Ice Storms and Typing Lessons

We finally got in touch with family in Western Kentucky this morning. Brian talked to all of his parents and everyone is safe. We've heard estimates of up to a month for power to be restored in Mayfield. I really hope that's an exaggeration. We'd really prefer that everyone get out of there, but they seem determined to stick it out. Of particular concern is Brian's great aunt who is 87 and currently without power. She lives just a few feet away from his mother, but it's still really worrying. We're hoping they'll pack up and come up this way until power is back.

Our house is of concern, as well. Our sump pump won't work without power, so our basement is probably entirely flooded. We also heard tales of the demise of our fence. We were planning a trip down next month. If things don't improve, I'm not sure that'll happen.

As for what we've been up to, we've been hanging out indoors and keeping warm. There was no power at Brian's office for a couple of days, so he worked from home. We finally ventured out last night and the sites were unbelievable. Everyone else lived through the 2003 ice storm. I wasn't living here at the time, so I've never seen anything like this. We have more ice than Zales. Here's a view from our back door.





Eliza's been learning to type lately. If she's in someone's lap and they're near a keyboard, she'll go out of her way to reach for it and attempt to type.



She's also really loving her baths lately. She's learned how much fun splashing around in water can be. The other night, we dressed her up in this little ducky after bath outfit/towel thing. So very cute.

I wish these were in better focus.





Eliza's also loving Yo Gabba Gabba. I swear, that show will save my sanity. It's a show entertaining enough to keep her attention and make her coo and smile for 20 minutes without making me entirely insane. She's also been playing with her toy fish bowl a lot. We practice putting the fish in the bowl to trigger the music. Hopefully she'll be doing that on her own soon. I almost forgot, I think Eliza's going to have great eyes 'cause she seems to love carrots. I think we're going to start making baby food part of her regular feeding routine.

So that's the update. Hope everyone out there is safe and warm.

Concerned

Not that you guys would check the blog if you have communications, but if anyone in Western KY can read this, get in touch. We're worried.

Marla, get in your car and DRIVE HERE. At the very least drive over the Tennessee border and call us.

Five Whole Months!

Eliza turns FIVE WHOLE MONTHS today. What an eventful month this has been! She has learned to roll over from tummy to back and from back to tummy. She's learned to sit up by herself for a little bit. She'll even try to reach out to hold her bottle. At her check-up she was 90-95th percentile for height and weight. We discontinued rice cereal for reflux and it doesn't seem to have gotten any worse. We also discontinued her reflx medication.

What a nice and eventful month this has been for her. We're celebrating her five month birthday with a huge ice storm. It's currently snowing snowflakes as big as Eliza's hand.

Happy Birthday, Brian!

This is my warm, dedicated, funny, precise, idiosyncratic, and genuinely kind husband. He turns 25 today.

When we met, I knew he was special. I noted that we were quirky in similar ways and shared an affinity for pop culture. However, it wasn't until I discovered his giant heart that I realized I'd struck gold. Over the past few months, watching him come into his own as a father has been absolutely wonderful. I couldn't have asked for a better Dad for my kid. I couldn't ask for a more dedicated husband for myself.

We love you, Brian. Happy birthday.

Girl on Film

Eliza sitting and playing with her dog.

Eliza Sits!

Eliza has been sitting for brief little bursts for a couple of weeks now. Just a bit ago she was waking up for a nap. I propped her up in front of her little dog toy for a minute or so to see if she'd play with him for a few seconds. I took my hands off of her and she sat there, unassisted, for almost 10 minutes. In fact she toppled over as soon as she realized she was sitting by herself.

Family on a diet.

Turns out my blood pressure and blood sugar aren't as under control as I thought. I've had to go on a reduced sodium, reduced carb diet. I've managed to lose 11 lbs. since MONDAY. I was retaining more water than Evian!

I weighed Eliza the day after we went to the doctor. She weighed 16lbs on our scale (17 on theirs). When I weighed her yesterday, she weighed 14lbs. We actually upped her ozs of formula, so I guess taking the rice cereal out of her bottles was slimming! She's still eating like a tiny little horse, so not to worry.

Brian has lost 5lbs. because I've been making healthier (read: tasteless bird food) dinners.

We're a family on a diet.

Inauguration Baby!

We decided to clear our schedule and watch the inauguration today.

How Eliza got her babble back

Oprah

Good and bad...

Eliza had a pretty good weekend. She and I played a lot, which was fun, and at one point last night, she actually screamed until I was the one holding her. That made me happy.

She smiled her little head off this morning when I saw she was awake and being quiet in her crib.

In bad news, I hit a slick spot leaving the house this morning and wiped out two mailboxes, causing minor damage to the car and making one of our neighbors extremely annoyed with me.

I wasn't going very fast, but the tires just wouldn't grab for the brakes to work and it slid right into them. Cracked the bumper cover in a couple of places on the right front corner and there's a small streak of mailbox paint on the hood, but no one was hurt, thank goodness.

Turning face down!

We just put Eliza down for a mid-morning nap. This is the nap she doesn't get swaddled for. We heard her crying a muffled cry and Brian got up to check on her. She was FACE DOWN with her face pressed up against the back crib rails. Cool that she can roll back to front now. Not so cool that I have to worry about her rolling face down in her sleep.

My little girl is growing up. *sniffle*

Eliza chews.

What we have here are a couple of pictures of Eliza. They appear to be more adorable pictures of Eliza attempting to read the paper. They're actually pictures of Eliza attempting to EAT HER BUMBO CHAIR. I guess the squishy material feels good on her gums 'cause this is a routine occurance. When we eat dinner, we put her Bumbo in the middle of the table so we can reach her. We thought she was just trying to escape the Bumbo. In reality, she's trying to eat the thing.

Eliza's Obama Poster! Inauguration fun.

Four month check-up!

Eliza saw her new doctors today. Due to a giant snafu regarding who her primary care doctor is, her health coverage may or may not pay for it. We'll see.

Eliza has certainly grown. She's 90-95th percentile for height and weight. She's still about 50-75th for head circumference. 17 lbs in weight and 26 inches in height. She put up less of a fuss about her shots, so I managed to avoid crying this time. She napped in the car, but now she's bright-eyed and bushy tailed.

So the doctors think her ears look good and they're not worried about the cessation of babbling. They think she may just be prone to nighttime fussiness, too. They're taking her off her reflux medication since she's gaining weight so well. No more rice cereal in the bottle. That's probably contributing to her ample weight gain. They suggest small portions of rice cereal and then veggies for now.

So, that's where our little girl is at four and a half months. Next check-up is in March. Stay tuned.

Cuteness and Concern

Eliza continues to be the adorable baby we know and love.

Unfortunately, she's had a few problems lately. She's now fighting bedtime. This is new within the past few days. She cries when we swaddle her and put her down for a good 10-15 minutes. Last night we had to pick her back up and feed her a bit after she refused to settle down.

On top of this, she spent most of last week playing with her ears. She also stopped babbling and cooing. Her hearing is just fine and she's reacting normally to noises. Her cooing has been replaced by an occasional whisper. My sister had been whispering to her when she was change her clothes/diaper. I hope she's just mocking Cheryl. Just the week before she had been cooing so much she was almost annoying. We're quite concerned and looking forward to her doctor's appointment tomorrow.

She's still loving her Exersaucer, though. She's also finally proactive when it comes to grabbing and playing with toys. Of course, everything is a potential sucking and gumming target. She reached out and grabbed the gyroscope on her swing for the first time this morning. She also loves Yo Gabba Gabba more and more. She reacts with such a cute laugh and smile as soon as she sees the opening credits. I could have asked for a better show for her.

Eliza also learned to make a razzing sound last week. She was even repeating it over and over when I would do it. That's a relief. With the cessation of cooing, I'm glad she's attempting other milestones. Otherwise, I'd be hysterically worried at the moment.

Snow Day!

Today is a snowy day, so I thought today would be a good day to try on Eliza's new Classic Pooh snowsuit!

APPLESAUCE!

So, we've been trying to start Eliza on some actual food now that she's four months.

The first few attempts have been met with a lot of spitting food out and bad faces.

Tonight, though, she ate half a container of Gerber organic applesauce, THEN took down a full bottle.

We're a little worried she's going to toss it all later, but for now she's chillin' in the ExerSaucer and watching TV with us. She loves that thing.

And for the record, the applesauce is not bad, if a little bland.

Roll Call!

A lot of people have expressed frustration that they can't comment without logging in. I changed the settings so you should be able to comment freely now.

That said, let's hear from everyone who's reading! I'm constantly surprised when people tell us they're reading the blog, so say hello. If you're someone we don't know, introduce yourself and say hi! We love that so many people find Eliza interesting and fun to read about.

Now, here's another photo dump of outtakes. Here are a bunch of pictures we've taken since Eliza was born but haven't posted.

Big Milestone!

Eliza has been working at sitting on her own for a good bit now. She can sit for about 20 seconds without falling over, so I think that's progress. I was beginning to wonder if she'd sit totally unassisted before she rolled over.

Right now we're in Louisville at my Mom's house. We were giving Eliza some tummy time on my mother's nice, soft carpet. My Mom looked down at her and said "Uh, guys, she just turned over."

We were all very excited. As usual, Brian said "It doesn't count if you can't do it again." We put her back on her belly and she rolled over again! She's rolled over twice on beds, but that didn't count because she had a slight downward slope. This counts for sure! Yay!

2009!

First of all, we want to send out condolences to Brian's Mom and sister who lost their beloved dog Smoke last night. He was a sweet dog and we always looked forward to seeing him. He'll be missed.

With that out of the way, we hope everyone had a happy New Year's celebration.

While we went out and celebrated the New Year with an old friend, Eliza stayed home, fussed, and tricked Aunt Cheryl into giving her an extra bottle. She reportedly woke up and wanted to be fed at about three minutes 'til midnight. She wanted to be awake for the celebration of her first New Year.

This year we're going to be working on several goals. I've decided to be more reliable. I also need to get my eating habits in order without being unrealistic about what I'm willing to do. Brian also wants to eat a little better this year. I'd also like for us to be more fiscally responsible this year. We're going to have to be. Especially since we're maintaing our household in Mayfield while living in Lexington.

Here's another picture of Eliza's first attempt at Exersaucing. Yesterday she learned how to make the Exersaucer rock and bounce! She squeals with excitement when she manages to get it to move. So cute!

This picture cracks me up because she staring at the purse that's built-in and drooling. I guess she's going to be a purse person like her Mimi. So it begins...