Picture(s) of the Day

Carina standing up (leaning against her toy box) and Peter waiting to catch her if she falls. My two loves.

Those Pesky Cats

Now comes the challenge of being real without being a real complainer! I often wonder if my blog readers think "What happened to the cats once Carina came along?". Well, if you're wondering, they're just fine. They may get less attention but they generally don't mind. If we're stationary for any length of time we can usually count on a cat camping out in one of our laps. It's nice! They take very little interest in Carina but they aren't bothered by her at all. They even take a bop or a hair pulling from her now and then.

All that said - they are on my naughty list this morning. Peter would have me point out that it's really Kenny and not both of them on my list (Kenny tends to be MY cat and Nutmeg HIS cat) but anyway... Kenny makes a habit of waking us before our alarm at least a few times a week. He meows, walks all over us, scratches at the bed skirt and the electrical cords.

We would just shut him out of our room except that he would sit and scratch at our door and we worry that would wake Carina. We've tried spraying him with the squirt bottle but he keeps coming back to bother us. We've tried feeding the cats early or giving them a little dry food to hold them but as Peter says - this is giving in to the terrorists. We feel we're running out of options. We have a baby who sleeps peacefully through the night most nights and yet we're still awakened by a pesky cat as early as 4:30 some mornings!

And just so we're fair here "Mr.-my-cat-is-faultless", Nutmeg can also be a royal pain and meows at the top of her little lungs as soon as our alarm goes off. But in her defense she usually does wait till we're already awake and she does it from downstairs most of the time.

The new options we're considering:

1) Feed the cats later in the evening so they hopefully don't bother us as early in the morning. This has happened a few times accidentally when we're out for the evening and their dinner times is pushed back later than the usual 7 pm. Nornally we don't notice any difference in the annoying morning behavior, sadly.

2) Leave some dry food out overnight. Our cats typically only get half a can of wet food each at 7 am and 7 pm. They are thriving so I know they're not starving (Nutmeg is just a naturally thin cat - don't judge!). And I worry if we do that they'll scarf up the dry food right away, make themselves sick, still wake us early and then we'll just have an extra mess to clean. Which by the way happened this morning even without feeding them any dry food, sigh.

No option 3. I'm still researching. If you have any advice, leave a comment. We'd really love to sleep till our alarm goes off. Peter and I ask each other fairly often "Why do we have cats?" and really - the pictures below speak for themselves. Because they're so darn cute! I especially love Kenny peering past me into the pantry to look for food.

Picture of the Day

We're going to start this whole "honest look" at my life right now. Here we are at the computer blogging. Notice my awesome hair? Not styled AND napped on. And yes, I'm wearing pajamas.

Home Again

Not that I went anywhere (other than work) but it's Wednesday and here I am. To be honest, Wednesdays make me a bit nervous. I love being home with Carina but it's being home ALONE with her that makes me antsy. In the evenings and over the weekend when Peter is here too we tag team it beautifully. Laundry needs doing? I take the baby and Peter takes on the piles of dirty. Dishes need doing? Peter plays with the Bean and I get to scrubbing. We're both eating dinner? Well hopefully Carina will occupy herself with her toys but if not, one of us can entertain her. But when I'm here alone there is no guarantee I can get anything done (and as if on cue... Carina just called me away for a few minutes for some cuddles and a clean diaper. She's happy in the exersaucer next to me again).

Recently I realized this blog can get a little sugary sweet. Really, our life is great and we've been blessed far beyond what we could ever deserve with this wonderfully happy baby. But of course life is not always rosey pink. Take for example Sunday morning. Started out great - Carina slept all night, Peter and I were both showered, clothed and fed. Carina nursed at 7, right on schedule. Then we had to factor Sunday school into the new schedule. What to do? Carina isn't supposed to eat fruits till 9 but we'll be at church. Feed her at 8 before we leave? Ok. Fail. Carina wasn't hungry yet and just got upset. She's not usually a neat eater so I didn't want to feed her at church. We'd be busy teaching Sunday school anyway. So instead of saying "Ok, we'll go with the flow on this one and see what happens" I got really mad that we didn't stick to the new schedule and totally took it out on Peter. Imagine a screaming match in the car that abruptly turns into icy glares once we step foot into church.

Looking back it was hilarious. I actually told Peter I just couldn't deal with Carina or our Sunday school girls at that moment so he took Carina and left the room. I was fuming but what else was he supposed to do? I wanted space, haha. Anyway of course we got over it but I'm just saying... our life isn't perfect. My boss keeps me posted on the adventures of her son, daughter-in-law and their very newborn son. They haven't had it easy so far and my boss tries to be helpful by giving advice she's picked up from my sharings. Unfortunately I wonder if they just get angy that this "perfect Amy" must just have it all together and wonder what they're doing wrong. I sure hope not.

Anyway, all that to say I'm hoping to be a bit more honest in these posts instead of just focusing on the "rosey pink" stuff. Overall life is really great right now and I just like appreciating it! Carina's new schedule is working out really well. She's eating better for me and her sitters. She has graduated from her 5 ounce bottles to 10 ounce bottles although she just takes 6 ounces at a time. Still she feels like such a big girl. She tried mango for the first time this morning. She reacted like she had when she first tried peaches - funny faces and "shivers". Must be tart! But she likes peaches now so I know she'll warm up to mango too. She ate some pears and raspberries this morning too so she got a full breakfast.

Sounds like someone needs some cuddles (who am I kidding? She and I both do!). Here are a few pictures from Peter's Dad's visit on Sunday.

Today till 2:27 pm

Carina woke up around 6:15 so Peter brought her to bed with us. She and I slept till 7:15 while Peter tried his best to ignore the cats who were begging for breakfast early despite eating dinner late. Breakfast for all. Showers for the human adults. Nap for the baby.

We're trying out a new feeding schedule for Carina. Typically she nurses 6 times a day (every 3 hours) plus gets baby food around 9 am and 5:30 pm. She's been letting me know lately though that she's just not interested in nursing that often. So today she's nursing every 4 hours plus baby food around 9 am, 1 pm and 5:30 pm. So far she is doing great! Right now she's fussing because she needs a nap but I imagine once I finish up here and nurse her she'll take a good long snooze.

We got groceries this morning and then did a little shopping at Target. We weren't even looking but we found our 2nd car seat that we've been searching for and even cheaper than expected. Sweet! We also took some time this morning to take a few pics for a beautiful baby contest I'm entering. She's a winner in our book anyway!

Gotta run. Cranky pants is calling!

Daily Photo

Playing while Mommy blogs :)

Fashionista in the Making

We had a decent weekend. Friday we made our weekly grocery shopping trip. Carina usually stays in her car seat but for some reason I just really wanted to carry her around this week so I strapped her in my baby wrap. She was so mellow the entire time - just looking around at everything and snuggling against me every now and then. Love.

Saturday we met up with Ken, Rebecca and AJ at BJ's. We were hoping to find a 2nd car seat just like the other convertible car seat we bought but they didn't carry the one I was looking for. Still we came home with 32 toilet wand refills and 54 jars of baby food. Later in the day we went to the Carter's store at the Hershey Outlets and spent WAY too much money. Why do they make baby clothes so darn cute?! We bought all 9 months sized clothes - some winter and some spring. Hopefully those will last till closer to summer. Our little peanut isn't so little anymore. Oh - and on a personal victory note (because you know how much I love to save money) - I used a $2 coupon at BJ's and a $10 coupon at Carter's so in addition to saving by buying in bulk and buying clothes from the sale rack I saved $12. Yay me!

Sunday I taught Sunday school. Peter has done it for years while I act the part of disciplinarian/Carina wrangler. But now that the girls are in 2nd and 3rd grade and only getting older and (hopefully) more mature I feel like I should take over some of the teaching and really start making solid connections with these girls. It went well! And Peter even convinced Carina to take a little nap. As for the rest of the day - we ate leftover penne and meatballs, did laundry, had pancakes for dinner and watched the Golden Globes (till our 10 o'clock bedtime anyway).

Monday Peter didn't have to work but I did. I took a half day to spend the afternoon at home with my 2 favorite people. Carina was a little booger and wouldn't take a bottle from Peter. She had an "off" day and we just figured she's still getting over this cold and back to feeling normal. Last week (I can't even remember what day it was) we put her in her crib at 10 like normal and she just would not go to sleep. For all the other parents out there - I'm sorry for complaining - but this is the first time she has ever refused to go to sleep at bedtime. It was a good 7 month run, haha. So we all laid in bed in the guest room and watched Conan till Carina felt it really was time to go to bed. In the end it was a fun little late night TV party.

Anyway - back to this week. Last night we drove to Lancaster to surprise my Mom for her birthday (today). She and Dad were meeting up with my Aunt Vicki, Uncle Steve, my cousin Steven, and Pop-pop at Olive Garden so I told Dad we'd try to be there but wanted it to be a surprise. We had a really fun evening. Carina sat in a big girl high chair and was so well-behaved. She did give us a major freak out when Mom and I changed her diaper in the ladies room. Still don't know what that was about but that girl has a set of lungs on her. Speaking of - she's screeching pretty good right now so I better go give her some lovin.

Picture(s) of the Day

I think we'll soon need to return the bouncy seat to Chris and Michelle!

One Month Old

Seven Months Old

E-A-G-L-E-S Eagles!

Ok - I really, really don't care about sports but how cute are these two Eagles fans?

Christmas in January

We finally celebrated Christmas with my Dad's side of the family. We had to reschedule because of the snow last month. Everybody just loved seeing Carina. My parents spent the night Saturday and we all headed up to my Gram's on Sunday. It was a very nice weekend! Even watched The Hangover with my Mom.

Carina is learning new things left and right. As you can see from the video below she has become quite vocal. Very soft spoken but very chatty. It is adorable. She is eating more baby food - both in variety and quantity. She started trying some stage 2 foods this weekend. Tonight she had mixed veggies and nearly finished the jar. She has been eating an entire container of fruits at Rebecca's each morning for breakfast. Our little piggy!

She can be quite the little mess maker too, hence the naked dinner shot below. We're also trying to give her some sippy cup practice with apple prune juice. She even held it by herself this weekend!

Picture of the Day

This is what a Saturday of baking looks like.

For Josh's birthday: brownies
For Christmas at Gram's: cranberry mousse
For snack break at work: cinnamon muffins, chocolate chocolate chunk cookies, funfetti cookies, chocolate chip banana bread, pumpkin bread and chocolate peanut butter butterscotch rice crispie treats
For dinner with Mom and Dad: minestrone soup and corn souffle (not pictured)

Chatty Carina

An Organized Life

is a happy life. I found some time over the weekend to tidy the house a bit. It started with putting away the Christmas decorations. I'm not opposed to leaving them up till the end of January or later (I loved our tree and had it lit up every single chance I got!) but I didn't know when I might have another chance to do it. I was a little stressed about going back to work and it manifested itself in the form of going on an organization spree. Lucky for me I de-stress by cleaning and not by binge eating, drinking or compulsive shopping. It's healthier and less expensive!

Not free though. I bought a couple storage containers to start organizing Carina's clothing she has outgrown plus her baby book, cards she has received and other bits and bobs. I rearranged our closet in our bedroom so we could find a place to store Carina's new car seat. I know I can't complain about storage when we have a walk-in closet but... sometimes I still find it hard to store things nicely. My wedding dress (from nearly 4 years ago) lays in a heap on a shelf in our closet. Never cleaned or preserved, sadly, I think it may now be too late. What are the chances Carina would fit in it or even want to wear it anyway?

I realized the other day that the only two tablecloths we have are both fall colors so I bought a red one for Valentine's Day. We now have some festive window clings on the front door too. Time passes so quickly these days. It seems strange to decorate for Valentine's Day already but I know it will be here before I even realize January has passed. Carina is now seven months old. Holy cow! She is more and more fun each day.

She's starting to get a little more hair. She babbles a good bit. She grabs at EVERYTHING (watch out for earrings!). Her favorite thing currently is to grab my face and pull it toward her (with great force) and suck on my cheek or my chin. She's either trying to eat my face off or give me kisses. She loves my longer hair because she can pull it! Put 3 things in front of her - 2 of them toys and 1 of them something that isn't - and she will always go for the one that she shouldn't. She was surrounded by her toys while I was folding laundry this morning and yet she found a way to grab at all the clothes she could, haha.

She seems to be working on the beginning stages of crawling. She puts her butt up in the air and wiggles her whole body in an effort to propel herself forward. It is so funny to watch. We're always entertained, that's for sure!

Daily Photo

With all the hubbub surrounding the holidays... I just got my Christmas card from Peter today. It become a running joke in the house because I knew he forgot to bring it to my parents' to give it to me Christmas day so pretty much every day after I would say "Still didn't get my card yet!". Well today was perfect because I undecorated the house but now I have one very special card still on display. Thanks Hunny, I love it.

Daily Photo

Don't be fooled - I don't seriously think I can do this every single day. However, I'd like to start posting just a photo every once in a while. Maybe not even of Carina, wouldn't that be a surprise? However, because we went out and bought her a big girl car seat today, that's the picture I'm posting. We won't be transitioning to this seat for a couple more months probably but it's good to have it. Doesn't she look so tiny?!

Why Hello There 2010

No partying for the Joneses this year... no more so than usual anyway. Every day is a party, right? My parents spent the night Wednesday to keep me company while Peter was at work Thursday. We woke up to a fresh blanket of snow. Didn't know that was coming! Peter had some fun getting to work but once there he did exceedingly well on his test and then got out 3 hours early so we'll call that day a major win.

Mom hung out with Carina while Dad and I went out for coffee. Carina took a really nice, long nap. Mom and Dad went home, Peter and I ordered Pizza Hut after Carina fell asleep and we watched Twilight (we hated it... the movie, not the pizza). We all went to bed at 10. No ball drop for us.

I think it was pretty much the perfect way to say goodbye to 2009 and hello to 2010. I couldn't be more excited for a fresh, sparkly new year full of exciting possibilities. 2009 was an amazing year and I have no doubt that 2010 will be even better!