Lankford Love

I've never been a green-freak. I try to take care of the earth because it's God's creation, but to be honest, I've never made this a priority. Much of the time my environmentally-friendly actions have actually been financial choices. For example, my dad bought me a car for college graduation (about a year late), and with gas prices as crazy as they were, I chose a Prius. 50 mpg? Yes, please. That's a huge financial savings! And if it helped the environment, that was just a bonus. Cloth diapers... a savings of $60-120 per month, depending in the deals. Again, yes! Yes, yes, yes! Not filling landfills? Again, just an added bonus. Then on Sunday my pastor talked about this verse: 16 The highest heavens belong to the LORD,    but the earth he has given to mankind. (Psalm 115:16) I do think of the earth as God's creation, so this wasn't a new revelation. But as this Psalm says, He put us - me - in charge of this earth. And what am I doing to help it? To be...

My Dad Rocks

I know many of you were excited about my cloth diaper blog post, The Truth About Cloth Diapers . I just wrote a follow up to it! Check it out on my other blog, Thankfully Thrifty .

No this is not a picture of me and sweet Lil. I took it from How Mama Got Her Swag Back .  Funny baby weight post actually. Check it out. I am thrilled to report that since my baby weight complaint , I have lost 5 lbs! Yea! And that's something, especially since we went to Colorado and then Houston and ate terribly. I was dreading stepping on the scale. I was feeling terrible about myself. But my curiosity got the best of me. I stepped on the scale and cringed. But then I opened my eyes. FIVE POUNDS! Only 12 lbs to go! I am making progress!! And funny thing. Once I stepped off the scale, I was beaming. Five minutes before I had been feeling awful about my weight and my body and suddenly I felt like a superstar. Funny how that works. I'm not sure what I'm doing. I am trying to eat healthier, but I already confessed about the unhealthy food we ate while traveling. I am walking daily, but I've been doing that pretty much since Lil was born and before. I did recent...

Please vote for my sweet baby! Vote for her in the Parents magazine "See Your Baby on Our Cover" contest! Vote here . You can do this once daily.

If you aren't comfortable with the topic of breastfeeding, skip this post. Can I just say that I never thought I'd love breastfeeding so much. I know it sounds crazy. I thought it'd be so painful. And such an inconvenience. But the truth is, I love it. The surge of oxytocin makes me happy. It makes me fall more and more in love with this baby girl. As my neighbor put it, "It's like a drug. If I'm having a bad day, I just put the baby to the breast. The oxytocin feels so good. I'm suddenly relaxed." For anyone unaware, oxytocin is the "love hormone." Females release it during labor and sex. This hormone acts as a bonding agent. So when you see a sexually active teenage girl all hung up over some loser of a guy, you can thank the oxytocin. The hormone has been released during intercourse, and now she feels bonded to him. This is why girls can't "play the field." It's also a great reason to wait to have sex until marria...

Last weekend we took Lilleigh to meet her great grandparents! (She's so blessed to have lots of great grandparents around and even one great-great!) This set of great grands are her daddy's grandparents, his mom's parents. They live in Colorado. For the past few summers, we've gone up to visit them and brought Sammy! We do plan to go on our annual trip, which we make in late summer, again this year - and to hopefully drive and bring Sammy! But we decided to make an extra trip now for Lil to meet them early! It's so fun to go visit. They live in a subdivision on a ranch with a river running through it, so it's beautiful all around them! A great place to go on walks and enjoy God's creation.    Lil chatting with her Grandma Hunt And laughing at PaPa making faces And a picture of her dad being a "boy"  Yes, that is a snake he's holding. I was very excited that at least one of our ten or more family photos actually turned out! Enjoying the ...

Typically I start Lil's bedtime routine between 6 and 7 PM, and she's in bed between 7 and 8 PM. She cluster feeds before bed. This is a great thing because she initiated it on her own, and it helps her get the food she needs to sleep through the night. So usually I won't hear her again until between 6 and 7 AM. Recently though she's started waking up around 4 AM. I have no idea why. She eats for about 10 minutes and then goes back to sleep. (This started about a week and a half ago. It's not a growth spurt!) And oddly enough, when we were out of town this last weekend, she slept right through without a 4 AM wake up. I was hopeful. But then last night at 3 AM I heard her (and checked on her via video monitor), and to Lil's credit, she tried to self-soothe. She tried until 4 AM, when she woke me up. She ate 10 minutes, which comforted her, and then fell asleep. Another note: She doesn't depend on nursing to go to sleep. I put her down at night awake, and ...

Can you believe it's been 3 months? My little baby is no longer a new born! I recently started using our City Mini, rather than just the Snap N Go, the stroller that her car seat snaps into, and I keep telling Lil how she's a "big girl" now for getting to sit up in a stroller! Granted, she can't sit up by herself, but the City Mini reclines, which allows her to sit upright and see out. She loves going on walks in the neighborhood like that! Much better than the Snap N Go, which hardly has a view. Anyways, so Lil is 3 months! Here's what 3 months looks like for her... Lilleigh has recently started to laugh ! I've only seen this a couple times, but it has been so exciting each time! I keep waiting for her to do it when her daddy is around. Soon enough! She's also super chatty ! So much so that moms of older babies actually comment on it, saying she's way chattier than their babies. We started reading to her out of The Jesus Storybook Bible , a...

I feel so silly posting on this, but if I had been given pointers on how to give an infant a bath before having Lil, life would have been much easier. We tried the little tub you put in the bath tub. We also tried the little mesh seat you put in the bath tub. But really, leaning over like that in the tub hurts your back. Another method we've tried and actually like is having me get in the tub and then Hubby will hand Lil to me. Then she gets to experience a real bath, and since I'm in there with her, it's easier to clean her. Plus then I get to have a bath too! This was especially great while I was healing. So soon-to-be moms, remember this method! It's hard to fit in the baths because all you want to do in your spare time is sleep! But your doctor will probably tell you to take them to help with healing. This is a great way. Still, a lot of the time Hubby isn't here to help me give her a bath. Or even if he is, we just don't always have the time for that. S...