Heading to Branson

It would have have surprised me to know (when I lived in Springfield, MO) that I'd ever be excited about planning a trip to Branson, MO. But here I am... in the car heading that direction... very excited about said trip. Here I come Silver Dollar City, Dixie Stampede, Miriam, Angie, Table Rock Lake, and Pineapple Whip. Woot!!!

This Week in Pictures

Last weekend we went to the beach. Yeah... it was fun.


Last week we also had a shortage on childcare. Natalie occupied herself in my craft room while I pounded away at the keyboard.


Not sure if you can tell that I put pigtails in her hair so here's a closeup. Her hair is just long enough. Just.


Drum roll please....Natalie started walking behind her push toy on Saturday. She also took three independent steps toward me that could *not* be replicated for Dad. You'll just have to trust me on this one. She's been trotting all around the house with the push toy the past few days. She requires someone to follow her and straighten out the toy once she runs into something. If only she also got the concept of steering... Guess she won't be taking the car for a spin for a while!

Be Careful Who You "Throw Under the Bus"

...because that same person in line behind you that you just openly outed to the secretary for "pushing the annoying little doorbell" that she scolded YOU for ringing MIGHT be headed to the exact same meeting you are AND be a person you'll be working with. Nice one.

Weary Wednesday

It's been interesting around here the past couple days. Natalie's sitter (who comes two days a week) was out because of her 3 mos old daughter's *cough* sickness (I'm sure she probably IS sick, but I was still waiting for an actual phone call and not a text message and I was beginning to get a bit worried she was ditching me). Watching Natalie Tuesday was surprisingly fine. I had to work a full day and didn't have the time to play with her as she was accustomed. She managed to entertain herself for the bulk of the day by crawling around the upstairs chewing on some pinecones (I have a box of them in my craft room), tormenting the cat (who really has been a good sport), and attempting to make a b-line for the bathroom whenever the door was left open. (By the way, what IS it about that spot between the toilet and the wall? The dirty little spot at the base of the toilet with the little plastic piece that covers the bolt holding the toilet to the floor. She LOVES it...gross!)

Anyway, she was an easy baby.

Fast forward to today. Screaming, wanting to be held non-stop, rubbing her eyes but refusing to go to sleep, pulling folded clothes from their neat little stack, pulling all the books off the bookshelf and general mayhem. And I'm on a conference call. I swear, had I turned the phone off mute, they would have thought I had a whole daycare in my room. Everytime I tried to lay her down her head would hit the matress and she'd close her eyes, but within seconds her butt would arch up in the air and she's wave it around attempting to get up. Kevin made the funny observation this past weekend that when she fights being tired its like her head is tired, but her butt still wants to party. So true, Kev, so true.

So with a comfort feeding (and who doesn't love to eat to solve their problems?) she was finally down. When she got up a few hours later she was a different kid for about an hour. Then back to the "mommy, mommy hold me, bounce me, hang me upside-down by my toenails, etc, etc". And honestly... who can blame her? I'd be bored to tears if I had to entertain myself the second straight day in a confined area with the same old toys to play with. If only I could clone myself to hang out with her like she wanted. In the midst of the hubub I got a text from my sitter. Joys! She hadn't fallen off the face of the planet and had not decided to ditch me. She said that her daughter was now going to be checked out for allergies and asthma.

And that our cat may be the problem...

She also said she she wouldnt mind watching Natalie at her house if the cat turned out to be the issue. ARGGGGG!!!!! One of the biggest reasons I hired her to come to our house was so I could be AROUND Natalie more. If this *@#*$#@ cat is the only thing keeping me from seeing my kid I might poke my eyes out with a bottle brush!! (not to get too graphic) Why not get rid of the cat, you ask? Because it happens to be the beloved friend and bedtime cuddle-buddy of my dear husband and I might just nullify our marriage vows by kicking her to the curb. He claims she's the reason he married me. =)

Thankfully that beloved husband of mine came home early to rescue me from certain peril with bored daughter and peace returned to our house.

For now.

*sigh*

Please dont be the cat.
Please dont be the cat.
Please dont be the cat.

I dont know if I can handle that right now.

Extreme Yard Makeover - Kevin & Lauren Edition

This week has been an exciting week around our house. Kevin's brother, Curt, has a landscaping business and work has been slow lately for him (rain has been scarce here). So that's meant that he's had time to do some work on our yard. Our yard has been pretty scary for about a year now ever since we got two humongous (and beautiful) trees removed from our yard to both open it up and relieve pressure on our basement walls (from the roots). We had the stumps ground down, but there was a large pile of mulch and roots in the middle of the yard and much of the grass was dead. We also had a non-working 1960's bricked-in barbeque in the middle of the yard that had become more of an eye-sore than a fun backyard feature. Here are a few before pics:
Notice the large hole that is our crumbling back steps. NOT very kid friendly.


And here are a few pics of what it looks like now.

It's still underway, but I think it's going to look pretty cool once it's done. The next thing on the agenda once this is done is to get the house painted. We were thinking a darker green or a barn red. Does either one of those sound like it would look good? Any other ideas? The roof will be replaced within the next few years so don't worry about matching to it. Here's the color of the brick on the front of the house.

We're so bad about permanent decisions like this!

Pub Crawl

Well, all that stressing out about being away from Natalie for my birthday getaway was for nothing! My in-laws had a terrific time with her and Kevin and I had a wonderful night away for some "grown-up time". Let me just say my husband is SO thoughtful and planned a really nice getaway. He arranged for us to stay one night in a bed and breakfast in Fells Point (Ann Street Bed & Breakfast).

For those of you that aren't familiar with good ole' Baltimore, Fell's Point is a neighborhood in the city that is right on the water and full of old historic buildings, fun bars and pretty cool cobblestone streets. I've only ever done day trips down there and haven't gotten to experience some of the fun nightlife that the area has to offer. So this was a new experience.

The B&B that we stayed at was a neat old rowhome with only two guestrooms that was decorated in true colonial style. The owner lived right next door and we simply walked downstairs and through a door that led into her picturesque kitchen for a tasty, gourmet breakfast in the morning. The kitchen and back patio seriously looked like it had come out of a magazine...the proprieter had SUCH a knack for decorating true to colonial style.

We got to Fells Point around 2pm and after check-in we walked around and checked out the shops and got a bite to eat in nearby Canton at Claddaughs Pub (home of a very good buffalo chicken sandwich).

That evening we were pretty full from dinner so we decided to hop from pub to pub in Fells Point grabbing an appetizer and a drink at each place. I LOVE dinner this way because you don't get full. Besides, I'd never done a pub crawl before and considering I'm in the last year of my 20's I was long overdue for getting my feet wet. Blue Moon was the drink of the evening (and really refreshing on a hot summer night). We also enjoyed shrimp, mussels, empanadas and calamari.

Such a fun time, Kev. Thanks for the good memories!!!

Baby Steps for Moms

Well it's Friday night and I've spent it FREAKING out about being gone from Natalie for the first time ever. Tomorrow night, Kevin has planned a birthday getaway for me. And while I WAS really, really excited all I feel now is really, really nauseated at the thought of being gone from my kiddo-rooney for the first time. Oh the trauma!

I'm sure I'm not the first mother out there to feel such anxiety about that first night away. And I know I've got to deal with it. It it's not like I can just sit on the child for the rest of her life because I have separation issues. I'm just deathly afraid of something happening to either one of us while we're apart. I want to BE there to raise my kid and BE there to see her go to prom, get married and have kids of her own. But if I keep this up, who says she's even going to be able to leave my sight to actually accomplish any of those things? So I'm really trying to not think about it and tell myself everything is going to be "fine". That and a lot of prayer.

I'm not sure what I was thinking a few weeks ago when I exhuberantly agreed to take a 5 day getaway with my sister in September sans Kevin and Natalie. I AM looking forward to the time with my sister, but if ONE night away is killing me now, I'm going to be a basket case then. Baby steps... breathe in, breathe out. I've got to go get my paper bag.

Baby babble and Peek-a-boo

Kev here -

Recently we've been enjoying listening to Natterbug learning new sounds she can make. Her babble is so happy and cheerful that is really lightens the mood around the house whenever we hear it. :)

Hope you enjoy these movies. Sorry the quality is poor, I had to use my phone to take these movies since the other one wasn't available/ready.





She's also learned recently how to play peek-a-boo, except in the reverse role! We find it fascinating that she is playing with us like this. She really cracks us up. Fast forward to about 1/2 through this video because the first bit is a bit dull, unless you'd rather watch it all. :)







-Kevin

Fishin' at Pooles Island

Kevin here -

Went fishin' last night and finally got around to heading all the way to pooles island, an uninhabited island a good ways south on the bay from us. The weather/water was just right for heading out there so we (Larry/I) went for it. Bunch of Perch, Catfish and Croaker, and a good look at this island I'd never seen before. Even has a lighthouse on it. It's off-limits to beaching because the military owns it but is still beautiful :)

My phone doesn't take the greatest pics, but there's a lighthouse there!

Down the Ocean, Hon.

For those of you that dont live in Maryland, you won't quite get the title of this post. It's a local dialect thing here... Just say it like you're talking through your nose and you're half way there.

This past weekend we took 4 day trip to the ocean with our friends the Buslers and Chris, Kera and the girls. What a good time we had! From visiting a park with the kids, hitting up a waterpark (sorry... no pics of that), hanging out on the beach (pictures of that are coming) and walking the Ocean City boardwalk and eating all of the junk food it has to offer, we had a terrific time.

Nat and Me

Kera, Callie and Sienna


Natalie and Joshua and Mike


The Families

Natalie was a gem on this vacation. Kevin and I were totally surprised because she'd been such a handful the previous two weeks. We think we realized though that Natalie was really MISSING the interaction with other kids. On the trip there was a 1 year old, a 4 year old and twin 2.5 year olds in addition to Natalie. She always had someone to play with and enjoyed crawling around the house to explore the new area. Since we got back she's been fine with us putting her down (something she screamed at last week) and has been able to entertain her self for little bits of time. It's like she's a new kid! I think we'll probably just try to get out for some more social play now that we're back into the routine.

Oh... in regards to sleeping, we're also trying out ONE nap a day - rather than two. She doesnt seem to need two and we dont fight her as much to go to bed. *Sigh* What a relief that this is all it took!

Natalie loved the beach. It was a little too cold to get in the water, but we played in the sand and she ate quite a bit of it. She had animal crackers for the first time and enjoyed shoving them (sand-covered and all) in her mouth one right after the other. All in all it was a terrific time!

Annual Crab Feast

Our friends, the Buslers, held their annual crab feast at the end of June.

Kevin, Mike, Melissa, Kera and Chris

Other than the crabs (which were AWESOME), my favorite part of the night was that it was sans children. We adults had a good time with water balloons, card games and just chillin out like old times. Such a fun time!

Welcome to July

Welcome to July, Natalie! Crazy to think that I get to experience most of your "firsts" right along with you. Hope you enjoy this month. Lots of fun things to come!

Isnt this a cute outfit from Nana and Papa (my parents)? It was a get-better-soon gift that arrived in the mail just yesterday.

A Mother Needs Some Help!

My daughter is out-of-control! What ever happened to my sweet, precious, smiling and good-sleeping princess I do NOT know, but within the past two weeks we have a defiant, poorly sleeping, fussy little tyrant.

Last night she was up SCREAMING at 1230am and would NOT go back to sleep. I tried holding her, rocking her, patting her, singing to her, giving her the pacifier... NOTHING worked. I knew she wanted milk - but the middle of the night feeding been something I've been giving into for almost 5 days now and this is one habit I'm not going to support. So we both laid on the floor (her writing around like a freaky little fish, arching her back and sliding backwards on the floor - breakdance style). She eventually calmed down and fell asleep. But she was then back up at 530 with the same song and dance. This time I fed her - because I honestly wanted my last hour of sleep. Yes... inconsistency is bad I know.... I can't believe I'm dealing with this and she's not even 10 months old yet!

Today, the sitter has been trying to put her down for a nap for the last 2 hours and ten minutes. We let her cry it out for an hour and fifteen minutes and finally went to go get her after she quieted down a little (but obviously wasnt still asleep). She's still tired, fussy and determined not to take a nap. Now, she COULD feel bad. But I dont think so. As soon as you pick her up she's fine - and this is NOT the first time she's done this little charade. Any advice? Any books I can read? I need HELP!

Fifteen Percent

Wednesday morning I decided to get myself out of the house with Natalie because she was super F*U*S*S*Y and I thought I might be able to distract her with a few errands. We stopped at Kohls and noted all of the stay-at-home moms cruising through at 1030 in the morning looking for bargains. Seriously - there was like one man in that whole store.

Kevin and I were in dire need of new luggage and Kohls had a good sale on it this week so I was on a mission. On my way into the store a lady starts honking and waving at me and I (in all my "maybe-she'-just-friendly-cuz-that's-how-they-are-in-Missouri" fashion wave back). She pulls over and hands me a reusable coupon for the day. Hallelujah! I take back everything I said about east coasters when I first moved here!

Coupon in tow I start looking at everything with new eyes. Now I can get FIFTEEN PERCENT off of everything. That means I can buy more!! That's when I noticed all of the women in there and I snapped out of my greedy little trance. "Stay focused Lauren!" Dutifully I headed back to the luggage and pick out a 7 piece luggage set for $80. Now only $68 with my coupon. Score! I figured even if this stuff dies on us in a couple years its no big loss as there's not a lot invested and we'd definitely have gotten our money's worth out of it. Besides - it looked like it may hold up longer than that anyway.

I picked out a couple birthday presents for myself (at the request of my mother) and make my way to the checkout line. There was one line on my side of the store at the moment and one lady behind me. Then I asked the dreaded question that certainly sealed my fate: Could you reopen my Kohls credit card so that I could use this 15% off coupon? "Sure!" she said as she pulled out a credit card application. She proceeded to ask me for my drivers license, a major credit card and parental rights to my next child. Another couple joined the line.

After giving her my SSN a total of three times along with my telephone number, etc my card was officially reopened. However she realized that my sunglasses I've picked out didn't have a tag on them to scan. There were approximately 4 people in line behind me now. She had already paged someone in Accessories but there was no one in Accessories. The manager gets on the phone as another couple joins the line and says "I'm desperately in need of a checker in mens" as she paces the floor. I debate offering to check the people out behind me. Instead I offer to go grab another pair of sunglasses WITH the tag this time.

I bolt to Accessories and back within 60 seconds and now there's approximately 7 people in line behind me. She rings me up and "whoops" forgets to apply the coupon. So then she voids it all and we start anew. Meanwhile, the old lady behind me rather loudly declares that they should be "giving things away at this pace". I shove my coupon into her hands and say "here... have a coupon". Because that's what us Missourians do.

Well, I didn't see THAT one coming.

It's been a fussy week for Natalie at home. On Tuesday she started showing signs of Hand/Foot/Mouth disease and also an ear infection. The HFM must have been something she got from her last full day at Kindercare last Thursday. What a nice parting gift.... Not.

KC really doesn't want the HFM kids to come back to play with the rest of the healthy ones (understandably) so she's been home this week adjusting to the new caregiver that's been coming to the house two of the days I work from home and then just hanging out with me. But it's been a very fussy and un-Natalie week. When you don't feel good I guess its hard to find the gumption to crack a smile on a regular basis.

So I swung by Kindercare today with Natalie in tow to collect her things as the "trial" period for the sitter had passed and we didnt want to double up on childcare $$ for longer than we had to. When I got to KC I found myself hit with a strange reaction that in a thousand year I didnt anticipate.... lest you forget my initial reaction with taking her there.

Natalie perked up when we walked in and bust into a smile once she saw all of her friend and her teacher. WHAT?!?!? This is my sick kid who has been fussing all morning for me! I was really surprised about how difficult it was to pack up all of her things and march out of there. Not only was I was sad FOR her but she burst into tears when I put her in the carseat! She'd been there for a measly 4 months, but in that time she'd been doted on by some really nice women, she'd developed a ton socially and physically and she had enjoyed the interaction with other kids. I found myself worrying that she might not like it as much at home with me as shd did at this place that catered to round-the-clock entertainment for its kids. Do I sing enough silly songs and do enough educational play? How can I possibly keep up and manage to get things done around the house? Is this kid going to even like me?!?!

I'm sure I'm just being silly and that there are several factors into why she's been a bit fussy (new schedule, sickness, etc). She'll have to get used to not being held 24/7 and going to sleep without someone else in the room - but that will happen in time. Deep down I think that being home with me will be really good for her (and me too), but right now I'm left a little shell-shocked with how it felt to leave. Totally didn't see that one coming.

She's on the move...

Well the days of "perfect baby" are over and our heads are now spinning by a NEW phase in Natalie's life. Who knew a 9 month old could give us a run for our money? Natalie has started crawling and pulling up all the time now and she has resolutely decided that she does NOT like being penned in with a baby gate and especially in her crib. The past few days have brought mayhem and LOTS of tantrums when she goes down for nap or bedtime. Neither one of us thought we'd have to deal with the tantrum thing quite so early and it's left us wondering "What would the Super Nanny do?" I think she'd be proud at our efforts - but the fight isnt quite over yet!

Last night we had a major standoff. It was 10pm and Kevin and I had just enjoyed a night out strolling though the grocery store, Bed Bath and Beyond and stopping for ice cream. We'd taken Nat with us and, while keeping her out late was probably a bad idea, we needed to get out of the house. She'd done a lot of whining, crying and screaming during what was supposed to be naptime earlier that day and we just needed a break! During our trip out, she stayed in a good mood and fell asleep for a while.

Once we got home, though, she was not content to dutifully go to bed for the night. Instead, she stood in her crib shaking the rails, snot running down her nose, screaming for all she was worth. If there's anything that will break your heart as a parent its that look in your kids eyes when they're competely a wreck and dying for you to pick them up. Kevin and I both looked at each other in bewilderment. What were we supposed to do? She was obviously tired but she wasn't content to be rocked. And the previous trials with naptimes and the crib were making putting her to bed nearly impossible!!

You might be wondering what we did..."did she feel poorly" "is she teething"? But the answer to that was quickly answered when she quieted down the moment she was released from bondage...aka the crib. So our heart-wrenching solution was to sit in the darkened room quietly and lay her down every time she stood up in the crib. I think I laid her down a total of 15 (not kidding) times before she eventually quieted down enough for me to pat her back so she could go to sleep.

This afternoon's nap was the same ordeal, but a bit shorter... Ahh... something tells me that this is a sign of things to come and we should be very, very nervous. Both Kevin and I are strong-willed and something tells me we have it coming to us!

We'll try to get another video of how "on the move" she really is these days. Stay tuned...

Goodbye Tinkerbell

It's been a hectic week and while there's been a lot going on, I'll spare you the details because most of them are mundane and involving lots of time in the car. Let me just say... I'm tired. And it's only Tuesday! I don't think that it's going to be this crazy normally - just part of getting spooled up on the new job.

Natalie has totally mastered the crawling thing and is moving on to beginning to "cruise" the furniture. She's not quite there yet - but Kevin and I can tell it's definitely coming. Baby gates are up!

We officially shrunk our family last Friday and let me tell you it's a bittersweet thing. No, I didnt get rid of Kevin... (although he knows if he doesnt pick up his socks he might be next.. j/k!). We found another home for our younger cat, Tinkerbell. It was just time. Unfortunately we had been overrun by cat hair ever since she arrived and had recently found *gasp* lingering dingleberries NOT in the cat pan. Uggggg! We found a very nice woman on craigslist to offload our cat on and she was very excited about it. She was seeking out a friend for her female cat and has someone cleaning her house every other week - so she shouldn't even notice the shedding hair. Hopefully the poo incidents were isolated ... (cross your fingers folks!) I'm celebrating having only one animal. It's helped the house stay clean and I've found that I appreciate Chloe so much more now. It's probably better for all of us - Tinks included.

Words Cannot Express

the excitement/anticipation/nervous energy, etc that I'm feeling right now. Tomorrow is officially my last day at my job as I've put in my two weeks it's all coming to a close. We're so blessed in that I've been offered a part-time work-from-home position with another company. I'll be excited to see a little bit more of the rugrat and hopefully she'll enjoy the extra time together too.

9 Months Going On 15

When your 9 months old, its not hard to do something for the 1st time. Here's a list of several 1sts within the past week....

1. First road trip (4.5 hours Saturday and 4.5 hours Sunday) She was pretty darn good.


2. First trip to NY, NJ and Pennsylvania. For the Missouri folks reading this, did you realize we drove through 5 states in that 4.5 hours??? (She'd already been to Delaware and Maryland - of course.) I've been stuck on the road in KS and TX longer than that!


3. First real crawl. She has to be bribed with things she can't have. Crawl to a toy? No way! Crawl to a sharp object that I can poke my eye out with? YES!!!


4. First real banana, blueberry and tsaziki sauce. "What??!!", you say? It's what you do when you have a fidgety 9 month old and you're trying to finish your gyro.


5. First game of mini golf (and she won...don't let the guy with the golf club fool you!)
   
   


6. First pull to stand. This is a big one. What made it so cool is that my mom was there to see it!


7. First Martha Stewart sighting. We drove past her enormous property and think we saw her from the back on a golf cart. Not everyday you can say you've seen Martha Stewart's backside!


8. First 95 degree weather. Hotter than HEdoublehockeysticks


9. First ice cream. And first ice cream in her nose. =)
   
   

Happy 80th Birthday Aunt Pat!

This weekend my parents and sister came to town and we had a whirlwind trip up to Bedford, NY (home of Martha Stewart) to celebrate my great Aunt Pat's 80th birthday. She had yet to see Natalie and they took to each other right away!
Aunt Pat is my late grandmother's sister. She reminds me so much of my beloved grandmother and has many of the same mannerisms and hobbies my grandmother had. I miss my grandmother very much but am comforted to know that her spirit lives on!
Aunt Pat

Mom, Dad, Grandpa Frank, Aunt Kathi and Wendell

Natalie and cousin Nola