August 26, 2015 by Stephanie

George-12 Months

I had no idea what was in store when I became a mother a year ago.

I still remember all the emotions leading up to the day-the shock, the excitement, the fear, the love. George has been an unpredictable surprise in our life since we found out about him. And his entrance into the world was anything but normal. It seems like it was just yesterday the doctor was telling me we were having this baby today, and here we are a year later with a little boy that you would never know was a month early and spent some time in the NICU.

I just can’t believe how fast it went.

But here we are, on his first birthday.

I feel so lucky to be his mom and to guide him as he grows. (As daunting as it may seem some days…) We have all changed so much in the last 12 months.

His sweet face just makes my heart explode every day.

Weight: He is somewhere around 24 lbs. (I will update his height and weight next week when he has his 1 year check up.)

Health: His teeth fully broke through this month, so we have 6 teeth (four on top and two on bottom). He has had a runny nose for the last week and has been all over the place with sleep, so I wonder if another is coming. He had a weird rash one night too that we think was due to teething. Little man also got his first black eye this month thanks to trying to stand in the bath tub. It was awful. Honestly though, I am surprised that he doesn’t have more bruises with the amount of falling that is occurring. He wants to go every where and climb everything but still doesn’t have the stability to do so. So there have been some bumps and tears.

Diet: He still has a love affair with his food, so much so that he tries to rub it into his belly like it is lotion. He only has two 6oz formula bottles a day (morning and right before bed). At his one year check up, we will talk over how to do that transition away from formula because he still seems like he needs it. He has three traditional meals a day, and several snacks throughout. His favorite foods are blueberries, bananas, beans, pasta, and oatmeal. Anything covered in cheese or tomato sauce is a win. We do have to be strategic on the order of food we give him. If we give him carbs before fruits or veggies, he won’t eat anything else. Also if he sees us with carbs and he still only has fruit, he will just protest and refuse to eat. So he usually starts eating his fruits while we are cooking dinner to avoid it. I have started trying to teach him how to scoop and spear food, but he always tries to turn the spoon like a baton which makes the food fall off on the floor. He doesn’t spit up as much, but we still have some days where his whole bottle comes back up. Now that he has more teeth we have been giving him different textures and things that need more chewing to see how he does. Some things are still off limits because of the choking hazard, but for the most part he eats what we eat.

Clothes: He is wearing 9 month clothes and some 9-12 month. We have gotten a lot of comments lately about him being huge, but he still can’t wear 12 month clothes consistently, so he must be average if not smaller.

Sleeping: For the most part, he is sleeping from 7:30/8pm until 5am, give or take some minutes. We have had some glorious days where he has slept until 6:30. And we have also had some not so hot days where he thinks 4am is an appropriate time to get up. When George sleeps, he is a roamer. He never stays in the same place when he sleeps; he rolls over every inch of that crib. He does go down pretty easy. If he doesn’t fall asleep right when I put him down, usually he just talks himself to sleep within a few minutes. He still is taking two naps a day. Until we see a big affect on his night time sleep, we will keep this up!

Likes: Food is still the closest to his heart. He loves to be moving. He does not like to be sitting anymore. He will work himself into a standing position if he can. He loves to carry things around. He mostly carries books around, but there are some toys he likes to carry. He also loves carrying his food tray around the kitchen. He will pull it off his high chair and carry it around like it is a briefcase. He loves books. His favorites are the “That’s Not My” collection from Usborne. These are a great touch and feel book. I also like that they are board books, so really they are only destroyed when he tries to eat them. We are going to double his collection for his birthday. They are the greatest books for his age! And they fit perfectly in our diaper bag so we always have one. He is really fond of remotes and knows how to turn things on. I think it is more he knows which buttons light up, then knowing that it turns on the telly. If you saw my Instagram, you will notice that George loves the Macarena. I don’t know why I started doing this a few weeks ago; I think we were just playing one day and in my awkward baby talking moments it just came out of my head. It is one of his favorite things now, so we just roll with it. He laughs so ridiculously hard when we do it, and I laugh because a baby doing the Macarena is the best. He also loves drumming on the toilet seat. It is his thing before he gets in the bathtub to bang on the seat and try to flush the toilet. Whatever floats your boat bud. He also loves to try to sneak the dog food into his mouth. He has almost gotten away with it a couple times. I have had to dig out dog food out of his mouth. He is quick! He also love to try to eat the acorns off the deck. He is going to be really good at “I Spy.” He loves his cousin Ava. Watching her be silly is one of his favorite things.

Dislikes: (Apparently Dad’s finger puppet shows…) He is not liking hearing “no.” He still is not fond of the car. Hopefully our 5 hour drive to Iowa on Friday goes smoothly…He does not like it when we take things like remotes and tennis shoes from him. He HATES getting dressed and diaper changes. It is a wrestling match. It may take me awhile, but I always win.

Milestones: His walking is getting really good. You can tell he is trying to run too, because he does this weird hop step when he is trying to walk to fast. He has started pointing. I am not sure he is purposely pointing at a specific thing but he does point his finger. It is so cute! He went to the zoo and the lake for the first time. He seemed uninterested in the animals, so maybe next summer we will see more from him. He also was NOT a fan of the lake water, and was super happy to just stay on the boat. We are going to try a pool for the first time this weekend, so hopefully it is not all bodies of water that he hates.

Quirks: He is oh so sassy. He is Mr. Independent and loves to explore despite what may be safe. He is fitting “Curious George” to a T. He has this grunt that makes him sound like a gurgling goat. He pretty much needs to be holding something at all times, whether that is a toy or my glasses, whatever he can get those little chunky fingers around with his death grip.

We parents are: doing well. We have been busy with house stuff. School started up this week, and Tom is officially on the road by himself so it has been busy work wise as well. Tom has been on days this month so it has been really nice to be on the same schedule for once. We are getting some great family time in. We also finally got our living room furniture so we can actually hang out comfortably which is life changing. Also we are constantly being tested because George is in this discovery stage and wants to push his limits. He also doesn’t really understand no, so our patience is being pushed.

The dogs are: doing great. They are loving their yard. We are also able to leave them in the basement while we are gone, which is such a godsend. They have windows and a sofa and lots of space to circle around, and I don’t have to worry about them getting into any of our nice stuff upstairs. They are also loving on George a lot. George feeds them regularly so they obviously love that. (He tries to find them when we are at restaurants, and will bend over in his chair trying to find Crosby’s head.) George loves to crawl over them too. I have caught him snuggling up on them when he is super tired too.

George, we just love you so much. You have changed our lives in ways we just couldn’t comprehend, and we just love you for it. You have a tremendously large personality that we can’t wait to see you develop even more in the upcoming year.

Happy birthday my stinker-man!

I have so many pictures to share to celebrate his first year that we have taken over the last couple weeks.

What are your bets on how George reacted to cake when we let him loose on it?

August 13, 2015 by Stephanie

Ready or Not

This time last year I was put on bedrest in preparation for George’s arrival.

Now in two weeks, George will no longer be a baby.

What the heck? How is he a year old?

While I am trying not to get emotional about the fact that this year just flew by, there are moments where I am just overcome with tears of sadness, joy, fear…all of it.

But the joy is getting to celebrate this cutie: the life he has lived so far and what is yet to come for him.

And I think that is what birthdays are all about.

I am one of those people that started planning his party once he was born. (And yes I already have his 2nd birthday planned in my head.) It’s just the creative planner in me that I just gets so excited about ideas! Judge me if you will. I will be over here enjoying the hotdogs at my kid’s birthday.

Luckily my sister-in-law is a party planner, and we jumped on the party planning bus together. She is helping bring life to some of the ideas. We have had a lot of fun coming up with things for his…(ready for it)

Baseball Themed Party!

I am sure there are no surprises there.

Birthdays are a big deal for me, and I want my kids to feel special and surrounded by the people they love on their day.

So we are starting this first one off with a bang.

Really, it is going to seem a little ridiculous to everyone but us what we have in store for this birthday. What can I say, his Auntie Em loves him very much, and it is a bonus that she is pretty much a walking Pinterest board. Also, I just want to do all the ideas.

We are making a lot of the things for the party, or I found things on super sale throughout the year so honestly the cost has been pretty low considering all that we have planned. The nice thing about having a party theme picked early is that I can watch for good deals and not have to spend so much the last minute. We are keeping in mind that there are a lot of other littles coming to the party that need things to do besides watching George Hulk Smash that cake. Our family LOVES to get together, so we want this to be a fun afternoon for everyone. And many of the decorations will be used in his room later on as well. Double usage-I am in.

Plus I need things to take pictures of, and a big birthday seems to fit that bill.

I can’t wait to share everything with you all. It should be a good time.

The first thing I will share with you are the invitations I made. I searched for months for the perfect layout for his invitation. I knew what I wanted, but I could not find anything that was cheap. It was ridiculous what people would pay for invitations.

So I just gave up and made them myself in Publisher. ALL the invitations and envelopes cost me a whopping $5 at Walmart. Deal.

I am pretty happy with the way that it turned out for having no design skills whatsoever.

I am so excited to watch George become his own little self, and I cannot believe that he is almost one. I am going to be that mom that makes birthdays an extravaganza. It can be that one day of the year that he is truly spoiled beyond what he could ever imagine. We only live through this life once, why not have lots of cake?

Fun fact, Tom’s family has this field named in their honor in his hometown. So we took all these pictures there. I thought it was a cute personal touch for our family. The only problem was that it was awkwardly high, and George just wanted to eat the ball instead of look at me. He also had so much fun playing in the dirt and would not stay still for most of the shots I wanted on the diamond, but we made it work. And I saw that my future will be full of baths to clean up a mud-caked George.

Do you go all out for birthdays? Do you like themed parties? Would you like to make a bet on how George will react to cake?

July 26, 2015 by Stephanie

George-11 Months

I am trying to come to terms with the fact that in a month George will be one. What the heck?

These pictures are going to be a little different because I attempted to do it by myself which was a horrible idea. Every time I would get him settled he would try to face dive off the rocker, so I had to improvise.

Weight: Little stinker is 21.8 pounds. He looks like a little boy now. I just can’t handle how big he is, and neither can my hips or arms.

Health: This has been a pretty good month health wise. He is teething so that has been a little rough. He does not have a fever or an ear infection like he did with his first two teeth. With these new FOUR, he hasn’t been sleeping the best and is really clingy. But other than that, he has been good!

Diet: This kid can pack the food away. I don’t know how he is eating the quantity that he eats. It’s really astounding. We get him his own kid’s meal now when we eat out, and he eats the whole thing. He is still at only three (4-6oz) formula bottles a day (morning, before afternoon nap, and right before bed), but we will be cutting the mid-day one here soon. He has three traditional meals a day, and several snacks throughout. His favorite foods are blueberries, bananas, pasta, and oatmeal. We have fully transitioned him to a sippy cup. When we moved, I packed all the baby bottles up! Ironically too, we have seen a little less spit up with moving to the sippies, but there are still days that he throws the whole thing back up. He drinks water and apple juice occasionally throughout the day as well.

Clothes: He is wearing 6-9 month and 9 month clothes. He is in size 3 diapers. I officially organized all his clothes that he can’t wear into tubs to put down in storage.

Sleeping: Sleep has been an anomaly this month. Teething is hard. We had one tooth break through this week, but there are three others you can see right under the surface, so poor thing has to be hurting. Naps have been hit or miss. He usually has one good nap a day, and the other one is kind of a crapshoot depending on the day. We have had to rock him to sleep a lot more this month, but even then he will scream like a bandshee when you first put him in his crib. He just doesn’t want to be alone. He also throws his stuffed animals out of the crib and then gets mad that he has nothing to snuggle with, so again screams his head off. For the most part, he is sleeping from 7:30/8pm until 5am, give or take some minutes. He has started scratching himself when he sleeps, so he always looks like he got attacked by a cat.

Likes: Food is still the closest to his heart. Now that we have all wood floors and more open space, he is loving his Jeep walker. He can whip it around pretty fast. He loves to dig in his laundry basket and throw all the clothes out. He also loves the dog bones and plastic hangers. He loves to be tickled. He loves being outside watching the dogs run. He also loves to feed the dogs and thinks it is really funny. He loves snaps, buttons, buckles…they are all interesting.

Dislikes: He is not liking hearing “no.” He is not fond of being in his carseat, which is super since we have a longer commute now.

Milestones: Well the big one is obviously that he started walking just a week ago!! He does this shuffle that is just too darn adorable.We aren’t talking in human language yet, but he apparently has his own language he likes to yammer on with.

Quirks: He has started banging his hands on the table. When we pick him up from the sitter’s, he just gets so excited and starts squealing and crawling as fast as he can to get to you.When we ask for a high five he pulls our hand over his own face. He also likes to put his pacy in our mouths. He thinks it is a fun game.

We parents are: tired. This has been a very little sleeping month with George’s teething and the move. But we are excited to be in our new house and watch George flourish here. Another thing, why did no one tell me about these awful baby hairs that would take over my head? I hardly ever have a good hair day because these crazy wisps of hair are every where and wont stay down partly due to humidity and partly due to the nature of baby hairs. I need them to get control of themselves.

The dogs are: LOVING the new house. They just love to be in our yard and RUN. We also have some great windows that they are just having the time of their life watching out of. Things are going to be getting a little more interesting around here with all three of them walking around now. We all took a tumble the other day in the yard because the dogs have no breaks, and George has no balance (and mom was not fast enough). I am loving watching them grow together.

You can see him developing his own personality. He is going to be a firecracker that is for sure. For the most part, he is really really happy (except when he isn’t getting is way.)

My heart is just so full from being his mom.

June 26, 2015 by Stephanie

George-10 Months

Seriously? 10 months?

Weight: 19 lbs and 4 oz which is the 40th percentile. Height is 27.75 inches which is the 20th percentile. His head is 47 inches which is the 93%. Considering everything but his head was under the 11th percentile at 6 months, he definitely grew this month to catch up to his peers! Always be bulking…His head is just huge. Big brains we hope!

Health: He has been pretty healthy this month. We have been battling some pretty awful diaper rash, and we cannot seem to find something that helps cure it. (We have tried coconut oil, bourdreaux’s butt paste, and baby powder.) He has been a little raspy and snotty this week so there may be another tooth coming soon since this is what proceeded the last two. We are still only at 2 teeth. He is still spitting up after he has formula. He doesn’t do it with anything else, just that dang formula. (He did it with breastmilk too.) Our doctor thinks he is just a happy spitter, and he will eventually grow out of it. He doesn’t seem to be effected by it; it just dribbles out 5-10 minutes after he has finished a bottle. And it doesn’t matter if he has 2 oz or 6, so it is not a matter of being full. It’s obnoxious, not happy.

Diet: He eats what we eat. We have dubbed him Carbisaurusrex. He eats pretty much anything in sight. His hanger issues have gotten so bad that we have to hide food as we are preparing it or he gets a fruit/veggie pre-dinner while we are cooking. And forget him seeing a bottle without it being in his hands-tantrum galore. Then you have to ignore him as he pitches a fit when meal-time is over. It’s hard to keep track of all the new things that he has eaten now, but he is basically eating like an adult. People think I am kidding, but he eats as much as I do at meals. He can pack that food away. There hasn’t been anything this month that he hasn’t liked. He was a BIG fan of Red Lobster. All the other patrons got a dinner and a show from George’s eating antics. He is down to only three (4-6oz) formula bottles a day (morning, before afternoon nap, and right before bed). He has three traditional meals a day, and several snacks throughout. We are also transitioning him to a sippy cup with water and milk.

Clothes: He is wearing 6 month and 6-9 month clothes. Some are getting a little snug so I may be digging out the 9 month stuff here in the upcoming week. He is in size 3 diapers. For as much food as he is eating, I am really surprised he hasn’t had to move up clothes faster.

Sleeping: He is still doing fairly well with sleeping through the night. We put him down at 7:30, and I would say 90% of the time he is asleep within 5 minutes of being laid down. Then he stays asleep until 5ish am, even on the weekends. He does NOT want to sleep in, unlike his parents. And normally during the week he is my alarm clock instead of the mechanical one I have set for 5:40. He still is napping pretty well twice a day, although one is typically much longer than the other. You can definitely tell when he is getting tired; he starts rubbing his eyes. And when I am singing him his nighttime songs he has to stick his hands in my mouth. Then he giggles when I sing long notes as he is trying to hold my tongue. I guess it is his new bedtime game because he doesn’t really do that any other time that I am singing with him.

Likes: Food is still pretty much his favorite. He loves his new walker and trying to make it light up. He loves to stand and try to climb on things. He loves his little play mirror. He loves to dig in his laundry basket. I may have to hide it in the closet he loves it so much. His singing books are really fun for him. He loves to get his teeth brush. I think it tickles him, so he just giggles the whole time.

Dislikes: Diaper changes. It’s like a wrestling match trying to get a diaper off and on. I am surprised we don’t have poop smeared everywhere. He also tried to dive off the changing table the other day, little wiggle monster. He hates seeing food that is not his. At Miss Brenda’s, he does not like his sippy cup to be empty. He throws it across the floor when it’s empty. Generally, he does not like it when he doesn’t get his way so hearing no is not his favorite thing. (He may have gotten a little anger streak from him parents.)

Milestones: At the beginning of the month he was flip-flop crawling, but two weeks ago he actually started crawling. And he hasn’t stopped moving since. He can fully bring himself to a standing position too. He can’t stand completely without holding on to something, but he is making a lot of efforts to do so. So I think solo standing is going to happen here very quickly. You can tell he wants to so badly. Also seeing him standing in his crib on the monitor has to be one of the most terrifying things. He isn’t talking yet, but he yells at you and sings. He is also throwing temper tantrums, so his cognitive level is rising. We aren’t using the pacy too much now. Most days he only has it when he goes down for his bedtime. I don’t even remember the last time Brenda has used it with him during the day. She is much more hard core than we are, and we use it more on the weekend because we are softies at this point. We do take a pacy still with us when we are out of the house just in case he throws a fit, but generally at home he doesn’t have it until bedtime. Unless we are taking pictures…

Quirks: He pants like a dog when he is trying really hard to stand. When he sees other people, he will bury his head in my shoulder like he is trying to hide. He has figured out how to turn on the radio and is pulling all the books off the shelves. Needless to say, he likes to change the landscape of his room.

We parents are: pretty great. I am losing hair due to George’s pulling it all out. We are actually having to parent George now that he is more mobile. I think I say, “No” or “Stop” more than any other word in my vocabulary. We are trying to teach him there are many things he can’t do yet…Tom’s schedule has been pretty great this month, so I feel like we have gotten more time together.

The dogs are: sooo sweet and patient with George. His relationship with them has changed dramatically since he can crawl and climb. He is all over them ALL THE TIME. Crosby just sits there and takes the abuse, even the innocent ball pinch…Grace tries to make out with him hoping for some food/spit up remnants in those baby folds. George also tried to eat their dog food yesterday, and is very made that we would not let him. They share the dinner we give George which I think has solidified their BF status. George thinks it is funny to feed them his food. (But then he gets mad at us when there is no food on his plate.) The dogs have done a really good job leaving George’s toys alone, even though George now thinks the dog bones are his toys.

In two months, we will have a ONE YEAR OLD! I have his birthday already planned out. We just have to make a few things and then wait for the day. I am already so excited to see it all come together. But I also want to freeze time because there is no way I am actually ready for that.

June 16, 2015 by Stephanie

How Do I Get George To Sit For Pictures?

A lot of Luck.

I have had a lot of people ask me recently how I get George to pose for things like this.

Or to sit still to do this.

In all honesty, most of it really is luck along with some timing.

Overtime, I have learned the sweet spots in the day to photograph him. Right after his morning nap is really the best time for me to take his picture, especially if I am by myself. He is much more cooperative right after his nap. If Tom is helping me, I can do other times of the day because he’s able to wrangle George while I just stay behind the camera. Generally though, I try to stick to right after he wakes up. For George, that is when he is the most smiley and eager to be my model.

I have tried to do it right after he eats, but he usually is still mad that the meal is over. He is also a happy spitter (doctor’s words not mine). So if I do it after he eats, usually I am cleaning up more food spit than I am taking pictures.

George is also pretty expressive, so I really don’t have to work him too much to get some sort of face from him. It doesn’t hurt that he is the cutest baby alive. Just saying.

There are a few things I have on hand to help me get the money shot:

a toy that lights up or rattles (to get his attention on me instead of who knows where)
a burp cloth (because he likes to regurgitate and drool…a lot)
a pacy (up until recently most of his shoots ended with a pacy)

I also try to set up everything while George is napping so I can literally just set him up and go for it. I have most of my shoots with him down to a science and can get them done in 15-20 minutes.

I also have the setting on to take continuous photos. It’s probably the biggest reason why I am able to catch faces like this.

And in all honesty, I take hundreds of photos (most of the time it can be anywhere between 300-600 images) each time I get the camera out. It can be a lot to sift through, but it offers more of a guarantee that I will get a picture that I want. But then there are times when the bloopers are more fun.

I also have learned when to say no to a shoot or end one early even though I have it all planned out. I can usually read George’s mood within a matter of minutes, and I know if he will be good or not. (Although, I love a good crying picture.)

I also have to lock the dogs out of the room I am doing pictures in because they either end up in the shot or are much better at getting George’s attention than I am.

Every picture I take is not perfect. There have even been a couple shoots where I didn’t think any of them were show quality, and Tom had to talk me off of my artist ledge that I was unworthy of doing this. But I think that is part of the reason I get my camera out every week: to learn. I feel like I have really improved on my photography just because I get it out at least once a week to make George my model for even a brief amount of time.