Categories
Babies

Lucy: Fifteen Months

Lucy is a bit of a changed girl post-tubes. Her occasional chatting is back to full time chatting. She has been saying Dada & Mama for a while. She’s recently thrown out uh ohh, tickle tickle, bye bye & good girl. I guess we tell her good girl a lot- it’s so cute to hear her say it back.

She princess waves all the time now- walking into daycare, leaving daycare, at stores, when were just walking down the hall.

Speaking of walking, she’s doing it maybe half the time. She seems more comfortable taking off some days more than others. She probably cruises upright to get place to place the most, but she’s rarely crawling these days. She can be sneaky- we think she’s in the den but she’s quietly cruising down the hall!

Lucy loves the water. After weeks of keeping bath time very short due to being afraid of getting extra water in her infected ears, she’s thrilled now if I give her lots of bath time to play & splash. She also likes this new kid-sized towel (we’ve well outgrown infant ones). I couldn’t resist taking a photo of my post bathing butterfly Tues night.

Lucy post-bath

That’s totally her personality too. As a healthy, happy girl, she loves to play ‘where’s Lucy’ & gives big belly laughs for thigh tickles from Mommy & belly raspberries by Daddy.

Lucy’s a fan of my cell phone, my borrowed pump, giving fierce hugs, snuggles, wrestling with Daddy & Brother, push toys, our stacking cups & books.
image

Lucy likes to study things. She watches us closely taking it all in. And making sure we’re watching her too!

I’m so happy to be able to call myself her Mommy. She’s such a sweet joy.

Our little big girl is still squeezing into 12 mo clothes with 18 mo coming very soon. I keep saying ‘let’s wear this just one more time’!

She’s continuing to try whatever we put in front of her but fruit is still her favorite. I’m excited to hear her weight at her 15 mo appt tomorrow. I’m guessing close to 24 lbs.

Happy 15 months baby girl! We have a fun filled month planned ahead if us! Can’t wait to experience it with you.

Categories
Reading

Blog Design for Dummies

I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Melissa from Momcomm & adventuroo while hanging out with her at Raleigh bloggers nights multiple times in the last few years. I was an e-supporter while she wrote a book! & then I was thrilled when I got the chance to be one of the first to receive a copy to read & review.

Blog Design for Dummies

I’ve taken my time writing & posting this one as I wanted to let Blog Design for Dummies sink in. I devoured it within a week or two while pumping. I love, love, loved that the entire book is done in full color.

It was an easy read even though some of the content delves into more difficult design ideas. But as a ‘for Dummies’ book, this comes across in a way that makes even more complex design ideas doable for even a dummy like myself!

As you can see, I started just turning down pages I wanted to re-review or put in action on here. I quickly realized I needed to add in post its & highlighting as I started to open it up again at night.

Inside Blog Design for Dummies

And yes, within a week of reading, I was inspired to attempt a blog redesign of my own. I’m still not 100% sure of this blog layout/template & haven’t figure out how to switch up the font for my title headings, but I’ve been too busy with sick littles to dig back into coding. Thanks to Blog Design for Dummies, I was able to easily update pages, create & update navigation bars, add footer info, drop some unnecessary plugins, add some better ones & use HTML to do a few of my own side bar widgets!

Blog Design for Dummies is split into sections & chapters that easily flow for someone who wants to read it cover to cover. But if you’re only interested in certain design ideas, the headings & index make it easy to skip around too.

Melissa’s sections of colors/backgrounds, fonts, & using headings caught me first. & they had me rethinking what I’ve been doing. I highlighted & underlined everything on HTML & CSS coding that I should probably know after blogging for 5 years. And yes, I took the photo & shared the page on why & when to save .PNG vs .jpg {sheepishly admitted I didn’t know this!}.

I loved seeing examples throughout Blog Design for Dummies {link to Dummies site} of great blogs who were incorporating the design idea Melissa was highlighting. I loved it even more when I “knew” the author of that particular site.

Blog Design for Dummies {unaffiliated Amazon link} takes the fabulous information Melissa generously shares on Momcomm & takes it up a 1000 notches. In case you don’t love & respect her blog/marketing/design knowledge before, you will after reading it. Anyone interest in blog design {from newbies to old pros} should check it out. Be sure not to miss the last chapter showing full color photos of fabulous blog designs & explaining what helps make them fabulous!

I was thrilled when Melissa offered to send me a copy of Blog Design for Dummies for purpose of this review. My opinions & bad cell photos shared are all my own. But I am hunting Melissa down for an autograph now! ::Fan girl alert::

Categories
Everything Else Food

Red Gold Summer Grillin’ Burger Party

It’s no secret that I don’t eat beef or pork. And thus, I don’t cook it {I don’t really know how}.

It’s also no secret to those that know him that my husband is a huge burger fan.

So when we heard about Red Gold tomatoes Summer Grillin’ Party, we were both all in for this one! Red Gold kindly sent a few different kinds of their diced tomatoes as well as recipes for making awesome summer burgers.

I purchased ground turkey from our local HT & decided to try their Italian Turkey Burger first. Can’t tell you how much I appreciate a four ingredient recipe!
Red Gold turkey burger mix

I mixed meat, an egg, breadcrumbs & the diced tomatoes by hand then made them into 8 generously sized patties. We George Foreman grill partied & in less than 30 minutes, healthy, delicious burgers were on the table for all four of us.
Turkey burgers

It was the first time L & Z {who were both sick} tried burgers. They both likes them more than I thought! I was a huge fan & the burger connoisseur was impressed too! And yes, I overcooked the second batch because we were too busy eating & they were still good!

Next up to try? The Caribbean Chicken burgers this weekend!

Red Gold graciously sent me the tomatoes, recipes as well as two aprons. Local readers & friends, leave a comment if you’d like me to share the apron love with one of you!
Red Gold apron

{Lucy & Zach modeled one of the aprons as I was opening the package.}

Red Gold is also excited about their Facebook Summer Grillin’ contest. Be sure to check out their FB page & follow along with the #RGparty on instagram.

Categories
Babies Motherhood

My Day {Lucy Got Tubes}

Bright & early this morning, we took our baby girl to a local surgical center to have tubes put into her super infected ears. She was pitifully cute in her hospital gown {& ruffle socks, of course}.

Lucy at hospital for tubes

And since surgery, she’s been cuddly, courageous, silly & even a lil angry. All those emotions are expected.
Lucy recovering at home

Zach’s at daycare; J’s at work. My girl, my Dad & I are chilling at home. Focusing on recovering, playing, napping, nursing & even eating a bit.

I think I can already tell a difference in her hearing & speaking. She’s said “bye bye” to both J & Zach & to my mom on the phone when prompted. That’s never happened before!

Categories
Motherhood

Battling the ‘I Should’

The phrase ‘I should’ runs through my head thousands of times every day.

I’m at work. I should be working. I should be working on my work email instead of paperwork. I should be taking advantage of adult conversation time. I should call the hospital/insurance company to work out maternity bills I overpaid. I should have {yet another} snack & glass of water instead of diet coke. I should pay bills & empty out my purse.

It’s lunch time. So I should eat. I should leave work & rush around running errands. Or use the time to catch up with coworkers. Or, what I usually do, work through lunch to make up for being out sick.

I’m in the car. I should stop for groceries. I should go straight home to the babies. I should use this alone time to rock out to tunes or to catch up on phone calls to family or friends.

I’m home at night. This is where my ‘I should’ list goes really crazy. I should prepare tomorrow’s sippys & cloth diapers for Lucy & Zach straight away. I should start dinner. I should start laundry. I should clean up the den/sink/bathroom. I should sit down & relax {ha! that’s funny}.

I should blog/Facebook/instagram/tweet about my day or the silly thing Zach did or Lucy’s first steps! I should read them another book & put down my phone.

Lucy & Zach are finally asleep. I should read that overdue library book or package that outgrown book/outfit/diaper to mail. I should catch up on TV. I should make my lunch & pack my pump bag for the following day. I should talk to my husband. I should take photos of all their outgrown clothes to try to sell in multiples groups {did this last night}! I should sleep.

So I go to bed, & instead of snores & dreams, I first play another round of Candy Crush {level 152, I have my eye on you} & think of my ‘I should’ list for the next day. And I’m exhausted. Any idea why?!