weekend

We had a good weekend at home. This summer Matt will be off most Friday's which is great! So Friday we did our big grocery shopping trip for the month. Saturday we went to the pool, ran a few errands, and then watched Good Luck Chuck. I'm loving Netflix! I like putting movies in our queue too - I know, I'm weird.

Sunday was a busier day. We went to church that morning, Lily came home and took a nap, and then we headed out to Pueblo Viejo for lunch out. After lunch the three of us went over to LU for the big 4th of July celebration. We got free ice cream which was delicious! Lily got very upset though when we went near the loud music. She's always been like that though - doesn't like really loud noises. It annoyed me that they didn't have the 4th of july celebration on the 4th of July or at least on the weekend of the 4th! Oh well. We'll be going out of town this weekend anyways so we wouldn't have been able to go.

Then that evening one of my old co-workers/friend and her husband came over to see Lily and then hang out with us for a little while. It was nice having some people come over!

Lily just gets better and better at the whole getting around thing. Today she was actually trying to pull up on the sofa and then in her crib. She can't get herself up yet though but she sure is trying. Today I cut up some apple and put it in her fresh food feeder. It's this really cool thing that has a mesh part where you put it any fresh food - fruits, ice, etc. that a baby can have. They can chew on it to help with teething (the cold feels good) and they also can use it just for food (the primary purpose). They suck on it so they just get the liquid/juice part out. She loved it! Then I let her suck on the rest of the apple that I was eating and she liked that even better! I just realized I thought I had gotten all the pictures off my camera this evening and deleted them all. Well... I forgot to get the pictures off that I took today of her eating the apple. :( Oh well... guess I'll just have to do it again tomorrow and then post pictures!

mover and shaker

It is still amazing how all of a sudden Lily has just started to take off! She can drag herself anywhere VERY fast if she sees something enticing. She's also found her new favorite "hiding" spot...

...under the side table. I found her there this morning - it was SO cute. She's been going under there all day today. And this evening she was out in the living room before bedtime and saw the fan in our room and made her way in there! She has now conquered going in to other rooms! We also had to move Lily's mattress down in her crib to the lower setting cause she can get up on all 4's now. :( It was a sad moment. Just another reminder that our little baby is growing up very fast! There's something wonderful about every stage though she goes through and it's so exciting to see her achieving new milestones!

Now I would like to address the topic of "independence and responsibility." Matt and I were discussing the correlation between these two things the other night. As we grow up and gain more independence, along with that comes more responsibility. The two go directly hand in hand. Often times though, as people enter the world of adulthood, they are enthralled with independence but do not understand or want to acceptt the responsibilities that come with this. They shrug the responsibilities they don't want or usually try to pass them on to someone else. It's really a sad situation. Matt and I agreed that we are both so glad that we feel we are independent now and responsible for ourselves and our family. Even though responsibility is hard, it's very rewarding to know you are taking care of yourself and your family. Matt and I are so blessed to have our beautiful family now with Lily and to be able to be on our own. We struggle and it's not easy, but I'm so thankful we've made it thus far. I shall get off that bandwagon now. :)

car seats, outings, exciting news, and my hubby the cook

Lily has officially christened her new convertible car seat! She had her reusable swim diaper on (which doesn't hold pee, just poop) today and I thought we could run down to the pool real quick in it. Well.. no luck. She peed in her beautiful new expensive car seat! :) Oh well... it was bound to happen, right? The material is great though - it wiped right up and doesn't absorb in. By the way... she is LOVING her new big girl car seat. It is angled a bit higher up so she can see out better and it's much more comfy and non-confining. Definitely worth the money spent!

Yesterday was a long day without Matt. They took the clients at work to the zoo in Asheboro, NC. So he was gone most of the day. Lily and I had a good day though - we went to see my old co-workers and then went to the pool with Alicia and Andi. Lily had a blast in the pool yesterday! She was laughing up a storm and stayed in her float for awhile.

Today we went to visit my friend Ren from college at work. She works at the library at Liberty so we swung by for a bit. Lily enjoyed spending some time with her and I had a good chance to sit and talk with her which we hadn't done in awhile.

Lily news: She is not a big "fruit" lover. Bananas and pears are the two that she does love so far. The others I have tried: applesauce, prunes, and now peaches she is NOT a fan of. She adamantly refuses them unless I mix them in with her oatmeal. I guess cause those are "stronger" fruits than the bananas or pears. Lily also got her first diaper rash. When she woke up the other morning, there was poop in her diaper. I don't know how long it had been there (since she sleeps the whole night) and she had never cried or fussed about anything. Anyways... it gave her a rash. It's getting better though today.

And.... the most exciting news of the day.... Lily is attempting to crawl!!! This morning it's like she all of a sudden figured out she could get herself to go forward and not just side to side or backwards. She is by no means a full crawler yet, but she works really hard to get herself forward now to get something. She'll pull her legs up under her and push them to go forward. It was SOO cute. Another one of those rewarding moments where I'm SO happy that I get to stay home with her and see all her firsts!!!

Lastly, I just want to say how great a cook my husband is!!! He usually does most of the cooking (not that I can't, but he loves it and is really good at it). Tonight he made the most delicious rotini baked spaghetti. And my new favorite of his... burritos!! You haven't had an amazing burrito until you eat one of his.

p.s.

I think I'm going to make my blog private. If you are a reader and would like to continue to have access to my blog then please leave a comment with your email address so I can add you to the list. Or you can send your email address to me on facebook or our regular email if you want your email kept private from others. Thanks!

random thoughts

Yesterday evening I heard my phone ringing and saw that it was a number that I didn't recognize. Usually if that's the case, I let it go to voicemail. So after they left a voicemail I listened to it and it was some random little girl wanting to talk to me? She knew my name (although in my voicemail message I say my name) and said "i just wanted to talk to you amanda." And I think I heard her mom or some adult talking in the background. Anyways... it was really random and it bothers me that I don't know who it is! I looked up the number online and the name it gave I didn't recognize. Anyways... if by chance you are reading this and it was your little girl that called me - let me know! :) I'd like to know who wanted to talk to me.

The past few days I've been dwelling a lot on my post-pregnancy body. Now granted, people who see me out in public with clothes on think I look great and don't notice anything. But when it's yourself and you don't have clothes on, you notice! I've never been one that had an issue with anything about myself. I've always been skinny without having to diet and still am. The only thing that bothers me is my belly now. Since my skin was stretched to accomodate Lily, it is now flabby and hasn't tightened back up. My doctor said a lot of that has to do with genetics and the elasticity of your skin (which you can't change). The only thing you can do is get rid of the fat layer. Well... I've decided that I'm going to do an ab workout every day for the next month and see if I get any results. If I've gotten rid of all the fat, there's nothing really else I can do besides having a tummy tuck! I probably sound ridiculus because in reality, there's not *that* much there... I have always just been use to having a tight flat belly. Well... I'll let you know in a month if there's any results or if I just don't have very elasticy skin! I am proud of myself though because without exercising I'm down to my pre-pregnancy weight (minus a pound)!

On another random note.... today on Lily and I's daily walk, I was thinking about if there were certain things in the Garden of Eden. For example, the first thing that came to my mind was bees. Bees (at least to me) are a bad thing. I know that they do serve a good purpose - but stinging people does not seem like something that would occur in a "perfect" world. So did they not exist... or did they just exist and never sting people? Hm... makes you wonder. And another example - sweating. Just like bees, sweating serves our bodies a purpose but it isn't a beautiful or lovely thing. So did Adam and Eve sweat? If not, how did their bodies adjust their internal temperatures? If you have any thoughts... please comment!

Well... I'm going to go get my sweet Lily who just woke up. This afternoon we are getting a visit from Russanna (a friend of mine from church) and maybe a trip to the pool! Then this evening after Lily goes to bed, Matt is staying here with her so I can go out with Vicky. It's a full day!!

Happy Father's Day and a busy weekend

Little did we know how busy our weekend would turn out to be! Saturday morning I went to a brunch at church for the ladies in our small group. It was SO refreshing spiritually and socially for me. With a little one, it's so hard to get time away on your own. Matt was wonderful and watched little Lily and I got to enjoy fellowship, good food, and some spiritual feeding with other incredible women. I just can't say how much I needed that - it had been too long. I've also decided that Matt and I together and on our own need to make a point more to get away as a couple and as individuals at times. Not that it has to be all the time, but we do need it once in awhile. There are so many wonderful women in my life too that are willing to watch Lily for us or do whatever we need - I just need to start taking them up on their offers!!

That morning as I was preparing to leave, I got a call from my dad asking if it would be okay for him and my mom to come stay with us for the weekend. They are currently camped out at my sister's helping her out since she just had twins. Dawn and their family needed some alone/family time to help rejuvenate them, so my parents came here for the weekend.

Saturday afternoon we went to toys'r'us and returned all of our Avent bottles. I'm not going to attempt to explain everything but there is a growing controversy on BPA (a chemical found in some hard plastics and various baby bottles) and its long term effects. There hasn't been an official recall since it hasn't been proven that it is harmful, but toys'r'us and babies'r'us are taking back any bottles that have BPA (used, new, etc.) for a full refund in store credit!! We've switched over to the playtex drop-in's so we returned our avents which I loved. We got back over $100! So we bought Lily a big present!!! It's the Fisher Price Learning Home. My niece, Ava, had this when she was little and they got so much use out of it and LOVED it. Lily doesn't know it yet, but she's going to be excited about it. :)

Today was of course, Father's Day!! Lily gave Daddy her presents this morning including: a picture frame we painted that says "daddy's little girl" and has her picture in it (the one with matt's eagles hat on), a new wallet that has a place to put wallet pictures in it so he can proudly display Lily, and a subscription to Netflix which he has been wanting for awhile. He loved his gifts! The best part was it came in this bag from Hallmark that had the superman symbol and said "super dad." We ended up not going to church because Lily woke up late today and she actually took her first nap for 2 hours until 11:30!! We then headed to O'Charley's for lunch and then later this afternoon went to the pool for awhile.

By the way, we got Lily the CUTEST new float for the pool. We decided to try a different float that's another style and doesn't take up quite so much room when blown up. The best part was... it is a LILYPAD. :) I just think it's really cute that our little Lily has her own little lilypad for the pool. TOO CUTE! Finally, we are rounding off the day by having a friend of ours come over to stay with Lily while Matt and I go out for dessert! Yeah!! We haven't been out in awhile just the two of us so that will be a nice treat!

I now have to brag about my husband since it is father's day! :) I can't begin to explain how wonderful it is to see him with our little girl. He is just SO sweet with her and makes her laugh all the time!! The love that I see in Matt's eyes for Lily is just the most beautiful thing ever. Seeing them together snuggled on the couch watching baby einstein together just makes me melt every time. I never thought I could have so much love for two people! My love for Matt has just expanded in so many ways this past year as I have seen him with our first baby girl. He is SO helpful to me and is such an involved Dad. He wants to be right there in the action with her and doesn't just stand off to the side. Well... I could go on and on about him. But I will save that for him in person. I did have to brag though because he is "hands down" the BEST dad in the whole wide world! :) I love you Matt!!! You are the most wonderful husband and father anyone could ask for!

pet peeve and the GYN

Today I had my yearly GYN check-up (fun fun). Everything was fine, of course, and the doctor said how great I look for having had a baby 6 months ago! Yeah!! I asked him about the "flab" on the tummy though and he said exercises probably won't get rid of that unfortunately. He pointed out that a lot of that will depend on the elasticity of your skin which you inherit. I've gotten rid of all the fat and the muscles are fine - so it just the extra skin that has been stretched out. It really does look great for having had a baby but I'm just picky cause I had a VERY flat tight stomach pre-Lily. That's okay though - she's completely worth it!!

I also had to comment on a pet peeve I now have. I hate it when people look at me funny or say something that is intended to make me feel odd when I tell people that I put Lily to bed at 7PM. Now granted, most ALL of those people are those that don't have children or are long past the phase of having young babies. So I guess that's why they don't understand. I know this is GOOD and normal though for her because every parenting book and the doctor have said that a baby's bedtime is usually between 6-8PM when they are little. Babies need a lot more sleep than we do as adults and you should not deprive them of this much needed activity. Babies will naturally want to go to bed around that time - it's not like you force them to. Everyone I know that has a baby puts them down earlier too like I do. Anyways... just had to get that off my chest because it bothers me when people think that's odd. If you're reading this and you think that's odd you either haven't had a baby yet or you don't remember your children being babies! :) Thank goodness I have a great sleeping baby (7:30PM to 7:00AM)! That doesn't come without work though!! The first 4 months were rough trying to get the whole sleeping/napping thing figured out!!

Short funny Lily story... Yesterday evening she was watching her baby einstein like she normally does sitting all cuddled up on her daddy's lap. Well Matt starts to talk to me and Lily turns around and looks at him and lets out this little whine/cry. So Matt stops talking and she turns back around to keep watching baby einstein and she's fine! It was just like she was saying "daddy, I can't hear my movie!" It was so cute. Every day I see her growing more and more in to this independent little girl. She is just SO freakin adorable and I'm SO very glad that God blessed me with such a beautiful little baby girl.

NC and Lily news

We had a great weekend in NC visiting my sister's family (which now totals 5 people!). The twins are absolutely adorable. Owen is such a little cutie and so chill. He was more awake when we were there and his big blue eyes will just melt your heart. Cecilia is just like the rest of the girls in our family - spirited! :) She stayed asleep more but was fidgity and noisy a lot of the time. It was so great getting to hold two SO tiny little babies. It feels like forever since Lily was that little!! Owen indoctrinated me by pooping and peeing EVERYWHERE. Boys are definitely much harder to change than girls are. Ava is being a great big sister and actually "played" with Lily some when they were both in the right mood. Ava asked Lily if she remembered that they were cousins. How cute! When one of them got whiny/crying though, it definitely affected the other. They don't like to hear each other do that! On Monday I got to help my sister take Cecilia and Owen for their first doctor's appointment and then I went with Dawn to get her staples out. The incision looks great!Lily DEFINITELY does not like loud noises/high stress situations!! She was fussy a majority of the time when we were at Dawn's house just because there was more people there and loudness. Luckily we stayed at a hotel though since the Mendez house was full. Lily was able to chill out there some and was much more content in the quieter environment.

Lily is getting around SO well now for not crawling. She does pretty much everything but crawl to move around on the floor - scooching backwards, rolling over, etc. You turn around for a minute and she'll be somewhere completely different than you laid her. Today she also started really "babbling" the "b" consonant for the first time. It's more like "boo boo boo" though than the normal "baa baa baa." So cute!! Can't wait until she gets the "mama" sound out!! Lily also LOVES being "chased." Matt or I will hold her and pretend to run away from the other and say "i'm gonna get you" and she thinks its hilarious!!! She's so playful now and independent. Matt had her on the bed this past weekend and everytime he walked over to her and said "i'm gonna get you" she would roll over and hide from him. Lily is now trying bananas - homemade by yours truly. She loves them! She is really a good eater so far.

Well... I think that's all the news in our world for now! Hope everyone is having a great day!! Here is a cute pic of my two favorite people in this world:

finally!

I'm finally here in NC holding my new niece and nephew, Cecilia and Owen!!! They are SOOO tiny and have cute little chicken legs. I didn't realize how little they were until I could see them in person. It's SO crazy getting to hold two sweet little babies at the same time!! Lily loves her new cousins! Just got Lily down for the night (we are staying at a hotel) and now am going to finally eat some dinner! Enjoy:

green beans, pool fun, and the twins

We have had a great week although it has seemed to go by slower since I'm anxiously awaiting getting to hold my new niece and nephew!!! Owen and Cecilia are both doing great. Apparently they sleep SO good when you lay them right next to each other. They cuddle up together - SO cute. Owen is more fidgity but if they lay him next to Cecilia he calms down. Dawn is still recovering from the c-section and is just very tired. They will be going home from the hospital tomorrow. Ava's being a great big sister so far! I've been showing pictures of her new cousins and playmates. She thinks they are great! :)

Lily LOVES green beans. She must have gotten this from her mommy because I love them too. They are my veggie of choice (besides fried okra) and the one we eat the most often. We started them this week and Lily just gobbles them up. I can't keep up with her because she swallows it really quickly and then is rapidly mouthing for more!! She now eats 3 "meals" a day with a bedtime feeding. Breakfast is rice cereal, lunch is a veggie, and dinner is a fruit or sweet veggie. So far she has had sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, and prunes. Tomorrow we are going to start pears. Then I homemade and froze some avocado and banana after we do pears. Supposedly avocado is one of the best first baby foods and VERY good for you. I've been using this book called Super Baby Food. I borrowed it from my sister and it has been SO helpful in answering all my questions on feeding solids and how to homemake your own baby food. I have been doing homemade when I can and then also using some packaged stuff for when we're out or if it's harder to do at home. I'm so proud of myself!! Anyways, if you have a young baby I highly encourage you to get this book!!
Today we had a fun day! Alicia and Andi came over this afternoon and we all went to the pool. The girls were so cute. They both have the same float and they kept putting their faces down into the water play area in front of them cause they were tired. I think I got a little bit of sun at least on my face! The water almost felt like bath water because it was SO hot outside. It's only June - it's not supposed to be THIS hot!

Tomorrow is packing day and then Saturday we are off to NC to see Cecilia and Owen!!! Yeah!!!!!

Pics of Cecilia and Owen!!!

Here's a few pics of little Cecilia and Owen that I finally got this morning!!! Don't worry, I'll take plenty this weekend to share with everyone!!

I'm a PROUD AUNT again!

I am officially a proud aunt again to my sister's two little bundles of joy!!! Here's the info:

Girl: Cecilia Julianne Mendez born at 12:45pm this afternoon (first of the two). She weighed 5 pounds 6 ounces and was 17 inches long.

Boy: Owen Silas Mendez born at 12:45pm this afternoon. He weighed 5 pounds 8 ounces and was 16 1/4 inches long.

Dawn is doing well considering she just had a c-section! My mom says the babies both have some hair that is lighter (sounds just like Ava). Hopefully I will get some pictures tonight that I can post for everyone! I can't wait to see them and especially hold them this weekend!!!

Be in prayer for their family as they make this big adjustment.

Our fun saturday!

We had a great day on Saturday! Matt, Lily, and I left for charlottesville (with my friend Vicky in tow) in the morning around Lily's naptime so she would sleep in the car on the way there. First, we went to the Downtown Mall. It's this big outdoor historic looking shopping center. I got some new sunglasses I had been wanting and we went to this baby store to check out a car seat (will discuss that later) which they did not have! Lily got to take her first carousel ride with mommy! She loved it!!

Then we met up with Tara (my best friend from college) and her husband to have lunch at Chili's (one of our favorite restaurants!). They live in Waynesboro but came to meet us there since it wasn't too far away from them. After that we headed over to the Barracks Road Shopping Center and checked out a few stores there including Old Navy which we frequent at least once a week - haha. We're obsessed with Old Navy and Target. Then we went to Baskin Robbins and got some ice cream and just hung out for a little while longer.

Our final stop was to swing by Calie and Daniel's for a little bit to visit with them. We had a good time just talking with them for a little while. Pregnancy looks great on Calie! Daniel is going to be a pro at being a dad too - he jumped right in and Lily had fun playing with him! Lily also got to see her first cat; she just stared at Gypsy (their cat) for the longest time.

After that we headed for home. Lily slept most of the way back too and ended up staying up a bit later. Since she had a longer nap on the way home than normal, she didn't actually fall asleep after we put her to bed for probably like 45 minutes or so. I kept hearing her making noises, etc. in there. She did great though for the day!

Two side notes: We FINALLY decided on a car seat purchase (or more like I finally decided). For those out there who know about car seats... we were deciding between the evenflo triumph, britax roundabout, and britax marathon. Britax is like the top of the line for car seats and has great safety ratings. The Evenflo is actually pretty comparable for less money but Matt and I didn't really like the shape of it, the difficulty of the recline feature, and how you adjust the straps. There was a big sale on until yesterday on several internet sites for the Britax models. So we decided since they were a cheaper price to spend the money and get the Britax Marathon in Onyx since we plan to get a lot of use out of it with other children in the future as well. We got it for $209 instead of the normal $279 - so a great deal! We opted for the larger Marathon instead of the Roundabout since it has a heigher height and weight limit. Wouldn't want to spend that amount of money and then have her grow out of it too soon. I'm happy with our purchase so far and can't wait for it to get here to see what it's like in person. I can hardly believe our little baby girl is graduating from her infant seat!

And the other note... my sister is having her babies (twins) TOMORROW!!!!!!!! I can hardly believe that the time is already here. It feels like just yesterday I was having Lily and Dawn was only a little pregnant. If you think about it, I know that she and I would both appreciate your prayers for her and the babies. Pray for a safe delivery, quick recovery for Dawn, and that this big adjustment to having 3 children now instead of 1 will go well for all of them.

And finally a cute picture of Lily sucking her thumb, watching baby einstein, sitting on her daddy's transformers sheet (what more could she ask for!):