Week in Review

Well, it has been quite the week! On Sunday night, we were awoken by the visit of a most unwanted bedfellow. Below is a sampling of the dialogue that ensued between her and Michael that evening:

Kelly sits straight up in bed, clutching arm and belly "Ow, ow, ow!"
"What's wrong?"
"Ow, ow, OW!"
"What's wrong?!"
Kelly runs to the bathroom "OW, OW, OWWWWW!"
"What the bloody hell is WRONG!?!?!"
"It hurts! Ow, ow, OW!"
Apparently Michael is not fluent in the language of pain, so he had to resort to other means of interrogation to figure it out. While I was splashing myself with cold water trying to make sense of what the hell had just happened, Michael squished something in the hallway. I asked him what he was doing and he replied that he'd squished a bug. After the burning sensation still had not gone away after a minute, comprehension slowly dawned.
"What KIND of bug did you squish, dear?"
He looked a little sheepish. "A scorpion..."
Kelly promptly started wigging out again.
"I didn't want to tell you since I know you don't like them!"
"Is it dead!?"
"Thoroughly."
"Good, I'm going downstairs!"
I then hightailed it downstairs where I erupted into hysterics as I recounted my tale (no pun intended) and my dad gave me Benadryl. He and my mom also gave me an ice pack, which curiously enough helped quite a bit. I had a welt on my tummy about the size of a half dollar and a dime sized one on my arm. Near as we can tell, the scorpion crawled into our laundry from earlier in the day when I ran it, and when we dumped it out on the bed that evening, like a ninja, he crawled under the covers, waiting to strike. And boy howdy, did he! It felt like someone had stuck an IV in me, but the pricking sensation didn't go away and it BURNED. I really hate 8 legged critters, as anyone who knows me well can attest, but at this point, I would gladly take a spider over a scorpion any day. [shiver]

Being stung by a scorpion was not the only other thing exciting this week. On Tuesday, Kelly took the day off from work to have a doctor day. We took Sybilla to see Dr. Patil and Little S certainly impressed her. She walked in just as Sybilla was pulling herself up using my shirt. The doctor asked if she was just showing off and I replied that, no, she does it every day, all day. She's even begun to start stepping along when holding onto something, like the coffee table, or the baby corral. I was chastised for not taking babyproofing seriously enough, which we are beginning in earnest this week. The doctor also asked about talking and vocalizing, which up until this point, we hadn't even thought about. We hadn't really noticed anything out of the ordinary, and the doctor was surprised since little girls by this age are apparently VERY vocal. Our child is vocal alright; she just finds it more efficient to scream and holler than babble.

Sybilla waiting for Dr. Patil

Since Tuesday though, we've been paying more attention to what our child is saying and she actually babbles quite a bit. She has also discovered pitch and range as well, much to the chagrin of the animals in the house (and mommy). Sybilla can reach octaves that makes Mariah Carey sound like an alto! The kiddo weighed in at 18.2 pounds putting her in the 75-90th percentiles, so her weight has begun to plateau. She eats like a horse because she's moving so much, and Dr. Patil has increased solids to three times a day and we are eating anywhere from 2 to 4 ounces at a meal. We also got the go ahead to start meat! Sybilla really likes chicken. Mommy actually went ahead and made some for her this weekend and she loves it more than the storebought stuff. I am going to have to get a food processor though, because I don't know how much more the poor blender can take.

On Thursday, we celebrated Anthony Marino's 28th birthday. Happy Birthday, Uncle Anthony! Michael got him a movie and cigars, and Billa and I baked him a cheesecake with cherry butter sauce on top. We stayed out a little too late, but I think it worked out in our favor, because Sybilla SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!!!!! I am not making this up. We put her to bed about 8:30, which is a little later than she normally stays up, and when Mommy and Daddy went to bed at 10:30, we didn't wake up until 5 am! Hallelujah! Of course, she didn't sleep well Friday night, but the performance on Saturday night was great. Michael has been keenly instrumental in this, because he's been going downstairs to comfort her when she wakes up in the middle of the night the past week. Michael's been waking up at 2 am for work lately, and I felt that he needed to get as much sleep as he could, so I was always the one taking care of her when she woke up. However, she'd been waking up every two hours again and would cry nonstop, sometimes for an hour, even with Mommy rocking and cuddling, etc. It was during a weekend off that we discovered it was Boobalicious Mommy that was setting Billa off in a frenzy, and only Super Daddy had the magic touch (and patience) that put her back to sleep almost instantaneously. Thank God, too, because Mommy was on the verge of committing herself to the crazy house just to get some sleep! The baby now wakes up at about 4:30 or 5 in the morning, but because my newest goal has been to go to bed by 10:30, that's giving Mommy at least 6 hours of much needed UNINTERRUPTED beauty sleep! So a big shout out to Daddy: Thank you, Michael; I couldn't imagine sharing parenthood with anyone else--I am so grateful for you!

And to round out the excitement this week, the hammock on the front porch finally got tired of swinging everybody's big butts over the years and decided it had had enough. It pulled out from the brick wall tumping Michael and I to the ground. Thankfully, no one was injured seriously, but Michael and I were very surprised (and a little bruised).

So that is the week in review! Billa starts daycare on Tuesday and hopefully we will not have any more mishaps with 8 legged critters visiting in the middle of the night. And I have a video for you to view that deals with Billa's newest obsession: anything in a glass. Please enjoy and until next time,

Kelly and the Gang

Happy Six Months Billa!

Billa turned six months old today. Yay! Below is a list of our accomplishments thus far (I'm sure there are more, but we're so sleep deprived our brains have fried and memory has shortcircuited):

Smiling: 5-6 weeks
Holding up our head: 8 weeks
Rolling over front to back: 13 weeks
Rolling over back to front: 16 weeks
Laughing: 4 months
Eating solids: 4 months
Crawling/scooting: 4.5 months
Sitting without support: 5.5 months
Standing while holding onto something: 5.5 months
Sleeping through the night: PENDING (Hell, we'll take 6 hours straight if that's all we can get; that's better than the 3 we're getting now)

We are beginning to walk while holding onto things and Mommy and Daddy have caught the baby standing up in her crib on several occasions. The kid broke out of baby jail today, causing Papa much consternation. Gone are the days when we could turn our backs for two seconds...[sigh] We turn around and the next thing you know, she's pulled herself up onto something else and is trying to climb it or walk it's perimeter.
We love our solids like nothing else, in fact, we start throwing a temper tantrum when the spoon doesn't make it to our mouth with the next bite fast enough. She's consuming about 3 ounces of solid foods at each meal. I just had to shake my head when looking up stuff about babies and solids yesterday as the majority of websites say that at her age, she should only be eating about 1, MAYBE 2 ounces each time. I have to cut the kid off otherwise I'm rolling her out the door and into the bathtub! We're going to discuss meat and portions on Tuesday with Il Dottore to make sure we aren't doing something wrong, but Little S is getting big and growing fast.
Growing so fast in fact, that pretty much all of the 3 to 6 month clothes have made their way to the Outgrown Bucket. Makes me sad, since there were some really cute outfits that we must say goodbye to. I know there are tons of new cute ones that will be available soon. We're pulling out everything from the 6 to 9 month bucket this weekend. I'm going to have start staging really cute photo ops since there are lots of adorable dresses that are not practical for everyday wear.
We'll be going to get our family portraits done soon and that will be exciting as I am trying to figure out what we're going to wear!
The next six months are sure to be super exciting, so check in frequently to see what's happening! I promise that I'll post some videos this weekend!
Much love,
K & Co.

PICTURES!!!!

Step right up folks and see the latest baby pictures! She's cute, she's cuddly, and she's crawling! Enjoy the sneak peek below of what's been loaded up into the Picasa album of our little monkey. Videos will come as soon as they've been edited and compressed!

K and Company

The Michael Phelps of Babies

Today Sybilla is spending the day with her Papa, whom she just adores. Papa dotes on her like nothing else and loves to play with her. He tells her that she is his favorite granddaughter (even though she is the only granddaughter!) and blows raspberries on her poopeck (bellybutton). Since Little S is quite the mover, Papa has taken to creating a baby corral using the dining room chairs, pillows, and barstools to keep her out of trouble. Sybilla LOVES the baby corral because it presents all sorts of interesting views and things to climb on. My mom likes to call it baby jail. I got lazy this morning and didn't change Sybilla out of her blue stripey jammies, which look like little prison dungarees. Of course, Papa gave her a wooden spoon yesterday, so before Mommy left this morning, she was teaching Sybilla to "rattle the bars" with her spoon. Very cute!

The kid just keeps taking off each day and is getting stronger and stronger. My dad calls her the Michael Phelps of babies, she's so amazing! Granted, I know this kind of development is not normal, and really, it's just her physical movement and development that's ahead of schedule. Mentally, she's still 6 months old. I'm glad for that, because I'm not ready for her to talk back to me yet, which if my teenage years were any indication, Michael and I are in for it.

We had some good friends of ours visit this weekend and with them came their six year old daughter Mathilda and 9 month old son Alexander. Sybilla and Alexander were such a joy to watch as they chased each other, rolled on each other, and stole each other's toys. Mathilda loves her baby brother and was adorable playing with both babies. Sybilla also had the opportunity the weekend before last to meet her second cousins Evan, Jenny, Bella, and Mia. The other kids range in age from 6 to 12 and Mia is about 3 weeks older than Sybilla. Mia is a great sitter and very sweet tempered, whilst Sybilla literally crawled circles around her. Little S is really enjoying being around other kids and we are very excited about her starting day care in the next couple of weeks where she will get to play with big kids again!

We officially turn 6 months old on Thursday, and our 6 month well check is next week. I'm going to guess she weighs at least 17.5 pounds. I'm going to have to ask about feeding her more solids and meat, because this girl is so hungry all the time from all her crawling and pulling and standing that I'm worried I won't be able to keep up with her. Her sleeping patterns have worsened as well, with her first wakeup time now coming about three hours after she goes down at 8 pm. We're getting sleep in about 2 to 3 hour snatches, which is killing Mommy. We did not have a very good night last night and I don't know what else to do, since Ferberizing didn't really work and the other methods we've tried have sucked just as hard. I'm willing to give the Ferber method another go, but I think we need to have our doctor's help on this one. The books, internet, and lots of other moms all say that she should be physically able to sleep at least 6 hours straight, which would be manna from heaven, but we have yet to experience that on a regular schedule. The little rugrat has given us glimpses of the future to come a few times now, but they're usually one hit wonders.

Anyhoo, I will post some pictures and videos tonight (I ran out of time to upload stuff from the cameras last night) so that you can see the little hooligan in all her crawling, standing, and bear-walking glory.

Until then!
Kelly & the Gang

Daycare and Donut Palace

We found daycare!!! We interviewed a potential daycare lady yesterday and both Michael and I really liked her. The baby seemed to take a shining to her as well, so we've decided to go ahead with her in September. She has a small group of kids and they range from 18 months to 5 years old, which is great for Sybilla. She's been staying with our friend Kellie and her kids during the day and she just LOVES spending time with big kids and watching what they do. And now that she's scooting along on all fours (it varies between the worm and a bear crawl), she can chase them all down which is loads of fun for her! She has started to finally show interest in sitting up, which is relieving and scary all at the same time. Relieving that I don't have to constantly hold her up, but scary since it means she can potentially get into trouble, and she is showing a certain penchant for it these days. I think we are going to drop her crib tonight so that she doesn't get the idea of pulling herself up and over. She's eating solids twice a day and we're still breastfeeding, which I am extremely proud of myself for doing. My goal was six months, and can you believe it, we are almost there!

Most of our activities are centered around food these days… shopping for it, cooking it, eating it, and watching it on TV. I've always enjoyed baking and cooking and lately Dad and I have been hooked on watching the Food Network. I got my parents hooked on the Next Food Network Star, which was really fun to watch. I'm not a huge fan of a lot of reality TV, but that sure was a great program to watch! I totally called it in regards to the winner, although towards the end I wavered just a little since they were all really talented and fun to watch. Of course, watching all of this food on TV has inspired me to be more creative in the kitchen and I've been a whirling dervish cooking things I never would have tried before. I've also been thinking a lot about opening a bakery someday. I'd always had this thought in the back of my head, but I usually dismissed it since I'm not much of a morning person (ha! kids change everything, you know) and I figured it was another one of those little follies that I frequently dream up but never act on. Well, I had an epiphany the other day that made me realize that's what I really want to do. It happened like this:

There used to be a bakery in Buda on Antique Row but it closed down for whatever reason and has been on the market for some time. I noticed one day that the For Sale sign had been taken down and I was excited to see who had bought it and what it would become. Not that long after the sign disappeared, I drove by and discovered that it was going to be the newest location in the Donut Palace family.

"WTF?!" I said to myself. "A Donut Palace? A Donut effin' Palace?!" I was getting really worked up over this and I had to stop myself lest I run over some poor innocent antique shopper while blinded by real estate rage. "Whoa, girl! You are being very silly. Why are you so upset about this? It's not like you had the capital or desire to buy it yourself and…and…oh wait, I guess secretly deep down inside, you really DID want to buy it and open your own bakery in Buda!!!" So, that was my epiphany, the big AHA moment when I realized that I wanted to open a bakery someday, maybe in a small town. (And in case you're wondering what the hell Donut Palace is, it's just another donut chain)

It's not that I have anything against donuts or Donut Palace in general. In fact, donuts from Donut Palace are just as tasty as other donut chains. But it's the principal of the matter… you have a small Texas town with unique local businesses on it's Main Street and then some yahoo has to come in and sully the charm with the addition of a generic donut chain storefront. Grrr…This same principal is part of why I hate the infamous Devil Store, aka Wal-Mart. But that's another post for another time.

So that's my epiphany and I'm sticking to it! We'll keep you all posted as things develop and the baby keeps on growing. In the meantime, here is a little gem of Sybilla at dinner time!

Until next time!

Kelly & the Gang