The truth...

After participating in the Gerber Canada contest, I was reintroduced to many lessons that I was thankful to re-learn.

#1. When someone experiences happiness or success, others too get to share in that joy.  Nobody is taking anything away from YOU by doing well.

#2. Support your friends in whatever they do.  Even if it's something you might be doing too.

#3. Be happy for the winner.  Genuinely really and truly happy.

#4. Don't be jealous of others - it's a complete waste of time.

#5. Enjoy the journey, not the destination.

I was so saddened to see a couple of my acquaintances flat out refused to support us.  It actually hurt me because it felt like there was this onesided competition developing for no reason.  That was the last thing I wanted to have coming out of this.  The 'votes' are beside the point, it was the feeling and the principle behind it for me.  You support your friends in whatever they do.  I know for myself, I would have been on that site everyday helping out a buddy, even if my kid wasn't involved - EVEN IF SHE WAS INVOLVED!!!  yah, it just made me think...

But there were also some wonderful surprises!  People that I hadn't talked to in YEARS were voting daily and sharing on their own personal home page.  It was such a wonderful treat to wake up to a message from various individuals just saying that they were backing us up, excited for us, wanted Scarlet's pic to do well.  That was so cool.

Let me re-iterate, for me, it was NOT the fact that these people were voting, in fact, I don't even know for 100% sure that they were, I only saw that they 'liked' Gerber Canada and therefore could potentially vote - it was the support and encouragement and excitement from them that made the world of a difference.

Ok - enough of this rant.  One last thing and I will let this go.  I will always and forever work on encouraging my children to resist the jealous ugly monster that will over-take their loving and positive true self.  Be happy for your friends, share in the joy and love one another.  Done.

FYI - the picture of Scarlet was #115 out of 87,157 pics.  Pretty darn awesome, but the best part about the whole thing were these lessons and how important I feel about teaching them to Scarlet.

Now I'm gonna go and make myself a peanut butter and banana sandwich.

Oct 18th

I will not be a stage Mom, I will not be a stage Mom, I will not be a stage Mom, I will not be a stage Mom, I will not be a stage Mom, I will not be a stage Mom, I will not be a stage Mom. I will not be a stage Mom, I will not be a stage Mom, I will not be a stage Mom, I will not be a stage Mom.

On that note... 

I entered a pic of Scarlet in a Gerber Canada Baby contest about a week ago just for fun. Unfortunately, it's a bit of a popularity contest because only the top ten get the 'right' to be judged (sheesh). But Scarlet's picture is really doing well and we have been climbing the 'ranks' quite a bit everyday. It really is a long shot to make it into the top ten, but I wanted to give it a try without being a total stage mom about it.

I also feel like the 'prize' is well worth the effort as we could win some RESP's. Non-taxable 

EDUCATION MONEY!!!  

Anywho, if you're in Canada and are feeling like you want to vote for her the link is:

https://www.facebook.com/GerberCanada

They don't spam you and she's really easy to find (Scarlet with one 't').

6 Month Update

It's been a jam-packed month full of new discoveries and as you can see new milestones!  Nate and I are just loving each day that we have with this little babe.  Here are a few of the latest and greatest updates...

Scarlet has discovered her 'sharp' heads, which is actually a dance term used when you want the dancer to whip their melon from left to right as fast as they can in as little time as possible.  Scar constantly does it when I'm holding her.  She is so curious about her surroundings.

We're still working on sitting her upright all by herself.  I notice little changes everyday - more strength, more confidence, less wobbles.

We don't do too much tummy time anymore.  She is sitting up in her exersaucer, jolly jumper and on the floor so often that I sort of skip it.  Occasionally, she will roll over onto her stomach to play with toys.  Neck strength is stellar.

She's sleeping on her side A LOT!  She even turns over onto her tummy and sleeps in that position which had me really nervous for a while until I was told (by my girlfriend who happens to be an ER doctor) that it's a really good thing at this point.  I guess it was drilled into my head over and over that 'Back is Best' - so I just have that notion that nothing else is good.  But Scarlet actually prefers her side and stomach now.

We're thankfully still at three naps a day - 10:30, 1:30 and 5:30.  They're about 45 minutes, 1 hour and 1/2 and hour.

Breast feeding has decreased to 4-5 times a day but we've introduced solids for the first time three days ago!  It was really adorable.  She took the food with fervor but didn't really know how to swallow it.  She would lean forward and open her mouth - she even reached for the spoon almost every time it came near her face.  But she is getting the hang of moving the food to the back of her mouth and swallowing.  A large majority just ended up on her face.  We started her out on Organic Rice Cereal which was iron-fortified since they begin to lose their iron stores at this point.  We understand that rice pablum may make a little one constipated but Nate had so many allergies as a baby that we were encouraged to start off with this.  Scarlet hasn't had any issues as of yet.   

Finally, the best and most wonderful update in a while - Scarlet has been sleeping soundly through the night!!!  Nate and I agreed that it was time to try her in her own room purely to see if we were all keeping each other up.  Turns out it's better for everyone this way.  Scarlet sleeps so well in her own bed (which is much bigger than the bassinet) and without our heavy breathing and moving around to keep her up.  It has been such a wonderful blessing and I have to say the days are easier because of the sleep I'm getting at night.  Monitor still watches her like a hawk and I wake up once in a while to check on her.  But we don't have the long 45 minute breast feeding wake-ups to deal with anymore.  Last night I didn't even wake once.  SOOOOO GOOOOOOD! 

New little update:  Just got back from the doctor's office and Scarlet is weighing in at 15.5 pounds or 7.04 kg.  This is a little under the 'average' for baby girls of her age - approximately 45th percentile.  I'm totally ok with this since she was in the higher percentile for the first 4-5 months...we're talking like 75% - 90% so it's good that she's growing into herself - if that makes any sense.  Also her head circumference is above average (because she's a genius) and her height is above average cause she's just perfect like that.  

MOMMY GOGGLES!!!

  

New family motto

GSD

(Get. Sh*t. Done.)

Sometimes, the hours in the day just absolutely disappear.  It can be 5:30 pm before I've even thrown a touch of make-up on.  Ok, full disclosure, it can be 5:30 pm before I even have 'real' clothes on.  It's amazing how little I feel I have accomplished in a day when all that I've done is run around.  Mommyhood is busy busy busy.  

It was getting to be really frustrating for a while because even though I felt like I was working, things didn't seem to be getting done.  Like, the laundry, or watering the flowers, or the dishes or getting groceries, or cleaning, or (GASP) my workouts.  

So, Nate and I have been using the motto: GSD for the last month or so to help us out.  It's been both really helpful and also a bit of a kick in the butt for us because at the end of a long loooooong day, we both feel the urge to chill out on the couch and watch Homeland or The Voice.  Instead we say to each other: GSD.  It mostly happens when Scarlet is asleep (starting at 8:30 or 9:00 depending on the day), or during her naps, or if I'm really lucky I can GSD myself while she's awake.  

Today was a prime example of the former.  I was feeling really 'fallish' with it being Oct.1st and the weather is getting cooler.  So I wanted to make a homemade soup for dinner.  So I GSD and did it.  

Homemade Black Bean, Tomato and Basil soup with Coconut milk and Quinoa.

It was extremely delicious and I'm totally going to do it again.  It was nice to cook a healthy homemade meal for the fam and obviously I'm proud of myself.  It's good to GSD.  

Check out W Diet for more of tasty meals that we've eaten lately.