Growing boy!

Xander had his 6 month appointment last Wednesday, the 20th. We started oatmeal cereal on Monday the 18th and he tried his first veggie - carrots - on Thursday the 21st. Since then he has tried prunes, peas, peaches and sweet potatoes! He has liked everything he has tried so far and it seems he will be a big eater! He eats everything I give him and always opens his mouth for more, even when his food is all gone! I have added oatmeal to the fruits and rice cereal to the vegetables to thicken them up a little and add calories. He is also drinking from a sippy cup with my help. He can't hold it himself yet, but he is getting the hang of drinking from it!

He was a little on the skinny side at his 6 month appointment. He weighed 15 lbs 13 oz which is only in the 20th % for his age. His head was 91% and his length was right around 50%. He got some more shots but he did really well - he barely cried at all!

I can't believe my baby is already 6 months old! It seriously seems like yesterday I had him. I still remember what it was like to be pregnant! I am sad because in 6 more short months, he will already be 1 year old! I think I need to start planning his party now since time goes so fast! I think I already know the theme -probably monkeys. I even found a monkey shaped cake pan by Wilton at Hobby Lobby. I think that is what I will get and I will end up with other monkey decorations.

I made a quick run to Walgreens this morning to get sunscreen for the summer as they had buy 1 get 1 free on Banana Boat. I got a bottle of baby sunscreen and some regular sunscreen for me. Whenever I go to Walgreens, I like to look around to check out the deals and clearance. I found some GREAT deals today while there and here they are!

-I found Bounty Basic paper towels for $0.40 a roll!!!!! They are normally about $1 a roll. Not only that, but I had 2 $0.25/1 coupons, so I got 2 rolls for $0.15 each!! Wow! I didn't have more coupons but went ahead and got a few more rolls anyway.

-I found Kleenex on clearance for $0.57 a box!!!! That is for the normal full size boxes! I don't know why they were clearancing them but I wasn't complaining! I had a coupon for $0.50/3 but went ahead and got 6 boxes because you can't beat that deal!

-I found a few amazing toilet paper deals too! They had 2-12 roll packs of Charmin for $2.49 each! They were normally priced at $9.49 (I think they are about $6 at other stores) which makes them a steal! I also got a 12 roll pack of Angel Soft for $1.49!!! 12 rolls for $1.49 is unheard of!! On top of those, I got their store brand 4 roll packs for $0.25 each! Not the best toilet paper, but I am not picky, especially when it is that cheap! I think I got about $30 worth of toilet paper for about $8!!!

-I got some nice Bic ball point pens for Todd for free! He likes nice blue pens to take to work with him. The 2 pack was on clearance for $0.87 and I had a $1 off coupon which they took!

-I got this nifty Scotch pop up tape dispenser and a refill for free! I had a $1 off coupon for the pop up dispenser, but the dispenser and refill were only $0.50 each and they took the $1 coupon!

-I got two rolls of Scotch gift wrap tape (the ultra clear stuff) for $0.50 each! They were on clearance for $0.75 each and I had a $0.50/2 coupon. That is a good deal for nice tape!

-The sunscreen bottles were $9.99 and $10.99 full price and they were buy 1 get 1 free. The lady gave me the $10.99 bottle free (even though the free one should be the cheaper one) and I was able to use 2 $2 off coupons! That made it $6 for two full size bottles of sunscreen - you can't beat that, not even for generic sunscreen! Believe me, I have researched this to death! :)

As you can tell, I just love getting a good deal! It is so much fun to me to be able to find everyday items for incredible prices! I can't take credit for finding a lot of the stuff myself though. I rely on a lot of the ladies from my blog list to tell me about the good deals. They post deals and steals daily on their blogs and all I do is go there, read about them and then go out to the stores to take advantage of them!

I am currently looking for a part time job. I applied a few places and hope to get a job in the next few weeks. I am going to only work evenings and weekends so we don't have to put Xander in daycare. We have been waiting forever for Todd to get his own store so in the mean time, I am going to try to get a job so I can help out with money. I don't want to get a job, but would rather get a part time job than a full time job!

I have started a few cleaning projects in the house. I am a little late on the spring cleaning but it is stuff I really needed to get done! I cleaned out under the kitchen sink (which was a huge mess). There were bottles and rags and sponges all thrown haphazardly about. I organized the bottles under there so like products are all together now and moved a bunch of junk our from under there so it isn't so crowded. I am going to clean out our pantry also since it is a huge mess and there is stuff all over and we can barely get anything in there! I also started cleaning the basement which has become a place to throw all our junk when we don't have a place for it. I am trying to clear off the desk so that I can use it for sewing and scrapbooking! I have already started to clean it off and am excited to get the whole basement cleaned so I am not embarrassed for people to go down there anymore!

I better get back to it!

My sweet little 6 month old!

Xander is 6 months old today! I can't believe that half a year has gone by since he was born! It feels like it was yesterday. My life has never gone so fast! I think the reason this part of my life is going so fast is because I am not working. I think there is going to be a point in the not too far future that I am going to have to work at least part time. I dread having to go back to work full time if I ever have to.

It is so fun to watch all of the little things he can do now! I remember when he was a newborn and just sat there and couldn't do anything. It was great and boring at the same time. I loved that he couldn't go anywhere or do anything and needed me for everything. It is nice to feel needed by someone. But, I was excited for the day he started to smile and sit up and crawl and walk. I can't believe we have achieved half of those milestones already!

He is basically sitting up now. He can only sit by himself for a few seconds without falling but he sits without much help when he does have support. He has good head control but I think his big head makes it harder to balance himself - and the doctor said there is some truth to that! He was about 90% for his head size and only 20% for his weight!

He is eating both rice cereal and oatmeal cereal now and is going to try a vegetable for the first time today! I think we are going to try carrots, but we will see. He is really getting the hang of eating - he even opens his mouth for the spoon now when it comes his way! I love it! Plus it makes it a lot easier then trying to force the spoon in his mouth. We are even trying a sippy cup with water now to get him used to it for the future!

I can't wait until he sits all the time and can start creeping and crawling! Those will be the next fun milestones! I also can't wait until he starts to say words too! We need to get his 6 month pictures taken! I haven't even made the appointment yet but Todd is trying to convince me to wait until he can completely sit on his own so we can get pictures of him sitting! With our luck, we will wait and then on the day of the pictures, he will fall over every time! :)

Here are a few new pictures of my little sweetie!

Life is good.....I guess.

It is so easy in life to be mad, sad or upset about various things. I am trying to look for the good in life.

I love every day I have with my son and am so thankful for him and his life! I am sometimes overwhelmed with love for him and almost get emotional! I am amazed every day by how cute and sweet he is and I am thankful that he has been an easy baby so far. I am not sure what I would have done if I ended up with a high need baby for the first one. As it is, I am not sure if I want another child and if he was a hard baby, I think I would for sure only have him.

I am thankful for my husband. He works hard every day and is so patient with me. I am so talkative and loud sometimes and I get overly excited about things and he has this crazy ability to calm me down and reason with me.

I am thankful we have a roof over our head and food to eat everyday. Every time I think I have it so bad, I have to remember how many people don't have jobs or even homes! I have so many "luxuries" also and am realizing more and more that I have so many things are not even needs!

So while I am looking at the positive, it also makes me realize that there have been a few more rough patches in our lives than I would have liked that have made it hard to stay positive.

We are going to be paying off our hospital bills from Xander's birth for a year or more! I know we are not the first people to be in that situation, but with one income, it is almost impossible to make ends meet now.

We had not one, but TWO of the tires in my car get ruined in the last year. This car is barely three years old and each tire is $270!!!! Ridiculous! I will never own a car that has that expensive of tires again.

Our dishwasher died last year and we had to get a new one. Also, our microwave died last year and we got a new one of those also.

We took our dog Charlie to the vet earlier this year and found out he had an ear infection that our vet was going to charge over $200 to treat! On top of that, the vet bill for two routine care visits for two of our dogs was nearly $200! As a result, we ended up getting rid of our two smallest dogs since we felt that we could no longer afford them. That decision was heartbreaking but necessary.

There have been a few other things that have been frustrating and we are beginning to feel like all this bad stuff is happening to us and that we are having more than our fair share of tough stuff! :(

Again, I am just trying to remember the positive things in life and let go of the sucky stuff. This is a constant challenge.

My baby sleeps through the night!

Ok, so the title says it all. My 5, almost 6 month old, Xander, sleeps through the night every night! He sleeps in his crib which is what he has done since he was born. Many people thought I should use a bassinet and have him sleep in our room. I am not sure why, but I was opposed to that from the very beginning. I thought, if he sleeps in his crib from the beginning, we won't have any problems trying to get him to sleep in there later! I feel like I need to go knock on wood now that I have written all of that.

I have heard so many stories of kids waking up multiple times a night or sleeping with their parents and such. I know parenting and the way one parents is deeply personal and no one can tell a parent how to do their job. The parent can hear all sorts of stories and advice but ultimately has to choose for themselves what is best for their baby.

I may have given in to certain behaviors if I hadn't read the book Babywise. This book is super controversial because some people think it borders on abuse to put your baby on a schedule. I started out thinking I was going to put my baby on a schedule to get him to sleep through the night. The schedule thing didn't work out very well in the beginning, but I did take one major piece of advice. I made sure every time Xander nursed that he got a full feeding. He was so sleepy that this was a huge challenge at first. I had to do everything to keep him awake to eat! I had to take off his sleeper, blow on him, tickle him and lightly shake him since all he wanted to do was sleep!

In making him take a full feeding every time, he was able to make it longer between each feeding instead of acting like he needed to eat every hour or so. I pretty much got into a 2 1/2 to 3 hour schedule right from the beginning. His naps weren't consistent, but his feedings became that way quickly. I was able to feed him about 8 times a day every day and every day was somewhat predictable. He naturally fell into that routine because he got full feedings. I didn't have to set a schedule for him really, he basically set his own, but not in the way most people think.

He started sleeping through the night at about 7 weeks just like the book said he could. Not every baby does, but he sure did! He started out with about 5-6 hours. By about 12 weeks he was up to 7-8 hours. As I write this, he sleeps about 11 hours most nights. Some are closer to 10, but still, 10 hours!!!! That is amazing! That is without waking up or us having to go into his room to comfort him. We did have about 2 times in the last 3 months that he woke up and we had to go pat him on the back just for a minute to get him back to sleep. But that situation is the exception, not the rule.

He now eats five times a day every day and the times are the same. He goes down before 9 every night and his first feeding is always right about 8 in the morning. Then he eats at 11, 2, 5 and 8. We just started feeding him rice cereal and we are going to switch him to four feedings a day once he is fully into eating solids.

I love how predictable our days are - it makes things so much easier for me. He still doesn't have consistent nap times, but he does take 2 a day.

Since I am going to get a part time job, I am hoping his routine doesn't get thrown way off. I am going to have to work evenings so I will miss his bedtime several times a week. I am sad to not get to always experience that with him. I have put him to bed every night since he was born and I love our little routine. I just hope the rest of his day will stay the same and he will be able to stay in a routine and sleep well.

I feel a little guilty that I don't have a 'high need' baby like some people. He never had any allergies and he never spits up. He sleeps well and doesn't cry much. I can't help that this is my reality. I feel bad for people who have difficult babies. I love my baby and I know I would love him even if he was a difficult baby.

Scrapbooks

I need to work on my scrapbooks like no body's business!

I am currently waiting for pictures to load on the walmart website so I can order some to make my scrapbooks! I only have up to three months done in both of Xander's scrapbooks and he is in his sixth month, so I have two months, almost three that I need to work on! He turns six months in 10 days!!!!! Where has the time gone?

I got a cricut so I can cut out any phrases I need now for scrapbooking. That was a challenge before - I always had to use stickers and I never seemed to like the ones I had. Most of the stickers are too small for my 12x12 scrapbook so I am so excited to be able to cut the letters as I go that fit the page!

Once the pictures get here I am going to start right away on the pages so that I can actually get caught up! I have a calendar for each month in the smaller book and I am more than a month behind on filling it out! Luckily, most of the memorable days that I will write stuff about are on days that I can remember.

I will actually post some pictures of my pages once I get some more done!

My life is so boring!

I like to write on my blog, but feel like I never have anything to write about. At least not anything of interest to anyone else, but I don't really write on here for anyone but myself so I guess it doesn't matter.

I had been working out a lot for a few weeks in a row and I haven't been working out much at all this last week. I just feel so tired and can't find any motivation to work out. It wouldn't be so bad if I was sticking to a diet, but I haven't been doing that either. I really need something to motivate me. I guess that summer and smaller clothes should motivate me, but it really hasn't! I just wish being skinny was natural for me.

I bought a Cricut on ebay and got it really cheap. I used it for the first time tonight and it works really well. I am excited to get some new pictures ordered and and keep working on my scrapbook. I am a few months behind and need to work on it big time!

I am wondering if I should suck it up and go get a full time job. I hate to do it and don't want to put my son in daycare but I am not sure I see any other way to make it through until Todd gets his own store. I am beginning to wonder if he is EVER going to get his own store. Most days, it doesn't feel like it. I feel like the company has cheated us a little bit and I feel lied to. They basically promised him a store within 2-3 years. 3 years was last October and in 5 months it will be 4 years! That is too long. I understand that the economy isn't great but I know for sure there are stores open and he hasn't got one yet! To say I am upset about it is a huge understatement.

I love getting free stuff in the mail! I have gotten a few good things recently and here are a few. I got a free can of formula from Parent's Choice, a coupon for free Kashi Go Lean Waffles and coupons for $1.50 off. I also got samples of Caress body wash, Gillette body wash (for Todd) and Dove deodorant. I've gotten free dog food and food samples and great coupons too. I guess I sign up for a lot of stuff but I think it is worth it, especially since a lot of the samples have good coupons that I will actually use.

I think we are finally getting rid of cable tomorrow. I am going to take the cable box back to Cox and we are going to hook up our digital converter boxes. I know this will save us money but I will miss a few shows that I am used to watching. I think I need to watch less TV though so this will probably be a good thing.

Feeding Xander rice cereal has continued to be a challenge. He is not really getting it, but I think I need to make sure that I feed him cereal every day so he gets used to it faster. I have to start feeding him vegetables after he turns six months. Speaking of, I need to get his appointment for 6 month pictures made.

Guess I better put that on my to do list for tomorrow and make the list in general.

Nothing new....

There is absolutely nothing new in my world right now.

I have been working on feeding Xander rice cereal daily but haven't gotten to it every day. He still spits out just about as much as he swallows but he has gotten a little bit better. It is so cute though to watch him make faces and to see him sit up like a big boy in his high chair!

I admit I did my first dumpster dive tonight. I went to a local recycling center and they have one dumpster just for newspaper that was pretty clean so I went and dug out some coupons. I think this takes the cake for finding ways to save money! My husband probably thinks I am crazy but hey, money is money, right?

I am heading out tomorrow to go to the post office to send a few packages and off to a few stores for some crazy good deals! I can't help but scoop up as many bargains as possible each week! I am going to return some cardstock that was full price so I can get it on sale and probably buy a 12x12 three drawer storage container for cardstock.

I just finished half of Xander's three month layout and it is one I am actually proud of! I am so behind though and really need to work on his scrapbook in the next week or so. I have to order more pictures for the most current layouts.

I cleaned out some of my lower cupboards in the kitchen and washed a bunch of pans and bowls that we haven't used in a while. I also wanted to dig out my coffee pot to start using again soon and discovered some nasty mold as I had left coffee grounds in it before I last stored it (which was more than a year ago). YUCK!!! Oh well. I have washed it and am going to run both bleach and vinegar through it so it is completely clean. I also dug out my recipe box and am looking forward to organizing that and actually trying a few recipes that I have never tried!

Here are three pictures of Xander "enjoying" his rice cereal.