Mobile

Wanna see what I made? It's a mobile for Allie's crib. I got the idea here from Five Real Moms. Perhaps the season is not quite right anymore, but I love it too much to take it down, and Allie really likes it too, because the leaves flutter when the heat turns on. I just found a branch outside and hung silk leaves with string. I was originally going to do real autumn leaves, but I was afraid they would crumble into her crib and she'd somehow choke on them. You know how our mom imaginations work.

Getting rid of a neck

I've had success breastfeeding all of my babies, but only until they were about 6 months old. Then the milk dries up and I have to switch to formula. Which is fine with me, I'm not a huge fan of breastfeeding anyway--obviously it's the best thing for babies, but it gets really annoying. So I was getting pretty nervous when Allie got close to 6 months old because she would not take a bottle. In October we left her with my mom while we went to dinner and a movie and Allie totally refused to have anything to do with that bottle. In fact, she got really mad every time my mom tried to give it to her. But for a the past few weeks I've been really worried, especially since it was obvious she was not satisfied after each feeding. Then I was pretty sure she was not gaining as much weight as she should be. I kept trying to give her a bottle, she kept refusing. So I took her to the doctor, and unfortunately all my fears were confirmed. Here's what her growth chart looks like.
In the past 2 months her weigh gain has dropped dramatically.

He said she looks healthy, though, she doesn't look sick, but when he looks at her he notices she has a neck. Most babies don't have necks, just rolls of fat and double chins. He wrote "Failure to Thrive" on her file. Isn't it aweful?? He said, "I know it sounds terrible, all it means is she doesn't weigh as much as we want her to."

Plan A was to get her to east solids. So I went home and desperately tried to spoon feed her bananas, rice cereal, green beans, anything. She mostly just spits it out, though. And I was determined that I wasn't going to spoon feed her, I want to do Baby-led Weaning like my sister did with her baby. But that's a different blog post. I was so worried about her. So we decided to tackle the bottle issue. It only took one hour of crying, then she downed it! She was such a sad baby! Even after she drank it, for the rest of the day she was still a little heartbroken. But now she is eating like a champion. I think she's trying to make up for lost time, because she just keeps eating and eating. And her diapers! They are so soggy--she soaks through them in no time, she poops all day long, and she has a raging diaper rash. And I am so happy my baby is no longer wasting away.

We will get rid of that neck yet!

Christmas

I look so awesome. Allie got finger puppets. They're from Ikea, and the tags are bigger that the puppets, which Joey thinks is funny.

The ecstasy of opening presents!

The boys got the Legos they wanted, and loads of candy. Clark Griswald got his bonus check, Ralphie got his Red Ryder BB gun, the Grinch stole Christmas, then gave it back. And now it's all over for another year.

Some of my Christmas creations

This year for Christmas I got creative. It was exhausting, but fun. Next year I'll just start earlier, then I won't be up till 2 am every day for a week before Christmas. I got all the ideas from Pinterest, except for the bunkbed tent, but I just copied the pictures, so unfortunately I can't give credit to the creators. I was so excited to discover Pinterest just when I needed it!

Jason made this for Tyler. Very simple and easy, just magnets with paper glued to the tops, put in a metal gift card tin. The original used an Altoids tin. Joey made Jason this Angry Birds game. The blocks are cardboard taped together. They would have been way better looking covered in colored paper, but I was too tired. The pigs and birds are pompoms with paper faces, and the sling shot is popsicle sticks and a rubber band.

This is a Guess Who? game. We've had the original game for a long time, but the kids lost all the cards. On Pinterest I saw the idea done with presidents of the United States. Then I thought of using family members. You have to know the people to play, though. Like "Does he live in Idaho?" or "Does she have kids?" It's fun.

I loved this idea for headbands! Unfortunately I'm running out of space already.

This is the piece de resistance. The idea for the bottom I got from Sharon at This Thrifty House only I used a flat twin sheet from Walmart ($5). The idea for the top was from Ikea. They sell these, but it will only fit one kind of bed. So I made my own. Luckily my friend Darla had a crib tent that her kids destroyed (unlucky for her) so I used the poles and velcro from it. The boys love it!

Merry Christmas!

After a marathon of making presents for my kids, Christmas is finally here. I'll have to post my creations and the events of the day later, because everyone is still asleep. Santa has been here; I can see full stockings and Lego sets in the livingroom (not to mention Allie's extremely pitiful stocking. Jared's mom is making us new stockings, so you can understand why I was not motivated to make Allie one).

For quite a few years now I have made my mom a calendar with pictures of the kids. It's a fun gift that she enjoys. Because of budget cuts and lack of time due to having a new baby (can I still call her new after 6 months? Well it still feels new. And time-consuming) the calendar didn't happen. But I had a different idea. Hopefully a better idea. Because she loves my blog, and I feel bad that I don't post stuff more often for her.

So Mom, for Christmas this year I am giving you 100 Days of Blogging. From now until sometime in April you'll get something on my blog EVERY DAY.

For today I will leave you with a picture of your youngest grandchild finally wearing the dress that was supposed to be her blessing gown.I thought it looked cute with this red sweater Auntie Betty sent. And this smaller headband.

Merry Christmas!! I love you!

Tutu

For my mom, who loves naked babies in tutus. And this naked baby loves her tutu.

Six Months

Allie is 6 months old today! I can hardly believe it. Especially since she's still only 10 lbs. 3 oz. Someone I know just had a baby that was 10 lbs 4 oz. She is finally starting to grow out of a lot of her newborn clothes.
She is a very smiley baby. All you have to do is smile at her, and you get this adorable grin in return.She is getting happier, too. She was kind of cranky newborn. She has always been unpredictable; she doesn't sleep at consistent times, which annoys me. It used to drive me insane, now it's just irritating. She sometimes sleeps 12 hours straight at night, other times she wakes up a couple times. You just never know. Surprises around every corner!She can grab things and play with toys now, though she needs a blanket behind her in the exersaucer because it's way too big for her. She tolerates tummy time pretty well. She is not sitting or rolling over, and I don't see that happening any time soon.She likes the bumbo for about 5 minutes, then she tries to squirm out and gets herself into interesting positions. Her favorite thing of all is to stand. Her legs are really strong. We are working at getting her to relax and bend, because she likes to stay straight and stiff all the time. Joey was the same way, and he never crawled. And we don't want her to skip crawling like he did.

She's by far the most popular one in the house. We just adore her. And who can blame us?