Tuesday, May 7, 2013

The Itsy-Bitsy Spider

Climbed up the water spout.
Crawled across the carpet floor.
Down came the rain and washed the spider out.
Down came the sock covered heel and the spider was no more.
Out came the sun and dried up all the rain.
Out came the paper towel and scooped up all the [spider] brain.
And the itsy-bitsy spider climbed up the spout again.
And the typically tardy Mommy was late for work again.

Let me explain.


Kate slept through the entire night last night - 8 pm to 6 am.  She has done this before, but she typically wakes anywhere from 2 am to 4 am for a quick night cap and then she’s back snoozing.  Because she didn’t wake up, I obviously didn’t feed her in the middle of the night, so when I woke up this morning, my breasts felt like they were about to explode.  (Sorry if that is tmi, but it’s the truth.  Oh, and this isn't the first time that they've felt like this.)

Because my morning routine typically involves me running behind in some fashion, I was … running behind, so when I got out of the shower, I devised a game plan as to how I was going to feed Kate and pump before I had to leave for work.  Because I normally feed her in the middle of the night, I normally don’t pump in the morning.  Anyway, that genius plan involved feeding Kate and pumping at the same time. I've done this before.  It’s not that easy, but it’s doable plus I thought the constant lull of the pump would put Kate back to sleep and keep me only being a little late and not extremely late to work.
Seems logical, right?!  WRONG.

First, I set up on the floor so I could reach the wall outlet with the pump cord.  Kate quickly noticed we were not in the normal comfy chair in her room and kept her eyes open, exploring the new scenery.

Second, the pump noise was not lulling but intriguing, and Kate wanted to know what that thing was making the noise, so she was slightly distracted while she fed.

Third, mid-feed, with one hand on Kate and the other on the pump fixture, I saw something dark on the floor.  My first thought was, ‘I need to pick up that dark fuzz on the floor before I leave.’  And then I saw it move and I thought, ‘Oh, hell no!’  The only light in the room came from the hallway which shone through the door that was cracked, so I was working strictly with my night vision.  I think Kate sensed my apprehension when the dark fuzz started crawling toward us.  She looked up at me like, “What’s going on, Mama?”  With no free hands, no shoes and a spider, big enough to see in the dark, crawling toward us, I had two options: one, let said spider be (this was not really even an option in my book), or two, smash said spider...somehow.


We went with option two.  I wouldn't do well knowing there was a free spider lurking about in my baby girl's room.  I resorted to smashing the spider with my heel that fortunately was covered with a sock, but only after I had devised a game plan as to what would happen if my heel-eye coordination were off and I just spooked the spider and sent it crawling even faster toward us.

Luckily, that did not happen.  I smashed the spider, with my heel, in the carpet.  At this point, Kate was not going back to sleep at all, I had spilled the milk that I was trying to pump with my erratic movement during this pumping/feeding session, I now needed to change my clothes because of the milk spill, and I, once again, was going to be late for work.

C'est la vie.  Fortunately, I can rest easy knowing that there are no more creepy crawlers lurking about Kate's room, but it's going to take me a little while before I pump on the floor in the dark in there again!

Sunday, May 5, 2013

A Walk in the Park

We are fortunate enough to live very close to Northam Park.  Northam Park is a lovely park with baseball fields, tennis courts, a pool, playgrounds, and large fields for kids, dogs, and grown-ups to play in.  It is also where the local fireworks display is set-off so we are really in a prime location.  I already know that Kate is going to love being so close to this park.  There are literally FOUR different playgrounds to play on!  There is one at the park, two at the elementary school right next to the park, and another at the church right next to the park.  I can already envision us stopping at all four of them when we go out to play!

We've been on quite a few walks past the playgrounds with Kate, but today was the very first day that we officially stopped to play!  Kate rode down two slides, swung on the baby swing by herself, and swung on the big girl swing with me.  She was way more interested in watching all the other kids playing than she was in sliding or swinging by herself, but it was still a fun stop!  It's only a matter of time before she is running, romping, and jumping like the rest of the kids she was watching!

♥ you, baby girl!

Saturday, May 4, 2013

The Look-Alike Game

One of the very first questions everyone asks about Kate is who does she look like?!  If Brian and I are both with her we usually get the once over with folks looking intently at us and then to Kate and then back at us before a final decision is made!  I will say that after perusing some photos of Baby Brian Kate definitely has some similarities, but there have been several moments starting with one right after Kate was born while we were at the hospital where I felt like I was looking at myself as a baby.  It was absolutely surreal.  As has each moment thereafter been where I've felt the same way.

Anyway, I have finally rounded up some photos of Baby Bri, Baby E, and Baby Kate, so you be the judge!

Who does Baby Kate look like?  Her Daddy or her Mommy?!

Baby Bri, Baby Kate, Baby E.

Note: I'm not sure why Brian's photos look like they are from 1929, but they are all we had to work with.  I can assure you that Brian is not 84 years old.

Friday, May 3, 2013

Overnight

That's how it happens.  One day your Baby is doing one thing and the next day she has added to her repertoire of tricks.  This is exactly what happened last night.

On Wednesday night I laid Kate in her crib to put her to bed.  She laid on her back, moved her head from side to side a little bit, and fell asleep on her back.

Last night, I laid Kate in her crib and she rolled...and rolled...and rolled.  From front to back and back to front.  There was no stopping her!  This was the first time we had seen her roll from front to back!  And she was definitely enjoying her new found freedom!  We sat there and watched her roll on the monitor until she fell asleep...on her belly.

While we were both extremely impressed with Kate's skills and extremely proud of her for perfecting her 360 degree roll, there was a part of me that was just a little bit sad because my Baby is growing further and further away from being my Baby and moving closer and closer toward being my Toddler.

Brian reminded me that Kate is not even crawling yet and that we still have plenty of more Baby moments and that we will have some absolutely amazing Toddler moments when the time is here.  Then I snapped out of it.  Thank goodness for Kate's Daddy.

Sometimes I really need a reality check.

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Bad Hair Days Weeks Months

Hair.

My hair.

This has been a battle my entire life.  My hair is curly/wavy/some days I don't know what it is.  It is also frizzy.  On warm, humid days I don't even bother doing anything but putting my hair up because of that frizz.  I do everything in my power to not look like Simba when I wake up in the morning.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.  I always have a back up plan in the form of multiple hair ties around my wrist AND bobby pins in my purse.

This is such a battle that I got my hair cut today and I literally asked my hair dresser if she would come home with me.  And I was not kidding.  Because she can somehow tame this mess atop my head.  And I need that sort of help every day.

I've always admired those girls that can pull different hair styles off so flawlessly.  I like to try new do's but more often than not I end up wanting my hair out of my face at some point in the day and up it goes.

More recently, my hair battle has been an even more difficult one.  My hair has been falling out in clumps.  Clumps so big that I would actually be kind of worried had my hair dresser not forewarned me that I may start loosing hair after we had Kate.  It turns out that your body typically absorbs so many more nutrients and you end up shedding less hair while you are expecting that when you are not expecting anymore your body releases all the stray strands that otherwise would've been dropped.  It's just now your body makes up for nine plus months of minimal hair loss all at once.

This hair loss has left me with what I call bald spots at the very edges of my hair line.  I am told that this is not noticeable, but I see it every single day glaring back at me in the mirror and I've contemplated googling how to manage peach fuzz because I no longer have long strands of hair.  Nope, they broke off a long time ago.  Now I have fuzz, growing back in the form of hair, which makes my hair look even more frizzy.

Lovely.

I'm not sure how long this hair loss is going to last.  I'm not sure how long it will take for my hair to grow back.  I'm not sure if it will even grow back.  But I am going to continue to fight this battle.  I am also going to continue to always have a back-up hair plan.

Click to see the good,
the bad, and
the frizzy.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Taste Bud Tease

After just over six solid months of solely breastfeeding, Kate finally got her first taste of solid food.  That solid food happened to be rice cereal mixed with a touch of breast milk.

Brian and I had our camera rolling, completely and totally expecting some sort of reaction.  Kate surprised us both by acting like she had been eating solids her whole life.  There was barely even a grimace!  We supposed that could do with the fact that rice cereal tastes even blander than plain breastmilk...


I swear this girl is reading What to Expect Your First Year as a Baby because she is so completely perfect!  Grimace or not!

One thing that Brian and I both realized with our little foody experiment is that we definitely need to go get some big girl food dishes.  Up until now we have not needed any dishes whatsoever, so when we went to give Kate some rice cereal we realized that we didn't have anything to feed her with.  Fortunately, Target is right down the road, so Brian came back with some colorful and perfect spoons that we used!  (We'll get some bowls next shopping trip.)

And just when we thought we were getting the hang of this whole parenting thing something changes...

...Solid foods are an entirely new ballgame.  A realm that we are both unfamiliar with, but it is a very exciting transition!  It's time to start introducing Kate to the so many delicious foods out there!

Let the games begin!

Friday, April 26, 2013

Tub Time

We heart tub time!
Yes, we do!
We heart tub time!

How about you?!

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Oh Em Gee!

Cutest! Baby! Ever!

We ♥ you!

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Homework

When I picked Kate up from "school" on Friday, her teachers sent us home with a blank piece of poster board and directions to "decorate" and "include family pictures".

(Is it sad that I was a little disappointed to have homework to help with already??  I mean, Kate is not even 6 months old yet, people.)

Having an artsy fartsy side, I sometimes love having a blank slate for me to do what I will with.  Having an OCD side, I sometimes love having someone tell me exactly what they need/want/what I need to do, etc.

This weekend, not expecting homework, I would've preferred a clearer direction.  That blank piece of poster board seemed a bit too daunting especially since there were several other things that I had (and still have) on my list to do that I have yet to accomplish.  (Case and point: updating this blog.)  But, alas, that was not the case.

I stared at that blank piece of poster board.  That blank piece of poster board stared back at me.  I thought and thought.  It stared and stared. When finally the idea clicked.

Kate and I went to Michael's in search of paint and ended up bringing home a $3.00 Crayola watercolor set.

I figured we should stick with non-toxic, kid-friendly arts &
crafts for now.

When we got home, Kate sat in my lap while I painted a perfectly round, yellow sun with red and orange rays beaming from it.  (Yes, I said OCD.)

After all, Kate is the light of our life!

We also sent some pictures to be printed of the family and Brian picked them up.  Then, we got to taping said photos on the bright, not blank anymore poster board, colored her name in with Crayola markers and voilĂ  - Kate's first homework was officially done!

Our very first homework!

Brian turned Kate's homework in first thing Monday morning and apparently the teachers were all quite impressed!  It is now the very first poster board hanging on the wall.  We are setting the bar high and already setting Kate up to be an overachiever.  Yes, that is a-ok with me since I may or may not be a bit of an overachiever...

Note: Kate, Sweetheart, I love you dearly, but please understand that Mommy and Daddy will not, I repeat, will not be doing your homework forever.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Toys vs. Toes

Who needs toys when you've got toes?!

Not Kate!