Busy, Busy Weekend

Thought I would post some pictures from this weekend. Since Dad had to work we had a lot of Sam and Mom time. And Sam worked on her speed. She has become a crawling demon. I put her down and within 30 seconds she is somewhere else. I can't believe how quick she is. Only a few days ago I was worried she wouldn't crawl at all and we would go straight to walking...famous last thoughts... We also worked on climbing everything in sight (Mom and Dad's bed frame and PaPa and MeMe's fridge included), perfecting our pool skills, and cutting our 2 front teeth. The last thing on that list made for a trying weekend at times. You just feel so bad for them and there is no way for a Mom to make it feel better. Last night we didn't even eat that much dinner. And we had banana's - our favorite! Last I checked the teeth hadn't actually broken the skin yet so it may be a long night!

Hanging out in our pack and play. I love this thing! I officially take back every negative thing I ever said about the pack and play. KC, you were right. The pack and play is a wonderful thing.

Cuddling with our big dog. Just to show how much can change in a few months... When she was about a month old I put her on the dog to take her picture but was super paranoid about her spitting up on it. I took all kinds of ridiculous precautions to make sure that the dog stayed clean. This weekend she let out a big burp, which in the past would be followed up by some spit up and all I thought was "oh well, at least she only has a onesie on - minimal laundry" Not even a thought about the dog. I am pretty sure once your kid has thrown up on everything you own, including your car, things like a stuffed animal with spit up don't even faze you.


Exhibit A why everything in our house needs to be bolted to the wall. She turned to look at me as if to say "Mom, how cool is this?" I was not impressed.

Showing off some of those quick crawling skills.

Hanging out in PaPa and MeMe's pool. We were in the pool for almost 3 hours. She's little fish!

Our bathing beauty...just lounging...

25 Things in 52 weeks

I saw something similar on another blog and thought it might be fun to do something for Sam. I really hope that July 21, 2009 all of these things are checked off!

1.) Go to a petting Zoo
2.) Have Sam's picture taken professionally
3.) Go on a road trip as a family - check! September 26th, 2008 departure
4.) Plant a tree
5.) Finish Sam's baby book
6.) Teach Sam to swim
7.) Make her birthday cake from scratch
8.) Visit her great grandmother in Ohio
9.) Go on an Easter Egg hunt
10.) Sit on Santa's lap
11.) Go to a farmer's market - check! Saturday, August 9th
12.) Put her hair in pigtails
13.) Go to story time at the library
14.) Sleep over at Grandma's house
15.) Have our family portrait taken
16.) Dip her toes in the Atlantic ocean
17.) Finger paint
18.) Go to a hot air balloon festival check! October 4th, 2008
19.) Go to the Fort Worth Zoo
20.) Participate in (another) charity walk
21.) Visit an aquarium
22.) Finish Sam's quilt
23.) Visit 3 new states working on it, New Mexico, September 26th, 2008, Arizona, September 27th, 2008
24.) Spend the night at PaPa and MeMe's house
25.) Visit the Dallas Arboretum

A Real Texan

My friend Amy gave Sam this outfit before she was born. The cowboy boots came from my mom and they are already too big! I had to get a picture before she grew out of the dress too!

When Dad does dinner...

Sam ends up with a handlebar moustache and goatee made of prunes. Prunes are a big hit in our house. After bananas they seem to be her favorite dessert. Trying out new foods is so much fun. I love it. KC has to watch me. I can go a little crazy in the baby food aisle.





Question for other parents: How much does your baby eat? I have tried finding a schedule or a recommended "menu" for babies to no avail. Sam eats a vegetable with oatmeal for lunch and then a vegetable with oatmeal and a fruit for dessert. Should she be eating more? Less? Do I drop the oatmeal? Introduce meat now? Should it be three meals a day? I checked the AAP for their recommendations and they are pretty vague. KC is wondering if we are overfeeding her. Now I'm freaking out about that. Does she get enough vitamins? Are we force feeding her too much? Encouraging childhood obesity? Why do I have such a hard time with what she eats???

Footnote: If you happened to read about the day where everything that could go wrong did go wrong you know that prunes are banned from our house. These pictures were taken the day before that day.

It can't get any worse, right???

There are some pretty disgusting descriptions in this post so if you are eating or just don't want to read about someone else's gross day - stop now.

I have said that no less than 10 times since yesterday at 5pm. I got home from work early, so excited to be able to put a load of laundry in before going to my MIL's house for dinner. KC stayed over by work to play in the work softball league. I was greeted at the door by one of our labs - not a good sign. Apparently they had broken down the gate during the day and done god knows what. There was no evidence of any wrongdoing so I am hoping for the best (and keeping my fingers crossed that I don't discover something a week or two down the road).

Then I walk into the kitchen. And into a puddle of water. The freezer door is open about a foot. Unless the dogs learned how to open a freezer door (in which case I am calling David Letterman immediately) KC or I must have left it open that morning. Within 5 minutes Loni (MIL) comes over with Sam and we start to clean up the disaster that is now my kitchen. KC's first question was "There wasn't too much breast milk (aka liquid gold) in there, right?" The large supply of frozen breast milk is in the freezer in the garage. So I only lost about 10 bags. But if you have ever pumped you know how painful losing even 10 bags is. While I fed Sam and started cooking the 4 packages of veggies, a pound of chicken, and 2 pork tenderloins (the things that couldn't be savaged and were not too disgusting to throw out) Loni actually cleaned the freezer. Now our freezer is bright, shiny, and clean like the day we bought it. Seriously, my MIL rocks.

Unfortunately the whole time this is going on Sam is not herself. She is really clingy, and always seems like she is on the verge of crying. Emily said that she didn't really want to play with the other kids she just wanted to be held all day. I am wondering if her teeth are bothering her. She is eating ok thought so who the heck knows what is going on.

After KC gets home we put Sam to bed. She doesn't go down easy though. By 11pm she is sleeping in our bed again. We would get her down and then she would wake up screaming. The hardest part for me is that even when I was holding her she was crying. We blamed it on teething and then we blamed it on the prunes she has had the last 2 nights so really we don't have freaking clue what we are doing or why our daughter is miserable. (Yea - mother of the year!)

This morning I wake up thinking today will be a good day. It has to be better than last night. Sam is still pretty subdued, just laying down talking to herself while we get ready. Usually she is all over the place, playing with toys, trying to crawl off the bed. I leave our room to let the dogs out and can't find Raja. I am looking everywhere and then I open the door to Sam's room (pretty much the only no dog room in our house). Usually the dogs are really good about not going into her room. When we are playing in their they usually hang out in the doorway but not crossing into the room. I guess the door was left open when we got Sam to come sleep with us and Raja decided to make herself at home in Sam's glider, her white, chenille glider. Not too bad, just get rid of the dog hair. But one of her paws was bleeding so now there is a bit of blood on the edge of the chair. I almost lost my mind. Needless to say Raja is spending today in the laundry room. We're done right? Bad evening, bad morning, day has to get better, right???

Sam's is sitting in her highchair waiting for us to get our act together, get lunch packed, pack her bag with bottles, etc and get out the door. I can tell she is pooping so I pick her up to change her diaper before we leave. Here is the disgusting part. Not only has she pooped through her diaper but it is dripping down her leg, into the chair on the floor. There is also a huge amount in her high chair. It was the most disgusting thing she has done so far BY A MILE. You can only imagine the scene, I am holding her about a foot away from my body trying not to get poop on my clothes while trying to get her to the changing table where KC has laid a trash bag down for her but trying not to get poop on her carpet. If I wasn't so panicked about the whole thing it would have been hysterical. We ended up taking everything off of her and taking her into the bathtub where I hosed her down while KC held her up. Note to self: Prunes are off the list of acceptable foods in our house.

Finally, we get everything in the car and are heading to Emily's. Late for work and really sick of the day and it is only 7:45am. About half way there Sam lets out a cry and then we hear the puke. We pull over to see that she has thrown up all down the front of herself. It's on the car seat, her outfit, the toy she was playing with, lovely disgusting sweet potatoes and corn from the night before.

Could this all be from teething? I have taken her temperature twice in the last day and each time she was fine. She did give Emily a big smile when we got there so I am hoping that she is feeling better.

And I am really, really hoping that this day gets better.

"Let me out! Let me out!...

Let us in! Let us in!" Clue (1985)

As a kid one of my favorite movies was Clue (yes, my parents - dad - should have shown better judgement in what we watched. Our other favorite movie Major League). If you have ever seen the movie there is a part where some of the guests are trying to get into one room and other guests are trying to get out of the same room. And they are all saying "Let us out! Let us out!" "Let us in! Let us in!" I guess you have to be there or at least have watched the movie in the last 5 years. That's what I think when I see this.

I also think "thank god we have a pack and play."

Cruising, Indians, and Sippy Cups

KC and Sam survived my work trip. When I finally made it home on Saturday Sam had all kinds of new tricks to show off. I had to catch them on video.

We are an expert at pulling our self up using the ottoman and the couch. And we can even cruise a bit if something we really, really want is out of reach.

It looks like a rough spill at the end of the video above but she was fine!

Our first sippy cup. I still can not believe that she is old enough for a sippy cup!

The introduction of the sippy cup has KC singing "I drink from a sippy cup, sippy cup, sippy cup. 'Cause I'm a big girl now." Charlie Waffles (The drunk kids singer that Charlie Sheen played on Two and a Half Men)

Our little Indian (Is it even PC to say that? I am offending a ton of people right now? If so, Sorry!)

And we discovered the book on our Around-We-Go. She will be running around and around yelling and making noise and then get to the book and get really quiet. She seems like she is concentrating so hard on it.

Bedtime Update: Not that this explains the randomness of the last 3 months but apparently this week can be explained by teething AGAIN! I'm not sure that she's actually cutting teeth but her top gum is really swollen. Miss Emily (the most amazing caregiver in the whole world, who Sam absolutely adores) discovered this on Thursday. KC mastered bedtime while I was gone with a lot of rocking and snuggling and both nights she slept great! But just in case it was a fluke the sleep book Christina recommended is sitting in my mail box waiting for me.