3 Months..

What a bad mommy I would be if I didn't blog on her 3 month birthday! This birthday is harder to take than her 2 month one.... probably because it means we're 25% of the way through a year... Yikes. I know every post I say that it's flying by... but it really is... She's so amazingly fun, however. Every morning when I get her out of her crib, I almost have to pinch myself! I'm not sure how I got so lucky but I just am! :)

The Boring Part:

I want to write out Chloe's schedule at 3 months so I can always remember!

Let's see... at 3 months, Chloe's schedule is looking something like this:

Between 4 and 5 am, she wakes herself up but pretty easily goes back down with either just putting back her paci or rocking her for a few minutes (which I sure don't mind!)...Some nights are better than others, of course...

Around 6:40-7:00 Chloe gets up for the day... Big smile and all!

7:00 Bottle # 1 - 6 oz

Between 8 and 8:30 is her first nap... Usually about 1 hour

Between 9:30 and 10:00 is her second nap... also about an hour

11:15 Bottle # 2 - 6 oz

We usually get out and enjoy the day after her bottle... sometimes she'll nap on the go, sometimes she's just having too much fun!

This is where her napping goes a little haywire, we take it day to day, but she usually gets a good 2-3 hour nap at some point in the afternoon.

Like clockwork, her 3rd bottle is around 4:30 pm.

Then, it's play time! She helps me cook, she talks to her toys, she stares at the Christmas tree, she gives googly eyes at her daddy... she also catnaps in my arms for about 30 minutes...

Somewhere around 7:30 I give her a bath, massage, read her Goodnight Moon and give her ...

Bottle # 4... 8 oz.

She's in bed NO later than 8:30...

... you just swaddle her... give her her paci... and she's out like a light .... before you can turn off the light!

Phew. If you made it that far, Kudos to you! I just want to make sure I don't forget anything as she grows up... so since my mind stinks... at least I'll have it written!

She giggles a little now, Still loves her baths (but likes splashing just as much!), she got her first ride in her actual stroller yesterday and LOVED it...

...she loves cracking up and hasn't figured out the actual laugh and ends up sucking in air. Hilarious... She likes anything that moves, even typing as I'm finding out right now...

Ok. The Fun Part: On to the pictures:

(yes, you CAN hear the freeway in this video. Lucky you.)

I must blog, I must blog...

It's already December 4th (which means Chloe will be 3 months in just 6 REALLY short days). I feel like I've been a bad blogger. The holiday season seems like it's flying by...and this is one of those years where I want to relish in every single moment of the season. I'm looking forward to more Christmas carols and Christmas lights. I just love the feeling of the season, everyone is so happy and looking forward to their time off... I guess I'm just overly sentimental about this being Chloe's first of everything... it's so exciting... and while she doesn't much care about any of it, I sure do. I'm just kind of sad that we're not starting any traditions, per se. It's hard when you're always on the road to your families houses. Hopefully next year will be different.

Speaking of firsts, Chloe tried out her BebePod chair.

Seriously A.W.E.S.O.M.E.

She l-o-v-e-s it (for at least a few minutes at a time) and I love that she can sit up on her own!

It's amazing how much she learns in just 3 days.

I put her in this on the 1st of December for the first time. She wasn't really sure what the heck it was, she didn't have much interest and she couldn't figure out for the life of her what was up with the toy on the tray. (see picture):

Well, today (her 3rd attempt), she has figured out what the heck to do with the toy, and she...
Put it in her

MOUTH!

(see the death grip she has on this thing?!) Hilarious. So focused.

I Love it.

She's growing so quickly. She loves to grab toys you put in front of her... she spends like 30 minutes in her activity gym just reaching for her toys...

But she does have one bad habit (uhoh)... she LOVES anything related to the TV - especially football. Ugh. Seriously, the tv can be super far away and if it catches her eye, she's glued.

g-l-u-e-d.

Let's see... in other holiday news, I got our Christmas cards/way-overdue-baby-announcements printed yesterday... Yes. I am one of those horrible moms who didn't do an announcement ... why, I don't know... but I'm turning our Christmas card into one. Aren't you excited to get yours?!

I know there are family friends who read this blog that are dying for one that might not be on our Christmas card list (those who didnt get one last year, basically)... if that's the case, either email me or leave a comment with your email and I'll get in touch with you for your address (don't leave your address).

Ok. Ms. Claus is waking up... gotta run!

Cyber Monday

Did you know that today is Cyber Monday?!

That's right, today most big online retailers have some kind of deal to get you to buy online today! If you're like me, you are going to do lots of online shopping this year...
If that's the case, you should check out ebates (totally free and you seriously just need to enter your email and pick a password)!: http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?id=R839ZGBEV9YGHydg2JrvFQ%3D%3D

Whenever I buy something online from like Macys, Gap, Target, Banana Republic, etc., by going to the retailers website through ebates, I get cash back! Woohoo! I have my e-shopping carts packed to the brim! :)

Right now they're offering double cash back too! Stores like Sephora and Macys offer 8% cash back, Baby Gap, Old Navy, Gap & Banana offer 6%!

Seriuosly Fabulous. Get Shopping!!

Happy Black Friday!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I am still stuffed! I baked yummies all day Wednesday, including Cheesecake, Apple Pie, Yams, etc. However, the

favorite (as always) was once again the pumpkin roll! Yummy!

Here's a few pictures from yesterday. You'll have to forgive the red eye. As usual, Chloe was all s.m.i.l.e.s! YAY!! Not to mention, she had a pretty busy day and didn't go to bed until 10 - and didn't really cry until 6! How fabulous is that??

Now go find some fabulous Black Friday Steals! :)

I'm Thankful...

I had the greatest intentions to write a post everyday for the week leading up to Thanksgiving but as you can see, I'm already two days behind!

Here's my excuse:

I've been loving on this Full-Time~>

Yup. You heard me right. Eat your heart out!

I have so many things to be thankful for this year.

But today, I'm especially thankful for the hubby.

He is my best friend.

He can always make me laugh

He works his tushie off so that Chloe and I can have a great life!

And although this goes without saying, because of him, I am living some of the

happiest years of my life.

Yes, I know ... the best is yet to come.

He doesn't complain that I haven't gotten rid of the baby weight and instead tells me I'm

beautiful

*swoon*

When I thought I couldn't love him more, he surprises me. The unromantic man I married has a soft side that (luckily for me), most people don't even know he has. He can say the most unbelieveable things...and what's great is you know they're from his heart.

There is not a day that goes by that I'm not thankful for him.

So a few days ago, when I tell him I want a treadmill, I expect him to laugh, to tell me it's a waste, too heavy, etc.

Instead, what does he do?

...He tells me he'll buy one for me as my Christmas present! He woke up early this morning and picked it up for me.

So, Voila!

Let me present to you my new treadmill which I am also beyond thankful for:

It has speakers and I can connect my IPOD to it! Isn't that fabulous??

Now what are YOU thankful for today?!

I must have SUCKER written across my head.

Warning: This is post is one LONG, Gigantic VENT (but oddly enough I am in quite a good mood today)...Don't worry - there are pictures at the end! (Feel free to fast forward to them to avoid the vent.

Dear religious devouts who keep ringing the doorbell and waking up the baby:

I understand you want me to hear the word. I understand that because I am not a part of your specific religious community, you believe that I am not going to a great place when I die. I'm pretty sure your religion would rather you don't come to my door on an almost DAILY basis and wake up the baby. Seriously.

I am sorry if I offend anyone with what I write in this post. That is not my intention and I'm not against anyone's personal religious decision, I just would rather nobody try and push their religious opinions on me. I actually opened the door on accident one time, (in a sleep deprived haze as Chloe cried in her crib upstairs), and they wanted to talk to me for 10 minutes about how awful the internet was and how I'm corrupting my family for using it and how I need to read their literature so that my child doesn't grow up in the crummy society that people like myself have created... It's not like the ring once, either (which by then, Chloe is up and screaming), but then they ring 2+ times, knock on our security gate, then try opening it to knock on our actual door, then they knock on the side of the house (like we couldn't hear the first 4)...

then...

wait a few more minutes, rumble around with their papers, leave me some wonderful scripture to read...then slowly walk away and look back at our house like 15 times just to be SURE I wasn't just ridiculously slow. Nope, I am in fact ignoring you or tending to the now crying baby. They don't even take off their helmets anymore!

You know, now that I think about it, it seems like EVERYWHERE I go these days, someone wants to sucker me into something I don't need. Costco does their stupid sales pitch almost everytime I go now. They see the baby in the cart and immediately scan my card as I'm checking out, then some annoying sales person follows me to the exit telling me how much I can save by upgrading to the expensive membership now that I have some "extra expenses" coming up. Ugh. PEOPLE! My food is DEFROSTING as you're giving me your pitch. My baby needs a nap and you want to show me on your scanner gun how much I can get back next year. A whopping 28.00 (even though it's an extra 50.00 to upgrade). Don't they understand I can do math?! So, My message to Costco is: Why don't you give me the pitch when I walk in the door, before the baby is pissed, before I have frozen food in my cart... or better yet, why not just SEND me something in the mail with my renewal outlining what I spent last year and how much our refund would be next year if we upgraded! Do you really have to publicly declare that I spent wayyy too much at your place last year? Perhaps I am better off not even renewing. :) Haha. That would make them leave me alone...I would hope. Or maybe they should just have a little thing that comes up when they scan our card for the 10th time that says "This person wasn't interested the last 10 times, leave them alone!"

WOW. That was long winded. Yes. I am slightly peeved today with doorbell ringers and Costco membership people.

So, In good fun, I have been labeled a scker by religious devouts, Costco and now my own daughter. She goes down for her nap like a good little girl most times, however, after about 30 minutes she's up! You can tell she's still exhausted but she just wants you to have to keep coming in and putting in her paci over and over and over again. I dont mind but it's not productive so I end up putting her in our bed so it's easier for me to be on paci duty. She's too early to cry-it-out, so does anyone have any suggestions about this?! Is my kid the only one who needs her paci to sleep??

(Notice how she's happy as a CLAM!)

Ok. If you've made it this far, I'm going to give you some more pictures as your reward ...

(A Thanksgiving Outfit Preview)... Seriously. How could you NOT want to kiss those cheeks??

Happy Birthday, Baby Daddy!

Today is Christopher's birthday! Yay!! (I think Chloe and I are more excited than he is. Ok. I know I am.) To mark this special occasion, Chloe decided that she no longer likes being swaddled. To make that even more momentous, she has also decided that she no longer likes being unswaddled either. We have a dilemma... Our kid won't sleep now. After having a rough couple nights, I put her in her crib to see if somehow she could nap unswaddled this morning and the second I laid her down, she was out. OUT.

See Evidence:

Haha. Ironically enough, about 10 minutes later she was up. Ugh. Homegirl needs to learn to sleep...either swaddled or not!

Please excuse the crummy camera work in the next videos. Chloe won't smile or talk if she sees the camera. I think it's just too much for her. What a drama queen. Wonder where she gets that from??

Too Cute...

Chloe - the last two months have flown by.

You change by the minute and continue to amaze us.

We are positive you are a genius!

(What! Parents can dream!!)

You're coming into your personality and as I'm sure you already know, that means talking up a storm. We love it! It's so fun to wake up one morning and realize that you've learned something completely new!!

You're also a great sleeper. Not once (knock on wood) have I spent all night trying to get you to stop crying. I just put you down when you're getting tired and you put yourself to sleep... You're even trying to sleep longer at night. I can't thank you enough for that.

You absolutely LOVE to stand, and this morning when the doctor came in the room for your 2 month appointment, he had to check your chart because he thought he was in the wrong room. He said that's something a 4 month old is learning to do! Way to go!!

While I am on the subject of your appointment, you are at the 50th percentile for all your measurements. Also fantastic! You are 11 lbs exactly, 22.75 inches long and your head is 15'' around.

Sorry about the painful shots they gave you (3!), the doctor felt bad because you were giving him big smiles and googly eyes and then they poked you... Lucky me you only cried for a few seconds with each one. What a tough cookie. We're so proud of you!

What are you lookin' at, mom?!

Wedding Bells

Chloe is 2 months today! To celebrate, Miss Chloe attended her first wedding this past weekend... She was a HUGE hit and a great sport! Lots of our family turned out for the event. Chloe got to stay with her Aunt Tracee and Cousin Ashley afterwards. She's a great big cousin... only tried to give her a black eye once. Just kidding!

3 generations...

Seriously. Maybe this isnt Chloe's best angle - her head looks huge in comparison to her cousin who is an entire year older!! Yikes.

Sisters...Wait... my head looks huge too! Uhoh...

Hope everyone had a great weekend! I'll have some updates Wednesday probably after her 2 month appointment (and shots!)... we'll see where she weighs in... hopefully her head isn't as big as mine :)