an ulterior motive

i know i've said it a million times before, but brady could not have asked for a more adoring sister.  ever.  she is so sweet to him and tolerant of all the inconveniences of having a high maintenance baby brother.  she uses infant directed speech and constantly gives him kisses and hugs and tells him that she loves him (for the record, she has not ever not even one single time told me that she loves me... but brady and pooh bear get that luxury daily) and is willing to do anything that will count as service towards him like throwing away his diaper (she won't throw away her own anymore... just his) and bringing me his burp cloth or binky.  seriously, she is the most amazing big sister ever (except for my two.... love you liza and emmy!) in the whole universe.  so tonight he was hanging out on the floor when i turned around to see him surrounded by baby toys.  two minutes later baby girl came to me with this question...

"when brady gets bigger he can turn on thomas for me?"

and i said yes.

all this time i thought she was just being sweet... turns out she may have ulterior motives.

other notables from tonight:
"brady cries a LOT."  as we attempted to eat dinner while brady screamed in his swing every 5 seconds after his binky would fall out.

"don't throw it in the blocks!  i told you not to do that!" after she found brady's burp cloth in her big bin of legos.  and then she just kept telling me "i told you not to do that!" over and over again.  whoops.  i guess i made a mistake.

so we can conclude that abigail is only nice to brady because she wants him to grow up and turn on thomas for her (i can't blame her, i want him to grow up and kill spiders for me), this little boy is still very angry at life, and i discipline my child too much and she's ocd enough to call me out when i don't follow my own rules.  awesome.

memories from atlanta

i'm so sad.  today colorado life felt like the norm.  i met up with friends at the park for a visiting teaching play date, went to costco and met up with more friends, and then did stuff around the house and for my calling during nap time.  then when honey came home, we hung out as a family... just like normal.  today it didn't feel like i should be waking up in georgia.  and it made me sad.

so before i forget, i'm going to use these few minutes before bed to write down a few things i want to remember.

when we arrived at the atlanta airport, i asked mom to hold abigail while i got her carseat hooked into the car.  two minutes later, as we were driving away i hear abigail whining from the backseat "i want grandma.  i want play grandma!"  ha, it was seriously obsession at first sight.  i know this is was our third trip to atlanta since may, but i wouldn't say abigail was obsessed and attached to my parents like this before.

baby girl also took an instant attachment to my sister, emmy.  to the point that the second night we were there, she woke up crying two hours after i'd put her down to bed (i think she either thought she'd just taken a nap or was scared that she didn't know where she was).  so i went up to her room to comfort her.  as i was holding her and trying to calm her fears her crying and sniffles went from just that to "i want emmy.  i want emmy" cries.  it was precious.  luckily, emmy was nearby and heard her cries.  she came running in, "did someone want aunt emmy?!?!"  baby girl still crying said "yeah" and lunged to em's outstretched arms.  it was all just hilarious and precious.

baby girl also couldn't get enough of my dad.  she asked about grandpa all day long and was so excited when he would get home from work in the evenings.  she also figured out that grandpa would do absolutely anything she asked for and never ever said no.  like seriously.  she also loved when my dad sang to her.  which brings me to my next point about her new favorite song.

baby girl's favorite song is now "sweet baby james."  my dad sings it with his guitar.  and without.  and it is wonderful both ways.  baby girl is obsessed and that is now my ultimate trump card when i need a sure fire bribe for her.  one day baby girl wasn't eating her lunch and she had tons of half eaten food on her tray.  i hate wasting food but knew it would be pointless and gross to save (bananas and gnawed on cheese don't seem to save well) so i tried a few unsuccessful bribes.  then i said "baby girl, if you eat your food all gone then grandpa will sing you sweet baby james!"  so then i got myself some milk and put away some stuff in the kitchen.  when i came back to where she was sitting in the breakfast room, she was on her last bite of banana.  i was shocked.  first that my bribe worked and she actually was eating her food, but second that she was inhaling it at such an alarming rate!  so i ran upstairs to my dad and asked if he could spare a moment to sing sweet baby james to baby girl.  it was awesome.  we've been back several days now and baby girl keeps begging, "i want grandpa sing baby james!"

she also keeps begging for grandma, emmy, and "iwanskyeunwill" which i need to get a video of because it's amusing the way she makes "skye and will" morphed together into something that sounds like just one syllable.

grandmas and old ladies are notorious for always having peppermints in their purses to hand out to small children at church... my mom is notorious for always having granola bars on her at all times.  baby girl learned this quickly and as a result, consumed several granola bars a day while we were visiting.  she insists on holding them herself and one time the fiber one oats and chocolate granola bar got all messy and melty so i told her she couldn't hold it anymore because it was yucky.  after that, normal granola bars were called "bars" and fiber one granola bars were called "yucky bars."  it's somewhat embarrassing in public when your child is loudly requesting yucky bars.  whoops.

in addition to granola bars, baby girl loved my mom's yogurt and granola.  she also ate a lot of string cheese and cashews.  but her favorite was "baby milk,"  which was just regular milk, given to her in an itty bitty cup. like half the size of a small dixie cup and maybe three times the size of a sacrament cup.  it came from a toy set i used to play with as a kid.  i feel like i spent half of the trip refilling that tiny little yellow cup over and over and over again.  now that i think of it, it's like the plastic version of a shot glass... just even smaller.

several times, baby girl requested to sleep in the twin bed in her room instead of in her pack n play.  so i let her.  all times ended with crying except for the last time when she just got out of bed and walked to the door where i was waiting on the other side.  i'm thinking she's not ready for a big bed yet.

baby girl loved the "baby rocking chair" and the "baby rocking chair horse" although honorable mentions go to that little record player toy because that was definitely a favorite as well.

k, i'm out of time but i think that takes care of most of the basics.  this goes down as one of my favorite trips ever.

ps- diana, i'm sorry i suck.  i swear i will call you back.  try not to hate me for being such a terrible friend.  but if you do anyways, i totally don't blame you for it.  xoxo.

shopping comments

thank you sara(h)s for commenting... i feel like you were there.

 

sara snow?  your comment made me laugh out loud.  hard.  like that was so perfectly dead on.

"I can't believe you got all that stuff for $25. That's amazing! Also, my favorite is the striped gray shirt and the dress. It actually looks really good -- though I know what you mean about the Nie Nie style. :) Don't worry, though -- unless you start wearing purple opaque tights with it and some sort of patterned cardigan and a headband with a gigantic flower on it, it'll look fine. :)"

 so thank you for that.  i will definitely make sure to skip the colored tights, argyle cartigan, and gigantic $80 headband flower.  if i start drifting though... make sure to bring me back.  i know you have my best interests at heart.

and ps- the gray striped t shirt is totally my favorite too.  it was also the most expensive thing i bought.  $7 i think.  didn't break the bank but it wasn't an incredible deal either.  ohhh  welllll, it makes me feel pretty and if i can buy confidence for $7 then i'm all for it!

missing honey

my dear christopher left this very early morning for iowa and doesn't get back til tomorrow night.  dangit, i just realized i need to figure out a babysitter for baby girl while i go to young womens.  hmmm.  anyways, i miss my honey.

i was just reading a heartbreaking blog post from my friend, megan.  she has an adorable family and the sweestest love story ever with her handsome husband, wes.  he was recently diagnosed with cancer.  this post made me cry.  can we all just take a minute or two to first, pray for their precious family and second, show some love and appreciation for our loved ones?

thank goodness our church leaders really know what they're talking about.  and thank goodness for general conference.

modern art

aka... kids and technology.

i swear these days kids come out of the womb knowing how to program computers and other fancy stuff i'm not even aware of.  over thanksgiving baby girl held her uncle's ipod for about 7 seconds before she had figured out how to unlock it and open music apps.  seriously?!  

recently, she's taken an interest in our little camera.  it's just a normal point and shoot but she realized that she can watch videos of herself on there and she thinks that's super cool.  

she knows the on/off button and the button to press to get the video to play.  it's kind of impressive because i still get hazy on these things.  and she's only 19 months old.  this morning i woke up when chris did.  he got out and showered, while i moaned about how i stayed up too late and why was i already awake?!  when he turned off the showered i lazed* "baby's awake" and so he quickly put on clothes and then got her out of her crib, changed her diaper, and brought her downstairs to our room to hang out with him while he finished getting ready for work.  i remained in bed.  i actually remained in bed for almost an hour after she woke up which is strange because honey left for work and i remained in bed while baby wandered the house.  i was especially lazy this morning.  that's extreme... even for me.  

anyways, around the time honey was about to leave, baby girl grabbed our little camera from my nightstand.  but instead of watching videos like she normally does, she decided to take some pictures!  so my view wasn't always great, but i kept hearing that picture taking sound over and over while seeing the flash blind baby's poor eyes.  she pressed onward though, photographing much of our first floor.  i remained in bed.  but eventually she brought the camera back to me and this is what i can deduce from the pictures.

close up of baby's face.  i saw it happen.

same and same.

ditto and ditto.  lots of face flashing going on. 

this is in honey's office.  i'm guessing she was following him around as he gathered stuff for work.

office chair and map on wall behind his desk.

same and same.

this is honey's arm.  his shirt is actually misrepresented in this picture because really it's blue and white with no pink undertones.

unidentifiable wall or ceiling.  only baby knows.

our entertainment center back in the master bedroom.  

entertainment center in the great room.

the ceiling of the entryway nook to the master bedroom.

kitchen ceiling and window above the sink.

kitchen ceiling

kitchen still.

for someone like me, who is   (fill in the the blank)  , this is what modern art looks like.  sooo, although i know there are a lot of people with a sincere love of abstract art like the great sara snow** who wrote about it here, i've never been able to get myself to be one of those people.  in case you were wondering.

but if you are a self described trendy, artsy, new york loft, creative, hip, right-brain, organic, wears boho/hobo clothes type of person, would you like to purchase one of my baby's deep, meaningful, trendy, timeless, one of a kind prints?  it would look awesome on that brick wall of your awesome 150 sq/ft manhattan two bedroom apartment that you share with your 3 aspiring writer/actor/musician/artist roommates.  convo me on etsy*** and we can talk about sizing, canvas, frames, and pricing.

*not sure of the real meaning, but i intend for it to mean that i laid in bed and snobbishly moaned to my breadwinner husband to fulfill my motherly and wifely responsibilities.
**  she's really super great.  seriously.
*** i do not have anything to do with etsy.  buying, selling, window shopping, browsing for inspiration... nothing.  absolutely nothing.  you should know better.

come shopping with me!

first, i just have to say thank you for the sympathetic and helpful comments and texts about baby!  she improved as the day went on and then went to sleep happy, slept through the night, and woke up happy.  she did well this morning but cried herself to sleep for her nap.  not sure what the deal is but i'll watch out for more teeth/growth spurts!

_________________________________________

i have many faults.  one of my most annoying is that i can not make decisions.  not in a timely manner or ever. it is a terrible thing indeed.  combine this with my hatred of shoe shopping and my dislike of spending money and we've got a big problem on our hands.  because i am in need of boots.

eventually, i'll probably need a pair of black boots as well as a pair of brown boots.  this is difficult for me because i do not like black but i love everything brown.  hence my wall to wall brown home.  but i know as far as clothes go, black is necessary.  so i will just have to suck it up and put on my big girl booties.

my dreams and aspirations for these future boots of mine would be that these boots would be comfortable, look good with jeans and skirts, and preferably be nice enough for church, without looking out of place at story time, the park, or walmart.  y'know, our usual hangouts.  also, since i'm obsessed with brown, that's the color scheme i follow everyday.  except for wintertime sunday clothes... which unfortunately seems to follow a black sort of scheme.  so if we much choose, the black boots need to be dressier and the brown boots more comfortable and casual.

anyways, on to shopping.  after story time at the library, i dragged my baby to target.  i had originally had my eye on these boots from kohls but the shaft of the boot is surprisingly tall and wide.  so it comes to the middle of my knee, feels a little awkward, and would be impossible to wear without jeans because it would make my baby calves looks like tiny toothpicks.  and i'm already self conscious about my calves, even without giant boots.  so i tried on most every tall boot target had available, which was difficult considering almost none of them were in my size.  the sizes ranged from 7 to 11 so if you think "don't get that pair of boots... they make your feet look enormous!!!" then you might be looking at the size 11.

introducing the brown boots!

and the black boots!

need a closer look?  in no particular order, here are their individual head [foot] shots.

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

and then my baby was yelling at me like she wanted to punch my face.  so i grabbed a few gallons of milk and we went home for lunch.  i know it would have been really great to be able to grab a skirt and haul all those boots to a dressing room to see how they look with my skinny calves but with a kid, there was just no way that was gonna happen.

so what do you think?  i think one is my favorite because i like the color and the buckles and the slouchiness.  but they're not as comfortable because of the heel and i do wish they were taller.  two was the most comfortable and the most expensive at $45.  it also comes in a not so useful brownish gray color.  i wish they came in straight up gray.  and for what it's worth, when i was trying on three, some lady was walking by and stopped to tell me that the boots looked fabulous.  and also that she liked my jeans.  and that she liked baby's pink boots as well.  now that i think about it, she was very complimentary!

k, walk me through it.  rationalize with me.

one year ago

posting pictures of my baby is my way of blogging without really blogging.  it takes way more work to actually think and write.

but i haven't taken any pictures in THREE days (although i actually got out our video camera for the first time in months because our baby was talking like crazy) and so i have no new pictures to post.  oh my heavens, who even knew it was possible?!?!  anyways, since it's 10.23.11 and i have no pictures from today, i looked back and dug up some pictures from 10.23.10 just to flash back and see what we were doing a year ago tonight.

apparently we bundled our baby in a blanket cocoon on that hideous sofa i was sooo happy to leave in california.  california, you deserve it.  i don't miss you.  although i do miss some wonderful people i was sad to leave behind... S.A.R. i'm lookin' at you!

and i guess we also watched a hockey game on honey's crappy laptop since we had no tv.  

man, that is one bald baby.  she's so much cuter now.  and is it just me or does her face look chubby?  those cheeks are enormous, right?

ps- my parents are coming to visit next month!!!  only for a few days but i'm soooooo excited!!!  

pps- one of my favorite friends was telling me yesterday about how her baby can say poop.  i was instantly jealous.  since it's one of my favorite words, i decided to teach my baby how to say "poop" too.  well, i'm happy to report that my baby can say less than 10 words, and one of them is "poop."

i made dinner

dear liza,

thanks for the dinner idea.  i made the tortellini spinach bake in creamy lemon sauce tonight and it was delicious.  chris gave it an 8.6 and i think it was even better than that.  the cheesiness was heavenly and the sauce was so good that i was able to feed baby the spinach from it and she came back for more.  a huge success since she's refused spinach in any form for the past three weeks. anyways, it wasn't as simple as most things on my repertoire, but i think it'll go faster the second time around since i'll have made it before.  so this will go on my steadily expanding "things i can make for dinner" list.

how did you like it?

love,

your adoring littlest sister

diagnose my child: part two

want to play a game?  it's called, name that spot.

don't want to play that game?  why don't you try another one.  it's called, what's wrong with my child?

last night i told honey i'd noticed some spots on baby and thought they were increasing.  his response?  "maybe it's chicken pox!"

well, the spots increased.  so after we ate lunch i called the doctor and talked to a phone nurse.  she said it sounded like chicken pox.  she talked to my doctor.  they both wanted me to bring baby in.  appointment scheduled for two hours later.

the appointment was held outside of the building in case my baby was contagious.  i was told to park in the urgent care parking so i wouldn't have to ride the elevator.  they told me to use an outside door so we wouldn't have to go through the building at all.  i rang the doorbell on the door.  they asked me if we could wait in our car since the "rash room" was currently occupied.  parking was sparse so i'd parked clear on the other side of the building.  i told them i'd just wait outside and they could come get me.  

the whole appointment was conducted outside while my baby sat in her carseat!  the nurse and baby's doctor came out to meet us and we undressed her, took her temp, talked details, etc.  all outside of the building.  like where people wait for their rides, except not at an entrance because heaven forbid should someone walk by my baby and pick up the pox.  not gonna lie, it felt just a little ghetto.  luckily the weather today was GORGEOUS.  like the epitome of perfect.

well, the spot placement is off for chicken pox.  that begins on the chest/face and branches out from there.  baby's spots started on her arms and have now spread to her chest and legs.  no back, no face.  they think it's hand, foot, and mouth.  or something else like that.  apparently the back of her throat is really red.  not sure how that fits in.

all day i kept wondering what nurse amanda would think about this and how nice it would be to have her here.  nurse amanda, are you out there?  what do you think about these spots?

today while i was doing a google image search for these spots, i gave my computer a virus.  not that i love my computer more than my child, but the computer virus was much scarier than the baby virus.  it was terrible and my christopher spent much of the afternoon fixing it.  i couldn't even do anything because it was stressing me out too much but thank goodness he talked with some stanford it guy and got things sorted out (HOPEFULLY).  

this is the second time this has happened recently.  does anyone have any suggestions to avoid this?  i use google chrome if that even matters.  are there any sort of settings i can do so that it won't allow me to go to sketchy websites?!?!  i NEED to be able to google.

a few thoughts and a couple promises

i am doing a pretty miserable job of posting pictures around here.  BUT i am doing a great job of taking pictures and getting out of the house and doing things.  tomorrow (friday) is baby's last day before turning six months.  my  little girl is growing up.  i hope you read that in a sappy emotional voice.  because you should have.

thank you thank you for your suggestions.  i have read (and absolutely loved) the help and hunger games trilogy and am glad you have too!  i left my cricut in colorado.  i know that makes me a party pooper but i just don't have any space here to use it or store and i think it will be fun to have a new toy in june/july because that never happens since my birthday and christmas are both at the same time and so late in the year.

i went to RS tonight and it was great.  and i was going to leave after it was over but i started talking to the ever entrancing sarah reynolds and one thing lead to another and i ended up talking to a bunch of fabulous church girls for the next half hour.  while i was gone, honey took baby to the stanford basketball game and he sat with a few other husbands.  i asked him if he felt cool that he was the only one of the four of them that brought his baby.

i need to start writing my posts earlier in the day.  it would make for more quality posts but it would also cure my naptime boredom.  i mean, that's why i started posting in the first place.  because if you check my archives... i went from posting about once every three months to posting almost every day.  that's because i quit my job and got a baby and got this influx of free time.

k, well, my sweet husband just whistled at me that he's ready for bed so we're gonna wrap this up and hope for a post with pictures for tomorrow!  woohoo!

ps- he's the reason i'm still a princess.  maybe i'll include that in the post.  but maybe not.  we'll see.

pps- i think half of what i write on here is just dead promises that i'll write something better the next day.  had anyone else caught on to that or just me?  ; )

liza,

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