Five on Friday

Joining in on another link up!

~ ONE ~
I love our fur-babies to death. But it's a sad, sad day when you four month old is more well-behaved than the dogs. Good grief! Our pups need some major training. They're pretty good overall, but not so much when it matters most. Isn't that always the case? Ha!

~ TWO ~
I'm completely addicted to the Candy Crush game. If you play it too, then there's no more explanation needed. If you don't play it, enter at your own risk. You've been warned.

~ THREE ~
I know this is not the way I should be thinking about life, but when things are going sooo good, do you ever worry about when/if the other shoe is going to drop and something bad is bound to happen to bring you back to reality? I know that's a super pessimistic way to think, and that I should trust the Big Man Upstairs that His plan is best. Just something that crosses my mind every once in a while (read also: I'm a tad anxious at times for no good reason).

~ FOUR ~
We're probably going to be buying a new car in the early part of 2014. We're thinking it's either between the new Ford Explorer or the GMC Acadia. Anyone have either, and do you have an opinion? What you like or don't like? Basically we want a luxury SUV with a third row seat.

~ FIVE ~
We're getting Preslie's three month photos taken on Monday. They're more like her four month photos since I slacked on getting them scheduled on time. Hopefully she cooperates seeing as they are scheduled during her bedtime! So there's that.

Have a great weekend, my friends!

Midweek Randoms

 I thought I'd go ahead and join Megan's Midweek Randoms link up today!

• I ended up getting the new position for work, a pay raise and an additional week of maternity leave. Can't get much better than that! I'm super excited and so relieved that worked itself all out.

• I'm obsessed with gummy bears. Actually, I don't think the word 'obsessed' quite describes it. I'd venture to say I'm more addicted to gummy bears. My mom discovered that Safeway has these five pound bags. Those have been my weakness. I hate to admit this, but I can finish a five pound bag of gummy bears in less than a week. Don't judge.

• Last weekend we took a trip down to Los Angeles for a wedding. It was a long drive, but Preslie did awesome and she was the talk of the wedding. Everyone kept saying how they couldn't believe what a good baby she was. [Insert proud parent moment here.]

• Even though I weigh less now than I did before I got pregnant, a lot of my clothes just don't fit like they used to. It's true what they say about pregnancy changing your body. All worth it though.

• I just realized that our two year wedding anniversary is coming up in a couple weeks. I have no clue what we're going to do to celebrate. Last year Kevin pretty much planned everything so I think it's my turn for planning this year.

• Raise your hand if you've been keeping up with the Royal Baby news. *hand raised* I'm not quite as obsessed about it as some, but it is pretty exciting. I always wonder what's going through Kate's mind. She definitely seems really grounded, but everything must be so over the top when it comes to the attention that's on her now.

• I've come to the conclusion that the only way I'm going to keep up with blogging is if I do some link ups. Gives me a purpose and topics (albeit random topics) to post about.

Hope you all are enjoying your week!

Our Life Lately

Has been busy!

I need to jot down some things so I can at least have record of what's been going on.

1.) This past Saturday I threw Kevin a birthday party. He turns 30 on the 17th, so I threw him a beer tasting "Thirsty Thirty" party. It was a huge success! I'm hoping to get a post up with all the details.

2.) Last week Preslie and I made an unexpected trip down to my parents house for a few days because my mom fell off a ladder, broke her ribs and punctured her lung. It was pretty scary. She was in the hospital for a few days with a chest tube in. My brother and I were able to help my dad out around the house, grocery shop, cook and clean. Preslie just did what she does best: looked cute and gave lots of grins to keep Grammy's spirits up. My mom has been back home for about a week and is slowly healing.

3.) Kevin's had some changes in his job recently, but thankfully all for the better! He's doing so good and I'm so proud of him. He also came home with the good news today that he got a raise! Thank you Sweet Six-Pound-Seven-Ounce Baby Jesus. It's not easy on the checkbook to be on maternity leave this long so this came at the best time.

4.) Speaking of maternity leave, I have about three weeks left with Miss P. I hate that July has been so busy because it makes the days go by faster and I'd like for the days to just drag out about two months longer. I've had a nice long maternity leave, but I don't think any mother is quite ready to go back to work.

5.) Speaking of work (you like my original segues here? ha!), I have an interview tomorrow. It's for a position that I previously had before this position I have now. They pretty much opened the position for me specifically, so I'm not nervous about the interview. Plus, it's with my old boss so we all know each other. God really has His hand in everything, because with this new position, it will provide a lot more flexibility when it comes to Preslie and my hours. The other position? Notsomuch. So it's pretty much ideal.

6.) This means that Preslie will be going to the sitters for the first time tomorrow for almost the whole day while I have lunch with a co-worker and then have my interview. I'm nervous about leaving her. I just want her to be good and take her nap for Miss Kara and I hope she doesn't miss me. I also hope I don't cry tomorrow. I'm not normally a crier, so fingers crossed that stays true.

7.) We have a trip planned for Los Angeles this week because Kevin is a groomsman in his good friend's wedding. We'll be taking the Babe with us and staying in a hotel for a few days. I'm hoping everything goes smoothly as I'll be on baby duty pretty much the whole time. *send wine, please*

8.) Our backyard is finally looking like a real backyard! My plan is to post some before and after photos. We'll see if that ever happens. Kevin has been working all Spring and Summer on the backyard and it really shows.

9.) Stella got sprayed by a skunk. IN OUR GARAGE! It was horrible. Poor thing thought she did something wrong and was in trouble because we were kind of freaking out about her not getting into the house and hosing her down ASAP. I found some skunk stuff at the pet store and it got the job done and she doesn't smell so horrible now. We aired the garage out a whole bunch and the stench has dissipated some.

10.) Preslie is currently talking herself to sleep. I swear that girl is something else. She carries on her own little conversation with herself before drifting off to dreamland.

11.) Oh! You can Follow my blog with Bloglovin if you'd like. I'm reading all the blogs I follow through that site.

Have a great day!

Preslie Kay at Three Months

Days behind yet again. Mom of the year over here! ;)

Preslie turned three months old on Tuesday, July 2. It was like she literally went to bed the night of July 2nd and when she woke up the next morning she was a completely different baby! Talking so much and so much more active.

Measurement

Weight: According to our scale she's weighing 14.5 pounds! Lets say 'plus or minus' until we know for sure next month when she sees the pedi.

Appearance 

• Whatever I said before about her hair being thick? I take back. She is losing it and is almost bald! Poor thing. I was a bald, bald baby and was hoping she'd have lots of hair. Keeping my fingers crossed it'll grow back soon.
• Still has beautiful, blue eyes.

• Her legs seem longer to me.
• She's getting a tan since she's been spending a lot of time in the pool lately! 

 

 Sizes

• She's kind of out-growing 0-3 month clothes, 3 month clothes fit her perfect but tops are beginning to get a little short on her (the belly may have something to do with that!), and I've been putting her in some 3-6 months clothes. She wears 6 month pants/shorts.

 The Belly!

• She can finally wear her Newborn shoes but she tends to kick them off in about 2.3 seconds, so we wear them mostly for pictures.

• Still in size 1 diapers.

Nicknames
We have quite the slew of nicknames for this little one.

• Squirt
• Squirt-squirt
• Squirty
• Preslie Girl
• Pretty Girl
• Mommies
• Sweet Girl
• Gummy Bear
• Some people call her "Pres," but I'm not a huge fan of that one.

Personality

• She is a good, good baby! I would venture to say she might cry once a day for maybe a minute and that's it. She's just very content the majority of the time.

• She's giving us a lot of smiles. No giggles yet and I can't wait until that happens.
• She's starting to realize who "strangers" are and who her "people" are. If someone she doesn't know well or recognize comes up to her to say hi, her bottom lip sticks out like she's going to cry. It takes her a few minutes to warm up and then she's good. We take her to a lot of places with a lot of people so she kind of has no choice but to get used to it.
• "Talking" all. the. time! She's started talking herself to sleep. She just goes on and on. 

Likes

• Her hands. They are in her mouth constantly!

• TV; we don't sit her in front of it all day, but she'll watch it if it's on and she can see it.
• Her lovey

• Sophie the Giraffe

• Swimmin'!

• Baths
• She still has a blast on her play mat and in her bouncy seat.
• Milkies
• Her Papa

 

• Her thumb! She's officially a thumb-sucker now. I don't mind it at all.

• She's noticing the dogs now. She'll follow them with her eyes when they walk by her.
• I think she's going to be left-handed because she'll grab things with her left hand way more than with her right. She sucks her right thumb though, so we'll see.

Dislikes

• Teething; it's officially started. She doesn't fuss too much for now, but I can tell it's uncomfortable for her. She prefers Sophie, her hands or our fingers to chew on.

• Being hot; it was over 100 degrees the other week and girlfriend did not like being hot. She spent a lot of time in just her diaper. 
• She's getting better at tummy time, but still not a favorite of hers.

Eating

• She eats 5.5 ounces of breast milk every 3 - 3.5 hours: 7am, 10:30am, 2pm, 5pm and 8pm.
• Still nurses one to two times a day. We haven't been nursing some days when it's been too hot. She'll just fuss and we both sweat way too much.
• My supply is still doing great! I may have to cut back a little because we're running out of room in our deep freezer.

Sleeping

• Little Miss no longer sleeps in a swaddle! I started her out with no swaddle during nap times. Once she slept through her naps with no swaddle, then I started her at bed time. It took two nights for her to get the hang of it, but she is a fan of being free now!

 That's a paci under her cheek ;)

• Since she has free range of her hands while sleeping, that's when the thumb-sucking started. I do love it because it soothes her and she can put herself back to sleep if she wakes up in the middle of the night. She usually only sucks her thumb when she's tired.
• She takes two, two-hour naps and one, one-hour nap each day, and a cat nap in the evening.
• She's sleeping completely through the night; 8pm-7 or 7:30am. It's wonderful!
• We don't have to do crying it out much at all anymore. She knows the drill and puts herself to sleep when we put her down. Of course, there are times she doesn't want to, but she'll stop crying in about five minutes.

New Experiences

• She hangs out in her pool floaty now and she loves having her Papa zoom her all around the pool. 
• She spent time in the backyard while we would work in the yard.

• She got stung by a baby wasp. I know. :( Like I said, mom of the year over here! Luckily, it was little but I was scared. She got stung in the crease of her elbow, on her left arm and then her left eye and nostril started to get red and flare up. It went away after about 20 minutes, but needless to say I'm going to ask the pedi about an Epi Pen just to have on hand just in case. Scary!
• My BFF, Maygan, and her little one, Madison, came and visited us! We all had so much fun together!!! 

I'm pretty bummed I didn't get better photos of Madison and Preslie together. Also, this was one of those 100 degree days, so please excuse Preslie's rolly-ness. Ha!

 

• She helped celebrate Papa's first Father's Day.

• Grammy and Grampy came and visited over Father's Day weekend.
• We had a play date with Madison and sweet Jackson. Preslie and Jackson may just become boyfriend and girlfriend in the distant future. He is so adorable!

 Preslie was more concerned with sleeping. And I promise she's the youngest baby in this photo.

• We also had a play date with our friend Lucas! They were big fans of one another!

• She sat in her high chair and was so good! I wanted to cry because she looked so grown up. She sat in it the whole time Kevin and I ate dinner. I figure if we start her now at the table that maybe it'll get easier along the way with table manners once she's older. *wishful thinking*

• She went on a sushi date with Mommy and Papa and was so good!

We seriously can't get enough of our sweet girl!!!

Monday Mashup

1. Pretty sure this will be my first "normal" post which does not have to do with the baby. *gasp!*

2. I desperately need the following: a haircut, to go to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned, and a pedicure. My hair is the longest it's ever been, my teeth feel manky and my toes...let's not even go there.

3. It was 105 DEGREES this past Friday and Saturday. I can't even begin to explain to you how hot that is. I didn't leave the house. I stayed cool indoors.

4. I have this weird thing, I guess you could call it a habit, where I think the TV and lights in a room make the room hotter. I don't think I'm imagining it. So needless to say I was trying to keep TVs and lights to a minimum on Friday and Saturday.

5. This weekend we're having cement poured in our backyard for a large patio. I took a before picture and can't wait to get the patio all set up with our rugs, table and chairs and plants to get an after photo.

6. Mom and Dad are coming for this Father's Day weekend so Dad can help Kevin frame out the patio, and to also celebrate Father's Day, of course.

7. I'm mostly looking forward to having Mom here to watch the Babe so I can run some errands on my own for once!

8. Kevin's family is all in St. Thomas for 12 days on vacation. We're not jealous at all YES WE ARE. Kevin's uncle lives there and charters a sailboat. If you're ever in St. Thomas and want a great sailboat tour, check out Jester Sailing Adventures!

9. On Friday I went to the grocery store and only purchased beer and wine. One hundred dollars worth. No food. My justification of this is twofold: 1) We did need to stock up, and 2) Since I can drink again (in moderation) I just want to drink all the things!!!

10. Let's not talk about the gigantic black widow (along with it's hundreds of black widow babies) Kevin and my BIL found under an old deck in our backyard that they tore up yesterday. I won't even post the picture of it because it makes me want to vomit every time I look at it. The disgusting thing was so big it could barely walk! *gag* Gross!

Hope you all had a nice weekend!

Shots of Shots

When Preslie had her two month checkup on Monday, she was all smiles and so talkative. I kept thinking to myself "Oh baby girl, you have no idea what is about to come your way."

She ended up getting three shots (she'll get the other three at her four month checkup) and one vaccine was by mouth. She took the liquid vaccine with no problems. She was flirting with the nurse and holding her finger for the longest time.

She has a bad habit of lifting up her dresses. We need to work on that. ;)

Then the shots came and boy oh boy was that nurse quick with administering them. I guess you have to be when it comes to screaming children.

Here's a run down of Preslie's reaction to her vaccines...

First shot was just about being injected. It hasn't quite registered with Preslie yet, but she's sure giving that nurse a good look.

The second shot has definitely registered. 

And the third and final shot just ticked her off. I have never seen her face turn that red before!

I was surprised that I didn't cry. She was just too pathetic that all I could do was laugh. When I picked her up her bottom little lip was just sticking out and she was so sad. Bless her sweet heart.

After all the drama, she settled down and went right to sleep. She was fussy that night and a little the next day because I think her chunky little thighs were sore, but she's back to her old self now.

Preslie Kay at Two Months

I'm a couple days behind, but oh well!

Preslie turned two months old on Sunday, June 2nd. She is literally growing before our very eyes. And FAST!

 This was the best we could do for this monthly pic.

And this pretty much sums up how Preslie feels about photo shoots. So much drama!

Measurements
Weight: 11lbs 8oz (53%)
Height: 23 1/4" (82%)
Head circumference: 16" (90%)

The doctor said we have a tall girl on our hands! She certainly doesn't get that from Kevin or me, so it must be from some distant relatives.

Appearance 

• The hair on the top of her head kind of thinned out but it is growing back with a vengeance. She's going to have a head full of thick, dark hair in no time.
• Her eyes are still a very clear, bright blue. They'll either stay blue or they might turn green, but the doctor said they definitely won't be brown.

 

• She's got a belly on her that shows her love of milkies.
• She has the longest, darkest eyelashes I've ever seen.

Sizes

• She's in 0-3 month and 3 month clothes, now. She no longer fits into anything newborn - all those tiny outfits are packed away.
• She wears size one in diapers.

Personality

• She is a really good baby. She rarely cries and is generally very content and happy. She had some vaccines yesterday and has been a little weepy the past day and it just breaks my heart. But even still, she's happy the rest of the time. 
• She loves to smile and we'll do just about anything to make that happen.

• We just think she's so much fun.  
• She's "talking" a lot more these days.

Likes

• She stills loves her bath. When 7:30 rolls around and she's not in her tub, she'll start to fuss to let us know that's what she wants. Oh, and we have to keep her diaper on her during bath time until the very end because we've had some poop fiascoes in the tub in the past that just don't make for a successful bath time.
• She is obsessed with her bouncy seat and play mat. She spends up to an hour on those things and is just happy as can be. She prefers to play by herself. When we're on the ground with her she'd rather look at her toys than us.
• She enjoys taking naps in her swing.
• Today, I discovered that she is a fan of the Moby Wrap.

• Milkies.
• Looking at Kevin and me. We turn into mush each time.

Dislikes

• She does not like to take naps in her crib. I've learned that I can get her to take a full two-hour nap in her crib for her 8:30am nap because she's usually pretty tired then, but any other nap time she will fight it to the very end if I make her sleep in her crib. She prefers the other naps in her swing (or the Moby now).
• She doesn't particularly enjoy tummy time. We have to make sure we don't do tummy time right after she eats because she'll throw up. She can stand maybe five minutes on her tummy and then she's had enough.
• She fights her swaddle like no tomorrow. In the beginning we were swaddling her with the Aden and Anais blankets and they were working, but as she's gotten older/bigger/stronger she's been breaking out of those bad boys so we use the SwaddleMe swaddle blankets now. Those things are lifesavers! Anyways, she fights them but settles down after a minute or two once she realizes it's time for nigh-nights.
• If I have to wake her up for a feeding during the day, she is not a happy camper. She gets so grumpy. I would be too.
• She doesn't like to have her clothes put on or taken off. I think she'd be happier in the nude.

Eating

• She eats five ounces of breast milk six times a day: 3am, 7am, 10:30am, 2pm, 5pm and 8pm.
• She nurses maybe twice a day but I mostly pump and we bottle feed her the breast milk. It just works out better for us this way.
• She was falling asleep during almost all of her feedings, no matter what we did (undressed her, cold washcloth, tickle her feet, etc) but she's starting to stay awake during them a little more often now.
• My supply has increased a whole lot within the past two weeks so I'm hoping I can keep her on breast milk as long as possible; or until I'm sick and tired of pumping.

Sleeping

• She takes three, two-hour naps during the day (8:30-10:30am, 12-2pm, 3-5pm) and then a little cat nap in the evening.
• She's slept through the night more often this past month which has been great! If not, she'll usually go six or seven hours the first stretch, and then four hours after her 3am feeding.
• The night of June 2nd she slept 10 hours straight!!!
• This past month we've been working on her learning how to self-soothe by doing some Crying It Out (CIO). I'll admit it wasn't easy at first, but we rarely have to do it now. We put her down in her crib when she's drowsy but not asleep, and she'll fall asleep on her own once she's swaddled.  When we first started CIO, we started with five minutes. After five minutes we'd go in and soothe her and leave the room. She'd cry again. We'd do this in five minute increments until she'd fall asleep. As she's gotten older we upped it to 10 minute increments. Usually, if she's been crying for 20 minutes (two ten-minute increments) we'll pick her up and check her diaper and more often than not she has a dirty diaper, we'll change her and she'll fall right to sleep after that.

New Experiences

• She was a little sunbathing beauty and hung out with the ladies by the pool in May.

• She met her Grandpa Barry for the first time.
• She celebrated Cinco de Mayo with her parents, Uncle Machew and Grandpa Barry.

• We spent almost a whole week at Grammy and Grampy's house, visiting.

• She helped celebrate her mommy's first Mother's Day.

 

• She attended two BBQ's at friends' houses and did great both times.
• She celebrated Memorial Day with a BBQ at Grandma's house.

 

• She rode in her stroller without her car seat for the first time like a big girl and loved it (fell right to sleep).
• She visited Daddy at work and got to meet all his co-workers.
• She joined Mommy and Daddy on a lunch date at Chili's.
• We had a play date with Mikaela and Kesara.

 

We can't wait to see what this next month will bring!