Where did my tiny guy go?!

It seems like 4 months is a transition period between the newborn and older baby period in most of what I’ve been reading. Now is a time when we could think about starting solids (though he’s doing fine with the breast milk and formula that he’s been getting, so we most likely won’t start until 6 months) and when we should be working on making sure Max can self soothe to get himself to sleep. We will have to work on that last one – we’re still in the habit of swaddling and rocking the little guy to sleep.

Max had an evaluation at daycare and he mostly seems on track. He got one zero – he doesn’t yet grab at things in front of him, say on a table. Alex says that it’s just because he’s polite lol. I know that babies all develop at different rates, but I couldn’t help but worry over the areas where he didn’t score “perfect tens”. His doctor didn’t seem concerned at his four month appointment, though, so I know that I should just calm down and enjoy my little guy.

And he is just so enjoyable right now. He’s always got a huge smile for Alex and me! He’s super cute in the mornings when we’re all getting ready for the day. Of course, this makes us late getting out the door every day because we tend to linger in bed (where I bring him after he wakes up and eats – he doesn’t spend the night in our bed!) making him giggle and coo. I love to watch Alex and Max play in the mirror while I get ready for work. Alex talks to him and tickles him and does tummy time and Max babbles away at him and sucks on his hands. Max is all about his hands lately – they must be super tasty! He’s also become able to be a little more independent now by entertaining himself for 20 or so minutes at a time in his exersaucer. He looks like such a big boy in it!

This is a fun time but I’m also pretty excited for the next few months when he learns to sit up and can start to really be able to play with toys and not just shove them in his mouth (although I know that will still be part of his repertoire for a while). This year is going to fly by with all of these new developments happening all the time. I know before I know it I’ll have a little toddler on my hands!

Max holding Mommy’s & Daddy’s hands.

Max doing some Tummy Time and smiling.

Max being held up like Simba – OMG his hair looks so light in this picture!

Both of my guys smiling!

And here are some pictures I was sad to have to leave behind…

Sticking out his tongue at Mommy

Looking like such a big boy!

Getting some love from Mommy and Daddy – I love his face here lol!

Max did much better this photo session than in months past – of course I kind of expected that as he got older having a giant camera pointed at him and flashes going off would bother him less. I’m thrilled that we finally got some professional pictures of him smiling! Now we just have to continue to work on those tummy time skills to get him pushing himself up more – now you really have to prop him up and still he mostly just eats his hands (lol). I can’t wait until he can sit up – we’ll have so much fun then!

Slice allows you to link you your Gmail or Yahoo mail email accounts to the service so that it can monitor your online shopping activity. After you click the “buy” button on a merchant’s site and a confirmation email is sent to your linked email account, Slice processes the email and creates a record of that purchase. Thereafter, additional emails received from the merchant updating the status of the order or providing shipping/tracking information are processed and linked to that purchase’s record in Slice; enabling you to go to the app for the latest and greatest information about all of your online shopping activity. Slice even brings in tracking information and can display the current status of your shipments on a map.

The available iPhone and Android apps really take advantage of this functionality. The mobile apps send push notifications about the shipping status of your order. On the day that your order is out for delivery by the carrier, you get a “heads up” alert pushed to your phone – so you know to expect that box on your doorstep when you get home. And anyone who has tried to track a shipment from a mobile device before will appreciate the simplicity of opening up the Slice app, clicking on the tracking status of an order, and having the current information display for you complete with a map view with just those few clicks.

Where Slice really got me hooked, though, was its ability to track and display your purchase history and then “Slice and Dice” that information into easily digestible charts that help you to see where you’re spending your money and what you’re spending it on. The Purchase History tab is where you can view your purchases by order or item and use filters to easily find things you’ve bought by Status, Merchant, or Item Type. Slice stores all of your receipts, so you can delete receipts out of your email in-box without worrying about needing to find them again in the future. If you need to return an item or contact a merchant’s customer service department about something you’ve purchased, Slice provides all of the information you need in one secure location. Slice will even monitor your purchases for price drops and help you request a refund if applicable.

On the “Slice and Dice” tab, I was easily able to select just the last twelve months and produce a series of charts to help me analyze my spending.

The charts enable you to easily drill down into categories or merchants to provide further detail. I could see, for example, that I’d spent $1,230.87 on Amazon.com in the last 12 months, and by drilling down into that piece of the pie, I was provided with a monthly spending trend and summarization of how much I’ve spent broken down into categories at Amazon during that time.

I already had all of this information in my email in-box, of course, but the power of Slice lies in its presentation. I’d love to see the app help me take the next step, though, and provide me with some context for my data. Is my spending above or below average? Could I have potentially saved money on my purchases by buying at a different time of the year, when that type of item is typically on sale?

I’ve really enjoyed using Slice and have come to rely on the app for tracking my online spending. I’d recommend it to anyone who shops online, though you have to be comfortable with the idea of another company having access to all of your spending habits and history. Slice is free to use and their website doesn’t say how they plan to monetize their service. Your user data is secure and encrypted at the item level, so items can’t be associated with individuals. But it’s pretty safe to assume that in some way your data is being aggregated and sold – just as with any social network or other “free” service online. For me, the pros of using the service outweigh the potential cons and I’ll continue to use the service. Check it out for yourself at slice.com or by downloading the Slice app from the iTunes App Store or Android Marketplace.

]]> http://aliwolly.com/2012/05/18/max-and-wham-at-the-special-person-breakfast-at-daycare-this-morning/feed/ 0 aliwolly Media_httpdistilleryi_ajked http://aliwolly.com/2012/05/16/i-sing-this-to-max/ http://aliwolly.com/2012/05/16/i-sing-this-to-max/#comments Thu, 17 May 2012 02:41:10 +0000 aliwolly https://aliwolly.wordpress.com/?p=2912 ]]> …whenever I change his diaper.

Sung to the tune of “Darling Clementine”:

It’s a tiny little hiney!
It’s a tiiiiiiiiny little butt!
It’s an itty bitty rear end,
And your mommy’s just a nut!

Today I started to randomly sing it to myself during a meeting. Definitely made me feel a little crazy lol!

Max stopped crying and stared at me. I stared back at him. I think we were thinking the same thought: “WTF what a weird song!”

Yesterday was my first Mother’s Day and it was great! I got flowers (a dozen long stemmed roses!) from Max delivered to work on Friday and then when I got home from work that day I got a craft he did at daycare. The craft is a picture of him in a flower head band smiling and two purple footprints along with a poem:

“I’m growing like a flower
With all your love and care
All your hugs and kisses
Make the good times that we share
I’m growing like a flower
We know that is true
So I made this
To say, ‘I LOVE YOU!’”

Then this weekend my mom and nana came up for a visit. It was so nice to hang out with them and for Max to meet them! We went for a Mother’s Day breakfast at Perreca’s, which is my favorite place to go for breakfast! I *love* their French toast made with their freshly baked Italian bread! It was a gorgeous day out so we ate outside on the back patio. After breakfast we stopped in the rose garden in the park and took some pictures and enjoyed the beautiful weather!

Later on, after mom and nana got on the road, we went up to Clifton Park and hung out with the Wham for a bit. Max and I ended up snuggling for a nap together while we were there. We ended the day at home where Alex cooked a steak dinner for us and his parents. It was a great day: I got to enjoy time with family, gorgeous weather, and snuggle time with my baby! I hope I get to have a perfect day like that every Mother’s Day!

]]> http://aliwolly.com/2012/05/11/my-beautiful-blue-eyed-boy/feed/ 0 aliwolly Media_httpdistilleryi_egvcf http://aliwolly.com/2012/05/10/shots-shopping-and-showing-up/ http://aliwolly.com/2012/05/10/shots-shopping-and-showing-up/#comments Fri, 11 May 2012 03:51:40 +0000 aliwolly https://aliwolly.wordpress.com/?p=2900 ]]> Ok, the last word in the title doesn’t actually make that much sense, but the first two words started with an “sh” and I really felt that the last one should too…

Max turned 4 months old today! I didn’t get to do his 4 month picture yet, though, because he had his 4 month dr appointment today and that meant shots – which meant a tired and on the verge of cranky baby the rest of the day. He did very well at his appointment. He smiled a lot at his doctor and really only cried for a minute when the nurse gave him his (3!) shots. He now weighs 14 pounds, 8 ounces and is 24.75 inches long. He’s just under the 50th percentile for both his weight and height, and is almost at the 70th percentile for his head size. So he’s my average little guy with a big head!

His doctor reassured me that, despite his daycare teachers’ claims, he is getting enough food during the day at school. Lately, they keep telling me that he’s always hungry. He’s not always hungry for me when I have him all day, so I haven’t been sending more food. I struggle as it is to pump 16 ounces a day to send along with him (and actually, haven’t been able to keep up with that recently). I think that he’s just sleepy when he’s fussy at school. He only ever naps for 45 minutes at a time and when he’s at school they only put him down for 3 naps a day. During the same time period that he’s at school, he napped 5 times today. That’s because I make sure to put him down for a nap no longer than 90 minutes after he’s been awake. I’ve mentioned this to his teachers and am hoping that they can work more frequent naps into his day. I also mentioned to them that he’s a huge comfort sucker and suggested that the give him a pacifier when he’s finished his bottle. I think they think that I’m weird or starving him but I hope they take my suggestions. I hate to think of him being the grumpy baby at school. And since my pumping output has decreased, I’m going to need to start supplementing with a bottle or two of formula a day at school, so I’m worried that they’ll keep feeding him even when he’s not really hungry at school since they won’t be limited by the amount of breast milk I’m sending each day. I think that they may come around to the not hungry thing, though. They defrosted milk yesterday to give him a bottle on top of what I’d sent because he was having a difficult afternoon and they assumed he was hungry. The kid did not eat it, continued to scream at them, and passed out. Yep, he passed out because he wasn’t hungry, he was tired! Hopefully they’ll have learned from that…

Anyway, after we came home from Max’s doctor appointment this morning and we snuggled and he napped for a bit, Max and I went out and about for the afternoon. We stopped by Dodi’s shop to hang out for a few minutes and finally drop off Emma’s first birthday gift (which I’d had in the back of my car since January…). Then I dragged Max all around the mall looking for shoes to wear to the fire department banquet tomorrow night. I finally did find a pair, the first pair that I tried on and then went back to after ruling out every other pair of shoes in the mall. After that, we went to Walmart where I picked up some white fabric to go with the Michael Miller fabric for curtains in the playroom. I also got tension rods for the curtains I’ll make in the playroom – I can’t wait to have them done and hung up in that room!!

The other thing that I needed to get at Walmart was caramel sauce. Why, you ask? Well, so I could make caramel buttercream frosting to go on top of the chocolate cupcakes I’d made earlier this AM. This was my first attempt at caramel buttercream, which I made from a Wilton recipe I found online. It came out pretty good, although next time I make it I will use all butter to make it, rather than 1/2 butter and 1/2 shortening. The frosting was good, but I felt like I could taste the “fakeness” of the shortening. I piped the frosting on top of the cupcakes and then sprinkled some kosher salt on top to make them salted caramel cupcakes. Then we packed up the cupcakes and the baby and headed up to Clifton Park to celebrate the Wham’s birthday! We did gifts at the house (I gave Wham a book that I had created from her blog posts from when they lived in Dubai) and then went to Outback for dinner.

It was quite a busy day! Now I’m laying in bed waiting for the nail polish on my toenails to dry. Tiredness is taking over, though, so I may need to give in and snuggle under the covers and risk a smudged toenail. It’s back to work tomorrow, which means getting up bright and early around 5:30 – and that will come quicker than I’m ready for!