Sunday, January 30, 2011

Day 242

Almost 8 months old. I love that I can go to a website and calculate the number of actual days Jessie has been with us.

She is quite the handful. She loves to be where the action is and tends to get bored if stuck in one place too long. She is pulling herself up, loves to stand and has even cruised around a little, though her preference is to plop down and crawl to where she wants to go. She can make it up the stairs.

No teeth yet, but she does love to eat. She's definitely my daughter as she loves bread. The other night she enjoyed eating the roast and potatoes with the rest of us. She's getting good at getting her puff snacks in her mouth, though Otis is happy to see food hitting the floor again.

Today during Sunday School she had a great time playing with Anna Kulaga, though neither one was really sure what to do. Jessie attempted to offer her paci and then tried to take Anna's sippy cup. They tried to hug each other, but each would back away one the other got too close. I think they will have fun together once they are.big enough to actually play together.

I had hoped to get some pictures taken this weekend, but forgot. Maybe I can get it done next weekend, before she gets too much bigger!
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Sunday, January 23, 2011

Bath time fun

Jessie loves bath time almost as much as her big sister.
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300 Posts

Wow. I can't believe this is the 300th post of the blog. I've contemplated posting several times this week, but never really formed a clear thought of what to post. So, the 300th post will be a hodge podge of highlights from the past week.


Jessie seems to be 100%. I am hoping getting Noro at this age boosts her immune system.

Jessie still hasn't cut any teeth. I haven't pulled out Maggie's baby book to see when she got hers, but that's more for curiosity than anything else.

She is all about nursing right now. I think she's trying to make up for lost time from when she was sick. At least I have mastered feeding her while laying down. My shoulders and hips don't appreciate how I've been sleeping, but I have a gift certificate from Rocky for a massage and need to get that scheduled. Hopefully Jessie will go back to normal and we may try getting her back in her crib at night.

The other night, Maggie told me that she wants to be the zookeeper at a petting zoo. So I asked her what kind of animals she would have there. She said she would have dogs, but not cats because "you are allergic, Mom." I told her it would be okay to have cats because other people might want to pet them. Then she told me that she would have fish, but would put up a sign that says "Don't pet the fish." She also mentioned she would have hamsters, but wasn't sure what else.

Rocky and I are taking the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace course with our small group at church. A lot of the tips we've seen so far are things we already know or were already doing. We've had a budget for some time. We even used to do the envelope system for gas and groceries. I'm a little reluctant to return to it as most thieves around here are just looking for cash. We do want to really start teaching Maggie about money. I got 3 coin purses from work and marked them Save, Spend, Give. Now, we just need to give her some chores and figure out the pay system for her.

The breastfeeding diet is still working! The weight is still coming off slowly and even more so as I'm trying to eat better, trying to add more veggies to our diet. I'm also trying to put together menus for the week to help with the food budget. I keep waiting for this diet to stop working, as I can't remember how long it worked with Maggie. But Maggie also got a lot more formula than Jessie's getting. I think there's maybe been 2 days Jessie's gotten it at daycare and maybe 1-2 small bottles when she was first born. I'm hoping to be able to keep pumping until Jessie is 12 months and see where the nursing goes from there.

I just realized we forgot to plant tulip bulbs last fall.

I think I want to have more people over for dinner on occasion. We'll have to see if it's something we can put in the Dave Ramsey budget.

I still need to come up with some new year's resolutions. Like finishing, um, starting the scrapbook for 2010. At least I have the blog to help me remember what we did when. I also want to start back in the Wii Fit at least once a week.

We're doing well without DirecTV. The only time I really have missed it is last Monday when I wanted to watch the BSC title game as Oregon was playing Auburn State. I posted on Facebook and got several links for some free streaming sites and was able to watch the game! When I was home with Jessie I watched a bad movie and the first 2 seasons of "Parks & Recreation" thanks to Netflix. We also tried Hulu Plus through the Blu-ray, but the streaming quality was poor.

It's been a pretty mild winter so far. We've had our cold snaps and some snow, but seems like there have been a lot more warm days and not enough snow. If it's going to be cold, we need to have snow. I'm sure we'll have more snowy and cold days before the season is over and I'm trying so hard to not wish away the year. Life's been moving too fast lately and I just want to take time to enjoy a little bit of each day. That should probably be my daily resolution.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Dor-fee Shoes

Maggie loves the "Wizard of Oz". She seems to love all versions, including the VeggieTales and Muppet versions. When we bought our Blu-ray player and found the Blu-ray version of the original for only $10, we knew we had to get it for Maggie.

Today at Target, we saw lots of kid dress shoes on sale for under $5. Maggie noticed the shiny red shoes right away and I knew she must have them. She's been asking to watch the movie since we got home so she can wear her "Dor-fee" shoes. I love it when I can buy a lite happiness for under $5.
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Friday, January 14, 2011

Noro Virus

Noro is a nasty bug! We dealt with it with Maggie. It was about a week before her 2nd Christmas when it went through her daycare. Rocky got it; I got a "light" version of it. It was NASTY.

Jessie has been fighting a cold for a couple of weeks -- I call it the daycare runny nose. So, when she had a huge spit up (what we thought it was at the time) at church, we thought it was due to all the phlegm built up. And we thought the same thing when she threw up at daycare the other day. But because she threw up at daycare, we had to stay home Wednesday (and enjoyed a " Parks & Rec" marathon courtesy of Netflix). She was fine all day Wednesday, until 2 a.m. when the puking began in earnest. So Rocky stayed home with her yesterday and got the brunt of it. I called the pediatrician and unfortunately, there is nothing they can do for noro, unless the baby gets dehydrated, which Jessie is not. They did recommend not giving her breastmilk as it could increase the phlegm. Rocky discovered Jessie does not like the orange, but does like the purple Pedialite. And did you know purple Pedialite comes out bright neon green?? That is really high on my list of things I really didn't need to know, ever.

She did pretty well through the night, but as she won't drink from a bottle for me, she did get a little breastmilk through the night. Rocky & I tag teamed today and I'm now snuggling with a sleepy Jessie. Hopefully, she will sleep through the night or at least not throw up in the night. I'm pretty sure all of my sheets are currently in some stage in the laundry.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

A Great Experiment

I love TV. I grew up watching a lot of TV; I'm a Sesame Street baby. I like having the TV on as "background" noise. I also like having the TV as a way to distract Maggie when she gets up early or I want to do something without her hanging on my leg. However, I know we watch too much TV. And in never ending quest to find ways to save money, we started talking about getting rid of DirecTV. Yesterday, we bit the bullet and suspended our account for 6 months. Now, this does not mean we are giving up TV. In fact, we have Netflix, so Maggie is currently watching Bugs Bunny through the Wii and Rocky is watching the football playoffs on the over the air channels. But I believe, I KNOW, this will change the way we watch TV. I'm hoping it means no more mindless channel surfing, looking for something good to watch. We can go to our Netflix and watch a National Geographic documentary or some trashy movie we may have otherwise watched on Comedy Central. Or maybe it will push us to turn it off, turn on the radio or other music and do a puzzle or play a game with Maggie. Not that we don't do that now, but sometimes, I can get distracted by what's on TV and pay attention to THAT (and so can Maggie). It will also mean going to the internet for "The Daily Show" or a Food Network show, but that's something easily done.

Now, this isn't going to suddenly transform our budget and make life oh so easy. It will add a bit of a cushion and we can always change our mind. The boxes and satellite aren't going anywhere, yet.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

A Riesling Tasting

We've been talking about doing a wine tasting, some of the girls at church and me. Before Christmas, Chris Hunter mentioned that the children's ministry director's son works at a finery in Washington and he would be home for a few weeks and he may be interested in helping us with our wine night. And tonight it finally happened! Chris hosted, Todd picked out 4 rieslings, and everyone brought food or one of the selected wines. The first wine, Dirler Vin d'Alsace, was a dry riesling, which I don't think I'be had before. The second, Loosen Bros, was a bit sweeter and more what you would expect. The third, Poet's Leap, was supposed to be sweeter, but seemed fruitier, almost apple, to me and was my favorite. The last was an organic wine from Oregon, Montinore. It was very very smooth, very little after taste. I'll add a link to FB photos and to the wines tomorrow.
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Sunday, January 2, 2011

Officially Seven Months Old

Oh sweet baby! You are growing too fast and I am so happy to live in an age that gives me the ability to record so many many things so I will always be able to remember the way you are right now.
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Saturday, January 1, 2011

Jessie at 7 months



I can't believe my baby will be 7 months old tomorrow. We had a playdate at the Kriegers the other day and she had fun playing with their Dancing Mickey Mouse. She showed off her crawling skills, and I screwed up a video of her scrawling after the Mickey. She is also trying hard to stand up and has been crawling to the stairs and looking up as if studying just how she'll get up them. She is babbling more and more and we are hearing lots of "Da-da"s. She is loving her veggies and adores bread. She will grab it off our plates and chow down. She's not a big fan of fruits, but I'm sure that will come.

She's a wonderful baby, charming everyone she meets. She's not the little snuggler her sister was (and still is), though she does love to snuggle with me at night, and I love it too.