Christmas Cards

I love Christmas cards! Its absolutely one of my favorite parts of the holiday season. This year we ordered from Tiny Prints. I hope they are going to be as cute in person as they are in the preview!! I can't wait for them to arrive in the mail, although I wish I could get someone to address them all for me!!

Front

Back

I start my new job tomorrow. I'm excited but nervous! Last week was super stressful trying to get everything wrapped up at my old job, so I'm hoping for a slow week.

Chaotic

That is the best way to describe my life right now. Totally chaotic.

The good news: I got a new job that I am super excited to start at the beginning of December.

The bad news: This career change has thrown my life into total chaos. On the home front, I'm having to move my daughter to a new Daycare since she has been with me at on-site daycare. Its been way more stressful than I thought it would be. There just aren't a lot of options for children under 1, and I'm having horrible anxiety about moving her. She loves her teachers & friends and has thrived at her current daycare. I'm just so nervous that I'm going to move her and she won't like it as much or she won't thrive there the way she has at her current daycare. I'm just so nervous I'm going to make a bad choice. On the work front, I'm rushing to get everything wrapped up before I go. I gave notice at then end of October hoping that it would allow sufficient time for me to transition everything to my replacement. 2.5 weeks out, no transitioning has occurred and I'm still carrying a huge workload. Add to this a HUGE court proceeding on one of my contracts which has required me to produce no less than 10,000 pages to the courts and needless to say things aren't going to be wrapped in a neat little bow when I leave. This is, of course, causing more anxiety. And then there is all the usual anxiety that comes with learning a new company and a new job.

AHH! Why does this all have to be stressful. I'm literally a ball of stress.

Happy Halloween!

Our little bee is too cute for words!!

Pumpkin Parfaits

I recently went to a seminar that where a speaker from the Edible Schoolyard NOLA was talking about child nutrition and cooking for babies and toddlers. She shared some great pumpkin recipes since this is the season for pumpkin!

I don't cook with pumpkin ever, so I was pleasantly surprised at how good it tastes! Lillian seems to be a fan also. I'll share them with you all as I cook them, the first up was the pumpkin parfait which they recommended for 8-12 months.

1/2 Can Pumpkin Puree (homemade or canned)
1/4 Tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp milk (breast mil, formula, whole milk)
2 Tbsp mashed banana
6 oz whole-fat yogurt (I used Fage Greek Yogurt)
1/4 cup whole grain (oatmeal, brown rice, barley, etc)

1. In small bowl, mix together pureed pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, milk & mashed banana.
2. In small parfait glasses or ramekins, layer the pumpkin mixture and yogurt
3. Top with cooked grain

Note, I forgot the cooked grain!

The parfait will yield this:

and this: 

Next up: pumpkin soup! 

5 years ago

5 years ago today....

 

 

What an amazing 5 years its been.

Snuggle time

I just do not get enough snuggle time with my little bean. During the week, I usually wake her up around 6:30, get her dressed and give her a bottle. Then I hop in the shower and get dressed while she eats her bottle. By 7am, we're on the road to day care and work. In the evening, we usually get home around 5:30. She eats dinner and then we play for about 45 minutes before its bottle time, bath, then bed. She's usually in bed by 7:30. I swear every night I have to talk myself out of letting her sleep in our bed. Its just soo hard to not get enough snuggle time in.

Tomorrow I have off for Columbus day and I fully intend on spending a fully day snuggling with my little girl!

Play Date

Lillian had some of her friends over for an early morning play date this past Saturday!

Lillian and her buddy Thatcher playing with her picnic basket.

Lillian's learning that its not nice to hit your friend over the head with a toy.

Its amazing how much fun they all have playing together...

...most of the time

Hope everyone had a GREAT weekend!

That may be a record...

I can't believe I haven't updated my blog in 3 weeks! That may be a record!! It seems like we've been swamped for the last 3 weeks, although I couldn't tell you what we've been doing. Although there are a few things that stick out in my mind...

Lillian took her first trip to NYC!! We went to visit my sister Jennifer before her baby arrives. It was probably the easiest trip ever because we literally just showed up with just Lillian and then promptly tested out all of my sisters baby gear!

Modeling her cute new onesie from my sister.

Trying to fit in with the locals

We were there to go to a baby shower that was hosted in honor of my sister at Fred's. The table was decorated sooo cute!

Lillian was the hit of the Luncheon.

Lillian was also able to do some shopping in NYC and take in all the sights! Her favorite thing to do these days is be on my shoulder. She loves being higher than everyone...

And on the flight home Lillian got her first wings. She was pretty excited about it! LOL....

I other news, Lillian also took her first trip to the Emergency Room!

Sunday night right after she was done eating dinner she started projectile vomiting. Seriously it was like the exorcist. I let her sleep with us that night because I was worried she'd get sick in her sleep. She woke up earlier than normal and her diaper was totally dry. This made me worried, but I figured I'd give her a bottle and see what happened. Well about 2 minutes after she had finished her bottle, it came back up everywhere... so off to Children's Hospital we went. They said she was dehydrated, so they started IV fluids. After about an hour and a half, they stopped IV fluids and we started some pedialyte. A couple hours later then sent us home. Of course as soon as she started feeling better, I got sick. Then my husband got sick. Then my mom got sick. We're all on the mend, but it was a brutal virus!

6 Month Photos

Even though Lillian is going be 7 months tomorrow, I just had to share her 6 month pictures with everyone!! The very talented Erin Rachel Wilson took them again and I LOVE they way they turned out!

Solids!

So we started "solids" a few months ago with Lillian but in baby land that really means watery purees.

Does that really look good to you all? I don't think so.

Never the less, she LOVES to eat. She literally will eat just about anything you put in front of her. So I knew it was a matter of time before she wanted to feed herself.

In the last two weeks, every time she is at the dinner table, she is always grabbing for our food. Combined that with her love of of putting things in her mouth and I figured it was time for "real" solids!

I found this at the grocery and figured it was work a try.

"What's this?"

"Nom Nom Nom"

"Where did it all go?"

"I think I see a little bit left down here"

the.ONE DAY.worksop

I recently took a photography class with the very talented Erin Rachel Wilson. Erin took Lillian's 3 month photos which I loved and is an absolute sweetheart. I received a Canon 60D camera for Christmas before Lillian arrived and promised myself I would learn to use it before she arrived. 7 months later I hadn't gotten past pg 6 in the manual and was having to use it on the automatic settings. So when Erin offered the.ONE DAY.workshop I knew I had to sign up. The class focused on the basics of shooting in manual. It was a great lesson in how aperture, shutter speed and ISO work together to create the perfect picture. Once we had all gotten a handle on how those three things interact, we started working on photo composition.  The workshop was concluded with a photo session with two models. It was a great time to test out our new knowledge and have Erin there to ask questions.

I'm very proud to say, I have only shot in manual since! I still don't have photo editing software so here are some raw images from the day:

My Friend Ashley who attended the workshop with me.

Here are a few picts I've shoot since attending the workshop! After the workshop, I bought a 50mm F/1.8 lens which I have loved having!

My cousin's new baby: