Merry Christmas!

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

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.

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

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.)