The spam stops here

Just a note to let everyone know I've just added a word verification option for commenting so don't be surprised when you see that request if you go to leave a comment on this blog. We've been getting a lot of "spam comments" which I didn't even know was possible, and is definitely as annoying as spam emails. Thanks to my friend for suggesting this to keep out the spammers!

And on the family front, the little one is still battling her cold and now I've caught a new one, yippee, the house of snot legacy lives on...

Baby's first cold

No, no pretty little picture of the fabulously snotty baby enjoying her first cold, I am kind at heart and thought to spare everyone that wonderful view, you're welcome.

Yes, yet another milestone for our little one as this past week she began sneezing and coughing and dripping snot all over her toys - hurray for baby, she's caught her first cold! I had a cold for about a week and was right in the middle of congratulating myself for not giving it to my baby when I noticed the steady stream of snot coming out of her nose last Sunday. I tried to convince myself it was some sort of fluke from her afternoon nap, drool from all the teething that was magically flowing upward into her nose, but no, then more snot came, and then the sneezing, and then the fever and then it was pretty hard to ignore. So, I pulled out all my baby books and magazines and read everything I could find about her symptoms and discovered there wasn't much I could do but watch and wait, she only had a stuffy nose and a really mild fever and to top it off she was happy as a clam! She couldn't have cared less about not being able to breathe, seemingly suffocating every time she ate, and leaving a bright shiny slime trail everywhere she crawled around the house, she loved it! Of course she's had a few fussy moments throughout the week, but between her and me she wins the prize. I had the same cold and whined and complained the whole week but give it to my little 7-month-old baby, and she can kick that germ right on it's ass. You are so your father's daughter, thank god for those tough-guy genes.

So, as of today, I am finishing up the famous cold, the little one's battling her way through it and daddy seems to have just started sniffling, hmmmmm, I think that officially makes us the snot family. Oh well, signing off from snotville with a fun little non-snotty picture of Ms. Cuteness...



(Looks like she's on a really important conference call, doesn't it?.... Baby calling god, are you there god? There's been a mixup, this is soooooooo not my mother, this crazy lady right here, who WON'T STOP TAKING MY PICTURE!) : )

Water Baby

Here's the little princess at the pool last weekend - having a splashing good time! I think she has no idea why we strap her in a tight outfit and swoosh her around in what seems like a giant bathtub but she seems to enjoy all the sights and sounds and likes watching all the other kids jump around in their bright swimsuits. After a few weeks she's even starting to have some fun splashing and lets us dunk her under water a few times, big girl! Can't wait until next summer when we can really have some pool time fun!

Getting to be such a big girl...

Our baby milestone of the week - little Ella has successfully moved up to her "big girl" room, wow!, what?... aka, she's now sleeping in the official 'nursery' and not in the pack-n-play by mom & dad's bedside, sigh, we miss her already... We had thought six months would be a good time for her to go sleep in her big crib and that she would be sleeping through the night by then anyway (hah!). Well, she's still getting up at 3 am and then sometimes 6 am too, but I need the exercise anyway, right? - Let me explain, our house's interesting floorplan puts our bedroom on the first floor, and hers on the second, so I'm sure you can imagine that the long walk across the living room and up the stairs at 3 am is sooooo refreshing : ) (Especially when you arrive crib-side only to discover those noises you heard on the baby monitor were not the baby waking up after all, look, she's perfectly asleep, aah, too bad I'm not anymore, tee hee hee). Overall, the little princess seems to be adjusting quite well to the big-girl life in her very own nursery. And while I'm glad we're finally using the room I so painstakingly decorated and created for her, it was definitely strange to move all her stuff out of our bedroom, and all her clothes out of my closet and drawers. Our days are the same as ever but at night sometimes I miss having to be quiet as I crawl into bed or the lovely scent of stinky diapers that used to waft out of our bathroom : )

Little Ella has also gotten her second tooth this week, yay! She still seems to be doing amazingly well on the fussiness scale as far as teething goes and we're soooooo proud of her for it. She's also still enjoying a multitude of new solid foods and she's working ever harder every day at crawling (this week she even tried a new trick by getting up on her hands and toes, though I'm not sure how that helped get her moving at all, I think she was just trying out some of the yoga and pilates she saw on my exercise video). Every day, what new sillyness and fun, can't wait for tomorrow, or even when she wakes up from the nap she's having right now...

Here she is lounging around in her roomy big-girl crib...




Here's the new hands and toes yoga thing of hers, pretty cute, huh?...





Then, taking a break from all that exercise...





And here she is just looking so astoundingly beautiful, I can't believe she's mine...

Rock 'n' Roll Baby

Rockin' and rollin', that's what the little one's been up to this week, check out her new tummy play - up on her knees and ready to go!!




So she started pulling up on hands and knees like this, just this week, and then she goes rock, rock, rock, rock, flop! - forward on her tummy. Then some rolling and scooching ensues and let me tell you, with the rock-flop-roll-and scooch combo, she can cover quite a bit of ground! We understand this is a definite precursor to crawling so we are frantically scrambling around the house installing outlet plug covers and discovering what possibly edible objects might be found at the 1-foot-and-below level. And although she's definitely good at this new rock-n-flop she doesn't seem that focused on it yet and is still quite happy lounging and rolling around on a play blanket on the ground. By the way, mama is sooooo thankful that you aren't insistent on cruising just yet, please feel free to take your time on this little one, we know that after crawling comes walking... AND running..., aah, lions and tigers and bears, oh my : )

And her first little tooth is coming in more and more each day and I think she's as puzzled with it's presence as we are with her lack of fussing about it. She chews on her toys with a renewed sense of vigor, gnawing away with pleasure with her new little tool. Hopefully we'll capture a shot of the new chopper one of these days, but she still sticks her tongue out a little when she smiles so the little pearl is hidden from view. I'm sure a fabulously goofy toothy grin will be visible soon - we can hardly wait!

Thursday morning giggles

HAPPY HALF-BIRTHDAY BABY!

Today is our little princess' 6-month birthday, wow! We can't believe you've been here a half year already, and we already can't imagine a life without you, or even remember our life before you were here. Though it seems impossible, we love you and our new precious family more and more each day. We are so thankful for every moment that we get to share together and we thank god everyday for little miracles in the shape of beautiful baby girls.

Havin' a bad hair day and lovin' it!

Okay, mean mama, I know, but Ella had this totally hysterical 'duck-wing' hair thing going on ALL DAY yesterday so I just had to take a picture! In addition, she had a huge red baby-zit on her upper lip to go with the funky hair...



...and she still looks cute! Could I have that power please? Bad hair and zits and everybody just loves you, you have got it soooo good baby.

Amidst her absolute adorableness, Ella has also proven to be quite a tough cookie, for we discovered while playing with her last night, as she playfully gummed on our fingers while reading a book, that OUCH!, there was something sharp in baby's gums! Her first tooth has broken through without even the slightest whimper from her - wow, baby, you definitely got daddy's genes 'cause mama needed massive amounts of epidurals during labor and you apparently can cut entire teeth through your gums while hanging out all weekend at INCREDIBLY LOUD AND DISTURBING baseball games (see previous post about our baseball weekend), I am soooooooooo impressed. You take the cake, honey, you really do. Forget all those baby books with their 'fever, drooling & diarhea' horror stories of teething, you just march to the beat of your own drum, don't you little one? I swear, every day you continue to amaze me as you cruise through each month's milestones with absolute glee. You are a truly amazing little human being & we just love you to bits.

p.s. - so if you can cut teeth as easy as taking a poop, I'm figuring we'll just breeze through those terrible twos and you will be an incredibly sublime and peaceful teenager, right?... Right?..... Well, I can dream, can't I... : )

The littlest baseball fan

So, lovely little Ella attended her first major league baseball games this weekend, woo-hoo! She did astoundingly well with the massive amounts of people, lights, & noise, and even seemed to enjoy herself a little - take a look...







As NY Mets fans in Texas, we don't get to see much of our favorite team even on tv, so when they come to Houston to play the Astros we make the three-hour trek just to catch a glimpse of them, even when they're having another so-so season. We lucked out this time because while they lost on Saturday, they had a great win on Sunday, a very fun & exciting game, thanks guys! I caught a few fun shots of the players too, here's an awesome 'at bat' shot, you can even see the pitch sliding in...





And here's my accidental capture of the true spirit of baseball, can you see?...





Take a closer look at the 'gentleman' on the right...



Yes, I do believe I caught an action shot of ball-scratching, fantastic, isn't it? Just brings out the sportsman in all of us. Anyway, a great weekend all-in-all, a quick fun little getaway, nothing like baseball and hot-dogs & ice cream at the ball park!

Appearing today in a one-time only performance...

It's a bird.... It's a plane.... I'ts SUPER BABY!!! Well, she is definitely super and I just had to write a quick post to say she must have heard me talking about her in my post yesterday, mean mama complaining about how she wouldn't nap the other day, because she took a stupendous THREE HOUR NAP yesterday - thank you baby! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! Mama got three whole hours of hands-free time which she deperately needed to work on a project and get dinner on the table on time for once. You are truly an amazing baby - terrifically super, totally fabulous, and absolutely scrumptious, I could just eat you up!

p.s. - Please take another three hour nap today. Pretty, pretty, pretty please? - love, mama

Yawn...

So, I wanted to write yesterday and praise my beautiful baby for her new and fabulous schedule which included a 2 to 3 hour nap in the afternoon. That's right, I said THREE HOUR NAP - woo hoo!! However, after going on an epic 3-day stint of said schedule she abrubptly changed her mind yesterday and not only did she not nap for anything over 30 minutes but she also decided to wake up and 6 AM after being on a sleeping-in-until-atleast-8 AM schedule for several weeks now... Aaaahhh, babies are good at throwing you a curve ball once in a while, huh?

Not that I could ever even get mad at her, let alone stay mad, for causing me some extra yawns, I mean how can you get mad at this face?...




As she so excellently displays in this picture, she is doing very well playing on her tummy these days, holding her head up and rolling over ALL the time! So, no, for all the safety experts out there, I do not leave her alone like this on the bed, in fact I can hardly stray a few feet from the fabulous rolling machine that she is. So, we play a lot more on the floor now, where she exhibits her newly acquired back-to-front AND front-to-back rolling skills, as well as showing off her new 'scooching' skills, which I'm sure is a precursor to crawling - TAKE YOUR TIME BABY, no need to start chasing you around or gating you in just yet. So perfect right now, can't get into too much trouble, can you...




Well, it's almost a staggering 7:15 AM and no peeps from the little one - good for you baby, go baby go!, sleep on, sleep on. Maybe today will be the first day of a new epic of sleeping in AND napping, well, I'd settle for either one, yawn....

Silly bedtime noises

Have I become a blogger?!

So I've decided to try this blogging thing, inspired by our many friends who blog themselves. It's hard these days to keep up with our many out-of-town friends so I really love the fact that I can 'check-in' on my friends who have blog sites and see what they're up to. I never knew how much time it took to make a phone call or email a friend until I had our baby and had no time for either! So, in case any of our friends or family would like a little window into our fabulous life, here it is, the launch of...

Family Life, unplugged!

So what to say this first post, hmmm.... I'm really psyched that this blogger site lets you post photos, that's the main reason I'm even trying this, so I can share a little blurb and another adorably cute picture of our adorably cute baby! This week we continue the current saga of the entry into the world of solid foods, dum dum dummmmm!!!! (See key graphic below)



This picture sums up our first cereal experience from a few weeks ago, it went surprisingly well and it did not require any goggles or rain-gear, good job baby! Last week we tried our first vegetables as well, carrots, followed by peas, which created carrot-poop, followed by pea-poop, and I think pea-poop wins out on the gross factor. Especially when she is sitting happily in her bouncy seat and I go to extricate her and find out she has had one of the aforementioned pea-poops and it has burst out the leg hole and made a lovely pea-poop puddle which she has been happily sitting in. Followed by a removal of said pea-poop filled diaper only to find that it is literally filling her belly button, ew, ew, eeewwwww! Yes, an actual hose-off in the sink was required, and no, I chose not to photograph this very special moment in her life.

Well, I think that's all the details of baby-life that the web can handle today, and it's all the time my very patient baby will allow me to type. I hope, not too shabby for our first post of family life - more stories to come, for the poop just keeps on coming...