Gwyneth Eden: 7 months

We are at 7 months!  That means she is closer to being a year old than when she was born.  Man...  She is so sweet and fun!  This month brought lots of great things including Gwen's first Christmas.  With 6 days of parties in a row, she was a champ.

Gwen's "Firsts": This has been a big month for her!  We have been trying out lots of new foods and she is doing much better.  It almost seems like she enjoys it now!

Gwen also can officially row from back to belly!  One day I put her on her back and walked out of the room.  When I came back, she was on her belly!  She has been rolling over consistently ever since!

Shortly after leaning how to roll over, she began sitting up unassisted.  It happened over night.  I still put pillows around her since face plants regularly happen, but she can sit up for long periods of time.

Luckily for us, she is still very immobile.  I am 100% alright with this.  One day we looked around the apartment and I had sewing needles and pins scattered on the floor... we are not ready for crawling.

High of the Month: Watching her open Christmas gifts.  She obviously had no idea what was going on, but it was so cute watching her tear apart the wrapping paper.  I was way more excited about all of this than she was.

Low of the Month: I bet you can guess... sleep!!!! Her schedule has been so off since Christmas which is a lot of our problem.  She probably sleeps better than what I make it sound, but I have way too high of expectations.  In my world, I want a solid 12 hours without having to do anything in between bedtime and wake up time.  We will start the Ferber method soon to help things along, but finding a good time with our crazy schedules has been difficult.

Something I Learned: I will keep this vague and brief.  Baby food poop.... YUCK!

Facts for the Month: 

Favorite activity: Sitting up and playing with her new giraffe toy
Favorite food: Anything sweet
Favorite objects to grab: Christmas tree, poinsettia flower, my hair

Rolling over? Yes!
Sitting up? Yes!


And here are your monthly pictures:

Standing up!

Hanging out with Uncle Dillon on NYE.

Ornaments we made for family!  

Gwyneth Eden: 6 months

Gwyneth is now 6 months!  Half a year old!  She is now so big when I see a newborn, she seems gigantic.  I remember thinking how small my baby looked compared to others.  Not any more!

Gwen's "Firsts": Eating oatmeal cereal and carrots. Also, she was able to stand by herself while holding onto the exersaucer.  It might have only been a few seconds, but it was exciting :)  I think we have also consistently had her sleep in her crib for a month straight!  This is a big accomplishment.  You would be so proud of us, she even takes all her naps in the crib!  Last, she went to to Festival of Lights.

Daddy and Gwen about to go into the Festival of Lights!

High of the Month: What a happy, smiley baby Gwen is!  Rarely do we even need to give her the pacifier.  She uses it to fall asleep for naps and bedtime, but I would say most days the pacifier stays in the crib all day long.  I only take it out with us if I really need to make sure she stays quiet.

Low of the Month: Lack of sleep during the night.  We are slowly working on improving this.  We have her down to only eating once at night, but she still wants to pacifier quite a few times.  Once again, this too shall pass.  I don't mind feeding her one time at night , but I am a little more motivated to get her sleeping better since next weekend it will be our first time leaving Gwen overnight. 

Something I Learned: The Nose Frida is awesome.  Gwen has been congested a lot so we bought a Nose Frida a.k.a. the snot sucker.  Sorry, I'm a mom now and talk about gross things.  I will stop there, but if you want to know more just look it up :)

Facts for the Month: 

Favorite toy: crinkle book
Weight: 13.5 lbs
Weight percentile: 8th (still)
Size clothes: officially 6 months!

Rolling over? Still only belly to back
Sitting up? Not without some help
Any words? Just lots of squealing

I will leave you with some pics from the month!

Constantly trying to get her socks off.

Cousin Lilly wanted to hold her at Thanksgiving. So sweet!

My favorite thing to dress her in is animal print.

Gwyneth Eden: 5 months

Gwyneth is now 5 months old!  Seriously, I can't believe she is this big now!  She is quickly approaching 6 months, which is half way to a year!  I think she gets cuter every day and I love watching her learn new things.  I think she also gets more laid back as she gets older which is never a bad thing :)

Gwen's "Firsts": Seeing snow!  She also sat in a high chair for the first time.  Can't say it didn't happen without massive amounts of spit up, but she did sit in it!  Something about sitting makes her leave puddles of sit up.  She went trick or treating for the first time and it was adorable.  Gwen is so advanced she even held her own trick or treating bucket :) This meant Mom and Dad got some candy!

High of the Month: No more 4 month regression! The 4 month mark brought quite a few challenges with sleeping and overall fussiness.  Almost as soon as she turned 5 months on November 1, she had a more calm and "go with the flow" disposition.  Non-selfishly, we love seeing her happy and enjoying everything more!  Selfishly, this means we get more sleep and are less stressed!

Low of the Month: Poor baby has her first cold.  She is congested and has a hard time breathing through her nose.  Of course right before this showed up we restarted the crib transition.  You know what happens next, right?  Yep, back to the Rock 'n Play.  She sleeps and breaths much easier in there sssssoooo in a week or so maybe we will try the crib again.

Something I Learned:Transition your baby to the crib by 3 months.  Next baby we will have learned at least a couple tricks of the trade.  Everything tells you that habits start developing around 4 months, but I thought, "Well, our baby won't have any problems being flexible and adjusting to whatever we want her to!"  Babies definitely have likes and dislikes.  Gwen likes sleeping in a cozy, inclined setting and dislikes a big, flat crib.

Facts for the Month: 

Taking a pacifier?  YES!
Spitting up? Getting better!
Solid foods? In a month!
Favorite place to sleep? The swing.
Cloth diapering? Going strong!


Since I stopped taking weekly pictures, here are some fun ones from this month!

Gwyneth Eden: 4 months

Gwen is already 4 months old! What?!?!  My little preemie 4 pound baby is getting so big.  She is a super happy girl and we love her so much!  She actually was 4 months on October 1, but this kept getting past me!

Gwen's "Firsts": Rolling over!  This has become pretty fun when I attempt to get her to do tummy time.  She will first start fussing and then just roll over.  Even in the boppy she will attempt to roll over.  She consistently will roll over from belly to back and is dangerously close to rolling over from back to belly!  She also has slept in her crib for the first time!  She does not consistently sleep in her crib, but we are trying!

High of the Month: She is able to interact with us more every day.  It is fun to make her squeal and giggle.  She loves when we sing songs to her, especially, "What Does a Fox Say?"   Probably something about us trying to make ridiculous sounds is highly entertaining for a baby!  Since she is more aware of her surroundings, it is fun watching her interact with objects and people.  If you wear glasses, Gwyneth will instantly be your BFF.  So shiny...

Low of the Month: Gwen's sleep... She has started putting up quite a fight for all naps and bedtime.  We have tried every trick in the book at this point and with no luck.  At first it was encouraging to this, "Oh, its just a phase," but this has been going on for over a month.  Eventually this will get easier!  It will probably get harder at times too.  Oh, babies and sleep :)  Luckily she is cute, so I at least get to snuggle with her in the middle of the night, right?

Something I Learned: There is something called a 4 month regression!  It is amazing to me how much I knew about pregnancy before being pregnant and how little I know about babies.  You don't really need to know much about being pregnant.  As long as you have common sense, you can't mess up being pregnant!  You know, don't get drunk, don't do drugs, etc.  Having a baby on the other hand, there are so many things to think about!  Another thing I learned about is wonder weeks.  All these crazy things I have never heard about!

Facts for the Month: 

Weight: 11 lbs 2 oz
Favorite toy: her fist
Favorite activity: playing on her activity mat
Size clothes: still 3 months

I kept up with taking weekly pictures in her crib, but then one week I changed the crib sheet since she was actually sleeping in there and it didn't match the other pictures.  This bothered me and so I stopped :)  I still have lots of others of her to make up for it.  For her 4 month, I actually do have them all, but 5 month is when they will stop!

P.S.- Blogger would not let me arrange these how I wanted.  Nevertheless, here they are!

13 weeks

14 weeks

15 weeks

16 weeks

17 weeks

Salsa Verde Chicken Enchiladas

Insta-ladas
(Instagrammed Enchiladas)

There aren't a ton of meals where I look forward to leftovers the next day.  You know, sometimes they don't heat up well or you just don't want to eat it twice in 24 hours.  These are a total exception.  I looked forward to eating these for leftovers all day.  I wish I was kidding!

I had these grand intentions of taking step by step pics, but Gwen kept needing her pacifier while she was "napping", so I don't have a ton of pictures. 

I got this recipe out of my good ole Betty Crocker Cook Book.  Everything from that thing is marvelous.  I appreciate that most of the recipes are twists on the classic dishes.  I would have never thought to make these with salsa verde (green salsa), but its so good!  Of course, you could make it with regular salsa (the red kind) and I am sure it would still be good!

Oh, I must add that these, according to Betty, are lower calorie.  According to me, probably not because I like way more cheese than her.

Here is the original recipe:

Chicken Enchiladas

Prep: 25 min   Total: 50 min   Servings: 6

1 cup salsa verde

1/4 cup cilantro sprigs

1/4 cup parsley sprigs

1 tablespoon lime juice

2 cloves garlic

2 cups chopped cooked chicken

3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

6 flour tortillas

1 medium lime, cut into wedges

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray 11 x 7 inch (2-quart) glass baking dish with cooking spray.

2. Place salsa, cilantro sprigs, parsley sprigs, lime juice, and garlic in blender or food processor.  Cover and blend on high speed about 30 seconds or until smooth.  Reserve half of mixture.

3. Mix remaining sauce mixture, chicken, and 1/4 cup of cheese (or more if you like cheese).  Spoon 1/4 cup chicken mixture onto each tortilla.  Roll tortilla around filling and place seam side down in baking dish.

4.  Pour reserved sauce mixture over enchiladas.  Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup of cheese.  Bake uncovered 20-25 minutes or until hot.  Serve with lime wedges.

There you have it!  Yum!  

For a side, I make rice and guacamole.  

The very first picture shown is make assembled, but not yet cooked enchiladas with mild salsa.  The blender pictures are with hot salsa.  Both were very good, but the hot was HOT.  Probably depends on your preference if you like hot things or not.

Hope you like them!  Enjoy!

Reflecting on One Year

On July 20, David and I celebrated our first year of marriage!  This year has flown by and without a doubt this has been my favorite year!

To celebrate we went out to dinner at Maggiano's.  This is where we had our rehearsal dinner, so we thought it would be a fun place to reminisce, plus it is so yummy!

During our delicious dinner and that enormous piece of cheesecake, we talked about our first year of marriage.  I wanted to come up with a list of questions that we answer each year on our anniversary to see how we grow and change.

After doing this, I realized one of the most challenging aspects of this year for me and also where I have grown the most is in cooking, grocery shopping, and meal planning.  I cannot even begin to tell you how many tears were shed over those three things!  Seriously, looking at ads, cutting coupons, meal planning, grocery shopping, hulling those groceries up to our third floor apartment, cooking the food, and then burning it never ends well :)

Since this blog started as a way to share what I was learning in marriage (and pregnancy... and parenting), I want to try and help other wives out that are trying to figure out all this as well.  My most frustrating moments have come from not knowing what recipes to make or choosing the wrong ones and ending up making a frozen pizza.

I am excited to begin posting more recipes on the blog and tricks I have learned over the year to save money grocery shopping.  One crazy idea I have is to even calculate the cost of every recipe I make to figure out which meals are the most cost effective and which meals will be considered splurges.

We still go over our grocery budget most months sometimes by $5 and sometimes by $30, but we are in a much better place than a year ago!  In other budget categories we don't have as much control over, but the grocery bill we definitely determine and can change!

Keep a look out for fun recipes that I promise taste good, save money, and reduce your stress level :)

If you feel like you are failing in the whole cooking area, I will leave you with this fun story.

In the first couple months of being married, I got really excited about freezer cooking.  David's dad had given us a lot of potatoes from his garden so I wanted to make a lot of mashed potatoes then freeze them for future meals.  I also had recently gotten a Kitchen Aid mixer.  My thought was I would boil the potatoes and then mash them using the mixer.

So, I boil them, put them in the mixer, and turn it on.... and mashed potatoes hit the ceiling.  I cried and some how probably blamed it on David.  Proud moments!

Now, I am much more careful when I turn on the mixer and use a potato masher to make my mashed potatoes!  There is definitely a learning curve!

Gwyneth Eden: Weeks 11 & 12

3 months old!  It both feels like she was just born and that she has always been here.  Gwen is doing so well!  I can't believe this little girl weighed 4 pounds when we brought her home from the hospital.  I wouldn't be surprised  if she is approaching 10 pounds now.  We have been cloth diapering now for a little over two weeks which is a little of an adjustment :)  I think we may be getting the hang of it though.

Gwen's "Firsts": Wearing cloth diapers of course!  I also read a book to her for the first time.. she cried the whole time.  Well, I tried!

Proud Wife Moment: I went to City Flea kid-free last Saturday morning which meant David had Gwen.  We were still in the beginning stages of figuring out this whole cloth thing so I didn't say anything to him about using them.  I thought it might go over better if I learn how to do the whole prefold and snappi trick and then teach David since I am a cloth diaper researching addict.  I left and thought he would use disposable which was 100% fine.  When I got home she didn't have on a prefold, not even a BumGenius.  She has on a perfectly snappied prefold.  Seriously, he did a better job than I do.  Good job, Husband!!!!

Funny Moment:  Gwen is down to pooping like 1 time a day (TMI?)... anyways, I don't like when she poops in her cloth diapers because they are still new and who wants poop on new things?  I told her multiple times that she should only poop in her nighttime disposable like it would make a difference. You would never believe it, but for almost a week after we get her a bath, her disposable, pajamas, and swaddle, we lay her down, and then.... POOP. Seriously!  She listens so well :) We then have to change her and use another disposable which defeats the purpose of cloth, but eventually I will get over her pooping in her pretty diapers.

High of the Week: Gwen coos so much now!  When you smile at her, she starts making all kinds of fun noises.  She is a happy girl!

Low of the Week: This is barely a low... I hate how with cloth diapers they make clothes fit way tighter.  She just moved into 3 month clothes a couple weeks ago and now some of her onesies are tight.  Anyone ever get onesie extenders?  

Something I Learned: I have read on multiple websites that sleeping through the night is defined as 5-6 hour stretches.  Really?!?! I don't really know how that is sleeping through the night because I personally want 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep... minimum.  I can't bring myself to claim she is sleeping through the night at 5 hours.  I can go for 7, but not 5.  If I can function well and not day dream about a third cup of coffee, then that is sleeping through the night.  Don't get me wrong I will take what I can get!  I just thought when I hoped and prayed for sleeping through the night I would get a little more than that!

From now on when I say Gwen slept through the night, that means I got at least 7 hours of sleep without having to feed her :)

Facts for the Week(s): 

Blow out diapers: NONE!
Times sleeping through the night: 10
New favorite accessory: flower headbands
Fun fact: Gwen has a large space between her big toe and 2nd toe

11 weeks

12 weeks