Ally is now 8-months old, that means only 4 months till her 1^st birthday.  Yup, I’m already planning ahead!  Hey, if I plan ahead I can get more things done without stressing along with budgeting for all the supplies needed for the celebration. Okay enough about the future; I’m here to chat about the past month…

The hardest part of this past month was the transition back to work.  Of course the holidays are one of the most joyous times but they are also the busiest.  I didn’t expect these kids to have such a hard time.  At first it was Bode only where he was acting up going on constant time outs, hitting his friends, and refusing to nap and bothering his friends who were sleeping.  But when he made a comment about being a baby I quickly realized that he was jealous of Ally going to Olga’s.  He was no longer the baby and when I was at home it was different because Ally was just with me but now she is at Bode’s old stomping grounds and he started to revert and act like a baby.  Through some bribery he slowly got better but it’s going to take some more time to get back to normal.  Ally was okay the first week, lots of crying or whining at daycare but by the second week she wasn’t sleeping through the night making it difficult for both Matt and I to function at our jobs.  This is the first time where Matt has had to help out since I too need my sleep at night because of work and unfortunately we were both feeling the effects.  Therefore our 930p bedtime was definitely something to look forward to at the end of the day. By the end of this month Ally was now enjoying her time at daycare, smiling and not crying the minute I walk in the door to be held.  While Bode is still not taking naps, he is however behaving better and has made huge improvements overall.

Sleeping/Feeding

We are now at 8-months and I’m still breastfeeding (even though I’m pumping now for 2 feedings).  She eats 2 meals a day, usually at lunchtime and dinnertime, and takes 2 naps a day which equal to about 3 hours total.  My feedings look like this – 6am milk, 9am milk, 11am lunch, 3pm milk, 5pm milk, 6pm dinner, and a dream-feed at 930pm.  So far she is still mostly eating grains, fruits, and vegetables.  I tried introducing yogurt the other day and she loved it so I think we’ll include it more often for some variety. She typically goes to bed before 7pm and gets up around 6am but since going back to work her sleep schedule has been a little messed up.  Hopefully she’ll get back to her regular routine soon.

Miscellaneous

We finally have a backwards crawler and she is really good at sitting up on her own.  Today, on her actual 8^th month ‘birthday’, she did one small crawl forward; therefore we are now predicting her fully crawling in the next few weeks.  Since we already have the house baby proofed, we’ll have to just watch out for Bode’s toys since so many of them have little pieces that I can see Ally putting in her mouth.

Ally had her first New Year’s (minus the celebration).  Grandpa and Grandma Hank came over to watch the kids so we could enjoy a night out with our friends (Brent and Katie Nash).  Matt and I haven’t been on that many dates lately so it was really nice to get away for a few hours.  But it was really hard to recover after staying up till midnight (and having a 5am wakeup call the next day).

Allyson got her third tooth on December 18^th and about a week later the 4^th tooth popped up too!  It’s funny because they aren’t her top middle teeth; they are the two upper ‘canine’ teeth that came through.

Diaper size – size 2, but I put her in 3’s at nighttime so the transition to 3’s all day is coming soon!

Clothing size –6-9 month clothes

Nicknames – Al, Ally, Ally-Boo, Ally-Bear

8-Month Hair color – brown, more and more hair is coming every day!

8-Month eye color –blue

8-Month Weight –  TBD

8-Month Height –  TBD

What’s up with Bode?

We had a lot of fun this holiday season with Bode.  Santa (along with the grandparents) brought Bode lots of fun toys to play with; he must have been on the ‘nice list’ this year.  It was also nice to see both of his aunts and uncle for the holidays since we don’t see them very often right now.

2013

Looking back on 2013, it was a great year!  The year began with me being about half way through my pregnancy and Bode in full terrible two’s.  This pregnancy was rough with the morning sickness waves but I maintained a good schedule of keeping active and being a working mommy.

In my opinion, the terrible twos peaked around the arrival of Allyson and got slightly better with each month.  Allyson arrived in May and helped complete our little family of four.  She has been a little more challenging than I remember Bode being but I have grown so close to her over the past few months.  Maybe it’s because she is my youngest, my baby, but I feel like so protective over her.  I look at her beautiful innocence and want her to stay little and perfect forever.  This little girl has truly stolen my heart and has me wrapped around her little finger.

My relationship with Bode has also changed a lot this year. He has always been a Daddy’s boy since the very beginning but this year I started to notice a Mama’s boy coming out.  We had the opportunity to have a few dates over the fall months and since then we have bonded so much more than ever before.  I felt like it had been too many months of yelling and the word “NO” or “Stop doing that” or other negative verbiage, it was finally nice to just laugh a little without any other distractions.  Bode will always be my little angel, the gift that made me a mommy and I would do anything for this kid.  But I find it funny how I have higher expectations of him, even though he’s only three I expect him to be the big brother already or maybe it’s just my maternal instincts trying to teach him to be the caregiver and protect his little sister.  So far I’m loving 3-years old, so much talking and interacting, like a real little man.

Yes, my year was mostly based around my kids and I wouldn’t change it for anything.  I will never get this time back, the time when my kids are young and innocent and rely on me for everything.  I’m embracing this moment and not rushing into working out, or making gourmet meals, or keeping the house spotless every day because I don’t want to miss a thing.  I’m not as young as my mom was when she had me but I feel like I’m thankful that I have kids at this age, when I’m still young enough to have energy but also mature enough to have had enough life experiences to make the best decisions for my family.  At the end of this year I finally returned to work and so far it’s been a hard transition for everyone.  But I’m hoping as time goes on these changes in our routine will get easier and we will all get settled in.  Thank you 2013 for good health and lots of happiness

Here’s a link to my photo montage for 2013:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151839297803365&l=3520739799995218248

2014

Moving in to 2014 I am looking forward to continuing to watch both of my babies grow.  Bode is in preschool and will be moving into Pre-K in the fall (along with turning 4-years old in October).  Ally will start to move (crawl/walk) and maybe even some talking too before her 1^st birthday in May.  Matt and I celebrate our 5-year anniversary in April and I’m looking forward to making more time for dates without the kids since the 1^st year of Ally’s life has been hard to get alone time out.  Both of my sisters-in-law graduate in May; Katie from undergrad in Delaware and Maggie from grad school in Hawaii.  Our best friends have finally set a date and in July 2014 they will be saying ‘I do’ in Santa Barbara County.  Along with the wedding, there will be other opportunities to celebrate leading up to the event.  Another best friend will be having her first baby in February and I couldn’t be happier especially since she is having a girl.

I have also decided to write down a few New Year’s Resolutions for 2014, things that I feel will help better me.  Even though I’m not a new mom, I easily forget to take care of myself.  It took me almost 2 years to start putting ME first after I had Bode and its taking me some time to do the same with Ally.  However, I’m trying to be realistic and hopefully by the time Ally is 1 I will have started taking time for myself which I know will in turn make me a better person…

1. Read for 30 minutes at least 5 days a week
2. Do some type of physical fitness at least 3 days a week
3. Make time for myself at least once/month to do something for ME (i.e. go on a long run or walk, girls day out, shopping alone, get my nails done…)