little cowgirl

Old Navy has this new Prairie Princess line (its called something like that) but they had these cute straw cowgirl hats. I couldn't resist...




...but she wouldn't keep it on her head, so I returned it. so sad.

Beach.

When the temperature tops 90 outside and you don't have the 'luxury' of Air Conditioning, you have no choice but to get out by the water. We brought Lacey swimming for the first time and she loved it.

Waiting while mom and dad eat lunch


Into the water.


The water was SO COLD but she didn't mind one bit! She's our little fish. I could barely stand in the water to take the pictures.


Here we are on the car ride home. She is exhausted and I am trying my hardest to keep her awake. We all know that a 10 minute nap in the car is the same as a 2 hour nap in the crib....

because

...i am so tired.

...i don't feel well.

...my baby is getting teeth.

...its ridiculously hot in our house.

...its ridiculously hot outside.

...she missed her morning nap.

...she is crying in her crib right now.

...my husband is at work until 10:00 pm.

This will be a long day. I need GRACE.

love.this.food.

I love this side dish. It is so refreshing and so healthy! My friend Krista made it for me once and I've been hooked ever since.

Couscous Salad with Baby Spinach and Pistachios

1/2 Cup Couscous
2 T. White Wine Vinegar
1 T. Olive Oil
2 Scallions, green part only, thinly sliced (optional)
2 Cups Baby Spinach
1/2 Cup Fresh Basil leaves torn
1/4 Cup Shelled Pistachios
Coarse Salt and Ground Pepper

1. In small saucepan with lid, bring 3/4 cup water to a boil. Once the water boils, turn off the heat, stir in couscous and cover for 5 minutes.

2. In medium bowl, combine white wine vinegar and olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add couscous and scallions. Toss and put in the fridge.

3. Just before serving add spinach, basil, and pistachios. Mix and Enjoy!!

Note; I never put it in the fridge, I just make it and eat it : )

the 4th

Is anyone else REALLY excited for the 4th of July?

Nothing spells summer like a 4th of July BBQ with Watermelon, Corn on the Cob, a Juicy Burger, and some Sea Salt and Black Pepper potato chips.

I can't wait!

And that day is my Birthday (25!), so I'll probably get some DQ cake thrown in there, money for new clothes (already promised to me by my mother), and maybe a new North Face vest too...

It's gonna be grand, so I tried to have my blog reflect my happiness : )

Jumping on the Band Wagon

Yes I am jumping on this bandwagon. I am sure I don't need to say much about BPA as it is covered in the press ad nauseam. I had heard the concerns about BPA a few months before it blew up and had people throwing away all of their hard plastics. This seemingly was also around the time Lacey was born. My bottles were already bought and steralized and ready to go, plus I just didn't think it was that big of a concern. There is so much to worry about that I just decided to put the concern out of my mind and focus on other things.

Then it was the big news headline for a few weeks. It was everywhere I turned. I began to question if I should continue feeding my daughter with her hard plastic bottles, BPA filled bottles. I was at Whole Foods with my husband looking at the very expensive Born Free bottles...Husband said NO WAY. Again I pushed it out of my mind as much as possible until I saw a piece on the Today Show. Their resident medical expert made a statement that changed my mind. She said that as a doctor and scientist she could not say that there was any link between BPA and cancer or any other medical ailment. However as a mother she said that she would find alternatives for her children. That was it. Conviently, Babies R Us decided to do a bottle exchange...bring in your old bottles for store credit towards new bottles. I tossed my daughter's bottles in a bag and went to Babies R' Us to find her the few remaining Born Free bottles that were on the shelf.

Her bottles are glass (Born Free makes both plastic and glass, but they only had glass left). My husband was happy I got glass because they won't ever hold odors, stains, or become foggy. My Avent nipples fit on the top (since the bottles only come with stage 1 nipples) I was overjoyed to not have to buy stage 2, 3, and 4. I can just use the ones I have.

So that's that. Thank you BRU for caring enough about my child's health to take back those bottles, we are using the new glass ones and couldn't be happier!

Redeemed

Last night we seemed to be back on track with sleep in our house, and I for one couldn't be happier. The weather cooled off, and infant motrin is probably the best thing on.the.planet. We slept 11.5 glorious hours.

Has anyone else seen the preview for the new show on NBC called "Baby Borrowers" **I think** that it is people who want to have kids and so they 'borrow' kids to them for a test run. It looks hilarious. Their motto is "Its not TV, It's Birth Control" Hahahahaha, if they have any experiences like we had the last few nights, then I would be running scared.

Miss Fussy is ready for a nap.

There is nothing like a sleeping baby...

....and there is NOTHING like a baby who won't sleep.

We've had a hellish last couple of nights, with teeth, a full blown cold, and hot weather.

I AM WIPED.

Not Too Bad

45 As a 1930s wife, I am Average Take the test!

I stole this test from another person's website. Considering I am a terrible "homemaker" I didn't do to bad for a 1930's wife!

8 Months.

On Sunday (June 8), Lacey was 8 months old!!!


She is my little book worm! When given a stack of books she will page through them for 45 or so minutes. When given a stack of toys...15 minutes.





She is a little scared to move on her own. "Daring; Getting into everything" is NOT in her personality description. She is slowly venturing out and attempting to go from a sit to a crawl position (Twice this morning!). She just doesn't know how to go anywhere from that position and that makes her a little angry.

She loves watching Sesame Street. Does this make me a bad mom for letting her watch it when she is 8 months old? Well, whatever, she laughs hysterically at Elmo and it captivates her.




Mommy and Lacey share a water bottle! I love not having to bring water for me and a sippy cup. and she loves drinking out of mommy's bottle. Last night at REI she was playing with it and unscrewed the cover. She was soaked and went home in a T-shirt and diaper : )




Overall she is a happy, happy baby. She has been sleeping wonderful (11 hours every night), she has mastered baby babbling and loves to talk back and forth with mama. She isn't scared of strangers yet, unless she is tired or hungry. Then she only wants mama. She just learned how to clap, loves to be tipped upside down or thrown in the air. She only has 3 bottles a day and drinks 1 meal out of a big girl cup!

On a brighter note.

I have been "Economically Stimulated"

Thank-you U.S. Government.

My plans include buying a new camera, and putting the rest in savings. (At least I am stimulating the economy a little, but with gas at $4.43 a gallon I need all the money I can get my hands on).

Oh and Lacey is getting close to getting up on all 4's...I am trying to get a picture, but right now she has the hiccups and thinks its hysterical, which is pretty funny in and of itself.

Goodbye, old friend.

Yesterday my parents put my "puppy" to sleep.

I've had her since I was 9 years old...I'm almost 25, so 17 years. I miss her.



I know this is a bad picture and Buffy looks so scrappy, needed a haircut. This was end of November last year...Lacey meeting her for the first time. She was 8 weeks old.

Recommended Reading

"Great with Child: Letters to a Young Mother"
By: Beth Ann Fennelly

I just finished this book. The author does a fabulous job about going beyond the nuts and bolts or sentimentality of most 'parenting' books. Some of her letters are funny, some serious. Some address answers to specific questions like labor, but a lot of the letters muse about the identity shift that a woman goes through when she becomes a mother.

It was a good read because she was writing from her heart, about what she really felt and what she really experienced. It was not a cynical/funny view of motherhood, it wasn't a manual telling you what you should and should not do. She was just writing for her, not trying to give major advice, but as I was reading I kept saying to myself "oh that is really good advice" and the thing is...most of it was things I could do for myself, I always take great care of Lacey but sometimes I push myself aside.

There were so many great parts. Here is a small sample (not the best sample from the book but still good).

"So I continue to offer what I can. What I want to say today, sweet friend, is no matter how busy you become as the mother of a newborn, make sure you read in a good book every day, even if its just for a few minutes. Of course there will be Required Reading, the baby books and magazines, and they'll help you with your questions and keep you from wondering whether you're going crazy. But find time to read good literature, too, even if a novel takes a month...it's also true that a new mother can feel like she's trapped in a pointillist painting, too overwhelmed by details to make out a pattern. The eight-pound baby makes many pounds of laundry, laundry that must be washed separately. Each pacifier that tumbles from her pucker must be sterilized. A new landscape of lotions and potions colonizes the new changing table--rash. thrush, cradle cap, and gas, each needs its own expensive remedy. The part of your brain formerly reserved for Deep Thoughts now seems hogged by choking hazards, developmental milestones, broken-English instructions for baby gadgets that are never quite ready-to-assemble. So it's easy to believe you don't have time for luxuries like showering, not to mention reading....But remember that reading provides nourishment for hungers we might not even be aware of...Reading is one of those things that seems selfish but, in the end, makes us better mothers. And by reading, we are raising children who'll love reading."

Name that baby

Found this on another blog. I thought it was worth re-posting because it hilarious!

I consider myself to be an observer of cultural and socio-economic trends. One of these trends is to name a child something outlandish in an attempt to be "unique". In my opinion, there's unique, and then there's stupid. Some names I've seen recently:

Surrenahdi - presumably, this is pronounced the same as "serenity"?

Twins named Donte and Dante - and mom gets mad because we can't tell the difference...

Neiljohn - a combo of dad's middle and first names, maybe??
Anjohnneil - Neiljohn's sister (seriously....)

Kayshevona, Kaytreona, and Kaysheona - sisters, thankfully not triplets....

Blaze - that's a name I'd give a horse, personally (or maybe a superhero?)

Ok - people can name their kids whatever they want. The real stupidity here is when the "unique" parents get pissed off at those of us who can't pronounce the names. Hey - you're the one that invented the name - don't get mad at me!

(The REALLY stupid thing is that spell check didn't highlight ANY of these names!)

Holly Homemaker I am not.

So I was thinking the other day and kind of freaked myself out. What is it that I do around the house?

I know that my husband brings home the bacon and my job is to fry it up in the pan but I don't. He brings home the bacon, he fries it up in the pan, and he cleans the grease up afterwards (read: he makes the money, cooks meals for me, and then cleans up not only the kitchen, but the whole house).

I think I may be the worlds worst housewife, but being honest, I don't mind one bit.

My husband says that since I take care of the baby so much, that is more than enough (see why I married him).

However, I might just be LAZY. I usually do the laundry, make the bed, and keep the general clutter to a minimum. However, when it comes to deep cleaning (bathroom toilets, floors, etc.) that's all him.

I finally realize that he is the reason that having a new baby was so darn easy. I didn't have much to do besides look after the baby. He would get up at night for me if I asked, I never had to cook or clean. I didn't have to do anything but take care of a baby.

Thank the Lord that I am not in charge of meals, I would be STRESSED OUT. (plus he knows we would eat cereal every night if I was).

what you forgot to mention

one of the books I just finished reading was called "Wiped" by Rebecca Eckler. It was about adjusting to motherhood during the first 2 years, and was broken up into trimesters (0-3 months; 3-6 months; etc). At the end of each 'trimester' she listed 10 things people forgot to mention to you about motherhood. here are my 10 things so far.

10 things they forgot to tell me about motherhood...

10. Your child will have a better wardrobe than you, and you won't care one bit.
9. You will get angry with your little one and then feel horrible for getting angry with them.
8. All of that anger will melt away the second they smile at you.
7. Your entire life will revolve around their sleeping and eating schedules.
6. Your body will never really be the same.
5. Everyone will have an opinion on everything you do, which will make you question your own decisions.
4. Their stuff will take over your house, and you will find yourself cleaning ALL THE TIME.
3. When you have a newborn, you will wake up frantically searching for your baby in your bed. Even if they have never once been in your bed. I think its the delirium.
2. Babies can be boring. (sorry its true. cute yes, boring yes).
1. You will still be extremely tired even though your child sleeps through the night.

And...10 Things about Pregnancy that I didn't expect, and didn't like.

10. Morning sickness = ALL DAY.
9. You can't sleep on your stomach (duh); your back (huh?); and preferably not your right side...leaving your left side.
8. Prenatal vitamins made me sick.
7. People really want to know your cravings. They want them to be weird. Like peanut butter on pizza.
6. More than just your stomach will grow.
5. You make 29475 bathroom stops per day (either throwing up or peeing).
4. You will outgrow your wedding ring and wonder if it will ever fit again.
3. Everyone will ask gender and names and due date.
2. You will never stop worrying about your baby (while they are in you or out).
1. Labor made me sick (literally).

sorry I have been such a bad blogger lately. Its just that I don't have much to blog about. Life has been quite regular in the past week (read: extremely uneventful). I have finished 2 novels and started a third and I have just been hanging out with my cute baby girl while my husband is working. Here are some new pics of the cutie.