See also: A Day in the Life…of a Working Mom for what my days look like when I work.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

6:22 am

My “alarm” (Rooney) goes off. Some days she doesn’t wake up til 7:00, but today is not one of those days, I guess…

I think perhaps a common misperception about staying home (even one day) is that I get to sleep in. Not the case (though certainly there are perks).

The first thing I do every day when I wake up is read my parenting devotional. It gives me a lot of peace and wisdom. Today I read while Rooney practices patience

6:29 am

Eric comes to say goodbye, gives me three kisses, and leaves to meet up with a friend for breakfast before going to work.

6:40 am

I don’t feel ready to get up, but I think Roo has waited long enough, so I get her and take her straight to her high chair for breakfast (banana, O’s and milk).

I gather all the dirty laundry and start a load. Sometimes I start this on Tuesday evening, but I forgot this week. These days I have to spray each piece of Roo’s clothes with stain remover to get all the food stains out. I wheel Rooney over to the living room so she can watch while she eats.

7:00 am

Rooney is done with breakfast and I am done with laundry (for now), so I take her out of her high chair. She practices walking and drinking from a straw. Then I take her to her room to change her diaper, and realize we are out of diapers and wipes at the changing station, so I refill them both. I change her diaper, get her dressed, and then go through her clothes drawers to remove winter stuff and clothes she has outgrown. This is the stuff that just doesn’t get done during the week if I’m working every day!

7:31 am

Roo crawls over to her sleep sack and hugs it. It’s a little early for a nap, but I listen to her anyway and put her down.

7:32 am

I go back to bed myself, read emails (personal and blog), check Facebook and Twitter, read blogs, edit photos on my phone for this post, and rest.

Rooney talks for a few minutes, then falls asleep for close to 45 minutes, then starts talking again. She’s not crying, so I don’t rush to her.

8:51 am

I get up, switch the laundry to the dryer and start another load. I was going to get Roo up, because I thought maybe she had pooped and couldn’t sleep, but it is quiet again so she must be sleeping. I put on my makeup, get dressed (same thing I wore yesterday), brush my teeth, make the bed, email Eric to see how his breakfast went and where we should meet for lunch, respond to blog comments, read blogs, and work on this post.

10:20 am

Roo wakes up, and she’s crying. I check the clock and figure that she slept about 2 hours and 15 minutes, which is great. Sometimes she sleeps longer and then I worry that she won’t take another nap.

I go get her and she signs eat. Time for a snack. I put her in the high chair with a(nother) banana (trying to use them up) and carrot rice cakes, then fold the laundry and move what’s in the washer to the dryer.

10:46 am

We’re in the van on our way to the grocery store. Rooney was trying to unfold the laundry so I had to distract her and the best way to do that these days is to ask if she wants to go bye bye.

There are a few things that we need, and our local grocery store has 10% off organic produce and health market items on Wednesdays. This saves me a few bucks!

We get out of the house every Wednesday now. Rooney loves to go bye, and she also needs the stimulation. A few times we have met up with Eric. A few times we have gotten groceries. A couple times we have gone to Target. It just depends. The weather is great today so hopefully we will get a walk in this afternoon.

11:17 am

We are done with groceries; now we’re off to Chili’s for lunch with Eric. I have a coupon for a free dessert – mega score!

We are a little early so we practice “waiting” in the van for a few minutes.

For lunch, Rooney eats O’s, a banana, blueberry & beet rice cakes, apple, spinach, kiwi & pea melts, and some of our dessert.

12:51 pm

We are back home and, after a diaper change, Rooney is down for her second and final nap of the day.

I get back on my computer to work on this post.

1:03 pm

I remember there are groceries in the car. Oops! Back out to the garage to get them. I don’t want to risk waking Rooney (her room is right next to the kitchen) so I only put away the eggs. Everything else can wait.

1:07 pm

Back to blogging. In particular I’m working on this post, another Rooney in Carts post and my grateful list for May. I may or may not have also gotten sucked into Facebook.

2:21 pm

I hear Roo stirring after an hour and a half nap. She still sounds tired, so I let her wake up slowly before going to get her. I can tell from the video monitor that she keeps laying back down, so I just wait it out.

2:40 pm

She’s up for real this time.

Then it’s kind of deja vu from this morning. I get her up, and she gets a snack (two bananas and mandarin oranges) in the high chair while I fold the last of the laundry and put away the groceries.

3:07 pm

It’s 79* outside so we take off for a walk!

3:53 pm

Forty-five minutes later, we’re back home, tired and sweaty. We play in the living room for a while and then head out to her water table on the deck.

4:20 pm

Daddy’s home! He finds us on the deck. He takes Rooney inside to change another dirty diaper. I get a little time to myself outside on the deck. What a guy!

4:41 pm

When they come back, he suggests a walk around the block.

4:56 pm

We’re back from our walk, so Rooney goes in her high chair for supper: avocado, strawberries, mandarin oranges and milk. Eric does dishes and I work on this post.

5:22 pm

It’s bath time! We do baths every Sunday and Wednesday. Rooney has not been loving her baths lately, but today she needs it badly. This one lasts two minutes before she melts down.

5:25 pm

We get her pajamas on and play/read in her room until she asks to go to bed.

Which happens about 15 minutes later. It’s an early bedtime for this girl tonight!

5:46 pm

Roo is down for the night! Eric grills dinner for us (chicken breasts + guacamole) on the deck while I work on this post.

6:42 pm

Eric and I spend most of our evenings (except Thursdays) on our laptops, working on our blog (writing or editing photos or creating images or coding). Tonight we filmed five videos about Our Money Story that we will be posting soon!

9:42 pm

It’s past bedtime! Eric and I pray together and then hit the hay!

*All photos edited with the Beautiful Mess iPhone app.

The post A Day in the Life…a Wednesday With Rooney appeared first on Words of Williams.

The survey we posted few weeks ago asked what formats you would like to see more money/budgeting information, and videos led the way. So, even though we both feel more comfortable behind a keyboard rather than a camera, we’re giving it a go. We’ve started to document our money story from the first time we realized what money was to what we know today (it’s been a wild ride). We spent an evening shooting and came up with five videos to start with. They will be posted in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

How You Can Get Involved

1. Leave a message: We’d love your help! If you haven’t noticed, we added a little button to our site that allows you easy access to us. You can click the button, record a question you have and we’ll try to answer it via a blog post, video post, or both. Specifically, we are looking for money and budget related questions you have.
2. Send an email: Maybe you don’t feel comfortable sending us a voice message. No problem. Send us an email (eric@wordsofwilliams.com or kelsey@wordsofwilliams.com).

So, today we’d like to share with you a short video with some outtakes from the first shoot we did, and give you a look at the sweet intro we had made via Fiverr.

YouTube Channel – Words of Williams

 Just curious, what’s your favorite YouTube channel? (You can’t say ours. We’ve only posted 45 seconds worth of videos )

The post Introducing: the Words of Williams YouTube Channel appeared first on Words of Williams.

Three years ago today, Eric started this blog. We had no idea it would grow to reach as many people as it has. Thank you so much for reading about our lives! We feel very loved.

Just for fun, let’s take a look at the top 10 posts from the past year! Also check out our first post, our first blogiversary and last year’s blogiversary!

Top 10 Posts From the Past Year

• DIY Nursery Art
• Nursery Reveal
• What Ingredients Are in Infant Formula?
• iPhone Fun: Emoji
• Things to Do (for Yourself) Before Baby Comes
• Free Download: Budget Spreadsheet
• Rooney’s Birth Story
• DIY Pallet Wall
• The Hardest Decision
• Why I Got Postpartum Depression

Now go get yourself a cupcake!

The post Blogiversary: 3 Years appeared first on Words of Williams.

This is something that I often struggled with. I aim to please, and when I miss the mark I get a wrenching feeling in the pit of my stomach. You know the feeling? It hurts – I’m embarrassed, ashamed, regretful, disappointed, and sometimes even angry at myself.

And this is why I love being married! My wife knows more about me than anyone else would care to know. I mean, intimacy in marriage is more than what happens between the sheets [tweet that]. It means that we share our deepest darkest secrets with each other, and that we are brutally honest with one another, too (in love, of course).

I’m here to tell Kelsey when she has something in her teeth when nobody else will, and she points out all of the crazy ideas I’ve had over the years. It’s love at it’s finest. Let me explain…

Personalities play a big part in marriage, and for Kelsey and I there is often a healthy tension between us that steers the overall course of our family.

Kelsey…

• Is cautious
• Doesn’t invite chaos into her life
• Won’t commit to something unless she’s sure she can follow through
• Is slow to respond and thinks long and hard before making decisions

I, on the other hand, …

• Love a good challenge
• Will bite off more than I can chew
• Shoot from the hip when making decisions (I go with my gut, if you will)

What a difference, right? What a balance. The differences cause a bit of tension between us, but we choose to embrace the differences and actually lean on each other for fresh perspective.

A few weeks ago, Kelsey served me a sweet slice of humble pie in this department. The issue is that all my ideas come as soon as we get under the covers. Turns out 9:30 pm is not a great time to bounce or pitch ideas to a cautious, no-chaos, think-long-and-hard wife. This particular night, Kelsey had (rightfully) had enough and gently, with love, reminded me of all the “great in-the-moment” ideas that I’ve had over the years that have never amounted to anything.

Initially, I was deflated. It stung…bad. The phrase that came to mind was “I’m a failure.” She was right. I’ve had a lot of ideas over the years, and she has had to listen to them, not knowing how to help or what she could do to encourage or support me in my endeavors. Most of the time she gives me the “Go for it! Just don’t get me involved…” answer.

But that night I realized how much I need her and her personality. She keeps me balanced and is exactly the right person for me to bounce my ideas off of. I just need to learn some patience and wait for her wise council.

How Failure Can Make You Stronger

Yup, I’ve had some silly ideas over the years. I’ve also had some good ones. But, what if I gave up on my ideas when one of them didn’t work out? What if I didn’t get back on the horse, or was afraid or ashamed to share my ideas with my wife? That would kill my spirit and leave me suppressing one of my strengths.

In that moment, lying in bed, I told Kelsey that I appreciated her pointing out my lousy ideas, but also said that she better get used to it. Because I’m not going to stop sharing my ideas with her. For better or for worse… (hopefully better as time goes by).

I’m resolving to press on. To get knocked down, but to also get up again. As long as I get back up, it won’t be counted as a failure; just a learning experience.

Failure CAN make you stronger, if you choose to embrace it.

How do you deal with failure?

The post How Failure Can Make Your Marriage Stronger appeared first on Words of Williams.

Well, we did it. We survived the first year (actually 14 months now!) with a baby! And we definitely celebrated. It certainly wasn’t easy, and we certainly didn’t do everything right, but we’re all still alive and well, so we’ll call it a success. We may even do it again some day!

Looking back at Roo’s first year, I can pinpoint a few things we did right, and also a few we did wrong. Some things we knew were wrong immediately (like realizing we forgot to buckle her into her car seat on a 20-minute car ride when she was 3 months old…) and some things we didn’t realize were mistakes (or successes) until much later on.

Please note that there is rarely a right and wrong that spans all families. Some of the things we did right for our family wouldn’t be right for yours, and that’s totally fine!

Things We Did Right

• Waking Roo up to feed her during the day while I was on maternity leave. Sleep deprivation was one of the worst things for us with a newborn. I knew that it was important for us to stabilize Roo’s metabolism and encourage her to eat during the day. For us it was easier to discourage night eating when we knew she had eaten enough during the day. Don’t get me wrong — it was zero fun waking a sleeping baby. But I really think it worked! Rooney was sleeping two consecutive six-hour sessions (with one feeding in between) at 6 weeks, and sleeping through the night (9 hours) at 7 weeks.

• Not rocking her to sleep. I love my daughter, but rocking her to sleep was not something my husband and I enjoyed doing. I remember trying to do it once, and it didn’t even work. Maybe that’s just her temperament. She never liked being snuggled. If she was tired, she wanted to be left alone. As a result, Rooney learned at a very early age to put herself to sleep (which is a totally great skill!).

• Used a pacifier and taught Rooney how to keep it in her mouth. I remember the moment we decided to use a pacifier. I had set Rooney down in her papasan chair and she started crying. It was sort of the “Are we going to use a pacifier?” moment for Eric and I. It was time to make a decision. My mom was there, so I looked to her for advice, and she told me she recommended it. So we did, and I have been thankful so many times that Rooney enjoys her pacifier. I also highly recommend watching The Happiest Baby on the Block DVD for tips on how to teach a baby to keep a pacifier in their mouth (you try to knock it out so they tighten their grip, rather than hold it in their mouth with your finger!). (Please note we haven’t had to wean her of the pacifier yet. So maybe I will retract this statement then.)

• Switched from physical therapy to chiropractic for her neck issues. Rooney was diagnosed with torticollis (a tilted head due to uneven neck muscles) at her 2-month well-child checkup. We were referred to a physical therapist, and we gave it a try with weekly visits. We followed their instructions and stretched her neck at each diaper change, but after a few weeks we didn’t see much improvement. After researching it on my own, we decided to switch to a chiropractor, and only then did she get better. We went with our gut, and it proved to be the right decision.

Things We Did Wrong

• Let the doctors and nurses freak us out about Rooney not getting enough breast milk from me and losing 10% of her weight before we left the hospital. I’m not saying they weren’t right, but it gave us high anxiety, and that was one of the factors in our decision to stop breastfeeding very early (4 weeks).

• Used an elevated sleep device. She slept great in the rock ‘n play sleeper, but we later learned that it probably contributed to her torticollis. Next time we will try a flat bassinet instead.

• Fed her at 5:00 am when she cried. Around 4-6 months, Roo started waking up at 5:00 am. Because she was sleeping such long stretches (12 hours at night), we would get up to feed her. I’ve since read that babies have a strong shift in their sleep cycle around 4:30 am, which is why so many of them wake up at this time. Well, eventually she was used to getting calories at 5:00 am and it became her normal waketime. Which was way too early for us! Even though Eric gets up at that time during the week, we’d much rather her wake up at 6:00 or 7:00. Luckily, it really only took one day of making her wait until 7:00 am to get her first bottle to break that habit. Still, it was a rough couple months til we got the courage to make her wait.

• Gave her the hepatitis B vaccine in the hospital. Rooney has reacted to vaccinations by sleeping a lot. We obviously didn’t know she would react like that, but I’ve read recently that babies who are given the optional additional hepatitis B vaccination in the hospital are more likely to sleep when they should be learning how to breastfeed. Plus, let’s be real, hepatitis B is a sexually transmitted disease, so I don’t think my newborn baby needs it on her first day of life.

There are also things we’ll probably never know if we made the right decision or not. Rooney was born tongue-tied, so on her sixth day of life we had her tongue clipped. We’ve had complete peace with our decision, but I suppose we’ll never really know what things would have been like if we didn’t do it. I’ve also researched vaccinations multiple times and although we’ve decided to do them, I’ll probably never feel 100% comfortable with it (if only the ingredients were less toxic!).

Making mistakes isn’t fun, but there is definitely value in learning from our failures. As hard as we try to not make mistakes, we simply can’t prevent them all. This seems to be a normal part of being a parent. I honestly couldn’t do it if I didn’t have my faith to fall back on when I get anxious with the responsibilities of parenting. We make the best choices we can for Roo and our family, and then pray to God to protect her if we’re making the wrong move.

The post Things We Did Right (and Wrong) in Roo’s First Year appeared first on Words of Williams.

Last Wednesday Rooney and I went to eat lunch with Eric at work. I used to work there, too, so I was catching up with some of my old co-workers. I was talking to a couple ladies who couldn’t believe how much Roo has grown. I was telling them that at 14 months she still isn’t walking. One of them said, “The longer a baby crawls, the smarter they are.” I laughed it off, thinking she was just trying to make me feel better.

To be honest, I have never been worried about her not walking yet. It is totally normal and common for kids to wait til 15 months to start walking. BUT when I have to carry all 24 pounds of her, sometimes I wish she was walking. I know it’s a double-edged sword because at times she will insist on walking when I could carry her faster. Still, walking is a crucial milestone that she will need to learn sometime! Plus, I just think it would be fun to see her toddling around!

Anyway. Later that day, it popped back into my head what my old co-worker had said. I was thinking about how Roo has been crawling for nearly 8 months now! She was an early crawler, starting at 6 months. So I wondered if there was any truth that crawling making babies smarter. Google tells me there is!

The main reason: Crawling requires the use of both the right and left hemispheres of the brain.

• Infants who spend more time in the crawling phase statistically have better test scores as preschoolers than children who walk early!
• Some people advise against assisting your child in walking because more brain development will take place as they crawl and creep.
• Crawlers also have more upper body strength, which helps them when they get a little older and pull themselves out of the pool, as an example.
• Rooney is really smart! Her favorite toy right now is the shape sorter, which is meant for kids twice her age. (Mom brag.)

Sources

• Brain Development in Babies Who Take Longer to Walk
• Crawling = Baby Genius?
• Late Walkers are Naturally Smarter
• Do Babies Need to Crawl?

P.S. If your baby learned to walk early or never crawled, I don’t think it is cause for concern. They must be smart for learning to walk so early! In general, all mobility and play make kids smarter!

P.P.S. They also say breastfed babies are smarter than formula fed babies. Since Roo was mostly formula fed, maybe this will balance it out. Also, I was not breastfed and was a 4.0 student, so take it or leave it.

The post The Longer Babies Crawl, the Smarter They Are appeared first on Words of Williams.

Congratulations to Jesse Coulter for winning this giveaway and thanks to all who participated!

Sorry to hold the suspense until after Mother’s Day, but I had to keep this secret from Kelsey! Luckily the fine folks at Datevitation (see below for who they are and what they do!) contacted me and not Kelsey, because this was just the perfect Mother’s Day surprise I needed (since Kelsey usually picks out her gifts and lets me know where to order, removing all surprise elements).

Datevitation allowed me to test their process and I created a date coupon book as a Mother’s Day gift for Kelsey. It was a ton of fun, and I was overly impressed with the turnaround time. I ordered the custom book on a Friday and it arrived on Monday! What! I’d say it’s impossible, but it actually happened.

What is Datevitation?

• Datevitation.com is the first online platform that helps you create a custom love coupon book. Unlike the prepackaged coupon books on the market, you pick the date ideas and customize the text to your liking. Once you are done customizing the text in your book, Datevitation will print it and ship it to you.

• The Datevitation library contains more than 350 date ideas ranging from skydiving to stargazing to steamy adult-only activities (I left those out of Kelsey’s book, but hey, maybe that’s your style). They also have more than 100 book cover options (great designs, don’t you think?) to suit any occasion.

• In addition to being the perfect romantic gift for your sweetie, Datevitation just launched its “boy” and “girl” characters with more than 200 new activity illustrations specifically for kids and parents. Just in time for Father’s Day! (wink, wink!)

• Books start at just $20 so it makes for a thoughtful yet economical gift. But as a special treat for our followers, you can use the code TEAMWILLIAMS for $10 off your purchase in May or June! That means you can get your loved one a one-of-a-kind gift for Father’s Day starting at just $10! The order cut-off date for guaranteed delivery by Father’s Day is June 6, so make sure to get your order in before then!

Giveaway

Datevitation is also generously giving away one free coupon book to one of you! There are multiple ways to enter for more chances to win. The giveaway will be open through May 20.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Datevitation is a family business run by the husband-wife team of Alex and Olga Karpman. You can get to know them on the Datevitation blog, where they offer video guides to date ideas and romantic gestures. You can even watch Alex propose to Olga in a video they posted on Youtube as a Save The Date, and now has more than 1,000,000 views (you can view the video here)!

Good luck!

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See also: My First Mother’s Day

*Image created by Soon Maternity

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