5 months and 1 week :)

Our bean is getting so big! She officially sits up! It’s the coolest thing ever. She can play from a whole new angle, and is loving it. She also started throwing her hands up and down the last few weeks which usually results in a toy flying backward without warning. And she lifts her hands up when you walk over to pick her up. It completely melts my heart. She rolls all over the place and tries to drag herself across the floor head first lol. Winston is still hysterical, she loves to splash in the tub (I’m usually drenched afterwards). We have been getting much better at peek-a-boo, and she seems to have a longer attention span for reading time lately. She smiles at everyone! So far no stranger anxiety yet.  

We bought her a walker cause it’s nice and small and folds up. I needed something I can bring it to work, friends houses, & grandpa’s house easily. She can only scoot backwards, it’s cute. I thinking about switching her to her big car seat here soon. She hates the infant one, and it’s such a pain in the hinny. Now the trick is which one to buy without breaking the bank, (we need 3) I have one already. 

We went to the doctor today, i have yet to be able to call and ask a question without them making me come in for a visit. But today I was ok with it. Sometimes I feel like a monthly check up would be better these first few months. I had lots of questions today, and I’m sick of looking things up online. I get to many opinions and not enough educated answers. 

We talked a lot about Natalie’s awesome day time schedule and what a happy girl she is all day. Then lots about how she doesn’t like to sleep at night anymore without waking up multiple times for no reason. I probably get one good night of sleep a week now. They rest are interrupted 3 and 4 times to put the binky back in her mouth. I had received advice from two mom friends that I need to suck it up and let her “cry it out”, but today when the pediatrician said it, it seems more serious. I’m not excited about it. I’m going to start tonight since Nick doesn’t have to work tomorrow, and I don’t go into work until 12:00. I’m starting with 10 minutes because that’s probably all I can handle. THIS IS LAME! 

On a fun note Natalie is a champ with solid foods so far. She has eaten apples, bananas, peaches, pears & prunes with her oatmeal in the mornings. Veggies she has had carrots, zucchini, butternut squash, peas, green beans & sweet potatoes! She seems to like the vegetables better than the fruit so far. Maybe it’s cause the oatmeal is gross. We will see. Tonight she is getting avocados for the first time, then next week we do mangos for the first time. This is so much fun! I have been making all of her veggies, but I’ve been buying Earth’s Best stage 1 for her fruits. They seem to be one of the most affordable brands that has a perfect ingredients list that looks like this- 

Ingredients: organic bananas. 

Everything else has tuna oil, and chloride, and other stuff i can’t pronounce (or spell). A few more weeks and we can do meats! There is no way in hell I’m feeding her the meat in the jar stuff. It looks like dog poop. pureed dog poop. I’m sure I’ll get lazy at some point but for today this is my stance. 

Her stats today were still great. She is 5mths and a week today. The white spot on her leg is DEFINITELY a birth mark (sigh of relief). She weighs 14lbs 8oz now! Over a pound bigger from her 4mth check up. And still has a cute butt and no hair lol. 

Last weekend I took on the project of washing all of her 6mth clothes. It took 3 loads, holy crap. I then packed up pretty much all of her 3mth or 3-6mth stuff. We visited with Natalie’s friend Maizy (2 weeks old) the other day and delivered a bag full of clothes. I kept most of it however for potentially baby #2. 

I can’t believe it’s october already! Where did the summer go, not that I’m complaining...it’s hot and I’m over it, I want to open up the house already!!! We are going to the pumpkin patch one of these weekends so we can take some pics with bean. I think in November we are going to have the photographer that did Natalie’s Newborn pictures take some photos of us for Christmas cards. An exciting few months coming up! I really want to just stop time and spend everyday playing on the floor with my little girl. She is so much fun, I love this age, she is getting so big so fast. I need another one lol. NOT NOW OBVIOUSLY! But soonish :)

The first BIG Wisco trip....

Oh boy. We went on a big vacation with bean, and it went AWESOME! She was amazing. She was so well behaved I wondered where Natalie went, and who switched my child out lol. No really...she has been so good the last few weeks I thought for sure she would at least give us a little trouble on our trip but she was literally an angel. Such a happy baby! I had so much anxiety I really could have used a good dose of zanax Thursday. I had a slight headache the first few days just from nerves. Tylenol and good beer helped me through it :)

The first plane ride was a little bumpy. She fussed a bit getting to sleep about half way through the trip, but then slept until we got into the rental car. Our friends Ryan and Jenny made a trip so much easier by leading us all kinds of cool kids toys. We had a fun time visiting with them and their three adorable kids! They treated us to yummy pizza, and we got to play with their kids for a few hours! Ryan amazed us with his bounce/pat burping skills. Natalie is usually in too much of a hurry to eat to be burped really well, but with Ryan's way cool method - Natalie is a burp machine! LOL Ryan even met us at the airport with a car seat. Thank you guys so much for everything! Natalie rocked a big girl car seat the whole trip, she loved it!

We stayed in Chicago the first night with my brother and sister-in-law. Aunt Dana sang Natalie a cute honey bear song, and uncle Ryan got her a bears snowsuit! We will be ready for Wisco winter next year! Friday we drove to Sconie and hung out with Grandma all day, then went to a blues concert at the Beloit lagoon. Mommy and daddy went out with the big kids and grandma went home with Bean. We saw some of Nick's friends and hung with Ryan, Dana, and her sister Kristen. Uncle Ryan tore up the dance floor at Sud's!!

Saturday we went to Nick's aunt Teri's house (she runs a pig farm.) She made a kick ass dinner (pork of course) and invited lots of family over to meet Natalie. We had a great time, and Bean continued to behave like a champ. She wore her "Tiny Tatge" shirt and everyone raved about it! We had a photo shoot thanks to Grandma on the farm and got a lot of really great photos!! Did I mention how adorable she looks in jeans. It's ridiculous, I can't take it. Another highlight: I caught a fire fly....just saying!!

Sunday was the big day!! Eric's Ironman!! For those of you who don't know thats a 2.5 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and then a full 26.2 mile marathon. Holy cow! The day began early in the morning (4 AM early) ... so early in the morning that mommy forgot the most important thing to have for your baby: FORMULA!! How I managed this one was beyond me...don't ask. Needless to say it's a good thing Natalie has the best daddy ever. He hitched a cab to the nearest (not close at all) grocery store and picked some up. For it being a relatively good sized town, nothing is open in downtown Madison on Sunday mornings - nothing! Nick rushed back to see Eric's first transition, but he just missed it by seconds. I felt awful. But  Eric was great in the water! He made great time in the swim!

In fact, uncle Eric made that Ironman his bi-otch. He finished in 87th place overall - and ahead of 10 pros!!! Not bad for that being his FIRST Ironman!!! (He's doing two next year!!) We had a huge crew watching and cheering him on. We all had lots of goosebumps, we were all so full of pride, and I must have welled up 10 times throughout the day just thinking of his amazing achievement. We are all so, so proud of him. It was incredible to watch. And just to make a fantastic day even better, he proposed to his girlfriend (aunt Marissa) seconds before he crossed the finished line. It was amazing, words can not describe what a wonderful day it was, and what an awesome accomplishment he achieved. Hooray for weddings!!
(If you haven't seen the video on Facebook - check it out! It's one of the best engagements EVER!)

I'm leaving A LOT of details out, but all and all it was a great trip. Bean met lots of friends and family, got some really good grandma and grandpa time in, and cheered on her Ironman Uncle. By the time Monday came I really missed my daughter lol. Everyone wanted to hold her, and she wanted to be held by everyone! I felt like I had a mommy break for 5 days. Everyone was so good with her, and Nick and I were more than happy to share.

She has been so good since turning 4 months I really don't want her to get any bigger. I love, love this age. She has done lots of rolling over now, almost sits up by herself, loves the high chair, tries to scoot herself when on her belly, loves veggies, sleeps through the night (aside from waking up for her bink occasionally), jumps in the jumperoo like a champ, talks and laughs up a storm. When she looks at Winston (our Boston Terrier) she CRACKS UP! Something about him just makes her soooo happy! She also loves it when you make noises with your mouth. She will make cooing noises and baby talk for hours on end. She still loves her mobile, but REALLY loves to play with the toys on her exer-saucer and jumparoo. I'm so in love! I can't get enough of my Bean.

And added note, our friends Angela and Dan became parents on Tuesday. CONGRATULATIONS on their new addition Maizy Joy. Natalie and I went and visited her today. So darn cute, and so little, bean looked like a beast next to her. And oddly she thought the baby was hysterical. She laughed at her for like 5 minutes straight. It was funny.

Ok I'm off to bed. Nat put herself to sleep like a big girl tonight at 9:30. Getting earlier and earlier. Hopefully we will eliminate that late day nap here soon. Fingers crossed :)

There are a million pictures of Facebook. But here are a few favorites.

4 Months....and a few weeks lol

Oh my gosh....it’s been too long again. I’m bullet pointing.

Nat had her 4 month checkup on August 23rd. She was 13lbs.6oz. 24 3/4 inches. 75% for height, 50% for weight, and 60% for dome. 

-We have started food: she has had organic homemade peas and zucchini and string beans. I love my breeza baby food maker. It’s awesome. So far she has likes everything, I got smiles with the zucchini (she is Italian). In Wisconsin she will get organic carrots from the store. I won’t have time to be making baby food on our trip lol. We tried rice first and it seemed to be binding, so we are now doing oatmeal instead in the mornings. She sits in the bebe pod seat to eat right now. I’ll break out the highchair soon I’m sure. 

-She rolls over the hard way now. From back to front!! The first time was Monday night but she quickly was back on her back, then she did it again last night and stayed on her belly, but I missed it (I was doing dishes dammit).

-Aunt Jo got in town on Thursday the 25th, Natalie was so excited to play with her. Jo is in love lol.  Then Jo and I took off Saturday early morning for our friend Tara’s bachelorette party!!! It was so much fun, felt so weird to not have to look at the clock, change a diaper, feed anyone lol. I missed her by about 4:00pm that day. Not to bad, I think I did good! Speaking of doing good, daddy watched her over the two days and he did fantastic!! She doesn’t like to nap for him, but I think it’s because he is just so much fun :) He did an awesome job, multiple people were amazed by his courage!! I’m a lucky girl!! He really is an excellent dad!

-She talks up a storm, and now figured out she can screech....very loud. It’s adorable, I think she scares herself doing it.

-Winston cracks her up. He doesn’t even have to do anything and she laughs uncontrollably at him.

-She was still struggling with staying asleep all night, getting up multiple times for her bink. I was really starting to miss the days when she would go down at 10:30 and wake up at 7:30. What happened. The last 5 days however, she has been sleeping much better. I’m thrilled. Who knows how long it will last but I’m enjoying the 11:00-7:00 stretch without a peep :) 

-The pediatrician said she definitely sees a tooth. I thought I was a total crazy person, but its there. Very tiny, still hasn’t broken all the way threw, but she seems to be in a bit less pain as she was 2 weeks ago. We did Tylenol a few nights and one Monday she was really sad, cranky, and in a lot of pain. Mom watched her and gave her a few doses. I was told absolutely no orajel, so we tried an ice cube in that little mesh thing. She is a fan, and can hold it herself without a struggle now.

-We had to visit the pediatrician on Thursday (9/1). She has a little yeast infection in the diaper area, and possibly a UTI. Poor baby girl. I freaked out thinking I’ve been doing something wrong. The doctor said absolutely not, some little girls are just more susceptible to them, especially in the summer time. She is on a cream and amoxicilin. I guess better this week than next week when we are up north. 

-Speaking of, we are getting so excited (me, nervous) for our trip. We can wait for Natalie to meet some awesome family and friends. Should be good times. I’m a little nervous about the plane ride, and I’m sure her schedule will be a mess with all the visiting and event we have going on. We will just have to keep our fingers crossed. It’s all worth the potential fussiness to get to spend time with good people!! She is a good girl as long as you keep her busy so we will see. We should have plenty of warm clothes just in case, but right now the weather is looking gorgeous!! A break from the heat and humidity will be great!!

-She is so fun, so many new things happening this last month!! She wants to be standing all the time. She refuses to sit in your lap, she wants to be UP! Such strong soccer legs like her daddy. She loves the jumperoo and the exersaucer. The swing hasn’t been used in over a month. It’s getting fazed out of her life, and the living room. She giggles, plays with her feet, puts everything in her mouth, loves to be loud, and be on her belly. We are moving right along, It’s absolutely amazing how such a little girl can bring us so much love!! We are so blessed :)