what i'm loving tonight

no bake energy bites- while i've eaten these before, this is the first time i've made them myself.  quick, super easy, very little mess, and simple enough to include your three year old in every step, these are a win all around.  and they taste like no bake cookies but are way healthier.  not guilt free but definitely a healthier option.  i told myself i was going to stick to the recipe because i never stick to whatever recipe i'm following and i got most of the way down the list but by the end i was pouring tons of honey on top and scooping in spoonfuls of nutella, just for kicks.  but i will have you know, they are superb.  i rolled them into little balls the size of a rounded tablespoon and got about two dozen.  we'll just have to see how long they last... next time i think i'll go ahead and double the recipe.

dad is fat- it's 275 pages of jim gaffigan, almost as funny as the hot pocket segment i fell in love with way back in the day.  and as much as it's meant just to make you laugh... he's got some real truthful gems that i find myself wanting to highlight because they're just that good.

and that's our short list because it's bedtime now.

butternut squash soup and random thoughts

i'm too tired to post pictures or stories or anything else that requires a brain.  but i'm also too ummm i don't know the word, to go to sleep because my christopher is out of town again and i always procrastinate going to sleep when he's out of town.  getting in bed?  i do that the first chance i get.  actually closing my computer and falling asleep?  i procrastinate as much as humanly possible.

anyways, i got this butternut squash that costco has and it's awesome because it's already prepped for you (click this link to read someone else's rave about it) and realized i should have used it ummm, a few days ago.  i'm not a stickler for things like that (i inherited that from my dad... my mother would have probably tossed this out) so i took it as a challenge to make a dinner out of it using only what i had on hand (we got snow last night and i pretty much never go out that first day of snow... because parking lots are still being cleared and really it's just kind of a pain) and it turned out to be much easier than anticipated!

i googled "allrecipes butternut squash" and checked out a few options before picking the most appealing (that means easiest) recipe.  it was so simple and foolproof and so delicious and only dirtied one pot (that's huge in my book) that i'm posting about it here for when i am looking for dinner ideas.  anyways, it is this butternut squash soup recipe and you should make it.  especially if your "i just can't get full off of soup" husband is out of town.

here's how i did it:

i melted a square of butter (i'm not big on measuring but it was probably the correct amount) and used it to cook the onions (i chopped up a whole onion... but i love onion and it was on the small side) while i turned on winnie the pooh on dvr for my precious two year old because the tv remote decided to act up on the day i was parenting alone, leaving no access to our awesome thomas the train dvd collection. should you be in this situation, periodically run back to the kitchen to make sure your onions don't burn.  (hint: they won't... because they're swimming in such a glorious amount of butter)  after you get the show set up, dump in your squash (don't forget to recycle the container!), water (i only used two cups instead of three), four chicken boullion cubes, pepper, marjoram (this was my first time ever cooking with it... i know that for sure because i had to open the seal on it), and let it all hang out and boil for a while... at least 20 minutes... stirring periodically while you scavenge your kitchen for stuff to snack on.  instead of dirtying a bunch of dishes and a food processor/blender, i got out my hand mixer and those beaters did just fine and left some nice small chunks of squash while making a perfectly desirable consistency for the soup.  the recipe calls for two full packages of cream cheese but i thought that was excessive because that stuff is expensive.  so i just put in what was left of the one we had opened (maybe 3 ounces?) and it was wonderful.  although that didn't stop me from adding straight up cream to my bowl. the costco HALF GALLON of cream is now a regular staple purchase for me.  it's so cheap and so sinfully delicious i just can't help myself.  seriously... i catch myself daydreaming about ways i can use it... like this soup.  also, i'm not a huge fan of oatmeal these days (although i've gone through stages where i ate it three times a day because i was that in love with it) and i've found that pouring a bit of cream on top makes it taste like dessert.  like i found a packet of some sort of flavored instant oatmeal and when i poured that cream on top it was like i was eating a cobbler with ice cream.  i used to think i wanted to lose this baby weight so i could fit into my clothes again but now i've decided that my clothes really aren't that cute and i would prefer to have curves and buy new clothes instead.  i hate shopping for clothes but when i'm eating creme brulee or anything with heavy whipping cream actually, that seems like the least of my worries.  right now food is my therapy.*  and i'm okay with that.

welcome to the brain of the add... that paragraph started as instructions for making soup and ended with my shopping habits and my physically and emotionally unhealthy addiction to cream.

anyways, my head is still a jumble so wish me luck that i can sleep tonight.  and make this soup.

*milk is always my therapy and my drug... like when i drink it, my whole body relaxes and it makes me think that must be what smokers feel like when they finally get their nicotine... so maybe it just makes sense that i've expanded my milk horizon to include straight up cream.

okay, apparently i can't sleep without getting my thoughts out so here we go...

in other news:  baby girl took a nap again today which is fabulous... she actually finished her lunch and declared that she was all done eating and was ready to take a nap (it was way before her nap time but i just went with it).  what is not fabulous is that she's woke up at 6:15 this morning.  two times in the past two weeks, she's woken up during the night (once at 11pm and once at 1am) and frequently she's been waking up early (that means anything before 9am) although never at 6:15 before!)  luckily i gave her a binky and she was okay to hang out and read books for an hour before i got up with brady and came back to get her out of her crib.  anyone have any ideas what this could be?  is it just a new phase?  or is it because she's not quite done with her molars coming in yet?  kids are mysterious.  also, having both kids awake for the day at 7:15 made this feel like the longest day ever.  it wasn't bad, it just felt like it should always be four hours ahead of what it actually was.  maybe more.  this morning actually kind of feels like it was yesterday morning... it seems just that long ago.  that's a long day.

my electric blanket on my bed is awesome all the time but when my christopher is gone it is especially amazing because it tricks my body into thinking that someone else is in bed with me.  like when i get back in bed after feeding brady in a few hours it will be warm, even though i will be lacking a bed-mate (when was the last time you used that term?  i try to use it as frequently as possible).

nursing makes me super thirsty.  especially at night.  maybe because i'm overheating from my electric blanket but we'll just never know.  since i don't drink water, i keep milk on my nightstand.  it's not unusual for me to drink 30 - 35 ounces between midnight and 7am.  i am well hydrated.  although we already knew that because i'm drinking at least a gallon every 24 hours.  can i say again how wonderful it would be if i could tolerate water?!  i've done the math... we spend over a thousand dollars on milk each year.  ONE THOUSAND!  like a one with THREE zeros.  it is painful to me.  although i can't think of any other way i could spend $1000 that could possibly bring me more happiness than a few hundred gallons of milk.

brady really is doing so well, i have to keep reminding myself of how bad things were just last month.  gotta keep myself humble.  but seriously, even though i complain that he's a pretty terrible sleeper at night, he's great during the day and fantastic in his carseat.  i don't let him stay awake longer than 55 or 60 minutes at a time and it is perfect for him.  then he naps for a few hours and we repeat.  having a newborn for an hour at a time is completely manageable.  and the fact that he's happy during that time is just icing on the cake.

everything baby girl says is hilarious (do i say this every day?) and although it includes a lot of funny things, most of it is just her sweet baby voice and strange voice intonations (like the "goes in noses?" phrase).  just today i figured out something that i hadn't been able to put my finger on before.  she has somehow developed a southern accent in certain things that she says.  where does this come from?!  also, i'm loving it.  today she also experimented (in the way that she has the confidence of someone who has totally mastered the concept) with phrases using the word remember.  i told her "remember thomas is broken so if you want to watch something you have to watch pooh bear?" and i never heard the end of "remember abigail was crying in the crib because i was all done napping and i wanted to read skippyjonjones?" she was pointing upstairs with her tiny little pointer finger and telling me this elaborate story about what happened when she woke up from nap today.  and everything started with "remember."

okay, i really need to go to sleep... especially if brady's night is anything like last night...

Jack of all trades

*this post is so disjointed because i wrote it over the course of multiple days... who has time to write a whole post in one sitting?  not me.*

i know this is old news for people.  people that have had an iphone for more than 2 months.  but it is wonderful and special news for me because i am still taking the time daily to bask in the amazingness of not still having one of the many crappy cell phones i've sported before.

i'm continually realizing just how much easier it is makes life to have so much condensed and simplified to one device.  and i know it's great that my phone also replaces a calculator, but most phones do.  and who carries a calculator with them anyways?  so what i'm loving is the lack of clutter in my purse when i go places and not having to carry four things around the house with me. here's my list of things that are now just backups...

my trusty camera is still much better for taking video but as far as spur of the moment pictures go, my phone is way easier because it's most likely already by my side and i can text/email/blog those pictures instantly.

i literally dusted off my book of mormon yesterday.  i'm still keeping it by my bedside, but truth is, when we're reading scriptures together at night, it's easier on the eyes, to use the scriptures on my phone.

which means my phone also replaces this little reading flashlight that i used to keep on top of my scriptures.  see the dust?!

my grocery list.  it's still in its place on top of the microwave, but when i run out of something, i enter it in my running list on my phone so i'm guaranteed to never find myself in the grocery store parking lot having forgotten my list at home.

my trusty itzbeen!  i use the free ibabylog app and it's great.  and it keeps record of everything and i can make notes on it and if i forget to press the button when i put brady down for nap and remember 30 minutes later, i can manually enter the correct time.  and now i don't have to carry my phone, camera, and itzbeen to every room of the house.  i only have so many hands and pockets.

that nifty little app also keeps track of medications.  so i should probably take these two papers off my fridge now...

the google maps app does this for me and i never have to worry that i won't have a gps with me when i need one.

okay, it doesn't completely replace my laptop, but i spend much less time on my computer these days because of my phone.  if i just need to see if someone has emailed me back, i can press a button on my phone (i made my settings so that i manually have to retrieve it... i don't like all those dings for every crappy email) instead of pulling out my computer, waiting for it to start up, and then most likely getting distracted on there with other things. also, i used to drag my laptop around the house when i wanted to listen to pandora or when i was cooking with an online recipe.  not anymore!  pandora and recipes can come with me anywhere! 

and because i hate spending money and paying the extra money each month for a data package was tough to swallow (i think my honey did everything with verizon, right down to activating my phone, before giving it to me, so that there was no way i could turn back) i'm loving that it's actually saving me money in other ways.  

1. my camera up there with the rubberband?  it's kind of a pain to deal with since the rubber band is necessary to keep the broken battery compartment closed but it makes getting to some of the buttons more difficult and it makes zooming in and out a huge, huge pain.  new camera would be over $100.  and if i was using this camera as much as i used to, a replacement would be necessary. since i don't use it as often anymore, this one is okay to stay!

2. my laptop battery has been near death for about ten months.  if i unplug it, it's good for maaaaybe 30 minutes and will shut off with no "your battery is running low, find a power source to plug in" notice.  which is painfully annoying when you're using it in the kitchen to cook something and have to run it back to your bedroom and wait ten minutes for it to restart and reopen everything to find your recipe again.  according to the customer service guy i talked to on the phone, a new battery is about $90... plus shipping.  which, is that really worth it for a three year old laptop?  probably not.  not needing to unplug my computer pretty much ever, the short battery life is pretty much a non issue.  as is the fact that my laptop cord died and i had to steal honey's.  which he doesn't ever use because his laptop is crap and he relies almost entirely on his work ipad... but that would be his blog post, not mine.  so let's throw in another $25 of savings for that cord.

3. for christmas a year ago, my parents gave me a gps.  i actually already had one that i got as a college graduation gift but sometimes honey would take it with him on business trips and then it wouldn't be in my car when i needed it.  it happened enough times that it was worth it to me to ask for a second gps for christmas so we had one in each of our cars.  well, the charger for the gps broke but since it was from costco, i just took it back for a full refund.  i was going to buy a replacement that day but the other gps options they had were $170 to $200 which is a bit much when it's your family's second gps and you really don't use it all that often.

my phone has also saved me money by being able to pull up internet coupons (like how hobby lobby has the show and save coupons online) and saved me time by being able to pull up an email on my phone instead of having to go home to check that information, and saved my butt when i've been in sticky situations (the one i'm thinking of was 100% not my fault) and i've been able to pull up information that's saved online.  

also, the "reminders" thing that it has, has made me much more productive.  always having that to do list available so that i don't forget something before i can write it down.  and that i can set times and locations that i can be reminded of certain things.

other honorable mentions go out to... 

the "clock" which is not only my alarm clock when i need one but it was also an awesome stopwatch when i was timing contractions.

the "weather" button, which i'm sure many people find convenient, is something that makes me giddy.  i'm someone that keeps the weather for my area on my toolbar so it's always only a click away.  now that i have it at my fingertips 24/7, i couldn't be happier.  

the lds tools app.  because i used to keep a copies of our updated relief society directory in my purses and all over the house.  heaven forbid should i need to stop by someone's house or give them a call and not have their address or phone number on hand.  now i always have it!

so when i write it all out... the iphone is still a chunk of money but it feels like pennies with how worth it it is.  how did i live without this thing?!  and what a shame that it took me five years to jump on this bandwagon.

breathe easy and thoughts in general

today's "favorite product of the day" award goes out to....

for the past few days, brady has been pretty congested.  and last night and today it was so bad he was having trouble nursing which made for a pretty sleepless night for me (i didn't even put my head on the pillow until close to 5 am) because he would only eat for two minutes at a time before giving up, falling asleep, and then deciding ten minutes later that he'd like to try that eating thing again.  and today the wheezing continued.  not only did the noisy breathing sound so sad and irritated my ocd, but it just seemed like it was getting worse and like his breathing was becoming labored.  

luckily though, today we had our "nurse come to your home" appointment and i wrote down my long list of questions.  when we got to the "my baby has sticky boogers and the bulb suction nose sucker isn't working" question, the nurse suggested these little saline drops.  "just put a few drops in his nose and it'll loosen things up and make him sneeze and you can suction everything out!" sounded too good to be true but later tonight i finally sent my honey to the store again (and laughed in his face at the "man, you keep sending me out to do all this stuff for you!" comments... even though he has been nice to take my car in to get the tires rotated and get a whole list of stuff at walmart today alone) for these little drops.  after several things from this afternoon's walmart trip not being correct (it's really hard to have someone else do your grocery shopping! -- i want SLICED french bread! the coconut milk is in the asian foods aisle! and i like spicy dijon mustard!) i prepped my honey by showing him the above google images photo of what he was looking for, told him it would be about $3.50, gave him a $1 off coupon for the product, and told him it would be in the baby/infant aisle with formula and diapers and stuff and that he could ask a store employee if he had any questions.  when he came home i asked if it went okay (he had the correct item and the receipt showed me he remembered to use the coupon!) and he mumbled something and said it was a pain to find.  it was?  you were looking in the baby aisle?  "well, not at first"  oh honey honey honey, how is it that i think you're listening to me when in all actuality, the words i'm saying never enter your ears?!  like yesterday when i asked him to bring me the baby timer and told him it was either in my purse or somewhere in the kitchen.  he came back a minute later telling me he couldn't find it and asking where he should look for it.  i was confused because i HAD told him where to look but by that time i was already on my way to the kitchen with my latched on child.  and there was the timer, sitting right at the top of my purse.  does anyone else have this issue with their husband?!  it's not like he's trying to do this because honestly, we both know it would be to his benefit, but what is it that makes husbands not hear half the stuff that comes out of a wife's mouth?!

anyways...  the moral of the story is that 1) my first kid was so easy that i feel like a new mom this time around, 2) my husband is being extremely kind and helpful to me, and 3) nurse home visits are  awesome and it makes me wish i lived in the brady bunch time when doctors always came to your home if you needed them!

remember how i was worried about being a traitor to abigail?  well i totally am...it's definitely happening.  i'm going to not elaborate, and instead give it some more days to hopefully resolve itself.  and in the mean time, i just comfort myself by knowing that she is happy as a clam (although rambunctious and defiant at times!) and could care less that i have another little kid to love and care for and blog about.  and random, but will someone tell her to please stop twirling knots in her hair and then ripping them out?  she's going bald on the back right side of her head and she honestly looks like a little boy who's older sibling used a weed whacker to chop his hair.  she's an adorable little girl but looking at her hair makes my heart hurt.

also, i was worried all through my pregnancy that i would have a difficult baby that cried all the time.  and when brady was born, he spent the first two hours of his life screaming bloody murder while he got examined and bathed and everything else.  this scared me because abigail maybe whimpered for a few seconds during her first bath at the hospital but that was all she cried for the first two weeks.  brady cried more in his first two hours than abigail cried in her first two months combined.  this had me worried.  well, i'm happy to report that he's actually getting much happier as he's had more time to adjust to life.  like, he didn't even fuss when i put all those drops in his nose and suctioned out his little baby boogers (took two seconds and provided instant relief and silent, easy breathing!)  i think that was pretty noble of him.  also, i was worried about taking a long time to learn to love him.  well, it seriously only took a day or two and now i love this kid fiercely.  i keep looking at him and thinking, "you're so perfect, it like you were made for me."  and then i remember... he was.

ode to walmart

oh parker walmart how i love thee!  let me count the ways!

i love that when i went shopping today i had a huge long list of items and that i was in and out in less than an hour, even taking my time and enjoying the experience with baby girl.

i love that when i pulled up, there were tons of parking spaces available and i got the very closest one after the handicap spots.

i love that they have tons of brand new shopping carts and always have those antibacterial wipes ready for me.

i love that there is a helpful walmart worker around every corner so when i'm deciding which half and half to buy, i can look up and ask the walmart worker standing less than two feet from me, "the price label fell off of the rack, can you tell me how much this is?" as she automatically bends down with her scanner towards where i'm pointing.

i love that even when i pass walmart workers and don't have a question for them, they stop and make friendly banter with my child about if she's enjoying the sliced cheese she's munching on and then go on to tell me how beautiful and well behaved she is.

i love that the store is so well lit, the aisles so wide, and the products so easy to find.

i love that when i walk past the meat section i get yet another walmart worker to ask me if there's anything i need help with and then immediately help me locate the italian turkey sausage i would have never been able to find on my own.

i love that when i take my cart up to the front of the store, i seem to always immediately find a checkout with no line and a cashier that leaves their booth to come help me pull my cart to the counter as they ask me how my day is going.  the lady today eagerly spotted the reusable shopping bags in my cart and got them out and started setting them up while i unloaded my food onto the conveyor belt.  she asked me about my day, we chatted about the weather, and she praised my abundance of fruits and vegetables and healthy food choices, all while she ever so carefully put all of my groceries in the sacks.  when baby girl bumped her chin on the shopping cart handle, the cashier talked to her and comforted her while i signed my name and got my receipt.

and i love that when i walk away with my heavy cart of groceries, i can check my receipt and be surprised that it's more than $20 less than i was expecting it to be.  i prefer not to spend my time couponing or going store to store for the best deals on each item, so i love that i can hit up one single store and get such great deals on everything i need.  my time with baby girl is too important to me to experience a morning without fun.  when we go to walmart, she doesn't know we're running errands because she thinks it's just a fun outing.

and if a store can do all of that for me... i'm sold.  amen.

service yields love

yesterday was a fabulous fun filled day with the turnages since they were in town visiting.  they came over around noon and we partied clear until after 9 when all of our kids needed to go to sleep.  by the end of the day, i was exhausted and our house was a wreck.  so while i took baby girl up to bed, honey cleaned the kitchen, including taking care of a massive pile of dishes that had been accumulating all week.  when i walked downstairs to my spotless kitchen i was overwhelmed with love for my sweet husband.  i've been slacking on our love journal lately and it has really shown in my increased irritability and under appreciation for my honey.  but today?  not the case.  every time i looked at my kitchen i knew my honey loved me and i knew i loved him.  i'm a non abstract sort of person when it comes to showing love and affection.  i need phone calls, texts, letters, and blatant "i love you so very much" professions of love.  and let me tell you that when it comes to the in-your-face, i-love-you-this-much facts... a clean kitchen is the ultimate trump card.  because as long as my kitchen is clean, all is right in the world.

including my marriage.


and on a somewhat related but not really too much note, baby girl started saying "honey" because she has picked up on the fact that that's what her parents call each other.  hearing "hello honey" out of her little baby mouth tonight... oh my goodness i about died.

overnight diapers

so there i was laying in bed, ridiculously early on a friday night, unable to fall asleep... when i got a text from my college roommate sawah.  she asked me a bunch of questions about baby girl, one of them about soaking through diapers at night.  so even though i should have rolled over and continued my attempts at falling asleep, i didn't.  i texted her back and then got online.  and then getting bored again, decided to write this post.  about diapers.

i am sure that in addition to her fast metabolism, the reason baby girl is so skinny is because of the insanely large volume of liquids and solids ending up in her diaper.  seriously.  if it wasn't gross (and if i owned a scale) i would weigh her diaper pail bag after a week's time because i am sure it would weigh well more than my baby.  anyways, all of that is gross, hopefully no one is reading this.



two months ago i was at my friend kirstyn's and she had huggies overnight diapers in her kids room.  i thought "great.  now diaper manufacturers have figured out a way to market diapers so we can pay twice as much per diaper just to feel like better parents."  but then i asked her about them.  she said michaela used to soak through every night and with these diapers it's only once every other week maybe.  i wasn't sold.

but then when i was preparing to go to atlanta, i told my mom to buy some to try, because i didn't want to be doing laundry every day while we were in atlanta.  it's already enough of a pain to do laundry when you're traveling and staying in someone else's house... i didn't want to be washing sheets and sleepers every day and giving my kid a bath first thing upon waking.

well... they worked.  night after night after night.  i was shocked and loving it.  then i started rationalizing... well, baby girl hasn't been drinking that much since we got here so maybe it's just because of that.  then we came back to colorado and used up the two nighttime diapers we brought with us.  now we were back to a regular luvs size 4.  and night after night baby girl would soak through and wake up completely drenched up to her neck.  it was disgusting and it was causing me to do laundry more than once a week... which is a big huge no no for me.

until a week ago, i couldn't get baby girl to drink more than one sippy cup of fluid during the day.  i would fill a sippy with milk every morning and she would take sips every once in a while and then towards night time she would drink quite a bit more and then by the time i put her to bed there was normally only about a fifth of it left.  then i discovered that if the milk (or water) is room temperature or warmer, she'll gulp it right up.  multiple sippy cups a day!  this is fabulous but it also meant that while she soaked through her diapers at night before, now it was monumental... even using a size bigger than her regular daytime diaper.

well, i priced it.  i pay 13 cents per diaper for baby girl's size 3's.  size 4 huggies overnights (what she was using in atlanta... i thought 4's would be way too huge since it's for 22-37 lbs but she needs it because it is 100% full in the morning) were 33 cents per diaper.  i have never paid that much for a diaper... ever.  but i did the math... i only need one a day so for 20 cents a day, i can avoid tons of extra laundry, giving my terrified-of-baths-baby a bath at 8am every morning when our house is still 60 degrees, and being a terrible mom for letting my baby marinate all night in urine?  well, i'm sold.  if i can buy the badge of "good mom" for 20 cents a day, i'm totally on board.

am i even making sense anymore?  i feel slightly delusional at the moment, like someone who has been in solitary confinement to long... which for me is apparently 1.5 hours.

anyways, the take away message from this is: if your kid is soaking through diapers at night, spend $20 (target, walmart, and amazon mom all have them for that price) and try out those special night time diapers in the blue box with stars and moons on them.  you will love me for it.

ps- it's really too bad i'm not a popular blogger... they actually get paid for reviews like this.

where do my days go?

i feel brain dead.

when i was in highschool/college, i took adderall like every other add kid i went to school with.  it helped me tremendously.  i stopped taking it after i got married because i didn't want to take any risk at all of getting pregnant while taking that medication.  and i haven't used it since.  to compensate, i've made a number of lifestyle changes.  i try much harder to get adequate sleep.  i write things down because i'm a very visual learner.  i have become a little ocd and over the top when it comes to organizing, keeping things clean and orderly, etc.  and i make important things a strong habit because i tend to be very flighty, even on things that would seem extra basic.  so normally i'm feeling pretty good about things.  but not lately.  and especially not today.

i can't even type it or explain it because, like i said, my head feels like a whirlwind/full of static/braindead/empty/overcrowded.  i did manage to menu plan for this week and buy everything i needed plus tons of fruits and veggies.  it is a happy situation when my giant wire fruit bowl (remember it liza? you gave it to me when i got married!) is overflowing like it is.  it's a beautiful sight for sure.  i also made this recipe for spinach stuffed shells with meat sauce tonight and put part of it in the freezer for another time and part in the fridge for tomorrow so i can just pop it in the oven and have dinner.  but seriously, i think it took me over an hour and half to make it.  i have no idea why because it was really straightforward, but i'm really just hoping it tastes like it fell straight from heaven.

baby was on such good behavior shopping today (we went to target earlier and of course this monumental shopping trip to walmart tonight which i swear took at least two hours, you should see my receipt) thank goodness.  and tonight after dinner (she happily gobbled down her steamed broccoli and carrots while i stuffed my face with doritos bless her itty bitty heart) i let her stay up way past her bedtime because she was being sooo cute and sooo happy and absolutely adorable reading and playing with her toys and making faces at me.  and because my honey is in phoenix til tomorrow night.  she's such a good buddy.  i don't know what i'd do if i had to stay here by myself at night.  or be by myself ever.  i'm not a fan of being by myself.

anyways, this is a completely pointless post but, in the effort of blogging regardless of how much i don't have going on, i give you this strange jumble of a mind dump.

but let me leave you with these parting words:  electric blankets are the most amazing invention ever.  since we got a beautiful blanket of snow saturday morning, i decided it was winter enough for me to pull out our electric blanket and oh my goodness!  i turn it on high a little while before i get in bed and it's like jumping in a pile of clothes/sheets/towels fresh out of the dryer. except it stays hot.  forever.  so i say unto thee... get one.  now.  it is worth every penny.

oh and ps- we booked our tickets for christmas!  atlanta here i come!!!

amazon love affair

the only thing better than amazon and amazon prime is amazon mom with subscribe and save.  and having an additional 20% off coupon.

confirmation email

i just got 204 size 3 diapers for $17.27.  in case you were wondering, that's 8.5 cents per diaper, which i'm pretty happy about.

somehow i started getting two different parenting magazines sent to me.  i don't really read them, but i sometimes flip through them once when i'm going through the mail.  this parents magazine subscription came with my boppy.

and american baby came the first two months we lived in our apartment (wasn't being forwarded yet to the previous tenants), stopped, and then started again two months ago, but i'm not sure who it's addressed to this time.  the white part is blank so it must have been on some packaging i threw away.  i'll have to check the addressee next time.  either way, this one is definitely my favorite.

it's my favorite because both of the recent issues have had this in them!  an amazon coupon for 20% off diapers!

i already love amazon because it's cheaper than getting diapers in the store and because i don't have to leave my house to buy them or carry them home.  and i love amazon prime because it includes FREE two day shipping.  and amazon mom means you get an extra 15% off and if you sign up for subscribe and save then you get another 15% off.  so that giant pack of diapers is now 30% off and comes to your doorsteps two days later with no shipping fees.  so size one luvs (baby's preferred diaper brand) are only 9 cents a diaper, size two is 11 cents, and size three is 12 cents.  and now you can get an additional 20% off the original price so it brings size three diapers down to 8.5 cents a diaper!  nice!  

earlier this week i was reading some pro-cloth diapering website article about how much cheaper cloth diapering is than regular disposable diapers.  they said that for two kids (since you can reuse the cloth with your second kid) cloth diapering is a TENTH what disposables are.  well, not the case... at least for me.  they said you're spending about $70 a month on diapers.  yikes!  i've even seen some estimates on babycenter that people spend over $100 a month on diapers.  i haven't kept a tally, but i'm about 99% positive that we spend less than $15 a month on baby's diapers.  now if only i could say that about milk...

wow, who's bored?!?!

anyways, i'm excited for these size 3's to come so i can put them on baby for nighttime.  we've been weaning her off the swaddle these past few nights which has led to the occasional night waking.  and when that happens, i have to feed her before reswaddling her and putting her back in bed.  and although it would be smart to change her diaper during that time, i don't.  because i'm too lazy.  and tired.  and disoriented.  and it's dark.  but really because i don't want it to wake her up even more.  so then in the morning she wakes up with a gigantic full and leaky diaper and i'm doing a load of laundry first thing before i can even nurse my child.  crossing my fingers for the bigger size 3's... and that this whole swaddle weaning won't last too long.

this is where the swaddle was at on sunday...

and tonight...

legs are free and one arm out (alternated each time).  miracle blanket underneath... swaddleme on top.  it's going FAR better than the few feeble attempts i made at putting her down with both arms free.  epic fail.  but now we're going places... thank goodness for that.  i will say that i'm so very sad to be getting rid of the swaddle.  i really love it to death, but baby girl is just breaking out of it too often (more than one night a week) which is absolutely crazy considering how intense it is.  it just gets so loose from all that wiggling around the crib.  so, sadly, it's either adding duct tape to the mix, or getting rid of the swaddle.  so... it's got to go.  (although don't think i haven't given duct tape (and packing tape for that matter) serious thought over the last week or so).  and it's been pretty warm here lately and we can't turn off our heat because we're hooked up to everyone else in student housing, so it gets really hot... especially with fifty layers of smothering swaddle fabric.

also kind of sad, this might be the last time you see that sleeper.  baby is getting looooong.