PETA, please don't hate me.

Ellie thinks it's great fun to abuse - er, love - Sophie the Giraffe. She's a touch on the aggressive side, but we're working on that. Please PETA, don't come to my house and spray paint "GIRAFFE KILLERS" on my garage.

Monday Musings, No. 2, Vol. 8

Regularly scheduled musings today! Rejoice. It was a crazy busy week that culminated in the husband's leaving on Saturday for a trip to Orlando for an industry conference. So Ellie and I have been on our own since then. It's not been super-easy, but we're doing alright. If only the 4-month sleep regression phase would pass a little faster, then it'd be smooth sailing. Musings are go:

I made baby food for the first time yesterday. Pureed pears, in my new Babycook. And they turned out great! I hope Ellie likes my pears as much as she liked the Earth's Best organic ones she had last week.
And yeah, I used an organic pear for mine as well. Today I'm getting organic carrots at the store for our next solid food adventure. First veggie time in a few days!
She also got baby oatmeal cereal for the first time last night. That stuff works great - especially in conjunction with pears - for unclogging the little miss's drainpipe. Whoo buddy.
I had blood drawn this morning for a health management program at work. And I didn't even flinch when the needle went into my arm.
Blazers-Suns series is tied at two games apiece. After the Thursday night beatdown we got at home, I was worried about Saturday's game but the Blazers won by 9 and Brandon Roy is back. I think we can win this whole series now.
It's gonna be crappy and rainy here all week. Blerg.
I took some nice photos of nature at our neighborhood park yesterday. I like to play with the macro setting on our DSLR, so flower photos are good for that. I need to post some on FB for feedback.
Grocery shopping is on the agenda for my lunch hour today. I do not like grocery shopping and it's even more stressful with the baby in tow, so I'm sacrificing my lunch hour to do it. Ugh.
Ellie is around 12.5 lbs (naked weight, as of last night before her bath) now! And I had to buy her some 6mo sleepers b/c her 3mo ones are all too short for her now. AND she's wearing an outfit made entirely of 3-6mo Gymboree pieces today. Houston, we've hit a growth spurt.
I like Tabasco on my eggs.
Watched the LeBron James documentary with the husband on Friday night. It's really good...I highly recommend it, especially if you like sports.

Monday (fine, Tuesday) Musings, No. 2, Vol. 7

Sorry about the lack of Musings yesterday. I didn't even realize I'd forgotten to post anything until I got home and the husband asked me if I'd done my blog post for the day. Oops. Getting my Muse on before a two-hour work meeting (excuse typos!):

Ellie is doing so much better with keeping her food in her tummy the last few days. I don't wanna jinx it, but let's say going through ONE bib and burp rag a day is pretty awesome.
Also, she's nearly 12 pounds! She gained a whole mess of weight since her 4mo check up just a week and a half ago.
I really like the Starbucks orange cranberry scones.
I'm still advocating for Vancouver BC for our June anniversary trip. Any suggestions on what to do there?
I start back to my full-time work schedule in just a week or so. May is gonna get here fast.
Allegedly, the Niners are targeting Jimmy Clausen in the NFL Draft. Ick. Just because he's a Notre Dame quarterback does NOT mean he's the second coming of Joe Montana.
Our meeting is starting late because the boss is stuck in traffic. The inmates are running the asylum.

Oh and the big news I promised last week is...the husband is now a Nike employee! His first day is on April 30th and we are very excited for this new chapter in our lives!

Big Girl Mealtime

Today Ellie had her first ever Big Girl cereal. I'm THAT mom, so if you recall from my Musing post two weeks ago, I had purchased a box of Earth's Best organic brown rice baby cereal for the kidlet. I'm militant about her solids being organic, hormone-free, you get the idea.

Anywho, today was the big day. It was time for me to conquer my fear of feeding Ellie solids. And since her formula has rice starch in it, I figured it wouldn't be that big of a leap, especially taste-wise, for her to try rice cereal. Right? Yep!

After a few faces of "what is that weird object you're putting into my mouth...and what's on it?" our little miss took quite nicely to the cereal. She kept gnawing on the spoon after every bite, which I also took as a good sign. She likes it! She really likes it!

I think we'll stick to rice cereal for a few weeks before we intro any fruit/veggies. Unless, of course, she gets all gummed up from the cereal and we need some pureed apples - or pears - to help move things along the ol' digestive tract. And I'm very glad we had the foresight to strip her down to just her diaper and bib and stick her in the easily-cleaned Bumbo for her feeding. Rice cereal was EVERYWHERE...and made for some great photos!

Congrats Ellie and welcome to the Big Girl Cereal Club. It won't be long until you're eating Cheerios and Kix!

Monday Musings, No. 2, Vol. 6

It's a "Happy L*ker Loss Monday" around here. The Blazers FINALLY beat the hated L*kers in LA for the first time in 5 (maybe 4) years! Suck on that, Kobe et al. The little miss had her 4mo checkup on Friday and all is well. She's still in the 5-10th percentiles on weight and head size, but is in the 50th for length, so that's good. I guess some babies are just slender...like ours. Now it's on to the next muse:

We have some good news to share, but I will wait until next week, since it's not really MY news to share. (That should eliminate any suspicion that Ellie is getting a sibling.)
There is a new show on VH1 called "Basketball Wives" that I should NOT watch, but I DVRed the premiere anyway. I can't help myself when it comes to trashy reality shows about rich bitches and their 'problems'.
My little brother is turning 23 on Saturday. Good lord...he's a grown-up! And graduating from college in a month too. Where does the time go?
I have tangelos at home. I hope they're good.
It's supposed to be nice here this weekend...I sure hope so. I'm so sick of wind, rain, and cold weather.
NBA playoffs start next week. RIP CITY UNITED!
According to the Sirius hip-hop channel, there are some albums being released soon that you should be excited for: Kanye, TI, and others. I know I'm excited.
Ellie is ready for solids, according to the doc. Mommy, however, is not. I worry about rice cereal being even more troublesome for her poor bowels than her rice starch-thickened formula is. Babies who struggle to poo are no fun.
But...I now own a Babycook, and I really want to use it. Maybe I should just puree an apple and see how she likes that? I don't know. Advice?
My sister arrives in just about a month to be our summer nanny. We are excited to get Ellie out of daycare and away from the germies for a while. And of course, it'll be great for her to spend time with her auntie who ADORES her.
Lastly, a big ol' CONGRATS to my friends Danny and Angie on the birth of their baby boy! He's a doll and is very lucky to have such fun and awesome parents!!

Easter finery

I don't post a lot of photos here, because I guess I figure most of you that read this are also my Facebook friends and see my photos there. But I have to dedicate a post to Ellie's Easter finery. My friend, Eunice, sent us the dress as a gift when Ellie was brand new and I've been saving it for Easter. I'm just glad it fit!

Monday Musings, No. 2, Vol. 5

Okay, so I'm cheating a bit...it's Tuesday and I'm just now getting around to posting my Musings, but hey, give a (semi-) new mom a break! (I wonder how much longer I can use the 'new mom' excuse...) Things have been a little less-than-ideal around the house thanks to the endless parade of daycare-borne germs that incubate in our little lady. Tired and late Musings commence herewith:

First of all, it is key to note that last week Ellie mastered the skill of rolling over from back to tummy. HOWEVER, she had slacked on her tummy-to-back rolling over the last couple of months, so she just gets mad when she rolls and can't roll back to where she was. Sigh...so we're working on relearning the T-to-B roll, for everyone's sanity.
But isn't it cool that my 16-week-old baby can roll from her back to her tummy?? She's a genius.
I was definitely rooting for Butler last night, but I knew Duke would win. At least Butler made it a close game. We'll have a mid-major NCAA champ soon, I think.
I want to be Blair Waldorf, minus the squicky Jack Bass stalker. Man, that guy makes my skin crawl.
The bananas we have at work are weird. I realize this is probably b/c they are organic, but still. They are really small and have hardly any stem to assist in the peeling process.
We're having "ghetto chicken parm" for dinner tonight: frozen breaded chicken patties, jarred marinara sauce, parmesan cheese. At least the cheese is good and will be freshly grated. I don't know how this will turn out, but I'm willing to give it a go.
Blazers playoff games are just around the corner. I have a bad feeling we'll face Utah in the first round now and will get swept. Bleh.
Where is spring??? This weather is awful. Rain, wind, temps in the low 50s...I am TIRED of this. At least we aren't getting snow, however. That would be awful...er.
The babe and I are going to Babies R Us tomorrow. I'm supposed to just get diapers and formula but odds are, I'll end up with some bibs, a onesie, and maybe some socks too. Happens every time.
I am in LURVE with the Liberty of London stuff at Target right now. Those prints are just fab.
It's about time for me to invest in hair color again. I'm bored with my hair and want to shake it up. I don't know about going full-tilt red like last year...any suggestions?
I bought Ellie's first box of rice cereal on Saturday. Just in case the doc okays solids at her 4mo check (which is on Friday!), I wanted to have it on hand. It is organic, and from Whole Paycheck - er, Foods. Yeah, we are gonna be THOSE parents.
The baseball season is underway. What? You don't care? Me either.
I wanted to include a photo of Ellie in her Easter finery on this post, but we haven't had time to get the pics on the computer. Hopefully we can tonight. She was sooooo beautiful in her pretty dress!

Monday Musings, No. 2, Vol. 4

'Tis a rainy and dreary Monday here in the Portland metro area. I hate rainy Mondays, especially when it's supposed to be springtime, and only two days prior, it was sunny and fabulous. Soaking wet and grumpy Musings are a go...

We took Ellie to the doc last Wednesday to get a handle on her tummy bug. Of course, that morning she had a normal poo and was vomiting less, but we went to the scheduled appointment anyway. She was 10lb 12oz, but I suspect her 'real' weight is higher, since she was just coming off of 6 days of diarrhea and vomiting.

Oh, all systems are go with the baby. Flu has been conquered and happiness reigns in the house.

The Blazers are peaking at the right time...but I forsee an 8-seed for the team anyway. Oh well, I still think taking on the L*kers in the first round of the playoffs will be a crazy good time.

Can you believe it's almost APRIL? Geez, time flies when you're raising an infant.

As of this morning, the home scale says I'm 5lbs away from my pre-pregnancy weight. Time for extra cardio to burn off that excess.

My sister will be here to nanny for the summer (nannying for US, just to clarify) in about 6 weeks. I'm very excited for this!

I had a very tasty bowl of curry soup at work today. AND a curried chicken salad wrap. I like curry.

Do yourself a favor and read the poop post over on Kevin and Amy's blog (see sidebar - "Those Crazy Eddys"). You will laugh until you're crying.

The Vandal football schedule is out and our game against BSU - in the Dome! - is on a Friday this year. I was pissed about that until the husband pointed out that ESPN only airs BSU's games on Fridays, so that means we'll probably be a featured game on the original ESPN. Sweet.

I need to pee, but I'm trying to retrain my bladder. It got pretty weak after being pregnant with a kid that liked to use it as a punching bag for several months, so I figure if I keep increasing the time which I 'hold it' I can retrain it to be stronger. Or maybe I'm just nuts and will end up peeing my pants.

Ellie's still sleeping well at night. It seems like once a week we have a 2am wake-up-and-want-to-play episode, but that's not too bad. We can get her calmed down and back to dreamland pretty quickly.

And to wrap this up, here's a picture of Ellie from last week. She makes some of the cutest faces:

Monday Musings, No. 2, Vol. 3

Happy Busted-Bracket Monday! I think it's safe to assume that 80% of brackets are officially tanked thanks to KU's loss this weekend. Maybe ESPN can pull an official stat, I'm just SWAGing based on anecdotal evidence. No busted Musings...I hope:

We had our first round of 'diarrhea mess' this weekend with Ellie. No other symptoms (besides a little more sleepiness), just really nasty liquid poop, complete with blowouts. Good times.
The husband and I went curling with friends last night...it was pretty fun! Our group's instructor was a little hardcore, so we didn't get to play as much as we'd have liked, but overall I had a great time. Curling is not as easy as it looks, either.
I love sunny days.
The show 16 & Pregnant is good for one thing: making me feel like Mother of the Year on a weekly basis. Those girls...gah. But it's like a trainwreck - I can't stop watching.
Speaking of trainwrecks, I saw some photos today of a BUSTED looking Avril Lavigne (correction: more busted than usual) being a wastoid over the weekend. Can't celebrities learn to put on Sober Face when the paps are around? Idiots.
Do they make Miracle-Gro for babies? I think Ellie could use some. For her weight, I mean. Length-wise, we're good. But weight-wise...sheesh. The kid's a string bean compared to these 13, 14, 15 pounders I see that are around her age.
I really liked The Office last week. It felt like a vintage Season 2 episode.
Still no decision on our anniversary trip. At this rate, we'll end up staying at home, chilling with the baby and my sister. Romantic, no?
Tomorrow is Free Pastry Day at Starbucks. I never eat their pastries, but I just might have to get one tomorrow, since they're free. Well, as long as you purchase a drink.
Gonzaga lost in the 2nd round of the NCAAs and why people are surprised by this, I do not know. They were an 8-seed, and ended up playing the region's 1-seed (Syracuse)...odds were not in their favor. Plus, they've flamed out early in the tourney 3 of the last 4 years now. So, I ask again: Why is anyone surprised by their loss (or even their 'low' seeding)?
The Blazers are set to play the L*kers in the first round of the NBA playoffs. This will make for some EPIC games at the RG. I mean, EPIC...at least as far as fan behavior is concerned.
Dang, my office is cold.

Monday Musings, No. 2, Vol. 2

Happy Daylight Savings Time, everyone! (Unless you live in a wackadoo place like Arizona that doesn't observe it, then...phhhhht) I hate losing an hour of sleep, especially now that we have a baby, but I do like that the days are longer. Although, it seems that DST starts earlier every year. What is that about? Anywho, sprung ahead musings commence:

Baby ear protectors are both adorable AND useful. Ellie didn't hate hers when we put them on at the Blazer game last night, and kept them on her nog the entire game.
I had my first tiny bag of Cadbury Mini-Eggs on Saturday. Love those.
I have to renew our Blazers season tickets for next year today. Thankfully, they've been playing well of late, so I won't complain about throwing our money away or anything.
Weight loss update: I guess I'm losing a little bit here and there, but I'm still not where I want to be. I know, 9 months on...9 months off. But I'm impatient.
I want a Megadesk.
Ellie slept until 3:45am last night/this morning before needing a feeding (heh, that rhymes) so I'm hopeful that in the next couple of weeks, we'll be night feeding free. That would be...awesome.
Lindsay Lohan is an idiot. I know, DUH...but seriously. Suing e-Trade? Over a silly commercial? Ugh.
I'm so excited for spring to get here. Walks in the park will be much more fun when it's warm and sunny instead of just sunny.
The husband and I would like to take a weekend trip for our anniversary in June - somewhere relatively close but fun. Any suggestions? (Ellie will be in the care of her awesome Auntie, so we don't need to consider baby needs in selecting our destination.)
Today is the first time in a year that I'm going to eat proper sushi. I'm very excited about this.
And finally...it's March Madness, baby! Awesome with a capital A!