Height: 25.39 in (68th percentile)
Weight: 14.2 lbs (35th percentile)
Head Circumference: 16.7 in (57th percentile)
Ughhh! Trying desperately to catch up since at the time I'm writing about this event, Grey is already 8 months old! Am I cursed to perpetually be 4 months behind?! I just can't skip ahead and disregard all events that have happened in the past four months. That is a third of the year! Half of Grey's life (up to this point)!
Anyway, I can barely remember what was going on with Grey's development at 4 months. I do remember that he had already cut his first tooth (or bottom two teeth?) by this appointment. It was the source of some crappy sleep during the time. I can't remember if he was rolling over yet (or if he had fallen off the bed onto the hard wood floor...or off the couch onto the hard wood floor that one time I asked Lucy to "watch" him for a second). I'm pretty sure he was starting to fall more into a routine at this time which was nice.
His rate of growth is a little slower but he is very similar to Lucy at 4 months except that he is a little heavier and a little shorter. I was so good at getting Lucy's pictures done at this time - I need to work on this for Grey. While I reminisce about Lucy at 4 months, I see the similarities in both of my children - Grey is a very happy baby and always smiling at everyone, just like Lucy. If only I could get him to sleep better.
Oh, I wish I had a picture to commemorate 4 months for Grey but remembering to take pictures has never been my strong suit. Must recommit to do better!
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Strawberry Patch Makeover - July 13 - August 27th
One of the problems for me with having a baby in March was that by the time spring and summer rolled around, I was itching to get out of the house and do yard work and gardening. But summer heat and sun aren't exactly amenable to new babies. That is why I was hoping for a fall baby - to get pregnant in the beginning of 2012 and have a baby around September, October, or November (like around the time my sister's had babies) so that whole newborn stage could be indoors when we had crappy weather anyway (although I guess we might be dealing with a whole different set of issues like RSV and such). But alas, we can't always control these things so we do the best with what we've got.
I have had a plethora of projects to do around the house and yard but there is so little time with a new baby. By July, I figured that despite the ridiculous heat, I would just do the best I could with what little time I had. So this little project took over a month and a half. I had been dying to turn this plot of grass into a strawberry patch for a while. I impulsively bought some strawberry plants from Lowe's earlier in the season and they were dying because it took my so long to get them in the ground. Before I planted them, I wanted to get rid of all the grass and prepare the whole bed. We had cut down the ugly bushes in April of 2012 for the previous year's neighborhood clean-up but we were left with ugly stumps which I wanted to dig up. Brandon kept bothering me about getting them planted but me with my OCD wanted the front bed perfect for them.
This is the best "before" picture I have. I really, really wanted to dig that stump up so that we could borrow our neighbor's rototiller without damaging it on the roots. So I spent a long time digging. I think I put a Grey in his rocker chair in the shade with an umbrella over him too, then Brandon would put him down for naps and I would either nurse him all sweaty or maybe Brandon just gave him a bottle. I can't remember exactly but I think that this little project took a long time. I had to dig a pretty big hole.
Fortunately, we were able to get the giant rock removed by the city when they happened to be doing some repair on our water line under the sidewalk. Brandon asked them if they could pull up and haul our two ugly rocks away with all the broken concrete and they did it in two seconds. That is why there is a smaller hole in the foreground of this next picture.
And here is that giant stump. It doesn't look nearly as big as it really was in this picture. I think I literally roared as I was tearing it from the earth. I insisted that Brandon take a picture of it.
Over the course of many more weekends, Brandon rototilled the front bed and I pulled out weeds and grass and raked it all down to try to even out the soil (it was not graded properly because the dirt sloped down toward the house). I even put some large stones down (from a different planter that I plan to eventually tear out) to kinda widen our driveway so we wouldn't be stepping on mud/plants when we got out of our car. Then Brandon finally planted those strawberry plants (I think we lost one or two to the heat/lack of water) and mulched it.
We obviously need just a few more strawberry plants to make it a proper strawberry patch. I really wanted to make the strawberry patch in this area because I heard that strawberries can spread like crazy and I wanted them to be in a confined space surrounded by concrete. And I actually think that strawberry plants make really pretty ground cover. Brandon did some research about other beneficial plants that you can inter-plant with strawberries to help them grown better and reduce pests so hopefully, we can do that all in 2014!
Unfortunately, within days, a very invasive wild morning glory weed (bindweed or convulvulous?) started popping up and spreading quickly despite my meticulous prior weeding (apparently, pulling up the weed is not enough because of the crazy root system). So my lovely front bed pretty much turned into a weed patch. We have it all over our yard and it keeps spreading. But at least the strawberries are doing well. Hopefully, the strawberries will win the battle next year.
I have had a plethora of projects to do around the house and yard but there is so little time with a new baby. By July, I figured that despite the ridiculous heat, I would just do the best I could with what little time I had. So this little project took over a month and a half. I had been dying to turn this plot of grass into a strawberry patch for a while. I impulsively bought some strawberry plants from Lowe's earlier in the season and they were dying because it took my so long to get them in the ground. Before I planted them, I wanted to get rid of all the grass and prepare the whole bed. We had cut down the ugly bushes in April of 2012 for the previous year's neighborhood clean-up but we were left with ugly stumps which I wanted to dig up. Brandon kept bothering me about getting them planted but me with my OCD wanted the front bed perfect for them.
This is the best "before" picture I have. I really, really wanted to dig that stump up so that we could borrow our neighbor's rototiller without damaging it on the roots. So I spent a long time digging. I think I put a Grey in his rocker chair in the shade with an umbrella over him too, then Brandon would put him down for naps and I would either nurse him all sweaty or maybe Brandon just gave him a bottle. I can't remember exactly but I think that this little project took a long time. I had to dig a pretty big hole.
Fortunately, we were able to get the giant rock removed by the city when they happened to be doing some repair on our water line under the sidewalk. Brandon asked them if they could pull up and haul our two ugly rocks away with all the broken concrete and they did it in two seconds. That is why there is a smaller hole in the foreground of this next picture.
And here is that giant stump. It doesn't look nearly as big as it really was in this picture. I think I literally roared as I was tearing it from the earth. I insisted that Brandon take a picture of it.
Over the course of many more weekends, Brandon rototilled the front bed and I pulled out weeds and grass and raked it all down to try to even out the soil (it was not graded properly because the dirt sloped down toward the house). I even put some large stones down (from a different planter that I plan to eventually tear out) to kinda widen our driveway so we wouldn't be stepping on mud/plants when we got out of our car. Then Brandon finally planted those strawberry plants (I think we lost one or two to the heat/lack of water) and mulched it.
We obviously need just a few more strawberry plants to make it a proper strawberry patch. I really wanted to make the strawberry patch in this area because I heard that strawberries can spread like crazy and I wanted them to be in a confined space surrounded by concrete. And I actually think that strawberry plants make really pretty ground cover. Brandon did some research about other beneficial plants that you can inter-plant with strawberries to help them grown better and reduce pests so hopefully, we can do that all in 2014!
Unfortunately, within days, a very invasive wild morning glory weed (bindweed or convulvulous?) started popping up and spreading quickly despite my meticulous prior weeding (apparently, pulling up the weed is not enough because of the crazy root system). So my lovely front bed pretty much turned into a weed patch. We have it all over our yard and it keeps spreading. But at least the strawberries are doing well. Hopefully, the strawberries will win the battle next year.
YNAB - July 11, 2013
Thursday, July 11th started out like any other summer day. Lucy had swim lessons in the morning and by the afternoon, I was wasting my time on facebook. Then I came upon a post by Brandon's cousin that would change my life. Okay, that is a little over dramatic. Here is a screen shot but I couldn't capture all of the comments.
Brandon and I decided to buy this budgeting software that his cousin recommended and figured that if it didn't work, it would just be $40 lost (plus, there was a sale and it was 33% off!). And we have wasted $40 on many a stupider thing. Not that we were in any financial crisis. But I managed the day to day finances while Brandon handled our longer term investments and I just wasn't doing that great of a job. We weren't going into debt or anything. We paid our credit card off every month but when the credit card bill was due, we were often surprised by how large it was and it wasn't uncommon for us dip into a savings a little bit to pay it off. And then there was always this unknown about if we could really afford some large purchases which was stressful.
Every once in a while we would sit down to have a budget meeting (and I mean, every few months or more) and I always stressed about it (thinking about how much money we didn't have - remember, Brandon was laid off from his job in May 2012). I actually usually felt better after budget meetings because I was more aware of our finances but although we vowed to have them more regularly, it just didn't happen. We signed up for Mint.com but then never looked at it. And we used spreadsheets and then they were outdated because our finances were always changing. Our problem was those irregular expenses that just come up every once in a while - like new tires for the car or some house repair. My sister-in-law was using the envelope method which I heard was very effective but seemed inconvenient to have to carry around so much cash. Plus, I really love using my credit card and getting points.
YNAB was described to us almost like an electronic envelope system where you can still use credit cards and just be more aware of what you are spending money on. So it is like a spreadsheet but better. It's hard to explain unless you actually use it. Fortunately, Brandon really took to it and now takes care of all the finances. I am involved but I should probably learn to use this software but Brandon is really good at it. And knowing exactly where your money is going is really empowering as most people described who actually keep track of their finances. It is a really flexible tool and interesting to look at over time where you are spending your money, thereby letting you figure out where you can save more money and cut back. For example, in September, we spent $237.32 on gas. It blew us away because Brandon works just 10 minutes away and my driving consists of going to the gym, dropping off Lucy to pre-K, going shopping, and visiting my sister. But those little trips add up and especially, we were using Brandon's dad's gas-guzzling Ford Expedition every once in a while (or so we thought). So in October, we were just more mindful of how we drove around and Brandon rode his bike to work and even dropped Lucy off at pre-K with the bike trailer and our fuel for the month was only $86.71. Isn't that amazing?
There is always room for improvement in our budget to find ways to spend less and save more. Thanks to Brandon and his research on-line (he likes reading the blog Mr. Money Mustache), we have switched from our expensive AT&T cell phone provider of paying over $100/month for cell phone service to $20/month from Airvoice Wireless. I was skeptical at first but it has worked out great and can't believe that we are saving over $80/month (which ended up going to life insurance premiums which we just started). We weren't under contract and I don't have a smart phone and we don't really use our phones for internet so it's pretty bare bones but it works for us. Now if only I can get our internet bill from Comcast a little lower...
Anyway, just had a give a shout out on my blog to YNAB (and the BYU graduate founder of it) for really working. I was in no way compensated for my post about it - just wanted to let people know that we found something great.
Brandon and I decided to buy this budgeting software that his cousin recommended and figured that if it didn't work, it would just be $40 lost (plus, there was a sale and it was 33% off!). And we have wasted $40 on many a stupider thing. Not that we were in any financial crisis. But I managed the day to day finances while Brandon handled our longer term investments and I just wasn't doing that great of a job. We weren't going into debt or anything. We paid our credit card off every month but when the credit card bill was due, we were often surprised by how large it was and it wasn't uncommon for us dip into a savings a little bit to pay it off. And then there was always this unknown about if we could really afford some large purchases which was stressful.
Every once in a while we would sit down to have a budget meeting (and I mean, every few months or more) and I always stressed about it (thinking about how much money we didn't have - remember, Brandon was laid off from his job in May 2012). I actually usually felt better after budget meetings because I was more aware of our finances but although we vowed to have them more regularly, it just didn't happen. We signed up for Mint.com but then never looked at it. And we used spreadsheets and then they were outdated because our finances were always changing. Our problem was those irregular expenses that just come up every once in a while - like new tires for the car or some house repair. My sister-in-law was using the envelope method which I heard was very effective but seemed inconvenient to have to carry around so much cash. Plus, I really love using my credit card and getting points.
YNAB was described to us almost like an electronic envelope system where you can still use credit cards and just be more aware of what you are spending money on. So it is like a spreadsheet but better. It's hard to explain unless you actually use it. Fortunately, Brandon really took to it and now takes care of all the finances. I am involved but I should probably learn to use this software but Brandon is really good at it. And knowing exactly where your money is going is really empowering as most people described who actually keep track of their finances. It is a really flexible tool and interesting to look at over time where you are spending your money, thereby letting you figure out where you can save more money and cut back. For example, in September, we spent $237.32 on gas. It blew us away because Brandon works just 10 minutes away and my driving consists of going to the gym, dropping off Lucy to pre-K, going shopping, and visiting my sister. But those little trips add up and especially, we were using Brandon's dad's gas-guzzling Ford Expedition every once in a while (or so we thought). So in October, we were just more mindful of how we drove around and Brandon rode his bike to work and even dropped Lucy off at pre-K with the bike trailer and our fuel for the month was only $86.71. Isn't that amazing?
There is always room for improvement in our budget to find ways to spend less and save more. Thanks to Brandon and his research on-line (he likes reading the blog Mr. Money Mustache), we have switched from our expensive AT&T cell phone provider of paying over $100/month for cell phone service to $20/month from Airvoice Wireless. I was skeptical at first but it has worked out great and can't believe that we are saving over $80/month (which ended up going to life insurance premiums which we just started). We weren't under contract and I don't have a smart phone and we don't really use our phones for internet so it's pretty bare bones but it works for us. Now if only I can get our internet bill from Comcast a little lower...
Anyway, just had a give a shout out on my blog to YNAB (and the BYU graduate founder of it) for really working. I was in no way compensated for my post about it - just wanted to let people know that we found something great.
Wednesday, November 06, 2013
Noel's 4th Birthday Party - July 9, 2013
What a sad day for our family! Lucy's friend, Noel, who lived just two houses away from us had a farewell birthday party because her family was moving to Texas.
Noel's parents, Karen and Todd, are some of the friendliest people we know. When we first moved into our home, they were our first friends. When I was bored, I would often walk over to their house and hang out and always felt so welcome. And of course, it was so great that the girls were close in age and could play with each other.
Here is one of the first pictures of the girls together. This was probably just a few months after we moved in. I think my mom was visiting and we were raking leaves and we put the girls inside the leaves container. What a fun memory - the girls were just 1 1/2 years old. I love Lucy's expression in this picture.
And here they are just hanging out at Karen's house on one of our many visits there. Lucy always loved (and still does) playing with other kids' toys and eating their snacks.
And this was Noel's 2nd birthday party at our local park. I didn't blog much during this time so it is interesting to look back at some of these pictures (I actually snagged these from Karen's facebook page).
I don't have as many pictures recently. The girls did go to preschool together last year and we carpooled which was wonderful. Best of luck to the Heaton family on their new adventures in Texas. Karen is expecting baby number FIVE in December!! We will certainly miss them in our neighborhood! Lucy still often talks about missing Noel. What lovely memories she has of her first friend outside of family. At least there is facebook to keep up with the latest happenings. Thanks for the great friendship, Heaton family!
Noel's parents, Karen and Todd, are some of the friendliest people we know. When we first moved into our home, they were our first friends. When I was bored, I would often walk over to their house and hang out and always felt so welcome. And of course, it was so great that the girls were close in age and could play with each other.
Here is one of the first pictures of the girls together. This was probably just a few months after we moved in. I think my mom was visiting and we were raking leaves and we put the girls inside the leaves container. What a fun memory - the girls were just 1 1/2 years old. I love Lucy's expression in this picture.
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| Fall 2010 |
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| January 2011 |
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| July 2011 |
I don't have as many pictures recently. The girls did go to preschool together last year and we carpooled which was wonderful. Best of luck to the Heaton family on their new adventures in Texas. Karen is expecting baby number FIVE in December!! We will certainly miss them in our neighborhood! Lucy still often talks about missing Noel. What lovely memories she has of her first friend outside of family. At least there is facebook to keep up with the latest happenings. Thanks for the great friendship, Heaton family!
Saturday, November 02, 2013
Dress-Up! - July 8, 2013
My girl Lucy - she would play with friends all day long if she could. While she was already doing swim lessons every morning with Aeli, she asked that I set up a play date with Mia, a friend from church, in the afternoon. Lucy played with Mia once at her house a long time ago (maybe a year ago) and remembered how much she liked her. Mia is actually one grade older than Lucy (in the same grade as Aeli) but having an October birthday, she is a year and half older. Mia is also the youngest of four children so she seems much more mature, maybe because she learns quickly from her older siblings. But that didn't stop the girls from having a blast playing dress up together and having a photo shoot.
Grey was just chillin' as always.
Lucy looks so small next to these girls who are just one grade old than her. Maybe she also looks young because her hair is so short and hasn't grown much either. I'm not sure if she will just be a petite girl or will have some growth spurt later. Hopefully, her hair will thicken up and grow some more too. Just so grateful that there are so many friends from church and the neighborhood for Lucy to play with.
What a mess the house was after these girls left but at least Lucy was entertained for the day. If only I could get her to help me clean up the mess as easily as she makes it.
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| Disney princesses. |
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| Pretty in Pink. |
Grey was just chillin' as always.
Lucy looks so small next to these girls who are just one grade old than her. Maybe she also looks young because her hair is so short and hasn't grown much either. I'm not sure if she will just be a petite girl or will have some growth spurt later. Hopefully, her hair will thicken up and grow some more too. Just so grateful that there are so many friends from church and the neighborhood for Lucy to play with.
Mosquito Bites! - July 5, 2013
With two kids, sometimes the only time you have to do any yard work is at 9:00 pm at night after the kids are in bed. I've been dying to do yard work all spring and summer but it's difficult with a new baby. So evening seems to be the best time when Brandon is home and it's not too hot and both kids are asleep. Unfortunately, mosquitoes really, really like me and I got attacked on my lower back (I was bending over a lot pulling weeds and my shirt rode up leaving a large slice of my skin exposed). So here is what I get for all my hard work. And these pictures don't even do it justice because the lighting was so bad and you can't see how swollen it all is.
Poor Lucy must have my blood too. While Brandon rarely gets bitten by mosquitoes, she was attacked on a late night out playing and looked quite similar to the above photos on her back and arms. Poor girl! You got it from your momma!!
Bath Time - July 5, 2013
I will admit, I was not very good about giving Grey a bath very regularly in his first few months of life. It just didn't seem like he was ever dirty. And it was so hard with him being so floppy and having to hold his head up. I used to have an infant bath for Lucy when she was a baby but I didn't like it (or didn't like how much space it took up or how short-lived its use was) so I sold it on Craigslist and I think I just gave her baths in the bathroom sink in our old home. But I wouldn't give Grey a bath in our bathroom or kitchen sink in our current home cause they are kinda gross. So I settled for a plastic storage bin. Is that weird?
Lucy wanted in on the action and she was actually quite helpful in holding Grey's head up above the water.
Maybe she was tickled by the novelty of taking a bath in a storage bin. Anyway, for your viewing pleasure.
Eventually, Rowe outgrew his infant bath so Emily passed it on to me. And now Grey has outgrown it but at least we have a basement to store it until the next baby comes along. And then, my friend, Candace gave me a different older infant bath sitter thing so Grey is using that now. So no more plastic storage bin - he outgrew it so quickly! Well, I guess now that he is sitting up we could still use it but double baths with Lucy seem to make more sense with them now.
Lucy wanted in on the action and she was actually quite helpful in holding Grey's head up above the water.
Maybe she was tickled by the novelty of taking a bath in a storage bin. Anyway, for your viewing pleasure.
Eventually, Rowe outgrew his infant bath so Emily passed it on to me. And now Grey has outgrown it but at least we have a basement to store it until the next baby comes along. And then, my friend, Candace gave me a different older infant bath sitter thing so Grey is using that now. So no more plastic storage bin - he outgrew it so quickly! Well, I guess now that he is sitting up we could still use it but double baths with Lucy seem to make more sense with them now.
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