Baby Jack - 9 Month Update

ORIGINAL POST DATE: August 04, 2016

We did it! We survived 4 plane rides and 2 weeks away from home! The flights weren't nearly as bad as I built them up to be in my mind. We just kept giving him toys and snacks and he took an hour and a half nap in the Ergo baby carrier. I'm happy to say he was the best baby on a flight full kids, 7 kids in 3 rows to be exact.

We had a great time visiting families from both sides and Jackson even got to meet 3 Great Grandmothers. His sleeping was still a mess, but everyone wanted Jackson time which mean I got NAP TIME! My mom flew back with me because Josh left the trip early to go back to work and I'm happy to say he did just as well on the way home. Also, it's the absolute best having my mom in town. She's a huge help. I've taken more naps, gone on some dates with Josh, and she watches Jack while I get work done. (#WAHM)

I've been feeding Jack lots of different foods and he really doesn't turn anything down. I was happy he got to try some local foods on the vacation. In Delaware he had some cheese steak and water ice and while in Maine he had some haddock and Rapid Ray's Burger. We've officially cleared two high allergy foods: strawberries and peanuts. Jack loves food, so much so that he steals from other kids. He stole some pb & j from a girl in our Mommy and Me class. It's held at the hospital so I thought that'd be the best place to try it anyway. Luckily his friend is chill and shared the pb & j and we're extra happy that he's not allergic to peanuts. They really instill a fear in new parents over peanuts.

The other night he took his first few steps. They are wobbly but he's trying. He was walking back and forth between me and Josh and loving it. He has balance issues, but I knew he'd walk early. HE NEVER STOPS MOVING.

Still no teeth.  The Doctor said he has 6 coming in. Yeesh. Poor guy. He likes frozen pickles and frozen waffles when his gummies are bothering him.

Lastly.... his sleep. We went to his 9 month check up and the Doctor really reiterated a healthy baby of his size should be sleeping the night and not nursing multiple times. So once again we did our version of sleep training so he could re-learn how to self soothe himself back to sleep. Basically when he wakes up and cries we give him time to fall back asleep on his own and if we need to go sooth him we give him the paci, pat him and shush him. Just no picking him up and no nursing. You do that in 5 minute increments until he falls back asleep. He responds really well to this and doesn't cry too too much which means within 3-4 days he was only waking up about once and on the 5th night he slept the night. He still wakes up about once but I'd say that is a HUGE improvement. Getting more sleep is a real game changer.

Baby Jack - 8 Months Old

ORIGINAL POST DATE: August 04, 2016

Jackson is officially 8 months old. He is looking like a little boy now and less like a baby. This guy crawls, climbs, rolls, stands, and pulls himself up onto everything and anything within reach. He has an endless number of brightly colored obnoxious toys and all he wants to play with is wires, remote controls, and garbage cans. I'm still regretting in my 6 month post where I said he was sleeping the night, because that shit isn't even close to being true.

We even took him to the doctor to make sure he's ok because he's waking up 4-6 times a night. Yay! The doctor thought he might be hungry, which makes sense since the bad sleeping started once he was crawling and burning more calories. The doctor also said he hadn't gained weight since his last appointment. We've introduced protein and started feeding him 3 times a day and a little more at each meal. We've tried supplementing with some formula at one feeding a day which he is just not having it. He hates the bottle and apparently formula too. We've also tried Motrin and Tylenol in case it's teething. That's what I think it is. I can see his two top teeth coming in. Poor guy. So we are just being patient and I'm sticking with breastfeeding him through the night while Josh continues snoring away.

His two favorite sounds to make are still ayayaya and babababa. Today he said mamama. Pretty exciting stuff even though it's not associated with me yet. I'm still basking in the fact that mama came before dada. I've heard that most of the time dada comes first. So there, in your snoring face JOSH!

We are taking our first flight on Sunday and I'm nervous. Jackson is a good baby and doesn't cry too much but he is so mobile, I think sitting still is going to be his biggest issue. I'm prepping like a crazy person and trying to think of everything we could possibly need. I've researched TSA regulations for babies and American Airline policies on lap children, strollers and car seats. Travelling with a baby is so much more complicated than flying by myself. Good thing planning and organizing are my strong suits and Josh is very calm. I think this is a winning combination. Also, Jackson is so cute so it will be hard for the other passengers to be pissed at us. Wish us luck!

Beard Advice & Products From an Expert

ORIGINAL POST JUNE 16, 2016

My husband is a beard expert. When he gets into something (i.e camping, power tools, beard maintenance) he really goes all in. He reads articles, online reviews, and scours the internet for any available information. My friend's husband needed some beard advice and obviously went to my bearded beau for help. I've held onto this email for nearly 2 years. I don't know why, I just thought it was too funny to get rid of. But now that I'm blogging more, what better way to "hold" onto it than to turn it into a post. So behold, a hilarious email from my manly lumbersexual husband with expert beard advice and products:

Hey,

Thank god you contacted me. With winter around the corner, there's no time to lose. We must get preparations in order before your home life is ruined by an improperly cared for beard.

First, if you don't already have one, it's imperative you get yourself a boar hair brush. The coarse bristles will help to naturally soften your beard by releasing your face's natural oils along with influencing the hair growth direction as you brush it. I recommend a quick brushing in the morning before work, followed by a thorough ritual when you get home in the evening. DO NOT purchase the "Diane" brand, It will feel like steel wire cutting into your flesh. I recommend the Brush Strokes Military Style Bristle Brush. 

 Next, you're also going to need a nice balm to soften the hair. Comb it in and wear it throughout the day. After your morning brush, comb this balm into your beard just before you leave. It's best to work it in with your fingers, then finish with a nice fine tooth comb. A little goes a long way. DON'T over apply or it will feel like grease. For this, I trust the Amish...they know beards, Heavy Duty Beard Balm.

Don't get a wax, that's purely for styling and let's be honest, you're just not ready for that yet.

The comb isn't as important, you can choose your own, but make sure it's a very fine tooth one for distributing the balm throughout your beard. Kent is a good brand.

Cleaning...not only should you worry about softening and grooming, but improper cleaning can end your beard life if you're using inferior products. Think the crap you put on your head will shampoo your beard just the same? Are you INSANE?!! You need something with additional softening properties for your beard. Facial hair is extremely course so everything you apply to it is specifically made to combat that issue. For shampoo, I listen to the folks at Beardsley and their Ultra Beard Shampoo.

Not only is it an extremely powerful shampoo that aids in softening the hair, it tastes like delicious cantaloupe if any gets in your mouth. The conditioner is not as tasty.

Good luck and God speed.

-Josh-

In Summation: Mama like.

Baby Jack - 7 Months Old

ORIGINAL POST DATE: May 27, 2016

Ok. This isn't even funny anymore. How do I have a 7 month old? Are you tired of me starting every Jack update like this? I don't know how else to start it and time is FLYING, so kindly get over it. A big milestone happened on the exact day he turned 7 months, homeboy started crawling. He's been so close for a few weeks and it just clicked. He woke up from his nap and just started crawling. Time to baby proof!

In my 6 month post I made a huge deal about sleep training and how it worked. I completely jinxed myself. Jack learned how to sit up on his own, so as soon as he wakes up in the middle of the night he sits up and then can't figure out how to lay back down. Apparently this is pretty normal and so is having to re-sleep train. I have noticed that if I feed him when he wakes up at 3:00 am then in the morning he wakes up around 6:30 am for the day, which is way better than 5:30. We are still working on it, in a perfect world his sleep patterns would stay the same but he is changing so much physically and mentally so we are just rolling with it. Here are some more updates:

-I thought he loved blowing raspberries before, now he REALLY loves it, even when eating.

-He finally started eating my homemade baby food!

-Loves climbing, especially up mom and dad. He thinks pulling hair or beards is hilarious.

-His favorite noise to make is aya aya aya.

-When he gets excited he twists both hands like he's opening a door.

-Here is one of my Mother's day presents. Can you even stand it?

Chocolate Peanut Butter Mug Cake Competition

ORIGINAL POST DATE: May 10, 2016

I’ve been wanting to try microwavable mug cakes so when a chocolate/peanut butter craving hit, I went to the mecca of recipes, pinterest, to find one. There were so many recipes and they all claimed to be THE BEST. Every site was polluted with 50 mug cake recipes and even more advertisements. I get it girl, get your hustle on, but I would just like one solid delicious mug cake recipe, not 50 that you’ve never actually tried buried underneath ads. So I went in search of the best chocolate peanut butter mug cake. IF I HAVE TO TRY EVERY ONE OUT THERE, I WILL DO IT FOR YOU!

I found 4 recipes that varied and made each one. I wish I could say it took me so long to make all the recipes, but really it took a little over a week. That’s a mug cake about every other day. Yeesh. Anyway below are my results and which one I deemed THE BEST CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER MUG CAKE EVERRRRR.

***Let’s be honest though, all of the below cakes can be greatly improved with a scoop of ice cream. All scores were given sans ice cream to be fair and balanced.

Babble - Two Minute Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

This cake was too dry and way too dense. It wasn't sweet enough and tasted like it was made in a microwave. I know it sounds nitpicky but it calls for an egg, which is pain. Also, the recipe claims to take 2 minutes. LIES. 3/10

Yammie's Noshery - Chocolate Peanut Butter Mug Cake

 This cake was a little dry but had good texture and ok flavor. This is one of those sites I mentioned that is so bogged down by ads that it takes a few minuets to load the page and find the damn recipe. It also has a peanut butter mousse suggested to make for the top of the mug cake, but that takes the cake from quick and easy to more of a chore. But damn, look at that photo. 6/10

The Comfort of Cooking - 1 Minute Peanut Butter Mug Cake

This cake had a good texture and good flavor. We are getting closer people, I can taste it. What I did really love about this one was the dollop of peanut butter right in the middle. Ughhhh warm peanut butter and chocolate. This one claims to take one minute. Pshhh. It takes a minute to microwave but not to assemble. 7/10

The Novice Chef - Chocolate Peanut Butter Mug Cake

Ding ding ding!!! We have a winner! This is the best one yet. Great flavor and it’s actually a cake-y texture. You can make this one right in the mug too which means less clean-up! 9/10

The final verdict: yes, the Novice Chef recipe was the best but it needed a few tweaks. So below is my final recipe for THE BEST CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER MUG CAKE EVERRRRR..

The Perfect PB & Chocolate Mug Cake

Ingredients:

3 tbsp. flour

2 tbsp. & 1 tsp sugar

1.5 tbsp. cocoa powder

1/4 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

3 tbsp. milk

1 1/2 tbsp. vegetable oil

2 tbsp. peanut butter

Add all dry ingredients to a large mug. Mix and then add milk, veggie oil, and 1 tbsp of peanut butter. Once mixed, add the last tbsp of peanut butter to the middle and lightly press down so it becomes a little peanut butter surprise inside the cake. Microwave for 1 minute. Boom!

In Summation: Remember to eat ONLY one mug cake. DON'T LOOK AT ME!

Baby Jack - 6 Months Old

ORIGINAL POST DATE: April 28, 2016

Oh man, if Sleep Training were a person I would so take them out to a nice dinner, let them order two desserts, and invite them back to my place. I'm 5 days into sleep training and it's like a little miracle. This probably isn't usual but it clicked with Jack after only one night. ONE NIGHT! Why didn't I do this sooner? I guess Jack was ready for it and lord knows I was ready for more consistent sleep. I did some googling on sleep training and picked and chose what I thought was going to work for us and what I could handle emotionally. With a plan in place I steeled my nerves and decided to start!

What lead us to this decision? Honestly, I didn't really mind waking up and feeding Jack one or two times a night, but I also wouldn't turn down a solid chunk of sleep. For me, it more came from the fact that Jack's naps were getting out of hand, only lasting about 30 minutes and I would be rocking him to sleep for up to an hour. It hit me that this is not feasible if I were to leave him with someone else, which luckily I haven't had to yet. I read somewhere that a baby that sleeps well at night will sleep better during their naps and vice versa, so it was time to start sleep training and get Jack on a schedule.  Here are the two resources I used: Baby Sleep Training - the Dr. Ferber Method and Typical Schedule for a 6-8 Month Old.

Here are the basics that I followed:

-A solid bedtime routine. We've been playing the same little sound machine music at bedtime since Jack was born and now we've started using the white noise during his daytime naps. At night we change his diaper, put on pjs, put on his sleep sack, I nurse him, burp him, kiss his squishy cheekies and put to him down.

-Put him down awake at night. Sometimes at night I have to jostle him a little so he is awake when I put him in the crib.  Luckily Jack is good at this at bedtime, not so much at nap time.

-Let him try and put himself to sleep at bed time and back to sleep in the middle of the night.  Wait 5 minutes and go in to reassure him and make shushing noises, but don't pick him up.  Next wait 6 minutes and so on. At 6 months they don't need to eat throughout the night, so no night time nursing.

-No pacifiers, blankets, or anything in the crib. We do use sleep sacks though.

The first night he woke up about 5-6 times. I had to go in a few times to shush him and tell him it was ok, and he eventually fell back asleep. The first night was rough but we survived and stuck to the plan. By night 2 he woke up once and put himself back to sleep in about 1-2 minutes. By night 3 he didn't make a peep. Knock on wood, we are on day 6 and he's been sleeping the night! This is the biggest change over the last month but here are some more updates:

-Sitting up on his own. His balance isn't great when he reaches for a toy but he can sit up by himself for extended periods of time.

-Has tried carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, peas, green beans, and rice cereal. Loves them ALL!

-Wants to move. This kid wants to crawl so bad. He is always wiggling all over the place.

-Laughing and making more noises. No distinct sounds but he loves hearing his own voice.

-The itsy bitsy spider is his jam.

-Weighs 19.5 lbs (85th percentile for age, 55th percentile for his height) and is 28.25 inches long (98th percentile for height). His head is back on the charts at 18.13" circumference (99th percentile).

I want time to slow down. I can't believe it's been 6 months. On the other hand I love seeing all the changes in him and I can't wait to hear him say mama and reach out for me. But I bet that little shit will say Dada first.

Painting an Old Window Using a Stencil

ORIGINAL POST DATE: April 26, 2016

I saw a Craigslist post for free old windows left by the side of dumpster and you've never seen me move faster, with an infant no less! Jack was like "seriously woman, what the frick is going on?" We hopped into my tiny Honda Fit and hauled ass to this dumpster in Ventura. The good thing was there were still a few left when we got there, the bad thing was I could only fit one into my car. I looked around Pintrest for some fun projects but they were all too busy looking and I couldn't just find just a normal how to paint a window article. So I had to do some experimenting...

I headed to Michaels and looked for a stencil. Originally I thought I wanted to do some tree branches with some cute little birdies ("Put a Bird on it!") but I found this dandelion stencil that I loved so I scrapped the cute little birdies. I didn't really want to  buy a stencil brush because they were pricey and I was trying to keep this project cheap. So I bought some $0.49 sponge brushes and $0.89 white acrylic paint and headed home to experiment. My mom went through a stenciling phase in the 80's (as well as a perming stage, but I mean who didn't) so I tried to recall her technique. I remember her doing a lot of dabbing while pressing down the stencil, so that's what I did. I used painters tape to secure the stencil and started dabbing away and it was a f@&king nightmare. The paint ran everywhere and it looked like a seagull pooped all over my cute shabby chic window. Thankfully you can wash away acrylic paint.

Second Try. This time I decided to use spray paint, I also did a better job of taping down the stencil, which I cut a bit so it wasn't bulging on the window separator thingys. I used the same spray paint I used for my fireplace cover, Rust-Oleum spray paint. I taped down newspaper around the stencil in case any of the spray paint wandered. I did one fine coat, careful to use quick sweeping motions. I let that dry for a few minutes and did one more light coat. After letting the second coat dry it was the moment of truth. I removed the stencil and it freakin worked. Thank goodness, I probably could have scraped the spray paint off but that would have been such a pain. Now that I had a method, I cut up the little dandelion petals so I could make the design look like they were blowing in the wind. I wish I would've taken more pictures of the process. By the time I thought of it, there was only the aftermath to photograph. The spray paint dried very quickly and I was able to just use my nail to scrap away rouge paint.

I'm really happy with the result. A lot of the pinterest projects looked too busy with hooks and ribbons and trinkets. I like the simplicity of just the paint on the window. Bonus: I did not have to buy a special stenciling brush or stencil tacky spray. This project ended up costing me only about $15.