Happy Halloween!

This year Mark and I were arguing about what to dress Reesey up as for her first Halloween. Of course our first choice was to dress her up as a Reese’s Piece, or a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. Alas, they do not make any such costumes for babies, at least none that we could find. Yet they do make costumes for people who would like to dress their child up as a loaf of Wonder Bread? Figures.

So Mark and I cruised Amazon for baby costume ideas. A lamb with woolly ears? Nah. A monkey with a little pot belly? Nope. A cute pink bunny? No, no, no. Nothing fit. Of course it didn’t help that Mark was dead set on dressing her up as something humorous rather than adorable. What is it with guys and making their children looking ridiculous for comedy’s sake? I flat out said “NO” to dressing our child up as a hot dog, or any such similar attire.

Then we happened upon the costume that Mark fell in love with. The whoopie cushion. No, that was not a typo. Mark wanted to dress up our poor sweet adorable baby girl as a whoopie cushion for her first ever Halloween. I tried to compromise. I tried to be understanding. After all, we do dress her in all kinds of girlie pink clothes of my choosing all the time. But I just couldn’t do it to my sweet baby girl. So I put my foot down. It helped that a friend loaned me an adorable costume that was perfect for Reese. Once we saw it on her there was no question. This was it.

So without further ado. I give you THE PUMPKIN FAIRY!

And as a back-up in case of cold weather, the Funshine Bear!

To the pumpkin patch!

SmugMug has new display sizes and a fantastic new way to browse photos. When you fire lightbox by clicking on the main photo from a gallery page, it automatically chooses the best display size for your monitor/browser window. So I can be on a huge 30-inch Apple Cinema Display and see a photo that fills my screen, all from the same link that works perfectly for someone on an ancient 17-inch CRT.

Trust me, just maximize your browser window, follow the link, and browse the photos as big as your own monitor can can handle them.

Take me to the pumpkin patch!

Excercizing and Exersaucing

Time for a life-in-general update.

Since returning from our cruise Mark and I have been busy-busy. Work has been grueling for Mark lately and sometimes we both come home and just crash on the couches, too tired to make any effort to cook dinner or clean up. As a result-our apartment has reached an all time low in cleanliness. I’ll have to see what I can do about that this week, until then no one is allowed to come over and visit!

I have begun the uphill battle that is training for my first triathlon. Though, this last week was not good for me since I had absolutely no energy to work out! My SIL Liz convinced me to do the Stanford Treeathon with her in March. She puts me to shame. She will only have two months to train for it since she is having a baby in a week and can’t really start training for 2 months after that! I figure if she can do it, so can I!

Reese is becoming so much less of an infant with every day, and I look at other people’s newborn infants and can’t remember Reese ever being that small! Her hair is growing-although no one would probably notice it but me since I spend hours a day studying every inch of her:). She is sitting, of course she can’t get into a sitting position all by herself.

She is sleeping without being swaddled. When I go into check on her she is usually in this position-on her side, hugging her giraffe. So cute!

Reese has also been doing this new smile that I just find hilarious. She cracks me up all the time! It goes a little something like this…

…yup, still makes me chuckle, even in pictures:).

She is also making all kinds of funny noises these days including growling. Who knows where she got that one from? It’s kind-of like the raspy voice Mark had when he was a kid, so I have high hopes she will inherit that from her daddy, since it was so dang cute!

Last but not least, Reese has fallen in love with the Exersaucer. We moved it out into our family room/kitchen area and she has a ball in it. She is getting very good at reaching for the toys and balancing and we get to enjoy hours of her smiles and giggles while we do mundane chores like folding laundry and doing the dishes.

Until next time!

Ta-Da!

…and now, for Reese’s next trick, she will attempt to sit up without the use of a seating apparatus such as the Bumbo chair or the aid of her Mommy’s hands. This is not a trick! What you are about to witness is a genuine skill honed over days of careful practice in addition to a lot of pure talent. Please do not attempt this dangerous feat at home unless supervised by trained professionals!

Drumroll please…..

TA-DAAAAAAAAA!

(P.S. Thanks Aunt Karen for the adorable outfit complete with Ugg boots:)!)

The Rockin’ Baby Pouch

This year for my birthday my mom sent me some money and told me to buy something just for me, not for Reese, or Mark, just me. I didn’t exactly follow her wishes. I bought myself something for me, and Reese. Truthfully it is more for me, since it makes my life a whole lot easier. I bought myself a Rockin’ Baby Pouch.

You see, before Reese was born I weighed my options and decided a Baby Bjorn was a better buy. I ended up being wrong. For one thing, the Baby Bjorn’s shoulder straps lay right on top of the muscles on either side of your neck. When you put a 12 lb infant in it, those muscle start to get sore in no time. I’ve heard that the ones with extra back support help a little, but not much. The Bjorn is also very bulky, I can’t just carry it around in my diaper bag in case I need it. Reese is practically to big for it already, at 5 month old. So it doesn’t have a very long usage. Reese also doesn’t sleep very well in hers anymore, her head flops around a bit. I was already invested in it though, so I was just going to make it work. Then my wonderful mommy sent me Birthday money, and I decided that the pouch was what I wanted most.

Those women that I know with a pouch/sling just rave about it, and I had my doubts. Babies always looked so squished up in them. They don’t look very comfortable, and the pouch seemed to have an even shorter life than the Bjorn, but so far it’s been wonderful! Reese loves to be all curled up in it, it keeps my hands free, and she falls asleep in it quite often, especially in church! Plus, there are 5 different ways to position her as she grows, making it usable until she’s 24 months old! I keep it with me in my diaper bag all the time just in case I need to carry or hold Reese for a long time. I can either sit or stand with her in it, unlike the Bjorn which is only useful when standing. It’s so comfortable that sometimes I even forget I have it on! It’s reversible and also machine washable. I also love how snuggled up Reese is in it, so close to me and warm, with her head in just the right place so I can give it the occasional kiss. I totally sound like a commercial:). I am just a total pouch/sling-convert. We still have the Bjorn, and Mark uses it occasionally, but the pouch is my lifesaver. For more info on why baby wearing with the pouch/sling is so awesome click here.

Make this my most recent add to my “Mommy Must-Haves” list. Thanks Mom!

Yo Ho, Yo Ho, a cruising life for me!

Mark and I love cruising. We are just cruising-type people. For us it’s the ideal vacation- we don’t have to plan a whole lot, we get to kick back and relax totally disconnected from our normal life, it’s pretty much all inclusive, and we don’t have to work or clean up after ourselves. See the problem with vacationing for us right now is that we can barely afford the plane tickets to go anywhere, let alone actually doing something fun when we get there. So on a cruise we get amazing travel accommodations, an attentive room attendant who turns down our bed and brings us clean towels

(and often folds them into cool towel animals like this…),

the most incredible food I’ve ever tasted, fun activities, gorgeous views, a gym, hot-tubbing, swimming, and cool destinations. All for under $300/each. I think that cruise lines expect to make money off you from gambling and alcoholic beverages, which are not included, but Mark and I do not drink or gamble, so we pretty much rip them off. You would pay way more than $300 for just hotel and food for 5 days, let alone activities. Plus it will be great when Reese is potty-trained because then she can go to the adventure ocean program, also included, which is like free day care all day, every day on the ship. They do fun activities and games for the kids, and you can drop them off and pick them up whenever you want. Yup, Mark and I definitely love to cruise.

We’re ba-ack…

It’s strange how I plan and prepare and get excited for vacations for weeks, and as much as I enjoy myself when I am finally there, a part of me is always eager to return home to my regular everyday life. I am fond of routine. I like to know what is coming and plan for it. I like to be in my own home, where I’m comfortable and somewhat in control of my surroundings. Plus, I hate packing and unpacking. I like my own bed, my own kitchen. I don’t think I’ll ever be a jet-setter, as much as I’d like to think I could be. It seems like such an exciting hobby to travel to amazing places around the world. Unfortunately I hate long periods of time in confined spaces, so that rules out most forms of travel. I am incapable of packing light, and I always forget something important. I also don’t have any faraway places that I am dying to see. Sure it would be nice to see the sights in Europe, snorkel in Jamaica, soak up culture in China. But is there any one place that I am truly passionate about traveling to? Honestly, no. Does that make me boring? Maybe it’s just that I have never traveled anywhere that exciting. Mark and I have been to Hawaii and Mexico, but who hasn’t? Maybe someday, when we have the means to actually go all out and afford to do anything and everything we want on a vacation, I will then find my inner-jetsetter. For now I’m content to take a cruise once a year with my hubby, because it’s the one form of travel that I actually truly enjoy.

We got off the ship early this morning and drove home from LA stopping only once for gas and to feed Reesey. I’m always tired when I return from vacation, which is kind of ironic because aren’t you supposed to go on vacation to relax and return to normal life refreshed? Anyways, pictures and post about the whole trip to come in the next few days. For now I’m just happy to be lounging around my own apartment once again wearing my comfy sweats and sipping a steaming mug of hot chocolate. Cheers!