Last month we got our photos taken by a photographer. It was freezing cold out there and very windy. Poor Little Miss had a Rudolph nose for most of the shoot. These are some of the better photos that were taken. Unfortunately, we didn't get these back in time for the Christmas cards, but I was pleased with the way those turned out anyway. Enjoy!
We've established the Little Miss and Huckleberry are in the process of developing a beautiful relationship. A few times this week I witnessed the following scene...
Baby girl crawls on the floor and Huck walks in front, lies down and makes his belly available:
He then looks back to see if she's noticed:
Once they make eye contact he turns away again, so as not to appear too desperate for a belly rub:
Little Miss thinks about it a moment, and then obliges:
Huckleberry is in bliss. I hope they're always this way.
Today was a big day in our family. Hubs and I closed on the new house. Luckily, Grandma was able to stay at home with Little Bit while Hubs and I had the opportunity to sneak away and do the final inspection and closing all by ourselves. This picture was taken a little while ago- you know, back when we still had furniture in the house. But, all the boxes in the background are representative of what it's been like living in this house the past few weeks. Choose boxes, pack, stack boxes, repeat. All while trying to keep the house clean. I'm looking forward to going to the new house so I won't have to live in chaos while trying to stay neat. Tomorrow is the big day. The pod has been delivered to the new house, hubs hired a guy to help him unload, and Grandma will stay at the house entertaining baby while I try to clean the new house and unpack a little. Whew! The good news is that tomorrow we'll be sleeping in our new house and on Christmas morning Corn Pop will wake up for the first time in her nice new house. What an anniversary.
It seems that many of my recent posts are food centric. Giving Cocoa Pop food has provided many funny moments. Lately she's taken to taking food and just sitting with it in her mouth for ages. I think that I've mentioned it before. Here was one day's object of affection- a piece of lettuce. I love being able to feed her food off my plate (it makes meal times less stressful and super easy), but she does interesting things with it...like let it hang out of her mouth until I fish it out with my fingers and ignite a fuss.
I think I may have mentioned that my mom came back south with me to help with the big move. We've been doing some packing, but haven't been too stressed out yet. The hardest thing has been packing and keeping everything clean so that we can show the house to prospective renters. We don't want you to think that we haven't had any time for fun. Last weekend was the neighborhood holiday party. We invited Uncle Jon to come along and stayed for a little bit, but once bedtime rolled around, we split so we could keep Little Miss Sleepy on her schedule. Once she was down we decided to open a bottle of bubbly we had in the fridge. Since the glasses were all packed away, we had to enjoy them with a solo cup. It was fun singing 'Red Solo Cup' with my mom and letting loose a little- very college-like (except being with my mom). I'm not sure if the new neighborhood does fun things like holiday parties, so I'm trying to really enjoy stuff like that now.
Every couple of years our neighborhood has a holiday homes tour. I went a few years ago, but skipped this one. We were just back in town and seemed to have other things to do than tour the homes. However, it does make the rest of the neighborhood up the ante for their decorations. Here is a decorated sleigh in the front yard of some neighbors a few doors down. Yes, the tree lights up at night. I'm not sure why you would buy a tree just for your front yard decorations, but to each his own. Pardon Little Miss Mellow, this was taken just before her nap time.
This post is a shout out to the Peanuts. My little Peanut is quite the piano aficionado. This is one of her favorite toys. An ode to the baby piano:
First, make eye contact and crack the knuckles to show you're ready:
Then, get lost in your performance.
Bravo, little one, bravo!
After Thanksgiving I stayed up north with Little Miss so that we could attend the Festival of the Gnomes. When I was a little girl my mom took me to this, and also introduced several of my cousins. It's not anything huge- the lobby of the local theatre is transformed into a gift shop for all things gnome. You can buy a hat (red for boys, green for girls) on the first year. Each year after that the lovely lady volunteers will sew on a tassel. There's also a bake sale. When I was a little kid there used to be a gingerbread house display with one huge gingerbread house, but they no longer do that. The main focus is a play- all centered around gnomes. It's a series of shorter skits and many of the same people have been doing it since I was a child. It's a fun part of my childhood and I really wanted to share it with my daughter. Since Thanksgiving was late and the festival was early, the timing worked out well.
We took some photo ops before the festival began:
You can see that my hat isn't pointy at all. That's because it's really old and a different style. I suppose that I could buy a new one and move the tassels over, but I'm kind of in love with it just how it is. Little Miss Gnome now officially has her hat and can have a tassel the next time she attends. We were lucky that my best friend from high school was also able to come with her niece:
My little Biscuit was mesmerized when the show began and watched as much as a baby could before getting distracted and then eventually falling asleep in my nap. Thank goodness for the carrier. She was able to tuck in and snooze away under the hood while I could enjoy the show without my arms breaking from holding her. Poor Laura had a different fate. By the end of the show she was calling her niece Wigglebutt. She said she'd never been so restless. Moral of the story: skip the festival when Corn Pop is 2:) It was a fun festival and I'm glad that we were able to go. I'm not sure if we'll make it an annual event, but it sure is fun to be able to introduce my daughter to things that I used to enjoy when I was a little girl.
are these two friends. I've shown pictures of Little Miss with her friend before, but this was a precious moment from a recent impromptu playdate/storytime. Mama Mandy started reading a book to her son and Little Miss Scooter couldn't wait to hear it herself. Look at them with each other. I'm sure that we'll hang out once we move, but I'll definitely miss this on such a regular basis. Hopefully the new neighborhood will have some great mommy/baby friends.
Love the smile on her face. It's clear that I need to get to the store for some onesies, because I didn't have any that fit her for this picture! She didn't really seem to mind and actually had fun posing for these pics.
This past month flew by quickly and was unique in that I kept Little Miss in Chicago for a week while Daddy went back home to work. It was a fun week, but utterly challenging. I'm not sure that I'll be trying that again for a while. Two words: sleep deprivation.
Anywho....here's the month by the numbers:
Weight- 20 ish (she's heavy to carry)
Diaper Size- 3
Bum Genius- Still 3 snaps on the middle, buttoned on the middle rise
Clothes Size- 6-9 mos., moving into 9-12 mos
#oz drunk/day- 5 6 oz bottles a day and we give her a 4 oz bottle during the night
Road Trips- 1, Chicago for Thanksgiving
Favorite things- her xylophone piano, books
Things that make her laugh- play dropping her while holding her, spinning around
Foods Tried- yellow squash:) zucchini:) cauliflower:) pizza crust:):) corn bread:/ lentil sloppy joe:/ Huck's rawhide:):) apple:) cucumber:/ black beans and rice:/
New Discovery: rocking on all four legs, teeth!
#Teeth: 2 (bottom middle)
Biggest Challenge- getting her to stay asleep
Interesting Fact- because I usually carry her on my left hip, my left arm is much stronger than my right
We've had some pretty cold days this year. I thought she was pretty bundled up when I took her for a walk dressed like this.
But that was nothing. When it got really cold I pulled out the snowsuit that Mamaw sent and we went out like this:
I love the expression on her face. She reminds me of the little boy in A Christmas Story. Hopefully this'll be as cold as is warranted because the only other thing I can do is bust out more blankets to throw on her while out walking. I'm hoping that won't be necessary- we do live in the South, after all.
Last month I finally acknowledged that Little Miss is big enough to go in the shopping cart. I still usually wear her while in the stores because studies show that 70% of all carts have fecal matter and I just find it easier. However, I wanted to commemorate the occasion that she was able to ride through Kroger in the cart.
While in IL, my mom and I were out doing errands one day when we pulled into the driveway only to discover that Little Miss was snoozing away peacefully in the back seat. We decided to make the most of it and go on a long drive to lunch. We went to Starved Rock State Park, about 40 min away. It wound up being perfect- just as we pulled into the parking lot, our little bundle of joy woke up. It happened to be game day, so Little Miss played with toys, snacked on vegetables and watched the Bears play happily while her Grandma and I had a tasty lunch. She didn't have any beverages (maybe a little milk)....we'll have to save that for another day entirely.
This year for turkey day we went to my family in Illinois. As it becoming typical, I forgot to take any pictures because I was more absorbed in spending time with my family than taking pictures of them. It was fun to see the aunts, uncles, cousins and my grandma. This year was fun because my uncle took all the VHS tapes he had of Thanksgivings past and had them turned into DVD. It was fun reliving old years, although I'm sure it was more entertaining for hubs to see his young bride.
Little Miss didn't actually partake of any of the food at the Thanksgiving meal because we're not yet giving her meat, and all the other food wasn't plain enough to give a baby. Oops. However, Grandma bought a bright new high chair to be kept at her house when we come visit. It's pretty cool because it can convert to a table and chair when Sugar Pop outgrows the need for the high chair. I'm all for things that serve multiple purposes and can grow with the child. However, I digress. Here's Little Miss Messy eating a meal with us. Sometimes we find it's easier to take off her clothes and let her go to town than to cover her up with bibs and deal with stain removal later. We hope that your holiday was great.
When we were putting together the nursery, we came in possession of hubs' dresser when he was a kid. Kinda cool, but it was very 1970's and needed some attention. After scouring the boards on Pinterest and sending out to the garage for 'treatment,' it came back with a shiny coat of cream paint. I added the polka dots for some fun and got some new sparkly knobs at Hobby Lobby. We were trying to have Little Miss spend more time in her nursery in preparation for the full transition to sleeping in her crib there, so have given her lots of opportunities to play on the floor in there. One day she scooted over to the dresser and started reaching for the knobs. Turns out the love of shiny things starts early.
Sarah, or Sayrah as we like to call her, is one of my friends that I met in grad school and lived with for a couple of years. She got pregnant shortly after I did and came to TN to have the baby. Luckily, we got to spend some time with her before her baby was born. There was this picture from when Little Miss was just a wee little baby...
Then there was this picture taken when Say and Tater Tot had some girlie bonding time together (and Huck)...
And now our dear friend Sayrah is a mom herself. She was one of my last friends to give birth which makes me realize how old my little baby is getting. We've gotten to meet her little bundle a few times before they go back home. The girls had some time together this weekend. Little Miss Curious got to explore all her hair while her friend did tummy time...
I'm really jealous of all the hair. However, if you ask Little Miss what she did the past two months, she'd tell you she grew hair. And teeth. Even though it's still pretty thin, it is coming in and starting to fill out. It's like she has a layer of fluffy down around her head. I'm hoping that she'll be able to have a little sprout by her first birthday. But, I digress.
This past weekend was the last time that we'll see them for a while since they're going back after Thanksgiving. So, we were sure to get a big hug and a family photo. We've come a long way together. I can't wait to see the little girls grow up together and be friends.
Here's a glimpse of the photo shoot we did to get our Christmas card photo this year. We already have the cards ordered. In the midst of the move and heading north for Thanksgiving and all the other things we have going on, it's nice to have one thing ticked off the list. It's amazing how you can get inspiration for something online and when you go to recreate it at home, it's way more difficult than you originally thought. Thank goodness for my Mac is all I can say.
Little Miss Motor has made her way out of the living room and is currently exploring the hallway. She really likes the fringe on the rug. She runs her fingers through it, makes shadows on it, and has done everything short of taste it (although maybe I just wasn't looking). The rug has a lot of colors and patterns for her to explore. As of yet, she hasn't gone to the end of the hallway, but she's getting closer and closer to real crawling any day now and I expect her to fully explore the house once that happens. Guess I really have to get going on the babyproofing.
So it's official- we're moving at the end of next month to this house. It neither is blue nor has a brick sidewalk, so I'm not sure what that will mean for the blog, but here's the house nonetheless. It all started a few months ago when I complained for the millionth time about how small and unworkable the kitchen was. Hubs helped in the kitchen after the baby was born and agreed with me. We met with the contractor who built our garage and when he finally ran some numbers and got back to us with how much it would be to expand the house, we took pause. Hubs took more than pause- he took the opportunity to create some models, run some numbers and started to make the argument that moving to another house was the appropriate remedy.
I resisted- hard- because when I bought this house 4 years ago, I planned that it would be my forever home. I always knew that I could expand out the back should the need for more space arise. The neighborhood is so accessible to the interstates, walking distance of downtown, and I know my neighbors and feel connected to the neighborhood. Hubs assured me that he wouldn't ask me to move unless we could find all those things in another house. I was very doubtful.
It turns out that what we were looking for couldn't be found in the city for a decent price, but could be found in the suburbs. We stumbled upon this house in a development that has the same feel as our current neighborhood, is right on a greenway, is walking distance to shopping (although they're all major chains, so not too much personality) and has access to a community pool. I never fancied myself a suburban mom, but there are a lot of things about this area that are walkable and I can't deny that it'll be safer and more fun for baby bee growing up. We'll keep our house and rent it for a few years as we expect its value to continue climbing. In the meanwhile, I'll really get a taste of the suburbs and see if that kind of living is for me.
Now that she's mobile (though not full on crawling) we have to really watch what's out and about. I've already caught her eating the dog's rawhide, my computer cord is one of her favorites to chew on, and today she was very interested in the fringe on the rug in the hall. Yesterday I was cooking lunch and she got really quiet. When I came in to check on her, this is what I found.
And then she gave me this look: What?
I've told hubs that he has to start putting away his shoes because she's crawled over to them, although she hasn't played with them to this extent yet. The time to baby proof is truly upon us.
This week we introduced both yellow squash and zucchini to Little Miss Eats-a-lot. She likes them both, but yellow squash is the clear favorite. She eats and eats until there's nothing left but the skin and the seeds. They then hang from her mouth like this until she starts eating the next thing. It's really fun to watch.
Hubs' car was parked under this ginkgo tree when it decided to drop all its leaves overnight. They're so light an pillowy. It was a nice sight to come out to and something I want to remember.
There are several things that get Huckleberry excited during the wintertime.
1. Putting on shoes and coat- he thinks he's going for a walk or out with you every time. It's sad when you tell him he has to stay- he gets such a disappointed look.
2. The heating vent by the front door- he can often be found there warming up. It's great when he comes to get cuddles because his belly is sooo warm!
3. This blue down blanket. This was a gift years ago from someone who wanted to acknowledge my love of napping. It is soft, it is warm, and it is very snuggly. Hubs and I fight over this blanket when we're watching tv at night and we use it on the bed when it's really cold. Huck also really appreciates this blanket and follows it around the house. Yesterday when I shook out the blanket to use it, Huck spotted me and ran to me to get underneath lickety split. He'll also hang out on the ottoman if it means he gets to snuggle the blanket.
Last weekend we had Uncle Daniel and Aunt Kara in town. As usual, I failed to get pictures of them, but I was able to get some pictures of one of the cool things we went to see. Our local botanical gardens hosted a light exhibit by the British artist Bruce Monro. It was the final weekend and I had been meaning to go all summer, but it never quite happened. We decided to take advantage of it and braved the cold weather to check it out. I think it's safe to speak for hubs when I say that we were underwhelmed. A few years ago we had a Chihuly exhibit that was gorgeous. The first exhibit we came upon here were a bunch of plastic bottles with fiber optic wires in them so the towers could change colors. I didn't even bother to take pictures.
Next up was an exhibit in the Japanese gardens, but hubs and I couldn't go because it wasn't stroller friendly. There was an overlook but we couldn't see anything from there. We heard it was okay. There is a pond on the premises and it had teepee style lights that quickly changed colors to the different stalks. We felt like we were in a rave.
Here's the same space in the Chihuly exhibit:
I think the piece d'resistance was supposed to be the field in front of the main house covered in lights. However, they were dingy and not really that fun to look at. All I could think was how long it must've taken to install (I think they said 20,000?) lights, and what a pain it would be to pack it up. I guess it was nice being out and about and Tater Tot is always well behaved when she's out in her stroller, but I think that missing that exhibit wouldn't have been that heartbreaking.
Again, the Chihuly for comparison:
I went to Chihuly twice- once during the day and once at night. The daytime was beautiful, but to see the glass lit up at night was stunning. These pictures don't do it justice. I get that they need to have a range of exhibits to keep everyone interested, but can I please request a permanent Chihuly addition to the gardens, because things like the lights just don't cut it for me.
It's starting to get cold down here and we've been experimenting with hats and coats to keep Sugar Pop toasty warm. I've been looking for a fleece coat and am having a really hard time. I found this one at a consignment store and am using it, but am not thrilled with it. But, the hats! The hats for little girls are so adorable and make me so glad that I have a little girl to dress up. Animal hats are all the rage- she has a lamb hat that's pretty darn adorable, but check out this bunny hat.
The little puff in the back gets me every time I see it. The only problem is that the hat is a little on the large side. It's not unusual to see the puff in the front of her head. If that's not the case and the hat stays the right way around, it's common to discover that you've been strolling her around with the hat completely covering her eyes and coming down to the nose. She never complains about it and we're wondering how she stays so mellow with the 'wool pulled completely over her eyes.' Daddy finally figured out that you could flip the bottom trim up and it would stay put better. I'm hoping that we'll get to use it all of this season and maybe next. Fingers crossed.
