Caroline at 6 Months

Caroline, you are 6 months old! And now with each passing day you'll be closer to being a toddler than a newborn. What happened to my tiny baby? You've replaced her with a rambunctious and curious baby girl always ready for adventure. Well, just as long as mommy is there with you too, that's your one requirement: mommy must be close by. 

Note the flying Super Baby's backwards bib. In our house we say bibs are just backwards capes. 

Meow! 

You love your afternoon/evening walks around the neighborhood. You get so excited when I strap you into the jogging stroller. 

Out to lunch with Mommy & Daddy.

With Mommy's friend, Hannah. You definitely liked Hannah! 

6 Month Stats

Weight: 14 pounds 

Height: 24 1/2 inches

Diaper size: you mostly wear GroVia Hybrid and BumGenius cloth diapers during the day. But if you wear disposable you're a size 2.

Cloths: You've just grown out of the very last of your 3 month clothes and are now in all 6 month clothes.

Sleep: It's all over the place. Naps are random and very short and you usually go to night night about 7:30 and sometimes wake up for the day as early as 5:30 with anywhere from 1 to 3 wakes during the night. 

Activities: Walks in the stroller, books, chewing on your Sophie Giraffe, baths in the sink (you're mostly just interested in playing with the shiny faucet). 

Food: We've started you on solids and we're doing some baby led solids and some spoon feeding. Your favorites so far are banana, avocado, and green beans.  

Mother's Day

On Mother's Day I pretty much forgot my camera all day long.

Let down? Me too.

But at least I remembered it first thing in the morning and then again at dinner time.

Who can remember a camera when you've got to remember diapers, wipes, formula, bottles, change of clothes (because the day you don't pack them the baby WILL have an epic pee pee accident), Sophie the giraffe, lip balm (that one's for mommy), bib...

My Mother's Day breakfast in bed. Honestly I could care less about the breakfast part it's the getting to stay in bed part while Daddy takes care of the baby part I most enjoyed. 7:30 is now considered major sleeping in. 

Caroline assisted with the card, but apparently she wiggled her hand so much it became hard to trace. Hence the larger than real life hand. But it's precious anyways. 

 Good morning!

 And that orange around her nose is carrot. I stayed in bed except for a brief 20 minutes hiatus, long enough to finagle a little pureed carrot into the munchkin. Though I wonder sometimes if more of it ends up on her face, in her hands, sticky in her hair than actually in her mouth. 

My Mother's Day bouquet. I have two strong beliefs about flowers: they always look better in a white pitcher (a la vintage country) and never, ever carnations. 

And my Mother's Day card and gift from Caroline. It had a picture of an owl mommy and owl baby reading together on the front because Owl Babies is one of her favorite books we read together...

"Dear Mommy,

Thank you for reading me all these great books...I have learned so much and love going to the library with you. As a thank you, Daddy said I can send you to get your finger nails painted (I don't know what that means- I just scratch my head with mine). He said you would like it. Will you read me the owl book again?

I love you- sorry I'm a hassle sometimes.

- lil C"

Heart. Melted. 

Real Life. Blog Life.

Real life: I'm in sweatpants and a t-shirt all day. Load and unload dishwasher. Repeat.  Clean baby food off of baby. My hair is likely moderately disheveled looking. Clean baby food off of highchair. Hand wash baby bottles. Repeat. Clean baby food off of floor. I'm eating a Luna Bar for a quick lunch.  Unload dishwasher then realize midway through the dishes are actually dirty.  Clean baby food stains on laundry. FOFO (full on freak out as one of my mommy friends coined it. Or as the non-mom population might term it: a meltdown). Load and unload laundry. Repeat. Find dried baby food in my hair. Sweet slobbery drooling baby kisses. Is that a sweet potato-carrot stain on my sleeve?

Blog life: I brush my hair for starters. I put on an adorable "mom outfit" (which is ridiculous because a realistic mom outfit would be anything adorned in spit-up). Coordinate my daughter in a matching striped dress and a pair of monogrammed baby bloomers. (Yes you heard me right, monogrammed baby bloomers). We meet Daddy at a local foods restaurant that's vegan and gluten free friendly. Daddy happens to be wearing a shirt that coordinates with our outfits (Christmas miracle, y'all). And we smile and take pictures of our adorable matching family.

Isn't life beautiful? 

7: An Afternoon with Jen Hatmaker

Seen this book cover popping up anywhere lately? It's 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess by Jen Hatmaker (also the author of Interrupted). I tell you, this book came at exactly the right time in my life. I've had simplifying on the mind for weeks before I picked up 7. In the weeks that preceded me opening the cover of 7 for the very first time I was becoming more and more upset about the excess of extravagance we live with and the poverty, oppression, slavery, and sickness the majority of the world lives with. 

It's not hard, here in middle class America, to think of ourselves as just that- people economically on the middle of the spectrum. When comparing ourselves to the people around us who have bigger houses, newer cars, more expensive clothes it isn't a challenge to buy into this lie. But let me rock your world for a moment if you will. If you make $35,000 a year you are in the top 4% of earners on the planet. Make a little more at $50,000? Well then you're in the top 1% of earners on the planet. This is no joke or statistic to read now and forget later.   This is a huge deal. We're sitting here in our air conditioned living rooms with the TV playing in the background while we browse Pinterest and conspire to create bigger houses, collect more fashionable clothes, and make the 8th chocolate chip cookie recipe we've tried this month. Why are we so sold on our culture's lie that we need to be constantly striving for more things we don't really need and probably won't use while the vast majority of the world is merely trying to survive another day? Okay, I apologize. No need to get on a soap box. I know I'm preaching to the choir here. Did I really need those buy 2 get 1 free earrings at Franchesca's?  Nope. Did I really need to buy that gray maxi dress at Old Navy I'll probably wear 5 times this summer? Nada. Do I really need to go to the grocery store 4 times a week when my pantry is already crowded for space with perfectly good food? Guilty again. 

I'll stop going on and on (because when I open my mouth I seem to be getting on a soapbox and we all know that won't end well). And let Jen Hatmaker's incredible book do the talking...

Y'all have to check it out. I'm not kidding. It will change your life and bring you so much freedom and joy. Don't make me buy you all one for Christmas and then bug you till you've read it. Let's do this the easy way.

Oh, and that's me with Mrs. Hatmaker herself!!! She was speaking at The National Christian Foundation's women's luncheon at Mez in Durham last week and my sweet hubby knew I was borderline obsessed with her book and snagged me an invite while talking to their local chapter pres. It made my week to get to go hear her speak and get to meet her. (And Jen T. I really enjoyed sitting with you!)

And here's the summary of the book:

Overview

American life can be excessive, to say the least. That’s what Jen Hatmaker had to admit after taking in hurricane victims who commented on the extravagance of her family’s upper middle class home. She once considered herself unmotivated by the lure of prosperity, but upon being called “rich” by an undeniably poor child, evidence to the contrary mounted, and a social experiment turned spiritual was born.

7 is the true story of how Jen (along with her husband and her children to varying degrees) took seven months, identified seven areas of excess, and made seven simple choices to fight back against the modern-day diseases of greed, materialism, and overindulgence.

Food. Clothes. Spending. Media. Possessions. Waste. Stress. They would spend thirty days on each topic, boiling it down to the number seven. Only eat seven foods, wear seven articles of clothing, and spend money in seven places. Eliminate use of seven media types, give away seven things each day for one month, adopt seven green habits, and observe “seven sacred pauses.” So, what’s the payoff from living a deeply reduced life? It’s the discovery of a greatly increased God—a call toward Christ-like simplicity and generosity that transcends social experiment to become a radically better existence.

Anyone else out there up for being completely crazy and doing our own little version of 7 with me?

I Couldn't Ask For Anything More...

According to Caroline

Mommy says: "Be still my beating heart this is just too cute I cannot handle it."

Caroline says: "Mom I think I look stupid in this big bow. Are you really going to take me out to eat at Nantucket looking like this?"

Behold the glory of ice cream from Caroline's perspective. Yes, I added the light rays beaming out from the bowl of ice cream because I just couldn't help myself. That girl wants what Daddy's eating so bad. Mike, you are now accountable for any junk food you eat around her, she's watching. And we all know she only sees Mommy's superb eating habits noshing on  spinach and kale all day (kidding!). 

From the looks of it Daddy dressed Caroline again. 

(And if you can't figure out what's wrong with the picture Daddy put the pants on before the onesie. I think it's a guy thing because I hear other dads do the exact same thing.) We love you anyways, Daddy. 

"Whatdya say, Mommy?"

Cloth Diapering Confessions: A Slightly Sarcastic Rant on the Perils

I need a moment to emote. Would you mind lending an ear?

Confession: Cloth diapers have been driving me absolutely bonkers for the last few weeks. The weekend I first started cloth diapers, Caroline ceremoniously had two massive poops in the first two cloth diapers I ever put on her bottom. It was good because starting out cloth diapering on the poopy side made the next couple months of my cloth diapering experience seem easy, almost carefree. When friends, a little skeptical of my ardor for cloth diapering, would ask how it was going I would tell them how easy I thought it was and how much I loved it. Yes, I loved cloth diapering. 

But then something happened. My infatuation turned into real life. It all started with the diaper rash that wouldn't go away, which ended up being a yeast problem with my cloth diapers. I spent hours scouring the internet for answers and measuring concoctions of natural cleaners. Literally the morning that problem was fixed I noticed mildew on my diapers. And with each wash and mildew destroying remedy it just spread. Thank goodness a friend who cloth diapers her son sent me instructions on how to strip BumGenius cloth diapers. It worked. Finally! 

It seemed my cloth diapering woes were solved. Until the pee pee incidents began to come. And I mean come. This little girl was leaking out of her cloth diapers just about every time I put a new one on. And with every leak (which invariably always occur when I'm holding her while sitting in a chair) I must then change my clothes, change her clothes, clean the chair, and...oh no... I just realized the chair I'm sitting in now was the one where the last peepee incident occurred and I forgot to clean it. I'm so serious, I couldn't make this stuff up. I'll be right back...

Nothing a little vinegar and water solution in a spray bottle can't fix. Back to my rant...

And then I unintentionally made my cloth diapering problems worse. I decided to try a different brand of cloth diapers to see if I could get a better fit. Upon tearing open the package in the mail and racing upstairs to see if they fit my baby I was bummed, they seemed to be an even worse fit. Then genius me decides to post the ill fit on Facebook (because it's always smart to post your problems on Facebook before you've had a chance to think it through) and I had a dozen or so moms nicely and some not so nicely tell me I obviously didn't know how to use them to make them fit. Silly me, I thought my infant would need the diapers to be set on the "infant snaps" setting. Apparently she fits the newborn size snap sets instead. Why did I not think of this? Especially when she's still in 3 month clothes at almost 6 months?

In honesty, I'm not sure I'm glad I figured out how to get them to fit because it means I can use them now, or disappointed because my no-cloth-diapers-fit-my-very-tiny-baby-excuse doesn't really work anymore. 

But I'm not giving up on cloth diapers. yet.

Though I prefer the convenience of disposables I'm crunchy at heart and living granola often means doing things that are not convenient (like toting reusable bags around the mall and garnering strange looks from the department store ladies upon purchasing your items and shoveling them into a hemp woven carry-all). 

Here's my reasoning behind sticking it out a little longer:

1) It saves money. I don't remember the exact statistic but estimates say cloth diapering can save up to $2,000 per child. That might not seem like a lot to some people. But I'm not working outside the home to contribute money so any way I can save I take it. For me disposable diapers seem like more of a luxury. I think of each time I pop a cloth diaper on as a time I saved a quarter. It might not seem huge, but little steps add up to big changes. 

2) The environment. Now before you roll your eyes at me thinking I'm going to go all hippie on you let me explain. Every time I fasten on a Winnie-the-Pooh adorned disposable diaper on my babe I can see the expression my Textiles teacher gave in college when she began telling us about the chemicals that went into disposable diapers and how land fill workers have to wear hazmat suits because of the fumes given off by the chemicals in disposables that are breaking down. Y'all it gives me shutters every time. Being a Home Ec major and taking Textiles has ruined me for a good many man made luxuries including disposable diapers, carpeting, and hand soap. But I suppose the latter two are stories for a different day...

So where does that leave me on my cloth diapering journey?
I'm taking a break. 
But wait, what? What about saving the polar bears and hazmat suits?
I know, I know, I can sometimes be as crunchy as they come (for example I didn't shampoo my hair for a month when I joined the "no 'poo" movement, again another story for another day) but I realize that if I go insane from using cloth diapers (or suffer severe humiliation in front of cloth diapering pros as they inform me that my "cloth diapering safe detergent" actually has plant oils that may alter absorption) I will not be in the right mind to do more important things with my baby and raise her to know the perils of conventionally grown corn products. So I'm giving myself a couple of weeks and then I'll pull out those BumGenius and GroVia, wielding my diaper sprayer and show those poopy diapers whose boss.

Here's to realizing and understanding our limits as moms and knowing it's okay to take a break when we need it.

Oh and here's to saving the environment, that too. 

Any other moms out there have similar mommyhood experiences? 

Like Mother, Like Daughter, the Girl Loves Chocolate

It's no well kept secret in our house that I have a weakness for Ghirardelli's 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Baking Chips. I have them every day. Multiple times a day. And often with breakfast.

While my girl may not be old enough to enjoy a bite of my favorite dark chocolate indulgence, she at least found great fun in playing with the bag...

It's like they always say, the child has more fun with the box the present came in than the present itself. Anyone else have a similar experience?