Ah I failed. Last night I got caught watching the debates and today has gotten away from me. I have nothing to say of interest so Im just going to apologize for missing the last 2 days, say I love my life and my family and Im going to go spend some time with my hubby...you should do the same!
Megan's Top 10 Favorite Baby Things (Gracyn's too...)
Im at a loss for what to talk about after 5 days in a row, soo I am going to make a list of some favorite baby things. Too bad Im not as rich as Oprah, I would send you all samples :) These are not in any order... Click on the links to see the products...
#1- I could not live without my Ergo baby carrier. I love this, esp if you have a big baby. I can still carry Gracyn around comfortably and she is 20lbs now. She can go on my back, facing me, or on my hip. And Greg feels comfortable wearing it too. When she was little I also loved the Moby wrap, its perfect for newborns and keeping them close and snuggly.
#2- The Aden and Anais swaddling blanket, I wish I had bought these when G was a baby because she could not fit in any receiving blankets except one my friend Jen made for her. I have been using these for photoshoots and I cant wait to use them on the new baby.
#3- The Phil and Teds Stroller, this is a great stroller. Easy to use and it converts to a double stroller, which will be great in a few months.
#4- Summer Video Monitor- I love this, I can watch her without having to go in her room. This was great for the insane first time mom I was in those first months.
#5- Babys First Books- these have brought her hours and hours of entertainment, I always have at least one in my bag
#6- The Fisher Price Learning Home Endless entertainment. Gracyn and every kid I have seen around it loves this house! She has really grown with it, learning how to do new things on it all the time. By far one of the best presents she has received, thanks Chrissy!!
#7- Her Taggy This is great because when she is in the car seat and I am driving, and she is fussing bc she cant find her paci, I can always find it easily without looking back just by feeling for her taggy. It doesnt look exactly like this, but this one is Extremely cute! I bought supplies to try and make some.
#8- Formula Mixer When I registered for this I didnt know if we would actually use it. It seemed silly, but I figured for $4 we might as well try. This has been wonderful, esp since we use the Dr.Browns bottles and you cant really shake them with all the parts inside (you can but its recommended not to). Its fast and easy to use, the formula seems less foamy than after shaking too, which is good for the little tummies.
#9- the Bundle Me Its recommended to not use coats or buntings on babies in car seats now, to keep the straps more secure, so this product is great for winters and new babies. Stick them in there and they are all nice and cozy and you dont have to worry about blankets and coats. Im going to try the toddler one with Gracyn this winter, we will see how it works.
#10- Carters Cradle and Soothe Bouncer Gracyn quickly outgrew her fancy papasan seat I bought for her and I happened to find this on clearance at BRU. I am convinced its the best seat ever. She fit in it for such a long time and she is a big girl! It also has 2 positions so when she would fall asleep we could recline her flat.
Im sure there are a million more favorite things I have, but these are the first ones that came to mind.
So Gracyn is now taking 2 classes each week. On Wednesdays we go to Wonderful Ones, which is at the library. Its basically just some story time and some singing with like 10 min of play time at the end. It goes way too fast every week. I feel like Gracyn is just starting to warm up and its done. She is a lot more shy in public than I thought she would be. I know some of that has to do with the separation anxiety for this age, she doesnt like to crawl very far away from me. She also sits most of the class with this funny look on her face, she just takes it all in. She is by far one of the biggest kids in the class but is actually one of the youngest. She is one of the few that are not walking yet. These are pictures from 2 weeks ago and from today's class. I need to bring my better camera in there, but I am embaressed no one else is taking pictures. I was afraid to even use my flash for these, I didnt want to distract anyone. So the quality is horrible but the sentiment is still there. It is so nice to get her out of the house and around other kids. I feel like she must be bored hanging out with me all day. Tomorrow we have her sign language class so maybe I will post about that then.
color was wacky, had to make it bw
This is to show how she always sits, its too cute!
not sure she wants to crawl out to the middle to play with the kids...
Her face through most of the class...
Well today was a good day, I had a doctor's appointment and got to hear the little munchkin's heartbeat, always amazing! Everything looked good at the appointment. Im 16 weeks and the baby is now the size of an avocado. He is currently about 5 inches long (Gracyn was born at 22inches so we still have a long way to go to beat her!). Over the next three weeks he should double in size! I am already not fitting into my jeans so that just sounds wonderful :) You may notice I keep calling the baby "he"... that is not for certain yet, but I hate calling the baby "it". Here are some pics from 12 weeks. The 4d one is freaky to see, the baby doesnt have enough fat to make it a cute picture.
On the way to the hospital I got pulled over (sorry mom!) for speeding! YIKES! So Im shaking in my boots and I hand the guy my info, he asks if I know he speed limit, the usual routine. However I happened to mention in passing I was on my way to the hospital and I was a nurse there. To my shock and awe his response was "your a nurse? well thats good enough for me!" and he hands me my stuff back, tells me to drive safe and walks away! Now people have always told me this nurse card works but I just couldnt imagine it really would! Not that I plan on pulling that card, I drove 55 the rest of the way there and home!
Ok so one last note- this is a random post, all over the place. Gracyn is now eating people food (as opposed to dog food) and coming up with meal ideas is throwing me for a loop. I have never been a good cook or creative with meal planning but now I feel like every night I am scrounging to think of something healthy to feed her so I need to start planning our meals out in advance. I want her to be a much healthier and diverse eater than I am. So I am putting out a plea for ideas, if you have a meal you love that is easy to make and somewhat healthy please send me the recipe! I would love to have more ideas to throw into our usual mix. Here is my recipe for dinner tonight incase you wan a new idea for chicken...ps this is not super healthy, but not horrible! We had some broccoli and stuffing with this.
Flash Roasted Chicken
1 oz package of dry ranch mix
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cup finely crushed tortilla chips
2 tbs melted butter or margarine
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
Mix first 3 ingredients together in shallow pan, reserve 1 cup of the mixture for sauce. Dip chicken in mixture and coat with tortilla chips. Drizzle butter over chicken and bake at 400degrees for 20 min or until chicken is cooked through. Heat sauce in small saucepan. Serve over chicken.
yikes I have nothing interesting to post today but said I would... lets see what did we do today? absolutely nothing! we played house, we played ball, we played with cookie monster who was her favorite today. we watched curious george and we took a nap. yep it was a good day :)
like I said, a waste of a post but oh well. I will leave you with a daddy pic, this is my fav from our trip to Colorado... I need to proof the rest of the pictures still, Im behind as usual but have to work on client's pictures soon...
So lately I have been stressing over the fact that I cant seem to keep my house clean, and the dust keeps getting worse and how do I find time to clean the toilets, ect...
Today Greg of course gets like 50 things done around here before noon. I love him for his energy and his willingness to help, but sometimes watching him makes me feel so guilty. Like I should be able to get as much done as he does. He never ever complains about stuff that isnt done, but I still feel like I should be a better housewife. I just cant figure out how to balance Gracyn and life. She is 10 mos old and you would think I would have this down. And considering I only have 169 days till the new baby comes I had better figure something out fast!
I think Im going to make a chore list so that each day I do one thing. I made one before but I never stuck to it, so this time I have to really dedicate to it. I would love any other mom tips out there you guys have for ways to find time or organziation tips, etc...
In the meantime I found this quote today and it made me feel a lot better about the fact that I am playing ball with Gracyn instead of doing the 5 loads of laundry I have waiting. I thought I would share it with you guys...
Cleaning and scrubbing can wait for tomorrow,
For babies grow up, I've learned, to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust, go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby, and babies don't keep.
(Ruth Hulburt Hamilton)
ps- this is my first post of my 7 day challenge to myself. im going to make an effort to post something from our day everyday this week. (dont hold your breath though, lol)
I have a guilty pleasure- I love the Young and the Restless. I promise Im not a trashy mom who sits around all day watching soaps with her kids! I record it and normally watch it during nap time, but occasionally I will watch it with her in the room. But it's really not a trashy soap, I promise! Even my grandma and grandpa used to watch it everyday. Anyway something I have noticed that is so funny to me is that she will sing along with the theme song. She is mesmerized by any music that comes on the tv, she always shakes her toys or sings or goes and stands next to the tv... I tried to capture it on video but she saw me with the camera so was distracted. But its still cute so I thought I would share.
No I have not remembered that I need to hold the camera horizontal yet.
If you havent already figured out that this blog is called "onesadblog" because it is horribly neglected Im sure you are catching on now! Im sorry I havent written in a long time.
Life here is great. Gracyn is almost 10 months old now. She is an insane monkey, the girl has no fear of anything including trying to climb anything she possibly can get a foothold on. She is babbling up a storm, though nothing truly coherant. Greg sometimes picks up sounds that he says are words, but Im not sure they are intentional words. We start a baby sign language class next week so that should be fun! Im not convinced it works, but hey its something for us to do together and another way to get her out around kids. We also start a "wonderful ones" class for kids her age to play and have story time together, etc. Its at the library. She is eating all sorts of table foods now so I've had to challenge myself to actually start cooking a bit. In my dreams Im this very organized house wife who actually cooks and does laundry and cleans her house... too bad thats not quite reality! Im sure with the new baby coming it will be even further from reality and I think I need to just accept that!
Here are a few pictures from August. Gracyn is now 20lbs and 30.25inches! She is so big! She is wearing 6 mos shirts but 12-18mos pants already, I just cant believe that. I promise she does wear more than this outfit, these and the video of her fit where all taken on the same day.
time to baby proof the house! we have been putting it off forever and finally went to buy gates this weekend...
And finally a quick video of her climbing the chair.... she can usually climb all the way to the wall behind her...
So this is way early, and Greg would kill me for posting this... but I was bored and decided to make a name list on babynames.com, then I decided why not let people vote. No people, I DID NOT LEARN MY LESSON THE FIRST TIME AROUND :) But at least I think I have developed a thicker skin and realized as long as we love the name that is all that matters. I think that realization came after learning to brush off the "oh well that is unique" comment I get everytime I introduce Gracyn to someone! So anyway vote away, But no "tatum=tator tot" comments!
Well I set off to record her climbing the furniture, and to show what a monkey she has become. However after a few failed attempts to get my keys off the ledge behind the couch I ended up with this video which I thought was so much more funny :) Im really not a mean mommy, but someday I think it will be funny to show her these little tantrums she would throw. You can see part way through she starts to laugh because Im laughing at her, she is so obviously faking the tantrum. She is definatly learning to manipulate! Anyway just thought it was funny, though Im sure no one else thinks so...
Gracyn is going to be a big sister! I have been anxious to share our news, but wanted to tell all of our family in person before announcing it here. I am currently 10 weeks pregnant and due March 9, 2009! We are so excited that the kids will be really close in age (15 months) and we are hoping they will be close friends as they grow up. So far the baby looks really healthy on u/s, I got to see the heartbeat last week! Im feeling pretty sick, moreso than with Gracyn, but Im hoping that will pass in a few weeks when the first trimester is over. This is a quick picture my dad took of Gracyn with my mom after we told them and my sister the news. It took a little bit for them to figure out exactly what the bib was telling them. They are going to have 3 grandkids next year! My sister is due January 16th, so I am even more excited that the cousins will be close in age!
This month has been a chaotic one with vacation and house guest and Greg having surgery and gracyn crawling, etc. Its rare when I get to pause and really notice how much my little girl is growing up and changing before my eyes. She really is such a fun and sweet little girl. My friend took this of her and I just love that it captures a quiet moment in this busy summer.
8 months old and finally crawling! Still no teeth yet though. Here is a video and some good old fashioned snap shots...
how do you entertain her for 5 minutes? let her rip up my pottery barn catelog... 
her favorite game of peek-a-boo with a book... 
sporting her baby legs, her onesie got lunch on it... 
how daddy spent a good portion of his birthday- he is still layed up from back surgery
Second day of crawling... the babylegs keep her knees from getting too red and sore.
Gracyn got to enjoy her new little baby pool today. We have been taking her swimming in our hot tub (turned down to about 85 degrees) but I wanted something I can put her in where I dont have to get in too, she loved it! She doesnt have much fear of water, she wanted to crawl through the water on her belly to get her toys, it was so cute! Here is a really quick video. The other girl talking is Gracyn's favorite friend Brittnee who is her nanny. Im not sure what the white lines across the video are. Sorry for the really poor quality! Here are also a few really quick snaps...
A lot is happening around here and I have fallen so far behind! Gracyn is now almost 8 months, she will be 8 months on Marley's 5th birthday. I cant believe he is 5! He is doing really well with Gracyn, esp now that she is more mobile. Today she sat there and continually yanked on his tail and though you could tell he didnt love it, he just sat there through it. He is such a good boy. I really need to take pictures of the two of them together, he just never wants to participate.
Anyway Gracyn is blabbering all the time now, she also tries to "sing" with me by drawing out her "ahhhhhssss and baaaaas" in a musical way when I am singing to her. She talks a lot in response to others talking to her, its so cute to watch her try to communicate. She is also on the verge of crawling. She sits and launches herself forward, but sometimes has trouble getting one foot out from underneath her. She often ends up face planting and in tears, but she is determined! Its amazing how fast things change where one day she cant do something and the next she has figured it out. She is starting some table foods, although she still doesnt have any teeth! I have felt like they were coming for months, with all the drool and crankiness and EVERYTHING in the mouth, but none yet!
Gracyn just took her first plane ride to Colorado. She was so good and slept almost the entire way! I have a ton of vacation pictures that I need to get around to posting, I will make it a goal for the week. Anyway here is a really quick video of Gracyn playing peekaboo with Greg. She loves to play and will use anything she can to cover her face. Here she is using one of her favorite books from Aunt Amanda....Greg admits he sounds like a moron in this, anything to make her laugh! Sorry also that its sideways, I took it with our point and shoot and I always forget it doesnt auto rotate! More to come I promise!
Well she is almost 7 now, but this picture was taken at almost 6 months when we were visiting Indy. I love the light in my dad's studio! We had fun playing with Gracyn since she had just mastered sitting! I'll add more when I get a chance to proof them.
Funny how a photographer can so despise actually being in front of the camera, but I loathe it. I just look at pictures and dont see me. But that is a whole other blog entry... This is a picture my dad took of me and Gracyn last month and though I'm never happy enough with pictures of me, I know that in the years to come I will treasure this photo as will she when she is older. One of my all time favorite photos is of me with my mom around the same age as Gracyn. I need to make more of an effort to spend some time in front of the camera, so that Gracyn has lots of tangible memories of me.
ps. this was the day after I cut 12 inches off my hair and it was a mess, I still have no clue how to actually style it. thank goodness Gracyn doesn't have hair yet, I need to learn some beauty skills before she grows it :)
This is so late, but things have been crazy! Little Ava James was born on May 21st weighing a whopping 5lbs and measuring in at 18.25inches! She is a little peanut but is fiesty and strong! She came home from the hospital last week and is really thriving at home. I am so proud of how well she has done and we are so excited to have her in our lives as Gracyn's little friend! I havent gotten to do her official photoshoot yet, so here is a quick picture Stacia sent out of mom and dad and baby. I cant wait to get my hands on this tiny little girl for our photoshoot!
Welcome little Ava!
Playing with a new blanket....
My little baby wears big girl clothes! She looked so old in this outfit :(
I love taking Gracyn to see new things and explore new places. I feel like I get to relive my childhood through her. I cant wait till she is older and can really get excited about everything. I cant wait to experience all her firsts like bike riding and swimming and hopscotch and fireworks and trick or treating and Christmas and the list just goes on and on! We have gone to the zoo twice now, I probably have not been to the zoo since I was in Junior High, and it is so fun as an adult to really be able to appreciate how amazing the animals are. Anyway we went with our new friends Parker and Jen and Kelly. Jen is my good friend/roomate Katie's cousin and she just so happens to live down the street so that has been really nice! Anyway here are just a few snaps from the day, obviously all the excitement wore them out :)
© Blogger template 'Photoblog II' by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008
Back to TOP