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!

Happy Wedding Anniversary

Today marks our third wedding anniversary . . . I can hardly believe it has been three years, it has flown by!! It will definitely be a memorable anniversary since we have been ousted from our home due to the wind storm Hurricane Ike dumped on us this past weekend, but we will make the best of it! In commemoration of our anniversary, I posted some of my favorite pictures from our wedding day below. Ryan and I got married at a beautiful historic church in Lexington and had our reception at Talon Winery & Vineyards. We still laugh and reminisce about our wedding and I am sure we will continue to do so over the coming years. . .

Weathering the Storm

This past Sunday, the remnants of Hurricane Ike passed through Louisville, leaving quite a wake of destruction in its path (though not nearly as terrible as that left down in Texas). By the time the storm reached Kentucky, it had weakened to a wind storm, with the wind gusts reaching up to 75 mph. While we were at the house Sunday afternoon, we heard a “snap, crackle and pop”, and looked out our back windows only to see several cords/power lines draped across the roof of our garage, running through our yard, and draped over our fence. A large beech tree in the home of our neighbors split and hit a utility pole, thereby splitting the utility pole in half and knocking down power for our entire block (actually, none of our neighborhood has power). The tree landed on two vehicles belonging to our neighbors, crushing them in the process. LG&E has been out momentarily to inspect the line, and I believe the service man said it could take a week or more to fix it (the most recent press releases are now saying it could take up to 2 weeks to get all LG&E customers back with electrical service as this is the biggest power outage in the city’s history).

So….here we are almost 72 hours later with no electrical service and no date of when we can expect to have it back. As you can imagine, this is definitely an inconvenience, especially when you have a 4-month old and a dog!! We got Pearl into the kennel on Monday and I’m sure she is having a blast playing with the other dogs. As for Ryan, the baby and I, we are temporarily staying with some good friends that live close by. All things considered, we are doing pretty good – we’re definitely lucky to have had no property damage, just having to endure the inconvenience of being out of our house and lugging quite a few of our belongings (and a baby’s things, which you can imagine is quite a lot) out of the house!

A Mummy's Love

While sorting through Alexandra's infinite supply of clothes, I came across the cute Halloween costume I bought for her last year, soon after finding out I was pregnant. I had forgotten about it, but it made me SO excited for Halloween this year - not like she can eat candy or make out the words "Trick or Treat," unless "ah goo" counts! Ryan's mom and step-dad are in town today and she picked up the cutest onesie for Alexandra from Old Navy (it's hard to make it out in this picture, but it says "My Mummy Loves Me") - I can't wait to put her in it. Bring on the fall season!!

Happy (Belated) 4 Month Birthday!!

My beautiful girl turned 4 months old last Thursday, September 4. To celebrate, we headed off to the pediatrician where we learned that Alexandra weighed 13 lbs, 8 oz (50th percentile), is 24" long (50th percentile again), and her head circumference (which I cannot recall the exact measurement) is in the 78th percentile!! My girl is so intelligent, she needs a slightly bigger head to hold all those brains!


She's such a joy and we just love her more and more - if that is possible - with each day. We never know what a new morning will bring, and what neat thing she will do. She smiles, laughs, gurgles - and in the past week or so, has learned to distinguish her thumb from her other fingers and very sweetly sucks on her thumbs. Yes, that's right, thumbs - maybe she will be ambidextrous. Her daycare teacher seems to have a problem with the thumb sucking, but I don't care - I figure if it makes her happy and soothes her, then I would be a fool to stop her.


We love you sweet girl and are so proud of you and cannot wait to see all the neat things you'll do in the coming months.

Redemption??

I haven't watched MTV in years, so I didn't see the Video Music Awards hosted by the network this past weekend, but I did see the big news of the evening on Monday morning's broadcast of the Today show. After last year's horrifying debacle, is it possible that Britney Spears - gasp - has redeemed herself?? She actually looked somewhat normal - not dazed, drunk and speaking in a fake British accent, not flashing her obvious lack of underwear to the paparazzi while exiting a vehicle, but actually normal. I hope she continues on this trend - good for her!

A Hair-Raising (or Should I Say, Hair-Minimizing) Experience

I cannot believe I actually did it...as you will recall from my prior rantings, I have been wanting to cut my hair short for several months. Even before Alexandra was born, I decided I wanted to chop off my long hair for a new style that I thought would be easier to style in the mornings. Since she was born, my resolve to cut my hair has only strengthened, after countless mornings cleaning spit up out of my long hair and working strands of hair free from the tight grasp of Alexandra's little fingers.

My appointment was last night and I am very pleased with the results...I don't think it has quite sunk in yet, probably will when I next wash it. I love it though! I really think my hair stylist, Shauna, nailed the edgier bob I was going for. As best as I can tell, I think she cut off about 8-9 inches of hair!!

Here's some "self-portraits" I took last night with my BlackBerry of the finished look....please excuse the horrible quality and the high shine on my face....in my defense it was the end of the day and my makeup had slowly slid off my face throughout the afternoon due to the 90 plus degree weather here in Kentucky.

A Special Anniversary

Yesterday, I rejoiced in an anniversary that is very special to me (and I'm posting about it one day late, oh well) - one year ago yesterday, I learned I was going to be a mommy. Even as I sit here today, all of those thoughts and feelings I had that night as I looked at the faint blue plus sign on the EPT stick come rushing back. Really, what a difference a year makes. Almost everything that occurred before August 27, 2007 seems dull and meaningless compared to the events of the past year, more specifically, the past 16 weeks (well, not everything - obviously our wedding and a few other events are major standouts!). I'd always heard it before, but becoming a mother is THE toughest but most rewarding experience a woman can ever have. As I sat in the comfy pink glider in Alexandra's room last night, rocking back and forth with a sleeping little angel in my arms and the late afternoon/early evening sunlight trickling in between the window blinds, it hit me that this is what life is really all about. There have been moments that have greatly tested me over the past several weeks, like Alexandra's colic and her lack of sleep, but I would go through those moments for hours on end just to witness one of her infectious smiles. Over the past couple of weeks, Alexandra's favorite thing to do has been to take a break from nursing to throw her head back, study my face with those big blue eyes, and then give me an adoring dopey grin that tells me she recognizes me as her mom - every time my heart melts.

Finally....A Series of the "Bachelor" I am Interested In

I used to be a big fan of the Bachelor series - I didn't watch the first season, but watched the show religiously for the next several guys. Andrew Firestone was my favorite, I think. However, the past few guys they have had were major duds....that's why I'm so excited to see that Jason from the last run of the Bachelorette is the new Bachelor!! I rooted for him from the very first episode, and could not believe it when Deanna chose Jesse over Jason - oh well, her loss, some other lucky girl's gain. Can't wait to see this latest installment of The Bachelor!

Harvard Bound Baby

Couldn't forget to post a picture of Alexandra in her Harvard onesie that her Aunt Rachel brought down last weekend (Rachel is in the second year of her residency at Harvard)....the joke is that she is not a fan of Harvard since she keeps spitting up on it. Just as well, I don't think we could afford the tuition!!

Also, had to post a picture of the infamous socks I've posted about previously.....

Aunt Rachel Comes For a Visit

So....I am afraid I spoke way too soon about the sleeping through the night. We seem to have taken about 5 giant steps back from the progress we made over the past 2 weeks. Then again, her sleep always seems to be kind of poor just after a weekend, so maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel (I'm yawning from lack of sleep as I type this).

On to a more uplifting note...my sister Rachel came from Boston this weekend for a visit with her little "punkin", her nickname for Alexandra. We gave her the true experience...she fed Alexandra, gave her a bath, put on her jammies....I think she did everything but change a poopy diaper! We had a really good time, and you can tell from the expression on A's face that she wishes her Aunt Rachel came to visit more often!!

Knock My Socks Off

As you are well aware by now, I am a WEE bit obsessed with outfitting my little baby girl in too cute clothing. I can walk out the door looking like a tired mess (and usually do, by the way), but as long as Alexandra has a cute outfit on for pre-school with matching bib, I am content. Please do not interpret this to mean I stick Alexandra in crinoline-puffed dresses with gigantic bows on her head (lest anyone think she is a little boy, instead). Most days, Alexandra is in a onesie, albeit a cute onesie - any new Mom will tell you that it is not worth struggling to get anything fancier than a onesie over a baby's little tender head!

With that being said, Alexandra outgrew a lot of teeny, tiny newborn socks that were gifted to us prior to her birth, as I really didn't see a need to stick socks on my daughter during the middle of July. However, now that it has cooled off a little bit (at least in the mornings, the afternoons are still humid as hell), I noticed that A's little feet tend to get cool. Add to that the fact that her daycare "teacher" made several indirect hints that Alexandra's feet seem to be cool during the day, I knew I needed to break out THE socks.

We received two different sets of Trumpette socks at baby showers and I have to say they are just about the cutest baby accessories I have ever seen. Really, these set the cuteness factor at a whole new level. From a practical standpoint, they are made a little bit bigger than most baby socks and can be worn (according to the box) up to 12 months of age. Plus - and this is the big selling point - they actually stay on her feet despite all of the kicking she loves to do!

We already have the bright Mary Jane socks and the Pixie socks (in the first two pictures below), but one day I'd love to add to her collection the ballerina socks and, in honor of her Daddy's favorite hobby, the golf socks. Check these out and tell me they are not eat-you-with-a-spoon adorable???