Seven Months

This past Sunday marked the seven month mark for our tot. She is officially over 2 feet long and weighs in at 18+ lbs. This is (by far) my most favorite stage yet, and it makes me so excited for all of the fun things we have planned in the coming months!

Taylor has crossed many milestones in the last couple of weeks, and we are very proud of our little girl! A few days before Easter, she started sitting, and a few days after that she cut her first tooth. Then out of nowhere this past weekend, she said her first word, "Dada." Jake was ecstatic (even though everyone knows that technically "Dada" is easier to say than "Mama"), and we both have been begging her to say it over and over again. Hearing your baby's voice for the first time truly is the sweetest thing. I can't wait for the day when she looks at me with those baby blues and says, "Mama!" 

I am constantly amazed as her personality continues to develop. People are always commenting on what a happy baby she is and, for the most part, she genuinely is! (I mean, we all have our days...) She loves to give big hugs and kisses (which is really just opening her mouth and then slobbering all over your cheek), and nothing makes her happier than being naked. Can you blame her?

She has started eating three meals a day and loves drinking water out of her Hello Kitty sippy cup (watching her chubby little fingers attempt to hold the handles makes my heart melt). I love how clumsy and innocent her movements are as she attempts every new task. She is fearless like her father and sensitive like her mother. She loves affection and is always grabbing or petting our faces. 

She is just the sweetest thing ever, and we're so fortunate to call her ours.

Struggles of a Working Mom

Before I began my ramblings, I should note that (despite other posts) I am very grateful for my job. I don't mind coming to work everyday, although, given the choice, I would much rather stay home and do the 5,000 other things on my "If I Only Had the Time" list. But I don't come from a wealthy family and I refuse to live off the government, so that's that.

Up until about seven months ago, I had fully accepted my lifelong 9-5. Then Taylor was born and my entire mindset changed. On one hand, I am super thankful for the extra income that my job brings in. Let's face it, babies are expensive little creatures. What I'm not thankful for is the constant struggle of being pulled in two different directions (I'm sure this is something all working mothers out there can relate to). I miss my chubby-cheek girl her from the second her daddy takes her to daycare in the morning until I am able to pick her up at night. And putting in overtime has become an excruciating task, as every extra minute away from her feels like an eternity. I realize that I won't always feel this way, but right now she is so sweet and loving that I long to be with her all the time. I believe the saying goes something like "the days drag on but the weeks fly by." Uh, no joke. The past seven months have been a whirlwind (to say the least). I feel like our baby is growing at super speed while I sit behind a desk paying someone else to relish in the joy that is our beautiful daughter. But my husband has reminded me (daily) that I will never be a stay-at-home-mom (something about the insanity that would ensue from my mind having too much time on its hands...blah blah blah), so I write the daycare checks and watch videos on my iPhone to make it through the day.

Speaking of child care, can we discuss this issue for a moment? When in the world did daycare become so competitive? It is work trying to find a certified, reliable, competent, trustworthy individual to care for your child! My husband and I scoured through list after list of potential caretakers for our unborn babe before finally finding one that was clean, organized, and didn't have a bunch of heathens running around. My general theory in life is that people are insane, and the thought of leaving our precious newborn with a complete stranger scared the living daylights out of me. We knew right away that we wanted an in-home daycare that was small and would provide our infant with plenty of love and attention. Luckily, we were able to find just that (which was nothing short of a miracle) and, so far, we are extremely happy with our sitter's services. She is quite possibly as Type A as I am (which immediately prompted a 'yes' vote from me). She respects a daily routine that doesn't revolve around the TV, always has fun activities for the kids to do, and genuinely cares for our babe. If I have to leave our daughter in the hands of someone else, I'm happy it's her.

What I'm not overly enthused about is the cost of said services. While I understand that we live in a city and therefore the cost is higher (something about supply and demand but I slept through most of Economics...), I didn't realize it was going to consume half of my monthly paycheck! I understand that you pay for what you get, but come on! Not to mention the time that my husband and I are required to take off whenever the daycare is closed (mostly unpaid due to our lack of vacation time). I get that sitters need a break just like any other job, but a week for Spring Break, two weeks (paid) in the summer, and a week and a half (paid) at Christmas? That's more time off than my husband and I get combined!

But that's the way the system works and it's not just our daycare - the same went for every other facility we looked into. If you're going to play the game, you have to play by their rules. Doesn't mean I can't complain about it though...

Baby's First Easter

As with nearly every trip we take with our baby in tow, this one started off as a disaster. I left work early on Friday in hopes of getting a hair cut and a new iPhone sans baby. The weather was perfect and we would be heading to my parents' house for the holiday weekend that evening - what could possibly go wrong?

My first mistake was walking into a hair salon in the mall expecting them not to butcher my hair. I asked for a trim and walked out with literally half of the hair that I had when I went in. Whatever. It's hair; it'll grow back. My second mistake was thinking I could trade my current iPhone for a new iPhone in less than an hour. It continues to amaze me how incredibly s-l-o-w the sales person that assisted me was. But 90 minutes and about half of my photos later (which I later recovered from iCloud - thank the Lord!), I was on my way home with my new phone in tow.

Despite the previous mishaps, I was downright giddy as I scream-sang with the windows rolled down on my drive home. Past experience has taught me to pack for overnight outings at least 2-3 days in advance (otherwise I will forget basically everything), so our bags were packed and we were ready to roll. Or so I thought. It wasn't until we arrived at my parents' house (late, of course, due to slowest employee ever at Radio Shack) that we realized we had forgotten to pack formula and diapers. A not-so-quick-trip to the nearest Wal-Mart (which is 20 miles away) remedied the problem, but not without causing a lot of unnecessary stress and running around like chickens with our heads cut off. Situations like that make me thankful I no longer live in a small town (I mean, would it kill a store to stay open past 8:00 p.m.)?

But regardless of Friday night's incidents, it's safe to say that Taylor had a great first Easter. Not only was the weather phenomenal but for the first time in forever our entire family was in good health, so we made the most of it. Saturday we enjoyed Easter dinner (which is actually lunch but for some reason my family calls lunch "dinner" and dinner "supper"). We spent the afternoon relaxing on the patio, eating our weight in pie, and watching the kids play. Later, we took a stroll to the park for the town's annual Easter egg hunt. Although she was too young to participate, Tay had a blast watching the other kids run around - just look at that grin!

We spent the remainder of the evening enjoy each other's company and then headed to bed early in anticipation of the Easter bunny's arrival. I have always been a huge fan of this holiday and adding a child to the mix only increased my joy this year (as apparent by her Easter basket goodies, which I may or may not have started collecting just after Christmas). Her loot included a personalized, hooded beach towel (the thought of her chubby little bikini-clad body wrapped in it makes me so excited for summer!!), a few books, some teething keys, some new summer outfits, and Penny the Pig. Girl cleaned house.

After we opened our Easter goodies, we put on our Sunday best and headed to church. Taylor is typically pretty good during church (usually opting to sleep through most of it). However, her feeding schedule was a little off that morning causing us to have to feed her during the service, which would've been fine until her bottle ran dry and she proceeded to scream bloody murder until we popped an additional few ounces back in her mouth. Sheesh, the kid loves her food (as if you couldn't tell). Luckily, this fiasco happened during the children's message and most of the congregation was focused on 30 kids attempting to "sit quietly" and listen to the preacher. Ha. Yeah right.

When everyone was back in good spirits, we decided to snap a few family pics after church to commemorate the occasion. It's not every day we're all accounted for and dressed up.

As you can probably imagine, getting all 5 of these children to cooperate for a photo is no easy task. Let's just say, many bribes were made in the process. 

All in all, we had a great weekend. And we learned that plastic Easter eggs are a teething baby's dream.

I couldn't help but snap a pic of Tay while the church sat so beautifully in the background. It's days like this that remind me just how truly blessed I am.

  

Six Month Photos

I know that I'm supposed to be on hiatus, but we just received the photos from Taylor's six month shoot and I had to share them! Incorporating this royal blue & coral color combo into our shoot was a no brainer. I am in love with all of the vibrant colors that have made their way back from the 80's are in style this spring. Plus, I knew the hubs would be happy because it meant he could wear blue.

This kid is a straight up HAM in front of the camera these days. She's still completely uncooperative for Jake or myself, but for anyone else? She works it.

I could smooch those chubby cheeks all. day. long.

The rest of our family continues to remain incredibly unphotogenic. Jake manages to "Chandler" it up as soon as he sees a flash and, as for myself, no matter what I look like in front of the mirror, as soon as I step outside, I immediately turn into a squinty eyed/wind blown hair/scrunched up face mess. Thankfully, our photographer is amazing and was able to catch a few decent family shots. It's pretty sad when the baby is the most cooperative out of the three of us.

Regardless, I'm so happy with how these photos turned out. They capture her personality spot on, and I know that later down the road I'll be thankful that we have been so incessant with our photo taking. When I was pregnant with Taylor, we discovered that my husband only has a handful of photos of him as a baby (which makes sense as he was the third child and who has time for that with three kids?!). Combine that with the fact that my husband works at a photography lab, and this child was destined to be in front of a camera, like it or not. But honestly, a face like this needs to be recorded for posterity. At least I think so.

Images courtesy of Crystal Arellano Photography. She is a beautiful person and an amazing photographer. I highly recommend her services! You can contact her and see more of her portfolio here.