happy new year!

i strive

my parents are precious. i can only hope that someday my marriage will be as cute as theirs.

like father, like son

after church today i was watching this fine group of family play aggravation when i noticed that set of twins on the right.  hair, face, clothes, posture.

2:53:20 PM

13 seconds later...  2:53:33 PM

2:54:41 PM

2:55:20 PM

2:55:51 PM

almost creepy huh?  good thing i love my father in law.

merry christmas!

and now we're in cancun

denver was quick.  in on wednesday evening, out early friday morning.  whew.  the flight there was the easiest yet.  the plane took off, baby ate, baby slept, the plane landed.  from denver to cancun was really easy going through the airport but definitely the most difficult in terms of keeping baby happy for the duration of the flight.  she was downright fussy at times.  but honestly... who cares?  does that sound insensitive?  i don't mean it to be.  just sayin' i did the best i could.

so now we're in cancun.  it's supposed to be around 75 all week which is a little chilly for my tastes so let's hope the wind isn't to strong and let's also tell the sun to shine extra on me... and not on my fair skinned hilliers.

can i get a few words of comfort about my child's new night time sleep patterns?  ever since georgia when i gave up trying to adjust her to the time change, she's been waking up during the night.  just once, but still.  i've been putting her to bed later than usual normally because it's easier to keep her up late than to get her down early.  so if you'll remember, the fourth nap won.  so her night time sleep averages nine hours and she seems to wake up normally right in the middle of that.  she's always gone right back down as soon as i feed her, but now she'll fall asleep nursing after two minutes and i can't wake her up again because she's OUT and then i have to put her to bed asleep which i really hate to do.  not sure why i'm writing all this because i really only meant to write two sentences but whatever.  really, i just need a little comfort that traveling won't screw up my kid's schedule for life.  that's all.

okay.  it's after midnight.  i need to make myself go to sleep now.

merry christmas!!!

tuesday night with the maycocks

tuesday night we hung out with the roswell maycocks.  ALL of them.  that means my aunt and uncle that live in roswell, and all of their kids and 16 grandkids.  minus marianne and andrew and lucy who were held up in greenville.  but they were there in spirit so i will continue to say ALL.

cousin catherine, her husband russ, and her baby parker

cousin sara had eva FOUR DAYS after i had baby.  my brother walter commented on how similar they looked.  well buddy, maybe it's because they've got the same maycock genes.

they loved each other.

cousin david and his wife audrey

dad and his brother, my uncle dick

this is a "candid" picture.  i won't explain it, but i'll have you know that it was HILARIOUS.  

cousin catherine with baby girl and cousin sara with her other daughter lizzy.

cousin david, his daughter jane, walter, and some of the other kids, doing some sort of wii dance to big girls you are beautiful.

welcome to atlanta emmy!  we all had fun smothering baby girl.  she loved it.  you can tell.

fireplace picture.  dad and buddy have halos.  because they're angelic.

so, that was my tuesday night.  and then i had a slumber party with my blogging sister emmy and we stayed up til 3 in the morning.

just kidding mother, i mean, we went to bed as soon as we told you goodnight.

in our christmas best

just for fun, here's a picture of us. because i know you miss our faces. or at least baby girl's.

smores

tonight, these three girls came over to roast smores and we sure had a lot of fun.

is this a cuddle?

when i put my child on my hip, this is what she looks like. baby girl, can you get any farther away? probably not. but i know you'll keep trying.

liza,

i hope you get well soon and come over to play! i love you!

the fourth nap won

seconds after i hit "publish post" i heard my child wake up.  i don't know how to describe it but i can just tell by her breathing that she's awake.  so i listened to that for 15 minutes.  then i listened to some stirring for 15 minutes.  and in the next 15 minutes i listened to whimpers become cries.  that is when i gave up hope that she'd fall back asleep and i went and got her.

i fed her for a while and noticed that her nose was all crusty.  well, sure enough, it's not just me that's been congested and had a runny nose.  apparently my child has been silently suffering as well.  so i got out that bulb sucker and honestly, you would think i was rocking her to sleep.  you've never seen anyone so calm and content.  even with my finger and a bulb sucker aggressively jabbing up her nose.  she didn't try to move her head at all or let out any sound that she was upset.  actually, she was cooing throughout the whole thing.  i think she was probably just so relieved that i finally was going to open up her nose so she could breathe again.  but really, it was incredible.  seriously. 

so then i cuddled her (she's starting to cuddle!  barely.) and put her back in bed and she was fast asleep.  it's not like she wanted to wake up and play.  and i really don't feel like she was THAT hungry.  she ate a full meal but she wasn't ravenous or anything.  it's like she's just decided to live in two different time zones and that means 8-9 hours at night and four naps during the day.  this is not a terrible situation in the least but let's cross our fingers that this situation doesn't get anymore out of control.  i like to be in control.

2.5 hours at costco

with my brother, walter.

we had a grand old time.  we initially went to look for "old timey gifts" (that's the theme this year... let me know if you have any suggestions) for our cousins and pick up a few things for my wonderful mother.  instead, walter spent over a hundred dollars on himself, i bought myself a christmas present that i'll have mom give me, and we got separated and lost each other for at least a full ten minutes.  it was a blast and here are two pictures from it.

 

the second picture is when we got separated.  i said "i'll go get the flank steak (this is what home made beef jerky is made out of) for mom" and then i left.  when i returned, walter was no where to be found.  i looked all over the store.  TWICE.  then i grew weary from carrying around seven pounds of raw meat.  so i rested.  in this massage chair.  with my meat.

eventually, i had to get back home to feed baby.  and we were hungry too.  but i can only imagine the things we could have done if we weren't so pressed for time.

ps- the past two nights i've put my baby down for bed around 8... her normal bedtime.  but then she'll wake up 2.5 hours (the length of a normal nap) later.  baby, this is not a fourth nap.  this is called "down for the night" and you need to stay there.

it's not too bad because i've been awake and stuck on california time too and my dear mother loves to laugh at me when i say "i just put baby down for bed... again." but really, let's try to get this right tonight.

i bought my child skinny jeans

i don't consider myself a very trendy person.  i don't have boots, useless belts, colorful scarves, bangs, or anything else of that nature.

but today, i bought my child skinny jeans.  and OH MY GOODNESS you have never seen anything cuter in your life.  i only did it because she's so skinny that normal baby jeans make her look like a thug.  but we might have to jump on this bandwagon where baby is concerned.

i don't have any pictures of her in them yet but i promise they'll come soon enough.  however i DO have pictures of some fake uggs that i did NOT buy her a few days ago.  but looking at these pictures now i want to go back and get them.  as much as i hate shopping for myself, who knew it would be so irresistible when it comes to my kid?!?!

check out those rosy cheeks!

don't worry.  she has a diaper on.  i would not be holding her like that if she was without.

now tell me that isn't the most adorable thing you've ever seen.

the pack job

every single thing pictured went into the main part of my carry on suitcase.  underwear and toiletries were already packed.  and the outside pockets were filled with more baby things.

see toiletries in clear pocket.  underwear in other pocket.

our clothes all laid out and diaper back packed (although more was added to it).

and then i added my laptop, miracle blanket, swaddle me blanket and sat on it to zip it shut.

i could write more about it but that would involve detailing my trip here, which i don't have time for because it's 1:30 am and i should go to sleep because my kid is still stuck on california time and i'm not even on a time at all.  we're a mess.

this is all i got

i'm in atlanta.  it's not supposed to get above freezing for the next three days.  it was snowing all day today.  i wore sandals to church today because there was no room in the inn (suitcase) for black church shoes.  but baby looked adorable in her little winter outfit, just in case you were wondering.

i woke up this morning with the worst headache i've had in a year.  if i was at home, you better believe i would have been pulling out those postpartum narcotics and not even thinking twice about it.  but i wasn't so i took some regular painkillers instead.  at least i didn't throw up.  but it was a close call a few times.

i can't believe i've only been here for 48 hours.  it already feels like forever... in a good way.  when it's home, it just takes no time at all to get settled in and resume the good life. 

i do have pictures.  i will get around to posting them sometime. 

liza, leave me a loving comment.  it would make me so very happy.

we miss him already

they like to do this a lot.

 

tonight i took honey (ha, i just accidentially wrote homey. i guess he can be that too?) to the airport. as you know, i get major anxiety leading up to when i travel and when honey leaves on a trip. well, both of those are in the midst of happening in a major way and i've been feeling the anxiety all week... especially today. trouble eating, butterflies in my stomach, feeling like i'm about to throw up, the works. so i sent him off and i feel a little better although i'm still anxious about baby and me going to atlanta tomorrow. so wish me luck that i'll be able to eat and that i won't get a migraine or feel hugely nauseaus all day.

here a few things that have been on my mind lately.

why on earth is my christopher so obsessed with umberella strollers?

i still write reminders to myself on my bathroom mirror with a dry erase marker. have i really been doing this for more than ten years?!?!

my anxiety this week has taken away my appetite. pretty much all i've eaten since sunday is an assortment of cookies (from a baby shower cookie exchange)... and milk. even though i'm taking my vitamins, i think my body is still mad at me. i keep getting cramps in my arms and legs. nurse amanda always told me that's from a lack of potassium. i vow to eat real meals for the next three weeks.

in less than a week, i've listened to over 35 of my 40 pandora hours this month. i love christmas music. when i get to atlanta i'll have mom sign up so we can listen to 40 more hours.

i miss my christmas village already... even though i know i'll see it in a month. and you better believe that when i return, i'll be calling it a "winter village" and won't take it down til march.

it's 2am and i'm procrastinating going to sleep. i hate sleeping alone. i've been thinking about my single atlanta friends... can i invite them over for sleepovers or does "25 and married with a baby" make me ineligible to host slumber parties?

but really, who am i supposed to spoon with? i made honey take a nap with me this afternoon because i really wanted more spoon time before he left. i seriously have a problem.

i just did one of my best pack jobs ever.  i'd been putting it off all week because i knew it would be next to impossible but oh my goodness, i actually made it happen.  i just packed for a three week trip to three different locations for myself and my child, IN A CARRY ON.  we're going from california, to atlanta, to colorado, to cancun, and back to california.  so i had to pack for snowy weather, beaches, and everything in between.  and since my daughter likes to rid herself of all bodily fluids, all day long, we both require about 3 outfits a day.  can't wait to get to atlanta and find out what on earth i've managed to forget.

i think i'm obsessed with pictures.  probably because i have such a terrible memory and it's my only way of remembering anything.  but really, i love pictures.  especially before and afters.  to here are some before and afters of my packing process.

just kidding.  blogger is not letting that happen.  maybe some other time.

baby and i are going to be master travelers after this trip.  although we're only doing the first two legs alone.  denver to cancun we'll be will the whole hillier family and cancun to california i'll have my honey.  so that will be nice. 

i love skype.  tonight i got on skype with my blogging sister, emmy.  i helped her pick out what to wear to her work party tomorrow night.  and then she watched me blow in baby's face for a while.  i'm sure the makers of skype totally had this in mind when they invented it.

honey is on a flight to bangkok.  only 14 days til i see him again!

okay i need to go to bed now. 

ps- remember how my birthday was last month? did i ever tell you how i forgot about my own birthday? it's true. i woke up that morning and went about my normal activities. chris said goodmorning and then went on a run. it wasn't until i got on facebook that i remembered it was my birthday. yes, you heard that right. i didn't know it was my birthday until i saw it on facebook. good job carrie. you get an A+ for that. chris remembered while he was out running so when he came home he made me breakfast in bed. i thought it was hilarious that neither of us remembered. i guess that's what happens when you get old. man, i sure miss that guy.

major success story

and before i go play monopoly deal with my honey i just have to quickly share this monumental success story from today!  the three of us were on our way home from the christmas creche exhibit at church when i leaned towards the back seat and got a whiff of a very unmistakably distinct stench.  but i looked under both of baby's legs and her sleeper and carseat were both dry.  how could this be?  am i wrong?  is it just gas?  but after sniffing her (and checking her) every two minutes til we got home i thought i had to for sure be right.

when i got home, i got her out of her carseat (which was still dry!) and took her to her changing table.  after unbuttoning her sleeper i got the best surprise of the day!  a diaper filled (but not leaking in any way!) with lots of baby poop!  WOW!  i worked just like i hear it does for all of the cool moms!  i was floored.  seriously 100% amazed.  it was GLORIOUS!  i can't wait for it to happen again!  i honestly can't remember this every happening before... in her carseat too!  almost too good to be true. 

so to all of you ungrateful moms out there moaning about changing your kid's poopy diaper.  be grateful it is contained (if not, i feel for you) and smile to yourself that you get to enjoy this experience far more frequently than i do.

yikes, i just spotted a spider.  i'm going to run upstairs now.

mauling the innocent

like a wild animal.

ps- let the major separation anxiety begin.  honey leaves in 24 hours for thailand.  i can seriously feel the blood pumping through my veins.  ugh.  at least i get to keep my baby but ugh, i sure hate this feeling.