Four Months Old!

Marlee has reached the four month old mark!

It is hard to believe that she has grown to be this little girl with so much personality already!

  

She is rolling over like a professional and actually prefers to be on her belly at this point. I check on her many times during the night because she sleeps so soundly. It almost drives me crazy but the extra sleep is amazing for Nick and I. And a well rested baby always wakes up smiling.

Marlee has also been able to grab her feet this month which means it is all feet, all the time. She loves to put them in her mouth - along with everything else she can get her hands on. If it is in her grasp, she is putting it in her mouth. We are in no short supply of drool around the house.

She has also found her voice which just happens to be a high pitched scream. Her babbles have quickly turned into a very loud announcement of her presence. It is quite funny and sometimes we just scream back and forth at each other.

At her appointment for round two of vaccinations, she gained 2 lbs and grew 2 inches. So she is at a heavy 14.5 lbs (75th percentile) and 25.5 inches long (90th percentile). Healthy and happy baby! She even showed off for the doctor and rolled over. Then the needles came out and all the happiness was gone. Three more shots for my little chunker. I was impressed though because I was able to get a smile before leaving for work. It made me feel a little better about leaving her when she did not feel well. And daddy is always good at loving on her when I am away.

We have also reached the 4 month mark on feeding which really makes me feel super. Especially with seeing how healthy and active she is. I know it is not all the breast milk but it definitely is the best thing for her and I am proud to have a breast-fed babe. I am just so smitten with my little nugget and how quick she is learning!

I am so excited to share her with everyone at Thanksgiving. 

Now to enjoy some German Chili and wait for The Walking Dead!

Bye Christmas

This will most likely not be my only Christmas post.

And for you cheerful Christmas people, just stop reading now.

I warned you.

I am not a fan of Christmas. I do not know when my feelings about Christmas changed because I remember Christmas morning as a child full of happiness, family, and presents. I remember presents galore under the tree and Dad dressing up as Santa and everyone coming together at Grandmas house.

Now not so much. I despise Christmas. I have felt this way since high school. It is my least favorite time of year. The cold weather. The shopping. The stress. The traveling here and there.

This thing!

Terrifying.

 

I like cutting down the Christmas tree.

Cutting down a living thing. That is what I like about Christmas.

 

I like cookies too. I do not think that is really a Christmas thing though. I like cookies at all times of the year.

 

Let's focus this anti-Christmas post on presents. We give presents to remind us of the presents given to Jesus right? It was his birthday so the three wise men brought presents to the newborn babe. I do not recall Jesus receiving a new i-phone but I guess Myrrh was probably the equivalent at the time.

 

So Santa brings the 'good' boys and girls presents which instantly reminds them of the true meaning behind Christmas. That is assuming 'Santa' brought the right gifts. What if Sally did not get the new Ugg boots she wanted? Is it because she was bad that year? Or because Santa had a mix up at the factory? Either way, Sally is not happy with this outcome and will mostly likely go on to be a serial killer.

 

Or we can go the other route. Sally received everything she could ever want for Christmas. She is so excited and keeps thanking dear old Santa Claus for being an amazingly rich old man. Meanwhile, Mom and Dad are exhausted from working overtime and deep down would really appreciate a 'thank you' thrown at them too. Why does Santa get all the credit? I do not like this Santa character.

 

So I proposed the idea of not introducing Santa to Marlee. I would like Marlee to appreciate how hard her parents work and to be thankful for everything she has. Nicholas is not all in for this idea.

 

I really only have two worries.

1. She is going to tell her friends, once she is old enough to attend school, that Santa is not real. I can only imagine the phone calls I would be receiving on that day. Children can be sensitive over Santa.

2. Her older brother. I really think Isaac knows Santa does not exist. I mean he is nine! When do kids stop believing?  When can we stop these Santa shenanigans? I do not want to continue with Santa but I certainly do not want to be the one to let the cat out of the bag.

 

So I am kinda stuck in this limbo of what to do.

And of course there is this..

Black Friday shopping.

 

Where the true meaning of Christmas really shines.

 

I have never gone shopping the day after Thanksgiving so really do not see the appeal in getting trampled on and possibly shanked over a Tickle Me Elmo but people are crazy about it! I have never been that excited over a sale in my life. Or anything in my life for that matter. People literally have died on Black Friday. People die!

 

Instead of just ranting over Christmas, I have developed a solution.

Everyone just go buy themselves something nice.

Children can do chores for whatever they want.

Just one thing. Don't be greedy.

And then we all eat cookies.

Problem solved.

Quarantined

I have been doing some serious slacking with the blog this past week but with the weather change brings sickness. Another thing I dislike about this winter season - as if I needed anymore reasons. Nicholas, Marlee, and I have all had a case of the sniffles and if you think my blogging has been slacking, you should see my house.

Disaster area.

With breastfeeding, I decided to take the suffering route and be medication free, take my vitamins, and drink lots of fluids. Great for Marlee. Not so great for me. Or my husband who has to deal with me. Or the whiny version of me. Besides feeding like crazy, I do not think Marlee even knows she is sick. She just has these big puffy eyes and a runny nose. Sad but cute at the same time. She has still been laughing and smiling every chance she gets. She does not understand that it is not socially acceptable to have snot dripping down her face so she could care less of the extra foreign liquid. She is already a serious drooler so mine as well add to the mess. I still kiss her every chance I get.

Kisses and laughter are the best medicine.

My happy little peanut.
 

Monday was Nick's birthday and next Monday is Isaac's so holiday season is in full swing! As Isaac gets older, the birthdays get less fun. Not that the opening of the gifts get any less exciting, but the gifts in general do. My big sports guy wants basketball shoes, and sports bags, and those silly socks that all the kids are wearing.

 

Nike Elite socks.

AKA

16 Bucks a Pair and Incredibly Ugly socks.

 

His face lit up when we gave him the new shoes though and that was pretty exciting. I should enjoy the $16 socks because a $300 phone will probably be right around the corner.

Which brings me to another reason I dislike the winter/holiday season.

 

I think I will save my Ebenezer Scrooge talk for another day.

Does Being a Parent Make You an Expert on All Things Parent?

I should not be as bother by this as I am but an incident happened the other day at the high school football game and it is still on my mind and figured maybe some of my other blog moms would have some input. 

As previous stated, my family and I decided to go to the Massillon/McKinley game on Saturday afternoon. Football is everything in the town I grew up in and the Massillon Tigers will always be a part of who I am. Good and bad. To put it in prospective, the game had an attendance of an estimated 19,000 people. The game is one of the biggest rivalries in the nation and it is the only high school game that has betting odds in Vegas. 

Kinda a big deal. 

So fast forward to game time. We were driving around trying to find a parking spot and on top of the thousands of fans, there are blocks and blocks and blocks of tailgaters. So people everywhere. Yelling, screaming, carrying on like forty year old high schoolers do. Nick decided he would get as close as possible and drop off Marlee and I. So I did not have to walk as far and he would go find a parking spot. So we stopped in traffic, I jumped out, grabbed up my Marlee, and baby backpacked her across my chest. As soon as Nick drove off, I realized I forgot her hoodie. No big deal. I called nick but he didn't answer so I figured I would just hang out and wait for him to come with her diaper bag which included her jacket with a hood. I walked maybe a block and felt it. The eyes. The eyes of everyone looking at me, wondering why I did not have a hat on my child.

Normally I could care less what people think, let alone that they are staring at me and honestly I thought I was just be paranoid but the eyes continued. 

And then it happened. One of those sets of eyes decided to approach me. She asked if I had a hat for 'that child.' That child. Strike one. I semi politely said yes and turned my back, feeling even more anxious and dying for Nick to hurry up. Keep in mind this whole incident happened over five minutes but felt like an eternity. 

Well nosey, drunk lady pressed on and said that the baby should have a hat on. She just felt that she should say something. I told her that I had a hat, my husband was bringing it. Well she continued. At this point I could not even tell you what she was jabbering about because another lady passing by shouted "Put a hat on that baby!" 

Screamed at Marlee and I! 

The audacity of these people was overwhelming. I felt cornered. I felt like a terrible mother. I forgot her hat in the car but my husband was getting it! I was not going to let her freeze. She was fine. It was not that cold. And who were these people!?! Damn hat police? 

So being the classy broad I am, I went Bad Girls style on their ass. Before the punching. And water throwing. And hair pulling. It was really just a lot of yelling. And a couple f words. Like I said classy. I guarantee none of the Bad Girls argue with a baby strapped to their chest. 

If you don't watch this show, you should. Great, reality escaping crap. 

Listen, I am not proud of this but it happened and at the time I was completely traumatized. Sometimes you just have to laugh and move on. 

So of course, I had to tell my best friend how I earned the mother of the year award at the high school football game and she said this kind of thing has happened to her before - people have commented on certain aspects of her day as if they are the experts on raising children. She obviously handled it better than I. My outburst was textbook what NOT to do. 

Of course, Nick shows up at the end of this debacle with the jacket in hand. Marlee was warm and happy for the rest of the game but I could not help but imagine myself going back and telling that lady off. 

The bottom line was that it was rude and made me act completely out of character. 'That child' was not being poorly taken care of. My Marlee was not in any discomfort - she was warmly snuggled up to my chest. I would NEVER approach someone and call them out on any aspect of parenting. Do I agree with the mothers that walk around beating their children at Walmart? (Seen it happen on more then one occasion.) No. I might not agree with it but it is none of my business. 

So I wondered - what about being a parent makes people feel they are experts? Would you go up to a stranger and make an opinion about the care of a child? Has this ever happened to you? 

Would love to hear your opinions! 

I won't yell f words at you. Promise. 

Halloween Roundup

Isaac was telling me for about twenty minutes that Marlee, who was happily watching TV in her swing, smelled like cupcakes. He swore that she smelled just like vanilla cupcakes. He wanted me to go smell her but I was right in the middle of making dinner. 

Nick had the pleasure of going to pick her up once she got a little fussy. Of course she had a bit of an explosion. Ok a huggge explosion. She had it up to her neck. And Isaac still swears that she smelled like cupcakes. 

Poo cupcakes apparently. 

So after giving Marlee a bath and washing up myself (yes it was that bad!), I finished dinner. 

(Pretty sure other food blogs do not have an opener like that. Boom.) 

Now back to dinner.

Tonight I made a Halloween dinner since we have been too busy to celebrate the holiday together. I made little mummy dogs by wrapping sausages with crescent rolls and did little jack-o-lantern pizza bagels! All Pinterest inspired of course. 

For dessert we had vanilla pudding made into candy corn and Frankenstein!

I just used food coloring for the yellow, orange, and green, cool whip for the white, and Oreos for the 'hair' on Frankenstein. Be sure to thaw the cool whip before using... should be self explanatory but of course my whip was hard as a rock. 

I also made pumpkin seeds but they were burnt and just gross so no pictures included.

I still ate half the batch.

Then on to the pumpkin carving! Isaac and Nicholas printed off a stencil and went to town.

While Marlee enjoying playing with the pumpkin guts.

Ok yea, she ate the pumpkin innards.

Then it was my turn to do Marlee's pumpkin and she 'said' that she wanted Minnie Mouse which is her favorite character from The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. 

I think they turned out great! Another year of my favorite holiday complete!

Tomorrow we are headed to the Massillon vs. Mckinley game and Isaac is going to see what high school football is really about! I am pretty sure there were 40 people at the last Sandy Valley game I went to. Sorry but it was nothing compared to the madness I grew up around. Marlee is going too so I am hoping the rain holds off. 

Happy Halloween!

Go Tigers!