Nicole is 9 months old!

Nicole had her 9 month appointment on Monday and here are the stats:

Height: 2 feet, 3.75 inches (55%)
Weight: 19.0 lbs (52%)
Head Circumference: 43.7 cm (45%)

She has another ear infection in her left ear (4th one) for which she got another prescription. The doctor said that nursing is the only real prevention mechanism and had I not been the situation would probably be worse (tubes by now). As it stands, if this continues after the winter season she will probably be getting tubes at least in her left ear. The doctor assured us that no permanent damage to her hearing is happening. Nicole, other than some periodic ear tugging, seems oblivious to the whole thing.

New foods in her diet- watered down grape juice, string cheese, kiwi, coconut pudding, organic yogurt, turkey, waffle pieces, asparagus, & broccoli.

She’s learned some more “parlor tricks” since the last update – she can wave, pull a blanket up to hide and then pull it down to play peek-a-boo, say “mama” and “dada”, and can “crawl”- her form of crawling is a mix between army-style, traditional, and on her hands and feet with a few face plants and stops to sit along the way. She much prefers holding your fingers and walking to get around. If we come at her with a “I'm gonna getcha” and approaching tickle-ready hands she squeezes her body and giggles in anticipation.


Here are some shots from her pictures on Saturday:

Weekend of 4/11/08

Nicole has had a lot of ear infections in her short life (3) so when my ear started feeling “not right” – pressure, heat, dull pain, etc.- I figured I was headed down the same road. I went to see the nurse practitioner and she diagnosed me with a dysfunctional Eustachian tube. I have some pills to take 2X/day to relieve the swelling and I'm supposed to be taking a nose spray too. I’d be doing better if I could figure out a time to take all these pills. This one can’t be taken in combo with my birth control (10pm) or my thyroid pill (6:30am) so the optimal time would be like 10am and 4pm which is about impossible to remember. Therefore, my ear still has pressure, heat and pain. UG.

We had 10, count ‘em, 1-0 people spend the night on Friday – Kevin, Tabitha, their 6 kids, and Luke and Liza. It wasn’t too bad though as we all spent the early evening separate. Saturday was an early morning – I got up at 6:30 and headed to Dayton to babysit Alex while Sarah had her glucose tested. He’s such a good boy and wanted me to hold him quite a bit which tickled me. We came home in time to dump Nic in the bath and swing her over to Portrait Innovations for her 9 month pictures. I should have gone to JC Penney where they are more cost reasonable. I have LOTS of cute pictures to distribute but should probably have saved it for the 1 year milestone instead….

Nicole was NOT in a good mood Saturday night. She cried off and on for 2 hours until she went to bed. I suspect another ear infection in her left ear is to blame. We head to the doctor for her 9mo check-up today so we’ll see. I'm used to a happy baby 95% of the time that to have 2 bad hours was really wacky and frustrating. I have no idea how parents with colic-y babies stay sane.

Once she hit the sack though Jim and I played our new Wii on our new Surround Sound! I made a Mii for Jim and I, scored a 165 in bowling, and embarrassed myself royally playing ping-pong. Now I want wireless internet so “Lisa” and “Kendall” (and “Jesus” and “Michael Jackson” and …) can visit our console!

Sunday = church, house cleaning (I cleaned my first bathroom in the new house! Jim normally does 100% of all the housework), grocery shopping (we saved $39 in coupons for a total weekly bill of $27), and sloppy joes. Cleaned the kid, fed the kid, and hit a high point in my book (they caught 2 of the bad guys).

I’ll post some of Nicole’s pictures from this weekend here when I download them from my overpriced CD.

Really Real 2

There are a few precious moments in my life that I feel like I'm really living and totally in the moment. There are a lot of other times, like standing in my bathroom looking down at a little stick with two lines instead of the one that I assumed there’d be, that I think I should be living fully but I'm working too hard to mentally catalog every little detail of what’s going that I miss out fully engrossing myself in the experience. Ironically when I do that, the mental cataloging for later reference, I don’t enjoy the memory as much as I do the ones below that I just let myself live. Here’s to not thinking as much.

Moments when I felt truly alive (watch out, my true dorkiness will come out in some of these)

1) Choreographing a dance to “My God” from Sister Act in Katie B.’s basement. We practiced half a dozen afternoons until it was perfect and ready for show to Sr. Elizabeth, our 8th grade teacher, over lunch break.

2) Sneaking out with Kim B. to the “salt mines” (the half football shaped building that holds the street salt). We knew we shouldn't be there which made climbing the three story high pile of salt even more fun. Sliding down and turning our socks blue was another added benefit of the adventure.

3) Watching my mom cry on Mother’s Day because she was disappointed that none of us made a big deal of the holiday

4) Exchanging dresses in the bathroom of Kolping during the dance

5) My first kiss, LaSalle Rock Jam 1995

6) Watching Niagara Falls fall- the sheer power of it was amazing

7) When Mike C. told me he loved me for the first time on my parent’s living room couch, January 11, 1997. That glow stayed with me the whole first year we dated

8) Sitting on Marycrest Hill with Lisa, sunning our legs, eating Rally’s fries

9) The awe in Kenny’s eyes when I almost got into a fist fight with another girl over him (this lead to another really real moment that I won’t go into on a public space!)

10) My Cleveland road trip with the girls (Skittle Bitches)

11) Watching Viki do a keg stand on her birthday, in a skirt. I stood in our kitchen and had the distinct thought “this is what college is all about”

12) UD Graduation weekend – starting with my parents coming up to go drinking with us, graduation ceremony, and the tent party afterwards

13) The entire night I met Jim. I remember seeing him play croquet on Geoff's lawn, flirting over euchre, leaning up against him watching pool, inviting him to dessert, calling my mom every other hour claiming I'd be home soon, his "getting hot" and "need" to take off his shirt during darts, and leaving at 10:00am never having gone to sleep

14) Eating hummus with Viki and Laura at some trendy Chicago joint for Viki’s bachelorette party. I loved that it was just the three of us and that good conversation flowed for hours

15) The doors opening up and seeing everyone watch me walk down the aisle at my wedding

16) The fear I felt when the doctor said they were going to induce me in 8 hours (Tuesday, July 10th). I cried for an hour- over the phone with my dad, at work, talking to Jim- because I was so scared of labor and of the reality of becoming a mom

17) Making Nicole laugh for the first time with Jim in our new kitchen

Service Industry

We got approached buy a guy last weekend who gave us a quote to mow our lawn: $35. Our lot is gently rolling with a hill, about ½ acre (with the house in the middle), and should grow beautifully thanks to the quarterly fertilizer/weed treatments it’s receiving in combo with the sprinkler system. As you can imagine, the first thing Jim did was run the numbers to see what ROI the zero-turn mower he wants would be at the $35/mow/week price. I believe the answer to that equation was 2.5 years.

We have a growing number of friends who have services done for them. Tom has his lawn manicured once a week. It’s beautiful, wooded, and hilly. There’s no way I’d want to mow it myself. Carole is having her backyard landscaped to help her maintain the health of her hands. John & Ruth have someone clean their house once a week – they have three kids and Ruth’s a stay-at-home mom who is exhausted by the end of the week. I get this.

On the other hand, John also has his lawn cut for him. He’s 35, in good health, and (I think) still owns his own lawn mower. In his opinion he’d rather have that hour and a half to play with his kids on the weekend and not worry about mowing.

I used to think that people who had maids were rich. As I age I realize that people who have maids are busy (or men).

I'm still too cheap to pay someone to do much of anything for me. I think I feel this way because when it comes to cleaning Jim does it all (I literally don’t have to lift a finger!), when it comes to mowing neither of us mind doing it, and when it comes to cleaning the car (thinking of Dave’s blog) it seems expensive for a job I can do myself (or have Jim do). The car thing does, however, sound like a fantastic gift to receive though.

Weekend of 4-4-08

Jim had some buddies and some of my family over on Friday night for a ping-pong tournament. Some participants took the competition very seriously and were approached by corporate sponsors!

Others, just made sure that everyone had a good time. Like my father, below, sharing his beer with Nicole. Mom and I said we hoped she drooled in it for him.


Nicole also, for the very first time, started waving. She waved bye-bye twice to my uncle and then sporadically to others through the whole weekend. No video of this yet, but it's cute that she does the Queen Elizabeth style - twists her wrist and keeps her fingers still. She pumps her whole arm up and down too, but it's hard to tell if that's waving or just sheer excitement.

Saturday morning, after an "educational" sales presentation by a water filtration guy ($4500 for a whole house unit didn't take much thinking about ... uh, no), I headed over to Sue's with the girls for a Mary Kay make-over afternoon. We all looked gorgeous. Immediately following Jim picked me up and we headed north to Spencerville for Jim's family Easter. Good times, good gossip.

On Sunday we discovered Nic's third tooth (top left) had broken the gumline. Here Uncle Greg is trying to catch a look at it:

I put Nicole down for a quick nap before Jim gets home (he's practicing for a 5K next month). We are going to bowling and Nicole is going to the park with her grandparents. I just went to check on her about a minute ago and found her sleeping like this:

She learned last Friday how to get to a sitting position starting from her stomach. I found her a few mornings sitting in her crib waiting for me to pick her up. This is the first time, however, I've seen her actually sit and sleep...

Really Real

Sometimes it’s strange for me to think that famous people are really just people too.

When I'm laying in bed at 11:00 talking about my day with Jim, Katie Holmes might be, at the exact same time, catching Tom up new script she read that afternoon. Or when I'm rolling meatballs for dinner, Nicole Kidman might be doing the same thing in front of her range. Or when the baby cries over the monitor at 3:00 in the morning and I'm praying that she just falls back asleep without me having to get up, “my friend” Nicole Ritchie might be simultaneously groaning the same thing to little Harlow’s monitor in California.

A lot of times it's almost like famous people are really just made-up characters like they play and that they don't do the exact same things I do every day. Some times I try to picture a celebrity standing in her closet and cocking her head over what to wear in the morning just like I'm doing. Of course her closet is the size of my bedroom....

Spending Wisely

Want to move to Cincinnati? Here's what your money will get you:

$100,000

$300,000

$500,000

$1,000,000

Neighbors!

Spring has clearly sprung. People are coming out of hibernation and yesterday was a day of neighbors.

We’re strongly considering putting an offer in to buy the lot behind us. Trying to find out the skinny on its status, I visited the model home yesterday and talked to the sales rep (not the same person who sold us our house). In the office were 2 neighbors (married) who just bought a house up on the hill and were planning things out. While I talked to Rosalind, another new neighbor, who will live right across the street from us on the corner, came in. She was wearing scrubs and was in a hurry- they apparently have children as she mentioned that “the boys” were waiting in the car.

Let me make a side note here that Jim and I are really happy with the diversity in our neighborhood. Both of the sets of neighbors I’ve mentioned so far are black and the people who are building next door are as well. The family who bought the model house are Chinese. Since both Jim and I grew up in all-white communities, we’re really happy that Nicole will get to be around a lot of different (yet still all upper-middle class, but it’s hard to diversify that in a neighborhood) people/backgrounds.

Mid-conversation with the sales rep, a woman walked in to turn in her paperwork to buy a house, leaving only 5 available lots in the neighborhood in Phase 1 (of 30 total)!! Of all things they’re building an Avalon (same model as ours) just down the road. When I introduced myself as the Avalon across the street she knew just who I was and admitted that her husband has read my blog! I invited them over to check out our (very) lived-in house and to give some suggestions regarding things we’d change with hindsight. They too have two boys – 9 and 13. They’ll like the neighborhood – there is a family with 4 kids, two of which are the same age, down the road in the opposite direction from us, and another 9 year old girl further on Red Hawk.

After we bid them farewell and had dinner, I went out to meet Jim and our favorite neighbors (that we haven’t seen all winter!), Rob and Shirley, on the corner. We caught up a bit with them before it got dark.

Jim also found out that there is a baby boy, 1 week older than Nic, who is moving in on Red Hawk by September. Hooray for potential new friends! Maybe she’ll marry him!

I feel like Lisa with my neighbors!!!

Now knowing that the entire length of Red Hawk (the street our house faces) is sold, I went out and took pictures of what is now a lonely road with just 2 houses dotting it. By September it’ll be full with 8 more on every lot available. WOW!

Father Daughter Dance

Dad, friends and I headed to the McAuley Alumni Father Daughter Dance Friday night to remember our grooves from our first four dances in '93 - '97. Yeah... we still got it!

The crew "breakin' it down"

Me and my dad

Rowing to the Hawaii 5-0! We know we're cool.... at least we tell each other we are...

Dad and his two daughters, Lindsay and me!

Lindsay and her sister Holly with their father, Tony



Having a blast in the high school cafeteria!

Allllllmost there....

This is a pretty short trip, but you get the picture...

Little Life Updates

Lately I’ve been listening to a new radio station in Cincinnati, Radio 94.1. They play lots of music I like from artists that range from Dave Matthews (even the “oldies” like Satellite, etc.) to the Cranberries to Bush to Maroon 5. As Grandpa Wolf says: “LOVE IT”. They get almost through Dayton before they cut out but I don’t think Lisa will be able to hear it.

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After having Alex, Sarah chronicled new mommy life and at times, perhaps, gave more information than the average reader needed to know. Several months later when I was in that phase I really appreciated her insight into all the aspects of life post-birth. And so, because it’s my blog, and I'm actually happy about it, and it might benefit someone else, and I’ve prefaced it enough… I'm proud to announce that for the first time since September 2006…

I got my period!

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We’ve got a friend of Jim’s and his buddy staying with us 5 days a week while they do an electrical union job out in Indiana. Like the days of Jim’s parents living with us, they’ve offered to cook and clean to “earn their keep”. Really it’s their trade we’re excited about – starting last night they’re wiring our garage so we can finish it. Projects two and three are under-cabinet lighting and external lights (along our walkway, motion lights on the driveway, and to illuminate the house in general). So far it’s only cost about $450 in materials but that number isn’t close to being the final figure.

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Mark and Caitlin like us, they really like us. OK, they do (I hope!) but really they like our neighborhood. Mark’s come individually and they’ve come together as a couple to talk to our building rep at the model house and are touring a model they’re interested in this coming weekend. While they’re not in a hurry to move, I am SUPER excited at the prospect of them living near-by.

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Nicole is getting a little more crawling momentum. She’ll get up on all fours now and rock for a while. She’ll also use one leg to push forward or to spin. She has no patience however, like her mother, and when she doesn’t get what she wants (ie the toy I'm holding just out of reach) she squawks LOUDLY.

Easter Weekend Update

This weekend was a full and fun one! Some highlights:

Friday was a half day at work and after I picked up Nicole from daycare we headed over to Blue Ash to have Gold Star with Dad, his treat! Nicole ate some oyster crackers while I had a 3-way that was much better than I remember Gold Star being. When we got home, our family headed out to see the speakers Jim wants for the future great-room surround sound system and then up to Jeffersonville for some much-needed outlet mall shopping. I got 2 Banana Republic tops (same top, 2 colors), a pair of Gap dress pants, some TH jeans, a dress and a top from Dress Barn and some glass pie pans. Jim picked up some socks, boxers, jeans and a t-shirt as well. No clothes for Nicole though she did get a new embroidered bed skirt for her crib from PB ($8!!).

Nicole was very happy to be out and about and made shopping a longer than necessary process by keeping the attention of the salespeople and patrons in every store we went to. People can’t resist babies and I’ll enjoy the compliments now as no one will even notice her in few months/years (when the next crop of babies tours the mall). We grabbed some dinner at Bob Evans and made it home to be in bed at a reasonable time.

Saturday: Jim spent HOURS cleaning up the garage in prep for the electrical work his buddy Kevin is going to do for us (we’re finishing the garage). After Nicole woke up from her second 2-hour nap we scooted over to Buick to test drive what will probably be our next car purchase later this spring, the Enclave. I want third row seating, Jim wants luxury. We’re not done test driving, but this SUV is outpacing it’s competition easily so far.

That night we had my parents and Ryann over to play and watch movies. The girls are so cute together and Ryann is all about sharing (specifically her Cheez-Its with me!). We watched I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry which I really enjoyed. Good humor, good doses of seriousness. A-.

Sunday: Nicole woke up nice and early at 7:22. Clearly we haven’t exposed her nearly enough to the joy of sleeping in. We went to a really beautiful church service – full choir & about a 8-piece brass ensemble. Even the sermon was good. Following church we hung out at the house, battled Nicole to take a nap, and then headed to Grandma and Grandpa’s for some Easter celebrations family-style. Nicole and Ryann both really really really enjoyed the new car thing that Grandma got and they were spoiled with socks, pillows and outfits from the family (more than her parents gave her!).

Dinner at Easter was really good. Nicole especially loved her first *DA DA DA DUMMM* taste of meat- Turkey! The kid couldn't get enough of it! I shredded some pieces of white and dark for her and it didn't much matter what color as long as the flow of it was steady. A kid after Trey's own heart, I'm sure!

Happy Easter

Nicole IN her Easter Basket!

Indian

There is a very small amount of people who will eat Indian food with me so it is always a treat when I can meet up with one of said people to grab lunch. A new Indian buffet opened just down the street from my office and while I'm generally against buffets, that’s pretty common format for lunchtime Indian dining from my experience.

Anyway, I had Indian this week and have concluded that I have no idea how to eat it. I really like a lot of the flavors (and some of the textures) but as I never had it growing up and Anjali is really my only Indian friend and I’ve never eaten with her, I just end up putting together stuff that seems to go together with no concept if whether or not it’s “supposed to” go together or not. Yeah, I know in general you should eat what tastes good the way you like it, but I wish I at least knew how to eat it authentically…. I spread some pea/mushroom thing over flat bread, I put this bright orange chicken dish over white rice… is this how the chef intended it to be eaten? I have no clue.

I tried to spy on the number of Indian people eating lunch around me to see how they arranged their plates but the angle was wrong and I couldn't watch what they were doing beyond just what trey they picked from.

Ah well, guess you can't go wrong if it still tastes good even if it wasn't meant to be put together that way....

TODDLER Ryann

My first (and technically only) niece was born 367 days ago (including an extra day for leap year!). The fam attended her birthday pizza party yesterday over at my brother Mike and sil Lindsay’s. Good times! Cute kid!

I still remember the night before the big day when Lisa and Kendall came over to play cards and we kept calling on the hour to check on Lindsay’s progress which was very slow! Finally, word came in that she was having an emergency c-section and we bid farewell to our guests and headed to the hospital. Ryann was born on 3/18/07 at 12:03am with lots and lots of dark black hair. A short trip around the sun and she is now taking some steps and wearing a party hat! :)

Baby Facts

One of my favorite cute photos is of baby porcupines which got me wondering about their life pre-natal life and whether or not they poke through the placenta (which I can't imagine they did, but it crossed my mind). I did some research online and found the following:

A painful delivery?
Porcupine babies, called porcupettes, are not born with sharp or barbed quills, thank goodness! Instead, the porcupette's quills are soft and bendable, gradually hardening in the first few days after birth. The youngster will stay with its mother for just a few months before it's ready to live on its own.

This one's for you, Chuck!

I got a long distance dedication all the way from Arizona, headed out to my good buddy Chuck. Chuck’s letter reads:

“Dear Casey…”


OK, I'm making some of this up but he did write to ask about updates on three subjects:

My Father-in-law’s health: Doug’s doing okay. His foot turned bad again and he was on some high-end drug as a last-ditch effort to save it from being amputated. He’s still out on the road with Jim’s mom (Vickie) and are in Arizonia (Flagstaff) as of yesterday. He wants to make it back to OH so they can cut off his little toe as it's bothering him that much. : (

The 4 partial owners of our old house: We met on a Wednesday at a Credit Union to sign off on the documents and get them notarized. It was way more complicated than it should have been or maybe I am/was just tired of the whole situation and it felt that way. Anyway, we all signed, submitted the forms to the county for processing and officially closed on the house the following Friday. This was our first month with just 1 mortgage payment and DAMN did it feel good. This whole shindig cost us $111 for attorney fees and county fees and I worked VERY diligently to get the title company who screwed up to reimburse us which they refused to do on account of our not having title insurance (title insurance- “piece of mind” that I have to pay for to you in case you don’t do your job). In the end it wasn’t worth bickering over as the $111 paled in comparison to the $500+ the insurance would have cost in the first place. IRRATATING none the less.

Teaching: Two really cool things happened in the last month- 1) I have set my students up with mentors so they can see that I'm not just spitting BS at them; the subjects we cover actually do have real-life qualities. They’re required to interview said mentor and write up journals on the interaction. One of my students just got hired by her mentor! I got her her the infamous “first real job out of college”! 2) This past week one of my students showed me the announcement for the sales pitch competition she won - $500 prize! She said it went especially well as she got the assignment and realized “this is what we learned in class last week!”. So cool.

Weekend of 3-14-08

It was a very nice, relaxing weekend. By some miracle we didn't have plans on Friday or Saturday night which allowed lots of quality family time and prep time for our 18 guests on Sunday.

Here's the major highlights of the weekend in pictures:

Jim, Nicole and I were invited by Tom and Meghan to brunch and an Easter Egg Hunt at the local park. As Jim was judging a science fair, Nic and I headed up to Mason for the big event. Meghan made an amazing ham and we got to hang out with a REALLY scary-looking bunny.

Now that Nicole has two teeth in (bottom center), we're encouraging good dental habits. Here she is practicing the circular motion of proper brushing.

Sunday was Baptism day (and Palm Sunday) at our new church. Here Nicole is before we left home in her christening outfit. This dress was originally made for and worn by my mom, then by me, and now, 55 years later, by Nicole. On top of this she had a little short-sleeved jacket that my aunt Mary wore and my cousins wore at their Christenings. I also had her in a crocheted dress that my Godmother made for me.

Here we are after the ceremony. Proud Godparents Sarah & Greg are in back.

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This is a random picture of a truck that I followed for about 2 miles on the way to the brunch on Saturday. Cracked me up that someone went to this extent on their truck! Even the license plate "matches". I was a very unsafe driver as I fished around for my camera to get this shot.

No political comments necessary, just wanted to share a funny picture. : )

Centerfold

I used to read a lot of fashion magazines, and a trend I noticed, inspired by Dove I think, is that they are/were using more real people in their articles, pictures, ads, etc. than models.

Off and on when standing in my closet deciding what to wear for the day I think “if I was going to a fashion shoot, and not just to work, what would I wear?” Obviously this has not and will not ever happen, but if I had to be seen publically, by thousands of readers nationwide, what would I want to be seen wearing?

It’d have to be something that was very “Karen” – nothing too trendy, short, or uptight. Jeans would seem a logical choice but they aren’t often the most flattering pair of pants a woman can wear (Jim disagrees). I wear a lot of black in real life but that seems too trite to be published in a magazine. The thought that I’d have to go buy something new is frustrating because why don’t I have something suitable yet amazing already!?

SO, if I had to pick, I’d lean towards dressed-up versus the everyday preppy look (tailored pants, oxford shirt with a sweater over it, & low heels) that would be my first inclination- too generic for print! I think I’d wear my pink pencil skirt (fun, feminine color yet professional cut) with a tucked-in, button-up white shirt, stiletto heals in a reasonable height, my Tiffany bracelet, and “diamond” earrings. Since this is for a magazine I think I’d put on pantyhose too to keep my legs smooth-looking, or may be they could just air-brush that part in for me.

Sing a little song for me!

I am a SUCKER for a good love song. Buddy, I can get all wrapped up in one if it’s got nice lyrics and a catchy tune. I am proud to say, however, that I have NOT ONE of the “The World’s Cheesiest Love Songs” in my possession. My handsome, super-cool husband on the other hand can't say the same thing. More reasons to love him (and publically embarress him)!

Thank God “Die Without You” by PM Dawn didn’t make the list!!!

Frazzled

I’m painfully busy at work and have started to let my stress manifest in a few ways: 1) not taking the time to read blogs, which is unfortunate as that helps relax me, and I feel MORE stressed out that I'm a bad friend for not keeping up with people; 2) driving really fast when it’s just me in the car – I think it’s a form of control that I'm managing a 2000 lb. piece of metal at unsafe speeds; 3) calling people out- I got an email from a colleague of mine who irritated me at the exact wrong time and it was all I could do to not write the nastiest of emails back to her.

I try to relax at home, but I'm letting little things there get to me. For example, Jim came home a half hour later (7:45) than he said he would which meant that dinner was already cooled off and I was REALLY hungry by the time he showed up. I was overly snippy with him about not calling when my point could have been made in 2 sentences. Sorry, Jim.

My stress is further compounded by frustration at not getting all I need done personally – I still have 1 pair of jeans that sorta fits. Last Thursday I had to wear a back-up pair and I literally pulled them down to my knees without undoing the button or zipper to prove a point. Nic’s baptism is this weekend but time escaped me and we’re having our meeting with the pastor on Friday night (was supposed to be last week but I never called to schedule and they didn’t call me), just 2 days before the event!

No need to comment here, I just needed to exhale some of this for a moment.

Kiddie Update

Nicole’s learning a lot lately – as you saw in the video last week she is very eager to stand. The babysitter has been putting shoes on her during the day (I normally just send her in socks) to help her balance and encourage her to take steps (which she rarely does). This morning I put on the shoes she got for Christmas from her Uncle Tom and Aunt Mary. She was very excited to hold on to the couch and have me let go but doesn’t want to admit she’s not fully stable – she keeps letting go! She fell over about 10 seconds after this picture was shot.

Check out that posture! She doesn't get that from her mother!

She says a few words – mama, dada, up, hello- and I'm working on “love” to be evolved out of her “la la”’s. I haven’t written any of these in her baby book because I'm pretty sure she doesn’t know what any of them really mean when she says them. She says “dada” to me (note I didn’t say calls me “dada”) most of the time and called a 10 year old boy “mama” yesterday. Ah well. She does know what “up” means as she puts her arm up when I say it to her.

She’s also learned how to get passed and will now lean towards the person she wants to hold her. My mom got dissed at church when Nic reached out to her to be held only to immediately reach for me once she was in her grandma’s arms.

We added pineapple, cheerios, & graham crackers to her diet recently. Her pincer grip has gotten really good over the last week and she has the ability to pick up and put in several Cheerios in her mouth in rapid succession. She does get easily distracted though and in any given feeding about 1/3 of the cereal pieces end up in her lap.

I'm also working on teaching her some simple sign language- I’ve started with “more” which I do between bites of food. Nicole often thinks grunting suffices and I'm not sure she’s grasping the concept or the sign I'm going for.

Still no interest in crawling... she won't even get on all fours. This is OK by me though as she stays where I put her - if I go to the bathroom she's still playing with the ray shark where I left her! Very convenient!

Movie Review

We watched several movies over the past few days:

Good Luck Chuck- a show about women who fall in love with the guy they meet AFTER they sleep with the main character, Charles. Many cute parts but a little over the top in others. We watched the unrated version and man was it unrated. Rating: B

Heartbreak Kid- this looked promising. It had Ben Stiller (who looked remarkably buff actually) and a real cute blonde as his wife who turns annoying and divorsable quickly on their honeymoon. Somewhere in the middle though it goes downhill. Way downhill. There was actually a scene where you caught a glimpse of a donkey and a woman assuming "the position". Horrid. I never needed to see that. Rating: C-

Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End- Johnny Depp truly is an amazing actor. I wish I could say the same for the plot of this movie. BLEH. Even at almost three hours it felt like the editors cut scenes that might have helped clarify what the hell was going on. This was DEFINITELY NOT a kid's movie as you see someone get shot point-blank in the forehead in the first 20 minutes. Not recommended. Rating: D

Oh, and Jim watched Saw 4, which I refused to watch. Since this is my blog, and I didn't see it, it doesn't get rated "officially" but he gave it a C+.

Smiling on a Monday Morning

I feel really good about today.

I woke up on time, dressed Nicole in an outfit that isn’t overall cute but matches her pink and purple Mini Mouse socks from Jen O (the highlight of the ensemble) so overall I like it, and I realized before I got dressed that I needed something more professional for a meeting I have this afternoon.

Really though the best parts so far are that I heard the traffic report in time to take an alternate route to work and avoid the huge back-ups on 275E. My alternate route is going down Sharon Road which is much prettier than the highway anyway. So, as I listened to a Rob Thomas song I really like and munched on my PB&J that Jim made with the exact right ratio of PB to jelly to bread, I rounded the bend and got hit with a brilliant ball of neon orange sun rising over the clouds. Thank you daylight savings time for letting me see this! It was stunning!

The other advantage to the alternative route to work is that I get to 1) drive past Dave and Rachel S’s road (I waved to you!) which made me happy because they are such nice people and seeing their street reminded me of them and 2) I get to drive through Glendale which is about the cutest of towns ever. There were several houses for sale – the kind Lisa would like to live in – but I'm sure they are big big bucks.

The other cool thing – Carol built something amazing with all the snow we got:

Write my name

Some people doodle when their mind wanders. I tend to write. I really like my cursive handwriting and find the borders of my page filled with names. Yesterday, during our staff meeting, I started brainstorming the name of my next kid: Charlotte, Brooklyn, Olivia, Elizabeth, Christopher, James, … all over my paper. Then I moved on to writing the names of everyone in the room: Beckie, Laurie, Megan, Thomas, Brett… Then I practiced writing my full name, Jim’s full name, Nic’s full name, Lisa’s full name, Sarah’s full name….

Eventually my VP nodded to my paper as it was full of writing and not much pertaining to me was being discussed. I just smiled and flipped the page from view.

I think this interest in writing names specifically stems from grade school and high school where girls practice writing their potential new name (you know, their name plus the last name of their current boyfriend) over and over to see if it looks “right”. I think Karen E……. looks better than Karen T……., but sometimes, even after three years of marriage, my mind slips when I introduce myself on the phone and I almost say my maiden name.

If you want me to send you your autograph just let me know. :) I can assure you I'll practice many times before it get it perfect.

Keepin' it Real

People have wondered for ages what the meaning of life is. Many think it’s a trial period and that real “life” begins after death. Others believe that the goal is to do whatever makes them happy now as this is our only shot and there’s nothing after we die. As I don’t know either way, I feel like it’s my responsibility to try to live as REAL as possible now. This doesn’t always mean be happy, dealing with the crap parts of life is still living it to the fullest, but it does mean being true the whole time.

I really struggle with this. It’s very obvious to me what I “should” do and since I have a strong streak of pleaser in me, there a lot of times I do what I “should” do rather than what I necessarily want to do. Other times I do what I “should” do because I don’t have a strong opinion for any other alternative. Doing what I “should” sometimes allows me to be real but many times it makes me feel like I'm just going through the emotions.

Maybe I'm a bad mom, but I had a rose-tinted view of parenting that having a daughter would make me see the “real” side of life more; and by “more” I mean all the time. What actually happens is that I appreciate the little things more for sure (like this morning when she was sleeping on her tummy with her knees tucked up under her and her butt in the air – so cute!) but often times life is still whirling around me and Nic and I are just along for the ride- running errands because we have to, celebrating holidays because that’s just what you do, maintaining morning routines because we all have to be some place at a certain time.

I think I feel “real” most when it’s 10:30 and Jim and I are in bed talking about our day. I feel real when I get in conversation with Tom and we can be totally honest with each other even if it means we look stupid or what we have to say is unflattering to the other person. I feel real when I'm tickling Nicole and she’s giggling like crazy. I felt real the first time I was told that the person I Loved was In Love with me too. I felt real when it was announced I had the only 100% on my Marketing MBA paper in the class. I felt real when I walked down the aisle at my wedding.

The key here is making time and effort to be real. That sounds like an oxymoron, I realize, but, as I mentioned before, generic life keeps me too busy to dive deeper most of the time.

One to Think About

A while ago I posted a monologue from the movie Shall We Dance that really struck me about marriage. I heard another profound quote in the movie Evan Almighty that has echoed in my head since I heard it.

Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?

Epiphany?!

I got another indication that HPCUMC is the right church for me yesterday. As I mentioned, we’ve been going to the contemporary service on Sundays. I even went without Jim two weeks ago, something I never would have done at our other church. The pastor who gave the sermon did it in several sections – he’d read a passage and then speak about what he thinks it meant and related it to present day life, then he’d go on to the next section. The whole thing, while not interactive, was exactly how I prefer to be taught – casually, using real-life examples, and not in a “do this, not that” manner.

Anyway, I was having lunch with a friend yesterday and a comment was made during conversation that was part of the sermon from the day before. Now this is probably just coincidence, but this overlap in ideas made me feel good I went to church. I don’t know that I’ve ever said I was happy to go to church for the sermon (for the music, almost always, for the actual oration, not that I can recall). The sermon was fresh in my mind and further punctuated the fact that what’s going on in those four walls IS applicable to what I'm doing when I'm out of them. I am very happy with our decision to attend here regularly.

Our day at the aquarium

Nicole is very excited to spend the day with her friend Alex. She kept touching his knee while they rode!

She was too little to touch anything, but she liked looking over the edge!


I inaccurately called this a "monster" which Alex repeated. When I corrected myself and called it a skink he looked at me like I was crazy.


At the shark touch pool!


"Aunt" Sarah spoiled Nicole with a shark toy. Yeah, that was pretty wet by the time we got to the car.


Happy Fishy People! Really the main reason I put this one up is to show off Sarah's tummy. She's beautiful! :)