Good morning!

I hope that everyone had a great week!  I can’t tell you how much better I am feeling lately and it’s so nice to be more involved with Twitter and momma bloggers again.  I feel like a real human being.  :)

It’s been a good week for us.

Lula had her 15 month check-up on Tuesday and Pa snapped off this photo of her while hanging out in the waiting room.

It makes me laugh every time I look at it.  Who is this kid and where did she learn how to pose like she’s ready for her senior picture?

It’s supposed to get close to 60 degrees today so I hope that Lula and I get in some good outdoor time- that’s the beauty of living in Kansas.  It may get cold, but it never stays that way for very long!

Here’s hoping you have a wonderful weekend and I’ve got a first trimester post coming up early next week.

Happy (belated) New Year!

I hope that however you spent your holiday season, it was wonderful.

We travelled to Minnesota and South Dakota and it was quite a trip- pun intended.

In case you are wondering, a fifteen-month-old doesn’t sleep much better out of her environment than a nine-month-old.  We actually had to bring her into our bed a few nights, poor thing.  (That’s something I vowed never to do but hey, when it’s 2:45 AM and your baby is crying loudly and you are about to wake the entire household, something’s got to give)

In other news, we got home safely and I think we are all happy to be back in our own routine.

New Year’s Eve was a lovely day.  Sadly, Pa had to work but we ended up going for a run when he got home (all three of us) and it was a really fun, impromptu way to spend the late afternoon.

The night went by way too fast.  I had grand visions of staying up until eleven- or at the very least finishing our New Year’s Eve movie, Die Hard, but when 9:45 rolled around, it was lights out in our household.

Other than her sleep struggles, Lula has been doing pretty well.She is beginning to experience the joys of her molars coming in and boy, there have been some challenging days lately.  I thought she might have undergone a personality change until it became clear that she had some seriously swollen gums, poor baby.  We’ve got a topical ointment from our Dr. that I have used a few times…I’m not sure how well it works but it gives me some psychological comfort.

She is tentatively walking- crawling is still her fall back but I am guessing that any day, she will leave it behind.

In terms of napping- it really depends on the day.  I have pushed her naps back later and later until it seems like I’m not bringing her back to her crib until somewhere between 11:30-12.  I had been putting her down sooner but many times, she played and chatted and then whined for close to an hour before silence ensued.  After a few days of that, I couldn’t see a reason to keep a routine that wasn’t working and the later naptime usually works, although there have been days lately where she sleeps for an hour, tops.

Nursing?  We are still going strong at four times a day with each session lasting ten to fifteen minutes.  Morning, pre-naptime, afternoon, and bedtime.  She definitely milks the bedtime nursing session for as long as possible…in the words of Honest Toddler and those who came before him, did you see what I did there?

I hope that everyone has a super weekend and wow, MLK Jr. Day will be here before we know it!

Good morning and HAPPY FRIDAY!  Unbelievable that it’s that time of week again and I am thrilled.

Lula and I have been busy little bees around here.  From decorating our Christmas tree. to holiday shopping, to baking up a storm; it’s been a busy start to December.

Lately, Lula and I have errands to run every day.  This gets somewhat interesting with her nap schedule being what it is but I am always willing to be flexible if it means she takes a nap.  This was her latest cart position when we were shopping a week or two ago.

I have had so much fun decorating the Christmas tree.  We picked it out last Saturday and by the time we set it up, we were exhausted and it was already (or only) 5 o’clock, depending on how you look at it.  We ended up putting the lights on after Lula went to bed that night and saving the ornaments for another day so we could eat dinner and watch one of the best Christmas movies ever- National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation!

Over the course of the last few days, I’ve been decorating it while Lula crawls around and plays.  I hung some soft, non-hazardous ornaments on the bottom of the tree so she could pull them off and play with them if she so desired.Surprisingly, she’s been fairly non-plussed about the fact that a tree with sparkly lights is now in our living room.  It might have something to do with the fact that she really dislikes the feel of the needles on her head…and who wouldn’t!

An ornament my mom sent to her last year…

One from Pa’s mom…

One of my favorite ornaments Pa got from his sister last year…

I think she bought it at Urban Outfitters?

And finally, the whole shebang!

My apologies for the poor lighting.  I love having it on in the morning before it gets too bright- it’s just so cheerful.

And finally, having nothing at all to do with Christmas preparations, Lula has gotten sweeter and more gentle with Frankie as of late…here’s the proof.

Have a fantastic weekend!!

Happy Thursday!

Phew, it’s been awhile since I wrote a post.  My parents were here visiting last week, Pa and I celebrated our birthdays, and of course, Halloween was on the horizon.  Additionally, I have been having so much fun with Lula that getting on the computer just hasn’t happened much at all.

I wanted to share a few shots from our Halloween celebration with you.  It was a very special day and I will always treasure it.  Next year, she will be walking, rather than having us hold her.  It’s going by so quickly.

Lula and I drove to Pa’s office in the afternoon as they have a trick-or-treat celebration there- most people participate and it’s pretty cool. Lula got a lot of attention and it was fun to see her ham it up after she got comfortable.

Then we all raced home to carve pumpkins and take some photos to capture the day.

These were this year’s pumpkins- I always make the same jack-o-lantern, Pa made Lula a special one (that was the only pumpkin we harvested this year), and he comes up with a different design every year.

It was a lot of fun to carve them while Lula crawled around on the floor.  I can’t even remember how I was able to carve a pumpkin last year as Lula was only one month old.

Onto the adorable costume- Lula was a duck!

We found her outfit browsing the online Carter’s store during a great sale a few weeks ago.  Originally $38, we got it for $11 plus shipping!  I went to the store to look at some and the sale prices there weren’t close to matching the online price so I was pleased we found such a good deal.  Additionally we had a gift card we had been hoarding, so that was also exciting.

It is so hard to get a decent still photo of Lula lately!

I love the tights and long-sleeved t…I can keep on using those with her which works really well.  I’m just sad that I can’t put this on her every day.

Lastly, a kind of creepy, over-exposed shot that I thought was fitting for Halloween.

All in all, life is great around here.  As today marks November 1st, my thoughts are beginning to drift to Thanksgiving and Christmas- my two favorite holidays of the year!  Is it too early to bust out the Christmas music?

Have a wonderful day!

Good afternoon and happy Tuesday!

All is well around these parts, hope it is where you are too.

We are experiencing a mini heat wave around here with daytime temperatures soaring into the muggy 80s.  What happened to fall?  By Thursday afternoon, it’s supposed to be blustery so I’m keeping that little gem in my back pocket when I get annoyed with the weather.

I’m pretty sure that no one else in the blog world has been to the pumpkin patch this fall so I thought I would uniquely post my experience going there with Lula…just kidding!  There are lots of wonderful pumpkin patch blog posts out there written by like-minded mamas.  We had a great time although Lula was furious when I had to pick her up to stop her from sticking large pieces of pumpkin stems into her mouth.

One of the surprisingly fun memories from this past weekend was pruning back the wisteria on the side of our house.  We have it there to act as a buffer on hot summer days and are hopeful it has helped bring down our a/c bill in the last few years.

Wisteria gets out of control quickly so Pa decided that Sunday was the day to prune it back.

He worked on that while I let Lula explore the yard.

It was hard work for me, standing around doing nothing.

Lula had a great time crawling, crushing crunchy leaves with her hands, and surprisingly, not putting anything in her mouth!

Her hair has been a little wild lately which I kind of like.

The aftermath.

In other news, years ago, we put some of those biodegradeable SunChips bags in our compost bin to see if they would actually break down.  I’m happy to say that after years of observation, success!

Lula and I are enjoying our time together and I must say, after the first year, my days with her are flying by.  Too quickly, I’m afraid.

Have a fantastic day!