First Family Christmas Card

Our 8 month old

Leeland is 8 months old today! I know I say this a lot, but I truly am surprised at how fast he is growing.  Babies grow, learn and develop SO much during the 1st year. I am so happy to have the little fellow in my life and I know that Daniel is too-- and I am even happier to say that I have been an at home Mom for 8 MONTHS!!! God has truly blessed us and I am so thankful for all of the time that I have been able to spend with him.  Without further ado, here is what my 8 month old can do.....

-CRAWL!! He is full on hands and knees crawling, and he is a quick little booger and lets nothing get in his way.

-He is pulling up to a standing position using furniture such as the couch, his crib, and he has even been known to pull up on the dog.

-He is a very active, independent little boy... he can go from crawling to sitting position, standing to sitting position, rolls all over the floor with the dog-- he gets around quite well for himself.

-He can walk when you hold his hands (super cute, sort of like a high knee march... lol)

-He is still sleeping through the night, aside from a few colds/viruses he has had.  He usually goes to bed around 8/8:30 and wakes up around 7/7:30.

-With all the moving around has come several falls and tumbles.... he got his 1st bruise a few weeks ago trying to wiggle around on the changing table :0(

-He is eating 3 solid meals a day, and there isn't a fruit or vegetable out there he hasn't tried.  And he has LOVED them all.  Not picky at all, just like Mommy :D

-He has not tried pureed meats, the thought of grinding up meat into a smooth "liquidy" form grosses Mommy out, so he will try meats at a later time when he has table food.

-He usually has 1 snack a day, he loves "Baby Mum Mum" rice crackers and goes even more crazy for "little puffs"

-He has NO TEETH yet!! All the other babies I know got their first teeth around 6 months, Leeland still has none.  I have read online that the longer it is until they come in, the healthier they are so I am trying not to fret much but most people think it's weird.

-Leeland recently celebrated his 1st major Holiday, Thanksgiving and had a blast with family and friends and he is ready for Christmas!

-Leeland can say "Dadda" and "Momma" and he knows who we both are.

Meeting Santa

Friday night Daniel and I took Leeland to meet Santa for the first time.  We met my sister and my nephew Tyler there.  Tyler is only 1 month old and was asleep when we got there-- we thought he might wake up once placed and Santa's lap and he didn't.  We took some pictures of Tyler and Santa first and then we put Leeland on Santa's lap to get some photos of the two of them together.  Then we snapped a few pictures as quick as we could of Leeland by himself with Santa.  We had to be fast because Leeland DID NOT like Santa AT ALL!!! He screamed!! And Tyler slept through the whole thing... Here are some pictures....

And Leeland wins!!!

For those who hadn't heard, which would be hard to believe considering I posted all over Facebook and all over Twitter about our win.... Leeland won his very 1st contest on November 24, 2010.  The contest was sponsored by "Rockin Green" on Facebook.

If you are a cloth diaperer, you have probably heard of Rockin Green and if you haven't you REALLY need to check them out.  It is the BEST cloth diaper detergent out there.  It is a clean rinsing detergent, that really gets all the ickies out-- and even better, they make scents that are completely clean rinsing and make washing dirty diapers fun!  Click here for more  It can however also be used on other things, like carpets, dishes, set in stains and clothes.

If you use Rockin Green soap or plan to use their soap, you really need to follow them on Twitter and "like" them on Facebook-- they are ALWAYS giving stuff away.  The contest we were in was Thanksgiving related where we were asked to send in pictures of our little turkey's.  The prize was a "jingle bell gift pack" worth $45.  Daniel and I got Leeland's costume together the night before and were anxiously awaiting 10 am that day to post a picture of our little turkey-- we were pretty proud of our creativity but weren't sure what others ideas were.  Turns out, our anxiousness made us only the 2nd picture posted that day...  I found myself on Facebook checking out the competition ALL day (lame I know).  Rockin' Green also decided to give away a bag of detergent every hour that day-- so I was waiting on them to say I won a bag of detergent and when they didn't I began to think "wow, we really must have a shot at the grand prize...."

At the end of the contest, they said it was hard to choose and that they were going to pick top 5.  They started posting off #5, a few minutes later #4, then #3, by the time they got there I began to think we didn't win.  Surely there was NO way that we were #1, I've never won anything.  I was ready to write it off as a loss... then #2, and finally the winner of the grand prize was ME!!!!! I literally squealed and jumped up and down (trying to be a little quiet because Leeland was down for his evening nap).  Daniel was at work so I had no one to celebrate with, I called him at work nearly in tears because I was so shocked that we had won.  He didn't believe me at first and I showed him the announcement online when he got home.  We won the grand prize out of 110 pictures entered!

This is the picture we submitted-- the feathers were made of
the "Rockin Green" bag and silver wrapping paper.

Leeland was napping, this is Hooey the parrot modeling
our "Jingle Bell Gift Pack"

The gift pack included--- tote bag, magnetic laundry scoop, Rockin Green detergent in Might Marshmallow scent, Funk Rock ammonia bouncer, A shake-it-up pail freshener in the holiday "Sugar Ray plum" scent, a small bag of Rockin Green samples (in every scent) and a small bag of random goodies from other companies.  

THANK YOU ROCKIN GREEN!!!!!

A baby MUST have!

For all you mother's of newborns, moms to be, or those dreaming of a family in the future.  There are many items that you NEED when you have a baby, and then there are many items that you are told you need and yet never use.  One item that I would recommend to anyone that you probably haven't even really thought about that is a definite MUST have is a play mat or preferably play gym.

They range in price from $25-60.  You can find them at Wal-Mart, Babies R Us, Target, consignment stores and online.  They have a variety of themes, characters and colors depending on what you are looking for.  Most gyms come with 2-4 hanging toys and have loop holes so that you can add more.  In fact, I ended up with a TON of extra toys to hang from people using them as decorations on a wrapped present (brilliant idea).  I often swap out the toys between the gym and hanging on the car seat to keep Leeland interested.  We got our gym pictured below from Target.com, it is Infantino brand and cost around $50.  A little steep for us but we liked the design and to be honest we were using money from our baby shower to purchase it.

Leeland 2 months old playing

We started placing Leeland under his gym when he was about 3 or 4 weeks old and started staying awake a little longer.  He couldn't quite reach the toys but enjoyed looking at the colors and at himself in the mirror.  We also used the gym to introduce tummy time to him (which he did not like).

Now that Leeland is almost 8 months old he is STILL playing with his gym.  He can crawl now, so he definitely doesn't stay under it, but he will crawl through it like it's a tunnel and often stop to chew on (teething baby) the toys.  Originally I thought that $50 was steep but considering he has played with this toy for 7 months and still continues to play with it, it was well worth the cost.  It made a fabulous distraction when he was little so that I could eat, change over the laundry, or even just use the bathroom and now it has paid for itself simply because he still has interest in it.

A must have for any Mom!

Leeland 7 1/2 months playing with his gym

Baby's 1st snow

Greensboro received it's 1st snow of the season (and it's actually still only Fall) on December 4, 2010!  I was so excited to see the snow because I look forward to it every year, but I was even more excited that we got so much.  All week our local weather man has said things like "Don't get too excited, it won't be much," "Only light flurries," and "None of it will stick".... AND, he was wrong!  It is currently only about 3:00 PM and the snow is supposed to continue to at least midnight and we have probably 1-2 inches on the ground. It's definitely enough that I can't see the grass and is actually sticking to the sidewalks and parking lot here at our apartment complex.  Here are some pictures of Leeland in his 1st snow-- he didn't really care much for it, just stared at it, ate a little and then after a few minutes began to cry.  Maybe next year he will understand a little more.

Cloth!

Fellow Cloth Diaper Addicts should totally check out this blog.  They have great information and reveiws about products throughout the year and they are currently doing a promo called "The 12 Days of Clothmas" and giving away REALLY cool things.

Sneak Peek for blog readers.

My blog readers can get a sneak peek of our family photo shoot that we had last weekend with my dear friend Alisa.  You guys are seeing the pictures before they go on facebook and before the Christmas card goes out.  I love them and I hope you enjoy them as well! :D

Those are a few of my favorites! There's over 100, but I don't wanna fill up my whole blog with one photo shoot! 

In honor of World Aids Day

Today, December 1st was World Aids Day. I day that we reflect on and educate ourselves on this world-wide pandemic called HIV/Aids.  It's crazy to think how far we have come (at one time we thought you could get the disease from simply touching someone) but we still have a long way to go! Here are some great sites that I think you all should check out!

Because Every Mother Matters

Project Hopeful

Family adopts children with HIV/Aids

The well known Project[Red]

A federal site on Aids (that's how serious)

Local to Greensboro

I'm sure that there are many more links that I could post, but this is a start.  If you know of places that I could check out, please let me know! Be blessed!