pig tails!

it could be a while before this style becomes a regular but it was fun to try out for the morning.

videos

there are two videos.  they're not very good but they're what i've got.  

from monday night football

and sorry this one's messed up.  i didn't realize i was holding the camera sideways.  and there's no way to fix it after it's recorded.  so just lay your little left ear on your shoulder and click play.  see?  not hard.

i need to take more videos.  if only i was as good at taking millions of videos as i am about taking millions of pictures...

monday monday

i actually really like mondays.  i totally intended to get out this morning.  i had stuff on hold to pick up at the library and since we got in town late saturday night, we were out of food and in desperate need of some grocery shopping.

but none of that happened.  instead, i got a lot of stuff done around the house, cleaning, organizing, laundry, dishes, unpacking.... and a lot of playing with baby girl.  she is blowing me away with new things every day.  i really can't keep up with it all.  but i'm trying.

baby girl loves lids and caps.  if it comes off and on, she wants to try her hand at it.

she loves to pretend with a mixing bowl and spoon so i let her do that while i unloaded dishes.  she'd moved on to the great room when i looked down and saw that she'd put her spoon here since she was done playing with it.  amazing.
then she came back in and saw me putting away those pots and pans and she grabbed the spoon, handed it to me, and waited while i put it away in the drawer.  seriously?  i love this kid.

she loves herself too.  every mirror she has access to shows evidence of countless mirror kisses.  lately, she doesn't like giving us smooches, but she still freely smooches that baby in the mirror.

i am in love with this pjs.  they're from costco and the the softest thing you've ever felt.  my wonderful mother got these matching pj's for baby and her cousin skye.  they're going to look so cute and matchy when we're in atlanta for christmas!

we haven't decorated for christmas yet (aside from having our two undecorated trees set up) but i hung up a candy cane and baby was in complete awe.

in case you forgot, this is my handsome honey.

baby girl likes to put things on her head.  my favorite was two seconds after i took this shot when she walked into that arm of the sofa right there.  it was hilarious.

i know the pjs are huge but she's too tall for the next size down.  and pair that with her hair.  she looks like a little orphan baby.  if orphans wear purple snowman pjs that is.

i am in love.  she has such a tender little heart.

watching monday night football.  she really enjoys football for some reason.  i think it's because people clap so often.

so that was a bit of my monday.  we listened to christmas music all day on pandora.  we danced, we sang, we read books, we played pretend.  it was happier than an old movie.

baby girl kept doing things to make me laugh (like how she used to do sign language for thank you, but then replaced it with blowing a kiss...they're similar... and now sometimes she just makes the puckering kiss noise when i ask her to say thank you) and i never noticed it before but i throw my head back when i laugh.  so on went the cycle.  baby being silly to make me laugh, me throwing my head back in laughter, baby throwing her head back to laugh.  which of course just made me laugh even harder.  i need to get a video of it.  it is hilarious.

baby girl loves to read books now and loves for me to read them to her.  but she's very particular about which books.  we have a million but there are only a few at a time that she loves and wants to read.  she asked me to read this penguin book (it's like the monkeys jumping on the bed book) and before i even got to that page, i looked down and she was shaking her finger.  and she continued to shake her finger every time we got to the "no more penguins sliding on the ice!" part.  and now honey and i have taught her to shake her finger when she says "no, no, no!" and it is the cutest thing you've ever seen.

she goes in and out of it because everything is a stage and a phase, but right now she says no in so many different intonations to signify how she feels.  a high pitched no when we keep nagging at her, a lower more forceful no the very first time we ask her.  saying no no no no repeatedly while waving her arm.  it's all so specific to the situation.  and she doesn't say "yes" these days although that's the answer to everything we ask her.  she nods her head.  and if it's "would you like some milk" it's nodding her head while signing please.  adorable.

so anyways, she was doing all of these things and being the happiest, cutest, funnest little playmate i could ever ask for.  she slept in til after 10 and then napped from 2-5 while i showered and read my book.  she was just in such a good mood and so happy to be home after our trip which was such a relief because i got a little worried after a conversation i had with my sister-in-law, kelsey, on our way back from the airport saturday night.  she asked me about baby and her binky so i was telling her how baby really doesn't use the binky as much as it seems because she only sees us on trips and stuff and we use the binky a ton while we're traveling.  but i told her that at home, i really only give baby a pacifier at church if she's getting too noisy or during the night if she wakes up and can't go back to sleep.  or occasionally at the tail end of a really long trip of errands or grocery shopping.  other than that, she never sees it and never asks for it.  so kelsey was asking if baby girl has trouble adjusting.  because honestly, on this trip to branson, baby got it a lot because she spent so much time being confined in planes, buses, stroller, carseat, laps during shows, our small hotel room, you name it.  and she was missing naps and staying out way past her bedtime.  and she was sleeping in a pack n play which has never been a strong suit of hers.  so it totally got me worried, baby's never had trouble adjusting before, but this was our first real trip in four months and that's a long time considering how fast she changes.  but this little girl stole my breath yet again, because when she's home, she knows she's home.  no adjustment needed. she's going to sleep happily without a binky, and her appetite is back to normal (it was touch and go while we were traveling) and once again she's eating more than i do.  no telling how long this "no adjustment needed" thing will continue, but in the meantime, i'm extremely grateful.

so my day was perfect in every way possible.  my honey got home and actually was in a really good mood!  we all had so much fun as a family (even watched some monday night football) until baby's bedtime and then honey took her upstairs for bed and i finally got some groceries.  my life is really great, but today was just that much above the rest.  can i really not just bottle this up and drink it every day?  i hate that time slips through my fingers like this but i love that i keep getting more.

monday monday, i sure love mondays.

open big!

lately, baby girl has been playing pretend kitchen with bowls and spoons and she likes to give me a taste of whatever she's whipping up.  before church we were playing and she was doing this very thing.  and y'know how everyone in the human race opens their mouth up huge when they're feeding a kid with a spoon?

well, this is what baby girl looked like every time she lifted the spoon up to feed me...

so i guess we're born with it.

because i love you

fill in the blank. my _______ went to branson, and all i got were pictures of these lousy sweatshirts.

i couldn't resist snapping a couple pictures of some of these gems from the silver dollar city amusement park gift shop. ;-)

one

two

three, four

five

six, seven

so go ahead and tell me. which one do you wish i'd brought back for you?

ps- i am sooo excited to be sleeping in my own bed again tonight.  and mostly excited that it'll be far away from baby.  why do i have so much trouble sleeping in close proximity to my baby?!?!

pps- thank goodness our trip home was without complications.  i don't know if i would have survived another travel catastrophe like monday's.

craigslist: lost in translation

can you see it now?

to saravanan:

i'm not really sure this is what i would call an "elegant dining room table." especially when "foldable" is the only other discriptor. 

might i recommend using an english dictionary or thesaurus next time to find more accurate adjectives for your craigslist items?

yours truly,

CARRIE

a thanksgiving first

2011... my first non-homemade thanksgiving dinner.

also baby's first. granted, she's only had one other thanksgiving dinner and it consisted entirely of milk. but you better believe it was 100% homemade.

another reason to love craigslist

posted for $20...

Little Tikes family kitchen play set. Mostly complete. I have the little iron and phone, but dont have the matching frying pan. For those children lacking imagination, it has its own sound effects too! Voice over options in english, spanish and french. Fancy..

Available for pickup in Parker; evenings and weekends. Email Bill for details/directions

"hi bill, i'm emailing about your family kitchen play set.  my tri-lingual child is lacking imagination and i think this fancy toy would be perfect.  let me know if it's still available k thanks."




for those children lacking imagination?  please.  that is downright hilarious.

the first time frontier failed me. and royally.

yesterday was kind of horrific.  it would have been a bad day for me except it was all so ridiculous i couldn't help but laugh.  seriously.  i couldn't make this stuff up if i tried.

it started out great.  this week is hillier family fun in branson missouri.  every year my honey's family goes on a christmas trip and we get to go with them!  we've been to cancun twice (in 2008 and 2010) and grand cayman once.  this year they decided to switch things up and go to branson missouri which is a show town in the middle of nowhere.  it's like a senior citizens/family version of vegas.

anyways, our flight was at 11 or something and we didn't have to leave our house til 9:15 so we spent the morning getting ready and everything was going really great.  baby slept in while showered and got packed.  i guess i'm getting better at packing because after i'd packed everything for myself and for baby i still had a third of my suitcase available and half of baby's bag available.  and i was even bringing a weeks worth of diapers for her and packing for cold weather!  i was amazed.  this never happens.  normally i have to sit on my bags to get them closed.  actually, my suitcase zippers are all broken because of that.  i should ask for a new carryon bag for christmas but i'm a little nostaligic about this one.  it's been all over the world with me.

anyways, kirstyn picked us up and dropped us off at the airport.  we went through security just fine.  got to the gate.  life was good.

waiting.

and then it got messy.  chris's grandparents flight was delayed for three hours because of "computer issues."  it was supposed to come to denver and they were on the denver to branson missouri flight with us but they obviously weren't going to make the connection.  this is bad because there is only one flight a day from denver to branson.

then, i asked the frontier lady at the desk for a plastic bag for our carseat (they normally offer me one when i get a gate check tag but this time didn't) and the lady said they didn't have any.  she had no people skills and didn't seem easy to please so i went to a different frontier desk to ask a nicer looking lady.  she didn't have any but she called frontier check in to see if someone could bring me one.  apparently they were swamped and wouldn't be able to before we had to board.  but she said "well, let me take a look at your flight and see if i can get your daughter a seat.  she can ride in her carseat and then you don't have to worry about not having a bag.  GREAT!  THANKS FRONTIER KAREN!  I LOVE YOU!  so she's doing that when considerate karen says "i just need to check and make sure i'm okay to do this for you."  she talks to someone named bonnie who tells her "i'm working on something, don't mess with the seats."  karen looks sad, gets off the phone and tells me i'll need to go talk to bonnie about getting a seat for my baby.  then she points to bonnie.  the initial lady i talked to with no people skills.  greeeaaaattttt, now bonnie knows i went behind her back.

i talk to bonnie.  hey, karen said my daughter could probably have a seat for her carseat.  bonnie says "no, that won't work, we don't have two seats together.  i'm trying to work on getting a family together that currently has scatter seats"  so i tell her, actually i'm flying with a larger group so we could split up and sit individually so i could sit with my daughter and this family could sit together.  just tell me where the open seat is and we'll make it work."  then she switches it up on me and says, no, there isn't ANY free seat.  i tell her there for sure HAS to be free seats because i know people not able to make the flight.  and she says, oh, but they for sure will make the flight.  and i say, is this the two people coming from salt lake?  and she says "no, we already took them off the list because there is absolutely no way they'll make it (she'd just told my mother in law there was a good chance they'd get on the flight with us and not to worry).  so i bring up that since two of our party (the grandparents) aren't going to make it on this flight because they're plane is so delayed, can my baby have one of those available seats.  she just keeps saying "nonononononoblahblahblahblahnononono all of the seats are full and there are zero seats for your baby."   okay bonnie, whatever.

i walk off, tell chris.  he goes to bonnie and tells her to make a phonecall and get us a carseat bag.  she makes a fake phonecall, literally picks up the phone and pretends to talk to someone.  chris calls her out on it, she denies it, chris gets frustrated and leaves.  he goes to customer service and finds a carseat bag, puts our carseat in it and then carries this giant thing up to evil bonnie to show her that he was right and she was wrong and why did she lie to him blah blah blah.  kind of embarassing but kind of funny.  my mother in law said my honey gets that quality from her.  ; )

so we think that's the end of the story?  we are wrong.  everyone has boarded the plane and there are at least TEN to FIFTEEN empty seats on this plane!!!  THREE of them together, in the same row as my mother in law!  i was so mad i wanted to storm off that plane and punch evil bonnie or at least have her look around at the fifteen open seats that my kid's carseat could have occupied.  SERIOUSLY?!?!

then i heard the flight was only an hour long and i was like "y'know what, who cares, it's an hour, and it's nap time, my kid will sleep."  well, the flight was much longer than one hour.  maybe even more than two and a half hours.  because we got to branson and apparently there was only a half mile of visibility (as had been the case all day) and they needed at least a whole mile of visibility to land.  my question: WHY DID WE TAKE OFF IF WE KNEW WE COULDN'T LAND?!?!  anyways, we circled in the air for-ev-er before they flew us to kansas city. then we landed and waited for two hours for buses to come get us.

getting on the bus.  john's skateboard backpack held baby's stroller nicely.

then we drove OVER FOUR HOURS on a bus (with a twenty minute break... great, because we totally wanted to lengthen this experience!) to branson.  we were in the very back of the bus.  i was sitting next to baby and her carseat (which was not secured in any way... why don't buses believe in seatbelts?!?!) and my honey was sitting behind me next to a guy our age that fought in the war and has post traumatic stress disorder.  my honey normally doesn't talk much but he was loving this guy.  one of honey's best friends growing up went to kuwait and was sent home home with PSTD and schizophrenia.  so honey really knew how to handle this guy.  they talked the whole four hours and it was hilarious.  he told so many stories about the cambodian mafia and being tortured and being in foreign prisons but you never really know what's real and what's not.  honey and i both majored in psychology so this was all very interesting to us instead of scary or intimidating.  the guy told chris he was part norwegian and part cherokee so chris started chanting with him.  it was just the two of them but they got a pretty good "branson" chant going for a while.  ;-)

so as i said, we were at the very back of the bus where it was super bumpy and pretty hot.  baby had already taken two interrupted naps during the day but was getting really tipsy (surefire sign she's tired) and cuddly so i was held her.  and then wouldn't you know it, but just ten minutes from the end of the bus ride, she spit up a little on my shirt sleeve.  poor baby, so i turned around to tell chris and then it was like that scene from sixth sense.  projectile vomit. vomit, vomit, vomit over and over and EVERYWHERE.  it COMPLETELY covered the front of my shirt and the bottom half of my hair.  SOAKING wet.  and i had no extra shirt with me and since we were in a bus, and my bag was down underneath and also since we were in a bus, there was no sink or running water in the bathroom.  just some prepackaged moist towelettes, which did nothing for my situation.  the situation was completely hopeless.  i stepped out of the bathroom (apparently everyone had been hiding their noses under their shirts to avoid the overwhelming aroma of nasty milk baby vomit) and asked chris's two younger brothers if they wanted to give me their shirt (who cares that it was freezing cold and pouring rain outside?!?!) and luckily the older of the two (john) had a giant sweatshirt i could have.  so i took off my soaking wet shirt and put the sweatshirt on.  but that did nothing for my hair which looked like i'd dipped it in chunky confetti cupcake batter.  so i just had to pull it back and wrap the dry hair around the wet hair to contain the vomit in one super nasty bun on the top of my head.

finally, the bus stopped and we got off and waited in the airport baggage claim area (suuuper tiny airport, it was deserted except for the two busloads of people).  turns out, baby girl was also pretty covered in puke but it had mostly dried and contained no chunks... still smelled disgusting though.  we got our rental cars and lugged everything through the rain and got them all loaded with our bags and carseat and everything.  we were off!

chris's parents and two brothers were in one car and honey, baby, and me were in the other.  we were on our way to the hotel (30 minute drive or so) but had to stop for food.  sonic was the only option.  i don't handle large quantities of fast food very well late at night.  especially while traveling.  i always have a hard time eating when i travel.  we drive through the slowest sonic on the planet, get our food and head to the grocery store across the street.  baby fell asleep in the car (fabulous, a third nap, and at 10:30 at night... will she sleep tonight?) so honey stayed with her and i went to help gather groceries for the week.  the place was void of any other customers and we were still gathering groceries when the store closed at 11.  the grumpy cashier was anxious for us to get out of there.

k, to the hotel we go!  check in, pull around, lug all of our bags and the million bags of groceries (food for the week for 12 people!) through the pouring rain and up to our room.  home sweet home... kinda, but it really felt like it.  we unloaded the groceries, tried to get baby to eat (still wouldn't.  apparently she has trouble eating while traveling too!), gave her a bath, and got her in bed.  then honey went to bed.  then i showered and washed off all of the crusted vomit, blow dried my hair (i cant sleep with wet hair) and remembered baby's spit up clothes.  i didn't want them to stain so i washed them, by hand, in the bathroom sink and hung them to dry.

dried crusty hair (with chunks), right before i got in the shower

at 2:02 am i got in bed and went to sleep.

an unexpected birthday present!

a week ago last sunday, baby girl decided she would like to start waking up around 7 instead of her usual between 8 30 and 9 30.  this lasted for a whole week but ended on my birthday.  hooray!  i woke up to the sound of a text (from my blogging sister emmy!) but i could hear that my phone was in the kitchen.  this immediately woke me up all the way because, weird, i for sure had my phone on my nightstand when i went to bed.  did baby steal my phone?  does that mean she's awake?  so christopher must be home already.  did he get her out of bed?

well, yes he was home from his church meetings, but baby girl was actually still sleeping.  he'd stolen my phone!

so when i went into the kitchen he said "okay, i have news for you and you're going to really love it or really hate it."

long pause.

"you're not speaking in church today."

WHAT?!?!  well, apparently bishop forgot that members of the stake were coming to speak in our ward and they couldn't be rescheduled.  so all of us regular speakers assigned had to be bumped to three sundays from now.  GREAT!

so that's why he'd taken my phone, because he didn't know if i'd set my alarm and he wanted me to be able to sleep in on my birthday.  i did a happy dance and then ate the french toast breakfast he was planning on serving me in bed.  then baby woke up and the three of us all played like a precious little happy family and it was just marvelous.

and i opened up my present.  and it was great.  honey got me a fire station for my christmas village!  i don't really care about presents and so it works out well that he can just give me a village piece for my birthday so i can enjoy it during the christmas season.  he also got a smaller church building and the most adorable little hot chocolate (and cookie) stand, which is seriously amazing and i love it way more than the fire station even though it's so much smaller.  so anyways, we didn't get any pictures of it but i'll need to take some when we get back home so we can remember.  we decided we're going to get little stickers for the bottom of all of the village pieces so we can mark the date and know when each one was added.  i think it'll be fun years down the road to know that sort of stuff.

and then church was great and i wore my new brown boots and a new dress to church which was fun.  and i didn't even mess up the songs at all while i was leading music during sacrament meeting.  and all in all it was just a real nice birthday.

pray for me

i'm speaking in church.

pictures from today

cell phone pics from story time when baby girl kept emptying out and cleaning up the crayons.

after she got her hand stamped with a red ice cream cone!

and then a bunch of pictures just hanging out and playing around the house...

new favorite activity: standing on chairs

and her appreciation of books continues to grow

she would have been a really great pioneer.  doesn't she look like she's be a natural with a handcart?

in case you were wondering... this is what dancing looks like.

and this is sweetness

she likes to find things on the floor and carpet and clean them up.  clean them up = giving them to me.

i didn't include it in the picture but it was a tiny piece of paper.  why thank you baby girl!

running in the door to tell me about her day at school.  just kidding.  but i do feel like at the rate we're going, that'll be happening next week.

i love that she has enough hair to hold this in without a headband.  headbands are getting tricky with her unruly hair.

she kinda looks to me like a little orphan child.  do you see it?  with the wispy hair and puppy dog eyes?

and believe it or not i was actually selective about which pictures to post.  is there some sort of rehab for people that take this many pictures of their kid every day?

messy eater

have i mentioned yet that baby girl is starting to pick her own clothes?  because she is and although i'm temporarily amused that this came so young, i am very very very sad about this.  i have way too much fun picking her clothes.  and besides, she picks the same few things every single time.  and they all have hoods.  anyways, she picked out her outfit for today.  and was sooo happy getting dressed in it.  it's funny because i used to think she hated getting dressed and putting clothes on.  then i discovered that's only the case for the clothes i pick out.  if it's something she wants to wear, she can throw a fit until i help her get it on.  it's pretty hilarious.  my mom said that my three siblings never cared what she dressed them in, but that i had a preference from really early on.  looks like baby girl inherited that gem of a quality.

for some reason she can't stand hats, but she loooooves hoods.  explain that one to me because i. don't. get. it.

dinner tonight was chicken enchiladas and sweet potatoes.  i put tons of full fat sour cream on her enchiladas to try to beef her up.  she thought it was lotion and started rubbing it all over her hands and arms.

seriously, she looked so confused as to why it wasn't rubbing in and disappearing.  but really it amazes me that she's doing so many things that i've never taught her.  things that she just sees me do, and tries to do herself.  she is so smart.  she blows my mind every day with all of the things she does.  she is so aware and communicative.  she is also much more obedient than what i would have expected from her at this age.

this totally reminded me of the once common banana hair.

need a closeup?

yum.

my honey went to wyoming for the day.  he left before i woke up and doesn't get back til 1 30 am... one more hour!  anyways, i know i'm just imagining it because baby really has no way of knowing, but i feel like she's in a better mood for me on nights when my christopher won't be around.  it's like her little gift to me and when it's just the two of us we're extra special buddies.  she was so fun and so sweet and such a joy to be around from the time she woke up from nap until the time she went to bed.  we had a snack, went on a walk and visited jodi, played in the yard while i talked on the phone with my non blogging sister liza, ate dinner, had a much needed bath, ran around naked (just baby), read a million and one books (we're branching out from that one halloween book that used to the only one she'd read!), played chase and snuggle games, cleaned up, brushed teeth, and went to bed.  it was great.  she didn't even cry during bath (she always gets cold and hates when i rinse her hair and water gets in her eyes) which is a really huge deal.

anyways, i'm so excited for us to play again tomorrow.  she's such a treat.

learning new things

at story time today, this little girl started spinning around in circles! on purpose! without falling! it was amazing. where do kids learn how to do that stuff?

we've also conquered (well, "conquered" could be a bit generous) what does a cat say? "meow" and what does a dog say "woof woof woof." it's so cute.

and this deserves it's own post but i know i wouldn't ever get around to it, so it'll just get a small mention right here... my baby helps me clean! and i don't mean that "my baby helps me do laundry by unfolding all of the piles i've just folded." i mean if i tell her to put her toothbrush away, she does. if i tell her to put the tupperware back, she can do that too.

and this is one of my favorite experiences from the past few days...  in my bathroom, the bottom pull out drawer holds my straightener, blowdryer, and curling iron, in that order - from top to bottom. obviously... because when was the last time i ever used a curling iron?!?! so the yesterday after i showered, i plugged in my straightener and blowdryer and was drying my hair when i saw baby girl open that bottom pull out drawer. next thing i know, she's gone right around the corner and is attempting to plug the curling iron into the little lowdown outlet just outside of our bathroom!

it was adorable.  i watched her do that for the next few minutes while i dried my hair (for safety reasons and because i'm obsessed with my kid) and then could not believe my eyes when she picked it up, carried it into the bathroom, placed it in it's correct bottom pull out drawer, and then closed the drawer like it was no big deal.  if i hadn't seen this whole thing take place, i wouldn't have ever known that she'd even touched my curling iron!  seriously, it was pretty unbelievable to watch.  one of my prouder parenting moments.  everyone learns how to count and say their abc's, but i know far too many adults that never learn the insanely complex art of putting something back where it belongs/you found it.  this is it folks.  real valuable genuine life lessons.  i love it.  it makes my heart pitter patter every time she puts her books away, her clothes in the hamper, a crumb/tissue/scrap piece of paper in the trash... without me even asking or mentioning it.  i love this kid.

but really... i can't get over how fast she's learning.  every single day i think about what karen said in her comment about one of baby girl's talking videos.

and i totally see it happening.  the way she says the same jumble of words sounding like "hereyago" every time she hands me something or how she'll repeat "oh gosh" sometimes when i say it with genuine surprise in my voice.  it is happening so so fast and every day i experience that same panic attack about not being able to physically or emotionally soak up and remember and cherish every second of it all like i would like to.  that's when i have to rely on the fact that parenthood is for all eternity.  thank goodness for that.