Music Time

I don't know about you guys, but Mallory sure gets more creative when shes naked! :) Pretty sure she may be the next Mozart!!!! (Do you think Mozart played naked?)

Newness

I'm still amazed at how having a child changes... well, everything! Not only in my daily routine, but how I think about things. For instance, I now have no qualms about singing in public. And Lord knows that I don't have some magical voice that people are paying to hear. But Now I'll make up silly little songs about how to pick out the perfect vegetables while grocery shopping or how to figure out what size clothes/diapers she fits in. Mallory loves when I sing and will coo along with me (which makes the strange stares from strangers worth it).
Another thing that I have noticed is that I can now hardly even stomach watching TV shows or the news if it's about kidnapping/death/abuse...of a child. My heart just starts to ache and I get sick to my stomach! It's like I now have some cosmic connection to all other mothers and all of their kids. I just hurt for them when I see/hear about it.
Prior to Mallory when love songs would come on the radio I would always assume that they are all sung to lovers.... now I feel like all love songs are actually sung to babies/children. (Sorry Matthew)
Being a mom has just filled me a newness. It's truly amazing!!!

LIttle Miss

Well Miss Mallory Rose, it's taken 8 months but your daddy has FINALLY come up with a nick-name for you. You've got to understand, Matthew probably has 10 different nick-names for me (anything from Sunshine, to Miss Thang [said with a twang]).... but he didn't know what to call our little girl. He tried calling her some of the names I call her, but they never seemed to flow easily from his lips. He needed to take his time (as he always does) and find the perfect name to fit his little lady. And I do have to admit, it is perfect. "Little Miss" is what he now calls you. The nick-name has perfectly captured your fun yet sassy and independent nature. He loves you so much Mallory Rose. It makes my heart ache with joy to watch him play and snuggle with you. You are one lucky little lady!

Leggings

If any of you have been inside my parents house in the past few months you will know that (unless you are my mom or Matthew) you might get frostbite if you stay in the house for longer then 3 minutes. :) Ok, I know that I'm probably exaggerating (just a smidgen) but it IS really Darn cold! Since my mom has graciously been watching little miss Mallory Rose (in their igloo of a house) mom made her these super cute leg warmer! I know, I know, I do happen to have the most talented mother ever! Try not to be too jealous (yes of both my mom and the leg warmers)! :)


Mallory is at the point were getting her to hold still and cooperate for a fashion photo shoot is just about impossible. Here are just a fraction of the shots that I had to take before I got a few that showed off her cute leggings and cute self. All the otehrs were just a blur of onsie, head, pink or granbbing hands! Silly baby.

Teeth

Guess who's getting BOTH her top front teeth at the SAME time? I know it's a though riddle, so here's a hint... It's not me, Matthew, Sonny or Krush. :)

Hack, Hack!

Man, you know that part of being a parent where you gladly share any/everything with your kids.... we'll apparently it goes both ways. Because that flu/cold sickness that Mallory had in Yosemite she has graciously shared it with me! Ahhhhhh how sweet of her. I have now missed 2 days of work, I have a fever, an old-lady sounding scratchy voice, a hacking cough and my nose and ears are all clogged up! What a sweet little sharer I have! :) The bummer is that now Matthew is feeling sick too! I think that maybe the city should cover our house with one of those plastic termite covers so that our germs don’t take over the entire city.

Ribbon Flower

I have been doing more arts and crafts lately and have been having fun with felt and ribbons. I forgot to take a picture of the felt flowers, but here is one of the ribbon flowers... I LOVE it! It looks pretty and it's super easy to make.

Yosemite Weekend

We just got back from Yosemite yesterday (once again I had a continuing education class there for 3 days). It was beautiful (as always)... but this time it was a very different experience... now we have a baby! No more scaling up mountains or hiking at break-neck speeds. Now all trails we went on were stroller friendly (even though the one going to Mirror lake was REALLY icy).
We had a really nice time. It wasn't as snowy as last year... just slushy/icy all over. Mallory had a good time. She helped build her first snowman, then popped his head off. Way to go! Saturday she came down with a 101.2 fever and sounded like she had a 'smokers' cough. poor thing, but was happy through it all, just more needy. Matthew watched her in the mornings while I went off to my 4 hour long class, then the 3 of us would hang out for the rest of the day, hiking, napping, watching movies, and driving around the park.


Here's half dome (which is closed for the winter) with a layer of fog on it.


Here's half dome on a clear day.

And here it is being dwarfed by our giant baby!
We had a great time, but are happy to be home, away from the snow and sleeping in OUR wonderful bed!

A Break Please!

Ok, so seriously, what the heck?! As soon as I talked about how crazy life/work was it got even more nuts! In the past 2 days I have seemed to be living in the operating room! I have had to do facial/nasal reconstruction on a dog that got his face bit OFF my a pit bull, a dog who's tail BONES were sticking out through its tail, a dog who had a testicle stuck up by his kidney, a mass on the throat of a dog that was intertwined with the jugular vein and a dog with a mass Incorporated in it's hip/thigh muscles. All of them are doing really really well though! And are now happy and healthy! But man oh man, A break in the life threatening surgeries would be nice! :)

Sorry

I'm sure you all have been so very sad that I haven't posted in a while. Sorry! Life has been busy here at work (which is where I do 99% of the posting). Lots of cool cases, surgeries, clients... like yesterday, I got to fix a 4 days old lamb who was born without a bum-hole. Yep, that's right. A cute little lamb couldn't poo, let alone fart for 4 days! Can you imagine???? Ouch! But don't worry, I fixed him! That reminds me, I should call and check on him.
The other reason that I haven't posted in a while is because my camera is broken. It was dropped last week (no, not by me) and is now at Nikon getting fixed. And I guess I'm just not as motivated to post without fun picture to talk about.
I'll try to be better, but until the camera is back I'm not promising anything. :)

Mom-Mom

For a while now Mallory had been 'talking'. She would babble things that sounded very close to 'hi' and 'mom' and we would all look at each other and think did she just say hi? or did she just say mom? I think it was just luck that those sounds went together more then she was actually actively saying them.
But this past Sunday there was no mistaking it.... she it talking! For days now I've been trying to figure out how to upload the audio I took of her talking from my phone... but to no avail. So you guys are going to have to try and say this like Mallory so that you can feel like you are hearing her talk. Yes you actually have to say it out loud to get the full effect. Mallory's voice it kind of husky.... think young/female Cookie Monster (that's right, my daughter sounds like Cookie Monster, and I think it's darn cute).
On Sunday Mallory was crawling around (when she crawls she looks like the offspring of a dinosaur and a military tank) and she started saying (ready... get your voice all geared up)... "mum, mum, mom, mom, momma, mom-mom, mom-mom". That's right her first word was mom! :) So cute! Not that she is really calling me mom... she seems to say it whenever she is excited! If she sees me its, 'mom-mom'. if she seems Matthew, its 'mom-mom'. As shes crawling to grab Sonny's tail, it's 'mom-mom'! Its very cute. Especially when I go and get her up from bed and she snuggles into my neck and says it! It's like someone poured warm honey over my heart.
Today she has started to mix it up though and along with 'mom-mom' she is saying BaaBaa.
Pretty sure that this little lady is going to be quite a talker (I probably wont think it's so cute when I cant get her to be quite)!

Daddy's Cradle

When Russell and Matthew were little babies Robert made them a cradle.... designed, stained, painted and built the entire thing. So Robert put it together so that we could take a picture of Mallory in her Daddy's cradle. Unfortunately she is such a little wiggle worm that there is no way she would stay in it for any longer then a moment without trying to crawl/climb or roll out. But we got a few pictures of her in it and that's what we were going for, so that's good.