Two-month favorites

One of my favorite blogs regularly posts things that she loves and that make their lives easier with her kids. I always look forward to reading these posts…even when all I had were our dogs and cats! I may not keep up with it but thought I’d try to do something similar!

You all know about our fingernail/fingerchoppingoffphopia so mittens at our house are a must! The problem is that not only does little missy have cankles she also has nice chubby wrists and those mittens you get at places like Tar-jay just don’t cut it….or, I guess that they do, and that is the problem. They cut into her poor little wrists! Speaking of the blog I mentioned above, I discovered these through her and purchased these Satsuma mittens on Amazon.

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I would be remiss if I didn’t mention our activity gym. We actually have two, one upstairs and downstairs. These are an absolute must! We do tummy time, brain time, all sorts’a time on this thing!

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We love our art cards. We received a couple of sets as gifts and I ordered the metal mobile to hang above her changing table that will hold them once we get that part of her nursery finished. They are all black and white and when she sees them she is in awe. Her eyes get really big and bright.

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This next one gives kuddos to Daddy. This was all him. He wanted this diaper backpack. Mama wanted a fancy schmancy mucho expensive one. We both got our own. Mine is heavy and bulky. It didn’t make this list. Enough said. (hint…sneak peek to baby girl’s nursery!)

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Okay, this thing is not nearly as fancy as the next I will discuss but it IS magic at supper time. About 75% of the time it allows us to eat supper together! I believe it came from Shopko. Warning, it goes super fast even on the low speed, almost alarmingly so….perhaps this is why it works….

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This is a two-fer! Baby girl loves her Mamaroo! This thing is the cadillac of swings. We love that it plugs in to the wall (yay for no batteries!). It has so many options: tree swing, wave, rock-a-bye, car ride, kangaroo-this doesn’t even touch on the different sounds. All of the motions go five different speeds. The car ride is hilarious. Going really slow reminds me of driving around the block while going fast is like driving on the interstate. Three things I will say about the Mamaroo. First, get the mamaroo, not the rockaroo. Yes, it costs more but it also does more. Second, I wish the little mobile thing above moves…hint hint to 4moms. And finally, save your money on the newborn insert. That is the colorful thing she is lying on. You have to buy it separate and I think you can save some dollas’ and accomplish the same thing by rolling receiving blankets up beside her.

The second thing in this picture is the receiving blanket she is wrapped in. We have all sorts of fancy blankies but our go-to blankets day-in and day-out are these that were hand-made by Nana. We first got two that were this size from a friend the night Lainey was born. They were hand-me-downs that her Grandmother had made for her children. They are simple. Made from flannel and huge. Aden & Anais make blankets similar in size but you just can’t get them quite as tight….although we do love our Aden & Anais blankies, too…. At any rate, when Nana was here visiting she made us a bunch more and we lurve them!

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This may be silly but praise the Lord for this and for dishwashers!

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Again, another silly one….this was a request from Daddy when Lainey came home! We love Scentsy’s newborn nursery and even now this is what our home smells like!

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Plugs. Thats what we call ’em. My brother told me we couldn’t have too many. He and Auntie proved that by buying Miss Lainey bunches while they were visiting. Missy seems to have taken a liking to the Mam plugs.

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This picture is just for fun….and to make sure you are paying attention.

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Lainey loves bath time. Absolutely loves it. If she is a crab apple there are usually four things we can try. A bath, let her stand, put her in her straight-jacket or show her the Things That Are Awesome poster. We try to do a bath every night. We don’t necessarily wash to help avoid drying her skin out. We just let her sit in the warm water and she can’t get enough of it! Her bath seat is the best, it sits in two positions and I got it off of Zulily (which is quickly becoming a very bad habit!) but can also be found here.

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Again, a two ‘fer. We love white noise at our house. Adam and I sleep with the loudest box fan we can find. This little sound machine was a steal! We got it at Wee Cycle, the used kids store in Kearney but can be found new here.

The second thing on here is what we lovingly refer to as potty pads. They are water-proof and we have them in several places in the house where we change Lainey’s diaper most frequently. We try to give her tushy quite a bit of air-time. These particular ones were Zulily finds but we also have these.

(Oh! And, another nursery sneak peek!)

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Our most favoritest burp rags in the whole wide world are from Aden and Anais. These things will absorb like no other. They also have these little bitty snaps on the corners so you can use them as bibs when they get older….We got ours from a baby boutique but I’d recommend you get the less expensive version at Tar-jay (although now that I look closer I can’t tell if those come with the snaps or not so it may be worth the splurge to go with the other!).

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We discovered that our Things That Are Awesome poster settles Miss Lainey by coincidence. I supposed it is all the black and white detail. Whatever, not going to argue. We’ll take it all day long if she wants to stare at it, fine by us!

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Okay, last but not least. We were a little uncomfortable using these at first. For about the first 5 weeks or so we used the flannel blankies at night and just did a nice tight swaddle with two different blankies. We received a bunch of these baby straight-jackets, though so were definitely curious. Oncewefiguredouthowtousethem they were great! And, she really seems to like them. We joke how they keep “that mean little girl” from hitting her. “That mean little girl” also steals her plug sometimes. Such a meanie. Once her arms aren’t as flail-y I suppose we’ll think about trying something else….

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prayer & praise

This will be short and sweet. There is a book I am reading that discusses how at this age, babies naps during the day become much shorter, more like “cat naps”….however, a blog I read called them “crap naps” instead of “cat naps”. I’d have to agree. A five-minute nap doesn’t count, Lainey. Are you listening?

Anyways, she wants to know if these shoes (that cousin Katia gave her) make her feet look big?

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....and a better view of her Vans while getting some love from cousin Madison!

….and a better view of her Vans!

And, two more things. First, we ask you to pray with us for one of Lainey’s milk buddy’s. She was diagnosed with two holes in her heart yesterday. Please join us as we pray for peace for her family and for complete healing.

Finally, a praise! We did our final home study visit today and all was great! Our social worker said she has no concerns. All we have left will be the court date in four months to finalize things and get Lainey’s birth certificate!

 

Adam Kent

Back in early January I was working on posts about who we are…I figure why not finish them! So, without further ado….some details about my darling Husband:

  • He loves to take baths. Like REALLY loves. He will lie down in the shower in the morning, fall asleep and then when the hot water runs out he wakes up for the day.
  • His favorite color is blue…which happens to be the color of Lainey’s eyes. Gush!
  • He is a hobby photographer. It is somewhat frustrating on my part, though searching through 800 photos from a single event for one picture….but he does seem to always get that “one” picture.
  • He is a gamer. I will say, though, that the last time he probably played was in 2014….
  • He cut his own hair until Lainey was born. I guess he got too tired then.
  • He has said for a long as I can remember that if I die he is going to take Kalia (she is one of our dogs) and move to Hawaii and live on a beach somewhere….I haven’t heard yet since Lainey was born what the plans are now!
  • He is an amaxaphobe. He absolutely cannot ride in the back seat of a two-door car. EVER.
  • He is a jack-of-all trades. Need something built or fixed? He’s your man.
  • He has horrible skin allergies. We have a “safe” list of things he can use from the dermatologist that we pick from when we shop.
  • He is dyslexic.
  • He loves Macgyver and Back to the Future.
  • He knows how to sew. Like, really sew. In fact, HE brought a sewing machine to the marriage!
  • When he drives at night, he has the interior lights on in the car to make himself feel like it is during the day…plus he says he like to eat while driving in the car and he likes to see what he eats! Makes sense.

Last and certainly not least, Adam is a Daddy. And, as he said the other day…he isn’t just a Daddy, he is Lainey’s Daddy!

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this and that

So, we know God is amazing, right? There are so many faith-affirming things happening in our lives currently….and many lessons, too. I am learning so much. Not only about my faith but about who I am and who I can and should be. I have always been a planner and liked to do things “just so”. Adam teases me that if a balloon came with directions on how to blow it up I would make sure to read them every time in case they change! Well, Miss Lainey’s “abrupt” arrival taught me that I don’t have to plan everything. While it is nice, it is just a bonus…not a necessity. A pretty nursery is not what it is about. I used to have (and still do-I will not lie) this vision of what her beautiful, perfect nursery will look like, but the reality is that this is simply not the priority in our days. This, my friends is actually what her nursery looks like currently (and yes, sadly those little piles of cute clothes are organized by size and category….believe-you-me!):

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Her furniture is coming from Nebraska Furniture Mart and will not be here until some time in April….gah! I would simply love to have her dresser at least! We ripped the carpet out and are laying solid oak flooring. We have the flooring-Daddy just needs to find those extra hours to get it down! Thanks to our awesome family while they were all visiting the walls have all been painted and we put gold polka dots on one wall, the curtain rod and curtains are up, white blinds are up and we wall papered the back wall of her closet. Very fun! And, of course we have all of the pretties for her room….but we are going to wait until the furniture is here to put everything together. It is teal and coral with gold accents! Meanwhile, her mattress is on the floor and we rock her in one of the rockers off of the front porch!

You may have seen some of the photos on facebook by now from her first photo shoot. Blue House Fotos was awesome. We refer to her as the baby whisperer. The studio was about 300 degrees (perfect for naked babies) and she had white noise playing quite loudly. We literally handed Miss Lainey over when we arrived and she worked her magic, swaddling, wrapping, touching, etc….making her just melt in her hands! I am so glad she’ll be doing all of Lainey’s photos this year!

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Perhaps a life-long dream of Adam’s has been to use a “family bathroom”. Unfortunately I am dead serious. To say this made his day is really down playing it…..

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Lainey seems to be like every other baby and has unfortunately lost all of her hair on the top part of her head. The whole receding hair-line male hair loss thing is happenin’ to our gal:

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One final thing….if you are looking for a totally awesomesauce baby gift that no one else will be giving, think about something from magnificent baby. Lainey got this outfit from her Uncle and Auntie in Montana. They got it at a baby boutique. It closes by magnets, people. AH.MAZ.ING. We will be shoving her little legs and arms into that thing as long as possible…which unfortunately will not be too much longer. So, with that said I would like to say if you do get anything from them ever, go big. I feel like maybe they run a tad on the small side. Or, maybe my baby runs a tad on the large side….

Blog Update

You  may notice that we have added a new tab (finally!!!) at the top of the page, titled Our Adoption Journey. This makes it so much easier to share our story with others. Please feel free to just reference this tab if you would like to ever share our story. There is so much inspiration to be had in those words and those stories-so many people, women especially experiencing infertility may benefit. So, do feel free to share! xo from the THREE (yay!!!) of us.