A Me For You

Travis won’t get me a Wendy’s apple pecan salad until I update the blog. EVEN THOUGH I AM BUYING. I just wanted to put that out there so everyone knows what I am dealing with sometimes.

So how are things with everyone out there? Good? Good. Things are good here as well. We are just as busy as ever and now we are busy and it is, like, a billion degrees outside. Side note, the AC went out on my car. So did….my car? We just had to have a bunch of work done on it. It was not in great shape. And now we wait for the nice people to tell us how much it will be to get the AC fixed. I am not looking forward to that bill but totally looking forward to AC.

I am doing well, as is Magic Sunshine Pufflelump Baby #2. I have no real exciting news to report on that end. Apparently if you are not pregnant for the first time and having no issues doctors just like you to come say hi to them once a month. Or once every two weeks now. Eeep!. I think that means we are having a kid soon. I should empty out that crib…

Travis is happy and is busy at work. At 34 he is plunging into the exciting world of contacts. Partially because he does not want to wear glasses during the Mud Run this Fall. He is not really sure how he feels about them yet. I like him with glasses so I am not sure how I feel about them yet either. It will have to be an update for another day.

Brenna is….boy, is she Brenna. She is as sweet and happy as ever. Oh yeah, and she never really stops talking. She has been making lots of noise for awhile but now you can actually understand her. (and if anyone in my family says her word for bananas is a little off, don’t listen. They are just jealous of her sunny disposition). She is stringing together words now. One of her favorites is “I need help” which could mean ‘Hey lady, get my ball’ or ‘Yo, can’t you see a baby is out of milk over here’ or even ‘I have been in these damn shoes all day- come take them off immediately before I start shrieking and screaming uncontrollably-Or not, it is your call’. Her current favorite pastime is putting things night night. Elmo goes night night. Grover goes night night. Brobee goes night night. Her cup goes night night. The ball goes night night. Her books go night night. The cats…well, she tries to put the cats night night. Aggie and Jack so far have not gone along with her plan. But she does cover everything with a blanket, pat it gently, give it a pacifier, tell it night night, give it a kiss, and say love you. It is awfully adorable. No matter what Jack and Aggie tell you.

That is all I have for now. Travis should be back any second with my food so I am outta here.

Smooches,
Meg

Ok , for those of you not on Facebook and not on Buzz Travis and I are jazzed because we are having another baby. We probably ranted and raved at one point that one kid was enough but Brenna sure is cute and she kind of suckered us into wanting another one.

The discussion about having another baby was long and complicated and really there is a whole story involved -there is a band in it and everything! But that is really a story for another time and I promise to tell it one day. The really short story is that in December we agreed to give this second baby thing a shot, in January I went to the Doctor to get the ‘all clear’, and in February we were pregnant.

Baby #2 should make an arrival somewhere around November 1st. We went in for the big 20 week scan this week. Baby got stamp of approval with all fingers and toes accounted for. AND we are having another girl so we are very excited Brenna will have a little sister to play with. I know how much fun I had (have) tormenting my sister. Plus, it was going to be real awkward to explain to a boy why he had butterfly sheets and a pink bouncer as a baby.

So that is our super big news. Everyone is happy and healthy at our house. Brenna continues to be hilarious. She talks a lot now so this good and bad. She has an awful lot to say for a tiny person. Mostly she is just tells me that she does not like her outfit and would like to wear sparkle pink batman T shirt and also to hand over the watermelon. If not that is fine too but she is putting my shoes in the toilet. She also has learned to put her finger to her lips and say ‘shhh’. She often does this when I am telling her to do something she does not want to do. Yay.

And all the pics are on the other computer so I can’t pull any recent ones. Here is one from the sprinkler ball weekend. See how happy she is?! It is because she got her watermelon.

Some of you may know us well enough to have been to our house. We are not fancy people. We try- truly we do. Sometimes. But the truth is we are not decorators. Neither of us has any sense of style or interior design. We place furniture so that it is out of the way and so that you can see the tv. Also, electric furniture goes near a plug. And that, my friend, is how our house is set up. Recently it has come to our attention that one of our couches is what some people call “hideous.” And now that I have gone to actually look at it I can’t help but agree with them. It was a lovely good will purchase that Mia helped me find one fine spring day. (Ah, the memories of wife beater tank tops and Mia stalling out the truck while swearing she could drive a stick.) And in my defense, this was Ollie’s couch- the couch where the dog is free to lounge on and drool on and eat snacks on. Anyway, the couch has lived a long time and served its purpose as an Ollie bed and occasionally as a place to sit if you are not picky and more often a place to sleep if you have had too much wine. But it is time for the yellow and orange couch to go to its resting place. Mostly because Ollie is of the age where he can really only look at the couch with nostalgic lounging and can’t actually get up on it.

Getting rid of this couch will free up a lot of space in our living room. Which brings me to the coffee table and end tables we have. These, as opposed to the couch, are perfectly lovely tables. (Side note- they came from a consignment store as well!) The origin is not the point, the point is, these are nice little tables which are fairly cute and do their job of a dining room table when you want to sit in the living room and watch TV during dinner. Hahaha, I am kidding, we sit at the dining room table, use linen napkins, and discuss important things. Really, really important things. Things like you would hear on NPR and Nancy Grace and stuff. Anyway, I digress. My point is that while these are tables that we like, I am reluctant to admit we also call them the coffee tables of death. At each corner of these tables (2 end tables and 1 coffee table- that is 12 corners in all for my liberal arts friends) there is a fancy wrought iron design which can only be described as 3 claws (12 times 3 is 36. Stay with me on this…) extending out to rip your clothes and tear at your flesh. Now then… bear in mind these claws are also on the bottom of the tables, bring our claw count to 72 in total (36 at the top and 36 more at the bottom). It was an amusing little gauntlet of sorts to navigate while sober and downright terrifying while drinking. Wait, I have those two backwards- terrifying sober and amusing while drinking. That seems more accurate. The long story short is that Travis is of the opinion that these are NOT appropriate furniture pieces to keep at the house where a toddling baby to learn to walk. I can’t help but think one of two things will happen; one, she will get a bad ass scar on her face- something along the lines of Indiana Jones – or two, she will be incredibly agile. Either way it is a win-win situation, right?

At any rate, I lost the fight and the tables are going too. We are soon going to have a very empty living room. On the plus side, it gives Brenna plenty of room to walk… umm…crawl…. roll around. (Joking- she is getting close to crawling. She can go backwards!) On the down side, Travis and I are slack and probably won’t replace this furniture until sometime around 2017. Maybe there will be space couches by then. Or maybe my Dad needs a project. Dad if you read this – bring coffee table plans soon!

I am writing this curled up under my desk at work a la George Costanza.  For those of you who know me, this is not like me.  I am generally perky and enthusiastic about my work.  Who wants to talk about natural gas pipelines and the falling cost of power in Texas?  Me, that’s me! I want to talk about natural gas pipelines and the falling cost of power in Texas!  But no, not today. Today I don’t care.  Today I am just too tired to care.  You always hear us talk about how awesome Brenna is- and truly, she is.  Look at this baby! How awesome is this baby?

Brenna is a silly girl with a sweet disposition who is full of giggles and sly grins.  Or she was.  But something has happened. She has changed. Possibly she was bitten by a radioactive spider. Possibly she just realized I refuse to buy her Lucky Charms. At any rate, now she is something more like this-

If I had to take a guess she is working on getting her teeth.  She does most of this by staying awake all night screaming at you and pulling your hair.  Seems like an odd way to get her teeth to come in but hey, it has been a long while since I was a baby.  Maybe that is the ‘cool’ way to do it these days.  Yeesh.  Kids.

Ok, it has been awhile. Longer than it should- I get it.  Here is the thing-I am not a writer.  I can barely form complete sentences without spell check and grammar check.  Plus, I really only know how to play video games on the computer.  Travis has requested I quit using ‘CIV IV playing machine’ and use the word ‘computer’ from now on.  I am trying to humor him.

Well, let’s skip over the obligatory ‘blame Travis for not updating’ and move on to the updating!  Brenna is awesome.  She is a sweet, happy, smiley baby and is thrilled to be around almost anyone.  She does great at Day Care.  Her teachers love her (to be fair they love all those babies) and judging by the way that Trey crawls over to her and gnaws on her head I think she is popular with her classmates as well!   They have ‘water play’ during the summer.  Before some of you freak out (they let babies do what???!!) water play is where all the kids don their adorable tiny bathing suits and go sit in kiddie pools.  Brenna is just getting to where she enjoys playing in the water now.  She used to just kind of sit there and stare at you as if to say ‘this is just like what we were doing before but now I am wet’.   They also strongly encourage her artistic ability there.  Mostly it just involves hand and foot print art but it is awfully cute.  Some of my favorites were the footprint penguin, butterfly feet, and she did a stunning rendition of the American Flag using her feet as well.  Clearly I am partial to the foot art.

She is eating food now too. (How did sweet potatoes get on the cat??)  Unfortunately this means she is totally not interested in drinking her meals anymore.  She is a little young to be giving that up so we wage epic battles with the bottles sometimes.  She would prefer that that someone follow her around all day armed and ready with a jar of peas.  Seriously, that kid can put back some peas.  It is a little scary.  If you slow down she will scream, grab the spoon, and shove it her mouth.  She eats pretty much everything (no green beans or prunes) but prefers veggies to fruits.   She has learned what a cup is and squeals and flaps her chubby little baby arms until you share what you are drinking.  I have learned that if I am holding the baby then I should be drinking water instead of tequila or juice or more tequila.  I am pretty sure she really just puts the water in her mouth and then spits it back in my cup.  But she does it with adorable enthusiasm. And hey- who does not love a little pureed squash in their water?  It is the new lemon.  She has also mastered the concept of the sippy cup but needs help holding it.  And if you won’t help her she is not daunted.  She patiently waits for the 2 ice cubes and 2 Tablespoons of water to form condensation and then she licks the outside of the sippy cup.

We called her little baby veal for a long time because all the other babies in her class were moving and rolling and trying to crawl and she lay there on her back and smiled.  Her contentment, I think, kept her from moving.  Contentment sounds better than laziness, right??  But she now rolls from back to front and from front to back.   Sometimes, if you are not keeping a close eye on her,  she just barrel rolls across the room and rolls right into the bookshelf.  Not that something like that happened.  Just trying to be colorful.  Nope. Baby definitely did not roll into the bookshelf.  She is an excellent sitter now as well.  She is now trying to work on getting from sitting to on her belly and from on her belly to sitting.   She also enjoys standing (if you hold her).  My sister was rather concerned that she would have jelly legs for the rest of her life.  In fact she texted me from another state to tell me that she was holding babies much younger than mine and their legs seemed to work and that my baby will probably need intense physical therapy.  I am pretty sure she was kidding.  Anyway, one play date with 2 other babies her age who could stand and she was immediately shamed into it that afternoon.   Anyway, as much as we joke about it she is doing fine.  She actually seems much more advanced in her fine motor skills.

Hmm…what else is she into these days?  She likes it when you act like you are going to drop her.    She likes it when Travis dances and sings with her.  She LOVES it when any animal comes in the room.  Jack enjoys snuggling on the blanket with her.  She enjoys trying/successfully ripping out patches of his fur.

Anyway, to sum up, we are back to posting

Brenna is officially cured of her cooties from Easter.  I know this because I sat in a small room painted with slightly scary Crusaders and Knights and heard the doctor tell me so.

I still think that is a weird way to paint a pediatrician’s office.  But, whatever, he is nice.  I will not judge him and his interior decorating style.

This weekend is the ‘Annual Celebration of our Birth’.  For those of you who don’t know, this is the day that Rod and I gather our friends, grill, and drink.  Brenna will be making her appearance so I hope she has fun.

Next weekend my parents will be visiting so yay for that.  Mom thinks Dad needs a project so she wants me to find something for him to do around the house.  I am not really sure how Dad feels about this yet or if he is even aware.  I wonder if he reads this?? I doubt.  Mom’s secret is still safe.  Which is good.   She could still probably kick my butt.

I don’t have a lot of updates on Brenna.  She is silly and finds dancing to ‘Single Ladies’ endlessly amusing.  Here is a picture of her giving serious thought as to what a stuffed duck is.

Sometimes when things get crazy at work I come to this blog and click on the ‘Splain the Name link at the top and read what Travis wrote.  (you know, back when this was his blog.) It always makes me feel better.  Hope you guys are feeling warm and fuzzy too.

xoxo

When this whole project started I kinda assumed that this would be Travis’s gig.  I mean, there is not a lot he loves more than talking and writing things on the interwebs.  But I think I am starting to realize this might be my gig now.  Sadly, this will only go to show how slack I am to those of you who don’t already know it.

So lets see…where are we at these days??  To start out with Brenna turned 3 months at the beginning of this month.  (yay!)  She has found her hands and has spent a lot of time staring at them fiercely willing them to do her bidding.  It rarely works but she keeps at it.  We celebrated Easter at this house with baby’s first ear infection so that was also big news.   This was followed by Travis and I both becoming sick so it was a big week at our house.  Luckily everyone seems on the mend.  Brenna is still nursing a heck of a cough and Travis is still leaving his neti pot out on the sink but everyone is in a much better mood.

Brenna is still having a hard time with ‘tummy time’.  She used to just do a face plant on the ground and scream.  Now she shows her disdain by immediately going to sleep once you put her on her stomach.  Oh well.  I guess those muscles will be a little slow to develop.  She has perfected her ‘chillin on the couch’ muscles though.

Looks like we have a busy few weeks ahead of us.  We have a big party at Rod’s house to get to next week in celebration of me and Rod’s upcoming birthdays.  It is always a big time.  This year’s theme is military so that should be interesting.  The week after that I think my parents are visiting which is super loud and always fun.

Hypono-Baby says goodbye until next time.  (which, in theory, should be sooner rather than later)

I meant to post earlier but with Brenna going into daycare and me going back to working things have been a little hectic for me.   This will probably be brief- I am tired.  And for the record, these pictures were taken on my phone as I am too lazy to plug in the camera from the trip.  Sorry.  Next time –  new pictures with decent color!

To being with, I am back at work which I am rather excited about.  I hate leaving Brenna but it turns out I missed my job and so many of my co-workers.   It was nice to be back today and start handling all of the concerns and issues of my various clients.   Many have even been so kind as to save issues until I get back to take care of them.  Gee, thanks, guys. 

Going back to work also means that now instead of Travis just helping out with nighttime feedings on the weekend he is now lucky enough to see what is on the internet at 3 am while feeding the baby as well!  Not sure how he felt about his first night of that.  I told him not to worry and that it would get easier.  Hahahahaha. I lied and it was fun!

We had her 2 month check up and that went fine.  She is gaining weight and losing hair and so everyone is pleased.   In fact, the Doctor said not to change anything we are doing again.   She had her 2 month vaccines.  That went poorly in her mind.  I am pretty sure I am going to make Travis take her to get her next set of shots.  I don’t know if I can handle the look of disappointment, shock, and betrayal that babies give when getting all shot up.  And besides, she should start to hate Travis for something too.  It is really the only fair thing to do.

Brenna also had her first road trip this weekend.  Mia and I drove up to High Point to see my folks.  It was awesome-fantastic fun as it always is.  Mom and Dad had a big time with their youngest grandchild and I got to eat shrimp, see Tony, and drink margaritas.  Everyone wins!  Dad did not think it was fair that any one person hog the baby as it so often happens.  My family spends a lot of time in the kitchen talking, cooking, eating, drinking, and mocking.  So he thinks baby should be carefully supervised on the table so everyone gets to play with her.  So that was interesting but I have to admit, if we were all just going to sit around and catch up while sitting at the table it  does  make a certain amount of sense.(Too bad there was no lazy susan…)  The driving part with Brenna was pretty uneventful outside of some very bad things she did to her cookie monster diaper outside of Chester, SC.  By the by- there is an uber fancy McDonalds around there.   You should stop by.

I wrote this days ago in the middle of the night. Forgive the typos and, missing words, and bad grammar.

Again, it has been longer than it should. I blame Travis. Not for any real reason. Just as a general rule.

Well, how are you guys doing? Good? Good. Things are going well here as well. I will start back to work on March first (eek!) so we are working on getting things planned for daycare. The daycare we chose is near the house so that will be convenient for us both. I am looking forward to being back at work and having adult conversations but the thought of not having Brenna with me all day kinda sucks as well. Parents give their children two great gifts—one is roots, the other is wings and they are both equally important. While she is still too young to even start thinking about wings it is always something that we think about when we talk about her going to day care and school. We both feel (Currently- We reserve the right to change our minds) that early social development is important and daycare is going to be the best place for that especially the chances of her having a little brother or sister who is not furry with four legs are slim to none.

Brenna is doing really well. She is smiling and screaming and babbling with delight at things she sees now. Her favorite things that can almost always smile are: the sight of me in the middle of the night completely exhausted, Travis coming home after work, and her jungle animal playmat that plays this terrible music that I hear in my sleep. If I get sleep. Her general attitude and expressions are still rather serious- perhaps one would even say full of doubt. Travis and I don’t take this to mean that she is questioning our skills as parents even though it really looks like she is pretty sure we have no clue what we are doing. She should just eat her chips and salsa and work on her tan like Mommy says (no one likes a pale baby) and leave the parenting to us.

The chips and salsa have been good to her and she is growing like a weed or some other thing that grows a lot. Back hair perhaps? Nah, I will go with a weed- much classier. We are officially finally out of newborn clothes as well as some of the other 0-3 month outfits. Of course, some 0-3 month still fit and some are huge. I wish there was a better system in place and that all the baby clothing CEOs would get together and at least decide if a 3 month old is about 21 inches long or 30 inches long. Oh, and world peace. I always wish for world peace when I am wishing for other things. You know, just in case. I would feel just terrible if I got one wish and I used it on baby clothes standardization. Anyway, she is getting longer and chubbier and her face is changing. If you ask people who she looks like half the people will say she looks like me as a baby and half will say she looks like Travis does now. She is losing all her hair. Maybe that is what is swaying people to say she looks like Travis? (I will probably be in trouble for that one…)

If you check in again soon I will update you on how much Brenna enjoyed getting her 2 month vaccines this week.

So…you people want an update, huh? Well, today is officially Brenna’s 1 month birthday. It has been a big month. She celebrated by screaming. A lot. I celebrated by taking her to the Doctor for her check up. All in all it was pretty uneventful. The doctor quoted the movie ‘Roadhouse’ and we had a nice discussion on how there is not much on daytime TV outside of the 2 hour Matlock/In the Heat of the Night block. (Today was one of the black and white flashback episodes where Andy Griffith plays the part of Charlie Matlock, Ben Matlock’s father. Classic Matlock.) Anyway, back to the Doctor visit…He said she was pretty much perfect and he had nothing to say other than to keep doing whatever it is we are doing. So it is good to know that pretending you can’t hear the baby crying and hiding under the bed is not only a viable option but it is recommended. Haha, Mom, I am totally kidding. Mostly.

Brenna has gained 2 pounds in 4 weeks so apparently that is good. She has also grown 1.5 inches in length. She is still pretty small for her age but not so small that it is an issue. I would not hold out any hope for her being a basketball player or anything. She still has all the dark hair she was born with so maybe she will be a brunette yet. We both thought she would have lighter hair than what she was born with. Honestly, if I was not right there I would not think that she would have been my baby with all that dark hair. But unless the Doctor had a second baby up his sleeve like some kind of magic trick (is this your card? Or your baby?) she is definitely ours. It is maybe getting a little lighter. The hair on the back of her head is still dark at this point in the game though.

I think she falls somewhere between an easy baby and a high maintenance baby. She is fantastic and an angel if you hold her all the time. She prefers to sleep while you stay up and hold her instead of sleeping in her crib or bassinet. She is morally opposed to sleeping for more than 3 hours in a row unless she has stayed up screaming for 4 or 5 hours earlier that day. She does eat like a little champ but knowing Travis and me that was never really an issue we were concerned about. And she is finally starting to smile regularly which is great. Her smile is definitely more of a sly grin. She looks like she is up to no good already, and she’s proud of it. (she must get that from Travis- I was such a well behaved child – kind, obedient, and whatever is the opposite of sassy.)

Ok, there are new pictures up on the flickr account, and Travis hasn’t closed access yet. Click away on the flickr link on the right to see all photos, or the ‘More Photos’ link to see a select few.

Well, I should be off. I have not had my lunch yet. And by lunch I mean my 5th cup of coffee. What? Who said that?