This one has been singing a lot lately. Humming, dancing around (aka running, but we’re not supposed to run, so it is dancing!) and so on. The best thing so far has been her rendition of ‘gimme a break’ as in, the kit kat song. She sings it for all candy bars, regardless of type. Originally she was getting some of the words right, but not the tune, or she’d ask me to sing it for her. She’s got the tune down now, but not the words, but it’s SO classically her, that I don’t have the heart to correct her, would you?

ahem: Bake me a cake, bake me a cake, bake me a half of that can-DY BAR!

Eyes: It seems like she may get daddy’s sunflower eyes. They are typically either blue, or they are dark blue on the outer rim, greenish on the inside, with a gold burst around the pupil.
Head: She’s lost her hair and is gaining it back, but still has a little bald spot. The hair is a variety of colors. No clue how it will end up. She tries to pull it up when pulling to a seated position.
Face: She is definitely preparing for teeth with major drooling, still some weeping of her left eye. Her eyebrows and eyelashes are dark now. Cheeks are still chubby!
Neck: Love the chub!
Arms/trunk: Her arms are really useful things! They can pick up toys, shake things around, put around your neck, just awesome! She does a lot of chewing of her hands/thumb sucking.
Lower body/legs: Holds some of her weight when you pull her to a stand.

Height: will update
Weight: will update
Head Circ: will update

Sleep: Sometimes sleeps all night, sometimes wakes once  to eat. Goes back to sleep easily, but then is awake most of the morning. Sometimes takes a short morning nap, usually a long afternoon nap.

Demeanor: Grunts, squeals and in general fusses to get attention, and then smiles hugely when you look at her. Very happy baby. Very tolerant of most people but a few people she tends to just not enjoy very much and cries for them. Really likes to be held.

Clothing: Growing out of 6-9 month clothes, pants of that size seem to be okay. Tried to put shoes on her, but they wouldn’t even go on.

Diapers: She’s in a couple of the sized small diapers, but has moved up to one size or the ‘two’ on the two size diapers, using one or both inserts.

Nursing: Has been ‘growth spurt’ feeding for a whole month (every 1.5 hours unless asleep).

Likes: Milk and a dry butt, being held, swayed or rocked, being sang to, Keeley’s giggles and talking to her, and daddy’s arms. Also likes: toys that crinkle or rattle, anything with texture she can get her fingers onto (floors, playmat, crib sheet, etc).
Dislikes: A wet or dirty butt and an empty belly.
Cute things: She’s recently discovered her toes and eating them seems to be fun! She also learned to roll over a few weeks ago, and did so in both directions in the same day. Now she doesn’t seem to care to do it. She does, however, manage to turn herself in circles on a fairly regular basis.
NSC things: Squealing, crying when you put her down for a nap and she doesn’t want to go, holding her poop a couple of days (eww).

Observation: A celebrity died. CNN emailed me. I read it, told my husband, since he was sitting there, said a brief prayer for her family and that was it. I didn’t go snooping any further. I tried really hard not to argue the point that people were making on facebook that ‘no one cares’ when a soldier dies. We all know that’s bs. LOTS of people care. Their deaths will affect us for generations, as will the lives of those men and women coming back who have ‘seen it’. We will ALL remember that. By now, though, the celebra-death craze has settled back down. Is it healthy either way to care too much or basically not at all?

It’s not all about this person in particular, but about ‘stuff’ in general. Celebrity news doesn’t hype me up. I feel sorry for the girls that seem to always go through panty (or not) flashing moments, drug abuse, or pure stupidity, but there’s nothing I can do about it. I’m not their friends or family, I don’t know them and don’t care to. I’m sure that all of these people are very wonderful human beings past all the glitz and glamor, but as for me: meh.

I feel some things in my personal life very strongly, for example we were rear-ended about 6 years ago, no one was hurt, but I still panic in slightly heavy traffic with a lot of stop and go. I had actually almost gotten over it (yes SIX YEARS)–actually it may be more than that.. I digress..when the truck rollover happened. Other than grieving for my truck (oh yes, for about 2 minutes), I haven’t felt a thing about THAT accident. In  my mind before I go to sleep, images flash of what COULD have happened. I YELL at myself in my head to shut up and it goes away. Seriously. I still haven’t really driven yet. Driving for me in and of itself is a huge challenge. My brain does NOT process visual information fast enough for my taste. My hand-eye coordination sucks. I can’t drive a stick shift because my brain will not ‘do’ that many things at once. I drive mostly at off-peak hours so I’m not in ‘people’s way’. Also, there are fewer people out to get me. Now along with the rear-ending fear I’m scared our new truck will roll over, too. It makes for a horrible passenger, and probably an even worse driver. That I DO care about, because it keeps me from doing things for my girls. It also probably puts them in more danger because everyone is more likely to do something stupid if they are afraid. That bothers me, a lot.

My heart

Transparent

Happy

and

.... NOT!

One of my friends got this sweater for Keeley. When her 2nd daughter was born, I sent it back to her, and she sent it back to me when my 2nd daughter was born. Our friend just had her first girl, and it will go to her.  It’s a sisterhood.

Reflection

How'd she do a 180? We don't know

Mine!

Cutting teeth on a pepsi bottle

Nothing like a 'good book'

Sitting pretty

 Images of B-Mo, approximate 5.5 months old.

I swear, there is a point to this, something that requires actual thought, and here it is. I’m now certain that cloth diapering, and natural parenting has made me a more relaxed, but thoughtful and accepting person. I don’t think that I would have even given a thought to someone else’s child being a vegetarian, I would have just taken whatever and not worried about it. I probably would have thought it was odd, as well that the child was not eating meat and called it a fad and rolled my eyes. However, she is 14 and seems to be committed to it, and not just throwing a fit about something because she can (which would have been my initial reaction a few years ago).

Branching outside my small circle of friends, making new ones in a new place, with different experiences, and hearing about how similar (but different)  my online friends are, is really an eye opening, and thought provoking process for me. I’m less judgmental, and a better person for it.

Well my 2nd date with my husband was more interesting than the first, but here goes anyway: We went to a movie. It was a ‘scary’ movie. Not my favorite. If I watched it now, it probably wouldn’t be scary, but I was a scardey cat. I kept grabbing onto Matt’s leg. He took me home. That’s pretty much it. I guess we made enough of an impression on each other (that and the several months of casual chatting online from across the country) to have another movie the next day. Four months later we were engaged