Tuesday, September 28, 2010

a few random pics


LSU chicky - ready for a night out on the town before the LSU home game the following day.

Not so sure about the purple elephant. haha.

a little more friendly with the elephant


I may not make pies and bread (although I'm so ready to start with the bread thing) and cinnamon buns and a host of other Mennonite goods, but I'm pretty good with a thrift store, let me tell ya! Hopefully that gets me some points somewhere along the line. Anyway, today I found this hat and it filled my soul with joy. It said 18 - 24 months and I thought with her ginormous head, that should be perfect. When I tried it on, it hit me quite funny. I'm not sure how these things are supposed to fit exactly, but I do think it's big. But terribly cute at the same time.

It has been absolutely GORGEOUS here the past 2 days. I'm dying to get my hands on a double stroller so I can get out during the day and go for walks with the little bambinos. It's been bright and sunny and no rain and upper 70s. Oh sweet glorious bliss. I know it's so boring to prattle on and on about the weather, but can I just quickly say that after 5 straights months of the 90s, this is just so glorious. And that's not an exaggeration at all. Since the beginning of May, there have been maybe 3 days or so I'm guessing (in Sept.) that haven't been in the 90s, many of them upper 90s. So this has people so excited and grabbing sweaters and heading outside. Dave has the ipod set to click on the weather here, and then you slide over one screen and can see the weather in Red Lake. oh my - there's always a little sun picture here and a little cloud picture there. = ( And obviously much much colder. Anyhoo.... moving along

I don't really have much to ramble about - was just going to post a few pics for the funzies of it. I thought of a couple things to add to the 4 month post - For whatever reason, Aleah hates when stuff has to go over her head (literally, not figuratively). I'm hoping it doesn't develop into a full blown syndrome like it did with the girl I used to babysit. shudder. Anyway, she really does freak out and almost panic sometimes, esp, when something is having trouble fitting over her head. A few things she totally loves - when I make a clicking sound with my tongue at her - she thinks it's hilarious. playing patty cake and singing songs, bouncing up and down on one's lap, and having her tummy tickled. Okay, that'll do till I get it written down on paper. This morning she smiled and smiled when her little friend came over. It was so sweet. I think they're starting to recognize each other more.

I am in a terrible habit of staying up way too late. I should go to bed. But I probably won't.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Photo of the day


I couldn't believe I got the above photo today and just wanted to share it. While I was at it, thought I might as well throw in a couple bonus ones. How sweet are they?


Trying on a really cute Christmas dress I found at a thrift store awhile ago. um yeah, could barely get it on and off -- too tight. So we take a picture and file it away in the aw bummer folder.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Bonus pics

Because I don't know when to stop... thought I'd post a few more pics, which like every post has been lately, amounts to mostly Aleah sitting on the couch and other random places. One of these days I'm going to post pics of something other than her, I promise!! 4 months old
Have we had a stroke, dear child?


Look at their hands - so sweet! (and I'm sure a total accident, but still cute)

When dad dresses her - he was concerned that she not look girlish enough, hence the bow. And it's a star trek shirt for all my friends who would have no clue. = )

4 Months



I'm not sure if my life just shrunk drastically after having a baby, or if I had absolutely no life before and now I have a small one. At any rate, I seem to never be able to think about anything to write about these days other than her. Maybe I should join a book club or start political ranting or something of the sort. HA! I think not, at least to the latter. Anyway, for now I'll just write down a bunch of 4 month ramblings and this will be boring so feel to not read it.

At 4 months (on the 14th) Aleah:

-- weighs 17 pounds and is 24 inches long (oh, correction, as I was sitting in church this morning I remembered that the scale was in pounds/oz, so she would be 16 pounds 9 oz.) - clearly above average weight and slightly under-average height. Her head is also rather ample sized but I don't remember the exact measurement.

-- She's been a bit of a guessing game lately. At times she seems to be in a lot of pain after eating and doesn't want to lay down. I'm trying to figure out if it's her reflux, me eating dairy, when she's overtired, or a combination of more than one of these. I started eating more dairy and around that time it got worse, but she also had had less of her medication around that time. I'm giving her the meds and staying on dairy for a few days to see what she does.

-- She never ever wants to be held to go to sleep. = ( Some might think that's wonderful but it's sorta sad to me. I always liked when she'd let me rock her to sleep, but even when she was really tiny, she didn't always like it better than just being laid down. I had hoped to do both so she would remain a flexible and easy child in this area. HA! When she's tired, she wants to be in bed and that's that. It's nice when were at home, not nice when we're in places such as... oh... airplanes and such... and church, which used to be a nightmare, but now she goes to the nursery and sleeps in a pack and play.

-- We've gotten on more of a routine, but the times are still very flexible. She usually takes 3 naps a day but lately hasn't been always taking the evening one, which is okay, because then she goes to bed at about 7:30. So yeah, no complaints here. If we've been gone for the morning and she hasn't slept much, it's also not at all uncommon for her to sleep 3.5 - 4.5 hours in the afternoon. Insane, I know, and I shouldn't let her, but it never messes us her night sleep. so I do. She has slept 4 hours on quite a few occasions.

-- Speaking of sleep, I realized again this morning how my expectations regarding her sleeping habits are a bit ludicrous at times, but based on what she normally does, so I'm not a complete nut case. I will likely have to adjust them for future offspring. But then I look at her father and think, no, all our kids will probably be wonderful sleepers, if genetics has anything to do with it. = ) I find myself all up in a tizzy, for instance, if she has ONLY slept 10 hours one night. I start thinking, what in the world is her problem, she's never up this early, I need to start eliminating all food from my diet...bla bla bla. Then I think that some parents might like to stone me if they heard me uttering such things. At any rate, she usually sleeps about 11 - 12 and sometimes 13 hours at night. I feed her right before I go to bed, but she sleeps right through it. (I take no credit for it, by the way. She's always been a great night sleeper without too much intervention from me)

-- Also speaking of sleep, she seems to be a rather light sleeper. = ( I'm sure this one is my fault for not being loud enough during her formative days. She'll take long naps and all but if I try to cover her up when she's sound asleep, for instance, she'll jerk around and open her eyes as though I blew a fog horn in her ear. hello kid, it's a slight tug, get over it! And she stirs at the slightest noises. arg.

-- I'm rather intrigued by her little mannerisms and ways she puts herself to sleep and it makes me want to have a pile more kids just so I can see how they're the same/different. On second thought, maybe I'll just take a poll of YOUR kids. She always sucks her left thumb and then with her right hand she tucks the thumb back like she's holding up 4 fingers, and puts puts it up over her face/eyes, and holds the thumb-sucking fingers. It's really cute, but just make me wonder what makes them come up with the things they do? If her right hand is free when she's eating, she does the same thing - reaches up and puts that hand over her face, esp. if she's tired. But she'll never do it with the other hand

-- She still barely rolls over. She's never rolled front to back and has rolled front to back a few times, but doesn't make a habit of it. I'm sure it's not easy rolling around when you're wider than you are tall. She makes a great paper weight though - pretty good at balancing when sitting up, but doesn't sit entirely on her own for very long.

-- Has a great belly laugh

-- How in the world can size 3 diapers be tight? They're supposed to go up to what is it, 28 pounds? I guess they don't plan for all the 17 pounds to be concentrated around the middle.

-- I'm in love with this age! For the most part, she's a lot easier than when she was teeny tiny, not as much crying, and oh so sweet and lovable. And not destroying the place yet. = )

-- oh dear, I need to get ready for church!

-- now I'm back from church. oh my, we stayed for the picnic. why oh why? It's such a nice idea. They do them in the spring and fall. But yeah, fall here is like 95 degrees which is around what it was today. hot, hungry, tired baby. hot, tired, cranky wife, blissfully happy husband wondering what's wrong with us... anyway, we survived and lived to tell about it. The pain of the memory is dulled by the now peaceful afternoon sitting in the AC, child sound asleep, me curled up with the laptop... ahhhhhhhhh

-- I figured I post a few bonus pics just for the hairy of it. I'm doing them in a different post and I don't know which one will post first, so anyway, enjoy. if you want to. otherwise scowl at them.



Friday, September 10, 2010

Learning discretion

HI!!
WANNA SEE MY FAT ROLL??
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! I just showed you my fat roll.
snicker, snicker
ohhhh, upon further reflection, I'm having second thoughts about showing you my fat roll. Maybe I shouldn't have done that. I feel all sheepish now.
whimper... I really really wish I hadn't done that. I feel all funny inside...

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Nothing too exciting...

... just some random shots from the last couple weeks. Playing with our cool new (Iowa garage sale) toys.
2 Sundays ago -

Some funky math pjs from Dave's mom. = )
I was trying stuff on her the other day and was sad that some really cute stuff that was supposed to fit her this winter is either too small or fits perfectly right now - like this one. It was so cute I had to at least get a picture. Too bad we're not in Red Lake right now. haha.
Aleah and the little sweetie I watch during the week. Most of the time one or both of them is sleeping but every once in awhile they're both awake (thankfully not too often = ) Of course they couldn't BOTH smile for the same picture.


Showing off her new tricks - turns out if you arrange her fat just right, she can do this - haha. Last night out of the blue I realized she was totally supporting herself so I let go and she stayed like this for quite awhile. Long enough for me to yell at Dave. Then we got some pictures. She's done it some today but not as well as she did last night.


There you have it. Not too much of interest going on around here to tell you about. We didn't go anywhere for the long weekend. I was sort of wishing we were doing something exciting, but we stuck around and made ribs in the crock pot - hard to get much more exciting than that, no? We did have a nice weekend. Now I've been stricken with cabin fever so I'm not sure what's going on in the outside world. Oh, here's a question for all you scrapers out there. I've been thinking about digital vs. traditional and was wondering if anyone has any opinions one way or the other. I'd love to hear them. Digital seems to have a lot of pros - less mess and etc. I like that you can add things other than pictures when you do the traditional way, but I think there are maybe ways of doing that with digital too now. As far as price, I have no idea which would be cheaper. Anyway, I'd love to hear some thoughts on the matter.