7 months

Weight: 17 lbs

Height: 26”

Mom isn’t afraid of using food to get a good picture :)

Emmie is starting to pack on the baby chub.  She is super ticklish.  She laughs so hard when I nuzzle into her tummy or when I I love her so much, and I continue to fall more and more in love with her each day. She has such a little personality.  She is a total momma’s girl.  She will hang on to you (typically she has a hand full of my hair when I hold her) and she will let you know what she wants.  She loves to be on the move and is curious about everything.  She LOVES food.  People say that you waste more food in the beginning than you get into their tummies… not with Em.  She will literally lick the bowl clean.

Challenges:

I still hate that I miss Emmie’s happiest time of the day.  There are some days that Emmie comes home and she is cranky until I put her to bed.  I miss my baby. 

Busy weekends are hard as well.  Since I don’t get to see her much during the week I LOVE weekends spent at home with my baby.  It is hard because I am torn with wanting to spend time with friends and family and yet just wanting to spend days at home with my little girl.

Emmie just wants mom…. or Noi (Lan’s Mom… Vietnamese for Grandma)  Typically when I am holding Em, she won’t want to go to anyone else.  However this month when I was standing next to Lan’s mom, Em wanted to go to her.  In my head I know it is a good thing that she loves her grandma so much, however, it did hurt a little.  I love that my baby is head over heals in love with me.  I love that I make her feel safe and happy, especially since she spends the majority of her awake time away from me during the week.   

Em’s new tricks and triumphs and favorites:

Em now eats baby food.  She loves both veggies and fruit.  Thankfully she still loves nursing as well.  She probably has solids one or two times a day. 

We have a crawler!  She spent a long time doing what I call her beached whale crawl.  She went from doing her baby yoga to doing her beached whale crawl, to doing a real crawl. 

Each new triumph is so exciting, but it is also a little sad because our little girl is growing up. 

Sophie is still her favorite toy, however, she is expanding her toy favorites.  She also loves dollies, rattles, and loves loves loves sitting in front of her musical walker and bang on all of the toys. 

Things that I love:

I love my goofy girl.  I love that she is ticklish.  I love how proud she is riding on her daddy’s shoulders.  I love that she has favorite toys and makes decisions as to what she likes.  I love that she gives hugs and holds on tight.  I love that when she wants to be held and you try to put her down, she hangs on for dear life.  You can definitely feel that she loves you.  She loves typing on keyboards. I love that she is old enough to play games with.  Lan and I play “baby jacked” where we steal Emmie from each other and then chase each other around the house.  Em thinks it is hilarious. 

Things I have learned:
Keep favorite treats on hand for when you want your baby to sit for a picture without crying.  The few happy pictures I got of her were because of food :)  I recommend the freeze dried yogurt drops.

I have also learned that there are never enough diapers.  When first starting cloth diapers I was determined to do so with as few diapers as possible.  I thought it was absolutely ridiculous that some people had stashes with 50 diapers in them. I now think differently.  With going back to work, the more diapers the better.  Sometimes it takes me a few days to get diapers washed, stuffed and back in drawers again.  Many times the diapers never get back in the drawers before they are used again.  I tend to go through all of my diapers and then just barely have new ones washed again when I need them.  Diapers!…. need more diapers!  And it helps that they are just so gosh darn cute.

Emmie at the pumpkin patch with her best friend Brooklynn.

6 months

I know I say this every month, but I can’t believe how much my sweet baby has grown.  She is starting to loose some of her baby qualities and take up some little girl qualities.  I was looking though her newborn cloths the other day and it made me want to cry.  I have absolutely loved each stage, but I also desperately miss her tinny squishyness. 

Weight: 15 lbs

Height: 26 in

Challenges:
Going back to work.  Even though I love my job, I hate it.  If I have to work, this is a good one.  I enjoy teaching and the kids…. I just absolutely HATE being away from Em.  I miss her so much when I am at work.  Thankfully I am busy the whole day so it goes fast.  It is such a bummer though that only get a little bit of time with my baby each day.  A good portion of that time is actually spent when she is cranky.  Her happiest time of the day, I am at work :/
When she is asleep I am busy trying to get housework, laundry, and work done.  I'm back to the days when showering is a luxury.  It is a bummer to not have time to do things that I enjoy.  By the time I sit on the couch… all I want to do is sit.  I don’t really have the energy to craft.
Em’s new tricks and triumphs:
She can now sit unassisted!  I still spot her because we have wood floors…. but she is good enough that if we were on carpet I wouldn’t need to do that. 
She is getting so close to crawling.  She is definitely on the move.  She can army crawl across the floor…. just a tad slowly.
She has started sucking on her toes.  It is so cute!
Em loves drinking water from a cup.  She gets so excited and tries to hold the cup herself.  Sometimes she doesn’t spill a drop and sometimes it gets all over.
She is slowly packing on chub.  She still has a skinny waist, but has rolls on her thighs.
Apparently she loves the bottle now and even holds it all by herself.
Things that I love:
I love how interactive she is.  I love that she is a total mommas girl.  She loves me so much and with going back to work I need that reassurance.  I love how serious she takes blowing raspberries…. she works hart at those things (see last two pics).  I love how easy she is.  I love that she is ticklish.  I love her fluffy cloth butt.  I have a minor cloth addiction now :)… and opposite from that I love her cute tinny nakie butt.  I love how she laughs hysterically when you blow on her tummy.
Things I have learned:
Working sucks.  pumping suck.  being a stay at home mom is easier than a working mom (sorry but in my case, this is true).  As a working mom I don’t get to spend time with my baby and I still need to get just as much done with far less time to do it.
I am really working on being content in the place where I am.  I am grateful for a job that I love.  I am grateful that I can financially contribute to my family to make our lives more comfortable.  I am grateful that her grandparents watch her…. and they do it for free.  I am grateful that she gets to spend time with her cousin while I am at work.  I am grateful that I have support.  I am grateful that Lan drops her off (did it today and it was heartbreaking walking out the door as she was reaching for me and fussing).  I am grateful that I get to pick her up.  I am grateful for the time I do get to spend with her…. I know not all babies make it.
This girl is constantly changing.  Now I know Em is ready to be laid down in bed when she stops nursing and starts wiggling.  I miss when she would let me nurse her to sleep, but am happy that she has good sleep habits.  There is now way I want to rock her to sleep when she is 5.  I'm glad she can fall asleep on her own…. but I do miss the snuggles.

5 months

This month Em is a total momma’s girl.  When Lan is holding her and she sees me, she immediately wants me.  When she is crying, she wants me to comfort her.  She loves her momma.  I have loved being home with her this month.  My house was actually clean!  I got to spend all day with my sweet girl playing, going on walks, visiting with friends, and just hanging out. 

We took our first family vacation to Mt. Hermon with my parents, brother, sister in law and nephew.  My sister also joined us half way though the week.  It was an 8 hour car ride there, and Em did amazing.  We were exhausted at the end of every day but had so much fun.  We were able to take an open air train ride to the board walk, go in a rowboat, and swim.  The week went way too fast.

Weight: 14 lbs

Length: 25.5 in

challenges:

It is a lot more difficult to go places like restaurants or grocery shopping.  When I used to go out, Em would fall asleep in the car, or I could put her to sleep in her car seat and stroller.  She has become a lot more picky about where she sleeps (preferring her crib) and it is hard for her to sleep while out and about.  I tend to do my grocery shopping with her in one arm and pushing the cart with the other. 

Em’s new tricks and triumphs:

  She is a TOTAL thumb sucker now.  She is constantly sucking her thumb.  Lan and I have started taking her thumb out of her mouth (unless she is upset and using it to sooth).  I need to get better about working with her an a pacifier.  We found one that she likes, but she just doesn’t know how to keep it in her mouth.

She is one step closer to crawling.  She is able to get her butt up in the air.

She can also roll to get a toy that she wants.  She moves all over her crib at night.  If you put her down in one spot, you are almost guaranteed that she will be in a different spot when you go check on her.

She is very interested in food.  She looks at us like “aren’t you going to share with me?”  We sometimes put a little water on a spoon and she puts it in her mouth herself.  She also loves to drink small amounts of water out of a cup.  I am set on not introducing solids until 6 months…. but I am certain that she will do great when we do.

Things that I love:

She giggles like crazy when you kiss her tummy.  Em and I play a game where I kiss her on her cheek and she gives me a big open mouth kiss on my cheek.  We just keep going back and forth.  We also play a game where she sticks out her tongue and I try to grab it.

Lan and Em play peek a boo together.  Lan will put Em’s hands over his eyes and say “Where is Em, I can’t see her anywhere” then he will move her hands and say “There she is!”.  Em gets so excited.  It is the cutest thing to watch. 

Things I have learned:

You start to miss things that you didn’t think you would miss.  There have been weeks when she sleeps though the night, and then weeks where she doesn’t.  I know that once she consistently sleeps though the night I am going to miss those middle of the night snuggles. 

Another thing I have learned is that I would love to be a stay at home mom.  I wasn't board and felt like there were always things to do.  I loved that my house was clean.  I loved that I got to spend all day with my baby.  I loved that I had freedom and time to to crafts and blog.  Next month is going to be a big challenge.

Get the stink out of your towels

Yuck!  I hate getting out of the shower and drying off with a towel that smells like mildew.  Lately all of my towels smell, even right out of the dryer.  I decided to try and get the stink out instead of just buying new ones. 
Towels can start smelling from mildew and detergent build up.
I first washed my towels on hot with one cup of vinegar.  I then washed them again on hot with half a cup of baking soda.  You don’t add any detergent to either of the washes. 
Now my towels smell fresh and clean again!

wash your washing machine

Did you know that your washing machine needs to be washed?  I didn’t.  I noticed my towels started to stink even right out of the wash, so I started looking up a way to get the stink out.  It was recommended to first wash your washing machine.  I had noticed that my machine was a little stinky so I thought I would give it a try.  There are apparently three different methods.
Bleach: This kills bacteria and any leftover poop from washing poopy cloths or cloth diapers.  This also prevents slime and mold from building up.  All you do is wash an empty maximum load on hot and add two cups of bleach.
Vinegar: a green option.  Use regular distilled white vinegar to remove soap scum, grease, and odors.  Vinegar also kills mold.  Run an empty maximum load on warm and add half a gallon of vinegar.
Lemon Juice: It is supposed to remove rust and odor.  Add one cup of lemon juice to a hot wash on maximum water level.  Again make sure it is an empty load and let the whole wash cycle run.
I decided to do the bleach option… although next time I will probably use vinegar as it is nontoxic and I have been trying to cut down the toxins in our home.  It worked great.  My washer smells fresh and clean.

clean skinny vases

For a long time I have always been frustrated while trying to clean a skinny vase.  Well… never again.  I simply used a baby bottle brush and it worked perfectly.  Don’t worry, I used an old one, not one I currently use on my baby’s bottles.  So if you don’t have a little one, it is worth it to still go out and get one of the bottle brushes.

Taggie Blankie

I was at Target and saw those taggie blankies and was shocked that they cost like $10!  What a rip off.  I knew I would be able to make one fairly easily. 
First I cut out two squares of flannel and a bunch of strips of ribbon.
I laid the first flannel piece face up.  The ribbon strips I folded over and put the loop part facing the middle of the blankie with the ends coming off the edge of the fabric.  I laid the top fabric pretty sides together and would pin the ribbon in the middle.

Below you can see what the inside of the blanket looked like, and the whole blanket ready to sew.  wrong sides faced out and ends of ribbons sticking out.

I sewed all around the blanket leaving a small gap to turn the whole thing inside out.  Once I t was turned inside out, I sewed along the outside of the blankie and did a few quilting lines to keep the layers together.  Success!  it didn’t even cost me anything because I was able to use all scrap material and ribbon.

Emmie approved

4 months

This baby is such a happy baby.  I feel so blessed that I get to be her mom.  She is always happy.  Even when she is upset you can usually get a smile out of her.  She is so chill.  Everywhere we go everyone talks about how beautiful, happy, and chill she is. 

Weight: 13 lbs

Length: 25 in

challenges:

  Lately Em keeps flipping onto her tummy when she sleeps… and then gets upset.  Oy. Getting her to sleep has also been challenging.  She is beginning to not like being rocked to sleep at night, but wanting to be laid down, but then getting upset that she is laid down.  We have had to let her cry it out a bit… which is hard for me to do.

Em’s new tricks and triumphs:

Em started flipping from her back to her tummy.

She also slept through the night several times :) That made for one happy momma.

Well…. it is summer…. and that means it is hot.  After Em waking up drenched in sweat, we decided that it was time to stop swaddling.  The first night… was awful.  I think I only got a few hours of sleep.  After a few nights, she slept through the night unswaddled the whole night! 

She also started sucking her thumb.  The way she does it is like a face palm to the face and she ends up scratching her face.

Em is beginning to be mobile.  She can spin in a circle on her play mat, use her arms to grab her mat and pull herself forward, and she has done several rolls in a row moving herself off of her play mat.

Things that I love:

I am loving being home this summer with my baby girl.  I haven’t been board for one minute.  I think I could definitely do this year round.

I love how happy and silly she is.  So many giggles!  I have loved every minute of being home with my baby girl this summer.

I love watching her lay in bed.  She is so cute!  Since we stopped swaddling her she has started sleeping on her side, and more recently she has started sleeping on her stomach.

We recently got Em a baby bath, and I love watching her splash in it.  She has such a great time kicking and laughing.

She has started giving kisses and loves getting kisses.  She kisses me by putting her open mouth on my cheek… and sometimes she starts sucking.  It is so cute.  She giggles so much when I give her kisses, especially on her tummy.  We have noticed that she is ticklish. 

Things I have learned:

I love being a stay at home mom.  It is awesome. I get to spend all day with baby girl.  When she is napping I actually have time to clean the house and do some crafts.  I have no idea how I am going to function when the school year starts again.  Right now baby girl is getting ready for bed at 7, and the thought of only spending a few hours a day with her makes me so sad.  I am definitely soaking up the summer while I can.