Any Takers?

Julie & Julia is one of the movies I watch over and over again. Every time it gets to the part where she cooks this:

I want it sooo bad! I have even googled the recipe a few times with full intentions to make it. But for some reason it kinda intimidates me. So the best recipe I could find was at the Hungry Novelist. Go read it and then someone tell me if they will make it for me. It looks sooo yummy!

Lil Angels Attic

Today I went with my friend Whit to Lil Angels Attic. For all the non BG peps, this is our towns BIG childrens consignment sale that happens twice a year. I wasn't really sure what I was looking for, not being a mom yet and all, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to check it out. I ended up getting 4 clothing items for Griffin, 1 maternity top for me, 3 board books, and 2 books for me. All for under $30. Not bad.



These two are my fav clothing items! Those overalls are to die for! And the baseball getup was screaming Mr.Pate!



Here are the books I got. The Hymns book came with a cd of classic hymns and little devotions about them, for only $1! I was pumped to get the Nursing Mothers Companion really cheap too.

All in all I had a good time with Whit and was glad I went. But today things were very picked through and you could tell there was not much left. In the Fall I will prob try to volunteer and get to go to the preview sale.

One of my sisters friends sent me a bag of little boy clothes recently, so I also went through that today. Looking at little clothes makes me so excited to have him here!!! I organized everything by size and packed it back up (no where to put it right now). Here are my favorite two things from that bag:







(I can't figure out how to rotate this pic! Sorry)

How cute?!!!! I am so loving this journey of pregnancy and can't wait to have this little boy here. Happy Saturday.

- Mrs.Pate via my iPhone

Hello take two...

Thanks for all the encouraging words today, I needed them. Mr. Pate and I used the Doppler tonight and found Griffin's heartbeat as soon as it touched my stomach! It was a relief!! Thanks Misty for getting us the Doppler!!

Once I was relaxed and sitting on the couch, I started feeling little man moving again. Ha! I just have to learn to relax and let him move in his own time.

Trust and relaxing is hard to do during pregnancy. One day you feel great about everything, and the next day you just know something is wrong. Lord, please help me let go of the idea that I am even in control and help me trust your will.

Goodnight all!


- Mrs.Pate via my iPhone

Hello

1. I have tons of things I want to blog, but I can't seem to find a good time to blog them. (Sidenote: people blogging about how they don't have time to blog is one of my pet peeves... I am so annoying)

2. Some of those things aren't even baby related. I know, shocking.

3. Today I woke up worried and have battled it all day. Do you do this about issues? Even when you have no signs of something wrong, you just start thinking the worst and can't shake it. That's me today. I can't remember feeling the baby kick or move since Monday. I am not very good at noticing it and I don't think it's as strong as others who have shared with me, but I decided to worry anyhow. I have a large growing mid-section and no others signs anything is wrong. I need to just trust the Lords plans whatever they are, an choose to not dwell on thongs I am not in control of. Pray that for me today please.

4. It's supposedly a fabulous day outside here in BG. I work in a windowless room so I have no idea. But seeing it put others in a food mood puts me in a good mood.

5. My new diapers I ordered came in! These are my first new cloth diapers. Yay! They are a not very known brand called Kawaii and are super cheap for pocket diapers ($8). My friend Amanda is currently cloth diaperin her girls and she said so far these are great! Just FYI.






6. I want people to start buying tickets to our high school reunion. Then we could know how many to plan for and how much extra money we have to work with for little cool things, such as a memory book of the occassion.

7. I love my youth group. Genuinely I feel blessed to get to invest in them. I am praying the Lord shows me how to continue to keep doing that with a little one.

8. Our dog is soooo spoiled. I really hope we are still able to love on him and give him attention when Griffin gets here. He is just so wonderful!

9. I have already gotten in trouble for calling Griffin "Griff". Have I told you about Mr.Pate's pet peeve with naming the kid one thing but planning to call it another? Well he hates it. So I have been banned from shortening it.Oops....

10. I am sure there are a million typos in here. I love blogging from my phone bc you can do it while you do most things (like workout). But the typing sucks. And I hate that there is no arrows to help you go back to a certain spot. Relying on the touch screen is not the best. Beggars can't be choosers right??

- Mrs.Pate via my iPhone

Book Review: Along the Infant Way

"Let the Children Come... Along the Infant Way" 

From what I can tell, this book is the more "Christian" version of Baby Wise. This book is a book/workbook for a small group study the Ezzo's taught at churches. The Baby Wise books were their newer, more secular version of the parenting strategies. They never explain the difference in their books, so this is all what I could figure out on the internet. Anyhow, my friend wanted me to read it and loaned me her copy. So here we are. I have never read Baby Wise, so I am not sure if they are the exact same or not. But from what I have heard, I am guessing they are similar.

Things I Liked About It:

• They stress flexibility over schedule. Yes they are about getting your child on a schedule, and I had always heard it was very rigid, but I was happy to read over and over again that your baby's schedule should never come before others comfort etc. So if you are on a plane, feed the baby to make it quite, or if your baby is in the nursery at church do not stress the workers out by making them strict to your strict schedule. They teach that there is a lot of flexibility and your baby can always get back on schedule. I wasn't expecting that. 
• They affirm constantly that you are the parent and know best for your baby. It is all about the parent assessing what is the best choice for the baby right now. Is the baby hungry even though it hasnt been a full 3 or 4 hours? You can choose to go off the routine and listen to the baby's cues. 
• They really spell out the typical routine to shoot for. 
• They spend a lot of time talking about feeding. I think I always thought of this as a sleep training, but they approach it as learning your baby's three-part life for now: feeding, wake time and nap time. They say the first thing to focus on is getting go feedings in and they give lots of tips if you are breast-feeding. 
• They give tips and routines for breast-feeding babies and formula babies. I think thats super helpful for all, because you never know how this will work out for you. 

Things I Didn't Like About It:

• They really make it sound like if you do this your child will sleep no matter what, like its fool proof. I think they do say several times that all babies are different etc, but they just make it sound so easy. I know several people that tried and tried (or are trying and trying) and their babies just are not sleeping like this. 
• They hate on baby wearing a lot. I am a fan of baby wearing. They are more so hating on the parenting approaches that wear baby all day long to keep them from crying, which I am not a fan of or obviously going to be able to do at work. But I think for me it will be way more convenient to wear my baby in a store than try to lug around a big car seat. 
• They hate on cloth diapering. This book was written in 2000, so I know cloth diapering has modernized alot since then and thats part of it. But they were just inaccurate in some of the stuff they said. 

So I know all parenting styles are controversial, and especially sleep training etc. But what do you think of the "Baby Wise" method? Or what do you recommend to a new mom-to-be??