A Month Away

The countdown has begun.  My baby will be 1 in a month.  I was sitting there thinking about it this weekend and about what we were doing one year ago.  I remember being very pregnant and wishing that this mysterious baby would should up sooner rather than later.  I was very impatient to meet this small person who kicked me hard and dug her toes in my ribs.  I was also very eager to be comfortable and be able to sleep again (hahaha).  It makes me a little sad to think that my baby isn't really going to be the baby anymore.  She looks more grown up every day and she keeps learning new things.  I really do love the stage that she is in right now though.  She's developed such a little personality and it is fun to watch her and play with her.  Little babies are fun to snuggle, but 11 month olds are much more fun to play with.
(My friend, Tina, took this picture.  Doesn't it make her look more grown up?)

Fiona is getting much better at walking.  Before if she stopped or slowed down she immediately fell.  It was like she stayed up because she was moving fast enough forward.  Now she is a little less wobbly and she will take a couple steps stop and grin at you and then take a couple more.  Her favorite game is walking back and worth between her music table and the couch.

This last month she had a babysitter at our house ( her Aunt Maura) for the first time.  Before she has always gone to Grandma's house.  I was worried about bedtime, but she went down easy without any screaming.  That is a major milestone.  Only within the last maybe 2 months has she really started to become easy to put to bed for me.  However, if I left her home with Nathan than she screamed at bedtime.  It's nice to know that we can actually go out occasionally and leave her with a sitter and she'll go to bed for them now.

 We're loving this stage and soaking up every second.  I know we'll blink and she'll be all grown up and won't even want to cuddle with her mama when she's sleepy.  I'm excited for her first birthday and sad all at the same time.

Happy 11 months Fiona!

Wordless Wednesday: Spaghetti Baby

 

The Solution to our Space Problem

Lately, I have been stressing out a little about where this new baby is going to sleep.  Granted, this won't be a problem for quite awhile.  I just like to be prepared.  I like to have a plan.  The new baby will sleep in our room in the bassinet for the first couple of months, but after that who knows.

We do technically have a 3 bedroom house, but the 3rd bedroom is the office/storage/dog kennel room.  So pretty much we've decided that Fiona and the baby will share a room.  However, this poses yet another problem since her room is pretty small.  How do we fit 2 cribs in her room?

The solution:

Cages!  I mean ... um, er ... bunk beds?

I know that I often jokingly refer to the crib as baby jail, but seriously this looks like a cell block for tiny prisoners.  Can't you just see them in their striped pjs with their little tin cups?  I would definitely feel like a prison warden tucking my kids into these things at night.

The crazy things people come up with.

Wordless Wednesday: Mommy's Helper

Gro Baby Bio Soakers

The Natural Baby Company is once again putting a new product in the hands of bloggers to test out.  This time it is their new Bio Soakers. 
Go here to check them out on their website: http://www.thenaturalbabyco.com/gro-baby-biodegradable-soaker-pads-p-745.html 

Gro Baby Biodegradable Soaker Pads replace the snap-in soaker that you use with your Gro Baby shell.  You can go back and read a little more about the regular Gro Baby diaper here.   The Biodegradable Soaker Pads are the perfect solution for traveling.  Instead of having to wash the soaker/insert you just throw it away.

So basically the Bio Soakers are a hybrid between a cloth diaper and a disposable.  However, you don't have to feel bad about theses sitting in landfills forever because they are biodegradable and compostable.
You also don't have to worry about your baby being exposed to all kinds of nasty chemicals because they are fragrance and dye free, plastic free, and chlorine free.  They are made with natural ingredients that aren't harmful to your baby.

I am very excited to try these out for myself.  It is always very tempting to switch to disposables when going on vacation.  This system would provide the convenience of a disposable, that is better for baby and the environment.  Gro Baby is giving away a Bio Soakers Intro Pack (value $34.95) to bloggers who help spread the word about their new product.

Cloth Diaper Swap Goodies!

I participated in cloth diaper swap hosted by Megan over at Newly Wed, Newly Bred.  I was pretty excited because this was my first blog swap.  I had a great time shopping for my swap partner.  I was also kind of nervous about picking out something that she would love.

Kim, the brilliant mama behind Rockin' Green Soap and GAD diapers had my name in the swap.  I was ecstatic to get my package in the mail.  Who doesn't love fluffy mail, especially when it say "fluffy mail" right on the side of the box?  This is what was in my box of goodies:

I got a bag of Pumpkin Spice Rockin' Green Detergent, a GAD diaper, and a hemp insert and doubler.  How awesome is that?!
I have been really wanting to try out a GAD diaper, but didn't have one yet.  It has a really trim fit and I love the side snaps.  I've also been wanting to try hemp, but didn't have any of those either, so this was a great swap gift.  Especially when you include a bag of Rockin' Green.  I am totally in love with this detergent.  It smells super yummy and it has eliminated some stink issues we were having.
All I can say is, Thank You, Kim!!!  And  thanks to Megan for hosting this awesome swap!!

Pumpkins are Yummy

I've been a total blog slacker the last week or so.  I had hoped to have a busy weekend and then have lots to blog about, but instead this happened.

Yes, that is snow and lots of it.  It was a pretty nice day outside on Friday, and we woke up Saturday morning to this.  It is not supposed to snow on October 10th.  That is way too early.  We had a trip to Valas' Pumpkin Patch with Nathan's work and some outdoor fall pictures scheduled.  As you can probably guess those things didn't happen.  We stayed snuggled up inside most of the weekend.

We did go over to our friends' house and carve pumpkins before the silly October snow.

 

Fiona's Daddy was happy to be on baby duty because he hates carving pumpkins.  He is not a fan of the pumpkin goo.

Fiona is not squeamish about gooey things though.  She dove right in and had a great time taking out the pumpkin guts (except for one small scare when we thought she got a seed in her mouth).

She even thought the pumpkins were quite tasty.  She kept licking them and trying to eat the pumpkin guts.

Looks like we might have to carve pumpkins again just because Fiona had such a great time.

Here are the finished products.

Blog Award

Chanda over at Rambles, Rants, and Raves gave me my first ever blog award.  Thanks Chanda!  I feel loved :)

The rules of the "One Lovely Blog Award" are:

Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link. Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

Now I get to pass it on to some other lovely bloggers.  Check out these very lovely blogs:

3 Little Ones

A New Leas on Life

Bellydance, Bagpipes, and My Boys

Better Days Ahead

Domestic Dork

Finding Joy in the Journey

Ingrid Liddle is kind of cute

Life Happens During Naptime

My Life with the Munchkin Man

Newly Wed, Newly Bred

Our Life ... One Step at a Time

Paisley and Pretties

Sanity Sold Separately

There's no snakes in New Zealand

Think Pink

Okay, so they aren't all newly discovered, but they are all lovely blogs.