Today I had one of those silly baby moments, where even as Kayla was doing something she’s not supposed to and ended up making a mess, I was laughing and giggling over it the whole day.  Since Kayla started crawling we’ve eventually worked out a way to keep her in a central area.  We’ve moved things around the living room in front of the television to create a place for Kayla to play and for Mommy and Daddy to watch something while still keeping an eye on her.  The coffee table was moved to the side to block off one area and use couch cushions from the love seat to block off everything else.  Not Fort Knox or anything, and truthfully, she can escape if motivated enough, which isn’t too often.  When she does escape, we usually applaud her ingenuity or strength (or bemoan it), and let her explore and play with her a bit by crawling around the house with her.

Today, Kayla decided to make a break for it a little while after breakfast.  She pulled down one of the pillows that blocked her escape under the coffee table and went up and over the legs of wood connecting the table legs together before hurriedly crawling away – all the while giggling like a mad baby.  I of course thought it was just adorable, so I hauled her up, grabbed the camera and set her in front of the area again hoping for a repeat performance to catch on video.  Holding her back from going and then trying to get the camera out in time to get the video, but not letting her SEE the camera (she’ll change trajectories if she sees it) was actually quite hard.  As such I only got her butt going up and over to the other side when everything was all said and done.

Well, after a couple not so stellar attempts, I gave up and left her outside her “cage” as I turned to put the camera away for later.  As my back was turned I started to hear Kayla making drinking noises.  Sippy cup was on the opposite side of the table so as I turn with a big question mark hovering over my head, I see she’s managed to snag MY cup from the coffee table.  It had been too far back for her to grab when on the inside, but as an escapee, it was in baby snatching range.  Camera in hand, I do what any good mom would do.  I snap a picture.  She was doing really well all by herself too, it wasn’t until I got the picture that she let more water than she wanted come out and soak the front of her clothing, mainly because she was paying more attention to me then the task of drinking at the point.  I then hurry over and she is trying to set the cup back up and it’s almost there… before it tips the opposite direction Kayla and spills water all over the coffee table.

I’m giggling at this point, constantly thinking of “Bill Cosby’s: Himself” routine where his daughter keeps drinking his soda as I’m rushing to get a towel.  Kayla is still happy as can be, even though her entire front is soaked, she’s happily splashing the puddle of water on the table and doing her high baby shriek of a baby doing something naughty and loving it.   As her personality keeps showing itself more and more, I just know I’m in for some trouble.  She’s such a sneaky baby! 

When I got pregnant, I read and was told by several people, about how people will invade your space by touching your belly.  I agreed that something like that would be annoying but it really didn’t happen with people I didn’t know.  Considering how many people I talked to in a retail job, I thought that was pretty good.  I did have one lady promptly ignore me, bend over slightly, and start talking to my belly once,  I just thought that was hilarious though.  I welcome her into the store and my unborn baby gets the greeting back.

See the thing is, I don’t remember anyone telling me of the touchy people that come out of the woodwork and touch my BABY.  I don’t know you, and yet you feel it’s okay to touch my baby?  I have issues with that.  It seemed to start when Kayla went from being confined to the carrier on most outings, to being held on my hip or sitting in a cart.  I guess that’s the “TOUCH THE BABY” green light for some people since she’s more out in the open.  Weeks ago, I had Kayla in nothing but a light green onesie, that said “My dad’s a Geek”, sitting on my hip, on a very hot day as we made a quick stop into a Home Depot.  While Marshall swiped his card and paid, the cashier came over, starting pinching at Kayla’s leg and saying in “baby talk” that she needed to “wear pink so we know she’s a girl.”  Kayla showed all the signs that she DIDN’T like this random lady in her face, but the lady paid no heed and promptly got screamed at by Kayla.  It had me turning away and covering my laugh because it’s what she deserved.  Number 1: Don’t touch the baby.  Number 2: My baby can wear whatever damn color I want. And when she grows up I’m certainly not going to tell her she needs to “only wear pink and dresses or she’ll be confused for a boy”. >:(

Papa Joe & Auntie Shay holding the cousins:  Pass

Yesterday I went to the store to grab a few things.  I was already annoyed with the store since they couldn’t seem to stay off the intercom for more then a few minutes, and the lady checking tags on one aisle didn’t seem to want to move so I could get what I needed.  Then when I was picking up a pack of soda, two ladies speaking Spanish started to pass by me, but the younger of the two stopped and went to Kayla and started stroking her!   As I straightened and moved to intercept her, she moved off and starting chatting again with her friend.  She just decided she wanted to touch Kayla and completely ignored me in the process.  I was obviously upset about this, and sat there shocked as she just walked away like she did absolutely nothing wrong.

Daddy & Baby:  Pass

I continued my shopping, and not long after that a woman I had seen around the store as I shopped, came up to me.  She flat out asked me if she could “hold my baby.” I was stunned.  Seriously?  I asked her “why?” which as I look back on it now is kind of a dumb question, but stand to reason I was just stunned stupid.  She pulled her hands closer to herself, almost as if she was cuddling a nonexistent baby and told me she “just wanted to hold her” and “she’d stand right here” as I shopped.  I don’t care where you stand, I didn’t know her, didn’t know if she’d run off with Kayla as soon as she got the chance, and I also didn’t know what kind of health she was in!  I told her I was leaving anyway, and hightailed it out of there because at this point I was just creeped out.

Crazy Cat Lady:  Fail

I’m sure most of these touchy, feely people are wonderful, but touching and asking to hold random babies?  Does that lady ever had any success with that?  Didn’t anyone ever tell these people the non-written rules of “baby etiquette”?  I’ve never touched another persons baby that I didn’t know just because I thought they were cute, just like I wouldn’t go pet a baby bear cub just because it was so adorable.  It’s asking for trouble.  So, a big “Thank you!” to all those respectful people, who look at Kayla almost vibrating with the need to cuddle her, but just sit back and say things like “She’s SO CUTE!” and try to make her smile at them with absolutely no luck.  I like to know that my baby is adorable, (I made her myself ya’know.) and I genuinely appreciate that you haven’t taken to petting my daughter.

Lots has been going on in the last couple weeks.  Some of which I couldn’t talk about yet.  Two weeks ago on April 21st, Marshall and I packed up the baby and met his siblings out at Fujitsu field to remake a 18 year old photo of all of them in the Bluebonnets for a Mother’s Day gift.  We got together Sunday to celebrate and we of course gave her the gift so now I can finally talk about it.   Marshall and I got there first, because we agreed to make sure the field had the requisite flower since none of us had actually been there yet.  Since we got there before anyone even left, we had lots of time.  Which is also why we took Kayla’s Easter dress and set out to get some of the standard “baby in the Bluebonnet” pictures.  We forgot her Bumbo seat, so she would have to sit up on her own and did so wonderfully, and without a fuss the entire time.  Well, she tipped over once and in the process almost ate a flower.  (Daddy had to dig the petals out of her mouth.)  Needless to say the pictures are precious.  Why doesn’t every state do this?  It’s too cute.

The pictures for the siblings were great as well!  They made sure to get everything as close as possible to the original and it turned out pretty awesome if I do say so myself.   I wrapped the old and new picture in their frames and we all got together Sunday to wish Mom a happy Mother’s Day at Spring Creek BBQ and give her the present.  She was thrilled with it.  I’m glad we could all coordinate our schedules enough to get together and get the picture.

On April 28th, Kayla turned 6 months!  The day after I noticed a white spot on her gums, and since we had her 6 month check up the next day her doctor confirmed it, she’s officially cutting teeth.  She is also in perfect health.  I don’t know how we’ve have such a healthy baby, but so far we’ve had no ear infections or even the slightest sniffle. Not that I’m complaining but I keep wondering when the other shoe is going to drop.  She’s evened out in the length department and is now in the 50th percentile at 25½” inches, gotten chubbier in weight (It’s all in the cheeks! I swear it!) at 15.1 pounds which puts her in the 40th percentile, and she still doesn’t have Marshall’s massive head since she’s still in the 55th percentile and holding.

Yesterday we all had a busy day.  Since the baby turned 4 months and she decided sleeping was going to be sporadic, I’ve fallen behind on the normal household chores.  Since this house is so big, I kept looking around at everything I had to do and just about hyperventilating.  As sort of a Mother’s Day/Anniversary gift we got a maid to come in and do a spring cleaning.  I also took the dogs in to get groomed since (one of the things causing me stress) Odin was leaving “puddles” of black fur all over the house.  It was just EVERYWHERE.  You’d think the long haired dog would be the one we would have to worry about.  I guess we know better now.  I also ran several errands so every nap Kayla had yesterday was in the car.  Marshall was busy working on a software release for his company, so he was hard at work plugging away at his computer with his head down all day.  The house looks wonderful and the dogs look.. well, Odin looks slightly funny since he got shaved, but both look pretty spiffy.

You know how when you leave high school all these friends you had just seemed to drift apart? How everyone is working on different things in their life and while you shared some in common and were friends at school, it almost seemed like high school might have been the only real thing keeping you together as friends? It’s the same for jobs. I’ve worked different places where I didn’t really connect with anyone and I knew it, but it’s hard when at a different job you think you did connect with people and after you leave, it’s just like high school all over.

Not to say you don’t see or talk to ANY of them ever again, there are always the select few that you keep in some contact with.  The only problem is those people might be in different stages of their life or live farther away and that contact is seldom.  I guess when I left my last job about a month before I gave birth, mainly because I was working so much and I never had time to get ready for the baby, that it didn’t really occur to me that the same thing would happen again.  This was a big step in my life; I wanted those people I shared the last 3 years of my life seeing day in and day out to share in it with me.  I knew it wouldn’t be as much because new moms typically have a lot on their plates for quite a while and to be honest I’m not the best at keeping in touch myself.

My baby shower was days before my scheduled due date and invitations were sent via email (which I know a few got lost and I had no other form of contact) with plenty of time to spare.  I had tons of people ask when it was going to be because they were so excited and I thought I’d have a wonderful turn out.  Imagine my surprise when only 2 that still worked there showed up.  The other 2 had left long before and were in different jobs now.  It hadn’t even been a month since I had been working and it was already happening.  While I did receive some notice from people of why they couldn’t make it the majority was silent.  We still had a wonderful time and I had more people than just friends I had met through work but honestly I had been expecting so much more then the meager few that showed up or told me they couldn’t make it.

The whole issue hurt, and after I had the baby my attention was diverted for a while.  After Kayla got a little older, I was getting a little more sleep, and the holiday’s had past, the situation I was in became more apparent.  I barely had any grownups to talk to, that I could go out with, or wouldn’t invite me to things that with a new baby just weren’t feasible for me to attend.  It was a sad situation that Marshall could relate to and so lately we’ve decided to get out more.  We’re making a decided effort to find friends with similar views and ones in the same stage of life so that they won’t seem to disappear on us because we’ll have more in common than just “we work together”.   It’s odd having a fuller social calendar then I have in the last 6 months but I’m getting out of the house for something other than shopping or family functions but it’s definitely something I could get used to.

I’m not saying any of this to make anyone feel badly, because as I’ve pointed out, I’m not great at communication either.  I’m just stating a fact of life.  Friends drift apart, no matter the situation it always hurts to realize you weren’t as close as you wished to be.  These people will always be my friends and while I was sore on the issue for a while, I’ve gotten over it and I wish them the best in all of their endeavours.  I’m just posting this to note a change in my life and of my goals in the future.  I’ve got a great family, a beautiful baby girl to look after and husband who is always there for me.  I’d just like to add a few more lifetime friends into the mix.

A lot of things have happened since last I posted.  First off, we tried solids again with a much more receptive Kayla to the idea.  Although some of those faces she made stated otherwise.  We have a video post of that and of a cute mini typing lesson daddy have Kayla earlier that we hadn’t uploaded.

Big news though was that our air conditioner went out downstairs.  As soon as we get nice weather I can’t even enjoy it from the safety of my cool house.    Since Kayla’s room and mine are both downstairs we weren’t the happiest of people.  Kayla has to be swaddled when she sleeps, (this included naps too) so when it’s uncomfortably warm I didn’t want to get her too hot.  She ended up naked a lot of this week during sleep time or in a short sleeved onesie just trying to cool off with mommy under the fan in the living room.  We got it fixed yesterday.  Apparently we had a leak in our AC unit and it had completely lost it’s freon.  I’m just glad we hadn’t spent our tax return yet because it was a bit pricey.

Since maybe 2 or 3 weeks ago it began being glaringly apparent that Kayla is out to grab EVERYTHING.  While it used to be easy to hold her while maybe eating or writing a check, she’s no longer content with sitting still.  She must have whatever is in front of her.  Most of it ends up in her mouth, if it can get there (my shopping list being one of them) or on the floor.  She almost poured my soup in my lap too!   Since she always is after things to play with we bit the bullet and got her an activity jumper.  Her feet barely hit the floor but she’s happy with all the toys surrounding it and can play for a while and be quite content.  She’s even starting to get the bouncing thing going.  Also, this way I don’t have to keep picking up the toy she just dropped to keep her from screaming.

Last but not least, today is Easter.  That of course means we had a get together with the family.  When I was a kid, I always got a Easter dress every year that made me feel like a princess, so I’m continuing with the tradition with Kayla and she showed her cute dress off today.  I made cupcakes that looked like Easter baskets for the occasion, which had a ton of candy to eat on top before you even got to the cupcake.  I also provided the dessert of chocolate fondue with all the fixin’s that we ate after a delicious roast beef Kayla’s Gmama made.  Kayla even got a small “Pat the Bunny” book from her Gmama that she tried to eat a few times.  Only damper on the festivities was the lack of some of the family.  Shannon was out in Nashville winning a dance competition (GO Shannon!) and spending time with her dad, and Ryan got very sick the night before so, him and his little family didn’t attend either.  I hope you feel better soon Ryan.  We missed you all today.

As I’ve said before, being a mom you really learn something new every day about your child or about how to care for kids in general.  The epiphany for today?  Babies are confusing.  I’ve posted about Kayla suddenly going to a horrible sleeper and my struggles with it, and it was slowly getting better.  Night time sleeping was progressing but naps were a battleground.  Last night she decided it was time for sleep apparently.  She had a nap in the car on our 45 minute drive back from a surprise birthday party and when we got home  we did her bedtime ritual, and put her to bed.  She ended up sleeping 10 hours with one quick snack after the first 7 hours.  I was dumbfounded this morning.  Refreshed, but dumbfounded.

Went about my day and after being awake two hours I put her down for her first nap for the day.  Cue the first two hour nap.  Couple hours later after running some errands, cue the second 2 hour nap for the day.   The naps gave me another bit of sleep (after all that sleep deprivation I figured I could catch a few more Z’s too) and a chance to make a really nice dinner.  I felt like Supermom.   I don’t know if at the switch from 4 months to 5 months changed something in her but it was wonderful.  Makes me completely realize that there might be a ton of reasons your baby is or isn’t doing something but one thing is for sure, babies just do their own thing.  Even if it makes you the most confused mom in the world.  I swear she’s mocking me.

On another note, we had a great couple visits with family this last few weeks.  Celebrating Ryan’s birthday (Happy Birthday again!) where the cousins got to meet up again and just be so darn adorable.   Shannon (or Shay to her hippie friends) made us all an awesome dinner while we watched Baylor beat some insignificant team in a landslide (a good portion of this night was occupied with Kayla screaming because she was hot and just wanted to be naked) and a surprise party for Mollie’s brother last night.  Maybe seeing all her crazy family members made her just want to sleep.    Let’s just see if she keeps it up.

The dreaded growth spurt is over!  And while it was somewhat difficult, I’m very happy with the results thus far.  While on the growth spurt Kayla’s naps have just been fantastic.  It’s been easy to put her in the crib and she can actually for periods longer than 45 minutes intervals.  Now that’s it’s over she has kept with the easy napping.  The most amazing thing though, is the fact that she seems to have dropped her one feeding she usually needs at night.  Yes, I am saying that she sleeps a full 8 hours a night now.  So now that leaves me catching up.  I wake up earlier then her and can’t go back to sleep because now I’m just not used to getting more 5 to 6 hours at a time and while she naps for such a long time I’m always rushing or not doing something I think I have no time for while she keeps lays peacefully in her crib with no intentions of waking anytime soon.  Now while Kayla and I have switched our sleeping roles, it also spurs me to go into “worry-wart” mode.  I worried about a list of things while she was on her growth spurt and now I worry she’s sleeping too much!  I blame the internet.

Yesterday Marshall and I also fulfilled our promise to go out to eat that we set LAST WEEK!  Between Marshall’s busy job, the new dog hell bent on getting as much love as he can, the baby and my lack of sleep there really hasn’t been any time.  We had a great time eating while having a very philosophical conversation on death, which turned into religion which turned into politics and no matter what the conversation is, in this family always seems to morph into electronics of some kind.  (I don’t know how we do it.)  This ended up with us going to Barnes and Noble to get a Nook.  (We’re talented I tell you.)  We also picked out a fairy tale book for Kayla and found a very cute stuffed Cookie Monster that Kayla loved.  Needless to say he came home with us and I’m now betting her first word will be “Cookie”.  It would prove she’s my daughter at least! 

Snowed all day yesterday! I think it’s the most snow I’ve seen here since I moved here! Everything was covered. I didn’t care too much for having to take the trash out in the snow though that’s for sure! This is what I have a husband for! Sucks he has to be out of town! Bosses called him Monday and told him they wanted him to come to California for a week and he left the next day. So yes, he’s missing Valentine’s Day. There went our holiday plans. I’m irritated with that.

Today it stopped snowing so I made a small snowman to take a picture of it with Kayla since it would be difficult to take pictures of her outside by myself. Her first snowman! She got the funniest face when she touched the snow. After I did that Kayla’s Gmama and Papa Joe called and wanted to come over to take some pictures of Kayla in the snow. It is great because with someone else it was much easier! It’s sad her daddy didn’t get to watch her play in the snow. It was super cute!