yum yum

We have ventured into the land of rice cereal! I think it's safe to say that Quinn is a fan. He did surprisingly well with the spoon on his first time. Of course by the end of the feeding he was wearing as much as he was eating but he was still a happy boy.

he would lean into the spoon and fuss when daddy didn't get it in his mouth fast enough

I took an adorable video of him eating but can't for the life of me get it to load on the blog. Big bummer! I'll have to try making another.

happy birthday to me

This past Wednesday was my 26th birthday. I think I've finally hit the point in my life where it has become just another birthday. Don't get me wrong. I still love the attention and presents and happy wishes, but I'm completely content to go out to dinner with close friends instead of having a full blown birthday bash.

A couple weeks earlier the hubs and I went to Greenville to buy me a new MacBook. My old Mac laptop is still perfectly fine except for the fact that it was made before the intel chip therefore none of the new technology works with it. When I plug in my iPhone or iPod it'll charge but that's it. Boooooo to that. At least all of the hubs' overtime money went to a good cause.

We agreed that the laptop was my birthday present since it was a high dollar flashy purchase. Color me surprised and caught off guard when Wednesday morning the hubs handed me a velvet jewelry box. Inside was a gorgeous pearl necklace. I'm completely in love with it and him. He does spoil me.

Another fun surprise was when a delivery of beautiful tulips (my favorite) arrived at work care of my mom. The note reads "I love you more than you love me" except I'm pretty sure that's impossible because I love her to the moon and back.

The night wrapped up with a laid back dinner out to Zorba's with the Cegelises and Antleys. Lucky for us we were stashed in an empty part of the restaurant allowing us to be as loud as we wanted (our voices tend to carry a bit when everyone starts telling stories). It also came in handy when Quinn had his eight o'clock meltdown right on time.

Quinn was partying down in his car seat

Bryan and Jessica - the latest of our parents-to-be friends!

Kristen and Jason

little family of three - Quinn was passed out under the blanket ha!

the girls

Perfect way to welcome a new year.

Quinn is five months old

Dear Quinn,

My sweet baby boy, you are growing like crazy. Even though the footies you are wearing in these pictures are a six months size, I believe this is the last time you'll be able to wear them. Your little legs are all scrunched up! Will you please stay little forever?

We tried to increase your bottle to 5oz but your nanny told me you were struggling with finishing it so back down to 4.5oz you went. You eat every three hours and have settled into a pretty rocking schedule. During the week you eat at 6, 9, 12, 3, 6, and then we pushed your last feeding back to 8:30. You get so tired and cranky I think you appreciate the earlier bed time. I might even try pushing it back to 8 here soon.

We don't have any weight or height stats to report this month. You have your six month visit so we will see where you are then.

As I mentioned before, one of your six month footies is already too small, but honestly I think this one is just sized small. The rest of your six month clothing all fits perfectly and even some still have growing room left. Mommy tired to put a pair of three month pants on you and while they fit just fine in the waist I had to take them off because of the length. We can't have you wearing culottes!

We were a little worried about pushing your bedtime back figuring you would fight us on it, but much to our delight you just went with it. Mommy especially loves the extra half hour after you're asleep so she can finish getting ready for tomorrow and then get to bed herself! {and sometimes even have time to blog hehe}

You've even started to take naps in the afternoon. Between your 12 o'clock and 3 o'clock feedings you normally take a nap. Sometimes it's for only 30 minutes and other times you sleep for the entire 3 hours. While the length might not be consistent, mommy's just happy you're napping at all.

You really enjoy different textures. You stroke your fleece lovies and snuggle them by your face when you nap. It's pretty adorable. You also enjoy rubbing my shirt as you nurse. Memere says that mommy was the exact same was when she was a baby.

We still haven't started you on any food yet. You don't seem very interested so we aren't in a rush. We think we are going to take the finger food approach instead of pureeing everything once you are six months.

Quinn you are such a funny boy. You keep your daddy and me laughing all the time. Your personality is developing more and more every day and it is so special to watch. I love seeing your grow before my eyes and I savor every moment. We love you!

Love, 

Mommy

cloth diapers

I get a lot of concerned looks when I mention that we use cloth diapers on Quinn. Pretty much their facial expression says, "you're crazy" without their mouth making a sound. I want to talk about my experience with cloth diapers to try and show y'all it's not as bad as you think!

How we decided to use cloth diapers:
Our number one reason was cost. I had read that disposable diapers cost an estimated $2000 over a two year period. That's only if you get your baby potty trained by that time. That's a lot of money! While the brand of cloth diapers we chose aren't cheap (we paid $375) we will only pay it once and plan on using them again for future babies.

Some other benefits were less trash and less diaper rash. The diaper rash was important to us because I had pretty intense diaper rash as a baby. If Quinn inherited my sensitive skin then he was doomed to a similar fate.

What diaper we picked:
We bought the bumGenious 4.0 one size pocket diapers. As far as how we chose that brand over another it really came down to being a copy cat. I have a friend that uses this brand and she loves them. They have two options, one with velcro and one with snaps. When I heard her little girl figured out how to undo the velcro I decided to go with the snap option.

These diapers are meant to fit a baby 8 to 35 lbs depending on how you configure the snaps. We did have to use disposable diapers for Quinn for about the first month because he was too small to wear them without having leaks. For me this worked out perfectly because it took me about a month before I had my life is semi-order again to be showering consistently, let alone doing laundry.

How many:
We have 24 diapers. This was based on the recommendations on the websites and from other mamas. On average a newborn will go through 12 diapers a day with it progressively lessening as they get older. You don't want dirty diapers sitting around for more than a couple days because of bacteria growth. Made sense to us and it's worked out perfectly.

Accessories:
Wet bag:

We use this bag to store the dirty diapers while we're on the go. It's water proof and machine washable. I got ours on sale for $10.

Diaper pail and liner:

For the diaper pail we just got a red trash can from Walmart to match Quinn's nursery. I bought a red waterproof pail liner that is also machine washable for $16.50.

Diaper sprayer:

The hubs created a homemade one with a kitchen sprayer to try and save money, but it really didn't save us anything. Just buy that already made one. It attaches to your toilet so you can spray the poop right in the bowl and flush it on down. Easy peasy.

Maintenance:

I wash a load of diapers every other day with the free and clear Cheer. There is special detergent out there, but I've never seen the need to use it. I add bleach to the load once or twice a month to get rid of any stains. I've heard to also use just a drop of dawn to strip the diapers of any build up once in a blue moon, but I haven't had to do this yet. 

I dry the diapers on low in our dryer. Some like to hang them outside to dry in the sunshine (which also helps with stains), but this time of year would leave a lovely layer of pollen on the diapers. I've been doing this for four months now and haven't seen any rise in our water or electric bills.

Ease of use:

Since these diapers are shaped just like disposables I find them incredibly easy to use. They go on just like a disposable. There is no folding and pinning like most think. Another plus for me is that I never get upset if Quinn dirties a diaper seconds after I put it on. I just toss it in the diaper pail and grab another one. No "wasting" a diaper. 

I pack clean diapers for the nanny and she just puts the dirty ones in the wet bag. At the end of the day I pull the liner out from the cover and either toss it in the pail or in the wash depending on the night. The hubs thinks they are great. He tells everyone how awesome and easy they are ha! You know they must be great if they are hubs approved.

Where we got everything:

I highly recommend ordering everything from www.nickisdiapers.com. They often have great deals and sales including free shipping. We bought our diapers when they were buy 5 get one free. I recently had trouble where the snap came out of two of the inserts. I sent an email to customer service and they had two new inserts in the mail to me that day! Love great service like that!

I think that's everything but please feel free to ask any questions!

**I was not compensated by bumGenius or Nicki's Diapers for this post. All opinions are strictly my own and I just love all of the products I mentioned.

happy little sunday

Today was another low key day. The hubs finished the gate between the garage and screened porch. It looks really nice. I meant to snap a picture, but of course forgot. I'm sure the dogs are much happier now that they can run around the entire back yard instead of being penned up in their kennel. They could use some exercise. They're getting a little porky haha!

Speaking of exercise. I decided to take Quinn on a walk this afternoon. It was the first time I strapped him in the stroller without using his car seat. He seemed to really enjoy himself. I was a good mama and made sure to rub down my little redhead with sunscreen. Don't want that fair skin of his getting sunburnt.

It wasn't more than five minutes before Quinn passed out. I lowered the seat back to a reclined position and kept on trucking. It really is the perfect scenario, mama gets some exercise and baby gets a good nap. My goal is to try and take a walk with him at least three nights a week. I've got to stop making excuses and just get my butt in gear.

It's so easy to forget how much better I feel after I get my heart rate up a little bit. I walked the loop around our neighborhood and then decided to cross the street and make a loop in that neighborhood as well. It was a nice change of scenery.

After our walk Quinn was ready to play. He's got so much energy and just tires me out! We got down on the floor and rolled around on the play mat. He's become a pro at rolling from his back to his tummy now. It's just so adorable how proud of himself he is when he flips over.

That short attention span gets him every time though. He soon tired of the play mat so we moved on to the exersaucer.

The hubs bought a new lens for his camera and I'm in love with it. Here are a couple pictures he snapped yesterday morning while I was making breakfast.

It doesn't hurt that he had a really adorable model to shoot. Quinn was sitting in his bumbo playing and just babbling on and on. We are so lucky that he's such a happy baby!

We ended our Sunday with dinner at Wild Wing Cafe. Quinn was boogieing down in the booth next to me with the biggest grin on his face.

It was a happy little Sunday indeed.

heeeyyyyy (said like the Fonz)

Today started off with Quinn sleeping eleven hours. Eleven! Hours! Straight! He went down at 9:30 and didn't make a peep until 8:30 this morning and it was wonderful. I'm slowly trying to push his last feeding/bedtime back. He definitely gets fussy around 8 o'clock and I can tell he's super tired, but he doesn't want to nap before his last feeding. Stubborn child!

It was a low key day. We stayed in bed in our pjs until 10 o'clock. Quinn was pretty content having our full attention and playing with his feet. He finds them fascinating and has just recently discovered he can put his toes in his mouth. Makes for interesting diaper changes.

After we ate and dressed, Quinn and I went to Walmart for a much needed grocery run. Since it was so sunny out, I decided he needed to wear his new shades.

Every time I put on his little sunglasses I can't help but think of the Fonz from Happy Days. All he needs is a little black leather jacket to complete the look.

The hubs always puts his sunglasses on his forehead when he comes inside so I decided to do the same with Quinn so he could be just like daddy.

After our Walmart trip I met mom for a much needed mani and pedi. My feet were looking rough and since it's become sandal weather I was happy to put some color on my toes.

I decided to treat myself and get my first gel manicure. We'll see how I end up liking it and if it lasts as long as it's supposed to. My only complaint so far is that my nail salon didn't have very many color options. I wanted hot pink, but the closest they had was this which looks more bubblegum.

The day ended with a visit to the hospital {we're all fine}. My brother's girlfriend is having some serious stomach pain. The poor thing was admitted, poked and prodded, and the doctors still don't have a clue. While we weren't much help, I hope we were at least a nice distraction. Hospitals can be no fun especially when they are still working on finding out what's wrong and not working on fixing the problem. I hope she finds out something soon.

Toodles poodles!

easter

Quinn's first Easter was special, but very easy going {just the way we like it!}. We didn't end up making it to church because it was a sunrise service at 7 o'clock in the morning. Since we go to a small church there wasn't another service - oh well.

We had a beautiful lunch at my parents house and afterwards took Quinn down to the dock for some pictures with his first Easter basket. We were going to take them at our house but someone was super cranky and ready for a nap ha!

His first Easter basket didn't have any candy or chocolate, but it had plenty of treats! Quinn got new waterproof bibs, 3 8oz bottles, a toy to hang from his car seat, 2 different freezable teething rings, a Fisher-Price musical stuffed puppy, 3 Carter's outfits, and adorable baby sunglasses! The Easter bunny may have gone a little wild.

checking it all out

my sweet boy knows how to stand!

surprisingly, Quinn didn't try to rip off his new shades

LOVE this picture

our little family {normally the hubs is behind the camera}

How was your Easter? I hope just as special as ours!