A Visit From Cali

Posted on October 10, 2014 by playinghousewi

This past weekend, my favorite Californians came to stay with us to meet our sweet Charlotte, visit with the grandparents and enjoy the beautiful Wisconsin weather. As always, it was soooo wonderful to see them. My aunt and uncle are just fun. They’re the kind of people that you just want to spend time with… no faking necessary, it’s just a relaxed and silly good time.

Every time they come to visit, my aunt bakes an absurd amount of the best damn chocolate chip cookies ever and either her almond poppyseed cake or her coffee cake. Both are pretty much the best thing you’ve ever had. And the thoughtfulness of these people is crazy. This visit they brought sweet Charlotte the most precious music jewelry box I have ever seen with this gorgeous locket for Charlotte (with a “C” and her birthday engraved on it). I mean… come on. Most perfect give ever, right? Both are in C’s room right now and she’s sleeping, but here’s a picture of the jewelry box from the internet…

Perfection.

It’s funny, they always thank us left and right for letting them stay with us, and honestly, I absolutely love having them. There’s no pressure and it’s just fun. I love being able to catch up with them and just getting some low key hang time. Anyway, they’re just wonderful… I’m definitely lucky to have them.

Not to make this a total blubber fest about my aunt and uncle, but they brought these indoor snowballs for my niece and nephew and oh my goodness. The whole fam was running around our house having a full on snowball fight… minus the freezing cold / runny nose / numb fingers thing. It was amazing.

Winding up!

The cutie petutie J.

The battlefield.

Attack!!

Action shot!

Did I mention they also brought glow necklaces?

And then there is my cousin. She is this adorable little LA love with a hilarious sense of humor and this roughness about her that’s just about my favorite thing on this earth. Spending time with her and chatting with her is probably one of my top 5 activities. A glimpse of her humor via some onesies she made for Charlotte…

And every baby needs a designer denim diaper cover and tee… duh!

There’s also this adorable designer denim dress, but that’s in Charlotte’s room, too.

Here are some more pictures from our very quick and amazing visit. Not pictured: the mancala / battleship faceoff between my cousin and I. Please come back for a rematch soon.

Mom, Stef & Mark cooking.

Charlotte checking out her naughty socks… another gift from my silly cousin.

Baby C

Bro, Cousin & I with Gramps

Tiny cousins!

Shenanigans

My fam 🙂

The moral of the story? Come back and visit soon!! xo

Three Months… How could it be??

Posted on October 8, 2014 by playinghousewi

It seems so unbelievable that it’s already been three months since the first time I kissed my precious little girl. So much has changed since then.

Unfortunately one of those things is not her sleeping habits. While she is great at napping (kind of), she is still waking up twice a night. Last night she was up for 2 hours and ended up milk barfing all over me and the upholstered chair at 4 something in the morning. Thanks, Charlotte! Nothing beats cleaning up milky barf.

This week Charlotte has really discovered her toys. She loves them… And loved shoving them in her mouth (see photos)…

She is also one of the biggest fake criers I know… Take that with a grain of salt. I don’t really know any fake criers.

We’ve also been noticing that she’s not the biggest fan of strangers. She tends to cry when handed off… But usually will eventually settle.

Oh! She is also loving sitting up. She holds onto my thumbs and pulls herself up (with my help of course). It’s so cute!

Did I mention that she’s somehow become even cuter? I love this little monkey… Milk barfs, fake cries and all!

ELEVEN Weeks Old! Holy Cow!

Posted on October 3, 2014 by playinghousewi

This little munchkin of ours is getting so big so fast. (She’s already in 3-6 months now… as of this week… although everything is a bit big on her.) It blows my mind. The lovely lady is still not sleeping through the night anymore, but is doing really well with her napping. At night, she’s up about twice a night… 11ish and 3 or 4ish. Not horrible. She is still boycotting a bottle, which is a pain in the butt… especially because this past weekend, I came home from the gym to find Mark trying to give her a bottle. He had been trying for 20ish minutes. I decided to try and give it a shot and sure enough, she took the bottle from me. Think she’s trying to tell us something?

Baby Boo has also been pretty weird with her evening nap. She’s usually due for a nap between 4 and 5, but has been refusing it… so I end up either trying to put her down for hours or, I get her to sleep and she thinks she’s down for the night. Ugh. Last night I decided to keep her up, so instead of 1.5-2 hours of wakefulness, she had 2.5. It went really well.

Besides sleeping, this child has been also getting quite the little personality. She absolutely loves to smile and seriously, melts my heart with every grin. I can honestly say that I love her exponentially more every day. She’s so delicious.

Charlotte’s Newborn Pictures

Posted on October 3, 2014 by playinghousewi

I realized today that I never actually shared Charlotte’s newborn photos (or my baby shower pictures – those will come another day). SO, with our 3-month pictures coming up this weekend, it seems appropriate to share some of our favorites. All photos taken by the wonderful Nicole of Pics by Nic and many of the cute headbands and the two hats were made by the fabulous Lisa of Kiki & Bee.

Enjoy…

The Rest of Our Weekend…

Posted on September 30, 2014 by playinghousewi

In photos!

Have I mentioned how much I love my family???

Gutting the pumpkin

Posted on September 28, 2014 by playinghousewi

While hubs gutted the pumpkin, the bambino and I got to snuggle and enjoy the perfectly sunny day.

Please note the enjoyment in Charlotte’s face. This sentiment continued into her photo-shoot. Hopefully the photographer was able to get a good, non-crying shot. And of course, as soon as we had officially given up on the chance that she might smile for the camera, she was happy as a clam. Typical.

And for fun… I think Toby is trying to hint at his desire to be Todo for Halloween…

Dancing Queen

Posted on September 27, 2014 by playinghousewi

Today was a tutu kinda day… We danced to Taylor Swift and told each other secrets. Sweet times with my little cherub-faced girl.

The Superhero in Our Lives

Posted on September 25, 2014 by playinghousewi

“I heart my dad.” -C

It’s been awhile since I’ve gushed over my husband and I’m feeling like it’s long overdue. While this lovely man has made me want to punch him a few times (can we say Seattle??), he’s really been so amazing.

The amazing started long before sweet Charlotte arrived. Have I mentioned that my husband went to all but one prenatal appointments with me? That means every ultrasound, non-stress test (and there were at least 6), and regular check up. I didn’t have to beg him or pout… he just did it because he’s pretty damn amazing.

Then our labor/delivery/recovery experience. Hubs stayed in the hospital for all 5 nights and was the most active labor partner I’ve ever heard of. In fact, the nurses on the floor were all asking if he had a single brother. Mark was literally with me for every second of my 24 hours of hard labor (and the 12 or so before that) except for the one time he went to the bathroom and the one time he went in the hall to talk to the doctor. Other than that, his hands were on my back or around my waist the entire time. We were in the tub, in the shower, up on the bed, walking the halls… we were everywhere. And without complaint or hesitation, my guy was by my side. It was our labor.

And now, since our girl has arrived, he’s just been wonderful. He comes home just about every day to have lunch with us and spend some time with Charlotte. He’s been to all of her doctor’s appointments (and my post-birth check up). I didn’t change a single diaper until Charlotte was just about 2 weeks old. He still changes 99% of all diapers when he’s home. He lets me sleep whenever possible. He loves on both baby C and me. He’s pretty amazing.

Truly, we don’t know where we’d be without him.

Wahhh, my daddy’s a superhero!

I’m cute.

And by the way, look at me playing with my new toy…

And did I mention that I tried out my bumbo today??

I think I might like it… maybe…

Our Little 10 Week Old

Posted on September 25, 2014 by playinghousewi

Well, here we are… Another week has gone by. Charlotte’s made some big changes… Some good and some a little less pleasant.

In fact, this week the sweetie pie has decided she will officially no longer accept a bottle, she will not be sleeping through the night and on top of that, she has a cold! A rough week.

On the positive, she has been doing so well with sleep training (besides not sleeping through the night)! She’s been napping in her crib every two hours and even “put herself to sleep” tonight (for the first time). I breast fed her and we swayed around the room for a bit. Then, I put her in her crib awake and rocked her gently for a few minutes. She wasn’t falling asleep and I was getting impatient, so I went to get the hubs. We decided to let her fuss for a few and see if she’d fall asleep on her own (note, she was not crying… Just fussing).

Sure enough, after 5 or so minutes, she was out!! Yay!! Hopefully we can recreate that tomorrow. As for timing, she’s been falling asleep in the 730/8 range these days.

Other developments… She LOVES sucking on her hand (see photo below), she is even more personable than last week, and is my favorite little thing on this earth.

Enjoy the pictures! See if you can pick out the photo where she decided to work out a poop! No better time than photo shoot time, right? Babies are awesome! No shame 🙂 She smiled after. I was proud.

And just a couple others from our day!

Did I mention that she loves to suck on pretty much anything but a paci? Exhibit A: my sleeve after she sucked it like crazy while I made dinner with her in my pouch.

Baby’s First Cold

Posted on September 24, 2014 by playinghousewi

At around 1:45 this morning, the sweet bambino woke up totally congested and coughing. It was really sad. We used the nose frieda, which actually worked really well… Although Charlotte does not enjoy it. Her eyes bulge out of her head and she desperately tries to sniff all the boogs back into her nose as I’m trying to suck them out. Yuck.

As an FYI, we called the doc this morning and she said to monitor her temp and make sure she doesn’t have a rash. If her rectal temp was over 100.6, she would need to be seen.

Anyway, the sweet girl was sick all day, which made my attempt at getting her into good sleep habits easier. She took a 3 hour nap, a 2 hour nap and a 45 minute nap today and was asleep by 8. Pretty good! Sleeping after 1-2 hours of wakefulness, as our sleep book recommends.

Hopefully her good sleep habits will last through the night. This momma is tired.

Despite her stuffy nose and cough, she was in pretty good spirits today. Check out her mini smile on our walk today (and don’t judge her for rocking pjs all day… It was a sick day!).