Melody was five months old on October 25! Time sure is flying by! Check out some of her pictures below!
Pumpkin Patch
My best friend and I decided we wanted to take our babies to the pumpkin patch this year. Sure, they aren't really old enough to remember it or do much, but you can say that about almost everything we do with a 5 month old! Luckily with all of our crazy schedules, we were able to find a weekend we could go.
Melody's Four Month Schedule
When Melody was 3.5 months old, we removed one more of her bottles. She is now taking only four bottles a day. We are still getting our pediatricians recommended amount of formula, but Melody is going longer between bottles and taking larger bottles. The schedule isn't dramatically different from her three month schedule, but we had to change the times up in order to remove a bottle.
Halloween Happy
Brad's family loves to give little "happies" for just about any occasion. It can be a happy for a hostess that lets you stay at their house (think cookies or a cute coffee mug with hot cocoa), or it can be something cute and small for a holiday. Halloween is our first really good holiday to give Melody a small happy.
Hotel Stay with an Infant
Recently, Melody and I went on a trip with my mom to South Carolina. We wanted to stay at a Hilton to get points, so we investigated different options. I knew staying in a hotel room with an infant was going to be different and possibly a struggle. We narrowed it down to Home2 Suites and Hampton Inn. Because we knew we would be spending a lot of time at the hotel during the day, we opted for the Hampton Inn because it had an indoor pool (which we never ended up using sadly). The Home2 Suites did have a full kitchen, but the room itself was going to be smaller than the Queen Suite at the Hampton Inn. The Hampton Inn was also fairly new, and it had the necessities. Below are some tips and tricks I discovered helped us while staying in small quarters with a baby!
Why We Love Disney World
So Brad came up with a fun idea for each of our blogs. Once a month, we are going to each write about a topic. Each month alternates who comes up with the topic. We will not read each other's post until they are live! Brad was up first this month. He picked the title "Why We Love Disney World". You can check out his post over at his blog!
Melody's 3 Month Formal Pictures
We had some professional pictures made of Melody when she turned 3 months old. Below are some of the proofs we got back! She had a meltdown during the session, but I don't think you can even tell!
DIY Infant Tutu
For the Alabama/Ole Miss football game, Brad and I agreed Melody should wear a "house divided" outfit. I designed a onesie, and she had some red pants. But I thought a tutu would be perfect. So I made my own so that it could also be "house divided". My best friend and I also have made tutus for all the holidays to wear with cute onesies we are making the babies! Check it out below!
Melody's Four Month Pictures
Melody turned four months only on September 25th! Check out her pictures below!
DIY Headband Holder
Melody has a TON of headbands. When we first find out we were having a girl, all I could think about was how I wanted cute headbands. I bought quite a few myself, but my cousin gave me a bunch of hand-me-downs too from her little girl. So I needed a way to store all these cute headbands. Check out what I did below!
Melody's Three Month (Transitional) Schedule
So for about 2 or 3 weeks, we decided to slowly get rid of one of Melody's bottles. She was taking six bottles on her two month schedule, but one of those bottles, she barely would take an ounce or two (11 a.m.). We took this as a sign that she needed to be reduced down to five bottles. We did this by increasing the amounts of those new five bottles. We call this a transitional schedule because when she was 3.5 months old, we went down to four bottles! I will write about that later though!
Traveling with a Baby
So I did not want to make this post a "tips" post because what works for Brad and me will not necessarily work for everyone else. However, we have found a few things that does work for us when we travel with Melody. We have only taken three 'big' trips: two to Memphis (approximately 3.5 hours away) and one to Gulf Shores (approximately 6 hours away). Each trip seems to go easier than the last. I am sure as she continues to get older, we will have to tweak things.
Pixelmator Tips
I use Pixelmator for all of my "main images" on my blog as well as other images I create. For instance, I created my website logo using it, my husband's blog logo, and numerous iron-ons for some DIY shirts (Birthday Shirt and Disney Shirt). We spent approximately $15-$20 2 years ago on it. I would say we have definitely gotten our money's worth. I also have the iPad/iPhone versions as well. I believe that cost around $10. Since my husband and I have family iCloud on our devices, we were able to also share the use of Pixelmator on ALL of our devices (including our Macs).
Spicy Lemon Baked Chicken
I rarely just come up with a recipe all on my own, but one day last week I decided to do just that. We had two chicken breasts, and our original intent was to grill them. However, I decided I really wanted some form of baked chicken. Below is the recipe and instruction. Brad said this chicken has a kick to it, especially after a minute or two after eating it. You can see for yourself however!
0-4 Month Toys
So I find 0-4 months to be a boring age for toys. I struggle to find fun things that Melody also enjoys. I also hate to buy a bunch of toys that we will never use. With that said, I decided to create a list of Melody's favorite toys right now. Granted she is only 3.5 months old, these are still toys she has enjoyed since she was a mere few weeks old.
DIY Birthday Shirt
So for Brad's birthday, I wanted Melody to wear some sort of "Happy Birthday" shirt for her daddy. However, with babies (and kids in general), they grow SO fast. I knew that even if I bought her a generic "Happy Birthday!" onesie, it would be unlikely that she could wear it for my birthday...5 months later. It really wasn't worth the $20 that it would cost to buy one from someone online. I decided to make my own.
Baby Shower Napkin Rings
For my best friend's baby shower, I wanted to do something with the utensils and napkins to make it easier for guests when they are getting their plates. I decide to make napkin rings so that everything was easy to pick up all at once. Check it out below!
Melody's First Beach Trip
We took Melody on her first beach trip back in August.
She handled the drive down to Gulf Shores just fine!