Being a young mom means we met a little early, but I get to love them longer.


Here are some links to helpful posts I have done in the past :)

Learn about car seat safety HERE!

Need breastfeeding advice? Click HERE for lots of helpful tips!

Lilypie Fourth Birthday tickers

Lilypie Second Birthday tickers

Lilypie Breastfeeding tickers

Monday, June 27, 2011

School, school, and more school..

I feel like my life is consumed by school now. I NEVER want to have to take summer classes again. Or at least, I don't want to take c-session summer classes again. I feel like speech is kicking my butt. I'm making a 96 in there, but it honestly drains me. Part of it is because the class is at 8:30 am, and as I have talked about before.. I am NOT a morning person. The other thing is I get VERY nervous when speaking in front of an audience :( And with only having 4 weeks in this class we have a speech a week! That gives me barely any time to prepare. Our first speech was 1-2 minutes long, and I made a 97 on it. Our second speech was 4-5 minutes long, and I made a 93 on it. Our midterm is Thursday, then next Thursday we have yet another speech that has to be 5-6 minutes long :(

As for the other classes, I love my psychology class, but my professor is out because she had to have back surgery, so we have basically been an online class for two weeks :( There is a reason I did not sign up for online classes!! Grace makes it very difficult to do school work, so I am thankful for being able to sit in a class and learn. She won't be back until next week :(

My physicaly education class is pretty easy. It's a lot of writing, but the assignments are simple. It's just hard to keep up with because my psychology and speech classes are so demanding. I can do this though!! It will be such a relief when July 20th gets here!! I will be free of school for 5 months! That makes up for missing my summer break. I can't stand the heat right now anyway lol.



Also, I have been working on my crafts for the kiddos. I have Grace's fleece pillow almost completely finished. I just need to get some stuffing for it. Still got to get some fleece fabric for Brentley's. I also decided I am going to make my sister a pillow for Christmas because I have some of the fleece left over from Grace's. I also started both of the regular pillowcases for Grace and Brentley. I have them ironed and pinned.. now they just need to be sewed. Next project I will be working on is the letters for Brentley's wall. I will post pics and how-tos for all of this once I get it all finished.

Friday, June 24, 2011

Okay, I'm going to admit it..

I am a little bit concerned about Grace's speech.. She is 19, almost 20, months old, and I sometime wonder if she talks enough.
I looked it up on Babycenter.com, and according to that website, as long as she has 10 words she is fine.. So I started keeping up with all the words she can say..
The words she can say perfectly clear are:
  • Mommy or mama
  • Daddy
  • Hi
  • Bye or bye bye
  • Uh oh
  • On no
  • Eat
  • Hooray
  • Wee
  • Ball
  • There
  • Two
  • Jump
  • Up
  • You
  • Open
  • Stop
  • Wow
  • No
  • Whoa
  • Boo
  • (There may be more, but this is all I have thought of so far)
Then there are the words she can say that I understand, but other people probably wouldn't:
  • "Buh" - book
  • "Cuhyer" - Color
  • "Un" - one
  • "Bah" - Bath
Then she also has a couple of "words":
  • "Ba-ba" - cup (I cannot get her to say cup for the life of me)
  • "Beet-beet" - blanket or bear (she uses it for both)
So even with the words she's made up or mispronounces she still has over ten words, so maybe I'm over-reacting. I'm just so used to her doing everything early that now when she's not way ahead on this I feel like something might be wrong..

One of the things that really concerns me is that is seems like she has lost some words..
She used to say "I love you" now it's just "I you." It's like she lost the word "love." Also, she used to say "thank you" but she will not say it anymore. And she used to say "Barney" but she doesn't say that anymore either.. And she likes me to sing the A B C's with her, but she no longer says "a b c." I think there are other words she has lost too, but I can't think of them right now..
And since she lost "love" and "thank you" she lost her only sentences.. the closest thing she has to sentence is "I you."

We asked her doctor, and she didn't seem too concerned. She said as long as she is still vocalizing then she is fine. But I still can't help, but wonder. I don't think there is anything wrong with her.. I'm just wondering if maybe her speech is delayed. Do you guys think I am over-reacting or do you think I should push the subject with her doctor?

Other than this she is doing wonderful. She is rear-facing again.. we started today, so I'm not really sure how she likes it, but she didn't really seem to mind. I plan on keeping her that way at least until her second birthday. And she can count to two now. As I said earlier, "un" = one, but she is still counting. She will put two things in front of herself, then point to one and say "un" then point to the other and say "two" then she looks at me and we clap lol.
She has lots of hair now, but she is sporting a mullet lol. I refuse to cut it yet though.
I can't believe she is going to be two in just a little over four months!!

Monday, June 20, 2011

Just Between Friends sale..

They have these Just Between Friends consignment sales all over the country, and I strongly recommend them! They are great place to find used things that don't look used lol.
I went today hoping to find a few things, but I never imagined the great deals I would get!

One of the main things I went to look for was a changing table pad.
I found this pad and cover for $7!!! I also got that wipe warmer for $5. We had that same wipe warmer for Grace, and I loved it, so when I saw it I had to get it again for Brentley.

I tried to stay away from the clothes because we have a lot of clothes already anyway, but I wanted to look for a Chistmas outfit for him. I found this one in his size. It says "Baby's first Christmas" on it. It still has the tags on it. It was originally $20, and I got it for $8 :)

I also saw one other outfit I just had to have..
It's a Carter's and it was only $4.

I also found some great deals on shoes. I got the pair on the left for $7.50. I know that sounds like a lot, but they look brand new (which is hard to find used in a shoe), and Grace needed some tennis shoes. She didn't fit in any of her old ones. The pair in the middle is a newborn shoe.. so cute! They were only $2.50. And the pair on the right are a size one.. $3.

This is the misc. stuff I got.. On the left is some scrap book stickers.. $1. In the middle is some pads that you can freeze or heat that is supposed to help relieve the pain of breastfeeding.. $4. And on the right is a Dr. Brown's sippy cup. It looks brand new.. $1.

And then this is what I consider my best buy!!

It's the Kolcraft Contours stroller :) And it came with the car seat bar for $130!! It's in almost perfect condition, and it fits in my trunk as long as we detach the seats first. I looked online and all of the ones I could find with the car seat bar were over $200! We paid less for this stroller than we would have for the Graco one, but I am already in love with this stroller! Grace likes it too.. she didn't want to get out of it when I let her sit in it lol.
Jessika, I would have walked right passed it had I not known all the cool stuff it can do lol.


Also, I had Brentley's shower invitations made..
You can't see them great in the picture, but I will be sending them out soon :)

And lastly.. I am 30 weeks now! I honestly cannot believe it.. It seems like I should only be like 10 weeks along, but I only have 10 weeks to go!! Not many new symptoms, but Brentley likes to drop at night.. when I wake up in the morning there is so much pressure down there that it is hard to walk :( It eventually goes away though.
Grace thought it would be fun to tattoo my belly the other day lol. I just let her do it because it wasn't hurting anything (the marker was washable). She LOVED it lol.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

A little bit of everything..

Well for starters, I had my first adventure with couponing today. A Dollar General opened just down the street from our house, and I got a coupon in the mail for $5 off a purchase of $20 or more. I figured I would stop in there, and get $20 worth of stuff we needed so I could get the $5 off, but I never imagined I would get such great deals!

I got all of this for $16.05!! The toilet paper was on sale for $6 each, so I got two. You can never have too much toilet paper lol, and that will last us for a long time! Plus paper towels, diaper wipes, and a huge thing of dish soap.

I also used a coupon with my baby shower decorations. I saved $10 :) I only have six things left that I need for the shower now, and they either come from Dollar Tree or Wal-Mart, except for a skirt.. if anyone knows where I can find a cute pink skirt for Grace please let me know! She needs one for her big sister outfit.

Yesterday I went and had my hair cut by Erica Morrison.. my hair had split ends, was getting too long, and had no shape, so it was badly needed.
This is what it looked like after she was done..

I really like it!!

Earlier today we took Grace to Riverbend.. a music festival in Chattanooga. It was Faith and Family night, and Casting Crowns was headlining. It is the only night that is alcohol free (I refuse to go when it's not alcohol free). And it is also only $5 for adults and free for children under 10 on Faith and Family night. We let Grace play on the water steps by the aquarium, which is considered part of Riverbend. She LOVED it. She got mad when we finally made her get out.


You can't see steps in any of the pictures because they are behind us, but there are tons of steps and she made me go up and down them at least 20 times lol. And yes, that is my big preggo belly lol. It's really poking out there now.
Once we made her get out after playing for about an hour (which is a LONG time for her), she crashed lol.

We walked around for a little while after that, but it was super crowded, and we didn't stay for the whole Casting Crowns concert part. They didn't start until 9:30 pm, and we left just before 10 pm.

Well here is where my horrible luck comes into play.. we go back to our car and there is a parking ticket!! It was issued at 7:28 pm for not paying the parking fee. Well I have the receipt that proves that at 7:12 pm we paid for up to 4 hours of parking! Our time did not expire until 11:12 pm, and we got back to our car right around 10!! I honestly cannot figure out why we were issued a parking ticket. I didn't put the receipt on the dash, but it said we didn't have to, so that wasn't it. Some of the spots were reserved for local businesses, but we saw that and made sure we didn't park there, so it wasn't that. The parking space number on the space we were in, on the ticket, and on our receipt match, so we did not put the wrong space number in. We have parked in that exact parking garage for Riverbend before, and there were no signs anywhere that said we couldn't. The only thing I can think up is that the person who issued us the ticket just assumed we would go over our time limit because Riverbend doesn't usually end until around midnight, so whoever it was just decided to go ahead an issue us a ticket 16 minutes after we parked there! I already sent in an appeal, and unless someone can give me a legitimate reason that we receive the ticket, I will NOT be paying it. Period. We are not the type of people who don't pay. We have never parked downtown and not paid. I actually paid when I didn't have to one time (I didn't know that I didn't have to). And to beat it all.. there are people parked EVERYWHERE. People were literally lining the entrance and exit ramps on the interstate, and we passed a car on an entrance ramp who was parked half way in the road, yet NONE of them had parking tickets on their windows!! I just don't understand it AT ALL. I'll keep you guys updated on this issue as it moves forward.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

A little bit of randomness..

I took this picture this morning at 28 weeks and 5 days :)

I'm still nesting like crazy. I have completely cleaned everything out of Grace's room that she does use/fit in anymore. If anything was gender neutral it is now in Brentley's room, and everything is completely organized in there.

My Pell grant came in, and so far I have ordered my shower invitations ($12), and bought a hot glue gun, glue sticks, blue ribbon, and blue spray paint to fix the letters for his wall ($14). Unfortunately it's raining out today, so I can't spray paint them yet :( I was excited to get started on them. Next I am going to buy my shower decorations. I want to go to Party City and get what I can there, then whatever they don't have I am going to order online.
We also have to see about getting my car fixed, and pay off the precinct for my shower. Then whatever is left is going to be put up until after the shower for us to get whatever else we need for Brentley, Grace's birthday, and Christmas.


Last thing.. Chris and I used to go to the drag strip all the time before Grace and while I was pregnant with her. On Tuesday we took her for the first time since the womb lol. There was one really loud car that scared her, but for the most part she really liked it.. she had a lot of fun running around in the grass.




Monday, June 6, 2011

Uggg... sometimes people can be so ignorant!

So yesterday we took Grace to church. Brittany and her mom were in the nursery, and Brittany said Grace did pretty well as long as she didn't leave her side :p Sorry Brittany! Lol. But anyway.. when I was picking Grace up I was talking to Brittany, and this guy came in to pick up his son. Somebody mentioned something about the son not looking so hot, and the dad said something about how the son had been running a fever throughout the weekend. I remember thinking, "Well then why the heck did you bring him in here around the other kids??" But then I didn't think much more about it..
Well, around 8pm last night Grace's nose started running, then she ran a fever on and off all night. She barely slept at all! I gave her some medicine this morning because she was running a fever again, and her nose has been running like a faucet all day! I highly doubt that this is a coincidence. I am almost positive that she caught whatever that little boy had, and I am not too happy about it at all! If you know your child has been running a fever all weekend why on earth would you bring that child to the church nursery?? I would never do that!! Grace hasn't been sick in months.. my poor baby :( I hope it goes away quickly.

Also, this is unrelated, but am I tacky because I want to have a second baby shower? People on cafemom are saying it's "tacky." Heck, I just like to throw parties, and if people don't bring gifts I could care less. It would help us out, but I'm not going to be mad if people don't. There were a couple of people who told me they wouldn't be able to afford a gift for Grace shower.. they didn't bring one, but I didn't mind because we all still had a great time. Plus, this baby is the opposite sex, so we don't have a lot of stuff we can use for him. We are only inviting close friends and family, and as I have said before, I am not expecting anyone to buy us big ticket items. But now I feel like maybe I am going to make people think I am greedy or something.. what do you guys think?

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Grace's new bathing suit..

Grace was out growing the other bathing suit, and we still have lots of summer left, so I went and got her a new one.




We went swimming at the Y today, and she looked so cute!


I'm 28 weeks along now :) My newest symptom is that I am nesting like crazy. I feel like I have to be cleaning constantly, so last night I ended up completely cleaning out Grace's drawers and closet. I had all her summer stuff in a giant laundry basket because I didn't have room for it in the closet because of her winter clothes.. but now all her clothes that don't fit her anymore are packed up, and all her summer clothes are hung up in the closet :) Not only that, but I organized her closet by clothes type.. dresses, tops, bottoms, and outfits.


I actually like this symptom though because I usually hate cleaning lol, but now I actually want to clean, so it works out well. I want to have a perfectly clean home to bring Brentley to.

Friday, June 3, 2011

4D Pics!!!



He has his eye open in this one.

A mustache!! Lol, she said the cord was in front of his face, but it looks like he has a mustache.



I love these last 3.
This one is my favorite :)




He has Chris' mouth.


She measured him and he weighs right at 3lbs, and he is measuring at 29 weeks. I won't even be 28 weeks until tomorrow.. Just like I thought, he is a big boy!!! And yes, he is still a boy lol. She couldn't get any good pictures of it, but he is definitely a boy.

Things we still need for him:
--First of all - the car seat. I am still not sure if we are going to get the double stroller right away, but we are still planning on getting the Graco car seat that matches it.

-- His bed set

-- My 35363534563 different breastfeeding supplies

-- A pad for his changing table

-- Blue spray pain, blue ribbon, and a hot glue gun so I can put the letters on his wall

-- A baby bath tub

-- The vibrating/bouncing chair

-- The diaper bag

-- Body support for his car seat (we had one with Grace and I loved it)

-- A going home outfit

Those are all the things we will absolutely need before he is born.. we may get some of it at our shower, so we aren't going to buy any of it until after the shower unless we find a great deal or something.

--I would like a rocking chair and the double stroller, but don't have to have those things, so we'll see how much we have left after my shower and buying everything we need for him that we didn't get at the shower