics of Lo and family this past Friday. Looking back at some of them I can't believe how small Lola was. It warms my heart to look back and see how precious she was. Of course she is still precious and is growing so fast right in front of our eyes. Every stage I say "I like this stage best"...then I find myself loving the next stage even more.

There were some great pics from Lola's first pub experience so I thought I would attach....look how much smaller she is! I think she was around 9 or 10 weeks here. Sitting on a patio with friends is one of our favorite things to do. Luckily, Lola still allows us to do this. We were with Molly & Ben, Clay & Kara and Jennifer H. Lo was so good...she enjoyed being outside and relaxed along with us. It's so great that we can take her around everywhere with us.

Over the weekend Lola really made some great advancements. She is almost sitting on her own. She can do it for a few seconds then topples over. She is also threatening to move. Yesterday, she was scooting very slowly. There was a piece of white string on the carpet that she was trying to get...she was pulling herself trying her hardest to get to that tiny piece of string....it was really cute!!! We would like to keep her immobile for a bit longer. I know once she starts moving that life as we know it will drastically change as we'll constantly be chasing a baby.