Gas Prices and Stupidity reach new heights.....

This. is. DUMB.



To quote Hubby, I'm all for candidates reaching out to the nooks and crannies of American pop-culture, but isn't this going a little too far?

I just lost respect for all three of these people.

P.S. Gas at the station in front of our apartment complex is $3.99 The end is near.

Ancient Solutions to Simple Problems.

Behold the Neti Pot. So, we've probably all seen Neti Pots as the butt of a joke on Six Feet Under or with Dr. Oz on Oprah, but who really does that? Who uses a gravy boat to pour salt water into their nose? ME! That's who. I'm on my second round of a nasty infection that our little family has been passing around for about 6 weeks now. I feel miserable, and I was desperate. I saw this cheap Neti Pot at Thrifty, and we got home and tried it.

I rate the success of the Neti Pot at a 9. A doctor once told me that I have super-sized sinuses, and I have been plagued with Sinusitis as long as I can remember. I use sinus spray, medicines, everything I can possibly do. It was a strange experience. During the act, it kinda feels like when you're underwater and accidentaly snort a little pool water, but about two minutes afterward, I got some serious goodies out of my sinuses (TMI? Sorry). My head already feels cleared of pressure. I love it.

Hubby's warming up to it slowly, but I think I'll be investing soon in one that's not cheap plastic.

Check out this NYT article for more info.

Baby E Meets A Puppy....

Today, we went to the homestead to visit my folks, who were also babysitting their furry grandchildren (i.e. My sister's dogs). At one point, I was carrying E through the house and she caught sight of Adelaide, the Aussie, and started laughing hysterically. Now Em has watched the cats, and smiled when they are close, and even petted them a few times, but it never have they gotten half the reaction that Adelaide did. The gigglefest went on for at least 10 minutes, and she was just delighted every time Adelaide was in the room. Although she has the reputation of being the "bad dog" (okay, so she's occasionally a little naughty), she seemed to know that she had to be gentle with the human puppy, and sniffed her and kissed her and even put up with Em grabbing her face. My kid is such an animal person. Yay.

It must be said that I am seriously considering stealing my sister's dog if we move out of State. E loves her, and must have her.

Springtime means......

The occasional Margarita. Mmmmmm, salty, limey, tequila-laced goodness.

The early bird....

Well, I've discovered the secret to successful personal maintenance while caring for a 6 month old. Get up at the crack of dawn. Because his commute is so unbearable, Hubby usually leaves home around 6:30. After that, I never sleep, even though I know Em isn't getting up for at least 1/2 an hour. Usually, I try to fight it, lay there and pet the cats or something. Today, I got up, and had time to really shower, wash my hair, and even get halfway through styling it before the peanut started making noise. I guess that makes me a morning person. Who'da thunk it?

Pttttthhhhhht!

Emma has a new habit. She sticks out her tongue. All the time. But mostly when she's really happy, or really concentrating on something. Here are a few examples:

Playing on the floor:


Eating Dinner:

After Bathtime:

Springtime means......

Sunglasses on the baby! She has at least 5 pair, in case you were wondering.

A Culinary Disaster....

I pride myself on being a pretty good cook. I'm getting much better now that I'm at home and have a little more time to have fun with it. Any given week Scott could get a great treat... this week, so far has included Pasta with Leeks, Sausage and Broccolini, Bourbon/Brown Sugar Glazed Steak, and tonight is Chicken and Brie Sandwiches with Roasted Tomatoes. There have been a lot of hits. I have to share, though, my biggest miss. This weekend, I tried to make Amaretto Souffles. They started out looking great. They rose in the oven. Then they deflated right before they were done. And continued to sink after I took em out. Awwwwww. Sad little Souffles.

A solution to a problem...

Recently, we've been experiencing diaper leakage in the morning and at naptime. E now insists on sleeping on her belly, with her bum in the air. Every time she'd wake up, she'd be wet, along with her sheets, and her jammies, etc.

I did a little research, and then tried Huggies Overnites diapers. They ride really high- almost up to her chest, but this problem has been solved. YAY! I love it when things work the way they're supposed to.

Mommy's New Toy

Last week, I got a great new toy- a Sony Cybershot camera. Before this purchase, our only camera was a huge SLR. Generally, I found it too big and cumbersome to pull out for quick shots of E. Now, I'm taking pictures like crazy. Here are a couple of the winers I've shot so far:

A Pox on Our House...

Last weekend was an exciting one. Once again, we made the cross country trek to Buffallo. The weekend was full of delish bad-for-us food, lots of family, a few laughs, and most importantly, E was baptised. Somehow, though, the weekend was a bit of a disaster:

- E is teething. It sucks for her, and I don't blame her, but she's a nasty grump for at least a few hours every day. For the first time ever, she was a difficult baby at a restaurant. Luckily, Duff's is a noisy place and no one could hear her screaming, but Hubby and I were on edge.

- E's cousin has the chicken pox. It took two days and consultations with at least 4 doctors before the entire group decided that he could not come, but his mom and sister could.

- Weather and ATC prevented my best friend from getting there. They were stuck at JFK overnight, and then had to fly home, because they still couldn't get a guaranteed flight.

- Es Aunt had some sort of rash pop up, and had to miss the whole thing too.

- E's grandpa broke one of the front teeth out of his partial and spent the night before the baptism gluing it back together.

In the grand scheme, none of this was a big deal. E did a fab job and behaved like a princess at church, and we had a good visit with the fam. I even finished another book. Still, we had hoped this would be a weekend away from all the stress of finding hubby a new job and/or a new place to live. Unfortunately, it just made everything seem bigger and somehow worse. Oy. I know there will be a conclusion to this whole drama sometime soon. In the meantime, these pics are some of the weekend's highlights. As you can see, we're all doing our best to keep our happy faces on.

Puke.

Puke is a daily reality when you have a 6-month old. E is far too interested in doing stuff (rolling around on the ground, playing in her ExerSaucer, etc.) to sit still for long after a meal. I'd say she pukes at least 3 or 4 times between feedings. It's easy to wash her floor blanket, or the seat in the saucer.... but her clothes. I can't change her clothes every time she spits up. She has remarkable aim, too. She can avoid the burp cloth and hit her shirt every time. So, unless we're going somewhere where she needs to look especially cute or is too soaked.... I kinda let her stew in it all day. I blot up excess, of course, but she always ends the day looking like I never burp her.

Does this make me a bad mom?

Time for a blog glut....

Wow, it's been too long since I've blogged. It's been a busy few weeks. Here's some Cliff's Notes:

Life Update- Hubby, E and I are still desperate to move out of California but soon. Our apartment complex just wrote to let us know that rent for the next year is going to be 15% higher. Isn't that considered extortion? Unfortunately, Hubby's job possibility in Denver fell through. We're looking again. Something has got to happen soon. Either we're finding a new job and heading out of State, or moving down to the beach to be closer to hubby's work.

Em Update- She's 6 months old now, and the cutest thing ever. Almost 16 lbs, and FINALLY growing some hair again. She's right on track for all her developmental milestones, and has crazy old man eyebrows. I love it. I love everything about her.

I'm all good. I'm done with Jenny Craig. Lost about 7 or 8 lbs. Happy to be off the wagon and eating real food again. Still, I have enough Jenny food to get me through a half-plan for another couple of weeks.

Easter Bunny.

Isn't she cute. Hats with ears are the best. Emma was generally non-plussed by the whole Easter thing. She munched on her cloth eggs, and was generally happy all day- her usual routine. Fun for us though. Easter fell during E's cousin C's visit to sunny SoCal. We had such a good time!

First trip to the aquarium...

While Hubby's mom and dad were in town, we decided to take E on a trip to the Aquarium of the Pacific. She loved it. Well.... she slept through the first half, but loved everything once she was awake. We put her in the bjorn and she saw fish and sharks. But her favorite was the otters. Unfortunately, we couldn't get a good shot, but she and I went up against the glass while the otters were playing. They kept swimming by, kissing the glass and rolling around. She watched them and got so excited. She started kicking and "Ooh, Ooh"ing everytime one swam by.

I don't know how winter is where you are....

But it's 80 degrees and sunny out in SoCal.

We had lunch in Santa Monica, and took E to the beach for the first time today. To be completely honest, there wasn't a whole lot of reaction from the little one, but we had fun.

My boobs gave up.

Is that TMI? My milk production has been going down ever since the 4 month mark, when E started hitting me after three or four minutes when she ran out of milk. Soon after, she wouldn't even take the breast- just the bottle. Slowly, I went from 3 pumping sessions a day, to two, to one.... yesterday, I pumped for 15 minutes and got just an ounce.

I tried really hard, and almost made it to my goal of 6 months. I like to think that I've given her what she needs. Still, I can't help but feel like a bit of a failure. She got sick after my production went down, and has had a cold since. I hope this doesn't mean I'm a bad mommy. I want E to have the best start possible, and I know Mommymilk is the best thing. I'm ramping up the Fenugreek, and continuing to pump, hoping it'll come back, at least a little.

Hey, on the positive side.... maybe I'll lose the last of the weight now.

It's like they've been in our bedroom...

I couldn't have said it better myself....

Giggle Kisses....

Nothing makes this kid laugh like kisses. Blowing kisses makes her squeal. If you sneak up behind her and smooch her neck (and give her zerberts), she goes berzerk.