Project 5 White Onesies ~ Fabric Flower

Last Friday, a friend of mine gave me a 5 pack of plain white Gerber Onesies. I am so excited, because I have had several ideas of things to do with onesies, but never went out to buy them. If you know me, you know I am a pseudo crafter. I'd love to be really creative, but I'm only kinda creative. Since I had the free onesies just handed to me, I have no excuse but to let my creativity come out! So, I decided to share my projects! I figure if I can complete these projects successfully, anyone can!

Project One ~ Fabric Flower

I started this project out by just making the fabric flower using this tutorial. I repurposed one of Tessa's onesies that no longer fits (another side thing I'm trying to do is repurpose some of her old clothes). I actually started this flower planning to make it into a headband decoration with a couple of solid pink flowers. Once I finished it, I changed my mind and decided to sew it onto one of the onesies. I think I'll make a few more flowers for a headband to go with this outfit! They were super easy and fast!

I hand stitched the stem using a loop stitch. (I don't remember the technical name for this stitch.) I just free-handed it. If I do one of these again, I'll draw some sort of line to follow. I ran a simple stitch around the neckline, but the perfectionist in me just couldn't handle any more non-uniform stitches! It looked really cute, but I took it out anyway.

My Muse

Tessa is starting to sit on her own! Way to go Baby Girl!

Our Weekend in Pictures

FRIDAY:
Mommy and Me Workout

Movie Night with the Baby Mamas

SATURDAY:
La Jolla with Daddy

Balboa Park Dance Festival with the Kilbride boys

SUNDAY:
Balboa Park Dance Festival with the Baby Mamas

Hope you all had a great weekend too!

Five Months!

Tessa, you are now five months old (and one day)! I can’t believe how much you are learning and how quickly you are growing! Here’s what you’ve been up to this month:
• You are 15 pounds and 26 inches long. You’re our growing girl!
• You are wearing size 3-6 month clothing and a size 2 diaper. You are starting to outgrow your 3-6 month jammies, and have to wear size 6 months.
• You love to talk, sometime shouting! You seem to think that church is a conversation between you and the pastor! You spend most of the time talking! Luckily we’re in the nursing mom’s room, so everyone thinks you’re the cutest thing!

• You have started to reach out for others to hold you! That is a big step for you, little mama’s girl.
• You are constantly grabbing Mommy’s cup and suck on the bottom rim. You especially love my venti iced Starbucks drinks!
• You love to roll! Your naps are often interrupted by you rolling onto your tummy and burying your face into the bed.

• You are sitting on your own for several seconds at a time. I know it is only a matter of days before you are an official sitter!
• We play peek-a-boo with your blankie, and you try to play peek-a-boo with your toys!

• You started making a pppppt squeaky noise. I’m trying to get a recording of it, but every time I get out my phone, you stop what you’re doing to try and grab my phone.
• You are a little girly girl! You love wearing dresses and hair bows!

Mommy and Daddy love you so much sweet Tessa. We are so blessed to have you in our lives!

Back in our Groove

Finally back at home, Tessa and I are trying to get back into the swing of things. We went to baby sign language story time at the library this morning. Our friends Amy and Jonas were there! Tessa isn’t signing anything, but we are practicing every day. She loves to watch the other kids and parents at story time!
Tessa and Jonas playing after story time

Ryan came home tonight! There’s a big dance festival in Balboa Park this weekend, so hopefully we’ll get a chance to go see some great performances!

A Life Well Lived

Today was a very special day. We celebrated the extraordinary life of Brandon Pentz. There was an estimated total of around 1,500 to 2,000 people gathered together to mourn the loss of and celebrate the life of Brandon with the Pentz family. I keep writing and rewriting this post, as I don’t know how to put this whole experience into words. I think I’ll just share my favorite moment of the service. Brandon’s Uncle Vic was one of the speakers, and he talked about the family. He said that Brandon would have been the last man in the Pentz family to pass down the family name. Uncle Vic said that once God created the best version of the Pentz man, He retired their jersey. I thought that was a really nice way to think about Brandon.

Please pray for the Pentz family as they grieve. Here is a link to Brandon’s obituary in the Press Enterprise. I think it is a nice snapshot of Brandon’s life. I wish you all had the opportunity to know this amazing, loving person. Just know that this world is a better place because of Brandon. He is greatly loved and will be terribly missed.

Weekend with the Baby Mamas!

That’s the name of my moms group, The Baby Mamas of San Diego! We had a busy and fun weekend together! Friday was our weekly workout. Gina sure got us sweating! I love incorporating Tessa into my workouts! It makes it all so much more rewarding.

Saturday we had a Meet the Daddies BBQ. It was so fun to hang out as complete families, mom, dad, and baby! There are so many fun moms in our group, and it was great to meet the dads who complete these families.

Sunday afternoon, we went to a musikgarten demo class. It was a great time to sing, move, and play rhythm instruments with Tessa. She seemed to really like it! Unfortunately, I don’t know if we’ll sign up for the classes. We are going to be busy almost every Sunday in September, and the classes are on Sunday afternoons. Plus, because I'm staying home this year, we can't afford to do everything. It’s hard to choose what to do with Tessa because I want her to experience everything! This will probably have to be one of those things we have to pass on, though.

Sunday night, Tessa and I drove up to my mom and dad’s. Robbie and Cameron started school today and my parents hold a Back to School dinner for the boys every year. Usually I’m already back to work, but this year Tessa and I were finally able to join in the fun!

Cameron started third grade, and I’m super excited about that! Of course that is my favorite grade level! I hope to be able to spend some time with him throughout the year, tutoring as needed, and encouraging him along the way!

Robbie started sixth grade today!! I can’t believe he is already in sixth grade! He is really growing up to be a fantastic kid, and smart, too! He takes after his Aunt Krista!

Laughing Tessa ~ A video for the grandmas!

...and everyone else who loves Tessa!
Tessa has started to really laugh good laughs! I caught a little on video, but the angle isn't good because if she knew I was taping her, she'd get very serious and stare at the camera! Enjoy!

Movie Day

Tessa and I had another really busy day! I like to keep busy because I feel like Tessa has more learning opportunities when we go out, and I really like for her to spend a little time with people other than just Mommy! This morning, I had an appointment with my new doctor’s office. I was pretty impressed. The time it took Tessa and I to leave our apartment to the time we were back on the road, headed home was only 45 minutes! And we stopped at Starbucks during that time! If today’s visit was any indication of how efficient my new health care team is, I’ll be very happy!

When we got home, Bethany was still here. A family friend is in the hospital in Escondido, so Bethany stayed over last night. (Hence the stop at Starbucks!) Tessa loves her Aunt Bee, so when Bethany left, Tessa was really excited and not ready for a nap AT ALL! She and I played for awhile, and she is loving tummy time so much nowadays, so I wanted to shoot a video for Ryan. As soon as I turned on the camera, Tessa decided to roll over, so, here’s the video I got:

She’s growing so quickly! **I'm having trouble uploading the video, so if it gives an error message, sorry!

This afternoon, my Baby Mamas group met up in Carmel Mountain to see Eat, Pray, Love. It was a pretty good movie, but I heard that the book is way better. No surprise there. When is the book NOT way better! After the movie, a few of us walked over to Dairy Queen. I haven’t been to a DQ in so long! I don’t even remember the last time! Maybe 8 or 9 years ago? Tessa was pretty tired by then, but that didn’t stop us from an impromptu photo shoot! This is the only shot Ashley (our resident photographer) got of T, because she was not her smiley self. Look at her sitting up so well! That is a big-girl high chair that she’s sitting in!

Tomorrow we were invited to a play group at the beach. I’m still deciding if I want to take Tessa. I kinda would like Ryan to be with us the first time we go to the beach. Maybe we can go as a family on Friday or Saturday. We’ll see.

On Monday, I mentioned that Tessa wore her party dress for Scotland’s birth day, but realized the picture I posted didn’t show her adorable dress at all! Here are a couple of shots of Tessa in her party dress playing on her Boppy:


Ryan comes home tomorrow night! Yea! He has two very excited ladies waiting for him!!

Museum Day with the Baby Mamas

My Baby Mamas group met up at Balboa Park today for Free Museum Tuesday. Every Tuesday, several museums are free for San Diego County residents, so we decided to take advantage while our babies are easily managed, and not running around like toddlers! Today the San Diego Museum of Art and the Museum of Man were two of the free museums. A group of almost 15 moms met up and enjoyed the fine art our art museum has to offer. There, of course, isn’t stroller parking at the museum, but we arranged a place where we could leave our strollers and wear our babies around the museum. I guess some other moms liked this idea, because when we were leaving, several others had parked their strollers with ours! I wish I had a picture of all the strollers. It was quite a sight!
Tessa napping while I enjoy the art

After the art museum, a bunch of us went to lunch at the courtyard just outside of the museum. We spent several hours chatting and planning more events. San Diego has so much to offer families!

Once everyone went our separate ways to head home, Tessa and I headed to the Museum of Man. She was napping, so I seized the opportunity. I’ve only been to this museum with my third graders, so I was really able to enjoy it in a very different way! They have an exhibit about board games right now. I learned a lot of trivia, but my favorite tidbit was that Chinese Checkers is actually a German game. When it was brought over to the US, they changed the name to make the game sound exotic!
I didn’t get any pictures of the Museum of Man, but here’s a pic from Google images. Isn’t it a beautiful building! Balboa Park always takes my breath away!

Welcome Baby Scottie!

Today was a very special day for the Lopez family! Ryan’s sister, Molli, and her husband, Jesse, had their baby! After 41 weeks in the oven and 33 hours of labor, sweet little Scotland Charles David Thomason was welcomed into our world at 2:16 this afternoon, weighing in at 7 lbs, 10 oz. Oh how I wanted to be there to hear his first coos, smell his sweet little head, and snuggle the newest gift to our family! Tessa and I celebrated together down here in San Diego. She dressed in her party dress and sent birthday wishes to her new cousin from afar. I’m aching inside to meet the little guy, and don’t know how long we’ll last in San Diego. I feel an impromptu trip to Ventura in our near future!

Our Weekend with Daddy

Ryan drove home this weekend, so our time together was shortened, due to the looooong drive. Today was a low key, laid back, family day. Ryan took Tessa out for what has become my favorite part of every weekend - a two hour Daddy~Daughter walk. I look forward to Saturday mornings because Ryan takes Tessa and gives me one or two hours of completely restful, uninterrupted sleep! Plus, he usually comes back with either Starbucks, a doughnut, or a breakfast burrito for me!

Ryan wanted to take his girls out to lunch, so we went to Applebee's for their 2 meals for $20 deal. I enjoyed a skinny margarita with my lunch. It was pretty good! I think the main difference is they probably use sweetener instead of sugar in the margarita mix.
Ryan and Tessa at lunch (I was playing with Picnik tonight!)

Today was the first Chargers game of the season! It's only pre-season, but I was still super excited to kick off Tessa's first football season! Unfortunately, since the game was not sold out, it was blacked out and didn't air until 9:30 pm - way past Tessa's bedtime! Nevertheless, after her bath, we put her in her jammies and the Chargers tutu that I made for her, and took some pictures to mark the occasion. She loved the tutu! She loves experiencing different textures right now, so she loved playing with and trying to eat the tulle.

It's hard to believe how much she's grown since I took the pictures of her in her Padres tutu!

My Cutie Tessa

Tessa and I have been keeping ourselves very busy this week. Yesterday we went to our monthly picnic in La Jolla with our moms group. It was a pretty cold day, so I took a quick picture of Tessa in her cute summer outfit, then wrapped her in a blanket for almost the rest of the day!

Last night, Bethany came down and she and I took Tessa to Balboa Park to watch the City Ballet perform at the Twilight in the Park Summer Concert Series. It was a nice evening out for the three of us, but it got pretty chilly, so I put Tessa in her adorable jacket that Julia and Joe gave her. Doesn’t she look like a little snow bunny! I can’t wait for the summer concert series next summer, when Tessa can move around to the music and enjoy herself a little more!

This morning, Tessa and I went to our Mommy and Me workout. We switched from yoga to a full-on workout session now. I love it! Here's the obligatory group shot of all the babies! Tessa wasn't too happy because she had just been dozing off when I put her down for the pic! Are you all starting to recognize some of our baby friends by now?!

Finally, Tessa and I have been playing peek-a-boo with her security blanket, with the hope that she’ll make a connection with it and be comforted at night when she wakes up and I am not with her. Anyway, she LOVES peek-a-boo and laughs every time we play.

This morning, she was in her swing and I was in the rocker reading, when I heard her laughing. I looked over, and she was playing peek-a-boo with the mobile that hangs above her swing! She looked so adorable, holding the blanket over her face, then pulling it away and laughing at the little bugs that hang from her mobile! I tried to get a video of her, but as soon as I got out the camera, she wouldn't play anymore. I’ll have to learn how to be more stealth with the camera so I can get some candid shots and videos of my sweet baby T! Here's the video I ended up with. I'm mostly posting it for Grammie and Naunie to get a short peek of their sweet little granddaughter and hear her little squeal of joy!

We call peek-a-boo "Where's the Baby?" or "Where's Mommy?" or "Where's Tessa?"

We've got a really busy week ahead, packed with activities with our moms group, plus a visit from Sarah and the boys! Yea!

* We're also expecting a very special arrival any day now... Tessa's cousin was due last Monday, but is taking his time making his debut. We're all anxiously awaiting this next little bundle of joy!

Baby Sign Language & Video of Miss T!

Tessa and I went to a baby sign storytime today at the library. I was a little hesitant, thinking Tessa was too young, but last night I listened to the New Moms, New Babies episode about baby sign language, and the guest was the lady who does the storytime we went to! On the podcast, she said she started signing with her second child right after birth, so I figured Tessa should be just fine. I was right, she LOVED it! There were about 15 - 20 other kids there, so lots of people for Tessa to look at. She liked the music and the stories. I tried to do as many signs for her as I could. We'll definitely be going back!

After listening to the podcast, I got pretty excited about starting sign with Tessa, and compiled a list of words I'm going to gradually introduce to her. I thought of 13 words so far, but need to whittle it down to just a few to start with. I'd love suggestions of words I should introduce, so if you have any suggestions, please let me know! Here are the words I'm going to start with: milk, sleepy, diaper, dance, sing, dolphin, book, car, walk, outdoors, more, done, and swing. I want to mix up some daily routine signs with some fun things signs. The theme at storytime today was animals, so we learned some animal signs. I'm excited to see how long it takes Tessa to pick some of these signs up and start using them herself! You can bet I'll video tape her once she starts signing, and share it with all of you!

When we left the library, Tessa and I walked over to Cupcakes Squared for a little snack. I ordered a vanilla chai cupcake. It was only OK, but not worth the calories I consumed. That's too bad, because this cupcake bakery has received good reviews.


If you saw my Facebook update last night, I made some roasted red bell pepper hummus. I must say, it is delicious! I was snacking on some today, and Tessa has recently started showing interest in food, so I let her try a taste! This isn't the first time she's tasted hummus. I gave her a taste of my super spicy hummus a couple of weeks ago, and my roasted garlic hummus last week. This is the first time I taped her reaction, and the first flavor she seems to like! Here's a short video of her trying Mommy's hummus:

Our Day at Balboa Park

I took Tessa to Balboa Park today just to get out of the house and enjoy the beautiful weather! We spent several hours walking around and taking pictures. I took her to the Timken Museum of Art since it has free admission. I held her in her Ergo so she could look at the pictures. She really seemed to enjoy looking at them! We only got to see half of the museum because she started to get hungry. I told her as much as I could about each painting or piece of art to develop that little growing brain of hers!


Afterward, we got out the picnic blanket and relaxed on the lawn outside of the Botanical Building. There was a man playing the sax, so we enjoyed the live music while we hung out. Tessa rolled over from her back to her tummy and spent some tummy time by her own will! She usually HATES tummy time, but she didn’t fuss a bit! When she was done, she rolled herself back over! She makes me so proud, even though she rolled partially off our blanket!
As you can see, she's a drool monster!

While we were in Balboa Park, I wanted to take pictures of some of the significant places in the park. There are so many beautiful spots, and with it being just the two of us, the pictures are mostly of Tessa in her stroller! That’s OK. We have plenty of future trips to Balboa Park ahead of us!

Fountain in front of the Natural History Museum
• I take a picture of my class at this fountain every year, and since Tessa is my only student this year, I decided to get a picture of her!

The Prado and Organ Pavilion
• Ryan and I celebrated our 6 month dating anniversary here. We have pictures of each of us at the pavilion from that day as well as some of our Save the Date pictures. I think it is one of the most beautiful structures in all of San Diego!

Botanical Building and Lily Pond