8 Months

You are 8 months old, Finn!  This month you finally made the connection between moving your hands and your feet, and you started to crawl! It only took you a few days to gain lots of speed, and now you can be out of a room in the blink of an eye.  So, this is my view most of the time these days…

You especially love to crawl over to a floor vent and let the air blow on your face until it takes your breath away. And then you usually follow that up by trying to chew on a cord. You are a little predictable.

You still have no teeth, but the drool is coming full force. Your hair has really started to come in, and it’s pretty dark.  I’m anxious to see if it lightens up any, since your sister and brother both had blond hair as babies.  And Grayson still does!

You are still eating well, as is obvious since you are now almost entirely in 12 month clothes. You love all fruit, sweet potatoes, and chicken noodle and veggies. And you will chow down on some puffs. It’s pretty funny to watch you go after them, shoving them in your mouth.

I have also given you bananas and grapes in a mesh feeder, and you were all over it. When it comes to food, you are all business.

We seem to have finally gotten the nap thing down! You nap in the mornings and the afternoon for about an hour and a half each.  Then you are down for the night at 7 each night. 

You are such a happy boy!  It’s so awesome to watch you explore and learn!  Happy 8 months, Finn!

Mover and Shaker

Finn is mobile. Life as we know it is forever changed.  No crumb on the floor is safe. And he has a special affinity for power cords, which makes his momma a nervous wreck. He also obviously has no fear of tight places or the dark.  I looked up the other day to find this. 

That’s an ottoman.  And my baby’s hand.

My baby’s legs and those cords he likes so much… Fortunately, the cords are around his legs and not in his mouth.

Gotcha!

And if that’s not enough cuteness, here he is getting his crawl on…

Just In Case...

Just in case you were wondering what's going on around here... Or in case you wondered what texts look like after you been married for almost thirteen years, here you go...

You're welcome.

Favorite Things

A few months ago, Nester did a link up for everyone to post their favorite things under $30.  I loved reading through everyone’s favorite things! Of course, I couldn’t get it together to post my favorite things then.  But here are mine now.  A day late and a dollar short, story of my life… And a note to the moms in my MOPS group, you might see some of these coming up in May at our MOPS Favorite Things meeting!  Or I might have new favorite things by then!

1. Burt’s Bees Lip Shimmer in Caramel

This is the perfect cross between lip balm and lipstick.  I wear it as lip balm when I am going sans make-up, so I don’t look dead, and I wear it as lipstick when I am wearing make-up. It has a slight minty tingle to it, which I love.  And for under $5? Sold!

2. and 3.  A duo of Garnier hair products… One for when I wear my hair curly and one for when I wear it straight…

I hate crunchy hair. But, if I don’t put product (and lots of it!) in my hair when I wear it curly, it is majorly frizzy.  Which I hate about as much as crunchy hair.  I found Wonder Waves at CVS and thought I would try it out.  It’s perfect for what I need: curl control and no crispy hair.


And then there’s the straight side.  I have high-maintenance hair if you can’t tell.  I use this Sleek & Shine Flat Iron Perfector  after I’ve dried my hair with a round brush and before I use the flat iron. It really helps my hair stay straight until I wash it again, which is something that does not happen if I don’t use it. Plus, it smells nice, which is always a bonus. And it’s cheap. Another bonus!

4. Sharpie Pens

I love a good writing utensil. This is evidenced by the fact that I have had the same mechanical pencil for almost 10 years. It has been with me through three jobs and 4 years as a stay at home mom.  I panic when I can’t find my pencil.  So, that’s my obvious choice for pencil, but the Sharpie is my choice for pen. They write super smooth and don’t bleed through. I heart these pens.

5. Gloria Jean’s Butter Toffee K-Cups

I am a fan of coffee, in general.  I am also a fan of the Keurig, but that’s not under $30. :) My favorite k-cup is Gloria Jean’s Butter Toffee, hands down.  I have gone through boxes of these, and I have yet to grow tired of them.  Good stuff.

6. Birchbox


I love samples! I love to try new products, but not be tied down to a full-size in case I really hate them.  Birchbox is a subscription service that for $10 a month will send you a box full of sample goodies.  This month I got that really cute Zoya nail polish that you see up there and that Algenist face cream is the bomb!  And they are not stingy at all with the sizes.  I’ve been using that face cream twice a day for well over a week now.  You can also order full-size versions of any of the samples you get on the Birchbox website (although I will not be getting any of the Algenist face cream since it is $94! Yikes! I’ll be using my sample a little more sparingly now) and earn points to be put toward free products. You can also earn points just by telling them what you think of the samples.  For every 100 points, you get $10.  It adds up fast!

7. Sonic Happy Hour

I have a soft spot for Sonic. Their fountain drinks are second to none.  I’m especially fond of the Cherry Vanilla Diet Coke.  And at Happy Hour, you can get a Route 44 for like $1.  ‘Nough said.

8.  Nutella

I, for years, thought I did not like Nutella.  Don’t ask me why.  I think I might have somehow in my mind linked Nutella with Vegamite. Two things could not be further apart on the taste scale.  If you’ve never tried Vegamite, please don’t.  Trust me.  But if you’ve never tried Nutella, please do.  I can eat this by the spoonful. And if you mix it with a little peanut butter, then you are speaking my love language.

9. Friday Night Lights

Technically, this is not under $30.  But, if you buy each season individually, it counts.  So, that’s what I’m going with.
Again, like with Nutella, I was late to the Friday Night Lights party.  Burge and I watched all 5 seasons last summer, and there has never been a television show that has affected me more. I felt like I lived it with them.  I was torn up when we finished the finale.  And I would watch it all over again right now.  It’s that good. There is not a week that goes by that I don’t find some way to work it into conversation. Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose. True ‘dat.

10.  Hunger Games Trilogy

I just read these over Christmas.  As in, I read all three the week before Christmas.  And then Burge read them the week after I finished them.  These are so good.  But not in a feel-good, all-is-right-with-the-world kinda way. More like disturbing, can’t-look-away-from-a-train-wreck kinda way.  I will say, if I had written them (yeah, right!), I would have ended Mockingjay differently.  But that doesn’t diminish how good the rest of them are.
So, there you go.  Those are ten of my favorite things. Sound off with your favorites so I can check them out!

Girls’ Day Out and Mood Swings

Saturday, Abby and I got to spend the morning out, just the two of us. We went to Merle Norman, and both of us got make-overs.  Then we headed to Rome to Toys ‘R Us for Abby to spend a gift card she had gotten for her birthday. It was there that I realized that I am raising possibly the most indecisive person on the planet.  I am not exaggerating when I say she looked at every girl toy at least twice.  And picked them all up and looked them over and played with them. And then started all over again.  This might not bode well for future shopping trips for us. I might need to start some kind of shopping training program because I need my shopping buddy. But I also need the shred of sanity I've been able to hold onto.

After the 42 hours we spent at the toy store, I was in desperate need of a caffeine fix, so we headed to Starbucks.  Abby thought she was hot stuff because I let her have a hot chocolate with extra whipped cream.

And then we headed to Sam’s, where we ate lunch off of all the free samples.  Because that’s how we roll.  How redneck is that? Hitting up the local Sam’s club for the free food samples… But I’m here to tell you, there is nothing that thrills an 8 year old little girl’s heart more than a day filled with make-up, toys, Starbuck’s and free food.  Come to think of it, that’s pretty thrilling for a 34 year old, too.

On the way home, Abby told me thank you for the hot chocolate and that she loved spending time alone with me.  It was pretty much a perfect mommy day.

Fast forward to yesterday morning.  That same sweet little girl was copping an attitude like nobody’s business. Everything I asked her to do, she argued about.  I finally had to send her to her room to adjust her attitude after I realized that I had been arguing for 10 minutes with an 8 year old over why she couldn’t use the iPad.

Last night, she was back to her sweet little self.  Mood swings.  At 8.  Those teen years are going to be a doozy, I think.

Déjà Vu

It’s like déjà vu all over again here. This week has been eerily similar to last week, only without the National Championship.
The week started out with me, Grayson, and Finn sick.  The week is ending with me, Grayson, and Finn almost recovered, but still sniffly, Burge sick, and Abby fighting it with all she’s got. Really, Abby should be immune to just about everything since she spends the majority of her day in the cesspool of germs known as the public school system.
We have bought stock in some Kleenex this week, and let me add, Kleenex Cool Touch are a blessing from the Lord for the sore nose.  I don’t understand the science behind them, but really, they are a joy.
So once again, I have spent a lot of time in this house. Days on end. Only leaving to take Abby to school and pick her up.  And quite honestly, I think it may be working against us at this point.  I think we are all just breathing in the same germ-infested air. We’re just recycling the germs.  I see a major air-out in our near future.
The plus side to staying home is that we are finally tackling the nap situation with Finn.  The situation being that he wouldn’t take one unless someone was holding him.  There have been a lot of tears (both Finn’s and mine), but he has napped in his crib every day this week. And because of that, my laundry is caught up and I am caught up with my Bible study (both Sunday School and Beth Moore!) I thought as I was putting away laundry yesterday that I had forgotten how much you could get done when your kids will actually sleep in their beds!
In addition to my Bible study, I also got some much needed cleaning out done. Just small jobs, but it’s a step in the right direction.  Rome wasn’t built in a day and all.
This pretty much sums up the boys’ week…

Grayson… what a ham!
Have a great weekend!

7 Months

Finn, you turned 7 months old on Sunday! And what a joy these seven months have been!
You weigh about 21 pounds.  You wear some 9 months clothes and some 12 month clothes and a size 3 diaper.  You love baby food, especially fruit, but you will eat anything if it has a little applesauce mixed in with it. You love your bottle, and I think we might have a hard time getting you off of it.  You are not a big fan of juice. You would rather have milk or nothing at all.
You babble all the time! “Dada” is your favorite phrase, although you say it pretty indiscriminately right now.  You love your brother and sister. You are happy as a clam just sitting and watching them play.  And you are over the moon if they stop and talk to you!

You will sit and play with your toys for a good while. You so desperately want to crawl, but you just can’t figure out how to go forward.  So, you roll and scoot backwards to get where you want to go.

You are a drool machine!  Everything you can get your hands on goes in your mouth.  Although you still don’t have any teeth to show for all that yet!
You sleep through the night like a champ, but naps are a different story.  We are working on that though! And I’m sure we will find the schedule that works for you (and me!) very soon.
You are so very loved by all of us! It is such a blessing to get to watch you grow each day!