Mariam wear

Dressing little ones is so fun. The miniature clothes, the miniature shoes! Love it all. I bought this little dress for Mariam from TJ Maxx 2 months ago and I love how lightweight it is and it's vintage look. These moccasins are by far my favorite shoes for her and I expect she'll be getting a lot of use out of them. They run a bit big so I bought her the 3-6 month pair, but I was thinking of buying her the next size pair also because I love them so much. Looks like life made that choice for me because the girls and I went to the mall on Sunday and one of her shoes fell off and we could not find them anywhere! I was so upset. Luckily there was an Old Navy in the mall so I ended up just buying her another pair. 

I attached the link in a previous post about these shoes but it looks like they took them offline. There were still plenty of pairs in store. The red bow can be found in my shop here.

My big girl

I can't believe my first born is a fifth grader this year. Yesterday morning when I dropped her off, I definitely felt a little emotional. This is the last year my baby will be in elementary school and it makes me sad. It also brought me back to when I dropped her off on her very first day of kindergarten. The school she attended then, didn't allow us to walk our kids in and I remember driving away and crying like a baby. Time goes by so fast and here Serena is at 10 years old and already as tall as me. She's getting so big and I can't wait for her to experience all the wonderful things yet to come, but I also wish she could stay small and I could keep her under my wing because the world can also be scary and sad and with growing up comes more responsibility. 

On a funnier note, I was just telling H that everything we've experienced through the school years with Serena, we have to do all over again with Layla and Mariam. Talk about a big gap!. It will be fun though--but not in any hurry for them to start school.

The little top knot that could

A rare photo of Layla with her hair up! Surprisingly she actually left it alone for at least 2 hours. Pretty sure that's a record.

Baby/Toddler Wear

Last week I took all three girls shopping so we could pick out a few things for Serena's back to school wardrobe. We just stayed locally (didn't feel like dealing with mall crowds) and headed into Old Navy and The Children's Place. I bought Serena some clothes and accessories and found some great deals on a few items for Layla and Mariam.

I mean seriously. How cute are these?

{ Shoes}

These brown suede moccasin boots for baby were too precious to pass up. Especially since I have a hard time finding shoes for Mariam that actually stay on her feet. I also found this romper on clearance for Layla. 

{Romper}

After Old Navy we headed next door to The Children's Place where Serena found a backpack and some tops and I found a few more things for Layla and Mariam.

I don't normally buy the littlest ones graphic tee's but this long sleeve ruched sleeved top was calling my name.

{Top}

I thought it would look cute paired with the navy polka dot skirt I bought both Mariam and Layla.

{Skirt}

I'm really liking navy and brown together especially with fall coming up. As much as I love pink, that's not all I put on the girls and even I get burnt out with it too. What colors are you liking for your children lately?

Live your dream

One year ago today, I took in a deep breath and I launched FHJ Baby. It had been in the works for months before and August 21st 2012 was the day I chose to launch my website and announce it to all my friends in family. Never did I imagine all the wonderful things that would happen within a year, and all that I've accomplished. I'm truly grateful for each and every one of my customers, and for all my friends and family that have supported me. 

This is only the beginning and I can't wait to see what the coming years will bring. I posted more about how FHJ Baby came to be on my Facebook page if you'd like to check it out. For now, here are a few pictures from my very first photo shoot with my little Layla. To think I only started with five baby bibs!

Have a great Wednesday!

Downtown Houston

One of my husband's sisters is visiting from Saudi Arabia till mid September, so some of the family thought it would be nice to take her to downtown to check out Discovery Green and sight-see by riding the metrorail. It had actually rained the night before, so the weather was pretty nice and not scorching hot like it has been lately. 

We started the day at Discovery Green and let the kids (minus Mariam) splash in the water. I always bring them a change of clothes so it wasn't a big deal. After the kids had their fun and we got some ice cream, we walked a few blocks to the metro rail and rode it for a few stops. Once we got back to our starting point, we walked through downtown enjoying the breeze and got in our cars to head to Spaghetti Warehouse. The girls were so good during the whole time there and I'm so grateful, because let me tell you, Layla has entered the terrible two's and it ain't pretty. It's not that she has thrown a tantrum in a restaurant...yet, but she doesn't like staying in her seat for very long. 

I'm glad we got to spend some quality time with H's sister. She arrived in August to stay at my mother in law's house for a little over a month and before this, I have never met her in person. Plane tickets to and from the middle east are pretty expensive so it's not easy for them to get together very often. I still have yet to meet one other sister of H's. She's in Jordan and I've skyped with her at least which is nice, but perhaps one day I'll get to meet her. Sometimes I can't get over technology and how far we've come. H comes from a family of 7 and all his brothers are here in Houston, so I'm grateful that the girls have family nearby.

 

Notice something different?

Last night I finally decided it was time to give this little blog a face lift. I've been meaning to do it for quite some time, but I've been putting the blog on the back-burner lately. I definitely want to keep it up because I love documenting my family life and it's something I can look back upon and reminisce. I haven't been keeping up with Mariam's baby book that well, so I'm really glad I've been doing monthly updates on her here at least. 

Things with the business have really been busy lately, but I'm finding my groove and plan on fitting in more time to blog. Aside from just documenting family life and things I love, I hope to be able to connect and share.

Postpartum: 9 months in....9 months out.

Mariam is now 9 months so I did a comparison picture this weekend. I've been bad and have not been working out and doing stomach exercises lately. I had hoped to get a washboard stomach by now, but I haven't made exercise a priority. I still plan too. I do try to exercise these days at least twice a week and I'm on my feet pretty much all day. Combined with breastfeeding and fast metabolism, I didn't have any trouble losing the baby weight. As I mentioned in my last postpartum post, I highly recommend binding your stomach postpartum especially if your stomach gets huge like mine and you've had more than one baby.

Mariam: 8 months

Mariam actually turned 9 months on Monday, but I figured I could do an 8 month recap and essentially be back on track. 

Weight

Mariam is due for a checkup soon, so I'm not sure what her weight is, but overall she seems proportionate, She's just an itty bitty thing. I can say that she seems smaller than the other girls when they were her age. Maybe she'll just end up being short and petite like her momma, or she's just a late bloomer.

  

Health
  Her health has been good thank God. Nothing worse than a sick baby so I'm grateful that she's been healthy and yay for momma's milk also assisting. She did have one day a few weeks ago were she had a fever for a few hours and about 3 days of a runny nose, but that's as far as it went. Serena and then Layla had a cold so Mariam ended up getting what they had. 

Sleep
 Meh...sleeping has not been all that great. For the past 2 months, she stopped sleeping through the night and wakes up 1-2 times to nurse. She goes right back down to sleep afterwards and is easy to put down for naps and bedtimes so I can't complain too much. Just so happy she's not like Layla. I used to have to rock Layla for 30-45 minutes every nap and bedtime and she would wake up 2 times a night till she was 9 and a half months. Do not miss that! 

Clothes
 Still in 6-9 month clothes. It's so fun being able to reuse Layla's clothes again!

Diet
  I'm still nursing Mariam and it's going great. The girl will not take a bottle though. I've tried giving her juice, tried giving her water, but nope! She's not having it. She'll just chew on it. I guess it's worked out fine. I love not having to wash bottles and I'm never away from her from more than 3 hours anyways. I do love the bond and being able to provide her nourishment. It's definitely something I'm going to miss when she gets older.

Crying
 Still a big crier. She's very attached to me. I'm a little surprised at how little she wants to spend time with her toys versus being in my arms or near me. I mean she's fine being with daddy, or with other people, but usually as soon as she sees me, she starts crying and wants to be in my arms.  

Milestones
  She's at a cute stage where she's discovering things she can do and sounds she can make. She's not walking yet, just pulling herself up everywhere and climbing over things. She did recently start waving bye at times and has 8 teeth!

You make me happy when clouds are gray..

Swoops in and falls into blogger's arms.....

I'm ex-haus-ted you guys. H has been home sick all week, so basically I've had four children to look after all through out the day, and sewing during naps and after the kids go to sleep. I've been crashing out around midnight every night, up 1-2 times during the night to feed Mariam and then up by 7am. Pretty sure the only time I sat down for more than 10 minutes today was when I watched one episode of "Sons of Anarchy" while dinner was cooking and the girls were napping.

Poor H, he started complaining of a sore throat Sunday night and by Monday he was in a lot of pain that came with fever and body aches. He went to the doctor on Tuesday and she told him it's just a bad virus that's been going around and told him to take some over the counter meds. He has been in pain since! The left side of his throat is killing him and he can hardly swallow or talk. I've never seen him this bad before and I feel so bad for him. I hate to see him in so much pain. It makes me sad just thinking about it. He called the doctor earlier and she called in a prescription of antibiotics for him. I was hoping he'd get it looked at again, because I suspect an abscess, but he's going to give the antibiotics a shot first. I hope it helps. I really do. I've been praying and doing the best I can with making him teas and doing what I can for him. Needless to say, the girls and I have been pretty much cooped up in the house, but then again it's been really hot outside minus a few tolerable mornings. 

Now onto some pictures. Looking at them always brightens my day....now only if I can get Serena to let me photograph her more so I could share more pictures of her.