Our Bedroom Days 27-29

Day 27 - Favorite Holiday Food

I know that hot chocolate isn't a food,

but since moving here I've been informed multiple times that hot chocolate is just a seasonal thing.

Our food storage now consist of hot chocolate and mashed potatoes.

Day 28 - "Baby it's cold outside"

After growing up in Florida for 8 years...

I only wear socks when it's really cold outside.

Honestly though, we've been having pretty wonderful weather here in NJ.

Day 29 - Warmth

For some reason this made me think of our room.

So I'm going to give you a tour.

(Despite the fact we have a huge tv...we rarely use it. Maybe once a month?)

Matt and I purposely picked the room with the smaller closet.

Our "Evil Lair" sign.

Basically we decided anything that wasn't baby proof went into our bedroom.

So the TV and the bookshelves ended up in here.

I actually kind of like how crowded it is.

It has a pretty cozy feel to it compared to the openness of the rest of the house.

It also happens to be one of the warmer rooms in the apartment too.

(If you want to see our first master bedroom click here.)

Days 16-20

Day 16 - Decorations

A garland that I made for our failed Christmas cards.

I really should write a blog post on that.

It was so funny...after the fact.

Day 17 - Lunch

Lunch is such a process.

It's Tiny's and mine biggest meal of the day.

First, she sits on the stool in the kitchen while I scarf down my food.

If she doesn't have anything to munch on, she sits there and "yumms" until I give her food.

If I don't feel like sharing...she screams.

Lately I've been trying to deter her with other foods in the kitchen.

Then she eats.

First I try to get her to use her own spoon and fork with real food.

That quickly leads to just using her fingers.

After all the real food is eaten, I give her a bit of baby food,

just so she can practice spooning it into her mouth.

(See here. Though she's way better at it now.) 

We are also working on using a cup.

As long as there is only a teaspoon of water in there, she'll drink from the cup.

Any more than that though and it ends up all over the room.

And then we clean up.

Feeding her only takes about 10 minutes.

Lunch takes over an hour though, because she really doesn't like letting me eat.

Day 18 - Goal of the Day

Mail out Christmas cards!

Day 19 - Dinner

Thai Curry noodles

Recipe is here.

We basically eat it all the time.

Day 20 - Workout

We went grocery shopping and finished up Christmas shopping today.

It took hours.

So frustrating.

On the upside, it's all done!

Totally was a workout.

Have you ever tried carrying two weeks of groceries and a baby?

Hard work right there.

Snapshots - Day 13,14,&15

Day 13 - Someone I love

I have been reading so many different parenting blogs.

I noticed a few weeks ago that there isn't a very clear line between baby and toddler.

Even in clothing.

Well, today Tiny showed me that she is ready to be a toddler.

I put her down for a nap and then went and took a nap myself.

When I woke up, I noticed two hours had passed and went to check on Madeleine.

I laughed and laughed when I saw her.

I'll pay a dollar any day for a two hour nap.

On top of that, I counted that as her activity for the day,

and I didn't even have to plan it.

How about that?

Day 14 - Relaxing

Matt and I heard Madeleine moving around her room at 5:00 in the morning the other day.

I poked him to get up and take care of her,

but I just got a grunt in reply.

I didn't think it was fair if I had to get up and he didn't.

So I went back to sleep.

When I woke up at 7, this is what I saw.

She usually makes in onto her bed, but I guess it was too much effort after playing.

She was even sleepy enough that I moved her onto her bed without waking her. 

Day 15 - Memory

This was a long time ago.

Matt and I were bored and took pictures with my webcam.
It's one of the few of us when we were dating.

Aw, young love.

Food! - Day 11 and 12

Day 11- Breakfast

Breakfast is a funny meal in our household.

We either go all out or we're eating cheerios on the floor.

If the kitchen is clean-ish and we don't hit the snooze button 100x,

we tend to eat really well.

But more days than I'd like to admit, we seem to just snack on Cheerios.

This was a spinach, mushroom, artichoke, and brie omelet.

It was good.

It would have been better without the artichoke.

(We actually got up this morning.)

Day 12 - Cookies

Oh man, we love cookies.

I was so excited for an excuse to get some. 

After Tiny and I went to Baby story time at the library today, 

we asked one of the librarians where we could get a good cookie.

They pointed us down the street to Olives.

Gah, they were sooo good and cheap.

That's a tart.

The cookie was so flaky and buttery.

Yum!

And then these chocolate ones...

They were so good and thick.

The chocolate was so dark.

I was in heaven.

Madeleine loved them too surprisingly.

I didn't think she'd like them since they were a bit bitter.

She washed it down with cow milk.

We're working on switching her from formula.

Breast milk to formula switch was really easy,

I'm hoping that formula to cow milk goes just as smoothly.

Day 10 - Home and 1st snow day!

Day 10 - Home

I know I'm two days behind and I considered just combining the last three days into one post.

But I really wanted to give "home" a full post.

The reason I didn't post yesterday is Madeleine and I were at a Princeton Housing Meeting.

They are going to tear down the housing community that we live in now in July.

Matt and I are both really sad that we are going to have to leave this place.

When I first found out we were moving to the complex, I was actually pretty upset.

I was pretty sure that it would be awful.

But living here has actually been really wonderful.

So Day 10's photo is our floor plan! Tada!!

Matt and I are in Bedroom #1 and Madeleine is in the front.

It's honestly the perfect size for the three of us.

The big closet has been serving as my sewing room.

Here are pictures of most of our house.

I still haven't done a post on our room. 

Kitchen and bathroom

Living Room
Madeleine's Room

On another note, this week we got our first snow.

:)

We were SO excited. 

We got all dressed up to play.

Madeleine liked the snow...

until she took off her gloves and touched it.

Matt and I were laughing so hard.

Box activity and Day 9

I try really hard to do an activity a day with Tiny.

It doesn't have to be anything complicated.

Just something that I do with her that is a bit different than playing with her toys.

Like painting.

Usually I brainstorm while she is napping.

Today I saw this brilliant "toy".

You put toys in the box, cut some holes, and tape it up.

So easy and we just got an amazon box that worked perfectly.

I made a square and round hole.

The round objects couldn't come out of the square hole.

I put an onion, orange, and a ribbon spool in that was round.

And then some of her cars, spoons, bells, and dolls in that could come out of the square hole.

I made a few mistakes.

The onion was really heavy for her, and she couldn't lift it out of the box.

I also forgot to leave enough space for her hand for a few of the objects.

But those are easy fixes.

Next time, I just need to remember not too big and not too heavy. 

She was pretty thrilled.

All around it was a success.

:)

Best part is I can use the box again and just stick different things in it.

Unintentionally there was also this little curls of cardboard on the top.

She also had a blast peeling these off. 

After that we had snack,

which is what Day 9 photo is.

I've been giving her bananas that have a small cut on the side peel.

She peels off the peel most of the time by herself.

The reason of the time she just pokes the banana out and eats it.

Day 7 and 8

Day 7 - Best part of the day

Best part of the day is when Matt is home.

I love it when we get to spend time together as a family.

Matt really tries hard to get home to give her a bath and put her bed.

Day -8...Best part of Winter

Family.

That's probably best part of winter...

(that is, after hot chocolate, Ralph Lauren comforters,

thick novels, Trader Joe's cookies)

I think it's just safe to say that I love winter.

Day 6

Day 6 - To-do list

Late last night I asked Matt to grab me a notebook to write down Madeleine's list.

I have tons of notebooks,

and he happened to grab one that I hadn't written in awhile.

I flipped to the last page,

and there was my to-do list from last year about this time.

I laughed.

I don't actually have much of a to-do list currently (there's like 4 things on it),

so I wasn't really sure what I was going to do for today.

It was a sweet moment to find this list and reflect on last year.

Our life was so busy.

Matt just finished applying to grad schools and we were just hearing back.

I had my last two finals at BYU before I graduated,

and our Tiny was supposed to show up at anytime.

On top of that, Mollie, my sister, was leaving to the MTC any day and my brother just 2 weeks after that.

We did family photos and I got two pregnancy photos.

Almost a year ago to the day.

It's pretty crazy how much our lives have changed.

Our baby is using her feet to walk instead of digging her heels into my ribs.

We have moved twice.

We graduated.

We have a two bedroom apartment that we actually need.

My to-do list in life has changed.

It's no longer schoolwork and hospital bags.

This year it's full of grocery shopping and emails to write,

and I'm guessing next year it will reflect the changes that happen in the next year.

I-spy (Day 5)

Day 5 - Homemade

Today we made cookies. 

We love cookies.

But in order to make cookies, we have to gather all the tools.

First, we had to fetch the measuring spoons from the tub.

Then we had to find the Kitchenaid attachment in Tiny's room.

And apparently Madeleine thought magnets were an essential ingredient in chocolate chip cookies.

It really does seem to take longer to gather everything up than to actually bake.

One of the many reminders that we have a small human in the house.

She was pretty thrilled to watch the cookies bake.

Who knew watching cookies was so entertaining?

But I was pretty excited to eat them...

especially while she napped.

(Here's day 4 if you missed it.)

Day 4

Day 4 - Winter Beauty.

This one really irritated me.

You know why?

Winter doesn't start until the 21st and here in New Jersey we are still experiencing wonderful fall weather.

It's been in the 50's everyday this week, so I'm in no rush for Winter to blow in.

So that's our picture for yesterday.

We have this huge berry bush right outside Madeleine's bedroom window.

I figured it looked pretty festive.

And here is Madeleine waiting by the door.

And who shows up?

DADDY!!!

So much happiness.

Tiny has started crying whenever he leaves.

She really loves her dad.

And one last photo.

I love this outfit,

and Matt loves this pose.

She lately has been randomly tilting her head to the side.

The funny thing is it's only to the one side

and it's always accompanied with a smile.

Day 3

Day 3: Morning

I love our little apartment here.

Something you may not know is that the outside of our home in wonderful too.

The community garden is right behind our house

so during the spring and summer, we frequently had people to talk to as they tended 

to their gardens.

Everyone seemed to meet and mingle there.

Swapping veggies and giving different tips on how to get the best tomatoes.

There were sunflowers against the fence and cute yet tall tepees for different beans to grow on.

Now that winter is starting to creep we are starting to get a different type of company.

I found this little girl outside with a big male deer this morning.

The guy walked off, which was a shame since he had a great rack of antlers.

But she sat there staring at me from the kitchen.

(Sorry it's such a bad shot, I was doing a paparazzi move through the blinds as Madeleine tugged on my pants for breakfast.)

This guy was our "pet".

He visited the garden daily until it got cold.

Tiny and I would just sit there watching him as we ate our breakfast in the morning.

He's probably the closest thing we'll ever get to a pet.

(Matt wrote his feelings about pets here if you're curious.)

I'm so excited for winter.

We had three whole months of beautiful fall weather.

Even today was lovely outside.

Baby and I hung out with some of our friends.

She bit sticks with her friends

 as we madres swapped techniques of how to get groceries and a baby from the car to the house.

Winter is on the horizon though.

I saw snow mentioned in our 10 day forecast

and for once, I really can't wait.

PS. If you don't know what this is about, I'm doing an instagram photo challenge. Click here for Day 1.