One more day.

It's our last day of this mini-vacation before the blast of mid-terms at school and the holidays.
Our goals? Time with friends and a bit of preparation for the week ahead!
xoxo, natty ♥

Let's go see some lights.

On tonight's agenda?
Zoolights! For our child who will be up way past her bedtime and who probably won't even notice the lights, but it's a very pleasant day and a nice way to get out. Hope you're weekend's going well!
xoxo, natty ♥

On the road to HOME!

We were so spoiled here with Ellie's family but we had to head home.

Luckily it was a glorious day together and it's a quick ride home. It's great to have a little more weekend ahead of us and the love of friends and family in our hearts.
xoxo, natty ♥

Thanks!!!

We drove and ate and walked and footballer and now we want to sleep!!!

We're so thankful for all we have and all there is.

Peace to you all!

xoxo, natty

The only thing I'm cooking for Thanksgiving this year.

36 weeks!

Hanna Lu is having her first set of holidays and not even realizing it! What else about baby Melamed...

Jazz hands!

• She is pulling herself up on anything and everything and will even take a few wobbly steps.
• Loves her daycare provider and will sometimes not reach out to me if she's being held by her; I find this glorious and not sad at all because it's a humongous blessing to have someone with whom we can trust our daughter and whom our baby so obviously loves.
• Doesn't like babyfood as much as she used to but is loving on her rice cereal again, though she'll do just fine with the food mixed with her rice cereal. She seems to eat best if we feed her, though, since she's super slow when feeding herself. I think we're destined to have a life-long picky eater...she seriously has never been that into it. This is funny considering how much her parents love food.
• Is hand/knee crawling everywhere.
• Is very curious about our bookshelf and tries to get up into it several times a day.
• Has her very first Christmas dress ordered.
• Inherited a ton of hand-me-downs from a daycare friend and is looking quite chic in them all.
• Babbles a ton and just the past few days has been really into saying "uhhh DA. DA. DA. DA. DA."
• Still says "hi" {"ahhhhhhh"} and waves and  she's started a two-handed wave though it could very well be her attempt and clapping which we've been trying to teach her and which she loves.
• Enjoys her bath but this week has been trying to climb up/stand up and we have to firmly tell her "no" and sit her down again.
  Has taken to biting her mother whilest being fed. They haven't been super hard chomps but it's not pleasant. I'm doing what I read should be done and saying something ridiculous like "I see you don't want to nurse anymore, let's take a break" and giving her a minute break or so. I don't think this means we have to stop, I just need to be aware of when she's bored/done which can be difficult since she's such an on/off eater and I've always just kept putting her back on in an effort to get her to keep going. It didn't happen today so that's good.
• Will celebrate her first Thanksgiving in Pennsylvania later this week, weather god willing, and we're so happy to do so!!

And one for the road.

xoxo, natty ♥

Leftovers.

I'm very fortunate to have this whole week off from school/work so...

1. I've been enjoying this sight ever since the first week of November.

I sincerely love it, though I"m not sure why. I think it's poignant? I've been thinking all along I'd love to take a really nice picture of it but it's on my way home and at that point of the day I'm soooooo on my way outta Dodge that pulling over for a shot, however meaningful in some abstract way it might be, isn't on my agenda. But today, I took in our baby to daycare which is way the heck up by where I work and my leisurely morning sans bebe meant I could drive along side this view and get a few phone pictures.

2. I took our baby to daycare today. I hadn't been in our apartment without her except for once when Michael took her for a walk whilest I napped and though we missed her it was liberating to get some stuff done and not worry about her.

3. Speaking of that daycare lady, we are SUPER fortunate that our baby loves this woman and that she takes such sweet care of the little nugget.

4. Vacation! 

5. We get to see Ellie later this week!!!

6. This paw.

I love this paw.

How YOU doing Reader??
xoxo, natty ♥

A lesser version.

Perusing the market this morning I came across this:

I've been curious about tur-duck-ens for quite a while and I still am, I'm not letting this discourage my interest because I think that this is a mere shade of what it could be.

In other culinary news, White Chicken Chili and football were on today's agenda and both made for quite a lovely afternoon. We're taking care of some errandy stuff this week before heading north to Pennsylvania for some Thanksgiving love.
xoxo, natty ♥

After dark constitutional.

Guinness and I just got in after a quick round about outside and we're happy to be warm inside!!!

Today we schlepped our infant all over heck and creation for some good old fashioned errand running.

And santa came early to our home. As did our next birthdays and probably the next set of anniversary gifts; we've gotten into the habit of a big ticket item for several giving occasions and Costco had an extraordinary deal on the perfect-sized TV today.

Have a great rest of your weekend folks!

xoxo, batty

How do you spell relief?

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N. 

For reasons unbeknownst-to but ever so appreciated by me, our school gives us an entire week off for Thanksgiving. It's so crazy how time flies this time of year anyway but this whole week just seems to add to it. We have two weeks of classes when we return, then a week of mid-terms and then it's hasta luego until 2015. 

For now, I'm celebrating the weekend with this hound.

And looking forward to getting a driver's license, cooking, eating, resting, and rejuvenating our home in the next week.

Be well y'all!
xoxo, natty ♥

Good fortune.

As seen in yesterday's post, we got very lucky with kind coworkers and a bit lot of warm clothes for little babe...working in my school is such a nice thing for a new parent because there are tons of young families and things get passed around here and there.

We also just got a coat for babe-o {an actual new purchase} because we kept getting scolded by our daycare lady for Hanna's fleece coat not being enough in the recent weather...I just washed and dried it but haven't gotten it out of the dryer yet so hopefully the washing was OK and didn't ruin it or anything.

In other banal news, there was a raffle at school today for a fundraiser and we didn't win {womp womp}, then there was another raffle for pie put on by the parent association and I again didn't win {womp womp womp womp}. Raffles are my only approved form of gambling and I totally love a good raffle and the best part of today's disappointment is that though the parent association was raffling off pies, they still brought in a slew for us teachers to snack on during the day - everyone's a winner!!

Let's get to the good better side of Friday and have a great weekend!
xoxo, natty ♥

Hand me down.

35 weeks! Eight months!

Another week and BRRRRRRRR the cold has arrived! Today is a special day since Hanna Lu is not just 35 weeks old but eight months as well so we’ll have two updates!

 First for this week’s…

·      We are hearing the funniest espresso-machine-sounding noises from this kid; khiiiiiihhhhh, schuuuuggghhhh…

·      We’re still snotty but hopefully that’s going to go away soon.

·      We are crawling everywhere, even the traditional hand and knee crawling, but the babe is far more into pulling herself up to standing…on anything she can get to and we’ve had a few bumps and bruises because of this. The best place so far is her crib since she has a nice safe landing. In her crib the other day, she even took a few “cruising” steps on her own though she’s far too wobbly to stand on her own.

·      Not much else is new and I’ll talk more about little bit in the monthly update below but this baby is just SO adorable and amazing and wonderful to us; we love her so so much and are really looking forward to her first holidays!

How old: eight months old! 

Weight: I forgot to check but from recent at-home weighings I’d say almost 18 pounds. Slow and steady is the name of Hanna’s growing game.

Likes:

·      Standing up! This kid is constantly pulling herself up whenever/wherever she can.

·      Pureed baby food; she’s a fan of this and I think she likes it more than regular food because we feed her and it’s quick whereas she’s a slow self-feeder.

·      Guinness the dog…Hanna loves laughing at him. He’s not so keen on her these days probably because she makes unpredictable movements towards him and grabs his fur.

·      Children’s Tylenol, red-dye free and cherry flavored; we gave this to her last weekend because she was pretty miserable and it went over quite well.

Dislikes:

·      Being sick – hopefully we’re somewhat on the tail end of this thing or this most recent thing.

·      Being tired, though she might not realize it. Hanna Lu gets a bit high maintenance {fussy} if she’s tired.

·      The time after her bath and before getting on her pajamas…it takes having something in her hands to distract her. I had been letting her play with the bottle of lotion I put on her but one night she dropped it on her forehead and wasn’t a happy camper. It’s not heavy at all so she was mostly startled but now we know better and limit it to her lovey.

Milestones:

·      First Tylenol!

·      First really cold weather…that happened today! Though the babe only spent minimal time in it.

Sleep and eat:

·      Hanna drinks maybe 20 ounces of milk a day, perhaps a bit more or less? She’s still not big on drinking her milk much to her mother’s chagrin.

·      Hanna usually eats one to four pouches of baby food a day as well as milk mixed in with baby oatmeal several times.

·      Loves banana and lots of other finger foods but takes a long time to get in much so the purees seem to make baby happier.

·      Goes to bed between 6 and 6:30 and will sleep until we wake her up for the day at around 6 in the morning with usually one wake-up that happens between 2 and 5 AM for a snack. On weekends Hanna can be cajoled into sleeping until around 7 so, left to her devices, the child likes sleep. She usually rolls over and goes to sleep on her own as soon as we lay her down. She starts the night off with a pacifier that I believe is promptly thrown to the side. We have a white noise app on an old phone-turned-ipod that plays “rain” for an hour. I’m not sure if this does much for her but it’s just what we’ve always done and I imagine might come in handy when we’re out of town a lot next month and it can help mimic our at-home routine.

·      Bedtime’s routine: dinner, bath, story #1, nursing, story #2, kisses and goodnight.

Miscellaneous:

·      Hanna Lu loves waving “hi” and even says the word as “ahhhhhhhh”.

·      Baby is able to wear six month clothing and 9 month as well and if she’s in disposable diapers size three is perfect for her.

·      Our cloth diapers are holding up quite well. We use biodegradable/flushable liners to make clean-up a bit easier…otherwise we should be spraying the more soiled diapers into the toiled before we wash them in the dryer and what with daycare and everything, the liners are just so super easy. I’m debating the value in schlepping the set with us for the holidays since we’ll be gone for two weeks. When I think about home many diapers we go through over just a weekend I want to take them but they take up space and will need to be laundered when out and about so we’ll see.

xoxo, natty ♥

Today was awesome.

Pertaining to yesterday's post...today was awesome. It had challenging and tiring parts to it but it was a day with my family and that's enough. And the best part is that tomorrow is the same. Truly, that attitude of mine can be a powerful tool and I don't wield it in the most productive of manners; this is a lesson I struggle with on the daily.

More things?

!. After much delaying {and dinero}, we got our car registered here; Maryland does not this an easy process make.

But at least the DMV was relatively quick, low on expletives, and had friendly employees.

@. With such a busy and coordinated afternoon this

was in order. Thank goodness for delivery.

#. It's looking like I might have all of next week off - now that's a reason to give thanks. Several of those days might be taken up with doctor's appointments considering it's time off and I've already used more sick days {for me and baby} this year than ever in my life but it's still a week where no alarm clock shall be set.

$. There was also oreo cookie ice cream on the menu tonight.

%. A Happy Birthday to a dear friend I left back in California; I hope that today was lovely in many ways!!!! And due to the delights of leap years and calendars, your birthday won't have to be on a Monday again until 2025!

&. That's a good guy I got hitched to and an amazing father to our little girl, says a grateful wife.
 

How's your week going Reader? Well and hopefully warming up a bit I hope!
xoxo, natty ♥

Tomorrow's going to be awesome.

I've been stressing pretty irrationally and substantially recently and as I was doing some mental kvetching a bit ago the phrase "tomorrow's going to be awesome" popped into my head along with the realization that I never say that. That maybe the last time I said or thought that was the day before our wedding over three years ago, but, even then - I do know myself, after all - I was probably not thinking that and ruminating what needed to be done and how tired I would be and how embarrassing it is to have so many people looking at you. All those thoughts and I LOVED my wedding.

I'm not solving this negativity problem forever right now and my problems are certainly still here right now but it doesn't hurt to think that, Yes, tomorrow will be awesome.

And a concerned baby stuffed into too-small bunting also helps. 
xoxo, natty ♥

Hack hack, sniff sniff.

So babies have colds forever? Our poor thing is still kicking something. Or kicking something new. It's definitely a good thing we stayed in town this weekend.

Tomorrow's another day of laying low and recuperating. And staying warm, old man winter came back to town and is fixing to stay for a few days.

Yippee.

Happy Saturday folks!

xoxo, natty 

Sticking around.

In an effort to not infect others and get better ourselves we are not heading out of town for a little weekend trip as planned, which is definitely for the better.

Some home related errands and lazing around are on our agenda..yours?!

xoxo, natty

Easy peasy.

Hey Thursday, you sure snuck up on us...we're all trying to stay healthy here so another weekend at home is in the works - not too shabby if you ask me!

Have a good night and even better Friday folks!
xoxo, natty ♥

Good smells.

34 weeks!

The weeks is barreling ahead, as it usually does, and Hanna Lu is 34 weeks old...let's see what's up!

A pensive one for this week; her bruise is hiding right below the hair bow.bab

• She's still waving a ton and saying "ahhhhhh" as "hi".
• She's very intrigued by us clapping and seems like she might want to do so as well.
• Is loving baby food; I had these grand ambitions of "Baby Led Weaning" {look it up if you're curious} as a means to introduce regular table food to our baby instead of dealing with purees and after trying some store-bought baby food last week we realized it was a hit. Maybe she just likes the quickness of it all {she's not super efficient at eating regular food}? The texture? I would at least like to actually make some and have a big pureeing session sometime soon since it's so easy to make and freeze the stuff but for now it's just the pouches and jars we buy.
• Is trying so hard to stand/sit up on her own and she does so quite well. If she doesn't have much to grab onto to pull herself up then Hanna will just get onto her knees and sit there like that. 
• Crawls and tries to climb up on just about anything.
• Discovered this muscle rolling "stick" we have and tries to wave it around like some deranged group leader.
• She also figured out how to stand up on her own in her crib...that was on Saturday and since then she's been standing most times when she lets us know she's awake.
• HL has actually been a lot more active in her crib this week and even gave herself a gnarly forehead bruise by crawling and propelling herself forward straight into the railings in her crib. Our kind daycare lady made a mention of the bruise to us and we both realized we probably should've told her when we dropped off the baby...first time parents here!
• She is still so snotty and I'm wondering if maybe she got another cold or just never got rid of that first one but either way we're hoping for less congestion soon.
• This kid is amazing and wonderful and we just can't get enough!

xoxo, natty ♥

On the horizon.

Oh oh oh Monday is donezo...what else is nice?

1. There's some nice weather on the near horizon {& some not-so-nice weather further away}.

2. We had a great weekend relaxing around here before a little trip we have planned for next weekend.

3. A little trip planned for next weekend! More on that later.

4. Our baby is being her funny self and today at least took some naps, after yesterday's marathon awake time.

5. Thai food for dinner; so good on so many levels.

How's your week {& November} shaping up Reader? Well I hope!
xoxo, natty ♥

Nary a nap!

We had a fun day at Michael's brother's place as a home-base today. We went for a nice long walk through the zoo, which is nearby, and then enjoyed some football on the tube...and that crazy baby slept for approximately half an hour the whole day.

Let's hope she makes it up tonight! Have a great week folks!
xoxo, natty ♥

The thee-aye-tuh.

Thanks to our favorite babysitters, we're off for some high brow entertainment!
xoxo, natty ♥

Hello weekend, please stay a while!

Oh Friday how I love thee.

Have a great weekend folks!
xoxo, natty ♥

Hi Thursday.

Funny how the weeks fly by, isn't it? We're barreling towards the weekend and don't have much planned, isn't that nice?
xoxo, natty ♥

Ten dayer.

33 weeks!

It's November; next month we get to visit California and Arizona families and we're so happy about that! What else...

Wouldn't lay back for her picture. And I think that onesie is way too small, I just don't feel like fishing out a bigger one.

• Baby is still battling a bit of something, appetite isn't fabulous, sleep could be a bit better, etc....is this our new normal considering the nature of illnesses spread amongst small children in daycare and within families or will things look up soon?
• We officially have a waver; Hanna loves waving. I even think she makes a "ahhh" sound to mean "hi" because she only does it when waving but Michael isn't entertaining that thought.
• Tried some actual pureed baby food this week and loved it; I bought it on a whim and since it was successful I might make a few batches in order to use up some of the milk I have stored considering Hanna Lu doesn't drink as much as I can make for her.
• Hanna loves puffs; they're cheerios but made out of rice flour and she's had a "green" flavor and just had the sweet potato ones tonight. It's wonderful to see her little pincer grasp get the practice and she's so sweet because she does this whole body wave of excitement when she sees the container.
• Enjoys water in her sippy cup.
• Had her second visit to the pumpkin patch and didn't make a peep the entire time. It was also her first experience with being cold and totally bundled up and I think that had something to do with it.
• Is loving on Guinness the dog in a big way. He can elicit giggles just by trotting past her. We don't let her get a hold of him too often because hers is not a gentl grasp but we do let G-man give the baby face kisses which he gets really into and Hanna loves. I'm still super cautious about him around Hanna even though he's given us no reason to think otherwise, I just know that deep down he's still a dog so we keep a pretty hawkish eye on the two of them.
• Is crawling into everything; is very curious about our bookshelf.
• As of last Wednesday afternoon, can pull herself up! She did it at daycare and at home can do it really well on the couch and in her crib, though with gripping and how slippery our floors are for her, HL can't quite get it done on the floor in our living area.
• We're loving on this little girl so much and are looking forward to the holidays with her!

xoxo, natty ♥

Sliding.

Today was a bit warmer and far less windier than yesterday, perfect for being inside at work.

More brevity? Ok!

1. At the pumpkin place yesterday our entrance fee {we shan't be returning, I've decided...a bit too much kitsch and detritus laying around but for the slim pickins available to us late-seasoners it served a purpose} included unlimited slide use.

This thing was far steeper than I realized and I screamed the whole way down. Which wasn't that far but it was exhilarating.

2. We've got some fun plans in the next two months...friends, travel, family, woo hoo!

3. There was a wonderful candy/snack-make-your-own-bag-of-treats-bar at work today commemorating the end of the quarter and I was one happy teacher.

4. Someone learned how to wave this past week; this is serious cuteness.

5. There are a bunch of leftovers in the fridge, good ones at that, which means no cooking for {hopefully} two days; yesssss.

How's your week shaping up Reader? Much darker tonight than what you're used to, yes? I felt off all day thanks to the light difference!!

xoxo, natty

BRRRRRR!

Today we ventured out with some friends for some late-season apple/pumpkin picking. We ended up at a place different from the one Rebecca and I visited last week and it was definitely kitschier - think: rubber ducky derby, hay bale jumping, a corn maze, tall slides, and a pumpkin toss/smash every hour.

Someone was awestruck by the wind and being bundled up; she didn't make a peep the entire time. And I'm not referring to myself.

We had fun, though, despite an entrance fee, and took advantage of the included-in-entry fee tractor/hay ride to the pumpkin patch for all-you-can-carry pumpkins; seriously. But, it was FREEZING!! Wind chill, I'm guessing, was actually in the high 30s...it was very gusty. The baby was bundled up and so were we but it was still chilly and nice to get into the wind-free car after our little excursion.

Honestly, we owned this maze and were out in less than ten minutes.

Have a great work week all and stay warm!
xoxo, natty ♥

A chill in the air.

Today was nowhere near as epic as last Saturday.

Baby is still recuperating and it was cold but we rallied for a late afternoon walk to CVS. Here's to sleep that's a bit better than last night's!
xoxo, natty ♥