Shopaholic

My name is Samantha, and having a daughter has turned me into a shopaholic.  No joke, I am slightly obsessed with baby clothes now!  However, I shop wisely.  Being a new parent can take a huge toll on your finances, so for Fenna's baby clothes I shop at consignment stores and always have an eye out for sales!  Buying brand new, full priced clothes for a child this age just doesn't make sense to me because they out grow things SO QUICKLY!  Fenna Mae started wearing her 6 month clothes when she was only 4 and a half months old.  She is not even 6 months old yet and some of her 9 month clothes are starting to fit (she is very long for her age!)!  So to avoid spending way too much money on clothes she can only wear for a few months, I have been spending (too much) time at Once Upon a Child, one of my favorite places to get her clothes.  You really have to look through the items because not everything is in great shape, but it is worth the time when you walk away with 10 items for around $10 (at regular prices 10 bucks might get you one and a half items)!!  Recently Once Upon a Child had a huge end of the year clearance sale where all of their clearance items were $1...you better believe I spent an afternoon there going through tons of clothes!  Fenna is now stocked up on clothes through 18 months!  I've also found some really great deals at Target, they recently had jeans marked down to just $3 and I got Fenna's Christmas dress for next year for $5 (originally $20).  Let me just admit that I stalked that Christmas dress every time I went to Target, which is usually a weekly occurrence, I checked on the price of the dress.  It was marked down at $12 for quite awhile but I knew I didn't want to pay more than $10 for it so I waited, and waited.  And finally, this weekend it was marked down to $5 and there was only ONE left in the size Fenna would need next year...so I grabbed it right away!  I'm so glad I waited out the price drop, I could not have justified spending more than $5 on it, but I love it!  Here are some of my favorite DOLLAR finds, the brands include Carters, Baby Gap, and Old Navy:

And here is Fenna Girl in one of her dollar 9 MONTH outfits!!  LOVE!

One of Those Nights

Tonight has been one of those nights.  One of those nights where I am tired.  One of those nights that comes after an extra long day of working.  One of those nights when Fenna is fussy no matter what I do.  One of those nights where I am frustrated and the only cure is a good nights rest.  Not every night of motherhood is magical and heart warming, some nights are hard.  Some nights I lose my patience.  Some nights I get upset with a tiny little infant who depends on me completely.  But then that little face that I brought into this world looks up and smiles at me, and everything bad just melts away (except the tiredness, I don't think that will go away anytime in the foreseeable future).  In these moments where I feel like don't have any more to give, I need to remember how blessed I am to have a precious, healthy, sweet little girl that brings so much joy to my life.  Every moment with her is a blessing, I don't want to take one single moment for granted, even the hard ones.

But really, how could I ever feel bad with this adorable face smiling at me?!?!

The 5th Month

This past weekend my baby girl turned 5 MONTHS OLD!  I cannot believe it, she is right around the corner from being half a year old!  Craziness!  This past month has been amazing and I can't believe how much little Fenna has grown already.  To recap a bit, she is now wearing her 6 month clothes, she loves to scream as her way of communicating, and she LOVES watching Coney run around.  Coney has definitely gotten her to laugh the hardest and the longest!  Whenever Coney runs up to her or right next to her, Fenna just explodes in the most adorable giggles my ears have ever heard!  I seriously am almost not able to handle the cuteness of her little laugh.  She also likes to roll over, but secretly.  She will rarely roll over when you are in a room with her, but as soon as you leave or turn away...over she goes!  She also has a grip that cuts off all circulation to the finger she is holding, I sometimes have to yank my finger away because I'm starting to lose feeling!  All-in-all, Fenna is such a blessing to our lives!  Here is little Fenna in her 5th month!

Let's Talk About Puke

Let's talk about puke!  Now, I know I need to enjoy every phase of Fenna's life and not hurry it along (because time flies too fast these days and they will be nothing but a memory before I know it!), but I have to admit that I will be very excited to be out of the puke-five-times-after-every-meal phase!  This morning I honest to goodness found a spot of dried puke on the scarf I was planning on wearing...so I just turned that part inward so it could not be seen...and wore it anyway!  Such is the life of a mother!  But of course, the classic, which has happened to me more times than I care to admit, is finding dried puke in your hair at the end of the day.  At that point you have no idea when it happened or how many people noticed it and just didn't say anything.  But you have no doubt that it most likely happened at the beginning of the day and was probably in your hair ALL DAY long.  Good times!  I can't count the number of clothes changes (for myself and Fenna) that have happened due to projectile spit up.  Sometime I wonder why I even try to use burp clothes, inevitably the spit up always jumps right over them to land in the most inconvenient place possible (on the floor, the chair, my jeans, on the dog, down my shirt).  I think I am going to invent a burp cloth shirt, I can see no other solution!  Although dealing with spit up may get a bit tiring, I would not change these moments for anything!  They are a part of our lives, a part of our story.  Speaking of baby puke, Fenna used her high chair for the first time yesterday!!  And approximately 1 minute and 37 seconds after I set her in there, she spit up all over herself!  So we had a quick outfit change and tried again...with much smoother results!  Check it out!

  

The Transition

On December 26, 2013 Fenna had her first bite of rice cereal!  But I think more of it ended up ON her face than actually in her mouth, I suppose these things take practice!  We decided to start feeding her because she had been getting very fussy at night and my mom said, 'that baby is hungry!'.  So we went to Target and bought some organic whole grain rice cereal.  The first feeding was tough, it has been a very long time since I have spoon fed a baby, and of course it was Fenna's first spoon experience, so we were both on a learning curve.  I really think the only way to describe the experience is through the pictures below...priceless!!  I am happy to announce that she did get the hang of it rather quickly, and now, only a few weeks later, she has eaten ALL of her food for the last two nights!  Proud mommy right here!  She is on a great schedule were we feed her around 8 every night, and she still takes her bottles like normal throughout the day.

Christmas

Now, I'm going to be honest here, I didn't get my child anything for Christmas.  Insert sad face.  I know, I am a horrible parent!  David and I are bad about presents to begin with, we don't usually do presents for each other very often.  At this time in our lives, especially with a little one now, it is more important for us to put our money towards getting out of debt, instead of building up more debt.  Now, this doesn't excuse my lack of present giving to Fenna on her first Christmas, I was planning to get her a 'baby's first Bible' (which I will be getting for her soon, better late than never!), but with the craziness of the holiday season never made it to the store I was planning on going to.  But really, does it make a difference?  I mean, she is was only 4 months old at the time.  I know she didn't have any idea!  Yes, I still felt a little bad, but in the big picture it will not have any kind of negative impact on her life (and she did get spoiled by the rest of the family :) ).  Also, I think kids are a little too spoiled these days and one of my friends gave me a really good idea on gift giving.  She knows someone who gives each of her kids 3 gifts on Christmas, because baby Jesus received 3 gifts when he was born.  They get one gift they want, one gift they need, and one gift that is educational.  I am in LOVE with this idea and think we will be implementing it beginning next year!  I don't ever want the true meaning of Christmas to be lost on Fenna, which also means we won't be lying to our child about Santa Clause.  He isn't real, and Fenna will know that from the start.  Once again, horrible parent, I know!  Anyway, here are some memories from Fenna's first Christmas!

The 4th Month

So after this 4th month post we will be caught up!!  Fenna will be 5 months on January 12th, so I will start posting the day-to-day after this!  The most notable thing about Fenna's 4th month was that it included her first Thanksgiving!  We had an amazing Thanksgiving with family and friends and I must say that I had SO MUCH to be thankful for this year!  A healthy, happy little girl was at the very top of my list!  Fenna's 4th month included LOTS of smiles and we even heard her first real, from the gut laugh, and it was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard!  Since then we have been having so much fun trying to find new ways to make her laugh.  It honestly is music to my ears!  Fenna also rolled over for the fist time during this month!  She's always very sneaky about it though, usually I would walk out of the room when she was on her back, then walk back into the room and she is on her tummy looking around with a huge grin on her face!  Here are some memories from Fenna's 4th month!

She is so chill!

Here I was trying to get a picture for our living room, success with this first shot!

She loves kisses, and we love giving them!!

She loves this little play mat, it has been amazing!

Those chunky cheeks just kill me!

4 months old!!