Comparing Notes

Here's a side by side comparison of Mason at age one month and Claire at age one month. I'm not sure they look that much alike. You can tell they are related, but overall they look different. She has different cheekbones, a different mouth, less hair, and a thinner face. According to my mom, Claire looks a whole lot more like me as a baby (especially in build) than Mason did. Mason has always looked so much like his dad. Time will tell, but I think I need to apologize to Claire for passing on my freakishly huge/long feet.

Personality-wise, I'm not sure where they stand as far as similarities go. I can't remember all that much about six-week-old Mason's personality, other than he ate a lot and really hated being woken up. He was born in the winter, so it took longer to catch on to this, but they are both really outdoorsy. Claire will actually turn her head toward the sun and make content little noises. The first time I remember thinking Mason loved outside was when we took him camping at five months old. He sat in his bouncy chair and stared at the trees moving all day long. I have a feeling Claire will do the same thing given the opportunity.

I'm hoping Claire takes after Mason in sleeping, though. He slept consistently through the night at eight weeks and has never really looked back. Claire has had a couple of all-nighters already, but she seems to be a stickler for that 3:30 am time slot. I have admit that I like it, too. It's my only real chance to spend some one-on-one quiet time with her so I can know all this stuff!

Another week, another trip to the grocery store

Hey, look! I'm keeping up with something I started! Here is our menu plan for the next couple of weeks:

Black Bean Burritos ($8.70, most stuff on hand)
Jerk Chicken Pineapple Pasta ($5.78)
Sausage Potato Bake and green salad (about $10.00)
Meatloaf, mashed potatoes & gravy, corn (for Father's Day, no recipe) ($9.50)
Grilled Halibut with pineapple salsa and rice (Harmon's salsa, no recipe) ($14.63)
Honey Chicken Kabobs and green salad (I'm going to half this recipe) ($10.50)

Treat: Peach Cobbler with vanilla ice cream (one of the few desserts Alan truly enjoys, also for Father's Day) ($10.46)

Also, I'm not very inventive with healthy side dishes. If anyone has a good idea for fresh fruit and veggie sides that aren't just a plain green salad, I would love to have it!

The Fastest Month Ever

I realized this morning that Claire is officially one month old today. This last month has flown by in a blur of activities ranging from the frequent feeding of a newborn to finally taking Mason to the zoo so he could blow off some steam.

In this brief time, I've been enjoying our new little girl and getting to know her. Here is some of what I've learned.

Likes: snuggling with mom, stretching her arms over her head, napping outside, watching her big brother, listening to music of any kind, being rocked to sleep

Dislikes: being put down, when others are upset, having her feet touched, her carseat/being in the car

Miscellaneous Facts: she will tolerate a bath and diaper change with ease, is the creator of the "Super Burp" (a burp so loud and forceful everyone should experience it once), and can clear a room with a single episode of flatulence

Learning Experiences

So Mason developed this really red rash on his face a couple of days ago. No, I didn't take pictures. But I thought maybe it was from the constant presence of Thomas tattoos on his sensitive skin. We had to buy replacements when he was refusing to shower, and the short story is that he's been wearing tattoos in some form, on both cheeks, for the last three weeks. Well, the rash started on his cheeks. I thought maybe I'd scrubbed a little too hard removing the last batch of tattoos, but it spread. So here's our first learning experience: if you ever have to remove temporary tattoos, Mary Kay Eye Makeup Remover with cotton balls does the trick gently and with minimal elbow grease.

Secondly, I had been using Febreze in Mason's room to help combat the smell involved when he has an overnight accident that soaks through his pillow case. This was the actual source of the allergic reaction. I had a hard time figuring out what would only involve his face, hands, and forearm. After replacing his sheets and pillow, the rash is all but gone. I guess we won't be using Febreze any more! Apparently they make pillow protectors for just such a scenario, though. When I'm not totally crippled by getting both kids out of the house (in other words, when my husband is home), I will be making a run to find something of that sort.

Third, regular Cortisone cream will make a three year old cry. They have a "cooling relief" gel that is wonderful. He didn't even rip his arms away while I was rubbing it on.

Now if I could get him NOT to grab the hot curling iron like he did yesterday, we'll be in business. Fortunately, he was "testing" to see if it was hot, so he just burned one spot on one finger. And the highly recommended aloe with lidocaine did the trick. Thanks, Kristi!

"F" is for Effort

I'm one of those people who isn't very flexible. I function on a routine much better, so I've been trying to get back on top of something since Claire joined our family. The first thing I did was prepare our menu and haul the kiddos to the grocery store (don't be too impressed, Alan was home and that's why I did it yesterday!). But I also conquered an on-going problem. First off, I take a majority of my recipes off the internet, but when I go to cook the meal I have to print the recipe off if I can find the website. Also, the ways I've done it in the past, we don't know what's on hand. Alan doesn't necessarily know what the options are, so he can't provide input into what sounds good.

So I made a folder to sit by the fridge, in which I will print the recipes as I decide to use them. I can use them as a reference there for my grocery list and then clip the list of meals and what I planned to make with them for side dishes. Here's what we're making over the next couple of weeks:

Texas Lasagna with green salad
($19.17, split for two families-bagged salad is pricey!)
Sweet & Sour Chicken with added veggies and brown rice
($6.34--we have 90% of the stuff on hand)
Chicken Stroganoff with green salad ($7.76)
BLTs (we also add an egg--we're weird) with Carrot Apple Salad
($12.52)
Grilled BBQ Chicken with Springtime Pasta Salad
($3.40)

Treat: Strawberry Kabobs ($21.93 for approx 20)

Anyone jealous that our schedules are so jam-packed we only fix five dinners over two weeks? Plus, all of these things except the BLTs will have leftovers.

Also, totally unrelated, we are using Nestle Good Start formula to supplement Claire's feedings, so if anyone receives coupons for this they aren't going to use, please let me know because I will take them.

Life In Progress

A few random snapshots from our week:

Food coma

Shaving like Dad

Mason's a diaper-changing Big Helper

Mason=garbage truck

former toy golf bag=garbage can he's emptying

Burrito baby at her most content
The harrassee becomes the harrasser

Two Week Checkup

We took Claire in for her two-week checkup a few days ago. Overall she is healthy, but she is still down several ounces from her birthweight. That means the doctor wants me to start jumping through hoops like I did with Mason; I'm breastfeeding her, pumping what she doesn't eat before she dozes off, feeding her the pumped breastmilk, and then supplementing with formula if necessary. It was discouraging at first to hear that she hasn't been gaining weight. But I'm glad she's healthy overall. We can work on the weight gain.

Mason has been such a great big brother. He rushes to check on her when she cries, offers her a pacifier even if she's busy eating, and loves to help us with every aspect of her care. Plus, whenever her eyes are open he loves to talk to her. Her eyes get big when he's around; I think he's her own personal cartoon character because he's always so full of energy. He constantly asks us about "my baby" and asks if we "think she's cute". For the record, Mason, yes we do. It's why we're willing to hang in through long nights and deal with that little cry (I call it her cry of righteous fury--this girl can cry LOUD); it's why we're willing to ask you to do it, too.

Better than Etsy

Some of you may not know that Mason was such a prolific spit-upper that I still have a huge collection of cloth diapers-turned-burp cloths. They are the only thing I used with him, and were so great that I had planned to use them again with Claire.



I don't know if my sweet mother-in-law had thought of any of this when she saw this super cute gift idea. It is also something even my sewing impaired self could duplicate for friends. She just took cloth diapers and paired them with some cute ribbon; attached the ribbon to the two sides where the centered thicker portion of the diaper, and used a small, simple stitch all the way around each length of ribbon.



With another length of ribbon, she used hot glue to attach cute accenting buttons to a clip (some are plastic, some are metal), and looped one end of the ribbon through the clip before finishing the loop with a stitch across the top. She made a bigger loop on the bottom and sewed it closed. I thought these were very clever and cute pacifier clips, but I won't be able to use them unless I switch pacifiers. I love the Soothies brand, but I hate how they don't work with normal pacifier clips.