In Search of the Great Pumpkin

This past Sunday our little family (sans Pearl) traveled down the road to the St. Matthews Great Pumpkin Patch (basically the local Boy Scouts set up a Windstream in a church parking lot and sell pumpkins to benefit their organization). There is a great farm not far from here in southern Indiana called Huber's where you can pick your own pumpkin, eat pumpkin doughnuts, go on a wagon ride, etc. - I think that will be great fun for Alexandra next year, not so much right now (especially since the poor little thing is cutting her first tooth AND battling her first cold!). She was pretty tired, but she looked awfully cute in her little Halloween outfit!




Despite feeling under the weather, Alexandra had a fun weekend and even posed for a few pictures in her infant seat:

Scrumptious Squash

...well, I don't know that Alexandra would agree with the title of this post, as you can tell from the above picture. I tried some squash out on her this past Sunday. This was her first real "food" following rice cereal and oatmeal. I'm not sure how well it was received - most of it ended up being spit out over the course of the afternoon (we had five, count that FIVE, outfit changes). Alexandra also slept TERRIBLY that evening...at first I was blaming it on teething, but maybe her tummy hurt from the adjustment to food after months of eating nothing but milk? Any of you with little ones think that might be a possibility? Just in case, I went back to feeding her rice cereal and oatmeal with the resolution of trying something else in a week or so - the ladies at daycare swear by sweet potatoes so maybe we'll try that or apples, maybe pears.

Even though it wasn't a hit, we still got some pictures to commemorate the occasion...as you can see, Pearl couldn't let an opportunity pass by to make her presence known.

Nothing Says Autumn Like the Keeneland Fall Meet

What a beautiful way to spend a sunny Saturday afternoon ... this past weekend, Ryan, myself, and 20 or so of our friends traveled from Louisville to the beautiful Keeneland race track in Lexington to enjoy the ponies, each other's company, and the beautiful fall temperatures.

I should have taken pictures of the beautiful grounds while I was there ...


But instead, all of my pictures were captured on board our charter corporate coach:


Yes, folks, we have come a LONG way from our college days...this was the way to travel! This bus could seat 25 and had three satellite Direct TVs, a small kitchen, even a bathroom with a granite counter top! This would be an AWESOME mode of transportation to a college tailgate...

Here's some pictures of our crew on the bus - we had a blast and even sacrificed some time off the bus to enjoy the crisp weather, beautiful sunshine, and even more beautiful horses.

Milestone Mania

Good news - I found our camera! It's a good thing, too, with all of the new milestones Alexandra is achieving everyday. Here's the photographic proof:


Alexandra is now rolling over both ways - I learned this when I came to find her asleep on her tummy in her pack and play while we were staying at the home of some dear friends during the power outage. My girl is a tummy sleeper - I would say she is sleeping 75% of the time on her belly. I absolutely love this picture with her little butt up in the air!


Well, this isn't really anything new - Alexandra has been propping herself up on her arms while laying on her tummy for some time, I just don't think I have posted a picture of it on the blog. Here she is playing on her activity gym playmat, and is reaching for her favorite toy...a little red barn with pull toys attached that makes all the barnyard noises. This child reaches for this toy everytime it is within a few feet of her!




She likes it, she really likes it! Yes, we are making the slow adjustment to solid foods...we started Alexandra out on some rice cereal last week and she tried oatmeal cereal for the first time tonight. Despite what it looks like from the pictures above, she really does seem to enjoy it! She opens her mouth wide and reaches for the spoon every time - I really think she would try to feed herself if I would let her!



Here are some of her in the exersaucer I referenced in my last post - no, this isn't a milestone, but it does show how well she is holding up her head when upright. Unfortunately, these aren't the best pictures - I could never get her to look at the camera, she was so mesmerized by all the toys and lights on the saucer!

Alexandra really is doing great, she is such a joy and is the love of our lives. She is blowing raspberries (who would have ever known this is an actual milestone??), and we try not to get tickled by the fact that she usually blows her raspberries when she is mad. She is sleeping great - 7pm to 7am with only one feeding anywhere from 2am to 4am - at least when her teething isn't too bad. Yes, teething - it sucks. Alexandra puts everything into her mouth to try to soothe her little gums! She is also doing much better at daycare - they finally started using the schedule I use with Alexandra on the weekends, and she is taking 3 naps a day for a total of about 3-4 hours of sleep. She is 23 weeks old today, and I find it impossible to believe that she will be 6 months old on November 4th....time really does fly, and she is growing up everyday in front of me, much to my chagrin!

Here are a few extra pictures, just for fun!

In her pink Ralph Lauren tracksuit:


Mommy and A sharing a laugh and a hand hold on A's playmat:



Gotta love a girl who looks good in pink:



Hi Mommy!

You Spin Me Round, Round Baby...

Alexandra has started spinning in an exersaucer...and loving every minute of it! My folks bought her the one pictured below as an early Christmas present (thanks Mimi and Grandpops!). This thing has so many little gadgets, WE find it overwhelming, so I can only imagine what she thinks. So far it is proving to be a great toy, though it takes a whopping 16 batteries - we should buy stock in Energizer with all the batteries her different toys require! I will have to get a picture of it in her soon and post it here - I just have to find my camera first! You never want to lose track of your camera, but certainly not when you have a 5 month old who is changing so much with every new day.

The Ex List

Did anyone check out the new show on CBS last Friday called "The Ex List," starring Elizabeth Reaser (aka Jane Doe from the last couple of seasons of Grey's Anatomy)? I watch enough TV as it is, but thought the premise sounded cute so I recorded it on DVR (who doesn't love their DVR?!?!). While we didn't watch it last Friday, Ryan and I caught it on Saturday (I'd love to say we were out doing something exciting last Friday which caused us to miss the original airing of the show, but alas, exciting weekend nights fly out the window when you have a little one). We were both pleasantly surprised - as I mentioned, it has an interesting storyline. While out celebrating her sister's final days as a single woman, Reaser's character goes to a fortune teller, who predicts that she has already met the man she is going to marry but she has to wed within the year or she will be single forever. This sets Reaser's character off on a whirlwind of dates, delving into her past relationships to see if any of her ex boyfriends was in fact the one. The writing is funny, and surpringly risque for a prime time show on CBS. Very cute, worth recording!

Posting Hiatus is Over!

Wow, it finally dawned on me this morning that I haven't posted anything on my blog in over 3 weeks...then again, looking back over the past 3 weeks of my life, one can easily guess why there have been no posts. It's like anything that could wreak havoc on our lives inevitably happened over the past three weeks:

Move back into our house after being ousted for one week due to the windstorm from Hurricane Ike? CHECK.
Excruciatingly terrible stomach virus (afflicting both myself and my husband)? CHECK.
Trip to the emergency room (don't worry, we're okay)? CHECK.
Alexandra boycotting sleep at daycare? CHECK.
Ending a job at one law firm and starting a new job the next day? CHECK.

Sheesh.....all I can say is it can only go up from here!