Audrey at 1 YEAR!!!

Weight: She has her checkup in a few days.

Height: Same.

Clothing size: 12 months.

Cloth diaper booty in leggings is the bestttttttt. ;)

Diaper size: Cloth all day every day.

Feeding: Nursing 3 times/ day now. First thing in the morning, before afternoon nap, and before bedtime. I can tell she's taking less and less from me, as she eats more solids. I'm guessing we'll be completely done in a few weeks. FREEDOMMMMMMMMM!
ORANGES are by far her absolute favorite, along with frozen blueberries, broccoli (what?!), and as of tonight- baked ziti! She screams and kicks her feet to get more of all of these!

Devouring her first taste of baked ziti.

Sleeping: She boycotted her morning nap completely for a week straight, but has been doing about 30 minutes again the past few days, plus afternoon nap of about an hour. Sleeping roughly 6pm-6.30am.

Milestones: She finally got her top 2 teeth a few days ago. Going from crawling to sitting to crawling. Letting go with one hand while standing. "Talking" with a lot more sounds.

Likes: Music- she claps and smiles and is so cute!! Being outside. Destroying train tracks built by her brothers. ;) Playing with shoes-- she bypasses tons of toys anytime there are shoes in sight!!

 

Dislikes: Anyone holding her except Mommy... which makes it really hard sometimes, but is also really sweet. Getting her diaper changed.

Adventures: First St. Patty's Day. First birthday. Lots of family visiting.

What we couldn't live without: Bows! ;) Her hair is down past her nose, so she seriously needs one every day... And I'm loving making them lately!!

Best part of parenting this age: I am devastated that she's not a baby anymore, but it is so exciting to see who she's becoming. And always a relief to make it through the first year, and that she can now survive without my milk. ;)

Hardest part of parenting this age: I think just the acknowledgement that BABIES DON'T KEEP. I can't press pause or slow down this stage of life. She's seriously the sweetest baby, and I so wish I could keep her like this forever. Audrey, we adore you with our whole hearts.
 

Making Weekends Great Again...

Remember when you got to sleep in and hang out late with your friends and do whatever you wanted to on the weekends?? I think this was one of the most shocking parts of being a mom--there's NEVER a breakkkkkkkkk. Amiright?! Obviously kids are so worth it, but come on... #MamaNeedsABreak
My hubs works full-time and is getting his PHD, so he leaves the house to study every Saturday, and travels one weekend/ month for his doctorate program. So, being a stay-at-home mom, all the days just run together, and I just NEED the weekends in general to feel different from the rest of the week. So, thanks to a Facebook poll, I came up with some great ideas, and have been implementing them for the last month. And let me tell you- it's already a GAME CHANGER. I'm already looking forward to my next weekend, which never used to be the case. Here's all I did...

1. Took turns sleeping in with the hubs. Sleeping in was my biggest weekend tradition before kids. ;) After birthing & breastfeeding 3 babies in 3 years, I am sufficiently sleep-deprived, so this was the biggest one for me. I sleep in on Saturday (crawling back into bed after nursing my bottle-hating baby at 6am), and the hubs gets the kids up, dressed, and fed. It feels like Christmas morning to sleep til 8am. Then he sleeps in on Sunday. Genius. Why have I never thought of that?! #thanksfacebookmom

2. "Dad-urday" was the term a friend used, and I loved it! Andrew has occasionally watched the kids for a couple hours on Saturdays over the years to give me a break, but never super consistently, and I usually still have the baby. This weekend, he watched all 3 in the morning for a couple hours, and then went to study at lunchtime. HUGE. I totally just hid in our bedroom and made hairbows for Audrey, because bows are my happy place. ;) Other times I've walked around Target and then read in their coffee shop, which has been heavenly. The point is, usually by naptime, I'm so exhausted from meeting three little people's needs for 7 hours straight, I can't even sit up straight. So having a break in the morning is awesome.

3. No cooking on Sunday. Some days all I feel like I do is cook, feed people, clean up, repeat. Even when we have leftovers at night, I still usually cook Andrew's beloved turkey sausage for breakfast the next day, or muffins for the boys, or granola ball snacks for the week, or something! So not cooking anything for a WHOLE DAY neverrrrrrrr happens. Until now. And it is glorious. No cooking, no cleaning up... And I think I'm going to start a tradition of "breakfast for dinner" every Sunday night. I could eat breakfast 3 meals a day, and we always have eggs, sausage, muffins, etc. on hand. Pull them out, cut up some fruit, and call it done. THE BEST.


Y'all. This has seriously changed my life, and I am so not even exaggerating.  We've tried other things too, but these three are by far the best changes we've made.  #MakeWeekendsGreatAgain

Tell me your tips and tricks!!!