Fun with baby gifts!

Two new babies have recently been born to friends of ours and what better way to celebrate than with baby gifts??

After Michael was born, so many people sent nice things over to the house through the mail. I was so surprised...I really had no idea people did that.

So now I know... and I had so much fun shopping that I wanted to share my goodies with you!

The first is for a little girl, whose parents are really into living green. I picked up this cute onesie that is organic cotton and soy. How cool is that? It is super soft and I really wanted one for myself, but no adult sizes. :o(

The crunchy store I was shopping at also had these wood teethers-so I sent one along with the package and also picked one up to take home to Michael.

The second gift is for a little boy so I included some of Michael's favorites. He loved wearing the little sleeping gowns with snaps. Because he hated anything going over his head, he lived in those the first month of his life! Also tucked into the package were a fun rattle (LaMaze toys...they are so cute) and of course my favorite, a board book. :o)

We are so happy for everyone! I hope they enjoy their gifts! Yay for new babies!

Sweet Shot Tuesday

My pretty kitty, taken totally by accident on my Canon Elph! :o) I thought it was a pretty sweet shot!

Baby bookworm

Confession: I am currently obsessed with baby board books.



I think the obsession was triggered during a trip to Barnes and Noble when I was browsing the children's section on a coffee high. I looked at the board books and I wanted to take them all home with me. They are just so little and perfect and cheery!! I love board books!! So cute!

But, I didn't buy any because I am a cheapskate.

However, I did log on to ebay when I got home and proceeded to bid on several lots of baby board books and I ended up winning a couple of them. How much did I pay for about 30 books? Around $5. (plus a little more for shipping and handling).

It is so exciting to get them in the mail and start building my little library. And of course...it is fun to read them to Michael too.

We've also been frequenting the library as well (because I love free things!!).
I joined a baby story time group and so we can get new books every week.

Here is what we picked up this week:



I love love love these Skippyjon Jones' books. Mostly because he looks like my cat and they are so fun to read out loud. Also as a bonus: they help you brush up on your meager high school Spanish!

Have you ever heard of Usborne books? An Usborne lady had a booth at the county fair this year and I bought a couple of their books because I just couldn't resist. They are so dang adorable! However...they are very expensive and again, I am cheap, so I was so excited to see the library had a great collection of Usborne books!



I like this one because it is a touch and feel. However since it is a library book, we try to be very careful and make sure Michael's fingers are slobber free before he touches it. But mostly he just wants to chew on it, so we usually hold it far away (good thing the print is large!)

How cute is that?

I also like the books with nursery rhymes or songs so you can sing the words.

...because sometimes I just think singing is more fun. :o)

Thanks for listening to me rant about my little obsession! Anyone else out there have crazy baby obsessions? Anyone have any favorite baby books they love?

Big boy pants!

Michael has the cutest pair of baby gap jeans and he looks like such a big boy when he wears them!



I figured I better hurry up and take a photo because when he was playing on the floor I noticed how painfully short they were!



Poor guy, I'm sure he will probably be dealing with this problem his whole life. :o(

(While I was trying to take his photo he was too busy checking out the bowl of m&m's! I told him he could have one if he could pick one up with his fingers, but our little pincer grasp has a lot of work ahead of it, as you can see from the photo! But seriously, I wouldn't have let him have any even if he could pick them up!)

(also, the m&m's were before we started our eating/fitness program...no more of those in the house!)

A little sunshine....

These happy daffodils were $1.78 a bunch at HyVee last week so I picked up a couple. They are so bright and cheery, it really makes it feel like spring around here. The weather has been beautiful the past few days but unfortunately with all the snow melting and rainfall, my beloved Jester Park is FLOODED! The gates are closed; you can't even go in! I need to find somewhere else with minimal traffic where I can park, get out and walk.

In other news, Scott has started a new fitness program called "Goals in Motion". He wakes up early every morning and heads to a 6:15 workout, alternating between kickboxing and resistance training. So far he is pretty sore, but he is really liking it! We are eating super healthy, and I am being a supportive partner by shopping and preparing good foods for us to eat. It is so much easier when we are both on board- he has a hard time coming up with ideas for meals by himself and when I do an eating program, he never wants to eat the food! So this is a good compromise!

I have been getting up early with him and I do my own workout at home before Michael wakes up. So far, so good except last night Michael came down with a bad cold so I skipped this morning's workout in lieu of sleeping in (but hopefully we can get some exercise in later today....maybe out in the fresh air)! I feel so bad for the poor baby because there isn't a whole lot I can do for him. :o( I hope he feels better soon!

Any tips on how to help a sick baby??

Or a tired momma?

Breaking for Spring

Happy Spring Everyone!

My sister in law, niece, and nephew came to visit me on my spring break since they were also on spring break. It actually felt like spring!

We went to Jester Park to hang out for a bit...the snow has been melting and the lake is up really high! We had fun throwing rocks into it.

The next day we spent the entire day at the Science Center. We had a great time! We got to play with lots of exhibits and saw an IMAX movie in the dome theater. Very cool.

We all had a great time!

Snapshots

It's time for another round of "Let's See what Rose has downloaded from her iphone camera!!"

1. Check out this crazy house:



Isn't that wild? It is one of the most expensive houses in Des Moines...I had only seen photos of it until I was driving Michael around for a nap the other day and cruised by it!

2. Also on our drive, we saw this house:

That's right, it is a Morton building and house in one! When we were building our house, I was seriously considering this because Scott could not get a garage that was big enough. How perfect would this be? It is like you are living in your garage!! Imagine all the cool storage space you would have!

3. Apparently housing is a theme here....

I was in our preK-1 building the other day for recess duty and I scoped out the igloo the kindergarten class made out of milk jugs. How cool is that? Our school sure drinks a lot of milk!!

4. And speaking of milk...

...here is Michael cruising the dairy aisle at Target! He recently started sitting up in the cart and that makes shopping so much more enjoyable for us and for all the old people who must come up and check him out. :o)

Lucky & Charming

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Weekend Recap

What a great weekend!

We had a great weekend...we kept it low key and stayed at home the entire time. A fun trip to Target (and lots of fun in the toy aisle!), some friends over for dinner and bball, and a nice walk at Jester Park (we took photos, but they are on my husband's iphone....I know, I took a walk without my camera?). What can get better than that?

...and also tons of cleaning and laundering all the bed linens. Why do I feel like washing bed laundry is always so much work?

Here is a quick video for you of Michael and his new toy.



Do you think this is too overstimulating for him? He LOVES it!

Navigation Issues

I posted Michael's 5 month milestones...but I dated it at his actual 5 month birthday, so it is buried in a bunch of old posts. Here is the link in case you want to see it!

I love slow cooker meal days!

Corned beef pot roast is snoozing and should be ready after school! Yay!

Readers, I interrupt my normal ramblings about my son and his drool and sleep patterns to bring you a post about one of my hobbies (yes...I do have hobbies!)- music!

I play in a community group and Tuesday night we had a concert. I had a terrible day at school and the concert was late at night, on a night I am usually at home with Scott and Michael. It was rainy and foggy and I was late getting to the concert hall for warmups and I was just in a general cranky mood! It is so hard trying to get out of the house period with a baby, let alone trying to get somewhere at a certain time and actually looking presentable!

So at any rate, I was really feeling sorry for myself the whole concert. My mind wasn't where it should have been and I kept thinking how I would rather be in bed snoozing or catching up on my TV shows. I had been frustrated with my students' seemingly lack of progress in their lessons and rehearsals and I was just feeling blah.

But then during the concert (we shared it with a local high school group), I saw all these great young musicians playing (and playing well!), enjoying their instruments, making music and well...it just made me feel better.



What good is it to be able to make music if you can't have fun doing it? For a super grand finale we joined forces with the high school group (no rehearsals-training wheels off!) to perform American Salute
(click to listen to recording!) and it was pretty darn cool.

So thanks, high school students for helping me realize that sometimes all you gotta do is sit down and play!

I love my little drooly face

Seriously...this drool face is not messing around. This is serious drool!

Where does it come from? The other day I was wearing Michael in his Moby wrap and loading the dishwasher. I kept hearing little pings of liquid hitting the floor and I thought it was odd. Turns out...it is just Michael's drool dropping to the ground. Lovely. His drooling has even inspired me-sometimes I wake up at night and I am startled that my chin is also covered in slobber. Maybe it is genetic. Who knows?

We've been trying to get back into the ol' routine after being out of town for the weekend. Michael has been doing alright, but every day we are home he gets better. Sometimes he is just the happiest baby ever and sometimes he is such a cranky-pants. I think part of it is over-stimulation and tiredness...he is just getting so darn good at being aware of what is going on around him; how could that not wear him out?
Man, by the time I get this all figured out he'll be all grown up!

Weekend Recap

This past weekend we traveled out of town to celebrate three birthdays: our niece, nephew, and Scott's great grandma!

We stayed with Scott's parents...it was so nice not to be the one hosting! Lots of hands to hold Michael and someone else to direct the family traffic- it was bliss! I even took a shower and fixed my hair in the same hour.



Margie spent the morning making kolaches, a Czech pastry. She left some out on the counter for us to snitch and I had never had them straight out of the oven before. They were heavenly!

Michael had so much fun watching his cousin Ellie the whole weekend. She is a firecracker!

On Saturday morning we took a walk by the river. It was sunny and the warmest it had been in months!! It felt good to burn off some energy and get out of the house for a bit.

Michael had a great time riding along in his Moby!

Sunday morning we headed up to Scott's grandma's place to celebrate her birthday. The whole family was there! It was a bit disorganized but then again...I was just happy I was not the one in charge! Betty's retirement home is very nice-they had a nice quiet library where Michael and I could hang out and he could nurse in peace. I want a library in my house!

Everyone was taking photos. I thought it was pretty funny...I wish we would have had people get up and taken real pictures instead of people just sitting in funny chairs. (they were funny...it was like we were too close to the table. It must be an old people thing).

Michael was pooped out and snoozed all the way home!

Pillowcase Dress Giveaway

One of the saddest parts about having a little boy is that you can't dress them up in pink and bows!! :o( Well, I could...but I think I will spare Michael that psychological damage!

My friend Jessica makes the cutest little pillowcase dresses and she is giving one away free!

Head on over to Gia Rose Designs, leave a comment and hopefully she picks you! :o)



You can thank me later!

5 Months

Michael is 5 months old!



Wow...just a few more weeks until we hit the half year mark! What is up with that? I feel like it was just yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital!

What can this big guy do?

• a big milestone we've recently mastered is sitting alone- he doesn't even need his hands anymore to help him sit! It is so cool, and he has lots of fun playing with his toys this way. However, we are now entering the problem of having toys all over the floor. I totally tripped going into his room when it was dark and there were toys all over the floored. Lesson learned....although I have a feeling this will be far from the last time!
  

• Michael has also gotten very good at recognizing his own name and where it is coming from. The other night I came home and he was playing on the floor. I said hi to him and he couldn't see me, but boy he was sure looking around to see where mom's voice was coming from!
  

• He is also getting better at picking up objects with his hands. We tried to see if he could pick up some tiny pieces of food off of his high chair tray, but that was not very successful! We'll keep working on that one!
  

He is growing so fast and changes so much every day. I feel like his looks are really changing too...it is so funny! This little guy never ceases to amaze me!

Adventures of Scampy

Today, Scampy gets his senior pictures taken! :o)

We're having a heat wave!

On Monday it was 35 degrees out so Michael and I went to our favorite walking spot- Jester Park!

It was such a beautiful day with the sun shining and the sky a bright blue!

Michael was all bundled up and stayed pretty warm even though we lost his little mitten at the very end of the walk! (don't worry, I tucked his little hand under his blanket and it stayed there!)

It felt so good to get outside...



...doesn't it look like Michael enjoyed it?