6 Months

Half a year!

Weight: 17 pounds and 10 ounces (18 pounds a week later)
Height: 25.75
Shots: Two in each thigh :(
Diaper: Size 3
Clothes: 6-9 Months
Eats: Similac Advance, most vegetables

SO apparently the nurse measured Eliana wrong at 5 months.  She isn't shrinking, she was 25.25 last time and now she's 25.75.

Eliana has had an ultrasound done and double ear infections.

She sits on her own, has eaten bell peppers, bananas, green beans, chicken, and noodles.   She rolls over any chance she gets.  She's been a little clingy lately, probably due to the ear infections.

Shortly before 6 months we celebrated Eliana's baptism in Corpus Christi at St. John's UMC.

I can't wait for summer so I can spend lots of time with my little one.

Sick Days

Early morning Friday we woke up to a coughing, feverish baby.  Since the husband and I are both teachers we had our usual "sick kid" conversation.  Who was going to call in this time, who could get a sub faster, would we need a full or a half day, what time would the doctor be able to see us...?  Finally, husband decided he would get a sub.  (I knew that since it was a Friday subs would be hard to find, but we went with his idea.)  So husband stayed up until 2:00 am with Baby Girl putting her to sleep, getting his last minute sub instructions ready and I was up off and on just to check and see if they were doing okay.

5:00 am I woke up with the alarm, got ready for work and showed up ready to teach my class.  Around 7:20 am I get a message from my husband that he was going to have to leave Baby Girl with his sister because he couldn't get a sub and he needed to go into work.  Me being the worrier I am did not want to have my Baby Girl sick all day without seeing a doctor until possibly 5:00 pm, so I logged online, requested a substitute for that day and talked to my principal about leaving early.  Luckily a substitute was available and I was able to leave.  (This is all the excitement a teacher has to go through just to get a day off to take her kid to the doctor for all you future educators our there.  My advice, work for a principal who knows families are important.  Anyway...)

I was able to get an appointment at our pediatric clinic at 10:00, so I rushed over there.  Three mile and Dove are a lot faster than the expressway, go figure.  I have to say that I love McAllen Pediatrics at Renaissance.  They are so efficient and friendly, it is MUCH better than the clinic we went to for almost three years with Little Man.

After a finger prick and many other tests, we were prescribed a medication for her nebulizer, antibiotics and a follow up appointment to check on her white blood cell count.  At that point all she and I wanted was a nap.  I was so tired I didn't even eat lunch.  I gave her a bottle, put her to bed and I went to bed too.  I woke up after about an hour to discover she had another high fever.  With some Tylenol and a bath all crises were averted.  The rest of the day was spent lounging in comfortable clothes, watching television and lying in bed.

Several days later Baby Girl is much healthier and in a better mood. Sick days are no fun, and they're even less fun when you have to work on all these logistics just to get things taken care of.  Here's hoping she continues to stay healthy, we have a busy Baptism weekend ahead of us.

5 months

Baby Girl is 5 months old now!

Weight:  16 pounds 12 ounces
Height:   26.25 inches
Shots:  1 in the thigh and 1 oral
Diaper:  Size 3
Clothes: 3-6 Months, 6 Months, 6-9 Months
Eats:  Similac Advance (6 ounces every four hours)

E rolls over, holds her head very well, babbles away and loves to stare at Daddy.  She also really loves laughing at her brother.  She has really dry, sensitive skin, so she can only use Aveeno body wash and lotions.  We have to use fragrance free wipes and have to be really careful with our perfumes and colognes.

She's growing so fast.  I'm trying to enjoy it while it lasts.

Thrift Shopping

I don’t know if it’s because I’m older now and I hear more about clothes shopping from co-workers than I did as a kid, but it seems like thrift shopping is a cool thing to do these days.  When I was younger it was considered gross or dirty to buy your clothes second-hand.  Now with stores like Plato’s Closet and Children’s Orchard, it doesn’t seem so weird or disgusting to shop second-hand bargains.

                  I’ll admit that I have never purchased any clothes for myself or for my family from a second-hand store, but I am seriously considering it.  Children’s Orchard is the first shop I bought a second-hand baby bouncer from for my niece.  It was a bargain because it was super clean and worked perfectly.  My niece used it, my nephew used it and Little Man used it.  With Little Man it finally stopped working, but for sixteen bucks it was a great deal and it got plenty of “mileage.”  When Baby Girl was born we went back and purchased another bouncy chair for fourteen dollars.  The only difference is, unlike Little Man, Baby Girl hates being in it.  When we were in the store I found myself looking at the clothes and thinking, “Why not?”  They’re all clean, they look practically new, babies only wear these clothes for a few months, and so it seems like a genius idea. 

                  Little Man accumulated lots of clothes.  Some clothes were second-hand from his older cousin, some were gifts, most we bought, and I ended up keeping them in boxes in the garage in case we had another baby boy.  Well, we had a girl, so we needed to start all over again.  Two is our limit on kids, so I needed to find a place for all those boy clothes.  Luckily, we had a baby nephew born just one month before Baby Girl so nephew inherited those clothes.  Baby Girl is quickly outgrowing her clothing and I found myself wondering if I should sell to Children’s Orchard, sell on Craigslist.com or have a garage sale.  Browsing the web for how to get the most money for your clothes, I found a great site called jbfsale.com.  They have a consignment style sale twice a year in different locations.  Unfortunately for us, there isn’t one in the Valley.  (Someone needs to buy a franchise...)  I am seriously considering going up to Boerne in April to sell some of Baby Girl’s clothes and purchase her some new ones.  With a guaranteed savings of at least 30%, why not?

                  How many parents out there buy second-hand clothing for their families?

*How many of you now have the Macklemore song in your head?  What, what, what....

Fun Friday

At Little Man's school, Fridays are Fun Fridays.  We decided to have our own fun Friday yesterday.  Little Man has been dying to go to the zoo.  He loves all animals, but for some reason he was really interested in seeing the giraffes and tigers this time.  We had planned to leave early, but by the time everyone was awake, dressed, fed and packed up it was already 10:00 am.

From our house it's about an hour drive to the zoo.  Luckily for us Baby Girl slept most of the way and Little Man was just so excited he didn't mind the car ride without his iPad.  He just played with three giraffe toys and talked to Daddy and me the whole way.

Apparently lots of families had the same idea about Fun Friday, the zoo was packed!  The weather was really nice though, so the crowds were bearable.  The zoo is a really fun place for a 3 year old.  He loved looking around at all the animals.  His favorite was the petting zoo.  He thinks it's the most awesome thing to just brush the goats.  The zoo started to get really crowded so we decided to walk across the street to the playground and have Little Man play a bit.

Little Man absolutely loved the playground with the pirate ship.  I would have to say he probably loved that more than the zoo.  The zoo also has a very neat playground, but it was too crowded.  Just across the street there are all of these play areas with hardly any people.  (and they're free)  Baby Girl was just dying to join big brother and play.  I can wait for her to walk though.

It was a nice day, but the sun started to feel really hot.  Just a few steps away was the Children's Museum of Brownsville.  We have taken Little Man there before, but he wasn't as into creative play as he is now.  We decided to end our Fun Friday with a visit to the Children's Museum.  It was probably the best idea of the day.  Little Man loved playing in the World's Cafe and building in the construction area.  He pretended he was a boat captain and fished from the boat.  He got his face painted and left with a few souvenirs from the gift shop.  He was definitely a happy 3 year old.

Our Fun Friday was so successful we decided to become members of both the zoo and Children's Museum.  With summer coming I'm sure we're going to have many visits to both places and make the most of our membership.

Road trips with kids

Before our 2012 Road Trip to Orlando, Florida I researched tons of tips for traveling in the car with small children.  Pinterest had some wonderful ideas, these are the ones that worked for us.

1.  Pack a variety of snacks in a fishing tackle box.  C loved that box.  He would ask for his snack box and he would get to choose the snacks from the little compartments.

2.  Pack a variety of books, but don't show them all to your child at once.  Rotate them so that your child thinks he's getting new books when he's tired.

3.  Stop every couple of hours and let your child run around.  We found some great rest stops and we would just play races and have an obstacle course set up for C to get some of his energy out.

4.  Keep the iPad charged.  We had ours loaded with Disney movies.

5. Have kid friendly music ready for the car.  Yes, hearing kids songs for long periods of time can be annoying, but it's better than screaming and crying.

6.  For longer road trips, stop at a hotel with a pool and make sure your child gets some pool time at night.  The promise of a dip in the pool was all we needed to keep C on his best behavior in the car.

7.  Take some activity toys that are easy for your child to play with in their car seat.

8.  Play car games like "I Spy" and "BINGO."

Road trips can be fun if you're prepared.

My take on Baby Led Weaning

I am the mother of two beautiful children, a 3-year-old boy and a 4-month-old girl.  My 3-year-old boy is one of the pickiest eaters on the planet.  As a baby he would eat any baby food.  We started him on all green veggies, then yellow and then red and orange veggies as recommended by our Nurse Practitioner.  We thought we had it made...then came table food.  Little man will not eat anything but macaroni and cheese, pizza, nuggets, fruit, conchitas, fideo and sweets.  I have had to be creative and deceptively hide veggie purees into his food.  I did not want to go down this path with Baby Girl.

I am an avid mommy blog reader and from one of my regular haunts I heard about this book called, Baby Led Weaning by Tracey Murkett and Gill Rapley.  It’s supposed to encourage healthy eating from the start.  I quickly purchased the book for my nook and read it in one sitting.  I was sold on the idea!  The book essentially discusses that before mommies working became a regular thing, baby food didn’t exist.  Babies were given table food and taught how to eat at six months of age or when they could sit and hold their own heads.  Doctors now are encouraging starting babies on baby food at 4 months.  (What we did with Little Man.)  In a nutshell, the babies’ diet is similar to what one would eat on a “Paleo” diet, lots of veggies and meat and you are advised to avoid sodium and processed foods. Because of this, babies develop a taste for natural tasting foods. I highly recommend anyone with infants at least read this book. 

I am a full time working mommy from August until May, so I have to have my children in daycare.  I have been nervous about approaching this concept with my daughter’s caregivers, but I’m pretty sure they’ll be receptive.  In fact, as of her four-month appointment on Monday, the first thing I was asked by the Daycare Director is when they can give Baby Girl baby food.  Since I’m already the “granola” mom who prefers cloth diapers, I’m pretty sure they weren’t surprised about my choice to feed differently.  I’ll be sure to update at six months and let everyone know how our “BLW” adventure begins.