I tried to dress Alex up in a fancy little velvet dress, but she wasn't too thrilled with it. So we opted for comfort instead.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving!
We enjoyed a wonderful 1st Thanksgiving with Alex this year. We enjoyed a leisurely day (see the video below!) and I finished reading a book (The Art of Racing in the Rain, which was really good!) Then we headed over to Rich's parents house and had an awesome turkey dinner with all the fixings. We have a lot to be thankful for this year!
Happy Thanksgiving from our little Gobbler!!!
Alex cheers for FETCH!
Thanksgiving 09, originally uploaded by jenski33.
All of a sudden, Alex thought it was hysterical to watch Sadie catch the ball. We love finding new things that crack her up!
Friday, November 20, 2009
Overdue Updates
Well, let's see...I haven't had time to blog lately because I haven't even had time to do the things that are higher on the priority list.
Like laundry. I have 4 loads of laundry that need folding tonight. I dumped the clean clothes onto my bed so that I have no way of putting it off till tomorrow, because otherwise I won't have anywhere to sleep! Does anyone else do this little trick?
And some of my administrative duties for work are piling up, giving me a bit of anxiety as I try to think of when I will have time to do them. And my refrigerator is in dire need of a visit from the Organization Fairy. And the Grocery Fairy.
I wish, I wish, I wish......there were 48 hours in a day. Or that I only needed 2 hours of sleep. Where is the Wish Fairy when I need her?
Onto other topics....our baby girl turned 5 months this past week! She is growing up so fast before our eyes, coming into her own personality and interacting with us more than ever before.
Some recent Alex highlights:
-She is all healed up from her 2nd ear infection and 1st cold. I am still trying to recite the mantra given to me by our pediatrician--"You want her to get sick now, it's GOOD for her. Daycare is GOOD for her." Maybe I will believe it if I keep saying it?
-She is still doing wonderful on her Alimentum formula. Aside from the astronomical cost of this stuff, it has been the best thing ever!
-We aren't anywhere near starting solids yet. I'm in no hurry to open this chapter because of her tummy and allergy ailments. We will get there when we need to, but for now, she's doing just fine with her bottles.
-Alex weighs almost 16 pounds and is almost 26 inches long! She is in the 90th percentile for both height and weight! (See my previous point--we have no worries about her getting adequate nutrition!)
Here is a recent photo with her Nubby bear.
-She is really learning how to make different facial expressions. She smiles and laughs and scowls and pretends to cry, only to burst into a smile the minute I reach for her. She is learning things so quickly that I can't believe it.
-Aside from rolling, she is trying to stand a lot too. She holds on with her fingers and will stand for a few minutes at a time, usually very proud of herself too!
-She plays a lot now. She loves her exersaucer, and her rattles, stuffed animals, and teethers. I love seeing the wonder in her face as she reaches for a toy and shakes it.
-She loves sucking her thumb, and her new habit is stroking the back of her head with one hand while she sucks her thumb on the other hand.
That's a pretty good summary. She's awesome! (Have I mentioned that before?)
Like laundry. I have 4 loads of laundry that need folding tonight. I dumped the clean clothes onto my bed so that I have no way of putting it off till tomorrow, because otherwise I won't have anywhere to sleep! Does anyone else do this little trick?
And some of my administrative duties for work are piling up, giving me a bit of anxiety as I try to think of when I will have time to do them. And my refrigerator is in dire need of a visit from the Organization Fairy. And the Grocery Fairy.
I wish, I wish, I wish......there were 48 hours in a day. Or that I only needed 2 hours of sleep. Where is the Wish Fairy when I need her?
Onto other topics....our baby girl turned 5 months this past week! She is growing up so fast before our eyes, coming into her own personality and interacting with us more than ever before.
Some recent Alex highlights:
-She is all healed up from her 2nd ear infection and 1st cold. I am still trying to recite the mantra given to me by our pediatrician--"You want her to get sick now, it's GOOD for her. Daycare is GOOD for her." Maybe I will believe it if I keep saying it?
-She is still doing wonderful on her Alimentum formula. Aside from the astronomical cost of this stuff, it has been the best thing ever!
-We aren't anywhere near starting solids yet. I'm in no hurry to open this chapter because of her tummy and allergy ailments. We will get there when we need to, but for now, she's doing just fine with her bottles.
-Alex weighs almost 16 pounds and is almost 26 inches long! She is in the 90th percentile for both height and weight! (See my previous point--we have no worries about her getting adequate nutrition!)
Here is a recent photo with her Nubby bear.
Remember the same photo taken when she was 7 days old?
-She is really learning how to make different facial expressions. She smiles and laughs and scowls and pretends to cry, only to burst into a smile the minute I reach for her. She is learning things so quickly that I can't believe it.
-Aside from rolling, she is trying to stand a lot too. She holds on with her fingers and will stand for a few minutes at a time, usually very proud of herself too!
-She plays a lot now. She loves her exersaucer, and her rattles, stuffed animals, and teethers. I love seeing the wonder in her face as she reaches for a toy and shakes it.
-She loves sucking her thumb, and her new habit is stroking the back of her head with one hand while she sucks her thumb on the other hand.
That's a pretty good summary. She's awesome! (Have I mentioned that before?)
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
My Best Friend's Wedding
Tee hee. I thought that might be an appropriate title to this post. Love that movie. But seriously, my friend Katie was married this past weekend, and what an amazing wedding it was!
After many years (Oh, a decade or so) of dating, Jeremy and Katie finally made it official. It was a long time coming, but well-worth the wait. I was her Maid of Honor (notice I said 'Maid' of Honor even though technically I'm married and that makes me the 'Matron' of Honor, but I politely asked if I could ditch the elderly-sounding title and take the youthful 'maid' title instead. Katie obliged.) Is that weird that I wasn't really digging the Matron of Honor title?
Rich was the Best Man. (Anyone else find it ironic that they don't distinguish a married best man vs. a single one? They're always trying to emphasize women's age. And by 'they,' I'm not sure who I'm referring to, but you get my point.) Anyway, what was I saying? Right.
It was a really busy week leading up to the event, with me flying to Dallas for business for a couple days, having a business dinner meeting one night, and Katie & Jeremy's rehearsal dinner another night. Whew! I think I blinked and the big day was there! Friday was Baking Day for me--I baked two huge sheet cakes for the wedding, which probably seems like it should take all of a couple hours, but ended up being an all-day affair. I am a pretty experienced baker, but this was definitely the most baking I have ever done at once. I started in the kitchen at 9 am and finished them at 11 pm (with about a 2-hour break in there when I went to the salon for a nails-and-spray-tan-appointment). I made 6 layers in all, 3 red velvet and 3 german chocolate, and I think the final total was close to 5 lbs of butter, 5 lbs of sugar, 3 dozen eggs, 2 lbs of flour, 5 sticks of cream cheese, and a GALLON of heavy whipping cream. ha! They were very healthy cakes. I was proud of the final result--they tasted delicious and looked pretty. They were the cakes that no-one actually saw, but were sliced up in the back by the caterers and offered to guests as an additional choice to the standard white wedding cake. Katie's sister, Kelly, who is pretty much the most creative person I have ever met, made the beautiful display cake. She took a couple of cake-decorating classes and told Katie she thought she could do it, and lo and behold, she did. It was amazing. The top four layers were styrofoam, covered with fondant, and the bottom layer was real cake.
Here's a close-up of the gum-paste orchids that she made.
She only took a few classes. Seriously?!
Here is my german chocolate cake.
Then we headed to the wedding location. When Katie put her dress on, I almost started crying at that very moment. But I remembered the make-up lady told me to do my best not to cry because as she said, "False eyelashes and water don't mix!" Ha! Of course, once the night progressed, I was a teary mess anyway.
Back to Katie. She was stunning! Seriously, look at this gorgeous bride:
The ceremony was perfect, everything was beautiful, and we had a blast! I danced 'till my feet ached.
After many years (Oh, a decade or so) of dating, Jeremy and Katie finally made it official. It was a long time coming, but well-worth the wait. I was her Maid of Honor (notice I said 'Maid' of Honor even though technically I'm married and that makes me the 'Matron' of Honor, but I politely asked if I could ditch the elderly-sounding title and take the youthful 'maid' title instead. Katie obliged.) Is that weird that I wasn't really digging the Matron of Honor title?
Rich was the Best Man. (Anyone else find it ironic that they don't distinguish a married best man vs. a single one? They're always trying to emphasize women's age. And by 'they,' I'm not sure who I'm referring to, but you get my point.) Anyway, what was I saying? Right.
It was a really busy week leading up to the event, with me flying to Dallas for business for a couple days, having a business dinner meeting one night, and Katie & Jeremy's rehearsal dinner another night. Whew! I think I blinked and the big day was there! Friday was Baking Day for me--I baked two huge sheet cakes for the wedding, which probably seems like it should take all of a couple hours, but ended up being an all-day affair. I am a pretty experienced baker, but this was definitely the most baking I have ever done at once. I started in the kitchen at 9 am and finished them at 11 pm (with about a 2-hour break in there when I went to the salon for a nails-and-spray-tan-appointment). I made 6 layers in all, 3 red velvet and 3 german chocolate, and I think the final total was close to 5 lbs of butter, 5 lbs of sugar, 3 dozen eggs, 2 lbs of flour, 5 sticks of cream cheese, and a GALLON of heavy whipping cream. ha! They were very healthy cakes. I was proud of the final result--they tasted delicious and looked pretty. They were the cakes that no-one actually saw, but were sliced up in the back by the caterers and offered to guests as an additional choice to the standard white wedding cake. Katie's sister, Kelly, who is pretty much the most creative person I have ever met, made the beautiful display cake. She took a couple of cake-decorating classes and told Katie she thought she could do it, and lo and behold, she did. It was amazing. The top four layers were styrofoam, covered with fondant, and the bottom layer was real cake.
Here's a close-up of the gum-paste orchids that she made.
She only took a few classes. Seriously?!
Here is my german chocolate cake.
Almost as nice, right? HAHAHAHA! Well, as I said, my cakes weren't on display for the guests to see, but they were quite delicious for them to eat! :)
Katie came over to our house on Friday to spend the night, and we did last-minute wedding preparations and spent most of the night talking into the wee hours of the morning. Finally, at 2 a.m., Rich sent us a text message (from the bedroom) suggesting that it might be time to go to bed, and could we please turn off the lights for him?! Oops! It was like we were in high-school again, getting in trouble by mom! Ha!
So we finally did get about four hours of sleep and woke up just in time to get to the salon for our hair and makeup appointments.
Back to Katie. She was stunning! Seriously, look at this gorgeous bride:
After it was through, we came home and relieved Rich's parents from babysitting duty. They watched Alex all day and said they had a great time with her. All in all, it was an awesome wedding!
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Sometimes my heart just melts....
....when I see these two together.
This was completely candid, taken as Rich was dancing with Alex. She was smiling so much that I think those big cheeks of hers must have been aching! Ahhh....nothing like a daddy-daughter dance.
Happy Halloween
We have had a great Halloween weekend. I think we are all healthy again (knock on wood!!), and really enjoyed some wonderful family time. I am not normally too enthusiastic about Halloween; I think it is a silly holiday and don't really go out of my way to do anything special for it. But this year, with Alex, of course we had a lot more fun with it!
Alex was a ladybug. She didn't cry when we put her costume on, but I definitely don't think it was her favorite outfit either. She seemed a little confused as to why we were giggling at her, but I think she was okay with it.
Then we went to the pumpkin patch with my parents. It was the first time I had ever been to one! We had a great time, wheeling Alex around in a wagon. We sat her down with the pumpkins, and she was fascinated, touching and kicking them!
Alex was a ladybug. She didn't cry when we put her costume on, but I definitely don't think it was her favorite outfit either. She seemed a little confused as to why we were giggling at her, but I think she was okay with it.
Then we went to the pumpkin patch with my parents. It was the first time I had ever been to one! We had a great time, wheeling Alex around in a wagon. We sat her down with the pumpkins, and she was fascinated, touching and kicking them!
When we got back, Rich and I carved up our pumpkins after Alex went to bed. We finished off the night with a game of Scrabble.
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All of a sudden, she decided it was time. And ever since Sunday, she has been a little roly-poly baby. I think it's amazing how one day she learns a new skill, and then all of a sudden she is doing it all the time, like it's the easiest thing in the world.