3 + 4 / 52.

Tatum 3 + 4: Photos from a quiet afternoon at home. Cartoons + playing with laundry...

Currently playing catch-up and I'm totally cheating! Week 3 we were busy with moving. Week 4 my computer was out of commission, due to a dead battery. Luckily, it has now been replaced! See you soon with week 5.

keeping busy.

Recently I picked up quite a few more books and some flash cards to keep Tatum and I a bit more busy throughout the day. It's made for a nice little change. She couldn't care less about the French flash cards (unless she's chewing on them), but that's okay. FOR NOW. <-------Kidding.

She loves reading her books together, as do I.
And she really loves her flash card flip book. It was free with our order, so I figured, why not? It's pretty neat, and a major plus to it is that it has laminated pages. So, T can bite, chew, drool on them all the live long day. She's happy, I'm happy.

I really love all of the books we purchased except for "I Kissed the Baby."
It's just...not my scene. My friend Bridgette told me she felt the same way, but did point out that the pictures are at least good for babies (b + w, with pops of color). Silver lining!
My favorite of the books is probably "Happy Hippo, Angry Duck." I do some really cool voices with it, so it's fairly entertaining if I do say so myself.

I think I'm going to pick up some child style musical instruments soon, too. Just for fun!

Parents, what sorts of activities do you like to do with your babies?
Any book recommendations?

on giving in for sanity's sake.

Lately there have been quite a few times where I've given in to Tatum's wishes for the sake of my sanity. I'm of the camp that thinks this is perfectly okay and actually quite important for one's mental health.

But (and this is KEY, people!) always make it seem like it was your idea.
Great parenting tip, right?

So, when Tatum wanted to get our friend Boyd's socks out of his clean laundry pile and play with them? I got them out for her and undid the rubber bands that kept them together. Then, I threw them all in the air and yelled, "SOCK PARTYYYY."

When Tatum was non-stop fussing, nothing was helping, and I just wanted to drink a dang cup of coffee? I said, "I have an idea! Let's watch an episode of Dora!" Gets her every time.

See, I'm still the boss, just more of a Michael Scott type at times. And what's so wrong with that?

on growing up + independence.

I took these the morning we left for San Francisco (Saturday). Tatum was helping me pack by entertaining herself with eating her Plum Organics puffs and reading her new book, "Noodle Loves to Eat."

She loves those dang puffs.

Also: teeth. TEETH, you guys. She's had those two for a few weeks, but they are just now starting to look like full on, tiny human teeth. They kill me. Honestly, she barely looks (or acts) like a baby to me anymore, and I'm not always sure how to feel about that.

On one hand, I love the freedom that she has now; she can get her toys, feed herself (bottles and food), keep herself entertained. All of that is really neat for her + really helpful for me, of course. But at times I do feel a sadness that she doesn't necessarily need me to feed her, hold her, help her out. 

Although, it does make the times when she wants me to do those things, even better.

So that is how I try to look at it. 

When she was small(er), she had to have me around for everything. She didn't have a choice. Now she can choose, and when she chooses ME, that just might be the best feeling ever.

teething.

Teething is in full swing over in these parts.
For the past few days Tatum has had a runny/stuffy nose and Robin (Josh's mom) told us that that can be a sign of teeth coming in.
It could be coincidence, but I'm pretty sure she was right, and it is related.
Tonight we found that her two little bottom teeth are popping through.
I can't wait to see that toothy little smile.

In addition to the nose stuffiness, she was also in a terrible, sad, whiney mood today.
Obviously I get it.
I'd be pissed if I had teeth cutting my gums, too. Sorry, sister.

Baby bad mood = I need a brownie.
It's no homemade, straight from the oven goodness, but it'll do.
Love you, Debbie.
<3

what monday night looked like.

1. This is partially how tonight has looked. Happy and silly.
2. Cliche blogger feet picture. // Alien toes.
3. This is mostly how tonight has looked. She has pretty much refused all methods of cheering up.
4. I forgot that I hung my towel on the coat rack "for a second" until tonight.
5. One thing that I will miss about our house when we move: The color scheme of our living room.

Josh is out of town tonight, so it's just me and T-Dawg.
After she goes to bed I'll watch some Lost, eat fifty handfuls of dark chocolate covered blueberries (I made them! Look out, Martha.), and maybe do a little house cleaning.

Dream big, Lyds! Seriously, though. This is my kinda night.

a walk with my lady.

After Tatum's morning nap yesterday we went for a walk around our neighborhood. Initially, I had planned on it being a 3 mile walk, which would take about an hour. When that time came, I decided to do it for another hour. I walked about 5-6 miles. And seriously, it was so easy. I've gone on really small walks in the area before, but never covered as much territory, so it was pretty boring. I've also never brought Tatum along before, but from now on I definitely will. It honestly made the walk so much easier, fun, and the time went by SO fast.

If you're wanting to start exercising, but don't know where to start/feel overwhelmed, I would strongly recommend just going on walks. Obviously, I eventually would love to progress to running (no jogging stroller yet!), but for now this is totally good with me. Easy, effective workout!

I plan on doing this, along with doing Ripped In 30 at least one time, 5 days a week.

Interesting things we saw on our walk:

+ Two cats with litters of kittens. GIVE ME.
+ Some scary dogs that popped up out of nowhere! (From behind a fence, thankfully.)
+ Josh! This was so funny...He knew we were going out for a walk, but didn't know how long. He just assumed an hour. He accidentally fell asleep, and when he woke up and we weren't home he went driving around searching for us. Dork. Love him.

{No, she is not properly strapped in in this photo. I know this! If we were in the car, it would be much different.}

As you can see, Tatum was really exhausted at the end of our workout. Sister worked hard!

zoo day.

For Tatum's 6 month birthday we went to the zoo.
It was her very first time there, and to say that she didn't care is basically the biggest understatement of all time.
That's okay, though! Josh and I still had lots of fun.

My absolute favorite part was seeing the tamarins! I've seen them at zoos before, but never really noticed how adorable they are. In fact, when we were looking at them, I actually said, "You are the cutest things of all time!" And then, I looked down at Tatum and said, "Besides you, obviously."
But seriously...tamarins.

Oh, wait. Change of heart! I really loved the tamarins, but right after I typed that out, I remembered the giraffes. That was actually the best. For real the best. We bought some crackers to feed them, and that was super neat because Tatum got to feed one! Doesn't she look cute doing it? (Minus that whole tongue deal we've got going on these days. Maybe she was trying to be like her little {ha} giraffe friend.)

The worst parts of the zoo were the alligators and giant nasty koi fish (at least, I think they were koi?). You can see pictures of both of my traumatic experiences above. For starters, the alligators: They wouldn't have been so bad, except they were fighting over a dead white rabbit. Enough said. Secondly: Giant. Nasty. Fish. They have disgusting mouths. One had a wonky eye. Shudder.

Before we left we stopped by the gift shop to get something for Tatum as a keepsake. Turns out, the kid loves zoo memorabilia. Everything we showed her was hilarious. It was non-stop laughter the whole ten minutes we were in there. We decided on a monkey hand puppet. She still thinks he's funny, so that's good.

I miss the tamarins and their weird little faces.
Good thing we're going back in a few weeks when family visits!

P.S. That picture of T and Josh is my new favorite ever.

the baby love of my life.

Finally, there are pictures of the two of us. I'm so happy to have this memory.

we know, we're awesome.

{a top knot AND hipster glasses?! i'm such a blogger cliche!}

However, she is slightly more awesome...

I'm okay with it.

0 months to 3 months // Baby Monster

YOU GUYS. Check out my baby big head! I love her. Even if, when we're in the middle of an obviously important photo shoot, she pulls my hair and makes this happen:

She's obviously not sorry about it, either. Just look at that face...There's a reason we call her Baby Monster.

For Anyone Who Likes Cute Babies...

This post is for you.

 

So far, San Francisco has been great. We haven't done anything "touristy" yet, and that stuff will probably be kept to a minimum this time, since we did some of it last year. Our big plans for this time around are to go to Alcatraz (beyond excited!) and to the Walt Disney Family Museum (beyond excited again!).

Basically we've just done some shopping + eating. Which I'm totally fine with. Because I love both of those things. : )