Bed time

Attison sleeps in his nursery now.  Here we are reading bed time stories!

The nursery

Here are some pictures of Attison's nursery from the week before he was born. Our roommates Kristin, Christine and Katy and our former roommate Caitlin all helped put up the wall art, which arrived 2 weeks later than expected and two days after my due date.  We had a blast putting the final touches on the room!

 

Caitlin reads a book to us.

There isn't really a theme to the room, aside from the jungle animals that I bought off of Etsy.  The quilt on the bed is from my grandmother.  She made a baby boy quilt and a baby girl quilt before there were grandbabies.  Chloe was the first girl grandbaby and Attison is the first boy.

We decided instead of hanging the monkeys in the tree, we'd get creative, use the vines and the monkeys to make a one-of-a-kind monkey design.

The 2nd monkey hangs from the crib (see above).

This is an old dresser that I brought to college with me.  Christine and Matt wanted to "help us do something" in lieu of buying us a baby present, so they agreed to paint this dresser white for me.  Unfortunately, that was before Matt got a new job and his old job sent him away for 11 straight weeks, so Christine and I painted it.  I bought these animal drawer pulls online and voila! A new dresser for baby!

Rice cereal

Attison eats rice cereal for the first time!  On our last visit, the pediatrician said we could start solid foods in the form of rice cereal or another fine grain.  We bought some fancy schmancy organic, 5 grain, whole food, sweet potato and apple cereal and mixed it with some b. milk.  Here is how it went:

First we eat the cow bib.

"Oh, you want me to eat this instead?"

"Done."

First bite!

 

Both Matt and Attison think "Whaaaaaaatttt??"

Pretty cool with it.  

(I mean he just chewed on that bee to his right and then his cow bib for a good long while, so putting things in his mouth ain't no thang...)

Aaaaaaannnd....spit it up.

giggle.

Really?  Again?

 

Fine. 

New chair

Attison got a super seat!  It is great for playing and will be great for eating!  Stay tuned!

2.19 to the left

Friends Forever!!

First, a shout out to Barb McDonald and Karen Shives.  Thanks for reading :)  I’m glad you do - I love it.

Barb and Karen are the mom’s of two of my greatest childhood friends, Jessie and Kara, respectively.  Jes and Kara both live in Pittsburgh and although we are busy girls and have separate lives and social circles, we do our best to hang out with one another.  (Jes and Kara read the blog too)  Together with Lesley, these ladies complete my circle of childhood friends that I’ll love forever and ever.  We’ve all gotten hitched and I’m anxiously awaiting the day when our babies will be buds.  [No pressure!  Take your time!  Go to bars and movies in theaters!!! Invite people to your house that can stay later than 9 pm :) ]  

We recently got together with Kara, Dan, Jessie and Dexter. Here we are being jealous of Jessie and Dexter's new mattress. 

 

We want to feature our friends and family on this blog, but often we do silly things like leave the camera in the car or just forget to take a picture.  Here is an invitation to you to remind us to take your picture and post it!  The only catch is that you have to be with and/or holding Attison :)

Be shameless!

2.19 to the right

Easy as pie.

Construction pajamas

This is the last time Attison wore these pajamas with the construction equipment.

Pap Pap!

Attison and his pap pap late February.

Mid March

How good it feels to know you aren't alone

One of the best things that has happened to me in the past 5 months (aside from every little smidgen of Attison that happens every day) is the joy that is parenting blogs.  I'm not talking about "how-to" or "have the best baby..." or "nurture the smartest child prodigy .." crap that is out there not really to help you, but to make you feel inadequate.  I'm talking about blogs by real moms who have a hard time, admit their mistakes, relish in their mainstream inadequacies, and, let's be honest, swear like sailors.  

I've added my blog list to the page.  They are mostly blogs written by friends and relatives, but there are some other parenting blogs I think are amazing. Here are some highlights. 

A mom from mom's coffee sent this to me from Huff Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/una-lamarche/how-to-be-a-perfect-parent_b_2888253.html
It is fantastic.  I laughed out loud so many times.  She isn't on the blog list, but I really wanted to share this article and am still boycotting Facebook so here you go.

I love Renegade Mothering.  Sometimes I think this woman and I are one in the same.  On her about me page, she writes 19 things you should know about her.  Here are the ones that are EXACTLY me:

"2. I am a staunch unswerving advocate of natural, unmedicated birth. For me. I don’t care how your baby exits your body.

4. We eat natural, healthy, homemade foods exclusively. Unless we’re at Costco. Then we eat polish sausages and drink sodas (for one dollar and 50 freaking cents each I might add).

15. I believe women should stop distancing themselves from one another due to differing “philosophies” and join together in one united front against men, who are obviously the problem.

16. No I don’t really think that."

I'm pretty sure both Renegade Mama and I both really do believe #15. 

Welness Mama has made it to the top of my blog list because she has great, healthy recipes.  I also share some of her earth-loving-hippie tendencies. Although she's a bit more into it than I am, which I try not to be judgmental about.  You want to give up cheese and bread and refined sugar?  Good for you.  I'm extremely interested in cheesy bread sticks and Girl Scout Cookies.  It's one of the reasons why I run.  For the cheese flavored Girl Scout Cookies at the finish line...no wait...nevermind.
I made her Grain Free Philly Cheese Steak Peppers for dinner this week from the cow in my fridge and they were AWESOME SOCKS.  I totally grossed out Christine and Matt (the resident vegetarians) and totally impressed Katy (fellow carnivore) by shredding a frozen rump roast on my mandolin to get the thin steak strips.  It was pretty sweet until the steak got kind of small and thawed around the edges from my sweaty hands.  Then it got squishy, pretty gross, and wouldn't go through the mandolin like I wanted it to and Katy said "yeah, that's kind of fleshy now.  Maybe you should stop."  So I did.

I kind of went on a tangent there.  Back to it.

The Inquisitive Mom has made my list because she is a cloth diaper enthusiast, but she also writes about other  interesting [green] things.  Bonus, she has diaper and mom stuff giveaways, none of which I have won, but whatever.
Here is a pattern she made for reusable sandwich bags, which are currently one of the only things on my Amazon wish list.  I already use reusable grocery bags and now produce bags, this seems to be the next obvious step.  Maybe someday I'll get around to sewing again....

Eating fingers

Aunt Arlene

Back in February we met Aunt Arlene at my Grandma's house in McConnellsburg. 

Arlene is my Pap pap's sister, so Beulah and Arlene are sisters-in-law.

Aunt Sherry!

Then we met Aunt Sherry and Mary in Camp Hill!

Attison is clearly looking at himself in this picture. 

Aunt Sherry and Aunt Arlene are [Paylor] sisters.

Getting behind

These videos are from February 8.  oops.
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More sink time

When you spend most of your day alone with a 4 mo. old, it is difficult to time my bathroom visits to Attison's demands.  Last week I was in the bathroom and he screamed the whole time I was in there (he was playing in a pack and play in the other room).  Later that day on a return visit, I brought him with me and put him in the sink.  He was content just sitting in the sink long after I was finished in the bathroom.  I organized the cupboard, brushed my teeth in the tub and read some of a magazine before he decided it was time to get out of the sink.

Then we made silly faces in the mirror for a bit.  It is hard to hold the baby and take a picture at the same time, but I think you get the idea.