The Apple Doesn't Fall

... far from the tree.

Allison has been refusing any and all food for 4 days now.
Carrots=fail
Peas (pureed AND fresh cooked) = fail
Butternut Squash (I roasted and pureed myself) = fail
Acorn Sauash (I roasted and pureed myself) = fail
Prunes = fail
Banana = fail
Sweet Potatoes = fail

Homemade Bread I made for my mommy's get together this morning = SUCCESS!

Tonight she ate all the pieces of bread that Annabelle didn't steal out of her hands.

God I love this child!

Maybe the funniest one of these ever

Like a Sunday Afternoon

Like the hours of a slow Sunday afternoon

The days of my little gal's babyhood are quickly slipping into something, more grown up.

I try and slow down and soak in these fleeting, sweet moments.

The way she looks in a winter hat


or the squeal that escapes her lips when she sees a giraffe, or a horse.


The way she looks at me in the middle of the night when all is quiet and it's just mom and baby alone in the world.


These are the things I'd like to hold onto.

We don't like the hair guy?

I finally found a hair stylist (is that the correct term?) that I like two months ago. I went in a very tired, fazzled mom and told him to do whatever he thought would be cute and easy to style. I ended up with a pretty darn easy to do, cute slightly more modern version of the "mom cut". Fortunately I haven't yet given into the mom pants (which I now totally understand WHY moms where these... what the hell are you supposed to do with all this extra stomach skin??), but I am loving having a short mom cut. So, I went today to get my haircut refreshed and for some ungodly reason thought it would work out fine to bring Allison along. Enter scene:

Busy salon, lots of pretty skinny people
Nice couches, fancy pillows (don't you know babies cheese all over things?)
No other children (is it against the code to bring a baby to the salon?)
Allison is hungry, I frantically breastfeed her while waiting for my turn
Skinny teenagers stare at me breastfeeding. I wish I was brave enough to tell them, "yes that's what your boobs are for Barbie!"
Allison is too distracted to eat, she keeps pulling off and cooing at the window, exposing my nipples to the teenagers again.
Give up feeding Allison, set her on nice couch.
Lots of women oogle over her, she smiles at all of them
Finally, my fabulous hair guy (still don't know what the right term is) comes over to say hi, and oogles at Allison.

Allison shreeks and crys!!! That's odd, she's really not normally that kind of baby. I calm her down, then fabulous hair guy trys to talk to her again. This time there's a huge pout more shreeking and crying! Allison decided she is afraid of the fabulous main who cuts my hair! How odd, I have a strange child indeed.

More Starbucks Hilarity

I'm at Starbucks picking up a frappachino for Caitlin. The guy in front of me in line orders a latte. A gingerbread spice latte, if I recall correctly.

When he gets his drink, he takes the lid off, pours a shot or two of it into the garbage can next to the register, and says, "Here's one for my homies!"

Really? REALLY? Do people actually do that in real life? With STARBUCKS LATTES??

Rough Around the Edges

I can almost always count on my mom to give me an honest opinion, and I respect that. Yesterday before heading to Allison's daycare Christmas party I asked her, "Do I look OK for a party?". She replied "You look OK, just a little rough around the edges". I quickly changed from my frumpy t-shirt into a slightly less frumpy sweater. No time for makeup or jewelry or contacts as Allison was hungry, needed to be dressed in her Christmas dress, etc, etc. Allison looked absolutely darling in her little red velvet dress which is good, because I do look more than a little rough around the edges. I suppose the way you look and present yourself reflects a lot about the way you're feeling. Since having Allison I've gotten into the swing of caring for her and being a parent but honestly at this point it's left me a bit rough around the edges. I've put off the all almost any and all things related to taking care of myself and it's quite apparent. I haven't even been eating healthy or exercising which is, well, unlike me. My new resolution is to try and take care of myself too so that I at least feel and maybe even look halfway as healthy as I did before getting pregnant.

I still haven't uploaded new photos, so for all you photo hounds, here's a another blast from the past. Well, I guess it really is only a little more than a year ago, but it feels like AGES ago:

Some Updates

No we haven't fallen off the face of the earth. Time is scarce and I'm constantly tired/sick and or trying to keep up with everything. Allison is such a little person these days. She cracks herself up (errupting into giggles) when she bounces in her jumperoo. It is quite the scene! When she was born and I heard her cry it was a feeling of happiness and relief she was OK. Hearing her giggle is THE BEST sound. Pure joy. Even better than the first little squaking cry in the delivery room. She is still erratic about her sleep, but I've decided to go with the flow. I absolutely do not agree with crying it out, so if my baby doesn't want to sleep in her crib or carseat (one of her fav places, esp with a cold) she sleeps in bed with me. There I said it, on the Internets!! I am a big fan of co-sleeping and the family bed. I don't agree that it's dangerous (there are actual reputable studies that show it's twice as safe as crib sleep) and I don't agree that it's a bad habit. When she's ready to sleep alone she'll let us know. I'm tired of people telling me I shouldn't have her in bed. She should be where she's the most happy and secure feeling. If that's the carseat, so be it, if that's cuddled up next to mommy all night, so be it. The best feeling in the world is when she wakes up in the morning, opens her eyes, smiles and coos. No crying, no fussing, just a happy baby!

Ian's out of town this weekend (Thurs-Mon) to referee a national fencing tournament. He loves doing it but claims it's not a vacation. But I digress.... Allison and I are having a girl's weekend complete with a party with Santa, craft and wine day with the girls, mama's brunch and shopping!

I'll hopefully upload some recent pics soon!