I'm a shop-a-holic

It's true...especially when it comes to baby clothes. Gymboree, why must everything you have be so adorable??? I want one of everything!

What brought on this shopping splurg you ask...I have GymBucks to spend! Yay for an excuse to shop. Now I have a unique style to my online shopping...i fill my cart with way more than I actually intend on buying, and then widdle (is that even a word??) it down to a reasonable amount. But I hit a new record last night..I've been perusing Gymborees site for a few days now...slowly adding things to my cart...and last night I broke $1000....crazy!!! Walnut has a similar shopping method on websites with computer parts and gadgets, and he hasn't even done that!

For all of you who don't know me, I have NO intention whatsoever of spending that much money...I was shooting for more for the $100 dollar price frame. But my goodness it is easy to wrack up a huge shopping cart when you are doing it from the comfort of your own couch.

I think I will splurg with a non-sale item though...the cute little pink giraffe outfit above is a cutie!

Santa came to North Carolina by way of Manhattan

Even though we didn't spend Christmas in Manhattan this year, that is where Little Cashew's presents came from...Manhattan Toy that is. Now I am typically a bargain shopper and I don't believe in paying retail for anything. For example Gymboree...I love you, and 90% of what my daughter wears has your label on it, but I only shop your sales and with coupons. (I did buy one outfit not on sale in a moment of weakness and cuteness overload...but there is always one exception to the rule)

Walnut and I did not go overboard buying presents for Little Cashew for Christmas...we bought 5...well I bought 5 and used Walnuts credit card. But those 5 gifts cost a pretty penny because, like a sucker, I paid retail. And I paid retail at a nice store. But I will say Little Cashew does love her 12 and 13 dollar toys thus far. (and yes I also caved around Thanksgiving and bought her a Sophie. The Winkel and the Whoozit are her favorites thus far. I like the classic beads, but she is still at that stage where she thrusts all of her toys at her face, and I am afraid she is going to give her pretty little face a black eye with these things, so we play carefully.

But I think my favorite toy to watch her play with is her Winkel, she loves to slobber and chew on it. And the fact that she looks hilarious doing it is an added bonus. When she really gets going, it almost looks like a horse bit in her mouth. And sometimes it looks like she is going for the inner rings, but her mouth cant reach them, so she just pushes it up to her face, and it's so so cute.

I know she didn't really know what was going on this year, but it did make me excited for all of the Christmas's and Christmas Eve's to come...figuring out what traditions to continue from my childhood and Walnut's childhood, and what traditions we will make for ourselves. I cant wait to tuck her in all excited on Christmas eve after leaving out cookies for Santa and seeing the look on her face on Christmas morning when she sees the magic of Santa. Squee! So excited...but alas at the same time, that means she needs to grow up, and I have made it a point to resist all of her growing up efforts at any cost! I love my little munchkin (who I can't believe turned 4 months old today!!) and I just want to hold on to her cute little infant self as much as possible for as long as possible...sigh!

I have been admittedly lazy with Christmas the last few years. We are usually out of town with family, and if it was a year when we spent Christmas here at the nut house it probably meant that I was on a rotation or in school, so I was likely on call at the hospital at some point or studying for exams, and it just makes it hard to get all Christmas-y. We have so many cute little ornaments and a good number of decorations, but I swear, it's exhausting to get all of that stuff out and then have to put it away again so quickly. Perhaps this is why some people go nuts with their decorations right after Thanksgiving...this way at least you can leave the decorations up for a while.

I may have to start worshiping Carters as well

So typically I leave all of my baby clothing worshiping for Gymboree...oh Gymboree how I love all of your cute clothes, and the fact that your website makes outfits for me...and your sales! of your sales! But I digress, this is about Carters and their amazing fleece sleep bags! As seen here. I give them full credit for the amazing de-swaddling success we have had for the last 2 nights.

And now Little Cashew will likely do what she does best, and prove me wrong by having a miserable night tonight...let's hope not!

But 2 nights ago, we decided to try and de-swaddle Little Cashew. After Christmas we are going to transition her to her own room and into her crib, and we figured we should start to get her out of the swaddle too. I mean she breaks out of it every night anyway, so Walnut and I figured she was ready. But we thought to ease the transition (and keep her warm) we would put her in one of these sleep bags...this way she will stay warm (she is too little for loose blankets, and when we tuck her in with a blanket around her, she gets it loose and puts it over her face...its part of that "Everything goes in my mouth!!!" movement she is on. On night one she slept TEN HOURS (!!!) including a 1:30am wake up (no crying...just kicking and a few grunts) which she put herself back to sleep during and last night she slept for 9 hours straight. The only draw back here is that I've woken up completely covered in milk and need to change and take a shower asap...but it seem like a small price to pay for sleep!

So my only concern with this fabulous new product is that it says "0-9 months" and Little Cashew is quite a tall little munchkin, and at 3 and a half months doesn't have a whole lot more room in them length-wise...and when the night comes where she needs to go to sleep without one...yikes I don't even want to think about it...because I've gotten it in my head that she NEEDS these fabulous sleep bags!

It looks like there will be another trip to CVS today...need some Dr Browns Stage 2 nipples...I think...who really knows...see previous post regarding my low bottle IQ. But we are hoping that will help with the bottle mayhem that is currently ensuing...more on that later. Did I mention that there is a foot and a half of snow on the ground...yeah Walnut will be transporting her on this adventure.

All in the name of Fashion

First off...the things I will do for this child and for fashion...

Now I think Little Cashew is the perfectly proportioned child...in reality she is a tall little string bean from her daddy and has a big noggin (sp?) from her mommy...so I call her my little candy apple.

The people at Gymboree have not realized this, and even though I spend a good chunk of Walnut's pay check there...they do not make candy apple sized clothes. This really has not been too much of a problem, with the exception of cute little head bands. When I put them on her, they are a bit snug and they leave an indent on her head, so they never stay on long. Well tomorrow we are going to a Christmas party at Walnuts's work, and of course Little Cashew will be the best dressed of the 3 of us...but the dress she is wearing has one of these infamously tight head bands....so my solution? Stretch it to fit around my head and wear it around for 3 days. I look ridiculous, and its not so comfortable, and leaves a red mark on my head...but its all in the name of fashion.

And I had an almost ridiculous cooking experience this week. Ive been trying to make meals and freeze them, so we have food other than cereal and peanut butter available....you know...like real adults. So I usually keep Little Cashew in the sling with me while cooking....mostly because she will only watch from her bouncy seat for so long. And as I was about to put the casserole in the oven, she has a huge spit up which came perilously close to ending up smack dab in the middle of my casserole...I decided to finish cooking while she was napping and far from the kitchen.

And on a sad note, one of the online pregnancy boards I frequent has a member who went into labor at 24 weeks 4 days ago, and will unfortunately be saying good bye to her little girl tonight. Makes me so thankful for my fully baked healthy little one. And at the same time makes me feel so bad for ever wishing she would come any earlier. (I went into labor at 40 weeks and 1 day...I wasn't wishing for a preemie or anything, but around 38.5 weeks...full term is 37 weeks...I was ready for her to be born!)

I thought about taking a picture of myself with this ridiculous baby headband on me...but I need to retain some pride!