Greatness

Rory is well on his way to greatness.

Hair Greatness.

I promise Dalan is the father.

Increasing my fluff stash

I've used Charlie Banana cloth diapers for Rorasaurus for about 3 months now, and I really like them. I have no complaints, but I also haven't tried anything else. I've needed to increase my fluff stash for awhile, but I've been dragging my feet trying to decide if I should try out a few new types/brands. I even have some diapers saved in an online shopping cart on a few sites, just waiting for that final click. Last Saturday I saw the Ahoy pack of Charlie Bananas at my local Target and fell in love! I put them in my cart and finished my shopping, only to put them back on the shelf at the last moment when I realized I should probably talk to Dalan before dropping $88 bucks.

Last night we were at Target (again) and I found myself browsing the baby section while Dalan was talking with an employee about a video game console. I admired the cloth diapers as usual, and noticed a big red clearance sticker on them. In fact ALL Charlie Banana products were around 50% off! I ended up buying the Ahoy pack, the Pastel pack, and this adorable Construction diaper. Total I ended up with 13 diapers and 26 inserts and I spent just over $100 after tax.

(inserts not pictured, schnauzer is a busy-body)

You should totally go check out your local Target and see if they are offering the same deal. It looks like everything is still regularly priced online, so I imagine they are just pulling from the brick-and-mortar shelves. Although we currently only use cloth 60%-70% of the time right now, I am a big fan! No with a total stash of 19 diapers, I want to try and use cloth closer to 90%.

On a related note, anyone know where I can get a cute wet bag that can hold 15ish diapers? I want a solid color like red, blue, or gray. Everything I've found in those colors will only hold about 6.

Pre-packed smoothies

Since Dalan and I are currently doing a Wellness Challenge we have to get in at least 5 servings of fruits and/or veggies every day. This is something we really struggled with before, but we've found something that is working really well for us. I thought I would share.

I start with some of the below ingredients. You can purchase frozen fruit at Costco for about $8-$11 a bag. Spinach at Costco is only $3.99! (let me apologize for the crazy shadows, we have stage lighting in our kitchen. I think it's to help ward of depression or something.....)

I freeze the yogurt in ice cube trays. This makes it easier to measure and separate later on. I used vanilla and blackberry yogurt this time. 

 

I add 5-6 yogurt cubes, 2 servings frozen fruit, and 1 banana to each bag. I'll mix it up by adding spinach and different types of fruit to each. The bag on the left has yogurt, spinach, banana, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries. The bag on the right is yogurt, mango, pineapple, papaya, strawberries, and banana. Each bag is usually about 4 servings of fruit. After I make the bags, they just go in the freezer.

 

When I'm ready for a smoothie, I add the bag and about 1 cup of juice in my Ninja® Master Prep®

 

I really like this thing. It is SO easy to clean. Thanks Mom!

 

 

Then I just separate it into a cup for me and a to-go gup for Dalan so he can have it on his way to work in the morning. They will keep for about 2 days in the fridge, so I'll usually make them the night before so Dalan has something ready when he leaves @ 5:30am. 

TaDa! What helpful hints do you have to help you eat healthy?

That Moment

I experienced a euphoric moment with Rory yesterday. He was being very, very good. Just entertaining himself and bouncing in his jumperoo. I was hand-washing dishes (since our stupid dishwasher is broken) and looked over at him. He was just so cute and happy, my heart almost burst. I decided to leave the dishes in the sink, and spend some time with my sweet baby instead. I got him up out of his jumperoo and gave him a big bear hug. He actually leaned into and wrapped his arms around me which almost never happens. I breathed in his sweet baby scent and his soft hair tickled my nose. It was basically perfect .....

Until I felt that warm feeling expand to include my front left side and when I set Rory down on my bed I saw that yes indeed I was covered in poop and it was really gross banana poop that gets little black stringys in it and my shirt was white and it was one of my favorite shirts because hey I happen to look really good in it and it took almost an entire bag of wipes to clean up the baby and I thought that just rolling the solid part of it into the toilet would work but then it plugged the toilet and then the toilet started to overflow and I had to do a whole lot of laundry and bathe the baby and somehow poop ended up on the bathroom counter and this was all so traumatic in my head there is no room left to think of proper punctuation when reliving it

You know, that moment.

Sleep Training - Round Two

Rory has definitely been a professional sleeper. I didn't even have to do anything to get him to sleep through the night, he just decided he was ready (before I was), plus a little help from his acid reflux medication. Naps have been going great for the past 2 months. He usually takes two 2 hour naps and one 1 hour nap every day.

Thats all about to change though.

Due to Rory's size, swaddling him is becoming very problematic. I don't dare leave him in his reflux wedge unswaddled since he can remove the restraints now. It's also become too hot to be swaddled. AND apparently he is feeling just fine and doesn't need to sleep on an incline anymore.

So we just went cold turkey.

I set Rory down, no wedge, no swaddle and was ready to deal with the hours of torture (or at least what felt like hours). But really it wasn't too bad. He's now officially asleep and it only took 30 minutes. He never really cried either, he just talked to himself and played with his feet.

Apparently I need to reposition the video-monitor:

Here's to hoping that he can go at least another hour, and that nighttime might be just as successful.

Wish us luck!

7 Whole Months!

Rorasaurus is now 7 months (and 2 days) old! I meant to do a post like this for 6 months, but time got away from me. Here are a few things about Rory:

Rory is so much fun! He is one of the most content and happy babies ever, which is such a blessing considering we have a few problems we have to deal with.

Rory has had acid reflux since he was 4 months old, and for a few weeks it was a nightmare. He could not stand to be on his tummy, and so he fell behind on some of his developmental milestones. He is starting to slowly get over it now, and he is on some medication that really seems to help. So I think we are going to be catching up really soon.

Rory also has torticollis, which literally means 'twisted neck' something to do with how Rory was positioned in the womb has left his neck tilted at a 45 degree angle to the left. 

It wasn't really noticeable before he could sit up, but now with gravity's help it seems like it is becoming a problem. Rory attends physical therapy every week to work on strengthening his neck muscles, as well as on other motor skills that he has fallen behind on.

His head was very flat when he was about 3 months old, and it has improved a lot now. Part of that is probably thanks to the fact that he couldn't be on the floor at all for 6 weeks when his reflux was so uncomfortable. We are going to see the cranial-facial specialist today to see if we need to do anything further to correct it.

Even while working through all of these problems, Rory has still been such a sweet and happy baby. We are so grateful that he has been so easy in every other area while we've been trying to improve where he needs extra attention.

Rory is eating solid foods 2-3 times a day now and absolutely LOVES it. I haven't found anything he wont eat yet, but currently his favorites are avocado, and banana mixed with oatmeal. He has recently decided that meal time is the best time to try and blow raspberries, so we've been getting extra messy.

Rory is getting much better at sitting up, and can now do so on his own for a few minutes.

Rory can feed himself his bottle now. He has also decided that chewing on the nipple helps his gums feel better, so sometimes we end up with a mess.

He is starting to pivot around on his stomach to get around. His acid reflux doesn't seem to bug him much anymore and so tummy time is finally considered playtime, instead of torture around here!

Rory sleeps through the night, usually from 7:30pm - 6:30am. It is dreamy.

Rory and the dogs are becoming fast friends. They make sure to check his face and hands for extra food and he pulls on their beards to make sure they are still attached.

Rory absolutely loves bath time and has starting having a cough attack during because he gets so excited he breathes too quickly. He also loves trying to drink the bathwater, which usually has pee in it.

Rory's favorite toy is currently the bag of baby wipes from Costco.

Rory absolutely loves his dad. 

 

Rory took his first flight and was such a champ. He threw up during take off and landing, I think it had something to do with getting his shots the day before. 

I had him by myself on the return flight and he was a perfect angel. There was not one thing he could have done better.
 

We just love our Mister Baby so much and can't imagine what we ever did without him!