Day in the life

It's that time again! Navigating the Mothership is doing her quarterly round up so here goes nothing!

October 22, 2012

3:25 a.m.
Wake up to husband's alarm going off. I hate Mondays.

4:15 a.m.
Wake up to crying monster. Go in, rub her back, cover her up. Go back to doze.

4:35 a.m.
Not having it. Bring monster in bed with me and drift back to sleep. yay.

5:31 a.m.
Alarm goes off. Snooze. Snooze. Snooze.

5:58-6:34 a.m.
Decide to drag myself out of bed and get dressed/ready for work. Monster sleeps in my bed. I'm jealous. Make lunch/breakfast for myself. Monster will eat at granpat's house. and COFFEE. thank god for coffee. Get monster ready to go and leave for the day.

6:35-7:00 a.m.
Drop off monster at Granpat's house. "commute" to work. Smells like pizza. Love it when the bagel shop makes these bagels, garlic ones? Wait for the elevator. Log in.

 7:00-1:00
work. chat with coworkers.work.  eat snacks. work. check email and blogs. work.

1:30
Take monster to clinic.

2:15
leave clinic. Monster falls asleep in the car. Thankgod! Leave her in her car seat at home and get supper ready to be cooked. eat a snack, doritos, apple, and peanut butter bread cuz that's how i roll.

 2:55-4:15
Husband gets home. Monster wakes up and plays with her daddy for awhile. I play on my phone. Husband goes to do homework. monster falls back asleep on me. Need to get this kid to sleep in her bed! Anyone have any tips for babies who don't sleep in their beds well???

4:30-6:00
Supper for monster. Make/eat supper. Watch cat chase bugs. Solo trip to Target. bliss. so much faster alone!

6:15-8:00
Watch TV, have a treat, play with monster. Husband does homework and then puts monster to bed so I can watch my show (How I Met Your Mother). Bummed and confused when a rerun of Big Bang is on instead... is it Thursday? watch random shows and play on my phone/with cat.

 8:01-9:15
Get supper ready for the crockpot for tomorrow. Get ready for bed. Read a little.

 9:20
Monster cries out. Check on her. rock her and put her back to bed. Repeat many times throughout the night.

9:30
Lights out and sleep while husband does homework next to me. Cuz, I'm old.

party planning

It all started... with a nickname. Monster. and then a theme was found. little monsters. an invitation was chosen. pastel DIY print. and a PARTY was born.

I swear, I've been planning this party since before monster was born. But really I've been working on it more diligently since August. I thought at first I would just invite our immediate families (brothers and grandparents). Then realized that half of them wouldn't be able to make it. Sad. So I branched out and invited some close friends. Still more of them wouldn't be able to make it. Finally I realized that a lot of the husband's extended family hadn't met monster yet, so we invited them. Probably about 20-25 people actually came to our party! That is a lot for our little house.

I have been having so much fun planning this party that I am almost sad that it is over. ha-ha.  And, a party is a good excuse to get my butt in gear to clean the house! Especially things like vacuuming the stairs and the upstairs hallway corners. I made all the food but ordered the cupcakes from Hy-Vee. Yum. I did not take pictures during the party, which is a bummer. We did get some of monster and her smash cake exploration and a couple of the decorations beforehand, but that's it. What a sad thing. Oh Well. It was a fun day.

I used these posts for inspiration YoungHouseLove; ItsAllHappening; and AnniesEats.

I'll hopefully find some pictures of the birthday madness to show!

Traditions!

Getting started on monster's birthday bash! This will be used for decorating. I plan to use it year after year for her with some streamers in her bedroom or on her bedroom door. Starting traditions :)

I ordered the book Birthday Monsters! by Sandra Boynton and will to read it to my monster for her birthday every year.

I am working hard on planning her first birthday party. I thought I wouldn't go too big but it's mostly family and close friends who are invited, we do have a lot of family. Hopefully it will be nice and everyone can hang out outside. Otherwise, I don't really know where people will sit but I am excited!
Plans in the works include cute invites from chickabug on etsy, lots of monster decorations, and cupcakes from hy-vee (love their cupcakes and frosting). Mother in law is crocheting a monster hat for monster to wear and her godmother made a tutu skirt. I can't wait. I love birthdays!!

Speaking of traditions, what birthday traditions do you and your family have? In mine, we always had a family dinner, cake, and a special birthday prayer read before supper. For our little family now we'll start our traditions with monster and as they occur, i'm sure to tell you all about them.

Monster is 1 year old

Dear monster,

You are now officially 1 year old. To say this past year hasn’t been what I expected would be correct. You are a very cute little girl, no longer really a baby, and you are usually in a very good mood. You have started smiling, laughing, and giggling with no provocation (that I can understand) and make those around you laugh/smile every time you do this. I didn’t know what to expect with having a baby, would you eat, would you sleep? Would we figure it out? Well, sometimes I feel like we have it figured out and other times I don’t. It hard to say what life will be like from one day to the next, but mostly it’s on the level.

You are learning to chew and swallow your food and getting better with each day. We still do baby food but you will take some regular table foods, like toast or bananas, as long as we give you enough time to figure it out. You will sometimes feed yourself but your pincer grasp has yet to show up. Slowly, you are learning to palm grasp foods and Granpat says you do very well You eat a lot but apparently could eat a lot more since you are very small. We switched you over to whole milk a couple of weeks ago and it has been a very good transition. You stopped liking to drink your formula during the summer but now, you grab for the bottle in order to have more milk. I think this is also going to help you bulk up. We haven't figured out sippy cups or straw cups with you yet, so we're going to stick with the bottles and open cups for a while. I hope we can all figure it out, because once you feed yourself and drink for yourself, i think we will all be a lot happier!

You grew a lot in the last couple months and you look very tall for your size. You are tall and skinny, only weighing in around 16 pounds. I hope you stay tall :-) you can wear clothing from 6-9 months all the way up to 12 months. It really just depends. Still wearing size 3 diapers and probably will be for a while since they say they go up to 28 pounds, and that is almost twice your size. 

Your development is really taking off lately. I have noticed a difference and see you get stronger with every day. You are about the stage of a 6-month-old and are reaching out for things and playing with things more and more. It's fun to watch. We work on sitting and developing the muscles in your low back and upper chest in order to get you to sit up on your own and eventually crawl. It looks like you are really working to figure this out! You love to work with Katie, Mary Jo, and Emily from Early Intervention and they are pleased with the progress you have been making.

I love you lots you little monster. I hope your 2^nd year on earth is as good or better than the 1^st one.

Always,

Mama

this was me...

October 12, 2011. 39 weeks and 5 days pregnant. The day I was induced. Ugh. and still 2 LOOONG days away from having an actual baby.

But now, I'm back to finish working on Monster's birthday bash... coming up soon. :-)

Chili

It's getting cooler outside and what does that mean? Soups and chili! I can't eat either one in the warm weather. It has to be cool and crisp outside for chili to sound appealing. I never liked chili growing up, because I don't like kidney beans/chili beans. My perfect chili is made with black and white beans and is very thick. Served with sour cream and cheese and cornbread on the side. Delicious.

I've never actually measured the spices I add, so I'm just giving an estimate here. Feel free to change amounts as you wish.

Ingredients:
1 pound lean ground turkey
1 can black beans
1 can great northern beans
1 can diced tomatoes
1.5 cups spaghetti sauce
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons cumin

Directions:
Brown ground turkey and season with half of the spices. Add beans, tomatoes, and sauce. Season with the rest of the spices to taste. simmer until heated through, about 20-30 minutes. Serve with sour cream and cheese on top. Add a spicy cheddar and jalapeno corn muffin on the side.

is there a different word than random?

Feels like Halloween out today, blustery, dark, and cool. Bring on the pumpkins!!

we're doing 1-year pictures for monster on Saturday. gah! 1 year?!? How the heck did that happen? 

I like nursing/maternity tank tops – because they are long :)

Must keep singles in my drawer at work because I always want a treat and rarely do I have the cash to get one (which is probably best for my waistline and pocketbook). 

I love to read. Books let me escape to a different reality for awhile and it makes me happy. Husband has video games, I have books. 

Pumpkin spice is the flavor of this fall. I didn't really like it in the past but give me a dark chocolate pumpkin mocha from Caribou any day this year!! :) Totally amazing, especially when made by a certain lady who works there. You'd think they would all taste the same, but no, hers are definitely better. Oh, and I discovered pumpkin spice bagels yesterday.  wonderful. wonderful.