I love Daddy!

This is actually a photo from last month that I just uploaded. I love it.

Snow... Day 3

And the snow stuck around for a few days, so J and R got even more fun out of it. Here they are making a snow chair and having fun sitting in it.

Snow... Day 2

Then, overnight, we got a ton more snow. It totally rocked. We all got a snow day out of it. Here's J taking R out in the snow once again. Their little snowman from the day before got completely buried. (He also fell over). I didn't go outside because I no longer own snow boots and didn't want to get my feet wet. J also does not own snow boots and put plastic bags over his socks before putting shoes on. Fortunately R has a kick-butt snow suit that includes little waterproof boot covers, so she had nothing to worry about.

Snow... Day 1

It snowed the other weekend and J and R went outside and made a snowman. The snow was wet and perfect for packing and rolling snow. R had a lot of fun looking at the snowman and poking various sticks in it.

What J Gave Me for Valentine's Day

Date Night

So I've stood up a few of my co workers the last couple of weeks. They've been organizing a happy hour on Fridays at 4. I've never been able to go, but this week I swore up and down that I would make it at least for half an hour or so before heading home.

Unfortunately, I ended up backing out, yet again. They all think I'm a major loser! But I couldn't pass up the opportunity to have a date night with J. Grammie and Grampie spent three days driving around Baltimore and seeing various sights around there, and then came back in town on Thursday, and generously offered to watch R while J and I headed out on the town.

So awesome.

We went out to dinner at a really good asian restaurant and then went to the mall. Yeah, I know, kind of dull, but it was still fun to be out just the two of us, doing what we felt like without worrying about a squirmy fussy baby who wants to grab everything, or who would get way too tired to be out much past 7 p.m.

It was the first time we'd had a whole entire evening to ourselves in a long time. And it was great. We found a few christmas gifts. I found a gift I wanted to get my brother, Local Hero, but it didn't work out. I'll have to keep thinking. I found a few things I wanted for me but J made me wait. We bought some things for Grammie and Grampie as well as Grandma and Grandpa. And we browsed Barnes & Noble, which I love.

Now we're back home and back to the grindstone, with huge piles of work in front of us. But what a great break last night.

A comparison

Me between 14-16 months old:
A couple recent photos of R:
Some photos of J (we're not exactly sure how old he is in these photos, but we're guessing close to a year):

Weekend Update

R seems to be 90% better from her cold/respiratory infection. This is indeed cause for celebration. She slept a lot today, and had her fair share of crankiness, but her nose is not running and she has not had a fever since Thursday evening.

We've had a busy weekend, with a picnic on Saturday and running around town getting some shopping done today.

The funny thing is, though, that we've been getting up so early that when we left to go to the store, we were sure everything would already be open. In fact, though, it was only 9:00-- and nothing on Sunday is open at 9, really. It just felt later than that because we'd been up since 4:30 with R (well, actually, J let me go back to sleep until about 6:30) and it just seemed like it was late morning.

So we drove out to the mall where the Carter's store was (I wanted to get some long-sleeved onesies and some warm sleepwear for R, now that the nights are getting chillier) and it was only 9:30 and the store didn't open until 11! Because we were half an hour from home, we didn't want to waste the entire trip so we just killed some time by going to Office Depot when they opened at 10 to get a few things I needed for work and then browsing the grocery store that was right next to Carter's.

Doctor's Appointment

Yesterday Rosemary had her first doctor's appointment for actual sickness, not just a check up. He diagnosed her with an upper respiratory infection and prescribed some antibiotics. No ear infection and she's doing well. She's just crankier, and she wants to be held all the time. Here's hoping she gets better really soon. It'll be nice to be able to have her running around instead of crying to be picked up whenever she's on the floor. Poor J had to make pizza dough and put together calzones while holding her the entire time. Trying to roll out pizza dough one-armed is kind of hard, he said!

Mornings are better...

I'm still getting up between 4 and 5 a.m., but I'm also getting to bed a lot sooner. This is a Very Good Thing. I'm actually really enjoying the mornings, when I focus on my own work for an hour or so. Then I get Rosemary when she wakes up, get her breakfast and all, and try to head out to day care by 7:15. If I leave before 7:15, I get to work before 8 a.m. which is excellent, and I work pretty much 8-4:30 and head home around 4:30 for dinner.

The routine just seems to be coming into place. It's only been a few days that it's been "working" so keep your fingers crossed that it continues to do so.

J's been a little worn out though. R was little miss crankypants for much of the afternoon, he said. I witnessed it after I got home. She was just hard to keep entertained and seemed to want stuff that we couldn't figure out. But she went right to sleep at her usual bedtime.

It's so cute--lately at bedtime, she kind of twists and turns for the crib while I'm holding her, as if to say, "put me down in there already so I can go to sleep!" Also cute is the way she loves to say goodnight to J. After her bath we go downstairs to say night night. She blows kisses as soon as I start saying "night night" and then J will ask for a kiss and she gives him really sweet hugs and kisses... and then she'll pull away real fast and wave while saying "byebyebyebyebyebyebyeBYEbye."

She's so cute!

True Life Mad Libs

When J's family comes to visit, we always do Mad Libs. I think this started when his parents gave us Mad Libs for Christmas one year (although I'm not entirely sure if this is right), and since then we've done them just about every time we've gotten together with them. When they were visiting us earlier this summer, though, we found ourselves on a long car ride (to Austin) with no Mad Libs to keep us entertained.

Oh no!

But, fortunately, to save the day, we realized we could write our own Mad Libs.

So I bring to you True Life Mad Libs, Mad Libs that dish the truth about my in-laws' recent visit as well as their visit when R was born, and babysitting instructions that we leave when R has a babysitter.

A Recent Family Visit
When the Travolta Family was preparing to move to Austin, their parents/parents-in-law Debbie and her husband Kermit the Frog came to help swim their daughter Marie Osmond Travolta while the house got fell up. They all ate lots of riblets together, celebrated Marie Osmond's 1st birthday, and took a day trip to Mars. For her birthday, Marie Osmond Travolta
got a vulture, sunglasses, and blue gasoline. She farted them all but her especial favorite was getting to eat vegan while everyone sang Stairway to Heaven to her.

Visiting After Baby's Birth
We first heard the news of R's birth when daddy jumped us at 3 o'clock in the morning. He said, "Yowza it's a vegetable! She is so wooden. She weighs 42 lbs and her eyes are blue. She doesn't have much platypus on her molar." Mommy said she had a purple delivery. R was born nervously as she wasn't expected for another 1 2/3 weeks. Gram and Gramp were very square to see her and jumped on the steamboat as soon as they could to poop down to Texas to see her. When they first saw R, Grammie said, "Wow, she's so tired!" and Grampy said, "My giddy aunt, I can't believe she's so sweet." Grampy picked her up and laughed her all day long. When Grammie got her she opened her and sang her loud songs. They all had a great icepack and when it was time to go it was windy. But they knew they'd be back to yawn her again very soon.

Babysitting Instructions
Now that R is 625 years old, we can whine her with a babysitter. Here are some simple instructions that will help you keep her fluffy and not too sharp.

1) She has dinner at midnight. If you don't sleep, she will get very yucky. She likes to eat banana splits and watermelon. Give her gasoline to drink, too. Don't let her have any roller coasters, no matter how much she crawls.

2) After dinner, give her a bath in the sidewalk. Don't fill it up with too much skyscrapers, and be sure it's not too warm. Her balloons are on the side and you can let her trot with them as long as she likes. Use a shoe to dry her off and put an ankle sock and underpants on her.

3) Her favorite books are Snuffleupagaus and Mind Your Manners. All of her funny toys are in her toy. Let her play for about half a century before she goes to bed.

4) When she starts croaking her toes, you know she is sandy. That's when she should go to the playground. If she cries, just climb her. If that doesn't work, try dumping her to sleep.

5) After she gets to sleep, you can swish. We should be home around high noon. Good luck! If there's a barrette, you can call us at 555-1234.

Home Entertainment

R's new thing is watching videos of herself on the camera. She can't be very far away from it, so J will just hold the camera at arm's length, hoping that he's aiming right, and shoot 30-40 second videos, which she then can't wait to watch. Most of the videos end up being of her whining or fussing for the camera, but that doesn't stop her from giggling, laughing, pointing, talking, and even dancing when she watches herself on camera.

ADDED: Here's a picture of what she looks like whenever she isn't looking at pictures of herself on camera.

How to Play With Toys

99% of the time when R encounters a toy, she does not do the thing that I think she is supposed to do with it, or the thing that I expect she will really like doing with it.

This lesson has become especially clear when watching her play with this dinosaur toy that J couldn't resist buying for R at our local Once Upon a Child-- I think he picked it up when she was only a couple of months old.
When she finally got old enough to sit up on her own and hold the balls that came with it, I fully expected her to want to put the balls through the colored rings at the top of the dinosaur. When the balls go in, they push a little trigger that then makes music start playing. She didn't so much put the balls through to make the music play, though. She just stuck her hand in there and pushed the thing with her fingers. Much more efficient.

Now, she ignores the top holes altogether and spends most of her time stuffing the balls into the openings they run out of: the two holes you see at the bottom, the big hole in the middle (which isn't a hole the balls come out of but she puts the balls in there, too) and, of course, up the dinosaur's mouth.
I'm sure I have a lot more to learn about how to play with this thing. I'll keep you updated.

Peek-a-boo!