I'm about to become a farmer...

It's kind of frustrating when...

• The pain reliever you give your child to ease the discomfort of vaccines is recalled.
• The formula you give your child to help her gain weight is recalled.
• The teething tablets you give your child to help with teething pain (without using pain reliever) is recalled.
  

Seriously, people, it's been a frustrating year!

FYI

My kid loves fried rice.

Maybe not now...

CO and I were talking tonight about the possibility of having a second child. I had gone to the hospital today to see our friends and their new (as of 3:30am this morning new) baby girl. I said that it wouldn't be so bad to have another child, as ours is so good.

CO responded, "Have you seen what she's doing?"

I looked down to see Lu'au chewing on the bottom shelf of the coffee table. (Teething stinks.)

It's not for lack of trying

I really wish Lu'au would take a bottle. It would make my life significantly easier (I can only guess that it would). We have tried numerous bottles with her, and we think she might start to take one - Tommee Tippee. Including that one, we have purchased and tried over ELEVEN different kinds of bottles. Oh goodness, let's hope this does not foreshadow pickiness to come...

Bad Mommy

Hubby had a wedding to go to/be in over Memorial Day and we decided that it'd be too much for baby Lu'au and I to go along. He went to play in the Mediterranean and we went to see my family in Michigan.

We had tons of fun with my family. We went to the beach (I love Lake Michigan) I went fabric shopping. It was very relaxing and good. Until... my mom got pink eye. Yup, Lu'au's Grandma got pink eye. You know, the one who had been holding her and playing with her all the time? Great. So she washed her hands a ton and didn't hold Lu'au for 2 whole days. Then... on the day we left, Lu'au got pink eye in her right eye with a vengeance. All the while, I got a sore throat. I thought it was due to drier air or something, and focused on baby girl's poor eye.

I'm not sure what exactly happened, but Lu'au's pink eye spread to the other eye. And she got whatever congestion junk I have. And the other day she had a fever. Fabulous. So she has to have eye drops every 4 hours. And off-brand "Tylenol" (Tylenol is bad due to the recall). Her nose runs so I have to suction bulb it clean. All things she HATES. She has trouble sleeping and eating. Aside from her eye drop/Tylenol regimen, there's not much I can do.

Oh, and did I mention she's only gained about 1/2 a pound since her 4 month appointment and she's now a few weeks over 5 months old?

I have a headache, an achy ear (do I have an ear infection?), and am tired from my own sickness and staying up with her...

I tried to call Tricare to set an appointment to get her ears checked (and mine too) for ear infection, but their computers are down.

Mommyhood = fail.

Waiting and Talking

Sometimes I wish baby girl (shall I call her Lu'au?) would talk. I try to interpret her cries - "Mama, I am ti-red!", "I'm bored", "Can a girl get food around here?"... I try to fit my words into each one of her outbursts.

My neighbors joke that with their kids they could discern the cries to mean #4, #7, and #2... (Surely this cry means #3) unfortunately, they never received the manual to interpret what #4, #7, and #2 meant.

At times I wish Lu'au could tell me what she wanted, what's going on in her world. If she really thinks the cereal we've started to feed her tastes terrible. If she just wants to be held sometimes. If she's not frustrated with her tummy time, instead she feels the burn of the ab workout she's getting.

I'm so excited to know what she thinks... but then again, can you imagine what a baby would say if they could talk upon birth? That's where the fun really starts... "I hate this outfit", "Holy cow! Those are MY knees?", "I have a huge poop coming and this diaper doesn't stand a chance to contain it all"... the possibilities are endless when you add those to the basic needs of sleep, food, etc.

God must have had a plan in not letting babies speak until they are about one year old. Can you imagine all of the whining that could take place? All of the confusion... And what language would it have been?

I kind of wish that I would have a little more waiting involved when I speak. Sometimes I say really dumb, hurtful things. I say a lot of things just to not have silence. I've never been particularly eloquent - words don't come naturally for me. Perhaps I should take a cue from Lu'au and wait a while before I speak... but maybe not a whole year...

Picture time!

What's up with the weather?

So we've been having colder than normal weather here. And it has me all confused. Around Easter, we had some 90*+ days. That was unseasonably warm and left me scrambling for clothes in which to dress baby girl. I find that it's hard for me NOT to dress her in layer upon layer of clothes because that's exactly what I had to do for so long when she was born. Enter Easter weekend: It's hot Hot HOT. I'm still trying to put a onesie underneath everything. I teach myself to reject this desire.

Enter cold weather IN MAY. I no longer have those layers for baby girl. Most of the stuff she's in right now (3-6 months, 6 months, or 6-9 months) is summery. I have two longsleeved onesies that she wears every other day now, in a nice little rotation. I had to retrain myself how to layer her clothes... how to make sure she's warm at night. Everything. I look forward to taking her to Florida where I'll be able to dress her in warm clothes again!

Gosh, my life is boring. Sorry.

Some of my favorite parts :)

shaka!

Tonight

Baby girl and her daddy walked to the store. I guess she laughed all of the way. Probably because she lost a sock and no one noticed until they got home and Mama asked where her sock was...

A new kind of score-keeping

Today:
nails Mama cut : 9
fingers Mama cut : 0


last Friday:
nails Mama cut: 1
fingers Mama cut: 1


That whole "cut the baby's nails while they're sleeping" thing is great... until you figure out you have swaddled their hands IN the wrap so that the baby doesn't wake herself. Then you cut her finger and it bleeds all over a new (never been worn) onesie from Janie and Jack that you still probably paid too much for, even though you chose it off the clearance rack.

I think nail-cutting will remain a job for Daddy!

Ten Good Things (in no particular order)

A friend recently wrote about 10 good things that she's thankful for, and it inspired me to do the same:

1. Baby girl smiles - they're the best!

2. A husband who says, "Are you going to get a pedicure? That's what girls do when it's spring."

3. Blossoming trees, particularly cherry trees, even though they make me sneeze. But they are like cotton candy for the eyes!

4. The idea of planting a garden

5. Planning a trip to Florida to introduce BG to her aunts & uncle

6. Getting the itch to craft again

7. Dreaming of visiting Hilo soon

8. Happiness over inexpensive cute new t-shirts from gap

9. Excitement of a friend's husband returning from several months in Afghanistan and him finally getting to meet his ADORABLE son

10. Starting to get the house in order again after being sick and traveling

{bonus} Getting 8 consecutive hours of sleep a night!

My little penguin

My little bear :)

Introducing our gift :)

The pictures are a little bit out of order... but I'd like to introduce you to baby girl

Mother and baby are doing great! Daddy and I are head over heels for her already :)