6 months (and a week)!

Holy Moley. We have a 6 month old. She had her half birthday on October 23rd! Craziness. Nick and I shake our heads in disbelief everyday over how fast this has gone by. She continues to amaze us, makes us smile, make us laugh, and make us tired everyday lol. We love the show Up All Night, but last weeks episode 'the birth' made me ok with not having another one anytime soon. I'm good for right now, thanks. 

It's been a busy few weeks. I'll start at last weekend cause I can't recall much before that. This is why it would be ideal for me to write once a week. Just saying. Jo and Wally came in town on Friday AM. Jo and I had a day of beauty, poor miss misery came with us. She had been teething pretty bad last week. But she slept through most of our hair appointments then cried pretty much the entire time we were at work while Jo was getting her nails done. Good thing I don't embarrass easily. She was a hot mess. It was mommy's fault for forgetting the tylenol. We had a much better evening once we got home. Jo's mom and BF came over for a visit and we had some great steaks on the grill (courtesy of Nick Tatge). Saturday morning we dropped Nat off at my mom's house and took off to O-town for some wedding fun. Leaving her doesn't get any easier, but I know I have no worries when my mom watches her. Jeff and Richy are usually a big help too. 

The wedding was AWESOME! It was so great to see everyone, get dressed up with the hubby, have multiple cocktails, dance it up with my Kappa girls, and sleep. Tara and Matt threw a great party, and it was a beautiful ceremony. The weather was perfect, they looked so incredibly happy :)

We picked up bean Sunday late afternoon, my poor mom looked exhausted. She said she had a total blast with Nat and she slept perfect for her mimi. We are soooo lucky we can rely are her, but I'm sure she slept like a rock sunday night. Bean is....well....active. lol. We wouldn't have her any other way though :)

Monday we hung out in Delray with Jo's mom, and Jo took some cute photos of Nat at the park. We tried the swing...not quite there yet, but she thought sitting on the slide was fun enough. Had a great time with our weekend guest, and we can't wait to have more weekend guest next week! Hooray for the Patch visit!

THE 6 MONTH CHECKUP

Her checkup went awesome. Minus the shots, oh and she tore up the entire paper they put on the table. It was a mess, the nurse pretended she thought it was funny though, so it's fine. Nat is 15lbs 8oz, 25 3/4 inches tall, and has a 17" cranium. 50 percentile for everything except the dome (75). She gained over a pound since we went a month ago so Dr. Gina was pleased. I told her how we let Nat cry (ferber method) and she was also pleased that was working. She was impressed with the variety in her diet thus far. We talked meat, baby proofing, teething, poop, sippy cups, thanksgiving dinner etc. I considered getting her ears pierced but then changed my mind. I can't do it....maybe 9 months lol. 

LOOK WHAT I CAN DO

We introduced some new foods in the last 2 weeks. We did apricots, whole wheat oatmeal, and chicken. So far so good, some days depending on her bottle schedule she gets an afternoon snack (fruit or veggie). I've also started mixing things for dinner (providing we have already tried them before). We are still doing 4 7oz bottles. Every 4 hours. She wakes up around 7 or 7:30 everyday and bedtime is still 9:00. If I could only get rid of the late day cat nap we could totally do an 8:00 bedtime!!! Still trying. Maybe another month or so. It's fine, she is sleeping!! She wakes up at 5:30 every morning, but usually puts herself back to sleep. 

She sits independently for long periods of time now. I bought her the alphabet foam mat for the floor, she is all over the place now! So much fun. It's really neat to watch her figure everything out. She has a really cute "I'm intently thinking right now" face. She plays with her hands all the time now, I'm thinking clapping might happen soon. She is also getting pretty good with the sippy cup. It's the best when she dangles it from her mouth with no hands, then cracks up when it hits the floor.  Smashing all her toys together is her new favorite, I think she is going to be destructive like her uncle Ryan. We even get up on all fours from the sitting position and rock back and forth. She can take her time on crawling....I'm not prepared. No really. I'm scared. Nick put money on it happening before thanksgiving. I'm still holding out for christmas time. We will see. 

Side note: I discovered TJ max is a great place to buy Fischer Price toys CHEAP! 

This week we have been trying to figure out outfits for our holiday photo shoot in 12 days. Leave it to me to wait it out just long enough to cause lots of stress. Super. It's starting to get crazy busy with work now. I can't believe holidays are around the corner now, crazy! Speaking of holidays, Halloween is in two days. We will probably just dress bean up and sit out front handing out candy. LOTS O KIDDOS in this hood. As I speak we are missing the Halloween party of the century!! Nick's Aunt Teri throws a huge bash every year, we were trying to make it up there but....NICK GOT A PROMOTION AT WORK!! Hooray!! I'm so incredibly proud of him. He works soooo hard and really deserves it. So we did have to put off traveling this weekend but maybe next year we can make it up for the festivities. Nick's new job also means he will be traveling weekly, probably every week Monday-Thursday. It will be an adjustment for both of us. I'm definitely going to miss him and his helping hand with bean, and he is definitely going to miss his two girls...natalie especially. We are both really looking forward to the new adventure though. 

Yesterday a huge surprised got delivered. It was my anniversary present. It was an amazing spin bike. Not just any spin bike. A tour de France spin bike that has Jillian Micheals built in to yell at me while I ride. BEST. HUBBY. EVER. I had the morning off today and proceeded to test it out. Man am I out of shape....pathetic. Such an awesome gift, he really spoils me too much. I went in the garage twice today after my ride just to look at it. I still miss my road bike, but this is much more convenient for a mommy. 

This is a huge post. 

Nick and I are babysitting right now for our friends 7 week old. She is such a little cutie. I forgot how tiny Nat was...unreal. I also forgot all the grunting noises that go on during their sleep. I don't miss those lol. She is such a good baby though, out cold sleeping, I think we hung out for 20 minutes then our job was done. It's funny how much more you check on someone else's baby sleeping in your house. Bean was a handful this evening. She likes to mix it up when we have company...it's cool. 

Alright my brain hurts from all this. I'm going to bed. 

FERBER RULES!

25 WEEKS!

Lots of pictures this post! I usually don't but I did. BOOM! 

Big Girl Car Seat!

Bath time :)

My teeth hurt daddy!

I realize its been 11 days since my last post, but I wanted to update on how the "crying it out" situation went. Night 1 worked. It was miserable. But night 2 only took 15 minutes. I only had to go in there once, and night 3 took 5 minutes. In the last 12 days we have had 8 perfect nights of sleep. She puts herself to sleep like a champ at 9:00PM. Sometimes she talks to herself for a while first. But she stays asleep ALL NIGHT until about 7:00AM! We have had 2 or 3 nights where she wakes up, but she goes back to sleep after 5 minutes or so...WITHOUT me putting the binky back in her month. This morning she woke up at 5:30 ready to party. I guess this will happen occasionally. I'm more than pleased and hoping it keeps up :)

I can't believe she is almost 6 months already. She has been getting so good with sitting up. She even catches her balance a little bit now. Sitting really opens up a whole new world of playtime!! It's such a blast, I love thursdays and fridays when I get to be home with her all day. The living room floor is where we spend most of our time playing since it's the only place down stairs that has some cushion on the floor. She stills loves the walker and the jumperoo. The exersaucer is upstairs must of the time so I can shower, or put laundry away. The acid forest is getting phased out since she gets aggravated trying to roll when she gets blocked in.


She Insists on having one toy in each hand and slams them up and down vigorously. I just try to stay out of her way lol. Everything still goes in the mouth, and if she sees me on my iPhone, she has to have it! I feel as though I need to sanitize it daily now cause eventually she is going to win the battle and get it in her mouth. She is such a happy girl! Always laughing at nothing, smiling away. She makes me one happy mommy :)


Side Note: Nick and I watched bridesmaids last night (i made him). It was even funnier the second time! The deleted scenes are hilarious!


We are officially loving the jogging stroller. Nick got me the city elite for mothers day and we have been using it the past few weeks. I have yet to have time to run/blade but it will come. I haven't been able to workout in over a month. It's gross. I don't feel like myself. I was starting to get back in shape in august and now I'm back at square one. It's only going to get busier with the holidays and work!! AAGGGHHHH! Staying positive though, I'm going today for sure!!

Bean eats everything!! I'm a baby food making machine. This week I made, butternut squash, peas, string beans, zucchini, and sweet potatoes. I have enough veggies frozen to last till thanksgiving. No joke. Maybe longer. I want to do carrots but they don't puree as smoothly as I'd like, so I've been buying the brand "Earth's Best" for carrots and fruit. Didn't know avocado was a fruit until I started doing this though. Random. Nat's a fan of avocado like her mommy! That and bananas are the easiest to make, no cooking involved.

We are taking on a few big house projects within the next month. Hoping to have everything done before Nick's mom gets here for Thanksgiving! We are redoing the floors with new tile downstairs! I'm so excited! We might also redo the downstairs bathroom! And Aunt Dana is designing our new family room! We can't wait, she is awesome. It's going to look amazing! My parents are nice enough to take on the chaos known as the Tatge clan! It will be a house full lol.

clearly hates pumpkins. 

We are attempting the farm again this weekend in hopes that Natalie will be in a better mood lol. I'm determined to find an orange tutu today for her to wear tomorrow. No luck still on an orange bow. I'm not creative sooooo making it is not an option!

I survived my first cold with a child. It's pretty intense, but I'm just thankful nat and nick didn't get sick also. Nick did a morning for me with her so I could try and get a little extra rest. And my awesome receptionist at work covered for me tuesday to save me the hassle.

Our friends Tara and Matt are getting married next weekend in Celebration, FL!!!! We are so stoked, I can't wait!! We are leaving bean with my mom for the night and driving up. Jo and Wally fly in Friday!! Wooohooo!! I miss them, it's rough having your bff so far away, you'd think it would get easier since it's been 6 years....not so much. I can't wait for them to spend time with Nat, it will be a fun filled weekend, that's for sure!

Nick and I had a date night last weekend! We went to a US soccer game. Pretty fantastic I must say! Way better than watching baseball! US won, of course, cause we were there. We both classed it up and had a monster sized hot dog and a miller lite. Nice!

Ok huge post! We have a lot to do this weekend, and delicious burgers to eat tonight at our friends Jim & Julie's house! Hooray! I still have to get a dress for next weekend. Nick is going to be my fashion advisor, and Natalie will be toughest critic in the dressing room. Laundry to do, groceries to buy, busy busy :)

Peace out.

"Crying It Out" Night 1

You wouldn't think that letting your baby "cry it out" would also mean you would be crying right along with them. Holy crap that was ridiculous. Tonight was the first night of "Ferberizing" our bean. As I've mentioned, I've been told multiple times now that in order to stop Natalie from be dependent on me and her binky to fall asleep this is what needed to be done. I have tired, literally, of having interrupted sleep from 1:00AM to 6:00AM every morning. As advised by... well, everyone... I decided I had to crack down and make it happen. I bought the book "How to Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems" by Dr. Ferber, on my iPad and have been reading it since Saturday. I knew I needed some kind of guidance so I went for it.

Night 1 of Ferberizing
Normal bedtime routine: bath time, lotion, PJs, Bottle, playtime (30minutes), and finally a few books in the rocking chair. Normally at this point I rock bean for a good 15 minutes and then once she is out cold lay her in her crib for bed. Instead tonight I opted for HELL! The easy to read chart in the book sounded nice and gradual. However, it failed to mention how 3 minutes, then 5 minutes, then 10 minutes would result in me crying on the floor outside her door. I also developed a good dose of hives after my first visit into her room when she looked at me all excited. Needless to say it was straight misery. By 26 minutes she started to simmer down a bit so I didn't go back in at the ten minute mark. She was quiet for a good 30 seconds at a time. This is the only time I wish I had a video monitor lol. It had been 8 minutes of quiet so I checked on her and she was out cold. After 40 minutes total I went downstairs and poured myself a well deserved Sam Adams Oktoberfest.

Supposedly, I'm to continue this when she wakes up during the night. Wish me luck. Cheers.