Ella tiene tres meses.

Today Nora turned 3 months old. A quarter of a year... practically a quarter of a century. Our little lady is most definitely still a little lady, but she's growing faster than we can keep track of. I swear each time she wakes us she's 4 pounds heavier and an inch larger. (Neither of those are true, but it sure seems that way.) Unfortunately we have to wait to go back to the doctor's office until her 4-month check-up, so we don't have new weights or lengths.

Here are the treasures:

This month was a pretty big one for her, although I'm sure the past 2 months and next 18 or so all will be big ones because as my mom says, "She changes so much so quickly." (This is also her excuse of why she needs to have "Nora-fixes" so often.) She really is changing and growing. Until about a week ago, she was sleeping all of her naps and at night swaddled. We decided to pull the plug last weekend for good. It took her about 2 nights of laying awake too long while letting us all know that she was uncomfortable, and then she settled into the new pattern, and I'm sure she would never want to go back. As I'm typing this, she's snoozing away in her crib -- arms free, legs free.

I think I might be the only mom ever that doesn't wake their baby up at 11 or so for a feeding and then have her sleep until morning. I do the opposite. I put her down at 6 or 7 and then let her wake up between 2-4 am to eat, and then she sleeps until morning. It didn't make sense for me with my job to do the other. I had to be up at 5 am, so I needed to go to bed around 8:30, which meant that feeding her at 11 was just inconvenient all around. Nevertheless, when people ask me if she sleeps through the night, I can say "Yes, she does." Because she sleeps from 6 until her morning feeding, and then promptly falls back asleep until 6 or 7 am. She's a great nighttime sleeper and always has been. Her naps, however, leave much to be desired. She has a hard time passing through from one REM cycle to the next, so she often wakes up crying at 40-45 minutes and has a hard time going back to sleep. Every once in a blue moon (maybe once a week) she randomly makes it through and sleeps a solid 2 hours. Yesterday afternoon was a prime example of this: we put her down for a nap, I decided I would let her cry it out at 45 minutes and put herself back to sleep, and then she just slept right through for 2 1/2 hours with no mid-cycle wake. Today was not the case though. But you can't have it all, right?! I'm just so thankful for her brilliant nighttime sleeping skills.

This month she also experienced her first cold. Luckily it only lasted about a day and a half and was just a stuffy/runny nose. But poor little girl, she just broke my heart with her misery. Who am I kidding - she didn't feel well, but still gave out just as many smiles. She just knew she wasn't feeling right and couldn't figure out why... but that didn't stop her from trying to enjoy herself.

She's getting close to rolling over from her back to her front. She's quite the squirmer when she's lying on her playmat. She has rolled over accidentally from her front to her back probably 5 times or so, but mostly because she forgets to put her hips down on the floor when she's on her tummy and flops over.

We start our cloth diapers this week - so we'll see how that goes. Hopefully they are a huge success, because they were quite the investment of money and time, and we really don't have a back-up plan. We decided, after the last huge box of Pampers, we were done buying disposable diapers and we are ready to move to the cloth. I finished a few up today during her naps and tomorrow I will finish up the rest; then I will wash them all, test how long they take to dry, and hopefully by Friday she will be one eco-friendly baby!

That's all the Nora-news for now. As of this week, I am a stay-at-home-mom for a few months, so I should have more time for crafting, pictures, etc. which means more blog updates! (Finally - I know right?!)

Coming soon: Nursery Reveal (better late than never?), One Year Later, and Being Candid

5 am.

Whoops, I was supposed to have announced a giveaway winner by now. Sorry for those of you who have been sitting on pins and needles waiting to see if it was you. [Was there anyone that anxious?]

Drum roll please... and the winners of my first-ever giveaway, featuring Blake Mycoskie's Start Something That Matters, are:


Liz, from Here's to Handy Andy
and
Robin, from Couponing from FL to MI

Congratulations! Send me your address ladies, and I will get those books right out to you. :]

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A few months ago, I remember telling God that under no circumstances would I be accepting a teaching job in which I was going to have to wake up during the morning 5 o'clock hour. Since schools in Chicago start at 9 am, with most teachers rolling in around 8:30, I thought it wouldn't be a problem.

I guess I should have been a little more specific with my request demand... I meant I didn't want to wake up that each for any job; not just an early morning teaching job.

But alas, you will find my alarm going off every weekday during that most awful hour. And yes, it has gotten easier, and yes, I am used to it, but I cannot wait for the day that my next/better/eventual job lets me sleep in until at least 6 am.

Reasons anyone should be up before 6 am:
- You have an early morning flight to an awesome destination and booked your flight so early out of excitement, not necessity.
- It's Christmas. [I can totally get on board with this one. Feel free to wake me up at any hour if it means the celebration starts earlier!]
- You voluntarily stayed up all night and are now on your last few hours of that all-nighter, after which you will sleep until 6 pm.

That's it folks. Those are the only good reason to be up that early.

...and yet, 5:25, I'll see you in the morning. [And probably again on Saturday because the 5 o'clock hour has the ability to haunt me like that.]