Sophia's 8 Month Update

At first I thought this would be a pretty lame update, because there really hasn't been many new developments since last month. But she did have a few fun firsts, which you'll see at the end of this post.

- She's still not crawling (although I don't do nearly enough tummy time with her, so that probably has something to do with it).

- She's been teething forever, but no sign of any teeth. (Side note: I won a Facebook contest with the online cloth diaper retailer Dearest Diapers, and the prize was a gift card for the store. This store also carries Baltic amber teething necklaces, so I'm going to buy her one very soon.)

-When I was planning to write this post, I was also going to mention that she still doesn't roll over, but on Sunday, she rolled from her tummy to her back all by herself! I've tried to get her to do it again, but I guess she felt that once was enough. ;)

-She's wearing 9 month and 12 month sized clothes. We recently bought her some Christmas pajamas and a Christmas dress. I can't wait to show you pictures of her wearing them!

-She is FINALLY on a schedule! [It probably shouldn't have taken this long, but hey, you live and learn, and you know what to do differently with the next kid.] Knowing when she'll wake up, nap, and go to bed has made my life so much easier.

-I recently implemented Dr. Sears' method of teaching her to fall asleep on her own, and that has made a huge difference. I love that I don't have to nurse her to sleep anymore. She takes longer naps, and goes to bed earlier.

The only downside is that I incorrectly assumed that this would lead to fewer night wakings, but it seems she wakes up more than ever. I'm up with her anywhere from 4 to 6 times every night, and often all these wakings are between 2:00 am and 6:00 am, so that's 4 hours of sleep I'm not getting. I don't want to night wean her completely, but I don't know how to go about reducing the wakings.

Well, I do have a few ideas, but it's hard to remember them, and even harder to put them into practice when it's 3:00 am and I'm barely awake. I'll see how these next few nights go, and I'll try to remind myself to be strong, even though it's the middle of the night and I desperately want to go back to bed.

-I've been trying to give her solids twice a day, but it's hard because I can't share my breakfast with her (eggs give her eczema). I've gotten into the habit of giving her some banana in the morning instead, but I forgot that bananas cause constipation. In the past week and a half, she's only had two dirty diapers. So I cut out solids, and I just started giving her some prune juice. So hopefully we get that all cleared up soon!

-She had her first Halloween! We didn't go Trick-or-Treating, but we did dress her up in somewhat of a costume. My mom got this outfit for her.

Despite the fact that we didn't go door-to-door, Sophia still managed to score a bunch of candy, because Art's mom put together a little Halloween basket for her!

She really enjoyed the noisy packaging, and Art and I really enjoyed the candy inside. ;D

-Mari and I bought her some hair elastics, and she got her very first ponytail!

Which quickly turned into two cute little pigtails.

Which then became three...

...and then turned into four.

Our goal is to eventually make her look like Coolio, only cuter. [Please click the link. It's hilarious.]

So that's our 8 month old girl! Since I won't be posting for the rest of the week, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Thanksgiving on a Tuesday

I usually try to post at least once a week, but that didn't happen last week. I haven't been getting enough sleep (thanks to Sophia, but more on that in her 8 month update post, coming tomorrow!). I've been exhausted, and just trying to get through each day. No mental energy to come up with blog posts.

But, like I said, Sophia's 8 month update will go up tomorrow. And today?

Today we will be at Art's parents' house for Thanksgiving! Because of every body's schedules, it worked better to do Thanksgiving today instead of Thursday. Art's mom is hosting, but not cooking, so we're getting the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and pies cooked in advance, and they're going to pick it all up in the afternoon. I've cooked entire Thanksgiving dinners in the past, and I would love to do it this year, but now that I have a baby, it's just not possible.

I'll be making the green bean casserole and candied yams there, but I've picked the most simple versions possible, so it will be quick, and easy, and stress-free. I made the spinach dip last night, so it's all ready to go.

This will definitely be one of the most laid back Thanksgivings we'll ever have. Well, it will probably be like this for the next couple of years. But believe it or not, I'm actually looking forward to the day when I can spend hours and hours in the kitchen, making (nearly) every dish from scratch (with a little help). There is something so rewarding about sitting down to a Thanksgiving feast, knowing that you cooked all of it (and hopefully did a good job).

It's weird, because normally I wouldn't say that I love cooking. But when it comes to a great, big turkey dinner? I am more than happy to "slave away" at it. Of course, we can't forget that a full day of cooking helps to build up a big appetite.

And since no Thanksgiving post would be complete without giving thanks for something: I am thankful that Art pretty much has the whole week off, both from work, and school. I have no idea what we're going to do with all the free days ahead of us, but it will be nice just having him around. I'm sure Sophia will love it too. :)

Stress-Free Supper

Ever since Sophia was born, I have dreaded making dinner. It seemed like it was the one thing I could never accomplish, because it took too long.

Cleaning is no problem. I can do a little bit here, and a little bit there. If Sophia gets bored and starts fussing, I can abandon the project and come back to it later.

But meals don't work that way (rather, they don't work very well that way). So for a few months, I was barely making dinner, much to Art's displeasure. I am sorry to say that we had many arguments about it.

Then, a couple of months ago, my friend Sozan came across a blog (I'm sorry, I don't know which one, or I would link to it) where a group of moms solved their dinner dilemmas by getting together and making all their meals for the entire month. I think they must do this over the course of one weekend.

I thought this was a neat idea, but not very practical for someone with limited freezer space, living in an apartment. I'm sure these women have deep freezers where they can store all their pre-made meals.

However, Sozan had an idea to do a modified version of this that would make dinner preparations a little easier. She suggested spending several hours chopping up the vegetables that I use on a regular basis, and freezing them in Ziploc bags. My freezer may not have room for entire meals, but it definitely has room for pre-chopped veggies.

So one evening when Art had already left for his night shift, I pulled out my cutting board and a chef's knife and got to work.

And Sophia helped!

Sort of.

Mostly she just threw things on the floor.

[By the way, why do they sell celery in such large quantities? Are there people out there who actually use that much celery in a short space of time? I swear, we'll have enough to last us a year.]

Anyway, I managed to keep Sophia pretty entertained (we only had to take a couple of quick breaks). And in just a few hours I had chopped enough carrots, celery, green peppers, red peppers and onions to last a couple of months!

The payoff has been huge! Making dinner is SO easy and quick now, because I don't have to spend time chopping vegetables (that part often takes the longest). I can just pull them out of the freezer while the meat is cooking, and something like lasagna or meatloaf comes together in a snap.

So if you're a busy mom (and what mom isn't busy?!) and you're looking for ways to speed up the dinner-making process, this is one way to do it. I am able to make several healthy and delicious dinners per week, and it takes mere minutes. Art and I are much happier, and Sophia? Well, I think Sophia is working on busting out some teeth so she can partake in these yummy suppers.