Sanity at 5-months...

JOE turned 5-months on Sunday.  She now sleeps through the night most nights. She is one active baby and VERY inquisitive.
She now rolls over from front to back and from back to front. She army crawls to get to something if she really wants it. I guess real crawling is next. I can't believe how fast the time is FLYING by! I can still remember the day I had her...clear as day!

I don't really have any stats for her because her next appointment isn't until early May at 6-months.

We love her to bits and like I always tell her when I get home from work each day, I love her from the earth to the moon and back!

Sole food...

For the last week/week and half, JOE has been steadily eating more and more and more.
At her 4-month appointment, her pediatrician said to start her on solids sometime between 4 and 6-months. I didn't want to start her on solids because I wanted her exclusively on breastmilk until 6-months. However, JOE's system has a mind of its own.
JOE started getting hungrier and hungrier. I finally called the nurse's line yesterday just to see if perhaps something was up and was told that she likely needs more calories. I have really enjoyed being her exclusive source of food and now I have to introduce solids. It was a bitter/sweet day for me. Bitter as in I am losing my place as her sole food provider and sweet as in my baby is growing!

So, I decided her first meal would be peas. I broke out the new Cuisinart processor we got as a wedding gift that was still in its box (yes, we were married almost 2-years ago and still have unopened wedding presents:-)).
J washed all the parts while I steamed up the peas. I put it in the food processor and added some breastmilk to thin it out a bit. Then we got JOE ready for her first solid meal.

She was more interested in the spoon.

Here we go!

Hmmm...I am not sure what that was but it wasn't half bad.

Again? Ummm...how about I take the spoon and do it myself?

I like the spoon...its quite yummy...Not sure about this green stuff so I am going to force it out with my tongue.

Oh well...she made it through relatively OK. I was expecting the worse but she did GREAT! Barely had a half a teaspoon though. Attempt #2 tonight.

On another unrelated and completely silly note, my car hit 150k miles on Sunday on our way to Church. She's been a reliable friend for the last 10-years and I hope she keeps up the good work!

Hope your week is going well!

Beautiful weekend and nursery pics

It was a pretty good weekend. J, JOE managed to get a lot done. 

On Saturday after J left for class, JOE and I hung out at home for a bit before bundling up and heading out for a walk. JOE really enjoyed the walk. She smiled at everyone and was a little chatterbox. Thankfully, the weather warmed up while we were walking so we were able to stay out for a bit longer. 

After we got home, we got cleaned up and headed to Michaels to get some items to complete JOE's nursery and also to frame the mirror I have. 

I thought it'd be OK to take JOE out of her carseat and just wear her in the baby bjorn while shopping. Hmmm...not the best idea. She got really fussy after about 20-minutes of browsing. I had to quickly pay and leave the store. No fun! Lesson learned though. She's not ready for that yet. I think she still needs her stroller and/or her carseat. Oh well!

Sunday, we made it to Church somewhat on-time (as in before the sermon :-)) and then we headed to the in-laws. J's aunt and godmother will be making JOE's baby blessing (similar to a baptism) gown using my wedding gown. I figured I won't be wearing it again and this was a good way to make use of the very AMPLE material from the dress. I will share pics after it is made. 

After Church, we came home and relaxed for a bit. We were planning on getting our patio done but after getting some estimates, we are going to wait until next year to get it done. Plus one of the guys who came out CREEPED ME OUT!!! He said "your daughter is very cute. Can I hold her?" Ummm...I don't know you from jack! Needless to say, even though every fiber in my body was screaming to run, I just said "ummm...no..." Hubby added "first time protective mom and all." Hubby said I handled it well :-).

So here are some pics of JOE's nursery. We are almost done! The window valence go up tonight and then it'll be done! I like the way everything turned out. I think JOE does too :-).

The room BEFORE transformation.

The room AFTER transformation.

I got the letters, stars and base board from Michaels. I sprayed them and used tacky glue to attach the letters to the board. Then put a ribbon on the back and hung it up on her door.

Total cost for all materials including taxes was $18. 

Total time spent was about 30-minutes.

I got vinyl wall decals from amazon.com.
Total cost for decals: $24
Total time spent putting it up: 1-hour (J had to help me put up the higher ones and JOE was quite fussy during the process)

I got these letters from amazon as well. I thought it was a good way for her to learn her ABCs. It is on the wall across from JOE's crib.
Total cost: $12.99
Total time spent putting them up: 20-minutes

I got 3-frames from Michaels. My goal was to make framed 3-D art to put on JOE's wall.

This frame is of her foot print card and bracelet from when she was born. Written on it are her stats...Date of Birth, Weight, Time of birth and length.
Cost for frame: $4.99 each
Time spent putting it together: Less than 10-minutes.

The toy chest was a gift from J's co-worker. The colors go so well with her nursery.

I framed 2-cards I received from my baby shower. I thought the cards were perfect to use so I kept them after my shower.
Cost for frame: $4.99 each
Time spent putting it together: 20-minutes total

Clearly, my 3-D framing skills is a work in progress but so far so good.

The last item are her window valence. They go up tonight.

J also scored a couple of pairs of sunglasses while we were out. Here she is feeling really cool :-).

Hope you had a nice weekend!

#ProjectMilf - Week 9 - Wild Card

This week's goal is to challenge ourselves with whatever we want to try and achieve towards our main goals this week.

I want to challenge myself to do at least 3-workouts between today and next week Thursday. Working out has been a challenge for me since having JOE because of my schedule. I get up at 4:30am to pump and then get ready for work. Oftentimes, I don't go to bed until well after 10pm/closer to 11pm so I am not getting enough sleep. This has me groggy most of the day. And since on most mornings, JOE is still sleeping when I leave for work, I want to spend as much time as I can with her after I get back home from work before she goes to bed.
All those things coupled with the fact that I am just outright tired after my workday is over means working out takes a backseat to everything else.

I have always loved working out though and I need to get back to doing this. We are supposed to have a good stretch of nice weather in the next few days so I am hoping that I can get some long walks in, do the Zumba Wii Fit and Zumba Wii Fitness core or Tae Bo to make up my 3-workouts. Wish me luck!

I'd love to see what everyone else is doing this week!

JOE Versus The Easter Bunny...

We had an awesome Easter especially because J didn't have class on Saturday. He is in grad school and has classes all day on Saturday. Thankfully, just 5-more Saturdays of that and then he'll be graduating. YAY!!! I for one am looking forward to getting my Saturdays back.

The plan was for us to have a photographer come to our home to take some pictures of us as a family, some of JOE and then of us in front of our home. Then we were going to jet off to the mall so JOE could get her picture taken with the Easter bunny.  Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans. 

On Saturday, we all hung out in bed for a bit and then went for a walk as a family. Or rather, J & I went for a walk while JOE slept in her stroller. After I got home, I changed and went to get my hair done. On my way home, I decided to get a dress for our pics. JOE slept shortly after I returned and I figured that was a good thing since we wanted her to be happy for the pics. I had to wake JOE up shortly before the photog got there to get her ready. I also fed her in hopes that that'll keep her happy. 

It was all downhill from there. JOE REFUSED to smile at the photographer. He tried EVERYTHING. Made faces, spoke in cartoon character voices. NOTHING. The photog has 2 daughters so he's accustomed to working with kids. But apparently, my little JOE was not having any of that. She just didn't want to be bothered. What was supposed to be a one hour session turned into a 2-hour session. 

By the time we were done, we went to the mall only to be told that even though the Easter bunny was there until 8pm, they took their last customer at 7pm. We got there at 7:10pm. So needless to say, JOE did not get to take a picture with the Easter bunny :-(. Oh well...she was sleeping anyways and I didn't feel like waking her up again to take pictures so perhaps it worked out for the best. So JOE 1, Easter Bunny 0.

I did manage to take some pics of JOE after we got home. You can't really see it but I put clips in her hair and yes, she was bib-less and binky-less for the photo shoot :-). 

Hope you had an awesome weekend!