Trick or Treat...Better Late than Never

It's been forever since I posted. Life is busy and I have too many blogs to keep up with...this one tends to fall by the wayside because I hardly have time to knit anymore. I'm down to maybe an hour a week.

Anyway, we got walloped with the surprise Nor'easter last week and my whole town basically lost power. Halloween was delayed until tonight...which meant I had that god forsaken candy (which I made the giant mistake of opening) on my dining room table for another week!

Miss A will help us answer the door but we didn't do a costume for her this year. I was very uninspired by anything at Target this year and knowing she wouldn't be going trick or treating didn't help me in the motivation department to venture beyond Target's red walls.

I think A will have fun answering the door and seeing the other kids; I think she'll be ready to go next year. But for this year, we will enjoy staying nice and warm and cozy...it's chilly here!

Baby Knitwear

Ok, this is cute but would you really pay $35 for this for a 1 year old? No thank you, Gap. Especially when you can knit....which is what I plan to do. I can pretty much just look at it to be able to tell what to do so I think I'll whip this up for her to wear in Fall. I'll post a pic when I'm done to compare...

Memorial Day Weekend

We had an action packed week/weekend...early in the week, Miss A had a fever for a few days which had us second guessing whether or not we would be able to actually have our action packed weekend, but it all worked out in the end. She did miss a day of day care but it resolved within a few days and she's back to her normal self.

Anyway, Friday we went to the aquarium..we've been to a few kid friendly restaurants that had fish tanks and she really liked it. We got discounted passes through the library so we thought, what the heck. We headed into the city and spent about 90 minutes at the aquarium and Miss A was kaput. We tried to revive her with a feeding but she was pretty much all set with the fishies for the day. After being gouged $18 for parking, and that was the validated rate, we headed home to pack for the other adventures of the weekend.

Bright and early Saturday morning, we headed up to Vt to visit M's parents. Most of M's extended family have not met A yet, so the whole family was coming over on Sunday. She was great in the car, pretty much slept the whole way, waking up just before our usual pit stops and then falling right back to sleep when we got back in the car. The naps in the pack and play were dicey the first day, and she cried off and on for the first hour after going down for the night but then she was fine. The next day, she napped much better, charmed the pants off all of the family, and avoided her usual day 2 meltdown. She went to bed without any issues and actually slept straight through ( I think part of the reason for the success is that she can't drop the pacifier out of the side of the pack and play like she does with the crib). The ride home was fine, she slept for only 45 minutes of it, but I sat in back and played with her and we successfully avoided any major meltdowns.

We have one more day together since I don't work on Tuesdays and then it's back to the grind on Wednesday which will be a rude awakening!

The Ferbs

So, we're doing it. We're Ferberizing....Miss A has yet to sleep through the night (I think once when she was ten weeks old she slept for 10 hours straight, that would be the only time). She's almost 8 months old and this tired Mom thinks it's time!

We've gotten so used to being up in the middle of the night it's almost not a big deal anymore. It wasn't, anyway, until she decided a few weeks ago that she wanted to randomly get up for 90 minute intervals during the middle of the night and our usual tricks no longer worked. Or they did, till we had to put her in the crib and the silence would last about five minutes and she would be whining/crying again. We would quickly run in because we didn't want her to fully wake up again. This, of course, was reinforcing the whining/crying/waking up.

I started reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child which my friend S recommended and it was hitting home that our soothing techniques of picking her up, rocking her, singing to her in the middle of the night were just reinforcing her and encouraging her to continue getting up in the middle of the night.

The lure of Ferberizing aka progressive waiting/gradual extinction is that it has fairly quick results. And sure, the nights spent Ferberizing will be filled with crying and little sleep, but that's not that much different than what we are currently experiencing where she's waking up and we try to figure out which soothing method will illicit the least crying when we put her back down. So if we're going to be up for 90 minutes in the middle of the night anyway, why not work on getting rid of this little sleep problem?

Last night was the first night we did it and we kind of modified it to what we are already sort of doing. When she cried last night, we waited five minutes before going in to comfort her. We patted her back and butt, gave her the pacifier etc but just did not pick her up. We could always quiet her down and pretty much as soon as we did we scooted out. We had to do this six times before she fell asleep 75 minutes later. Better odds than our normal nights, although listening to her cry, especially towards the end, was absolutely torturous. She was pretty hysterical by the end of it and it was hard to calm her down even when I went in there. Eventually, after some back rubbing and soft singing, she got it down to a mere whimper and I could get her to take the pacifier again. After that, she was quiet but I stayed a bit long to pat her on the back and make sure she was comfortable. After that, she did whine a little bit more but by 3 minutes, she was quite. About 30 minutes after that I heard a little cry, and then nothing more till we woke her up at 620.

We are totally committed to this and are gearing up for tonight's cryfest....but it will be so worth it when she sleeps through the night! We can't even really imagine it at this point!

Weekend Wrap Up

Best laid plans....right? We had planned to go to Vermont this weekend to attend M's extended family's late Christmas shin dig. We spent Friday night packing up the entire house to accommodate Miss A's needs, lined up everything by the door. Earlier in the week, we emailed our friends that we would be staying with on Saturday to make sure we were all set. They were planning on making home made chicken pot pie for us and pancakes on Sunday morning before we set out for the get together.

Then, M started talking about how his stomach was bothering him ever since he ate avocado at lunch mistakenly (gives him indigestion/heartburn) and that he was feeling kind of chilly and hot at the same time. We decided to see how he felt in the morning before making any decisions...morning rolled around after a timultuous night (A picked up a bad habit this week of being fully awake and ready to not sleep anymore at about 330am every night since last Monday, it would take us over an hour to get her to go back to bed...very exhausting) and M was not feeling any better and was still having the chills/feverishness. We decided to cancel with our friends who were pretty disappointed but understood. We were going to play it by ear as far as driving up on Sunday just for the family thing but in the end, it wasn't worth it. M still wasn't feeling the greatest and the idea of driving 4.5 hours to spend 3 hours up there, then another 4.5h in the car again seemed like lunacy. If it was back in our pre-parenthood days, maybe but I certainly didn't want to put A through 9 hours in a carseat knowing she's not one of those kids who really cherishes the time in the car.

Instead, we had a quiet weekend at home and I should have really gotten more done than I did. I was rather sloth like but that's ok. We got the house somewhat back in order (and unpacked all of our gear piled neatly by the door from our Friday night packing session), went grocery shopping. I worked on my mittens from Mostly Mittens...I usually test run knitting books from the library first to see if they are worth ordering. Most aren't, but this one is the book that keeps on giving. There are lots of different patterns, but they are all in the style of the 'Komi' people but the color possibilities are endless and they are all done from basically the same template, so once you've got it, you're good to go. I ended up ordering it from Amazon last night, along with a high chair for A! It will sure be nice to not use her bouncy seat anymore.

I talked to day care this morning about bringing some food to day care and we are all set to start bringing it on wednesday. Yesterday, before each bottle feeding, I offered solids till she was sick of them and then offered her a 6 oz bottle. Last night was the first night in a week that she hasn't gotten up for at least an hour so maybe there is something to what my Mom said about her needing more calories during the day...or it's dumb luck. We'll find out tonight I guess, she's not getting any solids at day care today.

Back to Life, Back to Reality

Well, that was a whirlwind of a week! I can't believe that Christmas has already come and gone. For some reason this year, it felt like it was just suddenly the week of Christmas. Maybe it was because we didn't have snow till earlier that week...it just felt like it came out of the blue. Our Christmas was great, lots of family came to our house this year to celebrate A's first Christmas. We had so much fun and she raked in way too much loot! She has so many toys now we don't know where we are going to store them all. She has an abundance of really cute outfits that I can't wait for her to wear. She obviously didn't 'get' the whole Christmas/gifts thing this year but she is currently really into grabbing things and pulling so she did open a few of her gifts with some assistance. She would concentrate really hard to reach out and grab a piece of the wrapping paper and then she would just yank away and the person holding the gift would sort of rotate the gift so it would actually get unwrapped.


Let's get down to the food. Christmas Eve was hors d'oeuvres which is a family tradition. This year we had the following: phyllo dough pizza (me), tomato basil squares (C), cannibal sandwiches (H), deviled eggs (Mom), reuben dip (Mom), cranberry orange dip (C), tortierre (CY), pate (CY), Hello Dollies (C)....and countless cookies and candies.

Christmas dinner turned out great, I repeated the meal I made two years ago which was the first time we hosted. I felt justified in doing this because only half of the people were there last time. The standing rib roast a la Bon Appetit was wonderful and made for some great left overs. I also made the spinach porcini stuffing, some mashed potatoes that I added ranch dressing and some cream to, and roasted asparagus. There was so much food everyday all day it's a wonder I can even button my pants at this point. Christmas Eve we traditionally do hors d'oeuvres.

We still have many left overs which I am now trying to eat sparingly as I get back to reality and can no longer afford to gourge on all the goodies at whim. Thank you New Years Eve/my part time schedule for making it a short week and giving me M tomorrow at home to help out. Next week is going to be a real bugger when we get back to full time reality.....

Sick Shnooks

Shnooks baby is sick....green booger, nose dripping, sneezing, coughing sick. Poor little thing. She's tolerating it well, and it was bound to happen sometime. Here's to hoping she's on the mend by the time company starts rolling in next Wed :)

Santa! Cookies!

I'm ridiculously excited about taking A to see Santa on Sunday! M thinks it's silly because she obviously won't remember it and no amount of explanation (it's for us, not her) seems to get him in the spirit.

It's at the town country club which has a nice little restaurant too, we might parlay this trip to Santa into our first lunch outing with little Y since I'm sure the place will be over run with small children...I'll be ok with being out with her there if she starts to cry.

I'm plotting what outfit she should wear, I think one that Grandma Y gave her will fit the bill nicely.

This weekend we are having a couple over...I have to make some cookies and pick up some egg nog. What cookies should I make? I'm debating between our friend B's snickerdoodles or a mint chocolate cookie recipe that J's sister sent. The downside to the mint cookie is that M won't touch it if it has chocolate so the snickerdoodle's just might win.

I have to seriously get finalizing the Christmas menu..did I mention I'm cheating and making the same meal I made last time I hosted? I really don't have time to sit and pour over cookbooks at this point so I'm taking the easy road...sort of. Those recipes weren't the easiest to make. Next weekend is the annual cookie baking day with S and A and the kids, so I have to figure out exactly what I'm making. I'm excited that this year there will actually be lots of people at my house to eat them! We have to find time to get the tree also....so many things to do and not enough time!

Thanksgiving Recap and Other Assorted Tidbits

Thanksgiving was nice, M's parents came down for the holiday and it's always fun to have them. It's always a nice low key time, full of cooking, wine drinking, and now....baby ogling. We had the usual suspects: wine, turkey, mashed potatoes, homemade rolls (my contribution), green beans, cranberry sauce, and stuffing.

The next morning, I maded a buttermilk crumble coffeecake thing, everyone else liked it, I found it a bit boring and I don't think I would use that recipe again.

The inlaws left on Saturday so we decided to check out a new bookstore/cafe that recently opened in our town that really has nothing of interest. I was thinking it wouldn't be very good, a half hearted attempt at both, but we were pleasantly surprised! The parking lot has been full since it opened (this place has been listed as coming soon since we moved here a year and a half ago). It's very cozy inside, the cafe offers some sandwiches/wraps and salads and an assortment of baked goods and coffee. The cafe has a roaring fire with leather couches and chairs around it and lots of tables. People were lingering, reading magazines and chit chatting. Little Y was a trooper, she was quiet the whole time and was entertained by this little salt shaker toy that she has. We were sort of doing a trial run for actually bringing her to a restaurant and she passed. The next time we are free we might try going to lunch, like the old days!

In Little Y updates, she has now tried rice cereal and contrary to what my mother said, she is still waking up every three hours at night. There have been two times where she has eaten the entire serving of rice cereal, tonight I think I'm going to double the serving and see what she does with that. Maybe she'll sleep if the quantity is more...

We got some holiday decorations up yesterday, we bought two topiaries to go next to the front door, and a berry wreath for the door. I have some berry garland that I wrapped around the light in the barrel by our drive way and M wants to try to put some lights on the topiaries today. I need to get around to picking out this years cookies and finalize the Christmas menu so I can place an order with the butcher. Due to Little Y's arrival, both sides of the family are coming to our house this year so there's lots of menu planning to be done. My MIL had a great suggestion of having some of the other guests cook for some of the non Christmas nights since people are going to be here for a few nights before and after the actual holiday.

We aren't really doing gifts this year, although I keep teasing M that if he has the desire to buy me something, a nice new kitchen stove would make his wife very happy...and I'm sure he wants his wife and mother of his child to be happy, no? I really enjoy Christmas with no gifts, it's so much less stress and now more than ever, we just enjoy having family around, drinking holiday drinks, telling family stories for the millionth time, and laughing, laughing, laughing.

Mall Walker....

I finally did it...I had been entertaining the idea of mall walking with A for some time now and the number not budging on the scale in conjunction with my need to stare at something other than my own four walls finally won out. And I didn't even buy anything!

We went yesterday and I'll plan to do it again in the future. A was entertained by the skylights and plentitude of things to look at, but I think next time we'll try a different mall. This one didn't have any elevators that weren't in anchor stores. We were there for about 2 hours and she even fell asleep (I think I've mentioned before that Miss A rarely sleeps in the stroller) at which point I took the liberty of browsing in a few stores (and was surprised to see that there were a few appealing items in Forever 21...aren't I way too old for that? Maybe it's because I feel old that they suddenly looked appealing).

Friday, we're going to try grocery shopping for the first time. My mom did it with her when we were home for the wedding and she said she was watching the lights the whole time. She does fine in Target, so I can't imagine this would be any different

This weekend is somewhat busy...I may be going out for drinks with a work friend on Friday, M has to work on Saturday morning, I desperately need to get on the treadmill, there needs to be a trip to Target, then Sunday M has band practice and then the whole thing starts again...

Baby Y's First Plane Ride

First of all I will tell you, we did in fact, survive. A was so wonderful! As soon as the plane started moving she was out like a light for the duration of the flight. On some of them (we had four) she would wake up as we were starting to land so then we just fed her and she was totally fine. She did not do as well after the feeding was done and the plane was no longer moving because we had already landed and we had to wait for people to get their stuff together. Mental note, do not book seats near the back of the plane, we need to get this baby off the plane and quick!

I also learned that we had to pick a seat with an infant air mask, I'm still not sure how we would know that while booking seats online but for both of our smaller flights we were placed in the first row which meant we had nowhere to store our luggage. This required a bit of preplanning on what exactly we would need from the diaper bag, but we managed just fine.

In Detroit yesterday, we encounted a two hour delay because of an engine leak but this gave her time to make the biggest messiest diaper while we were still on the ground rather than dealing with it in the air. I don't think she would have been a happy camper for long sitting in that. M was the one that changed her and he went through most of our wipes cleaning her up, luckily we weren't detained longer. It got on her pants and we came to the realization that our extra outfit had been used as pajamas by Grandma and we forgot to reload a spare outfit. She wore just her onesie and a blanket on those little chubby legs on the way home, but she was fine.

She adapted very well to the different schedule when we were visiting, we had some minor problems getting her to calm down enough to put her down but eventually we got there and she went back to her waking at 1230 and 330 schedule. She's back at daycare today and we're back at work....what a whirlwind weekend!

The house is horrendous right now, hopefully she takes a nice long nap tomorrow because the house is in a serious state of disrepair. The luggage is literally laying in the middle of the dining room floor, I'm sure one of the cats will be cozily sleeping in it today.

The wedding was great, it was nice to be a part of all of the pre-wedding festivities and then to be in a wedding for the first time!

Halloween

I can't believe Halloween has come and gone already! A was a little duckling this year, I'm not an inventive or creative person so I grabbed the cutest off the rack thing I could find (thank you Costco). It was the little duckling suit with extra padding in the belly region and yellow and orange striped tights. She was super cute and didn't fuss all that much when we put the little hood up even when it went over her eyes. We managed to get some cute pics of us outside by the pumpkins on the steps and then some more inside where it was a bit toastier.

We had planned on putting the costume back on her when trick or treating started at 6, but by that time she was already having her last bottle o' the eve and rubbing her eyes. The schedule is key so we opted not to bother.

We got 17 trick or treaters this year, which is about the same as we had last year. Most were very polite but a few didn't even say thank you and disobeyed my instructions to take one treat bag! She took the treat bag and then she kept grabbing more and more until finally I just pulled the bowl away. I think the key is that I should be handing it to them, not letting them choose. There was another girl who kept asking me what was in the treat bag (2 fun size bars in each one) and I kept telling her candy not realizing that she probably was asking what kind. I put different candies in each one so I wasn't sure what was in that particular one. She figured out that she could look through the side of it to see, and then was like, 'Meh'...put it down and began foraging through the bowl, presumably for something better.

Seriously young one...you take what's given to you and you love it! You love it! Back in my day that's what we did. (Dana Carvey, anyone?)

That's to go..and step on it!

There is a Starbucks sort of close to our house, sort of not. This Starbucks was the first place I went by myself after becoming a Mom. It was somewhat of a drive, further than the Dunkin' Donuts, but yet close enough that I didn't feel too far from A. This Starbucks was also the first drive through I took A through. It has become a good excuse to get out of the house and is one of the highlights of my day!

Anyway, yes, it has a drive through, this is a key point. I remember thinking this was odd, when I started seeing Starbuck's with drive throughs...it's not like it's quick for them to make you a coffee.

I knew this would potentially be disastrous to bring A with me through the drive through, we might have been better off just going in but I figured it was far enough away that she would be sleeping by the time we got there and she wouldn't notice that we were at a deadstop for five minutes while Mom's Carmel Macchiata was being procured. Another important factor was the 'getting dressed' factor. If I go through the Starbucks, we can look shlumpy and no one will be the wiser thanks to Juicy Couture velour pants becoming acceptable dress. And no, I am not saying I was wearing it, just that it's lowered the bar for all of us and I have never been happier.

The trip backfired...the drive through took too long and Miss A (aka the Princess and the Pea) woke up as I was waiting at the window. You would think this might put a spring in the step of the barrista but no. I actually don't think I've ever been asked so many questions when ordering at Starbucks as I did with a screaming child in the backseat. 'Would you like to try Via?' Would you like a receipt?' 'Would you like to try a sample of our coffee cake?'

Seriously! Shut the front door and just get me my stupid overpriced coffee! This car needs to get moving so my heart can stop being ripped out of my chest and my lovely A can resume her fitful nap as we enjoy the fall foliage on our short journey home.

Flying with Babes

I am in a wedding next week....uber excited for being home with family and attending said wedding but uber NOT excited to fly with an infant. Everyone tells me to enjoy this time when she's nonmobile, but man, we are dreading it.

There's so much to bring and then there's the worry that she'll be THAT kid on the plane, the one that cries from take off till landing. We're planning on bringing the bjorn for walking around in the airport, checking the car seat plane side, and holding her on our laps. The only problems is that she really doesn't like that. She prefers to be walked around. With me, she prefers to look over my shoulder, with M she prefers to be held in a seated position so she can look around. I foresee lots of walking up and down the aisles with her...

I am also not enthused about breast feeding (even with a shield) in public. I haven't done it up until this point, we use expressed milk whenever we go to a friends or we have company (for the most part). But it seems that feeding her with the boob is going to be the easiest way to go because I don't have to lug my pump, cooler, inventive ice pack (ice packs are not allowed, people suggested using frozen fruit).

Hopefully she will be very tired that day and will sleep most of the flight. I should say flights, we have a 2.5 hour flight, lay over, and then another hour flight. Ugh...

Baby Shrug

The bad news: The adorable dress in the previous post might be a smidge too big for A for November's wedding.

The good news: My brother is getting married in January and she's certain to fit in it for that.

I'm making a baby shrug to go over it since it will be cold no matter which wedding she wears it to (picture taken from Ravelry).

I found a yarn that closely matches the bright pink dots from the dress. Should be really cute!

Parenthood

I'm the mother of a 2 month old already! Seriously folks...time does fly and realize this when you have children. Even though I look forward to new developments and milestones that tomorrow might bring, I find myself already nostalgic over how small A was when we brought her home, how her newborn outfits hung off of her and how tiny tiny tiny she looked in her carseat.

Here's the rundown on A:

• She is much less fussy (I cut out caffeine but I'm not entirely sure it's that vs. establishing a routine)
• She coos and almost giggles when she sees her toys (the current faves are the mobile or barn babies)
• She has become a fan of the bouncy seat and the swing but is not entirely sold on the stroller (this is unfortunate because we are doing a charity walk on Sunday...3 miles)
• She has slept for an 8 hour stretch at night a few weeks ago and M and I are anxiously awaiting a reoccurence!

My break is up...the boss is waking up :)

My Name is Earl

Well, here in Massachusetts we are being told to expect some fall out from Earl. I'm crossing my fingers that we do get a nice storm, but I think the Y family is too inland to experience anything fun, although the entire state is being declared a state of emergency.

In other news, tomorrow is my birthday. I forgot about my new role as Mom and asked M what we should do for my birthday. Oh right. The plan includes feeding A, changing A, and putting A to sleep. That's ok though, she's the best birthday gift one could hope for, her smile will melt anyone's heart :)

My big plans for the weekend include a solo trip to Target to get a few essentials..I might also eyeball some clothes to get me through till I can really fit into my own pants again. Even though I've lost most of the weight, my pants are still pretty difficult to zip and button...things have shifted and I think it's going to take some time till they shift back, or at least to a point where I can comfortably wear my pants. I read another blog where the woman just had a baby, she said that it took her seven months before she felt reasonably like herself again. She gave up around month four and bought some pants to get her through, and without exercising or losing any additional weight she was able to wear her own clothes again at seven months.

Luckily, I also have a groupon for the Gap as well as a $50 gift card...perhaps my trip to Target will involve a scenic tour to the Gap as well.

trip to g-ma and g-pa y

first of all, excuse the lack of capitalization. i'm typing with one hand while arden sleeps in my other arm. we made the first trek to vt with baby a,. she pretty much slept the entire way up, we stopped once for a feed and change. we hung out with j and d on saturday which meant another car ride. she slept through the whole visit which gave us plenty of time to visit. the rest of the night she was pretty fussy, i take that as payback :)

the ride home didn't go quite as well, we topped twice and she was still pretty fuusy. she cried herself to sleep a few times after crying the cry that makes me want to pull over right on the side of the highway to console her. sge was fussy the rest of the night.

we decided to make the switch to the crib since the bassinette was already out of our room for the trip. we figured she would have a bad night because of the big weekend, then a change in her sleep environment but she did great! she went down about 9 and woke up at 330 which is our longest stretch yet, she went back down after eating for another 2.5h, we were very surprised.....and somewhat rested.

Mom's Night Off

Last night, I got a night off. M plays in a band and resumed practice on Monday night which meant that I was home with A all day, saw M for dinner, then he had to run off to practice, it was about 14-16 hours of straight baby care. And it was a fussy day for A, let's just say it was a long day. The agreement all along was that I would get a night away since M would continue with band practice.

This week, I chose to use my time on Thursday night. I was trying to come up with places to go and things to do, then I realized I just wanted time to do some things for myself around the house. I chose to do an exercise video (this post baby ring around my stomach isn't going anywhere on it's own, people), knit, and watch the latest episode of Mad Men. I secluded myself up in our bedroom and made it most of the way through the episode before I found her crying too jarring to continue.

Maybe next time I'll actually go somewhere....but it was still nice to have a few hours where I could just chill sans baby.

Baby Pics

I'm not one of those Mom's who's willing to post baby pics really....I only feel ok with posting the more abstract ones that could be any baby. It just creeps me out for some reason...so here are some for you to enjoy without getting too up close and personal.

We are in the midst of shattering our previous bassinette sleeping record, she's been down now for about 70 minutes which is a great feat for us. I have hopes that some day she will do this at night so M and I can once again sleep in our bed upstairs at the same time!

A has been out for a few walks in the stroller and was a little baby rockstar on our trip to Baby's R Us to get a sleep positioner to help us transition her into the bassinette. Next up, a trip to Costco by the end of the week for more diapers. Yes, we've nearly gone through 192 newborn diapers since 7/15/10.