So I Hosted Thanksgiving...

This post can alternatively be titled, "The Day Thanksgiving Was Almost Ruined."


I was going to write up this whole long nasty post about how my family's Thanksgiving was fouled up by some obnoxious circumstances, but I've decided to refrain from doing so and focus on the positive- because our Turkey day turned out just lovely! Due to some rather unfortunate turn of events, we had to relocate. I was so upset and disappointed that my parents had to be uprooted from their own home, not to mention that my in-laws came from out of state for this, AND my house was in shambles because we're packing everything up to move. This was Gigi's first Thanksgiving, and I wanted it to be special!

But, my awesome mama packed up tons of food, I scrambled and made a run to the store for plastic plates (yep, our dishes were packed!) and a couple nice floral centerpieces (hello, I'm so anal I can't not have a centerpiece at a dinner) and lots of booze. And a wonderfully fun time was had by all!

 Get a load of that tushie!

 

 Note the moving boxes in the background!

Here G is chowing down on oatmeal - a total upgrade in her opinion from rice cereal. She so eagerly ate this up, it was adorable! I was sad about not giving her any veggies, but I'm on board with what our dr. recommends, so it looks like she'll have a yummy Christmas dinner. :-)

5 Months!!

This really cannot be. She was just born yesterday, right?!? She's growing up so fast, how can I freeze time?!?!

Freakouts like this happen quite regularly now. She's learning so much every day, I can't help but marvel at her genius (OK I realize some of you are gagging right now. Get over it, my baby is amazing). Here's the latest on Miss Gabriella Grace.

• 18 lbs 2 oz and 26 1/4 inches long! Um seriously?!?!? 3 lbs in one month! Is there butter in her formula? :-P
• Rolling onto her tummy is easy as pie and she now prefers to sleep that way! Uh oh. I really don't want her sleeping on her tummy at night (I guess there's not much I can do about that) - for now she sleeps on her side and sometimes back at night. Naps during the day, however, she's all about the tummy. She just sleeps so much better that way ( 2 1/2 hour naps, anyone?). I check on her all the time because of course I'm a paranoid freak. 
• Speaking of naps, she loves them. To the point where I'm wondering if she naps too much. There's a morning nap, late morning nap, early afternoon nap, and late afternoon nap. She needs them. I can't deny her her sleep when she starts rubbing her eyes and yawning, but a part of me suspects that her nap schedule is what's keeping her from sleeping through the night. She's still waking around 11 and 3 for a bottle. Any solutions, friends?
• Still eating her "dinner" nightly of rice cereal. I haven't introduced any other foods yet because I honestly wanted to wait until she was closer to 6 months before even doing solids but she just seemed ready (and she wasn't sleeping and the pedi gave us the OK). She's doing really well with it, so our pedi is having us up it to 2x a day now. I'm looking forward to making her food soon, I really can't wait to break out the Beaba Babycook!
• She tries to hold her bottle when she eats now, and don't you dare try to take it from her before she's done! She's especially funny right before she starts eating when she's super hungry - she'll snatch the bottle away with purpose!
• The DAY she turned 5 months she started to be able to sit unassisted! Sure, it's only for like 10-15 seconds at a time, but she's getting it! 
• She also loves "standing" while we hold her arms, we hardly have to hold her. I can't believe how strong and independent she's getting.

Here are her 5 month "photo shoot" pictures. Seriously some of my faves I've taken to date:

I hope everyone has a wonderful and happy Thanksgiving! xoxo

Our visit to Mr. Claus

Over the weekend we took Gabriella to meet Santa since we figured after Thanksgiving it would be a total zoo to try to get in. She absolutely LOVED him!

I

I'll have her 5 month update later today since we're seeing the pedi in a couple hours!

I've given up.

Not on life or anything crazy like that yo! I've given up on going to the nail spa for manis and pedis. It's just too time consuming and, well in spirit of saving the almighty dollar, I've decided to just do my own nails... and I like it! I think I haven't gone since August probably, but that's just fine because I've actually gotten really good at doing my own nails. And I don't freak if I chip a nail because I can always touch it up myself.

I started typing up this post because I sort of want to rave about this nail polish - Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure (right now I'm sporting a cool mauve-y grey called Commander in Chic). It's so easy to apply, dries quickly, looks flawless... I know it's starting to sound like I'm getting paid to do this, but I'm so not, nor am I getting any freebies (but if you freebie gods are listening, I'd love some!). I just wanted to report in on a good thing. It is like $7 a bottle, but when have you ever run out of a bottle of nailpolish? Dur never, cuz they last for-evah. And it's way cheaper than paying for someone else to give you a mani that lasts 3 days.

Shutterfly is Fly

How clever am I?! I've been a fan of Shutterfly for a long time - in fact, it's the source we go to for prints of our little princess. We even have a special web site for her through Shutterfly that enables our family to go on and see all of the pictures we share, and they can order their own prints. Pure genius!

Since the holidays are indeed drawing near, I've begun searching for the best place to get our holiday cards made through. Shutterfly does not disappoint! There are so many different styles to choose from, whether you like a traditional greeting card or have more modern sensibilities. I'm the most indecisive person on the planet, so I could spend hours browsing all my options! Here are just some of their awesome designs that I love:

What I super love is the many different Hanukkah card options - since we have a lot of Jewish friends and family to send to as well, I really appreciate that Shutterfly brings fun "outside the box" stylings to Hanukkah cards that you can't really find elsewhere. 

Click away here to check out the goods for yourself: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery

The Zoo!

Errm this post should be appropriately titled "Near 5-Month Olds Are Indifferent to Zoo Outings, Despite Your Best Efforts to Pique Their Interest".

Weather out here had been cold and windy (when I say cold I mean around 60 degrees, which is freezing for So Cal). When we saw that the weekend showed promise of a nice sunny day, we decided to take Gabs to the zoo for the first time. I'm not gonna lie, I was inspired to take my young baby to the zoo because Kardashian took her baby to the zoo, and when I saw that episode months ago I said "aha, I shall do that as well!" So I did.

The Los Angeles Zoo charged us $28 admission. There was talk of getting a membership, but in order for it to have been fiscally "worth it" we would have to make 3 trips to the zoo within a year, and that's not the kind of commitment I believe I can make. We began by spotting a couple sea lions, which Gigi hardly noticed, since she was so busy staring at all the people around her. We moved on the the flamingos (and at this point we realized that the zoo doesn't smell nice at all), and decided to lift her up so she could get a better glimpse. Nada. The girl looked everywhere but at the animals.

By the time we got to the zebras, we realized this was a glorified $28 walk, and as we rounded the corner to the giraffes, we looked down at our beautiful daughter and discovered she had fallen fast asleep. So now this was a zoo trip for mommy and daddy!

Except we don't really like the zoo. I guess I should say we're not crazy about our zoo. We went to the best zoo of life in Chicago last year (OMG was this really just a year ago?! - I digress...), the Lincoln Park zoo, where I heard and saw a lion roar, and the animals were so awesome and almost interactive there, and there was a gorgeous botanical garden, and oh yes, it was FREE. Our zoo left me miffed. The elephants weren't even on display, man.

Anyhow it was nice to get out and the long "walk" was the most exercise I've had in months, which I can tell you was much needed. Here are some of the highlights of the day:

 We even wore our animal print to the zoo!

 

 Look at this guy...

 Aaaand we're out!

Gabriella at the Park

We just so happened to be at the park last Saturday with Gabby cakes and so naturally we decided to let her try out the swings for the very first time. She was a bit too small to really enjoy them, but I'm sure in a couple months she'll be all about it! Unfortunately we didn't have the camera on us, so DH snapped these on his blackberry... You can't really tell from these pics, but that's the gorgeous Pacific Ocean in the background there!

We're still doing the rice cereal thing in the evenings. It had been pretty hit or miss, and I think the trouble was that waiting until she was too hungry to try to feed her was making her too frustrated to try to eat off the spoon. So now she gets her dinner a little earlier and she's been gobbling it all up nicely. She is still waking up a couple times at night, but now I have the ultimate luxury of being able to switch off with DH! We each take a feeding and it's working out pretty well (though I'm thinking he's discovering a newfound appreciation for what life was like for me the last 4 1/2 months!). Now that I'm no longer breastfeeding, I've been able to up my hours at work a bit longer, so I'm now working 5-11 a.m. I miss her like crazy while I'm there, but it's so amazing to come home to her and see her give me her humongous gummy grin when she spots me.

Oh and hands down her new favorite thing of all time is the Jumperoo. We got her the Rainforest one and she goes bonkers in the thing! I so recommend this to anyone - I'm ranking it up there with the Moby wrap (which interestingly I haven't used in well over a month now). I'll definitely have to post a video of her rocking out in there soon.

Formula Poop

Here's the scoop on formula poop... It stinks!

The breastfed baby pooped every third day like clockwork (ok sometimes she'd go 4 or 5 to throw us off). Her poops were an event to be looked forward to. They would happen at some point mid-day, at home, and while the smell was somewhat less than pleasant, it was nothing that couldn't be contained. Rarely there would be the occasional blow-out, which would require expert maneuvering to remove her outfit without getting any of her body soiled. I know you surely desire to know this tidbit: it was the hue of burnt sienna. Maybe orange or mustard-like.

And then formula came in. The girl poops 3 times a DAY now. Gone is the predictability. Enter poopy diaper changes in public restrooms, in the car,  at 3 a.m... And my friends, it does not smell good. It is very, very bad. And the color? Green! Grayish green! Did I mention that this happens 3 times a day now? AT LEAST??? We've had blowouts in the middle of the night that have soaked through her diaper, pajamas, sleepsack, sheet, mattress protector, and right down to the mattress! And the poor girl didn't even wake us to alert us of this atrocity.

I do not like this new poop schedule. Not one bit. How can something so small produce so much poo?!

*UPDATE* 11/9/10 - Gigi poops in the bathtub. Well there ya have it!

The day I put holes in my baby's head.

Yesterday afternoon, my dear friend and I took Miss Gabriella to get her ears pierced. It went like this...

The before shot...

Getting settled in the chair

Marking the holes

Getting nervous!

You expect me to hold down my baby's head for this?!

Ugh I was in pain!

Poor girl...

Not happy right after...

But all smiles a minute later!

Phew!

And the finished product.

I always meant to get her ears done when she's a young baby. Mine were done as a baby and I never had any regrets/resentment for that. But getting hers done broke a little piece of my heart! I felt guilty for putting her through "voluntary" pain, even if it was only for a minute (she really does get over physical pain super fast). And then the insane Lexi came out after I got home and I decided I was convinced that the left hole is off-centered. Oh how I agonized. Everyone told me I was crazy. Perhaps it was more of the mommy guilt coming out? Either way, she was so happy the rest of the day, almost like she knew she was a little lady now. And I think she looks so adorable. I can't wait to be able to put in the little pearls she has!