Movin' on up....

...to the next size car seat....front facing!

She was relatively unaffected - except for the enjoyment of getting to see things out the window.

Infancy is becoming a distant memory , but I'm not letting go of babyhood just yet. The rate of development at this stage is exponential and so fun to watch.

We got a ton of household projects done this weekend. As I was in the midst of the never-ending laundry game, my hero husband was installing a new light fixture in the kitchen and there were tools/ladder around so I was holding Gianna. Moving the wet clothes from the washer to the drier proved a bit cumbersome with a 20+lb baby on hip made the task more challenging so I looked for a quick fix and a safe place to perch the munchkin. Well, this was my solution: I summoned Iain into the laundry room claiming that I needed help b/c something was stuck in the washing machine. He came. He laughed. She laughed. I laughed....and good bloggin' mom that I am, snapped a picture.

This little goose is an absolute hoot to watch. She entertains herself (and me/us) for hours.
And those little baby minds are such sponges. From the songs with their hand motions, to the naming of objects, to the games we play often.....just so fun. Peekaboo continues to evolve from a blanket over the head, to peeking from around the couch to the old fashioned hands over the eyes. Don't you love how it never gets old for them? My favorite lately is the sign language. I am so amazed what she is picking up, understanding and using (with great accuracy). She knows the sign for eat and uses it regularly. (This is a modification of "eat")
The other day, I wondered (out loud) if she was hungry. She performed the sign for eat and crawled into the kitchen to her high chair. She got that from "hungry" - which I didn't teach her. Amazing little creatures they are.

OH!
And how could I forget? Little Miss Prissy Pants took her first steps this week. So so cute. I love the little Frankenstein moves. I don't have pics video yet because I never know when she's going to give it another try.

Actually, even funnier than those first steps has been her new speed-demon skills in her walker. She's only really moved backwards in it until a week or two ago. Now, she does laps around the house at breakneck speed with amazing precision. That video's coming soon to a blog near you. :)

HERE is said VIDEO

and

ANOTHER VIDEO

Dang!

For some odd reason I'm missing 7 of my most recent posts. Vanished. Poof. Gone pecan. They're missing and I have no idea how it happened. Dang. I wasn't even messing with the blog. I just happened to check something and noticed they were gone.

Dang.
Thankfully, the originals are on my shutterfly site, but I have to re-load all those pics. This is the second time this has happened to me.

Dang.

It'll take me a while to re-post them, so when you see repeats - that's why. (Update: they are already reposted....took an hour. DANG.)

If you have any insight into this little frustrating situation - please enlighten me.

Further Frustration:
My shutterfly book came in. So disappointing. That's a first for me. I still really love Shutterfly. Apparently all those pages I lost, then found, then reformatted to jpeg were a little more than their computers could handle. A lot of that text and pics are super pixilated. :(
Dang.
I ordered the 12x12 size and some of the closeups of Gianna are bigger than ACTUAL Gianna. Some of the closeups with Iain & I with her are WAY too scary....you can count the pores and wrinkes.

Dang.
The good news is that the 101 pages caused the book to bust at the seems....literally. There must have been a binding problem and some of the pages literally fell out the first time I openend the book. They have a great guarantee so I'll get my money back (or credited), re-do the pages (boo), finish the rest of the pages and do 4 separate 8x8 books instead of 2 honkin'sized 101 paged books.
******************
And to top it all off....
we broke our good camera.....the week of Gianna's first birthday.

No idea how it happened.
SUPER DANG!!!
All minor hiccups in the broad scheme of things.....just frustrating.

Night with Nate

Sweet, sweet Nate. Nate is our godchild. (Isn't he yummy?) He two years old, handsome, smart, full of personality and oh-so-precious. He is another miracle baby who was adopted by our dear friends. I had the privilege of keeping him for his first six weeks of life while his mom was working. Grace-filled time. This is one loved and celebrated child of God.

Here is Nate in my hand at 3 weeks old - just five pounds.Nate with his ReReNate as a crawfish for his first Halloween. Make-shift pumpkin patch last fall. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Gianna and I went to visit them in their new house and they were adorable together. Gianna crawled as fast as she could to keep up with him.
ReRe and Padrino love you, Nate!

Spoonful of Honey

Last week G and I went to visit my friend Sharon, whose grandkids all call "Honey." Honey and Anna Beth (one of her precious grandkids) had thoughfully prepared for our arrival.They had a sweet gift of the cutest little musical dancing duck that sings "Quackety Quack - Don't Talk Back" which thoroughly tickled G.

They thought of everything and even had a baby pool set up in the backyard. Anna Beth was such a great sport to sit in the pool with her and play and blow bubbles for her.
I'm pretty sure Anna Beth ended up getting even wetter than G.
Afterwards, the two snuggled in the recliner to watch Praise Baby. I'm thinkin' they could pass for sisters! It was a great morning and G was comatosed before we drove out of the driveway.Thank you, Anna Beth and Honey......you're as sweet as sugar! :)

Dog Days of Summer

Meet Max.

Max is my first child. You know how that is.

He's a Peekapoo (Pekingese and Poodle mix.) He's been with me a year longer than my husband has.
I love him. (Actually, some days I love him more than my husband ----- Kidding!! sort of :) He's got the cutest little underbite you ever did see (Max, not my husband.)


When I first got Max, and many times since, my friend, Michelle (and her family) would dogsit for me when I went out of town. They fell so in love with Max that they got a smaller, darker, feistier, feminine version of him. Meet Jolie. Max and Jolie have been BFF's from the start. They're partners in crime. They're two peas in a pod. Ebony & Ivory. You get the picture.
Summer 2009. It's hot. Doggone hot. I'll bet you're wondering how I know this for sure? This is what I saw when I went into my backyard yesterday...

Sweet Sweet Jessie with Little Laid Back G and Max floating by in the background.

Max....you're the best. Soon - you'll get your very own post.

Heck, you should probably have your own blog.

Food Fight

Okay, so maybe "fight" is a strong word -- but we are definitely having feeding issues. Maybe hunger strike would be a better term. From day one - we have had the perfect little eater. No issues with bottles, formula, cereals, baby foods, finger foods. All in all, smooth sailing. That should have been my indication there would be a turn in the tide.

Now early on we did realize that texture was going to be a challenge (in terms of food) and that she has a fairly sensitive gag reflex, but it seems that she has figured out that she can use that to her advantage. Lil Turkey. My homemade baby food (which used to be quite the hit) gets rolled eyes and swatted at fairly regularly. She refuses to open her mouth sometimes unless I open a jar of baby food and pour some it on top (or pretend to.) Lil Turkey. She'll gag as soon as the food hits her tongue sometimes, even before the texture or taste registers. The other day, she actually gagged as soon as she saw me pull the bowl out of the fridge. Lil Turkey.

Many times if I take the food an puree it even finer, she'll eat it. (I have visions of driving up to school in a few years with my mini-food processor to puree her peanut butter and jelly sandwhich so she'll eat.) I'm determined not to open 50 jars of food to appease her. (I keep saying to myself, "I'll bet there aren't many finicky babies in third world countries.") Most of the time, I'll try several times and then just say, "All done." and cover up the food for later. I try not to exhibit fussing, pleading orfrustration, except for when she's swats the spoon so hard that it rockets sweet peas and squash all over my occasional clean clothes. Actually, so far, she's eaten almost everything -- just one or two meals later. What she is quickly learning is that this mama is frugal and stubborn - a combination that I'm sure will frustrate the bejeebezes out of her for years to come.

I do have to say I'm pretty proud of myself for not getting bent of shape or trying to control the issue. I want to try hard to not use food as a punishment/reward. (We'll see how that goes!) She's obviously healthy and getting what she needs. She's not waking up hungry in the middle of the night (which was one of my concerns.) I'm guessing she's just coming into her own, seeing what we're made of and trying to assert a little independence (we saw that one coming from the start.)

The funniest part of the whole challenge has been her amazing ability to use her sign language, which we only started a couple of weeks ago. The other day I had put her food away after she refused it and decided I would no try and force her into her usual eating pattern, but let her get hungry enough to try again.

She played and played for hours and then she became increasingly irritable. She crawled up to me ( I just love it when they speed crawl across the room and try to climb your leg!) and whimpered/grunted a little and I asked, "What's the matter, Gianna?" She immediately responded by using the sign for "eat." Woo Hoo. I said, "Are you hungry? Do you want to eat?" and that little munchkin started panting like a puppy crawling into the kitchen. So cute.
And she's been using the sign for "more" ('cause she's so stinkin' hungry following her hunger strikes) on a regular basis. The other day during one of her hunger strikes, I got a cup of jello for myself while she was looking at a book in her high chair. She watched me intently as I ate it. I'd never given her jello before so I was curious what she's think of it's texture. I gave her a bite. Aren't their faces so precious when they're trying to figure it all out? Well, I thought that child was going to bruise her little pudgy fingers as she repeated the sign for "more" over and over and over again. I got the giggles.

Oh yeah - and for a quick appliance update. I'm lovin' my oven I got a couple of months ago! She has been joined by a new exhaust hood (not near as exciting) AS WELL AS.......a brand new Mac Daddy refrigerator. We moved the old one into the garage and this one is HUMUNGO. It's been a dream to have all the space we need to meal plan and to actually see what we have. Joy Joy Joy.

I have to say, I was almost as excited about this fridge as I was about my new van last year. It certainly makes the Hunger Strike/Food Issues much more tolerable. The control panel is like the Starship Enterprise. So fun. So grateful.
Perdy, huh?
Um - these are website images - We actually don't have 12 hams pouring out of our freezer drawer.

* BONUS: a couple of shots of "Mrs. Kravitz" (remember Bewitched?) on the front porch checking out all the neighbors comings and goings.

Be blessed.

Out of Blog Mode...

...and into Scrap Mode. Digi-Scrap Mode - to be more exact.

Since little Luke left for daycare three weeks ago, and since my baby girl will be ONE YEAR OLD in less than two weeks, I was determined to get her First Year Baby Book done before the big day.

I used to LOVE scrapbooking even before scrapbooking turned into the phenomenon it has become. I did it when I was kid. I still love it - but life's just different than it used to be and all the stars have to be in alignment, supplies laid out, time set aside etc. in order to get anything accomplished. It just doesn't make sense for me anymore.


When I discovered Shutterfly several years back, I began making Photobooks - just slipping in digital pics to pre-made layouts, clicking a button, and receiving a beautifully professional bound photobook in the mail less than a week later. It has made life much simpler and memories much easier to preserve. (And I can order more copies at any time - for gifts and such.) There is no mess issues, no space issues, no time issues, no spending a gazillion dollars on supplies, papers, tools, machines, contraptions, etc. In the end I'm spending less money with a fantastic end result that takes up FAR less room. (End of commercial.)


One of the main reasons I began blogging, was to chronicle our lives in words and pictures in order to help me formulate our Photobooks whenever the time was available. Added bonus: family and friends could keep up with us without flooding their inboxes with pictures, etc. I had purchased new digital scrapbooking software a while back and finally have been able to put it to use. I've been a Digital Scrapping NUT during naptime, night-time, daddy/baby bonding time -- every free minute. About halfway through, the program froze up and I lost everything. I was sick. Thank God my hero-husband was home and managed to find all the pages in a different form - so I couldn't edit them. (small potatoes!)


There's good news and there's bad news. Good news: I finished the book this morning....all 101 pages of it. I know what you're thinking. 101 pages!!!! Could that be any more ridiculous for a baby book? Why, yes, it most certainly could. So now for the bad news: The book only covers her first 6 months. I know what you're thinking.....I've thought it myself. That's just our reality. (Even more amazing - I've only used about 40% of the pics I have stored.) So now I'm working on volume 2. Pitiful, I know. Oh well....that's my reality. :) Here's a sample of a couple of pages. Can't wait to receive the book next week.

A few firsts....

And she was swangin'.... So lately we've been out and about (now that we're down to one baby in the house) and we've been enjoying a few firsts.

Her first time on the trampoline.

I bounced her gently for a bit and she really got the giggles.The first dip in the pool.

Apparently, she's a BIG fan of swimming.Her first trip to Texas to see the Votava's and have a crawfish boil. And her first time to see a goatee. (Mr. Chris was entertaining.)

Her first church picnic with Father Wayne. (This was just before he got dunked in the Dunking Booth. )
First time eating a snow cone (minus the flavoring). Okay, so it's just shaved ice. Thank you, William for feeding her.Do you think she likes it?
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Her first trip to Bundick Lake for Christian Leadership Institute. (CLI) We visited so some of the old gang could meet G.
And some friends....

Here we are with a few new baby friends: Nichole and baby Sophia (4 mo.) and Jill and baby Jackson (2 mo.)Sweet baby Jackson.

Sweet sleepy Sophia.