Happy Mother's Day

When I think of the word Mom I think of many different things. I think of warmth, love, kindness, braveness, exhaustion, hugs, kisses, freshly baked cookies, hero, superwoman, chauffeur, cook, maid, doctor, therapist, best friend, and home. I have been blessed with an amazing Mom, a supermom! A woman who has absolute unconditional love for me, my siblings, and her grand babies... heck even the kids down the street! She would do anything for us, give anything for us, and be anything for us. She always encourages, always gives great advice, always finds humor in every situation and always has shown us God's unconditional love. 

The one thing that my Mom has always done was teach us how to have a home that honors God. When I think of the word home and I instantly think of my Mom. I think of a home where laughter is the first thing you hear when you enter in the front door, where food is the first thing you smell and where God is the center of it all. A home is a place where you cry, where you laugh, where you praise, where you entertain, where you pray, where you dance, a home is where you feel safe and where you love. 

Even though I am 2,791 miles away on Mother's Day I feel at home because my Mom has always taught me that near or far home is where there is love. Thank you Mom for always helping us find and create our home.

Fashion Friday- What's a monogram?!

There are several things I like about living in California...  It's between 65-78 degrees 11 months of the year, it only rains 10 days a year, there are 1 million donut shops that sell awesome cake donuts, the fact that Peter works at Google and has awesome an awesome job, free food and amazing benfits and a flexbile schedule, that Target, Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Starbucks, Wal-Mart, Carters, Khols, and several other shopping stores are less than .4 miles away from our home... these are all things I love. But there are also many things I miss about living in the "South." Obviously number 1 would be my family and Peter's family living close by, then biscuits (bojangles in particular), then there is "Southern hospitality" (I mean would it kill you to open the door for the lady with the storller, or make eye contact when I walk past you? Or say that my baby is cute because I know she is smiling at you and you really can't resist those happy eyes!?!?), and then there are monograms. I love that in the "South" people mongram EVERYTHING! You have monogramed towels in the guest bathroom, monogrammed pillows in the master bedroom, monogrammed cheese trays for parties, monogrammed soup dispensers in the kitchen, monogrammed aprons, monogrammed phone cases, monogrammed baby blankets, monogrammed croakies (if you don't know what this is you are NOT from the south), monogrammed button up shirts, monogrammed cashmere sweaters... basically if you can wear it or display it it is monogrammed.

I bought Ava this super cute swiss dot romper that I wanted to have her wear for our Mother's Day church dedication (side note she will not be wearing it this Sunday because my little Princess is very petite and it is still too big even though I took it in... what can I say she is short like her Momma).

Anyways, I looked online to see what local monogramming shops were around. There were NONE! There are no kiosks in the malll, shops on the corner, no tailor shops monogram... nothing! So I posted on Facebook and a friend of mine told me Lids, the hat store in the mall, does custom embroidery  I was also told Thing Remembered does as well but when I called they clearly do no custom embroidery in at this location since there is "no demand." So off to Lids we go. I should have known that a hat shop that has catchy rap phrase hat embroidery displayed all around the shop such as "Mo money mo problems" and "Make it Rain" would not be my type of monogram location. However, this was my only shot an making this adorable swiss dot romper so much cuter with my sweet girls initials.

So here is the short version. We walk in and I say " I would like to monogram this romper." Her response "What's a romper and WHAT IS A MONOGRAM?!" I started in utter disbelief  Then I took out the romper and said "A monogram is someone's initials." She then said "Why would you need that on a piece of clothing? Are you going to forget their name?!" Now I am all fired up but clearly she is not "Southern" and I have Ava with me so I keep my composure and smile (Bless her heart... :-) ) and just say alright do you have any hot pink thread to match these bows?! Next she proceeds to show me that she will do the "monogram" in the middle/bottom of the romper because it will be easier. I politely veto the idea and tell her it should be top middle. I then explain that the middle letter needs to be bigger than the first and middle initial. She says she understands and we leave for 20 minutes while she works her magic.

I should have stayed... I knew I should have stayed and babysat the entire production. But she is a professional... right? Clearly not because this is what I came back to.

Yes those are periods between the letters! My question is while creating a hat slogan DO YOU REALLY USE PERIODS?!?! Why do they even have them?! She did not understand the issue or the horror on my face and I knew I would not win.  She had no clue what was wrong with the job.

After an hour of extreme anger and utter disbelief I decided to let it go. I would order something new on Etsy and it would be fine. Then later that day I remembered I had a little friend named "seam ripper" and possibly he could salvage this horrible catastrophe. An hour later of very very careful seam ripping I was able to remove all the periods and brush down the fabric. It is still spaced wonky and looks a bit odd but once my sweet Princess is a little taller she will be styling and super "Southern" with her first monogrammed outfit!

Hungry hungry hippo

So Ms. Ava is the happiest and most easy going baby... unless it's food time! This chick LOVES her milk and if it has been 2 hours and 59 minutes since she last ate she thinks the world is about to end! By now she should be eating every 3.5 hours to 4 hours but my little love is one hungry hungry hippo! before I went back to work I wasn't sure exactly how many oz she was eating but once she started getting bottles we were able to track that she ate 4oz every feeding. Then 4 months came around and all of a sudden she wanted 5-6 oz every feeding and on top of that would ONLY take her milk from the bottle (so double work for me between feedings)! I was having a really hard time keeping up with her demands and really didn't want to switch to formula yet and was hoping this was just a growth spurt. When we went to the pediatrician for her 4 month checkup she didn't seem to concerned with her increase in oz based off her weight and told us that if this wasn't just a "growth spurt" that we might want to start her on brown rice cereal or some form of solid food a little before 5 months. 

So that brings up another issue... "growth spurts!" I feel like babies are ALWAYS going through a growth spurt! I never quite understood the standard growth spurt chart because it seems like Ava always wants more milk! I remember countless nights up with her googling growth spurts. 7 week growth spurt? 13 week growth spurt? 14 week growth spurt?... Anyways, we wanted to wait until around 5/6 months to give her solid food but after her countless demands for milk and my supply dwindling we decided to test it out right before her 5 month birthday. She was showing all the signs of being ready for solid food (sitting well, great head control, watching everything we eat with huge "feed me" eyes, grabbing at our forks/spoons, doubled her birth weight and eating 36+oz in a day) but we still weren't sure she was ready. Well within the first 2 seconds of trying brown rice cereal it was pretty clear she was ready. She actually ate almost every drop! 

She loved the next 2 days of rice cereal but then started being not super interested in it. I know most babies hate rice cereal but it teaches them how to eat real food. So we decided to move on to sweet potatoes! SHE LOVED THEM! She ate 2oz of sweet potato puree, she also then drank 5oz of milk! I am telling you this chick LOVES her milk! 

Here is the step by step of how to make some delicious sweet potato puree. Super easy, super fun and super cheap. 1 potato makes about 4 servings. 

1. Bake, microwave, or boil whole sweet potato 

2. Cut in half and scoop out inside

3. Place sweet potato and 2T of water, breast milk, or formula in the food processer 

4. Puree until there are no lumps

5. Serve to your Sweet One! 

*Place remaining amount in Tupperware and serve as needed throughout the rest of the week. I usually put a little more water or breast milk in each serving and heat up for 8-10 seconds in the microwave

Orange you glad it's Friday!

Here are a few things I am loving this week! J.Crew necklace, Baby Gap dress, Tory Burch Miller Sandals, and Nars lipstick. Hope you have a sunny weekend! 

Sleep Training- Always wake a sleeping baby!

Ok so before you read this please remember that every mommy is different, every baby is different, every family has different values, and every parent parents differently. So with that being said a lot of friends have asked me how we got Ava sleeping through the night, 12 hours, before she was 4 months old. So I thought I would share our technique and the book we read prior to her coming into this world. 

When we moved to California we joined a great church and got involved in a small group that studied the book Preparation for Parenting by Gary and Marie Ezzo. It went over how to prepare for your new baby and all about the feed, wake, sleep cycle. The Ezzo's also wrote "Baby Wise" but this is the Christian version of the book so it goes over how God also fits into your new family dynamic. 

It had some great advice and I think all of us who took the course felt like we were 100% prepared for our babies... seemed simple enough... your baby wakes up, you feed them, and then they go back to sleep. Easy cheesy.... but then the baby comes and none of it works, they wont stop crying, they won't wake up, they wake up at the wrong time, you sleep through a feeding, they don't poop for a day, they scream when you try to feed them, they have reflux, they like to have "awake time" from 4am-7am... Basically lots of stuff happens that is not in the book. 

Luckily Ava was a pretty easy baby. We were able to use a lot of the principals in the book and she actually did start sleeping through the night, 12 hours, around 3.5 months. The basic principal of the book is that during the day, every 3 hours, you need to wake your baby up and have them eat. This seems easy but during the first few weeks your baby is very, very, very sleepy. But if you wake them up and keep them awake to get a full feeding they start getting on a schedule. The first few weeks they will need to eat every 3 hours but after about 4 weeks you can start letting them go longer during the night and let them naturally wake up when they are hungry. Don't get too excited because normally that means they only sleep 3 hours so there are 4 hours between feedings. Eventually they start sleeping consistant 4 hour stretches, 6 hour stretches, 8 hour stretches and then eventually 12 hours straight. 

The best thing that I read in the book was that during the night feedings you need to keep the lights off and make minimal noise. This will help them fall back asleep quickly and get their days and nights straight. It worked for Ava and for a few of the other babies in the class so hopefully if you try it out it will work for you as well. If you have a little one on the way good luck, gets lots of sleep now, and get ready for the most wonderful blessing that is about to rock your world! 

Sunday Funday- The Look For Less

If you know me at all you know I am a BIG bargain shopper. Of course I love my nice handbags and shoes but I am always looking for cute things at a good price. So here are a few good deals I have come across lately. 

1. Eyeliner: 2 years ago I fell in LOVE with Estée Lauder Double Wear Cream Liner in bronze. It stays in place ALL day and goes on very quickly. However, last year they discontinued the color bronze and I could not find a replacement. Then I looked at Target and VOILA... L'oreal infallible gel liner! 

It works just as well, stays on ALL day, the brush is really nice... and the BEST part is that it's $8.99! SCORE!

2. I love all the lace and floral details in apparel these days but it's tough to spend a lot of money on clothes when you know that you are just going to spit up on them! So I decided to go to forever 21 just to see if they have anything that wasn't neon, acid washed denim or absolutely terrible and I found 1 top... but I love this 1 top! 

It has rosette detailing on the sleeves and is not real silk so if I get spit up on it can go in the wash... but the best news is that it is $19.80!  SCORE!

3. DIAPERS, DIAPERS, DIAPERS.... These days it seems like all we do is buy diapers. If you are a Mom and not cloth diapering (more power to you if you are doing that) then you know that diapers can range between $.17-$.28 a diaper. Maybe just maybe if that stars align and you have a coupon and are up at 3am you may score a deal and get them for $.16 each... BUT then we found out about Target Up & Up diapers... They are super cute and only cost $.15 each! Now $.3 doesn't seem like a lot but when you are going through 7-8 diapers a day those pennies add up! 

Leaving on a jetplane

I just realized I haven't blogged in 6 weeks! Yikes! Things have been a little busy at Casa de Lamar! We went to NC to visit my family and new twin nieces and then the day after we came back I went back to work for a month. We had my Mom and Dad visit and my Sister in law... So the last 6 weeks have been a little nuts!!! Here are some pics of my trip to NC and my sweet little nieces! 

Here are sweet Penelope and Alivia

Big Sister Lila 

My Sister, Me and all our girls! 

Our trip to NC was SO FUN but very busy! I was super stressed about flying there with a 3 month old but Ava seemed to not even notice we were flying somewhere. Here are a few tips I learned when flying with a newborn. 

1. Check the stroller, car seat, and any other big stuff

2. Just carry the baby in the baby bjorn or any other carrier you have

3. Invest in the travel Boppy! It folds up and is perfect for nursing while flying and also provides a place for them to stretch out

4. Pack lots of diapers, blankets, and a change of clothes for EVERYONE 

5. Nurse or feed the baby on takeoff and landing or have the paci handy 

6. Try to relax... babies do cry... it's ok

The flight back was a little rougher due to some turbulence and the pilot trying to avoid it but going up and down a lot and causing lots of ear popping stress! Other than that I feel like Ava was the best little traveler around! Hopefully she will be just as good on our upcoming trips to NC and FL!