Return to the Pool

Today was a quiet day; we woke up and made breakfast as a family. We sat around eating pancakes and talking. Our friend Sara and her mother dropped by to see The Bug. They had a great time talking. When Maria got fussy I took her back to her crib for her nap. Amelia got some much needed grown up conversation time with her friends and I took a nice nap. Later in the afternoon, we took Maria back to the pool and she played in the water with my mom. Amelia and I both got to go swimming. I always forget what a workout swimming is. Getting out to the pool was a blast. Sadly, tonight was the last night that Maria will be able to wear her I heart Daddy jammies. She has out grown them. She got the jammies for father’s day. I can’t believe how fast she is growing.

Back to Work

Today was Amelia’s first day back to work and subsequently my return to blogging about the family. It is funny, last night I think Amelia felt like it was the first day of school after summer break. She and I have drawn up a schedule where she goes to work at 7:30 AM and I go to work at 10:00 AM. The idea being that the Grands that are helping watch Maria will at most have to cover five hours.

Maria had been waking up at 6:30, but decided to wake up at 7:30 this morning so Amelia did not get to see Bug awake before she went into the office. I am sure that did not set Amelia’s day off in the right direction.

I spent the morning in the same way that I always do. She got her bottle and then we go outside to do our “chores”. The chores being me holding bug, while I water our vegetable garden. When we finish our chores we go and sit in the awesome outdoor rocking chairs that Amelia’s sister Monica gave us.

When we have grown tired of being outside we go to bug’s room where I put her on her play mat and we play bug games until she decides that she is ready for a morning nap. She takes a little Cat Nap and I take my morning shower.

Maria saw her shadow this morning, while we were rocking outside.  She kept trying to grab it.  I am not sure if this means that we are going to have 6 more weeks of summer :)

This morning I made sure to take a picture of the Bug and sent it to Amelia. I know that it makes my day brighter when I get random phone pictures from Amelia. I went with my mom on Bug’s morning walk so that she could get the lay of the land.

Amelia spent her day doing administrivia tasks including, joy of joys, taking a defensive driving course that TXDOT requires. This was not your typical “Comedy Defensive Driving”, instead to hear Amelia tell it, the course had a narrator doing his best to talk as slowly as possible to ensure that the time requirement was met, or to bore the class into a coma (which ever happens first!).

Grandma Tyler did a great job of taking care of Maria during the day. At four Amelia returned home and got her Bug time. Secretly, I think she is jealous of the time that I am getting to spend with Maria and of course I gloat about how great it is.

Dinner was at Texadelphia, my mom and I got greasy burgers (their guacamole burger is probably my favorite burger in Austin) and poor Amelia had to eat a turkey sandwich. There were at least three other people there with babies at the restaurant. It made me wonder if there is a mini baby boom going on.

hang in there!

i met with a surgeon today and talked it over with chris and my parents- the gall bladder comes out august 24. i really, really hope it can last that long without becoming an emergency. my doc and the surgeon seem to think i will survive until then. i'm being careful about what i eat and when i eat and making sure i go for a little walk after i eat. so far i had 2 consecutive nights of no gall bladder attack- i hope i can go another month like that!

bonnie came in on the train this evening. i go back to work on friday. i can't believe it has already been 12 weeks! the time went by so fast!

maria and i had a fun playtime this evening- i got her to laugh out loud twice! she is so funny when she laughs- she opens her mouth really big and leans her head back. she lets out a coo and then a squeal and then it is a full on laugh. i will try my best to record it but i'm so focused on her that i don't think to get the camera.

laughter is the best medicine. . .

super big smilestone- maria laughed out loud this morning! it was super cute and super hilarious. we tried so hard to get her to do it again in camera but she was done. she was bicycle kicking her legs on the changing table- i can't remember what i did but all of a sudden she grinned and then opened her mouth, squealed and then laughed. i hope i can always remember that moment.

the bummer news is that i got an ultrasound of my abdomen- looks like pregnancy has destroyed my gallbladder. i will be meeting with a surgeon sometime tomorrow to get surgery scheduled- it will probably be in the next couple of days. i'm actually feeling pretty nervous about all of this. the sooner i get it over with the better. i'm out of maternity leave on thursday- i guess i will get gallbladder leave? at least i have an answer as to why i've been feeling so crummy lately.

swimming is the best medicine. . .

last night was pretty rough- not because maria kept us awake- it was my gallbladder (we think). if  pregnancy has not been cruel enough to my body then add on wrecking havoc with my gallbladder. i spent all morning at the austin regional clinic weekend office. the good news is that my blood work showed no signs of infection so i should live long enough to see the doc during regular hours and possible get a sonogram or some other kind of imaging done on my gallbladder. until then, no spicy food and no fatty food.

tonight we took maria to the neighborhood pool. we hung out in the pee pool with her. she looked pretty cute in her surfer shirt but the water diaper and plastic pants are just down right embarrassing. hahahha! we had a lot of fun- i can't believe we have lived here 4 years and have never been to the pool. there were only a handful of people there! chris stayed with her and i swam a few laps. i forgot what a workout swimming is! hopefully we can get to the pool more often before it closes. we took a waterproof camera that we bought when we went to iceland 3 years ago- i'm not sure if any of the pictures will turn out. it was really weird using a camera with film- i hated not having the big digital screen on the back and seeing the picture right after it was taken! it might take us awhile before we get the film developed. ..

well, i don't have maria pic to post today. she is already asleep and i think i am not too far behind her.

cajun maria

sunshine

last night we got maria some swim diapers, rubber diaper pants and a swim shirt. we are hitting the pool this weekend!

sleeping news- she zonked out close to 10pm and she didn't wake up until after 7am this morning! i guess all that sleep made her kind of cranky. today has not been the best of days. she hasn't been level purple fussy but she hasn't been very smiley either and she didn't take a morning nap. i washed some new outfits yesterday- she has some really cute ones that i have been waiting sooooo long to put on her.

chris and i made plans to have lunch today. since it has been rainy and overcast i put her in the sunshine shirt and yellow skirt with white polka dots. she looked soooo adorable. we spent the whole morning singing 'you are my sunshine'. i have to admit seeing in her the outfit and singing that song to her makes me a little teary because it is just too cute. well. . . . . i rushed feeding her so i could have lunch with chris. i knew it was a bad idea- i knew i should have allowed more time. i barely gave her any burp/ sitting up right time after eating. she spit up a little when i was changing her diaper and then the rest of it came up when i picked her up. it went all over her. amazingly enough there was none on me. i didn't have time to give her a bath so i wiped her down with a washcloth. i decided i had to put her in another equally cute outfit because it was the only thing that could get me to smile again. soooo- she's in a pink shirt with a monkey and a cute tropical skirt. she fell asleep before i got out of the driveway. i picked up chris at work and we had lunch at cypress grill. she woke up about half way though lunch and looked so confused. chris took her out of her car seat and held her. she got happier and started kicking her feet to the cajun music that was playing. it was pretty funny.

mom's evening

this evening chris said he would take over taking care of maria so i could go do whatever. my whatever was getting my haircut because maria is now grabbing and pulling and my scalp can only take so much! i've been feeling pretty self conscience about myself since i had maria. her being a week late led to a lot of stretch marks and extra weight gain. i did something totally crazy- i bought a swimsuit! i'll not be posing on the cover of any magazine in this but i'm pretty excited about it. we have a neighborhood pool that we have never been to! plus, our neighbors behind us have a new pool and they keep inviting us to go swimming. sooooo- i'm ready. the last time i went swimming was 2 years ago! my other purchase was a 'mom' wallet. i decided to give up my little wallet that just holds my driver's license and bank/ credit card and insurance card for a big, huge wallet- big enough for a check book and diaper/ formula coupons. the only thing it doesn't have is a plastic sleeve for pictures but i got a ton of maria photos on my phone. . .

jim henson's tummy time babies!

i don't really know when this started but i know chris started it. if you add 'jim henson' and end with 'babies' everything is so much cuter! for example- jim henson's poopy babies! yeah!!! (hand clapping with smiling) we've been doing a lot of tummy time with maria. she really seems to like it. she is also getting on a somewhat regular schedule. she wakes up sometime between 6-7am. we go for a walk before 9am. she takes a nap starting sometime around 11am- noon. we spend the rest of the afternoon playing 'jim henson's flying babies' and 'jim henson's tummy time babies' and 'jim henson's mirror babies' and 'jim henson's walking around the yard looking at the plants babies' and finally 'jim henson's yeah! daddy is home babies!'. . . .

you might have heard walk but we meant vet. ..

daisy went to the vet today for her regular check up. she hates going to the vet- i don't blame her- we kind of hate taking her to the vet. we have to drop her off in the morning and she spends all day there. i got a call in the late afternoon saying they were done but the vet nurse had a few things to go over with me. first of all, daisy has gained weight since the last time she was at the vet. then she said daisy's ears were gunky and we need to clean them. she also said daisy's teeth had a lot of build up on them and she was surprised there was so much considering daisy had her teeth cleaned in february. 

sooooo- we are bad puppy parents. before you pass too much judgement on us- at least we take her to the vet on a regular basis! when i think about it, daisy has access to better health care than the majority of americans. she is current on all vaccinations, her weight is watched and maintained (when i got the weight from the vet, she was only .2 pounds heavier), her teeth are checked and cleaned once a year, she gets blood work done once a year and she sees the vet at least twice a year. how many people out there can say that about their own health? hmmmmm. . .??? 

speaking of health- i ended up canceling on game night- i got really bad heartburn after dinner. i've had it twice since i had maria. is this a post- pregnancy thing or am i just getting old(er)? my lactose intolerance has also returned. i happily enjoyed all the milk and cheese and ice cream i could eat while i was pregnant without any digestive consequences. my doctor said it probably wouldn't last after i had maria- she was right. i guess i need to get pregnant again. . . hahahah!

here's a maria pic!

lazy sunday

i was completely exhausted this morning when i woke up to feed maria. chris took her as soon as i was done and let me go back to sleep. saturday night tennis is great but it leads to a sore sunday morning. i slept in until about 10am (when maria got hungry again). chris saw 'inception' with juan at the village drafthouse this afternoon and maria and i got to hang out. she was really smiley and cute today. we finally got the fisher- price mobile working and she loves it. between the new mobile and play mat and tummy time she is one happy and exercised baby!

ps

happy birthday to bonnie! thanks for the hats and shirt!

busy day

today was an exceptionally busy day. it all started at 7am when maria woke up. i fed her while chris made breakfast for everyone. he made scones, scrambled eggs and i cut up some fruit and we had the rest of the cantaloupe that my mom brought. after breakfast my mom and i went for a walk with maria and daisy. i like walking in the neighborhood with my mom because then i have someone to talk to about other people's yards and we point out things we like and things we don't. my parents had to get ready to leave when we got back from the walk. they were going to a family reunion and had to get on the road. we had time to take some family pictures.

after my parents left, chris and i gathered up some things, made a list and got started on errands. i hate running errands and it takes even longer now because we have to get maria in and out of the car. i wanted to get started pretty early before it got any hotter outside. first we went to target to return the non-functioning mobile we bought thursday night. i picked up a few baby things for a friend that recently had twins and a few things for us. from target we went to the ups store so we could ship out some packages- one to chris's mom, one to my friend amy (twins) and one to chris's brother. i have to say the guy at the ups store was really helpful and nice considering we came in with a crying/ farting baby, chris was on the phone the whole time with his brother and i only had one package boxed and ready to go. i felt like we were 'those' customers. . .. from there we went to lowe's to check out their sliding patio doors. after talking to the door guy there we decided to go with our original door from home depot. sooooo- we went to home depot and finally made the final decision about replacing the sliding patio door in our bedroom. it is ordered- it should take about 2 to 3 weeks to arrive. after that was done we went home. i was super tired and ended up taking nap.

after dinner (texadelphia!) i played tennis with juan for about 2 hours. i wasn't very good to begin with then add an 8 month hiatus because of pregnancy and i'm even worse. i'm getting better though- i had fun playing and i got a few good shots in.

the grands!!!

my parents came today! i'm always happy to see them but i know they are even more happy to see maria. they stopped at a farmer's market on the way out of houston and brought us some garden fresh cantaloupe, squash, zucchini, and black eyed peas. chris grilled some kebabs from central market and we had a feast for dinner. we put maria in the baby bjorn so she could enjoy dinner with us (really so we could all eat at the same time. . .). my mom gave maria a bedtime bath and a bottle and she went right to sleep. (maria, not my mom) i stayed up waaaaay too late chatting with my dad but i always enjoys our talks.

do you see the baby?

this morning maria and i went to central market after our walk. my brother called me from india while i was picking out oatmeal! international calls are still exciting even though it is as simple as using your own cell phone. click here if you want to follow his family's 6 week summer adventure through southeast asia.

tonight chris and i went to target to get a mobile for maria's crib and a birthday card for his mom. we ended up getting a cute play mat for maria. we just couldn't resist it and it was on sale. maria seems to have made a full recovery from her shots on tuesday and so have i!

if you squint your eyes and stare through the picture there is a baby in 3D!!! hahaha!

reflection

tummy time is exciting time!

first veggies

tonight we had the first veggies from our garden! one cucumber and 3 little grape tomatoes! i forgot to take a picture of the tomatoes before we ate them. here is the cucumber though.

SHOTS!!!!

today was maria's 2 month check up with the pediatrician. she weighed in at 10 pounds 2 ounces, 22 inches long (although i think she it longer because the nurse didn't really stretch her legs out all the way) and her head is 37cm. she is a little on the small side but the doc says she is strong and healthy. she got her first round of vaccinations. she took the oral vaccination just fine but the shots are a whole 'nuther story. if she wasn't the loudest, screaming baby today then i feel bad for the nurse that has to hear it all day long! maria had big baby tears running down her cheeks. it broke my heart. it took at least 15 minutes to get her calmed down enough to put her in the car seat. this was the first time i heard her sniffling and whimpering after a meltdown. she was actually wrapping her arms around my neck and clinging on like never before. i made it through her getting the shots although i have to admit i got a little teary eyed on the drive home. i hated seeing her so upset and hurt but i'd rather her get shots than get sick. chris made a run up to target after he got home from work to get some baby acetaminophen. we gave her a dose when he got back and a dose again before she went to sleep for the night. she wasn't as fussy as i thought she would be.

carcasssonne

chris skipped game night tonight because he spent the whole weekend assembling and wiring the new wall of entertainment and then had to wake up early to get to work. he was pretty exhausted.  i went but we should have played "zombies!" because that is how i felt. maria had a big meltdown just before i left so we had to calm her down and clean up poop. i was late getting to game night but our friends waited (thanks guys!). it was really nice to get out of the house, hang out with some friends, partially use my brain and drink a couple of beers. i didn't take a picture from game night because i forgot my camera. we played carcassonne with inns, cathedrals, river, resources expansion tiles. i still haven't picked up on the strategy of the game but i did well enough to not get last. in fact, juan, lorielle and i tied for second. john won the game and andy got last. chris did a great job of holding down the fort. maria was feeding and sleepy when i got home. she went to bed not too long after that.

wall of entertainment

last monday we spent all day at ikea selecting and purchasing a new modular entertainment center. the goal was to get something that has all of our electronic components enclosed and the wires hidden and will also provide lotsa storage options. at some point maria will be mobile and curious so this is for her own safety and my sanity!

chris spent the entire weekend disassembling the old system and assembling the new. when i say the entire weekend- i mean the entire weekend! it took all day saturday to get everything built up and some of the wiring started. one of the things we didn't plan for (maybe chris was secretly hoping this would lead to a new tv. . . ) was the tv on its stand not fitting in the allocated spot. chris had to make a saturday night run to best buy to purchase a flat panel tv wall hanger. woops! the other thing we didn't plan on the slope of our house! apparently our floor is really, really, really not level. i'm hoping this is not indicative of a bad foundation problem. the floor drops almost 2 inches in an 8 ft span. at least ikea puts leveling legs on their furniture. we had to get a couple of thick rubber floor protectors because the leveling legs don't screw out enough. woops! so the tv hangs slightly crooked (even though it was attached level) because of the slope. chris and i had to let that one go- we can't let it bother us. after spending all day sunday figuring out where to put everything and wiring it together, chris finally finished around 9pm. we were both super tired and crashed out kind of early. the good news is that maria seems to be sleeping through the night now!

Bug Life: Month 2

hi maria- it's your moooooooommmmm! today you are 2 months old! i'm so happy it is today and not 2 months ago!

i had to give up the idea of exclusively breastfeeding. you still get the majority of your food from me but we give you formula too. i have to say, giving you formula really took the pressure off me. your daddy really likes giving you a bottle when he gets home from work. you've been a lot happier since we figured out how much milk you need everyday! 

you've made a lot of progress this month. you've gained weight, you are almost sleeping through the night consistently, you smile, you coo, you reach for things, you are (mostly) holding your head up, you seem to like other people, you don't mind when the dog howls, you travel well in your car seat, and you like to be outside. you still get fussy quite a bit. i'm not very good at picking out your cries- i wish you had an indicator light to tell me what is wrong. if you start to cry i always do a diaper skills check first- you still hate the wet diaper with a passion. if it has been about 2 hours since you ate and your are smacking your lips then i guess you are hungry. if it hasn't been that long and i just changed your diaper then it could be an air bubble and you need to be burped. sometimes i can tell if you are getting bored. i know, floating, dancing monkeys can hold your attention for only so long. you really like being outside. we go for a walk with daisy in the morning before it gets too hot and you look around at everything. you like to sit in the backyard and rock and look at daddy's veggie garden.

this month your grandma bonnie was here for 2 weeks. she took really good care of you. she kind of likes you a little. your aunt monica came to visit too! she loved playing with you and teaching you froggy jumps. she also gave us cool rocking chairs for the backyard. we started taking you out of the house more. the highlights have been rejoining our friends for game night, being in the neighborhood july 4th parade and going to ikea. i tried to meet up with another new mom but the weather was bad and someone ran into her. it has been raining a lot this month so it has been difficult to travel around. we still take turns keeping you at the house if we need to run quick errands- your car seat is cumbersome to get in and out of the car. since you've been holding your head up we started putting you in the baby bjorn so we can eat breakfast and dinner together. i try really hard not to drop food on your head! 

you out grew your little newborn onesies this month. it made me sad to have to take them off the hangers and put them away but you have lots and lots of cute clothes to grow into. every week you fit into something new.

i love watching you grow and learn. you have such big eyes that allow you to see the world. i love that i get to be there when you experience things for the first time. you are very alert and keep me on my toes all day long.  you don't sleep much during the day. sometimes i can't think of anything to do with you so i let you entertain me. you wiggle a lot and your smile is on the verge of turning into a full belly laugh. 

i love you bug (buggy, bugapolis, bugzilla, bugatron, bugabee)- happy 2 month birthday!

-mom

shorts, sonic and fudd's

today was a lot better than yesterday- even though it was raining (again) and we missed our morning walk. maria woke up too early and it was 7am when we went back to sleep. apparently i was completely exhausted because i didn't wake up again until after 9am! chris was great while i slept- he unloaded the dishwasher (ie dried all the bottle parts and reassembled), made me a bowl of oatmeal and took care of maria when she woke up. the thing that made today so great is that i wore a pair of pre-pregnancy shorts for the first time!!!! woo-hoo! i think the return of lactose intolerance and amy's ice cream the night before had a little to do with me fitting into pre-preg clothes but i'll take whatever i can get.

maria and i kidnapped chris from work around 2pm-ish and took him to sonic for half-price drink happy hour. i think it would have been more fun had it not been absolutely pouring down rain but chris enjoyed seeing maria in the middle of the day and getting out of the office. i enjoyed getting out of the house! we went on another excursion- this time for dinner. we went to fuddruckers. we got the 2/3 lb burger with fries and a drink- its $10 and the perfect amount of food for 2 people. (i drank water.)

cloudy with a chance of poop.

i'm getting a little more adventurous with taking maria out or maybe i'm just getting a little bored at being alone with her all day. last night i made plans for today to meet another new mom (we met at birthing class) at target. shopping and coffee and gabbing. i was really excited about the whole thing. maria, daisy and i have been going for a walk every morning around 9-ish. so i made plans to meet up with ashley/ evie sometime between 10-11am.

maria slept the entire night and woke up at 6am. i nursed her and then we both went back to sleep until a little after 8am. i got up, chris took care of maria and i took a shower, ate breakfast, unloaded the dishwasher and picked up around the house. i took over maria and chris got ready for work and then left. it started raining so our morning walk was called off. i made out a list of things to get at target, played with maria a little and then got packed up to go. it was still raining a little when i left but not too bad. i got a pretty decent parking spot, got in the store and started getting things off the list. then the poop hit the fan.

i was almost ready to check out but maria had a big poop explosion and then ashley called and said she was there but had been rear ended while turning into the parking lot! that really freaked me out- being in an accident with a baby. i told her i was almost done but i needed to handle the poop diaper then i would meet her in the parking lot to make sure she was ok. i really like target, the bathroom wasn't too bad but the koala changing table is located in a corner so it makes changing a baby really awkward- plus there really isn't any place to put the car seat/ diaper bag other than the ground. maria had a total meltdown while i was changing her diaper. she cried all the way out of the store, across the parking lot, and at the scene of the accident. ashley was finishing up with the cop on the police report when i got there. it started raining again. she decided she still wanted to go inside so she could make some calls. evie appeared ok and the accident wasn't too bad. we met up inside target at starbucks and we got to talk for a little bit- mostly about car wrecks and what to do. ashley got an appointment to get evie checked out- she let me know later on that she was ok.

when i got home maria had a big pee accident on the changing table- making this the 3rd clothing change. 2 more big poops and clothing changes (from maria) rounded out the rest of my afternoon. today wasn't exactly the fun filled day i thought it would. dinner kind of sucked tonight so we went to amy's ice cream for a nice dessert. i think my lactose intolerance is returning- i will leave it at that.

and hey- guess what? it's raining- again.

table walking

there isn't much to talk about for today. we got the existing sliding door in our bedroom measured to make sure the new one will fit. we passed the lead paint test so the installation crew doesn't have to take ridiculous precautions against exposure. chris came home for a little bit today- he let maria walk on the table. it was pretty entertaining. here are a couple of maria pix!

smile and yaaaaawn

baby bjorn (again)

why did it take us so long to figure this out???

the burp rag is tucked into the bjorn because i just fed her- if there was going to be spit up i didn't want it on my food!

i got a little paranoid about dropping food on her head so i used a napkin.

after we were done eating dinner, we threw the leftovers in the fridge and the dishes in the sink and went for a walk. i was shocked by what a work out it is to walk with her in the baby bjorn. then i was thinking- i still have 10 pounds to lose- she is really close to 10 pounds- this is the extra weight i am carrying. i think i need to walk with her in the bjorn all the time!

hej!

we need to replace our existing entertainment center with a new one that sits on the ground and completely encloses everything- maria will be crawling in just a few months and we need to start maria proofing the house. so today we got out of the house. we drove all the way up to round rock to ikea. this required us to take both vehicles. we needed the truck to get all the goods back home but we needed the car to take maria with us. (our truck doesn't have backseats)  i want it noted for the record that getting ikea furniture was chris's idea. next weekend when you hear someone dropping a serious number of 'f' bombs, that will be chris assembling the new furniture. here are some pics from our swedish adventure! you'll have to wait until next weekend to see the new stuff.

this is our existing entertainment center

designing the new one!

we stopped for some meatballs and lingonberry sauce and juice!

maria has been to stockholm- she just doesn't know it!

when i said barfota and started lauging, chris thought maria had barfed.

we can't go to ikea and not get some sylt lingon!

she finally fell asleep while we were waiting in the checkout line

there was a level 10 poop and spitup incident this evening- it resulted in a bath.