Sweet, Sweet 7 Months

     Sara Beth is 7 months old today. Happy Birthday to my sweet little one! She is doing wonderfully and being as perfect as ever, of course. She's grown up a lot this month for sure! Here's a little about what she's been up to during her seventh month of life. More detailed blog posts are soon to come.

• She's VERY mobile now. Whether it is rolling around the room or army crawling as fast as she can go, she is sure to go after whatever is off limits. There can be tons of toys all around her, but she will grab the dog's rope or my shoes and put them in her mouth. Yuck! She loves to lift up the edge of the rug to see what's hiding underneath (mostly just dirt and dust). 
• Her first tooth started to come in last week. It's still working it's way out, but you can see it and feel it already.
• She loves sitting in her highchair! We love it too!
• She tasted her first solid foods this month too. I'm nursing, so her main nutrition still comes from breast milk. The other food is just for tasting purposes, which makes it less stressful for all of us. First came sweet potatoes, then zucchini, and now apples. She's still learning to swallow, but she does better every day. I really enjoyed making her food and I'm looking forward to the next time I get to do it! I'm thinking avocado, banana, and sweet peas will be next. Oh the possibilities!
• She is drinking water from a sippy cup now. It's a great way to occupy her at the dinner table, although she's started throwing everything on the floor lately. Let's just say, Adam and I get a good workout at dinnertime.
• Shopping with Sara Beth is much easier since she can sit in the front of the shopping cart. Brookshire's carts are the worst because the food is level with her. She tried her hardest to pick up an avocado a few weeks ago.
• Her first Thanksgiving was a good one. We spent the day at my mom and dad's house with lots of extended family that I hadn't seen in 15 years or so.
• The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we took her out to Frierson, LA to cut down this year's Christmas tree. We were trying to decide between two trees and she yelled "Bah!" (which we interpreted as "Hey, this is the tree for us!"), so that's the one we bought. She made a good decision. Our tree looks beautiful this year!
• Her language development is coming along nicely (I can't help it. I'm a teacher.). She can now say. "Bah", "blah", "da, da", "da, dee", "mah, mah", and "yah". She also loves to scream and growl for fun! It's fun at home, but out in public, it's a little embarrassing sometimes.
• Her baby dedication at church was this month. It was a sweet, sweet time! She was surrounded by her grandparents and on her best behavior.
• Our diaper service ended this week, so Sara Beth is trying out her new "BumGenius" diapers. It's going well so far. I just washed my first load of diapers today. No big deal! I will definitely miss my diaper fairy, Alan, though. Putting out dirty diapers and getting clean ones in return certainly was nice!

Here are some pictures of November with Sara Beth. Enjoy!

First bite of sweet potatoes

Getting ready for her dedication

Rolling everywhere!

Hunting for the perfect Christmas tree

Loving her new diapers



Swinging at the park

Ready for Christmas (on her 7 month birthday)

4 Months Old and Practically Perfect in Every Way

    
     Sara Beth is 4 months old! Can you believe it? I can't! Time has been speeding by and I'd like it to slow down. I really can't remember what life was like without her! She is such a good baby! She's hardly ever fussy and most of the time will give out smiles freely. She went to Dr. Ritch for her 4 month check-up and shots today. Again, she did okay with the shots. She's sleeping it off right now. Her official measurements are 13 pounds 8 ounces and 25 inches long. She's right in the middle (50th percentile) with those numbers. The only thing measuring big is her noggin. It's in the 80th percentile at 16.5 inches. Dr. Ritch said that means she's smart. Which would explain why her developmental milestones are coming quicker than he would expect. He was particularly impressed that she can transfer objects from left hand to right hand. What can I say? We've got a smart girl on our hands! :)
     This month, Sara Beth also spent her first nights away from home. My parents, Nana and Papaw, kept her for our anniversary. Adam's parents, Nonni and Opa, kept her while we went to Dallas for a concert. She did great both times. It's such a blessing to have wonderful family so close by!
     Sara Beth had her first long road trip this month as well. We drove to Tyler for an adventure race training that Adam was participating in. While it was only 2 hours away, it was the farthest our little girl had ever been away from home. We're looking forward to a few more road trips coming up soon. Hopefully she'll do as well on those as she did this time.

At 4 months old, Sara Beth is. . .
- Rolling over in both directions (front to back and back to front)
- Sleeping through the night consistently
- Sleeping in her crib instead of the bassinet
- Able to grab what she wants instead of grabbing whatever she happens to land on
- Smiling when she hears Mommy or Daddy singing "Don't Worry, Be Happy"
- Loving her exersaucer a lot
- "Talking" up a storm
- Smiling at herself in the mirror
- Standing up (supported of course) all the time
- Trying to sit herself up anytime she is propped up on her back

Strong legs

Smiling at Mommy

Her first "tattoo"

Mid roll

     Just a side note: Cloth diapering is still going well! She's about to outgrow the infant size and move up to the standard size. I love my cloth wipes too! I also love never having to go to the store for diapers or wipes. Tuesdays are "diaper fairy" day. They just magically appear on my front porch. It's great!

Going Green

The slogan is everywhere these days. It's on T-shirts, bumper stickers, and even the topic of decorating shows on HGTV. "Going green" is very trendy right now. I guess whether it's a trend or not, it's still good for the environment. We're doing our part by using cloth diapers and cloth wipes and by taking full advantage of Shreveport's curb-side recycling program. We need to do more, I know, but any little bit helps.
Recycling-- It bugs me beyond measure when I drive past a blue recycling can filled with trash. How hard is it to throw paper, plastic, glass, and metal into the blue bin instead of the black one? You don't even have to separate it! We overflow our little recycle bin in the kitchen twice as often as we take out the trash. Soon we're going to start composting too. That should cut down even more on the trash that we produce.
Cloth diapers-- Tuesday, when our weekly supply of clean cloth diapers were delivered, it came with a note from CottonTails saying that we had already saved 547 diapers from being thrown in the local landfill. Isn't that amazing? We've been using cloth diapers for less than 2 months so far and have already used that many diapers. Crazy! We are really enjoying the cloth diapers, by the way. Sara Beth hasn't had any sign of diaper rash. I guess cotton is good for her little bottom. It's super easy once you get the hang of it-- not much harder than disposables. I definitely recommend using cloth diapers, with or without the diaper service, to anyone with a baby.
Cloth wipes-- At first, I was using disposable wipes. I mean, we had a closet full of them from our baby showers. Why not use them up? But, after I saw how quickly those disappeared, I decided to give cloth wipes a try. I looked into purchasing some online, but they were too expensive for frugal me. Then, while on the internet, I saw a post about how you could cut up flannel receiving blankets and make wipes out of them. Great idea! I had an overflow of blankets that I needed to do something with anyway. It was really easy. I just cut the blankets into 7 inch by 7 inch squares and sewed 2 squares together. Ta Da-- close to 100 2-ply reusable cloth baby wipes for free! It doesn't even add much to my laundry stack either. Even if I washed all of my wipes at the same time (which I never do), it would be like washing 8 baby blankets. No problem! 

Cloth Diapers 101

It's been 1 week now since we started our adventure into cloth diapering. Tomorrow will be our first pick up from the diaper service. Boy, is it about time! Our diaper pail is full to the top with barely enough room for today's diapers. It's been ok so far. I'm not over the moon about them yet, but they really aren't much more trouble than disposables. We are still perfecting our folding techniques, trying our hardest to find a way to contain the poo. Pee diapers are no problem! But the poo. . . it always gets on the diaper cover (which means more laundry for me). Oh well, it's a learning experience, I guess!

On another note. . . we've been loving all the sweet friends who have visited and brought over food and gifts! We feel very loved! Thanks everybody!

Cloth Diaper Service

Today, I met with Alan from Cotton Tails Cloth Diaper Service. He brought my start-up kit with everything I'll need to diaper our sweet baby when he/she finally arrives. I was already planning on using cloth diapers before I learned about the service. In fact, I have several Bum Genius All-in-one diapers in the closet. I was ready to do it all myself, when, at my last baby shower, Adam's parents gave us a great gift--- 6 months of paid cloth diaper service with Cotton Tails. Thanks Mrs. Jonell and Mr. David! It's a brand-new business that just started last month. Alan, the owner, lives a mile from us and he and his wife are expected their first baby as well. It's great that we have this type of service available in Shreveport now! I hope it takes off! If you are interested, check them out at http://www.louisianacottontails.com/. It costs about the same as using disposable diapers, but it's way better for the environment.