Stitch Fix--Fix 1

Look what came in the mail yesterday?

My first fix!

Ok.  It looked a little better than this. I tore into it before taking a picture.  But even the presentation was cute.  And it tells you just what to do.

You get a card with instructions, an invoice, a prepaid bag to put the unwanted items back in the mail, and a little note from your stylist with cards showing you how to wear the items.  Again, the idea is that you buy a few pieces that can mix and match with items that are already in your closet.

First, I got skinny jeans.  The funny thing is that I have been avoiding this trend for years now thinking that I couldn't pull it off.  I literally just bought myself my first pair of skinny jeans from Old Navy two days ago.  I loved the fit of the ones that were sent to me.  They are about twice as much as I would normally pay for a pair of jeans.  I realize that jeans are a staple investment and that most people probably pay what these cost.  Unfortunately, my jean budget is still for places like Old Navy and Target.

The shirt was very comfortable.  It's probably not something that I would normally be drawn to, but I liked it. I just felt like it made me look a little boxy and the stripes weren't helping my post-baby-still-have-the-fat-roll body.

When I signed up for my stitch I was just imagining that it would come with a chevron top.  This "zig zag" shirt was pretty much what I was expecting.  I am right on the border of sizes and it was just a smidge too tight around certain parts, but was still alright.  By itself as seen here, it's not the most flattering.  Obviously it would be way cuter without that post pregnancy stomach!

But when I paired it with the navy blue sweater that was sent, it was a great piece.  This picture is 4 out of the 5 pieces sent--jeans, shirt, sweater and necklace.  I actually like this outfit.  I don't think that it is necessarily too far off from something I would pick out for myself.  I do think the items were much better quality than what I would normally get at Kohl's, Target, or Old Navy.  If price wasn't an issue, I would have kept this entire outfit.

Ultimately I could only choose to keep one piece.  I would have liked to keep the sweater and zig zag shirt, but it was just a bit more than I wanted to spend. So I kept the zig zag shirt (with help deciding from Michael).  I can find a navy sweater that is similar for cheaper. It's a pretty basic piece.  But the shirt is more unique.

I definitely plan on doing this again.  I can't do it every month, but I don't shop for clothes every month anyway.  I actually hardly ever shop for clothes.  But I will do it here and there to add quality pieces to my collection.  It was a lot of fun!

When you "check out" they ask you about each piece--did it fit right, did you like the style, what did you think of the price, etc.  I'm anxious to see how they use that information to help guide my next fix.  Warning: It might be a little addicting! :)

If you want to sign up, use my referral code and I can get some shopping credit!  I think every girl should try it at least once.

https://www.stitchfix.com/referral/3634896

Pinterest Pasta

We tried two new recipes this week and they both happened to have pasta involved.

The first one was Pesto Chicken Stuffed Shells.

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We like pesto and the picture just looked yummy.  This blog that I got it from was actually someone else who got it off of Pinterest, tried it, and liked it.  I didn't read the comments until I was about to make it. Some people were complaining that the shells got hard. So I made a few modifications.  I put some milk in the bottom of my pan, added a little extra cream cheese (because yum), and I covered it with aluminum foil.  The shells weren't hard at all. It seemed a bit salty to me, but we still liked it.  Well, Olivia wouldn't try it because it had chicken in it.  Typical.

The other recipe came from my sister.  I think I mentioned it on here before, but she is always sharing her recipes with me.  When I first moved out on my own it was her sending me recipes that got me cooking. Growing up I avoided cooking at all costs.  I was already going to school, active in my youth group, working 30 hours a week, trying to have a social life, and I had a ridiculous amount of chores.  Adding cooking to the list was not something I was going to do, so I showed little interest.  I could read a recipe, but hadn't made any meal from start to finish.  My sister loves to find new recipes, so she'd send me her good ones.  She would even look for recipes for two that she thought looked good and send them my way.  I would call her up if I had any cooking related questions.  From there I pretty much taught myself.  Turns out, I actually enjoy cooking!

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She found this pin for Spicy Sausage Pasta and tried it.  I think she said she made it with shrimp though.  Her family liked it, so I thought it was worth a try.  I made it just as the recipe called. Michael and I both liked it.  I will definitely make it again.

Two Months-Logan

Logan Michael, you are two months old!

What have you been up to?

You are 13 pounds exactly (somewhere in the 50th percentile).

You measure 23 1/4 inches long (somewhere around 65th percentile).

Your head is   cm (95th percentile).

*You spent most of the month in newborn and 0 to 3 month clothing.  Just this last week or so you have outgrown the newborn clothing and have really started to fill in the 0 to 3 month clothing.

*You are still in a number 1 diaper, but we are about to move you to the 2's.

*You are still eating every 3 to 4 hours.  You take 4 1/2 ounces for most of your feedings, but we are about to bump you up to 5 ounces.

*You eat a total of 27 to 31 ounces a day, which your doctor said was right on track.

*We are still just following your cues as far as our routine goes.  I just can't bring myself to wake a sleep baby and I don't know any other way to put one on a strict schedule.  Your doctor seemed to agree with what we are doing and said that it should be baby led at this point, so I feel better.

*You wake after 45 minutes with naps in your crib.  This same little "45 minute intruder" caused issues with her sister. Thankfully I know that it is outgrown. You will nap for hours and hours in your swing. You also enjoy being held to sleep.  We do a mix of all the above.

*You smile and coo now, and we all appreciate the interaction we get from you!

*You have a good grip and strong legs that you like to kick with excitement.

*You also have very good neck control and don't mind tummy time most of the time.

 *You don't love your paci as much as I thought.  You tolerate it at times, but spit it out when we we really want you to take it.  You also lose it in your sleep and then get frustrated.

*You are gassy and still spit up daily.  It isn't terrible and doesn't seem to bother you, but it is something that has been noted by your doctors.  We are kind of out of options as far as formula goes, so we are just dealing with it at this point.  (Unfortunately, alimentum means your gas smells like rotten eggs.  It can get rather embarrassing for the adults holding you when in public situations!)

* You enjoy laying down more than sitting up.  That means both on the floor and in our arms.

*You have a rattle you like looking at. You also like toys that make the crinkly sound.

*You are great at tracking objects with your eyes.

*You seem to have a little temper and can go from 0 to 60 FAST. Hopefully this gets better with age. :)

*You give us your sweet and content moments too though.  I love your snuggles and I especially love your smiles and dimple!

Things you are loving: your sister, your swing, being held in the crook of our arms facing in, baths

Things you aren't loving: getting in your car seat, being forced to sit, not being held

HAPPY TWO MONTHS, BUDDY!

WE LOVE YOU!

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His two month doctor's appointment went well.  He was in a good mood and was showing off all of his skills for the nurse and doctor.

One thing I wanted to discuss is his constant need to push back his body/head.  It is not in the arching-the-back-I'm-in-pain way. But if we make him sit up to burp or just to hang out, he very forcibly pushes his head back and stiffens his body so that we can't bend it into the sitting position.  Obviously he prefers the laying position, but it just seems a bit odd to me.  The doctor said that it could be that is head is hard for him to hold up, but he has really good neck control so that doesn't seem to be it.  He could have a pinched nerve or muscle related to having a large head.

He does have the start of a flat spot.  I have been very conscious of trying to put him in different positions. Since Olivia's birth, we have had multiple friends whose babies had to wear a helmet for various reasons.  This has made me aware, but unfortunately my baby just does not like to cooperate.  They are recommending that we do some Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment (OMT).  This will help both the flat spot and the fact that he stiffens up and only wants to lay flat.  It could also help his gut issues.

We are doing the delayed vaccination schedule, so he got two shots and did great with them.

Happy Date-a-versary!

The first picture ever taken of us--2 weeks into dating

We went to the same young adult group at our church.  I hadn't noticed him though, and I don't think he had noticed me.  It was spring break, so the crowds were down.  The leaders had us combine tables.  Our table ended up being myself and 3 of my girl friends along with 4 random boys.  The meeting went on as usual.  Afterwards the girls and I went out for coffee like we normally did.  We were discussing the four boys.  We made mention of who we thought was cute.  I thought Michael was cute, but referred to him as "the mute" because he didn't hardly talk the entire time we were there.

 

 Two weeks later we were back at the group.  Michael came over and talked to our table for a little bit, but it was very casual.  Then we talked to him again on the way out the door.  We realized that we had a connection.  He went to high school and was best friends with Tommy, who I happened to have gone to college with (at a very small Christian college).  Oh, and Tommy's mom was my boss!  We left it at that. We said that if we saw him at church on a Sunday morning we would try to sit with him.  The girls and I went out again afterwards. They were all insistent that he was interested in me.  I totally missed that fact in the conversation.  I thought he was just being nice and talking to all of us.

The next day I mentioned to my boss (who was constantly trying to set me up with her son's friends) that I had met one of Tommy's friends.  We chatted briefly about it, but left it at that.  Fast forward a few days and she stops me on the way from teacher devotions back to my class.  She asked me if I would be interested in going out with Michael.  Yep.  We took it back to 7th grade! :) She was suppose to be sly and sneaky about it, but she basically came right out and said that Tommy told her to talk Michael up to me. Ha ha!  At one point another friend came over to say something to us and I said, "Don't interrupt us. We are discussing my future husband."  Little did we know...

Thursday night of that week I got a friend request on Myspace from Michael.  All he knew was my first name, the college I graduated from, and the year I would have graduated.  He went to my college's website and started looking for Bethany's that graduated that year. Once he found my name he looked me up on Myspace.  I got the request kind of late, but we started sending messages back and forth.  I finally told him that he could just call me.  We talked until about 1 in the morning.

I was all giddy when I got to work the next morning.  I sat down to my computer and had an email waiting from him. We wrote back forth all day--as much as I could as a teacher.  We made plans to go out on Saturday.  I pretty much knew that if the date went well, he was going to be the one I would marry.  And I was pretty sure the date was going to go well. :)

 

  He picked me up at 4 in the afternoon with flowers in hand.  He opened my door to a newly cleaned car and we were on our way.  We went to dinner, walked around the mall, got movies from Blockbuster (yep. people still did that back then!), picked up some ice cream from Kroger and headed back to his apartment.  We talked, watched a movie, talked some more, watched another movie and I finally said I needed to call it quits and get home to bed. That was at 1 in the morning.  We had a 9 hour first date!

That first date was 8 years ago today.  The rest, as they say, is history.  We are a perfect match.  We are so much alike in a lot of ways.  It helps to make our day to day life flow easily.  Yet, we are just different enough that we balance each other out and keep things interesting.

Michael-thanks for that first date, and for every one after.  Happy date-a-versary!  I love you.  You are my meant to be.

1st and 2nd Month Loves

Logan is two months today!  Time is flying.  I'm going to wait until after his doctor's appointment to post his two month blog so I can add his stats.  But I thought I'd share some other two month fun. 

When Olivia was a baby I did a monthly post about items we loved that month.  I got the idea from a few other bloggers.  I found their lists helpful, so I thought it might be helpful for someone who was reading my blog. 

I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel this time.  Most of what we used for Olivia is what we are using this time.  Obviously if it worked, then why not do it again? And if it didn't work last time then we probably got rid of it.  Needless to say, I'm not sure I'm going to be doing this post repeatedly over the first year.  But there are a few things that I have used this time that I am loving so I thought I would share.

The Fisher Price Rock 'n Play Sleeper

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There was all sorts of buzz about this when I was pregnant with Olivia.  We had a swing and bouncer  and all sorts of other contraptions though, so I didn't get one.  But I've seen over and over again where people say this is one of their number one baby items.  So while I was pregnant with Logan I happened to see one on clearance at Target. I scooped it up.  I'm so glad I did. It was one of the only places Logan liked to hang out in for the first 6 weeks or so.  He naps in it even still.  And a few weeks ago he was a little congested and the angle was perfect for helping him sleep through the night. The newer models come with a vibrator, which I think is why mine was on clearance.  It would be nice to have that feature, but it still works for us without it.  It's so lightweight and can be easily folded up, which makes it nice to carry around the house.  We have definitely gotten our money out of this one.

The First Years Night and Day Bottle Warmer

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Once you open a bottle of ready to feed formula, it has to be kept in the fridge.  That means each bottle needs to be heated up for the baby.  We had a bottle warmer last time that we hated.  I tried selling it before we moved and it ended up in some random box and we have no clue where that is. So we needed a new one and one that was more efficient.  We love this one because it has a cooler attached.  We make up two bottles for middle of the night feedings and then put them in there. Then we take the whole system to our room.  It heats them up much faster than our other warmer as well.  It took a little trial and error with how much water to use, but we've got it down now and this thing is a lifesaver.

JJ Cole Car Seat Cover

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We didn't use one of these with Olivia.  She was a summer baby, and by the time we would have needed to use it she had switched to her convertible car seat.  It is obviously much colder this time around, so something like this was necessary.  Remember though-- it must be the kind that goes on like a shower cap.  Absolutely nothing should be between your baby and the seat.  There are a lot of things sold on the market today are not safe when it comes to car seats.

Munchkin Nursery Projector and Sound Machine

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A white noise machine was necessary for Olivia since we were living in an apartment.  She still uses hers to this day.  A white noise machine became necessary this time because we live with a toddler. :)  Logan is still sleeping in our room at night, but I try to have him sleep in his room for naps.  The more we tell Olivia to be quiet, the louder she gets.  This machine has all sorts of fun features. It displays pictures on the wall, has different modes of music and noise, and has a voice activated start. I'm sure we will get much use out of it in the coming years. Right now I'm just loving that it helps block out any noise from the big sister.

Photo Dump Friday

"I am smiling nice"

So handsome

Obsessed.

She thinks she's Doc McStuffins.

Waiting at mommy's doctor's appointment--where my doctor laughed at my labor and delivery story and said if I ever had another child I would not be allowed to go into labor naturally.  I will not be having another child.

My loves

She's a goof.

He loves her, but...   Ha ha!

I love that smile!  He was laying on his jungle gym mat and Olivia came over and sat down and he just started giving her the biggest smiles.

Really, it is amazing to me how they seem to be bonded already.  She could not love him any more if she tried, and he seem to be enamored with her.  I hope they are always close.

That hair.  Seriously. What am I going to do!?  It gets crazy on the one side because he likes to lay in the crook of our arm.

 Oy!

Smiles for mommy

Best. Friends. Forever.

I Confess...

I confess...
        I still haven't sent out my thank you cards for the gifts from Logan's birth.  I've purchased them.  It is my goal to have them out by Saturday.  Two months is still within proper etiquette, right?

I confess...
        I find all of the mommy blogs that keep being shared on Facebook annoying and overkill at this point.  We get it already.  Everybody wants somebody to stop doing something.  Mostly because they feel guilty for not doing it themselves.  And if Pinterest is too much pressure for you, then get off it.  Stop ridiculing everyone else who can handle it and use it without going crazy.

I confess...
        Along the same lines--I will continue to judge.  In the long run it is not going to matter if your child is formula fed or breast fed, you use disposables or cloth, you make your own food or use jars, your kids sleeps in your room until they are 1 or were in their own crib on day one. Those are choices we all get to make that work for us.  I am all about "doing what works".  However, when "what works" is putting your child in obvious danger (i.e. children have died), then I judge.  And pray it doesn't happen to you.

I confess...
        My daughter is turning out to be ALL me and I am pretty darn scared.

I confess...
        I find it annoying when people tell me my family is "perfect" because I got a boy and now "I have one of each" so I can be done and all is well with the world.  It's rude, people.  One boy and one girl does not equal the perfect family.  Similarly, when someone is having a second (or third) of the same gender, don't ask them if they wished it was (fill in opposite gender) or make comments about them needing to "try again". Healthy babies make the best families.  It doesn't matter the gender.  For the record, I would be done having children whether it was a boy or a girl.

I confess...
        I miss Texas.  Seriously.  Why did we move again?

I confess...
        I haven't printed pictures in over two years. Now I have another child with even more pictures that need printing and the whole thing is just overwhelming.  I'm just going to have to buy my kids digital picture frames or something.  I need a digital scrapbook too.

I confess...
        Speaking of pictures, I didn't do newborn pictures this time.  We talked about it and even chose a photographer. But then with moving and Christmas and buying furniture, it just never happened.  I am only OK with this because he is a boy.  Is that sexist?  But seriously.  The girls have all the cute props and the bows and the ruffle butts.  What is there to do with a newborn baby boy?  Not much.  Don't worry. Family pictures have been scheduled.  We'll get some of the little guy too. :)

I confess...
        My dad had a shirt when I was younger that a friend made him.  On the front it said, "I don't play games very well" and on the back it said, "So I don't play them at all."  I recently feel like I need this shirt.  Or bumper sticker.  Or tattoo.  (My daughter may be all mine, but I am not to blame! ha!)

I confess...
        The newborn phase is not my favorite.  I love my child, and I will gladly hold him/cuddle him/rock him and meet all his needs.  I'm just not a huge fan of the "blob" stage.

That's all the feisty I got for today....  We'll be back to our regularly scheduled blogging tomorrow. :)

P.S. Michael asked what I was doing. I told him writing a blog.  He asked the topic and I told him about things I confess.  He said, "Oh, when is it going to post?  It sounds like it will be a good one."  I just love him! :)