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.

The Great Excape!

So lately I have been finding (and plucking out) more and more grey hairs. I don't feel more stressed or anything, but I think that events like last nights are adding to the silver coloring.
After little Miss Mallory’s bath, Matthew and I took her into her bedroom to get dressed for bed. After she enjoyed a little 'free' time (nakedness) Matthew was going to get her into her P.J.s and I walked down to the kitchen to stir dinner... that's when I heard the baby start to cry and Matthew yell out "Jessica? Can you come help me.... PLEASE?!?!?" The please at the end of the sentence kind of made me think that it wasn't a big deal... like maybe he needed help putting on her diaper (since she is wiggles all over now), but then Mallory let out a high-pitched, blood curtailing cry. I raced down to her room to find Mallory, red-faced on all fours on her dressing table with one thigh caught in the gap that the top of the table and decorative bar create! Poor Matthew was trying to support her from sinking deeper into the gap, while simultaneously attempting to rip the thick wood rod out!
This is what makes Matthew and I such a great pair....In these situations I get uber calm and Matthew seems to turn into Superman, ready to tear things apart, or run and get anything I ask for!
I gently tried to tug her leg out... but her thick little ham-hock was not going to budge and her screaming just intensified! My next thought was lubrication! So I told him to get some soap. Matthew took off like lightning, but in mid-sprint I changed my mind and asked for the lotion (which was sitting next to us on the changing table). He grabbed the lotion, opened it and attempted to cover her leg in Bert-Bees baby lotion.... but none would come out! He shook it down. Still none would come out!!! So he took the bottle and flung it downward, spraying the mirror, crib, and carpet with a thick layer of lotion! He then poured it all over her leg while I attempted to rub it between the changing table and her thick thighs. Then with just a little tug, POP! Just like that she was free. Her leg was as red as her little face but she immediately snuggled into my neck and almost just as quickly stopped crying.
So that was our fun family adventure for the night. Thankfully it didn't have to come down to breaking the changing table apart... which I know Matthew would have and could have done in a second if I would have just asked. :)

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Yesterday Daddy turned 61! We had a nice evening at my folks house with 'Beenas famous, really yummy meatballs' and rich chocolate cake. Mmmmmmmmm. I got my booty kicked at cribbage (but I 'let' dad win since it was his birthday)! :) Riiiiiight.
It's crazy to think that just last year we were in Hawaii for dads 60th. Yeah, I think that THAT was the way to spend a birthday!

Standing Tall

Ok, that's it! I'm about to resort to strapping this little lady down so that she stops all this growing up! This weekend as Matthew and I were cleaning, Mallory was playing in the living room and she decided that she should help us by clearing off the coffee table. She she grabbed the side of the table and pulled herself right on up! That's right our little lady is pulling herself up on her own!!!! What the heck! She can sit up on her own, feed herself, crawl AND stand! What's next? Driving? Collage? Marriage?
People told me 'it' goes fast and to cherish every moment because each stage goes sooooo quickly.... they weren't kidding! I mean wasn't it just last week that I was having to finger-feed her? Wasn't I just pregnant? I feel like I need to freeze time, so that I can truly soak in this stage before it too is gone.
Ok so I might be over reacting just a little.
But sometimes I look at her and she looks all grown up... I'm not ready for that yet. (I know, I know, I'll have to read this post in 16 years when she's driving me crazy and I'm ready to strangle her/kick her out) :)

Family of Floor

Yes, that's right, I said Floor, NOT Four (no, I'm not trying to give some hint about expanding our family). But seriously, this picture is a really common image in my house. Prior to meeting Matthew I had never know ANYONE who spend as much time on the floor as he. Seriously, this boy sits on the floor to watch TV, would lay on the floor to do homework, can sleep on the floor if all the beds are taken and prior to Mallory he and the animals would daily lay on the floor and snuggle. Now he's got Mallory thinking it's supper cool to just hang out on the floor (carpet, tile, wood... it makes no difference to them). It's pretty cute though. And the animals really seem to enjoy it too! :)

Growing Up

This weekend our little munchkin grew up (a little). She is now mobile. She's not fast at crawling yet, but she is moving! It's pretty cute to watch her eyeball something that she wants then get herself onto all fours and slowly rock herself back and forth until she gets up enough momentum/courage to move her hands forward and drag/scoot her legs forward. She's still in the process of working the physics of crawling out, but she's getting there!
Not only did she become mobile, but she also has become a self-feeder. She has these cute little veggie-puff things (about the size/shape of cheerios) that she loves to eat but could never figure out how to get them in her mouth, so I would do it for her. Sunday night I was sitting on the floor with her and a handful of the veggie-puffs having a great time watching her reach down and attempt to scoop one up to eat it (it reminded me of "the claw" at the arcades.... you know the one where you have a giant bucket-like claw and you’re trying to get a toy.... and it's like how could you miss? right? there are so many toys and the claw is so big! But still, somehow, just about every stinkin' time, you miss!!!) Any way. It was just like that. Poor girl was getting frustrated and all her momma was doing was laughing. Then, all of a sudden it was as if a light switch got flipped and she looked at her thumb and pointer finger, and started to pinch them open and closed. Open and closed. She then saw her veggie-puff target, reached down pinched it in her little fingers and brought it right to her mouth! WooHoo! She was soooo happy! (But then again the girl was eating, so of corse she was happy). She preformed that same trick a few more times and was getting really excited, when she realized that if one is good, a handful MUST be better! So she grabbed a bunch of them and attempted to shove them all in her mouth. That didn't work nearly as well as the finger grabbing trick. Because now she was left with a handful of wet, sticky puffs that she couldn't get off her hand and into her mouth. She started to scream at those darn puffs and shake her hand to get them off. That didn’t really seem to help either… so finally I gave in and lent a hand. I placed the sticky puffs on the floor in front of her and told her that she had to pick them up one at a time. She looked at me, cocked her head to the side as if listening, then just to spite me(I’m sure) and prove that she could do it however she wanted, she looked back at the puffs on the floor, opened her mouth and just leaned over, put her face to the floor and ate a big mouthful! I was dying! It was so funny! I guess there’s more than one way to skin a cat, and she just had to prove it! She’s my daughter, that’s for sure!

Double Diaper Duty

The past few mornings Mallory has woken up and has soaked through her diaper (which now weighed like 10 pounds), onsie, jammies, blankets, and crib sheet. At first I thought that maybe the current diaper was just too small for THAT volume of pee, so I went and got her the next size diaper so that she could wear that one at night... Nope, that didn't work either. She soaked right on through that one too. (at least we know her kidneys are working well). So now I have started to double up the diaper... one normal sized one followed by a larger on over it. So far it's worked 50% of the time... any other tricks of the night time pee trade?

Too Cute

My little love bug!




Who knew wrist rolls could ever look so good! :)

Don't Choke!!!!

Last night I had my first (of many to come I'm sure) mommy freak out moment! Mallory was sitting in her highchair enjoying a dissolvable baby teething cookie while Matthew and I were right next to her in the kitchen getting dinner ready. We were both happily prepping dinner, each of us glancing up at our little girl as she mutilated the poor cookie. Sonny was laying at the base of her chair waiting for any little crumb that she might drop. I had my back turned to her as I was making the pasta sauce when I heard this quiet choking sound. I quickly turned around and there was my little baby staring at me, wide eyed and blue lips!!!!! I was at her highchair in 3 steps. My first thought was get her out of there! so I pulled her up... forgetting that I had buckled her in for safe keeping... so needless to say that didn't do anything. By this time Matthew was right behind me, and Sonny was trying to move out of the way of falling highchair parts as I tor the tray off.
Now I know there is debate about the proper way to clear the airway... finger sweep vs Heimlich... but all I could think about was getting that cookie out of her throat. So I went with the finger sweep (since she was still sitting and locked into her highchair). My index finger swept from left to right and hooked the very mushy cookie. It came out intact!!! Mallory lips went back to rosie pink and she looked at me, grunted her thanks and opened her mouth for more cookie.
I stood there shaking my head at her. Man even in the face of death all she can think about is eating (what a Klein)! :)
Over diner Matthew had asked me what I was going to do if the finger sweep hadn't worked. So I told him that while I was doing Running over to her I was already thinking about my steps/choices... finger sweep then Heimlich then 911 then a tracheotomy.
Oy vey!