the giraffe life

I don't have time to blog like I used to. But I do have time to ask you to  please vote  (imagine that in sparkly letters) if you live in the US. 😎  This year, I was planning to start the tradition of taking my daughter with me to vote (she'll be 5 by then!) but COVID derailed that plan. Instead, she gets to watch me fill out my ballot at the kitchen table, haha. Regardless of where I vote, we're reading a lot about voting. Here are some of our favorites if you're interested. Amazon links are affiliate, the rest are not.   Vote for Our Future - Elementary school students helping their community get out and vote!  Amazon | Goodreads | Youtube Lillian's Right to Vote - I checked this out at the library just based on the title. Sometimes that works out well, and this was one of those times.  Amazon | Goodreads | Youtube Delivering Justice - The story of W.W. Law, and how he fought for Civil Rights in Savannah, Georgia and helped Black Americans re...

Hey there! It's been a while! Mr. G and I are enjoying a few extra days off work for the 4th of July (Independence Day) and there's nothing as sweet as extra family time at home these days.  I figured I'd do a baby update and then you guys can leave me questions in the comments section if there's something else you'd like to hear about :) Not sure how the comments section is behaving these days - comments should show up immediately (otherwise, they've been lost forever). You can always email me instead thegiraffelife AT gmail DOT com if that happens.  So anyway! Baby stuff!  I mishmashed this format from a bunch of other blogs that do monthly updates on their kids, like Kelsey , Amber , and Becky . My yoga assistant Growth:         weight  - 18 pounds, 11 ounces (8.5 kg) last week       height - 26 inches (66 cm) at 6 months       wearing - size 4 diapers and 12 month clothes       teeth ...

Time for a goals update! Financial   •  Save $300 per pay  - Yes! Easiest goal ever because this was automatically deducted from my paychecks! Personal   •  Attend more than 67 yoga classes  - Nope! I stopped attending yoga classes in June because I was modifying so many of the poses to accommodate my growing belly that it seemed silly to pay to take a class that I wasn't fully participating in. I couldn't find any local prenatal classes so I switched to DVDs from the library until the very end when just cooking dinner felt like a work out. How do pregnant women who already have children do it?? •  Read 52 books  - Yep, a total of 70 . It was a banner year for reading actually, considering almost all those books were read before September. Now baby girl and I listen to audiobooks (electronically downloaded from the library to my cell phone) during some daytime nursing sessions when I want to read something. Plus I read a kids book to...

Our family expanded earlier this week! Ahh still in shock that I have a baby! She is happy and healthy though and I'm recovering fine :) I chose to have her at a birth center and it was perfect. A relatively short labor and then I delivered her in a giant bathtub. I would definitely have a water birth again! Pushing was the hardest part and crowning was painful for me (though I'd already forgotten how bad it hurt when they put her on my chest) but I'm glad I did it drug free because I could feel everything and giving birth is an incredible feeling. Plus I was super proud of myself afterwards, haha! We love her so much. Just soaking in every minute.   I'm not sure I want to post her name and have it searchable on the blog, so check out  this list - her name is number 8 .  And to think, last November we thought we couldn't have children. Feeling sooo grateful! :) Oh and please excuse my absence around the web these past few weeks . . honestly, I probabl...