Gerber Photo Search 2013

 

 

Hi everyone!  I just wanted to put the word out there that I have entered Berlyn in the Gerber Photo Search!  Voting starts on November 4, and I just hope we get enough votes so we can win!

 

I really feel like Berlyn has all the qualities of a 'Gerber baby', and ever since she was born people always told me she looked like the Gerber baby.  I know there are thousands upon thousands of entries for this contest, but it would be cool to win!!!

 

Once voting opens, I will post another reminder so that all my friends can get their vote in, if they want to! :)

 

xoxoxo

 

 



Grad School

Ugh.  I am horrible at making decisions.  I am the most indecisive person I've ever known.  And that is most likely the reason I cannot decide if I want to go back to school for my Master's.

 

I went to different junior colleges, and then finally an online school to finish my Bachelor's degree.  It took me TEN years to finish all of that, but I did it.  And it felt amazing.  I was taking classes online when I was pregnant, and worked ahead in class so that I could take a week off when I was in the hospital after having Berlyn.  If that isn't dedication, I don't know what is.  Part of the reason why I decided to finish my degree online was because I just needed to get it done.  I was just ready to put my all into getting it finished and receiving those credentials. 

 

Now I am faced with another obstacle.  I cannot decide if I should go for my Master's or not.  Are any of you ladies full-time working mommies?  I ask this, because if I was a stay at home mom then I would definitely make this leap.  It's a little different when you have 40 less hours a week to devote to studying.  The absolute only option for me to go back for my degree is to do it online.  I refuse to take classes on campus and lose any more time with my family than is necessary.  The particular school that I am looking at is National University.  Have any of you heard of or attended this school?  The courses are 4 weeks long, and there aren't any breaks in between classes except for two weeks during the holidays at the end of the year.  I think I can do this, it's just that I am worried about the workload of a 4 week long course (it is a 12 month program).  They allow their students to take breaks of one month (in between each class, if I want), but that would just drag it out longer, and I really just want to finish it earlier than later. 

 

So, please, any and all advice is appreciated as I am trying to make this decision quickly (which, for me, is impossible!).  As soon as I am done (or almost done) with my Master's, I would like to expand our family again and move into a bigger house.

 

Help!

Potty Training!

 

 

I am really dreading potty training... anyone else?!  I would like to have Berlyn potty trained before she is two years old, but we will see!  I need to do it at a time when I can be available to her all day long.  The only time for us to try this is during the holidays this year.  I will be off work for two weeks on vacation and it will be perfect.  Not that I don't trust my husband to jump up every time she says "potty", but I would just like this one thing to be mine (maybe I'm a little jealous that he gets to spend so much daddy-daughter time with her while I'm at work... I digress ). 

 

Do any of you have any tips that would be helpful for potty training?  Pull-Ups?  What kind of "potty" seat do you use for your little one?  I bought Berlyn the type of toilet that sits on the ground that she can use, however, I read today that it might be better to use the one that actually sits on top of the toilet.  I have also heard from some of my mama friends that NOT using Pull-Ups is the way to go because that way they can learn quickly that it doesn't feel good to potty or poo in their pants.  Any suggestions at all would be helpful!!!

 

I know this was a random post, but, I truly am interested in what everyone's take on this is!  Not everyone shares the same opinion, and I'd like to see what all the different options for us are!  I hope everyone has a great Saturday night!



Pump the Breaks, B.

 

Okay, so my baby girl is officially, officially, a toddler.  Like y'all didn't know that I thought that, before, right? 

 

Berlyn now says the word "no" when she means it.  Would you like an example?  Okay... I say, "Berlyn, can I have a kiss?" and she answers, "No."  She doesn't say it in a mean way.  She just... says it.  And, in a way, it makes me sad!  She has learned how to express her opinion and I don't know if I'm ready for all of that.  Of course, it does come with it's advantages.  For example, if I ask her if she wants something to eat/drink, and she says no, it makes things easy.  Gone are the days when she would just give me a blank stare and I would have to guess for her.

 

She is also in a major HELPING stage.  Any time I clean or pick up any mess, she says "Helpee, helpee, helpee!"  This stems from the phrase that I use whenever she is helping me, which is "Wow, you're helping me!"  Tonight she wanted to help me with the paper towel I used to clean up a milk spill.  She spot cleaned some of the hardwood floor and then stuffed the paper towel into an empty cup she grabbed from the sink.  If that's not  considered 'helping' then I don't know what is.  She is such a big girl, and SO smart.  I don't know any other way to describe her. 

 

She also knows the letter B.  Not because it's the first letter of her first... or last name, but because when I made the wreath for our front door, she was watching me and I told her I was gluing the letter 'B' onto the wreath.  From then on, she would say the letter 'B' when she saw the wreath, but tonight she said the letter when she looked at one of her toys that had a B on it.  She pointed to the letter and said it.  My big girl - be still me heart. 

 

I know this post wasn't long, although it was long overdue, but our fun girl's day out today prompted me to write this post so I could remember this fun stage she's in.  These pics were taken from today.  We were watching the butterflies land on flowers.

 

 

 

 

I hope everyone's Saturday night is restful and full of happiness!

Baitx Family Photos!

 

 

I want to start out by saying that Jacob and Jessica at Jacob Mariano Photography have true talent.  They have made our engagement, pregnancy, wedding, and family moments SO memorable by capturing the most enjoyable pictures.  They used to be based out of California, but they now live in Washington.  We were so blessed to have met them when they were here and have them follow us through our little journey!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope everyone is having a great Sunday evening!  It's off to Disneyland for us tomorrow!  Hot diggity dog!

 



17 Months Going on 5 Years Old

 

 

 

I probably say this every month, but this month of Berlyn's life practically FLEW by.  She is almost a 1 1/2 year old and it freaks me out!  Pretty soon I'll be getting ready for her 2nd birthday, ahh!  I have also come to the realization that she is 100% her mother's daughter.  She has an attitude like me, and she is also stubborn.  I just pray it doesn't stick around for too much longer.  This little girl is already getting time outs for hitting... hitting!  Lord, please don't let my child be the one that no mothers want their kids to be around!

 

As I sit here watching my little girl play, learning new things, it really makes me think back to when she was just barely learning how to make sounds with her mouth.  Now she is putting together sentences.  She knows when we are telling her to do certain things and knows when she's in trouble.  Sometimes all it takes is a look from me for her to realize she is doing something that isn't good, and she will stop and say, "Hi."  Her little self thinks that she can get away with anything just from muttering that little word.  What a stinker!  Did I mention that she repeats EVERYTHING we say?!  Even when I spell certain words she will say it!  It could have been a fluke, but it definitely freaked me out!  Along with talking more, she is also acting way more independent than she used to be (as if that's even possible).  She doesn't like when we feed her now.  She likes to use her fork or spoon and do it all herself.  Usually she will just end up holding the fork while she eats, but at least she feels like she's a big girl ;) 

 

 

 

 

 

Since we are talking about eating, does anyone else have a somewhat picky toddler?  I swear, I used to be able to feed Berlyn anything.  Now she has an aversion to certain textures like mashed potatoes and yams.  And, call me a bad mom, but she had her first Happy Meal today!  It was kind of cute, watching her enjoy her tiny little box of French fries and eating her bite size chicken McNuggets.  That isn't something I do often at all - I just thought it'd be cute to see her reaction! 

 

Berlyn is in size 2T now, which really broadens the spectrum when it comes to shopping for her clothes.  She also wears her Saltwater sandals (size 5) almost everyday.  I am so glad I invested in getting her those, she loves them!

 

Berlyn also has quite an obsession with taking baths.  Any time she even hears the bath water running, she will stop what she's doing, look at me, and say with excitement, "Bubbles!"  It is so cute when she does it... not so cute when she does it when I want to take a shower.  She ends up crying, saying, "Bubbles" with the saddest face you've ever seen.  It happened this morning before church.  I actually caved and let her take a bath while I curled my hair.  I have to say it worked out well!

 

And, I am proud to say that Berlyn now says "Please" and "Thank you!"  It is the cutest thing, but sounds more like, "Beets" and "Day doo."  I always use those words when I talk to her so I think she just picked it up from hearing it all the time.  She knows when to say it too, like after I hand her something or when someone else gives her something.  Makes my heart melt ;)

 

But, I digress.

 

I hope everyone had a long, restful weekend.  Tomorrow it's back to the grind for me.  Happy Sunday!

Reminiscing.

Oh goodness.  I did something tonight that I haven't done in a long, long, time.  I went through all my old IG photos from way back when.  From way back when I was pregnant.  I know all mothers must go through looking at old photos of their little ones at some point, and for me, it was tonight.

I now have a 16 (and a half) month old baby girl.  A baby I GREW inside me and provided life for, for over ten months.  How can time go by so quickly?  When I had just had Berlyn, people would tell me to enjoy it because it goes by fast.  I always shrugged it off, like it wouldn't go by fast for ME.  I always thought it was just something 'they' say.  But now, lying in my bed, listening to my toddler stir around in her crib two doors down, I really do believe that time goes by too fast. 

I remember when I just had her and she slept next to me in her bassinet.  Every few hours she would stir around and somehow manage her way out of her swaddle.  An escape artist.  I would wake up to change her, feed her, and just stare at her.  Just me and her.  Our special time that we had together as mother and daughter.  Sometimes she would do things that would make me laugh, causing Justin to wake up for a quick second.  But he would fall back asleep, and it would be just us two again.  Days would pass, then weeks, then months.  Now it seems like the past year was a blur.  I wish I could rewind time and live through it all a bazillion times.  

But now she is older and she has, of course, changed.  She has a personality, and a way of doing things her way.  But I wouldn't change a thing.  She is my light and my reason for living.  My little bunny, my goose, my sweet baby Berlyn, I love you so much. 

4th of July!

We hope everyone's 4th of July was just as fun as ours was!  Originally we had planned to be poolside at my dad's house, but that didn't work out.  We reverted back to plan b: order in sushi while the baby napped, and soaked up all the a/c we could.  Then, I had an epitome.  I was NOT about to sit inside (on my day off) and let the beautiful day outside just pass me by.  NO.  I wanted to get out and have fun with my family!

We ended up going to my friend's parent's house to swim and have a couple cocktails by the pool.  Berlyn has slowly but surely been getting more and more comfortable around water.  The first time she touched beach water she FREAKED.  Now she is okay with it, and even more okay with pool water.  So we packed up her diaper bag with food, snacks, towels, sunblock, and a baby raft, and we were on our way. 

Of course when we got there, I had forgotten to pack her sunglasses and a hat.  Go figure, I forget something EVERY time we go somewhere!  Luckily, our friend's have nephews and one of his baseball hats was left behind for us to borrow for the day.  Also, one of the girls there offered up her sunglasses for the Boo to wear.  She does look stylish, if I do say so myself...

But, I digress.

We stayed there for a bit, played in the pool, went underwater, and ate some chips...

And then we went next door where they had an amazing pool, a jumper, powerwheels (so rad that I actually drove one. by myself.), a poolhouse with surround sound, a playground complete with beach sand, and all the food and drinks you could want.  Berlyn wasn't in that great of a mood that day since she only had one short nap before we got there, but she was a trooper. 

When we finally got home, the fireworks starting going off.  Sadly, it was Berlyns bed time so we didn't get to stay up and watch them.  That didn't stop them from going off though.  At 10 at night.  Sounding. Like. A. Gunshot.  I bathed Berlyn, gave her some milk, and put her down.  She was out before I put on MY pajamas.  I'm just thankful the firework bombs didn't wake up B.  I would have been furious!

Overall it was a good day.  It started out weird but nothing is better than spending time with your friends and playing in a pool with your baby!  ...I hope someday our pool gets fixed.  That requires a whooooole other post... I'm actually about to snap some pictures of our backyard and submit them to HGTV for a YARDCRASH... Ugh, end rant.

Next post?  Our backyard *before* pictures.  It's embarrassing to post them, but I am determined to get my backyard in shape before the end of summer.  I will post progress pictures as we move along, but for now here's a picture of something I'm not embarrassed of.

Have a great week everyone!  It's supposed to be near the 90's here for the most part... 

Can't it just be Christmas already?!

I'm Baaaaack!

Okay, so I believe the award for the Worst Blogger goes to me.  Who takes a 4 month break in between posts?  Oh, yeah... I do.  All the birthday planning really did a number on me but it's time I get back into the groove of things!  I apologize in advance for the lengthy post.

A lot has happened since Berlynny Boo's first birthday in February.  The week before her birthday she took her first steps, and the week after her birthday was when she really got the hang of it.  That meant that everything that was baby-proofed at crawling level had to be raised to walking level.  Talk about constantly worrying that something will fall on your baby's head!  She runs all the time, especially when I say "Whoaaaaaaaaa," or when I say "That's it.  I'm gunna get you!"  She loves playing games and cannot sit still.  Her favorite thing right now is when Daddy rough houses with her.  She loves being thrown against the couch, smacked in the head with a pillow, and bein held down when you try to give her a kiss.  This kid is the toughest baby I know - definitely a daddy's girl.

Berlyn has also been eating mostly "people" food with a few toddler meals thrown in the mix.  It used to be so hard to keep her food new and exciting when she was a baby.  Now she basically eats what we eat, although textures are a big thing for her.  Sadly, my meatloaf wasn't a big hit with her.  She also lost interest in some foods she used to love, like peas.  She likes to eat everything with her hands, and is somewhat coordinated with using a fork (with my help).  She likes waffles, grapes, strawberries, LOVES bananas, mangoes, pears, peaches, and pineapple.  Her other favorites are grilled cheese, chicken, avocado, broccoli, pasta of any type, salmon, and anything I'm eating.  I can just hear her little voice now, wanting a bite of my food while climbing up my leg saying "pweez!"  She drinks milk, juice, and water, with an occasional sip of a margarita (kind of kidding - she snuck a sip out of my cup once and I FREAKED out). 

She is now wearing a size 2T and a size 5 in shoes.  She is wearing the heck out of her Saltwater sandals, but I love 'em and I think it's time for another pair in a different color.  Her hair is finally long enough to put in a ponytail or pigtails (swoon!), and she has all her teeth except her 2 year molars.  She is still just below the 97th percentile for weight and height, but has thinned out a bit due to her walking/running all over the place and growing like a weed.  I swear, she could pass for a two year old.  Oh, and get this: she also knows how to ROLL her eyes.  Excuse me, who does this little girl think she is?!  I have a video of it that I'll have to upload once I can get it onto Youtube! 

In other news, I have had the pleasure of meeting two of my favorite IG mamas and their babies.  Last month Berlyn and I took a trip down to Pacific Beach to meet Natalie and her little angel Ellia.  After trying to find each other on the beach for about 20 minutes we finally linked up, and ladies, she is just as beautiful in person and she is on Instagram!  We walked around, ate some lunch, then went and laid on the beach with our munchkins.  This was Berlyn's first time at the beach and she didn't like it one bit.  She clung to me like white on rice and HATED the sand.  Since Natalie is a photographer, she took some awesome shots of the babies together and a few of her and I.  You can view these photos on my Instagram (@dbaitx)!  Natalie and I chatted (love her Canadian accent, eh) and got to know each other a bit more.  I am so glad I had the opportunity to meet those two babes, we had an awesome time hanging out! 

A few weeks after meeting Natalie & Ellia, another IG mama and I planned a meet up.  Since my husband has some time off work, he was able to go with us!  It worked out perfect since my friend's husband was with her.  Turns out they hit it off pretty good.  We drove down to San Diego and met up with Allison, Ian, and little Lemon.  They had rented an RV right on the beach so after arriving and feeding Berlyn, we just had to lotion up the girls and put on their suits.  The weather was perfect (so perfect that my husband has a sun burnt foot, ha ha) and not one thing went wrong - OH WAIT - I totally forgot about the wave that crashed into our beach setup, soaking our towels, clothes, and bags.  Funniest moment of the day!  After tiring herself out on the beach, Lemon went down for a nap and Allison and I just stayed on the beach and talked.  I had a lot of fun getting to know her in person and hate that she lives so far!  Can't wait for our meet up again at the end of this month!

I hope this wasn't a novel, but I had to catch everyone up on what's been going on since B turned one!

Berlyn's Birthday Party!

I am FINALLY getting to posting about Berlyn's one year birthday party.  A lot of people who don't know Berlyn personally will look at this picture and say "Aw, she looks sad."  The truth is, this is the face she makes when the sun is shining in her eyes!  This is one of my favorite faces of hers that she makes.  This has to be the most perfect shot I got of her the whole day.

My pride and joy for the party (aside from the beautiful birthday girl), was the dessert table.  I got pretty much everything from Hobby Lobby and made 95% of it myself.

"Berlyn" banner made from cardstock and yarn
 

The letter "B" I purchased from Hobby Lobby and painted it pink. Vases and flowers from Michaels

 

Cupcakes made my my fab mom and I (idea found on Pinterest)

 

Cake pops made by Lanisa from Nisa's Sweets. Buckets filled with rice made the perfect stand for them!

 

There were also tissue poms that took me FOREVER to fluff up, but of course I failed to photograph them... There was also a glass jar filled with chocolate covered raisins with cute little cups to put them in. 

For food, we served hot dogs and polish sausages with all the fixin's: chili, cheese, onion, mustard, and ketchup.  Everyone seemed to love the food and had a good time.  I'm guessing the beer and Patron helped kick it up a notch, too.

Opening presents was my favorite part.  Every time we opened a new gift, Berlyn would look at it and say, "WOW!"  She was being so cute that day!  I could not have asked for anything more - she really is my pride and joy!

After gifts we went ahead and had Berlyn "smash" into her cake.  We didn't get a picture of my husband and I next to the birthday girl in her highchair before she attempted to eat it... FAIL.  But we did get a few of her crying during most of the whole thing.



Cake from Albertson's! Sorry - I'm not that crafty... banner made by me with materials from Hobby Lobby

The hat was bugging her!

 

 

All in all, the party was a complete success.  There were a few hiccups in the planning process, but overall it worked itself out and I was happy with the turnout.  It has taken me so long to get this post up and I still have yet to send out our thank-yous [worst mom ever!].  And, to end this post, here are a couple more photos of the three of us.  Hope everyone has a great Saturday night!