Extreme!

So I have a new obsession...and it's a DORKY one.

COUPONS!

Have you seen this Extreme Couponing show on TLC? WILD. These people are getting thousands of dollars worth of merchandise for tens of dollars. It is crazy to watch. (Also a little disturbing--during each episode the "Up Next - Hoarding" ad pops onto the screen...I can't imagine that is a coincidence. The folks at TLC must get a little giggle out of that.)

Now, I don't think I need to have a whole storage unit to stockpile things that I will never use (like 100 bottles of antacid), but I would like to be smarter about buying the things we need at our house on a weekly basis. Yesterday I used TWO coupons on ONE item (one store coupon and one manufacturer's coupon). Saved me $6 on a box of diapers!

This type of shopping requires more planning than I am used to. I like to make a list, but now I have to plan further ahead based on coupons I get (or don't get, and find them). I may even start taking the Sunday paper (what? In this day and age of technology?) so I can get more coupons. Aaron likes to tease me that you have to "spend money to save money," but I don't want to spend so much that it's really not worth it!

On a side note--what has my life come to that this is what I'm blogging about? Hilarious. I'm feeling like such a mom today.

Four Months Old!

Photo by Aaron Blythe on the iPhone

Izzy had her four month checkup today--here are the stats:

• Weight: 12 pounds, 4 ounces (continuing right along her curve at the 25th percentile)
• Height: 24 inches (Aaron says he thinks it looked more like 25 inches--either way, TALL)
• Head: 15 3/4 inches (right in the middle of the growth chart for her age)

At four months, Izzy loves:

• Kindermusik (we go every Saturday morning)
• Putting everything in her mouth (including your fingers if you let her, and she's practicing biting!)
• Playing with her whale on the play mat
• Tummy time (kid can't get enough)
• Reading books at bedtime (she is learning to turn the pages)
• Standing (with help of course!)
• Baths in the big tub

Izzy does NOT like:

• Having shirts put over her head
• Having her nose cleaned out
• Staying up much past her bed time

That's about it. Every day at daycare they tell us her day was wonderful. She really only fusses if she is hungry or tired. Hearing the other kids cry doesn't seem to bother her at all, and she only cried for about 10 minutes today after her shots and then was happy all day. As I told Aaron the other day--we really do make a pretty great baby, the two of us.

Happy four months old, Izzy Bear! Here's a video of Izzy playing with her favorite toy (by the way, Izzy has a YouTube channel!):

9 to 5

Caution: a little bit of whining ahead. (Not from Dolly, from me.)



This is the 6th week I've been back to work after maternity leave. A month and a half. It feels at once like it has been so much longer and like it has only been a few days. (I think that is one of those phenomena of parenthood--as one of my favorite authors, Gretchen Rubin, puts it: "The days are long but the years are short.")

I am what is referred to as a "working mom," which if you ask me is nowhere near a decent description of what it feels like to be a parent who goes to a job outside the home every day. Being a parent is definitely the hardest (but also most rewarding) thing I've done ever in my life. In itself, parenthood is more than a full-time job. A full-time job is classified as 40 hours a week; being a parent takes every hour of every day of every week--when you are with your child, you are interacting with her and hoping you are giving her everything she needs to become an amazing person. When you're not with your child, you are missing her, worrying that she's missing you (or worrying that she ISN'T missing you), trying to get other things done so when you do see her you have quality time to spend with her, and when you're all sleeping, as a parent you aren't REALLY sleeping, because you keep one ear on the baby monitor to make sure she doesn't need you all night long. 

If you're working at a job (in corporate America in my case), you're not only busy trying to get your daily tasks done, but also keeping up with your colleagues, and worrying about your career advancement. You have to please your manager, keep up with team and corporate initiatives, interact with co-workers, and (on my team at least) manage a daily cycle of interruptions and struggling to come back to the task at hand. Now, since I'm also trying to breastfeed my kid, I'm taking breaks two to three times a day to pump. I'm also worrying about the fact that someone else is tending to my child (and possibly not doing it like I would if it were up to me all day). It's more than a little distracting in an already hectic workplace.

Oh yeah, and then there is the lack of sleep...

A few years ago one of my great friends (who also happened to do the same job as me and was on my team at work) told me she was leaving the job to stay home with her daughter. She told me that she felt like she was "doing a bad job at both being a parent and being a good employee." I scoffed at her when she told me this--she was clearly doing an awesome job at both things--she's a great parent and she did a wonderful job at work. But now I know what she means.

I know I'm doing a pretty good job at being a parent--I firmly believe that if you give your child all the love in your heart, try to make the choices that are best for her, stay informed on the things you need to keep her safe, help her grow and learn, and make sure she knows how awesome you think she is, she's going to turn out okay. I also know I'm doing a decent job at work.

My problem is that I've never been okay with doing "okay" or "pretty good." For my first job, I worked at a place called Discovery Zone. Sometimes I was assigned the snack bar, and it was my job to clean out the nacho cheese dispenser at the end of the day. A ridiculous job--but I'll be damned if I wasn't the best nacho cheese dispenser cleaner you ever saw. I've always taken pride in whatever job I have, and I want to do it to the very best of my ability. Having my focus split a million different ways in an already very disjointed daily schedule makes me feel like I'm NOT doing my job very well at all.

I've also wanted to be a mom as far back as I can remember. I was a babysitter (with certification from the Wilmington, NC public library babysitter course!) from way back. I always knew I wanted my own kids. And now that I HAVE a child (and maybe I'm biased, but she's pretty awesome), I can't think of anything I'd like to do more than spend every single moment of every day with her (or for her). It's next to impossible to think about anything but that little girl all day. I feel very distracted when I'm not with her.

I'm probably a typical working mother. I am probably not facing struggles any more difficult or intense than any other working mom out there. I should probably just realize that this is how life is going to be. It's just hard. Thanks for letting me vent, internet. Any advice you have would be appreciated.

Photo Friend

All photos by Rachel Porter

Some of our friends got engaged last year, and one day on Facebook popped up the most ecellent photographs of the two of them--a sort of engagement photo shoot, and I just loved everything about them. For one thing, the subjects are two fun, wonderful, adorable people, so you just can't help but smile as you think about them together. The photos were also so unique and so personal--they really capture the couple's personalities, and I'd never seen anything quite like them.

When we found out we were pregnant, I knew I wanted to get some professional photos done of me and Aaron and the baby bump--just not some of those weird, awkward photos like those pictured here. (Seriously, click this link. Be prepared to laugh for a bit.) So I sent the aforementioned bride a message and asked about her photographer.



And so we happened upon Rachel Porter! We set up some time with Rachel in October of last year to capture some of the great fall colors and shots of us around Kansas City. I knew I was going to like this girl when she emailed me a few days before the scheduled shoot to tell me not to be alarmed when she showed up at our house--she was going to be sporting hair extensions and covered in temporary tattoos because she was headed to a Halloween party as Kat Von D later that evening.

Rachel took us to 17th and Summit, to Hi Hat Coffee, and to Loose Park. She made us feel SO comfortable even though both Aaron and I felt a little silly posing for photos--she kept us chatting and laughing, and kept coming up with interesting backgrounds and angles for us. We were kind of sad when the afternoon ended, but the pictures are PERFECT.

A major bonus has been getting to know Rachel as a friend--she's one of those people who is so cool and fun you can't help but want to spend more time with her. She's creative, friendly, and she exudes positivity. As we've been getting to know her we've learned that her sweet little family (she's married and has an adorable one year old little girl) is raising funds to adopt a baby, and using her photography services is helping them reach their goal! Please let me know if you'd like to connect with her for your very own photo shoot--she's reasonably priced and the results are amazing.

We decided to book more time with Rachel to capture newborn Izzy, and we've just loved them so much we want to keep getting them done as Izzy grows!



You can follow along with Rachel's little family on their adoption journey at the Love is Rising blog, and you can visit the Love is Rising Etsy Shop for some great accessories that also help the Porter family in their efforts.

We can't wait to see what she captures next, and we're anxious for her family to meet their fundraising goals and bring home that new baby!

April Fools--a Little Late

Me and Izzy (1 month) with Amanda and Sarah Schumacher (7 months),
matching hats knitted by Amanda!

I have a great friend named Amanda Rae who I met the first day of high school when she agreed to eat lunch with the new girl who didn't know anyone at Kickapoo High. She helped me through calculus, went with me on church trips all over the country, roomed with me in college, met me overseas in England, and now talks with me about motherhood.

She's a great woman all around--wife, mom of three adorable kids, always positive and friendly. One of my favorite things about her is that she is great at commemorating events. In college as her roommate, I sometimes got a little overwhelmed with it--she kept every movie ticket stub she ever got in her wallet so we could reminisce about movies we had seen, and she had a large collection of turtles from friends in her sorority that sort of took over our room.

She would often stop us in our busy days and say, "Kate, do you remember what we were doing a year ago today?" I usually didn't remember, and she was awesome at reminding me to stop and cherish memories, and solidify them in my brain. Now I find myself doing this on a regular basis, and asking other people if THEY remember what happened "a year ago today." I feel so blessed to have been schooled in this activity--if you are lucky enough to know Amanda, maybe you have this habit, too. If not--set yourself calendar reminders, or look back through your day planner, or just reflect on the previous year. You'll be glad you did.

I was just thinking back to this post...a year ago last Friday, I got up in the morning and decided to take a pregnancy test. It was pretty awesome to wake Aaron up on April Fool's Day with such fun news! How do you count YOUR blessings?

Officially the Blythe Household

I have never had an address stamp, or even address stickers to put on my written correspondence, unless you count ones that come for free from my college or someone else trying to sell me something.

No offense to my alma mater, but I really have just never been excited about putting a William Jewell return address sticker on my envelopes (even for mailing bills).

I don't mail that many things, really--no bills for sure, since everything is online. When I do mail something, it's usually a birthday card or a thank you card, something that I already think is pretty and fun, so adding a cheesy return address sticker come company sent in the hopes I would buy some magazine subscriptions doesn't really fit.

SO, inspired by my friend Shannon, I knew I wanted a pretty address stamp that was unique and gorgeous, so I went searching on Etsy and found a great little company--Sweet Papery! When I received  my stamp I promptly mailed most of the last few thank you notes from baby showers, and then sent photo Christmas cards (also a first for me).

Aaron is not nearly as excited as me about the stamp, but I couldn't be more excited that we share our home and our last name.

A Production

Our friends Amy and Dave Stevens (FYI, internets, I have a LOT of friends named Amy) came over to meet Izzy when she was just a few weeks old. They also brought us some DELICIOUS pizza, which was much appreciated by our overtired selves. 

They told us they are expecting as well (YAY!) and gave us the most excellent personalized gifts--onesies! Since it has been cold (and also because Izzy looks SO FREAKING ADORABLE), I put a onesie on her every day (either under her outfit that doesn't cover her little belly or just as her outermost layer). I love how they look like tucked in shirts, and that they stay in one spot, and I especially adore how her little skinny legs stick out of the leg holes.

Side note: If you ask Izzy about onesies, she will tell you at first she HATED having them put over her head, but now she tolerates them--mostly because Aaron is the one who gets her dressed most mornings. He makes putting on a onesie fun by pretending he can see a baby INSIDE the onesie by looking at Izzy through the neck hole. He's such a great dad. :)

Short story long: Amy customized these long-sleeve onesies with a one-of-a-kind iron-on transfers that say "A Marek and Blythe Production." AWESOME. We loved them so much we dressed Izzy in them for a photo shoot with our friend Rachel Porter (more about her soon to come!) with rainbow-striped leg-warmers (!). TOO. MUCH.

Photo by Rachel Porter

* Apologies for the amount of parenthetical statements and capital letters in this post...my college writing professor may or may not read this post. I just have SO MANY THINGS to say, and I'm excited about it.