Family

I'll Let Carina Tell You Herself...

More Pictures of That Kid We Had

A little birdy told me there is a general clamor for weekly blog updates. I can only imagine that it's Carina pictures you're missing and not my writing! I read my developmental milestones update again recently from last month and let me tell you... that girl is changing before our eyes! She now has about 5 teeth but I think 2 more are on the way. She stands up on her own all the time now... no more crawling to the wall for help. She goes up the stairs all on her own (not always a good thing). We have 2 baby gates up now. We went for our first walk around the neighborhood without the stroller tonight! Carina walked right along with us and I think it was a good quarter mile. She was definitely ready for bed tonight :)

Adventures in Frugality

I've been meaning to post this for quite some time. Maybe you noticed the new list of "money saving" blogs to the right. It has become my latest obsession and passion. Saving money is awesome.

If anybody actually reads this blog, these "tips" are probably old hat but they're new to me. So a quick money saving 101...

1. Shop around. Specifically for groceries. We had been going to the same store for years and never did any price comparisons at all. Turns out Wegmans was a little cheaper. And the store is so nice! A word of caution: it is nearly impossible to ignore all the specialty items/sections and it takes all my will power NOT to buy something from their fancy bakery!

2. Brand names are just a name. We buy almost everything store brand. And so far we are very happy with the quality. I mean, really, is there any difference between brand name and store brand salt?! The only thing I've tried thus far that was ultimately just not the same was Wegmans brand Wheat Thins. Then again, I'm pretty addicted to the real deal.

3. Scope out sales AND match those sales with coupons. I've found it super easy just to buy store brand and save buckets doing only that. However, if I scan the weekly fliers and pair those sales with coupons (coupons that are typically doubled up to $1 I believe) I can find some good deals even on name brand stuff. Last week I bought 2 huge boxes of cat litter on sale at Target, used a coupon and got a $5 gift card as part of the sale/promotion. Just yesterday I went back and used that gift card to help put together little back-to-school gifts for our Sunday school girls. School supplies are SUPER cheap right now. I used a coupon to get a 10 pack of pens for free and the crayons came free with the 50 cent color pencils. The total for each kit was a tiny $1.23. Not bad!

4. Look for freebies. So far I've only ventured into using $1 off coupons on travel sized items but that's still a significant savings. I mean, free is free! All the items below were free. Plus I keep my eye on those money saving blogs and I can see when other freebies by mail pop up. I got a free cook book in the mail. I've signed up for free Ziploc containers, Pledge products, men's cologne, chap stick... you name it. All for free. And I've heard those freebies typically come with coupons! We even got free slurpees (free from 7-Eleven on 7/11) and a free flip flop sugar cookie from Cookies by Design. All we had to do was know when and where and we got free stuff.

So my new obsession is fun and economical. Oh I guess I could mention too that we're not going out to eat as much. We did have a buy one get one free coupon at Isaac's so we did that last week but mostly I'm just planning smarter and we're eating cheaper. A few more breakfasts for dinner never hurt anybody. I have to say it's sort of freeing. I can see now how much extra spending we had been doing and although we've always been frugal, it's nice to see we can take it even further. And don't worry, we're still eating well and having fun. Red Box movies are only $1.06 after all. Although I had a dream last night we had a movie and forgot to return it. Money saving nightmares!

An Afternoon at Aunt Vicki's

Anatomy Lesson

It's been a while since I posted any sort of developmental update on Carina. Obviously she is walking. She's just starting to stand up on her own from sitting but usually she crawls over to a wall or table for help standing up.

She is eating a lot more "big girl" foods. Her favorite toddler meal is mac-n-cheese with veggies and chicken (although she still tends to gag on meat). She'll try pretty much anything we're eating. Last week we had pancakes and smoothies and both were an instant hit. And the tooth count is still just 2 - one on top and one on bottom, right on top of each other.

She still doesn't say much (that we can understand anyway). She does love to babble in her own little language, especially when you give her a phone. She is still pretty soft spoken but every once in a while will shriek for the fun of it. She is still developing a little temper and has started hitting lately. I guess fortunately for us it's only objects or us and not other kids! I can imagine it is frustrating not being able to tell us exactly what she wants. Pointing will only get you so far.

She is learning animal sounds and will always tell you a sheep says "baaa". Her "moo" is a little less clear but it is there. The other night I was reciting her one of her books from memory and she walked from the dining room to the living room and pulled that particular book out of her pile. I was amazed and seriously think she is a little genius!

She is down to one nap per day and it's usually a really good one - like 3 hours good. Mommy like. Her bed time has been pushed back to closer to 8 pm but she sleeps till closer to 6:30 in the morning (7 this morning!) so that fits our schedule a little better than getting up at 5:30, haha. She still nurses first thing in the morning and at bedtime but she gets a sippy cup of cold whole milk with lunch and dinner and drinks it just fine. No more bottles!

And as you can see from the video she does extremely well with body parts. I attribute that to all the books she loves to read that teach anatomy. She has grown up so much this past month and we coldn't be more proud!