Six Months

Six months . . . as in, half a year, whoa. Somewhere along the line, this squirming ball of squish became a real live person and I don't know when it happened. I thought for a while he was going to be the most serious baby and he would never smile. Then came one smile, and another, and now one is almost permanently glued on his face. He is so darn silly, and joyful, and full of life.

It's hard not to feel on top of the world when someone looks at you like you are Justin Bieber and they are a twelve year old Belieber. Squeeeing and flailing limbs and everything when he sees me or his dad. But his favorite person in the world isn't a person, it's his dog. He can be crying his little eyes out and all I have to do is call the dog over and his face breaks into a teary smile and giggle. 

Sometimes I get frustrated by how tedious and tiring it is to take care of a baby all day (which only happens a few times a week, bless my mother-in-law) and I need to get away for some time to myself. So I drive out to Target or whatever and all I can think about is how much I miss him. Last night I had some errands to run, and when Frank told me that he had already put him to bed when I got home, it was all I could do to not run into his room, grab him, and say "Let's play!"

And now, the good stuff:

Old vs. New

Listen, I watch HGTV and House Hunters and a LOT OF IT. I know I am going against all that is hipster by wanting a new house. I know that the cool thing to want is a turn of the century house with tons of charms and built ins and original flooring, etc. But you know what? I, unlike a lot of the people on that show, and unlike a lot of people who want an old house, have actually LIVED in an old house. Lots of them. My college was in the city, and all the surrounding neighborhoods were jam packed with those cute old-style houses. I lived in several of them. They were all varying levels of nightmare. 

First of all, no matter what you do, everything is always dirty in an old house. There is dust everywhere, all the time. Things that are supposed to be white are kind of brownish gray. The most notorious offender (which we called the haunted house because it looked like a children's drawing of a haunted house) had some kind of large mammal living in the walls and attic and it was NOT a rodent. This was a large hibernating mammal, like a black bear or something. My roommate had this weird panel on one of her walls and one day we decided to unscrew it and see what was behind it. There were about half a dozen stained pillows and wadded up blankets shoved behind there. We closed it back up and didn't ask any questions. 

 

I've seen roaches, maggots, hibernating bears, and enough mold and mildew for a gaggle of "property virgins" (HGTV joke har har). 

Now I know that normal grownups with a reasonable house-buying budget who are appearing on an HGTV show are not looking at the hell-holes that I lived in in college. But those memories have forever tainted my idea of "charming old world style".  And its not just limited to the naive college kids with no sense of living standards. A friend of mine just bought a cute and charming old house, only to realize upon move-in day that the floor of the attic was lined with COFFIN LIDS. 

So when we realized that our family of three plus two wild animals was just getting to be too much for this townhome, we decided to build anew. We did look at a few older houses here and there. One was gorgeous and perfect but overlooked a highway and a waste water treatment plant. One looked like it was haunted by the ghost of a dead hippie. There wasn't a single one we considered putting an offer on. In the end, we selected a very suburban two story colonial in a very suburban town, and you know what? We're fine with that. 

Sawyer's Crib

All the finishing touches are finally done . . . just in time for us to move (I'll get to that later).  Full Disclosure: it never actually looks this clean and organized.

There's some pinterest inspiration up in this joint. That mobile for one. If making a mobile by punching holes out of paint chips looks easy, don't be fooled. This thing took me forever to make, involved a lot of rubber cement and swearing.

I made the curtains and bedskirt from fabric I bought online. Frank helped me paint the stripes and walls because he thought Sawyer would be born with four arms from paint fumes (don't worry, it was low VOC paint, and he has two arms). My amazing mommy made the quilt, I found awesome woodland animal fabrics at a local fabric store. See that fancy glider? Craigslist - $50. I googled the product code on the tag and it's worth $650. Chaching. Lamp, random S are from Marshalls, tray is from Target. The rug and side table are from IKEA. I did this on the cheap, very cheap. The crib is from Walmart, SHHH.

The gallery wall is made from stuff I've collected during my pregnancy and even before. The ornate wood frames were gaudy looking mirrors I found at a garage sale five years ago, but I popped the mirrors out and spray painted them. Some of the prints are greeting cards, some of them are designer wrapping paper that i bought at a card shop. 

 

More storage from IKEA with Martha Stewart storage cubes from Lowes. The changing pad cover is from Designs by Christy on Etsy, make sure you check her out. The knick knacks and stuffed toys are from places like Marshalls, TJ Maxx, Kohls, Ikea, etc.

If ya ain't first, you're last

I'm a finalist on Project Nursery!

Vote for me by going here!

I decided to enter Sawyer's nursery in a nursery design contest (his is the orange and aqua one shown above) and I became a finalist! Kind of shocking for me because I did this on the lowest budget possible and most of it I made myself. I'm completely honored to be in the running. I would really appreciate it if you could give me and Sawyer a vote. I'm going to do a post tomorrow with the details of the nursery. I don't win much, a $50 gift card, but just being recognized would be the best part. I put a lot of myself into this.

Thanks for your help :)

3 Months

They say that the first three months of having a baby is like the fourth trimester. If so, we're out of the water. I think Sawyer is officially not a newborn now, and is instead a chunky rolley baby. It makes me sad that he's growing so fast, but honestly he's becoming a lot more fun. I feel like I'm hanging out with a little person now, not just a squishy blob of hunger. Things are good.

Here's the big guy:

The deets:

The progression:

Looks like my photography skills might be improving too, haha.

It looks like Sawyer's chill personality is staying intact. He is such an easy, smiley, relaxed baby. It kind of scares me for the next baby, because I'm not getting that "up all night" crazy experience. He's just so much fun to be around. The only thing we're having a problem with is the reflux. Baby boy will puke up an entire bottle at a moment's notice. It makes public feeding a scary experience. If I'm feeding him at someone else's house, I'll usually bring spare clothes for both of us and will feed him sitting on the floor with a bath towel. The upside? I've become adept at catching puke. This morning I caught projectile vomit in a spare tupperware container.

Also, the once super-quiet baby is now starting to talk to us. Or should I say, howl. I honestly think that he's starting to mimic Wilbur's howls, since he hears them all day long. Look at 40 seconds, proof.

Two Months

Oh look, Sawyer turns three months in two days, so now is a good time to do his two month post. So when i say "this month" I'm really referring to last month. And go.

 This month Sawyer really started smiling more, a few coos here and there, and as you can see, he got much chunkier. Toward the end of month two Sawyer was diagnosed with reflux, the trendy disease that almost every baby gets, ha. We're talking spitting up entire bottles, out the nose. It doesn't bother him when it happens, but it looks like the puking scene from The Exorcist. 

We spent a lot of time just finding a rhythm and I started to feel more confident about being a mother this month. Although, Frank was still working half days so I had yet to experience full-time mom duties. 

Sawyer's first Thanksgiving was a hit. We went to Frank's sister's house first and then to my parents'. All new babies were present and accounted for. It's so strange that my side of the family has babies now. We've been babyless for over 20 years.

Sawyer with his cousin Max, Frank's sister's baby. They are only five weeks apart but Max is a little chunk!

With my Grandma, his Great Grandma. I'm so happy that my Gram is around and relatively healthy enough to enjoy her three great grandchildren. Sawyer looks pretty stoked too.

The Hotlist - Newborn edition

Babies require a lot of . . . crap. I felt like I needed every kind of equipment, every type of swaddling blanket, because you never know. After trying different things, I now know what works for me and what doesn't. Here are my favorites:

Fisher Price Rock n' Play Sleeper

I have a nice wooden modern looking cradle that matches the furniture in our bedroom. However, this things got such amazing reviews that I had to register for it. Sawyer sleeps in this every night. It's supposed to be great for babies with reflux. Even though Sawyer doesn't have reflux, I like that it keeps him somewhat upright, reducing the chance of him spitting up. It folds up and is light and portable so we can move it around the house and take it with us places, rather than packing up the bulky pack-n-play.

Britax B-Agile travel system

I dreaded getting a stroller because they all seem so bulky and cumbersome. The goal was to find a stroller that was light, easy to fold up, and looked cute. This is very similar to the Babyjogger Citiy Mini, which is extremely popular. What won me over about the Britax was 1) the price and 2) the fact that it's compatible with Britax carseats (you need to buy a $60 adapter kit with the City Mini). It steers so well, I love it.

Dr. Brown Bottles

I went with the Dr. Brown bottles because I already knew how to use them since my sister in law used them with her kids. Some people don't like them because of all the parts you have to clean, but it hasn't been a big deal for me. They are supposed to be one of the best bottles for reducing gas and fussiness and they seem to work for us.

Moby Wrap

I work from home so I need to be able to keep the baby happy and still be hands-free. It takes some trial and error to figure out how to put this thing on, but once you do it's great. There are a bunch of different ways you can hold your baby in it. This picture shows the particular hold that we like to use.

Fisher Price Snugabunny Swing

It's big, it's ugly, it place creepy church music. It has a damn canopy for god's sake. But it's magical and we can put the baby in here for a little while why we get some stuff done. 

Halo Sleep Sack

We've tried several different swaddles and this is our favorite. It's easy to use and miraculously, I can change his diaper at night without unswaddling him (it unzips from the bottom up). He sleeps soundly without flailing his arms around and waking himself up. He also looks like a little burrito in it, so bonus.