Weekend Pics

This weekend was Butler's Homecoming, so we took the opportunity to visit with out of town friends and show off Parker. Saturday morning was also the Spirit Run at Alicia's school so we had a big day. My pictures loaded in a funny order and I don't feel like fixing them, so the order is not chronological.

Friday Fill-In and Funny Pic

She was totally hamming it up for the camera!

1. Right now, I'm feeling tired and fat.
2. With my family is where I want to be.
3. How does one get some willpower?
4. Pretty much nothing keeps me on track. I'm very distractable.
5. Please don't make going back to work as hard as it feels like it is going to be.
6. Parker, family, friends, time with Alicia, fall leaves, the first snow, buying gifts and, recently, a clean kitchen fill me with joy.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to spending time with out of town friends, tomorrow my plans include showing off Parker at the Spirit Run and Homecoming and Sunday, I want to spend time with my family!

Wordless Wednesday

Behind

I have begun typing this post too many times.  Then, by the time I get back to it, the information is outdated or no longer makes sense because so much time has past.  So, here is the condensed version.  In the past couple of weeks we have: 

Visited with my mom who drove down from Michigan

Driven to Angola to visit my grandparents

Gone to the doctor - 11 lbs 4 oz, 23 and 3/4 inches long (97th percentile for weight, off the charts for height) - Seriously P, you are 5 weeks old - did you not get the memo?

Picked pumpkins (Parker slept through this!)

Gone on our first overnight to visit Alicia's parents in Northern Indiana

Took Parker's first trip to Kohl's (I put this in here only because Alicia's mom is obsessed with Kohl's and made such a giant deal out of this - Parker, shockingly, slept through the whole thing!)

Hopefully, in the next few days I can type an actual post.  In the meantime, here are some pictures from our adventures.

Ridiculously cute photo

We are currently at Alicia's parent's house and their internet is particularly slow so I can't (or rather, don't want to wait around to) upload the rest of the cute pics I have, but I wanted to get one of my new favorites up!  I will write an actual post with the rest of the pics when we get home.  

A Post from Parker

My Weekend
By: Parker Alyse

This weekend was so much fun! My Aunt Kimber, Uncle Steven and Aunt Stacy came to visit me. I had never met Aunt Kimber and Uncle Steven; I thought they were pretty cool. They fed me and held me and played with me. We even watched football and had a party for my 1 month birthday! I had a very good time.

Here's how it all went down

Aunt Stacy came around dinner time on Friday. We had dinner at Steak-n-Shake and then went to the grocery store. When we got home, I was soooo tired. So, I took a nap on Aunt Stacy.














Saturday, Uncle Stuart and Aunt Lauren joined the party. My moms made cupcakes in my honor. Here I am pondering what I'm going to do with a cupcake. Really, Moms!














After the cupcake fiasco, I spent some time chillin' with Uncle Steven on the couch. He was watching football. I was more interested in watching him!














Finally, on Sunday it was time for the Bears game. My Mom was so excited to have me wear the Bears outfit. Too bad we couldn't watch the game because the Colts played at the same time. I had tons of fun anyway. I can't wait for everyone to come back again!

Friday Fill-Ins

1. One of the best concerts/plays/movies I ever saw that I really didn't think I'd like was The Vagina Monologues. Now my memory of this is a little vague - so I'm not sure if it was the "real" one or not, but it was definitely a bunch of women standing in front of an audience talking about their hoo-has. I thought it would be all depressing, but it was pretty funny as well.


2.Caesar salad is a recipe I recently made (or a meal I recently ordered) that was delicious. I did order this today at Panera (thanks Gwyn and David), but I have also made it at home and it was delicious there as well. I am currently addicted to Caesar salad!!!!


3. It's time for my brother and sister-in-law (and maybe my sister) to come visit. Steven and Kimber haven't met Parker yet and so they are visiting this weekend. I love introducing Parker to her family.


4. A nearly full night's sleep is quite refreshing. Wednesday night Parker only woke up once and Alicia took care of it! I had to get up to pump, but I basically got to sleep through the night! It was the most awesome thing EVER!!!!!!!!


5. If I never hear the word "my friends" again, it'll be too soon. Okay so that's really a phrase and I am only referring to John McCain's serious overuse of it - specifically in the most recent debate. I told Alicia part way through that it should be a drinking game. John McCain - you are NOT my friend!


6. To one side of the curving road was a dangerously close lake, and on the other was I'm not so sure - I have always been concentrating very hard on not driving into the lake. I think there are some trees. This is a road by my parents house that is very curvy and just a few feet from a lake. I am always afraid to drive on it in the winter.


7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to getting caught up with my brothers and sisters, tomorrow my plans include a 1st month birthday party for Parker and Sunday, I want to nap! Isn't that what we always want to do on Sunday?

Things I don't understand

There are many things that I don't know or understand about babies and being a mom. One of these became apparent today.

Parker does not own many long sleeved shirts/onesies or pants in her current size (0-3 months). She has many short sleeved onesies and many fall/winter clothes in size 3-6 months, which I am sure we will make good use of in a couple months. In the meantime, it will be getting cooler soon (although the weather the next couple of days doesn't indicate this!) and we had free money at Babies R Us, so we thought we would go get her a couple pair of pants (khaki or jeans) that would match any of the onesies we already have and grab a couple of long sleeved onesies as well.

WHY DOES NO ONE MAKE CLOTHES IN SIZE 0-3 months? Seriously - we could buy more short sleeved onesies, pants in yellow, green or pink (which we already have and don't exactly match or look right with many of the onesies) or pajamas. That's it! No long sleeved onesies and no generic colored pants. No khaki - heck not even any purple to go with all the purple and turquoise stuff she has. There were so many cute clothes and NONE of them came in her size.

So, two things could be - no one really dresses their infant in anything but short sleeved onesies and pajamas and I just didn't know about this. OR everyone with an infant Parker's size had hit the Babies R Us before we did. But, they didn't even have the ugly clothes in her size.

Perhaps this is my calling - to make cute outfits, outside of onesies and pajamas, for the 0-3 month old child.

We did cave and buy her a Halloween costume though. She'll wear it for a few hours and then we'll sell it to Once Upon a Child, but whatever - it was free and she'll be cute! :)

Wordless Wednesday

What is my lil' cutie thinkin'? (And if anyone could read her mind in general, please let me know. I think it would make my life a lot easier!) :)

Perfect Ending

Today was a hard day.  Parker just did not want to sleep  - or really - did not want to sleep anywhere but on Mommy and I just was sick of holding a sleeping or fussing baby.  I wanted to take a real shower instead of rushing and throwing on some clothes (entirely skipping teeth brushing, deodorant and hair) because she was full-out screaming.  I wanted to pee without feeling guilty because she was, again, full-out screaming.  The house was completely trashed.  It looked like a bottle grave yard - remnants of feeding everywhere.  I kept trying to lay her down to sleep and start doing something else (generally pump the little porker some more milk) and she would just start up again.  I was getting pretty frustrated.

As I was sitting on the couch trying so hard not to move as to wake the child who was awkwardly sleeping on me and getting slightly agitated that Alicia hadn't yet left work, the garage door opened!!!!! She had come home early, bringing yummy dinner and flowers.  She picked up my mess and got the baby to go to sleep in her crib.  We then ate dinner - together at the table and spent some actual time together on the couch!  It was amazing.  

I don't know how she knew I needed that today.  Maybe it was just luck, but it definitely turned my day around.  I guess I should stop thinking evil thoughts about her in the middle of the night.... :)

Friday Fill-in and more cuteness

Okay, so I pretty much have to put in a picture with every post now, because I really just think my kid is cute. I know I am biased and other people have cute kids too, but I really like mine and want to show the world her cuteness. :)

1. October means falling leaves, picking pumpkins, apple cider, fall break and Halloween. It's actually one of my favorite months. I can't wait to take Parker to get pumpkins!

2. Horses scare me! I know that's ridiculous, but they are really big and can hurt you if they aren't nice (or if you do something that scares them!)

3. Leaves are falling all around, it reminds me of New Hampshire. It was so gorgeous there in the fall.

4. My favorite horror movie is none because um - they are scary! Duh!!!!.

5. New Hampshire = good memories. Since I mentioned the brief time we lived in NH in number 3, I guess I will use number 5 to remind myself how really great that year was. It was a cool place to be, and it really solidified our relationship. I know that I was pretty miserable for a good portion of it, but it was great for us and once we decided we were coming back, I had a great time! I want to go back!

6. It was a dark and stormy night and Alicia made me sleep in the closet when I was 5 months pregnant. She is terrified of storms and since we don't have a basement, it happens to be the safest place in our house. I obliged her since she was only trying to look out for me and Baby P.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to hopefully staying awake through game night and MAYBE not having to get up EVERY time Parker needs something in the night, tomorrow my plans include leaving my baby and going on a date (sad and happy face here) and Sunday, I want to NAP all day long in preparation for another long week!

My new favorite pic AND 13 Things I should be doing right now

1. Folding the laundry - The basket has been sitting half folded in the living room for 3 days now.

2. Washing the endless array of bottles on my counter - I'm pretty sure I just did that, but the stupid kid ate again!

3. Napping - You are SUPPOSED to sleep when the baby sleeps, but I have not found that to be effective yet.

4. Filing the bills - I hate putting things away. This would take all of 4 seconds, but I just don't wanna.

5. Cleaning the kitchen table - I thought I just did this yesterday, but it seems to have piled up again with random pieces of paper.

6. Sweeping my every-day-more-disgusting floor - mmmmm cat hair everywhere!

7. Picking up the 2 weeks worth of crap that has piled itself on all the end tables - To make matters worse, we put up a couple of tray tables early in the first week of Parker being home since neither one of us was really getting off the couch and these have just morphed into end tables to hold more junk!

8. Cleaning the bedroom - ugh. I can't see my dresser! I have too many clothes and they don't fit, but I don't want to go through and get rid of any yet because I don't know what actually will fit......ergh!

9. Pumping - Oh wait, it just feels that way - I actually don't have to do this again for another hour!

10. Working on the photo album - Probably the most enjoyable of all these tasks, but still not really up for it right now.

11. Figuring out what cool weather clothes Parker actually has - Sadly, I think the answer is not many in a size that actually fits her. Good thing we have $$ at Babies R Us - Free Clothes!!!!!

12. Writing a few more thank you cards - I actually think I have been doing really well at this, but I forgot just a couple people.

13. Figuring out what Alicia and I are going to do on our date Saturday (That's if I can actually bring myself to leave Parker. I'm GOING to do it. For us.) - Yeah, I think I will hop on this one right now. :)