. . . a great year

We're leaving behind an amazing and beautiful year.
We wish you all the best in the new one.

Waiting . . . January 2007




February 20th









March









April












May









June












July






August






September









October






November









December













New Year's Eve




Happy 2008!

. . . the Merriment

Hope your Christmas was filled with joy, wonder,
and much clapping of hands.

. . . the road less traveled

or, I-20 West to be more specific.

Late Thursday evening, baby-sweetest embarked upon her first real road trip. Around 9 p.m., that tired baby nestled into her car seat for the long ride to Mississippi to visit her grandparents, auntie & uncle and baby Tyson and his parents.

Along the way, she was involved in a late-night taco fiasco, some drama outside a cheap motel, an unfortunate mattress-dampening accident, a trucker fight between some random redneck and a Fed-ex driver, several fartie-poopies, lotsa hugs, a little holiness and a trip to IKEA.

In addition to the aforementioned craziness, baby-so-funny also single-handedly entertained a room full of grown-kids with nothing more than her own personal amusement over the sweetest little dachshund ever. While the Mississippi crew was sitting around watching videos of the fierce Lucie catching (and maiming) a chimney squirrel, baby-amused was busy getting her entertainment on by watching that same Lucie-dog . . . well, run.

Normally, this type of craziness only happens after several minutes of babyparents tickling or otherwise attempting to be silly for baby-sweetest. This night, however, baby-laughs-a-lot spontaneously cracked her little self right up - all on her own. Don't believe it's the cutest thing you'll watch today? Click the play button and be convinced.

*More stories from the road . . . coming soon to a rockin' blog near you.*

UPDATE: Here's the very same video, in a google video option. Alas, babymama does not have quicktime production capabilities . . . yet.

. . . her first correction (or rather, babymama's)

Babymama has been politely informed that Big Bird is not a chicken. While he is commonly thought of as a canary, he is, in fact, a Golden Condor.

Thanks to Ty's Mommy for the insight. Babymama apologizes for this mistake, and for any confusion it may have caused for any reader of this blog. Babymama most profusely apologizes to baby-adorable, who may have permanent animal-confusion due to mama's inability to differentiate between chickens, golden condors and other fowl-like members of Kingdom Animalia.

*In mama's defense, this doesn't look anything like this. *

. . . 8 secrets

1. Baby-sneaky actually can roll-over. Apparently pretty well, as her teachers at daycare inform babymama that they routinely put her down for naps on her tummy since she's such a good roller. Funny how she refuses to do that for babydaddy and mama . . .

2. Additionally, said baby is also more particular about people than babymama & daddy knew. We've recently discovered that our sweet baby girl determines fairly quickly who she likes and doesn't, and then decidedly makes her feelings known with a stern gaze, a frown and a concluding round of tears.

3. The above mention aside, baby-sweetheart really is a sweetheart. When we talk about her being a good, easy-going baby, we truly mean it. She rarely cries, and when she does, the tears are easily stopped by a meal, a new diaper or a hug. She goes to bed easily, and has only been sick once, and then only for a day. As parents, we occasionally feel guilty. But then we think better of it . . .

4. Since we're sharing secrets, Charlie and Lola is babymama's favorite cartoon, followed closely by My Friends Tigger & Pooh. Babydaddy prefers Handy Manny, and Baby-shouldn't-be-watching-TV loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Little Einsteins. (Rah, rah, rah for Rocket!) Our good intentions failed, and that previously cable-free baby now recognizes almost all the songs on the early morning round-up of Playhouse Disney, as well as Ahh and Ooh.

5. Baby-smells good had a bath yesterday. She did not, however, have one today. She'll probably have one tomorrow, but sometimes it's an extra day or so before she spends some quality time in the tub. In between baths, babymama and daddy wipe her down with baby wipes. She is not usually stinky, but sometimes is a little sticky.

6. She grows, says mama. So fast. No, really. Baby-growth-spurt outgrew all her clothes in a span of about 2 days. One day they fit her fine. The next day her little torso was too long for the snaps at the bottom of her onesies. Somehow, babymama did not anticipate this happening so quickly. And now poor baby is nearly naked. *Note to Grandmas across the country: please send pants, size 6-9 mths* Baby-tallest is 26 inches high.

7. In terms of heft, she's a perfect 7.71107029 kilograms. Since you're most likely one of these 3, that's an angel-sized 17 pound bundle of cuteness (give a couple ounces). Now before you start in with the 'what a big baby' comments, you need to be aware that: 1. Babymama doesn't play when it comes to disparaging remarks about her baby-adorable and 2. This is the average size of a normal 6 month old. Which brings us to number 8.

8. All of this . . . the baby stuff of this life, the diapers, the spit-up, the nights of little sleep, all the normal clichés that no longer seem like such, the aches and pains, the worry and uncertainty, the striving and learning and wondering, all of it - every little bit, is the best secret we've ever learned.

*Babymama is so tired. She will strive to add 6 blogs to her tag list tomorrow. Promise.*

. . . the bird

Babymama doesn't like chicken all that much, but baby-adorable definitely does . . .


What on earth would a bird-lovin' gal do without her very own baby Big Bird? Luckily, baby-A-O-K doesn't have to know the answer to that one, as her Mississippi Auntie made sure baby-plays-a-lot would have one several months before she was born. That same Auntie also included baby Cookie Monster (babymama's favorite), and mama is soon to purchase Baby Elmo. Now all baby-cutest needs are everyone's favorite nursery pals, and she's good to go.

Just close your eyes and make believe . . .

. . . the lashes

Babydaddy has the longest, most luxurious eyelashes babymama has ever seen. They are dark, and slightly curved, and absolutely beautiful. You can see them below . . . perfectly mirrored on the eyes of his daughter.

...more sleeping

Baby daddy is guest posting tonight. I've been meaning to do this since April - when I first took this picture. I'm not good with deadlines. (See, it's funny cuz I work for a newspaper.)


This was a Friday night and the stresses of the week bore down on all of us. Andie fell asleep in my lap, Darlin' flopped on the carpet and baby-sleepiest (did I do it right?) snoozed in her chair. I sat there, unable to go anywhere, peaceful with the knowledge that my girls were all safe and sleeping. I took this pic with my phone. Unfortunately, our other cat Remy was unable to drag a beer to me, mainly because he was sleeping in some other room.

And it's still a fairly representative portrait of our living room. There is still baby stuff and baby toys strewn everywhere because you really don't know what baby-needy might require on a moment's notice. So we might as well have it all out all the time.

Since I'm updating, the baby faux-hawk is pretty much gone. She's got new hair growing in. I'm once again the only person in the house with a faux hawk.

Andie quit the paper and got a job with a crazy hip design firm downtown.

I'm toiling at the paper still, although I'm printing a big project about the death of a doctor's wife on Tybee Island tomorrow. Check it out here.

Baby-won't-roll-over goes in for her six month check-up this week. Six months! She's growing out of stuff already.

I'll make sure baby momma posts some pics of baby-cutest in the next few days.

. . . an early bedtime

For the first time since she was born and sleeping all the time, baby-so-tired has put her little self to sleep early. Like 2 and a half hours early. Babymama is anxiously continuing to check on that precious baby, each time expecting to go in and find her awake in her cradle, but each time, she is still all swaddled up and snoring the sweetest, tiny, baby-snores. Babymama can not believe it.

What all this means is yet unclear. Until tonight, baby-on-a-schedule goes to sleep every night between 9:20 and 10 p.m. She makes the exact same sleepy face, rubs her adorable baby-blues and makes that cute little anh-anh sound. Babydaddy & mama then transport her from the playground that is our living room to the dresser-turned-changer in our room. After a fresh diaper and a quick change into jammies, baby-sleepy is wrapped up in the miracle blanket (it truly is - our amazing friend gave it to us, and we OWE her for such a kindness). Thus prepared for slumber, baby-wants-to-stay-awake spends between 5 and 10 minutes walking in daddy's arms, and is finally deposited, with much kissed cheeks, into her cradle.

This is how it works. And in the brave new world of parenthood, we've learned that there is so much that one can't depend on, that things change more & more quickly every day, and that if anyone is so very lucky to find something in this world of babyness that is scheduled, regular, or consistent, that very fortunate parent should rejoice and exploit it to the fullest. So we have. We've loved every moment of our regularly scheduled bedtime routine. And so has baby-sweetheart. But now . . .

Now, it's back to that uncertainty. Is this a test? A new baby joke? Is baby-tricky setting us up for something? Is there some late-night party surprise happening this evening that we aren't aware of? Does this mean no more sleeping through the night? Or, is this (as babymama swears she will believe), the beginning of one less nap during the day and a few more hours of sleep at night?

Only time will tell what awaits us, so for now, here's one of those moments caught on digital and guaranteed to give you sweet dreams.



Beautiful.

. . . the g - l - a - m - o - r - o - u - s

Babydaddy & mama love to take baby-cutest outside. We know that taking her outdoors is one of the things that helps build her awareness of the world, gives her new learning opportunities, and all that other stuff the books talk about with regard to infant development. Blah, blah, blah. In truth, we like to take her outside to play because it's fun for us, and we like to believe it's fun for her, too. Only time will tell if she grows up to be a happy camper, but for now, we pretend she is and that she loves the smell of grass and the feel of the wind on her balding little head.

Because babyparents want to be the very best, grown-up kind of responsible, we decided that these continued outings into the bright light of day (and late afternoon) demanded a bit of accessorizing. Now we're not talking about a pop-up tent or a cool new back-pack (although, now that babymama thinks about it . . . ). We're talking about the kind of accessorizing that's fabulous AND functional, pretty and protective, the kind of accessories that you just have to have. You know what they say when the future's so bright.

So, off to our second favorite store we went, daddy, mama and baby-blue-eyes, and wouldn't ya know it? They had just what we needed. In pink, of course.




After our shopping trip, baby-UV-protected spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out with babymama & daddy at Daffin park. She didn't seem to like her new glasses very much. She spent a little bit of time pouting, and some more time trying to lick daddy's hand, and she finally decided that they weren't her thing. Once baby-no-glare had pulled off her shades, babymama realized why that poor baby didn't like 'em. 'Too tight, mama' says baby-sweetheart.




Luckily, baby-sweetest didn't have to suffer too long for fashion. Ever the packer, babymama had an extra pair of more glamorous shades along. Oooh, the flossy, flossy.

. . . the wings, y'all

With four exceptions, babymama has always disliked chicken. Unless that chicken was hanging out after being barbequed, fried, stuffed between the halves of an onion roll or prepared as a courting specialty a-la-daddy, it was not, repeat N-O-T, getting anywhere near mama's tummy.

All that changed when baby-cutest came along. After the initial months when babymama only ate a few foods (most of which were fruits), mama experienced a conversion if you will, to the church of chicken, denomination 'Wings, y'all'. Mama could not get enough of them. Grilled, fried, rubbed, barbequed and dipped into some heartburn inducing hotsauce, those wings made their way bite by dripping, delicious bite right into mama's mouth and baby's tummy. (On a side note, this made babydaddy really happy, because he was getting quite tired of eating mexican and BLTs every night).

The best wings of all were (and still are) babydaddy's wings - rubbed with love and spices and grilled to perfection right in our backyard. Babymama still asks for them, and wing-lover that he is, babydaddy is always happy to oblige.

It should come as no surprise, then, that baby-hotsauce still enjoys the wing experience, and while she can't as yet ingest them herself, she loves being as close to those wings as she possibly can. Sometimes that means watching from the window while daddy grills 'em up at home. Other times, like a recent outing to Sticky Fingers, she just wants to be as close as possible to the eater.





Incidentally, baby-sweetheart's blues name is "Fat Liver Parker" . . . but babymama takes the liberty of changing it to "Baby-fat" . . .




**BLOGGER'S NOTE: although this post says June 17th . . . that's only the date babymama tried to post it. It's actually taken 10 days to get a moment to put in the photos, so it's really going online on the 28th.

. . . the 'hawk'

Baby-breck was born with a head full of soft, dark hair. So much hair, in fact, that babymama & daddy could actually style it as soon as we could pry the pink & blue knit cap off her little head. (The nurses, who both mama and daddy loved, chastened us repeatedly for not keeping her head warm enough. It seemed at times that they were going to rubber cement that thing on so we couldn't remove it after we left the hospital).

Baby-fuzzie looked, need I say it, adorable with that head of hair, and babymama secretly smiled each time she saw one of those poor bald babies running around in public.

In later days, however, babymama & daddy noticed a certain lack of hair in random patches around baby-balding's little head. It started falling out in little bits at the back, leaving a soft, dark duck tail at the nape of her neck. Then, the fall-out spread to the sides, and before long, baby-punk-rock debuted, you know it, the mohawk.

As parents who fell in love to what some might term a Celtic-Punk soundtrack, babydaddy & mama are ever so proud of baby-independent's early display of individualism, and know that it will lead to a lifetime of bravery, liberty, anarchy and hopefully, revolution.





PS: Baby-safest is only sitting in a car eating lunch. She is not riding around sans carseat.

. . . her 'affie' and a nap

Days and nights are super-busy these days as babydaddy & mama practice one-handed multitasking. From bottles to diaper bags and daycare clothes to breast pumps, parents of baby-cutest juggle the strangely mountainous piles of baby necessities with other, more grown-up things like cooking dinner, doing laundry, washing dishes and vacuuming. (Ok, let's be honest, the vacuum isn't running so much these days. Lucky for us, baby-stays-put isn't mobile yet, so as long as she's on her playmats, we're all good.)

While said parents love to tote that darling baby everywhere, some tasks are just not manageable with an adorable infant on the hip - especially one that's still in need of a bit of neck support. It's moments like these that baby-brilliant spends some quality time with her Baby Einstein videos and her affie.





As you can see from the photo, baby-lotsa-drool has found that her affie is especially appetizing. She's also figured out that if she loops her fingers through the soft puffs of yarn, she can pull them right into her mouth. Yum! Thank goodness Grandma G. made such a nice size - there's plenty of puffs for baby-gummy to drool on. When one's too soggy, she just moves right on to the next one. It makes for a relaxing time for baby, and two extra hands (one each) for babymama and daddy.

Just because there's nothing cuter and more necessary for happiness than a healthy dose of adorable, babymama brings you the world-renowned baby-sweetheart in living color. Check her out as she spends a few moments of solitude napping in her froggy romper. So cute. What could be cuter? (Don't even pretend you don't know the answer to this . . .)

. . . first position

Babymama can only say 'thank goodness' that baby-adorable got so much good stuff from babydaddy. She got his laid-back personality (and thankfully not mama's slightly anxious one), she has his gorgeous eyelashes (long, curved and totally wasted on a guy), and a mélange of other things-a-la-papa like his toes, fingernails and ears.

Also included in the list of great things to have from daddy, is his sense of balance and ease of movement. Princeton's wordnet calls it "elegance and beauty of movement or expression". These are things that mama doesn't have so much of, and when talking about ladies, we call these two skills by one hallowed and much coveted name: grace.

Now babymama always wanted to be a beautiful, fluid vision of grace and charm. She practiced and practiced, but somehow found those qualities just out of reach. Baby-sweetheart, however, is already showing her poise and penchant for that pinnacle of grace: le ballet.

Take as evidence baby-ballerina's near perfect exhibition of first position. Her heels are naturally aligned and just look at that turnout! Mama is so proud!

. . . daycare & the violent poo

Babymama has been negligent in updating this blog over the past 2 weeks, but with good excuse. It was babymama's first week back at work and baby-adorable's first week at daycare. Baby-bravest did great, and babymama did pretty good, too, though managing the morning time is a daily task of herculean proportions. Babymama has decided that in order to really streamline the process, she needs a personal assistant, a part-time nanny, and a maid. Babydaddy disagrees, but mama feels certain she can win him over eventually.

The first day of anything is pretty important, and since 'you only get once chance to make a good first impression', babymama wanted to make sure that baby-stylish looked great for her big day. Averie's debut outfit was an adorable purple flower-print onesie with matching pants and purple socks. Mama even picked out a matching bib in reverse color print to coordinate and sort of tie the whole outfit together. Baby-cutest looked the cutest, and mama knew that she'd be the hippest looking baby in her class. Alas, her look was only to last for a few hours - the impending change of clothes would be necessitated by the emergence of the violent poo.

As new parents, babydaddy & mama receive a lot - A. LOT. - of advice and plenty of cautionary anecdotes from other parents on how to grow up baby-adorable. Everyone who shared a word or two from their own child-raisin' experience also warned us about the über-poo. 'Get ready', they cried. 'It's coming, and it's coming fast and furious', 'That stuff travels', and 'Just wait' are just a sampling of the phrases that fell from multiple tongues as we anxiously awaited the arrival of this legendary diaper surprise.

It took awhile to get here. In fact, it took a lot longer than we were told it would take. But it did arrive, and in what can only be described as a violently explosive manner. We like to call these events, 4-diaper changes, as that's usually the number of diapers it takes to get the whole mess cleaned up. They don't happen often . . . at least, until recently.

Baby-stinky-dirty broke her teachers in right-fast on her first day of 'school'. She didn't take her time warming up to them or letting them get to know her. She oh-so-sweetly and indescribably-adorably (like those modifiers?) smiled and cooed as her teacher held her for the first time, and then she demurely (at least babymama hopes this is the case) threw down the violent poo. Babymama knows this for sure because baby-poopie-bottom came home in a brand new outfit, borrowed from the daycare, even though mama put 3 extra outfits in her daycare bag.

As previously noted, the violent poo was once a rare occurrence. These days, however, it seems to happen more regularly. At least once every 2 days, baby-fashionable comes home in something other than what she was wearing when she left. Babymama is not sure if this is a result of the new activities in baby-stinky's routine or if those cute little Pampers are too small, but one thing's for sure: all that poopin' wears a girl out.

See baby-new-clothes after her very first day of daycare. Also pictured is her favorite car toy, Ricky the monkey.