16 Months Old!

(from her 15 month checkup)
Weight: 22.8lbs
Height: 31"


EATING
We have changed her milk to being a 7oz mid-morning and a 7oz bedtime bottle, and then she gets diluted juice or water the rest of the day.  She still gets her milk from a bottle but I'm going to try to work on transitioning that to a sippy cup.   All of her juice/water she drinks from sippy cups.

She is a picky eater.  Her breakfast is typically some sort of waffle/french toast variety from Eggo.  She loves their cinnamon french toast waffles and their blueberry waffles.  She also likes the french toast sticks but we haven't bought them in a while.  She also gets some other breakfast snack, like Gerber Bitty Bites or peanut butter crackers.

For lunch she usually gets a fruit (strawberries, blueberries, half a banana) and meat (chicken, turkey or ham) which is usually deli slices that we rip up or shredded chicken breast.  She also likes pork bbq if we have it or go somewhere on the weekends.

For dinner, she usually gets a meat, a veggie, and some snack-type things.  The meat is usually one of the ones listed above, and the veggie is either a puree or yogurt blend because she refuses any actual veggies that I try to give her.  She likes the flavor but is so weird about the textures.  I'm hoping this is a passing phase because it makes it frustrating that she won't eat the same things that we eat so she still gets a different meal.

She clearly doesn't understand that she's  Italian because she refuses to try pasta. Of any kind. No spaghetti, no meat sauce, no ziti, nothing.  I suppose it's a good thing that she's not a carb-lover but again, I hate it that she doesn't eat the same dinners we eat.

Except, of course, if we are eating anything involving french fries.  Because then she's in love!

Same thing here as her last update:  She is a great eater and she will let us know when she is hungry or wants more.  We tried introducing sign language, but overall haven't really needed to use it because she is very vocal.  She has signed "more" on several occasions but usually she will tap her tray or say "cracker", "cookie" or "baba" to let us know she wants more food.  All we have to do is show her a food container and ask "would you like some of this?" and she will either say "no" or give us a big grin and reach out her hands for it.  This makes communication on food pretty easy!


TEETHING
10 Teeth!  She has all 8 front teeth and her top 2 pre-molars have broken through.  That has not been fun. 

SLEEPING
This has gotten a little thrown off lately and I think it's a combination of things.  Between moving, teething, and possibly some night terrors she has been going to sleep later than normal and waking in the middle of the night sometimes.  Bedtime has been pushed about an hour later to 8:30pm most nights, and she typically wakes up anywhere from 6:30-7:30am.   In the middle of the night she wakes with a "fake" whiny cry anywhere from 1-4 times a night but we can talk to her through the monitor and she goes right back to sleep.  There have been two nights that I think she had night terrors and she woke with a screaming, scared cry and even after I went into her room and picked her up (or more like caught her as she tried to jump into my arms!) she still took a while to calm down from whatever scared her.  The one night she woke like this at 5:30am and there was no calming her down so we just woke up for the day and watched some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse to cheer her up.  

 

Her naps have also changed.  During the week she has always just taken one nap at daycare that was about 2hrs long, and that has changed more recently to only an hour & a half.  On the weekends, she has dropped her morning nap and just takes a 2-3 hr afternoon nap around 1pm.  She did this transition on her own, just refusing to take her morning nap all of a sudden but it's stuck and it actually works out really nicely to get more errands taken care of on Saturday mornings!  The timing also works out better on Sundays because she isn't as cranky during church and goes down for a nap right after lunch.   

ACTIVITY
Learning more and more every day!  Her new favorite activity is coloring.  I bought her some jumbo crayons and a coloring book and she was thrilled!  I tape a coloring book page to the removable cover on her highchair tray and she will color away!

She learns more words every day. She's my little parakeet and copies almost anything that we say.  She is learning lots of names of family and friends, and she is learning names for colors really well.  She will say names for numbers but she doesn't associate them with anything. She loves to sing, especially in church!

Her favorite TV shows are Bubble Guppies (she always says "bubby gupsee" which is pretty much the best thing in the world!), Sofia the First, and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  We usually watch them during breakfast and dinner.

DIAPERING
We've moved up to size 4, they just seem to fit her better around the thighs.


 CLOTHES
  Mostly all 18month. 

 SPECIAL FIRSTS 

--Showing interest in her little potty.  Although we have yet to actually successfully use it.  We aren't actively potty training but she was sowing interest in the big potty so we got her one, just for whenever she's ready.

--Eating a food puree pouch on her own! And didn't even make a mess! So nice to not have to spoon feed purees anymore!

--Throwing a baseball, she has a pretty good arm!

--Boating Trip!! and she loved, loved, loved it!  So glad that we will be able to spend more fun in the sun this summer :)

 

3 Months

RYLEIGH'S 3 MONTH STATS:
[We don't have a doctor's appointment this month, so we had to approximate at home]

Weight:  around 14lbs
Height:  I'm guessing around 25 inches? she's getting long!


EATING
No huge changes here...I'm still making 4oz bottles, although for "daytime" bottles [ones that I know she will eat between 10am-7pm] I have been making them sometimes with a little more, around 4.5 or 5oz.  She eats about every 2 1/2 hours, which I think has gotten a little more frequent since she's sleeping and doesn't eat over night.  She usually will want almost 2 full bottles in a row sometime between 6-8pm, probably because she's gearing up for that long night!  Right before bed, around 10pm, she will drink 3oz.  It's rare that she will drink all 4oz before bed because she gets sleepy by the end of the bottle.  Pumping at work has been going well so we are still doing only breastmilk.  I have to admit that I feel life would be so much simpler if we switched to formula.  I wouldn't be the slave to a strict 3hr pumping schedule.  I wouldn't have to miss out on things because I have to pump in the middle of visiting with friends and family.  There would be no more engorgement pain or burning let-downs.  I wouldn't get frustrated because I'm trying to pump while home by myself with Ryleigh and she starts to cry but I can't pick her up.  There would be no more washing of a million pump parts.  Feeling more productive at work because I don't have to take pumping breaks.  It would just be so much easier.  BUT, I just try to tell myself to take it one month at a time.  That way, when that month is done, I can push myself to go one more month.  Then one more month again.  Plus, I always remember once I do stop pumping I will have all my frozen milk to use before switching to formula.  I just do not want to stop pumping for selfish reasons.  I want to feel good and satisfied and accomplished.  Not just quit for convenience.  Right now, I just feel like Ryleigh is too young to switch and I don't feel done yet.  I don't think I will feel that way until at least 6 months.  I know that it's such a sensitive subject and different for every mom, but this is just what I feel is best for us and for Ryleigh.

TEETHING
A new category! The struggle is real.  We'll keep you posted.  For now--lots of drool, hand chewing, Tylenol, and teethers..Can't wait for Ryleigh's Hazelaid necklace to arrive!

 



SLEEPING
...through the night!! Whoop whoop!  Ryleigh started sleeping through the night the day that she turned 10 weeks old.  We have only had 2 or 3 nights since then where she woke up around 4 or 4:30.  She typically goes to bed in her crib around 10-10:30pm and will sleep until 6-7am.  We are still using and loving our sleep sacks.  I've noticed that she sleeps better with one on.  She also seems to be getting more into a schedule for naps during the day, although that's not perfect yet.

 ACTIVITY
Always!  She seems to have found a way to dig her heels into the ground and scoot her little booty up/backwards to move.  It's funny on her play mat or the sofa.  Not funny on the changing pad. 

How did I get myself sideways, Dad?

DIAPERING
Pampers are still a favorite for us, but now that she's got some plump to those thighs she's been able to wear other brands too.  We also like the Luvs Extra Absorbant and Honest Company. 

CLOTHES
We're a little all over the place with sizes.  She's officially grown out of all her newborn clothes, but still fits into pretty much all of her 0-3 month clothes.  We have moved her up to 3-6 month footed sleepers, just to have the extra length. I'm also starting to mix in some 3-6 onesies and leggings but they're still pretty baggy on her.

SPECIAL FIRSTS
--1st dip into the lake...got her toes wet and unfortunately her booty from a wave
--1st sunglasses...and boy are they cute!

--Thumb sucking.  It's the best, most adorable thing ever!  Picture of that coming soon :)

 

Catch Up

Here's a little catch-up for life lately.  Sorry for the lack of blogging, between working, the holiday weekend, and everything in between I feel like we have been nothing but busy lately!!  Let's catch up quick with photos...

One of my best friends got married on June 29th, and I was her Matron of Honor :)

We've gotten hooked on this show.  Anybody else? 
It's so intense, has a great cast, and keeps you interested every episode from start to finish. 

We spent July 4th out on the lake with some friends.  Sadly I didn't get any pictures because all the phones got put away into the Pelican during the short little stint of rain that we encountered.  Thankfully, that only lasted about 2-3 minutes before it was nice out again and we enjoyed the rest of the day in the water and grilling out burgers & brats at Goat Island!

  

We had a little impromptu date-night-in with some OG To-Go [so delicious, it had been too long]



and some Sonic Blasts for dessert...perfect!

 

There have been some lazy Saturday mornings involving lots snuggling with these two silly boys...

Reece

Kona Monster



& last but not least, yesterday I went to supper club with some couples from our church and their kiddos.  Always a fun time! The host family has a good bit of land and they have an uber-fun backyard complete with pool, fancy patio area, and a zipline that goes over a pond.  Great for entertainment!  It was also sort of a potluck where we each brought sides or desserts to accompany the main dish [burgers on the grill] and it was funny to see how everyone got their recipes off of....you guessed it  >> Pinterest.

 

Here is my Cinnamon Apple Strudel recipe that turned out pretty fabulous: 

 

 

I also added some Hershey's White Chips to the recipe:

These are sooo good and perfect for the person who is not the biggest
White Chocolate fan since they are Vanilla flavored.

 

 

I'm searching for some of the other recipes and I'll share them as well

once I have a chance to test them out myself!

 

 

 

TGIF

 

 

What are your weekend plans?  We were supposed to be going out of town for the day to a softball tournament tomorrow, but that was cancelled so now we will hopefully be catching up on stuff around the house and having a relaxing weekend here.  I'm looking forward to some Come See Me events. 

 

 

We are going to the BBQ cookoff and possibly staying for the fireworks. 

 

What are yall looking forward to this weekend?

 

Snow-verload...

Well I really underestimated this snow storm.  I saw it was snowing when I got out of the shower yesterday morning but nothing was sticking to the ground so I went about my day like normal..had a haircut appointment, then went shopping at Concord Mills with a friend to take advantage of the President's Day sales and let me tell you Ann Taylor did not disappoint!  Well..as we were leaving the mall we heard little ramblings about how it was a "blizzard" outside.  Neither one of us believed it until we looked outside as we passed an exit door and discovered the winter wonderland awaiting us.  We quickly finished up and got out to the car, which was already covered in about 2 inches of snow at this point.  Thankfully, it was just snow and did not freeze over until late at night so the roads were not that bad at all. 

Home the morning after...
 

It was pretty but I am so over the cold. Bring on the boating weather!

Obviously, walking outside to take this picture was the extent of my travels all day today.  Since it was still cold the ice that developed was still on some roads and I was not about to take my chances.  Grocery shopping can wait.  Plus side?  I don't think I have ever gotten so much cleaning done in one day.  I'm talking vacuumed, dusted, several loads of laundry, reorganizing the closets, cleaned the dog kennels, resealed the granite countertops, ran the dishwasher, put away all the clean dishes...It felt so good to get it all done because I haven't been able to the past few weeks after my wreck.  I am still dealing with some chest pain which makes things like vacuuming and mopping a little difficult.  The vacuuming wasn't too bad but after doing all the rest of that I didn't want to push myself too much.  Mopping will have to wait for another day.  Hopefully soon because it's driving me nuts.


In other news, I wanted to share this super easy, super yummy recipe for Pepperoni Rolls that I sort of winged and they came out fabulous.  I made them for our Super Bowl party two weeks ago and again for dinner since then. 

 

Home-made Pepperoni Rolls

What you'll need:

1 Package of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls

1 Package of Pepperoni Slices

1 Jar of Pizza Sauce (I used Ragu)

1-2 Cups Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Cavender's Greek Seasoning (or any Greek seasoning, but theirs is soooo good)

Get Started:
Take out your baking sheet and preheat your oven to 375* (as directed on the crescent roll package).
Open the crescent rolls and separate.  Pat them out so that they are a little bit bigger.
Put about a tablespoon of Pizza Sauce on the middle of the crescent.  Add about 4 slices of Pepperoni and a pinch of shredded Mozzarella.  Fold the crescent up (this make take a couple tries to get a nice shape but it will taste good no matter what it looks like).  Press together the seams of the folded crescent roll.  Repeat for all 8 rolls, then sprinkle your Greek seasoning over top of all of them. 
Pop them in the oven for about 10-11 minutes, and then enjoy!  Serve with extra pizza sauce for dipping if desired.
 

 

It's a great, quick meal or snack.  You can mix things up with whatever toppings you like inside.

 

 

 

XO, Stacey 

 

World Market Love

Well, my hubs was busy working out of town this weekend so it provided me with lots of free time for catching up with friends and catching up with laundry!  I made a day trip to Columbia to see my parents and one of my best friends, Eden.  While visiting with my parents we had lunch at Panera, possibly the best place in the world for a good soup/sandwich combo, and then went to World Market.  I feel like World Market can be hit or miss, and I wasn't finding tons of wonderful things however I did find this little gem...

Turkish Peach Jar Candle from World Market

Smells soooo good.  I love fruity scents and this one has a little bit of spice to it, too.  I wanted something to switch up from all of the Evergreen and Apple smells I've been using all Christmas season.  

Also, I was super excited to find these to use for grilling out on the boat...

World Grill Appetizer Skewers from World Market. 
For some reason, these are not on their website.  I purchased them from the location in
Sandhills, NE Columbia.

These are the perfect size to get all six skewers to fit on the grill, and can still hold a nice amount of food.  Plus, they are a fun, curly shape :)


Have a good night, bloggers!  Back to real 5-day work weeks tomorrow.  Also, starting back with Day 1 of Insanity tomorrow...I can already feel the burn!


 

I've learned I need to take more photos...

It has become so clear to me that I really suck at remembering to take photos.  I get so caught up in the fun time that we're having that I always forget to whip out the camera or my phone.  So, unfortunately you don't get to see any cute pics of the holidays, but we have had such a great time!  So, where to begin...

I guess the first of our festivities started with April & Jeremy's annual tacky Christmas sweater party.  It was so much fun again, just like last year!  Although this year ended up staying a little bit more sane than last year which was nice, and we took the party to the bar instead of staying at their house the whole time, which I know must have worked out a bazillion times better for them!  Entertaining at home is so much fun but there's always that one person who has to break something sometimes the cleanup can be excruciating.

Following that came my company's Christmas Dinner which was at Del Frisco's in Charlotte.  Jake and I had never been there before and the food was amazing!  I got the crab cakes and Jake got one of the steak specials.  They also have the BEST calamari I've ever tasted.  It's seriously like heaven in your mouth.  Instead of serving it with marinara sauce like most places I've been, albeit they were Italian restaurants, Del Frisco's serves theirs covered in an Asian glaze, similar to what comes on Orange Chicken or General Tso's.  YUM.  I also had my first ever Celebrity sighting.  After narrowly missing Vince Vaughn and Kevin James on the elevator in Chicago and not seeing a single celebrity in Las Vegas for a week, who knew that I'd see my first celeb sighting in good ol' Charlotte.  Who?  Ric Flair.  Don't recognize the name?  He's this guy...

From the great world of WWE.  I recognized him but never knew his name because my family was never big into wrestling.  He still pretty much looks the same.  He's no Vince Vaughn, but it was pretty cool to be standing less than a foot away from him at the bar in Del Frisco's.

After that comes our Christmas visit to see my Grandpop and some others from my Dad's side of the family down in Mount Pleasant.  We don't get down there a lot so it was nice to see them, and my Aunt Kerri was home visiting from India.  We watched the new Bourne movie, which I really enjoyed, then exchanged gifts and had a nice traditional holiday meal--ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, wine, etc.

On Christmas Eve, we just slept in and relaxed, then went to church and dinner with Jake's mom, sister, and brother.  His stepdad was sick with a stomach virus the whole week so he didn't get to participate in anything :(  We went to their church in Lake Wylie, and I always enjoy getting to see different churches, especially when they are all beautifully decorated at Christmas.  It was a neat candlelight service but visiting other churches always makes Jake and I really realize how much we love our church, Allison Creek Presbyterian.  It's technically in York I guess but it's only about 10 minutes down the road from us since we're out here on the edge of Rock Hill.  Churches are so personal and everyone has different tastes, but we really love the community within our church and especially the delivery of the sermons.  I don't like feeling like I'm getting yelled at by the preacher if they have a harsh, excited delivery.  And I don't like being bored to tears by someone who is monotone.  We feel like our Pastor has the perfect balance and neither one of us ever gets bored or zones out during the sermon so we always feel like we really get something out of what he shares.  

On Christmas day we had Jake's side of the family and my friend Karen over for a brunch of waffles, fruit, casseroles, eggs, bacon, cinnamon rolls, etc.  TONS of food.  We exchanged gifts and just got to hang out for a while having some good conversation.  Then, we got to relax for a little bit and clean up before my side of the family arrived for Christmas dinner.  We had glazed ham with pineapple, seasoned green beans, steamed corn, mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, and then desserts.  It was a good thing that we only ate two meals all day because holy cow was it a lot of food.  I did the ham and the mac & cheese both in crock pots, which was nice and easy for me so that I could sit and enjoy socializing instead of cooking in the kitchen all day.  It worked out extremely well for the ham, and the mac & cheese was good but I think I would use a different recipe next time.  I found one recipe that uses evaporated milk, which I thought I had but it turned out that I had sweetened condensed milk, both are from Eagle Brand and I didn't pay attention to the label.  So, last minute I had to switch to a  different recipe that only used 2% milk and I think it would have been nicer and creamier with the other recipe.  For dessert, I made a cherry crumb pie and some "brooksters" which are a combo of chocolate chip cookies & brownies.  The cherry crumb pie tasted really good, but good Lord did it make a mess in my oven.  I would highly suggest that if you attempt one of these pies, put a cookie sheet on the rack underneath your pie because that nice filling will just bubble out over the edge and create a huge puddle of burnt mess in your oven.  Thank God our oven is self-cleaning, but that makes such a smoky mess that I haven't done it yet.  I did cook dinner in the oven two nights ago and some of the cherry mess burnt off but that is a headache that I'll be dealing with for a couple more weeks I expect...However, the brooksters, or as I always mix up and call them, "Brewsters," are like the best combination in the world.  Here is the super easy recipe:

"Brewsters"

--Prepare chocolate chip cookie mix from scratch as directed on bag of chocolate chips.

--Prepare brownies as directed on box of brownie mix.

Put paper liners in cupcake trays and fill 1/3-1/2 of the way with brownie batter.  Top with one scoop in each of the cookie batter.  

Bake as directed following the Chocolate Chip cookie recipe.  You may need to add 5-10 minutes to the time since brownies take longer to cook.  You will know they are done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  

Easy and seriously delish!  These were definitely a crowd pleaser.  

..And what have we been doing since Christmas?  Well, I enjoyed the after Christmas sales and picked up some adorable wrapping paper for next year (so prepared, I know!) and decided to re-decorate our bookshelves in the living room.  I got tons of new frames and decorations from Hobby Lobby, TJMaxx, and Ross.  I cleaned off the bookshelves and have figured out the new frame placement, but now I just need to get the correct size and orientation of photos printed.  So, pictures of that to come!  We also celebrated New Years/Jake's 25th Birthday!  He has not been feeling too hot following the celebration but we did it up right at the Longbranch last night!  He is also very excited about his birthday gift, a new propane grill for on our boat!  With all of the time we are going to be spending out there now that we have the boat, I figured we would get tired of pb&j's or turkey sandwiches REAL quick.  Now we can do burgers, hot dogs, chicken, steaks, kabobs, you name it!  Now, if only this weather would get back into the 70's..........

Have a great day back at work tomorrow!

<3 Stacey

Newest Project

Ohhh my list of many projects and crafty things to accomplish.  I constantly find new ideas.

Well, one of those ideas that I've had for a long time is to make a t-shirt quilt out of mine and Jake's ADPi & Kappa Sigma shirts.  1) It will keep me warm because Jake likes to keep our house at near-freezing temperatures--something is seriously not normal about his internal body temp.  2) It will bring back fun memories everytime we see it.  and mainly 3) At least one of our future children is bound to get into Greek life and it will make an amazing pass-down for them!  So, originally I had wanted to send it off to get done, but they are SOOOOO pricy.  And I mean ridiculously.  So, being possibly overly ambitious, I am going to take it on myself.  I need to get some good use out of my sewing machine anyway, right?  Here's the inspiration [side note: mine will look way cuter :) The colors on this are a bit much for me]:

 

I went with Shanti and Karen to Mary Jo's fabric store in Gastonia yesterday and got some good background and border fabric. Pictures to come! Although those pictures may take a while...

 I had a fun weekend!  Experienced the Long Branch for the first time and was pleasantly surprised.  Although, I do feel like I need to learn how to line dance if I'm going to go back haha.  The "regulars" as I shall call them were quite intense.  I had no idea there were so many different line dances!

Then, last night I made dinner and then we went over to April & Jeremy's for the LSU v. S.Carolina game.  It was a lot of fun and I do have to say, South Carolina's team is fierce this year.  Even though it was a loss for them, they are still pretty impressive.  [Sorry Jake--let me insert my "GO DAWGS!" here]

Today, church and Sunday school...Jake and I are teaching the Preschool class again this year and the kids are so much fun.  We have our curriculum book that we use, but I also found a really cute Pumpkin Prayer Book that I printed out and let each of them color.  It goes through each step of the pumpkin carving process, and with each step it relates it back to God and has a little prayer.  At the end it compares the candle that you place inside the pumpkin to the light of God in each of us.

Also, Eden gets to try on wedding dresses today!!! Can't wait to see her in them and get to see cute little Ryder :)  I can't believe how big he is getting...almost a year old!

 

I'm on a boat...

Haha remember that stupid song?  Well we are not on a boat this weekend, but if weather permits we will be next Sunday!  We kind of had a great deal for a used, fully updated pontoon boat fall into our laps, and Jake really didn't want to pass it up.  We are supposed to be picking it up this week so I'm anxious to see it because I don't even know what it looks like.  Jake saw pictures and then we had his stepdad go check it out because he is very mechanically savvy when it comes to cars and boats, and just about anything with a motor.

We will hopefully get in some good Sunday afternoons or evening cruises before the weather gets too cold...then we will just be counting down the days for warm weather again and spending muchore time out there next summer.

Pictures to come!