Pony Keg Time

I know, I know. It's been a while since I've blogged - but really, nothing has been going on. And I've been horrible at taking pictures. Sometimes I forget I'm the Bright yearbook editor, photographer, and copy writer. Last week, my parents entertained their friends from England so we got to visit with them. Then this past weekend our big event was going to our friend Trey's 40th birthday party. That's us above at the party. It was a surprise party, and Lee helped with the fake poker story to get Trey out of the house. We had all had a lot of fun including Ellie. She fell asleep in my arms halfway through the party and then woke up in meltdown mode about 15 minutes past her usual bedtime so we had to make our exit around 9:00. I don't know when that little girl got so heavy, but Lee and I have to take turns carrying her now. Ellie usually loves our friend, Mike, but for some reason she screamed time he got near her. Poor Mike. He was like baby kryptonite.

I think Ellie must have been tired from a full day of shopping. Since Lee had to work on Saturday, Ellie and I took a girls trip to the mall. There are so many cute little girl clothes out for fall right now. And since she's more fun to shop for than I am, we spent most of the time looking for her. It's hard to think that she'll only be able to wear the clothes I bought her for one season. I try to send her to day care in simple long sleeved onesies because every day when I go get her, she's in her back-up outfit and the outfit I brought her to school in is handed to me an a baggie.

On Sunday, we got to see another winning Cowboys game against the Bears. After Lee's soccer game he game home and I heard, " Look what I got!" He stood there holding a pony keg. "Hon, why do we need a pony keg?", I said. "It's a keg of beer!". "Yes, I know that", I said. "But why do we need 5 liters of beer?". "Ohmygosh. You are no fun sometimes. This thing is so cool and plus it was only $19.99. I would have killed to have one of these things in college!" That's great. And 17 years later, he has his wish. So... now we have a mini-keg of beer in our fridge. Because it's cool. Later that night, Lee asked me if I dared him to drink it all and I told him no. I was absolutely not going to dare him to drink his pony keg all in one night.

Ellie came down with her first cold this weekend too. Poor little thing. I have to use that blue suction thing on her nose all the time. She knows what it is when she sees it. She starts kicking her legs and then when I put it in her nose, she lies perfectly still until I finish. Then she tries to swat me away. She's almost over the cold now, but when I went to pick her up today, her teacher told me to watch her because one of the kids in her class came down with a stomach bug and had to go home. Wonderful. Maybe she's been blowing out all of these diapers as a fire drill to get me ready for the real deal. She also has a new trick - she can stand up if she's holding onto something. I stay behind her the whole time in case she falls, but she can do it. I know she's my baby so I think she super skilled, but I really wasn't expecting her to stand at 4 months. She looks around and squeals as she's standing there. I'll try to get some pictures of that this weekend. She's almost sitting up too, but now quite. She can do it if she's leaning forward but then rolls off to the side after a while. It's a start. I promise more live action shots next

post!

Ellie's Baptism

Wow - I finally found some time to blog again! After two weeks of full time working, I've decided I'm not a "working mother" - I'm a "work and then mother and then work some more and then mother again". But I wouldn't want to miss one minute of any of it! I couldn't decide on the title for this blog. It technically is all about Ellie's baptism, but an alternative title could have been "Confessions of a Breastfeeder". I'll get to that in a minute. Ellie had both of her great grandmothers and two great aunts, Kathy and Judy, in town as well as a whole host of other friends and family members to celebrate her Baptism. We started off the weekend on Friday night by going to see Mimi and Judy at Lee's parents house and then having barbecue. The big event was on Saturday at 10:30 AM.

I had called the church on Friday morning to confirm the event and to ask if there was someplace I could privately feed Ellie beforehand. They said all of the rooms were taken so I came up with it brilliant (so I thought) idea of breastfeeding her in a confessional. It's quiet, private - perfect. They said that would be fine. We got there at 9:20 AM and I scoped out the confessionals. The one to the right of the priest's door just had a kneeler inside and so did the one to the left so I decided to use the one of the middle, usually reserved for the priest, because it had a chair. I locked the door and got down to business.

I should also mention that we had a photographer that was coming at 10AM. My dress zipped up the back so I unzipped it down to the waist but then realized that if I didn't take it off that it was going to be messed up for the pictures, so I just took it off. Everything seemed to be going swimmingly as I sat in the confessional in my thong panties breastfeeding when someone started banging on the door and trying to turn the doorknob. I thought it was Lee because I told him to stand guard, but I later found out he went to Starbucks. So the knocking continues and all of the sudden I hear an elderly woman say "Father?!! Father are you in there?!!". Oh crap. "Um, hi... I'm um feeding my baby in her. I called the church and they said-" "FATHER??! FATHER ARE YOU IN THERE?!!" I looked around and realized that the confessional closet was soundproof so the eager confessor couldn't hear me.

Then the door to the "Open Confessional" side opened and I heard someone moving around. Sweet Jesus - I'm about to hear a 95 year old woman's confession. Then she exited and came over to the "Closed Confessional" side. I figured out she was one of the women there to clean the church so I said "Hi there - I'm really sorry to be a bother but -". She cut me off and I think she was deaf because she screamed "That's okay Father!! You just do what you need to do in there!!". Wonderful. Now she thinks our priest has holed himself up in the confessional. When I finally exited, another little old lady who had obviously witnessed all of this was sitting in a pew praying the rosary looking at me like I'd been in there sacrificing small animals. Could all of this been avoided if I'd just brought a bottle? Yes. But when I had this baby, she ate my brain and I can't problem solve anymore so cut me some slack.

So back to the baptism... it was really beautiful and so many friends and family there. Ellie got a little vocal toward the end of the ceremony, but didn't make a peep when they poured the water over her head. Kathy said she's a future swimmer. My dad is Ellie's godfather and Lee's sister, Elizabeth, is the godmother. Afterwards, we had a luncheon at Lee's parents house catered by Angela's. It was wonderful. Since Mimi's birthday is the 18th, we went ahead and celebrated with a dinner that night. On Sunday, we went over to my parent's house so Ellie could spend some time with her great grandmother and great aunt. Ellie had been good all weekend, but I could tell that all of the passing her around was getting to her because she was getting cranky. She slept like a rock both nights.

Ellie has been doing very well at daycare. I really like her teachers and they seem very attentive to all of the children. I think they thought I was trying to starve her because they asked me to up the amount I'm sending with her in the bottles. She's up to 6 oz. in the two bottles I send. Full Ellie = happy Ellie. I'm still going at lunch to feed her which is working out fine. Because she's wearing 6 month clothing now, she went to school in all new outfits every day this week - and had a blowout every day. I guess she's testing my stain fighting abilities. When I was feeding her on Wednesday and Thursday, she had a blowout while I was feeding her. We had a near miss on my clothing both days. I told her that I felt honored that she was so excited to see me that she crapped her pants, but we were going to have to stop meeting that way. She also wants to touch my face all the time while I'm holding her. She'll reach up and start patting my cheek or grab my lip. Very cute until she grabs and pulls my lip.

One more picture - it's four generations.

Labor Day 2007

How do you like our matching mother/daughter camo outfits?!! There's Ellie in her Brady Goat Cookoff onesie and me in my 1992 Dove Hunt tee shirt. Ellie had her official first road trip over Labor Day weekend. We took a trip to Lee's parents' ranch in west Texas for the annual dove hunt. It's normally a 3 hour drive, but the construction and all of the traffic made it more like 4 hours. Ellie was really great on the way there except for the last 30 minutes or so, but it was way past her bedtime when we got there on Friday night and she was hungry. Lee's parents were there along with Ben and his friend, Price.

Other than the fact that I had Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" stuck in my head for three days straight and I have chigger bites in unmentionable places, we had a really fun Labor Day weekend. We spent most of the time relaxing, watching football, and Lee even got a few dove. Sooooo glad it's college football time again. Ellie was cheering for her second favorite team, the Vols, but they lost to Cal. She even sported a bright orange onesie for the occasion. Lee will be excited when Ellie can finally say things like this. I found one more thing that makes Ellie laugh - the dogs. She loves to watch them play with each other and she even thinks it's funny when they bark. She had a really good time watching them retrieve tennis balls from the water.

We got back on Monday afternoon, and I immediately started working to get things together for Ellie's first day of daycare. I have to have double everything now - diapers, wipes, outfits, bottles . Everything. From the time I woke on Tuesday morning to the time I made it to work, it was 2.5 hours. Wednesday was a little better - even with massive rainstorms causing traffic lights to be out, I still got up, got ready, dropped off Ellie and was here within two hours. I'm trying to figure out ways to trim that even more. Her first day was pretty good. I took her in the class and sat her in a swing next to a little boy. He started kicking and grunting when he saw her. Already turning heads at 3.5 months. That's my girl. I didn't cry when I left her, but I felt guilty. She probably spent all day wondering where her mom was.

I've gone back at lunchtime all week to feed her, but when she saw me on Tuesday and Wednesday, she didn't want to eat - she just wanted to look at me. Today was better. When she got home on Tuesday night, she was a nightmare because she'd only slept 1.5 hours all day. I'm hoping that will get better as she gets more used to it. Maybe this will help her go to bed earlier - who knows.

I had one of my more embarrassing moments at work on Wednesday. I have to pump in the computer closet and they keep it about 60 degrees because of all of the equipment. The door is locked from the outside and I always put a sign on the door so nobody comes in. So I'm sitting there working on the laptop and I hear the key slide into the door and it opens. There stands our IT guy. "HI", I say with a glare and my best "you'd better get the hell out of here" voice. "Um, hi - I need to switch out the tape for the server". Hey knucklehead - can you see I'm a little busy??!! I was wearing a big jacket to keep warm so he couldn't see anything but still. Now I'm getting pissed because he's had the door open 10 seconds longer than he should have in the first place. "Do you see the 'Do not disturb' sign on the door?!!". "Uh, yeah.". "THEN GET OUT!!!". "I have to change the tape". Seriously, don't make me unteather myself and come out there to beat you. Because I will. "Jerry, CLOSE THE DOOR." Good God. Now I can't look at him. I told one of my co-workers and she was like "Ohmygod - were you topless?!!" No. "Well, were you naked?!?!" Yes, I was buck naked in our computer closet. NO! Whatthehell. Do my co-workers think I'm naked in there? Reason #541 to self medicate with wine - IT guy seeing me pump in the closet.

A big congrats to Jenny who got engaged this weekend. We're so happy for you! Also very happy for cousin Kyle who got engaged two weeks ago and Lee's friend, Terrance, who proposed this past weekend too. Looks like we'll have plenty of weddings to attend this spring. And the most exciting news of all... Nicole is expecting her second bambino in February. I can't wait!

Back to School

All the kids went back to school on Monday and football season is just around the corner.... ahhh, fall. The little girl who lives next to us started her freshman year in high school this week. I saw her on Sunday and she was trying to finish a report for her required summer reading (I remember those days). She said she was excited to start high school, but a little nervous because they had their first dance in two weeks. It made me remember the first day of school - when I had to have the perfect outfit (even though we had uniforms), and all of your books and folders were new and you felt like a total dumb ass because you couldn't get your combination lock to work right. I can't decide if I miss it or need therapy to purge it from my memory.

I have so much good news... where to begin?!! First off, Ellie has started a new line that she likes to call Diaperhead. It's very fashion forward.

Can you tell how I amuse myself during the day? That's right - I stick diapers on my kid's head! I know - I'm hilarious. Well, I'm about to have to find some other way to amuse myself because I found out yesterday that she got a spot in the daycare place I've been yearning for and had my name on the list at since September 2006. They left me a voice mail on Wednesday morning to tell me to she had a spot. I checked my messages as I was leaving the gym (at 9:15 AM trying to pretend I was a stay at home mom). I started jumping up and down in the street when I found out she had a spot, but then I got sad because I realized our weekday mornings of listening to Muse in the News on The Ticket and then reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear are about to come to a close. She starts Tuesday so that means that Grammie's days of Tuesday and Thursday babysitting ended today. She was sad too. So next week, I officially join the ranks of the "working mother". If I lost it when she had to get her first round of shots then I'll be interested to see how I react on Tuesday morning. I'm sure that will be an entire blog next week...

I haven't been talking about it much, but if everyone can remember, my goal was to loose 25 pounds by Labor Day. I weighed in a Weight Watchers last week and *drum roll*.... I've lost 25.8 pounds since May 26!!! Very exciting. I'm now back to the weight I was when I started Weight Watchers in 2005 so now I'm just regular fat again. Yea!! I'll be working to get "the rest" off by Christmas. I'll make another public goal... lose 10 pounds more pounds by Halloween (I know you're all thinking "good Lord fatty, how much did you gain?!?!). That not going to be that difficult since it's getting cooler so I can use our jogging stroller soon. Plus, I'm so busy at work, it's hard to find enough time to eat.

Ellie had her first big girl portrait made on Saturday afternoon in her Baptismal gown. It's the gown my mom wore and I wore and everyone else in between has worn. We got the proofs today and they're just okay. I'm still trying to decide if we're going to keep them or reshoot. Next weekend it the big weekend for the Baptism. Lots of out of town people are coming from Tennessee and we're really excited for them to meet Ellie! After the pictures, we came back to the house and a freak electrical storm blew out all of our power. We decided to go shopping since we had no AC, but before we did, Lee tried to cut Ellie's nails while she was sleeping. He got the middle and index finger nails okay, but then went for the left thumb and chopped the skin off the end of her finger. Poor kid. Poor dad too. Her thumb started bleeding, she started screaming, and Lee didn't know what to do. The good news is that it was just a little skin so she's no worse for the wear. That's her finding her feet on Sunday. As you can see, the blood-letting did no lasting damage.

I also joined a new group this week - the mother's association at our church (because apparently I think I need something else to do). It's going to be really nice to be around other moms with kids Ellie's age. They have playgroups, mother's night out, and holiday parties. And in keeping with the Catholic tradition, they serve alcohol at all of the functions! Very fun. I guess if there's one demographic that needs a booze break, it's new mommies.

Hope everyone has a great Labor Day. The next time I blog, I'll let you know how that day care thing went... Here's a picture of our little family out at dinner last weekend.

Ellie's new friends

I wish I could be as relaxed as Ellie. Here's our little Queen of Sheba looking like she owns the place in her yellow cow jumpsuit. Lee reminded me last night that I hadn't blogged in 10 days. Work is really amping up right now so when I'm at home most of my time is spent caring for Ellie and then immediately switching gears to buckle down and get things done for work. To let you know how busy I've been, I haven't looked at Perez Hilton in a week! Under normal circumstances I'm usually on there three times a day.

Ellie is doing some new things this week - she has discovered her feet so she grabs onto them and holds her toes. I need to get a picture of that. She also has discovered that she can make a new sound. She purses her lips together and blows making a raspberry sound. On Monday night, she wouldn't fall asleep so after 30 minutes, I went in there to rock her. I held her and gave her her pacifier. She spit it out and started with the "Pppppbbbt!! Pppppbbbt!! Pppppbbbt!!". That made me laugh so she started smiling. But then we had to get serious because it was 11:15 and mom seriously wanted to go to bed.

Speaking of pictures, I ordered 250 pictures from Shutterfly last week. I didn't think I had taken enough pictures of Ellie, but after ordering, I'm off to a good start. I can't remember the last time I had actual photographs printed out. Lee gave me my first digital camera for Christmas in 2002 and aside from our Honeymoon, I have no pictures. I have tons saved on the computer, but none printed out. I am promising myself I will print out pictures every three months. Now I just have to get all 250 of these bad boys in albums...

Ellie made some new friends last week. I had lunch with my friend Gina and she brought her her little boy, William. He was born 1 week after Ellie. Then on Sunday, we went to Hudson's baptism. She's Lauren and Brian's little girl, and Ellie is 11 days older than her. This is the first "interaction" Ellie has had with another baby. I'm putting interaction in quotes because I don't know that she actually realized there was another baby next to her. Of course we had to prop them up together and take their picture together.

Neither one of them has great core strength yet so they toppled over. Maybe some baby yoga will help. It was good to see high school friends and introduce Ellie to everyone. Ellie threw up while Aunt Katy was holding her during the baptism. Katy turned around to tell me, "She's barfing!!". Sorry Aunt Katy! Spit happens. That night our friends the Wheelocks were in town so we went out to dinner with them and Lee's family. I started to feel a achy during dinner and when I got home, I had a temperature of 100. I think I had mastitis (a.k.a. the "boob flu"), but it cleared itself up by Monday afternoon without me having to use antibiotics.

I left Ellie with her first non-family member to babysit yesterday. Our gym has a kids place so Ellie stayed there while I attended class. It was just next door to my class so the entire time I wanted to run over there and check on her, but I didn't. When I picked her up, she was asleep in one of the babysitter's arms. My class was pretty good - it was this weird yoga/dancing/kickboxing hybrid. During the first part, we did all yoga and I thought Lee might like it. Then we starting dancing and Jeff, the instructor, started yelling things like "Make it hard" and "Tight asses, everyone!" and I instantly knew my fifteen year old husband wouldn't be able to take it.

And finally - we uncorked some of our Chardonnay last night. It was... interesting. It wasn't bad - in fact, it was good for a first effort. It's sort of a weird color. Lee thinks it's because he oaked it for too long in our barrel. Yes, we have a barrel. He thinks that we should order grapes and crush them ourselves for our next batch of wine. I can see Fed Ex showing up at our house with 500 pounds of grapes. That may make us the talk of the neighborhood.

FP and the Dreamcatchers

I love this picture. I took after church this morning, and she is wearing a Feltman dress that I wore as a little girl. There are a couple of things that make her smile and laugh now - one of those things is to make a noise like a bee. BUUUZZZZZZ!! My mom figured that one out. So now when I take a picture, I don't tell her to smile, I just start buzzing.

Oh, where to begin. I have been going to a step class on Saturday mornings that's sort of weird. The instructor is a little Nazi-ish and the participants all know each other for some reason, so I feel like the outsider when I attend. The guy teaching the class is really into his choreography so there is no room for me to add my own flair. Example: We were doing this little number where you do a mambo, chasse, chasse around the bench. I replaced the last chasse with a little spin. It just worked better. So we're doing this in class and he's queuing "mambo, chasse, chasse". I mambo, chasse, spin. On the second time around, I hear him say it with with a little more meaning "Mambo, chasse, CHASSE!". I mambo, chasse, spin. Then I hear "MAMBO CHASSE CHASSE!!". I look over my shoulder to see what Fancy Pants has his knickers in a knot about and he's staring right at me! F.P. is calling me out because I am not doing his combination right. Are you kidding me? Listen Fred Astire, if I want to come in here and whip out a piece of cardboard and breakdance for an hour, I'm going to do it. And he's one of those instructors who has you do all of these weird arm things. If he starts in with the jazz hands, I'm out of there.

Then there are the participants. The first time I took this class was in March when I was still pregnant. I found it a little strange that four - FOUR - of the women were dressed alike in black spandex leggings, black sports bras and yellow tanks. They looked like an over 40 semi-competitive aerobics troupe. I secretly named them the Dreamcatchers (and don't tell me I'm crazy because crazy is wearing matching outfits to step class). I was hoping that it was just my pregnancy hormones making me read more into what was surely a strange coincidence. Nope. On Saturday, the ringleader/captain of the Dreamcatchers, Kim, chastised another member for not wearing the right outfit. "You didn't hear that we're wearing all black today?". Kim, baby we need to have a talk. If you have enough time to be the costume designer for your Saturday morning step class, the you have way too much time on your hands. The woman behind me was coincidentally dressed the same as me - black capri leggings and a green tank top. I thought about asking her to help me challenge the Dreamcatchers to a dance off, but didn't think she's understand what I was talking about.

Back to our weekend. On Saturday night, my parents came over to watch Ellie so we could have our second date night since she's been born. We went out to dinner and then to see the Bourne Ultimatum. It was really good, but I would have enjoyed it more if I had remembered what happened in the first two. But hands down, it was the best action movie I think I've ever seen. When we returned, Mom and Dad said she "cried a little". I think is grandparent code for "she screamed like a banshee for the three hours you were gone so we're going to remember our earplugs the next time we do this". Thanks Grammie and Grandi!

On Sunday, I assembled Ellie's Rainforest Jumperoo. It's the size of the space shuttle. No seriously, I bet someplace in Europe, they have a little one-seater car that's smaller than this thing. I don't think she knows quite what to make of it. It is designed so that she can move around 360 degrees, but she hasn't figured that out yet. When she jumps, the lights and music start going off (in the first 15 seconds of hearing it Lee asked me if it had a mute button). I think she likes bouncing up an down. I always wondered why parents have so much crap in their house... it's so they have a place to put their kid down so they can get their hands free. Just kidding - it's so they can learn. Or that's what the box said.

Rockin' Rockin' Rockin'

Ellie received a surprise gift from our friends Gina and Scott on Friday. It's the cutest little rocking chair I've ever seen. It's in all the colors of her nursery, it says "Time to Read" and has a little clock on the back. There's a spot on the side for her books. I absolutely adore it. She's still a little small for it now, but I know she'll love to rock and read in in a few more months.

Lee picked up a new case this past week that made the newspaper and television headlines, so he was interviewed and made the 5:00, 6:00 and 10:00 newscasts. Due to the public nature of the blog, I won't go into details, but e-mail me if you want the scoop! We Tivoed the newscasts and I think Lee has worn out the remote rewinding and rewatching. Here's how Wednesday night went: Play segment. "I look okay, right?" Yes honey. Rewind. Play segment. "Does that tie look okay?". Looks great. Rewind. Play segment. "Did I sound okay?" I was hanging on every word. The rinse, lather, and repeat went on for a while. I'm giving him a hard time, but he looked terrific and sounded even smarter than he is handsome. Ellie and I are very proud!

On Saturday, we went to the outlets in Allen. I'd never been there before, but they're pretty good. I got some "back to school" items for Ellie since she'll be starting day care soon and some "back to work" items for me. I'm focusing on items that I can still wear when I loose all of the weight, but I feel like it may be next spring before I'm fully back to old size. I hate buying fat girl clothes. After the shopping, we went to the house of a co-worker's who was having a party for the office. It was hot. It's finally beginning to feel like summer here - and if summer held off until August then I'll take it. I hope we don't have a delayed summer that lasts until November. That night, we watched 300 which was pretty good.

I bought a mirror for Ellie's crib and she loves it. I know she is mesmerized by the attractive baby staring back at her. She enjoys her mirror so much that I had to turn her around so she couldn't see herself anymore so she could fall asleep for a nap. I told her this is the only time in her life she was allowed to have a mirror hanging over her bed.

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

My kid is so advanced. Seriously - she's a genius. Well, what she did may not constitute genius, but she definitely has exceptional motor skills and a great sense of humor. On Friday, she rolled over from her stomach to her back for the first time. I thought it may have just been a fluke, but she did it again on Monday. And more importantly, she laughed for the first time today. Not just a chuckle - a full on belly laugh. I put her in her car seat on our kitchen table and then I dropped something on the ground, so I leaned over to pick it up. When I popped up, it startled her, but then she smiled. Because I am her performing monkey, I did it again to get another smile... only this time I added a funny face and sound effects. Sure enough - my child recognized comedic genius and let out a huge belly laugh. We did it another three times and then she stopped laughing. Probably had enough of the Tiffany Show.





I can't figure out if she's teething right now because she constantly chews on her fingers, puts everything she can into her mouth, and drools like crazy. As a shower gift, I received a Lamaze Spin and Explore Garden Gym from my friend, Amy. I think Ellie is still trying to figure out what to make of it. She keeps her head up the whole time so she hasn't figure out that there are things to play with on the ground. She doesn't scream when I put her on it so that's good.


We didn't do much this weekend - out for dinner on Friday night, ran errands Saturday, and then cooked out that night. My dad came over on Sunday afternoon to visit Ellie (and us too I'm sure) since my mom was out of town visiting her family. We had a good time and dad got another couple dozen pictures. I think he is starting to rival the number of pictures that I take. Ellie got a little tired so dad sang her to sleep before we had dinner.


Trudie is back in full effect. The medicine for her arthritis has worked wonders and is back to her old self. This is good and bad because I know she's feeling better, but that means she acts like a bull in a china shop. If a door is closed, she'll just ram it. And she's a very entitled dog too. We were watching television this weekend and the papasan was on the floor between us. Before I knew it, she had hopped right into it.


Then last night, I was feeding Ellie in the nursery and heard a ruckus at the end of the sofa. Trudie had helped herself into a large basket where I keep Ellie's burp cloths and other items. Note that the basket + items in it are taller than she is. Completely ridiculous. I'm glad she's feeling better.

Four-peat

Are you ready for this? She's slept through the night FOUR nights in a row. Of course, now I don't sleep through the night because I got so used to getting up at 3AM. I always wake up and wonder if she has woken up and I've missed her or I wonder when she's going to wake up. Then I start to think about the proposal I need to be writing for work, remember that I forgot to put gas in the car yesterday, wonder if we need to get more insulation blown into the attic, and try to think of my third grade teacher's name. Cummings was second, Krovack was fourth and Moore was fifth, but I can never remember third. So I just lay there. Thinking.

After 10 weeks, Trudie finally came home on Thursday. My mom and dad had been keeping her since Ellie was born due to the fact that I have to carry my poor blind puppy up and down the steps. I took her to the vet today and she got on some doggie arthritis medicine. I have no clue how old she is, but I'd guess 12 to 14. You can tell what Ellie is thinking "Oh crap - did they get another one of these hairy things?!" She seems more interested in Trudie than the other two dogs. I think it's because she's white so Ellie can see her and follow her more easily. Trudie has sniffed her once so I think she knows there's a baby here, but has shown no real interest. We took the big girls to the dog park this weekend to swim and play. They love it there, but Lucy lost both of the tennis balls in the lake in the first five minutes so they spent most of the time running around and harassing the other dogs.

I've been working more from home lately and Ellie has a lot more awake time, so she spends a good portion of the day next to me in her papasan or laying on the floor playing while I type. When I need a break, I turn on the iTunes and belt out a song for her. I love how she smiles at me and looks at me like I'm the coolest person on earth. I know that in 13 years, I'm going to be the uncoolest person she knows, so I'm going to soak it in while I can get it.

I got this picture of Ellie on Sunday. I've been waiting for her to grow into that beautiful dress Ashley gave her. She was the best dressed baby at church. This shot makes me laugh when I look at it. It looks so movie-star posed when all I did was put her on her blanket and snap a picture. That's my little star.

After the shots...

After Ellie had her shots on Friday, my friend Ashley came over for a visit. Ellie was a little fussy from the shots so I felt like I had to tell Ashley a dozen times that "she's not usually like this". Famous last words I'm sure she's heard from every single friend with a kid. I gave Ellie some baby Tylenol in the afternoon, but she was fine by the evening. We took her out to dinner with us at Big Shucks and sat on the patio. She didn't sleep through the night that night, but she did do it again on Sunday night. I think it's going to be hit or miss when I get a full eight hours of sleep, but I'll take it when I can get it!

We had a pretty relaxed weekend. I taught an aerobics class on Saturday morning and then we ran errands. We found some infant sunglasses at Target, so I had to get them. I don't think they're Ellie's favorite thing to wear because when I put them on her, she moved her head from side to side trying to get them off. She looked like Stevie Wonder. But isn't that half the fun of having a baby? Making them wear completely ridiculous outfits?

We also got this picture of Ellie on Saturday... Doesn't she sort of look like she saying, "Um... can someone get this dog out of my picture?". Lucy is such a weirdo. If she sees someone else getting attention, she has to hone in on their moment. She's like that annoying guy in college who would jump in the background of your pictures to be funny.

That night, Lee was supposed to go to the Better than Ezra concert with Ben, but wound up skipping because he was tired after putting in 4 hours of yard work. Ellie and I visited mom and dad to have dinner with them and then returned home to have some wine with Elizabeth and Lee in the backyard. Pretty relaxing. Here's one last shot of the new "hands-free" way Lee likes to carry Ellie around... in her Baby Bjorn. They are quite the pair walking around the neighborhood like that.

The two month appointment

Ellie had her two month appointment today, but let's start with the really important stuff - she slept through the night last night! I've loosely been following Babywise since she the day she was born and it works. I don't think Babywise is right for every baby, but it seems like it was right for this one. On Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights she woke up at 4:30 AM and I fed her. On Wednesday night when she woke up, I decided not to feed her or even pick her up. When I got back into bed, I felt like Child Protective Services was going to arrest me for starving her.


I put her in bed at 10:15 PM last night. Ellie and I both would have slept through the night, but at 5:45 AM, Lee woke me up to ask me if Ellie had slept through the night. Yes. "Well, do you think something is wrong with her?", he asked. If you never want me to sleep again, ask me that question because I immediately pictured her in her crib hanging upside down from her mobile. Then I couldn't go back to sleep, but I swore I wasn't going to go in there. At 6:30, both of us went in there and stood over her crib for a minute watching her. We couldn't tell if she was breathing so Lee put his hand on her chest and she jumped. Then she got a little ticked off that we woke her up. I don't know if this is a trend - I hope so - but at least we got one sleep-filled night!


So onto that two month appointment... she had to get her first round of immunizations today so she got THREE shots - two in one leg and one in the other. I really didn't think I was going to get upset when she got her shots because I know that getting polio is way worse than getting the vaccine for polio, but the second I put her down on the table, I started crying. For a split second I thought "well, maybe it won't hurt her that much" but once she felt the shot, she screamed and screamed until no noise was coming out of her little body. It hurts me just to write about it. She has to get the same round of shots at 4 and 6 months.


I'll end this one on a high note - As far as the rest of the appointment went, the doctor said she was spectacular. She's now 11 pounds, 12 ounces (70th percentile) and 23.5 inches (90th percentile) so she's gained 4 pounds and 2.25 inches in two months. When the nurse checks us in, I have to undress Ellie so they can weigh her. She has to stay that way until the doctor examines her which took forever since the he was running behind. It was freezing in the room and I forgot her blanket so I had to wrap her up in a big paper towel. That's the picture to the left - my poor little girl in her paper towel blanket just before her shots. It least I don't have to do this for another two months... and next time I'll remember a blanket for her and a sedative for me.

Close but no cigar

Look at her holding her head up! She's actually been doing this for about two weeks, but this is the first good picture I've gotten of it. She almost rolled over today too. She was on her stomach for some tummy time when she rolled over onto her side, but didn't know how to kick her leg over to get herself on her back. I wanted to help her, but I think rolling over is one of those skills you have to figure out for yourself.

My little dumpling has almost slept through the night for the past three nights... I say almost because she wakes up at 4:30 AM. I put her in bed at 10 PM so 6.5 hours is a pretty long time for her to sleep at once. It's a long time for me to sleep too! But I don't know what to do with her when she wakes up because by the time I feed her and put her back to bed, it's almost 5AM and then I wake her back up at 6:30 to eat again? These are all questions I need to ask the doctor on Friday.

When she got up on Sunday night, I fed her and then changed her diaper(s). I put her on her changing table, took off Diaper #1 and put on Diaper #2. She immediately pooped. Okay - that's fine. So I took off Diaper #2 and replaced it with Diaper #3. I get her all zipped up and she poops again. Even more. I was totally unamused at this point because 1) It's 4:30 in the morning and 2) I'm about to have to replace Diaper #3 with Diaper #4. I looked up at her face and are you ready? She's smiling at me. Oh you're funny alright, Miss Bright. At that point, I started laughing because she was completly tickled with herself and she looks like a little old woman who forgot her dentures when she smiles. Thank goodness grandma Connie went to Sam's Club and bought 500 diapers and 2000 wipes because I thought we were going to use all of them.

Happy Fourth!

Lee and I were very excited that it stopped raining just long enough for our neighborhood to have their annual Fourth of July Parade. Ellie was awake and alert for every single bit of it. I don't know how much she could see or if she actually enjoyed it, but she sat on my lap most of the time watching all of the entries passing by. She even had a special red, white and blue outfit for the occasion.

We took the dogs to the parade again this year. If you read last year's post about the parade, you'll remember that Morgan was so bothered by the fake machine gun fire that came from one of the army-looking vehicles rolling down the street that she hid under a car. There were no automotive fallout shelters around us this year so Morgan was forced to take cover elsewhere. Here's what she came up with:

That's right. Our 65-pound dog hid under our daughter's stroller. I am a little embarrassed for her. She could not be a bigger weenie if she tried. Then there's Lucy totally hamming it up for the camera. They couldn't be more different. That night, we grilled out hot dogs, brats, corn on the cob and enjoyed some Matanzas Creek wine.

I didn't know if she was ready for it or not, but I put Ellie in her Bumbo chair on Friday and she loved it. She much prefers being up on my shoulder looking around to lying on her back so sitting up really suits her. She was in a smiley mood so she stayed in it for a few minutes while I shook her little multi-colored elephant around for her to look at. She has her two month check-up and shots this Friday. I am not looking forward to her screaming bloody murder while they stab her in the leg. I'm going to ask the doctor about dropping the late-night feeding. Not that she's ever been hard to deal with during the 3AM wake-up, but she's getting a lot easier. I was back in bed in 25 minutes last night - that includes a diaper change and feeding. She usually goes right back to sleep which is nice, but it would be even nicer if she wouldn't wake up at all!

Ellie goes to the Nasher

We didn't really have anything big lined up for this weekend, so we decided to expose Ellie to her first taste of art at the Nasher Sculpture Center. As you can see, she was really taken by "Constructed Head No. 2", a piece by Naum Gabo.

She was equally excited by David Smith's "The Forest"...

As well as several other pieces in the outside garden.

We rounded out the afternoon by stopping at Wine-Tastic for some extra relaxation. The only time you can hit a wine bar with a baby is at 3:30 in the afternoon because nobody is there and she's asleep anyway.

I got back on the exercise train this weekend too. I've been walking for a few weeks, but this was my first time to do something other than that. On Saturday morning, I went to a spin class which went pretty well. I hadn't been to a spin class since my first trimester and my tailbone reminded me of that the next day. On Sunday, I tried to jog which did not go so well. In total, I logged 3.5 miles, but only ran 1.5 of that and about halfway through I realized my jogging shorts were too small so my butt was probably hanging out the back. You know in elementary school when they would choose teams at recess for kickball? While I was running, I felt like that girl who always got picked last for the team. You know who I'm talking about - the girl who was last in the batting order and even if your team was winning 28-0 and she actually did make it to the plate, they still told her to bunt. And when she did bunt, she could have made the best bunt in the history of kickball, but she'd still be out at first because it took her over a minute to lumber side to side down to first base and when she realized she was going to be out she walked those last 5 feet because she was totally winded by that point. That was me running. I looked like a damn lumberjack without all of the flannel.

Our goal is to run the YMCA Turkey Trot this Thanksgiving which is 8 miles. I have no clue how I'm going to do that without wheelchair assistance. I thought that working out until my 39th week would have let me just snap right back, but this is going to take some doing.

I'm so glad it's a 4 day week because that means I only have to work 4 hours from home since I'll get 8 from vacation and 8 from going in the office to work. I'm excited to take Ellie to her first Fourth of July parade too - she has a special outfit for the occasion!

Happy #31/#3!

It will not stop raining. Just as soon as it stops raining, it starts up again. If we get another 0.75 inches of rain before Saturday (which we will) this will be the wettest June on record for Dallas. I'm not that upset because I've been pretty housebound for June, but I feel bad for all of the kiddos on summer break or the ones who are totally water logged at summer camp.

We celebrated our annual "big weekend" this past weekend. I turned 31 on Sunday and we celebrated our third wedding anniversary on Tuesday. We actually celebrated both by going to dinner on Saturday night at Hibiscus, a restaurant I'd been wanting to try for a while. My mom and dad kept Ellie so this was our first childless night out in 6 weeks. They said Ellie was "fussy" so she may have put her grandparents through the wringer. We had a great time, and Lee gave me a beautiful Tag watch as a birthday/anniversary/"thanks for pushing out the baby" gift. I really needed a new one since the only watch I have right now that works is a blue Timex Ironman. Not very professional. I need to look a little more professional since we were also celebrating the fact that I just found out I was promoted. Second year in a row! My boss called me at home last weekend to tell me. I told him that I guess that sealed the deal - I'm coming back to work!

Speaking of, my six weeks of "short term disability" ran out on Tuesday, but don't think that doesn't mean that I'm still not partially disabled. Despite my best efforts, some days my 10.5 pound growth precludes me from getting out of my pajamas before noon. I went in with Ellie for two hours yesterday and then I'm going in for the whole afternoon today. My mom is going to keep Ellie on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons so I can go in part time and then do about 12 hours of work per week from home. It sounds easy, but she's been having more and more awake time every day so I'm going to have to put my nose to the grindstone when her eyes shut.

If there's one thing that makes her eyes shut, it's her swing. I'm going to move it into our office when I start working so that she can take naps in it right next to me. I took this picture to show that wherever Ellie is, Morgan isn't far behind. She's so interested in Ellie. Yesterday she was in her swing asleep and I looked up to see Morgan inches from her face - just watching her, but I knew what was about to happen. In my loudest whisper/yell I said "Morgan!! NO!!", but Morgan ignored me and licked Ellie square in the face which woke her up. Poor Morgan, she always has the best intentions.

The weight loss is going well. I just found out my friend Meg is going to have her wedding in Playa del Carmen the second weekend of November so knowing that I'll be getting into a bathing suit in 4 months gives me some extra incentive to buckle down and get it done. It four weeks I have lost... 13 pounds! This totally makes my 25 pound goal before Labor Day doable. I don't want to have to buy all new clothes before I go back to work. Plus, I don't want to look like a total fat ass. It's been hard for me to exercise #1 - because I'm tired, #2 - because it's rained almost every day this month, and #3 - I only have a small window once Lee gets home, but if I go then, I don't get to spend time with him. I'm dying to use my jogging stroller, but Ellie needs to gain some neck control before that happens.

Here's one last shot of Ellie asleep on her Daddy.

Crash. Crap.

What a wonderful Friday. That was laced with sarcasm. I had so many things to do today and I can't do anything because do you see that pile of glass of the ground? That's my back windshield laying at the end of our driveway.



So what happened? I was backing down my driveway - I looked over my right shoulder and saw my neighbor's car parked in front of their house. I looked over my left shoulder and saw a truck parked in front of our house with a long trailer attached to it. Unfortunately, I did not pick up on the fact that the a-hole was parked blocking our driveway. I took the above picture with my camera phone. That's exactly where he was parked. I guess the only good news is there's no damage to the body of my car because my windshield took the entire hit.

I'm so mad. I'm mad at myself for not doing a better job of looking down the driveway, but I'm even more mad at the total jerk who decided that it's okay to park wherever he wants. I asked him why he was parked at the end of my driveway and he just said "sorry". He's the one who is illegally parked and I'm the one who pays for it. Doesn't seem fair, but that's how it is. Stupid workers park all along the street and just don't care. I'm calling the police ever single time I see them doing something wrong from now on. Uuuhh. What a way to start a weekend.

Miss Bright, they're ready for your close-up

Ellie had her 1 month appointment today. She's over 10 pounds now! I guess she takes after her mom - she likes to eat. She now weighs 10 pounds 2 ounces (75th percentile) and is 22.5 inches long (93rd percentile). Her head is still 50th percentile, but we don't want her to have a giant noggin anyway. She flirted with her doctor by smiling at him and then holding her head up and looking around the room while on her tummy. Show off. The doctor told me we were lucky to have such a happy baby. I agree.

I had Ellie's picture taken for the first time on Friday as a gift for her daddy for Father's Day as well as gifts for her grandfathers. She was so good through the three wardrobe changes and over 90 flashes going off in her face. In some of the pictures, she wore the outfit that was my going home outfit from the hospital. Against my better judgement, I let them do some "naked baby" shots. Naked babies are cute, but she looked like a little naked old man lying there with her little wrinkly butt. Ellie let me know what she thought of the idea by going to the bathroom all over the place once her diaper was removed. I wasn't totally happy with the pictures, but there was one that I really loved so that's all I needed. That night, Ellie made her first trip to a sushi restaurant. Lee and I had our first date at Blue Fish and found our dog, Lucy, there so we decided to introduce Ellie. She likes California rolls but is a little iffy on the spicy tuna.

On Saturday, Ellie attended another Junior League funding interview with me at Gilda's Club (btw - what a fantastic program). Ellie should really be getting future meeting credit for all of this. I felt like I've been getting better at packing her up and traveling with her until a little incident on Thursday. Ellie attended another JL funding interview at Parkland Hospital with me. For those of you not familiar, Parkland is the public hospital for Dallas... Let's just say if you have a gun shot wound, that's where they're taking you. They also deliver more than 16,000 babies per year and only 14% of those parents speak English. Am I painting the picture for you? We were totally safe because all I had to do was valet park in front and run up to a conference room.

I fed Ellie, packed her up in the car, and as I was driving up to the front of the hospital, I heard a "HUUUAAHH" and turned around just in the nick of time to watch her projectile vomit 30 minutes worth of breastfeeding all over herself and her carseat. She didn't have a set of clean clothes in my diaper bag because he had pooped through her spare onsie a few days earlier and I hadn't put another one in there. So Ellie got new clothes from the gift shop and was stripped down to her diaper and redressed in the Parkland lobby. It doesn't get any classier than that. I may as well been smoking a cigarette while wearing house slippers, a Hooters tee shirt and curlers in my hair.

We didn't do much on Saturday... the usual tummy time and hanging out with Dad followed by a trip to the mall. On Sunday, Ellie made her first appearance at Mass. We sat in the insane-o kid area, but we probably won't do that again since she is pretty quiet. My aunt Kathy was visiting from Memphis so after church, we went to see my parents to celebrate her birthday and Father's Day. On Monday, mom and Kathy spent the day with me and Ellie. We've been quite busy with all of our visits and visitors!