4(ish) Months

Dear Ally Grace,

You're 4 (okay, almost 5) months old!   I wanted to write you this letter about 3 weeks ago, but every time I tried to do it, you blew up your diaper distracted me with something really smelly adorable.  One day, when you're old my age, I want you to know just what you were like at 4(ish) months. 

(Apparently, I also want you to know that your mommy has a deep love of the strike-through.) 

Anyway, this stage is definitely my favorite so far!  You are 99% smiles and giggles, and only 1% fuss.  Thank you for being so awesome.  The best part of my day is waking you up in the morning, and seeing you smile your biggest, gummiest smile at me.  It melts my heart every. single. time.   We get you out of your swaddle (if you haven't already busted out yourself!), and you stretch REALLY big.  You are such a happy girl!

At your 4-month doctor's appointment, you weighed 12lbs and 5oz, and were 25" long.  You're still in 3-month clothing, although sometimes the length doesn't really work out for ya.  That's okay, I think you're cool with the flood look.  The dr. says you're in the 25th percentile for weight, and the 90th percentile for height.  Mommy is slightly jealous of your stats, girlfriend.  Not to mention your smooth, wrinkle-free baby skin.

(I am also slightly jealous of your Aunt Jenny's smooth, wrinkle-free skin)

Your nicknames include:  AG, Miss Grace, Girlface, Little Presh, bug, bambina, stinkle pants (you're so gonna hate me for that one day), little monster (sorry, grandmama), and probably others that I'm too embarrassed to say forgetting.  You love when people sing to you, especially your silly daddy, who likes to sing that old song, Miss Grace.  Which may or may not be slightly inappropriate when you actually listen to the words. 

You are a phenomenal sleeper.  Seriously, thank you for that.  I'll probably buy you a pony one day out of gratitude. Or, maybe just some candy.  You sleep 12 hours at night, and have been for longer than I want to say, since it might make some people hate me. 

Right now, your favorite toys are your Baby Einstein playmat (LIFESAVER, amen and hallelujah), your little pink rattle ball, and your mini-Jackson.  You're much more interested in your bouncy seat now too, and are starting to get bored with your swing.  Unfortunately. 

Here you are with one of your future boyfriends, Reid, smacking him in the head enjoying your playmat.

Don't worry, Jackson's keeping an eye on things.

You have now rolled over a grand total of 4 times.  Twice front to back, and twice back to front.  I'm not exactly sure why you aren't doing it more often, but it may or may not have something to do with mommy not giving you enough tummy time.  Which may or may not be a result of the murderous screams you inflict on me when I do. 

You also love to imitate me blowing spit bubbles, aka "blowing raspberries," aka "the Bronx cheer."  (Courtesy of wikipedia--because everything on wikipedia is true).  It's the cutest thing ever, and we have long conversations that involve just sticking our tongues out at each other.  I'm pretty sure I will end up regretting this one day, but for now, it's adorable.

You eat 5 times a day, and we'll probably start giving you some rice cereal in the next couple of weeks.  We fully plan on recording this to embarrass you for posterity.  And perhaps posting it here.  (You can thank us later for not posting any bathtub pictures.  Oh wait.)

You have made our lives infinitely more complete, and I really, truly cannot remember a time when you weren't my baby girl.  I don't even WANT to remember a time like that.  I am thankful for every moment of every day with you. 

Even the stinky and fussy ones.

I'm Still Alive

Dear Five Friends Who Read This,

I'm still alive.  Work=crazy insanity this week, with lots of pulling my hair out and banging my head against the wall.  Just kidding. Maybe.

Even as I type, John is trying to trick me into being interested in the Olympics.  Which (please don't hate me for saying it), is unlikely.  Because mostly I'm just mad at them for displacing my favorite shows, like The Office and Vampire Diaries.  (Just kidding, they didn't really displace the Vampire Diaries.  Fortunately.)

And now that you know that I'm A) apparently unpatriotic, and B) watching shows that I'm approximately 15 years too old to be watching, I hope that you will still be my friend.

I promise to be a better blogger next week!

Weekend in Pictures, Valentine's Day Edition

V-Day, 2010!  Woo hoo!  Here's our weekend, in pictures--because if I tried to do it in words it would end up taking 5 years...to both read and write.  And I am nothing if not lazy respectful of your time.

Despite the inclement weather (don't you love that phrase? It makes me feel like a weatherman.), we decided to have some friends over to play Rock Band, which Jamey so graciously let us borrow for the weekend.  Can I just say that I either have a totally addictive personality, or Rock Band is just insanely fun, because we played until after midnight.

Don't hate, I know my rockstar pose is awesome. 

Yes, we are parents.  Ally Grace is either going to think we're really cool, or really embarrassing.  And I'm pretty confident that I know which one it'll be.

On Saturday, we went out in the snow to take AG's first snow pictures.

She's my little polar bear.

Girlfriend makes some NICE faces for the camera.

Please excuse my mile-long roots. What's that?  You had no idea I wasn't a natural blonde?
So sweet.

Later that day, John and I went out to celebrate Valentine's day....on the 13th.  Because we're rebels like that.

I'm SUCH a rebel that I dressed in red for the holiday.  'Cause rebels totally dress in holiday colors. All the time. Or not.

Apparently, I also morphed into Martha Stewart for an hour on Saturday, because I MADE a card for John.  I worked all kinds of scrapbooking magic.

Not only did it include construction paper, fabric, AND funky-edged scissor usage, the pieces were held together by a brad.  A brad, people.  Which I thought was just a boy's name, but apparently is so much more.

Finally, on Sunday, John and I received THE MOST FUN VALENTINE'S DAY PRESENT OF ALL TIME.  Well, maybe not of all time, but regardless, it was cool.

We found out earlier in the weekend that we won this Valentine's Day "Breakfast in Bed" gift basket from Haven & Valenza, two fabulous restaurants around the corner from our house.  I am about 97% sure that it's the only thing I've ever won in my life, so it literally could've been filled with straw and I would've been excited.  OH, but it wasn't......

The goodies just kept coming out of this thing.....

I may or may not have gained 10 pounds just by eating all of the Ghiradelli chocolates looking at it.

Why did John make ME hold up the coffee?

Oh, wait.

Happy ten years later Valentine's Day!

Yum

You know what's a really stellar food combination?  A Symphony bar and a strawberry marshmallow.  Hypothetically, I mean.  'Cause I promise I'm not eating that at 9:40 in the morning.  That would be gross, right? Yeah, definitely gross.  Or not.

Here's a list of my favorite things about today so far:
1.  It's almost Friday!
2. My girl was all smiles this morning, and I love, love, love snuggling with her after she wakes up!
3.  The best night of TV--The Office, Parks and Recreation, Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, and ahem, The Vampire Diaries.  Yes, I just admitted that I'm at least as mature as a 15 year old girl.
4.  Leftover chicken tortilla soup (which I made myself, thankyouverymuch), so no cooking tonight!

Okay, gotta go clean sticky marshmallow junk off my keyboard get some work done.  Happy Thursday!

A Few Things.....

First of all, I LOVED the comments about breastfeeding & weight loss.....y'all made me feel like it's okay that I didn't lose all my pregnancy weight 5 minutes after I started nursing.  (Again with the weird word "nursing.")

Secondly, I have this cute video of AG giggling, which I realize, may only be interesting to a few of you.  But since it's interesing to me, and this is MY blog, I'm posting it.  Soon.  As soon as I can figure out how to post a video, that is.

Basically, John was playing with Jackson and his squeaky not at all annoying new toy, and AG just started giggling like a maniac.  A cute, non-creepy, baby maniac.  And we did this for about 15 minutes straight before it occured to us to try and video it with John's iphone.  Fortunately we caught a few more giggles, even though AG tends to be stubborn and generally refuses to perform for the camera.   Diva.

See how she's purposely not smiling?  She's all sassy now that she has the big flower hat.

Finally, I have a truly interesting guest post over on my work blog....which is finally named something better than "Sherri's Real Estate Blog."  Maybe.  It's at least named something DIFFERENT, so that's what counts, right?  Anyway, the post is about interior design on a budget, and since I blog-stalk about a hundred design blogs, I know this is a topic that lots of people want to know more about. 

The post was written by my friend Jessica Duncan, of  Home Studio Interiors.  She's GREAT, and pretty much designed AG's entire nursery, plus a couple of other projects in our house.  If I had a million dollars, I would have her do my house top to bottom.  (Which wouldn't literally cost a million dollars.  But there's this little thing I like to do called "exaggerate" or "be dramatic.")  Maybe one day when I rob a bank, or get famous for blogging about nothing, I will make my house designer-y.  Which may or may not be somewhat unlikely.

Btw, if anyone knows how to help me move into the 21st century post a video from an iphone, I'd love for you to ignore how technologically-impaired I am clue me in.

Question

When I first started nursing AG (is this TMI?  Maybe, but I need some help here), the pregnancy weight was coming off pretty easily.  But now, I'm 4 months in, and we've hit a bit of a wall.  And by "we", I mean "I," since I am fairly positive that I don't possess multiple personailites.  Yet. 

Has anyone else experienced this weight loss wall, or known someone who has?  I would really like to hear that it's normal, since when I google "nursing" and "weight loss,"  I get sent to all these annoying message boards where people say things like:  "OMG, I gained 95lbs when I was pregnant, and within six weeks it was all GONE, and now I weigh 10 pounds less than I did before I got pregnant.....oh, and my baby is only 2 months old."

Really?  I mean, REALLY?  I am clinging to hope that maybe my body is hanging on to a few extra lbs so that I can keep nursing AG.  Or maybe it's just hanging on because I keep eating sugar cookies and golden oreos. 

Encourage me, ladies!  Is it false hope to think that I won't lose those extra 6 (ish) pounds until I'm done nursing?

(Also, I may or may not have said the word "nursing" a few too many times.  My apologies.)

(Which seems like a weird word now that I've said it a few times in a row.  Nursing, nursing, nursing.)

Dilemma

So lately, I've been having a little work dilemma. 

Apparently, work-related blogging is all the rage these days, and so I should be updating my work blog on a regular basis, right?  Well, let's be honest, real-estate is not super cute or fun to write about.  I mean, how do you make mortgage rates, filing for homestead exemption, and tax credits sound exciting?  If my clients wanted to know about, say, raising a baby, while wearing sweatpants, and eating cupcakes (wow, did that make motherhood sound super glam or what?!), then I would be able to write (marginally) entertaining & informative blogs all day long.  Or once a week.  But still.

However.  That doesn't really help my buyers and sellers, nor does it help us pay our billz, (yes, I'm out for that) and put food on the table.  Or more accurately, buy me new clothes and decorate our house. Unfortunate.

I don't even really know why I'm writing about this, except that maybe someone has an idea they can share about either A) how to make real-estate blogging exciting, B) how you make your own work blog entertaining, or C) how I can turn blogging about AG, Twilight, and People magazine into something that gets me some new clients. (Unlikely).

Or D) how maybe I can turn this pointless post about nothing (see, I'm good at that!) into a shameless plug for my real estate blog.  Which should probably be named something a little more creative than Sherri's Real Estate Blog.

Let's go with D.