Leila: five months old!

HOW is my little girl five months old already? Every night, as I nurse her to sleep, I cannot even believe how big she has gotten and how much she has grown over the last five months. She was such a little peanut with these little bird legs, and now she has grown into such a chunky monkey!

October 29th, 2015

Clothes: 6 - 9 months

Diaper: size 3

Some nicknames we have for her are: Leil-y, Leggy, Leggy-buggy

Heath issues: Reflux and a mild rash she got from her first trip to the beach

Sleep: She sleeps from about 7 p.m. - 9 a.m straight. She usually only takes one nap per day, but a very lengthy one! 

Diet: This month we have incorporated some real baby food into her diet, and she LOVES it! So far her favorite are bananas, but she has tried butternut squash, and a few other "first" foods. Other than her "foods before one are just for fun" she is still nursing!

Baby gear love: She still likes her Bumbo, she naps in her swing, her brothers make her laugh when she is in her jumper, she even loves her crib. When I was pregnant with her, I bought a cute little bunny from PBK after we received some news that she may have some health concerns. While now that she is semi-mobile in her crib, she wiggles her way to that bunny every night and sleeps right next to it. It is probably one of the most precious things I have ever seen. 

Likes: Pretty much everything except having a dirty diaper, being cold, and being hungry.... but who would like those things?

Dislikes: Being cold, hungry, or dirty! 

A few photos from this month:

My first pumpkin patch!

First time on the beach and in California

Mexico vs. USA game

Dad turns 31!

"I'm going to be a gymnast!"

Traveling with a baby.

I would like to think I am somewhat of a pro after having three kids and traveling with all of them as they have grown up. I thought I would throw together some of the things I take with me and pack in order to make our trips as helpful as possible, because taking a baby out of their routine is no easy task!

Depending on where you are traveling to, you will need to pack accordingly. For example, if you are going to Mexico, you probably don't need a fleece for the evenings. If you are off to California, you probably do! 

As a general rule, I take the number of days, multiple that by 1.5, and that is how many outfits I bring. If your baby is under three months, multiply the number of days by 2, babies like to poop, a lot! I also pack one pair of pajamas per night, plus one extra! 

By far the easiest thing to bring when traveling is a Snap N Go stroller. Your carseat will snap right into it and it is much easier to fold up than a regular stroller, which makes getting through airport security much easier. Along with the Snap N Go, if you are renting a car you need a car seat. We ALWAYS bring our own. You can rent car seats from the rental car companies, but I just do not trust that they have never been in a crash. You can check your carseat at the counter for free, or if you prefer to carry it in the Snap N Go, you can gate check it at the boarding gate (for free). Also, a baby chest carrier just makes like easier all around, bring one, you won't be sorry! 

Another thing we did when the kids were little, when we got to the desk at out gate, we would ask the lovely people at the counter if the flight was full. If it was not, we asked to bring out baby carrier on the plane with us so the baby has something to sleep in that is comfortable for them. More times than not, we were able to bring the carseat on the plane and use a seat for free. 

For the room, we ALWAYS bring our own Pack N Play sheets. Hotel baby sheets are weird and gross. How many other babies pooped on those? Okay, puked? We pack our own! If you call the hotel and ask for a crib, more likely than not they will bring you this metal crib which looks like it belongs in an orphanage. Most hotels have Pack N Plays, so make sure you clarify which you would prefer. We also try our best to squeeze the Pack N Plays in a quiet place, like the bathroom, so we can watch TV while we fall asleep. We use our sound machine from home in order to help them feel like they are in their own room with their own sounds. It does make going to the bathroom in the middle of the night more difficult, but we would rather go down to the lobby than wake a sleeping baby! 

For bath time, we love the sponges they sell at Babies R Us. We use them at home and bring them with us and just toss them at the hotel before coming home. These things ROCK. They keep babies in place and you don't have some smelly bath tub... I HATE baby bath tubs. We also bring travel size baby lotions and soaps in order to keep the babies from getting rashes from trying new soaps on vacation. 

Lastly, Take and Toss bowls and spoons are great for baby food. They are dishwasher safe and you don't feel bad if you leave them laying around or lose them. Plus, they are still gentle on babies little mouths! 

What else do you bring with you when you travel with baby? What have you found to be most helpful about traveling with kids?!

So, we survived vacation with three kids!

Despite our better judgement, we decided to get out of dodge for the weekend and head to our "home away from home" to Orange County. My best friend and her family live in Huntington Beach so we headed her way for a long weekend to see her kids and go to Disney.

Things I learned from this vacation:

1. Babies sleep better if you can shut them in the bathroom. 

2. When little boys pee in the ocean, the sand sticks to it which creates a pretty awful rash. 

3. You can never have enough snacks. 

4. A fearless five year old may be more afraid of Space Mountain than a two year old (yes, he is a 40" tall beast). "But what happens if I fall out mom?!"

The boys LOVE the beach. They always have, and hopefully they always will. I hope Leila learns to love the beach as much as they do. My niece, also had her first beach visit this trip. She is seriously the most adorable little toddler, we love her, even though she only loves us when we give her candy and chips (sorry, Mingy!)

We were so happy they were able to make the trip out with us! At one point, we were nearing our end at California Adventure because it closes two hours before Disney, so Berto was going to take one for the team and let Heather and I ride Tower of Terror, so we left, and a few minutes later Berto came running up, followed by Eric and Trevor.... Bryan and Veronica stayed with six kids while we all rode the ride! 

We ate at so many amazing places. That is one thing I love about vacation, not the same old food. Plus, Southern California has AMAZING eateries. 

Cousins

Yes, that is all SEVEN of them!

There is something about having friends that you are comfortable enough with to leave your children with them, roll into a beach bar with six adults and seven kids, and know that it is just normal. *You should have seen that servers face.... "Can we have a table for 13, six adults and seven kids..." I swear, every server scrambles elsewhere! Yes, we have a beer or two while we are on the beach with our children. We got home from a day at the beach and I started to do some laundry at Heather's house and I came out of their laundry room to see her bathing all of the boys in the tub. It is friends like that that make life complete. 

If you have ever met Aiden and Luke, you know they are FULL of energy. Like more than a lot of kids I know. If we do not make them go to bed at night, they will stay up like blazing balls of fire until the wee hours of the morning. Unless they are sick, they never have fallen asleep on the couch. They NEVER. STOP. GOING. 

One thing I noticed about California is how many people think having three kids is crazy. We got so many comments about the kids... "oh, you have your hands full!", "oh, wow, three kids!" I know so many families here than have three kids, and a decent amount of families who have four or more kids. I guess when you pay a ridiculous amount for housing, having three kids would be a little impossible. 

Seaweed scarf. He loves it. 

I got kind of sad on our walk home from Disney, I didn't take any pictures with my good camera. Veronica reminded me you have to live in the moment, because sometimes it is hard to do both, which is SO true. If you want to see those pictures, see my Instagram! We also were able to go on some of the "big kid" rides since both boys are over 40" and I feel like we didn't do a lot of the little kid rides. This makes me kind of sad because one day all they will want to do are the big rides and the little rides will become "stupid." Why do kids have to grow up so quickly?

First Disney trip!

We survived our first family vacation as a family of five! We hope you all have a wonderful week! 

Fall with our three babies.

This past weekend was the first weekend we had nothing to do, so we worked around the house, went to a pumpkin patch, planted our fall flowers, and watched the Broncos. I thought I would share some pictures of the kiddos for our family members near and far!

Aiden's BFF Jimmy at our annual pumpkin patch visit together...

It was a pretty hot fall day, which isn't terribly unusual. But needless to say I am tired of the heat. I already have thoughts about snow, christmas lights, and sledding. 

Photo bomb!

I am slowly working on getting things done around the house... I finished our porch this weekend but I need to take photos. Since I have been working this semester, I have had no time to do fun projects. BUT, we did get a HomeGoods about 10 minutes away - this is dangerous! All I will say, Luke's room is COLORFUL and full of animals, his favorite thing!