A night out!

Grandparents are babysitting...

and there's a birthday celebration waiting out there so here we go!

xoxo, natty

Seven to 10 minutes.

Each day  after I race out of my office to get to my car, I drive seven to ten minutes to pick up our baby from day care and in that brief time I keep the windows rolled down and turn up the music as loud as I can. I zip through a few country roads to get to the place where my baby hangs out all day and in those few minutes, listening to whatever I can find on the radio {though the past few days have been commercials on every station!}, I feel sooo free and happy. Fresh air after being in a cool building all day is such a tonic for my psyche. 

I'm way out in the boonies so there's usually someone manning a ride-on mower as I drive along so I can smell grass and the gas smell from those mowers; it almost reminds of being on our boat in Tahoe since the smell of gas always makes me think of boating. More wind and freedom.

Then I speedwalk into the house to get that child and I feel even better than warm breezes in my hair and loud tunes could ever make me feel.

On that note, have a great weekend folks!
xoxo, natty ♥

6 months!

Oooooooh Happy Half-Birthday little Lu!!! It’s been a BUSY and tiring month what with work and daycare but we’re still so happy and this baby gets to be more and more fun each day…what else?

How old: six months

Weight: at least 16 pounds, if not more…she was 16.4 pounds the other day.

Likes:

·      Kiddo still loves her facetime…she also really wants to get that phone/ipad…really badly!!!

·      Crawling! This kid is just now getting up to her knees and hands/forearms and rocking back and forth but she army crawls up a storm all over the place – we’re going to get a baby gate and section off a part of our apartment for her and we already got another foam alphabet/number mat pack to extend her play/crawl space.

·      Looking at/being with the other babies and kiddos at daycare…when I get there to pick her up and before she sees me, if she’s not crawling around on her own, the baby loves having these other kiddos around her.

·      Baby oatmeal…HL is really into this spelt/barley mix and I make it with her milk.

·      Creaking; this child makes a creaky door sound when she’s tired, usually in the car on the way to daycare.

·      Playing with her toys; Hanna adores a plastic ring-stacking toy.

·      Books, board books actually, are a big hit with this baby.

·      She still likes her exersaucer and especially the crab who lives on it; her favorite is slurping on his ribbon legs.

·      Music..the baby likes her Baby Einstein classical music/animal/meet the orchestra cd I play in the car for her and gets excited {smiles and pumps her legs} when she hears the music on her exersaucer and playmat.

·      Rolling over and crawling away; changing her diaper or putting on clothes has become very challenging because baby just wants to roll over and scoot away.

·      She’s still a fan of her pacifier; Hanna Lu will usually take one when going down to sleep and she’ll often use it when in the car. If she’s tired she’ll keep one in while playing.

·      If not using a pacifier, this kid puts everything into her mouth.

·      She REALLY wanted the camera battery this afternoon; it was plugged into its charger which was plugged into the wall and it’s just above her reach-range. She tried SO HARD to get at it and was trying with each arm over and over again to no avail and I laughed at her the whole time. I imagine this might be how she’ll learn to pull herself up – wanting to get at something just up and out of her reach.

Dislikes:

·      Milk, still. This kid, I predict, will never be big on milk/bottle drinking. She’ll take a sip or two and then turn her head. Then she repeats the process.

·      When I get to daycare to pick her up, if she sees me and I try and do anything before going to her and picking her up; this baby starts to cry if I walk away from her.

Milestones:

·      Holy moly what crawling!!! This kid scoots EVERYWHERE and always has red knees.

·      I think little bit got her first little cold last week; she seemed a bit out of it for a couple of days, sniffly {especially in the middle of the night snack session}, and had one night of crummy sleep; I had expected this far earlier than this so I’m grateful for six months of healthy baby.

·      Hanna Lu got to meet a lot of coworkers at our back to school dinner late in August.

Sleep and eat:

·      Baby is ready for and in bed by seven each night, sometimes earlier or a wee later. Usually we have one wake-up between two and four AM to eat and then again between 5:30 and 7, if left to her own devices; for work, we have to get her up by 6:!5. I’d like to wean her off of this night-time eating, though I’m OK doing it still since I like her to eat as much as she can and it doesn’t bother me so we might not change anything.

·      Kiddo eats between 14 and 28 ounces of milk a day at daycare and then she nurses when we get home at around 4:30 in the afternoon, once before bed, once in the middle of the night {see above}, and then once around 6 to 6:30 in the morning…I’m not sure how reluctant/challenging of an eater she is at daycare but she is not the most enthusiastic about eating her milk…but that’s not new.

·      But she does enjoy her baby oatmeal!

Miscellaneous:

·      Baby is still wearing her cloth diapers on the smallest setting and will wear size three disposable diapers.

·      Hanna Lu will still wear 3-6 month clothes but also fits quite nicely in 6-month clothes. i haven’t tried anything bigger on her.

·      Grandma and Zaide are visiting this weekend {they just got here!} and we’re so happy to see them!

·      Hanna Lucy has her second trip to California in the works this upcoming month; woo hoo!!!!

·      This baby gets to meet her aunt Rebecca soon!!!!! And she got to meet aunt Maeve this past month; what a lucky girl to have such loving friends and family!

xoxo, natty ♥

Taste test.

xoxo, natty ♥

26 weeks.

Someone's going to be six months old later this week {two days from now!}...and in other news:

• She is scooting EVERYWHERE. We're soon going to be getting a baby gate to cordon her off from dangerous things/the hard floor {though she's kind of figured out that when she's scooting/army crawling around she can roll over softer so as to avoid conking her head plus she's better at not getting her arm caught under her body now}.
• Related to the above point, this kid is curious about seemingly everything. She stares at people and out the car window when we drive and wants to grab and "eat" everything she can get her hands on. 

"I want that".

         Her dad's aluminum water bottle is especially tempting. We love this    
         about our daughter and hope to see her continue to be excited about so
         many of the things around her.

• Seems to be working her way through her first set of sniffles...any under-the-weather-ness, actually. There is some nose congestion and her sleep/eating has been a wee bit off and she maybe seems a bit more serious but other than that our little girl is a champ.
• Really goes for the actual thumb-sucking vs. hand and finger sucking. She also is a huge toe sucker when in the bath. Seriously, the second I lay her down that kid practically folds in half and gets those toes in her mouth.
• Will maybe try some actual food this weekend; avocado or sweet potato perhaps.
• She can kind of shake things now; she makes this motion with her hand/fingers like she's trying to touch her wrist. She'll also bang things onto the table when she's in her highchair or on the floor.
• The raspberry blowing. Baby started doing this a couple of weeks ago, actually, and especially loves doing so into her bottle or with a mouth full of cereal if she has decided she's no longer hungry. It's annoying if we're trying to feed her but absolutely adorable.
• Still screeching like a creaky door; this seems to be something she does when she's tired...better this than crying! I still find it funny-sounding so I'm OK with it all.
• Sitting up on her own better and better each day. I'm still not confident enough to leave her up on a firm surface {the floor} but surrounded by pillows is cool if we're not hovering around to catch her when she falls over {I swear we won't be those overprotective parents, I just don't want her to hurt that noggin!}.
• Still enjoys her exersaucer and playmat, though she is totally content to just crawl around.
• Really loves her Fisher-Price stacking toy {the classic one with the plastic donuts of varying size that stack on a little column}. Taking the rings off and chewing on the base column is her favorite.
• Is going to see her grandparents this weekend! And another set in a few short weeks!!
• Has a larger play space; we ordered more of the foam alphabet tiles we had to make a bigger crawl space for Hanna Lu which for now just looks like a big rainbow part of our living room but when we baby-gate that part off, it'll make more sense. This is also good for head bonking.
• Went to Gymboree for the first time; library story time is better and free so we may not be going back.
• Is SUCH a distracted eater. What's new?
• Thinks her dog/brother is HILARIOUS. We got some of the best and most unprovoked giggles from this girl the other day when Guinness was running around.
• We can't get enough of Hanna Lu!

xoxo, natty ♥

Mountains.

My title is referencing the amount of laundry I feel we go through each day...and in some more news:

1. Our washer/dryer is now right next to our hamper and it certainly makes going through those daily mountains much easier than at our old place; seriously, what a difference 20 feet make for people like us.

2. We had a lovely and relaxing weekend - something for which I was and am extremely grateful.

3. We've got some family fun in the weekend ahead; woo hoo! This fun may even include providing our child with the opportunity to sample some avocado...or sweet potato perhaps!

4. Target has a fun partnership coming up!

Maybe I'll snag a pair for little one for when her itty-bitty feet {they're seriously tiny} can fit into them.

5. And speaking of shopping; with September half-way gone, though it has felt like October for a month now what with the busy-ness of things, I see December rapidly approaching and WOAH this time is flying.

How's your week Dear Reader? Good I hope!
xoxo, natty ♥

Baby Percy.

Hanna Lu seems to be a bit under the weather tonight, far later than I had anticipated what with starting daycare about a month ago. So I went to CVS to get some saline drops for her and found this gem.

Why take this, ingesting even more, when one is suffering from "fullness"?

Oh Baby Percy, always overdoing it.

We also went to a Gymboree class today, before I realized she wasn't feeling too hot {there was a very uninspired leader and I was pretty "meh" about it all considering we can have the same fun for free at the library's story time [though another mom there said that this leader-lady is new and that it's usually much better]}, and walked around the neighboring H & M afterwards {baby's idea, I swear}.

Honestly, this store is always a disgusting wreck and it's not just this location. But I still go in, feel annoyed each time, though I know better, and purchase something. I ended up with nothing today, though, mostly because my back started to hurt from wearing that child of mine, and walked the half mile home as quickly as I could to get her off of me and into her bed for a much needed nap. 

Let's hope baby feels better and that this week doesn't do me in quite as wickedly as last week did.
xoxo, natty ♥

Here came the rain.

Oh goodness was there ever a more appreciated Saturday?!?! 

I had grand plans of library story time this morning {there's a Saturday one at our local library...DC local [we're eversoclose to the border]} and I forwent purchasing caffeine {it's in the opposite direction} so that Hanna Lu could make it one time {it so happened that she took her nap early enough that she was awake in time to get to the thing} and we got there to find a "cancelled" sign. There broke my working mama's heart. So I jay-walked across the street to McDonald's to get a McCafé instead. Which was almost a good enough replacement. The rain started as I was paying my $1.46 or whatever bargain it is and I decided to brave it since it's only a half-mile walk and it was quite temperate.

And we spend the rest of our day doing baby-mama things; going down for a nap, eating, playing, screeching, army-crawling, and getting ready for a friend coming over for dinner.

Seriously, I needed this day of nothingness and I'm so glad to crawl into bed and have an entire other day ahead of us.

Cheers to being boring in order to feed the psyche!!
xoxo, natty ♥

WE MADE IT!

It's the freaking weekend baby I'm about to have me some fun!

Or at least some sleep. With a baby in the house that might not be a lot of sleep but at least there isn't an alarm that I'm setting - yippee skippee for that!

Have a great one folks!
xoxo, natty ♥

Crawling.

This has been a doozy of a week what with it being the first full and normal school week {no abbreviated schedules, etc.} and a back-to-school night thrown in on Tuesday and I don't think I'm the only one at work, teacher or student, who is ohsoready for the weekend. I feel like I'm in the last few meters of a race that's been a tough one. Which is funny considering it's just the first half of September. I suppose our staying up later than we should doesn't help.

But! Life is good, teaching is great, the kids are hilarious, and there is a blessed week's end on its way here - hurrah!
xoxo, natty ♥

"Ha ha...watermelon colors."

25 weeks.

September keeps chugging along and let's see what else is up...

• Hand waving...she's doing this funny thing, usually when she eats but sometimes if she's just laying there, where she's actually noticing her hands...like "woah, these fingers are aawwwwweesome".
• Lots of squawking and shrieking and creaking and wonderful sounds.
• Loving her "solid" food...we do this multigrain oatmeal/barley thing that I mix with milk and it's quite the hit...even if she's DONE with any milk, this baby will go to town on the oatmeal. She also loves her spoons.
• We are scooting more and more each day...what an inch worm!! She often gets her arm stuck under her for a second as she's moving forward and then she swoops down to the side where her arm is stuck...when she's on her play mat it's fine because it's a soft landing but she's now reaching the hardwood floor and that's definitely not a soft landing.
• Baby got to meet Aunt Maeve {& got gifted a glorious pink tutu and Chicago skyscraper onesie}...what a joy to introduce our daughter to another dear friend.
• The see me ROLLING - this kid will stay on her back for a fraction of a second after being placed down. This:

Red knees from all that scootching/crawling/inching around.

    is how our weekly photo shoot has started out for a while now...then it quickly        

    turns to this: 

      and I"ll finally get her to notice the camera and all is well for mom's picture    

      taking.

• Still a finicky milk drinker...that's alright because she gets in enough but it's a process; good thing day care gets to enjoy this part of Hanna rearing. Her new thing to do whilest not really taking her bottle very well is blow bubbles in-between sips and back into the bottle; the child is blowing bubbles into her milk at an early age, in my opinion.
• She LOVES soft toys; stuffed animals and blankies and anything she can grab onto - baby still goes for Sophie the Giraffe but she loves the softies.
• We, on the other hand, love this baby...stuffies, softies, and Sophie are great but Hanna Lu is totally the bees' knees to us!  

xoxo, natty ♥

Dark clouds.

We had some good storms this weekend...Saturday night's went on forever and the view from out 14th floor was glorious...in other news:

1. A certain thoughtful husband made me some dinner tonight after a long day; thank you husband!

2. We had a lovely weekend with a really good friend; thank you friend!!

3. The weather today was beautiful - cool, almost, which will be glorious if it sticks around.

4. I'm mulling over some apple-picking/pumpkin gathering activity for later this month.

5. Apart from a long day I have ahead of me tomorrow this week is shaping up to be a normal week where we're not up to too much; something that's decent after a busy month!

What's new in your neck of the woods Reader? Keeping occupied like we are?!
xoxo, natty ♥

Zing.

We had a busy day today and after we left our friend on the airport curb we came home to get ready for the week ahead. And, in an effort to quell my nightly sweet tooth with something worthwhile I got a few kiwi fruit cut in half and tried to snack on them while watching TV. They were a wee unripe and in my effort to eat them out of the skin have burned my lips and tongue; ouch!!!!!

Let's hope Monday goes smoother than that!
xoxo, natty ♥

Fun times.

A bit of a sleep-in, lots of coffee, bagels, and nails done...it's been a good visit and a good day. Here's to another one tomorrow!
xoxo, natty ♥

Welcome!!!

A really good friend is on her way here tonight and we're so excited for a visit!!! Hurry up and get here!!
xoxo, natty ♥

Busy times.

Today I rushed from one thing to another and I'm definitely feeling it now...looking forward to the weekend!!!
xoxo, natty ♥

3 years!

xoxo, natty ♥

24 weeks.

So evolution is some crazy powerful stuff because loving something like we love this kiddo is intense and not anything I ever could've imagined.

How funny is that pointed foot.

 In other, lighter news...

I had to include this one for her little thumbs-up and that beautiful wide smile.

• Crazy feet; I meant to mention this last week but the kid moves her legs/feet like nothing else especially when in her car seat and sometimes when I put her down back to sleep in the middle of the night. When she's hanging out on her back in her play area she'll also pick up her legs and bring them down hard on the ground. She's actually let up a bit this week, now that I write it out, but she's still doing it.
• Hand "scraping"; HL will kind of scratch the couch when we have her there with us and has recently taken to frantically doing the same thing to her bottle when we're trying to feed her. I'm wondering if it's because of the texture of her bottle; it has a silicone "sleeve" that can maybe be pleasant for a little baby to explore with her hands.
• Speaking of eating, Hanna Lu had some baby cereal that was a mixture of oats/spelt/barley while visiting our friends. She totally dug it. She's still working her way through a box of rice cereal we have here though and she seems to really like it, though I think I might phase it out since it seems to ahem stop her up. When she turns six months which is in two short weeks {where does the time go?!?!?!} we'll start her on real food anyway.
• And still speaking of eating, the child is majorly distracted when it comes to eating and getting her to finish a bottle is a chore; I'm not sure if she just needs to eat less often now or what but kid isn't into her meals, except for that rice cereal stuff.
• This babe is major into face grabbing...it's kind of adorable until it hurts.
• This babe is also major into just everything; she's SUPER squirmy when we try to change her diaper or get her dressed. Anything within her reach is fair game but she's inching/scooting even more than last week and she knows how to get to where she wants so I guess it's more like anything within a several foot radius is fair game. We need some baby gates soon to lock her into her side of the living room area.
• Rolling, rolling, rolling.
• This baby is always smiling and laughing if she's not screeching because she's tired. The screech is so cute and funny but we now know it means some tiredness is a lurking. She'll also rub her face against us when she's tired.
• Hanna has been doing what we're calling The Beyoncé/Stanky leg; while being bottle fed or sometimes while nursing, she will bend one leg over and over and again in kind of a dance move. She may or may not grab onto her foot while doing so.
• She traveled to Pennsylvania for the first time and got to meet some good friends Michael made in Peace Corps. 

I don't know what I was doing here.

         Hanna Lu also met their son who is five months older than she is; they both
         tried to grab each other's face/hair - love at first sight. Our friends happen
         to be in charge of/live with eight eight-to-ten-year-old girls who, for the most
         part, were really into holding Hanna and hugging her.

Just enjoying a blanket outside in Hershey, PA.

         We were even asked if we could take our friends' baby and leave
         Hanna there. That request was left unmet.

xoxo, natty ♥

Sweetness.

Today has been glorious; a bit of a sleep in {6:30 instead of 5:30}...and what else?

1. This morning we had breakfast out with my brother-in-law and his lady...

So curious.

and baby Lu sat in a big kid high-chair! She was propped up with some stuff but would've been fine without it all.

2. Our child "drew" with the restaurant crayons.

She's SO advanced.

3. I whipped up a nice jar full of simple syrup today.

Regular granulated sugar doesn't dissolve well at cooler temperatures and since I'm still on a big iced coffee kick thanks to this grossness:

{& still on a sweetened coffee kick thanks to something I'll explain at a later date}, this stuff makes the AM caffeine preparation go much quicker. And it's super easy; heat up equal parts sugar and water over medium-high heat until dissolved. This above is a cup each of sugar and water.

4. Short work week this week...woo hoo!

5. Some friends came over for dinner tonight which prompted some cleaning/clearing out. We really should've stopped using the "we just moved" excuse because we really did not just move. Thank goodness for some good old fashioned motivation.

How was your long weekend folks? Is it heating up alluvasudden in your parts? Have a lovely week!

xoxo, natty