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.