4 month favorites

My little dumpling is 4 months old! I can't believe how fast she is growing!

Milestones: 
*Rolling over...both ways
*Eating food-which is so incredibly fun! She has had oatmeal and green beans so far.
*Squealing and jibber jabbering all the time.
*Holding her head up

Here are our favorites we couldn't have lived without this month!

Carseat Playbar: My sis over at Are We Really Doing This gave Lucy this for Christmas. She loves it! She used to fuss a little when we put her in her carseat, now every day she gets excited when she sees the toybar and plays with it right away. She has played herself to sleep in her carseat on multiple occasions. This also fits on a stroller and I've finagled it on a thick blanket for her to lay on too. Thanks sis!

Elephant Humidifier: Lucy has had 3 colds since she started daycare. {And she hasn't even been there a month yet.} We love this humidifier! It is a cold mist humidifier (we tried the warm vapor humidifiers and it turned Lucy's room into the Caribbean), and its amazingly adorable when the cool vapor shoots out of the elephants snout.

Sassy Rings: These are $6 rings that we have put to good use this month. Lucy has discovered her hands can go in her mouth and she puts EVERYTHING in her mouth. We hand her these rings and she twists and twirls them around in her hands and likes to bite each and every one.

Oatmeal: Lucy tried oatmeal last week! She ate it like she knew how to do it all along. We got oatmeal instead of rice or rice cereal because apparently arsenic has been found in rice cereal lately-um...yikes! {Plus I love oatmeal, so I just knew Lucy would.}

Boon Drying Rack: We have actually been using this for months, I have just forgotten to rave about its awesomeness. We use it for bottles, pump parts, passys, everything. It's cute enough to leave out on the counter and great enough to use every day!

Halo Sleep Sack: Lucy decided it was time to transition out of her swaddle this month. As in, she busted out of each and every swaddle we put her in. Our advice for transitioning out of the swaddle? Brace yourself for sleepless nights.  Ok so there might be a couple of sleepless nights, but we really just  swaddled one arm for a week and then put her in the sleep sack thanks to a tip from a friend and it did the trick. Now she sleeps unswaddled and rolls all over the place.

High Chair: We got Lucy's highchair for christmas and it has come in handy this month! I put her in there while I'm cooking or getting her bottles ready for daycare, and now that she is getting food, she needs it even more. (We also use the bumbo for feeding).

Nipples: So this was news to me. You have to switch out the nipples on your bottles as your child grows! Ha-who knew. Well Lucy is still EBF (exclusively breast fed) and after she started making me sore again and I was having flashbacks to when she was first learning how to feed, I began to wonder if she had outgrown her nipples on her bottles. The answer was yes. I came home from Babies R Us with these 3month medium flow nipples and announced to my husband "So I got new nipples today" and he went on to ask me what was wrong with the nipples I have. The moral of the story--at 3 months move your little one up, your feeding sessions will be much happier if you do.

heart garland diy

Love day is on its way!

I decided that I want to start decorating for every holiday possible. And by possible I mean every holiday that Lucy naps so I can craft for.

So far in 2013 we have successfully accomplished one project. It takes about 30 minutes and can easily be done during a babynap.

I got the idea from here. In case you like the look but don't feel up to DIY-ing. Yellow Bird + Yellow Beard has some super cute garland you can buy.

Print out a heart and trace it on cardstock. (Make your life easier and stack the cardstock). If you happen to have a fancy cricut machine I'm sure this is where it would come in handy.

Otherwise, you can use a pen and scissors. And be frugal. Like me. #wishihadacricut

I ended up with about 25 hearts.

Set your sewing machine to the longest stitch, leave some slack at the beginning, and sew across the heart. I just pulled the thread about an inch or so in between hearts to make a gap in between them. No backstitching required.

and...voila! Hang your pretty heart garland.

10 on 10: January!

Happy first 10 on 10 in 2013! A bit of Sunshine poses a 10 on 10 challenge every month to post 1 picture an hour (for 10 hours) on the 10th of the month.

phew. That's a tongue twister.

Here's a teensy take on our thursday the tenth.

Getting the peanut dressed for school. 

Getting me dressed for school work. 

Infinity scarf hand-knitted by my sis over at Live To Love. Thank ewe sissy!

Everyone over at the McWonderful house has a cold. Not-so-mcwonderful.

A doctor's visit to tell us that our 3.5 month old was screaming last night all night because she has a cold on top of her cold. And is likely teething. Yay us. On a happy note, she sure is cute.

I'm not really sure what happened to this van but I found it picture-worthy. It appears to have blown up.

 Baby snoozes at home to sleep off our cold. Happy sick day with mom.

Puppy kisses make everyone better.

baby jeggings are the best. 

 Laughs at the end of the day! #ellen

Stork Stack-january

Have you heard of a stork stack?

It has to be the cutest concept for mothers-to-be out there.

From Stork Stack:

A sweet friend of mine gifted me a 3 month subscription to Stork Stack for Christmas and my birthday this year. Which means, in January, February, and March I get these sweet little boxes on my doorstep with 5 awesome things for me and baby. 

(They also have "Shower Stacks" which make a great gift for moms-to-be in general or for a baby shower.)

They are like little grab bags for moms!

When I was little, mom and dad would take us to the dollar store and let us pick out one item to take home. Among all the other crazy knick knacks the dollar store had, there were these little brown mystery grab bags. One for a girl and one for a boy. They were stapled shut and you had to buy it before you opened it to see what you got. The best part was opening up my little grab bag every time we went....it meant you got more than one thing for a dollar and it was like Christmas every time wondering what I picked out.

Stork Stack is helping me relive my childhood all over again! 

My January stork stack just arrived....

Isn't their packaging so precious?

January's theme is "Happy, Healthy New Year."

The goods:

Wiggle & Move: baby workout book to encourage interaction between mom and baby and to stimulate the senses. 

Sara Haley's Sweat UNLIMITED. Sara is a new mom herself and her DVDs are award winning. Time to lose this baby weight!

Mommy's Bliss Gripe Water.  We actually just started using Gripe water for gas and it works great! It is made of natural ingredients so has to be stored in the fridge to stay fresh. I'm excited to have more.

RaZbaby RaZberry Teether. So far Lucy's not so sure what to do with this teether but has been chewing on her hands a lot--so I think she could be on her way to teething and this little RaZberry pacifier teether is super cute.   

Instagrad. Stork stack donated $10 to start a 529 Savings Plan for your child. It's an online gifting tool that encourages family and friends to contribute to your child's 529 plan. 

I love our Stork Stack and can't wait to see what February will bring! 

Three month favorites

SwaddleMe wrap. After trying to transition Lucy to the crib from her Rock N' Play, she would squirm herself awake every 10 minutes or so. After about 2 days of putting her back to sleep, oh, about a hundred times, I decided to try swaddling her arms down. (She hated this from day one.) She loves her little SwaddleMe wrap and it puts her to sleep beautifully! She feels snug and cozy and her arms don't flail about since they are gently swaddled down with velcro. Now I just have to transition her out of the swaddle...

Sling. My sister has 4 children and has always sworn by "baby wearing." She got me a couple to try, in hopes that I too, could wear my baby. Finally, by month 3 Lucy was big enough to fit in this cute ruffle pink sling. She loves being toted around in it. Anytime I go shopping or even to lunch, if she gets fussy, I put her in the kangaroo pose and she cuddles right in and falls asleep. It's a lifesaver for going out and about with a baby!! Plus this sling has ruffles and so you look adorable while wearing it!

Bumbo. Lucy is now holding her head up! So now she loves sitting in her bumbo like a little grown up. She has actually started to pull herself up to sitting with help, so the Bumbo is excellent for strengthening those little baby tummy muscles. 

Handsfree Pumping Bra. This thing is a lifesaver at work! I zip it on top of my clothes and set up my pump and have both hands free to check work email, make a phone call, etc. This is a must if you are going to pump at work or on any regular basis. Because, lets be serious, who can hold a pump in each hand, and turn the pump on, and push the "Let Down" button and just sit there idly for 20-30 minutes while pumping. Maybe... if you're an octopus. Otherwise, get the bra! Use your pumping time wisely.

Tummy Time Mirror. Lucy is spending more and more time on her tummy, so for Christmas, we got her this Taggies mirror. She loves to look at herself and drool/talk/smile and bite the little green whale on the tail while doing tummy time. She may or may not have opened this mirror early so she could play with it all December long.

Winter hat. I found this great little reindeer hat on Etsy by AngelinasCrafts4U. It's so soft and adorable and put her in the Christmas spirit and it keeps her little baby head super warm. We have gotten lots of compliments on it--most being "did you make that hat?" I wish I could be so talented! 

Books. Part of our bedtime routine is to rock in our glider while reading a book. She loves to look at the pictures while I read. I am amazed that she pays attention this early on! Our favorite books right now are Little Pea, Little Hoot, and Little Owl.

Tommee Tipee Bottles. I will honestly admit I picked these bottles out on our registry because they are marketed to be "Closer to Nature" and in the shape of mom's breast. Made sense to me. So I registered for them.  And they have worked great for us so far! I have read that a lot of moms have to try a bunch of different bottles before their baby will take them, but we have had success since day one. We introduced a bottle at 3 weeks so the hubby could have a chance to feed her, and we gave her about 1 bottle every week after that and didn't seem to have too much nipple confusion, except for maybe a some stand-up nursing sessions that I have had to do more recently. We love these bottles--and they are in pink!

What can't you and your little ones live without at 3 months?

Happy 2013!

Happy New Year from our family to yours! We wish you love and happiness and lots of luck in 2013. {Don't forget to eat your black-eyed peas and collard greens!}