My little spaghetti monster

We've been trying to get E switched over to table foods, so she eats dinner with us at the table now. She eats her baby food first (because if she's hungry, she's too cranky to try anything new), and then she gets whatever we're eating. On Sunday night, that happened to be spaghetti. Usually she will give the food a suspicious side-eye, bang on the tray for a bit, and eventually take a taste. Not so with spaghetti. She dove right in.

I've also been giving her banana in the morning with her breakfast, but she was having a lot of trouble picking it up. I decided to skip the teeny-tiny pieces and just give her a whole banana and see what she did with it.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, despite the giant mess, it only took about 2 minutes to get her cleaned up after spaghetti night!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Nans had a great first Thanksgiving. She wasn't a big fan of the food- I still can't get her to eat any table food except for cheese- but she certainly enjoyed reading the Black Friday ads with me!

"Mama"

She said it! My baby called me "mama". Not once. Not twice. FIVE times!!!! I wasn't really sure she had said it the first time, but then she just kept going! (Yes, I cried.)

This means that I win. I wanted her first word to be "mama". Matt wanted it to be "kitty" (that was my first word).

Speaking of kitties, Nannies met some 10 week old kittens at Petco today when we were picking up cat food. They were in the little adoption center in the back corner, tearing around their cage and just generally being adorable. Nans stared at them with intense fascination for a few minutes, then she slowly lifted her little hand and started waving at them. She is the absolute cutest thing on earth! She pretty much only waves at kitties. She has done it to people on a few occasions, but whenever she sees one of the cats, she waves. Maybe she just likes them better. I have a feeling that she's going to be one of those kids who brings every living creature she can get her hands on back to our house, because when I finally tore her away from the kittens she sobbed like her little heart was breaking. It was so, so sad, yet so adorable at the same time.

I made a deal with the devil tonight.

OK, maybe it wasn't the devil. Maybe her name was Katie. But she brought up the fact that I haven't updated my blog in a shamefully long time, and people all over the room began echoing that sentiment.

So I did what anyone would do. I told her that if she documented the nights festivities on film (or digital memory card) for me, I would make not one, but TWO new blog posts for her.

Last weekend we took the kiddo to Lawrence for the day. Here she is enjoying some delicious mushed up green bean sludge at Free State. Try to contain your jealousy. I assure you, if you come over to our house, she will be happy to share.

She finally did it. She caught a kitty.

The Nans was a little upset the other night because she bonked her head on a table. Although I felt bad that she got hurt, I was secretly glad that it happened on her dad's watch so that I could stop feeling like neglectful parent, since all the bumps and bruises generally occur when I am watching her. I attempted to ice the bump with a bag of frozen peas, but E decided that the bag of peas was her eternal soul mate and insisted on crawling around and snuggling with it for the remainder of the evening. Any attempts to reclaim the bag of peas were met with the side-eye.

We attempted to smooth things over by administering her happy pills, aka tiny bits of cheddar cheese. The mission was successful. E loves cheese, but refuses to touch it herself. It must be carefully placed in her mouth by a parent. Cheese is serious business, people.

There's no real purpose to this pic, other than the fact that my kid is insanely, unspeakably cute.

"I'm going to give my mommy big hugs. Awwwwww."

Now I'm going to attack her whilst smiling angelically at the camera."
Now for tonight's festivities. You may be slightly disappointed, as there are no cute babies in this picture. But my friends are quite cute, so maybe that will appease you. We went to our friends Jess and Del's house tonight for dinner with some other friends, and some super-special unexpected out of town guests!

Chae, Danny, and Del

Danny approves!

I told you my friends are cute!

So is my hubby!

More cute friends!
Group photo!

Nannies:1, DST:0

An event which all mothers dread, daylight savings time, has come and gone. I was dreading it for weeks. I used to love the extra hour of sleep but since babies can't tell time, and, for some strange reason, don't enjoy sleeping in, I figured we were in for a not-so-great time this week. We started pushing E's bedtime back a bit at a time to try to ease her into the time change slowly. We rationalized that if we slowly kept her up later, she would slowly start sleeping in a little later, and by Sunday she would hopefully be back on her regular schedule when the time changed.

Fast forward to Friday night. We put E to bed around 7:30, which is her normal time (keeping her up late wasn't working so well). Matt got up and gave her a bottle sometime in the middle of the night and then came back to bed. And then we woke up and looked at the clock. It was 8:30!!! E is usually up by 6:45, or 7:00 at the latest! Once I got over my initial horror of staying in bed until 8:30 (I detest sleeping in), I realized how fabulous this was. She adjusted her schedule all by herself! She did it a day early, but who cares!?! We kept her an hour behind on her schedule for the day, and from Sunday on she's been back on her regular time frame. I love this kid!!!

Many of you know that I've been planning E's first birthday party since before she was born. I've been wondering for a while what to do for favors. The theme is cupcakes, so I knew I could just make some for everyone to take home, but since we're doing cupcakes instead of a cake, I really wanted to do something a little different. I recently came across Bakerella's blog where I found this adorable idea for party favors. I did a trial run tonight and I think they turned out okay. I've got about 4 months to perfect them, so I should have it down by party time. Behold, my mini cupcake bites!
What do you think?

Happy Halloween!

Nannies had a very busy first Halloween. We had lots of places to go and lots of people to see! First we stopped by Brynnie's to show off our adorable little stinker.

Then we went to see Aunt Joan.

Then we headed back home, and after lunch and a nap, we were off again, this time to my parents house. E was very excited about her first Halloween treats- yogurt melts!!!

And our final stop of the night was Matt's mom's house. She got more yummy Halloween treats there.

Scary ghostie floatie things.
Plus a new toy! Wheeee!

We didn't go to Matt's dad's house since he was out of town, and they had already seen her in her costume at the pumpkin patch, but when we got home we found a surprise from Grandma Jenny on the porch- monster jammies!
Elliot hopes that everyone had a Happy Halloween too!

Story Time!

Today I took Elliot to her very first story time at the library. I expected her to be all over the place and hard to control, but no! My wiggly, squirmy, crazy baby sat quietly on my lap for 20 minutes and listened intently. It was amazing! I think she was too interested in the older kids (baby story time is for 0-2 year olds) to realize that she wasn't able to go explore. I'm so excited that she liked it. When I was little, my mom would take me to the library 2-3 times a week, and I had so much fun there. To this day, I still love books, and it's very important to me to pass that on to E.

Speaking of books, it looks like I'm going to have to give in to Twilight-mania. I had absolutely no interest in these books until all the teenage hysteria started, and at that point it increased only to mild curiosity. However, I have an online mama friend who needs a girl date to the New Moon premiere, so I'm taking one for the team and jumping on the bandwagon. I have 23 days to read both Twilight and New Moon and to watch the first movie. I am now on a mission to find the first book at the library, but it's looking grim. According to the online catalogue, there is only one copy currently available in the entire metro area! I'm going to attempt to get it tomorrow, but only if I don't have to fight a 12 year old for it.

The Secret Life of Me!

Matt took the day off today to hang out with us, so he got to accompany E and I on our exciting Monday adventure...grocery shopping! While it may sound mundane, it's actually quite an ordeal. We buy formula and diapers at Target, bulk items at Sam's, produce for E at Whole Foods, and everything else from WalMart. Since I'd rather not spend every daily outing doing grocery shopping, we try to knock them all out on Mondays.

"It's like you have a secret life that I don't know about!" Those were Matt's words as we were leaving Sam's, our second stop of the day. He thought that E grinning at the man checking receipts was just a fluke. Oh, no. She and Arnett are old friends. They go way back. Back to the days where she was too little to sit up in the grocery cart. That's right- we are in such a routine now that we know the names of the employees on our daily outings.

Another amusing conversation, this time as we were entering Walmart. Matt put E's cart cover on, popped her into the seat, and fished a toy out of my purse to give to her.

Me: No, no. She doesn't get a toy yet.

Matt: Oh. Why?

Me: Because it's a progressive thing. First she's fine just sitting in the cart. If she gets fussy, I hand her the end of the cart strap (we have our own, people- I'm not letting her lick the skanky Walmart cart strap) and let her chew on that for a while. When she gets tired of that, she gets a toy. And if we're bordering on a full on meltdown, I hand her my wallet, which always works.

Matt: Wow. You are really good at this.



Lest you think that we spent the whole day running errands, I'll share our art project that we did today. E is making Halloween cards to send to her grandparents, and her aunts and uncles. I think ghostie feet might be my favorite baby art project of all time. It's a toss-up between that and baby foot flowers, but you'll have to wait until spring for those! Anyway, here's the result.


I'll share my strategies just in case anyone else wants to try these. If you have a newborn, I'd recommend swaddling with one foot out. Those little legs move fast, and it's hard to aim one foot for the paper while trying to avoid the other one. If you have an older baby, put them in the high chair and put the paper against a clipboard or hardcover book to stamp their foot. Oh, and use a paintbrush on their foot. Dunking the whole foot in paint results in an unrecognizable blob. I just used a black sharpie for the eyes, but if your kids are older and can be trusted not to swallow the art supplies, you could let them use googly eyes, buttons, sequins, etc. Lastly, remember that you want the foot upside down, so position the folded paper accordingly.

"I loooooove being annointed!"

Those were our priest's words (speaking for Elliot) at her baptism today. I have been stressed all week, hoping that she would make it through the ceremony without freaking out. She does not like to be in one place for long periods of time, so sitting on Mommy's lap for half an hour is pretty much torture for her. But wow, this kid was seriously delighted by all of it. She made a brief attempt to escape after the second pouring of water, but she was quickly wrangled back into submission for the third. She was so, so good! Since Matt and I were occupied during most of the ceremony, our family has most of the pictures. They haven't sent them to me yet, but Matt's stepdad did steal my camera out of my bag at some point, and got a few pictures. I'm hoping someone else got a better shot of her dress. My grandma bought it 47 years ago for my oldest sister and the three of us all wore it. I was so, so excited that E got to wear it as well.

Our family

You get an idea of how many cameras there were when you realize that we are all looking in different directions.

Obligatory Daily Post

I am here to report that I have absolutely nothing to report today. I spent most of the day napping on the living room floor while Elliot crawled around and on top of me.

Uggggggggghhhhhhhhhh.

E is being baptized tomorrow though, so I should have lots of pictures in the next post.

Girls Night!

Matt went out tonight to do "man things" with his friends, so E and I had a girls night. We watched a "Say Yes to the Dress" marathon, and then E had her bottle and bath and went down for the night. This was the first time in months that I've gotten to give her her bedtime bottle, but luckily she didn't seem to mind that it was me instead of her dad. She went on a bit of a hunger strike today, so maybe that was why she didn't protest. She took her bottle at 6:45 am with no problem, but she refused to eat again until 4:00! So she's had three bottles today instead of her usual five. I would be worried about her waking at night, except A.) Matt didn't get to put her to bed with me, so he really, really wants her to wake up, and B.)Matt does all of the night feedings anyway, so I get to sleep no matter what!

Speaking of waking up at night, guess who hasn't been? That's right, the Nans appears to be sleeping through the night! It's been a whole week now. I'm sure I'm jinxing it by making this announcement, so we shall see what happens tonight. Fingers crossed!

Cutest outfit ever

We bought this dress for E over a year ago, just after we found out she was a girl. She wore it for the first time today, and it is so, so cute! She got lots of compliments in it when we went to the store today. She got compliments unrelated to the dress too. The man stocking yogurt at WalMart says she's very healthy, so I know you're all relieved to hear that. The women in the bakery at HyVee have concluded that she is crazy smart, but I'm not sure what their reasoning is for that. From what I could make out, I think it's because she can sit up in the shopping cart without tipping over. If only it were that easy for all of us to be geniuses.

Best. Quote. Ever.

I just heard the greatest quote on a commercial for Dr. Phil:

"Did she put Viagra in your mashed potatoes?"

For Katie

I've never posted pictures of just myself here, but my friend Katie requested a picture of the new jeans, so here you go. Sorry for the awful quality, but it's hard to take a good picture in the mirror.

They are from Gap, the Real Straight style.




An amusing anecdote from today: I was on my way to do some errands with E and stopped for gas. I stuck my keys in the pocket of my jacket while I got out to pump. When I got back in the car, I reached for my keys and felt something strange by the pocket of my new fleece. I looked down and discovered that it was a plastic security tag.

The worst part of this is not that I have to go back to the store- without a reciept, I might add- and get the tag taken off. It's that for the past three days, I've been walking around looking like a shoplifter.

Lately I have been thinking of a lot of things that I am really excited for. This always happens to me when the seasons change, but fall brings about an especially bad case of it. If I wrote a separate post about every single thing I've been getting worked up over lately my computer would probably crash, so I'll just list them here (in no particular order).

1. CHRISTMAS!!!!!!! Yes, I am yelling. I'm that excited. It's going to be Elliot's first Christmas! She's going to have an adorable Christmas dress, and she'll go sit on Santa's lap, and she'll open her first Christmas presents wearing her Christmas pajamas. And she'll "help" decorate her first Christmas tree (read: She will attempt to eat ornaments and generally do everything in her power to make the process take 3 times longer than it should), and we'll hang up her Christmas stocking, and she'll get her very first Christmas ornament. If I don't explode before December 25th, that is.

2. Uggs- Yes, I know they are ugly. I agree wholeheartedly. But if you've ever worn them, you realize that they are so effing comfy that you simply won't care what they look like. When Matt was laughing at mine, I made him try them on (well, stick his giant foot in as far as it would go). His reaction? "Oh, Sweet Jesus!"

3. Coats, Jackets, and Outerwear of any kind- Much to Matt's disappointment/worry/gripping fear of bankruptcy, my love of coat shopping continues.

4. Hot Chocolate- Do I really need to explain this one? Hot chocolate is delicious!

5. Pumpkin bread- See explanation for #4.

6. Art Projects- Being a former preschool teacher, I have a huge catalogue of holiday art projects stored in my brain. I hope you all like reindeer footprints, because they will be made, photographed, and posted.

7. Heated Seats- I always thought heated seats in a car were a giant waste of money. Then, the car I bought just happened to have them. "Whatever," I thought. "I will probably never use them." Oh, how wrong I was. They are a delight.

8. Elliot's 1st Thanksgiving- As far as the actual Thanksgiving dinner goes, she'll probably eat mostly boring regular food, with maybe a few bites of mashed potatoes and possibly a tiny bit of pumpkin pie. I'm mostly excited for myself. Too bad I gave away all my maternity clothes, because those jeans would have made great Thanksgiving pants.

9. Elliot's 1st birthday party- Yes, it is still 4.5 months away, but I've been planning it for about a year now. I've already planned the cake, her outfit, and the invitations. I've also started trying to convince Matt that she needs to have a pony party for a later birthday celebration. I figure it I start working on him now, he'll be totally talked into it by the time she's 5.

Never Say Never

Yesterday I did something that I swore I would never do. We all have certain ideals that we'd like to live up to, and things usually don't go as planned. This one particular issue, though, was one I was determined to stay strong on. But I failed. I am weak. I gave in. I did it.





I bought skinny jeans.



And I love them.



A lot.



A whole, whole lot.



They're just so cute! And contrary to what I expected, they do not make my hips look 39309438 miles wide! And I can wear my favorite boots with them! And the sizing runs weird, so I got to buy them in a smaller size than usual! And in 5 years, when they are totally out of style, I can wear them to pick my kid up from school and embarrass the crap out of her!



Speaking of the kid, I found another cute picture from the pumpkin patch to share. We don't have that many pictures of all three of us together, so I really, really love this one.

Pumpkins and Ponies!!!

Today we took our sweet little stinker to the pumpkin patch at the lake. It's at the stables, so not only did she pick out her first Halloween pumpkin, she saw horses for the first time! I took a ridiculous amount of pictures, and they are all too cute not to share, so this is going to be a long one.

First reaction to the horses

Giddyup!