endless pictures...

It really is a good thing digital cameras have come along. Otherwise, I would bankrupt us with getting film developed!

We had a great long weekend!

We had friends over on Saturday. Grilled ribs (beef & pork!), chicken, burgers, and hot dogs. And veggies too. Really, it's tough to top cooking and eating outside. The kids ran around the back yard with the sprinkler going and the adults had a cocktail or ten.
Eileen hung out for a while with Uncle David without crying- big step! We really can't figure out why she gets upset when she sees him.. he oozes love for her. And she made a new best friend with the other Uncle David. I think she's only seen him one other time, but he walked in on Saturday and she just melted in his arms. Josh called him the Baby Whisperer all weekend. So funny how she just gels with some people!

So we had the crowd at our place on Saturday. Then on Sunday we just hung out and enjoyed the day (and nursed our slight headaches!). Aunt Sissy and Uncle David came over and helped us eat some left-overs. Then we made it to Brusters for IceCream.. but Eileen was pretty hot and pretty tired.. I don't think she quite gets how perfectly yummy ice cream really is. I gave her a lick of mine, but she was still not convinced. So we didn't stick around long.. which is really OK since our ice cream was melting at record speed!

And on Monday we went to the pool! there are more pictures in the post below. She LOVED it. Had a blast. She was a star in her little bikini and matching sun hat. We bought her a float, but she wasn't really a fan.. I don't think she's quite big enough for it yet. But she was more than happy for Josh or I to spin her around or bounce her up and down. I can't wait to go back!

We had awesome weather all weekend. I know we so need the rain.. but it was great to have perfect weather on a holiday weekend. Even tho it's still May and our yard is already turning brown. We water the flowers.. but so far we haven't been watering the yard. That would get quite expensive. I'll do my rain dance, but only for rain in the middle of the week. :)

See the one below for more pictures!

For Uncle Dick...

It's funny.. whenever Josh gets Budweiser we always smile and toast Uncle Dick and the rest of the Hankey Men. We even took this picture on Saturday with the express intention of sending a copy to Uncle Dick so he would be proud of his little grand-niece and see that we're teaching her well. ;)

I found out last night that Uncle Dick had a stroke on Thursday...it seems like it was a mild one and he'll be OK.. but it's still so jarring to get that sort of news. Things like that aren't supposed to happen to the Uncle Dick's of the world. He's that ever cool, ever fun, always full of huge hugs Uncle. So our prayers are with him & Aunt Marcia, and here's hoping Uncle Dick gets to have a cold one sometime soon.

Here are some other pics from the weekend.. Josh with Eileen and his first ice cream of the season! And look at her sitting next to him on the couch like a big girl! He's blowing up ANOTHER new 'tub' for her. She's 8mos old and on her 4th tub! First there was the little baby tub- the one that is for newborns and sits on the counter. Then there was that reclining chair thing that sat in the adult tub. And then the seat that attached to the side of the tub. That one was retired over the weekend as Eileen's pot belly no longer allowed her to fit in it! And now, we have what is hopefully her last step towards a full-on tubby! this is actually a mini-pool made for the tub. It's rectangle and fits snugly inside the tub. So she can sit in it and play in the water, but still not really get anywhere. She's still not quite big enough to just sit in the tub - she floats away! (I know, you're thinking perhaps I should not put in so much water. But what's the fun in that?! ) And of course if you go to the link below you'll see updated pics and see her in the new tub! Oh, and that's her (naked!) doll she's holding in her lap. She loves that thing. Nana Janet gave it to her. It makes all sorts of noicse, and I think sometimes she thinks it is real. She hugs it all day.

And of course, the last one is her in her smashing bathing suit. Isn't she such a ham!?

Hope you all had a good long weekend.. now it's back to normal.. but at least it's summer!

see more pics at our shutterfly page!

2 years... 8 mos...

Ahh... it only took us TWO YEARS to get some pictures up on the wall along the stairs.. and it only took EIGHT MONTHS for us to finally get some pictures of Eileen up in her room!

Of course these pictures that I took of the pictures don't really do justice to how good and home-y it finally looks in our house.. at least you can get an idea!

Egads I am so ready for this three day weekend. It's Friday, about 11am. I am desperately hoping we get 'early dismissal' today. I have enough work to keep me busy until Sunday.. but I just about to be over this work week and be out of here!

We'll have some friends over for a cook out.. we'll hit the pool (can't wait to get Eileen in her new bathing suit!).. oh and of course we must kick off the Unofficial Start of Summer with a family trip to Bruster's! Even Gracie gets to come.. they give out free doggie ice cream! Other than that we'll just chill out and enjoy the extra day. It's supposed to be warm and dry all weekend! I know we desperately need the rain.. but I am so glad it will be sunny all weekend. Bring on the tan!

These other pics are just random ones taken this week. You can see Eileen and I after a day at work and school. How is it that I sit behind a desk all day, but I still manage to look like I've been hit by a Mack Truck at day's end? Eh. oh well.

And you can see behind me that our poor Japanese Maple has finally come back to life! It looked great in March, then we had that freakish freeze in April and it killed it! We really didn't know if it would come back.

OK.. I'm going to get back to work so I can try to get out of here and start the long weekend.

:)

If Only I'd Had The Camera...

If only.. we'd be $100K richer after winning the prize on America's Funniest Home Videos (um, sidenote: how long has that show been on the air?).

It was Friday night, tubby time. Little Lady had eaten dinner about 20 minutes prior. She's splashing away, and out of nowhere, she belched. I don't mean she just burped. This was a full-on Frat-Boy-Pledge-who-just-drank-eight-beers belch.

Wait. It gets better.

After the belch, she looked up at me, with a look of shock. As if to say, "Mommy, what the hell was that?" And then, she threw her head back and laughed her ass off. I mean- she laughed like that video I posted a couple of weeks ago. That, of course, threw me into hysterics. I was d y i n g. Josh had just gone downstairs, and thank Heaven, he heard the whole thing. He never would have believed me otherwise.

Clearly, she's taking after me. There was a time in my life that I could recite the vowels, including sometimes y, in one nice belch. Usually I did so while in my school uniform.

It was by far the funniest baby moment yet. Love this kid.

The rest of the weekend wasn't near so exciting - but still a good one! On Saturday we tootled around..went to the gym, to look at some plants for the yard. Went to Target and WalMart. Then Saturday evening we went out for Raven's birthday! Slowly but surely, she's creeping up in age along with the rest of us (teehee, only kidding Raven!). Our babysitter was out of town, so we took Eileen with us. That's Raven's husband Dave in the top picture. Eileen was fascinated by him. Eileen is just so good, I really can't believe our luck. It was way past her bedtime, but she just hung out in my lap. It's not like we kept her out until midnight (ha! as if Mommy and Daddy would last that long), we were home by 8:30. But still, that's late for her. We got home, she took a bottle, and went to bed. Almost surreal. Eh.. like I always say.. I fear what is in store for us with Kiddie Number Two.

Sunday we went to church, went to the grocery store (how do two adults, a baby, and a dog manage to blow thru $200 every weekend at the grocery? What the heck are we going to do when Eileen is a teenager? and when there's more than one of her?). Then we went to my company picnic. It was fun, but will probably be more fun next year when Eileen can walk and appreciate the petting zoo. But hey, I got to work on my tan.

As you can see by the picture of her in the high chair, by the time Sunday night rolled around, she was over it. She was exhausted. And I of course made her madder by taking a picture of her covered in food and fussing (see?? she really does get grumpy every now and then).

Then of course it was tubby time again. No belches this time around. She was, however, highly amused by wearing this little yellow 'tophat' and dumping it off of her head.

OH! and on Saturday she bit me - again- and left a mark! Little turkey. She has no idea what she's doing, but it HURTS.

Today we got the big news that next week she will officially move into the Infant 2 class.. which is the next class up. She is 8mos old today.. so it makes sense that she's moving. Definite mixed emotions. We'll miss her teachers so much that she has now. But it will be good for her to be with kids more her own age (she's moving with several others from her class). Some of the kids in Infant 2 just moved there a month ago, so she'll know most of them.

That's it for now.. Happy Monday!

fun times

Ya gotta love Baxter. She's so cool she just has one name. (OK, not really, but as long as we've all been friends that's all we've ever called her).

Yesterday was her birthday and a group of us got together to have some drinks! I, of course, was thrilled for a night out. Josh was a sweetie and was on baby duty. Eileen of course was a little rascal for him and would not take her bottle or go to bed peacefully. Little stinker.

It was a fun night spent with those folks who you don't get to see very often.. but when you do, it's like you've never been apart. We're all 'adults' now, most of us have kids and mortgages and giant electric bills.

But last night we were just like a bunch of goofy college kids. I have not laughed that hard in ages. (In fact, we made such a rucous that the table behind us was ready to start a brawl!). All that being said, I was still home by 10pm. So it wasn't really like college!

Happy Birthday Baxter! I am glad we got to celebrate with you.

Over the River and Thru the Woods...

Yep. We did it. Survived our first road trip with Eileen! She did pretty well. She really is a little trooper. We went to Grandpa and Beanie's house in Memphis, about six hours from here. Of course, with her, it took about 7.5.

We left here last Thursday in the late afternoon, thinking that she'd sleep since it was close to bedtime. Her teachers had even kept her awake most of the day to make her tired so she'd sleep. yeah, right. She did not sleep for the first half. Got really mad at about the halfway point (can you blame her? Stuck in a seat facing backwards all that time?!). Luckily it was our regular stopping exit for food. Once she had a little break and a meal, she was in better shape. Josh did ride in the back seat with her for the second half of the trip, and that helped keep her calm.

Of course we hit rain and it was dark and OH! how I hate that. I swear the truckers go 100mph in the rain.

Anyway, we got there safe and sound around 11pm that night. I was worried she'd be all out of whack. But she's really just so laid back! After she hung out with Beanie and Grandpa for about an hour, we all went to bed. She slept in the pack-n-play- and did great! I don't know how we got so lucky in the baby lottery, but I know better than to take it for granted (and that we'll probably pay the price when number two comes along!).

These pictures are from the trip back. Since driving at night clearly didn't buy us any extra sleep, we just did it during the day. It was a GORGEOUS day. So we stopped at one of the 'nice' rest stops (really?! isn't that an oxymoron?) and had a baby picnic. She's a big fan of her portable high chair - she might like it better than her big one!

I fed her some lunch.. which was fine.. except that she was fascinated by the big rigs and motorcycles giong by. Every time one passed, she just stared in amazement. Visions of tattoos and mullets on my little butterball were haunting me.


We stopped again later for mommy and daddy to eat. The poor souls at the Wendy's where we stopped had to deal with one smelly baby. I had no idea she had a dirty diaper until we were already all buckled in to the little restaurant high chair! And of course there was no changing station at this Wendy's. So we ate fast and then went out to the car. And she got a diaper change and an outfit change (never a good sign!) right there in the parking lot. Of course Josh took pictures. We must have something with which to blackmaiul her when she is a teenager.


We finally rolled into town around 6 Sunday night. So most of my first mothers day was spent in the car, but that's OK. It was actually pretty fun.


This last picture is her in one of her new outfits Beanie got her from Gymboree. I admit, I have never actually walked into that store for fear I will bankrupt our family. I was happy to get any of the hand me downs from Mary Kate. And now I know my fears were spot on. Just the most a d o r a b l e outfits you have ever seen. I really think Beanie and I could have bought out the whole store. It's a good thing the one here is not super close to my house. We really would be in trouble.

Anyway- you can't see a great deal of the outfut - but it's too cute. And of course, the shoes stayed on all of 5 minutes. but again, too cute.

The entry below this one has more snippets and pics from the trip!

-

Little Rascal

She really is a little devil. All weekend at Grandpa and Beanie's she was just hilarious. I swear, she knows she can do anything and get away with it. For instance..

I was feeding her on Saturday night. If I am not shoveling the food into her mouth fast enough, she growls at me. No joke. So there we were, me shoveling and her growling. Grandpa was standing beside her giggling. Then, she sort of cuts her eyes over at him, grins this little devil grin, turns back to me and continues growling. As if it were an inside joke between she and Grandpa! Of course that sent all of us into hyeterics. And then I fended off a panic attack.. if she's this devious now, what will I do when she's two?!?!?

Anyway... it was a fun time. It was really nice to have a little mini break. I realized I had to relax. I couldn't go clean the bathroom or do laundry or weed the flowerbeds. We really got to play with Eileen a lot. And then Josh and I sat on the back deck with a cocktail, soaking up the sun and reading (I got through two months worth of Real Simple!) while little lady played her heart out with Grandpa and Beanie. We never get a chance to do that sort of thing at home. So even tho it was short, it was really refreshing.

We went out to lunch. Eileen was scared of the waiter at first, and by the end of the meal she was full on flirting. She got to meet Aunt Debbie for the first time. She loved her. Usually, if I am holding Eileen, she does not want to go to anyone else - not even Josh! She saw Aunt Debbie and practically jumped into her arms. It was too cute! So they played and played. Eileen could have cared less if we were around or not! Someday if Aunt Debbie ever moves to Knoxville she can be our nanny! :)

We also went to go see Jo, who is Eileen's great-grandmother. She lives in a cute little assited living facility. She had not yet gotten to meet Eileen, and she had a blast with her. Eileen was the hit in the living area- she was attracting the other residents like crazy. I think Jo was loving getting to show her off. Eileen just sat in Jo's lap and then just played with her toys, oblivious to all the people ooohing and aaahing over her.

I am sure there is more that I am forgetting. Of course I should have blogged this on Sunday night... and I actually started this on Monday night.. and now it is Wednesday afternoon and I am finishing.

:) When I remember any more little stories.. I'll be sure to share!

teehee

This picture cracks me up. It's another one from Miss NaeNae of Eileen at school. They're outside in the little yard. That's her buddy Maddie in the exersaucer next to her.

No clue what she was doing. Probably stuck something in her mouth that tasted bad.

She still won't have much to do with her bottle, but she's eating plenty. I am not going to worry about it anymore!

:)

NINE POUNDS!

We took Gracie for her annual check up yesterday. Nine Pounds. She's gained that much in just a year. I was mortified! The vet told me that and I about fell off the chair. I had a fear she was about to call the Golden Rescue and tell them to take our dog back! I just looked at her and said "Um, we had a baby last year." Which made her laugh, and I think, take pity on me. So, needless to say, Miss Gracie is going on a diet! We are cuttting back the amount of food she gets AND Daddy will be taking her on more walks. We definitely let her walks slide in the past few months. This is evidenced by the lazy pup you see here curled up with Eileen's toys. The vet wants her to lose at least 10 lbs, preferably 15. For now, we're aiming at least for the 10.




Speaking of Eileen, she's just a rascal. All weekend
she refused to take anything from her bottle.
Not formula, not juice, not pedialyte. She did,
however, eat like a famished little being. I was a
tad concerned about dehydration- tho she never had a fever, had plenty of wet diapers, and was in a really good mood all weekend. I called the doctor anyway and they had us come in yesterday. He checked her out.. no ear infection or throat or anything else.. she weighs almost 19lbs.. so she clearly is growing just fine! He wasn't really sure what was up... but said as long as she's eating and having the wet
diapers, she's fine. Mommy intuition tells me this is a combination of several things:


1) she is teething, so the bottle just hurts
2) she is over the whole bottle thing, ready for a sippy cup, just not quite so sure yet how to use it
3) she is just as finicky as her Daddy when it comes to what she will and won't eat or drink.

She may look just like me, but oh her personality seems to be that of Daddy (picky picky) and Aunt Sissy (feisty!!).

All that being said, we had a super weekend!

It was the first time in at least nine, if not ten, weekends that Josh has not had to work. I had forgotten what it was like to have him with us all weekend! We were like Mission Organization.
We (ok, he) cleaned out/organized the attic, the guest room closet, and Eileen's closet. Purged some stuff. Moved around some stuff. We got frames for the house and hung them along the staircase (now I just need to decide which pictures to put in the frames - at which time I will of course take a picture and post it). We went to Lowes and loaded up on flowers. Even got them planted! I got two hydrangeas - I have wanted those forever!- and Josh planted them in the front yard. Can't wait for them to bloom. I love those big poufy pompom blooms. I am hoping for blue ones. (Yes, I know the color of the bloom depends on what sort of soil you have. I have no clue what soil we have. It's really red clay. And hard to dig.)

On Saturday, Eileen napped for three hours. Never - not even as a newborn- has she taken a nap that long. For her, if she makes it an hour, that's a long nap! So, on the one hand it was nice b.c I cleaned the whole house and got several loads of laundry done while she slept (oh- did I mention it was monsooning outside?!). On the other hand, she slept so long that it completely threw us off. We did not even leave the house until 3:45! We hit Babies R Us where we got her some more advanced toys. Ones that make noise. OOHHHMMM.

Then we hit Salsaritas and headed home and had our own little Cinco de Mayo celebration with margaritas, burritos, and Coronas. YUM.

Don't you love this picture? That would be her, last night, as I was taking pictures. She just reached out and grabbed the handle while I was snapping away. Like I said, she's a rascal. If she wants it, she will find a way to get it. And Heaven forbid we try to take it away. She screams bloody murder. oh well, she'll live. :)

And, today is our 3year anniversary. Can't believe it's been 3 years. Actually, we've been together almost 7, which is really mind boggling. Since we've been together we've left Manhattan, bought a house, two cars, a dog and now we have this little lovebug. I guess over the span of 7 years you'd expect that much change. But it still blows our minds. Anyway, Happy Anniversary to us!

Feisty!

She's already beating up the boys!

Owen and Eileen are about three days apart, they started school on the same day. He's adorable (and for some unknown reason is terrified of Josh- every time Owen sees Josh he starts to cry. Hilarious!)

This is the conversation I had with her teacher, Miss Amanda, when I picked her up from school the other day. I'm holding Eileen, and Miss Amanda is holding Owen.

Miss Amanda: See that red mark on Owen's head?

Me: Yes. Oh, Poor Owen! What happened?

Miss Amanda: Well, Eileen threw a toy at him!

Me: WHAT? Oh my gosh!
(horrified, but also cracking up-- note- this was no life threatening injury- just a red spot).

Miss Amanda said that Owen was annoying Eileen (they sit together on the mats and play) and I guess she'd had enough, so she just chunked her toy at him! At least the little lady can take care of herself.
Josh was in Birmingham again Tuesday night. And again, she slept through the night! Last time he went out of town she did it too. Whew. And again last night. She seems to be through the bulk of her teething - for now- so hopefully we get some good nights in before the next round starts up. And her appetite is certainly back. The kid eats.

Not much else to report at the moment.

These are the typical kid playing with pots and pans pictures. Note the large blob of drool going down the middle of one. Don't worry, they'll be run thru the dishwasher before the next cake baking!

try this one?

I am still trying to figure this out... I can see and watch this video just fine! But Josh said that's bc I have the media already on my computer. Others tell me that when they try to play the video it just says "loading" but then never does anything. I tried changing some settings. Maybe this will work?

giggle giggle

B U S T E D

Stupid Red Light Camera.
Yep. I got busted. Ran a red light. I am completely aware of where these cameras are and always stop at yellow lights for fear of Big Brother chasing me down. But evidently not on this day. Here's my car. Going right through the intersection. There's another picture with a more close up shot of my license plate, so there's really no denying it's me. And you know what's really lame about the whole thing?! It was 9:15 on a Saturday morning. WHERE was I going that I was in such a hurry? $50.00. That's what I get. Oh well, at least it doesn't go on my record/get reported to my insurance.


On to much happier topics. Look at these toes. I mean, is there anything cuter!? Of course these little shoes stay on her feet for all of 5 minutes before she kicks them off. But they just make me smile. Yesterday when her afternoon teacher got to school, Eileen was barefoot. But Miss Amanda spotted the shoes in her crib - she put them on Eileen just so she could see how cute her feet were in them! I love that the teachers lover her as much as we do!

Speaking of school.. I really don't kwow what I'd do sometimes without those teachers! Eileen has been cutting her two top teeth. They're pretty much in all the way- it's rather bizarre b.c they seem like they are these HUGE teeth. Even tho these two teeth have broken through her gums - which supposedly stops most of the discomfort- she has still been really fussy at night. I was really starting to worry thinking something was wrong that I didn't know about. Then at school yesterday Miss Amanda solved it for me- she's cutting two more teeth- four at one time!

No wonder the poor girl is miserable. The front two are in, and now coming thru are the incisors (also known as the fangs!). In a week or so this little baby is going to look like a little kid. I still can't believe how fast she's changing.

Our pediatrician recommended waiting until she crawls to feed her solids. But heck, if she's going to have 6 teeth, it seems like she could start on some biter biscuits or something, right?!

I am sure Nana will kill me for posting this picture. It was Saturday morning, Nana and Grampy were about to hit the road to head home to NC. Nana was a little sad to be leaving. But just look at Eileen! I cracked up when I saw that picture with her sticking that tongue out. She's just hilarious.

Hilarious- and sooo mischievious!

You know what she did? She ripped a page right out of the church hymnal! We were at church Saturday night. For whatever reason- she loves loves loves the hymnals. Whenever one of us gets it out to sing, she grabs for it. She could have 6 of her own books in front of her, but when she sees that red book- she's on a mission to play with it. So Josh was holding the book and letting her touch it. And teh next thing we know, her fat little fist just grabbed a page and ripped it out- all the way! I was mortified. I am sure it's not the first time it's happened, but the Guilt was just too much.

Here she is in her high chair. Loves this little cube. Note Gracie right behind her. She's no dummy, she knows that highchair means food!

OK.. enough ramblings. Have a good one!

more firsts...

in the last 10 days...

-first babysitter
-first time out for mommy & daddy in seven months
-first suprise birthday party for Aunt Sissy
-first Bubbles!

Aunt Sissy hit the big three-oh this year. Dear Uncle David has been planning this party- this event of the year!- since February. For those of you who don't know Uncle David - he is not one to keep secrets, and he as a touch of OCD. :) The fact that he pulled off this party and managed to not tell Shannon himself is just a miracle. He did a fantastic job.


Of course going to the party meant we forayed into the world of babysitters! To tell you the truth, I wasn't really too concerned about leaving Eileen with someone. I was more concerned with finding someone who didn't mind a big furry dog who wants to sit in your lap and lick you all night. :) Turns out there was just such a find at Daddy's work.. Miss Catherine loves babies and doesn't mind dogs! (Her dog even goes to daycamp with Gracie!). So she came over and hung out with Eileen while Mommy and Daddy partied it up. Eileen did great! Well, I think she gave Miss Catherine a run for her money when it was bedtime, but we're hoping it wasn't too bad and that Miss Catherine will come back sometime!
Back to the party.. David rented this amazing loft space downtown.. fully furnished.. gorgeous.. and plenty big. It was catered and he'd hired a bartender! There was quite the crowd - including my four parents and David's partents too! There were college friends, work friends, and Shannon's best friend came in from Memphis. One of our friends even came back from FLORIDA a day early to make the party. My mom sent him some pictures of Aunt Sissy when she was little- all of which David had blown up to poster size and were all over the apartment. Very funny. Turns out Aunt Sissy wasn't completely surprised- she'd figured out something was going on- but she didn't know where or when. And she didn't know all of the parents were coming. So it turned out all good and we all had a blast! After seven months of home life.. I was thrilled to put on a dress (and it fit!) and fun makeup and have a cocktail or four!



And here we are with the bubbles. I bought some of the lavender baby bath (which is supposed to help babies sleep thru the night. yeah, right. but it's the Tar-jay brand so it's cheap and it does smell good!). It makes super fun bubbles! Eileen just sticks her hand in them and then stares. She can't figure out why there is something on her hand but then when she tries to touch it it just disappears. I blow them at her and she just squeals. (Gracie likes that part too. She attempts to bite the clumps of bubbles). And as you can see, Eileen is a fan of the bubble wig I made her. She really does love the tub! And already she's starting to get to big for that seat. I predict in another month she'll be sitting in the real tub!

Oh- and her top teeth are coming in! She's been drooling like a fool for a week. Earlier this week she was upside down and laughing, and there ya go! The front teeth starting to show through! She already doesn't really look like a baby now.. but when those two teeth come in.. she will really have lost that baby baby look.

Anyway.. check www.eileenloebner.shutterfly.com for more recent pics.

Happy Thursday!