Birthday weekend

This weekend was a birthday weekend. My birthday weekend!!! A whopping 31 years old these days.



It was a good weekend. I got two very sweet cards. One from Miss M and one from her daddy. I have to admit it was kind of sad that I received ZERO cards/packages in the mail. I have received cards for my birthday but there were none that arrived on my birthday. Don't worry. I didn't waste too much time dwelling on it. I am over it. I wasn't looking for birthday presents to arrive in the mail but rather I was looking for all the online purchases I had made over the last couple days. I may have went a little crazy on new clothes for Miss M for fall/winter. I anticipate taking some back but since I couldn't see them I just chose to buy all of them.



I had a photography class Saturday morning. It wasn't what I anticipated from the class therefore I left rather disappointed. I need to find another class that is more hands-on with the camera. Saturday night I got all dressed up (I even put on high heels) to go out to celebrate the upcoming nuptials of a dear friend who recently left the City and headed to Miami. Although I was tired when I left I had fun and laughed a lot and came home to a sleeping girl. The girl did happen to wake up 30 minutes after I got home but then slept from midnight until 6:30. Ahhh. I didn't miss seeing 3:30am on the clock. I don't necessarily think this is the new trend rather just a birthday present from Miss M to her momma.



Sunday we headed to the zoo with some friends and grabbed a bite to eat. I think our days of eating out are numbered. Miss M was a bit of a handful at lunch today because she continually throws her toys on the ground and she gets feisty after she's been in her car seat too long. She is into grabbing at everything now too so it's a constant battle to keep only the appropriate things within reach.






After we got home I received a belated birthday present from Miss M and her Daddy. A nap. Glorious.

It was a fun weekend of just hanging out together. Miss M makes having birthdays a little easier.

Tie Dye Party

Miss M and I joined a new moms group a few months ago. There were originally nine women in the group and their babies. One of the girls in the group has joined what seems like every moms group in the city and therefore our circle of new moms has grown quite a bit. It's nice someone is making an effort to meet new people. I just mooch off the new people she goes and finds!

So each Friday we meet at a different place. We meet at each others homes, parks, and various restaurants. It can be really fun or really overwhelming depending on my mood, my previous nights sleep, Miss M's mood and the previous night's sleep.

Last week there were about fifteen women and babies who met at a park close by to have a tie dye party. It was pretty fun. We set up a lot of blankets and had snacks and just let the babies kick it until they got fussy.

Here are a few pictures from the day.

I am sad that Miss M looks a little on the silly side with her hat on, but it was a last minute picture I wasn't thinking too much about how you couldn't see her.



Here is Miss M and her friend Lily playing. I was on child duty while Lily's mom set up for the tie dye party. Lily is about 2 months older and sits up like a rockstar.




This is a picture of my final tie dye product.

A little of this and a little of that

I have a lot of random things to blog about today. Therefore there is no theme to this post.

Kitchen Helper. Miss M cooperates and sits in her bumbo on the island while I am trying to get things done in the kitchen. Her new favorite toy is not one of the items I purchased for her this weekend but rather a rubber spatula from the utensil drawer. I think she has a genetic predisposition to baking utensils. Either she'll be a cute little baker like her grandpa or she'll enjoy licking the brownie mix from the spatula like her momma. Time will tell. I hope her current enjoyment of spatulas becomes useful in the future (i.e., she can bake me brownies and I will lick the spatula).



Bacon. So I love bacon. Really, I love all breakfast pork. I will eat other pork products but I don't love them nearly as much as I love breakfast pork. I don't usually cook bacon b/c I get burned by grease splatters when I pan fry it and also it just makes everything stink for far too long. My brother in law told me how to bake bacon and now I want it all the time. I am considering having breakfast for dinner so I can make bacon. Yum.

Trader Joe's. I went to Trader Joe's yesterday to pick up a few things. I ended up leaving with three items and those three items are probably classified as junk food. The cashier made note of my non-healthy purchases. I told him I was hoping he wouldn't comment and then he tried to make me feel better by assuming I bought all my fruits and veggies the day before. Right. While there I bought peanut butter pretzels because how do you go wrong with peanut butter pretzels. Well I will tell you. You go wrong by assuming that the salt-free ones will taste good. Nope. Salt makes everything better. This is probably why bacon is so delicious.

Zoo. Instead of going to the market this morning to buy those fruits and veggies the Trader Joe's guy assumed I had already bought, we ended up strolling through the zoo instead. It was our first official trip through the zoo. Miss M of course was riveted by all the animals. The animals were actually out. I don't know if they were out because there weren't thousands of screaming kids or if it was just the right time of the day. I look forward to going to the zoo when Miss M will show a little more interest. We need to take our resident zoo expert to the zoo so we can hit all the popular animals like the polar bears who are hidden at the far end of zoo.



Football. Football season is upon us. I am excited but there is another individual in my home that is beyond excited. We have all our college sports team clothes ready for the season. M has some black and gold clothes and accessories. I am sure there will be pictures. Luckily the lockout ended. What would people do without fantasy football? Gasp. Well, that now includes us. Miss M's football following father organized a fantasy team for our family. My team is set up and named "Redheaded Step Child." Draft night is tomorrow. We shall see how this goes. I don't plan on losing! As losing would allow people to say "I beat the redheaded step child" and I refuse to be beaten.

Here she is practicing sitting up in her Hawkeye pajamas of course.



Bedtime update: So far Miss M has slept in her bed for three straight nights. She still wakes up a few times during the night but I am getting to sleep on more than six inches of mattress in my own bed. So really it's a win/win.

I have more thoughts. But Miss M just went down for a nap and a shower is in order today. So you'll just have to sit back and wait for more.

We aren't talking about it (but I will tell you about it)

So, I am terrified I am going to jinx myself by writing this blog post but I am busting at the seams with the excitement of potential! Yes, just potential.

Last night we put Miss M in her crib awake with her blankets and a stuffed dog. I know you're not supposed to put things in cribs with infants but she needs something to soothe her (and I am hoping one of the many items I put in there does the trick).

This is how it went.

I laid her down in her crib.
She cried.
I went in and just patted her
She cried some more
She stopped crying - yep - stopped crying

That episode lasted less than 25 minutes.

I rushed to bed hoping for a few minutes of uninterrupted sleep in my bed without her in my armpit.

She whimpered and cried a little. Not hysterical. But I went in to check on her and her eyes were open. I nursed her back to sleep (we're focused on sleeping in her own crib - we'll worry about breaking the nursing habit later). When I heard her start whimpering it was 1:30am. Yes folks. 1:30 am. That means she slept for 5 hours without interruption. Ahh. Glorious.

Then she woke up and I nursed her back to sleep around 5:30 am.

Each time the transfer back into the crib was pretty smooth.

She woke up at 7:30 happy as a clam.

This is a baby book entry. First night in crib. Why don't they have a sticker for that event. It's monumental around here.

So far tonight she's been in the crib asleep for a little over an hour. I will let you know how things go but for now this momma needs to catch some Z's before Miss M wakes up again.

Peace out.

This time last year

This time last year we started telling my family that we were expecting. We told Dad's family in July when they came to visit for our annual family vacation. I still remember each instance when we (I) told people. I can recall my mother's disbelief, Adam's confusion b/c he wasn't paying attention and didn't understand what every one's reaction was regarding and how my dad was the last to know. Literally, the last to know (of family of course).

And now Miss M is a shade over 5 months old. How a year can change your life!

I remember the weekend b/c it was the annual air show in the city. So we took Miss M to the rooftop to watch for a few minutes since it sounds like the jets are in your living room. The lens I had on my camera wasn't cooperating with me very well so I only got a few pictures.

The south comes north

This weekend was a special one. Our southern friends ventured north for a visit to the City. The City they used to live in, but had to depart when they found out they were pregnant with TWINS. They needed to move home for the help of family and the extra space. A two bedroom second floor apartment just doesn't seem ideal for twins. Since they moved out - we moved in!

We made reservations to go to dinner and had a babysitter come over. The babysitter (Auntie) came over and we left. We won't dampen the blog post by going into detail of how Miss M was not a nice girl for her Auntie.

Dinner was fantastic. The company was even better. We miss those crazy southerners.

Then we invited ourselves to brunch with them the next day. Nothing like imposing on other's vacation plans! I am glad we did as it allowed us just a little more time to catch up.

Hopefully we can get something worked out and venture down south in the next couple months (when it cools off down there a little).

Heading south for turkey day

We are heading south for turkey day this year...and as predicted someone is worried about whether they are going to get turkey for their thanksgiving dinner.

Planning for multiple people to fly out of various airports on various days into various cities all the while trying to determine if there are free tickets available for the dates selected creates a huge headache. As evidenced below:



But we managed a smile out of Grandpa. Isn't he so cute?!?



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Our visit to the land of Iowa

This is a bit of a belated post. A few weeks ago Miss M and Grandpa and I loaded up the car and drove to Iowa. Grandpa came to visit us in Chicago for a few days before venturing home with us. I can't say we did a whole lot but we had fun (and I enjoyed having someone to talk to all day long and getting a shower everyday).

Watch out she will eat your nose if you're not careful.







She likes to fly. And gets heavy fast. I think she's up to a whopping 15 lbs.





At Gramma D's after our day of travel.





Overall, Miss M is a pretty good traveler. She still sleeps quite a bit and entertains herself playing with toys.

One day we loaded up again and drove to see the Greats...Great Grandma and Great Grandpa. We had a busy day seeing various people around town. Then Miss M decided she'd had enough since she really didn't nap much all day so we loaded up again and went back to Gramma D's house.











While we were home we did a lot of sitting on the porch waiting for Gramma to get home when we weren't hanging out with G&J. Miss M loves to be outside.





Dad brought the train home Friday night after work. He had his ticket in hand and didn't miss his train this time! Thank heavens. After our recent run in with the City we are broke! We got towed and two parking tickets in two days. Trust me. The city isn't kind when you park where you shouldn't or when you don't have the current sticker in the window of your vehicle.

It was a nice trip. But next time we will time our trip around Dad's work schedule a little better. He works all the time when we are home and when we leave he gets off early. Do I smell something fishy?!?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Two months later

Literally two months and one day later Miss M decided she would roll back over from her stomach to her back. Apparently there isn't much urgency in completing the rollover when that red-headed mom lady seems to come to the rescue every time there's a squeal of annoyance from too much tummy-time.

People have said that munchkins usually throw their head to roll over to their back. Not Miss M. She puts her head down and rolls over using her leg to push off. She likes to do it her way. Shocking!

I have no photos or video. Just reporting she's got a new trick.

She also has this lovely trick where she screams like something is seriously wrong with her. Then when that mom lady comes in to save the day the fountain of tears miraculously shut off.

It's nice to be loved but do we have to be so dramatic.

Who me???





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Photo shoot

I had bought a Groupon-like photography session for Miss M before she was born. It was set to expire in August so I scheduled the session and the photographer came over.

I wasn't sure what to expect b/c she was coming to the apartment and when she showed up all she had was her camera. The last time we did something like this the photographer came with a bunch of gear.

The photographer decided we had nice natural lighting in our bedroom. So we put Miss M on the bed. The entire time I was so confused how these were going to turn out well b/c our bedding is light blue, tan and cream paisleys. Miss M was wearing red, black and white ladybugs. I just kept thinking the two color schemes and overall patterns should probably not be mixed.

I got the link to the pictures last week. The pictures turned out really well. Now if I could only learn to use my camera in such a way that I wouldn't need to pay someone to take the pictures that would be helpful.

Miss M had her pictures taken at one month and then again at 4 and 3/4 months. We likely wont do 6 month pictures, like all good parents do, but she gets her pictures taken enough. I tell myself she doesn't need another sitting at 6 months. On second thought, maybe I will have my friend take some pictures in the park. Miss M loves the park and who are we kidding - we'll need some pictures of 6 months.

Here are a few of my favorites as they really capture her:

Miss M is five months

We celebrated five months of Miss M while at Gramma D's last week. Here are a few pics. We didn't get too many pics with her shirt on because she still likes to eat the sticker.



She doesn't really have any new tricks to report at five months besides the baby food. However, she does like to lick the condensation from pop cans and water bottles. She also likes to grab paper, rip it and try to eat it.















Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Long line of good eaters

Miss M comes from a long line of good eaters and she's proving to be no different. One certain grandma was convinced that Miss M needed to be eating baby food. I was convinced I didn't want to deal with it. And since I spend 24 hours a day with the girl, I win. It's about the only thing I have won in about five months.

Miss M loves baby food. We have been eating it twice a day. Breakfast and dinner. We are not following doctor protocol of introducing one food every couple days to ensure no food allergies but she doesn't seem to mind. We have tried all of the following baby foods: bananas, sweet potatoes, squash, green beans, peaches, apples, pears, and carrots. So far they have all gone in her mouth and stayed in with the exception of the green beans. We fed them to her on Sunday night and she got one spoonful and then screamed. So we quickly went to bananas to kill the taste but after she finished the bananas we switched back to beans and she seemed okay with it.

The first few feedings were interesting and messy as she wanted the spoon and then would rake her hand over it and get it everywhere. It's not nearly as messy only a week later!

Here are sone pics from the first day or two!

Before:



After:



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad