Where's the pretty baby? There's the pretty baby!

Generally speaking, Brigid is a pretty happy kid.  But every once in awhile, even she starts to get fussy.  The 'I'm tired, I'm bored, you are not entertaining, I am done with you' kind of fussy.  And when that happens, there is only one person (other than the Jason Mraz/Elmo combination, that is) who can calm her down.

Herself.

Seriously, the child is in love with herself.  Put her in front of a mirror, ask her where the pretty baby is, and she will immediately start giggling and waving at her reflection.  It's actually ridiculously cute.  But, she's starting to take it beyond that, even, when she can get close enough to the reflection to do something about it.

See, she has this toy.  It's a plastic snail looking thing that rocks back and forth and plays music and has a mirror on the side.  We spent the day playing with it, and she basically spent the day making out with herself.  Because of course, the pretty baby is so pretty that she deserves kisses.  Mommy and daddy don't get kisses on demand, but the pretty baby?  Why, she can have as many as she wants.  And apparently, she wants a lot.

Honestly, though, I'm starting to think this has more to do with a general fascination with babies than a fascination with herself.  For one of my baby showers, back in the day (because, seriously, it feels like forever ago...I mean, I even have gray hair now!), my mother-in-law used framed baby photos of my husband and I as part of the decor, and those pictures are now on a shelf in Brigid's room.  And every time she wakes up, whether it's in the morning or after a nap, she loses her ever-loving mind over those pictures.  She starts grinning and giggling and waving and pointing, and it might be one of the most adorable things she does.  We're still not quite up to waving at the general population, but the baby pictures...well, that's just another story.

On Wednesday, Brigid is going out partying with Grandma, and there will be a toddler there.  This weekend, during the 4th of July festivities, she's going to be around a couple more.  We're about to find out whether she likes all kids, or whether she's just partial to herself.

I'll keep you posted.

Random Thoughts

I have gray hair.  Or white hair.  I'm not really sure.  Either way, it's not good.  Notice I didn't say anything along the lines of 'I found my first gray hair today.'  That would be because, judging from the number of gray/white hairs that I found on my head, they've been coming on for awhile, and I'm just now noticing.

Let's just say that I am less than happy about this whole situation.

-----------------------------

Brigid got a wagon for Christmas last year, and today was the first day we took it out.  She seemed a little unsure of the whole thing at first, but I think she'll get the hang of it before too long.  She's a quick study, that kid.

(Please notice, the comb-over is still in full effect in the following pictures.  I am seriously at a loss about what to do.  It's too long to brush straight down, so we're left with...this.  Sad.)

-----------------------------

Speaking of quick study, Brigid is now pulling herself up into a standing position on her own (ok, she did it once...but that still counts, right?) and eating watermelon (and apparently cheese, when my husband can sneak it to her without me noticing...I am insanely conservative when it comes to introducing new foods, unfortunately).  But still, we have no teeth.  No teeth!  

Seriously.  Where in the heck are this kid's teeth?

-----------------------------

We are bringing in outside help to watch Brigid on Thursdays, starting this week.  And by outside help, I mean someone that I am not related to, that I just met during nanny interviews this past weekend.  I'm a little nervous about all of this, to say the least, but we've done background checks, and called references, and I really liked the people we interviewed, so I'm sure everything will be fine.

However, I still reserve the right to take a vacation day on Thursday to park in front of the house and spy on the nanny through the windows.  And barring that, I may or may not be in the market for a good nanny cam.

-----------------------------

Finally, I may be the idiot who traded in my practical sedan for something a little less practical, but some lady pulled up next to me at a stoplight last week and rolled down her window to tell me how cute my car was.  And some dude in the drive through at Chick-fil-A told me he had one, too.  And nobody ever bonded with me over my Honda.

Now, I realize this doesn't make me any less of an idiot, but it's still fun.  

So there.

I'm in better shape than my dogs...so, there's that.

I'm on week seven of the Couch to 5k program, which means I can officially run for 25 minutes straight, without passing out. I know this might seem a little lame to those friends of mine who are crazy, crazy running-type people, but this is huge for me. It also means I've stuck with a work-out program for seven weeks, so I'm pretty proud of myself right now.  But there's a small problem with starting this program in the heat of the Georgia summer.

I seem to have outpaced my running partners.

I took Peyton out last week for two ten minute running segments, with a three minute walking segment in the middle, and she started dragging towards the end.  Then, she came home and stood on top of the register for twenty minutes, using the air conditioner to cool off.  So I figured she wasn't really up for the next stage of continuous running, and I took Riley along instead.  Peyton was pissed.

Now, Riley, with her longer legs, barely put any effort into the run.  She was basically walking quickly next to me, which was pretty annoying.  At least Peyton's short little legs made me feel like we were actually moving at a quicker pace when we went out together.  Riley just highlighted how slow my 'run' actually is.  But even she didn't look so good when everything was said and done...

So, today, I left them both behind, and I just went out on my own.

Wimps.

Shouldn't I get a little more time to prepare for this whole 'growing up' thing?

Steve, on the phone yesterday as I was driving home:

Your daughter refuses to be held. She just wants to be left alone in her walker. I'm basically getting a big 'screw you' right now.

My mother-in-law, on the phone this morning:

Brigid does not want to be held at all. She wants nothing to do with me.

Me, last night, as she's trying to push off of me and out of my arms, pissed because I won't let her stand against the back of the couch:

THIS ISN'T FAIR!!! YOU ARE TOO YOUNG TO BE THIS INDEPENDENT!!!

So, yeah...did I mention that Brigid is crawling now? She started doing it pretty consistently while we were on vacation, and while she has this weird, 'crawl on one knee while sticking the other leg out like a kick-stand and using that foot to push off every once in awhile' style of crawling (which I am not even close to explaining properly...it's just something you have to see...), she is now, officially, a baby on the move. Between the crawling and the walker, the kid has absolutely no need for us anymore. She wants to be on her own, without being bothered by any of those pesky parental figures who try to keep her away from the electrical outlets and the wires and the used hand towels lying around the kitchen, just begging to be chewed on. And honestly, it kind of sucks.

I think I could deal with a little bit of independence if it made my life easier. But you know what? It most definitely does not do that. In fact, it makes my life that much worse, because now I have to be on her 100% of the time. It's not like I would lay her down on the ground to entertain herself for hours while I napped before this whole crawling thing started, but I could at least set her down for a few seconds to grab something, knowing she would be right there in the same spot when I came back. Now I set her down on the floor in her bedroom to start getting her bath ready, and she's making a play for the cord attached to her white noise machine. Or I set her down in the family room, turn around to grab a book for us to look at, and she's got a dog toy in her mouth.

(The worst part about all of this? More vacuuming. The smallest speck on the floor? She will find it and put it in her mouth. And, I guess that's bad, or something. I mean, that's what they tell me, anyway. So there's vacuuming to be done. And I hate vacuuming. Boo!)

She is so serious, now, too. While she still has her giggles and her smiles to share when she's in the mood, she is so focused on all of the new things around her that she thinks she should have access to, it's a little hard to distract her from the things she actually shouldn't have access to. And, God help you if you try to refuse her one of those things, because that child has a temper. There is this squeal she releases when she is pissed, and it is not at all a pleasant sound. But, you know, there is just no reasoning with an eight-month old, no matter how hard I've tried. Which means we seem to be stuck with the squealing for awhile.

And I think I'm ok with that, right now. I know I have my moments, when the incoherent screeching is the last thing in the world I want to deal with, but I also know that, as quickly as everything else seems to have gone in this whole baby process, we're going to be well past this phase way before I'm ready.

At the risk of sounding like a mommy cliche...

These kids, man, they grow up so fast.

Vacation Wrap-Up

So, I went on a trip this past weekend.  To Florida.  With Steve.  And Brigid.  And four other family members.  And I had to leave my cute little car at home, even though it would be the perfect beach car, and I figured we could just attach it to the trailer hitch on the Durango and pull it along behind us.  But Steve said no.  And I think he said it in a very snotty voice, while laughing at me or shaking his head or rolling his eyes or doing all three at once.  So I wasn't too happy with that.

But, Brigid, she wasn't all that concerned with any of it.  She was just ready to hit the road...

Beyond the little car spat situation, the long weekend was a ton of fun.  Steve got to fish, I got to sunbathe, and Brigid spent a ridiculous amount of time napping.  Which I guess could explain the middle of the night party sessions that kid kept trying to throw at 2am.  And her 6:30am starts to the day.  But she did manage to squeeze in a few beach-y activities between her daytime sleepfests...

We did a little swimming in the pool (no pictures, of course, because I'm terrible at this whole 'documenting the childhood' thing...) and in a cooler on the beach.

We also tried dipping our toes into the ocean water, but oh boy, that did not go over well with the kid at all.  Instant crying on that one, in fact.  But the sand didn't come at her in noisy waves, so she seemed to tolerate that a little better.

 

She seemed to get tired of hanging out with her mother, though, which, you know, whatever. 

If she wants to hang out with her dad a little, I guess that's fine.  

*sniff, sniff, pouty face, sniff*

Of course, we had to deal with a day of clouds and the odd little summer storm, but it happens.  Steve decided to get all artsy on me with the storm pictures, because that's what Steve does.

Do you know what I do?  I try to take pictures of Brigid without acclimating the camera to the temperatures outside first.  Did you know that bringing the camera from an air conditioned condo into the hot and humid ocean air will cause the inside lenses to fog up?  I didn't.  Turns out, it's hard to take pictures with foggy lenses.  Go figure.

Know what else Steve does with the camera?  He goes all investigative reporter on your ass.  There were some tarballs on the beach.  So, of course, Mr. Fox News himself had to get some pictures to post in various oil spill chatrooms.

The picture of the skyline?  That was to prove we were actually in Panama City with the tar balls.  The picture of the seaweed?  I have absolutely no idea.

Brigid still didn't care about any of it.  In fact, she basically left the beach the same way she arrived...

Isn't that cute, how I make it seem like she's such a great car baby, what with all of the sleeping?  The reality is that this little nap occurred after we'd stopped in the Middle of Nowhere, Florida, thirty minutes into the trip, to change a poopy diaper.  And it only lasted about thirty minutes, itself.  So that left about 4+ hours of infant entertaining to me, and it turns out, I am TERRIBLE at the infant entertaining.  There was some flailing around with the toys.  There was some food bribing taking place.  There was some screaming.  There was some stress.  There was a lot of Jason Mraz played.  There was finally peace and quiet after the poor kid cried herself out and fell back asleep.

Mother of the year, right here, people.

Mother. Of. The. Year.

Can't imagine how much fun it's going to be the next time she makes the trip to Indiana...

All good things...

Aaaaaand, we're back. Back home again in Atlanta.

Unfortunately.

It's not that I'm not happy to be home, because it's always nice to get back to your own house, your own bed, and in my case, your own dogs. It's just that I miss the beach already. A lot.

It was amazing, of course. And, with the exception of a nightly wake-up around 1-2am by Brigid, which is apparently what I have to expect when we share a room with her, we all had a fantastic time. I have all sorts of pictures to download, and details to share, and tarballs to talk about, but I haven't gotten around to all of that yet, so you're just going to have to wait.

In the meantime, there's this...







Why, yes. Yes, that is a comb-over. And I have absolutely no idea what to do with it.

On the one hand, it's ridiculous. The kid looks like a cross between Gene Keady and Donald Trump. And that, boys and girls, is not a combination you want people to use when they're describing your kid.

On the other hand, I'm pretty sure she could guest host Celebrity Apprentice, and nobody would even realize the Donald was missing. So, you know, silver lining and all of that.

I guess, since nobody trims an eight month old's bangs these days (right? they frown on that, don't they?), it's probably time to break out the headbands and barrettes to fight this situation, because the comb-over must be stopped. And if that doesn't work? If it just won't go away?

Just tell NBC to give us a call. I guarantee we work for much, much less than Trump is charging these days.

Baby's first beach trip...

Guess where I am?









And guess what Brigid is doing?













Good times, people.

Good times.

Future CEO

We're heading to the beach for a few days, because it's my belief that every child should be able to stick his or her toes in the sand at the earliest possible age.

Also? I am apparently a hopeless optimist. An 8-month old on the beach probably isn't the most relaxing scenario I've ever encountered, but I'm willing to give it a shot. Because, while I am excited for Brigid to have her first Florida experience, let's face facts...

Momma needs the beach.

Badly.

Oh, and my family! It will be nice to see my family! That's totally why I'm doing this, of course. It's not all about the beach...it's all about the family.

*ahem*

Anyway, Monday and Tuesday were ridiculously busy at work, which is usually the way it goes when you're getting ready to take a few days off, but we took a little break around lunchtime on Tuesday to welcome a special visitor into the office.

I'm pretty sure she's planning to take over the company...








Charm them with cuteness, then steal their desk, that seems to be her master plan...


I think she's got a shot.

I think we've only been holding onto this one since Christmas...

New toy.







New toy!!!!




OMG! NEW TOY!!!!










Aaaaaand, we have a new favorite toy.

For at least a week.

It's amazing how quickly they learn.

Happy Friday!!

My favorite part about my job? Definitely the Fridays off, when Brigid and I get to spend the day together, just the two of us.

We have a good time.

We spend the morning in our pjs...




We hang out with the dogs...







It's all very exhausting, actually...




Oh, books!!! We love books!!!







Wait, what? What's going on?




We love reading on the run...




Seriously, woman, what's with all of the pictures?!?!




We hang out outside...










And let's not forget our time in the exersaucer, of course...




We sing songs, and play dance machine, and try to keep a clear line drawn between baby toys and dog toys. And really, that's a lot harder than it sounds. But we have fun, that's for sure.

In fact, it's pretty much the perfect way to spend a day.

Have a great weekend!