Thankful Thursday

257. Seeing family friends we haven't seen in 3 years
258. Fun teaching the elementary kids at church
259. Productive afternoon
260. I took a nap
261. Cuddles from Caleb
262. Footie PJ's
263. Homemade tamales (not by me)
264. Leftover tamales
265. Surprise visit from my mom
266. Grace's goofy mood
267. The guys who come to the car when I drop something off at Goodwill so I don't even have to get out
268. Grace climed into carseat by herself (yay for not having to lift both kids into seats)
269. Meeting neighbors

Thankful Thursday

251. Healthy Caleb
252. Opportunity to watch M & D for the day
253. Nice visit with the in-laws
254. 1st world problems
255. Podcasts
256. 2 parks in 1 day

Caleb - 6 Months

I was impressed with how he got into that basket.

A half of a year has gone by and I start this post like all other updates on Caleb lamenting how quickly time is flying.  This last month was great (again).  I love the privilege I have of being a mommy to my 2 sweet kids so even though it can be challenging it is always great.  So, let's summarize...

Sleeping: Wonderful.  Things stayed pretty much the same this month.  Caleb is still comfortably taking 3 naps.  The first two are about 2 hours at 8:45 and 12:30ish and the last on is about 45 minutes to an hour at around 4:30.  This month Grace and Caleb's schedules aligned so the both go down for an afternoon nap at the same time.  GLORIOUS!  So, I have about 2-2.5 hours in the afternoon to do whatever I want.  I often end up doing stuff around the house that I can't do when the kids are up but I have been enjoying some reading, internetting and even some occasional napping.

Eating: Even though I didn't really doubt I'd be able to do it I'm still thrilled that we made it to the 6 month point of nursing.  I still have the goal of nursing for a year but I always personally felt that if I can make it 6 months and for some reason can't go longer I'd be ok with that.  I think it's great that Caleb has had nothing to eat except breastmilk.  On that note though, we are planning on starting solids soon.  I just need to get around to it.  Lastly, Caleb is only nursing 4 times a day now.  I was feeding him two times in a period of about 90 minutes and decided to try and drop the 1st of those feedings.  Caleb didn't notice and now we're just enjoying a laid back 4 hour schedule.

Milestones: We have an army crawler.  One thing that Caleb has gotten good at this month is moving across the room.  He can quickly get from one point to another using the army crawl.  He also gets up on all 4's constantly and propels himself forward.  I honestly believe it is only a matter of time before he starts the traditional crawl.

He has also gotten good at sitting up this month. He prefers to be on the floor moving so he doesn't actually just sit and play very often.  Several times he has tried to go from all 4's to a sitting position and ended up dumping himself over backwards so I wonder if that might be coming soon too.

Teeth:  Caleb cut his 1st tooth this week.  It's the bottom right tooth.

6 Month Appointment:  This morning Caleb had his 6 month doctor appointment.  His stats are 19 lbs 10 oz (exactly what Grace was at 12 months) and 26.75 inches.  83rd percentile for weight and 46th percentile for height.  Everything else was normal at the appointment so nothing else to report.

2 New Gadgets

I got a couple of new gadgets this week that I am enjoying immensly.

First, I ventured into the realm of coffee makers and decided to buy a percolator.  When we moved into our house in January my coffee pot met it's demise during unpacking.  Thankfully, it was cheap and we don't drink coffee.  Well now it is 8 months later, fall and winter are coming and I've had a few requests for coffee.  In my attempt to be an accommodating host (especially for overnight guests) I started reviewing my options.  After ruling out the super cool single cup makers like Keurigs and Boschs I moved on to percolators.  I find them retro and funny (long story that I'm not even going to bother to tell).  So, I ordered one from Amazon and love it.  I've even had about 1/3 of a cup of coffee in the last few days.  The coffee is good, it takes up less space than a traditional coffee pot, keeps coffee hot, makes a cool noise, and is all stainless steel (no plastic for those who care).

Second, I got a steam mop.  I've been struggling with mopping our kitchen floor with a classic Swiffer.  I found myself changing the cleaning pad multiple times in one mopping.  Since our floor is white and we have a toddler it needs to be mopped often.  So I was going through the cleaning pads like crazy.  Yeah, I know it's a 1st world problem (1WP). I stated doing my research and discovered the steam mop.  They are AWESOME!  You buy it once and the cleaning pads are reusable.  The best part was I got it for 40% off plus an additional 30% off with a gift card at Kohl's.

1st World Problems

I recently was introduced to the idea of something called 1st world problems.  A 1st world problem is a problem or frustration you only would have in a country as privileged as ours.  So, maybe you've heard this term before but I hadn't and I find it very refreshing.  Its funny when I'm tempted to complain about something how I can just tag the term 1st world problem to it and nothing seems quite so complaint worthy.  Here are a few 1st world problems I encountered just in the last few days.

1. Accidentally cooked my chicken for 17 hours in the crockpot and had to go to the store a block away and buy some more.
2. Couldn't decide which percolator to buy.
3. Had to wait for 12 minutes at the doctor's office for my 6 month old to get vaccinations after being examined buy the doctor (all which were paid for by health insurance).
4. Annoyed that the price to get a lower interest rate than the published rate to refinance our house keeps changing and we can't get it for less than $200.  
5. Couldn't get to ESPN scorecenter on my smartphone for about 10 minutes to check scores I don't even care about.

That's enough. It's making me feel ridiculous just typing them.

Thankful Thursday

244. Outlet mall
245. Picnic at park
246. Hooded sweatshirt
247. Time to read and think
248. Good naps for Grace after some rough naps last week
249. Freezer meals
250. So glad Caleb will take a bottle when I need him to

1/4 of the way done with my list of 1000 things I'm thankful for.  When I first started this I thought I'd be done in a few weeks.  Silly me.  I guess I need to find more things to be thankful for!

Thankful Thursday

235. 3-day weekend
236. Cuddling with my new niece Becca
237. Night out (to a wedding) with Matt
238. Safe travels
239. Yummy Chinese food from new place (to bad it's not in our town)
240. Ability to host
241. Time with home group at Labor Day cookout
242. Beautiful weather this whole week
243. Freezer stocked with several meals for this month

Thankful Thursday

231. Time at the park
232. Baptisms at church
233. Comfortable new T-shirt
234. Full and satisfying week (hence the end of my list for today)

I don't know if I've said this before but if I have pardon me and I will say it again.  I keep track of the things I'm thankful for as the week goes on.  Sometimes I put them in this post and then hit publish on Thursday.  Sometimes I actually write them down on paper and sometimes I keep track in my head.  I don't often sit down and recall things that I haven't already noted in my head as something I'm thankful for.  It helps me remain thankful throughout the week and not just on Thursday (however just on Thursday would still be fun).  Anyway, this was one of those weeks that I didn't keep track of much but I'm thankful none-the-less.