Pensive…

On the move!

The outside is so fun!!

How many people does it take to carve a turkey?

First taste of chocolate pie! Yum!

Fun with Pappaw!

Strong girl!

Having fun with her grandmothers!

E is thankful for her wagon! And her family!

Summer Infant Swaddleme Cotton Knit, Pink, Large

One thing that we used most with our baby E was her swaddlers. Pretty much as soon as we brought E home from the hospital we started swaddling her to sleep at naps and night. We had two of these to start with, but maybe could have even used more with a newborn because I feel like there were lots that got messed up with blowouts and we didn’t do laundry that quickly. We used these because we had heard that babies like to be swaddled because it reminds them of being in the womb. Whatever it is, I don’t know, but E liked it! And she was a good sleeper! Aside from the various points where it has been hard to get her to nap or to stay asleep or whatever, she has overall been a good sleeper and we have always used swaddles.

(two weeks old)

Basically you tuck the feet in and then wrap it around her arms. It is possible to swaddle with a regular blanket but I was never very good at that and she always came out really quickly. It would help her arms not flail around and wake herself up when she was little. When she got bigger, we would put an arm out so she could retrieve and reinsert her paci. Some of them even have a slot in the bottom so that you can put them in the car seat swaddled and the car seat buckle can poke through to be fastened. There have definitely been times when she could wriggle out of it, but often it would keep her somewhat still long enough to fall asleep so it was fine if she got out by morning. It is also added warmth, a blanket that is safe to use when they are little and when “they” say not to put blankets in the crib with your baby.

We have just kept buying the next size right up until…well….still using one! Yes we still swaddle our big girl, but really it is more just a blanket that stays on. It is not tight and we leave an arm out and she usually gets the other one out pretty fast. In my opinion, this helps buy time before she stands up in the crib, meaning she lays down longer, thereby falling asleep faster. It is also a blanket she can’t kick off. She has always been petite so we use the large size and I guess before too long she will outgrow it or we will just transition to a blanket, but right now it works! Other than the past week or so, she was napping twice a day and sleeping 12+ hours at night without waking up. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

Look how happy she is to be swaddled?

First birthday, partially escaped, but still cozy and warm!

My rating: five out of five stars! (Can I give it six?)

Yes my daughter is sitting in a bowl. She loves to do this. She is so silly!

“Isn’t this great, Daddy?!”

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

This book is about an autistic boy named Christopher and his adventure in investigating the death of a neighbor’s dog, as well as the changes in his life that result from that. This takes the form of a journal that Christopher keeps, and therefore you get to know exactly what he is thinking. It is interesting because you future out what is going on in the story long before Christopher himself, because he takes things so literally. He can’t infer what is going on from what people tell him, and instead has to be told outright what is happening. You also get to see his response in an interesting way because he is not very emotional about it. I really enjoyed this book and it was a fast read!

Born On A Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant by Daniel Tammet

Daniel Tammet also has autism but also has savant syndrome which is very rare. He can do amazing things with numbers! In this book, you get to see what he is thinking as he goes throughout a normal day. It is so interesting to read because usually autistic people have a hard time communicating, so this book works toward answering that riddle.

I have known some people in varying places on the autism spectrum and it can be very difficult to know what is going on in the minds of people who often struggle to communicate their thoughts and feelings. These books give great insight! They remind me that just because someone can’t express what they are thinking,  (whether because of autism or language barriers, etc) it doesn’t mean they aren’t thinking anything! I highly recommend both of these books!

Cousins are so fun! E and M are exactly 6 months apart!

My sweet girl!

I have an iphone 3G that is a couple of years old. When I first got it, I did not have a child and bought a simple clear snap-on case. The trouble was that I usually drive with my phone in my lap (so that if it rings I can answer it easily without having to dig in my purse while driving) and occasionally I would get out of my car and it would fall and hit the pavement, resulting in the case popping off and open. Once my child started getting bigger, I started thinking about stories I had heard friends tell of how their child had dropped their phone in the toilet or chewed on it until it had residual water damage. I decided maybe I needed a better case, so I got an Otterbox. These are pretty pricy at the apple store or the cell phone store. Even the kiosks in the mall that are probably knockoffs are pretty expensive. But I found it on amazon for somewhere near $25. (The one pictured is for the iPhone 4s so it is a little different than mine which is for the older phone.)

Pros:

-Cute color!

-Comes with a belt clip, which I don’t use, but I see how it could be beneficial.

-It has a screen protector.

-It is well protected when dropped.

Cons:

-It can’t fit on a dock without taking off the case, which is two parts.

-The screen occasionally has a little bit of smudge on it, due to the screen sticking to the cover. I read something online about baby powder to fix it, but I haven’t tried it.

My Otterbox has held up really well and I highly recommend them to people who have children or just think their phone gets a lot of wear and tear.

My rating: 5 out of 5 stars

1. I am starting my 1000 gifts list again. It feels like a lot when you are on 15. I have started at least twice before, but those lists are in other places. I would copy down my first few, but I just got a new journal to start them in and so that would be a pain.

2. An exerpt from utmost.org: “Jealously guard your relationship with God. Jesus prayed “that they may be one just as We are one”-with nothing in between (John 17:22). Keep your whole life continually open to Jesus Christ. Don’t pretend to be open with Him. Are you drawing your life from any source other than God Himself?” I need to work on guarding it and not letting it wane. It is easy to just say, oh I will do my quiet time later, but later never comes. Or feel like skipping one day will be okay. But for me that means it is hard to remember the next day. And where do I draw my life from? My husband? My child? Shopping? Eating a good meal? None of these are okay.

3. Matthew 13:58 says “⁵⁸ And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.” Sometimes people ask or talk about why we don’t see miracles nowadays like they did in Bible times. Maybe this is why. He doesn’t do them here because we don’t have faith that he will.

4. I am trying to pre-plan blogging topics on google calendar. Maybe this will help me actually write more! Comments will probably also make me write more, hint, hint!

5. Are you on goodreads? If so, tell me your username so I can see what you read.

6. Today I had the extremes. An awful meal from a fast food place and an excellent meal that I had made at home. It was a good reminder of the way it should be. I feel like it wasn’t that long ago that I used to really crave and always think fast food/restaurant food was better. That made it hard to cook at home, when I was thinking a certain thing would be really good. Today was a nice reminder that the things I can create easily at home, for less money, and with much greater health benefits, really does suit my tastebuds better anyway. (It was a chicken strip dinner from Sonic. They DO NOT HAVE my favorite thing there anymore, the crispy chicken sandwich. It is now a chicken STRIP sandwich. Yuck! What is the point of that, they will just fall off the sandwich?! And the tots were soggy and the gravy was not mixed well. Such a disappointment!) (The good meal was homemade beef stew, cornbread, and sweet tea!)

7. Pigtails are cute.

Find more “7 Quick Takes” here.

Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited by Paula Bernstein

This book was so interesting! These girls were adopted out of an agency into two separate families and the families weren’t told that their child was a twin. It is only when, as adults, they both search for info about their birth mothers as an adult, they find out. This book is full of interesting facts about twins in general and especially cases involving twins who grew up separately to have uncanny similarities in their lives. It is written from both of the ladies perspectives, so you get to see what they are thinking as they go through this process. I really enjoyed this book and read it quickly.

My rating: four and a half out of five stars.