8 months

Eeeeeesh. Little Ellie turned 8 months old yesterday. And BK and I definitely feel like the parents of an 8-month old: struggling to interpret her new nighttime crying; struggling to keep her from leaping out of our arms toward the neat-o, super interesting pot of boiling water on the stove; struggling with the guilt of not spending every single moment with her. Maybe that last one is just me, dealing with being a working mom.

The last few weeks have been cray-zee. A few days after my dad and sister visited, we welcomed BK's folks for a nice, long weekend, sharing them with Marnie's family. We all went to breakfast at a popular place on the East side of Madison one morning, and lo and behold I recognize a fellow customer. Except I can't place her. After the awkward moment when she catches me staring at her, I open my mouth and bluntly ask how I know her. Her answer seems to happen in slow motion: Kate (and my mind races, thinking I know her through my good friend Kate) Sample (OMG! It's DR KATE SAMPLE!!!). Dr Kate Sample is the ob/gyn who delivered A) the exciting news that our baby was going to be born and B) baby Ellie! It was really fun that she got to see Ellie. Dr Kate Sample was there with her family, including her young son, who serenaded us and the rest of the patrons for the rest of the meal from his perch on the second floor. Now I wish I had reminded her of a couple moments from the birth, that maybe she would actually remember us. Because of course our birth story is unforgettable. Well, I did tell her that she was in our blog, so maybe she'll google herself and have the unmatchable thrill of finding her name on some weirdo's website. At least we have only good things to say.

Back to our crazy month. We traded one batch of Minnesotans for another and had a great weekend with BK's brothers. They came down for the cinematic debut of our friend Tommy's movie, Darkness. Even sister Marnie got into it, and followed up the movie with some gently worded questions about how in the world I can stand BK's sportbike riding, as well as some technical questions which I could only half (or less) answer about things like hanging off the bike, sparkies and darkies.

We had some great babysitters chipping in to allow us to attend the movie and then the after party. I had a fantastic time at the party. It felt superb, even kind of elating, to spend those hours with friends, laughing at their jokes, having them laugh at my jokes. The 5 hours of sleep I managed after falling into bed around 1 am were well worth an evening with friends.

Well, now that I've blogged to my heart's content, it's time for new pics of our cutie.

Man. It only takes a glimpse of this beautiful little person to make the
aforementioned nighttime struggles just ... poof ...

Time Changes

So, we're dealing with the time change again. Little E. took it pretty hard last night when she had to go to sleep while it was still light. Tonight BK hung a dark blanket over the window and she settled down much more quickly this evening. A trip to Linens-N-Things is in order, A) for a dark curtain for her room, B) because I have a 25% off coupon. Yessssss.

The other thing this time change does is make me kind of hyper. It's still light out when it should be dark, and my body basically goes a little berserk. I got E. down to sleep and in quick fashion I washed all the dishes and bottles, moved on to wiping down the inside of the fridge and finished with wiping the fronts of all the cabinets. I can see, right now, that it's 9:01. I really should be moseying towards the general idea of bedtime, but I...just...can't. I know I'll regret staying up, but what's a girl to do? I know: strip the guest bed wash the sheets put away the dishes have a snack send digital photos to walgreens to get printed post in the blog and then maaaaaaybe think about brushing my teeth. After I have another cookie.

We had visitors this weekend! Grandpa Lindy (Baby E. gets her middle name from her Grandpa, my dad) and Auntie Mary (my sister) spent three nights with us. It was filled with adventure, as Grandpa's car broke down on 94 in Minneapolis, just a few miles from Mary's house. They were two hours late leaving and made it here sometime after midnight. Saturday was lots of fun, and then early Sunday morning Mary got sick. We're not sure if it was something she ate, or some yucky stomach bug, but they wound up staying until Monday morning. Mary hunkered down in the guest room, cozied up and suffering. E. and I had lots more fun with Grandpa while Mary dealt with her tummy demons. So far the three of us don't have any symptoms, and hopefully it will stay that way because BK's parents are headed down in two days for a nice long weekend visit.

Here's a couple pics to illustrate how this weekend went.

First, here's Mary helping E. bounce on our bed. It's an action shot!

Then, the other end of the spectrum. It's self-explanatory, except for the paper bag. No, she's not using it to act out "bum on bench in park." She just likes bags.

spammy in our blog

We have been the victim of spam. Someone left a comment for the previous post which is spammy mcspamalot spamerstein. "Kazahn." Spambomb. Don't click on it. I did. BK gave me a lecture.

I'm posting this public service announcement because I can't figure out how to delete that spamalicious comment.

BTW, it's raining here. In Wisconsin. On March 2. On top of all our snow and icy chunks which we call streets. Lightning, too. Brrrrzap.

And just because no one should miss out:

7 months

So, our little Ellie celebrated her 7 month birthday last weekend! Here is a pic that I took on her actual birthday. (I need to brag about that accomplishment, as I'm rarely so on-the-ball.) Of course, I still failed to post the photos on her actual birthday, but let's accentuate the positive here.


She has started really rolling around, which is a lot of fun to watch, but is an obvious distraction when she should be napping. "Object permanence" is developing, particularly when she drops something from her chair or exersaucer onto the floor; now instead of immediately moving on to another toy, she peers over the edge, trying to spot the dropped object. As of now, she does not scream to have it returned.

As I was sitting down to download the pictures from the camera, I remembered how I used to freak myself out using the laptop while I was pregnant. I would balance the computer on my big tummy and I worried that I was transferring some sort of weird electronic wave into the growing baby. To a lesser degree I also worried about carrying my cellphone in the pocket of my hoodie sweatshirt, right on my tum.

Anyway. Thanks to Marnie for turning me on to The Pioneer Woman. Marnie recommended The Pioneer Woman Cooks, which in turn led me to Confessions of a Pioneer Woman. I am one of the people who is, for better or worse, hooked on this woman's periodic recollection of meeting and marrying a cowboy.

This leads me to my own cowboy, who is actually in no way, shape, or form a cowboy. We've had a rough couple of weeks with all of us being sick, dealing with the winter blahs and blues, feeling our own ruts at work, and generally not having much energy left over for ourselves every day. I think I'm not too far off base when I say that we both feel somewhat under-appreciated by each other lately. With that said, here's a short (not at all exhaustive!) list of why I love BK: He does all the shoveling, whenever it needs to be done. This includes nearly every square inch of our driveway, which is pretty extensive as compared to other suburban driveways due to it wrapping around the garage into the back yard, where it meets up with the shop. Shoveling also happens on the deck, and most recently on the roof. Here is proof.
As you can see in the following photos, first he slogs through the knee-high snow on the deck to clear a portion of the roof. Next, he starts to shovel himself out. Then, he works on clearing the deck. This is the form of manly which my man takes on. Suits me just fine!






Other reasons I love BK: He's been working tirelessly to fix up an old snowblower given to us (sweet success just last night!). He stays relatively calm, most of the time. He's supportive of me and Ellie jetting to Miami to see Al, Mitch and new baby Azalea. He vacuums. He vacuums the rugs in 'my' bathroom. He works a second job at night, but always takes a break to watch LOST with me. He looks hot when he throws sparkies and lays darkies (you may not know what that means, but BK does, and I better get a nice little neck nuzzle for having it on the list!). He's getting more and more into feeding Ellie, now that mama is not her sole source of nourishment. He's a good daddy. I love you, BK!