Tubby Time!

I have just a few minutes to write so I wanted to stop by and share some cute pictures of Annabelle I just took.  She loves bath time now and she cracks up with I sing "We are a splish'n and a splash'n and move'n and grove'n" she starts kicking all over the place and water starts flying.  It is just so darn cute!

Annabelle is 3 Months Old

Yesterday Annabelle turned 3 months old.  The time sure does fly!  I am not sure what she weights as our next Dr. apt is at 4 months but she sure has gained some weight I can tell that.  She is now eating every 3 hrs during the day then she plays for an hour then naps for an hour.  In the morning I often go in to find her just laying there waiting for someone to come get her and then she starts smiling.  She doesn't often waking me up crying so I find myself wondering how long is she actually laying there awake in the morning because I get up around 7:30am and go get her.  She goes down for the night at around 11pm after her last bottle for the day and as I said she doesn't get up till 7:30am, lucky us!

She is now in 3months cloths and still can wear some newborn paints and 0-3 outfits.

Here are her monthly pictures and some pictures from our painting project.  We are starting to paint the inside of our house so we don't have that contractor flat light yellow any more (you can't clean it at all).  We got the family room done yesterday but we have lots more to do over the coming weeks.

She is starting to get little some chub on her legs and arms. 

I love those little checks!

Jerry painting with his mega 18" roller, it made quick work of the job.

Annabelle was our supervisor during the painting job.

She was pretty demanding pointing out spots we missed and ordering us around.. LOL

Quick Update

It's pretty late at night as it seems that is the only time I get to work on anything.  Today we had someone come by to take a look at our yard and design a landscaping plan.  I am hoping we can do everything we talked about because it would be wonderful to have a pergola over our deck for some shade and a patio to  grill on and entertain.  We also talked about removing and adding some bushes and changing the beds in front of the house to have two stone tiered beds.  I'm excited to see what the designer has for us.

Annabelle is doing well.  She is talking up a storm now (well baby talk).  She is very much a morning person as that is when she is her happiest.

I hope everyone is doing well and please forgive me if I have grammar mistakes in this post as I am exhausted.

Bye bye for now!

Happy Mother's Day Everyone

We had a great day today.  Jerry let me sleep this morning and he got up with the little one and also made us breakfast.  My wonderful husband and daughter got me each a card and of course I cried when I read them.  They also got me a stackable mother's ring with Annabelle's birthstone it it.  I had totally forgot that I mentioned I wanted one and I said that well before she was born.  Jerry is so good at getting gifts!!!

Jerry had planned for us to go out to eat for dinner but as I was trying to figure out what I wanted to each and what restaurant to go to (looked online for 2hrs) I gave up and said what I really wanted was to take a nice long hot bath with my book and have burgers and fries.  Jerry made the best hamburger I have ever had, it was just perfect!

I hope all of you with little ones be it here or in your bellies had a wonderful Mother's Day!

VIDEO - "You mean my hands are good for something other than to suck on?"

Annabelle is starting to figure out what her hands are for (other than to suck on LOL).   She is now almost 10 weeks old.

New Blog Coming Soon

Jerry and I love to find little restaurants in the area and we are big foodies (not always good for the waste line, lol).  We have talked about doing a blog together for some time now and we are finally going to do it.  We are going to blog about our experiences at local restaurants.  We already have several of our favorites we want to blog about and we will plan to try one new place a month (depending on our schedule with our #1 priority, Annabelle).

I know most of my readers are not from Raleigh NC but I will share the link with you once I have it up and running and if you plan to visit or know someone who is you can pass it along to them.

Both Jerry and I will be blogging on the new blog and we are the type of people when we have a good experience at a restaurant we want to tell everyone and the same goes for bad ones we want to warn people.  We could just go to Yelp and leave reviews (and we have) but the blog will allow us to express ourselves more and help those in the area or visiting the area to find new places to eat.

I will continue to post on this site on our updates on little Ms. Annabelle and my adventures in motherhood. With that being said I will leave you with a pictures of the sleeping peanut who has on her Strawberry Shirt after I made my home made strawberry jam (YUM)!

Annabelle is Growing & Cloth Diaper Update

Annabelle and I playing around the the video camera

Last week Annabelle had her 2 month check up appointment and boy is she growing.
  
Weight:  9lbs 5oz - 9%
Height: 20 7/8 inches - 3%
Head:  15 1/4 inches - 70%

The Dr. said she is doing great! She is still a peanut compared to most 2 month old babies but for her birth weight she is making great progress.

What's New:  She now recognizes Jerry and I and gives us big smiles.  She starts chatting up a storm telling us all kinds of dramatic stories (LOL).  She is starting to interact more with her play mat by kicking the the rattle and hitting the little birdie.  Her hair is also coming in more now on top of what she had when she was born.


Cloth Diaper Update:
Annabelle and I filmed a vlog on cloth diapers but with Jerry traveling on business I have not had a chance to sit down and edit the film.  I will say that we are enjoying using cloth diapers because we don't have dirty diapers sitting around stinking up our house, it's also nice to not have to worry about running out of diapers.  I will also say that cloth diapers holds the odder when she goes #2 in her diaper and we don't smell it until we take the diaper off, when she was wearing disposables you could smell it right away and it would stink up the room.  We always change her right away but when we are out in public it is nice not to worry about others smelling it.

For those who can I would recommend using cloth diapers it really isn't hard.  After she goes to bed each night I spray out the #2 diapers and wash all the diapers and covers and then do the final rinse in the morning.

Go Green - Non-Toxic Cleaners (Handy Spray Bottle)

I have been meaning to tell you all about this for some time now.  Jerry and I had found these spray bottles at the Container Store and I think they are pretty neat.  On the side of the bottle is instructions on how to make several different types of cleaners.  We did buy 3 bottles and I will say one of them the sprayer gives me trouble but I have figured out a work around (I take the sprayer off and squeeze the trigger and if it sticks I pull down on the hose and it will pop and I keep doing that until it smoothly sprays without sticking).  Besides having the instructions on the bottle I love the location on the bottle were you unscrew it, it is the wide area making it really easy to add things to the bottle to make up the solutions.

General Cleaner
Add 2 tablespoon  baking soda to 16oz warm water

Window Cleaner
Add 1 tsp distilled white vinegar to 16oz warm water

Disinfecting Cleaner
Add 10-20 drops of tea tree oil to 16oz warm water

Floor Cleaner
To 16oz of warm water add 1/2 tsp liquid soap, 1/2 tsp borax, Squeeze of lemon or Splash of vinegar, Spray floor with solution and mop as usual


Linen Spray (I have not tried this one)
Add 5 drops of your favorite scented oil to 8oz water use to freshen linens and curtains

We use all the cleaners except the Linen Spray and the General Cleaner and we like them because we can clean without having the chemical smell.  We had started using these when I was pregnant and they have been great.  What we did was buy several bottles as I mentioned above and we made up the different solutions and labeled the bottles that way it is ready to go when we need it.

Happy Cleaning Everyone!