Speaking Of

I poured myself a bowl of cereal this morning - mini-wheats: choice. Also: na-nang. - and noticed perhaps the most ridiculous thing ever: an advertisement. It was right there on the milk jug. Seriously? They've invaded the milk industry? Why on earth? It wasn't even a decent add. Nope, it was for something completely unhealthy. At least it was for a food product instead of, say, electronic equipment. Ridiculous.

Speaking of, see these cookies? They're sitting in a tin in my kitchen.


Yup, they're Christmas cookies from family. You are absolutely allowed to think 'gross' since they've been there for about two months now. Why on earth? Well, right before we traveled for the holidays, Rocket Man and I got rid of whatever was left in the cookie tin. We don't really eat much of them, and by we I mean me, since he eats zero. These cookies? They were the few that Rocket Man told me to keep because he was going to eat them. HA! As usual, he has eaten zero cookies. So there they sit, waiting for him to throw them out. My reason for throwing those that were left away was two-fold. For one, I doubted they would be much good once we returned, and two: Lookin' Fine in 0-9.


Speaking of, here is our dinner from a couple of nights ago:


Tilapia with some herbs and white wine, tomatoes and mushrooms. Long-grain brown and wild rice. Greek salad without the Greek olives. What is with H-E-B not having the Greek olives? Wal-Mart has them, but not H-E-B. Perhaps they should rethink their catch-phrase: Here Everything's Better.

Speaking of, things have been going much better in the house of everyone's sick (H-E-S). We were all ill up until the 18th or so, but now most of us are feeling better. Little Miss Itty Bitty has been taking really good naps the past week or two, which is very nice because then I get to sleep as well. I think it is because she is oh so close to crawling; she practices every day. Well, unless her teeth get in the way. Then she chews on whatever she can find.

Speaking of, guess which of my two 'children' I found attempting to chew on the leg of the bed yesterday? If you are thinking the dog, you would be wrong. It took her a while to figure out how to get her mouth to the leg without her big noggin getting in the way, but by golly she got it. Mmm, bed-post. Tasty indeed, but very silly looking.

Speaking of, remember that stocking I made...the one that I failed to check the tension on before completing? Here it is:


...and here is a shot that shows you a little better how very long it is:


Long and skinny. Jeepers. Silly looking indeed. At least now I know what I shall do to make a better one. Shorter, but not skinnier. I shall also move the ginger-bread girl over a tad so that her foot doesn't get stuck in the seam. Hopefully I'll be able to do that before next Christmas. We shall see, as LMIB keeps me pretty busy.

Speaking of, she's awake from her itty bitty morning nap, so I need to go and rescue her from her fishy swing. Hope everyone's having a good Friday and Happy Weekend!

Bullets

• The other day I was placing new coffee in our air-tight refrigerator bound canister because we had used up the previous set of grounds. I cleaned the canister out and cleaned the scoop and placed it in the can. I then poured the new bag of coffee into the can. Yup, without taking the scoop out. Every day is like digging for treasure. Plastic, functional treasure. At least we own more than one scoop.
• Babies make you stoopid. See above.
• Rootin' Tootin' Cowgirl grabbed my finger this morning and shoved it into her mouth for gumming. Except that instead of gumming, there was a sharpness to one itty bitty spot. Methinks a tooth is about to show itself.
• I can't wait to clean today.
• If you think I was genuine with that last one, boy do you not know me.
• I *ahem* inherited that 'trait' from my Mom - the one about hating cleaning, although the sarcasm is shared a bit as well.
• I finished my first Christmas stocking on Monday. It took me about a week working off and on, which is encouraging. I assumed I would mess up majorly (which I didn't - also encouraging), so I failed to check the gauge before making the whole thing. This means that I ended up with a really loooooong stocking. As in longer than the baby...who is more than two feet in length.
  
• Figures, eh? The one thing I cannot stand these days is anything that wastes my time. And yet, I mange to accomplish that feat almost daily. See above.
• Rocket Man and I attempted to go to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. It seems like a cross between a natural history museum and a science museum. Unfortunately, everyone in Houston went down there on Saturday right before we did. So, we ended up driving down there, searching in vain for parking for a while, then we gave up on the museum and failed in our attempt to find the arboretum. GIANT waste of time.
• Bones season one is fab. I heart Zach.
• Doris Day is also fab. Clementina and I heart her. Rocket Man wants to strangle her (due to the frequency with which we listen to her); fortunately this is impossible with a CD.
• I think that is enough. Why? Because Little Miss Itty Bitty is done taking her morning mini-nap.
• I'm out.
  

Everybody Now!

Poopy jammies are such fun!
Doo-Dah, Doo-Dah!

On my list they're number one!
Oh, Doo-Dah Day!

It could have been the peas,
Or maybe just the meds.

Either way they're plain awesome!
Oh, Doo-Dah Day!

The Gun Show

Late, late, late one evening, just after we returned from Virginia, but just before we all looked death in the eye (thank you, rhino-virus) Rocket Man received a special delivery:


It completes his trifecta of workout equipment.

He began with the Iron Gym:


and was given these to amp up the work-out goodness:


By way of family, we used our Christmas presents (The campaign: Money, Please in '08...which a few companies and/or banks took as their motto as well it appears) to purchase these fabulous weights:


They come in 5-pound and 2.5-pound increments. We, and by we I mean he, opted for the 2.5 version just in case I am ever inspired.


Overall, he is very happy with everything.

Oh. So. Happy.

Your invitation should arrive in the post any day now...

Seven Months

Señorita Clementina,


On December 29th, you turned seven months old.

There are a few reasons why your letter is late this month, the most noteworthy being that you managed to get the whole house sick as a dog. Why in the world the phrase "sick as a dog" exists is beyond me, as Cooper is the only member of the family who managed to sidestep this illness.

The photo above is from November 29th, 2008 - your six month birthday. It was taken at your very first Virginia Tech football game. It was a wee bit cold out that day, though it didn't seem to phase you.

The changes from last month to this one are pretty big ones indeed.

For starters, you are now eating real foods. So far you have tried rice cereal, carrots, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, apples and pears.


As you can see, you don't really open your mouth up big time for any of them yet, which may be in part because your Dad was feeding you, which was new! and strange! at the time of the photo, but you do enjoy the apples and pears as noted by the kicking of feet whenever you eat them. Your favorite of the veggies was squash, I believe, with the sweet potatoes a close second.

My blog-friend Brianne welcomed me to the world of stinky-poo when she realized that you were passing the six month mark, and boy is she correct! Shewee doesn't even begin to describe the odors that waft from your full diapers these days.

Speaking of, you are now starting to practice your consonants. You string them together and practice talking to your toys, your dog, and your parents. One of your favorites is a shhhehhwhwhshshehw sound that you tend to make whenever we change your diaper. The day is soon approaching when you will be informing us that you are shewee and need a change.

The other sounds you have accomplished include bfff bfff bfff bfff, which is usually accompanied by fffp, fffp, fffp fffp. Also on the list are guh guh guh guh and the ever popular dah dah dah dah.

In addition to the consonants, you have been practicing your grunting. Um, yeah. You grunt when you sit, you grunt when you lie down, you grunt when you talk on the web cam...we're considering Gruntilda for your new nickname.


Oh, jeepers, lighten up a bit. I promise we'll only use it if you continue to grunt, Miss Stoic. Yes, indeedy, you still have your Very Serious moments. They are especially prevalent when encountering new things and people.

Luckily, you also have many silly moments. This month you have been known to belly-laugh just a bit. You laughed at a piglet dancing at Pop-Pop and Grammie's house over Thanksgiving and you have continued it this month. You really love people's faces and even more so if they are wearing glasses. You have figured out that your Dad wears them, and therefore anyone else who has them appeals to you more than usual.


That list of people would include your great Granny (geat Ganny!), who just can't stand it when you laugh for her. Nope, she doesn't like it one bit. Nor does your Guga, as evidenced by the photo. I think all three of you were laughing so hard your had tears in your eyes.

One of your favorite sounds these days is a kissy sound. You absolutely love to hear it. You enjoy receiving kisses, but more importantly you enjoy "giving" them.


Right now your kiss giving ability is lacking somewhat as you seem to believe that it requires you to open your mouth and either slobber on the recipient or lick their face with your tongue.

We're definitely going to have to work on that.

With me, you squeal with joy when my face gets close to yours. I have to provide the kissy sounds, what with your mouth being open. Then you usually move your head so that my chin is in your mouth, then you promptly chomp down on it.

Kisses, indeed.

The reason you are apt to chew on me is that your teeth, they are so playing the diva. Apparently they are waiting to make their grand entrance and we haven't provided a fabulous enough event thus far.

You will do anything and everything to make your gums feel better, including this:


Oh, yes. That play mat might as well be corn on the cob the way you chomp up and down on the bars. Grab and chomp!

Speaking of grabbing, you have become very good at manipulating things within your grasp. This was made very evident by your manipulation of pillows and toys in your crib:


This photo is a re-creation of your exploits one evening. You were in bed, putting yourself to sleep. Via the monitor we could hear you moving and making a few noises, but you soon went off to sleep. A little later I peeked in to see how you were, and lo and behold I found you in the position shown above. Well, except that you were on your tummy, with your head facing to the left and the pillow and toys were right up against your body.

Why did you do this? Well, it seems that you were soothing yourself. You see, lately a favorite of yours is to snuggle with me like that if we are in a bed together. And by snuggle, I mean embed yourself in my side. You roll over until you are touching me, and then roll over one.more.time so that you are as absolutely close to me as you can be. Sometimes you even giggle about it. It is as if you are saying "Remember when we were this close all of the time? Wasn't that the greatest?"

Once you are securely planted in my ribs, you commence flapping your arm up and down, occasionally smacking me in the face. Thankfully, the flapping/smacking has been contained and you are now capable of gently reaching up to feel for me.

In fact, you feel for me whenever you are sleepy these days. When feeding you at night, you reach up with your free hand and feel my face and occasionally my chest. For some insane reason I imagine you thinking theese ees mine and theese ees mine...why you have that accent is beyond me, but like I said: insane. Perhaps I would not be so much so if, ahem, you would sleep through the night. No takers on that one just yet? Perhaps next month, then.

Another movement you tend to perform is that of woe is me, I have no hair. I kid, though only partly. When falling asleep, you'll reach your hand behind your head and with an open palm slowly go from your neck up and over to your forehead. Then you close your hand up and rub your eye like you are crying. Hence, woe is me, I have no hair.

All in good time.

Say, a couple of years or so.

What? Good things come to those who wait.

Or something like that.

I know - I should take my own advice re: sleeping.

Ha. Ha.

Speaking of waiting, your lones, Cooperchew doggy, is so desperate to play with you that I can't believe that he hasn't exploded yet. Oh, how he wants to tussle with you and poke you with his shoe. I think it is just around the corner. You are making your way towards crawling, although the constant hands in the mouth is holding you back a bit.

Once you master it, you will absolutely be playing with Cooper. You already watch him intently, look for him whenever you hear him, and in general you enjoy animals. You loved the fish at the zoo, and you stared at the ducks here by the house when Papa Jim showed them to you.


I am fairly certain that if we had placed you on the ground, it would have been fine with you if the ducks had come over to see what you were all about. You are exceptionally curious and as all children, you love to explore and discover new things.

I can't wait until you are mobile so that you can expand your world by leaps and bounds. Yes, I am aware that I will be even more exhausted than I am now, but watching you see the world for the first time allows me to appreciate things that I usually ignore or overlook. It is good fun to watch you figure things out, and I apologize for saying so, but it is even fun when you find that you don't like/enjoy/want something as well:


I look forward to learning more of your likes and dislikes as well as your personality in the months and years to come.

Love,
Mom

12 of 12 January

We are finally recovering from a bout of rhino-virus turned respiratory invasion. I hope to post a seven month letter here in the next few days as well as a couple of other items. For today, please enjoy my contribution to Chad's fab idea of 12 photos of the day. Visit his site to see what people all over the world did today.

All photos were taken in Houston, Texas.

8:50 - I began the day with a perusal of the internet.


8:50 - Rootin' Tootin' Cowgirl began the day playing in her exer-saucer.


9:00 - She is almost crawling.


10:41 -
I worked on a stocking during RTC's morning snooze.


12:52 - This has been loads of fun for the past week or so.


12:55 - A Christmas present, the Listen Up Rounds have been a hit thus far.


14:51 - Up from her afternoon snooze and sweet as can bee!


14:51 - I played Lego Indiana Jones while she was sleeping.


17:38 - We returned from a trip to Wal-Mart and Cooper was very happy to see us.


17:39 - Why won't she grab my toy and play with me?


19:33 - My dinner was leftovers from Lasagna House III.


19:34 - My beverage; diet 7-Up and cranberry/pomegranate juice.

Or Sumthin'

Happy New Year!
Or not.

This right here pretty much sums up what the new year has been like for the three of us:



One word: Awesome.

So very much so that even Rocket Man, who usually never even gets sick, announced today that he was....brace yourselves...

...staying here to work from home.

HOLY SMOKES, THE WORLD, IT IS A-ENDIN'!

Yes, I haven't posted a seven month letter yet. The photos are ready and I know what I will say, but the holiday traveling and added gift of a rhino virus for three (what fun...see above photo) has thus far prevented me from posting it.

DEAL WITH IT.

Until we are feeling better,
Running on Fumes (That moniker was never more true than right now...)