Yippee an update.....

Whooowee...time is a FLYIN around here. School started and this just compounded the time warp we have been on for the past nine and a half months. We're all adjusting okay, I think, to my being gone during the day. I think we're awfully lucky to have the arrangement that we do. Paisley is a blast. I now understand when beaming mothers say "Oh, I've just loved every stage" -- I have too. It's just been so fun getting to play so many roles as mom. You get to be a coach, a playmate, an observer, a *learner*, a disciplinarian (the cords near the entertainment center garnered our first "NO!" followed by a meltdown of hurt feelings...oh poor little thing...I was a monster!!) a gourmet baby food chef, and an expert on infant constipation. It's so challenging, yet so fun. I feel like we're doing an acceptable job, too. Which is amazing. Because I didn't know if we were going to be cut out for it. But I do indeed think we're managaing.

Okay, let me just document the fun stuff for posterity and then I'll post some pictures.

Okay, so Miss P officially stands up now. Regularly. And alone. Occasional balance on an object, but she appears to be relatively fearless. And she is no longer doing downward dog while attempting to crawl - she CRAWLS and she ain't kiddin! Chasing her is like chasing a small, fast dog. They never know exactly where they're heading, but they do it fast and change directions rapidly. That's Paisley. Super-fast baby!

By the way, there used to be a Saturday Night Live skit about "Swiffer Jammies" for babies. Is there really anything wrong with that? I mean why would we parody something that every mother has probably envisioned? And what a time saver! AND, no matter how many times I neurotically clean my floors (wood floors, obviously) her shins and knees are so freaking grubby every single day. I'm going through oxy-clean like mad. (That stuff works like crazy good by the way!! Never had I been a true conoissuer of the stain remover...however...times have changed...)

Ummm, okay, let's move on to pictures:

This is our little Jayhawk's first KU game --- she LOVED it!!! (Disclaimer: I've tried to rotate these pictures and according to my "preview" they're not rotating, so sorry...I tried. These days, that's all I got)



And example of her "standing baby ku cheerleader" -- she's awfully talented, no?



And of course, leave it to Mimi to think of the important details like the matching bloomers! Nothing says "Rock Chalk Jayhawk" like these fancy drawers!!!



Luckily Poppa was able to land us these primo seats in the stadium suites...because when you gotta call it quits, it's nice to not have to do it in the stands. Thanks Poppa!!



Now back at the ranch...you can imagine what this book shelf looks like at the end of the day. She's awfully literary. I think she's reaching for the scrabble dictionary... *as I beam with pride -- mommy's little wordsmith* "Q-U-A-G-M-I-R-E. quagmire. 20 points, sucka!" SIGH...she's so smart.



And I'll leave you with this...I just can't believe how big and how capable this little critter is getting. We're just beside ourselves. It's like she's a real person!!! We just keep telling ourselves that with our mouths agape. I'm not sure we had put that into perspective until she started eating food from a dish and transporting herself from point a to point b without our help. I guess people tried to warn us.

"Bye-bye" Summer!!

Oh man, it's just killing me...at the risk of being dramatic, I feel like something awesome is coming to a painful, dramatic end. Well, I mean, it IS...Summer..it's over for me in one week!!! Can you believe that?! Remember when "summer" meant June, July & August?? Not anymore. Teachers now have to go back in mid-August, thus negating the three [aforementioned] reasons we go IN to teaching in the first place. Changing lives? Bologna!! Making a difference? Children, Schmildren. It's all a rouse -- we do it for the SUMMERS!! And mine is slipping irrevocably into the past -- and I hate it! I have just LOVED being a full-time mamma for two and a half months. I loved waking her up in the mornings (did I say that? cause I meant being woken up BY her...), I loved watching her learn things, I loved finding her new teeth, I loved "cooking" new things for her to try out, and I loved swimming lessons, I loved inventing silly toys out of out formula cans, I loved hearing her first "word".... I could go on, but it's essentially all the same stuff. I loved doing what stay-at-home moms get to do every day. If anyone out there is a stay-at-home mom...relish it. For all of us who just can't have it both ways - eat it up, you have an incredibly awesome opportunity. Luckily, one of us parental units will be home with her at all times. I love not putting her in day care. I know eventually we'll probably dabble in some "pre-school" type stuff but I love not having to take her somewhere in the morning and then wondering if she's being loved on enough all day. It's really a good feeling. Although, I'm certain we're developing a little monster. How could we not - her world is SO about her? We went to my aunt and cousin's joint birthday party Sunday night and Miss P became the evening entertainment. She laps it up - it's truly comedic. Such a scene stealer. She plays a mad game of peek-a-boo, claps her sticky little hands, and is even eating Cheerios. It's crazy. Where did that little no-motor skill-havin baby go?? Our coconut with a sock pinned to it? Our softball with a bow taped to it? Our saggy little tights with a potato thrown inside?? Oh man. Darn kids.

Oh speaking of motor skills - and this is a sore subject -- we're still being a bit, um, challenged in the whole crawling department. I'm even more convinced that if she does crawl, it will be extremely short lived. She's definitely showing more interest in standing and even walking. Her "crawl" has really turned into an exercise in the "downward dog" pose. My guess is, and this is metaphorically speaking, her "downward dog pose" simply one of the photos in the Evolution of Man graphic, (knuckles dragging, etc.) and she'll soon be in a more upright position and, in fact, walking. Amazing.

Okay, so I have a bunch of pictures but I haven't uploaded them to photobucket. We've been on a ton of field trips - museums, the zoo, outdoor parks, etc. I think we can safely say we have truly enjoyed our first summer with Miss P. I know I'll be counting the days even more diligently this school year!! Would it be inappropriate to have a count down, much like we do in the month of May, on the board the entire year? "Only 186 days, kids!!!!" "But teacher, it's September..." "I know kids. Now, shut up and say it with me...ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY SIX!!"

Anyway, I'll post some pictures soon. Send me "separation-anxiety-calming vibes"

It's night night time. :)

Not a ton of time - of course. Summertime is the FUNNEST, though. We are having a blast. We started this week off with a bang - our first trip to the zoo AND our first SWIMMING LESSONS!! FUN! But first a couple of other noteworthy events for the month of July. Miss P had her first overnight vacation to Mimi & Poppa's house. I actually had a roadtrip with my best girlfriends up to visit our "missing man" girlfriend who moved away from us. What a blast we had - we laughed till we cried on numerous occasions. It was just so good for the soul!!! Josh had to work through the weekend so we packed up a little pink overnight bag and shipped little missie off to Mimi & Poppa. I think we were all a little nervous, but everything went absolutely perfect! I loved the fact that I could discreetly get a picture mail/message on my cell phone and I could avoid being "that mom" who calls home every hour! (At least I tried not to be...but that's a hard hat to switch out from under) Ultimately I think the little vacay was so good for all parties!

Little milestones --- Miss P has her second tooth! She's eating more and more big people food, too. One thing I stumbled upon that she loves - rice cakes. Mmm. Plain puffed rice, everyone's favorite... Okay, so I've never found them to be completely fulfilling, but Paisley gobbles them up and they melt down to a nice mushy mess and seem to tide her over just fine.

Also, she is really really struggling to crawl. And man does she get mad when she can't, shoo-eee! She gets up on all fours and rocks like crazy and then the legs just pop out behind her and BOOM, she's back on her tummy again. I keep the video camera close because she's just on the cusp!!

I think the crawling will be short lived to be honest - she is seriously so interested in standing and walking. She has even held herself up at the coffee table and always seems quite impressed with herself when she does.

Oh and this is random. No one ever told me about this - and maybe it's just my child - but what's with all the primative, loud, grunts that this child belts out? Seriously?! She has the capability of sounding like a cartoon-characteresque BRUTE! They're not "at" anything in particular, they're just her finding her vocal range I guess. But it's pretty funny.

Quick note on swimming lessons - they're going so great. She loves them! And she kicks like mad, too. It's super fun, I'm so glad we did it. And boy does she nap HARD when we get home!

Now on to the photo gallery!

KICK KICK KICK! Miss P is the belle of the poole! :)





Paisley and Dad at the Zoo! If you look really close you can see the giraffe in the background. She was not necessarily impressed with the animals. She has stuff like that at her house. Three of 'em. No biggie.





Mom and Paisley





Paisley standing at the coffee table - not sure why this is so blurry and of course it's not missie's most photogenic moment, but I had to capture the "standing"




So busy. Things to do, people to see, purses to carry.





And of course, no summer would be complete without a trip to Aunt Bev's house for a pool party! This was her first time in a swimming pool and after a few minutes, she seemed to be right at home there! We love Aunt Beverly!!

"Tickle Me Paisley"

I'm feeling rawther smug --- I can't believe I figured out how to do this. I'm so excited. I don't want to miss the sounds I've captured here. Hopefully it waits for you to hit play before it starts but it's actually Little Miss Paisley herself GIGGLING uncontrollably!! I'm tickling her or something, and you can hear my goofy "doo doo doo" noises at one point, but the rest of it is her! I think there is an echo on it or something; it sounds a touch demonic. Haha!! It just makes me laugh out loud every time! I find it awfully sweet. :)

>

The tooth fairy arrived!!

Yippeee! As of today, we have a tooth! Yep, our first toofie! Lower left. Wasn't too much of a struggle on the way in. About once a week or so, maybe even less frequently, we'd have a big meltdown. I was thinking this was about her tooth moving or swelling gums, or whatever. But it was never too major for too long. And we've battled some diaper rash as well. (Apparently, a rashy rear-end is a metaphorical "red flag" for teething?? I'm not sure what the two "ends" have in common...but I digress...) So again, this kid has cut us some slack and we've dodged another bit of a bullet as far as the hurdles of infancy go, no major teething issues! Yippee!

And there's more! The new tooth is not all...what a busy month we've had! Let me just start by saying being home is just beyond everything I thought it would be. I LOVE going to her in the morning when she wakes up. You just can't beat starting your day with that big gummy grin!! I love asking her what she wants to wear every day, putting her down for naps, you know...what moms do! It's SO fun!! We play awfully hard - exploring every thing we can get our hands on...leaves on the trees, the dogs, mom's cell phone, the remote control, muffin tins with toys in them, our own feet (and their freshly painted toe nails, might I add), etc. It's just fascinating watching her learning about stuff. I just sit on the floor next to her and watch her study something. I feel like I'm spying on her, because she doesn't even notice me - she's so taken by whatever it is she's examining!!

Recently we've added so many new tricks to our repertoire. Just the other day little missie started saying something that sounded like "da da da" --- I counted it as the official "first word". I'm not sure what the rules are about that...but it sounded like "daddy" to us. SO, Check: First Word! YIPPEEE!!

Oh and fun fun fun!! We got a new swimming pool and little P got to take it for a spin recently. Her little swimsuit was just TOO much! Her dad just rolls his eyes at the insanity of an infant "bikini". As he puts it, "what is that thing supposed to be covering up?!" I guess he has a point, this little bikini top so dang funny, like two little triangles covering something that will later be not only exposed, but also covered in a mushy, gummy cookie and gooey brown banana (more on this later...). Just funny. Anyway, the fancy schmancy pool has a lot of bells and whistles when in reality she just likes to watch her feet wiggle in the water. What?! I thought for sure she would want to use the "Whale Slide"!? Ride on the "Inflatable Dolphin"?! Man. Kids just don't know what they're missing!!

Next item on our agenda -- little miss manners is starting to wave bye-bye, er..hi...er something. Whatever. She's moving her fingers open and closed, like waving, but doesn't quite get when to do it. But I think it's progress!

AND she's feeding herself stuff too. I mentioned this already, but I made those little whole grain teething biscuits and she still loves them. They basically look like dog biscuits (and, most likely, taste quite similar as well!) and I'm still spending most of my time fishing the big chunks out of her mouth, but I know the bits she is consuming are good for her and well, it's what babies are supposed to do, right? Another food favorite is bananas - so funny. I just strip her down to a diaper and we go to town on a big mushy handful of banana. Whoo. Little princess takes a bit to clean up after banana time - it's like detailing a car, gotta look everywhere for that stuff!

I think that's about it for now. And for anyone who mentioned "teething tablets" to me as a remedy for a teething baby ---- how right you were! Those things are amazing!!! I feel bad though, they make her awfully relaxed, it makes a mom's wheels turn... I could see those things coming in handy regardless of teething issues......and here I thought I was going to have to rely on bourbon and cough syrup for the tough times.

And now, on to the party pics! Aunt Christie is the best photog!

Mom and P at dinner being silly!





Miss P working the table for everyone at dinner. Notice the soggy dress. Who knows what she had dumped on herself at this point. She had eaten off of every one's plate and still wanted more!





Mimi's fountain in her conservatory. Paisley's first fountain! Aunt Katie let her splash her feet in it! FUNN!!!





And finally, I just found this one. This is from January. She was about 6 weeks old. She's soo TINY!! I just can't believe it. Josh said it best - and for anyone who knows Josh you'll appreciate this. For anyone who doesn't know Josh...he'll sound like a weirdo. But it cracked me up. He said - she was like a big potato with a dress pinned on it. It was so true. She was so little, but I guess that's the thing with babies. They start out really little. Then they get bigger. I know. I'm a genius. Anyway, this is just a reminder for me...time has definitely SPED up!!




Pictures of our pool party time!! Not only did she love splashing her feet but eating the rings of one of the "sea creatures" was also extremely entertaining! Oh and if you look really closely on the sideways picture, you can see a cute pink toe nail! Hee hee!!!

Leaps and bounds

Whoa baby, we are growing and growing at the Paisley household. We just had our 6 month check up and little missie is just growing like a weed -- seriously! She's SOO long! She's 27" and 15 pounds. Again, she's in the 90th percentile in height and the 25th percentile for weight. She's a scrawny little thing, but I guess not in a bad way because she's so dang tall! We got a formula from our doctor that showed us that she needed 725 calories a day - she drinks 5 bottles a day with 120 calories each (totalling 600 calories) and then eats solid foods (cereal, fruit and a veggie) every day. It barely totals 725 calories and some days it doesn't! I'm just not sure how I'm supposed to stuff that much food into such a teeny little thing - she ends up spitting it back out on the closest blanket (or parent!). I'm trying to feed this kid what I'm supposed to...but I'm missing something.

Okay, so on to the fun(ner) stuff. I've been digging through her closet lately and it's really amazing. Stuff I got like last summer and thought "wow, she'll be practically walking when it's time to wear this".....NOPE, it's time NOW! The last two days she's worn outfits that fit into this category exactly. It's amazing. I can't believe this tiny little critter is growing so fast! She's so funny too - she laughs hysterically when I do the dumbest stuff. In particular, she likes it when I throw my hair over my face and then "flip" it back, like I'm some guitar player in an 80's hair band. (I knew it, I have another Aerosmith fan in our house!!)

So summer break has started, but I've been taking a graduate class this week. It's kind of a bummer because I looked SO forward to summer to soak up some baby time. Oh well, tomorrow is the last day of the class and then I can start the "soaking"! We have so much to do! We are even going to take swimming lessons!

Let's cover milestones quickly and then get to the fun pictures! So we're sitting up these days - without support. Just sitting up like a miniature person! It's amazing. I made her some all natural, whole wheat teething biscuits and she's feeding these to herself. Of course, I fish out most of the chunks, but she really seems to love them! We're still enjoying the tippy cup and getting much more proficient at the "delivery" of the tippy cup. Less and less is falling out and spilling down her front! Oh and "object permanence" -- knowing that an object still exists even though it's out of sight -- got it! She drops stuff and then looks for it. It's fascinating! So, at the risk of being redundant and painfully obvious - this kid is GROWING! And so fast!

Here's our most recent shot...and yes, it's our first nekkid shot. That's a bit of a ritual lately (thwarting the diaper rash) - after bath time we get to do nekkid time for about 15 minutes. FUN!!





Oh, this was SO funny. (I know, every mom thinks their kid does the funniest stuff...I try to keep that in perspective, but this one was really pretty funny!) I let her "kiss" Mimi's mother's day card on the ride to meet them for dinner. When we got there I saw that her "kisses" got extremely out of hand... I literally had to fish envelope out of her mouth (I know, Mother of the Year here....). It was SOAKING wet with with baby slobber. She fell asleep and still had it in her hand. When we saw Mimi, this is what was being "presented" for Mother's Day. I thought it was icky...but not Mimi, she LOVED it!





Mom and Paisley being cheesy!





This was cute, we all went out to dinner and the following pictures show how much this little bunny was passed around. This is Josh holding her while she chats with me. Too funny!





Here's Aunt Julie sharing her fruit and cheese plate (whether she wanted to or not...) with a curious little baby claw! This was officially her first restaurant food too - she ate Mimi's sweet potatoes and "ate" Aunt Julie's fruit slice...sort of...





Here's Miss P with Aunt Katie, whose martini Paisley thought was SUPER pretty (it was PINK!!)! Aunt Katie always smells so pretty - kind of like vodka. We LOVE Aunt Katie.





And finally, this was Miss P's first trip to the speedway. We went to see the Indy cars - not necessarily mom's cup of tea, but where else can you wear an "Andretti Winery" onesie??! I must say, she looked fabulous - hat and all. However, we spent most of the day in the vestibule playing with toys and wearing ear plugs. Ultimately, it was like a starlet showing up at a premier - you KNOW they don't have a clue what the movie was about but, dang it, they looked cute and the papparazzi LOVED them!





Hee hee! Too fun! Summer promises to be chalk full of fun as well and I'll do my best to keep ya'll posted!

Say Cheese!

Okay, so on my last post I had really planned on coming back and simply appending a few pictures. However, given the lapse in time, I feel obligated to make our photo frenzy a stand-alone entry.

But first a few highlights. Miss Paisley is a super good eater. (An attribute on which I never intended paying a compliment...) However, I'm quite impressed by the amount of food she eats and actually keeps in her mouth. I make a noble effort to pin her aggressive little arms to her side so my clean-up is minimal. And yes, this goes directly against what all the books would say one should do... You're supposed to ****let the children explore their food**** (I feel like I'm channeling Doug Henning, the goofy magician with the long hair and buck teeth). So, let the record show, I GET it, I realize I'm supposed to hose off the child and change her clothes after every feeding, but I'm too busy engaging in the real world and trying to teach Paisley how to say "dog" in Spanish (thanks, Baby Einstein...). In the meantime, our little tulip will be receiving, not only her first taste of sweet potatoes, but also that of my controlling nature. Eventually the arm-pinning will only be a metaphor for how I've ruined her life and won't let her express her true self....blah blah blah...

But I digress. Let's see what else exciting... OH, we got an astounding BELLY laugh last night. It took us so off guard. Every time she did it, I stopped doing the inane head bobbing thing I was doing and cracked up myself. To which, she reacted by stopping the laughter and observing my new "thing" [laughing]. SO then I had to continue the head bob and she would of course, resume her laughter. It was so funny. She'd been doing this cackle thing for a few months now, I wasn't quite sure if this was her laugh or if it was just a laugh with training wheels. I now see the latter to be the case. She is squealing like crazy now and it is too funny. I have a new goal (in between showing her how to roll over from her back to tummy, teaching her how to say Mama, and of course the Spanish dog thing...) and that is to make this kid laugh at least once a day. Doesn't that sound noble??? Ask me in a year how that's workin out...

And our wonderful Parents As Teachers parent educator, Miss Andrea came by again. We sat out all the obligatory "parenting" books and magazines so we'd look like real good parents..... and I think she bought it hook, line and sinker. Actually, the night started when all hell broke loose. And I sorta mean that literally, because our small schnauzer broke loose. She snuck out the door and ran like a crazy squirrel when Miss Andrea arrived. SO, I handed off my child and chased my dumb little black squirrel. Got her back in one piece (threatened to send her to the place where they make paste) and upon my return poor Andrea is comforting a visibily distraught, but now calm Paisley. And of course, when Paisley sees me this ignites her all over again. She sobbed nearly the entire visit. I'm sure Andrea was taking copious notes and rehearsing her dialogue wtih Family Services. (Thank goodness we had the parenting magazines sitting out...) Ultimately, Andrea indicated Paisley is doing quite well and appears to be progressing exceptionally well for her age. To that, Paisley and I give a collective, "Eat THAT, other babies!!!!!"

Okay, enough of my blather. Alrighty, here are some fun pictures!!!

My Easter Bunny!!



My avid little reader (well, okay, Mimi's a good reader too. Paisley ALWAYS loves books that are read by Mimi!)



Fancy ballerina skirt that came around Paisley's Easter basket at Mimi & Poppa's house



Our first successful meal of warm mush!!



Baby's first Rocking Horse. Oh, the pains we took to get this little darling to SIT on the frigging rocking horse!!! I won't even tell you what we used to stick her in place. Wait, NO, I'm SO kidding.



Okay, indulge me -- a few bath time photos. This is what Josh and I affectionately refer to as "Popeye Face" And for the next few pictures, if you could, ignore the bad skin of the rough looking old woman in the picture. She just had a BABY!!! You couldn't possibly expect her to exfoliate every now and then COULD YOU?!!!!



Bath time at Mimi & Poppa's house. (Don't you love the strategically placed frog??)



My clean cuddle bunny!!! YUMMY!!!!



Mmm..... TOO FUN!! Everyone should get one of these!!! As soon as she's litter box trained, this should be a snap!!!

Baby steps!

Oh good heavens I am a bad blogger!! I get home and I am in complete baby mode! Here are some fun little updates about our little petal! She is awfully advanced for her age, I must say! We just had our four month shots -- eww. No fun. But our height/weight update: she's 12 lbs and 25 1/4" -- she's in the 75-90th percentile in height and 25-50th in weight. Not sure where she's getting those genes - hopefully she gets Josh's metabolism!! She sat up for the first time last Monday and drank out of a cup, and well I might add, on the same day! AND we had our first cereal on Saturday! She did so great, now I see me coming out because that kid can THROW down on some food! Speaking of food, remember me - the complainer? Well, I'm back! I cannot for the life of me lose a stinking pound!! No exaggeration! Not ONE!!! I lost 26 the week after I had her and NOTHING since then. They've tested my thyroid and found nothing! I'm walking *BRISKLY* and regularly and I'm still wearing FAT clothes!! I am in complete consternation here. I can count the calories I've had in the last week (with the exception of Easter Sunday) and it's less than I was eating in a DAY about 6 months ago. It's making NO sense. SO, I've started popping the phentermine. Yeah for speed! We'll see what happens! Summer is lurking around the corner like a giant swim suit, mocking me and hurling insults! Grr. Anyway, back to the "funner" stuff -- I have some fantastic pictures of Paisley from Easter, but I'm waiting for Mimi to get them posted on photobucket for me. She is just so gooey ooey sweet and cuts me so much slack. We really landed a peach with this one!!!

Picture time - again!

What is it about parenthood that sucks you into a timewarp? Seriously, where have the days gone? Last I remember I was breaking the news about my pregnancy to my mom and explaining to her that a book on "becoming a Grandma" was not in reference to a new puppy... However, here we are - I am a parent of a three month old. And she is SO NOT a baby anymore, she does big people things like use her hands, belch loudly, belly laugh! Oh, and I can't forget hold her head up. She's getting really good at that! She knows most of her important relatives at this point. She's a big fan of her Grandpa (Poppa Jack), her Mimi and Great Grama & Papa. And of course her "crazy aunts" are in charge of, among other things but primarily, the fashion! She gets spoiled rotten by those nice people and she really lights up when she sees them. Josh is a fantastic dad; I called it, didn't I? He picks up the slack where I'm lazy and can read when I am no longer, um, effective and steps in to take over. He can almost ALWAYS get her to calm down. I'm typing this while she's in a little seat next to me and she just woke up...dang it, I thought I'd have more time. But here are some current pictures. Sorry, but I just have to say I'm awfully smitten with her...she is just sweet as could be and has turned me into certifiable MUSH! : )

Love this!

I don't have a ton of time to post right now...or ever for that matter. But I just love this picture. She's sitting up on her boppy pillow and looks so alert, I'm really starting to see her personality emerge. She just amazes me and she makes me laugh everyday!

Life with Paisley

Well, to be honest, it's not too bad. We were really prepared for NO sleep, constant crying, and lots of ubiquitous poop. I must say, none of this has been the case. Sure we've had our nights where Missie just wasn't ready to sleep when we were, but we generally have to wake her up to feed her and notify her of diaper changes. We really thought it would be us at her beck and call. And other than my constant need to hold her and talk to her, we've not been too terribly disrupted. (Does that sound horribly selfish?!) Her joining us has been completely enjoyable. She's like a house guest that we heard was going to be complete mess, who actually turned out to be a delight and adds something to the place. PLUS, we really like her! Haha!! Kidding aside, we're quite happy with how "NOT rough" it's been. She's just a doll and we're both so completely smitten!

We're on an eating schedule of every 4 hours, using a combo of breast milk and formula (apparently my supply was a bit inadequate and she had actually lost a lot of weight since leaving the hospital - pediatrician's orders were to pump, measure it, and supplement the rest of the required amount with formula). Oh and we play the projectile spit-up game every time we eat. That's lots of fun. I'm not sure I understand what's up with that, but she's got some velocity on that stuff! We've tried different formula, different bottles, sitting upright, etc. Nothing seems to help. But she doesn't really seem to mind, so oh well... (i think...I'm sure I'll read somewhere that I'm scarring her for life or something)

On a completely unrelated note, is Christmas really 10 days away? What happened to my last month? I have done NOTHING for Christmas except put up a tree. Other than that, I haven't even heard Christmas music! Nor have I seen Christmas Vacation or A Christmas Story. To me, these things signal Christmas, without them, I'm still on November time! Oh, and speaking of things that fly by without my noticing - aren't I supposed to be scheduling portrait sittings of our little one? What are the rules for that? Am I going to be the mother of a 1 year old and have no portraits? What about the obligatory "Christmas" portrait? Am I a bad mom for not scheduling this? Yeesh!! I washed the spit up out of her hair and thought I was doing alright, but then I thought of this portrait issue and my air of confidence and poise vanished!

Okay here are some cute pictures. I am developing a thing for these cute pictures of her on her tummy. Something about them...










And I love these. My dad and I had a tradition of always putting the angel on our Christmas tree and so when Josh and I decorated our Christmas tree (right after Thanksgiving - B.P. -- before Paisley) we kept the angel off of it so that she and her dad could put it on together. It was like 60 something degrees out so I made Josh at least wear a Christmas hat to "winterize" his shorts and t-shirt look. But isn't this sweet?










Merry Christmas!!

Introducing...

...Miss Paisley

Catherine

King!!!

She arrived in her own sweet time on November 29th at 8:43pm. After waking up to the wash of warm water flooding our bed (yep, my water broke at 2am), we arrived at our hospital at about 4:30 or so. We labored for 18 hours and then found out my pelvis was in fact too narrow for her to get through. And looking at the ring that was on her head when she was born, there was clearly no way. Apparently the one small thing on my body...why couldn't it have been my thighs?? So, delivered via c-section, she weighed 7 lbs. 13 oz. and stretched out at 20 inches. She has big blue eyes and is surprisingly mellow. After Paisley's harrowing 18 hours of labor, she was a little stressed and in the operating room during the C-section. She aspirated some amniotic fluid and as a result wasn't breathing. They whisked her away from me immediately and sparing the emotional and horrific details (yes, some details were horrific -- to be honest, I guess it looked bleak, but I didn't know this at the time...Josh however, heard and saw everything that they weren't telling me), she spent her first 3 days after that in the Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit. Suffice it to say, it was beyond devastating to me. You take a hormonal post-partum woman's baby away with minimal explanation after 18 hours of labor and a disappointing c-section and you've got an emotional trainwreck. Luckily Josh reminded me in a very emotional moment two nights later that we are lucky to have her. So many of those babies up in the NICU won't come home for weeks. Months. Some of them not at all. He made me realize that we get to take a healthy daughter home in a few days and I realized quickly that he was right. She got to room in with us on her final night there and that helped tremendously. And alas, we got to come home with our angel last night. So of course we're drooling on ourselves with sleepiness at this point, but we're really doing okay I think. It's true what they say about your heart bursting open when you become a parent. She just takes my breath away. I know Josh feels the same way. I overheard him bragging to our real estate agent (who held our hand for so many months of this pregnancy in our search for a new house - she became like family). He was so sweet, he simply said "she's so beautiful." And my heart melted.

So, basking in an interesting haze of sleep deprived stupor and an almost explosive joy, we stumble along, trying to find our way as parents. It's really an honor and such an overwhelming blessing.

And on that note, I think I'm being summonsed....Mommy's coming Miss Paisley!!

Lights, camera....

Yep, it's go time kids! At two am today my water broke (or I wet the bed...at that point, who cares?). And the fun began! I'm currently at the hospital, partaking of the heavenly epidural (prior to that I was not very comfortable to say the least -- I was at a 10 on the pain reference scale!!) And now we're slowing dilating, and it's 8:30 in the morning. We just can't believe that we go home with a baby at the end of this... so surreal.

Okay, going to put the nerd box down now and do whatever it is I'm supposed to do. I'll come back with gory details!!

Happy Day!!!

Contractions

I have nothing reflective to say, I've completely lost my sense of humor. Here are the graphic details: constant contractions and according to what I should be experiencing, I'm pretty certain there is no dilation happening. That ain't funny. This is what I've found is called "false labor" ----- it's really like the most horrible practical joke. "haha, it's false! sucker!!!!"

So the wait continues....

Dress Rehearsal!

Wow, what an afternoon! We got a real trial run of what our trip to Labor & Delivery would be like. Other than the pain, it wasn't so bad. But alas, we were sent home - sans baby. Anatomically speaking, contractions are supposed to dilate one's cervix. Long story short, my contractions are not doing this. They are just being contractions, um, for fun I guess. And what fun it was. GRRR! I'm so mad at my cervix -- no dilation whatsoever!! Although, these contractions were strong enough to rattle the earth, perhaps you felt them too. (It was nice, however, just to have it confirmed that these were in fact contractions.) So now, here we sit, back at home, and now I'm supposed to go back if they "get really bad" HUH!??? They WERE!!!! I really have no clue now WHEN to go back to the hospital.

So who knows, we could be one of those artsy fartsy hippie couples who give birth at home in the bathtub.

I am so not down with that.

Our instructions were to eat a spicy meal and have sex!! I guess the spicy food doesn't sound so bad.....

Interesting evening

Well in spite of my previous post (yesterday) saying nothing was going on, I think I should stand corrected. Last night we actually got the "stopwatch" out and began timing what I think were contractions. Like the textbooks say, early labor tends to produce contractions that are 10-15 minutes apart and last 15-30 seconds. Welp, last night produced contractions (I guess that's what they were, they didn't feel like a gripping "contraction" of a muscle per se, just excessive pain all at once) that were 13 minutes apart and lasted about 25 seconds each. We are well-studied on the facts and figures (Josh took copious notes at birthing class, just in case there was a quiz...) and we know that we aren't to go to the hospital until they're 5 minutes apart and last one minute each. So we just kept timing them. However - much to our dismay - they eventually subsided. But good heavens how they hurt; the relief was honestly quite welcomed! Anyway, I have no idea what they were all about but I'm guessing it's a good sign. It's kinda strange, I'm having on-going pains, but nothing that I could time today, I'm just sitting here in constant "ache". Imagine the gassiest you've ever been, now hold it! That's PRECISELY what this feels like. SO uncomfortable. I can't imagine this NOT being associated with something like labor, if it's not, what on earth is it? Oh and for the record, it is NOT gas. Thanks for asking. Updates to come soon! ...oh mercy this is hurting...I just hollered at Josh to get the watch again...I'll keep ya posted.

Here we are...the 21st.

But where is our stork? We had an appointment yesterday (took our bags and everything) and I still show no sign that labor is imminent. (We were pretty bummed) In medical terms, no dilation. So today I'm going to start walking and walk until a baby falls out. Don't worry, I'll take a map and a compass. I should be fine....

Here's the prognosis: can't induce because I'm too closed up. Our original due date was the 28th and it got moved when we did our sonogram, so based on "mother nature" I should be due NEXT Tuesday. She is not too big at this point so I'm okay with waiting another week. Our midwife is guessing she's about 7 pounds at this point. I'm okay with that. However, she said yesterday that I have a narrow pelvis (huh??! with THESE hips?? are you kidding?) and if we get into the 9 pound range we could have trouble, but by next week she doesn't expect us to be out of the 7 pound range -so again, I'm still okay with that. So we wait some more. The good news is, I'm not at work, the baby's still fine, and she's going to get here eventually, RIGHT?

Oh, and our midwife is going out of town for Thanksgiving and won't be back till Monday evening, so I really need to hold on till then....I think......we're really getting antsy!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

PS, again for my own records: cramping - a lot. Midwife says this could be occasional contractions attempting to do their thing. We'll see. It could just be one more addition to the litany of complaints.

Picture time!

A few quick updates. - Nada - there's your update. Yep, after subjecting myself to about eighteen needles and posing as a human pin cushion, I go to the doc today and I got nothin! Nothing!!! I think I'm going to enroll in Jazzercise or something because that's the only thing I can do at this point to jostle this baby loose. Oh, and our midwife is leaving town next Wednesday for Thanksgiving. SO now our next step is seeing where I'm at next Monday, if anything is going on, she'll induce me so she can be there with me. I can't imagine someone else doing the delivery. It would just seem inappropriate...we have a relationship!! That's like cheating.

So, with that update in mind, here are some random pictures (oh, well, the nursery isn't random, but these ARE going to be a bit disjointed). I need to put these on here for the "record books" ya know? Enjoy! :)

I think I'm going to try and take some video or something because this room isn't quite coming through with my skills here...or lack thereof...





That's the best shot I could get of the crib...the rest of these are just pieces here and there.













Can you believe my mom made all this? I'm telling you, she shares none of this skill with me, and really keeps her talents under wraps.





Oh and I love this picture - Mimi bought us this beautiful and, clearly, impractical flokati rug, it's plush and wonderful but white and...well, WHITE. In a baby's room. You can make your own call on that one. It looks great, and I'm sure it will be a different color (or pattern) in a year. But it has made another certain princess feel quite at home in this room. Which ultimately is probably a good thing. We don't need any territory wars here.






Now here are some random shower pics. I had three showers thrown for me. They were all completely different and each wonderful in their own way.

This was the one that my super sweet co-workers threw for me on October 13th. That's Mimi who flew in early from a trip just to be there. (Ignore my wrinkled self...I look like a bag lady, in all reality though, this is what a disheveled teacher looks like at the end of the day.) But do take note of the flowers and the cupcakes. My fabulous co-worker Todd was in charge of decor. I love him (he never looks disheveled)! He SO nailed the colors and the decor!! In fact, the whole group that worked on this shower is just adorable.





And this one is one that is so near and dear to both of us because it was the one with all of our best friends - this was October 20th. It was at our new house and all of our favorite people were in attendance. My girlfriends threw it for us and did an amazing job. It was excellent - exactly what I had always hoped for. Just good friends, food, drink, mingling, etc. And our house was officially "warmed"! And our first house guest, one of my best friends made the long trek in from the east coast. She was only able to stay one night, but she officially broke in the "star wars" themed guest room. (Serene, next time I promise, you won't have glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling!) I wasn't very good at taking pictures that night because Mimi & Poppa presented us with a video camera and I spent more time behind that lens than the lens of my regular camera (and judging by the video I shot, I should have stayed the course and gotten to know my video camera better before running wild with it!)



That's us both partaking in the gift opening. Not using a flash camera. You can see this awesome basket at our feet, our friends Jim & Sara got that for us - it was SO full of baby necessities and I'm certain we'll never need to purchase diaper rash cream (at least I think...). They totally hooked us up!!



And that's me with the Baby Papasan. My adorable friends Rhonda & Stacy got that for us. They have both been around this baby-having block and informed me that this little device is handy for "encouraging" baby's, um, digestive system when it's being stubborn. Isn't that cute? Good to know, ain't it?

And finally this is more of a family shower that Aunt Gale threw for us. First of all, let me just say that the entire family is convinced that Aunt Gale is like super-human or something. She hosts events like none other and cooks like one of them fancy tv cooks er something and makes it all look and sound easy. Seriously, she is just a hostess extraordinaire. To briefly summarize, I have no idea how many people were there, but she plated everyone's meal and served a full luncheon including Pumpkin Soup, finger sandwiches, Blue Cheese, Pear and Walnut salads, and petit fours. It was delightful. And to be really honest - we got a TON of nice stuff at this shower. Our friends impressed us, but this party had more "grown ups" at it. And these folks went all out! (Oh and I got through this party without any ridiculous shower-ritual type games as well! I went 3 for 3 ---- unscathed!!)So here's me under the picture, Mimi to my right and way over on the left is Aunt Bev - another amazing hostess, but her parties involve her pool, sunscreen, and frosty beverages...a hostess extraordinaire in her own right!!






Okay, I think that's it for now - fun stuff, huh? I'll try and get some more fun shots on here soon. What else am I going to do? Gestate, I guess. Oh, and Jazzercise.