Monday, January 12, 2009

Oh yeah...

my baby is weaned! It took about a month of distractions when she really wanted the beeb and substituting cow milk, but it finally worked. :) She doesn't even freak out when she sees me without a shirt anymore. In the past, she would get all frantic and NEED the beeb immediately. She saw me before my shower yesterday and just pointed at them, said "beeb" and "bebe" a couple of times, and gave them a hug. :) Then she went back to playing, no big deal. Yay for being weaned!

So, 2009 is the year I'm reclaiming my body. For the past 2 years I've been either pregnant or breastfeeding. This year, I'm neither, so I'm making it my goal to work out more, lose these last 10 or so lbs, and be healthier so I can keep up with my little munchkin. :)

Hey, guess what...I'm going to the gym now. Seriously. :)

sorry for the essay....


I felt bad about just posting that enormous amount of text with no eye candy to go along with it....so, here's one teaser pic. :)

More to come!

2 months...in a nutshell

As tempting as it is to neglect the blog further in order to get cussed out by Jimmie Sue, I've decided to update the blog anyway. I'll have to save getting cussed out for another day. :) Besides, the longer I neglect the blog, the more I'll have to catch up on writing and updating. I feel I'm already far enough behind. So, I think today's blog will just be a text update. Boring, I know. You'll have to continue to wait for an update including pics of my beautiful little baby. (does that warrant getting cussed out??)

So, let's see....the bloggerific update was from sometime in November. Alrighty...here we go.

November was a very busy month for us. We spent most of the month preparing for our Louisiana trip. Jezebel had her 1 year checkup on the 24th of November. This was also the day we departed on our journey. We skipped the shots at her Dr. visit in order to make our long road trip a little more bearable. She did amazingly well on the trip. She took a nap for a couple of hours, was up for a while being nice and content, and eventually it was bedtime. She slept for about 11 hrs which allowed us to press further into our journey without having to make too many pit stops. La de da....driving driving..blah. Yay..we made it to Louisiana! We stopped off to visit Amanda in Shreveport for a bit. It was a nice break from being stuck in the car for so long. Jezebel loved playing with Esten and getting out to stretch her legs. She was just getting the hang of walking and wanted to practice a little more. Hanging out. Hanging out. Back on the road for 3 1/2 more hours. Yay! We made it to my parents' house. Hugs, kisses, love and grub. I was so happy to see my parents. I'd been missing them so much. I miss them again. So, I guess another trip will need to be planned. :)

Thanksgiving...saw lots of family. Hugs all around. Ate lots of food. La la la.

Jezebel's first birthday was the day after Thanksgiving. The party was lots of fun. Daniel got lost in Natchez for a bit, with the baby and cupcakes in tow. Jezebel was fashionably late to her party. All of the kiddos loved the pink and black skull balloons and decorations. The balloons kept the kiddies well entertained. The cupcakes gave everyone a nice sugar rush with the 2" thick icing piled atop each one. Yum! Jezebel got all kinds of neat gifts. The givers have all been thanked. :) I'm so very happy I got to see everyone at her party. Jezebel was happy to play with all of her little cousins too. :) (Definitely uploading pics of the party soon!)

Moving on to December. We Stayed in Louisiana until December 3rd. We spent the rest of our visit trying to squeeze in seeing as many people as possible. Holly was awesome for letting us stay at her house. I had lots of fun staying up really late playing Little Big Planet with Holly, Joel, and Daniel. The babes were all sleeping, so it kind of reminded me of staying up super late with Holly back in our kid-free days. When the babes were awake, they loved playing together. We got to go hang out with Jamie and her crew too. So, there were lots of little babes running, walking, crawling, and squirming around. It was so cute to see all of our kiddos playing together. I wish I could have that everyday. I suppose the rarity of it all just makes it even more special though.

We were able to visit with James and his family and bit before we left. I'm glad he was able to come in from work before we had to leave. Jezebel really liked playing with Ayden and Skye. I'm so happy that she got to see all of her little cousins and got to play with so many wonderful little kiddos. :)

The trip home was pretty uneventful. Jezebel was teething most of the way home and popped out 2 more teeth. She slept most of the way home, but definitely did not sleep oh, the last 4 or 5 hours. She was not a happy baby. She was sick and tired of being stuck in her car seat. We were all a little tired of being stuck in the car. Colorado was a snowy, icy mess when we got home. We had to take the last stretch very slow and careful. Which made our journey even longer. Jezebel wasn't happy. Driving. Driving. Driving. Yay! We made it home! We all relaxed and passed out. Daniel and I were so happy to not be living out of our suitcase anymore. 2 weeks is a long time to live out of a box. Bleh.

We took the next couple of weeks kind of easy. We slowly readjusted to our Colorodan lives. Then came Christmas. We finally got our shopping finished a few days before Christmas. I was happy to use online shopping for all of our long distance gifts. I was able to find super cheap, and sometimes free shipping for the gifts. Awesome. Christmas morning was very nice. It was just the 3 of us. We set Jezebel's gifts up around the tree after she went to sleep the night before. So, when she came downstairs, it was all a big surprise for her. She was super cute to watch. She got all kinds of neat gifts (rocking chair, rocking horse, toy box, raggedy anne doll, toy piano, clothes, books, etc.) This Christmas was much different for last year. She was an itty bitty 3 1/2 week old baby who only ate and slept. This year was more fun for all of us. (I wasn't recoving from childbirth, yay!) I can't wait until next Christmas. She'll been even more fun to watch!

Ney Year's Eve....Jezebel got to stay up til midnight with us. She's my little night owl. She usually goes to bed between 930-10 and wakes up around 10-1030. Nice. :) Tab, Evan, Ray, and Jo came over and we all stayed up toasting the new year and playing RockBand2. Lots of fun. Jezebel had a virgin Pina Colada. Yum! After midnight, we put the wee one to bed and continued to quietly celebrate the new year. Evan and I became ill with celebration, but we felt great the next day! :)

Fun little things about Jezebel from the last month or 2: She likes to walk exclusively, have us chase her around the couch, play peek-a-boo, peek while putting her hands over her eyes, open Madeline's mouth and be a dentist, and lots of other things. She likes the word pretty and makes super sweet faces when told that she's pretty. She can also stack her stacking rings now instead of just taking them off and scattering them throughout the house. She loves shoving stuff through the cat door that leads down to the basement. If we can't find something after looking everywhere, we open the basement door and check the stairs. Usually we find whatever we're looking for. She can point out lots of objects and animals in her little books (cat, dog, pig, bear, duck, hat, socks, boat, baby, etc). She imitates washing her hair, brushing her hair, brushing her teeth, talking on the phone, tries to put on her socks/pants/shoes/hat but can't quite get it right, and she "cleans" things with her wipes. She can also respond to simple questions/requests like "where's your milk/kitty/baby", "can I have that", "come here", "bring me your..." Oh, and she loves to dance! She's turning into such a super cute little girl.

Alrighty...I think that brings this little blog up to speed. Well, at least text wise. I have to organize my photos and such and get around to uploading them. We took about 2Gb of pics and videos during our 2 week Louisiana visit and we've taken a lot more since then. Crazy I know. So, sometime in the near future, I shall upload pics and possibly go into more detail about the visits and holidays and such. Yay!

Monday, December 29, 2008

Sorry

I finally took down the flash video. Sorry to anyone reading. Next time I will put a mute button on it. :)

Friday, November 14, 2008

Monday, November 10, 2008

My First Post: Day of the Dad

Part I


What better way to start my Bloggings journey then with a post all about my usual day with Jezebel. This will be a picture journey. . . because it means less typing for me. :)



08:00AM


I awake to the sounds of "MAMAAMAMMAMAMAMAMAMAMAAAAAMMAMAMAMA!"

I answer the call and since I am NOT the Mama, am usually greeted with:

All is forgiven and we go downstairs. . .



08:05AM


Jezebel sits and plays in the living room. . .


Whilst I do dishes. . .



and make delicious and much needed coffee ;)




08:55AM


Breakfast. . .

Oatmeal with peaches and blueberries. . .

and cheddar bunnies of course. . .



09:16AM


Playtime. . .





09:25AM


Jezebel decides she wants to chase me. I can see the change in her. . . going from sweet innocent baby:

To wild animal with prey in her sights!

and so the chase begins. . .


The chase usually ends with lots of giggling and wiggling:




10:30AM

More playing and winding down for nap time. . .




10:37AM


Time for a napping baby. . .



End: Part I

Sunday, November 9, 2008

It's been a while.

Protesting the nablopomogosmododococonut....yeah..I haven't posted anything in November yet. I figured I was due for a post. So, I finally got the pics off the camera. I know everyone loves pics...all 4 people who view my blog. Well, maybe more check it out. I'm not a diva...I don't have 400 followers. That's cool with me...less pressure to perform. :)

So..Halloween. Jezebel was a furry little mouse. The costume only kind of swallowed her. :) Daniel and I were Reginald and Polly the British Exterminators. No...we didn't exterminate the British...we exterminate rodents, vermin, and cats. Well, maybe not cats. Anyway, we had lots of fun. We did a little trunk-or-treating at the Y. Then we followed up with a little trick-or-treating in a fancy neighborhood with Daniel's boss and her kids. We didn't just show up in the neighborhood and snag rich candy...his pharmacist boss lives there. :) My little mouse loved going to different houses, mostly because everyone had pets...and Jezebel LOVES animals. She'd just about leap out of my arms to get to the kitties and pups. Cute baby. Anyway...here's some pics....


Jezebel has also had a couple of play dates recently. She's had so much fun playing with other babes. I can't wait until we visit Louisiana in 2 weeks. :) Oh...and she likes cars.

Last little bit of the post....we went to Cane's last night. Yeah, they have one in Fort Collins, CO. It's about a 30 minute or so drive. Daniel wanted to drive the crv (also known as the "Curve") on the interstate. Oh yeah, we got a new car. I don't have any pics...but if you look up "2003 Honda CRV EX in Chianti Red Pearl" you'll see it. What a lame name for a car color. So, I've always been opposed to red cars...but this one isn't so bad. It's a darker red...not a Polly lipstick red. :)


Oh..and I just like this photo of Jezebel standing. She's walking a lot more now. She's opting to walk over crawl lately. It's really neat to watch her skills improve each day...or even each hour! Amazing.

That's all. :)

Monday, October 27, 2008

I'm up really late...

My sleeping schedule has been thrown off a bit lately. We had a visitor, but I'm not blaming him. I'm not quite sure what it is. I suppose it may be that since Jonathan was here, Daniel was staying up later since he didn't have to work...and since I like hanging out with Daniel, I was staying up later too. Well, Jonathan left yesterday....but we're still staying up late.

Luckily, neither of us have to work tomorrow. Of course, I probably could find a sub job....but I've already made plans for tomorrow. Daniel and I will be sorting our closet. Yay! I have so many stinking clothes in there. Most are from pre-prego, some are fatty mcmaternity clothes, and others are newer stuff that I actually wear. I only wear about ah... 8% of my clothes. ...maybe 9% :) Anyway, it's ridiculous. Yeah, so that's the plan for tomorrow. I also need to put away Jezebel's clothes. I'm terrible about that. They usually sit in her basket for weeks. I just pull her wardrobe from the basket. Sure, there's no problem with that, but I know I feel much better when they're all put away. Her room seems bigger and neater without that basket of clothes.

Speaking of clothes, I still need to sort through her clothes. It's getting time to put away the smaller clothes and also the summery ones...which she'll never wear again. Daniel and I are planning on visiting the consignment shop tomorrow to drop off our sorted clothes and hers as well. So, hopefully they'll take some of our stuff. If not, there's a thrift store next door that will take the donations. I really intended to send some of the clothes to some new babies, but now they're too big for some of them. I should probably still send some of the ones that will fit.

I need a paragraph about procrastination now. So, I've had all of these projects that I've been trying to complete. I keep getting side-tracked and starting something new...or just vegging out playing Fable II. Ah, video games. Anyway, I've been trying to get these gifts out to new babies, who aren't so brand-new anymore. I feel bad about not completing the gifts and sending them. I want to just finish and mail them, but then I start thinking about how it's taken so long, that I should send something else along with it. That something else never comes along, and the original project doesn't get finished because I'm waiting for that something else, and then I just feel bad all over again. I just need to convince myself that the one gift I am making will be plenty and that I don't need to include other gifts to make up for lost time. Still trying to convince myself. Bleh. Then I start thinking, well, I'm visiting Louisiana in November, so I can just save on shipping and hand deliver the goods. Then I start thinking again...that it's been so long and the gifts are way overdue that I should include something else along with those gifts. Ah, the vicious cycle. To quote myself "I just need to convince myself that the one gift I am making will be plenty and that I don't need to include other gifts to make up for lost time." Again, still trying to convince myself.

Technically, it's the 27th now. My sweet baby will be 11 months old tomorrow! That's just crazy. There's only one month until her birthday. We still have so much to do before then. We'll be in Louisiana in one short month. I'm so excited to see everyone. :) Again, we still have soooo much to do. I still need to finish my projects....but first, I need to handle Halloween. :) Then I'll get back to the projects, finish some goods, have a clean closet, try to buy a car (Honda CRV actually), and the other 439 things that need to be done to prepare for the munchkin's birthday and our trip. :)

Due to the amount of rambling, I'm now convincing myself that I really need to go to bed. :) So, I guess I'll go to bed...and nap when Jezebel naps tomorrow...as I've been doing the past several days.

Before I sleep...a few pictures to make this rambling worth while...

Jezebel loves her cheerios.


Jezebel and me after her bath...she's a happy and clean little baby



Daniel, Jonathan, and Jezebel wearing the gnome hat I made for her...yes, over her hood :)



Jonathan and Jezebel visiting the Rocky Mountains



my sleepy little munchkin...passed out, gripping the bear's fur



Norman family portrait...don't we look awesome? :)


That's all. :) Good night.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Jezebel visits the pumpkin patch...


Jezebel had a great time eating the dirt and grass. It was a little tricky to get her to look at the camera with so many great distracting things around her.



She got to sit on a huge pumpkin too. Amazingly, she did not protest or fall off. It could be because she has something yummy in her mouth, as usual. :)


She looks like she's giving one of those fake little kid smiles when they don't really want to smile at all. You can see her little teeth. :)


Jezebel wasn't too keen on being eaten by Daniel's zombie pumpkin. I just had to do it though...this is the only year she'll be small enough to fit in a pumpkin. Unless of course, we decide to get one of the super ginormous pumpkins next year. :) What better way to celebrate her first Halloween than sitting inside a zombie pumpkin?


She did like sitting in front of the glowing jack-o-lanterns and pointing at the faces though. It was super cute. Then again, everything about her is super cute. :)


..my pumpkin.

...Daniel's special zombie :)

Sunday, October 5, 2008

I've been tagged...

I am: a mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend, lover, artist...and a leo. :)
I think: too much. I usually over think everything and run through every possible scenario before taking action.
I know: lots of random, useless information...and some useful stuff too.
I want: to lose this baby fat. (tru dat)
I have: a jiggle belly.
I dislike: putting laundry away, doing dishes, the constant need to clean (not ocd).
I miss: all of my friends and family in Louisiana terribly, my care-free, low responsibility college days, my parents.
I fear: things that could be lurking in the dark, falling from very high places, the possibility of unfriendly ghosts, and other random fears.
I feel: comfy in my jammies.
I hear: the air conditioner humming and nothing from my sleeping baby.
I smell: nail polish, since I just painted my toenails.
I crave: some of my delicious brownies.
I cry: when I'm sad, happy, overwhelmed, upset, angry, intimidated, nervous, embarrassed, scared...my tear ducts are connected directly to my emotion sensors.
I usually: get to sleep-in when Daniel is home to watch the baby.
I search: for good clearance items.
I wonder: what Jezebel will be like as she grows older, when I'll be ready to have another baby, what kind of parents Daniel and I will be over the next 20 years and beyond, when we'll be able to buy a house, etc. I wonder lots.
I regret: not spending as much time as possible with my family and friends before I moved 1200 miles away.
I wish: I could visit Louisiana several times a year.
I love: my sweet Jezebel and my Dani more than anything in the world.
I care: about being the best wife and mother I can.
I always: kiss Daniel and Jezebel before I go to sleep and when I wake up.
I worry: about Jezebel not knowing my family as well as Daniel's.
I am not: exactly the same as I used to be.
I remember: my childhood and I smile.
I believe: I have a good life.
I sing: alone in the car, silly songs to Jezebel, and sometimes to Daniel. I have a terrible singing voice though, and do not sing much out of embarrassment.
I don't always: know how to entertain my baby.
I argue: with Daniel over stupid misunderstandings.
I write: in a strange mix of lower and upper case letters when I'm writing quickly. I write in very neat caps when I take my time.
I win: wrestling matches with Daniel.
I lose: my phone daily. Jezebel loves to chew on it and crawl around with it.
I listen: to music all day with Jezebel and soft music at night when we're sleeping.
I don't understand: emo boys and their tight, sagging pants.
I can usually be found: at my apartment with Jezebel, Daniel, and our animals.
I need: to feel needed.
I forget: Jezebel's rough days and nights when she hugs me, smiles for me, or laughs because of me.
I am happy: when it's just the 3 of us, no where to be, no one to see, just our happy little family spending time together. Also, I'm happy when I get to hear from my family and friends that I miss so much.