a foodie is born

I love sweet potatoes,

and they pair so well with my feet...

six months later

Someone told us that baby's first year would be both the longest year and shortest year of our life. Now that we're halfway through it I can totally grasp what they mean.

living large

We've read stories... We've played with our toys... We've eaten rice cereal... and now we're konked for the night. It's been a great weekend!

not at the zoo

The Hater is gone to Dallas for the weekend for work, which leaves the girls home alone to play with the camera and drool on things. We'll leave it up to your imagination as to who is doing what...

The plan for the was to meet some friends at the OKC Zoo. We had a 10% chance for rain... knowing that my daughter would be up before the crack of dawn I left it to the other mom to let me know when she wanted to go. Well, it's raining now, much to my dismay. I hope it either stops soon or that she calls with plan B. (Eventually we're going to get a family pass to the zoo so that we can have a destination when The Hater is gone (if for no other reason).

We started oatmeal last week for the baby. She made it 5 suppers without problems, but Thursday night was an exception. She had an awful night. She cried and cried and ended up dozing on my chest. She was really pitiful, even before she threw up all over me. Needless to say we've gone back to rice cereal and she's been fine since then. In a week or so we may try going halfsies with the oatmeal again.

Parenthood: an extreme exercise in trial and error.

Meanwhile, I decided it was time to find a new project to work on. I had bought one of these letters at a craft store with intentions of painting it, but remembered last night that I had a ton of magazine cuttings from a decopage project I did in college. I rummaged in the back of the closet and came up with them. It was fun. Haven't decided where it's going yet, but I think it looks good. You'll have to humor me because it doesn't look nearly as good in the picture... the colors really are deeper than in the photo... and the glossy finish bounces the flash. So look at the picture and imagine it way cooler than it actually appears :)

Someone is waking up. Morning nap #1 is almost over, but the rain looks like it's here for a while.

good sportsmanship

Don't tell Nana (Senior) that we have a Braves' uniform yet...

We want her to be surprised when she gets the pictures!

Friends from east TN sent this one to us back before baby was born.

We knew it'd be fun once she grew into it!

Someone's Granddaddy and Gigi thought baby needed a cheerleader uniform to cheer on her Vols.  This one is a 12-18 month outfit (with matching bloomers) that just fits.

Someone developed her first cold for Big Sid and Nana's visit.  Despite the snotty nose, everyone had a great time.  I'm glad that it'll be the daycare lady (and not me) who will have to break it to her tomorrow that, indeed, she won't be held all the time.  

We sure have had a great visit!!  The Dorks head back to LBG tomorrow morning before the rooster wakes up.  

9-9-9

I know it's no longer 9-9-9, but I thought about it all day yesterday.  I thought about it every time I had to write the date, and I thought about what a fun blog post that would make.  And then I forgot to post about it yesterday.  So here we are, a day late and a dollar short.

I remember 8-8-88.  I was in the fourth grade, and I thought that was about the neatest thing I'd ever written.  9-9-99 wasn't as impressive for me.  But now that we're 9-9-9, I think it's neat again.  Because I'm a nerd, and I'm okay with that.

Baby is currently taking a nap in anticipation of The Dorks' visit.  Sister said they left about 3:30 this morning, so I'm really expecting them at any time.  Of course they don't have a cell phone... because they're technologically anemic... and that would be too easy to find them.

Speaking of anemic technology, I'm on the lookout for an old 5" floppy disk.  You know, old school 1980s floppy disks with the hole in the middle and that flopped like a polaroid picture.  If you have any that you could stand to part with, I would really like to have one.  Doesn't matter if it has data on it or not.

No big exciting weekend plans, other than playing a lot.  I'm off work tomorrow, so it should be fun for all.  Unfortunately, The Hater has to be out of town this weekend -- so we'll have to play twice as hard on his behalf.

I am living in a cereal world and I am a cereal girl

Yes, we sing Madonna songs with new words while eating cereal.  Actually, we sing lots of songs while eating cereal.  We sing or recite and basically do whatever it takes to get through three tablespoons of cereal.  Someone tell me this gets easier when we move to real food.

The Hater and I both went into work for several hours today, although not at the same time.  He stayed home with baby while I went, then I came home and watched baby and cleaned the house while he was gone.  His Dad came by this evening for a few hours of play time and supper, which was really nice.  It was a good visit, except that baby did not want to go to sleep at bedtime...  So she got to scream for a little while.  Good times.

It didn't take her long to konk out...  but we can't help but to wonder how she'll do this weekend when we have more playtime with visitors that don't leave.  Should be a real adventure.  Thank goodness we have a blanket made by Aunt Sister - she won't go to sleep without it!

baby's first touchdown

(Baby practices the QB Sneak)

We were so excited to find that we'd be able to watch UT's first game of the season.  Unfortunately, the cable company lied about when it was coming on.  The Hater called them on the phone to see when the infomercial would be over...  and we were relieved to find that, indeed, we'd be able to watch the game.  We wondered how many other people in central Oklahoma called to complain about the infomercial.

Baby was so excited that she's jumped ahead to crawling backwards from time to time.  Although this isn't the best picture, you can see that she's figured out how to keep her knees under her... most of the time.  She responds very well to Mommy and Daddy clapping our hands and singing "Yay!" when she stays on her knees.  

We all dressed up for the big game.  We barely got this 6-month onesie on her.

She looks like a little sausage just barely packed in.

This was the play right before Baby's first touchdown.

She was tired and went to bed right after Crompton threw it to Brown...

and after we sang Rocky Top and danced around the room.

Laundry is almost done.  We have a few more honey-dos for the weekend, but at the top of our docket is to hang out and play... and practice crawling...  and cheer on our Vols.

shoe news

Can't pose now.  I'm too busy trying to eat my shoes.

The same shoes I will pitch a fit to be off my feet in about an hour.

(And, yes, those are my new legwarmers, too.  Remember my name:  Fame!)

she slumbers not nor sleeps

I was part of a traveling choir for a couple of years in college.  We sang all over Tennessee at dozens of different churches.  Our director was a fun guy.  One morning we were visiting a hoity-toity church that had a couple hundred people in their regular Sunday morning choir.  Anyway, their anthem was a stuffy Mendelssohn piece that has the phrase "He slumbers not nor sleeps" over and over in it.  It's a pretty song, but even the most articulate choir sounds like they're saying "he slumber snot, he slumber snot, he slumber snot nor sleeps" instead of "slumbers not, slumbers not".  So we giggled throughout the anthem because the upper echelon sang about snot in church.

The perky baby you see above was proud and posing this morning, less than 30 minutes from waking up after being in the crib for about 10 hours.  She's not sleeping that long, mind you - she's still getting up every 2-3 hours (occasionally 4-5, but only occasionally) to eat.  But she goes right back to sleep after eating without any to-do.

She's not napping at day care, either.  They say she'll go down for 10-20 minutes tops while she's there.  On the weekends she naps great for me - will stay down for no less than an hour in the morning and an hour to two in the afternoons...  It's true - this baby is a busy-body; she'd rather see what all the other kids are into instead of taking her nap.  The day care lady told me it was my fault because I worked during my pregnancy.  

One of the doctors I work with (who is not a pediatrician, by the way), says that she's waking up in the night because it's a habit.  We should just let her scream.  I think I'd be for that if she didn't drink 4 ounces of milk every time she woke up...  This doctor also says we need to keep the baby up until 7pm before letting her sleep because that's what she needs to do...  keeping her up will make her take better naps in the day.

Which we tried last night.  But she was really fussy today at day care.  Took one 10 minute nap.

This reminds me very much of dealing with the newborn.  Some people said you should "make her wait" for 2 hours (or whatever time it was) before feeding her, even if she's crying that she's hungry.  We did that for one afternoon before deciding that a hungry baby needs to be fed.

I'm starting to feel the same way about a sleepy baby.  If she's tired, and so long as she doesn't move to confusing her day-time and night-time routines...  what's wrong with letting her sleep?  

As you can see below, she does sleep.  Just not for long periods of time.

Konked.

Yesterday I had to go out and get some cool-weather clothes for the baby.  I had one pair of cotton pants that fit her like capris.  I found a sale and bought several 12month pants and some tops, too.  Her 6month clothes are too short for her; we figured this out two weeks after we pulled out all of the 6 month clothes we had in the closet for her (most of which she won't get a chance to wear at all!).  The 12month ones are roomy, but at least they don't cut her in half to button them over her torso.  She was so proud of her pants, too - as evidenced by that big grin in the picture.  (Or maybe she was grinning because she can go a long time sitting up before face-planting onto the bed.)

Or maybe she was just rested and full and happy.  And, really, what else is there?  You know, other than singing about snot.