water babies

four months

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dear s,

today you are four months old. i know i said this two months ago, but i can’t believe the time has gone by this fast. your daddy and i were talking the other day, and neither of us can believe that you’re a little person all of a sudden, with your own personality and mannerisms. you’re inquisitive (nosey, most normal people would call it), sensitive, happy, and loving. you’re also stubborn, emotional, and impatient sometimes. it’s amazing to me how i can describe you as anything other than a crying, pooing baby, but you are so much more than that. so this post will be dedicated to the s that we have come to know and love over the last few months, and your many accomplishments.

this month you learned how to roll over. kind of. you still hate being on your tummy, but now it takes almost five whole minutes to make you scream before i have to flip you back over myself.

what?!

you love your sophie the giraffe. and your bunny rabbit. daddy and i call him frank (after the bunny rabbit in donnie darko…yes, we’re freaks). sophie is for playtime and frank is for sleeptime. you like to cuddle frank to your face when you’re falling asleep. mommy only freaks out a little when you do that.

frank and i are just sleeping, ok?

you have incredible lower body strength. what you lack in rolling over skill (or maybe you’re saving it up, i’m not sure) you make up for in leg strength. you’ll be cruising well before your first birthday, i know it.

look at me!

we’re (pretty) sure you’re teething. you gum your toys, and hands, and clothes, and our hands, and whatever else you can get your paws on, all day long. and you drool. oh, do you drool.

nom nom nom

you’re developing the gift of gab. it’s so cool to watch your language develop…especially as a linguistics nerd myself, i feel like i can really appreciate the massive leaps you’re taking every day with your speech. now you can make occasional consonant-vowel sounds (ga ga ga, etc) and i swear i heard you say ‘hiya’ the other day. it’s the teesside in you. 😉 you can also laugh, but only when you want to. last week after your immunizations, you had a few days of no talking at all. it made us sad not to hear your beautiful voice (and to only hear your cry!) but now i think you were just saving it up, and practicing in your head.

chatting with daddy

you are OBSESSED with the tv. you crane your neck around when i have you sitting in your boppy to watch big bang, how i met your mother, and desperate housewives. not so much daddy’s documentaries. oh well. yesterday we took you to see spiderman at the big scream, and you absolutely loved it. you sat on daddy’s lap and watched the whole thing. we’re also pretty sure you had a bad dream because of the movie last night! can babies have nightmares? that lizard was pretty scary.

i’m just watching my shows. leave me alone.

you hate being manipulated. more specifically, you hate having your clothes changed. i try to do it as quickly as possible, but it usually results in screams and cries of anger and frustration. sorry about that!

when you’re playing, you stick your legs up in the air. it’s super cute, and i know that your discovery of your feet is not far away at all! you’ll play for ages with your sophie and other toys with those feet above your head. it’s adorable and looks like it might not be that comfortable, but hey, i’m not as flexible as you anymore!

feet!

bathtime is one of your favorite times of the day. you love kicking, splashing (sort of), and playing in the bath. we can’t wait to take you swimming. it’s on the summer to do list, so it’s got to happen!

love the bath!

you can sit up! not by yourself, and not entirely reliably (slumping over happens more regularly than actual sitting, but oh well). we’re going to invest in a bumbo like this one to work on it next month! yay!

just sitting up, nbd.

you’re such a happy girl, s! we are so lucky to be a part of your life and love seeing you grow and discover. there are a million more things you’ve learned and experienced this month. i wish i could remember them all and capture them to have all for myself. but i’m looking forward to sharing you and your talents with the world. i can’t wait for what the world has in store! here’s to you and to so many more firsts.

love, mommy ❤

so excited about being four months old!

swimsuit envy.

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if i’m expected to take s to the pool for waterbabies classes, i need to look semi-presentable. and let’s just say it’s been a loooooong time since i wore a bathing suit. unfortunately, the stretch mark situation post-birth means that two pieces are ruled out from here until eternity (or until they invent a magical eliminate stretch mark serum, in which case i will go everywhere naked). i also generally hate one pieces. however, i found the perfect swimsuit, as loved and reviewed by fabulous blogger modg:

 

 

problem…out of stock. pretty much everywhere. also i can’t go into stores to search the racks. HELP! i need a pretty suit that will hide all my insecurities and make me look like a hot mama. or a milf. ew that’s the first time i’ve used that phrase. just find me a genie’s lamp, stat!

the summer according to pinterest.

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i’d been thinking about writing up a sort of summer to-do list, or a bucket list, but hadn’t got the motivation to do it until the fabulous e tells tales suggested a blog link up. now i’m not nearly creative (or energetic, these days) enough to come up with lots of ideas off the cuff, so for this bucket list i will defer to the other lover in my life. yes, i mean pinterest. my sweet evening affairs with this website leave me feeling encouraged, excited and jealous of other people’s lives. but i have actually DIYed my way through a few of the things on my pinboards over the last few months, including making an adorable hand and footprint salt dough keepsake for p for father’s day (like this one here).

now onto this summer:

1. get my hair did.

a few years ago i went crazy and had my hair highlighted completely. i think it was an accident. but i LOVE the full head of highlights look, and want my hair this short again. if i was a millionaire i’d get a brazilian blow dry so it would be kind of straight right after blow drying, but for now i will have to dream. plus, then i’d miss my curls. also, i will allow someone to babysit s so this can happen…i got my hair cut when she was three weeks old, but it consisted of literally handing off the baby to p after he returned from his own appointment, running to the hairdressers, and getting a few inches chopped off. i want an afternoon of styling. maybe with a mani/pedi.

2. organize my life.

this site has about 139847165 ideas for baby/home organization. none of which i accomplished before s was born. now our house isn’t exactly a hoarder’s home, but it could be cleaner. and more organized. so i will do at least one of these things on this list.

3. fly to the states!

Source: youtube.com via Kaitlin on Pinterest

the tips and tricks from mama natural‘s video blog are going to come in handy when p, s and i all hop on a plane in august to see my family. i’m only freaking out about the trip a little, and most moms who’ve traveled with babies and toddlers say that the earlier you fly (in terms of baby’s age), the easier the trip will be. i just know i’m going to have to kill some bitches with kindness, though, as they give me the black look of death for bringing an infant on board an airplane. it’s ok, i will leave nappy bags full of s’s stinkiest poop underneath their seats.

4. (re)learn to knit.

can you get any more adorable than this? i’m sure it’s super easy and would take about five seconds to do. plus, if you know me, you know that flip flops/sandals/any kind of shoe that doesn’t require socks is the best kind of footwear. s isn’t going to be small enough for this to be cute for that long! my grandmother, who’s in her mid 80s and only has partial vision, is the most amazing artist when it comes to knitting and crochet. she’s tried to teach me how to knit half a dozen times (bless her), so one day i’d like to make her proud by actually learning something.

5. get my craft on.

this super cute shag rug will be perfect for the kitchen. it will also solve my problem of having far too many items of clothes. every time we get a charity bag through the letterbox, i fill it up and return it with tons of my junk. it seems to regenerate almost immediately, and makes me a little sad. now is the time to simplify my life ever so slightly and focus on what’s really important rather than getting sucked into the material things of life. (if you’re super duper brave, you could be like my friend awayathomemom and live out of an RV with your family. so cool!) there are approximately a million more craft ideas i have yet to try out on my pinterest boards…check them out.

6. go swimming with s!

luckily this one involves shopping for bathing suits. also, i mostly want to do this because of the photography session. p gets in the bath with s at the moment (TMI? sorry) and keeps saying, can i dunk her? can i dunk her? and so far i’ve said no because i’m scared she’ll drown and we’ll be the idiots that tried to make their own baby swim. so i’m going to let the professionals help! s loves bath time now and i think she will enjoy the pool, too. plus, i need to get back in the water!

7. bake some sexy cakes.

those of you who have already perused my pinterest boards probably have gathered that my bff and i have half-joked about starting up a cupcake business. no, not like two broke girls, i hate that show. more like ace of cakes meets starbucks flavors meets english charm. it’s mostly a pipe dream, but if i ever win the lottery i will quit whatever semi-fulfilling job i have and open a cupcake shop. so to prepare myself i must get back in the kitchen and start baking. plus, p once told me that my gift for having our first child would be a kitchenaid mixer. i’m still waiting! (i’m sure it’s in the post. not.)

8. get picnicking.

after the disaster that was our last picnic-style outing (yes, i am a wussy mama) i am afraid i may instill the same neuroses in my daughter. so you heard it here first, everyone…i vow to spend more time outdoors with my family. i will lather up my baby with bug spray and sun screen (after six months, i think…before then i will keep her under a mosquito net and hide her from every ray of sun possible) and eat smores with my family. this i solemnly swear.

9. have a date night with p (and without s…sorry baby!)

my parents came to visit when s was five weeks old (they live across the ocean in the states) and tried to get us to go out to see the hunger games. i wasn’t ready to leave the baby and hadn’t tried pumping yet, and figured the logistics of organizing feeds around movie times would be too difficult…ok i was terrified of leaving s for more than five minutes. my mom told me that i’d be ready soon. a few weeks after she left, i sent her a text saying, you were right! i want a babysitter now! so p and i are already talking about date night ideas for our trip to the states. three weeks with my parents, grandparents, sisters, and aunt nearby = lots and lots and lots of babysitters! sorry, guys! s is lovely, i promise! and hopefully she’ll go the *&$@ to sleep for you.

10. lose the baby flab.

ok, so i know this photo doesn’t really coincide with the step. but having a positive body image and feeling good about myself includes losing my baby flab. i know that i’m beautiful, but i also want to feel healthy and sexy instead of lazy and glued to the sofa. even though i love me some big bang theory. so this summer i plan to find an evening zumba class, or vow to get up three times a week at six and walk/run (ok so i can’t run…yet. positive thinking!!!) to feel better about myself and to be a positive role model for s.

so that’s the list, for the most part! i’m sure our summer will consist of much more than this (and you’ll all hear about the lot, of course) but i’ll update you as these items get checked off! happy summer! ❤