HIGH FIVE!!!!!

Yep! I am FIVE MONTHS OLD. A lot has happened in the past month, let me tell you!

First, let me tell you what has not happened. I cannot sit up. Nope. Can't do it. Head is just WAY too big. I always fall forward - head first. BAM. Right on my nose. So, I'm trying to work on it, really. Tummy time too is a struggle. I can lift my head for about maybe a minute and then I just get too tired. And that turning over thing. WAYYYYY too complicated when you can't lift your head. I gots plenty of time to do that stuff, folks.

Here's what I CAN do! I can put stuff in my mouth. Just about, like, everything. I've figured out how to make these two hand things work together. I can bring it up to my mouth and then chew, chew, chew!

Sometimes I get bored chewing the same old things. It frustrates me that I get the same stuff handed to me all the time. So frustrated that I scream in dissatisfaction. So, sometimes Mommy likes to mix it up. The other day she gave me this. It was a very satisfactory chew.

I also learned that I have these two things called legs attached to me. And do you know what? On the ends of those two legs are FEET. On those feet thingies are TOES. Very much fun to grab. Here's me showin' off me piddies......

Family life is good. All Daddy has to do is walk into the room and I crack up. That man is just craaaazy funny. He's also showing me how to play these things called video games. Here we are saving the world from darkspawn or something. Here we are deep in battle......

Big Sisty is A-OK. Sometimes she likes to include me in her games, here she is giving me "The CLAW".

This month we got this big green thing called a tree in our living room. We had to go out in the freezing cold to go and get it. I ended up with a poopy diaper and then I decided I was hungry. Needless to say, I didn't have much say as to which tree was picked since I was so busy.

We also had Christmas this month. I liked it. I got lots of new stuff to chew on.

Much to Mommy's displeasure, the only place that I actually sleep for any period of time is either on her lap or here on the couch.....

Here's some other stuff I worked on this month:

happy dolphin-boy screaming

babbling

growing hair on my head - got some nice peach fuzz going on

moving up to a size 2 diaper

actually liking my new swing

and Mommy's favorite......

NO MORE GOOPY EYE! Now my cuteness is in full effect.

What? Okay, so, yeah. It's not the best picture. Katie's been working on her photography. She needed a test subject. It's not like I can run away from her or anything.....

'Till next time....

Mikey out.

Xmas 2009

Christmas was good this year.

It only took HALF the day to open all the gifts.

For the first time EVER, I received kitchen stuff as gifts.

Yeah, I know. ME. I got kitchen stuff.

Just call me Chef Extraordinaire.

I got some nice stainless canisters to put flour, sugar, rice in (a lot better

than the cheap Tupperware I had it in before),

a new knife block ('cause we have too many knives to fit in one block)

and a convection/toaster oven (which so totally rocks).

Huzbend picked up some video games, socks, a Kindle and a down comforter.

Katie and Mikey made out too.

Mikey got a bunch of great stuff. Some dolls to suck and love on, as well

as other chew type toys. I think the favorite of the entire household is Sophie

The Giraffe. Everyone loves to hear her happy squeak.

It was girly-central in Katie-ville.

A tea set, various "outfits", princesses galore, her own stage microphone and a doll house.

This was all topped off with some trains, books and MarioKart.

Katie is obsessed with all things Mario.

We were treated to a fashion show as the day progressed.......

Outfit #1: The Holiday Dress

Outfit #2: Princess Ballerina

with fairy wing accessory

Outfit #3: Tinkerbell

Outfit # 4: Cinderella

All this fun was topped off with a wonderful meal.

Orange Marmalade glazed ham with a side of

sweet potato/banana crisp and a couple of green beans.

OMG. It was SOOOOO yummy and SOOOO not good for you.

But that is what Christmas is all about right?

Thanks to all for the wonderful gifts!!!!

You can find more pics of the day here.

Enjoy!!

Deja Vu

I feel like I have been here before.......

I NEED FRIGGIN' SLEEP!!!!

Mikey had me convinced that he was gonna be my 'sleeper'. He was sleeping so good up until about a month ago. Before, I could count on him going down for at least 5 hours at night. Now, I'm lucky if he lasts 45 minutes at a time.

I haven't slept in my bed in, damn it all, I can't even remember the last time I slept in a bed. I've been camping out in Mikey's room, crashing on his armchair. It's just the easiest way to avert a full on Mikey-midnight-meltdown.

So, yes, that means that he is waking up every HOUR at night. The only way I can get him to stay quiet longer is to have him sleep on me and the only way to do that is to nurse him to sleep and leave him to sleep on the Boppy which is on my lap.

I don't sleep laying down anymore. I sleep sitting up.

I guess the one good thing is that I don't beat myself up about it this time around. When Katie was going through this, I kept thinking I was doing something wrong. I also hesitated to pick her up to get her to sleep. Now, I just don't care. Whatever gets me as much sleep as possible is what's good for me. Screw the parenting books.

Sigh.

I turned 36 last Thursday. I think that I just might be too old for this crap. It's wearing me down, man. I looked in the mirror the other day and thought to myself - "Who is this old looking mommy-type person?"

You know what I am NOT too old for though? Cupcakes. Huzbend got up early on my bday and whipped up a batch of ginger carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. What a nice guy. Oh, and I'm not to old for chocolate covered fruit either.

I AM too old to eat all of it myself though.

Excitement about christmas is overflowing here. Katie just can't stop telling me about all the stuff that she is going to get.

She'll pick some random thing up in a store and tell me that she will "probably get it for christmas". It happened today with a glow-in-the-dark changing-light jelly ring. She finds the weirdest things in stores.

Other than not sleeping, Mikey is busy mouthing everything. He's getting good at grasping things and bringing them up to his mouth. We have discovered that he is the most ticklish baby, like ever. It's hilarious. He also laughs hysterically at Huzbend and his antics. He is such a happy little dude. Happy is good.

Here's a snippet of a Katie conversation from this morning:

Katie: Mom, have you seen my Kirby pants? (from her halloween costume which she has been wearing for three days straight)

Me: Yeah. They're dirty from yesterday. Daddy put them in the wash, but I don't think he put them in the dryer.

Katie: (sigh) COME ON, MOM! YOU'RE SUPPOSE TA DO THAT!

Me: ..............

A Guaranteed Result

One football field.

Add four three year olds.  

Preferably two boys and two girls.

Put one child in each corner of the field.

Add fencing to the boundaries of the field so there is no escape.

Upon blowing of an air horn tell kids to RUN!  Where ever they want, as fast as they want.

It is almost guaranteed that two of these kids will crash full speed in to each other.

The second guarantee is that one of them will be my daughter.

A Gem

Naps have aligned again so that I may bring you this doozy of a conversation.

A tangent taken at preschool snack today.  We were talking about animals:

Girl:  When I get scared, I hold Jesus' hand.

Katie:  She holds her Daddy's hand?

Me:  No, she holds Jesus' hand.

Katie:  Who's Jesus?

Girl:  Jesus is in your heart.

Me:  Well, um, Jesus is this nice guy that cares a lot about people and likes to help.

Girl:  Not like the Pharaoh.  He was a bad guy.

Katie:  Who's the Pharaoh?

Me:  The Pharaoh?  What did he do?

Girl:  He took all the animals and made them dead.  He's really mean.

Katie:  OH!  Just like the robots in Daddy's game!

Long Overdue Update

Damn.  It's hard getting a blog post done.  I'm just lucky that Katie is extra tired and decided to take a nap and that she didn't wake up Mikey before getting there.

So, here's a long overdue update on what is going on over here on the Left Coast.

Thanksgiving was a while back.  

I managed to get the smallest Organic Free-Range Hippy Bird I could find - 9 lbs.   Huzbend brined and cooked it and of course, just like every other meal that he makes, it was delicious.  Here is the proud Chef.

Here's the family enjoying dinner.  As you can see, clothes are optional at our Thanksgiving dinner.

Katie and I were responsible for preparing the 'sweet' parts of our dinner - 'Candy Yams' and Pumpkin Pie.  I must say that we did an excellent job on both.  Katie LOVED the 'Candy Yams' - she practically ate the whole of it herself.  Most of it as leftovers - COLD.  Mmmmmm.  The way it SHOULD be.  Sigh.  She is my daughter after all.

Let's see, what else?  Oh.  Our truck got broken into.....TWICE.  Yeah.  The first time was in the parking lot of a restaurant.  Smashed my passenger window and got my IPOD.  The second time was in our garage.  I accidentally left the garage door open and they snuck in, opened the truck door and took our cell phone charger, an extra garage door opener, some change and, damn it all, my ZUNE. Bastards.  What suckage.

After seeing Disney on Ice, Katie has been pretending to skate around the house.  So, we decided to take her ice skating for real.  At first, she was really scared.  She didn't even make it a minute out on the ice with me.  She sat down and I hesitantly made my way around the ice.  After that, she wanted to try again.  Here we are trying really hard not to fall down.

We hit our annual city tree lighting once again.  This time we actually made it in to see Santa! Katie changed her request to a blue Cinderella dress.  No more pink car, I guess.  Oh well.  The princess brain assimilation is now complete.  We are Princess.

Here's my kiddies paying a visit to the big guy......  

Mikey had his four month well-baby check up.  He's doing pretty good.  Still got goopy eyes.  Doc says that it isn't pink eye, just blocked tear ducts.  I wish they would open up already.  He always has big, crusty yellow and green eye boogies.  It's just gross.  

Here's his stats:

13 pounds 13 ounces - 25th percentile

24.7 inches tall - 40th percentile

17.5 inches around his head - 90 + percentile.  Yeah, PLUS.  Hmph. 

Katie took a field trip to a grocery store with preschool.  She had a great time and talked about it non-stop for an entire day.  The highlight for her was that she got to touch a crab and hold a clam.  She also got a special Katie-safe cookie at the end of the tour.  The problem was that the cookie I brought her was three times as big as the cookies the other kids got.  Oooops.

I'll end with this.  

Introducing Cinderella and Prince Charming.

I just had to get a picture of that.  Poor Mikey.  I feel bad for the guy.  Just wait until you get older, dude.  I had a sister just like her.  She's gonna be the Mom and you are gonna be the Baby.  She's gonna be the Teacher and you are going to be her student.  And, it's just a matter of time, but I just know she's gonna have you dress up in a gown and attend her tea parties!

Conversation at Lunch

KATIE:  Mommy, I want a graham cracker.

ME:  Okay.  How many apple pieces do you have on your plate?  Count with me.  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.  I'd like you to eat at least three apple pieces before I get you a graham cracker.

KATIE:  Okay.  I can do that.

KATIE (while eating her third piece of apple):  Graham cracker, here I come!!!!

ME (laughing):  Sometimes you crack me up, kid.

KATIE:  Sometimes YOU crack me up, grown up.

Foooouuuuuurrrrrrrrrr!

I've been around just about four months now.  Four flippin' months.  Man.  Feels like forever.

You wanna see the most garsh darn "aw, how cute" picture there is?  Check it..... 

Is there something wrong when you KNOW how cute you are?  I mean, everyone tells me, like, ALL the time.  Something about some Gerber baby.  My Mommy says that I am WAY cuter than the Gerber baby.  My Daddy says that I can kick his baby food eatin' butt.

But, enough about me.  Let's talk shop.  What did I do this past month?

LOTS, dudes.  LOTS.  I took my first plane ride, I visited the East coast, I attended a fine theatrical performance of Snow White, and I laid my fine blue eyes on Disney On Ice.

I hear there is another holiday this month.  Something about eating and turkey and stuff.  I'm gonna get me some of that turkey milk, man.  You know it!

I met my Cuzzin' Matty on my trip.  He's hard to track down that guy.  Always crawlin' all over.  Seems like a cool dude.  Just wait, man.  I'll be crawlin' in about four more months or so and then we can hang.  Huh?  You'll be walking by then?!  Damn.

I met my other Cuzzin' Joey too.  But, he was too busy with Big Sisty to hang with me.  He plays a mean drum though.  Man, you gotta hear it to believe it.

In other news, I've been working on holding up my gigantic head.  It's really heavy.  You know what they say about guys with big heads......

.....They have really big brains.  What?  What were YOU thinkin'?

I'm pretty much doing all the stuff I was doing last month, but I'm better at it.

Smiling - check!

Laughing - check!

Pooping - check!

Eating - check!

Sleeping in my crib - um, well sometimes.  I figured out if I cry at night Mommy will pick me up and I can sleep on her all night.  Tee-hee.

Babbling - check! (Hey, I prefer to call it talking)

Sucking - check!

I've gotten much better at working this two hand thingies.  They grab stuff, you know?  It's pretty awesome.  You hand something to me and now I can put it up to my mouth and suck on it.  I also love to suck on my thumb.....whenever I can find it.  Darn thumb seems to move around a lot.

Speaking of sucking, Mommy gave me a First Thanksgiving rattle today in honor of the impending holiday.  I mouthed it so bad that the turkeys head just about came off.

I am too powerful.

Enjoy your turkey milk!  I know I will!

Later,

Mikey

The Ice Princess

We went to see Disney on Ice two weekends ago. 

 

Katie sorta had a good time.  She freaked out when Ursula the Sea Witch came on the ice and said that she wanted to go home.  She also didn't like The Lion King part.  

So, we left the arena and took a break by eating a red dyed Sno-Cone.  After that, we were able to make it back in to watch Tinkerbell skate.

She did question us as to what happened to Ariel's tail and why Flounder now had legs....

Then last week we went to see a play.  Same deal there.  As soon as the play started, she wanted to go home.  So, we went on up to the back into the "cry" room and watched from there.

Then we went to see Santa.

Tears - no.

Want to go home - no.

Clinginess - none.

She danced for him, told him all about her holiday outfit, sat on his lap, smiled for pictures and then had a big discussion about what she wanted for xmas.

She told him she wanted a pink car with pink wheels and that Mikey probably wanted a shirt.

I just can't figure that girl out.

She's started addressing Mikey like Homer Simpson greets Bart, "Hello, boy."  It's hilarious.

Poor Mikey.  He's either The Boy when Katie is being Katie or Baby Crab when she is pretending that she is Ariel.

She has also come up with a creative use for her Flower Girl basket.  We now call it the "Snack Basket."

Dueling Naps

I haven't posted much lately because the nap schedule is all over the place.

Nap was prime Blog time.  

Well, really, it was prime Me Doing Whatever I Want To Do Time.

Whether it was watching some TV or scrubbing toilets, it was my time.

Somedays it's no nap for Katie.  Other days, she wants to take a nap.

On the days that she wants to take a nap as soon as she lays down Little Mikey decides he wants to scream.

The only way to get him to stop screaming is to nurse him.

Then he falls asleep on me essentially pinning me to the couch.

Sigh.

All this means less blog posts, no workout time and definitely no World of Warcraft playing.

I feel my nerdness slowly drifting away......

Oh wait.....

Phew.

It's still there.

The Wedding That Made Me Feel Old

My youngest sister got married this past weekend.  

Boy, there is nothing to make you feel old than watching your littlest sister saying, "I do." AND realizing that YOU have been married for, like, ever AND you have two kids AND you had to dye your hair to hide your grey.

Sigh.

The wedding was fantastic.  What a party!  Damn.  Everyone ate, drank, danced and had an awesome time.

Not to take anything away from the bride and groom, but Katie and Cuzzin' Joey stole the show at times.  They were dancing machines and their walk down the aisle during the ceremony was priceless ("No, Joey!  Keep on walking!  Don't stop!").

I had a slight disaster with my hair though.  I wanted it cut a bit different.  The hairdresser did a good job and it did, at one point, look really cute.  Then she started to blow dry and kept blow drying and then KEPT blow drying until I had a helmet for hair.  I mean this is what I looked like.....

No, really.  I did.  It was ridiculous.  She made me look even more like a MOM than I already did, if that was possible.  After a quick wash out at my sisters condo, it looked kinda okay.

We also had a visit with Cuzzin' Matty, his Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Chris, Uncle Marty and Cuzzin' Gina.  We had the most awesome ham and fruit salad ever and Katie discovered that she loved squash.  She ate five bowls of it.

There was a lot that went on this past weekend.  All the pics are over on Flickr.  Feel free to check them out.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Sleepy time.  

The 3 hour time difference hit Katie pretty hard.

But not hard enough to keep her outta the

hotel pool.

Wheeeeeeeeeee!

Grandpa had Mikey in hysterics for about 10 minutes.

Kari and Andrew (can I call him Andy?) were

very relaxed about the wedding protocol.

Mikey was having a hard time, so they let

me wear him into the reception for my introduction.

He stayed there for the rest of the night.

Here is the happy couple cutting their totally

yummy cake.

The prettiest girls of the evening.

Grandma & Grandpa party down with the grandkids.

This is a great shot of Kari being Kari.

All three!  Looking in the same direction (sort of)!

I am awesome.

Three outta four smiling ain't bad.

And a little side note, Katie is wearing her flower girl dress as I am typing this entry.

Happy Halloween!

About two months ago, Katie fell in love with a video game character named Kirby.  I think this was mostly because he was pink.  Pink is her favorite color.

She decided that she wanted to be him for Halloween.  After some creative thinking, I managed to come up with a pretty good Kirby costume.  I used a preexisting costume and glued a felt face onto it.  I must say I was damn proud of my creation. Oh, I AM GOOD!  Oh, yes, I am.

As you'll see, the rest of us decided to stick with the video game theme.

We visited a preschool Halloween carnival last week.  Katie had fun playing little carnival games for cute Halloween treats.  She even got to ride a pony!  In her costume!  With Daddy!  

On Halloween, after spending the most of the day standing in line for the H1N1 FluMist, baking pumpkin bars and carving pumpkins, we visited the trick-or-treating event downtown.  

When we got home from that, Katie and Daddy patrolled the neighborhood for even MORE trick-or-treating.

Because of Katie's allergies she is really only allowed to have a very select group of candy. Unlucky for us that group includes all the things that rot your teeth the most.  Sigh.  

Katie was able to trade in the candy that she couldn't eat for a nice gift.  We threw out all the uneatable candy.  We did.  I swear.  Even the Butterfingers. Mmmm, Buuttterrrfinngerrss.  

I'd say she made out pretty good.  Oh, the sugar was flowin' through those veins...

Take a peak......

THREE! Months, that is.

Hey.  Whazzup?  

It's me, Mikey.  

You didn't forget about me did you?

Nahhhh.  Didn't think so, man.  I'm unforgeddable.

I'm doin' good, real good.

Did a lot this past month.  Just a lot of stuff.  I'm a busy little dude.

Did I tell ya that I moved into my own room?  Yeah.  My VERY own room.  I also got my VERY own crib, and my VERY own changing table, and.....huh?  What's that?  What's a hand-me-down?  I don't think I like the sound of that....

Anyways, my room rocks.  You should come visit sometime and I'll show ya around.  It's got jungle animals in it.  

It's got a big green comfi chair too.  Mommy sits in it to nurse me at night.  Don't tell her I told you this, but she sleeps there a lot too.  Yeah.  She gets tired, that Mommy of mine.  Usually she passes out on it while waiting for me to settle down at night.

Speaking of settling down, I don't do it very well.  I usually need a little help.  In order for me to hit that nice, deep sleep I need to nurse.  I also need it to be silent.  No noise what so ever. I usually have to wait for my Big Sisty to go to sleep before I can get some shut eye.  She is a noisy one, she is.  

Once I get to sleep, I usually wake up about two hours later looking for something to suck on, much to Mommy's dismay.  I am addicted to sucking.  Binky, blanket, fingers, other peoples fingers - it's all fair game.

What else is going on?  Oh, I am very interested in other people.  I love to stare at them and make them squirm.  I look them right in the eye and they just can't look away.  Also, any type of movement or noise peaks my interest.  I like to consider myself very alert.

I like to hang with my Daddy.  He is very entertaining, he is.  He sings me songs and helps me to dance.  He's awesome.  I totally look up to him. 

 

The problem is that he's usually busy with my Big Sisty.  She's always having him throw her in the air, or dance with her, or play Mario for her.  I get my turn every now and again.  But, usually, when I do, Katie asks him politely, "Daddy, can you please give Mikey to Mommy so that you can play with me?"  I mean, how do you say no to that.  I gotta remember that whole polite thing for later.....

Hey, did you know that I have giant bugs in my house?  Yeah.  They frustrate me, so I punch them.  I punch them hard.  So hard that they jingle.

But, my most important accomplishment this month can be seen below:

I smile.  A lot.  No.  I mean A LOT.  Anytime someone talks to me or looks at me, I smile.  You play peek-a-boo with me, I smile.  You put my clothes on, I smile.  You change my super-smelly poopy diaper, I smile.

I also do another thing quite often as well.  This, my readers, is the key to my charm.  The ladies cannot resist....

And there you have it.  That's me at three months.

Hope you enjoyed looking at it as much as I did living it.

Out. 

The Trouble with Toys

I want to find a toy to give to Katie as a trade. 

The deal is that she trades in all the Halloween candy that she can't eat (which should be about 95% of it) and I give her a toy.

I went to the Disney store today to look for something princess-y to give to her.

Of course, there were dresses and clothes and nightgowns.  But, they aren't much fun.

I found toys that let you do a princesses hair, let you dress her in multiple princess-y dresses, playsets that let you retell various movie scenes, stuffed princesses, baby-fied princesses, etc.

Ugh.  How imaginative can you get with that crap?

I then looked at some princess figures.  If I got princess figures she could take them and put them into various make believe scenarios all of her choosing.  That would be perfect.  

Well, the problem with that was that there's a figure of Jasmine in the set.  Katie has already designated one of her other "guys" at home as Jasmine.  So, getting the REAL Jasmine would make that "made-up" Jasmine obsolete.

WTF.  Sometimes, I think that I think to much.

Hahahahahaha.  That last statement was funny.

I hate princesses.

The Pumpkin Patch: A Journey In Pictures

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

My first trip to the pumpkin patch!

I'm SO excited!

Let's go!  Let's go!

WHOOOO-HOOOOO!

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..............

Mommy, is the punkin patch left or right?

Why are there orange lights on the pole, Mommy?

Why are there punkins on the pole, Mommy?

What are the signs doing on the pole, Mommy?

When do we pick our punkin, Mommy?

First we go to the hay maze, then pet animules, then ride the

tractor, then pick a punkin and then get a special treat?

I wonder what the special treat is?

When do I get the special treat, Mommy?

Is that corn, Mommy?

Mommy?

I think ghosts like da hay maze.  It's dark.

Ghosts like the dark.  Maybe even skeletons too.

Let's go this way!

Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!

I went super-fast down the swide.

Teacher Judy caught me.

Is this the tractor we ride to the punkin patch, Mommy?

Why is it not moving, Mommy?

Mommy an' me an' Mikey went on da hay ride to

pick a punkin.

'Dis is my punkin.

Uggghhh.

It's heavy, Mommy.

MY SPECIAL TREAT!!!!

Halloween is only two weeks away?!?!?

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!