Embrace the camera 8/16

Embracing life on the beach with my little 6 month old. Life is good...at the beach.

I like to eat, eat, eat...PIZZA QUESADILLAS!

So anyone out there who has kids knows that sometimes they are really hard to feed. I'm pretty lucky in the fruits and veggies department so far. Kayleigh loves pretty much any fruit and several different kinds of vegetables. After that, it is slim pickins. Not only is it slim pickins but those pickins change daily.

One thing that she loves: Pizza. So we were over at a friends house and I mentioned that we were going to get pizza. I LOVE Little Ceasars five dollar pizza. Is there a better deal out there? Driving home I realized this has just got to stop. Most of the time I am too lazy to try and figure out what that child is going to eat. The other half I cringe at the thought of throwing food away. I was ambitious on this day. So what did I do?

First off I lied.

I told Kayleigh the pizza place was closed. She usually doesn't fight this fact but still wanted pizza since I said that is what we were going to have. "How about pizza quesadillas?" I ask.

Well....I got the run down of Chipotles #1 - "Yes! and beans, rice and apple juice!" She replied.

So we went back and forth a bit, because that's what a sane person does...argues with her two year old. I finally just made them and started eating. They were pretty good...Kayleigh thought it looked like pizza and picked it up and actually started eating them! I have been telling her she will have to try new things at school and the teachers make these at school so she was excited. Do you see the lying pattern going on here? She ate two whole pieces before she started this weird gagging thing she does when she doesn't like something. I am still marking this as a success!! Partially because I liked them so much.

Riley Niamh: Month 5!!!

Can we just stop growing already? You have been mistaken for a 10+ month old and I am not sure how I feel about that. You are growing by leaps and bounds! You are trying so hard to crawl but have not figured out how to go forward yet. So far scootching backwards is all you can do. Here are some more things you can do:

 

- You are rolling everywhere!
- You are sitting up like a pro now!
- You have started solids: oatmeal, avacado, sweet potato and pears...and anything else mommy gives you like pizza crusts, peas, rice etc.
- You LOVE mum mums and puffs. You get so excited when you see puffs.
- You are sleeping amazing! About 12 hours at night
- you give big sloppy kisses
- you can inchworm backwards
- you have started saying two syllable babbles...mama and dada
- you can wear 12 month clothes
- you love Sophie!!!!
- You are OBSESSED with your sister, Kayleigh. She is equally obsessed with you too. She gets concerned if you cry and has started kissing your head to try and calm you down.
- Why are you crying? Oh right, you don't nap. NOT.ONE.BIT...I can't complain because you sleep great at night but around 5:30, also known as dinnertime, you get into a frenzy and it is hard to calm you down. Most of the time I have to put you down and you end up falling asleep on the floor. I wish I could hold you forever, but your sister is skinny enough and needs to eat.
- You still love your bath and you are interested in anything Kayleigh is playing with
- Your new favorite toy: A wipes box. So glad we have a toy store in our living room!
- You found your tongue one week and all you did was stick it out. I wish that phase lasted longer it was so cute.
- You are SOOOOO close to crawling.

I hope everyone is ready for a photo overload. I recently got lightroom and get a bit obsessed messing around with photos. I really like the aged preset hence all the photos with that effect. I apologize since I am having a hard time finding any good light in my apartment. I am trying not to use my flash but with bad light I have to do quite a bit of editing and some of my pics look weird. I am open to tips...I LOVE THEM...that's all that matters. :)

Happy girl loves sitting in the highchair and eating

You fall asleep on the floor a lot...you just don't want to miss anything

Right now...this is your favorite toy...

***LOVE*** these two

Oh yeah...behind the wipes box this is your other favorite toy.

We find you under the table a lot too

There goes my background...

Nom Nom Nom

LOVE baby feet...

Check out those thighs....crawling is probably right around the corner...which means those may be gone soon.

I just thought this was a cool picture.

Happy Breastfeeding Month!

So I know you are probably groaning..."NOT HER!" Sorry reader, this is my soapbox, if you don't want to hear what I have to say, you don't have to read my blog. You're not going anywhere though because of my favorite human trait: curiosity.

Now I am sure you have all heard about my former residences Mayor Bloomberg locking up the formula in NYC hospitals and making women, who have just gone through childbirth mind you, listen to a lecture about how awesome breastfeeding is.

Breastfeeding IS awesome. So is making your own baby food, going organic, being a stay at home mom, working to ensure you kid gets the best of everything, bringing your child out everyday, reading to your child everynight, exposing your child to every instrument, language and form of art out there, sending your child to the best school, teaching your child to be respectful. All of these things and more are awesome. Unfortunately, we can't do it all. Even the best of the best out there is probably wishing they did something differently or had the time, resources or energy to focus on an area more. Look, we can only TRY and do our best.

That being said, I do wish there was more education about breastfeeding because I have heard some moms poo-poo it for the dumbest reasons ever. They don't even want to try to breastfeed. That is their choice but I always wonder why they would choose to not even try.

So here is what I like about breastfeeding..

1. You know how they say "The best things in life are free?" They were talking about breastmilk.
2. It's easy. After about 8 weeks or so, it is the easiest and sometimes laziest thing you can do. Before that you will want formula everyday. Just like you will want to sit back on the couch when you start working out. How bad do you want this?
3. It provides health benefits to your baby AND YOU!
4. I lost all my baby weight in two weeks with my first and within 4 days with my second. It's better than ephedra!
5. It helps you sleep...if my babies woke in the middle of the night I would put them in bed with me and nurse them and I would be out cold within seconds. After I stopped nursing my first...if she woke up in the middle of the night, I was usually up all night because I could not go back to sleep. Apparently breastfeeding releases a hormone that helps you relax and can also induce sleep.
6. If you find a support group, you've just inherited a new group of friends. This saved me, being a SAHM in a new city. I knew nobody.
7. You never have to worry about your breastmilk being recalled!
8. It's always the perfect temperature
9. Your body did something AMAZING and created your baby from scratch. Same goes for your breastmilk.
10. The reason I love breastfeeding is because it reminds me of childbirth. I.DID.THAT. I brought my child into the world and it was beautiful. When I nurse I think to myself, I.DID.THAT. I made the milk that is sustaining my child.

So there you go. I think all you moms out there are doing a terrific job even if you are not nursing. I just wish they educated people more on it. It can be one of the greatest experiences of your life. I mean think about it...before you had a baby, childbirth seemed scary and the horror stories were nauseating. BUT YOU DID IT! Was it THAT bad? Maybe breastfeeding isn't that bad either....

Riley Niamh: Month 4!!!

Oh Riles, I apologize for getting this post out so late. I blame all the fun times we have been having. You are growing so fast, way faster than Kayleigh. I always joke that I don't have the time this time around to just sit there are stare at you. Ah, to be a first time mom again with the knowledge I know now.

You have, believe it or not, given me the gift of more patience. I now understand why when you see a mom with a gaggle of kids, they act as if they are on quaaludes. I think each kid gives you a greater understanding of motherhood and how blessed and short it can be.  I am learning to cherish every moment because in a blink of the eye you will be two, just like your sister. Since your birth I have been more patient with her as well. You made our little family better in so many ways. Thank you for that.

Here is what you did last month:

- You can sit for a few seconds unassisted

- You laugh all the time

- You smile all the time too - Smiley Riley

- You are a rollie pollie, the minute we put you on your back you are on your belly!

- You love your exersaucer

- You love taking a bath with your big sister and giggle throughout the whole bath

- You have a "blankie" and can't fall asleep without it and your binkie

- You went to New Hampshire for your first family vacation! You loved all your big cousins and had so much fun!

- You are sleeping 10-12 hours at night. You have always been a great sleeper..we got REALLY lucky with you.

- You are still exclusively breastfed! Besides the random tastes of food I give you. lol.

This sums up month 4 nicely: On your belly with your hands in your mouth!

Embrace the Camera: 8/2/2012

So earlier this week Kayleigh and I did something we don't get to do often. We had a mommy and Kayleigh date. It was amazing and I want to do it more often. I forgot how much fun this little peanut can be one on one. 

We went to see BRAVE. You know, that new Disney princess movie that Kayleigh has been dying to see!! Wait, maybe that was me jumping up and down and the idea of going to see the movie. She has had a Merida doll for months now. 

I admit, I was a nervous wreck. Probably more apprehensive than I was when giving birth to my second child. All the normal questions rattled my brain:

Is she old enough?

Will we even make it through the previews?

What if she screams and throws a huge temper tantrum and all the other parents laugh at me?

Am I about to waste a ton of money?

Go away stupid questions for placing fear and doubt in the behavior of my little one. She is AMAZING!

Apparently, yes she is old enough. 

Not only did we make it through forty minutes of previews and a really boring short, we made it to the credits!

This was us at the end of the movie!

 Besides the four elderly people, we were the only ones in the theatre. SCORE!

The AMC by us is a "value theatre" so the tickets were only $4.50 each. Also I got Kayleigh a value meal with popcorn, lemonade and fruit snacks for $6.25. So we spent $15. Not too bad.

I remember looking over at my little bug and tearing up. She has grown so fast and yes it is too fast but I love all the cool, fun things we can do now. We are making memories. 

Going to her first movie, sharing some popcorn with her mommy and that face...when Merida appeared. The amazement of the size of the screen and how beautiful every detail is. You see the utter joy in her eyes. You can never appreciate how much time and effort Disney puts into their films until your little one starts pretending shes on a horse because that's what it looks like, it looks like you are galloping through the Scottish plains on Angus, the horse.

 So there you go, that is my bug's first experience at a movie. I love you bug. I love your excitement for life, how gentle you are with Riley and your curiosity and inquisitiveness. I LOVE that you say "I love you too, momma" every night before you fall asleep. I love how you rub Roger, your bunnys ear, to fall asleep. I LOVE YOU. I could sit here all day and name everything I love, but I just don't think the internet has that kind of room to store all that I love about you.