July GBOMB

Good

• Ben had a week off at the beginning of the month and we snatched up the time and did as much as we could! Some of our friends were in Phoenix for a summer job so we went down to visit them for the 4th of July. We seriously had so much fun. One of our friends was born on the 4th so Ben and I made a pinata for the occasion (picture’s below!). I got to go to a yoga class with her too. We also went mini golfing, spent lots of time in the pool (Phoenix is HOT) and lucked out with THE best seats for fireworks. It was a blast!
• In that same week we drove over to visit some other friends in Albuquerque. We did a ton of fun stuff there but I think one of our faves (besides visiting friends, obvs) was going to the zoo! You could get super close to the flamingoes and the elephants were soooooo cute!!! We loved it and I’m hoping we can go back in October for the famous Albuquerque hot air balloon festival!
• As far as momming goes, this past month has probably been one of my favorites to date! Wendy is seriously growing in leaps and bounds (not physically…ha!). This month she’s become the speediest scoocher. She can’t crawl, but boy, does she move! I also feel like we see more of her personality every day. She is such a sweetheart and such a tease! One silly thing she does occasionally is ignore us! Ha! We’ll say, “Wendy, Wendy.” And she won’t make eye contact but she’ll get the biggest grin on her face. I know it is so cliche to say but I am so lucky to be this sweet girl’s mom. I love watching her grow. She’s also got 2 teeth now–her little bottom ones!
• So Wendy’s weight might not be going up a ton, BUT we saw her specialists yesterday and they were thrilled with how she’s doing! Phew! Just a bit of numbers for you: Most babies gain 6-11 grams per day. Before we took Wendy in she was averaging 2-3 grams per day. But for the past month and half (since we started taking her to the specialists), she’s been gaining more than 13 grams per day. She’s still in the “less than 1st percentile” BUT she’s gaining above average! To say I’m relieved is such an understatement!
• Ben’s been a bit more busy this month but we still see him so much more than during the regular school year and we love it!

Blah

(I’m officially changing this bullet point to ‘Blah.’ After all these months ‘Bad’ still just seems too harsh.)

• Ben has one more break before school starts in August and we have quite a few fun things planned for that break BUT we aren’t planning to go North to visit family and that bums me out. We had such a good time in May, I wish we could just go back and redo it!
• Flagstaff has a Monsoon Season and we are in it! It rains every. single. day. Truthfully, I don’t HATE it. I mean, it really cools things down. But it seems like every time we go for a walk in the evening, we get a few blocks away then the rain starts and we immediately look like bad parents. Oops.
• I was in a weird reading funk for a few weeks. Everything I picked up I just couldn’t get into and ended up putting them aside (permanently) after reading only a couple of pages. But I did some searching and came back from my last trip to the library with a stack that I’m really excited about.

On My Brain

• I’ve been watching a healthy amount of Project Runway this month and loving it. Watching that show always gets me wanting to get more into sewing clothes…but then I remember that I don’t have a serger and I don’t really have space for it, to say nothing of the money…but it’s still fun to dream and map out clothing construction.
• I sometimes feel like the vibe parenting has these day is a little too…obsessive? Scientific? Damning? I don’t know but I was recently linked to this blog post on a mother-of-7’s view of parenting and it was so hilarious and fresh and practical and I knew I needed to share. I found myself nodding to basically every bullet point.
• I sometimes think of doing a product post because I think those are really fun. But then I remember that I’m totally stingy. I wouldn’t be able to fill a post with fun, girly products that I’ve just been loving because I don’t buy fun, girly products basically ever. The one thing I could probably do a products post on is food because yum. But basically I just wanted to share my new favorite ice cream brand: Private Selection. It is seriously so SO good. Like “Where have you been all my life?” kind of good. So if you have it at your store, give it a try! We’ve tried lots of flavors and they are all spot on, but my personal fave is the Sea Salt Caramel Truffle.