7 Month Milestones

The latest new tricks for our little one include:

Waving & Clapping - YEA!

Sounds include: guh, muh, the, duh, buh, in any combination

She gets on her hands and knees and does some heavy duty rocking, and will pick up one hand to get something, but no crawling yet :-)

Since she started daycare she's definitely more vocal in expressing her discontent with something (whereas before she was so laid back, I think she must have just learned that expressing discontent was possible!). Then again, she's been sick twice and we're only in Week 3 of daycare, and I think she's teething, so that could be part of it, too? She sleeps hardly at all at daycare as well, so that, I feel, has something to do with it, too. She loves school, though, and she always seems so happy when we go to pick her up, so thankful for that. :-)

All in all, she's so precious, and we are loving every minute of being new parents!

Bargain Shopper!

Something I learned pretty quickly on about having a child is that little kid's clothes, and really anything that has the word "Baby" slapped on it, is expensive, or at least, more expensive than you would think! A cute little outfit (a normal one, not a boutique one, even) costs anywhere from $15-$25, which is amazing considering how small it is, haha!

So once again this year, we went to the local Moms of Multiples garage sale - this time in search of clothes for the next chapter...12 to 18 months!

I invited Courtney along with me, so it was very early (probably the only way you can get me to wake up at 6 a.m. on a Saturday morning), and it was pretty cold, but we had a lot of fun shopping and saving some money.

She was in search of a Baby Bjorn (which she found an almost new one for $15), and other essentials, so she definitely cleaned up as well.

Here's a list of what I got for our little one:

• 2 pairs of slippers


• Overalls


• Bathing suit and cover up


• Swim float


• 2 dresses


• 3 skirts


• 8 shirts


• 3 sweaters


• 3 sweatsuits


• 6 onesies


• 4 jeans


• 5 pants


• Xylophone toy


• Foam block set


• Sesame Street pop-up


• Elmo DVD


• A floating ball toy (where the ball hovers in the air of a fan)


• Little People Zoo Set (this alone is $68 on Amazon)


• Princess play tube for when she starts crawling (thanks to friend, Stephanie!)


• A million links


• Easter Ears headband


• Rattle


• Whole bag of safety latches


• 24 diapers

I figured that had we bought it all brand new (as the brands of the clothes consist of Baby Gap, Osh Kosh, Ralph Lauren, Carter's, etc.), it would have cost somewhere over $700 at a conservative guess. And I paid $93... oh yeah! :-) I love that... the clothes all look brand new, so everything is in the wash, and Bella is playing with her new toys and loving them.

7 Months!

My baby is now 7 months old - I can't believe it! Where the heck has time gone?! Developments as of this week - she can wave AND clap! It's amazing how seeing her learn something like that just tickles us to absolute pieces... it's the BEST!

I'm still working on gaining balance at work, still being the wife and mother I want to be, working out, cooking decent meals (and I use decent loosely at this point), and trying to be everything I want to be. Certain things have definitely slipped, but I just try to keep Hubby's saying in my mind: "Focus on the significant few, not the trivial many." It's my mantra these days :-). I'm hoping to carve out some more time for this blog as I really love writing it and having the record, so this is my 5 minute attempt to ease back in...

Happy Mardi Gras!