We're really great!

19 months, eh?

2012-01-27T07:59:00.000-08:00

Ugh 19 months? It sounds like it's starting to get silly counting the months. Will I ever stop? I don't wanna...

Gabriella is a talking machine now. She repeats everything we say and we really need to start watching our mouths. She runs around like a madwoman, loves to sing and dance (she can plie, and when we tell her to be a ballerina she puts her arms over her head and twirls), and is working on a couple incisors (I believe that's what they're called - the fang teeth?). She is such a joy and we adore her so so much.

I know I know, lame blog update. But the months are really starting to mush together in my head. Maybe I'm getting old. ;-)

Oh! And I am having a little giveaway over on my business page www.facebook.com/alexandrakellerphotography! If you're in the greater Los Angeles/Ventura county area you might just wanna check it out - you could win a free session! xoxo

18 Months

2011-12-22T09:21:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted since Gabriella's 17 month post?! Unreal. My bad :-) You can catch up with everything else I've been up to here: www.alexandrakellerphotography.com, www.facebook.com/alexandrakellerphotography and twitter.com/kellerphoto.

So this past month was the verbal boom we've been long awaiting. I'd say she now has about 25-30 words, whereas a month ago it was only a few. She's even put together a couple words to make little sentences, like go down, oh no, etc. It's so much fun hearing her talk and try to communicate what she wants. And it's super funny to hear her say cock for clock and shit for sit. Probably won't be as funny when she says it out in public, but what are ya gonna do? ;-)

Hanukkah is in full swing (we had a hanukkah/half birthday party last night!) and it's almost Christmas, so I think I can safely share what she's getting from Santa. I doubt she'll be checking the blog before then anyway.

To go with the theme, she's also getting pots and pans, a ton of wooden Melissa & Doug foods and of course this to tote them all in:

That's just the tip of the iceberg! She has so many gifts that I'm debating taking some out to reserve for Easter or her birthday. I can't wait to see her go nuts with all the presents this year. :-)

17 Months

2011-11-28T22:04:00.000-08:00

Oh hai! Yes Gigi turned 17 months on the 21st and it's already the 28th and I haven't blogged about it yet! I'll be totally honest with y'all. I'm slacking, and it will probably be this way for a while. Maybe indefinitely. I've taken on a lot on my plate, and while I am super duper thrilled with all the fabulous happenings in my life, blogging here has taken a bit of a backseat. I do want to check in and keep track of all of my girl's milestones and whatnot, but for most day to day things, I'll probably be skimping out on them. I do appreciate all my loyal followers and hope that you don't all continue to drop like flies (I'm looking at you, #147!), but if you do, I get it. If you want to keep up with all the rest of what I'm up to, please go ahead and follow my business www.facebook.com/alexandrakellerphotography and www.alexandrakellerphotography.com :-)

Whew! Now that we got all that out of the way, let's get right back to G's 17 month old-edness. She is so spunky and full of life... and into eeeeeverything. She must be watched like a hawk because if you don't pay attention, you end up with oatmeal all over the family room or all of your bubble bath poured into the tub. But this stage is totally fun, as she keeps developing her little preferences (still daddy!). She's saying about 15 or so words, some all the time and some not too consistently. I think her language development may be a little slower because she is learning 2 languages at once. She dances all the time. She tries to hop. She is in LOVE with Santa. She prefers to feed herself with her fork or spoon. She loves cheese and bread (mama's girl here!) and is starting to become pickier with what she will eat (total mama's girl here unfortunately!). I just adore her so much and we are having so much fun with all the craziness she brings to this house (she loves to yell at us like a dictator if she sees fit). I believe it was rainy on the 21st so I snapped these on our bed as we lazed around enjoying a rousing episode of Sesame Street. :-)

Told ya she's spunky :-)

Halloween 2011

2011-11-01T23:38:00.000-07:00

Gabriella had a TOTAL blast on Halloween this year. We went trick or treating more out of formality, and I really didn't expect her to be that into it. Boy, was I wrong. She was grinning from ear to ear watching all the other kids in costumes and grabbing candy to add to her little pail. We made it to about a dozen houses before she started getting sluggish so we headed home to put her to bed (but not before examining our loot first!). She was the little lamb so we went as farmers :-)

That little smudge on her chin is her first taste of chocolate. She spit it right out. lol

All About Fall

2011-10-27T11:03:00.000-07:00

We took a second trip to the farm near our house to grab some pumpkins... and uhh take a ton of pictures of my babe of course. ;-) I still haven't shared pictures from our first trip to the patch (and hubby and I are actually IN those too!) so it only makes sense that I start backwards, right? Errr...

Found it!

16 months

2011-10-27T08:56:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, I'm SUPER behind on posting here. But guys, I'm *busy*. You only have yourselves to blame, really. Encouraging me to follow my dreams and all. ;-)

Anyhow our little bug is now 16 months old. Her favorite things ever are:

Daddy.

Daddy.

Oh yeah, and uhhh DADDY!

Seriously, I'm peanuts now. Ah well. It's so sweet how much she adores him. Even if I'm a little (ok a lot) jelly.

Those ASPCA animal cruelty commercials make her smile like mad and laugh. In all fairness, she just sees animals, which she loves... but it's still hysterical to see her crack up while the sad Sarah McLachlan song is playing and kitties are locked up behind bars. This kid's sense of humor is RIPE I tell you. She loves "sneaking" up behind us and us pretending we don't know where she is. Oh! And there's the incident of me leaving her in her room for literally 8 seconds while I went to wash my hands... and finding her stomping on poo from a disassembled diaper on the ground. She fished it right out of the diaper genie and saw fit to do a jig right on it, on the carpet. With her massive grin, I couldn't really be mad. But seriously, I can't leave her alone, period. This child must be watched like a hawk or she's liable to do all sorts of crazy things.

Speaking of watching like a hawk, she hit a kid at Gymboree. Not a kid, a baby smaller than her. With a pumpkin. Up until now she had been getting pushed around a bit, and she never really seemed to mind. It concerned Adam, who wanted her to "stand up for herself" (an idea I wasn't too fond of) but I just chalked it up to kids being kids. That's not to say we didn't spend our car ride home completely tearing apart the mother of the kid who pushed ours. Clearly she wasn't being vigilant enough with her kid. Yeahhh... it's really awful being on the other side of things. We don't know why she did it, but she just lashed out and started smacking this little girl on the head. Hopefully it's not a new habit, but she's feisty at times so I guess we really need to keep teaching her how to be gentle.

LOL between the laughing at animal cruelty, stomping on poo and pounding on other kids, it's sure sounding like my little girl is quite the bully! But I swear, she's still all lady (most of the time). She loves carrying her purses around the house with her, and brushes her hair whenever she gets her hands on a hair brush... or a tooth brush. :-) There really is no greater feeling than coming home and having her run up to me and giving me a huge thigh hug.

...and of course...

Oh! And my web site is live now! Please stop by :-) www.alexandrakellerphotography.com (and you can still check out my facebook and "like" me at www.facebook.com/alexandrakellerphotography). Thanks! xoxo

I'm TERRIBLE, I know!

2011-10-13T09:53:00.000-07:00

I so suck at blogging lately, but I've just been super duper busy, I promise. Ya know, trying to start things and whatnot. :-)

In the meantime, if y'all are still out there, you can do me a solid and click "like" on www.facebook.com/alexandrakellerphotography

And now you know ALL my secrets. Well, most of them. ;-)

Massive fun post to come soon involving a trip to the pumpkin patch, Disneyland, and other stuffs. xoxo

This is true.

2011-09-26T23:23:00.001-07:00

I got two hits on my blog this week from someone googling "gross stuff".

Hope you found it.

A little blueprint...

2011-09-26T22:52:00.000-07:00

So I mentioned in my last post that I've embarked on my photography adventure... and I'd love to share some of my little tricks along the way with y'all. One of my favorites involves editing. To me it's super important to get it right in camera, but editing can give pictures so much more... oomph! for lack of a better word haha. Here is a little blueprint that I'm actually submitting in MCP Actions' latest contest.

the before is on top, the after below - duh :-)

I used some fusion actions on this one: One click color at 50%, Urban at 20%, Rustic at 25%, dodgeball on eyes and selective sharpening on eyes and lips. I also touched up her skin with the powder your nose tool.

What do you guys think? I love the warmth and liveliness of the after. Can you just tell that I am so loving what I'm doing? :-)

Check out www.mcpactions.com for sooo many tips on photoshop and incredible actions too!

15 Months Old

2011-09-23T08:17:00.000-07:00

Oh hi! Yes I know this is my 2nd post this month, but I've been so busy working on... things. I do apologize if the 3 of you have missed me (is this thing on?!). Anyway, onwards!

Gabby's new thing is pointing to everything and asking "this?" She wants to know what everything is/does.
She barks like a dog whenever she sees one. But it sounds more like grunting, which is even cuter!
She can point out her head, ears, nose, feet, belly and boobies. :-) Still giving the biggest cheeseball grin when we ask her to show us her teeth.
She's started to not mind tooth brushing, which is great. It used to be a wrestling match just to get a quick brushing in but now she's ok with it.
Her stats! I almost forgot... 27 lbs 11 oz (95th%) and 32" tall (90%). Noggin measuring in at 19.25" (97%). And I was going to say I thought she was really starting to lean out!
She's loving her little wand that I got her, her little pink armchair (must share a pic of this soon, it's such a good buy!) and books. Girl loves books. But she's taken a liking to bending the binding back so we're really going to have to try to get her to not destroy them or get used to the idea of buying more than 1 of each book.
There's this little cartoon that comes on in between real cartoons called So Smart. It's got a duck, a pig and a lion and is the most simple, basic little 5 minute animation... and she is just wildly enthralled by it. My dad turns the TV on at 8:50 every morning for her so she can catch her fave show. :-)

We had a dr's appointment on her exact 15 month birthday so she got to celebrate by getting 3 shots. She did not take this lightly, and now 2 days later she seems like she's sick. I don't know if it's just reaction from the shots or if she's sick from the flu shot (I always seem to get a mini flu when I get the shot). Poor girl. But on her monthday she was just fine after a nice long nap so we went to the park for her 15 month photo shoot.

Here's my little lady:

Oh yeah and with a little bit of courage (and lots of nerves!), I've started my photography business. More on that soon... Thank you all so much for the support!

Thinking ahead (per usual)...

2011-09-06T08:41:00.000-07:00

The day after labor day signifies a year since I've returned to work from maternity leave. It also means it's time to decide on a Halloween costume! Because I am a total Type-A when it comes to my daughter, I have to figure these things out way in advance. Last year I just knew she had to be a duck. We called her duckie the whole time I was pregnant and there's something so adorable about a little baby in a fluffy costume. I'd like to keep her in a fluffy costume this year too, because before I know it, she'll be wanting to be a princess/batgirl/beer wench. I'd better hold onto her babyness this year too and go fluffy :-)

So here are the contenders so far:

Little Lamb

This is probably my front-runner. Cute, cuddly, and cute. And it's a very similar setup to the costume she wore last year. I'm making us all dress up this year, so we'd need to figure out what to be to match her. I'm thinking farm animals? I could be Mary but I'm not sure what that would entail. I'd be a much better pig/cat/cow.

Bat

I know this one's not all cuddly, and it's all black which I'm not usually a fan of, but the expression on this kid's face was just too cute to not post.

Puffy Owl

How cute is this?! I have a feeling the wings would bug her though. And she'd probably pull the cape off altogether.

Watermelon or Strawberry

I love these but think she would yank the little hat off in no time. But a whole family dressed like fruits is appealing. Ahhh this is just making me more and more indecisive as I go along...

Chicken

I mean, why not continue in the duck vain by going poultry all the way? It's probably a boy's costume but I think it's so funnycute.

Horse Rider

OK this one's not really a contender, but it cracked me up. I'm still laughing. It's kind of amazing.

My Day as a Wedding Photographer

2011-08-31T08:16:00.000-07:00

My cousin married his lovely girlfriend last Saturday in a ceremony planned in less than 10 days! :-o
They didn't really have a massive budget for a photographer or anything... so... I was it! (err her?). I happily took pictures of their ceremony and after that we went to a park and did some more portraits. On the way over to the reception (which was at my parents' house) we stopped by a beautiful tree-lined street and seized the opportunity for some pictures there as well.

What I can say about wedding photographers... hats off to them, man. Everything goes by so fast, so you really have to be ON your game to capture all the important moments (rings being exchanged, the kiss (especially if it's just a quick peck like they did!), quick little inside smiles to one another...). I was really thrilled that they entrusted me to capture their day, and I'm happy how the pictures are coming along (uhhh I took about 1000 shots, I think I have quite a bit of editing to do!). I gave them a little sneak peek the other day and I wanted to post them here too:

I'm really loving photography. If I must be totally candid with y'all, I maybe (not-so) secretly want to do this professionally, as a career. I'm always full of self-doubt and know that I still have a lot of improving and honing of my skills before that day could possibly come, but it's my little secret wish that I thought I'd let out. Maybe one day...

An Update

2011-08-24T09:05:00.000-07:00

I went in yesterday for my biopsy. The nice lady did an ultrasound on my arm pit for about 10 minutes, looking thoroughly and digging deeply to get the best look in there. She then left the room to get the radiologist, while I laid there, anxiously awaiting what was about to happen. I looked over at the screen and saw this:

Well now I'm no expert by any means, but those two things there on the left looked scary to me. I held my breath until the dr. came into the room... and with a smile said everything looked absolutely normal!

Whew! I can't begin to tell you the relief I feel. I immediately hugged my dear friend who came with me and called hubby up in (happy) tears to tell him the news. I feel so lucky and blessed right now that I don't have to travel back down that road again. Last night we celebrated with yummy cupcakes. Life (and health) should never, ever be taken for granted.

14 Months Old

2011-08-23T07:06:00.000-07:00

My little love is 14 months old now! Before I know it she'll be old enough where it'll be silly to count by the months. I always thought it was ridiculous when people would say their kid was 21 months old... why not just say almost 2? Now I totally get it. They're so different each month. Always learning, always developing. She's accomplished so much since last month:

Kicked the bottle to the curb! Now we're doing a full-time sippy situation. It took about 194 different cups, but we found the magic winner: A Pampers brand (who knew?) step 4 sippy cup that I picked up at Vons while grocery shopping. She's taken to it really well so I went back for more and bought the last one they had. I haven't been able to come across these anywhere else, so hopefully I can get my hands on a few more soon. It's not so much fun alternating between two cups vs. the bunches of bottles we had before.
She's got some new words: duck and uck (yuck). I think she's a little confused by uck, because she uses it even when she likes something (like dinner). Silly goose - er duck. :-) She says up when she wants up and also when she wants to be put back down. Oh! And today (though it should count for next month's post technically) she did something super awesome. We were reading "That's Not My Pirate" and we were on the page that said his eye patch was too bumpy. So she repeated "bump". We were thrilled by this, so when we finished the book we asked her where the bumpy pirate was. She opened the book and turned to the page with that pirate and said "The bump." She also says "Wha's da?" Those are two words together, people. Someone call Harvard, stat.
She's got 11 teeth now. Last month was a definite tooth boom. 3 of them molars, no less. And she did pretty well considering! So 6 on top and 5 on the bottom, if you're counting.
She nods her head yes by bowing her whole body forward. It's awesome.
Sleeping through the night consistently. It's awesome.
I'm going to be honest and confess that I don't want to take away the pacifiers just yet... because I think she looks so cute and baby-like with them. The pedi said he's not concerned about that at least for another year, and I probably won't let it go that long, but for now, I like giving her the binks for nap and bedtime (really the only times she gets one... or if she's screaming in a restaurant!).
She wears a size 6 shoe now (5 in sandals) and some 12-18 or 18-24 month clothes. I've started buying jammies in 2T! I have no update on her weight as the monthly dr. appts have slowed to every 3 months now. Next one's at the end of Sept! What I can tell you, is that she weighs a ton!
Her favorite things are "dancing" to music (Wiggles are her fave, but she'll go for anything really), knocking down block towers, catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror, reading quietly by herself in the corner (she likes alone time periodically), running circles around me, jumping on my back and riding me like a pony (ha!), ravioli and all fruit.
Speaking of food, she's a great eater! We have had a lot of luck in this department, thankfully. She has her daddy's palette for veggies and fruit.
She's totally going through a daddy phase right now. I don't like this picking favorites business, but that very well may be because I'm not the one winning. Ah well, it'll be my turn eventually, right? Hubs says it's all in my head, but I suspect he's grinning ear to ear behind my back.

Taking pictures of her is now a whole new beast. She runs all over the place, and hardly has time to stop and pose for me like the little model she once was. What happened to my ham?!

Here's what I usually get - the back of her head haha. But at least it shows off all that hair that's coming in! Looks like she's getting my curls!

Well...

2011-08-22T09:08:00.000-07:00

I'll have Gabriella's 14 month update soon, but I wanted to write a little about what's going on with me right now.

I had a pet scan a little while ago and the results weren't quite perfect. It appeared to show some increased activity in my right underarm, and while my dr. tried to not seem too concerned about it, he did want to get it checked into on a more thorough level. He felt around and while he couldn't feel anything, the scan is showing measurements of 1.8 (anything over 2 and they worry). He thinks it could be from my arthritis throwing things off, but again, wants to look into it more carefully to make sure we're not looking at iwonttypetheword here.

So, I have a biopsy on Tuesday.

I really hate that word, since it sounds so serious and all, but it is what it is. I'm trying to remain as optimistic as possible, because I really don't want to think about all the what ifs of going through this all over again. Any time I think about it I just look at my sweet baby girl and she somehow makes it all better. I could never imagine leaving her behind (one of the godawful whatifs that crosses my mind), and the thought of that just destroys me. So I've decided that I'm OK. :-) I'll have to wait about 4 days after Tuesday to be really sure of that, but for now, I'm OK.

Like Riding a Bicycle

2011-08-11T08:53:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in my last post that we took a little getaway to Huntington Beach. We really just went for one night since my mom's work had her at a conference down there. We brought Gabby and decided to take full advantage of the free room and pool :-)

Naturally I brought my camera with us, but I just didn't feel like taking pictures*. I wanted to run around like a kid, so we did. We played poolside, and ran around the resort after G. On a whim we decided to rent bicycles, one with a little tow-thingy for babies. I... uhhh... have never ridden a bike without training wheels before. I know, right!? What kind of childhood did I have? A great one! I stayed indoors and read books. So Adam was a little nervous about me getting on a bike and riding around the boardwalk. Probably not nervous that I'd go flying over the handlebars; more like "This is going to be a royal waste of money because you can't ride a bike".

Whatever hubs. I can ride a bike. It's like riding a bicycle.

Wait.

And in action:

See!? I was a total pro. Now I *totally* need a bike.

Here's my girl getting ready to go for a ride:

Note how totally safe I was by wearing a helmet, and how Adam thinks it's totally cool to live on the edge and not. Not cool, man!

And one more pic of Geebs prancing around the resort:

*iPhone pictures don't count. So I really was taking a break from the camera. Technically. :-)

Is this thing on?

2011-08-11T08:25:00.000-07:00

Well it has recently been called to my attention that I have neglected my blog. Sometimes you just need a little hiatus, so I took one... err I should say we took one. We ventured out to the beach last week for a little more fun in the sun. Actually it should be quite shameful on my part for not posting more, because our weekends have been JAM packed since July, and we're booked right through the end of August! We even had a little weekend getaway at the Hyatt Huntington Beach a few weekends ago, and I hardly took any pictures there. I guess it's not a real getaway if I'm always behind a lens - even though I love my hobby, I need to remember to live in the moment sometimes too! Maybe I'll rustle up some iphone pictures of me riding a bike for the first time - I'm sure that'll tickle someone. In the meantime here's us at the beach - and by us I mean Geebs and hubbs. Why am I never in pictures? Oh yeah...

She caught wind of this little boy and it was love at first sight. So she chased him.

Gotcha!

These photos are so insanely vibrant and they're pretty much SOOC (straight out of camera).

Ick, why doesn't the seaweed stuff gross her out?! I guess babies don't gross out lol.

Back to the little boy...

Love at first sight I tell ya. I think I need to teach her about playing hard to get.

13 Months Old!

2011-07-21T23:50:00.000-07:00

Yeah, you didn't think I was done with the whole monthly update/photos did you?! She really is getting harder and harder to photograph as she gets older. I was chasing her around the park this afternoon as she ran circles around me! *sigh* These aren't the best pics but they're pretty much all about where she's at right now. All over the place! Here's what we've been up to this past month:

Gabriella's 7th tooth came out to join us this month. Bottom right. Err her left. Our right.
She is really making a great effort to repeat what we say. The other day hubby heard her say happy after he said it. She keeps saying "Tim". We don't know who Tim is. Either she has an imaginary friend, or a boyfriend. I thought as parents we were supposed to be experts at figuring out what our kid is saying!
She pats her head when we ask her where her head is. When we ask where her belly is, sometimes she'll rub her tummy. And when we ask her where her nose is, she shakes her head no! Haha how do you explain the difference between no and nose to a toddler? She'll shake her head no if you say "know" also. Man this English language is hard.
She finally gives hugs when we ask her for hugs! She kept giving us the cold shoulder with that for a while. Now if we can just get her to give us kisses, we'll be happy campers! Apparently she's in a no-PDA phase.
Still taking a bottle. Has absolutely zero interest in trying one of the 16 different kinds of sippy cups we've gotten her. We've even tried just regular straws and drinking straight from a cup. It ain't happening. Bottles are cool, dude.
Her naps have regulated themselves to being pretty clockwork now. 8:15 - 9:30 ish and 1 - 3 ish. She wakes up every day around 6 a.m. and goes to bed at 7:30.
Will only eat if she feeds herself. Otherwise she'll spit whatever it is out and put it back in herself. She's gotta be in control now. If it's something like soup, I just give her a spoon and after I give her a spoonful, she sticks her spoon in her mouth, as if she's the one doing it. Silly girl.
Her favorite games right now are peek-a-boo, bringing me random items (and even ones that I ask for specifically!), and dancing. She loves grooving to music, especially her newest love, The Wiggles. Seriously this Wiggles shit is crazy. We looked at ticket prices to see them when they play in our area - umm $65 a ticket. Hey, they're a legit band, right? Adam and I get the music stuck in our heads all day long. I think we kind of like it, which is the scary part.
I'm certain I'm missing a million other things, because she is growing by the minute! It's so funny to think that a couple months ago we had to carry her everywhere (or use the stroller), and now she prefers to walk around like us! Though admittedly it does slow us down, as she loves to stop for the occasional rock inspection or dog. She adores ALL dogs. True story - We were marveling at how much she loves pups and I said we should get her one. Then I realized we have one. Dog mama FAIL.

The problems a 13 month old has: Which leaf should I eat?

How am I supposed to fit all my stuff into this purse?!

Where's my ride?!

Peek-a-boo! OK, that's not really a problem, but it sure is fun!

Fun on the Farm

2011-07-08T10:19:00.000-07:00

I know I'm getting pretty corny with my post titles!

I wanted to share these pictures I took of G yesterday at the little farm near us. You can go and pick your own fruits and vegetables! We let G have at it in the field, and before we knew it she had plopped herself down in front of the strawberries and started munching away. She got strawberry all over her, but it was so cute, we couldn't help but not mind the mess. And thankfully, with some magical Oxy Clean, the stains came right out! We had so much fun - we're totally going back for more. Maybe next time we'll come in our schlubby clothes (uhhh does she even own schlubby clothes??).

The only picture of the 3 of us we got...

Gladys the Bull.

Note the anticipatory drool...

Aaaand after a little cleanup...

Just Beachy

2011-07-07T00:06:00.000-07:00

The day before 4th of July (errr that would just be July 3rd) we took Gabriella to the beach. We hadn't been since last year (and that was just a nightmare - seriously, who brings an 8 week-old to the beach!?) so we weren't sure how she would feel about it, but she LOVED it. We figured she'd freak out when her little toes hit the cold water but she kept wanting more! I think we have a little fish on our hands.

What's so funny?!

Oh! I guess I was pretty funny. I'll do anything to get a laugh out of these two...

Yummy goldfish!

Err - what'cha lookin' for in there, G?

I have a feeling we're in for a lot of time at the beach this summer!

Happy 4th of July!

2011-07-05T00:39:00.000-07:00

We had a pretty low-key 4th of July around these parts. I worked (holiday pay = heck yes I'm working) in the morning and we goofed around in the backyard when it cooled off in the late afternoon (and by cooled off I mean about 93 degrees instead of 102). We really wanted to go by the big park that had music, games and food set up for the fireworks show, but there was NO parking, and we would be leaving before the fireworks anyway to get G to bed, so it didn't make sense. We stopped by our usual little park and horsed around a little while, which was just about the perfect way to spend our 4th.

The 12 Month Post

2011-06-30T20:46:00.000-07:00

Can I keep counting by months? You know, so I don't have to say "My child is ONE!!?!!!!" all the time? OK, nice.

I'm obviously a little bit late in posting this, but I knew we had our 12 month dr. visit on the 30th so I wanted to wait so I can have all the numbers all ready to go for her ~~one year~~ 12 month post. Here is what Miss G has been up to since last month:

Definitely walking! From her first step on May 24 (Daddy's Birthday!), to a bunch of steps on June 10, to really wanting to walk around now. I would say she really took off walking the week before her birthday (Friday night before her party she was walking all over the kitchen while I was baking!). Now she's walking more than crawling.
Shaking her head no at me all the time now! "Gigi, will you give mama a kiss?" ::head shake:: "Aw Gabs, what about a hug?" ::head shake, mischievous grin:: The kid's got serious comic timing.
She loves to feed herself at mealtime now. The day before her actual b-day my parents and I went out to lunch, and I ordered her first little meal! She fed herself all the little fruit I got her, and ate a little kid's slice of cheese pizza. Am I horrible to have let her have pizza? It's just bread, cheese and sauce, no?! ::ducks::
She developed a little phobia of the bath, but we've been able to get her over it. She swallowed a little water when daddy was rinsing her hair one night and naturally DH and I freaked out. Since then she cried and tried to climb out of the tub every time we gave her a bath. My mom got her this for her birthday and now she LOVES the bath. Funny how a toy can make it not scary anymore.
She's 24 lbs 13 oz and 31 inches tall (94th and 95th percentiles). Her head circumference is 19 inches, which measures off the charts! That's because she's full of thoughts.
She's in size 4 diapers and 12-18 month clothes. Her jammies are 24 months/2T now, though! It's so funny to me that she's consistently in the 90th+ percentiles for height and weight, but clothing-wise she's pretty on target with her age. In fact, she's still wearing 6-12 month sizes from Janie and Jack and in dresses!
She's a little chatterbox, but of course nobody knows what she's saying. She still says UP all the time, and mama and dada. She's started saying "hap" and we think she's trying to say happy. :-) She also says "at", which I think is the beginning of "that", and "pap" for papi (Romanian cutesy way of saying food). She tries hard to repeat what we're saying (today I could swear she said bubbles). She also likes to chew on her jelly sandals.
She rang in her new year with 6 teeth total. 4 uppers, 2 lowers, and I swear she's working out some molars now. She bites on things all the time, and has been waking up a bit at night again.
Sleep is fairly good around here. We're used to her sleeping soundly through the night again, so now that she seems to be teething again we're having to get back into the swing of waking up a couple times a night. And motrin doesn't seem to be helping too much. Hopefully these teeth all come in already so she doesn't have to deal with it for much longer. I hate seeing her in pain. :-(
Naps are now 2x a day, and her afternoon one is a solid 3 hours (usually around 12-3ish, but can be flexible). It's amazing. I never put her on a set schedule of what time to nap (I just always put her down when she seems sleepy), and I'm wondering if I should do that, because it seems like a lot of people do. On the one hand it seems very convenient to always know when your little one will be going down for a nap so you can plan your day accordingly, but on the other hand, what happens if you HAVE to be out or something? What if your baby isn't tired AT ALL when their nap time comes, or what if they're super tired earlier? Like for G's birthday - I had the start time as 1 p.m., because at the time I printed the invites, she slept 3x a day, so I figured 1 would be best. Then she started on this longer nap kick, so I was worried about her being off at the party. We just kept her up a little later for her morning nap and she napped for 3 hours right before the party started! I love having this flexibility, yet I am worried that it might not be the best for her in the long run. Does she need more structure? ::sigh:: I really never know what to do. lol
We moved up from our music class to regular Gymboree play and learn classes. They bring out the parachute and everything. And yeah, it freaks her out a tiny bit :-)
She still finds me the funniest.person.ever. I love making her laugh. I have a soundtrack of it permanently lodged into my head, and it's positively glorious.
She's started to not so much eat her books as sit and gingerly turn the pages and look at them. Real progress here!
She really loves music (she grabbed the guitar from her "career" tray!) and "dances" (bounces up and down) when she hears it. I'm already chomping at the bit to put her in dance classes. They start at 18 months, ya?!?

For her actual birthday we took her to Build a Bear and let her pick out her own stuffed animal.

We can now order her food from the kids' menu! She had a fruit and cheese plate and loved it. :-)

Picking just the right bear (a dog!)

Watching the fluffing!

All done!

She named her Dottie and got her a bikini. She's a summery dog.

We went back home and filled up her little pool and splashed around for a bit.

We ended the day with a little bit of cake and a pony ride. Such a perfect way to celebrate her 1st birthday!

Our Weekend Hijinks

2011-06-29T08:32:00.000-07:00

I think this is the first weekend in forevah that all the pictures I have are of me and the hubby, sans baby! I'm a little bit shocked at this. But, we had fun, and it was nice to get out without worrying about little Geebs. On Saturday night we went to the Magic Castle with a great friend of ours and her boyfriend. We had gone last year, but she had extra tickets so why waste an excuse to dress up and have some libations?! (As an aside, lest you assume I'm a total lush, I hardly EVER drink, so a glass and a half of zin made for a wild night for this girl!)

We so got scolded for taking pictures inside. Apparently we ruined the exclusivity of the place. Whatever. I felt like a girl of 23 again. ;-)

Then, on Sunday we went out on the lake on a pontoon boat with some other good friends of ours. So.much.fun. I think we may need to buy a boat.

(aren't they adorable!?)

(p.s. we caught no fish)

Now it just feels plain weird to not include a picture of my daughter in this post. Yeah, I guess I'm that mom.

OK, now I'm done. :-) I have a nice big fat 1 year post all set for tomorrow, after her 1 year check up. Have to get her measurements first, right!?

Gabriella's 1st Bee Day Party

2011-06-22T22:25:00.000-07:00

Here are all the deets for Gabriella's very first birthday party. As I mentioned before, we decided to go with a bee theme because... uh... I like the color yellow. Haha seriously! I'd seen some really cute cupcake toppers from TomKat Studio on etsy, and an adorable yellow pettiskirt from Dreamspun Kids, also on etsy, and I just knew this was what I wanted to do for her 1st. I wanted to keep within the color palette of yellows and white and keep the theme relatively light, with some small touches of black to avoid it looking too dark/tacky. I mean, this is a little girl's party after all!

I made pretty much everything. I ended up buying a little digital party package from TomKat Studio in March (I know, way in advance!) because she was offering a 20% off discount. If you know me, you know I jump at a chance to save some money! I had the hardest time deciding between using the black polka dot invitations or the yellow stripe invite. In the end I really liked the black one, even though I had wanted to shy away from too much black (I guess I'm a sucker for polka dots!). I really wanted to be able to include a picture of Gabriella along with the invitations because, well, taking pictures of my little ham is my thing. I picked up this adorable bee outfit from last year's collection from Gymboree on ebay and snapped some pictures of her in our front yard. I bought adhesive magnet sheets and used my scalloped circle punch to cut little rounds out of both magnet sheets and wallet-sized prints of her. I just stuck the picture on the adhesive part and included it along with the invite.

Here's a better version of the photo (hard to get a great picture of a picture!):

One of the first decorating projects I embarked on was the tissue door wreath. There's a far better tutorial out there than I could give y'all and it's right here. I used a bit more tissue than she recommends... but other than that it was a simple little project that I was able to mindlessly do while watching Real Housewives. To personalize it, I attached a letter G with ribbon I found on clearance at my local craft store.

I also saw these ruffled streamers used on a party online, and really wanted to figure out how to replicate them. I just sewed streamers together, bunching as I fed them through the sewing machine. I think they made a great backdrop for my sweets table!

Speaking of which, yep, I made most of the sweets. Red Velvet Cupcake Pops, Vanilla Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting, Chocolate Mini Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting, Cheesecake Bites, Lemon Bars, Chocolate Covered Marshmallows, Gabriella's Angel Food cake... Yeah I really put some mileage on my Kitchenaid Mixer. I spent some of Thursday evening and alllllllll of Friday baking. It was worth it though, because 1) it saved us tons of money, and 2) people loved everything (I think).

I also found some honey beer to serve the adults ;-)

For centerpieces for the tables, I found inspiration again online, in the form of floral arrangements made to look like little cupcakes! I just had to have them, so I went to big lots and found the plastic containers for under a dollar apiece. I spray painted the bright neon containers white, bought some white taper candles, and picked up floral foam at the craft store. And then they just sat there. For a month. And the day before her party I realized that I had no clue where to find white flowers like the ones she uses. I ended up picking these white silk flowers up at Jo Anns for 60% off and they worked beautifully! I didn't have to worry about any wilting, and I can use the remains for making headbands and clips. It's a win win. ;-)

I took it upon myself to make tissue poms as well. I'm just not a fan of spending money on things that I can very well do myself. The very best tutorial out there on how to make these is by none other than Martha Stewart. Just keep in mind when cutting, that you don't need to cut through all the layers at once. Separate them and cut little portions, and save yourself the carpal tunnel that is sure to plague you if you didn't figure this out until you were 3 poms in like I did. Oh and check the dollar store for tissue first! I picked up the white tissue - 40 sheets for $1 there. The tissue in the packs at Hallmark, Walmart and Target, etc. is about 6-8 to a pack and costs around $1-$3 (had no other option for the yellow, but it's still cheaper than the almost $4 per pom it would cost to purchase online). I used anywhere from 8-10 sheets on each pom.

Another little project I worked on, with the help of a friend with a Cricut, was this happy birthday banner. She cut out the letters and "frames" from white cardstock and I used various yellow scrapbook papers for the backing. I used yellow, black and white ribbons to connect them together.

I wanted to display all the monthly pictures I took of G around the entrance to the party, so I used these little clothespins and a string and hung up 4x6 prints from that. It was fun watching people peruse this and listening to them pick out their fave monthly pics. (Sorry for the terrible photo, due to MEMORY CARD FAILURE - ZOMG! - I didn't get a shot of this so I just slapped it on the wall inside to give y'all the idea.)

On to entertainment! I did not want to spend the money to hire a juggler/magician/psychiatrist to perform for everyone. Yes, I knew I had to have something a little fun for the little ones that would be there, so I came up with the idea of a "Bubble Bar". I love bubbles, man. They're so fun. So why not buy a bunch of bubble toys and put them out for all the kids to play with? Totally cheap, and great since I so will be playing with these toys later. I mean Gabriella. She will be playing with them later. I also got a bucket of chalk from the $1 section at Target and set up a "Chalk Zzzzone". I'm so punny. They were both a big hit!

I wanted to get bee cookies for favors. I looked around on etsy and even in some local bakeries, and the going rate per favor cookie bagged up is at least $3-4. Crazy talk! I found this little shop on etsy and she was charging $2 per cookie, bagged with a bow! Her cookies looked fabulous so I asked if she could do something bee-ish, and she came up with these for me. I LOVED them. I also did bubbles as favors for the kiddos. I just designed a little label myself in photoshop and taped it on to the bottles I picked up at Big Lots for 50 cents.

I painted this sign on posterboard with paints from the $1 store to direct guests to the party (not like they really needed it with the navigation in this day and age... I secretly just wanted an excuse to paint something).

I printed out these little labels and stuck them on water bottles. What luck that Tatertots and Jello was giving away the perfect ones to match our theme!

Whew! I think I covered all the details! Now here are pics of the party in action!

The Birthday girl making her entrance.

With Grandpa and Daddy

I think I have crazy eyes here but it's one of the few shots of me and my girl, since I was running around the whole time!

Adam greets some of our little guests

My dear friend from high school's little boy just turned 1 two weeks ago!

Bubbles in action!

Hubby with a beer and cupcake in hand. Life is good!

It's a Romanian tradition upon a baby's first birthday to present him/her with a tray of different objects. Whichever one baby grabs first supposedly shows their destiny in life. I love keeping tradition so we did this, and my dear friend presented the tray to Gigi. The items on the tray were: a pencil, a tiny book, a calculator, an airplane, a toy guitar, a mirror, jewelry, money, a computer mouse, and a toy basketball.

She grabbed the guitar! I guess she'll be musical like her daddy :-)

Yes, Gigi, pick the calculator!

First taste...

Mmmmmmmmmm...

Oh it's safe to say she liked it!

This is what happens when you take cake away from a baby!

Gabriella wore a lemon pettiskirt from Dreamspun Kids (splurge alert!), along with a matching hair clip that I attatched to a white elastic headband. Her camisole onesie is from Janie and Jack, and her sandals are from the Gymboree outlet. Oh and my dress was just on sale at Macy's. :-)

It was such an amazing day and we truly felt surrounded by love. A lot of people unfortunately weren't able to make it, but we still had around 30 or so guests, which turned out to be great. It was overcast until about half an hour before the party, so I was really nervous since she was in a little sleeveless outfit, but it cleared up and turned out to be about 80 degrees... perfect! I mentioned memory card failure before - and this should be a lesson to all to always have a backup! About half an hour before the party started I began snapping pictures of everything... 15 minutes in, my camera screams at me that my memory card has failed.

Worst nightmare for a photo hound like me.

So I scramble around and find an extra, but it's way smaller and has room for like 30 pictures on it. Luckily I found another extra, and was able to take more pictures, but by then I ran out of time and guests started showing up, so I wasn't able to get alllll the detail shots I was hoping for. My sweet dad took most of the pictures you see with actual people in them :-)

Anyhow, there ya have it. Our baby girl's first birthday party. It was a lot of work, but so absolutely worth it. Everyone had a nice time and our little guest of honor had a blast. Am I crazy to say that I'm already thinking about next year's bash?

The Weight Loss Post

2011-06-19T20:39:00.000-07:00

I'm about to get buttnaked honest with y'all.

A year ago I weighed 194 lbs.

Holy crap!

I knew I'd gain a little weight with pregnancy (ha), but I never imagined I'd be tipping the scales close to 200 lbs. I mean, it became almost laughable. My friends and family were cheering me on to get to 200. Jerks!

My high school weight was 98 lbs. I actually lied up about my weight on my drivers license - I thought 108 sounded way better. My typical daily diet consisted of spicy chicken sandwiches for lunch and a couple western bacon burgers for dinner. I couldn't gain weight if I tried (and I did try!).

I did get to the 110 range by the end of high school/start of college and stayed within 5 lbs of this for a couple years. Once 22 hit, I "ballooned" (HA) up to 130 lbs and thought this was madness so I did Nutrisystem for a month with my hubby. Back down to 120 I went, and was quite pleased with myself.

I started losing a little weight when I got sick, but once chemo started, I GAINED. The whole MO during chemo is if something sounds good to you, god bless you, eat it. With the constant nausea and all that, they want you to have a burger if that's all you feel you can stomach. That was fine and great - I ate lemon bars and creamy pastas and pizza bagels to my heart's content. Only this time, the pounds stuck on. Well after treatment ended, I discovered my body didn't have that same superawesome metabolism it once had. Chemo must have robbed me of that too.

I became unhappy with my weight and stayed unhappy, but didn't do much in the way of changing things. I tried to limit calories but it never worked for long. We ordered nutrisystem and I came to the realization that after one month, the food is downright disgusting. And what are you supposed to do if you ever want to eat out?

Then I became pregnant. It was a joyous time to be had, embracing eating my "cravings" and loving my big ol' growing belly. I'd always envisioned I'd be one of those little bitty pregnant ladies with a basketball under her shirt, but I was more like a tanker. My ankles were like tree trunks. Oh well, I thought, "I'll lose TONS of weight by breastfeeding! I'll continue pumping well after my kid doesn't even need breastmilk, since it's such a calorie burner!" (P.S. has anyone ever done this?!)

My little love was born and I dropped 40 lbs within a couple days. But that's about it. And after breastfeeding came to an end, I still hadn't lost as much weight as I'd envisioned. I hated looking at pictures of myself, and really hated that I'd hesitate to show off a sweet picture of my daughter because I looked like a whale in it. The new year came, and with that, I knew I NEEDED to make a change.

As I mentioned before, I signed up for weight watchers. My weight on January 3 was 159.5 (GULP!)

Today, June 19, 2011, I am 132 lbs. That's a 27.5 lb loss. Wait, a 62 lb loss from June 2010 ;-)

Excuse the ipad photo, my memory card FRIED yesterday (at a most critical time, might I add!). What's that? Oh, you want a bathing suit photo? Fine.

(taken in late May)

This diet has been incredible - it's not a diet. It's a guide to help you make better choices about what to eat. All junk food is not the same. A Carls Jr. burger can be 30 points and 2 chili dogs, which one might assume would be just as bad, are 18 points. My friends, believe me when I say that I lost this weight by eating foods I love and would normally eat. The key to my little "success" is that I was so stubborn in getting where I wanted to be. I didn't want to feel ugly anymore.

My real goal is 125 lbs. I wanted to be in the 120s by Gabriella's first birthday, and I came darn close (I've plateaued a little bit in the last couple months). I will get there. I feel better about my body today than I have for YEARS, and it truly is an amazing feeling.

I also want to give a shout out to my hubby. He joined WW a week after I did and became just as determined as I was, since he had gained quite a bit of sympathy weight along with me during pregnancy. He's lost 40 lbs!

So yes, it can be done! I'm so proud of us and cannot say enough wonderful things about the Weight Watcher's program. You'd think I get a kickback from them or something, the way I rave about 'em... And I can't believe I just told the world my real weight. Isn't that against the woman code or something?

Gabriella's First Year

2011-06-19T19:32:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share the little 1 year video I made for Gabriella. I shouldn't really say little, because it's nearly 11 minutes long, but I really couldn't help myself! I've watched it at least 168 times during the process of creating it, and it still chokes me up to see it. If you do take the time to watch it, thank you :-)

I haven't been the best blogger because I was so preoccupied with preparations for her birthday party, which was yesterday. It was a total success and we all had such a great time. I'll be sure to post the details soon... I just need to sort through the 592 pictures taken that day!

I can't believe my little bug is going to be one on Tuesday. I keep reminiscing how this time last year I was doing everything I could to just go into labor. We ate the hottest Indian food. We walked and walked. Short of standing on my head, I did it all. And now here she is, my little girl, one year later. Can I still call her my baby? After all, she will always be my little baby to me.

*sigh* Why didn't anyone warn me babies grow up?

Blogged!

2011-06-14T06:57:00.000-07:00

I know, I know... I've been the very worst blogger lately. I've been in hyper planning mode for Gabriella's birthday party, which is this Saturday! I can't believe it's coming up on me so fast. I can't wait to share everything with y'all when it's all done too. I hope it comes together nicely, because I've put a lot of thought and effort into everything.

The photographer who did our pictures out in Arizona just posted these on her blog! I really wanted to share them with you, so here ya go :-)

I can't wait to get the ones of her in her other little outfit - they're my very favorite! Anyhow, here's a link to her blog in case you're ever in the greater Phoenix area and are in the mood for some awesome vintage-y photos! http://sierrastudiosphotography.com

She's walking!!!

2011-06-10T16:31:00.000-07:00

Aaaaahhhhh! I'm so excited everyone! She just started walking! Up until today it was a step here and there, and two steps once or twice. Here's my baby girl walking to her grandpa! (excuse my hysterics and whatnot! ;-))

If the iPhone didn't just pay for itself I don't know what's what!

How can you not?

2011-06-08T07:50:00.000-07:00

Recently I found out about a little girl that needs bone marrow. She is 9 months old. Thinking about the heartache of what her parents are going through shatters my heart, and I just could not stop thinking about it. When I found out about this, the National Marrow Donor Program was also brought to my attention. Here's how it works:

You sign up online. They send you a cheek swab. You swab your cheek and send it back to them. If someone out there in dire need - somebody's baby... somebody's husband... somebody's WORLD - is a match, you can volunteer to donate your marrow. You're still not obligated at this point. But how can you not??

There are two ways that marrow can be collected, and yes, one does involve anesthesia and can be a little painful. More often now, though, it can be collected through the arm, just like having blood drawn. Easy. And even if option 1 is presented, what's a little pain to you if it means saving the life of a baby that a mother would only give her life for if she just could? How does your heart not scream for this poor mother? This sweet baby girl??

I underwent chemotherapy for 18 weeks. I then did radiation for 6 weeks. From that, I have been in remission, but not cured (not considered cured until 5 years have passed). Had those not worked for me... my next step would have been a bone marrow transplant. I might have needed you.

Please, seriously consider this. It just takes a couple minutes online... and a heart. http://www.marrow.org

Memorial Day Weekend

2011-06-02T22:26:00.000-07:00

We went to Arizona to spend some quality time with the in laws over Memorial Day weekend. It was so nice to get away and it really felt like a little vacation. While we were there Gabriella took 2 naps a day and they were about 2-2.5 hours each! So when she rested, we did too! It must be the 100 degree weather that tires her out. ::ponders the idea of moving::

I was a little worried about how she would do with the 6+ hour car ride but she did really well with it - on the way there we left right after her dinner so she could sleep the whole way, and on the way back she made it through with minimal fussing. We did have to pull over a couple times because she was getting antsy and needed to stretch, and we hit some traffic, so we weren't able to make it back in time to go to a friend's birthday party, which we were a little bummed about.

While we were there G took 2 steps! She took her very first step on her daddy's birthday, May 24. Each day now she'll take a step here and there, so who knows when she'll kick it into high gear?!

Here are some of our trip highlights (not sure why the heck blogger is messing with the layout of them, I hereby request for them to make photo layout more user friendly!). Oh and most pics were taken on just my phone, or our little point and shoot because we didn't bring the big camera with us. Must remember to charge batteries asap. Anyway, I digressed again! On to the pics:

Munching on lemon!

First taste of ice cream = not so much a fan. She does not take after her daddy in that arena! (and of course we HAD to stop at sonic and pig out while we were out there. Sonic, PLEASE come to LA already!)

We stopped by the outlets and she sat at a little table in the Carters store and actually played with the legos! She looks like such a big girl here.

I love how proud of herself she is here :-)

Playing with some balloons. Check out her static-y hair!

Whoops!

Um, these cupcakes were the cutest decorated cupcakes ever! The pic is just from my cell phone, so you can't really tell, but they were sparkly!!

At the water park in FIL's community. Seriously, look how fun! (And yep, here I am in all my glory. Avert your eyes if you don't want to see me in a bathing suit. In my defense, the diet had been thrown out the window for a few days before this, so really, I'm about 21 lbs thinner :-P)

She wore an itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow ruffly bikini ;-)

This was right around when she peed on me. Yeah, those swim diapers don't keep ANY liquid in. ;-)

Perfect spot to practice her walking!

Love these little piggies.

We made a little pit stop in the middle of nowhere off the highway on the way home for a diaper change and stretch, and it made for some cute iPhone pictures!

The countdown to her birthday is now on! Only a little over 2 weeks! Aaaahh!!!

11 Months!?!?!?!?!?

2011-05-23T06:27:00.000-07:00

The !?!?!?!?!?!? is completely necessary, because this one totally snuck up on me. I was truckin' right along, when all of a sudden, BAM! My kid's nearly 1. Here are her accomplishments to date:

Proud owner of 6 teeth total now. This month was a toothy one, and she got 4 teeth (all on top) in a matter of a couple weeks! Whew! I'm hoping the teething can subside for a little bit now, but I think the other bottom 2 are going to be coming in soon too. Poor girl needs a teething break already!
She's still happy as a clam crawling and cruising everywhere. Her favorite is going up the stairs (and being "chased" by us in particular!). She stands independently for extended periods of time, but hasn't made that first step alone quite yet. She's very cautious with her movements, which gives me a huge sense of relief - if she were a daredevil I'd be petrified alllll the time. Now I'm just terrified like 79% of the time.
Words she says - Mama, Dada, Up, and either "at" or "dat (that?)" The other day I asked her if she wanted tilapia for dinner and she responded back saying something garbled that sounded a bit like "laptop". Similar letters, so it sounds like she's really able to start repeating things to us. We need to start watching what we say!
She's developed some hysterical preferences. She has the laugh and learn home (which I totally recommend, btw) and must always have the mailbox open. Don't even try to sneak it shut when she's not looking, because when she happens to catch a glance at the closed mailbox later on, she pops it right back open. Silly girl! Her new favorite thing is to throw all her toys out of her pen/pack n play/crib. One by one she drops them... the other day she went to throw out her pacifier, thought better of it, and popped it into her mouth. What foresight the kid has!
She also loves being tickled now - she developed tickleishness all of a sudden it seems.
Eating in front of her now is officially a problem. She wants what we have. And has developed a resoundingly high-pitched scream aimed specifically for getting this point across. So now she gets some table scraps to tide her over from time to time. I'm also still trying to get her to like a sippy cup and she hates them all. Can she just drink from a bottle until she's 12?
She learned to shake her head "no" which cracks us up to no end. "Gigi did you clean your room?" ::head shake:: "Gigi are you ready for bed time?" ::head shake:: It's great.
She wears 6-12 and 12-18 month clothes (the 12-18 in particular for leggings) and recently got fitted for her first walking shoes at Stride Rite! These shoes came highly recommended, and with walking surely right around the corner, I thought we ought to get her some shoes with good support. Her little chunkers are wide so we had to get special wider shoes! I love love love her lil chunky foots.
She flaps her arms like a seal when she gets super excited. Also, I think I ought to note that I'm the person she finds funniest. This is important because DH maintains that he is way funnier than I am and this is clearly untrue.

We won't have a weigh-in this month because our pedi said the next time he needs to see her is after her 1st birthday! Hooray for no shots/schlep across the valley for mama!

My little onesie stickers have dwindled down to just 1 more after this. As I lamented what ever would I do with myself on the 21st of each month after this June, I found these on etsy! She's getting harder and harder to photograph sitting still, but a huge part of me still wants to continue our little tradition into her second year.

Problem is that now there are like 8525827025 different choices in onesie stickers. When I was 9 months pregnant with G there was only 1 seller that I knew of that did these! I think I like the simplicity of those I pictured above, though. Easier to read. You know, since I'll have all these blurry pictures because my toddler will be running around. OMG toddler?! (Isn't it so ~~irritating~~ amusing how I constantly ~~freak out over~~ marvel at time passing by?)

"A Revelation". Or, "Why 7th Grade Sucks"

2011-05-12T07:29:00.000-07:00

I was in a conversation with a friend the other day. You know, one of those engrossing, life-altering exchanges about -

er... fashion. But I happened upon the realization of something that resonated with me and led me right back to a moment when I was 12 years old.

You see, I have what I described as fashion paralysis. I love looking at clothes. I love every single women's magazine on the checkstands. Hell, I used to subscribe to all of them (but then I stopped to save on $$). I limit myself to the occasional rag if I'm going to be doing something particularly boring that involves waiting for a long period of time. And I still get Glamour because somehow I'm subscribed to that thing until 2014. But I digress.

When I shop for me, I buy the same things. Very simple. I don't experiment with clothes, I don't particularly accessorize with jewelry or a fancy hat or insane gladiator sandals. But I want to be one of those girls. You know, the one who can wear a denim vest. The one who can rock a beret. The one who has 11 perfectly mismatched bracelets on that somehow come together in this glorious symphony of wrist accoutrement. But I don't wear vintage men's blazers. Or high waisted trousers. Or orange.

I'm in a rut of sorts because I am nearly always in jeans, flip flops, and something in varying shades of gray. White. Black. Grey. And I question why I do not have the capacity to put things together like all of my fashion-forward friends. I mean, I read all the magazines. I enjoy the window-shopping. But when it comes down to it, I'm just not able to make fashion-forward choices for my wardrobe. I'm paralyzed in fear of drifting from my staples. I just can't/don't. And then I realize that I just don't have the confidence to do it.

That's where 7th grade comes in. I remember this moment so vividly, it's like it happened this morning. I had just begun my first year of junior high at public school. I had come from a 6th grade graduating class of 16 from my private Christian elementary school. The change was traumatic to say the least. I knew no one in the whole school, and spent the entire lunch period that first week walking. From one end of the ampitheater, through the cafeteria, through the quad, and around and around again. Why? Because I was impossibly self-conscious and didn't want to be laughed at for sitting all alone. In hindsight I'm sure I just looked nutty doing laps around school, but at the time I reasoned that if I was seen walking, it looked as though I was at least en route to see friends. Then I wasn't some loser who had no one to sit with. I was this really really cool girl that was hauling ass to get to her massive gathering of friends somewhere. My adolescent logic slays me.

So I was rather nonplussed after the first day of school. I had anticipated making 214 friends that day and had clearly come up short handed, so I stood there in my closet that afternoon preparing myself for the following day at school. I knew I had to look stylin'. So I put together this outfit that I thought I totally rocked in. Yes, if you're thinking it was a plaid flannel romper dress, you are correct. Paired smartly with hiking boots no less. Yes, like these!

I thought my outfit was brilliant. I went to school the next day with pep in my step, determined to in the very least make a friend, or, truly in the very least to not get outed for my lunchtime 5k. I was going to have friends. I was wearing an awesome plaid dress. With a long sleeved cream shirt underneath (um it was September in Los Angeles. I'm sure the high that day was 128. Or at least in the 90s). With boots! Just like out of a magazine I'd seen! (hey, it was 1996, after all).

Right before 3rd period P.E. (that's physical education for those of you who managed somehow to escape this educational phenomenon, though I'm sure you didn't) I head over towards the gym. The doors were still locked so my fellow classmates were congregating out front. I stood there, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible, though I was clearly without a pal, in the midst of gaggles of cliques chatting away. I'm facing the locked gym door, when I loudly hear the sneer from one of those girls - you know, the ones who had 592 friends who had to be greeted before school, at snack time, and at lunch with a hug.

"Nice boots!"

::laughter::

That was it. I wanted to crawl into a dumpster out back and never get out. Those stupid motherfucking godawful boots. Why did I have to wear them?! Why did I have to think I was so "stylish"?! I felt my whole face and neck turn red. Tears stung at my eyes but I managed to keep them at bay. This was the biggest disaster of my life to date. (Granted I did go on to have many, many disasters, many much bigger than this one)

At that one moment, in my very most impressionable formative years, I became a loser. That moment (sadly) probably dictated my self-worth for a decade. It became my modus operandi to look as inconspicuous as possible. I wanted nothing to draw attention to myself. I never again wanted to be singled out in front of all those "cool kids" for being lame. I just wanted to fit in. And to this very day I oh-so-badly just want to fit in.

So yep, I became consumed with what other people thought about me. So by keeping my outfits simple, people couldn't make a negative decision about me, right? This revelation is really blowing my mind, because it puts so much into perspective for me. To this day I have anxiety over getting dressed for any occasion. I agonize over what to wear because I have this fear in the back of my mind. You know, this totally logical fear that you won't like me if I wear a scarf with my outfit. So I hardly ever accessorize. I wear mostly solid colors. My shoes are unmentionable.

Because I'm scared you won't like me.

Like what, a 27 year old chick's going to corner me in the bathroom at work and say "Nice scarf!"??

I've got to break myself of this habit. Because it's no fun being a wimp, and I want to raise a girl who is full of self-confidence and happiness. The only real way to do that is by setting a good example, right? Yes! I am now all about self-empowerment (today).

So now where can I find construction boots in my size?

*I do want to note, lest you imagine that I remained a total "loser" that I did go on to make friends. My first friend spoke no English, so that didn't really work out, but it was a start. My attempts to be affable were not completely in vain as I progressed through the public school system. In fact, by high school they let me be a cheerleader and talk to people!

Happy Mother's Day!

2011-05-09T22:34:00.000-07:00

My first Mother's Day as a mommy was absolutely wonderful. First of all, Gabriella's gift to mommy was sleeping in an extra hour - yes! Hubby was sweet and made breakfast for everyone, and we chowed down on scrambled eggs with LOTS of swiss cheese and turkey bacon. After breakfast I got to go back to bed and nap for another hour - YES! (can you tell I'm all about sleep right now?!). We spent the day at Descanso Gardens, a lovely botanical garden, with G and our moms (and, well, my dad came too. We couldn't leave the ol' man out, after all, he is our nanny during the week ;-)). We also had a yummy early dinner/late lunch at my favorite Italian restaurant (diet derailed). My awesome hubby got me some much needed bubble bath (I'd resorted to using shampoo of late!) too.

With Nana (mother in law) and Yiayia (my mom - it's grandma in Greek!).

Note the smile progression...

I love how happy she always is!

She walked around so much there! She really takes off when she hits the ground. Soon she'll be ready to let go and go off on her own... I don't know if that warrants a happy face or a sad/terrified face!

DH and Grandpa (my dad)!

Check out this pic of a bee I took! Creepy!

Have I driven y'all crazy yet with picture overload? OK here's a few shots from lunch the day before!

Admiring the view...

Mommy and Me

2011-05-06T06:30:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I won a mommy and me mini photo session with an amazing photographer. Me = winning!? Squee! I was so excited to win such an awesome prize, and I just love how they turned out. I've uploaded some of my faves with her watermark, because she totally deserves recognition :-)

"Some" of my faves? Who am I kidding, I just gave y'all 95% of the goods. But I just melt every time I see my little sweet pea so I had to share :-)

For those who want to know (if anyone cares to know) Gabriella's dress and shoes are Baby Gap, and her headband with the French netting was made by me. The flower one was courtesy of Banner Boutique, and you can find it here (along with my lovey modeling it!). I grabbed my dress from Forever 21, and shoes are Steve Madden. And no, I cannot walk in them without resembling a robot penguin. Steve Madden hates feet and wants to see them die.

You've got to be kidding me.

2011-05-05T07:47:00.000-07:00

I think she's cutting ANOTHER tooth. Seriously. 3 teeth in one week?! Last night was back to waking up every 20 minutes, and she just seemed so uncomfortable. I gave her some baby motrin and hoped it would help, but it took a while for her to get comfortable again. It looks like her top right tooth is coming in to join the other 2. I just hope it can pop through in lightning speed so she can go back to her lovely sleeping through the night. And honestly it's not even so much the lack of sleep that sucks, but the sound of her pain cry. It's just so sad and heartbreaking. I mean if you think about it, how horrifying must the pain of a tooth breaking through your gums be?! As adults we'd be percocet-ing it up, I'm sure.

I've been terrible about taking pictures lately too, which is a shame. I blame the stupid iPhone. Because it's always right there, so I just snap some shots on there and we go on our merry way - yet the quality isn't really the best. I rationalize that at least I'm catching some sweet moments that I otherwise may not have had a camera around for.

Like this little shot in the grass yesterday evening, just as it was finally cooling off after a 90 degree day:

Or up on daddy's shoulders when he gets home from a long day's work:

Playing peek a boo in her crib:

Swingin' in the park:

Playing on our own:

And trying on a hat:

Up on daddy's shoulders again (she likes the air up there!):

Nomming on the Elmo cup she had to have from the party store:

And kicking around in the tub (we've since kicked our duck tub to the curb in favor of bathing it up like a big girl in the real tub):

Of course Gigi's favorite is the self-portrait:

And my favorite use of the iPhone is for capturing quiet, sleuthy sleeping pics that the other cameras just can't do:

Whew! I didn't know this would become a marathon picture posting post, but it went there. Yes it did.

3 Nights of no sleep, 2 brand new teeth, and one happy babyyyyyyy!

2011-05-03T06:28:00.000-07:00

What, too early/late for Christmas spirit?

We have exciting news on the oral front - Gabriella has not one but TWO brand spankin' new teeth to show off. We knew they were finally trying to break through last Friday when we kicked off a series of sleepless nights, but by Sunday afternoon I was finally able to feel a liiiiittle sharp tooth poking through on both sides. Yes, the vampire teeth have made their appearance. Yesterday at her 10 month visit the pedi confirmed the bad boys were indeed in, and we were able to see her front tooth starting to make its way through soon, so she won't have a goofy smile after all (Unless it's her big silly ol' grin when I smell her feet and pretend they're stinky. The kid loves it when she thinks her feet smell).

She also weighs in at a whopping 23 lbs! (you'd think my arms would be in better shape, no?). Still holding steady in the 90th percentile. Her height was just under 30 inches as well (I don't have the paper in front of me so I can't recall if it was 29.5 or 29.75 inches. Why does forgetting this tiny detail make me feel guilty? I need to work on that...). She got her polio vaccine this month, and the dr. said he actually doesn't need to see her again until after she turns 1! It's crazy to me that almost a year has flown by. We go every month for checkups to spread out her vaccines, and now I just don't know what I'll do with myself without an 11 month visit. Maybe nap? ;-)

Oh and I never got around to posting these from about a month ago. I kind of love them too much to not share!

If you're all about winning...

2011-04-28T10:07:00.000-07:00

And I sure am... so check out this incredible giveaway going on now at Laura Winslow Photography! Over $6500 worth of prizes to ONE winner? Um yes please!
Just Click HERE to check it out!

Happy Friday eve everybody!

Easter 2011

2011-04-25T23:17:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful Easter yesterday. The dreaded bunny left a nice little basket for G and we feasted on tons of great food. Oh and we also went to church in the morning! Haven't been in a couple years, and we always drive by this one church so we decided to try it out for Easter Sunday. It was nice, but the crowd was on the older side. And we were so overdressed. Seriously, who goes to Easter services in jean shorts and Nike sneakers?

After church we came home and had a little mini egg hunt in the back yard. By egg hunt I mean I plopped G on a blanket and scattered some eggs in grabbing distance ;-)

With grandma and grandpa...

And great grandparents too!

Hubbs and his mom...

Cracking eggs. G had her first taste of hardboiled egg yolks on Easter and she loved them!

Her basket!

10 Months Old

2011-04-21T16:58:00.000-07:00

Well now this is just unfair. How am I to be expected to write about all of G's accomplishments now that she's into the double digits in months without sobbing like the baby she once was?! She will never again be only single-digit months old. I mean really, she's practically a child now, not a wee little baby. She'll always be my baby though, of course :-)

This month really was spent perfecting a lot of her new skills that she's acquired the last few months. She is cruising expertly and I'm afraid she's going to have her sights set on walking relatively soon. A week ago I found her rummaging through a laundry bin filled with her toys (ok it just happened to be a quick and easy way to keep her stuff all together in the living room!). She picked one up and stood there just inspecting it. Not holding on to anything. Just standing there holding her toy. I wish I could tell you what would have happened next, but I grabbed her because she was just so darn cute. So who knows? Maybe she would have busted out in a little jig or something. ;-)

She just loves getting into everything now and has an obsession with shoes, purses and jewelry. Well, the jewelry thing has been going on for months now, but I'm not sure if I've mentioned it yet. She LOVES staring at it and twiddling it around in her tiny fingers. My mom always has a lot of jewelry on (ok, but not in a crazy lady sort of way), and G adores it. And purses... well, she just happened to grab onto a little pink purse at Gymboree... and when I tried to take it from her, she freaked out. So, she now has her first purse. Oy. Mini temper tantrums already!? I thought that happened at 2, not 9 and a half months!

Her new thing this month is she helps me undress her. LOL. When I start to lift up her top or onesie she yanks it up and off over her head! It's so funny to see her do actual things that us "grown-ups" do, even if they're run of the mill, ordinary things. She's still comfortably in the 6-12 month size, which boggles my mind because she's in the 90th percentiles for height and weight. She does have some 18 month pants that she wears. It's kind of nice to see her be able to wear things a little bit longer - she blew through the 0-3 and 3-6 month stuff so fast, I was sad to put away outfits that were worn only once. Now it's funny because I'm getting sick of seeing some of her winter clothes that she's been wearing since December (I may just be ready for warm spring weather already!).

Words-wise she's still saying mama, dada, up and now nana (though not to her grandmas or anything in particular at this point). I'm really excited to see what new words will crop up next in her little vocabulary. Her upper teeth (not the front ones!) are thisclose to coming through, any hour now, seriously. I have a feeling that a bunch of teeth are going to break through really soon. We've had a couple nights where she wakes up uncomfortable for a bit, so hopefully we can get them all over with soon!

Anyhow here's my little munchkin on her 10 month birthday. Less than 2 months to go 'til her party!

Oh and here are some Easter-y shots I snapped of her the other day. I got this roll of paper from Michaels for $3 (after a coupon ;-)). It was so hard to get her to stay still! This little one loves to move around on me now. I usually take like 60-100 frames when I do a little shoot with her (I am indeed nuts - whatever she's a little ham and loves it), but I was only able to do about 30 before giving up... And I had like no natural light going so I had to bump up my ISO = noisy pictures. Ah well I still love em!

The Easter Bunny Sucks

2011-04-17T21:16:00.000-07:00

At least that's what my daughter believes. We tried not once.

Not twice.

Not even 3 times to take bunny pictures.

You'd think we'd have given up at that point. But we went once more.

Because her mama's anal about capturing these milestones every year. She just hates that darn bunny. He scares the crap out of her. And I sort of don't blame her. I mean look at him. Does he look sane to you?

DIY Party Hat

2011-04-06T23:18:00.000-07:00

The crafting has commenced! I made this special party hat for Gabriella's birthday and it was super easy so I thought I'd share how its done :-) I apologize for the iphone quality pics, this tutorial was clearly an afterthought.

Supplies:

Scrapbook paper - 1 sheet for the hat, another for the number
Marabou feather trim
Glue gun
Scissors
Existing lame party hat (haha)

Step 1 - Take apart party hat and lay flat on whatever paper you want to use for the main party hat color. I went with a sparkly yellow because of our bee theme. Cut it out. No, really. Cut it.

Step 2 - Reassemble party hat (the tab should fit right back in) and cover it with new awesome paper. Using hot glue, glue it down, man. You may want to staple the paper to the hat close to the bottom to make this easier. It won't show since you'll be covering it up with fluff and stuff.

Step 3 - Hot glue marabou feather goodness all along the bottom. Cut out another piece and tie it into a little knot and glue that at the top of the hat.

Step 4 - Admire your work. Get a diet coke. Have some nachos. Reward yourself. You've worked HARD these last 9 minutes.

Step 4.5 - Cut out a number from another piece of scrapbook paper. If this proves difficult for you, you can always print out a number and use it as a template to cut out from the scrapbook.

Step 5 - Hot glue number on hat.

Step 6 - Place hat on head. Have good time.

If you want you can also remove the elastic part that the hat normally comes with and add your own ribbon, which I plan on doing. You can also opt to cover the back seam with ribbon too, which is something else I am also considering, since, you know, I can never leave well enough alone. ;-)

Only 2.5 more months of preparations to go before her 1st birthday (yep, friends think I'm nuts for starting this early)! I ordered her the most ridiculously adorable pettiskirt tutu deal from etsy and it arrived lightning fast (I was expecting 5 weeks!). I've also decided to do a bubble bar (or bubble zzzzone?). I think that's a fun activity for the little ones to enjoy and grown ups love blowing bubbles too, right? -or am I the only one?

Oh and we finally had our 9 9 1/2 month visit. Thankfully we didn't get any shots this time! She's 22 lbs 3 oz and 29 1/4 inches long (tall? She's standing so much now...) 90th percentiles still. What was super interesting is that while the pedi was examining her, he says, oh, she's cutting a couple teeth! ... nope, it's not her top front teeth... it's the vampire teeth! (not sure what they're called lol). Haha either the other ones are not far behind, OR she's going to have a big ol gap smile ;-)

An Awesome Discovery

2011-04-04T08:30:00.000-07:00

Long ago (2008) I put away all my favorite jeans in a plastic bin. I got a bit "fluffier" and could no longer wear them. 7 for all Mankinds, True Religions, Citizens... If you were to add up the value of how much $$ was spent on the contents of this bin, it would be quite laughable. Or cryable.

Since my body changed after cancer, I felt unhappy with myself. I did not want to treat myself to new clothes with this new figure of mine. That meant accepting this weight gain. I didn't want to accept it. I wanted it to be a temporary phase. I would redeem the contents of that bin soon, I told myself. In the meantime, I bought clothes at Target in various shades of gray. My wardrobe had a lot of gray. Again, I'd remind myself that if I just buckled down, I'd have my old clothes and figure back in no time.

But I never had discipline. Diet attempts really turned into a lot of self-loathing. Any time I thought about how I wanted to lose weight, I would get hungry. I'd watch the Biggest Loser for inspiration, they would air a Jack in the Box commercial and I would leave to get my spicy chicken sandwich fix (but really, how cruel to air fast food promos during a show about obese people!?). Months turned to years, and then I got pregnant. I was so, so happy pregnant. Sure, I was disappointed when I went to a Pea in the Pod to pick out a pair of 7 for all mankind maternity jeans only to discover the largest size wouldn't fit over my hips (and when the whore saleslady told me to buy a bra at Lane Bryant!). But this was my time to be pleasantly plump. I got a kick out of being huge, and giggled at my massively swollen feet. I figured I would get to lose all the baby weight, PLUS chemo weight just by breastfeeding. I even joked that I would keep pumping long after weaning just so I could lose weight (ha!).

But that was not the case. Sure, most of the baby weight came off, but there was quite a bit more left after that. It was clear that if I wanted this to happen, I had to work for it. Half on a whim and half stubbornly determined that this will be my year, I signed up for Weight Watchers online on January 3. I've lost 17.5 lbs in three ~~short~~ months.

Something clicked. It just works. I've tried Nutrisystem in the past (and it works for about 4 weeks, and then you want to die if you have to eat one more of their meals). Weight watchers taught me how much I can eat of things I actually want to eat. Really, I've had a lot of chili dogs during this "diet". And cookies. And tacos. Because I've learned how to portion out my daily allotment of food, I have been able to make choices depending on what sounds good to me to eat. I've learned what the really bad foods are, and that if I want to have a large lunch, I'm going to have to have a smaller dinner. I've learned that I can have little indulgences and not feel guilty. I am not feeling deprived. This is just working.

So back to that bin. All of my jeans that I have been wearing since last year are huge on me. And the boyfriend look isn't looking too fab for much longer. But I'm still not quite ready to go out and buy all new clothes, since I still have a few more pounds I'd like to lose. So I got out that bin. One by one I tried them on, expecting to feel disappointed. As I slipped on pair after pair, and slid through that top button, I was in total disbelief.

I now have 6 "new" pairs of designer jeans. Honestly, it feels better than buying new jeans. It's like I've reconnected with 6 dear, old friends. Oh how we've missed each other!

There are still a few more pairs in that bin that would like to find their way out (ok and a couple that I've held on to for sentimental reasons that I seriously doubt I'd ever fit into again!). But what I have found that is so totally strange, is how my weight now is more than what I weighed when these jeans became too small for me. How does that work? Am I carrying more weight somewhere else? Elbows? Maybe from working out I have muscles? Though we haven't made it into the gym in weeks because we all took turns being sick around here.

I don't know, I don't care. I feel lighter both physically and emotionally, and you can't put a number on that.

Bitty Bows Boutique: A Review!

2011-03-30T08:43:00.000-07:00

Alright, I'll let you in on a little secret. I have an addiction to hair bows.

I know, I know. You're shocked. Flabbergasted even!

Well, tis true. But they're more than an accessory. I could argue they're a necessity. You see, they could prevent many a stranger from being punched in the nose for inquiring about my adorable little boy's name. And also, they're freaking cute. Anyhow, I digress. I wanted to share with y'all a place that I found courtesy of a fellow blogger that you may follow, Mrs. Foreste (she has a Gigi too!) - Bitty Bows Boutique. I was pregnant with Gabriella when she made mention of this little treasure so I hightailed it over to their website and ordered G her very first hair bows. And the rest is history.

Here's my little love modeling the Allie headband.

I've ordered a couple times and have always been pleasantly surprised with the fast shipping (and it's only a flat $2!), and how my bows are always nicely packaged in a box (I've had some experience with bows coming in smooshed in an envelope from other retailers). The quality is excellent and I love how so many bows and clippies are available in dozens of color options. Gabriella hardly has any hair and yet these hair clips manage to stay in beautifully. The headbands of course are a great option if you also have a baldie :-)

Seriously, how cute are these?

My wish list just got a little bigger after writing up this post. Anyhow, make sure to check Bitty Bows out on Facebook too, because they have great sales and specials ($1 hair clips, anyone?!) all the time. Don't be shy, you can tell 'em I sent ya ;-) Right now Bitty Bows is offering a free Allie headband with purchases over $35 (excluding shipping, tax)! Just use the code AllieBlogFreebie at checkout.

* I was provided with the Allie headband for reviewing purposes. This was, indeed, awesome.

9 Months Old!

2011-03-21T20:17:00.000-07:00

Holla! We are doing so many new things around here that I'm just going to jump right in to the updates!

Right after she turned 8 months she started pulling herself up to standing.
She's been cruising for a little over a week now. And she likes to let go and just stand by herself. It's so crazy how mobile she's become in the course of one month. She love love loves to be standing, and she always wants up! Which leads me to...
She said her first real word! Besides mama and dada, of course :-) She started saying "up" last Saturday! And she kept saying it over and over, and with meaning. It was so amazing, she would say "uppp" (she really pronounces the P sound) and we would all cheer and she'd get so excited and say it again and again. I finally ran to get the camcorder after a few minutes, and of course, she sees the camera and just wants to mug for it, so the talking stopped. I'm going to have to trick her one of these days by hiding it!
We started fish, chicken and turkey this month. She hated fish, is meh about chicken and generally likes turkey. I really wasn't sure what I was doing with the fish, so I asked the butcher man (fish man?) to give me a very mild fish with as little to no mercury as possible, and he gave me red snapper. It smelled so fishy after I steamed and pureed it, so I don't blame her for hating it. I'll have to figure something else out, fish-wise. Caviar, perhaps?
I gave her her first taste of jarred baby food this month. I wasn't too sure about the consistency of meat I should be getting her so I picked up some Earth's Best Organic baby food in assorted turkey and chicken blends to see how they did it. It was smoother than anything I've ever made for her, so I guess my food has been on the chunky side, but she's always liked it well enough. My feelings were hurt the first time she tried the jar food because she ate her turkey like a fiend! I was all ready to throw in my apron and give in to the jarred baby food, but she hasn't really had that reaction since, so maybe she was just super hungry that one time?
She loves her puffs, and feeds herself like a little princess. She's so precise with picking up the puff and placing it in her mouth. And I have to confess that hubbs and I swipe some of her puffs sometimes. They're actually pretty good!
Still has only 2 teeth (bottoms) and not seeing anything happening up top. We've been expecting something to come though all month but those upper teeth are being stubborn!
Still sleeping through the night and napping 2-3 times a day. It's kind of amazing. I think it's the universe's way of making up for the first 7 months of little sleep we got around here!
Has a favorite song - The Wheels on the Bus delights her to no end. Oh yes, and she loves Kim Kardashian. Like LOVES. She will stare at her picture in a magazine and softly pet the cover. My little weirdo :-)

Now she's always on the go, so it's getting harder to get her to pose for me! Please take a moment to enjoy the mauve carpet from 1990.

Yes, her little piggies are painted! With Piggy Paint in "Forever Fancy", in case you were wondering. And yes, mama's toes match too!

Peek-a-boo!

So there you have it. 9 months old. She has advanced SO much in the last couple months, it's hard to believe this little wanna-be toddler was a newborn baby 9 months ago. She's now been out as long as she was in!

You may have noticed I've added something to the sidebar over to the right - my Amazon store! Well it's not really "my" store exactly - it's a compilation of all things that I use and love, and you can check them out and even buy them by clicking on over. You're still shopping safely from Amazon and all that good stuff, but you get to see all my favorite things in one place. I seriously wish all my favorite bloggers would do this, I love knowing where and what to buy what others love using. I thought this would be a great resource for those who are wondering where to get a great product you may have seen me using. Since I shop for 93% of everything on Amazon you'll probably find it right there! Everything listed is owned by me, so I'm not just randomly adding things there (and it's kind of scary to see how much money I've given Amazon over the last couple years!) Oh, and if I have something that's a total dud you will so not find it there. If you see it listed, it's safe to assume it's awesome :-)

I think we may just have ourselves a theme...

2011-03-16T08:02:00.000-07:00

So I know I started thinking about Gigi's birthday party months ago. But then I stopped. I didn't want to think about her getting older. Growing up. Not being a teeny tiny baby anymore!! Argh!!! Much too hard to think about.

But then I realized that her party is in like 3 months. And I've done nothing as far as figuring out what to do with it. Being as how I'm planning to DIY a lot of it, I should get on that. I decided to nix the bunnies because she's 1 and someone put the visual in my head of her yanking on a bunny's tail and it not taking too kindly to it... and I really can't spend $225/hour for some rabbits to crap in my back yard.

I started playing around with things I liked online and made some idea boards. And I think I really like this one:

I just think yellow is so fun, and if I wait until she's 3 to have a bee party, she may just tell me she wants a purple unicorn party then, so my plan may be a total bust. Right now she's turning 1 (aaaheoafhaeohfaeolcoeg!) and I think her party should just be simple and pretty. No?

Maybe I could add some touches of pink (hot pink?) in there for some more pops of color. What do y'all think?

I Heart Photoshop

2011-03-14T05:17:00.000-07:00

I absolutely love photographing my little girl. A) She's a total ham and loves being in pictures, and B) I get to have a tangible record of memories that I can look at forever. I usually can't wait to load up my memory card in the reader so I can see how everything turned out. And then I get to work. Since I have Photoshop, I love to tweak my images so I can make them even just a little bit better.

I know, I know... Photoshop is a crazy expensive program. I have a pretty old version, CS2, that I got from a friend back in photojournalism class in college. If you can get it, it's so worth it. I must warn you, it will suck up your time (once you figure out what all the buttons do!).

Here's an example of an image before and after:

Subtle changes, but I feel like it makes a big difference, no? If you happen to have Photoshop or even Elements, I highly recommend downloading some actions. They're basically one-click enhancements to your pictures that are so fun to play around with. Pioneer Woman has some great ones, and MCP Actions has a few awesome freebies as well.

Anyway, I just thought I'd share how I like to edit my pictures. I hope someone can find this useful, since I've loved playing around with these! Here are some more pictures from yesterday, playing in the backyard.

Hubby's Week Off

2011-03-11T21:26:00.000-08:00

Well the hubby had the whole week off from work since he's switching jobs, so we had lots of fun family time together. On Monday he took us to the mall so I could pick out some things for myself for my birthday. G did a lot of this there:

Tuesday was my big hair day. Ha that sounds funny. Anyway, being the amazing hubby that he is, he went with me to my appointment (since I was so nervous) and my dad watched G. Here's the before and after:

Wednesday we decided to go to the little lake at the golf course by our house to watch the ducks. Gigi loves the duckies :-)

Thursday was my birthday, which is awesome in and of itself (hehe) but made even more awesome by spending it as a new mommy. First thing I see when I get up is this little one:

The diet's still going strong (I'm down about 16 lbs - woot!), but on my birthday, I splurge, man! We went to a little Mexican restaurant for lunch, followed by a little boating!

Ahhh the boat. Fresh sea air. The gentle lull of the waves. The high-pitched screaming of a starving 8 month old baby. Wait.

Oh yes. We get to the middle of the water and realize that we left her formula in the car. We thought, oh, she should be OK, she's gone 4 hours between meals and it's only been 3 hours now. We'll be back before then. Yeaaaah, just as 3 hours hit since her last meal, she wanted FOOD! We tried to appease her with some puffs, but she wasn't having it, and she doesn't care for straight water from a bottle either (does she even realize what's in her formula??). So we cut our boating excursion just a little shorter than we had planned and raced back to our car so we could feed her. And lo and behold, she had taken a massive explosive poo.

Man, sometimes we feel like such beginners.

She really did love it at first though. Maybe she just felt uneasy because she sensed a tsunami coming on?

Yep, hubbs let me drive for a bit. I was kind of freaking out at the possibility of our boat toppling over so I took the wheel. And then I freaked out that I was going to hit another boat.

Anyway, we headed back and went out to dinner at The Stinking Rose (a garlic festival in your mouth).

Why yes, yes I am wearing a giant head of garlic on my noggin.

Ahhh so I'm now 27. It's just great, I'm so not worried about being older. Yet. There's more time for that later. I'm too busy feeling pretty great about where I am now (something I rarely do, and should do more!).

Friday I went back to work and came home for a nice long nap while Adam watched Gabriella. When I woke up, we decided to hit up the park for a bit, but it was a little on the cold side so we didn't stay long.

And there you have our week. It really feels nice to have a stay at home daddy, maybe I should look into making way more money...

Guess who's back, back again?

2011-03-08T18:51:00.000-08:00

Tell a friend ;-)

Getting Me Back

2011-03-08T06:37:00.000-08:00

That day is here again. March 8. It's been 3 years since the diagnosis hit, and every year on this day I stop short in my tracks and think about what happened with my life. 3 years ago today, I was afraid for my life. I feared the worst, and it felt like I lost control over everything. 2 years ago, I just wanted my hair to grow back already. Despite that being a constant reminder of the hellishness of the year before, I was healthy and I felt the need to celebrate. I wanted to get back the carefree, happy birthday I had planned for the year before, and I did. Last year, I felt like the most lucky girl in the world. I was expecting my baby girl, and just felt this awe over how a brand new, little life was growing inside me. Two years before, I didn't even know if I could ever even have children, and here I was 6 months pregnant, feeling healthier and stronger than ever.

And here I am today! I have the most amazing little girl. She has made our lives - I can just stop there, no need for adjectives. She has made our lives. Talk about an Oprah full circle moment!

But today I'm doing one last thing for me. I have my health, and my dreams have become reality, but there's just one little thing that's still not quite there.

My hair.

I mean, isn't this what it's really all about? Losing my hair was actually one of the worst parts of the whole cancer ordeal. I felt so ugly and self-conscious, and the damage stayed for years. It's finally, just now at a length that I feel is "normal", and today, I'm taking the plunge and going back to blonde. I'm excited, nervous, and all kinds of emotional about it. In written word, it seems so so trivial and borderline ridiculous, but for me, this is huge. This is me getting control back over myself, my body. I've been able to lose 10% of my body weight already, which feels so empowering. Now I can reward myself with something that I've wanted for a long time. It was taken from me, and now I'm getting it back. What better day to do it than today, 3 years later? I'm finally getting back to ME.

::cue freakout::

Weekend Update

2011-03-08T05:41:00.000-08:00

On Saturday we schlepped out to Westwood to look at some camera lenses because the only friggin camera store around where you can actually play with them is Bel Air Camera. My in-laws were in town from Arizona so they came along and naturally G Bunny came as well. There was a cute park nearby that we decided to make a little pit stop at so she could have some swing time. For a girl who hated her little lamb swing, she sure loves the ones at the park!

This is her new "smile". This picture cracks me up every time...

And yes, I put on a matching shirt because I'm ~~corny~~ awesome like that. ;-)

WordFUL Wednesday

2011-03-02T21:10:00.000-08:00

Sorry, y'all. I can't be wordless on Wednesdays. Or any other day for that matter. ;-) Annnywhooo...

OF COURSE after I post how wonderful the whole Ferber thing was going, G decided to throw a wrench in the system - she took 45 minutes to finally go down on Monday night. And she woke up crying at 4 a.m. and it took her half an hour to go back down. But I found out that a regression is normal, and last night and tonight she went to sleep MUCH easier and stayed asleep all night long. Here's hoping for this to last!

Today we finally had our 8 month well visit, and we're weighing in at 21 lbs even and 28 3/4 inches tall! It's funny how her growth has slowed, I remember when she spurted at 4 months and I was convinced she'd be over 22 lbs before Christmas so I ran and got the convertible car seat. She's still 90th percentile for weight and 95th for height, so I have a big girl (but hey, she's proportional!). I actually feel like she's starting to thin out a little and I just know I'm going to miss all her adorable little rolls.

She was all smiles at the Dr.'s office - UNTIL the pedi walked in. She completely freaked, and she's always loved him before. I think we're getting some stranger anxiety now...

And now she's moving ALL over the place so it's really hard to get a pic when she's not in motion. Here are her little toesies as she tries to crawl away.

And I think she must have had an inkling here that a shot was in her near future!

After, we stopped by Tony Roma's for a little diet splurge for mama. Hey, I've been so good! As of Monday I'm down 13.5 lbs! As I nomed on my chicken tenders, Gabriella pretended to munch right along with me. She must have wanted some of the fried goodness. I'm sure her 7 ounces of formula were just as yummy - right?

Yesterday I decided to try taking her to the library, since I figured it was a parent-ish thing to do. Did you know you could just take books home for free? Such a novel concept. I picked out 7 books and was afraid there was a limit, so I sheepishly asked if it was ok - turns out the limit's 30!

And would you believe that some guy called her a he?! Dude, she's wearing a flower headband, earrings, a hot pink ruffled top and sparkly socks! Apparently I'm giving my son a gender identity complex.

A post regarding Mr. Ferber

2011-02-28T15:48:00.000-08:00

OK, fine Dr. Ferber. But he's a mister too, so both work, right?

Anyhow, I digress. I must first paint a picture of what sleep in this house has been the last week.

Imagine getting used to the sweet, sweet sound of silence for 11 hours every evening after 7 or so months of no ok, hardly any sleep. Then, imagine one day waking up to high pitched, inconsolable, fervent screaming starting at 11 p.m. and going on every couple hours for the rest of the night. Ahhh!!! Guys, she was sleeping though the night for like a month and a half and then poof! Now she was screaming even when we tried to put her down at night, something she never did. What happened?!

Well, she had a cold. Two weeks before. But she still sounded a wee bit congested so when she cried out in the middle of the night and couldn't be consoled for the life of us, we brought her into bed with us. And there she slept. Beautifully. Like an angel. We, however, did not. Because her angelic sleeping involves intermittent kicks to our ribs (what have gotten much ~~more painful~~ less charming than the rib kicks I was feeling a year ago when she was in utero), and a rearranging of herself so that she is perpendicular between us, a sleep position that even our Cal King sized bed doesn't accommodate comfortably. Coupled with the fear that she would up and crawl out of bed and jump out the window or something equally horrific, we barely got any shut-eye.

But I'm not gonna lie, we were conflicted. I LOVE having her in bed with us. I love the snuggles. I love that she sleeps SO well with us there. Not a single cry all night long. I love being able to smell her and hear her right there, and watch her sleep so peacefully. But we also knew that we needed sleep! But not just us, we knew that she needed her rest, too. We had assumed she was teething, but wouldn't she have cried with us there too if she was in pain? Then we assumed it may be separation anxiety setting in. And we were afraid of this turning into a new habit that would take decades to undo (a wee bit dramatic?).

So we decided we would try some pseudo-Ferberizing. I say pseudo because, well, I never bought or read the book, so I don't have the details down. We had the weekend ahead of us, so we knew it would be the best time to start since we could always catch up on a little sleep during the day if it was a total bust. We decided to let her cry for a bit and then check on her at certain intervals, progressively letting her go a bit longer between checks. Night 1 we went in after 5 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, and before 10 minutes was up she was asleep. She woke up at 3 a.m. and cried for less than 10 minutes and was back asleep. Night 2, I went in after 7 minutes, and before the next check she fell asleep. And she slept straight through until 7 a.m.! Last night was night 3 and again, she fell asleep between the first and second check (we started with 7 minutes last night). She did cry a little around 3 a.m. but fell right back to sleep within 7 minutes.

So what do I make of this whole Ferber thing? Quite honestly, I think it works. I will fess up and say that I may have had a mindset beforehand that letting a baby scream her head off is just plain cruel, but that's not really what this whole thing is about. It's about reassuring your little one that yes, you are there for them, but it's also being firmer in establishing that at night, there is no need for extra socializing! See, there are so many things that people say "I will never do that!" as a mother but, really, once you're in the game, the rules change!

Is there anything you thought you'd so never do, and then end up doing as a mama?

8 Months

2011-02-21T15:33:00.000-08:00

is how long it's taken for me to get below my pre-pregnancy weight. 8 months! Whatever, I'm here and it's not stopping, I'm getting to my goal darnit!

But let's not let this be about me. Because 8 months means something completely different for this little somebody:

Gosh what isn't she up to these days! She's been crawling with proper form (tummy off the floor) since last Friday (the 18th). She pushes herself up to sitting. She's turning into a little monkey because she just loves to climb all over me! She walks when we hold her hands. I think she may just start cruising soon because she loves to be standing.

Her favorite toy is still the remote control. She likes the Elmo one I got her just fine, but there's something about the real thing that just has this magical allure to her. Now she's noticing and trying to grab at mama's newest toy: the iphone! Yes, I made the switch over to Verizon to snag this phone so I could be as cool as the rest of 'em, and let me tell you, I'm so glad I did! I love love love this thing. So any suggestions for some awesome apps are totally appreciated. I'll fess up and say I love Words w/ Friends, Angry Birds, Hipstamatic, 8mm camera, Bejeweled, and oh yes - Oregon Trail. AND the amazing Red Laser, which is like a scanner thing so you can check the lowest price on anything by just scanning in the barcode. Seriously if you haven't gotten on the bandwagon yet, go get one now!

OK, OK I'll end my rave. Moving on...

She has two teeth, both bottoms. #2 came in on the first of the month, and I'm expecting a top one to come in soon because she's back to drooling like crazy. Over the weekend I picked up some teething biscuits and she adores them - along with the organic puffs we got her. Here's a little video of her trying to eat them that I shot on (what else?) my iphone (did I tell you how much I love this thing?):

We moved her crib down yet again on Saturday because she's pulling up on everything, so she's now on the lowest level! It's so crazy, her once-adorable crib now looks like a little mini jail cell to me. Next stop is the transition to toddler rails, which I'm not ready for for at least 13 more years.

Anyway, she's much much better from the little cold she had over a week ago. What amazes me so much about her is that even when she was clearly feeling crummy, she still was all smiles. She has the sweetest disposition ever (her daddy suggests she gets it from him!). The other day I was reminiscing on how we used to have to hold her for all her naps, and I realized that she hadn't been held for a nap in months. It made me kind of sad, but the next day she humored her mama and let me hold her for one :-)

And she's just oh so sweet that the next day she let daddy have his turn too!

I keep saying this as the weeks and months go by, but this is my favorite age. She just has so much personality and is so fun! When she was a couple weeks old I wondered how people ever managed to have more than one, but I can see now - there is light at the end of the newborn tunnel! "They" tell you having a kid is hard, and it really is, but man, is it rewarding!

Because 7 and a half months is a totally appropriate time to start planning her 1st Birthday party...

2011-02-16T07:30:00.000-08:00

Yeaah I know. I'm nuts, whatever. I've been researching ideas to get a feel for what we're going to do, and I came across this...

http://partiesfantastic.com/ANPetting.htm

A bunny petting zoo!?!? Ahhh how cute! Is that a bit much for a first birthday party, or is it totally adorable?

I know I want some kind of theme, but I'm just not sure what it is. I know I'd like to do a "bee" theme for her 3rd birthday (our little bee is turning three!), and she's too young for anything princessy (plenty of princess parties up ahead, I'm sure). Of course I foresee a Candy land type party as well, but that too should be in the future (when, duh, our kid would like to eat candy) - maybe 5? And I always loved the idea of a little vintage circus, but our little back yard surely couldn't support such a production (and, well, neither can our wallets at the moment, let's be honest!).

Of course I'd like to do something that she likes, but I don't think a bath party would fly.

So where does that leave us? Bunnies? Petting zoos are fun, but I imagine they take up quite a bit of space... but bunnies? They're so small! And, well... cute! Thoughts?

Wait - do they bite?

The First Cold

2011-02-15T10:53:00.000-08:00

Poor little G. She caught her very first cold last Friday. I had hoped we would make it through winter without her getting sick, but it just happened. Even though it was clear she was feeling lousy, she still was in mostly happy spirits. She was pretty bummed that she had to miss out on a friend's 1st b-day party, but we couldn't take her out and expose other babies to germs, or have her get more sick. Here's a pic of our little trooper:

Gah I love this little girl so much! Yesterday hubby wasn't feeling too hot himself after our big Valentine's day feast (we went out Sunday night) so he stayed home with her while I went to work. I got an excited text from him mid-morning saying she pushed up to sitting all by herself! Then he quickly asked, "Wait - she hasn't done that yet, right? Right??!"

Right, DH! He got to witness a first, and he was so happy and proud. He also sent me a little video of her standing by herself, holding onto the box her froggie humidifier came in. She's becoming so mobile, it's kind of scary. Gone are the days where I wouldn't have to worry about putting her on the bed for a moment while I change! Her favorite thing, and really this is what got her to finally start army-crawling around at top speed - the remote control. She LOVES it.

So much that I had to get her this one, so she could have a proper remote to ~~gnaw on~~ play with.

My Little Valentine

2011-02-08T17:44:00.000-08:00

disclaimer - I am by no means a professional photographer. But I'd like to be. Any tips on that and photoshop are always greatly appreciated! I created a mini "studio" here in our bedroom using two pieces of fleece (which I later used to make her this blanket). Oh and I got the little card template from MCP actions. Just search for them on Facebook. :-)

It's only February, but...

2011-02-04T06:22:00.000-08:00

SQUEE!!
These obv won't be for me, as tempting as it would be to try to find one of these adorables in my size (and I'm trying my hardest to not buy her a bathing suit until it's at least spring!). This one's for mama:

Cuz as skinny as I'd like to think I'll be by summer, I don't foresee the dozen stretchies going away anytime soon. Boo. At least I won't scare people?

G sprouted her other bottom tooth on the 1st of the month! And as of yesterday evening we finally have forward movement when "crawling"! OK so it's not proper form or whatever, but she wiggles forward like a worm to get to what she wants: the remote control! Soon enough she'll figure out that all the rocking she's doing on her knees will help propel her forward :-) Oh and as of Wednesday, she's 20 lbs 2 oz and 28 inches long. Gah she's growing up so fast, every day there's something new!

Aaaaand I'm off!

2011-01-31T09:19:00.000-08:00

Well, I wasn't going to mention this. I kind of hemmed and hawed and all that, but in the end I think I should put this out in the open, in this most public of forums. That way I can almost be held accountable by y'all, no?

I'm on a mission. A revamping of myself, if you will. I haz a little weight to lose, and the time is now. I began Weight Watchers the first week of January and have lost 9 lbs to date. My work is not finished, friends. I want to lose another 25 pounds. Gah! That sounds like so much. But, it has to happen. I want to finally feel like my old self again. Pre-pregnancy, pre-cancer self. I want to feel beautiful when I look in the mirror. I don't want to cringe when I see myself in photos. I want to be healthy and feel great as a mother. I want my amazing designer jeans collection back.

My goal? Gabriella's 1st birthday. I think it's a totally attainable goal with consistent, hard work, and I am beyond motivated. I know it will be tough, and I may lose sight of my goal at times... maybe I should threaten myself with a mandatory bathing suit pic come June 21? Double gah!

So hubby and I joined a gym (well, we did a free 10 day trial first, to make sure we'd actually do it and we totally got into a groove and determined we just had to sign up). We have a couple free sessions with a personal trainer and he totally worked me last night. My legs feel like jello.

And for the first time in my life, I can honestly say I like the feeling. I was always the girl who hated working out. I was on the track team in high school and when we had to do our 2 lap warm-ups, I'd walk the second one (I was a sprinter/hurdler, so distance - i.e. hard work and effort wasn't my cup o' tea). I'm the girl who gets winded going upstairs. I always was naturally skinny with an insane metabolism, but man, I have never really been "in shape". Kind of scary.

So here I go! Wish me luck, and if you'd like to join me, go for it. I'd love to hear your stories about success (and failure??) with getting fit.

Baby Food Making

2011-01-25T16:01:00.000-08:00

Not to be confused with baby makin' - that's not happening for a long while! I wanted to share a bit about the foods that I feed G. When I was pregnant I received a Beaba Babycook from my aunt, and there were quite a few snickers at my shower. They just didn't believe that I would have the diligence, or time, or what have you to make my own baby food. Honestly, doubt me and you make me that much more determined. That aside, I knew I wanted to make my own baby food for a host of reasons - 1) It's the freshest, healthiest food that I can provide my baby, 2) It saves a ton of money, and 3) I thought it would be fun.

Yep, fun. I haven't always had the healthiest relationship with food (my idea of healthy is pizza with veggies on it) and I knew that if I got in the habit now of putting time and thought into making G's food I would have an opportunity to learn and explore foods that I ordinarily wouldn't. I really want to be able to prepare healthy meals for my family, and homemade baby food is as good a place to begin as any.

My experience so far has only solidified (ha!) my belief that I'm doing the right thing for me and my baby. At the expense of sounding like I'm preaching, I think many people put off the idea of making their own baby food because of misconception of a few things. It's not as time consuming as one would imagine - you can prepare a few batches of food in about an hour that will last you weeks. And it's not complicated at all - all you really need is a pot with a steamer and a blender/food processor (ok and a knife, vegetable peeler and ice cube trays if we're really going to be specific). I really like that the Beaba does everything all in one but it is a small chunk of change, so it's not really necessary. In fact, it can be a little limiting in the capacity size, so I may just give it a go with the old-school method eventually.

Here are a few pictures of the process. I've made carrots here:

I'd really like to recommend the book Baby Love by Norah O'Donnell and Chef Geoff Tracy. It's really straightforward and comes packed with some great advice and recipes. I also have another book by Annabel Karmel that's pretty decent (she has tons of books on the subject). Honestly, you probably don't even need a book, you can look up recipes online, or just use some common sense re: veggies and fruits to feed baby. See, it's easy!

My 7 Month Old Girl

2011-01-21T15:00:00.000-08:00

My little lady is now 7 months old. So much has changed from when she was a tiny little newborn to now. Here are some updates:

She's been saying mama since New Years. When someone will ask here where's mama, she looks at me. It makes my heart melt into a huge mush puddle. She's been babbling tons in the last few days too - baba, gaga, da...
We lowered her crib to the middle setting last week. She'd been getting up on all fours and it just seemed like we should do it before she gets any ideas to try climbing over!
She's been trying so hard to crawl for over a week now. She gets up but somehow manages to move backwards instead of forwards. Silly girl. She's thisclose to getting it. I'm so nervous to have a mobile child now! I'll have to post a video of her doing her pre-crawl rocking, it's so ~~funny~~ cute. Just add that to my to-do list.
The most notable "achievement" requires a huge drumroll (maybe even a drum solo?)... We are sleeping through the night!!!! She started doing this as of January 1, no joke. It's like she had a little resolution or something. It was on and off for about a week and a half, and now for the past couple weeks, sleep has been amazing. I'm talkin' 12-13 hours at night y'all. *please don't hit me* She'll occasionally cry out at 3 a.m., but all she wants is her paci and she's back out til morning. It's been a long time coming!
Her first tooth came in this month! It's still a sharp lil guy working his way up. I'm curious when he's going to have a little friend join him, because she's chomping away still.
I'm still making all her food and she eats solids at the dining room table twice a day. Sweet potatoes and pears are still a solid fave, but she also likes papaya, banana and will chow down on peas and broccoli if I mix them with a little sweet potato.

So we're finally getting some consistent sleep around here! Some friends have asked what we did, and the truth is we have no clue, man. We didn't Ferberize or anything because she always has gone down to sleep easily. And we did try letting her cry a little, but it didn't work for us. It was much easier to just give her a quick little feeding than hear her cry for an hour. And there's something about her cry that I physically cannot just listen to and not do something. I actually am in awe of moms who can just go about their business while hearing their babies cry - I can't carry on! Anyway, I guess she just stopped wanting her middle of the night snack. Maybe since mama started Weight Watchers she's trying to slim down too? Silly girl, I like my babies curvy :-P

Here are some more pictures from the last couple weeks. It's been so nice and warm here - uh too warm at times (we had a high of 90 one day!). Crazy Los Angeles Januaries.

Oooh you can see her lil tooth in this one! Sorry for posting a bazillion pictures at once, I just can't help myself. G Bunny can't help herself when it comes to my camera either - she discovered the strap and loves to reach for it and nom on it. Her two favorite things: my camera and the remote control.

Stay tuned for more. I know I've been somewhat of a blog-slacker as of late, but I have some interesting posts in the works, lest you worry.

In case you were wondering...

2011-01-19T15:25:00.000-08:00

what exactly happens when you put baby spoons in the sterilizer, here's what you get:

Crispy, no?

We may get big fat FAILs in the sterilizing department, but I still rock on in the savings area. I buy my Dreft on Amazon. Subscribe and save, baby. 2 jugs for $13.17. No tax, free 2 day shipping. Join in on the fun. Check out this awesome deal today - $20 Amazon gift card for $10. Oh, you're welcome.

We haz a tooth!

2011-01-11T16:05:00.000-08:00

And we aren't exactly thrilled about it! Poor little G. She didn't sleep very well at all the other night, and then yesterday morning she was sticking her tongue out a lot. I decided to feel her gum and sure enough, I felt a little sharp something poking through on the bottom left (her right)! I was totally surprised, because while she slept poorly, she still wasn't up all night screaming or anything. She was a little fussy during the morning, but yesterday afternoon I guess it all hit home, because she could not stop screaming from the pain. I felt so horrible for her. I gave her some all natural Camilia from Whole Foods to help and I guess it did help a little because she was able to calm down enough to finally go down for her afternoon nap (and she slept for 2 1/2 hours after that). We are now stocked up with Baby Orajel and her teethers are all cooling in the freezer. Whew!

As I told her, I'd rather grow a massive tooth out of my forehead than have to have her go through this pain, but I know she's not going to want to be eating puree-d everything when she's 20 so teeth it is. I made her a nice juicy steak to celebrate.

Yeah right, I would never do that. Steak is so gross.

Here's another look at the lil guy pokin through...

Can you see it??

No?!??

Here, I'll help.

:-D Isn't it purdy?

Happy New Year!

2011-01-06T06:45:00.000-08:00

Hah it's actually one of my pet peeves when people wish you a happy new year like a week after the new year. Ah I guess it's a nice thing to do, but whatev. Anyway, I've got a little updating to do! We had a fun little weekend get away with some friends at their cabin in Lake Arrowhead. It was Gabriella's first time seeing the snow, and I'm not quite sure she was too impressed. She was actually quite indifferent!

I on the other hand don't think I could hack it living in the snow. The ground is slippery. How do you carry your baby around on an icy driveway!? And naturally G had a blowout poo in the car. Usually I just pop open the trunk and change her on the nice big flat surface. Nope, not in the snow! I had to maneuver changing her in the passenger's seat. Not an easy task to do (at least not in our friends' SUV). And digging your car out of the snow every morning?? It took the boys an hour to get our car out so we could leave. I think I'm more of a fan of watching the snowy goodness from the warm indoors a couple days out of the year. L.A. weather has spoiled me.

I've included some captions. They should probably go underneath the photos, yet I did it the wrong was and have zero motivation to correct it. ~~I apologize for my laziness~~ Who cares? ;-)

Her "auntie" Kristin was so happy to get some snuggles in with G. Boo to our friends for moving down to San Diego.

This was moments before she decided to make the biggest poop known to man inside the car.

Riley was so good with G! And Gabriella absolutely loved her too. I can see them being great friends in a few years :-)

I had a little fun with some PW Photoshop Actions.

The view of the lake. Well you can't see any lake because it was snowing, but when it was clear there was a nice view of the lake.

Our friends' two little ones, Riley and Cayden. Aren't they so cute all bundled up in their snow gear?!

G and Cayden were both making eyes at each other... we're going to have to watch out for those two!

Snow Angel!

Adam sledding down the hill in the backyard

Our little SUV buried under snow! We couldn't even park in the driveway because we don't have all wheel drive and it was so icy when we got there. And fail that we didn't have chains, but we didn't do any driving while we were there so it wasn't really a big deal.

Our friends and their little boy, Cayden

Adam found an apple tree so he ate one. Seriously! I told him it was highly likely that it wasn't an apple at all, and probably poisonous bear bait, but he maintains it was the most delicious apple he's ever eaten.

The cabin

Chilly

G has mastered babbling mama at me now and I absolutely love it. Not sure if it counts as her first word, but isn't that relative? I have a little video of her talking away :-)

And our foray into solids is well underway - she has loved just about everything we've given her: sweet potato, carrots, zucchini, pears, squash, bananas... except a horrible experience with avocado. We apparently hate avocado with the passion of (fill in the blank with something massively descriptive). I gave her a teeny bite the other night and she made a face and kind of gagged a little bit. I made the horrible mistake of trying to give her another little bite - she gagged and then proceeded to projectile vomit all over herself and her high chair tray. She's never thrown up before and I felt so awful. Actually I cried a little. She was all smiles a minute later but mama still feels guilty :-( One thing's certain, I'm not making her eat avocado again!

And since it's a new year and all, naturally it's time to get fit. I mean, doesn't everyone somewhat aspire to do this every January (and usually fail by February - ha!)? We've been having so much fun with the X Box Kinect Santa brought for Adam this year - this dance game is such fun and a major workout!

I think I may have forgotten to update about my arthritis situation; I ended up not going on the methotrexate drug. It just made me too apprehensive to be taking a chemo medication, so I sought out a second opinion and this dr. actually recommended cortizone injections in my knees along with other medication. Yeah shots in the knees are as frightening as it sounds, but the minute of pain has been SO WORTH IT. Oh my panini what I can do with my knees now! It's like I'm a child again - I can leap and bend and sit with absolutely ZERO pain whatsoever. I can't believe I didn't try this before. Coupled with Celebrex, I've been doing much better. Hence the getting crunk.