Friday Favorites

A few bloggers I follow list things they’re loving every week. I thought it was a great idea. So, here’s my first “Friday Favorites.”

1. Trader Joe’s Natural Facial Cleansing Pads

One of my best friends introduced these to me on our annual girls’ lake weekend. I have recently been trying to use more natural products, while combating acne. (Seriously, I thought that was supposed to end after high school). These cleansing pads are great! They leave your skin a little tingly but overall clean well and work. Tea Tree Oil is great for fighting blemishes and all sorts of acne.

2. Thayer’s Original Witch Hazel

Another skin care favorite, my sister-in-law said she started using witch hazel on her face and loved it. I immediately bought some and have to agree. It is soothing, minimizes pores, feels amazing.

3. Enlightened Ice Cream

Switching gears, I cannot get enough of this ice cream! I’m currently loving the “Triple Chocolate” flavor, but I also love the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. Those are the only two flavors I’ve tried (creature of habit), but I will venture out to other flavors because these are seriously amazing! They have more protein than normal ice cream and have fewer calories. I’ve definitely eaten a whole pint in one sitting. The Triple Chocolate has gooey fudge swirls that actually taste like fudge. Yum! I found it to be creamier than competitor Halo Top.

4. WubbaNub

Bennett doesn’t use his pacifiers a ton, but he does like them if he isn’t feeling 100%, needs to calm down, or is a little scared, like after shots or when falling asleep. We both loved the stuffed animal attached. Makes finding it under the crib 10000000x easier. The stuffed animal also becomes Bennett’s friend at night. I’m often watching him on the video baby monitor as he holds his elephant over his head “talking” to him. I imagine he’s sharing all about his day to his bestie before falling asleep. It is adorable!

 

Those are my current favorites this Friday.

Bennett is Four Months

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Bennett turned 4 months yesterday. He celebrated by sleeping 11 hours straight! He is in the 69% for weight and the 98% for height. He likes ceiling fans, trying to hold his bottle, changing tables, and his room. He dislikes baths, being hot, staying still. #BennettWilliamRacine #4monthsold

A post shared by Ingrid Racine (@ifracine) on May 30, 2017 at 7:08am PDT

 

This is the first month I’m a stay at home mom. So far, it’s amazing. I love being there for Bennett all the time. I love seeing him grow and learn every single day.

This month is also sadly, the first month I’m not breastfeeding. Honestly, it is so freeing. Not having the stress and feeling like a failure is great. I miss the bond. I miss providing the best nutrition for my baby (you can’t replicate those antibodies). I miss the feeling of success when I pumped a bottle. I miss B falling asleep nursing. I do not miss late night feedings.

Typical Day:

7 am wake up & bottle

9 am nap for Ingrid & Bennett in B’s room

10 am – 6 pm bottles on demand, naps every 1.5 – two hours

6:30 pm put Bennett down

7 pm dinner & Ingrid & Jimmy hang out time

9:30 pm bed – Jimmy in B’s room, Ingrid in the master

midnight-Jimmy gives Bennett a bottle

4 am (or whenever Bennett wakes up for his next feeding) – Jimmy gets Ingrid and they swap rooms; Ingrid gives B a bottle

4 am – 7 am Ingrid & B try to sleep in B’s room

 Monthly Questionnaire

Age: 4 months

Weight: 16.5 lbs

Length: 26.75″

Size: 6 months and some 9 months

Eyes: blue

Hair: light brown

Sleeping: slept through the night (11 hours straight!) he sleeps in his crib in his “spacesuit” (Baby Merlin’s Magic Sleep Suit)

Eating: formula bottles: 4 oz each feeding

Milestones: 1) slept through the night!

Memorable outings: First time at the cottage/first time on a boat

Likes: ceiling fans, his changing table, loves his room

Dislikes: baths, staying still, his monthly tie stickers

Words/sounds: “a” “ahh” “ohhh”

Nicknames: “Little Man,” “Benny,” “Mr. Ahgoo, “B”

Interesting Facts: first month of all day everyday Mommy & Bennett time

Funny moments: I had my friends over – B tried so hard to stay up and hang out, but he just couldn’t make it. He fell asleep sitting up on Sarah’s lap.

Looking forward to: more sleep; his first beach trip (next month)

Photos from Bennett’s Fourth Month:

Click for more photos

Natural Nursery Tour

The moment I found out I was pregnant, I knew I wanted a calming, neutral nursery with pops of blue or pink (boy or girl). Then came the challenge of choosing a theme. Since Jimmy and I both love boating and being around the water so much, I chose nautical. But I didn’t want cheesy nautical. I call this Subtle Natural Nautical.

The American Pediatrics Association now recommends babies sleep in their parent’s room for the first six months. Rather than do that and have both Jimmy and me awake a lot, I chose to put a bed in Baby’s room so one of us can sleep in here and the other can actually sleep.

My bed: Snoogle, Whale lamp: Mom bought SC Marshalls, White Nightstand: Wayfair

I wanted to have a variety of sizes ready to go. I know he’ll be growing quickly. I bought closet dividers to separate the sizes. I have baby hangers on the top shelf with clothes pins – I use these to attach pants to the small hangers. The closet has his dress clothes and jackets.I also have extra diapers on the floor of the closet (and a spare king size quilt for some reason).

Closet: Dividers to separate by size: 3 mo, 6 mo, 9 mo, 12 mo.

I debated not getting a changing table because their usable time is limited (babies that roll over could roll off ahhh), but decided to get one for the storage and for using while he’s little. On the shelves, I have: baking powder – put some in the diaper pail each time you throw away a diaper, extra changing pad covers, waterproof changing blankets – for when he’s bigger and it’s easier to change him on the floor, trash bags, a diaper organizer, burp clothes, lotion, wipes, diapers.  Next to the changing table is the hamper – I attached a small mesh bag for those itty bitty socks and mittens, and a humidifier.

Changing table: Amazon – get a thicker contoured changing pad, the one that comes with the table is terrible. I have an amazing co-worker Susan who gave us hers. Grey small fabric bins: Amazon, Grey large fabric bins: Amazon, Diaper pail: Amazon, Hamper: Amazon, Humidifier: Amazon, Blackout curtains: Amazon

I wanted an easy path from crib to changing table to glider so I arranged the three in a row. I’m going to use the salt lamp as my nighttime nursing lamp – it gives off a nice warm orange dim glow that should be calming for both Baby and me.

Glider: Amazon, Diaper caddy: Amazon, Nightstand (actually a little girl’s jewelry stand – told you I thought I was having a girl): antique store, Salt lamp: Amazon, My Breast Friend: Amazon, Quilt: wedding present, Nautical Prints: Etsy

Directly across the room from the changing table, is the dresser. This is actually my dresser from my room at my parents’ house from back in the day. I used blue masking tape to label all the drawers to make it easy for whatever kind soul is helping me with laundry/packing/dressing Baby. The dresser has his clothes, pacifiers, shoes, blankets, extra sheets & waterproof mattress liners, feeding supplies, sleep sacs, swaddlers, towels, and washcloths, The bookshelf was also mine from my college apartment. Pretty confident I got it at Target. The bookshelf has his book collection, baby monitor, white noise machine, his file (I’m putting copies of all his important documents in here).

Dresser: Ikea, Diaper Bag: Skip Hop, Wave organizer: Mom-bought SC Marshalls, Oar: Wayfair, Painting: Wayfair, B: Etsy, Print: Etsy, Sign: I made, Bookself: Target, Rug: Wayfair

masking tape labels

I rolled all of his clothes to make it easy to see everything that is in the drawer. Also, baby clothes are small, so rolling them made a lot of sense. They are organized by size and type. I labeled each of the drawers and the divider with what is in each. For example: “0-3 mo Pajamas” or “Mittens.”

Drawer dividers: Ikea

Cutest whale lamp

Storage fabric bin: Home Goods, Storage Basket: Home Goods, Swaddle blankets: Home Goods & Amazon. 

Crib: Craigslist (new: Potterybarn Madison), Vinyl decal: Etsy, Let Your Dreams Set Sail sign: Buy Buy Baby

Kai loves the bed in his brother’s room

Labor Day Weekend

Saturday we headed to the cottage as soon as Jimmy got back from lacrosse. Tech was playing our first game at 12:30 and I was NOT missing kickoff. I was also needing to go to Wawa before the game so I could get the Pumpkin Spice latte & (heated up) turkey sub I’ve been dreaming about. So leaving on-time was crucial.

Having college football back makes me so happy 🙂

The weather was crazy in Southern Maryland – so windy! Thanks to Hurricane Hermine (I prounounce this Hermione after the Harry Potter character #wontstop). So we had a pretty low key time watching college football, snacking on some bagel bites, napping, relaxing.

Bridge view of Solomon’s Island, MD

We did adventure down to the pier during halftime. Jimmy noticed our bench had blown off the pier and was floating down the cove. So, my dad and Jimmy raced over to the cottage proper to grab a row boat and go rescue the bench.

row boat bench rescue

Sunday my Dad steamed up some crabs for us to take home. Then we headed back to VA around 4.

Maryland crabs! And that Disneyland shirt Jimmy loves so much

Monday was so nice to have a day off! Jimmy got up to go to basketball. I planned on sleeping in, but I got up around 7, mainly because I was starving. I took the morning to relax by making a k-cup cappuccino, honey whole wheat flax-seed pancakes, and watching some TV with Kai. Then I finally put away all my normal work clothes and replaced my closet with all my maternity clothes I have thus far. <– It’s already making getting dressed so much easier. I still have to go through my drawers to pack up most of my t-shirts, leggings, pants, and shorts.

Jimmy got home around 11 and asked if I wanted to go to Joe’s for their buffet lunch. Umm, YES!!!! Joe’s buffet is one of my favorites. It was delicious.

When we got home, we decided to move furniture. We moved our office to our downstairs guest room (from baby’s room) my huge white dresser up to baby’s room, and finally rearranged the layout in baby’s room. I really wanted to do all the furniture moving during this month so I wouldn’t be big and unable to help. I feel so much more settled and calm now that we have this project done. Now I can decorate 🙂

Sunday evening, Jimmy made us chicken pot pie for dinner and we watched more college football. Overall, this was a great weekend!

6 Years Together

6 years ago today, I started dating Jimmy. This is my fun post to him. All about our story.

Jimmy and I met 6 years and 3 months ago on a spring break cruise.

We went on a week long cruise from Charleston, SC to Grand Cayman Island, Cozumel, and Key West.

We cruised on the Norwegian Cruise Line’s “Norwegian Majesty.” Now retired (I feel old).

Although we both went to Virginia Tech, we had never met. He was in grad school and I was an undergrad. He went on the cruise with his fraternity and I went with my sorority.

We happened to be assigned rooms that were two doors down from each other.

He walked past my room like:

And I was like:

And after that we were

Although we weren’t officially boyfriend and girlfriend until June 18.

Fast forward 4 years later when this happened

So we got married,

Bought a house,

And got a dog (not in that order)

Although we celebrate our anniversary on our wedding anniversary now, none of this would have happened if not for that cruise and June 18.

Love you Jimmy!

Lots of Snow!

We woke up to a winter wonderland. About 10″ of beautiful snow. Of course Kai, Jimmy and I had to be the first ones out to play. It was so fun running around while everyone was sleeping.

Then Jimmy & I cleared off his car and ventured to Bruegger’s Bagels up the street. We almost got stuck a few times but we successfully made it there and back.

Jimmy was going to work from home but after some technical difficulty, ended up going to the office (in Chantilly). Don’t worry, he made it safe and sound. And promised to leave work early 🙂

Now Kai is napping by the fire – he’s all tuckered out from that snow run/jump. And I’m working from home with a lunch time break to shovel & take more pics. I’ll update this post with some afternoon & evening pictures. Maybe Kai and I will even venture on a walk to get some sweet Falls Church shots.

Hope everyone enjoys the snow day and keeps warm!

Snow!

We had a snow day! Which in grown-up world really means working from home, but you get a great view. Kai has never ever seen this much snow so I made sure to take him out to play as soon as I was done working. At first he didn’t know what to do but then he was running and around and having a blast. He also loved eating the snow.

 

Later we shoveled the steps and driveway.

Then we had a fire, made dinner, and waited for Jimmy to get home.

Today we checked out the final snow count with our trusty beer bottle measurement (it’s on the table). We got about halfway up the bottle neck.

And headed on these roads to get to work today. #gladimadeitok

Can’t wait to get home tonight so Kai can play some more!

2013 In Review

Looking back on 2013 in the Racine household is challenging. Probably because 2012 was such a big year for us. We got married, bought a house, lived in the same house for the first time, went on our honeymoon, Jimmy passed his Professional Engineer exam (HUGE deal), Kurt & Kate got engaged, lots of big moments. However, 2013 had its own highlights.

Jimmy:

Jimmy started the year playing inner tube water polo. Jimmy was selected to the Future Leaders program for his company, which meant he attended seminars once a month on being a manager and company leader. Jimmy got a new car [finally]. He got a Subaru Forrester and we couldn’t love it more. We went to Jimmy’s 10 year high school reunion, which was fun to meet his old friends and show off a bit 🙂 Most recently, Jimmy has taken up hunting. Duck & goose hunting specifically. He’s been twice and really enjoys being outside with this new sport.

Ingrid:

I traveled to Clemson, SC to see Kurt & Kate graduate. So bittersweet seeing them grow up, tear. The real big change in my life in 2013 was starting to coach high school cheerleading. This has been a big commitment but an extremely memorable one. It’s so great being able to teach these girls, help them through high school, and share my love for the sport. It’s ended up being 2-4 days a week so that’s what I did in 2013 ha.

We (Jimmy & Ingrid):

• In March we went to my childhood friend Sarah Cooper’s wedding in St. Johns. We were so thankful she chose this destination for our wedding because we got to go back to our honeymoon spot, amazing.
• We played spring & summer flag football with our team of 4 years.
• We went to the Gold Cup horse race for the first time.
• We went to Vintage Virginia wine festival for the 4th year (possibly 5th, I’m losing track here).
• We were lucky enough to go to a couple Nats games in sweet club level seats thanks to my work.
• We went to the Eagles concert with my parents, Kurt & Kate at the Verizon Center.
• We went on a wonderful vacation to the Penthouse in SC with our great friends Ted & Lauren. And then we had to say goodbye to them because they moved to Boston 😦
• We went to three weddings.
• We hosted a Kentucky Derby themed couples shower for K&K.
• We had our first anniversary.
• We were in Kurt & Kate’s wedding – post to come once I get my camera back.
• We ended out the year celebrating Christmas with both families, heading to Disneyland for the first ever Racine family trip, and then New Years.

Looking ahead to 2014.

This is also a challenge because you never really know where life is going to go but I do see some things happening.

We have some house projects we want to complete:

• Fixing our side steps. The concrete’s been struggling since I was around 12 so we’re going to just replace it with a pressure treated wood step/landing/storage thing – this is clearly more Jimmy & my Dad’s plan
• Finishing painting. In 2012/2013 we painted the living room, dining room, master bedroom, kitchen, guest bedrooms (2) & Jimmy’s video game room. In 2014 we have the entryway, stairway, hallway, 3 bathrooms & basement and we’re done [whew]
• Landscaping. There are plans for the backyard. I am vaguely aware of them. I have stated Sugar’s stones stay. That’s all I care about.
• Building a slate patio in the backyard.
• Organization. As much as I hate to admit, I still have a couple of boxes of my things that don’t have a place in our home yet. I want to get everything organized and condensed as much as possible this year.

We have some trips we want to take:

• Boston to visit Ted & Lauren and Jimmy’s family
• Penthouse to enjoy the beach
• Cottage – not really a trip trip but we want to go here more this summer. Kai just loves it here and so do we.
• Germany or Hawaii – clearly the details aren’t worked out on this one
• St. Louis to be in Ted & Lauren’s wedding

Other than that, I just hope for health and happiness for my family and friends. And let’s see what 2014 brings us all.

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

This weekend we got our Christmas tree!

My family has always gone to HomeDepot for our trees so that’s where Jimmy & I went this weekend. So did the majority of the Arlington/Falls Church area because we had the longest line I’ve ever seen. Totally worth it though.

After surviving the line, we [Jimmy] tied the tree to my car ourselves and drove on home #independent.

Then it was time to start decorating.

Kai wasn’t sure if he liked this tree. Or the decorating. Or us moving his bed. He doesn’t like change. We’re working on it.

Putting the first ornament up. Ignore the sweet wrist brace, I took a little tumble on an outdoor parking garage ramp at work. It was slippery and raining and I stumbled away with a sprained wrist and some bruises.

If Kai was happy earlier, he’s definitely not happy now.

He loves me really. He just isn’t a fan of that reindeer costume. Unfortunately I am a huge fan of it and so he wears it every year 🙂

Our Christmas mantle.

And our post-decorating family selfie. At this point Kai is tired. He spent the next 30 minutes sleeping on the couch.

Later that night we went to my work Holiday party. Where I took zero pictures but we had a blast.

Sunday brought on my Mom’s birthday and snow/ice. We ventured out for dinner with my parents, Kurt & Kate at Matchbox and then champagne and cake at our house.

I haven’t found the motivation to put up lights outside yet… I put a wreath on our door so that counts right?

We’re Homeowners!

Jimmy and I bought a house in Falls Church, VA. Actually it’s a house I’ve known almost all my life – our great friends the Cooper’s house. I literally spent entire summers here with Sarah. In fact, the only phone numbers and addresses I knew by heart until college were my parents and the Coopers – which has given me countless memories in this house and the neighborhood. Jimmy and I are very excited for lots of new memories.

Bring on the painting, decorating, and lots of work known as homeownership.