Moving and shaking

So, I'm really bad @ this blogging thing. I know it's been almost a year since my last post. I'm not going to promise to do better, b/c I probably won't. John (for those of you who don't know) has a new job. He's back in IT banking, but this time, he's working for United bank. He loves what he's doing, but he's working in Charleston, when we live in Huntington. That's about a 45 min drive each way. Besides having to get up way early in the morning to get him gone, he only gets to spend around 1 hr w/ the Boss. Since this job is going to work out, we're making the choice to move closer to his job. That means selling our house. This house is the house John moved into when he was 11 years old and have lived in on and off since. We've lived here since October of 2005 and it's been a good house. Since this is an old house, we need to fix some things up before we put it on the market. Some we've already done (most of the house is rewired, thanks to my dad) and somethings I really don't want to think about (painting the front of the house, I'm afraid of heights). I'm hoping we'll have lots of help getting our house ready to move. We're already putting feelers out for someone to buy it from us. If you know someone who wants a house in the Huntington area, let us know!

Teething

So the Boss is working on getting her 2 front teeth together, so that makes me oh so happy. This video is of her gums. I took a video b/c I'm really sure I won't be able to get a pic of those gums ready to erupt teeth

Great-aunt Nancy

This is the Boss and her great-aunt Nancy. Great-aunt Nancy is one of the reasons my daughter is so short

Important milestones

The Boss turned 1 yr old May 6, 2010. For her birthday, John and I gave her strawberry cake. She didn't like it too much, but since it was sugar, she ate it. Afterwards, as I was trying to put her to bed, I wondered why I thought it was a good idea giving a child a cupcake 30 minutes before her bedtime. Somehow it made more sense before I was chasing a naked, walking baby around her room trying to get a diaper and pjs on her.

For her birthday party.02 (yes, she had 2), we grilled out and had the grandparents over. Grandma Harmon feed the Boss bits of hamburger. John thought he should just skip the middle man and gave her her own. She gave eating it the old college try, but she just really gummed it and licked it. I think John ate it.

Here she is eating her 2nd birthday cake. She doesn't like getting her hands dirty (like me), but she'll sacrifice if it means eating chocolate. She ate so much that both sets of grandparents couldn't believe it. No one believes me when I tell them she's a bottomless pit. Just like no one expects the Spanish Inquisition.

The End of Our World

For those of you who have kids, you know you're super excited for this moment, but it's tinged w/ a little bit of sadness. Your baby is no longer a baby, she's a toddler and your world has just ended.

This is the Boss enjoying eggs for breakfast. She was enjoying herself until she realized that she was feeding herself and not Mama! That had to stop right there. She's also realized that green beans taste a lot yummier if they come off Mama's (and no one else's) plate. She has just one tooth, but she's making the most of it!

Christmas discovered!

I found this video while going thru my videos of the Boss. This is her first Christmas and her first intentional attempt @ unwrapping presents. Of course, she's the cutest baby in the world while doing it.

Here is a pic of John and the Boss. John is taking all of our tv series out of their boxes and dvd cases and putting them in a dvd book. We had to do this b/c the Boss has learned how to take dvds off of the shelf, which doesn't bother me. What bothers me/is dangerous is her eating the cardboard boxes surrounding the tv series. John took them out and threw them away so she wouldn't get choked on small bits of cardboard (oh, and if anyone is wondering, she's chewing on a Futurama season).

She is so cute!

Here is the Boss. I was taking an up close pic of her. The pinkish blob to the left of the pic is her thumb. She was trying to grab the camera. She is such a camera hound. Any pic of her, if she notices the camera, will have a smile in it. It's a good thing she's so cute. She's still crawling and pulling herself up. She's not getting the hang of standing just yet. She will let go of the couch, baby gate, pant legs or anything else she's holding onto, then throwing her head back and falling. Then it's my fault that she's hit her head. She's thankfully not hurt herself any worse than that.

Here is the world's youngest computer geek. She loves playing with laptops. We have an old clunker laptop that we put in the living room floor for her to play around w/. She does enjoy it, but she wants to play w/ the one that we're playing w/. We're working on saying No w/ her. We heat w/ natural gas heat and in our living room we have a very attractive heater. The Boss loves to touch it, but she's learning it's not in her best interest to touch it. John was tired of her not listening to him (15xs in 1 1/2 hrs) and put up her playpen for a "time out" spot for her. The Boss has learning the play pen is not the place to be. So long as she doesn't touch the heater, we don't care how she's learned that.

Random Photos

Here are a few random pictures from my camera. Here is the Boss examining the new baby gate we put up (she's smiling b/c she's a big picture hound).

Here she is wearing her new party dress. She looks so cute in it.

Here is our Christmas decorations. I lost my Weihnactstimme (Christmas spirit) my first year of living in Germany. Having a baby changes

Green Beans

Well, John doesn't like them, so I guess it's genetic.

Thanksgiving

When John and I got married, we decided Thanksgiving would be @ our house. We would invite our families to join us, but we would stay @ home. It's worked out really well since we don't have to take home any leftovers, just pack up our fridge.

This year we had John's parents and the missionaries over. I put the turkey in @ 3:30am this morning and it was done @ 9am. By the time we were ready to eat, the turkey was so tender it fell apart as we were getting out of the roaster and onto the plate.

This year was esp special b/c it was the Boss's first Thanksgiving. I gave her a spoonful of mashed potatoes, but she didn't like them. It almost looked like she was going to spit them out, but she swallowed them. The face she made was hilarious!

We went down to my parents to look @ the Black Friday ads, but we didn't really see anything we couldn't live w/out. I personally have all of my Christmas shopping done, all that's left is wrapping it. John still has some left (mostly for me!), but he'll get it done before the big day. We are actually going to let the Boss play w/ her Christmas presents before Christmas and wrap the boxes up, b/c @ this age, she'll like playing w/ the paper.

Since this is a season of thanks, I would like to thank John for all the time he spent today playing w/ the Boss so I could get dinner ready (he was also really handy for getting the leaf in the table and getting the turkey outta the roaster, he's such a handy guy). I don't know where I'd be w/ out John, but it wouldn't be as fun of a place.

moving and shaking

it had to happen sometime. The Boss is now mobile.

Big girl

This is the Boss getting her first taste of cereal (or anything other than breastmilk). Her Papa fed her, but she was willing to share by dribbling all over his pants.

Mama's little helper

Halloween

Halloween was an interesting this year. This was the first year that we had a baby and babies change everything. My mom made the Boss the cutest little ducky costume that you've ever seen.

Here she is trying out her scary faces. Actually, this is the face she makes whenever she's frustrated about something. It's usually b/c she's not moving fast enough.

Here are the pics of our little Boss as a big fat duck. Mom went a little overboard w/ the stuffing, but it turned out cute esp since she likes to kick her legs as she's being held. It kinda looked like she was trying to swim away. She was very happy to be a duck. She didn't get any candy (this year), but her Papa was very happy to take some of the candy offered to her by our friends. We've lucked out to have such a happy Boss as our first.

Both set of her Grandparents melted when they saw her in her outfit.

Thanksgiving is going to be an interesting one this year. She's going to be eating cereal (at least) so she may get a little bit of mashed potato. She's such a spoiled little girl, but @ least she's a cute little spoiled girl.

Leash Law

We live in a fairly good size city. If it were up to John and I we would live in the country, but the opportunity for our house was too good to pass up. It still is a good deal and we love our house and the neighbors who own are wonderful.

Living in a city means we have a leash law. A leash law simply put means that any time your dog is not on your property he must be on a leash. I support this law for many reasons: it keeps your dog from getting hit by cars and it keeps dogs from getting spooked and hurting someone. I understand sometimes a dog slips out, I've had dogs do everything from brute force to outsmarting me to get out of the house. I understand it happens.

Leash laws are good for another reason. People (esp here) think it's fun to keep dogs that shouldn't be breed as pets. I'm talking about pit bulls, boxers and rottweilers. This dogs are all aggressive and really serve no purpose for anyone who is not looking for dog fights. Pit bulls are notorious for not letting go in a fight until they or their opponent is dead.

Why am I going on and on about leash laws? For a very good reason. The Boss and I went for a walk today to run some errands. The weather was beautiful (in the 70s) and it was a glorious day. We had only gotten a few blocks from the house when I noticed something not right on the sidewalk ahead. I noticed a group of people in the way. Not unusual, people like to walk and talk, or in this case, curse. As I got closer, I realized it was a group of about 4 people trying to break up a dog fight. Since I had my baby with me, I didn't get closer than 10 feet. I've been in the middle of a dog fight before and I know that's one mess I don't wanna get involved with.

As I watched them try to break the dogs apart, I realized both dogs were Pit Bulls. This made me really glad I was so far away. I even saw someone get a baseball bat to try and pry the dogs jaw's apart. I also heard a lot of cussing (I don't know if the dogs understood, "get the f*** off" or not, but they kept saying it).

It took about 15 mins of us watching (the dogs had already started fighting and being pulled apart by the time we had walked down, so who knows how long they were fighting) before they finally got the dogs apart. As the one that was on the leash was walking past, I looked at the dogs face. The dog was originally white, but one side of it's face was pink. One of the guys' hand was completely bitten up.

The dog that I presume started the fight was not on a leash, which makes me believe that either the owner thought his dog was "well behaved" or it escaped. Like I said, a dog that wants to escape will escape, but I really think that Pit Bulls really should be put down or done something so that they won't attack (or in the case of that one place of Florida, eat the toes off a 7 month old) others. I also feel that chihuahuas should not be breed, but that's just b/c I find them stupid and well, stupid.

The Weather and more

John always makes fun of me for my ability to freeze in the summer (really, anything below 75 degrees is freezing). He usually kicks up the teasing in the Autumn. I think I might not survive this winter. It's the 2nd of October and it's already getting down to 40 degrees at night. Usually there is a slow downgrade to freezing, but not this year.

One bad thing about cold weather, it makes me not want to move. Maybe I'm part reptile, or @ least something cold blooded. The only thing that gets me moving faster is the call of my alarm clock aka the Boss. The cold weather also has me worried about her being too cold. Since she can't have a blanket (and not that she'd allow one to stay on her for longer than 5 seconds) we've turned the heat on earlier for her. We also bought her her own carbon monoxide detector since we use natural gas heat.

On other news (besides me freezing to death), the Boss is starting to be more mobile. I can put her under her play mat and walk out of the room. When I return 5 mins later, she'll be almost 2 feet away. She's not crawling, but she's scooting. She's been rolling around for a while, so that's not a big deal.

She also might be teething. She had a low high grade fever. For those of you who don't understand, according to the Boss's Dr, a high fever is 100.5 degrees and her fever was 100.9. It went down and the dr checked her for swine flu (doesn't have). The older women @ church have decided that means she's teething.

While she was sick (and her mama) her papa was trying to entertain her and accidentally taught her to blow raspberries. This is now her favorite thing to do now. She blows raspberries to everyone. Naturally, John hands her to me a lot and complains about how she's spitting on him.

This weekend I'm going to be making her Halloween costume. She's going to be a duck. She won't be getting any candy, but we'll be showing her off to some of the people in the neighborhood. I'm actually really excited about Halloween this year for that reason. It's interesting to see the holidays thru the eyes of your child, even if they don't know what's going on.

Music and Memories

The other day while I was listening to my mp3 player (the Boss likes to watch Mama sing and dance really funny) I heard I song I hadn't heard in a while. The song was "the cup of life" by Ricky Martin. It's funny how little things like songs can bring back memories you haven't thought about in a long time. This song is the soundtrack of a very tough time in my extended family. My cousin Larry Denzil (who is for all intents and purposes adopted) and his wife Marsha were expecting Lil Larry who was born w/ all sorts of issues. Marsha had to be close to John Hopkins Hospital (where Lil Larry was born) and Larry had to work while taking care of his almost 2 yr old daughter Savannah. My mom offered to watch her while he was @ work and I was able to help most days due to my college schedule (as well as being off for holidays, etc).

So why does The Cup of Life remind me of this time period? Well, back when Napster was free, I had downloaded the song and accidentally discovered the Savannah loved to dance to the song. This was the only song she would dance to (and by dance, I mean toddler dance, arms up and wiggling her hips side to side) and both Mom and I thought it was hilarious.

This also brought the memory of poor little Savannah being weened from a bottle completely. She would just hang off of the door to my parents fridge pitifully crying "milchk" "milchk" (and yes, the ch is necessary as it was how she said milk). It broke my mom's heart listening to it, but in the end, she was convinced that eating food off of Buckle Ben and Schicia's plates was much better than a bottle (and that's how she said Uncle Ben and Tricia). Forget the fact that my parents put food on her plate, she wouldn't eat that, but she would steal green beans off of them in a heartbeat.

This was also the time when she loved to flirt w/ my dad and try and get my mom to act all jealous (and that was what it was, an act). She would get mom's attention and say "Schicia, I Buckle Ben's girl" @ which point mom would say something like, "I'm uncle Ben's girl" and my dad would bask in the love of a two year old.

Those are good memories. I hope the Boss has as good of memories of my parents (and John's) as Savannah and her siblings do (and they still call my dad Buckle Ben).

found it

I found the video I was trying to upload earlier. Like I said, she was trying to make the same sounds. Now she's mad b/c I refuse to pick her up. It's good for her to not be in my arms 24/7. She does enjoy sitting up (by being propped up by me) or standing. This one is not one to sit still for a minute.