happy birthday Eric

My nephew turned 4 this past week, so the weekend before we went to the Pavilion in Greenville to celebrate. There is a cute little park with play grounds and George the train for the kiddos. I have to say that this was the very first "fun" birthday for Eric. He totally knew it was his birthday and was totally into it ha!

blowing out the candles

opening presents is serious business

I believe he was happy about this one

the hubs gave Quinn a taste of frosting

more please

ready to ride the train

here we go!

he seems a little bored

cheese!!

sitting with mama

It'll be fun to watch these cousins grow up together. Eric is always wanting to play with baby Quinn as he calls him. It seems like just yesterday Eric was a baby himself. I'm sure in the blink of an eye we'll be celebrating Quinn's 4th birthday.

Quinn is nine months old

Dear Quinn,

My sweet baby boy, you are just getting sweeter by the minute! Your little personality just keeps developing and everyone has nothing but good things to say about you. Your teachers at daycare constantly tell me how happy you are and that you never cry. Let's keep it this way, shall we?

You are turning into a little eating machine. I'm not even sure I can name all of the foods you've tried. You almost always make a face when given something new. Your daddy and I can help but laugh at your sour puss. It is too funny. You eat solids three times a day and on the weekends you sneak in some snacks off mama and daddy's plates as well. 

You have mastered putting puffs and cheerios into your mouth yourself, although you can still become easily distracted. If I don't watch you, you'll take a fistful of food and just crunch it up in your hands. You love nilla wafers but also love to shove the entire cookie in your mouth!

You had your nine month check up with the doctor. Your new pediatrician is very happy with how healthy you are! You are 27.5" long (17th percentile), weigh 16lb 13oz (3rd percentile), and have a head circumference of 18.5" (87th percentile). Even though you are in a low percentile for weight you don't seem too skinny to us!

So far you seem to be following along with clothing sizes that match your age. You are wearing 9 month clothes and some 12 month clothes (only because we don't have a lot of 9 month clothes). You are still on the middle snaps for your diapers with two rows showing around your waist.

One big development is a new bed time! You now go to bed at 7:15 or 7:30 and sleep until 6:30-7 in the morning. That's almost 12 hours! You hardly ever sleep for more than 45 minutes at daycare (can't miss a thing!) but you still nap for 2-3 hours after your noon feeding on the weekends.

You have made some progress in the crawling department. You will get up on your knees and rock back and forth. You even manage to somehow push yourself backwards. I can tell you are starting to get frustrated that you haven't quite figured it out just yet. Hopefully this will encourage you to keep trying!

We have introduced you to some new toys. You love banging your building blocks together and making as much noise as possible. Toys that play music seem to hold your interest the longest. Memere has the best music toy at her house. It has so many buttons and sounds that you just love to bang over and over!

You are definitely a little boy. You love to be tossed in the air and bounced around. When you dance with mama you like to be dipped. I have to be careful to pay attention because you will throw your head back trying to get me to dip you again ha! When I pop you back up you giggle and laugh and then throw your head back for more.

We love you to the moon and back sweet boy.

Love,
Mama

a baby shower

This past Saturday I hosted a baby shower for my good friend Jessica and her little bun in the oven Parker. I knew my house would be in no shape to have the shower there and Jessica's new house is in the process of being built, so her mother graciously offered to help. I was a little worried since decorating someone else's house isn't something I do often, but everything fell into place.

The day of, the hubs helped pile everything into the car and drove me and Quinn to Greenville where he then unloaded the car and even stayed to help set up. Lord I love that man. It worked out perfectly that Quinn went down for his nap right as we arrived and stayed asleep the entire time we set up.

Since Jessica's little girl's name is Parker, I decided on an amusement park theme with bright colors and a fair food twist.

The menu:

cheeseburger bowls

corn dog muffins

soft pretzels with mustard

popcorn

fruit kabobs

veggies with dip

apple slices with caramel dip

chocolate cupcakes

lemonade punch

We had planned to have all of the guest make hair bows for Parker, but unfortunately never got to it. Jessica and I plan to have a hair bow making date really soon instead!

Isn't the mama-to-be gorgeous?

Since Parker's due date is October 1st, I couldn't resist getting her a set of Halloween footies!

I had such a great time putting together this shower for Jessica. I'm so excited to meet Parker Addy and can't wait to love on that sweet baby girl!

tips and tricks: the diaper bag (for cloth moms)

When it came to picking out a diaper bag I was completely lost. Have you seen the floor to ceiling wall of bags at Buy Buy Baby?? How do you pick except based on color? I tried to do some internet research but let's be honest here, there's so much info and I was so overwhelmed that I easily gave up.

I ended up picking the Skip Hop Via Messenger based on a suggestion from a blog I read. She basically said it was the bees knees and her husband didn't hate it.

It is pretty cool looking, has lots of pockets, clips onto the handles of the stroller, built in changing pad. I added it to the registry and checked it off my to-do list. Now while it is a great diaper bag, it quickly became too small for us. Since we use cloth diapers, we need a lot of space. Those suckers seem to grow in size once you try and jam them into the diaper bag.

I'm now going to let you in on my secret for finding a diaper bag big enough for the cloth diapers plus everything else in the world: a bag meant for twins.

I bought the Skip Hop Duo Double and I love love love it. I'll be the first to admit that $80 for a diaper bag is a bit ridiculous, but I got mine for a steal. I have the above striped pattern which is retired so it was on sale for 50% off. Tack on a 20% off coupon on top of that and $32 for the perfect bag is much more doable.

As you can see it has a crazy amount of pockets, 3 across the front {each with a magnetic snap}, a mesh pocket with draw string on each end, a large pocket across the back that is divided in two {part of it houses the changing pad}, plus a zip pocket on the back as well! That's just the outside. The inside has 8 more pockets and then an open middle that is deep and wide. The bag has a detachable shoulder strap plus two carrying handles and the clips to hook it on the handles of a stroller.

The amount of stuff I can carry in this bag is mind boggling. Here goes {and yes I'm a huge "just in case" mom}:

Inside

• six cloth diapers {number varies depending on how long we plan to be out}
• large wet bag
• extra outfit for Quinn
• medicine - tylenol, teething tablets, orajel
• several extra passys and passy wipes
• container of puffs
• small insulated bag that holds three containers of food with an ice pack plus spoon
• 4 soft toy blocks
• giraffe that clips onto the carrier handle
• blanket and lovey {sometimes two loveys}

Outside

• wipes container
• Sophie the Giraffe
• rattle
• baby sunglasses
• two crinkle toys
• diaper cream
• changing pad

I still use the Via Messenger as Quinn's daycare bag, but I highly recommend the Duo Double especially if you plan on using cloth. 

show and tell monday

Who doesn't like a little show and tell? It was always my favorite part of school growing up. The best one was when I was in preschool and my mom and I saved a turtle that was crossing the street. We put him in my lunch box and I brought him for show and tell. He then became the class pet ha! I made my mom drive down the same road every day thereafter to look for other turtles to "save."

Today's show and tell is a bit more grown up but just as fun. Link up with Becky at From Mrs. to Mama and join in!

1. If you were searching for a new home, tell me what would be on your "MUST" list.

This list is still fresh seeing as we just purchased a new house a month ago!

• four bedrooms - check
• minimum two bathrooms - check
• one story - check
• hardwood floors - check
• lots of closet space - sadly not this time around
• garage - semi-check, it's a carport but add a door and we're all set!
• large fenced-in back yard with enough space to install our 25' round pool - check
• formal dining room big enough to fit our massive table - check
• living room big enough to fit our massive sectional - check
• crawl space - check
• brick exterior - check
• large master bath - nope
• enough space between houses so you don't feel on top of each other - check
• an older established neighborhood {no cookie cutter houses please!} - check
• fireplace - check {bonus that it's gas}

2. Show me your favorite room in a home (either your home, or any home, i.e. kitchen).

This is currently my inspiration for my future craft room. I love the organization and the mint colored walls!

Traditional Home Office design by Dallas Interior Designer JDS DESIGNS

3. If you could have any room redone, tell me which one would it be and what would you like done?

Well we are planning on remodeling our kitchen, I just wish we had the resources to speed up the time line! The current layout of the house has what used to be a formal living room in the front, then a dining room attached to it to the left, then the kitchen behind the dining room, then the den to the right. A wall was put up between the formal living room and the dining room. The previous owner made the formal living room the dining room and the dining room a laundry room off the kitchen. Did you follow all of that??

We plan on keeping the formal living room as the dining room, but opening up the wall again. We will then make the old dining room/now laundry part of the kitchen so it is one big area with the washer and dryer built in to the cabinets. So we'll need to move appliances around, install more cabinets, install new counter tops, paint, oh and did I mention we're knocking down part of the wall between the kitchen and the living room? Lots of work to be done.

4. Tell me where your favorite stores are to shop for home decor. 

I don't really shop for home decor. I've purchased some curtains from JCPenney's and Kohl's. I've also bought some throw pillows from Walmart. We're fairly lucky that most of the things hanging on our walls are family pictures or paintings my grandmother created. Since I've started sewing, I make my own curtains and recover old pillows. 

5. Show me your dream home (it can be your home as well).

Traditional Exterior design by Charleston General Contractor Jamison Howard

I just love love love porches like this!

five friday confessions

• If I'm drinking hot tea it's for one of three reasons: 
• I'm sad
• I'm sick
• or I'm with my mom
• When the hubs is out of town I wear his t-shirt and deodorant to bed so I'll smell like him.
• I want Quinn to call me mama instead of mommy.
• I think I want to start vloging some but I'm scared.
• I don't like talking about where Quinn is milestone wise because I don't want to compare him to other babies. 

thankful thursday

I'm not even sure I can explain how thankful I am for my mom, but I'm going to try.

{Mom, go ahead a grab some tissues because I'm sure this will make you cry even though that's not my intent}

The hubs is traveling {again..ugh} for his job this week. He was gone two weeks ago and he'll be gone two weeks from now. To say this is bad timing would be an understatement. After working all day, getting the baby fed and put down, feeding myself, and preparing for the next day I take a look at all the boxes, sigh a big sigh, and go to bed.

Enter mama to the rescue!

My mom has come and stayed with me during both weeks the hubs has been gone. This has been beyond wonderful. Not only do I have someone at the house with me in the evenings, but she also has been unpacking for me while I'm at work. She unpacks, cleans, and organizes until about 3:30pm then gets the baby from daycare. I come home to less of a disaster and a very happy little boy.

I think it's safe to say Quinn has really enjoyed spending time with his Memere as well. He just lights up when he sees her and starts bouncing. It makes me so happy to see them play together.

They play hard together and then snuggle. So adorable!

What are you thankful for?