our trip to costco

this morning we tagged along on kirstyn and michaela's trip to costco. as always, my baby ate at least a pound of treats from kirstyn's purse. this is getting to be a real problem. when i asked kirstyn if she thought i starved my kid she said something along the lines of "well, yes, it crossed my mind." great.

i love carts that fit two kids!

she's not grumpy... she just munching on a little fruit stick. 

what happy costcoers!

michaela is saying "geez!  look at the camera already!"

it was lots of fun.

royal gorge

we went to the royal gorge. cross that one off my colorado bucket list.

peekaboo and byu

i can not get enough of this kid. the other day she found my mixing bowls (she normally only goes for certain cabinets and this is not one of them) and kept putting this blue bowl over her head. and taking it off. and putting it on her head again. over and over and over. while walking around and around and around the kitchen.

tonight i was domestic and i did not take a single picture so you'll just have to take my word for it. we had people (kirstyn and jake, chelsey and casey, kelly and mike, bonnie and geoff, kelsey and danny) from our ward and all their kids (we had 7 kids total) and my brother in law brian (since his wife, kelsey, was working) over to watch the byu game which was strangely exciting and ended with a win! all very unusual, but much appreciated. i was able to clean (well, i vacuumed) and make food. we had chips, doritos, an assortment of chocolate candy minis, 7 layer bean dip, bruschetta, rice krispie treat ice cream bars, redvines, chocolate licorice, hot wings and drinks. my dear christopher kept thinking i was inviting too many people, but little did he know that kirstyn and i got a bit carried away at walmart last night (it was 11 o'clock for goodness sake!) and i bought enough food for all of our friends, plus the entire byu team, should they plan on a post game celebration with us here in parker.

anyways, i was domestic. i'm getting much better at being domestic. not that my performance is improving, but my anxiety is significantly decreasing.  and i consider that a success.

which, speaking of anxiety... last night, as i was making my grocery list, just minutes before i was to leave to pick up kirstyn for our walmart trip, my honey and i were watching big bang theory and WE SAW A MOUSE! in our house! a mouse in our house! i jumped up to higher elevation under the pretext of having a better lookout point, and honey waged the battle up close and personal. after 30 minutes of way too much laughter and ridiculousness, the mouse disappeared and i left. luckily, i got a text later from my honey exclaiming, "i swept him out the door!" (i had told him to chase it with a broom because that's what they did in the old black and white movies) and it was a highlight of my night. it was a fun, bonding experience really. i'm just glad it wasn't a spider. i mean, that would have been no laughing matter. by the way, you better believe i picked up a few mouse traps last night to strategically place around our house. this could have been disasterous if my honey wasn't home with me.

oh my goodness is it really 12:30?!?! yikes. time for bed. i am SOOOOO excited for conference tomorrow!

and ps- not that you care, but i even had a homemade fall wreath and a pumpkin to festivize our front door. i should get bonus points for that.

our other home at home

we spend a lot of time in this ball pit. A WHOLE LOT. it would be our home away from home except it's here at home. so it's just a more concentrated home at home.

this morning baby enjoyed a nice playdate while i went to a book of mormon class at church. and we went to the park with kirstyn and michaela and the weather was gorgeous. baby loves slides these days. she's loving everything more these days... well, the last two days. i guess her new molar isn't hurting so much anymore because she's gotten her appetite back, she's sleeping through the night again, and she's not so fussy anymore. she's just happier. and cuter for that matter.

and in case you were wondering, we had taco soup, corn bread, and a spinach salad with mandarin oranges, craisins, and pecans tonight for dinner. ordinarily it would have just been taco soup, but my christopher's grandparents are in town visiting and we had them over for dinner. hence the cornbread and salad. you know how it is... gotta go all out for the grandparents in law.

has anyone ever read saving ceecee honeycutt? i'm picking it up from the library tomorrow.

pictures of playing

we do a lot of things during play time.

we read.

we lose our balance and fall down.  and look like this.

we climb on things.

we make this face.  frequently.

it's a blast.

looking rough

i love how much you can tell from a simple picture.

these toes have done some crawling.

my baby the redneck

whoops.  

i let my child get sunburned.  bad.  we were outside in our courtyard just playing on a blanket, taking pictures, and hanging out.  we do this at least once or twice a week.  well nothing has ever happened before but it sure did yesterday!  i blame california.

and of course chris freaked out like a first time parent when we saw.  i told him it would be gone by morning knowing full well it wouldn't.  yup, still looks just like it did last night in the pictures.

the good news though?  baby has no clue.

simon says

my baby does anything i want her to.

just watch.


smile!

sit still.

touch your toes.

correct your posture!

look out the window.

get on your hands and knees.

give me ten pushups.

and be happy about it!

look awkward.

get into a strangely modified downward dog.

see?  i told you.  shame on you for being skeptical.


okay, stretch out and smile again!

i love this kid.

flat hair

remember that post about baby's fabulously downy fro puff hair?  well, here's the follow-up update because we're no longer sporting that style.

two weeks ago, baby's hair started filling in like crazy.  i mean i noticed it from day to day that week.  people say that you don't notice the changes and growing up of your own baby because it's so gradual and while i'm finding that to be very very true, this hair growth has been an exception.  it was fast and noticeable and lasted a whole week start to finish.

her hair went from this sweet 80's fro puff,

to this sleeker, more sophisticated style,

in a week!

ps- we're not ALWAYS in bed.  i have to take all of her hair pictures in front of the tv because the lighting and the black backdrop offer perfection when it comes to capturing her little blond baby hairs.  although we do log quite a few hours in bed so baby can practice sitting and scooting and neither of us have to endure our hard, terrible, scratchy student housing carpet floors.

and do not judge me for that crap on the dresser and tv.  FOR THE LIFE OF ME, i can not get my precious husband to put his clothes anywhere other than on top of his dresser.  about a year ago though i decided that it would be good for my ocd, and consequently our marriage, if this problem disappeared.  so there are 3.5 drawers in his dresser and i have designated one whole drawer as the "junk drawer."  so as soon as he puts his clothes on the dresser, i slide them off and stuff them into his junk drawer.  problem solved.  i used to either throw them in the hamper or put them away in his closet but he didn't like that.  anyways, now, i don't have to look at them and my sweet christopher is not complaining that he doesn't know what i've done with his clothes.  clothes on dresser --> clothes in drawer.  how wonderfully simple.  but sadly, i just wasn't on top of my game this time.

want to hear the saddest story of my life?  honey and baby and i were at church on sunday waiting for sunday school to start when my friend's husband turns around and starts talking to us about who knows what.  during the conversation he comments on our child's super blonde hair (not sure why it shows up so much darker in pictures) and then asks if there are any blonds in the family.  i wanted to cry.  i'm supposed to be blonde.  i've always been blonde and i know i haven't seen the sun in the past five years and my hair has gotten darker but still, can't i at least pass for a really dirty blonde?  if i'm not blonde then what am i?!?!  i know i can't be brunette.  that would just be wrong.  talk about an identity crisis.  just thinking about it makes me die a little inside.  

but to end on a happy note, my beautiful blonde child.  she's even smiling in this picture.

probably because no one's accusing her of being a brunette.

dear liza, it's been a busy day

this afternoon my non blogging sister, liza, called as i was walking out of the post office.  she was asking me why we haven't talked much lately and i told her i've been pretty busy.  so i told her a few things as i walked out of the post office, across the street, got baby in the car, and got myself buckled and the car started.  then i told her i'd have to call her back when i got to my next place since it's illegal to talk on the phone while driving.  our conversation lasted 2 minutes and 3 seconds.  i didn't even call her back.  because i got busy.

turns out, we need more than two arms after all.

so dear liza, here's what i did today.

wait, i'll be right back, i have to get the laundry.

okay.  laundry is put away now.

here's my day.  yesterday evening someone in the ward sent out an email saying they needed someone to watch their kid from 10-2.  at 10:30 i wrote back saying if she still needed someone then i was available.  she needed someone.  so that was part of my day today.

baby woke up at 6 15.  gave her a pacifier.  my alarm went off at 8 30.  i could hear baby babbling.  i checked email and stuff in bed until 9 when i got baby up and fed her.  got her dressed.  got me dressed.  at 9:45 the kid came over and we walked over to the bizkids playdate which took until 10:05 at least i swear because that little boy is the slowest walker you've ever met.  holy cow i couldn't believe how slow he was.  but he was incredibly easy and well behaved so i really can't complain.  

after the playdate we went home and i tried to feed baby but really she was just wanting to go to bed.  she's coming off of another nursing strike and still isn't back to full and focused feedings yet.  anyways, she went down at noon and i took the little boy out into our courtyard to play but he's so self sufficient he was perfectly alright playing on his own.  so with the exception of a little swinging and a little bike riding, he didn't need my help at all and i spent my time taking pictures of him.  which was tricky.  because he moves fast.  so i was basically just chasing him around the whole time.  we did come in for a few minutes to grab a bite to eat.  but then we were back to playing.

baby woke up a little after 2 so i got her up and put her in the jumper while i changed this kid's SECOND poopy diaper (i don't remember signing up to change two of those), which is when his mom came to the door.  i was happy to report he was an absolute dream to watch.  i was also happy he is a very skinny kid because i was able to fit him in to one of baby girl's size 3's since we were not planning on needing to change him so much and there were not enough diapers in the bag.  

anyways!  they left at 2:15 or so and i fed baby and we were on our way to the post office which is when we talked to you!  then it took at least 15 or 20 minutes to get up to menlo park and when i got to the store i realized i did not have enough hands to carry a carseat, hold jeans, rummage through the racks, and hold a phone.  so i was a really bad sister and didn't call you back.  ;-(  i was also kind of sad that you didn't call me and tell me how you were too anxious to wait for my call.  

i got two pairs of jeans.  one pair regular, one pair skinny jeans.  we'll see if i ever have the guts to wear them since they make my hips look absolutely enormous and they make me look like i have a tiny little bubble butt. BUT they were cheap and they are trendy and i'm bored with my clothes so i thought it would be a good way for me to go out of my comfort zone a little bit whole lot.  while i was there i tried on a million different pairs of jeans.  apparently they have a ten minute limit for the dressing rooms since there are only two.  i got about 4 warnings two of the times i was in there.  in my defense, one of the times, i spent absolutely forever cleaning up baby's terrible blowout.  it was like her poop reverted back to newborn poop, which i had been really glad to say goodbye to a few weeks ago.  

so after spending three, yes, THREE hours shopping for jeans, we were out of there!  but we stopped by safeway on the way home because i needed milk and mozzarella cheese.  but as soon as i walked in the door i forgot that i only needed those two things and i proceeded to spend forever in safeway going up and down the aisles, several of them two and three times.  it was kind of ridiculous.  i finally got out of there with some produce, milk, mozzarella cheese, and london broil that was half off.  and maybe a few other things too.  christopher and i randomly watched the first few episodes of jamie oliver's food revolution on youtube a few days ago and are rededicating ourselves to try and eat less processed foods.  it's semi working.  on monday when we went down the cereal aisle at walmart, christopher picked up a few kashi cereals.  and then some captain crunch.... but really, we didn't get a lot of the junk that we normally do.

i got to the car and realized that it had been over five hours since baby woke up -whoops- and over 4.5 since she'd eaten - whoops again- so of course she fell asleep on the drive home.  she napped in her carseat while i unloaded groceries, ate a banana, and took out the trash, diaper pail, and recycling.  when she woke up i nursed her, fed her solids, and nursed her again before getting her ready for bed and putting her down at 8:30.

then i put in a load of laundry (with her dirty clothes, carseat cover, my new jeans, etc. that all needed to be washed) did some dishes, cleaned the counters, made/ate some broccoli, cleaned up more of our apartment, hung up wet clothes and put the rest in the dryer.  i also did some researching on the babywise mom blog about solids feeding schedules.  and then i started writing this post!  

so even though that doesn't catch you up on my weekend like we'd originally planned, it catches you up on my day.  so now tomorrow we don't have to spend our valuable talk time on any of this... assuming you even still read my boring blog posts... and can talk about things that are more fun and interesting than the random things that come together to make my day.

love you lots and sweet dreams.

baby's dirty clothes

when i got home.  although by that time she was asleep.  and really it had only been 2.5 hours since i changed her diaper.

passed out while i put groceries away.

somehow in all of this my purse got 100% disorganized.  i had brought that banana to eat while i was out but i forgot about it.  so i ate it when i got home.  defeats the purpose of bringing a snack to go.  crazy how fast they bruise and turn brown but it still tasted fine.

okay goodnight.