Smokers

Ok. This is a rant. This evening, Asa, Marley, and I went to Chili's for dinner. There is a wait, so we sit outside on one of two benches. While we are sitting there another family comes out with a 6 or 7 year old son. The mother digs around in her bag and pulls out a cigarette and proceeds to light it.

This is what I wanted to say:
WTF? Are you kidding me? You are going to light a cigarette 5 feet away from my baby?! Ok, if you want to slowly kill yourself, but you are NOT going to get anything near my child. How completely selfish! Not only is there a law in Nacogdoches now against that very thing, but it is the most inconsiderate thing you could do. Not to mention your poor child that probably sits next to you on a daily basis while you are smoking. Do you think you have right to sit here and put us in danger just so you can have your fix? Do you think that even with all of the news that is put out everyday about how bad secondhand smoke is, I am going to let you do it in front of me? Yes, I could get up and leave, but you are the one being selfish! You are the one endangering other people. And you are the one that needs to get yourself together. I have no problem with you smoking at your house away from me, but when you make this a public thing, I can defend myself. Bitch.

But, this is what Asa said:
We would appreciate it if you didn't smoke right in front of us.

Then, she said very loudly and with an attitude, "I guess I will go over theeeeeere." Yea you will. And don't come back.

I really want to yell at people when I can smell their smoke. I have friends that smoke, so I don't have a problem with people smoking if that is what they want to do. But I have a serious problem with it getting into my air and my business. And especially my daughter's. And all that crap about "we have rights too" is stupid. They should in no way have the right to submit others to something that can harm them! How is that even legal?

Ok, that is all. I will feel like a total idiot if Marley decides to smoke one day. Actually, she better not ever tell me.

Good News

Good news number 1. Marley has gone to bed at like 7 or 8 for the past three nights! I am amazed! Who knew that all I needed to do was just put her to bed earlier to avoid all of the pre-bedtime crying? I know that sounds pretty simple, but I guess I'm slow.

Good news number 2. I bought a bunch of baby food supplies last night: avocado, sweet potatoes, apples... This morning when I was looking for them to decide what I was doing first, I could not find them. So, I called Asa and he had no idea where they were either. So, I called Wal-Mart and asked if I had left it there and they said no. But, if I bring in my receipt, they will give me what I am missing! Then this evening, Asa confesses that he left them in the trunk accidentally... so they are no good now. Luckily, we get free replacements from Wal-Mart!!

Good news number 3. But even better than all that- Asa might be getting a promotion at work. The company that owns the apartments where he works also have a property in Lufkin. The maintenance guy for property pretty much sucks. Big time. So, they are going to fire him and Asa is going to be the maintenance guy for both! This means he would be working full time instead of part time and he would get a free apartment! He told me today that the one bedrooms there are 804 square feet. Our two bedroom that we have right now is 807. So, imagine how big of a difference it would to have a two bedroom there! It would be fabulous! But I don't want to get my hopes up too much. I should calm down.

Wordless Wednesday- BFFs

Fashion Show

Marley and I did a fashion show. I put two of her new dresses on her and even tried on her swim suit! We both had fun! I had fun taking pictures and looking an how cute she was and she had fun reaching for everything she could and examining her new clothes.

As soon as I was done taking pictures of the flowered dress and started to take it off of her, she spit up all over it. Next was the pretty blue dress. This one wasn't nearly as fascinating to her, but she still likes it.

And then the grand finale was the swim suit! She looked so cute! I wish it was warm enough to swim... Wednesday is supposed to be 76 though! But it'll be a few months until she can go swimming for the first time.

If you are wondering what the things are in the window, they are little pods for our garden. We are growing squash, peppers, lettuce, and basil. After they start to grow in those, you plant them in the ground like normal.

I can't believe how darling she looks in them! I can't wait until she can wear them for real. I was worried that she might not like dresses like her mommy, but she does!

Dirty Mouth

I tried to take some pictures outside with Marley today. However, the dirt and pine needles around us were way more exciting than having her picture taken. She was fascinated with it and could not keep herself from grabbing handfuls of whatever was under the blanket. I think she may have ingested a little of it, too. So, it turned into a photo shoot of Marley's first time eating dirt. Yay!

Green Beans!

I made baby food today! During Marley's morning nap I got cooking. I steamed some green beans, pureed them, and then I put them in an ice cube tray to freeze. I left out a little for her to try for "lunch". Her face said that she was in complete shock when she realized what was in her mouth. It was hilarious. But I think she liked it! It was hard to tell really, but she did keep eating it and opening her mouth for more. So, for the next four days, she can alternate between banana and green beans.

Making the food was really easy. I really don't think it will be that time consuming since I am freezing enough for two more weeks. I guess I have about 16 servings of green beans now. Once she starts eating more it may get a little harder, but she will also be closer to eating more regular food then. So, who knows. For now, this is the plan.

Asa is working on fixing our video editing software, so I just want to warn you. There may be lots of videos coming your way. Beware.

New Hat

I just realized that I have not put up any pictures of Marley in her new $30.00 hat. I don't have any pictures that are good, but I do have this short little video. Nothing exciting happens, but she does look extremely cute in her new hat!

Wake Up

Marley sleeps all sprawled out now. It was hard to imagine her sleeping happily like that when we had to swaddle her every night. But she's a big girl now. She hates having the covers on her legs and kicks them off within 10 seconds of me putting them on her. She doesn't even sleep on her stomach anymore at night. She sleeps right on her back with her arms all over the place. She's so big! I love sleeping next to her and getting to snuggle with ehr all night.

I also love waking up with Marley. She is always in such a great mood in the mornings. She smiles and coos until I am awake enough to smile back. It starts the day off in such a fantastic way. We cuddle and talk for a good 30 minutes on the days when we have nowhere to go. She is so damn cute. Asa is over on his side of the bed growling about how early it is. Once we have finally talked enough to wake him up for good, he enjoys it too. We have our little family time and it makes us all so happy.

But, I also love the days when I have to get up before Marley and Asa. I wake up and get in the shower while they get a few extra minutes of sleep. When I get out, I come back into the bedroom and find that Asa has taken my place as Marley's cuddle bug. He is all wrapped around her while she sleeps peacefully between his chest and his arm. They are completely relaxed and content curled up together. I love watching them sleep. Asa loves her so much. It melts me heart. And Marley is so completely innocient and sweet when she is sleeping. It makes me smile just as much as the mornings when Marley wakes us up.

Always Glad to Come Home

Asa and I both had to work all day today, which meant that there was no relief for me while I was at work. Marley was with me the whole day and seemed to be in the worst of moods. She has a really hard time sleeping at the office. At home she will take two two-hour naps each day. At work, she will not sleep longer than 20 minutes. So, that just makes for a grumpy baby all around. And a grumpy mommy. So, at 4:30, I was done and asked if I could leave early to go throw my child in the bed.

At 5:30, I had to be at the school for my first group presentation. I had to compare AT&T and Verizon. Yay. The only good thing about that is that it is over! While I was gone, Marley finally took her nap and then Asa fed her some banana. She is really getting the hang of it. We could have tried a new food today, but I just didn't have time to get that together. She will actually sit with her mouth open, giving us a little whimper until she gets her next bite! She knows when it's coming and she will only stop whimpering once we are getting the spoon ready again.

When I got home, Marley and Asa were sitting on the ground surrounded by toys. Marley didn't know I had come in until I started talking. She turned around and saw me and smiled. Then she realized that I was not holding her and started whining until I picked her up. I am sure this will get annoying eventually, but it was so nice to feel like she missed me! It was like she was thinking "Oh, Mommy, you're finally back to kiss me!" So, I picked her up and she rubbed her face into my neck. She missed me. It made my stressful day all worth it.

Stresses

I just want to say that solid-food baby poop is gross. I have never really cared about changing Marley's diaper, but now I am constantly tricking Asa into doing it before he realizes what happened.

Tomorrow she gets to try her next food. She is not exactly loving the bananas anymore, but she still tolerates it. I am so worried about all of this food stuff. I don't want to give her the wrong thing or keep her on pureed food too long. Or what if I give her something she is not ready for? How do I know? And how do you keep up with everything I feed her? Do I have to keep a journal of everything I feed her? Actually, that's probably a good idea. I feel like I am all of the sudden a "real" mom. I have to actually keep up with when I am going to feed her something and how much. Breastfeeding has been so easy because it's just one thing to remember: hungry=boob. Now, hungry= boob, or cereal, or fruit, or a vegetable, or juice. I want to make sure I give her the right amount of stuff everyday... this is complicated...

This morning I went to find out about the Early Childhood Lab. There are at least 4 spots available for August, but more if some of the kids in the infant class leave for some reason. You can apply anytime in March, but it's first come first serve. They give priority to the people with siblings already int he school and then the children whose parents are full-time SFA employees. We do not fit into either of those. That is really the only place I would feel comfortable leaving her. Not that I want to leave her somewhere in the first place though. I am worried about it all. I don't know if I trust someone to take care of Marley as well as I can. I would be so sad leaving her someplace all day and the seeing her for two or three hours every evening before she goes to sleep. But, I forgot to find out how much the Lab is, so that is really the deciding factor. If we can't afford it, it's not an option.

My Little Trooper

Guess who got shots today and didn't even cry?! I was so proud of her! She has two cute little bandaids on her legs now, but it doesn't seem nearly as serious when she doesn't get upset about it. It was like nothing even happen. She will have her next appointment in May. She weighed 16 pounds, 12 ounces.

I didn't have to work today, so I spent almost two hours reading about how to make baby food. I am really excited about it and I am going to get some supplies tomorrow. She has still been eating bananas and loving it. We had our first solid food poop this afternoon... it wasn't really fun. But, oh well. New things are happening! Making the food doesn't seem like it is going to be that hard at all. Once I get in the habit of doing it and know how, it should be easy.

I think I should get a massage. I need one.

Playtime with Mimi

Think this girl has enough toys?

Houston

The trip to Houston went really well. We left at about 10:30 in the morning and thank goodness, Marley slept for the first two hours of the trip! She woke up when we stopped for gas and was luckily in a great mood for the last 20 minutes of the ride. We stopped and ate lunch and wasted an hour before the meet started. I fed her in the car and then we tried to let her stretch her muscles as much as we could.

We got to the meet with an hour before the start, so we played around and tried to waste some more time. (We would have left Nacogdoches later, but I thought we were going to be stopping a lot with Marley.) We brought in the huge stroller, the diaper bag, the toy bag, the camera bag, the video camera bag, my purse, Asa's bag... we were loaded down. Luckily, we found a spot where we could spread out. Marley didn't really enjoy the meet a whole lot. It was hot and humid and noisy. Not good things for babies. So, we took her into the lobby area a lot and let her spread out and cool off. She dozed off a few times, but never slept more than 20 minutes. She did discover that she likes to fix people's hair from behind... that was fun. She also spit up on someone's bag while Joel was walking by them with her. They didn't notice... and I didn't say a word.

After the meet, we went back to Grandma Karen and Grandpa David's house for dinner and bed. She screamed for the entire one hour trip to their house. She would fall asleep, then two seconds later her hand would float by her face and yank her pacifier out. Then she would scream all over again. It was the most miserable car ride. Even worse than the trip to Austin for Thanksgiving. However, once we got to the house, she was a complete angel. She talked and smiled and entertained everyone while she played on the couch. Then she went to bed without a fuss.

The next morning we met Aunt Julie, Uncle Andy and Alex for breakfast. Marley got to chew on some spoons, drink a little water, and Uncle Andy experimented with making things cold for her. She likes her teether on the rocks. Asa and I really wanted to go to Babies R Us (ok, maybe it was just me that wanted to go). So, we left Marley with the family and went by ourselves. We bought Marley a Jumperoo and something to keep her bath toys in. I tried out a glider that I really wanted, but we didn't really have a way to get it back with us. I hate out glider though, so I still really want a new one. When we got back, we decided we would try to get home that afternoon and pray that Marley would sleep. Well, it worked and she slept the whole way back. Even with the 45 extra minutes it took because of traffic. She really made me happy.It was a good trip, but I am glad to be home in our bed.

Marley's First Food

Marley had her first non-breastmilk food this afternoon! We gave her some mashed up banana, and she loved it! She was opening her mouth for more as soon as she was done with the bite. She even grabbed the spoon, got her fingers in it, and ate it off her own fingers. She was definitely confused about it at first, but she had fun. She kept wanting it, even after it was all gone. The plan is to give her some banana in the morning and afternoon for a week, then we will move to the next thing. I thought I would be sad about it, but I am really excited! It's something new that she really enjoyed and it will be exciting to see her try new things!

Happy Valentine's Day

Today is our 3 year anniversary! Yea, everyone thinks it is so sweet that Asa asked me out on Valentine's Day, but he had no idea. It was officially like 2 o'clock in the morning on Valentine's Day. Anyway, we came home early from Houston and decided to make ourselves a yummy dinner. So, we had some really nice steaks that Asa grilled for us. We also officially opened our first bottle of wine! Aimee put some instructions on her blog a while ago about how to open a bottle of wine without a bottle opener. We don't have one, so Asa had read the instructions and remembered how to do it. But he used his manly power tools! So, thanks Aimee! Asa used it for the steaks and then he tried a sip of it. He immediately poured out the rest of the glass and told me how gross it was. Maybe one day we will like wine, but this is not it. We got Marley's booster seat this evening before dinner. So, she got to sit at the table with us! It was really fun to have her with us right there during our Valentine's Day dinner. It was our first little family meal!

Then, look what Asa and I made! They didn't turn out perfect, but they will still pretty darn good. You could buy a pack of 4 pre-made chocolate covered strawberries for $8.99... or you could make your own set of 20 for like $4.00. The main problem was that the chocolate wouldn't stay warm long enough to put on the strawberries. So, they turned out kind of ugly. Oh well, they were still great.

Check This Out

I'll give you one guess who picked this out...

That's right. Not me...

Marley's First Bruise

I don't know why I think these open-mouth shots are so funny, but I do.

See that bruise on her cheek? Yea, that's my fault. She fell onto the camera while it was istting next to her. I felt pretty bad. She cried pretty hard. That reminds me, one of the benefits of nursing is that you can nurse your baby when she is sad or hurt and it will make her feel better. My baby doesn't want that. If I try to nurse her to comfort her, she just cries harder. I hoping that will change, but it hasn't yet. She still just wants the effing pacifier.

This evening, our neighbor, David, came over with his son, Elijah. Eli is 20 months... enough said. He likes to offer Marley toys and then take them back as soon as she starts playing with it. He likes to get into whatever she is doing. He likes to say "NO" really loud at her everytime she moves. Of course, she has no idea what's going on, but one day she will. Hopefully he will be out of the hating girls stage by then.

Tomorrow, we leave for Houston. We will try to remember to take plenty of pictures. I will actually get to go to a Babies R Us! I haven't been able to do that since I was pregnant!! Yay shopping!

Sweetness

On Saturday, we went to Lufkin for a few hours to get Marley a few presents. We bought her this blue dress, this flowered dress, and her very first swim suit! She is going to be such a cute little girl! I can't wait until she walks around in all of her cute little sun dresses! She is going to look so adorable. I really hope she likes dresses. I feel like I am going to buy a lot of them for her.

Anyway, on the way home she got kind of fussy, so I put my hand back by her face. She fell asleep holding my hand next to her face. It was so sweet. I wanted to cry. Sometimes I am so confused and can't figure out what to do to make her happy. Then other times she just wants me. She wants me to love on her. It feels so good for her to want me.

Future Swimmer

On Sunday night, Marley had her first real bathtub bath. She LOVED it! She smiled and splashed and kicked the whole time. She looked at me like, "Hey! Isn't this cool?"

I got in with a swim suit on so that we could take pictures and video of her playing around. She isn't a good enough swimmer to do it herself yet. I threw all of her new bath toys in there with us and she played with most of them. She is sooo going to be a swimmer! She loves the water!

No Shots

I took Marley back to the doctor today. It was supposed to be her 6 month appointment with shots, but I told them I wasn't doing the shots since she is still sick. They didn't sound too happy about it, but who cares. Marley weighed 16 pounds, 8 ounces. So, her not eating made a pretty big difference. Taht makes me sad. Luckily, she has gotten her appetitie back for the most part. Since she still has an ear infection, so the doctor gave me a different antibiotic to give to her. Hopefully it will work this time. I feel so sorry for her...

We just bought Marley this really cool hat! I can't believe I spent that much on a hat, but it's so damn cute! We have bought Marley quite a few things recently... She's worth it.

She Can Stand!

There's something in those legs besides chub! Don't worry, the car isn't moving...

6 Months

Here are some of the recent pictures I have. This last one is hilarious to me! Marley has so many facial expressions, and she loves to share them! She is feeling a lot better, but still not eating a lot. Today, I pumped as much as I could to get my supply back up and it is slowly working. She will nurse for a little while now, which is more than yesterday. Hopefully everything will turn out okay. Something good: Marley has officially gotten over being swaddles to sleep. This makes me excited for two reasons. 1. She can wear all of the cute pajamas now! 2. She sleeps longer on her stomach and now she can sleep that way!

Today, Marley is six months old. Six short months ago we had just parted ways for the first time, Marley to the nursery and me to recovery. It is amazing to me that so much time has passed by already. So, many exciting things have happened, and so many more are coming. She didn't try any new food today, I am waiting to introduce her first solid food until we go to the doctor on Monday. I am kind of feeling a little sad that I will not be her only source of food anymore. I know that she will still be nursing all the time, it just feels good to be the one she counts on so much. Anyone can give her rice cereal. I don't want her to like that better and not want me anymore... Does that happen? Is it weird that I feel like something special is going away? Anyway, I was getting really emotional earlier and I filmed Marley a little 4 minute video telling her how much I love her.

We had our little party tonight at my mom's. We got a few presents, just for the heck of it. I decided to get bath toys. Pretty soon she will be able to take baths in the bathtub and will need stuff to play with! So, we got her three rubber duckies (one in a cow-duck, one is a pirate-duck, and one is a surfer-duck), some letters and numbers that stick on the wall of the tub, and some sea animals. We also stopped at Old Navy and bought her first swim suit and two sun dresses. And a cute little hat. She is going to be so cute! I have decided that I really want Marley to wear lots of dresses. They have so many cite things out there for little girls! I had to feed Marley in the Old Navy dressing room. That was kind of exciting, since I had never done that before.

I am such a lucky girl. I have a wonderful family, and beautiful daughter, and a loving fiance. I hope everyone knows how much I love them!