Month Two Must Haves

This month we have only had really a few new things that I would say are new cant-live-withouts. We're still loving on all of our things from month one, but these are our new additions.

(If you missed Month One Must Haves, check them out here!)

The Wubbanub  

Best thing ever! Its a binky, attached to a small stuffed animal- so when they spit it out in the car it doesn't fall by their feet. Making it possible for Mommy to find it from the drivers seat in traffic. Grayson also likes to hold onto the monkey, and its the perfect size for his little hands.

Tommee Tippee Bibs

The have a dribble catcher! Its just a raised area at the top of the bib, but it stops the milk from running down into the folds of the double chin. Genius!

The Lovey

Basically, a blanket with a head.  Super soft and adorable, they're really the only toys Grayson plays with.  He hugs on them, and talks to them its super adorable. In the car he usually has one under each arm and hes a happy kid.

Womb Bear

We turn this on at night, and it makes the womb sounds and the sound of Mommy's heartbeat.  We started turning this on when we moved him into his own room and he started sleeping through the night. It also just helps to calm him down when hes upset.

Two Months Old

Dear Grayson Boy,

You're two months old. Holy cow. Mommy had to go back to work this week, and I'm so sad our special time together is over.  Now I have to share you with Grammy and Daddy...at least until June when I get you all back to myself!

When we took your two month pictures you were kind enough to hold up two fingers to show everyone you knew how old you were, such a smart little guy.

Here are some things from month two:

• At your two month visit, you weighed in at 11 pounds and 6 ounces and were 23 1/2 inches long- you're growing like a weed my love. You're also starting to get some chub somewhere other than your cheeks- which you get from Mommy, sorry!
• You give smiles away to everyone. All someone has to do is look at you and talk, and boom, out comes those two big dimples. You also talk up a storm, and as soon as we get to Grammy's or if Gram and Pap are talking to you on Skype you start blabbering away telling them all the mean things we did to you.
• This was a big month for you. You had your two first holidays, Halloween and Thanksgiving as well as your baptism. You did so well in Church, and when Pastor Doug put the water on your head you just smiled up at him and cooed. He liked you so much that currently you and him are his facebook picture.

• You started to like you Mamaroo this month, and have started to entertain yourself when Mommy and Daddy bore you. Your favorite toys are your loveies. You have a giraffe, a monkey and a puppy and will usually be found with one under each arm. Mommy likes to call you her little toy hoarder. I think you're practicing for when Kaos and Gizmo try to steal things from you.
• You eat like a champ, anywhere from 4-6 ounces every 3 to 4 hours. We kind of just feed you whenever you have your hungry cry.
• You love looking around at the world, and are curious about everything.  If we go for a walk, you stay awake the whole time taking in the whole neighborhood. Even when you eat, its hard to feed you because you're too busy looking around.
• You had your first day at Grammy's and your first Daddy-Grayson day because Mommy went back to work. The first day you were with Grammy and she said you were just awesome. I came to get you and you promptly threw up on me, and I didn't even mind. Tuesday Daddy had his first chance to spend a whole day with you without Mommy...and he said it was one of the best days he has ever had. Everyone really does love you bunches little man, you make our whole world better.
• You're starting to reach for your toys, but you don't seem too interested yet. However, you do like looking at yourself in the mirror on your play mat.
• You are an acid reflux baby, and its been a challenge trying to get your medicine worked out so that you feel better. We can tell when its acting up because you start to cry and kick your feet. Hopefully we'll have it 100% figured out in the next few weeks and you can go back to being our always happy little guy.

Well that's all for now my little pickle boy.  I'm so excited to see what the next month has in store for us- and for all of the rest of our days. I love you more and more each day baby boy, always and forever.

XOXO,

Mommy

Things I Can't Do.

I commented on another lovelies blog tonight how I cant keep a plant alive to save my life. Which pretty sad with that whole Biology degree...I should at least know enough to realize they require water.

And that got me thinking, what else can't I do?

Not in the boo hoo I'm sad I can't do this spirit, but rather in the Yes! I may fail at this but I'm still AWESOME spirit!

So here's my list:

1. I cant keep a plant alive.

2. I can't free hand draw anything- as a teacher, stick figures are my friend.

3. I can't whistle.

4. I can't eat shrimp- it feels too weird in my mouth and I can't swallow it. Come to think of it, I can't eat most things that come from the sea. Gross.

5. I can't build a lawnmower. I tried once, five hours later I still had no idea. Hubs came home and had it built in 20 minutes.

6. I can't figure out Photoshop.

7. I can't sew. I've tried, my quilt was awful.

8. I can't knock down cob webs- I'm terrified that the spider will fall on me and bite me.

9. I can't bake. My hubs jokes that he's amazed I didn't burn the bean when he was "baking".  I stick to brownies because you can't tell when I burn them.

10. I can't watch scary movies, I have nightmares for days. Sometimes I have to turn off CSI because it gives me the heebie jeebies.

So there it is. I'm a failure at those 10 things (there's probably more, but I'm not trying to make myself feel bad here!). But the really cool thing is, there are so many more things that I CAN do that I'm okay with my failures. I celebrate them because they're what makes me who I am. 

What about you guys, do you have anything you're not great at but you're totally okay with? Please share so I don't feel like a total loser!



How to Make DIY Birth Announcements

Super easy, super simple, and perfect if youre super picky like me and couldn't imagine spending $1.59 per announcement.

Im over at Life with the Ellwoods guest posting on how to make these beauties:

Go check out how I made them, as well as sneek a peak at Kristens GORGEOUS little girl, Brynlee Paige!

Enjoy those new baby snuggles, Kristen!

No More Maternity Leave

I go back to work tomorrow morning.

Eep!

Don't get me wrong, I love love love my job.  I also know how lucky I am to have a teaching job in today's economy, so I'm also very thankful that I have a job to go back to.

But boy is it going to be hard to leave this guy with my Mom on Monday morning and drive up the hill.

Its so strange that two months ago I got up and went to work and my life was totally different.

Then I got up to my alarm clock at 5:45, ate, got a shower, dried and fixed my hair, got dressed, put on makeup and was out the door by 6:30. I got to work and spent my day torturing teenagers, sneaking in some science learning, chatting to my coworkers and calling parents about grades/problems/improvements.  (Yes, I call home if a kid does something good- I think its good for parents to hear those things too) 

After school I hung out, made my copies and got ready for the next day and headed home by 4. I let the pups out, changed into sweats and crashed on the couch waiting for the hubs to come home. We had dinner (some nights cooked, other nights out) and just spent the evening hanging out.

Now?

I wake up when Grayson yells "Hey, Ma! I'm hungry over here!" (usually sometime between 6 and 7). I go and get him and give him his morning bottle...then we snuggle and go back to sleep till about 9 am.  Hes my alarm clock that I cant make snooze. Once he wakes me back up, we go downstairs and play and sing and eat another bottle. We fill our days with songs, stories, walks, trips to Grammy's, or running errands.  Sometimes if I'm lucky he takes a nice nap in his swing and I can get laundry done, clean the house and make dinner. If I'm super lucky I get to take a shower and dry my hair. Daddy comes home and we eat dinner, then just spend time hanging out with the little guy until 8. That's bath time with Dad, so I get to clean up the kitchen and living room and finish up some laundry while he gets bathed, lotioned, fed and read to. Then he's put down and me and the hubs spend the rest of the night together. We rarely run errands together at night, because we don't want to mess with his schedule.  We used to eat out at least once a week, now now so much. 

It really is amazing how having a baby really does change a lot....and I don't mind it at all.

Wish me luck, lovelies, because I'm going to be one sad mommy tomorrow morning.

PS- Sorry to be a debbie downer..but how can I not be to leave this kid!

Cloth Diapering

Before the bean was born, I had my heart set on cloth diapering.  It was going to be wonderful and green and easy and save us tons of money. 

HA.

You know that saying, "Want to make God laugh? Just tell him your plans"? I think Grayson also opperates under this mantra. He HATED cloth dipes. Like miserable baby times a million as soon as he was wet. I think thats why he perfected the pout at 3 weeks old.

Anywho- Im over at Nap Time is My Time today telling the world about my first epic mommy fail.

Head on over here and check it out!!

Hope you have a wonderful and much deserved vaca, Emily! I had such a wonderful time blogging for you :)

Holy Cow- I made a grabbable blog button!

Ask anyone, I am the most technology challenged human alive.  Seriously, my students usually have to update my computer and work my dvd/vcr combo. A few weeks ago when the hubs saw me blogging he was AMAZED that I could do it. Like he kept repeating "Wow, I'm so impressed!" over and over.

Some would say that's insulting, I'm kinda taking it as a complement.

Anywho- a few people have asked why I didn't have a blog button, and when I said I had no idea how to make one they did give me some names of people who would make them for me for a small fee. I think the prices ranged from $8-20....which really isn't bad, unless your cheap like me. When I told the hubs he told me that I could pay to have one made, because he didn't think I could do it on my own. Oh he of little faith!

So off to the blogosphere I went. I actually googled 'How to make a grabbable blog button' and got a few different sites. The first one was super easy to follow, but it didn't work in the end. 

I started by making the picture for the button.

First, I uploaded a picture to picnik (LOVE that site!!).  Then I cropped it into a perfect square (click on crop on the left hand side, then in the drop down menu that says "no constraints" choose square) and applied the settings. Then I had to resize it to 125x125 by clicking on the resize option and putting in 125 and applying that.

Your image should get pretty small, then you can zoom in by adjusting the zoom on the bottom right of the screen. It may look a little pixelated, but that's okay.

Now youre done with the basic edits, and you can proceed to add text by clicking on the text tab. Play around and have some fun, you can do whatever you would like! Then when you're done click on the Save and Share tab and save it to your computer.

Then you need to upload it to a photo sharing site, I used photobucket. Alot of people recommended picasa, but I couldn't find the URL for the photo on there, and on photobucket its super easy to find. Just hover over the image and click on the direct link and it will automatically copy to your clip board.

Now you can make two kinds of buttons, the first is just a blog button that will link to your site. The second is a grabbable button that others can copy and paste onto their blogs.

The first code is pretty easy:

<a border="0" href="yourblogURL" target="_blank"><img src="yourimagedirectlinkURL"/></a>

So you copy and paste this into the HTML section on your blog and change the items in red to fit your specific blog. You have to keep the quotation marks and when you're done it should look like this:

<a border="0" href="http://inthiscrazylife-bethany.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i851.photobucket.com/albums/ab79/lperkaos/BlogButton1.jpg"/></a>

Now this wont put in the option for others to grab, but it will make it appear on your blog or in a post and will link back to your blog.

If you want a grabbable blog button that code is a bit more complex. I found the one that worked for me over at The Pink Lemon Tree.

<div align="”center”">
<a href="YOURBLOGADDRESS" target="”_blank”"><img src="YOURIMAGEADDRESS"/></a>
</div>
<div align="”center”">
<form><textarea rows="”6″" cols="”19″" readonly="”readonly”"><a href="YOURBLOGADDRESS" target="”_blank”"><img src="YOURIMAGEADDRESS"/></a></textarea></form>
</div>

Here's what mine looks like:

<div align="”center”">
<a href="http://inthiscrazylife-bethany.blogspot.com/" target="”_blank”"><img src="http://i851.photobucket.com/albums/ab79/lperkaos/BlogButton1.jpg"/></a>
</div>
<div align="”center”">
<form><textarea rows="”6″" cols="”19″" readonly="”readonly”"><a href="http://inthiscrazylife-bethany.blogspot.com/" target="”_blank”"><img src="http://i851.photobucket.com/albums/ab79/lperkaos/BlogButton1.jpg"/></a></textarea></form>
</div>

Then just save the code and it should appear in your blog, allowing everyone to grab it.

 Easy peasy lemon squeaszy!

PS- hubs, if you're reading this I really did do this all by myself...check the bank account, I didn't pay a cent for it. HA!