Top 10 baby things I (almost) couldn't have lived without

I remember making my baby registry and seeing top ten baby lists and thinking wow, I really need all that crap?! Turns out I didn't. Even though some moms swear by them I barely used the nursing pillow, bumbo, binkies, or even the moby wrap (although I bet it's nearly necessary with 2+ kids.) Also, contrary to popular belief your baby will not shrivel up and die if you don't put baby lotion on them everyday (or ever.) But the things on this list I (almost) couldn't have survived the first ten months without.

• Bouncer- I didn't have a swing or anything fancy, but my hand-me-down blue bouncer! It was a lifesaver. I kept it close for the first 6 months or so for any time I just needed to free my hands. The vibrations and songs lulled Lola into a state of peaceful bliss. And best of all I could put it in the bathroom, strap her in, and take a blessed shower! Heaven. 

• Footie PJs- Aint nobody got time for undershirts and cute ruffled tops with a million buttons and pants and tiny socks all the time. Que the footie pjs. One outfit for night and day, warm and comfy. 

• Diaper Bag- This thing keeps all the stuff that my baby needs for a day out. Enough said. But really, in those first few months after having a baby it can be overwhelming trying to get out the door with a little one, so it's nice to have some of the stuff packed and ready to go. Get one you love! I got this Skip Hop Bag in black because it doesn't look tacky. I actually got it from Phil for my birthday, which turned out to be Lola's birthday too. 

• Burp cloths/blankets- Lola burped spit up all over us for the first six months. Yuck. Burp cloths were really nice to have but blankets can do the same thing they're just bigger and they double as, well a blanket (which is essential!) Swaddle blankets were awesome too, but we only used them for the first 3 months until Lola outgrew the ones we had.

• Cloth diapers- yes, disposables do the job but I love my cloth diapers! They save all kinds of money and look cute to boot. I love Alvababy diapers!

• Cloth wipes/wipe warmer- I keep wash cloths in a wipe warmer and pour water on top. Presto, super awesome baby wipes that save $$$. Even if you use disposables, a wipe warmer would be nice, if not absolutely necessary, especially in the winter!  

• Washable nursing pads- These are obviously for a nursing mom and not a baby, but it's all the same to me. So keeping with the money saving washable stuff. I don't know how much money I would have wasted by now on the disposable kind, but it's a lot. I love these. I just wash them with the white laundry, so easy!

• Car seat and cover- Yes this is a very basic list. I love my Britax B-safe car seat because Lola seems so comfy in it. She will often nap in there. There was a time at around 4 months where she took a majority of her naps in it. Even now at 10 months old she still does sometimes, like last Sunday at church! My sister Karen made my super cute cover so she can sleep without distractions, as well as keeping out the sun, rain, cold etc.  

• Jogging Stroller- Truthfully we didn't even have a stroller until Lola was 5 months old. But since then we have gotten a lot of use out of our Baby Trend Jogging Stroller . I use it for sanity saving exercise. And also when we go on outings/to family reunions/camping it multitasks as a highchair and nap spot which makes it a super star in my book. 

• Pack n play- At first I didn't think this was necessary since newborns sleep anywhere. But as Lola has gotten older I realized how awesome it is to have a portable bed for trips! We also use it for naps in our bedroom, since her crib is in the living room. We got one for $8 in good condition at a garage sale and it has been well worth it. We just put an extra pad in it to make it nice for sleeping. 

Okay, so every mom is going to have a different list. It's okay if your mom/aunt/sister or I love and think you NEED something that you just don't like. Even so, it was fun to make my own top ten list! 

Dear Lola- 9 Months

Dear Lola,

I'm sitting here thinking about how you've been out longer than you were in. It feels like forever ago that I was pregnant and it seems impossible that you ever fit in my tummy. The little faded lines on my skin remind me that you did, but that it was a stretch :)Your stats are: weight- 19 pounds 9 ounces (64%) height- 29 inches (91%) and head- 18 inches. You are so tall! You've been cruising along furniture all month long.You are tall enough to reach the oven handle and the bathroom counter. Sometimes you stand on dad's side of the table and hold on while peeking over to see me while we eat. I can't believe you will be walking in the next few months. You've always been one to enjoy a good cuddle, but it melts my heart that now when you are sitting in my lap facing me you will turn your head to the side and lean into my chest. A few of your favorite new noises are to stick out your tongue and blow and to smack your lips. Your top two teeth came in last month. Now you have a seriously toothy grin and a good bite to go with it. Everyone, watch your fingers! We went raspberry picking the other night. Picking raspberries with you was like picking carrots with a bunny. You wanted to eat them all. You are getting into everything and get upset when you don't get to play with something you want like knives out of the dishwasher and dog food (eww.) You sit near me while I do the dishes and play with pots and pans and tupperware. This year has gone by so fast. It makes me sad that soon you won't be my little baby. Someday when you read these letters I hope you get a glimpse of just how much we loved you from the start.

Love always,
Mom

Dear Lola- 8 Months

Dear Lola,

This month you have been one happy baby. You learned how to stand up to things all on your own. This has resulted in a lot of head bonks, but you are getting better at landing gracefully on your bum. You crawl with (almost) lightning speed to the bathroom and stand up to the toilet- so funny. Before you could stand you were always crawling on to the bathroom scale. Please don't obsess too much about you weight. Believe me, 20.5 pounds is nothing. :) You are so cute during bath time. You splash and crawl and chew on your sea creature bath toys just as happy as can be. You've also discovered how to unroll and eat the toilet paper so it's probably safe to say that the bathroom is your favorite room right now. You surprised me a few Sundays ago by climbing the stairs at Grandma and Grandpa Hill's. You can climb the whole staircase now which is crazy since you don't really have any to practice on at home. You still love to nurse about six times a day and eat three solid meals. You've gotten pretty adventurous eating finger foods. The other day we had tacos and you ate corn tortilla pieces and shredded pork right along with us. You aren't nearly as excited when you see me with a spoon. I think your love affair with bananas is just beginning. Still no top teeth but I can tell they will be here soon. At night you sleep from about 9 PM to 7 AM and then take three naps during the day. Sometimes you get up once in the night. I realized early on in your life that I could feel resentful about this, or just enjoy a quick cuddle with you. Mostly I don't mind. Dad taught you to turn on the light by pulling the cord on the ceiling fan. If I carry you across the room you raise your arms trying to get to it. You've been "talking" for a few months now, saying dadada and such. It's too cute. It's been fun taking you swimming and fishing this summer and let's face it, nothing is cuter than you in a swimsuit. I painted our toenails matching red for the 4th of July. Thanks for being my cuddle bug. 

Love always,

Mom 

Rexburg Car Show

This tiny pink car was Lola's favorite :)  Okay, I liked it too. 

We went to the car show on Saturday. This was our third year in a row. With it always being the week of Phil's birthday it just seems like it would be a shame to skip it. Of course Phil loves cars (what guy doesn't?) But my favorite thing about the car show is what's going on in that last picture. It's the conversation between Phil and the car owner and it goes something like this...

Phil "Wow! Look at that thing-a-ding 5000 you've got under the hood. Is that the original?"

Car owner "Yeah. But I rebuilt this and that (and who knows what the heck they are talking about...)"

Phil "This is such a sweet car. How did you get a hold of it?"

Car owner.... goes on to tell how they bought it for their wife in '75 or found it in a neighbors barn etc.

Basically, Phil makes the person feel like they have the coolest car in the lot. It's so fun to see the owners light up when they talk about their pride and joy and Phil is totally in his element. Lola got to sit on a sweet little motorcycle, so all in all it was a great day for everyone.

Meet the Montours

I really wish I was better at this blogging thing. It's all baby stuff. And believe it or not there is a bit more to our lives other than watching Lola grow. I'm just not very good at letting the words flow and being descriptive and talking about every little outing and holiday. But I thought maybe I would write a little get to know us post so at least I can look back and see where we were in June 2013!

Phillip
First off Phil is an amazing husband and father. He takes time every day to make sure that Lola and I get our hugs and kisses and quality time even if he has a million and one things to do, which he usually does. He is so so busy with school this semester majoring in Mechanical Engineering at BYU-Idaho. He gets to school by 7:45 AM for class and then is usually home by 6 pm for dinner. Many nights he is up till 1 AM studying. I do not envy his schedule right now, but he rarely complains. And if he does it's that he wishes he could spend more time with us. We cannot wait for him to graduate next year! He is the varsity scout coach and the boys are lucky to have him to keep it real. It wouldn't be scouts without winter camping! On Friday he turned 27 and it was really fun to have a reason to celebrate this guy. We had a hot dog roast with friends down by the river. Sadly I didn't take any pictures but it was fun playing crochet, roasting smores, and talking around the fire.

Me
I guess you could say I have adjusted to being a stay at home mom. I enjoy taking care of our home and Lola. I workout 5-6 days a week which keeps me happy. I do workout DVDs and go jogging in the mornings. I think exercise is so important for moms. It was a huge confidence boost for me to get my body back after pregnancy. I am also enjoying cooking healthy foods for us. Right now I am on a kick making whole wheat pizza. I kept making it every Friday for a while because I wanted to make the perfect crust :) I also love reading. Two good books I read recently were Me Before You by Jojo Moyes and Your Roots Are Showing by Elise Chidley. I've read about four other so so books in the last couple of months. I'm the primary secretary in the ward which I enjoy. Although I'm kind of stressed about teaching sharing time and giving a talk in sacrament next week. All in all, life is good!

Lola
Our baby girl is growing up. She is crawling and starting to pull herself up to standing. She is on the go and curious. She is generally a pretty chill and happy baby who loves to eat and sleep :) Phil often says "I love having a little girl" and all I can say is ME TOO! One of my favorite things in the world is that if I look at Lola and smile, she smiles right back. Maybe every baby does that, but when my baby smiles at me it makes all the hard times worth it.

Dear Lola- 7 Months

Dear Lola,

At seven months it feels like your baby days will fly by in the blink of an eye. You are wearing 12 month clothes and growing by the minute. This month you started eating meat and fruit (yum yum!) You've gotten really excited about eating. It's easy to tell if you like something by the way you swallow and quickly open up wide for more. The opposite happens if you hate it or are full, as well as crying. You can be so dramatic haha. I just started giving you those little baby puffs which you think are the best thing EVER.You got a bad rash after eating avocado so I guess we will have to be careful. You love your sippy cup but don't understand that it has to be tipped up to get water. Real cups are the bees knees. I think this happened after I gave you a sip of my smoothie. If I've got a cup you've gotta have a drink. OH! My wildest dreams came true! You sprouted your two front bottom teeth about a week after you turned 6 months. They are super cute and sharp. They didn't seem to bother you at all coming in so It's a good thing I was keeping a lookout for them or I wouldn't have noticed. Now I'm kind of scared for your top teeth to come in....ouch. You've been working all month on crawling. Mostly it's been more of a scoot crawl but lately it's definitely a real crawl. I even saw you go from sitting to crawling a couple of times. I think you will really take off this week. Eek I'm scared though because I know I can't protect you from all the bumps and bangs. One thing is for sure, I can not put you on the bed any more. You dove off head first twice in a week. That made me feel like the world's worst mom.We took you camping for the first time to Horseshoe lake. It was really fun and of course you wanted to eat all the dirt you could. Dad thinks you are his little fishing pal this summer. It is the cutest thing watching you two together. I love our little family of three. Xoxo

Love,
Mom

Dear Lola- 6 Months

Dear Lola,

Six months already! You are growing so fast, little cutie. Suddenly you are doing all sorts of big baby things like napping less and sitting up all on your own! The day we got home from vacation I noticed you were doing two things I hadn't noticed before: chewing your toes and pushing up with your feet to get your tummy off the ground. I know you have big ideas about crawling. For now though you can get just about anywhere you want by rolling and scooting. It's just not nearly fast enough for you! The last few days you have gotten up on your hands and knees. I guess we will have to wait and see how long it takes for you to get moving :) You also do this funny thing where you balance on your head and your feet in a bridge pose. You are a little gymnast! You've tried lots of vegetables now and seem to like them all. I'm on the lookout for teeth but you haven't sprouted any yet. It's funny though because I have dreams about them all the time. Once I dreamed that I looked in your mouth and counted 40 teeth. All in one day, wow! :) Another time I dreamed that I looked and saw a bunch of teeth but they were all big and strange looking. You then popped out a pair of dentures and I said, "Lola, whose teeth did you steal?!" Lol. At your 6 month appointment we found out that you weigh 18 lbs 2 oz (87%) and are 27 inches long (90%)! Keep growing big and strong, baby girl.

Love you lots,
Mom

Lola Fern at 5 days old

My baby will be 6 months old in a few days. It's been a crazy half of a year. It's insane how much a baby changes in that short amount of time. And me? I'm different too. I'm learning to love being at home. I try to find joy everyday in doing the things that seem mundane. Being with this little angel everyday is priceless.

A few things I hope I never forget about Lola as a newborn:
She loved to be held and cuddled close. A few nights she even slept on daddy's chest.
She was born with perfect, unbelievably soft skin. In fact only the first picture is edited.
She was so sleepy and content. I don't remember hearing her cry once while we were in the hospital. Maybe a whimper if she was hungry. Phil bragged to my grandparents that she was the best baby that NEVER cries. Of course she eventually learned how to use her lungs to full capacity, but usually only if she was really hungry. And she sure loved to eat!
See her legs in the last picture? I know she must have done that a lot in the womb too. The labor & delivery nurse commented about her foot being bent from doing it. (It quickly straightened out.)
We loved bringing her home. I felt like I just knew how to take care of her, although I'm not saying those early weeks were easy. While pregnant I was constantly reading to know what was going on, but with a new baby I didn't feel panicked that I didn't know the perfect way to bathe her etc. like some books had me imagine I would.
It was such a surreal feeling to meet her and think "So here you are! You're the one who was in there." Yet, she seemed familiar too. It still amazes me that she grew inside of me. In fact it gets crazier as time goes by to imagine her in my belly!

These pictures were taken by my sister Kate just a couple of days after we got home from the hospital. Thanks Kate! She had never done newborn pictures before. Lola may look peaceful in these pictures, and she did sleep almost the whole time (when was she not sleeping back them?) but it was a lot of work! I was hovering over her the whole time in a robe holding a heater. Getting a sleeping baby into cute positions is difficult, all the while trying to keeping her little bum covered. Speaking of which she may have peed and pooped on every one of those cute blankets.

Dear Lola- 5 months

Dear Lola,

Lately it has been so fun to be your mom. It's been about a month since you learned to use your hands to grab and get a hold of things and you are now a pro. I never tire of watching you use them to grab for a toy or food off daddy's plate. You especially like to use your new found dexterity to grab at my face while you nurse. You try to get a hold of my nose or put your whole hand in my mouth. Of course this would be quite annoying... except for the fact that I still find it adorable. You also started eating solid foods earlier this month, although I put it off again until last week. You've eaten rice and oatmeal cereal, peas, sweet potatoes, and carrots so far. I think you've liked them all just fine- except the peas. It's been a few weeks now that you learned to roll from your back to your tummy. Your scooting has only gotten better too. You arch your back and push with your legs to get half way across the room if you see something worth the scoot. Your giggles are contagious and I love the way you smile with your whole toothless mouth open wide. It's almost just as cute when you pull a big frown- you always get your way when you do. This week we got a jogging stroller and we have gone out every day. Daddy is always so happy to come home and hold you after a long day at school. He usually sits you on his lap during dinner just because he missed you all day. You're not sleeping 10 hours straight anymore but I guess it's okay as long as you're happy. It's amazing to see you grow from a helpless newborn to a curious little baby. You have a lot more growing to do, but know that today I love you just the way you are.

Love,
Mom