reading-watching-buying-trying

Today I am happy to be guest blogging for Elizabeth over at Teaching Sam & Scout!

If you have an excellent memory, you may recall that this isn't my first rodeo blogging for E. Back in 2012, I shared my Letter to New Moms on her old blog, E, Myself, and I. That post was the way that many of you found me in the first place, so it's fun getting to go back for another (much lighter, fluffier) go-round! 

Anyway, if you're dying to know about what I've been reading, watching, buying, and trying lately (or you want to see pictures of a two-month-old sweet baby girl...)- head over to E's blog and check it (me?) out!

gone country

We had such a fantastic holiday weekend. I try not to do a lot of "weekend play-by-play"-type posts, but sometimes it just can't be avoided. I mean, this kind of weekend is what I dreamed of for a whole lotta years. I don't want to forget it.

Since my Nana and Poppie were coming all the way from Texas, my sister (+ husband + baby) came up for the weekend, too. My brother ( + wife + baby) already live in Augusta, so they were around a lot, too. So it was basically like one big long family party all weekend.

We started the party off right- with a Saturday morning hot tub date for the ladies.

You may recall a similar scene at Christmas time (only indoors and with a lot more bubbles)...I guess our interests haven't changed too much! Laney and Millie were thrilled with the hot tub (which we kept at 99 degrees- as in, not very hot) and the chance to swim and play with toys! 

So what if I like to skinny dip? What's it to you?

My brother and his family recently moved out to the country, about 25 minutes away from where they were living. We spent Saturday afternoon out there, introducing Millie to country living. Please imagine a banjo playing while you look at these pictures.

We took a 'buggy ride' down to visit the horse and the chickens. I spent the entire ride grappling with my own hypocrisy regarding car seats and safety and how I just carried my baby in my lap in an open-air vehicle (going about 8 miles an hour across a field, but still). 

Millie was pretty impressed by the chickens. Or maybe just intrigued. Or bored. It's kinda hard to say, really, but at least she didn't cry.

Look, I even got close to them!! Look at me, two feet away from a bird. Country Erika is much braver than regular Erika. Also, cages help.

Later that evening we went fishing. I haven't been fishing in probably 20 years. Matt has never caught a fish!! Not surprisingly, Millie hasn't done much fishing yet, either. In conclusion, we were all really jazzed to head to the pond (on yet another buggy).

While Matt baited up, Millie and I got eaten alive by mosquitoes and played on a blanket. And by "played on a blanket," I mean that she tried to eat all of my discarded (read: snotty) tissues (because buggies kick up dust and grass and allergies) and the bug spray container and completely ignored all of her actual toys. Babies.

No doubt due to my helpful tips, constant encouragement, and pleas to get a win for our family!!!!, Matt caught the first (and HIS first!) fish!

It was very exciting and emotional and Matt was surprisingly squeamish about touching the fish to get it off the line, so that was hilarious. Much to my brother and BIL's disappointment, Matt didn't fall for their claim that the universally-accepted traditional way to celebrate a first catch was to bite the fish's head off and eat it raw. He tossed it back in the pond instead. Oh well. It was still a win for our family.

Millie and Nana were a little wrapped up in each other and missed the whole thing. Nana does a mean "ride little horsey," it seems. Millie was a big fan.

My sister decided to show the boys how it was done and quickly caught two (or three? can't remember) in a row. Thatta girl.

And see my mom back there fishing with my niece's Barbie fishing pole? Yeah. She definitely caught a few using that bad boy!!

After awhile I decided to see if I still had my fishing mojo of the early 90s.

Turns out, I don't. Wah. I might have been the only person who didn't catch a fish. In my own defense, I would like to point out that I think that by the time I started fishing, all the fish had been caught/released and scared away.

Back at the house, we enjoyed some amazing BBQ my brother spent the entire day smoking. Not surprisingly, Millie was his biggest fan.

Not pictured: the moment(s) when she ran out of BBQ on her own plate and (despite having plenty of other foods to choose from) reached down to steal more pork off her cousin's high chair. And when Laney protested, Millie gave her The Look. It was glorious and hilarious and I don't know where she learned to mean mug like that over food...

It really was a perfect weekend. I am so thankful that Millie got to spend time with my grandparents (and her grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins) (and parents!!). I don't take for granted that we even had the opportunity- with a thousand miles and over ninety years separating them, I wasn't sure they'd ever have a chance to meet. What a blessing that it all worked out.

Four generations of the S family, no two people looking in the same direction. Seems about right. Seems about perfect.

party all week

It's been an ordinary (but lovely- ordinary doesn't always mean boring) week here. We work, we commute, we cook, we clean. We enjoy our sweet girl and try to make the most of every minute we have with her.

Like with a Tuesday night pool party in the driveway. Who says swimming is only for weekends? 

You see this face? This face likes to swim EVERY night.

We're trucking along with Whole30- today makes Day 22, so the end is nearly in sight.

Can't say I haven't been thinking about that day and about the glorious phase of 'reintroduction,' as they call it.

Since I don't see an official day to reintroduce gum, I'm going to assume it's day 1! Wooo!

 On Wednesday night we celebrated my niece's first birthday! Millie was a big fan of the party hats. And also, not shockingly, the cupcakes.

Trust me, I know exactly what to do with food.

We didn't actually let her eat one...I just wanted to see if she knew what to do when presented with a frosting-and-sprinkle-covered item. Eliana basically just stared at her cupcake for a few minutes and looked bewildered. But then, she doesn't eat many finger foods, so how was she supposed to know to pick it up and shove it in her mouth? Millie, on the other hand, eats with her hands all day long. So I was pretty sure she would know exactly what to do with a cupcake. And I was right. Cupcake right in the face, BAM. I snatched it away (mean Mommy, I know), but she had several good licks of frosting before I could wipe off her hands and face, so she felt like it was a pretty good deal.

Obviously it would be awesome if there were pictures of this monumental moment, but I live in a constant state of "memory full; no space available for new pictures" on my phone, and it all happened too fast for me to have time to delete older pictures, so...no pictures. Waaaaah. My next phone is going to have one billion gigs of memory. Mark my words.

On Thursday Millie got to have water day at school! Not surprisingly, she was a big fan.

I showed those babies how we DO it!!

I was pretty jealous of her teachers for getting to experience that much cuteness in one morning. But then I became un-jealous when I calculated how much work it was to suit up, sunscreen, and swim diaper all those babies...and then keep them all happy and supervised...and then undo it all twenty minutes later when they were done. Yeah. Hats off to them.

The transition to the crib is going okay, still. She's better and better through the night- she doesn't wake up or need help hardly at all in the middle of the night now. But the going to bed part is definitely not as smooth as it used to be in the Rock n Play. I think that back then, even if she wasn't overly exhausted, once we laid her down...well, she may lay there for awhile with her eyes open, or babble, but there just wasn't much she could do, swaddled and stuck in a small enclosure like that. So she'd fall asleep pretty fast. But now, if she's not absolutely exhausted? Well...FREEEEEDOMMMM!! She can roll around, hop up, throw her pacis on the ground, jump...I mean, the world is her oyster. She takes advantage. And it's the same in the morning. Even in the RnP, she would often start stirring earlier than we were ready for her to get up- 6:30 or so. But we'd put her paci back in, leave her alone, and she really had nothing else to do but fall back asleep. But now, when she wakes up early...well, it's the same as at night. She just gets herself on up for the party.

So anyway- all of that is to say that she's not getting as much sleep as normal. And then her days are filled with swimming and sun and birthday parties, and sometimes it just all adds up to this:

Zzzzzzzz.....

Sometimes you just can't stay awake to finish your breathing treatment. I had turned around to work on some packing- two seconds later I look at her and she's toppled over asleep!! It was the cutest and most pitiful thing ever! Don't worry- I picked her up and cuddled her while she slept and finished her treatment. Then I put her straight in the bed and for once (this week, anyway) there was just stillness and sleep. Sweet girl didn't even have it in her to give us a good roll. 

We are visiting my family this weekend- we are looking forward to spending time with Millie's cousins, doing some swimming and fishing, and most importantly, seeing my grandparents! They are coming all the way from Texas and this will be Millie's first time to meet her great-grands! I'm so excited- they had been waiting and hoping and praying for her right along with the rest of us, and I am so thankful that they will finally get to meet her.

I hope you have a wonderful long weekend (well, if you're American. Sorry everyone else.)!

P.S. Today it occurred to me that I graduated from college TEN YEARS AGO, so now I feel particularly ancient. That is all.

big.

It seems like my Little Bit all but grew up this weekend.

She's basically a big girl now. Waaaaah.

I mean, I've seen it coming, lately. I leave her sitting on the floor in the living room and two minutes later find that she's pulled up on the couch.

Well, that's because I'm a big girl.

 And when we play in her room, she chooses complicated toys like puzzles and can manipulate the little pegs well enough to pull all of the pieces off (so that she can bang them together and chew on them, obviously).

Like I said- I'm a BIG GIRL, Mommy!!

 And my personal favorite aspect of Big Girl-ness...she can destroy her room in about the amount of time it takes me to put on my mascara. Yay.

But I really needed to see EVERYTHING IN THE TOY BIN AT ONCE!!

 In addition to doing smart Big Girl things, she's also like...big. As in, has arguably been too big for her Rock 'n Play for probably about 5 months, but since nobody gave her the memo, she had no plans to quit rockin' and playin'.

Try and separate me from my RnP. Just try. I dare you.

And ya know...my mama didn't raise no fool. Millie sleeps 11 glorious, silent hours in that puppy. Right next to my bed. It's the greatest thing on earth. Where's the motivation to mix it up?

I'll tell you where. NOWHERE. I'm not one to mess with a good thing.

Butttttt a few weeks ago we finally gave up on the swaddle. Yes, she was nine months old. More importantly, she was 21 pounds and 29.75 inches, and evidently our swaddles weren't built to handle that much baby. She basically busted out the bottom of them all and that was that. We transitioned her (pretty seamlessly, I must say- she didn't seem to care much at all) to a glorious aden + anais sleep sack (that is so soft I wish I had one for myself), and it's been good- but now that she has her arms free, all of a sudden her RnP situation started seeming a little precarious. As in, she could clearly reach up and climb out if she got a notion to do so. And sometimes it seemed like she might be getting that notion. Soooo...

.......

.......

on Friday night, we put her in her crib in her very own room to sleep for the night. Waaaaaaaaaah. 

She's been sleeping in her crib (both at home and at school) for naps for months now, so she's not unaccustomed to the idea...but apparently sleeping there in the dark, at night, for a lot of hours must be different than for a 45-minute nap. Because uhhh...yeah. Not so much on the sleeping. More like...welcome to Millie's Acrobatics Hour! Watch as she flips, twirls, climbs, and leaps!

It was super special. She would sleep for about an hour at a time, then take a break for gymnastics. Then lose her paci and need parental assistance. Then sleep, then roll over and be too foggy to remember how to roll back, then need parental assistance. Then sleep, then roll over, then sit up, then be confused about what is happening, then need parental assistance. Then lose her paci. Then do a back flip. It was all very entertaining, so it's a good thing we started this process on a weekend. Last night was a little more peaceful (the acrobatics didn't really start up til closer til morning), so I'm hoping that third time's a charm and that tonight she'll be back to normal Millie sleeping habits. 

But if not, that's cool. I kinda missed out on all the 'being up all night with a newborn' stuff (I know, wah wah, poor me. Trust me, I'm not complaining.), so if I get to make up for some of it now, I'm down with that. 

So anyway. Big girl is now officially in her crib, and I've washed the RnP and am ready to hand it off to a friend expecting twins. And I may or may not have shed a tear when I folded it up for the last time. You served us well, RnP. May you have the same magical effect on newborn twins.

So in other giant news...well, may as well change All the Things at once, right? So on Friday night while Millie was preparing for Cirque du Soleil, Matt and I (okay, mostly Matt) were preparing to blow her mind by assembling and installing her Big Girl Car Seat!!

Uhhh...my mind is not really blown. Try harder next time.

I am thankful for friends that point out things like hey, she needs to move to a new seat when she's 30 pounds OR 30 INCHES. That was good to know, since I only knew about (or remembered, I guess) the 30 pounds part...and she was 29.75 inches two weeks ago. Oops!! So we lickety-split researched and ordered her Big Girl Seat and Friday night got it all ready to go!

We went with the Diono Ranier because it seems like basically the most badass car seat on earth. Its frame is SOLID STEEL. Which means it is not exactly lightweight, but I don't really care. I need a car seat to keep her from being crushed to death, not to be comfortable for me to carry around. Also, she can rear face until she is FIFTY POUNDS. Yes. Fifty. FIVE ZERO. And we plan to be the freaks that make her stay rear facing until she reaches that limit, so...ya know, until middle school. And then it can be forward facing/booster until she is 120 pounds. College! So in conclusion, I'm trying to think of some really cool things I can let her do when she's a kid/teenager that will make up for what a horrible lame mom I am going to be about car safety. Like I will totally let her get whatever piercings she wants. She can have the coolest piercings ever. Or like...purple hair. Or no hair. Or whatever. I feel like I'm going to have to really give a lot to make up for how lame I plan to be about the car seat, but ya know...whatever. The whole purpose of mothers is to be really embarrassing to their kids, right? I'm just planning ahead about how I want to do it. Picking my battles early.

At any rate, her first few days in the new seat have been nice and uneventful. I don't think she's nearly as excited about it as she should be, but what can ya do? Maybe she can somehow sense that this is the beginning of a twelve-year relationship (how long it is til it expires), so she's starting things off cautiously. I guess that's okay.

I guess those are all of the huge milestones she hit this weekend. In addition to just...ya know, being big...she got to spend some time with her cousins!! On Saturday afternoon the girls went for a swim in Millie's new pool and it was pretty much the cutest thing ever.

First, you need to see an old picture of them from August. This will help you appreciate their current pictures.

Awww...look at little fetus-Millie!!!! So itty!!

Eliana is 2.5 months older than Millie.

Today, the tables have turned. Millie is the reigning heavyweight champion of this duo...

POOOOL PARRRRTAAAYYYYY!!!

If I get hungry, I could eat Eliana for a snack!!

Actually, she couldn't. Eliana is one quick mover, and an extremely proficient splasher. They had fun playing side-by-side (and back-to-back) in the pool, splashing and trying to stand up and grabbing handfuls of grass, sticks, and dirt into the pool. They definitely agreed that a dirty pool was a more fun pool!

After the girls wore themselves out swimming, we left the wet babies with our husbands and the three sisters-in-law went to watch Pitch Perfect 2!! I go to the movies basically never...maybe once a year, if that...but I was really dying to see PP2, particularly with people who would deeply appreciate it (as in...not my husband). I'm so glad Jess and Amy wanted to go with me- it was as amazing as I had hoped it would be. Totally lived up to the first movie. And I would like to see it again, so if you need a buddy...lemme know.

And that was pretty much our weekend!! Little Bit grew up way too much, slept way too little, and oh- she ate BBQ (pulled pork) for the first time. And as you may have guessed by her physique, she's kinda go big or go home about food she likes...and this definitely counted as go big. I bet she ate at least an average adult male-sized portion. It was touching, really. She just loved it so much- and she was so tired- and she would rub her eyes and look so sleepy and then SHOVE MORE IN HER MOUTH and then look so tired but then SEE THE BBQ AND SMILE SO MUCH AND SHOVE IT IN HER FACE...it just blessed my little southern-food-loving heart. So anyway. At least one new thing this weekend impressed her!