Snow pics

We finally got the Monkey in the snow today. She's not really a fan - showing off her born and raised southern roots - but we tried to get her to enjoy it anyway.  These pics are all too funny. She's totally shell shocked the entire time (she was actually stiff as a board and would not sit for me in the backyard - hence pic #1 where my hand is behind her back. I thought she was going to teeter over she was so stiff.).

I'm not sure if she hated the cold and snow or if she was mad that her head was stuffed into a hat and her hands were stuck in mittens (had to do it - it was freezing out there!). She did try to play with the snow a little and then maybe 3 minutes in, she was done. Inside we went. Collectively the household is feeling good about Winter Storm 2010 (lasting only 2 days - lol!) and is now ready for the balmy weather to return. Come on CLT - give us the 40s or 50s this week!

A perfect 10

In the spirit of the upcoming Olympics, I share with you the Monkey's perfect 10 floor exercise. (i know, i know - gymnastics are in the Summer Olympics, not the Winter Olympics. work with me here.)

Tonight, I got great video of the Monkey just before she went to bed in her super cute near nakedness. Here she is performing a perfect 10 floor routine with some serious master sitting skills. Why is she naked??  I think I've mentioned this before....she loves to scurry about with just her diaper on. Gives her more freedom I suppose and really, she proved to us tonight that she clearly performs better when she's nearly nude. And the best part....she didn't notice me for a good 2 1/2 minutes (entire video is 3 minutes), which makes for excellent video.

Happy Winter 2010 Storm Weekend! (2 inches of snow in CLT and lots of sleet and ice.)

Teaching her young

Pics of the baby in the snow to come (we actually need to get her out there, plunk her down in the snow and snap a couple of shots before it melts. she's napping right now so that will need to wait.).

In the mean time, here she is enjoying her first cup of warm goodness.

Friday's update

I'm sooooooooooooooooooo annoyed. I really tried to enter the Monkey in the Regis and Kelly/Parenting Magazine baby photo contest, but the web site is crashing like mad and as I type, it's 5pm and that's the cut off. No Monkey in the contest. So, so sad. Oh well. I tried. Actually, I really tried but to no avail.

Not only could I not upload a picture onto their web site, but I really struggled getting a picture of her to begin with. It's proving now to be a little bit harder to get a pic of the very mobile, curious, and fidgety Monkey. She's on the move and there's no stopping her. I have other pics of her but I tried to take a new one so it'd be the most recent, and then also one without her hands in her mouth, without food all over the place (although I love those shots), with her looking directly at the camera, and with real day light vs. a flash, and at this age, she's not digging it. She's so much more interested in what's going on around her that I'll go ahead and say it, I think the days of having the "perfect poser" are over. They were so great while they lasted. And I've heard from other parents, it only gets worse from here as she becomes more coordinated, and mobile, and faster at that.  I will share with you some of the pics that I did take over the last few days that regardless of if she was looking at me or not, were cute nonetheless. And although she's not a great poser any more, she's still perfect in my eyes:). The last pic below is the one I was trying to upload before the site crashed.

Ok, moving on....courtesy of Graham, here is our Friday/end of the week song. It's been so long since I've posted a song. 10,000 apologizes. Here we go - MC Lyte with Cold Rock the Party.  And as of 4pm today, it's officially snowing in Charlotte. 65 and sunny yesterday. Snowing today. And it hasn't stopped snowing since it started. This is going to get interesting. Ridiculous amounts of snow and ice are predicted for our area and often our weather people are wrong. This time, I hate to say it, I think they are right on. And ice is a real bummer (snow isn't pleasant either but ice is the real killer around here.). Let's hope we keep our power and stay snuggly warm throughout the weekend. I sent Mike out to get more Duralogs - may be our only source of heat this weekend - and snacks, so now you know where the Vails will be this weekend. I think we're supposed to thaw out by Monday. You never really look forward to Mondays but in this instance, I think I might be.

This week the Monkey tried yobaby yogurt for the first time. I mentioned this before but for recap's sake, I'll mention it again. She loved it. Also, she continues to really dig puffs, oatmeal, and all of the fruits and veggies I give her. Oh and teething biscuits and fresh fruit in her teether feeder. Digging the teething biscuits and the feeder. Also, I'll live to regret saying this but Eloise is getting to the point where you put her in her crib for naps and she just goes to sleep.  Novel concept!  No protest crying, no getting her legs/arms caught in the bars (wiggling around non-stop sometimes causes a limb to get stuck which requires reentry by whomever is manning the video monitor.) She's not sleeping any longer but it's so great that I'll know she's tired and she finally agrees with me. Yippee! Sometimes she'll go right to sleep, other times she hangs out for 10-20 minutes and then goes to sleep.  Big, big steps in the nap department.

Mike is out tonight having drinks and dinner with friends from the CLT branch. I won't list all of the details here for privacy's sake but I will say, one of Mike's co-workers and his brother were both in an extremely serious situation that almost took both of their lives. They were in a local hospital for months just trying to hold on and through an amazing miracle, they are both alive, have been released from the hospital and are now living together in a home that is equipped to assist them as they go through therapy and continue recovering. It was really touch and go there for a long time and Mike and his co-workers would go and visit him daily and nightly doing whatever they could to make sure he was comfortable and taken care of. 

Well, tonight is the first time they will all get to see each other again, but on this side of a hospital bed.  It's a surprise to all of his co-workers that their friend is coming so I expect there to be lots of tears and lots of great stories shared.  This kid is really just a kid.  Maybe in his early 20's. I don't know him personally but I've met him a couple of times and honestly, could not be nicer. The story was heartbreaking to hear and of course is still being played out as he works hard to regain his strength and his ability to walk again. But for now, I know the CLT group is having one heck of a night at a local water hole enjoying a co-worker they can't wait to see return to the branch again.

Enough from me. I'm off to watch me some House Hunters:)

Have a great weekend!

(super cute, not interested in Mommy pics below - oh, and don't worry...anything she is holding, I did not let her eat.)

And the one I tried to submit....

Preschool for a one year old?

Via our neighborhood email group and also a Mom group I belong too, I've learned about 2 preschools in the area accepting new kiddos for their 2010-2011 school year. At first, my inclination was to delete both messages because she's not even one year old and from my limited knowledge, I thought kiddos went to preschool maybe at 2, but definitely at 3. But since I clearly have so much to learn, I went to both web sites to see what they were all about - 1) St. Martin's Episcopal Preschool and 2) Plaza Presbyterian Weekday School.

The first one has an open house for new "students" on February 9 and I'm considering going just to see what it's like and what the teachers are like. Eloise would need to be 1 by August 31 so clearly she'll make the cut.  There are options at both schools for 1 day a week, 2 days a week and I believe 3 days a week. If at all, I'd consider the 1 day a week program, which costs around $100/month - so $25/week and she'd be at school for 3-4 hours a pop. 

But seriously, is this crazy?  A one year old in preschool?? Isn't that basically called daycare?  (which there is obviously nothing wrong with daycare but I'm home with her so should I be considering sending her out to preschool?) I could get more work done if she were gone but I could also get the baby whisperer for more hours per week if that's what I was after. And I'm not just trying to "send her away". I only want to consider this if it's something that she'd enjoy, and something that will continue helping her learn and grow and explore.

One main reason I'm now comtemplating this idea is I really like to socialization part of preschool (which is why I'm a daycare fan). I want her to be around other kids and this would give her the opportunity - clearly more than she has right now. She can play and share and just plain have fun staring at and interacting with other babies - what babies seem to love! Then the other side of me is saying, I also enjoy the fact that other than one brief skin/viral thing, she's had a clean bill of health for 7 1/2 months. But with that item on the "pros list", I do realize I can't keep her in a bubble forever. She needs to get out and get around other germs/infections, etc. to build up her immune system, right? Isn't that how it works?

I'll post a bigger "Fridays update" later with pics included but for now, this is what's on my mind. Preschool for a one year old? Yeah or neah? I don't know. I'm just not sure.

Da da da da

Today I noticed that the Monkey added a new syllable to her vocab - we've been working on this one so I glad it finally stuck. I had to get it on the Flip because Mike is going to be so proud - she's now saying da da da da! Of course this is just babble but super cute nonetheless. I think none of us doubted she'd be a talker. She actually spends much of the day chirping and screaming away. At this point, she likes to hear her own voice. Later she'll be paid by the word, I have no doubt.  Here she is!

My very own baby philosophy

I really should refrain from coming up with my very own baby philosophies (what do I know anyway?) but I was chatting with a friend (and fellow mom of a young baby) today and it got me thinking. Here it is - my very own philosophy - babies are either good eaters or good sleepers. Not both. Or maybe both but not likely. See, she has a good sleeper and not so hot eater. I have the opposite. Bad napper, great eater. Ok, I now must document.

If you struggle in the nap department, it's likely your baby could put a dent in a freshly cracked jar of pureed peas. Delish. And if they take a spoonful of food, swirl it around and then spit it back out at you, they are probably giving you a good 2 1/2 hour morning nap. Sound about right?? Stay with me here...

From my not so tenured experience over the last 7 1/2 months, I swear to you - more moms than I can possibly remember have griped to me about either sleep or food. No child I know can do both until they get older. (like I said, this is a limited data set. certainly not a good cross section of the population but observation counts for something, right? consider it a focus group vs. an in-depth phone survey.)

Ok, so maybe I should preface all of this and say my philosophy is for those babies under the age of 1. Those are the ones who either eat or sleep. If you've read this blog for even a day, you know where my baby falls with this new theory I share. Now as we know, Miss Eloise is getting much, much better at napping but this is only after many months of good ole roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-to-work action. But being a good eater.....she just came that way. No extra time needed here. And that's just it. Whomever we all believe in - some sort of higher being or heck, maybe it's Karma - knows we can only handle one serious battle during the first year of birth. These babies are either good sleepers or good eaters. We then dedicate all of our time making that one said problem category better and thankfully, because they came perfect in the other, we don't have to worry about anything else.

Then, of course, taking on that "problem child" category becomes our #1 mission in life. We eat, sleep, breath it (pun intended). Nothing else matters. We spend all of our time researching the Internet for the next "great idea" to help us solve our issue. We buy books, talk to other moms, come to Drs appointments with long lists of questions, all in the name of cracking the code. Some tricks work, some don't. Some babies just flat out grow out of it. But us moms, we take it on full-on battle lines style. We put on our gear, we suit up our "guns" and we go get it. Whatever it takes, we stop at nothing to solve our "problem". Maybe this is why everyone thinks new moms are nuts. We actually are! We're driven to complete and utter insanity. Awesome. Thanks for that Karma or said higher being. We're sleep deprived and now we're on the front lines taking pot shots (protest crying, spitting food, and the like) from the "enemy" all for the name of creating the most perfect healthy baby who eats like an Olympic marathoner and sleeps like one too. Sigh.

Ok, much needed diversion here. Check out this oldie but a goodie from September 7, 2009.

Or how about this? I think the Monkey is going to sock him in the face. Front line style! (also dated September 7, 2009) Oh the days of repeated costume changes. I remember them like they were yesterday.

By the way, how tempting its this?? Parenting magazine "Beautiful Baby Search 2010." Nothing like a contest to feed my baby picture taking obsession.  Hmmmm.........

A couple of things about food...

I was just about to post some pics of Eloise in her new highchair and add some commentary about how great she continues to do in the food category when I fell upon some pictures that Mike took over the weekend.

Background - my last parting words to Mike on Friday were...."Take at least 1 million pictures of the Monkey while I'm gone, OK honey?  Thanks!"  Well I didn't even think to ask if he did it because I figured he had his hands full and wouldn't have time. And I'm not trying to be mean. Really, he had his hands full and didn't need to bother with taking pics. I'd survive one weekend with no pics of the baby.  And really, I guess that's not nice to say because I'll tell you, he sent me the absolute CUTEST picture to my phone while I was airborne so that when I landed in Ft. Lauderdale, it'd be waiting for me. It was the Monkey sitting in a chair with her dad's Redsox hat on with both of her hands up in the air holding it on her head.  Seriously??? Could not be cuter.  But really, I didn't think Mike would have time to pull out the Nikon and snap away - and really - I was kidding. He didn't need to take pics while I was gone.  But here I am, downloading what's on the camera from today and what do I find??  About a dozen pics of the Monkey from this weekend. How sweet of Mike! He really knows a way to a girl's heart. Check these out!

Super cute, right? Great job, Honey!

Ok, so my original intent of this post was to talk about food. Eloise is way into holding her spoon right now. I bring a nice spoonful of something delicious over to her mouth, she grabs it and proceeds to put the bite into her mouth then plays with the spoon as her reward. I figured we'd go with it because I like that she's learning how to feed herself. And yes, as you can guess, I took pics.

Also, the highchair has arrived and I'm psyched! I don't know why we took so long to get this darn thing because it's great. Sitting in the Hippo chair attached to the dining room table was fine while it lasted but now we're ready to really get into some sloppy, mess making food!  Here she is today getting into some puffs. Also, today she tried YoBaby yogurt for the first time and of course, loved it. Besides water, what hasn't Eloise loved up to this point?? I may live to regret this but I'm all about Eloise getting right into her food and exploring and trying things on her own. And now with the highchair in place, I feel it's full steam ahead!

And my last comment about food for the day, I just got "Cooking for Baby" by Lisa Barnes from the library. We'll see if this one's better than "Super Baby Food".

She's a crawler!

Seriously - welcome home to me! AGAIN!  The Monkey crawled today (7 1/2 months)! For the first time ever she crawled without "cheating" and using her tummy (which she's been into for several weeks now). She's a heck of a mover and up to this point, has shimmied across the room (with quite speed. scary!) through a combination of using her back legs, her hands and her tummy. But today she did it - she crawled for the first time not using her tummy! Way to go Monkey!

I sadly didn't get her star crawling performance on video but I did get some funny ones. In the first video you'll see a few crawl "steps" here and there but then she'll use her tummy. The second video is almost all tummy but hilarious nonetheless so I had to show it and the third video is another one I was taking to try and show her crawling but instead she shows you her new trick, the belly to sitting up move (again, not her star sitting up move but close!). What a day!

Welcome home to me!

The weekend was so, so, so great!  I expected it to be super and it was even better. Warm weather, wine (and champagne - delicious!), girlfriends. That's a good combination. Pics posted below. And I didn't cry even once. But I will admit, when I put the Monkey down for her first nap on Friday morning, (the last time I would see her for 2 days) I got completely sappy when reading her our favorite book (Belly Button Book - well actually I will admit - I think she's tired of this book but I still love it:). The tears came out of no where and unfortunately, I couldn't really pull it together so I had to give her one last sweet kiss, tell her how much I love her and then say good bye. Thankfully she was tired and quickly fell asleep despite the fact that her mother was a mess and had to cut story time short. Agh - off to the airport I went.

Mike was a super Mr. Mom and had a really fun time with the Monkey. He was all set with the right amount of frozen milk (thankfully!). He and the Monkey had exciting outings, and lots of good snuggle and play time. No meltdowns or craziness that couldn't be easily remedied and.......get this.......she had several 65-70 minute naps! I made Mike spill all the dig because if he figured something out that I need to know, he has to share the goods. Sadly (or actually I think this is not so sad) he had no known new tricks to share. So the good news is, and I'm afraid to say this is a new trend quite yet, maybe she's finally napping a little longer?? We'll see how this week goes but wouldn't that be super fab? What an awesome welcome home gift! 

And today, I got another welcome home gift from the Monkey - she went from laying on her tummy up to a sitting position all by herself. Way to go Monkey!  She's been hinting that this new trick was coming for the past week or so, and it could have very well have happened this weekend but instead, she waited until her Mommy was home to share her exciting new skill. Love it!

Oh, so of course Mike and I talked 1 million times throughout the weekend - likely how I kept my tears at bay - and he shared the most hilarious story.  He took the Monkey to Puddle Ducks on Saturday morning. He had her ready to go in her swim diaper, swimsuit and she was sitting there waiting for him to strip down to his suit and jump in. He was quick to follow and soon enough he scooped her up and off they went towards the pool. The other parents were already in there with their kiddos and Mike noticed a few of the them were looking at him a bit strange. He then took the Monkey and dipped her into the pool and quickly realized why he was getting the looks....he left the Monkey's socks on. Lol!  He immediately swore all of the other parents to secrecy (of course he had to tell me the story though:) so that no one would tell me what went down during next week's Puddle Ducks class. 

Then when he was leaving the pool he realized the Monkey only had one shoe. He looked everywhere and couldn't find it. He got the Monkey dry and ready to go and then did the same for himself. Then he went out into the lobby of the Aquatic Center and started asking employees if they had seen a tiny pink shoe (literally pulling the Monkey's one leg out and saying, "Have you seen this shoe laying around anywhere"). No luck. So at this point, the Monkey has no socks and 1 shoe on. Lol! What can you do?? He bundled her up (I think it was maybe 30 degrees outside) and off they went towards the car. The shoes were from the consignment shop and although I loved them, oh well. But then they get to the car and Mike gets the Monkey in her seat and boom, there's the missing shoe! Apparently she never even went into Puddle Ducks with that shoe on. Hilarious! Mike is too cute.

Ok, so sadly no Lap Lovers story hour today. But I am very excited to report that our new dryer is being delivered. They are like the cable guy and gave me the expected delivery time of 11am - 3pm. Thanks for that. Sigh. Anyway, let's hope this dryer shows up dent free and is installed with no issue. The laundry situation around here is getting really scary. I didn't even bother unpacking last night because really, why bother? I left my suit case in the laundry room and just closed the door.

Oh - before I forget. Mike dropped the Monkey's crib down last night. Great timing because she sat up on her own just today. Like I said, we knew this was coming any day so he figured he might as well do it. As I type, she's upstairs kicking the sides of her crib and cooing (just woke up from a nap. 34 minutes on the dot:). welcome home to me!)

Have a great day!

My little foodie

Big food day at the Vail residence. Eloise is becoming quite the foodie. In the baby world, I think she'd have her own foodie blog and also a magazine article critiquing everything that she eats. Maybe her blog would be called 'This Spit Up's For You' and her posts and articles would chronicle her voyage through all of the numbered foods. Right now she's a 1. But soon she'll be a 2. And she's already dabbling with snacks from the 2 and 3 area. Then we could enter her in the Weblog Awards. Wow, I've lost my mind.

Ok, ok, so today, the Monkey tried raspberries for the first time, she fed herself from a bottle (or I should say got in a little practice time), and then she received a wonderful gift in the mail from her aunt, uncle and cousin that will help her eat even more food and snacks. Oh, oh and her highchair arrived!  I'm very pumped about this. It hasn't been put together yet but it arrived yesterday along with her new big girl car seat. Growing like a weed! It's all that good eatin'.

Alright, so....I'll start with raspberries. Now this is a fruit I can get into.  Raspberries are stinkin' delicious!  I gave the Monkey raspberries today in her teether feeder and she LOVED them. This fruit required no assistance. She just went right to town on them. And of course I had to get pics because she was covered in raspberry juice and was too cute and too hilarious not to capture.

Then later in the day I put her milk in a smaller bottle, one easier for her to handle, and propped her up on a stuffed animal and handed it over. She did a really great job overall but per usual, had some funny moments where she was flinging the bottle all over the place and literally covered herself. You'll notice in these pics that she has milk all over the place.

And finally, when the mail came today there was a fun package in there for the Monkey. Inside we found these really cute trays that she can use to help her eat. Check out the monkey tray! How cute is that?? Thanks Liz, George and Maddie! We can't wait to use them!

Mike is back from his trip and looking forward to his Monkey-filled weekend. I'm packed and ready to go for my tomorrow morning flight.  I'm going to miss my two M's. I think I'll be ok though. Since the Monkey isn't a little nugget anymore (well, not that little. she's, of course, still little.) I feel like going away for a couple of days will be really fun vs. tear filled and sad. I have a feeling I'll have my moments but hopefully those moments will be joined by a nice glass of wine and some fun girl gossip. Good distractions, you know.

And more importantly, what a fun opportunity for Mike and the baby to hang out and do whatever it is they want to do. I can't hog that sweet little one all the time. Mike's taking the Monkey to Puddle Ducks and he's got all sorts of fun ideas he's tossing around. (do you think he's saying all of these fun ideas to make me jealous?? hmmmm.....ok, just kidding.)  Off to Florida I go. Have a great weekend!