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.

flower hair clips

I decided to make some flower hair clips to go with the pearl onesies I made for a friend.  First get some fake flowers of your choice.  Remove the center part by pulling.  The petal pieces will all come apart.  You will want to hot clue all of the separate petal layers together.

Cut out a circle of felt and draw a line of hot glue down it.  Clamp it in a hair clip.  Then cover the top with glue and attach to the back of the petals.

I turned the clip over and either glued a button in the middle or added beads.  To add beads, I made a puddle of hot glue in the center of the flower and poured beads into it.  I then lightly pressed them so that they would get down into the glue.

I was able to do each clip in like 5 min!  I love fast crafts.  There is something totally awesome about instant gratification and being able to finish a project during one of Em’s naps.  I made one clip to go with each of the pearl onesies, and one clip for Em.

Look at my cutie modeling her flower clip.