Thursday, December 2, 2010
New Business!
I'm going to be hand dyeing flat diapers and selling them in an etsy shop called Pretty Baby Bottoms! I'll be getting my first shipment of diapers in today and I'm going to start dyeing them while V sleeps. I'm so excited! Also in my shop I'm selling allspice anklets (and necklaces down the line here). Allspice anklets are GREAT for teething babies. V wears one all the time and she cut her first tooth on Sunday without any of us noticing any change in her mood. She was her normal happy self!
Allspice contains tannin which tightens up gums and helps teeth pop through faster. It also relieves irritability and sleeplessness related to teething. I've noticed a huge difference in V and how she acts during the day when she wears allspice. I'm so happy with it! It also reduces drooling, which is WONDERFUL in the winter when babies get those horrible dribble rashes on their faces.
I'm selling two kinds of anklets, a beaded kind and a classic unbeaded kind. I'm so excited about this! I'll be sure to post more when I put the diapers up!
As for V and what she's been up to, she's been playing TONS. She's becoming more and more comfortable with strangers, which is a huge help during the holidays when she's being passed around from family member to family member. She got to meet her Great Aunt Marlene and her Great Uncle Larry on Sunday (along with some of her cousins), and that was so wonderful! We also spent Thanksgiving with my Aunt Lois and Uncle Dan and my cousins Kelly and her husband and kids and Danielle, my other cousin. We all had such a great time, I am so thankful that we have family here.
Before Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, we went to a city about 2 hours away to see friends of ours that moved to Nashville right before we moved to where we are now. She is expecting their first child (a girl! Yay!) in April and they've never met V, so it was a long overdue visit. It was so nice to see friends from back home! I'm getting so excited to meet their new little one, I want to spoil that little girl like crazy! I've already got a huge list of stuff to knit her and things I want to make. Good thing she won't be here for a few more months, I've got a lot to do!
With that, I'll let you all go. I'm going to be up to my elbows in dye pretty soon!
Here is just a cute pic I took of V's hand. It's amazing how tiny it is! xoxo
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
More videos!
Monday, November 22, 2010
Hey everyone!
On the topic of eating, I think that Vada is going through a growth spurt. She's been getting up at night a bit more and when she eats, SHE EATS! I'm hoping that it'll end soon, it gets pretty exhausting! The pediatrician said she's ready for solids, but I'm not ready yet, haha! She'll get her first solid (avocado) when we're home visiting next month so that everyone can see her reaction (not on video, in real life!).
Vada has gotten a new toy recently, it's a Vulli Sophie the Giraffe Teether. She loves this thing!
It's the best toy for teething, we love it here!
I guess that's it for now, I'm going to try to write in here more often (like, 3-4 times a week). Look forward to more pictures and information on our growing girl!
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
No excuses...
As for milestones, she's been very interested in making eye contact, flailing her arms around, and grabbing (and chewing) on her feet. I'm pretty sure her favorite time of the day is when we have "Naked Baby Time" at 6:45pm. That's when Chris takes her in the bedroom and they play on the bed while she's totally naked (this child LOVES having her diaper off, the more nude the better!). She spends the next 15 minutes laughing at her daddy's silly antics and trying to shove her feet in her mouth. I usually let the two of them have this time to themselves, it's nice for them to have a special time together. At 7 she gets in the tub, then we tag team the getting ready for bed routine and she's usually out for the night by 8.
She's been really amazing at sleeping lately! She wakes up once or twice a night now, which is a huuuuge difference from the 4-6 times she was getting up. I feel so refreshed! I think it's really helping her mood, too. She seems to be easier to deal with during the day, and she's getting a lot better at taking naps, though she isn't taking them in her crib. That's partly (ok...mostly) my fault, she falls asleep in my arms and I can't tear myself away from her to put her in her crib. I just want to hold her and snuggle her. She's totally over cuddling while she's awake, so I take it where I can get it!
In sad news, someone stole Chris' bike over the weekend. We've learned a valuable (and expensive!) lesson on locking everything up. We're hopeful that we'll be able to replace it after the new year, it's a huge bummer to have it gone.
With that, I'll leave you with the last video I made, which I should have posted, but forgot. It's Vada's 17 and 18 week video. I've got her 19 and 20 week video in the makings right now, I've just been so busy with my holiday knitting that I haven't had a chance to put it together, but I will have it soon!
I love you all and hope you're all well. XOXO
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Oh my goodness!
She had her 4 month well baby check up today. She got two shots and an oral vaccine. She cried and screamed, but was easily comforted. She's 15lbs 5oz (90% for weight), 23" (10% for length) and 16" head (50%). That means she's short and fat, haha! She has abnormal thigh fat rolls, which points at hip dysplasia, so we'll be going in for an ultrasound sometime soon. The Dr. said that she doesn't think she has it, but it's just to make sure, we're not worried.
I realized I never posted her 14 week video, so here is that, along with the newest video, a combined 15 and 16 week video. I hope you enjoy! I'll try to do a larger update soon! Love you all!
Monday, September 27, 2010
They grow too fast...
It's been over a month since we came to visit...boy how time flies. Since we got back home, Vada's been hitting all kinds of milestones. It's really amazing to watch.
She started teething a couple of weeks ago, which means that now she's got a little drool factory installed in her mouth. We never had bibs on that girl until she started teething, and now we go through 4 to 5 every day! It's pretty crazy how much drool comes out of such a little mouth. Despite this, she's been really well-behaved. I was expecting to be completely miserable just because she was going to be so miserable, but we've gotten lucky. She has been sleeping just fine and so far hasn't had too many sad days.
She has also been working on finding her hands and getting more control over them in the past week or so. The first time she consciously grabbed something was in the bath last week. I was pouring water on her belly out of a little green pitcher. She was focusing all of her energy into reaching the spout on that pitcher with her left hand. She reached out and grabbed it with her little fingers and Cindy and I just looked at each other in awe thinking "Did she really just do that?!" Since that moment we've been trying to get her to grab all sorts of stuff, and she's getting really good at it now. I think she has total control over her left hand so far, and is getting better with her right hand every day. We might have a little southpaw in our midst!
One other big thing she's doing lately is trying out new noises. She's been experimenting with the high-pitched squeal recently, and I fear for my ear drums. She's got quite the range! Be thankful we haven't been able to capture that one on video yet ;)
Speaking of video, the new one is going to show off the past couple of weeks. We've been having a hard time remembering the camera lately, but we'll get back on the ball, I promise! You'll be able to see how good she's getting with her hands, and her ability to focus on things. I think Mom also snuck a clip of her and I playing WoW together in there somewhere =p She likes watching the other people run around the city, and in and out of the Auction House where I spend most of my time lately. The older video shows off some of her first giggles...we both cried like wee lasses the first time we got to hear that beautiful noise. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
I've been doing this 10-hour shift thing at work for over a month now and I think I've gotten pretty well used to it at this point. I really miss out on lots of time with her during the week, but I enjoy having the nice long weekends with her. I'm still working out whether or not it's worth missing the extra couple of hours on the rest of the days. It's also really hard to go back to work after that 4-day weekend. I think I'll stick with it for awhile, but I'm considering going for either a 3-day weekend every weekend, or maybe just going back to 8 hour days and going in earlier...what do you guys think? Leave me a comment to read! Just click on that link at the end of the post marked as "(X) comments" to get started with that. "X" will just show how many comments other people have left so far.
Cindy's finally been able to get back into knitting again! Vada is now cool with just sitting next to her or in her lap while Cindy knits. Cindy Claus is hard at work making some really neat Christmas gifts for folks, and she's also been working on some cute socks/leggings for Vada to wear as it gets colder down here. Apparently I'll be getting a new hat as well. This time with ear flaps so I don't lose my ears while riding in to work!
I'm not sure if I'll have the tassels or not, how do you feel about them?
Also a quick mention for everyone -- we'll be coming home for Christmas this year! I should be able to get almost a whole two weeks off from work, and we'll be up in da U.P. the whole time. I can't wait to spend time with all of you. Being away last Christmas was terribly depressing for both of us. I think we'll avoid that from now on =D
Love you all!
Friday, September 10, 2010
Long time no write
So I was trying to think of fun things that we could do as a family that would either be low cost or free. I decided to look into geocaching. That is when you get a list of clues, decipher them, and find a cache. It could contain items for trade, little surprises, or just a list where you write down that you found it. The clues are always coordinates. So the one we did today had 4 stages, the first was this:
Stage 1: “Ocean of Life”
Located at N42 44.824 W084 32.799
You may able to answer few questions from inside of your vehicle.
Complete the following equations and convert the letters to the number they are in the alphabet, (i.e.: a-1, b-2 up to z-26)
A = How many clown fish in the mural
B = Sum of the value of the letters in who did paint mural?
C = (A + B)
Coordinates for Part 2: N42 44.(A x 430) W84 32. (A + 4.5)*C
So once we got the new coordinates, we went there. And so on. It finally led us to a small film canister stuck in a tree that had a list to write down your name and the date that you found it. It was a lot of fun and took some team work. It was also in Old Town, which is an awesome part of Lansing that is getting redone. There are a bunch of art galleries and interesting shops over there. Once we were done with the cache, we stopped in a few. We got a ton of comments on Vada, who was rocking an adorable pony tail and polka-dot onsie.
The busy day really took it out of her, and she was ready for bed at 7:30. She's been asleep in her crib now for about an hour (it's almost 9:30pm). I'll be hitting the hay here pretty soon, I need to catch up on my sleep!
Hopefully Chris will write an entry in here sometime, I'm sure you're all looking forward to hearing from him again (I know I am, I'd like to be able to READ an entry instead of always writing them, hehe!) That's it for me, hope you're all well! I'll be editing the new vlog tomorrow. It's going to be short, but we hope everyone will still like it! Love you all!
Just for giggles, here is Vada yesterday with her pony tail in, and her after we took it out. What a stinkin' cutie!
Monday, September 6, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Vlog #3
Friday, August 20, 2010
Still alive!
Monday, August 16, 2010
Vada Gets Jabbed
We got in a little early for our appointment (a wizard did it) and got all of her measurements done. Here's the stats:
Weight: 10 lbs 11oz
Height: 22in
Head: 15 1/4 in circumference
She's right in the 50th percentile for head size and weight, and down in the 30th for the height. At least I don't have to worry about her playing basketball!
Then came the big wait. Cindy and I were waiting in the room for about 20 minutes just dreading that doctor coming in. Vada was very tired from being up a early this morning, so she was having a hard time. I took her for some Daddy time before the big mean doctor showed up.
Vada, of course, fell asleep. She was oblivious to the torture she was about to endure. Turns out the doctor doesn't even do the vaccination; the poor nurses get stuck doing the job! We finished our checkup, and went back to waiting. I think this time we waited only 5 minutes, but it felt more like 30.
Finally the fateful moment. Our nurse came back carrying three syringes; two with needles and one for oral delivery. We had the oral vaccine first, which is a Rotavirus vaccine. Vada's a champ with oral medication already so that one was easy. The needles were another story.
If you have kids, you know what I'm going to say here. If you don't, let me tell you something. There is no worse moment than the first time you see your child in pain. I was standing there holding her head trying to make her feel safe when the nurse began the injections. Her face went from calm to angry and scared in a flash - she turned beet red and started bawling. It was TERRIBLE. I hope it's not like this every time :( Thankfully the nurse didn't mess around and got those two shots over with quick. She had a Hepatitis B booster shot as well as a Pneumococcal Conjugate vaccine. This vaccine is to protect against blood infections, pneumonia, and meningitis.
After the nurse was done, we stayed in the room for a bit so Cindy could nurse bb Vada. She was still a little upset, but once she started nursing she chilled right out. I am so thankful that Cindy is able to provide that comfort for Vada...pacifiers and bottles just don't compare. My little girl went from inconsolable to serene in about 5 minutes. Thanks Mama!
Back at home, little Vadacakes took a good 2-hour nap to recoup from the trauma. I hung out with her for once she got up, and Cindy got these cutie pictures of her :)
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Vlog #2!
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Big Post Full of Stuff
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
No pictures, just words.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
First Video Blog!
Friday, August 6, 2010
A new friend!
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
New pictures!
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Sorry everyone!
I know we've been saying that we will have a blog up and post a lot about the baby and how we're doing, but surprise surprise, a newborn is a lot of work.