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!

Mysterio Predicts...

Happy 1 month birthday to Ellie! I can't believe she's been here one month already. Each day keeps getting better.


While we were on vacation in Santa Fe last November, we came across a baby boutique on Canyon Road. I found the following and had to have it:





It's like a fortune cookie, but it predicts your child's future as the bag states "on a nice tee shirt". I saved it since November and once she arrived was so excited to open it only to find out that Ellie will be...



A conspiracy nut. Nice. Please note two things here - 1) The look on her face and 2) the way "Conspiracy Nut" is stretched out across that round little tummy. She's laughing on the inside.

Ellie's Big Week

I'm a little late on getting this post out mainly because I was sidelined last Friday. More on that a little later. Ellie and I had a big week - we really hit the town. We started off the week on Monday with a trip to my office. I swore I wasn't going to go in, but I needed to go in to handle a few things and plus I wanted everyone to see my little pea pod. She did really well even if all she did was sleep. Here's a picture from Ellie's "lifting the head" workout. She's getting much better and held it all the way up and looked at me for a few seconds this morning.

We didn't have any adventures on Tuesday, but on Wednesday, we went to see Once at the "Cry Baby Matinee" at a local movie theater. They say you can enjoy a film "without worrying about breastfeeding in the dark" and they have a changing table set up so I expected that it would be all moms and kids. Wrong. There were about 6-8 kiddos there with their mothers and the rest were the general public. In fact, there was this single guy there just watching the movie by himself. Needless to say, I'm glad I made a bottle for Ellie before we went so I didn't give this guy a boob show for free. She was really good through the whole thing except for at the end when she got a little fussy, but she quickly went to sleep.

Thursday was Ellie's first trip to Grandma and Granddad's house in Arlington. We ate lunch and had a good time. I saw Trudie for the first time in a month. My parents have been keeping Trudie since Ellie was born because she's a lot of work because I have to carry her in and out to go to the bathroom. I feel like a horrible dog mom. I'm going to get her back next week. Ellie wanted to take a nap, but since my mom almost crawled in the crib with her, we went home around 3:00 so Ellie could rest.

Friday is when things went a little haywire. I had to conduct an interview for Junior League at Equest for funding for the 08-09' year. Everything went great, but while I was driving home, I had a horrible pain in my lower stomach. I thought I might be hungry so I stopped to get some lunch, but the pain persisted. I kept driving because I just wanted us to get home. When I was close to home, I realized that I wasn't going to be able to get Ellie out of the car or get up our stairs so I called Lee to help us. I was getting a little upset because the pain had been there for an hour so we went to the ER.

Long story short, they think I was just having some latent uterine contractions, but it took 7 hours, a sonogram, a CT to rule out appendicitis, and blood work to determine that. It also took three IV attempts by two people and a blown vein in my hand. They send the third guy in to try to give me an IV and I told him to go fly a kite. I could have been dying and there's no way I would have let them try again. Then I found out they didn't get enough blood for my blood work so they had to stab me a fourth time. Of course by this point, I was feeling totally better so I was just ticked off I was at the ER. I had Ellie with me the entire time because she had had to eat. Poor thing. She was so good ALL DAY. Didn't even whimper. She's such a trooper.

So that was our big week. On Saturday night, we went out to dinner with the Brights again and hit Mi Cocina for dinner. Again, Ellie was really great until the food came and then she needed to be held. Lee's dad got a new dog, Bitsy, so we were able to meet her on Saturday too. Our dogs must have a small panic attack that we're adding to our already large dog family every time a new dog enters the backyard. We didn't do a ton this weekend, but next weekend is Father's Day so that should be fun.

Like our new look?

Thanks to Nicole, I now have my own personalized title bar for the top of the screen! Very exciting. I think the analytical side of my brain crushed and killed the artistic side of my brain a long time ago so I would have never been able to make something as creative. Thanks Nicole and Happy Birthday, Wayne!

After my post on Friday, Lee wanted to take part in a walk with Ellie so we took our second outing in the stroller for the day and walked down to HP Village and got some Paciugo. Ellie is a big fan of getting outside. While Lee was inside purchasing the gelato, I got this picture of Ellie waiting for her dad.

Love that picture. After that, Ellie dozed off and when she woke up, we gave her the first big girl bath in her bath tub. I thought she would enjoy it and she did. She didn't make a peep when she hit the water and seemed to enjoy getting cleaned off. Every time I went to take a picture, Lee quickly moved his hand to assist Ellie in a modesty pose.

Then he thought a strategically placed rubber duckie would help out.

On Saturday when I was playing with Ellie, she lifted her head all the way up and looked at me from a belly down position. You would have thought she had walked on the moon based on the way I reacted to her little milestone. I almost threw her a parade. Lee wasn't here to see it, but saw her do it on Sunday morning. I can only imagine how I'm going to react to her walking or crawling. We managed to get out and about for a bit that afternoon by going to the Vespa store, Apple store, and we went to see Elizabeth at the wine bar. Do I count that as another milestone for Ellie? First visit to a bar? It's actually more of a wine tasting room. That night, Ellie had her first dinner out with the Bright Grandparents at La Paesana.

She was really good the whole meal with only a little fussing, but I think she was a little overstimulated by all of the lights, new sounds and smells.

I went to weigh in at Weight Watchers and after one week, I've lost ... (drum roll, please) FIVE pounds! I think some of that may still be fluid, but I'll take it. Giving myself some credit, I was very good last week since I'm highly motivated right now. I seriously doubt the rest of it is going to fall off as easily, but I've revamped my goal and now want to lose 25 before Labor Day. That's 5 down and 20 to go. I think I can do it.

How is it already June?

The days seemed to drag by as I was waiting for May to get here and now time won't slow down. I can't believe it's June. This week I received a notice from my company stating that I had been granted short term disability (apparently we're disabled when we have a baby) through June 25. That's only 24 days from now. I need to live in Norway or someplace where you can take off 6 months when you have a baby.

I keep on waiting for my kiddo to act up and it still hasn't happened yet. Last night she went to sleep at 11pm and woke up at 3:45am. She ate and went right back to sleep. Two nights ago, I wish I'd gotten a picture of her when I went to pick her up for her middle of the night feeding. She had on her hospital cap and had managed to pull it down over her eyes and ears all the way to her nose. She wasn't crying - she was just giving me her best "Eeeh! EEEEEEUUHHH!!" grunt and rolling around in her crib. It was the first time I'd seen her straight up ticked off and it made me laugh. I'm trying to teach her the difference between night and day so today we took our first walk.

I think she looks a little irritated because of the bumpy sidewalk. Or she may have gas. It's a toss-up. She was awake for the first 5 minutes of our 40 minute walk and then the bumpy sidewalk seemed to put her to sleep. I think I'm going to make a walk a daily routine for us. I hope the weather stays nice for a while. It was almost 80 when we walked at 11am this morning so we may have to start going earlier.

After we got back, she ate again and I put her in her crib for a few minutes while I cleaned up. I had tried to turn on her crazy-looking mobile a few days ago, but she didn't like it. Today she actually stared up at it and seemed to enjoy it. Then Grandma Beth came over and she proceeded to fall asleep from all of the activity.

Grandma Connie came over yesterday and brought my baby book. Everyone has been trying to figure out who Ellie looks like and since she doesn't seem to have many of my features, everyone defaults to saying she looks like Lee. There's a picture of me in the baby album at about 2 weeks or so and it looks exactly like Ellie. It was almost creepy - like looking at a picture of Ellie. So we'll see how she develops.

The Two Week Appointment

I'm happy to report that Ellie got an A+ at the pediatrician today, but what a day to go... Her appointment happened to coencide with the exact time a tsunami was moving through the area. I clued in that we were about to be totally underwater in exactly enough time to get her in the car seat and pull out of the driveway. It's going to take a while before I'm am a pro at getting her out of the car while tolding my purse, diaper bag and umbrella.

The whole appointment went really well and I'm glad I picked the pediatric group that I went with. I didn't know it until today, but the medical assistant for Ellie's doctor was one of my Tuesday night step regulars, so it was good to see a familiar face. Ellie was completly happy being held by her, being weighed and then being held by the doctor. Ellie has gained one pound since our visit eleven days ago so she's now 8 pounds 6 ounces. The doctor was really happy with her progress even though I've been stressing that I've only been feeding her 7 times a day rather than the "recommended" 8-12 times a day. I seriously don't know how she could eat more than she does. The doctor said that whatever I was doing was working, which was good to hear. She's also grown 3/4 inches so she's up to 22 inches long and her head is 14.25 inches. That means she's in the 50th percentile for head and weight and >95th percentile for length. She still looks skinny because she's so long.

Then we had to do something that Ellie did not like - she had to get her heel pricked for the rest of her PKU stuff. It tests for metabolic disorders. She screamed like a banshee. Poor thing. They make you sit there and hold her while they do it so I'm sure she thought I was trying to saw her foot off. That was enough activity for Ellie and she promptly went to sleep.

Two other big milestones occurred yesterday - Ellie's umbilical cord fell off and we got her social security card in the mail so she is officially a tax write-off. She's also making big strides with head and neck control. Today after we got home and she ate, I put her on her stomach for some tummy time. If you lay her down with her head facing one way and then move to the other side, she'll turn her head to look at you. Of course,she face-plants for about 5 seconds during the transition, but she works it out. When I'm holding her upright, all she wants to do is hold her head up and look around with her bright eyes. She gets a little fussy if she can't see what is going on. She's still really wobbly so she looks like a turtle bobbing along. That was Ellie's big day - it doesn't get much more exciting around here!