Happy wordless Halloween!

Oh, 7 months, where did you go?

I can't believe I'm a mommy to a 7 month old. How can that be?

Here's what Emma's been up to these days.

Size:

• 15lbs 13oz, not much more than she weighed at her 6 month check-up (15lbs 9oz).
• Can wear most of her 3-6 month clothes still, but usually wears 6-9 months since it is starting to get colder.
• Size 3 diapers. Discovered Huggies Overnight Diapers (in size 3), which have made a world of difference in stopping what we call poop-splosions and pee-splosions during the night.

Night: The last few weeks have been rough at night. I wrote last week off to her Fifths Disease and ended up feeding her usually twice during the night. Then this week has not been much better, but I refuse to feed her more than once. That means we've had at least an hour of screaming in the middle of night each night...fun! Today I bought some earplugs!

Naps:

• Increasingly, the 3rd nap is going away.
• She is a random napper. Yesterday she took a 2 hour 15 minute morning nap and a one hour 15 minute afternoon nap. Then today her morning nap was only 1 hour 15 minutes. You just never know what you'll get.
• Can handle 2-2.5 hours of wakefulness between naps.

Milestone:

• Not much new. No crawling. No teeth. No whole sentences :)
• She is starting to try to reach for items which frequently takes her onto her stomach, so I think crawling isn't too far in the future for us.

Feeding:

• Still breastfeeding, usually 5 times a day.
• Trying to be diligent about giving her 3 meals of solids as well. I thought I'd be good and make all her food but that hasn't happened other than a few batches of sweet potatoes.
• She's had pears, prunes, applesauce, yogurt, peas, sweet potatoes, mixed vegetables, carrots, cottage cheese (didn't much like), bread, a few cheerios (hasn't figured out finger food yet).
• Surprisingly, I discovered that she loves french onion soup. Weird! I had it at Panera one day and gave her a taste and she just couldn't get enough of it.

Toys:

• We got her a Graco jumper that you hang in the doorway and she loves it! She is so cute and looks like she is doing an Irish jig when she jumps.
• Still has the exersaucer but since our house is on the market, I got tired of carrying it out to the car each time a potential buyer was coming by. So it's been in the car for the past week or so.
• Has quite a few little musical instrument toys like a tambourine and maracas that she likes.
• Really want to get her a play table but it is just too hard with the house on the market.
• Ordered her a Rockabye Colt Horse as her Christmas present that I can't wait to get.

Website Recommendation: I love Zulily.com. If you sign up, each day you get an email telling you what the bargains are that day. I've found a bunch of great stuff on the site at great prices (including the Rockabye Colt Horse referenced above).

Fifths Disease

Sure sounds like a terrible illness and, yes, Emma's got it!


We first noticed small bumps on her face on Friday night. I started feeling guilty because I had given her a bit of strawberry jelly and then found out that you aren't supposed to give babies strawberries until they are at least a year old.

By Saturday, the rash had spread across her face.

By Sunday, she was covered head to toe with the rash (yes, even on the bottoms of her feet).

We took her to the emergency department late Sunday afternoon and were told by the doctor that he was "perplexed..." Not something you want to hear from an ER doctor. He said it was likely a viral infection (no, nothing to do with strawberries) but since he couldn't nail it down exactly, we should see the pediatrician the next day.

And the pediatrician confirmed today that, indeed, it is a viral infection. Either Fifths Disease or something else along those lines. Thankfully she doesn't seem sick - no fever - but last night was horrible. She was up every 3 or so hours and wouldn't go back to sleep each time. And since it is a virus, there is nothing you can do other than wait it out.

My poor baby girl!

House Hunters Salem

Here's the house-related post that I promised so long ago. I feel like I have a million things on my mind these days; with baby, work, and all the decisions related to moving, I've been a bit overwhelmed.

Our condo has been on the market now for going on 3 weeks. We've had a bit of traffic through but no offers yet (other than a ridiculous lowball offer from some investors). I know that things are slow right now in the market but I was (and still am) hoping for a quick sale. It is really a big pain selling a house when you work from home with a baby. Each time a Realtor calls, I have to run through the house shoving toys into closets. And today we even had to wake Emma up from a nap because a Realtor called yesterday and said she'd be here today between 1-2pm. Well, she never showed up. AHHH! Very frustrating.

Well, the exciting part is that we've decided on a house in Salem. It is an old house - 1920 - and is in pretty good shape but we plan to do tons to it, which both excites me and scares me. It is in an awesome, awesome, awesome location, which is the main draw for us. Right off the main street and within a very short walk to most anything that we want. Houses in this area of town rarely come up for sale. In fact, since 2005, only three have sold.

We are finalizing the contract right now and mailing in a deposit tomorrow. If all goes well, and it seems like there are still a ton of hurdles to cross until the finish line, we will close right before Christmas!

Here are a few pictures I took the last time through the house. First , we will redo the floors, paint, take down a few of the gigantic trees in front that really block the house (I know, I feel bad taking down trees but it really has to be done) and try to fix as many of the things found during the home inspection as possible (and we anticipate quite a list). In the long-run, we will also redo the kitchen, redo one of the bathrooms, put in some built-in bookcases, and finish the basement.

The front of the house...yes, some of the trees have to go!

In the dining room, looking down through the foyer into a formal sitting room and a bricked in side porch.

Cool window that I really like in the master bath

View of the backyard patio - a little overgrown but great space. We'll have to get a swingset for Emma!

Porch off the 2nd floor master bedroom. Red indoor/outdoor carpet definitely needs to go!