Project Life Tuesday 2 for 1

I completely missed last weeks Project Life Tuesday, so this week I'm doing a 2 for 1. This week is up first.

Monday January 31, 2011

Is there a 12 step program for moms who go way overboard with little girl hair accessories? Aaron sure thinks I need one!! But my little hair challenged baby girl *NEEDS* all these bows and flowers so that I don't get those annoying "what a cute little guy" comments.

Monday February 1, 2011

I miss my little Scoot soooo much during the day while I'm at school. When I get home I need a little snuggle time to make my whole day better! So glad my little munchkin is so willing to oblige my snuggles and smooches!
Wednesday February 2, 2011

The weather today was beautiful so I convinced Aaron to go on a walk with me and Scoot. We put the stroller away when we finished the walk and Scoot was obsessed with her reflection in the dirty car window!
Thursday February 3, 2011

Happy baby surrounded by her toys and working on getting those socks off!
Friday February 4, 2011

Scoot's first time using a straw. We got her a sippy cup with a straw but she really did not understand how to get the water into her mouth. She loved drinking water through the straw this way though!!
Saturday February 5, 2011

Scoot pulled herself up between my legs to check out the project life book from 2010. I'm still going back and filling in some of the journaling.

Sunday February 6, 2011

Aaron and Scoot in the midst of their relaxing Sunday afternoon between church and the superbowl.
*And now we take a time warp back a week*

Monday January 24, 2011

My tiny baby is getting so big so fast! When did she get big enough to sit on my shoulders?
Tuesday January 25, 2011

Washing bottles is a major part of my day. Bottles and pump parts must be washed 3 to 4 times a day. I love weekends when I can take the pumping and washing down to 2 times a day - max!! But it's all worth it for my baby girl!
Wednesday January 26, 2011

These little knit hats are a wonderful way for me to make something and feel a little crafty at the end of the day when I have no more brain power. These require no thinking/counting/pattern.
Thursday January 27, 2011

We've been trying to remember to take weekly pictures of Scoot on this little lamb blanket since she was 1 week old. It was much easier before she was mobile!!
Friday January 28, 2011

We've been "Partners in Hope" with St. Jude Children's Hospital for several years now, and it has only gotten closer to my heart now that Scoot is here. I'm so glad there is a place like St. Jude to take care of these families who are facing a tough road. Our local radio station is gearing up for their annual St. Jude radiothon and I got my newsletter in the mail today.
Saturday January 29, 2011

We met my mom and dad at Red Robin to celebrate mom's birthday with burgers and singing! Scoot LOVED every time she heard them singing (there were a LOT of folks celebrating birthdays there tonight) and she never took her eyes off them while they sang to my mom.
Sunday January 30, 2011

Scoot moved up to her big girl car seat today. Her little tootsies were hanging out of the infant seat and I was always afraid I was going to bang them into the door frame while taking the carrier in and out. She already seems to be much more comfortable in this bigger seat. She's growing tooooo fast!!
I'm linking up over at The Mom Creative. Come visit and see who else is doing Project Life Tuesday!

Project Life Tuesday 1.17.11 - 1.23.11

Project Life Week 3! I am so excited about this whole thing!

*So far I'm caught up on all my pictures and journaling for this year!

*Project Life is reminding me to get my camera out daily and take pictures of any and everything. Some days it is really hard to pick which picture to highlight from the day! I love the habit that I'm getting into of having my camera everywhere I go AND remembering to use it!

*I'm trying extra hard to make sure that I have pictures with me IN them. I want Scoot to have proof that I was around when she's looking back on these books in 10, 2o, or 30 years! I'm not just the one behind the camera. Who cares that I haven't lost the baby weight or that my hair wasn't perfect?!

*These pictures are of our real life - there's clutter! and dust! and sometimes we wear pjs ALL day!

I'm linking up with Jessica over at The Mom Creative for her Project Life Tuesday fun. Come see how a bunch of other folks are using their Project Life kits and be inspired!

Monday January 17, 2011

Scoot pulled herself up on this box of diapers that we just had cluttering up our living room after Lollie and Pop very generously gave them to us yesterday. This time she stayed upright long enough to pose for a photo shoot. Thank goodness for Martin Luther King Jr. day and my day off so that I could be home to see her milestones!

Tuesday January 18, 2011

Scoot was having a rough night *staying* asleep. Daddy has the right stuff though! Stretched out on Daddy's chest with her blanket and she was out for a couple more hours. Daddy got in a nice little nap too!
Wednesday January 19, 2011

Mommy was checking facebook when Scoot decided to get in on some of the action! It's crazy to think how far technology has come since I was her age and I can't even imagine where it will go by the time she is a grown up! This picture will probably be laughable by the time she's ready for college, just like 3.5in floppy disks are now!
Thursday January 20, 2011

A 50's housewife? Nope, no heels or apron here. Just getting some chores done before we went out to eat with friends and Lollie came over to stay with Scoot.
Friday January 21, 2011

In an effort to not eat out as often I put a monthly menu on the fridge. It's also been a fantastic tool to help Aaron help me. He can see what's for dinner and get it started or even make the whole thing while I'm otherwise engaged with a certain nursing baby!
Saturday January 22, 2011

We found this Leap Frog table at a consignment shop for $18. It's in perfect condition. Aaron says it's not a deal unless we know how much we saved. He checked Walmart and Target to find out they are asking $49.99 for it new. And check out those standing skills!
Sunday January 23, 2011

We are only eating out if we have a gift card or our parents call us for a grandbaby fix. Coxie called for her fix tonight and we were thrilled to get a nice dinner at Smokey Bones. Scoot was fantastic while we ate and very social after we finished. She especially loved eating her shoes! Aaron and Grandaddy were just glad that the football games were on all the TVs.

Project Life Tuesday 1/10/11-1/16

It's Tuesday again and time to share my pictures for the past week. I already love that this is helping me keep up with my pictures AND journaling each week. And one week at a time is SOOO much easier than a month at a time!

I'm going to keep myself accountable by linking up with Jessica over at The Mom Creative. Be sure to visit and see what some other folks have been up to this week.

I have a hard time picking just one picture from each day. Especially with Scoot on the scene now, I usually have at LEAST one picture of her and then possibly something else. I've decided that to help me use more of the pictures I'm taking I will have one for each day and then have one spread of "Monthly Leftovers." Maybe at the end of the month I'll share my Monthly Leftover spread.

Monday January 10, 2011

I big-puffy-heart LOVE Scoot's little tiny feet! She LOVES to stand up all the time now, so I get this view quite often. This girl also will NOT keep socks on her cold little toes. I feel so bad for her purple piggies, but she takes off everything that covers her feet except if she has a sleep sack on. This girl will even pull her feet out of footie jammies by putting her foot through the space between the snaps! Even as a tiny baby she would fight her legs out of her swaddle before she went to sleep. Looks like we are destined to have cold feet around here.

Tuesday January 11, 2011

We've had the coldest winter I can remember in a long time. The snow has been frequent and heavy, but luckily we haven't had too much ice. When I got in the car to leave work and checked my mirror before backing up these icicles caught my eye. The ice makes the trees look so pretty, but I'm glad no limbs have fallen on any power lines around my house and that it's not on the roads so far.
Wednesday January 12, 2011

My Project Life Kit for 2011 finally came in the mail!! I've been stalking the delivery guy for several days just waiting for it! Aaron does think I'm slightly nuts for wanting a picture of me with the box, but it's just part of the whole process!
Thursday January 13, 2011

While changing Scoot's diaper tonight I notices that she had a light rash on her tummy. It's nowhere else, not spreading, and not bothering her. Not sure if it was something she ate, crawling in a 2 piece outfit with her tummy right on the rug (as opposed to wearing a tucked-in onsie), or a new shirt she wore today.
Friday January 14, 2011

An unexpected package on the front steps today was a Christmas present for Scoot from Papa Frog and Annie. She loves unwrapping gifts... and sometimes chewing on the paper. She got an adorable outfit! And how appropriate that she is wearing a froggie outfit to open a present from Papa Frog! Perfect!
Saturday January 15, 2011

Scoot is enjoying the box that her gift from Papa Frog came in. It's always more fun to play with boxes, bags, cords and shoes than the box full of toys! And check out the drool on the chin. This girl can slobber with the best of 'em!
Sunday January 16, 2011

Scoot is 7 months old today!! Where did my baby go? She pulled herself up to standing today, but I was too slow with the camera to catch it. Here she is instead, headed for the cords to Daddy's game. Just checking to see how much longer she had to get to those cords before somebody scoops her up and redirects her to the mountain of toys just behind her.

Project Life Round 2

In 2010 I attempted to take a picture every day! I just finished putting all my pictures in my Project Life album and I'm proud to say that I only missed about 20 days for the whole year. I'm pretty proud of myself!! Now if only I had kept up with the journaling... I'd be done with 2010. But my journaling is only complete through the end of April. Ooooopps! My hand will be sore by the time I'm done with all that writing!

I love the end result (even with most of the journaling missing so far) that I'm doing it again for 2011. And this time my goal is to stay on top of the journaling. Every day is a stretch, but once a week is completely doable.

To keep me accountable (and to spice up my neglected blog a little) I'm going to post my weekly photos and journaling on Tuesday. I'll be joining Jessica at The Mom Creative who sponsors Project Life Tuesday. Follow along and take a peek into my day-to-day life.

Monday - January 3, 2011

It's amazing to see how much Scoot has grown when I compare this picture to her "first bath" picture. I love the way she's just relaxing in the warm sudsy water.

Tuesday - January 4, 2011

We've made a resolution to eat out less in 2011. Aaron is chef for the night and waiter too!

Wednesday - January 5, 2011

Scoot was up a lot last night. Aaron got up for the 3:30 fuss and very soon discovered a HAZMAT diaper situation. They both stayed up until 5 when I got up to shower and then they zonked back out.

Thursday - January 6, 2011

I finally got the rest of my 2010 pictures printed and I'm ready to put them in my 2010 Project Life album. Now I need to get busy on the journaling!

Friday - January 7, 2010

Scoot loves the dogs! She crawls over to check them out and always talks to them when we get home or after she wakes up from a nap. Can't believe Aaron got a picture with 2 dogs and a baby looking at him! woohoo!

Saturday - January 8, 2011

Scoot tries solid food for the first time!! We decided to go with green beans for the first meal. She seemed to like them. No yucky faces and none spit out!

Sunday - January 9, 2011

Scoot has mastered crawling and is now climbing *into* her toy box to get whatever she wants out. She's also learned that if she takes it ALL out she can switch between toys without missing any play time.

(I can't get this one to show up. I'll try to edit later.)

My Sweet Girl is 6 Months Old!!

How have 6 months gone by already? My sweet girl is 6 months old! She amazes me every day and I am beyond blessed to be her mommy. Between work and spending every spare moment with her when I get home, I have very little time for anything else. Since there hasn't been a post here since October, I probably didn't even need to spell that out! And now, lets go bullet style so that this doesn't become a 4 page post!

At 6 months Caroline...

*is still exclusively breast-fed. We'll start solids sometime after the beginning of the year and her 6 month check-up. I'm in no hurry.

*does not sleep through the night yet. But I'm honestly not missing much more sleep than I was at the end of being pregnant. She's so easy in the middle of the night that it's no different than getting up to pee several times a night. When she cries I get her from her room, bring her to bed with us, she nurses back to sleep and I usually drift off too, then I take her back to her room.

* can roll anywhere she wants to go.

*is a tummy sleeper.

*We put her to bed awake, she rolls over on her tummy, grabs her blanket and sticks her thumb in her mouth. She's out in just a few minutes.

*sleeps best with a white-noise machine on all night. When she first goes down at night we play classical nursery rhyme music.

*can sit up all by herself.

*favorite toys are the ones that make crinkle noises.

*loves bath time. I can't wait till we can do some "mommy & me" swimming classes.

*has 2 pearly white monsters who have taken up residence in her lower gums.

*loves animals. Clover and Dolly love her back and she plays with the dog and 3 cats at the babysitters.

This girl is the light of my life! So glad we had a snow day today and I got to spend her 6 month birthday snuggling her at home!!

We got a new rug for the living room and Scoot and Daddy had to test it out before we moved the furniture back in.

Here I am practicing my sitting up in my Christmasy outfit.

Babies in hats make me swoon! And a baby in a hat with a big grin ... I'm mush!

not a bottle washing fan

Scoot's blood sugar was low when she was born and the nurses gave her a bottle of formula in the nursery right after delivery. Of all the reasons that I wish I hadn't had to have a c-section, this is the one that makes me wish I could change it the most.

I'm thankful that this was the only issue that Scoot had at birth and that it was something that was so easily fixed. I'm glad the nurses fixed it so fast and that the bottle calmed her instantaneously (according to Daddy who stayed by her side the whole time).

Despite taking a bottle first, we have had a very successful breastfeeding experience. Since that first feeding, Scoot has been exclusively breastfed and God-willing she will be for at least two more months before we start solids. Simply being able to breastfeed at all is something that I feel blessed to be able to do.

Obviously, she had to be taking a bottle when I went back to work. I pump at work and she happily takes a bottle for the sitter, or Daddy, or even me. Luckily she has adjusted her eating schedule all on her own to accommodate nursing as much as possible. She eats less during the day and then cluster feeds in the afternoon/evening until bed time to make up all the calories she needs for the day. I love it! It gives us an abundance of nursing/bonding time and means that I don't have to have as much pumped for the sitter each day.

Being able to provide this for my girl is something I'm very proud of and incredibly thankful for. But I haven't been able to bring myself to nurse in public yet. We always take a bottle (or two) with us whenever we leave the house in case we're still out when it's time to eat. And so far it's worked out just fine. Scoot can eat and we can stay out longer than two hours.

But one of the selling points of breastfeeding is the convenience. The milk is always ready and always available. I want to be able to cut down on all the pumping (and bottle washing!) by getting comfortable with nursing in public. It's just not a big thing around here. I've never seen anyone nursing in public around here and I don't know how it would be received. I don't know if I'm strong enough to stand up to someone if they made negative remarks to me. I don't know where I should start to increase my comfort gradually. But I'm going to work on it because the way I see it, between Scoot and her future siblings, I hope to have years of breastfeeding in my future!

First Game

On Saturday Virginia Tech hosted Wake Forest in an ACC match-up. Aaron has seen VT play & beat every ACC team except Wake and Florida State. This was the ONLY game he wanted to go to this year, and he'd been talking about it since last season.

I wanted to go too, but there was no way that I was leaving Scoot over night (and other obvious plans, like leaving her a mere hour and a half away with my sister did not occur to me -- mommy brain I suppose) so we decided to take Scoot with us.

I was really very excited about it at first, but as the time got closer, I got more nervous. We ended up having to buy 4 tickets because we needed 3 (can you believe a 4 month old needs a ticket?!) and couldn't find anybody selling only 3. Were we going to end up wasting all that money because we had a fussy baby? Would Scoot be too hot/cold? Would she get a sunburn? How was I going to nurse her in the middle of a stadium full of people?

Well, we went. And it was FABULOUS! We were sitting up high in the stands and with 4 seats we had plenty of room. The people around us were calm(ish), the sun was just going down behind the stadium, it was cool, but not toooo cold, and Scoot ate right before the game (nursed in the car) and during half time (a bottle). The loud cheering and cannon caught her attention, but didn't seem to scare her at all.

The most amazing part? She slept through the entire second quarter. I had her tied to me in the moby wrap. After looking outward to see what was going on for the first quarter, I turned her around to face me when she started getting a teeny tiny bit restless. It didn't take her long to find her thumb, tuck her head into the wrap, and fall asleep. Even amidst all the talking, cheering, and moving.

We left at the beginning of the 4th quarter. VT was already ahead by 5 touchdowns and the second string was in the game. It was starting to get cold and we wanted to beat traffic since we were driving 5 hours back home.

Overall it was a perfect introduction between Scoot and VT. I see many many many more trips in our future!

*Pictures to come once loaded on the computer*