Preparing for baby's first plane ride

In a short amount of time, we'll be taking Elizabeth on her first flight.

Yikes. 

Tonight, I started looking up everything from "tips for traveling with baby" to "FAA Approved Car Seats," and everything in between. I just got done making sure our carseats were both approved (even though we are obviously only taking one).

I want to back up for a minute, and say thank you to our friends, family and neighbors, who will be driving our cars and house-sitting for us while we are away. We very much appreciate these kind gestures, and we feel so much better knowing that our home will be in good hands while we're gone! (Even though it's only a few days).

As for the packing - and if you know me, the lists - that are imminent...I'm starting to feel apprehensive.

I've got some lists started, and my goal is to complete them by tomorrow, specifically the ones for Elizabeth.

Here are my goals for packing:

• Pack light
• Don't forget anything (duh)
• Keep baby happy on the plane

I've read some horror stories - I mean really scary stuff - happening to moms, and I've also read some really encouraging stories about moms who travel with their babies (alone!), too. I've also found that Google has nothing on Pinterest when it comes to preparing for baby plane travel.

I've made a list of the items/ ideas for traveling with baby that I thought were genius, and that I hadn't thought of:

• Baby's birth certificate copy (to prove she's under 2 years old) 
• Ask for the bassinet seat on the airplane so she can sleep (I doubt she will; it's only a 2 1/2 hour flight, but I know it's available if we need it) 
• Bring 1 new toy, 1 familiar toy and a soft book for the plane
• Pouches of food (not containers) and plastic spoons

There are always the obvious items: diapers, wipes, sanitizer and comfort items, plus clothes (layers) for all.

So I'm feeling a little overwhelmed.

Since this is a business trip for me, I'm having to do literally all of the planning and preparing myself. I am booked literally from 7:15am until 9:00pm every day of our trip. Thankfully, the only expense that we've had to incur so far is Robert's plane ticket, and I was able to get it for the best deal I've ever seen, directly through the airline. (Ellie is flying as a "lap infant," and is free.) We were smart, and booked our seats with one empty one in the middle, and have been checking every day to make sure that middle seat is still available. Since it is, (and if it remains that way), we'll be able to use her carseat on the plane. But because all carseats have to be FAA approved in order to allow the baby to use it on the flight, I had to look into all that. And it wasn't as easy as you'd think: The FAA doesn't actually stamp their "approval" on carseats. It's just the red lettering that says it's certified for motor vehicle and aircraft transportation.

I'm exhausted already, and I'm calling it a night.

More notes and details on our travel later, hopefully after I figure out what bags to take and such.

Hits Deep Tour Concert - Part 1

For Valentine's Day, Robert got us tickets to see Toby Mac! His parents had Elizabeth for her first sleepover that night, and so we got an actual married date night! (This has happened less times than I have fingers on my right hand since Ellie Jo was born). It was a needed night out! And we splurged way too much, lol. But we felt it was investing in our marriage - and music, tee-hee - so it was worth it!

It was the Hits Deep tour, which literally meant that all the artists he had with him were not only his "wish list" tour artists (and all said yes), but they played all hits! Capital Kings (whom I'd never heard),  Ryan Stevenson (I also didn't know), Matthew West, Matt Maher, Mandisa and Brandon Heath were all there - and they were all incredible! Not only was Toby Mac's band "Diverse City" there, but they backed up every single artist. 

It. Was. Awesome. 

 Here's Brandon Heath and Matt Maher. On stage. Together. I was literally jumping out of my seat when they started playing! 

We saw Aidan, one of our Trek students there with his mom! It was Aidan's first concert, and he was a little nervous. Halfway through, we turned around to see both he and his mom totally rocking out! We thought he had a pretty good time, judging by the smile on his face! 

While I absolutely love music - playing it, writing it, performing it, listening to it - I didn't imagine that my life would be changed by this one concert. I'm not really talking about spiritually (sorry!), but I suppose that was part of it. 

What I'm talking about is that I had a renewed love of music. I haven't had that in a very long time. It was just one of those special moments where I went, "I want to do this. I want to make music. I want to share music. I want to live music." 

It started with a "meet Brandon Heath" incentive where you buy his latest CD "Blue Mountain," and you get an acoustic sessions CD as well as a meet and greet. (We didn't get to meet him. Security cut the line off about 30 people ahead of us. I was really, really sad!) So anyway, I bought the CD. 

Since then, two things have happened every single day in my life: 

I've woken up. 
I've listened to this CD. 

No joke. It's amazing. It's folk, country, modern, celtic, eerie, haunting, lovely, deep and amazing. If you haven't heard it, listen to it. Now. The song, "Dyin' Day," broke my heart. It's about a man on death row in prison. The entire song is just literally haunting. I would go into more details here, but I just can't. Talk to me in person or something, if you want the full story on this song. 

I also have become totally enthralled with learning the music on the album again. I actually got my guitar out again last week and started playing. I played guitar in church last week - if you were there, don't get used to it, lol. I'll leave the guitar skills to the experts, and stick to what I know (piano, vocals, violin, flute). Although I am very grateful for those of you who have approached me and said that you loved the song I chose, and the way that I played it. I cannot take credit alone - Paul and Kelton were very helpful! Currently, I know how to play piano, flute, clarinet, alto sax, guitar, violin, and drums. I'm not great at all of it, but I love to practice and improve. Practice makes progress! I was so inspired by all of the artists at this concert! (And, to my band - you're about to be inspired, because the entire song list we've got for this summer was from this concert, haha!)

Anyway, here are some pictures from that concert! We had the worst seats in the house (well, maybe not the worst... those were only 4 rows above us!), and paid a small fortune for them, but you'd never know it from the pictures! I love my 75-300 lens!

Capital Kings

They had a lot of electronic music!

Ryan Stevenson

Matt Maher!

Matt Maher and Brandon Heath!

Brandon Heath singing "Jesus in Disguise" (this
is now on the list for Shepherd's Praise this
summer - yup, my band is going to play it!)

"You are looking for a king you would never
recognize..."

I can't remember which song he did with Mandisa,
but it sounded so cool!

They really had amazing harmonies!

Acoustic and awesome!

Mandisa. That girl moves. I swear she did an
entire Zumba workout while she was performing!

I actually missed this next part, and Robert tried to keep
up with pictures for me. I was walking
the entire perimeter of the Key Arena venue
to find the Brandon Heath stand (and then all the
way back again), only to find out that the section
I needed was literally one over from the one
we were in. Sigh.

Matthew West!

Blurry, but rocking out!

Hehe. I included this one only because it
made me giggle!

Toby Mac & Diverse City!

His band was amazing! They had so much stamina!

Getting loud!

Toby. Dude cuts rugs like nobody's business.

Everyone was into it!

They were great!

Drum solo!

A SECOND stage!!!!

...a second stage WITH MATT MAHER! AHHH!!

Toby & Matt duet. Musical genius.

Mandisa joins Toby!

Mandisa hugs Toby!

Toby and his band kept going!

See the guy in the green cargo pants? He played
7 different instruments on stage. I counted.
I told Robert, "He plays a bunch of instruments
like I do!" He said, "Yes, but he plays brass." To
which I stared at him blankly and then said, "I want
to learn trumpet!" LOL

I loved the bright colored clothes. Made it easier
to keep track of 'em! They were everywhere, haha!

Moving!!!

Brass trio!

And just when we thought it couldn't get any
better...Toby busted out of his jacket to reveal....
his 12th man jersey.

Well done, Toby; well done. Seattle was thrilled to have you! 

At one point, Toby said, "You all know my wife. She's a Jamaican woman, and she can be....well, scary. Sometimes, things don't always go well. Sometimes, we argue and fight. We go to separate ends of the house. And you know what? She is always the first one to come crawling back to me! She finds me in the bedroom and gets down on her knees and says, 'TOBY! GET OUT FROM UNDER THE BED AND FIGHT LIKE A MAN!'" AHAHAHAAHHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAHAHA! I seriously laughed so hard, my sides hurt! He then introduced the song, "Hold On," which he wrote for his wife. Aww!

I love how all of the artists that were there were so real. It's what made the concert so great! 

I'll try to get part 2 blogged later this week, but for now, I'll say this: We had an amazing night out on the town after the concert, too! Pictures to come of our downtown adventures!

 

DIY House number

So, this was a project that had been on-going since September. Literally.


I saw an option to DIY house numbers from this Pinterest idea. It was inexpensive, easy, and it's beautiful!

We changed that original idea a little bit, to suit my plan (and where I wanted to hang it.)

Basically, I had a bunch of extra painting sticks that I had gotten from Home Depot. (That tends to happen when you go through about 20 gallons of paint to fix up your house!) We also had a little extra stain from the hardwood floors. I started staining the wood (4 pieces, cut in half), and finished over the course of about 2 weeks total. It was important to me to get a very dark stain on the wood, so I took the extra time to make sure it was done right.

Robert cut it for me, and made sure he knew how I wanted the numbers laid out.

After all the staining was done, I had him glue the wood together.

Again, it's slightly different than the original idea.

After the wood was glued and set, he was able to screw the numbers in securely!

He secured the boards on the house, and voila!





As you can see, it goes nicely with our lamp right outside the front door! We spent about $15-$20 on this project, since we used all leftover materials, except the numbers themselves. We're very pleased with how it turned out! (Also, none of my pictures are edited at all in this post!)

10 Months Old

I cannot even believe I'm posting this blog! My sweet little baby girl is 10 months old already?! Where has time gone?!

Truly, it's amazing to us how much she is growing and changing. Every time we take her to my work, my boss and my co-workers comment on how big she is getting, and how light her hair is! This last Wednesday, my dad and I took her in after KinderMusik to do Katie's Celebrity Walk (I'm part of my campus' Wellness Team, and there's a "Celebrity" walker each week who leads a lunchtime walk around the campus area). My boss walked up to Ellie, and said, "Well, hello there, little one! You are just adorable! I can't believe how big you are getting!" Of course Ellie scrunched up her little nose and did that breathing in and out super fast thing, and daintily picked up a puff from her tray. My boss said, "Oh, puffs. I'm very familiar with puffs!" (She has a two-year-old grandson, who just became a big brother this week). Ellie grinned. She said, "Precocious little thing, aren't you?" Ellie responded, "EEEEEEE!" Yup; she's definitely a smartey-pants!

Without further ado, here are some notables from Ellie Jo's 10th month!

• Sings when we sing the "la la" theme song from Gilmore Girls, and loves to listen to Liam and Alexis' piano lessons (Check out this video!) 

• Officially likes Sesame Street (it's seriously been a tie between that and Duck Dynasty), and recognizes the Sprout theme song when it comes on TV (although she started doing that about 2 months ago, now she literally stops what she's doing to watch TV when she hears it)
• Has said "Gah-Pah" (Grandpa) a few times for my dad and Robert's Dad! She has also said, "TA!" for my stepdad, but she (of course) does none of this on command
• Reaches for her puffs, and never misses. She sometimes misses her mouth, but always wants to find that missing puff! In fact, if I pick her up out of her Bumbo seat and she's dropped one, I have to find it and show her that I'm throwing it in the garbage and say, "All done," before she will quit fighting me to get out of my arms (is it too early to see signs of OCD in my baby?!)
• Has started pulling herself up on furniture (but still has zero interest in crawling). My mom and I were trying to get her to crawl the other day, and she put her hands and feet down, but absolutely refused to put her knees down!
• Stops what she's doing if I snap my fingers (smart girl - this will come in handy later!)
• Likes to FaceTime Grandpa and Skype Nana or Grandma during bathtime (and accidentally Skyped Paul and Daniel in the same night once without mommy knowing! Again - SMART GIRL! They both called back immediately - Daniel, being in Mexico - just to make sure everything was okay. Oh, sure. Just fine. My toddler decided to call around the world!)
• Can start motioning "Bringing Home a Baby Bumble Bee" and typically does it several times! 

Yup; she did it during our picture session!

And, here are her 10-month pictures! (I realize I'm posting this nearly 10 days late, but the actual pictures were taken on her 10-month "birthday.")

This first one is just for comparison sake for
her 1-month pictures - see the very next photo!

Look how much she has grown!! She is in the
same bouncy seat! (Also, the onesie she's wearing
in this picture is a NB size!) She was so tiny for
so long - look at what a big girl she is now!

She still bites her feet. Even with two teeth.

Folding hands, looking innocent.

Giggling at Daddy!

She was trying to remove her 10 months sticker.

This is fun, mommy!

She is such a happy girl!

She was pretty okay with pictures, as long as
we played her music on my laptop!

This is her, looking at my laptop, doing the splits. 

So, that's 10 months, in a nutshell! We just love this little girl to pieces!