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I had just written how our dr said to make her work for her toys. Well what do you know, just 2 days later she's crawling. Jeff and I were baffled. I ran to get my Iphone so I got video of the second time she crawled (that we have seen).


More videos on my Youtube account here: http://www.youtube.com/lynnmach/

I actually took Allison to the dr the day before her checkup because I couldn't have her screaming anymore. And sure enough she had a double ear infection. That place stays so packed they didn't have time to do the rest of her well-baby stuff, so we had to come back the next day and pay another $20 co-pay.
Allison weighs 19 lbs and is 28.25 inches long with a head size of 45 cm. That translates to 50% in weight, 75% in length and 90% in head size. So we have a long skinny baby that's off balance because of her head size. haha. We were told by the doctor to start making her work for her toys. She needs to get around the room better whether its crawling, pulling, rolling or whatever.

I know we have a great baby that is fairly easy to deal with and I've been reminded of that this week, when it wasn't so easy. I dread all the future sicknesses that are inevitable. I need to figure out something to calm my nerves because when it hits on a certain time of the month I have trouble holding it together. I hate to be one of those people that blame things on hormones but I've always been a pretty laid back person that could count the amount of times I cried over a year on one hand and lately that attitude and tear production has really been tested. I think I came close to throwing the coffee table at the wall last night. It didn't happen but I sure did think of doing it to get Jeff's attention. Instead I just stomped on the hardwood floor sounding as loud as King Kong coming in. I'm hoping the hormones calm down by next week when we test out the flying with an infant ordeal.

So I'm not sure I want to admit this on my blog, but I have now read the first 3 books in the Twilight series in one week. Yes one week. I have said that I wanted to know what was sweeping the nation, making moms scream for the movie releases right along side their teenage daughters and now I know. I'm not ready to wear the Edward shirt Taryn said she bought me (she was kidding I hope) but I will say that these books have sucked me in. I'm going to do my best to hold off on the last book till next week after company leaves and yes I do feel there will be a gravitational pull that will be a real fight for me. I've never understood how Jeff could be so much of a book worm until now. Yes there have been books that were great page turners for me, but not where I couldn't put them down to sleep or hang out with friends. I can't believe myself Saturday. Jeff took Allison to Birmingham to hang with family and I had the day to myself. It was cold and rainy and I mostly read (Well, 3 loads of laundry, some cleaning and Christmas decorating too). That is so unlike me. Normally I would have been calling every friend I knew anxious to get out, but nope, I just read. It was good and bad. The bad part is I still haven't learned about vampire sex. Such torture to make me wait till the last book. I've already heard the rumors on how they'll make the second movie while trying to keep it PG-13 so the hysterical girls can come.
Now the busy week starts, and it better be busy so I can forget about that damn book for a few days :)

For the last 6 months at least I have ofcourse been wishing to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. The last 5 pounds decided to take up permanent residence in my stomach and thighs. Skip ahead to this week when I started reading the Twilight book - yes I had to find out what this craze is that has taken over the nation. So I started that Sunday night and by Monday was about halfway done with a 400 or 500 page book. And I thought, damn, it's only Monday and I only get about 2-3 hours of reading time in after Allison goes to bed, so it'd be nice to skip a day of work to read. Can you see where this is going? I got my day off and I got that 5 lbs off. And it may have been the worst 12 hours of my life. The stomach bug started about 5pm when I was home with Allison alone (Jeff was in Atlanta). Luckily the restroom is right off her bedroom and I almost made it to the toilet every time. I'll skip those details. After she went to bed it just got worse. I think I got about 3 hours of sleep that night. I have a hard time asking for help, but my friend Heather offered to take Allison to daycare and I gladly took her up on that offer. It's good to have a friend with a flexible work schedule. Well it's good to have friends period! So I gradually got better yesterday, mostly chugged Gatorade and looked at the crackers in my hand. Jeff got home early this morning and he'll need some recovery time to get over the guilt trip I gave him. But now the house needs some Clorox sprayed into the ventilation system before company comes next weekend. Guess I may be doing a major scrub down instead of baking those cookies.

A little bit of snow came through this weekend. Ofcourse on a weekend when it didn't get me out of work :) Jeff went outside and got a snowball for Allison and ofcourse the first thing she did was put it up to her mouth. Maybe next year we'll get a photo of one smashed on her head - had to be nice this time :)

Thursday night my friend Taryn organized a girls night out for going on the art gallery tour that happens twice a year. I’ve been once or twice but not since the new Lowe Mill and Flying Monkey Arts center opened up. So we hit a few of the art galleries and the only highlights from those were Zara Edwards new pieces and a Gigi’s cupcake. Our last stop was the Flying Monkey Arts center. This is in a rough neighborhood that is slowly getting revitalized now that the homeless shelter has moved. Inside, the second floor has rough artist space where it’s divided with chain length fence or homemade constructed walls, and some of the art is what I’d consider ok, while other stuff would fit in better on the walls of my kid’s daycare. The third floor was all new to me. It was gorgeous and felt like a real gallery. Artists had their own room/mini gallery each with a large window to see inside.

When we got there I saw my favorite Art History professor and talked to him briefly. Then I probably ran into another 10 people I knew mostly from the art department. And I ran into a friend from highschool Kristy Jane that is an art instructor and has studio space there. I also found out that one of my art professors passed away this year, so in January when the UAH art department moves over to Wilson Hall, they will have an exhibit dedicated to Mark Marchlinski (sp?). I look forward to checking that out.

On the baby front, Allison had a stomach bug this week so both Jeff and I missed some work staying home with her. She threw up once on Jeff and once at daycare and had some bad diapers, but overall she was still her happy self. So no complaints from us. (That could change if I get it. Jeff was sick some last night but I think he’s coming around this morning.) I am running out of things to entertain a baby all day. I actually turned on cartoons this morning. Bob the builder was using solar panels! I’m excited how the next generation will be learning all this green stuff. Allison wasn’t that interested in the TV though. I’m glad, but also worried since I want her to like it enough to distract/entertain her while traveling.

She’s really good at peak-a-boo now. She’ll grab burp cloths or her shirt or whatever and put it over her face for a few seconds and drop it and expect you to give her a shrilly voice and smile :) She’s still not officially crawling but she’s pulled forward with her ams some. And she’ll go from her tummy to sitting up pretty good now. Except today where she must have had some momentum going and kept going backwards hitting her head on the toybox. Oops.

Here's a snippet of a g-talk conversation with my PREGNANT sister-in-law

Claire: VERY funny quote from an expecting friend
"if they made a wine smelling perfume, I would probably bathe in it."

Lynn: then you'd be tortured all day though

Claire: great point!
I think I am over wine
I just can't wait until I can have 2 or 3 glasses

Lynn: it still gives me a headache now

Claire: let me have my dream!

Lynn: :) sorry!

It's the first of the month, which means I got to pick out a new computer wallpaper. Every month Smashing Magazine has a long list of choices many with a calendar. I picked the neon Christmas tree towards the bottom. I needed something in my office to get me in the spirit considering I just put out Halloween decorations. Stupid I know. This year we're having a holiday party where every floor has a different holiday and ours is Halloween. Other floors got Christmas or New Years or Mardi Gras and will get to leave out their decorations for a month. I swore I would not help out again this year, but being one of only a few females on the floor, ofcourse I got suckered into it.

At home, we bought a table top live Christmas tree. It's a little dinky but I didn't feel like bringing out all of my Christmas decorations when Jeff could care less and Allison is too young. I'll try to get pics up soon.

We had a good visit in Meridian for Thanksgiving with the rest of the Machamer clan. Karen cooked up enough to feed us all weekend. The guys played a ton of card games while me or Karen got baby duty most of the time. Karen said something about Allison being out of the cuddling stage, but then she proceeded to sleep in her arms for 2 hours! Somehow I don't think Karen minded that at all. Uncle Jim was the only one that made Allison cry. Maybe she doesn't know what to think of men with hair :) We ofcourse watched the Iron Bowl which was a great game even if Auburn lost. Who would have thought they could keep the lead the entire game (well till the last 2 minutes) against the team ranked #2. I don't think there were many Tiger fans complaining even though we lost.

At home things seemed to have changed a bit. I think my cat and my baby have swapped personalities. I took Ginger (cat) to the vet last week and since the blood work came back normal, the vet gave her a cortisone shot hoping that would fix her bulimia problem. So far it has! It's been great, I've left food out and she no longer howls like a grumpy old cat. Instead, we're getting noise and screaming from Allison. I think some of it is her discovering her voice, but lately she's been more whiny and crying alot. I know we traveled for the holiday so that probably messed with her somewhat, but then Monday daycare said she had a good day, so I was hopeful it'd be an easy night getting back into a routine. Nope. She feel asleep in the car and upon waking up a half hour later at home she cried. And cried till she was occupied with eating. And then went back to crying. I finally got her happy before her bath and all was well for a little bit. Who knows if her cold is getting worse or teething or what.

Yesterday was a strange day. I didn't sleep well from what I thought was a regular stomach ache (they are common for me). After getting up and showering, I was shaking from being cold, then hot, then nauseous all with a bad headache. My reaction was just like when I take a pain pill - more misery than whatever pain came before. So I stayed in bed and slept and slept. After eating a bagel, soup and some aspirin I braved going into work. Things mellowed out so I'm going to blame it on the Indian food. Which is odd, because it was just a jar from Williams Sonoma and was on the bland side.

That night I went ahead and went to the art class I had signed up for even though my friend canceled on me. I didn't want to loose another $35 (Jeff was sick for the other one I signed up for). I'm glad I went, I sat with some other ladies I know from work and I do like the painting. My only complaint is that the room was so crowded, there was not space to get up and look at your painting from afar. So now I can see my hazy circle is a little crooked. I still like it though, just not sure where to hang it.

The next movie in the Twilight series comes out today. I have not read the books and I'm starting to feel left out of society. There are Twilight products everywhere. Bath and Body works even has a lotion. Seriously. Do you want to smell like vampires, or is that their way of saying it has a magical ingredient to enhance your olfactory senses to be closer to that of a vampires? Even my sister has read the books, just so she can know what her daughter is talking about :) I said I'd read them if a friend loaned them to me but I wasn't going to buy a teenager book. I can see the appeal though and a vampire love story seems to get reinvented every decade or so. Though I'm not sure why this one is making such big waves. Yeah, the characters are good looking but I think they could have found hotter ones. And honestly I don't think the main female character is a great actor. I'm hoping she improved for the second movie. I may go see it Monday night with some friends. Gotta keep a foot into popular social norms at least.

So I was googling how to child proof a Christmas tree and an article that was not helfpul at all did have a great idea in the comments section. Get big cardboard boxes, fill with heavy books and wrap them in Christmas paper and place around the tree. This just might work! (this year anyway :)

That stands for cry it out. I learned that on some baby blog. At the time when I read it, I had a perfect innocent baby. Now that baby is starting to get smarter and wants to manipulate her parents.
This past weekend I don’t think Allison was feeling quite herself, probably getting over a stomach bug, has 2 teeth coming, ran a fever one day, etc. So when she was overly tired and couldn’t fall asleep, I helped her with some cuddle time. Monday she had a great day at daycare, get home she’s fine, we go through the nightly routine (still trying to be consistent with this) of playtime, dinner, bath, book, bottle, bed. She fell asleep after the bottle in Jeff’s arms but as soon as she was put in her crib she forced herself to wake up. I think she has learned that playing is much more fun than sleeping. So she screamed. After a couple minutes we came in, gave her the pacifier, flipped her on her back and left. Scream again. Wait a few minutes we come in, and she stops immediately and smiles at us, like yep, you’re a sucker for this cute face. So we finally shut the door and waited and about 20 minutes of crying and screaming later she collapsed from exhaustion and feel asleep with only one slight blip about 1 am which was fixed with a pacifier. Up until this point we’ve never had to let her cry for anything (excluding that first month of pure shock which doesn’t count).
In conclusion – parenting just got harder :)

life is a bit hectic right now, so just a quick blog update that will most likely not be in complete sentences (just to drive my tech writer friends crazy)

Sister-in-law Claire "officially" announced she's pregnant. yeah! Can't wait for the newest baby Machamer in May. (http://clairemach.blogspot.com"). Claire keeps finding questions to ask me and somehow I've already forgotten some of them. I'm pretty sure though that my pregnancy was easier than what she's going through. Here's to an easier labor for Claire ;)

Allison is 8 months old today. She's still the cutest and happiest baby ever but I think I've written all that before. She's just working on that first tooth, but that darn tooth is causing some stinky explosions in another part of her body. OMG - why! She's still not crawling yet - just going backwards, but just yesterday she was up on all 4's rocking. She's not pulling up in her crib, but she'll get on her stomach and lift up to look over the edge and scream. She does alot of screaming. Usually not mad screaming, more like she's just checking out her voice. Jeff heard that babies cry to develop their lungs, so maybe since she doesn't cry, she's screaming to help in development. I'll take a loud happy baby any day over a loud angry one :)

I'm not sure I've written about it here but I've had foot pain for while. It was never enough to bother with a dr till Saturday. So what do I do, post a comment on facebook and what do you know, I have a diagnosis in a matter of minutes. hehe. I went to the dr on Wednesday and she confirmed Plantar Fascitis. So I have stretches to do and shoe inserts to wear. In the meantime, I came to work today in high fashion - slacks with tennis shoes. I match several engineers out here. Oh, and I ordered FitFlops. I know my mother-in-law just let out a happy scream. I'll keep you posted if they fit my skinny feet.

On the growing list of things to do....
Jeff and I are looking at windows for our house. Yes our 5 year old house has wood windows that suck. I also need to get new tires for my car, hopefully before the drive at Thanksgiving. I'm planning 2 baby showers (one at work and one for a friend). Work is super busy right now which is disappointing b/c I was hoping to do the above item at work. I still have some Christmas shopping to do. Jeff has a work trip in a few weeks which reminds me it will be his 3rd week without baby duties while I've only had one night off. I'm still looking for a girlfriend weekend to give him his payback.

ok, finished lunch, back to work.

For Allison's first Halloween she was a pink leopard. It looked like an easy onesie type of outfit and well anything with a hoodie with ears is going to be cute on a baby, so I got it. Maybe next year the ladybug costume will fit. We went to Keith and Angie's (the party house) and they had a houseful. Keith rigged up the John Deer lawn mower to pull a trailer with hay, so we had a hayride. I thought it was cute and got a big laugh when there were 2 much bigger trailers in the neighborhood decked out with lights and decorations holding about 15 people on them. What ever happened to kids having to walk to get candy?! Allison was a great baby and we hoped that keeping her up 2 hours past her bedtime would help her adjust to the time change but we're not sure it did. She didn't sleep good that night (could have been the over-stimulation :) and she still got up the regular time which today was 5am. Fingers crossed she makes it to 6 am tomorrow.

On her other updates, she's still just scooting backward, not forward. So far no big fussiness from the tooth that is breaking through. She's babbling alot but hasn't said momma or dada with intention. I think she's been trying to kiss us lately - she'll just come at you for a head bang with an open mouth, it's pretty funny. And sometimes if I'm holding her with a tanktop on, I swear she's trying to scratch off my freckles. I'm not sure how much she weighs, maybe 18lbs, but it's a great size for a hug and snuggle.

Today we tried out hiking with a very nice backpack my friend Stacy gave us. It was a little cold and windy (probably high 50s up on the mountain) but Allison did great. I say mountain, but Monte Sano is really just a big hill, but the only mountain we have around here. Hopefully she'll enjoy many more hikes and camping trips in the future.

When I picked up Allison from daycare today, Mrs Altman came running up to me so excited, Allison has her first tooth coming in. I was a little taken aback by how excited this lady was. Am I supposed to be this excited? It just makes me nervous that my happy baby is going to be cranky. We'll see.

Wow Friday night seems like so long ago... can't remember if we did anything. We were probably our usual selves meaning I was in bed at 9:30 and left Jeff on the computer. Lately that would be - on the computer playing bejeweled blitz on facebook. If he's playing that I must hold my verbal thoughts for 60 seconds till he's inbetween games. You just play each game for a minute and it's fast paced, so I'm not supposed to talk and mess him up. He was sort of polite about it, I believe his words were, "can you just NOT talk for ONE minute." I figure it was nicer than "shut up" :)

Saturday morning Allison had a nice long nap (she sleeps so much longer at home than at daycare) and we cleaned up the house some. When I checked facebook I saw that the new Kalou's Corner Market down the street in Providence was advertising smoked ribs. Jeff about came out of his chair, first because of the ribs and then because he didn't know they were announcing their daily specials. So he went down there and picked some up for lunch. I swear, that man can just be flying on cloud nine when he eats something with a delicious sauce on it. After the ribs were gone he just stood over the tinfoil drooling over the sauce that was left. I said well just get a piece of bread to sop up the sauce and he called me his hero.

A few hours later we got in the car with the intention of stopping by Champion windows and then the airport, but instead drove around some of the new construction development around Zierdt road until it was time to pick up his parents from the airport. We got to hear about their great trip to San Diego and all the wonderful food, and how they gave their leftover dinners to the homeless people. We probably got back to the house close to 4, turned on the Penn State game for Bruce and then Jeff and I put on nicer clothes to get our belated anniversary dinner at Bonefish. I thought my mahi mahi was good till I had his swordfish. I also had my new favorite martini there, a pine-apple one. So we'll definitely be going back. We had left fairly early, about 5:20 so Jeff would not have to miss much of the Auburn game. When we got back, turned on the Auburn game which was pitiful and making Jeff scream, so I headed over to the neighbors halloween party. Then I had to text Jeff when two of his friends were there, so he came over.

Sunday I stayed on the go, trip to Target, then we all went to lunch at IHOP, then us ladies went shopping at Burlington's Baby Depot ( great prices, but have to search through clothes like at TJMaxx which can be annoying). The guys worked on building arm muscle for 3 hours and installed a ceiling fan in Allison's room. Then one of Karen's friends stopped by and got to play with an adorable baby and tell Karen yes it's worth it for her to transfer her dental license to the state of Alabama when she moves. We had some of Jeff's chili for dinner which was especially yummy because I got to eat the bread for enjoyment and not just to put the fire out in my mouth. And luckily I remembered (though a little late, about 8:30pm) that Karen wanted to check out the Wii Fit. So we all got on there and did a body test. Karen was up first, but for her balance test had to use Jeff to hold on to. Her result - a Wii Fit age of 27 !! Then Bruce was up doing his balance test and nope, was stepping off the board in just seconds. His Wii fit age: 75!! Then Jeff and I got on there for the first time in months, that was months ago when I was gung-ho about loosing the pregnancy weight. And I did show up as loosing 5.5 pounds. Somehow the wii transferred those exact 5.5 lbs to Jeff's weight :) We played a few games and called it quits about 10pm. So that made 2 nights this weekend I was up past 10pm. Amazing. Now I'm back at work, relaxing.

In my free time at work I've been building up my google reader with too many websites to go through. I've now got a few folders for decorating, friends, web and freelance, tech, and misc. I'm really enjoying the decorating blogs I've come across. So many good ideas and not enough time to do them. I even have a few for baby room ideas and hostess ideas. Not that I can usually get people come to my house, but I try. That reminds me, I didnt post the photo of the painting I did for Allison's room. I've been feeling a little guilty for not customizing my own childs room. After all I do have a little bit of talent, I should create something for her. I found a cute photo on the internet, so I decided to get out my paints. It's not the wall mural I first had high hopes of creating, but hey, I think it's pretty darn cute. I've bookmarked several other things I'd love to paint... one day.

So this is a rant for all my female friends reading this blog. Yep - any guys, just go back to clicking on gizmodo or whatever gadget site that fascinates you.
I'm wearing my second pair of pre-pregnancy jeans this morning. It is such a relief when you get one foot in, then the second, and the jeans are still able to slide up, yes, over the butt, YES, and ugh take a deep breath, now button - yes they are on! Damn, as soon as that thought came with the next exhale this bulge of fat came with it. out of nowhere. Actually, not out of nowhere, I've been eying it for a 7 months, cursing at it to go away, but it's still there. I've never been built in a way to have a flat stomach. My longtime theory has been that if you have hips it will stretch your midsection flat. I've had not so skinny friends with six-pack abs that made me do a doubletake. I on the otherhand, am wearing mens jeans right now because I have no hips. I guess the pregnancy did not spread my hips out either, which is good, but the loose skin is just gross.
My hope in writing some of this is that these words can manipulate themselves into some sort of motivation to move my butt to the gym. I am no good at dieting and working out has never been fun, except for the time period I worked out with my crazy friend Taryn. Maybe I'll try to use my mother-in-law as an example who gets herself up at 5 am to do pilates. I'd rather not wait till after major back surgery to get that kind of motivation, so I need some of it to rain down on me now. So if you see me, go ahead and ask if I made it to the gym. We'll see if guilt will work too :)

Monday of this week started a KidsMarket consignment sale. It’s huge and they do it twice a year. I went in early March one day after work but as I walked alongside this long line with swollen belly and ankles and realized that was for checking out, I just turned around and walked out. So I figured this time I’d take off a couple hours early and check it out – a few days after it opened. Normally I’m all for a good bargain, but after 30 minutes of sifting through baby clothes and finding maybe 8 items that did NOT have stains on them, I moved on. I think that sale has turned out like so many other things that get popular – it’s overpriced. (Fans of Unclaimed Baggage know what I’m talking about) I was also looking for jeans for my nephews and I found Old Navy jeans with worn knees for $15. Come on people! What are those new, maybe $20 during a sale. And my friend found a package of new infant onesies marked $7.50 when there was a walmart sale price of $2.50 on it. After that I just quit looking and helped my friend sort through baby stuff. This was a friend that made the mistake of telling me the name they have picked out for their baby boy (due in a few months). You would think that after just having a baby myself I would have been more sensitive to feelings but nope, I reverted back to the way I’ve always been and blurted out the first thing that came to my mind. The name they picked out is Dax. I said it sounds too much like dicks and he’ll get beat up in school. I asked what other names they were considering and she just gave me a blank look and said that was it. I laughed and apologized how I just shot down the one and only name they had. ( I’m so sorry Sunny!) . She laughed and said now I know why you didn’t tell people the name you had picked out. Inside she probably wanted to punch me. When I got home and asked Jeff what he thought, he recognized the name right away from whatever Sci-Fi show its from (I won’t make a guess because it’ll just insult the diehard fans). I think in the future I’ll just keep my mouth shut on baby names. I lean towards more traditional names that won’t confuse their teachers for 18 years to come.

Yesterday I ordered an umbrella stroller. A year ago I got all excited when a tall friend of ours did research and found a stroller he liked and was tall enough. So when it was baby registry time, I was looking for it and found out it was discontinued. Well damn, this meant I had to do my own research. Wow, there are a ton of baby strollers out there and you know what – only one has extendable handles and it’s $359 !! I just couldn’t bring myself to buy something that top of the line, when other options start at $20. Actually that’s middle of the line since there are umbrella strollers over $600 – but I think you have to live in Hollywood to own them. So in my research I found a photo of Brooke Shields with an Uppababy stroller. Well that just solved it for me, if it’s tall enough for her, it will certainly work for me and it was only $150. And it came in red, so I’m sold. I’ll write more after we use it some.

Yep that title is like typing out a whine. Lots of people have been whining about the rain. But the latest forecast looks about perfect this week - clear and highs in the 70s. Some friends of ours live in a neighborhood that does not have sidewalks, so when we get flash floods, they have yards half full of water. I just about lost it laughing/crying when I read on facebook that a friend was wanting to go redneck water skiing. He posted a video, unfortunately it was not of himself but some other stupid rednecks in Texas. Some guys found a wide waterski or kneeboard, a rope, and a 4-wheeler to drive down the street while pulling the guy on the along in a ditch. It's pretty funny. And I think there are enough crazy people that it could catch on. haha.

We had a wonderful visit in Meridian. Jeff's parents have been working on remodeling/updating their house and it looks terrific. But I think the best thing about this visit was that it was like staying in a smoke free house. Soon after Allison was born Karen quit smoking traditional cigarettes and started the electric one that emits water vapor. Between that and pulling up half the carpet in the house, it was a breath of fresh air in that place. A few friends of hers stopped by to see Allison and brought more gifts. I've said it before, but I'm just amazed at how people love babies and will buy so many gifts. Then the chef friends came by with homemade gumbo. Yummy! It's always good to have friends that love to cook, when you have a house full of Machamer men that love to eat. I think Frank even got Bruce to use the grill outside. I'm so glad that Jeff and his brothers are opposite from their dad on the whole cooking front. I think all 3 boys like to cook and have fun experimenting with it.

Allison is not crawling yet, but she does scoot herself backward. It's pretty funny. And still no teeth but she'll get fussy when she can't chew on something so it's gotta be soon. I think in preparation for my sisters visit in a couple weekends with her whole rambunctious crew, we'll start baby proofing the house for Allison too.

It's almost 10 months away but I have my next beach vacation planned so the excitement has started. A few friends have told me stories of getting their whole family together and renting a beach house. I just listened in pure envy. And recently when my dad had a health scare I really thought we should do it. Our family is so scattered now that we don't see each other often enough. I think my wedding was the first time several of the cousins (my nephews and niece) had met each other! So next summer we can call descend upon one big house and play in the private pool or walk to the beach. It'll be my parents, and 2 siblings with their families. So 8 adults and 7 kids. Well darn, I was trying to figure out how old the kids will be next summer but there are so many they escape me. 5 boys ages ages 15,14,13,10,7 and a girl that is 13 and ofcourse my girl who will be a year and half. (I'm not sure if my 22 year old nephew will be able to make it. )

In other news Jeff has started his new job and seems to like it - though how much do you really know 2 days into it. He is more restricted on his internet usage though - which sucks! We used to always be in communication through Google Talk but that is not allowed. So I just get to bug him with a few or twenty emails a day and hope he checks it on his Iphone often enough. I think he may need to make friends with someone in the IT department to see how to get around some of these restrictions.

Yesterday we took Allison in for her 6 month check up. She weighs 16.4 lbs and is 26" long. That is still right around 50th percentile on weight and 55 for height. Her head however grew more and is at 90th percentile. My poor cute baby has a big head! It better be all those brain cells that will get her a full paid scholarship :)
Allison is also sick again. I don't think she really ever got over the crud a month ago. She's still coughing to breakup mucus so the dr did a new test I didn't know about. If the kid lays still enough they can put a thing in their ear, blow some air and test resistance on the ear drum to see if there is fluid behind the ear drum. Sure enough she had fluid in both ears, meaning she'll probably get an ear infection in a couple days. SO he went ahead and prescribed amoxicillin. So at 6 months she's on her first dose of drugs. I tried a little and it takes like the bubblegum stuff I remember as a kid. I think when I was real little I even got it out of the fridge and drank some extra I wasn't supposed to :)

On the food front, we've expanded to bananas, squash and carrots. I don't think she liked the carrots today but then again she wasn't feeling great. Bananas and oatmeal she's had several times and does well with. I've been reading up on making baby food and it sounds so simple and those jars can get pricey, so I decided I try it. Tonight I boiled and pureed some sweet potatoes and froze in ice cube trays. Then I guess I'll transfer it to freezer bags and maybe make some applesauce later. Sweet potatoes and apples sound pretty good :) I'm still confused by the dr charts on how they are still supposed to drink 30-38 ounces of formula plus 2 servings of cereal and 2-4 jars of food. Right now Allison gets about five 6 oz bottles a day and usually leaves a couple ounces in at least two of them. Daycare gives her cereal in the morning, we give her more at night. We only see her about 2 hours every evening, so I don't know where we'd fit in another solid food feeding. I guess I'll send daycare more food and they can worry with it.

Jeff starts his new job on Monday. I know he's looking forward to a change. My job is still the same. Lots of people are uneasy at NASA with good reason. So many jobs are involved with Ares I whose future does not look promising. I've only worked out there 6 or 7 years but budget cuts and changes are commonplace, so I'm just going with the flow for now. Just let the paycheck keep coming.

We made it back from the beach yesterday. Our friend Taryn was getting married in Ft. Morgan, so we decided to be one of the 90+ people to rsvp yes to the wedding (I know she didn't think a destination wedding would be that big). We arrived Friday after a 8 hour car ride. Allison was very good and got to see TV for the first time (that got turned on when she got fussy). Brother Greg and Claire went with us and we stayed in a condo at the Beach Club. We practically had the resort to ourselves or so it seemed, but then again it rained most of the time so maybe people were hiding out inside. Since it was raining and a 20 minute drive into town, we stayed local and had a nice seafood dinner at the restaurant onsite there (Allison slept through it). Thunderstorms woke me up a couple times that night, but being half asleep I remember asking Jeff it that loud sound was a motor cycle; kinda funny.

Saturday was more rain and so much so that we wondered if that road heading back to Gulf shores would flood over. so we stayed put, inside with books and cards. About 4pm the clouds separated and it was gorgeous. Perfect for a wedding - or three. Turns out 2 more houses nearby were having weddings on the beach. I went a little early and got to see the bride's sister work some magic on helping Taryn get some cleavage with the help of rolled up tank tops and underwear. The previous attempts with boobie stickers in the shape of porkchops was even funnier. The bride was cutting up and seemed to be way more relaxed than her mother and the groom. During the ceremony it was hilarious to watch the groom take very deep breaths to prevent what looked like a close call to passing out. The wedding was nice and short, and silent for most all the guests (no mic set up).

At the reception (in the house) we go to talking to a couple friends Jeff used to work with and heard a fun story. 5 ladies rented a house nearby and got a knock on their door late Friday night from a neighbor frantic that their porch light was on - screaming the turtles are coming turn your light off. Evidently they didn't read the large sign on the refrigerator about the turtle eggs that hatch between May and October and sure enough the environmentalists had already set up short plastic walls guiding the turtles to the ocean practically right outside their house. Tammy (a huge animal rights fanatic who even went to New Orleans to help Katrina stranded animals) was super excited and woke up the whole household screaming, THE TURTLES ARE COMING, THE TURTLES ARE COMING. They got out there with their flashlights and were picking them up one by one and putting them back in the water.One of the ladies had her 5 year old son with her who was helping. I'm already jealous I missed out on this - I just can't imagine how much fun that would be for a kid to help out with.

Sunday morning we woke up to partly cloudy skies. Finally! So after Allison's morning nap, we were out the door (about 9am). She had on her lil swimmer diapers and we headed for the beach. I wanted to at least say I took her to the beach. Jeff held her and walked out in the ocean a little bit but the first splash and she started crying. So we got her settled in our lap under the umbrella and she was ok for a bit, but sand was of course getting everywhere. I figured as much and sure enough, a 6 month old on the beach is not really fun. So after maybe 30 minutes she cried for food and the bottle wasn't warm enough so I went back to the condo to feed her while the gang packed up stuff to take to the pool. The indoor pool was nice and the perfect temperature for her. She didn't know what to think about it for the longest time, but finally started slapping her hands on the water and didn't seem phased by those splashes at all. After a while there, we went to the outdoor one and got her positioned under and umbrella again and she took a nap in Jeff's lap while I attempted to get a sunburn. There were only a few others at the pool. I liked being there off-season and not having to wait, but then again cool options like the tiki bar and gulf-side grill were not open. no margarita pool side :( So we had a nice half day in the sun, even saw dolphins in the distance but then the rain came back later that afternoon.

The drive home Monday was a rough one with really bad storms. I hate driving 40 mph on the highway with white knuckles. Back at home last night, Allison seemed to back to sleeping better in her own bed. Saturday was rough for Claire and Sunday was just a long attempt at getting her to wind down enough to get sleepy.

oh, I was hoping I'd like Ft. Morgan as a place I could go to with my family next summer, but I found it too secluded. I prefer options for shopping and eating. So I'm back on a search for a 5 bedroom house for about $2500/week with beach and pool access.

I took Allison over to my friend Dana's house Sunday. She did the one-month photos, but at my house when I was new to the mommy thing and I just stayed stressed. This time I went to her house where she has lights, props and backdrops and I didn't have anything to stress about. It was a great experience this time. A lot of it could be her age now. Now she actually feels like a real baby. Something about a one-month old, they just don't have too much personality. At six months, she's cuter, smiles easily and is fun to interact with. I took the quilt that cousin Jeanette made and used that for a background in one of them, and then I brought the Strasburg dress that a friend gave me. So we have the dress shots and the rest were naked shots (well, naked in pink bloomers). I saw a few of the photos on her camera and they were great! So now I'm in anxious wait mode :)

update: here are some photos - more in picasa


Saturday night we went to Keith and Angie's for a little while. The Auburn game wasn't on TV so we figured we hang with friends and watch the Alabama game. They enjoyed torturing us screaming Roll Tide. I think we were over there from about 6pm to 8pm and Allison was great the whole time smiling for everyone. It wasn't until the calm quiet dark car ride home that she had to start screaming. I'm sure we over stimulated her and of course kept her up an hour past her bedtime. The screaming kept going after we got home but I finally calmed her down with some rocking. I think in the future we'll try to keep the new faces and stimulation during the day and leave the last couple hours before bedtime calm. We'll in a perfect world anyway :)

As for her cold, she still has a cough that seems to be productive at breaking up the mucus. I haven't taken her back to the dr yet.

I saw a funny bumper sticker today. It reminded me of all the hard core Republican Texans in my family.

I'll keep my guns, freedom, and money. You can keep the "change".

I'm still amazed that people think Obama will take away freedom. Then again Fox News still has viewers after one of their people called Obama a racist against white people. Yeah, I really think he hated his white mother and grandparents. I think my eyes will start hurting if I keep having to roll them that far back in my head!

I feel a little lucky that Allison made it almost 3 months in daycare without being sick. Now I'm afraid we'll be spreading the germs for the next few years. joy. I took her to the doctor on Friday and he listened to her breathe and said there wasn't much we could do at that point. It seemed to get worse Friday night where you could hold her and just feel her chest rattle with congestion. Then Sunday the fever started. when it got to 101 I paged the doctor. He said they're not too concerned till it gets to 103. Through all this, Allison has not been too fussy. She was definitely more cuddly on Monday which I didn't mind. Tuesday Jeff stayed home while I went into work for a half day. Today she's back in daycare- we'll see how that goes. I may be calling the dr again at the end of the week to check for an ear infection. I've been wondering if I have one myself. Seems like I've been congested for 2 weeks now. At least I know how to get rid of the mucus. Poor Allison just coughs to break it up, then swallows it, then sometimes has projectile vomit. oh yeah - that was a site that left Jeff and I both screaming :) I think we may need to rent a carpet steam cleaner for the living room rug. Hopefully next time I'll do better at aiming her mouth. haha.

The news is doing a good job of scaring me about the swine flu this year. But I'm not scared enough to give an experimental vaccine to my 6 month old or myself for that matter. I'd rather the newly rushed and developed vaccine be tested on other people before it gets in my body. Luckily, I get weekly info-emails from work on flu facts that include detailed photo instructions of how to wash my hands :)

In other news my dad got a Great Pyrenees puppy. I got the first pictures of the 9 week old yesterday. He's an adorable ball of white fluff. We won't get to meet him till Christmas, but I predict he'll be about miniature pony size then and just the right size for Allison to go riding. I'll tell my dad to start looking for a saddle!

So I realized I haven't written much about Allison's developments. Here are some highlights at 5 and half months:
She's still the best baby ever!

No teeth yet (that probably helps reinforce the above :)

She's arching her back and very close to rolling over, but not there yet.

Tummy time is not as traumatic as it used to be. She seems to enjoy seeing a new perspective of the world and ofcourse her musical mirror toy I put in front of her.

She has hair. Enough of a peach fuzz that I considered it sticking up one day. I don't think anyone else would describe it that way though. haha. Most still consider her a bald baby. I'm guessing the hair will come in light brown, but her Mimi/Grandma is thinking it'll have some red in it.

We never really had a problem with cradle cap, only had a couple small patches of a flaky head after a bath.

Eyes are still a dark blue/gray with a couple brown flecks. Still a toss up what they'll be.

We'll find out in a few weeks after her 6 month check up, but I have a feeling she'll be on the long side. Her onesie/sleeper outfits are a size 6-9 months and she's close to outgrowing those. but if you just put 6-9 month pants on her, those are still a little big around her waist and butt. And some of her cute onesies size 6mo that button at the crotch are a little small.

The only words we've heard sounded like a hey and hi. Usually we just get babble. But she sure is happy about whatever she's saying.

Still smiles alot - all you have to do is smile at her and she'll usually return one back at you.

I think she really likes the baby sling I have. I've used it this week more with Jeff being gone and she seems to calm right down when she's cuddled up with me :)

A typical afternoon/night for us - bring her home about 4:45-5pm, she'll get a bottle between 6 and 7, some playtime, bath every other night, walk around the front of the house (suns goes down in back), then in bed about 7:15. Most nights we get up at least once to give her a pacifier and then she's right back to sleep, then she officially gets up about 6am. Though lately I think she wants to wake up at 5 am but I pop that paci in so she dozes off again.
Yes, we are very lucky and thankful for this sleep. I'm afraid of how it'll change when she starts teething, or develops the knowledge/concept of us leaving the room.

I caught up in age to Jeff yesterday. He wasn’t here to see it though. I was hoping Allison would say mama for my birthday, but no luck yet. She does say what appears to be ‘hi’ though. Either way she greeted me with a big smile so that was good enough. I had a couple of my margarita girlfriends over last. I think they enjoyed babytime most. (They are both waiting on grandkids they fear may never come. ) Allison was really good except for a few minutes when Liz took off her glasses. This change of face must have freaked her out because the bottom lip and a few cries came out, but she calmed down and went back to happy baby soon enough.

I had a bit of a head cold last week, but it went away enough for me to torture myself with an aerobics class yesterday. That free gym membership is a little motivation to get me in there. Now, I just need some motivation on my diet. I really need to get back into my pants before winter. I can get into them, but I fear I may have panty crater lines on the rear and I would rather not draw that kind of attention. I know they say that it took 8 months to put on the weight, but after 5 months you get impatient for it go back to wherever it came from. That whole breastfeeding thing did not result in one of those magical stories I hear of women getting down a smaller weight than before they were pregnant. Whoever started those stories are evil! I am happy to report that I am back into my smaller bras. Thank the heavens my ta-tas did not get larger. I’m pretty sure my feet are the same size too. Strange how I was so greatly concerned about those 2 aspects of my body.

There is not much news on the homefront. I enjoyed some of our cooler weather and hammered in some fence nails Sunday. We learned that the previous owner built that fence himself – that explained a lot. I hope it can last another 5 years, but I’m doubtful. We tried out the baby jogger and it’s definitely nicer. I do love how our neighborhood is big enough for several different walking routes. I’m still way behind on printing photos of Allison and getting some collages up on the walls. I don’t think I’m living up to first-time-parent standards of having 20 photos of the new baby in the family room :)

Jeff’s parents will be back this weekend on their way back home. Guess we can have another Saturday night out since babysitters will be there. Friday night I’ll be lounging with a bunch of girlfriends, martinis in hand, at someone’s lakehouse. Oh how I wish I could snap my fingers and make Friday appear now. My next countdown will be for our beach trip next month. I wonder what Allison will think when she puts a sandy hand in her mouth. Haha.

This weekend seemed to fly by without any relaxation or downtime at home. Friday night I did my grocery shopping. Saturday morning we got up and went walking and came across a yard sale. I got a baby jogger stroller for $25! woohoo. Now, it's old but seems to be in good shape, I just need to spend a few more minutes cleaning it. We also bought a bicycle trailer thingy to hold a kid. (I have no idea what they are called.) It was $25 too so I couldn't pass it up. We keep saying we need to ride bikes more often so maybe next year we will. Saturday I also rode around and did a few errands, dropped off thrift store load, jewelry and Lowes. Then we dropped off Allison with a friend so we could go to Taryn & Wil's wedding shower fiesta party. They actually had a commercial grade margarita machine there :) Jeff got to hear a few conversations of moody/stressed girls taking it out on their husbands, which made us laugh, but I hope secretly he saw that I'm really not THAT bad :) We didn't want to burden the babysitter too long or get Allison too off schedule, so we left about 8 to pick her up and get home. oh, the babysitter was just a friend who has 3 boys and wanted to play with a little girl. One of her kids likes babies and evidently did a great job of keeping Allison giggling.

Jeff has not been sleeping well, so he took two Tylenol PM at 10pm, for the first time ever. Well, Allison got me up a few times, meaning I didn't sleep good, so Sunday morning Jeff was still groggy, I was cranky and we had to get ready to go see Aaron at the lakehouse. We somehow got out the door about 9am and made it down there at 11. Aaron and Karen's baby Owen, is just 5 weeks younger than Allison and both were concieved in Alaska. He is a cute lil chunk and weighs more than Allison. He was not feeling very good between a cold and stomach issues. I knew Karen was exhausted and had a much rougher night than I did. I couldn't help but think if I were her, I would hate me. Here I come to visit and I have this smiley happy baby that only cried for the minute before she got a bottle. The guys got to play in the water, while Karen and I chilled out in the shade. Allison ofcourse didn't want to take a nap, but she did fall asleep for much of her first boat ride. We had a good visit and next time the kids should be old enough to play together. We got home about 8pm, gave Allison a bath, fed her and bam our weekend was over. Seems like it was a quick flash but I guess we did alot.

Tonight is supposed to be concerts in the park, but I'm not sure if the rain I'm looking at right now will make it muddy.

I wonder if she could be a little overstimulated? :)

No, that's the look she always give for the camera.

Jeff's really belated birthday present came today. I signed us up for Thai cooking lessons at a nearby restaurant. It was good to learn more about the owners and overall have a better appreciation for what you eat. We made Shrimp Lemongrass Salad and Pad Thai with chicken and shrimp. It was really good (even if I left the onions out of mine). The salad part we made at a table set up in the restaurant, so I was excited to hear that they were letting us back in the kitchen to cook on the stove in a skillet. Jeff even showed off some flipping skillet skills. It was fun and I'm glad we did it, but it all reminded me of how much you have to chop up and prepare to cook and then you eat it all in a matter of minutes. I think I'd prefer to just pay a little more and go out to eat. So they didn't loose any of our business by offering the class :)

(photo taken with my new Iphone - I love having it everywhere with me :)

Allison discovered her feet a couple weeks ago. I think she still prefers her hands since they go in her mouth easier. It's so cute when she pulls on her feet like she's trying to stick her booty out. She has not mastered rolling over yet, but she's close because she's always arching her back. She's still a happy smiling baby. My next fear in parenthood is the teething process. Right now Allison sleeps so good - from about 7:30pm to 6 am with only one or 2 trips in there from us to give her a pacifier. My sister scared me when she said that her kids started sleeping in their bed when they were fussy b/c of teething. I guess only time will tell.

On the feeding front, I'm very close to closing down the boobie milk factory. I had arbitrarily picked a goal of 6 months to make it in breastfeeding. Well, that got shot down when I went back to work and had a boss that holds 3 hour meetings. A couple times I left them early for fear of leaking through my shirt. So I survived one month of pumping 2 or 3 times a day at work. I thought that was pretty good - she was 4 months old almost exclusively breastfed. Then I gradually cut out a pumping session at a time and now I'm down to just mornings. And that will get shut down next week, right around her 5 month birthday. I never had a strong opinion for either side of the breast vs bottle debate, but I did go through 2 AGONIZING weeks of learning to breastfeed with some pain beyond that, so when it did become easy (about 2 months later - ha) and I didn't want to give it up just because of work. Then I went to work and changed my mind again :) I gave it my best shot for a while, and I'm proud of myself for as long as I made it.
Now Allison is getting cereal at daycare once a day and thank goodness, those ladies are getting most of the bad diapers, b/c OMG, they are bad. I know it's just going to get worse later and both Jeff and I are in trouble b/c we both gagged this weekend. I thought of that America's funniest video clip of the compilation of 20+ dads gagging, pinching noses, wearing protective armor, while changing diapers.

Other parts of life are just rolling on. I did have a ladies jewelry night at my house this week that was alot of fun. I think I had 11 friends over and served blueberry lemonade martinis. oh yummy. I still don't think I've had more than 2 drinks in one night though. I'm a lightweight after going so long without during pregnancy and breastfeeding. I think I need some practice before our beach trip in September. Greg and Claire's babysitting duties may run over into the next day. haha.

Something hit me this morning and I realized this summer marks 20 years that I've lived in Alabama. ALABAMA. Oh, how I cried when I was 13 and my mom said I was to move here. So I packed up my life in Texas in 2 days, drove back here with my dad and started 8th grade. There were many changes that made it hard (besides the obvious family change) - how most people talked funny with that slow southern draw, how peoples first question was what church I went to or who my favorite New Kid on the Block was, everything about a much smaller school and more stuff I guess my brain has just absorbed as normal for around here. Luckily I made friends with the other tall girl so I didn't look like the only freak, and the headbanger chic since I wasn't into NKOTB and it worked out. I actually had a major personality change after moving up here. When I was younger in a bigger school system I was painfully shy, and for some reason I did a 180 up here. Maybe it was the parental change of having a dad and a stepmom (a woman with a strong personality and overall a better role model than my mom), or maybe it was that wildly fun and crazy tall girl Jenny, who knows, but I'm actually glad I'm here now. It has taken many years to accept the fact that Alabama is ok. It's fun (and scary) to wonder how my life would have been different if I had all the things I wanted - to stay in Texas or go to UT in Austin. Would I have run away to get away from my stepdad, would I have turned to boys for attention and gotten knocked up in highschool like an old friend there, or would I have been shot in highschool (yeah the schools were rough), would I have even gone to college and discovered I had some artistic talent? All I know is that those scary changes made a wonderful impact on my life. I grew up with hard working parents that pushed me to succeed and I think I did that before starting a new chapter in life with my own family.

I'm much too tired to come up with stuff to write, but I've been on the computer editing photos some more. We attempted another photoshoot with grandpa this weekend. Here is one of those 'too-adorable-for-words' gifts we got recently. What do you know it came from a dentist - so she can reach the sink to brush her teeth :)

I was reading some mommy blog about how the 3 month old stage is the best. While I don't have a comparison since she's the first, she did point out some wonderful points that I notice with Allison.

She smiles so much now. You just can't help but be in a better mood when a cute little baby is smiling back at you.

She can entertain herself. I've laid Allison in her crib to watch her mobile while I put up her laundry or just put her bouncy seat on the kitchen table to watch me do dishes. Usually she does pretty good for 15 or 20 min.

She's content to be held. Though I think she's sick of our living room as the scenery.

She's not grabby yet. She's still working on her coordination to grab the items you dangle in front of her, but she's certainly not grabbing my dinner plate yet :)

yeah - her head is finally stable and she's easy to carry around. (guess this has been the case for several weeks now, just didn't write about it.) I feel like that was a milestone that opened up a bunch of options.

Observant - you can really tell when she's focusing on something and I can just imagine all the brain cells getting turned on. It's fun to watch.

I survived Jeff being gone for a week of travel. It was hard since I got up at 5 am to get most things done before waking up Allison. And the worst part of that was she got her 4 month shots one afternoon. So I kept her dosed on Tylenol for 24 hours. I also survived a week of minimal breastfeeding. I'm only feeding her once in the morning and twice at night. I may continue that for a couple more weeks and then try to stop all together. I had high hopes of making it 6 months but it's difficult trying to pump at work and worry about leaking through my shirt. Yep, had to give you that visual, sorry if it's tmi :)
As of last week Allison was 13.8 pounds and 24.5 inches long with a big head for that size. I've been told the big head comes from the father's side.
Jeff's parents are here this weekend and grandpa had a photoshoot yesterday. This photo with Ginger (cat) made me laugh.
I have a long to-do list started on my Iphone that includes stroller shopping, catching up on thank you notes for some too-adorable-for-words gifts (quilt and step stool in particular), freelance work, researching baby proofing the house, cleaning and more cleaning before a party next week. oh and I'll need a nap today so we can finally make it out downtown to party with friends. yeah!

What a treat for July - at noon it was 75 degrees out and partly cloudy. Here's how we spent some time outside on a lazy Sunday.

I took this cute photo of Allison the other morning. She's been sleeping like this lately with her hands behind her head. She does several things that make me worried she's going to push her ears out like dumbo :)

From this angle it looks like she's sitting on a ball, well more like a water balloon. I'm still amazed at how much diapers can hold over night. We've given daycare the cheaper diapers, but I'll only buy Pampers for at home. I may start buying Pampers for daycare; she's blowing out an outfit everyday it seems. yuck!

Last Thursday I took Allison to the dr, as recommended by the daycare workers. She was just fine. I stayed home with her to make sure she was ok for a long weekend in Indiana, sure enough. So we got on the road early Friday morning. We went to cousin Jennifer's that night and Saturday morning went into Brookville to see the rest of the clan. There was a nice big party for Jeff's grandma's 88th birthday. When I say big, I mean she had 5 kids there with spouses, at least 11 grandkids there some with spouses, and I think 11 great-grand kids there. We all sang happy birthday to her, someone said something nice about being surrounded by family and then funny man Mark said something like "look at what all you did". I thought it was funny anyway. Kinda made me think about being a mom and creating life and more generations.

Allison weighed in at 13.1 pounds last week. She'll get weighed again tomorrow before they give her shots for her 4 month checkup. Last time she got shots she had pain screams that were just horrible, so I'm dreading tomorrow night. And daycare wont give Tylenol, so I guess I'll be running up there at lunch. Because as soon as she has a fever they kick her out. On a happy note, she is starting to grab stuff. Its really cute when she's in deep concentration staring at something trying to figure out how to get it or whatever she's thinking. Ofcourse everything she gets goes straight to her mouth. She's still working on getting her whole fist in her mouth too :)

Jeffs parents will be visiting again soon. Those are about the only visitors we get. I'm a little sad to think that my family will have big gaps in watching her grow up. My parents will see her once or twice a year and who knows when my brother or sister will come. I guess I knew that since we're the only ones that live in town we'd be doing it on our own, but sometimes the emotions hit hard and it does feel like Jeff and I are in seclusion. Guess I need to quit posting pics online and writing on this thing and maybe people would come around more.

So in writing that little sappy bit it made me remember something Rob Thomas said at a Matchbox Twenty concert. He said something about yes he knows they have more sad songs than happy songs, but when he's happy he's out having fun, not putting a pen to paper and sitting around at home.

So I'm about to look up some fun things to do.

Something in that long weekend must have spoiled Allison. She's been fussy at daycare the last 2 days. We're still not sure whats going on. She's still on breastmilk thats been frozen, so I have no idea if it's something I ate, or maybe she just needs more entertainment.
For a while now she's been all about her hands in her mouth, and then just in the last week she's started grabbing things better. She even held her own bottle for about 20 seconds. That may have been a fluke thing :) I keep forgetting to ask daycare if she's done that. So while she's discovered her hands, she hasn't found her feet yet.

I was playing with the video on my new Iphone and posted a video to YouTube. It's Jeff playing and talking to Allison and getting that cute baby talk back. I still need to work my videography skills. haha.

I attempted an step and sculpt aerobics class yesterday that kicked my butt. I was worried I wouldn't be able to walk today, but my legs are just the right about of soreness. I may have to try it again next week :)

We had a fun weekend in Birmingham with the Machamers. The guys got their fix of card playing in, and Karen and Claire didn't seem to fight over baby time :) We even took Allison to a restaurant/bar and sat in their outdoor patio area. Our main purpose was to try some of the new high gravity beers that Hsv does not have yet. Allison was a great baby and I think liked having new stuff to check out. The problem came on the ride home when we got stuck in 4th of July fireworks traffic. She was screaming and poor auntie Claire tried her hardest to calm her down. We didn't think of it till later, we probably should have turned the light on so she could see better. Anyway, 30+ minutes in a car with a crying baby stressed me out like I haven't been before. At home crying isn't as big a deal b/c you can try multiple options to fix it but in a car you're trapped. I'm laughing now knowing Allison won't ever remember that, but I sure was worked up. And my other worry is that episode may have been another year of birth control for Claire. I really hope not ;)

Earlier we said we wouldn't show her any tv, but now we're considering a portable dvd player and Baby Einstein for a future long road trip. I guess I could keep the tv to a special treat only available in the car.

Here's a photo of Greg drooling over his creation

Life is back to busy so I don't get to blog as often. Jeff and I have not watched TV for an entire week. Seems like that was half our life pre-baby. I had someone ask me what we do when we get home and I laughed. Most of it is consumed with Allison. Since I only see her awake a few hours a day during week, I'd like to spend it with her. The other part is taken up with washing bottles and laundry. After she goes to bed we usually get on the computer.

I'm very thankful that a few things have fallen into place at the right time. Allison is still sleeping through the night which makes working an 8-9 hour day possible. I also am able to fit into most of my workout clothes which times out good with my company paying for a gym membership. Now, I'm still having trouble finding an extra hour in the day to workout. I think that will be easier in a few months when I'm not breastfeeding anymore. In more ways than ever, my life is revolving around how big my boobs are. .... for instance, I think I'll get on the treadmill first thing on the morning, nope boobs hurt, so I get in the shower and ack, they're dripping everywhere. Or I get to work and the boss springs a 3 hour meeting and I think crap, when do I have to pump. ...stuff like that makes it hard, but I also hate making and washing bottles. I'm sure it'll always be something now that this little person comes first but thats ok :)

In other news both Jeff and I have the new Iphone. This should hopefully help me since I now fit into that category of who I considered crazy people who had to be able to be reached at all possible times. For example, yesterday (when I didn't have my new Iphone) I left my phone in the car and went into the gym. Jeff was going to pick up Allison from daycare. I get out to the car and there is a message that he's changing a flat tire. he was still able to get her in time (before the late fees started) but that wont have to happen again since I'll be using my phone as an mp3 player from now on :) It's still going to be a while before it's a habit to always have the phone on me - in meetings or in earshot in the car or a store but I'll get there.

I forgot to mention how talkative Allison is lately. Last weekend we tried hard to get her to say dada for fathers day but it hasn't happened yet. I'll record some of her babbles and then play with the Iphone this weekend and see just how easy it is to load videos to Utube.

It's almost time for me to walk out in the is smoldering 98 degrees to go home. Whatever happened to the nice but hot 85 degree weather?

We had a busy but fun weekend. Saturday afternoon I had a stampin up thing where I made some greeting cards. I'm not usually into that kind of thing but I learned that this lady has classes where you just pay one fee and she has all the materials and you spend half a day for a project such as Christmas cards. So I may consider a few of those a year instead of spending money to own all the materials. I know I would never spend that time in my own house doing it.
Saturday night some friends had a bbq that Jeff and Allison went to. She ofcourse saved her blowout for an outing. I came after the stampin thing but it was 8pm and I was pretty wiped out, so I didn't stay long.

Sunday we went to Sears for some photos. I've been looking up some photographers that specialize in babies but the prices are crazy and they ofcourse won't sell you the digital images. So I figured since she's still working on the head control and not exactly smiling on cue, we'd try sears. It wasn't a great experience - hot room, busy place with just one person working, hardly any props, and we just seemed rush. Allison was pretty good, but I still stressed out. So for all that work and $150 we only got 14 images. I think I'll just be shelling out the money for her 6 months pics and try a photography studio.

For Fathers Day I got Jeff lawn service for a month. Came at a good time since we've been in the 90s for a while now. The Friday before Fathers Day, Allison came home with her first piece of art. It was her footprints with a poem for fathers day. I laughed at how they start so early. I bought some posterboard to fold over and create a big folder for all her art projects to save. My mom saved mine from elementary school and it was kinda neat to look back on. If anyone has suggestions for how or what to store that kind of stuff in, I'd like some ideas.

and she made it till 4:50 before waking me. Yippee! I got her home about 4:15, she ate at 5pm slept, woke up to let us know about a dirty diaper and slept again. woke up about 7:30 and we had about 30 minutes of play time in before she ate again and slept from 8:20 to 4:50. I hope this isn't fluke thing.

On other news my dad is in the hospital with a blood clot in his leg. Sounds kinda scary but I was told I didn't need to fly down there right now. I hope the doctors in that small town know what they are doing and can dissolve it.

Allison is 3 months old today and life is definitely different than it was when she was 1 month old. We've got the beginning of a routine started. I get up a little before 6am and shower first while Jeff wakes her up enough to eat. Then I throw on my robe, pull back wet hair and feed her while Jeff showers. Then he'll take her to daycare about 7am while I finish getting ready for work. I'm still able to get to work about 7:45 or 8am most days. So far I haven't taken a full lunch break so I try to leave a little after 4 to pick her up. They feed her 3 bottles in dc but she must know I have more food b/c she's usually screaming in the car and in the house till she eats. some days she's still a little fussy in the evenings, but it's not too bad. Allison typically sleeps from 8 am to 3 am and then I feed her. She usually falls back asleep -me, not so much. I lay there hungry! If I do eat something before going back to bed it wakes me up more. I'm open to ideas on how to resolve that :) There is a downside to her sleeping through most of the night. My period started. I feel like calling my doctor and saying YOU LIED.

I'm still breastfeeding and pumping at work. Thank goodness I have an office to myself right now, so I just shut the door and close the blinds. The hardest part is trying to time my day around pumping. I have to attend a few meetings a week and sometimes they are in other buildings. I also signed up for an all day photoshop training seminar in Nashville and I'm thinking it's going to suck trying to find a place to pump in that convention center or go out to a hot car in June. This is starting to take some serious dedication. But I really wanted to keep bf'ing for the first part of her transition into daycare.

(now this is written on Sunday night)
Jeff's parents came up Friday night so we could go to a friends wedding. We we all surprised at how much Allison slept this weekend. I think the full week in daycare really wiped her out. One time this morning, I put Allison in the bouncy seat and she was out asleep in minutes and her Mimi (grandma) was sitting next to her just staring with this disappointed look on her face, so sad she was back asleep and not playful. I was just happy she was still a happy calm baby all weekend.

Here's a pic of bathtime Friday night. She looks like she's in distress, but she' pretty good for baths :)

So I've gotten some response back on that last blog entry - very nice and supportive words. One of the reasons I felt I had to get those words out is b/c everything you see on tv or in advertising just paints a perfect picture of life with new baby where mom has this pre-planted supercharged bond that keeps a happy loving smile on her face nonstop. Those advertisements need to come with subtext that says the baby is 3 or 6 months old and mom has finally slept 7 hours in a row.
Now that more of the 'life is really good' feelings are occurring on a daily basis I'm forgetting the bad and hard stuff. My memory already sucks, so I wanted to make sure I had something to remind me of the real truth :)

while reading this keep in mind it's coming from the mouth of a woman that hasn't been around babies much in her life....

I brought home a tiny baby from the hospital (never thought I'd have a baby that small). Even a couple days in the hospital it really didn't sink in what we produced. I wasn't one of those moms that formed an attachment right away, but there was a point when I got back from the hospital nursery I realized I had missed her. She looked so small and fragile, the thought of caring for her was a little frightening. Luckily I remembered my sister's words - you can't hurt them unless you drop them :) Those words ran through my head every time I had to get clothes on her and contort her arms to move in ways I didn't think they should. The first couple weeks went by in a sleepless, painful blur of mostly crying fits while breastfeeding. After a couple weeks all the family left, Jeff was at work, friends weren't visiting too often and it was just me and her, and she was still just eating and sleeping. It began to hit me - what am I supposed to do with her all day?! We weren't on a schedule by any means and the thought of taking her out in public and her screaming was very intimidating. How could I be completely intimidated by something that weighed 7 pounds! So my only ventures out were to the grocery store or Target.
A couple days before she turned 4 weeks old, we gave her a bottle. Yes - we did not have any problems there. I thought this meant freedom for me to use both bottle and breast. Nope, I found out what engorgement was. I didn't see the point of having Jeff get up in the middle of the night if I was just going to have to get up to use the breast pump. Several nights when she was eating every 2 hours, he'd give her the first bottle, but then I'd be up at 2 and 4 am at least. I don't think we took her out to eat with us though till she was maybe 8 weeks old. (yeah for quick mexican restaurants). I'd say I didn't feel like I could recognize any kind of schedule with her till she was at least 7 weeks old. that meant for long boring frustrating days at home.
I think mother nature timed things out right, because about the point where she was taking longer naps during the day and night, allowing me to get sleep and not be as cranky, is when Allison also started smiling at as and making a few cute baby sounds. So I think sleep plus smiles are what really sealed the bond between us. Some delay there could have also been my emotional rollercoaster on a daily basis. I probably just made myself out to sound like a horrible mom for admitting that connection took weeks for me to feel but it makes a difference when that little person can respond back to you in a pleasant way. Now I look forward to the time I get to feed her because I have her all to myself.
I knew the first time baby process was going to be hard, but yeah, you don't really know till it happens. Allison is such a good baby, we really did luck out. I would have had a institutional-worthy breakdown if she was colicky or unhealthy. Then again I never thought I'd survive natural childbirth and I did.

trying to steal a few minutes on a lunch break to blog...

Daycare said Allison did great and was a happy baby. They got her to eat every 3-3.5 hours which is nice. She fell asleep in the car seat on the way home and when she woke up at home she went into full scream mode. I have no idea why, maybe she likes daycare better, maybe she already forgot who I was, who knows. I had to feed her to calm down though, and then she stayed a bit fussy for a while. She's staying alert longer though. Since my back is still bothering me, I can't walk her around too long, so we sat her in the bumbo seat in her crib and turned on her mobile and other rainforest musical and she seemed perfectly content to look at those 2 back and forth.
My only guess on the back thing is that its a breastfeeding issue. I weigh alot less than when I was pregnant and my back didn't hurt this bad. So maybe it's my huge boobs or me just looking down at them while keeping her on. It's becoming a problem though when I get home and don't have time to lay down in between all the bottle washing and playing with Allison.
The last few nights she's only eaten about 3 am. That's nice for me except I need to find a way to fall back asleep faster. At least she's a happy baby in the morning. She really does smile and coo alot, which is good to lesson my crankiness. haha.

back to cleaning out hundreds of work emails after being gone so long...

For Memorial day weekend, we had a bunch of Jeff's family visit. His cousin's husband had some business in Alabama and then they were headed to the beach. Jennifer's bunch included a husband, 2 year old and a 9 month old and her parents. Jeff's parents and aunt and uncle stayed here and then the cousin stayed in a hotel since she's allergic to cats. Jeff's parents brought some steaks to grill out, so we had a nice feast. The weather didn't quite cooperate - rain off and on, but it's been that way all month. I got to see what life is like with a 2 year old, and if Allison is as good as Hailey I think I can handle it.
Jeff's dad has taken some photography classes and loves to practice on Allison, so we get nice photos when they're here. I think I may have to teach him a little about composition though (photoshop can only do so much)

Allison has had a few nights of sleeping 6 hours in a row but it still seems to be sporadic. Usually though when I come in her room in the morning she looks up at me with a calm smile :) She's definitely a happy baby in the morning. Afternoons are a toss up for whether she'll be fussy or not. She's got more head/neck control now, but still has a good bobble head that will head butt your chin pretty hard. she does require more play time, but hasn't realize her hands will help out with that playing. oh, a few people have asked about hair color - so far it's coming in light brown and in the sun there is a hint of red/auburn color.

This was supposed to be her week in daycare and my week off, but there was some mis-communication. Evidently they prefer you to transition your infant for 3 - 2 hour days. I also did not have her blue vaccine card which takes the dr office a day or 2 to get. I didn't want to pay the full daycare price for 2.5 days so I've been home with her. So much for my pedicure and car wash and other fun errands. And since I've only left her there for 2 hours I haven't had the meltdown I hear so many first time moms have. We'll see about Monday.

My crying spells have greatly reduced, so I hope my hormones are normalizing out. Though I've heard that doesn't happen till after you stop breastfeeding. I'm not liking the hair loss that has started. I've seen this with other friends and heard it's normal. I am relieved to say that most of my summer wardrobe for work fits. Luckily I wear mostly skirts, which is good since the pants button but don't look flattering. It made me remember a college friend explaining what panty craters are. lol. I'd rather not be one of 'those women' who wear pants too tight and have 4 butt cheeks. I still have about 10 pounds to get back to pre-pregnancy weight. Another reason I love being tall, 10 pounds won't necessarily increase a dress size.

So in summary, life is still good, no routine yet but hope that daycare will fix that. I'm about to see the ways of juggling work and mommyhood. My biggest blessing in that is that I have an easy baby and a helpful husband. And maybe when the hard challenging part of toddlerhood starts we'll have her grandparents much closer to help.

Yesterday Allison rolled over from her tummy to her back. I was worried that I wasn't giving her enough tummy time but I guess she progressed quickly. Last night Jeff woke her up from her car seat which was a huge mistake. She cried for 15 minutes or so. It wasn't the pain scream we heard on the day of shots; to me it seemed more like a scared dream. I wonder if she was dreaming and woke up stuck in it :) We turned on the vacuum cleaner which calmed her down finally. I feel pretty lucky to have not had many of those. Almost always her cries can be fixed with food or a diaper.

This weekend we have some family coming; Jeff's parents, aunt, uncle, and a cousin and her family. I have my fingers crossed for nice weather.

This is my last full week at home with Allison. She'll go to daycare next week and then I go back to work the next.

Well, I'd rather work on photos than blog, so back to it.

This is her new mobile she loves.

She weighed in at 10 lbs 9 oz today, but we're not sure how accurate that is considering she hasn't pooped in 3 and half days. (I had to laugh thinking my sister and a friend have popped out 10lb babies at birth) She ranked right at 50% percentile on her growth charts. She also got her first shots which made her scream but not for too long.

Yesterday I went to the botanical gardens with Stacy. I didn't know about their new childrens section - it was awesome. They butterfly area is now a huge inside building that looks like a mini rainforest. I've been in bigger and better, but hey, for huntsville this was a definite improvement. Yesterday was the first nice sunny day we've had in a while, so it was packed with moms and strollers.

In an attempt to get more efficient, and since I don't blog much anymore, here are some quick notes of whats been going on...

Tornado sirens again! I think we've had 5 in 4 weeks. Makes it hard to crouch down in the closet with a pillow for protection, but this last one did hit close to home. Speaking of - that may have been the first time I saw middle class white people with all their teeth interviewed for the news.

Rain again! Everything is very green around here.

Happy baby starting to come out. Allison is smiling more. It really makes this whole baby thing easier when you have a cute face smiling back at you. I have a friend that had a baby a few days ago, and I do remember the crazy hormones, both of us crying, sleep deprivation, etc, but it's fading everything she smiles back at me. That smile has actually caused me to cry so I guess the hormones haven't quite gone back to normal :)

My inlaws are already planning their move here. It maybe as early as next year. Our big ground rule was not in a 5 mile radius. Seriously though, they are wonderful grandparents so I'm excited.

My latest addiction is the show Las Vegas. Yes it's an old one, but daytime tv sucks, so I'm thankful for TNT. Hey, it's not as bad as an addition to Days of Lives.

I've never done as much laundry as I have been. At about 6 weeks I packed up the preemie and newborn outfits. We'll find out how much she weighs on Wednesday. We're still not sure of a hair color. The most hair she has is a dark brown ring towards the neck - like her daddy.

I miss surfing the internet. Now it seems I respond to an email or two, check facebook and someone starts crying. For instance, I started this 6 hours ago.

I feel a little guilty for not blogging lately but I'm about to feel stupid for some rambling, but here's what's been happening.
Taking care of a baby this age is not really hard, just time consuming. I feel guilty for letting her cry, so there is usually something to do every hour, feed, change, talk to, whatever. She's still a sleepy baby overall and most cries can be fixed with something. Though, late in the afternoon is when she gets fussy - about the time Jeff gets home. Then he gets to hear all the farts she's been building up all day - how appropriate - they get to fart together :)

Life at home is boring. I wish I had more friends that were available during the day. oh well, just more time for bonding with her. She's getting heavier and cuter every day. I still can't tell what her hair is going to do, stay dark or fall out and grow back light. At least her eyelashes are growing. She's smiling more, which I love, though I think it's just her using new facial muscles.

I think I'll try to focus the rest of my time off with establishing a routine. It's still difficult right now since I just feed her on demand. And if I have a rough night with her and she goes for another nap at 9 am, than it's really tempting to take a nap too. I noticed I feel better when I exercise in the morning, so I'm trying to use the Wii Fit more. I've sat Allison in front of the noisy treadmill a few times with mixed results on her reaction. I've taken the stroller out around the neighborhood, but I really need to order a handle bar extender because I can't walk to fast without kicking it. (Damn products made for short people)

I haven't been out that much just because I don't want to breastfeed in public. We did go to Panoply this weekend (Huntsville's big art fest). We got there early before it got too hot. I like checking out the art market. I did buy my first piece of art glass. I've always loved art glass but never had the money to become a collector, so I'm starting small. This artist's collection was inspired by Utah's Arches National Park. We haven't been there, but we did have the anniversary trip to Zion Utah, so it made me love the bowl even more.

Now if the weather will cooperate I'll call up Stacy for a trip the Botanical gardens and some cute photos.

So it only took 6 weeks, but all the baby announcements are finally mailed :)

Yesterday I took her by my work to show her off. So many people just love babies, even people I didnt know at work wanted to hold her. I find this odd. I love my child and I definitely think my nephews and niece are cuter that most kids, but strangers kids are just strangers kids. I can never see me going gaga over just any baby. But either way, people are friendlier to you when you are holding a baby so that's cool.
I'm still getting in the groove of this mom thing. At home life is pretty boring, just eating, sleeping and changing diapers. Allison is still usually a lazy eater. Meaning she'll eat, fall asleep and if I dont wake her up to eat more, she'll eat every hour. My nipples can't handle that. I'm still open to suggestions on how to keep her awake while eating. She's definitely packing on some weight though. She has a cute budda belly and some new wrinkle folds. She's a little more alert at looking at stuff but not quite grabbing it, or grabbing things with intention. Oh, and she's definitely spoiled by being held alot. I'm not ready to hear her scream too long. Speaking of, someone is waking up.

Allison is becoming more alert, following toys and grabbing things, sometimes. But overall its still basic baby stuff. Jeff usually gives her a bottle of formula sometime in the night, so I can sleep for 3 or 4 hours in a row. Well I don't think I've slept 4 hours in a row since she's still noisy.
Some of Jeff's coworkers wives with kids got together in the park next to his office and I met them. (thanks to facebook for catching that). It was a gorgeous day and definitely nice to get out. I also had to call a friend for a drink. The drink wasn't needed as much as girl friend company. Staying at home this long can take away some sanity but I got some of it back. I wish I had more close friends with lil kids - still have 6 weeks off work.
I have my fingers crossed that last week was the last cold week for a while (seems like I've said this before). I can't believe I'm still having to run the heater in April!

Thursday Allison turned 4 weeks old. Not much has changed. She is getting stronger but still has a bobble head. She still grunts loud for unknown reasons but we suspect to push out gas or more. I've nicknamed her little squirt, because a fart usually comes with a little squirt. So far she's still a sleepy and pretty even tempered baby that is not too fussy too often. (I hope I don't have to eat those words soon ) I have a harder time calming her down than Jeff, but I think she mainly associates me with food.
Jeff gave her the first bottle a few nights ago and so far no problems. So now he can give her one in the middle of the night and we can each get at least 4 hours sleep in a row.

Here is a pic of me in my usual position on the couch after feeding her - surrounded by burp cloths and pillows. The spit up levels are increasing and bibs help for some of that. Just last night when I moved her a huge amount of white liquid came POURING out of both nostrils and mouth. I had a quick vision of some sick prank a kid would do with a doll to freak out a little girl. I'm doing more laundry that I ever have because I really don't like that sour milk smell that reeks from the burp cloths or her first outfit of the day.

This is my favorite thing she does. All of a sudden she'll just raise her hand and arm straight up in the air.

The first 3 weeks have flown by like I thought they would. My arms will tell you that Allison is definitely growing. She's also a very noisey baby, grunts snorts, makes a high pitch sound like a car coming to screeching halt and she does these throughout her sleep. So the first 2 weeks we had the bassinette in our room, now it's in the living room just outside our bedroom. Jeff is sleeping better than ever now where I'm still getting up to nurse her every 2-3 hours usually. Breastfeeding did get easier after the 2 week mark. It still hurts initially and then I guess she relaxes and it's better. I have not made it out of the house much because I never know if she's going to eat 3 times in an hour or wait and sleep for 2 hours in between feedings. I'm not ready to be one of those moms that can nurse in public with just a blanket draped over them. And the thought of sitting in a public restroom for 20 to 40 minutes while she eats is not much better. So I think the bottle will get introduced soon.
I'm about to take her to the dr again for her 3rd PKU test. Everyone has said how picky the lab is and yet they still can't get the sample right, it's making me mad.
Jeff's parents are coming back tomorrow, evidently Mimi (Jeff's mom) couldn't wait a whole month to see her :)
I'm still waiting to hear back from a photographer friend to get some good photos to use on a birth announcement.

Our baby girl decided to come a little early. The due date was March 18, but Allison Milena Machamer arrived on March 12 at 2:27, just an hour and half after arriving to the hospital.

Here is the new happy family.

I started the baby blog mostly for my pregnancy. I think I'm going to phase it out and just use this one from now on. And I'm already predicting not as much time to write.

I previously had themachamers.com on our mediacom server, but since it was such a pain to update, I decided to just use my blogger account for the website. I think I update the baby blog more frequently anyway, but I like to keep this one going for a log of all our trips and photos.