Thursday, April 30, 2009

The Voice of the Blogger

As I mentioned in my last post, we were burglarized on Tuesday night. We have reason to suspect people who were working here over the past few days. Painters and maintentance people. These people are employees and contractors of the apartment complex.

The apartment management, Foxglove Apartments, refuses to change our locks. And if we change the locks at our expense, they need it to work with their "master" key, negating the lock change.

We couldn't be more fearful or furious. We are sitting ducks and Foxglove will take no action to keep us safe.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Eliza is 8-months-old (yesterday)!


Sorry we didn't take a Raggedy Ann picture yesterday. For some reason, I was thinking all weekend that the 28th was Wednesday. Even if we'd remembered, we sort of had an event that caused me to forget nearly everything.

We went to the grocery store last night and while we were gone, the house was robbed. They took Brian's laptop, the Wii, all the Wii games and Brian's ipod. We're absolutely heartbroken. We're not rich people, so we won't likely be able to replace these things anytime soon. We have a pretty fair idea of who (in a general sense) did this and we're angry. All the cliches about feeling violated are absolutely true. I no longer feel safe in our little rental townhouse or with renting from Foxglove, the property management company. We're hoping that between the police and the apartment complex, someone will step up and help correct this situation. What a terrible sinking feeling.

On to better things, Eliza was 8-months-old yesterday! In the past month she has cut a tooth, spoken and forgotten two words, learned and forgotten how to crudely crawl, and she's started stage 2 baby food. She now eats 3 meals a day, with lunch reserved for new and experimental foods. She's in the process of learning how to crawl in proper hands and knees position and hopefully she'll learn to pull herself into a sitting position, too. She's working on picking up food with her thumb and index finger. So far she's managed to get 4 or 5 puffs into her mouth in this way. Mostly she just licks the puffs. She's finally drinking from her sippy cup and usually volunteers to hold it herself. She'll hold her own bottle, but she hasn't really gotten the memo that she's supposed to tilt it up to make the formula run to the top. She's mostly a very happy baby unless she's sleep or hungry. Much like her Daddy.

In other news, I got all my bloodwork back and everything looks normal. No diabetes, no high cholesterol, no thyroid problems. Next step is a tilt table test to check our my slow heart rate and gallbladder surgery. Referrals for both are coming soon.

And now, a little behind the scenes video of the Raggedy Ann photo shoot. Eliza's such a tempermental little Hollywood diva.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Food Fight

Eliza refuses to swallow food with any sort of texture. So far she's rejected tiny bites of macaroni, ham, mashed potatoes, and tiny pieces of fajita. She's just not into adult food. She's firmly a stage 2 baby food baby at the moment, but I tried to give her some stage 3 food yesterday. It was a chickeny thing with tiny little pasta balls in it. She really seemed to enjoy the chicken sauce stuff, but she sucked all of it off the pasta balls and then spit the pasta balls out. She looked like a malfunctioning gumball machine. I'm not trying to feed her more than I would feed, say, Keira Knightley at a sitting. Still, she's having none of it. I'm hoping this is the result of an immature gag reflex and she'll start to try more and more table food. For now, we're still an Organic Gerber family. The good news us, she'll pick up puffs with her thumb and index finger. Sometimes she hits her mouth, sometimes she doesn't. Still, I'm very proud.

On a personal note, I appreciate all of the inquiries about my health. Turns out my years of battles with my tummy were likely related to gallstones. I see the PA at my doctor's office again tomorrow and will probably get a surgical referral. I suppose all of this contingent upon what we find out about my heart rhythm problem, but I'm glad to have an answer. Thanks for the concern.

Now, ignore our messy coffee table. Here's a picture of Eliza before her big 80s dance movie audition. What a feeling.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Another weekend...

...another trip to the ballpark.

Because of fortuitous weather during our first trip out to Applebee's Park, we had free tickets for Sunday afternoon's game, so we packed up and headed for the game yesterday.

It was hot, I have the strangest sunburn on the planet (one cheek, half my neck, the side of my left knee and the top of my right knee) and Eliza fussed most of the time, but it was still fun.

We left in the eighth to go help Cheryl unload the last of a moving truck and pick up some furniture for us, so we missed the end of the game, but we now have an honest-to-Bob kitchen table to sit at, and a new recliner to sit in.

As for the rest of the weekend, I worked most of the day Saturday while Janie and Eliza hung out at the house.

Next weekend, of course, is Derby Weekend, so we're going to Keeneland to watch the big race on the big screens. Sounds like we may have family to visit that weekend, too, which will be nice.

There should be more videos coming soon.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Eliza in her summer gear



Finally, some pictures for all the Grandparents out there in blogland.

Eliza Smith and the Curious Case of the Missing Milestones

Sometimes the unraveling of the mysteries of babyhood can be a maddening task. It's not like I'm trying to locate Carmen Sandiego here. This shouldn't be rocket surgery. Still, I can't for the life of me figure out why Eliza learns to do things and then promptly forgets.

A couple of weeks ago, Eliza made a lot of progress in one week. She was holding her bottle when she drank, was attempting to crawl all over the living room by pushing with her feet and sliding on her face, saying the word "good" the entire time she ate, and even cooing "Dadadadadada" at Brian. Now she can and will do none of these things. She gets up on all fours in a more traditional crawling position, but she never really gets anywhere. In fact, she rarely makes an attempt to get on all fours by herself anymore. She refuses to hold her bottle while she's eating, she'll only grab it when it's empty, and forget the talking. Mum's the word. Suddenly she's Silent Bob. I'm hoping her vocal ability will return just in time to make the big, eloquent, plot pivoting speech at the end of the film.

What she does do is growl. She's doing this deep, throaty growl these days and it cracks me up. Also, she finds it hilarious when you make her stuffed animals bark. Even ones that wouldn't bark in nature, like one her her 67 stuffed Easter bunnies. She can stand by herself while holding a piece of furniture. She can do that for a couple of minutes, even. She suddenly likes to protest when you take something away from her. That was a milestone she never really reached and just mastered in the past couple of days. She tried to steal the grocery list at the store last night and threw a fit when I gave it to Brian. I'm actually relieved by this because it was the one thing from waaaay back in the baby book that she skipped entirely.

I'm trying to give her a little more table food at lunch. Yesterday we had meatloaf and mashed potatoes at lunch and she was 100% uninterested. The texture of mashed potatoes was new, and she made a horrible face with every bite. We'll certainly keep trying with that one. I don't want her to pick up that particular dislike (sorry, Aunt Taquita). Today I'm going to give her some leftover pizza and let her play with it.

Sorry, Grandparents. Still no pictures. I solemnly promise to try to do better with that. Just as sooon as I locate Eliza's milestones (and possibly Waldo and Carmen Sandiego).

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Crazy Busy

The past week or so has been ridiculously busy. Brian was off last Friday, so we headed out to Keeneland to make use of our season passes. Friday's trip wasn't profitable, but the weather was incredible. Later in the day we decided to head out to Applebees park to partake in baseball festivities. Eliza had a fantastic time. She loved watching all the little kids running around. I can't wait until she's big enough to get out of her stroller and go play with them.

Saturday we went shopping and cleaned out the Carter's store. They were having an incredible sale, so Eliza is fully outfitted for summer. We also squeezed in dinner at Saul Good. I know people rave about this place all the time, but it really is incredible. Reasonably priced food in an upscale chic atmosphere. I had bacon and eggs for dinner and Brian had chicken and waffles. I also ordered up some of the most amazing beer cheese I've ever tasted. When we left, they packaged up my remaining beer cheese and even refilled my dippers. As Brian said when we left, they're going into "rotation" now.

After shopping and dinner, we played laser tag with my nephew and his friend at the new Champs complex. There were a ton of shady charaters hanging out in the parking lot. You couldn't pay me to drop my tween off alone at that place. Laser tag was good fun (and exercise). I think we'll have to do that again soon.

We attempted to do absolutely nothing on Sunday, but things picked up again yesterday. Brian was busy with a big story at work and me and Eliza headed to Lexington so I could have my CT scan. I'm hoping to have those results back soon. As usual, Eliza made friends with the receptionist at the scanning place and a random old man when we stopped for lunch at McDonalds. Quite the charmer.

Since I've been taking Eliza in my car a lot more, I decided yesterday that we need two car seats or we needed to get another base for our current car seat. In researching new ones, I found out that Eliza has just about outgrown her current car seat. It only supports babies up to 22 lbs. and Eliza weighs 21.3. We went to Target last night and got a brand new car seat for Brian's car and we put the old one in my car for now. As soon as she's up to 22 lbs, we'll ditch that one and I guess we'll just have to switch the new car seat back and forth. That thing is HUGE, so that'll be a chore.

While we were at Babiesaurus (the official new nickname of Babies r Us), we saw an adorable pair of Converse Chuck Taylor All Stars in Eliza size. Now she has her first pair of chucks! As for me, I got a pair of One Stars at Target and Brian is probably getting a new pair of New Balance today. Now we're a beshoed, becarseated, and bemedicaltested family.

As for Eliza, she grows more and more hilarious. She loves baths. We taken to calling her rubber duckie tub by his full name. Squeakin' Bill Quackers. She's also developed this throaty growl that sounds like one of Marge's sisters from the Simpsons. She's just trying out her vocal range. And on that front, she's also discovered a very high pitched squeal. Luckily, only dogs in Arizona can hear it, so we're good there. She still attempts to crawl, but she fell over and banged her head. Now she seems less adventurous. When she does try to crawl she screams her head off the entire time. She's working on trying to pull herself into a sitting position on her own, but I suspect that's going to be a few weeks away yet. She simply HATES being on her stomach.

Sorry for the lack of pictures. The batteries in my camera have been dead for a week and I've been too busy to remember to change them. Pictures soon, I promise.

Monday, April 20, 2009

What's up, Doc?

Janie's been having some issues with her pulse and her stomach, so she's having an abdominal CT today in Lexington to check everything out.

Based on some of the symptoms she's been having, we suspect she may have some sort of thyroid condition that isn't showing up when her thyroid has been tested.

She had to take her car to Lexington because we haven't peeled the bumper stickers off it yet for me to drive, so I'm also a little concerned about that. Especially when she said she felt the brakes slip as she left. Probably should have taken care of the bumper sticker thing Sunday.

In Eliza news, she's taken to screaming, loudly, when trying to crawl. Her two bottom teeth are almost in, and she's finally starting to figure out how to use her sippy cup. Such a big girl.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Baseball!

Last night we took Eliza to the Lexington Legends home opener. Once she got over an early crying spell, she seemed to really enjoy herself. A storm moved through right before the game, so the ground was a little damp (and we had lawn seats), but all in all it was a grand time. She gets a little startled when people cheer (see our trip to Keeneland), but hopefully she'll grow out of that with time. Brian taught Eliza about the game while I snapped a couple of pictures. Who am I kidding? The scene of daddy and daughter enjoying and evening at the ballpark almost brought me to tears. They're so adorable together.

Speaking of adorable, check out Brian's new glasses.





Monday, April 13, 2009

Eliza and Lee share an apple juice popsicle.

Easter Dress




We'd planned on dressing Eliza in a totally different outfit for Easter, but I found this dress Saturday and totally fell in love with it. And look at the cute little shrug. Adorable.



We spent the Easter weekend back in Western Kentucky with friends and family. It was tiring, but fun. Eliza was surprisingly good for us while we were gone. We slept in different place every night, so I'm glad she's adaptable.


Monday, April 6, 2009

You just won't believe it. 7 months is a busy month.

Eliza has been taking off from a sitting position and just kind of squirming around on her belly on the floor. She eventually cries when she gets stuck and we sit her back up. This morning she decided that it was time to actually go somewhere. She made it halfway to the front door and then turned around and came back. Then she made her way over to the TV and just about bumped her head on the doors of the entertainment center. She's crawling, but it's an ugly crawl. Still, she has her knees under her and she's moving foward. She whines and complains the whole time. I guess our baby girl is mobile. Now I guess I have to get down on all fours and spot the baby hazards.

Lee, per your request, I tried to get the crawling on video. That's when she decided to bump her head so I didn't get much of it. When she wakes up from her nap, I'll try to get her to do it again. This time I'm prepared.

Toothiness

Yesterday Eliza was crying a bit while Brian was feeding her dinner. I asked if he accidentally scratched her gum or felt a tooth coming in. Sure enough, her right front tooth has erupted and will soon be a fully functional first tooth!

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Horses, Bunnies and New Friends

We set out on an ambitious adventure today. We decided to take Eliza to Keeneland and an Easter Egg Hunt all in one day. At Keeneland, she did great until a massive crowd arrived. She melted down right around the time I won $60 on a 17-1 horse. Perfect timing. As we were leaving, we noticed droves of people arriving. Parking was pushed back all the way to the very front gate. I'd never seen anything like it. After that, we killed time at the mall and had some delicious carnival food. Finally, we headed to Nicholasville to spend time with old and new friends.


Eliza did great with the other kids. We had such a fun day. I'm glad she finally got to socialize with her new friends.

Too bad Brian hit the sack early with a terrible sunburn. This day was on the verge of perfection. I love my little family.

Enjoy the pictures of our fun day. We also included pictures of Eliza's new friends Caylor, Joselyn and Landen.



























































Friday, April 3, 2009

Second word...it figures...


After spending all day working on "Momma", Eliza decided she'd say "Dada" instead.


It's hilarious. Never let it be said that she doesn't have a sense of humor.