Crazy Hair!




New Pictures






The backgrounds of these are kind of dark, but they're still great.

I Feel Like I Won the Lottery!






OMGOSH!!!!!! Have y'all seen the Pottery Barn line of "smart technology" furniture?

I have been complaining for *months* - MONTHS! - about all of our electronic stuff (phones, MP3 players, cameras, PDA's, etc, etc, etc!) and how there's never any place to keep it nicely plugged in, and then I just get this email from pottery barn!!! They came out with furniture pieces that have places to hide the cords to keep the stuff!! I'm so excited!!!!!! AACK!!!! You could just keep everything nicely plugged in in one place and it would eliminate the need for crazy cords all.over.the.house. Uggh!

I like things so over-the-top organized, that I feel like I won the lottery!!!!!

Check it out and let me know if it excites you as much! I'm so excited about it, I might not be able to sleep!

http://www.potterybarn.com/gift/thm/...t%20shop%20all

Just for the record...




...I was the one vote for "the spicier the better". Mmm - spicy salsa!!!

VCast Music




...is my new favorite hobby. I got the new LG Chocolate Phone about a week ago, and functions as a MP3 Player. It's *very* cool. It came with the Verizon Version of iTunes - "VCast Music". So, I've been surfing it and playing with it and finding new musicians, and rekindling old favorites. So far, my VCast favorites:

Food!





So, I realized I haven't blogged about Grant's feeding habits! Here's the scoop, for those of you dying to know what a 7-month-old eats!

We started giving Grant some food on Friday, July 13th - when he was 6 months and 3 days old. We made it to 6 months exclusively breastfeeding, a feat that I'm proud of since we had such a rough start to breastfeeding. Grant's first food was homemade baby pureed sweet potatoes, which he *loved*.

So, now he gets about 2 cubes of baby food in the morning for breakfast (2 cubes = 1 Gerber jar) and maybe 1 cube for an afternoon snack, if he's hungry.

His favorites are by far sweet potato and banana - he LOVES bananas. Loves.loves.loves!!!! He ate a 1/2 of a banana yesterday, and would definitely have eaten more.

He's not really a huge eater, though. He still nurses about every 2 1/2 - 3 hours, and sleeps from about 7 at night till 6:30 - 7 the next morning, with a dream feed at 9:30 p.m. He's just so fun to feed, though, because he's so cute as he raises his little eyebrows and opens his mouth and leans forward for the spoon!

Mmmm.....Feet!




Oh, to be this limber again!

Changes




Wow, well, I got with the program and figured out how to do neat formatting to my blog, hence, the different look. I like it! What do you think? For those that don't know, I like change - when I was teaching full-time I re-arranged my classroom at least 2x a semester. Kept the students on their toes.

And, I think it should be a rule - if you vote in my poll, you must tell me who you are! Because now I'll sit here and wonder who voted.

Parent Love




Well, I'm still sick, battling pneumonia, but fortunately The Boy is feeling better. He's not sleeping the greatest yet - waking up crying - so you know he's not feeling the greatest, but better.

Fortunately my parents came down yesterday evening and really helped out. The took care of me, took care of Grant, and took care of our house that was bordering on a disaster zone after a week of both momma and baby being sick. My dad went grocery shopping for us, and it was wonderful, because that meant there would be food for Matt to eat this weekend!

I opened the fridge this afternoon, and seeing one item in the fridge made me feel so super loved. See, my dad has a great way of remembering and doing special things for people. When I was little, he would bring me tapioca pudding when I was sick. I can still remember what it came in - those clear plastic deli cases. He'd bring me a small serving of it when I was feeling well enough to eat, and I sit up on the couch and talk with my dad and eat it. Just a special way of trying to make me feel somewhat better.

So, when I opened the fridge this afternoon, and saw a container of tapioca pudding on the top shelf, I was reminded again of how much my dad loves me. So, thanks to BOTH of my parents for helping me out so much again last night. My mother scrubbed my George Foreman grill for at least 20 minutes - so you know she loves me, too, to scrub someone else's appliance with baked-on goo for that long!

Child of the '80's




You Are 76% A Child of the 80s

Not only did you experience the 80s... you are practically an expert.
You should be totally stoked!


Hey, the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books were the BEST! And, I totally remember New Coke! The original Nintendo was fantastic - I think I could still beat my brother at a Super Mario Brothers Cart race!

Diet Coke Disaster






It was a Diet Coke Disaster in this household last night. I needed something to drink (and, though I'm trying to get in at least 64 ounces of water daily, I still *need* that Diet Coke!), and grabbed a pop from the pantry. Well, in one fluid motion, my arm went up, fingers releasing and accidentally dropping the pop can, and the pop can hit the floor on the precise edge of the can.

Diet Coke sprayed *everywhere*. I mean e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e. All over me, my clothes, the pantry, the cabinets, the fridge even! Disastrous!

At least the floor got a much needed, much overdo mopping!!

My Bumper's Back...




To the tune of The Angels' 1963 classic:

My bumper's back and I'm going to get some sleep,
hey la day la my bumper's back!

After traveling for a couple of days, we discovered that some babies have their blankies - Grant has his bumper. To go to sleep, he literally buries his face in it and hugs it to himself. When I go in to check on him at night, he's moved all over the crib, but is still almost always hugging the bumper.

So, with out his bumper, he had a hard time sleeping. It took the better part of the entire evening 2 nights in a row to get him to sleep and stay asleep. Thank goodness for an old vibrating massage pad my mother-in-law had! When placed underneath the leg of the pack-n-play, the Boy was out in T-minus-2 minutes flat! Whew!

But, thankfully, we're back home, and the bumper is back.

(For anyone wondering what the bumper looks like - here it is.)

Pureed to Perfection!




Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
So, when we were planning on adopting, I read about making your own baby food. I was intrigued, so I read more, and more, and am now doing it for Grant! It's SO easy, WAY more economical, and I LOVE doing it. I puree vegetables with breastmilk, and I *really* like the fact that he's getting the extra breastmilk mixed in with his solids.

I started making his baby food about 5-6 weeks ago, storing it up in the freezer. I started with sweet potato, and now have apples, broccoli, pear, and banana frozen in baby-sized portions. Here's how it works:

You cook the fruit or veggie, then blend it with some added breastmilk or water (or formula).


Then, when it's the perfect puree consistency, you pour it in ice cube trays to freeze.



Then, when the cubes are frozen, you can pop them out and put them into a freezer bag. That way, they're ready to grab and thaw when needed!! It's as easy as that!

Happy 4th of July!




Okay, so, it's now July 16th and I'm wishing you a happy 4th - but, the pictures are still good.





Some New Pictures...




So, if anyone is actually reading this (sometimes you start to wonder if you're talking to yourself in Cyber-land), here are some recent pictures.

The Funnel Cake!




Did you know that it can take *days* to track down the camera cord and a fresh battery for the camera? It's a fact.

After finding those 2 things, here are the promised funnel cake pictures!

Here's one of Grant looking distressed over not being able to eat it!

And another of Matt, mid-bite!

Late-Night Loopy-ness




I'm tired (I have a 5-month-old - I've been tired since January 10th! ) But, I just gotta say - if I'm allowed to comment on my own blog - that I love all of my emoticon. Here are a few of my favorites that I just couldn't get worked into a normal post (I tried!)

Early 4th Festivities




The small town near us puts on early 4th festivities every year, and after we heard about the street fair that happens, we decided to check it out. It was so fun! Very quaint and patriotic - booths lined the streets of downtown - games for the kids were out, bounce houses, live music, and - the best! - we got our first elephant ear of the summer!

I personally like funnel cakes better, but I'm not going to complain about the elephant ear! (For those of you wondering, yes, I'm still dieting, but took today off! ) Pictures to come of the elephant ear!

We had the best seats in the house, too, for the fireworks this evening - our back patio! Put Grant to bed, and a couple of hours later, sat outside on the patio watching fireworks. Our neighbor came over and we had a nice chat with him during the fireworks, which were actually a pretty good show for just a small town deal.

It felt like summer, today - elephant ears, pulled pork sandwiches, and small-town fireworks - gotta love life in the Midwest!

Sound Asleep!




I walked into Grant's room tonight to check on him, and found him sound asleep - like this! He won't be able to fit like that much longer!!

It's the Dairy Fairy!




So, when Grant was 1 month old we figured out that my eating dairy products was causing his severe reflux. (He had been seriously throwing up and screaming at every feeding prior to figuring this out). So, since then, I've had very little dairy. :/ I miss my Marble Slab, but it's SO worth it for no more throw up!

Anyway, I've decided when I'm done breastfeeding, we're going to host a Dairy Fairy party, as the dairy fairy can return to our household, finally! Cheesecake, nachos, brownies, all of it will be mine! :-) You're all invited, of course! ;-)