Everything Emery {6 months}

Happy 6 months, Emery Claire.

You are the sweetest most cuddliest baby EVER.  You are so happy and content that we often joke how easily you can be forgotten you are in the room.  You eat like a champ and sleep like a rock star.  You are teething pretty heavily but you rarely let it frustrate you.  You love to be sung to and when you smile your whole body moves.  You do get sad in the evenings if you are left alone in a room be yourself.  You enjoy watching Lincoln run around and find it to be a constant game to find him and see what he is doing.  

Here is what you are up to now:

• You weigh 17 pounds, 11 ounces (80th percentile) and are 27 and 3/4 inches long (97th percentile).  You just seem like a bigger baby but mainly it is your length!  Lincoln was not 27 3/4 inches long until he was 9 months old!  Daddy says he hopes you are 6 feet tall because that means if a guy asks you out then he has to be confident :)

• You really changed up your schedule this month.  You decided that you could space out your eating to every 4 hours and in turn dropped a whole bottle.  So now you eat 4 times a day with a bottle of 7 ounces each.  You eat at 8:00, 12:00, 4:00 and 7:30
• You are still taking your acid reflux meds and are drinking Enfamil Gentlease Formula. 

• You also started solids this month.  At first you were pretty indifferent about it all but since then you have grown to love to eat food even more than I think you like the bottle.  You eat solids two times a day - lunch and dinner.  You eat 2 ounces of homemade baby food each time.  And you always eat it all.  You have eaten store bought a few times and seem fine to eat it too.  I did give you some homemade mash potatoes off my plate with some formula mixed in to make it thinner and you did NOT like those at all.  I think you will come around!  
• You are a SUPER DUPER ROCK STAR sleeper!  I cannot say that loud enough.  You sleep 12-13 hours a night and never make a peep. I do no think you woke up during those hours of sleep one time this month.  

• You take 2 solid great naps a day. Your morning nap is between an 1.5 to 2.5 hours and your afternoon nap is 3 plus hours.  
• You wear 6 months and some 9 months clothing but you have the tiniest feet.  I can barely keep a size 1 shoe on you.  

• You wear size 3 diapers
• You love to be in the room where everyone is but you also do well playing by yourself.
• You do this wrinkle nose look on your face while sniffing over and over.  It is pretty funny looking.  

• You still take a bath in you baby bath tub but because you are so wigggly we have put it in the bath tub.  And Lincoln loves this because he is my trusty assistant and loves to give you all his toys and help me wash you.  

• You LOVE books to chew on the best.  You also love the exersaucer much more than brother ever did.  Your love for the swing is quickly diminishing.  You often just like to sit in it without turning it out. 

 

• For whatever reason you love to poop when you are in the carseat.  It is a given that if I put you in there you will poop 95% of the time.  And even if we are at home and you act like you are having troubles going I just put you in there and you always go. 
• You went to your first pumpkin patch this month

• You do not have any teeth yet but today Dr. A said your bottom 2 looked like they were close to coming in. 
• You are getting much better at being able to combine your rolling skills.  You will often roll around a few times when I lay you on the floor and end up crying because you run into something.

• You can sit up supported pretty well.  As for sitting unsupported you can only sit there about 20 seconds before you fall over.  

• You love to talk the most when we are singing a song to you.  It is as if you are trying to sing along with us.  
• Your babbling the last few weeks seems to have more sounds to it like "wa wa wa" or "ga ga ga"  You babble the most when you have something in your mouth you are chewing on.
• Your hair has grown in quite a bit this month.  It still has a brown tint to it but also looks blonde in some places. 

• Lincoln continues to enjoy you!  He does not like however that you have started grabbing hair and grabbing at his shirt.  He often "tattles" on you.  And so it begins...
• Here you 2 are at 6 months of age. I think you this month you two look the most similar to each other except that Emery is about an inch or two taller than Lincoln was at this age!

Emery, we could not love you anymore if we tried.  You bring so much joy and calmness to our home :)  We love to pieces and cannot believe you are already 6 months old.  I love this age and wish I could just freeze time and keep you this little forever.  However, for some reason God did not design it that way so we will let you keep growing up and enjoy every minute of you!! 

Love, Mommy and Daddy!

Pearly Whites!

Lincoln had his first dentist appointment on Monday.  I held out hope he would be a good sport but my gut told me he was not going to like it. Well he did love the beginning and the end but hated the middle part which was the actual appointment.

The waiting room had a train table and he had a ball playing on it. Luckily Cory works about a quarter of a mile away so he came over for the appointment.






Then we were called back and he was calm and taking it all in. The hygienist used a frog to explain what she would do to him and he became more apprehensive as the time went on. She then had him lay back and the resistance began. He would just sit right back up and tell us he did not want to. Even the glasses could not convince him to let her clean his teeth.



So, we decided to skip the cleaning and just let the doctor look in his mouth. We had to somewhat hold him down so the dentist could get a good look. Lincoln was doing the open mouth silent cry/scream at first which actually helped out the dentist since his mouth was wide open. Ha! After the minute exam he was done!

The dentist said his teeth and structure look great so there are no concerns. Although Linc was not so willing to participate he still managed to get 2 stickers, a bouncy ball and a new tooth brush. He was happy to see the door so we could leave! He is starting to look so much more grown up and it really shows in this picture!




Here is hoping in 6 month he will do a little bit better!

Baby food time!

The day after Emery turned 5 months (yes, almost a month ago - I am just a wee bit behind on blogging) we started her on real deal baby food. Like most things with Emery she did not act as though she loved it or hated it. If anything she gave us facial expressions of confusion. However, she ate it all up. Here are some shots of her first experience with baby food which was sweet potatoes.

Since then we have given her bananas and avocados as well.  She still does not show too much emotion about it but she always eats it all up.  One of my favorite things about mommyhood is making homemade baby food.  I am not the most domestic one out there but this is something that I can really jump in and do for my kiddos.  It saves lots of money, is super easy and just feels like the best way to start them out.  Pretty soon we will blink and she will be asking us if she can order a pizza!  Love this sweet face!

My Rhea Lana's Loot!

This year I decided to work at Rhea Lana's in order to be one of the first to shop! My parents were in town so it worked out perfectly that on Saturday morning we could leave the kids with Papa and Gigi and go shop. This was also Cory's first experience with Rhea Lana's. Let me say first of all that working was totally worth getting in early! The main reason is because you were able to shop with about 100-200 people versus shopping with about 700! (Those are not official numbers. Ha!) And you got first dibs on all the stuff! The only negative was this...

Look at all that stuff in Emery's size. And there was more on the ground and some I could not get in the picture. Wow! (The sale ended up with 103,000 items at it!  Crazy.)  So I started here while Cory ventured over to boys to shop for Lincoln. Cory is very invested into what Linc wears - even more picky that me! So this system worked put great. After we each shopped for our assign child we met up and weeded out what the other ruled out. We checked out with a total of 26 clothing items between the 2 kids.

Here is Lincoln's loot:


And here is Emery's stash:

Together the clothing was 126.00 dollars!

Then we shopped shoes. Emery ended up with 3 pair and Lincoln 2 pair. Total cost for all was 20.00.


Lincoln had not taken off his boots since we got home with them!!


Then we decided to look over the toys although our children do not need any toys you just can't resist looking through all the toys there.  Cory spotted this pirate ship which was 5.00!!  It is super cool.  And Lincoln has a great interest in airplanes and "helditopters" so we grabbed this fun toy for 4.50.  He has LOVED both of them.  And out of curiosity when I got home I looked up the ship which retails for about 40-50 dollars!  Definitely a great deal!


And probably my most favorite find was this Jeep stroller for 20.00!!  The only stroller we have is the big Graco one that fits the carrier.  E will soon grow out of the carrier so I am looking forward to down sizing to this smaller one.  It was in great condition and never even looks like it has been used.  From what I have found online this stroller retails for about 60-70 dollars!  Love it!


So, for all our loot we spent about 160.00 dollars.  And the best part is I can check my sales online from my consignment and I have already made more than that amount in sales!  Wahoo!  I highly recommend you go shop sometime this week.  There is some GREAT stuff there.  And I plan to go back when everything is half off too!

Potty Training {for boys}

Well at 29 months of age (July 2012) we decided to take the plunge and begin the potty training process with Lincoln.  We have several friends in our small group who recommended the this website and ebook for our potty training venture.  I loved this ebook because it is about 30 pages and straight to the point.  I hated to have to read a 100+ page book on potty training.  It just seemed silly.  So I definitely recommend this ebook for those who are looking for a concise approach to potty training. 

Bootcamp Overview:

We made a poster for Lincoln to be able to put stickers on.  I also made a poster of our "schedule" for the day as well as key points to remember.  Lincoln is an intense all-boy child and you just HAVE to be one step ahead of him in all things or he will not buy into your games. It also helped for me and Cory to be on the same page.  Cory also read it the ebook too. I also wrote out Emery's eating/sleeping schedule for a typical day so that Cory (who was in charge of Em) would know what needed to be done with her while I was tending to Lincoln.  We used M&M's to give Lincoln after each time he went to the bathroom and also let him put a sticker on the chart. We also had a "goodie bag" that he could pick prizes from when he would go long periods of time with no accidents or achieve other milestones in the process. As the days went on we faded out the candy, stickers and rewards.   We also decided to just start with day training Lincoln and putting pull-ups on him for naptime and bedtime. Nightime training will be for another day!

Day one - we woke up, put underwear on Lincoln, showed him that we threw away all the diapers and went about our day.  Anytime that Lincoln started to have an accident we just ran him into the bathroom to go potty.  At the end of day one he had had 9 accidents.  Yes you read that correctly.  9.  However, right before he went to bed that night he started to get it and had his first success of telling us he needed to go potty and he went.

Day two -- Lincoln had 4 accidents on this day. He went to pee pee about 8-9 times during this day by telling us he had to go and then going.  He was accident free up until naptime so all 4 of his accidents were in the afternoon.  He did have to go poo poo but never went and held it till we put the pull up on him at naptime and went. By later that evening he was back on track asking to go and peeing in the potty.  Even after we put his pull up on him about 8:15 for bed he came and told us he needed to go pee pee and went a lot.

Day three --  on days one and two Cory was at home to help me with Emery.  So day three was my first day to fly solo and do it on my own.  Lincoln did great on the third day.  He only had 2 accidents all day.  This was the first day he was successful in pooping in the potty for the first time.  We had told Lincoln that when he went pooped in the potty for the first time that he would get a new spiderman mask that we had hung up in the bathroom to remind him.  When he finally pooped in the potty he was SO excited to get his new mask.

Since the bootcamp....
For the next month he had good days and bad days. It was not as if at the end of the third day he had it completely down and has never had an accident since.  However, when we were at home for the day he did great and rarely has an accident.  He may have one accident about every other day.  It continued to be a process to get him to poop in the potty but he soon caught on and went several days without an accident.

For the second month he was having them about once every few days.  And at the beginning of month three it was like a light bulb switched for him.  Honestly, I think he was trying to hold out to see if were going to back down on this and we weren't so he decided to get on board.  From that point forward he has gone weeks without any potty accidents and at least a week at a time between pooping accidents.  Now we are focusing on rewarding him if he goes in there by himself.  Lincoln HATES to be alone so this is big feat for him, but he has done it pretty consistently.  And he can also independently go alone but I still have to put his clothes back on.  He also still wears a pull-up for naptime and bedtime.  So, maybe in a few months when he no longer sleeps in a crib we will look to work on those skills. 


My notes...

Here are some random notes that I have learned through the potty training process:

• The first thing that I think that has helped Lincoln is that I put him on the potty backwards, facing the toilet.  It helps because he can see it better and it gives a bigger part of the toilet to pee in so it makes less of a mess.  It also helps to prepare him for the future when he learns to stand up
• In the beginning we did put some cheerios in the toilet to help give Lincoln something to aim at.  
• This method is hardcore!  It is exhausting.  At the end of day 1 I was SO tired.  Day two was a little better and by day three I felt better.  You have to be 100% committed to it.  And it is definitely worth it.  
• Lincoln is a big drinker but since being potty trained I have had to be more conscious about how much he is drinking and limiting his drinking.  In the beginning he was going to the bathroom so much that he was burnt out on going.  
• In the beginning Lincoln was very timid to poop in the potty so he would hold it and then do it in his pull up or have accidents in his underwear.  A friend in my small group's son also had this same problem and the doctor recommended giving him some Miralax to make it easier to go.  I started this with Lincoln and it has helped him tremendously.  I just put a little bit in his drink in the mornings.
• In order to go this 3 training route you need lots of underwear on hand.  We went through about 16 pairs of underwear in the first three days.
• I have read several books that suggest there is a window of opportunity with the age of the child.  This is from about 22 months - 30 months of age.  After that age, I have read it can be more difficult to train the child because they are more set in their ways and fight it.  I am potty training Lincoln towards the end of this range and I would have to agree with this philosophy.  Ideally I would have liked to potty train Lincoln a little bit earlier but with having Emery three months ago we have been a little busy to start it yet.
• Constant praise from you as well as grandparents or friends is very important.
• I had to keep reminding myself that this is a huge new skill he is learning and to be patient with him.  I wanted this process to happen much faster than it did.  So, I tried not to beat myself up over it all and just let it happen.  It was hard though because after he was still having accidents often 2 months later my patience was thin.  I definitely had moments where I got upset with him and that definitely did not help the process.  So....be patient and love him through it all!!
• Lastly, the most important concept that I learned through the process is emphasizing and praising when they are "dry" instead of focusing on when they do go potty.  We  not only gave Lincoln rewards when he went the potty but we would also do "dry checks" randomly throughout the day. He would have to check if he was dry and if he was then he could put a sticker on the chart and sometimes he would get a prize as well.  This has really stuck with Lincoln and helped him to understand the whole idea much better.  

I highly recommend this method though.  I just don't think the approach of putting a pull up on Lincoln and asking him to keep it dry would work for him.  I know it does work for some though.  I just wanted to document our journey for my own sake and for anyone out there who needs a picture of exactly how it went down for another little guy.  I am glad to be done with potty training for at least another 2 more years.  It will give me time to recover!! 

O and after everything settled out and he had the light bulb moment we got our carpets professionally cleaned!  :)

It's time to consign! {Rhea Lana}

Over the past few days I have been cleaning out tub after tub of clothes to get ready for consigning at Rhea Lana's.  I have shopped Rhea Lana's since I was pregnant with Lincoln but this past spring was my first time to consign.  I was the rookie then and I learned quite a few tips along the way that are helping me out this fall as I prepare to consign again.  The Rhea Lana website truly does a great job lining out the steps here on how to be a consignor.  And another great place for info is following their facebook page as well.  I made 300.00+ dollars in the spring and hope to make even more this fall!  The best perk about consigning is that I get to shop before the rest of NWA!  I love nothing more than a great deal.  Especially on children's clothing that they will grow out of so quickly! 

Here is a new fancy picture via my iPhone 5 panoramic camera of all my piles of clothes I am currently entering into the website and pricing!  (Ignore the baby items that threw up in our living room.  Those are not quite ready to leave our home this time but when they are I can also sell those at RL!)



One of the best tips is to put your clothes in gender and size order as you enter them into the computer.  Then once you get to Rhea Lana's to check in your items and put them out on the floor then it goes super quick!! 

One of my favorite tips that I came up with myself was this -- making a cheat sheet of prices.  Rhea Lana's recommends that you price your items at about 30% of the original price.  However, if you are like me then you do not remember that much less what you did yesterday.  So, before I start pricing I sit down and visit the main store websites of the clothing brands that I am selling.  I write down what each main piece sells for at that store (i.e. shirt 15 dollars, pants 25 dollars, etc.).  This makes it easy for me to glance at my cheat sheet, figure up 30% and price my item.  I followed this method in the spring and I only ended up with 5 items left over and made a little over 300 dollars! 

Another tips is that I prefer to print my tags at home and put them on before I get there.  It makes check-in go much faster.  However, if you can't print them then they will print them for you which is great too! 

Some of the best deals I have gotten at Rhea Lana's over the years is shoes!  Shoes definitely get pricey for your little ones and they always have a ton to choose from at RL for awesome prices!  Here are the shoes that I am selling this year!  The best way to sale shoes is to put them in a ziplock back so they can been seen but they stay together. 

So if you have ever thought about selling your things at Rhea Lana's then stop thinking about it and do it!  And stay tuned to see all my great finds that I get in a about 2 weeks when I get in early to shop!  Cory is even joining me for his very first RL shopping experience. 



Wordless Wednesday