Are you kidding me?

Happy February!

2012-02-01T19:52:00.002-06:00

I'm starting this month off on a positive, productive foot: a posting on the first day. I've been back in a blah slump for a few days ("Already?" you say? Yes. Though, I'm pretty sure this is due to lack of sleep from pregnancy induced heartburn.) so I'm climbing out of it...or at least trying as much as a 30-week pregnant person can. So anyway, the weather here in Alabama has been very un-winterly. It's quite depressing. 60-70s every day. It's February, people. I want cold weather. I guess I will have to live out the rest of this winter living vicariously through Julia in Alaska (3 feet of snow, anyone?). So anyway, despite my disappointment in the warmth of this winter, it has given Eden and me more opportunities to do things outside, so here's what we've done:This is another reason I had a child: to have an excuse to play with Crayola products. I can't wait till I can buy all the Crayola crayons (is a new 96-pack every week too much??) and other crafty things for ~~myself~~ Eden to play with. Already loooving the giant chalk. :)As you can see in the above picture, I am not the only parent in this household with an affinity for coloring. It'll be even better when Eden stops trying to eat the crayons while Kevin and I are coloring with her in our laps. New favorite photo:Have a great week!Oh wait - I forgot to tell you: I am taking a birth doula workshop this coming weekend to learn to become a firefighter - just kidding, a birth doula (duh). My goal/wish is to be able to offer labor/postpartum support to women in Montgomery on a part-time basis. Hopefully I actually get some clients and can figure out the whole may-need-childcare-at-2-AM-randomly thing. Besides Baby 2, it's the next biggest event in my life right now. Wish me luck!

Wiggles and Giggles

2012-01-27T09:39:00.002-06:00

Before I had a kid, I used to not be the biggest fan of toddlers. I thought they were kind of annoyingly silly and too much trouble to keep corralled. Now that I have my own little version, I think she is wonderfully silly because she's too hard to keep corralled. Let me elaborate with pictures.

Why play with toddler toys when you can play with fireplace toys?

And more fireplace toys?

And the best fireplace toy of all? (On guard, ashes and grate!)

And who wants a few crayons when you can have hundreds (literally) strewn about the floor (thank goodness for Magic Erasers)?

And food isn't just for eating...

Don't you hate it when you get your mom's cell phone stuck in the bottom of your pajamas?

The heck with pushing a doll in a stroller! Daddy's church stuff and work stuff is way more fun!

And finally, sometimes you have to go out on a limb and make your own fashion statement.

Holiday travels

2012-01-09T14:30:00.003-06:00

Croup update: croup is gone (I think), and now Eden's on the tail-end of a regular cold. Glory glory hallelujah!

I promised an overview of our 2011 holidays, so here they are.

We visited my mom and step-dad and Eden opened enough presents to supply Santa's workshop for 12 years.

We stayed with my dad and his wife and family for a few days and visited the lights at the zoo.

Eden discovered the joy of slides while we were there.

And the sandbox.

We also visited Kevin's parents and had a nice dinner with them. Then we came back to Alabama to have a relaxing Christmas morning together. Eden loved the stockings.

And just because I think this photo is funny (she's playing with a necklace):

Then we went to church and sung lots of Christmas carols.

Then we came home and she discovered the oven mitts.

And finally Kevin took my favorite photo of Eden and me the other day so I thought I'd include it, too. Here's actual proof I'm pregnant. It's probably the only photo I have of me pregnant with Baby 2. I hate what's happened to my belly button, but I won't complain too much because I've been blessed with no stretch marks. Thank you, genetics from Mom!

Oh, poop. It's croup.

2012-01-05T07:52:00.003-06:00

Happy 2012, everyone!

The holidays were lovely, but I can honestly say I'm happy to see the end of them and get back to a normal routine. I feel like November and December were kind of one big long vacation-but-not-really blur. I thrive on routine. Without it, I fall into a slump that is really hard to get out of, especially being pregnant (the couch is always soooo inviting...). Anyway, Kevin officially started his new S.O.S. teaching cycle on Tuesday. He gets his first S.O.S. students this coming Monday. With him returning to his regular job, I have been re-inspired to un-slump myself and Eden. It's a new year, and I'm ready to get back to normal. I have been bad about letting Eden's normal routine slip (which part of me feels a little okay about since I'm pregnant and sleeping is just so wonderfully wonderful), but life is so much easier outside of pajamas so that's what I'm going to strive to do. Pajamas come off, real clothes go on, and away we go.

Unfortunately, this plan was sent slightly askew the first day this year. Eden took her first (and I pray to our Heavenly Father above the last) trip to the ER this past Sunday night due to difficulty breathing. Luckily, it's only croup, but let me tell you: listening to your child struggle to breathe is worse than struggling to breathe yourself. Good Lord, I was close to flipping out (which I did not - *cough cough* - despite what Kevin claims). But like I said, luckily Eden only has croup, which sounds, literally, horrific, but is actually quite common, I hear. (FYI: croup is when the trachea swells around the voice box and makes breathing a bit difficult and is often exacerbated by a cold which causes congestion and thus greater difficulty breathing. At least this is how I understand it.) But she's on the mend, thankfully. She's all drugged up on steroids (to reduce swelling in her throat) and antibiotics (to protect her lungs from infection) and cough syrup (duh), all of which I'm not a fan, but I guess all those drugs are better than listening to her wheeze and cry.

Other than that, things are fine here in Lawracy Land. I'll post holiday photos on my next post, I promise. No photos today. Sorry.

Toodles!

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-22T20:38:00.002-06:00

Man, I can't believe it's been almost a month since I've written a post on my blog. So much for my goal of one post a week. Geez. Sorry about that. So I'll do a brief post here and then another one (hopefully) soon with photos from our recent trip to S.C.

Kevin's birthday was Dec. 10 and we had a white elephant party at our house to celebrate. It was so much fun. I think we had about 20 people come over and they stayed for 6 hours! It was hilarious to see the crappy gifts (we set a limit to $5 gifts or re-gifted items) that people got stuck with. A few things were pretty good (a stack of DVDs, a chess set, some mixers for people who like to drink) and a bunch were stinky but oh-so-funny, such as my gift: a bag of Air Force Inn travel soap and shampoo bottles. I have to say, I think it's the funniest white elephant gift ever. :) I hope the Salvation Army likes them. Here's the group photo of almost everyone who came.

Eden had a blast at the party, too. She even grabbed somebody's gift and absconded with it.

On a different note, Eden discovered the joy of Swiffering with a dry cloth. I say, learn to love it now!

And of course, this wouldn't be a post about Eden without the obligatory something-non-edible-in-her-mouth photo:

In other news, Kevin and I celebrated our six-year anniversary on Dec. 19. We had a great dinner out without Eden and had fun making fun of each other and teasing each other how we never thought we'd get married when we were dating. :) I'm a lucky girl, what can I say? :)

And speaking of family, we visited S.C. for a week to celebrate Christmas with our families. We got back this evening and are very happy to be home, even though we had a great time seeing every one. Traveling with Eden always proves challenging. I'll post photos of our adventures in the next post.

Random facts: Eden turns 19 months on Christmas Eve. I'll be in my last trimester starting in January. Kevin starts teaching Squadron Office School in January. And Sparty is officially off crate rest and quarantine.

Merry Christmas everyone! Take moment and reflect on all your blessings as you do all your holiday activities! :)

Case of the Mondays

2011-11-28T17:01:00.002-06:00

You ever see the movie Office Space? You know the annoying lady who says "Ooo, it looks like somebody has a case of the Mondays?" If she said that to me today, I'd say, "Yes. Yes, I do."

Boo.

Eden didn't sleep well last night and wonderful symptoms of pregnancy woke me up in the middle of the night (yay, acid reflux) so I was not happy to wake up this morning. Nothing went terribly wrong today; I just had no patience for anything or anyone. Poor Kevin. Poor Eden. Poor Ruby. Poor Sparty.

On the upside, it was only 50 degrees today and Alabama has a winter weather advisory for this evening for - wait for it - snow. Commence laughing. The day before Thanksgiving - less than a week ago - it was 80 - yes, 80 - degrees. So I was happy to bid the heat good-bye and say hello to cold.

Other than that, here's an update of what's been going on.

Look twice. It's not Eden. It's my friend's little girl. I watched her today and she found my sewing tape measures and an extension cord to be highly fashionable. I think this photo is hilarious.

My parents came to visit for Thanksgiving. The only photo I got of them the whole time was of them cleaning the kitchen after we ate. Thank you, heavenly parents, for cleaning up.

Doesn't she look so excited to eat Thanksgiving food?

This next one may be my new favorite photo of Eden.

High surfaces are no longer a deterrent for my child. Hurray.

My dad and his wife came to visit a few weekends ago. It's so nice when they come (and Dad, I promise it's not because I make you do manual labor). He built a built-in desk next to our fireplace. I love it.

This was Eden's first experience with a giant costume person. It wasn't the greatest experience. I have a feeling meeting Santa won't be that great either.

And just to prove that I do exist and I do actually get dressed out of my pajamas (sometimes), here's a photo of me and Eden.

And here's my "birthday cake." Kevin stuck 29 candles in a caramel apple. The thing was literally all aflame. I thought he'd set fire to the apple itself.

And that's life lately. Toodles!

It's a BOY!

2011-11-20T17:47:00.003-06:00

Or a girl.

Gotcha!

Either way, Baby 2 is very healthy so far. This week I'll officially be 20 weeks along. Half way done baking.

More later!
Toodles!

Kicks and giggles

2011-11-06T20:16:00.002-06:00

I am officially 29. Not the "29" that recurs after you actually turn 29, but for real 29. It's my last year to be young and stupid. Kevin says next year, I just get to be stupid. :)~
Anyway, I had a very nice birthday. I made myself apple cider spice donuts and caramel apple cider for my birthday treats instead of cake. Kevin put 29 candles in a caramel apple and I blew those out. When he walked into the room with the apple, I thought he was holding a ball of fire at first. I'll post the picture soon. For my presents, he excused my sewing machine debt (this is huge, my sewing machine was expensive), gave me 8 hours of "Mommy's not here" time, and let me pick 3 pounds of green tomatoes from our garden so I could make green tomato chutney. (He wanted the tomatoes to be able to turn red, but I really wanted them green for the chutney so we were having a friendly war about it.) It was a great birthday! :)
On a side note, I felt Baby 2 kick for the first time on Saturday. That was exciting. It means it's growing growing growing. Crazy to think in a few weeks I'll be half way done with my second pregnancy.

Pause.

Labor is 20-ish weeks away.

Oh Lord.

Anyway, moving on...
And finally I had to include a photo of Eden that makes me laugh. Her hair is insane. And so is she, most of the time. And I love her for it. :)

Halloween happiness...sort of

2011-10-31T20:28:00.002-05:00

I love Halloween and fall. It's my favorite time of year. Not too cold. NOT hot (well, mostly, since we live in Alabama). Great fall-themed food and beverages. And Halloween events. Woo-hoo!
Tonight was Eden's second Halloween. I have to admit, it wasn't much more successful than the last Halloween. I got her in her costume for about 15 minutes, then it was time to eat dinner, then it was time for bed. She stared bewildered at 2 trick-or-treaters then ran off after Ruby in the living room. I still had fun, though. We carved our pumpkin this afternoon. Eden helped by spooning the insides back into the pumpkin after I scooped them out.

She even flexed her creative muscle by adding some Wandering Jew plant stems to the scooped out insides.

In case you're wondering how our lovely pumpkin turned out, here it is:

I tried a new technique by carving out "BOO" in the back. It's supposed to light up on a wall behind the pumpkin, but this didn't really work because there was too much light outside. Oh well.

At church we went to the Trunk-or-treat. It was so fun. Insane and chaotic, but fun. First we all ate chili at the chili cook-off then children ran amok outside in the parking lot.

Here's Eden enjoying the attention of some church friends:

And looking intrigued by the trunk of Brother Seavey's car:

Now for some non-Halloween news. Eden had a hilarious (according to me and Kevin) run-in with a ketchup container. Eden was not so happy about it. But we cracked up. Don't you love when your baby does something that makes them cry and instead of consoling them, you run to get the camera and capture their sadness/embarassment/angry/frustration instead? I do.

After the church trunk-or-treat, Eden was insane for 2 hours at home. I couldn't even catch her long enough to take off all her clothes. She absconded from me in this condition:

And terrorized Ruby:

And finally, our wonderful friends the Newkirks PCSed to N.C. last week so no more mommy-time swapping and regular (free babysitting) date nights for us. And no more Amy and Noah. Very sad. I am very sad.

So that's our life lately. Oh, a Sparty update: he had to have more surgery because the pins in his arms broke and bent and he got an infection in one, so he's on more crate-rest and medicine. Joy. Poor little guy. He probably thinks we have forsaken him forever.

The cuteness won't stop!

2011-10-11T15:42:00.002-05:00

Be forewarned: there will be a surplus of cuteness again in this post. I'll try to tone it down. But I'm not promising anything.

So I told you that I made Eden's witch costume for a mother-daughter witch party. Let me tell you that was a fun party. Look how many witches there were.

Here is our mom-daughter photo.

I love the sunglasses and chimney hearth broom. :)
These are our "spooky treat" that we were supposed to bring: graveyard cupcakes.

And in case you can't get enough (because Lord knows I can't):

And we can't leave out a photo with Daddy:

Anyway, it was super duper fun. We had a great time!

WARNING: EXTREME CUTENESS AHEAD

2011-10-07T17:11:00.002-05:00

Proceed slowly with caution. You may involuntarily explode from the sheer cuteness of the photos that follow.

This is Eden's Halloween costume. Now, I am staunchly against taking children who have no clue that it's Halloween trick-or-treating (candy for the adults, anyone?), so we are not doing that. Instead, my friend is throwing a mother-daughter witch party tomorrow night (THIS is why I had a child!!) so I made her a witch costume. Then there are two trunk-or-treat activities we are going to because they are sort of festival-y things (we are abstaining from collecting candy, though). And I will dress her up again to give out candy on Halloween trick-or-treating night. So all in all, a great use of this costume. I just love it. Love it love it love it. I love Halloween! I love cutey Muffin in a cutey witch costume. She's just so C-U-T-E!

(the mother said humbly of her child...)

So this is the final outfit. I had the stripe leggings already. Below is a photo of the pants that I made to go with the top. I feel like they look more like PJs though with the pants on. What do you think?

And just in case you haven't keeled over from cuteness overload yet, here's another random cuteness shot.

With a child this cute, I must have 18 more.

Mini update

2011-10-04T10:34:00.002-05:00

Hello everyone,
Where did September go? Who cares? It's Halloween/fall time! Hurray! I've already decorated a little bit. I just couldn't wait. I love pumpkins and Halloween colors and cute kids costumes. I already made Eden's costume. It's a cute little witch costume. I'll post photos of it soon.
So Eden's ear infection is all gone. Now molar teething has commenced. Oh well. She has started talking a little. She says hi, bye, more, please, and she tried to say "Toto" (my mom's grandma name) the other day. She just gets more and more charming every single day. And her ability to drive me batty gets stronger and stronger. Ah, parenthood.
Sparty is doing fine. He has 2 pins in his front legs. He's confined to his crate for 6 weeks (5 more to go). He has to wear the cone of shame for 1 more week. And he takes medication 3 times a day. This is a fun process, let me tell you.
I'm doing better. First trimester is over thankfully. No more morning sickness feeling and no more run-down feeling (except for the nights Eden's teething is particularly exciting). And also, we have figured out our birthing plan for baby two. I won't write about it here, but if you're interested, gimme a call or shoot me an email.
Hope everyone has a wonderful week! And I know I already posted the photo below but I was playing around with it in Picnik and I like this modified version even better than the original.

Ear Infections, Birthing Options, and Dog Surgery! Oh my!

2011-09-20T17:48:00.003-05:00

Our trip to Michigan was a lot of fun. We saw 4 friends from college and 1 family from Tyndall AFB. We went to Nashville, Dayton, Cincinatti, East Lansing, Grand Rapids, Detroit, and a little town close to Ann Arbor. Here are some photos from our adventure:

Eating at the Neely's restaurant in Nashville (same Neelys as Pat and Gina from Food Network)

Eating at a Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives place in Cincinatti with our friend Heather Snyder

Snoozin' in the early morning hours at Heather's house in Dayton

Enjoying a quiet moment with Daddy reading a book in Grand Rapids at Lizzie and Dave's house

Visiting Grand Haven in Michigan with Lizzie - sans Muffin's face. (Lizzie, we did not get any photos of all of us with Dave! Poo.)

Opening a present from Uncle Andy in East Lansing at Lizzie's parents house.

Digesting dinner in Detroit with Uncle Andy and his girlfriend Jess.

Visiting the Children's Garden on Michigan State's campus (Go Spartans!).

We stayed with Lizzie's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Kidd, in East Lansing while we visited MSU. We basically took over their house and they were so gracious. It was so nice to stay there.

Finally we stopped near Ann Arbor to have breakfast with Kevin's first roommate, Jeremy, and his family at a Big Boy.

Overall, it was a great trip. Waaaay tooooo long in the car: over 39 hours. But we had a fun time. And now I'm still recovering.

Meanwhile, Muffin has learned to scoop dog food.

She can say Bye, Hi, and Uh-oh (and Mama, but she calls everybody mama). And she can sign Please, Thank you, I want, Milk, All done, Hi, and Bye. She knows to blow on hot food, and kind of how to eat with a fork.

That's the good. Unfortunately, she recently got her first ear infection. I know I should count myself as lucky to have a 16-month-old who has never had one before, but I was still sad. Sadder more when I discovered she wouldn't/won't take her antibiotics. She knows the flavor and I have tried E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G. So we're getting through it. She's getting better, thankfully.

On a non-Muffin note, I've been dealing with trying to figure out how to give birth naturally in Alabama without fighting a battle. It's very restrictive here as far as birthing options go. You all know I'm a big proponent of natural birth, and it's almost unheard of here. So I've been mildly stressing about it. I know it'll all work out, but it'll take a lot more planning and preparation this time around. Blegth.

And finally we found out that Sparty's elbows have a developmental deformity, known as elbow dysplaysia. Surgery is only available in Birmingham and will cost between $1500 and $2200. Double yuck.

So that's our life lately. Oh, a Kevin update: he's still doing curriculum development for SOS (a course for all AF captains) which he'll start teaching in January. Plus, he's currently working on his last class of his master's degree. Hurray!

Okay, that's it. Hope everyone's doing great! OH, wait!! I have a quick "survey" for you. You will probably have noticed by now that I'm (grudgingly) growing my hair out. Please leave me a message and let me know which you think I look better in: long(ish) hair, or short hair. You won't hurt my feelings. Tell me truth. I'm going to start my hair cutting campaign with Kevin soon and I'm curious how many people think I look better with short hair (but you won't hurt my feelings if you think I look better with longer hair. You'll just make me feel better about myself currently.)

2011-09-14T16:31:00.003-05:00

It's been several weeks since my last post, mostly because we went to Ohio and Michigan to visit a bunch of friends from college for a while. Then I had to take a while to recuperate from that trip. That was a LOT of time in the car with Eden, keeping her entertained. But now I'm (mostly) rested and ready to resume regular life. This won't be a long post but here's a quick review of our lives the past few weeks.

Still loves the bath. Now loves it even more with the addition of Mr. Bubble.

My two favorite human beings.

A fun trip to an AWESOME Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives restaurant in Cincinatti.

The obligatory plumber butt shot. Hilarious.

File this one in my "bad mommy" file along with the knife-sucking picture and alcohol bottle sucking picture. I swear I was right next to her. I have a video of her getting down. I'll post it later. It's hilarious.

Toodles!

And the winner is...

2011-08-21T13:55:00.002-05:00

Summer! You guessed it! The cryptic photo I took alluded to us already having one muffin, and now we have another muffin baking in the oven!

See the grayish smudges? That's our baby #2 due in April!

Leave me a comment and tell me what you think this means.

2011-08-17T08:27:00.002-05:00

This and That

2011-08-07T22:34:00.004-05:00

It's already August 7, and I only have 1 post so far. This makes 2. I pledge to do better. Anything's better than 1 post a month, right? So I formally apologize, beloved readers (all 2 of you), for forsaking you recently. This is my amends.

Today I was standing in the shower, enjoying the peace and quiet (and escape from the screaming in Eden's room - thank you, summer cold #?), when the following occurred to me. Call it "Warning."

"Warning"
or
Without a child, this would seem abnormal:

* pooping in the bathtub, then playing "go fish" with available nearby floating toys

* finding peanut butter and boogers in your hair

* finding Cheerios everywhere - in your wallet, falling out of your car, in your pocket, on your bedside table, in the couch cushions, underneath the washer and dryer...Yet somehow the Cheerio holder is always empty

* learning how quickly milk curdles in a sippy cup when left outside of the fridge

* hugging a naked baby standing in a tub while she poops and whines because this one seems especially difficult to...let go

* being tired of cooking scrambled eggs and making peanut butter sandwiches

* getting poked in the eye then watching the poker run away shreeking with delight

* finding various clothing articles in random rooms in your house

* finding various plastic food containers in random rooms in your house

* finding the dog bowl with one piece of food sitting in the middle of your living room or hallway when the last time you saw it it was in its holder in the laundry room

* finding lone tiny socks...everywhere

Yes, this is my life recently. Always exciting, never a dull moment with Eden.

A random photo from my cell phone today - great facial expression, huh?

Nothin' better than fresh picked, Eden-squeezed-to-death blueberries!

My mom came to visit, and they played in the rain. Eden loved it.
Here's a video of them playing. It's so cute to see her little feet piddle paddling in the puddles.

playing in the rain from Cameron Lawracy on Vimeo.

Chicco should market their infant carrier as 2-in-1: carseat and jungle gym!

Find the stuck (and squealing in the photo) baby!

An elusive quiet moment - captured on camera!

Baby toys - biggest wastes of money ever. Just let them wander; they'll find things with which to entertain themselves (just steer them clear of knives and mini bottles of alcohol)

Besides chasing after Eden, I've been in creating mode lately. I've sewn quite a few things lately. Here are two of them:

a romper

a baby bag (my new favorite thing)

And I've been busy in the kitchen. Ever wonder what 10 pounds of tomatoes looks like?

This photo is misleading. This bowl was huge.

And finally, I think my kitchen may have been trying to tell me something:

These random splatter marks said to me "I've seen too much of you lately. Go out to eat. It's too hot to turn on the stove or oven." (I promise I did not create those splatter marks to look like a sad face on purpose.)

So that's my life lately. Exciting? No. Entertaining? Usually. Fulfilling? Definitely.

Update

2011-08-05T13:03:00.003-05:00

Wow, time is flying this summer. How unfortunate that I only wrote one post in July. Shame on me! I haven't uploaded photos in a while, so instead your update today will include a video of Eden dancing. It is the funniest thing. She only just started recognizing music about a month ago, so now when she hears it, she swings her arms and bends her knees. It cracks me up. (Actually she recognized the Friends theme song about 6 months ago, but I could never get it on video. You don't think that means I watch Friends reruns too much, do you?)

13months-dancing from Cameron Lawracy on Vimeo.

As for a family update: my mom came to visit for a week recently and we had a nice time just hanging out. Kevin's currently working on his last class to finish up his master's degree. So he's been procrastinating, I mean plugging away at that. I've been teaching myself to can stuff. I've made dill pickles (yum-o, right Kelsey?), bread and butter pickles, fig preserves, marinara sauce, peach butter, peach salsa, and tomato salsa. Nothing exploded, so I think I was semi-successful in my canning attempts. It sure does make a mess, though.
Eden has been getting into all sorts of mischief. She likes to hand things to people now, as well as screech as loud as possible to get someone's attention. It's great fun in the car, let me tell you.
So that's about it. We are going to Michigan at the end of August for a little over a week, but other than that we are just hanging out in the sweltering arm pit of Alabama. Pray for winter to come early. Yuck.

How do I remove nail polish from carpet?

2011-07-13T17:23:00.007-05:00

That is the question for today...more like the theme to my life lately. Does anybody have any ideas? Seriously?
So Eden's walking now. Full up walking. She still falls over quite a bit, but she's pretty stable. This means she has learned how to reach up for stuff, climb in to stuff, and crawl under stuff. This has made for many moments where I simultaneously think "Oh crap!" and "This is the funniest thing ever!" Thus, the many and blurry photos. Let me elaborate with photos.

Scenario #1:

This is the root of the nail polish question. She had grabbed my nail polish bottle, and in the course of about 30 seconds (while my back was turned, of course), she had unscrewed the bottle and gotten the polish everywhere. (Speaking of opening things, the child is a master at opening anything. Seriously, anything at all. This is usually the source of most of my "Oh crap!" moments.)

Scenario #2:

She loves to climb on things. Today she decided to climb up on the printer box, then to stand up and survey her world. Luckily she did not fall down. I'm waiting for the day when that will happen...because it will. One day.

Scenario #3:

I didn't mention climbing through things...but she can. The dog door, in particular. (By the way, I made that shirt she's wearing.)
Then she turns around and looks at me with this mischievous grin, and my heart melts.

Scenario #4:

Everything goes in her mouth. At least this time it was food...albeit an entire Saltine. But whatever.

Scenario #5:

I'm cooking. I look down. My child has disappeared into the cabinet. And has climbed onto the top shelf. Great.

Scenario #6:

This was one of my more major "Oh crap!" moments. Can you tell what's in her hands? That's right. Mini bottles of alcohol. I have them in a cabinet far in the back to cook with, and of course!!! Eden found them. Of course. And I love the look I happened to capture in the photo. That's how I'm sure she would have looked had she been successful at opening the bottles.

Scenario #7:

Another one of my more severe "Oh crap!" moments. I was unloading the dishwasher, turned around to rearrange a stack of plastic bowls, and turned back around and Eden had crawled onto the dishwasher door, pulled out a knife (a butter knife, but still) and a fork and was sucking on the knife. Joy.

Scenario #8:

I was watching my friend's kid, Noah, and Eden got a hold of the Kleenex box and began pulling out all the tissues. Then Noah joined. After taste testing a few, Eden decided it was more fun to rip them to shreds.

Scenario #9:

While I was doing laundry, Eden discovered how to pull out the bowls from Ruby's dog food container and stick her head inside of it while wiggling her fingers in the food. I've found her many times with the dog food in her hands, but I've yet to catch her trying to eat it. I'll let you know the day that happens.

Scenario #10 (10? Is anyone else tired just from reading about Eden's shenanigans?)

Full speed ahead down the hallway ready for church. Of course with something in our hands.

Wait! Come back here!

Scenario #11:

This is a frequent game we play called "How many items can we hold in our hands and/or stick in our mouths?" I love that the items are swimming goggles. I don't even remember the last time we used those things. Where did she even get them out of???

Scenario #12:

We've already investigated the dog food. Now for the water.

Scenario #13:

This is another game we play called "Can I fit in this?"

The answer is no. (She was crying in this photo. I was laughing.)

Oh, Eden. You goober. You drive me crazy.

But I love you more than anything in the world. You little goofus.

Lovefest

2011-06-29T22:07:00.003-05:00

Ya ever love something so much you just don't know what to do with yourself?

I feel that way about my little girl. She's just the cutest, sweetest, spunkiest, most precious lovey dovey Muffin Moodle Poodle in the whole wide world.

In my opinion.

She gets cuter every day. Today, she crawled into the tupperware cabinet - all the way into it - I could have closed the door - just to get a plastic lemon holder in the very back.

Yesterday she crawled onto the dishwasher door and hung out there with the clean dishes while I laughed and took photos.

This evening while I was cooking dinner she wanted to be held so I was holding her while I cooked dinner. She helped me hold some potatoes. First, she taste-tested them. They passed.

Then I was still in the middle of cooking so I cleaned out the sink and she took her bath in the sink and had a joyous time with the scrub brush and the 1/4 measuring cup.

I just love her so stinkin' much! And I just had to tell somebody!

We're back!

2011-06-20T21:41:00.002-05:00

Happy Summer, everyone!

We had a fantastic time at the beach. The biggest thing that happened over that time is that before the beach, Eden was taking a few steps every few days and by the time we returned she is now walking all over creation. She is a living testimony of the notion that before they walk, all you want them to do is start walking, and after they start walking, all you want them to do is sit down and be still. She doesn't sit still at all anymore. Even to eat. She'd rather be hungry than stop exploring and playing. She's also testing out how effective tantrums and yelling are. I'm trying really hard to make sure she knows they are not effective, but man, sometimes all I want to do is laugh and kiss on her when she's yelling and shaking her little fists because I've taken something away from her. Is that normal? It makes me laugh so hard. I try not to know, because I don't want her to try to make me laugh by screaming. Ah, the joys of parenting.
Here are some photos from our trip:

Funny story: One morning my mom was watching Eden while I was asleep. (Kevin was back in AL working at this point.) All of sudden I hear "Close the drawer, Muffin! Close the drawer!" I got out of bed real quick because something in my mom's voice made me concerned. I went out in the hall and discovered that Eden had closed the door to the bathroom and opened a drawer in the vanity and locked herself in the bathroom and Mom couldn't get her out. Then Eden started crying and Mom thought she had hurt herself or something. Eden had discovered the bottom drawer in the bathroom at the beach house had fun toys like Tylenol bottles and cold medicine. Luckily we got the drawer closed and the door opened pretty quickly, but Eden had discovered how to open the child proof pill bottles. Talk about giving us a heart attack. Good gracious. Luckily everything worked out fine and Eden was okay. But I took this picture only about 10 minutes later (apparently the adults did not learn from their lesson the first time). After that, we kept the hallway blocked so she couldn't go back into the bathroom.

More getting into trouble:

Eden and her Toto (my mom)

And on the way home, we stopped at our favorite store. Can you guess where we are?

So that's our trip. Nothing special happened. We just had a really nice time. It's nice to be back home now, though.

Firsts

2011-05-26T15:39:00.004-05:00

What a great week it has been so far! This week was Eden's first birthday and besides turning one, she has done quite a few "firsts" in the past few days. I've gotten videos of them all, except one: her first step. She has taken her first step, but she'll only do it once and then refuses to do it again. She does seem to be motivated to take more steps if there's an interesting toy she wants to get her hands on, but apparently if Mommy is present, it doesn't work. So anyway, here is the past week in photos:

First birthday complete with first cupcake (carrot cake with cream cheese frosting)

First outfit I sewed for her (it's reversible with matching bloomers and reversible hat):

First mylar balloon (man, did she enjoy this):

12 months-enjoying a balloon from Cameron Lawracy on Vimeo.

First time in a pool (watching while Mommy blows bubbles):

11 months-first time in pool from Cameron Lawracy on Vimeo.

First time climbing up her playpen (her monkey genes must have recently kicked in):

12 months-climbing playpen from Cameron Lawracy on Vimeo.

And finally, the first time feeding herself with a spoon (technically it's a fork, but whatever):

12 months-feeding self with spoon from Cameron Lawracy on Vimeo.

There you go! By now you've probably burned up a good 30 minutes staring at the amazing feats of Eden. I wanted to make sure you had your fill of her because for the next 3 weeks starting tomorrow I'll be at the beach with Kevin and her and eventually my mom, so no blog postings till the middle of June. Here's to family vacation! Woo-hoo!

P.S. As always, I feel the need to apologize for the excessive squealing and laughing from me on the videos. Apparently once you become a mom, things like watching your kid eat with a utensil and play with a balloon become the most exciting things you see. So please pardon my excessive noise.

P.P.S. The password for the swimming pool video is the same as always. However, apparently I have created 2 passwords by mistake. Try both. One should work. Hint: it's 13 characters long (letters and numbers).

Confessions of a Suburban Housewife

2011-05-16T21:27:00.006-05:00

It's been a while since I've written a confession from my humble suburban housewife perspective so I thought I'd offer some random thoughts today, instead of the typical family update. After some reflection, I've realized lately that there are quite a few things that I actually enjoy and love that pre-baby, I NEVER thought I would.

Just like any job, there are definitely things that I do not enjoy about being a housewife. Dishes and laundry are officially on my hit list (they get together at night and figure out ways to thwart my attempts at reducing them). Sometimes there is no motivation to change out of my pajamas. Having to vacuum and mop constantly lest my little girl choke on a random tidbit of what-have-you left on the floor isn't always fun. But on the flip side, there are things that I love. Absolutely love. That I never thought I'd ever love, but I do. Such as...

...seeing a mess of baby toys covering a floor with my baby plopped happily in the middle of it

...spying hair bows and elastics on every surface in every room

...cleaning up a little baby pee-pee on the carpet

...washing cloth diapers (the only exception to my laundry aversion)
...making baby food (but not cleaning up the dishes associated with it)
...taking the dogs and my baby for a walk every day

...getting splashed and soaking wet while my baby's in the bath

...cuddling with her in the middle of the night when she wakes up

...cleaning up the trail of Cheerios that meanders through our house (and yard and car and...)

...rescuing her from panicking due to getting tangled in her clothes

And there are more things. Many more things. So despite never thinking I'd ever love being a housewife and stay-at-home-mom, there is absolutely nothing more wonderful and rewarding than this job. I am so lucky to be able to do it.

A thank-you and a video

2011-05-13T21:02:00.003-05:00

Greetings everyone! I have two specific purposes for this post.

1. A video of Eden: I made her some mashed turnips (thank you, Grammy, for introducing turnips to me!) and was going to feed them to her with a spoon, but instead she decided to stick her whole hand in the bowl and shove them in her mouth. And of course, I laughed. So this video is of her smushing turnips in her mouth and of me laughing.

Untitled from Cameron Lawracy on Vimeo.

2. Eden's first birthday is quickly approaching (insert the obligatory "where did the time go?!?!" comments here) and somebody out there sent her a wonderful birthday book. Only I have no clue who sent it because there's no note attached or "from" message. So please help me figure out who to thank for her really neat first birthday present!

Have a great weekend! Love, Cam

Happy Muffin Monday!

2011-04-25T20:29:00.003-05:00

It's 8:30 pm, but I actually have remembered that it's Muffin Monday! I have some very cute Easter-related pictures of her and I actually managed to get one of me and her and of Kevin, me and her. It happens so rarely now that sometimes it seems like Kevin and especially I do not exist anymore (at least in the photo world).

So anyway, here are some photos that make me laugh/smile. I hope they make you laugh/smile, too! Have a great week!

Her Toto bought her the bunny ears and I had the carrot with the green top from our produce from last week and I thought, "Perfect photo op!"

Her great-Mimi gave her this dress. I love how blue it makes her eyes look.

Enjoying some farm-fresh organic brown scrambled egg for breakfast.

Probably one of my new favorite photos of the two of us.

And my second favorite photo. We hadn't put on shoes yet and Eden isn't looking at the camera, but I still love it.

That's all! Cheers!

Good evening!

2011-04-20T22:03:00.005-05:00

I know it's not Monday and it's definitely not morning (or evening for that matter), but it is time for a current posting from Lawracyland so I figured there's no better time that the (very late) present!

Last time I left you with a ho-hum posting, so I must immediately make amends and give you a posting that will leave you smiling. Without further ado, here we go:

Eden has started making really goofy faces lately, so I finally captured it on camera. Get ready to laugh.

Funny faces (10.5 months old) from Cameron Lawracy on Vimeo.

Our backyard is almost completely finished. Kevin still has to put edging and dog-proof fencing up around the small beds, but basically it's done. Our vegetable garden is even planted.

Our windows to our bedroom and master bathroom (excuse the shoddy grass - we are trying to fill in the bald spots):

And if you slowly keep turning to the right, you'll get to see the full span of our backyard. Here you go:

(ignore the trailer, Kevin hasn't moved it to the side yard yet)

And here's the bed he put out front:

Here's the side yard that has been the bane of my existence. It's weird and sloping and narrow and ugly. But Kevin beautified it up a bit.

And just because nature amazes and confounds me at the same time, I have to include this photo:

The white flowers you see are annuals (?? is that the right word? It's the type of plant that is supposed to die after 1 year.) and they miraculously came back to life this year. See the potted bush thing? Those are our lemon and lime trees. They were supposed to stop flowering a few months ago. And now they are covered in flowers and tiny citrus fruit. Go figure.

Eden and I recently went to Georgia to visit the Petersons. As always it was equally fun and educational. I learned how to make strawberry freezer jam and angel food cake (YUM-O!!). Eden discovered the joy of a big blue ball.

My angel food cake attempt at home after our trip:

And because I am gearing up for the time of year during which there are massive amounts of birthdays and celebrations to send cards and presents for, I've been super productive in the crafting department. I've completed a lot of sewing projects that were more like sewing chores (you know, fixing rips, hemming stuff, etc.), and a few projects for gifts. I made a pair booties whose last step baffled me for 2 hours, but I overcame my confusion eventually.

I puff-painted the bottom so they would grip better. All in all, a fun project (minus the 2 hours of frustration at the end).

And I made my friend Julia (hey, Julia!!) her bday present, but I don't know if she's received it yet, so I won't post it yet.

Kevin and I joined a CSA (community-supported agriculture) farm, from which we've purchased a share of produce for the summer and so I've been in what-do-I-do-with-this-fresh-vegetable cooking mode.
Here's this week's bounty:

I've made beets, swiss chard, mustard greens, mint tea, rice pudding (with egg yolks leftover from angel food cake-ing), vanilla ice cream custard (this did not turn out well, but oh well) and other stuff I can't remember. Eden loves swiss chard. She's not the hugest fan of the beets but we'll try that again later. Here's the aftermath of the beets feeding.

(I love that little fuscia tongue.)

And speaking of Eden, she is really into making goofy faces lately (like I said before). Capturing it on camera has been so fun.

And she has randomly started sucking her thumb. At 10 months old. Weird.

So that's my life lately. Hope all is well in your world! Good night!

Blah

2011-04-08T10:03:00.002-05:00

It's how I feel today. Blah. I don't physically feel bad (though this cold has dug its nasty little claws deep into me and is hanging on for dear life), but it's just one of those days. How is that possible? It's Friday. "Those days" are only for Mondays, maybe Tuesdays, but never Fridays. Blah.
What is making today blah? Nothing overly horrible, or even slightly bad. I'm just feeling blah; you know, not motivated to do anything despite the atrocity that is the house right now. Here are my circumstances causing the blah:
* I woke up to the house smelling like a combo of 2-day-old chicken and pork chop styrofoam sitting in the trash, a full diaper pail, a dirty diaper sitting on the toilet that needed to be rinsed (the unsavory side of cloth diapering), and Ruby vomit on the carpet...3 inches away from the tile. And it's humid.
* There are 3 loads of laundry sitting in baskets that need to be folded and put away.
* I tried to hang a shelf in Eden's room today, and it was just giving me fits (normally this is not a hard task to complete) so now there are 2 extra holes in the wall (luckily behind the shelf now) that will have to patched one day. And I'm still not sure if the shelf is secure - a great feeling to have for a hung item in the baby's room.
* I dropped the drill on the diaper pail, busted the top, knocked down a bunch of crap that was sitting on top of the diaper pail (not literal crap, though, thankfully) and broke some bottle top covers.
* There is now a huge HUGE mess in front of Eden's door because of the shelf hanging project.
* The dishes have swollen to outside of the sink and are now leaking on the counter top.
* I have to unload the dishwasher (my least favorite chore ever).
* There are mysterious stains on my living carpet that seemed to have appeared overnight. (It's not Ruby vomit; I checked.)
* It's cloudy and humid outside so I can't hang the clean diapers outside because they won't dry so I have to hang them inside. So much less efficient.
* The kitchen floor is covered in muddy dog prints. I just mopped on Tuesday.
* There is random detritus everywhere, in every room, on every surface of this house.
* My craft room is the aftermath of a tornado because I had sewing class last night and had to finish my "homework" (piecing of a quilt).
* Kevin just walked through the door and I'm sitting here typing instead of cleaning so now I feel guilty and even lazier.
* Ugh.
* Tonight we have company for dinner so I have to clean. Not just should clean, but have to. Ugh.
* Kevin's laundry needs doing (that's in addition to the 3 loads sitting in the baskets).

So that sums it up pretty much. And I haven't taken a shower. So I also feel gross (even though I'm really not - I haven't gotten dirty so I'm not all that unclean).

I hate days like today. Ugh.

What a wonderful Wednesday!

2011-04-06T11:31:00.005-05:00

Well, I forgot to do a Happy Muffin Monday post, so today it's a Wonderful Wednesday post instead.
General update: everything's peachy here in Lawracy Land. Kevin's been working like mad on the backyard (I even got dirty digging up sod and spreading topsoil and working on our square-foot garden and going to Lowe's multiple times). I have a "during" photo to show you, but no "after" photos quite yet. We still have to put the fencing up (this is anti-dog-digging fencing, to be more specific) and lay the mulch and then the backyard landscaping will be done for the most part.

Working hard for no money...working hard for no money. (Like how hard Ruby's working?) My dad and Kevin dug so many holes for the all the bushes and trees.

Switching directions, Kevin got a slot to attend Squadron Officer School (SOS) this coming class session, so he'll get a break from being an instructor for a few weeks.

Switching directions again, Eden turned 10 months old on March 24. No more single digit month birthdays. The next big milestone is 1 year old. Good gravy, how did 1 year pass? Sometimes it seems like it's been only a few days ago since she was born; other times it feels like it's been 10 years (those times are usually the days after the nights she hasn't slept well). Here are some photos of our mischievous little goober:

First bath in the sink. This was mandated after a run-in with maple syrup.

Learn early, little girl. Chores are fun. And not optional.

Not just a dog door...

Even sunscreen is tasty.

And now for an update in my personal world. We recently had our friends from Panama City come visit us for a day and I made their son a shirt. It was my sophomore attempt at applique. I was pretty happy with the result. Here it is:

(His name is Eli; hence the "e")

And we all went to a great restaurant in downtown Montgomery and afterwards took a group photo that was not the greatest but I love nonetheless. Gotta love the self-timer!

And that pretty much sums up our world! Today it's on to the commissary for grocery shopping and the continuation of the never-ending (literally, it never never EVER ends) laundry pile.

Cheers!

P.S. I forgot an update for the dogs. This photo pretty much sums them up.

Dogs' daily to-do list: hang out outside, dig up Mom and Dad's hard work, rest.

Happy Muffin Monday!

2011-03-28T13:49:00.003-05:00

We are very happy this week because it's Kevin's off week (meaning no students) so he has taken the week off, and everybody is enjoying him being at home. Unfortunately today he is writing papers for his Master's class, but it's nice to have him here nevertheless. The only bad thing is it's really hard for me to be productive because it throws off my regular schedule. Oh well.
Anyway, Muffin had a rough Friday night (fever, nose stopped up, bad diaper rash) but now is much better, and I think it's due to teething. Evil evil evil teething. She's just the cutest thing EVER! (in my very unbiased mommy's opinion) Anyway, my dad and his fiancee visited this past weekend and we all worked on landscaping the backyard in the midst of a tornado/thunderstorm warning. What fun! But the yard looks great and I will post pictures later this week. I also rearranged Eden's room for fun and my craft room, and I'm waiting for a table to put my new sewing machine on, and then I'll be happier than a pig in mud. :)
Okay, that's all the random info I have for today. Toodles!

It's a little blurry but I love her big happy grin!

And here's the video of her first ride in the swing. She likes it much better now...as long as it doesn't go very fast or high.

First Time in Outside Swing from Cameron Lawracy on Vimeo.

Happy Muffin Monday!

2011-03-21T11:11:00.002-05:00

Things are almost all back to normal. I still have a very annoying lingering cough and lots of lovely drainage, but Kevin and Eden are 100% healthy. Hurray! Luckily my mom was able to come not this past weekend but the weekend before to help clean up the pigsty that was this house and help nurse me back to health. So this weekend I finally felt good enough to help Kevin do yard work. We cut the grass, edged, weed-wacked, picked weeds, water plants, picked up all the dog toys/trash around the yard, Kevin installed a gate on the side yard (to keep the dogs from digging up the flowers), and many other things that I can't remember. Now our yard looks lovely. I even spray painted the grill so it wouldn't look like a rust bucket anymore and a few plastic lawn chairs because we had gotten fence stain on them. Now everything looks good as new. And Kevin hung up a swing for Eden. I have video of her in it that I'll post later this week. All in all it was a great weekend! Hope yours was great, too!

This is what the ultimate bed head looks like.

Thank you!!

2011-03-09T07:32:00.003-06:00

Despite having the flu, the house being a mess, having a baby and a husband with a bad cold, and a massive thunderstorm crashing in the background, I feel so happy because of all the wonderful comments you left on Monday's post. Thank you thank you thank you!!! Now to respond to them all:

Kelsey: Sorry about the computer. Having a broken computer is like having a basic utility out or something. Hope things are well with you and your two little ones.

Dad: Can't wait for your visit! Always look forward to those. And I most definitely will be up for it because if this flu isn't gone by then, I'm going to go crazy.

Summer: Thanks for the shout-out! You're my inspiration! :)

Lizzie: I love Dave's comment! That made me laugh. :) Maybe I can convince CNN to add me to their ticker updates at the bottom of the screen so you can check my blog and CNN at the same time. Love you and miss you! And our MI trip is tentatively planned for August. Yay!

Jennifer: I would love for you to stop by on April 2. I don't know what day that is, but I don't care. Would LOVE to see you!! Hope school is a little better this week. Long distance hug!

Julia: LOL! Sometimes I let Eden try to "feed" me (i.e. rub her food covered hand around the vicinity of my mouth and then say "Num num num num num"). No food ever makes it in my mouth, but it is kind of entertaining. :)

And now a general quick update: My cold from Monday has progressed into the flu (joy), so my friend Amy is watching Jason for me today because there is no way I can handle two babies right now. She may be watching him for the rest of the week because I seem to be getting worse rather than better. Oh well. Kevin's been taking care of me in the evenings but he has a cold, too and is rather exhausted from teaching all day. Eden has a cold as well, but hers just seems to have stagnated and isn't getting worse but doesn't seem to be getting better. Right now she has the hiccups and they are really high-pitched and loud because she can't breathe through her nose. I feel bad for her, but it's also really funny. So please send healing vibes in the direction of our house. And thanks again for the awesome comments!! I feel like I got six long-distance hugs for everybody. :)

Happy Muffin Monday!

2011-03-07T07:38:00.005-06:00

Well, Eden's been teething (her top right tooth, #4 in case you're curious) some more lately and now she has her first real cold, so the past week hasn't been the best night-time sleeping (my morning started at 4:00 today). However, we've been very happy during the day, so here's an update in our latest adventures.

Introducing...Jason! He's a 7.5-month-old belonging to a friend with whom Kevin went to maintenance tech school 4 years ago. She is here at Maxwell taking a 5-week course and I am watching her little boy for her. So our adventures until the end of March will include Jason. And what adventures we've had so far!

My very first day with them started with a trip to the pediatrician on base for Eden's well-baby check-up. Surprisingly, the babies were amazingly well behaved and I was able to handle them both (I was seriously thinking that I might not be able to). So that was a great start to this 4-week adventure.

Here are some of our other adventures:

Just hanging out, hoping for some cheerios.

Mmmm. Potatoes with a side of hair.

38-piece Snapware set. Baby not included.

Hurray for food time!

Hanging out outside with the water barrels and the unplanted plants.

Then there's today:
3 colds + 2 babies + 1 mommy + 2 teething babies - several nights of decent sleep = unhappy day
Pray for God to give me strength today and probably all this week.

But that's okay. Anyway, happy Monday to everyone!

P.S. Oh! And I forgot to mention: I've been feeling a little low because of the decline in comments on my posts. I love comments! I don't care if they're one word or a novel. They are like mini hugs for my heart. So pardon for the lame plea, but pretty please post a comment or two every now and then. You'll make me so happy. :) Thanks!

Plight of the String

2011-02-25T15:57:00.004-06:00

One of side effects of having a mobile baby (and teething puppy) is that you never know what casualties may occur to your innocent household belongings. Take the case of a poor roll of string.

Here's what happened to it.

plight of the string from Cameron Lawracy on Vimeo.

Poor string. It had no idea what was coming.

Song

2011-02-17T21:27:00.000-06:00

Sing to the tune of the oscar meyer weiner song:

My brain is going crazy.
A meltdown's coming on.
I wish my chores were finished
and the mess were all but gone.
Instead I think I'll sit here,
and stare at yonder wall
and dream of running off to
a sunny port of call.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T08:51:00.002-06:00

Happy Heart Day! As a long distance present to the grandparents, here's a video of Eden. Her favorite game right now is chase. I say "I'm gonna gitsooooo" (and yes, that's exactly how I say it) and she giggles and crawls away as fast as she can. Sometimes she crawls herself into a dead end. As you will see in the video. Big hugs!

getting chased into a dead end from Cameron Lawracy on Vimeo.

Anatomy of a Tantrum

2011-02-12T12:12:00.002-06:00

You know you are tired and in a bad mood when you look at your own kid and think "Why do people have more than one child? Why would people want to do this twice??"

That was me today. Here's why:

It started when I put her in the floor.

Then it escalated.

And kept going.

Not done yet.

Finally tiring.

And that's when I looked at her and said "I don't like you right now."

I wonder when you have to stop saying that because they start to understand you. Hm.

A Whole New World

2011-02-09T14:35:00.002-06:00

I never used to understand how people could surf for hours mindlessly on the Internet. What the heck do you look at?

Well, now I understand. I have fallen (quite happily, I may add) into the world of craft and homemaking blogs. I love them. It's so great to know that there are other people out there who love to craft as much as and more than I do! There are some crazy talented people out there. And now, I can spend hours staring at and reading about all the stuff that they make and feel crazy jealous of them all. :) One I recently found is Lu Bird and this and that. this and that shows you how to make stuff. I love how-tos!

Okay, enough time-wasting. Back to cleaning. And here's a random photo of Eden. :)

Rainy Day Fun

2011-02-05T21:29:00.005-06:00

It's been raining here a lot the past few days. Today we saw sun for the first time in a while. So we have been keeping ourselves busy inside, hanging out, being lazy, taking photos, browsing blogs (and wow have I found a bunch I love!), and generally doing anything to avoid doing the things that I need to do like clean, do laundry, etc. (Although, today I did bathe Ruby. Yay me.)
Anyway, today I took a photo of Eden standing pretty steadily holding on with only one hand. She is quickly progressing from scooching to crawling to pulling up. I know walking is right around the corner, far sooner than what I'm ready for, but I'm also very excited by it. So here's a photo of her standing. It also appears that her clothes are slightly too small as well. Guess I should get her some bigger clothes.

And I just have to share with you how long her hair is getting. It's really crazy. Some days it's curly. Some it's straight. Here's what it looks like straight out of the bath, freshly blown dry.

(I know my facial expression is crazy. I was making random noises to get her to look at the camera. By 6:45 at night, you never know what's going to come out of my mouth.)
Eden loves cuddles and affection. I started kissing her hand through the pack-n-play one day and she thought it was hilarious. Here's a video. Don't mind the barking. Sparty was playing, too. And it's his fault the video ends. You'll see.

Kissy Giggles from Cameron Lawracy on Vimeo.

And of course, I have the requisite child-questing-for-dogfood video. Luckily she doesn't actually eat any.

Dog Food Quest from Cameron Lawracy on Vimeo.

And finally, another (yes another) bath time video. In this one, she's talking quite loudly to herself - literally to her reflection in the overflow drain in the tub. I thought it was hilarious. Password is same as always.

More noisy bath time fun from Cameron Lawracy on Vimeo.

Happy Monday!

2011-01-31T11:50:00.002-06:00

What a start to the new year it's been! We've already had friends visit, been to SC to visit family, and attended a beer festival (well, Kevin did that. Not me.). Eden is crawling all over creation and likes to play "chase." And, she is already pulling herself up on various things to a standing position (and consequently causing the rest of my hair to turn completely gray). So here are some photos from the past month. Enjoy!

Mmmm, wood. Already eating junk from the ground. Hurray.

I gave her the cinnamon container to play with and the stinker got it open and decided to suck on a stick.

Oh, to be a puppy. It's a hard life.

The joy of magazines. At least she's not eating these.

Like mother, like daughter. Ahhhhh, sleep.

Hurray for prunes! And crazy morning hair!

Sometimes it's just kind of fun to freak your baby out.

You know it had to happen eventually. Poor Ruby.

Leg rolls and pigtails. Good gravy, is there anything cuter??

And finally, you can experience Eden's first taste of banana. Unfortunately, it was not so pleasant for her.

First bananas from Cameron Lawracy on Vimeo.

Eden's newest tricks

2011-01-07T08:20:00.004-06:00

She's not crawling yet, but it'll be soon. Here she is a-scoochin' away. You'll need the same password my other videos need because yes, she is naked in this one. And by the way, the background noise for this one is strange. I was on hold with the medical clinic on base and their prerecorded message was playing on speakerphone. I do believe this noise helped motivate Eden to go for it.

scooching...almost crawling from Cameron Lawracy on Vimeo.

And as bath time is still one of her favorite times of day, here's another video of her in the bath, this time licking the water. I find it pretty funny. And yes, you'll need the password again.

licking the bath water from Cameron Lawracy on Vimeo.

Meet the newest member of our family!

2011-01-05T14:14:00.002-06:00

Welcome to Sparty, the newest baby of our family. He is a mini dachshund born in Prattville, Alabama. We named him Sparty after - what else - Sparty, the mascot of our alma mater, Michigan State. Go Green (or black and tan!)! :)

And yes, I am aware that Kevin and I are crazy. A puppy?!?! The insanity continues...

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T17:29:00.002-06:00

Peek-a-boo!

Merry Christmas!

Many smiles across the miles!

Hope you found everything about the holidays as interesting and delicious as I did!

Eden's First Christmas Activities

2010-12-20T21:09:00.003-06:00

Eden will be 7 months old on Christmas Eve. I can hardly believe it. We are celebrating her first Christmas in our new house together by ourselves. Just us, the dog, and the Christmas tree. In the spirit of my whole no-toys-with-batteries-or-noises-or-lights and children-shouldn't-have-more-crap-laying-around-than-the-parents-have child-rearing attitude, I made her 2 little tag blankets for presents and put a brush, some hair doo-dads, and a cloth book in her stocking. That's it. Kevin thinks even that is too much. (For those who don't know, tag blankets are generally 12" x 12" blankies with little tags sticking out the edges - like the tags that tell you how to launder clothes and blankets.) So anyway, we are looking forward to a nice quiet Christmas. Then we are off to S.C. to visit family for a week. I'm just hoping Eden sleeps okay and doesn't wake up 4 times every night like she did last night (I'm blaming the full moon. Tomorrow my excuse will be tonight's lunar eclipse.) Thankfully, Eden did successfully eat solid food today. I took a couple-week hiatus from trying to feed her and started from scratch today. I took off all her clothes except a diaper (because she's always happier when she's naked), pumped some fresh milk to mix with rice cereal, sat in a chair behind her where she couldn't see me, and had Kevin feed her. Success!! Hurray! I almost started crying from relief. She was actually opening her mouth and leaning forward for the food. Now hopefully she will continue this and make the transition into solid food permanent.
Here are some Christmas-theme photos.

Her Buhbuh (my stepdad) picked out this outfit and I got her the bow. I love hair accessories for babies!

Her first visit with Santa. I was going to put her in Santa's lap, but long story short, we were at the wrong end of the line and Santa's assistant snuck us in for a quick photo. Plus we were outside and it was cold, so Santa got me as part of the deal.

My little eighties' aerobics instructor (I love the leggings, but every time I put them on her with a headband and a onesie, I swear I can hear Jane Fonda calling out "And kick! Lift those legs, ladies! Work it!"

I'll try to remember to upload the video of Muffin crawling/scooching tomorrow.

It's been a while, I know.

2010-12-15T20:24:00.003-06:00

I know, I know. It's been a while. I don't have any excuse other than pure laziness and procrastination. We have been a little busy, but I still could have written a post at some point. Oh well.
So this is what's been going on in the past month and a half. Eden turned six months old. She tried her first baby food. She's cut her first tooth. She can stand holding onto furniture and sit upright unassisted. Those would be the biggies. She's definitely going to crawl soon, which means way more opportunities for her to grab and chew on electrical cords, roll under tables, and eat magazines and books. Hurray. The solid food endeavor has come to a screeching halt (literally - she screeches and screams and squirms when I get a spoon of baby food anywhere near her). She blatantly refuses to eat baby food. So we are taking a small break from baby food and going back to nursing only. I'll try again in a week or so. Wish me luck. As for the tooth, I think she has horrible diaper rash because of it. Or else she just has horrible diaper rash.
Just to give you an idea about the rejection of solid food thing, here's a video of her spitting out carrots. It's not really funny, but it does give you the general idea.

rejecting eating carrots from Cameron Lawracy on Vimeo.

Sigh. So even though Eden is usually a very happy girl, I am generally a very tired mom. My mantra in life now: This is just a phase.
Actually I should add something here: In general things are going very well right now. Everyone is healthy and happy. Everything is pretty much ready for Christmas. Kevin is on break from instructing. Today has just been a particularly patient-trying day. Lots of crying for some reason. Eden was upset, too. (Just kidding - she was the one crying.) Unfortunately I decided to update my blog when I'm cranky. Sorry. Either way, I can sum up what I feel like today and how Eden feels about eating solid foods with a photo:

Confessions of a Suburban Housewife: Part 2

2010-11-02T22:02:00.007-05:00

Today I get a pat on the back. I cleaned my entire house - and not just to everyday cleanliness standards. I cleaned to Martha Stewart standards. How do I know this? I used her cleaning checklist in her Homekeeping Handbook (handbook is a joke - this thing is an encyclopedia). What's the reason for the blatant self-tooting of my own horn (apologies for any unintended dirty undertones to the previous sentence)? This is the first time I actually cleaned the whole house in one consecutive time period to this level of cleanliness since having a baby. So in my suburban housewife world, this is a major feat. Hence, the back-patting.
Tomorrow is apparently phone-call day. I hate days when I have a zillion phone calls to make: pediatrician appointment, phone company, life insurance guy, bank, etc. And phone calls must be made during a nap unless I want to risk having to ask the customer service person to hold on while I have to wrangle a baby who is crying because she's rolled herself into a corner and can't figure out how to escape.
Tomorrow is also grocery shopping day. Also not a favorite chore because of the necessity to speed shop because of having a baby. Eden is pretty good in a cart, but I only have a good 30 minutes of content-baby-time before "Pick me up or I'll wail" starts threatening to happen. And grocery shopping in the commissary on base is a hard place to speed shop because of all the old retirees (I mean, bent-over-with-age, can-only-see-the-label-from-3-inches-away old) who stand in the middle of the lane and won't move even though you know they see you coming.
The silver lining of the grocery store trip is that I get to buy the ingredients to make my birthday cake for Thursday. I'm going to bake either a chocolate mousse tart or a classic chocolate layer cake. I can't decide. Maybe both?...
And finally, some photos of Eden:

Since Eden has discovered how to (sort of) roll where she wants to and reach for toys, she decided that Ruby's rear would be a great toy! Luckily Ruby did not mind the tail fondling or munching.

I painted our bedroom this past weekend. It was interesting trying to accomplish that with Eden. Finally I gave in and let her "help" me along with Ruby.

When I didn't let her "help" me anymore, she pitched a fit in her chair until she passed out (complete with toys burying most of her face). If you look close you can see a loan tear near her eye.

And now for Halloween photos:

At first she was a great pumpkin model.

Then she was not.

And the next night (on actual Halloween - the previous two I took the night before on trick-or-treating night) she was perfect. Perfectly cute! (This is why adults spend money on costumes that their children only wear for five minutes in the living room.)

Lots of activities

2010-10-12T21:51:00.004-05:00

We just returned from a spur-of-the-moment trip to visit some friends in Ohio (ah, Midwest, how our distance does torment my heart). I will definitely post photos in the next few days of our goings-on during our trip, but currently I will upload some videos I took.

(Disclaimer: Again, these are mainly for the grandparents to drool over. To everyone else these will probably be immensely boring. Sorry.)

First video: Eden has recently been doing mouth and tongue aerobics. It's pretty funny. (And yes, that is a disposable diaper next to her head - I use them when traveling.)

Exercising the mouth and tongue from Cameron Lawracy on Vimeo.

Second video: She finally got her toes in her mouth and decided that her big toe is pretty tasty. It makes changing her diapers and clothes so much fun...not. Oh, and you will need the password. It's the same one I told/emailed you last time.

Yummy Toes from Cameron Lawracy on Vimeo.

Third video: In this one, Eden discovered the joys of grunting while licking a cup in the bath tub. (You need the password for this one, too. No more baby hoo-hoos!)

Bath Cup 1 from Cameron Lawracy on Vimeo.

Fourth (and final) video: On our way home from Ohio, we stopped at the Alabama Grand Ole Pumpkin Patch and took a hayride out to a pumpkin patch for some photos. We did this with Ruby in tow. It took some coordinating, but it turned out to be fun.

Hayride to the pumpkin patch from Cameron Lawracy on Vimeo.

And tomorrow (let's be realistic - it'll probably be the end of the week by the time I get to it) there will be photos. Happy video watching!

No more public baby hoo-hoos

2010-10-08T15:21:00.002-05:00

After many requests from paranoid, I mean concerned people who love Eden very much, I have agreed to privatize the videos of Eden that have her hoo-hoo in them. Apparently there are sickos in the world who would take advantage of my baby's cute nakey-ness on the Internet so I have now password-protected the videos. I suppose the next step will be to password-protect the photos I have on flickr, too. I don't think I have too many, though. The reason she's naked on most of the videos is because that's when I think she feels best and is motivated to do stuff like roll over and giggle and be animated.

So, anyway, the reason I'm writing a post about this is ultimately so I can share the password with the people who want to see the videos. If you want the password, email me and I'll tell you.

Toodles!

One more video

2010-10-01T20:11:00.003-05:00

I figured out the video embedding thing. Hurray!

Here's one of Eden giggling. (By the way, most of these are for the grandparents to watch and smile at. I am aware that most people will find these insanely boring. And the only reason I'm posting a bunch now is because I just now learned how so I have few videos stockpiled that I've been promising to share with the grandparents.)

giggling girl from Cameron Lawracy on Vimeo.

video test

2010-10-01T13:30:00.003-05:00

Testing a Vimeo upload.

Eden rolling over from Cameron Lawracy on Vimeo.

P.S. Please excuse the high-pitched "YAY!!" My source of excitement now is developmental milestones like rolling over and counting poos.

Here's another video of Eden in the Johnny Jump-up.

Play mat time from Cameron Lawracy on Vimeo.

Greetings and Updates

2010-09-29T21:49:00.007-05:00

Yes, I know it's been a while since I've posted. I've been putting off updating because I had to upload my photos in my back-up system online, upload them into my photo organizer software, and then, of course, post a few here. Well, it's 9:52pm and my goal is to just post a few with little explanation and be done before 10:00pm. I'll try my hardest to post more photos as well as some reflections and a general update on what's going on in Cameronland soon (like maybe maybe maybe tomorrow). Okay, now for some random photos.

This is Eden and my friend Kelsey's son Blake. They had a great time checking each other out. I love this photo. They are so cute together. Kelsey, I have a few more. I can email them to you if you want them.

My favorite photo of Eden and PopPop

She fell asleep on her face - flat on her face - one day during a nap. I could hear her breathing, but it still freaked me out. And made me laugh.

My cloth diapers. I love them hanging out on the clothesline in the sun.

I love her gummy smile. And she loves bath time. I'm glad that we can both be happy at the same time. :)

Now I'm going to try to post a video (it's not a great one, don't get excited). We'll see how successful I am.

I think the video works (at least it works on my computer. Now I have to figure out how to post the good ones (of her rolling over and playing in the bouncy thingy and others [these are mainly for Toto and PopPop to enjoy - these videos will probably bore everyone else]) because they are long and Blogger won't let me post ones over a certain size. So Toto and PopPop, I'm working on it so y'all can see Eden in action.

HAIL TO THE SLEEPING GODS!

2010-09-09T10:20:00.002-05:00

Eden finally slept from 8:30 till 4:30 last night, then went back to sleep till 8:00 this morning.

It's time to celebrate by doing housework! Without a kid in my arms!!

Hurray!!

(In case you didn't guess, she hasn't been sleeping well for the past few weeks and it's been driving me crazy and leaving me exhausted, which then led to a cold that I still have remnants of. But she FINALLY slept well last night. Hallelujah! I know it's trivial, but I'll take my small victories where I can get them. Yee hah!)

Confessions of a Suburban Housewife

2010-08-24T21:50:00.005-05:00

It occurred to me today as I was standing at the sink washing dishes while my child slept peacefully in her crib and my dogs lay passed out on the tile floor: I am a stay-at-home mom. You may think to respond with the obligatory "DUH" but really this had not occurred to me until today. Basically every time I've stayed at home without a job has been for a specific reason relating to waiting for or working towards obtaining professional employment. But today I realized that I'm not really waiting for employment at the moment. My job is full-time (though I will not qualify myself as "professional" because I have no clue what I'm doing) momma. And housewife. So I am going to try to embrace this new job of mine, which will be semi-difficult because I have always attributed part of my identity with being employed. And though I am not employed, per se, I do have a job (for which I am on duty 24/7 but at least they do allow naps on site occasionally and an optional uniform is pajamas - can't beat that). So from time to time I may offer some musings on my attempts to reconcile the roles of Momma and Housewife into the slot next to "Occupation." It may be pleasant, it may be ugly, and it'll always be honest.
This week's goals: take Eden's 3-month-birthday photos, organize my closet (includes trying on all clothes to see if any pre-pregnancy clothes fit), finish decorating my craft room, go grocery shopping, run the never-ending errands, accomplish other daily menial tasks, and above all, get dressed complete with jewelry and make-up post shower EVERY SINGLE WEEK DAY. This last goal is harder than it sounds. Don't laugh.
It's Tuesday and I've taken Eden's photos (please see below if so desired), organized my closet (about half my stuff fits which is encouraging - no unnecessary shopping needed for larger pants), cleaned out the refrigerator, and yes indeed I've gotten fully dressed - in the morning, no less!! - with jewelry and make-up yesterday and today! So far, so good. I'm giving myself a "satisfactory" on my performance report so far with extra kudos for cleaning the frige. :)
Here are the fruits of my photography labors today (warning, there are a lot):

(Does anyone else think she looks like an Oompa Loompa in this last photo?)
If you want to see even more, click HERE.

Accomplishments

2010-08-16T21:40:00.004-05:00

The crying stopped. Thankfully. I think it was a growth spurt and she was tired of traveling. She's better now. Whew!

So I was running errands today with Eden while Kevin was at work. I had six places to go (you know, Target, post office, return a movie, those kinds of things). I organized myself, Eden, Eden's baby bag, my purse, and all the stuff needed to accomplish my errands (a movie to return, boxes to mail, things to return to stores, etc.). After I came home from doing everything, I felt so proud of myself for not getting overwhelmed and for timing the errands so Eden didn't get hungry or have a poo explosion while I was out and about. This was a major accomplishment for me, and I was quite excited to achieve it.

Funny that running errands successfully is now what I consider to be an accomplishment. I used to think that getting a job, graduating college, writing a term paper, things like that, those things were accomplishments. Now, going to the post office is an accomplishment. Funny how parenthood changes your perspective of things.

And now for photos. Again, these are just some of my favorites. If you want to see the newest photos I've uploaded, go to my flickr account HERE.

Eden's 12-week-old photos. I love overalls!

Eden's legs are getting stronger every day. She's already standing with help.

I know it's blurry, but I don't care. Her smile is so bright and happy.

She recently discovered her hands and it was so funny to see her stare cross-eyed at them.

Here's Eden's room. I couldn't help it - I had to have a pink room. I love it! I found the neatest fabric and decided to sew my own curtains and crib skirt. I also made the bumper pads and table skirt. And all the bows hanging on the wall (it's like having a baby doll that I get to accessorize every day).

?

2010-08-08T21:23:00.002-05:00

What does one do when one's baby cries all day long, doesn't want to be put down, doesn't eat very much but wants to be attached to your booby constantly, and won't sleep?

And does this for 4 days?

??

?

Anyone?

More Eden photos

2010-07-26T21:00:00.003-05:00

Let me preface this email with the following: I know I promised not to write posts that are nothing but my child my child my child. HOWEVER, I have realized that I'm already guilty of this BUT I have two good reasons: 1. Nothing else is happening in my life right now. 2. She's just so darn cute!! How could I not talk about her and show her off?! (This, of course, is just my humble Mommy-biased opinion.)

So here are some more photos of Eden for those of you who are interested. And a quick recap of life lately: She's sleeping about 5-7 hours a night now but still waking up at 3ish so I'm still not sleeping the greatest. She just had her 2-month well-baby check-up today and she's in the 88th percentile for height but 31st percentile for head size. She's a lanky baby with a mini head! :)~ We've almost finished rearranging everything in the house so that it's where I want it. I finished decorating Eden's room and our living/eating nook/kitchen. I haven't hung pictures or wall art yet but I'm getting there. I finally have a pink room. Hurray! I'll post photos of our house in a few days (hopefully) after I take some. Kevin and I went to Ikea in Atlanta on Saturday, and we got a new flat screen TV so I finally feel like we have a grown-up-looking living room. Yay!

Okay, now for Eden photos. Here are a few of my favorites. And click HERE (for 5-week-old photos) and HERE (6-week-old photos) if you want to see even more! (It's sad, but when I edited this I clicked on the linked and looked through all the photos again even though I've seen them a bunch already. I just can't help it; Eden's so cute (even when she looks like a grumpy old man)!!!)

Photos - Finally!

2010-07-07T16:28:00.003-05:00

Okay, I finally uploaded almost all the photos we've taken since Eden was born. I'm not going to put them on the blog because there are way too many. However, I will include a link in this post that lets you go to my flickr account and you can see all the photos there. Have fun wasting several hours of your life looking at my life! :)

Photos of Eden

All you have to do is click on each little set of photos and stare at them until your heart's content. Have fun!

Photos

2010-06-29T11:39:00.003-05:00

I have many more photos than this to which I will eventually put a link in a post, but for now here are two photos. The first is of us in our new house the first day we arrived in Prattville. Eden was 8 days old. The second photo is of Eden when she was about 4 weeks old. Enjoy!

Tired but happy...mostly

2010-06-21T19:25:00.002-05:00

Sorry for my month-long absence, but I have very good reasons: I had my baby, a little girl named Eden. She was born on May 24 at 10:54am. She weighed 7 pounds 11 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. She was born with lots of hair (supporting the heartburn=hair theory). In my humble Mommy's opinion, she is very beautiful. And yes, I did have her naturally without any drugs or an epidural. And yes, I am using cloth diapers quite successfully and I'm not tired of doing laundry (yet). Breastfeeding is going okay; I feel like a foodcart, but that's okay. And we moved to Montgomery and are still unpacking. And we've already had overnight visitors. And Kevin has gone back to work. Those are almost all my reasons I haven't blogged in a while. The biggest reason, though, is

I'm exhausted.

I have never known this level of tiredness. I hope never to know it again. And by the way, when does it end??

PS. I know pictures are requested. When I 1. find my camera cord to load the photos online and 2. get the energy to actually do that, that's when there will be photos on my blog. Don't hold your breath.

Q & A time

2010-05-22T17:55:00.005-05:00

To answer some questions that I'm sure many of you have but Kelsey was beautifully tactful about actually asking (and without making me mad - good job, Kelsey!), here is a short Q & A session for you.

Q: Do you plan on being induced at any point?
A: No, unless there is some medical reason (meaning my life or the baby's is in danger). In my opinion, inductions are for the parents' convenience (most of the time), and if the baby is not done baking, I'm not going to hurry it out because I'm inconvenienced. Again, this is my opinion and my choices are based on that and I care not what other people choose to do with their childbirth choices - just don't judge mine.

Q: What happens if you go into labor while the movers are supposed to be at your house?
A: My dad will be here the whole time the movers are here, and he will oversee the paperwork and packing.

Q: What happens if you go into labor on the closing date?
A: If I'm in labor, then the closing date will move. Simple as that. If I'm recovering from delivery, Kevin will drive up to Montgomery with a Power of Attorney, sign all the documents, and then come back here and get me. And my mom will be here the day after my dad leaves so she'll help, too.

Q: Where will you go to labor while your house is being packed up if you're in labor while the movers are there?
A: Kevin and I will go to my friend's house. She and her family have graciously said they'd let us labor there are as long as we need (in fact, she told me her kids are secretly hoping we have to use their house so they can help us). I will not be going to the hospital until my contractions are close enough that our doula deems we need to hit the road pronto.

Q: Are you having any labor signs?
A: As of my visit with my midwife on Friday morning, I am 1cm dilated and 60% effaced and the baby's head is engaged. Other than that, no.

Q: Are you really going to have a natural labor - no drugs or anything?
A: Yes. My body is made to do this. God and Kevin and our doula will give me the support I need. No Pitocin, no Epidural, no episiotomies. The only way drugs will get into my body is if my midwife determines that my life or our baby's life is in danger.

Q: Really?
A: Yes, really.

The following is said in a nice, sweet, Cameron voice: This is the last time I am officially explaining and defending our childbirth choices. If I have to do this again, the next post you read will be written from my jail cell because I will have killed the person who asked.

Big smile!
Love, Cameron

Cameronland Conditions: Saturday

2010-05-22T07:50:00.002-05:00

My crankiness and frustration must be at an all time high. Kevin actually asked me this morning if I wanted to go buy make-up at Ulta to feel better. Kevin hates when I buy make-up. Poor Kevin. I must be driving him crazy.

T-minus 11 days
Stress level: still slightly elevated from impatience
Baby Preparation: 99% complete
Moving Preparation: 20% complete and ongoing
General outlook: sunny with a strong chance of isolated thunder-mood-storms throughout the day

Yes, I'm still pregnant.

2010-05-20T13:55:00.004-05:00

Warning: bitch mode ensuing...

Why do people who know you are due feel the need to call you on your due date and ask if you're in labor?

People, if I were, number one I would not be answering my phone and number two, I've been pregnant for 40 weeks. Believe me, I will let the world know when I've given birth.

*exasperated sigh*

Since I assumed the due date would probably arrive without Winky, I figured I should look forward to something else: a brownie sundae from Chili's. So Kevin and I are going to enjoy one this evening. Screw you, wrong due date.

(Wow, I'm cranky.)

T-minus 13 days
Stress level: slightly elevated from impatience
Baby Preparation: 99% complete
Moving Preparation: 15% complete and ongoing
General outlook: Overcast due to impatience, clearing this evening due to brownie eating

Cameronland conditions: Wednesday

2010-05-19T12:47:00.002-05:00

Kevin and I have been working in the backyard the past 2 days doing moving prep stuff. I mowed and weed-whacked and pruned my veggie plants (don't worry, I didn't overexert myself - I was hoping the energy exertion would spur on Winky but to no avail) and Kevin leveled the backyard to fix all the Ruby holes and destructed a portion of the fence and cleaned up the side yard. He attached the changing table topper to the baby dresser. Then we took Ruby to Mexico Beach for a walk and ate some dinner at a local restaurant there. Yesterday was a great day: half productive and half relaxing. Today we did 3 hours of yard work and I did some insurance/banking paperwork. Kevin is currently packing his work stuff that is in various places around our house. After I finish this post, I'm going to pack up my craft stuff. Tomorrow we may attack the stuff hanging on the walls (curtain rods, picture frames, shelves, etc.). So far it's working out very well: we do a little bit at a time without feeling overwhelmed. So far so good.

T-minus 14 days
Stress level: low and healthy
Baby Preparation: 98% complete
Moving Preparation: 10% complete and ongoing
General outlook: Sunny, positive, and confident

Current conditions of Cameronland

2010-05-17T13:14:00.003-05:00

Today officially begins our 17 Days of Crazy. I think when I wrote the last post I was feeling slightly overwhelmed (ya think??). But I've decided to nip that in the bud and go back to my previous state of minimal stress and worry about it all. We have contingency plans out the wahzoo, and we are as prepared as we can be. God will take care of the rest. I even gave in and mostly packed our hospital bag.

T-minus 16 days
Stress level: low and healthy
Baby Preparation: 95% complete
Moving Preparation: 5% complete and ongoing
General outlook: Sunny and positive

Raise your hand if you think we're crazy

2010-05-14T09:57:00.005-05:00

Kevin and I both acknowledge that the end of May is a little...booked...for us. Winky's due, Kevin's captain promotion, packing up one house, buying our first home, moving 4 hours away. Yes, yes, we know that a lot is happening. Until yesterday at around 10:00am, I was not worried about everything working out. I had faith that everything will be okay and we'll get through the last week of May and first week of June just fine.

Then we attended the TMO briefing (for those who don't know, it's a meeting that military families attend to schedule their permanent change of station move - meaning their move to their next duty station). The actual official dates were laid out before us, and I believe that's when I recognized that we may have lost our minds trying to schedule everything at the end of May.

I will now prove that we are crazy and may need psychological help (if not immediately, then at least after all this is over):

May 17: Kevin's promotion ceremony to captain and last day at work
May 20: Winky's due - probably will happen after this day and definitely before June 3
May 26: Movers pack up our house in Panama City (we must first prepack and prepare for the movers to come; this will probably take 2-3 days. You already see the potential overlap of birthing a child and packing a house.)
May 27: Movers continue packing up our house
May 28: Movers load their van with our stuff
May 29: My mom comes to be our slave - I mean, visit us
May 28-31: We're basically camping in our empty house with HOPEFULLY our newborn and its grandmother. Oh, and we'll be cleaning out our rental house to be cleared from our lease.
May 31: Memorial Day, holiday - What holiday?? We're driving to Prattville to do our walk-through on our new house. At this point, we'll go from camping in our empty old house to staying in a hotel, with our newborn and its grandmother.
June 1: We close on our new house and hopefully move into our new house - this time, camping in our new house with our newborn and its grandmother.
June 2: Movers deliver our stuff to our new house and unload everything.

Count the days. They're 17 days from start to finish, and we have about 2 months worth of stuff to do in those 17 days.

I know we'll survive. But we are crazy. I recognize that now. Not in my previously laugh-it-off, flippant, oh-whatever, subconscious denial kind of way, but in a manic-eyed, half-grinning, slightly drooling psychotic kind of way.

My name is Cameron. And I am crazy. And still pregnant.

Locked and Loaded

2010-05-11T20:26:00.003-05:00

Kevin and I met with our doula (birth helper lady) today for the last time before I actually go into labor. She gave us last minute advice about preparations and labor stuff. She asked if we've tried installing the car seat and if we have our bags semi-packed. We said no to both (I believe I've explained why in a previous post), and she suggested that we at least try to put the car seat in once just to make sure we know how to do it so we aren't forced to do it when our adrenaline may be high during early labor. So we gave in. We installed the car seat base (I refuse to put the car seat in there though) in my car. It took about 2 minutes and was very easy. Why do people freak out about this? I haven't a clue. And just to feel more prepared, we ran a mental checklist of where the major things are in our house that we will need to pack for the hospital. So we're all set. Cloth diapers and baby layette crap are washed. Car seat base is installed (eye roll and heavy sigh). Casseroles are cooked and ready to be frozen for meals after baby comes. Video camera and regular camera batteries are charged. Kevin's leave is all set up (his last day going to work is next Monday). Our utilities are all scheduled to be turned off and on at this house and our next house. Ruby's babysitter is all set. The movers are scheduled to come pack up our house.

We are locked and loaded, full speed ahead, ready for lift-off, let's get this show on the road, all systems go.

It's the final countdown.

Calling All Readers!!!

2010-05-06T18:31:00.002-05:00

I have an official assignment for all my blog readers:

Kevin will be home tonight at 8:48pm from his TDY trip to Texas. So at approximately 8:49pm, I would like everyone out there to start sending me go-into-labor vibes. Very strong, urgent, immediate go-into-labor vibes. Since Kevin will be home, I will now be free to go into labor and I am 100% ready (I think) to do so. It's time for Winky to make his/her debut. So if you will please pause in your daily to-do's, and send fervent wishes my way for me to go into labor, I will love you all dearly (even more than I do now).

So please, go forth and pray, wish, concentrate, meditate, or whatever you feel comfortable doing to help get this baby birthing business going.

Thank you!

I'm so bored

2010-05-01T20:43:00.004-05:00

Kevin is out of town in Texas till next Thursday evening and he's been gone since last Sunday morning (I know I've already told you this, I think), and I'm sooooo bored. I don't actually remember feeling this bored since I was a kid and would annoy my mom by whining "I'm boorrrreeed." I feel like all I'm doing is waiting - waiting for Kevin to get home, waiting for the baby to come, waiting to move to Alabama.

In a concerted effort to "un-bore" myself, I did some random things online this evening. I paid some bills, read about vegetable gardening in Alabama, bought the rest of the stuff from Target for Winky (we are now completely 100% ready as far as having all the necessary baby crap we need), ordered Mothers' and Fathers' Day gifts, and did some random Amazon.com surfing because who can pass that up?

Also, I washed all the cloth diapers and inserts and wipes. We have 24 diapers all ready to go. I must confess, I think they are quite cute hanging up drying in our laundry room. I can't wait to actually put one on our kid. I'm sure the novelty will run out quickly, but I still think it'll be fun to use them at first.

I also set up the pack n' play in our bedroom. Now, I'm not one to be overly prepared - meaning I haven't packed our hospital bag (I figure I'll do this once I start feeling real labor; it can't take more than 30 minutes to pack for a 2-night stay) and I haven't installed the carseat (again, this'll take, what, 20 minutes to figure out, maybe?). But dammit, I'm not disassembling the pack 'n' play even though I hate it taking up room in our bedroom (and not being used, I mean) because it was a pain in the backside to set up and I refuse to have to do it again unless I have to. Every time I look at it, though, it feel like it's taunting me, saying "Ha, ha. You're still pregnant and probably will be for a while, but I've successfully intimidated you into not disassembling me so I get to sit here empty and make your bedroom look cluttery because you're too stubborn to take me apart and put me back together again."

Sorry, had to vent. And apparently now furniture is talking to me in my head. Wow, how pathetic.

Anyway, so you can clearly tell how bored (and slightly crazy?) I am because this is a long post. Sorry. Maybe I'm feeling preggers-cranky. Probably.

Three Kinds of Bakin'

2010-04-28T20:09:00.003-05:00

I am by no means a baker. When I try to make something, sometimes it turns out well; other times, not so much. I don't know whether it's semi-related to pregnancy nesting urges of what, but I've been in a makin' and bakin' mood lately (but not a cleaning mood, so that leads me to believe it's not nesting-related). As I was sitting here getting ready to type this post, I realized that I've kind of being doing three kinds of baking today/lately (if you really stretch the meaning of "baking"). Luckily, I've been pleasantly surprised with the outcomes of all three (so far). I'll describe them and show you pictures so you know what I'm talking about.

1. I'm baking a baby. Here's me at 36 weeks. I'll be 37 weeks tomorrow which means I'll be full term which means at any point now Winky's timer could go off and it'll be time to take the cake out of the oven, so to speak.

2. I baked a cake from scratch today for my dad. It's a Black Walnut cake (his favorite flavor). It's my first cake in my endeavor to bake all the cakes in the book All Cakes Considered by Melissa Gray (an excellent read, by the way). Pardon my pride, but I'm very proud of my not-perfect, but beautiful in my eyes nevertheless because I'm its "mother", cake.

3. I'm "baking" a veggie garden (there's heat, water, and ingredients involved - that's kinda baking). I have about 6 tomatoes that are growing quite nicely, my zucchini are flowering like crazy, my peppers are taaaallllll, and my cinnamon basil has lovely purple flowers all over it.

So there you have it. My three kinds of bakin'. Yay!

Photo Update

2010-04-24T11:24:00.004-05:00

Kevin got his first incentive ride on Friday in an F-15 jet. I watched while he took off and landed. It's funny how a ride in a fighter jet can be used as a reward for some people (i.e. Kevin) and as a threat of torture for other people (i.e. me).

Anyway, here are some photos. This first one (below) is him in the jet with his flight mask/helmet on.

This one is of Kevin's jet taking off straight up into the air (it's called an unrestricted take-off or a maximum climb take-off).

This is Kevin and his pilot after they landed.

On much less thrilling but more exciting (in my humble opinion) note, here is the beginning on my vegetable garden. We already have 4 baby tomatoes growing. The biggest one is about the size of a pencil eraser. They're so cute! And I've already made two batches of iced mint tea with our chocolate mint and some smashed potatoes with our parsley! I can't wait for the actual vegetables to begin growing! Right now my next challenge is getting rid of aphids in the mint and zucchini.

And just because the following picture makes me laugh and roll my eyes, I had to include it. It's a few months old, but I forgot it was on my camera. Kevin and I came home one evening to this scene. The bag on the floor is a Frosted Flakes cereal bag...and it's empty...and there are cereal crumbs everywhere on the floor. Oh, the joys of living with Ruby.

The Iron Stomach

2010-04-18T21:03:00.004-05:00

Our dog has a death wish.

I guess we should already know this. She's eaten ant poison, a telephone, cat food, various trash items that I won't be specific about, old food, dirt, Bobo barf, soap, enough dog food to last a month - in one sitting - and other things I can't even remember.

And now, she's decided to branch out and try plant fertilizer.

I'm telling you, if Ruby doesn't die from being poisoned from something she eats, she will live forever.

The Education of Cameron Lawracy

2010-04-14T14:28:00.003-05:00

The last time I visited my friend Kelsey in Georgia, I wrote about how much I was learning from my four-day stay with her. I learned about parboiling, the Pioneer Woman blog, cooking vs. assembling ingredients, why I should cherish my food processor and other things. Trip number is turning out to be equally as informative as the first.

1. Icing vs. Frosting vs. Glaze - These three things are apparently different. Icing and frosting are not synonymous. Frosting is a thicker substance usually with a butter or fat base. Icing is thinner and has a sugar base. Glaze is even thinner.

2. Boxed cakes and mixes are still abhorred and looked upon with general snarkiness in the Peterson household. Consequently I get to eat homemade-from-scratch coconut cupcakes instead. Oh, the humanity!

3. When a soccer player gets the ball kicked through his or her legs, it's called being nutmeg-ed.

4. Some doors in houses are hollow. Never knew this. Thought all doors were some sort of solid wood.

5. Home grown beans grow at least 6 feet tall. Crazy!

6. There is a great way to garden called square foot gardening that eliminates 80% of wasted time and gardening effort and supplies.

I'm sure there's more stuff, but for right now, those have been the topics of my Kelsey/Eli lessons.

Bellies, babies, and house buying

2010-04-11T21:29:00.002-05:00

I didn't realize that my assignment to you to choose favorite belly photos from our photography session was quite the task that it turned out to be. We decided to choose 35 photos to have the digital rights to and choosing 35 was hard! But I finally did.

On another random note, Kevin and I have been house hunting in Montgomery. We've been going back and forth trying to decide to buy or rent. We found a few really awesome houses and finally (I think) settled on (I'm pretty sure) buying. So we submitted an offer. Talk about scary and exciting simultaneously. I'm not sure which I'm more excited about: first time home buying or having a baby. It's a close tie (I'm sure it's not supposed to be a tie - babies are more special and all - but darn it, I'm a personal finance geek and buying a home is interesting to me). Anyway, I'll keep everyone updated on what happens with the offer. We went ahead and took photos of the house just in case it does work out so we can start planning furniture and stuff and post some photos. Keep your fingers crossed!

Belly Photos

2010-04-01T08:49:00.003-05:00

Kevin and I got professional belly photos done by an awesome lady who takes amazing photographs. They're unconventional, cute, and fun. We had a blast during the photo session. Here is the link to the proofs she sent us. What're your favorites? Let me know.

http://web4.sendtoprint.net/proofbook/vue_lawracy/Cover.asp?sets=vue_lawracy

It's official: My cloth diapering quest has begun.

2010-03-24T09:57:00.004-05:00

If you don't already know, I hate baby/toddler/kid stuff. You know, the toys everywhere, the goofy clothes with stupid sayings, the enormous potential for the stuff to accumulate everywhere in all facets of your life. Don't get me wrong: I'm excited for our baby and I think baby things can be cute (like onesies and little diapers and hats). However, I absolutely refuse to let the baby stuff take over my house/home/car/life. (Note to all the mothers who I know will have a comment about this: I understand that there will be baby things in my house/home/car/life. I accept that. I just will not accept it taking over my life. I believe it is possible.) Anyway, so one thing that kills me is the amount of potential waste with kid stuff. Babies grow so fast that everything only lasts a few months before they outgrow or no longer need everything. So in my ardent determination to minimize the wastefulness that Winky may cause by being born, I am going to try to waste not, want not in all possible areas. Case in point #1: cloth diapers. My take: if I'm not going to work for a year (as in for an employer), I figure that I can make the effort to cloth diaper, saving money (hopefully) and some landfill space. My new job will be Mom, professional laundress. So today I took the plunge and bought my first few cloth diapering items because there is a fantastic coupon for a free cloth diaper (rated #1 on most diaper sites, also very expensive normally). I can tell you, after hitting the "Complete purchase" button, I am simultaneously freaked out and also very very excited. Ready or not, I've dove into the deep end and now I'm gonna pray I don't drown in a sea of cloth diapers and doo-doo.

Where did March go??

2010-03-22T16:49:00.002-05:00

How is it already March 22? Good lordy, if March goes by this fast, then April will probably go buy fast, too, and then it'll be May and then, holy cow, it'll be time for Winky! Oh my gosh! There's so much that is coming up that I know will make the time go by even faster. Kevin and I are having belly photos taken this Friday (fun!). Then we're going to Montgomery to look at rental houses (hopefully we find one we like and it's available to rent). Then my mom is coming to visit and my baby shower is happening. Then my mom goes home, and I go visit Kelsey in Georgia for a few days. Then Kevin is leaving for a two-week training. Then my dad is coming to visit for a few days while Kevin is gone. Then when Kevin comes back it'll officially be May and I'm sure all I'll be doing is counting down the days till Winky comes. I don't know which I'm more excited about: Winky or moving. Yay!

Baby Belly Photo

2010-03-16T15:04:00.003-05:00

Here's an updated baby belly photo. Kevin took this yesterday. I'm officially 30 and 4/7 weeks along.

And just for a reference point, here is a photo of the maintenance banquet Kevin and I went to on Saturday night. (Spouses are encouraged to wear tricked out uniforms; my special accessory was my belly.) The banquet was the main reason I wrote the last blog posting about lots of people saying I didn't look pregnant. I will admit the beige color of the shirt doesn't emphasize my belly, but in person it's pretty obvious, in my opinion. Anyway, enough harping on that issue. I'm laying it to rest now.

P.S. I found a maternity bathing suit for $7 today at my favorite (only) baby consignment store. I love good deals! Kelsey, I'm now fully prepared to go swimming in Blake's wading pool when I come visit in April if it's warm enough.

2010-03-15T11:39:00.002-05:00

Why do people feel the need to look at my belly and say "Wow! You're not very big. You don't look that pregnant."??? People, newsflash: I am a helpless victim of hormonal sensitivity. You do not, under any circumstances, tell a pregnant woman who is almost 8 months pregnant that she does not look pregnant. What am I supposed to do with that comment?? Say, "Thanks, I was hoping the growing baby inside of me wasn't noticeable!" All these (many) comments do is make me worry that my poor baby isn't getting big enough and I'm already failing in my responsibilities as a mother.
Irrational? Yes. Too bad. I told you I'm a helpless victim of hormonal insanity - I mean, sensitivity. The only comments that are worth hearing from people are ones that do not have any possibility of accidental offense. May I suggest harmless little fibs like, "Wow! You look beautiful pregnant!" or "You are definitely glowing. How lovely!" or "I love your cute belly!" Lies or not, at least these comments have no possibility of stirring the bitchy/weepy creature of retaliation within me.
If you'll excuse me, I must now take my 30 weeks worth of growing baby in my belly to work so more people can tell me how small my belly is and I can silently seethe and try not to cry/yell/scream/sob/lift up my shirt and shove my belly in their faces and say "Does this just look like a giant beer gut to you?"

P.S. Sorry for the ranting. It only proves my helpless hormonal victim status.

Belly Buttons and Crazy Moments

2010-03-12T16:07:00.002-06:00

Time for a Cam/Kevin/Winky/Ruby update!

* I had my first crazy hormonal pregnancy moment (at least I think it was my first): I was laying in bed trying to get to sleep the other night and I got so frustrated not being able to find a comfortable position that I started bawling. Kevin thought I was joking and laughed. It was funny. Especially when I decided the most comfortable spot was on top of Ruby in her dog bed.

* My belly button is a half innie/outie. Ugh.

* It is weird to see my belly undulating randomly throughout the day. It's kind of fun to imagine which Winky parts are jabbing my ribs and bladder.

* Kevin and I started Lamaze class. There are 17 couples attending total. I like the teachers a lot, but since I've done so much research/reading on childbirth I know a lot of what they're teaching us. But it is fun to help Kevin practice relaxing massages on me. It's a tough role, but somebody has to do it.

* Ruby decided to jump on the kitchen counter and eat the rest of the Girl Scout cookies, a NutriGrain bar, my lunchbox, and a Tupperware container and the brownies and cookies in it. That was a fun surprise to come home to.

* I gave my notice at work. My last day is Mar. 24. I will probably be a little bored till Winky is born, but at least my back won't hurt as much any more. Plus, being around all the really pretty spring clothes that I can't try on because I'm pregnant is like being a diabetic in a candy store. It's so not fair!

* Kevin and I are househunting in Montgomery. We're hoping to move some time in June. Wish us luck on finding our perfect house!

We know where we are PCSing...

2010-03-01T15:09:00.002-06:00

...and it's the same place about which Kevin was unofficially told. So now I can officially pass on the information to you.

We will be moving to Montgomery, Alabama so that Kevin can be an ASBC instructor at Maxwell AFB. His report-no-later-than date is 15 July.

Our initial reaction was not positive (to put it mildly). However, we are learning to look at the bright side of things. We wanted to move some place north, and it is, indeed, 3.5 hours north of Panama City, so technically it's north...er. The city is bigger than Panama City, so that's good. There are actually highways (no more 45mph roads everywhere). Atlanta is only 2.5 hours away, so we have better access to a major airport. Moving will be simpler for us since we won't have to caravan across the country with a new baby. Our families are 5.5 hours away, so we will be able to see them more easily. Kelsey and Jennifer will only be a few hours away so I don't have to say a long-distance good-bye to all of my friends. The assignment is usually a 2-3 year assignment, so we (hopefully) won't be there as long as we've been in Panama City. Um, I start running out of positives after that.

Ultimately, I know in my heart that God has a plan and purpose for what he does, and I know we are meant to go there. Now it's just up to us to be positive and patient about finding out what the purpose is. I have generally been able to be positive so far and not dwell in disappointment, but any other positive words or encouragement you'd like to share is definitely still welcome.

So there you have it. Alabama, here...we...come...sigh.

I'm about to make you mad

2010-02-25T16:34:00.003-06:00

Kevin and I think we know where we will be living. Kevin unofficially heard about where they may assign him. It's not the greatest news we've heard. It's nowhere - not anywhere even close to where - we thought we'd be going or like to go. But it's still unofficial, so we aren't going to release the location yet. We're still hoping maybe it'll get changed at the last minute. So sorry to torture you, but I did say I'd let you know as soon as I found out. It's just rathering disappointing news, but since it's unofficial I don't want to say anything yet. Sorry.

Where, oh where, are we going?

2010-02-22T18:00:00.002-06:00

Don't get excited. I don't know the answer to that question yet (but I wish I did). Today my boss pointed out that if we are supposed to find out by March 1 where we are going to move next, then they have 1 week to tell us. They better not miss their deadline! I wanna know where I'm going to be living!

Excitement!

2010-02-20T15:15:00.002-06:00

This past weekend Kevin and I went to SC to visit family. It was great to see everyone, but that's not why this post is titled "Excitement!". No, one of the great things about going to SC is that there is a huge children's consignment store that my mom found right near where she lives, and we got to go and look for (semi-dirty) buried treasure. I found one thing: a Baby Bjorn for $20! It's the kind that Kevin and I registered for at Target that costs $129 new so we saved $109 (actually we saved $129 because my mom bought it for us)! I took it home and washed it and it's as good as new. Yay! Our first official piece of baby gear (that is used, but whatever). Then my dad ordered our second official piece of baby gear: a travel system stroller/carseat thing. It's exactly the one we (I) wanted and I even assembled it all by myself. Now there's a big yellow and black stroller and carseat sitting in the corner of our living room. It almost looks like we might have children living here or something. :) Very cool (and weird).

Hell has literally frozen over

2010-02-12T09:57:00.003-06:00

It's supposed to snow tonight in Panama City. Yes, snow. Snow. Snow!? Can you believe it? There's not supposed to be any accumulation, but still. Snow. In Florida. Crazy. Kevin and I will not be here to witness it, if it does, because we're going to visit family in SC. So we'll miss this oddball weather.

Snow (it's frozen over) in Florida (Hell).

At long last

2010-02-03T10:47:00.002-06:00

A baby belly photo - this one is when I'm 24 weeks and 2 days (not that I'm counting or anything...)

And just because I had to - here's a photo of Ruby with our redneck/homemade/posterboard-and-duct-tape cone to keep her from bothering a sore spot on her paw. Doesn't she look happy? (Don't worry, the next day we went out and bought a real cone; but I have to say, I was equally impressed and highly amused by this one.)

Very funny story

2010-02-01T13:28:00.005-06:00

I'm at work today. I've been helping these two old white ladies, who were probably in their late 70s or early 80s, who were just laughing and giggling and having a great time back in the dressing rooms. They were walking around in their underwear, declaring things about their butts and how sexy things were. I just went on about my business. Then they came to the cash register to pay for their stuff. In walks our mailman. He's a very nice man in his late 30s or so. Anyway, I said hello to him and reached for our mail. One of the ladies turns around (keep in mind she's at least 70) and the following exchange takes place:
Old lady: (to the mailman) "Hi! How are you feeling today?"
Mailman: (distracted, looking for any mail we may have to send out) "Good, good, good." (I take the mail from him and he starts walking toward the door).
Old lady: "Well...You look good. Mmm."
Me: (I don't say anything, but I almost drop the shirt I'm folding and fall over laughing.)
Mailman: (doing a double-take, then chuckling) "Thanks!"
Then for the rest of the transaction, I proceed to try very hard not to laugh or even smile because if I do, I will not stop.
After that, the ladies keep jabbering and start talking about a top on a mannequin that's kind of low cut. One lady (the other one who wasn't talking to the mailman) said, "My! That's low cut! I could never wear that!" The other lady (the mailman lady) said, "Oh, yes you could. You just let it come down till it hits your areola."
At this point, I'm dying. I'm trying so hard not to start laughing and appear rude. Luckily, by then, they were done and headed out the door, laughing and joking and enjoying life.
I hope I'm that spunky when I'm 70 - but perhaps without the areola tendencies.

Sorry

2010-01-29T14:01:00.003-06:00

I promise I'm not trying to delay posting a belly photo. I just got new photo manager software and I can't figure out how to find my photos to load them to Flickr to link them to a post to show them to you. I think I may have to retake a photo and try this all again. The photo I was going to post was from 21 weeks, so I think I'll go ahead and take another one anyway because I'm 24 weeks yesterday.
Winky says hello (that or he/she thinks my uterus is a dance studio and is taking full advantage).
Okay, running out of time, but I'll post a belly photo when Kevin gets home and can take one of me. Cheerio!

The votes are in....

2010-01-21T17:32:00.002-06:00

...and a belly photo you will get! I will take one tonight (I'm officially 23 weeks along today) and post it this weekend. No new Winky news really. It occurred to me that next week I'll officially be in my 6th month, which means in a month, I'll be in my third trimester, which means the end is coming much sooner rather than later. Holy labor and delivery, Batman! I guess I better start amassing the baby stuff soonish.

Question for my "fans"

2010-01-18T15:55:00.002-06:00

Hello out there! I have a question for you all (all five of you who read my blog - I love you all). Would it be weird to post a photo of my protruding belly? I had someone ask to see what I look like with a little baskbetball belly, so I thought, Hmmm - is this blog appropriate? So I'm leaving it up to my readers to decide. Yay or nay. Leave me a comment. Toodles!

Closet Cleaning / Time's a-flying!

2010-01-15T17:25:00.002-06:00

This is a posting about two totally unrelated topics.

Topic #1: Closet Cleaning
You'd think that since I work in a clothing store that I would hate to come home and mess with my own clothes (and believe me, some days I do). But usually I get more motivated to play with my clothes, organize them, rearrange them, etc. I've been meaning to clean out my closet since I've been about 3 months pregnant so that the clothes I can wear are more accessible, and the clothes I can't are put away, so I can see my options each day. Well, I finally did it this afternoon. I got rid of bag of clothes and refolded everything in my dresser and tried on everything to see what had pregnancy-belly-capacity and what didn't. Yay for closet cleaning!

Topic #2: Time's a-flying!
As I was cleaning out my closet and singing along to 80's and 90's music on the radio, I was just letting my mind wander. And it wandered right over to the fact that I'm 22 weeks pregnant today. Usually I think about how far along I am every day (e.g. only 3 more days till I'm 15 weeks along or I'm five months and 2 days along today) because I'm impatient and 9 months is a loooong time to wait for something (whether it's a deployment or giving birth). Well, apparently time is just scooting on by because I didn't realize that I'm already 22 weeks pregnant today. Last time I thought about this was a week ago. Now 7 days does not sound like a long time. But what hit me was the fact that everyone keeps telling me "Oh, it'll go by so fast" and usually I smile and think to myself "Um, it doesn't feel like it." But today a whole week going by without much thought about it made me think that maybe the 2nd half of pregnancy does go by faster than the first. Holy crap, that means birth-day will be here sooner rather than later! Argh!!!!! Help! Holy cow! Freaking out!!!

Okay, I'm calm now. Oh, and by the way, my belly button is about to pop out any day. Yuck. I don't want an outie. I'm gonna feel like a turkey timer - ding! All done baking!

Caution: Baby Gushing Ahead

2009-12-31T14:46:00.003-06:00

Today was my third OB appointment and coincidentally third sonogram photo session. I won't go into details about the 2-1/2-hour wait that I had to sit through (along with Kevin and my mom and stepdad), but the important thing is: I got baby sonogram photos! Winky is sooo cute (that's our official neutral-sounding nickname for baby Lawracy)! I love to watch it moving. We even got a DVD. I received 16-week photos, too, but they are grainy, so I'm only going to post the 20-week ones from today. And you can't tell if it's a boy or a girl, so don't even try to see if you can see anything.

The second photo is from a birds-eye view looking from the top of the head so you can see the hands curled up by the nose pretty well.

Yay!

Jubilant

2009-12-22T16:01:00.004-06:00

Reasons why this Christmas kicks last Christmas's ***!

* Kevin is home, not only in the country, but at our house not working (well, for a week)
* I made 4 kinds of new Christmas cookies, 2 of which are delicious (the other 2 are just good)
* My dad made me a custom craft table with storage on wheels with extension wings (photos later)
* Kevin is home
* All presents are bought and wrapped (and were a week ago)
* Kevin put up outside lights for the first time ever
* Kevin is home
* I got Kevin a really cool gift that he'll love
* Winky (the nickname of our unborn Lawracy child) is getting bigger
* Kevin is home
* I got to use my Magic Bullet food machine for the first time to chop nuts fo cookies and it was awesome!
* Kevin's squadron holiday party was a lot of fun (really really genuine fun)
* Kevin is home

Holiday life is good.

Our New Home - Clarification

2009-12-14T11:27:00.002-06:00

After reading Julia's comment about where we may live, I did want to clarify something. The bases that Kevin put down aren't necessarily ones that we would have chosen out of all the bases available. They were the ones that had available jobs that Kevin would like. So while New Jersey is certainly not my first choice (or 100th for that matter), it is my first choice to have Kevin be happy in his job.

Besides, I hear the base in New Jersey is an hour away from New York City. Now that's exciting!

Our next home

2009-12-11T14:50:00.003-06:00

Ever since we moved into the house we live in now, I continually think about the next house we will live in, simply because I'm not a fan of the set-up of the house we live in now. I keep thinking things like, "I wish the desk would fit in here" and "Why is our bedroom 85 degrees and the office 65 degrees" and "Wow, the crack in that window is getting bigger" and "Why did the architect make the master closet and bathroom the smallest of all the closets and bathrooms in the house" and many other thoughts.

So needless to say, I'm excited to move. The reason I bring this up is because Kevin officially put in for jobs/locations for his next assignment. Everyone keeps asking where we will be. Neither he nor I have any clue, but here is his list (in no particular order):

First Tier: Europe, Europe, Europe, Europe, Europe
Second Tier: McCord in Washington state, McGuire in New Jersey, Dover in Delaware, Wright-Pat in Ohio, Scott in Illinois, and one more that I can't remember.

We will find out some time in January or February. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to continue daydreaming about moving.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

2009-11-29T15:58:00.009-06:00

...especially in my house. I don't know why exactly but I've been uber-excited about Christmas and holidays in general lately. We put most of our Christmas decorations up a week before Thanksgiving this year. I just couldn't wait! And I've already wrapped all the presents we've bought so far. I guess I can blame it on two things: 1. Kevin wasn't here last year and I was super-anti-Christmas/joy/good mood/anything happy so now I'm making up for it. 2. Hormones.

Probably the latter.

Anyway, had to post the following photos because they make me smile. You'll see why.

We were trying to take Christmas card photos with Ruby and she wouldn't move for me to scoot in so instead the camera got us after I had given in to laughing rather than posing.

I was trying to be creative and I know it's not a great shot but for some reason, I really like it. Especially with Ruby straining to escape.

My dad came to visit (referenced in a previous "ape" posting) and he was playing with Eerwin, my friend's dog, and I love love love the photos of the two of them.

(Kelsey, I promise my dad is not torturing Eerwin.)

P.S. It only took me about an hour to figure out how to post photos from a URL onto blogger. Sometimes, I really hate technology.

Recipe for Chaos

2009-11-23T11:00:00.004-06:00

So I rarely do two posts in one day because I feel each post should have its own spotlight for at least a day. But I forgot that I wanted to update everyone about what's going on at home. Nothing big, but it's crazy.

We have 3 large-ish dogs in our house that are all very energetic. We're still caring for Eerwin, the ball-obsessed lab, and now we're caring for Katie Bell, the timid, but lovey lab-mix. And of course, there's Ruby. So our house is D-O-G central. And this is the first year Kevin and I are hosting Thanksgiving at our house for people we don't know very well, so I'm thinking Thanksgiving will be quite interesting this year. As crazy as 3 dogs plus hosting Thanksgiving may make this Thursday, I'm still looking forward to it. I think it'll be a fun kind of chaos.

Happiest Thanksgiving!!

Life Lesson

2009-11-23T10:40:00.003-06:00

If you are lucky like I am, you will get to learn from life lessons the fun way (a.k.a. the hard way).

Case in point: My dad came to visit a week ago. He, Kevin, and I were in the kitchen getting breakfast ready on a leisurely weekend morning. Kevin and I were preparing the food, so my dad was sitting at the counter talking and watching. It was a pleasant, calm start to the day. While getting breakfast ready, my dad picks up my What to Expect When You're Expecting pregnancy journal and browses through some of the pages. Then he begins to laugh. For everyone's enjoyment, he reads aloud: "Do you find yourself thinking about sex, sex, sex? Are you hornier than a college boy?" Then he turns to another passage and reads aloud: "Are you finding hair growth in new places? Feeling like an ape?" (And yes, these are actual passages from the journal. Not my dad's words, but the book's words.) He proceeds to roar with laughter, which in turn, infects Kevin and me. We are all laughing at the descriptions. Then the laughter slowly dies out, and Kevin says, "Great. I'm married to a hungry, horny ape. I'm such a lucky man." And Kevin and Dad get a great laugh out of that.

Lesson: If you are pregnant, never ever leave any pregnancy-related reading material lying around that may be used as fuel for jokes by your father or husband.

Beau

2009-11-15T14:02:00.002-06:00

From random web surfing, to which I fall victim time to time, I found a beautiful poem written by Jimmy Stewart (yes, the Jimmy Stewart) about his dog Beau. If you're a dog lover or simply have an appreciation for the simpler things in life, visit this lady's blog, who has a video of Jimmy Stewart himself reading the poem on Johnny Carson. You can read the poem on the website, but watching the video is so much better.

http://maybellinesgarden.blogspot.com/2009/11/what-great-dog.html

Best Birthday Ever

2009-11-10T16:31:00.008-06:00

My 27th birthday will go down in my history as one of the best birthdays ever! There are two main reasons why. Both are due to Kevin.
Here they are, not necessarily in order:

#1

Kevin finally agreed that I could get my hair cut and he wouldn't complain or say anything negative. As long as I was happy, he was happy. Hurray! It's so superficial, but I feel so much better.

And #2:

We (well, I) am pregnant! On my birthday Kevin and I went to our first OB appointment. We found out that (last week) I was 12 weeks along (now I'm 13 weeks along). How cool is that!?! I'm due May 20. And no, we will not find out the sex of the baby till the birth day. Look at the photo! It has arms and everything! That thing is in me! How weird.

So there you go, the best birthday ever. New haircut and new human being. Wow!

P.S. I promise I will try not to bore my readers with endless tales of baby related crap. I will have to do one big posting with all the details and more pictures of the sonogram images (with our alien-like baby as the star), but I promise I will try to keep the baby stuff to a minimum. As excited as I am, even I get bored with baby stuff after a certain point.

Things are changing

2009-10-28T14:19:00.005-05:00

Fall is here. Well, it is inside my house, evident from all the decorations I have put up. The weather is FINALLY changing (a little). Now it only gets up to maybe 80 degrees each day (have my standards gotten so low that I'm celebrating 80 degrees on Halloween?). At least I don't sweat so much when I go outside.

I was just thinking that along with the (minor) changes in the weather, other changes are taking place as well.

Tomorrow we will have 2 dogs until January (Ruby will be so excited).

Saturday my friend Jen is leaving for D.C. for 5 months with her husband (not a fan of this change).

I changed my mind and gave in to reading the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. Still not a vampire fan, but the plot is addictive.

My blog colors needed a seasonal change.

My hair is (almost) finally long enough to put in a ponytail without using 8,000 pins and barretts.

There's one other change, too...

Where does the time go?

2009-10-22T12:25:00.002-05:00

Well, after avoiding getting on the computer for as long as possible, I finally had to give in for bill-paying and other assundry reasons. I decided to update myself on my friends' blogs and after reading theirs I have posting-guilt from not updating my blog in a month. So I'm doing it now.

I feel like I want to write the usual: not much new, blah, blah, blah. But there's new stuff that's happened. It'll just require me to use my brain and dig around to remember. Oh, let's see...

* Kevin's eyes: they are no longer bloodshot from his surgery. The eye doctor said one flap is perfect and one has a few dust particles under it (normal) so he has to put in a lot of eye drops.

* Vegas: Kevin and I went to Vegas for a week for a work conference. It was okay. I can mark it off my "been there, done that" list.

*Victor: We are fostering a dog named Victor for ARC who just got adopted by someone Kevin works with so he'll go to his forever home on Friday. Yay!

*Eerwin: We will be caring for our friends' dog Eerwin for 2 months starting next week so we'll have 2 dogs in the house for a while again. I know Ruby will be soooooo excited to have a playmate.

*Halloween: Nothing special, but I decorated our house for Halloween/fall because Kohl's had a great sale on decorations. I love the fall. Now if only the 80 degree weather would cool down.

That's all I can think of. I'll try to post again before another month goes by.