Oh how time flies

At about 6 1/2 months, Ashley got the hang of crawling and since then I've been chasing her all over the place! She's such a busy girl. Now she's starting to pull up on stuff, which is great but also results in a lot of her also falling off of stuff and getting really mad about it.

So much has happened in one month. She went from being just a roller to this crawling, climbing, babbling machine! And the other day I attempt to take a gander in to her mouth to see 3 TEETH cutting through. She's growing and changing so fast!

Here's a few 6 month pics of my awesome little girl.

I don't bother much with socks anymore because she just takes them off and eats them. Yum!

Oh the faces she makes....

Testing out her new dining chair.

Big teething cheeks!

Testing out the new area rug. I believe it is Ashley approved.

She loves her jumperoo so much that she often jumps herself to sleep.

She loves to follow the dog around. They are both so curious about each other.

Being a little devious, getting in to the dog bed after mommy said no. :)

Dawww... 

6 months!

Ashley turned 6 months old on the 29th, so I'm a little late on my post, but half a year definitely deserves a mention! :) Time has really sped up since this wonderful little girl came in to my life! Can't believe we are here already!

She had her 6 months shot right on her monthaversary which is no fun. I thought they would be easier this time, but around 8pm that night she was screaming because her leg was hurting her and running a bit of a fever. I felt so bad for her, but I got to get in lots of comforting cuddling which she doesn't usually let me do, so I'll take what I can!

She is on the verge of crawling! She can roll all over the place... and she literally does roll ALL OVER the place. :) She can get up on all fours and get right in to the crawl position, she just hasn't figured out those knees yet! She can also sit with a little assistance, grab at smaller objects, and she screams lots... fun baby screams of course!

Here's a photo of her from this morning. We're still unpacking... not fun for us, but lots of fun for her!

Meetup Groups

I've been on maternity leave for 5 1/2 months so far, and now that Ash is a little older, I find myself needing more things to do with her during the day. I found a meetup group in my area, and I just joined! I'm so excited to start meeting other moms and have Ash socialize with other children. It looks like it will be a good group. They do all kinds of things from play dates at people's houses, to mom's night out (which I am in dire need of). I'm not the most social of people because I'm really shy but I think it's time to go outside my comfort zone for the sake of my sanity and for my daughter! I don't want her to be as shy as me if I can help it. :)

Yay!

I just finished making another diaper. Well... I haven't made inserts for it yet, and am just using the ones from some of my Fuzzibunz, but I need the right material for that.

I am so proud! I bought a new sewing machine, and it works sooooooo much better than the old one. This one took no time at all! It's a pocket diaper, complete with PUL and all!

Yay me!!

5 1/2 months!

Time is really starting to fly with my baby girl! She's not crawling yet, but I think it's coming very soon. She's up on all fours a lot trying to propel herself forward. The times of plopping her in one place will soon be over and replaced by me chasing her all over the house... and I can't wait! It's going to be so much fun!!! :) :) :)

Oh Brother...

After my last proud post about having made the diaper, I tried to make another one, and my old machine just kept jamming and doing all kinds of things that were making me nuts.. So I bought a new sewing machine. Wasn't sure what kind to go with, but my mom told me good things about the Brother machines, so I went with that.

I bought a computerized machine, which I have never used before... and WOW! What a difference. It is so quiet, and so precise! Why didn't I buy one of these sooner before I destroyed half the material that I bought!? Hindsight... 20/20 right?

Anyway, I've been having loads of fun with it while Ashley naps, I can't wait to make more awesome diapers!!!

Woman of the cloth

Cloth diapers that is!

I believe I posted a while back that at 3 months, I started using cloth diapers on Ashley. Well, I'm still using them, and I love them.

What you don't know is that I've taken it upon myself to start making them as well. I made my first Pocket Diaper with PUL a couple of days ago, and here it is:

There is some definite tweaking that has to happen, because my stitching needed to be done with polyester thread, and I think some of it was cotton which lead to leaks from the stitching in the legs... But it's all trial and error at this point. This diaper will be okay to use as a fitted with a cover, but I will have to get polyester thread and try again with the PUL and hope for better results..

Of course, since this is my first go, I'm proud nonetheless, and I figured it wouldn't be perfect since I'm using cheap Walmart PUL. When I get better at this, then I'll spend a little more $$ on the more expensive PUL.

I intend to start making more and selling them on my etsy shop, along with knitted soakers and skirties... but I want to make sure that I put these ones through rigorous testing first, and anything I sell will be made out of better quality materials. :)

Anyway, just a little update from my crafty self. I'm taking a break from knitting to basically learn sewing all over again, since I haven't touched my sewing machine in well over 10 years, I'm surprised the thing still works... It must be 20 years old by now.. :)

5 months!

Ashley is going to be five months old in six days. I felt this needed it's own post. :) It's unbelievable how fast the time as gone and how much my little monkey has grown!

From about 3-4 months, she wasn't sleeping very well at night. She was waking every two hours. It was exhausting — for her and for me. Somewhere around 4 months and week though, she decided to start sleeping again even better than before! I got 8 hour nights for a week straight!! Then she regressed a bit and now she seems to be sleeping pretty well again. It's amazing how a good 5-8 hour stretch of sleep does wonders for both Ashley and I!

At 4 months, I started giving her cereal. She's a breast fed baby, so they say not to feed solids until 6 months, but she was always so hungry, especially around bed time. I give her the cereal about an hour before she goes to bed, and that seems to help... though it didn't at first. I'm not sure if this is what is helping her to sleep better, but I'll keep going with it. She seems to like the cereal too.

Ashley started rolling over at 2 1/2 months, but she was only rolling every now and again. In the last month, she rolls all over the place!! She also rolls at night, and if I wasn't using a sleep positioner to keep her in one place, she would never sleep because she would be rolling everywhere!!

5 months... wow.... FIVE MONTHS! It seemed like things were moving along slowly until I realized how much time has actually gone by. It's crazy!

And now... some pictures of Ashley... the best part of this post!

Random fact: I have over 2815 photos on my iPhone. 99.9% of those photos are of Ashley.... :)

New house!

Not sure if any readers will remember, but DH and I bought a new house. The new house closed on the 18th, and our current house will close on Aug 23. We're officially going to move in to the new house on Saturday. I am so so so excited!

We've been moving boxes over to the house all week, and bringing Ashley over there during the day so she can get used to her new surroundings. She's a lucky girl. For her 5 monthaversary she gets a new house! :)

We love the house. Since it was brand new we got to pick all the tiles, cabinets, flooring etc... in the house, and when we got the keys we rushed in to see what all the stuff we picked looked like. Love the results!

Here's Daddy and Ashley standing in our new kitchen waiting for the appliances to come!

Skirties!!

Because I'm in this cloth diapering world now, I started knitting skirties! I'm proud to say that the pattern is my own concoction!

Basically, skirties are knit out of wool and worn over fitted cloth diapers as covers to contain everything. The wool is covered in lanolin to keep things dry.

Some of these ones are acrylic, so just for show because I only use all in one pocket diapers, but I think I might start making more wool ones and selling them on etsy at some point. They are pretty fun to make!

Freedom!

I'm a graphic designer, so prior to having DD I was on my computer ALL THE TIME. Since having her though, I haven't had much opportunity to get to my stationary computer, and I miss blogging and just generally being able to type, since doing so on my iPhone is just a pain!

Sooo... DH and I decided to sell my iMac and get me a laptop! It came yesterday, and it's all kinds of awesome! I feel like I have some freedom! I'm typing in a Cafe right now while DD sleeps! 

I don't know if every city has one of these cafes, but it is called the Sippy Cup Cafe, and it's a regular cafe at the front, and in the back there is room for kiddies to play. It's the one cafe where it's okay if DD starts screaming her face off, and they have really awesome drinks and paninis. Heaven for a mom on mat leave with nothing else to do... Although I say that loosely, I'm sure there is tons of stuff I could be doing while she sleeps... Like packing... we're moving in 10 days... LOL

I'm Alive!!

I know it's been a while since I've posted, but I have not given up on blogging! In fact, a new laptop will arrive some time this week, and I will get rid of the stationary computer I have in my basement that I can never seem to get to anymore. Pretty excited about that... anyway.. Update time!!

So, miss Ashley is now 4 months and a week old! She is a wonderful little tiny person, and I just love her to pieces. She is doing so well! She started rolling over at 2 1/2 months, and has been practicing ever since. She isn't sleeping through the night yet, because she likes to practice her rolling at 11pm, 2am, and 4am respectively! As much as being up that many times a night keep me in a zombie-like state 24/7, she cracks me up every time I go in to her bedroom and she's on her belly with her big head popped up staring at me. Shy of duct-taping her down to the bed, I've tried everything to keep her from rolling around all over the crib, but the best I've been able to do is put her in a sleep positioner just to slow her down. She does squiggle right out of that, and I'll still find her all over, but I get to her usually as she's just made her way out of it, as I can hear her on the monitor grunting her way out. She found her voice at about 2 months, and hasn't stopped using it since. I love it! She screams, squeals, laughs, grunts! Cutest little human EVER!!!


There is so much more I could write about every day with my little baby girl, but I think pictures speak volumes too, so here's a bunch of pictures, with commentary!! Lots of smiles, faces, movement.. she's just a big 14lb ball of fun!

Ashley was one of those babies who would never nap during the day... That is until we bought her the swing. I've got her nap times figured out, and her signals down, but putting in her crib during the day never works. Put her in the swing, and I can get 1-4 hour naps. And look at her!! She loves the darn thing!!!

I love this picture. I made her the dress she's wearing. I'm still knitting sometimes when she naps. Definitely not getting as much knitting done as before, but a few cute things for her every now and again, I'm currently working on another skirt!

I was never really a 'girlie' girl, and before Ashley, I hated pink. Well, that's all gone out the window... how can I not love pink when she looks like this in it??? Just like a little doll!

Outfits, outfits and more outfits! My mother made the top, I made the skirtie. :) Cute cute CUTE!

Speaking of moms... that's mine in the background holding her beautiful granddaughter. Ashley likes to get dressed up for lunches in the country!

Ashley's a pretty strong little girl. She's been holding her head up since the week she was born. We tried her out in the jumperoo... SHE LOVES IT!! If she could talk when we put her in it, I think she would be saying something like "OMGZ!!!!" We put her in our exersaucer too, she loves everything but the crocodile. She gets so mad at the crocodile. ;)

Here's Ashley having a staring contest with her friend. Her friend is a month older than her and sometimes makes Ashley cry for no reason. Other things that make Ashley cry are sneezes, and people calling bingo numbers.

We have not mastered the art of driving without a screaming child in the back seat. If Ashley is awake in the car, she is usually screaming. This photo is where we have pulled over to the side of the road to breast feed her, and then play with her before we resume the trip home. This is after 45 mins in rush hour traffic.... and 10 minutes away from the house.

Now I'm not sure if you can tell, but that is her daddy... I know, right? She looks nothing like her daddy... (please note obvious sarcasm lol)

SKIRTIE!!! I knit this from my brain! So proud of myself!

And Ashley likes it so much and is so excited that I can't even get a clear picture of her wearing it on account that she is moving so much! She's trying to dance.

My child is a pretzel. How is this comfortable??!???

Ahhh, sitting. How cute is that!??

July 1st was Canada Day. She was very festive in her little Canadian onesie. We went to a party and kept her up past her bed time. She was one mad little Canadian on the drive home from the festivities, but still a cutie nonetheless. 

Just bought her a Bumbo the other day. Got it used off of Kijiji.. these things are dang expensive new. She loves it though. The car is parked in this picture.. just in case you were wondering if we were driving with her in a bumbo... no... She was just testing it out before we brought it home.

Hmm... she's all daddy... Seriously.. The only thing she has of mine are blue eyes, but even that might change still. It's a good thing my DH looks so cute as a baby girl....

Here's DH and Ashley. She got bored of our appliance shopping. I breast fed her on a nice couch we can't afford at Sears Home Store, then I passed her asleep to daddy while we roamed the bedroom section for a new mattress.

And last but not least.... Just a cute picture of her playing on her tummy. :)

Every day with Ashley is an adventure. :)

A one-woman circus!

And for my next act....

We're selling our house. A word of advice: If you are going to move, do it BEFORE you have a baby!

We've had two showings already, and I am literally a one-woman side show when I have to get out of the house. I have to chase down two very stubborn cats and put them in the garage while they fight me to get back in. I have to get the dog and put him in the back of the car, and then get the baby in her seat. Then I have to make sure I've hidden any evidence that we live in this house before I leave and run around turning every light on, opening every door and blind, and hope that baby isn't screaming bloody murder since she generally hates her car seat, but it's hard to run around getting everything done quickly with her wiggling in my arms. She is a squirmer!

Once that's all done, then baby goes in the car and we drive around aimlessly for short showings, and hope we have somewhere to go for long ones. The last one was long, so we went for supper, but obviously not something we can do every day...

I hope this house sells fast so I canbe done with all of this! With DH back at work, showings during the day suck, and we only have one car, so driving him to work for 7am sucks too!!

And more pictures!

Because I can't get enough of my baby girl! :)

I love it when my little spidermonkey smiles. :) She's silly just like her daddy!

She's grown so much, she's actually starting to fill out her chair.

AhhhhHHH!!! I've got bugs on my feet! :)

I love my 'cats in hot air balloons' pj's. :)

I'm just too cute!

Do you think these two are related? We call her mini dad. :)

No question, she is her daddy's girl.

Hanging with dad in her tulip pj's. :)