Anniston is 7 Months!

Baby Anniston,

My how time is flying by- you are growing so fast and learning new things every day.  Sometimes I feel you are growing too fast for my liking and other times I can't wait to see you grow up and develop your own personality.  These are possibly the best times of my entire life.  I love to kiss your chubby cheeks and snuggle with you.  I look forward to spending my days off playing with you and taking you shopping with me. When I come into your nursery in the morning and you smile so big at me it instantly makes every day a great day.

You are sitting up like a pro now!  You can sit up in shopping carts when we go to the store and you can sit up in restaurants when we go out to eat (which we've done quite often these last few weeks.)  You grab everything within reach.  We have to be careful at restaurants especially because you try to grab everything on the table!  You LOVE to people watch!  You are usually so content and happy when we go places because you love to watch everything around you.  You love going to Kristi's because you are entertained by the other babies there and love to watch everything they do.

You have started crawling backwards!  This really began the weekend that Daddy was at training in Tulsa.  We sent him videos of you maneuvering yourself from one end of the playmat to the other.  He was so surprised by what you had learned since he had been gone.  You can even push yourself up on all fours and "rock" back and forth.  This past week you have figured out how to go from sitting to all fours (without taking a nose dive) and from all fours to sitting back up!  It's not going to be long before we have a completely mobile Anniston on our hands!

You have developed more of a personality this last month.  You sometimes "fuss" when you don't get what you want.  If I put you down (in the playpen or exersaucer) and you want me to pick you up you will pitch a tiny little fit until I come and get you or pay you some attention.  You fuss a little louder if I walk out of the room.  When you want me to pick you up you will raise your arms up in the air.

You are eating 4 oz bottles about 6 times a day (except your bottle before bed is 6 oz).  You are eating 3 solid meals a day- breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  We offer you juice after dinner, but here lately you only take a little of it.  You have graduated from the infant tub to a new rubber ducky blowup tub that sits in the bath.  You sit up really well in it but sometimes you are all over the place and it takes two people to give you a bath!

You are in size 2 diapers, size 3 nighttime diapers, and mostly 6-9 month clothes.  You can wear some 12 month clothes!

Your hair is growing so fast!  It has gotten so much thicker up top and your little bald spot on the back of your head has filled back in!  Yay!

You are still taking 4, sometimes 5, naps a day.  When I'm off work, I like to lay down with you in our bed while you take your late afternoon nap.  I absolutely love the snuggle time with you!  The other day, we both napped for 3 hours!  I guess we were tired!

Most days you wake up around 5:00 am.  If you wake up earlier than that, sometimes I will put you in bed with us and you will go back to sleep for another hour or so.  This has been a life saver for us to get that extra bit of sleep in the mornings!

You are still such a happy baby!  You LOVE to smile at everyone.  Every time you giggle I think my heart melts a little more.  I cannot honestly think of a better sound than hearing you laugh.  These have been the best 7 months of my life- and it's all because of you!  Happy 7 months baby girl!

Weekend Rewind

It's Monday!  It's a happy Monday for me because it's my day off!  I worked this past weekend so I don't have much to talk about but I do have a few random things I'd like to share.  I'm going to do this in bullet form because I'm lazy and because I really meant it when I said this post would be random:)

- This was my very first Mother's Day!  I did have to work but I still had a great day!  Brandon gave me a pair of Nike running sunglasses that I've been wanting forever and surprised me with some Dinstuhl's chocolate truffles Saturday night when I got off work.  Brandon and Anniston went out to Aunt Tara's for a Mother's Day get together while I was at work. Brandon is such a good Daddy to take such good care of Anniston on the weekends I work.  He said they had a great time and she was so good. I think he really enjoys the father/daughter time.

- Our painters have finished painting the outside of our house.  I'm going to post some before and after pictures, but we still have to get shutters and we want to replace our front porch posts too.  We are also going to get some new landscaping but that might not be until later on.

- Our house getting painted has inspired me to update some of the inside decor a little.  I have a list of a couple of things I want to re-do so I'm going to start with one project at a time.  All this will hopefully transfer nicely when we move (which will not be before next summer).  I'll show some before and afters of what I redecorate as well!

- Brandon and I had a nice little dinner out Friday night at Old Venice.  Anniston sat up in her highchair, tried to grab everything on the table, and loved looking around at all the people.  It was fun!

-Brandon and I also got caught up on a lot of DVR this weekend after Anniston went to bed.  House Hunters, SNL (Will Ferrell was on!), and Shark Tank.  By the way- if you don't watch Shark Tank you totally should.  It's our new favorite show.

- We are planning a trip to the zoo next weekend and I'm so excited!

That's about all I have- I told you it was a boring weekend.  I have today off and next weekend off so it's going to be a great week!  Hopefully I will have more to report next Monday!

Day in the Life 5/9/12

So many people have been doing this lately and since I really wanted to do a "Week in the Life" photo book that just didn't happen, I decided to this post instead.  It will be so fun to look back on in a couple of years and see what our life was like.  I'm off work today and this is a pretty normal routine for us when we are at home.  I might do another one in a week or so and pick a day when I go to work.  I really want to document that as well!

5:30 am- Anniston wakes up. She is an early riser.  I cannot get her to sleep much past this time.  When I work the early shift we have to be out the door at 7 so she has to be up at 6 am in order for us to get ready to leave.  She is now in the habit of getting up early and I've just had to embrace the early wake-up time and view it as extra time to get stuff done, spend time with her, etc.  Brandon is already up and starting to get ready to leave for Oxford, MS for a business trip so he goes to get her from her crib and puts her in bed with me.  I know she probably won't go back to sleep at this point but I wanted to lay in bed for a minute and snuggle with her.  I'm off work today, so I don't get to do this very much!

6:00 am- I sit her in her in her highchair while I get her breakfast out.  We have bananas and apples (1 container of each) and I make note that I need a Target run today to stock up on more baby food.  I feed her a 4 oz bottle after that. 

6:30 am- Once she's finished with breakfast, I sit her in the exersaucer we keep in the kitchen while I clean up her breakfast, wash some bottles, fill the dishwasher up, and eat a little something myself.  I look over at her and she has "walked" over to where my purse hangs and is trying to chew the strap off!

The innocent before face:

Caught red-handed!

7:00 am- we come into the playroom (our living room) to sit on the playmat and I write a blog post while she plays with her toys and crawls around (backwards, not forwards yet.)

7:30 am- I get her dressed for the day with a new outfit I bought from Janie and Jack.  She looks adorable in it and I can't resist taking a few pictures of her.

8:15 am- Anniston goes down for her first nap of the day.  Right now, she doesn't nap for long periods of time, but instead takes a lot of short naps during the day.  I take a shower and get dressed while she naps.

8:45 am- Anniston wakes up and she sits in my lap for a while playing with a toy while I download some pictures to my computer.

9:30 am- It's time for another 4 oz bottle and to get ready for our Target run.  I have painters at my house today painting the outside of our house (hopefully we are putting it on the market soon!) so it's a bit of an ordeal to get Ruby put up so she won't bother them and to get them to all back up so I can get out of my driveway.  Did I mention I'm so ready to move?

10:00 am- Target run!  Anniston has so much fun sitting up in the shopping cart and looking at everything.  I would make a few funny faces or say something and she would squeal and giggle at me as if she's having the best time. 

 We then run in Pottery Barn outlet since it's in the same shopping center just to see if they have anything I can't resist.  I ended up finding this drink dispenser (I've been looking for one but I haven't been satisfied with any of the ones I've found so far) to use for her birthday party.  How awesome is this?

11:10 am- we arrive back home and it's time for Anniston's second nap of the day.  While she naps, I unload the car and put away our Target purchases, put a load of laundry in the wash, and edit some pictures.

12:15 pm- Anniston wakes up and is one hungry girl!  It's time for lunch.  She has peas followed by another 4 oz bottle

12:30 pm- We play some more in her "playroom."

1:20 pm- I put her in her jumparoo while I put clothes in the dryer and clean up from lunch.

1:45 pm- Nap time again!  I sit down to write this blog post and play on the internet for a bit.

2:20 pm- Anniston wakes up and I hold her for a bit while she gets fully woken up. She plays in her playpen while I fold clothes then I sit her in the exersaucer in the kitchen while I make me some nachos as a snack.  I use the multi-grain tortilla chips and a little mild cheddar and bake in the oven for a couple of minutes.  Simple and random, I know but I didn't have much here at the house and I needed a little snack.  Aunt Allie decides to stop by for a little while to hang out with us.  

3:00 pm-  Aunt Allie feeds Anniston a 4 oz bottle while I make her (Allie) some of my nachos- guess they looked pretty good, eh?

3:15-4:20 pm- We all play in the playroom.  We try to "teach" Anniston to crawl forwards.  Anniston has just (as in today) gotten the hang of going from all fours to sitting up and vice versa.  We watched her practice that for a bit.

4:20 pm- I try to put Anniston down for her last nap of the day but she was resisting and fussing quite a bit.  This is sometimes the hardest nap for her to take but it helps her not be so fussy before bedtime.  So about 4:45 after listening to her fuss for 20 minutes, Anniston, Ruby, and I all get in bed to take a nap.  We've been doing this the past couple of weeks at this time (when I'm off work) and I enjoy snuggling with her and watching her sleep beside me.  Sometimes I will close my eyes too but mostly I just play on my iPad and enjoy having my girls in the bed with me.

5:30 pm- Anniston wakes up and since Brandon is home by now, he feeds her some squash and mix of broccoli, peas, and pears for dinner.  I always offer her some watered down juice afterwards, but here lately she only takes a couple of sips and is done with it.  

5:50 pm- Brandon goes to get pick up some dinner at a local favorite of ours.  Brandon's mom or "Mimi" as we call her is coming over for a bit to hang out with us and see Anniston.

6:00 pm- Mimi arrives and we spend some time talking with her and showing her what all Anniston has learned since the last time she saw her.  We all eat dinner as well.

7:00 pm- Anniston takes her last bottle of the day.  I usually give her 6 oz at this last feeding.  We play a bit more and then start getting ready for bed.

7:30 pm- I get Anniston in her pajamas and ready for bed.  If today were a bath night, we would do that first, but tomorrow is bath night so we get to skip that today!  Mimi realizes she locked her keys in her car and has to call Triple A.  Anniston and I go back into her nursery while Brandon and Mimi wait for Triple A.

8:30 pm- Mimi finally gets her car unlocked and Brandon and I sit down to relax.  Brandon watches his sports shows and I finish up this post.  Most nights we do a little pick-up around the house once she goes to bed, but since I've been home all day the house is pretty much in order.  Plus, my cleaning lady came yesterday!  We watch a little TV together and he rubs my feet (I love to have my feet rubbed and he is such a good husband to do it!)

9:45 pm- We go get in bed.  We generally will watch about 10-15 minutes of random TV in bed before going to sleep but we are so tired tonight we go straight to sleep!

Thankful

Today I am feeling especially thankful for so many things.  It's going to be such a pretty day outside and I have the next two days off work to spend time with Anniston!

I am so thankful for my job.  I really do have a great job that I love and my schedule suits us pretty well right now.  It's uncommon for a retail pharmacist to have an 8-5 job and up until I had Anniston, I would work 12 hour shifts and every other weekend.  Everything just fell into place when I returned back to work after having her.  I work 8-5 some days, others I work 10-8, or 12-8, and.........I only work every THIRD weekend!  I really, really like my schedule.  It keeps every week a little different, and I do enjoy the weeks I work the weekends.  I may have to work on Saturday and Sunday, but I get 2 days off together during the week to spend quality time with Anniston, run errands, etc.  I'm very thankful that I have a job I love.

I'm thankful for Kristi, Anniston's babysitter.  We really lucked up with finding her.  We have a mutual friend that recommended her, and at the time she didn't have any availability.  Funny how things work out, because she called me back a few weeks after I had contacted her saying she was going to have an opening starting 3 weeks before I went back to work!  I could not be happier with her.  She loves Anniston so much and takes such good care of her.  She texts me during the day if Anniston does something funny or cute.  She buys Anniston clothes if she sees something cute she just can't pass up. I should probably mention that the mutual friend we have in common is our hairdresser and friend, Laura.  Yesterday afternoon when I went to get Anniston, Kristi and I decided to go get our hair done together.  She already had made plans to head over to Laura's house, and I was in the process of trying to see if Laura could fit me in during the next couple of days.  Kristi suggested we both go last night, and she would watch and play with Anniston while I got my hair done.  After a quick call to Laura, that's what we did.  We all had so much fun hanging out at Laura's house and playing with all the kids (Laura has 2 of her own, both watched by Kristi when they were younger!)  I am so thankful for Kristi and all she does for us!

I am thankful for my wonderful husband who is around more these days.  Since starting his new job a couple of months ago, he has not had to travel near as much as he did before (with the exception of the 2 week training in Tulsa.)  I'm so happy he is in town more!

And because I want to post some pics along with this post- here are some randoms that I took last week while playing around with my camera settings!

Weekend Rewind

I'm linking up with Tami again for another edition of Weekend Rewind!  We had a fabulous weekend over at the Medling house. It was beautiful weather (although it's starting to get a little too hot for my taste) and I was wrapping up the end of my awesome vacation week.

Friday night Brandon and I decided to go out to eat with Anniston.  We took her to one of our favorite restaurants- Old Venice.  It has a great atmosphere and is kid friendly too.  Anniston was so good.  We were going to try to sit her up in a high chair, but the only one they had left had a broken strap.  So we left her in her carseat and put her up in one of those slings so she could watch what all was going on.  She people watched for most of the dinner and it was nice to have a sit down meal for a change with my husband.

On Saturday, my mom and grandmother came in town to see us.  I have to work on Mother's Day so we celebrated a little early.  Brandon had to work a trade show in Tunica so he was gone for most of the morning. I gave my mom and grandmother photo books I had made from Shutterfly (each personalized just for them) and I also had Mother's Day cards made with a picture of Anniston on them.  We also gave my mom a special "Kay Kay" necklace we got from Etsy.  I think they loved all their gifts!  I'm mailing out the rest of the cards I had made for Brandon's family later this week.

Then we went outside on our back deck and had a little photo shoot:
Note:  I'm trying to work on my photo editing a little and experimenting with different techniques so some of these are better than others:)  I have a ways to go before I get to where my sister is with "picture taking" as my grandmother calls it:)

We went to Jason's Deli for lunch and we were finally able to try Anniston out in the highchair.  She loved being up at our level and kept trying to grab things off the table!  She is getting sneaky!  Brandon was home by the time we got back and we had the most relaxing and lazy afternoon.  We all (Ruby included) piled on our bed and just to watch some TV and play with Anniston.  She loves to roll around on our bed.  That night, Allie kept Anniston for us so we could have one more date night before I returned to work.  I think Allie and Anniston had some quality "auntie" time and Allie said she was really good.

Sunday morning Allie and I headed out with Anniston for a very serious photo shoot.  Seriously- we've been planning this for months.  Today was round 1 and the pics were stunning.  I'm not going to post them until we are done with this shoot and I don't want to give away any details but....it involves pearls and a pink vintage suitcase!

We were lazy again that afternoon and I chose to give my undivided attention to Anniston all day instead of trying to get anything on my "to do" list accomplished.  It was my last day off before returning to work so I wanted to spend as much time as possible with her.  We got out her pool for the first time and set it up on our back deck.  She absolutely loved it!  I had foam alphabet letters and rubber duckies for her to play in the water with and she was so into all of it!  I'm so glad she liked it and wasn't scared of the water.

So that was our weekend!  It's going to be a hard adjustment going back to work and not seeing Anniston as much after I've had an entire week off, but I'm sure I'll get back in my routine again quickly.

Kate Spade Party

Thursday evening Allie and I attended another Kate Spade party.  Food, drinks, and an extra 20% off everything in the store- how could we say no?  I will have to admit, the party wasn't quite as good as the one we attended back in December.  You can read all about that party here.  The store wasn't as decked out with extravagant decor and the food and drinks were minimal. It was still fun though.  Since we don't really get out much at night these days, this was a real treat for me.  Thanks to my sweet husband for staying home with Anniston.  (Although she was ready for bed by the we left so all he really had to do was put her in her crib.)

I had not planned on buying anything but when I saw this bag it was love at first site.  How cool looking is this? I love that it's a crossbody (hands free people!!!), I love that it has a chain strap to dress it up a little, and I love the "cork" look to dress it down a little.  I mean, this bag will go with anything and everything!  At least that's what I told Brandon when he asked what I bought.  He did not agree- I got an eye roll instead.

I don't even think this collection is out yet.  The sales lady told us this had just arrived and they were only putting it out for the party.  Score!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

This week has started off great!  I'm finally getting some things checked off my to-do list, I'm spending time with Anniston, and I've made some decisions and come to peace about a few things.

(one)  I'm loving that I got started on shopping for Anniston's birthday party yesterday.  Please don't tell my husband I'm starting this early (her birthday isn't until October!) because I'm pretty sure he will send me off to a crazy house. I don't think of it as crazy- I see myself as SO.ON.TOP.OF.THINGS.  If you follow me on Pinterest you can probably get a clue on what the theme is.  I've been pinning away then saving everything that I find (websites, pictures) in an Evernote folder with notes to myself.  I've categorized everything into subfolders labeled food, decor, where to buy stuff, etc.  I had a few ideas of things that I really wanted to find but I knew actually finding it was going to be hit or miss.  I was in luck yesterday!  Check out these great finds (all found for very cheap):

(two)  I'm loving that I am getting some projects done this week- but at the same time realizing that I just can't do everything that I want to do or that I find is cute.  I really wanted to do a day in the life photo book that I saw on Pinterest.  This just is not going to happen.  I tried on Monday, but Anniston is at a stage now where she gets bored very easily so I was constantly having to do different things to entertain her.  I ended up getting frustrated that I couldn't take all the pictures that I wanted and then realized "who cares!"  Yes, it would've been fun to do but not to the point that I get stressed and end up taking time away from her and her needs.  I feel much better now that I have come to that realization and have that taken off my plate!  I am, however, working on a photo book (a much easier project) of her first 6 months.  I wanted a collection of photos in a book so that I have them to look at instead of on my blog or computer.  Maybe I will do a day in the life on my blog instead of the book- that will be an easier task with the same concept.

(three)  I'm loving some J Crew- surprise, surprise!  I have been debating about getting some colored ballet flats and I finally broke down and purchased some. They should be arriving this week sometime!

(four)  I'm loving that I'm getting organized this week.  I ordered some memo/menu boards off Etsy last week and I hope to get them in this week.  I'm planning a chore list (sometimes you just have to write it down for the husband to know he has to do it) and a menu planner.  I'm really going to try to stick to the menu planner.  I find if I don't plan ahead then we end up getting take out because I'm just too dang tired at night.  Hopefully, I can prepare stuff on Sunday and take care of that problem!

(five)  I'm loving Anniston's new chair I bought from Pottery Barn!  Look how darn cute she looks sitting up in it like a big girl!

(six)  And finally, I'm loving that I made a decision about the St. Jude Marathon in December- and have come to peace with it.  I originally wanted to try to run the half marathon (my first ever).  I have decided that it's just not going to happen for me this year.  It would require quite a bit of training for me, since I'm only running about 3 miles here and there right now.  That's about all I have time for anyway.  I could see myself having a training schedule, getting sidetracked with Anniston, work, and just life in general and then getting upset and stressed because I was behind. At that point it would not have been fun anymore.  Right now I'm having fun running- I go when I can and when it's convenient.  I clear my head and work up a little sweat- but I don't get upset when it doesn't happen.  I also didn't want training for this to take away from other things in my life.  I work full time and have a 6 month old- "my time" is pretty limited.  If I were to really focus on St. Jude, other things (like blogging, doing projects, and, heck, sometimes just being lazy) were going to fall by the wayside.  I'd rather do a little of everything!  There is always next year- maybe by then the situation will be different and I will have better learned how to fit in all the things I love to do.  Right now I'm still learning how to give a little to everything- my husband, my job, myself, and most importantly, Anniston.  Don't get me wrong- I'm still going to run as much as I can.  Hopefully, I can go with Allie on her training runs some days.  I just have to learn that I cannot do it all!