Top Ten

Here are 10 of my favorite baby products. I don't like clutter and "stuff", and even if I did, we don't have room for it. We tried to get away with as little as possible. We never bought a baby swing because they take out so much space. We also never had an infant car seat, just a convertible.

In the first months, we did without a pack and play, baby monitor and stroller. Because of his hip dysplasia, we eventually bought both. My dad also bought me a monitor when he came to visit. The pack and play is now stored again. I also now have a stroller I LOVE. Anyway, here are my top ten, in no specific order.

                      

1. Smartphone: I can not imagine surviving the long nights and breastfeeding without one. Also, having an easy way to take a picture and share it online right away. Now that I track how much Andrew eats, poops, meds, etc. Baby ESP is a great app. 2. SwaddleMe: Andrew liked being swaddled, he slept better. These worked out great even when he was in the spica cast and the rhino hip brace, we only swaddled his upper body then. 3. Bumgenius Cloth Diapers: My favorite type of cloth diaper so far. 4. Boppy Pillow: great for breastfeeding. He also liked sleeping in it, with a blanket over it when he was in the spica cast. 5. Baby ComfyNose: The concept may seem gross to some, but you will quickly get over it once you see how great it works. I use it a lot! So worth it. 6. Ergo Performance: I couldn't decide which carrier to choose because I'm really loving the Boba now too. It took a while for Andrew to like the Ergo, but now he is totally fine in both. Super must have!

7. Marpac White Noise Generator: I wish we would have gotten this sooner. At first we were using a cell phone app, but I noticed the sound loop, which was super annoying. While the Marpac is not visually pretty,  it works very well. Combine with #2 and bam! Hopefully these 2 little gadgets will help your baby sleep better. 8. Fisher Price Rocker: I thought this was a good alternative to a baby swing. This is another thing Andrew slept in when he had his surgeries. It's lightweight, so it can be easily moved from one room to another. We keep this in the kitchen. I put him in this when I need to take a shower, I just bring it to where I can see him. 9. Activity Gym: This is the only "big" toy we had, it was a gift. He really enjoyed it. I recently packed it away. He fell asleep while playing in it many times. 10. Bumbo: Because of Andrew's special needs, this was the only thing I could use to get him in a sitting position (when he wasn't in the cast or brace). We keep this in our car now, to use when we eat out, since he can't really sit in their high chairs. 

Others items that I also like and didn't make it to the top ten are: Boon Grass Drying rack, waterproof crib pads, baby monitor and night lights. I hope this is useful to someone :)

5 months

Andrew turned 5 months yesterday. I'm so happy to share with you that things are finally getting better. About 3 weeks ago Andrew just stopped crying! I've been enjoying him so much more now, things are easier when he is not crying most of the day. I'm even able to go alone with him shopping and he is happy in his stroller. I really wanted to be the "baby wearing" kind of mom, but he just doesn't like it! 

We had our first sleep over at his grandmas house this past weekend, it was very nice! Everything went smoothly and he even slept most of the night (but now that we are back home, he is back to his "normal" sleeping schedule, yawn!) My mother in law took over baby duty for one of the nights so I finally slept :) 

I've had a little more time to do "me" things. I started painting again for my etsy shop Sugar Village, so I'll be posting new paintings very soon. I also did 2 paintings for Andrew's room. There is a phone picture on my Sugar Village Facebook page if you want to see them. As soon as I'm done with it, I'll post pictures of his room, I just have a couple more things that I need. I also bought this Kolocraft stroller because the little cheap one I had, broke this past weekend. 

We still don't have a date for Andrew's hip surgery, but we have an appointment with his geneticist tomorrow, so we'll see when she thinks he should have it done, it will still be in the next couple of months though. Another thing for which I can't stop smiling; one of my good friends had her first baby, it was a girl. They had a home birth and everyone is doing great! I'm so proud of her :)

Well, that's about all I have for now, I just wanted to thank everyone who has been praying and thinking of us. I'm glad things are getting better, we still have some bad days, but they are rare now. I hope they don't turn bad again when he has his surgery, I better not think about that right now :( 

One month to go!

I think we finally have all the essentials ready for the baby. We should get our last packages that we ordered online this next week. We did buy the Gulliver crib in white. They didn't have the dresser I wanted in stock, so we went with the Stuva storage system and kind of made up our own dresser.

We decided to use seventh generation disposable diapers for when the baby is a newborn, then we'll try out cloth diapers, we'll probably go with the Flip cloth diapers. We are not using a stroller for now, but we are going to use a baby carrier. For that, we decided on the Ergo Performance.

Today I did my first load of baby clothes laundry, it was exciting! haha I spent a lot of time in the nursery figuring out what to put in each drawer and folding tiny little clothes. I only have newborn to 3 months sizes in there for now, I figured I would keep the rest in a plastic container until he needs to use it.

This past Saturday, I got my maternity pictures taken by this lovely photographer Lora and her husband (Created by Love Photography). She was so nice and friendly. I'm pretty shy about these kind of things and I was nervous, but she made me feel comfortable and relaxed. I can't wait to see them!

I started having my doctor's appointments every week, which really sucks because they are "below the waist" exams every time! Ugh and grrrrrr! I'm finally starting to feel like a "real" pregnant lady, it's getting harder to pick things up, I feel huge and I feel pressure in weird places :S It's still nothing to really complain about though, let's see how I feel next week...

October

My favorite month of the year! Our home renovations are finally over... At least for the most part, there still might be minor details that need to be done, but for now, we can say they're done! It was a very stressful experience (even tears of frustration were involved). We never thought it would take almost 7 weeks to complete.

When we finally decided on what colors to paint, we went with only 2 different ones for the whole place. Soothing Celadon by Behr for the kitchen, living room, both bathrooms and the baby room. And Antique White, also by Behr, for the dining room, hallway and our bedroom.

(Master bedroom bathroom, that was never in use before remodeling)

They also replaced, fixed, and removed little things through out the place, in addition to painting and remodeling the two bathrooms. We got our carpet from Lowe's. We chose a nylon frieze carpet, it's kind of shaggy, but so far we like it. We are really taking care of it this time, we pretty much vacuum every day haha.

We still have a few boxes of things we have listed on craigslist and other boxes that need to go up in the attic. I also finally sold my wedding dress! I couldn't believe it, I've had it on craigslist for years! One less thing taking up room in the closet and a bit of extra cash to buy baby things :)

I don't think I ever mentioned it on here, but a few months ago we also sold our second car. We are now a one car household. And since we are trying to make room for baby, we are now also a one desktop computer household, we just couldn't find a place for 2 desks in our small condo.

I would be freaking out about having only one computer at home, considering Mike works from home most of the time, but, I got an amazing early birthday present from my wonderful husband: a very cool smart phone! I'm so in love with it! It's a Samsung Galaxy S :)

(♥ My precious ♥)

Anyway, I'll be back soon with pregnancy and nursery updates, so stay tuned ;)

Progress

Last time I blogged about our home improvements, I "thought" things were finally coming along, until the guy we decided to hire stopped returning our calls. We then had about 4 more companies come and give us estimates. Last week, we finally decided on a different contractor and they started working this last Wednesday, yay!

Our home renovations pretty much consists of: remodeling 2 bathrooms, fixing various little things through out the house, painting and changing the carpet. I can't even imagine what it will look like all finished! Too bad we can't afford to re decorate as well.

We had the hardest time picking out the dining room and bathroom vanity lights. Mike didn't like anything at the 2 big home improvement stores, so we searched online. Once we decided on the lights, it seemed like they were out of stock every where! I finally found them, so they better be here soon. We also had to order our new medicine cabinets online.

The next big decisions are going to be picking out the tile for our kitchen backsplash and the interior house paint colors... I'm not looking forward to the paint part.

Today was day 4 and they are almost done with the first bathroom, I'm really hoping they get the second bathroom finished by the end of this week. It's been driving me a little nuts having to be here all day "supervising" them, I feel so trapped. I'll post pictures once they get more things done :)

Home improvements

Things are finally moving along in the home improvement front. Three guys have been to our condo to give us estimates for the little repairs we need and to remodel our bathrooms. I'm still waiting to hear back from one of them though. We also decided to replace our carpet, but that will be the very last thing we do.

The future nursery is still not empty, but at least I posted everything we are trying to sell on craigslist. It's hard for me not to stress out (but I do, a little), I can't wait until they actually start working on our place. We only have about 12 weeks to have everything ready for baby, I really want the new carpet, car seat and baby mattress to air out for as long as possible.

I can't wait for all the home improvements to be done, then I can actually buy the nursery furniture and other big things we'll need. Oh by the way, there is the possibility of my step dad getting a job in Tennessee, if that happens, they would only be 12 hours away from us! I'm pretty excited about that, I really need my parents closer.

Well, that's all that's been going on here. I'm sure our weekend will be filled with many Home Depot and Lowe's trips (good thing both stores are pretty near by). Have a good weekend!

24 Weeks

Hello! I've been bad at blogging lately, I just don't want to bore you all the time with baby and pregnancy related posts. After we came back from Kentucky, I finally started my baby registry on amazon.com. I think I'm done with it (for now). I also decided what crib and dresser I would like for the nursery (The Gulliver crib in white and the Mandal dresser).

We still can't really start on the nursery yet, because we want to take care of some repairs around the house first. We did finally purchase a new sofa and a new vacuum yesterday. Now I need to find a handy man to come take care of all the little repairs that need to be done.

I had my OB appointment today, I'm still seeing a different doctor each time, so I can "get to know" all of them in that practice. Every time I go in, they say the same thing, that I'm doing great! I'm still feeling pretty good, I do notice it's harder to bend over and do certain things, but overall, I think I'm feeling great compared to what I hear from other pregnant ladies.

I finally can tell that my belly is getting bigger. I was excited to see how much weight I have gained so far, it doesn't seem real, but I've only gained about 6 pounds so far... weird. I'm also finally starting to feel my little boy move every now and then :) Anyway, I can't wait to get started on the nursery! Hopefully next month.

It's been too long

When I tell you I haven't been doing anything lately, nothing at all, you have to believe me. That's exactly what I've been doing these past weeks. I still haven't started my art journal, but at least I gathered a few supplies to start it (when my motivation shows up).

I haven't been painting either. I started 2 new paintings that I need to make before I go to Mexico, but I didn't really like them, so here I am, still waiting for my creative inspiration to come back so I can start some new ones.

We watched the first 3 episodes of Glee. We didn't even finish watching the first dvd because we didn't like it. Everyone seems to love that show, well not us. I thought it was fake, corny and just not funny. I only liked two characters. Sorry Glee, I tried to like you, but I just couldn't.

We replaced our non-stick cookware with some pretty stainless steel pots and pans (except for one pan though, for the eggs). We got a really good deal using our 20% off coupon from Bed Bath and Beyond, plus we got a free cast iron square skillet and a 12 inch stainless steel frying pan.

Anyway, that's all I have for you so far, sorry I've been so boring lately. I can't stop thinking about my trip to Mexico. I also still need to send off my lens in for repair, at least I bought the box I'm going to ship it in hee hee.

Monday

Happy about: Up coming travels, robins on my front yard and life in general :)

Mad about: Getting a bill from doctor for 2 minutes of her time, all she told me was that I needed to go to a fertility specialist grrrr

Mike's latest craziness: Running and walking barefoot. Which leads to his recent purchase of some Vibram FiveFingers.

Joined: Netflix. The library not having the complete Road to Avonlea series pretty much convinced us ;)

Wants: Start a small art journal, sort of collage/scrapbook.

Bought: Sula's paint and peel nail polish, it's non-toxic :)

Food: Been eating more grass fed meat and dairy. We also bought some Celtic sea salt (healthier and more minerals!)

I still like birds...

I purchased this little birdie on Etsy from Holly Craft and made him into a pin for my blue cardigan... I think it looks cute :)

I got a haircut the other day. I'm still enjoying this short style, so I'm sticking to it for a while. It's very comfortable and easy to style, it just takes me a few minutes to dry it with the diffuser and I'm ready to go.

Mike has been off work these past two days, so he's been around. I also took down all the Christmas decorations, now there's just a pile of boxes in my dining room ready to go up in the attic.

I sold a painting today and I also got an email from a past customer asking for a painting, so my Etsy shop has been good :) Oh, I made a few changes to my blog, I felt like it was too cluttered so it's back to two columns and I also made a new header.

Well, it's time to make dinner, have a great weekend! It's supposed to snow a little bit tomorrow, we shall see about that...

Welcome 2010

A little late in welcoming the new year but here I am! Things that have happened since my last post:

- Bought new Christmas ornaments for next year at Target. I got them in white and jewel tones... very cheerful looking.

- Spent my last gift card and with it, purchased my very first pair of skinny jeans... Is there like an age limit to wearing them? I hope I don't look ridiculous in them.

- Mike calls skinny jeans "Harry Potter jeans"... I don't know why.

- I also bought lots of cute new undies hee hee

- Celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary yesterday. We had lunch at Seasons 52, which we have never been. Other than that, nothing special :(

- Today we used our brand new standing mixer to make chocolate butter cookies, as usual, they turned out delicious.

- Speaking of cookies, I think they'll go great with my tea. I have completely given up coffee and I now drink decaffeinated tea with cream and sugar, I really like it!

- The weather is amazing, it's been in the 50's these past days... love love love

- Made scallops for dinner for the first time today... they were so good! How can we be such amazing cooks? ;)

Happy

I know I know, once again I have neglected this little blog. This time I actually have things to share. First of all, I quit the census job. Honestly, I hated it and they wanted me to work on weekends... not good. They also didn't want to give me a few days off for Thanksgiving and well, it was "suggested" I resign instead. I will still be considered for other Census jobs, so maybe they'll call me again in a few months.

The other news is that we will be spending this Thanksgiving in Tennessee. We are going to visit Mike's dad. I'm VERY excited (and a bit nervous) because I have never met him. It will also be our first long road trip together, including Miss Lilicans. I can't wait! Just two more weeks. I hope I get to use the pea coat I bought at Old Navy for only $22.

And what better than the smell of these molasses spice cookies with a rum glaze, to get into the holiday spirit? I helped my photographer and baker friend Isabelle, bake some cookies for an event she had to cater. And speaking of food, we made a butternut squash soup for dinner tonight... perfect for this wonderful weather we are having today in Orlando.

November

And it's still hot around here... Sorry for the lack of posts, but I started to work for the US Census again, this time as a Recruiter Assistant. I have to find people in my area to apply for Census jobs, find locations where I can administer the test required to be hired and administer the test myself.

I was really freaking out last week, we only had 3 days of training, the rest of the days I kind of helped and listened to other recruiters administer the test. I was at the main office last week, so it wasn't that bad, this week I really need to go recruit and find locations. I also get to administer my first test tomorrow all by myself *gulp*

Other than that, I sold 3 paintings from Sugar Village the other day, that was cool! They were some of my personal favorites too. I don't know when I'll have time to work on new ones now, which sucks! I did however, purchase a set of pens that I use on my paintings, my very first Ebay purchase.

Another thing that I'm a bit embarrassed in sharing is that, I am slightly obsessed with the Twilight books. Yes, I used to make fun of them, until I saw the first book at the library and decided to give it a try. Omg, now I can not stop reading them! I'm on the second book now. How did this happen?! Ok, you can stop laughing at me now...

Well, I guess I better go get my clothes and lunch ready for work and also organize some paper work for the tomorrows test... who am I kidding, I'm just going to go read New Moon, muahahaha!

Twenty Seven

I had a great birthday weekend. Even the weather was perfect! We went over to my mother in law's house Friday and Saturday. I always feel spoiled when I'm there, it's like a mini vacation. We went to see an antique car show that was going on in Lakeland, around the lake Mike and I got married. Later on we had lunch at a Mexican restaurant, where I had some delicious flautas.

Today I had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory with my friend Candice and also did a bit of shopping. Later this evening we all went to see Where the Wild Things Are. I thought it would be better and Mike thought it was better than he thought it would be, so I guess overall it was ok...

Since we haven't been home this weekend, Mike still owes me my birthday cupcakes, which will probably be the last carbs I'll be eating in a while, we definitely broke our diet this weekend. So yeah, nothing crazy or extravagant this birthday, but I was surrounded by loved ones. And not only this weekend, but lately I've been feeling pretty damn happy, I guess I could consider that an additional gift :)

Hola

Just stopping by before the weekend is over. I'm already done with the Census job for now, I actually only worked for about 3 days after our one week training. I would have liked to work for a few more weeks, but we finished our assigned area really fast.

Mike finally bought himself some fancy new work clothes, he's going to look so nice! I can't wait to see him on Tuesday. He used to work from home most of the time, but now he has to go in to the office 3 times a week. He even threw away some really old and embarrassing t-shirts that had holes in them... shocking!

I told myself I wouldn't cry, but once again, I got my period this month. I was pretty bummed this weekend by it. I know we haven't been trying for a baby for that long, but it still makes me sad every time my period shows up. I never imagined this is what it would be like and I feel like I have no one to talk to about it.

My birthday is next week, so that will hopefully distract me a little. I should be getting my camera soon, we ordered it last week. I also got an early birthday present from my friend Candice, she got me the Wreck this Journal I mentioned in another post, I already filled out some pages, it's pretty fun.

Anyway, everything else has been great and I'm grateful for that. The weather on the other hand went back to being hot, so that sucks! Oh yeah, I even assisted my friend Isabelle on another photo shoot last week, that was fun! Here's a pic of me from that day. Ok, time for bed kids!

Mid September

Where did time go? Not that I'm complaining though, it means the weather should start cooling off a bit and that my birthday is about a month away :) I sold my camera, so hopefully I'll have the Rebel XSi for my birthday.

One of Mike's co workers had a barbecue this Saturday where even dogs were invited. I had a good time, I really wish we did things like this more often. Even Lily behaved... well, that's if you ignore all the barking she did, she was just wondering why there was people in the water.

It also looks like I'll be working for the Census again. They called me Saturday morning and as much as I wanted to say thanks but no thanks, I really couldn't do that, it's a job after all. I start training (again) next Monday. We'll see how it goes this time around...

Mike will be in Ohio this week which means I'll be playing lot's of video games, catching up with friends, watching girly movies, going shopping for a few work outfits and hopefully getting some paintings done for Sugar Village.

New family member...

The Kindle DX has finally arrived at our home. Needless to say, Mike is a very happy guy right now. In the mean time, I'm researching my own future toys and gadgets...

I really want a new camera, even if it's just the Canon Rebel XSi. I posted my Rebel XT on craigslist, so if I sell it, it might be possible to make the upgrade. If I don't sell it, I think I would like to play around with a Wacom tablet.

Another little gadget I would also like to have is Professor Kobre's Lightscoop. And last but not least, I want this journal, it looks really fun to fill out. Hey, I'm only thinking about my birthday and Christmas hee hee.

Hello there August!

My friend Paola that lives in Cancun is coming to visit in two weeks. She'll be staying with us for a week. Then my mom arrives a week after her. I'm excited about seeing them, I haven't seen my mom since we went to California for thanksgiving.

This past Thursday I helped my friend Isabelle with a photo shoot. It was really fun! I hope I have the opportunity to assist her in other shoots she might have. I even got to ride in her cute smart car... yes, I get excited about these things he he.

We've made a few more changes to our diet. We are now buying grass fed beef, butter and when we can, heavy cream. We also started drinking raw milk... I was scared of trying the raw milk at first, but it is really good! Other than that, we're still on our low carb diet. I'm reading Real Food: What to Eat and Why, it's pretty much just a refresher of everything I've already learned.

Lately, we've been using Julia Child's Mastering The Art of French Cooking cookbook. Many of the recipes call for a dutch oven. So, since we can't really afford to buy a Le Creuset right now, we bought a Lodge enameled cast iron dutch oven. We used it today to make coq au vin... even Lily approved. How was your weekend?

New Additions

We made a few purchases this past week. All new additions to our always busy kitchen. We bought a Zyliss salad spinner, a Microplane Professional Grater (so professional I already cut myself) and some ramekins that make everything look better. Who would have thought I would ever get excited about kitchen gadgets?!

(Caesar salad, steak and cauliflower gratin)

Rainy days

Mike has been on vacation since last Thursday. We've been staying home, being lazy, cooking and watching mostly bad and corny movies. Mike has been having trouble with his back lately, so today he finally went to the doctor. He needs to go get blood work done (and so do I), get an x-ray of his back and also go to physical therapy. I really hope he gets better soon. We'll probably do all that this week and see what happens from there.

I was working on 3 new paintings for Sugar Village, I finished 2 of them but messed up TWICE on the third, I was so upset I left it alone for a while. Instead, I started editing some of the paintings on the computer to have more note cards made. I even designed invitations with the elephant and cupcake design on them. I'm so excited about them! Can't wait to get them printed. I also think I'm going to get cards made with my "big" painting design on them, which is the one I'm showing below.

PS. I forgot to mention that we also bought a new washer this weekend, something happened to the transmission of our old one. First the AC, then the water heater now this...it sucks.