a new lovey... and our sleeping routines.

Our little squirt is extra mobile. I mean... she is all over the place, all of the time. She doesn't do still. We have a pretty sweet bedtime routine and nap routine but lately she just pops right up to standing or kneeling...and then topples over usually hitting some crib rungs because she is so tired, and makes me feel awful about putting her to bed.

So, maybe I should back up... we do a modified cry-it-out for sleep time. So this is our routine from about 4 months old to current. Who knows how it will change in the next month, or day...who knows:

Naps:

• Play her little heart out...crawling, walking... whatevs for a couple of hours.
• Give her some solid baby food.
• Change her diaper.
• Let her chew on a pacifier in her dark, quiet room for a couple of minutes in our arms (she loves chewing, that's why we have thought she was teething for 3 months now)
• Sit down in a chair with her on my chest, give her a bottle of formula. Her body is totally calm, sweet eyes closed, peaceful
• She pulls away when shes done, or nuzzles her face in my chest.
• I stand up...put her in her crib, which she is a little awake now.
• She rolls to her tummy and finds her thumb.
• **Insert our new dilemma here**
• She sometimes cries a little, we let her cry for about 5 minutes...we go back in reposition her in the middle of the crib- on her tummy, arms above her head (the way she normally sleeps) and close the door. She gets the picture and usually goes right to sleep. This is our modified "cry it out" and "sleep lady shuffle." If we say anything to her we wake her up...and if we pick her up too many times she enjoys it and this too wakes her up. Reading stories is like play time- so we don't do that yet with sleeping routines, I can't wait for our voices to calm her...bed time stories- oh how fun.
• This nap time is twice... usually somewhere between 9am-11am and 2-4pm...give or take. Afternoon naps are trickier for us. And when she is going through a growth spurt/sick... we notice either longer naps or a grumpier tired babe- it throws things a little.

Bedtime:

• Same routine as above except we give her a bigger dinner of baby food.
• Then we go to the bath time...playing, chewing on bath toys, fun!
• Change into PJs, give her oragel...then chew for awhile.
• Bottle, crib, little cries...out for the whole night!
• **Insert our new dilemma here**
• We start all of this around 6pm... bed by 6:30/7pm. and she wakes up around 6:30-7:30am.
• Fantastic, we know we are lucky.

oh, I could just gobble her up.

**Now here is our current dilemma**

We put her down... she flips to her tummy...then crawls to the side of the crib, and proceeds to stand up. She wakes herself up, I'm not sure she knows how to sit back down- gracefully- and she cries, and falls. Kind of a sleepy-cranky version of George of the Jungle.What a little squirt! We had such a good thing going! So of course we have googled the heck out of this dilemma. I guess the novelty of standing will wear off. But we also realized in the frantic flipping through pages of our numerous sleep books.... we don't have a lovey! Yikes. How did that slip through the cracks? She hasn't needed a comforting stuffed friend yet. So, we have created a little lovey for her- bed bunny. We usually would give her this tiny stuffed grey bunny in her carseat with chewy the giraffe. She loves it. So why not a little bunny friend to keep her lying down, a little pal to sleep with- we all love a little pal to sleep with at night, right?! We are hoping when she wakes a little during naps she will hold onto her bed bunny...snuggle in close... and do less of the george of the jungle thang.

What do you do for your routines?! Does your kid have a lovey?! What about the standing/falling/crib thing?! Any suggestions?

christmas!

[christmas last year...our only 3 photos taken]

 

I love christmas. I have been thinking about decorating for a month now...oh, fine maybe two months. And now that thanksgiving is over...we can actually crank up the christmas tunes... hang some lights...and go cut down a tree. Finally. It seems that last year we were a little preoccupied with being pregnant, that we didn't get in true christmas spirit... or even take a family christmas photo (such a bummer). That is all about to change, starting now. Cora won't remember all of this, but we will. And it's going to be fun.

We are lucky enough to get to have Matt's family in town for Christmas #1...on the actual christmas day... then we head out to California to spend Christmas #2 with my family and friends a week later. Did you catch that?! Two christmases. Twice as long to celebrate. Fantastic. I'm so excited.

Matt will surely get tired of christmas music in about a week and his nose will be irritated from the endless christmas candles. Too bad. We are doing christmas this year 100%, no sallys here.

Yea... I just typed christmas 14 times. That's how pumped I am.

mesh chewy thing.

[ munchkin fresh food feeder ]

Oh boy, this is our favorite item right now... both for cora and us. If you don't know what it is and you think your kid is teething...buy one! It's awesome. We put ice cubes in it at first, then bananas...and now we put oranges, apples, and teething cookies in it too. It's perfect. She can gnaw on it but we don't have to worry about little chunks breaking off an choking her. When she is cruising around the house in her walker I just have to hold up the mesh chewy thing and she comes running. Literally. Running. So fun.

[ sophie the giraffe ]

Want to know our other favorite chew toy?! This glorified dog toy for babies... that is ridiculously priced at $20. Sophie the Giraffe. A sweet little toy from the 1960's made in France. I saw it all over mom blogs, this adorable all natural rubber giraffe. I guess I had to have one, even if it was over-priced. Cora loves it. No wonder so many moms splurge on it. The little ears, legs, horns... perfect for little mouths. We call her's "Chewy." Now, Chewy (Chewbacca) was our dog that passed in February...and sadly couldn't meet Cora. We think there is some resemblance. He was a mighty fine dog, the best dog anyone could ask for. So now it makes us happy to ask her where Chewy is...and then she smiles... and puts him in her mouth for a good chew.

see the resemblance?!

 

mesmerized by the carseat chewy, where he lives.

seven months

Whoa. Seven months. We try to cherish everyday... kiss her little head as much as she will entertain, we squeeze her, hold her, tickle her toes, have her climb all over us... we can't get enough of our little sweets. Matt and I just look at her growing more and more independent everyday and smile... huge... proud ...oh my gosh we are parents... type of smiles. She is phenomenal. If babies came out at 6 months old... and stayed that age... we'd have a slew of them.

What you've been up to this past month, little cora elm...

• pulling yourself from knees to standing...all by yourself and couch-walking!
• crawling for reals this time- no army crawl, the real deal...belly off the ground
• still no teeth. we've thought you were "teething" for the past 4 months, even now as we type this... we think you must be teething. silly really
• you eat fruits- bananas, oranges, apples...all in your mesh chewy thing
• your favorite food is sweet potatoes mixed with banana oatmeal. yum. you eat two meals a day and then bottles of formula too
• you can sit up all by yourself in the bathtub (well our hands are there just in case) and you chew on your bath-friends and wash cloths
• you sleep about 13 hours at night (6:30pm-7:30am) we are so thankful... and try not to take it for granted. naps can be another story, however
• you laugh all the time, you are a very happy baby
• you are constantly active, no chill baby here
• you love to walk in your walker, walk holding our hands, crawl, roll, sit, grab at all things possible, chew all things
• you love the dogs, they love you
• you can use "tools" like hammers to get your balls through a hole, pass objects from hand to hand. you've got skills
• you still love to hear dad playing guitar or ukulele (that he bought and learned to play just for you) you strum too...it's very sweet
• you talk to us all day long... babbles, sweet tones and strings of pretend sentences. You like "bbb" the best...or is it "ppp"... we don't know. I wish we knew what you were thinking
• you had some more firsts... crinkly fall leaves, snow in your fingers... a snow ball chucked at you (thanks dad), and aquarium visit- puffer fish was your favorite, besides staring at people and the bolts on the fish tanks

pretend food.

[all found on etsy category: play food... of course]

 

I have to say... play food has become incredible little pieces of art. Oh. my. gosh. I remember back in the day my sister and I used to make play food. That consisted of green paper punches to simulate peas... yellow circle on white splotches for eggs... you know. I thought that was creative, but gosh...look at these beauties! Sure our mom used to make us fun little clay foods...and tiny tea party cakes that were beautiful... and she was even awesome enough to make us a pretend turd for our baby doll diapers- talk about a cool mom! We also had the pretend plastic food- that was fun too, but rather limited 25 years ago in comparison to what Cora will have available.

...pretend food?!

 

Now I am dreaming up making play food for little Cora. She doesn't even know what lies ahead for her little childhood that I am scheming. I have to make it durable and realistic. I can check pretend potatoes off the list- I know how to make those now! Anyways, I can't wait. And I just hope Matt and I will whip up a pretend kitchen too for her. so. much. fun.

cora the explorer.

amazing! popcorn maker!

 

Isn't this age a blast?! Our little cora is going wild with exploring. We didn't really mean to name her so close to the little dora explorer.... but she is now our own little cora the explorer. And she hasn't even learned how to crawl yet. Oh boy.



 

 

 

Cora likes to "help" while I am in the kitchen. All sorts of help with... chewing on dishes, dropping dishes, putting tiny fingerprints on dishes, and generally looking cute with dishes. I enjoy it.

This walker has been awesome. It gives her independence to go wherever she wants. She loves to just watch the dogs through the door... or play in the trash...or just stand and chew on things. This helps her with her exploring business... all over the house, 6 month old style.

 

 

sack-o-spuds

 

 

Happy Halloween!

 

This was Cora's first halloween, so... of course she had to be a homegrown sack-o-spuds. You might have seen it on pinterest (I pinned it back when I was pregnant). It was a must do for our little idaho spud.

 

Pretty simple costume...

• Make a few spuds- This is how you make a panty-hose spud...with eyes! So fun.

• The body is just natural canvas that I had lying around from our wedding tablecloths.

• Draw some brown lettering on the sack with brown sharpie (hers said- homegrown spud pacotti farms idaho est. 2012)
• Then a brown outfit underneath

• An adult brown headband, sewed down to size with a spud sewn to it.

Ta-da! Homegrown Spud!

She is no sack of potatoes though, I assure you. She is more like a wiggle worm- but that costume would have taken me a bit longer to make.

 

 

We thought her outfit was hilarious.... she tolerated it surprisingly well too! I guess bring on the headbands with big flowers. Little spud is down. I also had a blast making it... no wonder so many moms make halloween costumes. Totally fun first halloween!

ooo....banana chocolate chip muffins.

[Ok, I may be cooking today which is a huge feat...but I didn't quite manage to put on make-up....or clean the house. But I did shower- that counts for something, right?!]

 

I mentioned a little bit ago that we moved. We now live in a subdivision....which means...while all of our neighbors have the exact clone of our house....we also all have a dishwasher, a microwave, a decent sized kitchen, carpets....the list goes on. It's phenomenal. I never thought I would love living in a subdivision so much...I now know why people do. Houses are new and nice. It's wonderful. It makes life easy. Anyways. I have been cooking, seeing how I have a semi-sleeping baby and a dishwasher...and I am not hooked at the boob to my little sweetie 24-7. I am sooo excited to share with you this awesome recipe.

And, I was wondering how to make good muffins. Mine are always flat and ugly. So I stumbled upon this post- so helpful! "the muffin method" talks about how to combine ingredients, letting muffins rise, good stuff.

[banana chocolate chip muffins]

Amaaazing. (modified from allrecipes)

 

Ingredients (for 24 muffins)- 3 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 2 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 6 large bananas, mashed 1.5 cups white sugar 2 eggs 2/3 cup butter, melted 1/2 bag of mini chocolate chips Sprinkle of white sugar Directions- -Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (read muffin method talked about above for reasoning). Coat muffin pans with non-stick spray, then use paper liners- so that if the muffins overflow they pop out of the pan easily. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt; set aside. -Combine bananas, egg, and melted butter in a large bowl. Fold in flour mixture, and mix until smooth. Add chocolate chips. Scoop into muffin pans. I sprinkled on a little white sugar on the tops to get a crispy top. -Bake in preheated oven. Bake muffins for 20ish minutes. Muffins will spring back when lightly tapped.

 

six months

Oooo.... 6 months. We made it! Sure, cora is growing fantastically well. But this was a benchmark for us that I was holding onto in the early days. If we could just make it to six months. Why? I don't know. But we did it, and this time is grand just as I expected.

What you have been up to this past month...

• sitting un assisted. This was almost spontaneous. One day- totally supported, the next BAM! sitting like a big girl, reaching toys and balancing.
• working on crawling each day...little legs pulled up under your body, rocking back and forth ready to lounge into a crawl.
• sleeping 11-13 hours a night. We moved your bedtime to 6:30pm... you sleep until 7:30am sometimes. Dad and I have time together, alone, in the evenings- it's great for all of us.
• started on vegetables... sweet poatoes and carrots- a new favorite.
• you like to drink from mom's glass. You stick your little head out and drink/ blow bubbles. Its fantastically cute.
• you babble and talk to us and the dogs...and your toys. "bbb" seems to be the sound when you are trying to tell us something really important. We hope you're not trying to say poop. We should really stop talking about your poopies so much.
• you love to walk places- whether its holding our hands...or in your walker.
• You also love to do a full-body pull, an army crawl. You are rather efficient between that and rolling over and over to get where you want to go. With more independence your frsutrated fussies have diminished, just as we hoped. You're an active baby, that's for sure. Baby-proofing is coming up in the next month to prepare for your explorations.

first rain...fall is here.

 

Oh boy, there is snow in the mountains... we have beautiful fall leaves everywhere. I love this season. I wish for endless rainy days and snowy days...so dreamy. So perfect.

Cora experienced her first real rain last week. I thought about it, as I saw a dad clenching his babe and running indoors... I want cora to love the rain, take it in. I don't want to completely protect her from these beautiful natural elements... I want her to embrace them. Love the rain drops. Love her cold nose and the shock of frozen air in her lungs when we go outside to feed the dogs early in the morning. I want her to love seeing lightening and hearing the thunder. It's powerful and amazing. I want her to be fearless. Is that trainable? I don't know.

These mom thoughts... they engulf every "free" second of my day. At the pediatrician 6 month check they asked if Cora could pull herself to sit up on her own. I almost crapped my pants- shit, we forgot to work on something! Sitting up all by herself?! Sure she sits now unassisted, but to go from laying down to sitting- no way. Turns out there was a miscommunication and they meant pull up on our hands to get to sitting. Phew. See?! Mom thoughts. What we need to be working on next to help our little to grow and become independent... how she rocks our very new world...how to focus on being ever so present and in the moment. I love these mom thoughts.

Matt said the other night as much as he jokes around about the life we used to have... he wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world....not even watching football with a few pints like the old just-grown-up days. Cora is awesome, our little family is sensational. Sitting on the ground, watching cora almost crawl, having ambition of her own to do a rapid full body-drag to get to her books, full of laughs and smiles. Its awesome. I think this is my favorite stage so far. Parenthood is grand.

Oh, 6 months old...

 

Oh sweet cora. She turned 6 months.... a half of a year... this week!! This is what we have been doing all day... um...every day. Trying to find new things that give us that sweet laugh.

And she currently does a plank-style push up. Or a rocking motion on all fours. I think she is on the verge of crawling. We can't wait.

 

Monthly picture coming soon.

DIY jogger drink holder!

I am on a crafty roll. Nap time today I made a DIY jogger drink holder! It's awesome. It's not perfect. But I love it so much I am going to try it out when little miss wakes up. I try to go for a walk with cora in our lovely Bob stroller once a day. It doesn't always happen, but I try to. I usually bring my coffee (or water if I am feeling uber healthy). I always want to place it in a cup holder for when we go up and down curbs. Ta da! DIY stroller drink holder.

I had a blast making this. I have never done the snap-thing. It was really fun, and looks great. This now opens up a whole new world of crafty things to make.

[sew can do's DIY cup holder...so cute!]

I used this tutorial from sew can do. Super easy. She made it out of laminated cotton- great idea, but I didn't have any today.

[yup, water bottle fits!]

I traced the top of my travel coffee mug that I often walk with... make two circles. Then cut out two 12"x7" rectangles. And one 10"x7" rectangle for the handle piece. Do some fancy circle-side-sewing...and place some snaps.... sew on the handle piece- done! You'll have to read her tutorial. I can't do this project justice, and she had a beautiful way of explaining it with pictures.

I made mine out of cotton... but next time I will reinforce the handle piece with an additional layer sandwiched in between. One of the snaps wants to pull out of the fabric when I go to open the snap- sucky. So I will probably have to remake it sometime.

Cora is our homegrown spud?!

[our sweet cora laughing at dad...4.5 months old]
 

Sometimes we get caught up in... holy cow- Cora was that little "spud" we were watching grow inside my belly?! We called her spud for 9 months- but in actuality the second she was born, she just didn't look like a spud to us. She was cora, our little human we made.

When we watched her on the ultrasound- she had a ton of hiccups all through pregnancy and still does to this day. She was always moving her little bottom around flopping from side to side in utero...and even now she is constantly eyes wide open...observant, trying to crawl, walk... anything active. We saw her little feet, with her big toe sprawled at the 20 week ultrasound... they look exactly the same!

But now, in retrospect trying to think of our little cora as the same baby in my belly just blows our minds. We had no clue what we were in for, what being parents would be like, and how much she would rock our world. Now we can hardly picture what life was like before her. Life has forever changed. Every single daily activity, thought, action, feeling- it's all new, it revolves around Cora. And we love it.

pinterest wednesday!

liquid sidewalk chalk / petshop scavenger hunt / snowday painting

 busy board / close your clothes book / chalkboard fence

 

Well, I have had some time to pinterest-around. Little sunshine (aka cora) naps pretty well and sleeps through the night for now- which means I have some free time on my hands! I have been dreaming of what I can do with Cora when she is a big girl. Oh, I can't wait for the craft time we can share. So much fun! But for now I do the crafts for her.

So I jumped on a pinterest find.... taggy blanket. Cora loves tags on all things. They are silky, smooth...and unfortunately, I think, rather ugly. Initially I cut the tags off of all things cora-bound. I love using my seam ripper to take all of those tacky labels off of Cora's toys and clothes. Whoops. She loves them. Bad mommy. So, in lieu of her tag obsession I made a taggy blanket last night. She also loves sucking on wash cloths- like in the bath, or burp rags....so what a perfect combo- I think.

I had some left over flannel fabric from her fitted sheet project and some fleece laying around. I bought $14 worth of ribbon- what a rip off. Anyways. The ribbon is turquoise... and green... and it makes me happy. I sewed it all together- first sewing it improperly- so I re-did it....and voila! A tiny pretty taggy blanket, that happens to match her room. She likes it so far, but we shall see if it lasts.

 

Next on my craft-to-do list:

- artwork for Cora's plain-o room. yet to be determined, but pinterest will definitely be involved.

- fall wreath for our front door...yay... i love the holiday season!

- recruit matt to help with a "busy board" from above

- ribbon octopus to keep cora's toys from hitting the ground when we go out to eat

five months

At 5 glorious months old Cora you are...

• rolling over tummy to back and back to tummy.
• you reach for everything...and sometimes you out-smart us and knock over our drinks, salsa bowls, and put things in your mouth you probably shouldn't.
• you just learned to walk/jump/move in your baby walker.
• you love to hear your name and certain key words...like mama or dada or toes.
• you have learned how to hold the bottle on your own
• toes are your favorite, holding them at all times.
• sleeping is getting easier... mostly through the night, naps, and without a swaddle!
• dogs are hilarious to you...especially cora-sized ones (grandma's dog) and white ones (Colby our yellow lab)
• standing is your favorite activity- it really always has been. you take steps towards toys when we hold your little hands.
• sometimes when dad makes a whimpering/crying sound or sings a sad tune you start to frown and begin to cry...you are a sympathetic soul. good thing we are happy parents.
• you had your first cold and your first days at daycare.
• you are a happy baby, still high maintenance.... but willing to smile at us being silly and we love that.
• we can't wait for you to be able to sit up on your own and crawl. But right now we see a lot of blanket swimming- arms flailing, while you try to figure out how to get somewhere. But once you do... we know it's going to be fast!

oh crafts.

Guess who is crafting?! It's me. Craaazy. I thought this day was a million years away. When would I have enough time to get back to being crafty?! Well, that day has come....and in the form of fitted crib sheets. Yes, I may be sewing in my bedroom on a collapsible table so that Cora can sleep peacefully across the house. And yes...I may be staring constantly at the little green light on the monitor. But it happened. And it was glorious.

Project: 2 flannel fitted crib sheets
Estimated time to complete: 2 nap times
Materials:
      2 yards flannel fabric per sheet
      3/4" wide elastic - 4' per sheet
Outcome: 2 adorably soft and more importantly completed fitted sheets

Yes, I have made DIY fitted sheets before with my mom when I was pregnant [back here]. I used an amy butler twin sheet to make two fitted crib sheets back then. They have held up really well too! Well now it's fall and cora needs a cozy little flannel fitted sheet to lay her head on. She sleeps through the night (hooray!!) and we are in the process of de-swaddling her. She flips over to her tummy each night, and nuzzles her little head into the sheet...so it's got to be cozy.

I used Dana Made It as a reference for my first fitted sheet project, and Prudent Baby as a reference for this project. I made my own dimensions that I thought would work well. Their explanations may make more sense...but I will try to explain my method.

[these are my two fabric choices to match her turquoise themed room]

I went to the quilt store and bought 2 yards each of super cute material. This wasn't cheap. But it was the colors I was looking for. I had my dimensions from the last time I did this project, but I wanted to do the elastic a little bit differently. I chose to sew the elastic onto the fabric, instead of making a casing for it. I thought it would take less time, maybe look less polished.... but I also hate, ok strongly dislike, threading elastic through casing. It frustrates me. So, I chose a new method.



My steps for a standard 52" x 28" x 5" crib mattress:

1. Cut out a 68" x44" rectangle from material. My material ended up being 43" wide... but it was just fine.

2. Then cut an 8" square from each corner.

3. Sew those two remaining edges of the square together inside out....at each corner. This makes the corners of the fitted sheet that will go down the side of the crib mattress and under.

4. Sew a hem around the whole edge of the sheet. Did I wash the fabric before sewing? No. Was mine perfect? No. Did I cut off the selvage? Um. No. Could I have spent more time with this making a more refined double hem? Yes. But did I mention I got this project done in 2 naps?! Amazing.

5. Anyways, cut four 12" lengths of 3/4" elastic.

6. Mark a half-way point on the elastic at 6".

 

7. Sew that half way mark at each of the corner's seams with a zig zag stitch.

 

 

8. Start sewing half of the elastic length starting at the center with stretching out the elastic as much as possible, zig zag stitch.

9. Sew the other half starting from the center line again and going out holding the elastic stretched out....zig zag it up.

10. When you let go you have a scrunched up corner! Yay!...Now keep going for each corner. Not bad, right?!

[our new house with a new spud room... lacking a little luster... so I need to pinterest some decor ideas and craft some more I suppose]

[she, however, does not lack luster.... not ever]

 

oh, toes.

 

11. Test it out... perfect!

Verdict on elastic techniques: It took close to as long sewing a casing and threading through the elastic as it did to pull the elastic taut and sew down. It does look a little worse than the casing- in case you cared what the bottom of the mattress looks like (I don't). Is the sheet as taut with just the corners having elastic as elastic the full length of the sheet?! Not really. If you tuck under the edges, it looks/acts the same. I think depending on my mood with elastic I could go either route- I think both are comparable.