Laughing at Kima

Evidently Kima is hilarious.

Sleep Talking

Here are some pictures we took this afternoon at the dog park with Kima. She thought that Kima running around was extremely funny and kept laughing when she saw her. I would turn her around so that she couldn't see Kima, but as soon as I turned her back she would burst out laughing. It was pretty cute. I will post a video I took in a little while. Here are some pictures.This morning was my sister's District swim meet. This is the one she has to do well in to be in Regionals in two weekends in Houston. Marley hung out with her Papa most of the time and took a little nap with him. The rest of the time, she has tons of people trying to get her to smile, holding her, and telling me cute she was. I think every single person I knew there said something. Even the one's who had met her before. I got catch up a little with Amy, my friend from high school (Hi, Amy!) and I really hope she calls me next time she comes to town (hint hint!).

I told my mom about last night and she said that Marley could have had a night terror. I am going to look up some info about that. If that is the case, I feel really sorry for her.

Something funny happened today. I left the swim meet and came home to feed Marley. I planned on going to lunch with my mom, so before she fell asleep I put her in the car. By the time I got in the car she was talking away to herself. Then she literally did not stop talking the whole way to Cotton Patch. When I got to the restaurant, I pulled up her sun shade and found her fast asleep still talking! Who knew that babies could talk themselves to sleep and then talk while they are sleeping?! That's crazy!

Sitting Up!

By the way, "falled" has become part of my babytalk for some reason... I am aware that "fell" is the right way... I think it came from The Land Before Time when Petrie is like "I flew?" and then Ducky says, "No, you falled."

Poor Petrie.

Mommy's Little Helper

On Thursday, I finally had Asa bring the bumbo up to work. I have been meaning to for months, because we barely use it at home. So, he did and Marley loved being up on my desk where she could see everything I was doing. I did have to move everything from right around her, like the pen jar... but it worked out great after that! She sat there looking cute for all the residents to oo and goo over and I got to work on the monthly newsletter!

WTH?

I went to be tonight at 1030. At midnight, Marley woke up screaming bloody murder, harder than I have ever seen her cry. I still have NO CLUE why, but it just took me 35 minutes to calm her down. I was crying so hard. She has never acted like that before and I couldn't figure out what happened. She didn't want anything I offering her to make her stop.

It is such a terrible feeling when you just don't know what to do. You try everything you can think of and your baby will not calm down. It makes me feel like I am hurting her and my mind is racing trying to think about what I am missing. I'm thinking, what could possibly have happened it three seconds that took her from sleeping happily to screaming at the top of her lungs?

Thank God that she is asleep right now and I can now calm myself down. I am afraid to go back to sleep though in case it happens again.

Boys are Silly

FYI, I let Asa name that last post becuase I was feeding Marley in the other room. So, it's not what I would have picked, but he got really excited to do it... so I'll keep it. This is kind of unrelated, but Asa told me that he watched an episode of Oprah yesterday about menopause. Then he said something completely insane: "It was actually really interesting!" I laughed really hard. The thought of him sitting there nodding about what Oprah was saying about a 50-year-old woman's horomones was hilarious.

In other news, we are going to Houston on Valentine's Day weekend. G-ma Karen and G-pa David are really excited to see us and it will be Marley's first trip to Houston. My sister has a swim meet in The Woodlands on Friday and Saturday, so we will be there to support her too. Hopefully she appreciates it and doesn't make too many comments about me feeding Marley at the meet... Anyway, I am so excited to get out of Nacogdoches and look at some new buildings and eat and some new restaurants! Everybody needs a change at some point.

HEY!!! This Ain't No Lollipop!?

I hope that was a clean duck...

Lip Sucker?

Marley has all the sudden discovered her bottom lip... weird. She slurps it in and sucks on it forever. She looks soooo cute when she does it!

Battle Scars

I have decided that I like my stretch marks. I knew I would probably get them when I got pregnant, so I would put lotion on my stomach twice a day, everyday. Asa even helped me do it, even though he hates lotion on his hands. But they still came. I was upset when they first showed up because they will probably never go away. But, now I think they are beautiful. They are my battle scars. They remind me everyday of the fact that my body is amazing and did such a spectacular thing. I grew a human in there! It feels good to acknowledge them as something positive. Once you change the way you feel about them, it immediately boosts your confidence. So what if that person you don't know and will never see again thinks they are ugly? Do I really care? And the people who will see me again shouldn't care.

However, I do still wish I could lose weight. I read a story yesterday about a woman who had a baby and was 8 pounds below her pre-pregnancy weight by two weeks! Two weeks! If only I could have been so lucky. But, no. I am still carrying around every single bit of it, plus some. Even with breastfeeding exclusively.

So, today is the day. I am not embarassed of the way my body looks, but I would love to have a few more clothing options and be able to wear. I am going to only make healthy choices to put in my mouth and I am going to walk 4 or 5 times a week. There. Now it's set in stone. Everybody heard it.

I know that my stretch marks will never go away, but I don't really want them to. They are kind of comforting to me since I loved being pregnant. I am incredibly proud of my body and everything it has done to give me this beautiful baby girl.

New Pictures

I really don't feel like anything exciting has happened recently. Other than me taking like 1500 pictures of Marley sitting up. You all might think it's pretty boring to look at these pictures, but this is so cool to me! I think it's fascinating that she can do this! And I can tell she is totally proud of herself. She looks around like "This is so awesome!"

Marley hasn't been fighting sleep at all lately. We are back to where she rubs her eyes to tell us she is tired and then she goes right to sleep. I also think she might be getting a tooth soon. I am very glad that we have lasted this long without one because I am scared of her biting my nipples off. However, I think she had one coming. She has been rubbing her ears, drooling gallons, and chewing on everything. How do you know when she's crying because of her teeth instead of crying because she's in a bad mood? I can cure hunger and being cold or tired, but how do I know when to give her something for teething?

I was thinking about it, and I don't even recognize myself when I think about life before Marley. Some people may cringe at the thought of themselves being like that, but I love it. I want her to be my reason for being a better person. I feel like I have a purpose and a mission for life: be the best mother I can be. To me that means giving her all the love I want to, rocking her to sleep as often as I want, breastfeeding, co-sleeping, and wearing her in a wrap. It makes me happy to do this and to make Marley happy.

Not Ready

So, Saturday afternoon I gave Marley a little bit of really watered-down juice in a sippy cup.

BIG MISTAKE

She was pretty much fussy and crying and poopy the rest of the night. I figured since she is almost 6 months old, that she would be fine, but she wasn't. So what does that mean for a couple of weeks from now when we are supposed to start solids? Should I wait?

In other news, Marley is getting so much better at sitting up! She can do it for about a minute now if she really concentrates. Sometimes she will lunge for things in front of her and fall face-first into the carpet. But, it's so cute. She looks like such a big girl! She can play with things and throw them around now instead of them just sitting on her belly. I took a video of her sitting up and playing, but Asa can't figure out how to put the videos on the computer. It sucks.

Nature Girl

The past two days has been wonderful weather-wise. Thursday afternoon, it was 70 degrees and yesterday was 75! Of course, it is getting cold again today, but those random days when it turns pleasant put me in such a good mood! Asa has taken Marley to the park three times in the past two days! So, Thursday after work we took Marley outside to take some pictures. I love pictures so much more when they are taken outside with no flash. I think she flash washer her out and makes the background too dark. So, anytime it is warm now, we take her out for a photo shoot. Here are some cute ones from Thursday. How is it that I never get to be in the pictures? She loves leaves. Her Daddy is so proud...

Marley has been a fantastic little baby lately. On Tuesday night, she went to bed at 6:30 pm! She has never done that! She hasn't gone to sleep like that since, but she is muuuuch easier to put to sleep. I am not letting her nap past 6:30 every evening. So, there is so much less crying at bedtime now. It's amazing. She is still falling over most of the time when I try to sit her up. But, I can tell that her abs and back muscles are getting stronger. I bet in a few weeks she will be able to do it. She also talks all the time. There is never any awkward silences when she's around. She has a lot to tell people these days. We have to actually stop watching our shows because we can't hear them over her! The thrush is going away. I can still see a few spots in Marley's mouth, but I am healed. I am kind of sad because she is getting too long for all the little 6 month sleepers she got for Christmas. She is growing too fast! We are also on her last package of size 2 diapers. We are going to have to move on the size 3! That seems so big!

First Day of School

I absolutely love our new bed! It is comfortable and huge and wonderful. We now have bed parties. We all pile in, play around, and take pictures. I can actually sleep in bed with Marley next to me and not be anywhere near falling off the bed! It's fabulous. So, Marley doesn't even start out in her cradle anymore, she just goes straight to the bed with us.

I had my first day of class today and Marley went to stay at my mom's for the hour I was in class. I think it was the earliest I have ever had to get Marley out of the house: 7:30 am. So, I woke up at 6:30, took a shower and got dressed. Then I woke Asa and Marley up and had him get her ready. She hates her medicines in the morning. First, she has to take the nasty vitamin that smells like death because of all the Iron in it. Then, she has to take the thrush* (more on that later) medicine and she gags through the whole thing. I have no idea how much medicine actually gets down her throat, but I doubt it's very much. Anyway, so I am rushing around running late and trying to figure out where the heck my class is going to be. So, I walk outside to the parking lot and my car is nowhere to be found. I panicked. Asa has a terrible habit of leaving the keys in the car, so I was having a terrible vision of my car being gone forever. I called Asa and he was like "I am soooo sorry... (I am thinking, Damn it! He did!) I parked it on the other side of the building" So, no big deal, but it did give me a minor heart attack. So, I walk around the building and find my car sitting there with all the windows down and the sun roof open. Yipee. This is a constant battle with Asa. He doesn't get it. So, I have sit there and wait for 10 minutes before I can see through the windows to drive. It is so hard to sit there and watch ice melt when you are already 10 minutes late.

Well, I got there on time. And I managed to not think about Marley and what she was doing the whole time. I mentioned that I had a daughter as my "interesting fact" about myself. I actually heard a few snickers! I was like, what the hell is so funny about me having a daughter?! Well, I didn't say that out loud, but I thought it and shot mean looks at everyone in the room.

*Ok, thrush. Marley and I both have thrush after almost 6 months of breastfeeding! It is getting better since we got medicine, but it was miserable for a few days! On Monday, I called the OBGYN to ask if I was supposed to get medicine and the nurse said that I had to call my regular doctor. "Ok, but you can't even just tell me if I need something?" "No, you will have to call someone else" So, I call my regular doctor and spend 5 minutes explaining the whole situation to the woman. The whole time she is going "Uh huh. Yea. Ok." like she is totally not listening to what I am saying. When the nurse calls back, she says, "You will have to make an appointment and come in because it not very common for adults to get thrush in their mouths..." I kind of yelled at her about the fact that it was in my daughter's mouth and on my nipples because she had been so rude to me at the beginning. So, anyway. we both meds and it's slowly getting better. I still don't know where we got it though.

Wordless Wednesday

Favorite Times

One of my favorite times of the day is bath and massage time. Marley loves her bath. She kicks and slaps the water and loves it when the water splashes up really high. When I fill up the cup with water and pour it on her tummy she loves to move her hands around in the water as it falls. Every other night, we take family showers. She giggles and laughs at us. She always looks at us like "Hey! What are you doing in here?"


Then, I get out first and put on my robe and get a towel for Marley. She doesn't like the whole transition to the bedroom, but once we get there she starts cooing away because she knows what comes next. Massage.


So, I dry her off and get some Johnson's Bedtime Lotion on my hands and rub it all over her tummy, arms, back, and legs. She talks the whole time. She absolutely loves it. I love it too. It's our bonding time.

Cute from every angle

Activities at Mimi and Papa's

Marley plays with Uncle Chris's big pink ball. She wants to eat it, but it's just too big. It was 97 cents at Brookshire Brothers. We'll have to get one, because she really dug it.This afternoon, Joel and I put Marley in the spinach patch that they have in their backyard. She actually thought it was pretty fun. She even sat up all by herself! Earlier in the day, Joel had picked a piece of it for her and she walked around proudly with it for a while.

She did not like laying down in the spinach though.Or the leaves...Then we moved on to the cabbage patch. She was sitting up by herself here, too.
But then she decided that she no longer wanted to be a Cabbage Patch Kid.A little while later, Joel put up her new swing in the backyard. I actually got this for my mom for her birthday since she had been talking about wanting one. It was hard to get a picture where she was in focus since she was moving. But she really did enjoy it. She smiled for a while and then she got really relaxed and acted like she was going to fall asleep.It was a great day. Marley had all sorts of new adventures!

My Favorite Things that start with M

This is called the Alphabet Super Game. Aimee has given me the letter M and now I must make a list of my ten favorite things that start with M. The first one is easy.

1. Marley- From her adorable little dimples to her cute tiny toes, I love this baby more than anything in the entire world!

2. My new bed- Just this morning we went and bought a beautiful, comfortable, King size bed! It has enough room for at least two more kids! It won't be here until Monday, but at least that gives me times to clean the bedroom before it gets here!

3. My Asa- Okay, I know that's cheating, but I had to include him in my favorite things somehow...

4. Mom (mine)- She is a wonderful mother and I hope that I can be as close to Marley as my mom is with me. She worked hard raising us kids! I guess she's still working hard, especially on that brother of mine...

5. Massages- I couldn't even pay Asa to give me one. But I need one!

6. Movies- Lately when I send Asa to Blockbuster to pick out a movie for us to watch, all I want are funny movies. I can't even remember the last time I wanted to watch anything else.

7. Making people smile- I try so hard with some people in the office, but it doesn't always work. But Marley is really good at it!

8. Melons- I could eat an entire watermelon if I wanted to.

9. Making money- Then I can spend it!

10. Motherhood- Cliche answer, I know. But this really is the best and most fun adventure I will ever go on!

If you want to play, let me know and I will give you a letter!

Interesting Things About Marley

She thinks it is hilarious when you shove her foot into her mouth. She almost always laughs.

She has already mastered sticking out her bottom lip when she wants to look really pitiful about something. It is so darn cute right now that it really works on me. Hopefully one day I will get past the cuteness and stand firm about whatever it is.

She loves bath time. She smiles and laughs through the whole thing, even if water gets in her eyes. Hopefully that carries over and she will love swimming also.

She smiles at everyone that comes into the office. Especially blonds...

She knows what it means when I am getting ready to feed her. She opens her mouth and makes a short little "heh heh heh heh" noise. It's like, "Come on. Come on. Come on." It makes me laugh every time.

She looks so adorable in hats! She needs like 5 more though so that she's not wearing the same one everyday.

Her new favorite thing to do is sit between my legs while I hold her basket full of toys in front of her. Then she slowly takes every single toy and teether out of the basket and puts it in front of her. After she empties the basket, she's ready to move on. Screw playing with them.

She likes to watch everything I put into my mouth. Whether I am eating an apple or drinking water, she follows it all the way up and all the way back down.

She lights up when Asa comes in the room. She can be crying for me while I change her clothes, but as soon as she sees his face, she smiles.

She loves Kima. She pets her and pulls her hair. Kima loves Marley, too.

She also loves the fish tanks. We have her swing next to one and she stares at it the whole time she is in it.

She loves when I wear necklaces. She will grab them, pull them, eat them, suck on them, and throw them at me. It's a good thing I wear them for her because otherwise she would be bored.

She is most ticklish on her feet and ribs. She loves for us to pretend like we are going to eat her ribs.

She also laughs really hard when we pretend to throw up. Yea, like a 10 year old boy.

She loves when she gets her fingers in my mouth. I pretend to chew on them or suck on them and she giggles the whole time.

Marley will only eat in silence. As soon as someone starts talking or makes a noise, she cries until they stop. Then she gives me a stern look and goes back to business. Drama Queen.

The main reason that I write about these things that some people may think are boring is because I don't want to forget any of it. I want to be able to go back and read all this with Marley one day and tell her about all the cute things she did and funny stories that happened. I want to be able to remember it all. I'll add more as I come up with them.

My First Recall

My freaking Rainforest Play Yard got recalled! I have one and my mom has one at her house! I use mine everyday when Marley is at work with me! What am I supposed to use when she comes up here and wants to sleep now? The website says that I have to send back the "four side panels" and they will send me $100 within 8 - 12 weeks. Whoopee. What do I do in the meantime?

I am so pissed.

Highchairs and Sippy Cups

Tonight, we had dinner at my mom's and Marley tried out her first highchair. She didn't eat at it or anything, but she really enjoyed being up at the table with us. Normally, she has to hang out in the swing on the ground while we eat. So, it was really fun to have her up on our level! She played with her ball and threw it on the ground for a while. Then, my mom got out one of sippy cups she bought and we gave it to her to experiment with. We didn't put anything in it, but I heard that they need to start playing with it around now to get used to it. I am hoping to bypass the bottle all together. So, she loved dropping it on the ground and watching us pick it back up. Other than that, nothing really exciting happened with the sippy cup.

I started reading today on askdrsears.com about helping babies get to sleep without crying it out. I don't even want to think about leaving her in her crib while I listen to her scream. So, I read all about what my other options are. I am going to try to start putting her on a good schedule during the day and not letting her nap past 6:30 pm. So, I am hoping that around 9 or 9:30 pm she will be ready for bed. So far it is working. I fed her at 9:30 and she fell asleep right after. Now I just have to cross my fingers and hope she stays that way.

Proof

Here is some video evidence of the sitting up and responding to her name.

She is so cute! I was just putting all the videos that we have onto our hard drive. It made me all teary-eyed to look at the videos from when she was younger. And it is crazy how much she has already changed.

Look What My Girl Can Do!

She does fall over like 2.6 seconds later, but it still counts as progress! Before this she couldn't even sit up with her hands down. She looks so big when she is sitting up!

In other news, she recognizes her name now. We have been testing to see if she can for a few weeks now. She does it every once in a while. So, she has been doing it for a few weeks, just not 100% of the time. For some reason it is so neat to me that she can understand something I say!

A Date

Marley and Asa went on a daddy-daughter date today to the park. It was a pleasant 70 degrees here and he has been waiting for a nice day to take her with him to play frisbee golf. From the looks of the pictures he took, she really had fun. And she was a good luck charm - he played really well!

Weight Watchers

So, on New Years Eve I joined Weight Watchers for a free 7 day trial. I was thinking I would just try it out and see how I felt about. You still have to enter in a credit card number because after the seven days, they charge you for the month. But I planned to cancel it after six days and never have to get charged.

Well, guess who forgot to cancel it and now has a $65.00 charge from Weight Watchers. Yea. Me. I was really upset when I realized it last night, especially since I hadn't even really been doing it for the 8 days I had had it. Then I thought, maybe this is good. It is catered to me and the fact that I am nursing, so the least I can do it try it for three months and see if I lose weight, right?

So, here I am at day one. I am allotted 40 points a day and I used 16 so far. I have to use exactly 40 a day to lose weight and keep my milk going. So, I think I have room to relax a little about what I eat. I mean, 26 points for one meal is a lot. As long as I am not eating totally unhealthy I can do it. But, if I see an decrease in my supply, it's sayonara. I don't want to lose weight that bad.

5 Months, Oh My God!

I cannot believe it. 5 seems like such a big number! How did she get there already. I feel like I can't really use the excuse "I just had a baby" anymore. Now, I have to actually try to lose weight and try in my classes and try to keep the house clean. Darn. I was enjoying that excuse.

I can't even imagine how sad I am going to be about next month. That's 6! Half a year! Also, with 6 months comes baby food. That makes things so complicated. Right now it's just cry=boob. With real food, I have to actually think about it. It will be exciting, but I will have to plan ahead for places and bring baby food with me. I am planning to make my own baby food. I have been reading about it and how moms find time for it. And it sounds reasonable. I read that you can make enough food for 2 weeks in about an hour. That's totally doable!

Yesterday, some stoner-looking girls came in the office to look for an apartment. They were ooo-ing over Marley and asked me her name. I knew what their response would be: "Whoa! That is suuuuuch an awesome name! Bob Marley is so cool." (said in stoner-voice) Bob Marley is not that cool. And she isn't named after him. I did not say this out loud to them and crush their dreams, but I did think it pretty hard. Why does everyone assume she is named after him? For the record, she is not. I just liked the name when I saw someone else's baby was named Marley. So, quit telling me how cool Bob Marley is.

Did you know that you can print your blog in book form? You probably did, but I had no idea. I am going to ask for that for my birthday next year. It can be Marley's first year. I am really excited about it! But, I have to go through and fix all my typos. Dang it.

The Whamie

I dread night time all day long. I love being with Marley, but something about putting her to sleep is sooo hard! I know it is hard for most parents, but when does it get easier?

I give her a bath at about 8:30 every night. I put lotion on her and sing to her or read her a book. Then, I always wait until she is giving me the tired cues to wrap her up. I feed her and then she seems wide awake. So, I give her the paci and try to rock her to sleep. She screams and cries and kicks her legs. So, I move her around. She stops crying, closes her eyes, and then starts yelling again. It's like she fell asleep and then woke up going "NOOOO, YOU TRICKED ME!!!!!!!!!"

When I was younger, I hated taking naps. So, my mom would tell me to just come lay down with her while she took a nap. (We all somehow fell for this every time...) When I got into bed with her, she would wrap her arm around me and bring me really close so that I was all warm and cozy. Of course, I would fall asleep. She says that every time I woke up, I would be in a terrible mood and I would say, "You tricked me!" She called it "The Whamie". When we got older, we would ask her to "put The Whamie on us"! I wish someone would put The Whamie on me and I really wish I could put The Whamie on Marley every night.

Mom, can you help me out? You're The Whamie Master...

Pool Party Anyone?

Well, I haven't really written about anything in almost a week. So, I guess I have a lot to catch up on.

Today is Billy's birthday. We just got back from his pirate themed birthday party. The whole time I was thinking about Marley's first birthday: where it should be, what I want to do, who would come... And I'm thinking pool party! All of our family members like to swim and by then Marley will have been in the water a few times. It will be August, so it will be warm enough. So, there we go. Already planned.

On New Year's Day Marley decided she wanted to start rolling over again. She literally hasn't done it once since Thanksgiving, but she's a rollin' fool now. Every time I put her on her stomach, she rolls to her back... how am I supposed to make her do tummy time?! It takes her a minute or two to remember what goes where, but she gets it. Then she looks at me like, "What happened?!!" while I am clapping and yelling. She can also lift up her upper body now. I guess you can see that is the pictures I posted last time, but it's a new thing. She is getting pretty strong! She still can't really sit up, but she is getting closer. I don't know if the Bumbo is actually helping, but we use it as much as we can!

She is going to be 5 months on Wednesday. I can't believe it every time I think about it. That's one month away from baby food. A few months away from crawling. Almost half way to a year. I think about how quickly this five months went by and then think about how life will be in five more months. So much is going to change! I'm not ready for a crawler. Or a walker. I want all the stages to last a little longer before we move onto the next one.

Oh well. There is nothing I can do, so I have to enjoy it as it comes!

Wordless Friday (not Wednesday)