It's Official

We have an independent sitter!  She finally got the hang of it.  Next step...drivers license (tear).

Keep Rollin'

The little Peanut is 19 weeks old.  I know once you reach the month mark you're supposed to count in months not weeks, but I can't just say that she's four months old.  She's so much more than that!  It was just me and her at home all day yesterday due to P being a groomsman in a wedding and having to partake in grueling pre-wedding activities (like surfing all day...poor baby).  So, there we are hanging out in the living room with Valentines Day on in the background (I take advantage of renting chick flicks when P is out and about), and then...she ROLLS OVER!  Belly to back.  Like no big deal.  Yes, I know most babies have already rolled over by now.  And I'm pretty sure she's had the ability for quite a while.  But she has had ZERO interest in it.  I've tried to tempt her, help her, force her, but to no avail.  She just wants to sit straight up (which she is thisclose to doing too).  So I was shocked when she just flopped on over right in front of me.  And I was the one to witness it!  I made mom pinky swear that she had never done it for her while I was at work.  She has also started pushing herself up on her arms while she's on her belly.  I feel like this is WAY too close to crawling.  How do you get babies to stop growing up?  The 'tude is more obvious now too.  She is very particular about what I'm allowed to do while she is nursing.  I'm not allowed to talk, no one is allowed to talk to me, and I'm definitely not allowed to eat or drink anything.  If I break the rules I get a very stern look and she stops eating until I focus all of my attention on her.  She's upped her bottles to 6 oz (which I'm trying very hard to keep up with...moo) and she now holds it all by herself!  She loves Stella and puts her hands in her mouth a lot (much to my dismay...ew), and it makes her belly laugh when Stella pretends to chew on her.  She's totally into faces now.  She grabs lips, cheeks, P's beard.  When she gets a hold of you she pulls you down for a big open mouth baby kiss.  It's pretty much the best thing ever.  We're settling into a routine and it works for now.  P and I go to work every day and mom watches the miss.  We come home and play and once she's asleep we get ready for the next day and do it all over again.  Weekends are the greatest blessing and I count down the hours every week waiting for 4:00 to come on Friday.  Even though I hate being away from her for even a minute, I know she's getting the best care possible and she won't even remember the days I'm not with her.  Hopefully by the time she's able to remember I'll be able to spend a whole lot more time with her ;-)

   

The Day We Became Toyota Fans

I mostly write this blog for documentation purposes.  I’m a horrible scrapbooker/calendar keeper, so I’m keeping track of Peanut’s progress here.  Online.  For all to see (and by all, I mean the one other person that reads this…hi mom!!!!).  That being said, there are some stories I would like to have recorded that happened prior to our conception of child.  And thus we begin the tale of the fiery truck…

 It was a Saturday night in December 2006.  P and I had been married for 4ish months and were living in a tiny two bedroom townhouse. P worked at Home Depot (fancy, I know) and had to work until close that night.  It was around 11 when he got home (I think…I’m pretty sure SNL was on) and I was in bed watching TV.  P came upstairs and got ready for bed.  While we were watching the show, I heard a loud BANG.  I thought it had come from the townhouse next to us, which was supposed to be vacant.  “What was that?” I asked.  P’s response – “Nothing”.  Typical.  Then I heard it again, and so did he.  This time it sounded like it was in OUR apartment.  “What WAS that??”  Since we were newly married and P took his head-of-the-household duties VERY seriously, he did what any self-respecting southern boy would do.  He grabbed the gun.  (Yes we are gun-totin’ people…so mind your manners)  As he was slinking down the hallway toward the stairs, gun at the ready, I hear “HOLY CRAP, HOLY CRAP, HOLY CRAP!!!!!”. ( And yes, those were his exact words…no profanity for that good ole Christian boy)  I pretty much die and I’m surprised I didn’t wet the bed, because I was already nervous about the prospect of P having to hold someone at gunpoint, and now he’s screaming and I can’t see what’s going on.  He runs into the bedroom and yells “Get your clothes on, the truck’s on fire!!!!!!!!”.  What?!?  Yes, you heard that right.  I threw on some shorts and ran down the hall into the guest room, since that looked down over the parking lot.  The white walls were glowing orange from the reflection of the flames that were pretty much level with the second story window.  The truck was on fire.  No, the truck was engulfed in flames.

We ran downstairs and P opened the front door…and then immediately shut it.  It was a thousand degrees out there.  The parking spaces were only a few feet from the front of our apartment, so the radiating heat was intense.  I started freaking out thinking our window was going to burst in and then the apartment would catch on fire.  P started freaking out about the full gas tank that was thisclose to the fireball.  So we ran to the back of the apartment (maybe ten steps from the front door…it was not a big place), and called 911.  While P was on the phone with the nice lady who was instructing him to remain calm, I decided to call his dad.  His dad lived just a couple miles away, and since we were still new to the whole leaving-the-nest phase of life, I needed a parental figure to establish a sense of peace. This is how the conversation went:

FIL:  Hello?

Me:  The truck is on fire and we don’t know what to do!

FIL:  Ok, wait.  Did you say the truck was on fire?  Where?  Under the hood?

FIL:  No!  The WHOLE TRUCK IS ON FIRE!!!!  What do we do?

FIL:  Well, I don’t know.  Did you try to put it out?

Me:  No!  (It’s at this point that I should have realized that he did not grasp the seriousness of our situation.  He actually told me later that he didn’t believe me.  But I was panicky and just assumed that he knew there was a raging inferno right outside our home.)

FIL:  I don’t know what you want me to do about it.

Me:  ::Silence:: 

FIL:  Do you want me to come over?

Me:  Yes!!  (And I’m thinking, big DUH father-in-law.  I am still a wee baby in worldly experiences and I need someone - other than the hubs, who was just as freaked as I was - to take care of me in times of crisis.)

So there we are, huddled next to our sliding glass doors, me totally freaking out and P still on the phone with the 911 lady when we see the fire truck lights.  Oh thank goodness, someone is going to fix it.  Curiosity outweighed fear at that point and we crept up to the front window to watch the action.  The wonderful firefighters hooked up the hose and started blasting the truck.  It didn’t take long for the flames to disappear, but they kept spraying away.  After about 15 minutes of watching we decided it was safe enough to venture outside. Oh. My. Word.  The truck was demolished.  P started chatting with the firefighters and I just stood there in my PJs giggling.  Because that’s what I do.  I always have the urge to laugh when it is supremely inappropriate. 

It’s then that FIL and BIL drive up to the apartment.  BIL is good with cars, so FIL had brought him along to “fix” the problem.  Ha.  The fire truck was blocking the view of the truck from the street, so they could not see the huge pile of rubble that used to be a beautiful F-150 upon arrival.  FIL told me later that he even said to BIL “I can’t BELIEVE they called the fire department for a little fire”.  Ha again. As they rounded the corner of the fire truck, they could see the wreckage in all its glory.  And me in PJs giggling.  They were speechless. And I felt a bit more justified by requesting their presence. 

When the firefighters were satisfied that the truck would no longer burst into flames, they left.  We stood around the truck and lamented over how beautiful it had been just hours previously, only to be reduced to rubble in a matter of minutes.  Why had this happened????

Ford.

Stupid Ford.  The inferno was due to a malfunction with the cruise control wire next to a fuel line.  Thousands of Ford customers had experienced the same wacky spontaneous combustion of their vehicles…and many stories had much more serious outcomes than ours did (in those cases the car was in the garage…and then caught the house on fire).  God was watching out for us that night.  Thankfully the insurance was really awesome (I think they were quite familiar with our “situation”) and gave us a chunk of money that we used to purchase our Corolla.  In the end it all worked out.  We were even neighborhood celebrities for a  while (the asphalt is still charred outside that apartment to this day).  But I still miss that F-150.  P looks good in a truck :-)          

Dear Little Peanut,

You are FOUR MONTHS OLD!!!  Today is also Mother's Day and I am so thankful to be your Mommy!  You have brought so much joy into this home, and I know it is just the beginning of all the blessings you will bring to us.  We promise to always protect you and will try as hard as we can to give you the best life possible with God's guidance.  He has such a plan for you and we are so excited to see it unfold!

Things about YOU:

- You are really in between sizes right now.  You still fit in 0-3 dresses.  You fit in 3 month Carter's outfits the best.  But you can fit into 3-6 month things as well.  

- You have graduated to size 2 diapers.  They're a little big, but I'm sure you'll grow into them soon.

- Still no teeth, but those bottom ones will definitely be first.  You drool all the time and constantly chew on your hands, clothes, toys, and anything within reach.

- You have the BEST belly laugh.  You chuckle all the time, but it's rare to get the huge belly laugh.  

- You still haven't rolled over.  I'm trying not to be anxious about it.  I know you could if you wanted to, but you have no interest in it.  You would rather try to sit up by yourself...and I think you might get the hang of that soon.

- You love to try to stand.  You have really strong little baby legs!

- You're getting much better at napping, and you slept through the night last night! It was the perfect Mother's Day present :-)

- You still love to talk.  Loudly.  To anyone who will listen.  

- You are getting quite particular about nursing.  You do not tolerate it if I'm eating or talking while you eat.  You give me this exasperated look and will NOT start eating again until I give you my undivided attention.

- Your favorite song right now is Ring Around the Rosie.

- You like to grab faces, especially lips.  Today at church you wanted to grab anyone's lips that had lipstick on them.  

- You tolerate tummy time for MUCH longer than you used to.  You're getting very strong neck muscles.

- You still suck your thumb.  It's your best friend.  I am dreading the day when we have to break that habit.

Can't wait to see what this month brings!  Love you baby!!  xoxo

Shameless Picture Post

because I can...because it's Mother's Day.

Check out the droolster:

Such a big girl in her high chair.  She's having escargot for dinner.  We're fancy like that.

Shaking the finger at her toy puppy.  Guess he pooped in the house.  I wonder what toy puppy poop looks like...stuffing maybe?

Surf's Up

Well this weekend was one for the record books.  P graduated from college after four years of balancing school, work, high-maintenance wife (Hi!! ::waves::), and recently the Peanut.  He is a superhero in our household of women and we couldn’t have been prouder.  The whole fam joined in on the festivities and celebrated P’s matriculation (hehe, that’s such a great word) with a trip to the beach.  Since this was Peanut’s very first time seeing the ocean we took a gazillion pictures…naturally.  The blue you see in the background is our pop up beach tent.  Best money ever spent.  We were at the beach for four hours, and it was a hot hot day.  No sweat.  (pun totally intended)  We just popped that sucker up and Peanut and I enjoyed the view from the shaded shelter.  It is also convenient for breastfeeding if you don’t want to get arrested for indecent exposure in a public place.  Just zip the walls up and bam, insta privacy.  There was only one incident involving massive amounts of poo on everything (read: Peanut’s back, Peanut’s swimsuit, my shorts, my HANDS…ew) but she saved it for the very end when we were packing up.

I do not have any pictures of me in a bathing suit due to the fact that I still have 8 pounds to lose, I still have that stinking linea nigra down the middle of my stomach, and I don’t have a one piece.  I have tried to find one that fits, but I have a freakishly long torso so all of the cute strapless ones fall below the boob line.  Why not a tankini you ask?  Because a tankini is so close to a bikini I might as well wait it out until I’m back to normal (as much as you can be after being a human incubator) so I can wear my old suits.  Oh, and what’s the update on the 30 Day Shred you ask?  It really is awesome and does what it says.  Why have I only lost 2 pounds and not 10?  I haven’t been consistent.  And I can’t really do the cardio sections due to sensitive downstairs neighbors (a topic for a different post…they called the cops on us Friday night…for real).  But I’m going to keep truckin’ and hope to get these last few pounds off soon. 

The babe is doing awesome.  She likes to stand now on those wonderful chubby legs.  And if you put her on her back she tries to sit straight up.  It kinda looks like she’s doing crunches.  I think she wants to skip rolling over and crawling all together and just wants to be able to sit up and walk.  Big girl.  Her personality is getting more and more obvious.  She is so happy all the time and LOVES to laugh.  This weekend the make-baby-laugh award went to her little cousins.  They wrestled and she thought it was the most hilarious thing IN THE WORLD.  Nana is still watching her during the week while I tough it out at the job.  I’m learning to just make the time I have with her count.  But who can blame me for wanting to spend 24/7 with this face??