Hair Greatness.
I promise Dalan is the father.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
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.
Monday, June 17, 2013
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?
Thursday, June 6, 2013
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.
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.
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
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!
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!
Monday, June 3, 2013
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.
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 getting much better at sitting up, and can now do so on his own for a few minutes.
Rory sleeps through the night, usually from 7:30pm - 6:30am. It is dreamy.
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.
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.
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.
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.
We just love our Mister Baby so much and can't imagine what we ever did without him!
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Getting Out There
Since Karlie Jean mentioned my Meetup experience on For All Momkind today, I figured I should probably write about it...
When Rory was a newborn, his pediatrician recommended that we not take him out in public until he was 5 or 6 months old. In Utah, RSV and Whooping Cough run pretty rampant, and the effects are devastating. I had read enough horror stories online that I completely agreed and vowed to never take him out except for doctor's appointments. Over the next few months I pretty much stuck with my decision, we did end up taking him to grandparents houses a few times to be babysat, but that was it. By the time he was 2 months old, he had only been in 4 total places.
When we arrived in Washington, I set out to church by myself while Dalan stayed home with Rorasaurus. Everyone at church was shocked when they heard I was keeping my 2 month old home. Apparently its not something you do up here. When I took Rory to his new pediatrician she was also shocked, "Why wouldn't you take him out right now? He'll just sleep in his car seat, it's not like strangers are going to walk up and lick him."
With all of my postpartum hormones causing havoc, we finally decided one day to get out of the house. We took a trip to IKEA, and it was the best time I'd had in months. Rory was totally chill and didn't mind at all. No strangers walked up and licked him, at most he got a few waves. And I was in mommy heaven. You know that high you get when your kid is perfectly behaved and you think "I totally rock this, I could have like 12 kids, no problem." it's always short-lived, but those moments are absolutely the bomb.
I attempted to make friends at church, but my social anxiety always seemed to get in the way. I would try so hard to be extra bubbly and smile a lot, but thats not who I am, and I ended up even more uncomfortable.
I ended up turning to the internet, as I usually do, and I came across a group of moms one town over, who meetup to talk over coffee. I attended one of these meetups, and still felt so out of place (with my carmel apple cider), the demographics from their town were so much different from my own. Most of them had a summer and winter home, trips to Hawaii planned, and an au pair to watch their kids. They were nice enough and let me officially join the groups online website. This was hosted thru Meetup.com.
After I had taken a few minutes to navigate the website, I found out that there was a lot more than just this rich mommy's group. You just enter your zip code, and it will give you all of the meetups within a certain range. You can set preferences and interests so it suggests new groups for you as well. In my area there are literally hundreds of groups and they cover all different interests. There are groups for photography, hiking, dog lovers, stay at home moms, single parents, religious parents, non-religious parents, geeky parents, browncoats, trekkies, etc. Desperate for some friends, I promptly joined 4 different groups and hoped that I would find some kindred spirits.
Immediately after joining a group for young couples with young children, the organizer emailed me and asked about my son's name. "Did you by chance name him after a character from Doctor Who?" She went on to explain that she and her husband were expecting and were planning on naming their baby after Rory's wife on the show, Amelia. Not only was this a funny coincidence, it really helped with my social anxiety, I knew I had something in common with her, and I was able to communicate with her via email a few times before we met in person, which made a huge difference. Although we don't have a ton in common beyond our love for the show, we had now made our 'Doctor Who' friends, and I was excited to go out and make some more.
Another group I joined on Meetup was for moms in my city. This group actually had sub-playgroups that were organized depending on your child's age. I was able to join one with 7 other mamas and babies. This group has been the best thing thats happened to me since we moved out here. All of the babies in our playgroup were born in 2012, so Rory is one of the youngest. I'm able to vent with other moms who have had, or are going thru, the exact same things as me. With 8 moms and babies, its impossible to not find something in common with someone. We meet once a week, and Rory and I both enjoy ourselves thoroughly.
Once I felt established in our playgroup, I started venturing out to other meetups within the local group. The meetups are created by the members, and then posted on the website for others to RSVP to. Now that I knew a few people from playgroup, I could attend other meetups along with one or two of them and feel comfortable enough to meet new people. This has started a chain reaction that is really helping my social life. The more people I meet, the more meetups I want to attend so I can see my new friends. At the meetups I meet even more new people, and so it goes. I was experiencing a new mommy high at this point, and when a few of the organizers of the local group announced they were leaving and looking for replacements, I jumped at the chance.
As a member of the organizer team, I feel like I have a little more purpose than just cleaning the house and taking care of the baby. My duties are very similar to my pre-baby job, and I get to do some of the things I really love like create reports, track website activity, and manage Facebook pages. It just takes a few hours every week, and I can usually get everything accomplished during nap time. I feel so much more fulfilled now, I have new friends, many opportunities to get out of the house and play, and I get to spend a few sans-baby hours every week doing something I love. I've even bowed out of most of the other meetup groups I had joined so far, not that there was anything wrong with them, but I've found my best fit and want to spend my energy improving this group.
I highly recommend that you check out Meetup.com and see if there is anything that interests you in your area. If not, you should think about starting your own group, chances are someone else is interested in the exact same things as you, and just waiting for the right group to come along!
When Rory was a newborn, his pediatrician recommended that we not take him out in public until he was 5 or 6 months old. In Utah, RSV and Whooping Cough run pretty rampant, and the effects are devastating. I had read enough horror stories online that I completely agreed and vowed to never take him out except for doctor's appointments. Over the next few months I pretty much stuck with my decision, we did end up taking him to grandparents houses a few times to be babysat, but that was it. By the time he was 2 months old, he had only been in 4 total places.
When we arrived in Washington, I set out to church by myself while Dalan stayed home with Rorasaurus. Everyone at church was shocked when they heard I was keeping my 2 month old home. Apparently its not something you do up here. When I took Rory to his new pediatrician she was also shocked, "Why wouldn't you take him out right now? He'll just sleep in his car seat, it's not like strangers are going to walk up and lick him."
With all of my postpartum hormones causing havoc, we finally decided one day to get out of the house. We took a trip to IKEA, and it was the best time I'd had in months. Rory was totally chill and didn't mind at all. No strangers walked up and licked him, at most he got a few waves. And I was in mommy heaven. You know that high you get when your kid is perfectly behaved and you think "I totally rock this, I could have like 12 kids, no problem." it's always short-lived, but those moments are absolutely the bomb.
I attempted to make friends at church, but my social anxiety always seemed to get in the way. I would try so hard to be extra bubbly and smile a lot, but thats not who I am, and I ended up even more uncomfortable.
I ended up turning to the internet, as I usually do, and I came across a group of moms one town over, who meetup to talk over coffee. I attended one of these meetups, and still felt so out of place (with my carmel apple cider), the demographics from their town were so much different from my own. Most of them had a summer and winter home, trips to Hawaii planned, and an au pair to watch their kids. They were nice enough and let me officially join the groups online website. This was hosted thru Meetup.com.
After I had taken a few minutes to navigate the website, I found out that there was a lot more than just this rich mommy's group. You just enter your zip code, and it will give you all of the meetups within a certain range. You can set preferences and interests so it suggests new groups for you as well. In my area there are literally hundreds of groups and they cover all different interests. There are groups for photography, hiking, dog lovers, stay at home moms, single parents, religious parents, non-religious parents, geeky parents, browncoats, trekkies, etc. Desperate for some friends, I promptly joined 4 different groups and hoped that I would find some kindred spirits.
Immediately after joining a group for young couples with young children, the organizer emailed me and asked about my son's name. "Did you by chance name him after a character from Doctor Who?" She went on to explain that she and her husband were expecting and were planning on naming their baby after Rory's wife on the show, Amelia. Not only was this a funny coincidence, it really helped with my social anxiety, I knew I had something in common with her, and I was able to communicate with her via email a few times before we met in person, which made a huge difference. Although we don't have a ton in common beyond our love for the show, we had now made our 'Doctor Who' friends, and I was excited to go out and make some more.
Another group I joined on Meetup was for moms in my city. This group actually had sub-playgroups that were organized depending on your child's age. I was able to join one with 7 other mamas and babies. This group has been the best thing thats happened to me since we moved out here. All of the babies in our playgroup were born in 2012, so Rory is one of the youngest. I'm able to vent with other moms who have had, or are going thru, the exact same things as me. With 8 moms and babies, its impossible to not find something in common with someone. We meet once a week, and Rory and I both enjoy ourselves thoroughly.
Once I felt established in our playgroup, I started venturing out to other meetups within the local group. The meetups are created by the members, and then posted on the website for others to RSVP to. Now that I knew a few people from playgroup, I could attend other meetups along with one or two of them and feel comfortable enough to meet new people. This has started a chain reaction that is really helping my social life. The more people I meet, the more meetups I want to attend so I can see my new friends. At the meetups I meet even more new people, and so it goes. I was experiencing a new mommy high at this point, and when a few of the organizers of the local group announced they were leaving and looking for replacements, I jumped at the chance.
As a member of the organizer team, I feel like I have a little more purpose than just cleaning the house and taking care of the baby. My duties are very similar to my pre-baby job, and I get to do some of the things I really love like create reports, track website activity, and manage Facebook pages. It just takes a few hours every week, and I can usually get everything accomplished during nap time. I feel so much more fulfilled now, I have new friends, many opportunities to get out of the house and play, and I get to spend a few sans-baby hours every week doing something I love. I've even bowed out of most of the other meetup groups I had joined so far, not that there was anything wrong with them, but I've found my best fit and want to spend my energy improving this group.
I highly recommend that you check out Meetup.com and see if there is anything that interests you in your area. If not, you should think about starting your own group, chances are someone else is interested in the exact same things as you, and just waiting for the right group to come along!
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