SURPRISE!

(Once again sorry for the lack for pictures... they will come as soon as I can get them off my moms camera!)
Saturday my sweet husband threw me a surprise 30th birthday party! (To be honest I had an inkling that there was going to be a party) but I had NO idea who was coming. I was shocked! There were probably 50-55 people there!!!! Friends and family from all over came. It was so sweet! Once again I felt so loved. Thank you all. I had such a great time. Thank you all for you love (and for the amazing gifts)!!!!
And thank you Matthew, mom, dad and Joyce for all the time, planing, secret keeping and money that you spent on this wonderful party. You all are so amazing. I am one very lucky lady. Thank you!
xoxox

The Big Three-Zero

Ok, it's official... I'm OLD! :) To be honest this was actually one of the best birthdays I have ever had! The entire day made me smile! It was a Thursday, which means that work closes at 11 (I know, my life is tough). So not only was it nice to have the afternoon free, but work was really great! I spent the morning opening caseous abscesses, pulling of thousands of maggots and removing copious amounts of necrotic flesh from 3 sheep that were attacked by a dog 2 weeks prior. I know to most that job doesn't sound like fun... and ok, maybe fun is the wrong word, but it was gratifying to know that these poor sheep needed me, and I am able to help them live. After that I picked up Mallory at my moms who had Uncle Melt pancakes (my favorite) ready for me!!!!! Thank you mom! When Mallory and I got back to our house it was time for her nap so I put her to sleep and after walking out of her room I got to get into a warm candle lit bubble bath that Matthew had drawn up for me (and a glass of wine). I felt so loved and pampered! Once the little girl woke up we took Sonny for a walk (since it finally wasn't raining)! After the walk, my sweet neighbors showed up at our door and sang me happy birthday and gave me wonderful flowers/art and chocolate! So sweet! Then it was off to my parents house for a birthday dinner of Chinese food and homemade cobbler! Yum! Yum! The dinner was wonderful, my parents, in-laws and Ty and Tom were all there. The gifts were wonderful, but honestly after such a perfect day I didn't even feel like they were needed....(but don't get me wrong I'm not giving them back!) :)
Thank you to everyone who made my 30th birthday so very special!
(Sorry I didn't take any pictures, but others did, I'll post them soon-ish)

Christmas Tree Time

On our way back from our Thanksgiving weekend we stopped by a tree farm and actually picked out and cut down our own tree. I had never done this before and it was really fun! It was cold and rainy but somewhat invigorating tromping all around the hillsides looking at each tree, trying to find our perfect one. Mallory was once again a total trooper. After getting all bundled up and tucked inside her moby wrap, she just hung out cooing and singing Christmas carols the entire time.
It was amazing, Santa was at the tree farm! WOW! What are the odds? :) So Mallory got her first encounter with Jolly Saint Nick.

Dream

OK, so Matthew told me that I didn't need to write about this. That it's awful and people don't need to hear it. But I can't be the only one to have a dream like this, so I wanted to share. Sorry if you find it disturbing... So did I.
The night before last I had this dream:
I felt as though I was laying down, surrounded by water. (You know when you take a bath and you put your head under but not your mouth, nose and eyes... but your ears are under so you can hear your breathing and your heart beating really loud. You can also hear voices talking, but they sound sort of muffled and if you try, you can make out what they say or you can just tune them out if you want?) Well that's what it felt and sounded like. Looking down on me were 6 ladies (I know that one was my mom, one was Janie, and one was one of the gals I work with... I'm not sure who the others were, but I'm pretty sure I felt like I knew them). All the ladies were talking to me and trying to get me to do things/hand me things. But I didn't move... I couldn't move. So I said 'I just feel like I'm paralyzed.' Then all the ladies looked at each other and with a look of sorrow and pity they looked back at me and one said 'that's how your supposed to feel when your baby dies.'
BAM!
The dream was over!
I sat right up in bed! With out even trying to understand what was going on I stumbled out of bed and rushed down the hall towards Mallory's bedroom. I was sick to my stomach! WAS my baby dead? Why would I have such a horrible dream? I need to see my little girl! I didn't even have my barrings about me, my head was spinning, it was dark and I know that I fell against the wall a time or two as I fumbled down the hallway. Without even trying to be quite I opened Mallory's bedroom door and leaned over her crib wondering to myself is she ok? Is she breathing? Is she ALIVE????? I held my breath and leaned my ear close to her sweet little chubby face, straining to hear any signs of life. My knees practically gave out if relief when I felt her sweet exhale against my cheek. My baby is alive and all is right with the world.
I tiptoed back to my bed, climbed under the still warm covers and lay there. My heart still racing and my head still reeling. All I could think about was how incredible the power of a dream is and how amazing it is that someone that has only been in my life for 4 1/2 months has such a tight hold on me. On my heart, my breath, my survival!

Snow Bunny

 

A few days before Thanksgiving it snowed up in Foreesthill, so the Friday after thanksgiving Matthew and I took Mallory Rose a few miles past where we were staying for her first snow trip. There was about 4 feet of fresh snow. I was a beautiful bright 'warm' day. Mallory didn't seem to mind the snow, the cold or the wetness, but she didn't like the brightness! The refection off the snow was so darn bright that she could barely open her eyes. Poor thing had nowhere safe to look. Up. There's the sun. Down. There's the reflection of the sun. So she got fussy pretty quickly... but at least we got a few shots in first.

Holidays

There is nothing like a cold winters day, a warm fire and a naked baby to make it feel like the Holidays! :)
(How come it's so darn cute for a little baby to be naked in front of the fire with family all around and just down right creepy for us adults. At what age does that change?)

Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving weekend was wonderful! We ended up going to Forest hill to hang out with Matthews family. The food was delicious, fattening and in overabundance... pretty sure I am going to be caring around a food-baby for this entire holiday season. :)
It was wonderful to see all of this side of the family. They are a joyful, friendly, playful group and you can always count on a good time when you are with them. Between eating, drinking, playing games, learning about past family history and watching football, the weekend flew by! My one worry was Mallory and her ability to get a good nights sleep around them all. Because if you know the Klein's, you know that there in NOTHING quiet about them.... alot of them are even loud when they sleep! :) But it true Mallory fashion she partied with the best of them, and then slept through the night (and all the laughing, yelling, talking...) without a hitch for 2 nights in a row!!! I apparently had nothing to worry about! She IS a little Klein after all.
Thank you Anuty Joyanna for letting us invade your home! We love you guys!

Mom and My Million Dollar (semi-creepy) Idea

(This blog needs to be read in your best infomercial voice)

Is your bald baby bringing you down?
Can you not seem to dress up that hair-free head?
Are you tired of people mistaking your little girl for a little boy?
Then we have the answer for you...

 

Instant Infant Hair!



Instantly turn your baby from ho-hum to shabby-sheek in seconds!
No more mistaken gender!
Now every cute baby outfit can have a matching adorable hair-do!
Your baby will be the talk of the town!
The bell of the ball!
Other babies will want to be your baby!
Just 3 easy payments of 9.99 plus shipping and handling.
But if you act now, you receive a second Instant Infant Hair (you pick the color and style) absolutely free!


What do you think? do we have a million dollar idea or what?

Oy Vey

Busy, busy, busy! Sorry for the lack of posts, but work and life are full and I don't have a lot of extra time... I'll try and write more later. But for now enjoy a supper cute picture of Mallory in her Tigger door boucer thing.

Me

One of the biggest things that I am struggling with at the moment is learning how to juggle being a mom, a wife, a vet, a daughter, a friend.... while at the same time remembering how to just be ME. Does that make sense? I have always been a gal who enjoyed time on my own. I could spend hours reading, going to the gym, out hiking, doing arts and crafts.... all the while not having to even talk to anyone! Even when Matthew and I were dating, there were times that he would want to hang out, and I would just want to be by myself. So it's really strange now to feel like I have to be here/there for this tiny little person that we created. Not that I am complaining about it, I LOVE motherhood... I just miss me a little. Geez, that sounds so selfish. It's funny because when I think about it, it would seem like I would get my me time by being at work... no baby, no Matthew, no house work..., but here I am always dealing with other peoples problems, emotional breakdowns, emergency's and deaths that there isn't even time for me to even just enjoy breathing. This is all normal, right?

All Too Quickly...

The other day my little family was hanging out with Brie and her kids at the park by our house. It was so lovely! Bries daughter is 2, and just about the cutest little thing.... but she IS defiantly 2! And according to Brie has started to assert her 2 year old self. Brie does a really great job letting Addison be 2, yet at the same time reminding her that she's the mom and the one in charge. It's really fun now to watch parents be parents. I find myself constantly watching, in aw, silently taking notes of all the things that I will someday need to be doing. That was the thought that made it all so real...despite the fact that Mallory was sleeping so quietly and peaceful in the stroller it was easy to imagine that someday (in the pretty near future) she and I are going to be going through the same sort of struggle... (and if she takes after either of her parents she is going to have a stubborn streak that runs deep). She one day will have a voice. She one day will have an opinion. And she one day be able to TELL me just how she feels and just what she thinks. Wow! That's a frightening thought. I'm not ready for that to happen yet! I feel as though I wish I could stop time, like I need to relish THIS period in her life, because I now realize just how quickly she seems to be growing up! All too quickly there will come a time when she doesn't want to snuggle on my lap, or let me dress her up or pose for cute mommy/daughter pictures. Sigh!

 

Growing Girl

At her Dr. appointment on Thursday we got the stats on little miss Mallory. She weighed 15 pounds 2 ounces and was in the 85%. She finally getting to be the tall girl that I'm sure she'll be, because her height was 25 inches and has jumped up to the 82% (from the 45% back 2 months ago). She still has a little peanut head, even though it did grow a little, she is now in the 27% (she had been only in the 18% before). Not that any of these stats really matter, it's just fun to watch her grow and change.

Ahhhh Perfection!

I know that every mom has 'Mommy Glasses' but I am pretty sure that we have been blessed with one of the worlds best babies! She is such a happy little camper, always smiling and talking about her day in cute coos and hilarious high pitch screeches, all the while smiling and looking around to see who is paying attention! And have I mentioned that no matter how much/long she sleeps during the day, she never seems to have a problem sleeping at night... and more then half the time she sleeps through the night! Yesterday she had her 4 month Dr. appointment and she was such a good girl, she didn't even cry for her shots! Honest! The first one she ignored completely because she was too busy smiling at me, and for the second one she scrunched up her face and grunted, then was over that one too! I'm telling you, (for now) she's just about perfect!

The Great Food Adventure

From the moment that Mallory was born I have been excited about feeding her, whether it was breast milk, pumped milk or dipping her pacifier into the random liquids I was drinking. Now that she is 4 months old we get to start introducing solid foods. And by solid foods, I mean mushed up paste-like food with breast milk added to make it more like liquid. (How is that solid food????) :) ANY WAY. I LOVE the faces that babies make when they are eating foods that they love/hate or have just tried for the first time... I just think it's so cute (I know what you are thinking, 'cute until I get it spat all over my face). True. In my perfect little world I am doing to make and freeze as much of Mallory's food as possible (for now). Not only is it more healthy, but it's way cheaper! So after talking with people and doing a boat-load of reading about how to make home made baby food, I have learned that Avocado is one of the best first foods... who knew?!?! And its way easy to prepare! So the other night we started the great solid food adventure! Mallory LOVED the avocado and would get mad if it didn't go into her mouth fast enough. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, she is a Klein after all. I was a little disappointed though because she never once made the funny faces that I was looking forward to. Oh well, maybe she'll do with the next food we try.
What a big girl she's becoming!

Sonoma County Beauty

These are a few of the beautiful sunrises that I am blessed enough to see each morning as I take Mallory to my moms!

 

 

 

 

Happy Halloween!!!

Little Mallory went as a Monkey for her first Halloween.... yes she has a flower in her hair (because people thought that she was a boy without it in). :) I do have to say that she is just about the cutest little monkey ever! So it only made sense that I would dress up like a Monkey Farmer... right? (Hey, it was the best I could do with what was in my closet).
We had a really fun Halloween. Mallory was dressed up all day (which I loved, and she didn't really care about. As long as she could get her fists in her mouth she was happy). We had to do a little running around in the afternoon, so we got to take our little monkey around with us! While we were out we found a pumpkin patch! Ok, Ok, Ok, you caught me! I was a horrible mom and didn't REALLY take her to a REAL pumpkin patch! It was the piled up pumpkins in front of Lucky's! Sigh! (Head hung low in shame). We were just sooooo busy that we never made it there (since I'm confessing things, I hate to say it, but we didn't even carve a pumpkin). Not that she noticed. While in Lucky's, Mallory did her first round of Trick-or-Treating! And would you look at that, she just so happened to grab her mommas favorite! What a nice baby! :)


That evening almost all of her grandparents came by the house to see her little Monkey-self go around our little court and Trick-or-treat. It was pretty cute. Everyone loved her! (shocker). After her big day she sat on the couch with us, watched the Giants game and passed out candy. What a day!

I Was Runnin (said in a Forest Gump voice)

I did it! On Saturday Carrie (my cousin) and I ran a 1/2 marathon! That's right 13.1 miles baby! I know, most of you are saying, 'hey, I didn't even know you were training for a 1/2 marathon.' To be honest I didn't really know I was either, until about 4 weeks ago. That's when Carrie came up to me and said, "your back to running again, right?" I told her I was (though I was only running 3-4 miles at that point), so she asked if I wanted to run in a 1/2 marathon. I have ALWAYS wanted to, but never had anyone to do it with, so I excitedly said "yes"! That's when I found out that that the race was only 4 weeks away!!!! Yikes! My life is so busy/crazy/hectic that I knew I wasn't going to have the time to properly train, so I wasn't really sure if I could even really do it. So I guess I didn't tell everyone because the competitive side of me didn't want to fail! But I did it! WE did it! I am soooooo proud of us! It was lots and lots of fun! Sweaty, hot, cold, aching, blister-filled fun!!!! Thank you Carrie for being the motivating factor behind getting me to run! The race was in beautiful Healdsburg, where we got to enjoy the most beautiful scenery as we ran alongside vineyards AND it didn't rain! What a blessing!


We started at 7:30am and we finished in 2 hours and 17 minutes! We finished about 1/3 in the pack of runners (there were a little over 2000 people). We ran about a 10 minute mile and didn't ever even stop! We are going to do another on in January! I'm supper excited about it! Finishing was such a high! It made me feel so good! My body was a little sore/stiff that night, but well worth it and I feel GREAT! It love feeling like this, like even though I just had a baby 3 1/2 months ago my body and mind can still do these really active/dificult things! I told Carrie that maybe after baby #2 we should do a full marathon! (But I think I'll have to actually train for that one)! :)




Post race we HAD to do a little wine tasting... I mean those are the perks of living in Sonoma County, right?

Go Giants

Last night Matthew, Mallory and I went over to my folks to watch the Giants game and eat some pizza (cheese less of course). :) Mallory really enjoyed watching the game, until she got distracted by her little doll. She actually watched the game up until the end of the 8th inning... then she got bored once all the walks happened and fell fast asleep! Go Giants !

I Give Up!

Ok. that's it. I give up! Theres no use fighting it any more! I tried and tried and now I'm exhausted... theres no way around it... the color pink is here to stay! Sigh! Prior to Mallory being born, I swore up and down that if our little one was a girl there would be NO pink! Lord knows I tried to stick to my word, but then pink colored gifts were given, pink hand-me-down outfits were loaned, and to be perfectly honest, we were blessed with a little girl with olive skin who happens to look stunning in pink. Sigh! So that's it, I'm done fighting a this losing battle! I'm reforming my thoughts, so now instead of 'NO pink', I will be thinking, 'I don't like pink on me, but my baby daughter is really cute in ever color... pink included.' SIGH!

Keep on Rollin'

This post is dedicated to Carrie who LOVES to hear about babies rolling over (yes that is sarcasm dripping from my voice)…
Little Miss Mallory is SUCH a tease! For the past week Matthew and I have waited with baited breath as Mallory pushes/kicks/arches to try and roll herself over! Its been really cute to watch. The video camera and regular camera have been sitting out on the coffee table for the blessed event. I think that there are currently 4 recording of her ‘almost’ rolling over. Last night she was really rockin’ and rollin’ from side to side (mainly to the right) while on her gym. Matthew, Sonny, Krush and I were all perched around her, laughing as she would ALMOST roll over, then darn gravity would take over and she would tumble back onto her back. She was getting so frustrated and fussy we thought that maybe she was just getting hungry… it was almost bed time after all. So we turned off the video camera and walked into the kitchen. I sear, we were in there for MAYBE 5 seconds, when we walked back to her she had turned over!!!! What a tease!!! She seems to have a 3 step process…
1) She tucks her legs up
2) Rolls to the (right) side
a. Gets stuck on her shoulder… or
3) Rolls all the way over!!!
What a big girl, she is growing up way too fast! She’s going to be running around in no time! Sigh!