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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.