our weekend in nc

This past weekend we went down to NC to visit my sister and her family. We, of course, had a great time. Saturday we had lunch out at Qdoba and then my sister and I went to get a pedicure while Matt watched Ava and Lily. The pedicure was GREAT! I sure wish I could get one of those all the time. If you are a girl and you've never treated yourself to one, you don't know what you're missing out on!! They massage your legs and feet - the whole bit. So now I have beautiful feet for a little while.

Sunday we went to church. They have shuttle parking at Dawn's church which they always ride cause Ava loves it. On the way back to the car after church Lily konked out. And I mean she had to really be konked out because we were on the back of the bus and they hit these HUGE speed bumps really hard and she stayed asleep.

Dawn's belly is getting very big but really she looks great for having twins and being this far along. If she doesn't go in to labor before, they will plan to do a c-section the first week of June. I got to feel the babies moving although the boy was more active than the girl. Pregnant bellies are just the coolest thing. If you've never been pregnant, there's NOTHING like feeling it from the inside though. It is the greatest feeling having your baby kicking around inside you!

Ava did okay with Lily. It's funny because sometimes she's so cute with her and other times she does not like her at all. We've noticed that if we're not paying attention to them, that's when Ava will be all sweet with Lily. One evening we turned around and noticed that Ava was reading one of Lily's little books to her on the floor. SO cute!! Ava does NOT like the crying or Lily accidently touching her. She would FLIP out if Lily's arm or foot hit her. Ava also doesn't like if Lily gets anything dirty (i.e. - spit up, etc.). She is in for a big awakening I think with the soon to be arrival of a new brother and sister! After the baby stage though, Ava's gonna LOVE having a brother and sister to play with.

boring bloggers

My sister and I were just discussing (as we are both sitting on our laptops) how we hate when people don't update their blogs regularly or when someone decides to start a blog, posts once, and then doesn't ever continue with it. ARGH! A big pet peeve of mine as you might can tell. There are some circumstances that I will give people a break on, for example, having a newborn baby (like myself for the first month or two), being sick, etc.

So for all you bloggers out there that haven't updated recently or don't regularly update, get on top of it! Or at least don't start one if you aren't going to keep up with it! :) I sound pretty mean, don't I?

My husband is sitting here laughing at me cause he thinks it's pretty hilarious that I am blogging about people not blogging. It is pretty amusing.

We are still in NC with my sister and her family but will be leaving bright and early in the morning to head back home for Matt to be at work in time. We had a great weekend and the twins are getting so big in Dawn's belly. They look like they just want to pop out!! I'll blog more about our weekend in the next few days, but for now I am going to go enjoy the rest of it!

TOE sucker and TGIF

I have a toe sucker! :) This morning while I was changing Lily she as usual was grabbing her feet and trying to get them to her mouth. Today, she achieved finding her big toe and sucking on it! Haha! Good thing she has cute little clean feet. It was hilarious and I wish I had gotten a picture of it!!

We were originally going walking today with Alicia and Andi but plans changed for them so we didn't get to go. Vicky came over though and Lily and I went on a walk with her. Lily is so cute with her - she gives her the biggest smiles!

And finally it is Friday! Friday is my favorite "weekday" because it's the one right before the weekend. Yeah!! This weekend we are going down to NC to see my sister and her family. Guess we'll see if Ava likes Lily any better this time - probably not though considering Lily can't "play" with her yet! We'll be having a fun weekend away so you probably won't hear from me again until Monday. So sorry - I know you live to read my blog everyday. :) Just joking!! Hope all you readers out there have a good weekend too!!

P.S. - Yes, I used TGIF! Remember when TGIF came on tv? And isn't it crazy how we can now really start saying "remember when?"

american idol

I just have to say how GLAD I am that Carly Smithson got voted off of American Idol last night. She was the one contestant that has bothered me the most (besides Jason Castro). The thing I absolutely do not like about her is the fact that she ALREADY had a record deal and her cd was a huge FLOP. Okay, why in the world would I want someone that already has a awful cd to win or even be on american idol? Not worthy I say. But that's just my opinion. Give someone else a chance to cut a record! Geez!

And Jason Castro... BLAH! He's so boring and lifeless. No personality. I don't even know why he's lasted as long as he has. Syesha... well she just hasn't been able to get herself out there. Just kind of sits in the background even though she has a good voice.

Can you tell I'm opinionated about American Idol? Haha! So who do I like you may ask? I love Brooke White, David Cook, and David Archuletta. Granted, I don't think Brooke is really "American Idol" style but I love her personality. I tell Matt every week that I would love to be friends with Brooke. David Cook is great at what he does and is wonderful at getting creative with the songs and arranging them to fit his style. I don't like the fact that you can tell he thinks he's all that and a bag of chips. He just seems pompous to me and I don't find that attractive. So really, I think David Archuletta should win. GREAT voice. He is always right on key and has a very pure tone when he sings. And he's so cute and little - haha. Anyways, my final vote would be for David Archuletta.

So there you have my opinions... like it or not. :)

my funny little girl

Here is some video of my hilarious little girl. I had her all wound up yesterday evening! You can check out more videos of her at www.youtube.com/bruns924.

nap position and grins

I just think it's so cute how Lily naps now since she learned to suck her thumb. I lay her down with her little taggie blanket, she rolls over to her side, sticks her thumb in her mouth, and covers her face with her blankie. So cute. :) I love watching her sleep - she's just so beautiful!

Another favorite Lily thing... I LOVE how excited she gets when she sees Matt when he gets home. He comes in the door and walks over and says hi to her. She then proceeds to get the biggest grin that lights up her whole face and her whole body gets excited too. If I'm holding her she turns in to me like it's just too much excitement to handle. :) She loves her daddy!! She does that too with me (I am her mom!) but I just love seeing her do it with Matt when he gets home.

I love our little girl!!!!

mother's day and perseverence

Yes, I do know that it is not mother's day. :) Although I am excited about my first official mother's day even though I was technically a mom last year at this time! Crazy to think that Lily was in my belly as little as a seed probably last year. Anyways... the pastor at our old church in virginia beach asked Matt to come and preach the last time we were there visiting. Matt gave him a few sunday's we were available and he chose mother's day. At first Matt didn't realize that sunday was mother's day and when he did find out, he was a little scared. But I told him he didn't have to preach about "moms." He had already decided what he wanted to talk about anyways. I'm kind of glad he's doing it that day. It will make my first mother's day even more special to have my husband preaching. :) I'm so proud of him, and I'm so glad when he gets these opportunities because he loves to do it and to share his thoughts from God with others. Needless to say, we will be in virginia beach for mother's day staying with Matt's family this time.

Last night in my devotional, it was talking about perseverence in reference to James 1:2-4. That passage says "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." God says we are to count trials as JOY. Wow - that's a tough one. It really made me think about my last "trial" and how it in fact did make me a better person. Trials always do. Even though they might seem neverending or serve no purpose, God has let that trial occur in our lives to produce a better "me" and "you." Can I say in the midst of trials "I am joyful that I am going through this?" Most times unfortunately, that is not the case. I need to grow in this area and be thankful for the hard times as well as the good. The author of the devotional said "obstacles in our lives purify our undersatnding that our dreams are really God's dreams." How true. When we meet a trial or obstacle, we realize that we are not in control. God is in control of our lives and He knows EXACTLY what we need, not what we think we might need. So as I asked myself last night, I also challenge you to ask yourself when your last trial was and what your response was to it. Did it produce something good?

P.S. - I have a long ways to go in my walk with God. So when I write about spiritual things or challenge others, you can take it or leave it for what it is worth. :) My hope is that while God teachs me new things, He can also use me to help inspire others as well.

5 months

Today I took my new job (Lily) to see my old job (Westminster Canterbury). Everyone there was so excited to see her and hold her. They couldn't believe how big she is getting!! It was great to see everybody. I miss seeing the people but wouldn't trade being at home with Lily for ANYTHING. She did really good. She actually feel asleep in the car on the way there so I sat in the car for about an hour with her when we got there. I didn't want her to be sleepy and fussy when there's a bunch of people wanting to meet her.

Today Lily is officially 5 months old! That's almost a half a year!! I'm curious as to how much she weighs. Last month's check up she weighed almost 15 pounds. I think she weighs at least 16 now cause she's fitting in to size 3 diapers now. I also realized that she has had professional pictures done since she was 8 weeks old (2 months). So I think I'm going to take her in the next week or two to get some good new ones. Hopefully we can get shots of her sitting up too now!

And I finally found a bathing suit!!! Yeah!! I think I blogged about this delimma awhile back. I knew what I wanted but it seemed like nobody had it or at least had something in my size! Goody's actually had a bathing suit that I liked here but they didn't have it in my size. So while we were down in NC this past weekend, we went to the Goody's there and they had it! Yeah!! I LOVE it and it covers the tummy well. :) Here a pic of the top and bottom.

a good night, the church, and leg pushes

Lily did great last night at the hotel!! She went right to sleep on her own and slept like a baby - literally. :) She even slept "in" until 7:45! Matt and I just laid in bed with the lights off and had brought our headphones to watch movies on the laptop (ours had two headphone inputs). Lily even took her little nightly "bath" in the sink.

In a short synopsis of the church experience today... our answer will be no if it's offered. We think they really liked Matt, but it is definitely not the place for us. It was VERY VERY traditional and most of the people there were over 50. They have a decent size youth group but nothing in between teens and 50's. I think someone said they had one baby at the time. One of our important criteria now for a church is that it be a place we feel good raising Lily in and a place that has good resources for her. So although everyone was very nice, it's just not where we feel God would have us.

Lily news: After we got home this afternoon, she was laying on her tummy on her floor gym. She actually started trying to get her little legs up under her and push them. This being the VERY early start of crawling. Obviously she has awhile to go to accomplish crawling. But it's her first start in the right direction!! Yeah Lily!!! We also have an official thumb sucker. The past two days she has been finding that thing all the time and loves it. SOO cute!

sitting in a hotel

Lily is napping in her pack'n'play at the hotel as we speak. The room is a great setup because it has this partial wall divider for the sitting area. I think it will work good for tonight as long as people in the hall aren't too loud!! As she's been napping I've heard doors slamming and this group of middle school girl basketball players running down the hall - yippee skippee. But thankfully she stayed asleep. Hoping she does the same tonight.

Lunch with the couple from the church went good. They were very nice and I enjoyed their company. Matt is at a meeting with the search committee as we speak. After we go to church tomorrow I think I'll be able to have a better feeling about whether this is for us or not. Granted, they would have to offer it to him first. I do actually like the area -not too country and there's plenty of stuff around - stores, restaurants, etc. If he was offered this, there would still be another decision to make though from there about the "if's" at Suburban (our church back in virginia beach). Anyways, jumping ahead of the game though. God will point us in the right direction whatever that may be.

Lily the past two days has really gotten better at the whole thumb sucking thing. She's actually really found the thumb alone and has sucked on it which is very cute - although I know it can be a bad habit to break later on, it's actually nice when they're little to be able to use that versus a pacifier.

I was talking to my sister this morning and we are planning to go and visit them next weekend so I told her to ask Ava (our niece) if she wanted Lily to come and visit her. She said "well is she grown up yet?" HAHA! Ava just wants her to be able to play with her and Lily obviously can't do that yet. :) She will soon though before we know it! We're making one more trip down there before the twins arrive as life will totally change for the Mendez household after they are born! I'm SO excited to meet them though and hold them. Holding a brand new little baby in the family is so wonderful and this time I can hold two at the same time - twice the fun!!! Lily will have 4 cousins to play with then! When did we all grow up?!

outings and weekend plans

Yesterday was a very fun day!! Lily and I went walking at Peaks View Park with Alicia/Andi and Karen/Ella. Karen is Matt's old boss and her little girl, Ella, is 4 months old. We had a really good time and it was such great weather!! The only problem was... none of us thought about the fact until we got there that our little girls would need sunscreen! With it warming up and the sun out, they definitely need it now. So we improvised to somehow cover up their skin while we were walking. Today we went out with Alicia and Andi to Target so I got some baby sunscreen for her. I also scored a really good deal on jeans for Lily for the winter - 3 bucks a pair on clearance! Very proud of my find today.

Matt has an interview this weekend for a youth pastor position in Graham, NC. It is just outside of Burlington. Graham is a small town, but from what I gather Burlington is similar to the size of Lynchburg so that wouldn't be too bad. And Raleigh/Durham and Greensboro are both close too. It's a Baptist church... so we're just gonna have to see how we like it on Sunday. We were really scarred by the whole experience at Big Island Baptist for several reasons so we are now very hesitant about small town baptist churches. But if it's where God wants us, he'll get us there. So we are praying that God would make it clear whether this is for us or not.

We are driving down Saturday morning and coming back after lunch on Sunday. The church is putting us up in a hotel. So this will be our first attempt at staying in a one room hotel with Lily. Guess we'll see how that goes! She goes to bed at 7 so unless we want to go to bed then too (HA!), we'll have to improvise. I have several options in mind, we'll just have to see what works best once we get there.

Lily is really progressing in being able to sit up. She can sit now in a tripod (supported by her hands) for little bits at a time. This morning she probably sat for at least a minute!

and a hush fell over the house

No, I haven't fallen off the deep end! It has been a busy few days with family in town so I haven't gotten a chance to write. Lily's dedication went great and she did SO good even though she was tired! Both sets of grandparents were able to be there. I have definitely decided that I am glad we don't normally have to host both sides of the family at the same time. It's hard to "evenly" distribute Lily time, especially with so many people wanting time with her. We ended up just trying to leave her in "neutral" zone with me and Matt for more of the time. It went pretty well though all things considered.

It was great having my parents visit and of course get a few things done since they can watch Lily. We had lots of good meals too! Tonight is back to normal though and that has been nice. I enjoy our little family and how our household runs. I could spend a whole blog on that topic since I have been thinking about how much I love our little family and how we do things. It's so great being in our family - you should be jealous. :) My husband says sometimes how much he loves coming home to me and Lily. He said that tonight cause we met him outside when he got home and Lily had a BUNCH of smiles and giggles for him. Apparently he had rough day at work and when he got out of the car and saw us it melted it away. Yeah! I'm so glad that he loves our family just as much!

Lily has tried a bunch of fun new things this month - funky hair do's, first pigtail, wearing her first spring dress, sitting up on her own supported by her hands, tasting her first rice cereal, and jumping (or rather bobbling) in her jumperoo that Aunt Dawn let her borrow. She is getting REALLY active now and can't stay still! When laying on her floor gym, she gets herself turned all the way around in a circle. She also has learned how to squeal... VERY loudly. I love it though even though it is rather ear piercing! :) Tonight she got the "b" sound out for the first time. Yep, she's my big girl!

I have more to write... but want to get off and spend time with the hubby now so I will post more tomorrow!!

the runs and a busy weekend

Yesterday I had the "runs." Isn't that exciting? I know for some of you that might be too much information, but this is my blog so I can write about whatever I want to! I don't think I was sick, but I did feel blah all day. The night before we had Papa John's pizza (with garlic sauce) and garlic and parmesean breadsticks. So needless to say, I ate a lot of garlic/butter sauce. I think it just didn't sit well with my stomach. Writing about it now makes me feel sick! I'm feeling much better today though.

I also noticed yesterday that it looked like Lily had a stye on her eyelid. I didn't think these were contagious but it's kind of odd that I had one last week as well. So I attempted to put a warm washcloth on it yesterday to help draw the pus out as best I could with a 4.5 month old! It must have popped last night cause this morning the white pus is gone and it looks a lot better.

On to our busy weekend.... Today my parents will be arriving in to town from my sister's house. Then later this evening Matt's parents will be here as well with Aaron (our nephew). They're both staying at a hotel tonight since we obviously can't put up both sides of the family. The reason for them both coming is that we are having Lily dedicated at our church here in Lynchburg. Yeah!! Hopefully she will do a little better this time then she did the last! It sucks though that it has been colder temperatures for both of her dedications since she has such a cute little white dress for it. Then Matt's parents will be leaving Sunday and my parents are coming to stay here for an extra day or two. I'm hoping I can get a substitute teaching job on Monday or Tuesday to help bring in a little extra money while my parents are here to watch Lily.

Well, I think that's all that has been going on in my little world the past few days!

tattoo

I'm thinking about getting a tattoo. I have never been a "tattoo" kind of person and in most cases don't really like it. But I think I really would like to have my children's names tattooed somewhere SMALL on me. I have started looking at examples and exploring the topic. There are several things I am not sure about. 1) Where to get it. I know that I don't want it on my back and I want it somewhere not very conspicuous. My initial thoughts are shoulder, chest/breast over my heart, or ankle. I'm open to any other suggestions though! 2) When to get it. I really want to get it after each child is born but I also want them all to look the same. So I'm not sure whether I should wait until all of them are born or not. 3) Design/font. I definitely want the first name and probably in a cursive font. I definitly want it to be smaller so that's why I don't think I will do middle name or birth date - but it's still in the realm of possibility. I had also thought about getting a LITTLE picture of a lily (flower) next to her name. But then if our other children don't have a picture that will go with their name then that would kind of be dumb. So anyways, that's my big new revelation. :) You can like it or not - haha. So comment and leave me ideas/suggestions, etc. I want to be absolutely POSITIVE about what I want before I get it - obviously because it is permanent.

Oh and since I want to do the kid's names, I thought well that's not equally fair to Matt - cause I love him just as much and plan to be with him until death. So then there's the question of... well do I put his with where the kids names will be, or do I do something seperate somewhere else? As you can tell, lots of questions!

Off to enjoy a BEAUTIFUL afternoon. Lily and I are going to go walking with Alicia and Andi in Wyndhurst this afternoon. Yeah!! LOVE this weather!! Then tonight is a new episode of The Office after a long hiatus. What a wonderful day!!

babysitting

This morning was a first. I babysat another child while having my own baby to take care of! Tina (a friend from church) asked me to watch her little girl, Brenae, who is a year and a half old this morning. I have decided that although it wasn't too hard since Matt was around for part of the morning and Brenae was pretty self sufficient (no feeding, napping, etc. while she was here), that I do not want to have a second child yet. :) It was hard because I'm use to devoting 100% of my attention to Lily. It made me think about how when we do decide to have another child, I won't be able to give one child my entire attention. I guess that's just how it works though. Brenae was great though - she's a little cutie. In regards to a second child, I think I would like Lily to be at least 2 before we start trying. That way I have a more self sufficient/independent child before I have another baby that requires 100% help with everything.

All in all, it was a good morning and I got to spend a little adult time talking with Tina which was nice. Her neighborhood is actually having a big yard sale on Saturday morning with a bunch of kids stuff. Matt's going to watch Lily so I can go with Vicky and have a morning out. Hoping to find some good deals since they live in very nice neighborhood!

march madness bracket and naps

So I lost in the march madness pool at matt's work by one person! ARGH! I thought I had it made until the final 4 at which time BOTH of the teams I chose to go to the championship lost. Oh well. I still won the pool on facebook so that's good, but no money!

The real reason for writing this post is that I had to say that Lily took a 1.5 hour nap yesterday afternoon (NO waking in between), and this morning she just finished a 1 hour 15 minute nap. Yeah!! I don't know if this will remain a trend or not but if it does that would be great. I've been hoping she would move herself to longer naps than just 30 minutes once I got her on a nap schedule.

Off to get my baby up and then take my hubby in to work today.

ho hum monday

I woke up this morning and my eyelid hurt SO bad! It looked a little red and swollen but I couldn't really see anything else. Well, I finally lifted the eyelid up later today and found a stye. OUCH - I knew something was wrong cause it hurt really bad. So I've been putting warm compresses on it today to hopefully hurry the healing process.

Does it seem like everyone is pregnant to any of you? It sure does to me! It's been like a baby boom ever since I had a baby - or maybe it's just that I'm hitting that time in life where most of my friends are at that age. I can count 9 people I know off the top of my head! And the weird thing is - almost all of them are due in August or September. It's exciting though cause I know how great it is to be a mom and I'm glad that friends are going to get to experience that as well. The trend also seems to be girls girls girls!! I think everybody I know that is pregnant besides one friend and my sister are having a boy. But my sister is also having a girl with the boy! I am partial to girls though at this point cause I LOVE having my little girl.

We tried going to church yesterday which didn't work out so well. We hadn't actually been in a few weeks due to various reasons. And now it's complicated with Lily's schedule. We got in there like 20 minutes late and then I had to feed her which is distracting and then she was awake, wanting to move and talk! So really there was no point in us being there since we couldn't pay attention to what was going on. I think we have reached the stage where I need to get up the guts and put her in the nursery. My friend Alicia just did that this past weekend with her baby girl. It really would be the best thing. I think the only thing that holds me back is that I'm a big stickler on Lily taking most of her naps in her crib. She's also use to QUIET with a fan. Granted, she shouldn't need to nap when we are there but she is at that fussy time where she is getting tired because she usually goes down for a nap between 12 and 1. Anyways, most of you are probably COMPLETELY not interested in this. :) All that to just say that church has become difficult.

In exciting news for today... my sister is only a maximum of 9 weeks away from having her twins!!! I know that she probably doesn't want it rushed as she is enjoying the calm somewhat sanity of having one child in the house before two new babies come along. But... I am VERY excited to meet them and get to hold them!! It's great that she's having a boy and a girl. The best of both worlds and we don't have any boys in the family yet. She looks GREAT though to be having twins and this late in the game. It's all right in the belly! Ava was so cute. She actually wanted to talk to me on the phone the other day and she said "guess what? I felt one of mommy's babies move!" She was so excited and it was adorable. Ava also heard Lily in the background on the phone and she recognized her and said "she sounds so cute!" Ava's a hoot - I love her to death!!! I'm so glad I have the most wonderful niece in the world!! And soon I'll get to add 2 more to my favorites!!

John the Baptist, dinner, and naps

I have a devotional that I get in the mail that I usually read at night before I go to bed. I HIGHLY recommend it if anyone is interested. It's called Our Journey. A lot of devotionals I feel are very cheesy and not worth much. But this one seems to really point out some good things and even though it is short, packs a lot for the punch. You also get a new one each month so you're not repeating things. A night or two ago, it mentioned John the Baptist. It was referring to something else about him, but I got to thinking... If I had been living back in that day, would I have believed John the Baptist? Or would I have thought he was crazy? Honestly... I probably would have thought he had completely lost his mind. He was a radical. Fast forward to present day... I feel like I look down upon radicals. Now granted, there are a LOT of "radicals" out there who truly are nuts and aren't true followers of Christ. But I am sure there are plenty out there that in reality we should be looking to them to inspire us. If I call myself a Christian, I should have a passion and desire to live for God that to the world would seem crazy. But that's what God has called us as Christians to, a radical life lived to serve Him. So tonight I have asked my own self, "am I living a life for God that to others would seem radical?" If you call yourself a Christian, I challenge you to also ask yourself this question tonight.

On another completely different topic.... tonight Alicia, her husband, and their little baby girl Andi came over for dinner. We had a great time and Andi and Lily got some bonding time in - haha! They sat in their bumbos together and at one point even held hands! Lily actually stayed still sitting up in her bumbo! She usually is so active that she won't sit still in it. Then they played on the floor and Andi kept kicking Lily with her feet. Finally, they wrapped up their evening together by watching baby einstein. Well, more like Lily watched it and Andi paid attention sometimes. :) They're such cuties!!
















And finally an update on the whole nap schedule.... It's going great! We are finally on a 3 nap a day schedule - the morning and evening ones are still only a half hour, but the afternoon one is longer. Yeah!!!

I'm off now to watch some final four march madness and hope that UNC wins! Too bad I lost the game that just got over. :( Hopefully my bracket will still win!!!

feeling sentimental

I know this will sound crazy... but... I can't believe how fast my little baby is growing up. Most of you will probably think, "but she's only 4 months old!" For those of you that have kids though, you will probably understand exactly how I am feeling. Last night, Matt and I were watching the Friends episode where Rachel has her baby. Although VERY unrealistic of how labor and delivery really is, it brought back our memories of having Lily. That was the most incredible wonderful day. There are no words to really explain how it feels when you push out your little baby and they lay her right up on your chest. Seeing her there and touching her was AMAZING! She was SO little - 6 pounds 4 ounces.

Now my little tiny baby that use to fit in one arm weighs almost 15 pounds! She's such a big girl now. Don't get me wrong, I'm SO glad that she is growing so well and each new stage of her life brings new joy! But you can't help but miss holding your little baby when she was just born. It feels like so long ago even though it was only 4 months. "They grow up so fast." People say it all the time, especially your own parents. But it doesn't become a reality until you have your own.

headway and to do lists

I really feel like I am finally making some headway into this whole nap schedule thing - granted it's only been 2 or 3 days, but I feel like things have improved SO much and I'm starting to get the hang of things. From the few short days I have done this, I now feel like I can tell definitely when Lily is ready to take a nap and goes pretty quickly with little to no crying. The semi schedule I think I have going is naps at around 9, 1, and 4 or 5. She was just taking the short 30 minute naps and even though I was able to push until the next nap time, I felt like she really needed more at the morning and afternoon ones. Well this afternoon she woke up after the first half hour and I thought, okay, I'm going to let her just hang out/cry in there for a half hour and see what happens. Well, she cried/dozed for the next half hour and then finally went back to sleep straight for a whole more hour. So she got a good longer nap in this afternoon. I honestly think she just gets woken up after a half hour but really needs to sleep longer. My plan is to now leave her for awhile at the morning and afternoon nap to see if I can increase the times a bit. Things are looking up!

Do you feel like you never have enough time to get all the things done on your list? Or that your list of to-do's is neverending? Before I became a mom, I did feel like this at times since I was working outside the home. But now that I am at home, I feel like I should be able to get more done and I can't! Yes, I am taking care of a baby so that should explain a lot of it. This is especially for those of you that like having to do lists. I thrive on them! I have my magnetic notepads that I always keep around and yes, I never have a barren list. There is ALWAYS something on it! The same thing goes for our home, I feel like I CONSTANTLY am having to pick up things. When will it ever end? I already know the answer to this question... never. There's always going to be something that needs to get done. But that's okay, cause I'm sure if my list did end I wouldn't know what to do with myself! So really, I have come to the conclusion that I like having things to do on my list and shouldn't complain (except for the picking things up around the house all the time... I could do without that!).